Over the past decade, gains in the general energy efficiency of appliances have been wiped out by our growing reliance on one device in particular: the air conditioner. Just since the mid-1990s, as the U.S. population was growing by less than 15 percent, consumption of electricity to cool the residential, retail and automotive sectors doubled.

If people in India, Brazil and Indonesia used as much air-conditioning per capita as we do (and why not, their climates are hotter than ours), they would consume not only their own electricity supplies but also all of the electricity in Mexico, the United Kingdom and Italy — plus all 60 nations of Africa! The air-conditioning of America’s homes, businesses schools, and vehicles causes the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to 400 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

But while working on Chapter 1 (pdf) of Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World, I learned that there are still plenty of people who, out of ecological and other concerns, live without air-conditioning — even in the hot heart of the Sunbelt.

Chris George and Dani Moore, for example, kept their windows open and their refrigerator stocked with ice water through the entire summer of 2009 in Tempe, Arizona. I visited them on the second-hottest day of the year, when it was 114 degrees outdoors and 100 in the kitchen.

Sheila and John Stewart have been opening their 1920s-era house in St. Petersburg, Florida to Gulf breezes year-round since 1984; Sheila told a local reporter in 2006 that life in hot, humid Florida without air-conditioning is “a thermostatic thing. Your body gets used to it.”

Meanwhile, we residents of central Kansas are no strangers to triple-digit temperatures. Torrid south winds can ripen our eight million acres of wheat overnight. But my wife Priti and I have lived here for the past 10 years without air-conditioning. Life in Kansas, and before that, in India, has taught us a few ways of adapting to heat.

As I see it, if you want to get some really creative ideas for keeping cool at the height of summer, go to someone who has figured out how to live without air-conditioning on the fringes of Phoenix — the world’s number-one urban heat island — or in the sun-broiled steambath that is southwest Florida.

So I asked John, Sheila, Dani, Chris and Priti to help me come up with a summertime guide to remaining comfortable — or at least of sound mind and body — without air-conditioning.

If you follow any of this advice, it may be out of a desire to reduce your carbon footprint or your utility bill. But we’re betting that as you begin to realize some of the benefits of the non-refrigerated life, you’ll find yourself looking for more opportunities, even excuses, to turn off the air-conditioning. — Stan Cox

Today, as we spend more and more hours interacting online (Americans devoted twice as many minutes to social networking and blog-reading in 2009 vs. 2008, according to a Nielsen survey), there are more opportunities than ever for awkwardness, unintentional insult, rejection, creepiness and misunderstanding.

So this week, Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger Andrea Bartz and I are taking a break from broad-swath advice spewage and instead playing Emily Post to our friends’ and fans’ real-life netiquette conundrums.

Frenemy territory

“A friend-of-a-friend whom I see in a group setting every month or two just randomly unfriended me on Facebook. I have no idea how I offended him, but now running into him is understandably uncomfortable. Should I just confront him?” –A Good Person, I Swear

We find it hard to believe you’re totally innocent here, AGPIS.

The unfriend is a powerful symbol of cut ties — We know plenty of sworn enemies who’ve steadfastly avoided it, still sending one another token Facebook event invites with fake smiles frozen on their tremblingly spiteful faces.

So if this snip-snip wasn’t preceded by an actual blowout, you’ve got to ask yourself why somebody would want you erased from their feed — do you update every 20 seconds with inane observations? Pen mushy posts on your girlfriend’s wall?

If you’re still coming up short, you could … we dunno … ask him what’s amiss? If this makes you feel all squirmy-like on the inside — revelation! Maybe y’all shouldn’t be FB friends. Dude played FarmVille, anyway.

Word imperfect
“My co-worker sends business e-mails with a staggering number of spelling and grammar errors. It’s at the point where we’re all embarrassed he’s allowed to communicate with the outside world, but no one knows how to tell him. He’s like the guy in the office with terrible breath.” — Mortified By Proxy

Yeah, we hear this happens in fields in which employers value prowess in “math” and “hard sciences” and other such bewildering voodoo.

