Seeking Entry-Level Prophet: Burning Bush and Tablets Not Required - New York Times

Seeking Entry-Level Prophet: Burning Bush and Tablets Not Required - New York Times: "But the first service for the Church of Now, held recently at Mo Pitkin’s, an East Village bar, did not go too well. Mr. Boden rambled in his 15-minute sermon. Most in the small crowd, composed almost entirely of friends, indicated they would probably not come back. They wanted him to sell them more on his beliefs, which frustrated Mr. Boden.
“I was disappointed because what I heard coming back to me through others was that I wasn’t telling them, ‘Believe this.’ I wasn’t saying, ‘Here are the rules,’ ” he said. “I was saying, ‘Let’s figure this out together.’ ”
He has found that attracting followers to even come out to a service in the first place can be arduous. He has created a MySpace page, and a marketing consultant helped produce some fliers and postcards. But two hours spent camped out in Union Square this week with a big sign that said, “Talk to Me About Living in the Now” yielded just three substantive encounters."

Grigory Perelman - New York Times

Grigory Perelman - New York Times: "Until his death in 1996, the Hungarian number theorist Paul Erdos was content to live out of a suitcase, traveling from the home of one colleague to another, seeking theorems so sparse and true that they came, he said, “straight from The Book,” a platonic text where he envisioned all mathematics was prewritten."

Secrets of Endurance: Eating to Go (and Go and Go) - New York Times

Secrets of Endurance: Eating to Go (and Go and Go) - New York Times: "The need for calories is just as important during training. It wasn’t until she met with two nutritionists that Shelley Lawrence, a 40-year-old principal of a school in Westwood, Calif., realized she was asking her body to do the impossible: endure 30 miles a week of marathon training on a stingy amount of calories. “I live in L.A.,” she said. “The expectation is that women don’t eat that much.”

Nancy Clark, a registered dietitian and the author of a best-selling sports nutrition guide, persuaded her to eat more by using this logic: “If your little baby were crying, and you didn’t feed it, that would be called child abuse,” Ms. Clark said. “If you’re hungry, it’s called, ‘Oh, I’m on a diet.’ But it’s still abuse and it takes a toll.”"

The Fame Motive - New York Times

The Fame Motive - New York Times: "In recent experiments, psychologists have shown that, when reminded that they will one day die, people fixate on attributes they consider central to their self-worth.

Those who value strength squeeze a hand grip with more force; those who prize driving ability, cooking skills or physical appearance intensify their focus."

Einstein’s Man in Beijing: A Rebel With a Cause - New York Times

Einstein’s Man in Beijing: A Rebel With a Cause - New York Times: "Einstein was on the list courtesy of Andrei Zhdanov, an assistant to Stalin, who argued in 1947 that Einstein’s cosmological theories were reactionary and bourgeois. Marxist philosophy postulated an endless and unlimited universe, but according to general relativity, space-time could be curved around on itself like a sphere, and thus be finite even if it lacked boundaries. Moreover, it promoted theology by implying that the universe had a beginning.

Mr. Zhdanov’s argument resonated with Mao’s view that the universe should be in a state of eternal revolution. And for a brief while it resonated with Dr. Xu, who referred to the Soviet criticism as “a vibration on my mind.”"

On the Web, Pedophiles Extend Their Reach - New York Times

On the Web, Pedophiles Extend Their Reach - New York Times: "In that, Sonali was demonstrating what experts said is the most dangerous element of the pedophile Internet community: its justification of illegal acts. Experts described the pedophiles’ online worldview as reflective of “neutralization,” a psychological rationalization used by groups that deviate from societal norms.

In essence, the groups deem potentially injurious acts and beliefs harmless. That is accomplished in part by denying that a victim is injured, condemning critics and appealing to higher loyalties — in this case, an ostensible struggle for the sexual freedom of children."

