Who knew that group interaction can lower your intelligence? Surely, not the bosses who constantly schedule group meetings.

MRI’s were used by Scientist from the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute investigated how the brain processes data relating to status in social groups and how the perceptions of such status impact on cognitive capacity expressions.

The results showed a general decrease in the ability of people to come up with solutions. (Aren’t meetings called for the purpose of coming up with solutions?)

MRI’s showed that the section of the bran that processes emotions had increased activities while the section that deals with problem solving dropped in activity.

Researchers from Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute said that the results calls for companies to develop strategies that are aimed at getting the most out of employees who are likely to feel socially pressured when in groups.

Pugh on ‘intimidated’ women

Intimidated Women

Though you might joke about staff meetings draining your brain power, findings have suggested that these meetings may cause you to ‘act’ like you’re brain dead. This was said by stated by the Director of the institute’s Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and Computation Psychiatry Unit, Read Montague, who was in charge of the research.

He further explained that when group volunteers are informed about the performance of others, their problem solving abilities decreased.

He stated that individuals were matched with persons of the same IQ and yet after placing them in groups, ranking their performance based on cognitive tasks against those of their peers, and showed them those rankings, there was a significant decrease in the ability of some of them when it comes to problem solving. There was a dramatic effect on the social feedback.

Moreover a pattern could be seen among the lines of gender.

Both men and women had IQ scores along the same baseline, but yet still more women than men fell into the group of poor performance.

Kenneth Kishida, the lead author of the research stated that the study revealed that even mild social signals in group settings can have dramatic and unexpected consequences on the cognitive functioning of individuals.

Furthermore, those strong neural reactions elicited by such social cues were documented due to neuroimaging.

Steven Quartz, who is a co-author and a philosophy at the Caltech Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, said that the notion of a division between the cognitive and social processes in the brain is rather artificial as the two interacts deeply with one another.

The research was published in the journal of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, on January 2012 of this year.

Your perception of the social status in a room, that is, concern about how cool, capable, or smart you are as the other persons in the group, can hinder the problem solving ability of even the smartest persons. This suggests that IQ measurement should entail more than just a single test that allows you to be isolated.

The world of online hacking and malware has grown from being the playground of children to a very organized criminal enterprise. There’s a lot of money being made on the back of normal users, thanks to infected computers transmitting them credit card information, payment information, logins and passwords. Infected computers are numbered in the millions worldwide, and they are constantly being used by criminal organizations to steal and cause online chaos. That’s why there’s a number of companies that make all sorts of protection software that they sell to users so that they can protect themselves. ZoneAlarm anti virus is one of them, and in fact one of the more popular ones. But how good is it really, and do you need to spend the money on it?

Download ZoneAlarm

ZoneAlarm is actually one of the oldest security options out there, but they started as a firewall. This kind of software used to be critical to protect computers from unauthorized access. However in recent years, thanks to home routers and recent systems coming with firewalls built in, there hasn’t had a need for an additional software firewall. So ZoneAlarm now offers a full security suite, including an anti virus, which should protect your computer from any malware. To see if an anti virus is good or not, it’s very hard to just count the number of viruses that they find, because there’s new ones all the time. Instead, anti virus software is typically classified in two categories. There’s the standard type, which knows about a long list of viruses, and will block them. This is the old way of doing things. Modern software now use heuristics, which are complex mathematical equations to detect new viruses, and hopefully block any malware from infecting your system.

So is ZoneAlarm a good anti virus? Yes, it is. But that’s also not entirely the point. Every modern anti virus out there uses heuristics, and is pretty much the same from an effectiveness point of view. Instead, they difference themselves based on how easy to use they are, and how much they cost. And this is where ZoneAlarm falls short. While it’s fairly easy to use, much more than some other paid solutions, ZoneAlarm has a tendency of displaying an alarming number of popups. Often, it seems like this kind of software just lets you know that it’s there, it’s running and it’s doing a good job, just so you remember to pay the annual fee next time it comes up. There’s no real reason for so many popups and warning messages. As for the price, ZoneAlarm is also not bad, but it’s not free, in fact it does cost a substantial amount of money, when there are free solutions out there. Getting a free anti virus, as long as it’s a modern heuristic one, will give you the same effectiveness as this one.

