Focusing on Happiness

This was recently sent to me by a friend. Very good stuff. First 10 minutes are setup/standup comedy, but it's worth it for the payoff.

Lord Have Mercy

I had to take my girlfriend to the emergency room last night (she's ok now : ), and since she lives quite near Mercy Hospital, a place that occupies priceless waterfront property just like Mt. Sinai on Biscayne Bay, that's where we went.

I'm just writing this to say how wonderful the staff was and how nice we found the hospital environment. My only concern was that our doctor looked like he stepped out of a soap opera, but that's pretty standard for Miami. People tend to be really, really, ridiculously good-looking here. I'm not sure that my girlfriend was paying attention to what he was saying, but the nurses that followed were conscientious and informative. A+'s all around, Mercy Hospital.

In their honor, I'm posting one of the most beautiful (Marvin Gaye) songs ever written (sorry about the cheesy sunsets, but this was the only one I could find with an embed code) -

Healthcare Debate

The people who are attempting to upend our nation's healthcare system think this way -

"Health care does more than save lives: it also reduces pain and suffering. How can we compare saving a person’s life with, say, making it possible for someone who was confined to bed to return to an active life? We can elicit people’s values on that too. One common method is to describe medical conditions to people — let’s say being a quadriplegic — and tell them that they can choose between 10 years in that condition or some smaller number of years without it. If most would prefer, say, 10 years as a quadriplegic to 4 years of nondisabled life, but would choose 6 years of nondisabled life over 10 with quadriplegia, but have difficulty deciding between 5 years of nondisabled life or 10 years with quadriplegia, then they are, in effect, assessing life with quadriplegia as half as good as nondisabled life. (These are hypothetical figures, chosen to keep the math simple, and not based on any actual surveys.) If that judgment represents a rough average across the population, we might conclude that restoring to nondisabled life two people who would otherwise be quadriplegics is equivalent in value to saving the life of one person, provided the life expectancies of all involved are similar."

Those are the words of Princeton "bioethics" professor Peter Singer in his recent "Why We Must Ration Health Care" piece in the New York Times.

President Obama comes from a similar school of thought -



I don't mean to say that these are easy decisions, but I certainly don't want bureaucrats making them.

I Was Going to Make the Title of This "That's What Friends Are For" But That's Already Implied by the Title of the Article

From the New York Times -

What Are Friends For? A Longer Life

"Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. A large 2007 study showed an increase of nearly 60 percent in the risk for obesity among people whose friends gained weight. And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age. "

I think it says something that I haven't posted anything with "friendship" as a blog label.



God, I miss ensembles likes that.

I Guess Laughter Truly Is the Best Medicine (ugh, that's sappy)

ThirdAge has an article about a former nurse and nursing home manager who uses laughter therapy. She doesn't even tell jokes. It's funny that laughter is so powerful that it doesn't even need to be real to be healthful.

Please note that the last 3 are not benefits, but simply statements, and maybe facts, I don't know -

The Health Benefits of Laughter

• Laughing reduces the hormones and chemicals produced by stress cortisol and adrenaline.
• It releases dopamine and endorphins, our feel good chemicals.
• Relieves and relaxes muscle discomfort.
• Reduces inflammation, excellent for arthritis sufferers.
• Reduces blood pressure 30 minutes of laughter per day reduces the risk of a second heart attack.
• Burns calories -- 50 laughs is equivalent to 15 minutes on a bike or 10 minutes on a rowing machine.
• Humans are the only animals capable of laughter.
• Adults laugh or smile approximately 17 times a day on average.
• We use 72 muscles to frown and only 14 to smile.

I feel like I should tell a joke now. I've got it! I'll post the video of Louis C.K. from Late Night that everyone's been posting to Facebook -

Steve and Gandhi

My father recently handed me a transcript of Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford. You may read it here or watch a video of it here.

These are some of the most powerful words I have ever read -

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Then today I received my "Motivational Quote of the Day" from Nightingale-Conant and it was one of Gandhi's -

"Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."

