Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

May 04, 2020 1

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When we’re young, life just seems to happen without us having much say in the matter. Then responsibility begins to shift from our parents to us. From that point forth, our own decisions and circumstance dominate our lives. Those two factors are largely responsible for how things turn out for us. And the two are intimately related.

We often observe how successful people make their own luck, but that’s really just another way of saying they make smart decisions when it comes to taking risks and creating or capitalizing on opportunities. So success in business – and in life, I would argue – is primarily a function of making smart decisions.

Since every decision you make is based entirely on your own thoughts and feelings –how your brain processes experiences, events, and information from a variety of sources to draw conclusions – it’s actually not that complicated to determine how to make smarter decisions. This is how you do it.

Be present in the moment.

The first time I told the story of how an ex-girlfriend’s father took me in his Porsche to visit his startup company, where I learned about the coming wave of digital electronics (that was the late 70s, mind you), I remember thinking, what if I hadn’t been paying attention to the guy?
There have since been maybe seven or eight similarly critical random events that changed my life. And if I hadn’t been engaged in the moment they would have simply passed me by. I never even would have known I missed them. And where would I be today? It’s a sobering thought.

Trust your instincts.

Using the same example, what if that simple event hadn’t resonated with me the way it did? What if I hadn’t jumped right on it without hesitation and capitalized on the opportunity? I never would have gone back to grad school, gotten into the high-tech industry, and had an awesome 20+ year career.
When it comes to decision-making, listen to what smart, knowledgeable people say but, in the end, you have to make the right call. If you learn to trust your gut, you won’t hesitate when what you’re hearing is right. And when you do hesitate, you’ll know it isn’t right.


Think critically.

The more you allow yourself to be overloaded by information, interrupted by communication, and bombarded by distraction, the less time and attention you have left to focus on what really matters and question the accuracy, efficacy, and applicability of what you’re learning and experiencing.
Let me say it another way. By opting for quantity of information, communication, and possessions over quality, you sacrifice deep understanding through logical reasoning in favor of the next shiny object, inspiring post, or other feel-good nonsense that grabs your ever-shrinking attention span.
You would not believe how much dumber that makes you. Without logical constructs like deductive reasoning and the scientific method, our society would never have progressed. There would be no technology. We’d all be stuck back in the dark ages. Stop and think about that for a minute … without checking your phone.


Stay sharp.

Every time I see some popular and unsubstantiated nonsense about a miracle diet, pill, vitamin, or nutritional supplement that’s supposed to do magical things like make you thinner or smarter, it drives me nuts. None of that stuff works, folks. They’re all scams – moneymakers courtesy of our quick-fix culture.
Look, your brain is part of your body, right? Think. Just eat a good variety of reasonably healthy stuff, don’t eat too much, get out and exercise once or twice a week, and you’ll be fine. If you keep your body in pretty good shape, guess what? Your mind will come along for the ride and maintain its plasticity as you age.
One last thing. There’s been some negative stuff about caffeine from questionable sources, lately. Don’t believe it. It’s an amazing and, read my lips, naturally occurring stimulant. For the vast majority of you, a cappuccino or a few cups of tea a day will not harm you. And it will make you sharper. No kidding. As with anything, just don’t overdo it.

Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

May 03, 2020
Knowing How to Form a Habit is Important (According to Aristotle)


One of my favorite quotes is “Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” In fact, combine that quote with one by W.H. Auden (“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”) and you get the name of this website.


Routines and habits are the key to consistency, which is the key to achieving goals. So knowing how to form a habit is important.


I’m very vocal about my dislike for the idea of “just do it” and the exercise industry idea that exercise has to suck.


Whether your habit formation is focused on exercise or anything else (business, writing, friendships, relationships etc.), excellence and success are really just the result of your deeply ingrained habits. Understanding the psychology of habits can help you change them.


You don’t need to lift for 4 hours or write 200 pages every day. If you want to use habits to change your life your ability to always do something, even something small, will move you forward.


If you want to know how to form habits, it’s important that you understand what they actually are. And what they are not. Habits are not just “something you do every day.”


