Film-inspiring Mathematician John Nash and his wife Alicia died in a car crash.
John Nash attended a ceremony last week in Oslo, Norway and was awarded the Able Prize. (Image courtesy of Berit Roald/ NTB SCANPIX.)
The Nobel Prize Laureate and his wife were killed in a car crash in New Jersey while travelling by taxi. They were ejected from the car and the other passenger and the taxi driver suffered injuries. Nash was renowned for his work in game theory and “…inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant, groundbreaking work…” The President of Princeton, Christopher Eisgruber also expressed that he was stunned and saddened by the fate of a brilliant mind. Nash’s legacy, Nash’s Equilibrium is described by John Moriarty of Manchester University as being able to allow “the ability to analyse situations of conflict and co-operation and produce predictions about how people will behave.”
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Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski speculates his loss in the federal elections to conservative opponent.
Andrzej Duda addressed a crowd of supporters in Warsaw after exit polls were released. (Image courtesy of Czarek Sokolowski/Associated Press.)
Conservative challenger Andrzej Duda is speculated to having triumphed against current President Komorowski in a close election. Duda is estimated to have won the run-off vote, a two-round voting system, by 53% to 47%. Official results will be announced on Monday. If the assumption is right, this will be a significant victory of Duda seeing that Komorowski has been a crowd favourite. During the current President’s eight years in office, his government has kept Poland’s economic growth on the rise despite the financial crisis. However, his decision raise the retirement age and turn his back on some of his election promises may have made some voters wary. Duda assures that he will revert the retirement age back to it’s form before Komorowski but his Law and Justice party must win the parliamentary election, something that has occurred in 10 years.
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Interviews of refugees in Syria and Iraq further reveal ISIS’s culture of sexual violence.
One girl was burned alive for not participating in an “extreme” sex act. (Image courtesy of Ahmad Al-rubaye / AFP / Getty Images.)
In an interview with Middle East Eye, an independent news site, U.N.’s special representative of violence in conflicts Zainab Bangura said “They are institutionalizing sexual violence, The brutalization of women and girls is central to their ideology.” When ISIS takes captive a population, “The youngest, and those considered the prettiest virgins fetch higher prices and are sent to Raqqa, the IS stronghold.” After being bought, the women are raped and forced into prostitution before being sent back to the markets.The majority of the 3 000 to 5 000 women made sexual slaves are Yazidis, who are accused by the IS to be “devil-worshippers” Bangura recommended for the internation community to provide “psychosocial” support to the victims and reasoned “This is precisely what IS does not want, it can be a kind of vengeance, helping these women recover and giving them a path to thrive.”
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Food commercials may cause overweight teenagers to have difficulty losing weight later in life.
Regions of the brain that are stimulated by food commercials (Image courtesy of Kristina Rapuano).
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain responses, a new study from Dartmouth College shows that TV food commercials stimulate the brains of overweight adolescents, affecting mainly the regions that control pleasure, taste, and mouth. Conducted by researchers from Dartmouth College’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine, it suggests that food ads mentally stimulate unhealthy eating habits that may make it challenging to lose weight later in life.
Prior research has also shown a correlation between the number of shows watched during childhood and exposure to the food industry and marketing and a greater risk of obesity. The two dozen fast food and non-food commercials used by researchers in the study were inserted within the show “The Big Bang Theory,” so the participants were unaware of the study’s purpose. The study also conveys the belief that dieting efforts should not only focus on limiting the desire to eat tempting food, but also to promote the simulation of healthy eating.
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Green Party of Germany appeal for change in marriage equality.
Green Party of Germany calling for recognition of same-sex marriages (Image courtesy of A. Crawley).
Following Ireland’s historic vote in favour of marriage equality and the recognition of same-sex marriages, Germany’s Green Party members have also appealed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the recognition of same-sex marriage in Germany. Ireland is set to become the nineteenth country in the world to allow same-sex marriages and the first to do so by referendum, with over 62 percent of the 3.2 million votes in favour. Volker Beck, domestic policy spokesman for the Green Party, believes Ireland’s decision could also drive change for marriage equality in Germany.
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