Switch

RARE: Finding the bright spots in conservation

Check out this great piece in the Times on Rare, the conservation organization we wrote about in Switch. (I was so inspired by the Rare team’s work, in fact, that I signed up as a trustee.) Rare’s strategy is focused on bright spots — finding what’s working and doing more of it.

Btw, the author of the NYT piece, David Bornstein, also wrote a terrific book called How to Change the World.

The 100,000 Homes Campaign

If this extraordinary campaign succeeds, 100,000 homeless people will have homes by July 2013. And if you think that sounds crazy, just watch this video.

Happy author news

Check out who is reading Switch. Neat!

U.S. cigarette labels: Now Elephant-friendly

The FDA’s new cigarette warning labels, which will appear on packs produced after September 2012, are admirably shocking – a great improvement over the old labels, which were heavy on factoids. (E.g., “Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide.”) I’m surprised these punchy labels survived the government committee process. Here’s hoping they work.

By the way, Canada was way ahead of us on this. Check out some Canadian cigarette-pack greatest hits.

Self-control is exhaustible — for dogs too?!

In Switch, we discuss some fascinating research in psychology that shows that our self-control is an exhaustible resource — that we can “tire it out,” as though it were an overworked muscle. (Check out this essential academic paper by Baumeister et al, or for the Cliff’s Notes version, see this video.)

Now comes a piece in Scientific American holding that dogs experience the same “exhaustibility.” Dogs who have been asked to “stay” in place for a long time — which burns their self-control, as any dog owner surely knows — are less able/willing to stick with a frustrating task (specifically, trying to get a treat out of a toy that is actually impenetrable).

The researchers close their article with this provocative statement: “It appears that the hallmark sense of human identity—our selfhood—is not a prerequisite for self-discipline. Whatever it is that makes us go to the gym and save for college is fueled by the same brain mechanisms that enable our hounds to sacrifice their own impulses and obey.”