To Read

How Not to Talk to Your Kids by Po Bronson (Interesting considering some gossip I've heard regarding how Bronson's kid is handled day to day.) With nice extras in Po's blog.

Then the students were given a choice of test for the second round. One choice was a test that would be more difficult than the first, but the researchers told the kids that they'd learn a lot from attempting the puzzles. The other choice, Dweck's team explained, was an easy test, just like the first. Of those praised for their effort, 90 percent chose the harder set of puzzles. Of those praised for their intelligence, a majority chose the easy test. The "smart" kids took the cop-out.

As a so-called "smart" kid, I can recognize that. Luckily, my upbringing also offered example after example of work ethic and perseverance.

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Pharm Animals Crank Out Drugs -- Ew... I'm generally fairly pragmatic about stuff like this, but yeesh this makes my skin crawl.

This might be scarier, though.

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This is awesome!

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, signed into law by George Bush the elder, led to creation of the ragingly popular Do Not Call List. But tucked away in the bill was another important provision that entitles consumers to take what's called a "private right of action." For each violation of the act, consumers can sue for a $500 penalty. Violations include calling after a consumer has told a company to stop, or failing to provide the consumer with a copy of the firm’s Do Not Call policy.

That's almost enough to make me start answering those "Unknown Name / Unknown Number" calls I get every day.

Monkey Love

Specifically, too much of it. Sienna Miller got plenty:

But the over-zealous creature proceeded to stick its little monkey tongue into Sienna's mouth.

The Alfie star adds, "I sort of made out with a monkey... It was a sweet monkey but, no, that's too much." And to finish off the bizarre encounter, the monkey proceeded to urinate on Sienna's back.

And down in St. Kitts it's a major problem, I guess:

There is no point talking about increasing agricultural production in St. Kitts if we continue to ignore the serious monkey problem we have here -- namely, the huge and ever increasing population of monkeys that wander the country side devastating vegetables and fruit crops wherever they go.

Personally, I'd go with the monkeys eating my fruit rather than sticking their tongues down my throat.

Obama '08

Wow. I was absolutely sure that Barack Obama wouldn't bother running for President this time around. I figured he'd let Hillary and Rudy duke it out and then continue to make a mess of things for another four years, leaving him with an open door in 2012. Not so.

Instead, Obama has officially tossed his hat in the ring by launching a Presidential Exploratory Committee, and I'm all giddy about it.

We'll see what happens... Is this country ready to let a non-white sit in the driver's seat?

Bad Sikh Pun Here

Somehow, I've manage to avoid learning that Sikhs are required by their religion to carry a dagger:

The kirpan, one of five items baptized Sikhs are required to wear, is meant as a reminder of the duty to uphold justice. The others are reminders of other things: the kesh, or Sikhs' uncut hair, to live as God created you; kanga, a wooden comb, to remain neat; kara, a bracelet, to do good deeds; and kachera, or large underwear, to remain chaste and faithful sexually.

The story is about Homeland Security maybe being a little less asshole-ish to one particular group of brown folk, but I'm more excited about a whole group of people being required to pack a blade!

Cognitive Neuroscience And You

Who Wants to Be a Cognitive Neuroscientist Millionaire? A researcher (from my alma mater, Boston University) uses his understanding of the human brain to advance on a popular quiz show.

Another cognitive process essential for winning on Millionaire is intuition, or more precisely, knowing how to make decisions based on intuition. What if you have a feeling about an answer? What should you do with your hunch? Folk wisdom holds that on standardized tests you should go with your first impulse. Research tends to support this idea: a first impulse is more often correct than a second, revised decision. But what if $250,000 is at stake? "More often correct" does not seem certain enough to serve as a basis for a decision. How can you evaluate the true likelihood of a hunch being accurate?

This is a great read. Especially when you get sentences like this:

My neurohormones whipped from black misery to shining ebullience, saturating my brain in a boiling cauldron of epinephrine and endorphins.

Dork.

Dilbert Dude Hacks Brain

Scott Adams, creator of every office worker's favorite comic strip, lost his voice a while back. Now he's tricked his brain into giving it back.

