First UNIQLO @ Fahrenheit 88

If you’ve been around internet, you must have seen or heard about the new store UNIQLO that’s about to open in Kuala Lumpur; or at least that’s how I first saw about the opening of this store – on Facebook (bless them).

No.1 Japan Fashion Brand UNIQLO is now opening in Fahrenheit 88 on 4th Nov 2010, all three stories of it.


I took this from the website, most probably not in Malaysia.


At first I was really surprised how could any brand has the ability to just waltz into Malaysia could just whack up 3 stories in the new and upcoming hottest mall in town in the middle of the golden triangle square of the capital city.

Well, apparently UNIQLO could, and bringing with it 500 items from its impressive array of basic casual wear that would be available for purchase in the 20140 sqm2 of retail space in Fahrenheit 88.




If there’s one thing the Japanese are good at, it’s fashion. So I’m eager to dive my purse into the store to check out this new shopping heaven once it’s open.

Also because they’re throwing some low introductory price for few items in the store till the stocks runs out.

And I had my eyes on the Autumn/Winter 2010 Fleece jackets that’s selling for RM49.90 instead of RM79.90, just in time for my Taiwan trip, which could be a little bit chilly during mid Nov and I have absolutely NOTHING that’s in between summer and winter to wear!

Here are some pics of the fleece I have with me.













Nice eh? I love the last one. Will definitely grab one, or a few, for my baby too, before I fly off to my 11 day Taiwan trip.


Other things that are going to be on sales are the UNIQLO graphic T-Shirt collection (what they are famous for), called UT, selling at RM29.90 instead of RM59.90.

And the UJ (UNIQLO Jeans) for RM49.90 instead of RM99.90 – ooooh, I want to get these for my baby. So cheap!
















If it can make your shopping experience any more exciting, the grand opening day will be filled with prizes to be won. The first 500 to line up gets a chance to win five All-Expense-Paid trips to Tokyo for two persons before the doors open at 11:00am on the 4th Nov 2010.

*jots down date to wake up at 6am*

Then there’s free UNIQLO tote bags to be given away to the first 1000 customers in line at store opening.

If you missed the first day, the tote bag will still be available as long as you buy RM200 in a single receipt at the store within the first 4 days of opening. Note: while stocks last.


Eeek! Now I’m all excited just writing about this.

I can’t wait to get my hands on those jeans, and those jackets.
I need a shopping spree! *desperate*

Now go check out their facebook page and play some games here.

My Favorite Part of Halloween: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I assume we're not the only family carving pumpkins today! With that in mind, wanted to pass along my favorite recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds. These seeds are my favorite part of Halloween.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

pumpkin seeds, goo removed and rinsed
olive oil*
kosher salt
garlic powder
curry powder
chili powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 325. After the seeds have been removed from the pumpkin, cleaned and rinsed, place them on a cookie sheet. Try to get them in as much of a single layer as you can, doesn't have to be perfect. Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with a bit of salt, garlic powder and curry powder. Shake the sheet a bit so the olive oil, salt and spices are mixed in with the seeds. Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until seeds are lightly browned and crisp. You'll want to stir the seeds with a spatula and shake the baking sheet 2-3 times during the cook time, so none of the seeds get too brown.

After the seeds have cooled down, they will keep in an airtight container for a few days (if they last that long).

* You can use any olive oil, but our seeds were especially delicious this year when I used Olave's lemon infused olive oil. (By us, I know Walter Stewart's carries it.)

Still in Club Med Bali

It has been a long time since I updated my blog religiously hasn't it?

I've just been having so much in life righ now. And there's so much to figure out during this weird and twisting transition that I don't really have time to turn my attention to this little space.

How long has it been? I'm sure I've passed my 4th year anniversary of my blog, sometime this month. Wow, has it really been that long?

It does seem like eons ago when all those happened. And so many things have happened since, many turns of events that put me in the highlights of my life and the worst time too.


But anywaaaay....


