Donner Seuss

The Shift - Movie

2009-04-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

The Shift Website

Why Goofing Off Boosts Productivity

2009-04-09T18:56:00.001-07:00

Why Goofing Off Boosts Productivity

Kutiman

2009-04-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

Woah.

also check out this website: Thru-You

Our Propensity to Cheat

2009-03-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hugs: The Energy of an Embrace

2009-03-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

Original post from DailyOm

The need to touch and be touched is established early in our lives, as we develop and grow in the omnipresent embrace of our mother’s womb. Once we are born, separated from that sanctuary of connectivity, we begin to crave the physical embrace of our parents. As we age, we become more independent. Yet during times of triumph or trouble and during those moments when we are in need of reassurance, we can’t help but long for a hug.

Because a hug requires two active participants, each individual taking part in the embrace experiences the pleasure of being embraced and the joy that comes from hugging someone. As both individuals wrap their arms around one another, their energy blends together, and they experience a tangible feeling of togetherness that lingers long after physical contact has been broken. A heart hug is when you put your left arm over someone’s shoulder and your right arm around their waist. As they do the same to you, your hearts become aligned with one another other and loving, comforting energy flows between the two of you to flood your souls with feelings of love, caring, and compassion.

A hug is a pleasurable way to share your feelings with someone who is important to you. Depending on your relationship with the other person and the kind of message you wish to send to them, a hug can communicate love, friendship, romance, congratulations, support, greeting, and any other sentiment you wish to convey. A hug communicates to others that you are there for them in a positive way. In an instant, a hug can reestablish a bond between long lost friends and comfort those in pain. The next time you hug someone, focus all of your energy into the embrace. You will create a profound connection that infuses your feelings and sentiments into a single beautiful gesture.

Laughter Yoga

2009-03-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

How To Shake Off a Bad Mood

2009-02-25T00:53:00.000-08:00

Original article posted by Debbie Mandel

Lately, getting stuck in a bad mood is pretty easy. Just tune into the dreary news, or pick up a magazine telling you how bad it’s going to get. Your senses are assaulted with a relentless anxiety-laden negativity based on “objective” reporting of the sorry state of the economy, but also laced with toxic speculation - a crystal ball of negativity. Sometimes there is a biological component to your bad mood, hormonally driven, lack of sleep, or poor eating habits. Some moods emanate from home, an angry argument. And others seem to have no specific trigger, out of nowhere a darker veil descends. Research from the University of Pennsylvania by Professor Sigal Barsade may explain: Bad moods are contagious.

Let's lift the veil and demystify the process to liberate your mind.

Barsade clarifies that you unconsciously mimic the people around you. If someone in your midst is negative, speaks loudly with an edge, or is tapping his foot impatiently, you will absorb that mood. As a result you will feel more irritable, less compromising and more likely to yell at someone or send that hostile email you wished you had never sent.

However, if you are infected by someone else’s bad mood and don’t even know it, what can you do to get over it?

* Start cultivating an awareness of other people’s body language, tone of voice and word choice. When you are near someone who is frowning, how do you feel? Practice developing radar for people’s energy. Self-awareness will break it.
* Don’t be afraid to shed other people’s toxicity by distancing yourself which includes the media like TV, especially if you are in eye contact which can become hypnotic. After all, you are careful about eating foods with pesticides and artificial ingredients, why should toxic people and toxic news be different? Change the channel.
* Exercise it away! While you move away from negativity, keep on walking to ease on down the road. Exercise will rebalance your neural circuitry and change your mood. Meditation, watching a comedy or calling up a positive friend will also positively change brain activity.

All bad moods are not created equal.

If your bad mood is in response to someone else’s, that’s easier to shake off. However, if you are in a negative loop, then you have to seriously de-activate the bad thought by logically exposing the distortion. Fill yourself up on good stories which inspire. Put up an affirmation on your screensaver or a photo of your last vacation, a loving family member or pet. Change them regularly based on the message you need to give yourself.

The next time you are in a bad mood, ask yourself: Is it you or them?

