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Showing posts with label hobby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hobby. Show all posts

27 January 2008

7 Tips on How To Increase Your Life-span

Let's say you are married and you regularly argue with your wife or husband. In actual fact, this event increases your life-span! Research conducted in the University of Michigan on 192 individuals, it was discovered that 26% of all couples who consistently argue, add years to their life-span. The Turkish Sabah Newspaper lists the most interesting health reports as the following:

While watching a Football match the likelihood of suffering a heart attack increases by 25%. The reason for this is because football enthusiasts concentrate as hard as those players who are playing on the field.


Research from the German Female Doctors Union has pinpointed that conducting half an hour of physical activity every day, is beneficial for conditions of Osteoporosis.


According to studies conducted on 9 thousand and 514 people in the U.S it was discovered that the consumption of red meat and acidic beverages together can increase the incidence of heart and diabetic diseases.


Leave your child to be dirty. Scientists have noted that babies who are always situated in a hygenic environment are more likely to develop cyclical cancer.


According to the Japanese Heath Institute, women who intake vitamin supplements during pregnancy can further reduce depression by 50%.


Studies conclude that egg and rice can improve the ability to learn faster. Fish, chicken, bananas and grain products can calm anxiety in people. Whereas red meat, beans and milk maintain the functioning of the brain.

By Extrememo from Through the Eyes of Bipolarity. Speak out your thoughts too, click here!

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22 January 2008

Foodscape Food Art Feast Frenzy

Photographer Carl Warner painstakingly captures all forms of food in a series of still life's with edible ingredients he raided from his kitchen cupboards to design a series of dreamy landscapes and homey domestic scenes that appear scrumptiously good enough to eat.



The resourceful and ingenious series requires numerous shots -- Carl first sketches out a traditional landscape scene before introducing the food. Each scene is then captured in separate layers to prevent the food from wilting. He then uses computer technology to combine them into a single final print.

To give a realistic 3-D feel to the photos, each still life is composed on an 8 foot by 4 foot table. The foreground is only about 2 feet across.



The artist from Tonbridge, Kent creates amazing panoramas, including a broccoli forest, bread mountains, a cheese village, and smoked salmon seas. "I like the way smaller aspects of nature resembled larger ones." says Warner.

The success of the project has motivated Warner to plan for the images to be released in an educational book to encourage kids to eat healthier. He says his 'Foodscapes' were partly inspired by healthy eating campaigns, but they haven't persuaded his own children to take up the 5-a-day pledge. "But at least they don't play with their food as much as I do." said Carl.

Take a close look at this dusk scene and you'll discover it's good enough to eat -- the pebbles and rocks are potatoes and soda bread, while the red sky at night and sea are entirely formed of strips of salmon.



A forest of greens -- the road is paved with cumin, peas hang from broccoli trees and cauliflower clouds adorn the sky with bread for mountains. Broccoli Forest was one Warner's first creations while experimenting with still life shots.



More Mozzarangelo than Michelangelo -- it's amazing to think that this scene first began on a bread and cheese board.



This Italian inspired rural scene includes a lasagna cart, fields of pasta, a pine nut wall, mozzarella clouds, trees of peppers and chilies and a parmesan village.



A winter landscape for carnivores - Parma ham and breadsticks are fashioned into a sled which is pulled across a snow-covered road made from a selection of cold meats.



"We are stepping back, not to see the big picture, but the detail." Warner says of his works.

"It's not just a case of change of context, but a refinement brought on by the loss of a dimension -- compression, distillation, that defines lens-based imagery."

Born in 1965, the distinctive photographer's artwork also includes urban landscapes of industrial decay, dormant gas tankers, and an earlier series of photographs "over what we create we have no control," exploring rail yards.

Carl Warner's solo exhibitions include 'Sense' at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne in 1995 and 'A Concrete Pasture' at the University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane in 1998 and Cairns Regional Gallery in 1999.

Warner's work has been included in 'Retro Version' at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space in 1999, the Queensland Art Gallery touring exhibition, 'The Art of Inclusion' in 1999-2000, and 'Minimal' at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney in 2000.

Visit Carl Warner at his website to view more of his unusual and remarkable works, or shoot him an email with your inquiries.











Article by Deborah Petersen from Life in the Fast Lane. Submit your thoughts - click here!

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08 January 2008

The Thinking Blog Goes Multi-Author!

We've had some incredible thinkers over the past year who contributed to our thinking process. Going back through the archives and finding those articles show how some of the best are written by you. We've been looking for regular thinkers for some time now and it's time to make it official. Take a look at the new "Thinking Team" section on the left sidebar and you'll know what we mean.

