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Intelligence and discipline are different things, and graduating from an institute of higher education doesn't require the personal qualities associated with responsible long-term financial planning.Imagine you have a job. There are 50 bags of heavy grain that need to be moved from one barn to another. You have the option of doing it yourself or assigning the job to a stranger. What are you inclined to do? If you're like most people, you'll pass it off to the stranger.In 2008, researchers Pronin, Olivola, and Kennedy conducted an experiment to test the similarities between how people treat strangers and how people treat their future selves. For a significant portion of the subjects, the treatment was identical. They literally treated their future selves exactly as they'd treat a different person.[1] In a 2011 study, researchers used an MRI to examine the brain activity of subjects when they thought about themselves compared to when they thought about their future selves. When imagining their future selves, many participants showed no activity at all in the "self-reflection" regions of their brains.[2]There are many people out there who, regardless of education, behave in ways that harm their future selves because they don't see the future as something that will happen to them. Future them is another person. When they save their money, quit smoking, or go on a diet, they see themselves as suffering for the benefit of a stranger. Why would they do that? They wouldn't, so they indulge today and make that "other person" suffer the consequences.Another issue many face is a distorted perception of the future. In 2009, researchers Tanner and Carlson investigated the attitudes of customers who just bought exercise equipment. They asked them how much they expected to exercise in coming weeks and asked another group of participants how much they would exercise in an "ideal world." The results were identical.[3] By default, some people think of the future as ideal. In a follow-up study, when they asked those participants that fell short of their expectations how much they expected to exercise from that day onward, their projections became even more optimistic. Many people assume that the future will be easier than the present. "Right now I'm tired. Things are hard. I'll be stronger tomorrow, and things will be easier, so I'll do the work then." Of course, that never winds up being the case.Being able to sacrifice in the present for a greater benefit in the future is a quality that will help you through school, and you'll probably find a lot of college graduates who possess this quality, but not all of them do. Lots of students procrastinate their projects until they can't any longer, and at the last minute, they rush it out. The only ones who can do this and not drop out are the exceptionally intelligent, so when you're interacting with an extraordinarily intelligent college grad, they're statistically more likely to have poor discipline than a less intelligent, but successful, college grad. The very intelligent can get all the way through college surfing on their gift without ever having to learn discipline.Another exacerbating factor is the sort of pressure we place on ourselves to be "successful." You went to college. You need to show your peers that you're making good money with your expensive high class education. The pain of short-term social disapproval is something you experience right now - the pain of debt is something "future you" has to deal with. If you don't identify with "future you," I think the choice you'll make is obvious. When these sorts of people get a raise, they don't start saving the surplus; they increase their lifestyles. When I was working as a financial adviser, I met with clients making more than half a million dollars a year who were living paycheck to paycheck. Education, intelligence, and even extreme success in business don't teach you to prioritize "future you" over "present you." It's something you either have to practice naturally, or you have to consciously shift your mind into thinking.[1] Pronin, E. Olivola, C. Y. & Kennedy, K. A. (2008) “Doing unto Future Selves as You Would Do unto Others: Psychological Distance and Decision Making.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34: 224–36.[2] Mitchell, J. P. Schirmer, J. Ames, D. L. & Gilbert, D. T. (2011) “Medial Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Intertemporal Choice.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23: 857–66.[3] Tanner, R. J., & Carlson, K. A. (2009) “Unrealistically Optimistic Consumers: A Selective Hypothesis Testing Account for Optimism in Predictions of Future Behavior.” Journal of Consumer Research 35: 810–22.

