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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20055722213694325912014-12-09T18:05:31.203-06:00Building Personal StrengthHelping people grow stronger for the challenges of work and life.Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-17269240936247985242014-12-09T17:56:00.001-06:002014-12-09T18:05:31.213-06:00HRD's 'Dirty Little Secret' about TrainingI was recently interviewed by David Lee, internationally recognized expert on employee performance. The topic was my book, The Dark Secret of HRD. We talked about how and why I came to write it and how organizations can transfer what is taught in the classroom to consistent performance in the workplace. Click here to listen to the interview on David's blog.

David Lee

David Lee is the founder of HumanNature@Work. He works with leaders interested in optimizing employee performance and customer service, through his work as a facilitator, consultant, trainer, and coach. He has worked with organizations and presented at conferences in the US, Canada, and Australia.

He is the author of Managing Employee Stress and Safety, Powerful Storytelling Techniques, and nearly 100 articles and book chapters on maximizing employee and organizational performance, which have been published in North America, Europe, India, China, and Australia.

His article, "Why Your Employees Are Just Not That Into You," the third most popular article at TLNT.com in 2012, is a must-read for any leader desiring greater productivity and engagement.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-34599091345049644812014-11-23T12:16:00.000-06:002014-11-23T14:29:56.817-06:00Intelligent Lifeform Exposes Himself to Deadly Radiation

Me, soaking in rays (photo Kathleen Scott)

Where I live, the coolest breakfasts in town (in my opinion) are hosted by Casa Garcia's Restaurant and Cantina. Here I am on a Sunday morning after a custom-filled omelet, sitting outside on one of their benches, enjoying the warm sun.

Actually, I was thinking that the solar radiation that had reached my cheeks had penetrated our planet's magnetic field and thin atmosphere. Most of the sun's deadly rays had been shielded and absorbed, and just enough made it through to give warmth to me and all the other lifeforms on the surface.

The radiation from our star is essential to life. It's the source of energy for plants and animals, and it allows water to exist in liquid form.

But sustaining life on Earth isn't our star's purpose. Actually, it has no purpose. It's simply a medium-sized star doing what stars do, blasting radiation, solar wind and occasional solar mass ejections into the space around it, all of which can destroy what we know as "life."

We're lucky that our planet has a massive hot liquid iron core that rotates far below the surface, creating a magnetic field in the space around our planet, which deflects most of what the sun sends our way. Much of what gets through is absorbed by our atmosphere. The little bit that makes it to places like Garcia's is enough to support life without destroying it.

As long as you aren't exposed too long. Stay out in the sun long enough, and your skin will start to burn. The rays might even disturb your DNA, causing skin cancer.

Mars wasn't as lucky as Earth. A smaller planet, it's smaller core cooled billions of years ago, ending it's ability to generate a protective magnetic field. The onslaught of radiation and solar particles blew away most of the atmosphere, and today only the tiniest remnants of carbon dioxide gas remain. Mars' surface is now an extremely cold, lifeless and deadly place.

This was what I was thinking when my wife took the photo. I know, I know, why can't I just enjoy being warm on a November day when the gentle folks in Buffalo are digging out from more than six feet of snow?

It's because I'm one of the intelligent lifeforms that now co-exist on Earth, and in my case I sometimes use my intelligence to think about stuff like this, especially when I can actually feel the rays bombarding my cheeks.

The sun, our oxygen-rich atmosphere, the abundance of water on our rocky surface, and our stable climate were not "put here" to make a perfect home for us humans. The Earth has been revolving around its star for about 4.5 billion years now, and the environment wasn't always ideal for life. We humans exist today because just the right conditions have accidentally come together after billions of years of Earth history.

In short, I'm lucky to be alive, breathing delicious air and feeling the warmth on my cheeks. I'm lucky to have been born, and I'm lucky I'm still alive. I've had several close brushes with death, and on this particular Sunday morning what I feel is, well, appreciation that I made it this far, far enough to reach Garcia's to enjoy a really great omelet.

I also entertained some radical thoughts about intelligent life in the universe, but you know what? That's another story....

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-80061938846948968062014-11-05T11:45:00.000-06:002014-11-08T11:14:30.543-06:00Mars One - The RealityRecall for a moment a few of the delicious pleasures of life...

Breathing in fresh air

Walking among the colored leaves of autumn

Having a good time with friends

Eating a burger tricked out just the way you like it

And washing it down with a craft beer

Browsing in a gift shop

Visiting one of the national parks

Going fishing with a buddy

Going on a date with your significant other

Visiting family

Watching the full moon on a clear night

Feeling the warm sun on your face

I'll stop here. You could easily add a hundred more delights to this list, things we often take for granted. These are a few of the things that the people who journey to Mars to establish a colony will never experience again.

It's one thing to consider this conceptually. It will be another thing entirely to experience these deprivations on a daily basis. Instead of breathing the autumn air, breathing stale air tainted with the stink of the crew and Mars dust. Instead of drinking a glass of cold, clear water, drinking water recycled from your own urine. And on and on.

Astronauts - International Space Station

Hundreds of thousands of people have applied to participate in a project called "Mars One," a private enterprise to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. The main thing, however, is that Mars One will produce a reality TV show of the journey and what they do to create a settlement on Mars - if they make it to the surface. The idea is to go in crews of four starting in 2024. They say the technology can only get them there. That's why it's called Mars One - one way.

REALITY: Most of the technology needed to get them there doesn't exist yet. In 2015, the venture to establish a small settlement on Mars is not only science fiction, it's speculative science fiction.

By the way, the organizers and promoters of Mars One have no intention whatsoever of going to Mars themselves.

Still, there's an amazing amount of interest among the general public. This brief video documents the thoughts of five hopeful Mars One space travelers as they contemplate leaving planet Earth forever for a new home on Mars.

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I don't know about you, but I wouldn't board a spacecraft with any of these "hopefuls." One says the journey would "give me another purpose for living." I wouldn't want to risk my life in close quarters with a young dude who is still searching for his purpose in life. Another volunteer described himself as "a turd in the toilet bowl of life." Okay...you get the idea.

To be kind, I can only say that these people must be thinking about some sci-fi movie they once watched. They seem utterly clueless about what wold be involved in space travel. All the well-publicized challenges and dangers aside, there is the rarely mentioned issue of months of weightlessness and Mars' low gravity and how this will cause bone and muscle loss over time. Or the onslaught of solar radiation and cosmic radiation. The problem of shielding people in the spacecraft has not been solved.

And on Mars' surface, there's no planetary electromagnetic field or a rich atmosphere (as there is on Earth) to protect people on the surface. And finally, there's the psychological impact of being deprived of all those cool things we sometimes hold dear and sometimes take for granted. Once the longing and regret become intense and persistent, there will be nothing they can do about it. I'm sure the star-struck volunteers are thinking about something else than the realities of space travel.

The question is, will watching things unravel onboard or on the surface make for good reality TV? The promoters of Mars One are betting it will.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-90005179050949400592014-10-21T18:19:00.000-05:002014-10-22T10:33:28.814-05:00Stained Glass Art - I Decided to Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone BeforeOver 30 years ago, I...

Lived near a Tidewater inlet to the Chesapeake Bay in Seaford, Virginia.

Was a lieutenant colonel in the Army.

Ran 50 miles a week training for the Marine Corps Marathon.

Had two teenage sons.

Created this unusual stained glass piece.

It was the only stained glass art work I ever created. Today it's displayed in our master bathroom and looks great in the afternoon light.

My ex-wife was the real stained glass artist - not me. She was very accomplished and passionate about her work until the day she concluded that our culture would never value this aspect of art enough to appropriately pay for the hours it took her to create it. She could make ten times as much money cooking french fries at McDonald's. So she got rid of all her equipment and left all that behind her, never again to create anything in stained glass.

She didn't get a job at McDonald's, however. Instead, she went back to college, maintained a 4.0 average, and graduated from the College of William and Mary business school, magna cum laude.

But during the years that she worked as an artist, I sometimes assisted her in the menial set-up work.

Inevitably, I wondered if I should try creating something myself. I knew I would only do it once, so I decided to do something ambitious. I decided on an impressionistic, symbolic approach. This meant that instead of a few dozen glass pieces soldered together, I would have to use hundreds. The project took me four months to complete.

The image represents universal energy, whether on a cosmic scale or an atomic scale.

So over 30 years ago I put on my uniform and performed my military duties, and none of my colleagues knew I had created this unusual piece of stained glass art.

Today, I'm still pleased with the result. And I'm still fascinated by the cosmos.

Each morning while I'm shaving I see this image in the mirror. It reminds me that I have the potential to be creative, an essential inspiration because I'm challenged more than ever to exercise this strength in my work.

It's a testament to what an ordinary guy can do if he dreams big and doesn't give up.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-19976969745190273742014-09-26T17:24:00.000-05:002014-09-26T17:31:10.522-05:00Obsessively Hard Work Earned Me an A in TypingWhen I told a friend that I made an A in every course I took in high school, he asked me, "Which course did you take as a senior that turned out to be the most important to you?"