Make Your Own Luck

2009-02-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

Original article from Tabby Biddle

“What are the odds that the next person you meet will change your day, your year, your life?” This is the opening line of an article I recently read in Oprah’s February issue of “O.” “Chance of a Lifetime” discusses whether or not we make our own DESTINY. Coincidentally (or maybe not), I was looking at that magazine in the offices of Oprah’s new network OWN, getting ready to pitch ideas to network executives.

I have always been a big believer in signs that the Universe provides to knock us onto our track or to assure us that we are indeed on the right track. For instance when I see a look-a-like of the dog I had as a child, I feel like the Universe is telling me that everything is okay…that I am on the right track. Then when I see TWO of these dogs at the same time, then I know things are REALLY good.

On the other hand, I have been a big believer in making things happen. For example, when I wanted to work for the National Geographic Society, I called every connection I had there, requested informational interviews, and did my NGS homework. I got the job.

I have vacillated between the theories and practices of making things happen and letting things happen throughout my life. Sometimes I am totally on side, sometimes on the other, and sometimes I embrace both. Lately I have been struggling with where I am now.

Colleen Seifert, PhD, who is featured in the O article and is a specialist in cognitive psychology (the science of why people think the way they do) shed some light on this battle of philosophies. “Chance favors the prepared mind,” Seifert says quoting Louis Pasteur. It sounds good to me, but what does this actually mean?

My interpretation of what Dr. Seifert says is that we are always exposed to randomness. By definition a chance encounter is a random event. Our actions however play a crucial role in the outcome. When you are mentally prepared for a chance encounter you give yourself the opportunity to change your behavior and take action. Life hasn't changed. It is still random. But you may have. So maybe Louis Pasteur had a good point. The prepared mind has a better chance of getting what it wants, or as many call it, "getting lucky."

Seifert isn’t alone in believing that if you prepare yourself to make the most of chance encounters, good things are waiting to happen. Apparently there is a real science to prove that while you can’t control the random events of life, you can indeed create your own luck. Take for example the research of Richard Wiseman, PhD.

Dr. Wiseman has spent more than a decade investigating why some people have more luck than others and argues that only 10 percent of life is truly random and that 90 percent is actually defined by the way we think, In his book, The Luck Factor, Wiseman says, “Luck is not a magical ability or a gift from the gods…instead, it is a way of thinking and behaving…Lucky people create, notice, and act upon the chance opportunities in their lives.” Another way to say this I think is that being in the right place at the right time is actually about being in the right state of mind.

As I sort all of this out, I think back to when I have had most success and what my strategy and state of mind was at the time. I have tended to think that chance encounters, fortunate circumstances and great successes have come from the friendly Universe. But maybe it is not chance after all. Maybe I really am making my own luck. I still feel gratitude to the Universe though when I see one of those dogs.

Do you think you can make your own luck?

The History of Valentines Day

2009-02-14T13:06:00.000-08:00

The History of Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

Daddy, How Was I Born?

2009-02-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

Daddy, How Was I Born?

A little boy goes to his father and asks 'Daddy, how was I born?'

The father answers, 'Well, son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo . Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:

Scroll down...You'll love this ...

'You got Male!'

Where The Hell Is Matt?

2009-01-29T09:31:00.001-08:00

Playing For Change: Stand By me

2009-01-29T09:19:00.001-08:00

What Do Women Want?

2009-01-26T12:26:00.000-08:00

The most e-mailed article right now on NYTimes.com.

What Do Women Want?

If you want the full article, and you can't see it on the website, email Cassie.

T-Mobile Dance

2009-01-23T09:35:00.001-08:00

Penguin Chased by Killer Whales

2009-01-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwqbqZ3L60

EnlightenNext

2008-12-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I wanted to throw this website on your radar screen. It has a lot of interesting articles and videos (to get full access you need to become a member and pay a little little little bit). Take some time to browse this site - it covers many topics and you are bound to be interested in one.

http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/

D-LOVE,
Gabe

Howard Rheingold, Stanford Professor, Department of Communication

2008-12-11T11:03:00.001-08:00

12 Days of Christmas

2008-12-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

A Haiku to Cassie from Sam

2008-12-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

I promised Cassie

That I would never again

Lock myself out. FALSE

- Sam Bosley (RCC)

Guitar

2008-11-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

Awesome video of Ledward Kaapana playing slack key guitar

Pandas and Movies

2008-11-29T23:46:00.000-08:00

YouTube, home to many, many odd things.

