- Mitt Romney may not like Big Bird, but science clearly
does. Because knowing how the giant yellow avian and “Sesame Street” resident
is important to the learning and cognitive development of everyone who watches
the popular children’s show, a team of researchers studied 27 children between the ages of 4 and 11
and 20 adults who all watched the same 20-minute "Sesame Street"
recording as they had their brains scanned with functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI). What they learned, according to lead researcher Jessica
Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Rochester in New York,
was that "when children fail to learn mathematics well, there could be a
number of different reasons for that — it could be that they have weak concepts
of numbers, that they have poor memory, that they have limited attention.”
Cantlon and her colleagues focused on analyzing what happens when a person
watches an educational television program. The video in the study featured a
variety of short clips with Big Bird, the Count, Elmo and other stars of the
show, and focused on numbers, words, shapes and other subjects. After watching
the clip, the children took standardized IQ tests for math and verbal ability. "This
took three years," Cantlon said. "Working with children can be
challenging ... It also took time for us to get the analyses right." Armed
with this data, researchers used statistical algorithms to create "neural maps" of the thought
processes for the children and the adults and compared the groups. They
discovered that children whose neural maps more closely resembled those of
adults scored better on standardized math and verbal tests. This indicates that
the brain's neural structure, like other parts of the body, apparently develops
along predictable pathways as people mature. It also confirmed where these
developing abilities are located in the brain. For those with higher math
scores, adult-like neural patterns are based in the intraparietal sulcus, a
region of the brain involved with the processing of numbers. For verbal tasks,
the more mature patterns were based in Broca's area, which is linked to speech
and language. Watching "Sesame Street" actually proved to be a better
way of learning about "neural maturity" than typical fMRI studies
that include matching simple pictures of faces, numbers, words or shapes and
even though Cantlon and her team stressed that there was nothing special about “Sesame
Street” as opposed to other similar children’s television programs, maybe it’s
time to give the bird his due respect………
- Rajon Rondo doesn’t take failure well. That much was
evident in the playoffs four years ago when his team was struggling to beat an
inferior Chicago Bulls team and rather than allow an easy basket to Bulls
center Brad Miller, Rondo fish-hooked him right in the mouth and nearly
decapitated Miller. Now that his Celtics are old, struggling and not very deep,
Rondo isn’t reacting much better. With his squad sitting at 14-17
on the season now and looking like a team that struggle just to make the
playoffs, Rondo was asked why the team is struggling so much this season. .
“The frustrating part is just losing,” he said. “I’m a sore loser. It’s tough
to lose….everybody isn’t. “You’ll learn that everybody isn’t a sore loser. Some
teams are OK with losing. Some guys are OK with just getting a check. But
everything I do, I compete. So, this four-game losing streak is frustrating.”
When asked who the unnamed teammates were that aren’t as bothered as they
should be by losing, Rondo refused to name names. Still, he and a competitive
hard-ass like Kevin Garnett leading a team that is struggling just to stay
above .500 and make the playoffs just feels wrong and even if the Celtics are
several steps behind the East’s best teams, Miami and New York, they just don’t
feel like a lottery team. However, Rondo’s words do underscore the fact that
there always have been and always will be some athletes who are torn up inside
by losing and can't shake it from their mind, while others walk out the locker
room door and forget about their troubles at work until they hit the practice
court the next day……..
