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FYI Friday, June 14: Week in Review

LIFE

infographic-how-prism-might-work

See How PRISM May Work — in This Infographic

Thanks to documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, we learned last week about a secret NSA program called PRISM. The program allegedly allows the U.S. government to access the data of foreign users using services like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. But how does the program really work?

Initially, as reported by The Guardian and The Washington Post, it seemed like the NSA had direct access to the company’s servers and could get the data they needed without intervention from the Internet companies. That notion was strongly denied by almost every company mentioned in the the NSA powerpoint presentation that revealed PRISM. And further reporting has revealed that PRISM isn’t as evil as we initially thought.
Read more here.

HEALTH

Sea Salt

Salt: What Is It Good For?

Other than saturated fat, I can’t think of a nutrient that’s been so universally maligned and demonized as salt. All the experts hate it and recommend that we get as little of it as possible. They even all seem to have their own little anti-salt slogans. The American Diabetes Association recommends between 2300 and 1500 mg of sodium per day (“Be Sodium Savvy“). The American Heart Association wants you eating less than 1500 mg per day (“Shaking the Salt Habit“) and claims that 97% of young people already eat way too much salt. The other ADA – the American Dietetic Association – also recommends between 2300 and 1500 mg, but their slogan is far inferior (“Slice Your Sodium Intake“). It’s quite the pile-on, isn’t it? Read more here.

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Healthy chickpea salad with roasted cumin and lime [Vegan]

I’m always looking for great salad recipes that can be made up on a Sunday and eaten for lunches throughout the week. The three requirements for me are that it has to be easy to make, healthy, and improve in flavor as the days go by. This salad fills all those requirements. From start to finish, this salad doesn’t take more than about 20 minutes to make. You can put it in individual containers for grab-n-go lunches that will last all week long. And best of all, you’re doing your body a favor by eating this, thanks to the protein in the chickpeas and the healthy fats in the olive oil.
Read more here.

ENVIRONMENT

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Sustainable modular buildings open along New York’s beaches

Designed and built at a breakneck pace, prefab comfort stations by Garrison Architects opened this weekend in time for Memorial Day. The restrooms, lifeguard stations and offices were designed to replace structures washed away by Hurricane Sandy in October.

Despite a construction fence and yellow tape, a steady stream of beach goers strolled the ramps to the new restrooms at Coney Island. Reminiscent of a 1950’s vacation trailer, the buildings’ retro-feel seems at home on a beach that has been a leisure destination for generations.
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Friday, May 31: Week in Review

LIFE

set your imagination freeThe Benefits of Boredom

No matter how old – and busy – I get in life, when summer rolls around, I still think of the leisure of the season as a kid. As much as I looked forward to the open-ended days of running wild, however, at some point I’d inevitably find myself bored. My best friend would be away on vacation. The weather would be too consistent. Whatever the case, I’d find myself feeling like I’d seen and done all there was to do a million times over. I’d mope and grumble (gaining no sympathy in the process). In those days, there was no gadgetry to surrender attention to. It was mostly the power of invention and imagination – the two best aspects of childhood if you ask me. Eventually, I’d conjure something good enough to get out of my funk. In fact, my greatest schemes and misadventures seem to have came out of those lulls. The thought makes me wonder: in this age of easy preoccupation, do we undervalue boredom?
Read more here.

url-5The Only Thing Better Than a Fireworks Show Is a Fireworks Competition

There’s something wonderful about watching things blow up in sparkly, colorful explosions. You might even have your own little display over the holiday weekend. But this explosive timelapse video of the massive annual International Fireworks Competition in Da Nang, Vietnam will make your backyard show look puny by comparison.

Over two nights, five firework shows from the top manufacturers from the U.S., Russia, Japan, Italy, and Vietnam light up the Han River. The winner takes home a prestigious trophy, but really, everyone wins at a fireworks competition.Read more here.

bloodcellsDoes Your Blood Type Determine Your Optimal Diet?

I get a lot of emails about the “Eat Right For Your Type” diet, also known as the blood type diet, which asserts that specific optimal diets exist for each blood type. In this post, I’ll take a look at whether there’s anything to this idea, and whether you should change the way you’re eating based on whether you’re Type O, A, B or AB.

The proposed diets all tend to be pretty decent, whole foods-based ways of eating, and they’re all better than the standard American diet of industrial processed junk, but differences do exist. Here’s the basic breakdown of all four blood type diets…Read more here.

JJH_8333-1.jpg.400x300_q85_crop-smartGrilled portobello mushrooms stuffed with sauteed leeks and spinach [Vegan]

I can’t pass up a grilled portobello mushroom, especially when it is stuffed full with sauteed leeks and spinach. Talk about a hearty summer main dish. This recipe is extra flavorful thanks to the balsamic vinegar mixed in with the leeks and spinach. The melted cheese on top is a delicious addition. I added roasted red peppers with the cheese topping for a little extra flavor.
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FYI Friday, May 24: Week in Review

LIFE

ku-xlarge-1Why Your Ears Pop (And What to Do If They Don’t)

The surface of the Earth is covered in a thick atmospheric soup. Though only a fraction of the density of our oceans, the atmosphere behaves much the same way. Just as water pressure increases the deeper you go, air pressure increases the closer you get to sea level. In both cases, that’s because as you go deeper, you’ve got more and more air/water above pushing down on you. FULL ARTICLE.

