martes, 30 de octubre de 2012
Bet You Didn't Know: Halloween
It's one of America's favorite holidays, but what's the real story behind the tricks and treats of Halloween?
Halloween
Ancient Origins of Halloween
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
Halloween Comes to America
Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.
Today's Halloween Traditions
The American Halloween tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
Halloween Superstitions
Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.
But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today's trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands' faces. Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.
Of course, whether we're asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same "spirits" whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.
sábado, 27 de octubre de 2012
Cyberbullying: Are Teens Really in Danger?
Parents of pre-teens and adolescents have a lot to worry about, but a new study says cyberbullying isn’t nearly as rampant as many believe.
According to two national studies of 5,000 young people, only 15% said they’d been bullied online last year. In a presentation to the American Psychological Association, Michele Ybarra, research director at the non-profit Center for Innovative Public Health Research, said past studies showed the cyberbullying rate ranked from 30 to 72%, far more than the current studies show.
“We assume it’s this overwhelming thing, that everybody’s being bullied and that it’s inescapable — that’s not totally accurate,” said Ybarra.
High-profile cases, including that of college student Tyler Clementi, who killed himself after his roommate used a webcam to spy on his homosexual encounters, as well as other cases of children being bullied online, have caused people to believe that most young people are harassed online, but Ybarra said the survey shows that it may not be so prominent.
“Because we’re seeing stories that are really serious,” Ybarra said, “it does give this sort of sense that it is happening all over the place.”
But should parents breathe a sigh of relief and not be so concerned — and with the school year starting in upcoming days, ease their careful watch over their children’s online activities? Not so fast, warn other experts.
What Is Cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying expert Dr. Joel Haber told NBC News part of the problem is that there is so much debate over what cyberbullying is, that surveys such as the one Ybarra discussed don’t really encompass what hazards teens face online.
Traditional bullying involves repeated abuse by one person in power over the victim, Haber says, but online, power is determined by how popular teens are in the digital world, measured for example on Facebook, where having more friends means more status.
Many people, even cyberbullying victims, think that online harassment needs to happen more than once to be considered bullying — but sometimes it only has to happen once to affect a young person’s self-worth and ego.
“Whether it’s kids being exclusionary online or being mean online, harassment happens more frequently than real cyberbullying, where somebody has more power over you and hurts you,” Haber said.
And those one-time incidents are happening more often than people admit, possibly because teens and their parents don’t find the threats severe enough to complain. The new studies, while saying cyberbullying incidents are over-reported, found that nearly half the teens reported being victims of cyber harassment at least once.
How Does it Happen?
With the growth of Facebook and Twitter, teens are more connected than ever — especially since mobile devices keep them online even when they’re not home.
Mobile devices, though, are a true cyberbully’s dream. When people first got home computers, they were careful to keep them in a central location in their home, where parents could keep an eye on their children’s activities.
This meant that not only could parents protect their children from cyberbullying — but they could watch their children to make sure they weren’t treating others badly online. However, mobile devices mean teens are more likely to be online and away from adult supervision. And if teens don’t complain to their parents and the adults aren’t monitoring their online activities, sometimes the cyberbullying raises to a fever pitch — and can escalate to tragedy — before someone takes action.
How it Crosses the Line
Teens are naturally sarcastic with each other, so it can be a slippery slope from teasing to harassment and then on to cyberbullying. Haber says much of what’s said online is taken literally because it lacks tone and context, meaning even the most innocent-seeming words can seem threatening to an unsuspecting person.
“Lots of kids report that other kids say mean or hurtful things online or that they purposely leave them out of group things online,” Haber said. “But because they don’t have the context, they don’t know if it was intentional.”
Cyberbullying is mainly centered in power, just like real-life bullying. And similarly, sometimes a good “punch,” or a denial of service, is all it takes to make a bully back down.
For example, police recently arrested a British teen and released him with a warning about harassing Olympic diver Tom Daley online, after the athlete said he wanted to win the gold to honor his father, a victim of brain cancer. When Daley didn’t medal, the 17-year-old tweeted, “You let your dad down i hope you know that.”
