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6eea79c
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It's joyous," he says. "If I save someone from breaking a commandment, it gives me a little high." He pumps his fist. "I never took drugs, but I imagine this is what it feels like."
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A.J. Jacobs |
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7733cdd
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I found myself speaking more slowly (in an attempt to obey the Bible in speech), as if I was speaking French instead of English.
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contemplation
discipleship
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A.J. Jacobs |
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ba830de
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Remember, sometimes you have to look beyond the weirdness. It's like the temple in ancient Jerusalem. If you went there, you'd see oxen being slaughtered and all sorts of things. But look beyond the weirdness, to what it means.
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religion
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A.J. Jacobs |
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9cd441d
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As her head rests on her pillow, she'll go through the alphabet from A to Z and try to think of something to be grateful for that starts with each letter--A for her husband Andrew's blueberry pancakes; B for bocce, her favorite game in the summer; etc.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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f7ec026
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You watch the Appalachian snake handlers on the Discovery Channel, and they look as weird as the guy on Coney Island who hammers six-inch nails into his nostrils, or Nick Nolte after a couple of vodka tonics.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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3d5565e
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Maybe taming my tongue will be good for me in the end. But it's pretty hard when you've got a world filled with idiots from Drunkopolis.
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humor
evil-tongue
month-3
gossip
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A.J. Jacobs |
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8995615
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Pain is annoying and unnecessary, like getting an e-mail in all caps. It's like a six-year-old who alerts you every fifteen seconds that he wants Hungry Hungry Hippos for his birthday. Yes, I understand. Message received.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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f876839
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Eating fruits and vegetables is vaguely logical. Get sleep. Don't live in the most polluted parts of the world. Don't smoke. Don't do unsafe things like skiing and hang gliding, which are inconceivably more dangerous than eating 'unhealthy' foods. Exercise is pretty likely good for you. Don't drink too much alcohol--one or two drinks a day. And that's about it.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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5a168b1
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Studies show that even regular gym-going can't fully undo the harm of sitting. So my plan is to tear down the wall between exercise and life. I've started doing what I call guerrilla exercise--or what my friend calls contextual exercise. I squeeze physical activity into every nook in my day.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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ff1a5ee
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The Bible's "it's better to give than receive" was not the raving of a lunatic. It goes back to a recurring theme that I've found in almost all my experiments: behaviour shapes your thoughts. My brain sees me giving a gift to Julie. My brain concludes I must really love her. I love her all the more. Which means I'm happier in my relationship, if a bit poorer."
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A.J. Jacobs |
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c267f7c
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I have to say, passive aggression gets a bad rap these days. It may not be appropriate in all occasions, but it's a lot better than aggressive aggression.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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32d3bee
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The pedometer doesn't just spur us to move, though it certainly does that. It changes the way we think about movement. What was once a chore becomes a game.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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b42be04
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I know we're missing out on some potential Abe Lincolns because they'd look gawky and gangly on TV.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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6dd38e2
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There is no hell. The Witnesses believe hell is a mistranslation of Gehenna, which was an ancient garbage dump. They say that nonbelievers simply die at Armageddon, rather than being thrown into an inferno. "How can you have a kind and loving God who also roasts people?" he asks. I"
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A.J. Jacobs |
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01a187e
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will try to find the original intent of the biblical rule or teaching and follow that to the letter.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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309ff90
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Leonardo Pisano, aka Fibonacci: Fibonacci was a 13th-century Italian mathematician who invented the Fibonacci series, which goes like this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc. Each of the numbers is the sum of the two preceding numbers. I look at the sequence again. I know I recognize it from somewhere. It takes me a couple of seconds, but then it clicks: Boggle! It's the scoring system for my favorite find-a-word game, Boggle.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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c2cbf10
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I'm Jewish in the way Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.
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word-of-god
discipleship
culture
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A.J. Jacobs |
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7e6e2f8
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How much fiber should I be getting? A huge amount. The Institute of Medicine says thirty grams a day. Which is a challenge. An apple--one of the most high-fiber foods--has only three grams of fiber.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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f3327ed
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One of my biggest challenges is figuring out how to shoehorn my newfound knowledge into conversations.
