About Cristen Conger

Cristen Conger

Raised on a steady diet of Technicolor musicals and library books, Cristen Conger always wanted to be a writer when she grew up. While working toward her journalism degree at the University of Georgia, she learned to avoid starry-eyed statements about childhood dreams and stick to hard facts. After graduating, Cristen decided she'd spent enough time chasing down REM band members in Athens and hitched up the road to Atlanta and HowStuffWorks.com. Childhood dream now fulfilled, she writes on a variety of topics each week and co-hosts the "Stuff Mom Never Told You" podcast with Molly Edmonds.

Most Recent: Cristen Conger Postings

How to Shop Wisely on Black Friday

by Cristen Conger

November 18, 2009
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Pardon me if this post seems premature, but thanks to my dear sister/model of Supermomdom, holiday shopping is already on my mind. Earlier this week, she cheerily told me that she plans to have all – yes, all – of her holiday gifts purchased by Sunday.

Hearing that immediately summoned flashbacks from last-minute shopping fiascos of yore, set to the soundtrack of “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime.” But the thing is, while my sis might seem crazy to go holiday shopping before we’ve stuffed ourselves with Thanksgiving turkey, she’s going to be the one laughing all the way to the bank. Wal-mart, for instance, just announced that it’s offering super savings for the Saturday before Thanksgiving to lure thrifty shoppers. Sears has been offering “holiday” doorbuster sales since the first Saturday of November.

by Cristen Conger

November 16, 2009
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Last week, I wrote about the concept of “dysrationalia,” or the divide between general intelligence and razor-sharp applied thinking that makes someone truly smart. Reading about IQ testing and other types of standardized testing got me thinking about Mensa, the club for geniuses founded in 1946. I was curious about how you go about getting your foot in the door, since the organization only allows the brightest of the bright into its inner sanctum.

As it turns out, Mensa is surprisingly easy to join — as long as you have a knack for test taking.

by Cristen Conger

November 12, 2009
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Just because someone has a sky-high IQ doesn’t necessarily mean that person is “smart,” at least according to a recent article in the New Scientist. The article author (as distinguished from yours truly, so please direct your political commentary elsewhere) uses President George W. Bush as the example of someone who is, inarguably, an intelligent person, with a reported IQ above 120. But when it comes to smarts, as in analytical thinking, problem-solving and the like, many faulted Bush for falling short. Writing for Scientific American, Keith Stanovich a psychologist at the University of Toronto calls that disconnect between intelligence and smarts, “dysrationalia.”

Stanovich, along with some other cognitive psychologists and researchers, thinks IQ testing is long overdue for a makeover since it doesn’t address types of critical thinking skills that make someone honest-to-goodness smart.

by Cristen Conger

November 10, 2009
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The HowStuffWorks vending machine is small treasure trove of such delicacies as TGI Friday’s potato skins, Chex mix and a revolving variety of Doritos. When I’m in desperate need of a mid-afternoon snack, I usually spring for the salted peanuts, telling myself that they’re a marginally healthy option. Suffice to say, I try to avoid the calorie-laden temptations.

After looking at foodie designer Emilie Baltz’s collection of office junk food “gourmet” recipes posted on Core77, I might have to give the snack machine another go, however.

by Cristen Conger

November 6, 2009
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While chatting with a friend the other day, our conversation meandered its way to the subject of idioms. Specifically, how it’s virtually impossible to literally translate idioms into different languages and have any hope of conveying the original meaning. When learning a new language, slang and idioms are generally things that you pick up along the way once the linguistic puzzle pieces start fitting together snugly in your brain.

But since it’s Friday and I scarcely have time to become multilingual before the weekend commences, I decided to explore how different figures of speech change and shift in different languages. So for fun, take a gander at this sampler platter of select idioms and how their meanings translate in other languages and cultures.

by Cristen Conger

November 4, 2009
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For the first time in five years, NASA has assembled a top-notch team of nine future astronauts – out of an applicant pool of 3,500 – for its Constellation program to reach the (been-there-done-that) moon to and (fingers-crossed) Mars. Flying into deep space means that not only will the journey last much longer than the usual space gig, but the Martian terrain and potential obstacles, i.e. asteroids, are also different from prior missions. For that hearty Gang of Nine, it means amped up training.

Popular Science reported on the revamped “astronaut boot camp” that the astronaut hopefuls (they won’t become full-fledged spacemen until 2011) began this fall, complete with the standard underwater anti-gravity labs, G-force altitude chambers and flight simulators. But the physical training will be more intensive than usual to prepare the trainees’ bodies for the extreme toll of spending extensive time in space and high radiation exposure.

by Cristen Conger

November 2, 2009
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It isn’t too hard to successfully pull off a handshake or fist bump, but executing a crisp high five is another matter. Not only can hand-eye coordination fail, leaving high fivers swatting at air, but if you don’t slap hands at just the right spot, the auditory effect is lackluster. I, for one, have fallen prey to such pitiful high fives in the past – that is, until my brother-in-law passed along an invaluable tip for making a sharp, satisfying high five every time.

by Cristen Conger

October 29, 2009
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A couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a nice gentleman who mentioned that he has a hard time remembering names since he meets so many people, and they all start to run together at some point. Curious as to how his social life facilitates such a revolving door of new acquaintances, I asked him why he knows such an impressive herd of people. To that he responded that he’s something of a “micro-celebrity” in our fair city.

Maybe it’s because I had never met a self-described “micro-celebrity” before, but I considered it fairly audacious of him to make such a claim to a perfect stranger. The conversation also took an awkward turn when I had never heard of his micro-celebrity-making venture, and he looked visibly crestfallen.

by Cristen Conger

October 27, 2009
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I recently StumbledUpon-ed a 2003 Telegraph column written by Richard Wiseman, experimental psychologist and author of “The Luck Factor.” Since 1994, Wiseman has studied the differences between people who consider themselves lucky and unlucky to understand the types of behaviors and attitudes that set the two groups apart. After tracking 400 or so participants for years, Wiseman concluded that unlucky people aren’t merely dealt a poor hand by fate. Instead, he posits that bad luck is largely a product of negative thoughts and actions.

by Cristen Conger

October 23, 2009
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Plenty of things can trigger a headache. With migraines, for instance, the culprit could be anything from birth control pills to chocolate to cured meats. But according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the most common source of head pain is ice cream. About a third of the population gets “brain freezes” from eating ice cream, which commonly last around 10 to 20 seconds but can persist for up to 5 minutes.

I’m part of that brain freeze population. As a kid, my mom used to take my siblings and me to a pharmacy soda fountain that sold enormous 25-cent scoops of ice cream. Dripping cones of strawberry cheesecake, chocolate peanut butter or butter pecan ice cream were the highlights of my week. That is, until I ended up doubled over and clutching my aching forehead, stricken once again by an ice cream headache.