How Social and Emotional Learning Could Harm Our Kids

Editor’s note: The following is a critique of a social and emotional learning program called MindUP that I have covered in other blogs (see list below) and in a feature in Scientific American Mind (visit ” Schools Add Workouts for Attention, Grit and Emotional Control”). Please also read a response to this critique, posted separately, from MindUP‘s Rebecca Calos. I hope this debate provides food for...

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Son killed father in Wyoming community college attack

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Police released more details Saturday of a grisly murder-suicide at a Wyoming community college, saying a man shot his father in the head with a bow and arrow in front of a computer science class not long after fatally stabbing his father's live-in girlfriend at their home a couple miles away.Computer science instructor James Krumm, 56, may have saved some of his students' lives...

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Oliver Stone, Benicio del Toro visit Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Benicio Del Toro didn’t wait long to collect on a favor that Oliver Stone owed him for working extra hours on the set of his most recent movie, “Savages”, released this year.The favor? A trip to Del Toro‘s native Puerto Rico, which Stone hadn’t visited since the early 1960s.“I told him, you owe me one,” Del Toro said with a smile as he recalled the conversation during...

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Study: DVRs now in half of US pay-TV homes

NEW YORK (AP) — A new survey finds that digital video recorders are now in more than half of all U.S. homes that subscribe to cable or satellite TV services.Leichtman Research Group‘s survey of 1,300 households found that 52 percent of the ones that have pay-TV service also have a DVR. That translates to about 45 percent of all households and is up from 13.5 percent of all households surveyed five...

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No charges against Chris Brown in Fla. phone grab

MIAMI (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown won’t be charged with a crime after a woman claimed he snatched her cell phone when she tried to take his photo outside a Miami Beach club.A memo released Friday by the Miami-Dade County State Attorney‘s office concludes there is no evidence that Brown intended to steal the phone in February or that he deleted the photo. One or the other is necessary...

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Study links relaxation method to reduced hot flashes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Although studies of the effects of relaxation techniques on menopause symptoms have yielded mixed results so far, a new report from Sweden comes down in favor of the approach as an alternative to hormone therapy.Postmenopausal women trained to relax before and during the onset of hot flashes cut the frequency of those events in half during the three-month trial, researchers...

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Boehner: ‘At a stalemate’ on debt talks

Republican House Speaker John Boehner (Alex Wong/Getty Images)WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner on Friday said that despite receiving a counterproposal from the White House as part of a deal to avoid a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, no progress had been made between Republicans and Democrats."There's a stalemate, let's not kid ourselves," Boehner, a Republican from Ohio,...

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Noisy city: Cacophony in Caracas sparks complaints

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — This metropolis of 6 million people may be one of the world’s most intense, overwhelming cities, with tremendous levels of crime, traffic and social strife. The sounds of Caracas‘ streets live up to its reputation.Stand on any downtown corner, and the cacophony can be overpowering: Deafening horns blast from oncoming buses, traffic police shrilly blow their whistles and sirens...

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Womens’ stories dominate 2013 Sundance film lineup

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Sundance Film Festival, the top U.S. film festival for independent cinema, on Wednesday unveiled its lineup for 2013, with films centered on female characters dominating the American fiction film competition.The 113 feature length movies, including both narrative films and documentaries, cover a range of topics, but more than half of those chosen for the U.S. dramatic competition...

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Voters Come Clean on Health Care

Nov 29, 2012 1:56pmReported by Dr. Nisha Nathan: Voters who backed President Obama and those who supported Mitt Romney just can’t seem to agree on key health care issues, a new study suggests. But they’ll have to compromise if they want change in Washington.The study, which drew on the combined data of three pre-election and exit polls, found that Obama supporters were three times more...

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