Archaeologist Sander van der Leeuw discusses the dangers of constant innovation. "Every innovation creates a cascade of new challenges," he says, which shifts a society's focus to short-term thinking. He warns China is currently "addicted to innovation," but praises the bustling nation for its focus on long-term thinking.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Helpful winter hints
Here are some helpful hints that could make your winters easier to deal with ...
Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.
Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.
Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it's way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water---preventing water from freezing!
Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.
Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.
De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved!
Hope these hints help even just one time
Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.
Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.
Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it's way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water---preventing water from freezing!
Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.
Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.
De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved!
Hope these hints help even just one time
Friday, December 25, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Fix a Scratched CD
Sometimes pulling out an old CD from your music archive reveals some discs haven't fared well in the passage of time. CDs are vulnerable to fingerprint smudges, a bit of dried syrup from the time you spilled that Coke in the car, perhaps even some scratches from the time that CD disappeared under the passenger's seat three years ago.
If you've got some CDs that are well past their prime (and no, we don't mean that perfectly unblemished Spice Girls disc you've been hiding from your friends), fear not. There are ways to get that disc spinning again so you can transfer the music or data to a more respectable media, like MP3s.
The first thing to try with your potentially damaged CDs is a PC. Many times a CD that's too mangled to work in a car stereo will work just fine in your (much faster) computer CD/DVD drive. In addition, CD/DVD computer hardware and ROM software error-recovery differs by brand; a high-quality player will play discs which freeze or skip on a lower-quality one.
This article is a wiki. If you still buy CDs and want to help people restore their music collection, hop on and improve this article.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Polish
* 2 Repairing scratches
* 3 Recreate
* 4 Future Outlook
Polish
If you've got a disc that won't play, start with the simplest solution: give it a gentle, but thorough cleaning.
Take a damp, lint free cloth (the cloth used to clean eyeglasses works very well) and starting in the center of the CD, wipe to the outside edge in a straight line. The direction of the polishing is important, don't wipe in circles, and don't wipe randomly. Move in a straight line, center to edge.
Now that you've got all the surface blemishes off, give the CD another try. Still no luck? Well, read on.
Repairing scratches
If polishing alone doesn't work, chance are your CD is scratched. See if you can find the offending scratch -- hold your CD up to the light and check it from different angles.
CD's read from the inside out to the edge so you may be able to locate the scratch that's causing the problem based on which tracks skip. Obviously if you CD has data rather than music this method won't work.
Once you've found the scratch there are a few ways you can repair it. However, before we get started, be aware that some of these methods can actually damage the disc even more so. Use them only as a last resort.
Polish the CD Two popular ways of polishing out scratches include using toothpaste (get the kind with baking soda in it) and Brasso. In either case apply a thin layer to the scratched area and wipe from the inside out to polish out the scratch. Although popular in internet postings, the brand of toothpaste may matter, and the toothpaste or Brasso abrasive will replace scratches with finer ones, possibly making the problem worse. A low-cost commercial solution such as Allsop 'DVD Scratch Repair" (about $3 retail -- www.allsop.com) provides extremely fine abrasive fluid and a fine polishing cloth which always will improve the playing; the cloth alone may improve results with toothpaste or Brasso.
Wax the CD Along the same lines as the toothpaste method, you can try applying a very thin coat of vaseline, car wax or shoe polish to the scratched area. Caution: Wax may be difficult to remove and may make further polishing attempts more difficult.
Professional Refinishing Unless the scratch is very deep the above methods should work. If they don't you can always try having your CD refinished by a professional service. Consult your local music store or try searching for CD refinishing in your favorite search engine.
Audio CD Scratches For some CD's that are scratched and skipping, you can use iTunes to import the CD and attempt to fix some of the scratches. To do this go to the Preferences -> General -> Import Settings and make sure that "User Error Correction when Reading Audio CD's" is ticked. For a badly scratched CD it may take a LONG time to read it (possibly hours for one disc) but it can make some CD's quite listenable.
