Your brain on multitasking

I read this article about how our brains work when we do multitasking at the same time. Studies have shown that our brains are not as good as we think they are. For example if you are working on an activity over here on the right side of the brain, and suddenly you are trying to multitask another activity, like talking on the phone. What you are doing is that you are not actually doing both activities at the same time, but you are now diverting your attention from one part of your brain to another part of your brain.This takes time and resourced and our brain cells. What you are doing is that you are starting a brand new activity and not nearly as good at doing both activities at the same time.Most of the time we shift our focus in just 10 seconds. I agree with this because this will affect your performance. Lets look at something like driving. When you shift your attention from your driving, you are now paying no attention to your driving. I think this may surprise you. Also, there have been studies that show women are generally better at multitasking than men. However, women who thought they were the best at multitasking are mostly the worst.

Study Reveals Surprising Link Between Age and Hapiness

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/age-and-happiness_n_4773484.html


This is an article I read about the relationship between age and happiness.Are people less happy or more happy the older they get?  If you answered more happy, then you were right, based on a study published two years ago. It found that people generally become happier and experience less worry after the age of fifty.

In fact, it found that by the age of eighty-five people are happier with their life than they were at eighteen. The findings came from a Gallup Survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States in two thousand eight.  At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five. But the people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties. The survey also found that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older.I think this is partly true.

However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men did. So why would happiness increase with age? One theory is that as people get older, they become more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences. The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.What do you think? At what age do you believe people are happiest?

How a circular smartphone could help us rethink technology.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/12/tech/mci-runcible-smartphone/index.html


This article I read is about how our technological world would look like if our mobile phones are circular in shape. Almost all mobile phones are rectangular in shape. Even three-year-old could tell you that. But how could a circular smartphone help us rethink tech? Monohm, a start-up based in Berkeley, California, was founded around this very idea. They have been working together to introduce this to the technology world.
They also cheekily refer to it as the "anti-smartphone." a description that goes for both its form factor and its value system. I think this is a challenge to the rectangular phones and everything it represents.
This is a big dream, but an interesting one. Display technologies have a long rectangular history. Even before smartphones there were movie screens, TVs and Computers. In fact rectangles are dictating our behavior today. Movie screens and TVs have gotten bigger and wider encouraging us to sit back and lose ourselves in the spectacle. All this is easier said than done. Throwing out centuries of rectangular thinking and starting from scratch is not easy. In a nut shell Google is even convinced that circular smartphones are the future. Lets hope and see.

Why DNA could be the future of data storage

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/25/tech/make-create-innovate-fossil-dna-data-storage/index.html

No more hard drives! It is very interesting about how our future storage devices will be. Storage devices don't last forever. Some may last longer than a decade. Researchers at ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, are looking to find the best way to store data. They are also looking for a way that data can last for million of years. They now believe the answer may lie in the data storage system that exists in every living cell: DNA.
I think this is very interesting. They are very compact and just 1 gram of DNA is capable of containing all the data of internet giants such as Google.. " The problem with DNA is that it degrades quickly," says Robert Grass, lecture at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Bio-sciences, I realized that the time limit with DNA in fossils is about 700,000 years. There are also new surprises about the preservation of DNA as new discoveries are throwing up. Water and oxygen are the enemy of DNA survival.Robert Grass also says, " The best DNA comes from sources that are ceramic and dry. These sources includes teeth, bones and eggshell. This is another step that researchers have made and I wonder how data can be stored for about thousands of years.

We are getting closer to Pluto

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/25/us/new-horizons-encounter-pluto/index.html


Soon we will see what no one has ever seen before: clear pictures of the tiny, icy world. The NASA spacecraft will be the first probe to visit Pluto.This was launched in 2006, and it has already traveled more than 3 billion miles. Each day it nearly covered 746,000 miles per day. The probe is expected to reach Pluto in July 2015.This is the moment I have been waiting for. Until now, the images of Pluto have been a few pixels shot by the Huble Space Telescope. I suppose this is one of the biggest step NASA has taken. NASA also said the images confirmed Pluto is a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic changes. Pluto is about two-thirds the diameter of Earth's moon. It is also believed that Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. I think that place is the coldest place and nobody would be able go there. Technology has many things to offer in the future. I also think this is a positive projects.

