What Are You Going to Do With That?

William Deresiewicz delivered a speech to freshmen at Stanford about following conventionally unpopular professions.

It's one of the best speeches I've read in a while. Check out the comments at the end, too. (Thanks, Jules)

Pumping Up the Self-Control in the Age of Temptations

Read the NYT column about how to strategically build up your willpower (and some characteristics of people who have higher willpower than others). The secret? Learning tricks to make delaying gratification "fun." (Thanks, Lucy)

Breathe In, Breathe Out, Fall in Love

Read the Modern Love NYT Column about Vipassana Romance. (Thanks, Claire!)

Neuromarketing the 2010 Elections: Scoring Campaign Ads

Republicans were highly successful with their neuromarketing ad campaigns this election season:

But what is neuromarketing? You've probably had the experience of watching an ad and unexpectedly getting choked up -- or, in the case of campaign ads, feeling the sudden need to take a shower. Neuromarketers measure the way your brain and body responds to these messages, then reverse-engineers the effect into another message.

Watch some of the videos (with their neuromarketing explanations) in the FastCompany post.

Faith

What Happens to Unused Texas Rangers World Series Gear?

But what happened to all that unsold Texas Rangers gear? Some is going to kids in developing countries!! Check out the FastCompany article.

How Google Maps Led to An Accidental Invasion

"A Nicaraguan military commander recently invaded Costa Rican territory, and ordered troops to take down a Costa Rican flag and replace it with Nicaragua's. Was this the work of a brash commander, going rogue on his superiors? A new policy of Nicaraguan imperialism? Neither. The incident was caused by an error in Google Maps."

Read the FastCompany article. I guess the army should have used Bing...