Darwin Awards: Men Take More Dumb Risks Than Women

by Natalie Shoemaker

Men may take more risks, but they also tend to take more dumb risks that end in tragedy. Science says it is so, therefore it must be true.

Jenny Kunter of Salon highlights a playful study that was recently released by the British Medical Journal, which pitted the sexes against one another in a battle for the title as the bigger risk-taker. The men won out as the riskier of the two. However, the study's data was based on the winners of the Darwin Award over the last 20 year. The award's purpose is to highlight someone that has perished in such an idiotic manner than their demise has ensured the success of the species with one less dullard producing progenies, thus strengthening the genetic pool.

Out of those who have been given the Darwin Award from 1995 to 2014, men took home the prize over 80 percent of the time.

“This finding is entirely consistent with male idiot theory (MIT) and supports the hypothesis that men are idiots and idiots do stupid things.”

The researchers speculate that alcohol may play a role in these poor decisions, giving them liquid courage in a situation that some would question if not under the influence. The study cites a particular occasion:

“For example, the three men who played a variation on Russian roulette alternately taking shots of alcohol and then stamping on an unexploded Cambodian land mine. (Spoiler alert: the mine eventually exploded, demolishing the bar and killing all three men.)”

The other hypothesis is that some men may also engage in risky behavior to win the esteem of their fellow men or to get “bragging rights” for a particular act. However, the researchers admit that the study may deserve further study in order to solidify their “male idiot theory.” The researchers joked:

“We believe MIT deserves further investigation, and, with the festive season upon us, we intend to follow up with observational field studies and an experimental study—males and females, with and without alcohol—in a semi-naturalistic Christmas party setting.”

Read more at Salon

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Even If You're Healthy, Weight Gain Carries Risks

by Natalie Shoemaker

You've put on a few pounds since Thanksgiving, and the holiday binge isn't quite over. But it's no issue, you say, a couple pounds isn't unhealthy. However, just gaining that little extra weight—even if you're not obese—increases your risk of cardiovascular and other diseases, according to a recent study.

Nicholas Bakalar of the New York Times writes on a paper, available online on PLOS Medicine, on a compelling study consisting of 12,664 young adults participants within a normal weight range. The premise of the research was to test whether an elevated body mass index (BMI) had adverse effects on metabolic processes. The researchers used the method of Mendelian randomization to examine 32 genes variants associated with a higher BMI. Each one was then assigned a “genetic score,” which was given based on predisposition to weight gain. Because of the high volume of people as part of the study, the researchers were able to separate nature from nurture—which were genetic tendencies towards obesity and which ones were caused by circumstance, such as diet, income, and exercise.

Those with elevated BMIs tended to have higher gene scores, which suggests that one's BMI can be a huge determination in whether someone runs a higher risk of developing a cardiometabolic diseases. An elevated BMI alone causes these risk factors to occur, meaning they aren't necessarily influenced by eating junk foods or exercise. It doesn't matter how you do it, just maintain a stable, healthy BMI (though, diet and exercise certainly help).

After a period of six years, researchers examined 1,488 young adults, finding that increases in BMI—even within a healthy range--has adverse effects to their metabolism. While weight loss (within a healthy BMI) decreased these chances. Lead author and Head of Molecular Epidemiology at the University of Oulu in Finland, Peter Würtz, concluded from the data:

“Our study in young adults shows that even a modest weight loss tends to improve the metabolic profile. It doesn’t have to be a large change to have a beneficial role. Even with a normal B.M.I. of 24, it’s worth it to try to get it lower.”

It's a good thing New Years is just around the corner, so think about hitting the gym to get that BMI down within a healthy range if it has been on the uptick over the holidays. Your chances of extending your life increase exponentially.

Read more at the New York Times

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

What to Consider When Measuring a Job Offer

by Robert Montenegro

As Forbes contributor Liz Ryan writes, the ordeal of finding a new full-time job can lead you to believe that any employment is better than unemployment. Don't fall into this trap! The last thing you want to do is tether yourself to a job that you'll hate and won't help advance your career prospects. Even if you feel up against a wall, acting out of defense will only lead to disappointment down the line.

When offered a position, Ryan says to ask for a written offer letter and make sure all your personal needs are met. Compare the specs on the letter to your wish list. Accept if you're satisfied. If not, take advantage of your negotiating power. Know that the company has already invested in making you the offer and won't rescind it as long as you handle your rebuttal with tact.

The items Ryan says you need to consider include your job title, compensation, and benefits:

"Don’t think 'I can’t possibly negotiate this offer! Maybe the company will rescind it if I do that!' If you have that much fear going into the job, then I guarantee that taking the job will be a bad thing for you. It isn’t reasonable to ask for the moon, but it is more than reasonable for ask for a salary that matches the responsibility level of the job, a title that reflects the scope of the role, and a time-off allowance that honors the time you’ve already spent in the workforce."

The article also includes Ryan's thorough guide for negotiating a job offer, so I recommend giving the link below a click to read the whole thing. Have you ever negotiated a job offer? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments below.