Coffee is Practically a health food: Myth or fact?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/04/health/coffee-myth-fact/index.html


I read this article about how coffee is beneficial to our health. New studies have shown that coffee has health benefits including protecting us from liver diseases, prostate cancer, computer back pain and more. In South Korea more than 25,000 people drink coffee. They also drink three to five cups a day(WHO). Coffee also helps to decrease the risk of coronary consumption. I was also stunned by the fact that having four cups of coffee a day reduces dangerous skin cancer. There has also been long time research on coffee. So we ask why coffee has been regarded as unhealthy for so long?
However over-consumption of coffee reduces its health benefits. People with sleep issues must ask their doctors before adding it to their diets. Pregnant women are also encouraged to avoid consuming coffee, since this can likely lead to miscarry. For a long time, coffee has been a myth to many scientists.There is more to learn about coffee and its benefits.
To sum up, I think coffee is beneficial to our health and we should consume it with moderation.

New Apple Watch

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/opinions/apple-watch-self-obsessed/index.html

I hope you find this article interesting.
The most valuable company "Apple Inc," I believe, has done it again!
With the release of their i-phone 6 last year, they have now released a new Apple watch.The CEO of Apple Tim Cook said, "The new watch is a comprehensive health and fitness companion.This product is yet to be tested by people all over the world. I think Apple is the most successful company in this century. Their products are also very expensive and of good quality.
Also, according to research, smart watches has many uses which benefit us in many ways, but has another dark side. Usually companies don't tell us about these things. What drives people to have a smart watch is to keep track of their emails.This often prevent people to pay attention to what goes on around them. When we are at meetings we find it rude to glance at our phones so these smart watches reminds us that our inbox is filling up. However these smart phones help to track information as we interact socially, It also saves us from the hassle to dig through our pocked or bag to find our phones.Research also found out that average smart phone users check their phone 150 times a day. This a very huge step for Apple, and I am looking forward to the release of their new i-phone this year.

Internet for everyone,everywhere

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/09/opinion/davidson-kehl-internet-everywhere/index.html

I read this article about worldwide access to the internet within the next decade.
Unlimited access to the internet has been the dream of technologists, policy makers and ordinary users for decades. This could become a reality within a decade.
In our time the internet is very essential for communication.Students need the internet to do research, workers use it to find jobs,and healthcare institutions also need it to provide efficient healthcare services.I think these are all reasons why affordable internet access is very important.It is reported that China now has the fastest speed of internet connection.The U.S. is falling behind.In the United States 20 states have laws that ban cities from investing in their own public networks.This is not encouraging and I also think that the government should do more to lift the ban.
The access to internet has increased for the past few years, and this has also brought the world together. Since the cost of having access is also expensive, we have to find new ways to deliver data.
With new technology and better use of the airwaves, it may be possible for rural areas to have high-speed wireless connections. Engineers are also looking for ways to bridge the gap to reach rural areas.I think internet access should be available everywhere and every country should invest in it.
The internet is now the most powerful tool now and we are able to educate ourselves and build more relationships with the use of internet.

4 reasons you should learn to cook!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/24/health/learn-to-cook/index.html


Cooking is always part of our lives since the beginning of human civilization.
Many women enjoy cooking and some regard it as a hobby.Every culture all over the world
has its own method of cooking.
The method of cooking is dynamic and it is completely transforming.
This article I read is about the benefits of cooking your own food.We are what we eat.
Joy MacCarthy, a nutritionist, suggest "we should cook our own food." Firstly, you make better choices when you cook your own food.This helps us to cut down on processed foods.When we buy raw vegetables from the market we have many options to make which will benefit the body.Healthier choices also leads to healthier meals at home.The Public Health Nutrition found that those who cook six days a week consume less calories than those who eat out.
Secondly, you will eliminate the guessing game. Actually when you eat at a restaurant you have no idea what's actually in the meal. Examples are: how much salt is in that soup,does the sauce contain any sugar, and others.Cooking at home will remove all this guesswork.Thirdly, you will eat more mindfully.This actually opens your eyes to what is in your food and how you eat it.
Lastly you will find out that it is easier to cook than you think. "If you can read, you can cook," McCarthy says.Start with simple breakfast and dinner every week.In reality simple foods are the healthiest.
Let us all cut down processed foods and start cooking our own foods and have a happier and healthy life.

