Month: August 2007

Tips For Keeping The Peace

I just came across a really good list of 10 tips to keep the peace in your everyday life relationships with people, put together by Tom Roderick, Executive Director of Educators for Social Responsibility Metro.

The list goes as follows:

1. Slow down the action
2. Listen well
3. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt
4. Acknowledge the other person’s feelings
5. Be strong without being mean
6. Try to see a conflict as a problem to be solved
7. Set your sights on a “win-win” solution
8. If you don’t seem to be getting anywhere in solving a conflict, ask for help
9. Remember that conflict, handled well, can lead to personal growth and better relationships
10. The true heroes and heroes of today’s world are not the Rambos

Check out the full article: Tips For Keeping The Peace

[Via: LifeHack]

Brainstorming Doesn’t Work?!

So, you know all that brainstorming we’ve all been doing to come up with “good” ideas? It turns out we could’ve come up with more and better ideas if we did it alone individually rather than in groups…

Brainstorming [is] used in nearly all of the world’s largeset companies, nonprofits, and government organizations. And the reasons seem obvious… “The average person can think of twice as many ideas when working with a group than when working alone.”… But is it true?

In 1958… psychologists let groups of four people brainstorm about the practical benefits or difficulties that would arise if everyone had an extra thumb on each hand after next year. These people were called “real groups” since they actually brainstormed together. Next, the researchers let “virtual groups” of four people generate ideas around the “thumb problem”, but they had to brainstorm individually, in separate rooms. The researchers combined the answers they received from each [virtual group] individual and eliminated redundancies… They then compared the performance between real groups and virtual groups…

To their surprise, the researchers found that virtual groups, where people brainstormed individually, generated nearly twice as many ideas as the real groups.

The result, it turned out, is not an anomaly. In a [1987 study, researchers] concluded that brainstorming groups have never outperformed virtual groups. Of the 25 reported experiments by psychologists all over the world, real groups have never once been shown to be more productive than virtual groups. In fact, real groups that engage in brainstorming consistently generate about half the number of ideas they would have produced if the group’s individuals had [worked] alone.

In addition, in the studies where the quality of ideas was measured, researchers found that the total number of good ideas was much higher in virtual groups than in real groups.

[Source: The Medici Effect, Frans Johansson]

[Via: Pmarca]

Google Earth Looks Towards The Sky

Sky in Google EarthGoogle has gone ahead and launched Sky in Google Earth, a new functionality that will be adding space imagery to Google Earth’s extensive maps and imagery of planet Earth.

Google’s announcement says that with this functionality “You can now explore the universe from the comfort of your chair. Zoom in to distant galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away, explore the constellations, see the planets in motion, witness a supernova explosion; it’s like having a giant, virtual telescope at your command — your own personal planetarium!”

According to TechCrunch, the space imagery used in this new functionality includes over one million photographs from various sources, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology and the Hubble Telescope.

This isn’t actually the first time Google looks to space, it already previously launched Google Moon, including Nasa imagery of the moon, and Google Mars with scientific maps of the red planet.

You have to download the latest version Google Earth to use this new functionality. I’m doing it right now.

Enhance Your Productivity: 9 Things & Habits To Quit Now

Tim Ferriss, writer of the book “The 4-Hour Workweek“, has published a list of the 9 habits you have to stop now to become more productive.

I totally agree with his list, and have more or less been applying this in my everyday life for a while now. The list goes as follows (with my comments):

1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers: I rarely ever answer a phone call by a number I don’t recognize, some people think it’s wrong of me to do so, but personally I think that if that someone is a person I want to hear from I’d surely have his number saved. Of course out of the times I do reply, there is a small percentage of times it turns out the person is someone I want to hear from, but well I’m comfortable with the odds.

2. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night: I always try to avoid early-morning or late-evening emails, unless it’s something I’ve already thought out well and only the actual writing of the email is left.

3. Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time: I do my best to avoid these, they’re such a waste of time, but well sometimes you can’t but help get dragged into one, and that’s when I try to apply the next point…

4. Do not let people ramble: Sometimes you just have to step in, take hold of the conversation and take it straight to the point; or else people will just keep on rambling and wasting time with no end in sight.

