10 of the Greatest Myths in Psychology...

10 of the Greatest Myths in Psychology...  An interesting list.  I know people who believe many of these.  The site is slightly annoying, as you have to click through to see each myth.  The first one is “Subliminal advertising works”; and the rest all work the same way...

Don't mess with old people!

Don't mess with old people!  Via my mom (a card-carrying ancient-American), this oldie but goodie.  It's been slightly tweaked from the last time I saw it:

The IRS decides to audit Grandpa, and summons him to the IRS office.

The IRS auditor was not surprised when Grandpa showed up with his attorney. The auditor said, 'Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full-time employment, which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I'm not sure the IRS finds that believable.'

I'm a great gambler, and I can prove it,' says Grandpa. 'How about a demonstration?'

The auditor thinks for a moment and said, 'Okay. Go ahead.'

Grandpa says, 'I'll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.'

The auditor thinks a moment and says, 'It's a bet.'  Grandpa removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor's jaw drops.

Grandpa says, 'Now, I'll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye.'

Now the auditor can tell Grandpa isn't blind, so he takes the bet.

Grandpa removes his dentures and bites his good eye.

The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand, with Grandpa's attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.
'Want to go double or nothing?' Grandpa asks 'I'll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk, and pee into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.'

The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there's no way this old guy could possibly manage that stunt, so he agrees again.

Grandpa stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he strains mightily, he can't make the stream reach the wastebasket on the other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor's desk.

The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win.

But Grandpa's own attorney moans and puts his head in his hands.

'Are you okay?' the auditor asks.

'Not really,' says the attorney. 'This morning, when Grandpa told me he'd been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty-five thousand dollars that he could come in here and piss all over your desk and that you'd be happy about it!'

Hand-colored images of old Japan...

Hand-colored images of old Japan...  A collection of beautiful images like the one at right (click to embiggen)...

Curiosity is peering closely at some Martian rocks...

Curiosity is peering closely at some Martian rocks...  The very same rocks I posted about a few weeks ago, showing them in the distance.  Now Curiosity has focused its hand-lens imaging camera at them.  In the image at right (click to embiggen) you can see the gray matrix, some reddish layers, and what appears to be tiny quartz pebbles.  To my eye it looks like layered sandstone peppered with very fine gravel.  That strongly implies the past presence of water: running water or ocean shore...

Big bureaucracy grabs more power...

Big bureaucracy grabs more power...  Not much news there, I suppose.  Still, its depressing to see how a bureaucracy's instinctive and all-too-predictable action is to control as much as it can.  In this case we're talking about the FAA and its ongoing efforts to regulate the use of drones.

The FAA's main role is to promote safety in the air.  Common sense (as opposed to bureaucratic sense) would say that in order to do so, the FAA should regulate those drones which actually pose some sort of risk to air safety.  In fact, until quite recently, that's exactly what the FAA did – traditional radio-controlled model aircraft, which are in fact a primitive kind of drone, have long been unregulated by the FAA (their radios are regulated, but for different reasons).

Now that drones exist that could fly into manned air traffic, the FAA decided it's time to regulate drones.  All drones, not just the ones that pose a risk to manned aircraft.  But in order to keep excluding model aircraft, they've made an arbitrary – and really rather stupid – dividing line.  The FAA has declared that it has authority over all commercial drones, but not “recreational” drones.  If, just for fun, I want to fly a car-sized drone up to 35,000 feet and circle around – that's ok with the FAA.  But if I want to fly a drone 35 feet into the air (where it poses zero risk to manned aircraft) to take wedding pictures for a fee – well, the FAA says that's just plain not allowed.  Period.  Full stop.

The bureaucrats are grasping, and in their traditional clumsy and overreaching way.  Several lawsuits are pending already, more will surely follow.  Let's hope a court with some common sense slaps these bureaucrats silly...

Well, this was completely predictable...

Well, this was completely predictable...  Russia is fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine as its troops are poised on the border...

A different kind of optical illusion...

A different kind of optical illusion...  This one is new to me.  You stare at the video as it plays, then look around the room – and everything you see appears to be warping and bending.  The effect lasted 15 seconds or so for me, and was really interesting to see.  Staring at the video again brings the same effect right back, so it's completely repeatable.  Definitely on the weird side!