geekosystem

I really love my job here at Geekosystem, but it turns out I'm in the minority. According to a Gallup survey only 30% of the 100 million Americans with a full-time job are "actively engaged" at the workplace. Half the workforce is "not engaged," and the remaining 20% are "actively disengaged," meaning they straight up hate their job and, "roam the halls spreading discontent."

For no doubt the first time ever, a bad decision was made a pool party sponsored by Jagermeister. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. This bad call, though, went beyond the standard ill-starred hookup or barf-inducing round of Jager Bombs as organizers poured liquid nitrogen into the swimming pool. While this produced the desired 'smoke on the water' effect organizers were seeking, it also had an unintended consequence, creating a cloud of nitrogen gas that asphyxiated party goers and left several hospitalized, including a 21-year-old man who remains in a coma.

I know the human dating game can seem rough at times, but the fact of the matter is, we have it pretty good. Don't believe me? Consider if you will the sorry state of Dolomedes tenebrosus, the dark fishing spider. A recent study of the spiders, common around the American midwest, found that males of the species get a grand total of one shot at breeding -- immediately after copulation, their work on this Earth done, the creatures promptly curl up and die.

I caught just enough of the Miss USA pageant this weekend to be weirded out by Nick Jonas and Mo Rocca existing in the same space, but not enough to see the unfortunate answer that Miss Utah contestant Marissa Powell gave to NeNe Leake's question about gender and income equality. The Internet has been tearing into Ms. Powell since, but I firmly believe that we should cut her a little slack. Yes, her response was cringeworthy, confusing, and nonsensical, but a lot of that can be chalked up to an intense case of stage fright. After all, how are you supposed to keep cool in front of millions of people and a Jonas Brother?

Anyone with siblings -- any number, younger or older, take your pick -- has thought at some point that the person with whom they share parents (and toys and meals and sometimes, God forbid, a bedroom) is out to do nothing on this planet but drive you mad. It turns out, that might be closer to the truth than anyone is comfortable with. A recent study at the University of New Hampshire suggests that sibling-on-sibling violence can have the same detrimental effects on mental health as every day bullying. 

Come on, admit it -- we've all fantasized about having superhuman strength at one point or another. Having the sort of car-tossing, Mjolnir-swinging, evildoers cowering before your might sort of strength we've all seen in comic books may be out of the question, sure, but science is helping us learn more and more about how we get strong, and that understanding could help us get better at getting stronger. In their latest video, AsapSCIENCE explains what it takes to reach that goal, why some people naturally have greater muscle mass than others, and how new technologies could make super strength a reality in the future. You won't even need to be bitten by a radioactive spider.

Bee warned: Researchers at Washington State University are starting a frozen semen bank to store the genetic material of honey bees. In addition, they will use crossbreeding from various colonies to create new generations of bees that are more diversified and resilient to environmental threats. There's probably room for another bee joke here, but I'm drawing a blank.

In 2003 my mother said, "There's this new show you'd probably like. It's got people doing science and explosions to test myths." She was of course talking about Mythbusters, and she was absolutely right about my liking it. I love it when people do science and explosions, and I'm pretty confident most folks that read Geekosystem do too. That's why I jumped at the chance to interview Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage for Gillette's How Does He Shave? campaign.

Like many of you, we were shocked, disgusted, and disappointed to learn earlier this week that the percentage of people who properly wash their hands in public restrooms is a dismal 5%. Yes, just 1 in 20 people are doing that right. That disappointing number got us thinking -- there are four editors here at Geekosystem, and we all think we wash our hands properly. That means either A) there are 76 other people out there doing it wrong or B) some of us think we're washing our hands correctly, but really aren't. We're surely not the only ones faced with this grim thought, so we're taking a moment to offer this handy reminder on the right way to wash your hands.

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down some truly weird and sometimes downright awful decisions recently -- the "corporations have civil rights just like people do" debacle springs to mind -- but it's good to know that they don't always go against the individual while reviewing important cases. In a unanimous decision today, the Supreme Court ruled that naturally occurring human genes may not be patented, ending a dispute over intellectual property of genes that are used to detect early signs of certain cancers. So now we can all find out our cancer risk without having to pay exorbitant fees! You know, other than the ones we'd have to pay to address those risks. Those fees are still pretty exorbitant.

Gillette really wants to know how Superman shaves his beard in Man of Steel, and they've turned to some of the best minds in geekdom to figure it out. One of those minds belongs to The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik. She happens to be the only woman they asked about Superman's shaving habits, but she's also the only one who earned her PhD. Take that, gentlemen.

If you ever took anatomy in high school or college, then you know that there is literally a separate name for every single square centimeter of the human body. Like me, you might not actually remember any of those names, but occasionally you probably look down at your foot and think, "oh my god there are a spillion different bones in there, how does anyone know what they're all called?" So it might come as a shock to you that even with all the different classifications and categorizations, there are still parts of the body that are considered uncharted territory, such as the extra layer of cornea in the human eye that scientists from the University of Nottingham recently discovered. 

Bill Nye is a national treasure. He's who I'd imagine Superman would actually turn to solve a problem like shaving, so it's a no-brainer to see him included in the Gillette campaign to figure out how the Last Son of Krypton loses his beard in Man of Steel. I had the chance to speak with him about his scientific approach to Kryptonian shaving, and then we became friends.

Here's a story I need your help on, folks, because I can't tell if it's depressing and gross or gross and depressing. According to a recent study by Michigan State University, only 5% of people wash their hands properly after using the bathroom. That's right, folks -- 1 in 20 of you are doing that right, and the other 19 are, statistically speaking, disgusting.

In a study conducted by the University of Florida, a whopping 35 percent of designated drivers were found to have some amount of alcohol in their systems, and most of those had imbibed enough to impair their driving.  Remember, though, this was done in Florida, so maybe take the study with a grain of salt, followed by a shot of Cuervo and squirt of lime juice. It is my understanding that many Florida residents operate at a base level of intoxication for much of the time so that they can survive living in the state in the first place. Maybe their designated drivers are all able to adapt to high blood alcohol levels easier than mere mortals like us? Yeah, probably not.