Good question. I had never considered it, so I thought about the courses I took, many of which prepared me for my courses at West Point, which challenged me on another level.

Finally, I said, "Typing."

He laughed. But I wasn't joking.

Typing was a skill course, attended almost exclusively by girls. I remember thinking (in 1962), well yeah, if you're going to be a secretary you better know how to type.

I was the only male student, but my thought was that I'd have to write for many of my college courses. Back then, there were no word processors or electric typewriters - only mechanical ones. So students weren't expected to submit typewritten work. But I figured a typewritten paper would be looked upon favorably by my professors. As it turned out, this assumption was valid most of the time.

Also, as the only male student in the typing course, I wanted to show the teacher and all the girls that I could do as well as they could, or even better.

The classes consisted of drills, and at the end of every hour, we were given a timed 5-minute performance test. All uncorrected errors were penalized by subtracting 5 words from the total words typed. The net total was divided by 5 to get the words-per-minute (wpm) score. To pass, a student had to turn in at least five 45-wpm scores. For an A, five 60-wpm scores.

I took this course so seriously that I practiced at home, doing drills and 5-minute tests. I didn't know it, but all this repetitive typing activity was wiring my brain for typing skill. By the end of the course, I had fully ingrained my ability to type. I could do it at very high speed without thinking about what my fingers were doing. I submitted at least five scores above 90 wpm without errors and of course got my A. My teacher thought I was some kind of typing prodigy.

Truthfully, I just worked harder at it than any of my classmates.

Now, of course, I type on a modern keyboard and my brain wiring for typing is quite well insulated after decades of doing it. I'm sure that most of the time I type faster than 100 wpm.

And this skill, more than anything else I learned during my senior year, has helped me be successful.

I'm not sure my other teachers or my principal, who introduced me at my valedictory address, would have appreciated knowing this.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-39169605499843527152014-09-17T11:04:00.000-05:002014-09-17T11:04:44.966-05:00Thanks to Coaching, I'm Back on Track as a WriterI'm a writer. Writing gives me more satisfaction than anything I do. And there are things I care about, things I want to write about.

But I'm also a small business entrepreneur, a product developer. During the past several years I've been working with my team to develop an online virtual coaching system that helps people ingrain new skills and make permanent changes in behavior. That system is called ProStar Coach. I've also been heavily involved in the marketing - trying to get the word out. It has been a very satisfying project because it has the potential to help people of all ages and walks of life get stronger for the challenges of life and work.

But all this good work had a bad side effect for me. For years now, my work days were all about product development, not about writing books. The completion of the ProStar Coach project left me with all the time I needed to write, but I discovered that I no longer had the work habits of a writer. My old habits were kicking in and at the end of the day, I hadn't produced any writing.

I talked with my colleague and good friend, Meredith Bell, about this problem, and she had a suggestion. It was along the lines of "Physician, health thyself." Or, "Walk your talk."

What she was referring to is an ebook I recently wrote called Support Coaching. The book, along with nine companion videos, explains what a caring individual can do to help someone who wants to improve a skill or change a behavior pattern. The key element is coaching. The resources explain what anyone can do to support and coach a person involved in skill building, personal development or change.

What Meredith suggested is that I get an "accountability coach" to hold my feet to the fire, to do what a writer is supposed to do and actually get done what a writer should produce. An accountability coach is someone who agrees to contact you regularly and ask detailed questions to determine if you did what you said you were going to do. All successful athletic performance, weight loss and addiction recovery programs use accountability coaching. When you know you'll have to face someone who will want to see your results, it's a powerful motivator to do what you should be doing. Without accountability, it's all too easy to rationalize, make excuses and put things off.

Meredith's message: "You wrote the piece on accountability coaching. So get one. Use one."

My reply: "Will you be my accountability coach?"

She agreed, and we set up a twice-weekly phone call. I outlined what I would do and accomplish, and during the calls I emailed her the chapter I agreed to write.

It worked like magic. Before long, I had some new work habits in place and was producing chapters at a rapid rate.

The recent addition of the "Support Coaching" resources to the ProStar Coach system was a huge breakthrough, because it empowers ordinary people to do the simple things that add up to the kind of coaching a person needs to make a change. Virtual coaching is now enriched by coaching from real people. Now, anyone can be a support coach. Anyone can get the kind of coaching they need.

The resources are so important that we decided to make them available free to anyone who wants them.

They helped me. Maybe they can help you, too.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-28686280371761212952014-09-05T16:30:00.000-05:002014-09-05T16:37:51.482-05:00"Hall of Fame" - Music to Fire You UpLife is hard, and then you...well, that depends on what you do next.

The next time you've done your best and it didn't work out and you feel down in the dumps, watch this.

It will FIRE. YOU. UP.

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Some lyrics from "Hall of Fame - The Script" (2012) by feat. will.i.am.

You could go the distance
You could run the mile
You could walk straight through hell with a smile
You could be the hero
You could get the gold
Breaking all the records that thought never could be broke

Do it for your people
Do it for your pride
Never gonna know if you never even try
Do it for your country
Do it for your name

Cause there's gonna be a day
When you're standing in the hall of fame
And the world's gonna know your name
Cause you burn with the brightest flame
And the world's gonna know your name
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-52894289887823335002014-08-09T09:25:00.000-05:002014-08-09T09:25:06.947-05:00Favorite Quotes from Socrates: An Examined LifeI recently reread this quote by Socrates, Greek philosopher and teacher of Plato. It's one of my all-time favorites:

"An unexamined life is not worth living."

In my life I've tried to surround myself with people who question things and are serious about improving "who they are." Still, I know more than a few people who live unexamined lives, who are willing consumers of whatever the culture dishes up.

Marble bust of Socrates - Louvre

While we think of Socrates as one of the great minds of human history, in his own time only his students and a few close friends appreciated his wisdom. Those in power in Athens resented his unconventional views and his sarcasm. Ultimately, he was found guilty of impiety and corrupting the youth and was sentenced to death. His friends believed they could free him, but Socrates refused. His rationale is revealing:

He believed escaping would indicate that he was afraid of death, and he believed that a philosopher should not be.

He felt there was no profit in escaping. He would be seen as an iconoclast and provoke the wrath of authorities wherever he went.

As a citizen of Athens, he had agreed to accept the city's laws. He felt that violating this social contract would be an unprincipled act.

If he let his friends help him escape, he would be putting them in danger of punishment.

Besides, he felt he was ready to die. He had had enough of the world.

I wonder if someday I'll feel that I've "had enough of the world." It's certainly a troubled world, nearly as primitive as the one Socrates lived in. But I'm not there yet.

A few more of my favorite quotes from Socrates:

 "The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

 "The perfect human being is all human beings put together, it is a collective, it is all of us together that make perfection.

 "Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue - to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak."

 "Know thyself."

 "Let him that would move the world first move himself."

 "In life, there is only one good--knowledge. One evil--ignorance."

 "Wisdom begins in wonder."

Words spoken 2,500 years ago, still fresh and appropriate today.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-77376556381397608972014-08-06T11:20:00.002-05:002014-08-06T16:48:56.845-05:00The Amazing Unprecedented Plumber

Moving into our new home, we discovered that many aspects of it had been neglected during the previous owners' eight-year residence. One area was the bathroom sinks and toilets. As one of our final upgrades, we called the plumber to clear the sink drains and replace old hardware in the toilets. I assisted by getting rid of the gunk that had accumulated on the stoppers and in the drain pipes. It was...never mind...too nasty to describe.

The plumber was an interesting fellow in his mid-thirties. Even though he spoke with a speech impediment, he talked nonstop during the hour he was in the house. He told me that when he was 15, he accidentally received a powerful electric shock that almost killed him. As a result, he has been bipolar ever since. He was even institutionalized for a while, in which he struggled to survive the treatment of the staff and other residents.

But he also developed an uncanny ability to solve visual-spatial problems. He found that he could disassemble and reassemble anything - furniture, appliances, even a car. "To me, they're like puzzles," he said with a smile. I observed his abilities first-hand as he quickly did what I discovered earlier I could not do.

He told me that his employers and colleagues were perplexed and intimidated by the paradox of his superior abilities and the outward impression of mental inadequacy. He didn't respond well to the resulting unfairness and mistreatment, which made it hard for him to cultivate good working relationships.

My impression of him was that despite any mental disabilities he may have, he is more intelligent than many of the people I encounter every day.

And at the end of the hour, our plumbing was in like-new condition.

The time I spent with this outgoing mechanical prodigy caused me to remember an important fact: Each of the billions of human beings that have lived on Earth is unique. Each path, each journey is unprecedented. Each human brain is wired differently.

And an important principle: to create authentic relationships, we need to exercise tolerance, patience, and compassion.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-65318477797850881562014-07-29T11:53:00.001-05:002014-09-25T12:56:20.076-05:00Interstellar Space Travel - Humanity's Opportunity to Get RealSpace travel!

