Eating and drinking comes with its own consequences, and they’re sadly with our waistlines. It’s hardly groundbreaking news, but what we put into our bodies is what we get out of them. At the same time, thanks to our metabolic rate, we’re converting the calories we consume into energy. 

We all have different metabolism, depending on our size, gender, and age. We have some form of control over our metabolism, though. We can, for example, control its speed, which is ideal for people who are keen to lose weight, feel better about themselves and perhaps avoid a shark attack that tad bit faster thanks to their new-found speed. The faster our metabolism is, the more calories we can burn off, therefore making weight loss far more achievable. It’s that simple. 

With so many fad diets and ridiculous theories out there claiming to aid our metabolic rate, we thought we’d highlight the scientifically proven ways to boost metabolism. 

Get a good night’s sleep

We’ve all been there and had various distractions before bed time, be it in the form of a Netflix show or the Dark Matter game powered by Microgaming, but it’s vitally important those distractions are put to one side in order to get a good night’s sleep. Researchers have found a link between metabolism and sleep, essentially finding that if you sleep badly, your metabolism can slow down, therefore making losing weight a tougher task than it should be.

Drink green tea

Green tea has long been known to produce antioxidants needed to help our bodies, but researchers have discovered that it can also speed up our metabolism too. You can drink a lot of it as it’s calorie-free also. 

Up the intensity of your workouts 

High interval training instead of slow and steady workouts is said to jumpstart metabolism and aid the burning of calories long after a workout is complete. Try various High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) techniques, and you should reap the rewards in the long run. Not only will your body thank you for it, but your metabolism will too. 

Never skip breakfast

Breakfast is considered to be the most important meal of the day, and that applies even more so to people who are keen to speed up their metabolism. A bowl of Greek yoghurt will not only set you up nicely for the day, but a small breakfast snack in the morning will also quick-start your metabolism and get it moving in the right direction. 

Drink plenty of water 

Drinking water comes with a whole host of benefits in itself. Still, research has shown that it also helps speed up digestion and burn calories, therefore aiding the development of a fast metabolism too. Sadly, that tasty bottle of wine in the fridge is going to have to wait. For now. 

Pump iron

Lifting a few dumbbells or mastering your benchpress technique is said to aid a resting metabolic rate and therefore contribute towards a quicker metabolism. Get pumping, people! 

Add some spice to your life 

Do you like food hot? If the answer is yes, then you have been looking after your metabolism without even realizing it. Spicy cuisine is known to aid metabolism, with ingredients such as cayenne pepper containing capsaicin, a helpful tool when it comes to speeding up our metabolic rate. 

Get some cardio in 

As we mentioned above, pumping some iron is beneficial when it comes to boosting metabolism, but so too is cardio exercise as it speeds up metabolic rate which is hugely helpful when it comes to losing weight and being kind to our metabolism. Run! 

In today’s modern world, the best way to get ahead is to have a solid education. That means we need teachers that know the best way to get students the knowledge they need. I present here a few books that we found extremely useful for educators.

1. Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education (2015) 

Ken Robinson is famous for this youtube talk about if schools kill creativity:

Education is meant to take us into the future we can’t grasp. Part of what he teaches is how to get kids ready for the next generation of jobs. He believes creativity is as important as literacy and that we should treat it the same way in lectures.

2. Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era (2016) 

This book is an absolute must-read for both aspiring teachers and experienced educators. You have to read it if you agree that the contemporary system of education is in urgent need of being re-imagined and re-vitalized so that it could better provide for the needs of young people growing up in the 21st century. 

3. Mindset: Changing The Way You think To Fulfil Your Potential(2017)

 “Let’s not waste any more lives, because once we know that abilities are capable of such growth, it becomes a basic human right for children, all children, to live in places that create that growth, to live in places filled with ‘yet’,” says Dweck in her powerful TED-talk. 

4. The School in the Cloud: The Emerging Future of Learning (2019) 

This  is definitely a book not to be missed by young educators who do not possess a time-machine and intend to teach in the 21st century.

