If you wish to join the ranks of the best people alive nowadays, you would possibly be able to get a trifle edge from taking some natural brain power-boosting herbs. Only .05% of individuals have recorded IQs of over 140. If you wish to have the brilliance of Stephen Hawking or the intellectual enthusiasm of Kim Ung-Yong who was auditing college courses at the ripe old age of four, you can try these six plants to get those brain cells charged up and prepared to fire.

1. & 2. Periwinkle & Ginseng

Both of these herbs improve cognitive function. They have both been studied by researchers at the University of Northumbria in Tyne, England, and may be used together to boost cognitive talents. Ginseng is good as an alternate to artificial medications (like those prescribed for ADHD or ADD). It is also renowned to have compounds that help protect us from radiation.

Don Thompson said to McDonald’s McResource Line (MRL) website during the investor’s conference, employees are encouraged to mention no to eating fast food. Fast-food burger meat is treated with ammonia as a bonding agent, which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The dollar menu at McDonalds contains a side salad as an option that is worth 310 calories. Studies have shown that 1/3rd of children between the ages of 4 to 19 in the US eat fast food daily and fast-food stores closer to schools coincide with overweight children.

The MRL states that fast food contains unhealthy amounts of calories, salt, fat and sugars that ends in medical conditions such as:

• Obesity

• Diabetes

• Cardiopathy

• High blood pressure

The plenty amounts of salad dressing, bacon, cheese, alternative processed additives do not be contributive for a healthy life style, and employees are told to decide on restaurants that offer sandwiches, soups and vegetables as choices.

If McDonald’s staff realizes themselves eating at a fast-food chain, they are suggested to switch fries with a salad, choose hamburgers without cheese and sauces; asking for extra lettuce and tomatoes.

A group of sailor who were onboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan as it delivered aid in the results of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan nearly three years ago are taking another shot at a lawsuit over the health issues they say they have suffered since their radiation exposure.

Their lawyer, California environmental law expert Paul C. Garner, has until January 6 to change their complaint against the Tokyo Electric Power Co. and resubmit it for a judge’s ruling.

“What we say is this: The TEPCO people realized what was happening there,” Garner told Navy Times. “They knew the degree of what was happening, because now you have radiological releases into the environment ... and the tsunami just cleaned it all in, and washed it all-out, and the Reagan was in the backwash.”

Garner originally presented the case a year ago. A federal judge in Southern California granted the company’s November 26 motion to disregard the case, but Garner and the sailors will have another opportunity, he told Navy Times.

Garner made the decision to drop some of the accusations in the lawsuit, with a conspiracy charge, and said the judge would reevaluate the case in the New Year.

The risk of cell phone use have long been argued but for the first time a clear connection between cell phone use and higher risk of cancer has been proved in a study by Tel Aviv University.

Scientists from Tel Aviv University (TAU), Rabin Medical Center and the Technion studied the spit content of 20 long-term heavy cell phone users. Defined as a mean of 12 years of 30 hours a week of use. Their saliva was in comparison to a control group of mostly deaf people who do not use a cell phone or use them only for text messages.

In their study, published in the scientific journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, the researchers noted:

“Increasing use of cell phones creates increasing concerns about harmful effect of radio frequency non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation on human tissues found close to the ear, where mobile phones are commonly held for a long period.”

They determined that as opposed to nonusers, cell phone users’ saliva showed much higher signs of oxidative stress, regarded as a major threat cause for cancer.

How does cell cell phone use increase the chance of cancer?

Cell phones emit radiation. There are two types of radiation: ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Mobile phones emit radiation of the non-ionizing type. This means, there is not enough energy to knock an electron off a molecule. This kind of radiation was once considered safe. However, a lot more studies like this one are pointing to many adverse biological results of non-ionizing radiation.

Oxidative stress, as found in the Tel Aviv cell phone study, shows a difference between the general manifestation of reactive oxygen species and the ability to clean or repair the resulting damage. It is a process that harms human cells, including DNA, through creating toxic peroxide and free radicals. This damage caused by oxidative stress is connected to cellular and genetic mutation, which can cause developing tumors.

