Your Expensive Hotel Room May Be More Contaminated Than You Think

You’re taking a well-deserved family vacation, and sparing no expense—especially for the hotel room. You eat organic food, drink only the cleanest filtered water, and by-pass the hotel’s complimentary soap and shampoos for your own high-end organic products. You believe that when you pay more money for a service, you’re getting the best money can buy. While this may be true for your food and cosmetics, it’s often not true when it comes to hotel sanitation. You walk into the room: it’s got a stunning view of the St. Lawrence River and the city lights at night from your bed are breathtaking. 

In 2013, CBC Marketplace Investigation performed the largest ever survey of Canadian hotel cleanliness. According to the CBC, “More than 800 ‘high-touch’ spots were tested in 54 rooms at a wide spectrum of chains in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto . . . . such as EconoLodge, Super 8 . . . and the luxurious Fairmont . . .” Guelph University microbiologist Keith Warriner, who conducted the test, found alarming results. He claims that prior to the test he wasn’t expecting bacteria to be so prolific, and was “really surprised at the lack of sanitation.” 

According to the study, here are the top three most high-risk spots for contamination:

1. Bed comforters: You return to your hotel room exhausted from strolling, playing golf, or lake swimming, and bury your head under the covers—maybe not the best thing to do. Bed comforters had the highest contamination rating with over 50% of hotels tested given an ‘failure’ score. If you think about the hundreds of people who have used the comforter, and you’re pressing your entire body onto it, you’re exposing yourself to bacteria for a long time. 

2. Bathroom faucets: You turn on the faucet and wash your hands then turn it off again believing that your freshly cleaned room has been duly sanitized, especially around the bathroom faucets—think again. Bathroom faucets are one of the most contaminated spots in your hotel room. Washing your hands is a good way to prevent yourself from picking up nasty bacteria, but if the faucets are failing sanitation tests, washing your hands may be counter-productive. 

3. TV Remotes: You sit down after a long day of travel. Your kids are asleep on one of the beds, and you and your partner want to watch some movies or just flip the channels around—perhaps to pick up scores from the PGA Tournament or Blue Jay game.  Think twice before using that remote, and opt for your computer instead. If you’re a cleaning person, will the TV remote be the first thing you’ll clean? Will it be the last? It’s most likely the case that you won’t clean it at all; and that’s typically the case for hotel TV remotes. 

Quality of hotel doesn’t count. According to the study, the Fairmont hotels were some of the most contaminated in Canada, and some of the cleanest, though certainly not in all cases, was Super 8. If you’re expecting that top dollar will give you a cleaner less contaminated room, it’s simply not the case. 

Does this mean you need to have a freak-out whenever you’re in a hotel and douse yourself in antibacterial gel? No. But it won’t hurt to take precautions, such as not sleeping deep in the bed covers, but sleeping on top or putting a blanket down before you get into bed; or not using the remote, or, if you are, first wiping it with antibacterial gel. You should also use some antibacterial gel for your hands after you’ve touched the toilet seat, or the faucets. These are simple ways to enjoy travelling and keeping yourself and your family safe. 

Play, Mess Up Your Desk, Then Take A Nap: How To Generate Better Ideas And Perform At Your Peak In Work And Life

I've written a number of articles about creativity. To me, creativity can be taught. It's not something that only the gods have bestowed on a handful of artists, writers, composers, or rock n' roll CEOs--it's in everyone, and can be harnessed and learned and actualized in many different contexts. If you're reading this article right now, and you don't feel creativity, or you have been told your whole life you aren't, or don't believe creativity is for everyone, then you're wrong--plain and simple! 

Here are a few things to get your creativity fuelled up. They're simple, and perhaps even ridiculous--that's precisely the point. People these days take themselves way too seriously--just step into most offices these days, and the stale air alone, like anti-bacterial gel, will kill any ounce of creative spirit.

1. Be playful: Creativity is play; life is play; and work ought to be play. That's right--play. A serious jest as the great Goethe called it. You need to think about playing more and not being so serious all the time. Yes, you need to make serious and sober decisions, but you can play to get to that point. What do I mean by play? Find ways to make your work fun. You know, hard work for creatives is often playful work. That's because creatives--those hired to perform tasks considered 'creative', namely designing stuff or writing jingles or designing buildings or apps, etc.--usually incorporate playful activities that most people wouldn't consider work. What do you find fun? Incorporate that into your work. If playing video games at work gets your juices going, then do it. If reading Wired Magazine and MIT Tech Review give you more ideas, then clip or print out articles and stick them all over your office wall as a collage--and not just a small one, but a big one. Get some legos, bricolage, and other toys in your work space and encourage your team and colleagues to play with them.

2. Don't clean your desk: Are you a neat-freak by nature or nurture? If by nurture, lurking under that stapled down attire and polished office space is clutter-bug who thinks better in the midst of a mess than in neatness. Take a week, and don't clean your desk--let all kinds of stuff pile all over it, including the Chinese food take-out boxes and chopsticks. You see, ideas need to congeal with other ideas--that requires diversity. What better way to get your ideas flowing than to create divergence on your very desk! Lifehacker has a wonderful article about this, showing how Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and other big thinkers worked on messy desks.

