Hasta La Gadget!

Now, now, now, that title is not meant to come across in any sort of sarcastic way. I really mean it: If you need a letter of recommendation, these are the three steps that I suggest you take:

1. Ask a professor (or employer or colleague) who would unequivocally, enthusiastically endorse you as a great student/intern/employee/[fill in the blank];
2. Ask your endorser if they’d mind if you (yes, I mean YOU) wrote the letter yourself;
3. Leave your letter open to their tweaks and suggestions, and do not forget to get their signature when all is said and done.

This advice came from my experience with my second internship (no, not the one I was fired from). I was interning at a small little public relations firm in lower Manhattan. I was nearing the end of the experience (it was a summer internship) and I knew I needed to secure a letter before I went back to school. I had done exceptionally well at this internship, and I knew my colleagues and supervisors liked and respected me.

Given the previous summer’s debacle, I needed this letter. It was my last opportunity to secure a professional letter before I graduated from college. So I knocked on Julia’s (my leader’s) door, and asked her for one. Her response surprised me. With that huge smile of hers, she looked me square in the face and said:

“You write the letter and I’ll sign it.”

Uh…. Say what?

I retreated to my desk, baffled. MY HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE EXPERIENCES FORGOT TO MENTION THIS PART.

Your bosses write your letters. Your teachers write your letters. Your professors write your letters. Anyone BUT YOU writes your letters. Right? RIGHT?!

Wrong. And I’ll tell you why.

After a few minutes of pondering this “dilemma,” I decided that I could never be so pompous as to write a letter on my own behalf. So I went back to her office and told her so. I told her that I was reallyyyy uncomfortable with this weird system.

She laughed and explained to me that I could write a much better letter about my own work than she possibly could. After all, I had done the work, and I knew the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it. She was very far removed from the intern-experience, she explained, and at that point could not comment quite as effectively on the nuances of the job as I could. To be sure, she was able to comment on the product of my work; and that was another detail that she encouraged me to put in the letter.

As it turned out, I wrote a kick-butt letter on my own behalf; she enthusiastically endorsed my performance that summer by signing on the dotted line; I finished the internship on a high note…

…And thirteen years later I use Julia’s system with my own students.

If you think my posts are strictly about the student-experience, you are wrong. I was not always in the field of education, but I promise you that each and every professional experience I’ve had outside of education has informed my approach to education in both large and small ways.

So, when students ask me for a letter of recommendation, I ask them to write their own. They usually hate this response. Some of them might start whining. I once had a student who flat out refused. But the fact remains that they can write a much stronger letter than I ever could about their performance. In most cases, I provide them with a template and a sample of a letter, and send them on their way.

The beautifully constructed and thoughtful letters that they produce on their own behalf are always mind-blowing.

Pro-tip:

Letters of recommendation often take an extremely long time for a professor (or employer or colleague) to write, and I believe that this, in part, is due to the fact that we write as outsiders. We are not you. (Duh.) It is much easier (and faster) for you to write about, and comment on, your own work. It just is.

If you need a letter right away, write it yourself so that the only thing the endorser needs to do is read it over, possibly tweak it, and sign off.

I think you’ll be surprised at how many people are on board with this. In a very real way, you’ve just saved your letter-writer a TON of time by asking them if you might construct the letter yourself.

No one on the planet cares as much about your work as you do. No one. I like to say that I do, but that is not realistic. You care about your own work, success, and accomplishments more than anyone else possibly could. Think about it. It is your work, your success, and your accomplishments we’re talking about, here. How on earth is anyone else even capable of caring about your own work as much as you are?

Writing your own letter of recommendation is good practice with thinking about the precise qualities you bring to the table. This is nothing to be passive about – if you want to stand out.

And finally, I practice what I preach. I recently needed to secure a letter for something I’m interested in doing this summer. I gave my boss the language she needed to furnish the letter quickly.

Come hang with me! www.heycollegekid.com

Shake Shack has a chance to be known for more than just burgers: It could also be a role model for the fast-food industry.

The burger chain’s motto is “Stand for Something Good.” And it has made a point of noting that it pays its entry-level workers more than the minimum wage — a rarity in fast food.

