Big manufacturing companies, design laboratories, and R&D departments no longer have the monopoly of innovation as creativity hubs and spaces are emerging in various places around the world. Here, we see small teams of people coming up with new ways and ideas to change the way we live, think, and collaborate.

In Egypt, one such movement has become a new trend. It's called Makerspaces.

Makerspaces are collaborative environments where would-be creators and inventors find access to technological resources that would often otherwise be prohibitively expensive, as well as membership in a community of other makers.

Egypt’s growing maker movement focuses on giving entrepreneurs opportunities to build up their technical knowledge and products rather than ameliorating the employment market.

(Image credit: Erin Hayes/The Cairo Review)

Witnessing many catastrophes befall people is heartbreaking enough, but we also experience loss and grief when we see nature suffering from the effects of our negligence and abuse, especially since we are supposed to be the ones to take care of it.

When Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral-reef system, was hit by record-breaking marine heat waves that bleached two-thirds of it in 2016 and 2017, many researchers were left in a state of shock.

Social scientist Michele Barnes witnessed this disaster first hand. She works at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Townsville, which is adjacent to the reef. Barnes decided to interview scientists and others working on the reef to investigate their response to this climate-change-driven catastrophe.

Barnes, who is still analysing her results, was surprised that many of the scientists whom she interviewed felt intense grief and sadness about the reef’s deterioration. Nature has also spoken to several coral-reef scientists not involved in Barnes’s study who echo those sentiments.

More from Nature. -via Real Clear Science

(Image credit: The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey / Richard Vevers; Stop Adani/Flickr)

Some say that chess can help improve one's focus, concentration, memory, and strategic thinking. It has always been thought of as an intellectual game. But it's difficult to measure the benefits that chess has on someone who regularly engages and plays the game or whether just casually playing the game would have any benefits at all.

So Dr. David Poston, who is working on NASA's Kilopower project and is a chess enthusiast, wanted to conduct a study to measure the effect that chess could have on people who play the game. Can chess really enhance the academic performance or even the mental ability of a person?

Teaming up with Kathryn K. Vandenkieboom, the learning systems, assessment and curriculum director for the Los Alamos Public Schools, he tracked the academic performance (as measured by standardized test scores) of kids who participated in the chess club at Aspen Elementary School versus kids who did not.

Critically, the study examined seven years worth of data, covered 854 students (from kindergarten to 6th grade), and compared kids from diverse academic backgrounds with varying levels of chess experience. It also explored whether there is a "dose effect" of chess. In other words, does playing more chess lead to better academic outcomes?

To see the analysis of the data, check out the article on Real Clear Science.

(Image credit: Ed Lyons/Flickr)

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a wonderful celebration of lights, food, stories, and bonding with one's family as they give thanks for a good harvest during the season.

Several Asian cultures have their own traditions in celebrating the festival but at the heart of it all, it's about spending time together with one's family and sharing in the bountiful harvest that they have received.

Of all the Chinese festivals, I love the Mooncake/Mid-Autumn Festival the most. Right after the scary Hungry Ghost Festival or Ghost Month, it is a lovely festival celebrating family gatherings, enjoying sweet mooncakes and admiring the full moon. Happy childhood memories are filled with beautiful lanterns, playing with candles and nibbling on lotus bean paste mooncakes.

A harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated by Asians and the Asian diaspora, for example the Chinese and the Vietnamese. Other Asian cultures have their own harvest festivals too like Tsukimi and Chuseok. It usually falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. The 15th day is always the full moon. The festival falls between late September to early October.

(Image credit: Shizhao/Wikimedia Commons)

Children don't have a built-in sense of what is appropriate or not in any situation. They acquire good behavior through interaction, experience, and instruction from parents and other authority figures.

But there are methods which might bring more harm than good such as verbal or even physical punishment. These methods of reproach could scar a child's mental and emotional well-being which could also lead to physical damage in the future.

So there are educators who employ a different manner of instilling good behavior in children through a game called the PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG).

The game, which was first described in a 1969 paper in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, has been taught in schools by the PAXIS Institute since 1999. “We’re looking at behavior as a skill that we teach versus that we punish kids into,” says Ewen, who is the multitiered systems of support coordinator for the Missoula County public schools and a PAX GBG trainer.

PAX GBG can be played during any activity that challenges students’ focus, such as classes like math or reading or transitions between subjects. Children have 50 or more such transitions every day in elementary school, says Dennis Embry, president and chief scientist for the PAXIS Institute.

Based on several studies done regarding the effects of the PAX GBG method, the results were astounding and uplifting. Children who were exposed to this method of behavioral development were less likely to develop antisocial behavior, had less aggression, and exhibited more prosocial behaviors, among other results.

Of course, there could also be other factors involved such as how these children were raised at home, the kind of environment to which they have been exposed, and how they socialized with other children. But it is a good initiative to take so that children won't bear trauma into adulthood from humiliation or punishment.

(Image credit: Nicole Honeywill/Unsplash)

View this post on Instagram

The impact of playing games with #GrannysWackyPrizes is truly amazing. Seeing the #joy #children gain from these activities while #learning skills that will help them #succeed in all aspects of life is truly remarkable. #PAXGBG

A post shared by PAX Good Behavior Game (@paxgbg) on Feb 21, 2018 at 6:31pm PST

Driving on the road can be just as stressful as commuting, if not more so. Many accidents happen on the street because people become impatient and irritable, not wanting to give way to others. Sometimes, this could also lead to road rage.