My theory was that the part of my brain responsible for normal speech was still intact, but for some reason had become disconnected from the neural pathways to my vocal cords. (That's consistent with any expert's best guess of what's happening with Spasmodic Dysphonia. It's somewhat mysterious.) And so I reasoned that there was some way to remap that connection. All I needed to do was find the type of speaking or context most similar -- but still different enough -- from normal speech that still worked. Once I could speak in that slightly different context, I would continue to close the gap between the different-context speech and normal speech until my neural pathways remapped. Well, that was my theory. But I'm no brain surgeon.

The secret (for him) was rhyming!

Stingrays: Assassins of the Sea

I'm sure you, like all of us, assumed the unfortunate stingray stabbing death of conservationist and TV star, Steve Irwin was just a freak accident. Well, maybe we shouldn't be so sure.

An 81-year-old boater was in critical condition Thursday after a stingray flopped onto his boat and stung him, leaving a foot-long barb in his chest, authorities said.

Whoa... Hold on a sec... The stingray jumped into the boat and stabbed the dude in the chest? And we're calling this a freak accident, too?

I just don't know about that, my friend...

What's "cursive"?

The Handwriting Is on the Wall

When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2006, just 15 percent of the almost 1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive. The rest? They printed. Block letters.

And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of U.S. students who no longer get much handwriting instruction in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.

I haven't written in cursive since early high school, I think, at which point a drafting class had me convinced that printing was not only more legible, but at least as easy to perform.

Nowadays, my most frequent use of a pen is to sign my name on credit card slips.

Quick Hits

In the "To Read" file...

  • A history of lawn jockies (Short version: They may not be racist. In fact they may represent racial freedom.)

    But others, including some historians and collectors of African American memorabilia, say the lawn jockey has been misunderstood. They say his origins can be traced to a legend of faithful duty during the American Revolution. They say he guided slaves to freedom on the underground railroad. His appearance has evolved over time, reflecting changes in the stature of blacks in U.S. society.

  • A crazy person who is a real thorn in the side of the Chruch of Scientology

    In Lonsdale, the Church of Scientology has encountered a confusing and difficult nemesis. Unlike most ardent Scientology critics, Lonsdale was never a member. And unlike other critics, Lonsdale has proved difficult to squash.

    The key: He has very little to lose.

    Be sure not to miss his site.

Derby Girl Press

There's a great feaure on our Rocky Mountain Rollergirls in the Coloradoan: Rollergirls ready to make their own thunder in the Rockies

Practice also includes learning to get up quickly using just the legs. Hands just get squished under a passing skate if they hit the rink, explained Fifi, an accountant who's been with the league for only a month or so but said she has already learned this very important lesson, wiggling five of her digits.

That's right - Fifi's an accountant. Underneath the tattoos, piercings and fishnets are court clerks and business owners. Not exactly what you'd expect of a "derby chick."

Icy U Hurtin' is a Loveland trauma nurse and mother of four. Lucky 7 is a business development specialist with Turner Media Group. And Gwen A. Flattenya' is an attorney.

There's some weird overlap with a different story at the end, I think... Nevertheless, it's good stuff. I think this is at least the second story I've seen in which the Rollergirls have basically adopted a female reporter, resulting in a glowing review. It's totally infectious, I guess. ;)

Canon Rock

Have you seen the YouTube video of the kid ripping up Pachelbel’s Canon on an electric guitar? It's worth the five minutes if you haven't. The NY Times figure it was worth a bit more than that and actually tracked down the guy that did it.

Guitar fanatics are perplexed: “How the hell does he gets his harmonics to sound like that?� Some praise specific components of the performance, including the distortion, the power chords or the “sweet outro.� Overall a consensus emerges: This guy iz great.

“I’m shocked at how much you rock,� one fan said. “Funtwo just pure ownz the world,� said another. “Somebody just beat JerryC at his own song,� tinFold44 said. Carrie34 gushed, “funtwo’s version makes me want to hold up my lighter and *hug* my inner child! :)�

Nice.

Farecast Adds Denver

Farecast.com is probably the coolest travel site I've seen yet. It tells you when airfare is going to be cheapest and whether you should go ahead and buy your tickets now for that trip to Las Vegas in November or if you should wait a while for optimum pricing. It can also tell you which departure days (or which destination) will get you the best prices, if your schedule is flexible. When the beta first launched they only had Seattle and Boston as departure cities, so it wasn't really useful yet. Now they've just added Denver, so they have 55 or so cities. All the destinations I've cared about recently are in there.

Check it out if you might be travelling anytime soon.