Meguire's Deep Crystal (cleaning system) Paint CleanerPersonally, the best product I have ever found to restore BADLY damaged CD's and DVD's is Meguire's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, which is part abrasive and part high quality carnauba wax. It is applied by 2-3 drops onto the offending disc. Spread it thin on the whole disc or just where you see scratches. Allow it to dry completely and then buff in a circular motion while checking that it is indeed polishing the scratches out. Some people may say to wipe from the center out, and that is OK for cleaning some discs, but with this product I would recommend a soft, lint free, dry cloth, such as a microfiber towel burnishing/polishing in small circular motions. With this cloth or towel you will obtain the best results by polishing in small circular motions. The reason for this is because not all scratches will be fill-able only moving from the center towards the outside of the disc.
(ALWAYS INSURE YOUR CLOTH OR TOWEL IS ABSOLUTELY CLEAN FIRST: You don't want new scratches added)
Because this product is for Automotive use, and is clear coat safe, it has minimal buildup and may require several repetitions of the above steps to completely restore your disc. This makes it much safer than household abrasives such as Brasso or Toothpaste. As many as 12-15 coats may be needed for VERY badly damaged data discs or DVD's, but so far with patience it has proven to be the right solution for all but cracked discs, which are best replaced with new discs.
Recreate
If you're dealing with an audio CD, here's an interesting option.
This may not be legal in some countries but where it is legal you can download all the tracks in the highest quality you can find and recreate the CD. Find 320Kb/s MP3 versions, or better yet, lossless versions, and use a CD burning program that can create audio CDs to recreate the CD.
Optionally scan the front of the original and print it on a CD sized sticker.
I know for US citizens this might sound as ridiculous illegal advice but in for example The Netherlands this is perfectly legal.
Future Outlook
The future of CDs looks like it is set to mirror that of the Dodo circa 1660. While music, movies and data storage devices of the future will have their own set of problems, at least we won't have to resort to toothpaste to recover lost tunes.
The trade off is the lack of a physical medium to show off to your friends as a sign of music superiority. In other words, no more fancy album art. In many ways the album is going the way of the Dodo as well. The record industry is increasingly focusing on singles rather than congruent records.
Don't fear, Pink Floyd fans (and other fans of congruent, thematic concept albums). Online MP3 stores, like Apple's iTunes store, are starting to bundle album art and even extra songs and video with downloadable albums. While you still can't frame your favorite MP3, at least you can watch the behind the scenes making of it. Better yet, you don't have to worry about scratching your MP3 like you can a compact disc. If you lose your music, chances are, in the future, your music store will replenish the music you bought from them for you at little or no cost.
If you've got some CDs that are well past their prime (and no, we don't mean that perfectly unblemished Spice Girls disc you've been hiding from your friends), fear not. There are ways to get that disc spinning again so you can transfer the music or data to a more respectable media, like MP3s.
The first thing to try with your potentially damaged CDs is a PC. Many times a CD that's too mangled to work in a car stereo will work just fine in your (much faster) computer CD/DVD drive. In addition, CD/DVD computer hardware and ROM software error-recovery differs by brand; a high-quality player will play discs which freeze or skip on a lower-quality one.
This article is a wiki. If you still buy CDs and want to help people restore their music collection, hop on and improve this article.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Polish
* 2 Repairing scratches
* 3 Recreate
* 4 Future Outlook
Polish
If you've got a disc that won't play, start with the simplest solution: give it a gentle, but thorough cleaning.
Take a damp, lint free cloth (the cloth used to clean eyeglasses works very well) and starting in the center of the CD, wipe to the outside edge in a straight line. The direction of the polishing is important, don't wipe in circles, and don't wipe randomly. Move in a straight line, center to edge.
Now that you've got all the surface blemishes off, give the CD another try. Still no luck? Well, read on.
Repairing scratches
If polishing alone doesn't work, chance are your CD is scratched. See if you can find the offending scratch -- hold your CD up to the light and check it from different angles.
