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World-changing projects on the way! My friends Loló & Leo's lab for social good is growing :) #SupportTransition! http://thndr.it/1dPnq0k

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I just supported The Life Lab Inception Fund on @ThunderclapIt // @mlorenabello

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A Wandering Mind Might Be a Bless in Desguise [Study]

By Jill Sakai Odds are, you're not going to make it all the way through this article without thinking about something else. In fact, studies have found that our minds are wandering half the time, drifting off to thoughts unrelated to what we're doing -- did I remember to turn off the light? What should I have for dinner? A new study investigating the mental processes underlying a wandering mind reports a role for working memory, a sort of a mental workspace that allows you to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously. Imagine you see your neighbor upon arriving home one day and schedule a lunch date. On your way to add it to your calendar, you stop to turn off the drippy faucet, feed the cat, and add milk to your grocery list. The capacity that allows you to retain the lunch information through those unrelated tasks is working memory. The new study, published online March 14 in the journal Psychological Science by Daniel Levinson and Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jonathan Smallwood at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, reports that a person's working memory capacity relates to the tendency of their mind to wander during a routine assignment. Lead author Levinson is a graduate student with Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry, in the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the UW-Madison Waisman Center. The researchers asked volunteers to perform one of two simple tasks -- either pressing a button in response to the appearance of a certain letter on a screen, or simply tapping in time with one's breath -- and compared people's propensity to drift off. "We intentionally use tasks that will never use all of their attention," Smallwood explains, "and then we ask, how do people use their idle resources?" Throughout the tasks, the researchers checked in periodically with the participants to ask if their minds were on task or wandering. At the end, they measured each participant's working memory capacity, scored by their ability to remember a series of letters given to them interspersed with easy math questions. In both tasks, there was a clear correlation. "People with higher working memory capacity reported more mind wandering during these simple tasks," says Levinson, though their performance on the test was not compromised. The result is the first positive correlation found between working memory and mind wandering and suggests that working memory may actually enable off-topic thoughts. "What this study seems to suggest is that, when circumstances for the task aren't very difficult, people who have additional working memory resources deploy them to think about things other than what they're doing," Smallwood says. Interestingly, when people were given a comparably simple task but filled with sensory distractors (such as lots of other similarly shaped letters), the link between working memory and mind wandering disappeared. "Giving your full attention to your perceptual experience actually equalized people, as though it cut off mind wandering at the pass," Levinson says. Working memory capacity has previously been correlated with general measures of intelligence, such as reading comprehension and IQ score. The current study underscores how important it is in everyday situations and offers a window into the ubiquitous -- but not well-understood -- realm of internally driven thoughts. "Our results suggest that the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life -- when they're on the bus, when they're cycling to work, when they're in the shower -- are probably supported by working memory," says Smallwood. "Their brains are trying to allocate resources to the most pressing problems." In essence, working memory can help you stay focused, but if your mind starts to wander those resources get misdirected and you can lose track of your goal. Many people have had the experience of arriving at home with no recollection of the actual trip to get there, or of suddenly realizing that they've turned several pages in a book without comprehending any of the words. "It's almost like your attention was so absorbed in the mind wandering that there wasn't any left over to remember your goal to read," Levinson says. Where your mind wanders may be an indication of underlying priorities being held in your working memory, whether conscious or not, he says. But it doesn't mean that people with high working memory capacity are doomed to a straying mind. The bottom line is that working memory is a resource and it's all about how you use it, he says. "If your priority is to keep attention on task, you can use working memory to do that, too." Levinson is now studying how attentional training to increase working memory will affect wandering thoughts, to better understand the connection and how people can control it. "Mind wandering isn't free -- it takes resources," he says. "You get to decide how you want to use your resources." The work was supported by the Fetzer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the Roke Foundation.

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'The Perfection of Giving' Is in crowdsourcing mode!

By helping people across the world, a group of Newyorkers are working to inspire the rest of the world to help their own communities 108 lives at a time.

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49 Documentaries to watch & think about the conspiracy behind 9-11

9-11 .  The cruelest conspiracy ever.  The day they fooled the world. But, hey! don't believe me... here a list of 49 Documentaries that you might find illuminating. To the family of the victims of this unpunished crime, there are simply no words that can alleviate your sorrow. Be as strong as you can.

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The 13-year-old who has the world planting trees!

At the age of nine, Felix Finkbeiner hatched a plan to plant a million trees in his native Germany. Now he's a global eco-superhero.

