Top 10 posts from Sept. 2007

Below are my top 10 posts from Sept, 2007, selected by the number of comments I got per post. Thank Bilbo, Mike, John, Sicilian, who shared their opinions on almost every posts here.

long TV viewing cause shorter attention.

the secrete of good wines.

what are your lifes regrets ?

viagra promote feelings of love.

height is almost genetic.

translates numbers into images.

population map of the future.

No sleep enough is deadly.

steroids is the explanation for home runs surge

commuter-marriages increases in us.

Public trust in the Government is at all time low

According to this recent Gallup poll, public trust in the Federal Government is at or near all time lows.

Among the findings: Barely half trust the government to handle international problems, the lowest number ever. And less than half express faith in the government handling domestic issues, the lowest findings since 1976. Faith in the executive branch has fallen to 43% - only 3% higher than it was just before President Nixon's resignation in 1974. At the same time, trust in Congress, at 50%, is its lowest ever.

Gallup has asked about trust in government since 1972. It conducted this year's poll Sept. 14-16 and found the following:
-- Barely half of Americans, 51%, say they have a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the federal government to handle international problems.
-- Less than half of Americans, 47%, now have at least a fair amount of trust in the federal government to handle domestic problems.

The apportionment of this can be debated. I put about 70% of it on the White House (Iraq, Katrina, and the bifurcated economy), and 30% on the Congress (spending taxpayer money like no tomorrow, chasing interns, or having gay sex in airport bathrooms).
Some time I think Mark Twain was right: "Why Vote? It only encourages them!"

Commuter marriages increases in US

According to a report from TIME, the Commuter Marriages, in which couples live apart (dual-address) for long stretches, are increasing. From 2000 to 2005, their number jumped 30%, to 3.6 million. That is 2.9% of all marriages. About 50% of those couples are at least 100 miles away from each other, and 50% are separated for more than 9 months.

In US today, it is more often the women's career that drives the separation. I think I can live a separated life for 6 months. We can kiss each other through the webcam, pillow talk through IM, no big deal. But with 2 young childrens, 6 months is probably is the limit.

How contagious is your yawn ?

We all know yawning is contagious, but can we measure how contagious is it? or can we somehow engineer a yawn to become perfectly contagious? According to this interesting NPR story, Robert Provine, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, try to design a 100% contagious yawn.

"A number of studies found that a medley of ordinary yawns on video played to a classroom for five minutes would induce a responsive yawn in 55% of the audience. So that was his starting point: could he design a yawn powerful enough to move from a 55% response right up to Total Yawn-ness?".

The results? no matter what the Prof. Provine tried, he could not make a yawn with more 55% response rate.

Shorter, but more marriages

According to census data released last week, only about 50% married Americans ever get to celebrate their 25th year together, down from nearly 70% married in the late 1950s who made it to the quarter-century mark. The rest were widowed, divorced, or separated beforehand.

(Maybe Hallmark should cut back on the silver anniversary cards, I may add.)

The new trend data also revealed that most Americans make only one trip down the aisle during their lives. Even if they don't succeed in marriage the first time, Americans try, try again. In 2004, 12% of men and 13% of women had married twice, and 3% were hoping the 3rd time would be the charm.

Steroids as most plausible explanation for the home runs surge

According to a new study by Tufts University physicist Roger Tobin, steroids is the most plausible explanation for the home runs surge in recent years. Below are his calculations:

1) from 1962 to 1997, nobody hit more than 52 homers a season.

2) since 1998, players have topped 60 homers six times, peaking at 73 (Barry Bonds).

3) since 2003, the annual maximum has fallen back to normal levels.

4)this rise and fall coincides with (a) the emergence of steroids and (b) the subsequent imposition of steroid testing.

5) steroids can increase muscle force and bat kinetic energy by 10%, thereby increasing bat speed by 5%, thereby increasing fly-ball speed by 4%, thereby increasing home-run output by 50%.

6) alternative explanations for the home-run surge -smaller ballparks, weaker pitching, more black players - don't coincide.

Under sleep is deadly

According to a multi-year analysis of 10,000 government workers in UK, people who cut their sleeping from 7 hours a night to 5 or less faced a 170% fold increased risk in mortality from all causes, and more than 200% fold increased risk of cardiovascular death.

This really makes me wondering ... I sleep less because of writing blogs; and you may sleep less because of reading blogs. Should we continue ?