Saturday/Sunday, February 20-21, 2010

WEB BOHEMIAN Weekend Edition (Saturday/Sunday, February 20-21, 2010)
(1)- COGNITIVE FLUENCY -- One of the hottest topics in psychology today is something called “cognitive fluency,” a measure of how easy it is to think about something. People prefer thinking about easy things to those that are hard.

(2)- GIRL SOLD TO SAUDI -- Saudi women’s rights advocates are outraged after a 12-year-old girl was sold by her father into marriage with an 80-year-old man. A Saudi father sold his daughter to his 80-year old cousin for the equivalent of $22,600.

(3)- HUMOR -- So what is a joke, exactly? Most theories agree that one condition is essential: there must be some kind of incongruity between two elements within the joke, which can be resolved in a playful or unexpected way.

(4)- SURVIVAL GUIDE -- You're six miles up, alone and falling without a parachute. Though the odds are long, a small number of people have found themselves in similar situations—and lived to tell the tale.

(5)- CESARE BORGIA, MACHIAVELLI AND DA VINCI -- The Intersecting Lives of da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped. A book review of 'The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior' by Paul Strathern.

(6)- MUSIC -- no other species produces elaborate sound for no particular reason. It has been, and remains, part of every known civilisation on Earth. And it engages people’s attention more comprehensively than almost anything else.

(7)- ALICE WATERS – She’s “arguably the most famous restaurateur in the United States,” founder of Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, an eatery where the right-on, “yes we can,” men of the people can tuck into a nice table d’hôte menu.

(8)- STILL CONTENDING -- Asia is increasing its economic footprint in the world, but it still lags far behind the United States in military might, political and diplomatic influence, and even most measures of economic stability.

(9)- DOES ANYONE CARE?? -- Jack Nicholson, 72, has been thinking about his funeral and is considering a number of different burials, including a sky buriel.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

ENDIT