A study recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology examined how goal-setting corresponds with performance among people with varying intellectual abilities. The said study says that people with high IQ tend to choke when under pressure. Interestingly, when goals are framed strategically, this disadvantage seem to vanish.
It suggests an ironic reason for why people with high general mental ability (GMA) often become mentally overwhelmed in complex, dynamic working environments: Their strong mental capacity leaves them vulnerable to performance anxieties and intrusive thoughts.
Creating nanomaterials called metal-organic frameworks through the traditional process is a tedious and expensive procedure which could also cause damage to the environment. However, these nanomaterials are some of the most versatile and durable so we cannot eliminate or stop its production.
During the standard production process, solvents and other contaminants become trapped in the MOF's holes. To flush them out, scientists use a combination of vacuum and high temperatures or harmful chemical solvents in a process called "activation".
In their novel technique, RMIT researchers used a microchip to produce high-frequency sound waves. Using the sound waves to arrange and link these elements together, the researchers were able to create a highly ordered and porous network, while simultaneously "activating" the MOF by pushing out the solvents from the holes.
We live in a fallen and broken world. Yet a spark of hope remains in the blight and, today, it is manifested in the Big Mac Cake created by the blogger behind Oh, Bite It.
She used canned crescent roll dough, sesame seeds, and, of course, lots of Big Macs. Specifically, she used eight of the burgers, between which she sandwiched extra slices of cheese. She baked this wonder in the oven at 350 degrees until it was warm, golden brown.
I wish that I had known about this possibility before wedding planning.
Robots can be programmed to do a variety of things and this new one developed by researchers at Fraunhofer IPA not only helps with doing tasks but they can also interact with humans through voice and text. They say that MobiKa could be most useful for elderly people to assist them with daily activities.
"MobiKa is a service robot for use at home or in care facilities, which is currently available as a prototype," Graf explained. "The robot consists of a mobile, wheel-driven platform and a slim height-adjustable tablet on top. Using navigation software developed here at Fraunhofer IPA, MobiKa moves safely and autonomously to a given destination."
When you bike through the city, you definitely help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions as well as get a good workout. However, not everybody decides to just set aside the convenience of driving with a car for nature.
There will always be risks to any initiative. It's possible that biking through the city could affect your lungs when you breathe in all the air pollution that vehicles emit. Not only that, but you also have to watch out for accidents. There isn't much protection for cyclists. You definitely would risk physical injury, despite your efforts to cover your body with protective gear.
Believe it or not, there’s actually a study that took on your very question about the health benefits of biking (ripped calves, strong heart) vs. huffing in polluted air (everything we already discussed), and found that the answer is yes, cycling is still worth it. Even in the most extreme cases — cities in the 99th percentile of particulate matter concentration — an hour-long bike ride is still considered to have net-positive benefits.
McDonald's Sweden is taking bees seriously. They have installed beehives on top of some of their outlets, and planted flowers to replace grass around the buildings. For World Bee Day (which was May 20), they commissioned a tiny McDonald's restaurant, which is just a fancy decor around a real beehive.
From the outside, the model is a replica of a McDonald's restaurant, with drive-thru windows, outdoor seating, and the golden arches presiding above it all. But instead of a counter and a tables, the interior is filled with frames where bees can build their wax. It's being billed as "the world's smallest McDonald's," but according to NORD DDB, it's still big enough to house thousands of bees.
The McDonald's beehive was auctioned off after World Bee Day to benefit Ronald McDonald House. Let's hope the new owner uses it as intended, and reaps a sweet harvest.
British respondents get drunk more times per year than anyone in the world, The results of the 2019 Global Drug Survey, published on Thursday, revealed. What could be the explanation for this?
Adam Winstock, an addiction psychiatrist and founder of the Global Drug Survey, said British respondents are drinking too much, too often, regarding getting drunk as the point of a night out as opposed to enhancing the evening.
"We have never grasped moderation. It's not part of our culture or conversation," he said. "We need to learn that more fun with better health and fatter wallets can follow from a bit less, a bit less often."
And drinkers around the world should consider cutting down to benefit their health, Winstock said.
"Deaths due to alcoholic liver disease and cancer due to excessive alcohol consumption are on the rise, along with obesity and poorer mental health," he said. "Drinking too much makes all these worse; drinking less make them better."
Researchers spoke to 123,814 people from more than 30 countries in preparing the report, and they found that people on average got drunk 33 times in the previous 12 months.
Commuters in Mexico have a very big problem: armed robberies. These robberies happen all the time and have since become common in the Mexican streets. We know what happens typically in a robbery: armed men get in the bus, and demand the passengers and the driver to hand over their phones and their money, or else they will get harmed. Of course, the commuters know that they can’t let their phones be handed over, and so they made an ingenious solution: they bought fake cellphones to hand over to the robbers.
Costing 300 to 500 pesos apiece — the equivalent of $15 to $25 — the “dummies” are sophisticated fakes: They have a startup screen and bodies that are dead ringers for the originals, and inside there is a piece of metal to give the phone the heft of the real article.
