Our Drug Free Life?

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Free Directory Assistance by Google

I've been using Goog-411 (800-GOOG-411) for about a year. It works and it's free. With Goog-411 I got directions to a restaurant where I had a meeting, found the best coffee shop and roasters in Colorado Springs, received the address and phone number of the closest Goodwill store via text message.

Watch the video above to get the 411 on Goog-411.

Pangea Day Project

The Pangea Day project is inspiringly ambitious (more info here), and maybe it's just me, but every time I see this trailer, it sets my spine a-tingling. I hope you'll take a minute to view it and pass the link along to friends.

11-year-old charged with driving drunk | Oddly Enough | Reuters.com

Some parents put "my child graduated with honors" bumper stickers on their cars, others show photos of their cute smiling kids, but only it's a rare and privileged parent has the privilege of pointing at the above headline and exclaiming, "That's my girl!"

An 11-year-old girl was charged with drunken driving after leading police on a chase at speeds of up to 100 mph that ended when she flipped the car....

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Funny Signs You've Probably Never Seen

I laughed until I cried.
Click here to see three pages of Signs from Around the World and a few choice comments.
Sure they're silly but laughing is supposedly good for your health so click on the link and, if for nothing else, lower your medical costs!

How to Look Approachable

I enjoyed reading this article about How to Look Approachable in social settings. In case the photo scares you away from the article, the tips do not promote the use of maniacal mustaches. Here's a taste:

• Compliment others. It's a great way to show interest in other people and start conversations. Most people just love getting a compliment and positive attention, and talking about themselves. Just be sure it's sincere and appropriate. Ask follow-up questions to keep the conversation moving.
• Ask questions that require more than a simple "yes" or "no" answer to subtly encourage a shy or introverted person to keep talking.

How to Have a Positive Impact

Tim Rath's bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket is based on decades of research and uses a simple metaphor about a dipper and a bucket to show how even the briefest interactions affect your relationships, productivity, health, and longevity.

Nearly every day Annette and I pray that we can be an encouragement to those with whom we cross paths. So when I read about how you can have a positive impact in the world around you, it got my attention. In addition to the book, there is an associated website that has online tools and tests that will help you analyze your postive impact (you do have to register, but it's free and quick). Click here to go to that page.

A few fast facts from the book:

• The #1 reason people leave their jobs: They don't feel appreciated
• 65% of Americans received no recognition in the workplace last year
• Bad bosses could increase the risk of stroke by 33%
• A study found that negative employees can scare off every customer they speak with -- for good
  
• 9 out of 10 people say they are more productive when they're around positive people
• Relentless negativity resulted in a 38% POW death rate -- the highest in U.S. military history
• We experience approximately 20,000 individual moments every day
• The magic ratio: 5 positive interactions for every 1 negative interaction
• Can there be too much positive emotion? More than 13 positive interactions for every 1 negative interaction could decrease productivity
• Extending longevity: Increasing positive emotions could lengthen life span by 10 years

Here are some questions to help you positively influence the people around you:

1. Have I helped someone in the last 24 hours?
2. Am I an exceptionally courteous person?
3. Do I like being around positive people?
4. Have I praised someone in the last 24 hours?
5. Have I developed a knack for making other people feel good?
6. Am I more productive when I am around positive people?
7. In the last 24 hours, have I told someone that I cared about her or him?
8. Do I make it a point to become acquainted with people wherever I go?
9. When I receive recognition, does it makes me want to give recognition to someone else?
10. In the last week, have I listened to someone talk through his or her goals and ambitions?
11. Do I make unhappy people laugh?
12. Do I make it a point to call each of my associates by the name she or he likes to be called?
13. Do I notice what my colleagues do at a level of excellence?
14. Do I always smile at the people I meet?
15. Do I feel good about giving praise whenever I see good behavior?

Great Gobs of Google

If you think Google is only a search engine, click here to see what else they have to offer (and usually for free). If you want some recommendations, here is my top 5 list:

• Gmail: free, no virus, nearly spamless, email-as-it-should-be
• Picasa: Find, organize, edit & share your digital
• Blogger: easy, free blogging (create your own website)
• Notebook: Clip, collect & organize information (great for research)
• Docs & Spreadsheets: like a free online Microsoft Office

If you want Google's suggestions, go here.

Most Popular at LifeHacker

For ideas on how to get the most out of your computer, click on over to Lifehacker.

Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest

The folks over at CheapChicWeddings.com sponsored a contest to see who could make the best wedding dress constructed wholly out of toilet paper, tape and/or glue.

Click here to come to grips the extent to which girls will go for an excuse to dress up in any sort of wedding dress.

Parent Hacks: making road trips fun

Banish the dreaded "are we there yet?" with Parent Hacks' smart road trippin' tips. There's all sorts of interesting things you can do to keep the peace in your vehicle, including a basket of rotating toys, breaks every two hours, and an endurance timer - every 30 minutes, everyone gets some sort of treat. Unfortunately, I didn't see duct tape restraints or a bubble dome for the kids, but the list is good anyway :-)

Read the complete article here: parent hacks: On taking a road trip with little ones

The Man Who Saved the World

Until now few people knew about the man who saved the world (literally). But last week retired colonel Stanislav Petrov, the russian who averted nuclear war received the World Citizen Award at the U.N. in N.Y.