3. Nap: Yup--you'll probably fear being fired for even thinking about doing this, but it's one of the most important things you can do in your day for your brain. You need 10-15 minutes--no less, no more. You can do it in your office space--if you have covers for your windows and a lock on your door, or in your car. You can do it on your lunch break or any other assigned break. I've written about the wonders of this before, including the names of great thinkers and inventors who swore by it.

4. Fail: You know when you're playing a challenging video game or some other game, and you do better when you just don't care how well or poorly you're playing? You tend to take more risks, which at times--but not all the time--lead to openings in the game and new insights. This is the same with creating new ideas. When you think of your work as play, then you don't worry so much about failing, which enhances your performance. Don't fear failure.

5. Stay up late: Sometimes you have to shake up the social order of your life. You know when you're on that business trip or weekend get-away, and you suddenly feel more creative and alive? You feel like you've got more ideas and insights? Look at your schedule: chances are you're staying up later, most likely at a watering hole or restaurant somewhere, and you're eating at different times of day, and working longer hours. Staying up late can be a great way to get your brain into a different pattern. In fact, when you're tired, your using different areas of your brain to cognize and interpret your experiences, which is often why you sometimes get clearer insights or better ideas. Try staying up late at least once per week, and reap the creative benefits. 

We are all creative. The problem is we live in a society that imposes structures and rules and conventions that conflict with, and even thwart, ways of living and being that enhance creativity. And yet, our bosses, jobs, and industries are demanding more and more creativity. To perform in this conflict requires that you change some of your habits and long-held practices--to shake up your life. It may seem scary at first, but you'll see the results.

Why Backing Up Humankind Is Not As Easy As You Think

Vince Cerf, recognized as one of the fathers of the internet, made a statement back in 2015 that we may be living in the “forgotten century” simply because of our reliance on digital forms of communication and documentation. According to Cerf, we are relying on software to document and record our experiences that will inevitably become obsolete. Cerf calls it “bit rot,” namely when old computer files can no longer be opened and accessed with current software. Prior to the digital revolution, humans wrote letters on paper, read newspapers printed on paper, took pictures printed on paper. And while indeed paper is far from invincible (there are countless books and articles written about the vast amount of information lost to the material breakdown of paper over hundreds of years), one doesn’t need software to ‘open’ a paper document, or recreate it in some fashion. Cert explains for the Guardian 

Vince Cerf believes we'll be the forgotten century

“When you think about the quantity of documentation from our daily lives that is captured in digital form, like our interactions by email, people’s tweets, and all of the world wide web, it’s clear that we stand to lose an awful lot of our history.”

As a writer and researcher, I agree with Cerf. I find it deeply concerning how much as a society we rely on digital forms of communication and documentation. In fact, much of my work is created first in basic pen and ink and then transcribed onto a computer—at least I’ve ensured a back-up that will last (barring flood or fire). 

But are Cerf’s concerns being ignored? Are humans barrelling down the cyber-highway without leaving a trace behind that will help them see where they’ve come from? 

Immortality Drive is one project that has sought to ‘back-up humankind’. According to Wikipedia, “it is a large memory device which was taken to the International Space Station in Soyus Spacecraft on October 12, 2008.” The drive contains full DNA sequences of a “select group” of humans, such as physicist Stephen Hawking, a comedian, a model, and even Lance Armstrong. The intent of the project is to somehow preserve human DNA in a time capsule in the event a global catastrophe wipes out humankind. 

While this is a cool project, its date (2008) says it all, for it features too thin a pool to be a true back-up of humanity. What we’d need is some way of backing-up every person in this “forgotten century.” 

Enter the company Kickstarter and its project to set up a “cosmic CLOUD of human data.” This company is looking at the possibility of using the Universe as a massive cloud computing system. This project, according to Express, will send “data, messages and even DNA into space using laser propelled spacecraft.” The promise is that “your data will live forever in the universe—you will be immortalized.” This program literally send your data to space via spacecraft; things like documents, audio clips, photos, videos, DNA—even tweets! The company claims the information will last forever.

Kickstarter hopes to beam human DNA and tweets into space

This all sounds very cute and gimmicky. But does it solve Cerf’s fear of the forgotten century? No. For the data that Kickstarter claims to be sending to space is all contained within a particular software. They claim they’ll use lasers to project the data, but how can it be accessed once it’s reached space? Is this a true backup of humanity? To me they would have to first solve the software problem. As well, how will the ‘consumer’ of this product be able to tell whether or not the information has actually been stored in space? My argument is Kickstarter hasn’t solved Cerf’s software problem, and therefore has not truly solved the backup issue.

Some have cited Stephen Hawking’s Starshot project as a similar venture; however, his is entirely different. Starshot seeks to send laser lightyears into outer space to record data and send it back to earth. It can also shoot messages messages to outer space, but not store it there in a cloud to somehow backup humanity. Quite logically, it seems to me, to truly backup humanity requires we solve Cerf’s bit rot problem.

Why The Mercedes Future Bus Isn't About The Future At All

Tesla isn't the only one poised to disrupt the auto industry--Mercedes has just released its city bus, and it's an autonomous vehicle. Aptly called the Future Bus, it is the first autonomous bus of its kind. According to Mashable, its unveiling included a 12-mile drive through the streets of Amsterdam. Its program is called City Pilot, which allows the bus to drive autonomously along certain lanes up to 43 kilometres per hour; a 'driver' is there to monitor the operation of the vehicle--at least for now while the law requires it and the technology is in beta mode. The bus can not only drive along special lanes, but also pass through tunnels, communicate with traffic systems, and break for pedestrians and obstacles. But Mercedes is not planning to implement City Pilot in the near future, or even in its 2020 release of its other autonomous vehicles, but plans to do so incrementally, such as driving to and from bus stops. 