The New Thinking Associate Editor

We are pleased to announce Jon Percepto as the new Associate Editor in our team, a thinker who has already made five contributions to our blog. He will be posting regularly (currently one article per month) and keep us thinking. It was an easy choice for us because if you read his blog, his aim is quite similar with ours. From Eclectic Commons about page:

"This Blog provides a starting point to bring to light and discuss relevant issues from eclectic subjects that we encounter in the course of our lives. To raise questions we ask internally, but may be too distracted to give serious attention to. To provoke thoughts and hopefully to help us discover who we are individually and collectively, what our reality is, and how we can effect and perhaps change the course of our lives. My intention was not to provide answers. It is each persons’ responsibility to resolve their own issues, find their own solutions, and formulate their own views on life."

Let's all welcome Jon to his new 'second' home at TTB!

More Thinking Editor Positions Available

This means we are still looking for more writers who are willing to regularly contribute articles and enjoy the fruits of being a TTB editor. Let's look at what these positions are and what benefits they will bring you:

Associate Editors
Writes, edits, proofreads, and copyedits articles. Plans and prepares stories for online dissemination. Prepares page layouts to position and space images, photos, illustrations and videos in the story. Has knowledge of commonly-used concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field and apply it to the interests of The Thinking Blog readers. Supports the selection process of upcoming articles; potentially suggesting new topics; investigating authoritative source documents etc. Assures that all copies meet the requirements for publishing and adheres to editorial standards of quality. Must have a demonstrated aptitude for and interest in writing.
Contributing Editors
Writes, edits, and proofreads articles. Maintains a publishing programme and contributes to marketing activities. Has knowledge of commonly-used concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field and apply it to the interests of The Thinking Blog readers. Assures that all copies meet the requirements for publishing and adheres to editorial standards of quality. Primary job functions do not typically require exercising independent judgment. Must have a demonstrated aptitude for and interest in writing.
Benefits:

This is a great opportunity to expose yourself to a whole new audience and also get some link love at the same time. Readers who enjoy your style will definitely click through and even subscribe to your RSS feed. Since you can link to anywhere relevant in the post, including your own blog, it means more traffic for you. Apart from these benefits, you will also get a link on the sidebar worth $30 per month. The link which is displayed site wide is visible to readers of all pages (remember we have 10k visitors on average per day). There will be bonuses (read $$$) if your article somehow becomes popular on the Internet. You will also have access to make use of our services (graphic design, marketing, ad network and others) at lower rates and sometimes even free if you are an active Associate editor. After submitting in several posts, based on the response from regular readers, we will offer you something you can't refuse (hint hint) and hope to see you in the "Thinking" family. Perhaps this might bring more credibility to your name as a writer but, above all, working together will be more fun than you might imagine!

Application:

There are no application deadlines and the process is on-going until further update on this post. All you need to do is email your entry with the subject "TTB - [insert appropriate catchy HEADLINE here]", our Chief Editor will edit and publish it when it's ready. We will be working on drafts together via email. If you don't have a topic to write about, our editors will help you out on that too. Also don't forget to include your name and blog URL with your entry so we can give the appropriate credit with the post. If you wish to introduce what you write about on your blog, feel free to include a short descriptive sentence like "[NAME] writes many times a week about [TOPIC]." Important: We will not publish duplicate content. Please submit original articles exclusively for The Thinking Blog and don't post it elsewhere on the net.


Articles of Previous Thinking Writers and Guests

Starting with those who contributed the most, here is the list of people who submitted articles in the past. As you can see Jon has had five posts prior to us contacting him for the position. We would like to thank each and every one of the following for their most excellent entries - and hope to see more in the future:

Jon Percepto thought:

- How To Help Someone Who Is Choking
- Removing the Veil
- The Good, The Bad, The Cause: Understanding Karma
- Being a Good Parent
- Living Up To Your Full Potential


Alvaro Fernandez thought:

- Being a Pavlov Dog in Holiday Season Shopping Spree
- 7 Tips to Deal with TMI (Too Much Information)
- Shrink Your Brain in 8 Easy Steps


Steve Levenstein thought:

- Latest Japanese Trend: Weird Themed Cafes
- Top 5 Most Outrageous Japanese Female Celebrity Nicknames
- Latest Japanese Craze: Bandage Fetish


Mark Dykeman thought:

- Does Your Brain Play Tricks On You?
- Jamais Vu - The Reality You Have Never Seen Before


Justin Swatsenbarg thought:

- Woman Sues Doctors After Failed Abortion
- Microsoft is Not Making a Difference?


