Merlin Mann on the creative process. (This is a great little lecture!!)
“We create these mental barriers for ourselves about all these things that need to change just a little bit before we get started.”
“…I really believe that there’s a part of you that really wants to go in this one direction and make cool stuff, and there’s another part of you that’s terrified at how bad you’re going to be at it, and that people are going to see you suck. And nobody likes being seen sucking.”
Play count: 0
5 days!! Woo!!
Quitting smoking gives you an immediate positive impact on your health:
After 20 minutes:
Blood pressure drops to normal.
Pulse rate drops to normal.
Body temperature of hands and feet increases to normal.
8 hours:
Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal.
Oxygen level in blood increases to normal.
24 hours:
Chance of heart attack decreases.
48 hours:
Nerve endings start re-growing.
Ability to smell and taste is better.
2 weeks to 3 months:
Circulation improves.
Walking becomes easier.
1-9 months:
Coughing, congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath improve.
Cilica (small hairs) re-grow in the lungs to help clean the lungs and keep free of infections.
1 year:
Risk of heart disease is half that of a smoker.
5 years:
Stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5-15 years after quitting.
Risk of cancer of mouth, throat, esophagus is half that of a smoker.
10 years:
Precancerous cells are replaced.
15 years:
Risk of heart disease is equal to that of a non-smoker.
Source: American Cancer Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
95 Percent Of Opinions Withheld On Visit To Family »
Wilmot said he used to voice his opinions, but has long since given up.
“There was a time when my sister would mention how much she wants an SUV, and I’d be unable to resist launching into a whole thing about how irresponsible and wasteful they are. But after receiving my thousandth blank, confused stare from everybody at the table, I realized it was futile,” Wilmot said. “Now, I don’t even flinch when my dad mentions he’s reading ‘this amazing book called The Celestine Prophecy.’ That’s how bad it is.”
In the course of Sunday’s meal, Wilmot estimated that he heard 100 statements he could have strenuously contested. Instead, he responded with such neutral phrases as, “Cool,” “Uh-huh,” “Wow,” “I know,” “Definitely,” and “Oh, good.”
“My brother-in-law belongs to the NRA, which used to appall me,” Wilmot said. “Well, it still appalls me, but now I’m appalled silently. Same goes for my mom’s assertion that El Taco Loco is ‘the best Mexican restaurant in town.’ I don’t even bother mentioning Arturo’s, this little place over on Third Street that’s the only authentic Mexican place in all of Kalamazoo. I’m sure she’s never heard of it.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: June 13, 2009
Inspired by the night skies of planet Earth in the International Year of Astronomy, photographer Larry Landolfi created this tantalizing fantasy view. The composited image suggests a luminous Milky Way is the heavenly extension of a country road. Of course, the name for our galaxy, the Milky Way (in Latin, Via Lactea), does refer to its appearance as a milky band or path in the sky. In fact, the word galaxy itself derives from the Greek for milk. Visible on moonless nights from dark sky areas, though not so bright or colorful as in this image, the glowing celestial band is due to the collective light of myriad stars along the plane of our galaxy, too faint to be distinguished individually. The diffuse starlight is cut by dark swaths of obscuring galactic dust clouds. Four hundred years ago, Galileo turned his telescope on the Milky Way and announced it to be “… a congeries of innumerable stars …”
