Beware the Perils of Caffeine Withdrawal
Given that our two favorite drinks around here are Diet Coke and Diet Mountain Dew, we thought that the article below on the perils of caffeine withdrawal might be of interest to some of you.
And yes we do have plans to wean ourselves from caffeine >: ) . . . but just not right now >:) . . .
****
From our friends at CNN.com
Click on the Picture to See Video from CNN.com "Beware the Perils of Caffeine Withdrawal"
Beware the Perils of Caffeine Withdrawal
Watch more on caffeine withdrawal syndrome »
By Judy Fortin
CNN Medical Correspondent
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Susan Todd loves her daily coffee fix. “I can drink four or five cups, easily, comfortably,” said Todd, 59, of Clinton Township, Michigan.
But if she skips her regular dose of caffeine, Todd warned, watch out.
“I feel lousy all over. It’s not that anything hurts,” she explained. “I just feel sluggish, and a cup of caffeine will cure that.”
Todd is among the estimated 80 to 90 percent of North American adults and children who consume caffeine products every day. Experts estimate about half that number will experience headaches and other symptoms from caffeine withdrawal syndrome.
There are a number of reasons why someone might need to reduce or stop their daily caffeine intake. Experts tell pregnant women not to consume more than 200 milligrams of caffeine a day (about one 12-ounce cup of coffee). Caffeinated products are not recommended for people who are prone to panic attacks or those who suffer from anxiety. Some surgical patients may also experience the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal syndrome on the day of surgery, because they are told not to eat or drink anything.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, recognized the condition as a disorder five years ago after reviewing decades of studies. They concluded the higher the caffeine intake, the more likely a patient was to suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms when denied the ingredient.
Researchers also reported that some caffeine users considered themselves addicted to caffeine because they were unable to quit or cut down on their usage. More . . .
****
Click here to read another interesting article mentioned in the CNN article:
Subscribe to Brusque via Email
****
Hanging Out with Susan Boyle! The UK Singer That Made Simon Cowell Smile
Today we celebrate the power of faith and the beauty of Susan Boyle – The UK Singer whose audition on “Britain’s Got Talent” made Simon Cowell smile.
See below for what we’re calling “Hanging Out with Susan Boyle”. It’s a compilation of several recent interviews and we’ve even got her singing another song 
Click to see video of Susan Boyle having fun.
****
Click here to see High Quality Video of Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent Audition.
The Beauty of Susan Boyle: The UK Internet Singing Sensation
Okay, you’ve seen the video (click here if you haven’t) of Susan Boyle, the woman auditioning for “Britain’s Got Talent” who surprised Simon Cowell, the other judges, the audience and the world with her singing.
But what is it that has moved her video to be viewed over 30, 000,000 times on YouTube? What is it that moves people to tears?
Is it her singing? Naahh, we’ve heard great voices before.
What we love about her is her having the “temerity” to continue to pursue a dream at the age of 47. The “audacity” to believe that she had a chance; and the “gall” to actually show up at the audition.
As Peggy Noonan, a columnist from The Wall Street Journal said on “ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulus”, ”She was lovely, she was modest, awkard . . . humble . . . she opened her mouth and she was transformed . . . and it was very tender.”
In addition, she also serves as a reminder that you can’t always judge a book by it’s cover and that it’s the pages of the book that tell the full story.
Kudos to you Susan for holding onto your dreams and in turn inspiring millions!! We’ll be rooting for you on May 23rd!
ej
****
Chatting with Britain’s Singing Sensation (The Good Morning America Interview)
Click to see Diane Sawyer's Interview with Susan Boyle
Now that you’ve seen the interview, click on the articles below to learn more about her and even further down you can catch her singing Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”:
= She Who Laughs Last – Songstress Susan Boyle (The Sunday Times UK)
=Susan Boyle, an Unlikely Singer, is a YouTube Sensation (The New York Times)
Click below to watch Susan Boyle’s Interview on “Larry King Live” . During the interview, she gets a chance to talk to Piers Morgan (one of the Britain’s Got Talent judges seen on the video) and she also sings Celine Dion’s song ”My Heart Will Go On”.
Click here to see Susan Boyle sing Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" on "Larry King Live." She starts singing at the 11:10 mark.