Mert Erkal thought New Era in Social Networking

Michael Beck thought Free Internet Is Under Threat

Jeremy Miller thought The Future: Ubiquitous Computing

Jennifer Hitchcock thought Aurora Borealis: Nature Lights Up the Skies

Shankar Ganesh thought Minority Report PC Becomes Reality

Jake Olson thought To Bargain or Not To Bargain

Mark Harris thought Green Burial: When Dust Really Returns to Dust

Asgeir Hoem thought STUDY: How To Be More Creative

Andy Tilley thought Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Rehuel Lobato de Mesquita thought Reclaim Your Brain Before It's Too Late

Michelle Dyer thought Blind People Can Drive Cars Too

Oswald-Ong Thomas thought Top 3 Female Star Convicts

Elmer Aquino thought Weirdest Named Places on Earth

Rob Neville thought Define: Critical Thinking Skills

Saboma thought Please Do Not Feed Internet Trolls

Kanute thought Gmail Hack: Use Your Account Space Like Extended Drive

Srikanth thought How Supermassive Black Holes Merge

Pearl thought Meeting Your Virtual Friends

Speeding Computer thought 10 Crazy Ways To Cool Your Computer

Blue Dreamer thought 2000 Year Old Terraces Carved By Hand

You can bookmark this post to come back and read the rest when you have more time. It is definitely worth it. If you enjoyed these subscribe to the RSS feed and don't miss a single article!

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24 December 2007

POLL: Vote For the Best Ruff PC Review (and Video) - Round 2

Upon much discussion on the previous poll, we decided to break this giveaway down to 3 rounds. We received quite a few comments and emails like how people are supposed to read all the 80 reviews, and concerns about "bribing" for votes among other things led us to take this measure to allow the best reviewer win - not the one with most loyal friends. This is not a popularity contest and we hope the giveaway goes for the one who deserve it most. For a prize of this size, it is much more logical to have a few rounds rather than voting it off in a single poll. So, this is how it will be.

From the total 80 reviews, Top 20 made it to the second round and you have 5 days to vote for the best. On December 30th, Top 5 of round 2 poll will make it to the final round and those finalists will be voted down to one winner in another 5 days. The winner will be announced on Friday, January 4th 2008 on a separate post, and Ruff PC will get in touch with you to send out your Christmas New Year's gift.

There are a few rules as to how you can collect your votes this round. You can't spam people or bribe them with money. Use of any other non-monetary incentives like giving out links, kisses or candy is fine. However, you can vote only once and any violation of these rules or gaming the system will leave the participant out of the giveaway. So, no cheating. It's holiday season people - let's keep the spirit up.

Following is the Top 20 reviews from the first round in reverse order. If you don't have time to read them all, just read a few random ones until you find a review that you think is worthy of your vote. Merry Christmas and good luck!


LIST OF SEMI-FINALISTS (Votes from Previous Round)

01. John Chow Dot Com (5)

02. Homespun Honolulu (5)

03. Zero Hour Sleep (5)

04. Everything and Anything (5)

05. Jim's Rants (6)

06. Great Giveaways (6)

07. Samuel Nova (6)

08. Nakichiam (8)

09. Tim Christie (8)

10. Evangelical's Anonymous (10)

11. In The Brink of the Mental Warzone (10)

12. Kissowa Insider (14)

13. Drops of Blood (15)

14. Bloggrrl (17)

15. Must Read Files (21)

16. Love and Horny (23)

17. Widget's Lab (55)

18. Search for Blogging (73)

19. TechTreak - Review 1 and Review 2 (85)

VOTE FOR THE BEST:



UPDATE 1: Forgot to mention that votes from previous round will be added to the poll to choose the finalists. So, your efforts to gather votes are not wasted. Here are the results from the first round (click on it to see the PollDaddy report):



UPDATE 2: We also started a little side-contest, if you will, for the videos that were created by the reviewers. The rights of the best video will be bought by Ruff PC and used on the website, commercials..etc like Apple did. If you haven't already created a video, you can join now by mashing up something in less than 10 minutes using Animoto, send us your URL via email, and we will add it here. The following are the videos created so far and they are up for votes as well. The same route applies: Top 5 videos that make it to the final round will be voted again, counting the votes from this round as well, to choose the winner.

LIST OF VIDEO ENTRIES

01. TechTreak - Demo 1




02. TechTreak - Demo 2









VOTE FOR THE BEST VIDEO:


UPDATE 3: Wordout emailed me and opted out of the giveaway. Good luck to the rest of you!

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16 December 2007

10 Steps To Play Rock Paper Scissors Like a Pro

While most of you probably already know how to play Rock Paper Scissors, there is more to this game than simple chance. It"s actually a perfectly balanced game that incorporates systems from mathematics to psychology, and it's often used as a method for creating appropriately non-biased random results in strategy games. However, unlike truly random selections, such as coin flipping or drawing straws, it can be played with skill if the game extends over many sessions, as a player can often recognize and exploit the non-random behavior of an opponent. Here are some of the techniques used in competitions such as the annual RPS World Championship.

Long story short; By being both observant and unpredictable, you can play like an RPS pro.

1. Watch your opponent play others. Often, they will lean towards one of the choices (for example, rock). If you have a chance to watch them play before they play you, look for an overall pattern.

2. Know rookie tendencies. The World RPS Society claims rookie men tend to lead with rock. If you're playing a spontaneous game against a male rookie, there's an increased chance that his opening throw will be rock, so you'll want to go with paper. Why do men start with rock? Perhaps the clenched fist evokes power and makes guys feel tough. If you're playing a female rookie, however, keep in mind that competitive player Jason Simmons claims that women tend to start with scissors, so go with rock.

