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Mind - Creativity, Motivation, Inspiration, Etc
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Zen Habits |
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Zen Habits
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Simple Productivity |
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12 New Rules of Working You Should Embrace Today
The workplace, more and more, is changing, and with this change comes a whole new set of rules.
The traditional office work environment and tools are still around, but at a very rapid pace, they’re being supplanted by newer and better tools, newer and better ways of working. The old rules are being broken, and new ones are emerging.
You could call this the Workplace of the Future, as not all businesses have adopted these models, and it will be a few years before these new rules are the norm. But for many people (myself included), this is the Workplace of Today...
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50 Amazing and Essential Novels to Enrich Your Library
I recently ran into a couple of reading lists (I’ll share them at the end) and realized that I LOVE reading book recommendations. I can’t get enough of them.
So I decided to compile my own (somewhat eclectic) list of novels I think are amazing and essential to every library. I hope you enjoy it.
I should make some notes before diving in. First, this isn’t a comprehensive list of classics. It’s not a comprehensive list of anything. It’s one man’s reading list — a writer, a book lover, a lover and a dad, but one man nonetheless. There are a lot...
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25 Painless Ways to Free Up an Hour a Day for Your Goals
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” - Henry David Thoreau
What would you do if you had an extra hour a day?
This is a common barrier I run into when I write about making positive life changes: people don’t have time to pursue their dreams. People don’t have time to exercise. People don’t have time to get organized.
Well, it’s time to make time.
By using some combination of the following, you can free up an hour or more a day. Find the ones that work for you (not all will work for everyone), and then carve out that hour...
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The Great Twitter Experiment
I’m going to cave in and give Twitter a try.
I’ve resisted for so long only because I like to keep my communication habits to a minimum. I don’t like to have to respond to and read messages all day long. I like to keep my life simple and focus on what I really love to do, and my fear has been that Twitter will take me away from that.
However, I figure it’s worth a try at least. You can follow me if you like (though it won’t have any ground-breaking news or anything): Zen Habits on Twitter.
Here’s my game...
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Raise Your Voice About Poverty - Sign Up for Blog Action Day!
Often the most uncomfortable things in this world don’t get talked about, even if they’re among the most important things in this world, simply because we don’t like to talk about them.
Poverty is one of those issues, and oftentimes it goes with little notice, despite its extreme effect on people’s lives.
On October 15, 2008, if you are a blogger, you have the chance to raise your voice about poverty, and join the voices of thousands and thousands of other bloggers speaking about poverty … on the same day. It’s called Blog Action Day — go check it out.
Last year,...
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What?s Wrong With the World? Not a Damn Thing
“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” -Eric Fromm
It struck me recently that a lot of people think they know what’s wrong with this world, and it also struck me that they’re all wrong.
Seriously — almost every political and religious group, every opinionated person, every publication with an opinion, has said at one time or another what they think is wrong with this world.
Conservatives think that we’ve become a welfare state (giving too many handouts to the poor), while many liberals think we’ve allowed too much corporate welfare (and I tend to agree...
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Top 5 Most Inspirational Videos on YouTube
Editor’s note: I will be away from my computer for a little bit, so I’m posting this quickie, but I hope you enjoy it! I know it will probably be criticized for a lack of depth, but please forgive me as I take a break for a day. I’ll try to do something more in-depth tomorrow!
Sometimes we all can use a little inspiration. I thought I’d share some of my favorite inspirational videos with you, hoping that it’ll help pick you up today.
Play these as needed. Warning: you might be inspired to greatness, so use with caution.
1. Randy Pausch’s Last...
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7 Powerful Ways to Get the Most Out of Any Situation
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Pete Wailes of the Cross Driven Life blog.
It’s always been my belief that whatever you make the focus of your life is what you’ll get.
If you long for money, fame and adulation, then you’ll take action to achieve it, and you’ll get it in the end. If you want to make your life simpler, more efficient and more productive, then similarly you’ll live your life in a way that will drive you to get those things. If you just want a quiet life away from the world, that’s what you’ll find.
And...
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32 Ways to Make Someone Happy Today
Just thought I’d give all of you a nice list of things to think about. This isn’t an in-depth post, but more of a thought for the day — is there someone you’d like to make happy today?
Making others happy is one of the best ways to have a great day yourself. It can brighten the world around you.
This list is just to spark some ideas, and please note that not every item on this list is appropriate for every person in your life. I trust you to figure out which actions go with which people.
Make someone happy today!
- Smile.
- Help them...
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The Five Things You Need to Know About Finding the Work You Love
“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers … If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” - Steve Jobs in a Stanford commencement speech
One of the keys to happiness — as well as productivity and effectiveness at work — is finding work you love, that you’re passionate about. Work you want to do, instead of just have to do.
