KNOW LifeHacks
How can you improve your life simply? Pages 4-7
Mental Illness Are you okay? Are you sure? Pages 8-13
Strength Vs Power What’s the difference? Does it matter? Pages 14-19
Memes
The spread of ideas as a social contagion Pages 20-25
Keep Calm and Carry On The words you know about but don’t know why. Pages 26-31
Lifeha Realizing That You Could Have Made Your Life a lot Easier
We go through the same monotonous tasks everyday.More often than not, we struggle to do some tasks even though we have been doing them out entire lives. Sometimes, the easy way is so clear and obvious, we ourselves become completely dubious to the simplest answers to life’s trivial problems. However, by looking at things more clearly, we can see that the things around us can always be a lot more efficient. Gathered in this list via the citizens of Reddit are answers to such.
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Rolling Down the Sides of the Ketchup Holder
Marking Daily Water Intake on Bottles
Using an Empty Bottle to Separate Egg Yolks
The ketchup holder we’ve used at fast food joints have been used wrong for decades. To get the most ketchup out of it, roll down the sides so the holder itself becomes like a small dish.
We drink liquids everyday out of necessity. It is often essential to drink at least a certain amount for healthy nutrition. By marking the daily times for intake and by amounts you can better keep track of your habits and health.
Some people have an aversion to egg yolks in their diet. This lifehack eliminates the fuss of separating egg and yolk. Using an empty bottle, squeeze out all the air, come down to the eggyolk with the lip of the bottle and release as it inhales the egg.
Rubbing a Walnut on Wood to Cover Dings
Use that Carabiner to Carry Your Groceries
Taking Bread Clips to Organize Your Wires
Over the years, it becomes easy to notice dings on your furniture. Instead of readily going out to IKEA, take some walnuts and start rubbing them against the dings. The oil will smooth and heal some of those cuts up.
We carry groceries almost everyday or week. Sometimes that can get burdensome especially with loads of bags. For people who have carabiners on them, use them as a clip to hold them and unload the strain on your fingers.
All around your house, you will probably notice disheveled piles of wires and cords for miscellaneous electronics. Make use of old bread clips and use them to organize your wires. Also useful are paperclips.
Opening a Blister Pack with a Can Opener
Use Old Toilet Paper Rolls to Keep Cords in
Wiping Off Drips of Paint with Rubberband
Blister packs are some of the worst packages out there. They can easily cut and give you blisters. Instead of using scissors, opt for a can opener and slice through that sucker with more ease and precision.
Everybody has wires and cords from their devices they no longer use. Most of the time they end up lying around the house. To organize these messes, take a toilet roll and roll your cords nicely up in them.
Paint cans are tough to close when the paint gunks up in the crevices. It often causes the paint to be waster quicker when resealed and be completely useless when reopened. Use a rubberband to wipe your brush and save the can for resealing. 5
Folding Your Shirts in 4 Quick Steps Step 1 Firstly, take your left hand(1) to a point along a seam, along with your right hand to the top of the shirt(2) as labeled in the picture. Pinch the top and bottom layers of the shirt.
Step 2 Bring right hand (2) all the way straight down to the bottom to section (3) and pinch.
Step 3 Flick, uncross your arms and bring the shirt up from pinch(1).
Step 4 Place the shirt back down and enjoy the wonders of quicker shirt folding.
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Placing a Sponge in a Bag as an Icepack
Cleaning Headlights with Toothpaste
Combine Old Soap Bars with New Soap Bars
Not everybody has an icepack readily available and they can be quite cumbersome to deal with in terms of leaking and melting. Using a sponge with cold water in a plastic ziplock, you can have a quick access no mess icepack.
Headlights on cars often get dirty and oxidized quite quickly. It can often hamper the visibility of your car in bad conditions. To remedy this, use toothpaste and brush accordingly. Look at the difference from top and bottom.
If you use soap bars, you quickly realize how they begin to pile up as they near the end of their lifespan. Instead of throwing them out, take a new one and smush with an old one and finish the old bar off.
Knotting Extention Cords for Security
Using A Clothespin to Hold a Nail in Place
Cutting Foods with Dental Floss
If you have a lot of plugs lying around, you might find that they can come undone and unplugged very easily. To maintain a secure plug, tie ends in a loose know to ensure a strong connection.
Hammering nails into a surface can be a simple task for some. For others, not so easy, especially if you want your nails perpendicular. Use a clothespin to save your fingers and to keep perpendicular alignment.
