-
Can Money Buy Us Happiness?
U.S. News & World Report: Money can't buy you happiness, goes the generally accepted wisdom that was probably made up by someone poor, who wanted to bring his rich friends down a few notches. Some scientific studies have agreed with that sentiment, while others have concluded that, yes, being rich helps with being happy. In any case, if you want to crack open your wallet and try to buy some happiness, there are some purchases that may lift your spirits (at least for a while). Buy experiences, not things.
-
Why Movie ‘Facts’ Prevail
The New York Times: THIS year’s Oscar nominees for best picture include four films based on true stories: “American Sniper” (about the sharpshooter Chris Kyle), “The Imitation Game” (about the British mathematician Alan Turing), “Selma” (about the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965) and “The Theory of Everything” (about the physicist Stephen Hawking). Each film has been criticized for factual inaccuracy. Doesn’t “Selma” ignore Lyndon B. Johnson’s dedication to black voting rights? Doesn’t “The Imitation Game” misrepresent the nature of Turing’s work, just as “The Theory of Everything” does Mr. Hawking’s? Doesn’t “American Sniper” sanitize the military conflicts it purports to depict?
-
The Elastic Brain
Aeon: ve years ago, in a new city and in search of a new hobby, I decided to try playing a musical instrument for the first time. I had never learned to read music; in my grade school, the optional orchestra class was offered at the same time as the optional robotics class, and I chose the latter. Understanding nothing about chords or music theory, I settled on the relatively simple mountain dulcimer, a three-stringed lap instrument from Appalachia. I was proud of how quickly I picked it up. I could replicate many of the old-time fiddle tunes, Civil War ballads and Ozark folk songs my instructor played during demonstrations, and I learned to discern notes by ear.
-
Can Science Solve Terrorism? Q&A with Psychologist John Horgan
Scientific American: For years, I’ve been getting emails from people who praise my brilliant research on terrorism and then ask me tough questions about the topic. I’m forced to reply: “Sorry, I’m John Horgan the American science writer. I occasionally write about terrorism, but you have mistaken me for John Horgan the Irish psychologist and terrorism expert.” I wish I could take credit for the work of the other John Horgan (who as far as I know is unrelated to me). For more than 15 years, he has carried out extensive interviews with former militants to understand why they turn to and away from terrorism.
-
The Perils of Adolescence
The Huffington Post: Adolescence is a perilous time of life. It's a time of heightened risk taking -- reckless driving, risky sex, excessive drug and alcohol use. For decades the prevalent view -- the common wisdom of parenting manuals -- was that teenagers feel invulnerable, immortal. They simply perceive less peril in dicey situations and believe they have much more control than they actually do. In short, they underestimate life's very real risks and dangers. But scientists who study adolescent decision making now dispute this common parenting wisdom. Teenagers do indeed underestimate risk -- sometimes -- but at other times they overestimate how risky and harmful a situation is.
-
Problems Too Disgusting to Solve
The New Yorker: Early last month, Bill Gates released a video of one of the latest ventures funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: the Omniprocessor, a Seattle-based processing plant that burns sewage to make clean drinking water. In the video, Gates raises a glass of water to his lips. Just five minutes ago, the caption explains, that water was human waste. Gates takes a sip. “It’s water,” he says. “Having studied the engineering behind it,” he writes, on the foundation’s blog, “I would happily drink it every day.
