Carolyn Moynihan
The secret of self-controlCarolyn Moynihan | 20 May 2009Remember the marshmallow kids? The four-year-olds who were tested for their ability to delay taking a sweet back in the late 1960s are still under the microscope as scientists try to fathom the secrets of self control.What makes us happy?Carolyn Moynihan | 18 May 2009The scientific search for the secret of happiness continues, and one of the longest-running studies of mental and physical well-being -- involving 268 men who entered Harvard in the late 1930s -- provides some interesting insights, but they won't altogether surprise you.'We give thanks' for food - but to whom?Carolyn Moynihan | 15 May 2009Brits attached to their traditions but without the faith that gave rise to many of them face some knotty problems -- like, whether to say Grace before (or after) meals. Some students at Newnham College, a women’s college at Cambridge University, have decided that they cannot stomach the Christian Grace said at the start of formal evening meals held once a week, so they have made up one of their own.Bully girls at workCarolyn Moynihan | 14 May 2009What is happening to sisterhood? Here’s the New York Times in one of its “most emailed” articles telling us that 40 per cent of workplace bullies are women, and 70 per cent of the time they are beating up on other women. At least their male counterparts bully men and women more or less equally.Take that! Computer rage takes toll of keyboards and miceCarolyn Moynihan | 13 May 2009If you have ever been driven to verbally or physically assault your computer for its ill-timed crashes and its unaccountable go-slows don’t worry; you are not alone.For kids, some (too) convenient stuff about climate changeCarolyn Moynihan | 12 May 2009Climate change and what to do about it is still a subject for debate among scientists and the public at large, but school children may be getting a very one-sided view given their status as a captive audience. A 20-minute video called The Story of Stuff, and created by a former Greenpeace employee, is proving a big hit with teachers across America desperate for materials to supplement what textbooks say about the environment.Happiness 101: listen to the voice of experienceCarolyn Moynihan | 11 May 2009Everyone wants to have good experiences, but we often make choices that have the opposite effect. We read a review of a movie and think we’ll enjoy it, only to leave the theatre resenting the small fortune we paid to get in. Information let us down. We’d have done better, according to Harvard happiness guru Daniel Gilbert, just to ask someone else how much they liked the film.Sexperts only a text away from curious teensCarolyn Moynihan | 7 May 2009Adolescent health experts in the United States think they have made a great leap forward in sex education. Since the vast majority of teenagers have cellphones, and since an awful lot of them appear to be sexually active, programmes have been set up in several states to receive and answer questions about sex by text message. The beauty of the scheme is that kids can ask the rudest and the most serious questions about sex without bothering their parents.What's wrong with early marriage anyway?Carolyn Moynihan | 6 May 2009A cheerful little statistic on marriage from New Zealand: the number of marriages among residents rose last year by 400 -- from 21,500 in 2007 to 21,900 -- and these were all first marriages, which make up around one third of Kiwi marriages overall. We don’t know the ages of the happy couples, but a recent article in the Washington Post -- Say Yes. What Are You Waiting For? -- was an unexpected plug for earlier marriages.Out, out, brief candle...Carolyn Moynihan | 5 May 2009Do you want to live forever? Readers Digest polled people in 17 countries on that ambiguous question in January-February and found that most respondents are not interested in an endless succession of years in which they are badgered incessantly about global warming, economic recession, swine flu and all the rest of the ills flesh is heir to.subscribe donate
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