Overall, what’s the bottom line on ZoneAlarm anti virus? My suggestion is not to go for it. Instead, Microsoft publishes its own anti malware solution called Microsoft Security Essentials, which you can find on their site or by just searching the web for it. The good thing is that it’s free, and it’s very quiet, two features that ZoneAlarm is missing. Just get that one instead.

Decide for yourself visit the ZoneAlarm web site

Watch the ZoneAlarm review video from YouTube. It’s pretty amazing all the features ZoneAlarm packs into their software package.

If there’s one thing analysts love, it’s mobile phones. That may be because the landscape is so competitive, and things change so fast. Regardless what it is, ever since the iPhone came out, it’s been a focus of all tech pundits. Now, since last year, Microsoft truly entered the market with its Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately for them, they haven’t seen much success in the market, remaining at a very low adoption rate of 1.9%. Still, research firm IHS iSuppli is now predicting that Windows Phones will overtake iOS in the smartphone market within 3 years. Crazy prediction, or bold move? Here’s the details.

First, there’s no question that so far, Windows Phone 7 has seen very little success, despite a large marketing effort from Microsoft. Ever since the first version came out, critics have pointed out various flaws in the system, and updates have been slow to come through the various carriers. Worse, it almost seemed like mobile phone stores didn’t even want to sell these phones. With the iPhone and Android taking all the real estate, it was very hard for Microsoft to find a spot on the shelve. But last year they made a very significant move, by partnering with Nokia, the largest cellphone marker in the world. Now, they will be making Windows Phones as well, and that might be enough to propel this system ahead. This is in fact what the research firm is basing it’s predictions on. The very first Nokia phone to hit the US soil running Windows Phone 7, the Lumia 900, was a big hit at CES. That’s why IHS iSuppli thinks this is just the beginning, and that the path for Microsoft and Nokia is wide open. They are predicting a 15% market share by next year.

But there’s several problems with that theory. First, of course Nokia is the largest phone maker, but the main reason is because almost all low end phones, those you typically find in Africa, part of Asia and even many European and South American markets are all using cheap Nokia phones. Those aren’t smartphones, and they won’t be running Windows Phone 7. Nokia smartphones have never been a success in the US, or many other industrial countries. So the power Nokia adds to Windows Phone 7 is not that great. Then, being a success at CES and being a success in the market place are two different things. The fact is people who go in mobile phone stores look for an iPhone or an Android phone, primarily. It’s doubtful that a lot of tech press coverage from CES is going to change that. The idea that suddenly, this one phone will propel Microsoft ahead of the market is fairly dubious.

Overall, anything could happen. The iPhone and iOS could become stale, uninteresting, and we could see a mass of customers switching within a year. But that’s doubtful. Chances are, Nokia won’t bring much to Microsoft, at least not in the US.

Let me know your thoughts please comment!

Almost everyone suffers from a broken heart at some point or another in their life and knowing that you are not the only person to have done so is important. If after the death of a loved one, such as your spouse, the pain does not subside after a while, then it is important for you to seek counseling. Your grief can lead to you being physically ill and even though at first you may think that your life won’t ever be normal again, you should still get professional help.

Many times couples who have been married for years die a few months apart from each other. It is a very tragic situation, but with proper counseling, the partner that is surviving can still lead a happy and good life, and they should bear in mind all the other persons who are alive and still love them, especially their children and grand children. In such cases, a broken heart may bring a feeling of total loss, that in essence the survivor commits suicide.

Research done at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has shown that the risk of an individual suffering from heart attack is increased by at least 21 times in only the first day after the loss of a loved one.

Over a 5 year period, 2 thousand patients who had suffered from heart attacks were interviewed by these researchers, and questions were asked in order to find out what triggered events. The results were published in the “Circulation” journal and they reveal that the risk of getting heart attack is 8 times higher during the first week after the passing of a loved one. Although it declines slowly, the risk is increased for about 1 month. It also revealed that men who are married have better chances of surviving heart attacks.

Other studies done before have also proven that our health takes a downfall after someone close to you dies, but this is the first one which has discovered the “broken heart syndrome”. This increased risk is being associated by researchers with depression, anger, and anxiety feelings which come with their grief. Such feelings lead to an elevation in your blood pressure and heart rate, making it more likely for blood to clot and eventually leads to a heart attack. This is explained by Dr. Murray Mittleman, author of “10 Ways to Mend a Broken Heart”.

