CO2 #2 Is Feeling Bad a Luxury Problem? (via Huffington Post)

In Judith Viorst's classic children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Alexander wakes up with chewing gum in his hair -- and everything goes downhill from there. He trips on his skateboard and drops his sweater in the sink. He doesn't get a window seat in the car, and the dentist tells him he has a cavity. His mother makes him get white sneakers instead of the blue-and-red-striped ones he covets. He's forced to eat lima beans for dinner, and there's kissing on TV. To top it all, his nightlight burns out just as he's getting ready for bed.

Alexander's plight resonates not just with kids but with any adult who has ever whined about a luxury problem. Alexander is clearly a very fortunate child. He has food on the dinner table every day, a warm bed for sleep, dental care, a sweater, and sneakers, not to mention real luxuries like a TV and a skateboard. So when we read about the spoiled child's tantrums, we can't help but be reminded that most of the stresses in our adult lives -- the congested commuter traffic, the workplace conflict, the leaky roof -- are also luxury problems.

Read about this interesting study concerning the relation between emotions, health, and GDP worldwide: EmotionsHealthGDP

CO2 #1 Study: Right twists facts. (via Salon)

A new scientific paper suggests political conservatives more likely than liberals to bend reality to their beliefs. 

Last week, the country convulsed with outrage over Missouri Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s false suggestion that women who are raped have a special bodily defense mechanism against getting pregnant. Akin’s claim stood out due to its highly offensive nature, but it’s reminiscent of any number of other parallel cases in which conservative Christians have cited dubious “facts” to help rationalize their moral convictions. Take the twin assertions that having an abortion causes breast cancer or mental disorders, for instance. Or the denial of human evolution. Or false claims that same-sex parenting hurts kids. Or that you can choose whether to be gay, and undergo therapy to reverse that choice. The ludicrous assertion that women who are raped have a physiological defense mechanism against pregnancy is just part of a long litany of other falsehoods in the Christian right’s moral and emotional war against science.

Check this new insightful study here: ConservativesBendReality 

O2 #3 Less-Confident People Are More Successful. (via HBR Blog)

There is no bigger cliché in business psychology than the idea that high self-confidence is key to career success. It is time to debunk this myth. In fact, low self-confidence is more likely to make you successful.

After many years of researching and consulting on talent, I've come to the conclusion that self-confidence is only helpful when it's low. Sure, extremely low confidence is not helpful: it inhibits performance by inducing fear, worry, and stress, which may drive people to give up sooner or later. But just-low-enough confidence can help you recalibrate your goals so they are (a) more realistic and (b) attainable. Is that really a problem? Not everyone can be CEO of Coca Cola or the next Steve Jobs. 

If your confidence is low, rather than extremely low, you stand a better chance of succeeding than if you have high self-confidence. There are three main reasons for this:

If you want to know more about success and self-esteem check it here: LowConfidentSuccess 

O2 #2 The Norwegian action plan to reduce commercial pressure on children and the young people. (via Norwegian Government)

Adolescent children are increasingly exposed to commercialisation. Consumption is on its way to becoming a major element in the life of children and youngsters. Advertisers, the advertising business and the media contribute to affecting the young’s consumption as well as their attitudes in general, with regard to their relation to body, looks, sexuality, drugs and violence.

The government’s goal is to reduce the commercial pressure on young people, and to make them and their parents more aware, and better capable of meeting, the influence that they are exposed to. In 2001, a government appointed committee presented the report “Adolescence with a price tag” (NOU 2001:6). In this survey, the subject of children and commercialisation is discussed in full, and a number of actions are proposed.

Check the plan from the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs here: ChildrenCommercialPressure  

O2 #1 Pam Warhurst: How we can eat our landscapes. (via TED)

What should a community do with its unused land? Plant food, of course. With energy and humor, Pam Warhurst tells at the TEDSalon the story of how she and a growing team of volunteers came together to turn plots of unused land into communal vegetable gardens, and to change the narrative of food in their community.

Pam Warhurst cofounded Incredible Edible, an initiative in Todmorden, England dedicated to growing food locally by planting on unused land throughout the community.

Check here the video with the quote "There's so many people that don't really recognize a vegetable unless it's in a bit of plastic with an instruction packet on the top.”: EatLandscapes  

CO2 #3 The media informs our choice in way they don’t realise. (And nor do we.) (via The Hunting Dynasty)

Like you, I am a fair-minded, considerate, person. The news I read, the stories I engage with, the information I glean is considered, compared, and compartmentalized against my existing understanding, which is itself, considered, compared, and compartmentalized – and so on. I am never told what to think. Frequently I am told what other people think, but never told what I should think. And if anyone tried, I would disengage.

What’s wrong with that? Nothing, it seems. But there’s a trapdoor.

‘

I am never told what to think’ works on two levels as far as our 

cognition is concerned; explicitly and implicitly. Explicitly it’s easy 

to spot, ‘vote for me’, ‘I’m right when I say . . . ‘, etc. The implicit 

takes a lot more work to recognise, and is – arguably – more 

persuasive. Let me explain. 

Read this interesting article about implicit influence here: 

MediaChoice 

CO2 #2 The Information Diet (via Explore)

You are what you read – Clay Johnson’s excellent, articulate talk on The Information Diet – a much-needed case for conscious media consumption.

Watch Clay's insightful talk here: DietInformation