Tulsa Family Lawyer and Mediator
It’s hard to get motivated to run when it’s freezing (or worse) outside. Here’s a little warmup to get you mentally and physically prepared. High knees, butt kicks, arm swings, and lunges will warm up your muscles, and they count as dynamic stretches too. The best part: you can even do these indoors, before you head…
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Author: Beth Skwarecki on Vitals, shared by Beth Skwarecki to Lifehacker
If we are headed for another economic downturn (to say nothing of the subprime car loan bubble bursting) it’s more important than ever to keep what you have now in peak condition. Who knows what our financial or living situations will look like after the next big one hits. You may wonder if you can afford all the…
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Author: Erin Marquis on Jalopnik, shared by Virginia K. Smith to Lifehacker
Whether you’re getting a brand new Apple Watch today, or just want to accessorize your old one, this Milanese loop band is a great deal at $5, with promo code 50NBM4JV. That should work on any color and size, so you can match your watch’s color, or create a nice contrast.
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Author: Shep McAllister on Kinja Deals, shared by Chelsea Stone to Lifehacker
The Root Tiffany Haddish Bombs, Drinks with Fans Instead | Adequate Man Christmas Candy Vs. Halloween Candy: Who Ya Got?! | Jezebel Prince Harry Gave up Drinking Tea, Is No Longer British | Splinter Fox News Starts the New Year With Some Blood-Soaked Anti-Immigrant Hysteria | The A.V. Club In this week’s Savage…
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Author: Kinja! on Kinja Roundup, shared by Virginia K. Smith to Lifehacker
In 2004, after being shot by an unknown assailant, one Australian man encountered some disturbing information from Google search results. Revealed in image searches and even filled in by Google’s autocomplete searches was his own name, linked with the names of local criminals, mobsters to be exact.
This false information nearly cost him his very life. Yet, it was still plastered over the front page of Google search results begging the question – if it’s on Google, does it even matter if it’s true or not?
Today, Google handles over 3.5 billion searches every day, a portion of which is simply folks searching for their own names. Millennials lead many previous generations in self-searches for reasons ranging from satisfying their curiosity to damage control.
Among Gen Zers, the younger post-millennial generation, more than one in ten even do so daily. Personal name inquiries to Google aren’t just a young person’s game, however; even boomers aren’t immune to the temptation.
Among the generations:
In Googling oneself, many people aren’t too happy with what they find, be it true information or otherwise. In fact, only one in five people who self-search actually find relevant and accurate information about themselves, most of it either outdated or in reference to a different person with the same name.
Common outcomes include:
Though accounting for one very extreme case, the situation of this Australian man is something we should consider as a warning. The false information that was revealed to him, unfortunately, didn’t stop there, reminding us that what we can see when we search on Google for our own name is also what other people can see as well.
This can include potential employers, as they are the most likely to do a full background search, including a Google search, on their candidates. Cyber criminals are ever lurking in the shadows of the internet. For them, Google is a trove of valuable and potentially compromising information on their victims.
Americans love their social media and are willfully sharing more information about themselves than ever. That said, half of Americans also believe that their information is less secure than it was five years ago. But where do we point the finger other than towards ourselves?
Habits of oversharing come along with their own interpersonal annoyances, but very perceptive criminals and scammers see it as opportunity.
On top of social media, two in three Americans use at least one other online secure account for managing personal data. All told, the average American frequents three different sites containing personal data. Though each account is (hopefully) protected with unique login credentials, including passwords, criminals can still use this information against you.
Much like slapping together a ransom note with letters cut from a magazine, cyber criminals know exactly where to look for information. All together, this creates a pretty comprehensive picture of a victim with information ranging from technical data, like account numbers or passwords, to personal information which include security question answers and even personality traits.
Among adults online:
Cyber criminals prey on vulnerable individuals from the very young, the very old to the very lonely. What we get is hyper-targeted cyber attacks from email phishing to dating site cat-fishing.
The answer could be just a Google search away. Take control of your online data and keep it out of the wrong hands by Googling yourself on a regular basis.
Detailed in this infographic is the current state of online security, how far Google searches can really go, and what it takes to keep your online slate clean in the face of employers and criminals alike.
Source: SocialCatfish.com
The post Should You Be Googling Yourself? appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
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Author: Brian Wallace
If you are going through a transition, you’d know how it feels.
You may be confused, disorganized or even frustrated. You don’t know what’s what anymore and life doesn’t make sense.
It used to be logical and you used to know what to do. Now, it’s all up in the air. I know, because I’ve been there and in this article, I’ll give you five quick ways to deal with it.
Before a new order can emerge, there’ll be chaos. Similarly, whenever you are about to have a breakthrough, you will experience confusion and chaos.
Confusion really is a prerequisite state in order for us to have breakthrough experiences. This means that whenever you feel confused, there is something happening within you.
It doesn’t always seem like that but once you get through to the other side, you will see that something has changed for the better. The same thing happens when you learn something new.
