Tidbits From The Web Tidbits From The Web...: January 2010

Monday, January 18, 2010

Tidbits From The Web #60



Alice in Wonderland...
Stick to your resolutions...
Cops in the sky...
Tires that can cause death...
Now that is a meteor!
The colors of infinity...
Cell size and scale... (props to my bro Jay)
New planets in space?
A cool claymation music video...
Definitely going back to Cali...Cali...Cali!
Explaining the flu vaccine deception and swine flu hoax...
Staying balanced in the winter...
Candy floss...
Introducing urban artist Justin Tolentino...
For the geek in you...
10
technologies that will rock 2010...
Stay away from HFCS...
Some stunning photos...
Sexy robots...
33 conspiracy theories that turned out to be true...
Obama is a Muslim...

Some videos worth rediscovering...


The Quiet Coup -- How Bankers Seized America


The economic crash has made many unpleasant truths about the United States apparent. One of the most alarming, according to a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the financial industry has effectively captured the U.S. government.


Fall of the Republic

An offshore corporate cartel is bankrupting the U.S. economy -- by design. Could it be that a worldwide regime, controlled by an unelected corporate elite, is implementing a system that will dominate all human activity and establish a system of neo-feudal slavery?

Watch the Fall of the Republic, and decide for yourself.


Government healthcare fraud

Medicare and Medicaid fraudsters are beating U.S. taxpayers out of an estimated $90 billion a year using a billing scam that is surprisingly easy to execute. Steve Kroft investigates.


The Man Who Knew About Madoff Before Anyone Else


Harry Markopolos repeatedly told the Securities and Exchange Commission that Bernie Madoff's investment fund was a fraud. He was ignored, and investors lost billions of dollars. It didn’t take for Markopolos to figure out that Madoff was a fraud, he says in the following video. It took him five minutes to figure out he was a fraud and four hours to mathematically prove it. Markopolos sent five separate reports to the SEC starting in 2000. All of the reports were ignored. Steve Kroft from CBS’s 60 Minutes reports.


Today's Message

SPECIFICITY IS THE KEY
by Denis Waitley

This is the season for goal setting. It’s the time to start with a clean slate and fill your slate for 2010 with tangible, incremental, stair steps to your ultimate dreams.

One of the major reasons so few people reach their goals is that most people don’t set specific goals and the mind just dismisses them as irrelevant. Most people want financial security, but have never considered how much money it will take. The mind cannot begin to formulate the strategies and actions required without specific information. Your mind will simply not respond to a request to get rich, have more, do better or make money. You must act like a bank loan officer with your goals.

The reason loan officers want to see a detailed business plan is they know the entrepreneurs who are precise and specific are the ones who will succeed and pay off their loans.

If you ever begin to feel that you are losing your drive, if you feel like your energy level is down, your frustration level is up and you just can’t seem to muster the enthusiasm to face a challenge, check the pulling power of your goals. You may have outgrown your current targets and lifestyle. It may be time for motivation by elevation. Raise your sights and challenge yourself with some goals that are farther out on the horizon.

This may require more knowledge, new skills, a new lifestyle. If so, that’s great! Many people resist goal-setting because they assume it leads to a formula-driven, highly uncreative life. Actually, the exact opposite can be true. People who passively assume that everything will somehow work out in the end can hardly be termed creative. They’re not creating their lives, they’re just hoping against hope that something good will happen to them.

Setting worthwhile goals is a much more imaginative approach. It’s fashioning and molding the life of your choice. It’s approaching your life the way an artist might stand before a new canvas, on which a beautiful painting can be crafted. There are other useful metaphors for creativity in goal-setting. The rudder of a plane, for example, is small and rigid, like a short-term goal you might accomplish in just one day. But the rudder can turn the plane in any direction the pilot chooses. In that, there’s a great deal of freedom and flexibility.

Once you set a goal, you can adjust and fine-tune it any way you wish. That’s creativity. And persistence is what allows you to keep progressing toward the goal no matter how many adjustments are required, and no matter how long it takes to accomplish.

The mind is the most magnificent bio-computer ever created. But remember, like a computer, it only responds to specific instructions, not to vague ideas. So come alive in 2010! Get laser focused on goals that are just out of reach, but not out of sight.

Get Specific and Achieve Great Things in 2010!




10 Small Ways to Make the World a Better Place
charity, goodwill






Here are ten little gestures, all of them easily within your grasp, that can spread goodwill in your own community, and increase your sense of mindfulness about the people around you and your relationship to them.