Movies...

And Pandas...

2008-11-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

The LA Times Article

Shots Fired at Toys R Us, 2 Dead; Due to Black Friday

Oh my... When shopping turns vicious!

The article for those too lazy to click:

Shots fired at Toys R Us in Palm Desert; 2 dead
1:45 PM, November 28, 2008

Shots rang out today inside a Toys R Us store in Palm Desert, killing two and causing shoppers at the busy store to scramble for cover.

Palm Desert Councilman Bob Spiegel told The Times that based on early reports, two rival groups shopping at the store had some kind of argument and then shots were fired. Two men were killed in the exchange of gunfire, he said.

Sara Frahm, 25, of La Quinta was shopping for electronic toys at the time of the shooting. She told The Times she heard two women fighting and swearing in an aisle next to her. She said employees went to break up the fight and that all of the sudden a number of people yelled, "He has a gun!" She said she heard six or seven shots.

Mike Stitt of Yucca Valley was shopping with his wife and two children when he saw two women fighting and calling each other names. Both were with men. One of the men pulled out a gun and shot it in the air, then shot the other man in the back, Stitt told The Times.

In a statement, Toys R Us stressed that the shooting appeared to stem from a "personal dispute."

"We are outraged by the act of violence that occurred this afternoon in Palm Desert, CA, and by the fact that anyone would compromise the safety and security of our customers and employees," the statement said. "Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday."

Riverside County sheriff and fire officials responded to a report of the shooting at 11:32 a.m. at the toy store in the Desert Crossing Shopping Center at 72314 Highway 111, said Cheri Patterson, information officer for the Riverside County Fire Department and Cal Fire, based in Perris.

Dennis Gutierrez of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department confirmed the fatalities but said detectives were still trying to figure out what happened. He said no arrests have been made and no weapons have been recovered.

"This was an incident between these two individuals," he said.

Details about the shooting were still spotty, but witnesses said the scene at the store and nearby businesses was chaotic.

"We had a bunch of people who came in around noon," Jeff Valare, manager at the World Gym across the street from the Toys R Us, told The Times. "They looked distressed. One woman had an infant in her arms and was crying. They were telling us they heard five or six gunshots. They were inside the Toys R Us and fled out the back."

Glenn Splain, another worker at the gym, told the Associated Press that some Toys R Us customers "were crying, tearing and shaking. ... Some people got into a fight. ... One of the guys here thought it was over a toy, but it got louder and louder and then there were gunshots."

Saul Diaz, who works as an assistant manager at the Jiffy Lube next door to the Toys R Us, said he was speaking with a customer when a stampede of 45 people ran in. Some looked distraught, some were crying.

"They were running fast, straight into the car bays. There was a couple of ladies with little kids, about 3 years [old]. They were all pale. The kids were shouting, 'Mom, I'm scared.' We immediately closed the store," Diaz told The Times. His staff locked the front doors and closed the car bays. "We took everyone into a basement bay, where we keep inventory," he said.

The Desert Sun quoted a Palm Desert city official as saying the shooting might have been caused by bad blood between two groups of shoppers. "There were two groups inside that had issue with each other," said Assistant City Manager Sheila Gilligan. "And the two men inside pulled their weapons and shot each other."

Daniel Watson told KPSP-TV that his wife was shopping at the store and called him on her cellphone about the time the shooting began. "She was scared, you know, and she told me to tell the kids that she loved them," Watson said. He told the station that his wife hid under a clothes rack.

-- Michelle Maltais, Richard Winton, Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Andrew Blankstein

A 5th Grader's Written Plans to Take Over the World

2008-11-28T17:03:00.001-08:00

A 5th Grader's Written Plans to Take Over the World

Tom Friedman

2008-11-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

An article by Tom Friedman, posted by Josh Falk.

