Obesity

Automatic Bathroom Fixtures Lead To Weight Gain

A new study, “Automated Bathroom Fixtures as a Contribution to Obesity in So-Called Advanced Societies,” appeared last Tuesday in the Journal of Luddite Studies Concerning Advanced Technology. This article, by Silvius Fractor and Jacob Leland, argues persuasively that a significant and previously unrecognized factor in the so-called obesity epidemic is the proliferation of automated bathroom […]

Jim

Who ran away from his Nurse, and was eaten by a Lion. There was a Boy whose name was Jim; His Friends were very good to him. They gave him Tea, and Cakes, and Jam, And slices of delicious Ham, And Chocolate with pink inside, And little Tricycles to ride, And               read him Stories through […]

USBSM Introduces Larger Inches to Match Expanding Waistlines

The ‘inflation’ of women’s dress sizes is old news.1 However, until recently, men have had to suffer the indignity of seeing their pants size increase, even as their wives’ dress size has decreased. The United States Bureau of Sizes and Measurements (USBSM) has—finally—made a move to address this distressing situation. Since men’s clothes are measured […]

On Waking and Rising

Moo.

Have you ever got up in the morning, put on your hat to go out, and realised it’s too small? Then you measure the circumference of your head, only to find that it’s an inch larger than when you measured it the day before? I hate when that happens. More News: Simulated Windows Save Energy […]

New Frontiers for Product Placement

You may, perhaps, remember the scene from Air Force One where George Clooney, or Ronald Regan, or Fred Astaire, or whoever it was, finds himself in the cargo hold of the airplane with a not-very-subtle display of Coca-Cola®. (If you happen to have forgotten or had the good fortune not to have seen the movie, […]

Some Notes on the Physics of Large Appliance Repair

Given the enthusiastic response of our readers to our recent article on the psychology of large appliance repair, we decided to see if physics has anything interesting to say about the matter. As you no doubt recall, the issue discussed in the earlier story was the statistical correlation between the hours separating midnight and 2:00 […]

Fewer Americans Now Underweight

By Anon. (company producing poster is "J. Morgan & Co., U.S.A.") (Life time: Unknown. Poster dates from between October 1, 1890, and April 22, 1911 (see "A Chronological Outline of the Hanlon Brothers, 1833 - 1931.") [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

While there has been much concern about the increasing—and increasingly increasing—numbers of overweight and obese Americans, a new study sponsored by The Society for a Fat America emphasizes an often overlooked positive effect of this trend towards heavier weight: fewer Americans are now underweight. In fact, the study reports, incidence of underweightedness in this country […]