4 Keys to Thriving in Resolution Season

Well, as New Year’s Eve descends on us here in the US, so begins what I like to call “Resolutions Season”. You know what I am talking about…

Now I am not at all saying that making New Year’s resolutions is silly, or unnecessary. I think any time that people really want to improve themselves (even if it is only for a couple of days), that should be celebrated. I love the idea of a New Year and a clean slate. I don’t know what it is about our attachment to the calendar, but if that’s what drives people to better themselves – I am all for it. I also wouldn’t mind being a sales rep at a gym right now.

So when it comes to navigating “resolution Season” there are some key things to keep in mind that will set you apart from the people that fall off the wagon before groundhog day, and the people that actually stick to what it is that they resolve to change.

Keep it Real

If your resolution isn’t rooted in reality just like every other goal you set in life, then what is the point. If you say, “this year I resolve to go to astronaut school”, yet you don’t have a high school diploma – you might need to go check out the definition of a resolution. I know that’s a bit of a hyperbole, but the point is: if you’re going to make a resolution, make it realistic.

There is no “New You”

You’re going to see this phrase EVERYWHERE for the next week or so: “New Year, New Me/You”. I hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as a “New You”. There is just you. You can’t just escape into a new body or a new life. What you CAN do is change the things about your life that you want to change and, in the end, be “Good as New”. I think when people set the fallacy of a “new me”, they just expect it to happen that way. Like, “I want to be skinnier, therefore, it’ll just happen.” If that was the case, you’d already be skinny. There is work to be done. You’re rebuilding – not replacing.

Shake off the Negative

Of course, with any change in our lives, comes the doubters. Let’s say you resolve to eat better, there will be people that say snarky things like “oh, doing the new year’s dieting again?” – implying that you’ve tried it before and failed. Well, if those people want to be snarky, let them. The main thing is that is you want to change an aspect of your life for yourself, they can be snarky all they want. At least you are trying.

Make Progress Tangible

The most common goal for New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight. People start eating right, working out, and making the biggest mistake you can make when losing weight: watching the scale. When you start a diet and exercise program, the LAST thing to watch is a scale. Sure, you’re losing fat, but you are gaining muscle – your weight is going to fluctuate. Nothing can be as demoralizing as a scale in the beginning of a new routine. Instead, take body measurements and focus on losing inches. Nothing shows fat burning progress like counting inches. The same thing goes for any other resolution – you have to make it tangible. Let’s say you’re quitting smoking, for instance. Get a calendar and mark down how many cigarettes you smoke each day so that you can actually see progress, instead of just knowing (or thinking) that you are smoking less.
Read: Sword and Shield: The Emotional Importance of Having a Sense of Humor

Resolutions are all about change. Sure, we have the same ability to change our lives any time we want, but taking the proper steps and keeping a good attitude will always be paramount to success. From everyone here at I Heart Intelligence, I want to personally wish everyone a happy New Year, nd tell you that I believe there is nothing you can’t accomplish if you put your mind to it.

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Nanobots Created from DNA Show the Ability to Cure Terminal Cancer

When most people hear the word “nanobot” they immediately conjure an image from science fiction of a silvery swarm of microscopic robots wreaking havoc on everything they come into contact with. Thankfully that image is as far from the truth as it gets. Professor Ido Bachelet from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University is developing actual nanobots using DNA, and what he is doing with them has the ability to change how we treat cancer.

The problem with current cancer treatments is that they harm healthy cells as much as they damage cancer cells. As Professor Bachelet puts it, “searching for a safer cancer drug is basically like searching for a gun that kills only bad people.” That’s where the nanobots come in. This technology has the ability to identify and interact with certain cells to deliver a much more accurate delivery of cancer drugs that we already know work, instead of developing a new drug that will only affect cancerous cells.

How they Work

The nanobots that Bachelet have developed are made from a strand of DNA that is folded into a clamshell shape. They are designed to be in either an “on” or “off” configuration, so they basically work like a secure box. They are loaded up with known cancer-fighting drugs and when they come into contact with cancer cells they open up and deliver their payload. The configuration allows for the nanobots to pass by healthy cells without damaging them.

What’s Really Amazing

It’s one thing to be able to deliver a payload to a cancer cell, but Bachelet’s nanobots can do more. Not only can they be designed to carry more than one type of cancer drug per nanobot, but the nanobots can actually detect different types of cancer cells. As of last year, the nanobots could effectively identify and interact with 12 different types of cancers cells. This means that one nanobot can carry multiple drugs and attack multiple cancer cells all in one treatment.
Read: New Non-Invasive Cancer Treatment Uses an “Ultrasonic Screwdriver”

Human Trials

Bachelet has been approved for trials of his nanobot technology in a terminally ill patient. Bachelet predicts that even though the patient was given months to live in their current condition, his treatment will cure them of their aggressive cancer. Personally, I can only hope that he is right. I honestly believe that in our lifetime we will see the eradication of cancer, and this new, exciting technology is just further proof of that.

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Stunning New Discovery: The Ninja Lantern Shark

New discoveries in science happen every day, every hour, sometimes every minute. Some 15,000 to 18,000 new species are discovered each year, and given our propensity for finding, cataloguing and indexing these new species, it can be easy to rest on our laurels and stop really caring about this so much. Another day, another 42 or so new species. (About half of the new species discovered are insects. While this is no doubt exciting to entomologists, it’s tough to get the general public excited about new insects in the world. Many of us would prefer they not exist, and we don’t need to know any more about them.)  

One particular group of animals that always titillates human beings, though, is sharks. Sharks fascinate and mesmerize us. So when a new species of shark has been discovered, and it comes with a few seriously ferocious accessories, it’s pretty awesome news. Among the accessories: it’s pitch-black, it glows in the dark, and it’s terrifying-looking. The shark has been given the technical name etmopterus benchleyi, a reference to Peter Benchley, the author of “Jaws”.

As nearly-unpronounceable and therefore cool-sounding as etmopterus benchleyi is, however, it just wouldn’t do to refer to this species using its scientific name in polite conversation. Fortunately, four young cousins of one of the researchers who made the discovery were more than willing to lend a hand in its common christening: the ninja lantern shark.

The ninja lantern shark was named for its all-black coloring, like a ninja’s dress, and its bioluminescent organs, which glow blue-green, similar to other lantern sharks. This discovery is particularly exciting because it’s the first deep sea-dwelling shark species found in the Pacific off of the coast of Central America. Theories abound on their use of their bioluminescence: it could be for schooling purposes, creating shadows to render them invisible to predators from above, or even mating routines. Considerable studies are still being conducted on these creatures.
Read: Who Better Than a Couple of Surfers to Figure Out a New Way to Clean the Trash from our Oceans?

Starting to rethink your upcoming trip to Costa Rica? Have no fear: you won’t be running into these frightful-looking predators anytime soon, unless you start specializing in deep-sea diving expeditionary work. The ninja lantern sharks dwell at depths of around 1,000 meters below the ocean’s surface.

