“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.” – Edmund Burke
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Many menus are meticulously designed not to inform the customer but to influence him/her to spend more money. The secret is psychology.
As more of our professional and pleasurable reading shifts to screens, the way in which we read is changing. And while technology is not exactly eating away at our brains, it is causing us to read less deeply.
When Parkinson’s patients treated with a synthetic dopamine-precursor pill, levodopa, showed high upticks in creative activities from writing novels to painting portraits, their doctors began to wonder at the causes.
What is happiness? It is often confused with fame, even the low-level fame that social media affords us, gathering “followers” and massive amounts of “friends”.
Ever find that you treat complete strangers better than friends or loved ones? It turns out there’s a psychological reason for it that involves one’s tolerance to close associates’ negative qualities.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that many people are willing to work more hours than are needed to do their jobs, even though it results in a more stressful life.
Mike Denison’s artistic tribute to the small-screen legend is just delightful! “I’m not playing a role. I’m being myself, whatever the hell that is.” -Bea Arthur When it first came […]
A recently discovered crater in the Yamal peninsula region of Siberia has scientists scratching their heads as to how exactly it formed.
The observer changes everything, but what does that mean? “You can observe a lot by just watching.” –Yogi Berra In our everyday lives, things happen the way they happen, and whether […]
If the current experiment doesn’t yield positive results, scientists say they will be forced to go back to the drawing board about what makes up dark matter, i.e. 80 percent of the universe.
It turns out blowing into your old Nintendo cartridges probably did more harm than good. The reason? Human breath is gross.
I love the future. (I just want to state my bias upfront.) It’s very easy to think about global conflict, ecological destruction, rising population, and economic inequality and believe the […]
Just as Shazam helps identify songs from snippets, a new technology developed by British scientists will be able to match bird calls with a virtual database. If made into an app, it would give a whole new definition to the phrase “tweeting.”
A giant squid haunts the depths of Earth’s sky. NASA explains: A mysterious, squid-like apparition, this nebula is very faint, but also very large in planet Earth’s sky. In the […]
“One couldn’t carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the fact that everything has been said better than we can put it ourselves.”
– George Eliot
LAGUNA BEACH – During a recent trip to the Middle East, I was struck by the growing gap between countries – so much so that, more than ever, I came […]
CAMBRIDGE – Argentina and its bankers have been barred from making payments to fulfill debt-restructuring agreements reached with the country’s creditors, unless the 7% of creditors who rejected the agreements […]
Think crowdfunding is a social media fad? It’s in fact a valuable tool used even by stars in Hollywood. Legendary musician Neil Young recently turned to crowdfunding to launch a […]
A study in the news last week perfectly captures why it’s getting harder and harder to figure out what’s risky. Maybe you heard about it…findings that suggest potential health benefits […]
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has offered employees the chance to take an hour off of work for an afternoon snooze, just as long as the workers make it up by arriving to work earlier or leaving later.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranked Germany first and Mexico last in a rating of major economies and energy efficiency.
Laughter Yoga utilizes voluntary laughing and interpersonal playfulness to boost spiritual well-being. Although the practice is nearly 20-years-old, it is only now gaining in popularity in places like Hong Kong and the UK.
Happiness has gotten confusing. Despite its importance it’s puzzling even our smartest scientists. “Bentham’s bucket error” is to blame, but “Plato’s Pastry” parable and a rare case of reality in […]
One of the many ways we tend to cause ourselves stress is in the terms by which we evaluate ourselves. A shifting of the personal paradigm can lead to a happier existence.
The world’s population is expected to hit 10 billion this century. Future widespread hunger is a palpable fear. New research shows that it need not be.
We’ve come a long way from the days when women were relegated to the home and when Supreme Court decisions turned on the “obvious” observation that “woman’s physical structure and the performance […]
As the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11 approaches, take time to remember the first human to reach the Moon. “Geologists have a saying: rocks remember.” –Neil Armstrong Looming up above us, […]
During the 1960s, four of the most famous people on Earth were collectively known as The Beatles. Most people struggle to deal with the post-fame life, but how do you […]
Want to put your new 3D printer to the test? Try a copy of the Homunculus Nebula. NASA explains: The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across but […]