Do you look good on the dance floor?

Girls, curse the clever things, apparently can detect how suitable we are by the way we dance. Not in the sense that men who dance like dads at weddings aren’t good mate material, but in the way we move and the testosterone this unconsciously signals to the ladies on the dance floor.

That is the findings of a study done by Peter Lovatt, a researcher from Hertfordshire University, anyway.

He went to the local nightclub and filmed various people dancing. He then showed silhouettes of these men to women and asked them to rate them in order of attractedness. The men that got the girls going were giving it large on the dance floor with big movements.

So let that be a lesson to any guys heading out on the town tonight.  If you want to get lucky, you have to give it a go on the dance floor.

Tags: Add new tag, Dance, Nightclub, Testosterone

Where do you sit in the cinema?

Apparently if you’re right handed you tend to sit to the right of the screen as this allows the right hemisphere of your brain to process the visual stimulus of the film.

I’m right handed but more often than not sit on the left hand side of the cinema.

How about you? Where do you sit in the cinema?

Do you want to make good predictions?

Then the latest research suggests you shouldn’t think about it. Ap Dijksterhuis and his colleagues have just shown that people with expertise in football are better at predicting match outcomes when they spend time not consciously thinking about their predictions.

You can read more about the experiment here

Tags: Football, predictions, Research

Why national anthems require no cheerleader

I’ve never been a fan of this modern trend of anthems being sung by an official singer at sporting events. They always seem to sound so much better when the crowd belt it out in unison. As if to emphasise this point compare this shambles performed at the recent France v South Africa game with the rousing rendition of the Welsh anthem from a few years ago.

No real comparison is there? Maybe one day the people that organise these events will see sense and return things to how they should be.

Tags: anthem, rugby, singing, South Africa

A happier house hunting experience

Posted by adi on Apr 4, 2009 in Play

I blogged recently about the shoddy time I had looking for a place to buy in London. After a bit of thinking I’m contemplating buying a place back on the Island as an affordable investment property, continuing to rent in London (in a nicer place) and seeing how things look in a few years.

Anyway, with this plan in mind I had a look around a new place on trip down to see a friend for his birthday. The experience was a world apart from my last estate agent one. They called up a few hours before the appointment to make sure we were still on for the viewing. The girl then turned up on time and spent close to an hour showing me around the place and fielding various questions.

As a result it seems likely that I may go down this route and invest on the Island. Some lessons to be learnt there for Haart estate agents.

Tags: Estate agent, house, Property

The most incompetent estate agents in the world?

Posted by adi on Mar 28, 2009 in Play

I’ve been looking into buying a place here in London recently, with the prices falling and the interest rates making saving practically pointless and all, it seems like a good time.  So I’ve been doing some searching on the various property websites out there, found a few that look ok, nice enough areas, within budget and so on.  One in particular I clicked on the ‘contact estate agent’ tab, filled in my details and checked to arrange a viewing.

I had left both email and mobile number so figured that the agent would then be in touch to arrange a time.  A few days passed and no sign of the estate agents.  It got towards a week of silence so I decided to call them up.  Got through to a girl at their office and she wasn’t aware of any web based contact (groan), but she’d get an agent to call me to fix something up.  A few more days of silence so I called again, same thing, but at least this time someone called back within the hour and we arranged a viewing.

We’re in a seriously depressed market right now, if the media are to be believed there aren’t many buyers out there so I’d have guessed estate agents would be falling over themselves to ’service’ potential buyers like myself, so the difficulty I had getting a viewing was not a good sign, but alas I had one, so that was something.

Unfortunately a booked viewing was not the same as an actual viewing.  Yesterday was the day of this much anticipated viewing, so I cycled down to the place in plenty of time and got there a comfortable 10/15 minutes ahead of time.  It wasn’t the nicest of days to be hanging about but patiently I did so.  2 o’clock came and went with no sign of anyone from the estate agent.  At quarter past I rung them up to see what was going on.  They had no record of the viewing but would get one of the sales staff to call me to sort things out.

Some twenty minutes passed and still nothing, so I called for a second time, and this time the girl on the phone promised that she would come out herself, give her 10 minutes and she’ll be there.  I waited at the property until 10 to 3, around half an hour after this phone call, before deciding to call it quits and give up on this property.

It turned out that the pictures on the website had glossed over certain things that put me off the property in question, but even if they hadn’t, the antics of the estate agents certainly would have done.

Step forward Haart Estate Agents, you were absolutely bloody awful.

Tags: Estate agent, haart, London, Property, Real Estate

Hell does not begin to sum it up

Posted by adi on Feb 1, 2009 in Play

Well today was the Hell of Ashdown ride.  Suffice to say, whatever could go wrong did go wrong.  The train to the start was delayed by around 40 minutes (on a 30 minute journey!) because some loony locked himself in the toilet and was threatening to kill himself.

Finally rolled off at 10,10am, a full 50 minutes after my scheduled start time.  The next few hours were pretty good.  It was cold but the sun was shining and the riding was good.  Completed ‘The Wall’ to the top of Ashdown Forest and felt good.  The wind up there was horrendous but was nothing compared to what greeted us in the valley.

