Posted at 06:41 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Good advice:

TEN LIFE LESSONS THE ARMY HAS TAUGHT ME

1. Always have a notepad, pen, watch, knife, and flashlight on hand.

In life, as in the Army, there are always unforeseen events. An important note needs [to be] taken, you need the precise time, something needs fixed, or you just can't find your way. All these items are small, cheap, and lifesavers when you have them and deal breakers when you don't.

2. Have a copy of everything. If its important have two copies.

If it has your name on it, then you need a copy. If it affects your health, paycheck, or other element of well-being, then you need two copies. Records get lost, computers crash, and sometimes people just need to see a piece of 80 bond under their noses to get anything done.

3. Make friends wherever you go.

It doesn't matter if you are there for 20 minutes or 20 months, make friends. Inevitably, you will see them again. You will go to where they are. They will go to where you will be. And at the end of the day friends are the only ones covering the front of your position.

4. Make an SOP. Know the SOP. Work the SOP.

Civilian. Military. It doesn't matter. There should be a Standard Operating Procedure for daily life. Often we don't have fulfilling days or lives because "we just don't have time" and that is because we often don't have good processes. On the battlefield there is a place for everything and everything in its place. There is a rote routine (often personal) for everything from showering in the morning to they way we check our gear. We do this because often there are times when there is no time, but the task still needs done. Routine accomplishes this, and we accomplish more when we have a routine.

5. Sleep.

Sleep is one of the things in life we don't appreciate until we aren't getting it. Sleep recharges us, heals us, and lets us put a new perspective on the world. If it was bad when you went to sleep and its still bad when you wake up, well then I guess you weren't missing anything. If by chance its better when you wake up, then apparently the world doesn't rest upon your shoulders. So take a nap Atlas.

6. Don't go cheap.

On a personal note, I didn't grow up with money. I have learned to make due with what is available. There are times, however, that you can't afford to go cheap. Whether it be getting the brakes fixed on your HUMVEE or your Ford, get it done, get it done by a professional, and get the warranty. If you are buying shoes (yet again personal) don't get them because they are cheaper. Get them because they are comfortable and durable. If not it'll be more than your wallet that will hurt.

7. Find humor everywhere.

I have been in some pretty crappy places, some pretty crappy situations, and forced myself to find some humor, somewhere. It helps you cope. It takes that sting out of the painful, awkward, or otherwise difficult moments in life. And humor is one of those conversations you can have with yourself because you always get your own jokes. As a side note, as much as it may pain you, never ridicule someone for a dark sense of humor. We aren't them and they aren't us, but we are just trying to get by. I think Plato best puts this in perspective by saying, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

8. Don't tolerate oppression.

I am again reminded of someone that is more intelligent than myself.

"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

Stand up for what you think is right. In the end if you were wrong, so be it.

9. Tell your Story.

Battles are not merely lost by the Soldiers on the field, the armament, or the weather. They are one and lost by the lessons learned of prior battles. We learn these lessons because someone told their story. As a young Soldier I was a sponge for knowledge; it was before the current age of mass communication. Older Soldiers told their stories in hopes that a single silver strand of wisdom would be gleamed and be passed on. It is part of what we contribute to society. When one can gleam wisdom from the lessons others have learned we have possible prevented the hardship by which the another person gained that knowledge. And by sharing our lessons we are helping someone else. That is one of our greatest contributions to humanity.

10. Never forget.

Never forget who you are. Never forget what you have done. Never forget where you are. Never forget what it is you want from this one life we have. Never forget the people that stood behind you in support, beside you in camaraderie, or in front of you in adversity. Never forget to write home. Never forget that someone is missing you. Never forget what you have learned. Never forget to share what you have learned. Never forget anything; lest you forget everything.

Source:
Tom Ricks's Inbox
Washington Post, Sunday, August 12, 2007; B03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/09/AR2007080900677_pf.html

Posted at 05:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

‘Just advertising departments with legs and high heels.’ — Richard Avedon

via The New Shelton Wet/Dry

Posted at 07:15 AM in Art & Design, Humor, Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hilarious clip from Harry Enfield and Chums:

Posted at 06:02 AM in Finance, Humor, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

http://misstrade.wordpress.com/2007/08/22/good-to-go-pile-113/

Posted at 06:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

TAXES

"We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."
— Ronald Reagan

"If the income tax is the price we have to pay to keep the government on its feet, alimony is the price we have to pay for sweeping a woman off hers."
— Groucho Marx

"That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise."
— Abraham Lincoln

"A corporation's primary goal is to make money. Government's primary role is to take a big chunk of that money and give it to others."
— Larry Ellison

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax."
— Albert Einstein

"The trick is to stop thinking of it as "your" money."
— IRS auditor

"We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity, but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money."
— David Crockett, Member of Congress, 1827-31, 1832-1835

"The best things in life are free, but sooner or later the government will find a way to tax them."
— Anonymous

"Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very little on office supplies."
— Woody Allen

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Music video by The Beatles for "I Am The Walrus."