A loved ones death can cause so much pain emotionally that it eventually results in physical pain which takes the form of a broken heart.

I wish I had this as a kid! The experience of being a parent is very rewarding. Molding the life of a person while teaching that person about the world in which we live can be very fun, particularly if you have the same interests. Chances are, however, if you’re interested in gadgets, your children has shown interest in the toys you tinker with on a constant basis. Regrettably, kids can place some heavy risk on your electronics and gadgets, do giving them hands-on time with your costly possessions maybe rather nerve wrecking. Many gadgets won’t stand a chance against butter fingers and sticky fingers from a three year old, and that is why the Fisher Price Kid Tough electronic line is so attractive. At CES 2012, in the 2^nd week of January, a portable DVR was unveiled by the company which is tough enough to hold its own against horseplay with your kids.

This device, which is dubbed as the Kid Tough Portable DVR comes in either blue or pink and is designed for kids between ages 2 and 5. Although it is called a DVR, this recent addition to the Kids Tough electronics line is really more than a media player as it features a 3.5” touch screen and a headphone jack to let them watch stuff while on the go. The rechargeable battery that it has can last for up to 6 hours and it can be recharged using a docking station. In order to use this device, you just have to dock the DVR in the station, attach it to the set top box and then set the time and length you want recorded.

The device greatest feature is definitely not storage space, as it only has a standard of 2GB. You can however, expand this o up to about 32GB if you need to place more stuff on it. It is set to be released in stores in the month of May, and the price is about 150 dollars. Do you wish to buy one and have your 4 year old test out its ruggedness?

You will be able to buy it in either pink or blue. It has a comfortable but tough case, with tactile areas which softens its ruggedized display, thus making it easy to hold. It has nice big buttons which makes it easy for young children to use.

The Portable Kid Tough DVR can be attached to a TV satellite system and programmed to record and save TV shows to its hard drive. You then unplug, give it to your child, and make a 4 hour car ride much better. It has a built in stereo speaker as well as 3.5 millimeter headphone jack.

In June 2012, it will be sold retail at a price of 149.99 dollars.

Watch the demo video to see it in action!

Yet again, alien conspiracy theorists have attempt to use freely available NASA photographs to demonstrate how the space agency has to be participating in a more sophisticated UFO cover-up. I just wish one of these days NASA would catch something that absolutely could not be debunked. However, like in years past, they’re latest theories have been literally shot down from the laws of physics. This time around, they called focus to unusual new video footage taken by a telescope on board NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft. One of a set of probes parked on each side of the sun which, collectively, give a 360-degree look at the interior solar system. The video clip indicates Venus, Earth and, on the other side in the field-of-view, an unexplainable triangular in shape object advancing our way.

“Comparing it for size to the planetary objects that are seen in this telescope, if my calculations are correct, that thing is enormous,” quoted Youtube.com user “BeePeeOilDisaster” as part of his online video feedback to the video footage, which had been taken December. 27 -29. Talk of the cover-up rapidly followed when, a couple of days afterwards, NASA researchers modified the STEREO site to present more recent pictures.

This isn’t the very first time alien seekers have discovered what they consider being tremendous UFOs in pictures taken by way of the STEREO probes.

But this time around, researchers who work together with information through the probes made a decision to deal with the claim immediately. In the article on the STEREO web page, they presented a justification on the triangular in shape element from the December video footage. They say it’s nothing more than a illusion from the lighting.

“The answer lies on the exact opposite side of the image,” the researchers had written. “At the same time as this strange-looking feature starts being visible, the very bright planet Venus enters the field-of-view from the lower left.”

The researchers observe that Venus as well as the triangular shape, opposing one another throughout the center of the camera plane, remain in step while they proceed. “This is not a coincidence. The strange-looking geometrical object is actually an internal reflection of the planet Venus within the telescope optics. This effect has been seen many times before.”

With this optical illusion, inward bound lighting echos backwards and forwards off of lenses and mirrors within the telescope. The appearance of items made by this dispersed light is usually in the shape of triangles and circles of varied dimensions dependant upon the general orientations of the lenses and mirrors.

