News I found interesting in the last week

I like to peruse the headlines of several different online news sites and read whatever catches my attention. Here’s what caught my attention this past week or so. I know Brett just skims these when I do them, but Brett – you’re mentioned in relation to one, so skim a little closer.

Scientific American Mind & Brain | How a New Father’s Brain Changes – I found the differences in how our threat reaction area of the brain changes for moms and dads particularly interesting. I also thought the correlation between the amount of change and the degree of depression interesting too.

Scientific American | Q&A: Why Is Blue Light before Bedtime Bad for Sleep? – I loved the irony of reading this one late at night. But since reading it I’ve been trying to be better at making sure checking my screens is not the last thing I do before bed. And, surprise, I’m getting some projects done because I’m sewing or knitting before bed instead.

NPR | Ancient Tomb In Spain Destroyed And Replaced With A Picnic Table – Not entirely funny because of all the ancient sites ISIS is destroying right now in the name of religion while also using the sale of ancient artifacts to fund their jihad (if you’re going to do a holy war, don’t be a hypocrite about it). But still, oops.

NPR | Can You Use That In A Sentence? Dictionary Adds New Words – Ah the joy of a living language. I’ll agree that some of these have earned the right to be in the dictionary, but I must not be hip enough because I can’t get on board with all of them.

Scientific American | How Cities Can Beat the Heat – It seems education isn’t the only field where people jump on idea band-wagons before they figure out if their solution contributes to the problem or not. Let’s hope they can figure out what we’ve already known about reducing heat before they do too much damage trying to make their own bad ideas work.

Scientific American | The Race to Save the Bonneville Salt Flats from a Slushy Demise – The thing I like best about this is that the mining company is taking a very active, and voluntary, role in preserving nature rather than just bleeding it dry. Go them!

Scientific American | Marble Race–in Liquid! – Iddo, Shimri, Shimei, and I will have a lot of fun with this when I can trust all three of them to not eat the marbles.

Scientific American | Is “Baby Brain” a Myth? – YES! It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy and a myth. Anyone that tired and that distracted will be forgetful and slow. Our brains are amazing but they can only handle so much before they need a break.

Scientific American | Neil deGrasse Tyson, Scientific American Fan – I just really like this guy. He’s classy. He’s fun. He’s smart. He’s a lot like Brett (I like Brett better). I think if someone asked me to name someone living I’d like to have dinner with I’d pick Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Brett.

BBC | How does Usain Bolt run so fast? – When they say he’s practically flying, they’re right. When I run it’s not nearly the flying that he does, but it’s the closest I’ll get on my own, so I love it.

BBC | Nottinghamshire baby filmed from conception to birth – Our kids aren’t quite as filmed, but we do have their 3-day, 8-cell photos and with Shimri and Shimei I had almost weekly ultrasounds so we could at least put together a pretty good slide show for them.

BBC | Tackling the deadliest day for Japanese teenagers – This is one of the things nobody mentions in the US when they say we need to model our education system after those in other countries. My heart goes out to those students.

New York Times | Backpack Makers Rethink a Student Staple – This one caught my attention because I just bought my first backpack since my undergraduate years and I spent several nights looking at different types on-line and figuring out what kind of pockets I needed and who had what I wanted. I’ll be using this new backpack as my Mom bag, the bag I take with me when I’ve got kids with me and need to keep track of their drinks, snacks, toys, diapers, etc. I love that they interviewed both extreme mountain climbers and the homeless as part of their research. College often feels like a combination of the two. So does motherhood depending on the day, especially the extreme mountain climbing bit.