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FYI Friday, April 19: Week in Review

LIFE

PattonOswaltGettyPatton Oswalt’s Powerful Boston Marathon Post Inspires on Facebook

Of all the pontificators and pundits reacting online and off, it was comedian Patton Oswalt who perhaps provided the most poignant take on the Boston Marathon bombing Monday afternoon.

In a post to his Facebook page, Oswalt wrote that while violence such as Monday’s tragedy exemplifies the worst of humanity, it’s easy to lose track of the bigger picture. The post reads in part: FULL ARTICLE.

google-glass-brain-effect What Will Google Glass Do to Our Brains?

Humanity is about to undertake a bold experiment. If all goes as Google hopes, many of us will be strapping on Google Glasses later this year. The post-PC era in effect since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010 could give way to a the wearable computing era prompted by Glass.

Though there’s always a chance that the technology could fail miserably, it could also, as Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research suggests, be “the next Pinterest plus Amazon plus Facebook plus the iPhone put together.”  FULL ARTICLE.

FB-Fan  A Facebook Fan Is Worth $174, Researcher Says

A Facebook fan is worth $174 to a brand, up 28% since 2010, according to Syncapse, a social media marketing firm.

Syncapse worked with research firm Hotspex on a survey based on data    collected from more than 2,000 U.S. panelists in late January and early February. The study compared Facebook fans and non-fans based and their corresponding product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value, cost of acquisition and brand affinity to arrive at the figure. FULL ARTICLE.

ENVIRONMENT

Non-Hazarous.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smart Clean-up or cover-up? Latest in Exxon oil spill Reveals Big Questions

In the weeks following the rupture of the Exxon Mobil Pegasus pipeline that spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil ( or tar sands diluted bitumen) into a Mayflower, Arkansas neighborhood and lake, the news about the spill was just one depressing story after the next as we learned that wildlife had been oiled, local residents, including children, were becoming sick, contaminated water was pumped into the lake, the media was being intimidated to reduce access and coverage and that Exxon may have known about the spill earlier than they are letting on. FULL ARTICLE.

HEALTH

hurdles 10 Psychological Hurdles Keeping You From Losing Weight (and How to Overcome Them)

Habits become ingrained in our days and in our brains to the point where it just doesn’t feel right without them. Now, if your habits take the form of regular exercise, eating plants and animals, and getting good sleep, you’re in good shape. If your habits look a little different, you might not be:

The coffee and crueller (stat!) on the way to work. The handful of candy beans every time you pass the candy-loving receptionist’s desk. The nightly six pack. The propensity to plop down on the couch and stay there for hours after work. We’ve all got some bad habits, and depending on their composition, they can disrupt our ability to lose weight. FULL ARTICLE.

JJH_1479-1.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smart Roasted Brussels sprouts with orange butter sauce [Vegetarian]

The mark of a truly great cookbook is one that you pick up and, as you thumb through the pages you notice yourself thinking of every single recipe, “I want to cook that.” That was what happened when I picked up Susie Middleton’s Fast, Fresh & Green cookbook. Often, you scan through a cookbook and find a handful of recipes you want to make, and even fewer you’re actually likely to make. There are precious few that cater so perfectly to your own personal taste and cooking style. For me, that is this veggie-centric cookbook by Middleton.FULL ARTICLE.


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Conscious Quote

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

-Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa


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FYI Friday, April 12: Week in Review

LIFE

Touchdown-Jack21 7-Year-Old Boy Fighting Brain Cancer Scores 69-Yard Touchdown

It’s not every day that you see players and fans from both teams cheer at the top of their lungs when someone scores a touchdown, but that’s what happened when Jack Hoffman ran the ball into the end zone during the University of Nebraska’s spring football game.

Hoffman, a 7-year old boy fighting brain cancer, was given his own pint-sized jersey (#22) and placed in the game during the fourth quarter. One of his teammates handed him the ball, and Jack started hustling down the field while players from both teams followed — not to tackle him, but just to be part of the moment. He ended up running a 69-yard touchdown. FULL ARTICLE.

TECHNOLOGY

1.%2520SnowLizard8 Solar-Powered Mobile Chargers

Tech companies are focusing more on energy than ever before. Brands aren’t just designing devices and gadgets for what they can do — they’re also considering how efficiently they can function.

When it comes to energy efficiency, solar power is a great option. It’s practically digital photosynthesis — if flowers and plants get their energy from the sun, why can’t we power our devices with the same? It’s also useful in emergencies; the power in your home may go out, but the sun will stick around and return the next day. FULL ARTICLE.

imgres-2 Bubba Watson’s Hovercraft Puts All Golf Carts to Shame
This is the stuff nerd-golfer dreams are made of.