One more illustration of internal reflection, this kind of lighting from Earth, may be seen in a STEREO-B photograph taken May 2007. A lot more samples of internal reflection as well as other visual and data-processing items are shown on the researchers photograph artifacts website, in addition to information of the several effects.

It’s long been suspected that coffee was good for the health, and could help with many serious diseases. Through studies and tests, people who drink coffee regularly have been found to be less likely to contract some diseases or health problems, although there had never been any definite results, and no indication as to why that was. Now, thanks to some scientists in China, we get some new and conclusive evidence that coffee can indeed help you out in major ways. Here’s why coffee is good for your health.

Several years ago, studies showed that people who drink 4 cups of coffee per day were 50% less likely to get Type-2 diabetes. Every additional cup would decrease that risk even more. It seemed fairly incredible, but the results were consistent. The coffee beans would, in fact, bring a lot of positive effects. Now, scientists from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology in China, have found that coffee compounds would inhibit something called human islet amyloid polypeptide, which is a substance that’s linked with diabetes. Now, they believe this is why drinking coffee can have such a strong impact on the prevention of Type-2 diabetes. It fits with the studies done so far, and could explain much as to why coffee is good for your health.

Of course, this is just the latest in good coffee research. Last year, Harvard University found that coffee drinking can help with prostate cancer and breast cancer as well. One of the studies showed that women who drank 5 cups or more per day were 57% less likely to get estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer, which is one of the most prevalent types of cancers. Also, while Alzheimer’s disease is still not officially prevented with coffee, new studies on mice have shown increased brain functions from drinkers of coffee. It could well be that mental functions in humans will end up being proven to be affected in a similar way. More studies are needed of course, but it does seem like that’s where science is headed. Within a few years, we may have conclusive studies as to the effect on coffee on the brain.

Overall, the benefits of drinking large amounts of coffee seems to be piling on lately, thanks to studies that show coffee is good for your health. The new China results on Type-2 diabetes is just the latest in a string of results that show the benefits of coffee, and why it’s important to drink a few cups every day. While this drink has not quite reached medication status, it may well be a powerful prevention.

The Lumia 710 delivers Nokia’s very first Windows Phone 7.5 smart phone within the United States, even though the more expensive Lumia 800 design is for sale in other areas around the globe for a while. It shares numerous characteristics with the Lumina, nonetheless its quite evident the newest smartphone may share quality but as far as price, it is in a league of it’s own.

Due to a quick processor chip and Windows appealing and sharp user interface, the Lumia 710 is quite amazing and the phone gains advantage from strong call quality, reasonable battery lifespan, along with a workable camera. Continue reading to find out whether or not the Lumia 710 can create a buzz within the jampacked U.S. smart phone industry, or if it simply one more common hand held phone.

The Lumia 710 features a 3.7-inch, WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) screen with Nokia’s ClearBlack personalization. In contrast to the Lumia 800, the LCD screen for the 710 doesn’t have countless viewing angles. The colors on the Lumia are extremely precise and the display executed very well in direct sunshine. The conventional, smooth style of the 710′s display doesn’t compel the consumer to run their finger on the

display screen in the exact same manner how the Lumia 800′s curved screen does, however the touch responsiveness was extremely precise and spot on. The the very top of the 710 contains both micro-USB charging/syncing slot and also the 3.5mm earphone jack port. It’s also where power/sleep/unlock key’s situated. The rear of the Lumia 710 is covered with a

soft-touch rubberized surface that offers an excellent proper grip when holding the unit. The back cover to the Lumia 710 is completely removable, and consumers can change the battery pack whenever they wish.

The Lumia 710 is incredibly slim at 12.7mm (.5in), something numerous shoppers rave about. Additionally it is very light-weight at 125g (4.4oz), very likely because of the generous utilization of plastic material included in the design.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is run by single 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor chip and 512MB of Ram memory. Just like other gadgets, this cpu and RAM blend enables a fast consumer experience, and there’s hardly any delay through the entire system. The Windows Phone user interface will get out of the way very easily, and applications are fast to open up most of the time.

The People hub that organizes all of your current associates and incorporates with social media products and services including Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook is clever and useful.