When most people think of a habit, they think “something you do everyday.” If you were trying to start an exercise “habit,” you might set the goal of doing a certain number of sets/reps, running a certain distance, or exercising for a certain amount of time each day.


If you were trying to start a writing habit you might target a certain number of pages or words per day. If you were trying to network more you might send a target number of emails per day.


It’s true that habits are frequently recurring behaviors, and an “X per day” approach isn’t automatically bad, but just doing something regularly is not enough to form a habit.


Because that isn’t how the psychology of habits works.


Do you ever feel like you have to “make yourself” do something? Do you ever put off your daily activity until later in the day, even if you do eventually get it done? That’s how you know you don’t actually have a habit—you have a responsibility, a nagging task.


The psychology of habits can fix that.
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

May 03, 2020


Many will have heard the expression that in space, no one can hear you scream.

Like many others before you, you may have simply accepted this as the truth without thinking much more on the topic.

Some may have even delved further and learned that space is silent because sound cannot travel through a vacuum.

While both of these things are true, have you ever wondered why?

To get to the bottom of this we need to take a closer look at the science behind it all.
So, space is a vacuum, but what does that really mean?

We all know of this thing called space, but what exactly is it?

To put it simply, space is everything that you can find outside Earth’s atmosphere.

Despite being filled with stars, planets, asteroids and so on, space is referred to as a vacuum.

A vacuum technically means a space entirely devoid of matter.

Inside a vacuum there is absolutely nothing. No particles, no air, nothing.

So how is space a vacuum, if there are so many cosmic bodies filling the night sky?

Well, it turns out that space isn’t actually a true vacuum. It’s referred to as such for convenience, as space is such a large place that the vast majority of it actually is a vacuum.

How does sound travel anyway, and why can’t it travel throughout space?

Like light, sound travels in waves. Unlike light waves, however, sound waves are referred to as a mechanical wave.

In the case of sound waves, these mechanical waves come in the form of a vibrating wave that transports energy as it moves from one place to another.

This wave has to travel through what we call a medium, which in this case is through particles.

Let’s look at an example though, to make it a little clearer.

If you play a string of a guitar, the string vibrates. This initial vibration creates a chain reaction in the particles around it, in a way not too dissimilar to the ripples from a pebble dropped into a pond.

Each particle affected then transfers the vibrations onto those around it, transferring energy.

The further the sound wave travels, the weaker the vibration becomes.

This happens until the sound wave ceases to exist, due to a small amount of energy being lost in each transfer between particles.

So, for sound to travel, we need particles. These particles can make up a whole range of things including water, gas, liquids, or even solids.

Sound cannot travel through space though, as it is a vacuum. If you played a guitar in space, you wouldn’t hear it.

There are no particles in the enormous gaps of nothingness between cosmic bodies in space to vibrate, and thus the initial vibrations of the guitar string wouldn’t have anything to transfer to, and no one would ever hear it.

How can space be silent if it’s not a true vacuum?

This sound was first recorded in 2003 at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and it came from the Perseus galaxy over 250 million light years away.

The sound was measured to be a B-flat, but at a frequency billions of times lower than is physically possible for humans to hear.

OK so wait, is space completely silent or not?

While space is more silent than you could ever imagine, it’s not completely devoid of sound.

Sound waves cannot travel through space, but there are some infinitesimally small regions where sound can exist, under very specific conditions.
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

May 02, 2020


Petroleum refining or Oil refining is an industrial process in which crude oil is extracted from the ground and transformed and refined into useful products like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), kerosene, asphalt base, jet fuel, gasoline, heating oil, fuel oils etc. Crude Oil consists of hydrocarbon molecules. There are three steps in the Petroleum refining process – Separation, Conversion, and Treatment. It would not be possible to travel by vehicle without petrol or diesel oil. Learn how do we obtain petrol and crude oil and also more about petroleum or oil refineries.

What is Petroleum?