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This Amazing Video Shows that Water Actually has Memory

Cannabis has the Ability to Replace Viagra, but No One is Talking About It

Erectile dysfunction is one of those things that men don’t ever want to talk about. When it comes to ED, men would just rather take a pill and get on with life. Those pills, like every other pharmaceutical drug, come with a long list of side effects. New research is now coming to light that proves that cannabis could actually be more effective for treating ED than anything the pharmaceutical industry could ever produce.

Going after the Cause not the Symptom

When it comes to ED, men focus on the symptom and ignore the underlying causes. It’s easier to just take a pill to fix the immediate performance issue than it is to figure out what is causing the issue in the first place. For many men, ED has nothing to do with anything physiological – it’s all in your head. Stress and anxiety can be a major cause for ED that men tend to ignore.

Dr. Jordan Tishler, a cannabis therapeutics physician, says “The mentality for men is that they just need a pill and that will solve all the psychological issues, but that doesn’t work,” That’s where cannabis comes in, for obvious reasons. Cannabis use, in moderation, has always been shown to lower stress and anxiety levels. Stress and anxiety kill intimacy in any setting, whether ED is a factor or not.

What’s really interesting is that the brain actually manufactures its own cannabinoids as part of the endocannabinoid system. Our brains produce a chemical called anandamide that is chemically similar to the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC. Anandamide is a chemical in the brain that is tied to natural stress and anxiety relief, so using cannabis can help support our body’s own natural stress defenses.
Read: Researchers Prove Marijuana Doesn’t Affect Your Intelligence

As amazing as cannabis can be for treating things like ED, don’t plan on the pharmaceutical companies jumping on board to assist in the research to back up the initial findings. In fact, no one is really lining up to study the effects of cannabis on our sex lives because they are two unpopular or taboo subjects. Nicole Prause, who founded a company who studies issues with sex drive in patients, said: “No one will apply to study THC and sexual arousal. You need a lot of money to run fMRI studies, usually $600 an hour, just for scanner time. Congressional aids scan NIH funding for the word ‘sexual’ and have brought five grants up for defunding. One was successful — the only time in the history of NIH it has ever happened.”

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Who Better Than a Couple of Surfers to Figure Out a New Way to Clean the Trash from our Oceans?

Two Australian entrepreneurs, Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski, are setting out to tackle one of the biggest problems our oceans face: trash. As a surfer and sailor, Turton has seen exactly how bad the issue with garbage in our oceans can be, and he has seen it all around the world. That is what inspired him to team up with fellow surfer Ceglinski and create the Seabin.

Throughout his travels, Turton found a common problem area when it came to ocean pollution: the marinas. I mean think about, anywhere you have a collection of humans you are going to have a collection of garbage. Eventually, that garbage is either going to pile up and collect in the marinas, or make it’s way to open water.

That’s where the Seabin comes in. The Seabin is basically a floating trash can that collects garbage and oil in enclosed areas like marinas. According to the Seabin’s Indiegogo crowdfunding page, “The Seabin is located in the water and is fixed to a floating dock. There is a shore based water pump on the dock running on shore power. The water pump creates a flow of water into the bin bringing with it all floating rubbish and debris. The rubbish/debris is caught in a natural fiber catch bag and the water is then sucked out the bottom of the bin and up to the water pump where it is then pumped back into the marina.” This concept is perfect for enclosed areas like marinas because it works automatically and can be placed in problem areas like corners where the most trash gets collected.
Read: Uruguay Succeeds In Producing 95% Electricity From Clean Energy

Check out the following video that actually shows the Seabin hard at work, and check out the Indiegogo page for more information and ways to help. It’s just like Turton and Ceglinski say, when it comes to cleaning our oceans “It’s a big mission, but it can be done. In fact, we’re doing it right now.”

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No, Zuckerberg Isn’t Going to Give You a Million Dollars. What He is ACTUALLY Doing is Pretty Great, Though

Pretty much from the day that people read headlines that Mark Zuckerberg was giving away all of his $45 billion dollar empire, the posts started popping up. You know exactly which posts I am talking about. The “Mark Zuckerberg will give you a million dollars if you share this post” posts. It’s always kind of scary for me to see EXACTLY how gullible people are. I mean, it’s like getting a glimpse at the collective intelligence of the entire internet, and that is a scary sight. But, thankfully the internet recovered like it always does, and we ended up with the “Mark Zuckerberg is giving away a golden unicorn that farts skittles and glitter. Like and share for your chance to win” posts. I love how self-correcting the internet can be.

So now that we’ve established what Zuckerberg is and isn’t giving away, Let’s talk about what he is really doing. Zuckerberg and his wife Pricilla have joined up with Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and a who’s who list of billionaire entrepreneurs, investment fund managers, tech CEOs, governments, and universities from around the world called the Breakthrough Energy Coalition (BEC).

The BEC’s mission is simple: to bring together the right investors, scientists, governments, and agencies needed to further research and development of renewable energy technology. According to their website:
“Technology will help solve our energy issues. The urgency of climate change and the energy needs in the poorest parts of the world require an aggressive global program for zero-emission energy innovation. The new model will be a public-private partnership between governments, research institutions, and investors. Scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs can invent and scale the innovative technologies that will limit the impact of climate change while providing affordable and reliable energy to everyone. The existing system of basic research, clean energy investment, regulatory frameworks, and subsidies fails to sufficiently mobilize investment in truly transformative energy solutions for the future. We can’t wait for the system to change through normal cycles.”

Zuckerberg said in a facebook post, “[P]rogress towards a sustainable energy system is too slow, and the current system doesn’t encourage the kind of innovation that will get us there faster. We already invest in renewable and clean energy for our Facebook facilities today, but we believe that building a positive future for the next generation also means investing in long-term projects that companies and governments don’t fund.”
Read: Mark Zuckerberg has Pledged 99% of his Facebook Holdings to Charity in a Touching Letter to his Newborn Daughter

Tackling a task as big as changing how the entire world produces power is jus the kind of thing that fuels guys like Zuckerberg. Another member of the BEC, Bill gates said, “I am optimistic that we can invent the tools we need to generate clean, affordable, reliable energy that will help the poorest improve their lives and also stop climate change. I hope even more governments and investors will join us.”

So, I know you really wanted that golden unicorn, but I think what Zuckerberg is actually doing with his money is a little more important. I honestly think that groups like the BEC have the ability to change the world, let’s hope that they do.

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Sword and Shield: The Emotional Importance of Having a Sense of Humor

If I had to pick one character trait that really matters to me, I will always choose “having a sense of humor”. Not just for myself, but for anyone that I surround myself with. I think that’s pretty common for all of us. For me, having a sense of humor isn’t just about comedic relief, it is about being able to deal with anything that life can throw at you. I’m far from the first person to suggest that comedy can have a huge effect on our attitudes, emotions, and mental state. But why is having a sense of humor so important?

