How Expressing Gratitude Might Change Your Brain -- Science of Us A lot of so-called “positive psychology” can seem a bit flaky, especially if you’re the sort of person disinclined to respond well to an admonition to “look on the bright side.” But positive psychologists have published some interesting findings, and one of the more robust ones is that feeling grateful is very good for you. Time and again, studies have shown that performing simple gratitude exercises, like keeping a gratitude diary or writing letters of thanks, can bring a range of benefits, such as feelings of increased well-being and reduced depression, that often linger well after the exercises are finished. Now a brain-scanning study in NeuroImage brings us a little closer to understanding why these exercises have these effects. The Indiana University researchers, led by Prathik Kini, recruited 43 people who were undertaking counseling sessions as a treatment for their anxiety or depression. Dr.
Public Speaking – What Fortune 500s Know | Patricia Fripp What can you do to equip your employees with competitive communication and leadership skills? Does your organization encourage, or even better, provide training to equip your employees with competitive communication and leadership skills? Have you considered your own in-house Toastmasters club or perhaps Fripp Virtual Training? If you are reluctant to allocate employee time or company resources to presentation training because you worry “they might leave,” consider what my friend and colleague Jim Cathcart says, “What if you don’t train them, and they stay?” When I work with my favorite corporate clients, such as Microsoft and Genentech, I ask, “How many Toastmasters clubs do you have on campus?” Usually for a large company there are several. Do your employees have the training, practice, and tools they need to communicate and lead effectively? Whether you are a beginner or seasoned speaker you can dramatically improve the quality of your presentations with Fripp Virtual Training.
The 20 Most Influential Academic Books of All Time: No Spoilers Image by Let Ideas Compete, via Flickr Commons Sometimes I’ll meet someone who mentions having written a book, and who then adds, “… well, an academic book, anyway,” as if that didn’t really count. True, academic books don’t tend to debut at the heights of the bestseller lists amid all the eating, praying, and loving, but sometimes lightning strikes; sometimes the subject of the author’s research happens to align with what the public believes they need to know. History has shown, in any case, that academic books can become influential. The top spot went to Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, which Flood quotes the University of Glasgow’s Andrew Prescott as calling “the supreme demonstration of why academic books matter,” one that “changed the way we think about everything – not only the natural world, but religion, history and society. So you want to write an academic book this influential? via The Guardian Related Content: 800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices
theconversation How do you create a generation that can think its way out of problems and face the challenges of a rapidly changing world? The Davos meeting this year is all about how we can cope with the immense challenges posed by the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution” – an era of rapid and complex technological change, where our role in the world is resting on shifting sands. The next generation of workers will have to be properly equipped to meet these enormous challenges. I will be taking part in several panel discussions at the World Economic Forum 2016 at Davos and as part of this, I will be trying to convince the policy makers and power brokers at the Swiss ski resort that we must insert practical philosophy into the heart of schooling. Through my roles in the British Philosophical Association and the Philosophy in Education project (PEP), I support the continuation of a philosophy A Level and the introduction of a philosophy GCSE. This is true only up to a point. Questions of belief
Punk rock is part of what makes me a good teacher | Teacher Network Nancy Barile is an English teacher at Revere high school in Boston, US. She is a professor at the graduate school of education at Boston’s Emmanuel College and has been teaching for 20 years. I became a teacher at 35. It was always my calling, but it took me a little while to get there. My father had wanted me to study law instead of teaching, so for 11 years I worked as a paralegal and was unfulfilled. I started teacher training at 25. In my first year of teaching one of my students was killed by a gang. I just listened – no one had really done this before. Thankfully, no more violence broke out. It’s important to provide people with an alternative path. I used to manage punk rock bands in my early 20s – it’s really helped me as a teacher. We had this great do-it-yourself work ethic where anything was possible, and that has translated well into being a teacher. At my school we run a fantastic project called Axis of Hope.
