"Some nameless fear stands between me and my desire to be heard."

"The terrifying reality regarding your resume is that for all the many hours you put into fine-tuning, you've got 30 seconds to make an impression on me. Maybe less."

"Britney Spears' recent exploits brought into focus just how embarrassing getting out of a car can be. Even if you're wearing underwear, you probably don't want to flash them to the world, but if you're in a short dress or skirt it can be hard not to do so when exiting a vehicle. The next time you go out on the town, follow these steps to get out of the car gracefully and modestly."

"Have you ever gotten up off the couch to get a beer for the umpteenth time and thought, 'What if instead of ME going to get the BEER, the BEER came to ME???' Well, that was how I first conceived of the beer launching fridge. About 3 months and several hundred dollars later I have a fully automated, remote controlled, catapulting, man-pit approved, beer launching mini-fridge."

14. Relax your standards. The world will not end if the grass doesn't get mowed this weekend.

Meal planning made simple

"Want to be creative but don't have the time? Start a story on StorySquared and see where it goes. Friends and family contribute to a story thread that you create. The results can be funny, imaginative, or just plain strange."

"Pole dancing, once exclusively the province of exotic dancers, has flared up as a much-hyped Hollywood exercise craze, and has seeped into the collective unconscious through shows like 'The Sopranos' and 'Desperate Housewives.' A variant called motorized pole dancing, which occurs in stretch limos, has raised eyebrows as far away as Britain, where some female university students pole-danced as a fund-raiser for testicular cancer. And mini-poles have even been spotted as dance props at over-the-top bat mitzvah parties in suburban precincts."

"Scientists exposed study participants to one brand of soft drink then asked them to think of alternative brands. Alone, they came up with significantly more products than when they were grouped with two others."

For the most part, completely unverifiable, but still kinda fun.

The Doors 1969, Maria Muldaur 1974, Nirvana 1992

"If this doesn’t motivate you to raise your net worth, I couldn’t tell you what does."

"Last summer's mix of sun, beer and excitement during the football World Cup appears to have produced a massive hormone rush in German bedrooms, gardens and back alleys. Nine months on, birth clinics across the country that hosted the tournament are reporting a much-needed baby boom." See -- soccer really is boring.

"'I don't know what it is... Am I usually someplace else at this time of year?' Ramirez asked his wife, adding that the people on television looked vaguely familiar and that he felt "the strangest urge" to be in Florida. 'Wait, is that guy there on the TV... is that Big Papi? But why would he be in Florida now?'"

A slang dictionary with your definitions. Example -- hostage lunch: Meal purchased by the company, often pizza, and delivered for employees who bosses require them to attend a meeting or work over their lunch hour.

This index is intended as a "Meta-index" for most major eBook sites, along with thousands of smaller specialized sites. In some subject categories, the resources you find here are more comprehensive than those of all but the largest of research libraries, due to the budget & space constraints of smaller institutions.

"How insecurity and paranoia can accelerate your career."

"A community where people share the mistakes they've made in life and their advice to others."

"He would have hit one of life's milestones this week. But, 13 years after his death, what is his true legacy?"

"Since we live a lot longer than our pets, it stands to reason that we will, at some time or another, come face to face with losing one. Whether you know it's coming or it's unexpected, it is a sad and emotional time. Fortunately, there are many ways to cope with the loss."

"I'm sure the article will enrage many readers, since lots of people seem to believe that recognizing the excellence of others requires denigrating oneself. But it shouldn't be any more offensive to say some people are more beautiful than others than to say that some people are taller, or smarter, or more agile than others. The genetic lottery isn't fair, and the truly beautiful are genetic freaks. Nor do I see how pretending that everyone is beautiful or, worse, that beauty is the same as personality or character or goodness makes for more happiness. You certainly won't fool teenagers with the former lie--they take their cues from each other, not Oprah--while the latter one is likely to backfire, giving undue moral weight to physical appearance: 'If you really had a nice personality, people would think you're beautiful. If they don't think you're beautiful, there must be something wrong with the inner you.'"

