Take Ariely's unusual experiment on sexual arousal. A group of 20-something male college students were asked to predict how they would answer a set of questions about sexual attitudes and behavior when sexually aroused. They were asked the same questions twice -- first in a “cold, rational” state, and again while they were viewing pornography Web sites.

No Difference?

“If we know ourselves, then there should be no difference between those two conditions, but as the results show, we don't really know ourselves. In a cold state, people thought they would always respect women, always use condoms and their sexual preferences were rather conservative,” Ariely said. Once they were aroused, their answers changed dramatically -- a willingness to engage in risky activities replaced normal caution.

So what does this have to do with economics?

“Imagine a stockbroker, who is at a particular moment making a lot of money or losing a lot of money,” Ariely said.  “He's gripped by emotion. Is he going to make the same decision as he would in a cold, rational state?”

As usual, the press took the easy way out of the Spitzer-sex scandal. They wore out their shoe leather finding out who the poor girl was servicing the New York governor. The New York Times stooped for the scoop.

The less-sexy, more important angle is: Who was paying for these $1,300-hour services?

The common assumption is that Spitzer himself paid. And maybe he did. But it seems unlikely. He is not personally wealthy (unlike his father) and, indeed, got into some trouble for apparently violating campaign finance rules for borrowing from his father for his campaign.

If Spitzer did not pay, who did? Now things become interesting. What if the tab was paid by a lobbyist? What, ahem, favor was expected in return? Did Spitzer give it to him?

And what if the favor-seeker was not an American citizen or represented a non-American interest? What if we represented say Chinese intelligence? Or the Saudis, who are well-known to pay for services at the “Emperors Club VIP” and other call-girl services? What did they want?

One thing that might interest the Saudis is the work of the New York Police Department’s elite counter-terrorism division. They might be interested in burying intelligence linking a prince’s unfortunate donation to an Islamic charity.

The possibilities are endless and the question is worth answering: Mr. Spitzer who paid your bill at the Emperor’s Club?

...the Padres do have a former ace up their sleeve in Mark Prior.

The ex-Chicago Cub, recovering from shoulder surgery last April, signed a one-year, $1 million deal with his hometown Padres. He missed most of the last two years and hasn't pitched a full season since 2003, when he won 18 games and led the Cubs to the playoffs. He will probably pitch in minor league rehab assignments in April and plans to be ready to pitch in the majors by late May or early June.

"He's on track with baseball activities and medically. He's making his bullpen sessions without any setbacks," manager Bud Black said.

Meanwhile, he's focused on drills, throwing off the mound and feeling confident as he increases the stress placed on his shoulder with each bullpen session. The fifth starter's job is in his sights.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2008) — What makes you suddenly dart into the bakery when you spy chocolate- frosted donuts in the window, though you certainly hadn't planned on indulging? As you lick the frosting off your fingers, don't blame a lack of self-control.

New research from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine reveals how hunger works in the brain and the way neurons pull your strings to lunge for the sweet fried dough.

Krispy Kremes, in perhaps their first starring role in neurological research, helped lead to the discovery. In the study, subjects were tested twice -- once after gorging on up to eight Krispy Kreme donuts until they couldn't eat anymore, and on another day after fasting for eight hours.

On this day in 1899, the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registers Aspirin, the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, on behalf of the German pharmaceutical company Friedrich Bayer & Co.

Now the most common drug in household medicine cabinets, acetylsalicylic acid was originally made from a chemical found in the bark of willow trees. In its primitive form, the active ingredient, salicin, was used for centuries in folk medicine, beginning in ancient Greece when Hippocrates used it to relieve pain and fever. Known to doctors since the mid-19th century, it was used sparingly due to its unpleasant taste and tendency to damage the stomach.

BERLIN -- Two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt ended her show career on ice with a final performance as Carmen -- the role that defined her greatest triumph.

Witt drew thunderous applause in Hannover on the last night of her farewell tour Tuesday, capping her six routines with bowls of fire around the rink.

"I have to say, honestly, that you prepare a tour like this and think of everything," Witt said. "Then I totally forgot to think of what I would say at the very end. Maybe just: Thank you."

The 42-year-old former East German, dubbed "the most beautiful face of socialism" by Time magazine, drew worldwide fame by beating American rival Debi Thomas at the end of the Cold War in a politically charged duel for the 1988 Olympic gold.