3. "Train" the rookie. If an inexperienced player asks you to repeat the rules, you can subconsciously influence them to pick a certain gesture by dropping subtle hints. Physically demonstrate the gesture you want them to play more than any other gesture, and make sure it's the last gesture they see as you explain how the game works.

4. Play paper against an experienced player. A non-rookie may know that throwing an initial rock is too predictable, because of the tendency for male rookies to do this. They'll probably use scissors or paper. Therefore, you should start off with scissors, as it'll beat their paper or at least tie with their scissors. If your opponent is an experienced woman, she may be familiar with the "scissors" stereotype and will likely throw either rock or paper - thus, your best bet is paper.

5. Look for a double run. If someone makes the same throw twice, they will not want to make that same throw the third time, because they don't want to seem predictable. You can use this information to your advantage. For instance, if someone throws paper twice, they'll probably throw either rock or scissors on their third gesture; use rock so that you can either win or draw.

6. Beat your last move. This only works if you have just won; inexperienced or frustrated players tend to subconsciously throw the move that just beat them, so you should throw a gesture that will beat your own last move. For example, if you just won with rock against their scissors, they might throw rock next, so you should be prepared with paper.

7. Use probability to your advantage. In competition play, it's been statistically observed that scissors is the least common gesture. If you're at a loss for what to throw, using paper will give you a slight advantage, as it's slightly less probable that your opponent will use scissors.

8. Watch and react. Keep your eyes on your opponent's hand just as the gesture is being thrown. Watch what shape they are forming their hand into. If you see them extending into the paper gesture, for instance, you may have a split second within the count to react accordingly with scissors. But, be careful when trying to see what your opponent is doing because it could lead to slow throwing, which is illegal in competitive play.

9. There is no substitute for practice. Roshambo "RPS" can be played online in either a tournament or heads-up match setting at various websites. Although you won't be able to study the physical gestures of your opponent, you will be able to observe game play patterns and habits faster online. You can even earn money while playing RPS online with Moola.

10. Beware of non-rookies. An experienced pro may use all of these strategies against you. They might fake you out by, say, using scissors predominantly as their first gesture and then all of a sudden using paper when you least expect it.

For more advance RPS stategies, this article would be a good start. Oh and by the way; The 2007 championship was won by Andrea Farina - the first woman World RPS champion. Congratulations to Andrea!


Sources 1, 2.

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11 December 2007

Ruff PC Giveaway: Competition Heating Up!

It's only been three and half weeks since we announced the Ruff PC laptop giveaway and the competition to write the best review keeps on heating up as the 20th December deadline approaches. As you might already know, the final list of reviews will be linked here, then readers get 5 days to check them out and vote on the best. So much so, the review battle is turning into a video mashup battle! See TechTreak's and WordOut's videos after the break and good luck in the competition. The winner will be announced on 25th December here, and Ruff PC will get in touch with you to send out your Christmas gift!

Actually, I think the best video could even be used by Ruff PC, like Apple did with the fan-made iPod Touch video!











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09 December 2007

How To Protect Yourself From Evil Eyes

The evil eye is a folk belief that the envy elicited by the good luck of fortunate people may result in their misfortune, whether it is envy of material possessions, or of beauty, health, or offspring. The perception of the nature of the phenomenon, its causes, and possible protective measures, varies between different cultures. Belief in the evil eye is strongest in the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia and Europe, especially the Mediterranean region.

Nazar BoncuguThe amount of literary and archaeological evidence attests to the belief in the evil eye in the eastern Mediterranean for more than a millennium starting with Hesiod, Callimachus, Plato, Diodorus Siculus, Theocritus, Plutarch, Heliodorus, Pliny the Elder, and Aulus Gellius. Studying these written sources in order to write on the evil eye only gives a fragmented view of the subject whether it presents a folkloric, theological, classical or anthropological approach to the evil eye. While these different approaches tend to reference similar sources each presents a different yet similar usage of the evil eye, that the fear of the evil eye is based on the belief that certain people posses eyes whose glance has the power to injure or even kill and that it can be intentional or unintentional.

Evil Eye AmuletIn some forms, it is the belief that some people can bestow a curse on victims by the malevolent gaze of their magical eye. The most common form, however, attributes the cause to envy, with the envious person casting the evil eye doing so unintentionally. Also the effects on victims vary. Some cultures report afflictions with bad luck; others believe the evil eye can cause disease, wasting away, and even death. In most cultures, the primary victims are thought to be babies and young children, because they are so often praised and commented upon by strangers or by childless women. The late UC Berkeley professor of folklore Alan Dundes has explored the beliefs of many cultures and found a commonality — that the evil caused by the gaze is specifically connected to symptoms of drying, desiccation, withering, and dehydration, that its cure is related to moistness, and that the immunity from the evil eye that fish have in some cultures is related to the fact that they are always wet. His essay "Wet and Dry: The Evil Eye" is a standard text on the subject.

