The only comparison you should make →

Published September 7, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 7  ·  

Now, I am not saying this to downplay their hard work to get to where they are; I don’t want you saying things like, “I don’t have their genetics or resources, so why even bother?”

Instead, I want you to know that there will ALWAYS be somebody leaner, bigger, faster, or stronger than you. There will always be somebody who’s younger, better looking, and had more success than you. Until you learn to accept that, you’ll never be truly happy.

~ Steve Kamb from, The ONE Comparison You Should Make Today | Nerd Fitness

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NASA probe launching tonight 11:27pm eastern time →

Published September 6, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 6

LADEEAt 11:27pm eastern tonight, NASA is launching a car-size probe named LADEE to the moon. They’re using a new launch facility at Wallops Island in Viriginia. About 85 million people on the east coast might be able to see it. Go outside at 11:20 and look towards Virginia… :)

For more details, see 85 Million Have A Shot At Seeing Tonight’s Moon Launch

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Contentment →

Published September 5, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 5

And while many might say, “Sure, you can say that now that you’ve reached a certain level of success,” I think that’s wrong. Many people who achieve success don’t find contentment, and are always driven to want more, and are unhappy with themselves. Many people who are poor or don’t have a “successful” career have also found contentment. And what’s more, I think finding contentment has actually driven any success that I’ve found — it helped me get out of debt, it helped me change my habits, it has made me a better husband, father, friend and collaborator, perhaps even a better writer.

~ Leo Babauta from, A Guide to Practical Contentment – Zen Habits Website

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Our energy predicament in charts →

Published September 3, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 3

There is considerable evidence that we are already reaching the situation where governments are encountering financial distress of the type shown in Figure 18. With wages being depressing in recent years (Figure 16), it is difficult to collect as much taxes as required. At the same time, expenses are elevated to handle the many issues that arise (such as payments to the unemployed, subsidies for alternative energy, and the higher costs of road repairs due to higher asphalt costs). The big gap between revenue and expense makes it hard to fix our current financial predicament, and increases the likelihood of political problems.

~ Gail Tverberg from, Our Energy Predicament in Charts

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Self-confidence →

Published September 2, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 2  ·  

The quickest way to self-confidence is to do exactly what you are afraid to do.

~ unknown

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Absorb what is useful →

Published September 1, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 1  ·  

Because of styles, people are separated. Research your own experience, absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.

~ Bruce Lee

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Cult of self esteem? →

Published August 30, 2013  ·  All posts on Aug 30  ·  

In addition to disparaging routine labor, these films discount the hard work that enables individuals to reach the top of their professions. Turbo and Dusty don’t need to hone their craft for years in minor-league circuits like their racing peers presumably did. It’s enough for them simply to show up with no experience at the world’s most competitive races, dig deep within themselves, and out-believe their opponents. They are, in many ways, the perfect role models for a generation weaned on instant gratification.

~ Luke Epplin from, You Can Do Anything: Must Every Kids’ Movie Reinforce the Cult of Self-Esteem? – The Atlantic

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Here we go, again? →

Published August 29, 2013  ·  All posts on Aug 29

The authors of the Constitution were explicit on this point. As James Madison noted, “In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. . . . Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges whether a war ought to be commenced, continued, or concluded.” Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist that there was a clear distinction between the U.S. president’s authority as commander-in-chief, which involved “nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces” and that of the British king, who could declare war unilaterally.

~ John Fund from, Obama Embraces the Imperial Presidency | National Review

To which I will add that the quote from James Madison is not taken out of context. You can read it for yourself, in letter number 4 of his “Letters of Helvidius.

You can also learn a metric ton of useful stuff about our nation, it’s birth and our constitution by sitting down with a copy of The Federalist. Which is a series of essays by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison.

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Ranking and certifications →

Published August 28, 2013  ·  All posts on Aug 28

In what are called the “modern” Budo, such as Kendo, Aikido, Judo, Karatedo, and so on, ranks are based on the dan-kyu system. As far as most researchers can tell, the system was devised (or if not totally devised, then adapted and wildly popularized) by Kano Jigoro, the founder of Kodokan Judo.

~ Wayne Muromoto from, 9. Dan and Kyu…and You’re Welcome! – The Classic Budoka

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For whom the bell tolls →

Published August 26, 2013  ·  All posts on Aug 26  ·  

Meditation #17 By John Donne From Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1623), XVII:

Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris
(Now this bell, tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.)

Perchance, he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.

There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is.

The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that this occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another’s danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.