Monday, September 30, 2013
SPACE
DON'T ASK WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS
I have recently found a phrase that I want to share with you today. It is “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and go and do that, because what the world needs is more people that have come alive.” When I first saw this phrase, I stared at it for awhile slightly confused. Don’t ask what the world needs — that’s a strong statement, and at first seemed to contradict Rotary’s “Service above Self” philosophy. But then I realized the wisdom of asking people to find their real passion, and the power that unlocks. (click below to read more)
THE BOTTOM LINE
More than half of all U.S. homes sold last year and so far in 2013 were purchased with cash alone. Before the financial crisis, only 20 percent of homes sold were “all-cash sales.” The numbers reflect investors buying cheaper homes in hard-hit areas to rent out.
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
TODAY IN HISTORY
September 30
| 1399 | Richard II is deposed. | |
| 1568 | Eric XIV, king of Sweden, is deposed after showing signs of madness. | |
| 1630 | John Billington, one of the original pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, becomes the first man executed in the English colonies. He is hanged for having shot another man during a quarrel | |
| 1703 | The French, at Hochstadt in the War of the Spanish Succession, suffer only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. | |
| 1791 | Mozart's opera The Magic Flute is performed for the first time in Vienna | |
| 1846 | The first anesthetized tooth extraction is performed by Dr. William Morton in Charleston, Massachusetts. | |
| 1864 | Confederate troops fail to retake Fort Harrison from the Union forces during the siege of Petersburg. | |
| 1911 | Italy declares war on Turkey over control of Tripoli. | |
| 1918 | Bulgaria pulls out of World War I. | |
| 1927 | Babe Ruth hits his 60th homerun of the season off Tom Zachary in Yankee Stadium, New York City. | |
| 1935 | George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess opens at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. | |
| 1938 | Under German threats of war, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign an accord permitting Germany to take control of Sudetenland–a region of Czechoslovakia inhabited by a German-speaking minority. | |
| 1939 | The French Army is called back into France from its invasion of Germany. The attack, code named Operation Saar, only penetrated five miles. | |
| 1943 | The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps becomes the Women's Army Corps, a regular contingent of the U.S. Army with the same status as other army service corps. | |
| 1949 | The Berlin Airlift is officially halted after 277,264 flights. | |
| 1950 | U.N. forces cross the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea as they pursue the retreating North Korean Army. | |
| 1954 | The first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus, is commissioned in Groton, Connecticut. | |
| 1954 | NATO nations agree to arm and admit West Germany. | |
| 1955 | Actor and teen idol James Dean is killed in a car crash while driving his Porsche on his way to enter it into a race in Salinas, California. | |
| 1960 | Fifteen African nations are admitted to the United Nations. | |
| 1962 | U.S. Marshals escort James H. Meredith into the University of Mississippi; two die in the mob violence that follows. | |
| 1965 | President Lyndon Johnson signs legislation that establishes the National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities. |
THE FIRST WORD
kamikaze
PRONUNCIATION:
(kah-mi-KAH-zee) 
MEANING:
noun: Someone who behaves in a reckless, self-destructive manner.
adjective: Extremely reckless, potentially self-destructive.
adjective: Extremely reckless, potentially self-destructive.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Japanese kamikaze (divine wind), from kami (god, divinity) + kaze (wind). Earliest documented use: 1896.
NOTES:
In Japanese folklore, kamikaze was the divine wind that destroyed a Mongol invasion fleet under Kublai Khan. In World War II, the kamikaze were suicidal attacks by Japanese pilots who crashed their planes on an enemy target such as a ship.
USAGE:
"We're traveling along busy, multilane roads, and the kamikaze driving makes me glad that I'm not behind the handlebars. Romans drive as though they're playing a video game: They're fast and aggressive, taking turns as if they're in Super Mario Kart -- and the winner is the one reaching the next traffic light first."
Kelly DiNardo; Roam in Today's Chariot; The Washington Post; Aug 4, 2013.
Kelly DiNardo; Roam in Today's Chariot; The Washington Post; Aug 4, 2013.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
NET ADDICTION
A psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania has launched a 10-day inpatient treatment program for people with severe Internet addiction, the first of its kind in the U.S. Dr. Kimberly Young, the psychologist behind the nonprofit program, says that Internet addiction is “more pervasive than alcoholism.”
