16 things I know are true but haven’t quite learned yet

 

There’s a difference between knowing something and living as if it were true. These truths are all lingering on that awkward threshold, for me anyway.

1) The sooner you do something, the more of your life you get to spend with that thing done — even though it takes less effort (or at least no more) than it will later. It’s the ultimate sure-thing investment and I pass it up all the time.

2) I never regret working out. I can’t count the number of times I’ve negotiated with myself to work out the next day instead of today because I’m worried it will be a “bad workout.” I seldom have a bad day on a day that I work out.

3) Whenever I’m playing with my phone I am only shortening my life. A smartphone is useful if you have a specific thing you want to do, but ninety per cent of the time the thing I want to do is avoid doing something harder than surfing Reddit. During those minutes or hours, all I’m doing is dying.

4) Nothing makes me more productive and in-the-moment than a clean house. There is mind-clearing magic in cleanliness. Waking up in a house where everything is put away is a glorious feeling. There seem to be more possibilities in the air, and all my things seem more useful.

5) Minute-for-minute, nothing I do is more rewarding than meditation. Even after just a very short session, it reliably makes me better at everything, especially making decisions. It lets me do my best. Yet I still do it only intermittently.

6) Creative work is something that can be done at any time. It’s no different than any other kind of work. Inspiration is nice but completely optional. I’ve almost completely come around on this one in 2013. But sometimes the Four Horsemen still trick me.

7) Acting the way you want to feel usually works. When I feel crappy just before I have to go do something, if I decide to act as if I am happy for a while (even though I’m not) I usually end up feeling happy after not too long, or at least much less crappy. This is straight out of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project and it’s an extremely powerful thing to experiment with. [More on this in an upcoming post.]

8) Ninety-five per cent of my happiness comes from having a home, a functioning body and something to eat. I live in utter luxury, by any sensible standard of what “luxury” is. If I am unhappy it’s because I’ve lost perspective about the other five per cent.

9) Our minds are geared to manage much less than we typically end up managing. Modern people have so many options they conflict with each other in almost every area. The fewer things I have, the more I enjoy my things. The fewer goals I have, the better I do them. The smaller the portion size, the better food tastes.

10) The quickest and most reliable path to personal improvement is to do the things on my list that I resist most. Internal resistance should be taken as a big red sign guaranteeing rapid growth and new capabilities. Given my experience with the ecstasy that comes with overcoming resistance, logically I should be attracted to it by now.

11) All you need to do to finish things is keep starting them until they’re done. The idea of doing something in its entirety always seems hard. But it’s easy to commit to simply starting on something, and then you’re past most of the resistance. Continuing is just as easy. (Thanks to Leo Babauta for this one.)

12) Whenever I think I’m mad at a person, I’m really just mad at a situation. I’m mad because suddenly life requires something new of me, and it’s easy to implicate a person who contributed to that situation. I want the situation to be responsible for fixing itself, so I attribute it to someone else’s moral failing, and then I don’t have to feel responsible for this new problem of mine.

13) Ultimately, to get something done you have to forget about everything else while you do it. The mind is always telling you that 85 things are on fire and you need to do everything now. However you respond emotionally to it, to move things along you have to pick one to deal with, and let the rest continue burning while you do.

14) The most consistently joyful activities for me are visiting with other people and reading books. Aside from earning a living and a bit of travel there isn’t much else I need in my life. Somehow these two things are still not clear priorities. What are yours?

15) If I find myself in an argument, I’ve made a mistake. It doesn’t matter whose position makes more sense, because by the time it’s an argument any real communication has ended. Marshall Rosenberg’s brilliant method of Nonviolent Communication is a far more useful default response than argument, but I often forget it completely.

16) Few things matter long-term other than relationships, health, personal finance and personal growth. Crises in almost every other area turn over so quickly there’s not much reason to get upset at them. Interestingly, those four are the areas that probably contribute most to happiness in the short term too.