It's my last night in Club Med Bali and it's just so beautiful and relaxing here I don't want to go back.

Been here for four days and all I've been doing were drinking cocktails in the morning,

beers in the afternoon,

sleeping by the beach (just got to love those shaded beds),

hippity-hop in the pool,

lazing in the pool,

drinking in the pool.

watch movie on Ipad in the pool's pavilion,

sirloin steak for afternoon teas,

windsurfing, kayaking, walking, in the sea,

surperb buffet for dinners (did I mention buffet was superb?),

then partying and drinking at night.



Can I stay here?

Forever.

Or until I can't feel my legs anymore.


Geez, my legs are totally hurting from windsurfing. T_T


Ouh................... *shifting butt cheeks and legs*

5 Days Getaway

I am in Club Med Bali.

The Social Comparison Bias - or why we recommend new candidates who don't compete with our own strengths

Whether it's a gift for small talk or a knack for arithmetic, many of us have something we feel we're particularly good at. What happens from an early age is that this strength then becomes important for our self-esteem, which affects our behaviour in various ways. For example, children tend to choose friends who excel on different dimensions than themselves, presumably to protect their self-esteem from threat. A new study reveals another consequence - 'the social comparison bias' - that's relevant to business contexts. Stated simply, when making hiring decisions, people tend to favour potential candidates who don't compete with their own particular strengths.

Stephen Garcia and colleagues first demonstrated this idea in a hypothetical context. Twenty-nine undergrads were asked to imagine that they were a law professor with responsibility for recommending one of two new professorial candidates to join the law faculty. Half had to imagine they were a professor with a particularly high number of mixed-quality journal publications. These participants tended to say they would recommend the imaginary candidate with fewer but higher quality publications. By contrast, the other half of the participants were tasked with imagining that they were a professor with few but particularly high quality publications. You guessed it - they tended to recommend the candidate with the lower quality but more prolific publication record. In each case the participants favoured the candidate who didn't challenge their own particular area of (imaginary) strength, be that publication quality or quantity. The participants had been told that the department had a balanced mix of existing staff so it's unlikely their motive was a selfless one based on achieving a balanced team.

To make things more realistic, a second study involved a real decision. Forty undergrads completed verbal and maths tasks to which they were given false feedback. Next, they were presented with the scores achieved by two other students, one of whom they had to select to join their team for an up-coming group 'coordination task' that would involve throwing a tennis ball around. Participants tricked into thinking they'd excelled at the maths tended to choose the potential team member who was weak at maths but stronger verbally, and vice versa for those participants fed false feedback indicating they'd excelled verbally. Again, the researchers argued that it was unlikely the participants were simply striving for a balanced team because the maths and verbal skills in question weren't relevant to the tennis ball task.

A final study involved 55 employees at a Midwestern university - they were asked to imagine that they were in a company role with either high pay or great decision-making power. Next they had to recommend to their company that it either offer high pay or high decision-making power to a new recruit. The participants tended to advise offering the new recruit the opposite of whatever they had. The participants also said the particular perk of their imaginary post - pay or decision-making - would be the most important to their self-esteem.

'The present analysis introduces the social comparison bias: a social comparison-based bias that taints the recommendation process,' the researchers said. 'At a broader level, the social comparison bias might help partially to explain why some top-notch departments or organisational units lose prestige over time ... Individuals unwittingly fail to reproduce departmental strengths by protecting their personal standing instead of the standing of the broader department.'
_________________________________

Garcia, S., Song, H., and Tesser, A. (2010). Tainted recommendations: The social comparison bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 113 (2), 97-101 DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.06.002

Sneak Peek at the Protein Pancake Video!

I'm so excited! I have another video to share with you. I'll get the actual video posted later so it's available for you to watch right here on the blog, but if you want a sneak peek at it, feel free to click this link! I'm off to feed, bathe, and do homework with my children, then head to a Tiny Miracles board meeting, but wanted to quickly share this with all of you who wanted another cooking video pronto. If you liked the enchilada one, you'll love this simple, delicious recipe too.