But in the case of this cyclist, there weren't any other cars on the road to block his way. In fact, the road was bereft of cars. However, there were pedestrians crossing. And the cyclist brushed past one pedestrian, nearly hitting him.

And instead of just moving on and getting to his destination, the cyclist stopped his bike, got off and confronted the man. It got violent real quick as the cyclist proceeded to headbutt the man, immediately got on his bike and sped off.

Watch the video on The Sun.

(Image credit: London Police)

Dressing up pets brings a whole new level of cuteness and hilarity to their usual selves and here, Pure Wow shares 30 different cat costumes that would make your cat look adorable and also bring some fun and uplift your spirits for Halloween.

(Image credit: Amazon)

When it comes to taking care of one's child, a parent would want to make sure that their child is in good hands. Nowadays, there are a lot of households with both parents working or single working parents which means they won't always be at home to watch and take care of their children.

Some parents opt to hire a caregiver or nanny but that doesn't always give one assurance that things are all well in good with their child. That's where nanny cams come in which allow parents to monitor their children and their nannies just to check that things are going well.

However, there are some points to consider when one installs nanny cams, especially with regard to privacy, security, and trust. The question now is: should you tell your nanny? Pure Wow enlisted Sheri Reed, a child care editor for Care.com, to share her opinions on the matter and some etiquette about these nanny cams.

(Image credit: cctvsmartsystems/Pixabay)

When we make plans of what we're going to do in the future and the goals we want to achieve, we always try to make room for unexpected occurrences to happen, which give us flexibility to go in a different direction when things don't go the way we planned.

Here are a few anecdotes, which include the story of Cuervo Man and the guy who lost all his money and resorted to kidnapping Frank Sinatra Jr., from podcasts about the different instances when people had to resort to Plan B depending on the circumstances that they encountered.

(Image credit: Tabea Damm/Unsplash)

Barrel of brazen monkeys besiege school near Mt. Fuji https://t.co/RmSGqmwkxH

— The Mainichi (Japan) (@themainichi) September 10, 2019

It was a normal morning in Yoshiwara Kita Junior High School when residents and teachers spotted a bunch of monkeys hanging about the school, scaling its walls, and playing around the area. After 45 minutes, police were able to coax them to go back to their home in the mountains.

The school is situated at the foot of Mount Fuji, and there are peanut and tea fields nearby. It's common for students to report seeing the monkeys when following the path to school, but its principal, who looked rather surprised by the morning's turn of events, said it was the first time such a large number of them had come to the school.

(Image credit: The Mainichi)

Inside Bloomia's 42-acre warehouse facility, located in King George, Virginia, are millions of tulips grown in different times of the year which will be shipped to different retailers and stores like your local Wegmans, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's. It is one of the largest indoor tulip production facilities in the country.

“This place used to be a tomato farm, if you can believe that,” says Jansen. “But it already had a greenhouse set up, and I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be perfect.” Apparently, he was right: Bloomia now ships more than 75 million tulips a year.

(Image credit: Lauren Bilbin)

As we sleep snugly under our bed sheets, many things attach to them and accumulate like dead skin cells, body oils, and dust mites which could be the source of several problems like acne or allergies. So it would be best to regularly change your sheets. But how often should you do it?

Well, according to experts who provided Self with their knowledge, at least once a week is best. But as microbiologist Michael Schmidt, Ph.D., told the wellness site, "[a] myriad of factors determine if you should wash your sheets more often than once a week based on your lifestyle."

Based on several suggestions, there isn't one specific answer that would fit everyone's preferences or lifestyles so it depends on your circumstances. Once a week is a good starting point but if you have special conditions, it would be best to do them more frequently.

-via Book of Joe

(Image credit: Lauren Kay/Unsplash)

Since there are places where smoking in public is illegal, designated areas have been set up so that anyone can light a cigarette and puff one out. However, not all smoking shelters are created equal.

Some shelters have smokers' interests in mind, giving them a comfortable space to relax and relieve some stress. While other areas are not properly maintained and look dilapidated. Here's a list of ten smoking shelters compiled by the Web Urbanist.

(Image credit: SomeYearPeriod/Wikimedia Commons)

Not a lot of dogs enjoy being groomed. Some do, but many don't like it. And they do whatever it takes just to escape the agony of getting bathed or having their nails clipped. In this case, a drama queen pit bull pretends to faint to avoid a nail trimming.

(Image credit: Imgur)

Do we already have the capability to control or manipulate the weather? There are claims alleging that China and even the US government have already been wielding such weather control technology.

UFO-hunter and alien conspiracy theorist Scott C. Waring shared a video of what he alleges is weather control utilized by China. On his website UFO Sightings Daily, Waring claims that he has spotted something unusual and eye-opening in a simple weather radar clip.

Setting aside these conspiracy theories, China has actually been investing in programs for weather control and modification, and has said that they used these programs "to prevent rain from falling during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing".

The Chinese government used two aircraft and 20 artillery and rocket-launch sites to shoot silver iodide and dry ice into clouds. The silver iodide would induce the clouds to rain before they reached Olympic venues including the 91,000-seat roofless Beijing National Stadium, known as the “Bird’s Nest.”

“We use a coolant made from liquid nitrogen to increase the number of droplets while decreasing their average size,” explains Zhang Qian, head of Beijing’s Weather Modification Office.” As a result, the smaller droplets are less likely to fall, and precipitation can be reduced.” Qian said that “the results with light rain have been satisfactory.”

(Image credit: NASA/Unsplash)