Cutting some foods can be a little tough with a knife. Maintaining an even cut is also quite hard. Instead of using a knife, opt for some dental floss and use it to wrap and cut cakes, cheeses, and anything else you want to eat. 7
When one thinks of mental illness, what does one think? Does mental illness include the simple syndromes and disorders which we associate with psychopaths and violent people? In fact, it does not. Mental illness is more prevalent than we think. According to studies, mental disorder is common and world wide more than one in three people in most countries report sufficient criteria for at least one at some point in their life. In the United States 46% qualifies for a mental illness at some point. An ongoing survey indicates that anxiety disorders are the most common in all but one country, followed by mood disorders in all but two countries, while substance disorders and impulse-control disorders were consistently less prevalent. A review of anxiety disorder surveys in different countries found average lifetime prevalence estimates of 16.6%, with women having higher rates on average. A review of mood disorder surveys in different countries found lifetime rates of 6.7% for major depressive disorder 8
(higher in some studies, and in women) and 0.8% for Bipolar I disorder. In the United States the frequency of disorder is: anxiety disorder (28.8%), mood disorder (20.8%), impulsecontrol disorder (24.8%) or substance use disorder (14.6%). An international review of studies on the prevalence of schizophrenia found an average (median) figure of 0.4% for lifetime prevalence; it was consistently lower in poorer countries. While rates of psychological disorders are often the same for men and women, women tend to have a higher rate of depression. Each year 73 million women are afflicted with major depression, and suicide is ranked 7th as the cause of death for women between the ages of 20-59. Depressive disorders account for close to 41.9% of the disability from neuropsychiatric disorders among women compared to 29.3% among men. The causes of mental disorders are varied and in some cases unclear, and theories may incorporate findings from a range of fields.
One in five americans suffer from Mental Illness according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health and Services Administration
Services are based in psychiatric hospitals or in the community, and assessments are carried out by psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and clinical social workers, using various methods but often relying on observation and questioning. Clinical treatments are provided by various mental health professionals. Psychotherapy and psychiatric medication are two major treatment options, as are social interventions, peer support and selfhelp. In a minority of cases there might be involuntary detention or involuntary treatment, where legislation allows. Stigma and discrimination can add to the suffering and disability associated with mental disorders (or with being diagnosed or judged as having a mental disorder), leading to various social movements attempting to increase understanding and challenge social exclusion. Prevention is now appearing in some mental health strategies.
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Mental Illnesses There are many common mental illnesses that afflict people. Listed below are the umbrella terms for many of them and how they affect people.
Eating disorders are conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual’s physical and mental health. Bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are the most common specific forms in the United Kingdom. Bulimia nervosa is a disorder characterized by binge eating and purging, and anorexia nervosa is characterized by immoderate food restriction and irrational fear of gaining weight. Though primarily thought of as affecting females (an estimated 5–10 million being affected in the U.K.), eating disorders affect males as well. An estimated 10 – 15% of people with eating disorders are males (Gorgan, 1999). (an estimated 1 million U.K. males being affected). Although eating disorders are increasing all over the world among both men and women, there is evidence to suggest that it is women in the Western world who are at the highest risk of developing them and the degree of westernization increases the risk. Nearly half of all Americans personally know someone with an eating disorder. The skill to comprehend the central processes of appetite has increased tremendously since leptin was discovered, and the skill to observe the functions of the brain as well. Interactions between motivational, homeostatic and self-regulatory control processes are involved in eating behaviour, which is a key component in eating disorders. 10
Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of a type of common psychiatric disorder characterized by excessive rumination, worrying, uneasiness, apprehension and fear about future uncertainties either based on real or imagined events, which may affect both physical and psychological health. There are numerous psychiatric and medical syndromes which may mimic the symptoms of an anxiety disorder such as hyperthyroidism which is frequently misdiagnosed as generalized anxiety disorder. True anxiety disorders seem to have a variety of psychosocial causes; and may involve a genetic predisposition. Individuals diagnosed with an anxiety disorder may be classified in one of two categories; based on whether they experience continuous or episodic symptoms. Current psychiatric diagnostic criteria recognize a wide variety of anxiety disorders. Recent surveys have found that as many as 18% of Americans and 14% of Europeans may be affected by one or more of them. The term anxiety covers four aspects of experiences an individual may have: mental apprehension, physical tension, physical symptoms and dissociative anxiety. Anxiety disorder is divided into generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, and panic disorder; each has its own characteristics and symptoms and they require different treatment (Gelder et al. 2005).
Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder[1] characterized by either significant difficulties of inattention or hyperactivity and impulsiveness or a combination of the two. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), symptoms emerge before seven years of age.There are three subtypes of the disorder which consist of it being predominantly inattentive (ADHD -PI or ADHD -I), predominantely hyperactive-impulsive (ADHD-HI or ADHD-H), or the two combined (ADHD-C). Oftentimes people refer to ADHD-PI as “attention deficit disorder” (ADD), however, the latter has not been officially accepted since the 1994 revision of the DSM. ADHD impacts school-aged children and results in restlessness, acting impulsively, and lack of focus which impairs their ability to learn properly. It is the most commonly studied and diagnosed psychiatric disorder in children, affecting about 3 to 5 percent of children globally and is diagnosed in about 2 to 16 percent of school-aged children. It is a chronic disorder with 30 to 50 percent of those individuals diagnosed in childhood continuing to have symptoms into adulthood. Adolescents and adults with ADHD tend to develop coping mechanisms to compensate for some or all of their impairments.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness. Common symptoms include auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction. The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood, with a global lifetime prevalence of about 0.3–0.7%. Diagnosis is based on observed behavior and the patient’s reported experiences. Genetics, early environment, neurobiology, and psychological and social processes appear to be important contributory factors; some recreational and prescription drugs appear to cause or worsen symptoms. Current research is focused on the role of neurobiology, although no single isolated organic cause has been found. The many possible combinations of symptoms have triggered debate about whether the diagnosis represents a single disorder or a number of discrete syndromes. Despite the etymology of the term from the Greek roots skhizein “to split”, schizophrenia does not imply a “split personality”, or “multiple personality disorder” (which is known these days as dissociative identity disorder)—a condition with which it is often confused in public perception. Rather, the term means a “splitting of mental functions”, because of the symptomatic presentation of the illness.