Black Tuesday Release Party

Well what can we say? This year's release party somehow ran without any faults. Of course there was a debacle with the websales for tickets and we had our server crash the first day, but once the actual day arrived, everything went great.

Of course we are sorry that we couldn't have absolutely everyone here to celebrate with us, but its one of the downfalls of having such a popular yet limited in quantity beer.

For those who did make it out last night, thank you! We had a great time, got through the line extremely quickly, had a ton of great beers on the list for the night including Black Tuesday, Chocolate Rain, Cherry Chocolate Rain, Premiére, Gunga Galunga and Barrel Fermented Autumn Maple, we had some awesome chocolates and perfect cheeses for pairing plus a necessary visit from The Lime Truck right outside the doors.

Year two of Black Tuesday was much different than the 5 hour line of year one and hopefully year three will be different in that we can get even more beer made and celebrate with even more people!

It really was a great night and we hope that everyone who got to come and enjoy had a great time.

This morning we sold out of the remaining bottles of Black Tuesday within a few minutes, so for those who didn't get any, hopefully you can find a kind person with a bottle to share some with soon!

Until next year!

Cheers!

Five minutes with the discoverer of the Scientific Impotence Excuse, Geoffrey Munro

When attempting to change people’s behaviour – for example, encouraging them to eat more healthily or recycle more – a common tactic is to present scientific findings that justify the behaviour change. A problem with this approach, according to recent research by Geoffrey Munro at Towson University in America, is that when people are faced with scientific research that clashes with their personal view, they invoke a range of strategies to discount the findings.

Perhaps the most common of these is to challenge the methodological soundness of the research. However, with newspaper reports and other brief summaries of science findings, that’s often not possible because of lack of detail. In this case, Munro's research suggests that people will often judge that the topic at hand is not amenable to scientific enquiry. What’s more, he’s found that, having come to this conclusion about the specific topic at hand, the sceptic will then generalise their belief about scientific impotence to other topics as well (further detail). Munro says that by embracing the general idea that some topics are beyond the reach of science, such people are able to maintain belief in their own intellectual credibility, rather than feeling that they’ve selectively dismissed unpalatable findings.

The Digest caught up with Professor Munro to ask him, first of all, whether he thinks there are any ways to combat the scientific impotence excuse or reduce the likelihood of it being deployed.

"One of the most difficult things to do is to admit that you are wrong. In cases where a person is exposed to scientific conclusions that contradict her or his existing beliefs, one option would be to accept the scientific conclusions and change one’s beliefs. It sounds simple enough, and, for many topics, it is that simple. However, some of our beliefs are much more resistant to change. These are the ones that are important to us. They may be linked to other important aspects of our identity or self-concept (e.g., “I’m an environmentalist ”) or relevant to values that are central to who we are (e.g., “I believe in the sanctity of human life”) or meaningful to the social groups to which we align ourselves (e.g., “I’m a union man like my father and grandfather before him”) or associated with deeply-held emotions (e.g., “Homosexuality disgusts me”). When scientific conclusions challenge these kinds of beliefs, it’s much harder to admit that we were wrong because it might require a rethinking of our sense of who we are, what values are important to us, who we align ourselves with, and what our gut feelings tell us. Thus, a cognitively easier solution might be to not admit our beliefs have been defeated but to question the validity of the scientific conclusions. We might question the methodological quality of the scientific evidence, the researcher’s impartiality, or even the ability of scientific methods to provide us with useful information about this topic (and other topics as well). This final resistance technique is what I called “scientific impotence”.

