15 styles of Distorted Thinking 15 styles of Distorted Thinking Filtering: You take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. Polarized Thinking: Things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you're a failure. Checklist for Hidden Anger Procrastination in the completion of imposed tasks. New XO Attempting To Stamp Out Misuse of Word ‘Literally’ FORT BLISS, TEXAS – Major Sean O’Sullivan, the new executive officer of 1-42 Air Defense Artillery Battalion, has made it his primary mission in life to stamp out the misuse of the word “literally” among his staff officers and subordinate leaders within the battalion. O’Sullivan’s first salvo in this campaign came last Tuesday in the form of a signed and scanned memorandum sent to all 1-42 ADA staff officers and company commanders, with both the battalion and brigade commanders carbon copied. The memorandum went into some detail on how the XO saw an increase in the misuse of the word “literally” throughout the formation and encouraged all battalion personnel to avoid using it “in e-mails, military memos, or even off-duty hours if [they] do not know how to use it properly.” In the memo’s next paragraph, O’Sullivan writes: “I recently heard a battery commander during a safety brief say, ‘You guys need to stay safe. Like, literally, this is very important to me and the first sergeant.’
Inspiring People: Random Interesting Facts French subway stations aren't usually used as parking places Coca Cola was invented by John Pemerton in 1886. It used to be made from coca leaves and could contain traces of cocaine (from 0.1% to 0.9% depending on where grown) Though it is no longer made with cocaine.The Guinness World Record for holding the most Guinness Records is set by Ashrita Furman. A random photo I took in Oxfordshire. More bizarre facts try: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (Bathroom Readers) The Usability of Passwords (by @baekdal) #tips Security companies and IT people constantly tells us that we should use complex and difficult passwords. This is bad advice, because you can actually make usable, easy to remember and highly secure passwords. In fact, usable passwords are often far better than complex ones. So let's dive into the world of passwords, and look at what makes a password secure in practical terms. Update: Read the FAQ (updated January 2011) Update - April 21, 2011: This article was "featured" on Security Now, here is my reply! How to hack a password The work involved in hacking passwords is very simple. Asking: Amazingly the most common way to gain access to someone's password is simply to ask for it (often in relation with something else). When is a password secure? You cannot protect against "asking" and "guessing", but you can protect yourself from the other forms of attacks. The measure of security must then be "how many password requests can the automated program make - e.g. per second". Like these: It takes:
How would you sound on Mars? NASA file Astronauts on Mars would probably speak with each other on the surface through radio links — but if they were to pick up voices or sounds transmitted through Martian air, would they sound different? Acoustics experts say they would. By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News If you could speak on Venus, you might sound like a deep-voiced Smurf — while on Mars, your voice could have the shallow ring of a higher-pitched Shrek. "This is the real deal," Tim Leighton, an acoustics professor at the British university, said in a news release. The sounds are being shown off over the next week at the Astrium Planetarium at INTECH, near Winchester, as part of a show titled "Flight Through the Universe." "Hearing the sounds communicates ideas about the different atmospheres and highlights the sheer alienness of the other worlds in our solar system," planetarium manager Jenny Shipway said. "On Venus, the pitch of your voice would become much deeper," Leighton said.
20+ Tools to Create Your Own Infographics A picture is worth a thousand words – based on this, infographics would carry hundreds of thousands of words, yet if you let a reader choose between a full-length 1000-word article and an infographic that needs a few scroll-downs, they’d probably prefer absorbing information straight from the infographic. What’s not to like? Colored charts and illustrations deliver connections better than tables and figures and as users spend time looking back and forth the full infographic, they stay on the site longer. Plus, readers who like what they see are more likely to share visual guides more than articles. While not everyone can make infographics from scratch, there are tools available on the Web that will help you create your very own infographics. Read Also: The Infographic Revolution: Where Do We Go From Here? What About Me? “What About Me?” Vizualize.me Vizualize.me allows you to create an online resume format that is beautiful, relevant and fun, all with just one click. Piktochart easel.ly
www.menshealth.com/mhlists/Most-Efficient-Workout/printer.php Muscles are funny things. They respond to just about any type of training, as long as it's hard and as long as it's not the same damn thing you've always done. That's the beauty of density training: It's a whole lot of stuff you haven't tried yet. And best of all, it'll hit your major muscles in a fraction of the time. Instead of counting reps and sets, you'll focus on the total amount of work you can accomplish in a fixed amount of time. Unsure what exercises you should focus on? THE PLAN: Do three density workouts a week, with at least 1 day off in between. Pushup Assume a pushup position, with your hands slightly beyond shoulder-width apart, feet together, and body in a straight line from head to ankles. Reverse Lunge and 1-Arm Press Stand holding a pair of dumbbells next to your shoulders. Inverted Row Lie underneath a secured bar. Prisoner Squat Place your fingers on the back of your head, pull your elbows and shoulders back, and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Goblet Squat
Animal Behaviorist: We'll Soon Have Devices That Let Us Talk With Our Pets - Megan Garber We're fast approaching the point, says Con Slobodchikoff, when computers will help to mediate our communications with animals. We all try to talk with animals, but very few of us do so professionally. And even fewer are trying to build devices that could allow us to communicate with our pets and farm animals. Meet one person who is trying to do just that: Con Slobodchikoff , a professor emeritus at Northern Arizona University, and a modern-day Dr. To arrive at those findings, Slobodchikoff relied on statistical analyses of the alarm calls produced by one particular species, the Gunnison's prairie dog . For a detailed (and totally delightful) guide to the prairie dogs' different alarm calls, see this Radiolab interactive . To learn more, I spoke with Slobodchikoff about his previous research, his upcoming investigations, and what he thinks the future will hold when it comes to animal-human communications. My conversation with him, lightly edited, is below. And the jump-yip !
