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Herbie and Jabby have formed a mutual admiration society. Hang on, this just gets cuter as it goes! -via Buzzfeed
She loves playing Dungeons & Dragons, but she wants more. Can true love drag a nerd out of the basement long enough for a dinner date? The animation by Brad Jonas accompanies a song by the Doubleclicks. -Thanks, A Seventy!
I Heart Nerds: Hello Kitty Scarf - $23.95
The weather is still a bit frightful, but your girlfriend is so delightful. Show her how much you care with the I Heart Nerds – Hello Kitty Scarf from the NeatoShop. Seriously, if she didn’t love nerds you would be in so much trouble.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fabulously fun accessories.
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While humans are not biologically programmed to be monogamous (only 3% of all mammals are), our social structure is largely based around romantic partnerships. To celebrate our own romantic attachments, lets reflect on some of nature’s most loving couples.
If you’re looking for the animal mating ritual that most closely resembles human dating, don’t look to primates, even mammals, instead, check out the albatross. These massive seabirds take a long time to reach sexual maturity –up to 10 years in some species, but they certainly don’t make up for it by rushing into a relationship. When they first start coming to the breeding colonies, young birds sit back and learn from their elders, observing the specie’s elaborate mating rituals that include dancing, preening, staring, pointing, and vocalizations. After years of trial and error, the birds learn to participate in these mating rituals. They will then start dancing with many partners, but year after year, they will trim down their dance card until they have selected the one partner they want to be with for the rest of their lives.
Once the partner is chosen, the pair will develop their own unique language comprised of bits of their mating ritual. Interestingly, once they have mated, they will never use most of the ritual again. While it seems like a massive undertaking, egg laying and chick rearing is a major time investment for albatrosses and the couples do everything they can to ensure they will be a successful mating pair.
While most birds are monogamous, few are quite as dependent on their mates as the female hornbill is on the male. The couple gets in the mood by singing duets together. The male starts the tune, then the female jumps in and the calls then join in unison. The pair will occupy a large nest inside the hollow of a massive tree. Once the eggs are laid and fertilized, the female will then seal herself in the nest. The male will then provide food for her and her chicks through a small hole in the nest. This goes on for about two months, then the female will leave the nest, sealing up the chicks inside. The mother and father will then take turns bringing the chicks food until they are grown enough to break the seal and survive on their own.
Of course lovebirds belong on this list, just look at their name. But what makes this specific parrot species so darn romantic that they are often given as wedding presents to symbolize the couple’s lifelong commitment to one another? Like most birds, lovebirds are monogamous, but its their habit of sitting beside another and cuddling that has made them such a strong image of love. Their tight pairings led the ancient Greeks to believe the birds would die if they lost their mates.
The peach-faced lovebirds find a partner when they are two months old. The female fluffs up her feathers to tell the male that she is interested and he then starts to perform a courtship dance that involves bobbing his head and scratching her head.
Once the couple lays eggs, the female will incubate the nest while the male goes out to get her food. When the chicks hatch, the dad gets the food, feeds it to the mother who then regurgitates the meal for the chicks.
All cranes are monogamous and they all have their own intricate mating dances, but the brogla’s are particularly fascinating. They mate with their partners every year, often in the same nesting area, but no matter how long they’ve been together, they always keep the passion flowing, performing their intricate mating dance every year. Just how complex is this ritual? Well, there is a reason it is considered the most elaborate mating dance in the animal kingdom.
The dances generally start with a bird picking up a clump of grass and tossing it in the air and catching it in its mouth. Then the dance starts to involve jumping, extending wings, stretching bowing, walking calling and head bobbing. Sometimes only one bird will dance, sometimes a pair will dance together, in other situations, the whole colony will jump in, starting up a massive brogla dance club.
You may already know that male seahorses are the ones who carry the litter, but did you know they go through an intimate courtship first? They hold tails, swim snout to snout and change colors to show one another that they are ready for romance. This process can last for days before the pair engages in a courtship dance that lasts up to eight hours.
