What do you do with your computers spare time?

Many people do what they need to do on their computers and just go about their day.  What if you could put that computer to use actually providing valuable data to the Scientific community?

There are actually several screen savers that will allow you to take part in Scientific data.  There are also programs that you can download and install such as Community World Grid.

This program will allow you to take part in a minute way by allowing your computer to process information for Scientific Research.  These research programs include data on Cancer, Aids, and numerous other diseases as well as some technology advancements.

One Geek actually built his computer with that in mind.  He thought about what he could do for the world.  Sense his computer just sits there when he’s not doing anything, why not put it to use?

This Geek also took and built his computer out of Lego parts.  This is intriguing for a lot of Geeks out there who love Lego.  In fact, one could go as far to say it’s intriguing to a lot more than just the Geek community.

Click on the image below to read the article.

Lego PC

Kids Are Smarter Than Adults

Many people tend to think that kids are dumb and stupid.  I can tell you from experience that they are exactly the opposite.  Most of them anyway.  Why are kids smart?

When we grow up, we tend to think about Money, Making things easier for our friends, Owning a home, Starting a family, many numerous things.  Kids think about having fun, enjoying life, what’s it’s like to be a grown up, but some kids even think about what’s best for them.

Remember the whole ordeal with Congress saying that Pizza is a Fruit?  Seriously congress?  Surely you don’t think that?  Or is it the money talking from the Pizza Industries that supply pizza to the majority of schools?  Bribery is a federal offense and while most of you haven’t got caught yet, we know.  We’ve been watching, listening.

Especially the kids.  This kid has a message.  Be sure to share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Why We Make Mistakes?

Many people often make mistakes.  Yet, sometimes we don’t know why.  I recently had to make a change in my Biggest Reasons Why Americans Are Overweight post.  It was a simple mistake too that anyone can make.

Down at the bottom, when I started talking about “they’re tampering with our health,” I had out instead of our.  Simple mistake right?

What about when we make mistakes that are big mistakes, the ones that make us feel a little down?

Today, I finished my workout routine.  Well, the Cardiovascular part of it anyway.  I found out that I actually had an error in my last calculation on Calories burned.  Yesterday, I had thought that I burned about  363 calories, when it was no where near.

Here’s the formula that I used to calculate those Calories.  men: calories = [(0.6309 x heart rate) + (0.2017 x age) — (0.09036 x weight) — 55.0969] x time / 4.184.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/221560-the-calories-burned-from-elliptical-training/#ixzz1eBKV2ykn
Gotten from Livestrong.com

 See the part where it says — 55.0969]?  Yeah, I missed that completely in my calculation.  Somehow, someway, I just totally left it out.  So, while figuring out the new calculation, I was slightly disappointed.

Can you imagine how disappointing it is to find out that you’re not burning 300+ Calories, but instead you’re burning more like 186.  And that’s after increasing your time on the Elliptical to push yourself?  Sags head and walks away………

……

…..

Ok, maybe not quite yet.  Unless I’m doing the formula wrong, there’s a big mistake there, but what can we learn from mistakes?

For starters, we can’t dwell on them.  We have to move on and learn from them.  We have to be more careful next time, so that we won’t make the same mistake again.  Life is too short to be filled with fouls.

It also helps to not be tired when you’re writing a blog post.  You’re more likely to catch those mistakes.  So make sure you get a good nights sleep.

So, what! if. I; make/misteaks….Get over it.  That’s all we can do right?  Get over it and move on.  Learn from them and not bash ourselves too much.

Astronomy [at] PCC

What do you learn from mistakes?  Do you think images help blog post?

Biggest Reasons Why Americans Are Overweight!

Americans are said to be the most over weight, but many have a hard time figuring out why.  Why is it that many Americans are starting to be overweight and in worse health than the previous generation?  I think I have the answer.

Reason 1

Exercise….
Many Americans nowadays aren’t getting enough exercise.  That’s right, something as simple as exercise can have a big impact on our daily lives.  In the movie WALL-E, the people roamed around on hover chairs.  Who needs a wheel chair right?  Especially when the machine will do all the work for you.

Is that the kind of life style we want?  To be subjects who are limited in our mobility based on some machine?  Right now many kids are experiencing this because of Parents not letting their kids play in the park.  Instead, they’ll let them play Video Games all day and do nothing.

Now, before you go bashing Video games and start blaming the games themselves, maybe you should take a closer look a parenting.  I play Video Games myself, but that doesnt’ mean that Nerds can’t be fit.  I in fact have started a Cardio Routine, which will eventually turn into running, which in turn will turn into a Marathon.

I have goals, kids nowadays, don’t.  That’s partly because parents let their kids spend too much time playing Video Games as apposed to….well, playing.

Reason 2

Over Indulging…..
Many restaurants have started (in the last decade)  increasing portion sizes.  Now, they even go as far as encourage you to get a large or (in some cases) super-size.  In this case, bigger isn’t always better.  Tell me something.

Do you feel better now that you’re bigger?  Again, bigger isn’t always better.  My parents often times make two meals out of one meal when they go out to eat.  Why?  Many of these meals are filled with Calories.  Many of them over 1,000 calories.  That’s half a days Calories for most.

Still think Bigger is Better?

Reason 3

Quality of Food
Our food quality has reduced in the last 10-20 years drastically.  Farmers are basically killing the land that they farm one with all the chemicals that they spray on plants.  Therefore, we’re forced to look for alternatives: plants that are bug resistant, plants that yield more, and even plants that grow better in certain climates.

When you start tampering with plants: spraying chemicals, changing DNA strands, making them more volatile, something has to give.  So, where do we suffer?  In Nutritional Value.  I can’t stress this enough….

