What Clown On a Unicycle? 284
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..."
Re:I GOT A GREASED UP YODA DOLL SHOVED UP MY ASS (Score:3, Funny)
Unicycling clowns, a greased yoda up someone's ass, and linux.
Only on the internet would I not question finding these things on the same page.
Nothing To See Here, Move Along (Score:4, Funny)
Send in the clowns... (Score:4, Funny)
What the study (or the reporting of it) failed to note is whether clowns, unicycling, or unicycling clowns are common on the campus. For example if everyone at the campus wears a clowns suit or unicycles then one more unicycling clown isn't noticible.
Bad reporting. No donuts.
Re:Pointless study (Score:5, Funny)
Who in his right mind would not interpret unicycling clown as extremely threatening?...
Re:Pointless study (Score:3, Funny)
Right. They should have asked "Did you walk into a unicycling clown?"
Re:College campuses are full of unusual (Score:4, Funny)
> ...a clown isn't that unusual for a college campus.
Right. The frats, for example, are populated entirely by clowns.
Re:well, here is a case of a dead woman from 2009 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Mistake in TFS (Score:5, Funny)
Not so unusual (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe if it had been a normal person unicycling, or a clown simply walking, someone would have noticed.
Man using women's restroom (Score:5, Funny)
At an amusement park, a female friend returned from the restroom relating how a man entered while talking on his cellphone, looked her dead in the eye then turned to enter a stall, talking all the while.
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', don't worry about it."
He finished the call, finished in the stall, came out and his eyes widened when he saw all the women.
Re:Mistake in TFS (Score:3, Funny)
Re:WWU (Score:4, Funny)
Ah, so the clown must have been a member of the Judean People's Front!
Re:Correction (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Mistake in TFS (Score:5, Funny)
The submitter must have been talking on his cell phone when he wrote the summary.
Re:Send in the clowns... (Score:2, Funny)
Not at a Clown College!
Re:Send in the clowns... (Score:3, Funny)
Then the question is whether students are able to distinguish clowns from their professors.
To do this correctly, you would require three line-ups:
one with professors only
one with clowns only
one with a mix of clowns and professors.
Then you would need some students who are asked the question whether there is anything unusual in the lineup.
Re:Alternative hypothesis : didn't care (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Send in the clowns... (Score:5, Funny)
I applied to Clown College, but they just laughed at me.
Re:Man using women's restroom (Score:3, Funny)
So they're still short on female bathrooms?
(/me is going to hell)