Dinosaur Syndrome Revisited

The Dinosaur Syndrome Revisited:  Big Body, Little Brain, Become Extinct

Over the last decade there is growing evidence that shows the harmful effects of too much fat on your body. In a study of 1,438 Japanese men, researchers found significant decreases in brain size in the PFC and temporal lobes (learning and memory). Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug abuse, and colleagues found that in healthy adults a high BMI (body max index) was inversely correlated with activity in the PFC. Elevated BMI has also been associated with myelin abnormalities in the PFC of healthy normal and elderly adults.

The goal of our study was the test the hypothesis that an elevated BMI is associated with lower blood flow to the PFC in a healthy group of people on brain SPECT imaging. To that end, we compared our group of “healthy” subjects who had a high BMI with people in our “healthy” group of normal weight. The results of our study were very clear. The high BMI group had statistically significant lower activity in the PFC compared with the normal group.

Obesity is becoming a worldwide epidemic and is a risk factor for many chronic condition, including cardiovascular disease, depression, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. It has recently found to be worse for your liver than alcoholism.

We were not able to determine if problems in the PFC led to increased impulsivity and subsequent obesity or if being overweight or obese directly caused brain changes. Both scenarios may be true. The fact that we used a healthy-brain group and specifically excluded ADHD or other behavioural disorders argues against the premorbid hypothesis, but other studies have shown an association between ADHD and obesity. Still other authors report that fat tissue directly increases inflammatory chemicals, which likely have a negative effect on brain structure and function.

One of the major problems with being overweight or obese is that there is evidence that it damages your PFC, which we know is the major decision-making part of the brain. So if you do not get your weight under-control, it will become harder and harder to use get your own good judgment over time to get and stay healthy. Now is the time to start enhancing your health and longetivity, not at some arbitrary point in the future, which most likely will never come.

The Day of the Flowers. Photo by Elena.

ADHD, PFC Problems, and Early Death

ADHD is associated with low activity in the PFC. Initially, ADHD was thought of as a childhood disorder that most kids outgrew by the time they turned twelve or thirteen. The hallmark symptoms of ADHD are short attention span, being easily distracted, disorganization, hyperactivity (trouble sitting still), and poor impulse control. People with ADHD, like Jose, often exhibit excitement-seeking or conflict-seeking behavior; they also tend to have trouble with time (they are often late and turn in assignments at the last minute). Over the last three decades it has become clear that many ADHD children continue to have debilitating symptoms for the rest of their lives. They tend to outgrow the physical hyperactivity but not the problems with disorganization, inattention, distractibility, and impulse control. Untreated ADHD has been associated with a higher incidence of:

• Drug and alcohol abuse (impulsivity and to calm feelings of hyperactivity)
• Relationship problems (impulsivity and conflict seeking)
• School failure (attentional problems and impulsivity)
• Job-related problems (problems with time, attention, and impulse control)
• Medical problems (associated with chronic stress, plus more head trauma with the excitement-seeking behavior)
• Obesity (lack of impulse control)
• Depression (chronic failure)
• Lack of conscientiousness (all of the above).

In the book Daniel G. Amen wrote with noted neurologist Rod Shankle, “Preventing Alzheimer's, the authors argued that ADHD is likely associated with Alzheimer's disease because of its connection with many of the illnesses that put people at risk for it, such as alcohol abuse, obesity, depression and head trauma. This is very important, because when ADHD goes untreated, a person will not be able to control his or her impulses, setting him up for significant health problems, poor decisions, and earlier death. If you or someone you love has symptoms of ADHD, it is important to be treated. Natural ways to treat ADHD include intense aerobic exercise, a very healthy diet, a multivitamin, fish oil, and supplements (such as green tea, rhodiola, L-Tyrosine) or medication (such as Ritalin or Adderall) to enhance PFC function.

Once you realize the absolutely critical role of the PFC to longevity, you then need to do everything possible to protect it and rehabilitate it if necessary.

(Use Your Brain by Daniel G. Amen, M.D. Excerpt).

Way to healthy live. Photo by Elena.

Hidden - a novel

Hidden a novel by Catherine McKenzie

(Excerpt)

Despite being only five hundred miles away from one another as the crow flies, there are no direct flights between my Springfield and Jeff's.

I consider driving to the funeral, but since I don't think I can stand that much time alone with my thoughts, I take a connecting flight through one of those hubs whose terminals splay out like spokes on a wheel. An hour there, an hour lay-over, an hour to the other Springfield, and I'll be there.