This is a fine idea--but it's neither novel nor ground breaking. And there are myriad scenarios for the city of the future that in fact discourage the need for buses in the first place. 

As I've reported in a previous post, Elon Musk has a plan for future transit that will destroy the bus by transporting mass groups of people to their destinations and not merely to bus stops.  In fact, this Future Bus concept is so lacklustre and so reliant on outdated models of cities that its very name can be reduced to a laughable irony. To me, the Future Bus's debut in Amsterdam may be its sole purpose--to simply attempt to show that the prestigious auto manufacturer is thinking about the future, regardless of how crude. 

Elon Musk knows how to think about the future.

One of the big problems for the future of cities is the transportation of mass numbers of people within a context of large numbers of autonomous vehicles. There will be tremendous numbers of autonomous cars flooding the cities--where will they go when they've dropped off their passengers? Musk is thinking in the long-term. He claims that "We have an idea for something that is not exactly a bus, but will solve the [urban] density problem . . . . I think we need to totally rethink the idea of public transport . . . and create something that people are actually going to like a lot more." 

Musk shows us how to think about the future--to take current models, like buses for instance, and deconstruct them. Mercedes reveals a bus today that will be obsolete in two years from now, but calls it Future Bus, which to me insults our intelligence. 

In many ways, the Future Bus serves merely as a big mobile billboard for Mercedes. In the famous words of Marshall McLuhan, "The medium is the message." The Future Bus is a message to all the adoring Mercedes fans that the German auto giant is still making stuff into the (near) future--that's pretty much it. Yes it's sleek, yes it looks like a nice bus, but there's nothing futural about it. One of the highlights of the bus's interior is that people can charge their mobile devices while riding in it--real progressive stuff! In 5 years, mobile devices will most likely be obsolete, as will the Mercedes Future Bus. 

Elon Musk's Master Plan: A Blueprint Not Just For Transportation But Also Wide-Scale Social Transformation

This is a blog about many things, but one of the main subjects is driving. I’ve written a number of articles on Elon Musk who is arguably the most dynamic entrepreneur/inventor in decades. At the helm of Tesla Motors, Musk is beginning to show more of his master plan—how many big CEOs have master plans?—and this one is something. 

To be a dynamic entrepreneur/inventor in the 21st Century requires long-term planning with shorter term objectives. According to Tesla’s blog—written, to some degree, by Musk himself—there are two parts to the company’s master plan. Part One was written by Musk 10 years ago   which can be broken down in the following steps: 1) Create a low-volume car, which would necessarily be expensive, 2) Use the money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price, 3) Use that money to create an affordable, high volume car, and 4) Provide solar power. 

First, this is something that everyone who wants to create new ideas or exciting enterprises needs to pay close attention to as a model for themselves. You need a master plan, and ten years is not a bad window, though I suspect Musk’s master master plan is 100 years into the future. 

Second, a master plan is simply that which supports a larger vision, which Musk explains in what follows: “The point of all of this was, and remains, accelerating the advent of sustainable energy, so that we can imagine far into the future and life is still good.” See: he’s imagining “far into the future.” And this leads to Tesla's bid on the acquisition of SolarCity, which designs, finances, and installs solar power systems. If you’ve seen some of Musk’s interviews, he’s concerned not only with the near future, but with the far-reaching future, particularly when you read his stuff about killer robots, which I’ve covered in other posts. Imagine what Tesla will be able to do with a company like SolarCity?

So what are the big points that make up Part Two of Musk’s Master Plan? 

1. Factory as product. Designing the machine that makes the machine, that is “turning the factory itself into a product.” This will enable Tesla to ramp up production. They see Tesla being as ubiquitous as an iPhone. 

2. Create Semi-trucks and buses. They are not only designing/building trucks and buses, but creating the infrastructure and processes in which they’ll be operated. This is a far cry from, say, Mercedes’s Future Bus which is pretty much a tarted up 2016 bus with mobile phone charges added on. Tesla sees their products as part of a much larger transformation of society. And the Tesla fleets wouldn’t service bus stops, but rather take people directly to their destination.

3. Autonomy. Tesla vehicles will be fully self-driving, that is if any system in the car breaks down, the car will drive itself safely. 

4. With Autonomy comes sharing. With autonomy, you will be able to summon your Tesla from anywhere; and once it picks you up, “you will be able to sleep, read, or do anything else en route to your destination.” But here’s where things get interesting from a larger systems design perspective: You’ll be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet . . . and have it generate income while you’re at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost.” This, according to Musk, will compel most people to own a Tesla, though to me this is a business model that other companies will be sure to copy. In high-density cities, in which demand exceeds supply of cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet of vehicles. 

Musk concludes his blog post by concisely running down the 4 main points of his Master Plan Part Deux:

1. Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage

2. Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments

3. Develop a self-driving capacity that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning

4. Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it.

