Selfies linked to narcissism, addiction and mental illness
The growing trend of taking smartphone selfies is linked to mental
health conditions that focus on a person's obsession with looks.
According to psychiatrist Dr David Veal: "Two out of three of all the
patients who come to see me with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the rise
of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly take selfies.
"Cognitive behavioural therapy is used to help a patient to recognise
the reasons for his or her compulsive behaviour and then to learn how to
moderate it," he told the Sunday Mirror.
19-year-old Danny Bowman's selfie addiction spiralled out of control,
spending ten hours a day taking up to 200 snaps of himself on his
iPhone.
The teenager is believed to be the UK's first selfie addict and has had
therapy to treat his technology addiction as well as OCD and Body
Dysmorphic Disorder.
Part of his treatment at the Maudsley Hospital in London included taking
away his iPhone for intervals of 10 minutes, which increased to 30
minutes and then an hour.
"It was excruciating to begin with but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to go on living," he told the Sunday Mirror.
Public health officials in the UK announced that addiction to social
media such as Facebook and Twitter is an illness and more than 100
patients sought treatment every year.
"Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-indulgence or
attention-seeking social dependence that raises the damned-if-you-do and
damned-if-you-don't spectre of either narcissism or low self-esteem,"
said Pamela Rutledge in Psychology Today.
The addiction to selfies has also alarmed health professionals in
Thailand. "To pay close attention to published photos, controlling who
sees or who likes or comments them, hoping to reach the greatest number
of likes is a symptom that 'selfies' are causing problems," said
Panpimol Wipulakorn, of the Thai Mental Health Department.
The doctor believed that behaviours could generate brain problems in the future, especially those related to lack of confidence.
The word "selfie" was elected "Word of the Year 2013" by the Oxford
English Dictionary. It is defined as "a photograph that one has taken of
oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social
media website".
8 facts you might not know about the genius Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was an electrical engineer, inventor and one of the most
outstanding physicists in the history of science. But beyond his
brilliant work, some aspects of his life remain hidden in the pages of
history.
Recently a new statue in honor of Tesla was unveiled in Long Island of
New York, which, according to historical data, was the final resting
place of the brilliant scientist.
Tesla won more than 700 patents and became famous for developing AC
(alternating current), while his work became the basis of developments
in wireless communications, radar, laser X rays, lighting, robotics, and
many other areas.
Beyond the scientific heritage that made him famous worldwide, his life had some aspects of it remain unknown to most people.
Read the secrets of Tesla’s life as presented by Jane Alcorn, president of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
1. The Tesla museum was funded by a cartoon
In May, the Wardenclyffe was purchased by the Tesla Science Center for $
1,370,000 donated by the website IndieGoGo. The campaign was started by
Matthew Inman, creator of the popular comic Oatmeal.
2. Some of Tesla’s inventions were classified
In 1943, when Tesla died, the Office of Alien Property took his stuff.
Most of these things were given to his family, and many were taken to
the Tesla Museum in Belgrade. However, some documents still remain
classified by the U.S. Government.
3. Tesla was an environmentalist
As Alcorn said, Tesla was “worried about the fact that people consume
the Earth’s resources too fast, so he wanted to make sure that these
resources were renewable“. Thus he studied the ways to gather the
natural energy from the ground and air. He created artificial lightning
in his lab and detected differences in electrical potential on Earth and
on high objects.
4. Tesla died a very poor humanist
Except of being environmentalist, the famous inventor was also a
humanist. According to Alcorn, “he did what he did for the sake of the
betterment of mankind and wanted to give people an opportunity to have a
better quality of life. Thus, he never seemed to care about monetary
gain and never had enough money for his research.” Although he had
famous friends such as Mark Twain and French actress Sarah Bernhardt, he
was never a wealthy man, unlike Edison and Westinghouse who proved much
more successful entrepreneurs.
5. Tesla suffered from insomnia and obsessive compulsive behaviors (OCD)
He claimed that he needed only two hours of sleep a night, although he
occasionally took an afternoon nap. Tesla hated round objects and
jewelry and could not bear to touch hair. Also he was obsessed with the
number three and had a habit of polishing each point of the dining room
before dining, using precisely 18 napkins.
6. He was celibate
Married life was not for Tesla, who once said: "I do not think you can
name many great inventions that have been made by married men." He
reportedly thought that sex would hinder his scientific work. 7. He was a "health-nut"
Tesla believed, as many modern-day health experts would agree, that a
sound body encouraged a sound mind. As such, he walked eight to 10 miles
a day and was very aware of staying fit. In the evenings before bed,
Tesla would complement his walks by curling his toes 100 times per foot.
He believed this stimulated brain cells. Tesla even became a vegetarian
in his later years, living on only milk, bread, honey, and vegetable
juices, as he believed this would benefit his health. 8. Hyper polyglot
Tesla spoke eight languages – Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French,
German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin – and the polyglot was more of a
hyper polyglot (one who can speak more than six languages with fluency)
with a high degree of proficiency.
