Some people make few intentional changes in life. Sure, over time they may get fatter, gather lines, and go gray. But they wear their hair the same way, buy the same brand of shoes, eat the same breakfast, and stick to routines for no reason other than the ease of a comfortable, predictable life. Yet as both research and real life show, many others do make important changes. They train for marathons, quit smoking, switch fields, write plays, take up the guitar, or learn to tango even if they never danced before in their lives. What is the difference between these two groups of people? It's their perspective. People who change do not question whether change is possible or look for reasons they cannot change. They simply decide on a change they want and do what is necessary to accomplish it. Changing, which always stems from a firm decision, becomes job number one.

Any type of rejection hurts, often more than we expected it to. A scientific experiment suggests that our brains are made to feel this way. Test participants were asked to recall a recent rejection while lying in an MRI scanner. Surprisingly, activity was detected in the same part of the brain where physical pain is experienced. Evolutionary psychologists believe that this dates back to a time when humans lived in small, nomadic tribes. If they were kicked out of their group, these early humans faced an increased chance of death. Therefore, the brain developed feelings of rejection, which served as a kind of warning sign. When early humans felt the pain of rejection, they knew they had to change their behavior. This increased their chances of remaining with the tribe and surviving.

One common formation of migrating birds is the V-shape, which is most commonly used by geese. This pattern increases flight efficiency, allowing birds to expend less energy. This is essential for birds that fly long distances. One reason this formation helps them conserve energy is that each bird flies at a slightly different altitude. This difference allows each to benefit from the upwash of air from the wings of the bird in front of it. This reduces the amount of resistance that the bird experiences. Every bird that is behind another experiences this reduction, but the lead bird does not. Therefore, when it gets tired, it moves to the back, with another bird taking its place.

Use a plastic pen and rub it on your hair about ten times and then hold the pen close to small pieces of tissue paper or chalk dust. You will find that the bits of paper or chalk dust cling to the pen. What you have done there is to create a form of electricity called static electricity. This kind of electricity is produced by friction, and the pen becomes electrically charged. Static electricity is also found in the atmosphere. During a thunderstorm, clouds may become charged as they rub against each other. The lightning that we often see during a storm is caused by a large flow of electrical charges between charged clouds and the earth.

A product's brand has become so important to consumers these days that it has caused a change in the supply chain. Brands have moved into the dominant position rather than manufacturers. These brands explain to the manufacturers exactly what product they need. They also require them to make large quantities of the product in a short amount of time. If a manufacturer is unable to meet these demands, it will simply be replaced by another. Unfortunately, this relationship harms many factory workers. If a group of workers demands better working conditions and higher wages, the manufacturers move their factories to countries where costs are lower. The reason why manufacturers do this is that they fear they can't keep their contracts with powerful brands unless they cut costs. Therefore, they just underpay their workers and leave old facilities unrepaired.

Lake Hillier in Australia is a lake whose water looks solid pink from a distance. Come closer, and you will see that the lake is a milky pink. Scientists can explain the colors of nearby Pink Lake and Senegal's Lake Retba but not Lake Hillier's color. Some say it is because of salt. The other lakes have salty water, which hosts pink bacteria and algae. These turn the water pink. But these lakes change color according to the temperature, unlike Lake Hillier, which keeps its color all year. Even in a bottle, the water remains pink. Whatever the cause is, the color doesn't mean the lake is dangerous. But the lake is only accessible to researchers, so it is impossible for tourists to visit it.

One of the most essential decisions any of us can make is how we invest our time. Of course, how we invest time is not our decision alone to make. Many factors determine what we should do either because we are members of the human race, or because we belong to a certain culture and society. Nevertheless, there is room for personal choice, and control over time is to a certain extent in our hands. Even in the most oppressive decades of the Industrial Revolution, people didn't give up their free will when it came to time. During this period, people worked for more than eighty hours a week in factories. But there were some who spent their few precious free hours reading books or getting involved in politics instead of following the majority into the pubs.

