science is silly sometimes

So I just read about a study of attraction. The methodology was based on speed dating, where the participants get 3 minutes to talk to each person of the opposite gender before a bell rings and they go on to the next. Is it just me or does that seem a ludicrous way to test anything beyond the attractiveness of certain physical attributes? Three minutes! If you're as slow moving as I am you couldn't even find out if she/he had a pulse in that amount of time!

The people doing the survey note that the males in the survey seemed to pick based entirely on looks even though their stated criteria for mates involved other things. Hello, three minutes! It's not like they got into a good discussion of the symbolism of "The Canticle of Leibowitz", whether the ending of the "Handmaid's Tale" was hopeful or hopeless, or what would morally based international monetary policy look like. If anyone can see someone else's soul in three minutes they have a truly rare gift.

You get paid for this shit? Where did you get your doctorate a cracker jack box? I know, you wanted something you could finish in an afternoon and spend a couple months at the pub, compiling the results.

(If you want the original reference I think it was on CNN, but there really wasn't much to it. It's probably an old article they dredged back up.)

"I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be a scholar.
But I really can't be bothered,
just gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme." - Kate Bush "Sat in Your Lap"

ETA: Wait, why didn't I quote The Bloodhound Gang. Oh, wait, for a brief moment I had taste. Don't worry it passed.

10 billion a week

I recently heard a US senator quote the cost of the occupation of Iraq at $10 billion per week. I don't for a minute think the Iraqi people are getting $10 billion worth of service each week. I think large companies are getting the goldmine and they are getting the shaft.

( It's guns versus butter time. Let's put some things in perspective.  )