Month: February 2017

What does a good grasp of fractions have to do with marketing fast food hamburgers? Everything, which A&W Restaurants found out the hard way.

In late 2015, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland introduced a series of national emojis that celebrate all aspects of Finnish identity. The first images included Nokia phones, metal heads (Finns famously love the loud music), and naked figures in a sauna. Since then, the Ministry has added new emojis to the collection, including a few illustrating uniquely Finnish terms that we don’t have words for in English. Try using some of them in conversation—and to view and download the whole set of 56 emoji, visit thisisFINLAND, the Finnish government’s promotional website.

1. KALSARIKÄNNIT: “THE FEELING WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO GET DRUNK HOME ALONE IN YOUR UNDERWEAR”

The word quite literally (and delightfully) translates to “underwear drunk.”

2. TORILLA TAVATAAN: “THE FEELING WHEN SOMETHING SO GREAT HAPPENS YOU JUST HAVE TO SHARE IT WITH SOMEBODY”

You’d say “Torilla tavataan!“—which literally means “Let’s meet/see you at the marketplace”—to friends if you wanted to gather together in your city’s public square and celebrate good news—say, your local sports team winning.

3. SUOMI MAINITTU!: “THE FEELING WHEN SOMEONE MENTIONS FINLAND ABROAD”

Finland is home to Nokia, the Angry Birds Land theme park, and even Santa Claus, but the tiny nation still feels like it doesn’t get much international recognition. Suomi mainittu—which literally translates to “Finland mentioned!”—captures the excitement Finns feel when their country is discussed abroad.

4. PERKELE: “THE MOTHER OF ALL FINNISH SWEAR WORDS”

Perkele translates to “the devil,” but like many swear words, it’s not what it means—it’s how you use it. Try rolling the “r” for extra emphasis.

5. SISU: “THE FEELING OF PERSEVERANCE”

Sisu can loosely be translated to “perseverance” or “having guts,” but the word has a deeper meaning in Finland. “The Finns have something they call sisu,” The New York Times wrote in 1940 [PDF]. “It is a compound of bravado and bravery, of ferocity and tenacity, of the ability to keep fighting after most people would have quit, and to fight with the will to win. The Finns translate ‘sisu’ as ‘the Finnish spirit,’ but it is a much more gutful word than that.”

6. KAAMOS: “THE FEELING OF SUNLESS DAYS”

Finns use kaamos to describe the sunless period between December and January. Even though we don’t experience polar nights in America, we can still relate with the gloomy feeling of summer being too far away.

All images courtesy of thisisFINLAND.

The same technology used to nab criminals may help keep endangered lemurs roaming free. The new LemurFaceID program, described this week in the journal BMC Zoology, offers a non-invasive way for scientists to track individual lemurs in the wild.

We can’t protect endangered species unless we understand their lives, co-author Stacey Tecot of the University of Arizona said in a statement. “Studying lemur individuals and populations over long periods of time provides crucial data on how long individuals live in the wild, how frequently they reproduce, as well as rates of infant and juvenile mortality and ultimately population growth and decline.”

But figuring these things out can be tricky for researchers and stressful for wild animals, who don’t particularly enjoy being caught and tagged, collared, or swabbed.

So conservationists have begun exploring more hands-off techniques, including facial-recognition software. Software developers have already applied the technology to African lions and right whales with some success. Biometrics expert and co-author Anil Jain of Michigan State University suspected it might work even better with lemurs, whose facial features are as varied as those of human beings.

To start, Jain and his colleagues compiled 462 images of 80 different red-bellied lemurs* from Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park and the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina, as well as 190 images of other lemur species. They standardized the photo formats, then created a program that would measure the proportions and features of the lemurs’ faces, thus devising a unique visual profile of each individual.

Initial tests of the LemurFaceID program were astoundingly successful, quickly matching an image to the right lemur with 98.7 percent accuracy. The researchers believe the software could be easily adapted to identify other primates, bears, red pandas, raccoons, and sloths.