5. Do not check e-mail constantly

My Corner Of The Earth

Like every humming bird and bumblebee
Every sunflower, cloud and every tree
I feel so much a part of this
Nature’s got me high and it’s beautiful
I’m with this deep eternal universe
From death until rebirth

This corner of the earth is like me in many ways
I can sit for hours here and watch the emerald feathers play
On the face of it I’m blessed
When the sunlight comes for free
I know this corner of the earth it smiles at me

My corner of the earth, the corner that I know so well, that I feel knows me and smiles at me, where I feel in perfect balance with nature is in Bizerte, my hometown, at La Grotte, Corniche; a point where the mountain meets the sea, creating the best place to have a refreshing swim or watch the most romantic sunset; simple perfect bliss.

Where’s your special corner of the earth?

[Lyrics from the song Corner Of The Earth by Jamiroquai]

US To Provide Israel With $30 Billion Of Military Aid

More and more money for weapons…

US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns has signed a deal that will provide Israel with $30bn of military aid over the next 10 years.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said the aid will preserve his country’s military advantage over other countries in the Middle East.

The new military aid package represents a 25% increase from present levels.

[…]

Mr Burns called the aid package an “investment in peace”, saying “peace cannot be made without strength”.

[Source: BBC News]

Now, this isn’t really something unexpected, the US has been pouring billions upon billions of dollars to support Israel militarily over the past decades, and this represents but a 25% increase to “preserve Israel’s military advantage over other countries in the Middle East” as Ehud Olmert gently put it.

Last month the US announced multi-billion-dollar arms deals with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Gulf states too; all in an attempt to counter the “rising Iranian power” in the region. And well if it’s going to give money to the Arabs and Muslims, then it has to give even more to Israel to keep the balance tilted to Israel’s side; Only normal given the US policy we know.

What I find incredible though about this bit of news is this claim: “the aid package is an investment in peace… peace cannot be made without strength”.

So, let me get this right? Billions of dollars worth of weapons poured into the most volatile and explosive region on Earth are supposed to bring peace? Isn’t it more like pouring fuel on the flame? Isn’t this just a recipe for more disasters, more war, more death?

And don’t give me the whole “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” style crap; of course people kill people, but they kill a lot many more people when they have guns, bombs, rockets, tanks, planes and whatnot to do it with.

Peace simply doesn’t come through the barrel of a rifle; it’s about time everyone realized that.

Ajaaj: The First UAE Superhero Comic Book

AjaajAjaaj – “Legends of the past, protecting the future”. That’s the tagline for the new comic book by Watani featuring the first UAE superhero called Ajaaj.

The comic book series is set in the year 2020; the UAE is leading the way in world trade, industry and tourism. However, the media is filled with reports of a natural disaster, a sand storm which has hit towns and shores leaving substantial damage in its aftermath.

These reports are interrupted by kids who refute them, declaring the force behind the storm is Ajaaj. They say he can morph into a well-built young UAE man, a wall or even a bridge. He can fly and solidify, turn into fine dust, infiltrate tightly locked areas and even transform into structures strong enough to stop the fastest bullet train.

And the rest as you can imagine should be a selection of superhero fun and adventures.

The comic books are produced monthly in hard cover version making it a collector item as well. The 44-page first issue of Ajaaj is available online for viewing and download in both Arabic & English.

[More: Ajaaj]
[Via: Fahad]

Canadian Team Discovers Gene That Turns Cancers Off

Some good health news from Canada…

A unique gene that can stop cancerous cells from multiplying into tumours has been discovered by a team of scientists at the B.C. Cancer Agency in Vancouver.

The team, led by Dr. Poul Sorensen, says the gene has the power to suppress the growth of human tumours in multiple cancers, including breast, lung and liver.

The gene, HACE 1, helps cells fight off stress that, left unchecked, opens the door to formation of multiple tumours.

[Source: Globe And Mail]

In a world where everything seems to cause cancer now because of the big mess we’ve made of nature and a bunch of unsafe technological inventions surrounding us everyday; this can only be a great piece of news.