If you really want to do it, it barely seems like work...
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Health & Well Being Info For YOU! |
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WebMD Health
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WebMD Health - Trustworthy, Credible and Timely Health Information |
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Statins: No Cancer Risk
Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs do not increase cancer risk, says Tufts University's Richard Karas, MD, who last year warned of a possible risk.
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Experts: HPV Vaccine a Preteen Priority
The vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, will be most cost-effective in the U.S. with universal vaccination of 12-year-old girls and catch-up efforts to vaccinate girls and women ages 13 to 21, researchers say.
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Gene Behind Serious Statin Risk
A variant gene causes more than 60% of cases of a serious side effect of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs -- muscle pain and weakness.
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Odor Test Sniffs Out Skin Cancer
Dogs can smell skin cancer, and so might an "electronic nose." Monell Chemical Senses researchers say the device can sniff out skin cancer by its "odor profile."
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New Scan Detects Early Arthritis
NYU researchers say their new MRI test can detect arthritis early, when treatments are most helpful. The technique also detects spinal disc degeneration.
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Underage, Drunken Fans Buy Stadium Alcohol
Underage or drunken fans are often able to buy alcohol at sports stadiums, especially if it's purchased from a vendor in the stands, according to a study.
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Motherhood Not on Everyone?s To-Do List
Today U.S. women are having fewer babies, with more women choosing to be childless.
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Christina Applegate's Mastectomy: FAQ
Christina Applegate has gotten a preventive double mastectomy to keep her breast cancer from returning and will get reconstructive surgery.
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'Brown' Fat: New Key to Weight Loss?
New discoveries surrounding a type of "good" fat that promotes the burning of calories could one day lead to better treatments for obesity, researchers say.
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Weight Loss From Addiction Drug
Vigabatrin, now being tested as a treatment for cocaine addiction, lessens obese rats' craving for food. They lose about 20% of their body weight.
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Adults Easily Fooled When Kids Lie
A study shows that adults are easily fooled when a child says a real event did not happen, while adults are better at detecting when a child is creating an event and making up the details.
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Alexander Technique Eases Back Pain
The Alexander technique, a little-known type of physical therapy designed to reduce chronic pain, is more effective at reducing back pain than exercise alone or massage therapy, according to a new study.
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Americans Fatter in 37 States
The U.S. obesity epidemic is gaining speed, with adult obesity rates up in 37 states and down in none. In 28 states, more than 1 in 4 people are obese.
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Impotence Drug Eases Prostate Problems
Study shows that Cialis, a popular drug for erectile dysfunction, helps ease common urinary symptoms associated with enlarged prostate.
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B Vitamins Don't Help in Heart Disease
If you have heart disease, don't count on folic acid pills, with or without vitamin B6 and B12 supplements, to help you cut your cardiovascular risk, a study shows.
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iVillage Health & Well-Being News
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Get breaking news and advice on women's health issues, wellness, family health and family care. |
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U.S. Smoking Rates Stall
In 2006, 20.8 percent of American adults were current cigarette smokers, a percentage that hasn't changed much since 2004, a new government report says.
The finding suggests that the previous seven-year decline has stalled, says a report in this week's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Among current smokers in 2006, 80.1 percent (36.3 million) smoked every day, and 19.9 percent (9 million) smoked some days. About 44.
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FDA Issues New Warnings for Anemia Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved new "black box" warnings on labels of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, which are drugs used to treat certain types of anemia.
The warnings cover the drugs Aranesp, Epogen and Procrit, and detail their dangers to patients with cancer and patients with chronic kidney failure. Those dangers include heart attack, stroke, heart failure and cancer tumor growth and shortened survival.
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Summer Vacation Undermines School-Based Weight Loss
School programs that promote healthy eating and exercise can help students lose weight, researchers say, but kids often pack on the pounds again during summer holiday.
The study was conducted by a team at the Agatston Research Foundation in Miami Beach, Fla. Their "Healthier Options for Public Schoolchildren" study included 3,200 children (48 percent Hispanic) from six elementary schools --- four schools tried out the intervention, while two did not and served as controls.
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Botox Offers Shot in Arm for Arthritis Sufferers
Botox seems to relieve shoulder pain in arthritis sufferers, a preliminary study found.
"We don't recommend people start using it until we have the definitive study," said study author Dr. Jasvinder Singh, a staff physician at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. He said his study was small, and more patients needed to be assessed before the treatment could be recommended.
Singh was to present his findings Friday at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting, in Boston.
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Scientists Find Way to Track Stem Cells in Brain
The identification of a new marker is making it possible to track brain stem cells for the first time, U.S. researchers report.
