Mindconnection eNL, 2008-06-01

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In this issue:

1. Product highlight
2. Brainpower tip
3. Finance tip
4. Security tip

5. Health tip/Fitness tip
6. Miscellany
7. Thought for the day

• The National Highway Traffic Administration attributes over 100,000 traffic "accidents" each year to insufficient sleep. The actual number is probably much higher.
• The Sleep Institute has found sleep deficiency to be the normal condition of Americans—and that explains a lot of the problems we are having today with inattention and the inability to focus enough to engage in critical thought.
• Twice each year, most of American changes the clock in a time-robbing exercise amazingly referred to as "Daylight Savings Time." In reality, the spring change robs millions of an hour of daylight each morning and shifts an hour of daylight into "post bedtime." Either direction, the clock is suddenly out of synch with established circadian rhythms. Industrial injuries ("accidents") and traffic incidents increase for about three weeks following each of these clock changes.
• People who are religious about their bedtimes look much younger than, and have more energy than, their "normal" counterparts.
• Depression and insomnia often go hand in hand.
• The fact that work performance suffers as sleeplessness goes up needs no substantiation—we all know this from experience.
• A person who is 20% sleep deprived has the mental acuity of a person who is legally drunk. By the way, CEOs often brag about how "hard" they "work" and how little sleep they get—4 to 6 hours is common. Now you know why layoffs happen—a bunch of drunks run most of our corporations.
• Sleep deficits cause a dulling of the mind, irritability, and loss of focus. If you are having problems with grasping new information, dealing with others, or concentrating, consider sleep deficit a prime area to address.

• Running a clothes dryer. You want to do this as minimally as possible. Drying clothes too much causes them to wrinkle and damages the fiber permanently. It also uses energy unnecessarily.
• Throwing vegetable scraps away instead of composting them. If you are a suburbanite, there is no excuse for this. City dwellers may not have a good composting location, but suburbanites do.
• Peeling an apple instead of eating it whole. That peel has good nutrients in it.
• Throwing away paper that is blank on one side, instead of using it for scratch paper.
• Throwing away old clothes or bedding, instead of cutting them up into rags (which reduces the need for paper towels).
• Putting a glass into the dishwasher after one use, instead of rinsing it out and refilling it (this assumes you drink water from glasses, rather than being incredibly wasteful and drinking bottled water or sodas).
• Bagging up grass clippings, instead of letting the mower mulch them as you go (reduce fertilizer and watering, too).

Look at whatever you throw away and try to think of yet another use for it. Do this enough, and you'll save quite a bit of money through the course of a year.

1. Deter. Make it hard for thieves to attack you, in the first place.
2. Detect. Know when your security has been compromised.
3. Defend. Take corrective action.

Now, let's look at….

Detect

Here are some signs that your personal information has been stolen:

• Paper billing statements arrive late, open, or not at all. They've been intercepted.
• Unexpected denials of credit.
• Calls, letters, or e-mails about purchases you didn’t make.
• Parcels that you didn't order.

Review financial statements. If you get your statements in paper format, a great deal of time may pass before you detect a problem. With online checking, you can review your transactions daily. Change to online accounts wherever possible.

Inspect your credit report. Carefully. Signs of information theft may appear there. The law requires Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to each provide you with one free credit report each year. So, contact each one--space these out across the year, for maximum detection ability.

Of course, the really huge ripoffs such as CONgress spending you into a $9.4 trillion hole don't need detection. The signs of devastation are all around you.

For example, the increase in the price of gasoline over the past 20 years isn't from the oil companies. It's due to the actions of the Federal Reserve. When the Fed pumps out too much money into the system, you get inflation (more dollars chasing the same amount of goods and services). This is actually your single largest tax (Greenspan taxed you 50% on all income and assets).

http://www.supplecity.com/articles/glycemicindexmyth.htm.

1. It's possible to lead a cow upstairs, but not downstairs. CONgress, however, is milking us all dry.
    

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