Ringtones of the (definitely not) Rich and (slightly) Famous

Ringtones define a relationship.  What you designate as the official fanfare of an incoming call announces the conscious (or unconscious) reflection of your interpersonal connections.

Through some clever sleuth-work, your PLB team has identified, deduced, or simply guessed the ringtones currently employed by faculty members in the department.

1) Marlene Behrmann’s ringtone on David Plaut’s phone: When A Man Love’s A Woman, Michael Bolton.


* We here at the PLB celebrate Michael Bolton’s entire catalogue.

2) Ken Kotovsky’s ringtone for anyone: Christmas Song, The Chipmunks 

3) Lynne Reder’s ringtone on John Anderson’s phone: She Blinded Me With Science, Thomas Dolby

4) Anna Fisher’s ringtone on Ken Koedinger’s phone: From Russia With Love

5) David Rakison’s ringtone for himself: Baby Love, The Supremes

6) Tim Verstynen’s ringtone on Sheldon Cohen’s phone: Suit & Tie, Justin Timberlake

7) Any post-doc’s ringtone on any faculty member’s phone: Get a Job, The Silhouettes

8) Any faculty member on any post-doc’s phone: Chain Gang, Sam Cooke

9)  Erik Thiessen’s, David’ Rakison’s, and John Opfer’s ringtone for each other: The Three Amigos Salute.

10)  Any faculty member on Mike Scheier’s phone: Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, Steam

Fundamental PLB Changes Underway

What follows is an important announcement from your PLB editor.

Given numerous complaints regarding the PLB’s tone and tasteless jokes, the editorial board has decided it is time to change the PLB’s focus completely.

From here on out the PLB will no longer post tongue-in-cheek stories about the trials and tribulations of the Dept. of Psychology. Instead we will focus on leveraging the distributed power of the internet to maximize communication of scientific ideas coming out of the department. Think less The Onion and more Wall Street Journal.

This change in tone may come as a shock to many faithful PLB readers (all 3 of them… Rakison, Holt & Thiessen); however, to reduce potential libel complaints from offended individuals these structural changes were deemed necessary and urgent.

In order to facilitate these changes the PLB will be working with John Anderson’s group to optimize the PLB posting process through their Automated Perceptual Regressive Information Logic and Foundational Open Optimality Learning Systems initiative. Stay tuned for more details.

PLB Caption Contest

A PLB user sent along this photo of our soon-to-be-exiting Dean. Notice the long tunnel and the illumination at the end? Was too good to pass up for a caption contest (apologies for the small image size… it’s the only version we could find).

So have at it folks. Enter your suggested captions in the comments. Winner gets a candy bar from your PLB editor.