The achievement is already opening doors to new research into depression, early childhood development and multiple sclerosis, the team's senior author said.
"This is a way to detect these cells in the brain, so that you can track them in certain conditions where we suspect that these cells play a certain role," explained Dr. Mirjana Maletic-Savatic, an assistant profess
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National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases
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News Releases from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) |
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NHGRI Seeks DNA Sequencing Technologies Fit for Routine Laboratory and Medical Use
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today awarded more than $20 million in grants to develop innovative sequencing technologies inexpensive and efficient enough to sequence a person's DNA as a routine part of biomedical research and health care.
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Bacterial Pneumonia Caused Most Deaths in 1918 Influenza Pandemic
The majority of deaths during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 were not caused by the influenza virus acting alone, report researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Instead, most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection. The pneumonia was caused when bacteria that normally inhabit the nose and throat invaded the lungs along a pathway created when the virus destroyed the cells that line the bronchial tubes and lungs.
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Largest Study of Its Kind Implicates Gene Abnormalities in Bipolar Disorder
The largest genetic analysis of its kind to date for bipolar disorder has implicated machinery involved in the balance of sodium and calcium in brain cells. Researchers supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, found an association between the disorder and variation in two genes that make components of channels that manage the flow of the elements into and out of cells, including neurons.
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Alternative Vaccine Strategy Shows Promise in Prostate Cancer Patients
New research indicates that giving patients a continuous low dose of an immune system booster, a method known as metronomic dosing, as part of a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine strategy is safe and produces similar immune responses and fewer side effects than the more common dosing method, which is not well tolerated by many patients. This study, led by researchers at that National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, was published in the Aug. 15, 2008, issue of "Clinical Cancer Research."
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Researchers Find Leishmaniasis Parasites Evade Death by Exploiting the Immune Response to Sand Fly Bites
Cutaneous leishmaniasis, a disease characterized by painful skin ulcers, occurs when the parasite Leishmania major, or a related species, is transmitted to a mammalian host by the bite of an infected sand fly. In a new study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, scientists have discovered L. major does its damage by not only evading but also by exploiting the body's wound-healing response to sand fly bites, as reported in the August 15 issue of "Science."
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NIH Scientists Find a Novel Mechanism that Controls the Development of Autoimmunity
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found
a mechanism in the immune systems of mice that can lead to the
development of autoimmune disease when turned off. The findings
shed light on the processes that lead to the development of autoimmunity
and could also have...
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Molecular Switch Boosts Brain Activity Associated with Schizophrenia
People with schizophrenia have an alteration in a pattern
of brain electrical activity associated with learning and memory. Now,
researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Sweden's Karolinska
Institute have identified in mouse brain tissue a molecular switch that,
when thrown, increases the strength of this electrical pattern. The researchers
found that adding the brain chemical Neuregulin-1 to the brain tissue
...
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Key Gaps Remain in Understanding Health Effects of Vitamin D
Despite considerable progress in research to understand the
health effects of vitamin D, experts convened by the NIH to review the
available data found major gaps in the evidence. The data are strongest
in the area of bone health among elderly men and post-menopausal women,
suggesting that increased vitamin D intake can improve bone health and
prevent falls. For other age groups and health issues,...
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NIAMS Names Dr. Robert Carter as Deputy Director
Robert H. Carter, M.D., former director of the Division of
Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham (UAB), has been selected as deputy director of the National
Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS),
a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Carter will be
assuming his official responsibilities as of October 1, 2008.
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Anti-HIV 'Drug Cocktails' Equally Effective in Patients
with or without History of Injection Drug Use
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been extremely
effective at slowing the progression of HIV infection to AIDS as well
as extending the lives and improving the quality of life for those with
HIV. However, some doctors have been reluctant to prescribe HAART to
HIV-infected injection drug users because of concern that they may not
fully benefit from the therapy. A new study by investigators...
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NIDA Newscan #54
The NIDA NewsScan #54 examines the latest findings on drug
abuse among youth as well as key issues including the relationship between
marijuana and the perception of pain, the role emotions play in smoking,
and innovative approaches to pain management through virtual reality.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is part of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH).
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Handy Tips Blogs |
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Get Organized Now! Weblog
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Comments, tips and observations about getting and staying organized in today's hectic world by Maria Gracia, one of the web's leading organizing experts. |
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School is Right Around the Corner
As usual, the summer just flew right by -- whoosh! Our
daughter, Amanda, is starting school right after Labor
Day. She's looking forward to it. Although I loved having
her at home all summer, it will be nice for her to be
back with her teachers and friends, and I'll be able to
get some very focused work done.
