backstripe

Johan C. Karremans, Thijs Verwijmeren, Tila M. Pronk, and Meyke Reitsma, after grueling study, say,

“Interacting with women can impair men’s cognitive functioning”

From thelondonpaper.com, “Researchers: Talking to women makes men thick”

Or as The Telegraph says. “Men lose their minds speaking to pretty women.”

We needed this study.

A group of heterosexual men (others were excluded from the test) were given a memory test.  Each of them then was put in a situation where he talked exclusively with a man or a woman for a period of time.  After the talk, each man took the test again.

After talking to a man, each man scored essentially the same as before the talk.

After talking to women, the men all scored lower.

After talking to what the study called attractive women, the men scored even LOWER in the after-test.

Women subjected to a similar experiment scored essentially the same before and after, no matter who they talked to.

The researchers think that we men expend our brain power preening and generally showing off ( the instinctive mating dance, they say) for the women-folk.  Then, brain-spent, we take the test again and score lower.

I don’t wait until after the talk to get stupid.  I immediately turn into a dumb-ass around women.  I always have.  No preening period for me.  I’m a quick stupid.  I think that’s what they may find so endearing about me.

I do, however, pretend to be not-me.    I don’t waste brain-power on showing off, I spend everything I have just trying hide who I really am, and not to trip over my tongue, my feet, or some other obstacle.  Maybe hiding is my mating ritual….

---- hiding ----

I don’t know how I’d score on the test though….

What do you think? Are these researchers right?  I’d like to see the experiment extended to see the result with those of other sexual persuasions….

See this movie.

I caught Dr. Helen’s blog on Autism yesterday, which led me to read the article she referenced.  From there, I read about Dr. Simon Baron Cohen, and I was led, ultimately, to the Autism Quotient test.
From the AQ test site:

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher.

Well, I couldn’t help myself, and took the test.  I scored 32.

Hmmmm…..

Back in May, a a judge in Cali (the U.S. District Court for California’a Eastern District) dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries  ’cause she believed that Crunchberries were real fruit.

That lady probably saw those commercials where the Cap’n and the Crunchberry monster were vying for the berries from the Crunchberry bushes….

crunchberry bush?

Seemed real to you too, didn’t it?

While dismissing the case, the judge noted another case that had been dismissed earlier  — something about Froot Loops not being made of fruit (froot?) — same law firm filing suit, different plaintiff.

There are, when you think about it, plenty of fish in the sea for similar lawsuits, and similar consumer disillusionment(s?)

“Special K” — Is it really special, and what is “K”?

Chicken Fingers —-

Count Chocula —

Frankenberries — them berries again

Grape Nuts — grapes?  nuts?  what are grape nuts?

Animal Crackers —

Smurfberry Crunch —

Boo Berries —

Girl Scout Cookies —

Pop Corn Chicken —

Buffalo Wings —

Nerds —

Baby Oil —

Head and Shoulders —

Dr. Pepper —

Mr. Pibb —

Fruity Pebbles —

Dove Soap —

Dove Bar —

Million Dollar Bar —

Coke —

and what about the Poo Poo Platter?

We people on earth are like little droplets hitting the surface of a great body of water. Plop we go, and immediately start sending out waves of sounds, motions, EMOTIONS, and, well, influences.

These influences emit from me to you, and from me to everyone else within my circle of influence. Your influences travel out until they touch me and everyone else within your circle of influence. When we are touched by another’s circle of influence, we are forever changed. When we change, our circle changes.

When our circle changes, everyone whose circle we’re contacting changes also.

This is our life. Everything I experience changes me. I change everything that experiences me.

On the water’s surface, at least. My circles of influence are what my pastor refers to as “lateral relationships,” the relationships among me and those with which I interact.

I like the fact that I have some influence.

I wonder what I’m doing with it. I wonder how many folks I’m hurting, or helping. Sometimes, I wonder if I’m doing anything at all.

Here are some “Circle” songs for your listening enjoyment.
Billy Preston, doing his oldie “Will It Go “Round in Circles”

Marshall Tucker Band (with some extra help) doing “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” (I really like this)

And Joe Satriani doing “Circles.” (gooood)

I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.”

I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom.  I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

I undertook great projects:

•      I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
•      I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
•      I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
•      I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house.
•      I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone before me.
•      I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces.
•      I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man.

I became greater by far than anyone before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.  My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly.  What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?

I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.

The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.

Then I thought in my heart, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?”

I said in my heart, “This too is meaningless.” For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten.  Like the fool, the wise man too must die!

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.  I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.  And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.  So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the  sun.  For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.  What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?  All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?  To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Ecclesiastes 2

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Back in September, I started a facebook account.  I don’t know why, but I think it had something to do with monitoring the offspring’s activities and associations.  I saw no value in this online friend thing.  I had (and probably still have) a basic Myspace page, but found the format confusing and gave up trying to make sense of it.

On January 19, my niece (I still remember her sitting on my lap years ago with the Sear’s
Wish Book turning page after page, putting her finger on at least one item on
each page, and saying in the most serious manner, “I need
that.” And I need that.”) emailed me a facebook “friend” invite. 

Well, I accepted the invite, and a couple of others that were just sitting there in cyberspace to boot.

Festivus is (commonly) celebrated tomorrow . . .