Nazirlikli Ucak KuyruguKnown as nazar, the evil eye talisman is particularly common in Turkey. Colourful beads, bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and all manner of decoration may be adorned by this particularly popular symbol, and it is possible to see it on almost anything, from babies, horses, doors to cars, cell phones and even airplanes. Disks or balls consisting of concentric blue and white circles (usually, from outside to inside, dark blue, white, light blue, black) representing evil eyes, the "nazar" is supposed to bend the malicious gaze back to the sorcerer.

So, next time you visit Turkey, make sure you pick up some of these for yourself, family, friends and loved ones - and protect them from those evil eyes!



UPDATE: Thanks for stumbling by! Please leave a comment and let us know what you think about this phenomenon.
Nazar Boncuklari

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05 December 2007

How To Make Your Own BioDiesel Fuel At Home

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03 December 2007

The Turkish Legend of Derivation

This is the first major legend and one of the traditionally most famous among Turks. While the legend describes how the Great Turkish Empire succeeded to the highest position in the World, it also explains how the creation of their descendance came about. It had reinforced the belief among all Turkish clans that their descent arose from a divine source. The epic story is believed to have originated from the eight century, perpetuated by oral tradition up to the fifteenth century before being written down.

The Legend:

One of the biggest Turkish emperors had two daughters and they were both extremely beautiful. They were so beautiful that people believed these two daughters could only marry beings with supernatural powers and that these women were not created for humans.

As the emperor believed this same idea, he searched for ways of keeping his daughters away from people. In the farthest point of his land, a place where no man had neither walked nor seen before, he built a tall tower and locked his two daughters into this tower. He then prayed and begged so adamantly that the god who he believed in could not resist. The god came down to earth, took the form of a greywolf, and married the daughters of the emperor. Nine children were born after this marriage; They were named the Nine "Oguz" (meaning a good-hearted decent) and their voices resembled that of a greywolf.

In the end, these children all carried the spirit of the Greywolf, their population grew and thus the Turks embody characteristics such as great strength, great courage, and great agility.

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Removing The Veil

The veil has often been used to describe, at its most fundamental level, what we don't know or comprehend. Some perceive it as a deliberate attempt by an unforeseen force that keeps us from "the knowledge". In either case, understanding won't be perceived until the inner life becomes observant to what surrounds us based on confidence and courage dealing with uncertainty, with trial and error implicit.

Most insights with lasting impact are not the ones we were told, but those that are reached within our own thoughts, precipitating a recognized change in thinking. Persuasion from parents, teachers or friends who claimed to have the knowledge needed to overcome an obstacle are not insights. They are advice, often with varying impact on our judgement, depending on how we ascribe importance to their opinion.

Acting while influenced by someone else's "insight" is moving more with external experience by having too much faith in what was told by others, often at the expense of listening to what was internally felt. Results come perhaps without testing innate instincts rather than in conjunction with them. This can make accepting unpleasant consequences more difficult.

Eastern philosophies often refer to "removing the veil" as an allegory, understanding that knowledge is all around, but it takes a discerning eye to see the dots that are obscured by daily distractions, and wisdom to connect them. The veil is removed when it's ready to come off. Only the individual can resonate when that time has come.


This article was written by Jon Percepto from Eclectic Commons. If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and become a guest writer on The Thinking Blog, find out more information here and be my guest!

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04 November 2007

When Peer Pressure Turns Into Facebook Pressure

poke facebookNo matter how long you resist the pressure exerted by a peer group in encouraging you to change your attitude, behavior and use of social networks, you eventually give up and conform to the group's actions, habits, or way of life. The person affected by peer pressure may not want to belong to these groups for a reason and my reason was that I didn't need another avocation online - but it seems like it's too late. Thanks guys. Now I'm a Facebook addict as well.

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09 October 2007

7 Tips to Deal with TMI (Too Much Information)

Over 1,000,000 new books published every year. More than 100,000,000 scientific papers released. Billions of websites at your googletips. It is often said that Leonardo da Vinci was one of the last persons who was aware of all the main knowledge available in his time. Since then, the amount of data, information and knowledge has exploded exponentially, stretching the capacity of our brains. Which, remember, given the slow speed at which evolution happens, may be optimized for the time when we were still hunters-gatherers.

We sometimes complain we cannot process all this information. Now, let me ask, should we even try?

Quick answer: No. Don't engage in a losing proposition. Instead, follow these simple tips that will help you manage the flow of information better.

1. Set very Clear Goals you want to achieve this week. Maybe 3 -5. Write them down, and review every day. Why is this important? Because by writing those clear goals you are developing you own lens through which to filter information, and prioritize the information you really care about. You can set up your own agenda, and not be at the mercy of the TV anchor who decides, on your behalf, what information you need. You don't need to know, you really don't need to know (unless you work in People), what is going on with Paris Hilton this week.

