The Nature of Intelligence Item: Put people in rooms where carbon dioxide is more than 600 ppm and watch analytic reasoning and thinking decline. Higher levels – dumber answers. If present trends continue, global levels may hit 1000 ppm at the end of the century. Everywhere. Item: Cognitive decline is accelerated when people don’t physically […]
Why People Won’t Sweat (12/03/12)
Immovable News note: 3.5% of Americans aged 18-59 do 150 minutes or more of moderate physical activity per week – the minimum recommended by the government for health (Gina Kolata, NY Times, 11/20/12). Only 96.5% of the younger adult population is not doing the minimum required exercise. It’s 97.5% for those over 59. Taking away the […]
Does Winter Kill? (11/28/12)
Tis the Season? “This is the winter of our discontent” writes Shakespeare. More than discontent – actual demise. New data analysis performed at UCLA looked from sea to shining sea – 1.7 million death certificates across the U.S. The figures demonstrated that no matter whether you live in cold or warm climates, American cardiovascular deaths […]
Reconstructing Memory (11/26/12)
Safeguarding the Self It’s true – you’re not you. At least not what you think. We slide through life consumed and propelled by memory. We know what we know, saw what we saw. Except recent research demonstrates that memory is always changed every time it is retrieved – whether you consciously remember it or not. […]
Post-Election Depression? (11/19/12)
Who’s Depressed? Some of my medical colleagues thought I would see patients sleepless and unhinged, suffering “post-election depression.” I haven’t seen it. Bodies regenerate themselves continuously. They never stay the same, always rebuilding, from the beginning to the end of life. Countries do the same. Populations are born, immigrate, emigrate, grow up and die witnessing […]