Some interesting stuff to feed the mind.

[Lmws214]

This is the Emotionally Intelligent Way To Handle Stage Fright

4 Minute Read

 

 

Rather than beating yourself up about being nervous, you need to acknowledge, and even embrace, your jitters. Here’s how:- STEP 1: RECOGNIZE YOUR EMOTIONAL “SET POINT”

All of us have what I like to think of as an emotional “set point,” a basic level of stress that we can manage even if it makes us uncomfortable. You might feel excited or stimulated by that level of pressure, but it doesn’t make you so anxious that your performance tanks. This level of stress differs for everybody, but once it’s crossed, crippling anxiety sets in.

Maybe talking to your boss or your peers feels a little stressful, but you can still get your message across smoothly. But put you in front of a really daunting audience–your boss’s, your biggest client, or your board of directors, and your the temperature heats up. You zoom past your emotional set point, and all hope is lost.

By recognizing where your own emotional set point falls, though, you can know what to expect when you go beyond it. For example, you’re not surprised when you step into a sauna or a steam room, because you were already expecting intense heat before you opened the door. Similarly, instead of being overwhelmed by your feelings, you need to recognize that you’re just temporarily beyond your emotional set point. This is a far better approach than trying to avoid going past it in the first place (that’s hopeless).

Your heart rate is your barometer, so simply monitor it mentally, much as you would while running intervals on a treadmill. If your heart rate is high during your next big presentation, notice that, then take a deep breath. Slow down your exhales, and count to four in your head. This will help you get back to your emotional set point. You may still feel a little uncomfortable, but it won’t derail your talk.

STEP 2: COMPARTMENTALIZE (REALLY, IT’S OKAY)

You may have had a bad speaking experience at some point of your life. For example, one of my clients actually fainted in front of 300 leaders at her company. That’s an extreme example–but you might have your own triggers that spike your anxiety levels through the roof.

To get beyond this, try to imagine that you’re putting images of these memories away into mental boxes, not to be touched or opened for a period of time. Worried that repressing bad memories doesn’t exactly sound like the most emotionally intelligent strategy? It is! You aren’t feeling your feelings for good–you’re noting that they’re there, then setting them aside just for the time being. Think of it as strategic compartmentalization.

Then, concentrate on what you’re doing instead of what you’re feeling. Think about your breathing, your movement, and most importantly, your ideas. You can even try assigning a color to each of your ideas to help you focus–green for creative, red for emotional, and so on. By putting bad feelings away for the moment, you’re putting yourself in control of the situation so you can be present when you need to be.

STEP 3: FOCUS ON THE NEXT IDEA, NOT THE NEXT WORD

Speaking is a fast-action sport. You need to keep talking at 150–200 words per minute. Imagine driving at 150–200 miles per hour. I remember test-driving a Lotus Simulator years ago at the Montreal World’s Fair, and the only way I kept from crashing was by looking further ahead down the road than I was used to. It’s kind of the same thing while speaking, especially when anxiety threatens to kick your emotions into overdrive.

The best way to stay in control is to look further ahead than you’re used to in an ordinary conversation, and the way to do that is to focus on your ideas, not your words. The more you focus on your words, the more likely you’ll end up crashing into higher and higher levels of anxiety. By focusing on your ideas, you allow your thoughts to flow, one into the next.

Remember: There is no right or wrong way to speak, no single turn of phrase that will save or ruin your message. It’s your ideas that matter most. By the same token, there’s no right or wrong way to feel. It’s how you handle your emotions that makes the difference.

 

source: 

https://www.fastcompany.com/40501340/this-is-the-emotionally-intelligent-way-to-handle-stage-fright?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Leadership%20Daily&position=3&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=12042017

How To Write Emails That People Want To Respond To

 

 

 Only two simple rules:-

Don’t be a time suck.

It’s important to remember that busy people are, well, busy. So, if your message looks like it will take a lot of effort and elbow grease to respond to, it’s probably going to be left for later (and then likely forgotten for eternity).

Instead of typing something like:

I’d love to pick your brain and find out more about pursuing a career in engineering. Can we schedule a time to chat?

