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Eric March

Just your average red-blooded, all-American transit geek and musical theater fanatic. If you want to chat about dedicated bus rapid transit lanes or why "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" is actually a comedy song and not a ballad, join me on Facebook or Twitter.

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Women share the unbelievable ways they were treated on planes for being fat

"The most important thing that fellow passengers can do is just acknowledge the humanity of the people they're traveling with."

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Plane rides can be a dehumanizing experience for many

Before moving to London to pursue a degree in anthropology, Stacy Bias had to decide if it was worth getting on the airplane.

"As a woman over 300 pounds, flying was pretty anxious for me," Bias says. Over the years, Bias came to fear being stared at, subjected to rude comments from seatmates, or asked to purchase an extra seat. The anxiety got so bad that at one point, she stopped flying altogether.

With a little determination and encouragement from her partner, who had recently relocated to the U.K., Bias faced down the fear and got on the plane to London. Soon after, she started a Facebook group to offer discussion, support, and tips to other fat travelers who had encountered similar roadblocks. The group quickly grew to nearly 4,000 members and Bias, in conjunction with a research project for her undergraduate dissertation, presented the group with a survey, encouraging members to share their experiences in the air.

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Health

19 musicals that are not only catchy—they could help with dementia, according to science

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

Photo by Jordhan Madec on Unsplash

A picture taken of the Broadway street sign in New York City.

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

A study of nursing home patients found that residents who sang show tunes — specifically from "Oklahoma!" "The Wizard of Oz," and "The Sound of Music" — demonstrated increased mental performance, according to a report in the New York Daily News:

"Researchers working with elderly residents at an East Coast care home found in a four-month long study ... that people who sang their favorite songs showed a marked improvement compared to those who just listened."

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Archivists from around the world share their most unique finds—and some are super weird

Tiny books, presidential chairs, iconic dresses and more.

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The world is full of so many cool things.

This article originally appeared on 10.05.17

Ever wondered what goes on in a library's dark corners, where you aren't allowed to go?

Wonder no more, thanks to The Society of American Archivists' Ask an Archivist Day.

On Oct. 4, 2017, university, corporate, and museum archivists around the world dug out the coolest, rarest, and weirdest items in their collections, photographed them, and put the results on Twitter.

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Education

Scientists studied the bones of ancient women, and we might need to rethink 'women's work'

Women of the Bronze Age were anything but weak.

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Certainly not the story we've been taught to believe

Think about the illustrations you've seen of men and women of the Bronze Age who lived thousands of years ago.

Perhaps there's one you recall from your elementary school text book — in which men are probably depicted hurling bronze spears and strangling lions with their bare hands, while the women are most likely pictured leading children around, sifting through grapes or weaving tiny reeds into baskets (presumably to hold the fruits of their husbands' labor).

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Eric March

Love songs are where we get our passion, our soul — and most of our worst ideas.

Love songs are where we get our passion, our soul — and most of our worst ideas.

1. "God Only Knows," by The Beach Boys

2. "Treasure," by Bruno Mars

3. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," by Bob Dylan

4. "Leaving on a Jet Plane," by John Denver

5. "When a Man Loves a Woman," Percy Sledge

6. "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You," Heart

But there is a love song that is truly, madly, deeply perfect. An unassailable track in a sea of problematic faves.

"Candy Shop," by 50 Cent, featuring Olivia

So here it is. Here's why "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent, featuring Olivia, is actually the perfect relationship song:

Yet another reason why we need more equality.

For a long time, researchers believed that male animals were better for trials of new medicine.

The problem is, when you test primarily on male animals, you're making medicine that's more likely to be effective for, well, men.

If genes express themselves differently depending on the sex of the animal, the researchers found, so do some genetic diseases.

Male animal-bias also means drugs that work better for women might not even make it into testing to begin with.

The thing is, women are half of us. We like them.

There's been some progress toward making medical experiments more equitable, at least where human subjects are concerned.

Ultimately, more comprehensive research benefits us all — men and women.

"The most important thing that fellow passengers can do is just acknowledge the humanity of the people they're traveling with."

