A trio of researchers from China and the U.S. has conducted a study that offers possible evidence of a way to improve self-control—by consistently engaging in self-control acts. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jianxin Wang, Yulei Rao and Daniel Houser describe experiments they carried out with volunteers meant to test the idea that people could improve their willpower regarding one activity by periodically engaging in another.
Most people have a reasonably clear idea of how good they are at resisting temptations—some are able to have a single beer at a bar before heading home, for example, while others cannot seem to resist having many. In this new effort, the researchers have designed an experiment to find out if practicing impulse control might make people better at it.
The experiment consisted of enlisting two types of volunteers to serve as measures—those who were tolerant of alcohol and those who were not. Those who were tolerant were considered the norm, while those who were intolerant were the kind of people who find themselves wobbling around after just one drink. Prior research has shown that people who are intolerant often find themselves saying no when offered a drink because of the known repercussions—thus, because of their nature, they have had to practice a form of self-control on a fairly regular basis.
When she was younger, Olympic gold-medal swimmer Simone Manuel found inspiration in Venus and Serena Williams. The beaded, braided tennis phenoms were Black and excellent, inspiring children the world over with their total domination of a sport usually seen as reserved for white people.
Fast forward to now. Kids the world over are still finding inspiration in the Williams sisters. And Manuel.
Said the Olympian: “I think it’s pretty cool that someone else can see me and realize, ‘hey, this is something I can try, this is something I can be good at,’ just to not set limitations on some of the goals they may have.”
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Manuel made history as the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming. In a tie with Penny Oleksiak of Canada, Manuel won that gold and set an Olympic record in the 100-meter freestyle, and she imprinted upon pop culture an indelible image of shock and pure joy as she looked over at the scoreboard.
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Olympic Gold medal swimmer Simone Manuel on the field before a preseason game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on August 28, 2016 in Houston, Texas. The Texans defeated the Cardinals 34-24. Wesley Hitt / Getty Images
She didn’t know it at the time but December 1, 1955 would be the day that would put her name in history books. That was the day when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger.
Her act of resistance that day unleashed a movement that helped to end legal segregation in the U.S., and cemented her as the “mother of the civil rights movement.” But Parks didn’t become an activist that day. She already had a long history of fighting for justice, including being an active member of Montgomery, Alabama’s NAACP chapter since 1943.
In honor of what would be her 104th birthday on Saturday, here’s a look at some lesser known facts about Parks’ life before she became a public figure.
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Rosa Parks smiles during a ceremony where she received the Congressional Medal of Freedom in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 28, 1999. PAUL SANCYA / AP file
An international team, led by a scientist from the University of Sussex, have today unveiled the first practical blueprint for how to build a quantum computer, the most powerful computer on Earth.
This huge leap forward towards creating a universal quantum computer is published today (1 February 2017) in the influential journal Science Advances (1). It has long been known that such a computer would revolutionise industry, science and commerce on a similar scale as the invention of ordinary computers. But this new work features the actual industrial blueprint to construct such a large-scale machine, more powerful in solving certain problems than any computer ever constructed before.
Once built, the computer’s capabilities mean it would have the potential to answer many questions in science; create new, lifesaving medicines; solve the most mind-boggling scientific problems; unravel the yet unknown mysteries of the furthest reaches of deepest space; and solve some problems that an ordinary computer would take billions of years to compute.
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Prototype of the core of a trapped ion quantum computer. Credit: Ion Quantum Technology Group, University of Sussex.
Wednesday marked the fifth World Hijab Day, an annual event that found new significance this year in the wake of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order targeting Muslims and immigrants.
A gathering at New York’s City Hall in honor of the event was marked by crowds of women wearing American flag hijabs and holding signs to protest Islamophobia.
World Hijab Day started in 2013 in response to discrimination against Muslim women who wear the hijab. The event celebrates religious freedom and Muslim women’s right to wear a head covering.
The intention behind the tradition is to give non-Muslims and non-hijab-wearing Muslim women an opportunity to experience the hijab for a day, said founder Nazma Khan on the World Hijab Day website.
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Spencer Platt via Getty Images
New York City Police Officers Aml Elsokary (left) and Maritza Morales wear American Flag head scarves.
Respiratory conditions could be better targeted and treated, thanks to the discovery of the vital molecule which regulates breathing – according to research by the University of Warwick.
Professor Nicholas Dale at the School of Life Sciences has exploited evolutionary principles to identify Connexin26 (Cx26) as a key molecule that reacts to CO2 in our bodies and activates breathing.
Cx26 molecules detect levels of CO2 in the blood-stream, and when levels reach a certain point, they tell our bodies to excrete the CO2 and take in oxygen – the vital life-preserving process that allows us to breathe, and creates blood flow to the brain.
Without this essential molecular function, harmful levels of CO2 would remain in the bloodstream, making breathing difficult or impossible.
