There’s no such thing as useless knowledge—only knowledge that relies on very specific situations. Which is why, in the event of a horrible Mad Max future, you might want to learn how to make a bow and arrow using no modern tools whatsoever.
Sure, making weaponry with access to a bandsaw, a lather, or hell, even some chisels would be orders of magnitude easier. And there’s no reason to assume in a semi-apocalyptic event that any of those things would disappear (maybe electricity, but hey—chisels). The point is, Primitive Technology is really good at what he does and it’s impressive to see someone make stuff the way your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents might have.
As a bonus he shows how to put fletching on arrows, and make a small quiver to hold them. Hopefully, the deer and birds of our shithole future won’t be too irradiated to eat.
Warning: This video shows a bear in the process of killing a deer. Some will find this disturbing to watch (and to hear). This short video shows a brown bear latched onto a deer, killing it. Naturally, the deer protests — its bleating is loud and accusatory. The deer looks at the guy recording its[…..]
What winter lull?
Central Ohio’s housing market continued building on a record-setting start to the year, with 1,610 homes sold last month – an all-time high for February.
Sales of homes and condos grew 6 percent from January and were up 5 percent compared with a year ago, according to a monthly report from Columbus Realtors.
“Spring isn’t on its way – it’s here,” Columbus Realtors President John Royer said in a press release. “Spring is when the housing market traditionally heats…
Yesterday, we asked you what your favorite single panels in comics were. The results gave us some of the best laughs we’ve seen in a long time. So, here are the 30 funniest panels, courtesy of io9 readers and staff.
For me, sitting flips a switch in my brain that tells me it’s time to rest. Standing, however, does the opposite. When I stand while I work, the stuff that usually only engages my brain and hands becomes work that engages my entire body. Doing the simple things, like typing, reading, and clicking links requires effort from my entire body. I have to hold myself up no matter how simple the task at hand. If it sounds exhausting, it kind of is. But that’s a good thing. Just the physical nature of standing while I do my work combines with the mental energy I bring to the table, and it just makes everything feel important. It adds some momentum and urgency to my day. That urgency helps me concentrate and focus.
By standing, I’m telling my brain that I have shit to do and I can’t rest until it’s done. Everything matters just a little more, and instead of opening a tab to laze around on Facebook, I actually work faster. Not in a sloppy way, but in a “I’m totally absorbed in what I’m doing” way. I get in the zone quicker, and stay in it longer. I shun distractions and stay productive because I know that getting work done means I can rest sooner. With a standing desk, my own inherent laziness makes me more productive.
Standing Puts an End to Lazy Starts to the Day
That urgency I feel when I work at a standing desk also gets rid of slow, lazy starts to my workday. Before I started using a standing desk, I would sit down at my computer in the morning, convince myself I had started “working,” and waste time easing into the real meat of my day. I was like a machine that was slowly starting to warm up. The gears would turn, the belts would spin, and after an hour or so the machine would finally start running at full power. Some people might like that kind of slow, luxurious start to the day, but for me, it was a waste of time and energy.
Standing forced me to start working right out of the gate. That morning, “well I should probably get something done” grogginess dissipates faster, and I can’t get too comfortable because if I do, well, I’ll fall down. This revelation was a game-changer for me. Now, I turn on my computer and dive right in because my body is telling me it’s time to work, not time to read Kotaku. I still take regular breaks throughout the day to give both my mind and body a rest, but I have more control over when those happen now. My mornings jump start into productivity and my breaks only come when I actually need them.
Food comas are awesome (I indulge in that lazy, full feeling as often as I can), but not when I’m trying to be productive. The sleepy fog that comes from eating too much or totally binging on carbs for lunch can completely waste your afternoon. Standing desks fight that off, and for me, help me get back into the groove faster after eating.
Every day, I get as much work done in the morning as I can, then eat a meal that’s a combination of late breakfast and early lunch (I refuse to say I eat brunch every day). I used to sit at my desk, eat, and maybe watch Netflix to take a break, but a few bites later and I’d be full, sleepy, and in no condition to get back into the swing of things. Once I started standing, I actually get away from my desk to eat and take a well-earned rest sitting at my dining room table. When it’s time to get back to work, standing gets me back into “work mode.” I stay alert, and the food I ate feels more like fuel and not weight that’s bogging me down.
Standing Desks Help Me Stay Active, and That’s What Matters
Obviously, standing all day is a little more active than sitting all day, but standing also makes we want to be more active. Whether you stand or sit, moving and being active is what keeps you healthy. With my standing desk, I’m more inclined to pace around my apartment while I think, hop on my stationary bicycle for a quick session, keep some dumbbells next to my desk to lift, go for a walk outside when I need to take a break (what’s that bright yellow thing that burns my skin?), and even dance around like an idiot to my music. My Fitbit tells me my daily steps have skyrocketed since I started using a standing desk. Step counts aren’t the same thing as good health, per se, but I can feel a difference too. It’s amazing how big of a mental barrier getting up on your feet really is. Instead of “I have to get up and go do that,” it’s “well I’m already up, so why not?”
