The Florida Effect
How do a few words affect how you act? Perhaps quite a bit. And without you even knowing it. That’s the lesson that psychologists learned from the weird, subliminal Florida Effect. The Florida Effect is one of the earliest, and most powerful, examples of “priming.” Priming, in psychological terms, means the use of background factors…
io9
Esther Inglis-Arkell
Why You Always See Crushed Stones Alongside Railroad Tracks
The crushed stones you see alongside railroad tracks are what is known as ballast. Their purpose is to hold the wooden cross ties in place, which in turn hold the rails in place. Think about the engineering challenge faced by running miles of narrow ribbons of steel track on top of the ground: they are…
Tech News
David S. Rose