CD's read from the inside out to the edge so you may be able to locate the scratch that's causing the problem based on which tracks skip. Obviously if you CD has data rather than music this method won't work.
Once you've found the scratch there are a few ways you can repair it. However, before we get started, be aware that some of these methods can actually damage the disc even more so. Use them only as a last resort.
Polish the CD Two popular ways of polishing out scratches include using toothpaste (get the kind with baking soda in it) and Brasso. In either case apply a thin layer to the scratched area and wipe from the inside out to polish out the scratch. Although popular in internet postings, the brand of toothpaste may matter, and the toothpaste or Brasso abrasive will replace scratches with finer ones, possibly making the problem worse. A low-cost commercial solution such as Allsop 'DVD Scratch Repair" (about $3 retail -- www.allsop.com) provides extremely fine abrasive fluid and a fine polishing cloth which always will improve the playing; the cloth alone may improve results with toothpaste or Brasso.
Wax the CD Along the same lines as the toothpaste method, you can try applying a very thin coat of vaseline, car wax or shoe polish to the scratched area. Caution: Wax may be difficult to remove and may make further polishing attempts more difficult.
Professional Refinishing Unless the scratch is very deep the above methods should work. If they don't you can always try having your CD refinished by a professional service. Consult your local music store or try searching for CD refinishing in your favorite search engine.
Audio CD Scratches For some CD's that are scratched and skipping, you can use iTunes to import the CD and attempt to fix some of the scratches. To do this go to the Preferences -> General -> Import Settings and make sure that "User Error Correction when Reading Audio CD's" is ticked. For a badly scratched CD it may take a LONG time to read it (possibly hours for one disc) but it can make some CD's quite listenable.
Meguire's Deep Crystal (cleaning system) Paint CleanerPersonally, the best product I have ever found to restore BADLY damaged CD's and DVD's is Meguire's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, which is part abrasive and part high quality carnauba wax. It is applied by 2-3 drops onto the offending disc. Spread it thin on the whole disc or just where you see scratches. Allow it to dry completely and then buff in a circular motion while checking that it is indeed polishing the scratches out. Some people may say to wipe from the center out, and that is OK for cleaning some discs, but with this product I would recommend a soft, lint free, dry cloth, such as a microfiber towel burnishing/polishing in small circular motions. With this cloth or towel you will obtain the best results by polishing in small circular motions. The reason for this is because not all scratches will be fill-able only moving from the center towards the outside of the disc.
(ALWAYS INSURE YOUR CLOTH OR TOWEL IS ABSOLUTELY CLEAN FIRST: You don't want new scratches added)
Because this product is for Automotive use, and is clear coat safe, it has minimal buildup and may require several repetitions of the above steps to completely restore your disc. This makes it much safer than household abrasives such as Brasso or Toothpaste. As many as 12-15 coats may be needed for VERY badly damaged data discs or DVD's, but so far with patience it has proven to be the right solution for all but cracked discs, which are best replaced with new discs.
Recreate
If you're dealing with an audio CD, here's an interesting option.
This may not be legal in some countries but where it is legal you can download all the tracks in the highest quality you can find and recreate the CD. Find 320Kb/s MP3 versions, or better yet, lossless versions, and use a CD burning program that can create audio CDs to recreate the CD.
Optionally scan the front of the original and print it on a CD sized sticker.
I know for US citizens this might sound as ridiculous illegal advice but in for example The Netherlands this is perfectly legal.
Future Outlook
The future of CDs looks like it is set to mirror that of the Dodo circa 1660. While music, movies and data storage devices of the future will have their own set of problems, at least we won't have to resort to toothpaste to recover lost tunes.
The trade off is the lack of a physical medium to show off to your friends as a sign of music superiority. In other words, no more fancy album art. In many ways the album is going the way of the Dodo as well. The record industry is increasingly focusing on singles rather than congruent records.