- How devoted are you to your favorite cause, political or
otherwise? Before answering that question, take a moment to slot your response
on a continuum ranging from “Don’t give a damn” to “Willing to plunge a sharp
implement into my abdomen in protest” because as of today, that’s the mark to
aim for. Why? Because as handful of protesters assembled at Gimpo Airport outside Seoul on
Friday ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his aide’s arrival and
one stabbed himself in the stomach with a small knife in protest. Tension between
the two nations remains high due in large part to Japan's rule of Korea and an
island dispute and South Korea's president-elect said on Friday that Japan
needed to come to terms with its colonial history. Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe stoked the flames of the feud during a recent interview in which he
delcared that he wanted to issue a statement that would supersede a landmark
1995 apology for Japan's military aggression against South Korea. In other
words, the prime minister wants a take-back for the tyranny Japan enforced upon
South Korea from 1910-1945. Japan's top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga,
confirmed Abe’s plan, but insisted the 1995 statement by then-premier Tomiichi
Murayama would stand. "The two sides must have a correct view of history
and pursue a future of reconciliation and cooperation," South Korean
President-elect Park Geun-hye said in response. Japan is angry at South Korea
for cancelling plans for an intelligence deal last year while a $57 billion
currency swap and on Thursday, a Seoul court ruled that a Chinese citizen who
carried out an arson attack on the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead in Tokyo could
not be extradited to Japan as he had committed a "political crime"
and might not get a fair trial. Still, there is no better indication of just
how serious the situation has become than one kook’s willingness to lurk
outside an airport and ram a sharp blade into his gut in a show of defiance………
- A lot of people make Las Vegas runs for a lot of
different reasons, but none as awesome or truly American as about 800 men and
women who have descended upon Sin City this week for the 2013 World Series of Beer Pong at the Flamingo
Hotel & Casino. Nothing is as quintessentially American as dudes and chicks
standing at one end of a ping-pong table and trying to bounce a ball into a
plastic cup of beer at the opposite end…..just to a) see if they can and b) get
drunk in the process. Teams pay $1,000 to enter and if they win, they cash in
the $50,000 grand prize. What makes the event fun is that those involved know that
they’re not revolutionizing the world or competing in the world’s biggest
competitive sport. WSOBP owner Billy Gaines described the beer pong
championships as “...a stupid little game. You throw balls into cups.” However,
it’s a stupid little game that anyone old enough to drink can play and the
tournament itself is open to anyone, with no qualifying events to secure a spot
in Vegas. "These people come out here not because they like to drink but
because they like to meet people, have a good time," Gaines said. Staying
sober enough to compete and enjoy the costumes, loud music and beer pong
smack talk is also key, so competitors must find a way to down the cheap beer
while also being coordinated enough to bounce small plastic balls into that red
solo cup. Just how much cheap alcohol does it take to fuel 800 teams through
every single round of the World Series of Beer Pong? Gains estimates 125 to 150
kegs of beer will be used before the tournament ends Friday night, meaning
those in the room vying for the title won't be much drunker than the other Vegas
visitors hoping to win enough to take that dream safari in Africa……..
- Dave Grohl is a busy dude. Maybe not as busy as everywhere-man Jack
White and his litany of side projects, but Grohl is getting there. When he’s
not busy fronting one of the biggest rock bands in the world, the Foo Fighters’
leader is a part of rock super group Them Crooked Vultures and as of Jan. 18,
he will add another super group to his to-do list. The new group, named Sound
City Players, will perform for the first time at this year's Sundance Film
Festival. Grohl will take the stage with guests and musicians featured in his
documentary on the now-closed Sound City recording studios in Van Nuys, Calif.
The impressive list of artists in the film include Fleetwood Mac's Stevie
Nicks, Beatles member Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Josh
Homme from Queens of the Stone Age. One studio recording from the super group,
“Cut Me Some Slack,” was put
online on Dec. 17. No one expects Sound City Players to become a permanent
entity, but Grohl has plenty on his plate without another full-time commitment.
On Dec. 12, he and McCartney teamed up to
front a band comprising the former members of Nirvana at the 12-12-12 Sandy
benefit concert in New York. After performing at Sundance in Park City, Utah, Grohl can focus more of his
time and energy on preparing to deliver he keynote speech at this year's
South By Southwest festival in Austin, Tex. on March 14. Oh, and he can also be
heard drumming on the forthcoming Queens
Of The Stone Age album. While he may still be a few side projects and a
full-time gig running a record label behind White, Grohl is closing the gap
quickly………
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