FoxNews.com
FoxNews.com
CHARITY OF THE WEEK
Since its founding in 1934, the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) has spent more than any other organization to foster poets at all stages of their careers, and to promote a broad appreciation of contemporary poetry. It administers an array of poetry awards, from the annual Wallace Stevens Award for lifetime poetic achievement—awarded last week to Philip Levine—to student prizes at more than 200 colleges and universities across the country. The Academy’s substantial online resources include free poetry lesson plans for high school teachers and an audio archive of live poetry readings and other events over the last 50 years. It sponsors National Poetry Month every April, and its award-winning website offers access to 2,500 poems, searchable by poet, occasion, and theme.
The charity has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which rates not-for-profit organizations on the strength of their finances, their control of administrative and fundraising expenses, and the transparency of their operations. Four stars is the group’s highest rating.
PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE
Louann Giambattista, 55, a 33-year-veteran American Airlines flight attendant, filed a lawsuit against the company in July alleging that it had subjected her to baseless hassles because of co-workers' accusations that, argued her attorney, were wrongly "making her out to be a nut." One of the accusations was that she was "hiding rats in her underwear (and pantyhose) and sneaking them onto planes" based apparently on Giambattista's hobby of raising pets at home. The airline has allegedly subjected her to enhanced security measures for more than a year, allegedly causing her post-traumatic stress disorder and "debilitating anxiety." [New York Post, 7-7-2013]
TODAY IN HISTORY
September 29
| 1197 | Emperor Henry VI dies in Messina, Sicily. | |
| 1399 | Richard II of England is deposed. His cousin, Henry of Lancaster, declares himself king under the name Henry IV. | |
| 1493 | Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain, on his second voyage to the new world. | |
| 1513 | Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean. | |
| 1789 | Congress votes to create a U.S. army. | |
| 1833 | A civil war breaks out in Spain between Carlisists, who believe Don Carlos deserves the throne, and supporters of Queen Isabella. | |
| 1850 | Mormon leader Brigham Young is named the first governor of the Utah Territory. | |
| 1864 | Union troops capture the Confederate Fort Harrison, outside Petersburg, Virginia. | |
| 1879 | Dissatisfied Ute Indians kill Agent Nathan Meeker and nine others in the "Meeker Massacre." | |
| 1932 | A five-day work week is established for General Motors workers. | |
| 1939 | Germany and the Soviet Union reach an agreement on the division of Poland. | |
| 1941 | 30,000 Jews are gunned down in Kiev when Henrich Himmler sends four strike squads to exterminate Soviet Jewish civilians and other "undesirables." | |
| 1943 | Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf is published in the United States. | |
| 1950 | General Douglas MacArthur officially returns Seoul, South Korea, to President Syngman Rhee. |
Saturday, September 28, 2013
AN EDUCATION VIA LISTENING
By Susan Meskis, RN, member of the Rotary Club of Fishers, Indiana, USA, and leader of a vocational training team to Tanzania
After a year of planning and with much anticipation, I set out for Tanzania, Africa, as part of a vocational training team (VTT) comprised of nurses to share my expertise in nursing education with the faculty at Aga Khan University’s (AKU) School of Nursing. We had built a curriculum, created slides and documents, and spent many hours fine-tuningour presentations. We were prepared, and ready for adventure. But things sometimes don’t turn out the way you expect. (click below to read more)
YOUR NEXT HOUSE
TODAY IN HISTORY
September 28
| 48 BC | On landing in Egypt, Pompey is murdered on the orders of Ptolemy. | |
| 855 | The Emperor Lothar dies in Gaul, and his kingdom is divided between his three sons. | |
| 1066 | William, Duke of Normandy, soon to be known as William the Conqueror invades England. | |
| 1106 | King Henry of England defeats his brother Robert at the Battle of Tinchebrai and reunites England and Normandy. | |
| 1238 | James of Aragon retakes Valencia, Spain, from the Arabs. | |
| 1607 | Samuel de Champlain and his colonists return to France from Port Royal Nova Scotia. | |
| 1794 | The Anglo-Russian-Austrian Alliance of St. Petersburg, which is directed against France, is signed. | |
| 1864 | Union General William Rosecrans blames his defeat at Chickamauga on two of his subordinate generals. They are later exonerated by a court of inquiry. | |
| 1874 | Colonel Ronald Mackenzie raids a war camp of Comanche and Kiowa at the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, slaughtering 2,000 of their horses. | |
| 1904 | A woman is placed under arrest for smoking a cigarette on New York's Fifth Avenue. | |
| 1912 | W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues" is published. | |
| 1913 | Race riots in Harriston, Mississippi, kill 10 people. | |
| 1924 | Three U.S. Army aircraft arrive in Seattle, Washington after completing a 22 day round-the-world flight. | |
| 1959 | Explorer VI, the U.S. satellite, takes the first video pictures of earth. |
THE FIRST WORD
factotum
PRONUNCIATION:
(fak-TOH-tuhm)
MEANING:
noun: A servant or a low-level employee tasked with many things.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin factotum, from facere (to do) + totus (all). Earliest documented use: 1573.
