One of my all-time favorite blogs is GetRichSlowly. More than just a simple blog, GetRichSlowly is a comprehensive and full-fledged resource for learning about and managing personal finances. Today they have a great post on getting 2008 off on the right financial foot:

Develop a budget
After you’ve tracked your spending for a few weeks (or months), use the data you’ve collected to develop a budget. According to The Millionaire Next Door, budgeting is one thing that sets the wealthy apart from the rest of us — 55% of millionaires keep a budget. (…)

Start an emergency fund
For years I lived paycheck-to-paycheck. I spent everything I earned. This worked well until something went wrong. And something always went wrong. Suddenly I’d find myself without money to pay for a car repair, or facing an expensive doctor’s bill. I financed emergencies with credit cards. After years of carrying debt, I finally paid off all these emergencies last month. (…) (more…)

HT Perez

According to the Left-Handers Club:

• Left-handed persons are called sinistral.
• Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right.
• There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed.
• Research from the US National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that among graduates the earning power of left-handed men is 15% greater than that of men who are right-handed.
• Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handers (particularly if they are forced to change their writing hand as a child).
• 4 out of the last 6 presidents have been left-handed (Ford, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton). (more…)

Here are the words chosen by the American Dialect Society as 2007’s best words or phrases:

• Word of the Year: Subprime, an adjective used to describe a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage or investment.
• Most Useful: Green, designates environmental concern.
• Most Creative: Googleganger, person with your name who shows up when you Google yourself.
• Most Unnecessary: Happy Kwanhanamas, Happy Holidays. Kwanza + Hanukkah + Christmas.
• Most Outrageous: Toe-tapper, a homosexual. Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, was arrested in June for an encounter in a Minneapolis airport bathroom in which toe-tapping as said to have been used as a sexual come-on.

(more…)

Apparently, a lot of people are thinking that Brit Brit is bipolar. But what is Bipolar anyway?

According to the National Institute of Mental Health,

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But there is good news: bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.

About 5.7 million American adults or about 2.6 percent of the population, have bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder typically develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. The periods of highs and lows are called episodes of mania and depression.

The symptoms are as follows:

Signs and symptoms of mania (or a manic episode) include:

• Increased energy, activity, and restlessness
• Excessively “high,” overly good, euphoric mood
• Extreme irritability
• Racing thoughts and talking very fast, jumping from one idea to another
• Distractibility, can’t concentrate well
• Little sleep needed
• Unrealistic beliefs in one’s abilities and powers
• Poor judgment
• Spending sprees (more…)

Reduced risk of death from nearly all causes: European researchers suggest that moderate daily intake of red wine (22-32 g of alcohol) has a protective effect on all-cause mortality. According to studies from France, UK, Finland and Denmark, moderate consumption of wine is more beneficial than that of beer or spirits.

Smoking: Acute smoking significantly impairs vessels’ natural ability to relax, or vasodilate. Red wine, with or without alcohol, decreases the harmful effect of smoking on the endothelium - layer of cells that provide a friction-reducing lining in lymph vessels, blood vessels, and the heart. (more…)

My favorites:

The 10-Year Old Rule. Pretend you had to teach everything in your course to a ten-year old. Could you do it? While advanced theoretical physics might not be comprehensible by a young child, the idea is that you should be able to simplify your subject into easily understandable pictures and metaphors. If you can do this for yourself, it will make your job far easier for remembering later.

Set Daily Study Times. Set periods of time that you will spend studying each day. Once you spend a month reinforcing these learning periods, it will become automatic. Regular studying times prevent the need for cramming and can give you consistency in your schedule. (more…)

1) Lindsay Lohan
There’s a lot to be said for not doing something half-assed. On Memorial Day weekend, LiLo crashed her Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG into a palm tree and left the scene of the accident before police could get there. She was tracked down to a local hospital and arrested for DUI. Two weeks after checking out of rehab, Lohan was still wearing an alcohol-monitoring bracelet when she chased down an assistant who had quit and was having her mother pick her up. Lohan tailed the pair to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where police arrested the fire-crotched starlet for her second DUI after she blew breathalyzer results of 0.12 and 0.13. She was transported to the L.A. county lockup, where a pat-down search turned up cocaine in her pants pocket. On November 15, Lohan checked herself into jail at the Los Angeles women’s detention center and was back on the street in a little over an hour — the kind of slap-on-the-wrist justice that lets dangerous actresses back out on the street, where they’re free to prey upon the public with bubblegum movies and assembly-line Top 40 hits.
2) Kiefer Sutherland
Given his reputation, it wasn’t that big of a shock when Kiefer Sutherland was arrested on suspicion of DUI after making an illegal U-turn and failing a sobriety test. After all, he’s been cracked for the same offense three previous times over the past eighteen years. Serving a 48-day sentence for his September 25th arrest, Sutherland isn’t being given the revolving-door treatment afforded to certain hotel heiresses and Disney-flick princesses, instead performing compulsory kitchen and laundry duty while in jail. Fortunately for fans of 24, Sutherland’s sentence was shuffled around to coincide with a break in filming of the popular show, which centers entirely on Kiefer Sutherland. We have to agree with the wags at celebrity gossip site Hecklerspray that the producers could have simply invited Elisha Cuthbert back to run around in slow-motion, bra-less distress, but that would have only worked for 16 or 17 hours of the day-long show, tops. Twenty in high-def. (more…)