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I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

  - Helen Keller

The heights by great men reached and kept / Were not attained by sudden flight, / But they, while their companions slept, / Were toiling upward in the night.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing: -- "Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade.

- Rudyard Kipling

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

- Thomas Jefferson                                     

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

- - Vaclav Havel

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.

- Thomas Alva Edison

Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.

 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tribute to the authors, for living their quotes and leaving it to us to use.

Thanks to www.wisdomquotes.com for the online version of the quotes.

Thanks to www.afb.org for the image of Helen Keller. Thanks to Wikpedia for all other images.

I was preparing for an exam, where I came across a Japanese theory on Quality. The author, an american, appreciated how the Japanese looked at quality as incremental, doable ( realistic ) improvements.

Intrigued by that theory, I googled for 'Rebuilding of Japan'. How could they have re-build the country?

I came across http://www.lib.umd.edu/prange/html/exhibit/censorship.jsp

Interesting site with concise information on the post war Japan. You may want to read. 

I was surprised to learn about Einstein's insights into life. Having memorized procedures in my school's science lab and executed them, no wonder I thought scientists to be machine minded, when I was young :-) 

I came across a beautiful, insightful essay by Einstein, thanks to one of my friends. The title of the essay is 'The world as I see it'. Here below is an excerpt of that essay. 

The complete essay can be read at http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm.

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it,
but what they become by it.
-  John Ruskin

Opportunity is missed by most people because
it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
-  Thomas A. Edison

No race can prosper until it learns there is as much dignity
in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
-  Booker T. Washington

Work is love made visible.
- Khalil Gibran

Monotony is the law of nature.   Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises. 
The monotony of necessary occupations is exhilarating and life-giving.
-  Mahatma Gandhi

Rabindranath Tagore, known for his thinking and a new way of education touched several hearts by his timeless work. This poetry, that I post for the second time in this blog has been a nourisher for me whenever needed. The highlighted lines are my favorite. Tribute to Tagore.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection:
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rumi's poetry continue to amaze me. His poems are simple and also eloquent.

The stars will be watching us,

and we will show them

what it is to be a thin crescent moon.

These words from one of his verse ' A moment of happiness'

The complete poem can be read at www.khamush.com

The poems also carry a spiritual touch along with concepts we think are known to us such as Love.

Happy Reading! Thanks to Rumi and www.khamush.com

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.
 

All that glisters is not gold.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!

To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy.

Watching an episode in Star Trek - Voyager named 'Fair Trade', I started thinking about the origins of Trade.

Trade seem to have originated with the start of communication, 150,000 years ago.

An interesting account with rest details can be read at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade

Thanks to Wikipedia.

Inventor, Mathematical Physicist and a Businessman - what a combination he is! He is John Vincent Atanasoff who was born on 4 October 1903 in Hamilton, New York.

He started studying college algebra book that belonged to his father at age 10, with the help of his mother. He was a straight A's student in his graduation.

He was always interested in finding new ways to perform mathematical computations faster. Dr. Atanasoff examined many devices that existed at his time and concluded that a 'digital' device would be much faster than the available 'analog' devices.

In December 1939, the first prototype of the Atanasoff Berry Computer ( ABC ) was ready.

But only in 1972, Dr. Atanasoff was given the recognition he deserved, as patenting was such a slow process and another fellow Dr. patented his invention which was based on the ideas of Dr. Atanasoff. This recognition seemed to have been hard fought, through a trial.

Tribute to him for what he has paved way for! Thanks to http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/do_Atanasoff.html for the information and image. A further informative presentation on his life can be read from the mentioned web page.

My friend who works with me is an aviation expert. Thanks to him, I learnt a new term "Stall". The term stimulated my interest that I looked up the meaning and description in Wikipedia.

 "a stall in an aircraft is an event that causes the aircraft to lose altitude suddenly".

While it can happen for many reasons, this terminology is used in reference to a phenomenon where the wings stall, when the angle that the wings form when they open up against the air flow passes a critical angle ( this is also called angle of attack - AOA ).

It may seem very complicated to maintain an angle lesser than AOA during several manaeuvering actions; but in reality it is made easy, thanks to the technological advancements that help a closely accurate measurement of the aircraft behavior.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information and the image.

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