- The color red seems to have a lot of power, depending on whom you believe. Some say drivers red cars are more likely stopped by police, while a new study done by researchers at the University of Rochester in New York has found that men find women sexier if they're rocking a red outfit rather than a color such as blue or green. The effect seems to apply only to this one specific quality, as red won't make you look smarter or more competent, says study author Andrew Elliot, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the university. “We only found the effect for attraction, so males don't rate females in red as more intelligent, more likable, or as having a better personality; they only rate her as sexier and more attractive,” Elliot states. And what were the aims for this study? Basically, men were tested to see if they were more likely to want to have sex with a woman or be willing to spend more on a date if she were in red. To test these concepts, 150 heterosexual subjects were put through a series of five studies, in which they rated photographs of women framed in red, white, gray, green, or blue, or with the woman in a red or blue shirt. Their responses were measured on a 7-point scale, with 1 being the least sexy and 7 a smoking-hot chick. Ultimately, the color red added about 1.25 points to the rating, says Elliot. So ladies, if you want a nicer date that costs more, now you have your answer on how to accomplish that: just wear red. So why the heck is red so sexy? Why is that? Among the theories proposed by the researchers include the fact that red is the universally recognized sign of romance, so men may subconsciously associate the color red with sex. Whatever you say, researchers. All I know is this: an ugly, overweight chick is still fat and ugly in red, white, orange, chartreuse, burgundy, almond or teal….
- Never been a big Dave Letterman fan, and I’m not likely to become one is Dave keeps piling on tired, played topics that the rest of us have already been kicking around for months or years and trying to get laughs out of them. And what is more tired than ripping on the vapid, shallow, intellectually stunted reality TV actors on MTV’s The Hills? This cast of characters already had the depth and intrigue of a paper clip the moment they appeared on the air, so now that they are three, four or however many unwatchable seasons into their run they are, this crew has worn out their welcome big time. Yet there was the show’s chief offender of being famous for no real reason, Lauren Conrad, appearing on The Late Show with Dave. Of course, Letterman went for the obvious topic, Conrad’s ongoing feud with surgically enhanced, nearly-engaged-to-a-total-knob, musically talentless Heidi Montag, Conrad’s response to the question was, “Yeah, it’s a little bit of everyone … Throughout the show we have always had problems with each other.” Apparently suffering from one of his regular delusions of being Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes or freaking Barbara Walters, Letterman countered, “That raises the question, maybe you’re the problem. You think?” Amazingly, being the future Mensa candidate she clearly is, Conrad didn’t have an answer. Dave also teed off on reality TV’s biggest tool, a man who brings nothing to the world while taking so much from it - Montag’s boyfriend, Spencer Pratt, telling Conrad, “Spencer, what a weasel. He’s just the worst, that guy.” Weasel? That’s the best you’ve got, Dave? You’re paid outrageous sums of money top make people laugh and that’s all you’ve got. Thanks for reminding me why I watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central instead of your lame show…..
