Recession and Your Health

Americans are enduring some of the toughest economic times in our history. Unemployment is up, home values are down, and corporations are restructuring to try to survive. However, on the brighter side, healthy living habits are improving while death rates are declining. It is a little know fact that people adopt smarter lifestyles during tough economic times. Research by Christoper J. Ruhm at the University of North Carolina shows that recessions are good for your health.

Health Improves During Recession

People live longer during recessions mainly because of extra free time. Unemployed workers go to the gym. Being unemployed or working less hours also allows for more sleep, which improves health. Exercise leads to weight loss and less smoking. Smokers also cut back to save money. Less money for eating out is also a likely reason as preparing meals at home tends to be much healthier. Dr. Ruhm's research shows that a one-percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate reduces the death rate by 0.5%. His studies were based in the U.S., but studies in other countries show the same results.

Smoking, Obesity, and Inactivity Drive Chronic Conditions

Chronic conditions account for 75% of the cost of health-care in the United States. So one could argue that a recession can help reduce the skyrocketing costs of health-care. What we can learn from this information is the cold hard fact that unhealthy lifestyles, not the insurance industry, lead to higher medical costs for everybody. Many employers who provide health insurance for their employees are requiring sometimes drastic changes in their employees' lifestyles. Can you really blame them? If you were paying medical bills for someone who flagrantly neglected there health, would you require that they actually make an effort to take care of themselves?

Stay Healthy Even In Good Times

Experts say that the recession has weakened and a slow recovery is ahead; maybe we can take this valuable lesson and apply it in our lives in the best of times. Recession may be directly linked good health, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a strong economy has to lead to poor health. Touche'.

Internet Slang Terms

Ever wonder what an acronym means in a text message, email, or instant message? New Internet slang terms are created everyday and it can be difficult to keep up with the meanings. The convenience of email and instant messaging is great, but it has also spawned a new modern language referred to as Internet slang.

Internet slang dictionaries exist to help translate this new language. Most people know what slang like "lol" or "imho" mean (laughing out loud, in my humble opinion for the slang impaired), but how about "baf" or "bb4n" (bring a friend, bye bye for now). The Internet Slang Dictionary is a popular site that will translate Internet slang into everday language. It is also very entertaining to browse through. Internet users and text message freaks submit there own terms and they are added or rejected based on popularity. It's a great place to get caught up on the latest Internet slang words.

Of course the slang that you use isn't necessarily what everybody else uses. Many people use a language that may be understood only between their particular friends they communicate with. A "standard" listing of Internet slang does exist however and is growing everyday. Take a look at this site and start learning the language of the digital age.

Wes

Clip Diary Clipboard Manager

Clip Diary Utility - I work in the the "cloud" for a majority of my everyday computing tasks and use the Windows clipboard often for copy/paste functions (control + c, control + v). Regardless of whether you're "cloud computing" or working offline, the copy/paste function is an extremely useful time saver. One major drawback of this function is that the Windows clipboard can only store one entry at a time resulting in each copy entry erasing the previous entry. This can bring productivity down to a slow crawl depending on your computing needs. Clip Diary is a utility designed to make using the Windows clipboard function more productive. This utility is meant for users who depend upon the Windows clipboard to get things done.

Clip Diary supports text, images, links, files, and other clipboard data. The main feature of Clip Diary is its ability to keep an unlimited clipboard history available so you don't have to repeatedly use the copy and paste keyboard functions (edit - copy and edit - paste for mouse users). Clip Diary makes the clipboard history available even after a reboot of your computer. Quick search functions and data recovery for replaced clipboard entries are other great features. Clip Diary offers a free evaluation version that is time limited. Windows is the only operating system currently supported but the developers say they will probably try to port it to other OS's. The registered version costs $24.95 and is well worth the investment if you use the Windows clipboard tool as much as I do.

Wes