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Obama, lost in thought
The Washington Post: When I covered George W. Bush’s White House, my job was made easier by the simplicity of the subject. The president had a few defining mantras — Cut taxes! Rally the base! Terrorists hate freedom! With us or against us! — and most of his decisions could be understood, even predicted, by applying one of the overarching philosophies. With President Obama, there is no such luxury. The political right is befuddled as it tries to explain him: First, Obama was a tyrant and a socialist; now he’s a weakling who refuses to lead. Read the Whole Story: The Washington Post
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Ostracism hurts—but how? Shedding light on a silent, invisible abuse
Humans need to belong. Yet they also commonly leave others out. Animals abandon the weakest to ensure the survival of the fittest. So do kindergartners and ’tweens, softball players and office workers. Common though they are, rejection and exclusion hurt. Endured for a long time, ostracism leaves people feeling depressed and worthless, resigned to loneliness or desperate for attention—in extreme cases, suicidal or homicidal. Yet ostracism “was essentially ignored by social scientists for 100 years,” says Purdue University psychologist Kipling D. Williams.
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Taste buds are just one reason why we love some foods and hate others
The Washington Post: Black coffee. Hot peppers. Truffles. Oysters. The world is full of polarizing flavors and foods, beloved by many, despised by just as many. Why is that? Scientists have untangled some — but not nearly all — of the mysteries behind our love and hatred of certain foods. While we might say, “That tastes like strawberry,” scientists who study these things would disagree. Our tongues actually perceive only five basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and “umami,” the Japanese word for savory. To go from merely sweet to “Mmm, strawberry!” the nose has to get involved.
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Why Men Say ‘I Love You’ First
Forbes: If romantic comedies are any indication, women in new relationships are constantly fretting about those three little words: “I love you.” However, according to a new study, men are more likely to let the declaration slip first. In a study that will appear in the June edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, based on 205 interviews of heterosexual men and women, MIT psychologist Josh Ackerman found that 64% of people believe women are the quickest to say “I love you.” In reality, men were more likely to say it first and consider it earlier–a full six weeks before women think it’s time to fess up. Read the whole story: Forbes
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It May Be Possible to Predict Bipolar Mood Swings: Study
U.S. News & World Report: A new study suggests that it's possible to predict future mood swings in bipolar people by monitoring their thoughts and behavior. Bipolar people suffer from extreme mood swings that veer between moments of emotional highs and euphoria to deep depression. In the new study, researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Lancaster in the United Kingdom followed 50 bipolar patients for a month, studying how they think and act.
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I.Q. scores don’t predict success as much as motivation
USA Today: I.Q. scores mostly reveal the test-taker's motivation to do well on the exam, particularly for low-scorers, suggests a series of experiments. "One of the most robust social science findings of the 20th century is that intelligence quotient (IQ) scores predict a broad range of life outcomes, including academic performance, years of education, physical health and longevity, and job performance," begins the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, led by psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. However, researchers have also long known that rather than measuring intelligence directly, I.Q.