I'll. Be. There.

But what am I even doing here, on my way to Springfield, on my way to the funeral I told Zoey I wouldn't be attending?

The day after the day, after the shouting, the crying, what I hope was the worst day of my life, I managed, somehow, to pull a cloak of normalcy around me. I sat at my desk, answered my phone and emails, and processed paperwork.

For the next three unfortunates who were being terminated, I pretended I wasn't the object of stares, of whispers, of questions, of doubt. In my silence, I hoped, I'd reinforce the hasty explanations I gave on the ride home with Lori, and that would be that. If I was lucky, there'd be some other event, or someone else, to talk about tomorrow.

At midday, an email went out to the memeers of the HR department. It had been decided that someone from the company should attend the funeral. Be an envoy. Say a few nice things about how devoted Jeff was, how well liked. It wouldn't be a pleasant mission, so a volunteer would be appreciated.

The email felt like a bomb sitting in my inbox.

Where my co-workers expecting me to diffuse it?

As the minutes ticked away and no one their raised hand, my chest started to constrict and I worried I might start hyperventilating. I wanted to go, and I knew at the same time that it was the last thing I should be doing.

In the end, I couldn't help myself.

I'll go, I wrote and hit Send before sanity restored itself.

As my email pinged into my department's inboxes, I imagined I heard a collective sigh of relief. Oh, thank God, a dozen people were thinking – or so I imagined. I won't have to be surrounded by sad people, or search for the right words to say. Besides, my thoughts ran on, she should be the one to go, anyway.

Shouldn't she?

The complicated nature of love, griefs, truth, and the place they hold in our lives... Illustration by Elena.

Useful sentences and expressions

Sets of words

Some useful sentences and expressions I strongly recommend for creators of content. And I explain my reasons for doing so:

• Sentences like “let's take a moment”, ”I'm not sure it's for you” and other sentences expressing doubt cause the person to think that something is not urgent and not important, can be put on hold. Avoid using them.
• The word “but”: this word makes the person to focus on everything that goes after BUT (for example: your phone used to be perfect, but now you need to change and sell it before it's too late”)...
• Use the word “Open minded”:  ”how open-minded would you be about trying this alternative...” “Would you be open-minded about giving us a chance to help you to get rid of your old device” “How open-minded would you be about increasing your income”, ”how open-minded would you be about”, “How open-minded will be you about at least trying it”. If you use this expression - “open-minded” - the person subconsciously feels obligated to explore some possibilities.
• The set of words “what you know” helps to control the situation, to move the person from position of certainty to one of doubt (he doesn't want to sell online, but after seeing “what you know”, he may change his mind). This set of words moves the person to understand that his rejection is due to lack of evidence or to insufficient evidence: ”What you know about us, the business we do differently”. ”What you know about how everything has changed since...l”, “What you know about benefits”, ”What you now about new approach”, All these questions (what you know) help people realize that their opinion (rejection of our offer) is perhaps not correct.
• The set of words: “How would you feel if...”. Motivation: reasons to move or to do Examples – “How would you feel if the decision to order our services leads to an additional income?”, “How do you feel if you get money from a useless gadget?”, “How would you feel if the next year at this time you would live in a house of your dreams.”..
• “Just One More Thing...” - Makes people smile and feel like doing good thing. Besides, this expression can help us to avoid that a potential customer leaves without a transaction
• The set of words: “Just imagine” helps create the image by telling stories (once upon a time...) When you hear the words « just imagine » some subconscious moment clicks and switches your brain to listen: “Just imagine how things would be when you get an extra-income. “Just imagine how will you feel when you get money for a gadget you don't need anymore”, “Just imagine the look on your kids faces when you achieve this”, “Just imagine the impact this could have”, “Just imagine the smile on your kids faces when you tell them you can allow yourselves to get to”. Or simply “Just imagine the difference...”

Just imagine the world without living creatures... Photo by Elena.

