Project Wombat

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Good stuff from the web

The venerable New York Times has a great article on whether babies have morals.  While I'm sort of cautious toward nativist theories (I'm looking at you, Chomsky), the research is interesting nonetheless.  Read the article, watch the video, take it with a grain of salt.

In (sort of, somewhat) related news, Salon has a good review/interview with the author of "For Better", the book that finally clarifies the elusive "state of marriage in the United States".  Like, not 50% of marriages end in divorce.  Not even close.  Try more like 20% or less.

And, finally, The New Yorker has an article on Andrey Ternovskiy, the guy who created ChatRoulette.  If you are looking for a reason to enroll your child in youth sports, look no further than this profile.  Money quote:

Sitting in his carefully engineered workspace—a comfortable chair and two giant monitors placed at the precise distance that Wikipedia says prevents eyestrain and a humped posture—Ternovskiy says that he sees the computer as “one hundred per cent my window into the world.” He doesn’t seek much else. “I always believed that computer might be that thing that I only need, that I only need that thing to survive,” he says. “It might replace everything.”
 Soccer league sign ups are coming up.  Don't let this happen to you. :)

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Links for Fun

The New York Times has an article on marriage and whether it's good for you.  It includes fascinating research, such as burning couples' arms mildly, and then seeing if the wounds heal faster in happy marriages than they do in unhappy ones.  No, seriously.  And guess what? They do heal faster.  See, you have to go read this thing.  The next time you are really upset with your spouse, you can mildly burn them and tell them it's in the name of science.

And if you are looking for a way to make your marriage happier (which you will need after reading the previous link), go find a hotel to stay in on Oyster.  They have hotel reviews accompanied by real, un-edited and un-airbrushed hotel photos.  The difference between the photos taken by the hotel and the candids is quite staggering.  The good hotels though still come out on top - my new favorite place to stay in New York looks gorgeous candid or not.  Oh, how I would love to stay there again.  On, say, a trip to New York.  Ahem. :)

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