01-29-2016, 10:33 PM
"The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves – those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory – ‘never reported before in the neuroscience literature’, Davidson said.The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain’s left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, allowing him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity."
How to be happier according to Matthieu Ricard, the world's happiest man
Can future innovations match the great inventions of the past? Will artificial intelligence, robots, 3D printing and other offspring of the digital revolution do for economic growth what the second industrial revolution did between 1920 and 1970? The techno-optimist school of economics says yes. I disagree. The rise in the U.S. standard of living from 1870 to 1970 was a special century -- and won't likely be repeated. Growth over the next quarter century will resemble the slow pace of 2004–2015, not the faster growth rate of 1994–2004, much less the rapid rate achieved between 1920 and 1970. The good news is that the economy will be able to maintain relatively full employment as the fruits of computerization cause work to evolve slowly, rather than in a great rush. I'm optimistic that job growth will continue and that new jobs will appear as rapidly as technology destroys old ones.
Goodbye, Golden Age of Growth - Bloomberg View
Startup Stratio says its small spectrometer can attach to your smartphone and figure out which pills are the real deal.
A Smartphone-Connected Spectrometer for Spotting Fake Pills | MIT Technology Review
The armed conflict destabilizing some Arab countries has unleashed a huge wave of refugees headed for Europe. About 1.1 million came to Germany alone in 2015. At the same time, the adoption of the principle of freedom of movement within Europe has triggered massive, but largely unnoticed, intra-European migration flows. In 2014, Germany experienced an unprecedented net inflow of 304,000 people from other EU countries, and the number was probably similar in 2015.
Europe’s welfare states wake up to the danger of immigration - MarketWatch
Digging through the literature they found that exercising in natural environments, particularly in green spaces, "was associated with greater feelings of revitalisation and positive engagement, decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression, and increased energy". They also found that people who exercised outdoors claimed to enjoy it more, find it more satisfying and said they were more likely to do it again. Though whether they actually did is another matter. One other advantage of exercising outdoors is that you've got a greater chance of being exposed to sunshine and therefore topping up your vitamin D, (although in UK, at this time of year, that is not a particularly convincing argument).