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Lunch box standby, casserole filler, and salad heavyweight, tuna gets a lot of love from American eaters--we consume 31 percent of the world's canned tuna products, about 3 pounds per person per year. If you've always bought the same supermarket brand, though, there are a number of strong arguments for branching out. Aside from the fact that four-star, non-commercial tuna is sustainable, here are more points to consider.

1. It's lower in mercury. Non-commercial (and often family-run) fisheries get smaller fish, which contain less mercury--sometimes less than half the mercury you'll find in conventional brands' tuna. Henry & Lisa's, which sells its solid white albacore tuna in some 3,500 grocery and natural food stores around the country, also uses BPA-free cans.

2. It's higher in omega 3s. Wild Planet's tuna--which comes in albacore and skipjack varieties, also in BPA-free cans--has 3,460 mg of the heart-healthy fatty acids (which is 6 times more than some conventional brands). American Tuna's has 8,000 to 10,000.

Photo: Thinkstock

Anyone who's ever taken an undergraduate writing class at an urban university has encountered a thousand essays and poems that either have or could have the title, "The Amazing Revelation I Had From My Unexpected Conversation with the Crazy Guy on the Bus." There's something about being away from home for the first time that makes people so open to everything -- I know I wandered through my freshman year of college in an almost unbearable state of excitement, talking to strangers, trying everything (I'm talking mostly about my course selection, don't get excited), and accumulating sensory experiences like an alien just arrived on the planet. Like any self-respecting wide-eyed 18-year-old, I was obsessed with talking to the people every one else ignored: the washed-out townie at the diner in the middle of the night, the homeless lady with her army of homeless cats.

These days, not so much. I've become an expert ignorer of anyone who seems like they might need something -- strangers, oddballs, children. But Art Decker's post "Getting To Know Yourself By Looking Outward" on IlluminatedMind.net has me rethinking my "never-make-eye-contact" policy. He writes of our national obsession with getting to know ourselves through introspection, and suggests that "perhaps some of the time we spend reflecting could be put to better use living and engaging." I was really hoping he'd say that to know ourselves better we should wear pajamas and read in bed all day, but fine, whatever.

He writes that after a chance encounter left him feeling energized and inspired, he "vowed to meet a stranger every day." The post describes some of his amazing encounters with people he would have never spoken with had he not taken on his "beautiful experiment." (Read the whole post for the scalp-tingling conversation he had with his pharmacy cashier.) After a few months of talking to strangers, Decker writes, "Without a textbook, without a plane ticket, without really much effort at all, I’ve gained more insight and traveled further than ever before. And, I’ve also gotten to know someone I never knew that well before — myself."

If reaching out to a fellow human every day can do anything to deepen our self-knowledge (or really, even if it can't), isn't it worth a shot?

Read More:
How To Let Someone See the Real You
Get What You Want Out of Your Life With a "Magic List"

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.



* We wholeheartedly agree with the recipe for happiness Alfred Hitchcock offers in the video above, and would only add that a knife-free space to take a shower never hurt either. (Open Culture)

* Meet Kaniehtakeron 'Geggs' Martin, a fourth generation Mohawk ironworker whose family has worked on New York City's most famous bridges and skyscrapers for the past 100 years. (WNYC)

* A 35-year-old man decides to take the SAT cold; polygon-inspired bafflement—and anger—ensues. (Deadspin)

* From Spicoli to Lebowski, everything you ever wanted to know about the word "dude." (More Intelligent Life)

* "What I didn’t expect was how much hope I would feel. How much comfort."—Frank Bruni on How to Survive a Plague, a new documentary about the history of the AIDS epidemic. (NYTimes)

Who hasn't watched a bird soar through the sky and wished humans would hurry up and learn to fly already? After all, air travel may be kind of magical in an abstract way, but the actual experience ends up being akin to a long bus ride and unless you really love single-serve booze it hardly stirs the soul. Enter Human Birdwings. Apparently, Dutch engineer Jarno Smeets has created wings that allow a man to fly.  You have to see this video:


A post on Science, Space, and Robots raises the possibility of the Human Birdwings video being a hoax. The blogger wonders whether the wings are long enough to support a grown man, and evinces a general sense of skepticism, which after all is what scientists are supposed to do. Personally, I'm less interested in whether or not the flight is real, and more simply blown away by the footage. Every time I watch this, I realize I've got a huge, goofy grin on my face. The flier's excitement is so childlike and palpable and complete. That moment when he lifts from the ground and flaps off into the sky! Imagine it! In the video, Smeets breathlessly describes running and then seeing the ground moving away, and his "really intense feeling of freedom...a truly magical feeling."