The forecast had been for snow today for most of the week but this morning it was scheduled to hit us in the evening.  Did it buggery.  It was a full on blizzard for the next hour or so of riding.  Couple the snow with the howling wind and it was in your face, horizontal style snow.  Absolute murder.  My fingers and toes were as good as gone as I lost all feeling in them pretty quickly and it was a miserable experience.

Thankfully for the last ten miles or so the sun came out, and with my legs feeling ok I was able to complete those at a decent pace to complete the course in 4hr 41mins.  A bit slower than I was hoping for (sub 4hr 30min) but given the horrendous conditions I was pretty pleased.

The organisation for the event was superb and the poor souls stood marshelling the course in the snow deserve an enormous amount of credit.  And the cooked food upon our return was very welcome indeed.

To cap things off the train home was late arriving, then delayed by twenty minutes getting back to Waterloo.  So all told an eventful day and, whilst I doubt I would have agreed when the snow was falling, an enjoyable one.

Tags: cycling, hell of ashdown, snow

Beware the ice

Posted by adi on Jan 24, 2009 in Play

Went out for the weekly club ride this morning and the roads were pretty treachorous, with ice littering many of the side roads we usually go down.  Nevertheless it wasn’t long until some of our number took a tumble, with the rider in front of me going down, causing me to get my cumuppence too.

Thankfully no lasting damage was done, just a few bumps and bruises down my right hand side, although the rear brake was a bit wonky, meaning most of the ride home was done with it stuck on.

Not sure for how much longer the ice will be on our roads but do take care if you’re out and about as it can be rather treachorous.

Tags: crash, cycling, ice

Sigur Ros @ Alexandra Palace

Posted by adi on Nov 22, 2008 in Play

Sigur Ros

Went to see Sigur Ros at Alexandra Palace last night.  ‘Twas great.  I wasn’t sure their music would transfer well to such a large venue but they ramped things up a treat.  Birgisson’s voice soared above the audience, combining beautifully with the cool light show to create an etheral environment.  There wasn’t any moshing, people simply stood as one in mutual appreciation at the beautiful sounds flooding forth from the stage.

The light show was particularly impressive.  A sudden curtain of rainwater; a blizzard of ticker-tape; sound-sensitive lights that twinkled like stars during quieter moments and blazed like suns when the volume rose.

Top stuff.  Having seen Arcade Fire, Radiohead and now Sigur Ros in the past year, just the White Stripes to go and I’ll be quite contented

Tags: Alexandra Palace, sigur ros

The perils of gift buying

Posted by adi on Nov 17, 2008 in Play

Image by Sarah Parrott via Flickr

I’m really rather fond of buying gifts.  There’s something about understanding somone so well that you can hit the right button with a well timed gift.  The smile on their face upon receipt is one of the simple pleasures in life.  However, the process can be frought with peril.  The best gifts are undoubtably those that don’t require prompting or coercion, that come from your instinctive understanding of what the other person likes and needs.  Therefore to get the gift wrong can often be taken as a sign that you simply don’t understand them.

Recent research has shed some insight into the business of gift buying and how it can impact upon a relationship.  I’ve read a few articles in the past that suggest that a good gift affords little benefit as it merely reinforces what’s already there, but a bad gift can do significant damage.  I came across a new study today however by Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia that suggests men and women react to a rubbish gift in very different ways.

She set up an experiment whereby two strangers of opposite sex were told to chat to one another for five minutes, after which they would select a gift for the other person, with each then voting on perceived similarities between them and their new friend.

Before the session each participant had been asked to rank the gifts in order of preference.  This is where they got a little sneeky though because instead of giving the chosen gift, they split the gifts in two, with half getting their first choice gift and half getting the booby prize.

This is where it gets interesting.  When the men got the gift of their dreams it led to an upturn in their favourability towards their new friend.  Women on the other hand were largely indifferent, relying instead on the conversation they had over the preceeding minutes.

So in new relationships it seems that the way to a mans heart is with a gift, whereas for women it’s a communication thing.

How about established relationships?

The same experiment was done again but this time the participants were those in an established hetrosexual relationship.  The twist for this experiment was that in addition to be asked for similarity ratings each person was also asked how long they expected the relationship to last.  Ouch.  Right to the point there.

The men were kinda true to form.  Rubbish gifts produced poor scores on both similarity and prospects.  Women however, complex creatures that you are, bucked the trend.  They actually scored their partner higher for similarity and prospects when they received a poor gift!! I think I’ve heard a collective cheer erupting from petrol station forecourt owners across the land.

What gives though?  How can such an unintuitive answer emerge?  Apparently it’s all about womens in built desire to protect what they have.  Some nesting instinct no doubt.  Anyway, that causes them to react more strongly in the second experiment because they have a relationship to protect.

Hurrah, crap gifts ahoy

Stand easy soldier.  Before you start thinking this is a prime excuse for lazyness in the gift department do bare in mind that this experiment did only measure short-term responses.  In the long-term a perpetual display of oafishness is just as likely to send you to the dog house.

Tags: Elizabeth Dunn, Gift, Happiness, University of British Columbia