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Making Time Stand Still. Awesome.
Huffington Post: Check out this photograph. That's aurora borealis, or the northern lights, as seen from the upper regions of Norway earlier this week. This spectacular display was fueled by one of the most potent solar storms in a decade. One can only imagine what it must have been like to actually witness this event. It must have been truly awesome. I know. I know. Awesome is a tired, overused word these days, when everything from breakfast to a pair of sneakers can be described as awesome. Awesome is no longer connected to awe, that rare and overwhelming emotion inspired by vast and moving events.
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How to Increase Willpower and Follow Through With Resolutions
The Atlantic: Many people who made New Year's resolutions are likely struggling with them now. Some may have already given up. Others are just letting the whole thing slide. The fact is that the act of making a resolution is a necessary step on the road to change. And for many of us, it is an exhilarating moment. It's a way of telling yourself what's important to you and committing some mental energy to it. It's all those other, harder, steps afterward that can be tough. CALL IN THE EXPERTS, IT'S RESOLUTION CRUNCH TIME The urge to improve ourselves is noble and worthy of our effort and attention.
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Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong
Wired: Taking notes during class? Topic-focused study? A consistent learning environment? All are exactly opposite the best strategies for learning. Really, I recently had the good fortune to interview Robert Bjork, director of the UCLA Learning and Forgetting Lab, distinguished professor of psychology, and massively renowned expert on packing things in your brain in a way that keeps them from leaking out. And it turns out that everything I thought I knew about learning is wrong. Here’s what he said. First, think about how you attack a pile of study material.
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Applied Neuroscience, the Six-String Method
The New York Times: At 13, an age when most boys want to learn the guitar, Gary Marcus, decided he wanted to be a scientist. Twenty-five years later he had become one of the country’s best known cognitive psychologists, with major papers and three general-interest books on the workings of the human mind and a position running New York University’s Center for Language and Music. And he wanted to play the guitar. For any adult learning an instrument or a new language is terrifying. For a cognitive scientist, it can also be downright depressing.
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We Feel Hurt Even When Strangers Ignore Us, Study Shows
Huffington Post: No one likes feeling left out, and a new study shows that even being ignored by a stranger hurts. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, is based on the idea that people need to feel connected to be happy, and that a person can be negatively affected when even a stranger doesn't acknowledge his or her presence, researchers said. To test this idea, researchers from Purdue University, Ohio University and the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata in Argentina conducted a study that involved making eye contact with passers-by. Read the full story: Huffington Post
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Mother’s love can prevent illness in middle age
The Telegraph: Experts say that a mum who nurtures and cares for her kids can set them up in good health right, even if they've grown up in grinding poverty. Research has already proven that kids who grow up in poor areas are more likely to suffer from chronic illness in adulthood, but US researchers were puzzled why some children bucked this trend. A closer look at adults who'd come from a deprived background revealed that a stressful childhood increased the chances of a kid suffering illnesses such as diabetes, a stroke or high blood pressure later in life. Read the full story: The Telegraph