It depends on what food it is (see http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/ [1]) - but in general, fruits from the Rosaceae family (apples, peaches, nectarines, and strawberries), have the highest levels of neurotoxic pesticide contamination. However, most non-organic vegetables (except celery) do not contain such dangerous pesticides, so they probably aren't much more risky.The Rosaceae trees are also sprayed with neurotoxic herbicides that the USDA doesn't even measure - like paraquat and ziram - see What crops are most likely to be contaminated with ziram? Or paraquat?I haven't found any studies on the negative effects on people who consume the fruits yet (they also depend on the extent to which exposure to pesticides in food contributes to blood levels of pesticides in food), but there are studies that have found neurotoxic effects in people who simply live near fields that have been sprayed with pesticides (listed below). In that case, until we learn more, there is definitely good reason to advise caution with eating non-organic fruit from the Rosaceae trees if you naturally eat a lot of fruit.I don't think that you should worry about an increased risk of cancer (see Are we exposed to more carcinogens now than any other time in history?) or decreased lifespan at all. But there is a risk that all the pesticide residue could make you dumber if you eat a lot of fruit (this is more relevant for vegetarians/vegans than for most others). Most pesticides are quite selective by acting on the nervous systems on the pests, so they naturally have selective effects when consumed by people too.Here is a list of pesticides in the most contaminated fruitApples: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=APNectarines: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=NEPeaches: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=PCPears: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=PEStrawberries: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=STCelery: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=CEAlmonds: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=AL[1] Note that the EWG site should only be seen as a rough source, and is somewhat misleading, as it counts the total number of pesticides inside. In reality, many of the "most contaminated" vegetables actually contain a lot of the more benign pesticides like the neonicotinoids. Also, note that the neurotoxic organophosphate Azinphos methyl will be banned by the EPA in mid-2012.=====So what's up with some of the pesticides I mentioned? Some of them have nasty neurological effects that have been demonstrated in people who simply live near areas where pesticides are sprayed (effects such as significant increases in one's risk of Parkinson's Disease, and yes - even decreases in intelligence). Many of these effects are not effects that you can capture through mortality data in animal (or human studies), and were only discovered in the last few years, so any conclusions (prior to 2010) about the safety of such pesticides are now moot.Now, do these effects transfer to consumers? We don't know yet. But we *do* know that they *do* apply for people who simply *live* near areas where pesticides are sprayed. Also - you can't get rid of pesticides by washing your produce: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/gjhvm/is_cold_water_sufficient_for_ridding_fruits_and/ . And the major route of exposure to organophosphates (in children) is through food (see http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info:doi/10.1289/ehp.10912 )Keep in mind that humans are especially vulnerable to neurological effects (there aren't really any animals that naturally develop Alzheimer's or Parkinson's - so any neurotoxicity will be underreported in most animal studies, and completely glossed over in lifespan studies. They often develop plaques but with no clear evidence of mental decline). See http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/03/alzheimers-for-humans-only/ and Are there any animals that don't get Alzheimer's Disease?With that said - I'm not totally sure if pesticides do that much damage to the brains of most people, given the robustness of the Flynn Effect and the fact that people are getting dementia at older and older ages.http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2011/05/researchers-find-link-between-third-pesticide-and-parkinsons-disease/IN 2009, researchers at UCLA linked Parkinson’s Disease (PD) to two chemicals commonly sprayed on crops to fight pests. The study didn’t examine farmers, but rather focused on people living near the farm fields where the chemicals maneb and paraquat were sprayed. They found that, for those residents, the risk for PD increased 75%.A follow-up study adds two new twists. Funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the U.S. Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, and the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, researchers have now implicated a third pesticide, ziram.This time, the population tested also included people who worked near sprayed fields- including firefighters, teachers, and clerks. They found that the combined exposure to ziram, maneb and paraquat near any workplace increased the risk of PD threefold, while combined exposure to ziram and paraquat alone was associated with an 80 percent increase in risk. The results appear in the current online edition of the European Journal of Epidemiology.http://www.neurology.org/content/50/5/1346.abstractWhen adjusted for these variables and smoking status, there was a significant association of occupational exposure to herbicides (odds ratio [OR], 4.10; 95% CI, 1.37, 12.24) and insecticides (OR, 3.55; 95% CI, 1.75, 7.18) with PD, but no relation was found with fungicide exposure. Farming as an occupation was significantly associated with PD (OR, 2.79; 95% CI, 1.03, 7.55), but there was no increased risk of the disease with rural or farm residence or well water useBoth insecticides and herbicides -- most notably organochlorines, organophosphorus compounds, chlorophenoxy acids/esters, and botanicals -- significantly increased the risk of Parkinson's disease, the researchers report in the online journal BioMedCentral (BMC) Neurology.http://newswise.com/articles/view/541427/http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-pesticides-parkinsons-20110526,0,4772737.storyCalifornia researchers who first established a link between two commonly used pesticides and Parkinson's disease have found a third crop-enhancing chemical -- ziram -- that appears to raise the risk of developing the movement disorder. And they have found that people whose workplaces were close to fields sprayed with these chemicals -- not just those who live nearby -- are at higher risk of developing Parkinson's.In animal studies conducted as part of the research on agricultural chemicals and Parkinson's disease, the researchers found that ziram was powerfully destructive to neurons that use the transmitter chemical dopamine to send messages. These brain cells are the ones that die off in regions of the brain that govern motor function, causing the tremors, unsteady gait and difficulty initiating movement that are the hallmarks of Parkinson's.Effects of pesticides on intelligence or working memoryhttp://e360.yale.edu/feature/from_the_fields_to_inner_city_pesticides_affect_childrens_iq/2404/The New York studies found that for every increased increment of prenatal organophosphate pesticide exposure, the IQs of the children studied dropped by 1.4 percent and their working memory scores dropped by 2.8 percent. A key finding of the Columbia University study was that the relationship between pesticide exposure and IQ and working memory scores was linear and showed “no evidence for a threshold.” In other words, the greater the exposure, the greater the impact on cognition.http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oem.2009.047811Considering that the oldest farmers started their occupational exposure in the 1970s and that latency is important, pesticides used in vineyards during the 1970s and 1980s are of primary concern for the effects we observed. During that period, the most probable fungicides used were dithiocarbamates, phtalimides, dicarboximides, triazoles and inorganic substances (copper, sulphate, arsenic) with, to a lesser extent, insecticides (organophosphates, organochlorines and carbamates) and some herbicides (triazines or sulfamides)Follow-up of the PHYTONER cohort showed lower cognitive performances in pesticide-exposed subjects. Among the seven cognitive tests significantly associated with pesticide exposure, three have a cognitive speed component: (i) the TMT, also implying a selective attention component, (ii) the FTT, a very simple motor speed test with a strategic component and (iii) the IST, a semantic verbal fluency test which implies integrity of semantic memory, as well as strategic search, working memory and a speed component. Performance on two of these tests with a speed component have already been found to be associated with chronic pesticide exposure (the TMT22–24) as has often been found with other cognitive speed tests, such as the TMT part B22 25 26 and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test.22 24 25 27 28 The most strongly associated test, the BVRT, is a visual working memory test, which also implies selective attention and inhibition, and this test and other quite similar ones have already been shown to be associated with chronic pesticide exposure.22 29–32 The second most associated measure is the number of good answers on the Stroop interference test, implying selective attention and inhibition of an automatic response. Finally, performances on two episodic memory tests were also associated with pesticide exposure, as was the case with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test in another study.32 Associations between pesticide exposure and test results were very strong with ORs for having a performance in the lower quarter of the distribution exceeding 5 for the visual working memory test (the BVRT) and 1 for the cognitive speed test (the TMT) and being even stronger for some cognitive measures if one considers the risk to be in the lower 10% of performances, with a risk multiplied by more than eight for the BVRT and more than 10 for the ST. No clear dose–effect relationship was observed