General

Toot, Honk or Blast

As car drivers we all have that rare occasion to use our vehicles horn.
Sometimes to say hello  like an acoustic wave, sometimes to alert other drivers, to say watch out for others and sometimes to warn, threaten, shout at?
A Toot is a cheeky hello I can see you and is normally accompanied by a smile and a wave.
A Honk is a caring raised voice, to warn someone - be careful and stay safe.

Dog Years

I heard it mentioned recently that someone had referred to spending a Dog Year in a town. In essence they were saying they did not like it there and that time dragged.
It was this description that made me reflect on how we are all captive at times to our attitudes, how sometimes time seems to fly and at other times it seems to take forever.
So if a dog year is very roughly 7 human years (to use an approximate figure), how is it relevant if at all?

Images
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From Professor Charles Sampford

I glimpsed parts of a presentation recorded on A-PAC by Professor Sampford some time ago and it gave a definition to Dilema vs Temptation, to Lying, to Misleading, to Persuading.
Dilema = Principle 1  OR  Principle 2
Temptation = Principle  BUT  the alternative leads to Personal Gain.
Lying = using a False Statement to induce a False Belief
Misleading = using a True Statement to induce a False Belief
Persuading = using True Statements to induce a Belief in what you Believe.
 
John 1/6/11

Seth Godin's Blog

Something I always find interesting and stimulating is Seth Godin's Blog. Always thoughtful, it provides new insights into thinking about things and I find that it deals with a world that some people are already living in, some people are about to enter (willingly and unwillingly) and a world that is inevitiable.   
 

Lessons from the past

A book I have always skimmed through is 'Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' published by Bison Books Ltd in 1979 and again in 1990 & 1993.
In chapter 2 'Of the union and internal prosperity of the Roman Empire in the Age of the Antonines' there is a paragraph that has always stuck in my mind.
 ''... it was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption.

The Cape Horn Breed

A book I have enjoyed very much is 'The Cape Horn Breed' which was written by William H. S. Jones and first published in 1956 and then re published in 1999 by Australian Print Group. It relates the experiences of Mr Jones as an apprentice in sail on a Full-rigged sailing ship.
Extract from 'The Roaring Forties'