You can make your own health app now: Learn to code for free at Khan Academy

From WSJ: More than ever, learning to code seems to be in. Is it for you? The WSJ's journalist gets her first lesson with Sal Khan, founder of the free video education platform Khan Academy.



Here is the relevant URL from Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/cs

The project is led by John Resig. The new platform targets people with no programming knowledge and gives them an engaging and fun environment to learn in.

Here is a video introduction of what they have released:



References:

John Resig - Redefining the Introduction to Computer Science http://buff.ly/N60d2N
Best free sites for learning how to write code | How To - CNET http://buff.ly/1drEdEx
Learn How To Code From YouTube Educator Khan Academy | Co.Exist http://buff.ly/1drE5VK

Can a Midday Nap Make You Smarter? Adults Who Nap for 90-minutes at 2 PM Learn and Perform Better at Tests

According to a new study, if you devote your lunch hour to a nap, you may perform and learn better in the afternoon.

Napping at midday, when the brain's ability to learn may have deteriorated, may clear the brain's memory "storage area" and make room for new information.

In the study, the nap group was given the chance for a 90-minute siesta at 2 p.m.; the no-nap group was asked to stay awake.

People in the group which didn't nap had a 10% reduction in their learning capacity. The people who had a nap improved their ability to learn by 10% (not much).

References:

Can a Mid-Day Nap Make You Smarter? WebMD.

Image source: Sleeping kitten. Wikipedia, Tilman Piesk, public domain.

Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn, says researcher

From Telegraph:

The study findings have revealed that although unlucky people have almost no insight into the real causes of their good and bad luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their fortune.

Personality tests revealed that unlucky people are generally much more tense than lucky people, and research has shown that anxiety disrupts people's ability to notice the unexpected.

Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends.

Lucky people generate good fortune via 4 principles:

1. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities.
2. Make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition.
3. Create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations.
4. Adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches.

Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune.



References:

Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn - Telegraph.co.uk.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

How and when do we learn to talk: Why German and French babies cry differently

Prof. Angela D. Friederici, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig talks about Language Acquisition. She asserts that babies learn language right from birth, even cry with the intonations of their mother tongue.



Source: How and when do we learn to talk? | Tomorrow Today - Interview - YouTube http://bit.ly/15DQJSQ