The rivalry between two Spanish soccer teams, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, is enjoyed by fans around the world. But their rivalry dates back further than you might think. It goes back to 1469, when many lands were united by Castilla to form the Spanish Empire. However, the fiercely independent people of Catalonia disliked the empire and longed for independence. These feelings led to a soccer match between FC Barcelona from Catalonia and FC Madrid from Castilla. Later, Real, a title that means royal, was given to FC Madrid, which made the Catalonians very angry. Today, the competition between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid continues, and each game is an overheated battle filled with emotion. It is about more than who wins or loses - it is a matter of regional pride.

The Luddites were laborers who worked in the English textile industry. They protested when labor-saving machinery began to be used during the Industrial Revolution. Fearful that they would lose their jobs to machines, they sent threatening letters to their employers. These letters were signed by General Ludd, who was the imaginary leader of their movement. Their strategy failed, however. As a result, they started breaking into factories and destroying the new machines that had been installed. They destroyed hundreds of machines in just three weeks, and soon their movement spread. The British government reacted strongly to protect the factories. They made the crime of industrial sabotage punishable by death and arrested many of the Luddite leaders, which quickly ended the movement.

A team of researchers looked into why people enjoy listening to music. They found that the reason must be related to our brain's reaction: when we listen to music, our brain releases a chemical that activates its pleasure centers. They also found that if we listen to music, our blood pressure will drop. That's because music can make the brain produce a certain type of calcium that lowers blood pressure. In tests on rats, it only took 30 minutes of Mozart to bring their high blood pressure down to the normal range.

Microbeads are tiny pieces of plastic that are found in many beauty products and other products, such as detergent. Unfortunately, fish and other ocean creatures can confuse them for food. Eating them causes serious problems and may affect growth. Therefore, the UK government banned the use of microbeads in cosmetics in 2018. Environmental groups, however, are not satisfied. They say if the government had been serious about protecting the ocean, it would have banned microbeads from all products, not just cosmetics.

When people explain social behavior, they often make a mistake called the fundamental attribution error. People usually attribute their own negative actions to external factors outside of their control. However, they have a tendency to attribute the mistakes of others to internal factors, such as intelligence or personality. For example, a person failing a test might explain that the test was unfair. But if a classmate were to fail, that same person would be likely to attribute it to something internal, such as being lazy or not studying enough.

We must be careful when looking at proverbs as expressing aspects of a certain worldview or mentality of a people. That is, no fixed conclusions about a so-called national character should be drawn. There are so many popular proverbs from classical, Biblical, and medieval times current in various cultures that it would be foolish to think of them as showing some imagined national character. Nevertheless, the frequent use of certain proverbs in a particular culture could be used together with other social and cultural indicators to form some common concepts. Thus, if the Germans really do use the proverb, Morgenstunde hat Gold im Munde (The morning hour has gold in its mouth) with high frequency, then it does mirror at least to some degree the German attitude towards getting up early. -> Although proverbs can not directly reflect national character, the frequent use of certain proverbs is likely to from general concepts of a nation.

Have you ever slipped and fallen in school? It may have been very embarrassing. Even though you probably think people are still laughing about it, chances are that nobody else even remembers. This can be explained by the spotlight effect. It is our tendency to see things only from our own perspective and to overestimate how closely others are paying attention to us. To demonstrate it, researchers had students wear a T-shirt with an embarrassing image on it. They then asked students to estimate how many classmates would remember the shirt later. The average number they guessed was approximately twice as large as the actual number of students who remembered it. The researchers believe this might be caused by extreme self-awareness and the inability to view ourselves from the perspective of others. -> Researchers found that people observe us less closely than we think.

If you were trying to lose weight, what would you do? Two common methods are exercising regularly and avoiding sweets. Unfortunately, exercising can increase the likelihood that you'll want dessert. In a study, volunteers held a joystick while looking at images of everyday items and desserts. The researchers monitored the hand movements of the volunteers, as pulling the joystick toward their bodies indicated positive feelings. Afterwards, half the volunteers exercised, while the other half did memory puzzles. Then both groups repeated the joystick activity. The results showed that the volunteers who exercised were more attracted to the pictures of desserts than the others. This may occur because the body seeks to replace lost energy through the consumption of calories. -> Research shows that people who exercise desire dessert more than those who do mental activities.

