This week, 44 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Cairo Egypt. The attacks targeted mainly Coptic Christians who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s predominantly Muslim population. Political leaders from around the world including Donald Trump  condemned the attack. President el-Sissi of Egypt put the country in a 3 month state of emergency and promised to heighten security forces around buildings such as the church that was bombed. At this point in our lives, it is easy to turn a deaf ear or blind eye to violence in the middle east, but the loss of life should still stir our emotions as if it happened here in St. Augustine. If we become numb to violence, it won’t end. This story was very far down on NPR’s website and with most headlines addressing the situation in Syria and Trump’s administration, we shouldn’t lose sight of what is happening around the world.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/09/523170444/church-explosion-in-egypt-leaves-at-least-21-dead-dozens-injured

There was a super tight Presidential election in Ecuador that could have an effect on Julian Assange’s future in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Lenin Moreno appears to have won the election with 52.2 percent of the vote while his opposing candidate Guillermo Lasso had 48.8. Lasso said he would allow Assange to continue to stay in the embassy and avoid American and British authorities. Lasso has said he would challenge the results as he cited and exit pole that showed him in the lead. 99% of the ballots were said to have been accounted for, but I guess we will see what happens in the next few days/weeks. It will also be interesting to see if Assange speaks about the election and if he will be allowed to take refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy or not.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/03/522435876/ecuador-election-ends-in-close-result-and-accusations-of-cheating

A recent study done by researchers analysed the brain size of 140 primate species found that those who ate fruit instead of leaves had up to 25 percent more brain tissue even when controlling for body size and the like.”If you are foraging on harder-to-access food, like fruit instead of leaves, then you need to have all the cognitive strategies to deal with that,” says Alex DeCasien who was the lead author of the study. The findings are obviously a big deal especially with the possible relatability to humans and other species. It was long thought that group size was a predictor of brain size, but researcher Stephen Montgomery says that this study refutes that idea. It is crazy to me that diet can have such a huge effect on the brain and it should be a wake up call for us to eat better (and more fruit)

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/27/521423216/what-gave-some-primates-bigger-brains-a-fruit-filled-diet

According to a new book by Tom Nealon, chocolate, lemonade, and many other foods and drinks could have been the cause of many conflicts throughout history. He cites that cacao was so popular in the 1600s, that England might have waged war with Spain over its cacao plantations. Nealon also mentions that it is a distinct possibility that fighters during the crusades were more apt to go fight due to a fungus that was infecting the grains at the time which caused a horrible sickness. The root of the sickness was unknown at the time which may have encouraged men to up and march to Asia to go fight in the Holy Wars. Nealon goes on to mention lemonade as a possible reason why Paris was not affected by the bubonic plague in the 16th century. He cites that the lemon peels may have been a flea repellent to the infected fleas, although the reason for Paris being spared from the plague remains mostly unknown. Crazy stuff!

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/12/519460915/how-lemonade-helped-paris-fend-off-plague-and-other-surprising-food-fights

President Trump recently went on a twitter rant accusing his predecessor, Barack Obama, of wire tapping his phones in Trump tower prior to this past election. Trump did not offer evidence for this claim and an Obama spokesman denied the accusation. This is coming after a few of Trump’s cabinet members were under suspicions of having contacts in Russia during the election. There will be an investigation as to whether or not these accusations are true. For me, it seems a little strange that our president would publically accuse anyone, let alone a former president, of a crime without providing substantial evidence. Even if the claims are true, I don’t think that the president should be making such claims and so far, I have not seen any palpable benefit to Trump’s twitter. It will be interesting to see if the claims are true as it would be seen as even more irresponsible if there was no evidence to support Trump’s accusations.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/04/518478158/president-trump-accuses-obama-of-wire-tapping-provides-no-evidence

Rather than going to the park to feed birds, senior citizens in New Zealand are reverting to another hobby: Casket Making. Clubs around New Zealand are gaining support as these seniors trying to avoid boredom funnel in to make their final resting container. The idea is actually pretty ingenious, it is cost effective and cheaper than traditional caskets as kits only cost 170$, and if you were to participate in one of these clubs, you would be able to design your own casket which would be pretty awesome. Once they are finished with their own caskets, members of the club will often assist other in their projects, or make other caskets for charity. I was surprised to see the headline because I don’t think a club like this would be as popular in the United States, however, if the trend were to cross the Pacific, I would probably be interested in participating.

Upon watching Daphne Bavlier’s lecture on video games and their effect on the brain and society, a few things surprised me. First, the realization that video games have a lot of upside despite the constant criticism that they get from the media. This makes sense to me because video games often require a great deal of focus and attention to detail. Also the mean age of the average gamer surprised me. I personally do not know a lot of 33 year olds who play video games, but considering that video games were first becoming popular when they were kids, it makes sense that they would stick with it especially as these games have improved exponentially in the last 20 years. It will be interesting to see the effect that video games has in 5-10 years time especially with virtual reality making a splash. I do hope that we see an influx of more educational games that could make learning more fun too!

This article outlines some of the possible benefits of why dementia testing for presidents could be beneficial. The main points of reference being that Donald Trump, 70, is the oldest American president and has a family history of Alzheimer’s. This was an interesting idea for me because when even if on his best days, Donald Trump’s speech and dialogue can seem disjointed. The article also mentions how politicians rarely will be ok with showing weakness and this has been the case since the times of Macedonian kings. In my opinion, it should be no question that presidents should undergo dementia testing. The desire to not show weakness is understandable from a politicians, but clearly the better interest of the nation is at stake in certain cases such as this one we have with Trump.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/02/17/514583390/as-our-leaders-live-longer-calls-for-presidential-dementia-testing-grow-louder

There was a massive evacuation in Greece within the past few days because of an unexploded WWII era bomb that was found about 16 feet underground. The bomb was found under a gas station in Greece’s second largest city of Thessaloniki by some gas station workers. More than 77,000 people had to be evacuated as experts realized the size and power of the bomb. The same type of bomb has been diffused on numerous occasions across Europe and is considered to be ordinary, although sparking the largest peace time evacuation in Greece’s history. Gas stations across Thessaloniki are expected to empty their underground gas tanks to ensure no further hindrances. This reminded me of a similar NPR story that I heard on a podcast about bombs made by the Japanese that were attached to balloons and sent into certain wind streams in hopes that they would eventually reach the US. Several years later, on a family picnic in Oregon, one of the bombs was found and eventually detonated killing several innocent bystanders. Thankfully, however, the bomb did not explode in Greece.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/10/514487347/long-buried-world-war-ii-bomb-prompts-massive-evacuation-in-greece