Once the male is pregnant, the female sticks around until he gives birth. She visits him every morning, holding his tail, changing colors and flirting with him to ensure that he will continue to nurture the eggs until they hatch.
Source Image via San Diego Shooter [Flickr]
These slimy garden pests may not seem too romantic, particularly when you consider the fact that they are hermaphrodites, but they just may have inspired the Greek tales of cupid. Although snails are hermaphrodites, they require another partner to lay eggs. Their courtship process largely comes down to the animals circling one another and firing off “love darts” at each other, one third of which miss the target. The mucus-covered darts stimulate the animal’s female reproductive organs so they can hold more sperm. Once the darts are in place, the partners trade sperm cells for as long as six hours.
Next time you hear stories of the arrow-shooting cherub, just imagine a giant snail shooting darts before copulation. For some reason it’s just not as good of a Valentine’s Day card though.
Source Image via nutmeg66 [Flickr]
Most rodents are far from romantic, but the prairie vole is one of a handful of monogamous creatures that fall under the title. The male voles will move in with their first girlfriend and stick with her for the rest of their lives. During mating season, they will mark their territory and defend it from any trespassers by chattering its teeth and raising its arms. The male is particularly aggressive towards females who attempt to enter the territory and will even attack potential home wreckers. The happy couple will not only share pup-raising, but also groom each other and huddle together for warmth.
While the other animals on this list are romantic in their monogamous relationships, bonobos are romantic in an entirely different manner. These primates copulate while facing each other and to participate in open mouth kissing. If the other creatures represent our ideal life-long bond of romance, bonobos personify our most popular forms of physical intimacy. I think it’s important we look at these factors too. After all, we don’t just fall in love, we also “make love.”
Source Image via CourtneyBolton [Flickr]
I don’t know about all of you, but this article sure put me in a romantic mood. Who needs wine and roses when you can dance like a crane, sing like an albatross and shoot love darts like a snail?
If you want to give a kiss to impress for Valentines Day, you should brush up on what you think you know and what you don’t know about French kissing. Above all, you don’t want to be one of the types of kissers guaranteed to be a turn-off.
The Saint Bernard–someone who slobbers way too much, leaving their partner’s face looking like a microwaved glazed donut.
The Wrecking Ball–someone who lunges in so hard they clank their teeth against the other person’s, breaking more than the moment and possibly leaving their partner with the smile of a hockey player.
The Meat Grinder–someone who forgets (or doesn’t care) that they have braces and like a Saw film proceeds to attack their partner’s tongue and lips with their cheese grater grill.
Vlad the Impaler–someone who repeatedly shoves their Gene Simmons-sized tongue down their partner’s throat, testing their gag reflex.
Oh, there are more, which you’ll find at Geeks Are Sexy. Link
Love Ice Tray – $7.95
Tell someone how hot they make you this Valentine’s Day by giving them the Love Ice Tray from the NeatoShop. Winter, snow and ice be damned, because you are just burning up with desire!
Be sure to visit the NeatoShop for more Valentine’s Day gift ideas.
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Instant Love Inflatable Heart – $4.95
Are you feeling a little needy today? Do you need a little extra love and attention? The Instant Love Inflatable Heart from the NeatoShop is here for you. Just pop open the tin and blow yourself happy.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more inflatable fun | Valentine’s Day Gifts
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Stephanie Ortigue of Syracuse University conducted a study about the neurochemical reactions involved in falling in love. She found that different types of love are addressed by different parts of the brain.
For example, unconditional love, such as that between a mother and a child, is sparked by the common and different brain areas, including the middle of the brain. Passionate love is sparked by the reward part of the brain, and also associative cognitive brain areas that have higher-order cognitive functions, such as body image.
Ortigue also said (or at least the article about her study said) that falling in love takes one fifth of a second. That part of the article didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but perhaps Neatoramanauts more literate in biochemistry can explain.
Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo by Flickr user Garry Knight used under Creative Commons license
The PBS series POV is airing a series of animations made from stories told to StoryCorps. You saw the first one here entitled Q&A last spring. The latest story involves Danny Perasa and his wife Annie, who have been in love since 1978. This animation was directed by the Rauch Brothers, on whose blog you’ll find more about the work. Warning: this will tug at your heart. You can be the first to see other StoryCorps animations on POV with a schedule posted at StoryCorps. Link -Thanks, Ali!
Some occasions call for a special love song that one or both involved parties can personally relate to. John Farrier at NeatoGeek has a collection of a half-dozen videos of love songs that speak to the feelings a true geek has for his/her significant other. Whether you are into comic books, role-playing games, video games, or other geeky pursuits, there’s a songwriter who understands your emotions. And if you’re not a geek in love, you’ll get a laugh out of them! Link
Comments Off An award-winning story of a man and a digital camera. You might want to get a hanky ready. -via Flotsam
Engaged geeks Dale Larson and Laura La Gassa commissioned artist Yiying Lu to make their wedding invitations. Lu is best known as the creator of Fail Whale, once used extensively at Twitter. Since the wedding invitations are the opposite of fail, this design is called “Win Penguins.” Link -via Laughing Squid
This site doesn’t pretend to know everything; it’s a collection of men giving their varied advice on love. Some are practical, some are cynical, and some are philosophical. I particularly like what the old guys have to say. The guy pictured here has the right idea.
“Don’t wait to find the ultimate act of love. Create the ultimate act of love.”
Link -Thanks, Abe Greenwald!
There’s just something about a man in uniform. However, most of us don’t throw ourselves at the object of our affection in such a blatant manner. The music adds a special touch to this video. -via YesButNoButYes
Everyone loves a good love story, but when you’re single or competitive, sometimes it’s nice to hear a story about an epic romantic fail to help cheer you up. That’s why we’ve decided to help brighten your Valentine’s Day with this depressingly hilarious list of romantic misfires. If you’re alone on the holiday, it should help remind you that relationships don’t always mean smooth sailing. If you’re in a relationship, these stories might just help you avoid tragic mishaps of your own. Whatever your specific situation this year, have a happy Valentine’s Day and try not to end up like one of these poor suckers.
Putting a ring inside your girl friend’s Wendy’s Frosty may seem romantic, but when you and your friends encourage her to chug it, you might just ruin the surprise. At least, that’s what happened to Reed Harris, when his girlfriend, Kaitlin Whipple, opened up her gullet and downed the contents on her Frosty, only to see her cheering crowd suddenly go blank and look at each other with worry. “I felt nothing at all,” she told Lauer. “I was racing my friends, so there was no way I was going to lose that competition.”
That’s right, Kaitlin drank her engagement ring and had to go to the hospital, where the ring was found via X-ray. Reed proposed to Kaitlin with the X-ray image of the ring in place of the actual jewelry. A few days later, with the help of plenty of fiber, the couple recovered the ring –and promptly had it cleaned!
Source: MSNBC Image via Kaitlin’s Website.
Lest you think that Kaitlin is the only woman to have swallowed her diamond ring during an engagement proposal gone wrong, here’s a proposal story that “takes the cake.” Mr. Chen, a resident of China, thought it would be really romantic to bake his engagement ring into a cake to surprise his girlfriend. Chen said he was inspired by romantic comedies he’s seen, which always tends to be a bad start.
His girlfriend, Wen, was eating the cake when he bent down on his knee to propose, and then she suddenly passed out. “I realized I had just swallowed the ring with a full mouth of cake,” she said.
Chen called the police who told him to visit the hospital, where they were able to use a catheter to remove the ring. When Wen woke up, she promptly said yes.
