Hasta La Gadget!

By Melaina Juntti for Men’s Journal

If you work overnight shifts, pull frequent late nights at the office or travel so often that you’re constantly jet-lagged, you know how tough it can be to get good, quality sleep — even when your overtaxed body badly craves it. That’s because having an erratic sleep schedule throws off your circadian clock. These cyclical internal rhythms rely on cues from the environment — most importantly light — to regulate sleepiness, hunger, metabolism, immune system function and more.

According to a new study, you can get your circadian clock back on track by simply changing your diet.

A team of researchers from Japan found that the connection between diet and circadian rhythm is is all about the insulin. The pancreas secretes this hormone when food is consumed, and certain foods trigger more insulin release than others. Put simply, an insulin rush makes you feel tired. Therefore, the researchers say that by eating foods that cause a lot of insulin to be secreted, you can jolt your circadian clock ahead so you’ll become sleepy, just like you should be at end of the day. On the flip side, by consuming foods that do not trigger a big insulin surge, you can dial back your clock to feel alert, just how you’d want to be in the morning.

To help you hit the sack at a decent hour so you can be up early the next morning, your dinner menu should include lots of carbs, says study author Dr. Makoto Akashi. “Given that insulin secretion is strongly induced by carbohydrates, if you’re an early bird, you may be helped by eating carb-rich foods for dinner, such as pasta, potatoes, and rice,” he says. And then to avoid an insulin-induced crash in the morning, steer clear of carb-heavy breakfast foods like bagels, waffles, and sugary cereals. Eat lean proteins, fruits, veggies and whole grains instead.

Even if you work a 9-to-5 job and your sleep schedule is quasi-normal, your circadian clock still may be out of step with the time of day — and you might benefit from a little diet manipulation. According to Akashi, most people today lead lifestyles that don’t allow sunlight to do the clock-setting as it should. Because we’re constantly being exposed to blue-wavelength light emitted from laptop computers, TVs and iPads, our clock is predominantly on a “night mode that is desynchronized from social life, leading to a kind of jet lag feeling,” he explains. Therefore, Akashi says getting your circadian clock back in sync through food might be a key to better digestion, metabolism and overall health.

More from Men’s Journal:
9 Ways to Make Your Sleep More Efficient
10 Products to Help You Sleep Better
9 Ways Lack of Sleep is Killing You

Forget every negative thing you’ve seen or heard about Detroit, because Detroit is on fire. Detroit is not the worst city in America, it happens to be the best. Why? The people make it so. The people, the land, the unity — the fight to make something better is alive and well. And when you’re walking through a city working overtime to bring back its own soul, a kind of Utopia grows in her garden, and a flower springs up in your mind as you experience what it means to stand up to oppressive governance and corporate greed.

It is a gorgeous place, Detroit. I had a great time there recently at the Netroots Nation convention, and I have to say I never felt fear or paranoia — only compassion, only hope. Hope is written on the foreheads of all who live there. They are digging in, staying put, fighting for the most basic human rights — water for instance. I attended a rally and a march to turn on the water. Many Detroit citizens are losing tap water because the powers that be refuse to see water, the essence of life, as a human right. They fail to grasp — without water you’ll kill that garden, you’ll kill Americans too. Blame it on the companies who wish to corporatize water, put the blame squarely on government neglect — because that is where it belongs.

Feeling out-priced in your current city? Have no sense of community, no way to own your own home? Guess what — five days in Detroit and I had a community. It took less than five days to make new friends. And there were thousands upon thousands of homes for the price of a song — bring your tools and rebuild them. City subsidies make homeownership a reality even for the most impoverished Americans, and a community effort is underway to rebuild when you can’t do it yourself. It makes you wonder why every cable home-makeover show doesn’t spend a year in Detroit. Put that loot where it belongs, where it can make a real difference, Hollywood.