Life is too precious to tamper with.  By tampering with those plants, they’re tampering with our health.  Empty calories adds to our over all weight.  Really.  What else is our body going to use useless calories for?

So, my question for you today is, did this inspire you?  If so, what are your plans for taking action?

Staying Fit – Why Staying Fit Is Not An Option

So, science has confirmed what many people have believed over time.  What is this confirmation?  Well, let’s just say that many people think that it’s quite possible to stay fit at any age.

What’s the verdict?  Basically, you’ll have to maintain a certain level of activity or increase your activity as you get older.  Why?  Simply put, it takes a little more work to stay healthy at an older age.

This doesn’t mean that people can’t stay as healthy as a 20 year old at the age of 50+.  This is crucial to reducing factors such as Cardiovascular Disease.

Why is this crucial?  According to a study, Women are 5 times more likely to get Cardiovascular Disease than a physically fit woman.  Same study provides evidence that Men are 8 times more likely to get Cardiovascular Disease for not being fit.  Good enough reason to stay fit?

This study was done in Europe, where they are always looking for more answers, unlike the American counter parts, who just want to find a quick fix.  Exercise is very crucial to anything we do.  Want to lose weight?  Want to stay fit?  Want those sexy abs?  Gotta exercise.

Original Article – Cheating Father Time

Learning A Language

There comes a time in someone’s life, when they decide to learn a language.  Languages can be a lot of fun to learn, but challenging at the same time.  What’s the best way to go about it?

Many companies offer courses on speaking a foreign language.  But is this really the best way to learn?  Sure, they might offer Voice, Visual, and Hands On learning, but is Software really the best way to learn a language?

What about College course material?  Many Colleges offer and even require one to learn a foreign language, or two, or three, etc.  Depending on your degree.  But is College really the best way to learn?

Perhaps the best way to learn a foreign language, is to immerse yourself into the culture.  What Culture?  Well, the culture who’s language you want to learn.  If you want to learn Japanese, you’ll need to immerse yourself in Japanese Culture.  The only way to do that?  Go to Japan.

Why is Total Immersion important?  The thing is, software and audio courses can only get you so far.  In other words, you might be learning how to pronounce a word, but what if you’re not accurate?  People might look at you funny when you’re trying to speak to them.

Some languages, like Chinese, are tone regulated.  In other words, the tone that you speak in, may actually mean an entirely different word/phrase.  Most of the time though, it’s usually different ways of saying something.  Like we have different levels of love, they might have different tones for love.

So, rather than make a fool of yourself, you might want to consider taking an immersion course, or even just traveling on your own.  It’s never too late to travel and you may as well do it while you’re still young.

For those of us who can’t quite afford to travel, at least yet, there is always the courses to use.  I for one find myself having trouble learning certain words, so I have no clue if I’m right with the pronunciation or not.  What about you?  What’s your biggest challenge when learning a foreign language?

Happy Halloween

This post is to wish you all a Happy Halloween.  As of this writing, it’s currently October 31, 2011 at 5:47pm EST.

I was told by a friend that there was this guy running around in his car with a loud speaker, telling everyone that Halloween is Devil Worshiping.  Obviously, this guy knows nothing about Halloween.

First off, if you know anything about Halloween, then you know that Halloween is a Seasonal Festival.  In other words, Halloween represents Harvest time, the changing of Fall to Winter, and even Honors the dead.

OMG, But honoring the dead is a form of Devil worshiping.  On the contrary, “Honoring the Dead,” is a tradition that has been followed for many thousands of years.  Well beyond the years of Christ based Religion or Jewish religion for that matter.  Honoring the Dead merely means you’re paying tribute to them, for being there.  Much like families visiting gravestones of loved ones.

So, you can’t say that Halloween is Devil Worshiping.  That’s just a stupid notion brought up by some idiot, who thinks he’s right and wants to cause trouble.

One thing we need to realize as Human beings, is that no matter how hard you try, no two people are ever alike.  As long as there are two people on the face of the planet, you’ll always have arguments, fights, and the likes.  It is possible to get along without physically getting into a fight, but you’re still going to have fighting.

It’s the ability to set aside differences and exist, that make us unique.  So, set them aside and enjoy your Halloween.  Honor the dead tonight.  Visit a graveyard and pay respect.  Have fun and stay safe.

Heaven Is A Place On Earth

This classic song makes me want to dance.  One of the best all time classics, Heaven is a place on Earth, is an all round great song.  Just listen to the lyrics.  You’ll be glad you did.  Life is too short not to enjoy.  Get rid of the drama and bring on the music.  This Earth is what you make it.  Life is what you make it.  So, make it heaven.

You Know You Spend To Much Time Online When

you change your desktop background almost daily.

you rarely turn off your computer.

you get hemorrhoids because you’ve been sitting at your computer so long.

a weekend of time spent offline feels like a nice break

you *do* take breaks from the computer, you psychologically schedule yourself to come back when the “4-hours” are up and you can replenish your Slot Game [or insert your favorite game here] tokens!

every time you leave your desk you take both your iPad and iPhone with you, just in case…and your car lighter charger

your dust bunnies have become dust elephants!

you don’t understand the meaning of “too much time online”

you’re too busy online to answer this question and simply go “huh??”

you get cankles from sitting for too many hours. (don’t worry, it’s temporary)

you think it’s Tuesday but it’s really Monday?

you search for the like button on your car radio

you search for reviews for things when you’re at the store.

you turn to your computer to look something up and realized you already are sitting at your computer.

the first thing you do in the morning is turn the laptop on.

you don’t ever have to turn on your computer