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25. november 2005
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It is a well-known phenomenon that alcohol consumption makes people less critical of prospective partners, but now there has been some actual research into 'beer goggles'.
Researchers at Manchester University say while beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder, the amount of alcohol consumed is not the only factor.
Additional factors include the level of light in the pub or club, the drinker's own eyesight and the room's smokiness.
What I would like to know is who participated in the test, and whether the researchers were drinking, too.
Nathan Efron, Professor of Clinical Optometry at the University of Manchester, said: "For example, someone with normal vision, who has consumed five pints of beer and views a person 1.5 metres away in a fairly smoky and poorly lit room, will score 55, which means they would suffer from a moderate beer goggle effect."
In which case, the smoking ban in pubs here in Norway should have reduced the problem. Not too sure about that. And the longer drinking hours just opened in the UK would have increased it. I'd believe that!
The research was commissioned by eyecare firm Bausch & Lomb PureVision.
I foresee a new ad campaign, featuring some less-than-attractive woman with the caption, "with new contact lenses from Bausch & Lomb PureVision you can drink much more before she looks like Lindsay Lohan."
PS: You've probably seen this retro spoof ad a million times, but it's still funny.
PS 2: This is not the first such research reported on this blog. In 2003, researchers in Vienna found that women can't drink men prettier. So why the PC gender-neutral wording in the Beeb article quoted above? Old habits die hard, I guess.
3:26:58 PM 
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Michael Moore's 'minutemen' are targeting young children:
The Iraqi army said on Thursday it had seized a number of booby-trapped children's dolls, accusing insurgents of using the explosive-filled toys to target children.
The dolls were found in a car, each one containing a grenade or other explosive, said an army statement.
The toys looks similar to dolls handed out by US soldiers to children.
Moral equivalency? I don't think so.
Update: The jihadist bastards really like to kill kids.
A suicide attacker steered a car packed with explosives toward U.S. soldiers giving away toys to children outside a hospital in central Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 31 people. Almost all of the victims were women and children, police said.
Beyond appaling.
What really scares me is that so many leftists (including, I'm afraid, the vast majority of western Europeans) think it is more important to defeat Bush (who, I totally agree, has his faults) than defeating this nihilistic movement I like to call islamofascism. It is appaling that so many people don't see what a horrible danger to humanity this movement is, pretending it is time for politics as usual.
2:57:49 PM
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Companies want you and value you as a customer, they insist, but if you call them they'll leave it to a computer to talk to you. In a saccarine voice, the machine tells you how important you are to them, as you desperately press 1, #, * and arcane combinations of numbers in the futile faith that it will at one time allow you to talk to a human being.
Right, we all hate IVR (Interactive Voice Response). But Paul English has done something about it, by publishing the IVR cheat sheet, listing 'cheat codes' for tricking the computer systems to put you through to a carbon-based life form.
Link via Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.
PS: An otherwise forgettable action movie, Demolition Man, has one really funny scene:
Police officer: Greetings and salutations. Welcome to the emergency line of the San Angeles Police Department. If you prefer an automated response, press one, now.
1:47:28 PM
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There is a notable disconnect between the opinions of journalists and academics on one side, and the military and other Americans on the other side, about perceptions of the Iraq war. Contrary to what you'd believe from reading the mainstream media, 56 % of Americans believe democracy will succeed in Iraq, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
When asked whether they thought democracy would succeed in Iraq, only 33 percent of the journalists agreed that it had a chance. The number was even worse in academe -- 27 percent of respondents thought the effort would succeed. Among the military, however, the number stood at 64 percent.
"The media and academia have always been more to the left, so how they report these things is not necessarily the way the country sees things," said Charles Gravely, 56, a real estate executive from the District.
Meanwhile, close to half of the American public -- 48 percent -- think the decision to take military action in Iraq was the right one.
"I put my trust in the people in charge of our defense," said Haley Praytor, 21, an intern from Lindale, Texas.
The survey found a spectrum of opinions between the opinion leaders.
Among journalists, 28 percent thought the decision was justified. The number was 21 percent among the academic elites and 49 percent in the military.
The public is evenly divided on whether the war in Iraq has helped or hindered efforts to combat terrorism, 44 percent thought the conflict has helped the effort and the same number thought it has hurt. In the press, 68 percent said the war had hurt the effort, and 22 percent said it had helped.
In the academic world, the numbers were 75 percent and 16 percent, respectively. Among the military, it was 47 percent and 45 percent.
No surprises here.
I'd think the military, many of whom have served in Iraq, are in a better position to evaluate the situation than journalists.
The US' favorable rating of the UN has also changed from 77 percent positive in 2001 to 48 percent now.
12:10:46 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 30.11.2005; 19:07:41.
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