5. The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined (2012) 

My hope is that if you’re an educator you find these books interesting.

Science and psychology has long played a surprisingly large role in the development of casinos. However, the links between the two are becoming stronger than ever.

This is due to the extreme level of competition within the gambling industry, with countless companies all scrambling to be able to steal a slice of the pie.

The global industry for casinos and the world of iGaming as a whole is now worth around a whopping $500 billion a year. It is clear that gambling is now very big business indeed.

It makes sense to lean on science as a way to maximize earnings. How are casinos doing this?

Science helps to build the customer experience

At both online casinos and their bricks and mortar equivalents, customer experience is one of the top priorities. It stands to reason that science plays a part in its development.

Mathematics is also involved in a big way. Mathematics has a hand in everything to do with a casino, from the odds used on certain table games to the variance of online slots. Return to player is another area within slots where mathematics is part of the equation as well.

At bricks and mortar casinos, science has long been used in the design stage. Casinos famously never have clocks on display, as this keeps guests disconnected from the outside world. A lack of windows is a design choice made by many casinos for the same reason.

Additionally, the layout inside is carefully created in order to encourage people to stay inside and gamble for as long as possible. One of the ways casinos do this is by placing their bathrooms in illogical locations. The idea is players will spot other casino games they want to try out on their way to and from using the bathroom as a result of the maze-like layout of the buildings.

However, there are signs that the industry is moving away from these designs, with many experts believing that they are outdated. Roger Thomas is one of the casino designers to be trying new things such as embracing natural light in a bid to create spaces people will enjoy.

Slot games are another area of gambling where science plays an increasingly big role. New games have more and more pay-lines, which improves the chances of a ‘partial win’ and encourages people to keep spinning the reels for longer, even if they are losing cash overall.

AI increasingly adopted by online casinos

Lots of changes have happened to online casinos in the last few years, including a sharp spike in their popularity during the course of 2020 as a direct result of the coronavirus crisis.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence is one of the latest branches of science that will have a profound impact on the iGaming industry. Some online casinos have already turned to AI to help solve issues in areas like customer support and this is set to become even more common.

AI is also being used to try to identify players at online casinos who could be at risk of addiction, as well as finding those who already seem to be struggling to control their gambling.

The rise of AI in the casino world can be seen through the development of a computer named Libratus. Back in 2017, the AI masterpiece won countless hands against top-rated poker players, even though the game is one where the human element was thought to be important. 

During the Brains vs Artificial Intelligence competition, Libratus took more than $1.7 million in chips even though the computer had been a 4/1 underdog in the tournament’s betting odds.

Smart, personalized data used to target customers

Casino customers who play at online sites are likely to have received tailored promotions. These have been developed through the use of smart data that tracks how they play online.

These personalized deals make it more like that online casino players will come back to a site to gamble more, which the operator means hopes they will lose more cash in the long run.

While AI can be used to identify problem gamblers and offer them help and support, this data can also be used for more nefarious purposes. It is easy to imagine how an online casino site with an insight into how a player gambles could use this information for their own advantage.

People may not have even realized they gave the green light for science to be used for this purpose. Information about data is usually buried in the terms and conditions, which most casino customers will not have taken the time to read carefully as they signed up for an account.

With the use of science within the industry continuing to grow at a rapid rate, the possibilities for AI and virtual reality at online casinos seem to be absolutely limitless.

If you’re like me, the thought of extended cardiovascular exercise is exhausting before you even get started. Nonetheless, there are many people around the world that love extensive cardio exercise. Some push themselves to the limit with triathlons and other amazing sports. Throughout history, there have been countless examples of people pushing themselves to the limit and completing incredible acts of endurance. Sometimes for sport, sometimes for fame, and sometimes out of life saving necessity. Here are some memorable examples of people pushing themselves to the limit. 