Great ideas do not come by chance. They may sometimes seem to arise suddenly, but upon closer examination, they require much more than luck. Take Isaac Newton, for example. According to legend, he was sitting under an apple tree when, by chance, an apple fell to the ground. This caused him to think, and eventually he discovered the basic laws of gravity. But apples always fall to the ground. If the apple had shot up into the sky instead, it would have been an extraordinary event, one that even an unintelligent observer would have wondered about. But the falling apple was an ordinary event. It was Newton's mind that was special, and he had made it that way through years of diligent studying and scientific training. -> Although innovative ideas may sometimes seem to occur by accident, they cannot be created without hard work.

We often assume we see our physical surroundings as they actually are. But new research suggests that how we see the world depends on what we want from it. When a group of psychologists asked people to estimate how far away a bottle of water was, those who were thirsty guessed it was closer than nonthirsty people did. This difference in perception showed up in a physical challenge, too. When people were told to toss a beanbag at a $25 gift card, and that the closest would win it, people threw their beanbags nine inches short on average. But when the gift card's value was $0, people threw their beanbags past the card by an inch. As the brain evolved, people who saw distances to goals as shorter might have gone after what they wanted more often. This error in perception was actually an advantage, leading people to get what they needed. -> Desired objects are perceived as physically nearer to people than they really are, which might have motivated people to pursue them.

We cannot predict the outcomes of sporting contests, which vary from week to week. This heterogeneity is a feature of sport. It is the uncertainty of the result and the quality of the contest that consumers find attractive. For the sport marketer, this is problematic, as the quality of the contest cannot be guaranteed, no promises can be made in relations to the result and no assurances can be given in respect of the performance of star players. Unlike consumer products, sport cannot and does not display consistency as a key feature of marketing strategies. The sport marketer therefore must avoid marketing strategies based solely on winning, and must instead focus on developing product extensions such as the facility, parking, merchandise, souvenirs, food and beverages rather than on the core product (that is, the game itself). -> Sports has the essential nature of being unreliable, which requires that its marketing strategies feature products and services more than just the sports match.

At one time or another, everyone has to deal with both emotional highs and emotional lows. Unfortunately, we generally consider our emotions to be mysterious and beyond our understanding. However, emotions are a natural product of the human mind. Like everything else, it is the law of cause and effect that they follow. So don't be confused by your emotions. If you accept them as a natural part of life, you will be more comfortable with them.

Volcanoes can be very dangerous, causing massive damage when they erupt. However, not all creatures fear them. In fact, one species of bird, the maleo, depends on them for its survival. It seeks out volcanic areas when making a nest and uses their heat to help hatch its eggs. The maleo needs this extra help because its eggs are unusually large, meaning the female maleo is unable to keep them warm on her own.

It is the weakening of leg veins that is one of the biggest problems for astronauts. Because blood flows differently in zero gravity and the circulatory system doesn't have to work hard, the veins become thin and weak. NASA studied baby giraffes to see how they deal with this. They are able to stand as soon as they are born because their leg veins rapidly inflate. With this in mind, NASA created tubes that fit around astronauts' legs and use vacuum pressure to expand their veins. As a result, astronauts can keep their veins strong and healthy.

Known for his devotion to each of his paintings, Protogenes was an ancient Greek painter and a rival of Apelles. He was born in Caunus, on the coast of Caria, but lived most of his life in Rhodes. Little else is known of him. But there are some accounts of his paintings. The lalysus and the Satyr were the most well-known among his works. Protogenes spent approximately seven years painting the lalysus, a depiction of a local hero of a town in Rhodes. After remaining in Rhodes for at least 200 years, it was carried off to Rome. There later it was destroyed by fire. Protogenes worked on the Satyr during Demetrius Poliorcetes' attack on Rhodes from 305 to 304 B.C. Interestingly, the garden in which he painted the Satyr was in the middle of the enemy's camp. Protogenes is said to have been about seventy years of age when the Satyr was completed.