Read more at Forbes

Photo credit: milan2099 / Shutterstock

The Chemistry of Chemical Hand Warmers

by Robert Montenegro

If you live in the parts of the world that are about to get really, really cold this month (if you're not already there now), you probably recognize the little wonders in the photo above. Hand warmers. Glorious, glorious hand warmers.

Esther Inglis-Arkell over at io9 has an informative little piece up on that site right now about the simple chemistry that causes these little packets to reach 57 ºC without aid of a flame. The secret? Oxidation:

"Small pieces of iron are dispersed in heat packs, isolated by the wrapping on the pack from any oxygen. When the wrapping comes off, the permeable membrane of the pack lets oxygen in and makes it "oxidize" the iron... The iron in the heat packs is surrounded by a chemical that allows the reaction to go much faster. It's ordinary salt, and it's why a lot of important iron things get eaten through in the winter, when salt is regularly thrown on streets and sideways to de-ice them, and is then kicked up on to cars and buildings, getting a good rust started on them unless they're well protected."

That's awesome knowledge. For more on how these things works, be sure to check out the full piece linked below.

Read more at io9

Photo credit: Heatpax

Polaroid's Edwin H. Land: "Politeness is the poison of collaboration"

by Big Think Editors

Edwin H. Land (1909-1991) was an American scientist and inventor best known for inventing the Polaroid instant camera. Land was also a major pioneer of espionage photography and helped design the optics on the U-2 spy plane. He held 535 patents, was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and became a major influence on Apple's Steve Jobs. The following quote seems to sum the both of them up nicely.

"Politeness is the poison of collaboration."

(h/t Wikiquote)

Realizing Your Dog's Weight Problem May Help You with Yours

by Natalie Shoemaker

Dogs aren't fitness trackers. Yes, they'll let you know when they need to go out, but if your plans for adopting a dog are only to motivate yourself to exercise, think again. Dogs are just as susceptible to humanity's growing weight problem. But a new study shows that owners are willing to act when they realize their pets' lives are at risk.

There's a common myth that dog owners are fit. Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times highlights several studies with contradictory findings on this subject. One from 2013 reports that dog owners spend an hour more per week walking than people without dogs. While another from 2008 found that close to a quarter of dog owners never walked their pets--getting less exercise than those without a dog. However, there's one study that shows promise for owners that have slipped into a sedentary lifestyle, and their pet with them. Veterinarians and physicians at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences conducted a study that found dog owners were willing to make lifestyle changes if it was for the sake of their dog's health.

The researchers gathered 32 dog owners to participate in the study. The dogs were considered obese according to each ones age, size, and breed, and all had adopted a sedentary lifestyle—much like their owners. The group was split into two: One group was told by a veterinarian that they needed to keep an eye on their dog's health and nutrition, while the other group was told their dog was overweight and needed more exercise. The latter group was given a prescription that required 30 minutes of walking every day for their dog.

After three months, the dogs and their owners were evaluated, showing that both groups--humans and dogs--had lost weight.

“Based on our findings, both groups increased physical activity and [body condition scores] decreased significantly, and veterinarian-based counseling may have impacted these changes.”

Capt. Mark B. Stephens M.D., a Professor of Family Medicine and co-author of the study, had his own take on the findings, stating:

“...love and concern for a dog can be a powerful motivation for exercise.”

Read more at New York Times

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Niagara Falls Will Pay Your Student Loans If You Move There

by Natalie Shoemaker

Niagra Falls, New York teeters on the line between city and town—a classification that mean the difference between more or less federal funding. However, Emily DeRuy and Geneva Sands of Fusion report that the city/town has a plan to help its population grow above the 50,000 mark needed to secure that money: promise to pay-off a portion of student debt.

The population of Niagara Falls peeked in the 1960s at 102,000 residents and has since declined by half. But, in a move to boost numbers, Niagara Falls is offering a deal to graduates—saying it will pay off $7,000 in student loans over the course of two years. Seth Piccirillo, the city's Community Development Director, came up with the idea as a solution to the city's shrinking population and to the debt crisis students are facing. So, the deal comes with a caveat, graduates will have to live in a neighborhood near the boarded-up Main Street in Niagara Falls for two years. While the allure of paying off loans is certainly tempting, the city comes with its own challenges for students.

The program has five participants, according to Deruy and Sands—hardly the number needed to incur change. But it has brought people who would have never considered Niagara Falls as a destination after college. As to whether these five will stay is up to Niagara Fall's job market. However, Deruy and Sands report that the weekly wage in the area averages around $750—well below the $1,027 national average. Most of the participants have struggled to find work locally, instead, holding down jobs outside its limits in coffee shops, malls, and at various other part-time jobs.

Piccirillo knows these issues won't hold students after the two years are up, but he's optimistic about the future of the city's revival and this program's success. His vision for the future would be partnering with private companies to kick-start the program further. Perhaps partnering with employers to offer loan repayment perks if the students come to work for them.

As students race to the major metropolitan areas to find work, perhaps, programs like the one in Niagara Falls will help kick-start long-term, future progress for dwindling cities while also benefiting graduates. After all, you never know who might settle in and create the next Silicon Valley.

