Matthew Baldwin has ferreted out some of the secrets of many trade that only insiders know. If you check out his piece in in The Morning News, you'll be sure to know more than you do right now.
Here are just a few of the secrets Matthew's uncovered:
Attorney
Do whatever it takes to fit your contracts onto a single page: Format with single-spacing, use a 10- or 9-point font, and reduce the margins to less than an inch. Most people assume any contract that fits on one page will be simple and straightforward, and even sophisticated negotiators can be charmed by the lack of a staple.
Mechanic
If you have to change a light bulb where the glass is broken, you can press a potato into the metal base to unscrew the remains of the bulb from the fixture.
Nurse
Patients will occasionally pretend to be unconscious. A surefire way to find them out is to pick up their hand, hold it above their face, and let go. If they smack themselves, they’re most likely unconscious; if not, they’re faking.
Photographer
When taking family portraits that include a dog, don’t use the dog’s name or say “doggie, doggie” to get its attention, because it might trot over to you. Instead, call out “kitty, kitty, kitty.” The dog will perk up and look around for a cat, and you can get a great shot if you time it right.
This from the Internet and anonymous but too good not to share
A flamboyant Texas plastic surgeon now encourages every patient to store liposuctioned fact so that adult stem cells can be retrieved for potential medical use. Dr. Robert Ersek also believes that to educate you first have to entertain, will do a quick liposuction on himself to make his point.
Stem cells derived from fatty tissue have shown potential to repair damaged bone and cartilage, said Dr. Gordon Keller, a professor of gene and cell medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. They also are showing promise in research trials as a therapy for damaged nerves and muscles, including the heart
This is the ultimate recycling says Elizabeth Scarbrough, vice president of marketing and development at MacroPore Biosurgery Inc., of San Diego, the company that will store Ersek's stem cells and those of any patients who choose to do so. MacroPore charges $600 to $1,675, depending on how long the cells are to be stored, Scarbrough said. Those spending the least get processing only and would pay another $175 a year to store their stem cells in a liquid nitrogen freezer. The high-end buyers get 10 years of storage and pay $100 a year thereafter, she said. If the cells are never used, patients can donate them for research.
"Integral medicine promotes an approach using the best in modern healthcare, while equally recognizing the emotional, spiritual & relational dimensions essential in the cultivation of wellness."
— Marilyn Schlitz
Noetic Sciences are explorations into the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing—including intuition, feeling, reason, and the senses. Noetic sciences explore the "inner cosmos" of the mind (consciousness, soul, spirit) and how it relates to the "outer cosmos" of the physical world. The current issue of its publication Shift: at the Frontiers of Consciousness from the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) features Integral Health and Healing.
In the fall, IONS will be publishing "Consciousness and Healing" with contributions from Contributions by: Larry Dossey, Roger Walsh, Michael Murphy, Ivan Illich, Eugene Taylor, Lawrence LeShan, Caroline Myss, Rachel Naomi Remen, Arthur Deikman, Deepak Chopra, Stanley Krippner, Kenneth Pelletier, Bernie Siegel, Candace Pert, Joan Borysenko, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Dean Ornish, Fred Luskin, George Leonard, Richard Tarnas, William Braud, Rupert Sheldrake, Elisabeth Targ, Dean Radin, Stanislav Grof, Kenneth Ring, Willis Harman, Charles Tart, Elizabeth Sahtouris, Thomas Berry, Christian de Quincey, David Ray Griffin, Theodore Roszak, Brian Swimme, Ralph Metzner, Duane Elgin, Erwin Laszlo, and others.
From the introduction by Ken Wilber
Wilber, one of my favorite thinkers, also has a summary of his integral all quadrants theory at the end.
