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What price spying?
Chicago Tribune: Using technology of any kind to keep tabs on older children can improve or damage the parent/child relationship. It depends how you use it, says Patrick Kelly, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. There's a good way to keep tabs on youngsters, and a bad way. The bad way: installing a keyboard tracker to steal your teen's facebook password and check without her knowing, Kelly says. A better way, for those parents who are anxious about online activity, is for parents and kids to agree beforehand that Facebook is allowed if parents have passwords, and the child knows they're monitoring it. Read the whole story: Chicago Tribune
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Inside the Mind of Worry
The New York Times: WE make all sorts of ostensibly conscious and seemingly rational choices when we are aware of a potential risk. We eat organic food, max out on multivitamins and quickly forswear some products (even whole technologies) at the slightest hint of danger. We carry guns and vote for the candidate we think will keep us safe. Yet these choices are far from carefully considered — and, surprisingly often, they contravene reason. What’s more, while our choices about risk invariably feel right when we make them, many of these decisions end up putting us in greater peril.
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Why we get bored
Fox News: Scientists are taking on boredom. No, they aren't working on a cure just yet, but they have written a new definition of boredom and outlined the mental processes behind ennui. The researchers, led by psychological scientist John Eastwood of York University in Ontario, Canada, define boredom as "an aversive state of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity," which springs from failures in one of the brain's attention networks. The findings, detailed in the September issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, may speak to many Americans: In a large survey of high-school students across 26 U.S.
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Detecting the ‘Artful Dodge’
NPR: Henry Kissinger once joked at a press conference: Does anyone have any questions for my answers? If politicians had their way, they might just write their own questions for the press, but, of course, politicians can't write all the questions. So instead, they're coached on the art of question-dodging, taught how to segue from the question they're asked to the question they wish they had been asked and are prepared to answer. Come October, how often will politicians pull that trick in their news conferences and debates? Will they be able to do it without us noticing it? And more importantly, is there a way to prevent this dodging and keep the debates honest?
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How Americans get wiser with age… but the Japanese are as wise as they’ll ever be by 25
The Daily Mail: It is commonly thought that age brings wisdom. And this is largely true, it seems – unless you are Japanese. In which case, by the time you are 25, you are likely to be just as wise as your elders, an astonishing new study reveals. Americans, however, are more conventional and develop deep understanding over time, according to research by the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. In one of the tests, designed to measure five crucial aspects of reasoning, U.S. citizens’ scores improved by 22 per cent over 50 years. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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Intelligence Is in the Genes, but Where?
You can thank your parents for your smarts—or at least some of them. Psychologists have long known that intelligence, like most other traits, is partly genetic. But a new study led by psychological scientist Christopher Chabris of Union College reveals the surprising fact that most of the specific genes long thought to be linked to intelligence probably have no bearing on one’s IQ. And it may be some time before researchers can identify intelligence’s specific genetic roots. Chabris and David Laibson, a Harvard economist, led an international team of researchers that analyzed a dozen genes using large data sets that included both intelligence testing and genetic data.