Read more at Fusion

Photo Credit: Michelle/Flickr

Color-Coded Nutrition Facts May Confuse Rather Than Inform Consumers

by Natalie Shoemaker

The obesity epidemic is well-known and countries are trying to do what they can to fight it. Peter Ubel of Forbes highlights a UK food labeling system that hopes to teach consumers to make healthier choices through color-coded labels. But some companies may be able to use this easy system to only further confuse and distract consumers from the real facts.

Nutrition labels require you to understand how much sugar is ok, the difference between saturated and monosaturated fats, and pay attention to serving size. Grocery shopping could easily become and all-day event if you stopped to read, compare, and research every item. Thankfully, British food companies are adopting what Ubel calls a kind of “stoplight system” for nutrition facts—an at-a-glance method of grouping the important nutrition bullet points and color-coding them. Red, yellow, and green labels will color certain nutrition categories to let buyers know what values are considered good, bad, or so-so.

The idea is if you buy a food with all or mostly green labels next to each category, you've made a healthy choice. However, there's a flaw in this quick and easy system. Ubel asks people to consider Coca Cola, for instance, which will be adopting the voluntary labels. Diet Coke and Coca Cola Zero products display all-green labels. These products are low in fat, sodium, and saturated fat, making it “[look] healthier than kale juice!” according to Ubel.

To him, the UK stoplight system is a step in the right direction to level the playing field for the health conscious and uninformed. But the truth is there's more nuance to nutrition than whether a product has lots of sugar or fat. In fact, he points to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that shows a diet low in carbohydrates is far more effective than one that's low in fat. After all, carbohydrates are broken down into sugar.

This system may not be perfect, but hardly anything is the first time around. The hope is the system will continue to evolve, and become more refined to meet consumer's informational and nutritional needs.

Read more at Forbes

Photo Credit: Julia Lamphear/Flickr

Patients Prescribed Opiates Use More of Them Longer

by Natalie Shoemaker

One cannot underestimate opiates addictive nature. Americans make up less than 5 percent of the global population, and yet we're able to consume around 80 percent of the opioid supply, according to a recent study. Narcotic painkillers are designed as a short-term crutch to deal with the pain of a recent injury—not as a solution to chronic ailments. But the study reveals, patients that don't stop using within 30 day are at a higher risk to abuse them for a longer period of time.

Kate Thomas of the New York Times reported on the recent study from Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits manager. She explains there has been some success in reducing the number of people taking addictive painkillers, thanks to a major health campaign. However, patients who are getting these drugs are using them for longer than prescribed.

The report looked at 6.8 million pharmaceutical claims for fillings of opiates, like oxycodone, morphine, codeine, and hydrocodone, between 2009 and 2013. Dr. Glenn Stettin, a Senior Vice President at Express Scripts, sat down with Thomas to explain the findings.

“Not only are more people using these medications chronically, they are using them at higher doses than we would necessarily expect. And they are using them in combinations for which there isn’t a lot of clinical justification.”

Out of 60 percent of patients taking an opioid to treat long-term pain mixed their medications with others. Two-thirds of these people got a second medication from two or more doctors, and 40 percent of those had their prescriptions filled at more than one pharmacy. The concoctions these people were taking matched opiates with benzodiazepine (anti-anxiety medication)--a cocktail that's considered a common cause for drug overdose deaths. Others took their opiates with a muscle relaxant, or even used all three—an opiate, muscle relaxant, and benzodiazepine to make, what Thomas calls a “Houston cocktail.” This combination is supposed to give users a high similar to heroin.

The study also found that close to half of patients who took an opiate for more than 30 days continued their use for three years or more. The point of addiction comes when users start to use these short-acting medications to treat long-term pain. However, doctors need to take some responsibility.

“It’s our hope that physicians remain reluctant to start people on an opioid pain medication when they’re not necessary, and that there’s an increase in public awareness that people shouldn’t want to get involved with these medications if they don’t need them.”

The lesson here is if you take an opiate after surgery or an accident, stop using as quickly as possible.

Read more at New York Times

Photo: Credit: Shutterstock

Kids Lie More When Threatened with Punishment for Bad Behavior

by Natalie Shoemaker

Parents who threaten to punish their kids for bad deeds may be encouraging their children to lie. Max Ufberg of Pacific Standard points to a recent study that shows encouraging honesty without punishment results in more truth-telling. The new study by McGill researchers was led by Victoria Talwar, a Child Psychology Professor, has research to show that a child's need to appease adults is why they lie. So, instead, encourage them to tell the truth.

The researchers gathered a group of 372 children, ranging in ages from four to eight. The kids were put in a room with their back turned to a noise-making stuffed toy. Researchers ask the child to identify the toy twice, making child perceive the experiment as a kind of guessing game. A new toy was then placed behind the child's back and the researcher would leave the room, stating that the game would continue when he/she returned. The children were told one of two things: that there would be consequences for peeking or that if you do peek, it's good to tell the truth.

Two-thirds of the kids broke the rule and peeked at the toy. But the majority of those who looked at the toy and were told there would be consequences, lied about peeking. Whereas the ones who peeked and were told honesty is the right thing to do, appeased the adult by telling the truth about their wrong-doing.

Talwar explains its all about kids need to appease adults at that stage in their life.

“Because children at a young age are most concerned about pleasing adults, external appeals may have the greatest potency in motivating children to tell the truth.”