ENVIRONMENT

dot1.jpg.400x300_q85_crop-smartMore Proof That Bike Lanes Boost Business

In any discussion about installing bike lanes the argument often is put forward that they are bad for business, what with the loss of parking spaces and the increased difficulty of loading and deliveries. But what if this is completely backwards? TreeHugger alluded to this in How bicycles bring business to your community and There IS a Bicycle Economy, Two Cities Find, but here is the real proof from New York’s Department of Transportation.
FULL ARTICLE.

ku-xlargeA Wind-Powered Factory That Makes Chairs, Scarves, and Pillows

It’s not often that we get to talk about engineering and knitting in the same sentence. But Merel Karhof, a Dutch-by-way-of-London designer, is an expert in both.You might remember Karhof from her 2010 project, the Wind Knitting Factory, a knitting machine powered by a small windmill. Built entirely from scratch, Karhof’s the four-foot-wide mill leveraged the wind to power a small, circular loom, which churns out scarves and textiles with a quiet mechanical speed. Karhof “harvests” the fabric every day or two (depending on the weather) and sells them on her website—along with a tag that indicates how long it took to knit.FULL ARTICLE.

HEALTH

JJH_3962-1.jpg.400x300_q85_crop-smartThe “Anything Goes” Savory Tomato and Bean Stew (Vegan.. if you want)

I’ve been doing The Cooking Project for about two months now, and with nearly 50 different recipes tried and tested during that time, this non-recipe couldn’t have been a better celebration of what I’ve learned about cooking so far. This stew is all about cooking intuitively, figuring out what flavors you like and what will mix well together, and knowing how to use what you already have in the cupboards.
FULL ARTICLE.

StrongmadesimpleTracyCrawling, Balancing, Rolling: The Importance of Practicing Natural Movements

My job is essentially to get people to have fun. I am a MovNat Natural Movement Certified Trainer and Parkour coach at True Nature Training who uses play and unconventional programming to get people active without realizing they are getting a workout. It’s so common to get stuck in our fitness routines. Push ups, pull ups, squats, and sprints are all obvious choices for a primal fitness program, but when we get bored or hit a plateau it can help to widen your repertoire to introduce new things. In many cases, this great “new thing” is actually very old. Natural movement is a movement philosophy with a set of principles defined and popularized by Erwan Le Corre, founder of MovNat, and based on natural human movements that we have evolved doing. Our ancestors had to crawl, climb, run, jump and more just to survive. Yet…FULL ARTICLE.


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Something to Ponder…(or, Tick & Flow)

You probably don’t even have time to read this post. Given all the things you have to do today, (the big priorities, the mundane minutia, etc.) this 2-minute brain break is probably welcome, but also rushed.

“There’s just not enough time.” As a 2013 culture, we are always on the go. Even when we’re “relaxing,” there is always a good chance we are still mentally “going” long before we actually unwind. For many professionals, the key perceived scarcity is time.

Time is certainly valuable. But when we schedule a thousand things, when we cram so much in, attempting to make the best of our time, a lot of that value falls though the cracks.

We end up missing out…big time (no pun).

Luckily, we have something for you to consider as a solution…

Tick & Flow. Scheduling &  Synchronicity. Head-Time & Heart-Time. Coming from the Greek concepts of  “chronos” (calendar/clock time) and “kairos” (synchronous/the “right” time), these two measurements of time are each very important. Both practices are essential for gleaning the full value of our time that we have. The problem isn’t that we aren’t doing enough…

…it’s that we’re doing too much.

And, too much stuff that we not only don’t want to do, but also stuff that doesn’t actually serve us anyway. With this kind of imbalance, we burn out. It’s overwhelming; too much “Tick,” not enough “Flow.”

When we take time to check-in with ourselves, and realize the options we have moment to moment, life simply gets…better! Whether it’s a meditation/yoga practice, eating a slow and mindful meal, or simply practicing deep breathing, “Flow” practice can come in multiple forms. And we get to choose what works best for us.

We invite you to allow space for this type of quality time with yourself. The goals are: 1. to quiet your many thoughts (or, as the Yogis call it “monkey mind”) and 2.

…simply be.

Try it! You may be happily surprised with the results. 🙂

Namaste.

–@cjpatryck


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FYI Friday, May 10: Week in Review

LIFE

k-bigpicQWERTY’s Origin Story Is a Big Fat Lie

You use it every day without a second thought, but if you think about it for just a second, QWERTY is really, really weird. Where did something so strangely unintuitive come from? The popular story is that it has to do with typewriter mechanics and jamming prevention, and although that explanation sure is tidy, it’s also probably bullshit.FULL ARTICLE.

originalBuilding This Bike Is Almost As Easy as Making a Sandwich

The SandwichBike not only sounds delicious in name, it’s delightfully customizable. It comes to you in the mail, and you assemble it all by yourself. And though that sounds daunting, it’s supposed to be insanely easy. FULL ARTICLE.

ENVIRONMENT

originalThis Shirt Can Be Worn For 100 Days Without Washing, Which Sounds Incredibly Sketchy But Also Awesome

Who even knows. The creators of Wool&Prince are claiming that you can wear their wool button-down shirts for days on end without them wrinkling, smelling or showing any dirt. Frankly, that sounds ridiculous, but maybe? FULL ARTICLE.

TECHNOLOGY

tesla-store-23847234.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smartTesla beefs up service with unconditional battery warranty, valets, and top of the line loaners

Tesla Motors has announced today that they’re beefing up their already very solid warranty and services offerings for the Model S electric car (which apparently has been selling very well). Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, has written a very good blog post explaining all the changes, so rather than paraphrase him, here’s choice excerpts:FULL ARTICLE.

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