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Spiral UFO

They say it’s been quite a show – something weird shot into the sky, leaving a spiraling blue tail, and then “exploded” into a spiral pattern. From the video it does seem like it could have been a misfired rocket that went into a spin, and it’s perhaps the simplest explanation for the spiral pattern. But what a great source for conspiracy and UFO theories!

Continue reading »]]> Carrier pigeon beats DSL broadband (from BBC News, watch the video):

Broadband promised to unite the world with super-fast data delivery – but in South Africa it seems the web is still no faster than a humble pigeon.

A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest web firm, Telkom.

Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles – in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data.

Now, how funny is that?

Continue reading »]]> I recently received this fable in my inbox. If you know its original source, please let me know.

If you have difficulty understanding the current world financial situation, the following should help clear matters…

Once upon a time in a village in India, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ‘Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.’

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Welcome to WALL STREET…

Continue reading »]]> For years I’ve been fascinated by the ingenuity of rocket scientists and space navigators who came up with a brilliant idea that made long-distance interplanetary travel possible. For the benefit of the straight shooters, it is virtually impossible to deliver a space craft on chemical fuel alone anywhere further than Jupiter, and even that is a great challenge. That is, if you point your rocket right at the target and shoot – like they do in the military. Burn your fuel, accelerate that baby to the limit, and watch it fall short of the target. Such is physics. But these guys found a way out – swing by one of the planets nearby, and steal some of its energy! That’s how they shot Voyagers way out of the Solar System. That’s also how they saved the Galileo mission – by getting the spacecraft first to Venus (who would have thought!), then back to Earth, and even that was not enough – a couple of years later it fell right back towards the Mother Earth, swinging by a hair from its surface – and only after that it got enough speed to finally make its way to Jupiter. In their lingo it’s called gravity assist.

This may be the rocket science at its best, who knows… But this is also what sometimes happens in our lives. Each of us is destined to a particular destination, something we proudly call the life’s purpose. Whether we are aware of it or not, rarely we get to "point and shoot" to that target. More often, we go for a little detour around the block, get that degree, find that job, earn some cash, get proud of ourselves… And only after the close fly-by of what we thought our goal was we finally get this "gravity assist" that makes it possible to look back at what we’ve always been dreaming about, and turn our wheels (or wings, or solar panels – whatever) to that still distant but now reachable target. The circuitous path was not a distraction. It was a necessary step to get the momentum from where we were, with the resources we had.

Now, here’s the thing… The gravity assist can work both ways; it may give you a "steroid boost", or it may slow you down, and in fact, if you are not careful, may force you into a crash landing. The maneuver requires careful attention, knowing what you really want at that point (no more slacking and fooling yourself), flawless execution, and the ability to let go of that transitory target at the right moment. Because if you fail the test, no Jupiter for you, dear. You’ll be forever burning in hell of Venus. Talk about that midlife crisis… I’d rather be turning it into my personal gravity assist. The heavier it is, the better the sling shot. Who said rocket science is not for everyone?

So, what’s your story? What is / was your "gravity assist" in your own life? Please do share!

Technorati Tags: gravity assist, Venus, Jupiter, Galileo, Midlife Crisis

Continue reading »]]> The question of what the hell to do with fear has been explored for thousands of years, and will probably never die down – it is so very basic. Here’s a great post – by a woman (Surprise! Talk about who has balls these days!). Make sure you also read her previous post – to have a better context.

Fear is one big hairy feeling that may stop a wild beast frozen on its tracks, saying nothing about us, mere humans. It’s main function is to ensure immediate survival, hence anything that threatens security and stability may create fear. Now, guess what happens when you decide you’ve had enough of this boring life, and it’s time to shake things up a bit and go for your dream? Yep! Bang, here comes your fear knocking on your door. What are you going to do? Run away and hide, promising never to misbehave again? Freeze and wait till it, hopefully, goes away? (Like it ever will…) Open the door and face it? What’s your move?

Technorati Tags: balls, fear, survival, dreams

Continue reading »]]> Or Bloody Mary High on Beer

Scene #1 version 1.0: A dude walks in to the room full of friends in heavy-metal-laden T-shirt and jeans painted and torn with exquisite artistry to look like trash, casually throws his "worn" new leather jacket on a coffee table, yells "hey dudes and dudesses!", snatches a drink, starts going around, chatting, telling jokes, laughing loudly…

Scene #2 version 1.0: A well-dressed young man walks up to the podium in a boardroom, "Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and welcome to the meeting. It is my honor to present to you today…" His talk is eloquent, professional, his manners are well-schooled, and he radiates charisma and evokes professional respect from anyone who sees him.

Yes, it’s the same guy, I’m sure you’ve guess that one. Now, let’s have some fun, and make him act the same two roles in exactly the wrong places. Got the picture? So….

Scene #1 version 2.0: A well-dressed young man walks into the room full of friends drinking beer and gossiping, and proclaims, " Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and welcome to the meeting. It is my honor to present to you today…" [insert background laughter]. One friend laughs, "Hey, that was a cool one! Here, have a drink, boss! It’ll help."

Scene #2 version 2.0: A dude walks into the boardroom, casually throws his "worn" new leather jacket on a coffee table, exposing the heavy-metal-laden T-shirt and jeans painted and torn with exquisite artistry to look like trash, and yells "hey dudes and dudesses!" to the top-level execs in suits and ties… [background laugher, curtain falls, the show's over.] The ending is left as an exercise to the reader…

So, you think that’s silly, huh? Sure, but not as silly as actually doing it in real life. No, I’m not smoking anything, check it out for yourself. Let’s change the scene #1 to being a (stereo)typical boss, and the scene #2 to being an ideal spouse. Now, don’t tell me you never mixed those two up. Or how about a handyman who’s job never ends even in his friends house where everyone else is having fun – "oh, come on buddy, I know you can fix this little thing in no time, I’ll get you another drink if you do, will you?" And for the kicks, what happens when a psychoanalyst hears a confession of her close but yet unsuspecting friend? Oh, you should have seen those moments, they are just precious… And, of course, you never had a boyfriend or girlfriend who is (or thinks of themself as) a personal coach in everything in life and under the heaven, now have you? OK, that is usually not funny, trust me…

I only wish people would learn to ask a simple question – "what role am I playing now?" And, for extra credit, "what role do I want to play now?" The really smart ones might add "instead" to the last question. I hear that helps.

So, what’s your favorite cocktail of odd mixed-up contexts? Come on, share, let’s have a laugh together!

Technorati Tags: contexts, roles