World Record Breakers

Great examples of human endurance can be seen in the record books. In the pursuit of breaking a world record, many people have pushed themselves as hard as they can to set records of the “world’s longest” type. One man named Phil Laak has achieved a similar feat. In 2010, Laak set a new official Guinness World record for the world’s longest poker game, a stunning accomplishment totaling 115 hours. He was allowed to take a five-minute break every hour, but can you imagine sitting at a table playing a stressful game like poker for hours on end? I wonder what would have happened if he busted? 

11 Days With No Sleep

Going without sleep is absolutely excruciating. I don’t think there’s anyone that will deny the necessity of sleep every night to recharge your brain and body. In 1965, one high school student named Randy Gardner took up the challenge and managed to go an alarming 11 full days without any sleep at all. As you can imagine, the results were scary. Just 3 days in, Randy was having immense trouble speaking. His motor skills were impaired, and he needed to be coaxed to do anything at all. This continued for days on end. The Guinness Book of World Records eventually removed his record entirely, to discourage anyone from attempting this dangerous feat. 

 22 Minutes Underwater

Some people have a tremendous drive to prove themselves, and famous diver Stig Severinsen is one of those people. He has dedicated his life to yoga, breathing meditation, and diving sports. A multiple world record holder, he has set the bar for unassisted diving depth, distance swam under ice, and most impressively, staying a full 22 minutes underwater on one breath. It’s unlikely that this record will be broken anytime soon. 

Longest Boxing Match Ever

Boxing has a long and sordid history that goes back generations. Long before the days of big money prize fights, world broadcasts, boxing commissions and judges, boxing was an underground sport put on by spectators and gamblers. Naturally, these lawless fights could get particularly macabre. One such fight went on to become the longest boxing match in history, lasting for a staggering 111 three minute rounds, a total of seven hours and nineteen minutes. Somehow, both combatants refused to go down, trading blows until the referee eventually had to call a stop to it. Both men were terribly wounded. Jack Burke broke every bone in his hands, retiring after. His opponent Andy Bowen was killed in his following fight.  

Swimming the Atlantic 

Even among cardio-intensive sports, swimming is known to be particularly challenging. Benoit Lecomte is considered to be one of the greatest long-distance swimmers of all time, and in 1986 became the first man to do the unthinkable and swim across the Atlantic ocean. For over 73 days, Lecomte covered over 3,700 miles of open ocean. He chose to swim up to eight hours a day, in two hour long shifts. Lecomte was tailed the entire time by a boat that sent out electromagnetic waves, warding off any predators in the waters around him. 

The 11 Hour Wimbledon Match

Tennis can be a much more aggressive and competitive sport than people give it credit for. In 2010, John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut in what will be remembered as the longest tennis match of all time. Over the course of three exhausting days, the two battled and demonstrated their lightning fast reflexes. The match had to be called at the end of every day because of nightfall. Eventually, on the third day and with some luck behind him, Isner pulled ahead to claim victory in an impressive feat of human endurance.

There are many ways to get CBD into your system. Each approach comes with benefits and drawbacks. One point of variation is the speed of efficacy. Say you want to relax quickly before going to bed, which CBD delivery method acts the fastest on the body? Let’s look at popular options and compare them to find out.

1 – CBD edibles

Many factors impact how long it takes for edibles to take effect. When ingested, CBD is processed by the liver before it can reach your bloodstream. How long that will take depends on how long it has been since your last meal, as well as what you ate. Factors like age, weight, and taking prescription medications may also impact that speed.

All of this amounts to great variability when it comes to edibles. It can take anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours for an edible to become active after consumed. Although a time of around 60 minutes is more common. After ingested, the effects of edibles frequently last 6 hours or more.

The category of edibles includes not only the wide range of CBD food items — like chocolate, gummies, and jam — but also CBD infused drinks. The latter undergoes a similar process after being ingested.

2 – CBD oil and tinctures

Although oils and tinctures can be ingested, CBD products of this nature are more often placed under the tongue. That allows for quick absorption and higher bioavailability than ingesting the substance. When placed under the tongue, the calming effects of CBD usually take hold within 5 minutes.

CBD oil usually stays active for 3-4 hours. And while this is not the fastest method in this list, it is fast enough. Sublingual application of CBD through a dropper also allows for greater precision with the dosage.