between the directly and indirectly exposed. The evolution of performances over a 4–5-year period demonstrated that exposed subjects generally had the greatest decrease: on the MMSE they had a 1.97 risk of lowering their score by two points between baseline and follow-up compared to non-exposed subjects, and a 1.64 risk of lowering their score by three points. This result is particularly striking in view of the short duration of follow-up and the relatively young age of the participants.A longitudinal study of performances in a French population aged 65 and over without dementia showed a slight decline over 5 years only in tests with a speed component, but not on the MMSE or the BVRT.33 The observed decline in pesticide-exposed subjects on the MMSE, a composite measure reflecting global cognitive deterioration, cannot therefore be considered a sole effect of ageing, especially as the subjects were relatively young.Pesticides can even strip away the protective effect of educationWe also observed a stronger impact of pesticide exposure in groups who had protective characteristics at baseline with regard to cognitive performances (highly educated, no alcohol consumption, women) even if these groups had and continued to have a higher performance than others. Several studies have demonstrated that highly educated people have a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, which is often explained by a hypothetic ‘reserve capacity’.34 35 This ‘reserve’ might explain why their performances were better than those of the less educated subjects at baseline. They may initially resist pesticide exposure better, but their accelerated decline showed that prolonged exposure combined with ageing may considerably reduce their protective factors.==DDT is bad (from Lancet - a leading medical journal): http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(00)04249-5/fulltextLiterature reviews (these are among the most credible of journal articles, as they compile results from a vast number of journal articles):http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17981626Pesticides are substances widely used to control unwanted pests such as insects, weeds, fungi and rodents. Most pesticides are not highly selective, and are also toxic to nontarget species, including humans. A number of pesticides can cause neurotoxicity. Insecticides, which kill insects by targeting their nervous system, have neurotoxic effect in mammals as well. This family of chemicals comprises the organophosphates, the carbamates, the pyrethroids, the organochlorines, and other compounds. Insecticides interfere with chemical neurotransmission or ion channels, and usually cause reversible neurotoxic effects, that could nevertheless be lethal. Some herbicides and fungicides have also been shown to possess neurotoxic properties. The effects of pesticides on the nervous system may be involved in their acute toxicity, as in case of most insecticides, or may contribute to chronic neurodegenerative disorders, most notably Parkinson's disease. This brief review highlights some of the main neurotoxic pesticides, their effects, and mechanisms of action.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17615113There is a wealth of literature on neurotoxicological outcomes of acute and short-term exposure to pesticides in laboratory animals, but there are relatively few studies of- long-term exposure. Many reports in the literature describing ;chronic' exposures to pesticides are, in fact, as short as five days and rarely longer than three months. Furthermore, routes of administration range from subcutaneous to dietary. Doses used in many of the studies produce signs of acute or overt toxicity. In contrast, human symptoms have been reported following exposures that are prolonged and often without obvious toxic effects. A survey of the literature was conducted to identify rodent studies with neurobehavioral and neurophysiological endpoints of pesticide exposures lasting 30 days or longer. This survey indicated that the majority of studies concentrate on cholinesterase inhibitors (organophosphorus and carbamate insecticides). Various neuromotor, cholinergic, physiological, affective and cognitive disorders were reported at doses producing cholinesterase inhibition; however, there were a fewer effects at non-inhibiting doses. Other classes of pesticides produced similar effects, with the exception of cholinergic signs. In many studies, the changes were subtle, which may correspond to the nonspecific changes in psychomotor and cognitive function reported in humans. It appears, then, that the data from animal and human pesticide exposures are generally comparable, but the specific outcomes are influenced by many experimental differences. Future research should concentrate on analogous exposures and outcomes to facilitate interpretation.Exposure to organophosphorus (OP) esters can cause several syndromes including acute choliner- gic clinical episodes, the so-called Intermediate syndrome, organophosphate induced delayed neu- ropathy (OPIDN) and chronic neurological ef- fects. Acute toxicity is produced by irreversible inactivation of the enzyme cholinesterases, the exact mechanism of the