Sword and Shield

A sense of humor has the ability to take the power away from anything that we might be facing in life. Basically, if you can laugh at something, you can shrug it off. Imagine that you are trying to scare someone. You puff up your chest, raise your fists, and put on your meanest “mad dog” face. Instead of being scared, the person just laughs at you, no matter how intimidating you actually may be. Now, take that same scenario – only the person laughing is you, and the “intimidator” is a problem in life you are dealing with. You’ve taken all the power away from whatever challenges you’re facing. It’s not a coincidence that most of the comedians you see talk about their lives as their subject matter. They make fun of their situations and themselves, not only because it is funny – but because it is a way for them to deal with those issues.

Rooted in Reality

Where a lot of people get confused here, is that they think that by laughing at an issue in your life – you are avoiding it. That’s not true. If anything, the total opposite is true. If you can look at what seems like a major issue, rationalize it, and laugh at it – you’re just showing that you are rooted in the reality of the situation. Even people who have stared death in the face can tell you that throughout their ordeal or shortly after, they were laughing their asses off. Humor isn’t an escape. Humor is a way to say “I’ll get through this.”
Read: 6 Reasons to Laugh More (backed by science)

I can already tell you there will be two basic reactions to this article. One will be the people that agree. The other will basically be the people that are saying I think you should just laugh everything in life away and not care about anything. That second group of people is dead wrong. What I am saying is that when you have the ability to process a situation, you have confidence in yourself, and you have faith in the plans of the universe – there is nothing that you can’t crack a smile at and take head-on. It’s a matter of attitude and I think that once you have developed that attitude, your life will be better for it.

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The Most Common Relationship Mistake People Make, and Why it Ruins Them

Typically, when we make a mistake in life we assess the problem, correct it, and move forward. That’s the idea, at least. That’s why it baffles me to see people go through repeated failed relationships, myself included. I mean, aren’t we supposed to learn from whatever it was that caused the relationship to fail to make the next relationship better? Sure, that sounds simple on paper. In sitting down and really evaluating why relationships fail, I’ve come up with an interesting theory.

Where Relationships Go Wrong

Where most people go wrong in relationships is that they think that the emphasis needs to be on the relationship itself, and not on the individuals in it. It’s almost like when two people come together in a relationship, “the relationship” becomes this all-consuming entity that both people have to feed and nurture. People change themselves and give into the whims of “the relationship”, as opposed to focusing on moving forward as separate people. Relationships are a connection between two people, not the formation of a co-op. Not to be too cliche, but one of my favorite song lyrics from Mumford and Sons sums it up perfectly: “Love; it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free.”

Too often we see this in the relationships of the people around us. We’ve all had that friend who meets someone and as their relationship develops, they become a completely different person. They fold and bend to fit themselves into the relationship as the relationship requires it. Maybe both people in the relationship do? Either way, in the end, you no longer have two individual people – you have one singularity that is “the relationship”.

Adjusting the Focus

Essentially, the best relationships are a matter of teamwork, not just the fact that you are on a team. Imagine two people focusing so hard on the fact that they are wearing the same uniform, instead of actually playing the game. The focus of a good relationship should be the individuality and advancement of the two parties involved. Some key aspects of this are to:

Have you Own Friends

Yes, there will always be mutual friends in a relationship, but at some point, you need to have your own friends. When two people have all of the same friends, again, this becomes part of “the relationship”. The people you surround yourself with just become more heads on the same monster. Having the ability to spend time with people as an individual is essential. Often times this creates trust issues because you are introducing people from outside of “the relationship” into your life. These outsiders are looked upon with suspicion and discontent, which creates disdain in the relationship.

Have Your Own Time

Before now, I’ve never understood why when someone in a relationship wants to have their own time the other person sees it as a betrayal. It’s a common thing, and it is because of that person’s attachment to the relationship and not the other person. Why wouldn’t you want your significant other to have their own time and space? Because you feel like their time and effort should be put into “the relationship”, and not into whatever it is that the other person wants to do. The result is that people begin to feel trapped, which leads to conflict, which leads to the eventual demise of the relationship.
Read: One Thing that Successful Relationships all Seem to Have in Common

Work Together for Each Other

Again, I go back to the teamwork reference I made earlier. If the ultimate goal of a relationship is to be happy with another human being – then you need to focus on what makes BOTH people happy. Say for instance that your significant other wants to get their degree, you should foster that goal and support them instead of complaining that they don’t have as much time to spend with you because they are in school. It’s little things that make the biggest differences. A relationship is two people walking in the same direction, not on the same path. There is a difference.
Read: 2 Separate Studies Conclude Friendship is the Key for a Successful Relationship:

Don’t Settle for Comfort

The number one thing I see people do in relationships is settle. They get so comfortable in the shell of “the relationship” that they quit paying attention to their own needs or feelings. Everything becomes about maintaining the stasis of the relationship. If you’re settling in your relationship, you’ll never know what you could actually have. Would you just park your car on a road trip the first time you see something pretty? So, why would you do that in a relationship?

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What Kind Of Mind Do You Have?

New Research Shows That Gamer’s Brains are Wired Differently

With all of the advances in video game technology, it’s no surprise that people are attached to their gaming consoles like never before. So much so, that there is actually a brand new medical condition associated with excessive online gaming. According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) is not only a real thing but could have some pretty serious implications for people who exhibit the symptoms. So serious, in fact, that they are petitioning for IGD to be added to the manual that all doctors use to diagnose and treat mental disorders. The APA warns, “People with this condition endanger their academic or job functioning because of the amount of time they spend playing. They experience symptoms of withdrawal when pulled away from gaming.”

The APA released a fact sheet describing the preliminary findings of several studies into the phenomenon of Internet Gaming Disorder which states:
“The studies suggest that when these individuals are engrossed in Internet games, certain pathways in their brains are triggered in the same direct and intense way that a drug addict’s brain is affected by a particular substance. The gaming prompts a neurological response that influences feelings of pleasure and reward, and the result, in the extreme, is manifested as addictive behavior.”
Read: 5 Ways Video Games Make You More Intelligent (Backed By Science)

But some researchers wonder if the way that gamer’s brains are wired is not a condition of playing too many games, but that they are just gifted when it comes to playing games. One of the studies that the APA referenced in their assessment of IGD involved using MRI imaging to compare the brains of 78 adolescents who had been diagnosed with IGD with the brains of 73 adolescents who didn’t play online games. What the researchers found was that teens who displayed the defining symptoms of IGD showed increased connectivity between 7 paired regions of the brain. These connections could actually lead to enhanced cognitive ability. For instance, there were connections between the frontal eye field and auditory complex – which is the part of the brain responsible for processing audio and visual signals, and the parts of the brain that make up the salience network of our brains. The salience network is responsible for our brains processing what is important and what isn’t. Jeffery S. Anderson, a co-author of the study says that “hyperconnectivity between these brain networks could lead to a more robust ability to direct attention toward targets, and to recognize novel information in the environment.” Researchers believe that the same skills that make you good at a game could be applied to real-life tasks as well.

