What ever happened to toothpaste?

My Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste promises on the tube a Whitening Mint Experience. Sounds like a ride, better put on my seatbelt! The whole tube is filled with marketing euphemisms that provide little to no extra information to the user. Do I really need to know that I will get a mouth shower while brushing my teeth? There also is dynamic foaming action. Isn't that called brushing? I don't blame the marketers at Aquafresh for doing this succumbing to the overhead pressures from GlaxoSmithKline to make $$ but this takes it a step to far.

Another mouth freshening/cleaning products also takes part in the marketing wars of the most colorful way to describe product aspects. The big bluish green Listerine bottle standing next to my sink, in bold letters shouts out 24 HOUR protection. Ok, one morning swish of the bitter sourness taking hold of your mouth is worth a day's worth of protection. Incorrect! It's actually protects fro 12 hours, BUT if you swish 2x a day it will protect for 24 hours. I am not sure what is worst. Using over elaborate words such as micro foaming action to describe toothpaste or claiming something works for 24 hours after using more than once a day.

After a brief overview of the mouth cleaning related market I will offer a product.

A mouth revitalizing minty muscle enhancer.
Improves vital love skills.
Thoroughly cleans and filters all unwanted trappings in teeth while providing countless hours of pleasurable tongue & cheek fun.

or I'll just call it gum.

Beer Goggles Formula

I just read this article. Brilliant!

from: Julia Layton. "There's a mathematical formula for the "beer goggles" effect?". February 09, 2007 http://people.howstuffworks.com/beer-goggles.htm (February 21, 2007)

There's a mathematical formula for the "beer goggles" effect?

by Julia Layton

Introduction to There\'s a mathematical formula for the \"beer goggles\" effect?

February 9, 2007
Many of us have heard of the so-called "beer goggle" effect. It's the phenomenon that occurs when someone's had a few alcoholic drinks and suddenly, all of those people who looked semi-attractive on entering the bar look really, really appealing. Scientists have shown that it's not just a lowering of standards -- alcohol actually stimulates the part of the brain that judges facial attractiveness.

In 2002, researchers at St. Andrews University and Glasgow University in Scotland took 80 college students and had half of them drink a "moderate" amount of alcohol -- between one and four servings, depending on gender and body weight. The other half, the control group, remained sober. Scientists showed each subject pictures of people of the opposite sex. In all cases -- male and female alike -- the experimental (tipsy) group rated each picture an average of 25 percent more attractive than the sober group did.

The effect can reportedly be traced to the nucleus accumbens. When you're looking at another human being, the nucleus accumbens is the area of the brain that decides how attractive that human being's face is. If you look at, say, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, this area of your brain probably experiences increased neural firing. In other words, it's stimulated. As it turns out, alcohol, all by itself, stimulates the nucleus accumbens. So when you've have a few drinks, and you look at a face you may have judged as unattractive when you were sober, your brain, under the influence of alcohol, tells you that this face is in fact somewhat attractive. And the increase in perceived attractive seems to be directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In a more recent study, this one conducted by researchers at England's Manchester University in 2005, scientists actually came up with a mathematical formula to calculate the extent of the "beer goggle" effect on a given individual in a given situation. Their reasoning for creating this formula is that alcohol is not really the only factor affecting the drunken perception of beauty. Other factors, according to their research, include:

• How brightly lit the area is
• The observer's eye-sight quality
• The amount of smoke in the air
• The distance of the observer from the observed

The formula goes like this:

β =	(An)2 x d(S + 1) √L x (Vo)2

where:
• An is the number of servings of alcohol
• S is the smokiness of the area on a scale of 0 - 10
• L is the lighting level of the area, measured in candelas per square meter, in which 150 is normal room lightning
• Vo is Snellen visual acuity, in which 6/6 is normal and 6/12 is the lower limit at which someone is able to drive
• d is the distance between the observer and the observed, measured in meters

Source: BBC News

The formula works out a "beer goggle" score ranging from 1 to 100+. When β = 1, the observer is perceiving the same degree of beauty he or she would perceive in a sober state. At 100+, everybody in the room is a perfect 10.

IM. Something's Missing.

The idea from this post comes from this NY Times article. The article deals mostly with how people are ruder, more impolite, and use vulgar words more often when they are communicating online rather than in person. It briefly goes over how when we talk online there are no facial cues. There are emoticons but that's as effective as soda after eating a chili pepper. To go along with this there is that quote that 90% or some outrageous % of communication is non-verbal. If this is true then we must be missing something while talking online.

The most direct connection I made with this is instant messenging (IM). We use AIM so often to talk to our friends and family we assume so much of the non verbal communication that is happening. Right now as you are reading this you are probably speaking to one or many people online at the same time. Every message you send you make it fit your personality or the tone of the conversation. As you are typing your message, you can see yourself saying the words and what facial expressions you attach. The same goes for receiving. Your friend who just Im'd you attached there own facial expressions and non verbal communication devices to that message as well. It is amazing how we take this for granted.

