An Essay by Einstein -- The World As I See It "How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving... "I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. "My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities.
25 Psychological Life Hacks that Will Help You Gain the Advantage in Social Situations Social situations are among the most important in our lives. Yet, there is a huge chance that you are oblivious to the plethora of unwritten social rules that structure everybody’s behaviour. Failing to comply to these cultural imprints can cause irreversible damage. Just following them blindly will not get you ahead. Hacking them, however, will give you the best results possible. 1) Assume comfort in any interaction. Our brain is an incredibly complicated instrument. In most of our social interactions, we find it difficult to feel comfortable among strangers because our brain tries to protect us from exposure. This however isn’t helping us when trying to be social and meet new people, is it? This is why assuming comfort is so powerful. 2) Pay attention to people’s feet when you are approaching them. Interrupting people when they are in the middle of an important conversation is one of the most annoying things to do. If they turn both torso and feet, it means you are welcome. Admit it.
Top 10 Thinking Traps Exposed — How to Foolproof Your Mind, Part I Our minds set up many traps for us. Unless we’re aware of them, these traps can seriously hinder our ability to think rationally, leading us to bad reasoning and making stupid decisions. Features of our minds that are meant to help us may, eventually, get us into trouble. Here are the first 5 of the most harmful of these traps and how to avoid each one of them. 1. “Is the population of Turkey greater than 35 million? Lesson: Your starting point can heavily bias your thinking: initial impressions, ideas, estimates or data “anchor” subsequent thoughts. This trap is particularly dangerous as it’s deliberately used in many occasions, such as by experienced salesmen, who will show you a higher-priced item first, “anchoring” that price in your mind, for example. What can you do about it? Always view a problem from different perspectives. 2. In one experiment a group of people were randomly given one of two gifts — half received a decorated mug, the other half a large Swiss chocolate bar. 3. 4.
Taoism The word Tao means path or way, although the original meaning in Chinese philosophy and religion is more abstract. Behind all material things and all the change in the world lies one fundamental, universal principle which is the Way or Tao. This principle governs everything, all change and all life. Behind the multiplicity and contradictions of the world lies a unity: the Tao. "Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way, Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world." From the Tao Te Ching Major Taoist Scriptures The Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu. "The Way that can be experienced is not true; The world that can be constructed is not real." Zhuangzi, written by the same name sage is a book of prose, poetry, humor and disputation. The Daozang or Treasury of Tao is considered as the Taoist canon. Teachings & Beliefs Tao is the flow of the universe, the force behind the natural order that keeps the universe balanced and ordered. Taoist Practices Lao Tzu
PsychTronics The Shoestring Guide To Finding Cheap Tickets, Discount Airfare, Hotels & Accommodations Winter travel doesn’t have to be a Christmas-day flight to Grandma’s condo in South Florida. Many of us see the holidays as the season of obligation, but just imagine: Where would you go if you weren’t obligated? It’s now possible to travel most anywhere, and it doesn’t have to decimate your budget. So in between packing your deck of cards and wrapping your gifts, give a thought to a trip that you want to take. Exploit Airline Website Glitches Use AirefareWatchdog (AFW), a fantastic travel site that sorts through almost every single airline worldwide. RELATED: When Is the Best Time to Buy Airline Tickets? Hostels Aren’t Always Hostile Contrary to popular belief, hostels aren’t always packed with drunk twenty-one year old, wide-eyed Europeans ready to get their party on. For Longer Stays, Try House Sitting One site that that has some great options is Mind My House, where you can browse listings and respond with an initial application. Couchsurfing: Not For The Faint-Of-Heart Focus On Grub
120 Minutes A few days ago, Seth Godin posted a brilliant piece on his blog entitled Is Effort a Myth? In it, Seth addresses the issue of luck: And that’s the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don’t get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time. A while back, I wrote on a similar theme, arguing that luck happens to those who provide the most opportunities for luck to grow in their life, and pointing out ten things anyone can do to improve their luck. Seth takes a bit of a different route to a similar conclusion. 1. All four points are valuable life lessons, but I wanted to focus in on the first two because the point there is near and dear to my heart. If you can devote two hours a day to improving yourself and doing something to change your situation, your life will improve. All I have to do is roll back the clock two years to provide some proof of this. Two years later, it’s changed my life. So, how can you do it, too?
How to Disagree March 2008 The web is turning writing into a conversation. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. Many who respond to something disagree with it. The result is there's a lot more disagreeing going on, especially measured by the word. If we're all going to be disagreeing more, we should be careful to do it well. DH0. This is the lowest form of disagreement, and probably also the most common. u r a fag!!!!!!!!!! But it's important to realize that more articulate name-calling has just as little weight. The author is a self-important dilettante. is really nothing more than a pretentious version of "u r a fag." DH1. An ad hominem attack is not quite as weak as mere name-calling. Of course he would say that. This wouldn't refute the author's argument, but it may at least be relevant to the case. Saying that an author lacks the authority to write about a topic is a variant of ad hominem—and a particularly useless sort, because good ideas often come from outsiders. DH2. DH3. DH4. DH5.
Elementary Particles A text summary of this presentation is shown below for easy reference Particles electron neutrino νe muon neutrino νμ tau neutrino ντ electron antineutrino νe muon antineutrino νμ tau antineutrino ντ electron e− electrons are among the most common particles in our world, giving atoms their chemical properties muon μ tau τ positron e+ positrons are antielectrons antimuon μ antitau τ up quark u up quarks and down quarks are the constituents of neutrons and protons, which make up most of the mass in atoms; this means that most of the matter in our world consists of up quarks, down quarks and the gluons that bind them charm quark c top quark t up antiquark u charm antiquark c top antiquark t down quark d strange quark s bottom quark b down antiquark d strange antiquark s bottom antiquark b photon γ photons are particles of light (not just infra-red, ultra-violet and visible light, but radio waves, microwaves, x-rays and gamma rays too); photons mediate the electromagnetic force, which holds electrons in atoms W boson W−
7 Superfoods for Your Health Were you under the assumption that a superfood is some type of strange and foreign melon from an exotic, far-off country? If so, I’m happy to inform you that superfoods come in many shapes and varieties, and some of these foods are probably in your kitchen right now! Checkout our list of delicious superfoods with phenomenal health benefits and tasty appeal. We’ve even included a super-easy smoothie recipe packed with these superfoods. Even more, this recipe is practically guaranteed to make your taste buds do a little happy dance. Enjoy! Click here to share this infographic on your website. Copy/paste the code below to add this infographic to your site.
Bananas and Monkeys Original source unknown. (But the story appears to have some basis in fact.) Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Now, put away the cold water. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. And that, my friends, is how company policies are made. Return to Jim Huggins' Humor Page