The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

(Image credit: Flickr user butupa)

How to make science popular with the fair sex
by Sylvester Bames, PhD.
Royal Academy of the Sciences London, England

It has always dismayed me that women dislike science. It needn't be so, though. There is a simple way to make science comfortable and appealing to females.

The Differences Between Men and Women
An American author called Deborah Tannen has written several books in which she examines the differences between men and women. Tannen has discovered a basic technique that I would recommend to every scientist, and indeed to anyone who writes about science. The secret is simply to use the phrase "I'm sorry."

Tannen eavesdropped on many conversations between men and women. She also listened to tape recorded conversations that friends and colleagues had made for her. One of the great differences between the sexes, Tannen discovered, is thai women utter the phrase ''I'm sorry" in almost every conversation. Men say "I'm sorry" only when they are apologizing about something.

The Success of Women
When women say "I'm sorry," they are not apologizing. They are using the phrase as "a ritual to grease the conversational wheels." All women understand this, Tannen explains. They do not expect the words to be taken literally. However -and this is the key point- women expect everyone to use this same ritual when speaking to them.

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

An Author's Query
by Harold P. Dowd^l, Expectorant Author²
Centerville, USA

I'm plannning to write a book about strange case histories called Strange Case Histories. If possible, I hope to compile six strange case histories, in which case the book will be renamed, Six Strange Case Histories.

Left: Master portrait of rock star Jon Bon Jovi, including hair, nose, mouth, two eyes, one ear, and a well-trimmed beard, seen in full-face view from a vantage point directly in front of him. Possibly from the collection of H.P. Dowd. (Image credit: David Shankbone)

This book could make an important contribution to human unconsciousness given that case histories, to paraphrase an infamous analysis!' are "skylights to the attic's sole." They provide razor·sharp insights into the human mind- i.e., "what makes him tick?" or, to site another well·trod example, "kids do the darndest [sic?] things." In this era of neo·Victorian restraint, it is no longer fashionable to bore into the human skull as a means of fathoming the mysterious interplay between dozens (hundreds?) of neurons, as they go through their familiar, yet not-so- familiar, mating rituals. Fortunately, there is another route to the unconscionable- those rare individuals who speak so clearly, and indeed shamelessly, as to leave nothing concealed, no "skeletons in the closet," so to speak.

I already have one such case history that meets these adjectives. [lt was recovered by my friend Joe Martin who works every third Saturday at the Centerville Recycling Center.] I need at least five others to reach my penultimate target of six. Does anyone else know of any strange case histories they'd like to share -particularely those involving obsessions with rock stars from New Jersey (i.e. Bruce Stingspreen would do in a pitch).

A Better Idea
To give you a better idea of what I'm looking for, I shall briefly summarize the first case history, "Bon Jovi and Me," in its entirety. Other uninspired case histories would be sorely appreciated, preferably concocted to Bon Jovi in some way, shade or form.

Spirited evocation of a sculpture of rock star Jon Bon Jovi. Possibly from the collection of H.P. Dowd. (Image credit: Flickr user Fernanda Stéphanie R Carvalho)

Summary by Harold P. Dowd³
Summary [by Harold P. Dowd^{3 again}]: The author of this article, clearly delusional, claims to have had several "close encounters" with Bon Jovi in his gym and grocery store, while infantasizing about future meetings in Atlantic City, an "airplane," and other locales besides the Wisconsin Dells.

Graphic artist Danielle Delph shows us a very personal project in which she combed through old family photographs and matched some from her childhood with those of her mother’s childhood. And then combined them.

I've always wondered if my mom and I would have been friends had we grown up together. Would we be in the same classes? Would we have the same sense of humor? Would people tell us we're inseparable? After seeing myself in her childhood photos, I'm pretty sure we would have been great friends..

Melding the images gives us a pair of intergenerational best friends. See the sweet results in six images at Delph’s website. You can tell who is who by the hairstyles and clothing. -via mental_floss

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You think trying to work on a computer with a curious cat around is hard? This poor zookeeper needs to dose two young pandas with medicine, but they have other things in mind- like climbing, cuddling, and playing! It appears akin to trying to teach something important to a roomful of preschoolers at their peak energy time. And you can’t give medicine during a nap! -via Daily Picks and Flicks

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News from the Supreme Court is extremely important, but since cameras are not allowed during hearings, the audio-only TV coverage is far from interesting. John Oliver has a wonderful idea to get people to watch SC news stories: use footage of dogs! To that end, his production team made an entire reel of “stock footage” which can be used to illustrate any sound bite from Supreme Court hearings. Each individual Justice is included, as well as lawyers and other court employees. 

