The “World Famous” Lipizanner Stallions galloped into the Hershey Centre in Mississauga this weekend to parade these majestic equestrians.
Carrots, Eggs and Coffee
Got this email forward from my friend Kevin. I loved the inspirational story.
Carrots, Eggs and Coffee
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each over a high flame. Soon, the pots came to the boil. In the first, she placed carrots; In the second, she placed eggs; In the third, she placed ground coffee beans. She let them boil without saying a word.
Twenty minutes later, she turned off the burners. She removed the carrots from the first pot and placed them into a bowl. She spooned the eggs from the second pot and placed them into a second bowl. Following that, she poured coffee from the third pot into another bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see?â€
“Carrots, eggs and coffee,†the daughter replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After peeling away the shell, she held a hard-boiled egg in her hand. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she smelled the aroma and tasted its rich flavour. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?â€
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each had reacted differently. The carrot went in strong and firm. However, although it looked the same, it had softened and become weak. The egg had been quite fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its fluid, liquid interior. Although it, too, looked the same, its inside had become toughened and hardened. But, the ground coffee beans were not changed by the boiling water. They had, in fact, changed the water.
“Which are you?†she asked her daughter. “When problems present themselves, when difficulties arise, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?â€
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that looks strong but, with pain and adversity, do I become soft and lose my strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart but changes with the heat? Do I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, do I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but, on the inside, am I bitter and tough with a hard-boiled spirit and heart?
Or, am I the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, the bean release its fragrance and flavour. When things are at their worst, do I get better? Do I change the situation around me? When the hour is darkest, the trials greatest, do I elevate myself to another level?
How do I handle adversity? Am I a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the most of everything; they just make the most of everything they have.
You cannot embrace the future until you let go of the past. Remember the past, yet remember it’s passed.
When you were born, you were crying while everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that, in the end, you’re the one who is smiling while everyone around you is crying.
As for me, it’s time for a coffee.
Mississauga Fire Chief Garry Morden Funeral
It was a sad day today in Mississauga as the fire chief was laid to rest. Fire Chief Garry Morden was a great guy and well respected. Mississauga lost one of it’s city leaders today.
Fortunately, they managed to bring him to the new fire training centre last month when they named it after him. At least he got to experience some of the recognition for his great contributions before he passed on.
Firemen are pretty emotionally strong people because of the things they see daily. I’m sure after all the loss, suffering, death that they see almost daily in their jobs, not very many things will move them to tears.
Yet, I heard the sniffling and the trying to hold back tears at times today from the city’s firemen.
Chief Morden was a great guy to command that kinda emotion.
Rest in peace Chief Morden!
A hot cuppa helps melt hearts?
“Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer — more generous and trusting — as well,” said John Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale University in Connecticut, whose research appears in the journal Science.
Warm sake anyone?
It also says in the article that it is not coincidence that Western cultures build relationships over coffee.
Imagine how much more interesting the situation will be with warm alcohol!
Buckypaper
Working with a material 10 times lighter than steel — but 250 times stronger — would be a dream come true for any engineer.
[...]
[It is] an extraordinary material known as “buckypaper,” has shown promise in a variety of applications, including the development of aerospace structures, the production of more-effective body armor and armored vehicles, and the construction of next-generation computer displays
This is pretty cool. Nano science is the stuff of science ficion. Buckypaper seems to be something that can revolutionalize the world.
Is ‘Joe the Plumber’ a plumber? That’s debatable. A Republican debacle.
the man who was held up by John McCain as the typical, hard-working American taxpayer isn’t really a licensed plumber. And court documents show he owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes.
The Associated Press: Is ‘Joe the Plumber’ a plumber? That’s debatable.
This is kinda funny. I was kinda bored so I watched the Presidential Debate while practicing guitar. I was all caught up on the Canadian side of things and thought it would be interested to view the US side.
All night long, McCain was talking about “Joe the Plumber” and it was getting pretty annoying. In fact, it seemed like something just to throw Obama off, especially when Obama was talking to “Joe the Plumber” as if just to indulge McCain and his imaginary friend.
