The New 7 Wonders of the World

The Pyramid at Chichén Itzá (before 800 A.D.) Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

MEXICO: Chichén Itzá, the most famous Mayan temple city, served as the political and economic center of the Mayan civilization. Its various structures - the pyramid of Kukulkan, the Temple of Chac Mool, the Hall of the Thousand Pillars, and the Playing Field of the Prisoners – can still be seen today and are demonstrative of an extraordinary commitment to architectural space and composition. The pyramid itself was the last, and arguably the greatest, of all Mayan temples.

Christ Redeemer (1931) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BRAZIL: This statue of Jesus stands some 38 meters tall, atop the Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio de Janeiro. Designed by Brazilian Heitor da Silva Costa and created by French sculptor Paul Landowski, it is one of the world’s best-known monuments. The statue took five years to construct and was inaugurated on October 12, 1931. It has become a symbol of the city and of the warmth of the Brazilian people, who receive visitors with open arms.

The Roman Colosseum (70 - 82 A.D.) Rome, Italy

ITALY: This great amphitheater in the centre of Rome was built to give favors to successful legionnaires and to celebrate the glory of the Roman Empire. Its design concept still stands to this very day, and virtually every modern sports stadium some 2,000 years later still bears the irresistible imprint of the Colosseum's original design. Today, through films and history books, we are even more aware of the cruel fights and games that took place in this arena, all for the joy of the spectators.

The Taj Mahal (1630 A.D.) Agra, India

INDIA: This immense mausoleum was built on the orders of Shah Jahan, the fifth Muslim Mogul emperor, to honor the memory of his beloved late wife. Built out of white marble and standing in formally laid-out walled gardens, the Taj Mahal is regarded as the most perfect jewel of Muslim art in India. The emperor was consequently jailed and, it is said, could then only see the Taj Mahal out of his small cell window.

The Great Wall of China (220 B.C and 1368 - 1644 A.D.) China

CHINA: The Great Wall of China was built to link existing fortifications into a united defense system and better keep invading Mongol tribes out of China. It is the largest man-made monument ever to have been built and it is disputed that it is the only one visible from space. Many thousands of people must have given their lives to build this colossal construction.

Petra (9 B.C. - 40 A.D.), Jordan

JORDAN: On the edge of the Arabian Desert, Petra was the glittering capital of the Nabataean empire of King Aretas IV (9 B.C. to 40 A.D.). Masters of water technology, the Nabataeans provided their city with great tunnel constructions and water chambers. A theater, modelled on Greek-Roman prototypes, had space for an audience of 4,000. Today, the Palace Tombs of Petra, with the 42-meter-high Hellenistic temple facade on the El-Deir Monastery, are impressive examples of Middle Eastern culture.

Machu Picchu (1460-1470), Peru

PERU: In the 15th century, the Incan Emperor Pachacútec built a city in the clouds on the mountain known as Machu Picchu ("old mountain"). This extraordinary settlement lies halfway up the Andes Plateau, deep in the Amazon jungle and above the Urubamba River. It was probably abandoned by the Incas because of a smallpox outbreak and, after the Spanish defeated the Incan Empire, the city remained 'lost' for over three centuries. It was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911. Source: Article

Read More........→September 10, 2026

How Multitasking Can Improve Judgments

Credit: University of Columbia

A team of researchers from the University of Basel finds that multitasking does not always result in poor judgments. In fact, multitasking can improve performance – provided that the task at hand can be best resolved by using a simpler, less demanding strategy. Research has revealed that multitasking impedes performance across a variety of tasks. Emergency room nurses that are interrupted multiple times while treating a patient can be more likely to make medication errors. Driving while speaking on a mobile phone significantly increases the probability of an automobile accident. At the same time, however, experienced golfers putt better when distracted than experienced golfers who are focusing on performance. Distractions resulting from the presence of other people can increase an individual’s performance, too. Why? Addressing the Contradictions: In a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, one of the world’s top-ranked empirical journals in psychology, a team of researchers from the University of Basel helps to clarify these apparent contradictions. Lead author Janina Hoffmann, a Ph.D. student in Economic Psychology, and her co-authors Dr. Bettina von Helversen and Prof. Dr. Jörg Rieskamp, find that the type of judgment strategy that an individual employs strongly conditions how the “cognitive load” induced by multitasking affects performance. Higher cognitive load can actually improve performance when the task can be best completed using a less demanding, similarity-based strategy that informs judgments by retrieving past instances from memory. The study is supported by the findings of two experiments conducted at the University of Basel. The first study exposed 90 participants to variable cognitive loads as they were asked to solve a judgment task whose solution was best achieved through the use of a similarity-based strategy (predicting how many cartoon characters another cartoon character could catch). Most participants switched to using a similarity-based strategy and produced more accurate judgments. The second study then exposed 60 participants to a linear task whose solution was not conducive to similarity-based strategies but rather rule- based strategies. Those participants who employed a similarity-based strategy made poorer judgments. The experiments were conducted with financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Moving Forward: Cognitive load does not per se lead to worse performance, but rather it can, dependent on strategy choice, lead to better performance. The researchers believe that it is important to decipher cognitive strategies that people choose under given levels of cognitive load. Hoffmann claims, “A better understanding of these cognitive strategies may permit future studies to predict the precise circumstances under which people can solve a problem particularly well.” Contacts and sources: Universität Basel, Citation: Janina A. Hoffmann, Bettina von Helversen and Jörg Rieskamp, Deliberation's Blindsight: How Cognitive Load Can Improve Judgments, Psychological Science, published online 10 April 2013| doi: 10.1177/0956797612463581, Source: Nano Patents And Innovayion

Read More........→August 27, 2026