Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs

Intelligent people don’t always do the right thing

The human consumption of psychoactive drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, is of even more recent historical origin than the human consumption of alcohol or tobacco, so the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent people use more drugs more frequently than less intelligent individuals.

The use of opium dates back to about 5,000 years ago, and the earliest reference to the pharmacological use of cannabis is in a book written in 2737 BC by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung. Opium and cannabis are the only “natural” (agricultural) psychoactive drugs. Other psychoactive drugs are “chemical” (pharmacological); they require modern chemistry to manufacture, and are therefore of much more recent origin. Morphine was isolated from opium in 1806, cocaine was first manufactured in 1860, and heroin was discovered in 1874.

Given their extremely recent origin and thus evolutionary novelty, the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to consume all types of psychoactive drugs than less intelligent individuals. Once again, as with alcohol consumption, the fact that the consumption of psychoactive drugs has largely negative health consequences and few (if any) benefits of any kind is immaterial to the Hypothesis. It does not predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in healthy and beneficial behavior, only that they are more likely to engage in evolutionarily novel behavior. As I point out in an earlier post, more intelligent people are often more likely to do stupid things.

Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis, the analysis of the National Child Development Study shows that more intelligent children in the United Kingdom are more likely to grow up to consume psychoactive drugs than less intelligent children. Net of sex, religion, religiosity, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, social class at birth, mother’s education, and father’s education, British children who are more intelligent before the age of 16 are more likely to consume psychoactive drugs at age 42 than less intelligent children.

The following graph shows the association between childhood general intelligence and the latent factor for the consumption of psychoactive drugs, constructed from indicators for the consumption of 13 different types of psychoactive drugs (cannabis, ecstasy, amphetamines, LSD, amyl nitrate, magic mushrooms, cocaine, temazepan, semeron, ketamine, crack, heroin, and methadone). As you can see, there is a clear monotonic association between childhood general intelligence and adult consumption of psychoactive drugs. “Very bright” individuals (with IQs above 125) are roughly three-tenths of a standard deviation more likely to consume psychoactive drugs than “very dull” individuals (with IQs below 75).

The following graph shows a similar association between childhood intelligence and the latent factor for the consumption of psychoactive drugs among Americans. The data come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The childhood intelligence is measured in junior high and high school, and the adult drug consumption is measured seven years later, and constructed from indicators for the consumption of 5 different types of psychoactive drugs (marijuana, cocaine, LSD, crystal meth, and heroin). The association is not monotonic, but nevertheless, “normal” (90 < IQ < 110), “bright” (110 < IQ < 125), and “very bright” individuals consume more psychoactive substances than “very dull” or “dull” (75 < IQ < 90) individuals. Once the social and demographic variables are controlled, however, the positive association between childhood intelligence and adult drug consumption is not statistically significant in the American Add Health sample.

People – scientists and civilians alike – often associate intelligence with positive life outcomes. The fact that more intelligent individuals are more likely to consume alcohol, tobacco, and psychoactive drugs tampers this universally positive view of intelligence and intelligent individuals. Intelligent people don’t always do the right thing, only the evolutionarily novel thing.

The Personality Trait That Makes It Harder to Focus at Work

Woody Allen has never sent an email. He does not own a computer. (He admits to owning an iPhone, but only for making calls and listening to jazz while traveling.) After over 50 years in the film business, Allen’s daily routine hasn’t changed one iota: He still sketches out his script ideas in freehand on a yellow legal pad. And once the story starts to come together, he types it up on a 1957 edition Olympia SM-3 manual typewriter.

A recent study confirmed what Allen seems to know intuitively: In the modern workplace, neurotics can’t focus. Tracking the online activity of 40 information workers, an experiment conducted by researchers at UC Irvine, the MIT Media Lab, and Microsoft sought to understand how individual factors like personality and stress impacted a person’s ability to focus their attention.

The study honed in on two specific personality aspects, neuroticism and impulsivity. The academic definition of neuroticism, by the way, hews closely to the popular one, with some key distinctions. Neurotics do tend to be anxious, Woody Allen–like people; those who score high in this trait tend to be especially sensitive, and are likely to spend more time ruminating over their emotions than their non-neurotic counterparts. In the words of these researchers, neurotics are “prone to stress, report more daily problems, and tend to reanalyze prior events over and over in their minds.” The definition of impulsivity, as defined in this study, is simpler: It means, of course, that you lack self-restraint.

For two weeks, researchers tracked participants’ habits for all applications and online activity on their computers, logging both when they switched between applications (say, from email to Word), and when they switched activities within an application (such as opening up a new browser tab or switching between Word documents). It turned out that there was a strong correlation between neuroticism and a weakened ability to focus for sustained periods of time. The higher someone’s neuroticism, the lower their ability to focus for an extended period of time on a given task on their computer. This is because, or so the researchers theorized, focus comes with an opportunity cost: We all have limited attentional resources. And neurotics tend to spend a lot of time and attention focusing on the past — replaying conversations, worrying about that email they sent, wondering if they should have gotten the steak instead of the lobster.

It turns out that investing all of that mental energy in obsessing about everything but what is happening right in front of you can drain your attentional resources. With less energy and attention to spare, neurotics can have trouble filtering out all of the distractions that make it difficult to focus in the workplace. Perhaps less surprisingly, focus duration was also low for those people in the study who rated themselves as impulsive.

Past studies have also indicated that stress depletes our attentional resources. In keeping with this, the researchers found that how stressed out a person perceived themselves to be correlated strongly with a decreased ability to focus. This could be because being focused at work is itselfassociated with stress.

Of course, all the work we do at the office isn’t necessarily “focused.” Lots of the time we’re just on autopilot. In a separate study of 32 information workers, the same group of scientists (minus one) examined the rhythms of employees’ attention and online activity in the workplace. They looked at how frequently participants were in one of three states at work: focused, defined as highly engaged and highly challenged; rote, highly engaged but not challenged; and bored, not engaged or challenged. In a bit of good news, they found that participants reported being in the “focused” state most often. When people were focused, they most frequently reported being happy, but — in an unexpected twist — they also frequently reported being stressed.

Meanwhile, the participants also reported feeling happy while doing rote work, during which they very rarely reported feeling stressed. In other words, the participants experienced the greatest positive effect when doing rote work, rather than when doing focused work. The study authors theorized that this is because “when people are consumed by an activity, it can be either gratifying or stressful, depending on the context.”

Surprisingly, this finding questions the attainability of the much-touted “flow” state in the modern workplace. (Flow is a cornerstone concept of positive psychology, created by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; it’s being fully immersed, energized, challenged, and absorbed by the task you’re doing.) As the researchers noted, “prior work in flow suggests that being in a state of flow causes people to be happy; however, our results did not find this to be the case.”

Could it be that the sheer cacophony of technology burbling on our computer screens makes flow of any kind impossible? Or is it that we’re all just juggling so many tasks that even when we finally get into the zone, we still feel stressed? These remain open questions as the studies cited here are fairly small. More comprehensive research will be required before we can truly claim to understand the unpredictable attention span of the modern worker. But as an admitted neurotic myself, I can certainly understand why rote work is the happy place of the overanalytical mind. If neurotics tend to feel stressed out in general, and being focused is a task that could add to that stress — even if it’s rewarding — then rote work is definitely the safer bet. Perhaps this might even explain the massive trend in adult coloring books: staying in between the lines as a form of self-soothing.

Origin : http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/10/neurotics-have-trouble-staying-focused-at-work.html?mid=facebook_scienceofus

A.I. Is Harder Than You Think

The field of artificial intelligence doesn’t lack for ambition. In January, Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, claimed in an interview that A.I. “is more profound than, I dunno, electricity or fire.”

Day-to-day developments, though, are more mundane. Last week, Mr. Pichai stood onstage in front of a cheering audience and proudly showed a video in which a new Google program, Google Duplex, made a phone call and scheduled a hair salon appointment. The program performed those tasks well enough that a human at the other end of the call didn’t suspect she was talking to a computer.

