Today in Scientific American, they report:

A Psychological Science study in 2009 first showed the effect. Psychologist Sarah Master of the University California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues studied 25 women and their boyfriends of more than six months.

The researchers subjected the women to different degrees of thermal stimulation--a sharp, prickling sensation--as they either held their boyfriend’s hand while he sat behind a curtain, held the hand of a male stranger behind a curtain, viewed a photograph of their boyfriend or viewed a photograph of a male stranger.

Holding their partner’s hand or viewing his photo decreased the women’s pain significantly more than touching or viewing a stranger--and the photo was just as effective as the physical contact.

What you say about others says a lot more about you than about them, my mother always told me, and it turns out scientists agree with her.

According to Scientific American today, researchers at Wake Forest, the University of Nebraska, and George Washington University in St. Louis found that students who generally rate other students as being trustworthy, nice, and emotionally stable reported greater life satisfaction and less depression, as well as better grades and test scores. What's more, a survey of their classmates showed they were more likely to be well-regarded, as agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable.

Conspiracy Theory's Theory

That being said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. An internet user with the nick "Conspiracy Theory", apparently from over to York, writes:

I was shopping at the local supermarket where I selected:

A half-gallon of 2% milk
A carton of eggs
A quart of orange juice
A head of lettuce
A 2 lb. can of coffee
A 1 lb. package of bacon

There's a cute McDonald's ad running, where a fellow, harried by his cell phone, changes the ring tone to a bird chirping, and suddenly starts enjoys his breakfast while ignoring his phone. The notion is horrifying to me. What if I forgot to change it back! When I am someplace where you're supposed to turn your cellphone off, I don't do that, because my cellphone is my wristwatch.

I don't even turn off the ringtone, because I'd forget to switch it back, and a vibrate isn't worth a damn if I'm across the room from my cellphone (which normally lives on the charger when I'm home - about 98% of the time.) I keep my hand on the cellphone, though, so that if it starts making noise, I can quickly silence it.

Whip-Poor-Wills

I was discussing whip-poor-wills during our recent summer - it's currently a balmy 36F at 12:20 AM with "wintry mix" forecast for later today - with Sherry, a married woman I've only ever met online. She lives in Tennessee, except that she always reminds me that she lives in the Carolinas when I say that.

I don't mean this as a slur on rural country, of course, when I say Tennessee, Carolina, it's all moonshiners and little Opie either way, right? (As Craig Ferguson would say, "we welcome your letters.") I mean, when Maine declared the Whoopie Pie their state cookie, my initial thought was that we ought to send them a thank-you card, and invite them to try our shoo-fly pie, too.

Papa's faith is people
Mama she believes in cleaning
Papa's faith is in people
Mama she's always cleaning
Papa brought home the sugar
Mama taught me the deeper meaning

She don't like my kick pleat skirt
She don't like my eyelids painted green
She don't like me staying up late
In my high-heeled shoes

Living for that Rock'n'Roll dancing scene
Papa says "Leave the girl alone, Mother
She's looking like a Movie Queen"

Mama thinks she spoilt me
Papa knows somehow he set me free
Mama thinks she spoilt me rotten
She blames herself
But papa he blesses me
It's a rough road to travel

Cartoonist Scott Adams - he does Dilbert - says "I'd like to see a Constitutional Amendment that makes anyone in federal office ineligible for another elected term if the budget isn't balanced during the current term."

Interesting. He also distinguishes between philosophy and plan.

If you think government should reduce spending, that's a philosophy, not a plan.

If you think small government is good, that's a philosophy, not a plan.

If you think the government should provide a safety net for the poor, that's a philosophy, not a plan.

We have a situation where the number of working adults in this country is shrinking, and the number of retirees is growing. My proposal is that we fix that with immigration reform because if we made a bunch of babies, it'd be a quarter century before they enter the workforce in force, and it'd be terribly expensive to educate them. We can import grown and educated workers from Mexico in months, for almost nothing. That's a plan.

So What's YOUR Plan?

It's also a plan to say that we should cut back social programs in order to match revenues when the number of workers shrinks and the number of retirees, with the result that 50% of the old and disabled move in with family, sucking up money that would otherwise be used for leisure and/or education, and the other 50% become homeless. If that's your plan. If you simply advocate cutting back the programs and ignoring the consequences, that's not a plan, that's a philosophy.

Pay your money, and take your choice. As long as you are aware of what you're advocating, that's acceptable. Just remember, I don't know of anyone who hoped to retire early because of health issues, and I don't know anyone who proclaimed, when he was a little boy, that he wanted to grow up to live under a bridge.

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homelessness - immigration - philosophy - plan - retirees - Scott Adams - social programs