Yes, keep the system simple. But don't keep the food simple. It needs to be exactly what you want to eat most of the time.

My Mom got into this from a book she read and started saying this all the friggen time and correcting everyone around her on it. It got really annoying. I think it's a good stress management tool; I think it is helpful in reminding us how the tasks in front of us are connected to our bigger goals; but outside of those…

I joined the orange glasses and f.lux brigade about a month ago and I really recommend them. I'm better able to set aside anxieties at the end of the evening and when I wake up, I put on my glasses and I fall back to sleep faster.

Also — Don't buy water. First, bottled water is usually someone else's tap water. Second, a quart bottle of Gatorade goes on sale for $1, but a tub of Gatorade powder is $9 (online, Walmart) and makes 24 one quart servings. Third, a $2 fountain drink contains 25 cents worth of syrup.

I would guess they fall for them in exactly the same way as we fall for advertising, propaganda, and logical fallacies. Looking at a manipulation specimen in isolation makes us feel like of course we'd identify it in the wild but the fact is that we encounter these techniques so often that they are normal in some…

I'm guessing this is exclusive to disposable diapers...

I think the more reasonable application of this is to keep some cloth diapers around for wiping up grease, oil, and bigger messes than you want to use kitchen towels for. http://www.thesimpledollar.com/abandoning-the…

The *right* marinade is sometimes not being so frikin' dogmatic about the healthfulness of your entree. Having to soak your boneless, skinless chicken breast in Italian dressing all day to be able to tolerate is an insult to the chicken's life. Cook it with the bones and skin. Remove the skin on the other end if you…

Honestly, I would rather snack on carrots, radishes, and cucumber (especially English or Persian) than most fruit from the store. Even fruit that's in season is often picked green for shipping and to my tastes never loses the sour note.

Exactly right. One of the terrifying take-aways from Michael Moss's book "Salt Sugar Fat" is how engineered restaurant and packaged foods are. Even steaks are seasoned with layers of salt (marinade and seasoning), sugar (marinade and seasoning), and fat (marbling and coated with oil before and after cooking) to hit…

In the "how to start a fire with nearly anything" section, the techniques you give are for getting a spark. The "nearly anything" should include cotton balls, sanitary napkins, tampons, toilet paper, and bandage wrap — all of which make decent kindling. They can also be boosted along with the fat family (lip balm, lip…

I believe that should be "Colorado Christian University" Being on this list is consistent with their blogging on the issue: http://www.ccu.edu/search/?search…

I believe that should be "Colorado Christian University" Being on this list is consistent with their blogging on the issue: http://www.ccu.edu/search/?search…

Now that I've read the article, I think calling it "best buys" is nonsense. They're listing the products which got good quality ratings by their testers not the ones which are a good value.

And for an even better deal — the leg quarters pack. 8 thigh/drumstick pieces for $5. I now get this every time I go to a potluck. The drumsticks are always a big hit with kids and parents and I keep the thigh meat for using in casseroles.

This Instructable for home-made ramen has worked well for me: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make…

I use Programmer's Notepad. It's free, manages tabs well, doesn't insert cruft so I can copy/paste to Excel or VIM with equal ease. It has editing formats for many languages, but it always starts as just a notepad. My favorite current use of it is as a "zen" notebook — I take lots of notes throughout the day and have…

There are some links directly to state sites available (from the page):

So while food, housing, transportation, education, and medical expenses are raised based on what corporations, lobbyists, and politicians decide is "normal", the individual is completely at the whim of his/her boss and his/her boss's bosses for the value s/he brings to the market? Talk about a rigged game...

It would also be nice (as long as we're wishing for unicorns...) to re-norm housing costs to actual median income. Since the 80's we've had generations of Realtors, real-estate agents, mortgage brokers, financial hacks, self-help gurus, and others promising that "your income will only go up!" and you should borrow to…