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One Thing that Successful Relationships all Seem to Have in Common

I consider myself to be blessed to be surrounded by several people in my life who are in amazing relationships. Sure, I’d like to be in one myself someday, but in the meantime, it’s always great to see the people in my life happy. Being somewhat more observant than some, I’ve noticed a trend in these successful relationships that I find very interesting. Conversely, I’ve noticed the exact opposite trend in the relationships of the people around me that fall apart faster than a house of cards in a hurricane. That leads me to believe that there has to be a correlation there, right?

The one thing that I have noticed about the successful relationships of the people around me is very simple: you hear almost nothing about them on social media. Think about it…

We all have those friends that jump from one relationship to another, and post EVERY aspect of said failed dating endeavours online. One minute they’ve met “the love of their lives” and the next they are “single again.” At first, I thought maybe the correlation was just because people in long-term relationships just got tired of talking about their relationships. Or maybe that the people who were always reporting break-ups were just reporting the bad side of things. So, I did some digging. As it turns out, the people who habitually were in and out of relationships were constantly posting things about them from day one about their relationships. Basically, the more you heard about the relationship – the shorter the relationship was. For me, this phenomenon made a lot of sense for 3 reasons:

Lack of Communication

I have to believe that if someone is posting a day-by-day assessment of their dating life online, that there isn’t a lot of communication going on in the relationship. It’s one thing to comment on something sweet your significant other did every now and again, but if you’re having open discussions about every aspect of your relationship in an online forum like Facebook – you might want to reconsider how you are approaching issues with your partner. There are some things best kept behind closed doors.

Pressure

One thing I think kills budding relationships that are blasted all over social media is the undue pressure that can create for the other half of that relationship. I mean, as a man, if the girl I was dating was constantly blasting our business on social media – that would create a lot of pressure for me to live up to whatever expectation she was creating. It’s one thing to show appreciation for something sweet, but to absolutely make our lives a part of some living drama to be played out on the internet is completely different. I mean imagine having to worry about having a conversation with your significant other because you know it will end up online for everyone to read.
Read: 2 Separate Studies Conclude Friendship is the Key for a Successful Relationship:

Loss of “Us”

In relationships, the best things are the things that no one but you and your partner experience. The little things that are sacred to just the two of you, and no one else. When your relationship is public knowledge, there are no such little moments that are just yours. It cheapens those experiences to share them with the world. If your significant other does something sweet or you are feeling a certain way about them – tell them, not the whole world.

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Find Out What Kind Of Person You Are

Are You A Social Media Addict, Really?

30 of The Most Profound Quotes From Plato

In history, there have been fewer minds more brilliant than that of the Greek philosopher, Plato. I mean, consider a man who was the student of Socrates and the teacher to Aristotle. Plato is one of the founding fathers of what we know to be Western Philosophy. The contributions that Plato has made on the minds of anyone who has studied him are truly timeless in nature. Here is a collection of 30 of his greatest quotes:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”

“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”

“Love is a serious mental disease.”

“Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”

“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

“good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws”
Read: 30 of the Greatest Quotes from Abraham Lincoln about Life and Success

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

“There is truth in wine and children”

“Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.”

“I’m trying to think, don’t confuse me with facts.”

“If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”

“…and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment…”

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.”

“Those who tell the stories rule society.”

“The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings”

“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. ”

“There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”

“Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.”

“When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.”
Read: 60 Timeless Inspirational Quotes

“There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.”

“In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.”

“How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? ”

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The Creative Importance of Finding your “Happy Place”

A couple of years ago, when I took my first “professional” writing job with a marketing company, I learned a very important lesson about the creative process. Up until that job, I’d worked in the IT industry, which doesn’t place a high premium on creativity. I’d never been in a position where I had to apply my creativity basically on-demand. In the beginning, I’ll admit – I struggled with it. As our company grew, we moved into a new office suite and I gave up the opportunity to have a real office in lieu of us having a dedicated room to do video production. I was cordially presented with a cubicle that I was told I “could decorate however I wanted.” So, after everyone left the office for the day I did the only thing I could think to do: I turned it into a duck blind.

What originally started off as joke truly became my “happy place.” There was just something about ducking into my little duck blind desk that inspired something in my brain. It was like an athlete walking onto the field. I never realized how important a “happy place” could really be to the creative process until I left that company and the duck blind behind. If you do any kind of creative work, your surroundings can have a serious impact on what it is that you create. Now that I work from home, I am again inspired to recapture that creative vibe that the duck blind fostered.

Now, I know that not everyone has the ability to build a hut out of their desk. I am here to tell you, though – having a “happy place” is important to creativity.

Creates a Rhythm for your Brain

There is something about having a dedicated work space when you do creative work. Artists have their studios. Woodworkers have their shops. It’s a specified place set aside to work. When you get into the habit of working in a specific space, your brain develops the same rhythm that an office worker develops when they sit down at their desk. Our brains are funny in that they can be trained like that. The point I’m trying to make here is that when you have a place that is conducive to the work you are doing, you’ll find that your brain switches into the creative gear much easier than it does if you’re constantly moving around while you work.

Structure

For some people, one of the challenging things about doing creative work is the lack of a set schedule. Inspiration doesn’t pay attention to clocks. Short of having deadlines, creative work is a free-flowing endeavor. Having dedicated workspace is a great way to wrangle that inspiration, or, at least, provide some structure for it. I used to be one of those people that took their laptop everywhere they went in an attempt to catch inspiration wherever it might be hiding. The truth is, I found it harder to focus when I was away from my dedicated work space.
Read: Seven simple things happy, healthy people do every morning.

Place to Escape From

As important as it is to have a place to work, we all need a place to walk away from. If you work wherever you go, how do you ever stop working? That’s the really great thing about having a dedicated workspace: you can get away from it. Creativity is unique in that it is finite. Walking away from what you do for a bit is often times the best way to get that spark back. Yes, I believe wholeheartedly in capturing inspiration wherever you can find it, but you have to get out and get away from your desk to find it.

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Microtechnology Wonders: μPeek A Pocket Microscope for Everyone

Have you ever wondered what makes up the world around you on, say, a microscopic level? Maybe you’re curious to see the composition of a raindrop, a blade of grass, the cobwebs you chase from your ceiling corners. Curiosity may have killed the cat but you, a fully-functioning human being with far greater abstract thinking capacities and opposable thumbs, prefer to indulge your inquisitive mind. Where do cobwebs come from, anyway, and what are they made of?

 

It would usually require a lot of expensive lab equipment to examine something at a truly microscopic level; a Kickstarter campaign has just, however, become fully funded to bring to the world a credit-card sized microscope that uses the lens of your smartphone to bring professional-quality microscopic enhancement to…well, just about anything.

 

The µPeek, designed by the Swiss company Scrona, Inc., sticks to any smartphone running the (Android- and iOS-compatible) app and, utilizing sophisticated microtechnology including a 4-element lens structure and various illumination mechanisms to create a fully-functional microscope. The device is simple to attach, easy to use and clean, and incredibly portable. Allow yourself to be mesmerized for the minute and twenty seconds it takes to check out the µPeek’s  short promotional video (currently making the rounds on Facebook).

