The United States Monday appealed for calm in riot-torn Kenya and urged the prompt resolution of irregularities from last Thursday's presidential election. The State Department backed away from a statement Sunday congratulating incumbent President Mwaki Kibaki as the election winner. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
The State Department is urging Kenya's main political parties to restrain their supporters and reach out to each other in peaceful dialogue amid post-election violence that has claimed well over 100 lives.
Early results from the December 27 voting had shown a big lead for opposition challenger Raila Odinga, and violence broke out over the weekend when Mr. Kibaki was declared the winner and quickly sworn into office for a new term.
In a talk with reporters, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Cay said the United St
ates and others who followed the election have rious concerns about irregularities in the vote count, and that the issues need to be resolved promptly and through constitutional and legal remedies.
In the meantime, Cay called on the Kenyan people and the various political parties to refrain from violence and incitement.
"We call on the political parties in Kenya as well as the Kenyan people, to avoid violence and to, from among party leaders restrain their supporters who might be thinking about engaging in any kind of violent respon," said Tom Cay. "We'd also like to promote and e a process of discussion among political party leaders. We'd like to e them reach out to one another, becau ultimately resolving this issue peacefully and through legitimate constitutional and legal means is going to be in the interests of everyone, and certainly in the interests of democracy and development in Kenya."
In an unusual move, Cay distanced himlf from a comment Sunday from a State Department of嘘嘘特写
ficial who told reporters the United States accepted the announced results
and congratulated Mr. Kibaki.
Cay said he was offering congratulatio散文精选
ns to no one becau of the concerns about the vote count, and said if anyone was suggesting that the United States knows the outcome or that the election was not in dispute, that person was "unfortunately in error."
European Union and other election obrvers initially said the election was free of fraud but later said the vote-counting process lacked credibility.
Boost Your Creativity with Eye Movement
Recent rearch published in the journal Brain and Cognition finds that people can boost the number and quality of their original ideas when they increa the interaction between the brain's right and left hemispheres. Christie Nicholson reports
/podcast/episode.cfm?id=boost-your-creativity-with-eye-move-09-11-10
The formula for creative thinking is pretty elusive, but scientists have a few evidence-bad clues. While the brain’s right hemisphere gets most of the credit for thinking outside the box, evidence shows that a collaborative effort between the right and left hemispheres may bring the best results.
“创造性思维”具体有什么规律往往很难说清，但最近科学家们找到了一些有证据支持的线索。通常人们把跳出常规的思维都归功于右半脑，然而有证据显示，左右脑的协同工作更能带来最好的结果。
Scientists say that it is the fixed rules of the left hemisphere that keeps a logical check on the broad brainstorming of the right hemisphere. So you wind up with super creative, yet practical, ideas.
科学家们说，之前已知的原理是，右脑进行头脑风暴式的广泛思考，而左脑对结果进行逻辑分析，这样你才能得到既有创造力又实用的想法。
In fact, a study published this w秦灭周
eek in the journal Brain and Cognition shows that wh
en you boost the level of communication between the right and left hemispheres your creativity increas.
事实上，本周发表在《脑与认知科学》的研究表明，当你提高左右半脑的交流水平时，创造力也随之提高。
Sixty-two subjects performed a creativity task, where they had to come up with as many alternate us for common objects like, a paper clip, pencil, shoe, etc. as they could in one minute.
62名被试先完成一项“创造力任务”，即在1分钟内，尽可能想出一些日常用品的多种用途，如曲别针、铅笔、鞋等等。
After this initial task rearchers asked subjects to move their eyes to follow a target as it moved horizontally left to right for 30 conds. This exerci is thought to increa the cross-talk between the hemispheres.
完成这项初步任务后，研究人员要求他们盯着一个水平从左到右移动的物体30秒钟。这
个练习能够提高左右半脑的交流。
Then the subjects completed the creative task again. Results were surprising. Subjects came up with significantly more unique us for the everyday items, than the control group who stared straight ahead.
