Prostate cancer and life expectancy

New research into prostate cancer has revealed that surgery has little or no benefit in extending the life of a patient.

Does Sunshine Actually Decrease Dangerous Melanoma Skin Cancers?

There are other studies showing that chronic UV (ultraviolet) light exposure may actuallyreduce the risk of melanoma.

5 Simple Tools That Make Email Suck Less

What we do have access to is a growing number of smart add-ons and plug-ins that can improve your email work flow. Here are some of the most useful.

Is breakfast the most important meal?

Skip breakfast and you’re going to eat worse food for the rest of the day, and more of it.

Attracting good stuff

"Everybody is like a magnet. You attract to yourself reflections of that which you are. If you're friendly then everybody else seems to be friendly too."

Dr. David Hawkins
Psychiatrist, Physician and Researcher

“Paleo” Nutrition Blogger Will Go to Jail if He Does Not Recant

State Threatens to Shut Down Nutrition Blogger

Nutrition board says he needs a license to advocate dietary approaches

On being thankful -- and its benefits

"Be thankful for what you have, you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never ever have enough."

Oprah Winfrey

Helen Keller sunglasses

This product sounds like something a bunch of middle school boys would have come up with, but it's not a joke: sunglasses named after Helen Keller, from our friends in China who admire her as someone who not only overcame adversity, but was a socialist as well.  Still, I'm not sure they can understand why this sounds so funny.

10 Ways To Craft Your Resume For Ultra-Short Attention Spans

Crafting your resume for 2012 and beyond.

What to do in stress

"In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive."

Lee Iacocca

Scotty McCreery: That old King James

World's best coconut cake ... maybe the world's best cake, period

So I wrote yesterday about the coconut cake my wife made for my birthday, but I was writing from what it looked like and from reading the recipe.  And after a big dinner last night (8 of us altogether!) I can speak from taste:  this is the best coconut cake I've ever eaten.  Maybe the best cake I've tasted, ever.

I don't say that easily.  Coconut has long been (from childhood) a favorite of mine, and it remains so.  This cake is moist, flavorful, and full of good coconut taste.  Not a quick cake (as I pointed out yesterday, you have to start it 48 hours ahead of time!) but a good one.  One that you make for an Occasion.  A birthday, anniversary, or just when you want to show Somebody Special that you love them.  Here's the recipe, again.

Is this the world's best coconut cake?

Well, I can't say for sure yet, because I haven't sliced it, though sore tempted.

I'm not a big cake fan.  Most cakes that you get are dry (over-relying on cake mixes will do that for you, as will trying to avoid any butter in the cake -- contrary to what people tell you, applesauce is not a good substitute for  the clean taste of butter), cloyingly sweet, or just lacking taste in general.

But I do love coconut cake.  Growing up, there was a woman at church who made an incredible coconut cake: moist, full-flavored, and redolent of coconut.

The problem?  Finding a recipe that really, REALLY replicates that full coconut taste.

A few months ago, we found this recipe in Our State magazine, a good publication devoted to things North Carolinian.  And since this cake isn't quickly put together (it requires starting 48 hours ahead of serving!) my wife saved it for my birthday.

Which is tomorrow.  So she began on Wednesday, because we're having our children and their friends for dinner tomorrow.  I'm doing pork and chicken Chinese recipes, and while cake doesn't go with Chinese, we all need an inconsistency or two.  Here's mine.  I'll report tomorrow on the outcome of the cake.

Put This Food on Your Hair for a New Level of Luster

Using coconut oil to improve your hair's health.

Looking for good

"If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul."

Harold Kushner

Eat Donuts and GET UNCOMFORTABLE

My daughter Alex's guest post on the blog Carrots 'n Cake.

Move Over, Dick Tracy

How A $3 Million Kickstarter Project Could Save The Wristwatch (Yes, The Wristwatch)

Where do I go from here?

"Making a decision usually means taking one of two roads. One is doing the right thing. To take the other road, you have to sit back and spin a story around the decision or action you are taking. If you find yourself thinking up an elaborate justification for what you are doing, you are not doing the right thing."

Wayne Sales

Why Being A Meaner Boss Will Help Your Company--And Make Your Employees Happy

Afraid of being a mean boss? Here's some help.

The clarity of the teachings of the Scriptures

I'm working through Schmid's Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2 pages a day. It's proving good and useful. Some thoughts from recently on perspicuity in the Scriptures, my paraphrase:

1. Salvation is taught perspicuously.

2. The remaining passages of Scripture receive light from these [that is, the salvation passages].

3. From perspicuous passages, we deduce a rule of Faith.

4. If we cannot attain clarity from all passages, we propose nothing contrary to the analogy in their [that is, the "rule of faith" passages] interpretation.

What great minds have

"Great minds have great purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them."

Washington Irving
1783-1859, Author, Biographer, and Historian

Newest book idea

Though I've kept a stream of short posts on this blog, it hasn't been active with much in the last year or so. And that's because I've been writing (as in books) and I'm continuing to work on those, but I am trying to go back to a more regular (that is, substantive) schedule here.

I'm working today on my latest book. Tentative title: Eating with Genghis Khan: 26 Authentic Dishes So You Can Eat Like the Marauding Hordes.

In case you're wondering, this isn't a joke. Those who have known me for a while know of my long-standing interest in things Mongolian. This is not one I expect to be a best-seller, but it's fun researching Mongol recipes, and remembering eating this stuff from when I was there in 1995.

How Olive Oil Is Made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aieNV3V4b_s&feature=related

The best articles online

Recommended: this site for some of the finest article writing.

Not just new articles, but older pieces, some dating decades back.

But really fine stuff, and free.

http://longform.org/

Today

"Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day."

Excerpt from an ancient Sanskrit poem

Beginning with confidence

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started."

Marcus Tullius Cicero
106 BC - 43 BC, Roman Philosopher and Statesman