Castle in the Water

 

Palace of Palenque

If you are an individual that feels comfortable getting off the beaten track, then the ruin of the ancient city of the Palenque in Chiapas Mexico is a must-see sight for you.

Although the most well-known ruins include the Mayan structures throughout the Mexican Peninsula, the Palenque was located in an ancient Mayan city-state, and today it offers travelers some of the most exquisite and intricately designed architecture in all of Mexico. While the site is still being unearthed there is much you can learn by visiting it.

During your visit, you will get to experience the Mayan world and walk in the footsteps of the ancient priests and rulers of the time.

There are several pyramids located within the city most of which were used for ceremonies and rituals. The tranquility of the site will be lost in the emotions you may feel when you visit Palenque ruins and imagine its distant inhabitants who vanished off the Earth.

The Mayan Ruins of Palenque are a Mesoamerican site in southern Mexico in the Chiapas state of Mexico. They are believed to have been built sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, although the exact date is uncertain.

These Mayan ruins were once the center of the Mayan city of Palenque founded by an ancient Maya ruler known as Pakal the Great, who ruled from 615 to 683 AD.

The site was first settled in the Early Classic Period, and the earliest evidence of Mayan occupation at the site comes from around 600 CE.

By the Late Classic Period, Palenque had become one of the most powerful Mayan city-states, and its influence extended throughout Mesoamerica. Archaeologists date the ruins of Palenque back to the year 226 BC. The city was smaller than Chichen Itza and Tikal.  READ MORE...

Hungry Bear

 

Children That Don't Give Up

A raging pandemic, gun violence, climate change — as an educational psychologist, I’ve seen firsthand how the troubling events of today are taking a toll on our children.

“It’s hard to stop thinking about bad stuff,” an 11-year-old told me recently. “Sometimes I worry about waking up.”


Without the right tools to handle adversity, hopelessness can set in and kids’ overall well-being can decline. Hope is what energizes them to stay mentally strong during tough times, and it’s what sets them apart from those who give up easily.

Research shows that hopefulness can dramatically reduce childhood anxiety and depression. Hopeful kids have an inner sense of control. They view challenges and obstacles as temporary and able to be overcome, so they are more likely to thrive and help others.

Yet despite its immense power, hope is largely excluded from our parenting agendas. The good news? Hope is teachable. One of the best ways to increase this strength is by equipping children with skills to handle life’s inevitable bumps.

Here are nine science-backed ways to help kids maintain hope — especially during tough times:  READ MORE...

Flute

 

Giant Heads Found in Tanzania

In 2018, archaeologists made a staggering discovery in Swaga Swaga Game Reserve in central Tanzania: 52 previously undocumented rock shelters, deliberately painted with rock art. Weathering had mostly destroyed all but a handful; but of those that were preserved, one was an absolute enigma.

The site, named Amak'hee 4, was elaborately painted with a frieze of figurative art – including three mysterious, anthropomorphic figures with extremely oversized heads.

These could be, according to archaeologist Maciej Grzelczyk of the Jagiellonian University in Poland, a clue to figuring out what other, similar trios of figures found in other rock art panels might be.

The Amak'hee 4 panel is difficult to date, but in 2021 Grzelczyk was able to gauge that it's at least a few hundred years old. It's painted almost entirely in red pigment, except for five figures in white.

The weathering on this pigment, and the absence of domestic animals, suggests that it's fairly old, dating back to the time of hunter-gatherer societies in the region.  READ MORE...

Snow Dogs

 

Qualities of a Leader

After 45 years of working in the marketplace holding a variety of positions and jobs, such as:

1. laborer
2. waiter
3. operator
4. customer service rep
5. technician
6. supervisor
7. teacher
8. instructor
9. course writer
10. professor
11. dean
12. director of education
13. president
14. owner
15. vice president
16. CEO
17. consultant
18. director
19. manager
20. executive director

I have come to the realization that a good leader (regardless of the title or position) must possess the following characteristics, skills, and abilities:

• a good communicator (written, verbal, presentation)
• must have the ability to lie as well as tell the truth
• must be at least 6 feet tall and not overweight or obese (attractiveness is optional but desireable)
• must be good with numbers, forecasts, and projections
• must be willing to take risks
• must be willing to empower people
• must be willing to hire direct reports that are just as capable 
• must be willing to take responsibility for failures and successes
• must have the desire to learn and a keen ability to retain
• must be willing to remove obstacles so that all employees can do their jobs to the best of their abillities
• must hire employees with a pre-determined but desireable mindset
• must be willing to pay for performance
• must have a well-defined career path for employees
• MUST BE ABLE TO CREATE THE VISION for the company and EXECUTE THE VISION
• must be a proponent of continuous improvement
• must be patient and tolerate and be able to teach
• must be able to manage stress, work, and home life simultaneously
• must be able to know when to say NO and not just say NO arbitrarily
• must be kind and generous with praise and gratitute
• must be willing to stand up to the stockholders if their wishes go against the company in the long term
• must understand the psychology of work in order to motivate
• must understand that true motivation comes from creating the environment that allows people to motivate themselves
• must be clean cut and well dressed but not always a suit and tie
• must have the ability to play chess as well as 3 dimensional chess
• must understand the competition or trust someone who understands the competition

While this list may be somewhat incomplete, it still provides the basic framework for a leader, whether this leader works in education, government, military, religion, manufacturing, service, hospitality, athletics, or entertainment.

