Note: Posting will continue to be light as I’m still suffering from my cold. The worst part? My poor husband, who had been originally planning a kick-ass weekend trip but decided to stay home (and throw quite a bit of change down the drain by doing so) to take care of his wife, is now sick too.  At least we have Shark Week to keep us company!

Via the mental_floss Blog.

And here I thought rock-paper-scissors is a game of chance. Who would’ve thought that there is actual strategy involved, or that there are actual tournaments sponsored by the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, with a $50k prize for the winner?

Via Flowing Data.

Like Japan, Korea also has an obsession with blood typing. Celebrity profiles include blood types along with height, weight, and interests. Dating/matchmaking service questionnaires always include blood type as one of the first questions. Casual social interactions usually include the exchange of blood type information.

And my mother about had a cow when she discovered that J does not know his blood type, and has been bugging us to get it checked ASAP.

Blood typing has taken such a strong hold on society that they will prescribe diets, therapies, and even relationship advice based on your blood type! “Blood type horoscopes” are common features in media outlets, and employers may use blood type in hiring decisions.

I personally don’t take much stock in this theory for the same reasons I never check my horoscope. What’s more, my blood type personality (I am O+) couldn’t be further from the truth.

However, I thought it would be fun to include a basic blood type relationship compatibility chart below. Generally, O-types are considered the best catches. On the flip side, men are advised to stay away from AB-type women and women should avoid B-type men.

A is most compatible with A and AB. 

B is most compatible with B and AB. 

AB is most compatible with AB, B, A, and O. 

O is most compatible with O and AB.

Have you heard of the Japanese theory of blood typing? Do you believe it holds any grain of truth?

Infographic via haha.nu.

Last night, J and I went on a “dinner and a movie” date night: a delicious meal at Red Lobster (I swear that their commercials are targeted for pregnant women!) and a late-night show of Inception (GREAT movie btw…perhaps the best I’ve seen all year!).

While sitting through the previews, we couldn’t help but take special notice at the way the Harry Potter trailer ended:

“2-D Available in Select Theaters.”

Eh? So the last two HP movies will be more widely released in 3-D…and if we want to watch it in regular 2-D format and pay considerably less money by choosing to do so, we’d need to actively seek out theaters that are offering it in the old format?

Let’s get one thing out of the way: I have never been a big fan of 3-D. The novelty was fun when I was a kid, and it became a bit more exciting as 3-D technology progressed. That being said, I have yet to watch a movie that I felt TRULY benefited from being shot/converted to 3-D format.

Besides, as I’ve stated above, 3-D movies cost a heckuva lot more. The last 3-D movie we watched was Toy Story 3, and only because the 3-D showing was at a more convenient time than the 2-D. However, both our jaws literally dropped open when the cashier said, “That will be $36, please.”

$36 for two tickets, people. If you add in items from the concession stand, that movie trip alone cost us about $50!

(I should note that this is NYC prices where everything seems to be overpriced, so the cost is probably less in other parts of the country.)

I actually feel similarly about IMAX movies. There are some IMAX films, particularly documentaries, that I believe to really benefit from being showcased in the wide-format presentation…IF they are being presented on a true IMAX screen, as is the case at many museums and early IMAX theaters. Most of the newer movie complexes that tout IMAX theaters are not true IMAX, in my opinion. And I know I’m not the only one who thinks so.

It’s no secret that Hollywood is, and has been struggling for a while now with overall ticket sales down (well, the fact that they keep releasing crappy movies may have a lot to do with that). And they seem to repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot with ill-received ideas such as $20-$30 “home theater on demand,” as well as being caught red-handed fudging profit numbers in order to save the studios extra cash.

But will embracing 3-D and IMAX really help increase profits?

What do you think? Do you enjoy 3-D and IMAX movies over the old format? Do you think that eventually, ALL movies will be released in 3-D and/or IMAX?

And because I never like to end a long post without adding a funny picture or some interesting facts, here is a nice illustration on how 3-D works, courtesy of OnlineSchools:

Studies have long shown that people of different cultures act differently, but a paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicates that culture even affects our cognition.

Take a look at the images above and try to interpret the overall emotion of the picture. Do your eyes linger on the center man in the foreground? Or do you consider the people in the background more?

“North Americans try to identify the single important thing that is key to making a decision,” explains Dr. Takahiko Masuda, the study’s author, over the phone from his office at the University of Alberta. “In East Asia they really care about the context.” He studied the eye movement of Americans and Japanese when analyzing a picture of a group of cartoon people. When asked to interpret the emotion of the person in the center, the Japanese looked at the person for about one second before moving on to the people in the background. They needed to know how the group was feeling before understanding the emotion of the individual. The Americans (and Canadians in subsequent studies) focused 95% of their attention on the person in the center. Only 5% of their attention was focused on the background, and this, Dr. Masuda points out, didn’t influence their interpretation of the central figure’s emotion. For North Americans the foreground is all-important.

Dr. Masuda is quick to point out that Americans and Japanese are physiologically the same. The difference in eye movement is tied to the roots of our respective cultures. When trying to explain the natural world, the Ancient Greeks – the founders of Western civilization – tended to focus on central objects and sought to explain their rules of behavior. Funnily enough, Aristotle thought a rock had the property of “gravity.” It didn’t occur to him that a system was working its powers on the rock. The Chinese on the other hand took a more holistic approach. They believed that everything occurred within a context, or a field of forces, and thus they unraveled the relationship between the moon and the tides.

Western cultures have placed importance on unique and strong individuals since the days of the ancient Greeks. In contrast, Eastern Asians place emphasis on the community and the big picture.

I’m not sure about other Eastern Asian languages, but even the Korean language reflects the priority of the community. For example, the word “my” is rarely used in familial context. Instead, you are more likely to hear things like “our father,” “our mother,” and even “our baby” (even when the speaker is not the parent).

So what do I see when I look at the image above? Although I consider myself pretty Americanized (and I have lived in the U.S. for 23 years vs the 7 in Korea), I caught myself considering the background almost immediately.

I wouldn’t say one viewpoint is superior to the other, as the author suggests at the end of this Adbuster article. The Western stress on rugged individualism has churned out some of the best leaders, thinkers, and innovations in history. At the same time, such a “me me me” attitude can be detrimental to the needs of the minority and personal relationships.

What do you see? Is your brain east or west?

Via Neatorama.