A Daring Feat for a Double Amputee....

                                               Double-Amputee Sprinter Oscar Pistorius Will Be First Amputee to Compete in the World Championships

Oscar Pistorius of South Africa just qualified for the 400-meter and the 4x400-meter relay races at this year's World Championships, his first trip there. That's an amazing feat in itself, but made more amazing as Pistorius is a double amputee, using two carbon-fiber Cheetah prosthetic legs to run. He'll be the first-ever amputee athlete to perform at the event.

Pistorius, at 24 years old, has had his share of difficulties in competing with able-bodied athletes. His prosthetics were at one time declared to represent an unfair advantage over the athletes using the flesh-and-blood legs they were born with, rather than the space-age sproing-y Cheetah legs Pistorus uses, though he was eventually cleared for Olympic competition.

Pistorius isn't a favorite at the World Championships--his qualifying time, a personal-best 45.07 seconds, was just barely fast enough to earn him a ticket to the games in Daegu, South Korea--but he calls it "the highest-profile and most prestigious able-bodied event which I have ever competed in."

We've previously called for a league of exclusively performance-enhanced athletes, but it sounds like Pistorius is thrilled just to compete with the best able-bodied sprinters in the world.

The Four Important Principles of Life from the book 'The Leader who had no Title'

After being motivated by reading the book 'The Leader who had no Title', I have come up with the conclusion that the principles mentioned in the book can be applied to all the key areas of one's life. They are one's own PERSONALITY, FAMILY, CAREER and SOCIAL CIRCLES. So looking from this perspective, one can become a Leader in all these areas by applying the acronyms mentioned in the book, thanks to the renowned Leadership guru, Robin Sharma who is the author.The titles mentioned below are not as stated in the book, but my own views.  If you feel them beneficial, you can apply it to your life and Shine out. Of course, to get the full effect of it, you have to read the book which has the complete details on how to implement it in your life.


1) Rise and SHINE every day of your life(Personality)
   

    S - See Clearly
    H - Health is Wealth
    I  - Inspiration Matters
    N - Neglect not your Family
    E - Elevate your lifestyle





2) Think HUMAN and Be HUMAN(Family)

   
    H - Helpfulness
    U - Understanding
    M - Mingle
    A - Amuse
    N - Nurture





3) Project your best IMAGE at work(Career)

   

    I - Innovation
   M - Mastery
   A - Authenticity
   G - Guts
   E - Ethics








4) Be the SPARK in your circles.(Social circles)

   
 
    S - Speak with Audacity
    P - Prioritize
    A - Adversity creates Opportunity
    R - Respond instead of React
    K - Kudos to Everyone

Depression higher in wealthy nations, research suggests

By Marissa Cevallos, HealthKey / For the Booster Shots blog

July 26, 2011, 4:34 p.m.

Some of the richest countries have the highest rates ofdepression, new research suggests.

An international team of researchers collected the results of face-to-face interviews of nearly 90,000 people considered representatives of their population. The interviews were conducted in community settings in 18 countries, and the interviewers used a standard diagnostic test from the World Health Organization to assess depression.

In the 10 countries considered high-income, an average of 15% of participants said they’d experienced a depressive episode in their lifetime. France, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S. all had rates higher than 18%.

But among the eight low- to middle-income countries surveyed, the rate was 11% -- the lowest rates were found in India, Mexico, China and South Africa.(more...)

The Single Best Time Management Tip Ever | BNET

By Dave Logan | April 26, 2011 I spent most of my life at war with time–and time usually won. I’d read every book and taken every course along the way, and with a few exceptions (like David Allen’s excellent Getting Things Done), most of it seemed to rehash common sense. The feeling of being overwhelmed and underproductive was relentless.

T he big breakthrough came when I was first teaching at USC and a student with severe dyslexia asked for help. Not knowing what to do, I turned to an expert on learning disorders. She advised that I let the student take the exam in my office, giving him short breaks every 20 minutes. The student did very well, surprising us both, and I was intrigued. After years of working with 20-minute segments, the Multiple Put Down technique was born. I’ve used it to write four books, a dissertation and thousands of speeches.