Let me say that not all positions automatically create leaders...  Joe Biden is the President of the United States and he is very far away from being a leader...  Joe Biden, not only just does what the party wants him to do and not what is in the best interest of the country, but he blames others for the failures of his decisions.

Joe Biden is a politician not a LEADER...

You don't have to be in a powerful position to be a leader.

Tornado

 

Better in Britain

Yes, the roads are confusing, the food portions unambitious, the peanut butter not so good, but for this American, life in the U.K. has its compensations.   By Yasmeen Serhan

This September marks my fifth year of living in Britain, a milestone that comes with its own special reward: a test. 

Specifically, the “Life in the U.K. Test,” an examination that anyone seeking to obtain permanent residency rights in the country and ultimately British citizenship must take. 

The test covers all sorts of questions on Britain’s history—including such seeming trivia as the specific ways Henry VIII got rid of each of his six wives—its laws, its values, and its traditions.

“Comedy and satire, the ability to laugh at ourselves, are an important part of the U.K. character,” reads one passage from the official study handbook. In another, pubs are described as “an important part of U.K. social culture.

”Self-deprecating humor and pub culture are just some of the survival skills you naturally pick up if you live here long enough. But as I prepare for this exam, I can’t help but think about all the practical things about British life that the test-prep materials leave out. 

Contrary to what Sir Elton John would have you believe, sorry really doesn’t seem to be the hardest word for Brits (even if they aren’t always using it sincerely). Talking about the weather really is a perfectly acceptable conversation starter. 

“You all right?” really is a simple greeting rather than an expression of genuine concern.  READ MORE...

Running Bear

 

Fixing Shoulder Pain

After the use of their tissue platform, the researchers observed regeneration of tissues 

and shoulder function recovery.

The new complex tissue platform can restore damaged rotator cuffs

The typical office worker often has soreness throughout their body as a result of their sedentary desk jobs. Even young individuals may develop shoulder pain, which was previously primarily an issue for elderly people. 

Once shoulder pain creeps in, it is difficult to dress oneself, let alone move one’s body freely. It is also difficult to fall asleep. While the rotator cuffs are often naturally harmed as we age, repairing them has shown to be difficult.

Through a collaboration with Professor Hak Soo Choi at the Harvard Medical School, a Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) research team made up of Professor Dong-Woo Cho, Dr. Suhun Chae, and Jinah Jang, as well as Professor Jinah Jang and Ph.D. candidate Uijung Yong, has developed a complex tissue platform that can repair damaged rotator cuffs. 

This platform, which can precisely replicate the intricate structure of rotator cuffs, is 3D-bioprinted using tissue-specific extracellular matrix bioink.

The international journal Bioactive Materials recently published the findings of this study, which could potentially provide patients with chronic shoulder pain renewed hope.


The study team transplanted this platform in rats that had full-thickness rotator cuff injuries. The researchers observed tissue regeneration and recovery in shoulder function. 

The results proved that the platform, which includes stem cells, can actually regenerate rotator cuffs.  READ MORE...

Approaching Horse

 

Shortest Path to Human Happiness

The researchers created a digital model of psychology aimed to improve mental health. The system offers superior personalization and identifies the shortest path toward a cluster of mental stability for any individual.

Deep Longevity, in collaboration with Harvard Medical School, presents a deep learning approach to mental health.

Deep Longevity has published a paper in Aging-US outlining a machine learning approach to human psychology in collaboration with Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, an authority on happiness and beauty.

The authors created two digital models of human psychology based on data from the Midlife in the United States study.


The first model is an ensemble of deep neural networks that predicts respondents’ chronological age and psychological well-being in 10 years using information from a psychological survey. This model depicts the trajectories of the human mind as it ages. 

It also demonstrates that the capacity to form meaningful connections, as well as mental autonomy and environmental mastery, develops with age. It also suggests that the emphasis on personal progress is constantly declining, but the sense of having a purpose in life only fades after 40-50 years. 

These results add to the growing body of knowledge on socioemotional selectivity and hedonic adaptation in the context of adult personality development.  READ MORE...

