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Not All Meditation Types Are One-Size-Fits-All, Study Suggests
The Huffington Post: If you aren't enjoying your meditation practice, a small new study suggests a possible reason why: You aren't doing the method that's right for you. Researchers from the San Francisco State University Institute for Holistic Health Studies found that not all people prefer the same kind of meditation practices. The study suggests that the best way for someone to actually stick with a meditation practice might be to pick the kind that he or she feels most comfortable with, compared with the trendiest type of the moment.
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The Cost Of Free Doughnuts
NPR: If you think about every other price in the world — a dollar, $12.99 — free stands out. Free has the power to make us do completely irrational things. It can drive us to break rules, and take risks we never thought possible. It can make us feel savvy and smug and exhilarated. Take Benjamin Joffe-Walt, brother of our own Chana Joffe-Walt. In 1995, he was 15 years old when British Airlines started offering international flights from his hometown of Philadelphia. The airline gave away free tickets to the first 100 people who showed up at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday. Read the whole story: NPR
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about new research published in Psychological Science examining the factors that influence early literacy. The Causal Role of Phoneme Awareness and Letter-Sound Knowledge in Learning to Read: Combining Intervention Studies With Mediation Analyses Charles Hulme, Claudine Bowyer-Crane, Julia M. Carroll, Fiona J. Duff, and Margaret J. Snowling Although researchers know that phoneme awareness and letter-sound knowledge are predictors of children's ability to learn to read, they are still unsure what the causal mechanism for this relationship is.
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Memories of a Child Refugee
The Huffington Post: For many, Sharbat Gula was the face of refugee children everywhere, although her identity was unknown for almost two decades. Captured by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry in 1984, in a refugee camp in Pakistan, the penetrating eyes of the 12-year-old "Afghan girl" grabbed the world's imagination -- and became a symbol of the plight of war-damaged children. Not until 2002 was she finally located and identified, by that time repatriated and living with children of her own, in a country again at war. Sharbat Gula is one of millions of Afghan children who have fled Afghanistan's seemingly endless war, seeking safety in foreign places.
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A Climate for Conspiracy
I am writing this article knowing full well that it will be used as evidence against me—evidence that I have been duped by a powerful cabal, a vast conspiracy to . . . to do what? Well, take your choice. Perhaps to convince a naive public that NASA landed men on the moon? Or to hide the fact that our President is African? Or the fact that al Qaeda didn’t mastermind 9/11? Or to falsely link HIV with AIDS, or smoking with lung cancer? Conspiracy theorists have sounded alarms about every one of these nefarious plots and more, and many conspiracy theorists embrace several imaginary plots. None of these claims has ever been proven. Proof is not conspiracy theorists’ strong suit.
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Compassion Made Easy
The New York Times: ALL the major religions place great importance on compassion. Whether it’s the parable of the good Samaritan in Christianity, Judaism’s “13 attributes of compassion” or the Buddha’s statement that “loving kindness and compassion is all of our practice,” empathy with the suffering of others is seen as a special virtue that has the power to change the world. This idea is often articulated by the Dalai Lama, who argues that individual experiences of compassion radiate outward and increase harmony for all. As a social psychologist interested in the emotions, I long wondered whether this spiritual understanding of compassion was also scientifically accurate.
