48195_700_v1.jpg (JPEG Image, 700x590 pixels)

7 steps to creativity - how to have ideas A guest post by Simon Townley of WriteMindset As a writer, having ideas is one of the most important parts of your craft. But often it seems like one of the most difficult and challenging parts of the whole process. How do you keep ideas flowing? Bert Kreischer and His Pranks on Hotel Maids Standup comedian Bert Kreischer is a frequent traveler. He often has to check into hotels during his travels. Being a comedian, Bert has a terrific sense of humor that makes him pull a prank on the hotel maids. Whenever Bert is checking out, he remembers to leave the hotel maid a present. Source: All of these images were tweeted by Bert Kreischer himself.

True Facts Facts - interesting, provocative, well-seasoned One out of ten children in Europe are conceived on an IKEA bed. Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes. An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it. The Egg Author's Note: The Egg is also available in the following languages: The Egg By: Andy Weir You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. What would happen if I drilled a tunnel through the center of th" Want to really get away from it all? The farthest you can travel from home (and still remain on Earth) is about 7,900 miles (12,700 kilometers) straight down, but you'll have to journey the long way round to get there: 12,450 miles (20,036 kilometers) over land and sea. Why not take a shortcut, straight down? You can get there in about 42 minutes -- that's short enough for a long lunch, assuming you can avoid Mole Men, prehistoric reptiles and underworld denizens en route. Granted, most Americans would end up in the Indian Ocean, but Chileans could dine out on authentic Chinese, and Kiwis could tuck into Spanish tapas for tea [sources: NOVA; Shegelski]. Of course, you'd be in for a rough ride.

Traveling Lightly Through Life ‘A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Lao Tzu Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Francine Jay of Miss Minimalist. I’m often asked what inspired me to become a minimalist. Ab Exercise STOP! Don’t do another crunch ab exercise. You have alternatives Abs are the most sought after body part. We want beautiful abs with no fat on top! 101 Beauty Tips Every Girl Should Know on Beauty High In the world of beauty, there are endless tips and rules to keep you looking fabulous. In the list below Beauty High breaks down all those tips to make the industry less scary for women from makeup artists, hairstylists, skincare gurus and of course, our beauty staff. Remember, beauty should always be fun! 101. “Always keep your summer makeup minimal. Minimal and sheer makeup is the way to go when it’s hot and muggy outside.” – Mary Greenwell, celebrity makeup artist

The Complexity of the Creative Personality Researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi includes in his books and other writings descriptions of the diversity and multiple characteristics of creative people. In a post of hers, Juliet Bruce, Ph.D. notes that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-high chick-sent-me-high-ee) wrote, “If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude.”

5 Freewriting Secrets for Being a "Genius" You've heard of freewriting, certainly. At its most basic, it's about forcing your internal editor to stay away while you splash your most raw and unusual thoughts onto the page. In Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insights, and Content (2nd edition, revised & updated), Mark Levy tells how he uses freewriting, not only to loosen up his writing muscles, but to solve business problems of all kinds. Levy, author, writing teacher, and marketing strategist, shares a few "secrets" for making freewriting an indispensible tool:

Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard - Research Guides Critical reading—active engagement and interaction with texts—is essential to your academic success at Harvard, and to your intellectual growth. Research has shown that students who read deliberately retain more information and retain it longer. Your college reading assignments will probably be more substantial and more sophisticated than those you are used to from high school. The amount of reading will almost certainly be greater. College students rarely have the luxury of successive re-readings of material, either, given the pace of life in and out of the classroom. While the strategies below are (for the sake of clarity) listed sequentially, you can probably do most of them simultaneously.

The Great Geek Manual » The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries I make no secret of the fact that I’m a hardcore bibliophile, but we’re a common enough lot these day. And the one sight that always makes me linger over a webpage is rows and rows of neatly organized books. So, in an effort to draw more like-minded read here to my little blog, I decided to round-up a gallery of photos of some of the most beautiful libraries I’ve ever seen photos of. Enjoy.

Couple Denied Adoption Because They're Vegetarian Original photo: estoril / CC Adopting a child that's in need of a home is one of the most selfless and loving decisions a person can make -- but in Greece, having a big heart means nothing if you don't eat meat. A vegetarian couple from the island of Crete recently had their adoption application rejected on the grounds that they might impose their diet on their adoptive child, because they say that a child's upbringing must include eating meat. There's just one problem though: that's not true at all.After filing paperwork towards adopting a child, the would-be parents got back a letter from social services informing them that their application had been rejected because of concerns that the child would be raised as a vegetarian, like them.