Concrete Buffers at Work / Funny!

I swear, you can actually see the men "thinking" as they try to figure out this problem.

The problem is an out of control piece of machinery, a concrete buffer, and the men trying to figure out how to stop the thing for spinning out of control. Hilarious.

Single Vs In A Relationship

I chose to share this because it was funny. Huzzah for being in a relationship! Sucks to be the people who are not.

Battle of the Sexes - Cheating and Essay Writing

By Greg Lancaster

Is there a difference between men and women when it comes to their motivations for cheating?

[And by cheating we are talking about cheating in school, hiring an essay writing service, using cheat notes in class, etc. For once we are not talking about relationships and cheating on your wife/husband.]

There is more and more pressure in school to be the best in university and college. Students are using more alternative (otherwise known as academically dishonest) resources to get that elusive grade because of that pressure. You hear of people getting access to tests from former students or people who get someone else to write their essay for them at major universities - especially in bigger cities like Toronto and NYC. The companies that promote their essay writing services focus on the biggest cities the most.

Now, of course, strictly speaking these methods are not in keeping with academic honesty, which usually states that the work you hand in is the work you created with your own hands and thoughts. So if you get someone else to give you information that you should not have or you get someone to write or help you write something that you should have written yourself in order to the upper hand you are effectively "cheating". So essentially, what people are doing is not in keeping with the spirit of pursuing academic endeavours - and not really learning anything either.

However for our purposes does we have to ask the question, do motivations for cheating differ for men and women?

If we look at studies we start to get an impression of what students think about cheating and what contributes to their motives for cheating. In one study, that looked at over 500 students in 3 different universities in the United States of America, researchers found that the students were much more accepting of cheating behaviour as a whole than the faculty expected them to be. The study focused on student in business related studies (accounting, management, marketing, etc...) and found that they were sometimes unaware that a certain behaviour was cheating behaviour (or so they said), unaccepting that it was cheating behaviour or uncaring that it was cheating behaviour.

In general, people feel that men are more likely to cheat than women. Women are seen as the fairer sex and that they are nurturing and caring. It is hard to imagine your loving and caring mother as that massively unethical cheating person because it just goes against what our image of mothers are. Men on the other hand are seen as aggressive and powerful so cheating behaviour is a little more naturally ascribed to them. The dichotomy is also seen when our perception of how men and women behave in relation to cheating does not meet our expectation. If women are found to be cheaters we tend to reprimand them more harshly than we would a man.

According to essay writing companies, approx. 80% of their clients are women. (And not just once, many of them come back for multiple essays, assignments, research papers, or even dissertations.)

Academic literature starts to confirm the common sense that we were discussing above in terms of the conditions that allow men and women to cheat. Academic literature also looked at correlation between cheating behaviour and men and cheating behaviour in women. It is already known that men are more likely to take risks than women (insurance companies use that fact to justify higher insurance rates for men). Women, on the other hand, are taught to believe that the impression they leave with others is a very important thing so they should do their best to preserve positive impressions and dispel negative impressions (this is basically the plot of the Scarlet Letter and the reason why young girls are taught to close their legs at all times). But given the right set of circumstances (including a small possibility of being caught or a possible excuse that could preserve one's positive impressions) women would feel able to cheat.

And not just able, but also feel like they are under pressure to cheat because they are under more pressure to do well in school than men are.

if we look at who cheats more another study collected data from many other studies sheds a little like. It found that 21% of women and 26% of men reported having cheated (again, academics - not relationships). When an extremely large sample was removed the numbers increased dramatically to 60% for both men and women.

Combine that with what essay writing companies say about how 80% of their clients being women and we must conclude that men and women cheat in different ways. Women are apparently cheating on essays more, whereas men must be cheating on tests or other methods of cheating more.

So, it seems clear that there really is no difference between men and women in terms of likelihood of cheating as there is mostly there is no difference or no major differences in percentages - the only big differences is the methods men and women employ to cheat.

The other significant factor is how socialization affects why a person cheats. Socialization dictates that factors that contribute to whether a person will take the risk at all. Men do it because they are socialized to be riskier and women do it if they think that people's impression of them could be diminished if they don't score better grades.

Cheating is ubiquitous in the world. I am sure that few of us can say that we have never cheated before. But maybe we should not blame ourselves perhaps it was just the way we were brought up... a culture in which cheating on spouses is frowned upon, but people do it anyway.

And thus cheating on an essay is still frowned upon, but people do it anyway.

5 Ways to increase your chances of getting Laid on a First Date

#1. Clean yourself up and dress masculine and sophisticated.

Three reasons why this improves your odds. Women like men who take care of themselves physically, they should be clean and well groomed. Secondly, women like men who know how to dress themselves - so wearing sophisticated and manly clothing improves your odds dramatically.

So for example just wearing a manly yet sophisticated jacket from Kish Wear - Men's High Fashion, dramatically improves your odds your date will like you.

