Clipmarks | murieleileen's clips

Think Yourself Healthy by Appreciating the Exercise You Already Do

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:47:48 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: To illustrate with just one of the outcomes they measured, the average weight of those in the intervention group reduced from 145.5 lbs to 143.72 lbs. Over the same period the control group showed no significant change. For those of you working metric-style that's 66.14 kg down to 65.33 kg.

That's like dropping a bag of sugar. In four weeks. With no additional exercise.

Clip Source: www.spring.org.uk

How strong do you think the link is between mind and body?

For example, is it possible to think yourself fitter without doing any additional exercise, but by simply better appreciating how much exercise you already do? A recent experiment by Alia Crum and Professor Ellen Langer of Harvard University suggests the incredible answer is yes.

Dr Ben Goldacre

describes the study which was carried out on hotel attendants who were informed how much exercise they were already doing as a regular part of their job. Here's Ben's conclusion:

"...amazingly, despite no change in actual exercise levels, in the intervention group, simply being told about the value of what they were already doing caused a significant change for the better on every single one of the objective health measures recorded: weight, body fat, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio and blood pressure."

Tags: psycology, body, mind

Animal Myths

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:51:28 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: www.greenexpander.com

10 Animal Myths Debunked

Hares are cowards

All it needs is beating his paws relentlessly to escape from predators.

Commonly known as boxing

also used by females to “suggest” to the male that it is not yet ready for mating

Bears are slow

can reach a speed of up to 50 km/hr (30 mph.)

Hippos are clumsy

can reach speeds of up to 30 mph (48 lm/h)

faster than an Olympic sprinter

Badgers are sad and lonely

actually quite sociable

living in groups of 2 to 15 members

Giraffes are flexible

not even able to turn their head back

Zebras are given away by their stripes

stripes help them blend into the crowd

disappearing into a grey color spot

Rattlesnakes rattle before they attack

actually rattle when they are frightened

Octopuses use camouflage to protect from enemies

not

only

Male cuttlefish use their color to camouflage from other competing males and protect their females.

Lizards climb with the use of suction

Elephant have a thick skin

Actually its skin

is very sensitive.

Elephants can feel a simple touch

Tags: nature, animals, photos

Guess Who Came to Dinner? Bucky and the Beagle

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:23:53 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen
clipper's remarks: This is real cute.

Clip Source: 2coolfishing.com

Guess who came for dinner?

Bucky and the Beagle

The owner of this beagle came home to find that someone had followed him home -- right through the doggie door.

The end of the story: The local Department of Natural Resources told the beagle owner to put the fawn outside and block the doggie door so he couldn't return. He took the fawn to the edge of the woods where he believes he might have met the dog. Upon return a little later, the fawn was gone. We can only hope he was reunited with his mother!

Tags: bucky, beagle, fawn, dog, dinner, unusual

the most AWESOME picture ever seen

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:48:34 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

Tags: art, photography

Cat House on the Kings 500 cats in harmony

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:20:19 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Cat House on the Kings

[Video]

Introduction to this truly unique no-cage, no-kill cat & dog sanctuary in Parlier, California.

Tags: cats, 500, cat house on the kings, dogs

Awesome Innovations from the Underdeveloped Male Mind

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:01:20 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Hesh says that “the curtain may contain appropriately placed openings to allow for communication by or to the user”, which will allow for interaction like this:

Man without Portable Rain Covering:
“Dude, that’s really a sweet little device you’ve got there.”

Man wearing Portable Rain Covering:
“Thanks. I’ve had it for about a month now and I …..”

Man without Portable Rain Covering:
“Dude, that was sarcasm.”

Clip Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

This article is written by

Scott Seegert

He is the author of "It's a Guy Thing - Awesome Innovations from the Underdeveloped Male Mind"

1.Raymond’s Combined Camouflage and Decoy Device

As the next step in guys’ never ending battle to outsmart wildlife with brains the size of raisins, Raymond offers up his Combined Camouflage and Decoy Device.