Petroleum is a substance that occurs naturally. It is a dark liquid. It occurs beneath the earth’s surface. A large number of products like petrol, diesel, lubricating oil, etc derive from petroleum. Its compounds can be separated with the help of fractional distillation. In the year 2006, primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.8%, natural gas 22.9%, and coal 26.6% share for fossil fuels in primary energy production in the world.

Formation of Petroleum


It takes around millions of years for petroleum to form. It is formed due to the presence of decomposed carcasses of dead animals beneath the surface of the earth. These carcasses of dead animals are subjected to extreme pressure and heat. Over centuries, millions of animals lived and died to become fossilized, just in case of plant-based matter. Similarly, in the ocean, oceanic creatures drowned to the bottom of the ocean and got buried under the sand and rocks.
Decayed due to the presence of bacteria, the decomposed organic matter got buried deeper and deeper over the years. Over millions of years, high temperature, high pressure, the absence of air converted the dead animals to petroleum and coal. This liquefied form of dead organic matter is petroleum or crude oil. Crude oil is extracted from oil wells, these wells can be very deep. The oil extracted is later refined to form petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, paraffin wax, lubrication oil, etc.

Petroleum Refining Process


Deposition of petroleum occurs with natural gas in the rocks called oil wells from where it is taken out by drilling. Refining is a process where the separation of various compounds of crude oil occurs. Fractional distillation is a process used to separate its compounds.
Crude Oil procured from an oil well is a mixture of many liquids. Different temperature evaporates a different liquid. This temperature is the boiling point of that liquid. The crude oil is heated to a temperature of 400-degree Celcius, is fed in at the bottom of the column and heated further. The liquid with the lowest boiling point changes into vapor first and condenses. At higher temperature, the next volatile liquid changes into a vapor state and rises.

Petroleum Refining Process Flow Chart


Different vapors rise at different temperature and as they condense, they are collected in different trays. Different liquids are collected in different trays. A few gases reach the top of the column without condensing.

Products produced in Petroleum Refining Process

Petroleum Gas: Generally, liquefied petroleum gas is useful for domestic fuel.
Gasoline: Procuration of petrol occurs from this fraction.
Kerosene: It is used as domestic fuel and also as fuel in jet engines.
Diesel oil or light oil: It is useful in the automobile industry.
Heavy Oil or Lubricating Oil: This type of oil is used in making lubricating oils.
Fuel Oil: It is essential for ships, central heating, and factories.
Residue: We can procure products like paraffin wax, bitumen from this residue. It is useful for making roads and roofing.

Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

May 02, 2020

Owning an island seems like a dream come true — but they cost a lot of money and apparently only rich celebrities and billionaires like Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mel Gibson can afford them. It turns out that you could also get an island for a more than reasonable price! However some of these deals have special requirements, which is why people are not rushing to buy them. There’s a bonus for budget travelers at the end: an island for free!

Piaçabuçu Islands, Brazil



You can become the owner of not one, but 6 islands, with picturesque views and unique wildlife, located on San Francisco River in northeastern Brazil, for just $79,500. The reason why nobody has grabbed them up yet is probably that they are technically not buying these islands as much as they are buying the right to use them for 99 years, and they will be subject to some vague “small, yearly taxes.”

Little Rocky Island, Canada



This 8-acre island with white sandy beaches, well preserved nature, and pine forests is also sheltered from storms and hurricanes by the neighboring islands. There’s no other property there, so you could be the first to build your own dream house. Its price is only $74,500, as for why it’s still for sale, maybe it’s because the Canadian market is flooded with private islands.

Tillamook Island, USA



Tillamook Island (also known as Terrible Tilly) is not an island in the traditional sense, it’s a rock with a lighthouse off the coast of Oregon. The original cost of Tillamook Island, which was sold several times, was $500,000, and now it’s dropped to $50,000, but the waves sweeping over the entire island and a history full of various legends, myths, and even tragedies (starting with an accident at the end of the 19th century with the head of a surveyor expedition, mason John Trewavas, who was hit by a wave and swept out to sea) scares off potential buyers.