Get a Standing Ovation

How to Get a Standing Ovation has some great tips that’ll help you become a terrific public speaker. If you’re speaking in public any time soon - or just want to tame those butterflies - I highly suggest you read this.

A Flyer's Manual

Click here to read four insightful articles from Fodor's Travel Wire. They include:

How to Save on Your Next Flight
11 Tips for Smarter Packing
Smoother Sailing through Airport Security
Make Your Flight More Comfortable

We travel a lot and yet I found plenty of tips I wish I'd known about before.

18 Tricks to Teach Your Body

Click here to learn about 18 neat ways to "hack" your body in order to soothe a burn, cure a toothache, clear a stuffed nose or, my favorite, get rid of a stitch in your side:

If you're like most people, when you run, you exhale as your right foot hits the ground. This puts downward pressure on your liver (which lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale as your left foot strikes the ground.

An Insult or a Compliment

Annette and I just got an email from someone telling us they'd seen our photo online at an - ehem - unexpected website. I immediately clicked on over to the site to find out how our image was being used to promote Healthy Andropause: The Safe, Effective Alternative to Looking Old, Impotent and Pale (click here to see it - UPDATE: upon my request, they have taken down our image, but just imagine our photo being where that burly man with the moustache now is.)

Annette laughed a lot. But I'm not sure if I should take it as a compliment - "andropausal" men hope to look viral like the guy in the photo with the beautiful girl - or should I be insulted that they used the photo without asking permission and somehow "tanned" my lilly-white skin to make me look less - i dunno - testosterone deficent.

How To Avoid Being Robbed/Phished

"Phishing" is a form of online confidence scam. It can be very difficult to distinguish between legitimate emails from banks and other online commerce services and phishing scams.

According to data from e-mail security firm MailFrontier, only 4 percent of users can spot a phished e-mail 100 percent of the time. That’s a very sobering thought as the holiday season is upon us and Americans flock online for their shopping needs.

But don't fear, help is here=> Test your phishing IQ by clicking HERE and taking the quiz. At the end of the quiz the website gives tells you how to avoid having online thieves phish your information.
(note: I only answered 7 out of 10 correctly)

Confessions of a Car Salesman

Read the following article before walking into a car dealership: Confessions of a Car Salesman. This undercover reporter brings to light the intriguing and testosterone-filled world of car sales.

Calvin and Hobbes Snow Art Gallery

Would you like to be moved to smile or maybe even chuckle? If so - and this is 100% gauranteed or your money back - click the following link and enjoy the Calvin and Hobbes Snow Art Gallery. After you see the gallery, if you'd like to add my name to your will just have your lawyer get in touch with my lawyer.

So, What About Halloween?

Click here to read on of the best articles we've ever read on the Halloween dilemma that many parents struggle with. Margi McCombs, educator, mother, and friend of ours, provides a not-so-standard response to the issue. Here's a blurb:

Halloween, for many of us, holds fond memories of childhood fun—costumes, twinkling candles, crisp fall twilight, holding Daddy’s hand as we stroll the neighborhood, and mountains of candy by the end of the evening. So what’s the problem? [But] for others, Halloween represents all that we fear and hate the most....a relentless focus on death, dismemberment, evil spirits, satanic themes and fear itself.

Tough Learning

A meaty but very helpful presentation on Tough Learning. How to be be effective at learning and developing oneself over the long-haul. My favorite is the author's 3rd point (about 4/5 of the way down the page)... it's a great technique for transformational teaching/learning.

They ARE Smart, We Just Bore Them

Faculty nationwide are bewildered and frustrated with the students they see in their classrooms today (see this article, to feel their angst). Many believe there has been a fundamental change in the way contemporary students view knowledge and derive meaning... and it is vastly different from that of their instructors.

Annette and I think kids are as sharp as ever and probably more creative. It's not their problem that they are growing up in a world full of dynamic colors, sounds, video, and interactivity but when they go to school they are told to sit down, shut up, and listen. Sure, if you tell most kids to write a 500 word essay on a book and you'll probably be disapointed. But give a 5th-grader a camcorder or an iPod and they'll read parts of the book out loud and tell you why they like it, they'll make a short video to show you what they got out of the book, or they'll do interviews. Then you'll see the lights go on.

They're not dumb... they're bored.

See Jane sit and listen.
See Dick take notes in a book.
See Spot poop.

Um, let's try again... can Jane surf, take classes online and help save the coral reefs at the same time? Can Dick travel the world, maintaining a blog about the different cultures and the wild variety of ways they've adapted to media-based urbanization? Can Spot sit by Jane's beach towel and guard her laptop while she surfs?

All this was inspired by the following article at the Washington Post: The New Teacher's Pet.

Corruption Index 2005

.............(click map for more detail)

Like children anxiously waiting for Christmas morning, or like a cat waiting for that fat mouse to come out of it's hole... that's how Annette and I are waiting every year for Transparency International to publish the latest Corruption Perceptions Index.

Not Going to Hell in a Handbasket

So there!...for all of you who think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, read this article: BBC News: Wars Less Frequent, Less Deadly. Here's an excerpt:

[The study] found the number of armed conflicts had fallen by more than 40% in the past 13 years, while the number of very deadly wars had fallen by 80%.

Firefox: using it smart-like

Click this link=>The power user's guide to Firefox to learn some great tips for how to take advantage of FIREFOX (every savvy geek's favorite Internet browser).