• The set of words “I'm guessing you” (by using this set of words you eliminate their excuses they had in their mind).
• The set of words: “Where would be a good time to”. “When will it be good time to get started (to look at this proposal).
• The set of words which turns the open question into a closed one. An open question: “do you have any question”. Turn it to a closed question - “What question do you have for me?”. Instead of “Can you give me your phone number (appeal to privacy), use “What is the best number I can reach you?” (are you ready to sell... - change by “will you sell it today, in order to get the top price?”
• The set of words which gives potential customer options: you could do this, secondly, you could do exactly nothing, or, third, you could give this a try... What of these three options would be more easy and convenient for you? (these three options make them realize that they have to pick one of these three options). Start with the three options and finish with « what option will be easier for you? » (more convenient for you)
• The set of words: “there are two sorts of people, who listen and those who act”
• The set of words presenting evidence: “We bet you are ready to do something”, “We bet you're a busy person”.
• The set of words “if... that...” “if you don't eat your dinner you'll not get any desert”, “if you don't clean your room, you'll be grounded the weekend”... If a person hears these conditions, chances are this person will believe them: “If you decide to give it a try, we promise that you'll not be disappointed”, or “if you... we are confident that you...”
• Another set of words help to calm the reader: “Don't worry”, “feel confident”, “just relax, we'll help you navigate through the choices” or “Don't worry, we know you are not sure about, but our guidelines will help you easily find the way”...
• The set of words “most people”. We don't press by saying - “you should do that...“. We say “most people would do that in this situation” -  “Most people would grab to the opportunity, as there are no risk...”
• The set of words - “the good news” The good news is that dozens of people came through it and we are here to help you too... this brings more positivity, and you add the words like that's great, etc.àThe set of words: What happens next. (what happens next is...). We don't ask, we state what happens next. (now, just fill in the form...)
• The set of words “What makes you say that?” Questions like this help people overcome an objection (however, we must understand what the objection is). If we ask questions, these questions make people take the responsibility.
• Another set of words: “Before you make your mind up (before it what if we run once again...).
• The set of words “if I can, I will...”
• The word “enough”: would it be enough for you if we pay you more than a competition...
• The set of word which make us look as we are asking for a favor: “perhaps you can do us a small favor”, “you could do us a little favor, couldn't you?”
• The set of words “just out of curiosity”: “just out of curiosity, what is it specifically you want to think about...” “Just out of curiosity, what is that that's stopping you from selling”.
• The last set of words: “So how does it work? - It works great!” We give no details, no explanations, we just state that it works great.

The good news is they are not Goddesses. Picture by Elena.

Link Building Strategy

My text about link building strategies

Here comes the complete list of requirements for the link building:

Links must be inserted in texts, not in footnotes, not in the list of content, not anywhere else. In texts only,

1. The website where you insert a link must be created for visitors, not for SEO or other purposes, they must not be PBN or something of the sort (if you don't understand some of these terms, just google it, and everything will become clear).
2. It would be perfect if the site would be globally dedicated to the subjects related to our company (for a computer seller, the perfect website would be a site about hardware, cellphones, computers, ecology and recycling of used electronics, tips for improving family budget, global problems related to the use of electronic devices, investment in new technologies, and so on).
3. As a rule, the site must show positive dynamics in SEO parameters (today's SEO parameters are better than they were half a year ago, etc. ). 
4. People must actively visit the site. If there are a rather important number of comments on the texts, it would be great, etc. The ideal situation would be if the dynamics get better and better for the last year. But it may be too hard to achieve these goals, so if all the rest can be accepted, you can forget about this requirement.
5. Active presence of American audience is a must, if your company targets only American customers. On other side, if you are looking for visitors from an African country, the site where you buy a link should attract local people.
6. In numbers: Semrush - organic visits must be not less than 10000, and it would be better if the parameters reach 20000 (no matter desktop or mobile). The organic searches should show a permanent increase for at least six months, better if the increase has been observed for a year. There may be exceptions, but you can't accept sites where the visits dropped for more than 50% during the last year. Neither you cannot accept a website with a stable tendency for dropping organic search results. Alexa – the ideal site should appear in top 100К. You can accept websites with lower stats, but not lower than 500К. Audience must come mostly from the country (countries) you are interested in.
7. The site must not be blocked by the owner from being accessed from other countries (a few sites don't allow visitors in other countries to see their sites destined for visitors from specific countries, but Google doesn't like this method). 
8. Majestic TF and CF – the ideal figure would be higher than 20, but not lower than your owns stats on your own website. If your ranking is 12 (TF) и 27 (CF), the site where you buy a link must be not less than twice as higher (24 and 54).  However, it's preferable that TF and CF would be closer to each other comparing the difference (when a website is quoted too much, but its trust is too low, Google may see the situation as an issue).
9. Moz – DA on the site you buy a link must be higher than yours. You'd prefer DA to be higher than 35. 
10. Spam Score : 0-2 is the ideal situation.
11. https and adaptive format are not a must, but you'd prefer if the site has them.
12. An ideal case is a site which has twitter and/or facebook accounts, with 1000+ followers and activity (sharing, likes, comments). If the text with your link inserted is shared by the site in its social networks' account, it would be a great addition and merit a bonus if the site has 1000+ followers.
13. You can take dofollow links on permanent basis. If the site has a good traffic on the subject which interests you, the no follow link can also be used, but these will be rare exceptions.
14. We can't accept subdomains of the site offered by the seller (many offers talk about a website, like, say, ibm.com, but in fact the seller has access to personalblog/myvife/community/ibm.com or ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs. You can accept a subdomain, if its stats are within the requirements exposed above. But the seller must specify in his (her) proposal that it's a subdomain.
15. The text must be of good quality and the link inserted must be related to the text (you must not accept a link about selling used iPhone inserted in a text about sexuality of crocodiles).
16. You can't accept websites where everyone can sign up, start posting articles and then the administration of the site removes the text without any further explanations.
17. You must be very cautious about those websites which sell links to everyone in any occasion, as they finally will be punished by Google. One of the signs of such a site is that it is offered by dozens of sellers.
18. You should buy links on permanent basis. Yes, sites have the tendency to go away, or change its policy and thus remove some texts, etc. But when you buy a post with your link you expect the text be on the site for at least 2 years. If the texts is no more available before this delay expires, the seller must provide another text, published on another website with the same stats as exposed in this list. Specify these conditions.
19. You can purchase some presence in well-known platforms, such as reddit, quora, etc., but we have very strict special requirements for those platforms.