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And in case you like that idea, here is the entire reel, which can be excerpted as necessary. There is no soundtrack, but once you start watching, you won’t want to stop. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

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When Ohio State played Rutgers on Saturday, TBDBITL marched and gave us a tribute to classic rock. The complicated formations include a pinball machine (during "Pinball Wizard," of course) and a musician smashing a guitar onstage. Honestly, we really don’t post the Ohio State Marching Band’s halftime show every week, just when it’s awesome. -via Uproxx

The idea of eating human flesh is abhorrent to most folks, but the truth is people, like animals, will eat anything when the alternative is dying of starvation. And most of us understand the vast difference between eating available corpses and murder. However, in the ten stories of people who survived starvation through cannibalism, there are a few that involved murder, although the details are sketchy. Self defense? That's what one claimed. In other cases, it was "either him or me," or helping along those who were about to die sooner or later. Read ten tales of desperation that led to cannibalism at How Stuff Works.   

When you watch a horror film, you can be excused for not remembering the details, like the architecture. But maybe you’ve seen these movies more than once, or maybe even recently. Can you identify the houses, haunted or not, from Hollywood’s biggest horror movies? The first one in the Buzzfeed quiz is a gimme, especially if you’ve followed Neatorama for a few years. The rest, well, you’re on your own. I scored eight out of ten, which is more of the movies than I’d actually seen, because I’m a good guesser.

National Geographic brings us an interactive data visualization project that breaks down world food consumption. As you can see, globally, we consume more grains than anything. The staff of life, you know. At the site, you can mouseover the graph and break these categories down further: rice beats out wheat, just barely, with maize (corn) a distant third. But the United States’ graph is quite different, with sugar and fat taking up 37% of our diet! There are also plenty of graphs on meat consumption, which has grown considerably per capita over the past few decades. Not so much in the U.S., as we always ate more meat than other countries, and not so much in India, where meat eating is still relatively rare. There are plenty of graphs to explore and compare at NatGeo.

The following is an article from Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader. 

(Image credit:  Flickr user  kawaiikiri)

 Most stories have the moral at the end. But we’ll put it right up front: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

NIGHT DEPOSIT

One evening in February 1871, George Roberts, a prominent San Francisco businessman, was working in his office when two men came to his door. One of them, Philip Arnold, had once worked for Roberts; the other was named John Slack. Arnold produced a small leather bag and explained that it contained something very valuable; as soon as the Bank of California opened in the morning, he was going to have them lock it in the vault for safekeeping.

Arnold and Slack made a show of not wanting to reveal what was in the bag, but eventually told Roberts that it contained “rough diamonds” they’d found while prospecting on a mesa somewhere in the West. They wouldn’t say where the mesa was, but they did say it was the richest mineral deposit they’d ever seen in their lives: The site was rich not only in diamonds, but also in sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and other precious stones.

The story sounded too good to be true, but when Arnold dumped the contents of the bag onto Robert’s desk, out spilled dozens of uncut diamonds and other gems.

PAY DIRT

If someone were to make such a claim today, they’d probably get laughed out of the room. But things were different in 1871. Only 20 years had passed since the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California spiked the greatest gold rush in American history. Since then other huge gold deposits had been discovered in Colorado, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. A giant vein of silver had been found in the famous Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, and diamonds had been discovered in South Africa in 1867- just four years earlier. Gems and precious metals might be anywhere, lying just below the earth’s surface, waiting to be discovered. People who’d missed out on the earlier bonanzas were hungry for word of new discoveries, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 opened up the West and create the expectation that more valuable strikes were just around the corner. When Arnold and Slack rolled into town with their tale of gems on a mesa and a bag of precious stones to back it up, people were ready to believe them.