So, how can strongly-held beliefs be changed? How can scientific evidence break through the defensive tenacity of these beliefs? Well, I hope the paragraph above illustrates how scientific evidence can be threatening when it challenges an important belief. It makes you feel anxious, upset, and/or embarrassed. It makes you question your own intelligence, moral standing, and group alliances. Therefore, the most effective ways to break the resistance to belief-challenging scientific conclusions is to present such conclusions in non-threatening ways. For example, Cohen and his colleagues have shown that affirming a person’s values prior to presenting belief-challenging scientific conclusions breaks down the usual resistance. In other words, the science is not so threatening when you’ve had a chance to bolster your value system. Relatedly, framing scientific conclusions in a way that is consistent with the values of the audience is more effective than challenging those values. Research from my own laboratory shows that reducing the negative emotional reactions people feel in response to belief-challenging scientific evidence can make people more accepting of the evidence. We achieved this by giving participants another source (something other than the scientific conclusions they read) to which they could attribute their negative emotional reactions. While this might be difficult to implement outside of the laboratory, we believe that other factors can affect the degree to which negative emotional reactions occur. For example, a source who speaks with humility is less upsetting than a sarcastic and arrogant pundit. Similarly, the use of discovery-type scientific words and phrases (e.g., “we learned that…” or “the studies revealed that…”) might be less emotionally provocative than debate-type scientific words and phrases (e.g., “we argue that…” or “we disagree with so-and-so and contend that…”). In fact, anything that draws the ingroup-outgroup line in the sand is likely to lead to defensive resistance if it appears that the science or its source is the outgroup. So, avoiding culture war symbols is crucial. Finally, as a college professor, I believe that frequent exposure to critical thinking skills, practice with critical thinking situations, and quality feedback about critical thinking allows people to understand how their own biases can affect their analysis of information and result in open-minded thinkers who are skeptical yet not defensive."

Next, the Digest asked Prof Munro whether he thinks psychology findings are particularly prone to provoke scientific discounting cognitions - and if so, should we as a discipline make extra effort to combat this?

"Yes, I believe psychological research (and probably social science research in general) is prone to provoke scientific discounting. The term “soft science” illustrates how social sciences are perceived differently than the “hard sciences”. There are a number of reasons why this might be true. First, much psychological research is conducted without the use of technologically-sophisticated laboratories containing the fancy equipment that comes to many people’s minds when the word science is used. In other words, psychological research doesn’t always resemble the science prototype. Supporting this position, psychological research that is conducted in high-tech labs (e.g., neuroscience imaging studies) is, in my opinion, perceived with less skepticism by the general public. Second, psychological research often investigates topics about which people already have subjective opinions or, at least, can easily call to mind experiences from their own lives that serve as a comparison to the research conclusions. In other words, people often believe that they already have knowledge and expertise about human thought and behavior. When their opinions run counter to psychological research conclusions, then scientific discounting is likely. For example, there is a common belief that cathartic behaviors (e.g., punching a punching bag) can reduce the frustrations that sometimes lead to aggression. Psychological research, however, has contradicted the catharsis hypothesis, yet the belief remains entrenched, possibly because it has such a strong intuitive appeal. In contrast, people will quickly reveal their lack of expertise on topics in physics or chemistry and have a harder time calling to mind examples from their own lives. Third, there is likely some belief that people’s thoughts and behaviors are less predictable, more mysterious, and affected by more variables than are inanimate objects like chemical molecules, planets in motion, or even the functioning of some parts of the human body (e.g., the kidneys). Furthermore, psychological conclusions are based on probability (e.g., the presence of a particular variable makes a behavior more likely to happen), and probability introduces the kind of ambiguity that makes the conclusions easy to discount. Fourth, some psychological research is perceived to be derived from and possibly biased by a sociopolitical ideology. That is, there is the belief that some psychologists conduct their research with the goal of providing support for some political viewpoint. This is somewhat less common among the “hard sciences” although the controversy over climate change and the researchers who investigate it suggest that if the topic is one that elicits the ingroup-outgroup nature of the cultural divide, then the “hard sciences” are also not immune to the problem of scientific discounting.

