While You Were Sleeping

The gist of what you may have missed

by Brian K. Mahoney, April 27, 2009

Psychologists at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland tested the emotional well-being of 571 children aged 17 to 25 and found that those who had at least one sister were more optimistic, less stressed, and better at coping with problems. “Our explanation for it is that the presence of girls opens up channels of communication and it becomes a much more expressive situation,” says researcher Tony Cassidy. “Emotional expression is fundamental to good psychological health and having sisters promotes this in families.” According to the study, brothers have a less positive effect, with the lowest emotional well-being scores overall achieved by men who had lots of brothers. “When there are a number of boys together, it is almost like a conspiracy of silence,” says Professor Cassidy.
Source: Daily Mail (London)

A survey of 2,500 Australians by social theorist Mark McCrindle found that two-thirds of those Down Under practice random acts of kindness on people they don’t know “just for the sake of it.” The top five most popular ways Aussies help each other: assisting a shopper with carrying bags or picking up fallen items; coming to the aid of someone in a medical emergency or road accident; helping others cross a road, get something out of reach, or up a flight of stairs; comforting someone who was visibly upset; and lending money to a stranger. “These people have shown kindness to strangers, and that’s what makes it remarkable,” McCrindle says. Analyzing crime data to single out violent acts against strangers, McCrindle found that for every act of violence committed in Australia, there were 38 perpetrations of kindness.
Source: Herald Sun (Melbourne)

A biology lab at the University of California at San Francisco has identified a compound able to make gasoline from agricultural waste products. The potential of this process lies in its ability to employ nonfood sources as fuel. (Ethanol is made predominantly from corn; as its use increases, so does the price of food products made from corn.) It’s also chemically indistinguishable from fossil-fuel based petroleum. “You could fill your car up with it right now, so there’s no difference in engine technology,” says Chris Voigt, who led the research. Voigt’s lab combined a bacterium discovered in a French garbage dump in the 1980s with yeast. This compound, when combined with biomass like switchgrass or sugar cane bagasse, turns the mixture into a gas that can be converted to gasoline. Voigt estimates that gasoline could be produced from sugar cane bagasse at $1.65 per gallon. Source: Reuters

As of March 1, the Army stopped accepting felons and recent drug abusers. According to Curtis Gilroy, the top recruiting official at the Pentagon, rising unemployment and security gains in Iraq have helped make military service more attractive, thus allowing recruiters to be more choosy. In years past, the Army granted hundreds of waivers for felons annually, with 511 allowed in 2007. That category of waiver, “adult major misconduct,” is now closed. The Army is also on track this year—for the first time since 2004—to meet the Pentagon’s goal of ensuring 90 percent of its recruits have high school diplomas.
Source: Washington Post