Shoes Reach New Heights

Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) has created a $300 shoe that increases your vertical jump. APL was founded by twins Adam and Ryan Goldston who combined their passion for basketball and their father's experience in the shoe industry to make this remarkable product. A spring based system is used to increase lift.

Unfortunately, the NBA has decided to ban APL's shoes due to its ability to increase vertical jump. It has been said that an average athlete can increase his/her jump by about 3.5 inches and an elite athlete can increase his/her jump by up to 8 inches! The NBA made the following statement Tuesday:

"Under league rules, players may not wear any shoe during a game that creates an undue competitive advantage"

In addition, apparently many NBA players (including about 30% of the rookies) expressed interest in the shoe. Too bad they will not get the change to wear them. Below is a video by Sports Illustrated to test the APLs. Take a look and tell me what you think...

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(Click on "SI.com Video" to view)

Drug Yourself Monogamous

Did you know that only about 3% of mammals are monogamous? What if something could be done to alter this? An extensive study on prairie voles (aka furry creatures above) has lead to some very interesting findings with regards to the neuroendocrinology of social bonds.

Prairie voles are one of the few mammals that practice monogamy. A study on these little guys have provided scientists with a new understanding of the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin.

"Work with voles now suggests that these hormones are involved in the development of monogamy."

Furthermore, Larry Young (a neuroscientist who studies prairie voles) claims the following:

"pair-bonding in humans (as in voles, one of the few other monogamous mammals) can be enhanced or suppressed by tinkering with brain hormones like oxytocin and vasopressin" (and predicts that we’ll be seeing new drugs to do just that

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Inspiration for this post came from this excerpt in Jodi Picoult's "House Rules" [a book a highly recommend]:

"Let me stop you for a minute and just talk about prairie voles. They are part of only a tiny fraction of the animal kingdom that practice monogamy. They mate for twenty-four hours, and then, just like that, they're together for life. However, the montane vole- which is a close relative, sharing 99% of the prairie vole's genetic makeup- has no interest in anything except a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am one-night stand. How come? When prairie voles have sexual intercourse, the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin flood the brain. If the hormones are blocked, prairie voles behave more like slutty montane voles. Even more interesting, if prairie voles get injections of those hormones but then are prevented from having sex, they still become slavishly devoted to their would-be mates...

The opposite, though, isn't true. You cant give a shot of hormones to a montane vole and make it lovesick. It just doesn't have the right receptors in the brain." -pg 399

Sooooo, do you think that in the future we may be able to drug ourselves monogamous? Would we even want this? What will TLC do with its shows devoted to polygamy?!

Shopping Never Felt So Good

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Scientists from the University of Westminster conducted a study commissioned by The Institute of Promotional Marketing and came up with the following conclusion:

"Buyers get the same dose of emotional arousal, when they confront special offers and coupon codes in shops as they receive from sexual arousal"

The scientists focused on the regions of the brain responsible for emotional anxiety when the 50 participants went shopping and when they watched an erotic film. The analysis was done on a 10 point scale with rates 5-7 corresponding to the state of sexual stimulation. Shoppers reached these levels when they came across sales, discount coupons, promotions and gifts. To make a long story short- and I quote- "It was found that the discount coupons had the same effect as pornography."

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Lady Gaga "If you don't like it, GO HOME!"

I think the speech is self explanatory ...

A Taste of Ramadan

I thought I would acknowledge 2 special recent events for todays post and try and combine them together. NFL Football + Ramadan. Yes, this is quite the weird combo but I am going to open up your mind and fill it with some great random facts!

Minnesota Vikings player Husain Abdullah has been fasting for Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and prayer. He does not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. This 30 day period happens to be at the same time of training camp. Even during grueling workouts (sometimes in full pads), he will not take a water break. He is very adamant in his faith. He was quoted saying the following:

"I'm putting nothing before God, nothing before my religion,'' Abdullah said. "This is something I choose to do, not something I have to do. So I'm always going to fast.''

As a rookie in 2008, Abdullah never told anyone in the organization he was fasting! He is a quite guy and has been doing it since he was 7 and will continue to do so now.

To help make sure he is getting adequate nutrients and sustenance to perform in practice and early games nutritionists have developed a meal plan unique to his fasting for Ramadan. It is based on a 3,800 calorie diet and requires him to get up at 2am to consume 400 calories. He then wakes up again at 5am with his wife Zhavon to have breakfast. Breakfast consists of scrambled eggs with vegetables, a nonpork breakfast meat (pork is forbidden in a Muslim diet), oatmeal with fruit and various liquids... and usually a shake. He then waits until after the sun goes down before he eats or drinks again.

On a slightly related note, when researching for this blog one of the first google hits was the fact that New York Jet's coach Rex Ryan consumes 7, 000 calories a day! Judging from his picture it does not look like he is burning any off. For the random -but funny- article click here.

Also I would like to wish a Happy Eid to Dina and Atiya. Time to break your fast and eat! :D

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Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures

When helping my dear coworker Dina pick courses for school she asked me if I took "Advertising & Society". Well, I did take that class and decided to share one of the most memorable readings from it with Dina and the rest of the FactSnackers. The picture above is Karolyne Smith from Salt Lake City, Utah. She decided it would be wise to auction off her forehead on eBay.

Karolyne was searching for a company that was willing to pay $10, 000 in return for her tattooing their company's logo smack dab in the middle of her forehead. A few days after the posting on eBay she appeared on CBS's nightly news and a variety of different radio shows. In addition, it was took the number 2 spot on eBay's list of most watched items.

Now what would possess someone to want to permanently brand herself for $10, 000!? Well her son, that's who. She wants the best for him including sending him to college and allowing him to be the best he can be. She is quoted saying the following:

"I really want to do this. To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10,000 is like $1 million. I only live once, and I'm doing it for my son ... It's a small sacrifice to build a better future for my son."

Now I realize that college and raising a family can be quite costly but I think there may have been better-and less drastic- solutions to this predicament. The tattoo parlor "SI TATTOOING" actually spent 7 hours trying to convince her to not go through with it.

So which company ended up dishing out $10K!? Drumroll please...

PS: Dina if you enjoyed this post, I recommend the course :)

Why Did Blue Ever Leave!?

Not only has one of my dear friends KK never seen the new "Blue is Back" Smarties commercial (weird, I know) but she also had a very valid question: Why did blue Smarties leave in the first place? Well, according to my research...

"Nestlé Rowntree is to stop producing the blue version of the chocolate beans because it is removing all artificial colours from the casings and there is no natural alternative to the blue chemical currently used." - Source click here

In 2010, they found a way to make a blue Smartie with no artificial flavouring. This is why blue is back :)