****
Subscribe to Brusque via RSS
Subscribe to Brusque via Email
****
The Story of Sara Blakely
From our friends at Success Magazine.
One of our faves around here is Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, who is profiled in this month’s Success. See how her ideas can help improve your bottom line! >:)
***
Success Stories
Beth Douglas Silcox, Success Magazine
Plain and simple, Sara Blakely wanted her bottom to look better in white pants. She was 27 and peddling fax machines to businesses, making cold-call after cold-call, facing way too many slamming doors. But at this moment, standing in her tiny Atlanta apartment, scissors in hand, she teetered on the verge of invention. One-size-fits-no-one pantyhose didn’t do the job, so Blakely lopped off the feet with two, crisp snips.
Eight years after Blakely amputated the feet of her pantyhose, her brainchild, Spanx, exceeds $300 million in retail sales. She has expanded into other types of shape wear to smooth other problem areas for women. Meantime, her footless hosiery invention revitalized an industry and answered the prayers of women everywhere who wanted to look better in all of their clothes.
Stepping from idea to prototype, she mustered every bit of perseverance and charm learned in her door-to- door years. “If you make someone laugh or smile in the first five to 10 seconds, you might get another 10 seconds,” Blakely says. Authenticity was crucial, as she pitched her idea to hosiery mill executives.
Before Spanx, the male-dominated $2 billion hosiery industry regarded pantyhose as cosmetic and simply accentuated the shine, color or smoothness of women’s legs. “I found, as a consumer, how seriously they were all trying to take pantyhose was ridiculous,” Blakely says.
By contrast, Blakely was pragmatic about her hosiery invention. Spanx would be More . . .
****
Click on the items below to read more about her:
=How Failure Molded Spanx’s Founder (Business Week)
=Spanx FounderSara Blakely on Luck, Gwyneth Paltrow and Wearing Wigs (The Huffington Post)
=The Story of Spanx (Spanx Website)
****
Subscribe to Brusque via RSS
Subscribe to Brusque via Email
****
****
Picture Credit: Success Magazine
Getting Organized: 10 Strategies for Busy Moms
From our friends at CNN.com and Real Simple.
In this article, the author makes a very simple suggestion – Why don’t you manage your home like you manage your organization? Then, he shows you how to apply core business principles to the management of your life.
FYI – Patrick was recently named by Fortune as one of the 10 New Gurus You Should Know
****
Ten Business Strategies to Organize Your Home
About 11 years ago, two big things happened in my life: My wife and I started a family, and I launched a consulting firm. For years I was much more successful at running my company than managing our family — probably because I was taking specific steps to improve my business, then going home and winging it.
Well, a few years ago, it occurred to me that this made no sense, and that my family was in fact an organization, too — the most important one in my life.
That realization was probably provoked by an innocuous (or so I thought) comment to my wife: “You know, honey, if my clients ran their companies the way we run this family, they’d go out of business.”
I’ll spare you the gory details of her response and just tell you that we eventually decided to figure out whether the tools and concepts I applied with my clients might help our home run more smoothly. I’m here to report that they absolutely did and might help you, too. (Don’t worry: None involve persuading a 10-year-old to endure the agony of a performance review.) Real Simple: How to make good decisions
1. Identify your core values. Companies define their core values because they provide a great framework for making all kinds of decisions. To apply this idea to your family, think about what common traits each spouse admires in the other. One of the things I love about my wife is that she is unafraid to speak her mind or stand up for her beliefs.
We wanted to pass that trait on to our four sons, so we made it a core value. (Our others are creativity and passion.) Then, when one of the boys was sent to the principal’s office for defending a classmate who was being bullied, we made it clear that he should be proud that he had stood up for a friend.
2. Establish a single top priority. If everything is important, nothing is. Too many companies fail because they spread their time and energies too thin. Answer this question: “In addition to our day-to-day responsibilities, if we accomplish one big thing as a family in the next few months, what should it be?” And then work on it. It could be anything from “Help Dad get healthy” to “Spend more time together as a family at home.” Real Simple: 14 shortcuts for everyday tasks
3. Keep your values and top priority visible. You don’t need an engraved plaque to remind you of what’s important. But it’s good to have a ready reference. My wife and I were out on a date around the time we were coming up with our family’s list of values and top priority. She borrowed a waiter’s pen and wrote them on the paper tablecloth. After dinner she neatly tore off that section and stuck it to our oven, where we could see it every day. More . . .
