Kayne, Justin and Taylor all make their mark at VMA Awards!

Gee folks, it's too bad that we appointed U.S. Presidential candidate Scott Walker as "Asshole of the Year" yesterday for suggesting they build a wall between Canada and the States, because Kayne West would surely have won it today!

Guest post by Rick Juzwiak: After a long and winding acceptance speech at the VMAs about bros, trophies, the importance of ideas, the hazards of brands, and MTV’s profiting off his unhinged behavior, Kanye West signed off by announcing that he plans to run for president in the election after next. While you could easily make the argument that West’s shocking finale negated much of what he had just preached about, it’s still a great mic drop. It’s so great, in fact, that if he doesn’t actually end up running for president, no one is going to hold it against him.  


You might remember him as the asshole who interrupted Taylor Swift during the 2009 MTV Awards. -Ed.



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AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT: Talk about strange headlines from last nights VMA Awards:

"JUSTIN BEIBER MADE HIMSELF CRY!"

Folks, your humble reporter doesn't know what the circumstances or conditions were that made him break down ......, but whatever it was, it's O.K. with me!

 

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With all kerfuffle about the Ashley Madison dating service for married people in the news lately, I did some quick calculations from the figures they provided and found out that for every woman who is registered on the site ...., there are over 2500 men!!!!!

(I don't know about you, but I don't like those odds!)

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Some of the people down at the Perspective research Department inform me that even if Trump manages to become President of the United States, he won't have much time for governance since everybody and his brother is suing him for this, that, and the other thing! (Do Americans want someone who is in the White House ....., or always in court?)

(I still think this guy is the poster child for "THE UGLY AMERICAN!"

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And now our weekly weakly attempt to educate the masses!

SO YOU SAY YOU'VE LOST AT LOVE ...., made bad choices that you regretted later!

Is that what's troubling you .................., bunky?

WELL YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE, KID!

It turns out that the túngara frog can sometimes snub an obvious mate choice in favor of a lessor suitor. In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers showed that the Central American frogs can be tricked into picking "ugly" mates -- even when their prince charming is just within hopping distance.

The trick is to give the female three choices. If just two males are up for consideration, she'll always pick the one that's more "attractive" (which in this case means having a long, low croaking call that repeats rapidly). But throw in a third dude, and she's likely to pick the second best option. At least when those dudes are actually just speakers playing looped mating calls, as they were in the new study.
This so-called "Decoy Effect" is often seen in humans -- it's even touted as a way to help business owners increase sales. Here's the gist: With just two products to pick from, you're likely to either want the cheapest one or the one with the best features. But adding a third option that's similar to one of the other two makes you more likely to select the third, "best" candidate.
In the case of the túngara frog, ladies were much more attracted to a fast call than a deep one. But when an even slower, deeper call was introduced, the frogs flocked to the previous loser -- the voice that was deep and moderately slow.
The researchers call this switch irrational because, well, it doesn't make sense for the addition of a lesser candidate to make a choice mate into a loser. One mate should be better than the other, in an evolutionary sense. And it's possible that these female frogs are making the wrong choice, flustered by the number of options or confused by the relative unattractiveness of the third candidate.
But it's possible this fickle selection could reveal things we don't yet understand about mating -- in frogs or otherwise.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/08/31/frogs-can-make-irrational-dating-choices-too/