I think that the discipline of psychology has already made vast improvements in managing its public impression and is probably held in higher esteem than it was 50 or even 20 years ago. However, continued vigilance is essential against those (both within and outside of the discipline) who contribute to the perception of psychology as something less than science. The field of psychology has much to offer – it can generate important knowledge that can inform public policy and increase people’s health and happiness, but it cannot do so if its scientific conclusions fall on deaf ears."

_________________________________

Munro, G. (2010). The Scientific Impotence Excuse: Discounting Belief-Threatening Scientific Abstracts. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40 (3), 579-600 DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00588.x

The Special Issue Spotter

We trawl the world's journals so you don't have to:

Developmental cascades - Part I and Part II (Development and Psychopathology). From the editorial: 'Given effects that spread over time for some kinds of psychopathology, well-timed and targeted interventions could interrupt negative or promote positive cascades; these efforts may work by counteracting negative cascades, by targeting the reduction of problems in domains that often cascade to cause other problems, or by targeting improvements in competence in domains that increase the probability of better function in other domains.'

Performance Psychology: Theory and Application in Industry, Sports, Human Services, and Behavioral Healthcare (Behaviour Modification).

Genetics, Personalized Medicine, and Behavioral Intervention—Can This Combination Improve Patient Care? (Perspectives on Psychological Science).

The Contributions of Robert Zajonc (Emotion Review). Among many other things, social psychologist Zajonc, who died in 2008, was known for a series of influential experiments on the mere exposure effect.

Identifying effective classwide interventions to promote positive outcomes for all students (Psychology in the Schools).

Sleep disturbances (Journal of Clinical Psychology).

Neurogenetics (Neuron) - free to access until Nov 17.

Language and birdsong (Brain and Language).

Unborn fetuses demonstrate their sociability after just 14 weeks gestation

The idea that humans are social animals has become a truism. Among other things, experts point to the gregarious behaviour of babies - their precocious talents for mimicry and face recognition. What about human behaviour pre-birth? Is that social too? Using what they call the 'experiment of nature' provided by twin fetuses, Umberto Castiello and his team have shown that by the 14th week of gestation, unborn twins are already directing arm movements at each other, and by the 18th week these 'social' gestures have increased to 29 per cent of all observed movements. In contrast, the proportion of self-directed actions reduced over the same period.

Furthermore, the 'kinematics' of the twins' 'caressing' arm movements to each other's head and back were distinct from movements aimed at the uterine wall or at most parts of the their own bodies. That is, the social movements were longer-lasting and slower to decelerate than most other fetal movements, making them similar to the kind of movements fetuses learn to make towards their own eyes. This suggests that the fetuses recognise on some level that there is something special about their twin.

The researchers made their observations using four-dimensional (3-D plus changes over time) ultrasound scans of five women pregnant with twins. These were performed twice for twenty minutes - at the 14th and 18th weeks of gestation.

'The prenatal "social" interactions described in this paper epitomise the congenital propensity for sociality of primates in general and of humans in particular,' the researchers said, 'grounding for the first time such long-held intuition on quantitative empirical results.' Castiello and his colleagues added that further research of this kind could one day reveal the links between social behaviour patterns in the uterus and the later appearance of developmental disorders associated with social impairments.
_________________________________

Castiello, U., Becchio, C., Zoia, S., Nelini, C., Sartori, L., Blason, L., D'Ottavio, G., Bulgheroni, M., and Gallese, V. (2010). Wired to Be Social: The Ontogeny of Human Interaction. PLoS ONE, 5 (10) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013199

New Holiday Candy Bouquets Have Arrived!

Our new sensational candy bouquet designs, especially for the holiday season have now arrived! They are made with indulgent Lindt Lindor and Ferrero choclates. They come in charming holiday themed ceramic pots. Make your holiday party even more spectacular by adding our delectable chocolate bouquets as centrepieces!
Especially for the holiday season: Orders of 10 or more candy bouquet centre pieces receive 10% discount.*
You can also incorporate your party theme or corporate colours to any of our bouquets. Don't find what you are looking for? No worries, we will design a candy bouquet using your theme and budget!

