위스마트학원 (WE ARE SMART)

2332-23
What consequences of eating too many grapes and other sweet fruit could there possibly be for our brains? A few large studies have helped to shed some light. In one, higher fruit intake in older, cognitively healthy adults was linked with less volume in the hippocampus. This finding was unusual, since people who eat more fruit usually display the benefits associated with a healthy diet. In this study, however, the researchers isolated various components of the subjects' diets and found that fruit didn't seem to be doing their memory centers any favors. Another study from the Mayo Clinic saw a similar inverse relationship between fruit intake and volume of the cortex, the large outer layer of the brain. Researchers in the latter study noted that excessive consumption of high‑sugar fruit (such as mangoes, bananas, and pineapples) may cause metabolic and cognitive problems as much as processed carbs do.

2332-24
Winning turns on a self‑conscious awareness that others are watching. It's a lot easier to move under the radar when no one knows you and no one is paying attention. You can mess up and be rough and get dirty because no one even knows you're there. But as soon as you start to win, and others start to notice, you're suddenly aware that you're being observed. You're being judged. You worry that others will discover your flaws and weaknesses, and you start hiding your true personality, so you can be a good role model and good citizen and a leader that others can respect. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you do it at the expense of being who you really are, making decisions that please others instead of pleasing yourself, you're not going to be in that position very long. When you start apologizing for who you are, you stop growing and you stop winning. Permanently.

2332-25
The above graph shows how often German children and young adults read books in 2022 according to age groups. In each age group except 12 to 13‑year‑olds, those who said they read books once a month or less accounted for the largest proportion. Of the 12 to 13‑year‑old group, 42% stated they read daily or several times a week, which was the highest share within that group. In the 14 to 15‑year‑old group, the percentage of teenagers who read daily or several times a week was three times higher than that of those who never read a book in the same age group. In the 16 to 17‑year‑old group, those who read between once a week and once every two weeks were less than 20%. More than one fifth of the age group of 18 to 19 years responded that they never read any book.

2332-26
British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron is considered one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 19th century. Born in Calcutta, India, into a British family, Cameron was educated in France. Given a camera as a gift by her daughter in December 1863, she quickly and energetically devoted herself to the art of photography. She cleared out a chicken coop and converted it into studio space where she began to work as a photographer. Cameron made illustrative studio photographs, convincing friends and family members to pose for photographs, fitting them in theatrical costumes and carefully composing them into scenes. Criticized for her so‑called bad technique by art critics in her own time, she ignored convention and experimented with composition and focus. Later critics appreciated her valuing of spiritual depth over technical perfection and now consider her portraits to be among the finest expressions of the artistic possibilities of the medium.

2332-29
Human beings like certainty. This liking stems from our ancient ancestors who needed to survive alongside saber‑toothed tigers and poisonous berries. Our brains evolved to help us attend to threats, keep away from them, and remain alive afterward. In fact, we learned that the more certain we were about something, the better chance we had of making the right choice. Is this berry the same shape as last time? The same size? If I know for certain it is, my brain will direct me to eat it because I know it's safe. And if I'm uncertain, my brain will send out a danger alert to protect me. The dependence on certainty all those millennia ago ensured our survival to the present day, and the danger‑alert system continues to protect us. This is achieved by our brains labeling new, vague, or unpredictable everyday events and experiences as uncertain. Our brains then generate sensations, thoughts, and action plans to keep us safe from the uncertain element, and we live to see another day.

2261-30
Do you sometimes feel like you don't love your life? Like, deep inside, something is missing? That's because we are living someone else's life. We allow other people to influence our choices. We are trying to meet their expectations. Social pressure is deceiving ― we are all impacted without noticing it. Before we realize we are losing ownership of our lives, we end up envying how other people live. Then, we can only see the greener grass ― ours is never good enough. To regain that passion for the life you want, you must recover control of your choices. No one but yourself can choose how you live. But, how? The first step to getting rid of expectations is to treat yourself kindly. You can't truly love other people if you don't love yourself first. When we accept who we are, there's no room for other's expectations.

2261-31
One of the big questions faced this past year was how to keep innovation rolling when people were working entirely virtually. But experts say that digital work didn't have a negative effect on innovation and creativity. Working within limits pushes us to solve problems. Overall, virtual meeting platforms put more constraints on communication and collaboration than face-to-face settings. For instance, with the press of a button, virtual meeting hosts can control the size of breakout groups and enforce time constraints; only one person can speak at a time; nonverbal signals, particularly those below the shoulders, are diminished; "seating arrangements" are assigned by the platform, not by individuals; and visual access to others may be limited by the size of each participant's screen. Such restrictions are likely to stretch participants beyond their usual ways of thinking, boosting creativity.

