Mental Wealth

How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

Chris McKinlay was folded into a cramped fifth-floor cubicle in UCLA’s math sciences building, lit by a single bulb and the glow from his monitor. It was 3 in the morning, the optimal time to squeeze cycles out of the supercomputer in Colorado that he was using for his PhD dissertation. (The subject: large-scale data processing and parallel numerical methods.) While the computer chugged, he clicked open a second window to check his OkCupid inbox.

McKinlay, a lanky 35-year-old with tousled hair, was one of about 40 million Americans looking for romance through websites like Match.com, J-Date, and e-Harmony, and he’d been searching in vain since his last breakup nine months earlier. He’d sent dozens of cutesy introductory messages to women touted as potential matches by OkCupid’s algorithms. Most were ignored; he’d gone on a total of six first dates.

WIRED

Able readers damaged by phonics, academic says

The interests of able readers are being threatened by an insistence primary school pupils are taught to read using phonics, an academic has said.

BBC

Inside a Mental Hospital Called Jail

CHICAGO — THE largest mental health center in America is a huge compound here in Chicago, with thousands of people suffering from manias, psychoses and other disorders, all surrounded by high fences and barbed wire.

Vitamins effective in treating ADHD symptoms

Vitamins and minerals could be useful for treating ADHD, research suggests.

Adults with ADHD given supplements for eight weeks had a “modest” improvement in concentration span, hyperactivity, and other symptoms, a small-scale study found.

BBC

Meditation for Anxiety, Depression?

Some 30 minutes of meditation daily may improve symptoms of anxiety and depression, a new Johns Hopkins analysis of previously published research suggests.

Science Daily

Free beer for Amsterdam’s alcoholics in anti-crime initiative

A group of alcoholics in Amsterdam have been offered free beer in return for cleaning the streets – as part of a initiative to reduce crime.

BBC

One-third of Americans reject evolution, poll shows

One-third of Americans reject the idea of evolution and Republicans have grown more skeptical about it, according to a poll released on Monday.

Reuters

Why the US is addicted to fast cars and street racing

Film and TV star Idris Elba – best known as Stringer Bell from The Wire – has been touring the US as part of a series about the history of underground racing. It turns out the American obsession with speed dates back to the Prohibition era.

BBC

The Top Ten Brain Science And Psychology Studies Of 2013

This Top 10 list isn’t meant to be exhaustive (given how many studies are published each year, it never could be), but it’s a sturdy sampling of incredible work being conducted around the world, moving us closer to solving some extremely vexing puzzles about brains and behavior. Putting it mildly, 2013 was an eventful year for brain science.

Forbes

Palmerston: The island at the end of the earth

It is one of the most isolated island communities in the world. The tiny Pacific island of Palmerston is visited by a supply ship twice a year – at most – and the long and hazardous journey deters all but the most intrepid visitors. What’s more, most of its 62 inhabitants are descended from one man – an Englishman who settled there 150 years ago.

BBC