Interesting Post that Explains my Laziness

Study: Night owls may benefit from evening strength

By Elizabeth Landau
CNN

(CNN) — If you have a hard time crawling out of bed in the morning, it could be that your body is biologically programmed to start the day later.

Some people who appear to have insomnia are biologically night owls, one expert says.

Experts say a spectrum of natural sleeping and waking rhythms exists, ranging from extreme morning people to extreme “night owls.”

A new study examines how morning people compare with night owls on a strength test and looks at what other physiological processes may contribute to their performance.

Researchers tested participants’ leg muscle strength at various points in the day. They looked at nine “early birds” and nine “night owls,” who were classified as such based on a questionnaire.

Surprisingly, morning people’s strength tends to remain constant throughout the day, but night owls have peak performance in the evening, said researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada.

“We thought that morning people would be better at this in the morning, but they never changed,” said study co-author Olle Lagerquist, a Ph.D. candidate in neurophysiology at the University of Alberta. 

That may be because evening people show increased motor cortex and spinal cord excitability in the evening, about 9 p.m., meaning they had maximal central nervous system drive at that time, Lagerquist said.

Morning people, on the other hand, never achieve this level of central nervous system drive because the excitability of the motor cortex does not coincide with the excitability of the spinal cord. In other words, these two measures never peak at the same time, he said. Early birds’ brains were most excitable at 9 a.m. and slowly decreased throughout the day.

Costa Rica tops list of ‘happiest’ nations – CNN

Forget Disneyland! Costa Rica is the happiest place in the world, according to an independent research group in Britain with the goal of building a new economy, “centered on people and the environment.”

Costa Rica is known for its lush rain forests and pristine beaches.

In a report released Saturday, the group ranks nations using the “Happy Planet Index,” which seeks countries with the most content people.

In addition to happiness, the index by the New Economics Foundation considers the ecological footprint and life expectancy of countries.

“Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world and have the second-highest average life expectancy of the new world (second to Canada),” the organization said in a statement.

They “also have an ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of … consuming its fair share of the Earth’s natural resources.”

No, I’m not blonde

Things in Costa Rica have been progressing pretty smoothly. I’m settling into my new job and making friends with my fellow teachers, but I’m still looking for an apartment. I even started going to the gym. The membership is included with my job, so I went with another teacher on Friday to check it out. It was a lot more intense than any gym stateside. One of the trainers took all my measurements, including my arms, thighs, and calves, my height, weight, BMI and percentage body fat (it was not pretty, trust me). However, it was motivation to work my butt off between now and next month, when I’ll be measured all over again. Then, he wrote me out an exercise plan and showed me how to do the first day’s worth of weights. I’m used to weight training, but not this much, so I was definitely sore the next day. I wasn’t planning on really committing to a gym schedule until I found a place closer to work/the gym, but now that I have an exercise plan and an appointment for more measurements, I feel like a have to. I went again today, but the 45 minute trip there and back didn’t really justify the hour and a half or so I spent there.

Last night after work and a nap I celebrated the 4th of July by going out to a karaoke bar. Anyone that has been to Latin American can attest to the Latino’s love for “romantic music”, and the karaoke bar is no exception. Every Tico (popular nickname for Costa Ricans) there thought they were at a tryout for Latin American Idol, belting out these sappy ballads and grabbing passionately onto the microphone. Needless to say, my friends and I were not about to hop on the bandwagon. Ale and I sang “Billie Jean” as a tribute to the gloved one, and Ale even moonwalked.

After I arrived home from the gym today, I talked to my fam on Skype (they were all wearing red, white and blue t-shirts). I currently have the house to myself, which would normally be alright, except that I just did the stupidest thing ever. In Costa Rica, home security is a big issue. Therefore, the house has a huge cast iron gate that needs to be unlocked from the inside and outside, and another self-locking door that lets you into the house itself. While trying to turn on a light, I accidentally pushed the button the opens the outside gate. Afraid that someone would take advantage of the unlocked gate, come inside and attack me, I shuffled outside to open the gate and reclose it, therefore locking it. In the process, the door to the house shut and locked, leaving me outside and barefoot. I considered sitting on the doormat to wait for Ale or his Dad to come home, but ultimately found a button outside that unlocks the gate. I shuffled across the street, still wet from the rain, to the pulpería (corner store), to ask the man there (Beto) if I could use his phone. I called Ale, who told me that his Dad’s girlfriend, who coincidentally lives across the street from us, has a key to the house. I shuffled over to her house, and her daughter Kata let me in. I’m not sitting in the comfort of the home, laughing at my stupidity. More mishaps to come! <3

Blog Announcement!