Source: Ananova Image via Chotda [Flickr] (not the actual cake in the story)
Admittedly, giving your girlfriend a balloon and then having a ring fall out when you pop it is really romantic, but I’m sure we can all see the infinite number of things that could go wrong through this method of “popping the question.” Lefkos Hajji didn’t consider all those potential problems when he had a florist hide a ring worth over $1,000 inside a balloon.
Thought the florist warned him to hold on tight to the balloon, Lefkos lost the balloon moments after leaving the shop when a gust of wind tore it from his hands. He claims he chased the balloon in his car for two days before he gave up hope. “I just watched as it went further and further into the air. I felt like such a plonker. It cost a fortune and I knew my girlfriend would kill me.”
While Lefkos may get a lot of points on the romantic scale, his inability to see the obvious dangers in this plan indicate that he may be a little short on the intelligence side. Evidence that his IQ is lower than the average bear is even stronger when you consider that the girl he is so in love with, presumably for her kindness and lovingness, refuses to speak with him until he gets her a new one. Personally, I would laugh and feel bad if my boyfriend did something like this. Of course, I think if he were to come up with a plan like this, he’d have an easy work around to prevent the danger from ever happening. –For example, this all could have been avoided if Lefkos put a note that said “will you marry me” in the balloon and then handed the girl the ring when she read the note. It’s just as sweet, not as dangerous.
Source: The Sun UK Image via Kaptain Kobold [Flickr] (not the balloon in the story)
I’ve always thought that if you were going to ask a girl to marry you in front of a massive audience, you’d better know she’s going to say yes. In this situation, even if the girl says yes, you still can’t be sure she actually meant it when she had that much pressure on her to agree. Of course, not every girl will say yes no matter how much she feels pressure, as seen in the video above, where a woman rejects her prospective husband in front of a full arena and tv cameras.
Video link
Like women swallowing wedding rings, rejecting potential spouses in public is not entirely uncommon. This woman’s face tells the answer before he even asks. This could have been a really romantic moment of television, but when the girl’s obviously not into it, the result is just plain awkward…not to mention painful. This couldn’t have been good for the show’s ratings.
Video link
Sometimes all it takes for a proposal to go wrong is a little too much romance. When one man proposed on top of a steep hiking trail, the girl was so excited that she managed to fall off the cliffs after excitedly saying yes. She dropped ten feet off a steep rockface (like the one seen above) and went unconscious after hitting the ground. Luckily, park police were able to fly her out of the area with a helicopter and none of her injuries were life-threatening.
Source: NY Daily News Image via Sharron McClellan [Flickr]
It’s generally not a great idea to use government resources to scare the hell out of your girlfriend just so you can pop the question, but Baltimore State Delegate Jon S. Cardin is far too much of a risk-taker to heed such common sense. As such, he thought it would be a great idea to borrow a friend’s yacht and then convince local, on-duty police to raid the vessel with both boats and a helicopter, all in a strange, elaborate method of proposing to his girlfriend. Officers searched the boat and Megan Homer thought she was about to be handcuffed when Jon bent down on one knee and asked for her hand.
Unfortunately for Mr. Cardin, officials for the Baltimore Police Department asked for his explanation. The officials were furious to hear about such an abuse of police resources when the city was already strapped for resources and police were in short supply even at dangerous crime scenes. Anthony Guglielmi, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, stated “The Police Department is not in the business of renting out the helicopter and the boats for bachelor parties and birthdays. We’re in the business of upholding public safety in Baltimore.”
When Cardin actually addressed the public about the matter, he claimed the police performed a “routine safety check,” and left out the part about the helicopter. At least he promised to reimburse the city for any expenses related to the proposal.
Source: Baltimore Sun Image via Chris Hau [Flickr]
Marriage proposals are not the only romantic gestures that go wrong of course. Even something as simple as a kiss can go very, very wrong in some situations. Take for example the Chinese woman who became partially deaf for two months after receiving a mind-numbingly passionate kiss from her lover. Somehow the kiss created pressure build up in her head so severe that her right ear drum blew out, leaving it completely deaf.