 

Jovens mexicanos ingerem bebidas por via anal para driblar bafômetro

 

As autoridades de saúde do estado mexicano Tamaulipas estão preocupados com a forma como jovens têm ingerido álcool sem que possam ser pegos no bafômetro. Para fugir da fiscalização, eles têm "bebido" por via anal ou vaginal.
"Não temos dados oficiais reportados, mas é uma certeza que essa prática [ingestão de bebida pelas vias anal e vaginal] vem acontecendo entre os jovens da região", afirma Soraya Sánchez, chefe do departamento de dependentes da Secretaria de Saúde local.
Como era de se esperar, médicos consideram que a prática é de altíssimo risco. Os locais por onde a bebida são ingeridas proporcionam fácil absorção e, por isso, têm efeito similar ao da ingestão por via oral.
A prática, porém, pode levar a infecções nos locais por conta do álcool das bebidas. Com isso, infecções generalizadas não são raras nos adeptos destas práticas.
De acordo com as informações da imprensa local, os jovens utilizam objetos de higiene íntima feminina para ingerir a bebida por via anal ou vaginal.

Eu sempre penso que devo ter lido e visto tudo neste mundo, mas sempre aparece algo assim para me dizer que “Não”. (JSM)

Os riscos de fumar na gravidez

 

 

As gestantes que fumam devem tomar cuidado. As substâncias presentes do cigarro não prejudicam só a elas. Os bebês também podem ter sérias complicações.

Mulheres que mantém o vício de fumar nos primeiros três meses de gravidez correm o risco de sofrer aborto natural, sangramentos, descolamento de placenta e parto prematuro, além de problemas de saúde congênitos para o bebê. 

Quando ainda está na barriga, o feto absorve tudo que está no sangue da mãe. A mamãe fumante, além de oxigênio no sangue também tem monóxido de carbono, que é liberado pela fumaça do cigarro. Ou seja, o bebê “fuma” junto com a mãe.  Além disso, a nicotina, outra substância presente no cigarro, estreita os vasos sanguíneos fazendo com que chegue menos nutrientes e oxigênio para o feto, o que pode acarretar graves problemas de desenvolvimento.

“São muitos os danos que o consumo do cigarro pode gerar. Há grandes chances de o bebê nascer prematuro e com peso abaixo do normal, entre outros males. Por isso, as mães precisam ser cautelosas com a saúde dos filhos”, afirma a ginecologista Flávia Fairbanks.

Além dos males que o cigarro traz para o feto, a saúde da mamãe também é prejudicada. Por causa do estreitamento dos vasos sanguíneos causado pela nicotina, e da pressão natural que a gravidez causa nas veias abdominais, a circulação de sangue nas pernas fica comprometida, podendo causar trombose, que é a formação de coágulos dentro das veias. Se não for tratada rapidamente, a trombose pode se complicar e acarretar problemas mais sérios como:

Embolia pulmonar: o coágulo pode soltar da veia e ir até o pulmão, causando falta de ar e dor para respirar. A gravidade do problema depende do tamanho do coágulo, variando desde sutil até insuficiência respiratória aguda.

Trombose na placenta: é a formação de coágulos na placenta, que pode evoluir para insuficiência placentária (a placenta não consegue mais levar oxigênio e nutrientes para o feto). A gravidade também é variável, e nos quadros mais graves pode levar até a morte do bebê.

“Não há nenhuma novidade em afirmar que o cigarro pode estimular o desenvolvimento de diversas doenças; ainda assim, muitas pessoas insistem em manter o vício. O que agrava a situação, no caso das gestantes, é que elas não estarão prejudicando apenas o próprio organismo, mas também o de um bebê que, ao nascer, já poderá apresentar diversos problemas por conta do costume nocivo da mãe”, declara a Dra. Flávia.

 

fonte : www.uol.com.br

The Numbers Behind Japan’s Renewed Embrace of Nuclear

 

The Fukushima disaster led Japan to shut down nuclear power plants, but three years of rising costs and carbon dioxide emissions are forcing it to reverse course.

• By Mike Orcutt on March 11, 2014

Why It Matters

Shifting to nuclear power from fossil fuels greatly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Three years later: An aerial photo taken on March 11, 2014, shows what remains of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on the third anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that led to a major crisis at the plant.

In the three years since the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japan has tried to replace nuclear energy with fossil fuels. But the costs have proved prohibitive, and now the government is convinced it must turn its reactors back on.

Prior to the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns, Japan was a nuclear powerhouse. In 2010, its 54 reactors generated 31 percent of the island nation’s electricity and 10 percent of the world’s nuclear power.

After the disaster, the government ordered all reactors to be shut down for stress testing to determine whether they could survive extreme events, and only two have since been restarted. In 2012, the prime minister said Japan would phase out nuclear power entirely by 2030.

The hole made by shuttering the nuclear industry has been filled with coal, natural gas, and oil.