Now it turns out, “Joe the Plumber”, isn’t the honest American citizen that deserves the nation’s pity for Obama’s financial/tax plan. According to the Associated Press, “Joe the Plumber” otherwise known as Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, is an illegal plumber and a tax evader.
Canadian Elections
“The price of success is hard work.”
I just posted that quote recently. Here is Liberal MP Paul Szabo, hours before the elections closed, going around looking for supporters who have not yet cast their votes and getting his office to call them to remind them to vote. His hard work paid off. He won his riding of Mississauga-South.
After making this post, I found this portion of an article on his victory written by Louie Rosella of the Mississauga News.
He was first elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal MP in 1993 and was re-elected in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2006. During his parliamentary career, he has introduced more than 40 Private Member bills and motions emphasizing health outcomes of children and taxation of the Canadian family and seniors. One of his initiatives successfully amended the criminal code to provide stiffer sentences for the abusers of women or children. His Bill C-204 to double maternity and parental leave employment insurance benefits to a full year was also adopted by the government.
Szabo has been active in government committees over the past 15 years.
From October 2004 to November 2005, he was vice chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. He is currently chair of the Ethics Committee.
Last year, Szabo was named the hardest-working MP in Ottawa. The selection, done by the polling firm Ipsos-Reid, is conducted by secret ballot among the nation’s MPs.
Exhausted MP savours narrow victory – The Mississauga News – Mississauga.com.
Wajid Khan accepts his defeat by Bonnie Crombie with dignity. He emphasizes what he has done for Mississauga. Truth be told, I think he was a good liason for the community to the Federal party.
Unfortunately, when we were doing street interviews, a large number of voters we sampled brought up their displeasure of Khan’s switching from Liberals to Conservatives after he had been elected. It seemed that people voted against Khan rather than for Crombie as they felt betrayed.
Who would you vote for? The party, or the most competent representative in your riding?
“I’m not a Liberal,” said Peter McCallion, son of Mayor Hazel McCallion. “But I wasn’t going to vote for someone who crossed the floor. I supported Bonnie.”
[...]
He [Khan] was also asked whether the outcome was based on the riding being a Liberal stronghold for the last 15 years or whether the voters made him pay the price for crossing the floor to join the Conservative Party in January, 2007, not long after winning the seat as a Liberal.
“The people voted and I accept the decision of the people,†he replied. “They made a decision and I respect their decision.â€
[...]
“I can say this: I served with pride and I served with dignity,†he told the gathering. “I’m really, really proud of what I was able to do for Mississauga, for Peel, and for my country.
Khan betrayed our trust, says Crombie – The Mississauga News – Mississauga.com.
A defeated Khan is consoled by one of his supporters.
A bonus picture. It looked like the light from the Moon had pushed the clouds aside to form a ring. It looks like a light halo from the picture, but when you look at the clouds, it looked like the clouds actually formed a circle rather than just reflecting light as a halo!
My courage bled out of me
Asking me to observe how “painless” a blood donation procedure is, a procedure that involves a huge needle, is not a positive way to convice me to give up my blood.
I covered a blood donor clinic today where the PR lady was trying to convice me to donate blood. I agree it’s a good cause. However, I am afraid of needles.
Throughout the first little while that I was there, I was trying to convice myself to do the valiant thing and help out the good cause.
Then they asked me to see how painless the procedure was. So I took a look. The needle looked HUMONGOUS. Forget it! They are NOT bringing that thing anywhere near my vein!
Finally the lady I went to cover had her turn up to donate blood.
“Show him how painless it is,” said the PR rep.
The phlebotomist then proceeded to suck the donor’s blood out of her.
“How does it feel?” asks the phlebotomist.
“Oh it a little weird,” responded the lady.
I notice her legs squirming.
“Is it painful?”
“No, it’s not”
Her legs keep squirming.
