Sunday, February 13, 2011 7-Month-Old Babies Can 'Read Minds'  Babies as young as 7 months old may be able to take into account the thoughts and beliefs of other people, a younger age than previously demonstrated. 7-month-olds have little experience with conversation, which has long been thought to play a key role in acquiring this capacity. As a result, this study is thought to be significant in building new theories about how this capacity develops. In the study, a Smurf-like character watches a ball roll through a number of scenes. Infants looked longer at those scenes where the character left too soon to see the ball's final position. Because babies are thought to look longer at unexpected situations or events, the researchers interpret this to mean that they were surprised at the unexpected outcome because of processing the character's viewpoint, not just their own. Despite some controversy about study design, if the results are confirmed by future studies, this would indicate that infants are sensitive to social information and to what others see. Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, February 12, 2011 Visit the MET From Your Desk  Google has taken its 360-degree Street View cameras into some of the most famous and acclaimed galleries, opening the world's art collection to the internet. From the Tate Britain in London to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, you can now browse 385 rooms in 17 galleries, and see more than 1,000 works by 486 artists. Zoom in close enough, and you can see individual brushstrokes, hairline cracks in the canvas and microscopic details that are almost invisible to the naked eye. Read More >>
back to top Friday, February 11, 2011 How Meditation May Change the Brain  "Over the holidays, my husband went on a silent meditation retreat. He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening. He's running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life," one NY Times contributor writes. Scientists say that meditators like her husband may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. Read More >>
back to top Thursday, February 10, 2011 Baby Reunited with Doctor Who Saved Her  In her thoughts and prayers over the past year, Nadine Devilme has thanked God countless times for saving her baby after Haiti's earthquake. She's also wanted to thank the doctor who treated Jenny Alexis after the 2-month-old spent four days alone, crushed in the rubble with nothing to drink. There was one problem: Devilme never knew the doctor's name, never knew exactly whom to thank for treating her daughter's fractured skull and crushed chest and then arranging for her to be airlifted to a hospital in Miami. Meanwhile, the physician who saved Jenny has spent the past year wondering how the baby was doing... Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, February 9, 2011 Southern Masked Weaver  They call it home. The delicate orb that sits on the tree branch, a woven tangle of grass and twigs all strategically placed. It's small and inconspicuous enough that you'd probably miss it walking by. Luckily, one photographer didn't. "It was a priceless opportunity to watch these amazing builders constructing their homes from the very beginning till the end, from the first framework made of a few grass leaves till the very last stalk..." Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, February 8, 2011 Removing Stigma One Idli At A Time  A small idli shop in south Tamil Nadu, India, is the talk of the town. At daybreak, people crowd around to buy idlis and dosas from two women who are HIV positive. Despite the stigma of HIV/AIDS in their town, the customers are aware of their condition and continue to patronize their shop. With community support, Vijayarani and Sumathy have overcome the devastating news, "look as healthy as any woman in our village and we have a successful business." Read More >>
back to top Monday, February 7, 2011 Generous Vegetable Seller  After the morning hustle, a lone lamp shines on a vegetable stall. With head bowed, Chen Shu-Chu is the first to arrive in the market and the last to leave. She earns marginal profits. Yet, her frugality has allowed her to donate NT$10 million (about 350,000 US $) towards various charitable causes, including schools, orphanages and poor children. The generosity of a woman with such a humble income has placed her under international spotlight, named an outstanding philanthropist by Forbes and among 2010's top 100 most influential people by Time Magazine. Despite all the attention, she reminds us, "I have done nothing extraordinary. Everyone who wants to can do it. There are many other charitable people; we just don't know about them." Chen adds, "I don't place great importance on money. When I donate to help others, I feel at peace, I'm happy, and I can sleep well at night." Read More >>
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It all started three years ago. John Kralik's life was really going down the tubes, personally and professionally, when one day, while walking, he heard an inner voice telling him to start writing thank you notes. So he sent a note of appreciation to his daughter's piano teacher. And then to the woman who cuts his hair. And the barista at the coffee shop, just for trying to remember his name. By the end of that year, John had written 365 thank-you notes. He's even written a book about how they have changed his fortune. [ 
Transport for London say the two new Superhighways have been a big success, with an average usage increase of 70%. The traffic on these Superhighways, which connect parts of London to the financial City, is bicycles. Mayor of London's transport advisor, Kulveer Ranger, said: "This research shows that people do believe the routes are of value, make them feel safer, and are allowing them to take direct and continuous routes into central London." Two more cycling routes will open this summer. [ 
They lived across the street from each other for years, but didn't know each other well. James Bronson was a fixture in Adams Morgan, a retired barber who'd been greeting passerby from his front stoop for more than 3 decades. John O'Leary was 25 years younger, a sound engineer who'd bought his six-bedroom townhouse just as the neighborhood was beginning to gentrify. Not the likeliest of roommates. But when Mr. Bronson lost his home and had nowhere to go, O'Leary took him in rent-free. It was a split-second decision that would profoundly change both their lives. [ 
It's the little things in life. The waitress who notices your empty glass, and refills it without asking. Grabbing hold of a tissue, right before a sudden sneeze. The sound of snow falling. Freshly laundered clothes... An observer of life's smiling snapshots, Neil Pasricha reveals 3 secrets (all starting with A) to leading a life that's truly awesome. [ 
Government officials shut down the streets. As everyone silently stood in line to pay the final respects, the magic of Ishwar-kaka was evident -- the richest men in the country stood next to human-waste scavengers next to powerful politicians next to reknowned Gandhians next to vegetable sellers next to his next-door neighbors next to kids who had merely read about him. A humble man who built over 200,000 toilets and helped launched 118 organizations that would elevate the work of sanitation across India. Wise men say that you die the way you have lived. For a vast cross section of society, Ishwar Patel was a hero. [ 
In the race to build computers that can think like humans, the proving ground is the Turing Test-an annual battle between the world's most advanced artificial-intelligence programs and ordinary people. The objective? To find out whether a computer can act "more human" than a person. In his own quest to beat the machines, the author discovers that the march of technology isn't just changing how we live, it's raising new questions about what it means to be human. [ 
