Tuesday, January 29, 2008

How strong is your HEART (?)

Take a deep breath, calm your heart and click this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4E2q4B7uug&eurl=http://www.komando.com/videos/

I will take no blame for what happens next!!

Mervi

Sunday, January 27, 2008

A definition of working together!

I was reading in a book last night about Jimmy Durante. some will no idea who he was. He was a great comedian during the 40's and 50's. He was asked by the CSO to perform at a hospital. His was response was that he would do it but because of a previous commitment he could only stay a few minutes. They accepted and he went on stag for five minutes, tuned into ten, the ten to fifteen and finally after thirty minutes he walked off stage. They asked him, “Jim you said you could only stay a few minutes but you gave a full thirty minute show why? Well if you will look in the very front row there are two soldiers one missing his right arm and the other his left. Man you should see them clap.” Was Mr. Durentie’s response.

It’s called team work!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Asking for your thoughts please.

During my college studies I have had one comment tossed at me very often. “There is no such thing as a real measure of right and wrong.” My question, “should you take the mission,” how would you respond?
Thank you for your thoughts.

Mervi

ps
Yes, the pictures are mine.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

One GREAT question

The question should never be WHO is right.
But WHAT is right.

Monday, January 21, 2008

THE TEN BEST THINGS TO SAY IF YOU GET CAUGHTSLEEPING AT YOUR DESK

10. "They told me at the Blood Bank that this might happen."

9. "This is just a 15 minute power nap they raved about in the time management course you had sent to me."

8. "Whew! I guess I left the top off the Whiteout. You probably arrived here just in time."

7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new business strategy."

6. "I was testing my computer keyboard for drool resistance."

5. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress.
Are you discriminatory towards people who practice Yoga?"

4. "Man! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out how to handle that big accounting problem."

3. "Did you ever notice sound coming out of these keyboards when you put your ear down really close?"

2. "Who put decaf in the wrong pot? Double duh!"

And the NUMBER ONE best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk:


1. Raise your head slowly and say, "... in Jesus' name, Amen."

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Hillary - Hot cholocate - Harlam


In the last few weeks there has been a proponderance of conversation about polatitions in churchs and even in the pulpits. I picked this up night.


"Clinton Heads to Harlem After Nevada Win
Jan 20, 2:59 PM (ET)By KAREN MATTHEWS

NEW YORK (AP) -

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton attended services Sunday at a historic black church in Harlem, a day after her victory in the Nevada caucus and with a fresh challenge looming ahead of her in South Carolina.
Clinton received a standing ovation from the congregation at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, founded by Ethiopian sea traders more than 200 years ago. Rev. Calvin Butts, a Clinton supporter, introduced her as someone who "has been our friend."
In her remarks, Clinton told churchgoers how pleased she was to be there on the weekend before the federal holiday honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and she recounted how she had gone with her church youth group to hear him speak.
"It was a transforming experience for me," she said. "He made it very clear that the Civil Rights movement was about economic justice."
Clinton, who represents New York in the Senate, has been criticized for saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She since has reiterated her admiration of King and his work.
Clinton defeated Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in the Nevada caucus on Saturday, garnering support from women and making a strong showing among Hispanics. But Obama won among black voters, who are expected to make up more than half of the voters in South Carolina's Democratic primary next Saturday.
After the service, Butts officially endorsed Clinton. It was a lively scene, as a couple dozen Obama supporters showed up and shouted, "Harlem for Obama." Clinton supporters tried to drown them out by shouting, "Hil-la-ry!"
Clinton spoke warmly of her opponent, saying, "I recognize what a challenging choice this is."


I ask you comments, feels or ideas.

Mervi

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Monkey’s thoughts move a robot.


Here sometime back there was a little talk about artificial intelligence. Will here is a monkey moving a robot just by its thinking being picked up with electrodes implanted within his brain.


Your thoughts please?

Mervi

Friday, January 11, 2008

Twins Marry ??


Here is a link to a story in or from the BBC.



Twins, one boy and one girl, were separated at birth. Later in life they met felt an attraction and married.


Mervi

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The Final Blog.


The final blog.


This is a short cut to a blog of a shoulder in Iraq, after he was killed in combat.


Get a cup of hot dark coffee or some Kleenex and read this brave man’s comments.

May I die for the cause of the CROSS with as much valor.

Mervi

Monday, January 7, 2008

Prejudice

Prejudice
I am planning to do two or three more blogs on my experiences that day in the Museum of Tolerance.

Will, why not have one today?

Because I have not found the journal that I used that day. If you have either some feeling or interest in the death camps, let me recommend a book “Man’s search for meaning, by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl.” He is an Auschwitz survivor.


Hope that the New Year has brought many blessings to you.

Mervi

Friday, January 4, 2008

GREED, NEED AND MONEY

I copied this from a news piece by Prof. Walter Williams. You may think I know that name, will if you listen to Rush, yes you should know the name. If you are not a Rush fan, please don't let that spoil this article. I found it very insightful to me.


A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2008, AND THEREAFTER

Greed, Need and Money

Demagoguery about greedy rich people or greedy corporate executives being paid 100 or 200 times their workers' salaries is a key weapon in the politics of envy. Let's talk about greed, starting off with Merriam-Webster's definition: "a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed."

That definition is a bit worrisome because how does one know what a person really needs? It's something my economics students and I spend a bit of time on in the first lecture. For example, does a family really need one, two, three or four telephones? What about a dishwasher or a microwave oven? Are these excessive desires? If you say these goods are really needed, then I ask, how in the world did your great-grandmother and possibly your grandmother, not to mention most of today's world population, make it without telephones, dishwashers and microwave ovens? "Need" is a nice emotional term, but analytically, it is vacuous.

"Selfish" is a bit more useful term, and it's the human motivation that gets wonderful things done. For example, I think it's wonderful that Alaskan king crab fishermen take the time and effort, often risking their lives in the cold Bering Sea, to catch king crabs that I enjoy. Do you think they make that sacrifice because they care about me? I'm betting they don't give a hoot about me. They make it possible for me to enjoy king crab legs because they want more money for themselves. How much king crab would I, and millions of others, enjoy if it all depended on human love and kindness? What about complaints about CEOs earning so much more than the average worker? Before looking at CEOs, let's look at another area of huge pay differences. According to Forbes' Celebrity 100 list, Oprah Winfrey earned $260 million. Even if her makeup person or cameraman earned $100,000, she earns thousands of times what they earn. Among the celebrities earning hundreds or thousands of times more than the people who work with them are: Steven Spielberg ($110 million), Tiger Woods ($100 million), Jay Leno ($32 million) and Dr. Phil ($30 million). According to Forbes, the top 10 celebrities and athletes earned an average of $116 million in 2004 compared to an average of $59 million earned by the top 10 corporate CEOs.

When Jack Welch became General Electric's CEO in 1981, the company was worth about $14 billion. Through hiring and firing, buying and selling decisions, Welch turned the company around and when he retired 20 years later, GE was worth nearly $500 billion. What's a CEO worth for such an achievement? If Welch was paid a measly one-half of a percent of GE's increase in value, his total compensation would have come to nearly $2.5 billion, instead of the few hundred million that he actually received.

If a corporate board of directors could buy a $1,000 computer that could do what a CEO does, it wouldn't pay him millions of dollars. If an NFL owner could hire a computer to make decisions that star quarterbacks make, why would he pay some of these guys yearly compensation packages worth more than $10 million? If just anybody could have played the lead role in "The Da Vinci Code" and have it earn $758 million at the box office, why would the film's producers have paid Tom Hanks $74 million?

There's another important issue: If one company has an effective CEO or a team has a star quarterback, it is not the only company or team that would like to have him on the payroll. In order to keep him, he must be paid enough so that he can't be lured elsewhere.

You say, "Williams, what about those golden parachutes for failing CEOs?" Paying a failed CEO, or a spouse in the case of marriage, enough money to go away quietly might be much cheaper than litigation.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Prejudice


Prejudice


Two years ago I was taking a class in Cultural Anthropology. The instructor offered some extra credit points for all who would invest a Sunday in a trip to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angles. As all college students know, get all the extra credit you can, any way you can, so I made the trip.

This was a trip that had a great effect upon me, not on me only but all who made this trip. As I started the tour, I was given a large, about six inches from point to point, five pointed gold star to ware around my neck. On the back of this star is the name of a German, Jewish child. My first stop was a computer station where I passed the back of the star over a scanner and the computer generated a brief description of the child, mother and father’s names, brothers’ and sisters, when and where they were born and where they lasted lived. All around this room there was a collage of youthful faces. These faces seemed to be seeing me off and wishing me well as I embarked upon my journey. This became my identity for the next few hours as I returned to pre World War Two Germany.

As I stood there that morning, writing like mad, in my journal I had just for this trip I questioned. How many innocent children have been killed or forever damaged in the name of prejudice? I understand that these little once are very resilient both in spirit and body. Yet, the unmentionable cruelty and depredation their little eyes have been witness to? Not just as a witness but so many times this cruelty, hatred and anger is / was depicted upon their little bodies. Not just that, but the great question to me is the WHY? Why or HOW can we as adults be so very deeply cruel to a child? I know the answers to the fall of man and the affects of sin within the mind and spirit of man. Then to add to this some form of drugs and involve the ego we have just created a very lethal mixture.
Take the time to do some reading and a little study on the results of wars in days gone by. Yes, men were slain in combat, but the brunt of the loss was born by women and the children, the ones who had the least of all any ability to defend or protect themselves. Read about the wars in Africa and you will see some of this still the rule not the exception. Read about young, not yet teenagers, who are forced into being combat soldiers. HOW / WHY


I will stop for now.

Now it is your turn to comment.

I will add more about my trip through history a little later.


Mervi