Mass hysteria causes people to wrongly think they are dying from an air freshener at a high school in Baltimore
According to wikipedia, mass hysteria is
a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear
That’s exactly what just happened at a high school in Baltimore.
After someone activated a pumpkin spice air freshener, people started having trouble breathing, and were taken to the hospital.
The school was evacuated, and emergency personnel were called.
Even though it turned out to be just an air freshener, experts said that evacuating the school was a good idea, just in case it had been something worse.
On the one hand, there’s a big part of me that has to agree with these experts.
On the other hand, just several decades ago, it probably would have been considered preposterous to evacuate a school under such circumstances.
All I can say about this is that the world sure has changed since I was a kid.
The Big Bang Theory: Amy helps Sheldon with his closure issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r60lVSiF1AA
Morgan Freeman talks about some interesting scientific experiments with guns
The YouTube video below is an episode of the science TV program Through the Wormhole. This episode is called “Is Gun Crime a Virus?” It’s from season 8, and originally aired just a few months ago. Morgan Freeman is both the narrator and the executive producer.
I listened to (but did not watch, as it’s rotated 90 degrees, and is also cropped) the entire video.
Here are three interesting studies from the video that I’d like to mention:
1) In a driving simulator, people drove more aggressively when a gun was placed on the passenger seat, as compared to when a control object (a tennis racket) was placed on the passenger seat. (skip to 26:46)
2) In real world driving, a driver in a pickup truck deliberately stopped at a stop sign for 12 seconds. Sometimes the truck had a rifle on a gun rack, and sometimes it did not. When there was a rifle, the drivers behind the truck behaved more aggressively compared to the control group where there was no rifle. (skip to 28:39)
3) Among minors in prison for violent felony, some were given “decompression therapy,” and some were not. After they got out of prison, those who did not receive the therapy killed 16 people, while those who did receive the therapy killed no one. (skip to 37:15)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL5mP420_z4
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 