In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: You Probably Use Online Reviews Wrong These Are the Best Guard Dog Breeds, According to Science Why Does It Hurt to Get Water Up Your Nose? How Much Of Your Body Is Water? That All Depends.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/best-guard-dog-breeds-why-water-in-your-nose-hurts-and-how-to-use-online-reviews
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you'll learn why it hurts to get water up your nose, how you probably use online reviews wrong, and what the best guard dog breeds are according to science.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, how much do you use online reviews?
CODY GOUGH: All the time.
ASHLEY HAMER: Me too.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: When I'm traveling, it gets me in trouble with the people I'm traveling with.
ASHLEY HAMER: Why?
CODY GOUGH: Because I only like, [GIBBERISH] what's the closest cool restaurant? And they're just like, dude, just look around and try something.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: I'm bad.
ASHLEY HAMER: Look up from your phone.
CODY GOUGH: I'm overly reliant on them.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. I mean, they're useful.
CODY GOUGH: It has stopped me from purchasing things on like Amazon that are not great if they have really poor reviews.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, today's top story is research that says you might be doing that wrong.
CODY GOUGH: Uh-oh.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's say that you see two reviews, and they both have two stars. Not super great, right? But those are the only options. So one has 500 reviews, and the other one only has 25 reviews. So which one is more likely to be a good experience?
According to research, people across the board will pick the product with more reviews, but the number of reviews is not a sign of how good the product is. It just indicates how accurate the average rating is. This is statistics, right?
Think about it. If you're shopping on Amazon, then statistically a two-star product with 5,000 reviews is more likely to be two-star quality than a two-star product with five reviews. So you should choose the product with fewer reviews because the rating is more likely to be wrong.
CODY GOUGH: Right. Because 5,000 people agree it's two stars versus just maybe five or six.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Just a few crabby people who rated that one. So don't listen to them. But I mean, it's like if your friends all jumped off a bridge, then would you? We humans tend to go with the flow because of a thing called social proof, and we've got a lot of learning to do. Read the full details about this research today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
CODY GOUGH: Pro tip, you should be particularly wary of online reviews of tech products.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, yeah?
CODY GOUGH: Like a modem or a router, let's say. I had a router that was a really fancy, advanced router, but it's not user friendly. It's not an entry-level thing. So for my more advanced use, it was great. But if you actually read the one-star reviews, it's mostly people that clearly don't really know how to use a computer.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, that makes sense.
CODY GOUGH: And don't know how to network. So you have to take into account the technical knowledge of what people are doing. One piece of computer technology to an IT professional could be really great. But if you're just trying to sell it to somebody that doesn't know what they're doing, well, they're not going to give it a great review.
ASHLEY HAMER: Makes sense.
CODY GOUGH: All right, Ashley. What's your favorite breed of guard dog?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, pass.
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES] You don't do dog breeds?
ASHLEY HAMER: I don't do dog breeds.
CODY GOUGH: I don't either. When people are like, oh, what's your dog breed? Oh, it's a Schnauzer, terrier, shepherd mix. I don't know any of those things.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. I mean, if I'm going to get a dog, I'm going to go to a shelter and get the cute one and bring it home.
CODY GOUGH: Where do people learn that stuff?
ASHLEY HAMER: I don't know. I don't know.
CODY GOUGH: This is yet another example of how maybe I'm not a dog person. But I got to tell you. Whenever I pet a Golden Retriever, I'm the happiest person on the planet.
ASHLEY HAMER: They're cute. I know what those are, and they're cute.
CODY GOUGH: Right. I couldn't tell you a single other dog. But anyway, researchers from the US Agriculture Department's National Wildlife Research Center recently named the top three guard dogs according to science. By best, we mean the best breeds at keeping coyotes and wolves away from herds of sheep while also being gentle with those sheep and with children, the three winners are all fluffy, cute, and big-- weighing up to 140 pounds.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. They're also not American breeds, and the pronunciation could be a minefield.
ASHLEY HAMER: Here we go.
CODY GOUGH: So I'm going to do my best. They are Portugal's Cao de Gado Transmontano, Bulgaria's Karakachan, and Turkey's Kangal. For the study, 120 dogs were sent to guard 65 herds in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon. And after a few years, those breeds did a good job of keeping wolves away, and they did better than traditional guard dogs at keeping coyotes at bay.
According to Julie Young, a Utah-based research biologist with the US Agriculture Department's National Wildlife Research Center, sheep producers would get the biggest benefit from having a mix of dog breeds, some that hang out by the sheep and others that patrol the borders. You can keep your land safe and adorable at the same time.
ASHLEY HAMER: Aww. Cody, do you remember the first time you got pool water up your nose?
CODY GOUGH: Yes, because it hurt badly.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's an awful feeling.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I never wanted to get into a pool again. I probably cried because I was probably two or three and screaming and freaking out. I was like, oh, bloody murders. It's the worst thing that's ever happened in my life. It might have been at that point.
ASHLEY HAMER: Probably. Well, today Curiosity wanted to answer the question, why does it hurt so much when you get pool water up your nose? Yeah, Curiosity, not our managing editor who got pool water up her nose that morning and decided to pitch an idea in the pitch meeting.
CODY GOUGH: Sure. [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, [CHUCKLES] the answer comes down to chemistry. Your body is up to 78% water, depending on your age, your build, your gender. We have an article all about that. But that water isn't pure. The water that fills your cells contains just under 1% sodium chloride. That's not as salty as seawater, which has an average salinity of 3.5%, but it is saltier than pool water. And that is important.
Now think about chemistry class, specifically osmosis. That's when molecules move through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution to a more concentrated solution to balance out the concentration on each side. Well, the cells of your nose are protected by a semipermeable membrane. If the water that goes in through your nose has a lower salt concentration than the 1% in your body's cells, guess what happens? Water shoots through those cell walls to try to balance out that concentration, and you end up with that awful feeling you only seem to get with a nose full of pool water, or even lake water because that's not salty either.
Now let's say you're using a neti pot or a nasal spray. That's made with a certain salt concentration, and that concentration might be higher than the concentration in your nose. Osmosis works there too, except this time, it'll remove water from your nasal cells. You can read more details about the chemistry behind this today on curiosity.com, along with everything else we talked about today.
CODY GOUGH: That's all for today, but Curiosity has big plans for the weekend. What can you learn about this weekend, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: This weekend, you'll learn about how you can actually catch up on lost sleep, why Australia has bubble-gum-pink lakes, a breathing technique to help you survive impossible temperatures, five LGBT scientists who changed the world, how to repel mosquitoes-- and spoiler alert, it's not by using citronella-- and more.
CODY GOUGH: We'll be back Sunday for another hilarious but educational Sunday edition. If there's something you're curious about, then email us your question at podcast@curiosity.com, and Ashley might answer your question on our Sunday show or another show. We've been getting a lot of questions and doing one a week, we're not going to get through them very fast. So stay tuned to the Curiosity Daily all week long, and your question might be answered on a future episode.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. You never know what you're going to get. One more time, our email address is podcast@curiosity.com. Join us again Sunday to learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough. Have a great weekend.
ASHLEY HAMER: And stay curious.
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.