It’s brilliant, prescient, and one could argue philanthropic. For not only is Musk designing and producing a product, but also an entire ecosystem that will indeed transform cities, transportation, and even how companies generate (common) wealth. One would be hard pressed to find a big shot CEO anywhere who is doing this as dynamically and elegantly as Musk. 

To further drive home Master Plan Part Deux, Tesla changed its url from teslamotors.com to simply tesla.com—no longer a mere automobile company, but an ecosystem in itself. 

Brilliant, brilliant stuff.

Is Curing Pain With Virtual Reality Really A Good Thing?

Virtual reality (VR) is an emergent technology that is growing rapidly; however, the expanse of its applications and effects on human health remain critical areas of further research and experimentation. While some believe this nascent technology to be a panacea for all things, we ought to approach this 'tool' with caution and perhaps even skepticism.

One area that VR is being applied to is in pain relief. According to MIT Technology Review, AppliedVR is a company that designs VR software that distracts sufferers from pain, particularly after medical procedures. According to the report, AppliedVR has designed three different programs, two for pain relief and one for anxiety. "Headsets running AppliedVR’s platform are being used in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and clinics for things like drawing blood and administering epidurals, as well as for pain management after operations," the article claims. 

Dutch burns unit trialling, The Daily Mail

What's driving this technology is the declining cost of VR headsets, such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Oculus Rift. In the past, a headset used under medical procedures and conditions was in the ballpark of $40,000, but now a doctor or medical clinic can purchase much more affordable VR equipment and run the types of programs developed by AppliedVR, thus allowing the technology to spread.

AppliedVR has been involved in research with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles on the effects of the software on pain treatment. One of the studies was with 60 patients in recovery from different kinds of ailments, such as abdominal pain, pancreatitis, etc. Patients were hooked up to a VR headset and run through a game called Bear Blast, in which one is taken through a virtual environment where one lobs balls at as many bears as possible. Unlike most other games, the player cannot get hurt or die. Here are the results from this particular test:

[Researchers] found that 20 minutes with the virtual-reality software reduced patients’ pain by 24 percent on average; before using VR the patients had a mean pain score of roughly 5.5 on a zero to 10 scale, he says, and afterward it averaged 4.

Other areas of application, according to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, will be for patients to use VR at the hospital, at home, and even prior to medical procedures to cope with their anxiety. 

Like most beta-products, this sounds like a wonderful and facile solution to pain management: instead of hooking people up to IVs pumping drugs, plug them into a marathon of Bear Blast. Doesn't that just sound idyllic? But there are other researchers out there sitting, standing, and crawling their way through VR environments who are not as optimistic about the technology--at least this iteration of it. 

Take, for instance, Scott Stein for Cnet who claims in his article The Dangers of Virtual Reality:

Virtual Reality is amazing, but it isn't safe. It isn't easy. And with the complicated hardware being released now, it could end up being a nightmare in the wrong hands.

One of the most significant concerns for Stein is that Virtual Reality makes people sick, which of course undermines its efficacy as a remedy for pain. And it's not a sickness that you feel a little at the front end, but dissipates moments later. Here's Stein:

VR-induced nausea is a very real thing. I used to feel dizzy and sick every time I tried early VR hardware, and those moments have diminished greatly. But they still happen, even to me...and I consider myself a seasoned VR veteran.

This isn't a first-timer strapping on the headset and complaining of nausea--this is a seasoned veteran. Many VR handbooks recommend taking frequent breaks; but if I'm hooked up to a game that's distracting me from pain but from which I have to take frequent breaks, how is that a remedy? At least I know that with a pain-killer I have so many hours of relief. So with VR I can instead count on 20 minutes of pain relief, followed by a break during which I feel nauseous--perhaps even lapse into a seizure--followed by another measly 20 minutes of pain relief while lobbing balls at unassuming bears. 

The second concern Stein has is with the nature of the equipment itself: it prevents you from sensing the environment around you. You're eyes and ears are covered, which not only feels eerie, but also impairs your ability to sense things around you. Stein has seen people accidentally hit those who are standing in front of them; and apparently it's not uncommon for one to whack oneself in the head while in the throes of a game, simply because of one's senses being impaired. 

Like everything else, those taking VR therapy for their pain will have to sign off on a ream of precautions and waivers, not unlike any other medical treatment. And the counter-argument to my criticisms about the side-effects of VR is that pain medication has its own grocery-list of side-effects. 

The question is whether VR is a difference that makes a difference, or is simply another option of pain treatment with its limits and side-effects. 

Another question for me is whether one would want to go on a VR trip to manage pain or anxiety, and what an addiction to this experience would be like. If you're using something to distract from the pain, and the pain persists, your dependency on the experience will persist. Stein, for instance, claims that VR takes you completely away from the 'reality' of friends and family and fully immerses you into another world. Is this any different from the opium dens of the 19th Century in which people would trip out for weeks and months on end? Would VR treatment lead to a similar experience? Indeed, people 'trip out' on prescription drugs all the time, so in this case one could argue there isn't much difference; however, VR is a complete sensory immersion, via technology, into another world, one that has the power to even distract from pain--a kind of utopian world (Utopia means 'no place') where bears run around at which you cast facile balls without pain or death. What kind of reality is this? And what are the implications for spending extensive periods of time in this world in escape of pain and suffering, or anxiety for that matter? 

