Name Calling That Persuades

By Larry Fredericks

The next time you need to get someone on your side, try this unusual persuasion technique: Call him names.

I'm not talking about calling him insulting names. (That'll just make him mad.) I'm talking about giving him a "label" that he's going to try to live up to. Let's say you want to convince someone to support one of your ideas. You suspect he will have a negative "gut reaction" to it. But you think that if he keeps an open mind, he might agree with you. In that case, you start by saying something like, "You're a reasonable, fair-minded person."

This technique even works with the police. The last time I was stopped (and clearly guilty of running a red light), I told the officer, "I'm sure you're just a working guy like me. You must know how the pressures of a job can make you do something you know you shouldn't have done. Is there any way you could see fit to just give me a warning?" Long story short: No ticket.

[Ed. Note: Larry Fredericks is an entrepreneur with a history of successful business dealings in retail, direct mail, the Internet, and real estate. He is also the creator of the Master of Persuasion program.]

How to Get Prescription Drugs Out of Your Tap Water

By Shane Ellison, M.Sc.

One of the consequences of being "one nation under drugs" is that we're exposed to toxic, prescription drug metabolites via our tap water.

Drug giant Merck recently warned: "There's no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they're at, could be causing impacts to human health and aquatic organisms." To wit, officials in Philadelphia have identified 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in tap water. These included pain meds, cholesterol-lowering drugs, birth control pills, antidepressants, and blood pressure meds. None of them belong in little Johnny's "sippy cup."

Don't expect your city to be any different. The federal government doesn't require any testing or safety limits for drugs in tap water. But you can protect yourself with the right water filter.

The market is flooded with water filters - microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis reversal, membrane bioreactors, and combinations of membranes in series. At the recent conference on Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse for Sustainability, reverse osmosis filters proved most effective at removing all pollutants, including pharmaceuticals. Looking for the most user-friendly and economic filter, I found the RioFlow Complete 5-Stage Reverse Osmosis System. For about $180, you can rest assured that you are doing everything you can to keep your body free and clear of "other people's drugs."

It's Fun to Know: The Rat-Whisker Navigation System

Rats have poor eyesight and live in sewers, tunnels, and other dark places. So how do they get around? MIT researchers have discovered that a rat's whiskers are the key. When they touch something in the rat's path, they vibrate rapidly. The vibrations are sent through the nervous system to the brain. There, the signals are processed... and the rat knows which way to move.

(Source: LiveScience)

Word to the Wise: Turbid

Something that's "turbid" (TUR-bid) is (1) muddy, or (2) disturbed. The word is from the Latin for confused/ disordered.

Example (as used by David Walker in The Independent): "Rough or smooth, the Irish Sea at Blackpool is always turbid. Beneath the murk float unspeakable things."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2306, 03-18-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.