posted
As the title says, I'm writing an articled for cracked.com, but I need some ideas.
Title: 6 Obnoxious Public Behaviors that Science Says Are Bad For You
1. Bringing a Baby into a Movie Theater 2. Talking on Your Cell at Work 3. Twittering
I need three more. Just throw some ideas out, folks. Whatever you think is in an annoying habit, no matter how stupid, just post it here and I'll try my best to find the research.
In case any of you are wondering about the previously listed points, here's some extra tidbits:
-Babies have compromised immune systems, theaters are covered in poop (literally), and their hearing is more damaged by sound (they perceive sound as 20 decibels more than we do). -Cell phones raise your stress level significantly. They also bring problems to work, and work to your home life. -Twittering makes you dumber. Seriously, check it out. As an aside, Facebook actually makes you smarter.
Again, any ideas are appreciated. I'm just drawing too much of a blank at the moment.
This will be my second article, if things go well. The first is located here.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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posted
telling your facebook friends either 1. everything you are eating or 2. passive aggressively nothing
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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You're contradicting your earlier instructions:
quote:ust throw some ideas out, folks. Whatever you think is in an annoying habit, no matter how stupid, just post it here and I'll try my best to find the research.
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: You're contradicting your earlier instructions:
quote:ust throw some ideas out, folks. Whatever you think is in an annoying habit, no matter how stupid, just post it here and I'll try my best to find the research.
Stick with the title of the article if the rest confuses you. I just wanted to elaborate and I could have made confusion worse at some points
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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You mind if I ask you a few questions about writing for cracked? An acquaintance of mine is one of the editors, and I've been curious about how it works.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Sure, just follow this link here. After that, they will let you into the board for writers, which is where they will allow you to pitch your ideas.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: Texting while driving is a good one, but I don't know if it's worth an entire section.
Seriously? It almost certainly causes more death and dismemberment than all the other suggestions combined.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I pitched an idea for them which actually made it pretty far... and then I got a job and it died when I left it alone in a room without food. They seemed pretty good about giving honest, straightforward feedback without being jerks about it. I don't have any ideas for you but I'll say the process seems eminently fair.
quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: Sure, just follow this link here. After that, they will let you into the board for writers, which is where they will allow you to pitch your ideas.
Yeah, I've done all that. I suppose I should spend some time on the writer's forums, but I was hoping to ask someone who'd actually had an article published. No worries, though.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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They would need to be things that don't seem like they'd be bad for you. In other words, there's little chance they'd publish that one since no one is going to read that be surprised by it. They want things that are either counter-intuitive, against common wisdom, or just really neat (7 war heroes who beat their enemy despite lacking opposable thumbs).
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Unrestricted cellphone use on airliners is going to be allowed soon. That'll easily produce enough aggravation for a whole article, or several, or a book, or two, or for passengers to demand to be skyjacked, or...
quote:Originally posted by aspectre: Unrestricted cellphone use on airliners is going to be allowed soon. That'll easily produce enough aggravation for a whole article, or several, or a book, or two, or passengers to demand to be skyjacked, or...
Please, please PLEASE tell me that you're kidding. I work in a hospital, where I can actually get up and avoid people on cellphones, and I am STILL flabbergasted by just how LOUDLY people will tell ALL off their repulsive business on a cellphone in public. Everything from Abscesses to Digitial bowel dis-impactation to their delight in how they ducked out on payign their child support again.
I cannot imagine being locked in a steel tube for hours surrounded by people shouting into their cell phones about their current herpes eruption.
Posts: 2532 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Compulsively pushing the buttons on the elevator. Although, I suppose that's more of a pet peeve of mine and probably not really bad for you.
Posts: 382 | Registered: Jan 2008
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Studies have shown that hearing half of a conversation is far more disruptive to concentrating on other matters, and FAR harder to ignore, than hearing the full conversation. So even if your nearby seatmates are polite and soft of voice while using their cellphones, your brain is wired to remain alert to their half-conversations.
Maybe hearing a multiplicity of half-conversations would lessen that effect. But in bars and nightclubs, voices tend to get louder and louder as the ambient sound-levels increase. ie Voices tend to get ever louder in competition with voices surrounding them... ...unless the venue is spacious enough for separate conversational groups to physically create space between themselves and others. Unfortunately airliners tend to be packed, and flight attendants frown upon stepping outside during flight.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Originally posted by aspectre: flight attendants frown upon stepping outside during flight.
I shan't be deterred. If I need a moment's respite, I'll excuse myself to the wing whenever I darn well please.
Posts: 2532 | Registered: Jul 2001
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People who write "you" or "yeah" or really anything other than the phonetic spelling of the German affirmative as "Ya."
If you want to represent speech, try "Y'know." Gets the point across with little room for misreading, and it fits with established grammatical norms (even if it's not recognized like other contractions. Yet.)
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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As long as we're talking meticulous semantics and phonetics, the penultimate word in my previous post could conceivably lead to an outloud reading of it to be misheard as "Ya, no?" But for that to be grammatically correct German, mightn't it be more correctly interpreted as "Ya, Nein?"
Or perhaps am I over thinking a two letter phonetic spelling of a single word in a two word overused phrase which really amounts to little more than the suffix version of the phrasal prefix "Um..."
it's possible that none of this even bore mentioning.
Y'know what? Never mind. You know what I mean, Ya?
Aw come on now, that was fun Posts: 2532 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Did you ever finish the article? I think I wanted to suggest something, but I was avoiding a landmark at the time (still am-- heh).
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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