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The term "soap opera" conjures up images of extremely dramatic television scenarios that rarely end well. For most Americans soap operas are a guilty pleasure, but in a few developing countries, writers use soap operas to send messages of issues affecting its audience. Soap operas in Kenya and Peru are shown during primetime so there are more people watching them than the U.S daytime soaps. Through character plot, soaps are teaching their audiences everything from how to spot and treat malaria to the consequences of unprotected sex. Even though audiences view the shows as nothing but entertainment, regional studies show that the messages are being subconsciously understood. Viewers of one popular South Africa soap are nearly four times as likely to use condoms than non viewers. For more statistics read the full New York times article at the link above.

Anxiety disorders account for more visits to a mental hospital each year than any other psychological issue. In reality however, people should be checking themselves in for a fear disorder, not anxiety. There is a fine between the two but also a fairly simple one: a fear is triggered by the presence of a stimulus (ie, a snake in your garden) while anxiety occurs because a person is anticipating a threat that does not physically exist. For example, after the 9/11 attacks many New Yorkers would get anxiety whenever they saw a plane in the sky. Anxiety is caused by a previous fear. When we are in a familiar place where we once encountered a physical fear, our brain connects that place with a memory, triggering anxiety. Therefore, one can even say that anxiety is caused by an overzealous imagination. From this perspective, imagination may not always be such a great thing after all.

A recent research has found clear connections between good nutrition and a healthy brain. Previously studies linked vitamin deficiencies to bad cognition. But this new study uses biomarkers in the blood to determine the relationship between vitamins and brain health. For research purpose of this study, the researchers adapted a more reliable method of looking at the biomarkers in the blood of the 104 participants and determine their vitamin levels. Apart from this they also conducted MRI scans and took tests to measure thinking and memory functions of the participants. As expected, they found some striking relations between nutrition and brain health. People with high level of omega-3 fatty acids, vitmain C,D,E and B family had good performance in cognitive tests. On the other hand, people with high levels of trans fats score low in memory tests. They also determined that nutrient biomarkers accounted for 17 percent and other variables like age, education and high blood pressure accounted for more than 46 percent of thinking and memory test. Though the results of the findings need to be confirmed but certainly its very amazing that in future people would be able to provide best nutrients to their brains and hence maintain cognitive health.

Rice explores housing changes in the new economy. The magazine, Builder, creates a new “concept home” every year. This year they called the concept the “Home for the New Economy.” For years the trend has been for homes to increase in size, but with the economy changes, companies are trying to decrease the size of homes to make them more affordable. The square footage is on a trend to decrease. Marianne Cusato designed Katrina Cottages to replace the government trailers set up after Katrina and they are just 300 square feet. Rice writes that the trend of building smaller homes didn't start because of the economy necessarily. Other people have influenced the trend such as Henry David Thoreau's cabin near Walden Pond which only is 150 square feet. Some people suggest that the consumers always choose size over quality. The average size of the American homes built peaked at 2,500 square feet in 2007, which had proved odd because household size had declined. Residences in lower class areas are much larger compared to ones in Europe. Culturally, in America, home size is an expression of wealth. In the industry today smaller homes are selling more reliably, but not necessarily because consumers desire less.

Teaching in batches from one central pedagogue has been the traditional method of teaching since Ancient Greece – The opportunities offered by the digital age include flexibility for different ages and abilities, as well as a horizontal transfer of knowledge, taught by students to other students, rather than a vertical transfer from Lecturer to student. This has been capitalized on by the Khan Academy, TED, and other video learning tools. As technology has progressed, teaching styles have not kept pace – many lectures feel threatened by these new teaching options, but do not know how to best utilize them in the classroom. The current model of teaching has long been criticized for teaching knowledge about, rather than understanding, of concepts. Some of the difficulties involved are in assessing how quickly and effectively a student learns a topic, so that their progress is constant with their colleagues – as although the teaching method can develop, the assessment methods will change much more slowly.