As you can see in the picture, the blood flow stopped. I actually took the picture when the blood flowed to that point to illustrate that the blood was flowing.
It was not however, too hard to time. The blood barely made it past that point.
Apparently her vein was too small and the blood was not flowing. After a while, they took the needle out of her right arm … and proceeded to stick it in the left. I had to leave for another job, but that must’ve sucked, especially for a first time donor.
By the way, if you’re in Mississauga and you’re of Chinese descent, go donate some blood next weekend on Chinese day at the donor clinic at Square One.
Donate an extra pint on my behalf please.
If the visit today taught me anything, I’m even more afraid of that huge needle they use!
An older gentleman that was present had donated blood almost 120 times. He’s been there every 56 days, the minimum limit in between blood donations to allow iron to build up in your blood.
I am ashamed to be afraid of the needle, while that guy, who walks with a cane, donates every 56 days. Still, I am not ashamed enough to allow that giant needle into my vein!
Does religion make people generous?
Evidence from self-reports suggests that devout people may be more altruistic than non-believers – but it could be that they care more about appearing to be selfless.
In some experimental situations, religious people also act more charitably and are more trusting of others. For instance, in an economic game where a “trustee” gives money to an “investor” who makes and divides a profit, religious pairs earned more money, presumably because of mutual trust. On the other hand, a “Good Samaritan” experiment found that religious people were no more likely to help a man lying on the sidewalk than non-believers.
Does religion make people generous? – Short Sharp Science – New Scientist.
I have said before that, while some religious people can be selfless, people who do things through a belief of religion aren’t necessarily so.
The reason for this: religious people do charitable deeds on earth so they can have a better afterlife.
Therefore, they are doing things for selfish gains.
Google’s Charity, At Your Expense
Google gets a bit more than that out of the deal. It gets thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of dollars of free publicity out of its sponsorship of the contest. That’s the sort of thing Google, as an advertising provider, knows and values. Were Google’s interest purely philanthropic, it could donate $10 million without announcing its generosity to the world.
But more subtly troubling is that Google’s insistence that contest participants part with their ideas without compensation echoes the company’s tradition of making use of people’s intellectual property without payment. What is Google’s index after all, not to mention YouTube, but a treasure trove made from words copied from copyrighted content? Those words might be worthless in isolation but they’re invaluable aggregated and indexed.
If you have a good idea, a really good idea, the sort of brilliant idea that might win Google’s contest — a way to produce a $0.01 straw that removes all impurities from contaminated water, for example — why give that valuable idea away when you could commercialize it? You could start a company to support your idea, provide jobs to people, and help humanity at the same time.
Google’s Charity, At Your Expense – Google Blog – InformationWeek.
There was a reply to my post about Google’s 10^100 project that brought this post to light. I would like to clarify a few things.
It is true that you will not make anything out of this idea. It is true that technically, Google will gain publicity from your idea.
However, that train of thought, in itself, makes you as bad as the picture the author paints of Google. If you have an idea that will save the world, and you’re thinking about making money out of it, then you are just “like Google” and trying to figure out how to profit from it.
If your idea can be implemented faster and reach further with Google’s support, would you not give it up? Or would you rather hold back from saving the rest of the world, so you can profit from it?
Would you slowly sell bits of your global warming averting services to companies seeking “carbon credits”, or would you give it freely so the whole planet avoids destruction?
Would you rather die that rich man, having profited from the world’s impending destruction, knowing that you your riches doomed countless generations, including your own?
Or would you rather die knowing you freely gave away technology that saved the generations to come and made the world “a better place for your children and grandchildren”?
Maybe if it were possible and your idea was well thought out, Google could actually employ you to consult on your own project.
Also, it would be interesting to see if Google patents the technology in their name, or in the name of humanity, and free in pertpetua to the world for humanity’s use. If this is the case, I would have no reservations with giving my idea freely, even if Google gains through publicity.
The politics of which one entity profits, always stalls the benefit for the greater good of the current people and generations to come.