Japan has virtually no fossil fuel resources of its own, though, and must buy its fuel from other countries. In 2012, the most recent full year for which the Energy Information Agency has data, Japan was the second-largest fossil fuel importer in the world, behind China. Between 2010 and 2012 annual oil imports rose 4 percent, and imports of liquefied natural gas increased by 24 percent.

Because of this, the cost of power generation in 2012 was $30 billion higher than it was in 2010—a 41 percent jump, according to a report by the Institute of Energy Economics in Japan.

Burning more fossil fuels also means more carbon dioxide emissions. The increase seen in Japan since the Fukushima disaster has been the largest in 20 years. In 2012, Japan’s emissions were up by 6 percent over the previous year.

A draft energy plan published last month put nuclear back at the center of the country’s energy plans, and restarting shuttered reactors has now become a priority. Utility companies have applied to restart 17 reactors.

But given the stricter safety regulations put in place since Fukushima, Japan’s nuclear industry will have an uphill climb. Restarting each reactor could cost around $1 billion in fees and will require a six-month review by the new Nuclear Regulation Authority. In the most optimistic scenarios, Japan might be able to fire up 10 reactors per year.

 

Cavalos

 

Tudo sobre cavalos - click link

 

Understanding the brain: the National Science Foundation and the BRAIN Initiative

A comprehensive understanding of the brain remains unknown.

September 3, 2013

Researchers, Dear Colleague Letter: BRAIN EAGERs to Enable Innovative Neurotechnologies to Reveal the Functional and Emergent Properties of Neural Circuits Underlying Behavior and Cognition posted March 7, 2014. Please find more information on NSF's role in the BRAIN Initiative here.​

On April 2, 2013, the White House announced an initiative called Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN), which includes the participation of the National Science Foundation (NSF). You may wonder what this means.

Part of what it means is an opportunity to continue a national conversation about an important topic: the brain. To help with the dialogue, here are short answers to some basic questions.

What is the BRAIN Initiative?

The BRAIN Initiative is an effort by federal agencies and private partners to support and coordinate research to understand how the human brain works.

Why do we need to understand the brain?

Understanding the brain means knowing the fundamental principles underlying brain structure and function. The research required to do so will accelerate scientific discovery and innovation, promote advances in technology and bolster U.S. economic competitiveness.

New neuroscience discoveries will enable us to foster brain health; engineer solutions that enhance, replace or compensate for lost function; improve the effectiveness of formal and informal educational approaches; promote learning across the lifespan and build brain-inspired smarter technologies for improved quality of life.

What is NSF's role in brain research?

NSF has a long history of support for brain science that has produced breakthroughs in brain imaging, neurotechnologies, modeling and genomics, and is uniquely positioned to lead an innovative, multi-disciplinary effort by scientists and engineers to advance a comprehensive understanding of brain structure and function.

NSF invests in high-risk, high-reward exploratory and transformational scientific and engineering research with emphasis on integration across scales and disciplines.

Why now?

While our knowledge of brain anatomy and how brain cells use chemical and electrical signals to communicate with one another has grown considerably, we are only beginning to understand how those signals interact to give rise to thoughts, processes and behaviors.

Now is the time for a comprehensive approach that combines new discoveries from a variety of fields, including brain anatomy, imaging and function as well as cyberinfrastructure. Understanding the brain has been identified as one of five longstanding and fundamental questions, or "grand challenges," for future research.

What do we need to do this?

• Continued cooperation among different fields of research: biology, engineering, chemistry, physics, math, computer science, social and behavioral science, and medicine. To integrate findings across scales of space and time, from molecular, physical, physiological and genetic to cognitive and behavioral.
• Discoveries born out of curiosity-driven science that will ultimately help maintain a healthy brain.
• Tools that can detect, measure and record all the connections and activity in a single brain of 100 billion neurons (today's technology is limited to a few thousand neurons).
• Improved data management and storage for the large amounts of information that will be produced.
• Time. This is a long-term investment.

How will the BRAIN Initiative affect programs at NSF?

NSF invests tens of millions of dollars in neuroscience and cognitive science research across many disciplines. NSF will continue to make major investments in fundamental science across disciplines and in innovative technologies to accelerate discovery that will revolutionize our understanding of the brain.

When can the scientific community expect to learn more about NSF's research goals for the BRAIN Initiative?

Information will be added to NSF.gov in coming months. Follow our social media accounts for #brain updates.

Have more questions? Email us at understandingthebrain@nsf.gov.