Assuming the demonstration is legitimate, that’s an impressive (if somewhat creepy) accomplishment. But Google Duplex is not the advance toward meaningful A.I. that many people seem to think.

If you read Google’s public statement about Google Duplex, you’ll discover that the initial scope of the project is surprisingly limited. It encompasses just three tasks: helping users “make restaurant reservations, schedule hair salon appointments, and get holiday hours.”

Schedule hair salon appointments? The dream of artificial intelligence was supposed to be grander than this — to help revolutionize medicine, say, or to produce trustworthy robot helpers for the home.

The reason Google Duplex is so narrow in scope isn’t that it represents a small but important first step toward such goals. The reason is that the field of A.I. doesn’t yet have a clue how to do any better.

As Google concedes, the trick to making Google Duplex work was to limit it to “closed domains,” or highly constrained types of data (like conversations about making hair salon appointments), “which are narrow enough to explore extensively.” Google Duplex can have a human-sounding conversation only “after being deeply trained in such domains.” Open-ended conversation on a wide range of topics is nowhere in sight.

The limitations of Google Duplex are not just a result of its being announced prematurely and with too much fanfare; they are also a vivid reminder that genuine A.I. is far beyond the field’s current capabilities, even at a company with perhaps the largest collection of A.I. researchers in the world, vast amounts of computing power and enormous quantities of data.

The crux of the problem is that the field of artificial intelligence has not come to grips with the infinite complexity of language. Just as you can make infinitely many arithmetic equations by combining a few mathematical symbols and following a small set of rules, you can make infinitely many sentences by combining a modest set of words and a modest set of rules. A genuine, human-level A.I. will need to be able to cope with all of those possible sentences, not just a small fragment of them.

The narrower the scope of a conversation, the easier it is to have. If your interlocutor is more or less following a script, it is not hard to build a computer program that, with the help of simple phrase-book-like templates, can recognize a few variations on a theme. (“What time does your establishment close?” “I would like a reservation for four people at 7 p.m.”) But mastering a Berlitz phrase book doesn’t make you a fluent speaker of a foreign language. Sooner or later the non sequiturs start flowing.

Even in a closed domain like restaurant reservations, unusual circumstances are bound to come up. (“Unfortunately, we are redecorating the restaurant that week.”) A good computer programmer can dodge many of these bullets by inducing an interlocutor to rephrase. (“I’m sorry, did you say you were closed that week?”) In short stylized conversations, that may suffice. But in open-ended conversations about complex issues, such hedges will eventually get irritating, if not outright baffling.

To be fair, Google Duplex doesn’t literally use phrase-book-like templates. It uses “machine learning” techniques to extract a range of possible phrases drawn from an enormous data set of recordings of human conversations. But the basic problem remains the same: No matter how much data you have and how many patterns you discern, your data will never match the creativity of human beings or the fluidity of the real world. The universe of possible sentences is too complex. There is no end to the variety of life — or to the ways in which we can talk about that variety.

So what should the field of artificial intelligence do instead? Once upon a time, before the fashionable rise of machine learning and “big data,” A.I. researchers tried to understand how complex knowledge could be encoded and processed in computers. This project, known as knowledge engineering, aimed not to create programs that would detect statistical patterns in huge data sets but to formalize, in a system of rules, the fundamental elements of human understanding, so that those rules could be applied in computer programs. Rather than merely imitating the results of our thinking, machines would actually share some of our core cognitive abilities.

That job proved difficult and was never finished. But “difficult and unfinished” doesn’t mean misguided. A.I. researchers need to return to that project sooner rather than later, ideally enlisting the help of cognitive psychologists who study the question of how human cognition manages to be endlessly flexible.

Today’s dominant approach to A.I. has not worked out. Yes, some remarkable applications have been built from it, including Google Translate and Google Duplex. But the limitations of these applications as a form of intelligence should be a wake-up call. If machine learning and big data can’t get us any further than a restaurant reservation, even in the hands of the world’s most capable A.I. company, it is time to reconsider that strategy.

Origin : https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/opinion/artificial-intelligence-challenges.html

Most Experts Agree: Walking is Good Exercise

We humans need to exercise in order to stay healthy. Exercise protects against disease and early death, and keeps us mobile and able to perform daily tasks.

Walking is an easy, free and enjoyable form of exercise. But is a nice stroll enough to confer the life-saving benefits we know come from exercise?

We posed this question to five specialists in the field.

Jackson Fyfe, lecturer in applied sport science, Deakin University

No: Walking is of course better than no exercise at all, but to maximise health benefits, a combination of aerobic-type (running, cycling, swimming) and strength-type exercise (lifting weights or bodyweight exercises) should be performed regularly. We know being unfit shortens life, and countering the losses of muscle strength/power and bone density as we age can improve our ability to perform daily tasks, while reducing the risk of falls and associated complications.
Walking alone is simply not sufficient for most people, although it may provide a platform to more specific, intense exercise. So moderate- to high-intensity aerobic and strength training should also be incorporated into regular exercise programs. Of course, this does not mean walking does not have benefits, but there are aspects of the health-promoting effects of exercise that walking alone cannot provide.

Carol Maher, National Heart Foundation senior research fellow in physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep, University of South Australia

Yes: Physical activity is linked to important and wide-ranging health benefits, such as reduced risk of heart disease, excess weight and obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression and anxiety, osteoporosis and many cancers. Walking at a moderate pace (5 km/hour, or 3.1 mph) can largely achieve these benefits, especially if it's done in continuous bouts (say, 10 minutes or more at a time). Of course, the benefit is even greater if you can get some higher intensity exercise in such as brisk walking or walking up a hill, and throw into the mix some physical activity that challenges your strength and balance.

Julie Netto, lecturer, Curtin University

Yes: Walking brings many benefits. Walking is an activity that can easily be graded up or down to tailor to your personal goals. You can easily change pace or intensity, or the distance covered. Using Nordic poles (hiking sticks) can also modify the activity so it's more than just a lower limb exercise. Walking on different gradients and surfaces or carrying a load while walking can add variety and challenge to your workout. In terms of convenience, you can easily walk on a treadmill too. Walking has been shown to have many physical health benefits and holds promise in alleviating depression. There are also socially supportive aspects to walking, where you could get to know people in your neighbourhood or community, especially if you're a dog owner.

Kevin Netto, associate professor, School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Curtin University

Yes: If you can walk independently and maintain a speed of 4-6 km/h (2.5-3.7 mph) for half an hour per day, then walking is sufficient exercise. Walking needs to sustain your interest in the long term. Walking can protect against chronic diseases, and there is less risk of injury compared to other forms of exercise. It's also free (shoes and active wear aside), and your family, friends and pets can be included. In fact, these have been shown to be a great motivator to continue walking for exercise (the pet and friends, not the active wear).

Walking in challenging environments can be difficult, with pollution and climate being factors that detract from participation. A treadmill may suffice but who likes walking in one spot! Investigate walking groups that use shopping centres or other indoor areas in the early morning in situations where it's too hot or wet to walk outdoors. Most importantly, enjoy the experience ... exercise can be the best medicine you ever take.

Tim Olds, professor of Health Sciences, University of South Australia

Yes: You'll get there by walking, but running will get you there so much faster. The average Australian adult walks recreationally for about 30 minutes a day, and that makes up about 40% of all of their physical activity. We used to walk much more. In a study simulating life in the early Australian colony of Sydney, researchers recorded people walking 4-6 hours each day.

A moderate walk requires about three times your resting metabolic rate, running and sport require much more -- typically about seven times. Both walking and vigorous sport will reduce your risk of dying prematurely at any age. But you have to spend much more time walking: one minute of vigorous sport is worth 3.5 minutes of walking. To reduce your risk of dying by 20%, for example, you would need to walk for 56 minutes a day. You'd get the same benefit by running for 16 minutes.

Origin : https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/14/health/walking-exercise-partner/index.html

7 Of The Weirdest And Most Fascinating Royal Conspiracy Theories

The British monarchs have found themselves subjects of a number of wild conspiracy theories.

• Conspiracy theories have captured the minds of thousands of people throughout history.

