I disagree with recent attempts to get rid of the national 55 mph speed limit. Two undeniable pieces of evidence have emerged since the adoption by all states of the uniform speed limit. First, traffic death rates have been greatly reduced. It is obvious that a collision at a lower speed is less likely to result in death or serious injury. Second, it has been proved that less fuel is consumed at low speeds than at high speeds. It is generally agreed that the less fuel we must import, the better. The life-saving and fuel-saving measure should remain the law of the land.

An American man accidentally drops some rubber onto a hot stove and discovers how to process rubber. An English scientist observes an apple fall from a tree and suddenly understands what keeps the moon and the planets in their orbit. These are examples of unexpected great discoveries. Yet none of these advances was the result of luck alone. The American man had experimented with rubber for years before the accident helped him discover his finding. The English scientist had been pondering the question of how the universe is held together long before the falling apple inspired him. The key is to keep working and take advantage of an unexpected occurrence.

A wide range of evidence shows that contact with nature enhances children's education, personal and social skills, and health and wellbeing, leading to the development of responsible citizens. However, research also shows that the connections between children and nature are weaker now than in the past. Children are becoming disconnected from the natural environment. They are spending less and less time outdoors. In fact, the likelihood of children visiting any green space at all has halved in a generation. Children themselves say that outdoor space is one of the things that they need to feel good and do well.

One day, a professor rode in a boat driven by a fisherman. On the way he saw a rock in the sea and asked the fisherman if he knew the structure of that rock. The fisherman said that he didn't. The professor said he had forgotten that the fisherman was illiterate. Later, the professor saw big fish jumping and asked, Do you know that a whale is a mammal? The fisherman didn't know and he said so. Oh, you are just a fool, the professor said. Then, a violent storm broke the boat and threw the two men apart. As the fisherman was accustomed to such events, he swam to save the professor who could not swim. When the professor got on land, he apologized to the fisherman for all the previous insults.

Reality TV programs are products, just like T-shirts or coffee, and consumers can't seem to turn them off. But why do consumers keep watching them? This is one type of question consumer behavior researchers are interested in answering. Researchers say that reality TV programs offer several benefits to consumers, including satisfying their curiosity. We all like to watch people in situations where we ourselves might be pressured. We can feel what they are feeling but at a safe distance, says Professor Kip Williams of Macquaric University. We also role-play with ourselves in the context of the show, imagining how we might react in a similar situation. This, researchers say, can teach us to be self-improving.

For years it was believed that emergency workers should undergo a counseling process after traumatic events to debrief about their experiences. The idea was that this would prevent mental health problems in the future. After the September 11 attacks in the U.S., counselors went to help rescue workers deal with the trauma of what they had seen and make them feel better afterward. But did it do any good? An extensive study shows that the debriefing process had little benefit and might have even hurt by interrupting the normal healing process. People often distract themselves from thinking about painful events right after they occur. This may be better than recalling the painful events. When people are depressed, recalling their problems makes things worse.

The above graph shows the rank of popularity of girls' flower names in the U.S. during the time period 1940 - 2009. The popularity of the flower names in the graph generally decreased from 1940 to 1970. Among the five names, Rose was ranked the highest in 1940 and the lowest in 2009. The name Lily became popular again starting in 1970 and reached its highest rank in 2009. In 1990, only Rose and Daisy were ranked higher than the 400th place. The rank of Iris was lower than that of Daisy in 2000.

Obsorb is a material comprised of active glass. It is intended to clean contamination that is in our waterways. It swells up like a sponge when dipped into water and absorbs pollutants from contaminated water. While it seems similar to sponges, it does not absorb water. This means it can absorb more pollutants. Once Obsorb is full of pollutants, it floats to the surface of the water and pollutants can be skimmed off. Afterward, it can be reused hundreds of times. In addition to having unusually helpful properties, Obsorb is cheap to use.

Children observe and learn from their parents' purchasing behavior, even though parents may not always be aware of it. For example, a child sees the mother squeeze an orange slightly to check if it is fresh, and from this observation he or she learns how to tell whether a fruit is ripe. Similarly, a child observes how the mother reads through the newspapers, cuts the sales coupons, and presents them during a shopping trip. Thus, probably most of the consumer behavior patterns initially learned by children are copies of those of their parents, particularly their mom.

There is a well-known study conducted on Halloween. When trick-or-treaters rang the doorbell of the houses involved, a researcher told them that they could each take one piece of candy, and then he quickly left. Another researcher was secretly watching what happened. The results showed that 33.7 percent of the kids committed theft; they took more candy than they should have when they thought nobody was watching them. After that, the researchers set up a mirror right in front of the bowl of the candy, so the trick-or-treaters had to see themselves in it as they approached the bowl. The rate of those taking more than one piece of candy when the mirror was there? Only 8.9 percent. In this research, looking at the mirror led children to be discouraged from bad behavior.

Suppose your group has to find an answer for a problem. How can you come to the best idea? Some of the best, most innovative ideas follow some of the silliest suggestions. Even an ill-formed idea can spark a great idea in someone else. So don't criticize anyone else's idea until everyone runs out of ideas. Write them all down on a piece of paper, whiteboard, or blackboard. Look them over ― smart, foolish, contradictory or not. The best way to find a good idea is to have a lot of ideas. The more you can do this, the stronger an option will be.

A funny thing happens to most of our stuff almost immediately after we buy it. What we paid for in the store and brought home was a treasure, a stylish dress, or the latest cell phone. But once it belongs to us and takes up space inside our home, the stuff starts losing value. Our houses are basically garbage processing centers, said one cynical comedian. As soon as stuff enters our homes, it begins the transformation. We get something and it starts out prominently displayed, then gets moved onto a shelf, then stuffed in a closet, then thrown in a box in the garage and held there until it becomes garbage. I definitely think the words 'garage' and 'garbage' must be related.