Everyone I said hello to said hello back. Folks wanted to take me on tours, they wanted me to tell you there are things going on here no other city can offer — and they are right. Fallow fields have turned into community gardens. Once desolate streets like Heidelberg now have the Heidelberg Project, an art and community space that will blow your mind. The Detroit Jazz Festival is a blast, and Detroit is a sports lover’s dream. DIA, The Detroit Institute of Art, is a major accomplishment. DIA opened in the 1920’s, and sits in a magnificent Beaux Arts building downtown–go and marvel at their exquisite art collection, over 100 galleries await you. And don’t miss the Charles W. Wright Museum of African-American History — talk about an education. It’s one of the few museums in America offering a real glimpse into the African-American experience. Downtown Detroit was clean, with exquisite architecture and a commuter rail system aptly named The People Mover. The People Mover swings a halo around this glorious city. The ride costs only 75 cents, and you’ll stare wide-eyed at a city that in the early part of the 20th century was considered one of the wealthiest in America.

If you are young, if you are an artist or a craftsperson, or a writer who gets no respect, if you are priced out like so many Americans — Detroit wants you. If you need medical care, or eke out a living on public assistance as I do — Michigan has Medicaid and a means to thrive. Look, I don’t expect to be unemployed forever, and I’m hoping like most citizens to get off the dole. Someday, I would like to get back to making a living wage like I did before the crash. I’m a lucky one, I have a place to live and a small job that helps keep me right above the water line. But if I needed too, and someday I may, I would move to Detroit for its diversity and opportunity. If I decided to return to an urban setting, without a doubt I would chose Detroit.

Housing stock is on the rise, the office towers downtown are filling up. So, if you’re starting a new business, consider the incentives Detroit brings–great prices, hard working people in need of jobs, and a conscience — a real conscience. Detroit is conscious of what America is saying too — and the city is concerned. The more we bash that town the worse we make it for the people, so stop it, Americans. Lift her up instead, help bring Detroit back by good deed and faith. The Motor City has brought you many gifts: Motown, the auto-industry (shame on them for pulling out), Iggy Pop, Dinah Washington, and Joe Louis for heaven’s sake.

Detroit suffered the neutron bomb in the last depression. 2008 crushed her, kicked the town right where it matters: foreclosures, family homes and jobs — lost. And Detroit, like much of our nation, suffered through horrid governance. The city’s last two mayors were back-to-back crooks, greedy grifters reminding us — just when will our leaders lead? When will the people take up the cudgel and whack the political class who strangle our great cities? Make no mistake–it isn’t the people, it’s the rulers, the politicos, slimy corporations and the haters. The race baiters and finger pointers must go–and in their place good Americans must rise up and help this great city rebuild. What exists now is the foundation of a new 21st century American city. One that could just as easily become the next financial, cultural, and social powerhouse. Believe me, the talent and means are everywhere, they haven’t left as you might expect — they are entrenched within the city limits.

When the pendulum swings — be there. In the meantime, here is what you can do today to help Detroit and its citizens — you can pay someone’s water bill. That’s right, scrape it together, go to this site — The Detroit Water Project — and lend a hand. Keep the water on for a family or an elderly person with no means, keep it on for all of Detroit and by extension all of America. Keep the motor running and feel the power of a turnaround. The issues facing Detroit are issues we all face, and when we don’t hold Detroit in our arms and reach out, who will reach out for us when and if the time comes for your town? How will we know what it means to receive if we never give? These are Americans just like you, fighting for something we all need, fighting for the basics — human survival, jobs, a living wage, an opportunity to educate and grow.

While income disparity rips apart America, do you think the fat-cat millionaires in Congress plan to do anything about it? No — too busy playing party games, too busy raising millions for campaign rot. The revolution begins at home — it’s begun in Detroit, so let Detroit show you the way. On July 18, I participated in that rally for water, and I will never forget it. You shouldn’t either — because when we forget about the people of Detroit, we lose our soul. Turn up the volume on those Motown hits, then turn on the tap, because Detroit needs you, and you need Detroit to show you the way back. Inspiration — everywhere you look Detroit is on the rise. Jump up and take her hand, participate in the greatest revival of our time. Come hell or high water I will be helping someone pay their bill this month. Join me, spread the word and make a difference.

If you hold any sway, bring your conventions, your business, bring strength and your own integrity to Detroit. Take a vacation there, move there if you’re outflanked by rising home prices or the cost of living. Be proactive and you will find, as I did, Detroit rocks. You need only dance in her streets to feel the beat of this reemerging metropolis. So bring it on home — the River of the Strait, the mighty Detroit River, flows from Lakes Erie to Michigan, and right there sits a jewel so gorgeous we would be fools to mistake her for dust. Detroit is a phoenix — now fly there and see for yourself what it means to rise up from the ashes.