Being online also gives some people a sense of power they don’t otherwise have, and they take advantage of it. After all, when you’re online, particularly on Twitter, nobody knows how big you are, or how strong, or where you are. And often, there are very few repercussions for cyberbullying, beyond being kicked off Facebook or Twitter — and any teen knows how to get around that by creating a new, fake profile.
Psychologists say attacks increase when people can’t see the faces of those they’re harassing, and this sense of bravado increases when they don’t think they’ll get caught.
Since all non-verbal cues like body language and tone are removed online, it’s easy to let a situation escalate, experts say, meaning people who would never throw a punch in person have no problem throwing verbal jabs at each other behind the protection of a hashtag.
How Do You Fight a Cyberbully?
Even if a teen doesn’t realize he or she is being bullied, they still know when someone’s harassing them. And for a person whose self-esteem may be low anyway — as is the case with many teenagers by nature — a cyberbully or a group of them may chip away at their self-worth, sometimes with tragic consequences.
And even if teens are reporting being cyberbullied less, they’re not equating that with harassment, which could be much more subtle but every bit as dangerous. Experts suggest teens be very careful online, whether on a computer or mobile device, and limit their contacts to only the safe people they know — and block the rest.
Cyberbullies — just like those bullies back in the day on the playground — target people over whom they believe they’ll have some power. And when teens start reporting those bullies to their parents, to Facebook and Google, or even to school leaders, they have an opportunity to take away the harasser’s power.
If that starts happening more often, future studies will continue to report these most recent findings that cyberbullying isn’t the epidemic people think, and cyberbullying will lose some of its power.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, monkeybusinessimages
domingo, 21 de octubre de 2012
Download and know some magazines!
SFX - September 2012
English | 140 pages | PDF | 120 Mb
SFX is the Earth's greatest sci-fi and fantasy magazine. We cover all areas of sci-fi and fantasy across TV, movies, books, games, collectables and comics. We bring you news, features, exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes stories, star profiles and TV episode guides. All this stuff makes us the market-leading genre magazine.
Download Links:
Paranormal N.64 - 2012
English | 90 Pages | PDF | 12.66 Mb[/center]
Paranormal magazine delves into the dark world of ghosts, UFOs, strange creatures, weird phenomena, folklore and magic. Engaging, intriguing, fascinating - sometimes startling - sometimes scary - Paranormal magazine never fails to entertain with its down to earth approach to some way-out subjects. Expect the unexpected with Paranormal magazine.
Download Links:
Rolling Stone USA - 25 October 2012
English | PDF | 88 pages | 72 MB
English | PDF | 88 pages | 72 MB
Every issue of Rolling Stone is packed with cutting-edge reporting, provacative photos and raw interviews with the people who shape the scene and rock the world.
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Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine - November 2012
English | PDF | 148 pages | 101 MB
English | PDF | 148 pages | 101 MB
Juxtapoz magazine presents a gallery of underground artists who influence much of the fashion, graphics and new art we see today and its readers are the tastemakers who discern the newest cultural trends. Full-color layouts presenting painters, street artists, sculptors, cartoonists, and photographers are featured along with interviews, rare portfolios, sketches, and reviews. Juxtapoz is the brainchild of Robert Williams, world-renowned artist and father of the widely popular school of cartoon surrealism. Target audience is teens to hip adults.
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MAD Magazine #509 (2011)
CBR | English | 68.8 MB | 60 pages
CBR | English | 68.8 MB | 60 pages
Written and illustrated by THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS. Stumped when it comes to what gift you're going to get your Valentine's Day sweetheart this year? Why not the newest issue of MAD MAGAZINE! Sure, they didn't ask for it, but who cares what they think?
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Comics and Gaming Canada Magazine August-September 2012
English | 90 pages | PDF | 74.80 MB
English | 90 pages | PDF | 74.80 MB
C&G Magazine magazine arrived on the Canadian literary landscape in February 2010, focusing on comics, graphic novels, and gaming.