So, I moved to Costa Rica about two weeks ago. I’ve decided that keeping my friends and family updated via e-mail is sooo 2008, so I’ll be modifying the format of my blog a bit to allow for some more personal posts about my mishaps and adventures here in the land of Pura Vida. For those of you are who are interested in updates from me but weren’t on my original email list, here is the message I sent out on June 26, 4 days after arriving:

Hi beautiful people,

Considering I just up and moved to another country, I thought it would be a good idea to e-mail all of you and let you know how I’m doing. I’m currently sitting in Ale’s living room, procrastinating writing lesson plans and listening to a torrential downpour. I was taking a nap earlier (some things never change) and heard the loudest clap of thunder ever. I swear it exploded in my soul. So yeah, welcome to rainy season in Costa Rica!

I arrived on time and sweaty from carrying my 30 pound carry on (through which I avoided a 50$ heavy bag fee, so it was worth it) on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I had an interview at New Learning Academy, a private language academy that teaches English, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin and Portuguese. The person that interviewed me is a friend of a friend, so she was really nice. Long story short – I GOT THE JOB! Funny to think that my first “real” job happened to also be the easiest one I ever got! Basically, one of the teachers is leaving Costa Rica sooner than expected, so she really needed me to start as soon as possible. On Thursday, I went for a short training, where they just told me all about the structure of the Spanish lessons, the text book they use, etc etc. On Thursday night I went out with my friend Alvaro and some of his friends that I had met before in Costa Rica. It was fun, but it was also wierd not to be out with my friends from studying abroad. I didn’t stay out too late, because I had to get up early this morning (look look – me being responsible!) Today I had to give a demo lesson to four volunteer students so that the people from the academy could give me some pointers and get a glimpse of my teaching style. After that, I sat in on the last hour of a Spanish class. As an employee, I can take any language course for free. The Spanish class is a full of other teachers, and is below my level, but it was a good review of a lot of grammar and vocab that I haven’t studied since high school.

My job also comes with a gym membership, which I fully intend on using, considering how lazy I have been the past couple weeks. They have also provided me with some leads on apartments in the area. I definitely think it’s a good idea to live as close to the Academy as possible – considering I got lost getting there twice already. It’s in a good neighborhood – Guadalupe. It’s closer to Ale’s house than where I lived before, but it’s still relatively close to downtown San Jose, so a good location overall.

My first real class is tomorrow. I know, I know, work on a Saturday. But it shouldn’t be too bad – I get Fridays off, and because of Costa Rican holidays, I have two Saturdays off in July, coincidentally when two of my friends will be here. Also, when a new teacher starts, I will get promoted from Saturdays. In addition to my class on Saturdays, I will be teaching Monday through Thursday evenings. I have one class that meets on Monday and Wednesdays and one class that meets Monday through Thursdays. All in all I’m only working about 16 hours per week as of now, which is ok with me. It will allow me to ease into teaching, and I’ll still have time during the day to look for apartments, go to the gym, and find my way around the city. My schedule will change in the next couple weeks as more classes open up. So we’ll see how it goes!

I’ll try to keep everyone updated as much as possible as I am settling in, but if you know me, you probably know that after about a month or so I’ll forget to keep doing this. So please, keep in touch, hit reply and tell me about all the stateside (or abroad in some of your cases) fun you are having! I love you all 

<3 Jenn

The Silver Lining to this Summer’s Lack of, well, Summer

In New York City, Fewer Murders on Rainy Days

By ANDREW W. LEHREN and CHRISTINE HAUSER

On Aug. 26, 2006, something unusual happened in New York City.

It was a Saturday in the heart of summer, the kind of day that averages more than two homicides. Yet the police reported no killings.

One other thing happened that day: It rained.

In fact, an analysis by The New York Times of rainfall and homicides for the last six years shows that when it rains substantially in the summertime, there are fewer homicides.

When there was no precipitation, there was an average of 17 homicides every 10 days. But when there was an inch or more of rain, the average dropped to 14.

That does not surprise Vernon J. Geberth, a former Bronx homicide squad commanding officer. He said that when there was a downpour, the police would sometimes joke, “The best cop in the world is on duty tonight.”

YouTube embraces citizen journalism

With the Internet democratizing media in many ways, YouTube said in a blog posting yesterday that it has launched a web site aimed at educating so-called citizen reporters on how to report news.

