is ‘the tendency of a person to remain at a relatively stable level of happiness despite a change in fortune or the achievement of major goals. According to the hedonic treadmill, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness.’

‘Hedonic’ means ‘of, relating to, or characterized by pleasure’; whereas ‘hedonism’ is ‘the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life’

Read about the hedonic treadmill:

• in Wikipedia
• at the New York Times
• on Lifehacker

“Nothing that you do in science is guaranteed to result in benefits for mankind. Any discovery, I believe, is morally neutral, and it can be turned either to constructive or destructive ends. That’s not the fault of science”

- Dr. Arthur W. Galston, whose research led to the creation of Agent Orange; via the Stuff You Should Know podcast

Experience some of the most important Masterpieces from the Prado Museum. In the next two weeks, you will be able to access a new painting every day on Google Maps.
To see them all together in full screen, use Google Earth.

Because of the sweet comments from ssdd and others, I’ve been inspired to blog a little.

So, summary skills, you ask.

A good place to start with any fundamental question like that is the most current GP syllabus published by the SEAB. You can find it here. Having checked that though, I find nothing there of use to your question. Moving on…

Mr Stephen Kennaugh, Director of Studies of St. Dominic’s College in Sydney has the following pointers (taken from this file):

1. Knowing what you want:
• This can be achieved through asking a teacher or deciding for yourself what you want to achieve or attain. [In the case of GP Paper 2, you'll have to thoroughly understand what the summary question demands of you.]
• Once you have this clear then you are able to skim over the text to summarise the main content from your perspective.

2. Deciding what is important:
• It is important to realise what is of use to you and what isn’t in a text or a piece of writing.
• Once you have your focus then it is imperative that you are selective in what you summarise.
• Eliminate all of the joining words and non-essential background information. It is only important for background information or context formation. [But do leave in some basic connectors for fluency; it's a trade-off between content and language here, I suppose.]
• Record the vital information and subject specific terminology. [There shouldn't be much jargon in comprehension passages.]

So, it’s all very good advice. More specifically, for the purpose of Paper 2 of GP (and also for research writing in general), you must paraphrase if you want to get any credit at all. You’ll also be penalised under Use of Language for wholesale lifting if you simply do not paraphrase. (More severe penalties are found in PW and further along your academic career.)

There’s probably nothing here that your GP tutors haven’t told you in some way or other. But I hope this post helps these guidelines stick in your head.

The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests as the deed; The deed develops into habit; And habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care, And let it spring from love Born out of concern for all beings.

The Buddha

(Source)

Resources for the AQ, already listed in this blog, in response to this question

Links to the previous posts:

Evaluation and evaluating arguments

A concise guide for paraphrase and critique

Evaluation for both AQ and Project Work (PW)

I might (critique and) synthesise these resources at some point. Or are there any volunteers?