Need some creative, out-of-the box ideas? Try adding a little jolt to your next brainstorming session.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have found that stimulating the brain with electrical impulses boosts creativity. The impulses, researchers say, activated specific brain waves associated with originative thinking, and people who were buzzed scored significantly higher on a test of creative thought.

Time to kiss writer’s block goodbye.

A day ago we placed this quote on our fan page.

It surprised us the overwhelming response we’ve got to this.

Well, perhaps we all need to remind ourselves on our thoughts on a continues basis.

In this tutorial I will show you how I enhanced a landscape photo in Photoshop using HDR toning and adjustment layers. I will also show you how to create realistic sunlight using Gradients and the Apply Image option to create selective masking.

When a person chooses suicide, it’s hard to accept that choice.

Comedian and award-winning actor Robin Williams apparently made that choice earlier this morning. Robin Williams has long suspected to be a sufferer of either depression or bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a mental illness where the person fluctuates between episodes of extreme energy, focus and productivity (mania) and severe depression. Apparently, he was in one of the episodes of depression when he took his own life.

What makes people happy? Finding a definitive answer to this question could certainly make someone very rich (butwhether that would in turn make them happy is another matter). The problem is that happiness is especially slippery. While we know much about the consequences of happiness – that it can improve our health and well-being and how we get on in the world – much less in known about its causes, let alone how to guarantee its appearance.

Making happiness a goal, for example, often has counter-productive consequences that ultimately lead to less happiness overall. Finding happiness is, for many, akin to divining water: when we do find it we are often at a loss to explain how it happened.

Playing video games for less than an hour a day can have a positive influence on kids' mental health, a new study suggests.

A researcher in the United Kingdom found that young people ages 10 to 15 who spent less than an hour a day playing electronic games were better adjusted psychologically than boys and girls who spent no time playing computer- or console-based games, such as Nintendo Wii or Sony PlayStation.

Based in Frankfurt, Germany, BRAND DESIGNER Oğuzhan Öçalan recently gave sportswear giant Adidas a branding makeover.

After analyzing Adidas’ branding design, he concluded that the brand’s use of different logos for each of its sub-brands can be confusing for consumers and thus weaken the branding strategy.

The older I get, the better I understand the paradoxes of friendship.

We need friends in our lives just as much as we should do our best to avoid them. Being the social creatures that we are, friendships play crucial roles, not only in our developing years, but also in our adult lives.

The world is naturally communal and, as such, it becomes impossible for any single person to flourish without closely interacting with countless others.

For centuries, scientists have been searching for an ancient temple dedicated to a winged warrior. Now, one archaeologist thinks he may have found it. Only problem: It’s in the middle of a war zone.

In an ancient stone carving, warriors brandishing shields and swords swarm over the columned facade of a grand temple. On one side, a palace stands with three women perched on top; on the other, above private homes, a ruler on a throne dictates to royal scribes. In the foreground, the peaks of northern Iraq soar.

Creativity works in mysterious and often paradoxical ways. Creative thinking is a stable, defining characteristic in some personalities, but it may also change based on situation and context. Inspiration and ideas often arise seemingly out of nowhere and then fail to show up when we most need them, and creative thinking requires complex cognition yet is completely distinct from the thinking process.

When I was in veterinary medical school, I could often be found lounging in the fraternity living room listening to jazz records. My classmates were stunned that I was wasting so much time, when most of them had to study while I seemingly had nothing to do. O.K., so maybe I graduated fifth in my class rather than first, but I was not nearly as stressed as my classmates.

My reason for sacrificing study time was that it bolstered my spirits. Veterinary medicine is a lot harder than most people think. Veterinarians learn the same anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, and so on as physicians do. In some schools, human and veterinary medical students take many of the same basic science classes. Moreover, veterinary students have to learn about multiple species, learn more public health, and take a year’s worth of surgery.

Every year, about 9,400 young children in the U.S. are injured falling off high chairs, a new study finds. Doctors warn that despite the chairs' perceived safety, children in high chairs can be harmed if a chair is not used properly.

The study also showed that the rate of such injuries increased by 22 percent over the study period, from 2003 through 2010.

Head injuries were the most common type of injury associated with high chairs, followed by bumps or bruises and cuts, according to the study. The researchers looked at children ages 3 and younger who were treated in U.S. emergency departments, and the results are published today (Dec. 9) in the journal Clinical Pediatrics.

When Facebook Inc. recently lifted its restriction on public posts by teenagers, some privacy scholars applauded the move as a win for parents -- offering them a chance to teach their children about digital accountability. They may be overstating the case, however. If information and communication technologies aren’t designed to help users -- especially younger ones -- guard their information, appeals to good judgment and discipline won’t go very far.

Did you know that Japanese children clean their schools every day for a quarter of an hour with teachers, which led to the emergence of a Japanese generation who is modest and keen on cleanliness.

Did you know that any Japanese citizen who has a dog must carry a bag and special bags to pick up dog droppings. Hygiene and their eagerness to address cleanliness is part of Japanese ethics.

Design touches all areas of life, from computer interfaces to the packaging of the goods in our shopping basket. As part of BBC Future’s Imagineering series, where designers reimagine everyday objects, we tracked down the young Hungarian designer who aims to update a century-old staple familiar to almost everyone around the world.

When I was a child, my sister and I used to get together with the neighbor kids and create shows. There would be numerous and varied acts, multiple costume changes, and a shifting cast. We created tickets and offered refreshments for our parent audience members. Preparing the show involved inspiration, arguments, and occasional tears, and the performance invariably had calamities like falling curtains and wandering toddlers, but somehow the show went on, and we all enjoyed the final bows.
For most adults, some of our fondest memories of childhood involve the times we spent playing with friends. In some sense, friendship is what childhood is all about. Friends are not only a source of fun; they also help children grow in meaningful ways.

Ever think about the amount of time our kids spend texting? You probably have. Have you thought about what life lessons they learn?

Paying attention doesn’t mean looking, listening or responding. Kids will say they do pay attention to the person they’re with, they can hear. But real paying attention and communicating attention involves nonverbal behavior, like eye contact, facial expression and gesture. It involves actually listening to the person’s words, not “tuning in” occasionally. It means being responsive to questions or to the end of an idea in real time.

I can treat everyone the same. Kids text wherever they are  – with their friends, at a table in the cafeteria, in the living room with a parent, in a doctor’s office with the doctor in the room. There’s no difference between friends, non-friends, family, parents and “authority figures.”

Not too long ago, Facebook started asking me how I was feeling. I thought it was a little awkward, as Facebook can’t really do anything about my feelings.

My Facebook friends, however, can do something, and I guess that's the idea. But, truly, why would I share my feelings on Facebook?