But unlike the close-talker who reeks of stale onions and rotting corpses, this guy probably knows his writing skills are subpar.

(Side note: This is why you must always, always, without exception, accept gum when offered and shove it into your mouth post-haste. I don’t care if, thanks to a raging case of TMJ, the chewing motion will enflame your jaw and give you the bulbous chipmunk-y appearance of a college freshman who has just had his wisdom teeth yanked. Just assume it’s a hint about your oral hygiene and start masticating.)

Anyway, the good news for you is that you can treat this like a bad breath scenario, with even less subtlety.

Vaguely blame it on the clients who’ve been subjected to his LOLcats-like missives (”They called me all confused, apparently they had misinterpreted something you’d written ’cause there was a typo”) and offer that Altoid — collaborative e-mails from your team (i.e., you write — or skim — the important ones).

Since that’ll create more work for you, ask what else he can take on to re-level the load. Or just eat his soul. Wait, sorry, we were getting corporate America mixed up with hell. Our mistake.

Family values

“My little cousins/conservative aunt/Dad tried to friend me on Facebook. I don’t need them/her/him seeing my drunk shenanigans or my angry status updates, but I get majorly guilt-tripped for rejecting their requests.” — Hipster Who May Or May Not Be Of Legal Drinking Age

This, HWMOMNBOLDA, is a common complaint and the reason many users keep scads of potential friends in Facebook deep-freeze. They’re loath to hit “accept” and ashamed to hit “reject,” thus locking acquaintances in friend-request limbo for all time.

Relatives, gung-ho about these newfangled social networking sites, are probably just excited that you showed up when they asked Facebook to find friends in their address book. (Fully 48 percent of parents merrily friend their hapless kids on Facebook, finds a survey from electronics shopping site Retrevo.)

But stand your ground. If you’ve traditionally limited your profile to your 677 favorite peers, letting in just one out-of-demo friend will throw off your delicate Facebook ecosystem (or just require a lot of freaking detagging).

You could allow them to see your limited profile (so certain portions — i.e., all the snaps of you beer-bonging and then consequently darting around the yard sans pants — just don’t show up when they stalk you). But why bother?

Just mention that you only use Facebook to stay in touch with your good friends (”I’m just not that much of a Facebook person” is an effective lie), and direct them toward better ways to keep abreast of your goings-on: sweet weekly e-mail check-ins or your public Twitter feed, for example.

Relatives just want to feel close to their little angel — no need to let on that you’re currently foaming at the mouth and this close to quitting your job and finally starting that screamo band.

Time suckers:
Thomas Edison once said “Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”
You see, time suckers can be highly deceptive. You think that you are making productive use of your time towards your real estate business, but in reality you’re not doing anything to push the ball forward. At the end of the day you look back, baffled, thinking to yourself “Where did the time go? I didn’t really accomplish anything on my list today!” Time suckers can be things like: spending too much time responding to e-mails, having long conversations with people who call you unexpectedly, sitting through pointless meetings, getting caught up in heated online forum discussions, reading way too many blogs in one day.
Sometimes the time suckers are not deceptive at all — they are simply addicting, like television (for some) and social media websites (for others like me)!

Energy vampires
Energy vampires are some of the absolute worst type of people to surround yourself with. These are people who suck all of the positive energy out of you and leave you feeling completely drained and unable to carry out the goals you’ve set. Energy vampires constantly blame others for their circumstances, complain about life (or family or business or everything), and are rather self-centered with little regard for others time or feelings. While some energy vampires may have ill intentions, many are completely oblivious of their persistent negative attitude and its effects on others around them.
So how do you slay the energy vampires and wipe out the time suckers? Here’s a few tips, many of which are obvious but still ignored:

• Take inventory: First you need to know what your time suckers are and who your energy vampires. Really think about them and write them down. At the end of a day, write down everything that you did during that day. It can be eye opening! Then think about who in your life leaves you feeling exhausted when you around him or her.

• Get on schedule: Set a specific time (or times) during the day to handle phone calls and emails and stick with the schedule as much as possible.

