March 2019
87 articles published this month.
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Notes From My Journal
How Many Laws Do We Really Need?
From Capitol Report: “Despite the slow start while new legislators learned their way around the capitol, over 3,400 bills have been filed by the 2019 deadline that could change state laws in the two months of…
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A Word to the Wise
Vitiate (verb)
Vitiate (verb) – To vitiate (VISH-ee-ate) is to impair, debase, make ineffective. As used by George Orwell: “All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Lions Can Sprint Up To Sixty Miles Per Hour
Lions can run as fast as 60 miles an hour.
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Worth Quoting
John Dos Passos on How Careers Consume Us
“People don’t choose careers. They are engulfed by them.” – John Dos Passos
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Worth Reading
The Future of Higher Education: Apprenticeships vs. Business School” by Peter Diamandis
The university system in the USA is a huge business. It thrives on higher-than-inflation tuition increases and big donations from successful alumni. Some of the smartest people I know believe that college…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Why This Video Will Make You Nervous
Watching this will make you nervous...
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Notes From My Journal
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
Answer these 4 questions: In all low-income countries in the world today, how many girls finish high school? a.- 20% b.- 40% c.- 60% In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world’s population living in…
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A Word to the Wise
Inculpate (verb)
Inculpate (verb) – To inculpate (in-KUHL-pate) is to blame or accuse. As used by Germaine Greer: “Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle; the other two are shame and stigma. This grim coalition combines to…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Most Beatles Autographs In Circulation Are Forgeries
Only 6% of the autographs in circulation from members of the Beatles are estimated to be real.
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Worth Quoting
Confucius on the Limits of Knowledge
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” - Confucius
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Worth Watching
The Resistance Banker
The Resistance Banker (Netflix) .- Set in Amsterdam during the German occupation, this film follows the brave work of Wally van Hall in establishing and running a secret underground bank to fund the resistance…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Seattle Is Dying
“Seattle Is Dying”.- When I was in my 20s, New York City was a shit hole. Except for a few uptown neighborhoods, you couldn’t walk for 10 minutes without stepping over a bum or being accosted by someone…
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Notes From My Journal
What Do You Think? What Would You Do?
So Mike Weirsky, divorced and for 15 years unemployed, wins the $273 million Mega Millions jackpot. And the first thing he does is buy a Ford Raptor. But how much is he going to pay the person that found his…
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A Word to the Wise
Cupidity (noun)
Cupidity (noun) – Cupidity (kyoo-PID-ih-tee) is greed or avarice; eager or excessive desire. As used by Théodore Guérin: “[The Americans’] cupidity renders them daring and indifferent to everything else.”
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Fun and/or Interesting
How Far You'd Run For One M&M
To burn off the calories in one M&M, you’d have to run the equivalent of a football field.
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Worth Quoting
Benjamin Franklin On Doing Over Talking
“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin
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Worth Reading
The 5 AM Club: Own
The 5 AM Club: OwnYour Morning/ Elevate Your Life by Robin Sharma.-Deserted gas station. Three in the morning. I said something about virtue to the clerk in the little glass box. She said, “You know what the…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Entrepreneur vs. Employee: How to Make the Best of Both
“Entrepreneur vs. Employee: How to Make the Best of Both”.- A very smart discussion between James Altucher and Steve Cohen...
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Notes From My Journal
10 Things I Would Like to Become…
A better teacher My strengths are insight and caring. I need to be better at giving examples. A more articulate arguer I like to argue. I’m always surprised that I’m not very good at it. The problem is that I…
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A Word to the Wise
Demarcate (verb)
Demarcate (verb) – To demarcate (dih-MAR-kate) is to define the boundaries or limits of something. As used by Christopher Morley in Pipefuls: “Out at Hillside the stones that demarcate the territory of an…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Star Trek's Groundbreaking First Interracial Television Kiss
The first interracial kiss on TV took place in a 1968 “Star Trek” episode when Captain Kirk kissed Lt. Uhura.
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Worth Quoting
W.S. Merwin On Hope And Final Acts
“On the last day of the world, I would want to plant a tree.” – from W.S. Merwin’s poem Place.
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Fun and/or Interesting
The creative power of misfits | WorkLife with Adam Grant from TED Talks Daily in Podcasts
The creative power of misfits | WorkLife with Adam Grant from TED Talks Daily in Podcasts.- One of the challenges of success is that the habits that got you there are hard to break. If it ain’t broke, why fix…
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Fun and/or Interesting
How Progressive Taxation Actually Works In America
This probably won't change anyone's mind, but it's a true explanation of how progressive taxation works in the USA and it illustrates the disturbingly widespread level of ignorance about it.