Astronauts, men on the moon, space stations, spacecraft that have visited all the planets - even asteroids and comets. One spacecraft has even left our solar system. It's as if science fiction has become science fact. It almost seems that we can do anything in space if we put our minds to it. It seems so easy—I think too easy—to go from appreciating these achievements to dreams of sending explorers to the other planets and beyond.

Artist: WeeYak. More cool images at weeyak.deviantart.com.

Interstellar space travel!

Not a new term. With hundreds of great sci-fi movies under our belt, we use this phrase as if it's already a foregone conclusion, even just around the corner. Scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are now loudly, even boastfully encouraging this perspective.

As for the first big step - a manned mission to Mars - none of the problems that challenge this project have been solved.

Outer space is deadly. Beyond the protective shielding of Earth's atmosphere and electromagnetic field, which protect us from solar radiation and cosmic radiation, astronauts will need a way to protect themselves during the flight. Current spacecraft shielding doesn't give enough protection to prevent permanent cell damage.

Human beings evolved to survive and thrive only in the kind gravity, atmospheric pressure, and temperature range found on Earth's surface. Space suits can compensate for temperature and pressure extremes. But time spent in zero gravity during the months of the journey or working in the low gravity on Mars will have progressively detrimental effects on every part of the body—bones, muscles, lungs, heart and brain. Without a solution, astronauts will be crippled upon return to Earth, if indeed they could handle the trip back.

It's one thing to spend a couple months aboard the ISS, with the huge sight of planet Earth outside the window. But a flight to Mars would be quite different, where views of Earth would shrink to a pinpoint. There are the unique, untested social and psychological issues related to spending years in space in the cramped cabins of the spacecraft and Mars living quarters.

And did I mention air, water, and food? Solutions for these problems of extended time away from Earth are easier to address, and scientists are working on them.

People in the space industry talk glibly about interstellar space travel being "the destiny of the human race," as if going to Mars is only the first step. But there are problems that almost never get mentioned.

The Distance Problem – When you look up at the night sky you can see Mars, a pinpoint of light among the stars. It would be natural to think, "If we can go to Mars, we can go to the stars." But that's because you haven't done the math.

Alpha Proxima, the star closest to our solar system, is about 25 trillion miles away. This distance is so vast that the human mind can't understand it. Scientists created the concept of light-years (the distance light travels in a year) to make it easier to comprehend incomprehensible distances.

Speed of Light = 186,000 miles per second
= 670,000,000 miles per hour
= 5,900,000,000 miles per year
1 light-year = 5.9 trillion miles

Current propulsion systems achieve about 50,000 mph - pretty speedy by Earth standards. But at that velocity, it would take more than 50,000 years to arrive at the nearest star. So travel to stars will require much faster spacecraft. But even if a spacecraft could be built to travel 10 million mph, which is about 1.5% the speed of light, the travel times are still absurdly long.

At 10 million mph it would take 67 years, or about 3 generations of human beings to go just 1 light year. A journey to Alpha Proxima, is 4 light-years away – 268 years (12 generations of human beings) traveling at 10 million mph.

A news report about a newly-found exoplanet in a star's habitable zone described it as "only 100 light years away." Yes, the farthest reaches of our Milky Way galaxy are 1,000 times that distant, so compared to the size of our galaxy, 100 light years is relatively close. But traveling at 10 million mph, it would take 6,700 years (300 generations) to travel "only 100 light-years."

The Impact Energy Problem – Space is far from empty. Asteroids, rocks, ice fragments, dust, gas—there's lots of stuff in the so-called "void." And no one knows where all this stuff is. Running into even the tiniest objects while traveling at enormous speeds can create awesome effects at impact.

The faster a spacecraft goes, the higher the probability that it will run into something. And the greater the speed, the greater the kinetic energy that will be produced at impact. Traveling at 10 million mph, even the impact of a single microscopic grain of space dust could destroy a space ship. Unimaginable shielding—something as dense and bulky as a sizeable asteroid—would be needed.

When scientists talk excitedly about exotic propulsion system concepts, they never mention the problem of impacts at very high speeds.

The Propulsion Energy Problem – How much energy would it take to propel a vehicle with that kind of shielding at 10 million mph? Answer: It would take a major portion of all the energy produced everywhere on Earth in one year.

Imagination is a wonderful thing. So is our potential for achievement. But these challenges are more than daunting. When you do the math and consider the realities of the cosmos, interstellar space travel seems pointless and impractical. No, impossible. The problems are insurmountable. It's never going to happen. In the best-case scenario, our glorious species won't even try.

So the biggest challenge isn't shielding or speed. Considering how our minds have been conditioned by science fantasy, our biggest challenge is to get real. The ultimate drama isn't whether human beings will "reach the stars." It's whether we're intelligent and wise enough as a species to get down-to-earth and face facts and focus our ability to stop killing each other and figure out how to preserve Earth's limited resources.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-67612340551885662662014-07-24T17:56:00.002-05:002014-07-28T17:47:22.055-05:00Are We Alone? The Ultimate Answer...

NASA image

Are we alone in the universe? It's a frequent question asked these days in excited, enthusiastic science articles about our universe. Does intelligent life exist out there somewhere?

SETI would like to know. NASA would like to know. Now that thousands of planets have been discovered orbiting distant stars, scientists and engineers are working to launch bigger and better telescopes to sense evidence of life on some of these worlds.

What is intelligent life? The most perfect example of an Earth-like planet is Earth itself. Does intelligent life exist there?

Here on Earth, the most intelligent species is assumed to be homo sapiens - human beings.

Throughout history, humans have been busy killing other humans because they have a different religious faith.

Today, they abuse and kill people because they're female.

Because they're a different race.

Or a different nationality.

Because they want to seize control of precious resources.

They kill each other in order to sell addictive poisons to other human beings.

In the modern world, they lie to each other day and night, to make money.

They break the law and hurt people every chance they get to make money.

Greed and self-interest rule most areas of human civilization.

Humans wildly promote myriad forms of superstition.

They abhor the truth and are drawn to escapist nonsense.

Humans are willfully polluting the oceans, threatening the food chain.

They're destroying huge areas of forests that used to pump oxygen into the atmosphere, thinking there will be no negative consequence.

They're polluting the air we breathe.

They're pushing animal and plant species into extinction.

They're altering the climate without remorse.

Human beings are slowly but relentlessly rendering the only home they'll ever have - planet Earth - unfit for human life.

They dream of being a multi-world species in case they ruin the precious world they already have, when there are no such worlds to go to - and if there were, no way to get there.

So I have to ask, is this what we mean by intelligent life?

Were the dinosaurs an example of intelligent life? Is this the kind of intelligence we hope to find on distant worlds? Millions of years before there were human beings, dinosaurs dominated the planet. The only reason mammals, and eventually humans, were able to evolve and exist today is because of a freak accident. 65 million years ago a mile-wide asteroid crashed into the Earth and wiped out all the dinosaurs along with 75% of all plant and animal species. If this asteroid had missed, perhaps the dinosaurs would still reign today, and humans wouldn't have evolved.

I wouldn't be writing this post on my blog.

Intelligent human beings have been on the planet for only about 100,000 years - a blink of an eye in Earth history. Science as we know it has existed only about 500 years. We could easily render Earth unfit for human life, and that would be the end of that brief story.

If this is what is meant by intelligent life, then maybe it doesn't mean much to find it elsewhere in our galaxy. Or if it does exist, then maybe intelligent life isn't such a wonderful thing. Maybe intelligence as humans think of it is like a sinister virus.

So if the question is, "Are we alone?" Maybe the honest, realistic answer is, "What difference does it make?" Or "Who cares?"

What are we going to do? Commit shocking amounts of the world's resources to build a starship that will take thousands of years to travel unimaginable distances to find out?

If the surviving generations of these space explorers were ever able to return to Earth to deliver the answer, likely they would find a ruined planet with no human beings living on it.

"Are we alone in the universe?" It's the wrong question.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-20677274171787279242014-07-13T13:02:00.000-05:002014-07-15T11:46:47.024-05:00The Magic Key to Changing a Harmful Behavior Pattern

Last week, on two separate occasions I spent time with some guy friends. They were very different people, but with one striking similarity: both were significantly overweight and had diabetes issues. And even though they had tried, they hadn't been able to change the eating habits that caused their health problems.

Changing a behavior pattern is hard.

The reason is that if you repeat a behavior enough times, the brain cells involved in the behavior will connect into a physical circuit. Over time, your brain will literally wire itself to make any repeated behavior - whether beneficial or harmful - an easy, unconscious automatic pattern.

How do you change a habit like that, when the brain has wired itself to produce it? Like I said, it's hard.

But even though it's hard, people do break bad habits all the time.

But you really gotta wanna.

Yes, motivation is helpful, but that's not the secret. Even though strong motivation is crucial, there's more to it than that. There's a magic key to changing a behavior pattern.

It starts with understanding how successfully changing a behavior pattern works. The process has four phases.

1. Unconscious incompetence. Your habitual way of doing something is harmful, but you aren't aware that it's causing problems or that there's a better way.

