July 2011
1 post
Are dogs willing to eat the remains of their... →
“Absolutely.”
June 2011
3 posts
Why are air conditioners so heavy? →
“Copper, mostly.”
“Can you read the speech off your phone? No, you cannot read the speech off your...”
– Wedding toast tips: Don’t mention the coke-fueled orgies. -Slate
Who I follow—and don't follow—on Twitter and why.... →
Bitches don’t know ‘bout my dick.
November 2010
6 posts
What's in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican... →
“Movie reviews, interviews, and travel articles.”
Are Republicans serious about refusing to raise... →
“The most likely result is a face-saving compromise.”
Why do auctioneers talk like that? →
“They talk like that to hypnotize the bidders. The speed is also intended to give the buyers a sense of urgency.”
How do forensic musicologists know whether Michael... →
“To determine if a recording of a singer’s voice is real, audio experts look at elements of the singer’s tone, diction, and range. Whenever you sing a note, you also produce notes—or overtones—an octave higher, a fifth above that, and so on. Different voices—and different instruments—produce different kinds of overtones.”
How to sell horrible counterintuitive column ideas... →
Be Farhad Manjoo?
Does health insurance cover stupid decisions? →
“Usually, yes.”
March 2010
6 posts
Is there any relationship between the earthquakes... →
Theory 1: “Both the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes were caused, in part, by the Sumatran quake, and there may be more to come.”
Theory 2: “It’s more or less random.”
The Sappiest Word of the 2010 Olympic Games. →
“Dream”
Expiration dates mean very little. →
With perishables like milk and meat, most responsible consumers have a three–to-seven-day grace period after the “Sell by” date has elapsed. As for pre-packaged greens, studies show that […] in vegetables […] if they haven’t lost their looks, ignore the printed date.
Can hand sanitizers like Purell really stop people... →
“Though Purell kills them in the lab, hand sanitizers don’t stop their spread in the real world.”
Can a family court prevent a parent from taking... →
State courts disagree.
Can Lil Wayne bring his teeth to prison? →
Yes.
January 2010
1 post
What to do when you forget whether something can... →
“When in doubt, you should throw it out.”
November 2009
3 posts
Can a prisoner request anything for his last meal? →
“Sure, but he might not get it. Final meals are generally limited to food that can be prepared on-site.”
How Many Times Can You Shoot a Handgun in Seven... →
“At least 1,500.” If you’re using a semiautomatic, that is. You can fire off a 20-round magazine and reload it in 5.3 seconds.
Sources are silent on how quickly a Slate writer can cash in on a tragic shooting, but empirical evidence suggests “very.”
How Does Facebook Know I'm Gay? →
It doesn’t. It just made a lucky guess when it showed you those ads, dumbass.
Unless Facebook can read your mind.
August 2009
14 posts
Can we stop saying retarded yet? →
“The current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—which is used by psychiatrists to make clinical diagnoses—still employs the phrase mental retardation to describe people who score below about a 70 on IQ tests. However, most who work in the field—including psychologists, activists, and bureaucrats—prefer the term intellectual disability. (The next revision of the...
One Citi employee is entitled to a $100 million... →
Probably not.
Which is more important: tithing or paying off my... →
The debt.
Microblogging has become too important for Twitter... →
I’M FARHAD MANJOO, WRITING ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AGAIN. FIBBLEDY-BOP SHOOBE-FOOBE-DOO BLIBBETY-BLIBBETY WEE-WEE CA-CA.
Now give me my money.
How can New York City hot dog vendors afford to... →
Vendors bid for spots around parks. One vendor paid $415k last year for a spot outside the Met and didn’t go out of business, so he must have made over $440k (to cover overhead). Non-park vendors only pay for a $200 permit. There are only 3100 food vendor permits, so there are permit scalpers and a black market. A street vendor organization says average vendors make about $15k a year after...
A physicist looks at The Time Traveler's Wife. →
Time travel is actually very boring.
Could America run out of sugar? →
“No way.” We import plenty, could always import more, and our purchasing power would make us the last buyers standing in a worldwide shortage.
I told a devastating lie about my sibling years... →
Admit that you did wrong, and beg for forgiveness. Also? Dear Prudence has totally read the Bible and Shakespeare, y’all.
How much does breathing contribute to climate... →
It doesn’t, at least not in a negative way. In theory, breathing is part of a closed-loop cycle that sees our exhalations get recycled by plants. In practice, whenever you breathe in you keep a little bit of carbon for your own body, so we actually come out ahead (when it comes to global warming prevention).