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Men's Health USA Magazine - October 2012
PDF | 186 pages | 105.72 Mb | English
PDF | 186 pages | 105.72 Mb | English
Men's Health is the go-to magazine for men, looking to improve all aspects of their lives, from fitness and health to relationships, career and nutrition.
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Women's Health USA - September 2012
English | 166 pages | True PDF | 50.33 MB
English | 166 pages | True PDF | 50.33 MB
Women's Health - it's good to be You! Focusing on what you can do, right now, to improve your life.
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Cosmopolitan USA November 2012
English | 236 pages | PDF | 146.16 MB
English | 236 pages | PDF | 146.16 MB
Cosmopolitan Magazine: So long as it pertains to women, no subject is off limits for Cosmopolitan, an unabashed quality that has most definitely been a key factor in the magazine's success. What began in 1886 as a family magazine has since transformed into an icon of feminine fearlessness for contemporary women around the world. While it is widely known for its detailed coverage of sex and relationships, Cosmopolitan explores an array of topics, including social trends, fashion and beauty, pop culture and entertainment, and much more. With expert career advice, inspirational personal stories and articles on health and fitness, Cosmopolitan encourages women to follow their dreams and live a happy, well-rounded life.
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Source: http://downmagaz.ws/
miércoles, 17 de octubre de 2012
The Finland Phenomenon: Secrets of a surprising education system
What is the secret of one of the most successful educational systems and of a very well balanced life style and society?
In Finland, schools are small and there is a maximum of 20 children per class. The student-teacher relationship is very important and there is a need for reciprocal communication instead of a teacher-based one. In a normal class (75 minutes), teacher talking time should be of 40% and the other 60% should be dedicated to student intervention.
The way of assessment is also peculiar. Children and adolescents practically don’t have any tests until the end of High school. During the whole process it is up to the student to learn. Obtaining marks is not the main objective. The teacher´s role is to guide the children and adolescents towards the right answer, encourage them to learn on their own behalf and make sure they are the creators of new knowledge. To instruct, Finnish teachers don’t use transmitted concepts to be learned by heart. On the contrary, the inquiry is to solve problems through research and practice.
New technologies are indispensable. Teachers use them not only to instruct but also as a tool for students. They use programs as Moodle, an online learning environment, where you can upload and share projects, make comments and be evaluated by your teacher and classmates.
There is barely any homework. Learning is based on the representation of practical situations
. The government invests in resources for kids needing extra help. Transdisciplinary themes are used to connect different subjects.
. The government invests in resources for kids needing extra help. Transdisciplinary themes are used to connect different subjects.
High school students can choose between anacademic (theories) or vocational (learn a profession) track. 45% of the students choose the second one. However, the system is so flexible that you can always change track.
The system is equal and totally free (including materials and food).
Training teachers is really important. In order to study for teacher your marks must be high and it is obligatory to pass an enrollment exam. OBSERVATION is essential. You need to observe many classes before you can start teaching. Once you begin instructing, there is a master professor providing you feedback. You are also able to follow other classes and watch other teachers. It’s an act of transparency, reciprocal help.
Last but not least, Finland has no teacher inspection system. Finn people believe in their own system and everyone does its best. THE ENTIRE EDUCATION SYSTEM IS TRUST BASED.
Should we sit down looking at this as an utopian System or can we learn from it and do something useful instead?
The origin of Tapas
Nowadays everybody knows the famous Spanish Tapas, little portions of food that are normally eaten with a glass of wine or beer. Did you ever ask yourself where this tradition and name comes from?
The most popular legend states that Alfonso XIII, the king of Spain from 1886 until 1931, wasvisiting Cádiz (a city on the south coast of Spain) when he decided to have a drink at Ventorrillo del Chato, a still existing bar which beach shares the same name.