You would write:

I’m working on finding out more about the career field and I’d love to hear from you: What’s the one key skill you think someone needs in order to be successful in engineering?

Put simply, you need to start with something straightforward and easy. Once you have a response, you can continue building on that momentum. Rest assured, it doesn’t need to happen all at once.

Source:-

https://www.fastcompany.com/40502407/how-to-write-emails-that-people-want-to-respond-to?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Leadership%20Daily&position=4&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=12042017

 

[Lmws214]

Where is the remotest spot in the United States?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42104894

Digital Distraction Is Bad for Creativity

https://thewalrus.ca/digital-distraction-is-bad-for-creativity/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

[Jamesc]

When I have to give a speech

 

I stand up, look at the audience 

 

and just imagine everyone naked.

 

It worked most of the time but I didn't

 

get good results in a convent.

 

 

[Lmws214]

 

Your Data Is Safe, For a Price

How the same technology that protects your personal information is being used by cyber criminals

 

https://thewalrus.ca/your-data-is-safe-for-a-price/

 

[Jamesc]

Most important is to have a strong password with a capital, small letters and also numbers.

 

But not so complicated that you keep forgetting.

 

I have a password that no hacker can break but is also one I can never forget

 

IlikeSEX696969  

 

[Lmws214]

Why There Can Never Be Another Muhammad Ali

The most inspiring sports heroes are revolutionaries who prove their moral supremacy by vanquishing conventional opponents.

 

https://thewalrus.ca/why-there-can-never-be-another-muhammad-ali/

 

 

 

Digital Distraction Is Bad for Creativity

https://thewalrus.ca/digital-distraction-is-bad-for-creativity/

[Lmws214]

The Surgeon Who Wants to Connect You to the Internet with a Brain Implant

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609232/the-surgeon-who-wants-to-connect-you-to-the-internet-with-a-brain-implant/

[Jman888]

you post so many links, are you getting paid for every time we click to the link?

[Lmws214]

no, cos I am a new babie and wish to share more info, hence more active in my sharing, so pls don't get me wrong.thnk u sir

 

you post so many links, are you getting paid for every time we click to the link?

 

How Humans Are Inadvertently Hastening the Extinction of Canada's Whales

An investigation into this summer’s mysterious deaths blames our booming industries. But it isn’t too late to save the endangered mammals

Ten atlantic right whales were found dead in Canadian waters this summer, many of them washed up on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The die-off of the endangered species was unprecedented, especially since there are only about 500 of the whales left on Earth.

The last time this many right whales perished in such rapid succession was in the 1930s, during the waning days of commercial slaughter. The whales—giants that grow up to fifteen metres in length and can weigh more than ten school busses—were nearly wiped out early in the twentieth century (their numbers dropped from 21,000 to fewer than 100) for the value of their blubber and baleen. In fact, they received their name because whalers considered them the “right whale” to hunt. While the whaling days may be over, the few hundred Atlantic right whales that remain are once again at risk of extinction—only now, many scientists believe the deaths are not caused by harpoons. Instead, right whales have become collateral damage from the growing shipping and fishing industries.

“One of the reasons why this year is so catastrophic for the population is because it comes after several years of declines in calving, health, and sightings in their known habitat,” says Kimberley Davies, a post-doctorate fellow and right-whale specialist at Dalhousie University. “So the population was already in trouble before these deaths occurred.”

As the latest mortalities make clear, preventing the extinction of the Atlantic right whale will necessitate not only a better understanding of the threats they currently face, but also a willingness to act swiftly to protect them.

On august 25, the Fisheries branch of the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared the right-whale deaths this summer (including three additional deaths in US waters) an “unusual mortality event,” triggering a deep investigation that will be carried out with help from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The investigation hinges on one question: Why did so many whales die in such quick succession?

As part of its own research, ongoing since June, Canada’s federal government has overseen six right-whales necropsies to try and isolate a cause of death and probe for disease, contaminants, and other factors contributing to fatality. (The other four whale bodies were either too decomposed for a formal investigation or not towed to dry land). In three whales, the preliminary results found blunt force trauma consistent with ship strikes. Meanwhile, signs of entanglement were present in at least one of the dead whales.

Ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements by far constitute the greatest threat to survival for North Atlantic right whales. Their migration route spans from Florida to Newfoundland, crossing some of the busiest shipping lanes on the continent. Then there are the many fixed fishing nets, traps, and lines that litter the ocean to harvest high-value seafood. Vertical ropes connecting bottom traps to the surface regularly entangle the whales. They drag the gear, which hampers their ability to feed, increases their stress, and causes difficulty swimming. Entanglement is also a likely contributing factor to declining calving rates, which have decreased by 42 percent over the past five years. An amazing 80 percent of living right whales have battled entanglement at some point in their lives, often carrying the scars from ropes that can result from dragging fishing gear over great distances.

Davies suspects that the whales’ efforts to find food are also playing an underlying role in recent deaths. Atlantic right whales winter and birth their young off the coasts of Florida and Georgia, and spend the rest of the year chasing tiny crustaceans called copepods from hotspots off the coast of New England and into Canada’s Atlantic waters. The whales usually feed from June to November in Canadian waters, historically massing in places like the Bay of Fundy. But this now appears to be changing, putting the whales in closer contact with humans.

Davies says that an increasing number of right whales have now been observed chasing food into the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. To access this new feeding habitat, she says, the whales must to cross the Laurentian channel—a busy shipping lane that bisects the Gulf. (The shifting of feeding habitats over time can be a natural phenomenon, and Davies says that there is no evidence at this point that it has anything to do with climate change.)

Ships and fishing gear not only kill right whales, but also wound, stress, and exhaust the tiny population that continues to survive. Rosalind Rolland, a senior scientist and director of ocean health at the New England Aquarium in Boston, points to myriad health impacts that are playing out in the background environment, which may be compromising the ability of Atlantic right whales to recover. We know, she says, that the increasing volume of underwater noise generated by decades of growing marine trade is stressing right whales. The animals are also known to face exposure to marine toxins from certain red tides (algae blooms that grow out of control and generate toxins), including in their critical habitat in the Bay of Fundy. (All of the necropsies currently being performed on the dead whales, says Rolland, will have to rule out whether such toxin exposures compromised whale health or the ability to evade ships.)

The declining health of the surviving right whales is evident in a study published last year. Rolland and a team of researchers evaluated over 700,000 right-whale photographs that were taken from the 1980s to the early 2000s, looking closely at the whales’ appearances—specifically, the changes in body shape that can denote malnourishment. The researchers concluded that the general health of right whales gradually deteriorated over those three decades.

Barbara Cartwright, ceo of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, is a past member of the government’s Right Whale Recovery Plan team created under Canada’s federal Species At Risk Act. She says unless aggressive efforts are made immediately, North Atlantic right whales could go extinct under this generation’s watch. “We’re seeing a population really teetering on the borderline,” she says.

And right whales aren’t the only species mysteriously dying. In 2016 and 2017, forty-one humpback whales were found dead along the east coast of the United States, in areas that overlap with right-whale migration routes. The humpback deaths were officially declared an “unusual mortality event” by the US noaa in April 2017, and an investigation is ongoing.

While it is currently illegal to harm, harass, and kill Atlantic right whales under Canadian federal law, the government is in a tough spot: not only are they obligated to enforce species at risk legislation, but they also simultaneously regulate (and, in cases, promote) Canadian marine trade and ocean fishing.

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If right whales, and other species like them, are to survive, Rolland says governments and industry must act on two broad fronts. First, mortalities from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement must be eliminated, or at least minimized, in all right-whale habitats. There has been some progress in this area: lobster fishermen off the coast of Massachusetts have started experimenting with weaker ropes that a right whale could break through. And this summer, the federal government closed a local snow crab fishery early and introduced a ten-knot speed limit on larger vessels travelling in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence. (The speed was set because larger ships travelling more than twelve knots will usually kill a right whale.)