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Prevention is currently a very small part of the spend of mental health systems. For instance the 2009 UK Depar tment of Health analysis of prevention expenditure does not include any apparent spend on mental health. The situation is the same in research. However prevention is beginning to appear in mental health strategies: In 2012 Mind, the UK mental health NGO, included “Staying well; Support people likely to develop mental health problems, to stay well.” as its first goal for 2012-16.
The social stigma associated with menta l disorders is a w idespread problem. The US Surgeon General stated in 1999 that: “Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others.” Employment discrimination
The 2011 mental health strategy of Manitoba (Canada) included intents to (i) reduce risk factors associated with mental ill-health and (ii) increase mental health promotion for both adults and children.
is reported to play a significant part in the high rate of unemployment among those with a diagnosis of mental illness. An Australian study found that having a mental illness is a bigger barrier to employment than a physical disability.
The 2011 US National Prevention Strategy included mental and emotional well-being, with recommendations including (i) better parenting and (ii) early intervention.
Efforts are being undertaken worldwide to eliminate the stigma of mental illness, although the methods and outcomes used have sometimes been criticized.
Australia’s mental health plan for 200914 included “Prevention and Early Intervention” as priority 2. The 2008 EU “Pact for Mental Health” made recommendations for youth and education including (i) promotion of 12
parenting skills, (ii) integration of socio-emotional learning into education curricula r a nd ex tracurricula r activities, and (iii) early intervention throughout the educational system.
A 2008 study by Baylor University researchers found that clergy in the US often deny or dismiss the existence of a mental illness. Of 293 Christian church members, more than 32 percent were told by their church pastor that they or their loved one did not really have a
mental illness, and that the cause of their problem was solely spiritual in nature, such as a personal sin, lack of faith or demonic involvement. The researchers also found that women were more likely than men to get this response. All participants in both studies were previously diagnosed by a licensed mental health provider as having a serious mental illness. However, there is also research suggesting that people are often helped by extended families and supportive religious leaders who listen with kindness and respect, which
can often contrast with usual practice in psychiatric diagnosis and medication. Media coverage of menta l illness comprises predominantly negative and pejorative depictions, for example, of incompetence, violence or criminality, with far less coverage of positive issues such as accomplishments or human rights issues. Such negative depictions, including in children’s cartoons, are thought to contribute to stigma and negative attitudes in the public and in those with mental health problems themselves, although more sensitive or serious cinematic portrayals have increased in prevalence. In the United States, the Carter Center
has created fellowships for journalists in South Africa, the U.S., and Romania, to enable reporters to research and write stories on mental health topics. Former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter began the fellowships not only to train reporters in how to sensitively and accurately discuss mental health and mental illness, but also to increase the number of stories on these topics in the news media. There is also a World Mental Health Day, which in the US and Canada falls within a Mental Illness Awareness Week. The general public have been found to hold a strong stereotype of dangerousness and desire for social distance from individuals described as mentally ill. A US national survey found that a higher percentage of people rate individuals described as displaying the characteristics of a mental disorder as “likely to do something violent to others”, compared to the percentage of people who are rating individuals described as being “troubled”. Despite public or media opinion, national studies have indicated that severe mental illness does not independently predict future violent behavior, on average, and is not a leading cause of violence in society. There is a statistical association with various factors that do relate to violence (in anyone), such as substance abuse and various personal, social and economic factors. In fact, findings consistently indicate that it is many times more likely that people diagnosed with a serious mental illness living in the community will be the victims rather than the perpetrators of violence. In a study of individuals diagnosed with “severe mental illness” living in a US innercity area, a quarter were found to have been victims of at least one violent crime over the course of a year, a proportion eleven times higher than the inner-city average, and higher in every category of crime including violent assaults and theft. People with a diagnosis may find it more difficult to secure prosecutions, however, due in part to prejudice and being seen as less credible. However, there a re some specif ic
diagnoses, such as childhood conduct disorder or adult antisocial personality disorder or psychopathy, which are defined by, or are inherently associated with, conduct problems and violence. There are conflicting findings about the extent to which certain specific sy mptoms, notably some k inds of psychosis (hallucinations or delusions) that can occur in disorders such as schizophrenia, delusional disorder or mood disorder, are linked to an increased risk of serious violence on average. The mediating factors of violent acts, however,
episodes. Approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year, have a depressive disorder. Nearly twice as many women (12.0 percent) as men (6.6 percent) are affected by a depressive disorder each year. These figures translate to 12.4 million women and 6.4 million men in the U.S. Depressive disorders may be appearing earlier in life in people born in recent decades compared to the past. Depressive disorders often co-occur with anxiety disorders and substance abuse. Mental illness is a huge problem. However,
are most consistently found to be mainly socio-demographic and socio-economic factors such as being young, male, of lower socioeconomic status and, in particular, substance abuse (including alcoholism) to which some people may be particularly vulnerable.
while prevention should be promptly be sought out, treatment, understanding, and tolerance of mental illness should be also taken into account. More people suffer the symptoms and effects of mental illness than we know. As a society, it is about dealing and making compromises to help people adequately deal with their mental illnesses. If we are to truly understand what mental illness is and how to handle it, it will require more patience and sensitivity on our own parts.