So as Shake Shack begins its journey as a public company on Friday, people will be watching to see if it can keep offering higher-than-average pay and good service, even as it grows into a global chain that answers to impatient stock investors.

To be sure, there are some key differences between Shake Shack and mammoth chains such as McDonald’s or Burger King. Its fare is more expensive. And most Shake Shacks in the U.S. are owned by the company, not by franchisees. But if Shake Shack can pay its workers decently even as it expands and still turn a profit, then it could set an example for an industry that staunchly resists demands to raise wages.

Going public may make that mission a bit more challenging. In low-wage industries such as fast food, it’s much more common for private companies to invest in their workers than for public companies to do so, according to Zeynep Ton, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

“One reason is that (private companies) can have a much longer-term perspective,” said Ton, the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits. “That is not to say that if you’re a public company you can’t have a longer term perspective. It’s possible, but it’s harder.”

Ton notes that there are a handful of public companies in low-wage sectors that still manage to pay above the industry average. Costco, the most famous example, is known for offering decent pay and a good benefits package to its rank-and-file workers, even as most of the retail industry keeps wages low. The warehouse chain has had to resist investor pressure to lower wages.

Similarly, Shake Shack executives will have to fight the short-term temptation to cut costs and stick to their values “100 percent of the time” if they want to continue on their path as a feel-good burger joint, said Ton.

Ton’s research shows that this strategy can pay off in the long run. Companies that invest in their workers with training and decent pay are more likely to have employees that are knowledgeable about products, answer customers’ questions well and drive sales.

“For these companies it’s very important that they demonstrate the return on their investment in their people,” Ton said. “If they reap the financial benefits of that, then their investors will be fine.”

Shake Shack has been able to do that so far. The chain’s system-wide sales grew from $21 million in 2010 to $140 million in 2013, according to its IPO documents.

But Shack Shack had just 63 stores at the end of that growth run, meaning it was relatively easy to keep tight control over the quality of food and service. Shake Shack ultimately plans to expand to 450 restaurants in the U.S.

Shake Shack’s history suggests it should be able to keep offering high-quality service even as it grows, according to Brian Darr, a managing director at Datassential, a food research firm. Shack Shack was founded by the Union Square Hospitality Group, which is known for its training programs — the company even has a consulting arm for businesses looking to emulate its culture.

Shake Shack founder and USHG CEO Danny Meyer wrote a book, Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business, arguing that companies that prioritize workers before guests and investors tend to be more successful.

“This will certainly be the most ambitious of anything that they’ve done to date,” Darr said of Shake Shack’s expansion plans, “but they have a pretty spectacular track record.”

An ancient human skull fragment found in Israel may come from a close relative of the first modern humans to colonize Europe, researchers say.

The finding sheds light on the migration of modern humans out of Africa, and could provide insights into when modern humans first interbred with Neanderthals, scientists added.

Modern humans first arose between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago in Africa. Scientists have suggested the African exodus of modern humans started between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago, but much remains a mystery about this dispersal because of the scarcity of human fossils from this time. [See Photos of Our Closest Human Ancestor]

Now, researchers have discovered a 55,000-year-old partial skull in Israel, from about the time when modern humans expanded out of Africa. The investigators say the anatomy of this fossil may offer clues about what the first modern human Europeans were like.

The fossil was discovered accidentally in 2008, when a bulldozer unearthed a cave during a construction project at the modern settlement of Manot, in northern Israel. The original entrance to the cave was sealed off by a rockfall about 30,000 years ago, making it a relatively pristine time capsule, according to co-lead study author Ofer Marder, an archaeologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

The fossil, named Manot 1, was the skullcap, or top part of a skull, of a modern human adult. The skull contained a relatively small brain of around 1,100; in contrast, the modern human brain averages around 1,400 milliliters, according to study co-author Bruce Latimer, a paleontologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

“The most exciting thing about Manot 1 is that it is the first and yet the only modern human securely dated to 60,000 to 50,000 years ago outside of the African continent,” said co-lead study author Israel Hershkovitz, a physical anthropologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

The fossil reveals a distinctive bun shape at the back of the person’s skull. This shape resembles recent African and ancient European skulls, but differs from modern humans from the Levant, the eastern Mediterranean region that includes Israel. This finding suggests that the ancient Manot people could be closely related to the first modern humans that colonized Europe.