2. Conscious incompetence. Somehow you're made aware that what you're doing is causing problems. The issues that are a consequence of your behavior become obvious. Maybe they cause pain or discomfort. Maybe someone gives you feedback - holds a mirror up to your behavior. You haven't committed to change yet, but you're not blissfully unaware anymore.

3. Conscious competence. You've learned what you should be doing and you're making an effort to change. This effort has to be a conscious decision, because the new way isn't a habit yet. This is challenging because the old way is still an ingrained habit. And because the old way is physically wired in your brain, it won't just unconnect itself and go away, no matter how much you wish it would. The trick is to repeat the new behavior so many times that your brain wires itself for a new, more rewarding habit.

But you're not there yet. So when you're not consciously paying attention to what you're doing, the old habit kicks in automatically. Frustration, regret and discouragement usually follow. I call this the "crunch point," because when it happens most people give up and relax back into their old ways.

4. Unconscious competence. If instead of giving up, you push past your lapses and consciously try again, after a while your success rate will improve. You'll still have occasional lapses, but if you don't give up, if you keep trying, eventually your brain will wire itself for the new habit. This means that doing the right thing will begin to kick in automatically without a conscious effort on your part.

The "secret" is actually quite simple, but it works like magic. It's this: even though your failures are disheartening, don't give up. Keep trying to make that conscious choice to do what you've committed to do. Understand that lapses are an inevitable part of the process and that each time you repeat the behavior, it will make that conscious decision easier, and your success rate will improve.

It will probably take time, but if you don't give up, if you persist past your failures and keep trying, eventually the new pattern will start happening automatically. And you'll become one of the millions of people who've changed a bad habit.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-87075108232715581882014-06-27T01:00:00.000-05:002014-06-27T08:31:17.489-05:00Spirituality without ReligionMost people seek spirituality within the framework of a belief system or religion. This is the traditional approach.

I have a good friend who said to me that she wasn't religious, but she wanted to believe in something. She wanted an authentic experience of spirituality without having to believe in a supreme being.

There are millions of people like her. On forms that ask for "Religious Preference," they enter "none." At this point in human history, there's no tried-and-true system my friend can turn to to get what she wants.

I recommended that she read Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. His approach to spirituality is to silence the chatter of the mind to achieve a hear-and-now awareness of the present moment. Life is sacred, being alive is sacred, and he considers this pure, unfiltered experience of the self to be a central aspect of spirituality.

Also, Tolle chooses to see the universe as a kind of cosmic intelligence. He envisions a grand consciousness, something purposeful that is larger than ourselves. I don't relate to this concept, but I do like the way he coaches us to achieve an awareness of being alive. Being conscious of our existence, appreciating that we are alive, experiencing what we are - surely this is an important aspect of spirituality.

Beyond the self there are billions of other human beings, each one alive and sacred, though usually not aware of his or her spiritual nature. Being "in the moment" with another human being, appreciating another person's reality and sacredness, the special aliveness of another individual - this, it seems to me, expands our spirituality to another level - that of relationships.

And of course there are all the "non-human" beings we can relate to, which we often refer to as "creatures." Like Ernest and Baby Girl, the affectionate, intelligent cats that are a part of our family. We can achieve spiritual relationships with the rest of nature, by experiencing it for what it is without the chatter of human nonsense.

And beyond our relationships and communities, there is the larger natural world, including the universe beyond our planet-home, Earth. Can we achieve a spiritual relationship with the universe?

I believe so, but I think this is more challenging, because even though the universe beyond Earth is quite real, when we look up on a dark night, all we see are tiny points of light. Scientists say some of these points of light aren't stars, but massive clusters of stars. This is new knowledge. They found proof of other galaxies beyond our own Milky Way galaxy less than a century ago. Scientists tell us this, and we can see the photos of various galaxies taken by powerful telescopes. These are awesome and beautiful images, though it takes some effort to achieve the stirrings of spirituality staring at second-hand, two-dimensional pictures.

Let me tell you about a personal experience. I live in Texas, and my wife and some friends decided to visit the McDonald Observatory in the mountains of west Texas. It was a moonless night, and as we sat on benches outside, a guide gave us an orientation of the night sky. Afterward, several different telescopes were set up for visitor viewing. In one of the telescopes I saw a clear view of Saturn's rings. It was like being there, though Saturn is about 750 million miles from Earth - eight times the distance from the Earth to the sun. This was not a photo but a direct view of the planet as it existed in that moment. I let that sink in, and I felt a sense of awe at this reality and my relation to it.

As I peered through another, stronger telescope I saw something that swept me away. It was not a planet. It was not a star. It was the Andromeda galaxy. I saw its swirling shape and that it consisted of an untold number of stars. Not a photo. Not an animation. But the galaxy itself, far from Earth.

The Andromeda Galaxy

I learned that the Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light years from Earth, which is a distance impossible for any human being to imagine, and that it contains a trillion stars, more than twice as many as our own Milky Way galaxy. Our guide also said that it was moving through space towards our galaxy and would merge with it three or four billion years from now. For me, this surge of awareness and knowledge and awe was unmistakably spiritual. This vision of Andromeda, seen through a looking glass, helped define me and my place in the universe.

It was humbling.

I've written this post partly for my friend, to affirm that you can, if you seek it, find authentic spirituality not only in yourself, but in relation to others and to the universe. It has to be a personal quest, not an easy journey, because this kind of spirituality isn't a packaged belief system as most religions are. But it's achievable.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-86609492252538628312014-06-25T08:56:00.000-05:002014-06-25T12:38:23.816-05:00Zombies and Personal Decision MakingYou have four ways of moving to action...

1. You do what other people tell you to do. Boss. Friend. Parent. Spouse. Your TV set.

2. You react instinctively, emotionally.

3. You unconsciously act out of habit. Your brain is wired for a particular behavior pattern.

4. You consciously evaluate your situation and your options and decide what to do.

If you aren't aware of why you're doing things, you're out of control.

There are good habits. There are bad habits.

There are good decisions. There are bad decisions.

If you aren't trying to improve your habits, if you acquire habits without thought and do things that are to your own detriment or the detriment of others, you're out of control.

When consciously making decisions, if you aren't carefully evaluating your options, you're out of control.

All actions have consequences. Some small. Some big. Some huge.

These consequences show up, impact your life and cause you to take more action. If you aren't aware of the role of your actions in a chain of events, you're life is out of control.

The truth is not many people think about why they do things. It's as if they're not accepting responsibility, not in charge of their own lives. Moving around in space but not fully alive. Like zombies.

How about you? Are you in control?

Are you aware of how and why you do things?

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-62666083954048738042014-06-11T18:27:00.001-05:002014-06-20T10:11:17.045-05:00From Texas: A Two-Step Dance That Improves Performance in the Workplace

I've lived in Texas just outside San Antonio for almost a decade now, and one of the cool things we enjoy here is Texas country music. Dance halls, ice houses and other venues feature live music almost every night. The tiny town of Gruene has three or four different venues, including Gruene Hall, the oldest continuously operating honky-tonk dance hall in Texas.

And yes, couples actually get on the floor and dance while the music is playing.

The dance step you see most is called the "Texas two-step." Outside of Texas it's known as the "country two-step." Quick-quick slow, slow. Check it out:

You see how easy it is, and when it comes to dancing (which everyone knows is a form of foreplay) that's how cowboys like it – easy.

When I'm not enjoying a local craft beer at a live music event, I'm probably thinking about more serious matters, such as learning and development and behavior change.

But it dawned on me recently that the difficult, all-important business of improving skills and changing behavior also involves a two-step.

At the most fundamental level, for training programs to succeed they need to be deployed in two steps - a kind of "learning and development dance," so to speak.

Step One is feedback.

People need to know that something they're doing is causing problems. Step One is to hold a mirror up to their behavior to help them acknowledge the issue, so they can begin doing the work to change and improve.<o:p>

The unspoken assumption is that if intelligent, committed and well-intentioned managers and employees discover they need to change something, they'll want to address it. They'll make an effort to do so.

The assumption is that this kind of helpful feedback will empower the desired improvement.

 This assumption is false.

Yes, most people are intelligent, committed and well-intentioned. But old behavior patterns have been reinforced and ingrained for years. Peoples' brains are literally wired for the old behaviors.

So even if people want to make a conscious effort, in a fast-paced, challenging workplace old habits kick in automatically, and the conscious effort to do something differently often doesn't happen. After several discouraging lapses, most people give up trying to change.

The only way to improve or change an ingrained behavior pattern is to rewire the brain – to stimulate the brain cells to connect in new neural pathways. This is the only approach that works. But it requires a long-term effort involving reinforcement, ongoing feedback, encouragement, and accountability.

 This is the Step Two of the behavior change dance.

Most learning and development professionals and the managers they serve already understand Step One. For decades now, organizations have been using technology to help employees get the feedback they need.

