Cornell Insider

a blog by the writers of the Cornell Review

Archive for February 24th, 2010

Where’s the Uproar?

Posted by Dennis Shiraev on February 24, 2010

As Bob Barr writes on his blog, the Obama administration is interested in tracking your cell phone records: “In arguments earlier this month before a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, lawyers for President Barack Obama made the case that the government should be able to easily track the location of cell phone users without first securing a warrant.  In making this argument, the Obama Administration mimics the position taken by its predecessor.”

Wait, that can’t be right. The same administration that has been conducting a CIA witch hunt and doing all it can to disgrace Bush administration officials guilty of illegal wiretaps and information gathering techniques is now pushing to track the location of your cell phone? And where is the liberal uproar? It’s hard to argue that George Bush looking up your library records is more of an infringement on personal rights than the Obama administration having full access to your cell phone records.

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Cornell Popcorn Research

Posted by Dennis Shiraev on February 24, 2010

Here’s an interesting excerpt from an article reviewing the new Heath brothers book Switch:

The book opens with a story from the Food & Brand Lab at Cornell University. Researchers set up at a movie theater and gave movie goers a free soft drink and bucket of popcorn—in exchange for them answering some questions about the concession stand at the end of the movie. Some of the moviegoers got a medium-size bucket of popcorn, and others got a huge tub. But here’s the kicker—both groups were given five-day-old popcorn that was so stale it squeaked. The questions at the concession stand were just a ruse—food researchers were studying how portion size influences eating.

And does it ever. People given the big tub ate 53% more of the practically inedible stuff than people given the medium bucket.

I’m pretty sure they could have carried out the same experiment at Okenshields using the regular food and different sized plates.

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