  1. Tip generously: Leaving as large a tip as you can afford not only puts a little extra money in your servers’ pocket, it tells them that they’re appreciated.

  2. Compliment someone: Be honest and sincere. Don’t expect anything in return.

  3. Be totally open with someone: Let someone know exactly how you feel about something; letting someone into your confidence can be a great way to show your trust and appreciation of them.

  4. Give someone a book you’ve read: Making a gift of something you’ve read and enjoyed is more than just a nice gesture, it’s a way of showing someone that you think of them, you understand them, and you want to share something with them.

  5. Make something for someone: Give without expectations -- whether they return the favor or not, whether they like it or not, whether they’re nice to you or not, these are all irrelevant.

  6. Send a letter, email, tweet, or text message out of the blue: Maybe they’ll respond, maybe not -- it’s beside the point. They just need to know that they’re important to you.

  7. Commend an employee to their manager: It’s one thing to tip or compliment someone for their service, it’s another to contact their manager and tell them what a great job they’ve done.

  8. Teach someone how to do something: Share your skill or talent with someone. Have patience and respect; you’re giving them a gift, not compensating for some lack in their character.

  9. Let someone shine: Put a spotlight on someone else’s talents by letting them take over a presentation, deferring to their wisdom, or asking their advice.

  10. Connect like minds: Introduce two friends or colleagues who you feel have something to gain from each other.




Knowledge

Time-Warp Archive of Vintage Technology Through the Decades

Ushering out the old year and welcoming the new one is the perfect time to browse through the time-warp project. As we all realize, "The 20th century is marked by dramatic technology innovation." The developers explain the site in the following manner: "The time-warp project is an attempt to archive the rapid advance in technology through the decades. Initially we are starting from 1900 to the present. So much has happened since the harnessing of electricity!" Now you can browse through the various categories to get a better appreciation of the advances that have been made. There is even opportunity to submit your own innovation. Take your own journey through the time-warp marveling at the advances; you'll be fascinated at how far we've come since Benjamin Franklin flew his kite during that thunder storm!


Zahi Hawass

Dr. Zahi Hawass is one of the most well-know Egyptologists in the world. If you're not sure what an Egyptologist is, Dr. Hawass comments about his vocation as follows: "People often ask me, ‘well, it’s not really as exciting as Indiana Jones, now is it?’ I reply, ‘to an archaeologist, yes, it certainly is!’" Here's your opportunity to join Dr. Hawass on some of his explorations, see the discoveries and the excitement associated with Giza, Saqqara, and the Valley of the Kings. This site does an excellent job of documenting Dr. Hawass's work. You'll find clips on his 'Most Amazing Discoveries,' check out his 'Most Popular' as well as access video clips where you’re your own cyberjourney' to the land of the pharaohs! Happy digging and researching!


Play With: Awesome Finger Puppets

Endlessly entertain the world with these crazy-detailed felt finger puppets of cult icons, handmade by a crafty chick who divides her time between Mexico and Mississippi (and that better be ok bayou), featuring the likes of Mr. T, Hunter S. Thompson, and Chuck Norris, though everyone knows you don't put your finger in Chuck Norris, he puts his finger in you.

Check the lineup of hilarious digit-al doodads at Etsy.com


Delicious Links: BuiltBurger Sausages

Branching out from top-notch infused burgers, BB's debuted a line of seven different flavored sausages "unlike anything you have experienced", ranging from the Amazin' Hot Wing chicken links concocted with blue cheese and flecks of celery, to the pork/chicken Jumpin' Jambalaya with Creole seasoned rice, sauteed peppers/onions, tomatoes, and "a touch of heat", to a fresh lime, Cotija cheese, mild Anaheim chilis, cumin & chili combo called the Mexican Chicken, which is passionately endorsed by its pitchman, Colonel Sanchez.

Order up a batch at BuiltBurger.com


Insight

BE YOURSELF


Sometimes in your life you will go on a journey. It will be the longest journey you have ever taken. It is the journey to find yourself.

Katherine Sharp


Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he
Who finds himself, loses his misery.

Matthew Arnold


PERSEVERANCE


Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

Plutarch


There may be obstacles, but keep going because the struggle is continuous.

Rachel Robinson


Fun

Quitting Time
Years of smoking finally caught up with my friend John one morning when he keeled over at work, clutching his heart. He was rushed to a hospital and peppered with questions.

"Do you smoke?" asked a paramedic.

"No," John whispered. "I quit."

"That"s good. When did you quit?"

"Around 9:30 this morning."

