A bus company in China has launched a new “safe driving” campaign by suspending bowls of water over their drivers. To avoid getting wet, drivers must drive gently. In today’s technology-obsessed world, this solution is elegantly primitive. You might imagine that this simple yet ingenious idea was conjured by someone functioning at their very best, that such “aha insights” come when innovators are at their peak.
Not so. A recent study by Mareike Wieth and Rose Zacks suggests that innovation and creativity are greatest when we are not at our best, at least with respect to our circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms determine whether you are a “morning-type” person or an “evening-type” person, and are often measured with a short paper-and-pencil test called the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire. Circadian rhythms drive daily fluctuations in many physiological processes like alertness, heart rate and body temperature. Recent research indicates that these rhythms affect our intellectual functioning too.
Numerous studieshave demonstrated that our best performance on challenging, attention-demanding tasks - like studying in the midst of distraction - occurs at our peak time of day. When we operate at our optimal time of day, we filter out the distractions in our world and get down to business.
In a study I conducted, for example, participants were given three related cue words (e.g., SHIP OUTER CRAWL), and were required to find their common link (SPACE). When misleading distractors were presented with the cue words (e.g., SHIP-ocean OUTER-inner CRAWL-baby), those tested at non-optimal times were more likely to be misled by the distractors and showed lower solution rates. Those tested at peak times were not affected by the distraction. In this and related studies, peak-time benefits are most robust when distraction would disrupt our thought processes and cause errors.
But distraction is not all bad, and Wieth and Zacks have demonstrated that we can use our increased susceptibility to distraction at off-peak times to our advantage. In their study, they asked participants to solve analytic problems and insight problems at peak or off-peak times. Analytic problems generally require people to “grind out a solution” by systematically working through the problem utilizing a consistent strategy. Here is a classic analytic problem: “Bob’s father is 3 times as old as Bob. They were both born in October. 4 years ago, he was 4 times older. How old are Bob and his father?” No innovation or creativity necessary to solve this problem; one simply has to work it out mathematically.
Kim Novak is clarifying why she used the word "rape" to describe how she felt about "The Artist."
The 79-year-old "Vertigo" actress, who will be honored next month at the TCM Classic Film Festival, said during a phone interview Monday that hearing the score from the Alfred Hitchcock film used in the recent Oscar-winning homage to the silent-film era reminded her of the same feelings she experienced when she was raped as a child.
"It was very painful," said Novak. "When I said it was like a rape, that was how it felt to me. I had experienced in my youth being raped, and so I identified with a real act that had been done to me. I didn't use that word lightly. I had been raped as a child. It was a rape I never told about, so when I experienced this one, I felt the need to express it."
Novak, who played the dual role of both a suicidal trophy wife and a morose working girl opposite Jimmy Stewart in the 1958 thriller, said in a statement released in January by her manager that she "wanted to report a rape" and that the filmmakers of "The Artist" had no reason "to depend on Bernard Herrmann's score from `Vertigo' to provide more drama."
Novak's comments drew criticism from rape crisis groups, who noted that plagiarism was not the same as a sexual assault. Other actors have similarly been chastised for misusing the word "rape." Johnny Depp and "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart both issued apologies after they compared having their photos taken to being raped in respective interviews.
"I never reported my real rape, so I felt the need to report this one," said Novak, who left Hollywood in the 1970s for Big Sur, an isolated section of California coastline, before eventually relocating to Oregon. "I felt that someone needed to speak up because the music has been taken advantage of too much. I hope that in the future, maybe somehow it will do some good."
Michel Hazanavicius, the writer-director of "The Artist," which won five Academy Awards last month, including best picture and original score, responded to Novak in January, noting that the film was "a love letter to cinema" and that he loves "Bernard Herrmann, and his music has been used in many different films, and I'm very pleased to have it in mine."
New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis says the club has held a workout with veteran receiver Randy Moss, who is trying to make a comeback after spending a year out of football.
The Saints are not releasing details about the 35-year-old Moss' workout, but New Orleans may be in the market for a receiver this offseason because two of quarterback Drew Brees' regular targets, Marques Colston and Robert Meachem, are entering free agency.
The 6-foot-4 Moss last played in the NFL in 2010, a turbulent season for him in which he bounced from New England to Minnesota and then to Tennessee.
His best season was with New England in 2007, when he caught 98 passes for 1,493 yards and 23 touchdowns.
The 6-foot-4 Moss last played in the NFL in 2010, a turbulent season for him in which he bounced from New England to Minnesota and then to Tennessee.
Rahul Gandhi owned up to the Congress debacle in Uttar Pradesh but promised to stay the course in the state for the party's revival.
