Odd or Conflicting Research
Psychology Today: Self-help can make you feel worse.
Pushing yourself to be a “better machine” can lead to the trap of self-optimization, where you constantly feel you are deficient and need to improve. Self-improvement can become toxic when it results in constantly comparing yourself to others. Years of self-help books, courses and seminars can leave you feeling broken rather than empowered.
STAT News: African Americans are dismissed from medical residency programs in numbers far greater than their proportion.
The author’s solution: Ban residency programs from dismissing residents who cannot perform up to the level needed for board certification. After all, residency programs are paid to train them. Counterpoint: maybe try a different specialty. You do not want your heart surgeon to be that guy about whose skills the attending physician (supervisor) had serious doubts.
New York Times: The sharp decline in fertility is due to the smartphone.
Theories: Young people began to socialize on the phone rather than in person, when sex could happen. They could substitute pornography on their phone for sex. They could use their phone to learn about contraception. Not mentioned was whether your partner scrolls through her phone after going to bed rather than engaging in a romantic interlude.
Science Daily: Scientists say house cats could help unlock new cancer treatments for humans.
Scientists have discovered genetic links between cancer that effects both cats and humans.
Odd News: Men account for 83% of deaths within national parks.
Over confidence is to blame, and probably a fair amount of stupidity. Like the people who get 10 feet away from a bison or moose at Yellowstone to take pictures. Or those who try to pet grizzly bear cubs. “… men are more likely to take risks in the backcountry, especially in activities involving solitude, altitude, water, speed, darkness, or laminated maps they refuse to unfold.”