For the record

Matt Is Sexier Than Paul?

LONDON (Reuters) - As Shakespeare said, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Right?

Wrong.

Scientists say the right name can make you sexier.

Linguist Amy Perfors, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, posted photos of men and women on the U.S. Web site "Hot or Not," which lets viewers rate pictures according to how attractive they find them.

When she posted the same pictures with different names, she found that the attractiveness scores went up and down depending on the vowels, the London-based magazine New Scientist reported.

Men with "front vowels" in their names -- sounds formed at the front of the mouth like the "a" in Matt -- were considered sexier than men with "back vowel" sounds like the "au" in Paul, she concluded.

The opposite held for women, who were sexier with back vowels than front ones.

Perfors said front vowels are often perceived as "smaller" than back vowels, so the difference could be a sign that women are seeking men that are sensitive or gentle, traits usually perceived as feminine.

But men who might be thinking of taking more feminine names to become sexier should be careful not to go too far: men with women's names were rated least sexy of all.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&e=1&u=/nm/20040812/od_nm/odd_names_dc

Mullets, Ringtones, and Free Internet

Ok, so I haven't written much in a while but this is a phenomenon common to those of us in the blogging community.

A few things:

• I deleted a couple recent posts that were a little depressing. I'm over it so they're gone.
• I'm in the process of taking care of the crusty mug that was on my desk. I'm in phase three of five steps involving various degrees of heat, pressure, and chemicals.
• I visited my parents in their nice, new house last week. They're dial-up Internet is slow but luckily the oblivious neighbors across the street happened to have their wireless connection to their cable modem WIDE OPEN so I was able to hop on with my laptop when I needed to.
• We visited the county fair where it appears that the mullet is still going strong.
• I got a shipment from BMG music of 9 CDs. I'll post some pics of the covers soon.
• I downloaded a new ring tone for my phone. If you listen to it and can guess correctly, a bowl of ice cream will be eaten in your name.
• If we harness the powers of the military, FedEx, and Ted Kaczynski we can rid the world of Bin Laden for good.