Tracking the Argument
Three dolts are in the forest when they spot a set of tracks.

Dolt No. 1 says, "Hey, deer tracks!"

Dolt No. 2 says, "No, dog tracks!"

Dolt No. 3 says, "You’re both crazy—they’re cow tracks!"

They were still arguing when the train hit them.


Today's Quotes

UNLEASHING YOUR GENIUS

“Stop going with the flow in our life. Start your own river instead.” —“Dr. Phil,” Phillip C. McGraw

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” —Aldous Huxley

“Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.” —Anne Louise Germaine de Stael

“Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands.” —Leonardo da Vinci




Whiskey & Gunpowder
By Doug Carkuff

January 4, 2010
Central New York, U.S.A.


Neither Left Nor Right

I have always taken it as a good thing that libertarians are detested by both the left and the right. To me it is proof positive that we libertarians are in the right. After all, both the left and the right are fundamentally the same — authoritarian statists who wish to use the force of government to make society in their own images and to compel others to live in ways that they approve of. And let’s be honest, both the left and the right do truly hate us and whatever we may ostensibly have in common with either — say free markets with the right and human rights with the left (of course neither really supports either except in qualified and conditional ways) — what they find detestable about us involves fundamental differences which can never be overcome as long as they remain “left” and “right,” as long as they remain wedded to that dialectic.

I’ll be honest, at this point in my life I find political philosophy to be tiresome or maybe I have just become tired and lazy. Beyond considering the merits of minarchism versus anarchism I don’t like to go much into any of it anymore. Debates about the implications of the privatization of this particular thing versus government control of that seem to me pointless. From my perspective, if you believe you own your own life, if you believe in liberty, there is nothing to debate. You are never going to convince anyone who doesn’t believe in or understand liberty in a meaningful way to come over to your side. At best, the arguments will all be utilitarian in nature and both sides are going to make counter arguments which are often essentially meaningless — what if this scenario occurred or what would happen in that particular circumstance.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy watching YouTubes of my libertarian heroes — most associated with Lew’s site and Mises and way too many to mention. And, of course, the great Dr. Paul — but when I see a libertarian debate a statist of whatever stripe the futility of it is tiring. It is as though they are talking different languages. It is particularly trying when I see what we often refer to as a “beltway libertarian” (think Cato, Reason) debating a main stream “progressive” or a main stream “conservative.” The feeling I get is that they are pretending at disagreeing, both of them really committed to never changing anything fundamentally.

The bottom line is that I have been troubled by the inability of libertarians in general to make any substantial inroads into the minds and hearts and thinking of most Americans, which is fairly ironic when you consider that the values on which this country was founded and the values continually espoused when speaking reverently about this country are distinctly libertarian values. Funny how they sound so foreign and unfathomable (and dangerous), except in the abstract, to so many devoted Americans. It’s fine to talk about dedication to liberty, but it’s something else altogether to actually consider living by the principles of liberty. It strikes me that whenever libertarians and those who are suspicious of libertarians talk they invariably talk past each other. It strikes me that our approach as libertarians has been off the mark. We are never going to win by talking principles and philosophy. The only way we are going to reach those who cannot hear us now is to show them what they are missing and what they are losing by being afraid to seriously consider liberty and the kind of world they could inhabit by embracing the principles of liberty.

Also invariably critics on the left accuse libertarians of being “selfish” and “greedy” and being for rich people and against ordinary people. This charge is so far off the mark and beside the point it is almost impossible to respond to. It’s like accusing a computer of being short. It has nothing to do with what a computer is. But we get stuck in those kinds of arguments. For me, the best or at least most effective argument for libertarianism is that it is the one approach to governance that has the greatest hope of producing a humane society. The problem is to find a way to explain to people why that is so. “Progressives” like to consider themselves humane and singular in their concern for their fellow man. I don’t doubt the good intentions of those who consider themselves progressive (although, given the history of mankind you would have be somewhat dim to believe collectivism of any sort can lead to anything except misery and misery primarily for the most vulnerable and unconnected), but they seem not to be able to see the implications and unintended consequences of their philosophy.

Moreover, they tend to be primarily concerned with how they feel about their supposed altruism rather than the actual consequences of their initiatives. There are multitudes of examples of the way good intentions and supposedly progressive legislation has led to the suffering of those it is intended to help. This current recession/depression is a typical example, due in large part to the “ownership society” initiative which was intended to put anybody who wanted into a home of their own. It sounded good, but where are so many of those people now? How many of those people who could not pay their mortgages with their teaser rates are now on the street and have nothing?