• From John F. Kennedy being murdered by the US government to Buzz Aldrin staging a fake moon landing, some of the most influential historical figures have been the subjects of conspiracy theories.

• Royals are no exception – read on for seven of the wildest conspiracy theories about kings, queens, princes, and princesses.

From John F. Kennedy being murdered by the US government, to Buzz Aldrin staging a fake moon landing, some of the most influential historical figures have found themselves the subjects of conspiracy theories.

Royals are no exception. Although the theories largely have no real evidence to back them up, they’re compelling enough to capture the minds of people around the world.

Read on for seven of the most fascinating conspiracy theories about kings, queens, and princes:

1. Princess Diana’s death in a car accident was orchestrated by the British royal family

Perhaps the most widespread modern conspiracy theory about the British royal family concerns the death of Princess Diana in 1997. An adored member of the royal family, Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles in 1981 to become Princess Diana. Known as “The People’s Princess,” Diana was beloved by the subjects of the British crown.

Diana and Prince Charles divorced in 1996, and Diana’s life came to a devastating end on August 31, 1997, according to Biography.com. The Associated Press later reported that a slew of international investigations concluded that both Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed had passed away from injuries following a tragic drunk driving accident.

Shortly after, theories emerged that her death was actually an assassination – some even claiming that it was the dirty work of Prince Philip, another member of the royal family, or even Prince Charles himself. The motive? To prevent Diana from marrying Fayed, a Muslim, and giving birth to his child, according to the conspiracy theory.

Although the princess had speculated in a letter about her being in danger, according to the Associated Press, there is no evidence that she was pregnant at the time or contemplating marriage to Fayed.

2. Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle is a plot by the British to win back control over America

One outlandish theory is that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s marriage is part of a larger British ploy.

One recent, if light-hearted, conspiracy theoryclaims that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’smarriageis part of a larger British ploy. Greg Pollowitz, an editor at conservative site Twitchy.com, tweetedthis take about the couple last year, prompting responses from around the world:

“Prince Harry’s kids will be Americans,” he wrote. “What if one grows up to be president and is in line for the throne at the same time? Brits are playing long-ball here, but it’s a smart move. They want America back and this is how they’ll do it.”

3. The British monarchs are actually alien lizards

Former BBC sportscaster theorist David Icke claims to have eyewitness evidence.

Former BBC sportscaster and hardcore conspiracy theorist David Icke has become infamous forhis assertionthat the world is controlled by leaders descended from a race of alien lizards, so it’s no surprise that he claims the British royal family, including Queen Elizabeth, arepart of this conspiracy.

Icke claims he has eyewitness evidence of this – but no one besides him and his diehard followers give it any credence.

4. Queen Elizabeth I was actually a man

According tothis theory, Queen Elizabeth I fell ill and died as a child. In order to replace the dead girl, her caretakers found a local boy who they passed off as her to her father, King Henry VIII. The boy then remained in Elizabeth’s position for the rest of his life.

The theory was initially put forward as an explanation for Elizabeth’s chastity and strong leadership, but today isacknowledged as mere misogyny, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich.

5. Jack the Ripper was actually Queen Victoria’s grandson Prince Albert Victor

Some members of the public suspected that Prince Albert Victor committed the brutal killings.

In the years after the infamousJack the Ripper murderstook place in London in the late 1800s, some suspected Prince Albert Victor (also known as Prince Eddy) of having committed the brutal killings, but nothing was ever proven. But according to theNew York Times, a surgeon who said he knew the identity of the killer died in 1970, and claimed Jack the Ripper was”a scion of a noble family.”

The surgeon’s son burned his father’s papers before anyone could read them, so the mystery of Jack the Ripper’s identity may never be solved.

6. One member of the Russian monarchy escaped execution

One of the most enduring is that one member of the Russian Romanov dynasty, the young princess Anastasia, survived the execution of her family by the Bolsheviks.

 

Everett Historical/Shutterstock

Although many royal conspiracies concern the British monarchy, there are a few famous claims about other royal families around the world. One of the most enduring is that one member of the Russian Romanov dynasty, the young princessAnastasia, survived the execution of her entire family by the Bolsheviks.

Legend has it that she escaped death by firing squad by sewing jewelry into her dress that made it bulletproof – and later escaped never to be heard from again. But according to Biography.com, a DNA reanalysis in 2007 confirmed that her body had been buried near those of her family members in 1918.

7. The Man in the Iron Mask, who was imprisoned by King Louis XIV, was of royal blood

Could King Louis XIV’s most famous prisoner have been his illegitimate son?

 

dimm3d/Shutterstock

Well before French writer Alexandre Dumas made the tale of the “Man in the Iron Mask” a popular story in France, conspiracy theories abounded about King Louis XIV’s most famous and mysterious prisoner. The most intriguing theory about the man’s identity held that he was the king’s bastard son, who had been dismissed from Louis’s court after being outed as gay, according to National Geographic.

Origin : https://www.businessinsider.my/royal-conspiracy-theories-2018-5/

How To Help Protect Your Kids From ‘Online Luring’

Kids are spending more time online than ever.

Keeping your children safe online seems to get more difficult by the day. Children as young as five are getting tablets and smartphones. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and other apps have become essential to how kids and teens communicate with each other.

And yet, in the decades since children have been using the internet, a host of parental controls and devices have been developed to make it easier to monitor online use. And the new crop of parents are more familiar with the inner workings of the internet than ever before.

One of the most fearsome threats to kids is online luring – the act where a predator attempts to coerce or trick a child from the safety of their homes or schools, with the intention of committing sexual offenses or abducting them.

Parents should use what technology is available to protect their kids, but the most important thing parents can do, experts told Business Insider, is talk to their children about being safe online.

“The best parental control out there is talking to your kid,” said Stephen Balkam, the founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute.

Every child and teen is different. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to keeping your kids safe.

“It has to be a really complicated and layered approach. It really is different for every family, every parent and every kid,” said Paige Hanson, chief of identity education at Symantec.

Here’s what you need to know about protecting your kids from online predators – including online luring.

What is online luring?

Online luring is the act of coercing or tricking a child into leaving the safety of their homes or schools, with the intention of committing sexual offenses or abducting them.

The most effective way to protect against predators is to keep tabs of what your children are doing online, say experts.

Don’t let your child sign up for social media if they’re under 13

A screenshot from Facebook’s Messenger Kids app

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act already makes it illegal for children under 13 to sign up for websites that gather data about users, which notably includes most social media sites.

Parents should stick to this rule, or even wait until their child is older, Balkam said. But sometimes it’s easier said than done to enforce.

Parents who help their children under 13 make Facebook accounts “to talk with Grandma” should instead consider downloading Facebook Messenger Kids, the social media giant’s dedicated app for children between the ages of 6-12. The app lets parents see their child’s messages, control their contact list, and set time limits.

But Messenger Kids is controversial and has been met with backlash from health experts and child advocates, who have called on the app to be shut down completely, on the basis that the app could push children towards smartphone addiction in their earliest stages.

Another problem parents may have to contend with: Kids can simply lie about their age. In these cases, it may be difficult to stop them from making an account entirely, especially if they have their own tablet or smartphone. But experts recommend having a conversation with children who want social media accounts before they open one.

iOS and Android parental controls

Parents can set restrictions on any iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

In an iPhone or iPad’s settings, go to “General” and find “Restrictions.” Once there, parents can restrict access to certain apps or games, including the Safari web browser and the camera. Parents can also prevent children from making any purchases or downloads in the app store.

On Android, parents can download the Family Link app, which lets users set restrictions on what apps and videos can be downloaded from the Google Play store. Without the Family Link app, parents can set content restrictions directly in the Google Play app by going to the “parental controls” option in the app’s settings.

“Dumb” phones

For children as young as five, parents may want them to have a way to contact them, especially in the case of an emergency.

“I grew up in small town Iowa. We didn’t need a phone. We just said we were at our friend’s house and I could be trusted to be home before dinner. It’s not the same thing now. You need to be able to be reached in case of an emergency,” Hanson said.

