Hey haters, cool it, let Martin be Martin. Let’s move on, people.

The girl’s voice dropped to a hush as she remembered the bright, sunny afternoon when she stepped out of her hut and saw her best friend buried in the sand, up to her neck.

It didn’t take long for us to recognize our most formidable competition. It was the Patriot News of Harrisburg. Reporters there had done ample and fine and audacious work over the last year chipping away at the story — revealing an investigation, identifying victims, and much more. It was heartening to see — a smallish paper in tough times for the industry doing courageous, ambitious, dogged work in taking on some of the most powerful and recognizable institutions and people in the state. Hats off

One of my personal projects this year, I’ve decided, is to try to help — whether they want it or not — the Times,” he told me early in 2010. “I think it’s important for the country for them to figure it out.

What’s the harm?” he said. He opened the broadsheet to its full dimensions, and added: “I’ll give them one thing. It’s a pretty good-looking paper.

Unlike human beings that have the capacity to manipulate and deceive one another, they are basically animals of habit. If you treat them well, feed them, give them safe housing and lots of love, you can expect a good relationship with them. However, that isn’t the case with human relationships.

Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls. Managing status rivalries, negotiating group dynamics, understanding social norms, navigating the distinction between self and group — these and other social tests impose cognitive demands that blow away any intense tutoring session or a class at Yale.