The cucamelon is an unusual fruit that tastes like a sour cucumber. Native to Mexico and Central America, it is also called a Mexican sour gherkin or a mouse melon. It resembles a tiny watermelon. It can be purchased at farmer's markets, but many people plant it in gardens because it is easy to grow. It is best to start growing it indoors in April and May. It can take three or four weeks for the young plants to emerge from the soil. Once they are big enough, replant them in your garden. When the cucamelon fruit is about the size of a grape, it is ripe enough to be picked. There are many different ways to eat it, but the best way is to put it directly in your mouth.

Naked mole rats are small rodents found in East Africa. They are extremely ugly animals, with large teeth, no fur, and pink skin. They are only about 150 millimeters in length, and there is no difference in size between males and females. Despite their name, they are neither moles nor rats, and their social behavior more closely resembles that of ants or bees. They live and breed underground in large groups of up to 300 individuals, with soldiers, workers and a queen. Rarely do they come up to the surface of the earth, so their eyes are very small. Mole rats also seem to feel little pain, and they can live in places with very little oxygen.

The above graph shows who Australian girls and boys aged eleven consulted if they had problems. Mothers were the most consulted source if girls and boys had problems. For boys, fathers were the second most consulted source, followed by friends. The percentage of girls who consulted teachers was 20 percentage points higher than that of girls who consulted fathers. The percentage of boys who consulted teachers was lower than that of girls who consulted teachers by 4 percentage points. More girls went to their friends than to their brothers or sisters if they had problems.

Jaime Lerner, a well-known architect and urban planner, was born in Curitiba, Brazil in 1937 and was elected mayor of the city in 1971. He was re-elected twice, serving as mayor for eight additional years. During his time as mayor, he came up with numerous low-cost projects that turned Curitiba into a model community. It was the city's efficient public transit system that had the biggest impact on the residents' quality of life. Now copied in more than 100 countries around the world, it is efficient, comfortable, and inexpensive. Lerner also installed waste management, recycling, and green space preservation programs. What's more, he seldom ignored the needs of the city's poor and built low-income housing near the city center.

Clipperton Island, located 1,000 kilometers off the Mexican coast, isn't a very appealing place. It is covered in sharp coral and aggressive crabs. It rains hard and continuously there from May to October, and the island smells of ammonia during the dry season. Therefore, it's not surprising that the island is uninhabited. In the past, however, France, the U.S., Britain, and Mexico all fought for the island. They did so not only because of its strategic position but also for its surface layer of guano, valuable seabird waste that was sold as fertilizer. Attempts to colonize Clipperton Island were made from 1858 to 1917, but all failed. When a group of Mexican settlers finally succeeded, they were soon forgotten and left stranded.

Tomas Luis de Victoria, the greatest Spanish composer of the sixteenth century, was born in Avila and as a boy sang in the church choir. When his voice broke, he went to Rome to study and he remained in that city for about 20 years, holding appointments at various churches and religious institutions. In Rome, he met Palestrina, a famous Italian composer, and may even have been his pupil. In the 1580s, after becoming a priest, he returned to Spain and spent the rest of his life peacefully in Madrid as a composer and organist to members of the royal household. He died in 1611, but his tomb has yet to be identified.

The graph above shows how the calorie count and the portion size of the average American fast food meal have changed between 1986 and 2016. All parts of the meal increased in both portion size and calorie count, with desserts showing the greatest increase. The main dish, the largest in portion size of the three categories, had an increase of 39 grams with 90 extra calories. Portion sizes of sides only increased by 4 grams in 30 years but increased by 42 calories. The portion size of desserts went up by 71 grams while the calorie count increased more than twice. A total meal in 1986 had 735 calories while 2016 meals had 1,053 calories.

Johannes Vermeer was a 17th-century Dutch artist known for painting scenes from the daily life of the middle class. He painted slowly and with great attention to detail, favoring bright colors such as blue and yellow. However, it is his skilled treatment and use of light that is most renowned. Although Vermeer gained moderate fame during his lifetime, he was later forgotten for nearly two centuries. One reason for this may be that he painted a relatively small number of paintings. His total artistic output is estimated at 45 paintings. It wasn't until the 19th century that his work was rediscovered. Since that time, appreciation of his genius has grown, and he is now considered one of the greatest Dutch painters of his time.