Men: Don’t Do This With An Emotional Woman. Author’s note: Both men and women can struggle with this one. In fact, it’s a really common human problem. However, I chose to talk to men, since men seem a little more asleep at the wheel when it comes to listening and validating their partner. Let’s face it. Men are slower and more dense than women when it comes to relationship skills. It’s not our fault, though, we just didn’t get the training in our childhood. In other words, we got trained out of our relational sensitivity as boys. This led me to being a grown man who “couldn’t do relationship” and I was a complete failure at intimacy for over ten years. I was a fairly typical guy—when the women I dated got emotional, I’d run away, or make them wrong. So, fellas, if you want your woman to soften and open to you, and you want less drama, stop your whining and complaining and definitely don’t “frack” on her. What the frack does that mean? But why do guys Frack? Didn’t watch the vid? Here’s a quick summary of no F.R.A.C.K.I.N.G No Fixing:
Slavoj Žižek: Prezirem pomodnu humanitarnost prema izbjeglicama Slovenski filozof Slavoj Žižek izjavio je u srijedu da prezire pomodnu humanitarnost koja se u Europi pokazala u odnosu prema migrantima i izbjeglicama. "Prezirem humanitarnost koja je sada tako u modi, pa i u Sloveniji", kazao je Žižek u raspravi na ljubljanskom "Festivalu tolerancije" koji završava u četvrtak. Riječ je o smotri filmova i nastupa kulturnih djelatnika, mislilaca i filozofa o problemima multikulturalizma, koju je prije više godina u slovenskom glavnom gradu pokrenuo Branko Lustig i čiji je nastanak potaknut održavanjem zagrebačkog festivala židovskog filma. Organizatori ljubljanskog Međunarodnog festivala tolerancije su Mini teater i Židovski kulturni center Ljubljana. Hina
Interview with Nik Peachey – ‘bucking the NS trend’. – TEFL Equity Advocates In this Talk to the Expert interview TEA talks to Nik Peachey, who is currently a recruiter at an on-line school English Up. We discuss his views about NESTs and NNESTs, hiring policies, and the reasons why he thinks bilingual teachers have an advantage over monolingual ones. The interview was trigger by a very interesting post ‘Bucking the NS trend’ Nik wrote in which he argued that hiring bilingual teachers might be a much better choice than monolingual NS. You can read the article here. You can watch the whole interview below. Complete interview Interview with Nik Peachey part 1 – introduction In Part 1 Nik introduces himself and talks a bit about his new project, an on-line school called English Up. Interview with Nik Peachey Part 2 – bucking the NS trend In Part 2 Nik discusses how English Up is ‘bucking the NS trend’, and highlights that bilingual teachers are much more popular than NS teachers. Interview with Nik Peachey Part 3 – market demand for NS Like this: Like Loading... Related
String Theory Might Merge With the Other Theory of Everything Eight decades have passed since physicists realized that the theories of quantum mechanics and gravity don’t fit together, and the puzzle of how to combine the two remains unsolved. In the last few decades, researchers have pursued the problem in two separate programs — string theory and loop quantum gravity — that are widely considered incompatible by their practitioners. But now some scientists argue that joining forces is the way forward. Among the attempts to unify quantum theory and gravity, string theory has attracted the most attention. Its premise is simple: Everything is made of tiny strings. Loop quantum gravity, by contrast, is concerned less with the matter that inhabits space-time than with the quantum properties of space-time itself. This approach has long been thought incompatible with string theory. These and other differences have split the theoretical physics community into deeply divergent camps. But a number of factors may be pushing the camps closer together. T.
The transition that never ends: The ongoing cycle of expat Stayers, Goers and Newbies | The Culture Blend It’s not yet Christmas . . . and already I’m thinking about June. There is a reason for that. Where I live people come and go . . . a lot. That’s the part that they don’t put in the brochure when you move abroad . . . “Adventure of a lifetime — Explore exotic lands! Sign here. It is a big painful part of the expat experience though. Not knocking that since . . . you know . . . Here’s the kicker: As long as you live abroad — TRANSITION NEVER STOPS. Ever. The big ones on either end are significant to be sure but it’s the little ones in the middle that will get you. We are Stayers, Goers and Newbies figuring out life things together. If coming and going only impacted June I think it would be manageable. If it looked like this it would still be hard but doable . . . But it doesn’t. It actually looks more like this . . . So it makes sense really. That I’m thinking about June in November. Now is the time when people (my friends) are making decisions. Everyone is at risk. Stayers are at risk Like this:
Žižek: Rješenje izbjegličke krize je rekonstrukcija globalnoga društva | NACIONAL.HR Filozof Slavoj Žižek ustvrdio je, gostujući u subotu navečer u Filozofskome teatru HNK-a, kako je jedino rješenje aktualne izbjegličke krize, ma kako ono izgledalo utopistički, rekonstrukcija globalnoga društva koja će riješiti uzroke krize, ocijenivši da obje danas prevladavajuće opcije – lijeva liberalna i ona ‘orbanovska’ – sprječavaju to rješenje. Žižek je svoje izlaganje u Filozofskome teatru, kao što je prethodno i najavio na predstavljanju njegove drame “Antigona”, usredotočio upravo na izbjegličku krizu, a ne na samu dramu kako je bilo najavaljeno. Uvodno je iznio stajalište kako je inzistiranje na uništenju Islamske države deklarativno, a on je uvjeren kako bismo se trebali bezuvjetno fokusirati na uništenje Islamske države. Ali, upozorio je, “mnogi su, pa čak i Izrael, sumnjivo oprezni u osudi te države, naravno iz oportunističkih razloga jer se Islamska država bori protiv Irana koji je za Izrael jedna od najvećih neprijatelja”. Žižek: ja sam radikalni pesimist Komentiraj