Read Faster, Read Smarter

Read Faster, Read Smarter was written by Michael Southon from ezine-writer.com

20.jpgThe Internet is a new continent where the maps areconstantly changing. What was a small stream becomes aroaring river. What was a desert becomes a lush greenvalley.

To keep up with the changing landscape of the Internetyou must read. And the best place to read about newdevelopments on the Internet is in Newsletters orEzines.

But you may not be reading efficiently.

Did you know that most of us use only 4% to 10% of ourmental abilities?

Speed reading is not just about reading faster; it'sabout learning to use much more of the extraordinarypowers of the Mind.

When you read, are you aware of an inner voice that follows the words as your eyes move across the page orthe computer screen? This inner voice is called'subvocalization'. You probably experience it as aslight movement in the tongue or throat region. Aslong as you subvocalize, you limit your reading to thespeed of normal speech, to about 300 w.p.m.

The Mind is capable of thinking much faster than that.So when you subvocalize, you're literally holding backyour mind.

Try this exercise:

As you read, count to yourself, silently, from one toten. Or, repeat the sound 'Eee', 'Eee', 'Eee'. It willbe impossible to do this at the same time assubvocalizing, so this is an excellent way of breakingthe habit of subvocalization.

As you do this exercise, you'll become aware thatyou're no longer processing the words in thetongue/throat region but in an area called 'thoughtstream' that you experience in the top of your head.

Thought stream moves much faster than subvocalization.And that's why people who subvocalize often havecomprehension problems.

There's a mismatch between reading speed and thinkingspeed. The Mind is constantly racing ahead of theinner voice and so it gets bored. You experience thisas an inability to hold your attention on what you'rereading. You have to back-skip words, or read the sameline twice.

As your reading speed catches up with your thinkingspeed, reading becomes much less tiring and yourcomprehension improves.

Once you've got a feeling for reading in 'thoughtstream', the next thing to do is speed up your eyemovements. This will also help break the habit ofsub-vocalization, since your eyes will be movingfaster than you can possibly subvocalize.

Your eyes move across the written page in a series ofquick jumps. Between each jump there's a stop lastinga fraction of second, called a 'fixation'. Thefixation is when the eye actually takes in the writtenword.

The untrained eye takes about a quarter of a second ateach fixation, and takes in 2 or 3 words per fixation.

By speeding up you eye movements, you'll learn to makefewer fixations per line and take in more words perfixation.

Try this exercise:

If you use a glass 'anti-glare' screen, draw 2vertical lines in felt-tip, 5 cms apart, so that youhave a strip 5 cms wide located over the middle of thetext you are reading.

Now move your eyes in a 'Z' pattern down this centralstrip, at a speed faster slightly faster than iscomfortable.

Because your Mind is not reading each word, it isforced to 'fill in the gaps'. This engages much moreof the Mind, since it has to build associations andpatterns in the written material. This in turn leadsto greater comprehension and increased memory of whatwas read.

This technique takes advantage of the fact that muchof written English is highly redundant; a lot of wordscan be skipped without any loss of meaning.

When your eyes move down a central strip of the text,you also engage much more of your peripheral vision.And that in turn brings the right hemisphere of thebrain into the reading process. You make much more useof the right-brain's ability to synthesize and buildrelationships within the material.

So speed reading is not just about reading faster; italso allows you to access much more of the brain andthereby increases your comprehension and creativity.

For an excellent, free, speed-reading course, visit:

  • The Speed Reading Coursehttp://www.trans4mind.u-net.com/speed_reading/index.html


Here are some more free speed-reading sites:

  • The Study Hall Free Speed Reading Programs http://www.studyhall.com/sread.htm

  • Road To Reading Home http://www.roadtoreading.org/

  • University of Texas Speed Readinghttp://www.utexas.edu/student/lsc/sprdg.html

  • Speed Reading Linkshttp://www.readingsoft.com/flinks.html

  • ReadRace: Free Java application for speed readinghttp://supershareware.co.uk/Apps/8080.asp

  • WannaLearn.com: Personal Enrichment : Speed Readinghttp://www.wannalearn.com/Personal_Enrichment/Speed_Reading/


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Taken from http://tea-and-tea.blogspot.com/

Double Feature: Bodum "Shin Cha" Teapot and Jenaer Glas Teacup



Bodum Teapot Size Comparison Teapot Size Comparison



Unfortunately, as some of you may know, Jenaer Glas is no longer in existence. Their parent company discontinued the Jenaer Glas line of products due to a decline in demand and an increase in foreign imports (read the full article here.). You can still find some of their glassware at stores like Adagio Teas, but their supplies are limited. On a lighter note, Bodum is alive and well, and continues to make beautiful and functional teaware.