"Citing the sobering statistic that over 10,000 of the 12,800 slayings in the United States in 2006 were reported by joggers, a national coalition of fitness enthusiasts called upon government officials Tuesday to impose measures that would reduce the likelihood of runners discovering lifeless bodies."

"My friend, Mark Iocchelli, is a disciple of the POSE Method of running, and he’s written some tips and ideas on how to avoid one of the most painful foot injury out there: plantar fascitis."

"One of the nice things about the free-agent life is that I can work at night, go to bed late, and take naps--a much better rhythm for me than the normal workday."

"The absolute worst pet peeve of mine is when I get some goddamned awful pop tune stuck in my head. It’s hard to avoid, you basically have to stay home and not watch television or listen to the radio. In our day to day lives we are inundated constantly by the same bad music. While shopping for shoes or shaving cream, it’s piped at us from above; it throbs at us from passing vehicles; it imbeds itself into our brains, unwelcome, while dining out at T.G.I.F.’s and the like. Bad music is inescapable."

"Similarly, I am affronted by the Red Sox Nation 'citizenship' marketing scheme, designed, I can only imagine, to attempt to wring every last dime out of the most gullible members of the fan base in the afterglow of the World Series. A significant number of dumb mfs must have paid $15 to be called a 'fan' over the last couple seasons, or else the franchise wouldn't keep pushing this crap so hard and to such levels of patronizing grandeur."

"Small changes to inoculate yourself against the Big C"

"Godamnit! I just put the flag back up to full mast after the Ford thing."

"It's a whopping $450, which is much more expensive than the cheaper alternative of obeying traffic laws and driving safely."

"Want to save more? Invest smarter? Spend less? Retire early? Sure, we can help with that. Step one: Throw out your financial plan. Step two: Read on."

"I'll be living on just over $1,000 a month this year. That doesn't sound like much -- and it isn't -- yet I plan not just to live on it, but to build a savings account."

"Writer Jim Citrin interviewed 20 CEO's and found one thing most of them have in common: they wake up early and make strategic use of those first, calm hours of the day."

"These two yahoos look exactly like the sort of neo-hippie/anarchists that trashed Seattle back in 1999 and still engage in various forms of counter-culture street theater to this day. Yet, these guys do so not to advance a cause, but to make money advertising a stupid cartoon show on behalf of a major media corporation. The message these two thus are sending to all their counter-culture buddies on behalf of capitalist corporations is: 'resistance is futile.' As such, in an odd way, these guys validate my life's work: They confirm that corporations rule the world and are therefore a worthy subject of study."

"John Gallant of Hopkinton can't stomach the brown stuff and wants the Sox to give fans the choice of yellow mustard. Now, Gallant is a busy executive, but he's vowed to see this fight through to the end - and he's starting right at the top, in a letter to John Henry."

"Studies show people with ADD/ADHD respond well to using timers. A student might set a timer for 10 minutes with a goal of finishing as much homework in that 10 minute stretch as she can. Professionals can use timers in the same way setting them for 30 minutes and working to intensity for 30 minutes and then taking a break. Personally, I’ve been known to knock out incredible amounts of work when a 15 minute pressure is on."

A history of General Tso's chicken.

"Think of it as Civilization 101: According to a declaration by the Hérouxville, Quebec town council, stoning women to death and/or burning them alive is strictly prohibited."

"Your mileage may vary. Don't blame me if it all goes horribly wrong. If it goes right, send me a postcard or put me on your blogroll."

"Enter an aerial survey! More importantly, an aerial survey that would later sell its imagery to Microsoft's Virtual Earth Google Maps clone. Hence, the giant cock was preserved for ever in the soft threads of the Net."

"Blogging isn’t for everyone, and everyone doesn’t need to blog. There are times when you should stop blogging, and there are times to take a rest from blogging."

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy."

"Have you seen what Microsoft Live Search Maps can do lately? Its web-fueled Virtual Earth software continues to gain on Google Earth, adding to its library of "bird's eye views" where you can you get a surprisingly sharp look into your neighbors' windows from all four points of the compass."

