Research & Rescue

How religious are Americans really?

Two in five Americans say they regularly attend religious services. Upward of 90 percent of all Americans believe in God, pollsters report, and more than 70 percent have absolutely no doubt that God exists. The patron saint of Christmas, Americans insist, is the emaciated hero on the Cross, not the obese fellow in the overstuffed costume.

There is only one conclusion to draw from these numbers: Americans are significantly more religious than the citizens of other industrialized nations.

Except they are not.

 

Read the rest at www.slate.com

“E-Mail Auto-Response” : The New Yorker

In case you weren't aware, yesterday was Information Overload Awareness Day - as if we needed to be made aware that we are overloaded....

This piece in The New Yorker does a great job at how many of us are [not] handling the deluge of e-mail we receive each day. Funny and brilliant.

Dear Friend, Family Member, Loved One, and/or Business Associate:

Thank you for your e-mail, which, if it is under three (3) sentences long, I have read. Owing to the large volume of e-mails I’m receiving at this time, please note that it will sometimes take up to fourteen (14) calendar days, though sometimes longer (and sometimes much longer), to respond to your e-mail; in the interim, please rest assured that I am attempting to address, resolve, or think about the matter you have described, unless, of course, I’m avoiding the matter entirely. Some possible reasons for this include:

—Thinking about the matter gives me a headache.

—Thinking about the matter takes longer than forty-five (45) seconds.

—Thinking about the matter is simple enough, and takes less than forty-five (45) seconds, but, when combined with all the other e-mails in my in-box, it creates a synergy of matterdom, exacerbating the headaches mentioned at the beginning of this list.

Please note that if your e-mail is more than three (3) sentences in length I have read the first three (3) sentences, skimmed the opening paragraph, and sort of eyeballed the rest of it. Please do not expect a response to your e-mail anytime soon, if at all, for I am not a mind reader, and therefore cannot guess the nature of anything beyond the first three (3) sentences. For those of you who continue to insist on sending e-mails longer than three (3) sentences, here is a Wikipedia entry on haiku. Reformat your e-mails accordingly, as in this example:

 

               I am busy now;
               The Internet has stolen
               So much precious time.

 

Under certain circumstances, you may feel as though you cannot express the matter at hand in less than three (3) sentences. Below, please find some possible reasons for this, and their solutions:

continued in full at www.newyorker.com

Dogs improve workplace productivity

I remember interviewing someone for a job years ago who saw a copy of The Economist sitting on a table in my office.

The candidate said, "You read The Economist, huh?"

Yes, I read a lot of magazines, I replied.

"I don't like The Economist," said the interviewee, "They hate whales."

Uhh... OK.

At least now we know they like dogs

There are plenty of studies which show that dogs act as social catalysts, helping their owners forge intimate, long-term relationships with other people. But does that apply in the workplace? Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right. They wondered in particular if the mere presence of a canine in the office might make people collaborate more effectively. And, as they told a meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 2nd, they found that it could.

Read the entire tail tale at www.economist.com

iHelp for Autism

Interesting research reported in the San Francisco Weekly about emerging research on the use of iPads in the therapy of autistic children...

Since the iPad's unveiling in April, autism experts and parents have brought it into countless homes and classrooms around the world. Developers have begun pumping out applications specifically designed for users with special needs, and initial studies are already measuring the effectiveness of the iPod Touch and the iPad as learning tools for children with autism. Through the devices, some of these children have been able to communicate their thoughts to adults for the first time. Others have learned life skills that had eluded them for years.

Though there are other computers designed for children with autism, a growing number of experts say that the iPad is better. It's cheaper, faster, more versatile, more user-friendly, more portable, more engaging, and infinitely cooler for young people. "I just couldn't imagine not introducing this to a parent of a child who has autism," says Tammy Mastropietro, a speech pathologist based outside Boston who uses the technology with numerous clients. She sees it as a game changer for those with autism, particularly those most severely affected.

Read the entire piece (6 pages) at www.sfweekly.com

Spinal-Fluid Test for Predicting Alzheimer’s

Researchers report that a spinal fluid test can be 100 percent accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Multimedia

Interactive Feature

Although there has been increasing evidence of the value of this and other tests in finding signs of Alzheimer’s, the study, which will appear Tuesday in the Archives of Neurology, shows how accurate they can be. The new result is one of a number of remarkable recent findings about Alzheimer’s.

