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How finding beauty in ordinary life can make you happy
The Globe and Mail: I have a friend who is next to impossible to go for walk with in the spring or summer. “Look,” she will instruct, stopping dead in her running shoes. “See how beautiful this gladiolus is?” And of course, you have to stop alongside her and admire the texture and the colour and the height of the flowers. What are you, anyway? Some power-walking obsessive who doesn’t know how to smell the proverbial roses? It turns out that identifying and appreciating beauty in the everyday is a happiness strategy. Some spiritual leaders advocate it as a way to feel divine energy.
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Where Is the Accurate Memory? The Eyes Have It
The witness points out the criminal in a police lineup. She swears she’d remember that face forever. Then DNA evidence shows she’s got the wrong guy. It happens so frequently that many courts are looking with extreme skepticism at eyewitness testimony. Is there a way to get a more accurate reading of memory? A new study says yes. “Eye movements are drawn quickly to remembered objects,” says Deborah Hannula, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, who conducted the study with Carol L. Baym and Neal J. Cohen of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and David E. Warren of the University of Iowa College of Medicine.
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Subway Ups Ante in Fast Food Dollar Menu War
ABC News: Subway is offering a $2 subs in December, which may excite frugal fans and still keep franchisees happy. The sandwich chain announced this week it was only selling its 6-inch meatball marinara and cold cut combo sandwiches at the discounted prices of $2 during its Customer Appreciation Month. “It’s a magical price point,” consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow told USA Today. “What it communicates to consumers is that Subway is on their side.” Subway did not immediately return a request for comment. The company already has a rotating $5 foot-long submarine sandwich menu.
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How can musicians keep playing despite amnesia?
BBC News: When British conductor and musician Clive Wearing contracted a brain infection in 1985 he was left with a memory span of only 10 seconds. The infection - herpes encephalitis - left him unable to recognise people he had seen or remember things that had been said just moments earlier. But despite being acknowledged by doctors as having one of the most severe cases of amnesia ever, his musical ability and much of his musical memory was intact. Now aged 73, he is still able to read music and play the piano and once even conducted his former choir again.
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Study shows men don’t think about sex as often as thought
USA Today: A new study is challenging the widely held notion that men's minds are preoccupied with one topic: sex. The research in college-age participants suggests that while men do think about sex more often than women, the subject crosses their mind an average of only about 19 times per day, compared to 10 times per day for women. The results seem to disprove the popular notion that men think about sex every seven seconds, which would total more than 8,000 thoughts about sex in 16 waking hours, the Ohio State University researchers said. Read the full story: USA Today
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Ways to Inflate Your IQ
The Wall Street Journal: Many people think of IQ as a genetic trait, like brown eyes or short legs: You're born with it and you're stuck with it. Now, a growing body of research is showing that a person's IQ can rise—and even fall—over the years. Scores can change gradually or quickly, after as little as a few weeks of cognitive training, research shows. The increases are usually so incremental that they're not immediately perceptible to individuals, and the intelligence-boosting effects of cognitive training can fade after a few months.