“While kissing is normally very safe, doctors advise people to proceed with caution,” said the Chinese newspaper that originally covered the story.
Source: Reuters Image via Life Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt
Speaking of kisses that really make an impact, it’s important to know the cultural implications of public displays of affection before you kiss someone publicly on stage. Richard Gere learned this the hard way when he managed to piss off practically everyone in India by kissing the Celebrity Big Brother winner, Shilpa Shetty, on stage during an Aids awareness rally in New Dehli. In India, it is considered obscene to publicly display any form of affection and Gere’s kissing Shetty’s hands and face were considered vulgar to those watching. Some people were so incensed by his actions that they actually burned effigies of him on the street, while protesters in other areas shouted “death to Shilpa Shetty.”
Source: BBC
Getting a life-sized portrait of your wife and children tattooed on your back might not be on most people’s to do list, but it most certainly displays a life-long commitment to your spouse. Unfortunately for Alan Jenkins, his wife was most certainly not willing to return the favor. While he was going through the 20-hour long, $1500 process of a full-back tattoo, she was busy cheating with a man who was 10-years-her-junior that she met at work. Of course, Alan didn’t find out until after the tattoo was complete, “I had it because I thought we loved each other – I feel very betrayed.” Strangely, he’s decided to not have her image removed.
His wife, Lisa, tried to defend herself by saying she never meant to fall in love with fitness instructor Kaspars Gavars and that she never wanted Alan to get the tattoo in the first place. Still, waiting for your husband to complete his tattoo before you tell him about your affair is pretty heinous.
This incident reminds me of the scene in “Born In East L.A.” where Cheech is told to remove the tattoo of a woman on someone’s back. Since he obviously can’t remove it, he draws devil horns and a mustache on the face. Maybe Alan needs to see this movie for some ideas.
Source: Daily Mail UK
In olden times, it was ok to walk your sweetie all the way down the tarmac just to spend the most possible time together before kissing each other goodbye, but in the days of the TSA, it’s not so simple. Personally, I thought this was pretty common knowledge, but I guess I was wrong because apparently, because one man actually shut down a whole airport for five hours just to kiss his girlfriend goodbye.
The couple remains unidentified, but I’m sure more than a few people at the airport wish they knew who was responsible for making every single passenger go through security a second time, delaying flights for hours. The TSA agent that left his post, letting the man slip into the secure area undetected, was suspended on administrative leave.
Source: Reuters Image
One of the most frequent reasons men seem to get in trouble for romantic gestures is in a strange attempt to impress a girl. While outrageous methods occasionally catch a woman’s eye, many stupid ideas not only fall flat, but also result in arrests and mayhem.
James Miller is a perfect example. This young Romeo had a bit too much to drink one night and decided that relying on cupid wasn’t good enough to take his relationship to the next level –instead, he decided, he needed to be cupid. So he took the next logical step and jumped onto the field of a soccer game dressed in only his boxers, shooting roses from an arrow at the crowd of entertained onlookers.
Naturally, he was arrested, fined and banned from any further soccer games for the next three years. Unfortunately for Miller though, his girlfriend, Jade Thompson, had quite the opposite reaction to his stunt and dumped him shortly after the incident. To make matters worse, since he’s in the military, his superior officers warned that he may even be court-martialed for the stunt.
“That sort of behavior always seems to work some romantic magic in the movies. Now I have no girlfriend and no job,” he explained outside of a courtroom hearing.
Source: Telegraph UK
What could be worse than streaking along a soccer field to impress a girl? Drunkenly stealing a plane and then crashing it into a soybean field. Michael Santos had already lost his driver’s license permanently, but that didn’t deter his desire to impress his girlfriend by showing her that he could fly a plane.
So, he drove her to the airport while drunk, broke into a plane and then managed to catch the wing on fire before he even reached the end of the taxiway. He then missed a curve in the runway veered into a soybean field and cut up a bunch of the plants with the plane’s propeller. Police estimate the damage to be around $160,000.
