Evolving changes in world GDP

An interesting ebb and flow on the China numbers, seems like they are on the rise again in the past 30 years. And of course, there are those years from 1500 - 1800.

Going out in style!

No matter what you think of the General, one has to admire his sense of humor!

Sweat the small stuff

Does Rory Sutherland have the correct idea?

Good night and good luck!

Still insightful 50 years later?

Why we do what we do, and how to do it better

Great tips from Tony Robbins....

Finding things on the web

I just found a great resource for doing internet research - A Working Smarter Resource by C4LPT out of the UK.  For example:

Here are 5 simple things to remember to "power search" on Google:

1. Search string: A group of search terms is called a string. You don't need to add a + or ADD between terms but leave a space. Try building your search string one term at a time
2. Google ignores common or "stop" words like the, an, in, where, how, but to include them in the search add + before each one
3. Phrase string: If you're looking for an exact phrase or quote, not just the occurrence of the words entered, use quotation marks "greenhouse effect"
4. Ranking favours pages with your words in phrases, close together and in the order typed. Compare the top results (ranking) for searches in Google for these sets of keywords
   
   • grass snake
   • snake grass
   • snake in the grass
   • snake +in +the grass
   • "snake in the grass"
5. Operators: adding a minus sign (-) allows you to narrow your search, for example if you wanted to search for New York but not City you'd enter New York -City; adding OR will let you look for one or more terms or strings, e.g. Kent OR Sussex, "global warming" OR "greenhouse effect".

Creating a search string that uses some combination of specific terms, a phrase string and a negative term can reduce the number of your search results from a few million to fewer than one hundred! It's best to build one or two terms at a time, adding terms to your string as needed based on your results.


Here are 5 clever things you can do with Google

1. Get definitions: Type define:word to produce a list of definitions
2. Use as a calculator: Google supports mathematical functions / * - +
3. Conversion: Convert imperial measurements to metric and vice versa as well as currency conversions using format such as 100 lbs in kg or. 300 euros in USD
4. Get maps: Type in the postcode
5. Get the weather forecast: Type in the postcode
6. Q&A: Ask a question, e.g. When was Beethoven born?

Approaches to Personal Investing

I taped this a couple of years ago, and find it is still relevant.

I am not a licensed financial adviser, and therefore do not seek to direct anyone to any specific type of investment purchase. However, the rules that I have adapted and applied allow for maximizing performance from a personal portfolio.

Observations on health

It always amazes about the human body, when thinking in a systems sense, the huge amount of focus people put on the inputs (diet), a medium awareness of process (nutrients uptake) and a total taboo concerning discussion / analysis on a major output (waste) of the system. 

In my opinion, the key to a healthy body system needs to start with a clear analysis of the outputs/results you are looking for both in the sense of psychic energy, vibrant tissue and cells, and healthy excrement of waste.

As always with everything, it is a matter of knowledge what to do and then discipline to apply it in life.

Besides the usual tips on diet and exercise for quality outputs, I have come to appreciate these additional jewels of knowledge that I strive to apply (buy haphazardly and usually in cycles).

a. chew - digestion starts in the mouth with saliva breaking down intake. With discipline, chewing each bite 40-50 times brings amazing effects

b. dry skin brushing - using a natural fiber brush at least once a day to strip off dead skin (which is continually replacing itself) is more important to health than hot showers and fancy potions. Short video demo.

c. several times a week nasal rinse (luke warm salt water).  The neti pot, which is so inexpensive and perfectly designed, helps keep away the sinus irritants. Do they work?

d. a weekly dry sauna helps to sweat out the heavy metals and crap through the skin pores; I have a portable home sauna that I've been using for almost 25 years

e. every 12-18 months, a colonic irrigation in a manner similar to an "oil change" in my car. I have the home equipment - I think gravity fed safer and certainly cheaper than commercial pumping systems.

f. drinking plenty of water

Anyway, even as I have come to know these simple tactics, it still takes a big discipline to make them everyday life habits (especially the damn chewing).

Integrated Awareness - Relaxation and affirmation

This is an Affirmation Conditioning  prepared and narrated by Steven Kelly.  Affirmations are positive statements that describe a desired situation.  They are best repeated many times, in order to impress the subconscious mind and trigger it into positive action. 

In order to ensure the effectiveness of the affirmations, they have to be repeated with attention, conviction, interest and desire.  Although many people use these in daily active life, reinforcement is also very useful during periodic meditative relaxation periods.  Please listen to the short introduction below if you have an interest to use or listen to this 30 minute conditioning sequence.

You can also freely download below either a WMV or MP3 file for personal use on a media player:

IA MP3 Version (47mb)

IA WMV Version (5 mb)

A favorite sunset sequence...