Patients using CBD as part of an ongoing medical treatment usually prefer this delivery method. It helps patients and healthcare providers keep track of how much CBD the patient is using.

3 – CBD topicals

In the case of CBD topicals — such as creams, oils, and patches — speed can be measured in different ways. These products are often used to provide localized pain relief for various conditions. Since CBD interacts with pain receptors in the skin, the pain relief usually only takes about five minutes to set in. CBD’s anti-inflammatory properties also kick into effect right away, helping treat conditions like acne and red skin.

However, when applied to the skin, CBD does not make you calmer. Not usually, at least. It takes CBD about six hours to get through your skin and into your bloodstream. Meaning that if you sleep with a CBD face mask on, you might feel the substance affect your mood in the morning.

4 – CBD Vaping

Vaping takes the crown as the fastest delivery method in this list, with some asterisks associated with it. When vaporized CBD makes it into your lungs, it has easy access to your bloodstream. The calming effects are often felt in under a minute.

However, there are health concerns associated with vaping. Make sure you look into those before you pick up the habit. You might be better off sticking with sublingual application of Cibdol’s CBD oil instead.

Tech has changed the world of business as we know it. It has changed the way that we operate, market, sell, communicate, profit and even hire employees. Cloud computing, 3D printing and even intelligence tools are all advancements that have been made thanks to tech. So what other changes have happened as the result of business? Take a look below to find out more.

Communication Technologies

Traveling for a meeting both inside and outside of the city is time-consuming. It can also have a huge impact on your productivity overall as well. Tech has made it easier than ever to eliminate all of these issues. Now you can use video conferencing software to communicate with stakeholders; you can also participate in webinars too. Talking with trained employees is no longer difficult or time-consuming thanks to Google Hangouts either, and this alone has changed the way that we do business in general.

Simple and Faster Ways of Getting Paid

Cash flow management is the single most important element of running a successful business. If you are slow to communicate then this will almost certainly impact your business growth overall. It’s vital for your small or midsize business to get paid as soon as possible as well and this is why online banking, secure payment gateways or even mobile apps are powerful business tools. It gives you the chance to pay for products or services faster, and it also means that you can get paid much faster too. Take online casino games for example, you can now deposit money online and play without having to go to a land-based alternative. This is just one example of fast payment, but it just goes to show how much things have changed over the years and how tech advancements really do have a huge impact.

Creating Business Documents

It was never easy to create and keep documents safe before Microsoft Office came along. Now you can easily edit business documents, spreadsheets and even presentations too. A lot of businesses across the world are able to create service invoices and they can also credit memos too. Business letters, expense report planning and even project presentations are now easier than ever to manage, which goes to show how much of an impact tech has had overall on business management.

Real-Time Support

Customers are a real asset for businesses and for this reason, you have to make sure that you are providing them with the support they need. If you want to do this then real-time support is always an option. Real-time support can be given to customers through various live-chat channels and IT has made all of this possible. It’s vital that businesses change the way that they deal with customers at the end of the day because if they don’t then they will never be able to have the long-term relationship they need, and they won’t be able to capitalize as much on loyalty either.

Scientists have developed the first living robots in the world using stem cells from frogs. Though they come from frogs, the robots do not have any resemblance to any known amphibians. These robots are called Xenobots, which are the first of a kind. They were named after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). 

The robots are very tiny

They are not more than a millimeter wide making them small enough to travel inside human bodies. Xenobots are made up of living tissues that were assembled by scientists into bodies designed by computer models. They can move independently; they can swim, survive for weeks without food, and work together in groups.

Stem Cells

Stem cells are cells which are not categorized that have the capability to develop into different cell types. The researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to gestate. The cells were then cut and reshaped into specific “body forms” that were designed by a supercomputer. 

Skin cells bonded to form structure, while the pulsing heart muscle cells allowed the robot to move on its own. These xenobots have the power to heal by themselves. When the scientists sliced into one robot, it healed by itself and kept moving.

