Kaleidoscope

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.

Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated by Bruce Lee, who I knew by the movie 'Enter the Dragon'. His dynamic actions enthralled my heart. I found a quote by or paraphrased/used by Bruce Lee in Wikipedia.

Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.

I learnt that this quote could have been from J.Krishnamurty paraphrased by Lee. Yet, I started to wonder what would have been the thought foundation of Bruce Lee who has mastered his body and mind in such a way that they operate in so much unison ( those dynamic fight scenes!...how can one forget? )

Tracing Bruce Lee on Wikipedia, I found some more quotes by him or which inspired him. I have mentioned the ones that I liked below. Tribute to Bruce Lee and thanks to Wikipedia for the online collection of such good information.

To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to spend or waste, and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.

Time means a lot to me because, you see, I, too, am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing and simplifying. If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.

Life is better lived than conceptualized.

Cease negative mental chattering. — If you think a thing is impossible, you'll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no style at all. He lives only in what is.

You can read the rest and more at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee

We cannot think first and act afterward. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.

- Alfred North Whitehead

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.

- Anais Nin

Just as a flower, which seems beautiful has color but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of a man who speaks them but does them not.

- Dhammapada

We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.

- Harrold Nicolson

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

- Helen Keller

Tribute to all the authors for their timeless quotes of wisdom.

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

I was looking for some sample questions for an examination that I am preparing for. I found a website and there mentioned was a quote from Henry Ford.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

Very impressed by this, I googled for more of his quotes and found the below. Tribute to Ford. Thanks to brainyquotes.com for the online version of these quotes and wikipedia for the image.

Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas. 
 

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.

We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today.

You don't build a reputation on what you're going to do.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

Okie, Okay, Wokay, Okie Dokie

There are these many variations of OK that I know of. Curious, I googled to find about the origins of this word OK.

 Here below are some interesting information found, thanks to http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/ok

Some say it is derived from

* the Scots expression 'och aye', the Greek ola kala ('it is good'),

* the Choctaw Indian oke or okeh ('it is so'),

* the French aux Cayes ('from Cayes', a port in Haiti with a reputation for good rum)

*or au quai ('to the quay', as supposedly used by French-speaking dockers),

*or the initials of a railway freight agent called Obediah Kelly who is said to have written them on lading documents he had checked.

*The oldest written references to 'OK' result from its adoption as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'.

*During the late 1830s there had been a brief but widespread craze in the US for humorous misspellings, and the form orl korrekt which was among them could explain the initials 'OK'.

*This term could have been originated among slaves of West African origin, and represents a word meaning 'all right, yes indeed' in various West African languages.

* None of the above is conclusive, in terms of evidence.

OK? :-)

Thanks to Viktor Frankl and to brainyquotes.com for the online version of these quotes.

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.

Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.

Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.

I have heard from several sources that we use a miniscule portion of the brain and often references quoted that Einstein used a small portion ( comparatively higher than average human ).

Curious ,I googled and came across this site

http://www.enchantedmind.com/html/science/brain_capacity.html

to know that the author had not only the same doubt, but also has done some research to find out if such inferences are true.

The article is interesting and you may want to read it in full. It starts with Shakespeare's

"What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty,
in apprehension how like a god!."

I was looking to learn about the origin of stock exchanges / markets. I paid a visit to Wikipedia.

Some interesting Stats; Thanks to Wikipedia.

In 11th century France the courratiers de change were concerned with managing and regulating the debts of agricultural communities on behalf of the banks. As these men also traded in debts, they could be called the first brokers.

In the middle of the 13th century, Venetian bankers began to trade in government securities. There were people in Pisa, Verona, Genoa and Florence who also began trading in government securities during the 14th century.

h later started joint stock companies, which let shareholders invest in business ventures and get a share of their profits - or losses.

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company issued the first shares on the Amster

In 1688, the trading of stocks began on a stock exchange in London.

I started to wonder that we are still clinging to the same old ways of building wealth. This wonder does not mean any disrespect to the ancient set up. It is because of the monotonous adherence to the medium of exchange and representation of wealth till date.

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