BERKELEY -- UC Berkeley is negotiating a secretive deal with a developing graduate university in Saudi Arabia, where Berkeley faculty will collaborate on research and help the school hire professors.

But the collaboration has raised significant questions among Berkeley instructors about whether the Saudi school will discriminate against women and others, as is the case at most of the country's institutions.

Berkeley administrators have declined to disclose most information about the developing agreement, denying several requests from the Times for public records. University attorneys said disclosing the records could derail the contract with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, which the two schools expect to finalize as early as Tuesday.

The fortunes of this little village have long depended on the fortunes of Heathrow Airport, just a couple of miles away. But just as it has lived for Heathrow, Sipson might have to die for Heathrow.

If the government goes ahead with its plans to build a third runway for the overstuffed airport, the village will be wiped from the map. The 700 or so houses, the elementary school, the church, the pubs, the Indian restaurant, the hair salon — all those would be torn down.

Few would argue that Heathrow, one of the busiest passenger airports in the world, is also among the most reviled. Unfriendly, overcrowded and puzzlingly vulnerable to crippling meltdowns at crucial travel times, Heathrow is regularly cited by travelers as one of the worst things about coming to London.

The answer, according to a coalition encompassing the government, business leaders and BAA, the company that owns the airport, is to make it bigger. A fifth terminal, built over residents’ and environmentalists’ objections at a cost of nearly $9 billion, is to open next month.

At the same time, the government is proposing to increase the number of flights coming in and out of Heathrow, to about 700,000 a year from the current 480,000. This would be accomplished not only by building the new runway but also by making better use of the two existing runways, where flights are currently staggered to give people living in the flight paths a break from the noise.

You get the sense that politicians these days are racing to match Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett and the rest of the private sector in charity spending. Historians talk about the old scramble for Africa. That was a scramble to get -- European monarchs took land for colonies. Now we are witnessing a scramble to give.

The new scramble is as much a shame as the old one. Foreign aid can be the kiss of death for poor regions, as a former World Bank official, William Easterly, demonstrated in his recent book, ``The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.''

Maybe it was the lusty mannequins in its stores, the massage oil on its shelves or the overabundance of cleavage on the glittery runway of its annual TV fashion show. But yesterday, Victoria's Secret chief executive Sharen J. Turney acknowledged that the chain had gotten "too sexy."

Is such a thing even possible?

Pop legend Prince is having a secret HIP REPLACEMENT at the age of just 49—after being crippled by years of sexy dancing.

The pint-sized US star would develop a severe limp and have to use a WALKING STICK without surgery.

Treasure hunters suspended drilling in Germany's Ore Mountains, saying they need a more precise location for the Nazi gold and looted paintings that they believe retreating German forces buried there at the end of World War II.

A week of drilling in a hillside at Deutschkatharinenberg, a hamlet near the Czech border, has yielded no sign of the treasure. Heinz-Peter Haustein, the mayor of nearby Deutschneudorf, said he has asked two geophysicists, Franz Jacobs and Bernd Leissring, to help narrow down its location.

It vanished in the wake of World War II–an 11-foot-square hall walled with amber and other semiprecious stones and worth $142 million in today's dollars. One of the only pieces to be found is a small mosaic of jasper and onyx.

In 1716, the king of Prussia presented the Amber Room, a masterpiece of Baroque art, to Russian Czar Peter the Great. Catherine the Great later commissioned a new generation of craftsmen to embellish the room and moved it from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to her new summer abode in Tsarskoye Selo, just outside the city. "When the work was finished, in 1770, the room was dazzling," wrote art historians Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorii Kozlov. "It was illuminated by 565 candles whose light was reflected in the warm gold surface of the amber and sparkled in the mirrors, gilt, and mosaics."

A man’s got to know his limitations.

Tiger Woods says it's unrealistic to project his unbeaten start to 2008 into a perfect golf season.

Woods has won six straight events and eight of his past nine dating back to last season. He isn't likely to return to the course until next month at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill tournament in Orlando, Florida.

When he does, he said, he'll be trying to continue his winning streak as far as it can run.

``I have been asked whether I think I can go undefeated this year,'' Woods said in a monthly newsletter on his Web site. ``Is it realistic? No. But why would you go to a tournament if you don't think you can win? That's my expectation of myself.''