Birth Control Pills found to affect memory

PILL contra 110909141637-large

Birth control affects more than previously thought.

Women who use contraceptives like birth control pills experience memory changes, according to new UC Irvine research. Their ability to remember the gist of an emotional event improves, while women not using the contraceptives better retain details.

“What’s most exciting about this study is that it shows the use of hormonal contraception alters memory,” UCI graduate researcher Shawn Nielsen said. “There are only a handful of studies examining the cognitive effects of the pill, and more than 100 million women use it worldwide.”

She stressed that the medications did not damage memory. “It’s a change in the type of information they remember, not a deficit.”

Continue reading… “Birth Control Pills found to affect memory”

Babies distinguish pain from touch at 35-37 weeks, research finds

baby hand110908124136-large

Discovering a babies pain threshold.

Babies can distinguish painful stimuli as different from general touch from around 35-37 weeks gestation — just before an infant would normally be born — according to new research…

Continue reading… “Babies distinguish pain from touch at 35-37 weeks, research finds”

Scrub Your PC clean: remove Malware in four easy steps

malware eeeeeeee

YIKES!

Malware sucks. In the best-case scenario, it craps up your system with unwanted files and occasionally makes itself known in the form of a persistent pop-up window or annoying browser-based toolbar. In the worst-case scenario, malware completely takes over your desktop or laptop and ruins your life.

Your system slows it to a crawl. You can’t even boot into Windows in the time it takes you to walk to the kitchen and back. Your data gets sent off to a faraway Internet land or, worse, your actual keystrokes are recorded for some unsavory individual to see. Malware locks down you browser, making you unable to actually do any browsing without being carted off to some bogus domain. You can barely run a program in Windows without getting bombarded by fake advertisements, programs, and dancing people on your desktop.

We can’t make this stuff up…

Continue reading… “Scrub Your PC clean: remove Malware in four easy steps”

MIT Researchers launch software to help plan cities better — using social network analysis

urbannetworkanalysis-mit

Improved City Planning is a Really Good Idea.

It’s been estimated that 50 percent of the world’s population now lives in cities, with another two billion expected to move to already overcrowded urban areas in the next twenty years. The pressures of rapid urbanization often mean that careful urban planning is difficult, and may be completely overlooked in ad-hoc situations like slums.

In the hopes of helping urban planners and designers make better decisions in the face of such constraints, researchers at MIT’s City Form Research Group have launched the Urban Network Analysis (UNA) toolbox, an open-source software that uses mathematical network analysis to describe spatial patterns of cities. Often used to study social networks like Facebook, network analysis methods can also be used to better examine urban issues like accessibility, spatial patterns, urban growth and change…

Continue reading… “MIT Researchers launch software to help plan cities better — using social network analysis”

Google now lets you export Google Voice data

Google Takeout, the recently launched “data liberation” service that lets you export files, photos and data from Google services like Picasa and Buzz, now includes support for Google Voice.

With the update, users of Google’s Internet-telephony service Google Voice are able to export call history, voicemail messages, greetings, call recordings, phone numbers and text messages…

Continue reading… “Google now lets you export Google Voice data”

Why the Return Trip Always Seems Faster

driving 23423

Driving ‘home’ has a different perspective.

Does getting home from a trip seem to take less time than getting there? There’s a scientific explanation for that!

NPR’s Morning Edition explains the psychological phenomenon called the “return trip effect”:

Here’s what van de Ven thinks is going on..

Continue reading… “Why the Return Trip Always Seems Faster”

The complete guide to Freemium business models

free

The idea of offering your product or a version of it for free has been a source of much debate.

Pricing is always tricky. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t give it enough thought. They will often copy the pricing strategy of similar products, base their decisions on pompous statements made by “experts” or rely on broken rationale (we worked hard so we should charge $X).

Free is even trickier and with so many opinions about it, we thought it would be refreshing to take a critical approach and dive deep into why some companies are very successful at employing the model while other companies fail. We’ve looked into economics academic papers, behavioral psychology books and strategies that worked for companies to come up with the key concepts below.

Continue reading… “The complete guide to Freemium business models”

Cyborg Beetles powered by a wing and a piezoelectric prayer

beetle-generatorrrr

Remember this day, friends. Remember when the cyborg beetles early first took flight in our labs and flew right into their world domination destiny. Look! Even now one of the brood is stealing a quarter, no doubt for financing purposes.

But total world domination won’t happen just yet. First, their human scientist handlers must perfect the way that the tiny piezolectric generators implanted on their backs create energy using nothing but the insect’s own wing flaps.

How’s it going so far? Pretty good for the beetles, reports Discover…

Continue reading… “Cyborg Beetles powered by a wing and a piezoelectric prayer”

Speculative fiction, and the art of predicting the future

science_fictionooo

Is this what our future will look like?

John Schwartz has a nice piece in today’s New York Times on science fiction as a tool for predicting the future:

The dirty little secret of speculative fiction is that it’s hard to go wrong predicting that things will get worse. But while avoiding the nihilism of novels like Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” in which a father and son wander a hopeless post-apocalyptic moonscape, a number of recent books foresee futures that seem more than plausible as the nation’s ambient level of weirdness rises…

Continue reading… “Speculative fiction, and the art of predicting the future”

Groupon offers discount on University tuition

groupon logo000

What will hit Groupon next?

A private, Chicago-based institution will be the first to put forth a deeply discounted deal on tuition via Groupon.

In an effort to bolster interest in its graduate teaching program,National Louis University will offer would-be teachers a Groupon for nearly 60% off tuition of an entry-level graduate teaching course…

Continue reading… “Groupon offers discount on University tuition”

How to sell your company

for_sale_signnnnnnnn

Negotiation is worthless. Sales is everything.

I’m a pretty good salesman, but I’m the worst negotiator. If I say, “buy my car for $10,000” and someone says “$8,000,” I’d just shrug my shoulders and say “ok”. In fact, that happened.

Some people could be good at both. But I think it’s very hard. By definition. When you’re a salesman you want the other guy to say “yes.” When you’re a negotiator you have to be willing to say “no”, regardless of what the other side says.

So although they aren’t total opposites, the goals are completely different. But big picture:

Negotiation is worthless. Sales is everything…

Continue reading… “How to sell your company”

Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.