*Some restrictions may apply. Email us at info@finestexpressions.com or call us at 416.904.8658 for further details.

Sago Worms

This post simply compost of one thing I found most fascinating during my last trip to Sarawak.



Sago worms.

The larvae of the Red Palm Weevils - type of beetle. These crawlers feed and live on the trunk of the sago palm trees, most popular in South East Asia.


And to the natives of Borneo, these babies are delicacies.










Ok. If you feel sick by now, I suggest you close or ALT-F4 this window right now, else... brace yourself people, because it's getting wormy.



















I've included all the photos I've ever taken of the Sago Worms in this trip in this post just to prepare of what I am about to post in my next post.

See it as a teaser post, shall we?

Because my challenge on this third trip to Kuching, you know it, was to eat it.

Since the first day I learned about the sago worm almost four years ago, I knew one day it would be my destiny to savour and sample these local delectables grown in our homeland.

What can I say, I was sick, and loved an adventure in the gastronomy side of travelling.


So guys...




Are you ready for an experience of your lives?




Stay tune to my next post. ;)

*nom nom nom*

Free Printable Hanukkah Crafts, Greeting Cards and Decorations

Free Printable Hanukkah Crafts
Hanukkah, Chanukkah, the 'festival of light' is celebrated on the 25th of Kislev in the Jewish calendar. On the western calendar Hanukkah falls near Christmas. Here are free printable Hanukkah crafts: dreidel, gelt, menorah, treats, decorations.
Read More

'Don't do it!' - how your inner voice really does aid self-control

As you stretch for yet another delicious cup cake, the abstemious little voice in your head pleads 'Don't do it!'. Does this self talk really have any effect on your impulse control or is it merely providing a private commentary on your mental life? A new study using a laboratory test of self-control suggests that the inner voice really does help.

Alexa Tullett and Michael Inzlicht had 37 undergrads perform the Go/No Go task. Briefly, this involved one on-screen symbol indicating that a button should be pressed as quickly as possible (the Go command) whilst another indicated that the button press should not be performed (No Go). Because the Go symbol was far more common, participants tended to find it difficult to suppress making a button press on the rare occasions when a No Go command was given. People with more self-control would be expected to make fewer errors of this kind.

Crucially, Tullett and Inzlicht also had the participants perform a secondary task at the same time - either repeating the word 'computer' with their inner voice, or drawing circles with their free hand. The central finding was that participants made significantly more errors on the Go/No Go task (i.e. pressing the button at the wrong times) when they also had to repeat the word 'computer' to themselves, compared with when they had the additional task of drawing circles. This difference was exacerbated during a more difficult version of the Go/No Go task in which the command symbols were periodically switched (so that the Go command became the No Go command and vice versa). It seems that the participants' self-control was particularly compromised when their inner voice was kept busy saying 'computer' so that it couldn't be used to aid self-control.

'By examining performance on a classic self-control task, this study provides evidence that when we tell ourselves to "keep going" on the treadmill, or when we count to ten during an argument, we may be helping ourselves to successfully overcome our impulses in favour of goals like keeping fit, and preserving a relationship,' the researchers said.
_________________________________

Tullett AM, and Inzlicht M (2010). The voice of self-control: Blocking the inner voice increases impulsive responding. Acta psychologica, 135 (2), 252-6 PMID: 20692639

Freelance blogging opportunity

Can you turn scientific research findings into engaging copy suitable for a non-specialist audience? Do you have an interest in occupational psychology?

The British Psychological Society, the learned body that’s represented UK psychology and psychologists since 1901, is seeking a talented writer to edit and compile an Occupational Psychology Research Digest blog and monthly email newsletter. This new project will build on the success of our internationally renowned, awarding-winning Research Digest blog and email.

