17-year-old Marty Tankleff spent 17 years in prison because authorities didn’t believe in his innocence, because apparently, he was too calm when he found out that his mother was stabbed and his father was mortally bludgeoned in their home.

Jeffrey Deskovic, a 16-year-old man, also spent a number of years (16 years, to be exact) in prison because authorities didn’t believe in his innocence, but for a different reason; Jeffrey was too eager to help the detectives after his classmate was found strangled.

Both were thought to be guilty of a crime, but one was too calm, and the other was too upset and too willing to help. But do these two characteristics really indicate if the person is lying?

They’re not, says psychologist Maria Hartwig, a deception researcher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. The men, both later exonerated, were victims of a pervasive misconception: that you can spot a liar by the way they act. Across cultures, people believe that behaviors such as averted gaze, fidgeting and stuttering betray deceivers.

In fact, researchers have found little evidence to support this belief despite decades of searching. “One of the problems we face as scholars of lying is that everybody thinks they know how lying works,” says Hartwig, who coauthored a study of nonverbal cues to lying in the Annual Review of Psychology. Such overconfidence has led to serious miscarriages of justice, as Tankleff and Deskovic know all too well. “The mistakes of lie detection are costly to society and people victimized by misjudgments,” says Hartwig. “The stakes are really high.”

In other words, it is difficult to identify liars. But is there a way to increase our chances of guessing correctly? Fortunately, there is.

Learn more details about this topic over at JSTOR Daily.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

One of the things that will come into your mind when you hear the word Japan is “ramen.” In fact, when you arrive in Japan, you will be surprised at the number of ramen shops they have in the country. (It is said that Japan has over 10,000 ramen shops.) But did you know that the regions in the country have different types of ramen that serve as their representatives? Bet you didn’t know that.

Some of the best-known [types of ramen] are Sapporo’s miso ramen and Fukuoka’s tonkotsu (pork stock) ramen.

But if you want to taste a very special type of ramen, then go to Tokyo’s neighbor to the south, the Kanagawa Prefecture, and have a taste of their sanma-men, their regional ramen. It is a type of ramen not commonly known, but it surely is something that you will definitely remember once you taste it.

… the star ingredient in sanma-men is the broth, which is made by adding starch to a soy broth base.

The toppings are special too. Japanese ramen is usually pretty sparse on non-noodle elements, but not only do you get strips of chashu pork, sanma-men also includes a generous serving of stir-fried vegetables such as bean sprouts, carrot, green onion, and shiitake or kikurage (clud ear) mushrooms, cooked to perfection so that they still retain a crisp texture even after being dropped into the broth.

Highly nutritious and very delicious. What more could you ask for?

(Image Credit: SoraNews24)

If I received a badge for every minor thing I did in life like in video games in which they will give you a game achievement for doing a certain action, I probably would be approaching life like some kind of video game, where I will do all sorts of minor things just to get all the badges.

Among these badges made by Winks For Days, which badge would you most likely receive everyday? Mine would be the “Made Coffee” badge.

See the badges over at Sad and Useless.

(Image Credit: Winks For Days/ Sad and Useless)

Some corvids, like the Eurasian jay, are natural magicians. They are capable of deceiving other birds, like a magician deceives his audience through sleight-of-hand. An example of this is how these jays pretend to store their food in one spot, and then secretly hide them in another place. And because they think like magicians, it also seems that jays can see through the deception of a human magician.

Garcia-Pelegrin is a professional magician as well as a cognitive scientist. As the video below shows, he used three standard tricks - known as palm transfer, French drop, and fast pass - to test six Eurasian jays’ capacity to determine which hand held a worm. The birds got to eat the worm if their first guess was right. Garcia-Pelegrin also performed various other hand movements for comparison.

[...]

The jays usually saw through the French drop or the palm transfer, choosing the correct hand 70 and 60 percent of the time respectively. The fast pass was a different matter, with the jays getting just 26 percent of trials right.

[...]

The similarities between the way jays hide food from those who would steal it and the way magicians deceive the public are striking. Not only do jays and their fellow corvids; “Cache food items discretely in among multiple bluff caching events,” the paper notes, they also; “Conceal items in their throat pouch, akin to a magician’s use of false pockets, and will manipulate food items within their beak similar to sleight-of-hand techniques performed by magicians.”

Clever birds!

More details about this over at IFL Science.

(Image Credit: Elias Garcia-Pelegrin/ IFL Science)

Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine are often cited in lists of the world's greatest love affairs, but Napoleon wouldn't let a little thing like love get in the way of his ambitions. When he married Joséphine de Beauharnais, his second wife was the five-year-old daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, and an Austrian princess. Marie Louise grew up with her country constantly at war with France. She referred to Napoleon as the Anti-Christ. Napoleon's forces ultimately defeated Austria's -twice.