High-profile cases have led to fears that serious crimes, such as homicide, have increased due to deinstitutionalization, but the evidence does not support this conclusion. Violence that does occur in relation to mental disorder (against the mentally ill or by the mentally ill) typically occurs in the context of complex social interactions, often in a family setting rather than between strangers. It is also an issue in health care settings and the wider community. Depressive disorders encompass major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is included because people with this illness have depressive episodes as well as manic
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There exists a big divide between the two terms strength and power. For most people, they would construe the two terms and interchangeably use the two. However, that is definitely not the case. Strength and power are terms that we hear a lot in discussing muscle, fitness, bodybuilding, and sport performance. So often, actually, that the meaning behind each has become hazy and blurry for many including weekend warriors, health freaks, and really anybody else concerned with exercise. Strength is more about just simply having the ability to work heavy loads. Strength is one’s ability to move a weight or resistance through a set range of motion. Let’s use the example of a deadlift. To do a 1RM (1 rep max), a strength lifter will try to do the lift fast. The lifter’s objective is going to be to lift that weight from the floor as fast as possible. That last part is the most important: as fast as possible. The rep(s) are done relatively quickly, albeit with less reps and heavier weight. The rep(s) could
take 3 seconds or 10 seconds, but the point is to do it as fast as you could despite the more burdensome load. To lift for power is to perform reps explosively. Power is the ability to lift or work against resistance through a specific range of motion at an explosive speed i.e. the olympic lift, the clean. Training for power means to use a load less heavy than what you would for strength and thus less resistance. The correct form and quick explosive speed through the range of motion is the key when training for power. Most people train for strength with the objective being get as much muscle mass and capacity to lift at higher weights. Both training methods and objectives are valid in building muscle and maximizing fitness. So how do you work out in the gym? Let’s take a look at some of the differences. And what you may be looking for in an exercise.
STRENGTH
1 Rep Max, ex. 100lbs Most Weight you can lift at one time with maximal effort, you should be struggling to perform the lift
800=
Reps per Set 80-90%= 80-90lbs
900=
1000=
Training with strength in mind, loads should be 80-90% of your 1 Rep Max. You should be doing 4-7 sets of 1-5 reps or repetitions. The number varies also for sets per exercise but you should be doing 4-7 sets per execise and rest anywhere between 2-6 minutes in between sets. Each set should be 5-10 seconds long, but may take more time and effort than that, just as long as they are completed. The speed for each repetition should be around 60-100% of the speed in your max rep and to optimize gains the training should be split into 3-6 sessions per week.
STRENGTH Load(% of 1RM) Reps per Set
1-5
Sets per Exercise
4-7
Rests between sets (mins)
2-6
Duration (seconds per set)
5-10
Speed per rep (% of max) Training Sessions per Week
45-60%
3-5
Rests between sets (mins)
2-6
Duration (seconds per set)
4-8
Training Sessions per Week
90-100 3-6
Load 45-60% of 1RM= 45-60lbs
450=
Sets per Exercise
1 Rep Max ex. 1RM =100lbs
600=
1-5
1000=
Reps per Set
Speed per rep (% of max)
60-100 3-6
POWER
POWER Load(% of 1RM)
80-90%
To train with power in mind the weight should be much lower than in strength training. Reps should be more than in strength but 1-5reps per set is optimal. The sets per exercise overall is also less. Where the rest is the same, the duration is shorter because the reps are done more explosively and quickly. The training sessions are timed roughly as frequently as strength training at about 3-6 sessions per week. The goal is good form and speed.
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STRENGTH Dumbell Chest Press
Bicep Curls
Dumbell chest press is an exercise that can be done to exercise partially the arms, but mostly the chest. Doing it can help build up the strength and muscle in the pectoral muscles. While laying back or even on an incline if you want to adjust the diffculty and range of exercise, you take two dumbells and push up similary to a bench press with the dumbells coming together at the top of the repetition. To make this particularly a strength exercise, heavier weight, less reps.
Bicep curls are an exercise to isolate and workout the biceps in the arms. Triceps and biceps are both worked out, but primarily mostly the biceps. Taking a dumbell in one arm, lift it up almost all the way to your shoulder and slowly go down for more pump and burn. You want to be able to control the motion. Then repeat in the other arm. Use weight accordingly for a strength workout and make sure to alternate sets and reps as necessary. Make sure not to jerk and use your back as that would cheat the exercise and ultimately negate gains.