The second broad front, Rolland says, is to minimize the impact of the many non-lethal human-caused stressors, including underwater noise levels. “These actions need to be taken immediately to give this population a chance at survival in the long term,” she says.

Cartwright lauds the government’s response this summer but says much more needs to be done in preparation for the whales’ return in 2018. Assumptions will have to be made about where the whales will congregate next year, she says, and how to best protect them from human activity—meaning more speed restrictions for boats, fishing restrictions, and potentially moving shipping lanes altogether to reduce ship collisions. Cartwright says authorities can lower the maximum ship speed in areas where whales are known to feed and congregate, and even move shipping lanes away from certain areas. The latter has precedent: in 2003, Bay of Fundy shipping lanes were moved four nautical miles to avoid right-whales feeding habitat, which reduced collisions. “It’s a delicate issue and they have to figure it out,” she says.

One bright spot for next year is the development of a new tool that promises to prevent ship strikes. Davies and a large team of researchers and partners, with a funding contribution from the federal government, are working to employ underwater drones that can be programmed to patrol the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Armed with listening devices, the robotic “gliders” can hear right whale calls, making it possible to alert any ships in the area. (A similar early warning system has already been used off the US coast.) The robots will also provide critical new information about whale movements as they chase zooplankton around the busy Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Such novel technologies will help. But urgent action is still needed from industry, government, and Canadians themselves. The clock is ticking.

 

[Lmws214]

health

The Case For Diagnosing Yourself Online

Googling our ailments is turning us into a nation of hypochondriacs. But it could also help fix an overburdened health care system

R

ecently, my neighbour Maria shared a story with me about her experience with “Dr. Google.” She’d discovered a red splotch on her left forearm. She didn’t know where it had come from but decided to dismiss it. It didn’t hurt. A day later, the discolouration was worse. Plus there was some itching and some pain. She wore a long-sleeved shirt to cover it up. On day three, however, the pain intensified. She knew she needed to take some action. And so she started Googling symptoms and diagnoses for “red skin discolouration” and other permutations of that phrase. She found some images. And some advice. And she also found some ads for creams and lotions.

Chances are you’ve also used Dr. Google. In fact, 70 percent of Canadians go online to search for medical or health-related information—accounting for 4.5 percent of all internet searches. In the US alone, 6 million people search for health-related information on a daily basis, which exceeds the combined number of daily outpatient visits to emergency departments and physician offices. Health policy and public health folk call this group “health seekers,” and a majority of them go online at least once a month for health information.

And while our gut instinct is to roll our eyes at this type of behaviour, let me be clear: online health information seeking can benefit us. It can, for instance, potentially increase health literacy and can also lead to greater engagement in disease management, which, in turn, may be associated with better compliance and better outcomes. It also helps counteract the lingering effects of an (overly) paternalistic approach to health care, back when many doctors were apt to give their patients a figurative pat on the head. There, there now. Let the doctor make all the decisions for you.

Using search engines to get more information about our health, in other words, is upending the traditional doctor-patient relationship—but it’s not all bad. Rather, health-seeking behaviour has given rise to a shared decision-making model. Ideally, this is one in which doctor and patient work together to achieve disease management that fits the patient’s needs. Of course, there are challenges in this new system, many of which will be familiar to those who have consulted Dr. Google: possible delayed diagnosis, convincing yourself you have something you don’t, wasted trips to the doctor, trying your own home remedy, and so on. Yet, in all these potential pitfalls, we rarely consider a more troubling question: What role does Google itself play in all this?

The vast majority of health seekers use online search engines as a starting point to gain information on a disease or to seek information on the treatment options for a particular disease. Unsurprisingly, Google is by far the most popular search engine and accounts for over 85 percent of health-related searches. We also know that almost four out of five health seekers start an online health information search by accessing sites such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. With the recent news that Google has been fined an incredible 2.4 billion euros in the EU for skewing its search results, however, it’s worth considering the corresponding implications for online health information seeking.