• Space it out: You can learn a lot from blogs and online forums, but you don’t have to read everything at once. Space it out — take a few at a time each day!

• Just say no: If the call is unexpected, let it go to voicemail. If the forum discussion is getting heated, don’t jump in (or if you do, resist the urge to go back and forth). If the offer for free real estate training is on a topic that is not directly related to what you’re doing right now or within the plans for the next 3 months, don’t opt in! If you’re invited to a meeting with no agenda (and can’t get one), skip it!

• Be intentional: Interact with social media sites with the intention to connect with people (but briefly). Forget the Facebook games or the temptation to watch the list of related videos on YouTube

• Put vampires in a box: If energy vampires leave you feeling wiped out, take responsibility for this because its your fault and you have the power to change it! End conversations with energy vampires quickly and do not join the vampire’s pity party or complaint circus. Remember that energy vampires can also surround you virtually so if you’re reading your facebook newstream or twitter stream and someone consistently sounds like a negative Nelly or leaves you feeling irritated, remove them.

Hopefully these tips have you thinking about what your detractors are. The sooner you begin to remove them, the sooner success arrives.
Shae Bynes

$400 ATTRACTIVE FEMALE HOUSEMATE
This is NOTHING sexual, just tired of looking at dudes and dogs. I am looking for a hot or above average female that has a good work history, a steady source of income, one that can pay rent ON TIME and doesn’t mind being ‘checked out’ while walking around here or whatever. I am a good looking, 40’s male, laid back, clean, very open minded, and RESPECTFUL. No I am not some kind of sex crazied perv, but yes, I do like to look at pretty women. What straight man doesn’t? At least I am honest right? I do prefer younger but as long as you fit the above criteria.

Red Flag:Understandable. I, too, get tired of looking at dudes and dogs. This man isn’t asking too much; he simply wants a hot or above average female. But most of all he wants this hot or above average female to pay her rent ON TIME. Pay no attention when your new roommate checks you out to the point-of-discomfort while you do housecleaning.

$345 roomate wantedim white… i am an MMA fighter… i occasionally have parties or just get real f*cked up(usually after fight parties). I train alot. Things I like: hot chicks, having sex with hot chicks, fighting, making money, receiving oral sex from hot chicks, 4X4 trucks, winning, being right…

Red Flag: Imagine all the fun of your new MMA roommate getting really f*cked up after one of his fights and putting you in a headlock until you admit you’re a big pussy or pass out. Imagine sitting around hearing all the stories about all the hot chicks that like to perform oral sex on your new roommate. Imagine your new roommate practicing his passion for “being right” when it comes to him eating all your food after fight training.

$295 Snuggle Partner (Abington)
Seeking female conservative to share Master Bedroom. Hot tub. Must not snore. Non-smoker. No criminal record. No exceptions. Honest sweet woman only. Wanna save money? This is the only solution I can come up with. No whackos please. serious efforts only. Pillow talk no extra charge, but you should be able to hold a conversation about things because that’s part of the deal. Snuggling may lead to friendship and LTR. Good hygiene a must and keep toenails clipped. Spooning okay. Interview required – because this cannot be just any woman wandering around. I’m 52. Trial period of one night to one week after which we decide if it’s a go. This is no joke. Maybe it’s not so crazy. I’m not looking for sex. Meet first for coffee to discuss this ludicrous offer. Convince me why it could work.

Red Flag: You know what? This might not be a bad deal. Hell, you could just give it a try for a night or a week and see if it works out with this 52 year old stranger. No sex is attached and there’s that spooning-optional clause that you can always fall back on. Let’s discuss!

$540 Sex…and other good things (Berkeley)Some of us in the house occasionally give parties….and…the party has a couple rooms where people can get as sensual/sexual as they want.
Looking for a roommate who could understand that, and possibly use his/her room for one of the playrooms when we have our parties. You don’t even have to go to the party….some of the roommates don’t….just let us use the room overnight, and return it to it’s pristine condition the next day.
The parties tend to be people from 18-30, and invitation only, and men can only come if accompanied by a woman who has made reservations for both.