Posted at 06:55 AM in Music, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ben Sargent via Yahoo! 

Posted at 08:19 AM in Humor, Idiot!, Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Story with a Moral.... In 1923, Who Was:

1. President of the largest steel company?

2. President of the largest gas company?

3. President of the New York Stock Exchange?

4. Greatest wheat speculator?

5. President of the Bank of International Settlement?

6. Great Bear of Wall Street?

7.  The PGA Champion and winner of The US Open?

These men were considered some of the worlds most successful of their days. Now, 80 years later, the history book asks us if we know what ultimately became of them.

The Answers:

1. The president of the largest steel company. Charles Schwab, died a
pauper.

2. The president of the largest gas company, Edward Hopson, became insane.

3. The president of the NYSE, Richard Whitney, was released from prison to
die at home.

4. The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cooger, died abroad, penniless.

5. The president of The Bank of International Settlement, shot himself.

6. The Great Bear of Wall Street, Cosabee Livermore, also committed suicide.

However: in that same year, 1923, The PGA Champion and the winner of the most important golf tournament, The US Open,  was Gene Sarazen.

What became of him?

He played golf until he was 92, died in 1999 at the age of 95.
He was financially secure at the time of his death.

The Moral:

Screw work........ Play golf.

Posted at 06:16 AM in Humor, Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

via A Soviet Poster a Day

Posted at 06:40 AM in Humor, Idiot!, Philosophy, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

useful flowchart  via pebkac thoughts

Posted at 06:47 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Looks like fun:

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These will be tough to beat:

•Career points in the National Basketball Association: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 38,387, 1969-1989.

•Consecutive hops on a pogo stick: Gary Stewart, United States, 177,737, 1990.

• Baseball hitting streak: Joe DiMaggio, 56 consecutive games, 1941.

• Longest motorcycle ride through a tunnel of fire: Stephen Brown, Britain, 167.3 feet, 2003.

•Receiving yards by a football player: Jerry Rice, 22,895, 1985-2004.

• Phone books torn in half in three minutes: Ed Shelton, United States, 55, each with 1,044 pages, 2005.

• Consecutive victories in the Tour de France: Lance Armstrong, 7, 1999-2005.

•Longest time balancing on one foot: Arulanantham Suresh Joachim, Sri Lanka, 76 hours 40 minutes, 1997.

• Points scored in a single basketball game: Wilt Chamberlain, 100, 1962.

• Fastest consumption of two pints of beer: Pete Dowdeswell, Britain, 2.3 seconds, 1975.

• Consecutive tournament victories in the PGA Tour: Byron Nelson, 11, 1945.

• Most push-ups in one hour: Roy Berger, Canada, 3,416, 1998.

• Highest Scrabble score: Joyce Cansfield, Britain, 855 points in a qualifying round of the British National Championship, 1986.

• Career victories by a baseball pitcher: Cy Young, 511, 1890-1911.

• Most ascents of Mount Everest: Apa Sherpa, Nepal, 16.

• Points scored by goals and assists in a National Hockey League season: Wayne Gretzky, 215, 1985-86.

• Longest reigning heavyweight champion: Joe Louis, 11 years, 252 days, 1937-1949.

• Consecutive baseball games played: Cal Ripken, 2,632 games, 1982-1998.

ZZZ

Source:
Just Try to Beat These Records
ANAHAD O’CONNOR
NYT, August 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/weekinreview/12basics.html

Posted at 06:38 AM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Something

Posted at 06:59 AM in Music, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Watch the kids expression -- and the way he cranks the pen towards the camera and drops his voice

Hilarious. He's dead-on.

Posted at 06:28 AM in Humor, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

These 16 Police Comments were taken off actual police car videos around the country:

#16 "You know, stop lights don't come any redder that the one you just went through."

#15 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them a while."

#14 "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

#13 "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

#12 "Can you run faster than 2700 feet per second? Because that's the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you."

#11 "You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?"

#10 "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I'm the shift supervisor?"

#9 "Warning! You want a warning? O.K., I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket."

