Sideswipe: Winston's dye job, superficial law, parking and trivia

Bit of Photoshop to darken up the sides.

Superficial law

According to an Australian study, physical attractiveness has a significant influence on how judges sentence. The more unattractive the criminal, the higher the sentence. Results of three studies show a minimum increase of 119.25 per cent and a maximum increase of 304.88 per cent. But attractiveness had little to no effect on a judge's verdict of guilt. Attractive and unattractive criminals were convicted equally. Generally, attractive people are perceived as more intelligent, more socially skilled, having more appealing personalities, more moral, more altruistic, more likely to succeed, more hirable as managers and more competent. Attractive people tend to have better physical health, better mental health, better dating experiences, earn more money, obtain higher career positions, are chosen for jobs more often, promoted more often, receive better job evaluations, and are chosen as business partners more often, than unattractive people. (Via Rod Hollier, Physical attractiveness bias in the legal system.)

How to park in Titirangi

Parking is hard.

Did you know...

1. "Jet Ski" is a brand name owned and trademarked by Kawasaki. The more correct term is personal watercraft (PWC), water-scooter or boatercycle.

2. The first female pregnancy test was in the 1950s and involved injecting a woman's urine into a female frog's skin. If the woman was pregnant, then within 5-12 hours, the female frog would lay eggs.

3. In 2004, a group of Yale students pranked Harvard by posing as a Harvard Pep Squad and handing out placards to over 1800 Harvard fans at a football game. The Harvard fans were told they would spell out, "Go Harvard" when in reality, it actually said "We Suck."

4. Fremdscham is the opposite of schadenfreude (aka pleasure derived from another person's misfortune). Fremdscham is the feeling of embarrassment from observing the embarrassing actions of another person.

5. Male lemurs have naturally fruit-scented wrists to attract mates.

6. In 1794, the unmarried Jane Stanley agreed to fund her town's new pavements so long as they were too narrow for arm-in-arm couples to use.

7. If you have low self-esteem, repeating positive affirmations like "you are loved" or "you can do this" to yourself often makes you feel worse, because it presents you with more opportunities to come up with reasons why they're not true.