That comes in handy when trying to fool trigger-happy bandits who regularly attack the buses, big and small, that ferry people from the poorer outlying suburbs to jobs in the city center.
Researchers from Rome University modified E. Coli cells in order to recreate faces of well-known scientists and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. These E. Coli cells have been modified to respond to light patterns.
The team genetically-modified E. coli cells so that they would contain a protein called proteorhodopsin, which is found in ocean-dwelling bacteria, causing them to respond to light.
By doing so, the scientists hoped, the E. coli bacteria that then received more light would swim faster than others, eventually creating the patterns needed [to] form the portraits.
Giacomo Frangipane, the lead author, said in a statement: “Much like pedestrians who slow down their walking speed when they encounter a crowd, or cars that are stuck in traffic, swimming bacteria will spend more time in slower regions than in faster ones.”
There was a theory that a long time ago, a volcano exploded on Mars. Though Mars has no active volcanoes today, scientists hypothesize that such was not the case during the early days of Mars and there are some evidences which could point to a huge volcanic explosion occurring on Mars' surface.
From Mars' volcanic activity, some remnants might have lingered including the recently discovered mineral deposit near the landing site for NASA's next Mars rover. Scientists say these might be volcanic ash.
“This is one of the most tangible pieces of evidence yet for the idea that explosive volcanism was more common on early Mars,” said Christopher Kremer, a graduate student at Brown University who led the work. “Understanding how important explosive volcanism was on early Mars is ultimately important for understand the water budget in Martian magma, groundwater abundance and the thickness of the atmosphere.”
I'm a bit wary with making correlations between intelligence and some other variable as if to say that people who have no inclination to engage or to participate in a certain activity are less intelligent.
According to researchers, the reason intelligence evolved is so that humans could adapt to new methods, techniques, and other types of innovation. People with a higher IQ prefer to experience the novel. So, they designed this study to parse through different variables of intelligence in relation to musical preferences.
“From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, intelligence can only predict differences in the preference for instrumental music. Individuals with higher intelligence test scores are more likely to prefer predominantly instrumental music styles, but there are no differences in the preference for predominantly vocal or vocal-instrumental music that can be predicted with intelligence test scores,” Racevska told PsyPost.
The researchers also found that participants used different genres of music for different reasons. For example, those who reported using music cognitively, such as finding enjoyment in analyzing compositions or admiring musical technique, tended to be more fond of instrumental music.
Despite these findings, there were some limitations to the research. As I have said, many factors are involved in determining a person's musical preferences. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is causality between these two variables.
A person's musical preference does not determine their intelligence or vice versa. It only states that there is a tendency for highly intelligent people to prefer certain genres of music.
If you've had a lifelong dream of climbing Mt. Everest, you should be aware that it's also the dream of a lot of other people. Nirmal Purja reached the summit of Everest on May 22, and posted a picture of himself at the summit, along with this image. He said there were about 320 people approaching the summit that day. Outside Online has more.
Because of the intense jet stream that hovers near Everest’s 29,029-foot summit for much of the year, there are only a few weather windows, often two or three days in late May, when it's optimal for climbers to make a push for the top—forcing many expeditions to all go for it at the same time.
Producer/Director George Pal, he of low-budget sci-fi films, had actually been an animator early in his career, although that part of his life has been overshadowed by his later accomplishments as a film producer and director. "Pal's Puppets" is a 1994 biographical documentary on Pal's life as he became one of the pioneers of stopmotion animation with his "Puppetoon" shorts. His techniques would later go on to influence people such as Ray Harryhausen, Henry Selick, and Tim Burton. Pal has been credited as the father of 'claymation', an eccentric variety of stop-motion animation that is still with us today. Gumby is a prime example, as is also Celebrity Deathmatch. Brilliant even by today’s standards, Pal's work needs to be seen to be believed, and a couple are embedded below. So take a trip back in time when one had to pay a dime in a movie theater to see these things.
Fifteen new sites in Laos that contained over a hundred 1000-year old stone jars have been found by archaeologists from Australian National University (ANU). These mysterious stone jars are presumed to have been used for the dead.
The jars of Laos are one of archaeology’s enduring mysteries. Experts believe they were related to disposal of the dead, but nothing is known about the jars’ original purpose and the people who brought them there.
The new finds show the distribution of the jars was more widespread than previously thought and could unlock the secrets surrounding their origin.
The sites, deep in remote and mountainous forest and containing 137 jars, were identified by ANU PhD student Nicholas Skopal with officials from the Lao government.
“These new sites have really only been visited by the occasional tiger hunter. Now we’ve rediscovered them, we’re hoping to build a clear picture about this culture and how it disposed of its dead,” said Mr Skopal.
ANU archaeologist Dr Dougald O’Reilly co-led the team that made the discovery. He said the new sites show the ancient burial practices involving the jars were “more widespread than previously thought”.
“It’s apparent the jars, some weighing several tonnes, were carved in quarries, and somehow transported, often several kilometres, to their present locations,” Dr O’Reilly said.