#8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey poop."

#6 "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."

#5 "In God we trust, all others we run through NCIC."

#4 "How big were those 'Just two beers' you say you had?"

#3 "No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to, but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we can."

#2 "I'm glad to hear that Chief (of Police) is a personal friend of yours. So you know someone who can post your bail."

AND THE WINNER IS . . .

#1 "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't. Sign here.

Posted at 06:09 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Looks very funny:

Here's the overview from IMDB.

Posted at 06:23 AM in Film, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

"All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy."
— Anonymous

"What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money."
— Henry Youngman

"Some people will do anything for money - even work."
— P.K. Shaw

"It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It's only necessary be rich."
— Alan Alda

"This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy."
—Douglas Adams

"We live by the Golden Rule. Those who have the gold make the rules."
— Buzzie Bavasi

"Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it."
— David Lee Roth

"While money doesn't buy love, it puts you in a great bargaining position."
— Anonymous

"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
— Albert Einstein

"Always borrow money form a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back."
— Author Unknown

"Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God and over these ideals they dispute, but they all worship money."
— Mark Twain

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Posted at 06:47 PM in Current Affairs, Humor, Idiot!, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No one seems to understand that in the modern era, whatever you say or do is recorded for posterity.

Here's Dick Cheney, explaining why invading Iraq is such a bad idea?

Posted at 06:52 AM in Current Affairs, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Given all the turmoil in the credit markets, consumer confusion is rampant. Dow Jones looks a t the 6 questions consumers are asking the most -- and answers them.

Will I still be able to get a mortgage?

Can I still get a no-down payment loan?

My mortgage lender declared bankruptcy. What do I do?

Should I be concerned if I currently have a subprime mortgage?

My certificate of deposit is from a lender that has made subprime loans. Is my money safe?

Is now a good time to buy a home?

Source:
Six Questions Consumers Are Asking About The Mortgage Market
Amy Hoak
Dow Jones, August 10, 2007: 04:13 PM EST
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/
200708101613DOWJONESDJONLINE000627_FORTUNE5.htm

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The Beatles in Germany 1966

Posted at 06:52 AM in Music, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Via The Realist:

Posted at 10:09 AM in Design, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cool chart of all the major candidates issue positions:

via boingboing

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Fantastic review of Virgin America, via boingboing:

(1) Most comfortable coach I've experienced on any domestic carrier. Roomy, well-designed seats, nice leg room, seats sit at a pitch that maximizes stretch space.

(2) Obscenely comfy white leather seats (with "massage" feature) in first class. Pretty reasonable first class fares (I suppose they'll be higher later, but they're comparatively quite low right now).

(3) They're using open source software in every place possible. Linux galore.

(4) In-flight, seat-to-seat chat. Now you can bitch about babies crying or barf-inducing turbulence -- with emoticons! Or group chat around each TV channel (while you watch TV), or join topic-based chat rooms.

(5) Google Freakin' Maps. I heard details of additional add-in features they're planning to launch with this -- not bloggable yet, but when they're live, they'll be mindblowing.

(6) In-flight entertainment and info system has a super user-friendly GUI, and it's touchscreen! With little qwerty keyboards!

(7) Games. Including Doom. They're planning an open source game design competition, will feature winning games on the flights.

(8) In-flight text messaging and email are apparently on the way, as are pay-per-download music sales (mostly Virgin artists at launch, I'd guess).

(9) Movies are fairly recent ones you'd actually want to watch. Large selection of international fare for non-English-speaking passengers. Wide TV selections. You can get channels like IFC and Current in-flight. Music videos. Scan TV listings in a programming guide, see what's on when. You can set reminders for yourself for TV shows you want to catch.

(10) Some great internet content on the way. They're doing deals with internet video content producers and other video sources you'd never expect to see on a plane. They plan to have in-flight broadband in place next year (pending FAA approval) for even more frequent video content uploads. Incidentally, they have a smartly designed related method for system software updates. Many cool things about the IT design behind VA.

Looks way way cool . . .

Source:
Getting high with Richard Branson: Virgin America's virgin flight
boingboing,Wednesday, August 8, 2007
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/08/getting_high_with_ri.html

Posted at 10:01 AM in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cool stuff:

"#9 - 1972" by Peter Young   

"Painting #27, 1974"

Peter Young’s art is a blast from the past that singes the present. His almost-major career, which flourished during the fashionably mythic late 1960s and early ’70s, has been drifting just out of reach for decades, a tantalizing medley of dotted, stained, gridded and geometric paintings, rarely seen but not forgotten.