POWER
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Power Clean
Clean Pull
Power cleans are a very difficult exercise but gather and develop a lot of power. A lifter pulls a weight from the floor, heaves it into the air for a split second, squats beneath it with lightning-fast precision quickly, and catches it at shoulder level height. The power clean is an impressive sight, but unless you belong to a gym specializing in Olympic weightlifting, it’s a rare one. And that’s too bad, because it’s one of the most functional strength-training movements you can do. Study thoroughly before doing this expert level exercise.
The clean pull is a variation of the Olympic lift. It starts out nearly identically, but doesn’t have the same finish. With the clean pull, you don’t take it overhead like you do with the clean and jerk or snatch exercises. Instead, the lift finishes around your mid section or chest area. It looks like a deadlift playing in fast forward. It helps generate a lot of power and is very safe to do should you correctly execute this quick exercise. It can help athletes with speed, balance, coordination, and flexibility.
Leg Extension
Dumbell Rows
It is important to workout the base of your body. The legs are as important as your arms. Leg extensions workout the quads and help strengthen the upper part of your legs. Sitting in a seated position, you can use a machine or an apparatus. Since your legs should be naturally stronger than your arms, you should be able to do a bigger percentage of your body weight in the extension. Being in a squatted position with your legs back in the seat, extend your legs nearly fully outwards, but do not lock your knees. Slowly control the movement as well.
Dumbell rows workout your shoulder, tricep, back muscles. To execute, on a plane, straighten out your back and look forward. With opposite arm and leg forward and out, hold a dumbell from below your knees, arm nearly fully extended, pull back the dumbell alongside your body up to the back region. Slowly go up and down and control the movement. Go fast if you want, but ultimately you want good form. Then alternate arms. And as always, if you are training for strength, use appropriate weight and take the appropriate amount or rest.
Squat
Deadlift
The squat is a compound exercise which trains the glutes, bottocks, and most of the legs. From a standing position with a bar with appropriate weight on it, you go down into a near seated position almost to a 90 degree seat, knees tucked and maintained behind and not in front of your toes, feet planted firmly on the ground, and go as far back as you can comfortably without falling and hurting yourself. Then come up back to a standing position and repeat. It trains explosiveness and is a great boon for athletes who require a lot of explosive running and jumping.
Deadlifts are another compound exercise that can help develop explosiveness. From the ground you lift a bar with appropriate weights and pull up the weight with your arms up to near standing position. The key is to maintain a straight back and to go back down without bending your back at all. Return back to a near seated position with you bottocks out and bar back on the ground. They activate practically every muscle in the body, but are extremely intensive on the body. As such, it is not advised to perform this more than once a week. 17
POWER
STRENGTH
Yes, strength training will add definition to your muscles and give men and women alike more fit and toned bodies. But working out with weights does so much more: 1. Strength training protects bone health and muscle mass. After puberty, whether you are a man or a woman, you begin to lose about 1 percent of your bone and muscle strength every year. “One of the best ways to stop, prevent, and even reverse bone and muscle loss is to add strength training to your workouts,� advises Troy Tuttle, MS, an exercise physiologist at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.� 2. Strength training makes you stronger and fitter.
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Strength training is also called resistance training because it involves strengthening
and toning your muscles by contracting them against a resisting force. There are two types of resistance training: Isometric resistance involves contracting your muscles against a non-moving object, such as against the floor in a push-up. Isotonic strength training involves contracting your muscles through a range of motion as in weight lifting. Both make you stronger and can get you into better shape. Remember that with strength training your muscles need time to recover, so it should only be done on alternate days. Always take some time to warm up and cool down after strength training. 3. Strength training helps you develop better body mechanics. Strength training has benefits that go well
All exercises can be executed for either strength or power. The aforementioned are just common exercises for people who initially want to gain
Strength AND Power
Strength Power
+
=
1000=1000=
A good power exercise is squat jumps (with or without dumbbells). Before doing an exercise like this at full speed, you need to learn correct jumping and landing techniques! If you don’t master these mechanics, injuries are coming your way sooner rather than later! This relationship between force and velocity and its affect on power explains why an athlete can be exceptionally strong but lack significant power if they are unable to apply much of their strength over a short period of time. A lot of athletes may be powerful and not necessarily strong and it is this key difference that should be recognized between the two styles.
However, it is quite possible to do both and have gains in both areas. There are numerous exercises out there and they can be mixed and matched in different sessions and regiments to help you train for strength AND power. Focusing on one area may be good for some, but it can also be very beneficial to combine the two. So carefully choose your workouts and just get on a program.
1000=
Don’t overlook power exercises when you are strength training! Power is the ability to exert maximum muscle force in the shortest amount of time (rate-of-force production). Because power exercises are so intense and done full speed, they are great for burning body fat. Among other benefits, power exercises recruit more muscle fibers (mainly fast-twitch fibers) more frequently which helps the fat-burning process. Recruiting your fast-twitch muscle fibers during your workouts will give you a more lean, toned looking body. Power training is important for sports where sudden bursts of activity are required -- sprinting, jumping, changing direction, moving solid objects quickly and so on. You can probably see how football, basketball, cricket, track and field athletics, golf and baseball are all relevant in this context. Ultimately, training for power requires that you do exercises in which the speed of the exercise movement is relatively high, includes a load, and is executed with some explosive intent. This might be done in the gym or on the track or field. For example, runners might use plyometric exercises like bounds and jumps and marches and footballers might use special tackling machinery and equipment.
strength or people who are simply trying to gain power. Ultimately, both are valid for people with different objectives. Strength is good for people who want to gain muscle and strength throughout their body for overall wellness and fitness. People seeking a power regimen are looking to gain speed and efficiency and this is particularly important if they are athletes or enjoy competing in sports.