The skullcap is also evidence that modern humans and Neanderthals both inhabited this area close to when modern humans and Neanderthals interbred, the scientists added.

“The coexistence of these two populations in a confined geographic region at the same time that genetic models predict interbreeding promotes the notion that interbreeding may have occurred in the Levant region,” Hershkovitz told Live Science.

The researchers plan to hunt for more fossils in the Manot Cave in July. “We expect to find more in the coming excavation seasons,” said study co-author Omry Barzilai, an archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem.

The scientists detailed their findings online today (Jan. 28) in the journal Nature.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

• Denisovan Gallery: Tracing the Genetics of Human Ancestors
• Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans
• In Photos: New Human Ancestor Possibly Unearthed in Spanish Cave

Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

After spending more than $250,000 on plastic surgery procedures, Rodrigo Alves has been dubbed the new “Human Ken Doll.”

Alves, a 31-year-old flight attendant who was born in Brazil and lives in London, reportedly went under the knife on Monday in Colombia for a six-in-one operation, including an eye augmentation and a procedure to cut his mouth to make his smile bigger.

“It’s a long process,” he said, per the Daily Mail. “It is long-term maintenance. Once you start, it is difficult to stop. Naturally, I’m a perfectionist. It’s like a snowball effect and I’m not going to stop. It doesn’t define the man that I am – I’m much more than silicone and cosmetic surgery – but once you get started it’s difficult to stop.”

Alves, who sought therapy after a previous procedure led to serious complications, recently appeared on the Channel 4 series “Bodyshockers.”

While he told a woman looking into plastic surgery that he might’ve done things differently — “[it] can become addicting, and it doesn’t always turn out the way we imagine” — he ultimately said he doesn’t have any regrets about the choices he has made to alter his physical appearance.

“I’m pretty aware that I’m far from perfection,” he said. “I’m not deluded, and I know that I’m not the most good-looking guy. I’m just aiming to be the best that I can possibly be.” Adding: “I really believe that everything that I’ve done to myself is an investment … It is who I am.”

Alves has apparently taken to the moniker “Ken Doll” — a title previously given to Justin Jedlica — and referenced it in a recent Instagram post, writing: “I never set out to look like the #kendoll it was a nick name given by my friends and the press which doesn’t bother me at all. I just wanted to be a better person and I truly am #happy.”

I never set out to look like the #kendoll it was a nick name given by my friends and the press which doesn’t bother me at all. I just wanted to be a better person and I truly am #happy #plasticpositive #kendoll #kenhumano #realityshow #reallifekendoll #rodrigoalves

A photo posted by Rodrigo Alves (@rodrigoalvesuk) on Jan 28, 2015 at 10:41am PST

A photo posted by Rodrigo Alves (@rodrigoalvesuk) on Jan 24, 2015 at 9:50am PST

Thank you all very much for your support and lovely messages. Thanks for watching #BodyShockers with the lovely inspirational @katiepiper_ on #channel4 #plasticpositive #makeover #kenhumano #kendoll #rodrigoalves

A photo posted by Rodrigo Alves (@rodrigoalvesuk) on Jan 21, 2015 at 7:22pm PST

A photo posted by Rodrigo Alves (@rodrigoalvesuk) on Jan 5, 2015 at 6:18pm PST

The last thing you want to happen on your vacation or while you are traveling–or even when you return home–is to get sick. That’s no fun at all.

So it pays to be prepared…before and during your trip.

Here are a couple of tips that can help keep you healthy and happy:

Before you go…

Make sure you’re up-to-date with routine immunizations. If you don’t believe in vaccinations, that’s certainly your choice. But if you do, now is a good time to make sure you’re current with routine immunizations like measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine, diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus (DPT) vaccine, poliovirus vaccine, etc. You may also want to consider getting vaccinations for hepatitis A and B, typhoid, and–depending what country you are moving to–yellow fever.

