Body Language Reveals Wealth

A flashy handbag or Armani suit can signal a person's wealth, but so can their body language, according to a new study. People of higher socioeconomic status are more rude when conversing with others.

Psychologists Michael Kraus and Dacher Keltner
of the University of California, Berkeley, videotaped pairs of
undergraduate students who were strangers to one another, during
one-on-one interviews. In total, 100 undergraduate students
participated.

The researchers then looked for I'm interested" gestures, including laughter and raising of the eyebrows

The higher SES students fidgeted with nearby objects for an average of
two seconds, while those from lower SES backgrounds almost never
fidgeted during the 60-second clips. Upper SES students also groomed
themselves for short stints while lower SES students didn't. Rather,
the lower SES students nodded their heads, peacock's tail, the seemingly snooty gestures of higher SES students indicates modern society's version of "I'm fit," and "I don't need you."

"In the animal world, conflict arises when you're battling for status.
So it's adaptive for us to avoid those conflicts and tell us we know
'I'm higher status than you, so don't bother having a conflict with
me,'" Kraus figures.

Lower SES individuals can't afford to brush off others. "Lower SES
people have fewer resources, and by definition should be more dependent
on others," Kraus said.

The research is detailed in the January issue of the journal Psychological Science.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090210/sc_livescience/bodylanguagerevealswealth

Someone in Kansas is a little crazy or just has too much $

I was looking @ prices for some HDMI cables last night. I found this guy's review of a $220 cable. I thought it was pretty funny, especially the part about the $100 bottle of finishing polish for CDs that lasts for 30 CDs. WTF?

"This is the best cable EVER! I have been an audiophile ever since I quit being all my other 'philes'. I have dedicated my time to be the best audiophile I can. So much so that I bought all the Best Buys around me out of these cables because I need as many as I can get! Until now I've only used mercury filled, oxygen free, silver tinned, foil braded, tekflexed cables. They have been so good to me and my ears. But now i get this cable to go from my dvd player to my tv. It makes my tv sound like its a 5.1 system with full subs and all the Bose tweeters hooked up in a wall all in parallel. The best I've ever heard. They did however get better when I hung them upside down for a few hours to let the electrons flow back down into the right orientation and direction. The I squirted some pure silver induced harmonizing fluid into the connector tips. This makes the connection so sweet and keeps the electrons from escaping when you are using them.
I only play movies and cds that have had their edges trimmed to 35 degrees. This allows the laser to relax and play better. I also rub my cds with a super special finishing polish that is $100 a bottle. Unfortunately it only lasts for 30 cds. I always unplug and turn off everything in the house that I can besides the tv and my audiophile ps3 that I have modded with extra resistors and capacitors to make "open it up". It gives it much better air and ambiance than it did before. But do beware. There are some serious scams out there that do nothing. But my super super tweeter is not a scam. It plays way above the human hearing threshold, but its purpose isn't to make music its to condition the sound on the line and that is exactly what it does! no more background noise, cross talk, and definitely more depth and breadth.
I highly recommend these cables for everything! you must use as many as you can to make sure all the data gets transmitted. My cable box has three HDMI plugs so I ran all three to the tv and get over 5x the clarity than I did with just one."