Helmets, flashing lights, and soy

[da]

Two pieces of interesting bike research, and one nutjob:

Seen via a comment elsewhere via signsoflife: http://community.livejournal.com/bikes/182986.html points to research showing that flashing bike lights may draw people's eyes to them, causing car drivers to steer involuntarily into them. What a pain. Googling "the moth effect" suggests there's evidence that it affects different people differently, and I'm on the fence about switching my tail-light to solid-red instead of flashing. Needs more research.

Another bike-related bit, a researcher at the University of Bath has found that bicyclists who wear helmets are crowded by cars, more so than bare-headed bicyclists. That's what we get for looking more competent.

Speaking of competence, via The Journal of Improbable Research, "proof" that soy is making kids gay. I can't follow his leap from isoflavones to super-strong estrogen, but maybe that's what makes him a NUTJOB.

Comments

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

SWAG?

[kraig.livejournal.com]

It's a technical term.

It means Scientific Wild-Assed Guess.

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

I expect both the numbers and the monkeys you pull out of your butt would be exceptionally well behaved.

[kraig.livejournal.com]

au contraire, I hope that any monkeys that come out of my butt are exceptionally poorly behaved feces-flinging wankers.

Then I'll turn them loose at a faculty meeting, and we can allow people to place bets on which species starts behaving poorly first, like cow-patty bingo, university gets half... hmm.

If you'll excuse me, I have to call ODAA with a new fundraising idea.