I hope the flight is real, I do. But even if it's not, I appreciate the vision behind it -- the fact that a man exists who has devoted himself to realizing an impossible dream, who is working hard to make it possible.

Read More:
Impossible Dreams to Never Give Up On
Live Life Like It's An Adventure

Photo: Thinkstock

Back when I was a serious runner, and my husband was a less-serious but naturally faster runner, we'd usually train together. We'd run intervals in the park, tackle 10ks side-by-side, and go for chatty distance runs on weekends. I tended to be more competitive (probably to an annoying degree). Whenever we had an opportunity to race each other, I'd take it. To my chagrin, he would almost always end up the victor--regardless of whether the challenge lasted for 200 yards or 12 miles. But I've recently learned some new information that could boost my odds of beating Mr. Speedy, thanks to health and fitness writer Gretchen Reynolds.

In her new book, The First 20 Minutes: The Myth-Busting Science that Shows How We Can Walk Farther, Run Faster, and Live Longer, Reynolds pulls together tons of health and fitness studies, correcting misconceptions and turning new research into useful advice (she shares some her favorite ideas in this month's O magazine). Among the many insights in this book, one relatively small factoid especially intrigued me. Reynolds writes about Danish experiments that showed that after both men and women reduced or stopped their workouts, the women didn't lose their training benefits as quickly as the men. The explanation has to do with hormones (doesn't it always, especially when it comes to gender differences?). The study author told Reynolds that estrogen was protecting the women "against fast muscle and collagen loss when she is inactive"--like during pregnancy.

I now have a secret weapon that may help me outrun my husband (once we're both back in race shape): I'm going to challenge him to a sprint after we go on vacation together. Perhaps the R&R will cause him to peter out just a tiny bit--which will be enough to give me the competitive advantage I've been looking for. And honestly, even if he still zooms by me, my new understanding about the female ability to bounce back will ease my guilt about taking a break from exercise.

More surprising ways that women have an edge

A sweet alternative to chalk hearts on the sidewalk: padlocks of love.

Finally, one country tells women, "Eat a sandwich," and bans underweight models.

Black Swan nothing! Ballet is even more impressive seen in mesmerizing slow-mo.

This blogger finds something special in every day. Here's her breathtaking Magical Moment 614: communing with a deer on a run.

Some not-too-terrible-for-you deliciousness: strawberry-buttermilk baked doughnuts. Yes, please.

The Life-Lifter: And now, for a word from the trees. The most remarkable trees in the world, that is.

Photo: Thinkstock

Resourceful cooks know that if you have eggs, cheese and some sort of grain, you can probably assemble a decent dish out of leftovers from last night's dinner. Frittatas, stir-fries and soups are all in the repertoires of anyone whose mantra is "there's no reason to toss this perfectly good food." Except sometimes, there is a reason: you're sick of frittatas, stir-fries and soups.

The solution is as easy as a hand-held treat that also happens to be one of the most foolproof baked goods you can make. I'm talking about muffins, which allow for infinite variations. While they're best known in their sweet form--blueberry, lemon poppy seed, banana-cinnamon-nutmeg-applesauce-walnut--savory muffins are just as delicious. Here's how to turn three common leftovers into the perfect breakfast, snack or lunch or dinner side.

Roasted or mashed sweet potatoes: Use these beta-carotene-rich vegetables in place of pumpkin in this recipe (one-and-a-half to two medium sweet potatoes will give you a cup of sweet potato puree), and try adding chopped dates along with the pecans or walnuts.

The ups and downs of working with your husband. On TV.

"How will you be known?" This poem answers the burning question, beautifully.

What a charismatic beagle has to teach us about cultivating our own "It" factors.

On today's to-do list: Climb Mount Everest. Virtually, of course.

The Life-Lifter: "Life came into perfect balance." When the cameras stopped rolling, this actress stuck around to help the actual city her show was filmed in, and along the way found her true purpose in life.