Here it is: work on a task in 20-minute increments, with absolute focus, and then put it down, over and over, until you’re done. In this case, the gold is in the details, so please follow them exactly:

1. Alert your brain that a task is coming that will require its recall, creativity, and brilliance (yes, your brain is brilliant–thank your parents). Then let some time pass–a day, perhaps.
2. When you’re ready to start, set a timer for 20 minutes, such as the stopwatch feature on an iPhone. Set your cell phone to airplane mode, turn off your email, and silence all other distractions. Then hit start on the timer.
3. During the 20 minutes, you must focus on that task without interruption. And unless the building burns down, do nothing but work on that task until the timer goes off. You may hit the wall, but keep going. The vast majority of people find they can work on that task “in the zone” until the timer goes off.
4. After 20 minutes, you have a choice: keep working or take a break. If you keep working, reset the timer to 20 minutes and go through the process again, without interruption until the next 20 minutes are up. If you decide to take a break, it can be short (such as refilling your coffee cup), medium (returning a phone call) or long (going into a meeting, or working out).

That’s it. You pick it up and put down over and over, hence the name “Multiple Put Down.” Some data, my own experience, and reports from the thousands of people who have learned the technique is that you are much more efficient–often finishing a task in 30-50% of the time it would take if you worked on it in one sitting. Even better, the quality of the work is far superior than if you followed your mother’s advice of “start early and just get it done.” There are other benefits, too: less stress, reduced frustration, and a general feeling of being brilliant. Multiple Put Down will save you hours and it can be even more powerful when combined with a Life Repair Day.

There are several advantages to the Multiple Put Down technique. The first is that your brain is brilliant at running processes in the background, but is awful at multitasking. While you’re driving to work, in the shower or answering email, your brain will be working in the background on the task, so that when you’re ready, it’ll drain through your fingers, into your computer or notepad, for about 20 minutes. The break allows your brain to restock the supply of brilliance. Each time you go through the process is a “productivity unit.”

Here are some tasks that are perfectly suited for Multiple Put Down: writing a report, preparing a pitch for a client or boss, figuring out how to solve a tough problem. Fans of Tribal Leadership might be interested to know that the book was written in 1106 productivity units.

If God wanted us to live in outer space, we wouldn't have balancing systems in our inner ears

When the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon, many assumed that this was the first step toward permanent colonization of the moon and journeys by astronauts to other planets. From today's perspective, though, the space race was like the races to the North Pole and the South Pole. Once explorers had reached those destinations, the world lost interest.

Another parallel is ocean exploration. Back in the 1960s, visions of colonies on the moon competed with plans for domed cities on the ocean floor that gave a new meaning to the phrase "real estate bubble." Scientific exploration of the ocean depths continues to produce marvelous discoveries, like whole ecosystems that have evolved to take advantage of the heat and emissions of undersea volcanic vents. But the year 2000 came and went and millions of homeowners are "underwater" only in metaphor.

The parallel is not complete, of course. The poles and the ocean depths are far more hospitable to human life than near Earth orbit or the moon or Mars. Astronauts have learned that prolonged weightlessness does terrible things to the bones and the circulatory system. If God wanted us to live in outer space, we wouldn't have balancing systems in our inner ears. (more...)

33 miners in Chile will be stuck for months....but they are HAPPY?!!?

"Patience and faith. God is great and the help of my God is going to make it possible to leave this mine alive."

COPIAPO, Chile — For 33 men found alive after 17 days trapped deep in a copper and gold mine, the toughest challenge now may be preserving their sanity during the months it may take to carve a tunnel big enough for them to get out.

Chileans were euphoric Sunday after a narrow drill broke through 2,257 feet (688 meters) of solid rock to reach an emergency refuge where the miners had gathered. The trapped men quickly tied two notes to the end of a probe that rescuers pulled to the surface, announcing in big red letters: "All 33 of us are fine in the shelter."

"Today all of Chile is crying with excitement and joy," President Sebastian Pinera said at the mine.

And where many were beginning to give up hope, the scene above ground became a celebration Sunday night, with a barbecue for the miners' families, roving musicians, lit candles and Chilean flags making the barren landscape seem festive.

But rescuers said it could take as long as four months — until around Christmas — to carve a second shaft some 27 inches (68 centimeters) in diameter, wide enough for the miners to be pulled up one by one(more...)

It's virtual meditation

Too busy to breathe? Too frazzled for fun? Meditainment's for you. The strange thing is, writes GAYLE MACDONALD, it actually works

'Imagine you are the navigator of a canoe, gliding down a river on a warm sunny day," says a honeyed voice. "You are looking forward to arriving at a destination that is all your own. There is no need for any haste. This place is always here for you."

Ah. Forget virtual reality. This is virtual relaxation. I am not actually in a cedar-strip canoe, floating down a river. Instead, I'm sitting at my computer, headphones on, eyes clamped shut. The chirps of birds and the sound of water lapping against my boat is all, literally, in my head, the brainchild of a British Web designer named Richard Latham.(more...)