Watching the World

Of the 5,296 so-called green products surveyed in Canada and the United States, 95 percent were “found to have made unproven environmental claims.”​—TIME, U.S.A.

Security staff at Bangkok’s international airport “suspected something amiss” when they X-rayed a woman passenger’s luggage. When officers opened one bag for inspection, they found that it contained a live, sedated tiger cub.​—WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, THAILAND.

Biodiversity in Amazonia

The Amazon River basin is one of the areas in the world with the greatest known biodiversity. Over the past decade, more than 1,200 species of plants and animals​—fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals—​were discovered and classified there, says a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report. This means that, on average, a new species is discovered in Amazonia every three days. “The number of discoveries of new species is just amazing,” says Sarah Hutchison, WWF coordinator in Brazil, “and this does not include the many groups of insects that are discovered.”

Stress in the Workplace

One fifth of Finns feel that problems with concentration and memory affect their performance at work. According to a report by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, such problems increasingly afflict those under 35 years of age, a time when the brain should be in its prime. Among the factors blamed were information overload and continual changes in computer systems. “Many feel that they are dealing with such large volumes of information that it is difficult to sift out what is essential to their work,” says Professor Kiti Müller. The Helsinki Times notes: “If the stress is long-term, the brain adapts to it, and the system may no longer alert us to excessive strain. Not before we become seriously ill, that is.”

Thinking About Games Fuels Aggression?

How long does aggression last after a person plays violent video games? Researchers randomly assigned male and female students to play violent or nonviolent video games for 20 minutes. Afterward, half of the people in each group were asked to think about their game. “The next day,” says the report, “participants competed with an ostensible opponent on a competitive task in which the winner could punish the loser with painful noise blasts through headphones.” Increased aggression was evident among males who were told to think about the violent game. “Violent gamers usually play longer than 20 min[utes] and probably ruminate about their game play in a habitual manner,” say the authors of the study, as reported in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. No significant effects were found among women, who generally dislike violent video games.