The problem is, few of them understand Step Two. They don't appreciate the kind of reinforcement, </o:p>ongoing feedback, encouragement, and accountability that will give employees enough "reps" to rewire their brains. They don't appreciate how long it will take, and they don't know if there's a coaching technology that will support the follow-through efforts.
<o:p>
They do Step One. But there's no Step Two.

So there's no dance. And in most cases, behavior change doesn't happen.

So here I am working on my 20-ounce glass of brew, listening to Willie Nelson and watching couples dance. Yes, Willie Nelson – for real. This is Texas, man.

And the two-step is working its magic.

What most organizations don't realize is that affordable technology support for both Step One and Step Two already exists.

20/20 Insight is the preferred feedback technology for a great many organizations worldwide. It has been making Step One easy for over 20 years now.

Strong for Performance, introduced in 2013, supports Step Two, the long-term coaching effort to ingrain automatic behavior patterns.

The learning and development dance really can happen. If you do Step One, followed by Step Two.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .</o:p>Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-20918515119838384022014-06-06T12:30:00.002-05:002014-06-06T12:30:23.738-05:00How Henry David Thoreau Changed My LifeI share a lot of wisdom on this blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, on YouTube, and on Pinterest. Much of it comes from quotes from the great minds of the past 2,500 years.

For me, this collection of wisdom started over 40 years ago while I was a graduate student at Duke University. While reading Henry David Thoreau, an early 19th-century American philosopher, I came across this statement, which may have been the first quote I ever saved. It knocked my socks off then, and it still means a great deal to me now...

I accepted Thoreau's words as a promise. Have a dream. Advance confidently towards it, and my actions will meet with success. I believed it, and it became a framework that inspired me during the difficult years of my graduate studies. And I did achieve my dream, which at the time was to earn a Ph.D., and it did lead to unexpected success.

Here's what I learned from the experience.

Success starts with a dream, a vision of an important, highly desirable goal.

The dream fires the motivation towards action, which is the most important part, by far.

Because you have to do things. Hard things. It's not enough to want, or to dream.

Each action produces consequences, which are the stuff of a new situation. And in that new place, you make more choices and take more actions.

Which lead to more consequences - new situations. It's a long-term cascade of decisions and cause and effect.

It's a journey. Not a journey that happens to you. Not a journey to which you've been invited, but one you create for yourself by making the best choices you can and then working hard to implement the choices.

You are responsible for the journey. The journey is your life. Any success you achieve you earn with all the difficult choices and hard work.

And, of course, some luck. Because much of what happens in life is beyond your control.

The Thoreau quote is a classic. I hope it inspires you as much as it has inspired me.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-60043063906823119412014-04-26T23:39:00.000-05:002014-06-27T11:45:33.672-05:00NASA Public Relations Working Overtime to Sell Hope for a Manned Mission to Mars

"A manned mission to Mars is necessary for our species to survive," said Charles Bolden as he described a three-step plan to land humans on the red planet by 2030.

The NASA administrator made these remarks at the "Humans to Mars Summit."

Oh wow. Sounds like NASA knows what it will take to ensure the survival of humanity, and they have a plan.

Wrong.

1. Whenever NASA or any scientist talks about our species surviving, they aren't talking about you, Bubba. They aren't talking about the 7 million human beings on planet Earth. They're talking about a plan to take a small crew to another planet in hopes that they will survive there and eventually perpetuate the human species. Understand this: "survival of our species" doesn't have anything to do with you. You won't get to go. They aren't trying to save the people of Earth. Just the DNA. Remember that.

2. Sending humans to Mars may teach us a lot about the challenges, but Mars will never be THE PLANET that makes us a multi-planet species. "Multi-planet species" is just a grand buzz-word made up by NASA PR specialists to make the mission sound realistic and hopeful. The truth is, Mars is a dangerous, hostile place unfit for human habitation. It gets colder than minus 200 degrees F at night. The air is poisonous. The air pressure is a tiny fraction of that of Earth, so your lungs and blood vessels would burst without special space suits. The atmosphere is thin and there's no electromagnetic field to protect against deadly cosmic rays. Worst of all, the gravity of Mars is so small that bones, muscles, heart and brain would deteriorate. We didn't evolve to live on Mars. And there's no solution - you can't change the planet. Our species wouldn't survive there.

3. And no other planet in our solar system is a better candidate. Another solar system? We've never discovered another with a suitable planet. NASA has been ecstatic recently with reports about Kepler 186f, a planet in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. It's the most hopeful planet they've found yet. But they can't even tell if it has water there. And guess what...it's 480 light-years away. A space-craft hauling ass at 1 million mph (conventional rockets only travel at 50,000 mph) would take 32,000 years to reach it.

This "multi-planet species" stuff is nothing more than cynical NASA public relations spin. They say what they need to say to keep the public hopeful about their deep space projects, or they won't have support for the high price tag.

Well, Bubba, did you buy that "multi-planet species" stuff? Do you feel hopeful? Are you excited? You ready to pay your taxes for this manned mission to Mars?

Well, are you?

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-51598651317178275072014-04-05T15:26:00.003-05:002014-04-06T17:12:37.302-05:00Geologic Time and Dinosaur Tracks in the Texas Hill CountryI live only a couple miles from the Guadalupe River. Recently, with Everett Deschner as my guide, I walked along a creek that feeds this river, and he showed me dinosaur tracks imbedded in the stone creek bed.

The tracks were quite visible, made by a young half-ton plant-eating dinosaur while walking through the area.

Everett on right. Photo by Linnea S.

Deschner is the vice president of the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country, not far from Canyon Lake. He explained that the Hill Country didn't exist at the time of the dinosaur, which was about 100 million years ago. At that time, this area was a flat, low-lying marshy area sometimes covered by the sea water of what we now know as the Gulf of Mexico.

He went on to explain that we can now see these tracks in the stone because of a series of chance events over eons of time.

First, the dinosaur walked through an area covered by moist tidal algae. His great weight would be enough to create deep tracks. Not long after that, hot dry weather dried the algae, preserving the shape of the tracks. Tides brought in mud, which filled the tracks. Over millions of years, sediment was deposited layer upon layer until the tracks were covered by about 10,000 feet of sediment. The great weight of all this mud created intense pressure and heat, which caused the algae to slowly harden into stone.

Millions of years later, this environment was pushed up by the movement of the continents. Then, after millions of years of weather and erosion, valleys, creeks and rivers formed what we now know as the Hill Country in central Texas. The creek I saw had eroded the sediment down to the layer of stone, making the tracks visible.

Dinosaur tracks in Texas are found only in the Hill Country. The land west of this region was formed before the age of the dinosaurs, so no tracks are found there. The land east of the Hill Country was formed after the age of the dinosaurs. Deschner told me that there are about 60 known dinosaur track sites. The best known site is at Glen Rose, Texas. I've seen those tracks, but the ones in the creek near my home were equally impressive.

Yes, it's pretty cool to have dinosaur tracks only a couple miles from my house. Translation: I can easily go see them anytime I want!

But part of the coolness is pondering the millions and millions of years it took to create them and then expose them. Geologists call these vast spans of Earth history "geologic time." I first heard this term from a park ranger at the Grand Canyon. My sister-in-law, a geologist, also likes to refer to geologic time.

Cosmologists and astrophysicists use the term "deep time" when referring to the events of the history of the universe, which involve billions of years.

I love studying the history of the cosmos and our planet, and while walking with Mr. Deschner, I realized that I'm finally able to imagine the unimaginable - the vast spans of geologic time and deep time.

It has taken me a while to gain this understanding. I remember standing on a trail on the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in 1996, and I sort of got it when the park ranger joked that the rocks were "older than God." But I couldn't comprehend the reality of 500 million years. He could have said 5 million or 5 billion and it would have made the same impression on me. I was just a man who would live maybe 90 years if I was really lucky, and 500 million years was too many years. It didn't mean anything to me.

But now, standing at the edge of the shallow creek bed, when the man pointed at the tracks and said "100 million years," my study of Earth history and the history of universe was paying off. His cool story about the origins of the dinosaur tracks came alive for me.

The next time my sister-in-law talks about the origins and ages of rocks, I won't feel stupid. I'll get it.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-34589392854399363422014-03-22T01:00:00.000-05:002014-03-22T01:00:05.530-05:005 Lessons on Compassion We Can Learn From NursesThis guest post comes from Sandra Mills, who writes about business and healthcare topics. Follow her on Twitter, @sandramills63.

Nearly 3 million nurses in the U.S. offer care to people of all ages and in various settings, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Everyday, nurses perform acts of compassion to reduce the stress of illness and injury. Adopting just a few of their skills in the home and workplace could make a big difference in the lives of people around you.

Compassionate Caring
There are two elements that make up compassionate nursing care, says Nursing Times. The first is mastery of the skills and procedures used with patients. The second is exercising those skills in a caring manner. You can be a technically competent nurse yet perform duties without compassion.

