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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden very nearly survived his first press conference in three months without a single goof. Almost, but not quite. At the very end of the question-and-answer session, asked by a reporter if he had been tested for “cognitive decline,” he answered, “I’ve been tested. I’ve been tested constantly.” Biden went on to say he could “hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I’m running against.” Pretty snappy answer for a fellow thought by 38 percent of likely voters to be suffering a mental decline. Except, of course, that...

Today the average American is 20 years younger than their representative in Congress. This should come as no surprise, considering that over the past 30 years the average age of a Member of Congress has increased with almost every new Congress. In 1981, the average age of a Representative was 49 and the average of a Senator was 53. Today, the average age of a Representative is 57 and the average of a Senator is 61. This prompted us to take a further look at those graying averages. Democratic leaders in the House are two decades older than Republican leaders....

The whole point of American education was preparing people to pursue their interests, and their version of the American Dream. This blueprint has faded. Many kids today don't learn enough to have vivid, inspiring dreams, nor do they master abilities needed to fulfill dreams if they had any. Jimmy Kimmel sent a crew to the street with a map of the world and the challenge, "Point to a country and name it." Many people could not name even one country, even though the USA was in the middle of this map. At Notre Dame, Professor Patrick Deneen concluded that many...

The goal of education has always been to achieve critical thinking. Needless to say, this involves a two-step process: first, students learn a great deal about a topic, whether in history, science, art, or anything else; then students learn to arrange the information in new ways, to set one fact against another, to find new insights among this knowledge. Not anymore. Today's educators are in a hurry; they don't bother with the first step. They jump directly to step two. In this scenario, students who know nothing are expected to talk intelligently about it. What absurdity.Having just heard about X,...

Here is the best (and weirdest) example of cognitive dissonance you will ever see. The set-up is that Bill Nye, an engineer by training, and a proponent of science, is defending climate science on Tucker's show. The first weird thing is that Bill Nye starts by talking about cognitive dissonance being the only reason that anyone would be skeptical of global warming. But he seems to not understand the concept of cognitive dissonance because he believes only the other side could be experiencing it. The nature of cognitive dissonance is that you don't know you're in it when you're in...

New research from the University of British Columbia suggests there may be some truth to the belief that marijuana use causes laziness— at least in rats. The study, published today in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, makes rats less willing to try a cognitively demanding task. "Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found that when we gave THC to these rats, they basically became cognitively lazy," said Mason Silveira, the study's lead author and a PhD candidate in UBC's department of psychology. "What's interesting, however, is that their ability to do the...

The biggest thing Donald Trump is doing is realigning public perceptions on immigration among the low-information voters, for whom being seen as moderate and reasonable is more important than issue analysis. Up until now, nobody has been able to force the ideas Trump has espoused into the mainstream media. As a result, the perception of what is moderate has drifted to the left, and we have been, up until now, unable to stop it. This part of this book has a good example of the cognitive principle that Trump's rhetoric is affecting in low information voters. P is less committed...

Sweet Tooth Causes Some Major Side Effects On your Brains! June 24, 2015 If you love your fried, fatty foods smothered in chocolate and generously dusted with icing sugar? Then, you might just have to say goodbye to mental acuity.A new research conducted in Oregon State University has revealed that a high-sugar, high-fat diet can drastically modify your gut bacteria which in turn may lead to significant losses in ‘cognitive flexibility’ – a measurement of the brain’s ability to switch between thinking about one concept to another, and to adapt to changes in the environment.The study, which was conducted on...

[Summary: Progressive education tends to celebrate creativity at the expense of knowledge and the traditional curriculum.] Creativity has been a big theme in progressive education for more than 75 years: We are constantly lectured that kids need music, art, theater, etc. This theme is now metastasizing into an oppressive dogma. But why? Ken Robinson, the guru of creativity, is famous for saying “We are educating people out of their creative capacities.” The premise seems to be: if kids do arty things, they will end up being artists. Empirically untrue. Conversely, Robinson says that if children do something rigorous and academic,...

Sixty years ago, Benjamin Bloom came up with what he said was a superior way to categorize educational goals and activities. The Taxonomy was famous for reducing everything to six steps: remembering; understanding; applying; analyzing; evaluating; creating. Note that "remembering" (or "knowing") is the first and LOWEST step. Bloom concocted this taxonomy to describe education at the college level. College professors, however, ignored the Taxonomy. Meanwhile, the people in charge of our public schools put this thing on a pedestal. Why? Because the Taxonomy scorned what had always been considered the most important step: knowing information. Bloom and his Taxonomy...

