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Office ergonomics: Your how-to guide

A comfortable work space can help you feel your best at work — maybe even boost productivity. Give your work space a makeover with this visual guide to office ergonomics.

If you sit behind a desk for hours at a time, aches and pains may be a common part of your workday. Still, you’re not doomed to a career of neck and back pain or sore wrists and fingers. In addition to taking short breaks from sitting, proper office ergonomics — including correct chair height, adequate equipment spacing and good desk posture — can help you stay comfortable at work.

Ready to give your work space a makeover? Get started with this visual guide to office ergonomics. Simply move your mouse pointer over the labels on the image.

Click for article in Mayo Clinic

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Fear of Success

Laura’s boss has just announced that the company has just won a bid to create a national marketing campaign. And he is hinting that he wants Laura to head this project. All that she has to do is let him know that she’s interested by the following Friday.

Laura always hoped for an opportunity like this. She knows her work and management skills qualify her for the job – and she knows that it would likely lead to a promotion, or at least to some much-deserved recognition.

However, by the time Friday arrives, she’s created a list of reasons not to head the project. And by the end of the day, she still hasn’t talked to her boss

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Traveling Lightly Through Life

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Lao Tzu

I’m often asked what inspired me to become a minimalist. The answer: I fell in love with traveling lightly.

After over-packing on a few trips—and suffering the misery of lugging around a heavy suitcase—I vowed never to check a bag again. On my first trip to Europe, I opted for a small carry-on instead (replacing my wardrobe of clothes with a packet of laundry detergent).

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Is Calif. Ban on Violent Video Games Legal?


Are violent video games analogous to literature, which is not restricted by age, or is that a silly comparison? The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hear a case regardingCalifornia's state ban on the sale of violent video games to minors.

Those in favor of the ban say it is important and necessary to protect the children. (You always hear a lot about “the children” around election time.) Publishers and filmmakers say the kids are going to be just fine, but restricting video games is wrong and could have a chilling effect. California officials and their defenders say the ban is important to protect children. Publishers and filmmakers argue that if the Supreme Court sides with California, the action could chill creativity in other media.

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Value-based Management

The first decade of the 21st century saw two economic downturns, and quite a few corporate failures. This has caused corporate leaders to examine how to guide their organizations through these times effectively, so that they continue to be successful.

But what does "success" really mean? Does it mean high profits, or high dividends for shareholders? Or does it mean being more efficient, building for the future, and operating with a structure that will survive the difficult times?

If your success strategy is primarily based on profit, it probably won’t provide enough incentives to consider the long-term impacts of your decisions.

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20 Stress Fixes for Better Sleep

Target the Enemy!

When stress interrupts your sleep on a nightly basis, it sets you up for a chronic insomnia that can send you sliding down the rabbit’s hole toward sleeping pills, alcohol, and chocolate cake at night and a zillion cups of coffee during the day. Here’s how to step back from that precipice.

Target the enemy. "Every night a couple of hours before bed, sit down and make a list of all the issues, problems, and things you have to deal with," says Donna Arand, Ph.D., clinical director of Kettering Hospital Sleep Disorders Center in Dayton, Ohio. "Next to each item, write a solution or plan." If you’re mad at your mother-in-law, for example, the solution could be to call her and talk it out.

Even if it’s not something you want to do, write down your ideas for dealing with each stressor you’ve listed, urges Dr. Arand. Then mull the solutions over.

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Pear-shaped genes uncovered

The parts of our DNA which may influence body shape, including the classic “apple” or “pear” shape in women, have been revealed.

A UK study in Nature Genetics found the locations of 13 genes which may play a role, with a stronger effect in women.

Where body fat lies may affect diabetes and heart disease risk, so the results could shed light on those diseases.

A British Heart Foundation spokesman said the findings could lead to new dietary advice or medicines.

Related stories

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Pets improve quality of life

Your best friend, companion and greatest listener might be the one who snuggles up with you during a nap, can’t wait to take a walk in the afternoon, and gives you big sloppy kisses or purrs when you let them know how much you love them. For those of you have a pet, you know what I’m talking about.

Research has shown time and again that there are positive benefits to having a pet in the home when you’re going through a health crisis or dealing with a chronic disease. The positive benefits are true for all age groups, from young children through adults.