Putting this to use in your world means looking for opportunities to expand the impact of your expertise. When your task involves another person, how can you perform it so that both of you succeed? As an HR recruiter, you may have interviewed hundreds of people for positions in your company. How can you perform the next interview so that both you and the candidate go away feeling that it was a successful event? The person may not get the position, but they will leave the experience with something that could benefit them in their next interview.

Compassionate Listening
A good nurse is detail-oriented, and that includes listening for details in every conversation. Especially important are the things that aren't said. Most people are not accustomed to really being listened to. So they compensate by holding back information. A patient may respond to a question about pain with "Oh, I feel okay," when they are actually in pain. They don't want to appear weak or needy. The nurse might respond, "It sounds like you're in more pain than you're telling me. I'll get you something to help." This lets the patient know that they were heard, and it will improve future conversations.

If you manage staff in an office, you likely meet with individuals in your group to talk about their work and projects. You may have noticed one of them struggling with a task, yet when you ask if they need help, they tell you, "I have it covered." "Walk through your project with me and let's see where I can provide some help," is a way to show the person that you cared enough to listen to what they needed, behind the words they said.

Compassionate Smile
A smile is a simple gesture that nurses use to calm fears, reassure and let people know they are there to help. A nursing unit can become a very busy place and patients can feel isolated in their own problems. A smile from their nurse breaks that isolation and tells the patient that they haven't been forgotten.

Your smile is a reflection of your personality, and it can make a momentary connection with the people around you. It can become infectious. The person that bags your groceries at the supermarket might be having a bad day, and a smile from you with a simple, "Thank you so much for your help!" could be that bright spot that shifts their mood. They may pass that on to the next customer they help, creating a domino effect of compassionate gestures.

Compassionate Touch
There are times when a simple touch by another person completely changes a situation. Nurses know this and look for those moments when a hand placed on an arm or shoulder takes on a therapeutic role. A patient lies on a hospital cart, fearful of going into surgery. A nurse takes their hands into theirs and says, "I'll be with you throughout the whole procedure." The patient relaxes, feeling supported now by that simple act.

If you have children at home then you know how effective touch can be. At work, you can thank your staff for doing a good job. Or you can hold out your hand and shake theirs warmly as you thank them and convey a much stronger gratitude for their efforts. Your neighbor is telling you about just losing their job. A hand on their shoulder can say, "I'll share this grief with you in this moment," and create a feeling of connection in their isolation.

Compassion and Respect
Sometimes the compassionate thing to do is to acknowledge that you have no answers and to just hold space with a person. Nurses working in a hospice help people to remain as comfortable as possible in their final days. There is nothing the nurse can do to "fix" things. Quietly sitting with a hospice patient tells them "I respect that you have to go through this experience yourself. But I won't abandon you."

Your son comes home from school dejected because he wasn't chosen for the football team. Your spouse comes home from work in tears because a co-worker was in a serious car accident the night before. Just sitting next to them quietly tells them, "I'll be right here if there is something I can do to help, and I will never be far away."Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-939404403478142592014-03-19T14:27:00.001-05:002014-03-19T17:24:08.411-05:00Near-Future Science Fiction - Realistic Portrayals of Space TravelWe often hear scientists and engineers working in the space industry make grandiose statements like, "We are a race of explorers. It is our destiny to travel to the stars." They compare the courageous achievements of astronauts to those of Christopher Columbus and Magellan.

These high-sounding pronouncements strike a chord. People like to think of themselves in heroic terms.

Science fiction movies encourage this romanticism—alien creatures that look only slightly different from humans and space travel that seems safe and routine—even comfortable. Informed by this imagery, the general public has little appreciation for the formidable dangers and challenges of space travel.

The first movie to portray outer space as hostile to human life was "Alien" (1979) and its sequels. It portrayed an intelligent life form that was an encounter of the worst kind.

Recently there have been a few of what I call "near-future" sci-fi flicks that even more realistically portray the dangers of venturing into outer space. The most celebrated is "Gravity" (2013), starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, which won several Academy Awards.

Also in this genre are "Race to Mars" (2007), a Canadian feature, and "Europa Report" (2013). Both portray the dangers of space travel realistically. The drama intensifies as the vulnerable astronauts deal with a variety of life-threatening situations.

But even the most scientifically realistic documentaries and movies fail to account for all the dangers.

For example, two types of radiation threaten humans traveling in space. The Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field shield nearly all solar and cosmic radiation. In space, however, the protection has to come from the spacecraft. Radiation from the sun, high-energy high-speed hydrogen protons, is dangerous but not nearly as devastating as cosmic radiation, which comes from distant exploded stars.

These consist of high-speed high-energy heavy particles. A recent study examined the potential for cosmic radiation to cause brain damage. It concluded: "Because iron particles pack a bigger wallop it is extremely difficult from an engineering perspective to effectively shield against them. One would have to essentially wrap a spacecraft in a six-foot block of lead or concrete." They quickly add that it would be impossible to launch a spacecraft protected by this kind of shielding.

And people who promote colonizing Mars and even "terraforming" Mars never mention the effect of low gravity on muscle loss and bone loss. Mars gravity is only 38% that of Earth. Our bodies evolved to thrive in Earth gravity. Mars gravity wouldn't give humans the stress needed to maintain bone and muscle health. To date, this issue has been not been sufficiently researched, and so no practical solutions have been found.

With both spacecraft and meteorite fragments traveling at high speed, an impact can easily puncture the hull—a catastrophic event. In space, there is no air, so there is no air pressure. Temperatures approach absolute zero. This isn't anything like the voyages of Christopher Columbus, which required great courage and stamina. Conditions on these early voyages were austere, but the explorers enjoyed plenty of fresh food, water and air; ideal gravity, air pressure and temperature range; and protection from solar and cosmic radiation; In other words, they voyaged in the environment our species was born to thrive in.

We weren't born to thrive—or even to survive—in outer space or on the surface of another planet.

In my opinion, we need more information and less romance. We need to learn about the challenges and dangers, because they're going to come with a high price tag. And you know who will pay for them. That's right—you and me. So if these missions are to be attempted, and whether they succeed or fail, there better be a damn good reason to pursue them. Not some bombastic sentiment like, "It's our destiny."

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-8930536681807097452014-03-06T01:00:00.000-06:002014-12-02T11:38:29.080-06:00My Strange Encounter with an Old FriendForty years ago I was an English professor at West Point when I learned that someone I once knew would be buried with honors in the West Point cemetery. He was the man who, 15 years before, had pinned my Eagle Scout medal on me. I remembered him as a tall, distinguished, handsome man who resembled General Robert E. Lee.

This old graduate was being laid to rest, and I wanted to be there to honor him. It was a cold, rainy day. Present there was his son, who was my age - a former junior high classmate. My family had moved away, and I hadn't seen or heard anything about him in those 15 years. He had grown up to be as tall as his father.

After the ceremony, I went up to my old friend to express my condolences. When he didn't recognize me, I told him who I was. He said he didn't remember me.

Yes, a fair amount of water had passed under the bridge since we were boys. For my part, I had finished high school overseas, attended West Point, survived the Army Ranger School, commanded a HAWK missile battery in Germany and a mobile advisory team in Vietnam, earned degrees at Duke University and was now teaching English at the military academy his father had once attended. I assumed that my friend's separate journey must have been as busy as mine, but in ways unknown to me.

Still, I was shocked that he didn't remember me. But there it was, the reality that everything that had happened to him had pushed memories of me aside. I wished this "stranger" well and left.

Forty years beyond that surprise encounter, I still think about it - a dramatic example of the "membrane of separateness" I've written about, the fact that our personal experience can never be completely known to another and that even though we have family, friends and acquaintances, we walk our life journey essentially alone.

This isn't a morose sentiment. It just is what it is. Most people abhor the feeling of being alone, and to a degree we penetrate this separateness by sharing stories of our lives with each other.

As I share this story with you now.

Now, forty years later, I wonder what happened to my old friend, the one who had forgotten who I was. When I searched the web thoroughly I found nothing, nothing at all. And so apparently his separate journey will remain a mystery to me.

Maybe, in fact, his journey has already reached its end.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-77049231197957440862014-03-02T10:00:00.000-06:002014-03-02T11:28:08.204-06:00Want to Be a Better Leader? A Job Aid for ManagersFrom CompareBusinessProducts.com, here is "The Manager's Cheat Sheet: 101 Common-Sense Rules for Leaders," a "cheat sheet" checklist for managers.

Yes, it's a long list - 101 items. But it's practical and realistic, and it's chunked into 10 categories - a real good how-to reference for anyone who wants to succeed as a manager.

Check it out...

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-77791296329231661552014-02-26T15:09:00.001-06:002014-02-26T15:11:18.377-06:0010 Great Quotes from the Greek Playwright, Sophocles

Sophocles (496-406 BC)

Not many young people are made to read the Greek classics in school anymore. So I wonder how many of us today are familiar with the plays of Sophocles, who was born about 500 years before Christ and lived to be 90 years old.

He was raised in a wealthy family and so was well-educated. In his life he wrote over 120 plays, the most famous of which is probably Oedipus the King.

