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For a Longer Life, Get Social
The Wall Street Journal: Personal independence is such an iconic American value today that few of us question it. In previous generations, retirees lived with family, but now that a large swath of older people can afford to live on their own, that’s what they choose. The convenience of digital devices means that we can now work, shop and pay our bills online, without dealing directly with other people. According to the U.S. Census, 10% of Americans work alone in remote offices and over 13% live alone, the highest rate of solo living in American history. ...
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Racial Bias Extends to the Crosswalk
Black pedestrians are at far greater risk of being fatally hit by a car than white pedestrians, according to research from the CDC. From 2000 to 2010, the pedestrian fatality rate for black and Hispanic men was twice the rate for white men, even after controlling for factors such as socioeconomic status, location, and alcohol use. The results of a new study reveal one factor that may help explain why – the findings suggest that whether a driver yields to a pedestrian may largely depend on a pedestrian’s race.
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It Pays to Be Nice
The Atlantic: Research labs, like most workplaces, come in two broad varieties: The cut-throat kind, where researchers are always throwing elbows in a quest for prestige, and the collaborative kind, where they work together for the good of the team. And when David Rand first established his Human Cooperation Lab at Yale University, he was clear about the kind of culture he wanted to promote. Rand’s post-docs help each other and share their expertise willingly, he says. Rand spends some of the lab’s money on social events and happy hours. “Not in a lame, cheesy way, but in a way that’s fun for people,” he told me recently.
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Journal Science Releases Guidelines for Publishing Scientific Studies
The New York Times: In the midst of a debate over scientific misconduct, one of the world’s leading scientific journals on Thursday posted the most comprehensive guidelines for the publication of studies in basic science to date, calling for the adoption of clearly defined rules on the sharing of data and methods. The guidelines, published in Science, come weeks after the journal retracted a study of the effect of political canvassing on voters’ perceptions of same-sex marriage, by Michael LaCour of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Donald Green, of Columbia, because of concerns over Mr. LaCour’s data.
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Brain scans of passengers on near-disastrous Air Transat flight studied
The Globe and Mail: Brain scans of passengers who believed they were about to die when their plane ran out of fuel over the Atlantic in 2001 are helping researchers better understand traumatic memories. Air Transat Flight 236, bound for Lisbon from Toronto on Aug. 24, 2001, crash-landed in the Azores after gliding powerless over the ocean for 30 minutes. Some of the 306 passengers and crew on board developed post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as a result of the terrifying scare.
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The SCOTUS Fair Housing Act Decision a Welcome & Needed Win Following Racial Tragedy
The Huffington Post: It was in the wake of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968 that President Lyndon Johnson signed into law a major pillar of U.S. civil rights legislation, the Fair Housing Act. Nearly 50 years later, it is in the wake of the murders of nine Black worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina at the hands of a reported white supremacist that the Supreme Court recently ruled to uphold it. The 5-4 decision last week in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project is both a surprising and necessary win on the road toward racial justice.