No word yet on whether his girlfriend actually stuck by him after this moronic stunt, but the fact that she got into the plane with her drunken boyfriend is a good indicator that she seems to lack common sense enough to dump him for this.
Source: MSNBC Image via Cranky Guy Media [Flickr] (not the actual plane involved)
The spirit of capitalism is alive and well in China, or at least when it comes to trying to impress women. A man in the Heilongjiang province was arrested last year after trying to impress his girlfriend by depositing a 250 million yuan ($36.5 million) check into his bank account. The only problem, the check was a fake and he bought it only so he could look cool by depositing it in front of her.
I’m sure you can guess what happened afterward; bank clerks knew the check was fake and called the police and the man was arrested. He immediately confessed that he bought the fake check for the sake of impressing his lover.
The moral here is it’s better to be poor and honest than truthful while under arrest.
Source: China Daily
What about you readers? Have any love stories from hell, or know someone else that does? Do share.
Have you lost that "lovin’ feelin’"? The Righteous Brothers may not know it when they sang the number-one hit single in 1965, but you can blame a hormone called neutrophin:
A team from the University of Pisa in Italy found the bodily chemistry which makes people sexually attractive to new partners lasts, at most, two years. [...]
The Italian researchers tested the levels of the hormones called neutrophins in the blood of volunteers who were rated on a passionate love scale.
Levels of these chemical messengers were much higher in those who were in the early stages of romance. [...]
But in people who had been with their partners for between one and two years these so-called "love molecules" had gone, even though the relationship had survived.
The scientists found that the lust molecule was replaced by the so-called "cuddle hormone" – oxytocin – in couples who had been together for several years.
It’s great to see so much love in the animal kingdom especially when the world is so full of violence and hate. Enjoy these cute pictures of animals showing affection.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by draganesku.
A mother squirrel was caught on camera protecting her baby from the jaws of a large black dog. The first image shows the dog about to start pouncing and playing with the baby as the mother looks on, but then the rest of the series depicts the mother diving down and attacking the dog so the youngster has a chance to escape. It looks like all three parties involved came out mostly unscathed, but the dog might have some scratches where the squirrel bit him on the neck and face.
Link Image Via Daily Mail
Have you ever written a love letter? How did it turn out? Sappy or clever?
I betcha it’s not as awesome as this one sent about 100 years ago by William Weightman. He wrote the entire thing in rebus (for example, the word "dearest" is formed using a picture of a deer followed by the letters "est.")
That’s just one of 7 fascinating love letters in this post by Shaun Usher (the guy behind deputy dog and Letters of Note blogs)
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Eavesy.
Should you love your children unconditionally or should you dole out love only when they behave? Do your children become better adults if you are selective about your approvals – like many of the new parenting advice books say?
Author Alfie Kohn wrote an interesting article for The New York Times wrote about some interesting studies on conditional parenting:
In 2004, two Israeli researchers, Avi Assor and Guy Roth, joined Edward L. Deci, a leading American expert on the psychology of motivation, in asking more than 100 college students whether the love they had received from their parents had seemed to depend on whether they had succeeded in school, practiced hard for sports, been considerate toward others or suppressed emotions like anger and fear.
It turned out that children who received conditional approval were indeed somewhat more likely to act as the parent wanted. But compliance came at a steep price. First, these children tended to resent and dislike their parents. Second, they were apt to say that the way they acted was often due more to a “strong internal pressure” than to “a real sense of choice.” Moreover, their happiness after succeeding at something was usually short-lived, and they often felt guilty or ashamed.
In a companion study, Dr. Assor and his colleagues interviewed mothers of grown children. With this generation, too, conditional parenting proved damaging. Those mothers who, as children, sensed that they were loved only when they lived up to their parents’ expectations now felt less worthy as adults. Yet despite the negative effects, these mothers were more likely to use conditional affection with their own children.
