Hi, I’m Jeff.

“Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.”

[Source]

Well I’ve known about del.icio.us for some time now but have just started using it for a few days now. I follow a blog by Ben Casnocha and he uses his del.icio.us account quite frequently and I’ve followed all of links that he’s posts and have finally decided to create an account for myself. My account is del.icio.us/zingwat. Add me to your network!

2 reads that I’ve found interesting this week? They’re linked on my del.icio.us account as well, but I’ll tell you about them here just because they’re so damn interesting. 1 is this blog called Engineering @ Facebook. I found this on my daily visit to Hacker News. Here’s a little bio:

We are going to use this space to tell you a little about the code and systems that power Facebook. We thought it would be fun to share what goes on behind the scenes to ensure that the site scales smoothly and that we continue to provide the best overall user experience. Expect to see technical details, architecture discussions and maybe even some code samples. You should also stay tuned to find out about ripstiks, daft punk and a lot of other small things that make Facebook Engineering tick.

The second interesting read I’ve found this week is Johann Hari’s experiment with smart drugs. I found this on reddit this morning and basically it covers an experiment he did with Provigil calling it, “Viagra for the brain”. He goes on to explain what it did for him and truly, one of the most fascinating stories. Here’s an excerpt:

It was in March, in the drizzle, that I realized my brain was burned out. Like a rusty engine, I could hear it chug-chug and splutter – but it would never quite start running at top speed. That’s when I stumbled across a small story in an American scientific magazine. It said there was a spiky debate across America’s universities about the increasing use by students of a drug called Provigil. It was, they said, Viagra for the brain. It was originally designed for narcoleptics in the seventies, but clinical trials had stumbled across something odd: if you give it to non-narcoleptics, they just become smarter. Their memory and concentration improves considerably, and so does their IQ.

Link your del.icio.us accounts and post links to your favorite 2 articles that you found this week in the comment section. Have a good weekend!

Mmalone posted this on Pownce earlier today. It’s really cool. Here were his notes:

This is freaky… You need to use in-ear head phones while listening. I actually turned my head when someone said something b/c I thought it was real :P.

!schill says: Grab a seat, some headphones and a few minutes’ time - you’re going to get virtually buzzed!

Recorded with “binaural” in-ear microphones and minidisc at a top-secret location in San Francisco’s North Beach neighbourhood, a favourite place I’ve been going to since moving to California.

(For more wackiness, read up on “binaural audio” on the Internets. The effect is surreal and quite cool when done well.)

To listen, click HERE.

Well, now that the Microsoft-Yahoo (Microhoo) deal is over, Microsoft still isn’t willing to give up in the online world. Sources close to M$oft say the company’s bankers have begun signaling to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg interest in acquiring his company. They said, “we just want to gauge their interest, more than any real effort.” Although, last fall, M$oft acquired 1.6% of Facebook for $240 million. So I guess will just have to wait and see where this one goes.

Well, I went and saw the Into The Wild movie, a long time ago. But I just finished the book, which I have to say was far better than the movie so I thought I’d wait and write this post until I was done with the book, which was awesome because it brought up different perspectives. So what exactly is ‘Into the Wild’ about?

What would possess a gifted young man recently graduated from college to literally walk away from his life and having $24,000 saved up to start his adventurous life? Noted outdoor writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer tackles that question in his reporting on Chris McCandless, whose emaciated body was found in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. Described by friends and relatives as smart, literate, compassionate, and funny, did McCandless simply read too much Thoreau and Jack London and lose sight of the dangers of heading into the wilderness alone? Krakauer, whose own adventures have taken him to the perilous heights of Everest, provides some answers by exploring the pull the outdoors, seductive yet often dangerous, has had on his own life.

I thought both this book and movie were spectacular. I don’t think the message was portrayed very well in the movie as it did in the book. I did however; understand why he did what he did (unlike a lot people). Why did he do what he did? Well it all comes down to our very own corrupt society in which we live everyday. And why did he die (this is another thing that wasn’t shown very well in the movie, but you did get to catch a glimpse of it)? Well he died because of the poisonous berries that he ate. Why did he eat poisonous berries? Well, he carried a berry book around with him while he was collecting berries to see which berries were eatable and which were not. He happens to come across these berries that were identical to each other, and he took a chance and ate the poisonous ones by accident, he then later died.

So the past few nights, Conan has been doing these little video spoofs on GTA IV. I’ve compiled all three. Enjoy! They’re pretty hysterical!

A few years ago I wrote what some found very interesting, and very true about the currupt public school system. Here is an excerp:

“Public school is so lame. You aren’t graded on your understanding of what is being taught, but rather by the amount of effort you put forth toward that goal. The focus has drifted from true education, to a bureaucratic system of technicalities. Most teachers no longer worry about whether a student understands the concepts that they are trying to teach, but only that the student has completed the assigned work. I hear from my peers that they only do what they must to please the teacher, and avoid any true knowledge. For example, I doubt that anyone of my peer in my class actually reads the text. Instead, they look for bold print and headings, after having read the questions they mean to answer, thereby missing whatever content was discussed in the text which was not addressed in the assignment. Many of my peers will not read novels for understanding, or even for pleasure, but would much rather read summaries so as to finish “The project” whilst doing the least actual work possible. In an attempt to alleviate these issues, teachers have only made work loads more challenging. Instead of being a solution, it has become detrimental to people who actually seek knowledge, simply due to the fact that pondering takes much more time than checking an external resource for “The answer.”

People are unique in that they are of different capacities. People will invariably learn different subjects at different rates, to different limits. It does not make sense, therefore, for everyone to be forced to keep one pace. I believe that if a person completely understands a concept, that person should NOT be held from higher concepts. And this is why I am home schooled!”

So ontop of that I found something rather interesting earlier this morning that has to do with the topic. Here it is, quoted from the Chicago Tribune:

Home-schooled Evanston teen accepted by Harvard, Yale, more
7 of the nation’s top universities want her.

In what has been called the most competitive year ever for college
admissions, Chelsea Link defied the odds to get accepted into Yale. Then
Harvard.

Then came the fat envelopes from Princeton, Columbia, University of
Chicago, Stanford and Northwestern University.

Making that feat still more extraordinary, Link has been home-schooled
since age 5.

“I was a little nervous,” the Evanston 18-year-old said. “I was worried
that I might not get into even one school.”

This isn’t false modesty on Link’s part, but an acknowledgment that many
stereotypes about home schooling—think barn raisings and “Little House
on the Prairie” wardrobes—are still entrenched.

While the pool has expanded, so has home-schoolers’ savvy about how to
package themselves, said Christopher Watson, dean of undergraduate
admissions at NU, where the number of such applicants has doubled since
2002.

“We haven’t changed the way we review applications, but the way
home-schoolers are submitting applications has changed,” he said.
“They’ve become very good at taking out the question marks.”

Now, the only uncertainty for Link, who hopes to study neuroscience, is
where she will attend. She has until May to decide, although the crimson
sweat shirt she wore may have provided a clue. Harvard offered slots in
the class of 2012 to only about 7 percent of 27,000-plus applicants, an
all-time high.

To make that coup even more impressive, Link received the good news via
phone in late February, even though the official letter did not arrive
for another month. Only 10 non-athletes nationwide received one of these
“heads-up” calls.

Interesting huh?