THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR THE WORLD’S FUNNIEST JOKE FINAL REPORT INTRODUCTION
Tennis authorities want proof Peng Shuai is safe after sex assault claims against politician
Thursday November 18 2021, 1.45pm GMT, The Times
The WTA has called for “independent and verifiable proof” that Peng is safe
GREG WOOD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Fears are growing over the safety of a top Chinese tennis player who accused a senior Communist Party politician of sexual assault after the Women’s Tennis Association raised doubts that an email in which she appeared to retract the allegations was genuine.
The WTA called for “independent and verifiable proof” that Peng Shuai was safe after a Chinese state-affiliated broadcaster claimed that the former Wimbledon doubles champion had withdrawn her claims that Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier in President Xi’s government, had forced her into an affair.
Chinese Global Television Network Europe (CGTN) yesterday published the contents of an email that is purported to have been sent by Peng, 35, to the WTA’s chief executive, Steve Simon.
Did you have any heroes in the beginning of your career that you wanted to move or look like? JoeHill
I didn’t look at singers and think: “That’s how I want to move,” but I sorta wanted to sound like ’em. I started off with Eddie Cochran – that rough-edged voice – and moved on to Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack and David Ruffin. I went from being a beatnik to a mod with long hair.
Born to Boogie on the new album [The Tears of Hercules] is about Marc Bolan. We used to go to the hairdresser’s together. I did the 1971 Weeley festival when I was in the Faces and Maggie May was No 1 and he was in T Rex, and he was good enough to come in the dressing room and admit that he didn’t want to follow us. Not many stars would have done that. We became great mates. I loved his music. It was easier for him to wear sequins and whatever in Putney than up north.
Future Mars colonists could revolt against mission control on Earth, new study warns
The settlers could become ‘detached’ from mission control due to time delays in communication, as well as prolonged isolation and monotony
Future Martian settlers will grow increasingly autonomous and could slowly stop sharing information with mission control, according to a study of ‘colonists’ simulated in an extra-terrestrial environment.
Project Sirius, 120-day isolation test that is taking place in Russia, seeks to investigate the autonomous behaviours of potential crew.
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As times and tastes change, Vietnam’s bear bile industry is fading away
As bear bile farms close throughout Vietnam, consumers say they’re “apathetic” about continued use of the substance in traditional medicine, according to a new study published in Conservation and Society.
In Vietnam, bile traditionally was obtained from the gallbladders of wild bears. The practice of farming Asiatic black bears and sun bears—both considered vulnerable to extinction—started in the 1990s to meet a growing demand for bile. Used to treat ailments including colds and bruises, bear bile contains ursodeoxycholic acid, which is medically provento help dissolve gallstones and treat liver disease.
In the bear bile farms, neglect, disease, and cramped, inhumane conditions are common, according to the nonprofit Animals Asia. The bile is drained through catheters or needles inserted into the animals’ gallbladders, a painful procedure sometimes repeated daily. Consumers themselves risk ingesting contaminated bile from sick bears.
Unconscious Bias Training That Works
Across the globe, in response to public outcry over racist incidents in the workplace and mounting evidence of the cost of employees’ feeling excluded, leaders are striving to make their companies more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Unconscious bias training has played a major role in their efforts. UB training seeks to raise awareness of the mental shortcuts that lead to snap judgments—often based on race and gender—about people’s talents or character. Its goal is to reduce bias in attitudes and behaviors at work, from hiring and promotion decisions to interactions with customers and colleagues.
But conventional UB training isn’t working, research suggests. In a 2019meta-analysis of more than 490 studies involving some 80,000 people, the psychologist Patrick Forscher and his colleagues found that UB training did not change biased behavior. Other studies have revealed that the training can backfire: Sending the message that biases are involuntary and widespread—beyond our control, in other words—can make people feel they’re unavoidable and lead to more discrimination, not less. In fact, in a 2006 review of more than 700 companies, Alexandra Kalev, Frank Dobbin, and Erin Kelly showed that after UB training, the likelihood that Black men and women would advance in organizations often decreased. It’s no wonder that women and people of color continue to report high levels of unfair treatment at work.
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"It is your best work, Basil, the best thing you have ever done," said Lord Henry, languidly. "You must certainly send it next year to the Grosvenor. The Academy is too large and too vulgar. Whenever I have gone there, there have either been so many people that I have not been able to see the pictures, which was dreadful, or so many pictures that I have not been able to see the people, which was worse. The Grosvenor is really the only place."
"I don't think I shall send it anywhere," he answered, tossing his head back in that odd way that used to make his friends laugh at him at Oxford. "No; I won't send it anywhere."
Lord Henry elevated his eyebrows, and looked at him in amazement through the thin blue wreaths of smoke that curled up in such fanciful whorls from his heavy opium-tainted cigarette.
"Not send it anywhere? My dear fellow, why? Have you any reason?
What odd chaps you painters are! You do anything in the world to gain a reputation. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion."
"I know you will laugh at me," he replied, "but I really can't exhibit it. I have put too much of myself into it."
Lord Henry stretched himself out on the divan and laughed.
"Yes, I knew you would; but it is quite true, all the same."
THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR THE WORLD’S FUNNIEST JOKE FINAL REPORT INTRODUCTION
September 2001 we embarked on one of the world’s largest, and most unusual, scientific experiments. The project aimed to find the world’s funniest joke and answer important questions about the psychology of humour. LaughLab was carried out as part of Science Year in the UK and was the largest scientific study ever into humour. For the past twelve months we have asked people from all around the world to submit their favourite jokes and judge how funny other people's jokes were by using the special " Giggleometer " below. LaughLab captured the public's imagination - we received over 40,000 jokes and almost 2 million ratings. In fact, the experiment has been such a success that it has recently been awarded a Guinness World Record and the LaughLab book, containing all of our results and top gags, was published on 3rd October by Random House. All of the data collected throughout the year has been stored on the LaughLab computers. In December 2001 we released some of our preliminary results - we have now analysed all of our data and are delighted to announce our final findings.
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