Brian M. Schleter

Last month, President Barack Obama signaled his support for expanding high-speed rail service in the United States by allocating $8 billion to the planning and construction of new lines along several busy corridors.

As anyone who has tried to lose weight knows, realistic goal-setting generally produces the best results. That’s partially because it appears people who set realistic goals actually work more efficiently, and exert more effort, to achieve those goals. What’s far less understood by scientists, however, are the potentially harmful effects of goal-setting.

It’s thought that every person in the United States is connected by no more than six degrees of separation. Proving it, though, is another matter.

Each day in homes around the world a familiar morning ritual plays out. We wake, bathe, groom and beautify ourselves. Rarely do we pause to consider why.