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self-centeredness
humility
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A.J. Jacobs |
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6b469c6
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We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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a42503e
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I like uncovering the cultural prejudices I didn't even know.
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education
heritage
biases
conventional-wisdom
parenting
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A.J. Jacobs |
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c397b07
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The author jokes that the culture at his first job at Entertainment Weekly chased away the worthwhile aspects of his Brown education, but in so doing he makes a subtle point about the profound impact of the culture with which we surround ourselves and how easily we can be defined and constrained by our jobs.
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maturation
materialism
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A.J. Jacobs |
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e841d6f
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In the Odyssey, our craft hero demanded that his sailors tie him to the mast so that he wouldn't take a dive off the starboard side when he heard the alluring singing of the Sirens. You shouldn't trust your future self. Prepare for his or her weakness.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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df94d56
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I believe that's a key motivation to creationism: the need to feel less inconsequential.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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81c0cb9
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Patternicity is the idea that humans are really talented at finding nonexistent patterns in random noise.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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d3ba7c0
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I had been avoiding the D-word. But the kids cut right to it. My boys are well aware of death. My twins finish every story they make up with the same phrase: "Then everyone died. The end."
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A.J. Jacobs |
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34750fd
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The Proverbs--a collection of wisdom in the Old Testament--say that smiling makes you happy. Which is actually backed up by psychological studies. So I stand there with a flight attendant-like grin frozen on my face. But inside, I am full of wrath.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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af05bd5
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Back pain is the single most common reason people visit the doctor.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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1c85dc5
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Etruscans sometimes wrote boustrophedon style, in which the direction of writing alternates with each line--right-to-left, then left-to-right. Brilliant! The eye doesn't waste time trekking back to the left side of the page after every line.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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a3af1dc
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It's amazing how a strip of sticky plastic will make my kids' pain vanish. Lucas will be howling about a stepped-on finger, but as soon as the SpongeBob Band-Aid touches his pinkie, he's all smiles. My sons are so convinced of the magical healing powers of Band-Aids, they think they can solve almost any problem. A couple of years ago, when out Sony TV blew a fuse, Jasper stuck a Band-Aid on the screen hoping to revive it.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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181e28b
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I'm not sure how to react to this information. Mostly, I'm thinking that if the revolution comes, this fact alone will make it hard to fault the insurrection. "Well, I don't approve of mass executions of the ruling class," we'll have to admit. "But on the other hand, there's that trend of plastic surgery to upgrade our farts. We really were asking for it."
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A.J. Jacobs |
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f6120f8
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In Judaism, the biblical laws that come without explanation--and there are many--are called chukim. This is such a law. The point is, you can never know what is important in the long term. God might have a different measuring scale than us. In fact, some say it's more crucial to follow the inexplicable ones, because it shows you're committed, that you have great faith.
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A.J. Jacobs |
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7a51561
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G-rated language is making me a less angry person. Behavior shapes emotion.
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thought-life
discipleship
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A.J. Jacobs |
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6ff7a21
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The whole Bible is the working out of the relationship between God and man," says Greenberg. "God is not a dictator barking out orders and demanding silent obedience. Were it so, there would be no relationship at all. No real relationship goes just one way. There are always two active parties. We must have reverence and awe for God, and honor for the chain of tradition. But that doesn't mean we can't use new information to help us read the ..
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A.J. Jacobs |
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ee5d6da
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Mr. Berkowitz clicks open his black American Tourister rolling suitcase. Inside, his tools: a microscope, an old canister with the faded label "vegetable flakes," and various instruments that look like my mother's sewing kit after a genetic mutation. He spreads them out on my living room table. Mr. Berkowitz reminds me of an Orthodox CSI. God's wardrobe detective. He"
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A.J. Jacobs |
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6c265a2
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When I force myself to utter the awkward phrase, "I am grateful," I actually start to feel a bit more grateful...It's basic cognitive behavioral therapy: Behave in a certain way, and your mind will eventually catch up with your actions."
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recovery
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A.J. Jacobs |