A ‘Senior Moment’ or a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? - New York Times

A ‘Senior Moment’ or a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? - New York Times: "Researchers refer to this self-undermining as a stereotype effect, and they have documented it in many groups. In studies, women perform less well on math exams after reading that men tend to perform better on them. Similarly, white men perform less well when they are told that they are competing in math against Asian students.

People over 65 also slump on memory tests when they are reminded of the link between age and mental decline. The new study, financed by the National Institute on Aging, is the first to show the effect so clearly in a borderline group, experts say — middle age is certainly not young, but it is well short of “senior.”"

Pimps and the FBI sharing tactics...

Sex Ring Broken Up, Officials Say - New York Times: "Drivers carried the women from a point of entry to a brothel, and sometimes moved them between brothels within the network, officials said. Once the women were delivered to a brothel, officials said, managers would typically take away their identification and travel documents and threaten to turn them in to the authorities or hurt their relatives in Korea if they tried to leave. The women were forced to work to pay off tens of thousands of dollars of debt they had accumulated in their travel from Korea, officials said.


The Tyranny of Fear - New York Times: "As there was no evidence that he had committed a crime, it was considered important that Mr. Higazy confess to something. He said an F.B.I. agent, Michael Templeton, told him during an interview that if he didn’t cooperate, his family in Cairo would be put at the mercy of Egyptian security, which Mr. Templeton would later acknowledge has a reputation for torture. He said the agent also threatened to report that in his “expert opinion” Mr. Higazy was a terrorist."

Dolphins Not So Smart

World Crises | Reuters.com: "'Dolphins can actually chain up to 16 stimulus response events, but this is indicative of good trainers and not intelligent animals. Stimulus-response conditioning is thought to be a low level of intelligent behaviour,' Manger said.

Manger also points to the tuna industry, which under consumer pressure has gone to great lengths to prevent dolphins from being caught and killed by accident in nets.

'If they were really intelligent they would just jump over the net because it doesn't come out of the water,' he said."

New Lieberman Retooling Race as Independent - New York Times

New Lieberman Retooling Race as Independent - New York Times: "Meanwhile, Mr. Lamont, a Greenwich millionaire, now has to calibrate his own identity as self-described liberal."

American Journalism Review

American Journalism Review: "'She asked me: 'Don't you ever get bored doing the workshop over and over?'
'I get interviewed a lot, and I've been asked that question over and over, so I have a message track for it. I say, 'No, not at all,' then I go into spin: 'The methodology is not finished. I'm building it brick by brick. As long as I keep working on it, I'll never get bored,' et cetera, et cetera. She stopped me in the middle of my message track and blurted out: 'I just asked you a closed-ended question! You of all people! Let me start again, and do it properly: How do you feel about giving this workshop?'
'When she asked me, 'How do you feel?' I gave an answer I'd never given before. I told her: 'I'm always upgrading the methodology, and every time I try to put new stuff into it. Lately, though, the demand for the workshop has grown so much, I sometimes feel very frustrated, because I know I'm not doing the job I want to be doing.'
'My answer actually surprised me. I had never said 'frustrated' before. "

American Journalism Review

American Journalism Review: "After breaking down and rebuilding thousands of interviews, he saw patterns. 'Interviewing is about people. They're not chemical compounds, and they don't always act predictably. But there is a predictable part.' Ask a closed-ended question and sources 'will confirm or deny 98 percent of the time. That's the science.' The unpredictable part is what happens next. 'Socially, people are taught to add a postscript to a confirmation or a denial. As journalists, we hope the P.S. will describe or explain the issue we've raised. That's interviewing by accident. If you get somebody who doesn't want to play, you're in trouble.'
Most of the time, in friendly interviews, the source adds the P.S. 'out of charity. Because our social instincts tell us to be nice. Their charity--not the question--delivers the answer. We're relying on them to help us out. Relying on people's charity to get answers is not a good practice. The ones we need charity from the most are the least likely to give it--the people who stand to lose something.'
And certain people rarely give charity: 'People who go by the book--cops, bureaucrats, lawyers--people who take questions literally, people who are nervous. The last thing fearful people do is open up. They shut down.' Professional answer-givers, what Sawatsky calls sophisticated politicians and business executives, frequently defeat journalists by answering a closed-ended question with a curt 'No, not at all' or a disingenuous 'Gosh, I hope not!' before switching to a prepackaged 'message track,' their prepared response to uncomfortable questions. "