The appointment will be made on a freelance basis, initially for twelve months. Candidates should have a background in occupational psychology and at least two years’ experience as a writer, preferably online. For a formal job description and further information, contact christianjarrett [@] gmail.com

Application is by CV and three samples of writing, in print or online, to be sent to christianjarrett [@] gmail.com. Deadline 12 Nov.

Asch's conformity study without the confederates

With the help of five to eight 'confederates' (research assistants posing as naive participants), Solomon Asch in the 1950s found that when it came to making public judgments about the relative lengths of lines, some people were willing to agree with a majority view that was clearly wrong.

Asch's finding was hugely influential, but a key criticism has been his use of confederates who pretended to believe unanimously that a line was a different length than it really was. They might well have behaved in a stilted, unnatural manner. And attempts to replicate the study could be confounded by the fact that some confederates will be more convincing than others. To solve these problems Kazuo Mori and Miho Arai adapted the MORI technique (Manipulation of Overlapping Rivalrous Images by polarizing filters; pdf), used previously in eye-witness research. By donning filter glasses similar to those used for watching 3-D movies, participants can view the same display and yet see different things.

Mori and Arai replicated Asch's line comparison task with 104 participants tested in groups of four at a time (on successive trials participants said aloud which of three comparison lines matched a single target line). In each group, three participants wore identical glasses, with one participant wearing a different set, thereby causing them to observe that a different comparison line matched the target line. As in Asch's studies, the participants stated their answers publicly, with the minority participant always going third.

Whereas Asch used male participants only, the new study involved both men and women. For women only, the new findings closely matched the seminal research, with the minority participant being swayed by the majority on an average of 4.41 times out of 12 key trials (compared with 3.44 times in the original). However, the male participants in the new study were not swayed by the majority view.

There are many possible reasons why men in the new study were not swayed by the majority as they were in Asch's studies, including cultural differences (the current study was conducted in Japan) and generational changes. Mori and Arai highlighted another reason - the fact that the minority and majority participants in their study knew each other, whereas participants in Asch's study did not know the confederates. The researchers argue that this is a strength of their new approach: 'Conforming behaviour among acquaintances is more important as a psychological research topic than conforming among strangers,' they said. 'Conformity generally takes place among acquainted persons, such as family members, friends or colleagues, and in daily life we seldom experience a situation like the Asch experiment in which we make decisions among total strangers.'

Looking ahead, Mori and Arai believe their approach will provide a powerful means of re-examining Asch's classic work, including in situations - for example, with young children - in which the use of confederates would not be practical.
_________________________________

Mori, K., and Arai, M. (2010). No need to fake it: Reproduction of the Asch experiment without confederates. International Journal of Psychology, 45 (5), 390-397 DOI: 10.1080/00207591003774485

Chic Pop

*Update* Samples to be given away and contest extended. Read on.

I visited Chic Pop Street Market at TTDI two Sunday ago.

Despite my illness that has been going on for 2 weeks, I decided it was high time I headed out for a walk, much to my baby’s disagreement. So to celebrate of me breaking out of my imprisonment from home, I dressed up for the afternoon.




Sleeveless Tank Top: Topshop
Black Tube: Sub
Pants: Sungei wang
Gucci Indy Bag: Paris Gucci Store
Boots: Clark, UK
Bangles: Penang Airport





The street market was rather busy despite my arriving during the lazy afternoon hour.

Don’t you just love spending your weekend browsing through random cute things that might end up in your shopping bag?


The Sticker Monster Booth



Blinged up glasses by Jolene Lai (owner of Sticker Monster)


It’s one of my favourite past times especially done with my sweetheart.

I registered at the Tongue in Chic counter to get myself some goodie samples before adjourning to wander through the bazaar.




The most eye catching booth at the market was undoubtedly Whisper’s.




Alright to be honest, I was asked to visit the booth. But then again there were a lot of people surrounding the very big rented area by Whisper, which only stirred my curiosity.

Being a typical claustrophobic, especially among crowds, I glided towards the other end of the booth where they were lesser crowds only to return when the ladies on this end subsided.




