Financial Crisis

 

 

Lehman Brothers

 

 

 

 

Freddy MAc & Fannie Mae

 

Loan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Uncategorized , Cartoon, Crisis, Financial, Lehman Brothers, Wall Street

Are You Working on You?

This morning I was planning to clean up my portable hard drive when I noticed that I have a plenty of old stuffs in my portable hard drive. I saw pictures back when I was working in Indonesia, working documents, interesting articles, and of course home-made videos. Being curious of what in the world all that were, I opened folder by folder, then I stuck in this interesting article, titled “Are You Working on You” by Harvey Mackay. This guy is business motivational speaker with the New York Times #1 bestsellers Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt. He has “This Week Column” in his website, and I believe I got mine from his column. Following is the excerpt:

There is a famous story about Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of America’s most distinguished Supreme Court Justices. Holmes was in the hospital, when he was over age 90, and President Theodore Roosevelt came to visit him. As the President was ushered into the hospital room, there was Justice Holmes reading a book of Greek grammar.

President Roosevelt asked, “Why are you reading about Greek grammar, Mr. Holmes?”

And Holmes replied, “To improve my mind, Mr. President.” Ninety… and still trying to learn something new!

Why not make continuing education a new priority?

When you talk about lifelong learning, someone who comes to mind is Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviation pioneer who was the first person to successfully fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean to Europe from the United States. Early in his life, he taught himself to be a superb mechanic working with motorcycles. Then he became a gifted stunt and test pilot. He pretty much designed and masterminded construction of “The Spirit of St. Louis,” the plane he flew over the Atlantic.

After his history-making flight, he devoted himself to helping move aviation from an adventurous sport to common practicality. In a “welcome home” tour, he landed at precisely 2 p.m. at 81 airports scattered across the 48 states that made up the continental United States. This was to demonstrate to skeptics that aviation could provide a safe and reliable means of transportation. Then he and his wife scouted out new airline routes around the world.

We live in a sad time when you consider the following statistics:

 

• Only 14% of adults with a grade school education read literature in 2002.
• 51% of the American population never reads a book over 400 pages after they complete their formal education.
• 73% of all books in libraries are never checked out.
• The average American watches 32 hours of TV every week.
• The average American reads only eight hours (books, newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages, etc.) every week.
• The average American annually spends ten times more on what he puts on his head than what puts into his head.

Consider the following: 

 

• If you read just one book per month for 12 straight months, you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world!
• If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world’s foremost leading authorities on that subject! 
• If you read just 15 minutes a day – every day, for one year – you can complete 20 books!

As Benjamin Franklin said, “The doors of wisdom are never shut.” 

Life is like riding a bicycle. You don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling. 

Filed under: Daily Word , Life long learning, motivation, working

Picture of the Week

(Oh how I love Time Magazine)

 

Sand Blast

 

 

This picture was take from September 12-18 Time’s Picture of the Week titled: Sand Blast

With a sandstorm blowing behind him, Defense Secretary Robert Gates greets a reporter on his way to a television interview at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

Show must go on.

Filed under: Picture of the Week , blast, iraq, sand, USA

Tips for driving in Europe

Adapted from article by Peter Mandel – Budget Travel

 

You must pay to enter London, England's congestion zone on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m

A more unified Europe has made it simpler to go from one country into another. Driving on the continent, however, remains a challenge because of inconsistent traffic laws and road signs. We asked representatives of several rental-car companies about little-known rules and conventions that visitors should know before hitting the road in Europe.

United Kingdom
• On weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., London charges a fee to enter the city’s congestion zone, which is marked with signs showing a white C in a red circle.

The charge may be included in the cost of your rental car, so ask. Otherwise, you can pay online (cclondon.com) or at stores, gas stations, and newsstands where you see the congestion logo. Your car’s license-plate number is then registered in an electronic database. Cameras take pictures of your plate when you enter the zone, and a computer system checks the database to make sure you’ve paid.

• In rural Scotland, watch for Highland cattle that like to lie on sun-warmed roads after dark. See European traffic signs and learn their meanings

France
• Children under 10 are prohibited from riding up front — they must be buckled up in the backseat.

Germany
• Obstructing traffic on the autobahn is against the law — so running out of gas is not only dangerous, it can get you fined.

• You’re required to use low-beam headlights if it’s overcast, raining, or snowing.

Italy
• Only local traffic is permitted during certain hours in the historic centers of many Italian cities. White signs with an open red circle and the times that traffic is restricted mark the entrances to the zones. If your hotel is in one of these areas, ask the concierge to register your license-plate number with the local authorities. Cameras take pictures of the plates when cars enter the zones, and a computer system tracks down vehicles that aren’t registered. Violators are fined.