He asked for a glass of wine. Then, a sudden gust of wind lifted the sand from the beach. The waiter quickly put a slice of ham on top of the king’s glass. When he tried to take anothe
r sip he seemed surprised seeing the ham on top of his glass, so the server modestly explained that he put it there so the sand wouldn’t ruin his delicious wine. The king liked the idea, ate the ham, drank the wine and asked for another glass with a similar ¨lid”. Literally, the Spanish word TAPA means lid, a movable top or cover. The king’s servants liked the idea too and ordered the same.
r sip he seemed surprised seeing the ham on top of his glass, so the server modestly explained that he put it there so the sand wouldn’t ruin his delicious wine. The king liked the idea, ate the ham, drank the wine and asked for another glass with a similar ¨lid”. Literally, the Spanish word TAPA means lid, a movable top or cover. The king’s servants liked the idea too and ordered the same.
From that moment this useful habit started spreading through the country and became a tradition in most of Spanish bars.
The eternal traveler syndrome.
We could define it as the following: The memory you have of a town you leave behind will forever be the one you had when you left that place. The memory remains unchanged. In our new home, we will miss that last city, and we will even idealize it. The effects of the illness are produced only when you come back. It is in that moment when you realize that the ideal city you had in your mind has evolved without you.
The longer you stay and the further you go, the bigger the shock will be.
And then, you get into a routine where nothing feels like home. You want to live in a collage city made out of different places, memories and people. A mixture of styles, buildings and tastes. A city that includes all the things you have ever loved. But this city does not exist.
I would love to walk along the streets of a city where everybody can cycle as they do in Copenhagen. Besides, I would like to keep the job where colleagues are like family. Where you can chat and make new friends in the blink of an eye, as it happens in San Francisco. I need to live in a place where meeting friends or family doesn’t involve Skype’s help. I’d like to see a town that can offer food as tasty as the real Turkish meals. I’d love to live across the hall from the kindest American family in order to pay a visit from time to time and see the little girls grow. I want to feel as multicultural as in London, where teaching kids of a different color is not called integration but just education (for all, for any). I want to experience Hawaiian happiness and go snorkeling on a daily basis. A place where the sun is shining without begging.
I wonder if I will feel “at home” some day (should I say, somewhere), and if I once will find out what I really need to get this comfort. It´s not a sign of nonconformity, but the urge of putting together all the pieces of a puzzle that we have created on the way. It´s the sadness of knowing that, regardless where we are, this puzzle will always be incomplete.
Those of you who also have a little nomad in your heart, can probably understand that, at the end, there are just a few things or a few people who make you feel “home”. And only a few persons will be lucky enough to travel along with these people who make them feel home anywhere they go.
What I constantly contend with now is a continual pull to go back; a pull to go back anywhere as long as it isn’t here. Yet when I am back there, I feel the pull to return here, the place I call home. Corey Heller.
Source: http://welearntoday.com/the-eternal-traveler-syndrome/#.UH6kM28xpnA
Is boredom bad for your health?
Boredom can unlock creativity in some, but can be corrosive for others. Photograph: Robert Harding/Getty Images
What were you doing before you started reading this? Were you fully focused on another article? Or doing the crossword? Eating breakfast? Organising your day? Or were you staring out of the window, feeling restless and bored?
It is more likely to have been the latter. Fleeting moments of boredom are universal, and are often what drives us to stop what we are doing and shift to something that we hope will be more stimulating.
But although boredom is common, it is neither trivial nor benign, according to Dr John Eastwood, a psychologist at York University, Toronto. Eastwood is the joint author of The Unengaged Mind, a major new paper on the theory of boredom.
Boredom, he points out, has been associated with increased drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, depression and anxiety, and an increased risk of making mistakes. Mistakes at work might not be a matter of life and death for most of us, but if you are an air traffic controller, pilot or nuclear power plant operator, they most certainly can be.
Commercial pilot Sami Franks (not his real name) confirms that boredom can make pilots lose attention. "When you fly long haul, there are two pilots, one of whom is monitoring all the screens while the other does the paperwork, talks to air traffic control and so on. You need to be alert for landing and takeoff, but once you're 500ft above the runway, the plane's on autopilot and it can be very quiet and boring.
"In a study I saw of co-pilots who woke up after a nap, 30% reported seeing the other pilot asleep too," adds Franks, in a comment that will not play well with nervous flyers.
