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A day with Richard Simmons
“Through Thick And Thin, Simmons Is Still Sweatin”
While working as a waiter, Richard Simmons saved up a year-and-a-half worth of tips to open his first aerobics studio in Beverly Hills in 1974. Ever since then, he still teaching classes to this day.
Bureaucracy is so 19th Century.
Bureaucracy is so 19th Century.
Why we all should strive for collaborative atmospheres and organizations.
Supposing Microsoft had managed to hire technology’s top players into a single unit before they made their names elsewhere—Steve Jobs of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Larry Page of Google, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon—regardless of performance, under one of the iterations of stack ranking, two of them would have to be rated as below average, with one deemed disastrous.
Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine
New Beginnings, Power to the Egyptions
“Battle Of Algiers” Has played a big part in how i see the world, Watching it in the broken formica chair of Seattle Central Community College, As the middle eastern studies professor, Named From Tunisia talked about how important this movie is to telling the ‘real story’ now five years on, every time i watch this movie i realize how incredible Pontecorvo was to actually capture a realistic portrait of the revolution in Algeria.
I’ve been glued to Al-Jazeera for days, as it is the only english new service that its entire staff can find Egypt on a map, and has been a clear voice to the on the ground reports of whats been happeining of this fortnight plus some. As the people finally stood up to the corrupt, patronizing old man.
All of these victories make me think of my favorite scene(tune to 1:11 in above scene) in “Battle of Algiers.” Ali, is the on the ground revolutionary leader in the city of Algiers, Ali as he climbs the ranks of the FLN, Which was pyramid in its leadership structure, Ali quickly claims the ranks, and on the eve of the large strike he and the FLN have been planning, he meets the leader of the revolutionary group. Whose name is never shared, as would’ve been the case during the actual revolution. At one point in the conversation he looks to Ali, the city of Algiers below them, and says:
“It’s hard enough to start a revolution, even harder to sustain it, and hardest of all to win it. But its only afterwards, one we’ve won, the real difficulties begin”
I think that rings true for Egypt today, good luck to the great people of Egypt, the future is yours today.
Dont Mention the War
From Harpers Findings January 2011:
[Anthropology] DON’T MENTION THE WAR From a series of “market proifles” by VisitBritain, the ofi cial tourism bureau of the United Kingdom. The guides, which were released this summer in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, are meant to help British businesses “provide an even more efi cient and helpful customer service that takes account of cultural needs.
- Cleanliness is of major importance to Austrians.
- The Portuguese take great pride in wearing good fabrics and clothes of the best standard they can afford.
- New Zealanders are accustomed to high-pressure showers, not a weak dribble from a nozzle, and are also used to gallons and gallons of hot water being available.
- Although Italians give little care to public places, they are scrupulously clean in their own homes. Don’t be offended by
- Argentine humor, which may mildly attack your clothing or weight.
- Canadians often identify themselves as Canadian by wearing a maple-leaf pin or a maple leaf on their clothing.
- Czechs are very sensitive to price changes.
- Brazilians do not travel lightly.
- As a nation, Germans are interested in many things; however, football, cars, travel, culture, their homes, and getting a good deal are some of the most important.
- The Dutch have a strong desire to order their time in agendas and on calendars. Mexicans drink huge quantities of soft drinks and beer. Good conversational topics are Mexican culture, history, museums. Never discuss the Mexican- American War, poverty, aliens, or earthquakes.
- Avoid discussing personal matters or linguistic divisions with Belgians.
- Malaysians dislike walking long distances and are likely not to be very active.
- Nordic people like to get close to the “natives.”
- The Japanese (particularly women) could be said to have a childlike air to them. Russians love the English sense of humor and believe it is very similar to the Russian one.
- The South African sense of humor is based more on American slapstick comedy than on British wit and play on words. Therefore they may struggle to understand the “joke.”
- Don’t ask personal questions to a Brazilian.
