Brain Recharge: Reshaping The Middle East, Hardwired For Empathy, New Erotic Fundamentalism, & More…
BRAIN: WAKE UP!
YOU: Huh? Oh, sorry. I actually wasn’t sleeping – I was thinking.
BRAIN: About what? The fact that we could have used the economic bailout money to cure several deadly diseases worldwide? Or were you considering what a nuclear-armed Iran would mean for the rest of the Middle East?
YOU: Not exactly.
BRAIN: So…what then?
YOU: Um…which one of the new playmates on “The Girls Next Door” I like best.
BRAIN: Ugh. Read these articles NOW.
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* The financial bailout will cost us lucky taxpayers over $4 trillion. Did you know for less than $300 million we wiped Smallpox off the planet? And for $5 billion we put a significant dent in Polio? Imagine what we could do with $4 trillion (after we paid out the AIG bonuses, of course). - Salon
* The Obama administration is starting to give subtle signs that they won’t be able to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. So, how will this actually reshape the Middle East? Hint: it doesn’t look good. - Slate
* Some schools in France are experimenting with the idea of paying students for attending class. It worked for a few schools in the US…will it work abroad, or does it conflict too severely with France’s egalitarian ideals? – Time
* Sure, humans fight, cheat, and destroy each other…but it might actually be true that we’re biologically and evolutionarily hardwired to be empathetic, kind, and full of warm fuzzies. - Slate
* Cristina Nehring writes an incredibly thought-provoking article about what she calls the “New Erotic Fundamentalism”, and argues convincingly that we’ve all been a bit too hard on hopeless romantic Mark Sanford. - Truthdig
