![Connect & Coach, the winner of the Data Design Diabetes Challenge, helps people make healthier choices that can make grocery shopping an altogether more healthy experience.
Here’s the scoop: A simple solution for buying better food while you’re shopping in the supermarket
[Image: By Flickr user Clemens v. Vogelsang]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/1013783aba3c2e7edc60eab777f281b3/tumblr_mo6tmgR6wU1qzt7h7o1_500.jpg)
Last week’s report that a marathoner gave birth to a surprise baby after a 10-mile training run recalled other recent reports of extreme and unusual delivery:
- Immediately After the Bar Exam: Elana Nightingale Dawson, 29, went into labor during the final portion of the bar exam in Illinois back in 2011, gritted her teeth, pounded the table, finished the exam and gave birth two hours later. And oh yeah, she passed.
- At Wal-Mart: The first baby of 2013 in Banks County, GA was born at Wal-Mart. Apparently this no longer qualifies as unusual.
- On a Remote Stretch of Utah highway: Lynette Hales gave birth to twins with the help of state troopers.
- To Our Own Grandchildren: 45-year-old Angie Stockton was the surrogate mother for her own grandchild when her daughter couldn’t carry a baby.
- After Just 5 Minutes Of Labor: Reported May 29, Erica Bovino went into labor with her second child 5 days early; her healthy daughter was born just 5 minutes after the first contraction.
Dollar Shave Club launches One Wipe Charlies, flushable butt wipes for men.
“We wanted to make a bold statement with our ‘own the bathroom’ strategy that we want to service your face, your ass, and everything in between.”
“I’ve planned my funeral. I sat and wrote down my ideas the day after I discovered the metastatic nature of my cancer…I envisage it as a real celebration of my life, lived to the full and with a sense of purpose.”
Dr. Kate Granger has terminal cancer, and she’s tweeting from her deathbed.
“I’m totally against bike helmets. If you’re wearing a helmet, you’re in more danger.”
At 2 p.m. EST, we’re chatting live with MIT Media Lab scientist Sandra Richter, who wants to find new ways to encourage city citizens to ride bikes. Helmets aren’t one of them.
The most creative people have a way of relaxing the inhibiting, self-critical parts of the brain when they’re in the flow of performance. Research shows that a moderate amount of alcohol can do much the same. Drinking decreases your working memory—impairing your ability to focus and hemming in your interest in the things happening around you—and increases your creativity.
This is serious. Does drinking beer make you more creative?
After decades languishing in jars in the closet of an animal lab at the University of Texas, approximately 90 brains removed from mental patients are finally being documented—by a photographer and by college freshmen.
“Some of them are huge, some of them are really tiny. There was one that had no wrinkles at all,” says photographer Adam Voorhes. “I don’t even know how to explain it.”
![Dark chocolate boosts productivity.
Yup, this writer’s theory is confirmed- chocolate is so good for you that it’s practically a vegetable (and red wine is pretty much fruit…).
[Image: Flickr user John Loo]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/834cc3201abbbeb849e38c501916d0a7/tumblr_mn7lzca3AN1qzt7h7o1_500.jpg)
Yup, this writer’s theory is confirmed- chocolate is so good for you that it’s practically a vegetable (and red wine is pretty much fruit…).
[Image: Flickr user John Loo]
You’ve probably heard that a happy employee is a productive one who can boost the bottom line. But just how much?
Here are some numbers:
- 33% higher profitability (Gallup)
- 43% more productivity (Hay Group)
- 37% higher sales (Shawn Achor)
- 300% more innovation (HBR)
- 51% lower turnover (Gallup)
- 50% less safety incidents (Babcock Marine Clyde)
- 66% decrease in sick leave (Forbes)
- 125% less burnout (HBR)
Here, some tips for staying happy at work
A new app uses the power of your own positive thinking to create a placebo effect—which works even if you know it’s happening.
You start by setting a goal: say, more joy or love in your life. Then, you choose someone to give you the placebo (maybe a friend or family member), what you want it to be (a pill, say), and where you want to take it (maybe a forest where you go running with a friend). You then “take” the placebo whenever you want to, following a pre-set ritual built into the app.
The point is to replicate what’s important about the placebo effect, which isn’t the pill itself, but the experience.
According to a study published in The American Journal of Medicine, the 17.4 million marijuana smokers in the U.S. tend to be skinnier and have lower blood sugar.
A house powered by exercise?
The JF-Kit House by the Spanish design firm Elii is an experiment in “domestic fitness,” rendering “the image of a possible future where citizens produce part of their domestic energy requirements with their own physical activities.” Each room features a fancifully named exercise station that would, theoretically, help create energy to power the home, including an “arm workout bureau,” a “spinning kitchen,” and a “triceps greenhouse.” A video shows the home’s imagined inhabitant lifting weights, cycling, and doing calisthenics as part of his house’s everyday upkeep and daily chores like cooking.
“I focus best on Friday when it is sunny out.”
“Looks like classical music enhances my focus.”
Ever wondered just how focused (or not) you really are during the day? Melon could be your answer. This new headband measures your focus and then sends the results to your smartphone. The goal is to help you learn which environments and activities improve your focus. More info, and a demo video.