Click here for the original article: Finishing Our Work

Or, if you're lazy or don't have a NYTimes account:

Finishing Our Work

And so it came to pass that on Nov. 4, 2008, shortly after 11 p.m. Eastern time, the American Civil War ended, as a black man — Barack Hussein Obama — won enough electoral votes to become president of the United States.

A civil war that, in many ways, began at Bull Run, Virginia, on July 21, 1861, ended 147 years later via a ballot box in the very same state. For nothing more symbolically illustrated the final chapter of America’s Civil War than the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia — the state that once exalted slavery and whose secession from the Union in 1861 gave the Confederacy both strategic weight and its commanding general — voted Democratic, thus assuring that Barack Obama would become the 44th president of the United States.

This moment was necessary, for despite a century of civil rights legislation, judicial interventions and social activism — despite Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther King’s I-have-a-dream crusade and the 1964 Civil Rights Act — the Civil War could never truly be said to have ended until America’s white majority actually elected an African-American as president.

That is what happened Tuesday night and that is why we awake this morning to a different country. The struggle for equal rights is far from over, but we start afresh now from a whole new baseline. Let every child and every citizen and every new immigrant know that from this day forward everything really is possible in America.

How did Obama pull it off? To be sure, it probably took a once-in-a-century economic crisis to get enough white people to vote for a black man. And to be sure, Obama’s better organization, calm manner, mellifluous speaking style and unthreatening message of “change” all served him well.

But there also may have been something of a “Buffett effect” that countered the supposed “Bradley effect” — white voters telling pollsters they’d vote for Obama but then voting for the white guy. The Buffett effect was just the opposite. It was white conservatives telling the guys in the men’s grill at the country club that they were voting for John McCain, but then quietly going into the booth and voting for Obama, even though they knew it would mean higher taxes.

Why? Some did it because they sensed how inspired and hopeful their kids were about an Obama presidency, and they not only didn’t want to dash those hopes, they secretly wanted to share them. Others intuitively embraced Warren Buffett’s view that if you are rich and successful today, it is first and foremost because you were lucky enough to be born in America at this time — and never forget that. So, we need to get back to fixing our country — we need a president who can unify us for nation-building at home.

And somewhere they also knew that after the abysmal performance of the Bush team, there had to be consequences for the Republican Party. Electing McCain now would have, in some way, meant rewarding incompetence. It would have made a mockery of accountability in government and unleashed a wave of cynicism in America that would have been deeply corrosive.

Obama will always be our first black president. But can he be one of our few great presidents? He is going to have his chance because our greatest presidents are those who assumed the office at some of our darkest hours and at the bottom of some of our deepest holes.

“Taking office at a time of crisis doesn’t guarantee greatness, but it can be an occasion for it,” argued the Harvard University political philosopher Michael Sandel. “That was certainly the case with Lincoln, F.D.R. and Truman.” Part of F.D.R.’s greatness, though, “was that he gradually wove a new governing political philosophy — the New Deal — out of the rubble and political disarray of the economic depression he inherited.” Obama will need to do the same, but these things take time.

“F.D.R. did not run on the New Deal in 1932,” said Sandel. “He ran on balancing the budget. Like Obama, he did not take office with a clearly articulated governing philosophy. He arrived with a confident, activist spirit and experimented. Not until 1936 did we have a presidential campaign about the New Deal. What Obama’s equivalent will be, even he doesn’t know. It will emerge as he grapples with the economy, energy and America’s role in the world. These challenges are so great that he will only succeed if he is able to articulate a new politics of the common good.”

Bush & Co. did not believe that government could be an instrument of the common good. They neutered their cabinet secretaries and appointed hacks to big jobs. For them, pursuit of the common good was all about pursuit of individual self-interest. Voters rebelled against that. But there was also a rebellion against a traditional Democratic version of the common good — that it is simply the sum of all interest groups clamoring for their share.

“In this election, the American public rejected these narrow notions of the common good,” argued Sandel. “Most people now accept that unfettered markets don’t serve the public good. Markets generate abundance, but they can also breed excessive insecurity and risk. Even before the financial meltdown, we’ve seen a massive shift of risk from corporations to the individual. Obama will have to reinvent government as an instrument of the common good — to regulate markets, to protect citizens against the risks of unemployment and ill health, to invest in energy independence.”

