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“Dial-A-Flattery” service for people who need a compliment .
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TWIN TOWN

    IItt’’ss aa mmeeddiiccaall mmyysstteerryy ..
    P AIR-ADISE
    For parents expecting a baby, finding out that they’re having twins can be both a joy and a financial burden. And no one knows that feeling better than the residents of a village called Kodinji in Northern India, also known as “Twin Village.” The town is home to nearly 250 sets of twins…out of only 2,000 families, giving it, by far, the highest ratio of twin births in the world—six times the global average. But why? A local group called TAKA (Twins and Kins Association) is trying to figure out what’s going on.

WHAT’S GOING ON?
    No one knows for sure why Kodinji has become the twin capital of the world. “It’s an amazing phenomenon. The people are not exposed to any kinds of harmful drugs or chemicals,” said Dr. Krishnan Sribiju, who’s working with TAKA to study the village. The locals don’t eat a special diet, either. And genetic causes seem unlikely, since people who grew up elsewhere and move there as adults are also more likely to have twins. But many women raised in Kodinji who then moved to other places have continued to have multiple births.

DRINK IT UP
    So with all of the usual suspects of twin-making ruled out, there is one prevailing theory: It’s the water. Kodinji is almost surrounded by it, and during monsoon season, the village is often completely cut off. But so far, tests of the water supply have proven inconclusive.
    It appears, though, that scientists will have plenty of time to study the phenomenon—because the twin birth rate in Kodinji is actually rising . As of early 2010, five more women in the village were pregnant with twins. “The more the merrier,” says Bushara Mohammed Kutty, the mother of a set of twins and a set of triplets. She then adds, “provided you have the wherewithal.”
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Fastest-growing language in the galaxy, according to Time magazine: Klingon .
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LET’S DO A STUDY

    However you describe these research projects—goofy, offensive—they all beg the question: Did someone really need to spend all that time and money to tell us that …
    D UCKS LIKE RAIN
Says Who: Marian Dawkins, Oxford University, 2009
    The Study: British scientists gave a group of ducks full access to a pond, a water trough, and a shower. They found that the ducks preferred standing under the shower to standing in still water. The three-year study cost more than half a million dollars.

BARTENDERS ARE LIKELY TO DRINK TOO MUCH
    Says who: Eric Goplerud, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C., 2008
    The study: Fifteen percent of bartenders and cocktail waitresses abuse alcohol—the highest level of any industry. By comparison, only 5.4% of teachers, nurses, and social workers are problem drinkers. The likely cause, according to this statistical study: “Proximity to and availability of alcohol.”

DISTRACTIONS MAKE IT HARDER TO LEARN
    Says who: Russell Poldrack, UCLA, 2006
    The study: Subjects were given a set of cards and asked to mentally keep track of shapes drawn on the cards. In a separate test, they were given a new set of cards to sort but were also fed a series of low- and high-pitched beeps through earphones. They were then asked to keep count of the high-pitched beeps while they sorted the cards. The results showed that subjects had better recall when they performed only one task at a time.

MEN PREFER TO PEE ALONE
    Says who: R. Dennis Middlemist, Eric S. Knowles, Charles F. Matter, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1976
    The study: Researchers asked 60 men to urinate in a public lavatory and measured their micturation times (“time of intent” to “start of flow”) according to how closely an assistant unknown to the subject stood nearby. Three “personal space” comfort levels were used: adjacent, one urinal removed, and out of the room. With no one there, it took an average of 4.8