Author: Daily Inbox

Driver’s education measurably reduces teen crashes and traffic violations, according to a new study that challenges the prevailing notion over the past 30 years that driver’s ed courses provide no significant benefit. In the 1980s, many states stopped paying for driver’s ed programs after a study questioning their effectiveness. Some insurance companies even quit giving discounts on premiums for drivers who had gone through formal driver training. But the more recent study, which followed more than 150,000 new drivers licensed over eight years, found that drivers who have not gone through driver’s ed are 75% more likely to get a traffic ticket, 16% more likely to have an accident, and 24% more likely to be involved in an accident in which someone is injured or killed. Researchers Duane ...

People make first impressions so quickly that they've already formed their opinions before they even realize they did. For example, research has found that it takes no more than 50 milliseconds -- 0.05 seconds -- for Internet users to form an opinion about a website. What's more, people decide whether a person is trustworthy or not within just a tenth of a second. The reason first impressions last so long in a person's mind may be because of the emotional impact those impressions have. A new study published in the journal ELife suggests that emotions directly influence learning and memory processes in the brain. Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel analyzed the electrical activity in the brains of rats during social behavior. They found that a state of excitement produced ...

A group of architects and engineers is ready to build an epic piece of property in Southern England -- but they need nearly $2.9 billion to do it. The group aims to create a replica of Minas Tirith, the fictional city and capital of Gondor in Lord of the Rings. Fans of the series will remember this as the site of the Battle of Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King. Based on the design in director Peter Jackson's adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy, the property will feature both residential and commercial spaces. Luxury penthouses will be built on any of the property's five levels alongside resort-style spaces. In order to actually turn this fantasy into reality, the architects and structural engineers behind the project have set up an IndieGoGo campaign to crowdfund the elabor...

Although 20% of children live in poverty throughout the United States, there's a new group that's beginning to feel left out of the private education sector: the "mildly rich." The Los Angeles Times reported on some of the most opulent upgrades to L.A.'s private schools, including a $100 million expansion at the Archer School for Girls. The school, located in Brentwood, has battled for four years with neighbors because it needs area residents to move out to complete the construction. Meanwhile, schools like the Buckley School and the Marlborough School have state-of-the-art facilities -- including high-tech academic buildings, Olympic-sized pools, and rooftop athletic fields -- planned for the near future. All of this is in a bid to keep parents, who are shelling out $38,000 per year or...

Many can't imagine life without air conditioning during the hot summer months. But what if the very thing that's keeping you cool is also making you sick? This question is not a new one. In fact, people have been questioning air conditioned air quality since it became popular in the United States, in the years following World War II. For many people, air conditioning is not just a luxury -- it's actually life saving, as it helps mitigate the effects of chronic ailments such as allergies, asthma, and bronchitis by filtering out pollen, pollutants, and other irritants from the air. Many forget that air conditioning isn't just a cooling system; rather, air conditions literally condition the air, acting as a means of filtration. Not only do air conditioners remove pollutants from the air, b...