THE SCIENCE OF CREATING KILLERS / Human reluctance to take a life can be reversed through training in the method known as killology

THE SCIENCE OF CREATING KILLERS / Human reluctance to take a life can be reversed through training in the method known as killology: "'Once the bullets start flying, most combatants stop thinking with the forebrain (that portion of the brain that makes us human) and start thinking with the midbrain (the primitive portion of our brain, which is indistinguishable from that of an animal),' writes retired Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a former U.S. Army ranger and West Point professor of military science who coined the term, on his Web site killology.com. 'In conflict situations, this primitive, midbrain processing can be observed in the existence of a powerful resistance to killing one's own kind. ... This is an essential survival mechanism that prevents a species from destroying itself during territorial and mating rituals.'

The only thing that has any hope of silencing the midbrain, he argues, is what influenced Pavlov's dogs: conditioning."

Come Wait With Me - New York Times

Come Wait With Me - New York Times: "Scott McHugh, who oversaw the Dulles program for the Transportation Security Administration, is confident this type of screening would have flagged the Sept. 11 terrorists or the latest plotters in London. “If you look at the videos of 9/11 terrorists and the interviews with people who talked to them,” he says, “they all exhibit symptoms of stress that would have been identified, like failure to make eye contact and failure to answer questions directly. They’re not exactly sophisticated. They’re under so much stress that anything out of the ordinary really throws them off their game.”"

Come Wait With Me - New York Times

Come Wait With Me - New York Times: "The screeners were looking for unusual behavior like sweating, rigid posture, clenched fists. A screener would engage a passenger in conversation and ask questions he wouldn’t have been trained to expect, like whether he’d seen a Redskins game the night before even though the Redskins hadn’t played."

Elusive Proof, Elusive Prover: A New Mathematical Mystery - New York Times

Elusive Proof, Elusive Prover: A New Mathematical Mystery - New York Times: "Quoting Poincar�himself, Dr.Yau said, “Thought is only a flash in the middle of a long night, but the flash that means everything.”"

Get Out of That Rut and Into the Shower - New York Times

Get Out of That Rut and Into the Shower - New York Times: "Continuum has a reputation for unconventional research techniques, and it suggested that the best way to understand what consumers would value in a shower was not just to listen to them, through focus groups or surveys, but to watch them as well. That is, to film them taking real showers in their own homes and use the findings to design a new line of products."

Get Out of That Rut and Into the Shower - New York Times

Get Out of That Rut and Into the Shower - New York Times: "“We look for the unique experiences, things that separate one institution from the other, whether for good or ill,” Mr. Brown said. “The biggest mistake companies make is managing to the averages. How long, on average, does it take to open a checking account? What’s the average level of customer satisfaction? Averages hide as much as they reveal.”"

Get Out of That Rut and Into the Shower - New York Times

Get Out of That Rut and Into the Shower - New York Times: "“The most thoughtful and articulate strategies tend to come from the big banks,” Mr. Brown explained. “But their actual results seldom bear that out. When you walk the streets and look at what’s happening, the gap between strategy and execution becomes obvious. We can’t just listen to what executives say. We have to see with our own eyes what customers are experiencing.”"

Where Do Babies Come From? In the 17th Century, Scientists Laid Myths to Rest - New York Times

Where Do Babies Come From? In the 17th Century, Scientists Laid Myths to Rest - New York Times: "As poets have long known, a persuasive metaphor can often be more powerful than a fact."