I grew up being used to this in New Orleans. When I moved to a new city, I was like "What? Why the hell can't I go outside with my beer/daiquiri?! That's stupid!!"
There are a few lessons in this story, but the most important one, I think, is that 3/4 of science is salesmanship. It sucks, and it's a sad statement on humanity. If you're a great scientist, but a poor salesman, you're not very likely to succeed. Alternatively, if you're a great salesman and a mediocre scientist, you'll very likely go far in science.
An object or commodity is worth what people are willing to pay for it.
And yeah, the headline is backwards as pointed out by Wes and Zavatone.
ur doin it wrong
shake off as much water as possible
then hold your hands still under the air stream
only rub them together briefly once or twice
turn your hands over and repeat
and of course they don't stop when you hit the button again.
That is all.