Courtesy of Jason Holland, InternationalLiving.com

One resource for health care recommendations for travelers and those planning an extended stay overseas is the website of the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

While your chances of getting Yellow Fever are low unless you travel deep into jungled areas, some countries–such as Costa Rica, where there is no risk–require proof of yellow fever vaccination if you are traveling there directly from other countries where the disease can be found. If you get a Yellow Fever vaccination, ask for an International Certificate of Vaccination and keep it with you when you travel. And note that the vaccine is to be given 10 days before travel to an endemic area.

What about malaria? Malaria is endemic in the tropics, there’s no doubt about that. But in most countries visited by casual tourists, you’ll find little risk. Again, the CDC offers helpful information at its website.

We personally have traveled extensively in the tropics of Latin America and somewhat in Southeast Asia, and we’ve never taken any malaria treatment nor ever felt the need to do so.

A bigger risk in the tropics is dengue fever, another mosquito-borne disease for which there is no vaccination. Primarily prevalent during rainy seasons, your best prevention is to protect yourself from mosquito bites. Use repellant and take other precautions, such as having screens on windows. Learn more here.

We also recommend that you make decisions beforehand about how you will pay for any health care needs that might arise while traveling. Do you have health insurance that will cover you overseas? Now’s the time to find out. If you’re not covered, you may want to purchase a supplemental travel policy that includes evacuation insurance.

Have an emergency plan. Be sure your travel partner or family and friends back home know how to access your health information and/or contact and financial information if you should become incapacitated in any way.

A helpful tip: Before you leave home, stock up on prescription medications you may be taking…while you may be able to find local equivalents, what happens if you can’t? And be aware that not all medications are the same. Our son had an allergic reaction to antibiotics he once bought in Mexico. His doctor back in the U.S. told him the reaction was probably not due to the medication itself, but to a different coating used on the tablets. A handy website to look up comparable medications available in various countries is Drugs.com.

While you are traveling…

Wash your hands often. This goes without saying. We always have a small airline-size-approved hand sanitizer or (better yet) wipes tucked into our carry-on bags and backpacks.

And while it may make you look paranoid to wipe down the armrests and tray table, it may save you from illness. Those are where the largest amount on bacteria are found on airplanes. And when it comes to your health, who cares what anyone else thinks?

Similarly, in airplane, airport, and other public bathrooms, we never touch those other common bacteria vectors…door handles…with our bare hands. Use a paper towel or your forearm or elbow to open them.

And surely you’ve heard the term “filthy lucre?” It’s true, money is literally filthy, and you touch it often while traveling. So learn to wash your hands far more frequently, before meals and after you’ve paid the bill.

Be careful about drinking the tap water. We’ve learned to ask for bottled water even when traveling in countries where tap water is deemed safe. And even in the U.S. Every municipality has different water treatment systems. And you never know what shape the pipes are in any particular neighborhood or building.

And we learned this the hard way: if someone tells you the water they are serving is purified, don’t just take their word for it. Be sure you get water in a bottle (not a glass) with a sealed cap.

Follow the crowds. Watch and see where the locals eat. If you are eating at a roadside stand or cart, eat at the places that look the cleanest and where the largest crowds of locals are. They know where the best, freshest food is and the places with the best sanitary practices. Follow their lead.

Use common sense. In the tropics, food can spoil quickly. Don’t eat food that appears to have been sitting out a long time…including salsas and other common condiments left on tables. Don’t eat in places with lots of flies or other insects. Check and see if the food service workers have clean clothes and hands.

And for goodness sake, keep your wits about you. If you go out partying, be extra careful. Don’t accept drinks (or anything else) from strangers and don’t think you can stumble home drunk alone at night. Call a taxi. And remember, sexually transmitted diseases are everywhere. Protect yourself at all times.

Once you get home…

Sick? Tell your doctor where you’ve been. If you become ill after returning home and you can’t seem to shake what’s ailing you, go see a doctor. Be sure to tell him or her where you’ve been. There are some diseases that are endemic to certain locations, such as Valley Fever, common in the desert southwest of the United States.

Related Articles:
Improve Your Health with a Better Diet in Ecuador
The Six Best Hospitals in Mexico
The World’s Healthiest Places To Live In 2014