2. Review those goals at the end of the week. Did you achieve them? Think what you could have done differently, better. The goal here is to increase your motivation and ability to avoid distractions, and to ensure a learning loop. You can "evolve your brain" in your lifetime by making sure you learn a bit every day, every week, and accumulate abilities over time.

3. Prioritize: management consulting firms such as McKinsey train their staff in the so-called 80/20 rule: 80% of effects are caused by 20% of causes-so focus on the 20%. In a company, 80% revenues may come from 20% of the clients. Get the best information on those; don't spend so much on the 80% who only account for 20%. 80% of people will vote for you if you focus on the right 20% of the causes.

4. Use a scientific mindset. Scientists must shift through tons of data in very efficient ways. How do they do it? By first defining a hypothesis and then looking for information that either corroborates or refutes that hypothesis. For example, an untrained person could spend months in "boiling the ocean" and trying to read as much as possible, in a very unstructured way, about how stress affects our brain. A trained scientist would first define specific hypotheses or preliminary assumptions, such as "Stress reduces the brain's ability to generate new neurons" or "We can learn how to manage stress", and look specifically for data that corroborates or refutes those sentences. Which will probably happen faster, and enable him or her to refine the hypotheses further, based on accumulated knowledge, in a virtuous learning cycle.

5. Link the new information to what you already know. You cannot process, or remember, millions of fragmented, random facts. Try to relate the new information to previous one. Drawing concept maps can be extremely powerful ways to build knowledge over time-the opposite of being lost in a sea of random tidbits. Here is an example and a guide on how to create a concept map:


6. Make sure to keep stress and anxiety under control. Why is this important? Because stress can narrow your focus of attention too much and make you miss the big picture. Why is this so? Well, imagine you are a zebra about to be attacked by a lion. Your only priority now is to run as fast as possible and try to survive. It is not the time for complex thinking, for learning new skills. In fact, most of the blood flow that usualy goes to the brain gets diverted and gets sent to the zebra's main muscles, to run faster. And the same happens with humans, when we see a real or imaginary "lion": we can not think clearly. For example, try this experiment: Attention and working memory.

7. Don't train your brain to become a visual, unreflective, passive recipient of information. If you are the average American, stop watching TV 5 hours a day. You may have heard the expression "Cells that fire together wire together." Our brains are composed of billions of neurons, each of which can have thousand of connections to other neurons. Any thing you do in life is going to activate a specific constellation of neurons. Visualize one million neurons firing at the same time when you watch a TV program. Now, the more TV you watch, the more those neurons will fire together, and therefore the more they will wire together (meaning that the connections between them become, literally, stronger), which then creates automatic-like behaviors. You are making yourself more passive, unreflective, person, the more TV you watch. Exactly the opposite of what you need to prioritize and process the growing amount of information we have available these days.

This article was written by Alvaro Fernandez from SharpBrains. Alvaro is the main writer at SharpBrains brain fitness and exercise website. If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and become a guest writer on The Thinking Blog, find out more information here and be my guest!

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02 October 2007

Wanted: Thinking Writers

think different

People sometimes leave a comment like "What kind of thinking blog is this?" or like "I thought this was a thinking blog." Well, it is about the stuff that makes me think and topics that I hope you find are worth pondering on too. However, I do it so that there is still something left to discuss. Hence, it would be no surprise that most posts here will not tell you what to think (or what I think, for that matter). If it still doesn't feel right, here is a chance to show how a thinking blog really SHOULD be!

Last time I published a post like this one, I was looking for guest writers who were interested in writing a "thinking" article. This time, however, I'm also looking for permanent writers who would be interested in writing "thinking" articles on a regular basis - and if you need some incentives, I'm willing to give them!

This is a great opportunity to expose yourself to a whole new audience and also get some link love at the same time. Your article will include a sentence like "This is a guest post by [insert name and link to your blog here]." Readers who enjoy your style will definitely click through and even subscribe to your RSS feed. You can link to anywhere relevant in the post, including your own blog, and include as many images or videos as you like (the more the better).

Couple of ground rules:

1. No Religion
2. No Politics
You can write about anything else. If you need some inspiration, browse some of the categories, have a look at the all-time most popular posts, go for a random post if you are feeling lucky, or check out the "thinking" posts of the past on one page by clicking these: 2006, 2007, 2008.

How to contribute: All you need to do is email me your entry with the subject "TTB - [insert appropriate catchy HEADLINE here]", I will edit and publish it. Don't forget to include your name and blog URL so I can give the appropriate credit with the post. If you wish to introduce what you write about on your blog, feel free to include a short descriptive sentence like "[NAME] writes many times a week about [TOPIC]." Important: I will not publish duplicate content. Please submit original articles exclusively for The Thinking Blog and don't post it elsewhere on the net.

Meanwhile, make sure you have the RSS feed or have the posts delivered to your email so you don't miss out on your daily dose of fuel to keep thinking!