2261-32
The law of demand is that the demand for goods and services increases as prices fall, and the demand falls as prices increase. Giffen goods are special types of products for which the traditional law of demand does not apply. Instead of switching to cheaper replacements, consumers demand more of giffen goods when the price increases and less of them when the price decreases. Taking an example, rice in China is a giffen good because people tend to purchase less of it when the price falls. The reason for this is, when the price of rice falls, people have more money to spend on other types of products such as meat and dairy and, therefore, change their spending pattern. On the other hand, as rice prices increase, people consume more rice.

2261-33
In a study at Princeton University in 1992, research scientists looked at two different groups of mice. One group was made intellectually superior by modifying the gene for the glutamate receptor. Glutamate is a brain chemical that is necessary in learning. The other group was genetically manipulated to be intellectually inferior, also done by modifying the gene for the glutamate receptor. The smart mice were then raised in standard cages, while the inferior mice were raised in large cages with toys and exercise wheels and with lots of social interaction. At the end of the study, although the intellectually inferior mice were genetically handicapped, they were able to perform just as well as their genetic superiors. This was a real triumph for nurture over nature. Genes are turned on or off based on what is around you.

2261-34
Researchers are working on a project that asks coastal towns how they are preparing for rising sea levels. Some towns have risk assessments; some towns even have a plan. But it's a rare town that is actually carrying out a plan. One reason we've failed to act on climate change is the common belief that it is far away in time and space. For decades, climate change was a prediction about the future, so scientists talked about it in the future tense. This became a habit ― so that even today many scientists still use the future tense, even though we know that a climate crisis is ongoing. Scientists also often focus on regions most affected by the crisis, such as Bangladesh or the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which for most Americans are physically remote.

esh-305
You can see how the sugar, the acid, the caffeine, and the artificial chemicals in sodas are really not good for you. Perhaps you might now understand that you should stop drinking them. However, if quitting sodas altogether sounds too difficult, cut down gradually. For example, replace one regular soft drink or one diet soda per day with another more healthy drink. Of course, the best choice would be water. Water has no calories, no acid, no caffeine, and no chemicals of any kind. And if you want something to add a boost of flavor, put a slice of lemon in the water. If you can't break your soda drinking habits in a short period of time, don't be too hard on yourself. Once you start cutting back, you are heading in the right direction.

2261-21
A psychology professor raised a glass of water while teaching stress management principles to her students, and asked them, "How heavy is this glass of water I'm holding?" Students shouted out various answers. The professor replied, "The absolute weight of this glass doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's quite light. But, if I hold it for a day straight, it will cause severe pain in my arm, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass is the same, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me." As the class nodded their heads in agreement, she continued, "Your stresses in life are like this glass of water. If you still feel the weight of yesterday's stress, it's a strong sign that it's time to put the glass down."

2261-22
Your emotions deserve attention and give you important pieces of information. However, they can also sometimes be an unreliable, inaccurate source of information. You may feel a certain way, but that does not mean those feelings are reflections of the truth. You may feel sad and conclude that your friend is angry with you when her behavior simply reflects that she's having a bad day. You may feel depressed and decide that you did poorly in an interview when you did just fine. Your feelings can mislead you into thinking things that are not supported by facts.

2261-24
Only a generation or two ago, mentioning the word algorithms would have drawn a blank from most people. Today, algorithms appear in every part of civilization. They are connected to everyday life. They're not just in your cell phone or your laptop but in your car, your house, your appliances, and your toys. Your bank is a huge web of algorithms, with humans turning the switches here and there. Algorithms schedule flights and then fly the airplanes. Algorithms run factories, trade goods, and keep records. If every algorithm suddenly stopped working, it would be the end of the world as we know it.

2261-29
Despite all the high-tech devices that seem to deny the need for paper, paper use in the United States has nearly doubled recently. We now consume more paper than ever: 400 million tons globally and growing. Paper is not the only resource that we are using more of. Technological advances often come with the promise of using fewer materials. However, the reality is that they have historically caused more materials use, making us dependent on more natural resources. The world now consumes far more "stuff" than it ever has. We use twenty-seven times more industrial minerals, such as gold, copper, and rare metals, than we did just over a century ago. We also each individually use more resources. Much of that is due to our high-tech lifestyle.