In December 1809, Napoleon ended his 13-year marriage to Josephine because of her failure to provide him with an heir. He wanted a new, fertile wife from one of Europe’s royal families, thinking that this would add legitimacy to his regime. Hoping to cement the new Franco-Austrian alliance, he settled on Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. At first Marie Louise couldn’t believe that Napoleon would want to marry his enemy’s daughter, or that her father would consent to the match. Her stepmother, Maria Ludovika, was strongly opposed. However, Francis I and his foreign minister, Clemens von Metternich, saw the proposal through the eyes of statecraft, as a means of securing some years of peace during which Austria could rebuild her forces. Although Marie Louise was not keen on marrying the man who had caused her family so much distress, she submitted without protest to her father’s wishes (see my post about Francis I).

On March 11, 1810, at the Augustinian church in Vienna, 18-year-old Marie Louise married 40-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte sight unseen. They literally did not see each other, since it was a marriage by proxy: Napoleon was in France and the bride’s uncle, Archduke Charles, stood in for the groom (see my post about the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise). Two days later, Marie Louise left for Paris.

What happened to Marie Louise from then on is an illustration of a very complex combination of love, duty, politics, and the passage of time. Read about the strange life of Napoleon's second wife at Shannon Selin's blog. -via Strange Company

Medieval artworks, illuminations, and marginalia include some really weird scenes that defy modern interpretation. However, the world is full of people who will give it a try, just to be funny. If you are one of them, you’ll be intrigued by the Medieval Meme Generator. Choose an image from a collection from the KB National Library of the Netherlands, read about the image to find its intended meaning, and add your own punch line. There are 15 images now available (some may be considered NSFW), and they will be switched out every three months or so. Even if you don’t want to create jokes with them, exploring the history of these really weird images is a good use of your free time. -via Nag on the Lake

New London, New Hampshire — Mary Beth Westward, with her daughters, left on a trip last month, leaving her husband Todd at home. But while she and her daughters were away, Todd was able to develop a strange relationship with someone else. This someone else was Walter. And no, Walter’s not human; he’s a grouse.

“I just thought it was a fluke before we left,” Mary Beth Westward said Friday. “While we were gone, this bird formed this crazy attachment. He was here every single day, all day long, following him.”

Walter has perched on her husband’s shoulder and arm, and has visited his backyard work station.

While Walter was able to develop a very positive relationship with Todd, it seems that he disliked Todd’s wife and daughters.

“He runs like a feathered velociraptor while he chases us down the driveway in our cars. And he goes back up and sits on the porch and pretends to be our watch-bird,” Westward wrote in her post.

But why is Walter acting this way? The reason behind this could be the fact that grouses become tame come springtime. (So, don’t expect grouses to perch on your shoulder on other seasons.)

(Image Credit: Mary Beth Westward/ AP News)

The Air Conditioned Village https://t.co/JZCekCcR6b

— Amusing Planet (@AmusingPlanet) May 26, 2021

In the early part of the 20th century, air conditioning was new and expensive, and only used in commercial buildings. People would go to see bad movies just because the theater was air-conditioned. Window units gradually became popular, but they usually weren't enough to cool an entire house. Would central air conditioning be feasible for single-family homes? The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) wanted to find out, so they teamed up with the University of Texas at Austin in the 1950s to build an entire subdivision, 22 homes of different configurations, in Allandale, Texas, to test residential central air. Many different A/C manufacturers took part.

Despite the many unorthodox construction methods, NAHB found no shortage of buyers. The houses were sold to willing families who agreed that researchers could observe various aspects of their home life for one year. Research addressed issues such as electricity usage, effectiveness of insulation, and various energy efficiency issues relating to the design of the houses. After the one-year-long study was over, the NAHB reported that families spent more time at home, slept longer, took on hobbies, improved their appetites, and were generally happy. The women from the Austin Air-Conditioned Village reported less dirt and dust in the house, which in turn allowed the use of previously considered luxuries such as white rugs, curtains, and upholstery.

The results made a world of difference for people living in the South from that point on. Read about the air-conditioned village at Amusing Planet.

Some people see new technology and can't wait to get their hands on it, no matter what it does. Others see it as useful or not, and nothing more. Then there are those who consider the possible implications of a new gadget or app before deciding whether to adopt it. Kaiwei Tang was confronted by these different philosophies when we joined a startup class focusing on creating new tech.

Given his experience designing phones for Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry, Tang was more than qualified. Yet he thought about technology differently from his teachers and peers. For them, he says, success was about users spending more and more time on their phones, engrossed in the founders’ new apps. But to Tang, who describes apps and phones as ‘tools’, this sounded perverse. Would the maker of a hammer boast about how long his customers spent using it?

By now, Tang’s gripe is solidly mainstream: millions of people feel (and are) addicted to their phones and social media. We worry about checking email during family dinners or about the fact that we spend more time documenting vacations on Instagram than enjoying them. Unlike most of us, though, Tang was in a position to do something about it. He co-founded a company, raised millions of dollars, and released a new product: the Light Phone.

