Daily Dose of Common Sense

Happy Mother’s Day!

It seems common sense to participate in the tradition of Mother’s Day. You have a mother, she worked hard to bring you into the world, and she helped raise you to be a good person. And you know she’ll never let you live it down if you don’t at least call her today.

Turns out the fear of a maternal guilt trip isn’t the only reason to honor moms. LiveScience.com posted 5 Scientific Reasons Mom Deserves Mother’s Day. Included here are some insightful findings based on recent scientific data. For example, moms today get less help and are expected to do more. Moms feel more pain. And, researchers have discovered that, although our genes come 50% from dad and 50% from mom, for some unknown reason mom’s genes have a more significant effect on the person you become.

One stark example: While you were in the uterus, if your mother had a very stressful experience, you’ll be at greater risk for anxiety disorders. And a new study on rats, out last month, indicates that your mother’s diet during pregnancy affected your genes.

More surprising, studies are showing that what your mother ate when she was a child, the toxins she was exposed to, and other experiences before and during pregnancy affect how the genes she passes on to you actually get expressed in your body.

Another study, reported this year in the journal Child Development, shows a profound impact of nurturing by mothers in the early years, too. A child who has a strong relationship with Mom during preschool years tends to form closer friendships in grade school, the research revealed.

It’s hard out there being a parent. So, give Mom a little recognition and love today. It goes a long way.

One of our favorite books is “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time” by Dr. Michael Shermer. This book covers the reasons behind the belief of unsubstantiated things, such as near-death experiences, Holocaust deniers, alien abductions, and more, in a rational and interesting way. If you don’t know who he is, Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, and a columnist for Scientific American.

We find this book insightful and entertaining. The information is presented in an easy-to-understand format—complete with pictures and graphs—and yet still packed with enough science to inspire critical thinking.

Recently, the New York Daily News did a comparison about some of the different services the United States Post Office offers. In each case, they sent a first-class letter, a Priority Mail letter, and an Express letter at the same time to one address. In 8 of 10 tests, the first-class letter and the Priority Mail letter arrived on the same day.

A stamp costs $.42 (for now) and Priority Mail runs around $4.95. Priority Mail means delivery within 2-3 days, which even the Post Office admits is generally how long it takes for first-class mail to arrive. So, if your letter doesn’t need insurance or tracking, save some dough and just slap a first-class stamp on it.

[via PatsPapers.com]

Times are hard and there are a lot of folks looking for work. Jobs are scarce, so it’s tempting to take anything you can get. Is this job posting the best there is?

At first, the posting seems enticing. $60,000 – $80,000 a year might go far in South Carolina. But if you look closer, the ad is riddled with misspellings, bad grammar, too much punctuation… and a lack of punctuation. (Hard to accomplish both, I know, but they pull it off!) My favorite part:

“below in the keywords i ripped off other ads to pull in the keywords..cause im lazy but great spot for person seeking great growth position.. Will conisder as minimal as 2 yrs experiance 2-5 preffered..”

Companies, we know you have the upper hand right now: more people out of work than available positions. But, can’t you still give it the old college try?

(via reddit.com)

Some common phrases get repeated so often that we don’t even question the meaning. One hears it, assumes it’s correct and then repeats it. A good example of this is, “I could care less.” Well, if you could care less, then I guess it really doesn’t bother you.

Rather, the correct phrase is, “I couldn’t care less.” You are saying you could not care less about something. That means you care the littlest amount that you can possibly care. As in, “I couldn’t care less whether you like my work.”

Recently, I have had folks look at me askew as I help my daughter wash her hands. We always sing “Happy birthday to you” twice as we scrub our hands with soap and water, and this usually gets us some raised eyebrows. The reason we sing this song twice is because that is the length of time you need to get your hands properly clean. Yep, 20 seconds of soapy washing is all you need to properly clean your hands. You don’t need antibacterial this or hand sanitizer that. Just regular soap, water, friction, and a few seconds. (Most experts agree that hand sanitizer is a good alternative when soap and water are not available, however.) Singing a short song guarantees that you’ve washed long enough.

Properly washing your hands is important, as it helps stop the transmission of germs. If one in three Americans skips hand washing after using the bathroom, it’s even more important for the other sixty-six percent to wash correctly. According to the Mayo Clinic:

Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food-related illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as many as 76 million Americans get a food-borne illness each year. Of these, about 5,000 die as a result of their illness. Others experience the annoying signs and symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

So, sing whatever ditty makes you happy and make sure you take enough time to get clean.

Some people aren’t content with making only one or two bad decisions at a time. Two Domino’s Pizza employees in North Carolina decided not only to abuse customer food, they also chose to film it. But, they didn’t stop there. They wanted to brag about it so they posted the self-made video to YouTube. Some reports said the video had been watched over a million times before being taken down. One of those viewers alerted Domino’s to the shenanigans, which showed an employee making sandwiches with ingredients that had been in his nose.

This is a PR nightmare for the parent company, who has not only fired the two employees but is also considering legal action against them. The two were also arrested and charged with “distrubiting prohibited food.” Wisely, Domino’s immediately went to the Internet to get apologies out to consumers. They began Twittering (@dpzinfo) and the company president put his own response video on YouTube.

Broadcasting one’s life—whether through video, blogging, tweeting, or other social media—can have a dark side. When you make things public, anyone can see, share, and comment on them. These two employees may have thought it was all hilarious, but honestly…did they think YouTube was their own private video-sharing service?

Horns blaring and lights flashing, fire engines and ambulances struggle to navigate through traffic each day. Based on our observations, some drivers don’t know what to do when the lights and sirens approach. We’ve seen cars freeze and stay put. We’ve seen cars sloooooowly pull over to the side of the road. And, we’ve even seen some cars speed up to out race the emergency vehicle.

What should you do? Pull over immediately and STOP. According to vehicle and traffic laws (we used New York, but every state is the same), “Upon the immediate approach of an authorized emergency vehicle… the driver of every other vehicle shall yield the right of way and shall immediately drive to a position parallel to, and as close as possible to the right-hand edge or curb… and shall stop and remain in such position until the authorized emergency vehicle has passed….” In other words, get out of the way!

Also, you may not be aware that almost all states now have a Move Over law. If an emergency or law-enforcement vehicle, or tow truck is sitting on the side of the road with its flashing lights on, drivers must move over one lane. If it’s not safe to move over, then drivers must significantly slow down. This is an effort to protect the people on the side of the road from harm.

Last month, a German teacher jumped in the polar bear exhibit at the Berlin Zoo and took a swim. The result? Polar bear attack.

This episode continues a bizarre pattern in recent years of inappropriate behavior at zoos. People seem to have forgotten that these are WILD animals. Last November, a student was bitten by a panda bear in China because he was attempting to hug the animal. In 2007, a 15-year old boy jumped into the panda exhibit in the Beijing Zoo, only to have the bear bite him severely on both legs.

Obviously, no one is glad that these people were injured. But some folks have clearly forgotten that polar bears and panda bears, while cute, are still BEARS.

Clearly, zoos need to not only think about keeping the wild animals in but also the crazy zoo visitors OUT.

Welcome to Daily Dose of Common Sense.

This site aims to cut through the crap, hype, and pseudoscience to tell it like it is. Part science, part news, and part, er, common sense, we may be harsh sometimes but it’s just tough love.

We will attempt to post daily, but we do have lives (jobs, kids, laundry). So, please cut us a small break if we miss a day now and then.