When nerds are silly. Offensive to most and only semi-safe for workplace viewing. And you really, really need the volume turn up.

"We've heard of caffeinated soap, water, gum, mints, and even beer, but now molecular scientist Robert Bohannon of Durham, North Carolina has figured out how to caffeinate doughnuts and other baked goods without adding that bitter taste. Using Bohannon's technique, each donut has the caffeine equivalent of a couple of cups of coffee baked inside."

"Malcolm Gladwell, the quirky author of Blink and Tipping Point, writes bestseller after bestseller. He got his start in Washington, and Washington hasn’t been the same since."

"After years of unrelenting disappointment and failure on the dating scene, eligible singles Karen Ridenour and Paul Klein forged an instant, clinging bond last month through a mutual desperation born mainly out of an intense fear of being unloved for the rest of their lives.

"The uncontested, number-one reason why people are unhappy at work is bad management. Nothing has more power to turn a good work situation bad than a bad boss. Sadly there are quite a lot of them around. A recent British study accused 1 in 4 bosses of being bad, while a Norwegian study said 1 in 5."

Get your head out of the gutter (for the most part).

Tips for anyone who has to take notes.

"Tracked in America introduces the stories of 25 individuals who have been targeted by the U.S. government. The stories span from World War I to the post-9/11 world. Six eminent historians provide historical perspective and context to the time periods in which these individuals were under surveillance. Together, the profiles convey the courage of these individuals and reveal a dangerous pattern of government surveillance."

"Gray hair doesn't signal gray matter's decline, and AARP's tips help 'old dogs' learn new tricks."

Looks like fun.

"Sometimes I get dangerous thoughts in my head, like 'I wonder what it would look like to see every ad in Times Square all on one page.' So when I knew I’d be passing through Times Square this weekend, I made sure I had my camera. For the purposes of this nearly purposeless project, I considered storefront signs the same as ads if they were flashy and glitzy like Times Square ads tend to be."

"It may be a little early in the year to be talking about jogging, but for those of us who made getting fit a New Year’s and resolution, there is a great training plan at Cool Running that takes you from being a couch potato (no running experience) to completing a 5K race."

"Prevention.com has written up a list of six things you can do to avoid a cold this winter season. While some of these seem a bit on the OCD side, they're actually pretty effective."

"Researchers have shown women rate a man as more attractive after they’ve seen another woman smiling at him. By contrast, being a jealous bunch, male observers rate a man as less attractive after they’ve seen a woman smiling at him."

Something is wrong -- Ryan Seacrest is only 50th on the list

"Apple fans, you will love the pictures because they are laughing with you. Apple haters, you will love the pictures because they're really laughing at the Apple fans."

"I overheard a conversation on a Green Line trolley between three young gentlemen that would have given any of the city’s seemingly two million Sarcastically Flirtacious Single Girl In The Gentrifying Hood bloggers enough material for a scathing 6,000 word post. It’s all a rich tapestry, to borrow a line from The Simpsons."

"Because on top of the fact that anxiety has caused me not to sleep in the last three weeks, I am now just finishing watching Discs 2, 3, AND 4 of Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy, and I CAN'T. STOP. WATCHING. It is now 3am. This is a problem, people. A serious, serious problem."

"Web site Wacky Uses details dozens of unintended applications of household products, like getting chewing gum off the bottom of your shoe."

"Your new years goal may have been to lose a little weight, but a few weeks in, your lean cuisines might be tasting a little bland. The University of Rochester advises that you take a look at your alcohol consumption as a source for those extra pounds."

"Legalizing or decriminalizing cocaine would do much to improve America's inner cities and it ought to be seriously considered, even if it means more doped-up middle-class white teenagers. But legalization -- whether in Colombia or the United States -- is not obviously the way out for Colombia. "

"Note also that the definition of blogs is up for grabs. Many times, newspapers use blogging software as a means to get up news updates and such; it is the world’s lightest, easiest, cheapest content management system and it’s a smart use. But not all these blogs link out in conversation. Still, I’ll bet this helps take the cooties off the word ‘blog’ in newsrooms."