“Facial recognition technology has the potential to help safeguard our society,” Jain said. “Adapting it to help save endangered species is one of its most inspiring uses.”

*One of the lemurs is named Avery. That’s not important to this story, but we thought you’d want to know.

More Americans are seeking out a higher education than ever before—and they’re paying for it. At more than $1.4 trillion, the nation’s total student loan debt is the highest it’s ever been. On top of that, many borrowers are left unable to pay their loans back after graduation. As a new survey from NextGenVest suggests, the fact that most high school seniors have no idea what they’re signing up for when they take out student loans may have something to do with that.

Kelly Peeler, founder of the college tuition payment mentoring service NextGenVest, recently reported the results of the survey at Forbes. After talking to 225 college-bound high school seniors from nine cities via SMS, the surveyors found that 68 percent of respondents said “they literally knew nothing” about student loan payment or refinancing services available after college.

More often than not, high schools are doing little to educate students on the subject. According to the study, just 31 percent of respondents had a financial aid workshop, scholarship session, or college financing–focused parent night offered at their school. When incoming undergrads are left to make sense of aid packages on their own, they can feel overwhelmed. Forty-five percent of students described navigating financial aid paperwork as more stressful than taking a standardized test.

If you’re one of the millions of Americans already burdened with student loan debt, it’s not too late to learn some strategies for paying it off. If you’re a graduate still on the job hunt, be on the lookout for benefits packages that offer built-in loan repayments. As a last resort, borrowers should look into changing plans or even deferring payments to avoid defaulting on their loans or having their wages garnished by their lenders.

[h/t Forbes]

You don’t need to know how to play the piano to jam with Google’s latest musical experiment, A.I. Duet. The tool, spotted by Gizmodo, lets you plunk out a few notes on a virtual piano, and then artificial intelligence will churn out a melodic response.

The app was created by Google’s Creative Lab and Magenta, the tech company’s open-source research project on artificial intelligence in music and art. Using machine learning and neural networks, the A.I. Duet algorithm learned how to make music through analyzing melodies the Google coders fed it. After being given enough examples, the program learned how notes and timing typically function in a piece of music. When you play a note on the virtual keyboard, it analyzes that previous data and responds accordingly.

Check it out for yourself here. (Just be warned: Unless you’re a professional, the computer is probably a better musician than you.)

[h/t Gizmodo]

What, exactly, does a zookeeper do? Animal Planet’s new show, The Zoo, takes viewers behind the exhibits, where zoo workers do everything from playing matchmaker for rare birds to helping vision-impaired gorillas navigate the world. The show was filmed over the course of eight months at the biggest metropolitan zoo in the U.S., the Bronx Zoo in New York City, which is home to more than 650 different animal species and the headquarters of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

In the first episode, zookeepers diagnose and treat a silverback gorilla with glaucoma in what might be the first surgery of its kind. In another vignette, zoo employees, who have hand-raised two tigers abandoned by their mother, work to reintroduce the cubs to both the Tiger Mountain exhibit and other adult tigers they’ll share the space with. In a third, a senior zookeeper monitors two endangered birds as they are introduced as potential mates, and watches carefully to spot a laid egg before it gets crushed by its mother.

The Zoo is a rare look into the day-to-day conservation work that goes on at zoos, whose very existence some animal rights groups see as unethical.

“The series emphasizes that today’s zoos must do more than exhibit animals,” Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo, said in a press statement. “They must have a higher purpose and that purpose is conservation of species in the wild.”

The show premieres Saturday, February 18 at 10 p.m. EST. Trust us, it’s worth staying in for.

A major reason why so many of us find it difficult to negotiate is because it seems so confrontational. Whether it’s haggling at the farmer’s market or making the case for a raise, most of us think of negotiating as a battle that only one side can win. But research shows we might be going about it all wrong. Try these five proven negotiating tactics to ease the process.