"The goal of the animation is to humanize fat people," Bias explains.

For smaller people, one person's ability sit comfortably in an airplane seat may seem trivial. But for Bias' subjects, it's anything but.

Bias believes the solution to the problem starts with standardizing customer size policies across the industry and creating more accessible spaces on aircraft.

In the meantime, she hopes the film helps smaller flyers understand the frustration and helplessness their fat counterparts often feel in a space where cruelty can sometimes erupt subtly and without warning.

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

1. The one about remembering the good old days.

2. The one about remembering a parade that probably never happened.

3. The one about remembering a really fun trip you took to a medium-sized Midwestern city.

4. The one about remembering how fun it was to murder that guy that one time...

5. The one about remembering the questionable choices it's too late to go back in time and not make.

6. The one about remembering the little things.

7. The one about remembering the worst day of your life.

8. The one about remembering things differently than everyone else around you.

9. The one about remembering that cute girl you just met like five seconds ago.

10. The one about remembering all the worst things from when you were a kid, and one kind-of-OK thing.

11. The one about remembering old hobbies.

12. The one about remembering watching a dude die on the battlefield and feeling feelings about it.

13. The one about remembering the best four years of your life.

14. The one about remembering some A-plus advice from your best friend.

15. The one about remembering last Christmas.

16. The one about remembering everything and realizing how terrible it all was.

17. The one about remembering the first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up.

18. The one about remembering a nice dream you dreamed.

19. The one about remembering your single greatest regret and vowing to never remember it again.

20. The one about remembering a really successful first date.

21. The one about remembering a scary dream.

22. The one about remembering how it used to be when you were young and full of hope instead of old and bitter and jaded.

23. The one about remembering.

Tiny books, presidential chairs, iconic dresses and more.

Ever wondered what goes on in a library's dark corners, where you aren't allowed to go?

1. Small items. Very small items. Like a Bible so tiny that it has a magnifying glass with it for reading.

2. And a barely-bigger-than-a-quarter book about birds, published during the deadliest year of the Civil War.

3. Or this one of three women in West Virginia, rocking the slickest hats of 1908.

4. A folding chair used by Barack Obama.

5. Dirt from the grave of a well-known American writer.

6. A Roman-era coin, depicting either a man in a helmet or a curious understanding of human anatomy.

7. A photo of a sailor whose ship vanished in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918.

8. And one of of other World War I sailors giddily posing on top of two ginormous battleship guns.

9. A child's sketch of a groundbreaking concept car — complete with a built-in kitchen and a 300 mph top speed.

10. A legal document drawn up in 14th century France.

11. A pioneering, ultra-glittery work of feminist art.

12. A photo of fashion designer Ann Lowe, the woman who designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress.

13. A script for a rarely heard "Empire Strikes Back" radio play.

14. An image of rows and rows of classic radiator shells waiting to be installed at a Depression-era Pontiac plant.

15. A handwritten letter from Sigmund Freud.

16. Ancient technology.

17. Proof that Queen Elizabeth II is apparently a secret football fan.

18. A memo warning campus police about an upcoming Ozzy Osborne concert, citing the singer's involvement with "abuse of animals" and "alleged satanic groups."

19. And why, if you want to see more, you'll have to visit a library or archive in person.

Researchers set out to study this question — and walked away with some really fascinating new data.

The question they posed: Do people who have limited access to TV have different beauty ideals than those who watch more frequently?

It's really hard to study this because there aren't a lot of places left in the world that don't have access to Western media.

But there are some. And that's where the researchers went.

Researchers found a remote village with little TV access and asked participants there to react to various images of women's bodies of different sizes.

The result? Participants in the village with the least media access preferred bodies with a higher body mass index on average than those in the urban area and more connected village.

There are caveats, of course.

But it's real data. And it does suggest that perhaps we're not hardwired to find smaller bodies attractive.

Most importantly, it's evidence that there's nothing inherently attractive about weighing less, and nothing inherently unattractive about weighing more.

Women of the Bronze Age were anything but weak.