Scottish economist Adam Smith saw competitiveness as maximizing self-interest. However, today the most 'competitive people' are replacing his philosophy with the thinking of the mathematician, John Nash. He proved mathematically the theory of Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau; when parties collaborate, the overall size of benefit almost always expands, so each party gets more than it could get alone. The typical example is that four hunters can catch only one rabbit each while acting alone, but they can catch a deer together. Today, smart competitors collaborate whenever they can. Research shows that almost 90 percent of the time, people in cooperative environments perform better than people in traditional, 'competitive,' win-lose environments. In other words, collaboration produces better results.

You may think you found the ultimate answer to career choices or maybe you're as confused as ever. Regardless of the side you're on, the best advice for navigating these important life choices is this: Take a flexible attitude toward career choices. As smart and dedicated as you may be, you just can't predict the future. Some of the most successful professionals in any imaginable field could never ever have predicted what they actually do today. Why? Because when they were in high school, those jobs didn't even exist. It was not too long ago that there were no such things as the Internet, cell phones, or any of the other new tools that are so critical to so many jobs today. Being open-minded increases future opportunities.

Managers who offer something very small but do so with courtesy show their employees more than just politeness. For example, employees would feel connected when they see their manager holding the door for an employee, or offering to carry a box if that employee's hands are full. Although the physical act itself may be insignificant ― after all, how much energy is expended holding open a door? ― the psychic connection may be lasting. It draws the portrait of the boss as a human being who is tuned in to the needs of others. Therefore, managers who perform acts of courtesy are not just being polite, but also setting an example that shows a lot about the necessity of treating people with respect.

Throughout recent history, some artists were specially trained to paint in certain ways. They learned the popular styles of the day, and their work was accepted by the art world. This tradition is called academic painting. Not only did academic painters study with trained artists, but they were also part of the local art community. They showed their works at galleries, too. Most folk paintings, on the other hand, were done by people who had little formal artistic training. They may not have known or cared about the 'acceptable' painting styles of the time. These people probably did not know other artists. The lives of academic painters are well documented in art books, but the lives of most folk painters are not documented.

During the late 19th century, piano manufacturing was one of New York City's largest industries. Most American families, it seemed, wanted to fill their homes with music. The advent of the player piano, a music-making machine that required zero talent, drove the boom in piano sales further. By the 1920s, the popularity of the piano caused around 300,000 pianos to be sold in the U.S. each year, roughly two-thirds of them player pianos. But a pair of new technologies, the radio and the phonograph, drove the piano into a deep disfavor that continues to this day. In fact, Americans bought only 76,966 pianos last year, a decrease of 75 percent over a period in which the population more than doubled. People still love music, but most of them apparently don't feel the need to make it for themselves.

People and animals eat basically the same food; the only difference is the way we prepare meals. But what makes us that special? Harvard professor, Richard Wrangham, thinks he knows the answer. He argues that heated foods are what allowed our ancestors to grow bigger brains and evolve into the intelligent creatures we are today. This means cooking was crucial to human evolution because it made digestion much more efficient, increasing the amount of energy our bodies derived from what we ate. He concludes that humans became better able to think, sing, paint on walls, and invent new tools. Ultimately, humans heating foods were more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass on cooking techniques to their offspring, along with the physical evolutionary changes, bigger brains.

Many of us turn our attention inward and reflect on ourselves to make our lives better. But we would do well to ask ourselves a simple question: Is it always helpful? To get a grasp of the matter, several psychologists conducted a study. The topic was whether analyzing the pluses and minuses of the relationship can be an answer to seeing how we feel about a special person in our life. People in one group were asked to list the reasons their relationship with a boyfriend or a girlfriend was going the way it was, and then rate how satisfied they were with the relationship. People in another group were simply asked to rate their satisfaction without any analysis; they just gave their intuitive reactions. It might seem that the people who analyzed the situation would be best at figuring out how they really felt, and that their satisfaction ratings would thus do the best job of predicting the outcome of their relationships. In fact, the result was reversed. It was the people in the intuitive group whose ratings predicted whether they were still dating their partner several months later. As for the people in the analytical group, their satisfaction ratings did not predict the outcome of their relationships at all. The result shows us that too much analysis can confuse people about how they really feel and that there are severe limits to what we can discover through overthinking.

Jack's mentor Sid is a famous public speaker and best-selling author. When Jack was a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, Sid was the most popular professor in the Department of Education. One of Sid's highest priorities is his health and fitness. At 77 years old, Sid still bikes on a regular basis, takes supplements, eats healthy foods, and allows himself a bowl of ice cream on the one day a month when there's a full moon. When Jack attended Sid's seventy-fifth birthday celebration, over 100 of Sid's family members, closest friends, and adoring former students came from all across the country to celebrate his birthday. Dessert that night was ice cream. Only one problem, though ― there wasn't a full moon. To get him to give himself permission on this special occasion, four people dressed as moon goddesses and entered the room carrying a huge full moon made out of cardboard and aluminum foil. But even with all of that loving persuasion, Sid stood firm on his commitment and refused the ice cream. When Jack asked Sid the reason why he didn't eat the ice cream, the professor told him that he knew if he broke his commitment this one time, it would be that much easier to break it the next time he was offered ice cream. Sid knew that a 100% commitment is actually easier to keep, and he was unwilling to ruin years of success for other people's approval. Jack learned a lot about true self-control that night.