Well, clearly the above could be answered in a single word, with one syllable and two letters, but hey, let's give it a chance. A strange amount of tarnish has fallen from the pens of certain newspapers on "social networking websites". Often the example they use is Facebook, presumably because it's the biggest, baddest and all, with a population of considerably more than quite some countries using it.

There seem to be a couple of main stories, both of which could be plot-lines for a horror film.

Apparently it's not just the Poorhouse who upon receiving an email that that features some handwriting-esque cursive font has a physical inability to be arsed to read it, let alone act on it. Of course this produces issues here and there with his corporate masters, but then again, so does the policy of auto-binning anything marked with the red exclamation mark of urgency.

Anyhow, this month's Scientific American reports results of an interesting study on the psychology of typeface. Now, that description makes it sound really fascinating, doesn't it?

Whilst doing his usual hardened research into what substances can be semi-legitimately used to water down beer should his nearest and dearest get a bit too greedy, the Poorhouse came across a fabulous booze study. Any study whose published write-up includes:

Our first three experiments were conducted at two local pubs: The Muddy Charles and The Thirsty Ear.

can't go far wrong.

Hard to know how to approach this product…is it a massive scam, the likes of which you’d need big big balls to even attempt, or a fascinating and medically beneficial play on the weirdness that is human psychology (and perhaps even physiology)?

Enter the cunning wonder that is… Obecalp. Yep, Obecalp. D’ya geddit?

Researching the mental effects of chemicals on humans is notoriously difficult and complicated, not least because of the immense amount of ways that a certain person may react to any given substance, the huge number of external factors that may be involved in a psychological outcome, and the difficulty in quantifiably measuring many mental effects. Add to this the sometimes extreme politicisation and bias of results that comes when researching controversial topics like the use of illegal drugs and one can see that researching the mental effects of banned-but-fun substances is especially troublesome.

This trouble is often seen in mass-media reports of such experiments. Often, presumably in order to make the "news" exciting and dramatic for their readers the "shock horror - you will die if you even look at illegal drugs" conclusions are heightened to the max, and any opposing conclusions, grey areas and other interpretations of the same data are ignored. Not only does this undermine any sensible attempt at presenting results with potentially important public health conclusions to the public at large, but research suggests that it could be this very style of reporting that causes some of the mental problems it shouts about so loudly.

The Poorhouse was recently reading a study that showed just how illogical people are, even when the logicalness at first sight seems simplistic to adhere to. Furthermore, it specifically concerning the topic of risk assessment of major terrorist attacks, there are present and clear dangers as to decision makers falling prey to such logicalities.

Not only do we not really want to get blown up by being silly enough to ignore the risk, it is also vital not to think too much of the risk given certain politicians' likings for discarding civil liberties and instilling military-rule-esque regimes amongst the poor, innocent, ignorant civilian population that we apparently consist of. As a bonus, it also shows how the potential bias inherent in survey responses needs to be taken with even more seriousness than the average layperson might think.

Although no specific memory is held, there is every chance the Poorhouse has been called a "cockroach" in his short time on this planet so far. There is, as a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found, at least one obvious similarity.

Both have brains that really do not work well in the morning.

Isabella: probably not her nameThe Poorhouse is never one to be over-quick on the uptake, whether this be in reality or in the strange webworld your brain is currently hooked into. To prove the point, then here is a story from a month ago designed to commemorate an event not so different in duration ago - namely the blissful birth of faux-niece baby Susie. For the 99.9% of readers for whom the shout-out means nothing, read on anyway. What do you have to lose?

Everyone knows the best thing about having a baby is you get to choose its name. For sure they can go on to legally change it, but you have at least a few years to laugh hysterically about how your baby's initials spell out a rude word, or that their name is Cockney slang for a toilet and so on. Even those parents who aren't out to give their kids hell need to be a spot careful though in name-selection according to research from Professor Figlio. Especially if you have a career in mind for your darling offspring.

More in the world of wild 'n' wacky experiments...first we learned how to make the world's finest bacon sandwich. Now it's time to concoct an experiment that involves making "volunteers" sit down and watch an especially filthy episode of one of the few TV programmes so bad the Poorhouse doesn't avidly watch it - Sex in the City.

Spot the differenceIn these days of supposed post-ideology, end-of-history, post-modernism and other such jibberish nihilistically contemporary sounding phrases, it is perhaps not surprisingly that David Cameron, leader of the UK conservative party and vlogger-extraordinaire, doesn't know his left from his right. But last week the possibility came to light that it wasn't just politically speaking that he was directionally challenged by.

The BBC, as ever sticking rigidly to its charter to sustain citizenship, promote education and stimulate cultural excellence reported last week at length the hair-raising news that Davey-boy had change the alignment...having now started to part his hair on the left as opposed to the right. Shock!