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Citation Schwartz, Tony. "Relax! You'll Be More Productive." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. Summary So as people of a world in which the 9 to 5 job is a dream for most, we probably all know that more time worked means more work done, which means that all that time was spent more productively than if we had worked less... Right? According to a study of around 400 employees, this may not be true. More work and less sleep increases chances of burning out on-the-job. Harvard conducted a similar study, but they researched what sleep deprivation was costing us. The amount? $63.2 billion a year. Cheri D. Mah, who is a researcher for Stanford, found that 10 or more hours of sleep for basketball players increase performance. Similar tests were performed on those doing different jobs - night shift workers, accountants and athletes. All did better, especially with longer hours to sleep. Vacations did wonders, too. The reason for this is that humans are not build to expend energy continuously. We need breaks, and especially sleep. Through all of these studies, researchers have found that 90 minutes of consecutive work and then a break is the most ideal for maximization of productivity.

I thought this was really useful information to know, because a lot of people that I know like to keep working even though they're tired or sleep deprived. Well, knowing that their performance overall is affected by sleep deprivation to the point where the quality drops dramatically, maybe would encourage them to take the time to rest a little bit and refresh themselves. It also shows how vital sleep is to our overall health.

Citation: "Al Roker On Being 'The Jolly Fat Person'" NPR. NPR, 15 Feb. 2013. Web. Summary:  Al Roker lived a tough life.  He was obese, and was often made fun of at school.  This was during the time where the TV show, Fat Albert was becoming popular, and made his fatness more of a joke rather than an insult.  When he pursued his television career, it was an advantage at first, as more people viewed his show, but soon it became too much.  His wife told him to lose weight, and bariatric surgery was performed on him to lose more than 100 pounds and he is now on a strict diet.  He is now 200 pounds, compared to his 340 pounds he was, and still at times enjoys his high-fat foods.  

I think that this article is very significant to many people's lives. Al Roker was at the point of being so fat, that it was dangerous for his life. I think that if some obese people read this, they could realize that their life could be in danger because of their weight. This will not only affect your life, but others around you as well. I think it was very brave of Al Roker to perform this life threatening procedure and change his diet to lose weight, and make people close to him happy.