Xenobots

Xenobots don’t look like traditional robots. They do not have shiny gears or robotic arms. They look more like a tiny blob of moving pink flesh. Researchers say this “biological machine” can achieve things that cannot be performed by steel and plastic robots.

In a research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say that traditional robots degrade and produce harmful ecological and health side effects. They say xenobots are friendly to the environment, and they are also safe for human health.

Xenobots are also very useful compared to traditional robots. 

They can be used to collect microplastics in the oceans. They could be used to clean up radioactive waste, carry medicine inside the human bodies, or scrape plaque from the arteries. They are suitable for internal drug delivery because they can survive for days in aqueous environments. Apart from these tasks, they could also help researchers to learn more about cell biology. This will help in future advancement in human health. It would even be possible to reprogram tumors into healthy tissue and also repair congenital disabilities.

These organisms come pre-loaded with their own source of food of proteins and lipids. This allows them to live for more than a week, although they cannot evolve nor reproduce. If exposed to environments that are rich in nutrients, their lifespan can increase to several weeks.

Although the supercomputer, which is a powerful piece of Artificial Intelligence, plays a significant role in creating these robots, it is unlikely that Artificial Intelligence could have any bad intentions. However, it incites fears of having new forms that may one day be a threat to humanity. 

The process may be uncontrollable if it lands into the hands of less scrupulous individuals and groups. Michael Levin, who is the director of the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts, says that “when we start to mess around with complex systems that we don’t understand, we are going to get unintended consequences.”

 

Over the summer of 2019 I started to feel like I needed an outlet for my media skills that was just my voice. For over ten years I had been building the content of UntamedScience in a collaborative way. I’d raise funds and then hire people to make content and fulfill our educational needs. But, I never had one thing that was made in my voice entirely.

So, I decided that I wanted to make a channel, that resonated with how I was seeing the world at the moment. That was the concept. But first, I needed to figure out what was troubling me.

I felt emotional distress at my current situation – living in a digital age that was causing huge amounts of stress. But why was I stressed? Was it called for? Through my understanding of history and advancements in medicine, I knew we were living in the best time in history. It didn’t feel that way though.

It seemed to me that I could use my understanding of biology, learn more things about human psychology, and start trying to figure out more of our human past to figure out why it seemed like I was more stressed than I should have been. I came to the conclusion that since we evolved as a species in what we commonly refer to as the Stone Age, I was essentially a Stone Age Man! If I could learn more about the circumstances that I evolved in, maybe, just maybe, things would get better.

I learned these main things:

1. Our stress is an adaptation to help us survive. But, it only works when the threat is immediate, and needed to get us out of the situation. Like fighting a saber tooth cat or wooly mammoth.
2. We evolved in small groups of maybe as many as 300, but not much more.
3. Seeing stressful things on social media, which is pulling from nearly 8 billion people, is telling our body that we need to fight, yet the threat isn’t immediately around us. And, it’s all the time.
4. Most people have lost a connection to nature, something that has grounded us our entire evolutionary history.

So, I decided I wanted to tackle a couple of these problems. Mainly, I’d teach people more about the wild places, so that they could slowly learn to disconnect. I’d also start running trips with small groups – mini-trips as a way for people to reconnect with their StoneAge selfs, but it a modern, safe way. I hope this brings the best of both worlds.

Here is a short trailer about it:

Here are some of the things I’ve been doing on StoneAgeMan’s Youtube Channel

• Rope and Cordage Basics
• Rule of 3’s: Basic Survival Knowledge
• What is the best survival Knife
• How to tie the taut-line: The Best Camping Knot

AND, I have many more, if you just go visit the learning pages at StoneAgeMan.com!

May learning and education make us healthier and happier!

-Rob Nelson

The psychology behind gambling has been discussed over and over again. What makes people gamble? What pushes them to bet more money? How do they decide their next move? Which thoughts lead to errors in judgement and memory?

Understanding Gambling Psychology

These are all legit questions that are embedded in psychology of the human mind. They decide on their future actions based on superstitions, odds, or simply – their gut. All this falls under and can be described with the psychology of gambling. 

