Sightings

As the Tuebingen researchers in a new study note, it is impossible to tell if the mind’s information processing capacities do in fact decline with age if you don’t measure the information the mind processes, or how it changes over time. In every one of the cognitive tests in which the team measured this information, no evidence of any change in our minds’ processing capacities was found. The researchers simply found that the tests required older adults to make more effort as they sorted through the larger stores of knowledge they had acquired from experience. more »

Susan Milligan writes: Female workers don't need to be told what numerous studies have concluded: Women, on average, are paid less than men, even when they are doing the same job. But where workers live also makes a difference. Female workers in Wyoming earn just 65.5 percent of what men earn, worst of any state. In the nation’s capital, women fared best and are nearly at parity, making 94.8 cents on the male-earned dollar. more »

S. 1922 —- Senator David Vitter, having announced his entry into the 2015 Louisisana Governor's race, has introduced bill to prevent the illegal trafficking of supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits by requiring all program beneficiaries to show valid photo identification when purchasing items with program benefits. On Tuesday, the House passed H.R.7, The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. more »

Aside from a picture owned by Queen Elizabeth II of England, this is the only other Vermeer known to be owned privately. It is also the most recent to be firmly attributed to the master. In addition to myriad investigations in the 1990s and after, recent analysis has found that it was painted on canvas cut from the same bolt of cloth that Vermeer used for The Lace Maker, which today hangs in the Louvre. more »