Wind Energy, Nepal, Leisure and Stress, Facebook Addiction

The Future of Wind Energy (1:06) Guest: Jose Zayas, Director of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy From time to time we like to take a closer look at various sources of sustainable energy. Wind is the very essence of clean and sustainable, so we've wondered why it's not used more. Currently, only 4-and-a-half-percent of the nation's electricity comes from wind power. But an energy market report out yesterday from the firm BTM Consult says wind turbine installations around the world increased by 42% in 2014, over the previous year. Most of that growth was in China, Germany and the U.S. Nepal and Choice Humanitarian (21:37) Guest: James Mayfield, Co-Founder of Choice Humanitarian and Professor Emeritus, Public Administration and Middle East Studies, University of Utah The massive earthquake that struck Nepal over the weekend is among the disasters that United Nation's officials and humanitarian groups most feared for many reasons. First of all, the international aid community is stretched thin responding to health and war-related crises across the Middle East and Africa. The humanitarian response in Nepal will be costly, given how remote and mountainous the terrain is. And the nation itself is desperately poor, its people and infrastructure ill-equipped to deal with the earthquake's devastation. It is also a major set-back for economic development efforts that have been trying to help Nepal lift itself from the category of a "Least Developed Country" to a "Developing Country" in the coming decades. James Mayfield is part of that effort, as co-founder of the nonprofit Choice Humanitarian. More information about making a contribution to help the villagers in Nepal can be found at www.choicehumanitarian.org. Leisure and Stress (36:12) Guest: Matthew Zawadzki, professor and health psychologist at the University of California, Merced Most of us see the wisdom of a little leisure from time to time, right? A balance of work and play makes for better health and happiness in the long run, but it turns out that leisure activity also has immediate and measurable effects on the mind and body. Health psychologist Matthew Zawadazki figured this out by hooking people up to heart monitors and quizzing them throughout the day as they engaged in work and play. Smiling and Good Health (52:25) Guest: Sarah Pressman, assistant professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine If you have had your heart crushed or your ankle sprained, you may have been told to "grin and bear it." Callous as it sounds, the mere act of smiling may actually have the power to conquer a bad mood or eliminate pain. Why We Have Chins (1:09:40) Guest: Nathan Holton, teaches in the University of Iowa's Department of Orthodontics. He is co-author of a study explaining why we have chins, which appears in the Journal of Anatomy New research from the University of Iowa which claims to - once and for all - settle the mystery of why humans have chins when primates and Neanderthals do not. Facebook Addiction (1:20:48) Guest: Ofir Turel, one of the co-authors of the recent study, "Examination of Neural Systems Sub-serving Facebook 'Addiction'." Dr. Turel is a Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at the College of Business and Economics, California State University, Fullerton, and a Scholar in Residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California Psychologists in recent years have documented a condition called "Fear of Missing Out" that's made amplified by social media. That compulsion we used to feel only when the little pop up on our screen told us "You've got mail" is now a constant urge to see what's new on our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds. Maybe you consider all this compulsive Facebooking a harmless distraction - at worst, a waste of time? But scientists at California State University, Fullerton have taken a look at the brain on Facebook and found that it looks a lot like brain on drugs.