She went on to explain her findings in a press release for McGill, writing:

“The bottom line is that punishment does not promote truth-telling. In fact, the threat of punishment can have the reverse effect by reducing the likelihood that children will tell the truth when encouraged to do so.”

Read more at Pacific Standard

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Reindeer May Live on Only in Christmas Stories as Population Plummets

by Natalie Shoemaker

Reindeer populations are declining, and if their numbers continue to plummet, Santa's iconic sleigh pullers may only be remembered in Christmas stories.

Discovery New's Jennifer Viegas writes on a recent study published in the Journal for Nature Conservation that shows the reindeer population in China is on the decline. Through this research, the authors hope to make a strong case for why the government should update its conservation status. The country's Threatened Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) classifies reindeer as an animal of “least concern” when they should be at risk, according to researchers. They argue that by updating the IUCN's Red List to a more urgent condition, it could help increase conservation efforts.

In the study, researchers noticed the decline from comparing historical to current distribution numbers throughout China. They cite that the reindeer population peaked in the 1970s with over 1,080 reindeer, but from 1998 onward their numbers have dwindled as much as 28 percent.

There are several factors contributing to their decline. Their populations are already low, so genetic variance among mates becomes less and less. The biggest risk right now is inbreeding that may result in genetic deterioration, which would result in birth complications, furthering their decline. There's also issues with poachers killing the reindeer for their antlers, as the last remaining herders move toward more populated areas to get in on the tourist trade. Natural predators are also a threat, and kill as many as “a third of reindeer calves each year,” according to researchers.

The research team hopes their data is enough to convince the IUCN to update their information and begin conservation efforts for the reindeer in China. However, reindeer populations that make up parts of North America, other portions of Asia, norther Europe, and the Arctic are also threatened, but for different reasons. In northern Canada, for example, reindeer have trouble foraging for food because of changing weather patterns. Their decline has sent ripples that have affected northern tribes, which rely on these animals for food and clothing, according to a story on the site Living on Earth.

Perhaps being a Christmas icon doesn't have as many perks as one would think, since stories of their decline keep circulating around the same time only once every year.

Read more at Discovery News

Photo Credit: Heather Sunderland/Shutterstock

MIT Physicist Proposes New "Meaning of Life"

by Orion Jones

MIT physicist Jeremy England claims that life may not be so mysterious after all, despite the fact it is apparently derived from non-living matter. In a new paper, England explains how simple physical laws make complex life more likely than not. In other words, it would be more surprising to find no life in the universe than a buzzing place like planet Earth.

What does all matter—rocks, plants, animals, and humans—have in common? We all absorb and dissipate energy. While a rock absorbs a small amount of energy before releasing what it doesn't use back into the universe, life takes in more energy and releases less. This makes life better at redistributing energy, and the process of converting and dissipating energy is simply a fundamental characteristic of the universe.

According to England, the second law of thermodynamics gives life its meaning. The law states that entropy, i.e. decay, will continuously increase. Imagine a hot cup of coffee sitting at room temperature. Eventually, the cup of coffee will reach room temperature and stay there: its energy will have dissipated. Now imagine molecules swimming in a warm primordial ocean. England claims that matter will slowly but inevitably reorganize itself into forms that better dissipate the warm oceanic energy.

The strength of England's theory is that it provides an underlying physical basis for Darwin's theory of evolution and helps explain some evolutionary tendencies that evolution cannot. Adaptations that don't clearly benefit a species in terms of survivability can be explained thusly: "the reason that an organism shows characteristic X rather than Y may not be because X is more fit than Y, but because physical constraints make it easier for X to evolve than for Y to evolve."

If you're hungry for more, have a look at Michio Kaku's concise explanation of the entire physical universe:

Read more at Business Insider

Photo credit: Shutterstock

BPA in Canned Food Linked to High Blood Pressure

by Natalie Shoemaker

High blood pressure has another contributor and this one has more to do with the containers housing your food than its content. You may want to consider how many canned goods you've been consuming, and it's not all about the sodium. It may also be the BPA that's lining those cans and various plastic containers that could be raising your blood pressure.

Alice Park of Time has pointed to a recent study out of South Korea that reveals more concerning evidence about the dangers of BPA. Previous studies have linked the chemical Bisphenol A or BPA to higher risks of asthma, obesity, and brain development issues in children. There's also some studies that even link it to reproductive issues. The list goes on, and Yun-Chul Hong from the department of Preventive Medicine and the Environmental Health Center at Seoul National University is about to add one more.

The study, published in Hypertension, took 60 participants who were aged 60 years or older. The researchers instructed the participants to visit the the study site three times, during that time they would drink the same beverage from either two glass bottles, two cans, or one can and one glass bottle at a time. Researchers then measured the BPA levels from their urine, blood pressure, and heart rate two hours after consumption.

Participants who drank from the two canned beverages had an acute increase of about 4.5mmHG in blood pressure and their BPA levels were over 1,600 percent. An increase of 20mmHG would double the risk of heart disease, and while it did not go that high, Hong still sees it as a cause for concern.

