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Keep smiling… the world is doing fine, say American authors
The Guardian: A rash of optimistic books is being published in the US, as authors do their best to lift the gloom created by a news agenda dominated by world recession, wars, floods and famine. The latest to appear is The Secret Peace by Jesse Richards, with its controversial theory on the modern human condition: the world is a nice place and getting better. When the Observer met Richards last week, he remained steadfast in his lonely insistence on a state of optimism when it comes to the human race's progress. "It is easy to relate to a short-term disaster. It is harder to understand larger, long-term statistics.
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Technical Aptitude: Do Women Score Lower Because They Just Aren’t Interested?
Boys do better on tests of technical aptitude (for example, mechanical aptitude tests) than girls. The same is true for adults. A new study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, describes a theory explaining how the difference comes about: the root cause is that boys are just more interested in technical things, like taking apart a bike, than girls are. Aptitude tests are used to predict how well people will do in school and on jobs. These tests focus on particular skills or kinds of specific aptitude, like verbal or technical aptitude.
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Förderliche Neugier
ScienceBlogs: Neugier ist lästig ("Lass mal sehen, was du da hast"), Neugier ist störend ("Was schreibst du gerade?"), Neugier ist indiskret ("Weißt Du, warum der M. neuerdings immer so früh nach Hause geht?") Kein Wunder also, dass "sei nicht so neugierig" zu den häufigeren erzieherischen Ermahnungen gehört. Pandoras Neugier brachte alles Übel unter die Menschen, und auch in der Bibel wird Neugier generell harsch bestraft, sei es die Neugier Adam und Evas auf die Frucht vom Baum der Erkenntnis, sei es die Neugier von Lots emahlin bei der Flucht aus Sodom.
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Fact Checker: Is the U.S. a land of Haves and Have-Nots?
Reno Gazette-Journal: What do you think is a fair amount of wealth inequality? Before getting to that, an explanation of "why this question now" is needed. People on the left and right have been noting the disparity in wealth with increasing alarm. The Occupy Wall Street movement has faced mass arrests, pepper spraying and increasing attention. It has spread to Boston, Chicago, LA, Japan -- and Las Vegas and Reno. One of its refrains pits the wealthy 1 percent of the nation against the 99 percent of the "rest of us," saying the Haves are dominating government and corporations to the detriment of the Have-Nots.
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Don’t Worry, Be Happy – Understanding Mindfulness Meditation
In times of stress, we’re often encouraged to pause for a moment and simply be in the ‘now.’ This kind of mindfulness, an essential part of Buddhist and Indian Yoga traditions, has entered the mainstream as people try to find ways to combat stress and improve their quality of life. And research suggests that mindfulness meditation can have benefits for health and performance, including improved immune function, reduced blood pressure, and enhanced cognitive function.
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Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect, Study Suggests
Yahoo: Practice is an essential part of gaining excellence in a specific skill, but to become truly great other qualities must come into play, such as IQ or working memory, according to researchers who studied how practice affects the success of chess players. For the study, published in the October issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, the researchers also considered earlier research and noted that practicing harder or longer doesn't compensate for the lack of other important traits relevant to a certain activity. The study authors pointed out that there is a theory that people will do better in areas such as sports, music and chess if they practice more.