The stakes are not usually so high, but boredom can be protracted, heavy and associated with an unpleasant sensation, according to Eastwood. And despite having attracted the attention of philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists and educationalists, there is no precise definition of boredom and no consensus as to how we counter it. The report says boredom is most often conceptualised as "the aversive experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity."
"All instances of boredom involve a failure of attention," says Eastwood. "And attention is what you are using now to blot out the plethora of stimuli around you while you focus awareness on a given topic."
There are three functions involved in attention. We have to be suitably aroused, so as not to fall asleep on the job. Then we have an orienting system that can cut in so that if you cross the road, deep in thought, you will still respond to a flickering light on the edge of your visual field that heralds a fast-approaching car. And the third type of attention is an executive system that oversees our mental activities, so we can consciously stay engaged even if the task is not very interesting. Boredom results when any of these functions breaks down.
Dr Esther Priyadharshini, a senior lecturer in education at the University of East Anglia, has studied boredom and says it can be seen in a positive light. "We can't avoid boredom – it's an inevitable human emotion. We have to accept it as legitimate and find ways it can be harnessed. We all need downtime, away from the constant bombardment of stimulation. There's no need to be in a frenzy of activity at all times," she says.
Children who complain that they have nothing to do on rainy half-term breaks may find other things to focus on if left to their own devices. The artist Grayson Perry has reportedly spoken of how long periods of boredom in childhood may have enhanced his creativity. "We all need vacant time to mull things over," says Priyadharshini.
But if boredom can enhance our creativity and be a signal for change, why is it such a corrosive problem for some individuals?
People who have suffered extreme trauma are more likely to report boredom than those who have had a less eventful time. The theory is that they shut down emotionally and find it harder to work out what they need. They may be left with free-floating desire, without knowing what to pin it on. This lack of emotional awareness is known as alexithymia and can affect anyone.
Frustrated dreamers who haven't realised their goals can expend all their emotional energy on hating themselves or the world, and find they have no attention left for anything else. Bungee jumpers and thrill-seekers may also be particularly susceptible to boredom, as they feel the world isn't moving fast enough for them. They constantly need to top up their high levels of arousal and are always searching for stimulation from their environment.
"Boredom isn't a nice feeling, so we have an urge to eradicate it and cope with it in a counterproductive way," says Eastwood. This may be what drives people to destructive behaviours such as gambling, overeating, alcohol and drug abuse, he says, though research is needed to tease out whether there's a direct causal link.
"The problem is we've become passive recipients of stimulation," says Eastwood. "We say, 'I'm bored, so I'll put on the TV or go to a loud movie.' But boredom is like quicksand: the more we thrash around, the quicker we'll sink."
Irony of fate: The Holocaust Memorial of Berlin.
One of the most visited places in the German city of Berlin is The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Peter Eisenman, an architect from New York, won the contest for the construction of the memorial by proposing to build something unique, that was not intended as a pilgrimage destination but as a natural element of the city which could eventually evoke the tragedy.
It is a perfect grid of 2700 concrete blocks which are between 0.2 and 4.8 meters high. The blocks are placed on a19000 square meters wavy surface which produces the sensation of watching a concrete sea. People can randomly plunge into the infinite hallways formed by the cement blocks.
Walking through the high stones produces a mixture of feelings such as despair, claustrophobia or oppression. Something similar to what so many millions of Jews suffered.
There are two characteristics that not many people know when visiting the site and that are undoubtedly worth of mention.
The first peculiarity is related to the construction process. The final part of the project took place at Berlin, the city of graffiti, and consisted of covering the concrete with an anti-graffiti varnish. Degussa, the company in question, used a product called Protectosil for that purpose, but they had to stop halfway due to a controversy which came to light. Apparently, during the Nazi period Degesch (a subsidiary of Degussa) supplied the government with Zyklon B, one of the chemicals used to kill thousands of Jews at that time.