So, let's start off with Bodum's 2-cup "Shin Cha" teapot. Made of borosilicate glass, the same glass used in lab equipment, this teapot is strong and can withstand rapid changes in temperature. It also employs Bodum's tea press design, which is remarkably handy.

The tea press, which is featured on many Bodum teapots, is a very convenient design. I was a bit hesitant to buy one of Bodum's teapots at first, as their website is bad at explaining exactly how it works. So, for you curious folks, here you go. While the tea is brewing, the plunger remains in the up position (shown here). Bodum Teapot with Plunger UpAt this point, the plunger is not doing anything, so everything functions just like a normal teapot. When you are ready to halt the steeping process, you simply press down on the plunger. This confines the leaves in the bottom of the infuser, and seals them (more or less) from the outside liquid, preventing them from steeping any further.

One very important thing about this infuser is that there are no holes below about 3/4 of an inch from the bottom (see picture). The benefit of this is that the tea is not squeezed into the liquid, and thus does not release any nasty bitterness into the brew. Bodum Teapot InfuserThe downside of this is that your tea leaves do not see as much water, and it could be argued that they do not brew as well, though I have not noticed it. Also, unlike coffee presses, which have large holes in the plungers, Bodum's tea press has just one small one, which exists solely as a pressure release for when the plunger is depressed. Oh, and don't worry, the plunger didn't look like that when I first got it-- it has seen quite a bit of use.

Anyway, I find the tea press mechanism to work quite well, and I have not noticed any dramatic alteration in the taste of my tea. Bodum Teapot PlungerI have noticed, however, that over time, tea left in the pot will get darker if the infuser + leaves are are also left in. If this becomes too much of a problem, just remove the infuser and problem solved.

This teapot is not only functional, but quite attractive as well. That is, until you put anything in it. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but this will definitely get dirty. It's not too much of a problem to wipe it down every now and then, but you will certainly have to do so much more for a glass teapot than one of a different material.

Overall, I'd give the Bodum 2-cup "Shin Cha" teapot an 8/10. Functional, but not perfectly so, and attractive, as long as you take good care of it.

Obviously there is not as much to mention about this teacup as it is, after all, just a teacup. Still, I'd like to mention that it is made of borosilicate glass, just like the Bodum teapot from earlier. It's strange, because it almost feels like plastic, even though it looks just like glass. Teacup Size ComparisonIt's definitely not plastic, but it still feels very sturdy, unlike a lot of other glassware out there. Also, it holds just the right amount for a cup of black tea. Unfortunately it suffers from the same tendency to get dirty as the Bodum teapot, but I still recommend getting a hold of some pieces from Jenaer Glas if you still can.

Jenaer Glas gets a posthumous 9.5/10 for its gorgeous yet durable teaware.



Taken from http://teanerd.blogspot.com/

Maison avec cour et jardin de la famille Lin


Hier fut aussi la journée du patrimoine à Taiwan. J'en ai profité pour visiter la maison et les dépendances de la famille Lin à Banciao. Les Lin furent la plus riche famille de Taiwan durant la dynastie Qing. La construction de leur maison commença en 1851. C'est le cadre parfait pour y faire du thé chinois! Il faudra que je vois comment organiser un tel événement là-bas un de ces jours...

Il y des jardins et de l'eau partout. L'eau est un élément important du fengshui. Il apporte la richesse (normal pour les anciennes cultures agricoles), mais sert aussi de barrière de défense de la maison sur une ile pas complètement pacifiée.
Je vous laisse en compagnie de ces photos. Je vous suggère de les regarder en buvant un peu d'Oolong ou de Baozhong. (Cliquez pour les agrandir). Peut-être serez-vous alors transporté quelques instants dans la Chine d'antans!