Escaped Fish

 

Finding Yourself

How To Find Yourself

1. Think back to a time when you really felt comfortable in your own skin
2.  Mull over your family dynamic
3. Get out and try new things
4. Start going places by yourself
5. Try to figure out what's important to you
6. Ditch bad habits
7. Learn how to practice mindfulness—and actually do it
8. Tell your inner critic to get lost
9. Learn to be okay with not being liked by everyone
10. Volunteer
11. Unplug more
12. Identify what makes you different from everyone else
13. Consider therapy

SOURCE:  WellandGood.com

Every expert tells their audience to make a list...  and, every expert takes the list and tries to explain what each of the items on that list actually means or doesn't mean.   However, none of these so-called experts actually tells you how to think back, mull it over, try to figure out, learn how, unplug, or identify (another list).

Finding yourself is a pretty straightforward activity to initiate...  One of the best ways, perhaps the only way to find yourself is to take the Myers-Briggs Online Questionaire....  CLICK HERE...

However, this online questionnaire is NOT OFFICIAL and may not be 100% accurate.  But, even if it is not 100% accurate, it will still be 90%+ accurate, giving you a damn good idea of your personality.

If you prefer a more accurate test, then contact Myers Briggs Foundation and be put in touch with a professional to administer this test.

Personal Note:  I have taken this questionnaire 4 times during my life with a 10-year interval between each test and all 4 tests yielded the same result.

Once you have your personality identified, type those 4 letters into GOOGLE to find out what your personality is all about.  Once you understand your personality, you will be in the perfect position to begin investigating what you need to do to find yourself...

You will not need therapy which is a crutch anyway.  Therapists can help you but more often than not, they are helping themselves to your money as they lead you through the layers of your life that prevent you from finding yourself.

If you have determination and discipline, you can do it yourself.

Quality of Life - Part IV

Quality of life is defined by the World Health

Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns". Wikipedia

There are several key terms in the above description...

1. Position in life
2. context of culture
3. context of value systems
4. goals
5. expectations
6. standards
7. concerns

My Personal Story...

"Quality of life,"  what the hell is that, I asked my self a few times before I reached the age of 50?  And, my answer was always the same...  "who gives a shit?"  I had a job or would soon have a job...  I had the money to do whatever I wanted as long as it was not too expensive...   I mean I could fly to Florida to visit my childhood friend but I could not fly first class.  I could visit him as long as I stayed at his home and not at a motel.

That was my quality of life as perceived by me...  and, I could see all around me, the other people who had the money or the willingness to use a credit card to have a higher quality of life by enjoying the luxuries of life that I had deemed was not possible for me given my current state of affairs...

But, I was alive, physically fit and content.

At the age of 60, my life changed substantially...

I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and a few months later discovered that I had experienced a severe heart attack and should undergo a triple bypass.  I was able to have stents inserted instead.

Five years after that situation, my cancer treatments had made my body susceptible to melanoma and now I was being treated for two cancers simultaneously.  The cancer treatments also screwed with my thyroid and 14 years after my cancer diagnosis, I underwent lumbar fusion surgery to fuse together L2, L3, L4, L5, and S1 disks from which I am currently recovering three weeks after surgery.

My quality of life has declined rapidly and having more money would not have made any difference at all to that quality of life other than I would be recovering in a more expensive home...

When I was 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 or even 60, I had no idea that my quality of life would be like it is at the age of 74...  but, here I am...

My quality of life is all MENTAL these days...

• My wife and I are debt-free
• My wife and I each have reliable cars
• Our backyard has a 24-foot round pool surrounded by an oversized deck that incorporates a gazebo, a sunning area, and a hot tub
• Our 24oo square foot home sits on an acre of land
• We live in a quiet and safe community
• We walk around the community for exercise
• We have the finances to pay our bills until both are 95
• We are 40 minutes away from UT Medical Center
• We are 50 minutes away from an airport
• We grow our own vegetables each summer

In case you are wondering, the photo that I use is from 1972 when I was honorably discharged from the US Navy...  I cut off my beard a few days later and have been clean-shaven ever since except for a couple of years where I supported a mustache and/or a goatee.  I don't like to have my photo taken so I use old photos.

Having more money would not alter my physical health...  

Having a larger house would be a burden even if I was able to pay someone to clean it each week...

Having a driver would just make me lazier...

Eating great food at a fancy restaurant would just make me fatter along with the consumption of alcohol which I no longer drink...

My quality of life is better than some but worse than others...  and, I don't care either way because my quality of life is what I have been given and what I have earned...  so, it is what it is.

Gamer Kitten

 

Improve Your Memory

Or in non-researcher-speak, sleeping on it helps your brain file away what you've learned and makes that information easier to access.

But you don't have to go to bed to improve your memory and recall.

A study just published in Nature Reviews Psychology found that "evn a few minutes of rest with your eyes closed can improve memory, perhaps to the same degree as a full night of sleep."

Psychologists call that "offline waking rest." In its purest form, offline waking rest can be closing your eyes and vegging out for a couple minutes. But offline waking rest can also be daydreaming. 

Mind wandering. Zoning out. None of which sounds productive, but actually can be: Without those intermittent periods of lack of focus, memory consolidation doesn't occur nearly as efficiently.  READ MORE...

Deer Lover Cat