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THE ENDLESS, AND EXPENSIVE, QUEST FOR RARE OBJECTS
The New Yorker: A few months ago, I was invited to speak at a small marketing conference in Chicago. To attract attendees, its organizer promised everyone a one-ounce pour—a sip, more or less—of a cult bourbon called Pappy Van Winkle. Pappy, as it is known to its fans, is so sought after that it’s nearly impossible to find, and, a few days before the conference, word came that the Pappy supplier had fallen through. Luckily, I happened to walk into a Greenwich Village liquor store where two bottles had just arrived. “They’ll be gone by tomorrow,” the clerk said, before naming his price: thirty-five hundred dollars for the pair.
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As More States Consider Legalizing, Questions About Pot And The Brain
NPR: Five states are voting this fall on whether marijuana should be legal, like alcohol, for recreational use. That has sparked questions about what we know — and don't know — about marijuana's effect on the brain. Research is scarce. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug. That classification puts up barriers to conducting research on it, including a cumbersome DEA approval application and a requirement that scientists procure very specific marijuana plants. One long-term study in New Zealand compared the IQs of people at age 13 and then through adolescence and adulthood to age 38.
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New evidence-based policy team in Washington, DC hiring psychological scientists
A new scientific team in the Executive Office of the Mayor of Washington, DC is hiring psychological scientists, data scientists, and others, with a September 19 deadline. This new team, called The Lab @ DC, was founded and is directed by David Yokum, formerly of the U.S. Social and Behavioral Sciences Team and GSA Office of Evaluation Sciences, who spoke at the 2016 APS Convention on ways that psychological scientists can get involved in day-to-day governance.
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WHY ARE BABIES SO DUMB IF HUMANS ARE SO SMART?
The New Yorker: As a species, humans are incredibly smart. We tell stories, create magnificent art and astounding technology, build cities, and explore space. We haven’t been around nearly as long as many other species, but in many respects we’ve accomplished more than any have before us. We eat them and they don’t eat us. We even run scientific studies on them—and are thinking about re-creating some of those that have gone extinct. But our intelligence comes with a curious caveat: our babies are among the dumbest—or, rather, the most helpless—that exist. A baby giraffe can stand within an hour of birth, and can even potentially flee predators on its first day of life.
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The Psychological Pros and Cons of Connectivity
A study of employees in South Africa indicates that people generally view their experiences with smart phones, emails, and wireless networks with more positivity than negativity.
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What Should You Choose: Time or Money?
The New York Times: Given the choice between more time or more money, which would you pick? For a beach vacation, you might pay more for a direct flight to gain a couple of extra hours getting sand between your toes. On the other hand, you might take a better-paying job that requires late nights at the office. One of us, Professor Hershfield, recently faced such a choice. He was invited to teach a weekend seminar out of state. But he had a baby girl at home, born 12 weeks earlier. The pay would offset the costs of child care, but the job would require two days of not oohing, aahing and bonding with the baby. The value of the money was easy to quantify.
