c. john wakefield

I have always been interested in the human body and how to look after it – the brain is no exception.

I have keenly followed programs on PBS  by Dr. Daniel Amen such as Your Brain or Your Life. Dr Amen’s research and the research of many other neuroscientists have come up woth list of brain care to optimize your own brain function. Here is a slimmed down list, read on down for a link to the complete list:

Brain Dos:

1. Wear a helmet in high risk situations
2. Drink lots of water
3. Eat healthy
4. Take gingko biloba, Vitamin E and ibuprofen everyday
5. Think positive healthy thoughts
6. Love, feed and exercise your internal anteater to rid yourself of ANTs (automatic negative thoughts)
7. Everyday focus on the things you are grateful for in your life
8. Spend time with positive, uplifting people
9. Spend time with people you want to be like (you are more likely to become like them)
10. Work on your people skills to become more connected to enhance limbic bonds
11. Talk to others in loving, helpful ways
12. Surround yourself with great smells
13. Build a library of wonderful experiences
14. Exercise
15. Eat in ways specifically tailored to your brain
16. Learn diaphragmatic breathing
17. Learn and use self-hypnosis and meditation on a daily basis
18. Remember the 18/40/60 rule
19. Effectively confront and deal with conflictual situations
20. Develop clear goals for your life (relationships, work, money and self) and look at them everyday.

Brain Don’ts

1. Isolate a developing baby
2. Use alcohol, tobacco or drugs or much caffeine when pregnant
3. Ignore erratic behavior
4. Lie around the house and never exercise
5. Ignore concussions
6. Smoke
7. Drink much caffeine
8. Drink much alcohol
9. Do drugs (NO heroin, inhalants, mushrooms, PCP, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines (unless in prescribed doses for ADD)
10. Eat without forethought on what foods are best for your brain

The complete list has 50 points for the dos and 50 for the don’ts and can be found here. Thanks to Dr Amen – keep up the good work.

I was reading the Vancouver Sun the other day and came across an article on online job hunting. What caught my eye was a to-do list for managing your online identity – here is an excerpt from the article:

Early and Often is the Rule for Online Job Search

THE TO-DO LIST

- Use professional networking sites, starting with linkedin.com or plaxo.com.

- Check out sites like vancouversun.com/jobs for listings, ideas and links in your community.

- Check your info at zoominfo.com, claim it and update it.

- Subscribe to e-mail lists and e-newsletters through blogger association, professional association, company or university alumni groups.

- Consider expanding your Web presence with a blog: wordpress.com, blogspot.com, or one of the other options. Many are free.

- Set up Google alerts with your name to keep track of what is on the Web about you, from blogs to news and other mentions.

- Use blogpulse.com and other tracking tools such as ones specific to various sites that will keep you posted on such activities as when someone forwards your bio.

- ‘Claim’ your blog on such indexing sites as Technorati.com.

- Open a Google account, and among other functions use it to aggregate information from RSS feeds to keep track of areas of interest you are following.

- Use Google docs and spreadsheets for free and Web office doc functions; Gmail gives you a Web-based e-mail account.

- Jott.com — toll-free number, leave messages and reminders that are sent via voicemail and e-mail. A paid service starts at $3.95 US/month or pay-as-you-go. Turns your voice message into text and sends it wherever you want it to go, whether it’s a reminder for yourself or a message to the entire soccer team.

- meetingwizard.com, to coordinate meeting dates and times, free, works with up to 50 participants.

- Social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter for micro-blogging. Flickr and YouTube if you’re a photographer or videographer.

- Add your LinkedIn profile to your e-mail signature

- Sign onto krunchd.com to keep track of your online profiles, website, blog and social networking sites

Sources: Hamer-associates.ca, and Robert Half International

The HP Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program accepts products of any brand manufacturer in the following product categories:

• Desktop PCs
• Workstations
• Notebook PCs
• Tablet PCs
• Monitors, both CRT and LCD
• Printers, both ink and laser
• Digital cameras
• PDAs
• Smartphones

Most manufacturers now offer some recycling program, if not the cash like HP, Apple for example, runs a recycling program that runs where 95% of their products are sold.

The United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Russia and India advise that children limit their cellphone use. (AP)

Close to a dozen countries around the world have issued warnings or cautions about children using cellphones, but Health Canada has no similar message for Canadians.

France is about to make it illegal to market cellphones to children under 12. The United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Russia and India are also advising children limit their use of cellphones.

Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority encourages parents to err on the side of caution, saying radiation from cellphones could pose a health risk but the research into possible effects of prolonged cellphone use is unclear. In Russia, it’s recommended children under 18 not use cellphones at all.

But while a survey conducted by CBC-TV’s Marketplace on more than 1,000 Canadian children found almost half of nine- to 13-year-olds now have cellphones, Health Canada gives no such advice about the risks of cellphone use.

more…

via CBC News

Although some types of batteries are non-toxic to the environment, such as lithium or even alkaline batteries, it is always recommended to return these depleted batteries for recycling.

A Statistics Canada survey found 60 per cent of Canadians still toss their old batteries in the trash, but only 31 per cent of Islanders threw theirs in the garbage. Everyone else in P.E.I. uses the province’s battery-recycling program.

The reason PEI is doing better is due to a provincial program that gives a drop-point at all grocery stores.

Via CBC

By now most of us have become at least somewhat eco-friendly at home, recycling, reducing waste, and saving energy. But for many of us that effort (and even awareness) ends once we walk out the door and head for the office.

A recent survey conducted for Xerox by Harris Interactive identified the top environmental pet peeves in the workplace.

The top 10 among US office workers:
1) Mindless printing resulting in increased waste (40%)
2) Leaving lights on (37%)
3) Lack of recycling bins (33%)

For more tips on how to “green” your office, check out www.xerox.com/environment.

Via Smallbiztechnology.com

According to DriveSavers data recovery service, 43% of companies that lose data in a disaster never reopen, and 90% are out of business within two years. We talked with John Christopher, Senior Data Recovery Engineer at DriveSavers about why your current data backup system might not be enough, and what to do (hint: panicking is not on the list) if disaster does strike and you’re facing a hard disk or backup device failure.

What steps can businesses take to improve the durability of their hard drives?
Hard drives are precision devices with moving parts inside. It’s important that they are treated with care. That means you should never intentionally hit the computer—believe it or not, this was a commonly prescribed remedy around 1985 when drives suffered a problem known as stiction. Extreme heat and cold can affect hard drive longevity. Try to keep the temperature around 60-70 degrees in the area where the computer or storage device is located.

via Smallbiztechnology.com