Joe Louis is on the move — he’s dancing, he’s ready to strike, and when he does watch out! It’s a knockout, baby — a one-two punch that really leaves a mark on your soul. So bring it on home — sublime, supreme, sensational–this is Detroit, year zero.

Looking to borrow some money? We’ve found you the best person to go to in each state.

The interactive map below from the real estate blog Movoto shows the net worth of the richest resident in each U.S. state. Darker shades of blue reflect those at the richest end of the wealth spectrum, while darker shades of red reflect those at the lower end. As you can see in the map, there’s a wide gulf between the fortunes of America’s richest.

via Movoto

Washington resident and Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ $80 billion net worth makes him the richest person in the country (and the world). The least rich individual on the map is Robert Gillam, founder of McKinley Capital, an Alaska-based institutional investment firm. But don’t feel too bad for him — he’s worth a cool $700 million.

Heirs to the Walmart empire dominate three states: Arkansas (Jim Walton, worth $35.7 billion), Texas (Alice Walton, worth $35.3 billion) and Wyoming (Christy Walton, worth $37.9 billion). Here’s to so-called upward mobility.

Movoto used wealth data from Forbes and Celebrity Net Worth to create the map.

STURBRIDGE, Mass. — Sarah Blanchard was sorry she skipped a worship service. Sarah Wood apologized for denouncing infant baptisms. And as for the Cheneys, Joseph and Abigail? Well, “with shame, humiliation and sorrow,” they acknowledged having had sex before marriage.

(RNS) Iraq’s Christians are begging the world for help. Is anybody listening?

Since capturing the country’s second largest city of Mosul in early June, the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, has ordered Christians to convert to Islam, pay taxes levied on non-Muslims, or die. The extremist Sunni group is also persecuting and murdering Turkmen and Shabaks, both Muslim religious minorities.

Human rights lawyer Nina Shea described the horror in Mosul to me: “(The Islamic State) took the Christians’ houses, took the cars they were driving to leave. They took all their money. One old woman had her life savings of $40,000, and she said, ‘Can I please have 100 dollars?’, and they said no. They took wedding rings off fingers, chopping off fingers if they couldn’t get the ring off.”

“We now have 5,000 destitute, homeless people with no future,” Shea said. “This is a crime against humanity.”

For the first time in 2,000 years, Mosul is devoid of Christians. “This is ancient Nineveh we are talking about,” Shea explained. “They took down all the crosses. They blew up the tomb of the prophet Jonah. An orthodox Cathedral has been turned into a mosque. … They are uprooting every vestige of Christianity.” University of Mosul professor Mahmoud Al ‘Asali, a Muslim, bravely spoke out against the Islamic State’s purging of Christians and was executed.

Lebanon-based Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younnan, who heads the Syrian Catholic Church, called the crisis “religious cleansing” in an interview. “I want to tell American Christians to stand up, wake up and no longer be a silent majority. American-elected representatives need to stand up for their principles on which the U.S. has been founded: the defense of religious freedom … and respect for human rights.”

Mosul’s Christians have fled to Kurdistan, which is providing refuge. Going back to Mosul is not an option: The Islamic State has given their houses and businesses away. There is nothing to go back to even if the Islamic State left.

Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf has taken to the House floor three times in the past week to plead for action from the U.S. and world community.

Wolf told me, “The Kurds have done a good job, but they are bearing the burden. President Obama should thank and encourage the Kurds for protecting the Christians. He also needs to provide (humanitarian aid), including funds for water and food.”

Though many Iraq War boosters have claimed that keeping U.S. troops there would have avoided this atrocity, Shea pointed out that a million Christians left Iraq in the decade before the Islamic State’s purge campaign. The U.S. invasion “did not benefit the Christians at all. Back in 2007, jihadists moved into Baghdad’s Christian Dora neighborhood and did just what they are doing in Mosul now. We had 100,000 troops on the ground and we pushed them out, but the Christians never got back their property.”

Patriarch Younan concurred, telling me, “Christians used to live (peacefully) and get educated. But since the invasion in 2003, there is…no safety.”