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Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
Posted on: August 27, 2007 8:12 PM, by Benjamin Cohen
It's Franz-Xaver Messerschmidt's The Yawner (model), circa 1778-1783
Did it make you yawn?
We'll take a tally.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/49120
Comments
Nope, but that's weird because I'll sometimes READ the word yawn and I'll feel the urge to stretch out my arms and open wide.
Posted by: Timon | August 27, 2007 8:32 PM
Yes.
Posted by: Hank Roberts | August 27, 2007 8:40 PM
me, no. My wife, yes.
Posted by: wjg | August 27, 2007 9:06 PM
yep, and almost instantly
Posted by: CanuckRob | August 27, 2007 9:55 PM
No - I thought he was yelling.
Posted by: Natalie | August 27, 2007 10:08 PM
Nope, I thought he was screaming too.
Posted by: cephyn | August 27, 2007 10:26 PM
Nope, I saw it as screaming.
When you _wrote_ that it was a yawn, I could feel a proto-yawn forming. Easily surpressed, but more than the sculpture did.
Posted by: Stephen | August 27, 2007 10:46 PM
No. I didn't realize it was supposed to be a yawn until I read the caption (a similar response as that described by Stephen).
Posted by: Laura | August 27, 2007 11:11 PM
For me even after I knew it was supposed to be a yawn it looked a bit more like a scream.
Posted by: Ben Scarlato | August 27, 2007 11:15 PM
Odd. I felt an incipient desire to yawn and unconsciously grabbed the cold cup of coffee sitting next to the keyboard. Tasted good, but there was something solid and small in it. I thought it might be a crumb of cookie or donut or something, but I hadn't had any with this cup. Turned out to be a drowned housefly. Never did get around to the yawn, what with all those interrupts.
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | August 27, 2007 11:36 PM
Nope, I knew it was a yawn and didn't yawn.
Posted by: Ryan | August 27, 2007 11:48 PM
It is to artsy for me to register as a human being that is yawning. So no I did not yawn. However yes, I do yawn if other people yawn. I think because he is bald that it doesn't do if for me either. Oh and the swarthy complexion.
Posted by: Gabriel | August 28, 2007 1:01 AM
Exactly what Stephen said
Posted by: Natasha | August 28, 2007 5:04 AM
not at first - i saw it as a scream - but reading "yawn" made me
Posted by: ffox | August 28, 2007 6:56 AM
Yep.
Posted by: Ben D | August 28, 2007 6:56 AM
=============================
Total Lunar Eclipse, from my Altadena Garden
=============================
.
.
.
UNDER THE ORANGE
GARDEN, ORANGE TREE, ECLIPSE
ORANGE MOON: CRICKETS!
.
.
.
.
.
4:00 A.M.
28 Aug 2007
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | August 28, 2007 7:43 AM
Yep.
Posted by: Glen A. | August 28, 2007 8:55 AM
Yes. It's early, and I'm tired though.
Posted by: Bonnie | August 28, 2007 8:56 AM
Yes - as mentioned by others, I thought he was screaming at first, but once I read the caption, looking at him made me yawn. interesting.
Posted by: rb | August 28, 2007 9:17 AM
nope.
Posted by: Ginny | August 28, 2007 10:58 AM
Didn't make me yawn. Even though I'm kinda sleepy right now. Until I read the caption I thought it was part of some weird new chess set.
Posted by: Size | August 28, 2007 11:48 AM
Nope.
FWIW: I didn't even feel the urge to yawn until I read your question: "Did it make you yawn?"
(In fact, at first glance I thought the person was yelling, then I noticed the eyes were closed)
Posted by: Scotty B | August 28, 2007 12:14 PM
Nope. Thought he was screaming, realized it was yawn, still no yawn even after lots and lots of thinking about it and even writing 'yawn' several times.
Didn't I read recently (New Scientist?) that yawning is induced by warm brains/heads? No explanation why it's communicable.
Tom
http://wow-really.blogspot.com
Posted by: Tom | August 28, 2007 1:12 PM
Nope, and strangely so. I've been up for 26 hours...
Posted by: thomas robey | August 28, 2007 2:04 PM
It gave me the urge, but then I had to force it to completion.
Posted by: hans | August 28, 2007 6:47 PM
No. I thought it was a scream.
The action represented by the bust, that is.
Not that it wasn't funny.
Posted by: bjkeefe | September 4, 2007 7:29 AM
Much the above: thought it was a scream, read that it was a yawn and started to yawn. Weird!
Posted by: Stacey C. | September 4, 2007 9:54 AM
No. Reading about yawning made me want to yawn, but I still haven't yawned. Perhaps if I'd read this in the evening I would have been more inclined to yawn. I definitely yawn when my husband yawns. Perhaps a screen image of a piece of sculpture requires too much interpretation, and our minds are preoccupied with deciphering what's happening, or evaluating the quality of the sculpting, or wondering who this is, or why anyone would sculpt a yawn, or why we're all sitting here spending time scratching our heads over this picture of a sculpture.
Must clean house now.
Posted by: Cathy | September 4, 2007 10:01 AM
"Oh here I go again," I said to myself when the page opened and I saw the upper half of the statue's mouth, "I'm gonna...[yawn]!"
Posted by: Tejas | September 4, 2007 10:51 PM
No.
Posted by: álvaro josé castro rivadeneira | September 5, 2007 8:49 PM
dude, it totally did. HA!
Posted by: char_cat | February 7, 2008 12:10 AM
i scrolled down past the picture and was yawning as i did, before i read the caption...ha!
Posted by: Lauren | February 19, 2009 8:44 AM
no. I thought he was yelling, but after I read the subtext, I had a sudden urge to yawn.
Posted by: Amber A. | January 5, 2011 11:25 AM