"Why Bilinguals Are Smarter," a recent column in the New York Times, suggests that children raised in two-language homes tend to have higher IQs, because their brains are forced to be more nimble. Let's stipulate that this is true. Still, I think there's more to the story. I suspect that any intellectual activity -- playing piano, chess, daily nature walks, video games, learning the constellations -- would tend to speed up intellectual development. A lot of times our modern educators will smugly insist: don't go too fast; children need to be ready to learn! But if parents are speaking two...

[New YouTube video is short, graphical, and has good jazz; this is script for it--] A century ago, Maria Montessori reached a brilliant insight. Observing children at a mental institution, she wondered: “Suppose we created a jazzed-up environment that constantly challenged and inspired young minds...?” Montessori created a new kind of school for impaired children. Quickly, her students were equal to “normal” children. She became the toast of Europe; as she deserved to be. Montessori’s vision has to inspire all true educators. But what, after all, is Montessori telling us but common sense? If you want intellectual and cognitive development,...

Obama's chickens are coming home to roost! Dodge Facts, Skip Details, Govern Chicago-Style By Michael Barone Real Clear Politics June 22, 2009 We pundits like to analyze our presidents and so, as Barack Obama deals with difficult problems ranging from health care legislation to upheaval in Iran, let me offer my Three Rules of Obama. First, Obama likes to execute long-range strategies but suffers from cognitive dissonance when new facts render them inappropriate. His 2008 campaign was a largely flawless execution of a smart strategy, but he was flummoxed momentarily when the Russians invaded Georgia and when John McCain picked...

Omega-3 Intake During Last Months Of Pregnancy Boosts An Infant's Cognitive And Motor Development ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2008) — A study supervised by Université Laval researchers Gina Muckle and Éric Dewailly reveals that omega-3 intake during the last months of pregnancy boosts an infant's sensory, cognitive, and motor development. The details of this finding are published in a recent edition of the Journal of Pediatrics. To come to this conclusion, researchers first measured docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentration--a type of omega-3 fatty acid involved in the development of neurons and retinas--in the umbilical cord blood of 109 infants. "DHA concentration in...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's supreme leader said the country's political establishment should be open to criticism, following a rare protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, state radio reported on Wednesday. "We should be wary of the day when our young people in universities do not have the motivation to raise questions, issues and demands," Ali Khamenei told a group of students and political activists on Tuesday night. "If sometimes we have said there should be no opposition to the country's officials, this does not mean there should be no criticism," Khamenei said. "This applies to the leadership too." Khamenei's comments came...

Curry may counter cognitive decline Ben Harder A chemical found in turmeric, an ingredient in curry, may prevent cognitive impairment, a study of Singaporeans suggests. The chemical, called curcumin, has anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties, past research in animals had suggested (SN: 12/8/01, p. 362: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20011208/note12.asp). To explore its potential effects in people, medical researchers in Singapore analyzed a database of some 1,000 elderly, mentally sound adults living in that ethnically diverse city-state in Southeast Asia. The database, originally collected for diet and health studies, provided a measure of cognitive function for each volunteer and information on,...

AM - Friday, 11 August , 2006 08:42:00 Reporter: Matt Brown TONY EASTLEY: British Prime Minister Tony Blair believes an agreement on a United Nations resolution for the conflict in Lebanon could be reached within the next 24 hours, but it's made little difference on the ground. Columns of Israeli tanks moved into two border towns, but said it had put its broader offensive on hold to give diplomacy a chance. The difficult diplomatic path ahead has been highlighted by comments made by the President of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud, who says he can't guarantee Hezbollah won't be able to re-arm...

Bill Clinton is secretly fighting serious health problems. The ex-President's recovery from heart bypass surgery has been far more difficult than the public has been told. And The ENQUIRER has uncovered bombshell news: Clinton may have suffered permanent brain damage. What's more, The ENQUIRER has also exclusively learned that he has been battling a deadly blood infection. That's the REAL story behind the recent disclosure that Clinton will not be campaigning extensively for Sen. John Kerry as the November presidential elections nears

I. The Right to LifeIt is a fundamental principle of most moral theories that all human beings have a right to life. The existence of a right implies obligations or duties of third parties towards the right-holder. One has a right AGAINST other people. The fact that one possesses a certain right - prescribes to others certain obligatory behaviours and proscribes certain acts or omissions. This Janus-like nature of rights and duties as two sides of the same ethical coin - creates great confusion. People often and easily confuse rights and their attendant duties or obligations with the morally decent,...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A new type of "smart" machine that could fundamentally change how people interact with computers is on the not-too-distant horizon at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. Over the past five years a team led by Sandia cognitive psychologist Chris Forsythe has been developing cognitive machines that accurately infer user intent, remember experiences with users and allow users to call upon simulated experts to help them analyze situations and make decisions. "In the long term, the benefits from this effort are expected to include augmenting human effectiveness and embedding these cognitive models into systems like robots...