According to the EU regulator’s investigation into Google’s practices, the company’s search algorithm systematically, consistently gave prominent placement to its own services to the detriment of rival services. This “skew” is critical in the context of health care as, even on a desktop, the ten highest-ranking generic search results on page one receive approximately 95 percent of all clicks. In a health care search scenario, this means that when Maria is looking up her symptoms, the search results that she’s viewing might potentially be showing skewed information—such as an “amazing” cream or ointment.

Those results could be entirely based on the advertising dollars a company has spent as well as the corresponding search engine optimization used to vault it to page one. And it doesn’t help that health seekers are, by and large, incapable of distinguishing between high-value (i.e. correct) and low-value (i.e. incorrect) health care information. This has huge implications when it comes to how we certify, adjudicate, and validate online health information. There are approximately 70,000 websites and online platforms that purport to provide health information. And studies consistently show that a significant proportion of these portals report grossly inaccurate or misleading information.

In other words, while searching the web for health information can bring benefit it can also bring harm. Yet, instead of writing it off entirely, I’d argue that what we really need is regulation and oversight. This is a bold approach for an industry that is already drowning in regulation. Health information is not the same as celebrity gossip. But it is information. It should be readily accessible online, provided it is also reliable—the big caveat. So far, no tangible solutions have emerged, despite best efforts. One fairly obvious reason is that it’s really hard to govern information on the web where anyone with a credit card and a GoDaddy account can set up shop.

But we also don’t have good “quality” signals to send to consumers who are looking for health information. This may be an easier fix: if we assigned a top level domain, like “.health,” people could use it as a signal that a website has been reviewed and adjudicated for accuracy and completeness. Until then, everyone is left to their own interpretation. And while it’s sometimes easy to tell when a web page is from a reputable clinical institution (e.g. Mayo Clinic) other times, it isn’t.

And then there’s the issue of consensus. Suppose there was some person or group regulating online health information. Where would that person or group gain consensus on what information should be shared online and not shared online? In medicine, the heterogeneity of disease combined with a patient’s own underlying comorbidities makes it nearly impossible to suggest a specific treatment approach for every single patient.

While the downsides of online health-information-seeking behaviour may overwhelm the upsides, it’s clear that people aren’t about to stop using Dr. Google. If we ignore the trend, things will get worse, as they usually do. Individuals will continue to make decisions about their own health care, even though they might be grossly incapable of making such decisions. The unchecked growth of inaccurate, bogus sites could also nurture a nation of vigilant, search-engine-using hypochondriacs. It’s what I think of as a “palindromic” hitch. It is a problem both frontwards and backwards. Without intervention, we might drive people to seek care when none is required, or we might drive them to avoid care when care is required. Either way, doing nothing is also a less-than-optimal outcome. And the last thing we need in health care is another less-than-optimal outcome.

source:-

https://thewalrus.ca/the-case-for-diagnosing-yourself-online/

[Lmws214]

14 Things Successful People Do On Weekends

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/02/22/14-things-successful-people-do-on-weekends/#6be485df3f76

[Jman888]

I think the way you share or copy n paste wall of text is irritating.

 

the point of sharing is to share a topic and start discussion.

[Benarsenal]

I think the way you share or copy n paste wall of text is irritating.

 

the point of sharing is to share a topic and start discussion.

 

Ya. This is not FB, just copy and paste.

 

If want to start a discussion, please start a thread.

[Jamesc]

Most important is to have a strong password with a capital, small letters and also numbers.

 

But not so complicated that you keep forgetting.

 

I have a password that no hacker can break but is also one I can never forget

 

IlikeSEX696969  

 

 

The trick is not to use the same password everywhere.

 

I use a few but can never forget them.

 

NolikeMIL4444

 

MIL=Satan666

 

@chryst isNice    

[Staff69]

Please post piakture

 

If got chic with luscious lips would be best

[Jamesc]

Please post piakture

 

If got chic with luscious lips would be best

 

Like this?

 

 

[Staff69]

Like this?

 

 

[chryst]

The trick is not to use the same password everywhere.

 

I use a few but can never forget them.

 

NolikeMIL4444

 

MIL=Satan666

 

@chrystisNice

Awww we have similar passwords. Mine is @Jamesc isawesome