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30 August 2007

How To Eat Vegetables We Don't Like

In March of 1990, then President Bush said:
"I do not like broccoli and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it and I'm the President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."
Well, Mr. President, perhaps your mom didn't know how to cook it right - that's why!

Don't forget that broccoli is one of the healthiest veggies out there.

"Broccoli is packed with anti-cancer antioxidants: vitamin C, beta carotene, lutein, glutathione and quercetin. It also tops all other foods for chromium content. Almost nobody gets enough chromium, a trace mineral that regulates insulin and helps to normalize blood sugar."

What can we do to give it a good taste? Hack it with a flavor enhancer: Garlic!

I learned the following recipe from a Chinese friend of mine and its easily done in less than 15 minutes.

INGREDIENTS: Bunch of broccoli, 1/3 cup butter (or olive oil), 3 cloves of garlic, water and salt.

1. Wash broccoli, cut into small florets and place them in a large pot.
2. Cover with boiling water until barely tender and still bright green for 5 to 7 minutes.
3. While broccoli is steaming, finely chop garlic and melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.
4. Drain broccoli and toss it in the pan along with garlic. Add salt according to taste.
5. Simmer over low heat until garlic is fragrant (about couple of minutes). Serve immediately.


So, what is your formula to deal with those dreaded veggies?

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15 August 2007

Shrink Your Brain in 8 Easy Steps

Are you tired of all the advice on "How You Can Be Smarter than Your Neighbor?" Do you regard Homer Simpson as your role model - or soul mate? Do you want to prove that evolution can be reversed? If you answered yes to any of these questions, let us help you minimize the number of neurons and synapses in your brain, probably even shrink your brain in a physical, literal, way. Here are 8 proven tips on How to "shrink" your brain:

1. Invest in your couch and your TV set. The more expensive the better, so that you feel compelled to use them many hours a day. They will be your lifelong loyal companions, and enable you to practice many of these tips in world-class style, away from more mentally stimulating habits that may accidentally exercise your brain.

2. Avoid positive thoughts like the pest. Make sure your thoughts are all negative and stressful. If positive ones arise, use sarcasm to go back to a negative state. Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or our own thoughts, do wonders to kill neurons and prevent the creation of new ones. Practice.

3. Make a solemn commitment to never learn anything new. Declare a personal "War on Novelty" and mental challenge - they can both be hazardous for you. Repeating spiritual mantras like "I'm bad at math", "I will never be able to do Sudoku", "I hate change" will serve you well as preemptive attacks on any attempt to improve. Everyone knows the brain goes downhill from then on - so just enjoy the ride!

4. Don't ever travel. Especially to places full of snakes and strange diseases (i.e, all countries outside the US, except Canada). Traveling to new locations forces you to pay more attention to your environment, make new decisions, and use your brain to make decisions. Resist the temptation. (For the only exception to this rule, see Tip 5).

5. Find someone to outsource your brain to. Ideally someone in a position of authority. It can be a media personality-the louder he or she shouts, the better- or a dictator. If needed, move to a country with the dictator of your choice.

6. Walking is for apes, driving is for humans. Drive everywhere, including to the fridge to get that beer: buy a Golf cart to use indoors. If you wonder why this is important, remember that the brain is part of the body and things that exercise your body can also help sharpen your brain. Beware.

7. Eat fatty food. Enjoy McDonald's for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Did you know that the brain only weights 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of oxygen and nutrients we intake? Make sure you stuff your brain with saturated fat. Once you can no longer follow the plot of a TV infomercial, shout, "Success!".

8. Make a point of having zero friends in all Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Good conversations are simply too stimulating. If someone wants to connect with you, ignore them.

Now, if for some reason you are interested in expanding your brain - click this link!

This article was written by Alvaro Fernandez from SharpBrains. Alvaro is the main writer at SharpBrains brain fitness and exercise website. If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and become a guest writer on The Thinking Blog, find out more information here and be my guest!

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12 July 2007

Supersaturated Solution Crystallizing

Prepare for magic science! Here is a really, really cool experiment you can do at home explained in "plain" English. If you take a cup of water and add salt to it you will notice it's "disappearing." What is going on is that the salt is dissolving into the water. The water molecules are breaking the salt molecule up. If you keep adding salt you will soon notice that it has stopped dissolving. The solution has become saturated, in laymen terms, there is no more room for the salt to dissolve. If you heated the water more salt can be dissolved.
Now, if you take that hot water with more salt in it and cool it, well you just made a super saturated mixture. There is more salt than the water can hold at that temp. in the water. Nothing will happen until you add a seed crystal. If you drop on some salt into the super saturated solution, it will cause the rest of the salt to come out to. Because the salt is evenly distributed it will appear to "freeze" but really it is salt coming out. So, replace the salt with Sodium acetate and BAM, you get HOT ICE!


However, the video failed to mention that he had some Sodium acetate on the tip of his finger. You need a seed crystal to start the reaction. Also it is not really solid ice but more of a mush like mud. A way easer way to get instant freezing water is to take an unopened non flavored water bottle and put it in the freezer for between 40-60 min. Then take it out and shake it, hit it or pour it out. The results are very similar.

Just dont eat it! It's concentrated sodium acetate. Acetate is what makes vinegar unique and gives it its smell and sour taste. Vinegar is 5% acetic acid and 95% water but concentrated acetic acid can drill a hole in your stomach and intestines. So yeah, you probably don't want to ingest something that causes pain, nausea, and vomiting.

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09 July 2007

Think Science, Cosmology and Philosophy

William James famously said that "a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." It seems that what makes a true thinker is not any one thing, but it certainly means keeping an open mind to new ideas and perspectives. With that in mind, here are some intriguing scientific thought experiments, perplexing cosmological questions and quintessential philosophical dilemmas. In short, here is 'fuel for thought,' if you'll excuse the play on words, from some of the classic thinking disciplines. Hopefully it will have something for each kind of thinker.
Scientific thought experiments are a great way to bring highly complex and specialized questions into the lives of everyday thinkers. By using straightforward analogies experts are able to make truly fascinating problems accessible to the general public. In turn, the visual images these conjure in the mind's eye are compelling on a fundamental level. WIRED has collected some of the most famous of these from history into a simple list, including classics such as Schroedinger's Quantum Cat and Einstein's Light Beam. Respectively, these represent simplified but still very powerful ways of understand scientific issues of significance that are available to all interested thinkers with an imagination.

Cosmological questions are similarly scientific, but deal with big-picture issues regarding the history of time and the nature of the universe. Now, it may not matter to us on a pragmatic level whether the universe is expanding or contracting or precisely how big it is. Still, our psychological understanding of such frequently asked cosmological questions strongly informs our comprehension of reality. Moreover, cosmology rests uniquely at the heart of the other core thinking disciplines, including science, religion and philosophy.

Of course no survey of important thinking issues could be complete without a consideration of philosophy. Many philosophical issues seem timeless, such as the debate over whether we have free will or if our actions are, instead, predetermined. Some even argue that this is a false dichotomy, yet the question is still asked by philosophers and scholars around the world. Likewise issues of truth versus relativism have remained persistent questions for millennia. Wikipedia provides an editable and ever-changing list of classic and contemporary philosophical questions that provides an excellent starting point for people who wish to keep thinking about these and other philosophical questions.

There are, of course, many kinds of thinking beyond those related to scientific, cosmological and philosophical issues. I believe our former president was paraphrasing William James, whether he knew it or not, when John F. Kennedy stated that we "too often enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

What about you? Dare to think about science, cosmology or philosophy?

This post was written by Craig Kohler from Web Urbanist. Craig has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and has just presented his master’s thesis on architecture and urban design. His site deals with cutting-edge issues and flashback then-and-now comparisons.

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04 July 2007

Getting Things Done with 5S Philosophy

Based on Japanese words that begin with ‘S’, the 5S Philosophy focuses on effective work place organization and standardized work procedures. 5S simplifies your work environment, reduces waste and non-value activity while improving quality efficiency and safety. In this type of thinking, the Japanese revert to the cultural heritage of a community approach. The team is key rather than the individual. This is a direct reversal of Western thinking where the individual must be recognized even in a team setting.

The key targets of 5S are workplace morale and efficiency. The assertion of 5S is that by assigning everything a location time is not wasted by looking for things. Additionally, it is quickly obvious when something is missing from its designated location. 5S advocates believe that the benefits of this methodology come from deciding what should be kept, where it should be kept, and how it should be stored. This decision making process should lead to a dialog which can build a clear understanding between employees of how work should be done. It also instills ownership of the process in each employee. As a result, it is often executed in tandem with standard work which standardizes the processes in which the items organized in 5S are used.

The 5S's are:

  • Seiri (Sort): tidiness, organization. Refers to the practice of sorting through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.
  • Seiton (Straighten): orderliness. Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. "Orderly" in this sense means arranging the tools and equipment in an order that promotes work flow. Tools and equipment should be kept where they will be used, and the process should be ordered in a manner that eliminates extra motion.
  • Seiso (Shine): systemized cleanliness. Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. Cleaning in Japanese companies is a daily activity. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place. The key point is that maintaining cleanliness should be part of the daily work - not on occasional activity initiated when things get too messy.
  • Seiketsu (Systemize): standards. This refers to standardized work practices. It refers to more than standardized cleanliness (otherwise this would mean essentially the same as "systemized cleanliness"). This means operating in a consistent and standardized fashion. Everyone knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are.
  • Shitsuke (Sustain): sustaining discipline. Refers to maintaining standards. Once the previous 4S's have been established they become the new way to operate. Maintain the focus on this new way of operating, and do not allow a gradual decline back to the old ways of operating.

5S Freebies: Posters/Wallpapers


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