Red Flag: Think of the fun of moving in on party night. Of course you don’t have to be there; you just have to give up your room so 18-30 people can have sex in it. Hopefully it’s hardwood floors so there will be no stains left in the carpet. But the upside is, if you are a guy, you can attend the party without a date.

$100 Den for Rent for attractive, open minded female (San Jose Downtown)
I have a den for rent in my apartment. It doesn’t have a door, but its still your own space. I am looking for an attractive girl who’d move in. Please be ok with nudity and sex. I’m 30, attractive and just looking for a cute girl for some eye candy! Nothing more … no sex trade expected.

Red Flag: Is $100 a month rent worth the price to be “eye candy”? Would you always want to be eye candy 24/7 in your door-less den room? (Did he take the door out to facilitate the eye-candy-experience? No sex trade “expected.” Yes, but I’m sure your new roommate will keep asking and asking and asking. Nightmare.

$1 Inviting Open Minded cool girls to share Free-Spirit community
We are a group of 5 young people (girls and boys) – open minded, free spirit and love life. We live and open life of kindness and great karma. We have a huge one bedroom condo neer the beach. There are no doors since we value openness and flow of spirit. So if you have privacy issues, this is not for you. One of us is the owner and she has the good will of opening her place practically RENT FREE (you can contribute as much as you can) to anyone (GIRLS and boys and couples) who are young and shares our ideals & lifestyle. As said, we feel good about ourselves and our sexuality and have almost no personal possions here – all is ours. we are not some sex maniacs although most of us are nudists to some degree and we enjoy sex with each other on free basis. We have no assigned sleeping and we just sleep on any bed that’s free at the moment. LIVE your DREAMS!

Red Flag: As in all these type of situations, the naked people are usually the type of naked people you’d never care to see naked EVER. Also,image waking up in the middle of the night — every night — with some stranger trying to grope you. And why are they anti-door? Can I just have an occasional door, like in the bathroom. This is my nightmare. This is my nightmare.

$500 Large private bedroom available May 1.
All payments are due in CASH ONLY, in person only, and no long distance transactions!
MUST comply with all of the following RULES:
No Sex, and no overnight guests
No drugs of any kind, including Marijuana
No smoking
No heavy drinking
No illegal activities of any kind in the apartment or outside in your personal time (don’t want ANY trouble)

Red Flag:There’s bad vibes all about this scenario. What the hell happened with the last roommate who you will be moving in to replace? What illegal activities used to go on inside this apartment and why is the CASH ONLY policy firmly in place. Too bad about not ever having overnight guests but I’m sure you and your new roommate can pass the time by swapping tales of what it was like to be in prison.

The Ad: $1 Free rent and extra. Can you do massage service for me when I come back home ?
You will live with me at the same house. You don’t need a certificate or experience of massage.
Please reply with your age, sex and self-introduction.
If you need food and expense for public transportation such as bus, please let me know. I am willing to offer these too upon your request.
Do you also need tuition fee?
My hobby is travel. What is your hobby?

Red Flag: Well, creepy potential new roommate, my hobby is steering as clear away from people like you as possible. Thank God I don’t need a proper certification in massage; I’m only a massage-enthusiast and I always thought that proper training would hold me back in my dream: “massaging” creepy guys who offer free rent in exchange for massages.

$1,000 Female Roommate Needed for Quiet Bedroom In Prime Location
I am looking for a FEMALE roommate, preferably in her twenties like me, with a full time job who doesn’t spend much time in the apartment. I am a full time student and a freelance stylist and have a big social life BUT outside the apartment. When at home, I study, eat, sleep and am quiet IN my room. I expect the same from my potential roommate!
If you are female, clean, responsible, quiet, work long hours and spend most of your spare time outside of the apartment you’re my perfect candidate!

Red Flag: But if you do spend most of your time in the apartment, then i will grow to hate you quickly. I want you to pay the rent and then stay the HELL away from the apartment. The sight of you, already, is beginning to sicken me. Why won’t you leave! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!
Harmon Leon

Restaurants commonly sell $25 gift certificates for $10–and they can sometimes be had for as little as $2, said Korzen, author of the just published ”Bargain Junkie: Living the Good Life on the Cheap.” That’s just among 5 tips of how to get great deals at restaurants.

