Today is National Backward Day, a national holiday that has been celebrated since 1961. The point of Backward Day is to look at how we usually do things and consider doing them backward. My morning guided meditation -- the Daily Calm on the Calm app -- mentioned the...

I'm on a ski trip, and one of my ski buddies claims that barbed wire is the most important invention of all time. While I'd put indoor plumbing, glass, and the clapper above barbed wire, he's not crazy to think that barbed wire ranks as a hugely important invention....

The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday's drawing is $1.35 Billion. If you won, would you quit your job? How you answer this question depends on your work orientation: whether your work is a job, a career, or a calling. Work as a Job A job orientation is a transactional...

Human fears fall within two broad categories: prepared and learned. In other words, we are hardwired to have some fears while others must be learned through personal experience. Many fears are primarily learned. For instance, a plane flight with horrible turbulence...

Are New Year's Resolutions stupid? NO! New Year's Resolutions are a powerful way to make positive changes in your life. For why this is the case, this IFOD will draw heavily on the book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be...

This picture was created with OpenAI's Dall E 2 Artificial Intelligence program. I asked it to "paint a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, and beans." What's the one dietary habit? Eat more fiber. There is a lot of confusing information about what healthy eating looks...

So far in 2022 I've read 69 books: 37 fiction and 32 non-fiction. Here's the full list: Books Read 2022. All but one was published in 2022. Below are my six favorites in no particular order. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel, by Gabrielle Zevin. This was...

The rise of the digital camera and then cameras on our phones has led to an explosion of picture-taking. Having a high-quality camera in our pockets has led to our snapping pictures to memorialize or share nearly every experience we have. Here are some stats: on...

Christmas is less than two weeks away and Hanukkah is in six days! Are you done with your shopping (or maybe you haven't started)? Fear not -- below are some ideas that may make good gifts. 1. Charging Station for Electronics Modern life involves charging a lot of...

Soccer goalies almost always dive to one side or the other when defending penalty kicks. Instead, they should just stay put. This is the conclusion by Israeli academics after analyzing 311 soccer penalty kicks in their fantastic paper "Action Bias among Elite Soccer...

There's a strong correlation between wealth and longevity. For example, a study out of the University of Wisconsin that tracked nearly 5,500 adults over 24 years found that every $50,000 of additional net wealth accumulated in midlife was associated with a 5%...