BIGIFY YOUR BRAIN

 Can you increase your IQ?  Yes.

After the last few days of horrendous political revelations, hey, gee, this is certainly the time to get smarter, wiser, brighter.

A Newsweek cover story, nine fact filled pages, that was published six years ago proves that you can.

Studies and tests showed how "gray matter"(neurons) increase with use, and decrease when they're not used. Stimulants, pills, and aerobic exercise for the brain can improve your short term and long term memory, enhance your ability to retain information, and increase your attention span.

The piece de resistance of the article was 31 WAYS TO GET SMARTER--an illustrated list with comments by users. Websites, bloggers, and radio stations shared the Newsweek article with their readers. Googling around, I saw 89 versions of the 31 WAYS, with their own users comments.

Back then, 31 ways to better your brain became a hot topic. I boiled it down to the 14 things that sort of made sense to me:
(1) Play Word Games with Friends.
(2) Eat Turmeric [Indian spice that can reduce dementia].
(3) Take up Taekwondo [Martial arts].
(4) Toss Your Smartphone.
(5) Get a lot of Sleep [Harvard researchers proved it helps].
(6) Build a ‘Memory Palace [associate things with vivid images].
(7) Learn a Language.
(8) Eat Dark Chocolate.
(9) Play Violent Video Games [it quicken reactions].
(10) Eat Yogurt.
(11) See a Shakespeare Play.
(12) Play a Musical Instrument.
(13) Write By Hand.
(14) Drink Coffee.

If you'd like to see exactly what Newsweek said, here's the link.

Guys, "Newsweek" was telling us if you want to be smarter you gotta use your brain more, get busier, do 14 or 31, or more--51-101 MORE things than what you're doing now.

We are living in the age of doing stuff faster, not necessarily better--go with the flow--keep going with the  flowing ways of todays chittery, jittery, chirpering top guys.

BEST INVENTIONS 2018

Best Inventions 2018 (click, see 'em all)....
Here's what interested me.     

ON DEMAND EYES FOR THE BLIND
Subscription service, $99 per month, enables users to stream video of their surroundings to on-demand agent, using smartphone or Alexa’s proprietary glasses. The agents, available 24/7, will  answer questions, describe objects, guide users through a location.

 JACKET THAT GLOWS IN THE DARK
Solar Charged Jacket ($350) from Vollebak, U.K. sports-gear startup. The jacket’s phosphorescent membrane absorbs light during the day and releases what Vollebak founder calls “kryptonite green energy” after sunset.
 

SUITCASE YOU DON'T NEED TO UNPACK
Carry-on Closet from Solgaard Design, ($199). Outside looks normal. Inside is flexible set of shelves to keep clothes organized and compressed during travel, at destination, can be taken out to hang. (The system can also be removed entirely.)

WI FI ROUTER

Netgear’s Orbi beams an Internet signal to one or several devices which users place around their home; gadgets latch onto the strongest signal. Orbi’s Voice ($430, with router) also doubles as an Alexa-enabled smart-speaker, enables users to control other smart-home devices by voice command.

UNBREAKABLE PANTY HOSE
Sheerly Genius offers soft, comfortable pantyhose made of fiber typically used in bulletproof vests, at $99 per pair. (That high price makes the hose interesting, but not something I'd buy.)


SPEAKER REPLACES YOUR REMOTE
Sonos Beam soundbar ($399) will change the channel, volume, and turn off TV--users simply tell their Beam to make it happen. Works with many platforms like Alexa and Siri, and delivers superior sound quality.


WHEELCHAIR
A superior wheelchair, Model Ci ($3,999 electric) has front “omni-wheels,” enabling it to ride as much as 10 miles, climb obstacles two inches in height and navigate in cramped quarters.

HELMET WITH HEADLIGHTS
 Lumos Kickstart Helmet ($180)--LED lights increase cyclist’s visibility, blink to indicate turn left or turn right. Riders can trigger signal by clicking a wireless remote mounted to their handlebars.


TV SET THAT BLENDS INTO THE WALL
Samsung’s 4K QLED model ($1,099) features “Ambient Mode” which displays works of art, weather reports, personal photos, or can mimic the wall and blend in to your room when not in use.

LynQ COMPASS ($209 for two), uses GPS technology to find other LynQ as much as three miles away. Onscreen pointer sends user in the right direction. Pet owners, parents can set up  “safe zones” for wandering child or pet.

SELF-CLEANING vACUUM

iRobot’s  Roomba i7, ($950) powers up a separate vacuum, inside its base charger, that sucks up dirt and dust from the Roomba’s innards into disposable bag, each bag holds month’s worth of gunk.

CHEATERS MONOPOLY
Hasbro Cheaters Edition ($20), has “cheat cards” to encourage players to steal from the bank, dupe others for cash or property. If you're caught it's as if you're handcuffed to the board.



Gotta say this year's inventions don't thrill me, but I'd love to play this version of monopoly and try to win.

(VIDEO) HANDLING YOUR OWN NEGATIVITY

The Cullums share their thoughts, immediately after they finish shooting this video.

Emily is more or less scolding and criticizing herself, as John, who likes the way they handled things, is trying to comforting her.

PINK PILL FOR GALS

November 1, online mail-order pharmacy "Hims" launched "Hers." Entrepreneur Cindy Eckert, founder of "The Pink Ceiling.com" which invests in products for women, is hugely marketing the pink pill which the New York Times calls "The drug of a generation."

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Addyi is engineered to rev up the sex drive of premenopausal women.

Unlike Viagra, which has physiological effects on men’s genitals, Addyi works on the brain. It was originally researched to treat depression. Flibansering, (generic name for it), increases production of dopamine, the neurotrans-mitter that governs motivation and anticipation, and regulates serotonin, which governs self-consciousness and mood.

Critics opposing FDA approval of Flibansering have said, “There’s no way to measure dopamine-serotonin," but the website refers to brain scans which prove that many women have a hypoactive sexual desire disorder, (HSDD)--the loss libido, which is what Addyi treats.

Visitors to the mail order website are asked, "Would you like to increase your sexual desire? Why do you want to increase your sexual desire?" Then, they are directed to another website where they connect with a doctor. After a telemedicine conversation, (a phone consultation or video chat), the doctor can prescribe Addyi to be delivered to the customer’s door. The manufacturer's price of $800 per month has been reduced to $400 per month; $99 if users don’t have insurance.

Addyi should be taken every night. Users should not drink Alcohol. It comes with a black-box warning, the strictest of the FDA’s caution labels, which advises users to abstain from “things that require clear thinking” for six hours.

The voice on the website suggests the #MeToo movement, as it uninhibitedly refers to intimate experiences and reminds the user that when things deteriorate in the bedroom, the marriage may deteriorate.

User Michelle Wilson, 47, of Florida, who has been on Addyi for 20 months, is quoted, saying that since starting on Addyi, which she takes every other day,  her sexual frequency has increased from once a month, to at least once a week.

There are 20,000 certified Addyi prescribers in the U.S. The drug is about to launch in Canada.  Cindy Eckert is working on launching it in Europe.

Note:
My facts about the actual pill are gleaned from the scathing, shocking diatribe in "Time Magazine," by Belinda Luscombe, senior editor, who goes on and on (it gets boring) about entrepreneur Eckert as a money-hungry huckster whose heart, soul and shrewd handling of facts, is promoting a pill that according to many should never have been approved, but blogger Em bets it'll continue selling like hotcakes.
Here's the link https://bit.ly/2TDJCGq.