Interesting Links for 28-01-2013

[fearmeforiampink]

• Anatomically accurate, knitted BRAAAAIIIINNN!
  (tags: via #maelfroth SCIENCE!!! braaaaaains posttofacebook awesome clever biology )
• BBC News - Quantum biology: Do weird physics effects abound in nature?
  "These three things... have dispelled the idea that quantum mechanics had nothing to say about biology."
  (tags: SCIENCE!!! living in the future interesting weird biology quantum physics science )
• 5 Ways You're Accidentally Making Everyone Hate You | Cracked.com
  #1 is on largely on privilege — 'You didn't perceive yourself as being in a position of power because that is the main advantage of power'
  (tags: priviledge posttofacebook via zoe stavri psychology power image interesting culture )

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

However, I felt the linked article about toilet seats didn't go into enough detail. There seem to be two hypotheses:

#1. Everyone, regardless of gender, gets used to leaving the toilet seat in whatever position they last used it, and expecting it in that position. Thus men have to get used to checking the position of the seat before using it, and women don't.

#2. Women learn to accommodate men and men don't learn to accommodate women.

The second is quite plausible -- it happens in lots of other situations, including many much more important ones. But when I hear people arguing about it, I don't hear people saying "hey, I catered for you all the time, why aren't you catering to me" or "OK, there's N women and M men in this household, so lets cater for M/N". I hear people saying "leaving the toilet seat up/having to leave the toilet seat down IRRATIONALLY ANNOYS ME AND I CAN'T EXPLAIN WHY, RRRAGH!"

It seems fully explained by the fact that the time investment is not in three seconds of putting it up or down, but in forming a habit that you previously didn't have, either to always put the seat down, or to always check the position of the seat before sitting. The miscommunication appears to be that men think it's obvious that you'd never sensibly be able to fall in, and women think it's obvious that it's just something that might happen, so neither side actually SAY so.

I was puzzled for ages why people felt so strongly about it, and then someone pointed out (i) forming habits is hard work and (ii) if you never have to check if the seat is down, you never learn the habit of checking and suddenly it was really obvious.

[fearmeforiampink]

I think the other thing is the relative losses/downsides — that a man using a loo standing up with the seat down may have to wipe it off after, whereas a woman accidentally sitting down into the bowl without noticing the seat isn't down is a bit more of an upset.