intermediate syndrome is not understood while the OPIDN is claimed to be ‘marked’ by the inhibition and subsequent ageing (dealkylation) of a protein enzyme in nerve cells called neuropathy target esterase (NTE). The ability to produce OPIDN is not even related to the degree of inhibition of AchE and there is no indication that the intermediate syndrome is related to the cholinergic effect of OP compounds. It took the medical and scientific body more than 50 years to recognise OPIDN despite its dramatic nature of clinical presentation.What was also unique among OP exposed patients was that certain cholinergic functions were selectively pre- served; for example, the sudomotor function in the skin and respiratory modulation of cardiac vagal tone in the bulbar reticular formation in the brainstem were often not affected and yet other functions that do not require cholinergic nerves in the same anatomical sites were abnormal. It is well known that chronic low level of anticholinesterase activity protects cholinergic synapses from episo- dic large anticholinesterase poisoning, but could it at the same time damage non-cholinergic synapses in the same area? This is a strong possibility given the evidence from our patients chronically exposed to LTLL of OPLung cancerWhen compared to applicators who had never used these chemicals, those who had used metolachlor over 457 lifetime days had a four-fold risk of lung cancer. For those who had usedpendimethalin more than 225 days, their risk was 3.5 times greater for developing lung cancer.Diabetes riskhttp://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/167/10/1235Using logistic regression, the authors considered two primary measures of pesticide exposure: ever use and cumulative lifetime days of use. They found seven specific pesticides (aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, trichlorfon, alachlor, and cyanazine) for which the odds of diabetes incidence increased with both ever use and cumulative days of use. Applicators who had used the organochlorine insecticides aldrin, chlordane, and heptachlor more than 100 lifetime days had 51%, 63%, and 94% increased odds of diabetes, respectively

The Financial Tech start-ups are on rise in New York and are blooming with funds from top notch investors. Following is an informative list of FinTech start-ups from top sectors. The details about the start-up, founded year and funding raised are also highlighted.Consumer Finance1. LearnVest - Personal finance management and investment adviseNew York City ⋅ 2007 ⋅ $69M2. CreditCards.com - Credit card comparison platform and marketplaceNew York City ⋅ 2004 ⋅ $58.8MAcquired By: bankrate.com on 2010/7/5 for $145M3. BillGuard - People-powered antivirus for bills.New York City ⋅ 2010 ⋅ $16.5M4. Moven - Mobile Banking Service for United StatesNew York City ⋅ 2011 ⋅ $12.41M5. Qapital - Mobile app for micro savingsNew York City ⋅ 2012 ⋅ $5MAlternate Lending1. Biz2Credit - Multiple solutions provider to the credit needs of small businesses.New York City ⋅ 2007 ⋅ $250M2. OnDeck - small business financingNew York City ⋅ 2007 ⋅ $179M3. Behalf - An alternate lending platform which offers financing for small businesses.New York City ⋅ 2011 ⋅ $129M4. CAN Capital - Working capital for small businessesNew York City ⋅ 1998 ⋅ $93M5. Fundbox - Loans businesses money for outstanding invoice paymentsNew York City ⋅ 2012 ⋅ $57.5MInvestment Tech1. Betterment – Robo AdvisorNew York City⋅ 2008 ⋅ $105M2. IEX Group - Equity trading platform for broker-dealers.New York City⋅ 2012 ⋅ $100.9M3. Bonds - Trading platform serving institutional fixed income investors.New York City⋅ 2009 ⋅ $23.1MAcquired By: mtsmarkets.com ⋅ 2014/03/064. Hedgeable - Online asset manager with focus on risk managemntNew York City⋅ 2009 ⋅ $1.9MCrowdfunding1. Innovational Funding - An equity based crowdfunding portal for real estate investments.New York City ⋅ 2012 ⋅ $4.02M2. Slated - AngelList for Film IndustryNew York City ⋅ 2010 ⋅ $2MPayments1. ShopKeep POS - PoS software for retailersNew York City ⋅ 2008 ⋅ $97.2M2. TxVia - Processing for network-based paymentsNew York City ⋅ 2006 ⋅ $55.4M3. Zipmark - Secure, digital eCheck paymentsNew York City ⋅ 2010 ⋅ $3.5M4. Cover - Mobile Payments at RestaurantsNew York City ⋅ 2012 ⋅ $7M5. I Love Velvet – mPoS solutions for retail chains.New York City ⋅ 2009Remittances1. Payoneer - Global money transfer serviceNew York City ⋅ 2005 ⋅ $89MInsuranceTech1. Oscar, A modern health insurerNew York City ⋅ 2013 ⋅ $295M2. Zags, Insurance administration softwareNew York City ⋅ 2011 ⋅ $30M3. PolicyGenius, Online insurance shoppingNew York City ⋅ 2012 ⋅ $6.05MBitcoin1. Mirror - An Escrow Exchange for Bitcoin TradingNew York City ⋅ 2012 ⋅ $12.8M2. Keybase - Making cryptography easy to useNew York City ⋅ 2013 ⋅ $10.8M3. SolidX - Digital currency services for institutional investorsNew York City ⋅ 2014 ⋅ $3MThis data is curated by Tracxn! - Technology & Data for Venture Capital, Corp Dev, Investment Banks. The below link offers detailed report on Mobile FinTech sector globally. It covers start-ups across payments and finance. (Including Banking, Personal Finance, Public Markets, etc.).Tracxn Mobile FinTech Startup Landscape June 2015