In an email to Time discussing the results, Hong wrote:

“Because hypertension is a well-known risk factor for heart disease, our study showing the link of BPA exposure to elevation in blood pressure strongly suggests that BPA exposure may increase the risk of heart disease.”

“Clinicians and patients, particularly hypertension or heart disease patients, should be aware of the potential clinical problems for blood pressure elevation when consuming canned foods or using plastics containing BPA.”

If you're doctor notes your blood pressure is high next visit, perhaps it's time to think about a change of diet in addition to examining the make-up of your food containers.

Read more at Time

Photo Credit: Keoni Cabral/Flickr

How to Get Better Feedback at Your Next Performance Review

by Natalie Shoemaker

Feedback saves you from the person you once were and gives you insight into how you're perceived by others. If given good feedback from observant peers and leaders, it can help you become better at your job. Without it you're doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes, and you may not even realize it. The trick is getting honest feedback.

Peter Bregman helps advise CEOs and leaders, he recently wrote an article on the Harvard Business Review summarizing the best ways to get and receive feedback. The first way to deter that good, honest feedback is by getting defensive. It's tough hearing about our flaws, no matter if it's from a boss or a peer at work, but making excuses for your shortcomings is a quick way to deter any helpful feedback. But you have to resist pushing back. People will defer to niceties, as they don't want to jeopardize their working relationship with you, and they'll be hesitant to offer any real critiques in the future.

“...your colleagues are less likely to push past your defensiveness and more willing to write you off if they have a hard time working with you. If that happens, you’ll never know why--since you won’t have heard the feedback--so you’ll keep repeating the same mistakes.”

In order to get the best out of your next performance review, Bregman suggests to start off the conversation by asking for honesty—not niceties to appease you. This requests helps encourage the reviewer to open up and lets them know that a polite review won't yield a better output from you going forward. Bringing a pen and pad of paper, and writing down what's said during the review only helps your cause. It lets the speaker know you value what they're saying and gives them time while you scribble away to think on and develop more thoughtful points.

Another helpful tactic Bregman suggests is to focus the conversation on the future—what could you be doing better. This tactic helps the reviewer be more honest and lessens the blow to you about hearing past errors. It gives you a goal to strive for rather than dwell on a past indiscretion that you can't change.

Bregman reminds that not all reviews are a true reflection of who you really are as a worker, but it's how this person perceives you. It doesn't mean that this feedback isn't valuable. For instance, if you're boss tells you that you're not taking on enough, but you're working throughout the day, you may need to communicate your schedule better to your superiors.

Few of us are born leaders, we need to learn to become that person through the feedback of our peers and supervisors. It may be a tough pill to swallow at times, but the end results, if you choose to act on that feedback, may make it well worth any temporary discomfort you may suffer.

Read more at Harvard Business Review

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Why Employers Need to Let Workers Disconnect From the Office

by Natalie Shoemaker

The 9-5 job has been disappearing for quite some time now, blurring the lines of office and personal time. Technology has been a driving force in this work culture shift. Corporations hand out Blackberries and are unabashed about asking employees to integrate work email into their personal smartphones. Weekends and evenings away from the office offer an illusion of personal time, but bosses need to learn to untether their employees or risk losses.

Chris Duchesne of Fast Company reports that only 25 percent of employees took advantage of all their paid time off in 2013. Of those people, over 60 percent admitted to working while on vacation—hard to really call it paid “time off.” USTA calls this behavior “work martyrdom” and it's a bad policy to promote in a professional business.

The result is a stress-filled workplace, one that results in companies loosing around $300 billion from illnesses from these undefined hours, according to the World Health Organization. In order to break from this work martyrdom, employers need to establish a company culture that encourages and lets employees know they've earned this time.

Duchesne notes that paid time off is a part of an employee's compensation for the year, and employers and employees need to start thinking of it as such. Time is far more valuable than money—you can't get time back—and employees would surely throw a fit if you took money out of their salary. In order to make these company culture changes, it's important for leaders to set the example. Duchesne explains if managers are unable to take their own paid time off, why should employees feel comfortable doing the same.

Employees need to feel secure in taking real time off—no checking email while on the beach. There's never a perfect time to take a vacation away from the office, so Duchesne suggests having protocols in place to make sure other teams can take over your responsibilities while your away.

The work-life balance has taken a backseat, and any employee trying to make it their philosophy in corporate America will quickly be met with pressures from peers and bosses to assimilate. It's a change that needs to be made at the highest levels company, though, it's unsure what may influence this kind of change.

Read more at Fast Company

Photo Credit: Ditty_about_summer/Shutterstock

Checking Email Causes Stress, Go on an e-Diet From Your Inbox

by Natalie Shoemaker

Our email inbox has us well trained. Whenever we hear the ping of a notification, we jump to look at it. It's a time consuming and stressful activity that might be better left as a limited daily routine.

Jesse Singal of the New Republic highlights a new study that brings forth evidence to the millennial argument that our email is stressing us out. The research paper was written by Kostadin Kushlev and Elizabeth Dunn of the University of British Columbia and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. They found that an email diet plan may be necessary to reduce stress.