Here are some popular phones and smartwatches with only basic capabilities for children:

Jitterbug Flip: The Jitterbug Flip only lets children call and text. The phone is made for seniors, but it can also be useful for children as well.

LG GizmoGadget: The Gizmo Gadget smart watch lets parents track their kid’s location as well as keep in touch with them. Kids can make and receive calls with up to 10 contacts and send texts, either in the form of a preset message or an emoji.

Kid-friendly tablets

On average, children between the ages of 0-8 spend 48 minutes on a tablet per day, according to a 2017 study from Common Sense Media. For many young children, tablets are the most common, accessible, and easy-to-use devices.

But with a tablet comes unfettered access to the internet, which may be concerning for parents with young children. With an iPad, you’d have to download third party parental control software or manually change which apps children can and can’t visit. Some parents may find it easier to buy a pared down version of a tablet that has built-in parental controls.

“If you are going to get a younger child a tablet, go after one of the ones that is built and designed specifically for them,” Balkam said. “These are specifically developed hardware and software with parental controls with little kids in mind.”

Balkam’s recommendations:

Fire Kids Edition Tablet: The kid version of the popular Amazon device gives children access to over 15,000 age appropriate books, movies, TV shows, and games. Parents can control what content is available, and how much time they can spend on the device.

Verizon GizmoTab: Instead of a home screen with rows of apps, Verizon’s tablet has 300 preloaded apps that children can view by visiting different “islands.” Children can’t browse the internet, unless a parent allows it.

Third party monitoring apps can help…

If a child has a device that allows them to surf the web, it may a good idea to install a third-party parental control app that can lets you set screen-time limits and block certain websites and apps.

These apps allow for more control than the default iOS and Android settings, but they require more work to set up. And parents should consider privacy, especially for older children, before installing some of the more invasive parental control measures, the experts we spoke to said.

Here are some of the most popular parental control apps:

Qustodio: The free version of the app lets parents block certain websites or apps or limit how much time is spent on them. Plans starting at $54.95 per year allow parents to monitor, social media, calls, and even the content of a child’s text messages. Additionally, the paid plan lets parents enable location tracking and panic alerts.

Net Nanny: Net Nanny is a powerful filtering tool that can block websites entirely, profanity, or give a warning before a child accesses a website instead of blocking it altogether. The app also lets parents monitor social media and set time limits. Plans start at $59.99 for five devices.

FamilyTime Premium: For $1.15 per month for up to five devices, FamilyTime lets parents block apps and websites, set time limits, create a “contact watchlist” that notifies the parent each time a contact on the list calls or texts, track locations, and monitor texts.

…but overstepping can erode trust



Third-party parental apps can allow for some serious snooping, such as monitoring calls and texts. While for parents, these measures are a way to keep children safe, it can also erode trust in a relationship – especially with teens who are older.

“If you found out everything you were doing was being monitored, you’d probably feel pretty violated,” Hanson said.

That’s why it’s important, Hason said, that parents at least be up front and have a conversation about what they’re monitoring and why. It may be satisfactory to be friends with or follow your teen on social media as a condition of having the account.

Be careful of how your child shares location data

When teens post anything publicly online, there’s a good chance they’ll be able to use a geolocation feature, which lets followers know exactly where the child is located. But for young teens, broadcasting exactly where they are and what they’re doing might make them targets.

“It’s a cool feature, it’s a convenience thing,” Hanson said. “But then on the other hand you have the security aspect, that you’re posting publicly where they’re at and what they’re doing and not realizing the consequences of being targeted now because they’re in that specific area.”

Signing a contract

Hanson suggests using a tool like Smart Talk, a website with resources about online safety and an agreement where parents and kids can set guidelines for how kids use the internet.

“It’s cool because it’s not just a parent telling a kid what to do, you’re actually having a conversation about it together, which has proven to be more successful.”

Make sure any device has a passcode

In the event a child’s device is lost or stolen, it’s important that it have a passcode on it, Hanson said. That way, sensitive information will be protected from any would-be predator who wanted to scour it for personal details.

Above all, have a conversation

Kids are going to be online no matter what. Making sure they know how to be careful and they know how to deal with talking to strangers and having social media is important, experts said.

Especially as kids get older, talking to strangers online is increasingly normal and it’s not always sinister. Sometimes, it happens during a video game, or on a social media site. It’s up to parents to set ground rules early on, engage with children about being socially responsible online, and discuss how to respond healthily to being in online communities.

“We want to make sure they aren’t being warped into basing their self esteem off of the number of likes and comments they get because that’s really where it might go wrong,” Hanson said. “Teens may be looking for a positive influence on online, but then all of the sudden it could turn into a bad situation.”

Origin : https://www.businessinsider.my/protect-kids-online-luring-2018-5/

Relationship Experts Say These Are The 8 Red Flags To Look Out For When You Start Dating Someone — And Some Are Surprisingly Common

Any new relationship is full of challenges. You’re getting to know someone, and there’s no telling when something might happen to burst the bubble of your new romance.

In general, it’s fun learning all there is to know about someone who used to be a stranger. But sometimes, there will be signs that you shouldn’t take things further.

Everyone has their own quirks and opinions, and someone who’s a bit different isn’t a reason to run for the hills. But it’s a major red flag if you find yourself compromising on yourself or feeling uncomfortable.

Business Insider asked eight relationship experts, many who specialise in helping people who have been in abusive relationships, about what they think are the major red flags.

Here’s what they said:

1. You justify their bad behaviour.


“If you find yourself justifying away what he does or says, even though these feel wrong in your gut, then that’s a surefire red flag.

“The mind is the most skilled Photoshopper – it can rationalise anything and paint any picture of anyone, depending on our initial perspective. There is a psychological phenomenon known as the ‘confirmation bias,’ where we are inclined to discard all evidence that does not align with our views and only keep those that do. And with a potentially toxic person, they have worked to create a false positive impression to worm their way into your heart.

“So even if they do something bad or say something that’s off, you may think, ‘He’s only this way because he went through X.’ This is when ticking boxes of ‘Is he rude to the waiter?’ ‘Is he nice to his family members?’ doesn’t work. He could be all that – the sleekest toxic people are.

“But underlying it, if he says things like, ‘So they’ll treat us better the next time,’ or he has a mean mouth towards some people, and if you find yourself justifying his transactional mindset or meanness, then it’s time to pause and step back. Our brains work overtime to convince us of someone who’s not good for us, even when our guts know it.”

– Perpetua Neo, a psychologist and expert in toxic relationships who created the Detox Your Heart program

2. They don’t talk through issues.


“I’d say the one major red flag in a person’s behavior that may indicate that the relationship won’t work is the unwillingness to talk through issues, big or small.

“All couples have disagreements. That’s perfectly normal and healthy. But it’s how you handle those disagreements that can really make or break things. Does your partner walk away? Shut down? Place all the blame on you? Throw a tantrum? These are all red flags.

“In a good relationship, a couple can and will talk through issues, listening to the other person’s point of view and expressing his or her own. No one needs to win or lose. It’s about expressing how something makes you feel and being heard. Communication is key.”

– Erika Ettin, a dating coach who founded the dating site A Little Nudge

3. They’re constantly testing your boundaries.

“Run from anyone who attempts to cross a boundary that you have set.”

Examples:

• “You have said you do not want to go further sexually and they insist.”

• “You say you are not available on Sunday, but they push you to see them.”

• “You are not ready to have them meet your family members or friends, but they push you.”

• “They push you to date exclusively before you are ready.”

• “They want to move in or get married or set up a bank account before you want.”

• “They try to change the way you wear your hair or your clothes or anything else about you that feels like ‘you,’ and it makes you uncomfortable.”

– Lisa Aronson Fontes, a psychologist who wrote the book “Invisible Chains: Overcoming Coercive Control in Your Intimate Relationship“

4. They have a massive sense of entitlement.

“When we see that somebody feels entitled to us doing more for them than what is equal in a relationship, that’s a huge red flag that they are someone who uses people. Are they comfortable with using us? Because it just shows a real clear lack of care.