2. Edwin’s Safety Clothing

Old people fall down a lot, often injuring themselves in the process. Well, Edwin has come up with a way to alleviate this problem and a quick glance at the illustration above reveals his plan for the elderly – to make them feel so ridiculous they refuse to leave the house.

3. Hesh’s Portable Rain Covering

You’re outside, with no shelter in sight, and it begins to rain. You don’t have an umbrella with you. What do you do? If you’re on the ball, you reach into your pocket, pull out Hesh’s Portable Rain Covering and place it on your head. If you’re really on the ball, you unfold and inflate it first.

Tags: weird inventions, funny

Dogs Can Read Their Owner's Minds

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:38:56 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen

Clip Source: articles.mercola.com

Dogs Can Read Their Owner's Minds

The bond between man and dog is the stuff that legends are made of. Our four-legged furry friends are a constant source of unconditional love, devotion and friendship, so is it any wonder they may have a special knack for empathizing with their owners?

A study published in the journal Biology Letters concludes that dogs can "catch" human yawns, which provides evidence that dogs may be able to “read the mind” of their owners.

Scientists have known for decades that yawns are infectious among people, so much so that simply thinking about them can trigger a chain reaction of "contagious yawning". The phenomenon is thought to be linked with empathy and the ability to read the thoughts of another individual.

Now the first ever study to report that human yawns induce yawning in dogs found that 21 out of 29 dogs yawned in response to human yawning, showing that "dogs possess the capacity for a rudimentary form of empathy."

Tags: dogs, mind reading

CP and a Flower Inside a Coconut Shell

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:23:32 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen
clipper's remarks: A Really beautiful story.

Clip Source: www.emofree.com

I met Sally eleven years ago at a two-week personal improvement seminar in Hawaii. When I say I "met" her that is not quite accurate. I never did become her friend. I don't even know her last name.

Sally was different. Her body was so twisted with Cerebral Palsy that her upper torso tilted at a constant 30-degree angle. The tilt was so extreme that no one could sit on her right side because she took up the space of two chairs. Her hands were gnarled and clamped shut. Her facial muscles wouldn't allow much of an expression and her mouth was fixed in an open position and saliva involuntarily drooled out of it. She could speak but it took a great deal of patience to understand her poorly formed words.

Sally was a flower encased in a coconut shell. Her spirit, her desires, her love were flowers just like yours and mine. But I couldn't see the flower because I was blinded by what my eyes were reporting. All I saw was a useless coconut shell.

But that was soon to change.

One night all

Tags: cp, cerebral palsey, flower, coconut, eft, inspiratioal

25 Unexpectedly Useful Websites for the Uncommonly Curious

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:33:13 GMT

clipped by: philos

Clip Source: www.webupon.com

This eclectic list of websites contains so many out of the ordinary pleasures that it is hard to know where to start.

Guerrilla Mail

Chain of Thoughts

Ted

Wiki Travel

Fix It Club

Simple Help

Life Script

Full Books

Study Guides and Strategies

Meta Religion

Bibliomania

World Freedom Atlas

My Fit

How to Clean Anything

Dear Cupid

Help With PCs

Sclipo

Speed Test

Google Translate

Movie Duo

Foodio 54

Big Oven

Beer Advocate

Music Mesh

Live Plasma

Tags: web 2.0

Good People

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:56:31 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen

Clip Source: www.emofree.com

Good People

An old man sat outside the walls of a great city. When travelers approached, they would ask the old man, "What kind of people live in this city?" The old man would answer, "What kind of people live in the place where you came from?" If the travelers answered, "Only bad people live in the place where we came from," the old man would reply, "Continue on; you will find only bad people here."

But if the travelers answered, "Good people live in the place where we came from," then the old man would say, "Enter, for here too, you will find only good people."

A Yiddish Folk Tale
Source Unknown

Algae: Biofuel Of The Future?

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:42:57 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

In the world of alternative fuels, there may be nothing greener than pond scum.

Algae are tiny biological factories that use photosynthesis to transform carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy so efficiently that they can double their weight several times a day.