- With the rash of NFL players getting popped for performance-enhancing drugs the past couple of weeks, it was only a matter of time before one of the guilty players decided to turn things around and finger someone else for their own mistake. That someone would be New Orleans Saints offensive guard Jamar Nesbit, who filed suit Tuesday against the maker of a weight-loss supplement that caused his positive test. Nesbit is alleging that the supplement was improperly spiked with a diuretic that is banned by the NFL. His lawsuit against the makers of StarCaps, an over-the-counter product, was filed in federal district court in New Jersey. It comes after Nesbit returned last week from a four-game suspension by the NFL after he tested positive for Bumetanide, a substance that helps rid the body of excess water and salt. Under its steroids policy, the NFL considers the substance a possible masking agent for steroids, even if it is allegedly used for weight-loss purposes. It’s the exact same substance that has led to positive tests and possible suspensions for eight Nfl players in the past couple weeks, including three other Saints: running back Deuce McAllister and defensive ends Will Smith and Charles Grant. Those three remain on the team’s active roster pending a consolidated appeal of their suspensions. According to Nesbit, he never appealed his suspension because he did not expect to win. Instead, he sat out his four games and went about trying to recoup his $235,294 in lost salary from StarCaps. Through his attorney, Nesbit explained that he is going after the makers of StarCaps because
“under NFL rules, you are strictly liable for what is in your body. They don't care how it got there, contaminated supplements or otherwise.” As such, there is no way to sue the league, because their policy is a Catch-22 preventing exactly that. Instead, players like Nesbit must sue the makers of the products themselves and look to recoup things like lost salary, money for damage to their reputation and for the alleged intentional, undisclosed spiking of the product with products like Bumetanide. Depending on who you believe here some of Nesbit's leftover pills were tested and found to be contaminated with Bumetanide, which is not listed as an ingredient on the product bottle and packaging. I would be more inclined to side with Nesbit here, but the fact is that pro sports leagues have pre-approved lists of substances that are safe and acceptable, and if you take one of those products and something like this happens, then you have a case. When you go off the board and take something you buy at the local pharmacy, you take this chance and sometimes it comes back to bite you…..
- Hell Week was upon us in last night’s season finale of Greek. Capping a great third season, the focus was on the roughest week of all for the pledges at the three Greek organizations on the show. For the Kappa Tau’s, it was humiliation at the start and a fight at the finish. Their week kicked off with being forced to dressed up in two-piece bathing suits and make ridiculous poses as the brothers snapped embarrassing pictures. They were also ordered to leave the house only to go to class and to come straight back without stopping to eat or do anything else. Rusty managed to sneak in a pit stop to talk with Omega Chi pledge and good friend Calvin Owens, but when the first big test of Hell Week came up later in the day, Rusty was nervous because he had received a warning from KT president Cappie that every year, a few pledges are weeded out during Hell Week. So when the pledges are called out to the back yard of the KT house and one by one, handed plastic cups with goldfish in them, Rusty jumps the gun and believes the pledges are supposed to drink the cup of water, goldfish and all. However, the horrified looks of the brothers indicate otherwise and Cappie informs him that the “bib” he has on is really a goldfish papoose that was to be used to carry around and care for the fish. That was strike one against Rusty, with strike two coming before some sort of weird tribunal/judgment ceremony in which the brothers basically ripped him a new one for everything he’d done during his pledge period, all just for amusement. The brothers sent Rusty out with a warning that he needed to do something great to prove that he belonged at KT. Inspired and terrified, Rusty first sought out the advice of his sister Casey, a Greek system veteran herself. Using her advice, Rusty hatches a plan to break into the Omega Chi house, the biggest rivals for the KT’s, and steal the same pledge paddle he hit Omega Chi president and noted tool Evan Chambers with in Season 1. Sneaking in and getting the paddle prove doable, but escaping isn’t. Rusty is spotted and chased by the entire Omega Chi membership. His KT brothers, just about to begin their initiation ceremony, hear the commotion out in the street and rush outside to help Rusty, resulting in an all-out brawl in which Evan manages to get ahold of the stolen pledge paddle and smash Rusty in the face with it. Cappie comes to the rescure, cold-cocking Evan to even the score. The brawl also caps a wild week in the Omega Chi house, which had been thrown into controversy because Evan was going easier on his little bro in the fraternity, Calvin, than he was on the other pledges. When the other pledges take note as they prune rose bushes with their bare hands and have smelly, poop-like concoctions poured on them as Calvin