A quick nap may help you boost your work creativity

May 18 2023

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports has just suggested a link between creativity and napping.

MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers suggested that when subjects were asked to dram about a certain topic during sleep, they performed better when given activities related to the subject.

“When you are prompted to dream about a topic during sleep onset, you can have dream experiences that you can later use for these creative tasks” explained author Kathleen Esfahany.

The team used a hand-worn device which measures skin based electrical activity to assess muscle tone shifts, heart rate and arousal status during sleep onset.

Split into four groups, 49 adults with an average age of 27 were found to be more creative when napping. However, creativity was highest in the group where participants napped while incubating dreams related to the subject.

The participants had been instructed to write a story using the word ‘tree’, with the participants in the sleep with audio guidance group found to have stories 43% more creative than those who napped without guidance and 78% more creative than those who stayed awake with no guidance.

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Breaking gender barriers; Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto elected first female President of MŻPN

May 17 2023

The Annual General Meeting of the Nationalist Party’s Youth Wing, the Nationalist Party Youth Movement (MŻPN) elected a new executive board comprising of both new and experienced members.

A total of 15 members were elected to the executive board, with 8 individuals entering their roles for the first time.

Breaking gender barriers and paving the way for inclusivity, Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto was elected as the first female President in the long history of MŻPN. She will be taking over from previous President Gabriel Micallef who served during the last term.

Thomas De Martino has been entrusted with the role of Vice President for External Affairs whilst Kevin Curmi will serve as the Vice President for Internal Affairs.

Jean Paul Barbara was appointed as the Secretary General, working in tandem with the Assistant Secretary General, Nicole Portelli.

Continuing to champion the representation of Gozitan youth, Thomas Mizzi will serve as the Coordinator for Gozo, while Nicole Zammit will take on the role of Human Resources Officer. Alexander Jacobsen was appointed Public Relations Officer and Karen Scerri as the Social Media Officer.

Miirko Sant and Kyle Mifsud will be responsible for organizing activities and managing logistics as Activities Officer and Logistics Officer, respectively. Maria Farrugia will serve as the Social Policy Officer and Enya Abela will hold the position of International Officer.

Andreas Juan Portelli will take on the role of Inclusivity Officer. This new role within the Executive aims to ensure that the MŻPN represents the voice of every young man and woman, fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.

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Maltese students most improved in the world in reading, report says

May 16 2023

According to international report ‘Progress in International Reading Literacy Study’ (PIRLS), Malta’s educational sector has made a major step forward, with considerable improvements since the last report in 2016.

The report, which is conducted every five years, concerns reading objectives amongst children around the age of 10, which is equivalent to Year 5 locally. It then analyses their ability to read, understand and apply what they have read.

The average amount of points given to Malta (515) is significantly higher than the international average of 500, with Malta placing 31st amongst 57 participating countries. This result shows significant improvement over preceding reports: 2016 (452) and 2011 (457), with Malta coming in 38th place back in 2011.

In this report, Malta also secured the biggest increase in points amongst all countries when compared to the 2016 report.

According to the publication, Maltese students are at the same level as students from New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, France, Serbia, Albania, Cyprus and Belgium. Maltese students’ reading proved to be better than that of students from England, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Russian Federation, the United States, Finland, Poland, Australia, Denmark, Norway and Austria.

Across the board, female students performed better than male students. In Malta, female students scored 6 points more than male students, a score which is much better than the international average, where the difference between female and male students is 18 points.

In light of this, Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation Clifton Grima stated that the ongoing works are giving results. “I am satisfied that this report shows improvement over the preceding ones, especially one remembers that this happened amid the pandemic’s challenges. While we continue to build on the good done in preceding years, there are sectors where more work has to be done to improve that which is already achieved, such as more reading resources, and the confidence in reading amongst students.”

What do you make of this?

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Relax Bello: Local comedian James Ryder tattoos Love Island catchphrase on chest

May 16 2023

It was only a matter of time before that immediately-iconic Love Island catchphrase ‘Relax Bello’ cemented itself into Maltese meme lore… and James Ryder has made sure of it, tattooing it on his chest for all to see.

“Let’s do this”, the local comedian & TikToker posted alongside a bare-chested photo of himself with a newly-etched butterfly tat atop the iconic ‘Relax Bello’.

We’re sure that local Islander Dale would be happy to find out that his episode one phrase found itself on one of the show’s fan’s chest and whether he finds out anytime soon or not, we’re sure it won’t be the last hilarious remark from the show.

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