Monday, February 23, 2015

Provocative economies and Brooms Inside the German Army

How countries spend your money BBC (this story does not include Australia)
The German army has faced a shortage of equipment for years, but the situation has recently become so precarious that some soldiers took matters into their own hands.
On Tuesday, German broadcaster ARD revealed that German soldiers tried to hide the lack of arms by replacing heavy machine guns with broomsticks during a NATO exercise last year. After painting the wooden sticks black, the German soldiers swiftly attached them to the top of armored vehicles, according to a confidential army report which was leaked to ARD.
…To make matters worse, the broom-equipped German soldiers belong to a crucial, joint NATO task force and would be the first to be deployed in case of an attack Call to Arms
Guns really do change the way you think Mother Nature Network 
Waiting a bit can also make people more patient, by removing their attention from the immediate here and now and stretching out their time horizons. Some of these positive effects of waiting have been studied by Professors Xianchi Dai of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Ayelet Fishbach of the University of Chicago in their paper “When Waiting to Choose Increases Patience.”

Czech out a new and provocative paper by James Edward Mahon Jr. of Williams College


“In 1991, there were 176 certified librarians in city schools. Now there are 11 – for 218 schools. Studies have shown that students who have access to a school library and librarian – particularly students who live in poverty and students of color – achieve more. Increasingly in Philadelphia, school libraries are regarded as a frill, and librarians even more so.”
~ Philadelphia Inquirer