“I think [it shows] when we ask somebody for help because we’re tired, or we’re overwhelmed, or our plate is too full, and that person says, ‘Yeah, I’ll get to that,’ and never does. Or the person says, ‘Well, I can’t right now,’ when they’re not really that busy.

“I see this a lot in marriages and dating relationships, where there’s always one person who’s feeding the needs of the other person. One person is giving and giving and giving, and the other person gives one back. There’s an imbalance. And the other selfish person is typically fine with their needs being met.

“If you use somebody, you don’t really care about them, or their well-being, or their overall happiness in life. It’s a habitual pattern. It’s almost like life is there to meet their needs and people are just commodities to get that done.”

– Shannon Thomas, a therapist who wrote the book “Healing from Hidden Abuse: A Journey Through the Stages of Recovery from Psychological Abuse“

5. Something in your gut feels wrong.

“Since red flags happen along the way road of abuse, victims see different behaviors as time and abuse goes on.

“The first thing to look for is your own intuition and listening to your gut – if you have the feeling something is wrong, things aren’t adding up, then trust that. Past relationship history is key to understanding their behaviors, as is the way they talk about past partners. If everyone in their past was ‘crazy,’ that is a huge red flag.

“Actions speak louder than words. If the date says one thing and does another, look deep into yourself and tell yourself it will only get worse and walk away. If you are dating someone who tries to rush a relationship without giving you time to get to know them properly, slow it down yourself and take control. If they are not patient with this request, you get out.

“Never be rushed, even if it feels good. A soulmate will be kind and patient, while abusers rush to confuse victims and to control. If you prove hard to control quickly, an abuser will back off, and you will save yourself heartache.”

– Tracy Malone, a relationship expert on YouTube

6. Everything is about them.

“One major red flag in relationships is when everyday life, events, conversations, and basic interactions are frequently about that person – where there’s constant manipulation and abuse of power over you.

“For instance, you could confront the person you’re dating about something they did or said that hurt you. Rather than listening to your concern and apologising, they will manipulate and flip the conversation, telling you all the things you’ve done to hurt and upset them.

“This scenario shows signs of narcissism, and things only get worse the more time you spend together. They don’t care about you and your concerns; they only care about themselves. Narcissists are void of empathy. They don’t believe they are wrong about anything, and they will constantly feel victimised, accusing you of attacking them when you’re just expressing your feelings in a situation.

“Over time, you may will feel alone, constantly guilty, and you’ll even doubt your own self-confidence and self-worth. This is definitely a reason to distance yourself from the person you’re dating. Narcissistic abuse is emotionally and psychologically damaging to their partners and most everyone they interact with.”

– Catenya McHenry, a journalist who wrote the book “Married to a Narcissist“

7. They are overly critical about their previous partners.

“I find that people are very predictable. Whatever they have done in previous relationships they are likely to do again.

“This means that if you listen carefully to how your new lover describes his or her important previous relationships and how he or she speaks about their exes, you can learn a lot about how this person is likely to treat you.

“When people describe all of their exes as terrible people and put all the blame on them for the relationship’s failure, this is a red flag for me. It practically shouts: ‘I cannot take any responsibility for whatever went wrong. I have not learned anything from these relationships. It is totally up to you to make our relationship work.’

“It is also likely to mean that they are unable to see people in an integrated and realistic way. When they started dating these other people, they probably saw them as highly desirable and all good. Now that these relationships are over, these same people are all bad. Either they have a knack for picking the absolutely worst people with whom to be in a relationship, or they are seeing all of these people in a very distorted way.

“If they could not see anyone before you realistically or make any of these relationships work, they are unlikely to be able to do it with you.”

– Elinor Greenberg, a psychologist who wrote the book “Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety“

8. They constantly deny, criticise, or dismiss you.

“You may be in a relationship with an emotional manipulator if you see an emotional double standard in the relationship, experience your feelings being denied, criticised, or dismissed, find yourself ‘giving in’ to keep the peace, and see your self-esteem diminishing.

“You may get a feeling that there is something not right – e.g., secrets, unexplained behaviors, unexpected reactions, or are increasingly criticised, blamed, put down, or discounted (often done jokingly at first), and feel confused by ‘explanations’ given about hurtful behaviors.”

– Margalis Fjelstad, a therapist who wrote the book “Stop Caretaking the Borderline or Narcissist: How to End the Drama and Get On with Life“

Origin : https://www.businessinsider.my/relationship-red-flags-you-should-look-out-for-2018-1/

Social Anxiety Doesn’t Get The Attention It Deserves

Fifteen million people have it, yet it remains in the shadows.

Sophie Trapani knew something was wrong when she started getting sick before class her freshman year of college.

She’d signed up for a course that required her to stand in front of her peers and deliver speeches. Public speaking can be daunting for most people, so she tried to bury her fears and push forward. But her anxiety seemed far worse than what her classmates were going through.

“It felt like my body was shutting down every time I had to give a speech,” she recalled.

At the time, Trapani was in therapy for depression and general anxiety, which her doctor suspected were at the root of her pre-class illness. But Trapani began researching her symptoms and realized they might be connected to other feelings of terror she felt during everyday life.

For years she’d struggled to carry out daily activities. She’d skip appointments or cancel plans with friends after agonizing about them for hours, the pressure mounting till she broke. She’d feel blind panic strike on the bus, at a bar or in the grocery checkout.

Her symptoms are typical of social anxiety disorder, which affects 15 million American adultsand causes intense fears of being judged or rejected in social situations. Despite its prevalence, it’s a misunderstood mental illness, and people who should be receiving care often fall through the cracks.

More than a third of people with social anxiety disorder experience symptoms for 10 years or more before getting help. Why?

Part of the problem is that the calling cards of social anxiety can overlap with other ailments, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression or panic disorders. Even professionals have a hard time identifying it in patients.

“Therapists may miss the diagnosis when the observable symptoms are actually reflective of another disorder,” said Melissa Weinberg, a therapist with the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland.

Trapani, who is now 24 and works as an account manager for a communications firm in Hoboken, New Jersey, said her therapy sessions completely changed after she raised the possibility that she was suffering from social anxiety.

“Essentially, I had to be an advocate for myself,” she said.

Laypeople often mistake social anxiety for introversion or brush it off as extreme shyness. But it’s more complex than that.

“It is rather easy for those who do not understand or experience the condition to ignore or marginalize the disorder,” said Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a clinical psychologist in San Francisco.

And in today’s high-tech world, it’s all too easy for people affected by social anxiety to hide behind computer screens instead of confronting their fears. What’s more, the stigma surrounding social phobias discourages people from seeking help.

Society thrives on extroversion, Manly says. “As a result, those who suffer from social anxiety often feel as if they are outcasts ― as if they do not measure up.”

People who live with social phobia tend to retreat and disappear, making their condition even less visible to others.

But one of the best treatments for anxiety is simply to seek out fear-inducing situations in a controlled way, according to Dr. Patti Johnson, a psychologist in Los Angeles.

“We gain confidence through gradual exposure and are more willing to face anxiety-provoking situations,” she said.

Social media offers an opportunity to interact with people in a relatively low-risk setting. But spending too much time online brings “no exposure, no learning, and no relief ― just more avoidance,” Johnson said.

Trapani makes it a point to leave her house and socialize in ways that are comfortable to her.

“I have a dog,” she said, “so when I take her around town, I make an effort to talk to people who stop to pet her, even if it’s just a few words.”

But people with social anxiety can often come across as standoffish or even rude. It’s “their fear of being judged that prevents them from authentically engaging with others and, ironically, can make others feel judged,” said Melissa Weinberg, owner of Baltimore’s Open Lines Counseling.

Trapani says her friends don’t always understand her needs. “If I cancel plans, I’m seen as antisocial or flaky,” she said. “When I prefer to stay home for a quiet night or need to leave somewhere early if I get overwhelmed, I can be perceived as lazy or a buzzkill.”

“It felt like my body was shutting down every time I had to give a speech”. – Sophie Trapani

There’s a common misconception that anxiety and other mental disorders are something people can get through on their own if they try hard enough. “This makes people feel like it is a weakness to seek help,” said Laura Chackes, owner of the Center for Mindfulness & CBT in St. Louis.