And there it was, a cute little Whisper photo booth. Awe...

Just for the sake of it, I promptly jotted down my name and had the photographer taken my photo.







Apparently I was also in the running to win a slumber party at Ritz Carlton with four of my friends. Wow… If only I knew, I would have done a really crazy pose. (ok maybe not, I suck at crazy poses)

My photo has already made it to the site! Go check!


They scanned from the photo printed, so the quality didn’t seem that nice.


I could think of lots of things to do with my friends at a swanky hotel with 5 star services at my disposal. Champagne… Chocolates… Strawberries… Pillow with lots of feathers…




And for the other gender’s preference of imagination,




If you weren’t at the Street Market that day and missed the photo opportunity, you can still join the contest by submitting photos of you with your friends to the site before 5th November and check back to see if your photo has made it to the page.

Here’s a print screen on steps to a perfect submission.




My tip? Try photos that represent fun, energy and wild. (That’s what Whisper is all about, isn’t it? Happier period. No restriction.)

Some of the photos submitted are pretty good. In comparison to those, I don’t think I can win but hey… nothing wrong with keeping one’s hope up.

Moving back to the previous booth, the crowd earlier has moved on and it was time for me to have a peep.




Erm… table full of ribbons. What was this?

The lady handed me a Whisper pouch and asked me to create a custom design on the spot, and she would hand me a gift.




I swore I almost died on the spot.

Did that lady just … just… asked me to… sew??




She must be kidding me. I couldn’t sew to save my life!

My mom was a great sewer, my maid could sew just about anything, my aunt was a tailor for god’s sake! And growing up among these talents meant I never needed to touch so much a needle, least to say to CREATE a design?!




But I convinced myself, it couldn’t be that bad. Afterall, it’s just a couple of buttons and ribbons and glittery things on a tiny pouch, how hard could it be.




Perhaps I’d just randomly throw in a few simple blings on top of the pouch and patch them together with strings, done and done.




MUCH (and I say this with regret) to my despair, after a desperate 15 minutes attempt and two crystals cut off later, baby took over the still very bare pouch, shoving me aside. T_T


Sad face





“I can sew” he claimed.

Shaming me to non-existent as a woman who couldn’t even handle her needles, so I watched, with worshipful glint in my eyes as my baby expertly picked up a needle and folded the pouch over his hand.




And he sewed.

And sewed.




And…

And……

He failed.

FHL.


“It’s harder than I thought, my hands are too big!” he wailed.

Wtf. I thought he said he could sew. (apparently only with buttons and shirts)

I could take back my worshipping comment now thank you. FML


“Now we’ll never get the gift” I sighed.



More sad face.


So with ONE LAST TRY (determined), I decided to get SOMETHING, ANYTHING on to that pouch.




I started off with a dozen designs on my head.

And half an hour and struggling at the booth, and with more people swarming in and squeezing for space to sew, it was time for desperate measure.

Any design at this moment was good.

A quick 5 minutes later, I was DONE!




Simplicity at its best!

God I was so happy!

I finally got a button sewed ON! All on my own!




I don’t care what anyone would say, I am damn proud of my creation. ^^




And I got my gift!




Weee….

It’s a 40cm long overnight Whisper pad for heavy flows.







Wow I’ve never actually seen such a HUGE pad before. I wished they had this when I was 13 and always had a problem in overnight leaks.

The pad was long enough to cover till the hip ends so those sneaky blood couldn’t escape!

I wouldn’t need to suffer so much embarrassment and save me the trouble of worrying that I might wake up staining the entire bed, so much to the point I didn’t dare to shift when I was falling sleeping.

With this, a girl could have an easy mind falling asleep.

Anyway, 10 samples of the Whisper Overnight to be given away to 10 readers who leave their comments describing themselves in one word (e.g. fresh/vibrant). Remember to leave your blog url in the comment too.

And the Contest has also been extended to 28th November so keep on submitting your photos to the site.

Till then, have a happy overnight period!