merely has to clean the house’s honor room and hold a fan to cool the other pledges while they prune, he is forced to make a choice: go against his big bro or risk alienating his fellow pledges. Calvin elects to talk to Evan and ask to have the preferential treatment stopped after the pledges are forced to spend the night sleeping in the back yard while he is allowed to sleep inside. Confronting Evan also leads him to challenge Evan about having a showy, pretentious attitude ever since being given access to his cushy trust fund. Evan accepts the criticism and in response, during initiation he forces Calvin to hold the pledge manual straight out in front of him, arms straight out at shoulder level, for three hours. Calvin gladly accepts the challenge and passes with flying colors. Of course, the ceremony is nothing like the one at Kappa Tau, which is a lot less stuffy but ends with the same result, the induction of the new brothers. Rusty goes through the ceremony with a busted-up face because of the fight, but he’s happy to be a brother. Also, Cappie reveals that the story about pledges washing out each year is a lie and that the only pledge ever to not make it through was Evan, who was a KT pledge but left voluntarily. Doing things voluntarily wasn’t on the agenda for Rusty’s sister Casey, who was forced with a tough choice when her boyfriend of a month and a half, Max, revealed that he had been accepted to grad school at Cal Tech, 2,200 miles away. As the two debate having a long-distance relationship, Casey turns to BFF Ashleigh for advice, then heads to Dobler’s to play pool and clear her head. There, she runs into Cappie, flashing back to their memorable meeting at Dobler’s for pool in Season 1, after which they ended up hooking up. This time, all Cappie imparts is advice, that advice being to accept an internship offer with Paula, the Zeta Beta alumnus Casey met at the ZBZ convention and who is a U.S. congresswoman for the state of Maryland. Casey mulls her choices and ends up telling Max that rather than spend the summer together and then possibly do the long-distance thing, she is taking the internship and leaving in two weeks. That leads Max to make a call to the professor he is going to Cal Tech to work with, a call whose fallout we will have to wait until next season to see. But Max wasn’t Casey’s only problem; because she was distracted, she also neglected her duties as big sister to Rebecca Logan at ZBZ, not getting Rebecca a gift for the big/little gift exchange and blwoing her off repeatedly when Rebecca tried to talk to her. While Casey was shirking her sisterly duties, arch-nemesis Frannie was busy planning a coup to get revenge for losing the recent ZBZ presidential election. As the ZBZ’s are holding their own induction ceremony, with the sisters in black in the pledges wearing white, Frannie storms in wearing a red dress, turns in her sorority pin and deactivates from the sorority before announcing that she is leaving to start her own sorority. Nearly half of the sisters and pledges follow her out, with Rebecca left hanging in the middle, her decision to be made, as the season ends. So that wraps a fantastic Season 3, one I would say is the best of the series so far. Thankfully, Greek will be returning in 2009 for a fourth season, so there is something great to look forward to for next year in television……
- Best of success pinning your town’s economic hopes on a 9-year-old calico cat, people of Kishikawa, Japan. Kishikawa is an isolated town of just a few thousand people, the last stop on what had been a failing train line that is, until they were “rescued” by Tama the cat. Tama used to live a simple life hanging out at the train station next to her home at the grocery store. So how did she become a national star? By adding a freaking hat. Yes, someone dropped a hat on the cat, tilted it to the side and inspired a sensation. The Wakayama Electric Railway decided to use Tama as a mascot, even giving the cat a ridiculous nickname, calling her a “Super Stationmaster,” making a promotional poster for train carriages and dressing her in that stationmaster's hat. And has this shameless ploy worked? Sadly, yes. Tourists now visit Kishikawa to see the cat and to snap a picture. “It's a chance to take a break from the problems facing Japan,” said Haruto Maeda, who took the day off work to see Tama. Yes, Haruto, it is a break - to take a picture with a freaking cat in a tiny hat! Wooo! I bet that made your day so, so much better. It would be that much greater of Tama could come up with a new economic policy, smooth over international relations and figure out a way to solve the population and overcrowding issues facing cities like Tokyo. How much is one stupid, annoying cat worth to this small town anyhow? According to study at Osaka University, Tama IS responsible for pumping $10 million into the local economy. The money flows in from Tama merchandise abounds and formerly empty train carriages that are now full. The train line was on the verge of bankruptcy, but no longer. The town of Kishikawa is enjoying an economic turnaround. As for the star of the show, Tama now lives full-time at the station, with her owner and a friend. Great, but what happens when another town slams a talking parrot into their station and gives it a vest? Enjoy your time in the sun, Kishikawa, just know it says nothing good about you or your town……
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