The Weirdest Japanese Commercial Ever

I love you Japan. Don't ever change.

Daily Life

(click to enlarge)

That pretty much just gave a summary of my daily life =p

Nothing beats the Durex warranty

Now that's a return policy.

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Chewing Gum Makes You Smarter

Studies have suggested that something about chewing gum reduces stress, improves alertness and relieves anxiety. But most of this research has been found in a laboratory setting. Now, the first study in people also supports the idea that chewing gum boosts academic performance.

The study was conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and was sponsored by the Wrigley Science Institute. The study included 108 students, ages 13 to 16, who were assigned to either chew sugar-free gum during math class, while doing math homework and during math tests or to refrain from gum-chewing. After 14 weeks, the students' took a math test and their grades were assessed.

Those who chewed gum had a 3% increase in standardized math test scores and had final math grades that were significantly better than the other students. Teachers observed that those who chewed gum seemed to require fewer breaks, sustain attention longer and remain quieter.

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Google offers free music downloads in China

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

That's the idea behind Google's latest move to allow users to download free music in China. Google has partnered with a Chinese company, Top100.cn, to make it happen.

About 140 music labels have joined in, including the "Big Four" -- EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music.

Most Chinese users get their music for free anyway, thanks to rampant online piracy. Google and its partners hope the new business model will generate revenue from advertising that all will share. More importantly, Google wants to increase traffic and catch up to its competitor Baidu.

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Gloomy weather boosts the brain, claim scientists

Psychologists have discovered that people performed better in memory tests when the weather was bad and they were feeling grumpy.

The research discovered that the worse the weather and the more depressed the individual, the sharper their brain.

The findings were made by the University of New South Wales School of Psychology. The team carried out the study by questioning shoppers at a Sydney store over two months.

They tested their memory and found that they recalled three times as much information when the weather was bad and they were feeling down.

Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: "It seems counter-intuitive but a little bit of sadness is a good thing.

"People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they were in a slightly negative mood.

"On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy and carefree, they flunked it."

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US scientists to grow brussels sprouts on Moon

US scientists are planning to grow vegetables such as brussels sprouts on the Moon in an experiment to see if a future colony could produce its own food.

Paragon Space Development Corporation in Arizona unveiled plans to land mini-greenhouses on the Moon which would be capable to growing flowers and hardy vegetables from the brassica family, such as sprouts and cabbages. These could ultimately be used to feed livestock.

Paragon, which has worked with Nasa, describes its 1.5 ft tall space greenhouse as a "Lunar Oasis".

It is designed to safely land a laboratory plant on the lunar surface, and protect it while it grows.

The miniature greenhouse is to be launched into space no earlier than 2012 by Odyssey Moon Ltd, a participant in the Google Lunar X Prize, which will reward any project which can launch, land and operate a rover on the lunar surface.

Because brassica goes from seed to flower in just 14 days, it can complete its life cycle in a single lunar night.

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Pregnant mothers offered MP3 player for unborn babies

Pregnant mothers will soon be able to play their favourite songs to their unborn children with the invention of an MP3 players for babies.

Named the BLABY, the device consists of a contoured belt that wraps around a mother's waist with three inbuilt vibration speakers playing music into the womb.

Stitched into the fabric of the belt is a digital MP3 player and USB adapter which will allow prospective parents to upload music or even to record their own voices to play for their baby.

Designed to utilise the well-known Mozart effect – a theory which proposes that a baby will be born more intelligent if subjected to classical music during the course of pregnancy – the BLABY is the brainchild of Canadian design student Geof Ramsay.

Its inbuilt speakers transmit the vibrations of music and voice through to the baby in a safe manner, and the mother wearing it can also benefit from three tiny massage mechanisms.

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How a woman shops?

They should be experts in Map & Directions LoL

Paying online for your TGV Cinema tickets

You can now enjoy the convenience of paying online for your tickets and avoid the queues. Bookings, which have been paid online, can be collected anytime before the show starts. Oh great!

Iron Man Vs Bruce Lee

Time has come for the greatest battle of all time : the mighty Iron Man vs the legendary Bruce Lee.

Alien Vs Predator

Click here to enlarge. Coming this fall..

Need help with Math? call 911

A boy calls 911 to get help with his math homework.

Quote
Operator: 911 emergencies.
Boy: Yeah I need some help.
Operator: What’s the matter?
Boy: With my math.
Operator: With your mouth?
Boy: No with my math. I have to do... More »
Operator: 911 emergencies.
Boy: Yeah I need some help.
Operator: What’s the matter?
Boy: With my math.
Operator: With your mouth?
Boy: No with my math. I have to do it. Will you help me?
Operator: Sure. Where do you live?
Boy: No with my math.
Operator: Yeah I know. Where do you live though?
Boy: No, I want you to talk to me on the phone.
Operator: No I can’t do that. I can send someone else to help you.
Boy: Okay.
Operator: What kind of math do you have that you need help with?
Boy: I have take aways.
Operator: Oh you have to do the take aways.
Boy: Yeah.
Operator: Alright, what’s the problem?
Boy: Um, you have to help me with my math.
Operator: Okay. Tell me what the math is.
Boy: Okay. 16 take away 8 is what?
Operator: You tell me. How much do you think it is?
Boy: I don’t know, 1.
Operator: No. How old are you?
Boy: I’m only 4.
Operator: 4!
Boy: Yeah.
Operator: What’s another problem, that was a tough one.
Boy: Um, oh here’s one. 5 take away 5.
Operator: 5 take away 5 and how much do you think that is?
Boy: 5.
Woman: Johnny what do you think you’re doing?!
Boy: The policeman is helping me with my math.
Woman: What did I tell you about going on the phone?
Operator: It’s the mother…
Boy: You said if I need help to call somebody.
Woman: I didn’t mean the police.

