Not only do men like to look at unclothed women, but it turns out that rich guys get laid more.

What would we do without studies?

And without television shows such as "The secret of the sexes", which this study is one of the bases for.

I'm not sure how I would have gotten this far in life if I didn't understand that, as Good Charlotte put it, "Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money.", and "Boys will laugh at girs when they're not funny."

Such a shocking revalation. I may have to leave work early now just to deal with the increased stress this has put on my fragile world view. :-D

In other news: it gets dark at night. The sun is hot. Dan Rather is biased. Water is wet.

Both of those studies are from the Department of Duh.

I can't help but wonder who pays to study such obvious questions. Maybe they can kick some of that study money my way. They apparently have money to spare.

Reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon that had Wally trying to convince the boss to create a research unit to study the impact of downloading high rez pics through their network, ie. - an excuse to download pr0n at work.

Larry, what would you study? :)

Well, I'd like to study how adding WAAS certified GPS receivers linked to autopilots can improve general aviation safety. Specifically, I'd use the study funding to upgrade my plane's avionics and then perform a lot of practice approaches. This would be a long term study, so lots of funding to pay for fuel and maintenance would also be needed.

Or, I'd like to pick something so blatantly obvious (like the study several years ago about how children's tricycles can tip over) that real research wouldn't be necessary.

BTW: Are you the same Ilya that used to post on the MSNBC Space BBS several years ago? I really enjoyed your posts.

Yes, that's me. It's been a long time.

Glad to hear from you again, Ilya. Since MSNBC died, I've been hanging out at http://www.habitablezone.com/space/ . It has a few cranks but overall is a pretty good board.

I remember you asking me a few years ago about a somewhat secret booster company that proposed airlaunching at Mach 3. I was pretty skeptical. I'm less skeptical now that I've read Burt Rutan is doing the aircraft for Falcon. They aren't planning on launching from the nose, either.

Yes, I remember that. Actually, what they were proposing is better described as "vacuum launching" -- releasing the second stage at the top of a parabola where air resistance is not an issue. In any case, that company seems to have disappeared years ago; although I simply lost interest in launch systems and have read little on such things in years. So maybe they just keep a low profile.