Taken from http://teamasters.blogspot.com/

Spring flush: A tea moment


Everything's freshened after last night's rain, thunder and lightning, and the warm breezes are whispering sweet nothings of spring. Everyone's out and about — tourist boats are back on the Chicago River stuffed with gawkers, pairs of geese are strolling Wolf Point with their fluffy new babies, the urban parks are alive with natives and newcomers and newbies playing hooky. I had time to kill this evening, after bailing from work and before meeting a friend to hear Neko Case's leather-lunged voice fill every cranny of the Chicago Theater. I could've ducked inside somewhere for a cocktail, but how could I spurn such a newly comely Mother Nature? I snatched a green tea from Argo and strolled through the crowds in Millennium Park, hiking over the curvy bridge over rush-hour choked Columbus Drive to the formal landscape designs, tennis courts and plazas on the other side. This is a tea moment. Sitting in on a park bench, watching the landscape come alive for the who-knows-how-manyth time. Fragrant dogwood blossoms fluttering on the breeze. Teenage boys slapping by in flip-flops or rolling by on skateboards. Tulips humbly bowing in their beds. Tourists on Segways, craning their necks at the city skyline, the contrast of which deepens minute by minute as the sun slips away. A duck — its plump head, neck, body and tail in a perfect straight line — flies at human-head height across the park. Stop, look, listen — and sip.



Taken from http://teasquared.blogspot.com/

Lu Tong's Seven Bowls of Tea 七碗詩

Lu Tong's Seven Bowls of Tea 七碗詩 ---LuTong (Tang. 790~835)盧仝(唐. 790~835)

The first bowl moistens my lips and throat; 一碗喉吻潤,
The second bowl breaks my loneliness; 二碗破孤悶,
The third bowl searches my barren entrails but to find 三碗搜枯腸,
Therein some five thousand scrolls; 惟有文字五千卷,
The fourth bowl raises a slight perspiration 四碗發輕汗,
And all life's inequities pass out through my pores; 平生不平事盡向毛孔散,
The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones; 五碗肌骨清,
The sixth bowl calls me to the immortals. 六碗通仙靈,
The seventh bowl could not be drunk, 七碗吃不得也,
only the breath of the cool wind raises in my sleeves. 唯覺兩腋習習清風生。
Where is Penglai Island, Yuchuanzi wishes to ride on this sweet breeze and go back. 蓬萊山﹐在何處,玉川子乘此清風欲歸去。
(Steven R. Jones 2008)

  • * “Chinese-English Tea Studies Terminology”, (2010), Lu-Yu Tea Culture Institute, Co., Ltd, ISBN978-957-9690-06-5



(Just for fun) While machine translation can be very helpful, it can be funny at times:
below is the google translation
---google translation---
Seven bowls of poetry, Lu Tong, Tang. (790 ~ 835)
Run a bowl of throat kiss,
Second, breaking the bowl alone, nausea,
Three bowls of search desperately,
Text only five thousand volumes,
Siwan light-Khan,
Grievance to the pores of his life to make casual,
Wu Wan musculoskeletal clear,
Liu Wan-pass Faerie,
Not have to eat seven bowls,
CD breeze blowing gently feel the two axillary Health.
Penglai Mountain, where the wind want to go back to take this sub-Tamagawa.
---google translation---



Taken from http://teaarts.blogspot.com/

Madam Potts: In Person: Tues 10/14


As the cool weather approaches, hints of Autumn spices and warm flannel blankets abound. What a better time to talk about my favorite subject - Teas and Herbs.

So, if you live in the local area, you are invited to join me, Madam Potts, as I will be leading a class in Teas, Herbs and Circulation this Tuesday @ 7pm at Page Chiropractic and Wellness in Atlantic Highlands, NJ. Call to RSVP: 732-291-5575 (seating is limited!)

Come and join the lively discussion on how to
GET THAT BLOOD GOING!


and of course, the class includes tea tastings!




Taken from http://teaguru.blogspot.com/

Rural France: Farmers' Fair




There was so much to see in the Sarthe last week! This rich region grows pork, cattle, poultry, and cereals.
The farm pork, free range chicken, and beef that A World in a PAN uses, comes from this area. Tractability is here a reality.
So we were present at the last Framers' Fair or Comice Agricole, a show where cattle owners exhibit their best animals, where you can buy a tractor or a sewing machine, and savor the many local products the region offers (see my post on rillettes). Two Motbeliard veals were resting, and the little lamb discovering the "comice", while "Blanchette", the Holstein cow did not want to go back to the truck. How fun!