But a new politics of the common good can’t be only about government and markets. “It must also be about a new patriotism — about what it means to be a citizen,” said Sandel. “This is the deepest chord Obama’s campaign evoked. The biggest applause line in his stump speech was the one that said every American will have a chance to go to college provided he or she performs a period of national service — in the military, in the Peace Corps or in the community. Obama’s campaign tapped a dormant civic idealism, a hunger among Americans to serve a cause greater than themselves, a yearning to be citizens again.”

None of this will be easy. But my gut tells me that of all the changes that will be ushered in by an Obama presidency, breaking with our racial past may turn out to be the least of them. There is just so much work to be done. The Civil War is over. Let reconstruction begin.

Maureen Dowd will appear on Thursday.

Facebook Stalkin'

2008-11-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

A silly little song and video by IU's Acapella group, Straight No Chaser.

Dr. Seuss and Politics

2008-10-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

I don't really care for little things that put people down... but it was amusing...

Kids singing about voting -- they're awesome!

2008-10-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Politics or Style?

2008-10-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

I found this article on the front page of the NY Times.

Look Is the Same, the Labels have Changed

The article itself is kind of a bore, but I was just amused that this article was in "politics" and not "style."

I realize the person they're critiquing is in politics, but is it really meant under the Politics tab?

Drunk Emailing

2008-10-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an entertaining article about Drunk Emailing.

I wonder if Stanford will ever implement this into their system...

Also... Dr. Jeremy Bailenson is my Professor! and I found this article without even realizing that he was in it. hahahaha.

Drunk Emailing

Here's an excerpt:

"Jim David, a comedian who lives in Manhattan, said he wished he had Mail Goggles one night when he was “looped” and sent an e-mail message to a religious organization, “saying something like, ‘you people are directly responsible for gays everywhere getting beaten,’ ” he recalled in an e-mail message.

“I received a response from their legal department that wanted to know specific information as to exactly how I knew they were responsible, that these were very serious charges, and that I should receive a phone call from the F.B.I. soon,” Mr. David said. “I hit ‘delete’ faster than lightning and took an Ambien.” "

Donner Scavenger Hunt 08-09

2008-10-19T13:08:00.001-07:00

The video is too long for youtube... boo...

So instead, click the link below to connect to our scavenger hunt video!

Donner Scavenger Hunt 08-09

Donner Love!

Why swing dancing is fun:

2008-10-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Information Overload

2008-10-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

Every day, we receive a barrage of emails that we complain about, yet at the same time can't live without.

In a span of 2 hours, it is possible for a person to get 40 new emails in their inbox, most of which are irrelevant to him or her.

Here's an article about our email use and the information overload that we experience.

A Marketplace for Attention

The productivity of information workers is jeopardized by too much e–mail.

Companies are beginning to investigate the financial costs associated with information overload. Research from one Fortune 50 company estimated the cost of information overload at US$1 billion annually based on lost work time and reduced employee efficiency (Zeldes, et al., 2007). This estimate did not include additional costs associated with reduced work quality, job satisfaction and innovation. The estimated cost of information overload for the larger economy is stunning — US$588 billion annually (Basex Report, 2006).

Here's another one:

Infomania

A typical Intel knowledge worker receives 50–100 work–related e–mail messages each day

On average, knowledge workers can expect three minutes of uninterrupted work on any task

On average, a major interruption occurs every 11 minutes [24], the time to return to an interrupted task is 25 minutes [25], many incoming e–mail messages are reacted to within seconds of arrival [26] (implying constant e–mail monitoring to the detriment of concentration on the task at hand), and recovery from e–mail distraction takes 64 seconds [27]. It is thus fair, yet sad, to say that many knowledge workers have almost no uninterrupted work time – time that is essential to enabling creativity, innovation or serious problem solving [28].

A Song about the Brain!

2008-09-30T16:32:00.001-07:00

Donner Staff Love

2008-09-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yay! First day of classes!

From Staff Photo Shoot

Welcome!

2008-09-09T00:00:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Donner 2008 - 2009's first blog post!

More to come soon!