-
Troy Davis Execution Fuels Eyewitness ID Debate
NPR: Before he was executed in Georgia last week, Troy Davis brought worldwide attention to his case by challenging the trustworthiness of bystanders who said they saw him shoot a police officer. Davis lost the battle to spare his life, but experts say his case adds fuel to an already-simmering debate over how much weight courts should give to eyewitness testimony. Last month, New Jersey's top court made it easier for criminal defendants to challenge the credibility of eyewitnesses, while the U.S. Supreme Court is set in November to hear its first case dealing with eyewitness evidence in 34 years.
-
Mehr Sprache, mehr Gehirn
Berliner Morgenpost: Der im Jahr 1960 in Brügge geborene Belgier lernte in der Grundschule Französisch. Im Gymnasium kamen Deutsch und Englisch, später Griechisch und Latein hinzu. Im Alter von 13 Jahren reiste Vandewalle mit seiner Familie nach Istanbul. Dort lernte er die ersten Brocken Türkisch. Das ist bis heute seine liebste Sprache. "Sie ist so mathematisch. Es gibt keine Ausnahmen", sagt er. Ob sein Gehirn besonders ist, hat er nie untersuchen lassen. Doch das Lernen fiel ihm mit jeder neuen Sprache leichter. Fremdsprachen sind zu seinem Lebensinhalt geworden. An der Universität Gent leitet Vandewalle den Fachbereich für türkische Linguistik. Vandewalle ist ein Extrem.
-
Learning-Styles Theory Questioned By Researchers
Huffington Post: For years, the conventional wisdom has been that everyone has a different dominant way of learning. Some are visual learners who prefer studying pictures or graphics. Some say they are auditory learners, absorbing information best through lectures and conversation. Others consider themselves kinesthetic learners who benefit from hands-on activities. A robust industry has formed, marketing materials to educators for dozens of learning-style models. There are tools based on a learner’s personality type. Others are based on how analytical or creative individuals are. Some even delve into the optimal lighting and seating for workspaces.
-
Why Congress won’t stop hurting you
CNN: Is Congress capable of doing anything right? It's a question worth asking as Democrats and Republicans threaten for the third time this year to shut down the federal government. Americans faced the same prospect during spring budget talks and the summer debt ceiling debate. Now it's happening over what was expected to be passage of a routine bill to fund Washington through mid-November while replenishing disaster relief funds. Friday is the latest deadline to avoid a partial shutdown.
-
How Psychology Solved A WWII Shipwreck Mystery
NPR: In November 1941, two ships crossed paths off the coast of Australia. One was the German raider HSK Kormoran. The other: an Australian warship called the HMAS Sydney. Guns were fired, the ships were damaged and both sank to the bottom of the ocean. The loss of the Sydney in World War II was a national tragedy for the Australians, particularly because none of the 645 men on board survived. In the years that followed, there was intense interest in finding the wrecks, particularly the wreck of the Sydney. The idea was that doing this might give the families of the lost sailors some measure of peace, a sense of closure and certainty.
-
New UCSC residence hall teaches nonviolent communication
Santa Cruz Sentinel: College kids just don’t feel the pain of others like they used to. At least that is what a University of Michigan study presented to the Association for Psychological Science in 2010 revealed. The study, which followed 14,000 people for 30 years, found that college students today are much less empathetic than those from two and three decades ago, and the largest drop in empathy came after the year 2000.