We process every message we send or receive with specific non verbal cues which are not being received on the other side with great equality. How many times have you had to say online the obligatory "lol" or "j/k" since the person misunderstood your message? This probably happens more often than those times that are so obscene which you must include those message justifiers. When you are IMing with a close friend of yours you can pick up on what emotional meanings they have behind there words and can probably guess the other social cues they would be giving you along with that message. What about those times you speak online with people you don't know that well or never met (odd situation but stay with me)? We are using our past social interactions and online messenging to pull out what non verbal cues that person is trying to attach to there message. A more familiar situation would be having a conversation online with someone you know fairly well discussing a topic that you have never spoke about in person. Although you have more face-to-face experience with them you are still creating what cues are attached to there messages, still creating what facial expressions they would have said that with.

If anyone has an opinion on this post a comment.

Week in Review

If you have been reading any of these posts, one thing you would have picked up on is that I love College. This atmosphere, daily routines, and people make this time of my life amazing. This week another notch was added to this. I had a 1 day school week! Incredible as that sounds it is true. My week started off with 1 class on Monday & my only other class commitments were on Thursday, 2 of them to be precise. I know I went to class 2 days this week but Monday's class does not count. A great way to introduce my week. The freedom from commitments allowed me to accomplish lots of fun stuff which I finally got to attend to.

The Praise of Folly

I finally finished Erasmus' The Praise of Folly which I have been attempting to read for too long. I bought the book in Antwerp gives a little bit of my effort in finishing it. The book is translated from Old Dutch to an even foreign English version. It gets worst. Erasmus uses countless references to Greek, Roman, & Norse G-ds while satirizing and berating the 15th & 16th century church institution. The main idea I got out of the essay was that one should praise folly (as the title suggests). Wise men argue over thing which they not know about and refute books, passages, references, and other second hand material made by other purported wise men. The fool who basks in his folly and does not worry about the learned or others opinions enjoys life for what it is. The fool does not listen to the divine messenger at the pulpit or lend his time towards the arguments of professors and the wise, the fool guides himself on his own intuitions. The funny thing is for one to read the book you need to have a very good understanding of Roman and Greek mythology and other historical references. Erasmus was in a position to write this since he was Theologian among many other things, philosopher, writer, mathematician, etc. I would highly recommend the Cliff Notes for this book but not to read it unless you want a great challenge.

The Tao of Pooh

I have read one book twice in my life. This happens to be it. The Tao of Pooh teaches the basics of Taoism through the life of our favorite cuddly, wuddly bear Winnie-The-Pooh and all of the other creatures in the 100 acre woods. The book is a very easy read and equally enjoyable. If you were ever interested in Taoism this a definite book to pick up. You'll learn the ways of the Bisy Backson and what's the deal with Wu Wie, not Pooh's way but Wu Wei. I have put below the poem which a chapter is based on entitled Cottleston Pie which is wrtten by A.A. Milne who created Winne-The-Pooh.

'Cottleston Pie'

Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.

Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
Why does a chicken? I don't know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.

Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
A fish can't whistle and neither can I.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.

Vagina, Vagina, Oh Where Art Thou Vagina?

On Wednesday I saw the Vagina Monologues. I was aware that the play was about women empowerment through the vagina or coochie snorcher or the several other hundred names they quote throughout the play. The play has been around for a bit and I think it is important to see something that has had such an impact on society and pop culture. I liked the play, not fantastic but liked it. As you can understand a lot of the play I could not relate to, especially what it is like going to a gynecologist. The imagery was very vivid which helped but I can only imagine unless you have had you feet in cold, metal stirrups with duck lips laying around awaiting for the attack one can not receive the full effect of the show and I am glad for the fact that I cannot relate. The play had lots of ups and downs from very funny acts, to serious, and some troubling. Happy to see the play but I do not want to hear the word vagina used so often in 2 hours for a long time.

That's all for now

Politics Affect on Media

Several months ago spanning all the way back to the middle of 2003, all you would hear about on the news was the war in Iraq or Jon Stewart so cleverly calls it MessO'Potamia. Everyday we would hear the death total count, something new happening with Uday or Qusay (remember them, the perished sons of Saddam), or some new rebel faction starting some sectarian violence in the outskirts of Baghdad. While the war in Iraq is still going on and troops are still deployed their and sectarian violence is still going on, the media seems to have picked up upon a "new" hot topic, "The Greening of America." The topic of going green has recently been everywhere all over every media outlet. TV, radio, newspapers, all have been running center piece articles or prime time specials dedicated to this hot topic & consequently media time dedicated to Iraq has lessened.

