Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer’s and boost brain power

Learning a second language and speaking it regularly can improve your cognitive skills and delay the onset of dementia, according to researchers who compared bilingual individuals with people who spoke only one archers who compared bilingual individuals with people who spoke only one language.

Their study suggests that bilingual speakers hold Alzheimer’s disease at bay for an extra four years on average compared with monoglots. School-level language skills that you use on holiday may even improve brain function to some extent.

In addition, bilingual children who use their second language regularly are better at prioritising tasks and multitasking compared with monolingual children, said Ellen Bialystok, a psychologist at York University in Toronto — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Do you believe social games are evil?

Jonathan Blow is known for two things: creating time-altering indie platformer Braid, and being a very outspoken game designer. Soon he might be known for a third thing, as development gathers pace on his exploration puzzle game, The Witness.

At this year’s GameCity event in Nottingham, I sat down with Blow to talk about The Witness, how he’s avoiding the design flaws that killed adventure games in the mid-90s, and why, in his opinion, social games are evil — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Los Osos House / Agustín Landa Ruiloba

Located on the top of a rise, the house forms part of a private development [Agustín Landa Ruiloba] in the south of Monterrey. The fan-shaped lot is flat at the narrow top part, sloping down as it opens up to the south views of the Sierra Madre and the rest of the development.

Access is by way of ramps which move through the house, allowing the visitor to discover it before, during, and after crossing the threshold. The walking entrance leads to a triple-height patio delimited by the house proper and a sectioning of the lot marked by a reflecting pool which contrasts with the hardness of the space — via ArchDaily

Weekend House on Lake Superior / Julie Snow Architects

The Weekend House on Lake Superior consists of two black volumes that extend toward the distant horizon. Arranged on a platform that rests just above the ground, the home is reduced to a few essential elements, a main house and a small studio. Designed by Julie Snow Architects it is a wood post and beam structure with a super-insulated floor, roof and walls — via ArchDaily

Macarena Cybercentre / Mediomundo

Surrounded by eight-floor buildings and taking up an obsolete esplanade which previously was a basketball court, Macarena Social – CyberCentre [Mediomundo] rests in this place generating a small access garden, which together with a porch vinculated to a cafeteria and a multipurpose room, are offered as a wi-fi neighbours’ meeting and leisure room — via ArchDaily

Yamaha SR250 Custom

I’m pleased to see that the latest bike from Spanish builder Café Racer Dreams is a stripped-down 1983 Yamaha SR250. Mechanically, it’s as simple as they come: a bulletproof, aircooled 239cc single, uprated with a Mikuni carb and a custom reverse-cone exhaust system built in-house — via Bike EXIF

Concrete House II / A-cero

We’ve seen so many incredible displays of design and architecture from A-cero that now our expectations are getting  higher and higher when it comes to a company with such an amazing portfolio.  The Concrete House II is a family project located in Madrid and stretches over a surface of no less than 1.600 square meters — via Architecture Blog

Lantern Pavilion / AWP / Atelier Oslo

When Sandnes and Stavanger were chosen as cultural capitals of Europe 2008, the Norwegian Wood competitions were launched to promote innovative, timber architecture contributing to make the region an international showcase for it.

Sandnes asked for the design [AWP / Atelier Oslo] a new square and a sculptural object in wood in pedestrian district Langgata aiming at revitalizing the area, and creating a place where many different activities could take place: a meeting point, markets, informal music concerts and other happenings — via ArchDaily

Not all doctors are created equal

However, it’s worth considering the doctors quoted in this matter. An oncologist contacted by a British paper was circumspect about Jobs’ prognosis — he only reiterated the obvious, that if Jobs is photographed leaving a treatment center it is reasonable to assume he may be receiving treatment (although of course it could be a follow-up visit).

The two physicians quoted in the source story, however, don’t really follow a model of prudent restraint — both deliver stark forecasts for Steve’s outcomes. The Next Web did take the trouble to search for one of these doctors, and it turns out he’s not an oncologist at all; he’s a pulmonologist, which means he specializes in breathing, not in diagnosing cancer patients from telephoto pictures — via redwolf.newsvine.com