Indeed, there are those who believe technology is the panacea for all the world's ills; and that if it's not right now, it will be in a few more iterations. There are others, however, who are highly skeptical of it, and see in technology the demise of humankind itself. Both points of view must be held in tension when we come across such seemingly blithe reports of the medical benefits of machines.  

7 Ways Your Business Meeting Will Miserably Fail

You're planning your next meeting. You need to rally your people around a disruptive business challenge that threatens your share of the market, and even the organization itself. It's critical that you  not only get the best ideas, but also walk away with an action plan that will drive you to your target. 

Here's how your meeting will fail:

1. You'll do all the talking: You may be the leader of your department or organization, but you don't have all the answers. Talking too much leads to confusion, both for yourself and those around you. You have one vantage point, and its skewed--the same for all those in the room with you. You need to create conditions for everyone to share their ideas.

2. You won't allow dissenting voices: Finding a new solution requires a hard look at what you're not doing right, or what you're missing. Chances are, there's at least one person sitting in your meeting who sees things like it is, and holds an important perspective; only he or she's leery of speaking up and appearing disloyal. You need to have honest dialogue about what's working and what's not working, even if that means some of your ideas or dearly-held projects are flops.

3. Reliance on obsolete information: It's easy to rely on old information when trying to come up with new solutions--we do it all the time when we leave our beliefs unchallenged and forge ahead without checking our facts. Information is changing all the time; and new information can bring insight to your planning that could be missed otherwise. When you're working on a tough challenge, take time and resources to get the latest and most valuable information.

4. Narrow perspective: When gathering information for your planning, it's important that you research broadly. You'll thus fail at your next meeting when you rely only on information about your industry, or product/service. You need to look at information from myriad places and sources for good ideas to emerge. Technological trends are impacting everything, so one of the most basic areas of research should be in the various areas of technology. 

5. Poor environment: The boardroom doesn't cut it--really. I've often had to reconfigure boardrooms in my consulting practice, with the table being the most restraining factor. The boardroom table is traditionally meant to create a hierarchy: the leader sits at the head, and the minions sit on the sides. It  also restrains body movement and keeps attention front and centre which limits ideas. For those on your team who are kinesthetic--who think best while moving--you've shut down their creativity. Add to this fluorescent lighting--that is known to enhance aggression--, low ceilings--which creates too much intimacy when you need a higher ceiling for ideas--, pallid walls--lack of colour dulls the senses--, and tiny whiteboards--there only to showcase the boss's ideas and no one else's--and you've got the makings of a failed meeting.

6. Rushing to conclusion: You'll fail at your next solution when you rush to a conclusion because it's late, or it's lunch time, or the idea seems slightly better than the other dull ones that have deflated all over the room, or you have another meeting you've crammed into your morning, or you've got another fire to put out somewhere else. I've heard so many times that big decisions are made in a rush before lunch when the majority of attendees have no clue what's been decided or what the next steps are. It's important to work an idea through; to reconvene and kick the tires on it; to order food in and work through lunch; to come to the end of the meeting and schedule another for the following day.

7. All talk, no action: Businesses love meetings because they a) give employees something to do, b) usually include snacks and coffee, c) make everyone feel important, and d) run down the clock. The problem with most meetings is that decisions are made without having enough information, or without adequate consensus, or without a deliberate plan of action. Actions plans take iterations of thought, dialogue, and even conflict. Often meetings are concluded without people knowing what's been decided, and what needs to get done. A good action plan will have a process with adequate steps  that will get you closer to the solution. But most often than not, the action plans can be focused on the wrong things or lacking true buy-in from the majority of attendees. 

Meetings are very common in business--especially in a world of change and complexity. Having the right kind of meeting at the right time with the right people through the right process will make the difference between being on the right or wrong side of change. 

6 Reasons Why Watermelon Is One Of The Most Amazing Things Ever

I love watermelon. My father in-law claims he can pick the perfect watermelon from that massive bin at the grocery store--every time, without fail. And in the many years I've known him and shared watermelon with him, I have yet to find a counterexample to his claim. 

But what my father in-law loves most about watermelon is its health benefits. Here are just a few of them:

1. Lycopene: This is an antioxidant that is more powerful than other carotenoids, such as beta-carotene. Why is lycopene so important? It is known to reduce the risk of stroke--some studies have shown by more than 19 percent. It's also good for its anti-cancer activity, especially prostate cancer. Lycopene may also reduce the risk of ovarian cancer among postmenopausal women. Note: to increase the lycopene level of the watermelon, let it really ripen--the redder the melon, the higher concentration of lycopene it has.

2. Reduce muscle soreness: Are you planning to push weights or hit the pavement on a hot summer day? Drink watermelon juice before you engage in physical activity to reduce next-day muscle pain and heart rate. 

3. Great hair and skin: Vitamin A is good for your hair and skin; and a cup of watermelon gives you about one quarter of your daily required vitamin A. 

4. Digestion: This is a big deal--no one likes to experience gastro-intenstinal discomfort after a meal. Pass on the chocolate cake for dessert and go straight to the watermelon to aid in digestion and keep you regular. 

5. Reduce blood pressure: Citrulline in watermelon will convert to a chemical that's a precursor to nitric oxide, which relaxes and opens the blood vessels for good blood flow. This contributes to low blood pressure.

6. Other great nutrients: Along with Lycopene and vitamin A, watermelon also contains these amazing nutrients that will stimulate health in your body: Vitamins B6 and C, Potassium, and Magnesium.

