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  Teenage brains can’t tell what’s important and what isn’t https://www.newscientist.com/article/2154884-teenage-brains-cant-tell-whats-important-and-what-isnt/ HEALTH  28 November 2017 By  Jessica Hamzelou Appropriate behaviour? Clarissa Leahy/Getty Teenagers may know full well how important final exams are – but that won’t stop some putting in minimal effort. This may be because their brains aren’t developed enough to properly assess how high the stakes are, and adapt their behaviour accordingly. Adults are generally pretty good at being able to tell when a situation is worthy of extra time or concentration. Research has found that, when potential rewards or losses are higher, for example, adults will perform better on tasks. But this doesn’t seem to be the case for  adolescents . Catherine Insel , at Harvard University, and her team asked adolescents between the ages of 13 and 20 to play a game while lying in an fMRI brain scanner. In some rounds of the game, part...

  WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MYANMAR May 4, 2021 By Erica TW: Rape, Murder, Torture “Where are you from?”  “I’m from Myanmar!” “Oh! Where is that?” “It’s a small country near Thailand and India.” That is how most of my conversations go when someone asks me what country I am from. And yes, I am from a small country near Thailand and India, but Myanmar is so much more than that. It is a country full of beautiful people, culture, and traditions. Right now, my country is going through unimaginable, terrible events and now, more than ever, people need to know what is going on in Myanmar.  The reason that most people don’t know where Myanmar is or that it is even a country is that it has been ruled by the military, under a dictatorship, for over 70 years. So, it was completely closed off from the rest of the world. Power was finally handed over to the democratic party in 2011. However, the military still kept 25% of the seats in the parliament, so the government was still never able t...

  BEING BLACK: STEREOTYPING January 29, 2021  By tabitha I never quite thought being “strong” could be more belittling than the intention of a general compliment. Black women are often put on the pedestal of strength: a dystopian version of superwomen. Black women are meant to respond to life’s challenges by demonstrating this mass of strength and hiding any trauma they may face. The question here is: where does this stereotype come from? The majority of this goes back to the mindsets that were created during slavery. When black men were snatched from their families, their wives were left to raise families on their own. Even after slavery ended, the U.S. Government’s “war on drugs” was used as a racist veil way to jail black men for the same non-violent drug offenses that were also by free white men. Throughout several points in American history, black families have systematically been placed in situations where black men were taken away, leaving black women to fend for themse...

  NOT EVERYONE IS THE SAME May 28, 2021  By Savannah I mean, the title says it all. We all look different, and as similar as our preferences and tastes are, there’s no way we can act the exact same. Even identical siblings have enough differences to identify as completely different people. So, therefore, when we generalise a group of people, it’s very important to point out the fact that we aren’t talking about every member of that particular community. Because, not everyone is the same. Something this fits very well into this subject is race, and racial prejudice. My parents, growing up black at a time when black was not completely acceptable, were subject to a lot of racial abuse. They weren’t the only ones; so many other people of different ethnicities were, too. This abuse mostly came from Caucasians. And despite this, my parents can still say that not all white people are racist. It would be so easy for them to say that they are, given the way the world was, back then. Bu...

  GROWING UP ASIAN-AMERICAN January 29, 2021  by Jade Being Asian-American in my youth meant that you were different. One of the things that highlighted how different it was to be Asian-American was the fact that I didn’t bring a sandwich for lunch.  Instead, I brought my Thermos, filled with rice, vegetables and meat.  While my peers thought that I brought strange food, I thought that a sandwich was a rather mundane type of lunch.  Why bring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday, when you could bring different types of food everyday?  My mom made all types of dishes; she cooked delicious garlic steak bites, honey glazed chicken wings, and so much more. Bringing something different than everyone else made me wonder why I was different.  I began to feel left out.  For everyone, they could finish their sandwich in ten minutes and go off to play.  For me, it took much longer.  I’m not sure if it was because I was a slow eater or not, ...

  India Wants to Replace Valentine’s Day With ‘Cow Hug Day’ The Hindu nationalist government says that Western culture threatens Indian traditions Ella Feldman February 10, 2023 This year, India’s government is asking citizens to spend  Valentine’s Day  snuggling up with a cow. In a  statement  this week, the country’s government-run  animal welfare department  announced that “Cow Hug Day,” a new celebration of India’s traditions, will take place on February 14.  “ Vedic  traditions are almost on the verge of extinction due to the progress of [Western] culture,” the appeal reads. “The dazzle of Western civilization has made our physical culture and heritage almost forgotten.” In Hinduism, cows are  revered as sacred  and sometimes associated with motherhood. Most Indian states, including Delhi, have banned cattle slaughter. The animal welfare department describes cattle as “the backbone of Indian culture” and says that hugging a cow...