Don't fear, Pink Floyd fans (and other fans of congruent, thematic concept albums). Online MP3 stores, like Apple's iTunes store, are starting to bundle album art and even extra songs and video with downloadable albums. While you still can't frame your favorite MP3, at least you can watch the behind the scenes making of it. Better yet, you don't have to worry about scratching your MP3 like you can a compact disc. If you lose your music, chances are, in the future, your music store will replenish the music you bought from them for you at little or no cost.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
Body language can speak more strongly than words. Make sure you say the right things with it.In 1961, when Joe Navarro was 8, the Bay of Pigs invasion happened six miles from his home in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and his family fled to Miami. The boy knew no English, so he relied on careful observation of his peers, neighbors and teachers to figure out how things were done in his new country.
That close reading of nonverbal clues turned into a lifelong pursuit. Navarro, 56, worked for 25 years as a counterintelligence special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and since 2003 he has been a consultant to the Energy and State Departments and the Institute for Defense Analysis, in Washington. His latest book, Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence, applies all his knowledge to the business world. Navarro believes that fluency in nonverbal communication can be as powerful a tool as masterful negotiating techniques or expert salesmanship. The starting point, he says, is what he calls "personal curbside appeal." Project yourself as a confident, welcoming person, and your clients, colleagues and bosses will be attracted to you, keen on doing business with you and on promoting you within your organization.
Curbside appeal has several components, starting with looks. Tidy, neat, conservative clothes are preferable, Navarro says. A good rule of thumb: mirror, don't shock. "Observe how upper management dresses, and follow their lead," he advises. "Casualness can kill credibility." Unless, that is, you work in a place where the top brass wear jeans and polo shirts, like, say, CBS Studios in Hollywood, where Navarro recently discovered he was the only person in a suit.
Even when the dress code is jeans, make sure they are not ripped or stained. Not only will trim clothes impress others; they will help you do a better job, Navarro maintains. "What we wear shapes our behavior and prepares our body and mind for what we need to do," he writes. "In the workplace, you put on the attire of a warrior for business, and that's your persona." One thing he insists on is polished shoes, in good repair. "Men often wear scuffed or worn-down shoes that subvert the effort they spent on the rest of their appearance," he writes.Gestures go a long way in conveying your personal message. One of the most appealing: Stand with your head slightly tilted and your hands clasped, and with a smile and a gaze that meets the other person's. The head tilt exposes the neck and says, "I am listening, I am comfortable, I am receptive," Navarro says. By contrast, if you touch your neck or cover the dimple at the base of it, you're saying you are uncomfortable, insecure or concerned.Sit back comfortably in a chair, with your hands interlaced behind your head, and you project control and dominance. But it can be a little much, too. In a meeting avoid it, unless you're the senior person there.
Steepling your hands means you are strongly confident in the message you are about to deliver. Also, aiming your thumbs up conveys a sense of confidence. Navarro likes it when fingers are interlaced and thumbs are aimed up. Hiding your thumbs--in your pockets, say--gives the impression you are insecure.
Navarro also stresses the importance of making a strong, positive impression on first meeting. This involves blending all his tips and putting them into action. The well-dressed, tidy employee or boss makes eye contact, smiles, gets up from behind his or her desk, approaches the guest either from a slight angle (men prefer this) or directly (which women like better) and extends a hand to shake in what Navarro describes as "a firm but easy grip, lasting a few seconds." Avoid the overly tight squeeze, the pump or any wrist torque, he advises.
FBI agents devote a lot of energy to establishing rapport with people, Navarro says. When he left the bureau six years ago, he was stunned to discover how many business people were clueless about forging effective nonverbal connections. "I wrote the book to give people that nonverbal edge," he says.