Now here's what I look for when hunting for the perfect watermelon:

1. Must be heavy for its size: If you pick a watermelon, it should have some nice weight to it--even if it's a small one. Look for one that has a good weight for its size.

2. Bassy echo: Now, drum or knock on the watermelon--does it have a dull thud or an echo like a drum? If it has a nice echo like a drum, chances are it's a ripe one.

3. Yellow belly: If the watermelon has a nice wide yellow belly, that means its been on the ground for a long time, and thus has had time to ripen on the vine.

Why You Should Wait A Year Or Two Before Rushing Out To Buy That Delicious Tesla

My wife complains sometimes that I rely too much on cruise control; that I'm putting my confidence in a computer that could malfunction in a heartbeat and hurtle the vehicle into the backend of the one in front of us. I like cruise control: I can stretch out my legs, and prevent that cramping sensation between the top of my foot and my ankle. I like the ability to cruise along at a consistent speed. And following behind someone who's also on cruise control is a comfortable thing because I can act on the assumption that, barring any sudden debris or wandering animal across the road, the vehicle ahead will maintain a consistent speed. It's frustrating for me to drive behind someone who pumps their foot on the gas.

I indeed place a deal of trust in my vehicle's cruise control system; but how much more trust must one put in a self-driving vehicle, like the Tesla Model 3's 'autopilot' system? With autopilot, you can pretty much let the car do the driving. The law states you must have your hands close to the wheel, and eyes focused on the road--you're not yet permitted to fall asleep in the driver's seat and wake up at your destination. You are relying on a machine, you know.

Our trust in Tesla's autopilot system was put to the test this week, when a Model X, allegedly on autopilot, veered out of control and crashed into a guard rail. This comes on the heels of a May 7th fatality in which a Tesla Model 3 went under the trailer of an 18-wheeler semi and the roof was torn off at impact. The Model 3 then veered off the road before slamming through 2 fences and into a power pole. 

When you download the latest OS X from Apple, for example, you can expect a number of bugs that, over time, will be worked out. Each time you run an upgrade, you are running a better iteration of the operating system. But what happens when you have a buggy operating system that's controlling a passenger vehicle traveling at 100 kms/hr? This is the issue with self-driving vehicles; and we can't expect the technology to advance without bugs being worked out; and we can't expect the bugs to be worked out without crashes of one kind or another. Does the bug issue justify the loss of lives or a $100K vehicle? Certainly not. But we have to expect a level of risk when we take these fairly new technologies and entrust our and our passenger's lives to them. Will the bugs get worked out? Over time, yes--to such an extent that these vehicles will be considered safer than human operated ones. 

Regarding the Florida fatality, I find it incredulous that it took almost 2 months before Tesla reported the accident. It seems to be a similar reaction to that of Google when its car collided with a bus--they blamed the Google car operator, not the system itself. 

These technologies are exciting and futuristic and dramatically raise the comfort of driving; however, there is a price to pay for the technology to advance. And those early adopters of self-driving cars must be aware of the plausibility of encountering bugs as they're testing the product. Indeed, driving a Tesla right now is an extended test-run; the vehicle is taking all your information and recording it; and engineers--software and otherwise--are analyzing that data to make corrections and eliminate bugs in the system. Glitches are just part of it; unfortunately, those glitches can cost lives. 

For now, I'll stick to my van, my cruise control, and, endearing no less, my wife's periodic disparagement. 

5 Places Where Good Ideas Come From For Business, Art, And Life

Having good ideas is important, whether you're an entrepreneur, manager, artists, student, or just trying to manage your life. There is a history around the word 'idea', but I won't go into that here. What we commonly refer to when we talk about ideas is certain kind of thought that occurs in the mind as a result of our experiences--phrases like 'flashes of insight' or 'eureka moments' seek to pin-point what ideas are. 

There are countless books written about ideas. Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From will give you plenty of insight--at least it has for me. As a researcher and writer, I'm always looking for good ideas, but even as Johnson maintains, it's not always easy.  Here are a few tips:

1. Drink coffee: You don't like coffee? It doesn't matter--drink it. According to Johnson, the Enlightenment was spawned by the rise of coffee consumption and the cafes; in fact, cafes, rather than pubs, became the breeding ground for the surge of intellectualism that period boasts. Does this imply that you won't get good ideas if you're a tea drinker, or don't consume caffeinated drinks at all? Of course not. But coffee is known to dramatically stimulate the brain, spawning new ideas. 

2. Document: If you're after good ideas you can't afford to lazily go through life on autopilot. You need to capture your experiences, thoughts, reflections, brain waves. If you haven't done this before, go and get yourself a notebook and play journalist for the day: write down what you see, conversations you hear, and your reflections on them--you won't believe it. This is one of the oldest and most effective ways of getting good ideas--it's no wonder that the acclaimed notebook company Moleskine was inspired by the notebooks of Hemingway, Picasso, and Van Gogh. I'm surprised by how many people do not practice this simple way of recording one's life. Try it.