The Light Phone made phone calls. That was it. It couldn’t even text. It was the phone you bought because you wanted to stare at the clouds or notice the flowers blooming when you walked to work. Tang’s target customers were desk workers who downloaded meditation apps and people who paid for digital-detox camps. But other people wanted the Light Phone, too. Tang found himself speaking with parents who sought a stripped-down phone for their young teens – and, in a development that surprised him, members of ultra-Orthodox Jewish families.

To understand this attitude, Alex Mayyasi looks at the tech philosophy of the Amish, who aren't necessarily anti-tech, but who carefully consider the pros and cons of new technology. -via Damn Interesting

Listen, we know that there are a lot of ways to invade your privacy on the Internet. From advertisers to tech companies  to hackers-- these establishments aim to track down your activity in every way possible, and to be honest, it’s very easy for them to do so. If you want your privacy back, USA Today states that the first step you should take is to shut down all the intrusive GPS trackers. It’s like disappearing from the Internet, if you think about it. Check their full piece here on how to restore your privacy on different social media platforms! 

Image credit: Austin Daniel via Unsplash 

A mule is a not a species, but a hybrid of a horse and a donkey. Mules don’t reproduce because horses and donkeys have different numbers of chromosomes, but that doesn’t really tell us much. SciShow explains why those chromosomes can pair up for one generation, but not two. Still, while mules are at a disadvantage in producing their own genetic descendants, they make pretty good surrogate mothers.

At its height, the British Empire offered many foreign places for an English family to live, temporarily or permanently. Employees of the British government or the many companies that did business overseas were stationed in faraway places and raised families there. Labor was cheap in Asia, especially female labor, and these families procured ayahs, or nannies, for their children. These ayahs were expected to be completely devoted to the children they were hired to raise, even while the family traveled, often leaving their own children to do so.

Between the late 1700s and mid-1900s, countless ayahs traveled under the employment of British families. Maritime voyages were long and arduous, marked by bouts of seasickness and dangerous storms. The ayahs relieved memsahibs of their childcare duties by tending to their young and often anxious charges, and keeping them entertained for hours, day after day. Upon disembarking in London or other port cities, however, their services no longer required, a number of the ayahs were unceremoniously discharged. There are no records documenting how many ayahs found themselves in this position, or how most of them fared.

Many of these stranded ayahs, from India, Hong Kong, Burma, Malaysia, and other countrie, found their way to the Ayah's Home in London, run by the London City Mission. Established in 1825, the Ayah's home took in woman of many different backgrounds and religions whose stories are lost to time. Read about the Ayah's Home, and what little we know about the women who lived there, at Atlas Obscura.

When you know your death will be widely publicized due to your wealth or notoriety, it can be very tempting to fashion the story of your legacy to ensure people would still be talking about it a century (or more) later. In some cases, it was a joke. In other cases, it was just something weird that we still read about.  

An eighth of a million dollars ain't what it used to be, but even back then it probably wasn't all that much when you're raising nine kids. Read more of the weirdest sendoffs and bequests at Cracked.

Plants, like humans, catch diseases. They also sometimes suffer from physical stress (due to lack of water, cold weather, lack of sunlight, etc.). But, unlike in humans, it is very difficult to identify sick and stressed plants. And, by the time that signs of disease or stress appear, it may already be too late to save the plant. This has been one of the challenges in farming.

In order to address this problem, scientists, led by Dr. Shilo Rosenwasser, have genetically modified a plant known as the Irish potato.

The researchers introduced a new gene into the plant's chloroplasts, which are organelles (subcellular structures) that conduct photosynthesis. That gene expresses a fluorescent protein in response to the presence of reactive oxygen species – these are highly reactive chemical molecules that are produced in order to help mitigate stress, although they can also harm the plant if they build up in its cells.

Putting it simply, the more stress that a plant experiences, the greater the amount of reactive oxygen species it produces. In the case of the new potato, this in turn causes it to produce more of the fluorescent protein – so the more stressed the plant is, the brighter its fluorescent glow. And although the fluorescence can't be seen by the naked eye, the scientists could detect it using a highly sensitive fluorescent camera.

Cool!

(Image Credit: Shilo Rosenwasser/ Hebrew University/ New Atlas)

Twitch category Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches is now dominated with swimsuit-clad streamers ready to have fun in the water. However, the category, which was recently introduced to the platform, is now welcoming a new kind of content creators: rescued otters! Otters from the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre in Vancouver can be seen under the new category doing some adorable shenanigans, like splashing around and flipping underwater: 

While it’s hilarious to see them next to all the people hanging out in their swimsuits, it’s actually a really clever use of the category. The grouping is new, and while many probably go to it looking for conventional hot tub streams, it seems to be grabbing attention for the otters. At the time of press the little otters had roughly 1,700 viewers with the channel being the third most-watched under the category.

But part of what sets the otters apart is that the handler managing the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre stream has leaned into the controversial hot tub category. The title of the broadcast jokes that the animals have the “THICCEST FUR” and that it’s the “HOTTEST” stream, referencing how human streamers format their broadcasts in all caps, if not endless emojis. 

Image via Wikimedia Commons