Achieving our personal and business goals takes lots of energy, but one of the most common complaints we hear these days is "Wow, I'm exhausted!" Fortunately, there are four easy ways you can boost your energy and keep it up. Taking the time to do these four simple things every day will literally fuel your body and help you achieve a vigorous and high state of energy:
Breathing. Regular deep and rhythmic breathing enables us to keep refreshed physically and mentally, and provides us with the fuel to breathe through the problems and challenges of the day. So to be sure that you're getting the oxygen you need to keep going, take note of your breathing patterns. If you find that you're short of breath or sighing a lot, your body is sending you a signal that you're holding your breath and need to focus on taking in deeper, longer breaths.
Exercise. Exercise gets us going. It gives all our organs and bodily functions the workout they need to get tuned up to operate effectively. Getting at least 20 minutes of physical exercise each day helps keep us energized.
Water. Our bodies need ample water every day to keep the right electrolyte balance. To calculate how much you should be drinking, divide your body weight in half. That's the number of ounces you should be drinking at a minimum. So if you weight 120 pounds, you need to drink 60 ounces of water a day.
Alkaline foods. The human body works best when it's in an alkaline state. So eating foods high in acid like red meat, salty snacks and sugary desserts can create an acidic buildup in you robody that drains your energy. But an alkaline diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables has just the opposite effect. It keeps you healthy, nourished and energized.
Doing these four simple things will provide the high-impact energy and enthusiasm you need to achieve your goals.
-- Paul and Sarah Edwards, The Costco Connection, March 2000
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Smart Cat
Online university sued for allegedly awarding MBA to cat
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania attorney general's office Monday sued an online university for allegedly selling bogus academic degrees — including an MBA awarded to a cat. Trinity Southern University in Texas, a cellular company and the two brothers who ran them are accused of misappropriating Internet addresses of the state Senate and more than 60 Pennsylvania businesses to sell fake degrees and prescription drugs by spam e-mail, according to the lawsuit.
Investigators paid $299 for a bachelor's degree for Colby Nolan — a deputy attorney general's 6-year-old black cat — claiming he had experience including baby-sitting and retail management. The school, which offers no classes, allegedly determined Colby Nolan's resume entitled him to a master of business administration degree; a transcript listed the cat's course work and 3.5 grade-point average.
The state is seeking a permanent injunction, civil penalties, costs and restitution for violating consumer law and restrictions on unsolicited e-mail ads. Prosecutors said more than 18,000 illegal e-mails were sent out this year with links to Trinity Southern's Web address, including 300 that appeared to originate from the Internet servers of Pennsylvania companies and institutions. Among the alleged victims are Penn State University and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as numerous Internet service providers, businesses and technology companies. The defendants are the school; Innovative Cellular and Wireless Inc. of Corpus Christi, Texas; Alton Scott Poe of St. Cloud, Fla., vice chancellor and dean of admission for Trinity; and Craig Barton Poe of Frisco, Texas, president of Innovative Cellular.
A phone message left at Trinity Southern was not returned Monday. None of the other three defendants appears to have a listed or published phone number.
http://www.courttv.com/people/2004/1207/degrees_ap.html (email from Aaron)
Monday, November 15, 2004
The Know-It-All
A.J. Jacobs read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and lived to tell about it.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
John Hassell, Newhouse News Service
Many people, assaulted by the cerebral barrage that is the Information Age, long for nothing more than an occasional day of quiet, far from the glow of computer monitors, television screens and the endless iterations of the 24-hour news cycle. No more information, thank you very much.
Then there is A.J. Jacobs. An editor at Esquire magazine, Jacobs responded to the miasma of modern life a couple of years ago by embarking on an unusual -- some would say insane -- mission: He set out to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from front to back. Not in one sitting, mind you. Still ...
Over the course of a year, Jacobs plowed through 33,000 pages, 65,000 articles and 44 million words -- beginning with "a-ak" ("Ancient East Asian music. See gagaku.") and ending with "Zywiec" (a town in south central Poland known for its large breweries and a 16th-century sculpture called "The Dormant Virgin").
Then he wrote a book about it, " The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World," which is being published this month. Like an encyclopedia, the book relates Jacobs' experience in alphabetical order, chronicling the entries, both trivial and profound, that struck him along the way.
Jacobs, who lives in New York City, spoke recently to Perspective editor John Hassell about his unusual sense of adventure, his newfound knowledge and his long-suffering spouse.
The obvious question first: What were you thinking?