Called the YouTube Reporters’ Center, it features tips from noted journalists like Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times on covering a global crisis without getting shot, Katie Couric of CBS News on conducting good interviews and the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward on investigative reporting.

Blogging queen Arianna Huffington, whose Huffington Post primarily features unpaid bloggers and links to content produced by professional newsgathering organizations, also discusses why she believes it’s important for citizens to participate in the news-gathering process from.

The videos include practical and ethical pointers, like how to fact check, avoid breaking the law while reporting and adhere to journalistic principles.

YouTube is also inviting people and organizations to submit their own videos about reporting for inclusion on the site.

I wish I was Facebook.com/LizLemon

June 15, 2009, 4:55 pm

Celebrity, Product and Joke Names Grabbed as Facebook Vanity URLs

By Jenna Wortham AND Brad Stone

Turns out I wasn’t the only nerd hunched over a laptop this weekend trying to secure a personalized Web address for my Facebook profile.

Nearly six million members of the popular social networking Web site have registered a custom name since the feature became available late Friday night. Currently, there are around 200 million members on Facebook, so less than 5 percent of the total Facebook population has signed up so far.

The next step involves people hoping to profit with the names. For example, on Assetize, a marketplace for Web domains, Twitter and Web accounts, multiple Facebook vanity URLs have gone up on the auction block, including Facebook.com/Nasa, Facebook.com/iPhones and Facebook.com/HPComputers.

But it’s not actually clear yet whether these names are worth anything.

A Facebook spokesman, Larry Yu, said the company was looking at the emerging commerce in vanity URLs. “We are working through how we are going to address that. Generally speaking our policy is a strict no-transferability clause,” he said.

Many Facebook users found their actual names were unavailable by the time they went to register them. Facebook gave first crack to its own employees and partners. It also offered the privilege to some journalists. (Times reporters did not get early access). Although the company said it was taking steps to prevent the cybersquatting of popular names and companies, some celebrities like Snoop Dogg, George Bush, Kanye West, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergey Brin still found themselves with Facebook doppelgängers.

In addition, many Facebookers took a lighter approach to the process and elected to register comical names, such as Facebook.com/Twitterisbetter, Facebook.com/LizLemon and Facebook.com/pagenotfound.

Though Mr. Yu said the formation of Facebook’s dispute resolution process was a work in progress, he said that the company would look at rescinding a vanity Web address when the registering party does not have legal right to it.

“If it’s a dispute between two users, then it’s first come first serve. But if the user’s name isn’t actually the vanity URL he registered, the user shouldn’t have a right to grab that,” Mr. Yu said. “We want it to be associated with user identity. I don’t want to be completely definitive but that is the one thing we want to actively encourage.”

Advice for the Class of ‘09 By Alan M.Webber

Co-founder, Fast Company magazine

Why 2009 College Graduates Will Win Big

On campuses all across America you can practically feel the fear. But despite schools closing with sick students, kids and parents aren’t afraid of the swine flu. In the wake of the economic crash, they’re afraid that the jobs flew.

If you scratch below the surface of this recession-triggered fear, you quickly discover two key realities. First, what really has graduates most disturbed is not the scarcity of jobs — it’s the disappearance of business-as-usual jobs. Gone are the big-ticket positions on Wall Street; the blue-chip jobs at management consulting firms have dried up; the high-end jobs at old and storied companies and sexy technology start-ups aren’t there for the picking. In other words, the cool jobs that top students effortlessly slid into in the past, complete with signing bonuses and ego strokes, aren’t in the cards for the Great Class of 2009.

Cute Video of the Day

Check out this sweet human interest story from Pres. Obama’s appearance at a town all in Wisconsin.

Xuan Thai
CNN White House Producer

President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting on Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin to discuss his health care agenda — but he also took a little time to write an all-important “get out of school” note.

A young girl named Kennedy attended the town hall with her father, who was called on to ask a question.

Her father, John Corpus, started his query saying he hoped his daughter wouldn’t get into trouble for missing the last day of school.

“Do you need me to write a note?” Obama asked.

Clearly assuming that Obama was just kidding, Corpus continued with his question — only to be interrupted by the president.

“No, no, I’m serious. What’s your daughter’s name?” Obama said, as he started to write a note. “I’m going to write to Kennedy’s teacher.”

He then walked over to the girl and handed her the note: “To Kennedy’s Teacher, Please excuse Kennedy’s absence…she’s with me. Barack Obama”

No word yet on whether the president’s get out of school free card did the trick.

Here’s the video…

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/11/video-obama-note-pardons-4th-grader/