How do you get the best deals on restaurant meals?

Sign up at Restaurants.com, where you plug in your zip code and peruse a menu of dozens of local restaurants willing to sell a $25 gift certificate for $10 and a $50 certificate for $20. These gift certificates often go on “sale,” Korzen added. At times, you can buy your $25 meal gift certificate for just $2.

BlackboardEats.com is another site that offers coupon deals for restaurants. The deals range from providing huge discounts, such as 30% off your meal, to offers for free appetizers or entrees. At the moment, they’ve only got deals in Los Angeles and New York. But if you happen to live in (or visit) one of those two areas, it’s worth a look.

Groupon.com offers coupons on everything from spa visits to restaurant meals. The typical deal will discount your meal (or massage) from 30% to more than $75%. If you sign up, they’ll send regular emails of the daily deals in your area. You decide whether to buy or delete.

ChowHound.com is a site where foodies talk to foodies. This recent discussion thread tells where you can get restaurant meals for $5 or less. Uhmmmm, tacos….

BYOB. If you’re a drinker, call the restaurant where you want to eat and ask about their “corkage” fee, Korzen suggested. Some eateries will let you bring your own bottle and charge only a small fee to have the waiter serve it. Since restaurants typically mark-up a bottle of wine by 300 or 400%, bringing your own can save a bundle.

There’s just one caveat: Make sure you read the fine print on all of the coupon deals because the certificates do expire and some can only be used for lunch or on certain days. Most also add in the tip before deducting the value of the coupon to make sure that the waiter doesn’t get stiffed on the deal.

Taking risks – and sometimes failing – is the most effective way to learn and grow. Of course, that doesn’t mean we necessarily enjoy it.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re faced with failure:

1. Learn from it.

Don’t try to ignore or forget the failure – by doing so, you sacrifice a valuable opportunity to learn from your mistakes and avoid a similar fate again in the future. Think about the root causes of what went wrong, and examine objectively how you could have approached things differently to avoid this outcome.

2. Document it.

When things go wrong, make sure you write down what you learned from the experience, including any specific points relating to the failure that will help you avoid it in future. The experience may be fresh in your mind now, but down the road you may forget the small, incremental steps that led you in the wrong direction in the first place.

3. Share it.

This may be the hardest part, but it’s also the most effective way to turn a failure into something positive. By owning up to your shortcomings and sharing them publicly, you demonstrate a maturity and openness that people will respect. You invite people to constructively help you learn and improve, and you defuse the possibility that people will be left to interpret what actually happened via secondhand information.

4. Bounce back from it.
Failure is part of the life cycle of every business and every individual. If you believe in what you’re pursuing, you should consider a failure to be an interim step toward a greater success. Many even consider it a healthy and necessary component of an experienced and successful individual – someone who’s never failed before has never reaped the benefits of the learning experience, and might be ripe to get knocked down a notch or two.

As my friend Walt Ribeiro says, “It’s only failure if you don’t get up again.” When you’re back on your feet, you’ll find yourself stronger than before, ready to fight another day.
By: Tony Bacigalupo

We’ve all been told that “it’s not work if you love what you do,” but the problem is most of us are stuck in jobs we don’t love, working for people we don’t respect, and are worried about paying off credit card bills and making the rent payment.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn what you love — what you gladly spend your other 8 hours doing — and make money at the same time? Here’s how you can do just that.

Check out eduFire. They are a “live video learning” website where folks like you — people with a passion and an expertise — can teach others (or learn from others). eduFire provides the teaching platform; you provide the content.

Here are the two things you need to consider:

1. What can you teach? Before you say there’s nothing you can teach, take a step back. If you’re like me, whenever you hear “instructor,” you probably immediately get this vision of a leisure-suit-wearing stuffy college professor yapping about electrons and nuclei? Well that’s not an eduFire instructor, and it doesn’t have to be you either. Also, a single hour-long course is just fine — you don’t need to 12 courses over a semester.