Well, I felt like my IQ was dropping by five points or so for every year I was out of college, and I decided I needed to do something to stop that.
I got the idea from my father. He started to read it years ago, but he only got up to the mid-Bs. I thought I should remove the black stain from our family name and complete the task.
I also did it as a quest. I felt I hadn't accomplished anything in my life. And this was a quest I could undertake while sitting on my couch, as opposed to climbing Mt. Everest.
Why the Britannica?
You've got to go to the top. You've got to go to Everest. It's the Cadillac of encyclopedias, the longest published encyclopedia in the world. Why not start there?
Is there something disorienting and arbitrary about reading a summary of human knowledge in alphabetical order?
It's totally disorienting. I would compare it to flipping channels on cable TV. You go from the Abominable Snowman to Abyssinia. But for me, growing up on MTV, that's appealing. You get bored of one subject, and here comes another.
Speaking of jumping from one subject to another, I'd like to pick out some of the encyclopedia entries you mention in your book and ask you what you remember about them. Kind of like a pop quiz.
Sure. Let's give it a try.
OK, let's start with Philo Farnsworth. Who was he?
I can thank him for many lost hours of my youth. He was a pioneer of TV. The first image he broadcast was the image of a dollar sign -- which I think was prescient, because not much of TV today is pro bono.
Here's a good one: Haboob.
That's a sandstorm that can reach 3,000 feet in height, a huge storm. At times I felt like I was in my own haboob during this whole project, trapped in an information storm that I couldn't see out from.
Vinaigrette.
It's not just a salad dressing. It was a little device worn by people in the 18th century. They would put lavender and vinegar in it, and it was partially to smell good. When you think about it, it's kind of funny: Everybody smelled like a walking salad.
David Garrick.
He was an English actor and theater owner in the 18th century. He reformed the theater by ending the practice of reimbursing people if they walked out of shows early.
I don't like this guy. That was a terrible reform. The way I look at it, there should be a meter on theater seats, like a taxi meter. The shorter you stay, the less you pay.
Yodel.
I was happy to see the Swiss don't have a monopoly on yodeling. Pygmies and Australian aborigines also yodel. I thought that was nice.
Lastly, since we're in a presidential election year: Dan Rice.
He was probably the most famous clown of the 19th century, and he was a contender for the presidential election of 1868. He lost, but I wish he had won. He was also famous for his tightrope-walking elephant.
Did you come across anything interesting about New Jersey?
Of course. One of Newark's famous citizens was a man named Seth Boyden. He's famous for his shoe manufacturing and malleable cast iron. He was also the developer of a bigger and better strawberry.
I learned something reassuring about the Holland Tunnel, too. I have an irrational fear of brain damage, but the Britannica tells us that the tunnel has a remarkable ventilation system, and refreshes the air every 90 seconds.
What a relief. Who needs an encyclopedia when we have Google? Can the printed word ever keep up with the Internet?
I love Google, but it's not always the most trustworthy. It's nice to have a port in the information storm, and the Britannica is something you can really trust. And they have a Web site, too.
How would you describe the writing style of the Encyclopedia Britannica?
In earlier editions, it was very literary and florid, and they had everyone from Einstein to Freud to Houdini writing for it. Now, it's a little less florid and a little more scientific.
But one thing I loved is that it's a fair and balanced piece of work. Take the entry on the Black Plague. They tell us the plague killed off a third of Europe, sure, but it also opened up labor markets and allowed capitalism to flourish.
You're a magazine editor. What do you suppose the most significant differences are be tween editing Esquire and editing the Encyclopedia Britannica?
Most of the material I edit is in the front section of Esquire. That's where the shorter pieces appear. Like Esquire, the Britannica has two parts. The "micropedia," which is similar to the magazine section I edit, consists of short squibs. That's the part I like the best.
Then there's the part of the encyclopedia that's like the feature well of the magazine, where articles can be 50 or 60 pages long. Those are the heavy-lifting pieces you have to read in the morning because your brain melts.
What was, for you, the single most disappointing omission in the encyclopedia?
My wife complained about the lack of Tom Cruise. I was lucky enough to make a trip to the Britannica's headquarters, and I told the editors about my wife's disappointment. They took notes. I'm hoping they'll include him in the next edition, he'll call me to say thanks, and we'll all go out to dinner.
Do you have a favorite fact?
That's hard. I've got about 50.
Did you know, for example, that the philosopher Rene Descartes had a fetish for women with crossed eyes? I like that one.
