Stuff you must read today (Fri, 3 Aug 2012)

The Power of Habit | Slate Magazine
This article single-handedly inspired me to buy the book, which single-handedly inspired me to change my life. I exaggerate, of course, but believe me when I say that the article – and the book – are good reads that must be taken with a pinch of salt.

Why women lose the dating game | The Age
“‘We arrived at the top of the staircase,’ Bolick wrote, ‘finally ready to start our lives, only to discover a cavernous room at the tail end of a party, most of the men gone already, some having never shown up – and those who remain are leering by the cheese table, or are, you know, the ones you don’t want to go out with.'”

21st-century girl | Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science
“‘Do you dream of mammoths?’ a talk-show host once asked me. I knew not to give him my first choice of answer; that would have enlightened his audience over the course of three and a half hours — so long as they had the basic grounding in biosciences required to understand it. I also knew enough to avoid my second answer, which was that his question was unintelligent, and that the entire interview had taken time I could have spent better in the laboratory.”

The Eye Test | PUEBLO Crew In Captivity in North Korea
I seriously cannot remember how I came across this site but this anecdote, along with many others like it, is painfully hilarious.

Adam’s “rib” a Biblical euphemism | Improbable Research
“In a letter to the editor in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, two authors suggest that the story of Adam’s rib being the humble beginnings of Eve is the result of a mistranslation. In reality, they suggest, the story is an explanatory myth for why humans are one of the few mammals lacking a baculum, or penile bone.”