Bytes

-The Yale School of Medicine announced the creation of a fellowship in obesity studies - sponsored by PepsiCo.

-The recent earthquake in Chile was found to have shifted the city of Concepcion ten feet to the west, shortened Earth's days by 1.26 microseconds, and shifted the planet's axis by nearly three inches.

-College students exposed to the letter A before and during a test perform substantially better than those exposed to the letter F.

 

I reconnected with an old friend last week and learned these interesting tidbits of information. They were not attributed to any specific research, nor was there any supporting documentation or data provided. The old friend was Harpers magazine, issue dated May 2010, and the section was Findings - the last page of the magazine. Also in this issue was an essay by a favorite writer, Edward Hoagland. The essay was "Last Call." I used to read Harpers regularly, but after some time, I was no longer interested in reading some other writer's retelling of some other person's writing. Just give it to me straight. I read this May isssue from cover to cover. There was some really fine writing here, about some topical and even interesting subjects: "Cancer, Cell Phones, and You;" "Inside Albany's Psychotic Legislature" (apologies to our New York families, but this was really funny); and some good fiction.

 

So what has this to do with perspective, you may be asking - and I know you will figure it out. As with many things that are important, enjoyable, unpleasant, frightening - perspective is an ally - minimizing the negative, and enhancing the positive.

 

Welcome to the world - Hazel Marie Hitt, April 29, 2010.