14 Cool And Unusual Aquariums EmailEmail Do you live a stressful life, have high blood pressure and insomnia? Keeping an aquarium may be a good therapy for you! Studies going back as far as the late 80’s have shown that watching those beautiful fish going about their daily business can make you feel calm, reducing stress levels and your blood pressure. Although researchers have shown that the greater reduction in blood pressure occurred when there were fish in the tank, vs pleasingly decorated, but fishless, tanks – having a cool aquarium can at least make your friends jealous! [1 2 3] 1. Duplex is an acquarium/cage favouring an improbable encounter between a bird and a fish. 2. (Link) 3. (Link) 4. Ever wondered what to do with that ancient 26″ wooden TV set laying around in yours or your grandparent’s garage? 5. iPond The iPond is an iPod accessory the combines a speaker with a tiny aquarium. 6. If you do not have enough room in your new office to put an aquarium, just integrate an Aquarium in the table. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Theta Wave Brain Synchronization This is a replication of a Theta wave entrainment rhythm first created by scientists in the 1960s to lull patients into a deep, colorful, creative dream state. Listen to it for 10 minutes, longer if you can. The longer it plays, the deeper you’ll go. How It Works The human brain produces different levels of electrical activity depending on the amount of information it is processing. Throughout the day, the brain lingers between four different types of brainwave patterns: Beta (12 -30 Hz): the normal, awake consciousness associated with busy tasksAlpha (8 – 12 Hz): the relaxed and reflective state, like those induced by closing the eyes during waking hoursTheta (4 – 7 Hz): a very relaxed state associated with meditation and some sleep statesDelta (3 and under Hz): deep, dreamless sleep Theta waves (at around 4 to 7 Hz) are the sweet spot for many brain functions.
13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using Because sometimes periods, commas, colons, semi-colons, dashes, hyphens, apostrophes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, brackets, parentheses, braces, and ellipses won't do. 1. Interrobang You probably already know the interrobang, thanks to its excellent moniker and increasing popularity. Though the combination exclamation point and question mark can be replaced by using one of each (You did what!? or You don't read mental_floss?!) 2. The backward question mark was proposed by Henry Denham in 1580 as an end to a rhetorical question, and was used until the early 1600s. 3. It looks a lot like the percontation point, but the irony mark's location is a bit different, as it is smaller, elevated, and precedes a statement to indicate its intent before it is read. 4. Among Bazin's proposed new punctuation was the love point, made of two question marks, one mirrored, that share a point. 5. 6. Need to say something with unwavering conviction? 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12 & 13.
Insect wings shred bacteria to pieces The veined wing of the clanger cicada kills bacteria solely through its physical structure — one of the first natural surfaces found to do so. An international team of biophysicists has now come up with a detailed model of how this defence works on the nanoscale. The results are published in the latest issue of the Biophysical Journal1. The clanger cicada (Psaltoda claripennis) is a locust-like insect whose wings are covered by a vast hexagonal array of 'nanopillars' — blunted spikes on a similar size scale to bacteria (see video, bottom). When a bacterium settles on the wing surface, its cellular membrane sticks to the surface of the nanopillars and stretches into the crevices between them, where it experiences the most strain. Lead study author Elena Ivanova of Australia's Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorne, Victoria, says that she was surprised that the bacterial cells are not actually punctured by the nanopillars.