🐤 The old college try

🏦 Markets: The consumer price index for January dropped on Tuesday, showing that although inflation is continuing to cool a bit, prices remained higher last month than analysts had hoped.

The news took some of the wind out of investors’ sails as two of the three major stock indexes closed down for the day.

Tech stocks helped the Nasdaq recover from declines early in the day to finish 0.57% higher. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 lost 0.46% and 0.03% respectively.

⛑️ Miraculous rescues: Out of the tragedy caused by a devastating earthquake in Turkey earlier this month comes some inspiring accounts of survival and commitment. Even eight days after thousands of people died and scores of others were left homeless, rescue workers never gave up on the possibility of finding people who were still alive in the rubble. According to reports, at least seven people were rescued on Tuesday. The list of survivors included an 18-year-old man who was trapped under a fallen building for a staggering 198 hours before rescuers noticed some movement as he wiggled his fingers. Not too far away, workers discovered that two brothers defied the odds and were able to survive a collapsing apartment building in the Kahramanmaras province. At least 37,000 people reportedly died from the quake in Turkey and neighboring Syria.

📞 Hollywood details: Fans of retro Nintendo games are excited, if a little nervous, about the upcoming Super Mario Bros. film. Illumination’s animation studio has been spreading the word for a while and, although not everyone is stoked about its casting (Chris Pratt has already been panned for his portrayal of the protagonist plumber), the movie might exceed some low expectations. As part of the studio’s marketing strategy, there are already some pretty cool details in the video trailers. One of them includes a mock ad for Mario and Luigi’s plumbing service. To the delight of keen-eyed viewers everywhere, the promotion extends to a working website and phone number!

💻 We need to chat: Google was caught flat-footed by the sudden rise in popularity of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, which futurists believe will one day make the modern search engine obsolete. In response, Google rushed to unveil its answer with a chatbot of its own: Bard. While some techies were optimistic about the launch, it was widely deemed to be a flop and Google’s stock price plummeted shortly thereafter. Now, employees of the company are expressing their frustration with some biting internal criticism of CEO Sundar Pichai. In one such post on the firm’s message board, a disillusioned worker said that “the Bard launch and the layoffs were rushed, botched, and myopic,” urging Pichai to “return to taking a long-term outlook.” Similar complaints flooded the forum after Google’s decision to launch a product without any real ability to test its functionality … or lack thereof.

🎤 Funny business: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler both became household names during their respective stints on “Saturday Night Live,” but they have gone on to have massive success on the big and small screens. Through it all, they’ve remained close friends and haven’t shied away from their ability to make audiences of all types laugh uncontrollably. Now, they’re teaming up to put their friendship and sense of humor on full display with a new tour that includes shows in four cities this year. In a statement announcing the new venture, they sarcastically concluded: “If this tour goes right, we can finally end this friendship.”

Although it can sometimes seem impossible to work with certain people to accomplish a common goal, scientists believe the human brain was designed in part for that specific purpose. After all, throughout history we’ve had to collaborate and coordinate with others in order to hunt more effectively, establish infrastructure, care for the sick and elderly, and do any number of other important tasks.

As they say: Teamwork makes the dream work.

Details from a groundbreaking new study

A team of researchers at Keio University in Japan recently released its findings after performing some experiments involving pairs of subjects designed to evoke a shared focus between their brains.

It started by allowing them to work together on a computer simulation to create a digital room. As they communicated with each other, the researchers paid attention to eye movements and other factors that provided input regarding how their brains were becoming synchronized.

What they found highlighted a previously unexplored neurological reaction involving regions of the brain including the middle temporal and right hemisphere of the prefrontal cortex.

Two brains are better than one

While the full extent of insight provided by this research might not be easy for ordinary folks to understand, research team leader Yasuyo Minagawa attempted to put it into terms that we can all understand.

“These phenomena are consistent with the notion of a ‘we-mode,’ in which interacting agents share the minds in a collective fashion and facilitate interaction by accelerating access to the other’s cognition.”

In other words, your brain can work with someone else’s brain to get things done more efficiently than we ever realized before.

When confronted with a common task to complete or a problem to solve, Minigawa explained that “the two brains functioned together as a single system.”

No matter what kind of relationship we humans decide to pursue, communication is a major piece of the puzzle. When two individuals don’t fluently speak the same language, however, that can make things particularly difficult.

Nevertheless, a significant number of couples who don’t always understand each other still find a way to express their affection.

A look at the data

Although this phenomenon can be found in countries around the world, the United States seems to be the epicenter as it becomes an increasingly diverse nation. Here are some factors that are contributing to the current trend.

• The U.S. Census Bureau found that nearly 29 million households spoke a language other than English in 2021 — almost 4 million more than in 2015.
• As a percentage of U.S. households, roughly 22.5% do not speak English.
• Multilingual users of the OKCupid dating app receive, on average, 11% more matches and 22% more likes than those who speak only one language.
• A staggering 92% of the site’s worldwide users say they wouldn’t mind being matched with someone who doesn’t speak English.

What it all means

It might go without saying that speaking multiple languages has its benefits. Some people report using one language in social situations and another to read poetry with, for example, which contributes to a deeper appreciation for the nuance of communication.

Jorge Aguilar spoke mainly Spanish when he met his partner, who spoke primarily French — but he had taken some French classes in high school, and that became their shared language.

“I think one major reason we started moving to French was when, several months into our relationship, we acknowledged we loved each other,” Aguilar said. “French was the language we chose to use in expressing that mutual, meaningful sentiment.”

For better or worse, the College Board plays a pivotal role in the lives of virtually any college-bound student. This is the entity that has historically been known most for developing the Scholastic Aptitude Test — or as you might know it, the dreaded SAT.

Of course, it’s important to have some sort of standard on which to base whether a high school graduate is ready to enter college. But how did the College Board become the arbiter of that information? Let’s dig a little deeper.

It looks like a business

Although the College Board is technically a non-profit organization, that doesn’t mean it’s some touchy-feely charity that only exists to make the world a better place. In fact, there are many aspects of how the board operates that closely mirror that of any major corporation:

• It collects tons of information about students who take the SAT — and, perhaps more importantly, the PSAT that precedes it.
• It pushes products on the public, most notably its “advanced placement,” or AP curriculum.
• It controls a massive congressional lobbying arm that helps maintain its prominence in schools nationwide.

It has a spotty past … and present

The College Board has been in the news lately in connection with controversial changes to Florida’s AP African-American studies classes. But you don’t have to look too far into the past to find other controversies — particularly involving current CEO David Coleman:

• He seemed to criticize a school shooting survivor for not being balanced enough in calling for new gun laws.
• He implemented truncated and largely unreliable online SATs during the pandemic instead of canceling the tests, which would have cut into the board’s revenue.
• He removed much of the demographic information from public reports about test scores, prompting concerns about the board’s transparency.