Category: Life
24 Perspectives On Life
1. A day without sunshine is like night.
2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.
3. 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
4. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5. Remember, half the people you know are below average.
6. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
7. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
8. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap. Continue reading “24 Perspectives On Life”
Why Men Share Too Little—and Women Too Much
There are deep-rooted reasons why we share the way we do. Men don’t want to appear vulnerable. (Why else won’t they ask for directions when they’re lost?) They are raised to be strong, after all, not to appear sad, scared or needy. Women, by contrast, are taught it’s OK to be emotional.
Biology plays a part, too. Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have shown women respond to stress by releasing oxytocin, a feel-good hormone that produces a calming effect and helps them bond with children and others. Estrogen enhances its effects. (Men, too, release oxytocin in response to stress, but male hormones minimize its effects.)
The Power Of Negative Thinking
Wood, Lee and Perunovic conclude that unfavorable thoughts about ourselves intrude very easily, especially among those of us with low self-esteem — so easily and so persistently that even when a positive alternative is presented, it just underlines how awful we believe we are.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than try to reject and fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can also make things worse. Mindfulness and meditation techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking.
via Yes, I Suck: Self-Help Through Negative Thinking – TIME.
Wedding Crashers For Hire
We’ll attend the wedding as your friend instead of your friend,” Hiroshi Mizutani, who heads Office Agents, a company in Tokyo that rents out guests,
For around $200 you can have a hired guest attend your nuptials. Add another $50 and they’ll sing or dance. Tip in another $100 and they’ll even make a suitable speech, perhaps pretending to be your boss.
At one memorable wedding, all 30 of the family, friends and coworkers of the groom were fakes from Mizutani’s company. It was the second marriage for the groom, who wanted to avoid inviting the same guests from the first time around.
The firm gets about 100 wedding requests per year and has some 1,000 fakes available for various occasions, including funerals and training seminars. You can hire a stand-in lover to introduce to your family and false secretaries for those that want to look important.
via Raw Japan » Blog Archive » Rent-a-guest bulks up weddings | Blogs |. Continue reading “Wedding Crashers For Hire”
Can a white guy be African-American?
Former medical student Paulo Serodio is suing the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, claiming he was harassed and suspended for defining himself as a white African-American. Born and raised in Mozambique and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, Serodio, 45, is asking for reinstatement at the school and monetary damages in the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
Light-skinned Serodio’s problems began during a medical school class exercise, in which each student was asked to define themselves for a discussion on culture and medicine. After Serodio labeled himself as a white African-American, another student said she was offended by his comments and that, because of his white skin, was not an African-American. Serodio said he is a third-generation African of Portuguese ethnicity whose great-grandfather emigrated to Mozambique. He came to the U.S. in 1984 after being accepted at New York University.
The lawsuit claims Serodio began to be harassed by other students who sought disciplinary action against him for his statement in class, but was never given a chance to defend his views against the complaints.
via Louisville City Hall Examiner: Can a white guy be African-American?.
Mango Dave Murdered?
David Schnittlich dreamed of retiring to the Caribbean. So he bought his favorite restaurant there and became Mango Dave.
The Police aren’t saying much about their investigation, but rumor has it that he was found dead in his backyard, apparently from a blow to his head. It doesn’t look good for his ex-girlfriend. We’ll see, bit judging from the comments after the “Fantasy Island” Forbes article linked below, he wasn’t as beloved as the Anguilla Forum would lead you to believe (under “Mango Dave”)
French Excel at Eating, Sleeping
Norwegians spend the most time at leisure, just over a quarter of their day, while at the low end, Mexicans spend just 16 percent of their time having fun.
The French still win in the sleeping and eating categories, spending on average nearly 9 hours a day in bed. For the French, leisure continues in the waking hours, with more than 2 hours a day spent eating and drinking — nearly twice as much time at the table as Americans, Canadians or Mexicans.
Americans also like their sleep, spending some 8.5 hours a day doing just that.
via Survey: French Excel at Eating, Sleeping – TIME. Continue reading “French Excel at Eating, Sleeping”
Drug Decriminalization? Portugal’s Success Story
At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal’s drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal’s new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
via The Portuguese Experiment: Did Legalizing Drugs Work? – TIME.
Is Food the New Sex?
Just as the food of today often attracts a level of metaphysical attentiveness suggestive of the sex of yesterday, so does food today seem attended by a similarly evocative — and proliferating — number of verboten signs. The opprobrium reserved for perceived “violations” of what one “ought” to do has migrated, in some cases fully, from one to the other. Many people who wouldn’t be caught dead with an extra ten pounds — or eating a hamburger, or wearing real leather — tend to be laissez-faire in matters of sex. In fact, just observing the world as it is, one is tempted to say that the more vehement people are about the morality of their food choices, themore hands-off they believe the rest of the world should be about sex. What were the circumstances the last time you heard or used the word “guilt” — in conjunction with sin as traditionally conceived? Or with having eaten something verboten and not having gone to the gym?
So if there is a moral to this curious transvaluation, it would seem to be that the norms society imposes on itself in pursuit of its own self-protection do not wholly disappear, but rather mutate and move on, sometimes in curious guises. Far-fetched though it seems at the moment, where mindless food is today, mindless sex — in light of the growing empirical record of its own unleashing — may yet again be tomorrow.
via Hoover Institution – Policy Review – Is Food the New Sex?.