At first, you feel confused and it just doesn’t make sense. But when you return to the material a few days or weeks later, you suddenly understand more than you did before.
Do you feel like your whole life is crumbling away?
Again, this is just an external manifestation of point #1 above. Whenever you feel confused, accept whatever goes on within you. It may be hard in the beginning, because it’s scary to face your fears and other negative emotions.
Most people try to run away from them and you can probably guess where that leads. Just take a look around you and see how happy most people are (hint: they are miserable).
Look inside and breath into your emotions. Accept whatever is there and get curious about what kind of shape your feelings are, what kind of color, and how they move within your body. It sounds weird, but it works when you are willing to try it.
The more you let go of the old, the easier your life will be. When you try to hold on, you suffer.
Letting go means being open to new ideas. Everything is constantly coming and going. The job you once had no longer exists but when the door closes, another one opens.
The problem is that most people stay and knock at the closed door for the rest of their life. Then, they wonder why no one is opening the door.
This doesn’t have to happen, because you can open your mind, release the old, and embrace the new. This is scary, because it is the unknown and we, as humans, tend to like what’s familiar. At some point, we will hold onto negative emotions and behaviors rather than let them go just because they are more familiar.
It’s a bit scary when you put it like that, isn’t it?
If you want to speed up your progress, I recommend you work with someone. I’m not talking about a psychotherapist. I’m talking about something like a qualified NLP practitioner, a hypnotherapist, or even a good EFT practitioner.
The reason I make these statements is because in my life, the biggest changes have happened by using NLP and both myself and my clients. You can’t always see where you are stuck and that is where another fresh pair of eyes comes in.
The problem is that most people don’t like to ask for help, because it is viewed as a sign of weakness in today’s society. I used to think like this as well, but I didn’t start to really excel until I started opening up and getting feedback.
It might be something for you to consider, or not. It’s always up to you.
See Also: How Personal Counseling Helps Mental Health and Addiction
This cycle will continually repeat itself, because that’s what cycles do. Just like a wave builds up and crashes and returns to the sea, so will your life have its ups and downs. The sooner you accept the fact, the better you will feel. You will go through confusion and clarity over and over again. It’s a part of life.
The bottom line is that most confusion and conflict is created within you. That means that you alone hold the keys to your salvation.This isn’t easy for most people to accept, which is why they might dismiss an article like this. In the end, only you can make a difference in your life. Will you?
Written by Henri Junttila, writer at Wake Up Cloud where he shares his personal tips on how you can live the life you know you deserve. When you feel ready to take action, get his free course: How to Find Your Passion (And Build a Business Around It).
The post 5 Quick Ways to Deal With the Confusion and Conflict Within You appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
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Author: Henri Junttila
Let’s take the example of starting an Internet business as our model to see how to overcome your obstacles. Here are 5 of the most common ones you may come across while seeking your goal:
You’ve read the books, taken the teleclasses, and studied the websites. You’re on information overload, so you go into analysis paralysis which means you do nothing.
Solution: Pick one person to study and go with that model. One of the earliest Internet success stories was Corey Rudl and after he died, Derek Gehl took over. So, if I were building an Internet business, I would choose him as my role mode., I’d read his website, buy his products, and take his courses.
Many people get lost after they decide to pursue a certain goal. Most goals are merely a progression from where you are to where you want to be. You need a clear plan from A to Z so that there’s no guesswork.
Solution: Derek Gehl, for example, has a 30-step action plan that can keep you on course.
We often are enthusiastic about achieving a certain goal, but fail to do our homework before embarking on the course.
Solution: Before you set out on your goal, figure out the amount of time you will need, the costs you will incur, and the resources you will need to obtain and use. For our particular goal of launching an internet business, these could include software for auto responders, shopping carts, eBooks, a copywriter to write your sales page, and at least 2 hours a day to learn the specifics of online marketing.
If you don’t have the mindset and attitude of a winner, you have less chance of succeeding.
Solution: Find successful online marketers and study them. Talk to them and listen to their language. Adopt the mindset of success by thinking and speaking positively. Adopt the attitude of success by seeing obstacles as opportunities and setbacks as feedback.
You may hit some roadblocks and get stuck, not knowing what to do next. On any journey, support and guidance are essential. On a road trip, it’s your map or GPS system. For an online business, it’s experienced marketers.
Solution: Find a mentor, coach, teacher, friend or joint venture partner. It can be anyone who will hold your hand, guide you, support you until you reach your goal. Then, you can celebrate together!
Written by David B. Bohl, the author of Slow Down Fast.