As an irony of fate, this incident stopped the memorials’ construction. However, it was almost impossible to find companies which had never collaborated with the Nazis. Therefore, in order to avoid the demolition of the already painted blocks and its unexpected expenses (several millions of euros), they decided, after long deliberation, to work together with Degussa. The company publicly apologized for its past actions and also provided the materials at cost.
The second singularity is related to the location of the place. Interestingly, the monument is located just 100 meters away from the place where Adolf Hitler’s bunker was situated, in which he lived during his last days and where he committed suicide after all. This space is nowadays occupied by an austere car parking.
Coincidence?
iShower Lets You Listen to Music in the Shower
Sing along to music in the shower with the iShower portable music player.
For $99.99, the iShower is a water-resistant and Bluetooth-enabled device that can be mounted to your shower wall. It can also easily be detached, so you can take it to the beach or a park. The iShower can support up to five users, and stream music from any number of apps. The Bluetooth works up to 200 feet away, so you can listen to the music on your smartphone or tablet without getting it wet. iShower works with iOS and Android smartphones, as well as the iPad.
Founded in 2010, iShower creator iDevices takes ordinary gadgets and brings them into the 21st century withBluetooth and Facebook connectivity. iDevices has also released the iGrill, which is a wireless Bluetooth meat thermometer. With iGrill, you don’t have to stand at the grill the entire time your meat is cooking. Bluetooth helps users monitor the temperature from their mobile device.
By leveraging Bluetooth technology, gadget-makers have developed some pretty fun products, such asBluetooth-enabled gloves. Users can make a call simply by holding their hand to their ear in a phone-calling gesture. The glove’s inventors say they are good for answering calls on winter days, as users don’t have to expose their hands to the cold in order to make a call.
Bluetooth has been used to make everyday products more interactive and even a bit futuristic. For example, a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush tracks users’ brushing habits, while a multi-colored lightbulb can be controlled from a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone.
Luxury meets camping
Sleeping under the stars…hearing a lioness roar at midnight…dreaming away on top of a 12th century Indian fortress…waking up to a 180 degree view of the turquoise Sea of Cortés, did camping ever sound this good? Thanks to the innovative and adventurous side of the hotel business, luxurious camping, what may seem to be an oxymoron in itself has actually become a beautiful reality.
There exists two different types of people: those who love to feel the rugged terrain by settling with the simple things life has to offer like a sleeping bag and a tent for the night or a camp fire with good company and food. On the other hand there are those who choose to avoid what mother nature has to offer and tend to go for the more safer option-the comfortable resort with fine amenities and activities. The extravagant outdoor beds or in this case luxurious camping is what brings these two types of people together by still being able to bask in nature´s glory while at the same time marveling at a 5 star treatment. The best thing of all is that the outdoor beds are in some of the world´s most unfathomable exotic locations.
In Utah at the Amangiri, a 600 acre resort near the Navajo Nation offers the best place in the United States to see the stars. The air is clear and dry, allowing very little ambient light to be exposed making the coyote yips even more fantastic than they truly seem. In South Africa at the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, a treehouse that was originally built as a photographer´s platform to shoot pictures of the elephants, girafffes and other wildlife has now converted into a place to stay. Interesting things can be heard such as a lion´s roar or the chitter chatter of the sunrise birds. At Los Cabos in Mexico, the outdoor camping is waking up to smell of the sand, the ocean and the earth. The night is silent and only touched by the breaking up the distant waves carrying years of history onto the shore. In Lombardy, Italy surrounded by lush vineyards and the smell of jasmine in the morning just got better by the click of a button that opens up the roof of the room to a dark night full of glistening stars. Every year the Perseid meteor shower takes place where legend has it that for every falling star a wish will be granted. In India, in the middle of the desert, the Golden City plays host to a yellow limestone marble 12th century fortress. The magic of the isolation of the city is what makes the experience so unique…
What is drawing the curious traveler to these exotic destinations? Is it the novelty of the matter? Is it the sounds of the animals or is it simply our ancestors calling us back to our true roots of how mankind really did used to sleep amongst mother nature´s creations? Whatever it is, the experience must be one of a kind.
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