A pretty good list of how we can be happy and successful - from Michael Jordan

 I grew up watching Michael Jordan play basketball, from college through his entire professional career. Many believe, myself included, he is the best, most complete player of all-time, but of course this sort of thing is subjective and simply fun to think about...and it is not the thing to focus on. 

Instead, remember not to put anyone on a pedestal. Every human being is a flawed individual, we all make mistakes, and we all have struggles to overcome. Having said that, what we can get from the 'greats' in any field are insights and suggestions for how to approach life and find happiness and success (personally I think success in life is achieved when one is happy and healthy, whatever that means to each individual based on our own passions and joys in life...do what you love, that doesn't hurt others!). 

Take this for what it's worth to you, but here are 10 things MJ did that worked for him, and kept him motivated and the fire lit inside to always want to use each day to make himself better. For anyone who has ever read or thought about personal growth methods, this follows along with tried and true methods many have used in some form over centuries of time...some of these could work for YOU, too! 

Point is, each of us can always improve and try to become a better human being every single day of our lives by helping ourselves and others, and that's a pretty cool realization to reach!!  

What is Electrical Resistance?

 Every electrical device you have used has something called electrical resistance. If you've noticed electrical devices get warm - perhaps a calculator or cell phone or a stereo or computer that's been on - that heat is the sign of electrical resistance. 

When electric current flows through anything, where the current is a flow of electrons, those electrons collide with atoms within the lattice of the material. Even good conductors like copper wire and gold, will get warm...there are no perfect materials, and atoms get in the way of the flowing electrons! 

This video will use a simulation to get some images in our heads as to what happens at the micro-level. And also remember this: in mechanics, all collisions have some loss of kinetic energy. So every electron loses KE in a collision to that atom, and the atom then vibrates in place a little faster. From chemistry, we know that the temperature of a material depends on the average KE of its atoms and molecules - so if there is an increase in vibrational KE of the atoms of a material, it feels warmer to us! 

Materials that create few collisions for the electrons in the current have low resistance (small numbers of ohms), and if there are a lot of collisions there is a higher resistance (larger number of ohms, the unit of resistance). 

See another video for how we handle multiple resistors in circuits, in combinations of series and parallel, that we need for circuit analysis. 

New site for our work with our Malawi friends: EMPATHY

 I just wanted to add that we will be maintaining a site for the fundraising and work done with our friends in Malawi, Africa. With some $15,000 raised and provided to Andrews Nchessie, there are amazing results on the ground as far as the farms they have planted, raised, maintained and harvested, feeding some 1500 children year-round so they can be healthier, happier and in school learning full-time! Check out our EMPATHY site: Evanston Malawi Partnership Against The Hunger of Youth.