Beginning in earnest a decade or two ago, there was an explosion of hard empirical research showing that positively enlisting various emotional factors—on the part of the heath-care practitioner as well as the patient—had a profoundly affirmative effect on the treatment, in many cases not only reducing recovery time but medical costs as well. Nor was this a case of "needy" patients doing better if somebody held their hands. Controlled studies consistently showed that, if certain emotional and affective elements are engaged in the healing process, positive effects tend to be seen across all types of patients. Put bluntly, not becoming emotionally involved in some ways could not only increase medical costs but significantly harm the patient. What's a poor doctor to do?
Medical schools across the country began eyeing this research warily. The whole thing had too much of a "New-Age" ring to it for most conventional medical practitioners. Trying to introduce these "subjective" factors was the opposite of what modern medicine ought to be doing. Nonetheless, virtually all medical schools were forced to confront this issue when research showed that patients were fleeing orthodox medicine and spending some 2 billion dollars annually on types of healthcare that did not ignore these subjective factors. Over two-thirds of medical schools now have courses in complementary medicine, although the relationship between the two approaches remains as uneasy (and even cynical) as it ever was. Part of integral medicine is an attempt to find a framework that can allow both of those approaches—conventional and complementary—to exist in a framework that embarrasses neither.
Remember when the only choice you had to make when it came to toothpaste was regular or mint? Today, there are well over 200, enough to confound anyone at the drugstore. Colgate alone has 49 varieties and Crest has 21 varieties in twenty four different flavors.
This is good news, even a godsend writes Laura Koss-Feder in "Coming to the Rescue" in TIME
Approximately 25% of the nation's 40,000 bona fide financial advisers are devoting their practices to assisting certain kinds of clients: seniors, individuals going through divorce, small-business owners, those with disabled family members and high-net-worth corporate executives. Some advisers specialize in serving clientele in certain occupations, such as medicine and teaching. Others work with those who have newly acquired wealth, like lottery winners.
Planners with specific expertise can be a godsend. For example, Dee Reeves, a hair-salon owner whose son Sean, 32, has Down syndrome, found the right professional advice with financial planner Mary Anne Ehlert 11 years ago. Eighty percent of Ehlert's business — which includes the services of staff social workers — is devoted to helping families with disabled children, spouses and parents navigate both their finances and the social-service system. Ehlert is trying to create a special designation for other financial advisers across the country who want to work with similar clients. Ehlert's 16-person firm, based in Vernon Hills, Ill., charges an average fee of $2,500 to $3,000 a year.
Divorce planning is one of the fastest-growing specialties. The Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts in Southfield, Mich., certifies specialists, who have to pass exams on how to handle monetary issues related to divorce, according to its president, Fadi Baradihi. The institute's membership of 1,500 is growing about 20% annually.
If you don't need specialized advice, a regular financial planner is just fine. But if you need specialized advice, by all means, search out specialized planners in your area. "With tax laws and regulations becoming more complex every year, specialists can really help you. They also can serve as an advocate in your corner," says Linda Sherry, a consumer advocate at Consumer Action, a San Francisco — based nonprofit organization.
I've written earlier about the special needs of parents of special needs children. A team approach consisting of a financial planner, an estate planning attorney and a social worker or advocate seems to work the best
Beginning June 27, 2004, major Wall Street firms must provide clients with stock recommendations by outsiders, that is a second and independent source of research apart from their own analysts. Last year's $1.4 billion settlement with the SEC and state regulators forced this change to resolve charges of conflict of interest by investment banks touting stocks to buy in which they had a financial interest.
Just how this independent research will work out for the average investor remains to be seen. I believe it will a long time before trust can be restored. People burned will turn towards independent financial planners and analysts before they put their trust in the large Wall St firms.
What's interesting is that some firms, like Fidelity, that were not "slapped by regulators seem to view such reports as a competitive threat" according to BusinessWeek. In a short article entitled Fidelity Flaunts Its Bona Fides that's not yet online, reporter Mara Der Havanesian writes that Fidelity will soon add research from seven new independent firms "to get up to par with its admonished rivals."