Chandler Island, USA



Cahndler Island is a 1-acre island with a view of picturesque Maine, you can buy for $39,999. There`s a small cabin on the island and you also can build your own house there. The only problem is that high tide is significant for the island — the water covers half of this already small piece of land.

McGibbon Island, Canada



A small undeveloped island on St. Johns River, in New Brunswick, Canada is up for sale for less than $29,900. The only disadvantage is that every spring, flood waters cover the entire island, so you can`t really build anything there. During the other seasons the island is a great place for camping or kayaking.

Sheep Lake Islands, Canada



These small tree-covered islands surrounded by the crystal clear waters of Sheep Lake will certainly give you peace and joy, but probably not much of a privacy — they are only 25 miles from the closest fishing village, so there might be a lot of visitors and the island might not be that private anymore. But if you’re ok with that, you can buy this island for $50,989.

Fort Carroll, USA



For just $31,500 you can become the owner of this historic artificial private island, built in 1848 to protect the city of Baltimore, on one condition — you have to restore the abandoned fort on it. Local businesses tried to renovate the island and turn it into a hotel, conference center, casino, and even a jail, but these attempts were unsuccessful. It’s an important conservation nesting site for seagulls and herons, so you can’t start major construction work, since it can scare off the birds.


Bonus: Maatsuyker Island, Australia



There’s an opportunity to live completely rent free for 6 months on this tiny island with Australia’s most southerly lighthouse off the coast of Tasmania — to take part in the Maatsuyker Island Caretaker Program as a volunteer. Duties include weather readings, ocean observations, cleaning out storm water drains, lawnmowing, brush-cutting, etc. Volunteers can take up to 716 pounds (325 kg) of food and clothing, and there is just one resupply trip during the 6-month stay.


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

May 01, 2020 2


Using keyboard shortcuts can greatly increase your productivity, reduce repetitive strain, and help keep you focused. For example, to copy text, you can highlight text and press the Ctrl+C shortcut. The shortcut is faster than moving your hands from the keyboard, highlighting with the mouse, choosing copy from the file menu, and then returning to the keyboard.

Below are the top 10 keyboard shortcuts we recommend everyone memorize and use.


Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert and Ctrl+X

Both Ctrl+C and Ctrl+Insert will copy highlighted text or a selected item. If you want to cut an item instead of copying it, press Ctrl+X. This action removes the text or item and stores it in the clipboard for you, rather than copying it to the clipboard while leaving the original behind.

Apple computer users can substitute the Ctrl key for the command (cmd) key on their computers. For example, pressing Cmd+C copies highlighted text.


Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert

Both the Ctrl+V and Shift+Insert will paste the text or object that's stored in the clipboard.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+V instead.

Practice

Use the above text input fields to highlight the "Cut or copy this text" text and press either Ctrl+C to copy or Ctrl+X to cut the text. Once cut, move to the next field and press Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert to paste the text. For further demonstration, visit the following link.

Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y

Pressing Ctrl+Z will undo any change. For example, if you cut text, pressing this key combination will undo the cut. These shortcuts can also be pressed multiple times to undo or redo multiple changes. Pressing Ctrl+Y would redo the undo.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+Z and Cmd+Y to undo and redo.

Use the above text input field to highlight some or all the text and then press Ctrl+X to cut the text. Once the text has disappeared, press the Ctrl+Z to undo the cut.

Tip

If you did the first example as well (cut and paste text) and you continue to press Ctrl+Z, it is also going to undo that change.
Ctrl+F and Ctrl+G

Pressing Ctrl+F opens the Find field, which allows you to search the text currently displayed in any program that supports it. For example, Ctrl+F can be used in your Internet browser to find text on the current page. Press Ctrl+F now to open the Find in your browser and search for "shortcut" to display each time shortcut is mentioned on this page.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+F to find.

Ctrl+G may be used to repeat a search (from using Ctrl+F) in a document or on a web page.

Alt+Tab or Ctrl+Tab

Pressing Alt+Tab switches between open programs moving forward. For example, if you have your browser window open and other programs running in the background press and hold Alt and then press the Tab key to cycle through each open program.

