Reality Upgrade

You stay up late the night of the release. You go to the 12:01 showing. You meet your friends the next day to brag about how amazing the movie was, and one of them says “How about that scene after the credits? Amazing, right?”

D’oh.

Some movies have amazing epiloges after the credits. Some have funny pictures, or interesting things during the credits. And some have nothing.

And the only way to find out is to sit through ten minutes of a black screen with writing on it, while the house lights come up and everyone else leaves.

Until now. (continue reading…)

There are a ludicrous number of credit cards out there, and sometimes the choices can be a little overwhelming.

Now that there is a new law coming into effect nine months from now that will take many of the hidden fees, charges, and rate hikes out of the credit card business. It will also require contract terms to be in “plain English”. (continue reading…)

In the spirit of being prepared for anything, from a flat tire to a Zombie Invasion, this is a great list of wild plants that are edible in a pinch, or even just for some fun (and free) variety. They may not all be available in your area, and I think staying away from mushrooms completely might be a good idea, but things like Yucca flowers and lambs quarter can be a great fun addition to your summer menu.

And you never know when you might need to forage for food while hiding from Zombies.

If the link is down, here is the Google cache of the page.

Also, if you want to get way, way more in depth, check out this site.

There are five major car companies in Germany, and to the outside world they could easily seem very similar. After all, they are all “German Engineering,” they are all luxury models, high quality, and stylish. In fact, they all have rather similar symbols, all of them based around a circle in some way.

However, each different manufacturer has a different brand. BMW is about sporty, classy, and fast. Mercedes is also classy, but more about luxury then sport. Audi is young and hip, but with sophistication. Volkswagen is a more affordable brand targeted at young people. And there’s Opel, which I had never even heard of until I started looking into German car manufacturers. (continue reading…)

As you probably know, the human body has a daily cycle, know as the Circadian Rhythm.  

This is a perfectly natural pattern of sleep and alertness, dealing with cell regeneration, melatonin production, and so on.

However, if for some reason your Circadian Rhythm does not match your actual sleeping pattern, as in the case of Jet Lag, the symptoms can be serious, including loss of appetite, nausea, headaches, disorientation, and mild depression.

Recovering from jet lag can take several days, or even a week, of gradual adjustment to the new timing.

However, there is a way to reset your biological clock in only one day. By fasting for 12-16 hours, your body’s “hunger clock” will override your Circadian Rhythm, and reset your biological clock.

According to an article by the Globe and Mail:

Scientists have long known that our 24-hour “circadian rhythm” is regulated by a group of cells in the hypothalamus region of the brain. These cells, which represent the body’s main clock, are sensitive to changes in light conditions registered through the optic nerve in the eye.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston have now pinpointed a second clock that is set by the availability of food. Their study, published today in the journal Science, is based on research on mice. But they believe all mammals, including humans, possess an internal food clock, too.

Clifford Saper, the senior author of the study, said this second clock probably takes over when food is scarce. It may have evolved to make sure mammals don’t go to sleep when they should be foraging for food to stay alive.

“A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock,” he said in a statement released with the study. Once you eat again, your internal clock will be reset as though it is the start of a new day.

The way to do this is to determine when your breakfast time should be on your new schedule, and then fast for 12-16 hours before that. Then break your fast at your new breakfast time, and your Circadian rhythm should be reset.

For example, if you are flying from New York to Israel, and you want to have your breakfast in Isreal at 8:00 AM, you should start fasting sometime between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM the day before, in New York time. 

The calculation, in case you are interested:

8:00 AM - Breakfast, Israel

-7 hrs - Time difference = 1:00 AM New York

-16 hrs - Fasting time = 9:00 AM New York (the day before)

Hopefully, next time you are travelling, this will help you make the most of your trip.

You have 8 seconds. No, I’m not kidding.

Continuous Attention Span

The average continuous attention span on an adult human is 8 seconds. This is how long a human can focus on an object without any lapse at all. After this amount of time, it is likely that an individual’s eyes will shift focus, or that a stray thought will briefly enter consciousness.

This means that you have 8 seconds, and only 8, to get across your brand message.

That does not mean you have to give an entire presentation on what you do in 8 seconds, but your brand message - the “Just Do It” - has to fit there. Any longer, and something else will distract the audience from your message. After all, how effective would “Just Do - huh, how’d that bug get in here - It” be?

General Attention Span

The average attention span of an adult human is about 20 minutes - this is how long a person can stay concentrated on one general thing without needing a break or some kind. That means that if you are making any kind of presentation, you must keep it to under 20 minutes, or your audience will stop paying attention, without even noticing that it is happening.

You can get around this time limit by giving the audience “breaks”, but in general your should keep it to under 20 minutes. Anything you really need to say, you can say in that amount of time.

And in the spirit of keeping it short, see you next week.

Step 1 - It’s all about them

Step 2 - Hearts, then minds

Step 3 - Keep it simple

Step 4 - Keep repeating it

If  you have, or want to have, multiple computer monitors, check out this great article by Lifehacker all about dual-screens. 

Also, as soon as you have multiple screens, or if you like to have more than one window open at a time, check out my article on WizMouse…

This is an amazing video. Sean Gourley is a physicist who decided that by mapping the number and size of acts of violence in the Iraq war, and others like it, the behaviors could be modeled, and thereby predicted.

I think this is great, because I believe that human behavior can be modeled, in a general way, to predict outcomes of certain situations.  I have seen this in action in social settings all the time, and it is great to see someone putting this into practice in a large scale. Especially for something as useful as understanding the conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan. 

If we are ever going to really achive world peace, this is the beginning of how we will do it.

If the video will not play for some reason, watch it here on TED.

Here is some more about Sean Gourley, if you are interested.

As anyone who has worked with Excel knows, it is an incredibly powerful program. I have used it for years, and still feel like I am only scratching the surface of its capabilities. 

For those of us who are not Excel Gurus, there is this nifty list of common formula errors that can help keep you from throwing your shoe at your new LCD screen.

Confused by the ever-climbing SPF numbers?

Yeah, me too.

Now that SPF ratings have broken the 3 digit mark, and summer is upon us, this is a great time to look at what SPF ratings really mean.

How much of it is marketing and how much of it is real? Which SPF should you use? 

This great article in the New Your Times talks all about it, and helps cut through the “more is better” confusion surrounding the SPF marketing race.

So learn a little, before you go bake in the sun.