To Rip or Go Slowly?

There were a few things I wanted to blog about today.  I must be firm with myself.  I am doing another time limited blog and whatever draft I produce in 30 minutes will get final edit, pictures and posted without additional thoughts added!  It is 7:20 p.m. now. 

Last night I listened to another TED talk that grabbed my attention.  The TED talks are organized by theme and I traced a trail along the theme “Unconventional Explanations”  and found “Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes)” which sounded intriguing.  The talk was presented by Dan Ariely, who was billed as a “social economist”, however from listening to his talk I would say he was a social scientist.  I will not now comment on the main subject of his talk (that is a much longer conversation than I have time for at present), but instead will focus on one small piece of his pre-amble. 

Have you ever removed a bandage (perhaps as a parent of a child) and wondered if you should rip it off quickly or whether you should peel it off with careful and slow deliberation?  Which approach might offer the least distress given that each will result in some pain?  This man has the answer.  He tortured a great number of souls and studied their perception regarding the pain  to determine the following:

• It is better to go slowly
• It is better to start with the most painful area and move on to less painful area, if there is a large area of bandage to be removed
• It is better to take a break and let the patient “catch his/her breath” before continuing, if there is a large area of bandage to be removed.

The main talk was very interesting as well and if you want to understand why we are more apt to cheat and lie under some circumstances and not others you should listen to his talk.

I heard on the radio today that Toronto’s ROM “Crystal” was voted one of the seven new architectural wonders of the world.   I found this quite incredible as I could think of many more likely candidates for the award.  

I went on the web and could find no actual evidence that the magazine attributed to giving the award had in fact done so – although I found many news articles by other news sources stating this was the case.   I kind of doubt the accuracy of this report.  If anyone has a copy of April's  Condé Nast Traveler magazine I would be interested in knowing if this is true - their internet version has no such article!

In any event I have passed by it a few times and it is a wonderful sight.  The new museum building is just approaching its one year anniversary and I am sad to admit I have never been to see it.   The article prompted me to check out what is happening at the ROM and I have identified a whole bunch of activities which will lure  me there in the coming weeks.  I intend on acquainting myself with this (so called) wonder sitting right in my back yard.

National Post Article

A couple of last bits of news.   Firstly, I am really sitting up and taking notice of our dear friend Mr. Obama. God, that man impresses me.  Got to catch him on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.at 11:00  tonight!  It is the first time a President goes on the talk show circuit!   Wouldn't surprise me that he is on Oprah next!

Lastly, THANK GOD -today is the official last day of winter!

 My time is up!  It is 7:50 – time to edit and upload the blog and pictures!