This Week In Research: Coffee, Facebook, BMW Assholes and Harry Potter

Fox News of Philadelphia has some more groundbreaking research news for us: ladies consider paying for dates these days. Sometimes.

It emerges that two of three men think that woman should offer to pay for a date, and women nowadays "seem open" to the idea of splitting the bill. Nixon is also no longer president.

Kim Kardashian is really flipping this study on its head.

Apparently, for each additional sibling you have, you get an extra two percent shot of your marriage working. The study's researchers suggested that growing up with multi-siblings might increase your negotiating skills, and thus helps your marriage chug along happily.

We'll just quote the first line of this article, and let you decide.

"The latest study released by eMarketer estimates that one in five Americans will listen to music on their mobile phones by the end of this year."

Blown. Away.

A cross-university study found a link between induced labor and autism — but it's not that inducing labor "gives" infants autism. Rather, researchers think that autistic children are more likely to have problems that will lead to difficult deliveries.

Both autism and induced labors have seen significant rises over the last few years, but based on the results, doctors said they won't be advising different practices.

This CBS article spells out the risks:

"I’ve walked into a pole," one person said.

"I saw a person get on a train, and tripped up off their shoes by texting,' another said.

"Just how dangerous can texting and walking be? In one video, a woman is seen falling right into a fountain as she uses her phone."

Ah, #journalism.

All of your under-your-breath mutterings are, as of now, totally justified: people who drive BMWs, says this new study, are far more likely to practice bad driving manners.

Researchers also found a link between wealthy drivers and average-income ones: those who were richer tended to cut off their fellow drivers. “One of the most significant trends was that fancy cars were less likely to stop,” said one researcher of pedestrian crossings. “BMW drivers were the worst.”

Sure, a little bit of coffee can be good for you. But if you're drinking 28 or more cups a week — that's six cups a day — then you're more likely to die younger.

If whatever you're doing on a daily basis is stressful enough that you have to drink six cups of the good stuff to stay alert, then you're probably not that surprised your health isn't brilliant.

Even if we manage to cut back on climate change, the next thirty years will see heat waves quadrupling in intensity. You know, the fun kind of heat wave — the kind that scorches plants and animals, and kills people.

More good news: if we don't manage to scale back climate change, then by 2100, most of the world will be boiling hot, all the time.

Word on the street is the more time you spend hanging out with your friends in real life, the happier you are. Michigan scientists also announced that the more time you spend creeping on friends on Facebook, the more unhappy you are.

To conclude: Facebook is like coffee.