Seekers

Mitt Romney on the stump, singles at the bar, car salesmen on the lot: All sorts of people are practicing the art of persuasion, with varying degrees of success. We like to think that we make our own decisions, that we're in control. But we're all open to persuasion by others, says Robert Cialdini, professor emeritus of psychology at Arizona State University and author of "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. " Humans have been testing their own trial-and-error persuasion techniques forever, Cialdini says.

Chick-fil-A will no longer donate money to anti-gay groups or discuss hot-button political issues after an executive's controversial comments this summer landed the fast-food chain in the middle of the gay marriage debate. Executives agreed in recent meetings to stop funding groups opposed to same-sex unions, including Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage, according to Chicago Alderman Proco Joe Moreno. Earlier this summer, Moreno became a key critic of Chick-fil-A after the Atlanta company's president, Dan Cathy, said in an interview that his business was "guilty as charged" of supporting "the biblical definition of the family unit.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has run the Mira Loma Detention Center, one of the largest immigration jails in the state, for more than a decade. But next month, the center is scheduled to close because Sheriff Lee Baca and federal authorities can't agree on the basic rules governing how the jail should operate. There are several areas of disagreement between the two sides. But in general, the Department of Homeland Security deserves praise for fulfilling its pledge to hold immigration jailers like Baca accountable and for imposing standards to ensure that the tens of thousands of immigrants across the country, including asylum seekers, are being treated fairly and humanely.

Body wraps have been around since ancient times, and now, like the hedonistic Romans before them, modern pleasure-seekers are getting all wrapped up in this head-to-toe treatment. Think of a body wrap as a kind of marinade for the body. First you are covered all over in mud, seaweed, aloe, mineral oil, herbs or some other therapeutic concoction. Then you are wrapped in plastic, towels, blankets or foil and left to, well, stew in your own juices.

"June 17, 1994" is Brett Morgen's tone-poem documentary about a day in the life of American sports and heroes of sport. It was the day that Arnold Palmer played his final, fraught round at a U.S. Open, the day the World Cup began in Chicago, that the New York Rangers got a ticker-tape parade for winning the Stanley Cup, that the Knicks and the Rockets played the fifth game of the NBA finals. Most famously, it was the day that, with former teammate Al Cowlings at the wheel, O.J. Simpson, charged with the murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, took his slow ride around the freeways of Southern California in a white Ford Bronco, holding a gun to his head.

For thousands of years, the high, arid San Luis Valley has spawned tales of the strange and the fantastic. Native Americans called it the Bloodless Valley, setting aside their weapons as they made vision quests up sacred Blanca Peak, the great sentinel of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains whose bony spine winds dramatically from southern Colorado to Santa Fe, N.M. Later inhabitants noted a peculiar energy attributed to a combination of wind,...

IT'S BEEN four decades since the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but aging baby boomers haven't stopped turning on. The federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released earlier this month, finds that as boomers move into their 50s in large numbers, drug use among older adults in the United States has hit its highest point ever. In the government's latest report -- reflecting drug use in 2007 -- 1 in 20 Americans ages 50 to 59 told researchers they had taken illicit drugs in the last month.

MASON, Ohio -- With 14 roller coasters, Kings Island ranks just behind North America's coaster capitals: California's Six Flags Magic Mountain (17), Ontario's Canada's Wonderland (16) and Ohio's Cedar Point (15). Photos: Top 10 Kings Island roller coasters Kings Island, just outside Cincinnati, traces its history to Ohio's Coney Island park, which dates to 1867 as one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States. Many of Coney Island's rides -- including Scrambler, Dodgem and Monster -- were relocated to Kings Island when the 364-acre theme park opened in 1972.

The children at the junior high in Carson listened carefully as Frank Lubin, a former U.S. Olympic basketball player, spoke during a recent career day. Lubin told the youngsters to stay in school and to avoid drugs and alcohol because they had the potential to be Olympic athletes. When Lubin was finished, they pestered him for autographs. It was the repeat of a scene from the early part of the century.