However, we each combust and release into the atmosphere more than our fair share...
Could a private abortion fund save health care... →
Yes. It would allow 20 House Democrats to sign a the eventual health care bill (they’ve pledged to oppose any bill that doesn’t explicitly exclude government-funded abortion) and give an extra incentive to those paying into the private fund to do more to stop the necessity of abortion.
[Of course, this comes from a writer who claims that “abortion is cheap”, so take it...
Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea as a "private... →
“Yes.” For any five days during the weeks-long Arirang Festival, or for up to ten days year-round if you’re a non-American Westerner. Either way, you’ll be constantly monitored and you can’t talk to the locals.
Why you've stopped watching CNBC. →
“The good news in the markets, paradoxically, has been bad news for CNBC. In the summer of 2008, you had to tune into CNBC every morning, afternoon, and evening—even on the weekends—to keep up with breaking news. Now, not so much. … The declining threat of wholesale failure has killed some of the buzz. That’s probably why ratings for some of CNBC’s evening programs were...
Bollywood Hero reviewed. →
“But it must be said that Bollywood Hero is an entirely novel kind of slog.”
Where to get a good cup of coffee in a hurry. →
Dunkin’ Donuts beats McDonald’s and Starbucks (though the quality is inconsistent). McDonald’s has the best cappuccino.
July 2009
2 posts
Can the kid who settled his child-abuse claim with... →
No. Confidentiality agreements (like the one Jordan Chandler is bound by) do not cease when the involved party dies. If Chandler did spill the beans, he could be sued by Jackson’s heirs and estate. The confidentiality agreement could be voided by the courts, but only if it is deemed to be in the public’s interest.
Can Stress Really Make Your Hair Fall Out? →
Stress can cause telogen effluvium, a condition that causes far more hair follicles to go into their “resting” phase than is normal. Usually, 10% of your hair follicles should be resting, ready to shed the strands they hold and start growing new ones.
June 2009
11 posts
Beware Google: Microsoft's new search engine,... →
It’s not better than Google, but it does return more results and there’s a cashback program for shopping.
You can live without the new iPhone, but it's... →
Plenty of other phones have all the features, but they don’t have such a rich variety of third-party apps: Over 50k vs. Android’s 5k, Nokia and BlackBerry’s 1k, and the Pre’s 18.
What connects Obama's pronouncements on head... →
Thanks to U.S. efforts to be broad-minded, the more religiously extreme prisoners in Guantanamo are allowed to make the others practice strict Islam rituals. Similarly, Obama’s recent comment about Western countries discriminating against Muslim women ignores that usually these women have no choice among their family in wearing headscarves. We don’t need to endorse the freedom of a...
People who sign up for Twitter, post once, then... →
Their tweets are poetic.
There’s Nothing Simple About Really Simple... →
It brings in blog links, but god is it ungainly.
Can I master fencing, the sport for vicious... →
She can’t.
Is there a safe way to perform autoerotic... →
“There is no doctor-approved way. But: Do it with a trusted partner; set up a ‘safeword,’ don’t use drugs or alcohol, and don’t tie the belt or rope too tight.”
Google's Android operating system is jumping to... →
1199 words to say that Android is the new Linux.
Want more women to study science? Hire more female... →
A study of the Air Force Academy showed that women perform worse when taught by men. (Men perform very slightly worse under women.) The effect varies from teacher to teacher, so now we need to find what makes people better gender-neutral teachers.
Save J.D. Salinger's archives! →
Salinger hasn’t published since ‘65. But he might have written plenty. I, Ron Rosenbaum, will convince Salinger to publish by implying that otherwise he’ll never be as cool as Nabokov.
May 2009
29 posts
Do Hispanic and Latina mean the same thing? →
Liberals tend to use the Spanish Latino/a and conservatives tend to use the English Hispanic (which also used to apply to Spaniards). But the U.S. Census uses “Hispanic or Latino.”
How shutting down Craigslist's "erotic services"... →
Not only was erotic services a safe place to sell sexual services, it was also easier to police. Even the Craigslist Killer was less dangerous because Craigslist helped track him down. Sex work won’t stop, it’ll just carry on somewhere more dangerous.
Should I tell my boss I found nude photos of his... →
Report the pictures to the authorities, and then use your position as a central part of the story to further your career as a journalist, even though we don’t have nearly enough information about the situation to know if it warrants a scandal.