• On roads too narrow for two vehicles, the larger one has the right-of-way.

Spain
• You must put on a reflective safety vest any time you get out of your car on the sides of highways or unlit roads. Most rental-car companies provide one in the trunk, but you should check before leaving the agency.

• People who wear eyeglasses are required by law to have a spare pair in the car. 

Filed under: Travel , driving, Europe, Tips

The Evolution of the College Dorm

Adapted from Time.com

Before the information superhighway, schools were built around massive libraries, like the 400-year-old Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, above, in Britain. Early dorms were imposing, monastic structures meant to separate students from the outside world, providing more privacy for classes and introspection. This concept of the Ivory Tower lasted for decades. “If you look at the dorms of the Harvard Yard, the windows and doors are all on the yard side,” says Jonathan Zimmerman, director of the New York University’s History of Education Program. “Basically, what you see from the outside is a wall.”

Student Seclusion

In the 1940s, with most of the country’s college-age men serving in World War II, more women began applying to universities — and getting accepted. Female-only dorms were erected, and if early rules for male students seemed harsh, the university guidelines for female co-eds were draconian. Women were not allowed in male dorm rooms at any time, and curfews continued to dictate their movements around campus until well into the 1960s. But students found creative ways to skirt these restrictions; some sent messages to the opposite sex via Morse Code in the form of flashing lights across campus, like the young lady pictured here

Dorm Espionage

As student activism spread across campuses in the late 1960s, female students began protesting gender segregation — not only in the dorms, but at schools in general. Women at Barnard College in Manhattan, the sister school to Columbia University, staged several protests called “bed-ins” to demand equal access to education. (Despite the protests, Columbia continued to deny female students until 1983.)

Bed-In

Gradually, colleges began offering unisex residence halls, where men and women could mingle freely. Some schools, including Brown, Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania, have taken the trend even further, offering unisex rooms and bathrooms.

 

Hallway Hullaballoo

 While state and federal funding dwindles and demand for college degrees continues to rise, tuition rates have soared — as has the need for better amenities to justify the higher expense. From 1995 to 2004, just 17% of the 113 residence halls constructed on college campuses were traditional dorms, according to the Association of College and University Housing Officers International; the vast majority were apartment-style suites. This fireplace, at the newly opened Vista del Campo Norte dormitory at the University of California at Irvine, was built by American Campus Communities, one of the nation’s largest student-housing developers.

 

More Buck, More Bang

American Campus Communities surveys students each year to find out what they like. Since 1996, ACC has developed more than $1.5 billion in properties for university clients, and has acquired in excess of $2 billion in student-housing assets. Some critics argue such grand accommodations distract students from college’s real purpose. “The undergraduate university experience should be about getting kids to answer the basic question, ‘What is a life worth living?’” argues Jonathan Zimmerman, director of New York University’s History of Education Program. “By making all these lovely things for the kids, we’re answering that question for them.” Rutgers University’s $55 million Rockoff Dorm features a Coldstone Creamery, a 7/11 and a state-of-the-art gym; residents also enjoy grocery delivery, room cleaning and laundry services. One hitch: Rockoff is only open to juniors and seniors. “If you have all the things you need in your own unit, you never go outside,” says Joan Carbone, Executive Director of Residence Life at Rutgers, who believes traditional dorms offer the best environment for freshmen interaction. And while some schools use high-end housing to draw prospective freshmen, Carbone says Rutger’s academic record is appealing enough: “We don’t have to go into the arms race to attract students.”

 

Rec at Rockoff

But, not everyone agrees with the luxury-dorm fad. At Berea College in Kentucky, school administrators have adopted a unique approach to the problem of strangled budgets and coddled kids: Dorms are furnished by the college crafts workshops, cafeteria food is provided by the school’s farm, and students are required to work 10 hours a week in various campus jobs. “It’s about identity and the culture you want to develop,” says Gus Gerassimides, the college’s assistant vice president for student life. “Ultimately every community has choices to make. It’s who you choose to be.”

 

Bucking the Trend

Filed under: Great , college dorm, dorm, evolution, new, old, students, the evolution

The Good Book Goes Green, With Scriptures for the Prius Age

by DAVID VAN BIEMA 

Green runs through the Bible like a vine. There are the Garden and Noah’s olive branch. The oaks under which Abraham met with angels. The “tree standing by the waterside” in Psalms. And there is Jesus, the self-proclaimed “true vine,” who describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a mustard seed that grows into a tree “where birds can nest.” He dies on a cross of wood, and when he rises Mary Magdalene mistakes him for a gardener.

