Can Bill Gates Make Friends?

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and world’s richest man
Set aside the magnificent irony of the Microsoft chief, whose company has more unhappy customers than any other in the world, since Microsoft has done little but create more new problems with each succeeding operating system beyond [...]

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Eventually The Mask Must Come Off

We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
Flattery has become an old fashioned word, but the concept is as fresh as ever. Today we call it “little white lies.”
Flattery means excessive or insincere [...]

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What Makes Us So Great?

Wonder is what sets us apart from other life forms. No other species wonders about the meaning of existence or the complexity of the universe or themselves.
- Herbert W. Boyer, co-founder of Genentech, Inc.
Are we really the only species that “wonders about the meaning of existence or the complexity of the universe” or ourselves?
In truth, [...]

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Where We Are Most Missing Out

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
- Carl Sandburg
Since this quote ranks right up there with motherhood and milk for babies as a bland head-nodder, let’s put [...]

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God Is Not Likely On Your Side

The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can’t change your mind, because God sure isn’t going to change His.
- Roger Ebert, film-critic (1942- )
For a being that most people acknowledge exists and agrees that no one knows anything about Him or can know anything about Him, there certainly [...]

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Do You Know Who’s Cheating You?

Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way.
- Jean Anouilh, playwright (1910-1987)
The word propaganda refers to information which is used to promote some cause, according to the dictionary. However, this meaning ignores the negative connotations of the word. [...]

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Ten Things Schools Don’t Want Parents to Know

Schools have a mystique about them among many parents because teachers accomplish things with children that non-educators can’t fathom or even grasp the degree of their influence on their children. Teachers, some believe, have techniques and skills with which they work wonders on children, much as surgeons work mysterious wonders in an operating room.
In order [...]

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Why Having Fun Can Be Risky and Panic Inducing

The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work I can think of than taking myself off to somewhere pleasant, where I am forced to stay for hours and ‘have fun’.
- Phillip Lopate
The irony of this statement strikes everyone, but its significance may not. Going to the [...]

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Should Religions Be Able To Influence Governments?

A cult is a religion with no political power.
- Tom Wolfe
Hidden beneath this deceptively simple statement about religious cults is a much larger statement about religions in general. Religions do have political power.
More importantly, religions themselves have unelected leaders who have as much power over the constituents of their religious community as any elected political [...]

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Should Religions Be Able To Influence Governments?

A cult is a religion with no political power.
- Tom Wolfe
Hidden beneath this deceptively simple statement about religious cults is a much larger statement about religions in general. Religions do have political power.
More importantly, religions themselves have unelected leaders who have as much power over the constituents of their religious community as any elected political [...]

Read Full Post »