And the mistaken belief that people who experience mental illnesses are dangerous can also discourage people from seeking help.

“The depictions we see in movies and on the news about people with mental illness are for the most part exaggerated, making people think that their symptoms are not severe enough to warrant treatment,” Chackes said.

As a result of such stigmas, the socially anxious are prone to self-medicating in an attempt to face their fears, says Johnson. But seeking professional help from a qualified therapist who is familiar with the current research-based treatments can go a long way in alleviating the symptoms. Such therapies include cognitive behavior therapy, commitment therapy and exposure therapy. In-person support groups and online forums, like the Anxiety Tribe Group, can be beneficial.

There are also apps that can help people who aren’t quite ready to confront their anxiety in the presence of a therapist.

Meanwhile, experts are advocating for improved screening at doctors’ offices and more comprehensive training about social anxiety for mental health professionals. And many are pushing for preventative mental health care to become the norm.

“If everyone were to routinely see a mental health professional as part of their yearly checkup, the stigmas would break down,” Chackes said.

Trapani says social anxiety is still a big part of her life. But she’s learning how to manage it. She works at a small, tight-knit agency, as opposed to a large corporation. And she surrounds herself with a close group of friends who will gladly serve as her wingmen for tackling social gatherings.

Most importantly, Trapani has learned to be gentle with herself.

“It’s been a long road to get there, but I’ve worked to move away from guilt and self-blame for the symptoms that come with social anxiety and the impact it can have on my life,” she said.

She encourages other socially anxious people to follow suit ― and to seek professional help when they feel overwhelmed.

“A therapist or psychiatrist can help you work through the worst of it,” she said.

Origin : https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/social-anxiety-disorder_us_5afad7ade4b044dfffb5e19b

Can A Hangover Give You Anxiety?

Experts explain that post-party panic.

When you drink too much on a night out, you might fully expect the headache, exhaustion, dry mouth and general malaise. But there’s one less discussed symptom that frequently accompanies a hangover: anxiety.

In one 2012 study, 7.4 percent of those experiencing a hangover also suffered anxiety as a symptom. Another study showed heavy drinking “lowers mood, disrupts sleep, increases anxiety” and produces “physical” and “emotional” symptoms the morning after. Research published in 2015 also revealed many social drinkers experience emotions like shame, guilt and embarrassment following a drinking episode.

Why are the worries and emotions so hard to control during a hangover? Researchers are still figuring that out.

“You’d think we would totally understand the hangover at this point, but we don’t,” said Aaron White, senior scientific adviser to the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Excessive drinking has been chronicled for centuries, even appearing in texts like the Bible, he noted.

Still, there’s plenty of speculation on why exactly you’re anxious in the aftermath of a drinking binge. Here are some leading theories:

Alcohol leads to poor sleep, triggering anxiety.

There are likely several reasons your body and mind feel so terrible, White said. Part of the problem is sleep. What you typically do when you’re out drinking, like going to bed late, sleeping in strange places and other “out of routine” behaviors, disrupts your regular sleep patterns.

“You go out drinking, you go home, you probably immediately pass out, and then you wake up four to five hours later feeling terrible,” White explained.

Alcohol can alter circadian rhythms, keep you from entering rapid eye movement sleep ― the last stage of sleep ― and lead to more bathroom trips throughout the night. And according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, research has shown poor sleep can trigger anxiety, and vice versa.

Alcohol disrupts the brain’s delicate balance.

According to White, your brain is always trying to maintain homeostasis ― stability ― in its processes.

“Emotionally, there’s a balance too,” he said. “You have a normal level of anxiety, a normal positive affect and so on.”

When you consume alcohol, a depressant, White said, the substance “starts to dampen brain activity.” When your drink impacts the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for emotional responses, you may feel more relaxed and at ease ― for a while, anyway.

Eventually, the alcohol exits your system and your brain will want to regulate its functioning, all the way back to your personal baseline.

“The alcohol pulls the amygdala in one direction,” he said. “But then the alcohol wears off, your brain starts to pull back to establish its normal, and sometimes it overshoots in the opposite direction.”

So, instead of feeling chill and calm, you suddenly feel nervous and stressed. Since the amygdala is also involved in other cognitive functions, White explained, you may also suffer impaired memory and attention problems in addition to increased anxiety.

A hangover causes you to feel sick and sensitive.

In general, a hangover makes you feel ill and off-kilter.

“Research shows cytokine levels in the body change after you drink,” White said. Cytokines are the body’s immune messengers, responsible for anti-inflammatory and inflammatory responses.


“This tells us [a] hangover involves disrupting the cytokine pathways and disrupting your immune response,” White said. “And a hangover looks a lot like ‘sick behavior.’” With those next-day effects, you may experience malaise, fatigue, vomiting or mood changes, including anxiety and depression. “These sick behaviors are your brain’s way of saying to retreat and heal,” White said.

Those prone to anxiety may also be more prone to drinking in excess, especially those who feel they need alcohol to loosen up at social gatherings.

“Because alcohol has sedative properties, it leaves you feeling the opposite the next day,” said Scott Bea, a psychiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic.

With sustained use, Bea said, alcohol can lead to a drop in the levels of serotonin, the “calming hormone” that may help reduce anxiety. You’ll also experience a drop in blood sugar with the drinking, as well as dehydration.

“Those with anxiety are very sensitive to physiological changes,” he said. “When the heart rate is elevated, when the body feels weird, it can set off a panic attack.”

So what to do?

Once you feel the nerves hit during a hangover, it’s nearly futile to stop the anxiety.

“Learn mindfulness,” Bea said. “Watch your thoughts and sensations rather than react to them.” The less you try to do about the panic, the more likely it is to go away.

And don’t forget, when you’re hung over, the body is exhibiting sick behavior because the brain wants you to rest.

“Alcohol is a toxin,” White said. “It’s one we enjoy, but a toxin to the body nonetheless. … When you feel that malaise and illness, your brain wants you to lay low. There’s little you can do except make yourself comfortable.”

Of course, if you’re prone to anxiety or experience it frequently with a hangover, sticking within “reasonable alcohol limits” is always a smart idea, Bea said. Drinking less is the best way to stop post-party panic from wrecking your day.

Origin : https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-you-feel-anxious-when-youre-hungover_us_5afdbc20e4b0a59b4e01c7af

Work Is Our Religion And It’s Failing Us

Work. The modern fetish. No previous age has been so enthralled, or longed for more, rather than less, work to do. No other people have imagined nothing better for their posterity than the eternal creation of more work.

Work sits squarely at the center: the enduring economic imperative, political mandate, source of morality and social identity. Some have claimed that work has become the modern religion, answering what theologian Paul Tillich called the “existential questions” we all have as humans. Robert Hutchins, legendary president of the University of Chicago, called the faith “salvation by work.”

This can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. As Max Weberobserved, the Reformation sanctified work as a spiritual end in itself. Gradually this Protestant “hard work” ethic evolved into the spirit of capitalism, losing its traditional religious supports to become a purely secular faith. As traditional faiths lose followers, the religion of work swells to fill the void.

However, as a faith, work is transient, based on a specific set of historical circumstances. Work may seem to be an eternal given, but what we experience as work is only a few centuries old; an emerging product of history, not an unchanging truth.

Of course, activities necessary to sustain life are fundamental. People have always had to eat. But work as we now understand it, as something abstract — independent of its particular forms (such as plowing, building, trading) — has a modern origin. Hunter-gatherer people had no such general word.

For most of written history, jobs as we know them as a place to go to, away from home and separate from ordinary life, were rare; aspirations, success, meaning, purpose, and identity were found largely in traditions and faiths.

It is only with the coming of the Industrial Revolution that work as we now understand it emerged, defined by specific modern characteristics such as being hired and paid, resulting in clear, and now fundamental, divisions of work and life.

Not only is this work a recent accident of history, it is flimsy and fragile. Our belief in the everlasting creation of new work to sustain eternal full-time, full employment is one of history’s all-time, fantastic utopian dreams. Even the short-term looks increasingly bleak.

