1. Healthy eating habits
It’s no secret that healthy eating can help you lose weight, feel more energetic, reduce the risk of illness and even extend your life. But if you’ve developed a lifetime of bad eating habits, developing new mealtime patterns can be a real challenge.
Fortunately, there are a number of simple, easy and, yes, delicious ways you can start eating better without losing any of the pleasure we associate with food. Once you replace your bad habits with these good ones, you’ll be well on your way to a lifetime of rewards.
Here are some simple ways you can eat better every day:
* Always eat breakfast. Breakfast may not really be “the most important meal of the day,” but missing breakfast can throw your metabolism off for hours. Eat a morning meal, but stay away from pastries, pancakes, waffles and other super-sweet, starch-heavy foods. Instead, focus on eating whole-grain breads or cereals; low-fat (or high monosaturated fat) protein sources like eggs, peanut butter, lean meats and fish; low-fat dairy products like skim milk, yogurt and low-fat cheese; and either fresh fruits or 100% fruit juice.
* Eat meals at a table, not on the run. Whether eating at home or out, always make meals “special” by eating at a table. Avoid eating “on the run,” in your car, or even at your desk. Food that’s “stuffed into your face” is rarely satisfying—leading you to eat more.
* Always have plenty of healthy “snack foods” within reach. Often, we consume “empty calories” just to keep our stomachs from growling between meals. Instead of going to the vending machine for a mid-afternoon candy bar, satisfy the urge to “nosh” by having some low-salt nuts or some fresh fruit like apples, oranges or bananas handy.
* Eat slower and “listen” to your body. Many people tend to eat very quickly and then complain that they feel “stuffed” when the meal is over. You’ll find you eat less—and enjoy it more—if you slow down just a bit and pay attention to how you feel as the meal progresses. When you get to the point you’re no longer hungry—stop eating. You’ve had enough.
* Don’t worry about “cleaning your plate.” In the same vein as the advice above, don’t worry about eating everything on your plate, especially if you’re eating out. American restaurants tend to serve portions that are way too large for a healthy diet. Either be prepared to “waste” some good food (despite everything your mother told you), or better yet, split meals with a friend or ask for a “doggie bag” before you leave.
* Limit alcoholic to 1-2 drinks per day. Many scientific studies suggest that small amounts of regular alcohol consumption can actually be beneficial. However, alcohol is a notorious source of “empty calories,” and keeping drinking to a minimum can help you avoid unwanted weight gain (as well as many long-term health problems associated with alcohol abuse).
Eating healthier every day can help you perform better in school and at work. You’ll feel better, you’ll look better—and you probably won’t even be as hungry as you were on a less healthy diet! Why not start eating better today!

2. Generation gap
One of the important problems of all times is a generation gap. Adult’s mentality is different from teenager's. We are the children of two epochs with different views on various subjects. Because of this parents and children sometimes argue with each other.
Some people believe that teenagers today are generally rude, lazy and ill-behaved. Other people, however, think that teenagers are not so bad. Sometimes people don’t understand teenagers. They don’t understand some problems and things which are very important in teenagers’ life, for example the lifestyles, piercing, tattoos, relationship with friends and teachers.
Some people don’t want to understand modern views, ideals and our system of values. They say that teenagers are cruel, brutal, heartless and rude. Yes, today new generation «plays» with smoking, drugs and alcohol, but this doesn’t mean that all teens are really bad!
On the other hand, today many elderly people look at the world with new eyes. Moreover, they try to understand teenagers’ problems and solve them.
Most of the quarrels between parents and children happen because of children’s marks at school and generation gap. We try to learn better, but if we have a bad mark our parents can shout at us.
In most cases «new generation» doesn’t understand their parents and becomes depressed because of this. To protest against it, teens can shock people around them. That’s why it is considered that teens today are lazy and ill-behaved. Elderly people usually compare their childhood and youth with present, they are always talking about «the good old days». People are said to become wiser with age. Sometimes it is true and sometimes it is not. I think that you can meet a wise man among the old as often as among the young. It is wrong that when wisdom always comes in old age. Sometimes when we talk to adults, they listen only to threir own point of view. That’s why some teens don’t like to talk to adults. To sum it up, nowadays everyone has a different view on teen’s life. But, in fact, we should simply learn to understand each other.