Mutations in Cx26 are directly connected to a number of serious conditions – ranging from congenital deafness, to respiratory conditions, and serious syndromes that affect skin, vision and hearing. As Cx26 is vital to breathing well, people carrying these mutations may be at risk of sleep apnoea.
As readers will be aware from the previous post about block boys, aka sparrow starvers, the lads who who were employed by local councils in Sydney and suburbs to clean the streets of horse manure. You can see a sparrow starver in the pic above, on the right on the kerb edge, white shirt and dark pants.
Until the advent of motor vehicles, the main form of transportation, whether of people or goods, was by horse. By 1880 the horse population had reached problem levels. The cities functioned on horse power, literally. London (then the largest city in the world) in 1900 had 11,000 cabs, all drawn by horses. There were also several thousand buses, each needing 12 horses per day. There were also various carts, drays, wagons and buggies for the transportation of goods and persons.
Happy Sunday guys! We hope you enjoyed yourself in church and was blessed by the word that came in today.
Aside from the anointing it also rained stunning African print designs which we didn’t hesitate to capture them and bring to your attention as our cherished readers.
African print designers all over Africa are doing such an amazing job with the fabrics and it’s always a joy to behold. Some of the outfits you’d see today are from past weeks but are church appropriate and the rest curated today.
The trendy church styles include the Pant suit, Off and Cold-shoulder dresses, A-line dresses, peplums and belle-sleeves.
In its international development efforts, the US sends more than a billion dollars’ worth of food assistance across the world. America’s food aid shipments sometimes spoil, resulting in food going to waste where it could be most needed. A group of researchers at MIT may have found a way to save over $10 million while feeding thousands of the world’s poorest people.
Shipping agricultural commodities like grains and legumes to the developing world raises considerable challenges for the nation’s food assistance programs. Procurement officials need to know when to ship, where, and when the food is expected to arrive. After all, food can—and all too often does—spoil.
The researchers from MIT’s Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation have found that much of the loss is potentially preventable. Now, they have embarked on a pilot project to improve the way America aids the world.
In the world, human beings are facing various problems. People who are full of greed, anger, and ignorance are seen to be fighting with each other in words and deeds. As the fighting continues, various problems such as civil wars, wars of aggression, and wars of aggression are occurring. As world peace is being destroyed, humans are facing unbearable problems. Innocent children and women are not getting the rights they deserve and deserve. I can't think of one thing every time. What is it? The United Nations. If we look at the responsibilities and duties of the United Nations, I think it is not suitable for solving the problems that are happening in the world today. In fact, the United Nations and the World Security Council, such an organization must rule the world, must be able to give orders, and must have various ways to obey orders. There must be no organization that can influence more than that organization. There should be experts from each country. They can even dominate the superpowers like the US, China, and Britain. Only then will global peace be achieved quickly. Now, if a country with power develops more militarily, economically, or socially than its own country, then powerful countries will jealously seek out enemies and wage war. Or they will attack with fighter jets. In this, innocent people are losing their lives. No one understands the value of a life. You should think about how to achieve global peace by controlling these. If the US continues to be the permanent president of the UN, world peace will never be achieved. If you think carefully, no one sees that they are working for the common good, but for their own benefit, for the benefit of their own country. The permanent president of the UN and the Security Council has rejected this, As a young Rohingya, I have come to realize that only by electing the president and secretary from among the countries in the world through a secret ballot system and governing the world fairly can we achieve global peace. The United Nations and the Security Council are organizations in which any country must govern, give orders, and make them obey their orders. For example, only when a defendant is tried in court can we hold the leaders of the countries in check and control them, can we achieve global peace smoothly. Otherwise, it will not be easy for powerful countries to use various excuses to end this war every year, every year, for the benefit of themselves and their countries. No country's leaders pay any attention to the words of the United Nations and the Security Council. If we look at it in practice, look at the Rohingya issue. Myanmar is a small country. Even that country has been under siege for 8 years. What action can be taken? Why is the UN and the Security Council Powerless? Without such Power, how can the organization bring about global peace? Everyone should think about it. Whether there is a veto or a strong one, all countries in the world can only achieve global peace if they are subject to the UN and the Security Council. Seek peace in the quiet embrace of nature. Peace is an indispensable need of the human race. It is not as if one person can kill another person, and it is as if one country can attack another country, but instead of trying to build peace, we must try to destroy the peace now, and the world is getting hotter and is on the verge of collapse. I especially appeal to all the world experts to urgently try to bring about peace in all parts of the world. Mr, Noor Muhamed Arkhan Rohingya Youth Myanmar
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Prototype of the core of a trapped ion quantum computer. Credit: Ion Quantum Technology Group, University of Sussex.
Credit: University of Warwick
Horse Manure Crisis