Capitalism is built on a contradiction. There is the need to propagandize work to ensure a pliant labor supply, but there is also the drive for maximum profit, which ultimately means replacing as much human work as possible by cheaper machines.

Robot arms weld cars on a factory line at Kia Motors Slovakia plant in Zilina, Slovakia.

Assurances that new work will automatically be created as economies grow are less and less convincing with the approach of a new wave of computers, robots, drones and self-driving vehicles, all threatening what The Atlantic called “a world without work.” Few doubt that the vast majority of current jobs that involve doing the same things over and over will soon be replaced by computer algorithms.

More important, work is failing as a faith. Millennials depend less and less on their jobs as the place to realize their dreams, having found the overblown promises of work empty. According to a 2014 Harris poll, nearly 70 percent of U.S. employees are not “involved in, enthusiastic about or committed to their work.”

It’s not just millennials. Many others feel “betrayed by work,” having made it the centerpiece of their lives and a key source of happiness only to realize how dispensable they are when things go wrong, for example if they are passed over for promotion, sidelined or laid off.

People are turning to other, non-earning sources of fulfillment: volunteering, spiritual explorations, relationships, and to alternative venues such as their homes, community spaces or clubs for social and even economic exchanges. Writing in The New York Times, columnist David Brooks describes a shift of values from consumerism and ownership to experiences, a process that is giving life to the burgeoning “experience economy.”

Research from McKinsey found that over the past few years spending on experiences — such as eating out and traveling — had grown nearly four times faster than spending on goods.

The Woodstock Festival in Poland. People are increasingly seeking out experiences over consumerism.

The prospect of any religion’s failure is an awful thing for its devotees. Unlike most human beings through history, most of us have no idea that there may be life beyond work. We are unable to imagine, much less believe in an alternative.

There are, however, plenty of alternatives to work that are both more realistic and reliable. I have spent a good deal of my life trying to write a history of labor’s century-long fight for progressively shorter work hours, and the accompanying dream of what Walt Whitman called the “higher progress.” This was once the confident expectation that economic progress was paving the way to humane and moral progress. After providing for the material necessities of life, technology would free us, increasingly, for better things. Eventually we would have plenty of time for family, friends, beauty, joy, creativity, God and nature.

It seems unlikely that the U.S. government will lead the way; legislation providing a guaranteed annual income or limiting work hours seems exceedingly unlikely. What is more likely is that ordinary people, finding better things to do with their lives, will shorten their work hours on their own when they are able to afford it, gradually choosing to “buy back” their lives.

The results of the return of progressively shorter hours would be dramatic. Economists such as Monsignor John Ryan reasoned that progressively shorter hours will act to redistribute wealth — value now in the form of capital will gradually flow back to ordinary people in the form of time.

We all might reclaim ownership over more of our lives instead of continuing in thrall, sacrificing our lives for the profit of the ultra-rich. In this opening realm of freedom, equality might also be within reach; we all have the same amount of hours to live each day.

It would be reckless to predict a world entirely without work, However, it is reasonable to expect that work will eventually return to its historical set-point as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Work can be tamed, and made more of an adornment to life rather than its center. And the forgotten American dream of “higher progress” may be be reawakened.

Origin : https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/post-work-world_us_5afbe686e4b0779345d43a20

This Is How Your Grocery Store Is Tricking You Into Spending More Money

And how to deal with these sneaky traps.

We’re breaking down five ways your grocery store might be persuading you to buy more. 

If you’ve ever entered a grocery store thinking you’ll “just grab a few things” only to exit with a foot-long receipt in your hands, wondering, “What just happened?” we totally get it. It’s easy to fall victim to the sales, the samples and the bulk options at the supermarket. The truth is, as a consumer you’re often being tricked into your purchases.

We broke down the subtle ways grocery stores persuade buyers to purchase more ― and to help combat them, we’ve got tips on how to navigate the supermarket better.

From playing specific music to offering free samples, here are five ways your grocery store might be pulling one over on you.

The music

Many articles about the influence of music at the grocery store reference a study published in 1982 in the Journal of Marketing. Researcher Ronald E. Milliman found that the average gross sales at the U.S. grocery store chosen for the study were higher when the store played slow-tempo music compared to when it played fast-tempo music. Milliman clarified at the end of the study that more research should be done before reaching a more definitive conclusion, and said the specific numbers matter less than the idea that music can influence behavior.

Bauer Media Group’s Life Hacks magazine encouraged readers this spring to wear headphones and listen to “up-tempo music” while shopping to cut down on spontaneous purchases. However, based on a 2014 field experiment, researchers in Norway and Germany found that in six grocery convenience stores, music with “an up-tempo beat” actually “spurred spending” ― when the stores were crowded.

How to deal: The important part is to recognize how the music affects you. If having headphones on distracts you from the free samples and the displays with sales signs, that might be better for you. If you’re into the signature slow music at your local store and it keeps you on track, go with that.

Tali Sharot, associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London and author of The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others, put it best: “Once you’re aware of these tricks, you’re more likely to think of it when making the purchases.”

The products near the checkout

When you’re done shopping, waiting in line to buy your items usually means also coming face-to-face with several more products to purchase. In many cases, those checkout lane options include unhealthy picks like candy and sodas. It’s hard not to get sabotaged when your patience is already thin.

“Grocery stores place the candy, soda, chips, etc. near the checkout line,” said Elana Paddock, a registered dietitian nutritionist at Cooper Clinic in Dallas. “It’s in your face (and your kids’ faces) for a quick grab, a mindless choice at the end of your shopping trip. Beware of this trap!”

How to deal: Paddock suggested reading a magazine to distract yourself. You can even involve the kids, too.

We chatted with a registered dietitian nutritionist who said pricier items are often stocked at eye level in grocery stores. 

The prices

Paddock pointed out that the pricier items are often stocked at eye level or at the end of the aisles.

“Grocery stores make these foods more visible to make more money,” she said.

You’ll also likely run into products that are “on sale” or that can be bought in bulk, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting a better deal. It’s worth keeping in mind what you’ll actually use and paying attention to which products might go bad quickly.

How to deal: Paddock put it simply: “Check prices.” Another pro tip is to avoid large shopping carts if you can, opting for a smaller cart or a hand basket.

“Bigger shopping carts influence how much you buy,” Paddock said.

The samples

In 2017, researchers from three universities confirmed that in-store product samplings led to both immediate sales as well as loyalty, and therefore long-term sales.

“Retailers prefer sampling events to price-based promotions, such as coupons or temporary price reductions, because these events encourage consumers to try a product and build loyalty that won’t disappear once the price goes back up,” said Qing Liu, an associate professor in marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who contributed to the study.

In 2014, The Atlantic suggested in a piece on Costco samples that the free offerings can trigger cravings and lead to better sales.

How to deal: Don’t shop hungry.

“Always go to the store after a meal or grab a quick snack, such as almonds, even if it’s right before you walk through the front door,” Paddock said. “If you’re hungry, chances are you will buy more food and be more tempted to buy fewer healthy items.”

The store setup

Paddock noted that many grocery stores have their meat and dairy products in the back, forcing you to walk through the rest of the store to get them.

“This may mean you put more in your cart (items you may or may not need) and spend more money overall,” she said.

How to deal: Sharot suggested knowing what you want to buy (and what you want to avoid!) ahead of time so you’re not aimlessly looking at other products ― and probably purchasing them. 

Origin : https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/grocery-store-tips-tricks_us_5afdc517e4b0a59b4e01ceb3

The Ocean Is A Strange Place After Dark

Moonlight triggers the world’s biggest orgy, strange creatures emerge from the depths, and waves glow blue. Some phenomena in the ocean can only be witnessed after dark.

1. Bioluminescence makes the sea shimmer

Dinoflagellates emit blue light when they’re disturbed, like at this bay on Vaadhoo Island in the Maldives (Credit: Naturepl.com/Doug Perrine)

You may have seen the pictures.

It’s night-time in an impossibly exotic location. Waves are breaking on the beach. The water is sparkling with electric blue lights.

