-
Why Someone Named Monty Iceman Sold Doogie Howser’s Estate
Pacific Standard: Nestled in the tony hills of Sherman Oaks, California, the capacious two-story home has almost everything. Outfitted with “glistening hardwood floors and beautiful moldings throughout,” the house features six bedrooms, a kitchen with a sailboat-sized island and a huge Sub-Zero refrigerator, a living room with a fireplace, rainfall showerheads, a mysterious upstairs “secret room,” and just about all the other accoutrement a rich prospective homeowner could ask for. If all that weren’t enough, the property, billed as a “Secluded Celebrity Compound,” once served as the centerpiece in a heartwarming episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter.
-
Psychologists say overly connected children can’t read human emotion
Quartz: How to limit children’s use of digital devices is a hot topic for many parents. They worry their children, aka the most connected generation ever, are too obsessed with looking at screens and interacting with apps, and are failing to interact meaningfully with their fellow human beings because they don’t have enough face-to-face communication. Now there’s actual scientific evidence to suggest that these worried parents are on to something.
-
Wealth, Welfare and the Brother-In-Law Rule
One of the enigmas of the American political landscape is the impoverished Republican. This is the American with very little money, and many unmet needs, who nevertheless votes for people and policies that will deny him or her assistance. Indeed, many of the reddest states in the nation—those whose leaders want to gut the state’s welfare programs—are among the largest beneficiaries of government aid. This makes no sense. With economic inequality at a historic high, why would so many Americans want to cut spending on social services targeted specifically for them?
-
Advance Warning for Light Changes Could Make Intersections Safer
A major survey by the car insurance industry found that nearly 85% of drivers could not identify the correct action to take when approaching a yellow traffic light at an intersection (and, no, the correct response is not to speed up). When a traffic light changes from green to yellow we have to make quick decisions without much information, making them one of the more dangerous encounters on the road. In 2009, the Federal Highway Administration estimated there were 1.2 million crashes at intersections with traffic signals, resulting in 372,000 fatalities or injuries.
-
Schadenfreude in Gaza
The Washington Post: Joshua Tucker: The following is a guest post from social psychologists Jay Van Bavel (New York University) and Mina Cikara (Harvard University) ***** As the Gaza-Israel conflict began escalating last month, there were widely circulated reports that Israeli spectators had gathered on garden chairs and old sofas to cheer as bombs rained down on people living in Gaza just a few miles away. This expression of malicious glee is hardly unique to Israelis; Palestinians have also been seen standing on rooftops and celebrating when Hamas fires rockets at cities in Israel.
-
Does Believing in Evil Make Us More Violent and Less Tolerant?
New York Magazine: Two weeks ago, many people will tell you, we saw the face of evil. Well, not its face, exactly, since James Foley’s killer wore a black mask as he horrifically beheaded the missing journalist who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. But the sheer brutality, the sheer inhumanity displayed toward an innocent human being was, in the eyes of much of the world, simply evil incarnate. Since the video was released, there’s been a hardening in public opinion about the Islamic State, the group which murdered Foley and has seized shocking amounts of territory in Syria and Iraq.
