Creative Vortex ~

fumblies: Drawn - Ectoplasm (by Hine Mizushima)

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:33:04 -0400

fumblies:

Drawn - Ectoplasm (by Hine Mizushima)

comedycentral: Click here for more of The Daily Show’s take on...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:32:01 -0400

comedycentral:

Click here for more of The Daily Show’s take on CNN’s coverage of Friday’s events in Watertown.

Moron…

niknak79: This cat knows how to relax

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:17:36 -0400

niknak79:

This cat knows how to relax

neurosciencestuff: Mindfulness Improves Reading Ability,...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:41:59 -0400

neurosciencestuff:

Mindfulness Improves Reading Ability, Working Memory, and Task-Focus

If you think your inability to concentrate is a hopeless condition, think again –– and breathe, and focus. According to a study by researchers at the UC Santa Barbara, as little as two weeks of mindfulness training can significantly improve one’s reading comprehension, working memory capacity, and ability to focus.

Their findings were recently published online in the empirical psychology journal Psychological Science.

“What surprised me the most was actually the clarity of the results,” said Michael Mrazek, graduate student researcher in psychology and the lead and corresponding author of the paper, “Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering.” “Even with a rigorous design and effective training program, it wouldn’t be unusual to find mixed results. But we found reduced mind-wandering in every way we measured it.”

Many psychologists define mindfulness as a state of non-distraction characterized by full engagement with our current task or situation. For much of our waking hours, however, we are anything but mindful. We tend to replay past events –– like the fight we just had or the person who just cut us off on the freeway –– or we think ahead to future circumstances, such as our plans for the weekend.

Mind-wandering may not be a serious issue in many circumstances, but in tasks requiring attention, the ability to stay focused is crucial.

To investigate whether mindfulness training can reduce mind-wandering and thereby improve performance, the scientists randomly assigned 48 undergraduate students to either a class that taught the practice of mindfulness or a class that covered fundamental topics in nutrition. Both classes were taught by professionals with extensive teaching experience in their fields. Within a week before the classes, the students were given two tests: a modified verbal reasoning test from the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and a working memory capacity (WMC) test. Mind-wandering during both tests was also measured.

The mindfulness classes provided a conceptual introduction along with practical instruction on how to practice mindfulness in both targeted exercises and daily life. Meanwhile, the nutrition class taught nutrition science and strategies for healthy eating, and required students to log their daily food intake.

Within a week after the classes ended, the students were tested again. Their scores indicated that the mindfulness group significantly improved on both the verbal GRE test and the working memory capacity test. They also mind-wandered less during testing. None of these changes were true of the nutrition group.

“This is the most complete and rigorous demonstration that mindfulness can reduce mind-wandering, one of the clearest demonstrations that mindfulness can improve working memory and reading, and the first study to tie all this together to show that mind-wandering mediates the improvements in performance,” said Mrazek. He added that the research establishes with greater certainty that some cognitive abilities often seen as immutable, such as working memory capacity, can be improved through mindfulness training.

Mrazek and the rest of the research team –– which includes Michael S. Franklin, project scientist; mindfulness teacher and research specialist Dawa Tarchin Phillips; graduate student Benjamin Baird; and senior investigator Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychological and brain sciences –– are extending their work by investigating whether similar results can be achieved with younger populations, or with web-based mindfulness interventions. They are also examining whether or not the benefits of mindfulness can be compounded by a program of personal development that also targets nutrition, exercise, sleep, and personal relationships.

(Image: fotopakismo)

utnereader: diadoumenos: Phoenix may not survive climate...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:46:55 -0400

utnereader:

diadoumenos:

Phoenix may not survive climate change

The urban disasters of our time — New Orleans hit by Katrina, New York City swamped by Sandy — may arise from single storms, but the damage they do is the result of a chain reaction of failures — grids going down, levees failing, back-up systems not backing up. As you might expect, academics have come up with a name for such breakdowns: infrastructure failure interdependencies. You wouldn’t want to use it in a poem, but it does catch an emerging theme of our time.

Phoenix’s pyramid of complexities looks shakier than most because it stands squarely in the crosshairs of climate change. The area, like much of the rest of the American Southwest, is already hot and dry; it’s getting ever hotter and drier, and is increasingly battered by powerful storms. Sandy and Katrina previewed how coastal cities can expect to fare as seas rise and storms strengthen. Phoenix pulls back the curtain on the future of inland empires. If you want a taste of the brutal new climate to come, the place to look is where that climate is already harsh, and growing more so — the aptly named Valley of the Sun.

No surprise here. But apparently it hasn’t dawned on the people of the American Southwest that there’s an expiration date on having a lawn and golf courses (not to mention abundant food) in the desert. Time to wake up and take a good look around, people.

The Vegan Quinoa "Superfood" Demand is Destroying Bolivia

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:09:03 -0400

The Vegan Quinoa "Superfood" Demand is Destroying Bolivia:

girljanitor:

I actually kind of felt like this deserved a post on its own because I think not many people realize that the demand for quinoa, which provides a ridiculously expensive source of all the essential amino acids and central to the “new” vegan diet, is causing near anarchy in Bolivia as the prices get driven up and up.

According to one farmer quoted in the story, “Quinoa was always comida para los Indios [food for Indians.] Today it’s food for the world’s richest.”

