Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
STEPHANIE PAPPAS, Senior Writer - LiveScience
Stephan:
A good night’s sleep is crucial to storing knowledge learned earlier in the day - that much was known. Now, a new study finds that getting shut-eye before you learn is important, too.
Volunteers who took a 100-minute nap before launching into an evening memorization task scored an average of 20 percentage points higher on the memory test compared with people who did the memorization without snoozing first.
‘It really seems to be the first evidence that we’re aware of that indicates a proactive benefit of sleep1,’ study co-author Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, told LiveScience.
Improve memory and attention with scientific brain games. Free Trial
Rugman.com only carries 100% Authentic Hand-Knotted Rugs.
‘It’s not simply enough to sleep after learning,’ Walker said. ‘It turns out you also need to sleep before learning.’
Refreshing naps
Earlier research has found that dreams boost learning2, with one study suggesting a 90-minute nap3 may help lock in long-term memories. But Walker’s research, published this week in the journal Current Biology, finds that another phase of sleep, called nonrapid eye movement (NREM) is most closely linked to the learning boost provided by a nap.
Walker and his colleagues recruited 44 […]
No Comments
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
SAM STEIN, - The Huffington Post
Stephan: I think what bothers me the most about the Republicans is the hypocrisy, whether sexual or financial. I chose this story because it directly impacts what is going on in Wisconsin.
WASHINGTON — At least three of the Wisconsin state Senate Republicans currently demanding that public workers sacrifice benefits, wages and even collective bargaining rights for the sake of the budget have applied for and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies, a Huffington Post review of state and federal records shows.
From 1995 through 2009, state Sens. Luther Olsen, Dale Schultz and Sheila Harsdorf all had stakes in farms that received between them more than $300,000 in taxpayer funds.
Those federal appropriations had no direct impact on the state’s current budget woes, but the cash spent on those subsidies, which went to support a range of functions — from soybean production to small hog operations — could have been used elsewhere, perhaps even in Wisconsin. More than that, critics say, it muddles the notion, pushed by these lawmakers and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), that only they are serious about reining in an overextended, overspent government.
‘Members of both parties … preach fiscal austerity all the time, but then when it comes to farm subsides going to farmers in their districts, they think the spigot should remain wide open,
No Comments
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
ROBERT OAK, - The Economic Populist
Stephan: Once again let's look at some actual data, this from the U.S. Census Bureau, which reveals we now have more homeless children in the U.S. than existed during the Great Depression.
On my little island, Whidbey Island Nourishes, the citizen response to the fact that about 10% of our children are homeless, and no government agency had the money to effectively address this crisis, is struggling to meet the increasing need. Ronlyn baked for two days before we left for France, where we now are, so that the children would still have healthy cookies while she was gone.
From the Census American Community Survey, press release, just read through the list of damning statistics for what is happening to the U.S. middle class and American worker:
2009 ACS Highlights
Median Household Income
* Real median household income in the United States fell between 2008 and 2009 - decreasing by 2.9 percent from $51,726 to $50,221.
* Between 2008 and 2009, real median household income decreased in 34 states and increased in one: North Dakota.
Poverty
* Thirty-one states saw increases in both the number and percentage of people in poverty between 2008 and 2009.
* No state had a statistically significant decline in either the number in poverty or the poverty rate.
Industry and Occupation
* Work hours in the United States fell by about 36 minutes per week from 39.0 hours in 2008 to 38.4 hours in 2009.
* Work hours fell in 46 of the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas between 2008 and 2009.
[…]
No Comments
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
Stephan: Looking at the high speed French trains today, just made me sad. Just another way in which we have fallen behind. This report explains why we are unlikely to catch up anytime soon.
My credit cards also don't work everywhere anymore because European cards have a smart chip, where American cards do not, and the card readers have been upgraded to only work with these new cards.
Driving the well-maintained roads and bridges provides yet another contrast. The United States, once a leader in almost every technology now seems, increasingly, a second tier country.
Responding to Paul Krugman’s train-sceptical commenters, Matthew Yglesias points out that high-speed rail in the northeast corridor would benefit coast-to-coast air travelers by freeing up more runways for routes that can’t be traveled by train. You can’t take a train from New York to Los Angeles, so we should upgrade train service from New York to Boston in order to reduce the need for New York-Boston air travel and free up runways at La Guardia (and planes, and jet fuel) for the LGA-LAX route. Then, on a realist note, he adds:
Now a separate question is whether there’s any feasible way to actually do this in a country that doesn’t have a French (or Chinese) level of central political authority empowered to build straight tracks through people’s suburban backyards. The answer seems to be ‘no,
No Comments
EMMETT DUFFY, PHD, - Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Stephan: Study co-author Jarrett Byrnes, of the National Center for Ecological Analyses and Synthesis, says 'Species extinction is happening now, and it's happening quickly. And unfortunately, our resources are limited. This means we're going to have to prioritize our conservation efforts, and to do that, scientists have to start providing concrete answers about the numbers and types of species that are needed to sustain human life. If we don't produce these estimates quickly, then we risk crossing a threshold that we can't come back from.
An international team of researchers including professor Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has published a comprehensive new analysis showing that loss of plant biodiversity disrupts the fundamental services that ecosystems provide to humanity.
Plant communities-threatened by development, invasive species, climate change, and other factors-provide humans with food, help purify water supplies, generate oxygen, and supply raw materials for building, clothing, paper, and other products.
The 9-member research team, led by professor Brad Cardinale of the University of Michigan, analyzed the results of 574 field and laboratory studies-conducted across 5 continents during the last 2 decades-that measured the changes in productivity resulting from loss of plants species. This type of ‘meta-analysis
No Comments