Get Involve at Plant for the Planet

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The Car That Runs On Air

Airpod’s technology was originally created in France at Motor Development International, but after some time, it was bought by Tata Motors (an Indian car manufacturer). This technology is so far the most environmentally and economically friendly. Airpod’s tank holds about 175 liters of compressed air that can be filled at special stations (which are right now not available in many countries) or by activating the on-board electric motor to suck air in from the outside. The total cost of the car is $10,000 and it takes just a few pennies to refill the car cylinder or you can use the on-board electric motor pump. Right now, the car has no steering, rather it just has a joystick to control its movements. But in the future, design and the control will be worked on. Check out this short documentary by CNN on this technology. Read more: http://realitypod.com/2012/09/the-tiny-car-that-runs-on-air/#ixzz25iaFR4mN

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Is really that difficult?

I'd like to open a debate. Let's analyze these three Facebook Pages Covers from all imaginable perspective

In the era of Pinterest I'd like to ask you a rhetoric question, based on this image, who would you pick?

You agree? Share it and engage!

Have an opinion? I'll be commenting on every social platform.

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Bhutan leads the world to a new economy of happiness The Bhutan government says its idea of happiness "has nothing to do with the common use of that word to denote an ephemeral, passing mood – happy today or unhappy tomorrow due to some temporary external condition like praise or blame, gain or loss. Rather, it refers to the deep, abiding happiness that comes from living life in full harmony with the natural world, with our communities and fellow beings, and with our culture and spiritual heritage, – in short from feeling totally connected with our world. Keep Reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/bhutan-advise-united-nations-happiness

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Would you say you're creative? Prove it!

Massimo Banzi and his @TedTalks How #Arduino is open-sourcing imagination 

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President of Uruguay should be leading the World!

All the presidents should lead us like this man! 

MUST WATCH!

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A Free Beginner's Guide to the Sharing Economy

For over two years, Shareable has explored the new sharing economy in its many forms: how individuals, families, communities, entrepreneurs, businesses, designers, coders, and countless more are building resilience through collaboration and sharing. In that time, we've amassed a considerable library of how-to share guides, and researched and documented how these shifts are transforming the economy, technology, and civil society.

Download the free Guide to Sharing.

Still, those new to the sharing lifestyle may wonder where to start. As demonstrated in the free New Dream Community Action Kit Guide to Sharing,produced by The Center for a New American Dream in collaboration withShareable, sharing isn't something we need to relearn. It's a childhood skill we've never lost, like riding a bike:

It's one of the first things we learn as kids: How to share.

Read the whole post at Shareable

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A documentara by @thevenusproject... Beyond Politics, Poverty and War. "Paradise or Oblivion"

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Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Helped Iceland — ReTweet that U.S.

Via @TPEconomy

Though only a tiny country of 320,000, Iceland made international headlines in 2008 when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, exemplifying the dangers of financial deregulation. But this year, Iceland’s economy will outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average.

And as difficult as it may be for conservatives here in the U.S. to stomach, at least some of the credit for Iceland’s expeditious recovery is due to its astonishing debt relief agreement.

Since the end of 2008, Iceland’s state-controlled banks have forgiven loans for more than a quarter of the population, a total equivalent to 13 percent of its annual gross domestic product. Despite shrinking 6.7 percent in 2009, Iceland’s economy is projected to expand 2.4 percent this year and next, compared with 0.2 percent in the euro area. And while Iceland’s recovery does not provide a complete parallel to U.S. economic woes, the island’s nascent success does demonstrate how loan forgiveness can help reignite a struggling economy. According to Icelandic economist Thorolfur Matthiasson:

“The lesson to be learned from Iceland’s crisis is that if other countries think it���s necessary to write down debts, they should look at how successful the [forgiveness of debt exceeding] 110 percent [of home values] agreement was here. It’s the broadest agreement that’s been undertaken.”

Some U.S. lawmakers are trying to follow Iceland’s example. Three members of Congress — in an exceedingly rare act of bipartisanship — have introduced a bill with the potential to help hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners while also saving taxpayer dollars.

The bill would mandate principal-reduction pilot programs at government-controlled mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Essentially, the bill allows “underwater” home owners to reduce their monthly payments in exchange for a portion of the future price appreciation on the home, known as “shared appreciation.” With the extra equity, homeowners would greatly reduce the chance of foreclosure. Principal reductions would also save these government-run companies — and thus taxpayers — billions of dollars compared to other foreclosure-prevention measures.

– Steven Perlberg

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Designing For Generosity. @TedTalks by Nipun Mehta #giftivism #inspiring #rbe #resourcebasedeconomy

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The way we approach food is more dangerous and deadly than war. This is a life changing Ted Talk by inspiring Chef Jamie Oliver.

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The end is near? You be the judge... Via @perezkaram