Take some time to brainstorm your interests. Do you speak another language? Are you a marketing whiz? Have you mastered Twitter or Facebook? Check out eduFire’s website to spark some ideas.

2. How much can you make? According to Jon Bischke, founder and president of eduFire, top teachers make between $100 to $150 an hour (85% of the revenue goes to the instructor and 15% goes to eduFire). If you taught the same course a couple of times a month, you might pull in an extra $200 or $300. Not bad for doing something you enjoy.

The more students you get, the more you make. Tap into the 40,000+ students who have already registered for eduFire courses AND be sure to market your course to your own network for maximum impact.

Inside Tips:

Brand building. Maybe you want to build your brand, platform, or reach. Instead of charging for your class, offer it for free. Once you build a following and are in demand, you could then charge for classes.

Up-sell. You could offer free classes but then introduce your own services/products. For example, if you are a PR guru, you could teach a class on how to write a killer press release for free. For those students who are interested, you could help them build their media list for a fee. Warning: you must provide good, solid content. eduFire is not your personal infomercial network.

Differentiate. Check out the list of courses currently offered on the site. If there are other classes similar to yours (e.g., how to learn Chinese), review the course titles, descriptions, and instructor profiles and offer something different. For example, instead of titling your class, “Learn Chinese,” how about “The 10 Business Phrases in Chinese You Must Know,” or “Don’t Visit China without First Taking this Class.”

Prime time. Per founder, Jon Bischke, the majority of classes are taken from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. Try to fit your class around this hotspot.

Meritocracy. Classes are not reviewed first by eduFire. The community (your students) determines your success (can you imagine if College worked this way?). Provide good content and you’ll get better rankings. The better your rankings the more eduFire will market your class and the more students you’ll get.

Good luck and happy teaching . . .

By Robert Pagliarini

We are all well aware of the benefits of the social media age, but the challenge is finding a balance, and living a healthy and rich life both online and off. If we are not careful, our increasingly connected life can take a negative toll on our mind and body.

Below are four steps to go from a stressful social media life to a wise one, as well as the apps to help you do it.

I do not know anyone who, after a number of hours looking at a screen, does not experience some level of “brain freeze.” For some it is two hours, for others four, but there comes a time when we just cannot process any more information. The best thing to do is step back from the computer and take a break.

Go outside, get something to eat, spend some time with a friend. When you return to your computer you will do so with a much more open and creative mind.

App to Live By: If you know how long you can go at the screen before you need a break, you can schedule them from your desktop with a number of apps, including Dejal Time Out.

2. Breathe

If there’s one thing that just about every health-conscious person can agree on, it’s that deep, full breaths are a good thing. Think of a time when you were nervous or frustrated — how was your breath? And think of time when you were totally at ease — how was your breathing then? Most likely in the former, it was shallow and tight, and in the latter it was full and expansive.

In fact, even as you read these words, you can bring attention to your breath. Notice the breath coming in and out of your body. This attention to your breathing can help lower cortisol levels, increase oxygen levels, and lower your stress level.

The challenge, of course, is remembering to do so.

Apps to Live By: One way to help bring awareness to your breath is to set a bell to ring every so often as a reminder. When you hear the bell, pause, take a few moments to focus on your breathing, and then return to work. A few apps that can help with this include ProdMe (Mac), and Mindful Clock (PC).

3. Eat Food that Adds Energy

How many times have you scarfed down an unhealthy lunch while you stared at your computer screen, and soon after noticed that you not only had a stomach ache, but that your energy had been zapped?

Unhealthy food may bring short-term pleasure, but it generally decreases your energy level and ability to focus. There are healthy foods however, that taste good, and at the same time increases your energy level and ability to concentrate. Of course, strong caffeine or a good dose of sugar may give you a quick hit, but soon your energy drops — until you get another hit, and the cycle continues.

There is a place for enjoying unhealthy food, but when it becomes a habit, you won’t be able to live and work at your optimum level. Eating healthy food, and taking the time to do so slowly, increases your ability to fully engage with whatever you’re doing, be it a phone conversation, a meeting, or writing a tweet.

