Feeling lightheaded?
"As we age, our brains get lighter," says BBC News. "By 80, the average human brain has lost 15 per cent of its original weight. ... [D]espite the universality of aging, scientists do not fully understand why our brains experience this continuous loss of grey matter with age. Intriguingly, the brains of monkeys do not seem to undergo the same weight loss, raising the question of whether it is a distinctively human condition."
The idol in your pocket
"While smartphone users worry about mobile hacking and other security threats that are making news these days," says Associated Press, "psychologists and others are concerned about another equally troubling issue: the growing obsession among people who would much rather interact with their smartphones than with other human beings. 'Watching people who get their first smartphone, there's a very quick progression from having a basic phone you don't talk about to people who love their iPhone, name their phone and buy their phones outfits,' said Lisa Merlo, director of psychotherapy training at the University of Florida."
Dog, meet human
From a Sunday Times of London review of John Bradshaw's In Defence of Dogs: Why Dogs Need Our Understanding: "[T]his book sparkles with explanations of canine behaviour. Why are some dogs aggressive around children or, say, men with beards? Not because they got a fright once, but because they may not actually recognize them as belonging to the same, friendly species as other humans. Why do guide dogs look forlornly at their empty bowls, when their owners can't see them do it? Because they don't understand that their owners are blind – and this is because no dog is really aware that its owner has a mind or senses at all. Bradshaw admits that this notion will 'seem like heresy to the majority of dog owners,' but it's well-established by experiment."
Solitary, and liking it
"Last month, the will was read of a New York billionairess called Huguette Clark, who died earlier this year at the age of 104," says The Daily Mail. "The event was reported around the world because, for decades, well-to-do society has been obsessed by the mystery of the copper-mining heiress who had not been seen in public for 80 years. The last photograph of the famous recluse – a sepia-toned image of a handsome woman wrapped in furs on the deck of a steamship – was taken in 1930. Shortly after this picture was taken, Huguette vanished into self-imposed exile, living in her 42-room Fifth Avenue apartment and in later years a private hospital. Her only companion was a nurse – and a vast collection of French dolls. So why did she shut the door on the world for almost a century? Shortly before her death, an investigative journalist tracked her down in hospital to find out. After meeting her, he came to a simple conclusion: she was not mad, sad or strange, she simply liked her own company. 'She made Howard Hughes look sociable,' he joked."
What's good about bad guys?
"Admiring bad guys is largely a boy issue," writes Shawn Bean in Parenting magazine. "The make-believe characters tailored to girls are sweet and decent. (Did you see the episode where Rainbow Brite makes a shiv from a unicorn's horn? Me neither.) But research suggests that bad guys aren't devoid of useful, positive qualities. The California State University, Los Angeles, conducted a survey about the appeal of movie monsters. It found that superhuman strength and intelligence – both potentially productive qualities – were the top traits we liked in our bad guys."
Sadder, wiser modern parents
"Drawing on a vast store of baby name statistics, Laura Wattenberg of the Baby Name Wizard website highlights a sea change in the way we name our babies," says The Boston Globe. "A century ago, we regularly named our children after important people; today, we rarely do. In 1896, for example, William Jennings Bryan lost the presidential election – and yet one in every 2,400 babies born was named Jennings or Bryan, putting both names in the top 300 for that year. William McKinley spawned a wave of McKinleys around the turn of the century. The effect wasn't confined to politics. … Nowadays, Wattenberg explains, we're far more cautious about naming our children after famous people. In the past, you could expect a spike in little Roosevelts or Hardings even while the big ones were still in office. Today, we wait until a president's reputation has been decided; that's why there are lots of little Reagans and Carters, but relatively few Clintons or Baracks. Similarly, we no longer like naming our kids after present-day celebrities, preferring Ava (fifth last year) to Angelina (86th). We used to indulge in 'frank, public admiration,' Wattenberg writes. Since then, we've wised up."
Thought du jour
"Something of the hermit's temper is an essential element in many forms of excellence, since it enables men to resist the lure of popularity, to pursue important work in spite of general indifference or hostility, and arrive at opinions which are opposed to prevalent errors."
– Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher