Science fiction and popular science writer Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Riffing on that theme, I once gave a talk in which I proclaimed that "any sufficiently improbable event is distinguishable from the miraculous." Some definitions of "miracle" invoke the divine or supernatural, but I have in mind the definition (in this case from the Merriam-Webster dictionary) as: "an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment." The point of the argument is that, due to the inescapable, irreducible role of geographical and historical contingency in Earth surface systems, all such systems (landscapes, ecosystems, soils, etc.) are unique in some respects (a formal argument along these lines is presented in this article: Phillips, J.D.  2007.  The perfect landscape.  Geomorphology 84: 159-169.). Thus the probability of existence of any given state of any given system at a given point in time is infinitesimally low. This exceedingly low probability makes nearly any environment in some senses extremely outstanding and unusual, and thus a miracle.

I was born in Danville, KY and lived there until 2003. I moved to Lexington in 2003 after graduating Centre College where I earned my BS in Biology. I then attended the College of Public Health (’06) here at UK to earn my Master’s of Public Health (MPH).  I began working at UK in 2005 for the College of Pharmacy and last year (2013) started working for the College of Arts & Sciences.  I have been married for almost 9 years to my wife Marianne and we live here in Lexington. We have a son, Thomas, who is 4 years old.  We also have a dog named Sophie, and two cats, Bell and Alley.

1. What do you do in your spare time? Spending time with family is my number one spare time activity.  We love to travel and take our little boy to zoos and museums.  We all also love going to Disney World.

UK has been a large part of my life, working here since 1978.  I can truly say that it is a great place to work.  I was most excited to join Arts and Sciences in the fall of 2013 and I absolutely love being part of this learning environment. 

2. What is your favorite movie?

Toss up between Holiday House and Must Love Dogs.

A&S Staff Spotlight: Shane Barton from UK College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo.

Can you guess who is in the picture and what his/her favorite song is from the 1970s? 

click the picture to listen to his/her favorite song. 

Guess who is in the picture and match the photo and song with the appropriate A&S Staff member.

Jessica Pennington is the Behavioral Case Specialist for A&S and also works with the residential colleges.  Before starting with A&S in June, she worked as a Research Assistant for the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development.   Jessica’s is a UK grad with both a BA in Psychology and MS in Educational Psychology.  Jessica was born in New Jersey, and grew up half in California and the other half in London, KY. She lives in Lexington with her husband of 2 ½ years, Adam.

I am a pretty serious crafter, I crafted my entire wedding everything from my garter to making over 250 paper flowers. I still love wedding crafting, woodworking and making homemade gifts for people is my favorite. Other than that I like to read and spend time with family and friends.

How many of us live by our smart phones? Who of us would not know where to be every hour of the day without our electronic reminders and alarms? I know I rely on my iPhone for more than just making phone calls and texting my teenagers to make sure plans made in the morning are still relevant in the afternoon. If I am unfamiliar with how to get somewhere, my map app gives me turn by turn directions so that I don’t waste precious time. All of the information available, day or night, comes with a potential cost that far exceeds monthly data plan rates.

Today, expectations for many are that we are accessible 24/7. Because we have our work email synced to our smart devices, we can literally start “working” as soon as we awake each morning and can answer our last email right before going to bed at night. Many of us find it hard to fall asleep thinking about the last email we received and the impact it will have on the day ahead. The result can be as severe as insomnia or such light sleep that the body doesn’t properly recharge. Over time, the problems can intensify.

I am from Lexington, Kentucky and have worked for UK for almost seven years.  I have been married three and a half years and my wife and I welcomed our first child into this world in January.  I am an avid Cincinnati Reds baseball fan and enjoy watching UK football games.

1. What do you do in your spare time? 

In my spare time, I play on an adult baseball team in town.  I enjoy writing, exercising, and spending time with family.  

2. What is your favorite movie or book?

My favorite movie is O'Brother Where Art Thou?  In my opinion, this movie was the most superbly written and acted movie ever devised since the creation of cinema.  Gopher, Everett? 

3. What is the most interesting place you've been?  

The most interesting place I have been has been Chiloteca, Honduras.  I went with a team in college that worked with small business owners who had micro loans.  We advised them on business practices.  It was a humbling experience because of the extreme poverty and scorching heat.  

4. What is your favorite food?

Hello everyone.

In this blog, "The Art of stress management", I will share with you a few simple techniques that you can incorporate in your daily life to handle stress more efficiently. The techniques that I am going to talk about are the ones that I have researched and incorporated in my daily life and have experienced the benefits of using them.

By the way, what is stress?

I think that the stress starts out with a concern about something, soon it becomes worry which consumes our mind and develops into stress. I categorize stress as level 1 when it is just a concern, level 2 when it becomes worry and level 3 when it develops into “stress”. So the best time to catch "stress" is when it is at the level 1 category.

What happens when people get stressed? They feel that they are losing the control, they are getting off the track. So basically we want to get back on track and be in control. We want to take charge of our thoughts, our emotions, our schedule and our ability to handle the problems.

In this blog, I will outline

• Some common sources of stress
• How not to handle the stress, and
• How to best handle the stress

Now let’s see what the most common stress causing elements are.