See Also: How to Set Goals When You Have No Idea What You Want
The post The 5 Most Common Obstacles That Keep You From Reaching Your Goals appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
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Author: SJW
Lately I’ve been fantasizing about my dream house, as well as musing on unconventional building designs. Perhaps I have hobbit blood; for me, the idea of a cozy and inviting dwelling is one without many right angles, giving it an organic, somewhat cavelike feel. Although I have always lived in buildings with conventional vertical walls, I picture a home in which each room is a different shape, with rounded corners, curved ceilings, and angled doors. In a concession to gravity, I’ll leave the floor flat and level for the most part. Without a doubt, at least one room must be completely circular—no matter how hard it is to buy furniture or hang artwork. And of course, my ideal home would be sturdy, secure, economical to build, and highly energy-efficient.
All these tastes would seem to make me an excellent candidate to own a monolithic concrete dome house. Like geodesic domes, this type of building encloses a large amount of area with a minimum of material and offers a distinctive, unconventional shape. Despite these similarities, the two types of dome building are very, very different when it comes to construction materials and techniques, not to mention some of the characteristics of the finished product.
The word “monolithic” in this sense simply means “in one piece”—not necessarily massive. As compared to geodesic domes constructed out of hundreds of triangular pieces of wood or metal, a monolithic concrete dome is a single, contiguous surface of reinforced concrete. What makes these domes particularly noteworthy is the modern method of building them.
In decades past, building a concrete dome meant creating a pile of dirt in the desired size and shape, pouring concrete over it, and then digging out the inside after the concrete had set. This was a long and labor-intensive process—and it required you to have a sufficient quantity of earth at your disposal as well as the means of moving (and removing) it. Thanks to a patented process invented in the late 1970s, monolithic concrete domes can be built in a matter of days without any heavy equipment at all. The secret is to build it from the outside in.
The process begins with a fairly ordinary concrete foundation—typically in the shape of a ring. A heavy-duty, dome-shaped “balloon” known as an airform is affixed to the foundation and inflated by special fans. Using a spray pump, the builder applies a thick layer of polyurethane foam to the inside of this balloon; the foam provides insulation as well as a bit of structural support for the remainder of the building process. Next, the builder attaches a steel rebar framework to the inside of the foam, and finally applies a sprayable concrete mixture known as shotcrete. The shotcrete reaches a thickness of about 3 inches (8cm), embedding the rebar and forming a reinforced concrete shell. Then the fan is turned off and the interior and exterior of the dome are finished using conventional materials (such as stucco). The airform, by the way, remains permanently in place, serving as an extra moisture barrier on the outside of the dome.
Concrete domes are strong—highly resistant to damage by earthquake, hurricane, or wind (even tornadoes). Because concrete is not flammable, the shell itself is fireproof, and also invulnerable to termites and other pests. And since concrete is a good insulator, monolithic concrete domes are extremely energy-efficient. Although the materials used to build a concrete dome are expensive, you need relatively little of them, so the cost of a monolithic concrete dome is comparable to that of a wood frame building of similar size. Since the cost savings increase with the size of the building, concrete domes are becoming an increasingly popular choice for churches, gymnasiums, arenas, storage facilities, and even airplane hangars.
For all their benefits, though, concrete domes are by no means perfect. For instance, they tend to trap moisture inside, making a dehumidifier or air conditioner mandatory except in very dry climates. And of course they have the same problems all dome houses have. Their geometry does not work well in narrow urban lots. Furnishing, decorating, and cleaning a dome home can be challenging. You may have difficulty obtaining financing or insurance for such a nonstandard design. And you may have to contend with neighbors who are concerned about their own homes’ resale value with that alien spacecraft parked next door.
But a “dome” need not look that unusual after all. The airforms used to create monolithic concrete domes can be made in nearly any shape. Although you probably wouldn’t use them to make a cube, there’s no reason a building made in this fashion has to be a perfect dome either. A single custom-made airform can also be used to make a series of interconnected domes, and can include extensions, insets, cutouts, and augmentations—making it possible to integrate doorways, window frames, carports, or anything else you’d like into the shell of your building. Domes can even have multiple levels.
On that hypothetical future day when I can afford to build the home of my dreams, I may or may not choose a monolithic concrete dome. Pyramids have a lot going for them too, and then there’s always the classic elegance of a castle. I’ll cross that drawbridge when I get to it.
Note: This is an updated version of an article that originally appeared on Interesting Thing of the Day on August 3, 2004.
Image credit: Joe Tordiff [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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Author: Joe Kissell
J.R.R. Tolkien—author of The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion, and other less-famous works—was born on January 3, 1892. I barely know where to begin extolling the virtues of this literary genius, so I’ll simply say: happy 127th birthday! I’d also like to take this opportunity to remind readers (especially those from places that are not in the United Kingdom) that “Tolkien” is not pronounced like the word “token” with an added L, so please stop saying it that way. It’s /ˈtɒlkiːn/, thanks very much—the first vowel is the one in “body,” and the second is the one in “see.” I think we can all make the extra effort to produce the correct vowel sounds in his name, considering all he’s done for us!
Image credit: Julian Nitzsche [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
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Author: Joe Kissell
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