Two days ago, my 3-month-old MacBook was stolen in the graduate office when we were at a luncheon with new students and faculty members.

This REALLY sucks.

A list of ten cities that are most polluted.
Two are Chinese cities: Linfei and Tianjin.

I was glad to read the insightful title “What Do Women Want? Less Pink, More Tech” on Wired, and I was ready to know about the latest solution to gender gap, if ever exists, on technology adoption. But the study discussed in the article does not meet my expectations. There are some interesting points though.

Just 9 percent of the fair sex want products that “look feminine,” like a pink Playstation or Hello Kitty keyboards. The remaining 91 percent seek something sleek and sophisticated, more boardroom than teenage bedroom. The data comes from a study, done by the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, of 750 British women age 24 to 45.

I always have reservations about studies conducted by advertising firms. But I am delightful that eventually there are some numbers that might influence decision-making of producing all those pink gadgets. Read the rest of the entry…

Studies have proposed a number of reasons behind yawning contagion. Some suggest contagious yawn is a sign of social empathy. Some consider it a protective mechanism to make a group more alert. Some regard it as a social signal signifying sleeping times.

I’m ridiculously suggestible to yawns. I’ve had seven yawns when I write here. Rather than a sign of fatigue or boredom, my yawns are more a relaxing behavior that relieves anxiety and stress, or at least a physiological attempt to relax. Physiologists describe the yawning process as:

A yawn involves a deep inspiratory breath and slow expiration, accompanied by wide opening of the jaw, and sometimes by limb-stretching and lacrimation. The bronchial stretching on inspiration stimulates a cholinergic response that reduces peripheral vascular tone, thereby increasing peripheral blood flow. Venous return is also increased by the drop in intra-thoracic pressure. The blood-rich lateral pterygoid muscles (involved in jaw-opening) and the soleus muscle (leg-stretching) also contract, expelling blood and increasing blood flow to the circulation.

In my layman’s view, yawning gets me more oxygen and slows down my heartbeats. Based on personal experience, I surmise my suggestibility to yawning is a subconscious reaction to potential stress. This also explains why I’m more suggestible to yawning in the English context than in Chinese, my native language.

Update on 03/09/2009

I yawned again when editing this post.