"I led the campaign from the front, I take the responsibility," he said in a press appearance outside 10, Janpath on Tuesday evening. He stepped forward to take responsibility for the loss amid a scramble among Congressmen to insulate him from any blame for the UP humiliation. The ring-fencing had started no sooner had the results confirmed that Samajwadi Party had swept the state and Congress had come a poor fourth.
Rahul blamed the decimation on the "party's weak fundamentals" in UP and conceded the weakness would continue till the organization was strengthened. Complimenting Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav, the Congress heir apparent said the mood was clearly for the main opposition party.
He, however, added that the defeat would not lessen his interest in UP. "I promised the people of UP that I will be seen with the poor, on the roads and fields. My work will continue. My efforts will be to re-erect the Congress in UP."
Rahul's brave decision to face the cameras came amid mounting criticism that the party was trying to shield him from the responsibility of defeat. The implications of the UP debacle can be serious for Rahul's fledgling political career as the party positions him for the top job at the Centre in 2014 elections.
While the young leader made a mark in the 2009 polls, carving out a niche "youth factor" among the electorate, it has been a rough ride for him since. His mission of reviving Congress in the Hindi heartland suffered a setback when Congress was trounced in Bihar despite him leading the charge. A similar fate in UP threatens to dilute the belief in his leadership and charisma. His bold experiments with party nominations also bombed in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Is life imitating art for Selena Gomez? The 19-year-old stripped down to her bikini to catch some Florida sun during a little down time while filming her forthcoming flick, "Spring Breakers."
"Need sun again," Gomez tweeted, along with a photo of herself sporting a multicolored bikini -- with matching hair to boot -- and sipping on a refreshing smoothie.
Gomez is in Florida to film the teen film alongside co-stars James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Heather Morris. There's no doubt that the girl gang is having a blast filming the comedy in the sunny state.
But what does her beau, Justin Bieber, think about his girlfriend sharing the scantily clad photo? He must not be too upset. The 18-year-old reportedly just purchased a $10.8 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills -- a love nest for himself and Gomez, according to the U.K.'s Daily Mail.
Blondie singer Debbie Harry, 66, caused a stir on Sunday morning, when she was rushed by photographers trying to snap a photo of 25-year-old actress Lindsay Lohan.
According to Page Six, photographers mistook Harry for Lohan, with her platinum blond bangs, aviator sunglasses and black hooded sweatshirt.
Despite their 41-year age difference, Harry did in fact look quite similar to Lohan, who two days earlier left the same hotel wearing similar sunglasses.
We can't say we're too shocked by the paparazzi's mistake. Lohan's face looks radically different as of late and she's also been looking like 49-year-old Victoria Gotti's twin for some time.
The 79-year-old "Vertigo" actress, who will be honored next month at the TCM Classic Film Festival, said during a phone interview Monday that hearing the score from the Alfred Hitchcock film used in the recent Oscar-winning homage to the silent-film era reminded her of the same feelings she experienced when she was raped as a child.
"It was very painful," said Novak. "When I said it was like a rape, that was how it felt to me. I had experienced in my youth being raped, and so I identified with a real act that had been done to me. I didn't use that word lightly. I had been raped as a child. It was a rape I never told about, so when I experienced this one, I felt the need to express it."
Novak, who played the dual role of both a suicidal trophy wife and a morose working girl opposite Jimmy Stewart in the 1958 thriller, said in a statement released in January by her manager that she "wanted to report a rape" and that the filmmakers of "The Artist" had no reason "to depend on Bernard Herrmann's score from `Vertigo' to provide more drama."
Novak's comments drew criticism from rape crisis groups, who noted that plagiarism was not the same as a sexual assault. Other actors have similarly been chastised for misusing the word "rape." Johnny Depp and "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart both issued apologies after they compared having their photos taken to being raped in respective interviews.
"I never reported my real rape, so I felt the need to report this one," said Novak, who left Hollywood in the 1970s for Big Sur, an isolated section of California coastline, before eventually relocating to Oregon. "I felt that someone needed to speak up because the music has been taken advantage of too much. I hope that in the future, maybe somehow it will do some good."
Michel Hazanavicius, the writer-director of "The Artist," which won five Academy Awards last month, including best picture and original score, responded to Novak in January, noting that the film was "a love letter to cinema" and that he loves "Bernard Herrmann, and his music has been used in many different films, and I'm very pleased to have it in mine."
Novak said that the motion picture academy sent her a letter disapproving of her making the statement while "The Artist" was in Oscar contention. She acknowledged that after getting "over the shock" that the "Vertigo" love theme was used in "The Artist," she actually enjoyed the film and thought it deserved its Oscar glory – except for the best original score trophy.