Revolutionary membrane can keep your heart beating perfectly forever
You're looking at a rabbit's heart beating outside the animal that once
hosted it. It's alive, pumping blood on its own thanks to a
revolutionary electronic membrane that may save your life by keeping
your heart beating at a perfect rate.
They custom made it to precisely fit the shape of the rabbit's heart:
First, while the rabbit was still alive, they scanned it and created a
3D model using computer aided tomography. They manufactured the model in
a 3D printer, which they used as a mold to create the membrane. After
that they took the heart out, applied the membrane, and kept it beating
at a perfect pace.
Revolutionary membrane can keep your heart beating perfectly forever
But this device is not just a custom-made pacemaker. According to
University of Illinois' materials researcher John Rorgers, co-leader of
the team who has developed this device, it's like an artificial
pericardium, the natural membrane that covers the heart:
But this artificial pericardium is instrumented with high quality,
man-made devices that can sense and interact with the heart in different
ways that are relevant to clinical cardiology.
Washington University's biomedical engineer Igor Efimov says that it is a
huge advancement. The circuits you're seeing are a combination of
sensors that constantly track the tissues' behavior and electrodes that
precisely regulate the heart muscles movement:
When it senses such a catastrophic event as a heart attack or
arrhythmia, it can also apply a high definition therapy. So it can apply
stimuli, electrical stimuli, from different locations on the device in
an optimal fashion to stop this arrhythmia and prevent sudden cardiac
death.
Understand How the Wealthy Keep the Poor Folks Poor
Humans have a tendency to over-complicate things; that’s where Robert Reich comes in.
In the eyes of this economist and author who once served in the
governments of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, much of economic
policy is just an ideological war on those without money, by those with
money, who have dressed up the issue in a toxic garb of mythology and
pseudoscience.
Offer two minutes of your time and you will be swept into his
explanation of how such a scheme exists – and with only the aid of a
magic marker!
Give 2 Minutes to Understand How the Wealthy Keep the Poor Folks Poor
Humans have a tendency to over-complicate things; that’s where Robert Reich comes in.
In the eyes of this economist and author who once served in the
governments of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, much of economic
policy is just an ideological war on those without money, by those with
money, who have dressed up the issue in a toxic garb of mythology and
pseudoscience.
Offer two minutes of your time and you will be swept into his
explanation of how such a scheme exists – and with only the aid of a
magic marker!
Give 2 Minutes to Understand How the Wealthy Keep the Poor Folks Poor
Humans have a tendency to over-complicate things; that’s where Robert Reich comes in.
In the eyes of this economist and author who once served in the
governments of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, much of economic
policy is just an ideological war on those without money, by those with
money, who have dressed up the issue in a toxic garb of mythology and
pseudoscience.
Offer two minutes of your time and you will be swept into his
explanation of how such a scheme exists – and with only the aid of a
magic marker!
- See more at:
http://beyondblindfold.com/give-2-minutes-to-understand-how-the-wealthy-keep-the-poor-folks-poor.html#sthash.kckzqxNf.dpuf
Give 2 Minutes to Understand How the Wealthy Keep the Poor Folks Poor
Humans have a tendency to over-complicate things; that’s where Robert Reich comes in.
In the eyes of this economist and author who once served in the
governments of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, much of economic
policy is just an ideological war on those without money, by those with
money, who have dressed up the issue in a toxic garb of mythology and
pseudoscience.
Offer two minutes of your time and you will be swept into his
explanation of how such a scheme exists – and with only the aid of a
magic marker!
- See more at:
http://beyondblindfold.com/give-2-minutes-to-understand-how-the-wealthy-keep-the-poor-folks-poor.html#sthash.kckzqxNf.dpuf
Give 2 Minutes to Understand How the Wealthy Keep the Poor Folks Poor
Humans have a tendency to over-complicate things; that’s where Robert Reich comes in.
In the eyes of this economist and author who once served in the
governments of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, much of economic
policy is just an ideological war on those without money, by those with
money, who have dressed up the issue in a toxic garb of mythology and
pseudoscience.
Offer two minutes of your time and you will be swept into his
explanation of how such a scheme exists – and with only the aid of a
magic marker!
- See more at:
http://beyondblindfold.com/give-2-minutes-to-understand-how-the-wealthy-keep-the-poor-folks-poor.html#sthash.kckzqxNf.dpuf
The GoodThe Roku Streaming Stick
packs the entire Roku experience into a compact device that lives
behind your TV and costs just $50. Over 1,200 apps are available,
including Netflix, Amazon Instant, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Pandora, MLB.TV,
Amazon Cloud Player, Vudu, and Showtime Anytime. There's also a
cross-platform search function that combs through several major TV and
movie services to find content. And unlike the Chromecast, it has a real
remote and an onscreen interface, which tends to work better in the
living room.