- The Dutch hardly ever invite people with whom they are not closely acquainted for dinner.
- Spaniards use utensils to eat most food. Even fruit is eaten with a knife and fork! Thais are generally aware of the Four Seasons restaurant (for the crispy duck), and the Blue Elephant Thai restaurant in London.
- The French will begin eating only after someone says “bon appétit.”
- Koreans do not like to talk a lot during dinner.
- If an Arab stares you in the eye as you speak, it means that he is giving you his full attention. If he doesn’t, it means that he may not care what you are saying. If an Arab bites his right finger, it is a sign of contempt, and this will usually be accompanied by muttering.
- Mexicans use a “psst-psst” sound to catch another’s attention.
- Russians may come across as cold and not very open or polite people.
- The Dutch do not believe in lining up and show almost no consideration in public for a person’s status, gender, or age.
- In America, time is a very important commodity. People “save” time and “spend” time as if it were money in the bank.
- Belgians tend to be indirect.
- Nordic people are often very conscious of environmental issues.
- Indians do not like to express “no.” Rather than disappoint you, for example, by saying something isn’t available, Indians may give an affirmative answer but be deliberately vague about any specific details.
- Koreans are not Chinese.
Obama & Palin A Tale of Two Speeches
Micheal Shear’s blog post on NY Times Caucus, on the utter differences of both Palin’s and Obama’s speeches yesterday, worth a look.
Wednesday was bookended by two remarkable — and remarkably different — political performances that demonstrated the vast expanse of America’s political landscape.
The day began at 5 a.m. when Sarah Palin posted a 7½- minute video statement that captured with precision the bubbling anger and resentment that is an undercurrent of the national conversation about our public discourse.
It ended with President Obama, whose plea for civility, love and compassion — for us to all be not just better citizens but better people — exposed for the first time the emotions of a leader who has spent two years staying cool and controlled for a nation beset by difficult times.The tone of the two speeches could not have been more different. The venues were a world apart — the smallness of a rectangular video on a computer screen and the vastness of an echo-filled basketball arena.
“How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America” Don Peck (The Atlantic)
Don Peck’s piece on the lasting effects of the recession and joblessness, March 2010
Since last spring, when fears of economic apocalypse began to ebb, we’ve been treated to an alphabet soup of predictions about the recovery. Various economists have suggested that it might look like a V (a strong and rapid rebound), a U (slower), a W (reflecting the possibility of a double-dip recession), or, most alarming, an L (no recovery in demand or jobs for years: a lost decade). This summer, with all the good letters already taken, the former labor secretary Robert Reich wrote on his blog that the recovery might actually be shaped like an X (the imagery is elusive, but Reich’s argument was that there can be no recovery until we find an entirely new model of economic growth).
No one knows what shape the recovery will take. The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the third quarter of last year, the first increase since the second quarter of 2008. If economic growth continues to pick up, substantial job growth will eventually follow. But there are many reasons to doubt the durability of the economic turnaround, and the speed with which jobs will return.
Anxiety is secretive. He does not trust anyone, not even his friends, Worry, Terror, Doubt and Panic … He likes to visit me late at night when I am alone and exhausted. I have never slept with him, but he kissed me on the forehead once, and I had a headache for two years …
J. Ruth Gendler “The Book of Qualities,”
This Is Your Brain on Metaphors By ROBERT SAPOLSKY NyTIMES
Despite rumors to the contrary, there are many ways in which the human brain isn’t all that fancy. Let’s compare it to the nervous system of a fruit fly. Both are made up of cells, of course, with neurons playing particularly important roles. Now one might expect that a neuron from a human will differ dramatically from one from a fly. Maybe the human’s will have especially ornate ways of communicating with other neurons, making use of unique “neurotransmitter” messengers. Maybe compared to the lowly fly neuron, human neurons are bigger, more complex, in some way can run faster and jump higher.
Russallo 