On Apple computers, instead of using the Alt key use the Command (Cmd) key. For example, Cmd+Tab to switch between open programs.

Bonus Tip

Press Ctrl+Tab to switch between tabs in a program. For example, if you have multiple tabs open in your Internet browser, press Ctrl+Tab to switch between them.

Bonus Tip

Adding the Shift key to Alt+Tab or Ctrl+Tab moves backward. For example, if you are pressing Alt+Tab and pass the program you want to use, press Alt+Shift+Tab to move back to that program.

Bonus Tip

Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 users can also press the Windows Key+Tab to switch through open programs in a full screenshot of the window.
Ctrl+Backspace and Ctrl+Left or Right arrow
Note

The following shortcuts are for PC users only and do not work on Apple computers.

Pressing Ctrl+Backspace deletes a full word at a time instead of a single character.

Holding down the Ctrl key while pressing the left or right arrow moves the cursor one word at a time instead of one character at a time. If you want to highlight one word at a time, hold down Ctrl+Shift, then press the left or right arrow key. Your highlighted selection moves one word at a time in that direction.
Ctrl+S
While working on a document or another file in almost every program, pressing Ctrl+S saves that file. Use this shortcut key frequently if you're working on anything important in case of an error, lost power, or any other issues that causes you to lose any work since the last save.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+S to save a file.


Ctrl+Home or Ctrl+End

Ctrl+Home moves the cursor to the beginning of the document, and Ctrl+End moves the cursor to the end of a document. These shortcuts work with most documents, as well as web pages.

On Apple computers, use the Cmd + up arrow to get to the beginning or Cmd + down arrow to get to the end of a document or text.


Ctrl+P

Control+P is used to open a print preview of the page or document currently being viewed. For example, press Ctrl+P now to view a print preview of this page.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+P to open the print preview.


Page Up, Spacebar, and Page Down

As you may have guessed, pressing either the page up or page down key moves to the next or previous page. When browsing the Internet, pressing the spacebar moves the scrollbar down a page. Similarly, Shift+spacebar moves the scrollbar up one page.

Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

May 01, 2020

The trouble with pendulum clocks and ordinary watches is that you have to keep remembering to wind them. If you forget, they stop—and you have no idea what time it is. Another difficulty with pendulum clocks is that they depend on the force of gravity, which varies very slightly from place to place; that means a pendulum clock tells time differently at high altitudes from at sea level! Pendulums also change length as the temperature changes, expanding slightly on warm days and contracting on cold days, which makes them less accurate again.

Quartz watches solve all these problems. They are battery powered and, because they use so little electricity, the battery can often last several years before you need to replace it. They are also much more accurate than pendulum clocks. Quartz watches work in a very different way to pendulum clocks and ordinary watches. They still have gears inside them to count the seconds, minutes, and hours and sweep the hands around the clockface. But the gears are regulated by a tiny crystal of quartz instead of a swinging pendulum or a moving balance wheel. Gravity doesn't figure in the workings at all so a quartz clock tells the time just as well when you're climbing Mount Everest as it does when you're at sea.

Quartz sounds exotic—with a "q" and a "z," it's a great word to play in Scrabble—but it's actually one of the most common minerals on Earth. It's made from a chemical compound called silicon dioxide (silicon is also the stuff from which computer chips are made), and you can find it in sand and most types of rock. Perhaps the most interesting thing about quartz is that it's piezoelectric. That means if you squeeze a quartz crystal, it generates a tiny electric voltage. The opposite is also true: if you apply a voltage to a piece of quartz, it vibrates at a precise frequency (it shakes an exact number of times each second).


Inside a quartz clock or watch, the battery sends electricity to the quartz crystal through an electronic circuit. The quartz crystal oscillates (vibrates back and forth) at a precise frequency: exactly 32768 times each second. The circuit counts the number of vibrations and uses them to generate regular electric pulses, one per second. These pulses can either power an LCD display (showing the time numerically) or they can drive a small electric motor (a tiny stepping motor, in fact), turning gear wheels that spin the clock's second, minute, and hour hands.
Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Powered by Blogger.