|Monday, March 30, 2020

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The challenge of teaching online in times of Coronavirus

The quarantine caused by the coronavirus shows some digital deficiencies in the educational system, especially in rural areas. In some places, however, the available resources and the hard work of teachers and students have made things a bit easier. Coronavirus has completely disrupted the traditional learning process, not only because of the suspension of classes but also because teachers and students have had to think about learning in a ...Read full article...

‘Deprogram’ yourself to repair what makes you suffer

Neuroscience is unveiling secretive brain tricks, but it is also spreading some ideas that cause confusion. For example, Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize in Medicine, has claimed that “the brain builds our sensory experience, our thoughts and emotions, and it controls our actions”. It is easy to interpret this type of statement in a way that we relegate the human being to a species of a biological robot, without being ...Read full article...

Are you eating, drinking and breathing plastics?

A report by the Australian University of Newcastle for WWF says that you put about 5 grams of plastic in your body every week, which is the same as swallowing a credit card or a bottle cap. Whether you eat five meals a day or do intermittent fasting, eat carbohydrates or follow a ketogenic diet, microplastics are everywhere. In one week we can swallow 1,769 grams of plastic with ...Read full article...

Is it a problem to be a perfectionist?

It is not necessarily a sin to want to make everything perfect, according to our filters. The problem is not knowing how to get it done without getting stressed out or anxious. Setting high goals is good; the most difficult aspirations bring some of the best triumphs. The emotions that accompany achievement often include joy, pride and satisfaction. But when effort, diligence and meticulousness do not end up in ...Read full article...

Why are parents not able to educate anymore?

Mothers and fathers don’t seem to be academically or psychologically prepared to educate. Parents were good educators in the twentieth century, especially at the beginning, when they had a single priority: that their children would survive without starving. Having overcome hunger, parents of those born in the late seventies and eighties added a new priority: training children and provide them with the opportunity to have a job that would ...Read full article...

Google takes voice recognition to public places

Google is investing a lot in conversation design. Last year, the company published a manual of good practices so that it could be applied to the development of this technology. In the company, it is believed that they are producing another potential interface. They do not say that voice will be the only thing, but it will be an important tool. When you use Google Assistant you can see ...Read full article...

Violence as a sign of Social Rebellion

Mythologizing and romanticizing acts of violence against political or ideological opponents –something that is often done by the media and pundits– helps crowds assume collective identities that while being popular, are not virtuous, but that serve their purpose to commit heinous acts. A case in point is Antifa in the United States, but social movements are more effectively used as tools for violence in Latin America. Recently, the federal ...Read full article...

Are you addicted to your mobile phone?

If you detect these four things in your mobile use habits, you probably are addicted to it. Adopting new habits is a really simple endeavour. Creating new positive habits to live by is noticeably more difficult, however, adopting new negative habits is very easy. The hard part is to get rid of them. That black crystal is calling you. Maybe it has something to tell you, maybe it just ...Read full article...

The Benefits of Climate Change

Do you remember Al Gore? He was not the first prophet of the alleged imminent environmental disaster. The first was James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Space Center. Like Gore, Hansen sounded the alarms of anthropogenic climate change in 2003. During an interview, I asked him if he could rule out that uncontrollable forces, such as solar cycles, were more influential in climate change than human activity. His answer was ...Read full article...

Most oxygen comes from oceans, not forests

The abundance of animal life in the ocean has provided an enormous variety of services from the beginning of time. From food to adventure and leisure. None of this would be possible without the unicellular organisms of phytoplankton, which float by the thousands in each drop of water in the upper layers of the sea. The phytoplankton comprises two main groups: photosynthetic cyanobacteria and unicellular algae that move near ...Read full article...

Where did the real intellectuals go?

Real intellectuals on mainstream media suffered the same luck as real social democracy: they simply disappeared. The end of the real intellectual class has been clucking for about 40 years and no real intellectual seems to be willing to stand up and show his or her head. In spite of everything, the term survives, but devoid of the aura that used to accompany it. Mainstream media do with the name ...Read full article...

Do we need a new Social Contract?

The existing social contract is an implicit agreement that has been widely accepted, though not often fulfilled, for centuries and among the members of societies to cooperate for social benefits. The social contract includes the sacrifice of some individual freedoms in exchange for State protection. The agreement entails that all individuals in society are subjects of the State with the sole intention to collectively enforce social arrangements. Theories of ...Read full article...

5G makes users victims of hackers, spies, corporate and government control

Technology companies announce the advent of the “next big thing” that will change everything. With its arrival, they promise that new doors to worlds of augmented and virtual reality will finally open. But we must bear in mind the other side of 5G: in a hyperconnected planet, the chances of us being hacked, spied on and controlled by companies and governments will multiply. The enthusiasm for the advent of ...Read full article...

You are programmed to be lazy

Lack of physical activity causes one death every 10 seconds. If it is hard for you to get up from the couch to perform physical activity, do not worry, you are not alone. For decades, we have seen communication campaigns that encourage us to exercise. However, about 30% of adults do not get enough physical activity, and the percentage continues to increase worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, ...Read full article...

This is what happens to your brain when you snort cocaine

The number of deaths linked to drug use in the world is increasing, as well as the number of consumers and people with serious drug problems. According to data from this year’s UN World Drug Report, in 2017 5.5% of the population used drugs, and cocaine production stood at a historic record with 1,976 tons, 25% more than the year previous. While production numbers are increasing, the brains of ...Read full article...