1000=
beyond the appearance of nicely toned muscles. Your balance and coordination will improve, as will your posture. More importantly, if you have poor flexibility and balance, strength training can reduce your risk of falling by as much as 40 percent, a crucial benefit, especially as you get older.
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THE GENETICS OF IDEAS 20
THE ORIGIN OF MEMES
Guy Fawkes illustration (Left) Procession of Guy Fawkes (Top Right) Occupy Protesters in Guy Fawkes Mask(Bottom Right)
The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book The Self ish Gene. Dawkins cites as inspiration the work of geneticist L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, anthropologist F. T. Cloak and ethologist J. M. Cullen. Dawkins wrote that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission— in the case of biological evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplif ied another selfreplicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution. Dawkins used the term to refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator. He hypothesised that one could view many cultural entities as replicators, and pointed to melodies, fashions and learned skills as examples. Memes generally replicate through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient copiers of information and behaviour. Because humans do not always copy
memes perfectly, and because they may refine, combine or otherwise modify them with other memes to create new memes, they can change over time. Dawkins likened the process by which memes survive and change through the evolution of culture to the natural selection of genes in biological evolution. Although Dawkins invented the specific term meme independently, he has not claimed that the idea itself was entirely novel,and there have been other expressions for similar ideas in the past. For instance, John Laurent has suggested that the term may have derived from the work of the little-known German biologist Richard Semon.In 1904, Semon published Die Mneme (which appeared in English in 1924 as The Mneme). This book discusses the cultural transmission of experiences, with insights parallel to those of Dawkins. Laurent also found the term mneme used in Maurice Maeterlinck’s The Life of the White Ant (1926), and has highlighted the similarities to Dawkins’s concept.Author James Gleick describes Dawkins’s concept of the meme as “his most famous memorable invention, far more influential than his selfish genes or his later proselytizing against religiosity” Dawkins defined the meme as a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation and replication, but later definitions would vary. Memes, analogously to genes, vary in their aptitude to replicate; memes
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TRANSMISSION AND IMITATION that are good at getting themselves copied tend to spread and remain, whereas the less good ones have a higher probability of being ignored and forgotten. Thus “better” memes are selected. The lack of a consistent, rigorous, and precise understanding of what typically makes up one unit of cultural transmission remains a problem in debates about memetics. In contrast, the concept of genetics gained concrete evidence with the discovery of the biological functions of DNA. Meme transmission does not necessarily require a physical medium, unlike genetic transmission. Life-forms can transmit information both vertically (from parent to child, via replication of genes) and horizontally (through viruses and other means). Malcolm Gladwell wrote, “A meme is an idea that behaves like a virus--that moves through a population, taking hold in each person it infects.” Memes can replicate vertically or horizontally within a single biological generation. They may also lie dormant for long periods of time. Memes spread by the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Imitation counts as an important characteristic in the propagation of
Shephard Fairey’s Occupy Wall St Poster (Top) V for Vendetta (Bottom Left)
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memes. Imitation often involves the copying of an observed behaviour of another individual, but memes may transmit from one individual to another through a copy recorded in an inanimate source, such as a book or a musical score. McNamara has suggested that memes can be thereby classified as either internal or external memes, (i-memes or e-memes).Researchers have observed memetic copying in just a few species on Earth, including hominids, dolphins and birds (that learn how to sing by imitating their parents or neighbors). Some commentators have likened the transmission of memes to the spread of contagions. Social contagions such as fads, hysteria, copycat crime, and copycat suicide exemplify memes seen as the contagious imitation of ideas. Observers distinguish the contagious imitation of memes from instinctively contagious phenomena such as yawning and laughing, which they consider innate (rather than socially learned) behaviors. Aaron Lynch described seven general pat terns of meme transmission, or “ thought contagion”:
Various meme faces appropriated on chart of man’s evolutionary phases. (Left to Right) Forever Alone Face Okay Face Me Gusta Face Lol Face Troll face
CONTAGION 1. Quantity of parenthood: an idea that influences the number of children one has. Children respond particularly receptively to the ideas of their parents, and thus ideas that directly or indirectly encourage a higher birthrate will replicate themselves at a higher rate than those that discourage higher birthrates. 2. Efficiency of parenthood: an idea that increases the proportion of children who will adopt ideas of their parents. Cultural separatism exemplifies one practice in which one can expect a higher rate of meme-replication—because the meme for separation creates a barrier from exposure to competing ideas. 3. Proselytic: ideas generally passed to others beyond one’s own children. Ideas that encourage the proselytism of a meme, as seen in many religious or political movements, can replicate memes horizontally through a given generation, spreading more rapidly than parent-to-child meme-transmissions do. 4. Preservational: ideas that influence those that hold them to continue to hold them for a long time. Ideas that encourage longevity in their hosts, or leave their hosts particularly resistant to abandoning or replacing these ideas, enhance the preservability
of memes and afford protection from the competition or proselytism of other memes. 5. Adversative: ideas that influence those that hold them to attack or sabotage competing ideas and/ or those that hold them. Adversative replication can give an advantage in meme transmission when the meme itself encourages aggression against other memes. 6. Cognitive: ideas perceived as cogent by most in the population who encounter them. Cognitively transmitted memes depend heavily on a cluster of other ideas and cognitive traits already widely held in the population, and thus usually spread more passively than other forms of meme transmission. Memes spread in cognitive transmission do not count as self-replicating. 7. Motivational: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes do not self-propagate, but this mode of transmission often occurs in association with memes self-replicated in the efficiency parental, proselytic and preservational modes.