OPEN SECRET

The next morning the two men went to the Bank of California and deposited their bag in the bank’s vault. They made another big show of not wanting anyone to know what was in the bag, and again they let some of the bank employees have a peek. Soon everyone in the bank knew what was in it, including the president and founder, William Ralston. He had made a fortune off the Comstock Lode, and had his eye out for the next big find. Ralston didn’t keep the men’s secret, and neither did George Roberts: Soon all of San Francisco, the city built by the Gold Rush of 1849, was buzzing with the tale of the two miners and their discovery.

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A rock creature does what he has to do in this really short story from House Special. I love how expressive his face is; it's the exact opposite of the “stone face” you’d expect. And since it’s just animation, you can laugh without feeling guilty. -via reddit

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This is an ad for Zyx, a brand of cough drops sold in Finland and Sweden. You can see what’s going to happen a mile away, but it’s still amusing. It makes a strange kind of sense, since every time I listen to black metal singing, it makes my throat hurt. Just watching this on TV could sell a lot of cough drops!  -via Daily Picks and Flicks

According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control, 49% of American will eat at least one sandwich on any given day. That’s really not so shocking; I eat one most days, if not two. And why not? A sandwich is easy to eat while working, requires no dish or utensil, and you can put just about anything in it. Most can be eaten with one hand. That’s why the sandwich was invented in the first place! What is a little surprising is the findings about what Americans put in their sandwiches.

As you can tell from the graph, lettuce is on more sandwiches than any other ingredient. That’s because it automatically goes on so many store-bought sandwiches of all kinds, and there are no other vegetables that produce as much crunch. However, if you look closer, you can see that “Cheddar or American cheese” shows up three times in the graph, depending on how it was described. If those were combined, they would be at the top. Personally, I’m surprised that peanut butter isn’t much higher on the list. You can read more about the study, and see what kind of breads we’re using on sandwiches, at FiveThirtyEight. -via Digg   

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

(Image credit: Flickr user Shannon)

When the police arrived at Hubert Stoogle's house, the motif seemed to be water. The sprinkler system was going full force, and the owner of the premises was lying dead in his own bathtub.

The man's three nephews lined up on the sun-drenched front porch, each one eager to tell his story.
"Once a week Uncle Hubert had us over for lunch," Stanley Stoogle said. "I parked in the front drive. Uncle wasn't around, so I assumed he was taking his usual soak. As I went into the library, a summer shower passed over. Five minutes later, the sun was out again. It was a few minutes after that when I heard Uncle shouting. Then all the lights sputtered and went out. I went upstairs and found him. Someone had thrown an electric hair dryer into his tub."

"I got here during the shower," volunteered Dick Stoogle. His hair and clothes were still wet. "I parked behind Stanley. Just running up to the porch I got drenched. I was in a downstairs bathroom drying off when I heard the shout and saw the lights go off. When I got up to Uncle's bathroom, Stanley was standing over the tub. A wet hair dyer was in his hand."

Eugene said he arrived last. "The shower was long over. The driveway was full of cars, so I parked by the rear garden. Once inside, I noticed the place was dark. I wandered around, looking for my brothers. Then Stanley came down and told me the news."

The boys all agreed about what happened next. Eugene ran out to move his car. "The darn sprinklers had gone on and the inside of my convertible was soaked." Meanwhile, Stanley went downstairs to replace the blown fuse, and Dick used his cellular phone to call the police.

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

(Image credit: Flickr user Kamal Hamid)

"I can't give you anything for this. It's junk." Abe Ketchum pushed the watch back across the counter. The Quali-Tee Pawn Shop was a class establishment and, as the manager, Abe had to maintain certain standards. The would-be customer, a shabby young man who smelled of liquor, took back the worthless item and shuffled dejectedly out onto the street, lingering in front of the windows to inspect the shiny display of abandoned valuables.

Abe's assistant bustled out from the back room. "I'm leaving," Mark said. That was nothing unusual. Mark Price was the owner's nephew and was always either coming in late or leaving early. Abe felt particularly overworked and under-appreciated as he watched his privileged assistant breeze out the door.

Abe had one more customer that day. A well-dressed woman walked in and timidly offered an emerald brooch. Abe instantly recognized the quality of the piece and offered her as much as he was permitted. He was surprised when she accepted. Like many of his customers, she seemed desperate.

That night, a burglar alarm echoed through the neighborhood. The police arrived just a few minutes later, but the deed was already done. A thief had broken a display window, jumped inside the crowded shop, and left with many of the most valuable items.