The problem is that most men tend to dress like slobs, and that does not impress women very much. At the same time however you don't want to come across as emasculated - what you want really is to give the impression with your clothes that you are like a rugged James Bond type who can fist fight a bear and then go dancing all in the same night.

#2. Only go out on dates on Friday night or Saturday night.

Honestly, timing is everything. Women work just like men do, and they don't want to spend the night at a man's place when they have to get up the next morning and work. That would mean showing up at work possibly late, in the wrong clothes, and all sorts of problems. Thus dates on Sunday nights to Thursday nights have a dramatically lower rate of people getting laid. Also, never meet for coffee in the morning or afternoon. Coffee dates are for suckers. Women use coffee dates to browse for men. They are significantly less likely to sleep with someone when they are just browsing.

Avoiding eye contact on a date is a great way to NOT get laid.

#3. Look into her eyes when you talk to her.

This is really important. Do not avoid eye contact when talking, as some men do when they feel uncomfortable. Instead what you need to do is every time you are talking to your date then give them your full attention by looking deep into their eyes when you are talking to them. Try to repeat that when they are talking to you too.

Don't stare at her breasts (although you can sneak a peek briefly), don't check the time on your phone, don't use your cellphone when bored unless she goes to the bathroom (in which case turn it off when she comes back), don't stare at a TV or other women. The only person who should be the centre of your attention is her.

#4. In conversation avoid anything controversial or trivial arguments.

Don't talk about abortion (she may have had one), evolution vs creationism, politics, religion, etc. Instead stick to entertaining topics. If sports come up talk about them briefly, but don't go into great detail about your favourite sport unless she is also very interested in that sport. And even so, know when to stop. If she looks at her watch it is time to switch topics. When it comes to pop culture don't get involved in trivial arguments and then check who is correct on your cellphone. It makes you appear to be the type of person who always has to be right - and arguing about something trivial on a first date is not a good sign.

#5. Clean your apartment / house as if your mother is coming over.

Nothing messes with your feng shui than having a huge mess in the place. You are not going to want to invite a woman over when your place looks like a giant laundry basket of dirty clothes. All your clothing should be in the closet, or neatly piled in a proper laundry basket (or stowed in a laundry bag). The floor should be clean, there should be less than 3 dishes in your sink or the sink should be empty. Your entire apartment / house should be spotless, as if your Great Aunt Ida is coming for a visit soon and she smacks you with her cane if the place isn't perfectly clean.

Furthermore the only things left out, clutter wise, should be your musical instrument, painting, woodworking project, architectural designs, poetry notebook or something creative which you have left on the coffee table. This gives you something to talk about. If you don't do any activities like that your next best option is a coffee table book about traveling overseas. (Because like your Great Aunt Ida, women appreciate a man who is creative / likes to travel abroad. She may be a stickler for cleanliness, but Aunt Ida loves to talk about all the trips she went on when she was younger.)

The same rule above also applies to your car or vehicle. It should be clean, spotless and the only piece of clutter should be a book / map of an area you want to drive to sometime (eg. Ontario's wine region in Niagara).

NOTES

These are just 5 tips that increase your chances of getting laid. They are not a guarantee. You could still mess up by insulting her in some unforeseen way. Or she could turn out to be a headcase / damaged goods, in which case you are better off without her. (Far too many women out there have developed some weird psychological hangups that make them unable to have long term relationships. If you sleep with such a person they might end up stalking you, treating you like dirt, messing your mind, any number of things. You are better off avoiding headcases as they need professional treatment before they can even stand a chance of having a long term relationship.)

Getting laid on a first date is actually a good signifier that your relationship will last a longer period of time and lead to a lasting relationship (possibly even marriage) - at least when it comes to modern women. Conservative / religious women expect to be wooed a lot longer before the courtship reaches the bedroom.

As such it is best to avoid women who are not your counterpart in terms of belief system. Atheists probably should not be dating Christians and vice versa. Muslims and Christians dating, not such a big deal because Jesus is a prophet in Islam. Before meeting women for dates (assuming you met them via online personals) screen out any who are potentially problematic because of their religion. Women who describe themselves as spiritual are okay (and often free spirits sexually), but Roman Catholics or Russian Orthodox might have some antiquated ideas about marriage before sex. (Which is funny, because people who don't have sex before marriage are more likely to have a divorce.)

Now I am not saying you cannot date women who are of a different belief system than yourself. Go right ahead. Just understand that it is not going to be easier when it comes to trying to make the relationship last more then 2 months.

Pickup Lines for Women to use on Men

Some of these are a bit disturbing, others are just funny - the images were produced by Cosmo - and what they are promoting is pickup lines for women to use on men.

I personally find that pickup lines men use to be quite lewd and rude, so how are these any better? Is Cosmo trying to say that using these lines are acceptable just because it is a woman saying them? I don't think so. I think any pick up line that "crosses the line" in terms of rudeness should get a man slapped across the face.

And what standard is this setting for women? Sexual aggressiveness is fine and all, but what about how men will respond to such questions of sexual availability? Some men will no doubt take it too far.

Call me old fashioned, but a little romance is always better that a cheesy pickup line.