How did you do?

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the creator of the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip.

You don’t have to actually answer the questions….just ponder them.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade’s worth of World Series winners.

The point is, none of us remember the ‘headliners’ of yesterday.
These are no second-rate achievers.
They are the best in their fields.
But, the applause dies..
Awards tarnish.
Achievements are forgotten.
Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think o f five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?

The Lesson:

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials..the most money…or the most awards.
They simply are the ones who care the most.

It’s time to give up the paper habit and save some trees; I am going paperless at work!  It started today when I opened up my file cabinet that I rarely use only to find it full of papers that I haven’t touched in years. 

I must have been full of energy (or caffeine) because before I knew it I was shredding up a storm and finally I think I can actually say I am paperless at work! (Except for a few training books and binders which are still easier to flip through while facilitating classes.)

I thought I would at find some resources to help me in my paperless project, I found a blog entry at smallnotebook.org with some great suggestions and numerous comments and replies of others’ experiences and suggestions.  Click HERE to see the post.  

What suggestions do you have to go paperless?

This was an interesting article from Psychology Today, it talks about how one will change their personality to adapt to different groups of people….

“We mimic the people around us all the time without even realizing it, says Tanya Chartrand, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University. Chartrand and John Bargh, professor of psychology at New York University, call this the “chameleon effect”—the natural tendency to imitate another person’s speech inflections and physical expressions.”

Check out the article HERE.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and nowhere is that made more explicit than when shopping online. By deleting your cookies and returning to internet stores you’ve previously bought at, you may find yourself getting discounts usually reserved to lure in first time buyers.

Appscout tells how one lady saved $44 on a hotel room after she happened to clear her cookies while making reservations. In 2005, it was reported that Amazon.com first-timers were getting pitched $22.74 for a CD vs $26.24 for repeat customers.

Check out the complete story from AppScout here.

This site is a little scary and eye opening, it will take your photo and age you so you can see what you might look like in the future. 

I got my results and thought I was looking at a picture of my grandfather and father morphed together, but nope, it was me…Scary!   I printed one and now keep a copy of the photo in my gym bag, it gives me motovation before a workout because I don’t want to end up like my photo.   You can also transform your face into a number of other fun things too!

Check it out

One of the blogs I enjoy is Zen Habits, daily tidbits on life, happiness and productivity. They had an interesting post today about the secret to making 2009 the best year ever.  Check it out.

Spoiler:  Stop waiting for happiness. Happiness is right here, right now.

What the heck has been going on in the middle east?!? I wish we could all just get along on this little rock we call Earth!  I’m not going to get into my viewpoints, especially with the recent activity in  Gaza, but did want to share a great resource that has helped me out a lot in recent times.  

CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) has a site dedicated to the history of the Middle East and has provided a lot of insight into some of the current struggles.  If you are interested in learning more about what has been going on in that corner of the world check out their site:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/middleeast/

It is possible to create a top out of a single piece of wire, for example a paper clip. Takao Sakai, professor of mechanical engineering at the Tohoku university in Japan, has proposed an ingeniously simple solution.

His top consists of a sector of a circle, from which two connecting spokes lead back to the main shaft, or rotating axis

 The top will only work properly if the centre of gravity lies on the rotating axis; otherwise the top will not be stable. This will only be the case if tan(a/2)=1/2, with a being the angle between the spokes. It is a nice exercise for physics students to prove this. It follows that a = 53.13 degrees.

To build the top you need a pair of fine nosed pincers (pliers) and a metallic paper clip. While a was calculated assuming very sharp bends, in practice these are difficult to achieve; therefore you can compensate by making the angle a slightly smaller than 53 degrees. Using a regular paper clip, the height h and the radius of the circle r are about 1cm.

The Sakai top will run well even if the curvature of the circle is not perfect. With a well made top, you will see the circle and the shaft very clearly, while the rapidly revolving spokes will be invisible. When you spin the top with your fingers, the very small diamater of the wire will mean that the top revolves very fast, with speeds possible up to several thousand rpm. You can try to calculate roughly the speed of revolution depending on the diameter of the wire you have used, and the speed of your fingers as you spin the top, and then use a stroboscope to confirm your estimate.

The final trick – shown in the video – uses a tiny Neodymium magnet placed on the axis of the top, so as not to disturb the balance. The top will then be attracted to another metallic object, in this case another paper clip bent into a curved shape. The spinning top clings on to the curved shape and spins around its edge. This was originaly the basis of a Victorian toy.