I also like the fact that the history of canned laughter dates back to the 1800s, when French theater owners hired people to sit in the audience and laugh at comedies. They also hired people to cry during dramas.
One of my least favorite facts: After age 20, humans lose 50,000 brain cells a day.
As you crammed all of this information into your head, did you feel like you were pushing out other things?
By the end, I had trouble. I felt it pushed out a good amount of my pop-culture knowledge, in particular. When I finished, I had forgotten which Baldwin brother was which. But maybe that was a good thing.
Beyond trivia, what did you learn from this masochistic feat?
One of the best lessons was that, for all its horribleness and all its problems, today is probably the best time in history to be alive. You read about life in previous centuries, and they had it much worse than we do. In France during the 18th century, life expectancy was 30 years. I'd be dead five or six years already.
I also learned a very practical lesson: When your wife has a rash, it's best not to compare it to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
Q&A: Chatting with a real know-it-all
Sunday, October 17, 2004
John Hassell, Newhouse News Service
Many people, assaulted by the cerebral barrage that is the Information Age, long for nothing more than an occasional day of quiet, far from the glow of computer monitors, television screens and the endless iterations of the 24-hour news cycle. No more information, thank you very much.
Then there is A.J. Jacobs. An editor at Esquire magazine, Jacobs responded to the miasma of modern life a couple of years ago by embarking on an unusual -- some would say insane -- mission: He set out to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from front to back. Not in one sitting, mind you. Still ...
Over the course of a year, Jacobs plowed through 33,000 pages, 65,000 articles and 44 million words -- beginning with "a-ak" ("Ancient East Asian music. See gagaku.") and ending with "Zywiec" (a town in south central Poland known for its large breweries and a 16th-century sculpture called "The Dormant Virgin").
Then he wrote a book about it, " The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World," which is being published this month. Like an encyclopedia, the book relates Jacobs' experience in alphabetical order, chronicling the entries, both trivial and profound, that struck him along the way.
Jacobs, who lives in New York City, spoke recently to Perspective editor John Hassell about his unusual sense of adventure, his newfound knowledge and his long-suffering spouse.
The obvious question first: What were you thinking?
Well, I felt like my IQ was dropping by five points or so for every year I was out of college, and I decided I needed to do something to stop that.
I got the idea from my father. He started to read it years ago, but he only got up to the mid-Bs. I thought I should remove the black stain from our family name and complete the task.
I also did it as a quest. I felt I hadn't accomplished anything in my life. And this was a quest I could undertake while sitting on my couch, as opposed to climbing Mt. Everest.
Why the Britannica?
You've got to go to the top. You've got to go to Everest. It's the Cadillac of encyclopedias, the longest published encyclopedia in the world. Why not start there?
Is there something disorienting and arbitrary about reading a summary of human knowledge in alphabetical order?
It's totally disorienting. I would compare it to flipping channels on cable TV. You go from the Abominable Snowman to Abyssinia. But for me, growing up on MTV, that's appealing. You get bored of one subject, and here comes another.
Speaking of jumping from one subject to another, I'd like to pick out some of the encyclopedia entries you mention in your book and ask you what you remember about them. Kind of like a pop quiz.
Sure. Let's give it a try.
OK, let's start with Philo Farnsworth. Who was he?
I can thank him for many lost hours of my youth. He was a pioneer of TV. The first image he broadcast was the image of a dollar sign -- which I think was prescient, because not much of TV today is pro bono.
Here's a good one: Haboob.
That's a sandstorm that can reach 3,000 feet in height, a huge storm. At times I felt like I was in my own haboob during this whole project, trapped in an information storm that I couldn't see out from.
Vinaigrette.
It's not just a salad dressing. It was a little device worn by people in the 18th century. They would put lavender and vinegar in it, and it was partially to smell good. When you think about it, it's kind of funny: Everybody smelled like a walking salad.
David Garrick.
He was an English actor and theater owner in the 18th century. He reformed the theater by ending the practice of reimbursing people if they walked out of shows early.
I don't like this guy. That was a terrible reform. The way I look at it, there should be a meter on theater seats, like a taxi meter. The shorter you stay, the less you pay.
Yodel.
I was happy to see the Swiss don't have a monopoly on yodeling. Pygmies and Australian aborigines also yodel. I thought that was nice.
Lastly, since we're in a presidential election year: Dan Rice.
He was probably the most famous clown of the 19th century, and he was a contender for the presidential election of 1868. He lost, but I wish he had won. He was also famous for his tightrope-walking elephant.
