12 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Decline of US Religion Between 2007 and 2014
To be sure, the United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith.1 But the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally mass...
1 08 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
PhD Leaves You Unprepared for Non-Academic Work
The truth is that a life science PhD leaves you poorly prepared to get a job doing anything else:
1) Grad programs put very little emphasis on developing writing skills – you maybe write 4-5 documents (proposal, 2-3 papers, plus thesis) over seven years of grad school, with very little feedback on quality of the writing itself.
2) Life science PhDs lack quantitative and computer skills – your physicist or comp sci peers will leave you in the dust when it comes to filling non-science ‘...
1 21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Entertaining Work is a Moral Issue
I’m not the first person to notice that reality is broken compared with games,
especially when it comes to giving us good, hard work. In fact, the science
of happiness was first born thirty-five years ago, when an American psychologist
by the name of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi observed the very same
thing. In 1975, Csíkszentmihályi published a groundbreaking scientific study
called Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. The focus of the study was a specific kind
of happiness that Csíkszentmihályi ...Folksonomies: gamification
Folksonomies: gamification
1 
notes
notesIsn't this also a matter of perspective? Don't we need to look at life like a game?
The problem is that real-life isn't like a game. A really tough programming problem doesn't match my skills, they can go far beyond them.
Education is ENGINEERED, so it can be like a game.
19 OCT 2012 by ideonexus
Exercise Rejuvenates the Body
As noted earlier, mitochondrial degradation is a primary culprit in dwindling muscle mass. But recent evidence indicates that exercise can slow down this effect. According to Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, resistance training activates a muscle stem cell called a satellite cell. In a physiological process known as ‘gene shifting,' these new cells cause the mitochondria to rejuvenate. Tarnopolsky claims that after six mon...Strength training specifically prompts the body to produce stem cells that repair motochondria, promotes the production of telomerase to maintain DNA, increase lifespan by six to seven years, and improve cognitive function dramatically as we age.