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Welfare, Well-Being, and Happiness


Normative legal theory is concerned with the ends and justifications for the law as a whole and for particular legal rules.  Previous entries in the legal have examined exemplars of the three great traditions in normative theory–consequentialist, deontological, and aretaic (or virtue-centered) perspectives.  There are important differences between these three families of theories at a very general and abstract level: for example, deontologists emphasize rights and wrongs while consequentialists emphasize the goodness or badness of states of affairs.  And there are differences between particular theories within the broad families: within consequentialism, for example, welfarists emphasize preference satisfaction, whereas hedonistic utiliarians emphasize pleasure and pain…

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Life’s missing white space


I’m not a designer, but I’ve always been in love with the design concept of white space.

It’s the space in a design that isn’t filled with things — as you can tell from the design of Zen Habits and my other blog, mnmlist, it’s something I use (perhaps too) liberally.

But white space can be used in the design of our lives as well, not just the design of magazines and websites and ads. By using white space in our lives, we create space, balance, emphasis on what’s important, and a feeling of peace that we cannot achieve with a more cramped life.

Let’s look briefly at how to do this….

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Prosecutor Accused of ‘Sexting’ Abuse Victim


According to MSNBC, Kratz sent over thirty sexually suggestive text messages to the 26 year-old abuse victim in a case he was assigned to prosecute. The three day sexting barrage was in an effort to start a relationship with a women who was fresh off a very, very bad relationship. Telling her several times she is "hot" or referring to her as a "tall, young, hot nymph," the 50 year-old Kratz originally denied that his texts were sexual in nature. The victim, Shannon Van Groll, felt otherwise. Van Groll reported the sexting to the police, but was worried that Kratz would drop the case against her ex-boyfriend if she did not respond to his advances. MSNBC quotes spokesman Tony Gibart: "His actions were more than a lapse in judgment. They in fact do have far reaching implications for victim safety and public safety."

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Aerobics for the Brain

As people age, brain function slowly declines. Aside from improving physical fitness and overall health, exercise may also help improve brain function in older adults, researchers report.

In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, researchers evaluated brain function by performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on 70 sedentary (but otherwise healthy) adults who were 60-80 years old. The participants were randomly divided into an aerobic walking group or a non-aerobic control group, which performed toning, stretching and strengthening exercises. Each exercise session lasted 40 minutes and was performed three times weekly for one year. The MRI scans of the older individuals were again taken after six months and one year, and compared to MRI scans of 32 healthy younger individuals (age 18-35).

No beneficial effects were observed in the aerobic group after six months of exercise. However, after one year, several improvements in brain function were noted in the aerobic exercise group.

Earlier studies suggested that impaired function in a brain circuit called the default mode network (DMN) may be a sign of aging or neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer's. The DMN is active when a person is at a state of wakeful rest, such as daydreaming. In the present study, researchers found that DMN activity significantly improved in the aerobics group compared to the control group. The subjects in the aerobic group also experienced significant improvements in another brain network, the frontal parietal network, which is important for complex tasks.

By the end of the study, participants in the aerobics group experienced significant improvements in cognition, including memory and attention, compared to the control group.

While the results are promising, additional research is warranted in this area.

For more information about aerobic and non-aerobic exercise, please visit Natural Standard'sSports Medicine database.

From Natural Standard Sources

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Heart Disease Risk Varies by Education Level


 Risk for stroke and heart disease falls as education levels rise in high-income countries, but not in nations where earnings are considerably lower, a new study shows.

The findings are published in the September 2010 issue of Circulation.

The study examined data on 61,332 people from 44 countries who had been diagnosed with heart disease, stroke, or peripheral arterial disease — or who had cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking or obesity.

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Michael Douglas Cancer: Failure to Diagnose?


Recently, producer and actor Michael Douglas announced he has stage IV throat cancer and is currently undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. According to interviews,Douglas said he sought treatment for a very sore throat earlier in the summer. He saw many doctors who could not find the cause of the problem until very recently.

According to the London Telegraph, it was not until a biopsy in early August that the cancer was revealed. A walnut-sized tumor was discovered at the base of Douglas's tongue. Reportedly, symptoms of a dry and sore throat, ear pain and vocal problems did not point the way to the true problem until months after Douglas first sought help.

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