The internet loves an image of a magical-looking bioluminescent bay. You may also have seen travel bloggers bemoaning the real event as not quite living up the hype.

Even if the latter is true, bioluminescence (in this case usually caused by planktonic organisms called dinoflagellates) is a pretty amazing natural phenomenon.

Dinoflagellates emit blue light when disturbed, which is why they can be seen sparkling over wave crests, around boats or when a hand or paddle runs through them.

These tiny creatures are the most common source of bioluminescence at the ocean’s surface.

So-called bioluminescent bays such as in Puerto Rico and Jamaica are among the best-known places to witness the glow. However, the ephemeral phenomenon can be found throughout the ocean where there are dense gatherings of dinoflagellates.

Sometimes dinoflagellates’ population increases rapidly causing blooms, which by day are coloured a less attractive red-brown, sometimes known as red tides. And some, but not all, of these red tides are poisonous.

These tiny creatures provide the most common source of bioluminescence at the ocean’s surface (Credit: Naturepl.com/Martin Dohrn)

Even stranger and rarer than bioluminescent bays are “milky seas”, where continually glowing water stretches for as far as the eye can see.

Milky seas have only been seen a few hundred times since 1915, mainly concentrated around north-western Indian Ocean and near Java, Indonesia.

They are not caused by dinoflagellates, but are thought to be the result of “bioluminescent bacteria that have accumulated in large numbers near the surface”, explains to Dr Matt Davis, Assistant Professor of Biology, St. Cloud State University in the US, who specialises in bioluminescence.

Reports by sailors over the centuries have described milky seas as a nocturnal whitish glow like a field of snow, but scientists have had little chance to investigate the phenomenon first-hand.

In 2005, researchers analysing archived satellite images found that milky seas could be seen from space and that one satellite had captured images of a huge area of ocean that had displayed the strange glow for three consecutive nights a decade earlier.

2. Animals glow in the dark

Bobtail squid have a symbiotic relationship with bioluminescent bacteria (Credit: Naturepl.com/Jurgen Freund)

Bioluminescence, the emission of visible light by an organism as the result of a natural chemical reaction, is common among marine life such as fishes, squid and molluscs. In the deep sea most species are bioluminescent, where it is the main source of light.

In shallower waters, most bioluminescent fish display their lights at night.

“Flashlight fishes have a specialized pouch under their eye that they can rotate to expose the light emitted from these bacteria, and they use this glow at night to hunt for food and communicate,” says Dr Matt Davis.

Flashlight fishes have a specialised pouch under their eye that use to expose bioluminescent bacteria (Credit: Matt Davis)

Ponyfish emit light from the bioluminescent bacteria housed in a pouch using transparent muscular shutters, to communicate, he explains.

Camouflage, defence and predation are among the variety of reasons fishes are thought to emit light.

For example, bobtail squid have an ingenious way of using lights. These nocturnal animals have a mutually beneficial relationship with luminescing bacteria that live in a mantel cavity on its underside. At night the squid control the intensity of this light to match the moonlight, and can reduce their silhouette to camouflage themselves from predators.

3. Moonlight triggers the planet’s biggest orgy

Mass spawning on the Great Barrier Reef is one of the extraordinary examples of synchronised behaviour on Earth (Credit: Naturepl.com/Jurgen Freund)

There is nothing more romantic than a moonlit night, especially if you are a coral on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.

One night a year in spring, the biggest orgy on earth is triggered by lunar light.

Over 130 coral species simultaneously release their eggs and sperm into the water during a window of just 30-60 minutes.

This mass spawning event might be the most extraordinary example of synchronised behaviour in the natural world.

When the gametes – eggs and sperm cells - are released they hover for a moment, forming a ghostly replica of the reef’s shape, before dispersing into an underwater blizzard as the sperm fertilise the eggs.

Dr Oren Levy, a marine biologist and ecologist and Professor of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, has studied this extraordinary event.

“This is really fascinating phenomena…we know this event is going to happen a few nights after November's full moon each year, three to five [days] post full moon,” he says.

“[It is] always amazing, in particular I am so amazed how each of the coral species year after year spawn at the same hour of the night.”

He adds: ”Once it happens it is always so exciting to see how everything is becoming so live and synchronised. It is almost [a] spiritual event and you understand the power of nature in its best.”

Moonlight triggers the phenomenon by acting as a synchroniser or “alarm” probably with other environmental signals such as sunset timings, water temperature and tides to cue the time of the gamete [egg and sperm cells] release, explains Dr Levy.

He adds that corals seem to possess photoreceptors that detect the phases of the moon, which helps with the “fine tuning” of the gamete release.

4. Sharks and seals rely on celestial light

Just when you think it's safe to go into the water... great white sharks hunt at night too (Credit: Naturepl.com/Chris & Monique Fallows)

For some seals, moonlit nights spell danger.

During winter months, the 60,000 cape fur seals on Sea Island in False Bay, South Africa run the gauntlet of being picked off by great white sharks patrolling the seas when they enter and exit the water.

One study in 2016 hypothesised seals swimming at night during a full moon are at more risk of being eaten by a shark since bright moonlight silhouetting them against the surface makes them an easy meal for predators lurking below.

However, most shark attacks on seals happen just after sunrise. Researchers behind the study, which measured shark attacks at dawn, were surprised to find seals were much less likely to be predated at this time of day if there was a full moon.

The researchers theorised that lunar illumination combined with emerging sunlight may decrease the stealth ability of the sharks and that the advantage switched from sharks to seals as night turned to day.

And seals may rely on another celestial feature to navigate - the stars.

Captive harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) are able to locate a single lodestar and steer by it, researchers have shown.

During a test using a simulated night sky, seals swam towards the brightest star and could orientate themselves when the stars were swivelled around.

In the wild, seals need to navigate the open ocean to find foraging grounds that may be separated by hundreds of kilometres.

Researcher Dr Bjorn Mauck said at the time: "Seals might learn the position of the stars relative to foraging grounds during dawn and dusk when they can see both the stars and landmarks at the coast."

5. Strange animals come to the surface every night

Humboldt squid are among the most striking creatures to surface every night (Credit: Naturepl.com/Franco Banfi)

Under the cover of darkness rarely seen creatures migrate to the ocean’s surface to feed.

The Humboldt squid, also known as the jumbo squid, is one of the most eye-catching marine animals you can see lurking in surface waters.
By day the squid lurk in the deep waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean along the deep shelf that runs off the west coast of the Americas and every night they are one of the many ocean animals to migrate upwards to find dinner.

Vertical (or diel) migration - when ocean animals swim to the surface at dusk and disappear down again at dawn – is extremely common.

“What [Humbioldt squid are] doing largely is following their main food item, which is the so-called lantern fish,” explains Professor Paul Rodhouse, an Emeritus Fellow for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and former head of the organisation’s biological sciences division.

In turn, lantern fish follow vertically migrating zooplankton.

Since zooplankton are depended on by so many ocean animals, “the rest of the food chain will be following on after it,” says Prof Rodhouse.

“It is a huge movement of biomass every day,” says Prof Rodhouse. “More than a thousand metres. Some of the oceanic squid probably migrate over 1000m every day.”

He adds that almost all pelagic species (animals that live in the water column not near the bottom or shore) that can swim make the journey.

Humboldt squid are among the most striking creatures to surface every night. Their ability to change colour and flash bright red when agitated has earned them the nickname “red devils”. Although much smaller than their cousin, the 13m-giant squid, they can reach a length of about 1.5m (almost 5ft). Highly aggressive predators, they capture prey with strong tentacles and suckers and tear into it with powerful beaks, and have reportedly occasionally attacked humans.

But even ferocious Humboldts are preyed upon by bigger predators such as billfish, swordfish and sharks.

“Of course what they are all doing [by being active at night] is avoiding predation by the top predators,” says Prof Rodhouse. "The big predators that are visual predators and which stay in the surface waters and see their prey.”

“So they’re all… reducing the risk of being preyed on by going down into deep, dark waters at night.”

Origin : http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170818-five-amazing-things-that-happen-in-the-ocean-at-night