Did you come across anything interesting about New Jersey?
Of course. One of Newark's famous citizens was a man named Seth Boyden. He's famous for his shoe manufacturing and malleable cast iron. He was also the developer of a bigger and better strawberry.
I learned something reassuring about the Holland Tunnel, too. I have an irrational fear of brain damage, but the Britannica tells us that the tunnel has a remarkable ventilation system, and refreshes the air every 90 seconds.
What a relief. Who needs an encyclopedia when we have Google? Can the printed word ever keep up with the Internet?
I love Google, but it's not always the most trustworthy. It's nice to have a port in the information storm, and the Britannica is something you can really trust. And they have a Web site, too.
How would you describe the writing style of the Encyclopedia Britannica?
In earlier editions, it was very literary and florid, and they had everyone from Einstein to Freud to Houdini writing for it. Now, it's a little less florid and a little more scientific.
But one thing I loved is that it's a fair and balanced piece of work. Take the entry on the Black Plague. They tell us the plague killed off a third of Europe, sure, but it also opened up labor markets and allowed capitalism to flourish.
You're a magazine editor. What do you suppose the most significant differences are be tween editing Esquire and editing the Encyclopedia Britannica?
Most of the material I edit is in the front section of Esquire. That's where the shorter pieces appear. Like Esquire, the Britannica has two parts. The "micropedia," which is similar to the magazine section I edit, consists of short squibs. That's the part I like the best.
Then there's the part of the encyclopedia that's like the feature well of the magazine, where articles can be 50 or 60 pages long. Those are the heavy-lifting pieces you have to read in the morning because your brain melts.
What was, for you, the single most disappointing omission in the encyclopedia?
My wife complained about the lack of Tom Cruise. I was lucky enough to make a trip to the Britannica's headquarters, and I told the editors about my wife's disappointment. They took notes. I'm hoping they'll include him in the next edition, he'll call me to say thanks, and we'll all go out to dinner.
Do you have a favorite fact?
That's hard. I've got about 50.
Did you know, for example, that the philosopher Rene Descartes had a fetish for women with crossed eyes? I like that one.
I also like the fact that the history of canned laughter dates back to the 1800s, when French theater owners hired people to sit in the audience and laugh at comedies. They also hired people to cry during dramas.
One of my least favorite facts: After age 20, humans lose 50,000 brain cells a day.
As you crammed all of this information into your head, did you feel like you were pushing out other things?
By the end, I had trouble. I felt it pushed out a good amount of my pop-culture knowledge, in particular. When I finished, I had forgotten which Baldwin brother was which. But maybe that was a good thing.
Beyond trivia, what did you learn from this masochistic feat?
One of the best lessons was that, for all its horribleness and all its problems, today is probably the best time in history to be alive. You read about life in previous centuries, and they had it much worse than we do. In France during the 18th century, life expectancy was 30 years. I'd be dead five or six years already.
I also learned a very practical lesson: When your wife has a rash, it's best not to compare it to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Three Stooges described
Here's one person's description of every single Three Stooges featurette. Quite insightful.
Benjamin Wilkerson of Arizona adds this comment
in these featurettes the three fellows move about from job to job. At some point Curly will accidentally injure Moe, then Larry will, then Moe starts hurting the two of them on purpose. When one of them is hit, a funny sound usually ensues to add to the jocularity.
Benjamin Wilkerson of Arizona adds this comment
I love the stooges! I never get tired of watching moe pry curly`s nose with a crowbar,or put larry`s head in a steam press,or pull curly across the room by the ear with a pair of scissors! I love these guys! brilliant!now in color >:|
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
My first entry
Hey, this is what I wanted that Xanga doesn't have. A title.
Now we'll see if it can change dates and/or search old entries.
Yeah, it looks like you can edit. Don't know if you can backdate dates though.
Hey, actually you can. See the bottom while editing. Looks like PST though. Can I change that?
Yeah you can do that too. OK. For my purposes this is better than Xanga.
Now we'll see if it can change dates and/or search old entries.
Yeah, it looks like you can edit. Don't know if you can backdate dates though.
Hey, actually you can. See the bottom while editing. Looks like PST though. Can I change that?
Yeah you can do that too. OK. For my purposes this is better than Xanga.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
American Idol breaks viewership records
"American Idol" broke Hawaii viewership records in May, according to the just-released Nielsen ratings. Of local households with televisions, 50 percent were tuned to "American Idol." Of those with TVs actually turned on, 73 percent were tuned to the show on KHON-TV.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)