Here are some of the stories going on right now! :

• cheaper and better satelites made from toys

“Instead of investing in their own computer research and development, engineers at the NASA Ames Research Center are looking to cellphones and off-the-shelf toys to power the future of low-cost satellite technology.”

• addiction drugs may boost weight loss

“The Lancet reports that Naltrexone, commonly used to treat alcoholics and heroin addicts, and the anti-smoking drug bupropion led to greater weight loss than diet and exercise alone.”

• dopamine determines impulsive behavior

“….serial daters might perpetually be living at the whim of their latest impulse, and now research is getting to the biological basis of their seemingly random behavior. 

• more than a feeling

“…anyone who has felt the sting of tears while listening to a bugler play “Taps,” swooned to a love song or cringed with irritation as a neighbor cranked the heavy metal knows that music can exert a powerful emotive effect.”

• reading terrorists minds

“If the new test used by the Northwestern researchers had been used in such a real-world situation with the same type of outcome that occurred in the lab, the study suggests, culpability extracted from the chatter could be confirmed.”

• the good and the bad in the hands of politicians

“In laboratory tests, right- and left-handers associate positive ideas like honesty and intelligence with their dominant side of space and negative ideas with their non-dominant side,” says Daniel Casasanto of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. To find out whether people link ‘good’ with ‘dominant’ beyond the laboratory, Casasanto and co-author Kyle Jasmin examined spontaneous gestures during positive and negative speech in the final debates of the most recent US presidential elections.”

• Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel holds visuals of brainstem and spinal chord

“Michelangelo, the 16th century master painter and accomplished anatomist, appears to have hidden an image of the brainstem and spinal cord in a depiction of God in the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers reports. These findings by a neurosurgeon and a medical illustrator, published in the May Neurosurgery, may explain long controversial and unusual features of one of the frescoes’ figures.”

Enter Wray Herbert, who combines a true love of things psychological and extensive experience in journalism. Not only is Wray a wonderful blogger, who participated as our discussant in our Psychology Blogging symposium at 2008 APS, but he has now ventured into writing books about psychology. His latest is On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits, due out September 14 for Random House. In On Second Thought, Wray tackles the extensive, and often difficult and jargon-infested, literature on decision-making. Although our ancestors obviously had good enough decision-making skills to survive, they left us with some predispositions that lead us in some seemingly crazy directions–launching the Challenger, the Bay of Pigs invasion, and those everyday little things we decide to do that leave us scratching our heads later–What was I thinking?

Time to brush up on those decision-making skills...

We can all brush up on decision-making, and finding out where we go astray is a terrific first step. Wray not only educates with his usual classy clarity, but provides real-world examples that draw you along, learning a lot without really being aware that you’re learning a lot. You can check out an excerpt, in which he applies decision-making theories to a real-life case of backcountry skiers versus an avalanche.  Teaching social is going to be a lot easier this year. Thanks, Wray!

We have a beautiful grape trellis with Concord Grapes running 30 feet or more. This may not sound too unusual, unless you realize what part of California we are in. CLICK on the picture to see what I am really thinking about!

Here are a couple of stories that might be amusing! :

• More foods hinder rather than aid sleep

“The bad news for people trying to talk about food and sleep is that . . . generally it’s hard to find foods that help with sleep,” says Michael Grandner, a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology.”

• did you give your lemur a contraceptive today?

“Doses of Depo-Provera, a common contraceptive for people, shift the odor secretions of female lemurs so dramatically that their scents no longer give clear cues to kinship, identity and genetic quality”

after 3 monthes of use, I still love the iPad!

Here are a few readings for today:

• can you ask a pig if a glass is half full?

“Experts from the university’s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development have shown for the first time that a pig’s mood mirrors how content he is, highlighting that pigs are capable of complex emotions which are directly influenced by their living conditions.”

• the real cost of college texbooks!

“Why do new college textbooks cost so much? It’s a perennial complaint, but with the growing concerns over student debt levels and the spiraling costs of higher education generally, students and their parents are not the only ones asking that question.”

My 70 lb plus weight loss on Jenny Craig

This year, I expected to see the enormous packet I had filled out the previous two years, in which I was asked exactly how much of everything I ate every day. I guess I must have passed a milestone now, because I got a two-page questionnaire asking me if I had gained, lost, or stayed the same, and how I felt about it (I answered “extremely happy.”)

Along with my questionnaire, I received a xerox copy of an article from Time in 2004 about some of the members of the National Weight Control Registry entitled “The Secrets of their Success.” If you’re looking for some diet inspiration, this isn’t a bad place to start.

My funniest moment with the NWCR came after I submitted my very first questionnaire. I reported that I walk approximately 4 miles a day, and they emailed me back to make sure that I hadn’t made a mistake. I DO walk at least 4 miles a day (2 miles back and forth to our favorite coffee shop each afternoon for a writing break and another 2 after dinner around our nearby lake–pretty). That doesn’t count the walking I do up and down the hills at Cal Poly when school is in session or the 12 hours of pacing around my classrooms each week while I teach. I don’t consider myself very active (I haven’t done anything sweaty in years), but maybe this sounded like a lot to them.

