Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them.  From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch.  By the way, much (but not all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page.  If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!

TSA’s secret Terrorist Behavior Checklist!

Back in 2012 we told you about the FBI’s CAT Program, which taught us that terrorists were lurking in beauty shops and scuba shops, or doing suspicious things like protecting their computer passwords.  Well, they’ve been passing on their wisdom to the TSA, who just issued a their own list of innocent behavior that means you have a deep down desire to blow up planes.  Last time you were at the airport, did you yawn, stare, whistle, or rub your hands? Did you complain about the intrusive and useless airport screening process? THEN YOU MAY BE A TERRORIST! No, seriously, these are just a few of the things on the list!

Why do we recommend Toyotas?

When it comes time for our clients to buy a new vehicle they often ask for our advice.  We recommend Toyotas and Hondas far above any other models because we feel they are the best balance of value, dependability, price, safety, comfort, and environmental impact available on the market today.  Toyota trucks in particular are legendary for their indestructibility, and one of our techs passed along this graphic demonstration of why.  The British TV show “Top Gear” tried to destroy a typical Toyota truck and recorded the results.  SPOILER ALERT:  The truck survives falling into the ocean and being set on fire, among other things.  But does it survive a 23-story drop in a building implosion?  Check out the video…

Can you DRIVE from New York to London?

You may be proud of your road trip from Portland to San Francisco.  Your college road trip to Juarez may be the stuff of legend.  But this may be the ultimate road trip… DRIVING west from New York, all the way to London!  Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin recently proposed a plan for a multi-nation, multi-continental project to build a highway that would start in New York, go through Alaska and across a to-be-built Bering Straits crossing, through Russia and into Moscow, and from there across Europe and into London.  Total trip?  Slightly under 13,000 miles.

Hidden tricks of powerful persuasion

Are we all just puppets on a string? Most people would like to assume that they are free agents, that their fate lies in their own hands… but they’d be wrong. Often, we are as helpless as a marionette, being jerked about by someone else’s subtle influence.  We do their bidding yet believe it was our idea all along.  “We’re finding more and more in psychology that lots of the decisions we make are influenced by things we are not aware of,” says Jay Olson at McGill University in Quebec, Canada – who recently created an ingenious experiment showing just how easily we are manipulated by the gentlest persuasion. The question is, can we learn to spot those tricks, and how can we use them to our own advantage?