Now there is a Bible trying to make gardeners of us all. On Oct. 7, HarperCollins is releasing The Green Bible, a Scripture for the Prius age that calls attention to more than 1,000 verses related to nature by printing them in a pleasant shade of forest green, much as red-letter editions of the Bible encrimson the words of Jesus. The new version’s message, states an introduction by Evangelical eco-activist J. Matthew Sleeth, is that “creation care”–the Christian catchphrase for nature conservancy–”is at the very core of our Christian walk.”

Using recycled paper with soy-based ink, The Green Bible includes supplementary writings by, among others, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope John Paul II, Desmond Tutu and Anglican bishop N.T. Wright. Several of these essays cite the Genesis verse in which God gives humanity “dominion” over the earth, a charge most religious greens read to mean “stewardship.” Others assert that eco-neglect violates Jesus’ call to care for the least among us: it is the poor who inhabit the floodplains.

Not all buy creation care’s centrality. Says Southern Baptist leader Richard Land: “Sure it’s important, but when they asked Jesus what was most important, he said, ‘Love your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ He didn’t say anything about creation.”

But Land is fighting the tide. Mainline Protestants have long been green, and a Pew Foundation study recently found that 54% of Evangelicals–and 63% of those ages 18 to 29–agreed that “stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.”

There is one catch. The conservative Christians who drive Bible sales don’t tend to favor the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) used in The Green Bible. Yet publisher Mark Tauber thinks green Evangelicals will leap the NRSV fire wall. He adds cheerfully: “I wouldn’t be surprised if you see so-called big Bible publishers come out with a green edition.” If you want to grow a biblical tree where birds can nest, this is a good way to start.

Filed under: Environment , bible, Environment, green book

High and Dry

Named after a “Pictures of the Week” Column in Time Magazine, a van sits atop a platform in the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway near Lafayette, Louisiana, a day after Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast. Seems like its really a worth saving car. Nice picture

Filed under: Picture of the Week , Gulf Coast, Hurricane Gustav, Louisiana, Magazine, Time, Time Magazine, USA, Van

The See-Through You

 

Here is an article in The New York Times City Room, Sept 2, 2008, written by David W. Dunlap, titled “The See-Through Skyscraper”. 

“Transparency” is the architectural watchword of the era, almost guaranteed to appear in any reference to contemporary glass-clad towers.

But real buildings usually look a lot different than the clear plastic models and crystalline renderings shown at news conferences and ribbon cuttings.

Once in a while, however, when the light and the angles are just right, a skyscraper can come close to vanishing.

That happened last Thursday, when the 52 floors of 7 World Trade Center faded into the cloud-flecked blue of a late summer afternoon. Its masonry neighbors (140 West Street and 90 West Street) stood out in contrast.

Interesting isn’t? But the most enthralled me so much is “once in a while, when the light and the angles are just right, a skyscraper can come close to vanishing”. It reminds me of our human nature. “Sometimes” when the conditions is very okay or are just right, our identity, our character, our “self” can be evaporates or dissolves with our surroundings.

Be yourself whatever your condition force you. Godspeed.

Filed under: Great , be yourself, character, condition, dissolves, human nature, identity, surroundings, transparency, transparent, whatever, yourself

Solution to the world’s needs.

I think this article below worth our attention. It tells us to follow His example, to serve others. Especially in this world that full of extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one’s own talents and a craving for admiration. Enjoy

READ: John 13:3-16
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. —John 13:14

Research conducted by a leading compensation technology firm found that among employees planning to leave their companies, a majority felt they were underpaid. Fewer than 20 percent of them, however, were receivingless than the industry standard for their duties.

Bill Coleman, of Salary.com, believes that many unhappy workers are overtitled rather than underpaid. Some companies give employees lofty titles even though their job responsibilities have not increased. In time, employees feel they deserve more money than their actual duties merit. ”When it comes to salary,” Coleman says, “it’s what you do, not what you’re called, that counts.”

It’s interesting how Jesus dealt with the issue of titles and responsibilities. During the Last Supper, He performed the task of a lowly servant by washing His disciples’ feet, setting the stage for His astonishing statement about humility: “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:13-14).

Christ the Lord set the example for all who would follow Him, confirming that it’s not what we’re called, but what we do that counts.  — David C.Mc Casland

When Jesus took a servant’s towel—
His honor set aside—
He humbly showed us how to serve,
And how to conquer pride. —Sper

The more we serve Christ, the less we will serve self.

From: Our Daily Bread, September 1, 2008

Filed under: Daily Word , solution, servant, example, Jesus, self pride, wash, Lord, John, feet, research