I was a little hesitant to write this blog, fearing that I would be inundated with advertisers looking for a high-volume blog where they could place their ads. But then I realized I have a strict no advertising policy on my site, so there was no need to worry. At some point today, probably around … Continue reading Major Milestone Achieved for jborden.com →

A little over a year ago I wrote a post about the possible acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon. Here's part of that post: So I thought it would be fun to make a few predictions as to what Whole Foods would look like a year after the acquisition, and how it would operate. I’ll … Continue reading How I Did with My Crystal Ball →

Don't know what a moai is? Neither did I until I saw them mentioned in a New York Times story, The Power of Positive People, by Tara Parker-Pope. According to Wikipedia, moais are social support groups that form in order to provide varying support from social, financial, health, or spiritual interests. Moai means "meeting for a common purpose" … Continue reading Moais Are Good for Your Health. So Join, or Start, One →

I've written about the epidemic of loneliness before, and how it affects all age groups. One age group that is often more affected than some of the other age groups is the elderly, with multiple negative consequences. Here is an excerpt from an article at AgingCare: In addition to the damaging mental effects of feeling … Continue reading Chickens Strut Their Way into Nursing Homes →

Christian Jarrett, writing in the Research Digest of the British Psychological Society, summarizes a series of experiments in Psychological Science conducted by Amit Kumar at the University of Texas at Austin and Nicholas Epley at Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Kumar and Epley found that “expressing gratitude might not buy everything, but it may buy more … Continue reading Not Sure Whether to Send a Thank You Note? SEND IT! →

For the first 50 plus years of my life I went to a traditional barbershop to get my hair cut. There were two primary reasons for using a barbershop - low cost, and having a guy cut my hair. In fact, I was a bit frightened about the prospect of a woman cutting my hair. … Continue reading How Much Should a Guy Pay for a Haircut? →

I just finished reading one of Dan Pink's earlier books, "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future", and I absolutely loved it. Here is a blurb about the book: The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic "right-brain" thinkers whose … Continue reading The Five-Ounce Bird That Stores 10,000 Maps In Its Head →

There has been a great deal written in the past few years about the negative health effects of social isolation. One of the those studies suggested that loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Research shows a 26% increased risk of death due to a subjective feeling of loneliness. We … Continue reading If You’re Going to Quit Smoking, Try Not to Lose a Friend Along the Way →

We landed in Hawaii yesterday afternoon, and it's been an action packed 33 hours so far. We've gone to a secluded beach in Kona, walked to Coconut Island (where part of the opening credits for Gilligan's Island was filmed - here's the Professor and Maryann), swam with sea turtles, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTWzoijjxRA and watched the sunset from … Continue reading The Streak Continues, It’s Just HST →

It seemed innocent enough. My daily email from the New York Times contained the following line: How well can you spot grammatical errors from The Times? Take our quiz. So with a great deal of hubris, I clicked on the link, fully expecting to get 100% and a follow-up email asking if I was interested in a … Continue reading This Brought Back (Bad) Memories of the SAT →