Digital Version of Real Simple Article
****
Subscribe to Brusque via RSS
Subscribe to Brusque via Email
****
Success Magazine May 2009: The Women’s Issue!
The May 2009 issue of Success Magazine is The Women’s Issue!
Okay, so maybe it’s not officially a women’s issue >:), but it’s pretty close and we don’t mind!!
In it you will find several inspiring articles that profile very successful women entrepreneurs, athletes, activists and more.
For example, the cover story tells the story of Suze Orman and how she turned adversity into success. Did you know that before she applied to become a broker at Merrill Lynch she worked as a waitress for seven years and earned on average $400 per month? She just wanted to own a restaurant, but when a broker lost all her money . . . the rest is history!
In addition, there is the article entitled “Women of Influence” that profiles Maya Angelou, Indra Nooyi, Maria Shriver, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Melinda Gates.
AND there is a profile of one of our favorites Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx.
****
Here’s more info on what you can find in this issue: 
Success from the Ground Up: The Story of Money Maven Suze Orman, by Erin Casey
A crushing loss in the stock market propelled Suze Orman to become one of America’s favorite financial advisers.
View the Digital Version of this Article
****
Women of Influence by Erin Casey
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Maya Angelou, Melinda Gates, Indra Nooyi and Maria Shriver have empowered and inspired us. They have led causes and corporations and created opportunities for many. See how they are changing your world.
View the Digital Version of this Article
****
Enterprising Women by Joanne Eglash
Women run almost half of all privately held businesses – and they’re quietly gaining an edge on the competition by using innate talents and skills. What do they do differently?
View the Digital Version of this Article
****
Back on Track by Mary Vinnedge
A humiliating and very public firing taught Deborah Norville valuable life lessons and helped shape her outlook. Read how she pulled herself out of the doldrums and how she encourages others.
****
Paving the Way by Don Yaeger
Billie Jean King continues to push the envelope to improve tennis and create opportunities for everyone.
****
Subscribe to Brusque via RSS
Subscribe to Brusque via Email
****
10 Reasons Your Company Shouldn’t Tweet
Top 10 Reasons Your Company Probably Shouldn’t Tweet
Everyone’s Talking About It, but Should You Be Doing It?
B.L. Ochman, Advertising Age
Mainstream media has gone ga ga about Twitter, which grew more than 1,200% in the past year, doubled its members in the past few months and attained 14 million members in March, according to Compete.
Everyone and his dog seems to be tweeting, from CEOs, celebrities and not-for-profits to venture capitalists, banks, business services, government and, well, dogs (and cats and the random parakeet, too). Should your business be tweeting? Twitter is not for everyone. Here are the “Top 10 Reasons Not to Tweet.”
- You think using Twitter is a social-media strategy. It’s a tactic, a tool, not a strategy. It works if you already have an online following who’ll view your Tweets as a way to interact with your company on a human level.
- Every tweet has to be approved by legal. Twitter is a social network where conversation is fast and interconnected. If you have to wait a day, or even a few hours for your 140 character Tweet to gain legal approval, Twitter will be the wrong platform for you.
- You plan to use Twitter for nothing but broadcasting headlines or deals. People follow people they find interesting. Followers are earned on Twitter. Be interesting, make only every 10th tweet about you, and you’ll gain and keep a following. If all your tweets are a one-way street: Block!
- You think a ghost tweeter for the president of your company is OK. Authenticity and transparency are the keys. It’s fine if someone besides the CEO tweets for your company, as long as they say that’s what they’re doing.
- You are not going to respond when people direct tweets at you. Twitter is like the new water cooler. If you walked out to the water fountain and talked nonstop to people gathered there, they’d certainly be happy when you left. Ditto for Twitter.
- You think Tweeting as XYZ Corp. and using the company logo as your avatar might be a good idea. Identify the person or people tweeting for your company or don’t tweet. The days of hiding behind the faceless corporation are over.
- You think all that matters on Twitter is getting a lot of people to follow you. Quality trumps quantity.
- You want to protect your updates. If people have to ask permission to see what you’re posting on Twitter, you’re defeating the purpose, which is conversation.