3. Walk around: The flaneur was a French phenomenon in the 19th Century embodied by the painter or writer or philosopher who would wander through the streets of Paris experiencing the world and...feeding his or her ideas. Did the flaneur have a particular place to go? No. Was the point of the walk to merely wander around? Yes. There is a rich history of the flaneur. How does it work? Simple. You're working through an idea or problem, and thus your mind is attuned to it. But your idea or solution needs some diversity to pull all the pieces together into something rich and original and salient. You take a walk through the mall or along the streets and everything you witness jumps out at you and congeals with the problems your mind is working on--and whammo! The new idea or insight emerges. But you have to make sure you have your notebook handy to write it all down. If you want to see an entertaining movie about the flaneur, see Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.

4. Give yourself time: Yes I know your boss is seriously pressing you for a new idea, or you're a boss and you need a big idea for the next quarter, or you're a student pressed for time on a research paper due tomorrow morning--but...you need to give yourself time. Ideas don't just pop out of nowhere; and they can't be rushed. Some ideas take decades to come to fruition. Think of the poet Bukowski who compared a poem--an idea--to a spider that he watches quietly crawling down the wall: it takes its time; it crawls a few steps down, then scurries back up. Do you have the patience to wait for it? Steven Johnson in Where Good Ideas Come From calls this "the slow hunch" contrasted with the often-used but rarely experienced "Eureka moment." The slow hunch is the problem you walk around with for a long time; the one that requires a ton of experience to germinate; the one that is in need of other sources of knowledge and information and a diversity of practice to really emerge. It takes time. 

5. Diversity of information: If you have a business problem, go to the museum. If you have a science problem, go to the mall and tinker around at the Apple Store. If you are researching for a social science paper, or working on engineering a new technology, go to a butterfly conservatory, or the symphony, or wander through the forest. You see, you need to get diverse, not monolithic. Your brain needs stimulation from other sources to put the pieces together--as mentioned above. If you're working on a design problem, read about bees. Dive into the Encyclopedia Britannica and read all kinds of random articles. Do anything you can to get diversity. Johnson calls this "serendipity": when ideas bounce around into other ideas and voila--a new insight.

There are many other ways to get new ideas, but these five are a good place to start. My go-to is the notebook--I take mine everywhere. It's a slim one that slips into my jeans pocket, and in which I mark down as much as I can; a lot of it's nonsense, but there are a few flecks of gold dust in there somewhere. Also, read everything. If you're not a reader, become one. Read biographies, especially of creative people: how did they work, what were their habits? Read read read. Then jot down your thoughts in your notebook. Sounds simple? At least that part of it is. 

10 Ways To Survive A Heat Wave Without Using Electricity

It's summer--and hot. With typically summer heat waves comes higher energy bills. And with the new push for energy regulation from, for example, the Paris Summit, there is an expectation that people will find ways to use less energy, even when trying to stay cool from persistent high temperatures. 

How do you do it? How do you stay climate-sound while climate-savvy? Here are some tips for staying cool without power:

1. Limit physical work: If you have to get things done, do so during the coolest times of day. If you have to be out working, really pace yourself, and even plan to do less than you typically would. 

2. Close off hottest rooms: If there are rooms in your house that are hottest during the day, close to door to them and install a foot sweep to keep the air from getting out. As well, any rooms that are facing west during the day should be closed off.

3. Keep the windows open: It may seem smarter to keep the windows closed and thus the hot air out, but even a slight cross-breeze is better than stale stagnant air. 

4. Limit cooking to minimum: Don't cook if unnecessary--it'll only heat your house or apartment. If you have to, or want to, cook, then do so early in the morning or late at night when things are a little cooler. Digesting food will create body heat, so try to avoid large heavy meals. Drink plenty of liquid during the hot hours, and eat when it's cooler. 

5. Wear thin, loose-fitting clothing: This is pretty obvious. Avoid the shirt and tie if unnecessary. Wear short-sleeves and shorts; and try to wear lighter clothing--dark shades absorb more heat.

6. Water spritzer: Carry around a spray bottle to mist yourself with--it'll cool you down.

7. Sleep outdoors: If it's safe, pitch a tent outside and sleep there.

8. Sleep in a cross-breeze: Sleep in between two open windows. If you can, hang a damp sheet in front of one of them--as the water evaporates, it'll have a cooling effect. 

9. Water wrap: Take a towel or bandanna, soak it in water, and wrap it around your neck--wrap another around your head if you're out in the sun. This will keep you cool.

10. Read books: Remember: this post is about staying cool without electricity. Find a favourite book or two (check out my must-read book lists), take a wet towel, a blanket or chair, and find a shady spot to lay down in and read. Move as the shade moves. You won't exert yourself, you'll stay cool, and you'll get smarter--not to mention save money on hydro. 

There are more regulations being imposed on us, and greater expectations that we will use less electricity--even during a heat wave. We all need to have these and other strategies in mind before hydro-use policies become more stringent. The two websites used for this post that provide excellent resources are Urban Survival Site and Emergency Outdoors. 

3 Simple Ways To End And Mend A Lovers Quarrel

We all fall prey to it: the lover's quarrel. Tempers can escalate quickly, and what was a simple misunderstanding or lack of communication suddenly turns into a deluge of insults and raised voices; and it usually ends with each in his or her corner angry and even despondent. 

But there is hope. There are things you can do to mend the situation and even grow in your relationship.

1. Find what part you played in the quarrel and own it: Unless the relationship is an abusive one, these quarrels don't just happen--it takes two people to mix it up. The starting point of mending is you. If you started it, find the stressor--what led to the frustration in the first place. If you didn't start it, pin-point what you did that fueled it. That's where you'll reach the next step...