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
When Making Tough Business Decisions, You Can’t Depend on the Facts
Years ago, a professor of philosophy introduced me to a concept that has helped me make business decisions time and again. We were discussing Nietzsche, the German philosopher and poet. I knew a little bit…
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A Word to the Wise
Agglomeration (noun)
Agglomeration (noun) – An agglomeration (uh-glom-uh-RAY-shun) is a group of many (usually disparate) things that have been collected or brought together. As used by Voltaire: “This agglomeration which was…
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Fun and/or Interesting
McDonald's Sells 75 Hamburgers Every Second
McDonald's sells 75 hamburgers every second.
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Worth Quoting
Leonardo da Vinci on Lifelong Learning
“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci
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Worth Reading
Competition Thrives on Unscrupulous Tactics
A blog entry from a friend of mine that tells an important truth about competition – even when it is unscrupulous…
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Best Dance Video Ever Made
What can I say? This has to be the best dance video I've ever seen.
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Notes From My Journal
Talking Business With Academics
CJ, my partner in the effort to free wrongly convicted felons, and I had a meeting today with a California college that has offered to help us by providing student interns from its Law and Criminal Justice…
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A Word to the Wise
Celtic (adjective)
Celtic (adjective) – Did you ever wonder why Celtic is sometimes pronounced KEL-tik and sometimes SEL-tik? The answer is very interesting… at least it was to me.
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Worth Quoting
Zig Ziglar On Sincerity And Praise
“If you are sincere, praise is effective. If you are insincere, it is manipulative.” – Zig Ziglar
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Worth Reading
Talent Is Overrated
Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.- It is generally believed that people’s natural talents are what turn them into world-class performers. But, in fact, as this book shows, talent has virtually nothing to do…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Do Men And Women Think Differently?
Is there a difference between how men and women think? Or is that a myth of the patriarchy? Watch this video of Mark Gungor and decide for yourself...
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
So You Want to Be Happy?
Start by doing this: Spend less time thinking. “Homo sapiens” means thinking human. But for the great majority of our species’ development, we did very little serious thinking. Most of our brain activity was…
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A Word to the Wise
Bootstrap (noun, verb, adjective)
Bootstrap (noun, verb, adjective) – To bootstrap (BOOT-strap) is to rely entirely on your own efforts and resources, to help yourself succeed without the aid of others. As used by journalist David Sax: “Unlike…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Eighteen Million Americans Struggle With Alcoholism
Nearly 18 million Americans are alcoholics.
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Worth Quoting
Ernest Hemingway On Intelligence And Happiness
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” – Ernest Hemingway
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Worth Watching
What I’m Watching
What I’m Watching: Dan Gilbert on the surprising science of happiness.
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Art Of Graceful Piano Playing
A graceful way to play the piano...
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
Would You Like to Start a Serious Art Collection?
“What do you think of this painting?” he asked me. “They want $250,000 for it.” SP is a former protégé and current partner. He’s had a very successful career. He’s got a beautiful house and lots of expensive…
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A Word to the Wise
Aspersion (noun)
Aspersion (noun) – An aspersion (uh-SPUR-zhun) is a damaging or derogatory remark. As used by George Santayana: “The philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him no pleasure, yet he cannot live…
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Godfather's Hidden Death Symbol: Oranges
In all three Godfather movies, when you see oranges a death is imminent.
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Worth Quoting
Charles Dickens On Humanity's Hunting Instinct
“There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.” – Charles Dickens
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Worth Watching
Jonathan Haidt on the moral psychology of Capitalism and business
Jonathan Haidt on the moral psychology of Capitalism and business.- My longtime friend Joe M sent me this video. Joe assumed that I knew who Jonathan Haidt was. I did not. But I’m grateful for the introduction…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Shin Lim's Card Magic Stuns Melissa Fumero
Shin Lim amazes actress Melissa Fumero...
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
Lessons From What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars — March 13, 2019
Part 2: Misunderstanding “Investing” As a student of literature in college, I came into my adulthood knowing little to nothing about investing. That did not deter me from making money, but it did diminish my…
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A Word to the Wise
Nebulous (adjective)
Nebulous (adjective) – Nebulous (NEB-yuh-lus) can mean hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused. As I used it in today’s essay: “When you think of investing as something as nebulous as putting money into stocks…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Brazil's Massive Continental Footprint
Brazil is huge. It covers 50% of the South American continent.
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