After decades when nothing much seemed to be happening, when this progressive brain disease seemed untreatable and when its diagnosis could be confirmed only at autopsy, the field has suddenly woken up.

Read the rest at www.nytimes.com

Video: Think Different

I've mentioned Michael Lloyd-Billington before, a wonderful, inspiring man who has a personal training and yoga business up in Fort Collins. This is a beautiful short vid he shared on Facebook this week and I will share it with you.

Be who you are. If you want to change something - in the world or in just yourself, work to do that - even if there are saboteurs looking over your shoulder. Chances are that you're not as crazy as people make you out to be.

Video: Jessica's Daily Affirmation

So, I took the first in a series of coaching classes this past weekend and I thought I'd share a video that embodies the excitement I'm feeling inside. (Hat tip: CTI Blog)

Gender appropriate foods?

I guess I suspected that men liked bar food more than women did, in general but gender-appropriate food? Who knew?

Boys learn at an early age that certain foods (red meat, beer) are associated with masculinity, while others (fish, vegetables, yogurt) are considered feminine. Eating gender-appropriate grub becomes a way of affirming one’s manliness. As they grow into men, those choices gradually become habitual.

Read the whole things at www.miller-mccune.com

Truly disconnecting

You who know me know that I am far from having the fortitude to pull off SocMe entirely but I try to take block out to just pick up a book and read or set down the blasted iPhone when visiting with friends (not a master, still a grasshopper). What William Powers says here is too true. While I don't want "bad internet days", I also don't want to disconnect from the deeper conversations that let us really see each other and know each other. In Twitter's defense, being a telecommuter a lot of the water cooler aspect of work out of my day and I've been very fortunate to have Twitter at night to meet people in NM and have developed some wonderful friendships here because of it. But those in person interactions, when they come along are so much better than conversations that are limited to 140 character responses.

Powers' book, Hamlet's Blackberry, is on the stack and I hope it will help me break free of some acquired bad habits I've developed living mostly online.

On one level, it makes perfect sense that we never go anywhere without our gadgets. They perform all kinds of useful tasks for us and enrich our lives in countless ways.

But they also keep us connected to everything we’re trying to escape. Having a screen along for the ride changes the nature of the ride. A quiet afternoon of fishing isn’t the same when your inbox is buzzing every five minutes. Getting lost in a wonderful book is impossible if you’re simultaneously fielding tweets and Facebook updates.

By staying connected all the time, we ensure that we never truly go “away.” And the resulting losses are massive. Our souls crave the release summer once offered. We need to cut loose now and then, sit quietly, take naps, dance in the moonlight. Those moments are exceedingly rare now, yet this is barely discussed, like a dirty secret nobody wants to mention.

William Powers is the author of the new book “Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age.”

Read the rest of Powers' piece at www.pbs.org

Is non-profit necessarily a better world?

I had an interesting discussion last Friday with some local business people and artists about irritating things that happen in corporate culture - the kinds of things that make you feel as if you're a Dilbert character. One of them astutely pointed out that small businesses come with their own share of idiosyncrasies. I have been there too and will verify that. I think that many of us in the corporate world fantasize about "giving up the rat race and doing something that matters". While that's important and perhaps even noble, it's also important to remember that human nature is at play in whatever work environment you are. I have been on some volunteer endeavors that were worthy of psychoanalysis. There can be just as much cattiness, sniping, incompetence, etc. than anywhere else.

Rosetta Thurman has some great related advice for those seeking positions in the non-profit arena. The grass is not always greener.

A friend of mine just decided to quit her nonprofit job. It was making her so miserable that it would sometimes bring her to tears. As I spoke with her, I was reminded that many people think just because you work for a good cause, your workplace will always be hunky-dory. You’ll come into the office or program site in the morning and everyone will be smiling and jumping up and down with excitement about saving the world. And your boss and board members will be just swell people of the highest character. While these are all nice sentiments about nonprofit work culture, they’re just not always true. Nonprofit workplaces can be plagued with the same irritations as for-profit companies: office politics, incompetent bosses, lying, stealing, lazy co-workers, etc. But if you don’t go into it with rose-colored glasses, you can avoid hating your nonprofit job.

Read the rest at www.rosettathurman.com