3. People and lifestyles
It is widely known that life expectancy is increasing. But the reason why the average figures are higher than they used to be, say, hundred years ago is not that all people live longer than before. One reason is that, due to medical research, many illnesses were eliminated; the second one is that fewer people die in wars. Generally, the life of modern man is endangered by many factors. One is the increasing pollution of the environment by industry and transport; another one is sedentary lifestyle of people living in cities and towns, that is, the majority of the population of the planet. The third one is the quality of food we eat and water we drink which results in a lot of diseases. The fourth one is that living in big cities leads to epidemics, and even pandemics of many catchy illnesses. Unhealthy life results in the fact that many people are overweight.
The only possible way of preserving your health is, therefore, healthy way of life which includes keeping fit, balanced meals, and giving up unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, and, of course, drugs.
Physical fitness is a general state of good physical health. For anyone who really wants to be healthy, fitness has become an integral part of their lives. The fitness boom resulted in a rise in the numbers of people participating in sports and sports activities. It is a well-known fact that even moderate physical activity can protect you from heart diseases and strokes, obesity and influenza. There are many ways of keeping fit. Firstly, you could visit health and fitness clubs. A lot of health and fitness clubs, public leisure centres, huge indoor water parks are very popular among people of all ages. Secondly, regular exercise is necessary. People of different ages can choose or design exercises that will fit them. Some people do aerobics or yoga; others prefer weight training in a gym. Many people prefer walking or jogging which are the cheapest and most accessible sports. Doing some sport or other on a regular basis is the best way of keeping fit. In Russia a number of sports activities are popular among the old and the young: football, swimming, cycling, skiing, skating, fishing, hunting, roller-skating, etc. Mass running competitions gain popularity with Russians. City marathons have become sporting events reported on the radio, television and in the press.
A healthy diet is an important part of staying healthy, too. This diet contains reduced amounts of cholesterol, fat, sugar and salt. It helps protect our body from a wide range of diseases; the most dangerous are heart diseases, liver diseases, and cancer.

To stay healthy one must, of course, abstain from smoking. Everybody knows smoking is hazardous for your health and can lead to fatal diseases like cancer. Smoking should undoubtedly be banned in all public places.
The new emphasis on the body has allowed it to take on the quality of a social power resource. Similar to our money (economic capital), our relationships (social capital), our educational qualifications (cultural capital), the body has a social currency value that can be converted into economic, cultural, and social profit. In short, a sporting, fit and aesthetic body has become a source of power and status in society, which is well reflected in young people’s lifestyles. The improved status of body capital for young people seems directly linked to the increase in importance that sport and physical activity have acquired in youth cultures. This lead us to the role of sport involvement in the daily lives of young people.

4. Marriage is not a word, it is sentence.
Marriage is very much like a violin; after the sweet music is over, the strings are attached.
Marriage is love. Love is blind. Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind.
Marriage is an institution in which a man loses his Bachelor's Degree and the woman gets her Masters.
Marriage is a thing which puts a ring on a woman's finger and two under the man's eyes.
Marriage certificate is just another word for a work permit.
Marriage is not just a having a wife, but also worries inherited forever.
Marriage requires a man to prepare 4 types of "rings":
* The Engagement Ring
* The Wedding Ring
* The Suffe-Ring
* The Endu-Ring

Married life is full of excitement and frustration:
* In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens.
* In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens.
* In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen.
It is true that love is blind but marriage is definitely an eye-opener.
Getting married is very much like going to the restaurant with friends. You order what you want, and when you see what the other fellow has, you wish you had ordered that.
It's true that all men are born free and equal, but some of them get married!
There was this man who muttered a few words in the church and found himself married. A year later he muttered something in his sleep and found himself divorced.
A happy marriage is a matter of giving and taking; the husband gives and the wife takes.

5. What one generation sees as a luxury, the next sees as a necessity
Eventually the luxury becomes necessity Take cars for exapmle. We now need them to get where we're going because our cities are wide spread. Without them, it would take days to get to another city in the same state or province.
“ The range of socially permissible and desirable satisfaction is greatly enlarged, but through this satisfaction, the Pleasure Principle is reduced—deprived of the claims which are irreconcilable with the established society.

6. The difference between being married and just living together
There is a common myth about living together and it is fueled by the number of couples who live together and then decide to go their separate ways. They say it is a good thing we found out before we were married. But in a very real sense it is unfortunate because they never stop to question if it was the lack of commitment in the living together situation that doomed the relationship not incompatibility.
The commitment to play house (sorry but that is what it is) is completely artificial and one can hardly expect a couple in such a setting to respond in the same way a married couple would and yet that is the assumption made. For the woman especially how secure do you feel with, "Hey let's live together to see if this would work(boy there is a vote of confidence and love) - verses a man who commitments himself totally and completely to you and to making this work? Which scenario makes your heart well up with love more?
What about divorce - don't most marriages fail? Shouldn't we try to avoid this? Just under half of marriages fail but if marriage is your long term goal then living together is not ideal - indeed far from it. In couples living together just 20% eventually marry. So your odds are already two and half times worse from the start. Then if 50% fail you are looking at just 10% odds of lasting marriage by living together verses just about 50% odd of a successful marriage the old fashioned way.
Also couples who live together reconcile far less frequently than married couples do. While many individual cases of living together show success, the over all the statistics are markedly negative.
The best result in the living together category are couples who live together for a short period prior to marriage but after a engagement and a firm date is set - generally less than 6 month in the future and only if both partners have never lived with anyone else previously (if there are prior failed cohabitations the failure rate skyrockets) While the number who actually marry are somewhat decreased marriage statistics for short term engaged cohabitation's are the most promising lagging only slightly behind traditional married couples.

7. Eating habits of American adolescents
Nutritional needs during adolescence are increased because of the increased growth rate and changes in body composition associated with puberty. The dramatic increase in energy and nutrient requirements coincides with other factors that may affect adolescents' food choices and nutrient intake, and thus nutritional status. These factors, including the quest for independence and acceptance by peers, increased mobility, greater time spent at school or work activities, and preoccupation with self-image, contribute to the erratic and unhealthy eating behaviors that are common during adolescence.
Sound nutrition can play a role in the prevention of several chronic diseases, including obesity, coronary heart disease, certain types of cancer, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. For this reason, nutrition was a priority area for the Healthy People 2010, and remains an important objective for Healthy People 2020. To help prevent diet-related chronic diseases, researchers have proposed that healthy eating behaviors should be established in childhood and maintained during adolescence.
National and population-based surveys have found that adolescents often fail to meet dietary recommendations for overall nutritional status and for specific nutrient intakes. Many adolescents receive a higher proportion of energy from fat or added sugar and have a lower intake of a vitamin A, folic acid, fiber, iron, calcium, and zinc than is recommended. The low intake of iron and calcium among adolescent girls is of particular concern. Iron deficiency can impair cognitive function and physical performance, and inadequate calcium intake may increase fracture risk during adolescence and the risk of developing osteoporosis in later life.
Eating habits vary widely between individual adolescents, and also display some general trends over time, reflecting sociocultural trends in food availability and nutritional goals. As an example, data from six national representative surveys showed that total energy intake among us adolescents increased through 2004, then decreased through 2010. Seven food sources, including sugar-sweetened beverages, pizza, full-fat milk, grain-based desserts, breads, pasta dishes, and savory snacks, consistently contributed to this trend. Intakes of full-fat milk, meats, ready-to-eat cereals, burgers, fried potatoes, fruit juice, and vegetables decreased, whereas nonfat milk, poultry, sweet snacks and candies, and tortilla- and corn-based dishes increased through 2010. The recent changes included significant decreases in sugar-sweetened beverages, pizza, pasta dishes, bread, and savory snacks; and significant increases in fruit.

8. The world would be a better place to live in if scientific and technological endeavor slowed down
The rapid scientific progress has aroused a number of problems that are a matter of our great concern. These are ecological problems, the safety of nuclear power stations, the nuclear war threat, and the responsibility of a scientist. But still we are grateful to the outstanding men of the past and the present who have courage and patience to disclose the secrets of the Universe.
I think most people in today's world would think that someone who could even question whether or not science is a good thing must be either crazy or a religious bigot, but if we are genuinely impartial no question should be sacred and neither should this one be.

I always find it incredible the way that certain people eulogize about the moral worth of science as if we didn't currently have a standing arsenal of nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire planet in half an hour, or that we hadn't created industrialized warfare, or the fact that a small fraction of the world lives in incredible luxury while the majority live in the most wretched conditions, caused by exploitation by that minority, which has only been made possible by technological and scientific advances.

Science is actually entirely morally neutral. Science is just the endeavor by which we learn the efficient causes behind physical phenomena. Learning the efficient causes behind physical phenomena gives us the power to EFFECT the world around us. Science in a nutshell IS power. Power in and of itself obviously doesn't make the world a better place, all it does is increase your ability to effect things, and so your ability to do good and bad. IF we appropriate more power, all we will do is just proportionately exactly the same amount of good and bad, but just on a larger scale, hence the actual good and bad we will do with this power will stay exactly the same, therefore the world has not become a better place, just a more extreme place. Now I'm expecting a lot of people to give me examples of people being cured from illness etc, but for every story like that I can give you one back about people who have been the victims of the horror that science and technology has wreaked upon humankind. Any response just focusing on some individual case is just a piece of, I'm talking about the wider picture. Can anyone give me an argument about how scientific progress in and of itself gives any benefit to humanity as a WHOLE?

