The image you see here, when combined with a few moments’ thought, provides the answer to the puzzling question: How can one write in a completely foreign language? The solution to that puzzle is: On a piece of paper, handwrite any phrase you like, in a language you do know. Then rotate the paper 180 […]
“In subsequent years, as consumer confidence soared, so, too, did the purchasing of goods that would find their way into people’s rectums.” Hidden objects — of many kinds — turn up in this week’s Improbable Research podcast. Click on the “Venetian blinds” icon — at the lower right corner here — to select whichever week’s episode you want […]
There’s a new twist (the old twist was pretty twisty, it was) in understanding the power of a multilingual person who swears in one language versus another: “Second Language as an Exemptor from Sociocultural Norms. Emotion-Related Language Choice Revisited,” Marta Gawinkowska [pictured here], Michał B. Paradowski, Michał Bilewicz, PLoS ONE, 8(12), 2013, e81225. (Thanks to […]