2. Apologize for your part: This is really hard--even harder than seeing where you went wrong. What fuels quarrels is pride, so when we see our part, own it, and apologize to our loved one for it, we are no longer fueling the conflict. This is humility--and quarrels can't last in such an environment. You aren't trying to solve your lover's side of it--just your own. 

3. Forgive: This is even harder than #2. Sometimes we want to hold onto the anger, and hold it over our loved one. We want the power of being the innocent one, and thus make our partner suffer under us; we feel we deserve to be angry, and seek our own trumped up justice. But this just fuels the chaos, bringing more ammunition to the tired drawn out fight. Who wins a knife fight? Nobody. It's the same with holding grudges and refusing to forgive. Forgiveness requires humility, and as mentioned above, a lovers' quarrel can't survive in it. You want to end the quarrel? Forgive.

These are 3 simple steps to write down, but very difficult to put in practice. Relationships are hard work. They take a lot of love and humility and patience and forgiveness. Often our partner shows us the worst sides of ourselves--the sides we do everything to hide from others; no wonder we quarrel and lack grace and forgiveness. But this is also where our partners can help us grow and become more alive and human; for through the conflicts can come humility and love and forgiveness--the very things that make life truly worth living.

If You're Too Busy And Worry Life Is Passing You By, Read This.

Life is busy. And many of us believe that doing is the only way of being. But I am proposing another way to living that is just as important: non-doing. Yes, I am advocating a way of living that raises stillness above movement, silence above noise, and calmness above restlessness. 

We are all restless. To be modern is to live in a perpetual state of restlessness. And we live in restlessness so greatly that it is now considered normal. In fact, when we don't feel restless, we call it 'boredom'. 

To be bored is what the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre described as a state of having too much but not enough--this is very close to feeling restless. So even, it seems, our boredom is wrought with restlessness. 

But being restless is not a healthy way of being. A lot of life can be missed when we are rushing around from one thing to the next. Like John Lennon said once, "Life is what happens when we're making plans." 

Our world thrives on restlessness. How do you sell products? Make people restless to get them. How often do you watch an Apple conference or walk through an auto show, or wander around a mall and feel calm? No--branders and manufacturers know that if you are restless, if you feel you must have that product to be happy, then you will buy it. Dissatisfaction is a form of restlessness. And how do you fulfill dissatisfaction? You buy something that is designed, so they say, to fulfill that desire. 

Our jobs keep us restless. Performing in our jobs demands a kind of restlessness: we want to outperform our colleagues, we want our company to outperform its competitor, and we want to outperform our neighbour in buying power. All of these desires keep us restless in our jobs; keep us awake at night on our mobile devices, or in front of our computers at the pool, or working weekends. 

And what do we fill our time with in the meantime? More restlessness--only we call it unwinding. When we aren't working, we seek 'entertainment'. At its root, 'entertain' means 'to hold the attention of'. When you are being entertained, you are being held, arrested--by what? Good question. More desire. More restlessness. 

So how do you remedy this? Is there a way of living that can, at least for a time, quell the restlessness, and offer you a place of freedom and well-being? Yes. 

1. Stillness: If we aren't rushing somewhere, we feel unproductive, lazy; and yet, stillness is a vital part of being human. By this I don't mean sitting still and watching TV--no. Rather, to be still is to quiet the body, the mouth, and the mind. To be still means we are not seeking to feed ourselves with activity, media, conversation, even food. It simply means being. It's not that difficult. Some like to be still in the sun on a hot beach. Some like to sit in stillness on their back porch. Still others on a hammock. Some lying down in bed. Whatever it is, it's important to practice stillness. 

2. Silence: Our world is so noisy. Now every inch of silence is filled with the bleep and bling of our mobile devices--those things we are most 'entertained' by in our modern world. Silence means not speaking. Many of us talk too much. And when we're not talking, we fill the silence with other people's talking--now it's Netflix yammering at us to no end. Seeking silence means finding that place in which there is little to no noise. Will you hear the wind? Hopefully. Will you hear birds? Perhaps. What if you live on a busy road? You can still have a semblance of silence. The key is to get away from it all--the noise, the idle chatter. 

3. Calm: This isn't easy--restlessness, as I mentioned, is a big part of modern life. But if you seek stillness, and find moments of silence, you will be able to break from restlessness--at least for a period of time. You will find that natural state of be-ing. You will feel more human, more present for yourself, and more attentive to your life. You might see things in your life that cause you pain, or things that cause you great joy. You may find in those moments gratitude. You may realize there are things in your life that need to change. This is all good. Often we are restless because there are things inside us--pain, hurt, bad memories--that haven't been dealt with. There are many forms of professional help for such experiences. But if you are never present for yourself you'll never be able to touch those painful experiences long enough to realize you need to deal with them. 

Try it. It's not easy. Finding moments for stillness, silence, and calmness are very difficult. But it's important to try. Will you fail at it sometimes? Certainly. Will it seem like a waste of time? Most likely. But when you take time to do it, will you find that break from restlessness and an opening into real living? Yes. 

Our lives are lived a moment at a time. It's in those moments of stillness, silence, and calmness that some of the greatest moments of our lives, of being human, can be lived.