 

The µPeek goes even further, however, with innovative lighting schematics on all models to allow use of both brightfield and darkfield microscopy, as well as UV microscopy on the Blue model. This is no high-level magnifying glass for your smartphone camera. It’s a fully-functional professional microscope.

 

In case you had any nagging misgivings about the quality of this device, the µPeek boasts the capacity to fit a standard-sized specimen slide for mounting specimens while performing microscopy. Additionally, it comes with a set of slides and instructions for basic specimen preparation, upping the ante considerably for its use in a professional atmosphere. Easy to use, pocketable and applicable for everyone from curiosity-seekers to professional scientists. Dare we ask what this ingenious piece of technology costs?
Read: The Science of Heartbreak

 

At a projected cost of $159.00 for the non-UV version, µPeek is designed to be affordable for everyone…even school systems can outfit their classrooms with the devices. Remember the days of twenty kids crowded around a single microscope? The future looks more like twenty kids with smartphones eagerly µPeeking at everything they can get their hands on.

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Check Out the 500 Year Old Map that is Rewriting History

On October 9th, 1929, German theologian Gustav Adolf Deissmann discovered a map that became an international sensation. This world map was compiled in 1513 from military intelligence by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Mapmaking is a very complex and civilized task, which is said to have emerged around 1000BC with the Babylonian clay tablets. Piri Reis, the maker of the map, noted that the map was drawn from information sourced from other, older maps, charts, and logs.This 16th-century map which shows South America in its proper longitudinal position in relation to Africa was compiled in 1513 making it 500 years old.

What Makes This Map Special?

How could a map drawn in 1513 feature a continent that wasn’t discovered until 1820? This very question is what makes this map shatter the official history of the human race. How is that possible? This map is a solid proof that our understanding of our own history is incomplete. What is even stranger is that the map shows the earth as it is seen from space.

The map depicts Queen Maud Land, a continent that our history books tell us was not discovered until 1818. Queen Maud Land is a 2.7 million-square-kilometer region of Antarctica. Geological evidence proves that this region could not have been ice-free until 4000 BC. While our history suggests that intelligent and civilized cultures on Earth long before the first human cultures emerged from the Middle East around 4000BC. How is that possible? An accurate map that shows the earth as seen from space is possible only by aerial view. The map also depicts mountain ranges in Antarctica. These were not discovered until 1952. This couldn’t have been made without aerial technology. While history clearly suggests that such aerial technology did not exist million of years ago. Official science has been saying all along that the ice-cap which covers the Antarctic is millions of years old. While this map shows the northern part of the Antarctic continent that has been mapped before the ice did cover it.

This was brought to the attention of the United States Air Force by, Charles Hapgood, a history professor from New Hampshire, USA. His answer was astonishing:

“…the geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949.
This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap.
The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick.
We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513.
Harold Z. Ohlmeyer
Lt. Colonel, USAF
Commander”

Even physicist and philosopher Albert Einstein found Hapgood’s presentation so convincing that he said:
“His idea is original, of great simplicity, and – if it continues to prove itself – of great importance to everything that is related to the history of the Earth’s surface.” -Albert Einstein

The last period of ice-free conditions in Antarctica ended about 6000 years ago. Who mapped the Queen Maud Land of Antarctica 6000 years ago? Was it done by a civilization that has been forgotten? The map is certifiably authentic, it is not a hoax. Even if the map was drawn by a known civilization after 4000BC, why were the ice caps not on the map? Antarctica was entirely covered in ice caps thought to have formed around 34-45 million years ago when it was first sighted by a Russian expedition in 1820. So, that makes it clear that Antarctica without ice caps should not be seen on any map prior to 1820. If the ice caps were formed around 34-45 million years ago, the only way for Piri Reis to include Queen Maud Land is if it’s drawn millions of years ago. But there wasn’t any aerial technology millions of years ago or maybe there was an extremely intelligent ancient advanced civilization with all the tools of modern day civilization to make a map so accurate millions of years ago that shows the earth as seen from space.
Read: What Scientists Have Found in South Africa is Rewriting the History of Mankind

Charles Hapgood says that “It appears that accurate information has been passed down from people to people. It appears that the charts must have originated with a people unknown and they were passed on“ How did they have knowledge about the earth’s shape million’s of years ago? Who had the technology to make such an accurate map? Was it done by an advanced civilization that once roamed the Earth?

Sources:
1) Hancock, Graham. Fingerprints of the Gods: Canada: Anchor Canada, 2005
2) http://ift.tt/1D6BVOH
A surviving fragment of the Piri Reis map showing Central and South America shores. In his notes appended to it is written “the map of the western lands drawn by Columbus (source Wikipedia)

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30 of the Greatest Quotes from Abraham Lincoln about Life and Success

One of the things on the internet that I really do enjoy is a good collection of quotes. In my opinion, quotes that have been passed down through the ages are like little timeless nuggets of wisdom that we can all look to for inspiration. One of my all-time favorite sources for these inspirational nuggets is Abraham Lincoln. Aside from being one of the most important American presidents, Lincoln was a wealth of knowledge and motivation. Here is a collection of 30 of the greatest Quotes from Abraham Lincoln:

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”

“The best way to predict your future is to create it”

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”

“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”

“You can tell the greatness of someone by what makes them angry”

“All I have learned, I learned from books.”

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”

“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.”

“Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.”

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

“I am not concerned that you have fallen — I am concerned that you arise.”

“I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”
Read: 11 Quotes About Self-Improvement that can Inspire the Changes You Want to See in Yourself

“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”

“Life is hard but so very beautiful”

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

“And, in the end, it is not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.”

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

“I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.”

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
Read: 20 Inspirational Quotes from the “Godfather of Personal-Development”, Jim Rohn

“Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.”

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”

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The Neuroscience Behind “The Christmas Spirit”

This time of year, it seems that people have one of two opinions about Christmas: you love it or you hate it. For some people, this is the greatest time of the year. For others, they can’t wait for December 26th. A recent study that was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Christmas Edition has discovered the actual location of the Christmas Spirit in the human brain. No, I’m not kidding. The Researchers quite literally set out to “detect and localise the Christmas spirit in the human brain.” Their reasoning for this? According to their introduction of their study, “Throughout the world, we estimate that millions of people are prone to displaying Christmas spirit deficiencies after many years of celebrating Christmas. We refer to this as the “bah humbug” syndrome. Accurate localisation of the Christmas spirit is a paramount first step in being able to help this group of patients.”

The study involved 20 participants who filled out a questionnaire about their Christmas traditions. Based on their responses, they were broken into two groups: Christmas and Non-Christmas. The two groups then put on a set of goggles that flashed 6 Christmas themed images for 2 seconds each, followed by 6 images that were similar but had nothing to do with Christmas. While the participants viewed the images their brains were imaged by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The participants weren’t aware of the Christmas theme of the study, so the use of two groups of images allowed for the brain to “rest” so that the fMRI could detect the differences they experienced.

