An interesting new study shows that believing that you can get smarter may actually make you smarter.

An article in Psychology Matters, Believing you can get smarter makes you smarter, indicates that when people learn that intelligence is a changeable, rather than a fixed, trait, that they actually increase their ability to learn.

The authors note that the increase in the ability to learn is especially significant among certain minorities, such as blacks, who have been stereotyped as “low intelligence.” African American participants in the studies cited showed a greater increase in learning ability than their white counterparts.

This is important, because it is well known that African-American students score lower on tests than European Americans. The study shows that these lower scores may be directly related to “self-stereotyping” and, more importantly, this “self-stereotyping” effect can be counteracted through education about the malleable nature of intelligence itself.

Breaking News

Obesity on the rise among Telekinetics

A new, controvertial “low food” diet is sweeping the nation, with many medical experts hailing the new diet as the healthiest, most beneficial diet plan ever, and many others expressing doubt and criticism.

Doctor P. T. Snikta, author of the aptly named The Snikta Diet, is considered to be the leading authority on low food diets.

“I based my book on research that was conducted in the early 70′s and 80′s that showed that people who took less food in their diet lost more weight than those who ate more food.” Explains Dr. Snikta. “Study after study has confirmed these results, and these studies became the basis for my diet plan, which can be purchased at any book vendor for $24.95 (USD).”

The theory behind the “low food” diet appears to be sound. Medical professionals have known for well over a year that obesity is caused when ingested food is stored in the body as fat. Dr. Snikta contends that by reducing the amount of food, the body has less food to turn into fat. “Its simple physiology.” Remarks Dr. Snikta

However, critics contend that the “low food” diet can be dangerous, and that Dr. Snikta is an irresponsible ass. “Dr. Snikta is an irresponsible ass.” Claims Dr. Debra Pearsons. “People need food to live — Obviously, if people eat less food, they will live less. The old adage ‘Eat, drink, and be merry’ may be cliched, but there is an element of truth to it.”

Meanwhile, marketers and food manufacturers are jumping on the low food bandwagon with new “low food” products.

“Our Low Food Diet products have 50% less food than our regular products.” Says Michael Dryden, CEO of Snackity Snack, Inc. “Like the Low Food version of our popular Snackity Snack Food Sack (a popular snack food). The 16 oz package only contains 8 ozs of snack food.” Mr. Dryden claims “We can’t make them fast enough! Sure they cost a little more, but its what our consumers demand.”

Fair-skinned folk can rejoice. According to a report in ScienceNOW: Better Tanning Through Chemistry — ScienceNOW, There may be a way to get a real tan using chemistry.

Right now there are a number of fake-tan products on the market. Unfortunately, they all simply dye the skin, and can make you look like some weird, orange-skinned freak. However, in this latest study (which, disturbingly, involved shaved, mutated, mice), the “stuff” chemically alters your skin to provide the identical end-result of having an actual tan — And without the skin cancer.

From Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon:

The room contains a few dozen living human bodies, each one a big sack of guts and fluids so highly compressed that it will squirt for a few yards when pierced. Each one is built around an armature of 206 bones connected to each other by notoriously fault-prone joints that are given to obnoxious creaking, grinding, and popping noises when they are in other than pristine condition. This structure is draped with throbbing steak, inflated with clenching air sacks, and pierced by a Gordian sewer filled with burbling acid and compressed gas and asquirt with vile enzymes and solvents produced by the many dark, gamy nuggets of genetically programmed meat strung along its length. Slugs of dissolving food are forced down this sloppy labyrinth by serialized convulsions, decaying into gas, liquid, and solid matter which must all be regularly vented to the outside world lest the owner go toxic and drop dead. Spherical, gel-packed cameras swivel in mucus-greased ball joints. Infinite phalanxes of cilia beat back invading particles, encapsulate them in goo for later disposal. In each body a centrally located muscle flails away at an eternal, circulating torrent of pressurized gravy. And yet, despite all of this, not one of these bodies makes a single sound at any time during the Sultan’s speech.

According to the Washington Post, errors in prescription medications from all causes affect over a million Americans each year.

At least 1.5 million Americans are sickened, injured and killed each year by avoidable errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications, the influential Institute of Medicine concludes in a major report released today.

. . .

The errors studied by the Institute included doctors writing illegible prescriptions, nurses giving one patient medication intended for another, and a local pharmacist dispensing 100 milligrams pills rather than the prescribed 50 milligrams.

This is a terrible tragedy, and it is the sort of thing that raises hackles and gets people tossing out accusations and lawsuits.

I mention it for another reason though. One of the primary sources of opposition to universal, single-payer health insurance in our country is the fear that the quality of health care will deteriorate. We hear horror stories about how bad the Canadian health-care system is. The fact remains that the US healthcare system is very far from perfect. I am not indicating that the current crisis in prescription medication is the result of our healthcare system (anymore than the problems in the Canadian health-care system are the result of their Universal health coverage system), but a switch from the US’s current system to a universal health-care system would be far less devastating than some people would make it out to be.

And it would have the advantage of giving healthcare to 40 million Americans who currently have none.