1. Jackie Chan Face Meme (Top) 2. Yao Ming Meme (Right)
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CULTURGEN Richard Dawkins initially defined meme as a noun that “conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation”. John S. Wilkins retained the notion of meme as a kernel of cultural imitation while emphasizing the meme’s evolutionary aspect, defining the meme as “the least unit of sociocultural information relative to a selection process that has favourable or unfavourable selection bias that exceeds its endogenous tendency to change.” The meme as a unit provides a convenient means of discussing “a piece of thought copied from person to person”, regardless of whether that thought contains others inside it, or forms part of a larger meme. A meme could consist of a single word, or a meme could consist of the entire speech in which that word first occurred. This forms an analogy to the idea of a gene as a single unit of self-replicating information found on the self-replicating chromosome. While the identification of memes as “units” conveys their nature to replicate as discrete, indivisible entities, it does not imply that thoughts somehow become quantized or that “atomic” ideas exist that cannot be dissected into smaller pieces. A meme has
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Top Left to Right Me Gusta , Indeed, Mother of God Memes Bottom Left to Right I’m Watching You, Lol face, Pokerface memes
no given size. Susan Blackmore writes that melodies from Beethoven’s symphonies are commonly used to illustrate the difficulty involved in delimiting memes as discrete units. She notes that while the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony form a meme widely replicated as an independent unit, one can regard the entire symphony as a single meme as well. The inability to pin an idea or cultural feature to quantifiable key units is widely acknowledged as a problem for memetics. It has been argued however that the traces of memetic processing can be quantified utilizing neuroimaging techniques which measure changes in the connectivity profiles between brain regions.” Blackmore meets such criticism by stating that memes compare with genes in this respect: that while a gene has no particular size, nor can we ascribe every phenotypic feature directly to a particular gene, it has value because it encapsulates that key unit of inherited expression subject to evolutionary pressures. To illustrate, she notes evolution selects for the gene for features such as eye color; it does not select for the individual nucleotide in a strand of DNA. Memes play a comparable role in
THE APPEAL OF MEMES Futurama Meme (Left) Jesus Botched Ecce Last Supper Meme (Bottom)
understanding the evolution of imitated behaviors. The 1981 book Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process by Charles J. Lumsden and E. O. Wilson proposed the theory that genes and culture co-evolve, and that the fundamental biological units of culture must correspond to neuronal networks that function as nodes of semantic memory. They coined their own term, “culturgen”, which did not catch on. Coauthor Wilson later acknowledged the term meme as the best label for the fundamental unit of cultural inheritance in his 1998 book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, which elaborates upon the fundamental role of memes in unifying the natural and social sciences. In Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology, Jack Balkin argued that memetic processes can explain many of the most familiar features of ideological thought. His theory of “cultural software” maintained that memes form narratives, networks of cultural associations, metaphoric and metonymic models, and a variety of different mental structures. Balkin maintains that the same structures used to generate ideas about free speech or free markets also
serve to generate racist beliefs. To Balkin, whether memes become harmful or maladaptive depends on the environmental context in which they exist rather than in any special source or manner to their origination. Balkin describes racist beliefs as “fantasy” memes that become harmful or unjust “ideologies” when diverse peoples come together, as through trade or competition. In A Theory of Architecture, Nikos Salingaros speaks of memes as “freely propagating clusters of information” which can be beneficial or harmful. He contrasts memes to patterns” and true knowledge, characterizing memes as “greatly simplified versions of patterns” and as “unreasoned matching to some visual or mnemonic prototype”. Taking reference to Dawkins, Salingaros emphasizes that they can be transmitted due to their own communicative properties, that “the simpler they are, the faster they can proliferate”, and that the most successful memes “come with a great psychological appeal”. Memes have great appeal and continue to permeate out society with the mass mediums like youtube, facebook, and twitter.
