-
London Olympics: British seek to capitalize on knowing territory
Los Angeles Times: More athletes equate to more medal chances. And they'll know the territory. English sailors have years of experience with the winds off Weymouth. The soccer players are familiar with the pitches at various Olympic venues around the country. Even the BMX racers have devoted considerable hours to training at the relatively new track in Olympic Park. With subjectively scored events such as gymnastics, boxing and diving, there can be an additional advantage. Studying the last six Summer Olympics, Shibli found host nations excelled in sports that involved judges.
-
A Liberal Learns To Compete
The New York Times: Your book “The Righteous Mind” addresses the psychological reasons that politics are so divided right now. I wonder what your take would be on conservatives’ fury over John Roberts’s health care decision. My colleague Pete Ditto studied people’s attitudes about mavericks and demonstrated that everybody likes to think that they value mavericks; but actually we like mavericks only if they’re on the other side. If they’re on our side, we call them traitors. We keep hearing that the partisan divide is at an all-time high, but isn’t this ignoring the sweep of history? Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton.
-
Ich merk mir was, was du dir nicht merkst
bild der wissenschaft: Um das Gedächtnis auf Trab zu halten, lösen gerade ältere Menschen oft Kreuzworträtsel oder Sudokus. Das ist laut der neuen Studie von Dewar und ihren Kollegen nicht die Ideallösung, zumindest nicht, wenn direkt nach dem Erlernen der Neuigkeit gespielt wird. Einfach einmal zehn Minuten hinsetzen und nichts tun ist besser – denn dann hat das Gehirn Zeit und Ruhe, sich das neu Erlernte einzuprägen. Das Team von der University of Edinburgh hat dazu zwei Studien durchgeführt. In der ersten erzählten die Wissenschaftler älteren Menschen zwischen 61 und 87 Jahren zwei Kurzgeschichten.
-
Non-fatal attraction? Hollywood should add condoms to sex scenes in same way as it cut out cigarettes, says scientist
The Daily Mail: Hollywood studios should be forced to add condoms to sex scenes to make teenagers have safe sex, a researcher has said. Teenagers often use sex scenes in films as a 'script' for their real-life sex - but Hollywood films tend to portray condoms as comical. A researcher found that watching screen sex led teenagers to use condoms less - and called for regulation. ‘One important observation from our evaluation of the films was that few showed contraceptive use or safe sexual practices,’ researcher Ross O’Hara from the University of Missouri said. ‘When safe sex is portrayed in films, it is often in comedies and is presented as an inconvenience or embarrassment.
-
Jaw-dropping moments really do make time appear to stand still
The Telegraph: Regular "awesome" experiences may also improve our mental health and make us nicer people, claim psychologists. The findings raise the prospect of "awe therapy" to overcome the stressful effects of fast-paced modern life. Awe is the emotion felt when encountering something so vast and overwhelming it alters one's mental perspective. Examples might include experiencing a breathtaking view of the Grand Canyon, taking in the ethereal beauty of the Northern Lights, or becoming lost in a dazzling display of stars on a clear, dark night. The new research found that by fixing the mind to the present moment, awe seems to slow down perceived time. Read the whole story: The Telegraph
-
Speaking Multiple Languages Can Influence Children’s Emotional Development
On the classic TV show I Love Lucy, Ricky Ricardo was known for switching over to rapid-fire Spanish whenever he was upset, despite the fact Lucy had no idea what her Cuban husband was saying. These scenes were comedy gold, but they also provided a relatable portrayal of the linguistic phenomenon of code-switching. This kind of code-switching, or switching back and forth between different languages, happens all the time in multilingual environments, and often in emotional situations.