How eating chocolate can help improve your maths

Eating chocolate could improve the brain's ability to do maths, a new study suggests.

Mental arithmetic became easier after volunteers had been given large amounts of compounds found in chocolate, called flavanols, in a hot cocoa drink. They were also less likely to feel tired or mentally drained, the findings, presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton show.

Prof David Kennedy, director of the brain, performance and nutrition research centre at Northumbria University, and a co-author of the study, said that chocolate could be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks.

The findings suggest students who binge on chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so. "For things that are difficult to do, mentally demanding things that maybe crop up in your work it could help," Prof Kennedy said.

The flavanols, part of a group of chemicals called polyphenols, work by increasing the flow of blood into the brain.

[Via]

Having a sister makes you happier and more optimistic

Having a sister makes you happier and more optimistic, a new study shows, but the same is not true for having a brother. Growing up with at least one girl in the family also makes people more able to cope with their problems, according to the study.

Daughters tie loved ones closer together and encourage them to communicate their emotions more effectively, the researchers believe. Prof Tony Cassidy, from the University of Ulster, who carried out the study with researchers from De Montfort University in Leicester, said that having a sister helped to promote good mental health.

He said: "Sisters appear to encourage more open communication and cohesion in families. However, brothers seem to have the alternative effect. Emotional expression is fundamental to good psychological health and having sisters promotes this in families."

Girls who had sisters also tended to be more independent and keen on achievement, according to the findings. The effects were stronger among children from broken homes, suggesting that sisters might lean on each other more for support when their parents divorce.

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Extreme Beer Pong

The most unbelievable beer pong shots you ever will see.

Girl Recites 500 Digits of Pi in 90 seconds

And she does it all from memory. Get in line, boys!

Newborn chicks can count, at least up to three

Scientists found that the baby animals could distinguish between two and three and in tests consistently picked the higher figure.

The researchers, from the University of Trento, in Italy, claim that the knowledge seems partly innate as the chicks were just three or four days old and had had no coaching.

The counting ability of the animals was "impressive", they said.

In tests the chicks were shown a set of objects, in this case identical small balls, in groups of either two or three.

In one of the experiments the chicks choose consistently to walk towards a group of three balls rather than a group of two.

When the ball were hidden behind a screen, but one of the balls could be seen being passed from the larger group to the smaller one, the chicks were still able to identify which group now contained three objects.

"The results of the experiments showed that, in the absence of any specific training, chicks spontaneously discriminated between two and three, in both cases preferring the larger set," according to the study.

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Eco TV that turns itself off when you fall asleep

Sony's new Bravia WE5 'Eco TV' includes a 'smart presence sensor' that can tell if the set is no longer being watched. The sensor detects the movement and body heat of anyone sitting within normal range of the screen.

If the viewer falls asleep, the motion sensor can detect this and move the set into 'picture off' mode, so reducing its power consumption. If the last person in the room goes out, the sensor's body heat detector picks this up and again triggers the 'picture off'.

This effectively turns the screen to black, although the sound remains on, so cutting power consumption from 116 watts to 60. The set will remain in this idle mode for 30 minutes and will then go one-step further and effectively switch itself off by going into standby.

Should the TV sleeper suddenly wake up, or if someone comes into the room, the screen will immediately spark back to life so none of the action is missed.

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Playing action video games 'improves eyesight'

Far from being harmful to eyesight, as many experts had feared, action games such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, or Left 4 Dead provide excellent training for what eye doctors call contrast sensitivity, the study found.

People who participated in a video-game training programme saw significant improvements in their ability to notice subtle differences in shades of gray, a finding that may help people who have trouble with night driving, the researchers said.

"Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery - somehow changing the optics of the eye," said Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York, whose study appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"But we've found that action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped."

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Women's shopping habits linked to periods

In the ten days before their periods begin women are more likely to make extravagant impulse buys, according to researchers.

Psychologists believe that shopping sprees could be a way for premenstrual women to deal with the negative emotions created by their hormonal changes.

For the study 443 women were asked about their shopping patterns. The 153 women in the sample who were in the later stages of their menstrual cycle tended to have less control of their spending.

Professor Karen Pine of Hertfordshire University, who led the survey, told the Daily Mail: "Spending was less controlled, more impulsive and more excessive for women in the luteal phase [the days immediately before their period].

"The spending behaviour tends to be a reaction to intense emotions. They are feeling very stressed or depressed and are more likely to go shopping to cheer themselves up and using it to regulate emotions."

She added: "It is also a socially sanctioned way to deal with emotional overload compared to turning to drink or drugs.

"If women are worried about their spending behaviour then they should avoid going shopping at the end of their menstrual cycle."

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Peugeot fires its CEO

French Automaker Peugeot has fired its chief executive, replacing Christian Streiff with Philippe Varin, currently the CEO at Corus, an Anglo-Dutch steelmaker.

"Given the extraordinary difficulties currently faced by the automotive industry, the Supervisory Board decided unanimously that a change in the senior leadership position was necessary," said Thierry Peugeot, chairman of the PSA Peugeot Citroen supervisory board Sunday.

"I am confident that under the leadership of Philippe Varin, the Group will be able, with all the teams, to unlock its potential."

Varin will officially take over Peugeot's top post on June 1, but will begin "familiarizing himself" with operations starting next month.

Roland Vardanega, a member of the managing board, will act as interim chairman until Varin assumes his new job.

Peugeot, Europe's second biggest automaker, posted a loss of €343 million, or $456 million, in 2008 and also expects to lose money in 2009.

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