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The Mysterious Origin of the Ubiquitous Poster you See Everywhere Demystified 26
Keep Calm And Carry On In Hotel Lobby
You’ve seen it. Whether you design or not, whether you’re a journeyman of the web or a caveman, you have seen this poster. It has become prevalent everywhere. From web images, posters, to t-shirts and other miscellaneous paraphernalia, the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan has been reinterpreted and reused several times to no end. It’s a simple reminder, an easy catchphrase, a memorable quote, and soothing sentence for people of all races, ages, sexes, and occupations. It has been around for decades, but few really know of its origins. It has been consumed and reinterpreted several times over simply by transmission. People love the simplicity of the phrase so much that it just catches on without anybody giving a second thought about where it’s from.
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Keep Calm And Listen
So where and when does this renowned phrase and image come from? It hails from the British Isles. Commissioned by the British government in 1939, it was designed to be a propaganda poster. To understand the reason, you must remember that this time period for the UK was during World War II. It was meant as a saying to encourage the people of Britain in such a troubling time. The morale of the British was very important and in need of uplifting amidst the incoming attacks from the Nazis. It was actually the third in a series of posters, the other two using similarly encouraging quotes such as “Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might,” and “ Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.”
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Across The Pond
British Designed by Ministry of Information circa 1939
The poster was initially designed by the Ministry of Information, at the beginning of the Second World War. It was intended to be distributed in order to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster, such as mass bombing of major cities using high explosives and poison gas, which was widely expected within hours of an outbreak of war. The Ministry of Information thought that they were going to need motivation amidst this turmoil. Planning for the posters started in April 1939; by June designs were prepared, and by August 1939, they were on their way to the printers, to be placed up within 24 hours of the outbreak of war. The posters were designed to be a design associated with the Ministry of Information, and to have a unique and recognizable lettering, with a message from the King to his people. An icon of a “Tudor” crown (a widely used symbol of government authority) was chosen to head the poster, rather than a photograph. The slogans were created by civil servants, with a career civil servant named Waterfield coming up with “Your Courage” as “a rallying war-cry that will
bring out the best in everyone of us and put us in an offensive mood at once”. Sadly no record remains of the unknown Civil Servant who originally came up with the simple and quintessential Britishness of the Keep Calm and Carry On message. However, it is wonderful to think that all these years later people still find it so appealing and reassuring in our modern times. These particular posters were designed as “a statement of the duty of the individual citizen”, un-pictorial, to be accompanied by more colloquial designs. The “Your Courage” poster was much more famous during the war, as it was the first of the Ministry of Information’s posters. Thus, over 2,500,000 copies were printed, altough the poster was distributed only in limited numbers, and never saw public display. So if it never saw public display, and if it was made way back when in 1939 during the Second World War, how has it survived, and how did it make its way around the world? Since World War II, the poster had faded into history. It is believed that most of the Keep Calm post-
Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might,
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ers were destroyed and reduced to a pulp at the end of the war in 1945. Nearly 60 years later, a bookseller from Barter Books stumbled across a copy hidden amongst a pile of dusty old books bought from an auction. A small number also remain in the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum in London, and a further 15 were discovered in the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow to have been given to Moragh Turnbull, from Cupar, Fife, by her father William, who served as a member of the Royal Observer Corps. Particularly, it was one day in 2000, a copy of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was rediscovered in Barter Books, a second-hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland, North East England, and from there it came back into prominence. Since Crown Copyright expires on artistic works created by the British government after 50
years, the image is now in the public domain. The store’s owners, Stuart and Mary Manley, were thus able to reprint copies at customers’ requests, as did others, inside and outside Britain. It has inspired ranges of clothing, mugs, doormats, baby clothes and other merchandise from various vendors, as well as a book of motivational quotations. It was just the beginning of its expanding popularity. As the popularity of the poster in various media has grown, innumerable parodies and imitations have also appeared. Most adopt a recognisably similar typeface and layout, but change the base colour, slogan, and sometimes the icon. Messages range from the cute to the overtly political; and many reference other aspects of popular culture, from the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton to the Mario videogames. Examples have included “Now Panic and Freak Out” (with an upside-down crown);
Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.
Crown of King George in use
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Top:Posters in Barter Books Center L-R:Clothing and Buttons Bottom L-R: Lunch Bag and Tea Cup
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Much like WWII history, the poster had faded out of memory
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God Saved The Crown “Get Excited and Make Things” (with a crown incorporating spanners); “Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake” (with a cupcake icon); “Don’t Panic and Fake a British Accent”; and “Keep Spending and Carry On Shopping”. In March-April 2012 the British pop-rock band McFly undertook a theatre tour entitled “The Keep Calm and Play Louder Tour”, promoted with a poster closely based on that of 1939. In late 2012 and early 2013 the “Save Lewisham Hospital” campaign (a protest against proposed cuts in services at University Hospital Lewisham) made widespread use of a poster with the slogan “Don’t Keep Calm Get Angry and Save Lewisham A&E”. The numerous iterations and incarnations take a lot of leeway with the phrase and have trans-
formed its humble beginnings into a craze. The posters were printed using a “special and handsome” typeface, which would be difficult for Germany to counterfeit, and featured the crown of King George VI. The other two were distributed, but “Keep Calm” was placed on reserve, for use only in times of crisis, and actually never saw the light of day til 2000. But from something reserved for a time of crisis to an everyday commodity that all households can recognize, it has truly become a classic design for the ages.
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