PHOTOS: Japan's AMAZING recovery a year after tsunami

On March 11, Japan will observe the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the country and left it in tatters.

As Japanese grit would have it, the nation has powered itself out of the grief and resurrected the affected areas.

We show you glimpses of the transformation of tsunami-hit Japan

Image: (Above) Streets flooded after the tsunami in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture. (Below) The area today

'Attending meetings can lower your IQ'

Image for representative purposes - Wikimedia Commons

How often do you attend meetings at your workplace?

If a new research is to be believed, they can make you brain-dead impairing your ability to think for yourself. A team at the Virginia Tech Crilion Research institute in the US found that the performance of people in IQ tests after meetings was significantly lower than those who are left to decide on their own.

And women more likely to perform worse than men, found the study, published in journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

"You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain-dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain-dead as well," Read Montague, who led the study, was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.

Impending Titanic auction draws ‘titanic’ wave of interest worldwide

Over 5,000 Titanic artefacts to be auctioned on April 1.

April 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, that took place on April 15, 1912 - DC

The auction of over 5,000 Titanic artefacts a century after the luxury liner’s sinking has enthused hundreds of calls, with some offering to add to the treasure trove already gathered from the ocean floor.

Auctioneer Arlan Ettinger said his New York auction house, Guernsey’s Auctioneers ‘n’ Brokers, has heard from some descendants of the more than 700 survivors, including one offering papers found on the floating body of a passenger, the Daily Express reported.

The papers will not be included, but something apparently more moving will be: a child’s bracelet with the name Amy spelled out in diamonds. Only two Amys were listed among 2,228 passengers, of whom more than 1,500 died.

“It’s very personal and very touching to see that,” Ettinger said.