How Dry Will It Get? New Climate Change Predictions

 

Map of projected changes in global precipitation.
Credit: Scripps

Global warming's crystal ball is clearing as climate models improve, and scientists now predict that some regions will see a month's less rain and snow by 2100.

The new rain and snow estimates indicate that subtropical spots — such as the Mediterranean, the Amazon, Central America and Indonesia — will undergo the biggest precipitation shifts in the coming decades. The number of dry days in these zones will rise by as many as 30 days per year, according to the study, published today (March 13) in the journal Scientific Reports.

"Looking at changes in the number of dry days per year is a new way of understanding how climate change will affect us that goes beyond just annual or seasonal mean precipitation changes, and allows us to better adapt to and mitigate the impacts of local hydrological changes," said Suraj Polade, a climate scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and lead study author.

The findings also suggest a rising probability of droughts and floods in the near future as annual rainfall becomes more variable, the researchers said. [Weather vs. Climate Change: Test Yourself]

"Variability is going to play a big part in making things worse [as climate changes]," Polade told Live Science. "When you're increasing the variability of the climate, one year you can have a flood and the next year you can have a drought. You can also have an increase in extreme precipitation events, with a whole year's precipitation in just a few storms."

South Africa, Mexico and western Australia will go without rain for 15 to 20 more days per year, and California is likely to have five to 10 more dry days per year by the end of the century, the study found.

Some of the subtropical missing moisture will head north: The study predicts the Arctic will have 40 more wet days a year, but the South Pole will only get 10 more wet days per year.

Rerouting the weather

Why the shifts? Answers vary, but previous research has pointed the finger at changing storm tracks, particularly for tropical cyclones such as hurricanes and typhoons. Climate models suggest that midlatitude cyclones may shift north, while those that hit near the equator will likely stay their usual course.

There are also poleward shifts in the vast atmospheric patterns that control where rain falls. For example, the Hadley cell, the large-scale pattern of atmospheric circulation that transports heat from the tropics to the subtropics, has marched south during recent decades, moving the subtropical dry zone (a band that receives little rainfall) along with it. The northern and southern jet streams, which mark where cold and warm air meet, also seem to be creeping toward the poles. Their movement away from the equator suggests that the Earth's tropical zones are expanding, according to recent studies. The jet streams play an important role in moving moisture around the higher latitudes.

"We are looking at why this is happening," Polade said. "Earlier studies suggest that warmer regions will get wetter, while colder regions can get wetter or drier," he said. "The tropics are also getting wetter or drier, while the subtropics are drying."

The report relies on the latest global climate models (known as CMIP5), which predict future climate change under certain greenhouse-gas emissions scenarios. The study tested an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to 950 parts per million by 2100, more than twice the current level. The number means there would be 950 molecules of carbon dioxide in the air per every million air molecules. 

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

General Dynamics delivers second mobile landing platform to US Navy

 

13 March 2014

General Dynamics NASSCO has successfully delivered the second mobile landing platform (MLP) ship, USNS John Glenn (MLP 2), to the US Navy.

The second MLP ship has been named to honour the former US Marine Corps pilot and US senator John Herschel Glenn, who is also the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.

General Dynamics NASSCO president Fred Harris said: "We are delivering this ship with the quality, innovation and capability needed to support the future missions of the nation's fleet and uniformed men and women around the world."

The 785ft-long MLP is a new class of auxiliary vessel being designed for the US Navy to serve as a floating base for amphibious operations and a transfer point between large ships and small landing craft.

Powered by a twin-screw diesel electric propulsion system integrating four MAN/B&W medium-speed diesel engines, the new MLP ships will enter service with three maritime prepositioning force (MPF) squadrons to support a wide range of missions including humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, amphibious and other combat missions.

The third ship of the class, MLP 3, is currently under construction by NASSCO and will be configured as an afloat forward staging base (AFSB).

MLP 3 is expected to be delivered to the US Navy in the second quarter of 2015.

Separately, the US Navy has placed orders with General Dynamics for maintenance and modernisation of the Virginia-class attack submarine, USS Minnesota (SSN-783).

Under the $57m contract, the company will perform a post-shakedown availability, which consists of maintenance work, repairs, alternations and testing to ensure the submarine is operating at full technical capacity.

Scheduled to be completed in February 2015, work under the contract will be conducted at the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, US.

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Image: US Navy's second mobile landing platform, USNS John Glenn (MLP 2), underway off the California coast. Photo: courtesy of US Navy.