As part of the photosynthesis process algae produce oil and can generate 15 times more oil per acre than other plants used for biofuels, such as corn and switchgrass. Algae can grow in salt water, freshwater or even contaminated water, at sea or in ponds, and on land not suitable for food production.

On top of those advantages, algae — at least in theory — should grow even better when fed extra carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) and organic material like sewage. If so, algae could produce biofuel while cleaning up other problems.

With the grant, the team will try to determine exactly how promising algae biofuel production can be by tweaking the inputs of carbon dioxide and organic matter to increase algae oil yields.

Tags: algae, biofuel, green

The secrets of LIFE

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:59:48 GMT

clipped by: vickybaranwal

Clip Source: picasaweb.google.com

Tags: secret, life, funny

4-Eared Feline Finds Fame

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:26:32 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Fame finds 4-eared feline thanks to Internet photo

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – The owners of Yoda — a cat with four ears — could use a couple extra hands to answer their telephones.

Ted and Valerie Rock said they've been inundated with television offers and media inquiries since their son posted a photo of their smoke-colored cat on a Web site. That turned the four-eared feline from a suburban animal oddity into an instant Internet celebrity.

The Rocks, from the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, have fielded calls from "Good Morning America," "Fox News" and "The Tyra Banks Show." The cat's photo has graced the London Guardian and a British tabloid. The Daily Mail said if Batman had a cat, it would be Yoda.

"It's amazing," Ted Rock said. "For the past few days, our phone has just been ringing off the hook."

Yoda's extra ears give him a hint of a devilish appearance. The Rocks said they found him in 2006 while watching a Chicago Bears game at a Blue Island bar.

Some in the bar were passing

Tags: cat, feline, 4 eared, unusual

Hilarious Signs

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:53:15 GMT

clipped by: murieleileen

Clip Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

Scratching of head required...

...and even then, it's no guarantee you'll figure out the real meaning behind these masterpieces of ambiguity. At least this signage provides much needed entertainment and comic relief on our all-too-stressful urban roads.

Let's just hope that when it comes to something really important - like instructions for handling nuclear waste and warnings to avoid the giant killer bee nests, they would not screw up the message.

Clip Source: lh5.ggpht.com

Clip Source: lh4.ggpht.com

Clip Source: lh6.ggpht.com

Clip Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

Where is that frigging lane? -

Zebra to nowhere:

Another great zebra:

A place in Ohio:

Crossing Gamble: 14 "lanterns" in the Central Business District in Melbourne, Australia.
- via

This is how you should draw the pedestrian. Not the other way. Got it? -

Warning signs to die for:

Clear & concise message:

Must be fun -

Not fun -

Wow -

(hitch a ride)

Local gamers seem to have good sense of humor:

New take on Pinocchio in children's magazine:

Very effective sign at the cemetery:

"Do not trample on the corpses. For God's sake! Please..."

Tokyo subway:

Tags: signs, hilarious

Sleep on It: How Snoozing Makes You Smarter

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:16:37 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: This insight paved the way for a new understanding of organic chemistry and earned Kekulé a title of nobility in Germany.

Although most of us have not been ennobled, there is something undeniably familiar about Kekulé’s problem-solving method. Whether deciding to go to a particular college, accept a challenging job offer or propose to a future spouse, “sleeping on it” seems to provide the clarity we need to piece together life’s puzzles. But how does slumber present us with answers?

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

During slumber, our brain engages in data analysis, from strengthening memories to solving problems

Key Concepts

As we snooze, our brain is busily processing the information we have learned during the day.

Sleep makes memories stronger, and it even appears to weed out irrelevant details and background information so that only the important pieces remain.

Our brain also works during slumber to find hidden relations among memories and to solve problems we were working on while awake.

n 1865 Friedrich August Kekulé woke up from a strange dream: he imagined a snake forming a circle and biting its own tail. Like many organic chemists of the time, Kekulé had been working feverishly to describe the true chemical structure of benzene, a problem that continually eluded understanding. But Kekulé’s dream of a snake swallowing its tail, so the story goes, helped him to accurately realize that benzene’s structure formed a ring.

Tags: sleep, brain, memory