WHY ALARMS SNOOZE FOR 9 MINUTES INSTEAD OF 10 _ Alarm clocks were introduced to snooze buttons in 1956 with General Electric-Telechron’s Snooz-Alarm. That model’s snooze lasted nine minutes, and there are a few theories as to why. Alarm clocks did exist before the snooze function, so there was already a standard gear setup that innovators had to work with. Getting the gear teeth to line up to allow for exactly ten minutes wasn’t possible, so they had to choose between nine minutes and a few seconds or a little bit over ten minutes. Here’s where the theories start to differ. Some people say reports in the 1950s suggested ten minutes was enough for drowsy people to fall back into deep sleep. That would mean they’d wake up cranky again, so nine minutes was the sweet spot between more time in bed without letting it get out of hand. The most common theory seems to come down to simplicity. A double-digit snooze would be harder to program than a single-digit one, so designers figured the less complicated design was the way to go.
HUMANS ARE GROSS!
Have you ever picked your nose in your adult life?
• Yes – 89%
• No – 11%
Have you ever skipped washing your hands after going to the bathroom at home?
• Yes – 69%
• No – 31%
Are you ever too tired to brush your teeth before bed?
• Yes – 82%
• No – 18%
Do you ever blow your nose and then inspect the contents of the tissue?
• Yes – 87%
• No – 13%
Have you ever smelled an article of clothing to see if you could get away with wearing it again?
• Yes – 88%
• No – 12%
Have you ever gone more than a month without changing your bedsheets?
• Yes – 69%
• No – 31%
DOGS PREFER WHEN YOU TALK TO THEM LIKE A BABY _ A study found that talking to your dog like you would a baby is the best way to build a good relationship with your pup. Dr. Katie Slocombe (University of York) wanted to figure out if there was any benefit to the playful way many owners talk to their dogs. Researchers rounded up 37 dogs and placed them in rooms with people saying different types of phrases and using two different types of speech. First, the dogs listened to a person talking to them in “dog-speak”, the classic high-pitched voice, coupled with dog-directed phrases like, “Who’s a good boy?” In a separate room, people spoke to the dogs in flatter tones coupled with adult-directed speech, such as “I went to the movies last night.” Scientists monitored dogs for their attentiveness and found that they chose to spend more time with those who talked in “dog-speak.”