That close reading of nonverbal clues turned into a lifelong pursuit. Navarro, 56, worked for 25 years as a counterintelligence special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and since 2003 he has been a consultant to the Energy and State Departments and the Institute for Defense Analysis, in Washington. His latest book, Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence, applies all his knowledge to the business world. Navarro believes that fluency in nonverbal communication can be as powerful a tool as masterful negotiating techniques or expert salesmanship. The starting point, he says, is what he calls "personal curbside appeal." Project yourself as a confident, welcoming person, and your clients, colleagues and bosses will be attracted to you, keen on doing business with you and on promoting you within your organization.
Curbside appeal has several components, starting with looks. Tidy, neat, conservative clothes are preferable, Navarro says. A good rule of thumb: mirror, don't shock. "Observe how upper management dresses, and follow their lead," he advises. "Casualness can kill credibility." Unless, that is, you work in a place where the top brass wear jeans and polo shirts, like, say, CBS Studios in Hollywood, where Navarro recently discovered he was the only person in a suit.
Even when the dress code is jeans, make sure they are not ripped or stained. Not only will trim clothes impress others; they will help you do a better job, Navarro maintains. "What we wear shapes our behavior and prepares our body and mind for what we need to do," he writes. "In the workplace, you put on the attire of a warrior for business, and that's your persona." One thing he insists on is polished shoes, in good repair. "Men often wear scuffed or worn-down shoes that subvert the effort they spent on the rest of their appearance," he writes.Gestures go a long way in conveying your personal message. One of the most appealing: Stand with your head slightly tilted and your hands clasped, and with a smile and a gaze that meets the other person's. The head tilt exposes the neck and says, "I am listening, I am comfortable, I am receptive," Navarro says. By contrast, if you touch your neck or cover the dimple at the base of it, you're saying you are uncomfortable, insecure or concerned.Sit back comfortably in a chair, with your hands interlaced behind your head, and you project control and dominance. But it can be a little much, too. In a meeting avoid it, unless you're the senior person there.
Steepling your hands means you are strongly confident in the message you are about to deliver. Also, aiming your thumbs up conveys a sense of confidence. Navarro likes it when fingers are interlaced and thumbs are aimed up. Hiding your thumbs--in your pockets, say--gives the impression you are insecure.
Navarro also stresses the importance of making a strong, positive impression on first meeting. This involves blending all his tips and putting them into action. The well-dressed, tidy employee or boss makes eye contact, smiles, gets up from behind his or her desk, approaches the guest either from a slight angle (men prefer this) or directly (which women like better) and extends a hand to shake in what Navarro describes as "a firm but easy grip, lasting a few seconds." Avoid the overly tight squeeze, the pump or any wrist torque, he advises.
FBI agents devote a lot of energy to establishing rapport with people, Navarro says. When he left the bureau six years ago, he was stunned to discover how many business people were clueless about forging effective nonverbal connections. "I wrote the book to give people that nonverbal edge," he says.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
A Natural AND Cheap Alternative to Dishwasher Detergent
By HappySlob
By jove, I think I may have GOT it. Dishwasher detergent is one of those annoying necessities that I could never quite embrace using. But, I'm finally pleased with the results of two ingredients that seem to be getting my dishes good and clean, minus the chemicals.
I pour regular table salt (or I've also used baking soda) into the detergent openings in the dishwasher door, and then pour about a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide over the salt until it's a bit sludgy and slushy. Close the door and give it a whirl.
I really want to know what you discover from using this! Do you like it as much as dishwasher detergent? I'm still working on improving this all the time, so please do share if you tweak it and like the results even more.
By jove, I think I may have GOT it. Dishwasher detergent is one of those annoying necessities that I could never quite embrace using. But, I'm finally pleased with the results of two ingredients that seem to be getting my dishes good and clean, minus the chemicals.
I pour regular table salt (or I've also used baking soda) into the detergent openings in the dishwasher door, and then pour about a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide over the salt until it's a bit sludgy and slushy. Close the door and give it a whirl.
I really want to know what you discover from using this! Do you like it as much as dishwasher detergent? I'm still working on improving this all the time, so please do share if you tweak it and like the results even more.
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