On Stereotypes and Snap Judgements

The Psyche on Automatic
By Craig Lambert (Harvard Magazine)
November-December 2010

A profile of Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist at Harvard Business School, and her work.

Online Social Networking: Health and Wellness Benefits for Seniors

Online, 'a Reason to Keep on Going'
By Stephanie Clifford, New York Times, 2009.06.02 Tue

There seems to be a growing consensus online that connections to friends and social networks are the key to happiness and longevity. In the past, as people became older, their personal connections tended to decay as friends physcially moved, died or became incapacitated. But online social networks have the ability to reverse that trend, so that older people can meet new people and connect to their peers.

Recognizing a need, Chris McWade co-founded MyWay Village, which runs a social network targeted specifically for older people. Members can upload photos, send messages, play games, and post stories with family members and other members. But seniors are also on more traditional social networking sites. One senior woman, Mollie Bourne, stays connected with her grandchildren through Facebook.

Saving a Village's Economy and Biodiversity

It Takes Just One Village to Save a Species
Chongzuo, Guangxi Province, China 中国广西省崇左市
2008-09-22 Monday

Biologist Pan Wenshi has spurred economic investment from the Chinese government and Western organizations to benefit the residents of Chongzuo, who in turn have helped Pan and his students by protecting the endangered white-headed langurs living in the local nature reserve. The white-headed langur faced extinction under habitat destruction and hunting, with the population dropping from 2,000 in the 1980s to 96 in 1996, when Pan first came to study them. Today the population has rebounded to more than 500.

Pair of dogs hunt movie pirates

During a six month-stint in Indonesia, two black labradors, Lucky and Flo, uncovered 1.6 million illegal movie discs, three DVD replicators and 97 CD burners, worth $6 million. They were specially trained by the MPA (Motion Picture Association) to sniff out chemicals found on optical discs, and were so successful that Malaysian movie pirates were said to have placed a $29,000 bounty on the dogs.

More optical disc sniffing dogs are being trained, and Lucky and Flo are bound for New York to fight piracy there.

Source: "Malaysia's DVD Dogs Get Hero's Send-Off", Vijay Joshi, Associated Press

Bacteria day: acne and cholera

First: Did you know that light may be used to treat acne?

It appears that light in the 405nm-420nm range (it looks violet) activates a specific molecule (coproporphyrin III) that is found in the acne-causing bacterium Propionibacterium acnes. The molecule responds to the light by emitting free oxygen radicals, which then quickly destroy the bacteria. Because coproporphyrin III isn't found in human skin, this technique seems to be very safe. Concentrated amounts of this light in three-month treatments seem to have success, though no large-scale trials have been conducted yet.

Sources / More Reading:

• Wikipedia's two entries on the subject


• AcneNet | Are laser and light treatments really light years ahead of conventional acne therapy?
  

Second: Can something as simple as a folded piece of cloth can help stop cholera?

Rita Colwell... discovered if the [very common cotton sari] is folded about 10 times and dipped in the river when villagers gather water, it filters out -- among other things -- plankton containing a bacteria that causes cholera, a disease responsible for about 10,000 deaths a year in Third World countries... After more than 25 years of research and a three-year study in Matlab, Bangladesh, Colwell's filtration method reduced the number of cholera cases among villagers by half, she said.¹

Rita Colwell was just awarded a National Medal of Science for her extensive research into marine microbes, one of which being Vibrio cholerae, the cause of cholera.

J.B. Dill, a 19-year-old from Wisconsin, expanded upon this idea and invented a simple water filter that uses only cotton fabric and charcoal for use in Africa. He won a Net Aid Global Action Award for his work. Pretty cool.

Sources / More Reading:

• Wikipedia | Cloth Filter
  
• BBC News | Cloth filter could cut cholera deaths
  
• ¹Salem News | Nation honors scientist for lifesaving discovery
  
• National Science Foundation | President to Award 2005-2006 National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology Honoring Nation's Leading Researchers, Inventors and Innovators
  
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Teen's goal is crystal clear
  
• Net Aid | Global Action Award Nominees: 2007