Apps to Live By: We tend to eat healthier when we make our food instead of getting take out. Whole Foods lists numerous healthy recipes. They also have an iPhone app. The next time you feel like you could use some nourishment, try making a healthy meal for yourself instead of ordering that slice of pizza.

4. Awaken the Body: Move

If there has been one major change in people’s lives in recent years, it may well be this: We are more stationary than any previous generation. Many of us sit at desks for hours and hours each day. The New York Times references a number of studies that revealed that just working out once a day is not as helpful as integrating movement throughout your day.

This means that when there is a chance, get up and move. Work standing up for part of the day, walk instead of drive to lunch, ride a bike to work if possible, and walk over and talk to a colleague instead of shooting off an e-mail to him or her.

Apps to Live By: There are a number of yoga and stretching apps you can download. The challenge is to integrate them in your day. Try making a commitment of five minutes in the morning, at lunch, and before going to bed to do some stretching. Yoga Journal has more information in this category, and an iPhone app with stretches.

Conclusion: Learn to Surf
It is extremely unlikely that the pace of information we consume is going to slow down. In fact, it is likely to increase, as our friends not only post what they are doing, but also where they are at any given time.

The challenge is finding a balance within the information stream. There is an old saying: “You cannot stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” We are not likely to stop the waves of information coming at us today (nor would we want to), but we can find a balance; we can live consciously and connected, with an active social media life and a healthy body and mind.

On “The Early Show Saturday Edition,” Dr. Cynthia Green, Ph.D., spelled them out.

Green and the editors of Prevention magazine wrote, “Brainpower Game Plan: Sharpen Your Memory, Improve Your Concentration, and Age-Proof Your Mind in Just 4 Weeks.”

Move It: Get off the Couch and Get in Gear!
Get at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise four-to-five times a week. Go for a walk or run, swim – anything to get yourself moving. Try some complex activities that really make you think, such as ballroom dancing or juggling, for some added benefit.

Seek New Challenges (Make Sure You’re Always Thinking)
Look for some simple ways to push you out of your intellectual routine every day. Try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand, taking a new route to work, or even doing a crossword puzzle. Add new, more complex activities on a regular basis to constantly get your brain to “think” differently. Challenge your comfort zone by learning to play a new instrument, taking up knitting, taking a class or studying a new language.

Beat the Clock (Get Your Head in the Game)
Spend 10 to 20 minutes every day giving your everyday intellectual skills a good workout. How? Any game that requires you to play against the clock will do it. Play board games like Boggle or Set. Check out handheld electronic Games like Simon or games for the Nintendo DS. Look at computer-based games, such as those on free game sites or brain fitness software products.

Get a Social Life (Be Social)
Connect with others in a meaningful way each and every day. Volunteer, go out for dinner with friends or join a reading group.

Move It: Get off the Couch and Get in Gear!
Get at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 4-5 times a week.

Studies show that one of the best things we can do for our brains is to get regular aerobic exercise. Exercise improves our everyday intellectual performance, reduces our long-term risk for dementia, supports neuroplasticity (our brain’s ability to grow new neurons and new connections between brain cells) and lowers our risk for other diseases that can lead to memory loss, such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, depression, etc.

How much exercise do we need? Studies suggest that getting just 30 minutes of exercise 4-5 days a week is enough. There is actually no evidence that getting more boosts your brain power over and above the benefits we see at that level. Researchers in Seattle found that folks who reported getting exercise at least three times a week (walking, jogging, swimming) were 38% less likely to develop a memory impairment than others in their study who did not get the same amount of activity.

What kind of exercise are we talking about? The great news is that the studies found that even just walking briskly (fast enough that it is hard to carry on a conversation) does the trick. Clearly, getting more aerobic activity is great for other aspects of health, like our heart health, but when it comes to brain health, even something as “easy” as walking can really make a difference!

