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Potatoes bad, nuts good for staying slim, Harvard study finds
The Washington Post: Everyone knows that people who chow down on french fries, chug soda and go heavy on red meat tend to pile on more pounds than those who stick to salads, fruits and grains. But is a serving of boiled potatoes really much worse than a helping of nuts? Is some white bread as bad as a candy bar? Could yogurt be a key to staying slim? The answer to all those questions is yes, according to the provocative revelations produced by a big Harvard project that for the first time details how much weight individual foods make people put on or keep off. The federally funded analysis of data collected over 20 years from more than 120,000 U.S.
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Scientific Evidence Proves Capitalist Ideas May be Innate
The New American: Americans have indicated avid opposition to property rights violations throughout the course of U.S. history, whether those violations take the form of taxation, eminent domain, or “open space” laws. According to one psychologist, that sense of being wronged when one’s property rights are violated may be innate, as property ownership may be a natural-born attribute. In an article published in Science News magazine, Bruce Bower contends that young children are predisposed to concepts of possession, ownership, and ultimately, capitalism. Citing evidence produced by psychologist Ori Friedman, Bower asserts that children are natural-born capitalists.
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The Myth of the Queen Bee
U.S. News & World Report: Female bosses sometimes have a reputation for not being very nice. Some display what’s called “queen bee” behavior, distancing themselves from other women and refusing to help other women as they rise through the ranks. Now, a new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, concludes that it’s wrong to blame the woman for this behavior; instead, blame the sexist environment. Belle Derks of Leiden University in the Netherlands has done a lot of research on how people respond to sexism.
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Expert on Mental Illness Reveals Her Own Fight
The New York Times: HARTFORD — Are you one of us? The patient wanted to know, and her therapist — Marsha M. Linehan of the University of Washington, creator of a treatment used worldwide for severely suicidal people — had a ready answer. It was the one she always used to cut the question short, whether a patient asked it hopefully, accusingly or knowingly, having glimpsed the macramé of faded burns, cuts and welts on Dr. Linehan’s arms: “You mean, have I suffered?” “No, Marsha,” the patient replied, in an encounter last spring. “I mean one of us. Like us. Because if you were, it would give all of us so much hope.” “That did it,” said Dr.
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Memory training improves intelligence in some children, report says
Los Angeles Times: Training a child to hold a whole cluster of items in his or her memory for even a short time may feel like trying to hold a wave on the sand. But a study published Monday says it's a drill that can yield lasting benefits. Children who've had such training have better abstract reasoning and solve problems more creatively than kids who haven't, the study found. But here's a warning to parents already grooming their young children for entry into elite universities: Don't automatically rush out to enroll your young genius in brain-training summer camp or invest in DVDs promising to deliver high IQs.
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When a woman cheats, she’s looking for more than satisfying another man
The Washington Post: “What Makes Powerful Men Act Like Pigs,” declared the cover of the May 30 issue of Time magazine. “What’s the Matter With Men?” asked the conservative-leaning Independent Women’s Forum on May 19. “Why Men Cheat,” teased a story on the Huffington Post last week. Those looking for explanations to these questions should stop reading now. I don’t have the answers, nor am I interested in doing the difficult, ultimately fruitless and arbitrary work of providing any. For one thing, I’m not sure it really matters. The reasons behind Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to carry on a years-long affair with his housekeeper are specific and unknowable, probably even to him.
