Weekend Tidbits News
Today's Tidbit: Sea Otters Help Us Fight Global Warming
Sea otters are the largest members of the weasel family. When people started hunting sea otters for their fur, their population fell from roughly 225,000 to about 1,500, until the International Fur Seal Treaty took effect in 1911. Since the international ban on otter hunting, the population has rebounded back to roughly 107,000.
Today's Tidbit: Candy Can Help You Curb "That Time of the Month"
When subjects are asked to watch a movie and not display emotions (say, a comedy without laughing, or a tearjerker without crying), they evidently use up glucose in particular areas of their brain in a way that subjects who are free to react however they want do not.
Today's Tidbit: Want to Be Happier? Don't Eat Junk Food
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that motivates us to engage in rewarding activities such as eating and sex. Animals without dopamine stop eating and starve to death.
Today's Tidbit: Believe Your Own Lies and Everyone Will Believe Them Too
Numerous studies have shown that people are over-confident in their own abilities. Most people, for example, think that they are better drivers than average.
Today's Tidbit: Want Bigger Tips? Draw Eyes on Your Tip Jar
In an office area, there is a coffee machine and a jar in which people are asked to put voluntary contributions for the coffee they consume.
Today's Tidbit: Proper Penmanship and Prose Will Make You More Trustworthy
People were shown a bunch of writing purporting to make various claims about facts about the world, then were asked later which facts they believed.
News: Eating Helps You Test Better
Evidently, when you are thinking about a problem, you use up glucose. This can be seen by monitoring blood glucose as people work on math problems and the like.
News: Children Who Can Delay Gratification Tend to Become More Successful
An experiment was run by Walter Mischel with four-year-olds back in the 1960s. Each child was brought into a room in which there was an Oreo cookie. The child was told that s/he could have the Oreo right then and there—or if s/he waited 15 minutes, could have two Oreos instead.
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