1. WORK TOWARD A COMMON GOAL.

In Getting to Yes, a classic conflict resolution book first published in 1981, researchers Roger Fisher and William Ury introduce a concept called principled negotiation [PDF]. This tactic involves separating the people from the problem and focusing on common interests in order to reach a solution that pleases everyone. Negotiation isn’t a battle, they said, it’s a joint problem-solving session.

2. BUILD A RAPPORT.

A 2002 study published in the journal Group Dynamics found that a little “social lubrication” prior to the negotiation can make the bargaining easier, particularly when the negotiations are taking place via email. For the study, researchers had subjects “schmooze” on a telephone call by revealing a small personal detail about themselves that had nothing to do with the negotiation, like where they grew up. “Schmoozers felt more rapport, their plans were more trusting (although no less ambitious), and their economic and social outcomes were better,” the study says.

Specifically, when subjects only exchanged names and email addresses, they reached a deal less than 40 percent of the time. But when they shared extraneous personal information, they reached a deal 59 percent of the time. So strike up some small talk before you begin your contract negotiation or car dealership haggling for best results.

3. BREAK BREAD TOGETHER.

Stanford researchers looked at how subjects tackled different kinds of negotiations when food was involved—say, a plate of cookies was placed in the conference room or the negotiations took place at a restaurant. In the right situation, they found, the act of sharing food could be beneficial. But first, you have to determine whether you are negotiating competitively or cooperatively.

“In more competitive negotiations, people want to have the best possible deal for themselves, and typically, they see their counterpart as having adversarial or opposing motives,” doctoral student and study co-author Peter Belmi told the Stanford Business website Insights. “In cooperative negotiations, typically people are more concerned about reaching an agreement for all parties involved.”

If you’re in a competitive situation, say a negotiation to end a legal dispute, having food available can help ease the tension. “What we found is that when people were negotiating in a competitive situation, sharing the food—and by that we mean sharing, not just eating—they created significantly more value,” Belmi said. The social ritual of eating offset the competitive tone of the negotiation, allowing subjects to pay more attention to each other and look for opportunities to create more value in the negotiation.

But if you’re negotiating with friends or friendly coworkers, skip the snacks. “In a cooperative negotiation, sharing food creates a comfortable and familiar environment, and people can become more concerned about maintaining that atmosphere rather than finding the best deal,” Belmi said.

4. SHOOT FOR THE MOON.

A small joke can make for a big icebreaker in salary negotiations. A 2008 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology looked at the role of anchoring, or the bias towards the first piece of information offered (in this case, the first number thrown out), in such negotiations.

The study found that subjects who suggested an implausibly high salary when asked what they were looking for—$100,000 when their last salary was $29,000—were actually offered more money on average: $35,385 compared to $32,463. Meaning, the high anchor was effective, even if it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.

5. DON’T HOLD BACK.

If you tend to be shy or introverted, the assertiveness necessary for a successful negotiation can feel abrasive and confrontational. A study from Columbia University [PDF], however, shows that you likely have nothing to worry about. Researchers had subjects participate in mock negotiations, then rate their own level of aggressiveness. They explain the results:

A significant share (38%) of people who were seen by their counterparts as appropriately assertive incorrectly thought their counterparts saw them as over-assertive. They displayed what counterparts saw as the right level of assertiveness but they assumed their counterpart saw them as getting it wrong—specifically, as pushing too hard. We call this the line crossing illusion, when people mistakenly believe they have “crossed the line” into being over-assertive in a counterpart’s eyes, when the counterpart actually views them as appropriately assertive.

The point is, if you’re a shy person who’s afraid of being confrontational, you probably don’t have anything to worry about.

In Whitehorse, the capital city of Canada’s Yukon Territory, icy locks are the ultimate bizarre fashion statement. As Marie Claire reports, the chilly municipality is home to the International Hair Freezing Contest—a competition held each February during the territory’s annual Sourdough Rendezvous festival.

