The Art of Reading

The Diet Linked To Higher Depression Risk Vegetarians are twice as likely to experience depression as those eating a regular balanced diet, a new study finds. The longer people followed a vegetarian diet, the higher their depression scores, the researchers found. It is possible that the link is down to poor nutrition. Vegetarians typically have low levels of vitamin B12 in their diet. Indeed, around 50% of vegans have a vitamin B12 deficiency, while 7% of vegetarians have the deficiency. Vitamin B12 is found in red meat and has been linked to mood problems. Vegetarians also typically eat more nuts, which contain omega-6 fatty acids: these have been linked to mental health problems. The study’s authors write: “Other potential factors include high blood levels of phytoestrogens – consequent mainly on diets rich in vegetables and soya. Another potential contributing factor is that lower intakes of seafood are thought to be associated with greater risk of depressive symptom...

What is Reaganomics? "Reaganomics is a popular term used to refer to the economic policies of Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. president (1981–1989), which called for widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending and the deregulation of domestic markets. These economic policies were introduced in response to a prolonged period of economic stagflation that began under President Gerald Ford in 1976." BREAKING DOWN 'Reaganomics' The term Reaganomics was used by both supporters and detractors of Reagan's policies. Reaganomics was partially based on the principles of supply-side economics and the trickle-down theory . These theories hold the view that decreases in taxes, especially for corporations, offer the best way to stimulate economic growth. The idea is if the expenses of corporations are reduced, the savings "trickle down" to the rest of the economy, spurring growth. Prior to becoming Reagan's vice president, Georg...

What is Alzheimer? A progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. Excess sugar in the diet could play an important role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, new research finds. Too much glucose (sugar) in the diet damages a vital enzyme which helps fight the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr Omar Kassaar, the study’s first author, said: “Excess sugar is well known to be bad for us when it comes to diabetes and obesity, but this potential link with Alzheimer’s disease is yet another reason that we should be controlling our sugar intake in our diets.” The researchers studied samples of brain tissue from people with and without Alzheimer’s disease. They found that sugar can damage an enzyme called MIF (macrophage migration inhibitory factor). Professor Jean van den Elsen, a study co-author, explained: “We’ve shown that this enzyme is already modified by glucose in the brains of individuals at the early stages of Alzhei...

THE OCCAM’S RAZOR OR OCKHAM’S RAZOR “This is the basis of science. It gives two possible outcomes for an event and the simplest version or easiest to explain of the outcomes is the right one. It deduces that simplicity is the best or easiest explanation to various hypotheses.”  Occam’s razor is not to be used to counter others opinion, its heuristic in nature. It is a tool to disprove something, and you only use it to find possible explanation of an event. Razor is a principle in philosophy that allows one to eliminate ("shave off") unlikely explanations for a phenomenon, or avoid unnecessary actions. The principle of parsimony and the principle of plurality is the same to me heuristically. Parsimony is not using resources available and the principle of plurality stipulates that plurality should not be posited without necessity (pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate). William of Occam was a realist empiricist (perception based on intuitive cognition)....

The nudge theory The theory states that small changes when subtly encouraged can lead to big results . The nudge theory enables us to focus on the minuscule aspects of our life that makes up the big goal or the main objective we desire. The subtle tasks could include setting your alarm 5minutes earlier to encourage you to be prompt. This is a typical example of you nudging yourself to becoming a major partaker in your life’s goals. Hence, there are 7 main steps to encourage you to nudge yourself to task completion: 1. Pursue a single goal that contributes to your well-being, set targets and deadlines: As humans, we tend to fixate on goals we think makes us happy. Say for example, your goal may be to buy a sport car which you think makes you happy, the irony is that it isn’t realistic. Even according to research, the 5 top factors that improves well-being are: social relationship, health and activity, generosity, learning new things and building curiosity. So, it is very impor...

  Satish Kumar Have you ever heard of the man who walked all the way from India through four countries barefooted for a pacifist act he called a “Peace Walk”. The idea was to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. So he walked from India with some companions through the four nuclear armed countries (Washington, London, Paris and Moscow). Based on my ideology of Satish’s empathy, the reason behind this walk was achieved temporarily and we know the balderdash (nonsense) rant between North Korea vs. Trump charade. He is one of those pacifist (a person against war) that the world truly needs right now. Defending the whole criticism against him that his Peace walk was futile, he gave one of the best heartfelt replies ever: “ Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell p...