- You plan to track Twitter with Google Analytics. Google Analytics won’t give you true tracking. You can track the URLs you post with a service like BudURL or bit.ly, but you’ll need to use one or more social-media tracking tools to monitor your corporate reputation and influence on Twitter.
- You think you can just jump in and start tweeting. Listen first. Monitor what’s being said about your brand, your industry, your products. Then join the conversation and become part of the community. Then your occasional marketing messages will be accepted, or at least tolerated because you also add value to the community.
****
Subscribe to Brusque via RSS
Subscribe to Brusque via Email
****
Picture Credit: Advertising Age
WomenEntrepreneur.com
The publishers of Entrepreneur magazine have recently launched a new website called WomenEntrepreneur.com.
According to Editorial Director, Entrepreneur Media – Rieva Lesonsky
“WomenEntrepreneur.com is the newest incarnation of Entrepreneur Media’s ongoing relationship with entrepreneurial women. . . . Every day on WomenEntrepreneur.com, you’ll find new information to help you be a better, smarter entrepreneur. Francine Kizner, the editor of this site, has done an amazing job finding some of the best and most knowledgeable voices to keep you informed and current. I’m even starting a blog for the first time. . . . But you are central to this site. There are message boards that’ll let you talk to one another. There are comments on all the articles and blogs so you can add your input and participate in the discussion of our content. These new features will allow you to help one another and to support one another. So please take part. As poet Kate Braverman wrote, “To be one woman, truly, wholly, is to be all women. Tend one garden, and you will birth worlds.”
Click here to read what else she has planned for the site: “Welcome, Women Entrepreneurs”
It’s a very well done site. They have several great columns including: “The Entrepreneur’s Life”, “Practical PR”, “Tech Forward”, “Business Law Advisor” , “The Rich Woman in You” , and “Women at Work”.
Click here to take a look around the site:
WomenEntrepreneur.com
****
Subscribe to Brusque via Email
****
About Us
Brusque is a digital newspaper that focuses on women who rock.
Here we celebrate the excellence of women and examine the issues that we face as we try to move the universe forward. Our primary focus will be on women in business. More specifically, we will focus on women as corporate leaders, and women as entrepreneurs.
The primary focus on business is because that is what we know best. (Go Blue!!!)
But as you (and we) know, women are advancing in many fields (sports, law, medicine, politics, science, etc.), so we will highlight the ascent, the successes and the key issues that pertain to women in other areas as well.
We will also focus on presenting articles that highlight issues pertaining to women in the workplace and work-life-balance.
In addition, we will take a look at how the business world is addressing and responding to the needs of women through marketing and product design; and periodically, we will highlight products that we believe will be of use to women that are also interested in the above topics.
Also note, we love gadgets, we love to cook, we love to travel, we love to shop, we love to read, we love to . . . okay you get the point, we love to have fun. So you’ll also see posts on technology and other stuff we love (cooking, shoes, biking, travel, sports, etc.) as well.
The short version is this, our goal is to create an estrogen-fueled digital newspaper that celebrates the successes of women around the globe with a focus on women in business. Again, we are big on business, entrepreneurship and marketing around here; so if you notice a bias, please excuse it, but at least you’ll know where it comes from.
Also, please note, we are new to blogging so forgive us in advance if we make a few mistakes. Feel free to let us know what you think.
Also, some people have asked “Why the name ‘Brusque’?” To put it simply - Because that’s our style (short, blunt, and straight to the point) - ESPECIALLY when we’re having pre-caffeine moments!
-
-
-
Feedjit Traffic Feed
-
-
-
-
Archives
- May 2009 (3)
- April 2009 (29)
- March 2009 (49)
- May 2007 (9)
-
Categories
- Art
- Books
- Business Travel
- Career
- Cooking
- Economy
- Education
- Entertainment
- Entrepreneurship
- Fashion
- Film
- Food
- Gadgets
- Global
- Golf
- Health
- Journalism
- Leadership
- Magazines
- Marketing
- Marketing to Women
- Mommy Stuff
- Money & Investing
- Music
- Newspapers
- Odds & Ends
- Organizations
- Parenting
- People
- Politics
- Protests & Boycotts
- Science
- Shopping
- Sports
- Technology
- Television
- The First Lady
- Uncategorized
- Women & Sports
- Work-Life Balance
- Young (S)Heroes
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