To start the school year off on an organized foot, I've
done 3 things . . .
1) I already purchased all of Amanda's school supplies
and school clothes. Since she's only 4, everything is
labeled with her name to make it easier...
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Relay Photos 2008
 Here is the link to this year's Relay For Life photos.
http://albums.phanfare.com/2771770/2542303
Thanks again to everyone who supported our team's effort this year!
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Latest Read: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
I just finished reading Lorna Landvik's book, Angry
Housewives Eating Bon Bons. Five friends, who formed
and attend a monthly book club, live through three
decades of marriages, child raising, neighborhood parties
and book chat treats. This story is one of female
bonding.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (one being low, 5 being high), I
rated this book a 4. The other book club members gave it
an average rating of 4--so we all agreed.
I honestly wanted to score this book a 5, as I did truly
enjoy it. However, it was a bit difficult to keep track
of...
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Post-Relay Update
The Relay for Life event in Watertown WI was, once again,
amazing this year. I wish you could have seen all the
luminaries around the track, with the lights turned off
and the candles burning brightly--representing both those
who are battling cancer, and those who have passed on.
It was chilling, but also heartwarming to see and feel
the love and commitment from everyone present. It was an
honor to collect and walk for this so-worthy cause.
Donations for our team are still coming in. I believe we
ended up with nearly $4000 collectively (Thanks so much
again to all of you...
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Need Some Adult Time? Take a Retreat!
Remember the days of sleepovers? Those were magical
times. Being with friends. Eating pizza. Watching movies.
Playing games. I haven't done a sleepover with my friends
since grade school.
That is, until last year. A bunch of my friends and I
got together and had a sleepover at my house. What fun
we had! We had a potluck dinner. We gave ourselves
pedicures. We watched movies. We talked. We laughed. We
stayed up half the night. In the morning, we all enjoyed
cinnamon rolls together. It was a blast!
This year, the same group of friends, plus a few others,
are taking a...
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$2000! Wow!!
Tomorrow evening (Friday, August 8th) is the beginning of
the much anticipated Relay for Life event here in
Watertown, WI.
We'll arrive at 4:00PM to decorate our campsite and to
ensure we're there early for opening ceremonies.
Throughout the evening, and into Saturday morning, our
team members will take turns walking around the track for
18 hours straight.
When we're not walking, we'll get to experience amazing
activities, such as the Survivor Lap and the Luminary
Ceremony. My family will be camping out under the stars,
along with our other team members.
We expect it to be a lovely, touching evening--and one
that we'll not...
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An Organized Annual Doctor's Appointment
Prior to my annual doctor's appointment the other day,
the nurse was updating my records in her new computer
system. She began asking me at least a dozen questions
regarding my health history--most of which I really had
to think about and wish I had known about ahead of time
so I could have been better prepared.
When I got home, I opened a Word document and began
typing all the information I may be asked in the future
from my current doctor's office, or another doctor if I
ever decide to switch.
The nurse first wanted to know my health history,...
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Bubble Wonders
My husband, my daughter and I saw a WAY COOL presentation
this morning at our local public library. Geoffrey
'Merlin' Akins presented Bubble Wonders and his
bubbleology craft. Bubbleology is the art and science of
doing neat stuff with soap bubbles.
Geoff created huge wobbly electric dancing bubbles,
bubbles inside bubbles, hand-blown bubbles, bubble
caterpillars, bubble ice-cream cones, bubble snowmen,
smoke-filled volcano bubbles, a fully-functioning bubble
merry-go-round, a bubble trampoline and even the
'impossible' Square Bubble!
It was a super show and generated lots of smiles and
laughter. I wish you could have seen the kids' faces.
They were lit up with wonder.
Goeffrey's web site...
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Latest Book Read - Summer Sisters
Our book club selection this month was Summer
Sisters by the author Judy Blume. For those of you
wondering, YES, this was the same author who wrote the
famous book Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
This month's read was basically about how a young girl,
Vix, grows up through the years with a wild, selfish
friend, Caitlin. While early on, Vix saw it as more of a
magical time that took her worlds away from the life she
started with, years later she tries to figure out how
Caitlin still has the power to break her heart.
I had reservations...
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Back From Philly
We just recently returned from our trip out east to visit
with my family. At the tail end of our visit, we ventured
off to Philadelphia, PA for a bit of sightseeing.
Thanks so much to all of you who offered so many tips
and ideas for hotels and attractions. The information
was extremely helpful.
Since we have a Hilton Honors card which we're building
points on, we decided to stay at the Homewood Suites. It
was a little bit outside of the historical area, but
easily accessible by a bus that we caught right outside.
The prices were very reasonable for...
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