Over a period of two weeks, researchers randomly assigned one group out of the 124 participants to limit checking their email to three times a day for one week and were told to turn notifications off. While the other half were given directions to leave notifications on and check email as often as they liked. After the first week, the groups swapped roles for another week. Over the course of the two week study, researchers monitored the participants' stress levels, how productive they were, and how often they checked their email.

The results:

“We found that during the limited email use week, participants experienced significantly lower daily stress than during the unlimited email use week. Lower stress, in turn, predicted higher well-being on a diverse range of well-being outcomes. These findings highlight the benefits of checking email less frequently for reducing psychological stress.”

Researchers also reported that the unlimited-email groups didn't feel any more productive than the limited-email group. Email fills up a lot of time, but often results in little getting done. This idea is reminiscent of an “object lesson” by Brett McKay inspired by Stephen Covey's book First Things First . People will feel like they've had a busy day, answering emails, doing research on the web, and so on, but realize at the end of the day that they haven't accomplished anything of significance. By rethinking how you prioritize your day (i.e. limiting email use), you may find yourself less stressed from having had a more fulfilled work day.

Read more at New Republic

Photo Credit: tommaso79/Shutterstock

How to Speak Fluent "Museum"

by Bob Duggan

The best way to learn any language is total immersion. If you live in a place long enough and open yourself up to the experience, then you’ll come away not just with a new tongue, but also with the flavor of the culture in which that language is expressed. For many people, art museums feel like a foreboding foreign nation with a language all its own. Frederick Wiseman’s new documentary, National Gallery, finally offers an immersion class in how to speak fluent “museum.” Wiseman’s 39^th documentary, National Gallery takes you inside London’s National Gallery to eavesdrop on the docents leading tours, spy on the early morning floor waxers, look over the shoulders of conservators, and even join executive meetings behind closed doors all in the name of learning what really happens in an art museum and how the very voice of the modern museum is changing with the times.

Just as Wiseman’s 2013 documentary At Berkeley examined issues within the field of education by focusing on one specific school, National Gallery studies culture—what it is, what it means, and why we should care—by filming one specific bastion of culture, London’s National Gallery. Wiseman, who calls himself “an enlightened amateur” when it comes to art, claims that he’s wanted to film a museum for 30 years, but other projects always intervened. Once the National Gallery gave Wiseman to film, he shot almost every day for 12 weeks between January and March 2012, amassing over 170 hours of footage he edited down to this 3-hour documentary. Wiseman’s crew shot “around twelve hours a day, because it’s interesting to observe events before the museum opens and then late at night also,” Wiseman explains.

National Gallery is, at its heart, a study in contrasts: between the quiet of near-empty galleries and the bustle of blockbuster, big-name exhibitions; between the hands on work of art handlers, conservators, cleaning crews, and construction workers and the hands off life of the masterpieces on the walls; but most importantly between the direct public contact of the lecturing docents and the isolated executives expressing fears of greater accessibility meaning stooping down to some lowest common denominator.

That last contrast staged a passion play performed in museum meetings around the world. National Gallery Director Nicholas Penny seems baffled and beleaguered by potential barbarians at the gates of the institution in the form of a marathon’s finish line at the foot of the gallery’s entrance on Trafalgar Square. As others in the meeting try to sell the idea of mainstream appeal and community engagement, Penny and others ask for quantifiable benefits beyond good feelings. Such good natured but adamant bottom line thinking often stands in the way of the softer science of wider appeal all around the world. You can’t help but wonder if Penny’s planned stepping down from the Director job in 2015 stems at least in part from this quandary over what the “public voice” (elevated or engaged? some tricky balancing act of both?) of the museum should be.

Juxtaposed with the muddled arguing in boardrooms, however, are the clear, accessible voices of the National Gallery’s exceptional docents. In one scene, a docent paints a verbal picture for the tour group of how a 13^th century churchgoer would have perceived a piece of religious art now put out of proper context in an art museum. In another, the docent transforms the ancient Biblical story in Rubens’ 17^th century Samson and Delilah into a modern spy story. She even asks the crowd to imagine themselves as a spy torn between duty and love for the enemy. Some in the board room might object to turning a Rubens into The Spy Who Loved Me, but one look at the faces of the fascinated listeners was evidence enough for me to side with engagement over elevating. The fact that both conversations were taking place under the same roof at the same time makes the debate over museums’ “public voice” all the more frustrating.

Speaking “museum,” however, always goes beyond mere words, as Wiseman’s film demonstrates. Countless shots of visitors rapt with attention before the paintings remind us of the real stars of the show. National Gallery beautifully captures the dynamic nature of what could be static images stuck on walls. “The guiding principle was to break the frame—the framing and hanging of the paintings—in order to step into the picture,” Wiseman explains. “To do so, I used an approach similar to making a film, alternating between wide shots and close-ups, and then working on the depth of field in the paintings. On film, the painting comes to life if you don’t see the wall, frame, or card to one side with the artist’s name, title, date and technical details. Then, the painting becomes an object. My aim was to suggest that the painting is alive and tells a story all of its own.” Just as the docents bring the paintings alive through verbal details, Wiseman uses photography to climb into a painting and make you “live” inside the artist’s ideas and execution.

