The Way of the Sniper:
combat Tyler never took a shot from more than 400 yards. But at a practice range in Idaho, he once hit a foot-square metal target from 1,600 yards. He was shooting across a valley, amid a furious wind and rain, and still hit the target on his first try. “We used the ballistic computers to deal with the environmental conditions,” he says matter-of-factly. That bullet was in the air for well over a second, rising, spiraling, descending, and fading…
1 min read
The American Diet: 34 Gigabytes a Day
e report suggests the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words of information in a single day. (Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is only 460,000 words long.) This doesn’t mean we read 100,000 words a day — it means that 100,000 words cross our eyes and ears in a single 24-hour period. That information comes through various channels, including the television, radio, the Web, text messages and video games. The report also describes our voracious appetite for…
2 minutes
What does friendship mean in the modern era?
w we can see why friendship has become the characteristically modern relationship. Modernity believes in equality, and friendships, unlike traditional relationships, are egalitarian. Modernity believes in individualism. Friendships serve no public purpose and exist independent of all other bonds. Modernity believes in choice. Friendships, unlike blood ties, are elective; indeed, the rise of friendship coincided with the shift away from arranged marriage. Modernity believes in self-expression. Friends, because we choose them, give us back an image of ourselves. Modernity believes…
2 minutes
How many people cheat?
a outlier.bookofodds.com In the United States, the odds a man who has ever been married or is living with someone has cheated during the relationship are 1 in 4.76 (21%). For perspective, these are the same as the odds that an adult in the United States never uses swear words in conversation (1 in 4.76). For women, the odds are 1 in 9.09 (11%), the same as the odds that a woman in the United States owns a firearm. Before…
2 minutes
Optimal starting prices for negotiations and auctions
article in the latest edition of Current Directions in Psychological Science reviews studies on the best starting points to increase the final price in either negotiations or auctions. In general, start high in negotiations, start low in auctions. It turns out that negotiations, where several parties are invited to discuss a price, and auctions, where people can include themselves by jumping in when they want, are quite different psychologically. The article, by business psychologist Adam Gilinsky and colleagues, notes…
3 minutes
ROTC for Spies
cultivate a new generation of spies for a new generation of global threats, the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have proposed the creation of a program to find and train potential agents from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Modeled on the military's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) at U.S. colleges and universities, the program would seek out "first- and second-generation Americans, who already have critical language and cultural knowledge, and prepare them for careers in the intelligence agencies,"…
1 min read
Fake ‘kid in a kit’ excuses childless workers for leaving early
bsp; Parents may feel entitled to leave work early now and then so as to accommodate the needs of their children, but that doesn't mean their childless coworkers will agree. Aiming to bring the same benefits to the grumbling employees left behind is The Office Kid, a New York company that provides an all-purpose work excuse in the form of a fictitious "child." For just USD 19.95, disgruntled childless workers can get what The Office Kid calls a "kid in…
1 min read
One Man’s Discarded Ticket Can Be Another Man’s Salary – NYTimes.com
ce upon a wager on a race run at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, Mr. Leonardo, who lives in Wanaque, N.J., became a stooper by accident. In 1999, he walked into that same OTB parlor in Midtown and placed a bet. He watched the race, was sure he had lost and threw away his Pick 3 ticket. “But just as I was leaving, I looked up at the screen and realized an inquiry had been made,” he said, referring to a…
3 minutes