Evidence building

This is not the first time cell phones have been linked to cancer. In 2011 the World Health Organization, determined that emissions from cell phones are “possibly carcinogenic” and classified them as a possible “Category 2B carcinogen.”

The results of the Tel Aviv study do not reveal a definite “cause and effect” between cellular phone use and cancer but they add to the developing proof that cell phone use is dangerous. The results also point to a new direction for further research.

A potential opportunity of future research would be to analyze your saliva before cell phone use, and then again after several intense minutes of cell phone use. The author of the Tel Aviv study, Dr. Hamzany, says this would allow researchers to see if there is an immediate response such as a rise in molecules that show oxidative stress.

As proof on the harmful effect of cell phones mounts, so does the number of people using these handheld devices.

Neuroscientists of MIT can now implant fake memories into your brain and cure those with emotional problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which includes recollecting “unwanted memories”.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a technique to implant fake memories into the minds of laboratory rats.

Steven Ramirez, lead author of the study from MIT identified brain associated with particular remembrances and used a technique to alter the rat’s memory once it was separated.

In concept, this experiment could be recreated on human subject and have an identical success. Ramirez wants that this study would lay a base of future research that could become a treatment for psychologically disrupted individuals. Cure those with emotional problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which includes recollecting “unwanted memories”.

In the laboratory, Ramirez’ group used optogenetics which uses light to turn on or off brain cells with an optical fibers that is proven straight into the hippocampus (the area of the brain that controls the formation of new memories).

The Federal Reserve cited stronger jobs growth as a reason for its call to start to reverse its bond-buying program. They forecasts unemployment of 6.3 percent in 2014, up from its previous forecast of 6.4 percent. The Federal Reserve tempered nervous investors by suggesting its key federal funds rate would keep less than previously expected. It depends on whether the Federal Reserve’s unemployment rate target is hit. The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates close to zero since late 2008 and has signaled it won’t raise its federal funds rate until unemployment hits, at the least, 6.5 percent.

In a surprise move, the Federal Reserve decided the U.S. economy was doing well enough that it might begin to cut back on its generous $85.0-billion a month quantitative easing (QE) strategy.

It is a “surprise” because the Federal Reserve at the start said it would not think about tapering until the U.S. economy was on solid, sustainable economic ground that meant an unemployment rate of 6.5% and inflation of 2.5%. Today, unemployment sits at seven percent and inflation is close to historic lows at below one percent.

Stock Market Grows

Against a weak economic backdrop, the Federal Reserve created a brave and daring call to slash its monthly QE policy by a paltry $10.0 billion. Which means that rather than pumping $1.0 trillion into the U.S. economy next year, it is solely going to inject $900 billion? In other words, the U.S. national debt goes to increase by $900 billion. (Source: press release, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System web site, December 18, 2013.)

If the U.S. economy were on solid footing, Fed Chairperson Ben Bernanke would have created a much bigger dent in his monthly bond-buying program. Instead, he created a token gesture, as he gets able to hand over the baton to Janet Yellen early next year.

Oh, boy Al Gore is not getting to be happy. The Russian cruise liner Akademik Shokalskiy has been stuck at sea since Christmas morning, once it had been taken over by ice on the edge of the continent. 

The ship contacted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority for help, and three icebreakers that were within the region are racing through blizzard conditions to reach the vessel.

Sure, this happens despite everything it is the Antarctic Ice Cap, however typically it happens throughout the winter. In the southern hemisphere, December 25 is right smack in the middle of summer. The ice cap is meant to retreat not freeze up and lock ships in the ice. Heck, in line with the global warming freaks, there is not even supposed ice left in Antarctica. Do not worry though, the need find the way to justify this latest summer blizzard.

Russian cruise liner Akademik
Shokalskiy stuck in Antarctic ice

The Chinese ship Snow Dragon (Xue Long) is predicted to reach the ship Friday. In addition, the French vessel Astrolabe and the Australian ship, the Aurora Australis, can arrive before long once, according to Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales, Australia. 

The passengers include twenty-two crew and fifty-two tourists, scientists and explorers. The ship that left New Zealand last month, is on a special research voyage to honor the one hundredth day of remembrance of famed Australian explorer Douglas Mawson.

Thankfully, it looks as if the seventy-four people on the ship are going to be all right.