Personality is not only about who but also where you are

Personality is not only about who but also where you are

By Dorsa Amir In the field of psychology, the image is canon: a child sitting in front of a marshmallow, resisting the temptation to eat it. If she musters up the willpower to resist long enough, she’ll be rewarded when the experimenter returns with a second marshmallow. Using this ‘marshmallow test’, the Austrian-born psychologist Walter Mischel demonstrated that children who could resist immediate gratification and wait for a second marshmallow went on to greater achievements in life. They did better…

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Democratic insiders: Bernie could win the nomination

Democratic insiders: Bernie could win the nomination

Politico reports: Suddenly, Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is being taken seriously. For months, the Vermont senator was written off by Democratic Party insiders as a candidate with a committed but narrow base who was too far left to win the primary. Elizabeth Warren had skyrocketed in the polls and seemed to be leaving him behind in the race to be progressive voters’ standard-bearer in 2020. But in the past few weeks, something has changed. In private conversations and on social…

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The ‘but I would vote for Joe Biden’ Republicans

The ‘but I would vote for Joe Biden’ Republicans

The New York Times reports: The voters at campaign events for Joseph R. Biden Jr. here in Iowa and across the country aren’t just shopping for a candidate for themselves. As they jostle to take pictures with the former vice president and listen to him preach about national unity, they are often thinking about someone else — a dad, a neighbor or a colleague. They consider the political leanings of people close to them who are uncomfortable with the most…

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Were the predictions we made about climate change 20 years ago accurate? Here’s a look

Were the predictions we made about climate change 20 years ago accurate? Here’s a look

USA Today reports: [Penn State University meteorologist Michael] Mann told USA TODAY that we “underestimated the dramatic increase in persistent weather extremes like the unprecedented heat waves, droughts, wildfires and floods we’ve witnessed in recent years.” Since 1993, there have been 212 weather disasters that cost the United States at least $1 billion each, when adjusted for inflation. In total, they cost $1.45 trillion and killed more than 10,000 people. That’s an average of 7.8 such disasters per year since…

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The world is turning its back on refugees

The world is turning its back on refugees

Lama Mourad and Kelsey P. Norman write: Last December, the United Nations General Assembly formally endorsed the Global Compact on Refugees, which was supposed to help people driven from their home country to find shelter elsewhere in the world. The ability to flee threats of violence and persecution is recognized as a fundamental human right, and some countries embrace their duty to provide a haven. Other countries, however, largely turn refugees away as an economic drain or security threat. The…

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The promise and perils of a secret impeachment vote in the Senate

The promise and perils of a secret impeachment vote in the Senate

Ephrat Livni writes: It’s no secret that a presidential impeachment trial in the US Senate, whatever evidence is or is not presented, will end with Donald Trump’s acquittal. Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell has promised it. But if the vote were conducted in secret, it seems, 30 or more Republican senators would find the president’s dealings with Ukraine violated the Constitution. Or so said former Arizona senator Jeff Flake in September. Former GOP senator @JeffFlake at #TribFest19 – "I heard…

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In aftermath of Ukraine crisis, a climate of mistrust and threats

In aftermath of Ukraine crisis, a climate of mistrust and threats

The Washington Post reports: The new Russia adviser at the White House — the third in just six months — has no meaningful background on the subject. The only expert on Ukraine has never spoken with President Trump, only been mocked by him publicly. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv will soon be without its highest-ranking diplomat for the second time in a year, as another ambassador departs after being undermined by the U.S. president and his personal attorney. The CIA…

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How to be a dictator

How to be a dictator

Adam Gopnik writes: Dictatorship has, in one sense, been the default condition of humanity. The basic governmental setup since the dawn of civilization could be summarized, simply, as taking orders from the boss. Big chiefs, almost invariably male, tell their underlings what to do, and they do it, or they are killed. Sometimes this is costumed in communal decision-making, by a band of local bosses or wise men, but even the most collegial department must have a chairman: a capo…

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Tulsi Gabbard and the return of the anti-anti-Trump left

Tulsi Gabbard and the return of the anti-anti-Trump left

Jonathan Chait writes: Tulsi Gabbard has been slowly edging toward leaving the Democratic Party and, it now seems more likely than not, launching a spoiler candidacy to peel disaffected left-wing votes away from the Democrats. Her “present” vote on impeachment, followed by a disavowal of what she called the “zero-sum mind-set the two political parties have trapped America in,” sets the stage for Gabbard to play the role of 2020’s Jill Stein. Left-wing anti-anti-Trumpism played an important role in the…

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The climate movement is gaining momentum in spite of Trump

The climate movement is gaining momentum in spite of Trump

Katrina vanden Heuvel writes: The selection of 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg as Time magazine’s Person of the Year seemed to trigger many on the political right, led by President Trump, who called the choice “ridiculous” and mocked Thunberg for supposedly having an “Anger Management problem.” The episode was a disgraceful yet fitting end to a year that saw bold new ideas to fight climate change meet with inaction, ignorance and worse. This month, world leaders held global climate talks…

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Soil is our best ally in the fight against climate change – but we’re fast running out of it

Soil is our best ally in the fight against climate change – but we’re fast running out of it

What lies beneath? Not a lot. Dan Evans, Author provided By Dan Evans, Lancaster University Take a handful of soil and hold it up to your nose. That fresh, earthy aroma is organic matter, part of which is carbon. What you can smell is the whiff of a solution for dealing with climate change. Global soil resources contain more organic carbon than the world’s atmosphere and all of its plants combined. When plants photosynthesise, they take carbon out of the…

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Mercenaries flock to Libya raising fears of prolonged war

Mercenaries flock to Libya raising fears of prolonged war

The Guardian reports: A new wave of mercenaries from Sudan is fighting in Libya, deepening concerns that the conflict in the north African state has descended into an intractable international war that could destabilise much of the region. Leaders of two different groups of Sudanese fighters active in Libya have told the Guardian that they had received hundreds of new recruits in recent months. Both groups were fighting with the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by General Khalifa Haftar against…

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Ram Dass 1931-2019

Ram Dass 1931-2019

Douglas Martin writes: [Richard] Alpert went to India in 1967, more as a tourist than as a pilgrim. Events led him to a twinkly old man wrapped in a blanket: Neem Karoli Baba, who was called Maharajji, or great king, by his followers. Maharajji appeared to read Mr. Alpert’s mind by telling him, accurately, that his mother had recently died of spleen disease — information that he said he had told no one in India. The experience caused a spiritual…

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Ape study suggests urge to dance is prehuman

Ape study suggests urge to dance is prehuman

The Guardian reports: Akira stands up and sways about. Pal is big on clapping. Ai is into tapping her foot, while Gon bangs and slaps the walls. Not the latest teen band sensation, but a spectacle far more impressive: the moves of a group of chimpanzees that scientists believe shed light on the prehistoric origins of human dancing. The researchers in Kyoto filmed the chimps performing the movements in a music booth attached to their enclosure where the apes could…

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