National Gallery further accentuates the dynamism of the art through a piano performance in the galleries that becomes a soundtrack for the drama of Caravaggio’s Boy Bitten by a Lizard and other masterpieces of frozen action. Thanks to modern technology as well as the old-fashioned sister arts of music and dance, the public voice, the language of museums is more multimedia than ever, making it also potentially more accessible than ever. Wiseman concludes the film with a dance performance (shown above) in which a male and female dancer interpret the action in Titian’s Diana and Actaeon and The Death of Actaeon as the paintings themselves provide silent inspiration. Wiseman’s cameras capture the gestures of passion and pain, but his microphones capture just as importantly the sounds of scuffing shoes and physical effort from the dancers, impressing on the viewer the human physicality, the reality of the interpretation.

That final scene drives home beautifully the human element of National Gallery, which is really not about museums or art, but rather about who we are or aren’t depending on our connection to our culture. Speaking “museum” isn’t about learning a long-dead language but about learning a piece of ourselves that we cannot allow to go silent. At 3 hours, Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery may not be an easy sell to the casual cultural consumer, but that might just be the audience most in need of this immersion language course. Near the end of National Gallery, we come face to face with a series of portraits by Rembrandt that seem even more startling for their connectivity across the centuries thanks to Wiseman’s film. The bottom line of National Gallery is that learning (and earning) the ability to see a Rembrandt that way is priceless.

[Image: A scene from Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery. Courtesy of Zipporah Films.]

[Many thanks to Film Forum for providing me with the image above from, press materials related to, and a screening copy of Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery. A list of screenings of National Gallery near you can be found here.]

[Please follow me on Twitter (@BobDPictureThis) and Facebook (Art Blog By Bob) for more art news and views.]

Text Messages From Doctors Help Remind Patients to Take Medication

by Natalie Shoemaker

People forget to take their prescriptions all the time, even remembering to take vitamins is a chore. However, it'll be several months before their doctors realize they haven't been taking their meds.

Robert Glattner, MD of Forbes writes that one third of patients are non-compliant when it comes to taking their blood pressure medication. Others just forget. Regardless, doctors are trying to find a way to increase presence with their patients in between office visits, and smartphones are a great place to start.

A new study published in the journal PLOS One has found that text message reminders can help engage doctors with their patients out of the office, and remind them to take their meds. Dr. David Wald, Lead Author, Professor, and Cardiologist at Queen Mary University of London in England, explained the premise of the study:

“An important and overlooked problem in medicine is the failure to take prescribed medication. The results of this trial show that text message reminders help prevent this in a simple and effective way. More than just a reminder, the texts provided the link to identify patients who needed help.”

The study took 300 participants, divining them into two groups: one group received text message reminders to take their statin medication to treat high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol and the other group did not.

The group receiving texts would get one message every day for two weeks, asking if they'd taken their medication. Then the messages were tapered back, and sent every other day for two weeks, and again once a week for six months. If they did not reply to the text messages, the patients would receive a follow-up phone call to investigate why and answer any questions the patients had.

Out of those who received text messages, only 9 percent stop taking their medications, compared to the 25 percent who stopped completely or took less than 80 percent of it without reminders.

David Taylor, Professor Emeritus of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London, said of the study:

“The health implications of these results are considerable from both an economic and a health gain perspective. The method is not limited to cardiovascular disease prevention and could be used for patients on treatment for other chronic diseases.”

The marriage of technology and health care have a long journey ahead, but the potential for preventative and ongoing health care to help reduce future costs looks quite bright.

Read more at Forbes

Photo Credit: NEC Corporation of America/Flickr

Domestic Avocados May Be in Short Supply, Imports May Be Funding Cartels

by Natalie Shoemaker

Avocados have become quite popular, since 1993 global consumption has doubled, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. But Anna Roth of Modern Farmer writes that droughts may threaten to make the green fruit scarce next spring, putting farmers and buyers in a predicament.

The National Geographic's Dan Stone calls it a "quinoa moment," where supply can't keep up with demand. Regardless, nature may put a strangle on the fruit just enough that it becomes unprofitable for some farmers. It takes 74 gallons of water to produce a pound of avocados. Some farmers are waiting to see if the rains this fall will be enough to supply their cash crop to grow in spring. But many farmers in California aren't waiting around. Instead, letting their fields go unseeded for another season, because of rising fertilizer and water prices. However, California produces 95 percent of the avocados grown in America—a $435 million industry. If farmers are unwilling to grow, Americans will have to look to other countries to get their avocado fix.

Imported avocados may have to sustain Americans' appetites, which means higher prices that some avocado-based industries may not be able to sustain. Even so, if you're able to purchase them at your local market in 2015, you may want to inquire where the fruit came from. Down in Mexico, the cartels control a $1 billion avocado market from production to distribution, in some cases. There are other countries to buy from, the cartel's reach doesn't hold Chile, but its farms may also be in danger of drought.

Avocados are precious in Chile where they refer to it as "oro verde"--green gold. There, farmers are going to great lengths to keep Avocado production going--even if it may not be sustainable. Farmers are draining groundwater, taking away precious drinking water from people who need it, and planting the crop on the hillsides to benefit from glacier run-off. But this method won't be able to sustain the crop or its people for long.