In just about all areas, the Nokia Lumia 710 offers smartphone consumers a pleasurable experience. The Nokia Lumia 710 isn’t a state of the art cellular phone in regards to specs, but consumers are saying that they delight in holding and using the smartphone for day to day usage. If the public find the phone comfortable to use, they will eventually grow to love the Lumia 710 for all it’s amazing features.

Getting an online business to make profits, and to grow, can be a serious challenge. There’s more competition every day on the web, and getting those viewers to click on your ads and engage, spending their money on your products, becomes more difficult. That’s why so many site owners turn to many different SEO and marketing techniques, but with so many choices of what to do out there, it’s hard to find the right strategy. That’s why sites that group up all your marketing needs are starting to become more popular, and among them, HubSpot is one of the most liked and used in the industry. Here’s an overview of what they offer.

Visit HubSpot.com

HubSpot is a small company that started a few years ago, and aims to provide all the online marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) techniques that you may want. While the goal is pretty big, do they really deliver? In many ways they do, although they still won’t guaranty success, but they do provide all the tools you may need to succeed by yourself. HubSpot provides search optimization through keyword charts, allowing you to compare how well you rank with your competitors. It features blogging software so you can easily share content on social media. It has landing pages and lead generation tools. It provides marketing and email tools to facilitate ad campaigns. It has multiple analytics pages to allow you to see how well your site is doing. It also integrates with many CRM, Salesforce and NetSuite so you can keep using those professional services.

As to how well all those tools will help you, that can vary a lot. Certainly, HubSpot provides a vast wealth of information. Depending on which package you buy, you’ll have access to a lot of tools to do your online marketing right. For example, the Enterprise package even allows you to do A/B testing of various lead generation pages, which is crucial to find out what works and what doesn’t. So for a business owner that actively uses these tools, there’s no question that HubSpot does work. Many customer reviews report increased sales and a better understanding of their clients when using HubSpot. Comparing this service with other similar offerings can be difficult. Each business is unique, and you may have better success with another offering. But comparing something like HubSpot with doing everything yourself, there’s no question that this site makes it a lot easier and simpler to get started. Doing everything they’ve done as far as information gathering and services by yourself would be quite an undertaking.

Overall, HubSpot is likely to be well worth it for any new online business that wants to grow its sales, and go from no strategy, or an in-house strategy, to something that makes sense. However, if you already have a working plan, or you use a competitor system, it’s unsure whether or not HubSpot is for you.

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Want to start a business in 2012? Starting a business can be an involved, and complicated process, especially when it comes time to register it with the state, and filling in all the necessary documents. There’s so many types of corporations, and so many things to think about when creating your company. Fortunately, there’s people out there that can help you, which is the basic idea behind MyCorporation.com and the services they offer. The site provides a lot of information about starting a business, and sells simple packages that will handle the whole process for you, customized to your needs. Here’s how their services look like.

First, there’s no question that a new business owner can quickly become overwhelmed with all the terms and requirements that they have to fulfill. For example, do you know whether you should register your business as a C, S or LLC, what should be included in your annual reports, or what a member transfer ledger is? The first thing you can find on the site is a lot of information about these things, that explain them in a way a new business owner can understand. Browsing the top menus leads you to such information that is both free and useful. It takes you step by step between the various stages of business creation, and tells you about all of these concepts, with comparison charts and informational videos. Their learning center, for example, is filled with answers to common questions new business owners may have.

But the core of the site is a series of packages that they sell for each type of new company. There’s the basic package, and it goes up all the way to a professional, all inclusive plan. With these packages, anyone can start a business, and the people behind the site will handle a lot of the process for you. How much is handled depends on how much you’re willing to pay. Some of the included features include things like name research, filling up an article of organization, operating agreements, member transfer ledgers, annual reports, business maintenance, and so on. They also take care of fees like the publication fee, the state filing fee, along with shipping and handling on any paperwork. Customer support is always available to help you out should you have questions or concerns. Whether you pick the basic or the premium package, you get access to many useful features that can help anyone who wants to start a business, by providing information and services that they would otherwise need to do themselves.

Overall, MyCorporation.com is a nice idea, and a useful service for those who want to start a business but don’t know all the details on how to get started. Certainly, you could spend the time to learn all of this yourself, and if you knew people who have done it before, they could help you along, but this is a quick and easy way for anyone to get it done online.

Visit MyCorporation.com