And here's a great tune from Tim McGraw called "Live Like You Were Dying" -



Yeah, a little heavy today. Poop is a funny word. That lightened things up a bit. Hee hee, poop.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

This is fascinating -

"Whether the current economic slump will take a toll on your own health depends, in part, on your health habits when times are good. And economic studies suggest that people tend not to take care of themselves in boom times — drinking too much (especially before driving), dining on fat-laden restaurant meals and skipping exercise and doctors’ appointments because of work-related time commitments."

"Are Bad Times Healthy?" asks some good questions and weighs the health benefits of an economic downturn against the obvious downsides.

Hmm, this might offend some of my readers -

Land of the Free and Home of Toothpaste and Dental Floss

Thanks to my brother, who found the Tyrese Gibson version of the national anthem that I wanted to post last Thursday. Please try not to get too, too fired up when the English fans start booing the Star Spangled Banner. After all, they did give us the best language in the world and our system for a bicameral legislative branch of government.

How Can Ya Have Eny Pudding If Ya Doon't Eat Yer Beets?

My brother loooooooves beets. Loves 'em. He thinks it's particularly hilarious that they make your poo poo purple. He's actually really mature in most other ways.

Well, he sent me an article from the NYT that lists "The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating". In his case, he's eating several of them. But most people don't eat beets, cabbage, swiss chard, cinnamon (not often, at least), pomegranate juice, prunes, pumpkin seeds, sardines, turmeric, frozen blueberries, and canned pumpkin on a regular basis.

Blueberries are great to throw in a protein shake. Cinnamon is good in your coffee (thanks sis), pomegranate juice tastes like death (oh well), prunes are like giant raisins (yum), pumpkin is so associated with Thanksgiving that it's tough to imagine eating during the rest of the year, but it really is tasty (like in ravioli, mmm), sardines are an acquired taste, but also delish, and turmeric is a spice but I forget what it's like. Look it up. That's what the internet's for. Looking stuff up like "what's turmeric?". Or "how do you spell tumeric?" See, it was close, and the internet would figure that out in all it's awesome intelligentness. Swiss chard. Look that one up, too.

Happy Independence Day! Larry Kudlow kept saying all day today that this is "the greatest country in the history of history". I agree. I wanted to post Tyrese's stirring rendition of the Star Bangled Banner from the Mayweather - Hatton fight, but it's nowhere to be found. Here's Carrie Underwood. I'm kind of in love with her and this is a pretty good version. It's from Super Bowl something something. I don't know. The one with the Seahawks.

Ah, Push It

It's nice to see that this is the most popular article on the New York Times' website.

"Based on national averages, a 40-year-old woman should be able to do 16 push-ups and a man the same age should be able to do 27. By the age of 60, those numbers drop to 17 for men and 6 for women. Those numbers are just slightly less than what is required of Army soldiers who are subjected to regular push-up tests."

Stand Up!

This might explain why bus drivers have such big butts.

"Scientists have found intriguing evidence that one major reason so many people are overweight these days may be as close as the seat of their pants. Literally. According to the researchers, most of us sit too much."

Scientists Say Just Standing Up May Be as Important as Exercise

The Battle of the Bulge

You've most likely heard about Michael Moore's latest "documentary", "Sicko". Larry King hosted an interview/debate between Moore and Dr. Sanjay Gupta that took place last night regarding the film, and Dr. Gupta's review of it.

Moore seems unable to have a calm and rational discussion unless it is with someone who doesn't challenge him. You may have noticed this in other interviews. I find it interesting how Moore ridicules Dr. Gupta's Indian heritage, and I wonder if he will be criticized for it. Of course, I've just made fun of Moore's obesity in the title of this post, in case you didn't notice. Please watch as Michael Moore shakes his head throughout the news piece, no matter what Gupta is saying, even when making comments that aren't critical of the movie.

If you have the time, I encourage you to watch all of the clips in their entirety. Both people make valid points, but Gupta puts forth more sanguine arguments, and clearly has a better haircut.

What's Left in Your Wallet?

Some wise words from The Daily Show's Demetri Martin -