Unfortunately for us humans, expecting most things to work themselves out, forests in the Eastern United States are dying at an alarming rate, unable to keep up with the change from global warming. Basically, what that means, is that tree ranges are being shortened from the north and south.
What does this mean for the future? It can mean many things, but if humans don’t get their act together, it can spell disaster.
Read more. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111031154132.htm
I just found this awesome site: Worldwide Stoke Surfing Videos. It features great surfing videos from the worlds very best surfers. The site is new, but it features videos from people like Kelly Slater, and has big wave wipeouts.
The site can be found here. Surfing Videos
It gets crazy cold surfing here in New Jersey, and I was searching online one morning to see how other people deal with the ice that forms on your face in the middle of January.
I came across a site called SurfAlaska.net. I was blown away.
I’m sure Fidget will love it, too.
“If you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe”
This is incredible business psychology. Basically, he breaks it down as such:
If Apple were like everyone else, their marketing message would sound like this “We make great computers, they’re easy to use, and great looking, wanna buy one?” …Here is how Apple communicates: “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is…..by making great computers, well designed, and easy to use computers. “
It’s all about appealing to emotions. While this is a huge logical fallacy (just saying they are thinking differently doesn’t make their computers any better – in fact, you can purchase a Windows Machine for the same specs at a drastically lower price), it hasn’t stopped advertising – it IS advertising. Apple makes buying a computer so much more than buying a computer. By Apple explaining that they are cutting edge, innovative, smart, and incredibly unique, people will connect that THEY will be cutting edge, innovative, smart, and unique if they follow the product.
It’s a great reminder that advertising is so much more than explaining the product.
More advertising methods here: Sask Schools Advertising Techniques
Growing up, I loved my original NES. I remember getting it on my 11th birthday. It was incredible. I really thought my parents broke the bank to get it for me.
Such an incredible gaming system. I really felt like the games had character.
All NES games were dull and gray, but one series of games really stood out. It was gold-colored, more expensive than the other games, and took hundreds of hours to complete as a 12 year old.
The Legend of Zelda doesn’t actually follow Zelda. Zelda is a princess, and you play as Link. Fighting endlessly to find his princess. It’s romantic.
Anyway, I’m feeling nostalgic after listening to these guys play the best Zelda Song Medley on violin and piano. It’s calming, it’s beautiful, it’s poetic music. Enjoy!
When our bathroom scale delivers bad news, we hop off and then on again, just to make sure we didn’t misread the display or put too much pressure on one foot. When our scale delivers good news, we smile and head for the shower. By uncritically accepting evidence when it pleases us, and insisting on more when it doesn’t, we subtly tip the scales in our favor.
- Psychologist Dan Gilbert in The New York Times
I recall those dreadful evaluation meetings with my boss. While the meeting would sometimes last 35 minutes, the lasting comments are usually the negatives. Harping on the “areas to improve” can often leave you feeling deflated, as if the majority of your hard work was for nothing.
Being aware of this effect can make you more keen to evaluating and taking control of your emotional state. Being in control of your emotions usually leads to a more level-headed, happier state.
The Earth never really had a perfect clock. It’s never REALLY been a perfect 365 days. We’re off by 1000 microseconds each year, and clocks are just updated, with these +/-1000microseconds just disregarded.
A day is 86,400 seconds. It’s also 86,400,000,000 microseconds long. A microsecond is a millionth of a second.
Well my friends, the day is now 1.8 microseconds, that’s 0.0000018 seconds, SHORTER.
Believe it or not. Compared to a week ago, the Earth now completes it 24-hour rotation 1.8 microseconds faster. Don’t worry [too much] this type of thing happens all the time, apparently.
Why you might ask? The earthquake and tsunami this past week in Japan, caused Japan’s mainland to shift over about 8 feet. Normally, the Pacific Plate moves about 3 inches each year, and when it does, weight is shifted. Consider the spinning earth to be a figure skater, spinning around. When the skater brings his arms close towards his body, he speeds up. Try this next time you’re on the ice.
Physics loves conservation rules. This is a case of conservation of angular momentum. Momentum refers to the product of volume * velocity. Angular momentum involves rotation about an axis. Angular momentum must stay constant, thus, if you increase the volume near the rotation axis (bringing arms close to body, or shifting the weight of the continents) then in order to conserve angular momentum, speed must increase (you’re decreasing the distance between the objects (arms, continent), and the center – so speed increased to conserve the angular momentum). This is why planets and stars that are small and dense spin very rapidly.
ANYWAY, you shift the weight, you change the rotation axis, EARTH SPEEDS UP. Last year’s quake in Chile caused a 6.8 microsecond speed-up. Basically, the closer to the equator, the greater the axis shift, the greater speed up.
I found this extremely interesting. However, we shouldn’t lose sight that an incredible tragedy just ripped apart a country, and my deepest sympathies to those who are effected.
In case you don’t know, Little Mismatched
is a company that sells mismatched socks. Why? Well, why the hell not? What if you started a company that sold mismatched socks? Maybe some people would be into it. Of course, those people are 8 year old girls, but it is this type of thinking, disruptive thinking, asking questions like:
“What if a video rental company didn’t charge you late fees?” And then netflix was born.
“What if, instead of just selling normal mustard, we jack up the price a bit and make it esoteric and French?” Pardon me do you have any Grey Poupon?
“Why isn’t there a website where I can keep in touch with all of my friends in a clean user-friendly format?”
“What if we decided to make software, and provide it free to the user?…What if we called it google?”
In this day and age with instant search results, linking us to instant answers (i.e. Yahoo answers), most people have forgotten how to really sit down, ask the hard questions, and think something through.
I see this all too often with my students. Give them something that requires them to spit back a fact they heard or can look up instantly and they’re happy little workers. Now give them a question where there are multiple right answers, more than one way to answer, something that requires a step-wise approach to the conclusion, and now you’ve got irritated quitters.
I went to this website, which is headlined “An inquiry into the value of inquiry”. You’re instantly introduced to questions “What if a wheelchair could walk [up stairs]?” ” Why do children ask so many questions? Why do adults stop?”
What people often forget is that integral to any great advancement, innovation, or adventure is asking themselves a complex question. Questions are often the catalyst towards great thinking, and new ideas.
What would happen if you found a job that didn’t feel like work? What if you moved to a place you would normally just vacation? What habits are holding you back from success? Why haven’t you met one of your goals? What if you weren’t embarrassed to try something new?
Shake things up, ask questions that require more than 5 seconds of thinking. Living is easy with eyes [and mind] closed, but living can be great with your mind open, ready to receive new ideas, and construct great ones.