In the meantime, I’m just keeping doing what I’ve been doing–seems to be working. The longer I keep my weight down, the more natural it seems. Friends who do drug rehab work tell me that it usually takes an addict about 5 years of abstinence to “reset” their physiology. I’m guessing the same is true of weight loss. But it does get easier.

No, I only WISH I was golfing at St. Andrews in Scotland! CLICK on the picture to see St. Andrews today!

Here a couple of fun reads for today:

• mind meld enables good conversation!

“Why does human conversation come so easily? A new study chalks it up to a sort of “mind meld” between participants. Researchers have found that the brains of speakers and listeners become synchronized as they converse and that this “neural coupling” is key to effective communication.”

• science of a boxing knockout

“But being on the losing end of a KO punch can damage a lot more than a pugilist’s pride—research suggests that the blows that cause knockouts can be debilitating to a boxer’s short and long-term health”

CLICK on picture above to check out what happened this year at Comic Con!

comic con toys to thrill

“SAN DIEGO — Get ready to seriously spoil your inner child, because Comic-Con International is here and so are the exclusive toys. This year’s limited-edition offerings range from a gigantic plush doll to a bobblehead of a serial killer, a fanboy action figure, and the perfect Christmas gift for your stingy boss. These made our heads spin as we tried our best to not check out the Hawaii Five-0 hula girls.”

iPad joins the Academia this fall

“The iPad is about to have its academic chops put to the test this fall in a number of programs around the country. Colleges and universities are looking to adopt the iPad as a collaborative tool, a standardized mobile device to integrate into curriculums, and, in some cases, even a cost-saving device.

“social web and its tipping point

“EVERY move you make, every twitter feed you update, somebody is watching you. You may not think twice about it, but if you use a social networking site, a cellphone or the internet regularly, you are leaving behind a clear digital trail that describes your behaviour, travel patterns, likes and dislikes, divulges who your friends are and reveals your mood and your opinions. In short, it tells the world an awful lot about you.”

why more education lowers dementia

“A team of researchers from the UK and Finland has discovered why people who stay in education longer have a lower risk of developing dementia — a question that has puzzled scientists for the past decade”

One of the promo pictures from the upcoming Harry Potter series "Deathly Hollows". I remember when we had to buy books for every member of the family when the next installment came out! You see, no one wanted to wait.

Here are a few stories I found interesting and one survey!

• Survey: the Human Body and Mind from the BBC

“Is there a connection between your personality type and the art that you like?”

• “Academic” language impedes students ability to learn science

“Middle and high school students who read fluently in English class and on the Web may find that they cannot understand their science texts.”

• the healing affects of forests

…”Forests — and other natural, green settings — can reduce stress, improve moods, reduce anger and aggressiveness and increase overall happiness. Forest visits may also strengthen our immune system by increasing the activity and number of natural killer cells that destroy cancer cells.”

two pictures I adapted from the Harry Potter series for the bulletin board outside my Cal Poly Office CLICK ON the photo to see the trailer for the 'deathly hollows' segment!

Here are a few stories that I found interesting today:

• teens using digital drugs to get high

“Kids around the country are getting high on the internet, thanks to MP3s that induce a state of ecstasy. And it could be a gateway drug leading teens to real-world narcotics. At least, that’s what Oklahoma News 9 is reporting about a phenomenon called “i-dosing,” which involves finding an online dealer who can hook you up with “digital drugs” that get you high through your headphones.”

• darth vadar robes a bank?

“He didn’t speak with the voice of James Earl Jones or wield a light saber. But a 6-foot-tall man dressed as Darth Vader wasn’t playing games when he flashed a handgun and demanded that a New York bank teller fork over the loot. The unidentified Darth Vader got away Thursday from a Chase Bank branch in Suffolk County with an undisclosed amount of cash stuffed into a sack adorned with a New York Yankees logo, police said.”

• “cut down meat to lose weight

“A European study of almost 400,000 adults found that eating meat was linked with weight gain, even in people taking in the same number of calories. The strongest association was found with processed meat, such as sausages and ham, the Imperial College London team reported. It suggests that high-protein diets may not help slimmers in the long run.

• “why whales crash into boats: teenage drivers!

“Juveniles are like teenage drivers – they are more likely to misjudge things and have accidents than adults, says marine scientist Robert Kenney of the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett. “In the studies of entanglement-scar acquisition in North Atlantic right whales, a large majority of entanglements happen to juveniles.”

Here are a few scans of my brain! CLICK on picture to be transported to the UCSB Brain imaging lab

Here are a few stories that I found interesting: 

• laughters secrets!!

“…Sense of humour varies enormously from person to person, but while much is learned and culturally influenced, there is no evidence of systematic differences in the things that men and women find funny…”

• depending on the culture, getting angry can help or hurt negotiations

“Getting angry might help you get your way if you’re negotiating with European Americans, but watch out – in negotiations with East Asians, getting angry may actually hurt your cause. That’s the conclusion of a new study on how people from different cultures react to anger in negotiations.”

• why does everything look grey when you feel blue?

“Scientific findings now lend empirical support to this representation of depression that everything looks gray when you feel blue.”