This new healthcare plan will almost certainly lead to the same sort of thing. How many small businesses will go under or not be started at all and how many other businesses will cut back, all of which leading to job losses for those who need jobs the most? Again, the most vulnerable will end up suffering for the good intentions of those who think they know best how to arrange society. And then there is the current hysteria over global warming — sorry, climate change. How many of those who can least afford it will suffer the consequences of programs like cap and trade or carbon taxes? The list is really endless.

For many progressives it all seems to be about how they feel about themselves and the sense of self-righteousness that their “generosity” affords them. Of course, self-righteousness is hardly the domain of the left. Having lived through the reign of terror of the “religious right” and their devotion to their belief that they are God’s true representatives on earth, well, it was scary stuff. The left thinks they are on the side of the angels and the right thinks God is on their side. Libertarians don’t presume that they can divine the intentions of the almighty beyond the fundamental belief that we are all created equal and are endowed by our creator (whatever “creator” means to you) with certain inalienable rights.

The central libertarian principle is the principle of nonaggression. Taken to its logical conclusions it pretty much covers everything that is the cause of so much consternation in the life of our society. You would think that no one could possibly have a problem with this principle, but many people do. In order for the nonaggression principle to mean anything you have to believe you own yourself and, by extension, that you own the fruits of your endeavors. For any statist/collectivist self-ownership is conditional. In other words, you only own yourself to the extent society says you own yourself which is really the same as saying you don’t own yourself at all. You can make the decisions about your life that society/the state says you can make. Ultimately and inescapably, in the statist’s view, society/the state owns everything and anything you own, including yourself — you only own conditionally.

If you follow that logic then society cannot aggress against you since they own you. They cannot aggress against your property, since it is really society’s property. It is amazing to me how many are comfortable with this perspective on things. Without self-ownership the nonaggression principle means nothing. It may be that people don’t generally recognize how they are owned by society/the state and unless they are personally and painfully inconvenienced by their lifetime indenturement or their serfdom. Until it is your property being appropriated by the state by eminent domain and until it is you who is prevented from finding relief from your illness by laws dictating what substances you may or may not ingest into your own body you can continue to pretend to yourself that you are sovereign over your own existence. You can argue until you are blue in the face that conscription and income tax are both forms of slavery and are unjust in their conception, but until people feel it in their gut, they won’t get it. It’s just the price we pay for being “free.”

If you ask virtually any American if they are free the vast majority will tell you yes, this in spite of the multitude of ways we are not free. Most Germans thought they were free under Hitler. You are free only to the extent the government and society does not want anything from you beyond what you are already willing and ready to give and if you were to decide you were not willing and ready to give those things you already do, you would quickly see how free you are not. My argument and the argument of most libertarians is that personal, individual liberty over all aspects of our lives is the only way to achieve all the legitimate, defensible desires of both the right and the left. It is the rational hope for ever having a humane society with liberty and justice for all and the only way for both the right and the left to ever get the things they claim matter to them is to risk embracing liberty in all aspects of life.

This is what we are not communicating to those who oppose us. What they don’t see is that we want all of the things that they legitimately want, but we actually have a way to achieve it. If you want social justice, it is only liberty that can give it to you. If you want prosperity and opportunity and sustainability, if you want equality (in a legitimate sense), if you want peace and commerce and goodwill between men, liberty is the best hope for achieving those things. Libertarians are also often accused of being utopian and that for real liberty to work we must all be men of goodwill and compassion. This is exactly wrong. It is those who think they can fashion society to fit some ideal they imagine who are utopian. Libertarianism is the only political philosophy which actually takes into account the fallibility and corruptibility of man by recognizing that the last thing we should do is give men power over the lives of other men. If man cannot be trusted to govern their own lives as the left and right believe, then how can they possibly be entrusted with the power to govern the lives of others? They like to believe that the best and the brightest will gravitate toward positions of authority over others. Talk about utopian. The message we need to get across that we have not is that it is liberty with all its implications — for each of us individually, for commerce and enterprise and for everything else — that is the best hope for the kinds of society both the left and right dream of. A society where all men can live in peace and prosper and pursue happiness and find social justice and equal opportunity and learn to love his fellow man. There is a reason why that ubiquitous Ron Paul Revolution sign had the word love highlighted in it. If you really love your fellow man set him free to chart his own course and to follow his own dreams instead of some dream the collective has dreamed for him. Set people free to be everything they can be and the human race can achieve things we can now only dream of.


Peace, love and happiness...until next time...