The Bad Some
crucial apps, like Netflix and YouTube, take too long to boot up. And
the included remote doesn't have the neat headphone jack feature that's
available on the Roku 3 and Roku 2.
The Bottom LineRoku's
Streaming Stick offers tons of apps, a real remote, and a compact
design for just $50, but the slow bootup times of some key apps keep it
from being the ultimate streamer.
It's tough to beat $35. That's the challenge facing Roku's new Streaming Stick ($50), as it goes head-to-head with Google's Chromecast,
jockeying to be the best low-cost media streaming stick for the living
room. And Roku has a good case, as the $15 premium for the Streaming
Stick buys you a lot: a remote control, a polished onscreen interface
that includes cross-platform search, and a rich ecosystem of over 1,200
apps. Chromecast has made significant strides since its initial launch,
especially on the content side, but Roku remains a much more mature
platform.
It's all enough to make the Streaming Stick look like a
slam dunk from its spec sheet, but one major issue cropped up during
testing that I didn't expect: speed. While the Streaming Stick feels
swift when navigating menus, it's surprising slow to boot up a handful
of crucial apps: Netflix and YouTube take over 30 seconds to initially
load. It's not a problem with every app, but some apps are more
important than others, which is what raises the pokey Netflix boot times
from a nitpick to a notable frustration.
The speed doesn't
totally sink the Stick. Once you load one of the sluggish apps,
performance is as quick as you'd expect, so it's more of momentary
frustration than one you keep dealing with. But the sometimes sluggish
performance does keep it from being the best overall media streamer,
which remains the Roku 3, even at twice the price.
In
the $50-or-less category, though, the new Roku Streaming Stick is a
better buy than the Chromecast for those who want to take advantage of
the expanded content offerings or prefer a regular remote (like I do). You may, however, want to wait to see what Amazon has in store on April 2 before making a purchase.
Design: Roku box in a stick
Roku's
boxes have continued to shrink over the years, and the Streaming Stick
is the culmination of that process. It's essentially all the hardware of
a full-size Roku box packed into a device not much bigger than a USB
flash drive. The plastic casing sports Roku's signature purple color,
which won't be on display since it's designed to live behind your TV in a
spare HDMI port. (And it works with any HDMI port, unlike Roku's
original Streaming Stick, which required a newer TV with an MHL port.)
The
back-of-the-TV placement would leave the Stick almost entirely
concealed, except it needs power, which it can get from a USB port on
your TV or via the included power adapter. That means you'll have a bit
of cable clutter behind your set, and the once-coiled USB cable can be a
little unruly.
There's
not much else to the device, save for a Micro-USB port, a small
indicator light, and a tiny button that you can use to reset the stick
if it freezes up. At just a little over 3 inches long, it's easy to
throw in a bag for traveling, although be forewarned that hotel Wi-Fi doesn't always play nice with media streamers, regardless of the brand.
In
terms of internal hardware, the Streaming Stick has 1080p output and
dual-band Wi-Fi support, and Roku says the internal chip is similar to
the one in the Roku 1 -- more on that later.
If
you're familiar with the Chromecast, everything should sound familiar
so far, as it's very similar to Google's streamer. But while the
hardware is largely the same, the two streamers have different
approaches when it comes to navigation and finding content.
A real remote and user interface
Unlike
the Chromecast, Roku's Streaming Stick includes a remote in the box.
It's essentially the same remote you'd get with Roku's other budget
streaming boxes, although it works via Wi-Fi Direct, so it can
communicate with the Stick when it's hidden behind your TV. If you were
hoping the remote would include Roku's neat headphone-jack feature,
you're out of luck, as that functionality is still available only on the
Roku 2 and Roku 3.
Note
that the remote doesn't have the neat headphone jack for private
listening; you'll still need to get a Roku 2 or Roku 3 if you want that
feature.The
Streaming Stick also includes Roku's standard user interface, which is
best-in-class at this point. While an onscreen display and a remote may
seem old-fashioned compared with the Chromecast's "your smartphone is
your remote" approach, I personally find it to provide a better
experience in the living room, as it means I can keep my eyes on the TV,
instead of shuttling my attention between two screens. Especially when
one of those screens may be reminding me about notifications and emails
that I'm typically trying to unplug from when watching TV.
In
addition to the remote and onscreen interface experience, you can also
control the Streaming Stick with Roku's mobile app, which is available
on Android
and iOS. And for Netflix and YouTube, you can also "cast" content
straight to the Roku box from those respective Android and iOS apps,
just as you can with a Chromecast. (And Roku says it's working on adding
casting functionality for more apps.) In other words, if you're a
"smartphone-as-remote" fan, you can throw the Roku remote into a drawer
and never touch it again.
Ultimately, the Streaming Stick gives
the best of both worlds, letting you control via smartphone -- including
"casting" from major apps -- but also providing the traditional remote
experience.
#Roku, better than Google's Chromecast.
#Roku
#Google's Chromecast.
#Chromecast
