• Is the old saw that "girls aren't good at math" true? Not so fast. According to recent studies at the University of Chicago, the anxiety caused by societal stereotyping of women in math can actually inhibit women's peformance on math tests:

  The scholars found that the worrying undermines women’s working memory. Working memory is a short-term memory system involved in the control, regulation and active maintenance of limited information needed immediately to deal with problems at hand. They also showed for the first time that this threat to performance caused by stereotyping can also hinder success in other academic areas because mental abilities do not immediately rebound after being compromised by mathematics anxiety. "This may mean that if a girl takes a verbal portion of a standardized test after taking the mathematics portion, she may not do as well on the verbal portion as she might do if she had not been recently struggling with math-related worries and anxiety," said Sian Beilock, Assistant Professor in Psychology and lead investigator in the study. [read full article]

  I'll take a wild guess and say if this effect is genuine, then other groups affected by stereotyping may show similar performance-inhibition effects in other stressful situations. Interesting development, I think, and a fertile new avenue for study. Hey, if sterotyping can cause erectile dysfunction, why not mathematical sycfunction?
• From the Online Pork Rind Resource:

  "Pork rinds aren't really leather, but don't qualify as meat. While I don't eat pork, the concept of humans eating pig-skin is kind of neat.

• Like the LOLCats meme? Try LOLPresident!
• Al Capp's Shmoo: Comical, economical and disturbingly allegorical, too?

  [Shmoos] reproduce asexually, and are very prolific. They require no sustenance other than air. Shmoos are delicious, and are so eager to be eaten that if they are looked at by someone who is hungry they will gladly jump into a frying pan, after which they taste like chicken, or into a roasting pan, after which they taste like beef (Raw, they taste like Oysters on the Half-Shell). They also produce eggs, milk, and butter (no churning labor needed.) Their fresh pelt is a perfect boot leather, or house timber depending on how thick it has been cut. Their eyes are ideal suspender buttons, and their whiskers are perfect toothpicks. Naturally gentle, they require minimal care, and are ideal playmates for young children.

• Feeling like you've wasted/are wasting your short time upon this mortal coil? Well, the "Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age" generator probably won't make you feel any better.
• Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories hacks your Easter Peeps with LEGO™ Technic bricks: The Peepinator?
• The Gübernator bets on the Ducks against Ontario's Senators in this year's NHL finals, according to Anderson Cooper on CNN:

  If the Ducks win the Stanley Cup, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will get a one-month supply of Tim Horton's coffee, a variety of "high quality" Ontario wines and a Roots sweater, according to the statement. But, if the Ducks lose, Schwarzenegger will give McGuinty a custom-made jacket by clothing designer Tony Nowak and a selection of Calfornia-grown products, including Anaheim chiles, boysenberry jam from Knott's Berry Farm, a variety of fruit and a case of California wine

  What, no pork rinds or back bacon?

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