Believe it or not, the researchers actually discovered the location in the brain that they believe is responsible for the “Christmas Spirit”. According to the study, “There is a cerebral response when people view Christmas images, and there are differences in this response between people who celebrate Christmas compared with those with no Christmas traditions.” The researchers went on to say, “We identified a functional Christmas network comprising several cortical areas, including the parietal lobules, the premotor cortex, and the somatosensory cortex. Activation in these areas coincided well with our hypothesis that images with a Christmas theme would stimulate centres associated with the Christmas spirit.”

Now, I already know that there will be people that read the title of this article, and will immediately post a negative comment without reading this. I get it. The researchers admitted that although their research seems silly, it has real value as a neurological study. In their discussion section of their study, the researchers added, “We realise that some of our colleagues within the specialties of neuroscience and psychology, who we suspect could be afflicted by the aforementioned “bah humbug syndrome”, would argue that studies such as the present one overemphasise the importance of localised brain activity and that attempts to localise complex emotions in the brain contribute little to the understanding of these emotions.”
Read: The Amazing Neuroscience of Drummers

The real point of the study is two-fold. On one hand it shows the ability of fMRI imaging to show reactions in the brain on visual stimuli like images. Also, the study helps identify parts of the brain that are associated with culture and festivity – no matter what the specific occasion may be. Or, you know what? Maybe they just wanted to have some fun during a festive time of the year?

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4 Signs That You Might NOT Actually be “Meant to be Together”

The modern relationship has evolved from something that used to take a lot of time into something that seemingly can happen overnight. Back in the “old days”, there was this thing called the “courtship process”. Now we have things like Tinder. Because of this accelerated, break-neck speed of dating you see people who rationalize their partnerships with the old cliche: “we were meant to be together.” Honestly, although I believe in the notion of a soulmate or ideal partner, I think people use that cliche as an excuse more than anything. Hell, I’ve been there myself. Sometimes you want so badly to be with anyone that you’ll rationalize being with the wrong person. So, if you’re one of these wandering romantics that thinks that you’ve found your ideal person on this planet, keep these 4 things in mind the next time you profess that your relationship was “meant to be.”

No Existing Friendship

A lot of times when we meet someone with whom we connect easily by pure kismet, we automatically assume that the relationship was destined to happen. The problem with going straight from being strangers to significant others is that you are missing the basic foundation of any successful relationship: friendship. Friendship is critical to relationships, and without it how can you expect a relationship to stand on its own? Yes, I believe that two people can meet under unique circumstances and develop long-lasting relationships, but without the basis of friendship, you’re building a house of cards – not a relationship.

Way too Rational

If someone asks you why you think you are meant to be with someone and your answer is completely rational, you might be justifying it – not explaining it. Sometimes the best answers to the most complex questions are the simplest. If you need a diagram to explain how the stars and planets aligned on a specific day at a certain time that caused some universal shift that lead to you dating someone who you’d normally not even talk to, you might want to reconsider your justifications for the relationship. I’m not saying that I don’t believe in the power of the universe to bring two people together, I am saying it is an element of the relationship – not an excuse for it.

The Distance

In any relationship, people each start at their own place in their lives. The distance I am referring to isn’t a literal distance between two people, it is the distance from where they are now and where they want to be in the future. Then you factor in the distance that the two people want to go together. In the end, future plans for a relationship can look like a roadmap that was drawn in the dark by someone who was drunk. Again, if two people are truly meant to be together, there is no trek that they can’t complete together. If you’re in a relationship with someone who won’t walk across the stress with you, how can you expect them to navigate the highway of life with you?
Read: I Want a Worthwhile Relationship, Not a Perfect One

Time Spent Figuring Out Why

This is one that I have intimate experience with. If you’re spending more time figuring out why you are with someone as opposed to enjoying the relationship – you might need to rethink who you are with. Sure, in the beginning, the amazing circumstances that brought you together seem like pure magic and you justify a lot of things that you’d normally never justify in a relationship. Then, the next thing you know, you’re asking yourself, “why am I doing this again?” That’s when we remind ourselves of the amazing turn of fate that brought our partner into our lives, and that becomes the answer to that question of why. If the question even exists in your head of why you are together, I hate to say it, but you’re not meant to be together.

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The Amazing Neuroscience of Drummers

3 Keys to Overcoming the Effects of Negative People

Few things in our lives can be as devastating as the impact of negative people. What’s worse is that they are unavoidable. They lurk in our jobs, friends, even our families. No matter how much ass you think you are kicking in life, all of the sudden, a “negative Nelly” will pop up and knock you down a few notches. It is an inevitability. So if we can’t avoid negative people, what we CAN do is reduce their impact. Next time someone tries to derail your success train, keep these 3 things in mind to mitigate the damage:

Be Realistic

The most important thing to keep in mind when a negative person pops up in your life to put you down is this: Their opinion is just that – THEIRS. Whatever you do don’t let their opinion become your reality. People are always going to find faults if they are looking for them. That doesn’t give any validity to the faults that they find, it just means that if you look hard enough you can find something wrong with just about anything. You determine the effects of negativity on your life, no one else.

Take a Breath

One of these easiest things to do when approached with negativity is giving into it. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that is just part of human nature. In reality, negativity is a chance to stop, take a deep breath, and evaluate. Is there validity to the criticism? Is someone just being petty? Can you actually do things better than you are doing them? Ask yourself these questions instead of just assuming that the other person is right. The best reaction to negative people is not to give them a reaction at all. Sleep on it, learn from it, and move on.
Read: Researchers Find That People Who Use Curse Words Could Be Smarter And More Articulate

Understand Your Abilities

We all know that no one is perfect, and too often negative people expect perfection. It’s an irrationality that we can’t avoid but can handle effectively. You know what you are capable of, despite what anyone else thinks. You might not be perfect, but damn it, you are good at what you do. Keep that mentality in your head and in your heart. Negative people are often times the way they are because they can’t admit their own faults. Don’t be discouraged when they point yours out.

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Uruguay Succeeds In Producing 95% Electricity From Clean Energy

Uruguay, a South American country known for its verdant interior and beach-lined coast, is now famous for making a dramatic shift to produce nearly 95% electricity from clean energy according to the country’s head of climate change policy, Ramón Méndez. Uraguay, with a population of 3.407 million, has made some impressive strides in the last decade on the environmental front by drastically reducing its carbon footprint in less than 10 years. This reduction is also responsible for lowering electricity costs without government subsidies or higher consumer costs. The prices for electricity generation has been reduced by more than 30% since the renewables provide 94.5% of the country’s electricity. Ramón Méndez, further says that Uruguay used to be reliant on electricity imports from Argentina, but last summer Uruguay sold a third of their power generation to Argentina. This was not the result of any technological miracles, and no new hydroelectric power or nuclear power has been added for more than two decades. The success for this program has been due to accurate decision-making along with good cooperation and strong partnership between the public and private sector. According to Méndez, 55% of the country’s overall energy mix is based on wind, solar, biomass and hydropower.