Now his work has been gathered into his first museum show anywhere and his first solo show in New York in 23 years. A radiant survey of 34 paintings from 1963 to 1977 has arrived at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, and at the Mitchell Algus Gallery in Chelsea a smaller, more focused but equally excellent display features works from Mr. Young’s Folded Mandala and his Oaxacan series from the 1970s.

Together these shows reintroduce a maverick Zenned-out hedonist who was also a process-oriented formalist with a sharp painterly intelligence, a genius for color and a penchant for the tribal and spiritual. They also revisit the efforts of an ambitious artist who got to the brink of a big New York abstract-painter career and took a pass, dropping almost completely from view and fading into legend.

Organized by P.S. 1’s founding director, Alanna Heiss, and the artist David Deutsch, the larger show arrives on the heels of the exhibition “High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975” at the National Design Museum, which included one of Mr. Young’s small enticing “stick” paintings, and also opened the Pandora’s box of the history of Post-Minimalist painting. And it coincides with the Whitney’s sweeping if spotty “Summer of Love” exhibition, from which Mr. Young’s work is noticeably absent.

Source:
Kandy-Colored Dot-Flake Streamline Maverick
ROBERTA SMITH
NYT, August 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/arts/design/03youn.html

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Live concert version of Yesterday:

Posted at 06:53 AM in Music, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

After playing around with Google's Advanced Search Made Easy, I came across two great pages on using Google's Search features better:  via Dumb Little Man and Sell IUS, I culled this collection. These are my favorite Google search engine tips:

1. Use quotation marks to search for the exact phrase “co-op board rejection"

2. Movies. Use the "movie:" operator to search for a movie title along with either a zip code or U.S. city and state to get a list of movie theaters in the area and show times.

3. Music. The "music:" operator returns content related to music only.

4. Use the pipe (|) for an either/or search (or use the word “or”): fsbo|by owner.

5. Use two periods (..) to find information within a number range, including years: worst housing markets 1980..2006.

6. Not. If you don't want a term or phrase, use the "-" symbol.   will return pages that contain "little" and "man" but that don't contain "dumb".

7. "Not X"  Exclude search terms with a minus sign (-): worst housing markets 1980..2006 -best. (since the prior search usually includes best and worst, use the minus sign if you only want the bad news)

8. Find similar terms with the tilde (~):  ~cheap homes.  You get auctions, foreclosures, etc.

9. Use the wildcard symbol (*) if you don’t know the missing word:  a man’s home is his *.

10. Location of term. By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as:

     "inurl:"
     "intitle:"
     "intext:"
     "inanchor:"

Those search for a term only within the URL, the title, the body text, and the anchor text (the text used to describe a link).

11. Get a list of definitions with “define:”  define:foreclosure.

12. Site-specific. To search a particular site use “site:”. Useful if a website or blog doesn’t have a search box:  site:bigpicture.typepad.com. 

13. Backlinks. The "link:" operator will find pages that link to a specific URL. You can use this not only for a main URL but even to a specific page. Not all links to an URL are listed, however.  link:http://bigpicture.typepad.com

14. Type in the area code to find out the city: 212.

15. File types: If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use the "filetype:" operator.

16. Vertical search: Instead of searching for a term across all pages on the web, search within a specialized field. Google has a number of specific searches, allowing you to search within blogs, news, books, and much more:

    * Blog Search

    * Book Search

    * Scholar

    * Catalogs

    * Code Search

    * Directory

    * Finance

    * Images

    * Local/Maps

    * News

    * Patent Search

    * Product Search

    * Video

Numerical related searches:

17. Numrange:  This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).

18. Use Google as a calculator: 472*92. Full calculator instructions are here

19. Unit converter: Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: 12 meters in yards

20. Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for:

    * Vehicle ID number (US only)

    * Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equipment numbers (US only)

    * UPC codes

    * Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airplane registration number (US only)

    * Patent numbers (US only)

    * Even stock quotes (using the stock symbol)

     * weather forecast regarding the next five days

21. Advanced search. If you can't remember any of these operators, you can always use Google's advanced search.

>

>

Sources:

Google
Advanced Search Made Easy
http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/refinesearch.html

20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches     http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/20-tips-for-more-efficient-google.html

10 Essential Google Search Tips http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/sellsius-real-estate-blog/10-essential-google-search-tips/2007/06/23/

Posted at 06:56 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hysterical clip from the Simpsons:

Posted at 06:18 AM in Humor, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack