You must be using your 20% time...

...20% time that a recent survey found U.S. workers waste of their working day. Yes, that's right. nearly 2 hours of every 8 hour day are spent doing.... nothing? Read on... and get back to work!

An online survey of 2,057 employees by online compensation company Salary.com found about six in every 10 workers admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour working day.

141st floor please

In an incredible (an ongoing) feat of engineering, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has built the world's tallest building. Not only is this building the new tallest building in the world, they still have nearly another year of building to go which pretty much guarantees this will be the tallest building for quite some time. Although the news.com article speaks for itself, some highlights of the Burj Dubai building include:

• On July 21, construction reached 1,680 feet on the 141st floor (now 13 feet above the former record holder, Tapei 101 in Taiwan, which is 1,667 feet above the ground)
• Burj Dubai is the tallest building now, and according to the official site, it's nowhere near finished. The final height and number of stories are a secret.
• When finished, the building will be comprised of 330,000 cubic meters of concrete, 39,000 metric tons of steel rebar, and 142,000 square meters of glass--which will take 22 million man hours to complete.
• 66 elevators and escalators, which will be the longest elevators in the world and will travel at more than 2o miles per hour

Credit: news.com

Vitamin C really doesn't help with a cold?

Contrary to what many of you may think or have been told growing up, Vitamin C really doesn't do much to prevent or treat the common cold. This article discusses the findings of a review of many studies on this topic and gives us the low down. I never really believed in the whole Vitamin C thing or guzzling OJ thing to cure a cold to begin with but could never back it up with why. Well... read on for a good reason.

Based on pooled data, regular ingestion of vitamin C did nothing to lower the risk of the common cold in the ordinary population, report reviewers in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

There was a slight reduction in the duration and severity of common cold symptoms with vitamin C, compared with placebo, but the magnitude of the effect was so small its clinical usefulness is doubtful, the experts report.

Did you ever think your sleeping position may have a tie to your personality traits? Scientists believe the position you fall asleep in can tell a lot about the type of person you are. Read on to see if any of this applies to you!

The six positions studied by Professor Idzikowski include:

• The Foetus: Those who curl up in the foetus position are described as tough on the outside but sensitive at heart. They may be shy when they first meet somebody, but soon relax. This is the most common sleeping position, adopted by 41% of the 1,000 people who took part in the survey. More than twice as many women as men tend to adopt this position.
• Log (15%): Lying on your side with both arms down by your side. These sleepers are easy going, social people who like being part of the in-crowd, and who are trusting of strangers. However, they may be gullible.
• The yearner (13%): People who sleep on their side with both arms out in front are said to have an open nature, but can be suspicious, cynical. They are slow to make up their minds, but once they have taken a decision, they are unlikely ever to change it.
• Soldier (8%): Lying on your back with both arms pinned to your sides. People who sleep in this position are generally quiet and reserved. They don't like a fuss, but set themselves and others high standards.
• Freefall (7%): Lying on your front with your hands around the pillow, and your head turned to one side. Often gregarious and brash people, but can be nervy and thin-skinned underneath, and don't like criticism, or extreme situations.
• Starfish (5%): Lying on your back with both arms up around the pillow. These sleepers make good friends because they are always ready to listen to others, and offer help when needed. They generally don't like to be the centre of attention.
  

For The Common Folk has moved to blogger.com!

For The Common Folk has moved!

• Old URL: http://www.forthecommonfolk.com
  
• New URL (update your favorites): http://4thecommonfolk.blogspot.com/

Apologies for the lack of posts over what has been many long months. Things were quite busy with work and moving into my new condo. I've also been waiting a little longer than I would have liked to test out new blog templates and sites to see which one I want to use going forward. My previous site host was great, but it ended up costing more than I would have liked and therefore I've decided to move back to using Google's Blogger service. I never thought I'd be using this service again after using it a couple years back but they've since added some nice features and "Google-ized" it a little more to make it much more stable.

I hope you enjoy the new home for this blog. Expect to see a poll over the upcoming weeks to help me make this site that much more enjoyable for everyone, and as always, feel free to submit comments :)