An additional tip: Recent studies have shown that exercises that involve coordination, such as video dance games (Dance Dance Revolution) or juggling improve everyday memory and even impact the volume of our brain’s white matter. Try these kinds of fun exercises into your routine.

Get Intellectually Engaged
Challenge your comfort zone by learning to play a new instrument, taking up knitting, take a class or studying a new language

Staying mentally active is a key to boosting our brain health. “Stretching” our brain, if you will, gives us the opportunity to build new connections between brain cells, and may even promote the growth of new neurons. Research suggests that folks who report high levels of intellectual engagement are two and a half times less likely to develop a memory impairment than those of us who are “mental couch potatoes.”

What kind of activities are we talking about? The great news is there is a whole range of ways we can “stretch” our brains. Some are really easy, and we can slip them in throughout our day – those include things like: Brushing our teeth with our non-dominant hand, reading a newspaper article backwards, rearrange your desk, take a different route to work (there are exercises like this for every day of the Brainpower Game Plan). Then there are ways we can keep our brains engaged through new, novel activities that require more time, such as learning a new language, taking up knitting, or joining an art class.

Staying intellectually engaged is especially important for those of us who may no longer be in an environment, such as the workplace, where we once got that kind of “workout” on a regular basis. Retirement or down time between jobs is no time to put your brain in idle – take a class, try something creative you’ve never had time for before – use the time to keep your brain at work!

Play against the Clock
Spend 10 to 20 minutes every day giving your everyday intellectual skills a good workout. Play any game that requires you to play against the clock such as Boggle, Chess or Set.

As we grow older, or if we have a length of time when we are not working or meaningfully engaged, we lose ground in specific intellectual skills that help us maintain our “edge” day-to-day. Those skills – attention, intellectual speed, flexibility (our ability to multitask) and short term memory – can get a real boost from exercises that address them directly. A recent federally funded, multicenter study, called the ACTIVE trial, found that folks who participated in training across some of these skills significantly improved in their performance on intellectual tests that measured their ability in the areas in which they were trained, such as attention and memory.

One of the best ways we can give these everyday intellectual skills a great workout is to play games against the clock. Timed games force us to pay attention, think fast, and be nimble – what a great brain workout! At least 10-20 minutes a day is great, but even a few days a week is probably more than you do now.

Some of my top picks for games we play against the clock are Boggle, Set, Simon, Nintendo Gameboy, computer games (free ones, on sites such as MiniClip.com), dedicated brain fitness software, which acts like a “personal trainer” for your skills workout

Stay Social
Volunteer, go out for dinner with friends, join a reading group.

Social connections really matter to our brain health. When we are in a social setting, we are practicing all those everyday intellectual skills (attention, speed, flexibility and short term memory are all key to holding up your end of a conversation). We also may be reducing our risk for a serious memory impairment. Several studies, including one last year from the Harvard School of Public Health, have shown that folks who report more social activity have an associated reduced risk for dementia.

How much should you socialize? There is no clear guidance from the research, but you should look to interact with others in a meaningful way every day.

What kind of socializing matters? All kinds of socializing are great for your brain health, be it a phone call with a friend, to volunteering in your local community or school, to just going out for dinner with the gang.

Name: SeatGeek

Quick Pitch: SeatGeek is a free, innovative search and forecasting web application that helps users save money on sports and concert tickets.

Genius Idea: SeatGeek is a website that analyzes ticket sales for events and makes predictions as to the best time to buy in the resale market.

Ticket prices tend to fluctuate as events get closer; that’s based on a number of factors, but SeatGeek doesn’t go out of its way to explain the reasons for the fluctuations. Rather, it uses behind-the-scenes algorithms that the company claims lead to 80% accurate predictions of where ticket prices will go. Here’s a picture of the tools in action.

As you can see, SeatGeek tracks ticket resellers and compares their deals much like a site like Price Grabber does for consumer products. You can buy these through the SeatGeek website, or look at its predictions to decide when you’ll save the most money. There are also sharing options for Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and MySpace.

The New York-based site was launched just in time for the 2010 Major League Baseball season, but it works with other sports and concerts too. Visit each week and you’ll see top 10 lists for events, too.