Even better, all the extra activity helps me concentrate and think creatively. Sure, exercise, pacing, and dancing are all distractions from the work I have to do, but they’re the good kind: The kind that give my mind a moment to recharge, reset, and get back into what I’m doing without completely pulling my head out of the zone. The effect is similar to having a great idea pop into your head while you jog, or while you’re in the shower. One minute I’m dancing, the next I’m scribbling like a madman because I finally figured out how I want to write something.
Make no mistake, sitting is still super important when you have a standing desk. You need to give your legs (especially your knees) a break every once in awhile. But that’s the beauty of a standing desk; it gives sitting purpose. Sitting goes from being the norm to being what it should be: a break.
Rest is just as vital for productivity as work is, and now sitting fills that role for me. Sitting has become a tool. Before, my bouts of escapism would fill me with guilt because I’d go from sitting all day at a desk to sitting all night on a couch. Now when I sit down to watch a movie or play a video game, I feel like I’m enjoying a well-earned rest. On top of that, working at a standing desk creates two layers of fatigue, and I find that I’m more inclined to hit the sack at a decent hour. More good sleep translates to more energy for my workday, and that means better productivity all around.
Those two layers of fatigue can be a double-edged sword, however. Standing desks wear me out both physically and mentally, so I’m not up for much after working hours. Going to the gym, standing in a bar with friends, and running errands around town become a lot less appealing when you’ve been on your feet all day. Ask any retail worker, restaurant server, or anyone else that stands all day. That said, if you can strike a good balance of sitting and standing, you’ll end up with more benefits than drawbacks.
The quest for perfect ice is older than mankind, and slightly younger than the quest for perfect whiskey. One of those problems can be solved for you with a stroke of genius.
But why is ice cloudy in the first place? Cocktail Chemistry explains that impurities in water are the last to freeze, and those impurities are what cause ice to look ugly and opaque. The free and painless solution is to use a cooler. Since the insulated sides cause the water to freeze from the top down, the impurities sink to the bottom and you’re left with crystal-clear ice (and some crappy water). The same method works just fine with spherical ice molds as well.
From there, a serrated knife and a small mallet will allowed you to carve the ice into big cubes, small cubes, or spears for highballs. Because if you’re going to have the audacity to charge $15 for an Old Fashioned, at least make sure the ice doesn’t look like it came out of the sewer.
Standing desks are the latest way to trade comfort for the moral high ground, and their health benefits have always been dubious at best. Following an analysis of studies into their benefits, researchers have come up with a loud, resounding “meh”.
A paper in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviewsanalyzed 20 studies that looked into the effectiveness of trying to reduce sitting time at work. The results aren’t flattering to the standing desk trend: not only do standing desks barely reduce the amount of time that people spend sitting at work, but any reduction has barely any health benefits.
Across the studies, the team found systematic flaws with the methodology, either in a lack of controls, randomization, or only using six-month time periods that are far too short.
A more robust cohort study, tracking health data from 5,132 people over 16 years, backs up this conclusion: researchers found that the amount of time sitting at work had no effect on mortality rate, and that other, more conventional methods like going for a jog are far more effective.
Dr Jos Verbeek, one of the health researchers involved in the meta-analysis, told NPR that standing desks are “very much, just fashionable and not proven good for your health.”
I started my last company in mid-2009, just as the market was beginning to recover from the fallout of the financial crisis. In the past several years, surrounded by fast-growth startups with sky-high valuations, many of us forgot what the downturn felt like. Today, things are changing. Again, we’re facing economic uncertainty on a global scale. Read More
That first big trailer for The Force Awakens was great, and we’ve established that anytime you cut another movie in the same style, the end result is just as great. So what happens when you recut Harry Potter with it? Perfection.
Jonny Holloway, a UK screenwriter and filmmaker has gone and taken Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and put it together in the same style as the Force Awakens trailer. The result is pretty damn good, capturing the urgency of the film and all of its great visuals.
Here is our annual update on Ohio State University salaries.
Some notes on the data:
You can search by employee name, department or title. Searches by dollar amount will return any results at that level and higher. The results column you likely want is Total, which includes pay from all sources. The Regular column, according to OSU, "represents the pay that comes from base salary. It represents standard hours (full-time equivalent) worked plus paid leave taken according to our leave plans/policies.…
via Bizjournals.com Columbus RSS Feed OSU salaries database for year-end 2015, 2014 and 2013