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What Clown On a Unicycle?
R3d M3rcury writes "The New York Times has an article about walking and using a cellphone. 'The era of the mobile gadget is making mobility that much more perilous, particularly on crowded streets and in downtown areas where multiple multitaskers veer and swerve and walk to the beat of their own devices.' But the interesting part was an experiment run by Western Washington University this past fall. There was a student who knew how to ride a unicycle and a professor who had a clown suit. They dressed a student up as a clown and had him ride his unicycle around a popular campus square. Then they asked people, 'Did you see the Unicycling Clown?' 71% of the people walking in pairs said that they had. 51% of the people walking alone said that they had. But only 25% of the people talking on a cellphone said that they saw the unicycling clown. On the other hand, when asked 'Did you see anything unusual?' only about one person in three mentioned a unicycling clown. So maybe unicycling clowns aren't enough of a distraction at Western Washington University..."
If you wilfully ignore them, as the vast majority does.
You can also answer "I believe I am not ignoring any" honestly.
That'd be one of the proximate things people do pay attention to. If you don't, well, it's not the iPod's fault.
Other women heard him talking and asked "is that a guy in here?" She responded, "Yeah, he doesn't realize he's in the 'ladies'
I have never understood the obsession of separating sexes in the bathroom. What possible reason could there be? Except maybe a few swinging dicks if the ladies did their best to look over the separators between urinals.
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Not quite- the article says she walked into the side of the truck, was knocked down, and then run over.
Obviously, an anecdote allows to prove an entire theory...
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
The real question is to see whether this lower perception is acually any danger for pedestrians.
I like to create danger for pedestrians who are obliviously focusing on their mobile phones while walking down the street.
What I do is I aim myself straight toward them and turn my head so as to be 'obviously' not looking where I am going. I clench my teeth and brace for the impact.
If it works out I'll slam right into them sending their mobile device flying.
Then I'll say "Ooops sorry! I guess I wasn't looking where I was going EITHER!"
Yeh I'm evil. But its hilarious.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.