The world gathered in Paris making the task of switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy seem difficult to deal with, but this one small country on the other side of the Atlantic made it possible in less than ten years. It was a very different story just 15 years ago, but now it has been praised by the World Bank and the Economic commission for Latin America. Even WWF listed Uruguay among its “Green Energy Leaders”. Méndez also said, “We had to go through a crisis to reach this point. We spent 15 years in a bad place, but in 2008, we launched a long-term energy policy that covered everything … Finally, we had clarity.”

Energy investment for liquid gas has also surged along with renewables to $7 billion dollars, or 15% of the country’s annual GDP. According to climate economist, Nicholas Stern, this increase in investment is more than three times the global share and five times the average in Latin America. Ramón Méndez says, “For three years we haven’t imported a single kilowatt hour,”. Credibility, helpful natural conditions, and strong public companies were mentioned as the three key factors behind Uruguay’s success, says Méndez. Uruguay hopes to be carbon neutral by 2030. Wind turbines are the biggest item on import balance sheet along with three agroindustrial plants running on bio-fuel. There are also plans for three wind farms with huge turbines – each 108 meters tall, resulting in foreign firms lining up to secure wind-farm contracts.
Read: Now You can Live Anywhere in the World with the Solar and Wind Powered Ecocapsule

Méndez, further added that, “renewable’s can reduce generation costs, can meet well over 90 percent of electricity demand without the back-up of coal or nuclear power plants, and the public and private sectors can work together effectively in this field,” While not every country in the world can replicate this model, the importance of strong decision-making shown by Uruguay must be noted by delegates in Paris.

Source: The Guardian

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Karma Comes to “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, and it is BEAUTIFUL

When you hear stories about guys like Martin Shkreli, who became “the most hated man in America” after buying the rights to an HIV treatment drug from $13 dollars a pill to $750, one can only hope that karma not only exists – but that she is the magnificent bitch that she is supposed to be. Well, karma did not disappoint in the case of Shkreli, or “Pharma Bro”, as the internet so lovingly dubbed him. He was arrested on December 17th at his Manhattan house and things are looking really, really bad fo him.

Shkreli’s arrest had nothing to do with his price hike of the drug Daraprim, no matter how much everyone wanted it to be. As it turns out Shkreli was just a bad guy in general, which is about as surprising as ice in Antarctica. Apparently he has a long history of bankrupting companies to pay off debts to previous companies that he has worked for. According to Robert Capers, the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney, “Shkreli essentially ran his company like a Ponzi scheme where he used each subsequent company to pay off defrauded investors from the prior company.”

Now even though Shkreli’s arrest didn’t have anything to do with his price gouging scheme, the attention he gained from that whole situation certainly didn’t help. It turns out that when you piss off the entire planet by being an asshole, people start digging into your business dealings. I mean, this is a guy who in the wake of the Daraprim fall-out said in an interview when asked what he would have done differently: “I probably would have raised the price higher. My investors expect me to maximize profits.”

Shkreli has a history of losing millions of dollars and using new investments to pay off his debts. In 2011, Shkreli launched a company called MSMB Healthcare with a $5million dollar investment where he apparently paid himself “far in excess” of what he’d agreed to pay himself and even invested money from MSMB Healthcare into his own company, Retrophin. The problem is that according to prosecutors, Retrophin had “had no products or assets.” Apparently as Shkreli continued losing money at every turn, he started lying and scheming. He fabricated portfolio statements, backdated records, created phoney loan agreements, and falsified agreements that funneled Retrophin’s money to investors that he owed money to.

In the only statement yet released on Shkreli’s behalf, the connection to Shkreli’s recent activities is being blamed for his arrest. The statement says, “It is no coincidence that these charges, the result of investigations which have been languishing for considerable time, have been filed at the same time of Shkreli’s high-profile, controversial and yet unrelated activities. The government suggested that Mr. Shkreli was involved in a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi victims do not make money, yet Mr. Shkreli’s investors enjoyed strong results.”

Read: 14 Insights to Karma You Might Not Know
Personally, I’m glad to see the pictures of the usually eccentric and animated “Pharma Bro” being lead away in handcuffs. People like Shkreli have no place in this world as far as I am concerned. I personally want to thank karma for stepping up and making sure that people like him who live for nothing more than greed and corruption get their lives ruined just like the lives of the people who he stole money from. Maybe someday Shkreli’s legacy will be “why not to be a money-hungry asshole”.

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The Kids Are Alright: Most Young Americans Accept Evolution Over Creationism

Did you know that 31% of American adults believe that humans “have existed in their present form since the beginning of time”? While that’s a significant change from a 2014 poll that showed 42% of American adults held that belief, it’s deeply concerning that fully one-third of the American population believes in creationism over evolution.

Creationism is a religiously-motivated educational movement rebranded as “Intelligent Design” by politically-motivated right-wing religious fundamentalists in the United States. “Intelligent Design” rejects radiometric dating, generally believes the world is 6,000-10,000 years old, teaches that humans existed at the same time as dinosaurs, and utilizes such highly-scientific mechanisms as rhetorical questioning to “refute” theories that don’t support its teachings, such as “Were you there?”

That’s right. Creationists teach that when posed a question demonstrating some grasp of the understanding of evolution, they are to posit, “were you there?” as the cornerstone of their argument against. As in, “In Origin of Species, Darwin presents considerable data demonstrating natural selection.” The Creationist answer would be, “How do you know? Were you there?”
Read: Birth Order Doesn’t Affect  Personality – But It could Affect Intelligence

And yet, as late as 2013, public school systems in Louisiana taught creationism, and private schools all over the country still do. Creationism is still often and hotly debated for inclusion in public school systems throughout the United States, despite its flagrant violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. As incredibly unintelligent as it clearly is, “Intelligent Design” continues to hold sway over a considerable number of Americans.

Fortunately, that number appears to be shrinking, thanks especially to the growing number of young Americans who embrace evolution and its teachings. Younger American adults are more likely to think progressively, less likely to be religiously-motivated and generally more trusting of science than aging Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. And finally, the most recent research shows that among Americans under the age of 30, 51% believe that evolution has occurred as a natural process over time, without any kind of design, intelligent or otherwise, interfering. Science is finally starting to triumph among young Americans. We can only hope that this trend continues.

The post The Kids Are Alright: Most Young Americans Accept Evolution Over Creationism appeared first on I Heart Intelligence.

The Phenomenon of Sleep Paralysis

For hundreds of years, the phenomenon of sleep paralysis has been written off as everything from being fake, to being caused by witches, goblins, or aliens. If you’ve ever experienced sleep paralysis, you know all too well how real it actually is. It’s absolutely terrifying, and just because you’ve never experienced it – doesn’t mean you never will.

