Baby laughing hysterically at ripping paper

Hi all,

I think most of you have seen the video about a baby that is laughing hysterically at ripping paper. Have you ever wondered why a baby screams with laughter about the sound of ripping a piece of paper?

Discovery Channel explains, watch the video below to find out.

April Fools' Day

Has anyone tricked you or have you tricked anyone with a joke today?

Today it is April 1, also known as April Fools’ Day. In the Netherlands and elsewhere, such as in France, Italy, Japan, Russia, Brazil and Canada, the jokes last all day. However, traditionally in some countries such as New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, Australia and South Africa the jokes only last until noon, persons who plays a trick after noon is called an ‘April Fool’.

The history of April Fools’ Day will always remain vague. Another nonfoolish holiday such as Halloween has a more attractive and clear history than April Fools’ Day. There isn’t really a ‘first’ April Fools’ Day and no one knows exactly where and how it all begun. However, most people say it all started in 1582 in France.

Other Fools’ Days;

- Iranians play pranks on each other on the 13th day of the Persian new year, which falls on April 1 or April 2. This day is called Sizdah Bedar.

- In Spanish-speaking countries, similar pranks are practiced on December 28, día de los Santos

Inocentes, the "Day of the Holy Innocents".

- In Scotland April Fool's Day is celebrated for two days. The second day, which is called Taily Day, is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance.

Do you know any fun jokes? Don't hesitate to share !!

Funny April Fools Prank:

How radioactive exposure affects your health

Hi all,

I’m sure you’re all aware of the tsunami in Japan with all its consequences. It is difficult to imagine the impact of radioactive exposure. Yesterday, Singapore has reported finding low levels of radioactivity in four vegetable samples imported from Japan. Singapore has stopped imports of milk, meat and related products from the affected area. The European Union also increases control on food imports from Japan.

How does radioactive exposure affects your health?
Symptoms of radiation illness occur when the body has been in contact with a large dose of radiation over a short period of time. The more the body is in contact with radiation, the sicker this person gets.

The symptoms of radiation illness vary depending on the exposure. Certain symptoms become visible immediately after the exposure, followed by a period of approximately four weeks when the patient will feel better. More symptoms will materialize later, if the patient survives there is a higher chance of developing cancer, most likely a form of leukemia.

For the Dutch:

Twitter Facts

What started as a confusing project 5 years ago has become one of the best ways to share and find information on the Internet. Twitter has been created in March 2006, and launched in July 2006 by a man named Jack Dorsey. This 34 years old man previously worked as a flower artist and masseur, nowadays he is creator, co-founder and chariman of Twitter and CEO of Square. Last Monday Twitter celebrated its 5^th anniversary.

In September 2010, Twitter had 175 million registered users, 95 million tweets per day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day. On the 6^th of July the fist Dutch person signed up on Twitter. In July 2010, Twitter had 191.000 Dutch users, on Februari 18 2011 this number has increased up to 418.621 Dutch users.

The popularity of Twitter especially becomes visible during events like ‘superbowl’. On particular moments during this event, the number of Tweets per second was 4.000. New Year’s Eve, on the stroke of 12 o'clock, Japan was a record-breaker with 6.000 tweets per second.

In spite of Twitter runs at a loss, the value of Twitter is estimated at 4,5 miljard dollar (2,9 miljard euro).

I started using Twitter 1,5 years ago, at that time most of my friends weren’t using it. The reason I signed up was to follow politicians and the news. Nowadays most of my friends signed up.

For me, Twitter is a great medium to increase the number of visitors of my blogs, thanks to Google Analytics I know that most of you find me through Twitter.

Most debated topics 2010:

1. Gulf Oil Spill

2. FIFA World Cup

3. Inception

4. Haiti Earthquake

5. Vuvuzela

6. Apple iPad

7. Google Android

8. Justin Bieber

9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

10. Pulpo Paul

Nice video about Twitter in plain English:

Sources: NRC Next, Twitter and Youtube

Brainpower

The image below of Einstein appears to protruding out of the background, but is it? How sure are you?

Believe it or not, this image is a concave mask, a hollow face.

Previous semester at the University of Tilburg I got introduced to the Hollow-Face illusion, also known as Hollow-Mask illusion. This optical illusion gives you the perception of a concave mask of a face appears as a normal convex face.

The first time I had seen the video in class I could not believe my eyes, I thought it was simply not possible my brain could fool me like that. At home I searched on the Internet and discovered that, unfortunately, my brain is capable of fooling me.

Scholars suggested that the illusion arises because our brain ‘knows’ that we are seeing a face. We human have only seen convex faces in our life so this knowledge trumps other visual cues that suggest it’s not convex like real faces we have seen in life.

Watch the video below and see it for yourself. After watching you probably will fully understand why I had to share this with you.

Don't hesitate to leave comments :).

Online communication

Dear followers,

As you all know the Internet has grown fast, only a few years ago the Internet was used for text-based discussions via chat or e-mail, these systems were devoid of nonverbal cues. At that time there were many scholars which maintained that people misbehaved oneself on the Internet. According to Kraut et al. (1998); “Greater use of the Internet is associated with declines in participants’ communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness”. However, the complaint that online communication is bad communication was often made by early scholars, the Internet has changed a lot through the years.

Enough history !

Today, the Internet provides numerous communication spaces in which people meet others. Newshounds find sources of information via blogs. People using social networking sites, such as Facebook, Hyves and others, to see what their friends are doing and with whom they are associating.

Research shows that people like each other more through online communication than face-to-face communication. “Online contact is more social, personal and more intimate”, according to Walther (1996).

HOW COME?

- People optimize their self presentation, because of the positive self presentation we feemore comfortable and relaxed therefore the communication passes off smoothly

- The positive things leaves us a pleasant first impression, we hold on to first impressions therefore a lot needs to happen to get disappointed afterwards .

- Because people feel more comfortable contacting others online than face-to-face, they are more open to answer questions and give more personal information.

- People have more time to respond which result into better answers.

- People often have a shared group membership, such as ‘I-Love-Vacation’ or ‘Football-Fan’, they can end up thinking that they have more in common than they might actually have.

pls, feel free to leave a message J

Welcome

Hi all,

Most of you will probably think; ‘Why on earth has Willemijn started blogging? And why isn’t she blogging in Dutch?’. Well, the main reason I’ve this account is because I’ve to start blogging for the ‘Business Information Technology’ course I’m taking at the University of Tilburg.

A few years ago I was an intern in Malta and I started blogging about my adventures, for my family and friends in Holland, so this blogging thing is not completely new to me. What I liked most about blogging was the interaction. Friends and family who responded to my blogs were the reason I continued writing blogs and I actually enjoyed it.

From now on, I’ll blog you every week. I won’t blog about my adventures in Malta (unfortunately) but about  interesting studies and all kinds of petty facts that come up during my study at the University of Tilburg, which is also some kind of adventure of course ;-).

Please don’t be shy and post a comment every now and then so we can make it more interactive !!

I’ll catch up with you later !