What Is Executive Brain Function?
Like many brain deficits, ADHD affects frontal lobe executive functioning, which coordinates everything we do by processing and organizing information.
Read moreCategory: Facts & Trends
To Delay Aging, Spend More Time Standing Up
To delay aging, spend more time standing up. That’s the surprising conclusion of a new study by Swedish scientists, reports The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Researchers at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm took blood samples from a group of sedentary, overweight men and women, all 68 years old, and measured the length of their telomeres—caps on the ends of DNA that […]
Read moreWhy There’s a Skyscraper in the Amazon
The $9 billion, 1,000-ft. (305 m) Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory—now the tallest structure in South America—recently entered the final stages of construction. It will be inaugurated in August and fully operational by 2017. Here’s what Brazil and Germany, which co-funded the project, are hoping it will accomplish: Gather data The tower’s height and state-of-the- art instruments will enable scientists to […]
Read moreCost of War
$6 trillion – Upper estimate of the cost to the U.S. of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
Read moreDept. of Homeland Security and Low Morale
The Department of Homeland Security has spent $2 million over the past three years on four studies analyzing why its workers suffer from such chronically low morale. It has yet to publish or act on the findings of any of those reports.
Read moreStairway to heaven
A ladder might be installed near the peak of Mount Everest. Authorities in Nepal say the ladder would provide a shortcut over a steep cliff, and thus ease congestion near the 29,035-foot-high summit of the world’s tallest mountain.
Read moreSLAVES AMONG US
Nearly 30 million people worldwide are exploited and treated as property. These victims—adults and children—are forced to work, marry, serve in wars or provide sex.
Read moreA kind heart
Boston police found a scribbled checklist on suspected burglar Evan Dorsey that included such goals as “find crystal meth,” “sell drugs,” “rob a dealer,” and “do one altruistic thing for a stranger.”
Read moreFood Stamp Benefits Spending Has Gone Up
The government spent $74.6 billion on food stamp benefits last year, up from $30.4 billion in 2007. With 15 percent of Americans now receiving food stamps, the program’s budget is equivalent to the combined budgets of the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the Department of the Interior.
Read morethings we were told to avoid
Facebook can make you unhappy. Researchers texted study participants five times a day with questions about their social-networking activity and how they felt, and found that Facebook visits directly correlated with negative emotions, such as depression and loneliness. While Facebook seems to fulfill “the basic human need for social connection,” says University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross, it can […]
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