Netflix is losing more than it expected from the backlash over its recent price hike. The company is revising its third-quarter projected U.S. subscriber numbers downward from 25 to 24 million, according to a letter to shareholders (here reported by AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka).

To put this in context, look at Netflix’s corresponding numbers from its second quarter shareholder letter [PDF]. Netflix had 24.59 million US subscribers at the end of the second quarter (and only about a million more everywhere else). The company began 2009 with 10 million subscribers, and for two years has shown...

Words are a window into the soul, or at least a glimpse into our cognitive habits. Why, for instance, do people rely on the language of hunger when describing inedible material objects? I might say I’m “craving” those jeans, or that a fancy sports car makes me “drool,” or that a particular job prospect is “mouth watering.” When you think about it, these are strange metaphors for desire: Why am I talking about my drool?

But what if these metaphors aren’t metaphors? What if the sight of that Porsche really gets my salivary glands going? That’s the odd question investigated in a new paper in The...