USAGE:
"Now, a reporter trying to interview a business source is confronted by a phalanx of factotums."
David Carr; The Puppetry of Quotation Approval; The New York Times; Sep 16, 2012.
David Carr; The Puppetry of Quotation Approval; The New York Times; Sep 16, 2012.
Friday, September 27, 2013
ODD, BUT...
It’s “gross, but great for minimally invasive surgery,” said Shaunacy Ferro in PopSci.com. A neurosurgeon at the University of Maryland School of Medicine is developing robotic “maggots” that could “eat away at a brain tumor from the inside,” using an electrocautery tool. The remote-controlled robo-maggots could be a big help to brain surgeons, who need MRI machines to distinguish between healthy and tumor tissue during surgery. “You can’t exactly do a full brain surgery on someone when they’re locked away in a cramped scanner.” The big challenge is finding a way to control the maggots without an electromagnetic motor, which would “interfere with the magnetic field that’s integral” to an MRI’s imaging process. The latest prototype, now being tested on pig and human cadavers, uses a system of pulleys and springs to navigate the brain.
REAL FRIENDSHIP
THE BOTTOM LINE
Women in financial services make up 54 percent of the industry’s labor force, 16 percent of senior executives, and 19 percent of board directors—but there are no female CEOs in Fortune 500 finance companies.
Qz.com
Qz.com
TODAY IN HISTORY
September 27
| 1540 | The Society of Jesus, a religious order under Ignatius Loyola, is approved by the Pope. | |
| 1669 | The island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea falls to the Ottoman Turks after a 21-year siege. | |
| 1791 | Jews in France are granted French citizenship. | |
| 1864 | Confederate guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson and his henchmen, including a teenage Jesse James, massacre 20 unarmed Union soldiers at Centralia, Missouri. The event becomes known as the Centralia Massacre. | |
| 1869 | Wild Bill Hickok, sheriff of Hays City, Kan., shoots down Samuel Strawhim, a drunken teamster causing trouble. | |
| 1916 | Constance of Greece declares war on Bulgaria. | |
| 1918 | President Woodrow Wilson opens his fourth Liberty Loan campaign to support men and machines for World War I. | |
| 1920 | Eight Chicago White Sox players are charged with fixing the 1919 World Series. | |
| 1939 | Germany occupies Warsaw as Poland falls to Germany and the Soviet Union. | |
| 1942 | Australian forces defeat the Japanese on New Guinea in the South Pacific. | |
| 1944 | Thousands of British troops are killed as German forces rebuff their massive effort to capture the Arnhem Bridge across the Rhine River in Holland. | |
| 1950 | U.S. Army and Marine troops liberate Seoul, South Korea. | |
| 1956 | The U.S. Air Force Bell X-2, the world's fastest and highest-flying plane, crashes, killing the test pilot. | |
| 1964 | The Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, issues its report, stating its conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman. | |
| 1979 | US Congress approves Department of Education as the 13th agency in the US Cabinet. | |
| 1983 | Sukhumi massacre: Abkhaz separatist forces and their allies commit widespread atrocities against the civilian population in the USSR state of Georgia. | |
| 1996 | The Taliban capture Afghanistan's capital city, Kabul. | |
| 2003 | European Space Agency launches SMART-1 satellite to orbit the moon. | |
| 2007 | NASA launches Dawn probe to explore and study the two larges objects of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. | |
| 2008 | Shai Shigang becomes the first Chinese to walk in space; he was part of the Shenzhou 7crew. |
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