Understanding how your brain functions can help you place a link between gambling and rational choice. For that purpose, we’ll refer to the work of a bestselling author and a Nobel Prize winning economic expert, Daniel Kahneman. 

His book Thinking Fast and Slow will change how you view betting, help you develop critical thinking in gambling, and assist you in changing your bad behaviors.

Explaining Thinking Fast and Slow

This book shows readers two systems in a brain i.e. a dual-process model that explains the control over actions or behaviors. Essentially, his book teaches you many ways in which the fight of these two systems leads to errors in judgement, mistaken decisions, and errors in memory. Of course, it also gives unique, helpful tips on fixing this. So, before you start gambling or rush to get your bonuses by the link, you should definitely explore his great insight and ideas. 

Let’s have a closer look. 

According to Kahneman, all bad decisions people make in life and in gambling can be explained with the dual process model. These two different thought modes are referred to as ‘’system 1’’ and ‘’ system 2’’. 

System 1

The first system is fast thinking. It’s associative, intuitive, automatic, metaphorical, and impressionistic. It’s also one that you can never switch off. Operations guided by it don’t involve any intentional control. When you play gambling games and make an automated choice based on your gut or simply the mood you’re in, you’re thinking fast. This means that you’re using the system 1. 

According to the author, when you make gambling casino games decisions based on this system, you’re basically using a: ‘’secret author of many of the choices and judgments you make’’. 

System 2

The second system of our thinking is deliberate, slow. Decisions made with it require attention and careful thinking. When things get harder to handle with intuition or speed, system 2 takes over in the human brain. 

This happens, for example, when you need to make a math calculation while gambling. If you have to calculate the RTP of a game, you need to use a formula and do some math. This is where the conscious part of your brain takes action, rather unwillingly, with a goal to resolve an issue.

Because it is more complex, system 2 tires easily (something that the author calls ego depletion. When it is tired, it simply accepts decisions made by System 1. 

Yes, System 1 is intuitive and often right, but when the second system is too tired, we are no longer focusing too hard on making right decisions. When it comes to statistical thinking, System 1 is hopelessly bad at this. It jumps wildly to irrational conclusion and is subject to different biases and interference effects like the Florida effect or Halo effect. 

What You Can Take from the Book

Once you understand the difference between these systems, you’ll understand how susceptible we are to being puppeted and influenced by the features found in our surroundings. Casinos have invested a great deal of strategies that will make you act intuitively and fast. In fact, many of the games require fast thinking and don’t really leave much room for you to turn on the System 2 in your brain. 

If you want to make the best possible decisions based on more than just your gut, you need to take a step back and analyze. Sure, System 1’s work is exceptionally important because the role of chance in our lives is enormous. 

However, if you want to win big, you need to use the best of your abilities when gambling. Also, you need to understand that including both fast and slow thinking is crucial for making right decisions. As Daniel Kahneman says:

‘’Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.’’

With this in mind, there are two things you should know about your gambling choices:

• The brain works mostly on System 1, which is a lazy part. This keeps you from using the power of your intelligence in full. 
• When you’re gambling and making money decisions, you cannot have your emotions clouding you. Leave them at home and activate System 2.

Many times, you’ll pick System 1 thinking that it can handle a task. At times, you’ll be right but when you’re in the thrill of gambling, you might end up making a mistake.

Gambling is basically a test of luck, which is where System 1 comes really handy. People survive based on their instincts. They jump away from vehicles when they honk and respond to fear because of this system. Choosing one dollar deposit casino, players consciously avoid big loses but during a game a point shifts and can end up with even higher stakes.However, you cannot base important money decisions solely on fast thinking. You need a combo of intuition and conscious thinking, which involves two systems of your brain.

Be aware of the systems. Know that your emotions may try and confuse you when it comes to making money decisions Try and consider probability, odds, and statistics. Once you determine your odds, act accordingly. Emotions cannot and should not have a role in your gambling endeavors.