The festival—taking place from February 17 to February 26—pays homage to the region’s rich history. Events like log tosses, an axe tossing contest, and a “flour packing competition” (participants haul giant loads of flour on their backs while completing an obstacle course) celebrate the 1890s “sourdoughs,” a nickname given to Yukon Goldrush prospectors who made it through at least one Alaska winter, and subsisted on little more than sourdough flapjacks.

The Hair Freezing Contest was added to the mix in 2011 as more of a nod to the icy local climate than to rugged prospectors of yore. Participants hop into the hot springs at a local resort, the Takhini Hot Pools, and get their heads and faces wet. Then, they mold and freeze their hair into a frosted coiffure, and take a photo. The resort evaluates pictures of the ‘dos, and the top three winners are announced in March. Prizes include cash and free soaks in the hot springs.

The next Hair Freezing Contest will be held on February 24. If you’re interested in entering, the Takhini Hot Pools website has a list of tips to help you score the ultimate hypothermic hairstyle. Until then, you can simply enjoy the video below, featuring the contest’s 2015 winners.

[h/t Marie Claire]

When you fly on an airplane these days, you more than likely have access to Wi-Fi. That means you can peruse Facebook, catch up on the latest trending topics on Twitter, feel bad about yourself after two minutes on Pinterest, and even stream music and movies (on certain airlines).

With such impressive in-flight technology improvements, why are cell phones still limited to airplane mode only?

The assumption has long been that mobile frequencies could interfere with the plane’s systems, causing them to malfunction to the point of crashing the plane. While that may be a stretch, phone signals can—and do—interfere with the radio frequency. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it’s brief; Condé Nast Traveler describes it as “the sound of a CD skipping.” Still, when pilots and air traffic control are trying to communicate vital information, even a split second of confusion is too risky.

However, there may be a loophole, if airlines decide to allow it. That amazing Wi-Fi we were just talking about? It can be used to make calls, too. Most airlines have banned the practice, not because of signal or interference issues, but because of common human courtesy issues: No one wants to sit next to someone who spends a three-hour flight loudly chatting to someone on Skype. So while it may be technically possible, you probably won’t be making phone calls from your window seat any time soon.

Have you got a Big Question you’d like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us at bigquestions@mentalfloss.com.

Archaeologists at the University of Hawaii West Oahu have begun unearthing a long-forgotten relic from a dark period of American history.

The Honouliuli internment and POW camp was open for three years. In that time it saw the detention of more than 1000 Japanese-American citizens and thousands of prisoners of war.

UH archaeologist William Belcher is leading the excavations. He says that after the camp was bulldozed in 1946, it seemed to vanish from public consciousness. “When I was in elementary school, I never even heard that this had occurred,” he told NBC News. “We never studied this in history or talked about it.”

Thanks in part to former President Obama, that’s beginning to change. Obama, who was born and raised in Hawaii, designated the camp a national monument in 2015. Now Belcher and his students are digging in to help clear the site of seven decades’ worth of earth, grass, shrubs, and debris.

It’s a difficult task made even harder by the landscape. The camp is hidden inside a steep gulch that Japanese-American internees called “Jigoku Dani,” or “Hell Valley.” It’s unreachable by public roads and gets very, very hot during the day. Belcher and his students are clearing the site with machetes. “The basic technology is to walk in a systematic fashion across the entire landscape,” he told NBC News.

The internment situation during World War II looked different in Hawaii than it did in California or Washington state. Forty percent of Hawaiian citizens were of Japanese ancestry, and many of them were plantation workers. To protect the islands’ plantation economy, the government decided to confine some, but not all, citizens within the camp’s crowded enclosures and barbed-wire fences.

In naming the site a national monument, Senator Mazie Hirono told NBC News she hoped that recognizing our country’s troubled history might prevent us from committing similar atrocities in the future.

“The stories of those detained at Honouliuli and internment sites like it across the country are sobering reminders of how even leaders of the greatest nation on Earth can succumb to fear and mistrust and perpetuate great injustice,” Hirono said.