Rest assured that we never share your private info with any third-party organizations. It’s safe with us. Also, your link is insured in the event it is damaged during shipping. That’s right, we’ve got your back! Photo by Elena.

Templates

Templates of My Texts

Here come some samples of the texts I've written for my clients. Please contact me if you need a good writer.

Dear Madame, Sir

I am the owner of (this company), a company which specializes in buying and reselling used consumer electronics, cellular phones included. We have been on the market for 5 years now and we help people recycle their old devices and save money.

Our company currently buys dozens of cell phones every day. And I am writing to express my deep concern about the situation on the cellular phones markets, as our experience proves that cell phones carriers and manufactures are not doing enough to find ways to stop or at least reduce the criminal activity on the very lucrative illegal cell phones market.

Believe me, we at iGotOffer know what we are talking about. In our opinion, based on our experience, carriers and manufacturers are to blame for this situation, as we (and I suppose, our competition) try to do everything to prevent the theft of cell phones.

What happens? When we buy a used and old cell phone we always try to check if the item has been reported stolen or lost. Even more, we state on our Website that we will never buy a device reported stolen or lost, we will never return it to the seller and we will report to the law enforcement authorities every case of such items. Nevertheless, we receive these items regularly, and unfortunately, there is no secure way to check and tell with certainty that we deal with a stolen phone.

On the contrary, the existent legal conditions accommodate the resale of the stolen phones!

Indeed, each time we receive a cellular phone, we try to communicate with the manufacturer or with the carrier, but each time the decision to disclose the information on the phone depends on the good will of an employee, not on the law or or other regulations.

The process of obtaining information is long, slow and painful. All the carriers systematically refuse to give information about the phone's unique identifying number. The carriers have never added their databases of stolen cell phones to public access. The situation is the same with the manufacturers. For example, Apple Computers Inc. has assured us that they report all the unique identifiers to an « « « « Association » » » » which is supposed to share its database with customers. However, when we tried to obtain information, they denied that they ever had such database, and they insisted that they have never got any information from Apple Computers regarding stolen or lost iPhones.

Our experience shows that the carriers and manufacturers are not interested in collaborating with companies which have suspected cell phones in their possession ( for example, a thief sent them a device trying to sell it as a legitimate item). Every time we try to determine if an item has been reported stolen, we run into the wall of indifference.

We ask therefore that the Attorney General Office examines the situation in order to adapt legislation making illegal for the carriers and manufacturers to refuse public access to their database concerning identifiers of the items reported lost or stolen. The situation requires urgent action given the level of crime surrounding cell phones.

Sincerely yours,

the x Company owner.

We take great pride in our testimonials. Nothing makes our day like hearing a customer say, “Thank you for helping us...” Photo by Elena.