Meet the BW1, a golf-cart-turned-hovercraft that’s the brainchild of PGA star Bubba Watson and his sponsor Oakley. The YouTube video above, which details the BW1 in all its amazing awesomeness, has been spreading like wildfire on the social web Tuesday. It’s a clever Oakley ad at heart — so we probably won’t see the old school cart die out anytime soon — but rest assured that there’s at least one functioning prototype out there roaming the manicured wilds. FULL ARTICLE.

original8 Random Celebrities Who Are Getting Google Glass

When Google started its Glass-giving spree, it picked out some odd picks. It got so bad that some of those offers got pulled. But you can bet these celebrity winners will get their copies.

Stanford computer science student Andrej Karpathy put together a handy-dandy script that trawls Twitter and spits out the winners in order of their follower counts. And man, some of them are pretty random. FULL ARTICLE.

HEALTH

imgres-3 How Far Do You Run Playing Different Sports?

While watching sports, have you ever stopped (midway through a bowl of Cheetos) to wonder, “How far are those guys actually running?” It’s a common question, one that’s historically been subject mostly to guesswork, Thanks to some recent technological developments, though, we can now actually apply some data to it.

So which of your heroes are putting in the hard yards? FULL ARTICLE.

JJH_6208-1.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smartCauliflower with Herb Salsa Verde [Vegan]

This is such an easy dish to whip up, and so full of bright flavors. The most important thing is to make sure to cook the cauliflower so that it is browned on the outside but still a bit crunchy on the inside. Like Kelly, I don’t prefer deep fried food so I used just a touch of oil in the pan and it was plenty to give these a nice fried, but not heavy, flavor. Combined with the salsa verde on top, it is a zesty and flavorful dish that could even act as a main. FULL ARTICLE.


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Too Busy to Meditate? Read THIS!

Meditation is a practice that, once cultivated, can reset your brain to optimal functioning.

Some of us here at ODC have struggled to find the time, but definitely feel the difference when we’re on track with the practice. Highly recommended article below. Namaste! 🙂

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This morning, like every morning, I sat cross-legged on a cushion on the floor, rested my hands on my knees, closed my eyes, and did nothing but breathe for 20 minutes.

People say the hardest part about meditating is finding the time to meditate. This makes sense: who these days has time to do nothing? It’s hard to justify.

Meditation brings many benefits: It refreshes us, helps us settle into what’s happening now, makes us wiser and gentler, helps us cope in a world that overloads us with information and communication, and more. But if you’re still looking for a business case to justify spending time meditating, try this one: Meditation makes you more productive. FULL ARTICLE. 


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FYI Friday, April 5: Week in Review

 

LIFE

screen-shot-2013-03-26-at-12-45-08-pm  Improve Your WiFi Signal Using a Soda Can

When your life is nothing but trolling and viral videos, having a bad wi-fi connection can be incredibly irritating. Poor loading times, lost connections, and more can put a strain on your time browsing the internet. However, there are some ways to improve your Wi-Fi connection. FULL ARTICLE.

HEALTH

yoga-1  Why Health Integrity Matters, or The Power of Being Honest With Yourself

Today we have infinite possibilities, and we suffer as well as benefit a great deal for it. We have the option of sitting on the couch all weekend watching a Game of Thrones marathon. We have the potential to eat at McDonald’s for thirty days straight. We can buy a pack of cigarettes despite the fact we’re hooked up to an oxygen tank. We can have our doctor up our insulin dosage and buy a large Slurpee or a Krispy Kreme on the way home. We can stress ourselves to our last, pathetic nerve (and adrenal exhaustion) by living on too much work, too little sleep, too much worry, and too many stimulants. We have the choice – and that’s exactly what it is: a choice. Whatever our past, whatever our present condition, however, we are always free to make a different next choice. FULL ARTICLE.

TECHNOLOGY

10-tech-march.jpg.644x0_q100_crop-smart

Top 10 Tech Stories from March

Virtual fences for cows. Projects for Raspberry Pi microcomputers. A teen invents a solution for cleaning up ocean plastic. Charging your cell phone with text messages. These and other awesome stories from March are rounded up here so you can get caught up quickly.  FULL ARTICLE.

40-years-of-cellphone-history  Cell-ebration! 40 Years of  Cell Phone History

Today’s mobile movement is all about efficiency and multitasking. But with the first cellphone in 1973, you could place a phone call and get a workout at the same time. After all, the phone weighed 2.5 pounds.

The cellphone turned 40 on Wednesday, April 3. Its creator, Martin Cooper, 84, placed the first mobile phone call on the streets of New York City — he phoned his rival, Joel Engel, head of research at Bell Labs. You can imagine how cheeky that exchange was. FULL ARTICLE.

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