This Week's Articles of Interest

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/why-can-some-kids-handle-pressure-while-others-fall-apart.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all
The author Po Bronson has been on a life long quest to figure out how to live his life. I guess he is looking back to his childhood now. Children and stress: two types of kids are Worriers and Warriors. Both have pluses and negatives, but was seems to be clear is that too much pressure on children will make them under-preform.

2. http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jan/31/wes-anderson-worlds/
Some people like Wes Anderson some people hate him...but this essay is a fine meditation on what his art means and why it matters in helping you make sense of the world. All this time I thought Owen Wilson was Wes Anderson...Strange.

3. http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2013/jan/15/bitter-end/
This is a podcast about what care doctors choose at the end of their own lives v. what the average person would choose. Doctors only want pain medication. Full stop. The rest of the stuff: CPR, chemo, etc., just makes the last days of your life miserable. Worth a listen and ponder.

4. Spirit Guide, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/02/11/130211fa_fact_sanneh.
The first problem with the New Yorker is that it comes every week. The second problem is that even the articles you think you can skip turn out to be fascinating. Take whisky. I don't care about whisky or that it lacks an 'e' if Scottish. But there I was reading along. But again, don't expect a solid ending.

5. Antarctica, by Gabrielle Walker
This book was interesting...but there were a few mind blowing nuggets. First, there is a single celled organism below Antarctica that shoots way above its weight. It can eat other multicelled organisms. Foraminifera. They might even be able to walk. SINGLE CELLED. Seriously. We continue to revise Darwin...And then there are some other little guys down there who live in the driest place on Earth called Tardigrades. "They grow up to a millimeter long, making the adults just barely visible to the naked eye. They are stubby and cute with four pairs of fat little legs, a vole-like snout, and a complexion of a gummy bear." Apparently no matter what you do to them they just don't die. And when things get too bad they swap out their body's water for sugar and can hibernate for decades. AWESOME.
I can send this book to you if you want it. Just email me.