I would think that this really got a jump start several months ago with the Al Gore power point lecture, "An Inconvenient Truth." The movie and the book it is based on and the countless number of scientific reports have pushed this issue to the forefront of America's and the World's agenda. An even prior to this the whole ethanol issue was going pretty strong about year ago as well. But is this really new information? Haven't we always been aware of our destructive behavior towards the earth and how driving big SUVs and not recycling is bad? Many other westernized countries have been practicing greener living for several years now. One first hand example I can relate to is Belgium. While living their recycling was a top priority. We had separate trash, excuse me I mean recycling bags for glass, hard plastics, aluminum, left over food, paper, and an everything else container, called the remnants bag. The process was not that simple either. Everything had to be sorted. You had to uphold your civic responsibility of organizing and separating your trash. The time needed for this is not that much and the rewards I would imagine must be worth the time put in. Also, you can get fined for not practicing proper recycling. I was lucky to experience this extreme green living. I say extreme because Belgium prides itself on having the greenest style of living. Now back to living here, why haven't we already followed in the footsteps of countries like Belgium and start forcing our citizens to recycle. Is it so much of a valued right to have the ability to throw trash wherever one might please as long as it in some type of receptacle.

Back to the topic at hand, why has the issue only so very recently grabbed the attention of America's top media sources? Recently, the Democrats have once again taken control of Congress (The House clearly leans in favor of the Dems but the Senate it is actually split 49:49 with 2 independents). They came in with many initiatives to help change America. Raising the minimum wage, a non-binding resolution (what crap is this), and making America cleaner to name a few. Could it be a coincidence that with Congress back in control of the Democrats that the news media now is paying more attention to America becoming green? I think not. As explained before, most of the information we have today has been known for quite some time. The Doomsday clock being pushed ahead and the meeting of top scientist in Paris to discuss global warming are of recent news and these events have furthered the cry for action adding more credibility to the facts we have already known. I truly believe that the change in party majority of Congress has greatly influenced our media's choices on what to report on. Everyday now it is "How to become Green" "Getting Greener" and other cheesy titles revolving around the color green and Kermit the frog. Next time you are reading your favorite paper or open up to your regular news website you will undoubtedly see something about turning green.

I am glad that this topic is being handled more frequently by the media since I am all for a cleaner world and believe we should start adapting processes to help this cause. It is a tragedy that we had to wait for the Democrats to take back Congress and Al Gore to lecture us (good thing the Supreme Court doesn't agree that the most votes win an election) for the media to step up and help promulgate this topic.

Glad I Ended Up Here

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to Virgina Tech learn and discover about many universities. It is always a great experience to meet new people and learn about different ways of life. The time spent at VT re-opened my eyes to several things, most importantly why I love JMU. I say re-opened since I have always known the basics of the topic I am about to write on, but this weekend just re-lit that dark part of my brain.

::SideNote:: A little description about JMU. It is not the biggest university but not near small either with enrollment in the upper teens ('000s). The campus is beautiful for 2 reasons. The first, we have a mountains all around us. Situated in the middle of a gorgeous mountain range sets a picturesque background for any sunset. The second and more noticeable reason is the population. The student body is compromised of appr. 65% females : 35% males and the 65% are nowhere near lacking in the visual beauty area, just take a quick stroll around campus.

The microcosm of partying I experienced & the stories told to myself would lead me to believe that this university misses the grade when it comes to having a good night life. Like many universities, VT, enjoys the plentiful bar/club nightlife all around its campus. This may be good for some, and probably the majority of college night life across the US. JMU has a different way of partying. In comparison it deserves a different word, We celebrate! Other schools merely party. While Joe U, enjoys his bars, clubs, expensive drinks, and limited selection of women, JMU has none of the mentioned. Drinks have no price here. You go to a party, you get a beer. No $5 charge. Parties happen in apartments, not clubs or bars. This is a remarkable college scenario. The JMU student community has created a party scene unlike most schools. Apartments throwing parties with multiple kegs and plenty of beautiful women around.

I mention women a lot in the previous paragraph saying how that adds so much to the advantage of JMU. VT is known for being predominantly male. Not a big deal. I figured partying at this school would be similar to JMU sans females at every look of an eye. It is not necessarily a negative situation where there aren't more females to males but the atmosphere of the party changes.

When guys get together to drink it is great. Just hanging out, drinking some beers (especially Duvel or Ciney), playing some BP, and shooting the shit is a great time. Some nights are just for that and needed just like that. But when it comes to getting a few kegs, filling an Igloo container with Kool-Aid, Sprite, and more Vodka than a Russian village can handle, girls are needed, a lot of girls to. The recipe for a good party = More girls than guys. Doesn't have to be overwhelming but the ratio should favor women. The reason for this being is that girls make parties come to life, mainly by dancing. This is why parties have loud, heavy bass, rap music is needed. Guys will never start dancing on their own. It's not what we do. But when girls start dancing up on tables and chairs with their red cups filled with that magical libation from the infamous Igloo container that we so oddly call jungle juice, the parties' heart starts palpitating and with the liquid encouragement received from kegs and cases of beer guys get that extra social push to go dance & what we end up with is a fun night.

While this post had as much depth as that swimming pool you got at 3 years old, I just wanted to remind myself that the next time I walk into someone's apartment and see a great time to be had I'll just say silently in my mind, "Thanks girls."