Mindframe

T he Three-card Monte is a scam that’s been around since the 15 th century. In England, it’s called Find the Lady; in France, Bonneteau . It also goes by the name Chase The Ace, Running The Red, Three Card Molly, Three Card Shuffle, Ménage a Card, and Triplets. (Let's give the criminal underclass their due: they're pretty good at naming short cons.) Whatever you call it, it's essentially a shell game, but played with cards and psychology. The game begins when a stranger sets up a simple challenge: keep your eye on one card as it's shuffled along with two others. This challenge seemingly gets even simpler when the dealer looks away long enough for a spectator to sneaks in and fold down a corner of the "money" card. The game is now rigged. Easy as taking candy from a baby, right?   Maybe, if the baby in question is a magician. Turns out the spectator, or 'shill', is just another part of the con. The dealer switches the bent card for ...

40,000 years ago, the story goes, there were two kinds of early humanoids roaming the land. There were the Homo Sapiens, our noble early ancestors. Then there were the savage, brutish knuckledraggers called the Neanderthal, destined to die out, unable to compete with their more enlightened Homo Sapien cousins. Turns out the truth is more complicated--and much more interesting. Check your family tree: if you're of European or Asian descent, there is a possibility that you've got a trace of Neanderthal in your past. Using 44,000-year-old fossil bone fragments found in a cave in Croatia, scientists at Max Planck Institute were able to extract enough DNA to sequence the Neanderthal genome. (Editors note: anyone else sensing a Jurassic Park spin-off? Just me? Okay.) Based on comparing the sequencing with modern humans, some scientists suggest that between 1% and 4% of modern Asian and European DNA might have come directly from Neanderthals. So far, the same can't be ...

When is the last time you ran into an angel? Not "angle"--we're talking harp, robes, and halo. Well, it turns out you don't have to actually encounter an angel to get the headwear. Neuroscientists coined the term 'halo effect' to describe the irrational behavior that follows when we grant one positive detail too much sway. According to Kelly McGonigal in The Willpower Instinct,  the halo effect is a "form of moral licensing which allows us to say 'yes' to temptation.  For example, we feel so good about ordering something healthy, our next indulgence doesn't feel sinful at all. Researchers have found if you pair a cheeseburger with a green salad, diners estimate that the meal has fewer calories than the same cheeseburger served by itself." It's as if there's a bad angel sitting on our shoulder, waiting to balance the virtuous salad you had for lunch against a Quarter Pounder with cheddar. The heavenly light  reflecting from ...

Let's have a moment's appreciation for the humble peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That most American of lunch bag staples, this classic combo has offered countless a momentary respite from the cruel world of schoolyard bullies. You can't always be sure that your recess will go unbothered, and you can't always be sure that your childhood tormentors will outgrow their sadistic tendencies, but at least that creamy peanut butter and sweet jelly is always there for you. A simple comforting PBJ would surely have been welcomed by the soldiers in the army of ancient aspring warlord Xiang Yu. According to Dan Ariely in Predictably Irrational , by 210 B.C., Yu had moved his troops by ship to attack the formidable army of emperor Qin. (Qin was the kingpin of the Ch’in Dynasty, the one China is named after.) As you might imagine, Qin’s army was a pretty big deal, and when Yu’s men arrived on the banks of the Yangtze River, they were none too willing to engage. Yu, recogn...

Lance Armstrong is a cheater. For some, it was a shocking revelation. For the French cycling world, it was a classic I-told-you-so moment. (Or rather, a " Je te l'avais dit " moment--thank you, Yahoo! Answers.) Armstrong said in his quest for victory he really didn't think about what he was putting into his body. What's interesting is how well blood doping (replacing your existing blood with super oxygenated blood)  and the other drugs worked. For that matter the same can be said of steroid use by professional baseball players like Mark McQuire and Sammy Sosa. Good players already, the steroids made them home run gods in a sport had never seen records fall like matchsticks before. In a very real sense, our fallen sports heroes have shown us that you are what you eat. Alter the chemicals in the body and brain and you win the Tour de France seven times, or set new home run records. But even if you're never discovered and humiliated before a scandal-hung...

One day, back when my son was in the crawling phase, he honed in my wife's grandmother's antique comb and brush set. I found him delightedly motoring around the living room floor clutching the fragile comb in one hand and brush in the other. Recognizing that taking these away would launch him into tears, I devised a plan.  I picked up his favorite ball, got down on my hands and knees and presented him with the new option. I figured he'd undoubtedly chose the ball and surrender one item of his current booty. Then I simply had to find one more toy, repeat the process and I would come away with both heirlooms, tear-free, allowing general happiness and world peace to ensue. Clever, right? However. My son, when confronted with this third choice, looked at his left hand holding the comb, glanced down at his right hand, which held the antique brush, and then leaned forward and opened his mouth, making it clear where I should deposit his favorite ball. Like...

So somehow you find yourself stuck in the Mall of America, mannequins staring vacantly at you from all sides, dressed in the latest fashions, which like fruit flies, reach their full life cycle in less than 30 days. Quick, what do you do? Of course: you duck into a Cinnabon, enticed by the sweet nectar of cinnamon and sugar wafting through the air, seductively calling your name. (Your first name in this case; Cinnabon marketers are that clever.) Normally, you resist temptation, but not this time--no, this time you find the buttery warm pastry gliding over your lips and hitting your taste buds faster then a Nolan Ryan fast ball. You see, Cinnabon knows how your brain works. In particular, they know that all outside information is delivered to your  brain through your five senses. And they know that smell is the only sense that doesn't go through any kind of filtering process. It is our most primitive and powerful sense. And so it is no surprise the marketing geniuses at Ci...