At NPSC we know that one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is to learn new things. Unfortunately, with all of the information available to us, it can feel almost impossible to find the time to sift through the web to find the gems.

So, we’ve decided to do it for you! Every Friday, you can find five new articles or videos from the week that will stretch your mind, fuel your spirit, and feed your brain.

“Are Today’s Teenagers Smarter and Better Than We Think?” by Tara Parker-Pope, nytimes.com

“Today’s teenagers have been raised on cellphones and social media. Should we worry about them or just get out of their way?”

“The Long, Strange History of Medicinal Turpentine” by Anne Ewbank, atlasobscura.com

“Drinking it was thought to cure nearly everything. (But you shouldn’t try it.)”

“10 Inspiring Facts About Maya Angelou” by Scott Beggs, mentalfloss.com

“Dr. Maya Angelou was never named an official United States Poet Laureate, but few have reached her level of cultural significance.”

“The Ethical Challenges Self-Driving Cars Will Face Every Day” by Johannes Himmelreich, smithsonianmag.com

“The biggest ethical quandaries for self-driving cars arise in mundane situations, not when crashes are unavoidable.”

“You Don’t Look Like Your Selfie” by Veronique Greenwood, theatlantic.com

“The closer your phone is to your face, the more it distorts your nose.”

At NPSC we know that one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is to learn new things. Unfortunately, with all of the information available to us, it can feel almost impossible to find the time to sift through the web to find the gems.

So, we’ve decided to do it for you! Every Friday, you can find five new articles or videos from the week that will stretch your mind, fuel your spirit, and feed your brain.

“What is the Riot Act, and Why Don’t I Want It Read to Me?” by Jake Rossen, mentalfloss.com

“The idiom, which has been in use for centuries, is generally thought to mean the admonishment of a person or persons who have committed an error in judgment.”

“Welcoming Spring by Burning the Goddess of Winter” by Sarah Laskow, atlasobscura.com

“This goddess, Marzanna, is a pagan figure associated with death, plague, winter, and rebirth. In the spring, her power wanes, and as she dies at the end of winter, a spring goddess is born.”

“Meet Bob, the Flamingo Ambassador of Curacao” by Liz Langley, nationalgeographic.com

“If you’re in the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao and you see what looks like a flamingo in the driver’s seat of a car, don’t worry. That’s just Bob.”

“Want to Be Happy? Think Like an Old Person” by John Leland, nytimes.com

“When the elders described their lives, they focused not on their declining abilities but on things that they could still do and that they found rewarding.”

“What Exactly Does a Librarian Do? Everything.” by Kristen Arnett, lithub.com

“The reality of being a librarian is that it’s hardly ever about sitting down and it has absolutely nothing to do with peace and quiet. It’s about assisting others. It’s about community service.”

At NPSC we know that one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is to learn new things. Unfortunately, with all of the information available to us, it can feel almost impossible to find the time to sift through the web to find the gems.

So, we’ve decided to do it for you! Every Friday, you can find five new articles or videos from the week that will stretch your mind, fuel your spirit, and feed your brain.

“Oksana Masters’s Road From a Ukrainian Orphanage to Paralympic Stardom” by Tara Parker-Pope, nytimes.com

“Masters’s emergence as one of the bigger and better-compensated stars in U.S. Olympic sports illustrates how an athlete’s back-story — and the social and traditional media buzz it can generate — can be as important as what transpires on the field of play, or even the competition in which she is participating.”

“Stephen Hawking’s Big Ideas, Made Simple” by Chris Higgins, mentalfloss.com

“On March 14, 2018, visionary physicist Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76.”

“People Don’t Actually Know Themselves Very Well” by Adam Grant, theatlantic.com

“Chances are, your coworkers are better at rating some parts of your personality than you are.”

“Can a Computer Model Predict the First Round of This Year’s March Madness?” by Matthew Osborne and Kevin Nowland, smithsonianmag.com

“Two mathematicians at Ohio State University are using machine learning to forecast tournament upsets.”

“The Orphan,” by supersoultv, oprah.com

“When an orphaned lamb is rejected from the flock at Apricot Lane Farms, Emmy award-winning filmmaker John Chester captures its evolution in this story of resourcefulness, survival and strength through perseverance.”