Fights over territory previously considered worthless is now being fought over as prime land for growing the new cash crop, and have resulted in kidnappings, injuries, and bombings.

It’s also destroying the environment, since everyone is selling their llamas and planting quinoa instead, which is stripping the soil from overfarming and lack of llama poop for fertilizer.

I’m sick and tired of vegans claiming that their food exists in a vacuum. I mean, are these people THIS far removed from understanding that we all exist in nature? That your stupid fucking quinoa, your excuse to be more militant than ever, more elitist than ever, demanding everyone adhere to your dubious moral convictions, is destroying a country’s economy AND ecosystem? Because of a sudden, insatiable demand for their Indigenous peoples’ food?

Half the world’s quinoa supply is grown in Bolivia.

aneleh: Jupiter and Venus they shine here … just like that.

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:17:41 -0500

aneleh:

Jupiter and Venus

they shine here … just like that.

curioos-arts: Holly Sharpe (UK) via @Curioos by...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:02:56 -0500

curioos-arts:

Holly Sharpe (UK)
via @Curioos by @hollysharpe

LOVE her art!!

fawn-lorn: allison-sommers: Namaqua rainfrog - Breviceps...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:44:21 -0500

fawn-lorn:

allison-sommers:

Namaqua rainfrog - Breviceps namaquensis (by Dean Boshoff)

Oh man, I NEED one!! 😳

moi aussi

thekhooll: 400,000 Balls In 2007, the Department of Water...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:29:43 -0500

thekhooll:

400,000 Balls

In 2007, the Department of Water Protection in Los Angeles detected high levels of bromate, a carcinogen that forms when bromide and chlorine react with sunlight, in Los Angeles’s Ivanhoe Reservoir. Bromide is naturally present in groundwater and chlorine is used to kill bacteria, but sunlight is the final ingredient in the potentially harmful mix. When the Department of Water Protection realized the problem, they began construction of a new underground reservoir in Griffith Park, but while the new facility was being built they had to determine a way to keep the sunlight out of the water.

arquiusspirte:

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:47:08 -0500

arquiusspirte:

STOP the MADNESS!!!!!...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:31:55 -0500

STOP the MADNESS!!!!! grrrr

iquorinthefront:

queensammy:

i-crush-everything:

i-m-p3rfect:

yerawizardmary:

onthepursuitforhappiness:

why would they edit so much?

They physically moved her bones. They moved her collar bone lower. I hope stuff like this makes girls realize how ridiculous the media is.

They “fix” her hair, her eyes, her cheekbones her collar bones, her skin, her waist, her boobs, her shoulders, her legs, her arms, even her hands. This isn’t even her anymore. It is society’s vision of perfect even though she was perfect just as she was before they “fixed” her.

This is what causes genuinely beautiful people to feel self-conscious or imperfect, this right here.
The industry has constantly tried for years to create the “perfect cover girl”, so much so that any human imperfection or flaw has to be digitally removed or altered.
It’s not just upsetting and unfair on the model or the general populous, but also disturbing and in many ways horrific.
We have plastic surgery already, along with digital photo editing software, how long will it be before the next truly terrifying stage lurks it’s preened, pampered and horribly disfigured “beautiful” face?

Can we please stop and realise that for the media - this contains barely any editing? She is stunning before. If that was me up there, you wouldn’t recognise the after-editing shot.

Besides, no matter how much we blame the media, the majority of us fall for it’s beauty lies anyway

Absolutely ridiculous and sad. When will this stop?

did-you-kno: Source actually he had to listen to a...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:44:57 -0500

did-you-kno:

Source

actually he had to listen to a woman’s heart beat and to do that without touching her breasts, which was not at all proper at that time, he used a rolled up device now called a common stethoscope

takahikohayashi: D-25.Jan.2013 Emittung Blue42x28cmpen drawing...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:28:24 -0500

takahikohayashi:

D-25.Jan.2013 Emittung Blue
42x28cm
pen drawing on Gampi
林孝彦　HAYASHI Takahiko 2013

another great piece!

did-you-kno: Source It is disturbing that they have to explain...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:25:55 -0500

did-you-kno:

Source

It is disturbing that they have to explain what Chernobyl is….

dannyburgess: Snowfall

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:24:05 -0500

dannyburgess:

Snowfall

wnycradiolab: jessicayeh: opus-pocus: diarrheaworldstarhipho...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:34:20 -0500

wnycradiolab:

jessicayeh:

opus-pocus:

diarrheaworldstarhiphop:

f-l-e-u-r-d-e-l-y-s:

Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary unconventional Buddhist and Hindu temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

Creepy and beautiful at the same time…

Extraordinary.

did-you-kno: During one series of Pokemon episodes children...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:29:23 -0500

did-you-kno:

During one series of Pokemon episodes children suffered epileptic seizures in 1999.

Source

Ha, For Z

1000drawings: by Jaco Haasbroek

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:22:44 -0500

1000drawings:

by Jaco Haasbroek

beingblog: theantidote: Sonja Vordermaier; installation,...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:20:32 -0500

beingblog:

theantidote:

Sonja Vordermaier; installation, Street Lamp Forest. Courtesy of Five Branch Tree

(via crashinglybeautiful:)

Gorgeous.