Can the cocaine on dollars be used to track drug use?
re than 90 percent of U.S. currency is contaminated with cocaine, according to a study presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. The study's lead author told reporters that the rate had been 67 percent two years ago and that the increase may be due to a rise in consumption of the drug spurred by the economic downturn. Can dirty money really be used to track cocaine use? Yes—at least in Europe. National drug surveys,…
2 minutes
No, mommy does not love you all the same:
a nytimes.com Parents would certainly deny it, but Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones. Researchers at the University of Alberta carefully observed how parents treated their children during trips to the supermarket. They found that physical attractiveness made a big difference. The researchers noted if the parents belted their youngsters into the grocery cart seat, how often the parents' attention lapsed and the number of times the…
2 minutes
Can a prisoner request anything for his last meal?
a slate.com What are the rules for a Death Row last meal?John Allen Muhammad, the "Beltway sniper" who went on a two-week shooting spree in the Washington, D.C., area in 2003, is scheduled for execution in Greensville, Va., Tuesday night. In death row tradition, Muhammad requested a special last meal, but he asked the Virginia Department of Corrections not to announce the menu. Can a death row inmate request anything he wants for his final meal? Sure, but he might…
3 minutes
Is sport a religion?
a psychologytoday.com: The similarities between sport fandom and organized religion are striking. Consider the vocabulary associated with both: faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival, and celebration. It may seem odd, to equate religion with sport entertainment but it must be understood that prior to mass communications, religious ceremonies were a source of entertainment for ordinary people who rarely attended a theater or traveled to a sporting event. Sports and religion may get categorized separately but their…
2 minutes
Are opera fans more accepting of suicide?:
a mindhacks.com The influence of music-based subcultures on suicidality has been the subject of much debate but little scholarly research. While previous work has documented that suicide is a remarkably frequent cause of death in opera, it has not explored the related consequences on opera's audience. In particular, the possible influence of the opera subculture on suicide acceptability has been largely unexplored. Suicide in the case of life without honor, the "Madame Butterfly Effect," is a theme in opera. Persons…
1 min read
The past 10 years presented in 7 minutes (Video):
a kottke.org Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert
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Loss Aversion in Golf:
ger Woods and other golf superstars who stand to win millions on inch-long putts apparently are subject to the same fear and aversion to risk that can afflict investors and managers. Taking the safe route, however, has its own costs, according to new Wharton research. In a working paper titled, "Is Tiger Woods Loss Averse? Persistent Bias in the Face of Experience, Competition, and High Stakes," Wharton operations and information management professors Devin Pope and Maurice Schweitzer examine putts during…
2 minutes
How would Babe Ruth fare in baseball today? – WSJ.com
paper a decade ago attempted to bridge the gap between baseball players over the past century. Co-authors Shane Reese and Scott Berry found that performance was improving, but not uniformly. For instance, baseball players' improvement in hitting home runs was much more dramatic than their batting-average gains -- perhaps because of steroids, which wasn't controlled for. Researchers for Baseball Prospectus, a sort of think tank for the diamond, also quantified how the sport got more difficult over time. The…
1 min read