9. Meritocracy reality or utopia
Meritocracy is not a utopian vision; it’s a dead-simple, perfectly reasonable system based on tried and tested principles. It is not pie-in-the-sky; it is here-and-now. Meritocracy is centered on the real problems that we have today and describes precisely what steps must be taken to solve those problems. Meritocracy is logical and practical; it does not ask for faith.
Don’t succumb to fantasy-based solutions. Use your head, make an effort, think it all through, and ask questions. Reject any proposal that doesn’t make logical sense. Reject anyone who tells you that the world will be saved by submission, by love, by passivity, or by faith. These fantasies don’t make sense; they won’t solve social issues. Meritocracy makes perfect sense—anyone can understand it and anyone can see that it works.
According to scholarly consensus, the earliest example of an administrative meritocracy, based on civil service examinations, dates back to Ancient China.[24][25][26][27]a[›] The concept originates, at least by the sixth century BC, when it was advocated by the Chinese philosopher Confucius, who "invented the notion that those who govern should do so because of merit, not of inherited status. This sets in motion the creation of the imperial examinations and bureaucracies open only to those who passed tests."[28]
As the Qin and Han dynasties developed a meritocratic system in order to maintain power over a large, sprawling empire, it became necessary for the government to maintain a complex network of officials.[29] Prospective officials could come from a rural background and government positions were not restricted to the nobility. Rank was determined by merit, through the civil service examinations, and education became the key for social mobility.[29] After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the nine-rank system was established during the Three Kingdoms period.
According to the Princeton Encyclopedia on American History:[9]
One of the oldest examples of a merit-based civil service system existed in the imperial bureaucracy of China. Tracing back to 200 B.C., the Han Dynasty adopted Confucianism as the basis of its political philosophy and structure, which included the revolutionary idea of replacing nobility of blood with one of virtue and honesty, and thereby calling for administrative appointments to be based solely on merit. This system allowed anyone who passed an examination to become a government officer, a position that would bring wealth and honor to the whole family. In part due to Chinese influence, the first European civil service did not originate in Europe, but rather in India by the British-run East India Company... company managers hired and promoted employees based on competitive examinations in order to prevent corruption and favoritism.
The concept of meritocracy spread from China to British India during the seventeenth century, and then into continental Europe and the United States.[9]

10. Workaholics is a road to success

Success literature going back hundreds of years espouses the benefits of workaholics. But why is it that some people seem to feel that “workaholics” is a dirty word nowadays?
I define “workaholics” as work that is challenging. Both hard work and “workaholics” (i.e. putting in the time required to get the job done) are required for success. A problem occurs when people think of challenging work as painful or uncomfortable. Does challenging work necessarily have to be painful? No, of course not. In fact, a major key to success is to learn to enjoy challenging work AND to enjoy working hard at it.
Why challenging work? Because challenging work, when intelligently chosen, pays off. It’s the work that people of lesser character will avoid. And if you infer that I’m saying people who avoid challenging work have a character flaw, you’re right… and a serious one at that. If you avoid challenging work, you avoid doing what it takes to succeed. To keep your muscles strong or your mind sharp, you need to challenge them. To do only what’s easy will lead to physical and mental flabbiness and very mediocre results, followed by a great deal of time and effort spent justifying why such flabbiness is OK, instead of stepping up and taking on some real challenges.
When you step up and learn to see yourself as the driver of your life instead of the passive victim of it, then it becomes a lot easier to take on big challenges and to endure the hardships they sometimes require. You learn to associate more pleasure to the character development you gain than the minor discomforts you experience. You become accustomed to spending more time outside your comfort zone. Hard work is something you look forward to because you know that it will lead to tremendous growth. And you eventually develop the maturity and responsibility to understand that certain goals will never just flow into your life; they’ll only happen if you act as the driving force to bring them to fruition.
If you want to achieve some really big and interesting goals, you have to learn to fall in love with hard work. Hard work makes the difference. It’s what separates the children from the mature adults. You can keep living as a child and desperately hoping that life will always be easy, but then you’ll be stuck in a child-like world, working on other people’s goals instead of your own, waiting for opportunities to come to you instead of creating your own, and doing work that in the grand scheme of this world just isn’t important.