Sit up and put your phone down.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/21/health/sitting-will-kill-you/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_health+%28RSS%3A+Health%29

This is a shocking article I read just recently: sitting can cause damage to your health.

Our present world is all about sitting.We sit in our cars to work. Sit when we are working and also watching television.It is one of our favorite activities in our everyday life.

A new stunning research made by researchers from Toronto is that, when we sit for more than 8 to 12 hours a day we reduce our lifespan and we are also prone to diseases like diabetes.

They also adjusted their data to find out that the sitting that we typically do each day outweights the benefit we get from exercise. In fact just exercising one hour a day and sitting the whole day cannot do you any good.

"Our human body system was not designed to sit always,"said by chief medical correspondent(Dr. Sunjay Gupta)

So! what can we do to prevent sitting always?

One should just be aware of how much he or she is sitting everyday.If you are working you can try to stand or walk a minute to three once every half an hour.

You can also drink a lot of water to prevent you from sitting always.If you are also watching a movie do not skip a commercial but try to stand or take a walk  during the commercials.

I am very sure each and every one of us are prone to sit all day and we have to take action and do a lot of walking and standing.

This will be a great benefit and I hope you enjoyed this article. You can also watch the movie on the site i have posted.

Don't forget space is dangerous.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/04/opinion/urry-space-dangerous/index.html.

I read this article about sending humans to space to prove that there is life in space.
A match into space appears to be gathering speed, and 'Mars One' says it plans to establish human settlement on Mars by 2025. However future astronauts think very carefully that space is a dangerous and unpredictable place.
For years, scientists have used satellite experiment to study the environment of space from the Earth to the Sun.
They showed that energetic particles  regularly stream toward the earth.Humans would not be able to survive in this region for a long time.
James Van Allen, a pioneering space physicist said,"a living organism cannot survive this level of radiation damage."
There are many questions about this if it worth it. And also it is very dangerous to send humans to do this exploration project.
We might  think of the sun as a gentle,essential neighbor but it is also an ever-changing, violent,extreme particle accelerator. As such,the effects of the sun on the earth is very beneficial by providing heat, light and energy.
Thanks to dedicated space science research, we now know much more about how particles are accelerated in violent solar storms.
All these should help us realize the importance of space.Space in not a luxury. Instead, it is very vital to our present and there are more discoveries to be revealed.
 I think for now there is no evidence that humans or living organism can survive there.

Online users in China more than double the entire population of U.S.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/world/china-internet-growth-2014/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_tech+%28RSS%3A+Technology%29

This article is about how China has grown in the use of internet.
China's online users are now more than double the entire population of U.S. China, which is now the most populated country in the world, now has surpassed 649 million users. The China Internet Network Information Center, documented online usage in the country in 2014 and identified the staggering number of connected Chinese citizens.
Mobile internet was largely accredited for the increase, with 557 million using smartphones and tablets to connect. The rate of growth for mobile users was higher than the overall increase.
This is as a result of 57 million  new mobile users logging on last year.
Comparing the population size to the growth of online users, the majority of  52.1 of Chinese still have no access to the internet.The United States has the second highest internet users with 280 million, followed by India and Japan according to World Bank and others.
China's "Great Firewall" is also getting harder to break through.The use of mobile internet with smartphones is now a boom to mobile companies like Apple and others.
However there is a cost of huge competitive disadvantage, as government insist that foreign companies give up source code and back-end data on their Chinese-bound products.

Introduction

My name is Joshua Amoah. I am a Ghanaian and was born in Accra, the capital city of Ghana.
I have been in the United Stated for a year now.My family is back home in Ghana and also have other family members here.My hobbies are listening to music like classical, reading and doing a lot of research.I also like soccer.I am also now a freshman at Prince George's Community College and looking forward to reading and sharing each others blogs.