A new study shows that sleeping in separate beds can help your health and your relationship. Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep researcher, believes that by not sharing a bed with your partner you may be decreasing the risks of divorce, heart problems, stroke and suicidal behavior.
“Intimacy is important for emotional health. But good sleep is important for physical, emotional and mental health.”
What do you guys think? Would you sleep away from your love so you can actually improve your sleep?
There’s office romance, and then there’s post-it office romance! Here’s a cute short film by Academy Film’s directors Simon Atkinson and Adam Trowley (better known as Si & Ad) about how two office workers express their love for each other using office supplies.
Cute! Link [embedded YouTube]
Photo: andrew.le
Though I missed this one for Pi Day, I find Andrew Le‘s take on why Love is like Pi too cute (and true) not to post!
After a year of drug wars that have taken the lives of at least 6,000 citizens, Mexico opted to fight violence the way the Beatles preached -with love. Almost 40,000 people gathered together on Valentine’s day to break the world record for most simultaneous kisses.
Link Via Weird Stuff News
If you like the roses above, or just forgot about Valentine’s Day until all the roses were sold out, there’s an easy to follow instruction guide for them over on Instructables right now.
A group of researchers are studying the biological basis of romantic love. No matter how much we talk about love from the heart (or other organs), they’ve found it really is all in your head.
In humans, there are four tiny areas of the brain that some researchers say form a circuit of love. [Dr. Bianca] Acevedo, who works at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, is part of a team that has isolated those regions with the unromantic names of ventral tegmental area (VTA), the nucleus accumbens, the ventral pallidum and raphe nucleus.
The hot spot is the teardrop-shaped VTA. When people newly in love were put in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine and shown pictures of their beloved, the VTA lit up. Same for people still madly in love after 20 years.
The VTA is part of a key reward system in the brain.
“These are cells that make dopamine and send it to different brain regions,” said Helen Fisher, a researcher and professor at Rutgers University. “This part of the system becomes activated because you’re trying to win life’s greatest prize – a mating partner.”
Link -via Geek Like Me
(image credit: Larry Young, PhD.)
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Just in time for Valentine’s Day – traffic officials in Chengdu, China, came up with this idea of making crossing a road more romantic:
A spokesman said the local traffic bureau wanted to give the crossing a romantic atmosphere because it was close to the Hejiang Pavilion, a popular dating venue for young couples.
"We want to make everybody who walks on it feel warmth and love from others," said the spokesman, adding that it was believed to be the first crossing of its kind in the whole country.
"We have two wishes – one, that all who walk on it experience long-lasting love and, two, that they obey traffic rules and cross safely."
Artist Liz McGrath is selling personalized painted butcher knives just in time for Valentine’s Day. There are two designs, the one shown and one with a cute little mouse on the blade. Each cleaver comes with its own box. They’re only $25 and the perfect way to tell that special someone “till death do us part.”
Link Via BoingBoing
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Here’s a great picture of a three-layer love fest. I almost wish there was a tiny flea on the rat just to make things even better. Best. Picture. Ever. I especially love that it wasn’t staged, the photographer just happened across this freak occurrence.
Can true love last forever? Scientists at Stony Brook University used brain scans to find that indeed, true love can last a lifetime:
Scanning the brains of people who have been together for 20 years, the scientists found that about one in 10 couples still display elements of “limerence”, the psychologists’ term for the obsessive behaviour of new lovers.
They enjoy “intensive companionship and sexual liveliness” but without the anxieties and tensions of early love. They are generous, calm and deeply attached. The scientists call them swans (swans mate for life).
This is good news for the 10%, if not for the remaining 90% gripped by marital fatigue. But Arthur Aron, leader of the researchers, says the majority can learn from the minority. One clue he has found is that the swans share experiences and avoid stress. This may be a symptom rather than a cause, but Aron, 64, and his wife are copying the swans anyway in the hope of enjoying a little limerence themselves.
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