*According to me

It was a good paper this week. Here are the pieces I especially enjoyed:

But Will It Make You Happy? – Surprise! Researchers find that material possessions don’t make people happy; it’s relationships and experiences that do. Our propensity to “hedonic adaptation” means that we rather quickly acclimate to change—good or bad—to maintain a stable level of happiness. In other words, new couches aren’t exciting for very long. I feel better about spending such a high proportion of my disposable income on concert tickets now.

Little as They Try, Students Can’t Get a D Here – A school district in New Jersey is getting rid of D’s. As their superintendent says, “D’s are simply not useful in society.” I agree with him, and think it will be good for students to either try harder to achieve at least a C, or get the opportunity for extra instructions in subjects they struggle at.

 My Life In Therapy – I began reading this article thinking there would be little chance I’d make it to the end, but it’s so well written and the writer/subject so interesting, it held me until the last sentence.

 Book Review: Astral Bodies – “Packing for Mars” details the oftentimes gruesome elements of space travel we didn’t see in Apollo 13. It’s interesting to think about human’s biological functions outside of the world they evolved in…and how one copes with them in the absence of gravity, ground, and water. I’d love to be stuck in an airport or on a plane with this book.