In an experiment in Germany, part of a fleet of taxicabs in Munich was equipped with antilock brake systems (ABS), a technological innovation that vastly improves braking. The rest of the fleet was left unequipped, and the two groups were placed under careful and secret observation for three years. You would expect the better brakes to make for safer driving. However, that is exactly the opposite of what happened. Giving some drivers ABS made no difference at all in their accident rate; in fact, it turned them into markedly inferior drivers. They drove faster. They made sharper turns. They braked harder. In other words, the ABS systems were not used to reduce accidents; instead, the drivers used the additional element of safety to enable them to drive faster and more recklessly without increasing their risk of getting into an accident.

When emotions are highly charged, it makes good sense to delay conversation about conflict until attention, mental focus, and goodwill have returned. Once everyone is calm and enjoying themselves again, however, these conversations are often forgotten or put off indefinitely. No one wants to talk about conflict and risk spoiling the good time. As a consequence, the issues often don't get addressed at all, and they usually resurface later in a new and often intensified conflict. If you do choose to put off discussion about a conflict, remember to take it up later, during a time of ease and sweet connection, when it can be most productive.

In the case of china and Eastern Europe, it is clear that market liberalization has helped a lot. Until about 1998, the East European privatization process and the implementation of a market economy progressed in fits and starts due to all sorts of political maneuvers. But by 1998 the region was characterized by a strong private sector and relatively free markets. This triggered an economic boom. Nevertheless, this cannot be the whole story. Latin America is also free but - except some short-lived episodes - has been historically characterized by slow economic growth. In addition, that region has a relatively high birth rate. As a result, its wealth-per-person growth was remarkably slow from 1998 to 2008. This is true of all Latin American countries, including Brazil, despite the enthusiastic media reports about that country.

Men and women are often assigned roles for various social, political, or historical reason. When these factors are inadequately understood, they can appear to be quite arbitrary. For example, although sewing clothes for the family is thought of as women's work in North America (most men have never operated a sewing machine or made a purchase in a fabric store), among the Ecuadorian men and traditional Hopi of Arizona, men are the spinners, weavers, and tailors. Also among the Hopi, women are the potters and not the men; however, in U.S culture both men and women can become potters. Moreover, women in U.S, society have been virtually excluded from a number of occupations (such as jockey and Major League Baseball umpire), even though men have no particular biological advantage over women in performing these jobs.