The result for Americans this spring may simply be a more expensive avocado. But for those in Mexico its a cash crop to fund the cartels and in Chile it's the "oro verde" that feeds the people it threatens to dehydrate.

Read more at Modern Farmer

Photo Credit: whologwhy/Flickr

Blue Lighting Decreases Food Consumption in Men

by Natalie Shoemaker

Obesity is on the rise, but asking people to just eat less isn't a viable solution. Tom Jacobs of the Pacific Standard writes on a new study that has found a way to get men (sorry ladies) to eat less, and it all has to do with lighting.

Researchers at the University of Arkansas conducted a study that showed by serving men a meal under blue lighting, they ate less. However, women did not respond to these visual cues and the reason for that my be in female's reliance on olfactory senses. The study was led by Han-Seok Seo, an Assistant Professor at the university, and has been published in the journal Appetite.

The study consisted of 112 adult participants. After fasting the night before, the participants were seated at random into individual booths that were lit by white, yellow, or blue LED bulbs. There they were served a hearty breakfast, consisting of two ham and cheese omelets and eight mini-pancakes.

After consuming as much as they wanted of the meal served, they filled out a survey rating the food and their overall satisfaction with the breakfast. Researchers then weighed the food to determine how much was left on the plate. Participants impressions of the meal did not vary, but the amount of food eaten by men was significantly less for those placed in blue-lit rooms.

“Since naturally blue-colored foods are rare, humans may have a doubt as to whether (such foods) are safe to eat.”

As for women, Seo has a plausible explanation relating to women's reliance on odor cues rather than visual ones. Whereas men's sense of smell is “relatively less sensitive,” which is why they are “more dependent on visual cues.”

It would be interesting to see this research employed on a wider scale, say, at a fast-food chain, where meals are known for their addictive nature. Then again, Jacobs points out that the blue light may loose it's effects over time.

Read more at Pacific Standard

Photo Credit: Chones/Shutterstock

Survey Questions Lead Americans to Doubt (Some) Creationist Beliefs

by Natalie Shoemaker

For the last three decades, Gallup has asked Americans the following question:

Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings:

(1) human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life and God guided this process,

(2) human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life, but God had no part in this process, or

(3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000years or so?

The number that have answered “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so,” has never dipped below 40 percent. From 1982 to 2014, America has answered strongly creationist, contrary to the theories and scientific proofs that say otherwise. But a new study sponsored by the BioLogos Foundation shows that the Gallup poll may have been too quick to judge Americans.

Slate's William Saletan writes about Calvin College sociologist, Jonathan Hill, who headed a study to ask Americans about life's origins. His results show a far more nuanced view of how Americans think about the evolution-creationism debate. Rather than asking one simple question to conclude the argument, he presses the people he's surveying to assess 15 statements. The more the statements ask people to think about the history of the Bible (i.e. Were Adam and Eve real people? Is the Bible the actual or inspired word of God, without error?), the more doubtful people become. By the end of his survey the young-earth creationist dwindles to a mere 15 percent--quite different form the Gallup's proposed 40 percent.

Hill's data shows that only 30 percent of people are certain “God created the world in six 24-hour days.” What's more, only 26 percent of Americans are able to say with certainty, in the survey, that humans have only existed for the past 10,000 years.

By delving into the particulars of intelligent design, Hill creates questions surrounding an absolute belief in creationism. It seems people begin to realize that the existence of life isn't as cut-and-dry as they might believe once they have to consider the particulars of such an event.

In his interview with Big Think, Bill Nye (the Science Guy), believes that people find it hard to accept evolution, because that would mean accepting death--everything we've learned will be gone. For some people that's unimaginable.

Read more at Slate

Photo Credit: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock

Being Accountable for You Flaws is Key to a Successful Relationship

by Natalie Shoemaker

We all want certain traits out of our ideal mate: Good looks, intelligence, humor, though, it's important to be realistic about our expectations. There's one trait that Mark Manson of Business Insider says he won't compromise on:

“The ability to see one’s own flaws and be accountable for them.”

Flaws are inevitable in a relationship—there is no perfect man or woman. But because problems are inevitable in any relationship, be it emotional baggage or odd habits, the test of that relationship will be how you and your partner deal with your own flaws. Manson argues that when two people are in a committed relationship, you're supposed to grow together, which means occasionally offering up some constructive criticism. The test of that relationship will be how you partner receives that criticism. Are they appreciative or aggressive?

Manson does mention it's important to keep your expectations in check, everyone is a little defensive at first, and people are easily wounded by their flaws. But the true test is if your partner decides to open up the conversation after they've had time to digest your suggestions.

It's important to also turn the spotlight on yourself and consider how you might react to critiques from your significant other. Manson encourages people to practice exchanging healthy criticisms to one another, after all, communication is key in any relationship. He assures that, eventually, it will become a natural part of a relationship.

If this kind of openness and honesty disrupts your relationship enough to cause a breakup, Manson says not to worry:

“Your emotional integrity naturally self-selects the emotional integrity of the women you meet and date. And when you fix yourself, as if by some magical cheat-code the women you meet and date become more and more functional themselves.”

Read more at Business Insider

Photo Credit: sellingpix/Shutterstock