With such a prolific literary output, many of the things he wrote are still quoted for their wisdom. Here are 10 of my favorites...

Awareness - "Look and you will find it—what is unsought will go undetected."

Compassion - "Kindness begets kindness."

Composure - "There is no sense in crying over spilt milk."

Decisiveness - "Quick decisions are unsafe decisions."

Effort - "Without labor nothing prospers."

Honesty - "The truth is always the strongest argument."

Initiative - "Heaven never helps the men who will not act."

Integrity - "I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating."

Love - "One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love."

Self-development - "One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try."

Profound words, shared 2,500 years ago, that have never lost their validity.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-7778527611366135982014-02-13T10:43:00.000-06:002014-02-13T15:35:37.958-06:00Intelligent Life on EarthOver 10 years ago I was mentoring an at-risk teenager. We both shared an enthusiasm for science fiction, so when I read in the paper that the public library was hosting a lecture on "Alien Life on Mars," I suggested that we attend it.

It turned out to be a meeting of a club whose members believed that UFO sightings were alien spacecraft, that human life came from ancient aliens, that aliens had abducted humans for painful experiments, etc.

The lecture centered on this NASA photo:

1976 NASA photo - Viking 1

The speaker claimed that the image proved that a race of aliens lived on Mars and had sculpted the face, much as humans had sculpted the faces of American presidents on Mt. Rushmore. He also claimed that the government was trying to suppress this evidence. To support his claims he quoted several books and articles written by people who believed the same thing.

The problem with all this was that NASA had already published more recent photos, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor:

2001 NASA photo - Mars Global Surveyor

This more recent high-definition photo revealed that the earlier image looked like a face because of the angle of sunlight on the mountain. There was no face at all.

The new photo had been made public some time before our attendance at the lecture, so I could only conclude one of two possibilities. Either the speaker had seen the new photo and suspected that it was fabricated to discredit the truth, or he had not seen the photo because he already had all the proof he needed to support his belief.

I was tempted to confront him, but I decided not to be a spoil-sport. The people in the room wanted to believe in aliens - maybe needed to believe in aliens, and so my input would be seen as a mean-spirited, uninformed attack.

So instead we picked up some cookies from the table at the back of the room and left.

I sometimes ponder why intelligent people believe in things that are hard to believe and have even been proven false many times over. The lecture reminded me of an incident when I overheard two psychologists talking about what their astrologers had told them. It amazed me that people in a scientific profession would believe that being born during a specific time period meant that you could predict events in their lives. And further, to consult regularly with people who made belief in astrology their business.

Apparently, like all of us they've had big questions, and they embraced the answer their theory provided. And they had invested in the belief for so long that it became a part of how they view the world, and so would not want to give it up. They would seek out the company of similar believers and preserve anything that would seem to support their answer, and they would carefully avoid or deny anything that would claim otherwise. To challenge the belief would be blasphemy.

Apparently, this kind of compartmentalized thinking is something human intelligence is capable of. Certain concepts, theories or beliefs are deemed precious and are carefully protected from opposing evidence or arguments.

In my most charitable and open-hearted moments I think this is a part of what makes life on Earth wondrous and mysterious.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .

Denny Coateshttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2005572221369432591.post-23313232778491450782014-02-09T16:05:00.000-06:002014-02-09T16:10:38.408-06:00Are You Wasting Your Life?The other day I was thinking about a well-known poet I once knew, who said to me right out of the blue, "I have wasted my life." I suppose it's the job of poets to be in touch with the truth of things; but I was younger then, and I didn't appreciate what he was talking about.

Also, I once had a mentor who made my life more interesting. A very wealthy man, he was also very gracious; but he thought his money could buy anything. The best thing he did for me was to introduce me to the woman who would become my wife. The worst thing he did was to act as if he owned me. Once he started making unreasonable demands of me, we parted ways. That was about 15 years ago, and I never saw him again.

He was an older gentleman when I knew him, and I learned recently that he has since passed away. The news caused me to reflect about a truth that at this stage of my life I feel in my bones: a human life is very, very brief.

Time is a relative thing, of course. From the perspective of our unimaginably vast universe, however, 100 years is like the blink of an eye. Maybe this analogy will help. According to scientists, our universe has been around about three times as long as our sun. But let's compare a human life-span with how long the sun has existed, which is about 5 billion years. Let's say the distance from Los Angeles to New York City, shore to shore, represents 5 billion years. A human life, then, would be like placing a pea on the water's edge of one of the shores.

That's not much, man. But that's all you get - max. Not many people live to be 100 years old.

The point is, time is running out.

Every minute you spend paying attention to nonsense is a waste of your time.

Every minute you spend in the company of negative people is a waste of your time.

Every minute you spend trying to be what other people want you to be is a waste of your time.

Every minute that you're doing something other than that which is truly important to you is a waste of your time.

A wasted life feels empty and pointless, but it's so easy to do in this so-called modern world.

Someday you may be close to the end of your life. If you feel regret for how much of it you wasted, it will be too late to do anything about it.

The more you live in the present moment - not thinking of the past, not wishing for the future - the more precious your life will be.

The more you make use of your talents and potential to contribute something worthwhile, the more precious your life will be.

The more time you spend with authentic, positive, giving people, the more precious your life will be.

The more you spend time really focused on the natural world, the more precious your life will be.

In a world that seems to be drowning in craziness and nonsense, it's hard to follow this advice. But I'm just offering some encouragement. Your time is like a pea on the edge of a continent, and it's rushing by a lot faster than you think it is. Try not to waste any of it. A life well-lived can seem like a 1000 years.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2014.  Building Personal Strength .Denny Coateshttps://firstname.lastname@example.com


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Cancer and an Old Wonder Drug
by Sheldon S. Zinberg, M.D.
A recent study by the Macmillan Cancer Support found that only 20% of patients who have gone through cancer treatment are properly informed as to the very important benefits of exercise. You might say, "Don't give me more bull about exercise and don't try to tell me that exercise cures cancer." Well, exercise doesn't cure cancer, but it sure looks like it helps to prevent it; and that makes it a Wonder Drug.
Here are some real examples shown in this study. Exercise has been shown to reduce the recurrence of bowel cancer by 50%, and reduce the risk of recurrent breast cancer by more than 33%. While multiple studies have shown similar results, this new research shows that the message is still not being passed on to cancer patients. Why? Because according to Jane Maher, Chief Medical Officer, "It's easier to tell patients to take it easy and rest." That simply re-enforces the myth that resting is always the right thing to do. It's a myth that has to be broken by health care providers when advising patients who have been afflicted by cancer.
A Boomer Nightmare -- Liver Cancer
You Can and Must Fix It!
By Sheldon S.Zinberg, M.D.
Many boomers and even some seniors are harboring a potentially deadly disease and don't even know it. It's called Hepatitis C. It's a very sneaky disease because it can be slowly progressive without producing significant symptoms; and end up causing liver cancer–one of the fastest-growing causes of cancer death. Aside from being the leading cause of liver cancer, Hepatitis C is a real killer, leading to cirrhosis, liver failure, and many liver transplants. The good news is that Hepatitis C can be treated with newer medicines; but first, it has to be diagnosed by a screening blood test.
Most of us know that there are different types of viral hepatitis caused by different viruses. The two kinds that most boomers and seniors are familiar with are Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B—but the alphabet of liver viruses is growing and growing.
An Aspirin a Day? – An Apple a Day Might Be Safer
by Sheldon S. Zinberg, M.D.
Previously, I described the potential virtues of an aspirin a day in terms of decreasing the growth of certain cancers and also decreasing the mortality rate associated with cancer – particularly colon cancer. However, I emphasized that "aspirin is not a cure-all". Again, it's important to appreciate that aspirin therapy is not for everyone. You must check with your doctor before going on a regular regimen of a baby aspirin daily or every other day.
Is it an Apple a Day or an Aspirin a Day??
What Will Keep the Doctor Away?
by Sheldon S. Zinberg, M.D."Doctor!!! I hurt all over and I can't go to sleep." "Now that makes two of us," said the doctor. "Do you realize it's 1:00am?" "Yes," the patient respond, "But I still hurt all over." "Well, take some aspirin and call me in 8 hours." replied the doctor.
This used to be and still might be a joke; but the value of an age-old drug (aspirin) is being newly appreciated. We've all known how aspirin has been used to treat fevers, swollen joints, headache, pain, and even more recently vascular disease (including heart attacks and stroke prevention). But now we are being increasingly informed that aspirin is good for cancer. Well…a study published in the March 21, 2012, edition of the prestigious journal, Lancet, seems to think so.

subset: commoncrawl


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Update on David
Find a Conversation
|Wed, 02-24-2010 - 7:02am
Hello All!
I know I haven't been on here much and probably everyone is wondering how I am doing.
Well, David and I are doing well. He will be 3 months next Friday and it's hard to believe he's been here that long already. It has been a great journey but rough at times. He has (we think acc'd to the pediatrician) colic so he cries a lot. But, he is finally starting to settle down and giving him gas drops also helps a ton. Hoping the crankiness and fussiness is getting towards the end. Sometimes I wonder if we will have another one after this, but I am sure we will. There were a lot of nights my husband and I had to take turns holding him and eating dinner. It wasn't fun.
However, at night he has been great. He has been sleeping anywhere from about 6-9 hours a night the past few weeks. In fact, he started sleeping 5 hours when he was about 4-5 weeks old, so I feel lucky.
Anyway I have some pictures on here that I have taken of David as well as a link to our youtube page which has our videos.
Picture #1 2/6/10
Picture #2 2/15/10
Picture #3 2/15/10
Picture 4 2/20/10
Picture 5 2/23/10
video link: www.youtube.com/jcrundwell
|Thu, 02-25-2010 - 6:31pm
|Sat, 02-27-2010 - 10:17pm
He is too adorable, Sandy!
Sorry about the colic! It's just miserable & will break the best of parents!