If you’ve never experienced sleep paralysis, I’ll do my best to describe it:
Imagine waking up but not being able to move. Sometimes your eyes open. Sometimes they don’t. You can try to move or look around the room, but your body doesn’t respond. At all. Most commonly, people experience sleep paralysis when they go into REM sleep very quickly after laying down, because the body doesn’t have time to go through its normal “shut-down process”. When we go into REM sleep our brain paralyzes out bodies, theoretically, to keep us from acting out our dreams. Therefore, if that process gets interrupted at some point the mind wakes up before the body does.

Although there is typically no rhyme or reason as to why one person experiences sleep paralysis while another person does not, it is believed that sleep deprivation is a factor. Professor Kazuhiko Fukuda at Fukushima University in Japan, suggests that between 40 and 60% of all people will experience sleep paralysis at least once in their lives, but only about 8% of people experience it regularly. If waking and not being able to move isn’t bad enough, often times people have associated hallucinations with the already scary symptoms of sleep paralysis. Doctors believe that because the brain is busy trying to get itself back in order, the hallucinations are often a reaction to feeling like you’re being held down.
Read: The Lack of Sleep is Making you Way More Than Grumpy

The good news is that sleep paralysis is totally harmless. It’s just a condition of your brain playing tricks on you because it cut some corners in shutting down and putting you to sleep. Again, if you’ve never experienced the sensation of sleep paralysis that seems like a really easy statement. If you have experienced sleep paralysis, you know just as much as I do, how absolutely terrifying it really is.

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The Fascinating Science of Fasting The Pharmaceutical Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

What if I told you that most of the ailments of the human body could be solved by simply not eating. Sounds crazy, right? What if the neuroscientist, who according to Thomson Reuters’ database, is the most cited source in scholarly journals worldwide told you that fasting was good for you? According to Mark Mattson from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, “One of the only ways to slow down the progression of aging that involves disease or organ malfunctions is to reduce energy intake. As is similar to what happens when muscles are exercised, the neurons in the brain benefit from being mildly stressed. To achieve the right kind of stress, people might benefit from severely minimizing their food intake.”

Mattson has spent years testing the theory of the effects of fasting on the body and says, “What we’ve discovered in both animal and human studies is that it’s good to submit your brain to challenges, especially in the short term.” He explains, “Fasting imposes more stress on the cells, but in a good way. There’s an increase in adaptive stress responses when people intermittently fast that is good for maintaining the brain.”
Read: Scientifically-Proven Health Benefits Of Fasting

In the Following TedX video from Mattson, he raises the question:
“Why is it that the normal diet is three meals a day plus snacks? It isn’t that it’s the healthiest eating pattern, now that’s my opinion but I think there is a lot of evidence to support that. There are a lot of pressures to have that eating pattern, there’s a lot of money involved. The food industry — are they going to make money from skipping breakfast like I did today? No, they’re going to lose money. If people fast, the food industry loses money. What about the pharmaceutical industries? What if people do some intermittent fasting, exercise periodically and are very healthy, is the pharmaceutical industry going to make any money on healthy people?”

Check out Mattson’s TedX talk, and think about this: the pharmaceutical industry makes money from patients, not wellness. Is it any surprise to anyone that they don’t fund research into things like fasting?

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The 7 Surprising Health Benefits Of Whisky That Will Blow Your Socks Off

Whisky is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages in the world. Besides it being the least likely spirit to give you a hangover, it also has beneficial medicinal value.

Whisky is good for you? According to the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, it is. BBC News reported, “the researchers found that whisky and red wine helped to protect against coronary heart disease by raising the body’s level of anti-oxidants. However, it was the whisky drinkers who absorbed a greater proportion of the “phenol” chemicals that provide the protective effect.”

The word whisky comes from “uisge beatha”, the Gaelic for “water of life,” and with all these health benefits it contains, I can see why. But before I go into all of that, I think it’s important to mention that consumption of alcohol in excess can cause serious health issues, impact your lifestyle, and result in a number of unfavourable outcomes. Organic Facts says, “If one drinks responsibly, whiskey, just like beer and wine, can actually confer quite a few health benefits to its drinkers.” An ounce or two of whisky every week won’t be enough to get you drunk or negatively impact your health, but it will be enough to give you a healthy boost to a number of essential bodily functions.

The health benefits of whisky:

1. Boosts Your Memory

The antioxidants found in whisky help improve the brain’s health. Also, blood circulation is improved. Both of these contribute to memory functionality. Additionally, whisky contains ethanol, which was found to enhance memory recall ability, or synaptic plasticity.

2. Reduces Risk of Stroke

Whisky helps to prevent cholesterol from building up in the cardiovascular system. It can also assist in removing excess cholesterol from the body. The walls of the arteries become relaxed, which reduces the risk of obstruction. These aspects all help to considerably reduce the risk of stroke.

3. Reduces Risk of Cancer

Whisky contains “ellagic acid”, an acid that prohibits DNA from coming in contact with cancerous compounds (like nitrosamines and polycyclic hydrocarbons). It is also helpful in protecting the body from chemotherapy. Dr. Jim Swan spoke at the EuroMedLab 2005 conference in Glasgow, UK, and said “the ellagic acid in whiskey breaks down harmful free radicals in your body. Whiskey boasts a greater concentration of ellagic acid than even red wine.”

4. Aids in Digestion

For hundreds of years, whisky was used as a digestive aid. It was usually consumed after a meal, helping to relax the body after eating a heavy meal. It can also help to reduce your appetite, preventing you from overeating. Best of all, it will aid in digestion, reducing your risk of stomach ache or indigestion after that extra helping of dessert.

5. Weight Loss

Whisky’s composition and elevated alcohol percentage also contribute to it being an effective appetite suppressant. Whiskey provides only few calories and contains zero fat and cholesterol, so there is no risk of chronic diseases caused by trans and saturated fats. The calories and carbohydrates it does contain are in the form of alcohol, which are simple sugars that are quickly broken down to be used as energy for the body.
Read: Studies Find Psychoactive Drug Safer Than Alcohol When Driving

6. Prevents Colds & Boosts Immune System

The antioxidants and trace levels of vitamins in whiskey help to stimulate the immune system, thereby aiding the body to fight off pesky colds, illnesses, and infections. It’s also a wonderful cough syrup for those suffering from an itchy throat. For best results, add a little bit of whisky to a cup of hot water and lemon.

7. Helps Control Diabetes

“Whiskey has been consistently shown to reduce the chances of diabetes, sometimes by as much as 30-40%,” according to Organic Facts. “A moderate amount of whiskey can significantly improve your body’s ability to regulate insulin and glucose levels, thereby lowering the possibility of developing diabetes.”
Read: ‘Love Hormone’ And Alcohol Have Similar Effects On The Brain

After reading these 7 ways that whisky can benefit your health, please keep in mind there are several other ways to increase the productivity of the brain and body without the use of alcohol. If you are not a drinker, there is no reason to start. If you are a drinker, moderation is the key. The holiday season is upon us and over-indulgence is rampant. With that being said, try to keep your wits about you and do what is best for our mind and body.

Written by Raven Fon

The post The 7 Surprising Health Benefits Of Whisky That Will Blow Your Socks Off appeared first on I Heart Intelligence.