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Power Players
Slate: Anthony Weiner's extramarital sexting, Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child, and the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal has led to a lot of handwringing about the prevalence of philandering among politicians and to speculation about why politicians risk their families and their careers to cheat. Is it possible that politicians are more prone to infidelity than the rest of us? Read more: Slate
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The U.S. Open and the Vagaries of Spatial Perception
The Huffington Post: When the world's finest golfers descend on Maryland's Congressional Country Club for the 111th U.S. Open, there will be no hands-down favorite for the crowds to follow. Bubba Watson will bring his monstrous drives, K. J. Choi his intense focus and Luke Donald his consistency. Veterans Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson will have experience on their side, and Graeme McDowell his status as defending champion. That's the great thing about golf. Golfers may have different strengths, but at the end of the day, each of them faces an identical challenge: putting a sphere measuring 42.67 millimeters in diameter into a hole measuring 108 millimeters in diameter. Or do they?
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Money leads to autonomy but it does not add to well-being or happiness.
TIME: Fischer and Boer, who are based in New Zealand, have authored a new study called “What Is More Important for National Well-Being: Money or Autonomy? A Meta-Analysis of Well-Being, Burnout and Anxiety Across 63 Societies.” Their research indicates that it’s freedom—not necessarily money—that leads to happier, more satisfied lives. They write: Read more: TIME
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Knight Named New Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences Editor
The Gerontological Society of America: The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the country’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — has named Bob G. Knight, PhD, of the University of Southern California as the next editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, effective January 2012. “We are very pleased to have Dr. Knight assume the position of editor,” said Thomas Hess, PhD, chair of GSA’s Publications Committee. “He is a well-respected gerontological researcher who has an appreciation for the diversity of both the approaches and topics associated with the study of psychological aspects of the aging process.
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To pee or not to pee
The Philippine Star: Google has a policy that any food station in their building should not be more than a hundred feet away from its employees. I found that out in an article published in PsychologyToday.com last 2009 entitled “The Brain at Google” by David Rock who visited the Google headquarters and mentally ogled at how Google uses what is known about human nature in running its organization. Of course, there are many things that Google does for its workers that would make you drool — gyms, massage, a hair stylist, among other things. Their founder has a simple philosophy that happy employees will make the best decisions for the company. So far, evidence bears that out.
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People fluent in English ‘easily translate what they hear into Chinese’
Yahoo India: Washington, June 15 (ANI): Chinese people who are fluent in English can translate English words into Chinese automatically and quickly, without thinking about it, a new study has found. Taoli Zhang of the University of Nottingham wanted to study how two different languages interact and are stored in the bilingual brain. "If you read in English, you don't really require your knowledge of Chinese. Do you switch it off?" For the study, Chinese students were shown pairs of words. The first word flashed on the computer screen so quickly that the person didn't realize they'd seen it.