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Hinsdale Central High School's 2014 Variety Show features 22 acts, including comedy, tap dancers, pianists, rock bands, jazz bands and slam poetry. Seventy-five students, either performing or working behind the scenes, are involved.
The show, organized by the student council, will be performed at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday in the school auditorium.
Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children and can be purchased at the auditorium, which is on the Grant Street side of the school, at 55th and Grant streets.


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|List A - Z | Top 1000 | Random | Origins
JoreneRate Jorene: Do you like this name?
Get creative with Jorene | Add to list (0)
Meaning and name origin
Jorene \j(o)-re-ne\ as a girl's name is a variant of Jo (American): an independent name and short form of names like Joanna, Joanne, Jody and Josephine.
Suggested similar baby names are Corene, Dorene, Jolene, Lorene, Morene and Norene.
Jorene is not a popular first name for females and an equally uncommon surname or last name for all people (2000 U.S. Census).
Displayed below is the baby names popularity of Jorene name for girls (2012 statistics). Compare Jorene with its source form and related girl baby names.
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Category:English authors
From Wikisource
This category contains authors who lived when England was a nation for itself. Other English authors may be categorised under Category:British authors and Category:United Kingdom authors.
This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
- ► Cornish authors (5 P)
- ► Members of the English Parliament (11 P)
- ► English poets (144 P)
Pages in category "English authors"
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 1,947 total.(previous 200) (next 200)
(previous 200) (next 200)


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Bene Gesserit Sisterhood
Cleric Sub-Class
Unarmed Attacks: d6 damage
Unarmored AC Adjustment: +3 [-3]
Cleric Spells
Can only cast spells that affect the character directly.
Cleric Turning
Affects humans instead of undead. A "T" means the character can Tell the target to perform one action. A "D" means the character Dominates the target for as long as they concentrate and take no other actions.
Special Weapon
Gom Jabbar - No Damage, Save vs Poison
Like the previous version for Swords & Wizardry you could modify how often some of the spells could be cast if you like, but I appreciate how straightforward the write-up for this version is.


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Kerastase Resistance Bain Age Recharge
Based on 1 Review
DianeNew HampshireIf You Want Beautiful Shine!I have thin, colored hair. Fine hair does have a lot of shine, but color does sort of dull it. This brings in the shine and bounce. Great stuff10 out of 12 shoppers thought this review was helpful.
Was this post helpful?YesNoposted Jan 27, 2009Link to this post
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Magnum Hunter Resources' CEO Discusses Q2 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation (MHR)
Q2 2012 Earnings Call
August 9, 2012 11:00 AM ET
Gabe Scott – VP, Capital Markets and Corporate Development
Veea Chan – SunTrust Kim Pacanovsky – MLV Jeff Hayden – KLR Group Irene Haas – Wunderlich Securities Joe Stewart – Citi Hsulin Peng – Baird Richard Tullis – Capital One Steven Karpel – Credit Suisse Presentation
» Silver Standard Resources' CEO Discusses Q2 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
» Penn Virginia's CEO Discusses Q2 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
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mouse over photo to zoom click for larger image
Zenergy Neema Blouson Jacket
Golden hardware and ruching at the yoke transform the timeless Zenergy jacket.
- Refined, lightweight, two-way-stretch Neema fabric.
- Length: 24" to 27".
- 87% polyester, 13% spandex. Unlined.
- Machine wash. Imported.
We're so sorry: this item sold out sooner than expected. For an equally chic substitute, please call our Personal Service Associates at 1.888.855.4986. Or click on Chico's Chat below for immediate assistance.


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Financial Calendar
Zimmer now offers a free podcast of our financial events. Each new episode will be added approximately two hours after the event. Click on the "Subscribe via iTunes" button to add this podcast to your iTunes subscription list. To subscribe using different software, click on the "Subscribe via RSS" button and copy-and-paste the link into your podcast tool. For more information, please visit our RSS Feeds page.
|Upcoming Events
|Details on upcoming events are not yet available. Please click here to be notified of all upcoming events.


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Coming soon to a retailer near you! Anticipation is running high: this week we begin shipping two extremely awesome releases! Aliens Series 3 — Bishop, Kane in Nostromo Suit, and Dog Alien — is on deck, and so is the Charlton Heston as George Taylor clothed action figure from classic Planet of the Apes! Photos […]
Shipping to retailers this week! A raccoon, a giant tree and four turtles – it's not the beginning of a joke, it's the latest additions to our line of Scalers mini-characters! Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Scalers are currently shipping out to retailers, so check out the galleries below and get […]
Series 4 in our best-selling Alien action figure collection celebrates 35 years of the original Alien film with all-new character debuts! It includes two versions of Ellen Ripley — for the first time ever featuring the likeness of Sigourney Weaver — and Dallas in his Nostromo Spacesuit. Ripley in Nostromo Jumpsuit comes with flamethrower and […]


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Welcome all to the Performance Guru / Newest Industry / Crazy Canuck blog.
This content of this blog is a copy of the Newest Industry blog that was hosted at WordPress.com, but it has been moved to this location to allow the testing of a number of web performance technologies that can't be directly inserted via the hosted WordPress.
Welcome and happy browsing!


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RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content.
The old way to keep up was to seek information from your favorite web sources. RSS Feed allows you to receive information from your favorite web sources.
Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.
3 easy steps to access RSS:
1) First install an "aggregator" program (RSS reader or web module) on your computer. Search the web to find appropriate software.
2) After aggregator software is installed, choose one or more news, blog or magazine feeds by clicking on the RSS icon.
3) You must then copy the appropriate feed URLs and paste them into the appropriate field of your RSS software. This will allow you to instantly receive your selected RSS feeds that you may view at any time.
Copyright © 2006 - 2014 Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
Illinois workNet Centers are an equal opportunity employer/program. At Illinois workNet Centers, auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities. All voice telephone numbers on this website may be reached by persons using TTY/TDD equipment by calling TTY (800) 785-6055 or 711.


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Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Pinterest | Quick Links: Join Blogger Programs | Join our partner Healthy Home | Featured Bloggers
Meet Lisa Steadman, best-selling author, sought after speaker, results coach, creative consultant, and CEO of Woohoo, Inc.
She teaches women how to step into their spotlight, stake their claim in the world, and create the life, relationships, and business of their dreams.
Lisa is offering everyone who enters her 2 part audio program, Hit Your Brand Bullseye.
Enter here: http://on.fb.me/AzpsH7
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World's Largest Aftermarket Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Superstore!
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From Daniel Radcliffe to J.Lo, see what the stars born between July 18-24 can tell you about the signs of Cancer and Leo
(11 Photos)
Lisa Rosman
Jul 18, 2011 at 5:00AM
Ian Gavan/Getty Images
Born: July 23, 1989
Question: Who would have thought that the well-behaved star of the Harry Potter movies would do a full monty nude scene in a London play when he was only 17? Answer: Anyone familiar with the Cancer-Leo cusp! Indeed, those born this week are known for their terrific fearlessness -- if also for their occasional struggles with mood management. Maybe that's why Daniel Radcliffe recently revealed he's a recovering alcoholic whose one-year sober.
Find out more about your Sun sign in our Horoscope section!
Yummy recipes, DIY projects, home decor, fashion and more curated by iVillage staffers.
The very dirty truth about fashion internships... DUN DUN @srslytheshow http://t.co/wfewf
Behind-the-scenes pics from iVillage.


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Definitions for orielˈɔr i əl, ˈoʊr-
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word oriel
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
o•ri•elˈɔr i əl, ˈoʊr-(n.)
a bay window, esp. one cantilevered or corbeled out from a wall.
Category: Architecture
Origin of oriel:
1350–1400; ME < AF oriol porch, passage, gallery
Princeton's WordNet
oriel, oriel window(noun)
a projecting bay window corbeled or cantilevered out from a wall
A large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window.
Origin: The origin of the word oriel is derived from the word aureus which means "golden"; relating to the Golden Rectangle in which the Fibonacci spiral always makes a perfect oriel pattern.
Anagrams of oriel
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"oriel." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2014. Web. 21 Dec. 2014. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/oriel>.