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Kevin believes that Italy needs to invest in a new logo, promise and national campaign, and I'm excited by the appointment of Matteo Marzotto to the president of the Italian Government Tourist Board. He strikes me as the guy for the job... Italian Film Festival in Sydney was magical in 2008

Hungry Media Dragon Antony Loewenstein: Voice of the Dragons
During the recent war between Georgia and Russia, bloggers on both sides of the conflict provided searing accounts of atrocities and manoeuvres unseen by western journalists. In a country such as Russia the space for alternative and critical views are rare. The war showed an authoritarian regime's narrative being challenged by a handful of insiders and outsiders. The government-run media looked staid by comparison.

This was merely the latest example of bloggers beating mainstream journalists at their own game. Online media have exploded in western nations, challenging decades-old business models and forcing reporters to answer questions about their methods and sources. But in repressive states, blogs and websites have become essential sources of information on topics - from women's issues to sexual orientation, dating rituals to human rights - routinely shunned by channels for official propaganda.

• Blogging gives a voice to citizens around the world, but why do their views often go unheard in the west? Beating the western drum; [Best practices in implementing taxonomy for enterprise information management: developing a corporate taxonomy: ; Launched by the Hon Senator John Faulkner in September, the report, as released in October 2007, has now been published in book form.
whistleblowing in the Australian public sector - enhancing the theory and practice of internal witness management in public sector organisations Whistling while they work: ]
• · Imagine walking into a book store and knowing that even the most obscure or out of print books will always be in stock. Angus & Robertson today became the first Australian book chain to install the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), capable of printing, trimming and binding a paperback book on demand within minutes. It was dubbed an "ATM for books" by Time magazine, which last year named it one of the best inventions of the year. Print on demand with 'ATM for books'; pdf version ahead International study on the impact of copyright law on digital preservation
• · Helen Tatham, The concept of networking has been around a long time but senior executives are becoming savvier about schmoozing. A look at the trends in corporate networking Savvy about schmoozing ; Ambitious managers looking to make a mark need to work on their strengths and weaknesses to enhance their careers Manager's mark
• · · Eric Beecher The Sydney Morning Herald a Beecher: Gawenda's right, Fairfax ruined by incompetence and The Age did something quite rare on their op-ed pages today -- they published some rather tough criticism of their own newspapers by one of their former editors. Among the points they extracted from former Age editor Michael Gawenda's A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism, to be delivered tonight at Melbourne University, were these: Beecher: Gawenda's right, Fairfax ruined by incompetence; No guests at Sky Canberra... Naked journalism at The Age...
• · · · When Slammin' Sam Kekovich speaks people listen. It's why he's the face of Australia's Meat and Livestock marketing campaigns, an ESPN commentator and a favourite for sportsmens' nights and corporate speeches. So here at Crikey we were interested when we received the following email this morning of a speech allegedly made by Kekovich at the AFL's Centre Square Grand Final day event, which had been reported by Peter FitzSimons in the SMH: Being fooled by the internet -- you know it makes sense
• · · · · "The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw CEVERY Tuesday or Wednesday, the boss's foot soldiers would arrive, carrying $6000 in cash in a manila envelope, down the stairs to the airless basements of Sydney shopping centres. Cleaning ; AUSTRALIAN shopping centre giant Westfield will investigate allegations that illegal subcontracting of cleaning is rife in some of its shopping centres. Dirty Business
• · · · Corruption or compliance: weighing the costs - 10th global fraud survey, Ernst & Young, 2008, 28p. The survey, of nearly 1200 finance executives from companies in 33 countries, examines perceptions, occurrences and action against bribery and corruption, including cross border / 'governments outside home countries'. weighing the costs - 10th global fraud survey ; · · I have seen the future and it works,’ the American journalist Lincoln Steffens famously declared on returning from a visit to Russia nearly 90 years ago Cold River ; He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. By Winston Churchill

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Media Dragon was blogging since before there were blogs ;-)You can spend your time piping petroleum in protected public parks, peddling pro-life propaganda for unplanned pregnancies, and putting lipstick on pigs, polar bears, and police state politics. There are Chasers on War on Everything who provide poignant parodies of political party's predictable platforms and pathetic public policies
Despite what some graduates are told by executives during work experiences success is not everything. Once we learn to define failure as an opportunity to learn, instead of a reason to be ashamed, the better our lives will be. No shame in failing

Lessons From the Poor Turmoil sends US stocks tumbling
There can have been few weeks in the history of the global financial markets that have seen events of such magnitude as that we have just witnessed.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=137390

• Financial Frankenstein ; [Treasury Opens Vault; Gangs of Robbers Rush In,; Does Wall Street Have a Death Wish? ; Google on Stephen King’s Anatomy of Economic Meltdown ]
• · An enduring myth of economic development is that lifting poor countries out of poverty requires transfers of wealth from rich countries--usually through grants, cheap credit and subsidies. In a recent op-ed for Barron's, and based on his recent book Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa argues that government transfers have little to do with economic success. The dirt-poor ; Half the people in the world live on two dollars or less per day and roughly 600 million live on no more than one dollar per day. The Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit
• · Both McCain and Obama claim to promote "change." Skepticism comes not only from doubting their willingness to implement meaningful change, but also in their ability to do so. Change Congress, Urges Donald Downs: A New Congress Would be Change to Believe in; Political cartoons are a ubiquitous form of satire which assists the public to interpret political life How political, satirical cartoons illustrated Australia's workchoices debate
• · · In The Blogging Revolution Antony Loewenstein takes us on a personal journey through some of the more difficult places in the world to blog. Iran, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and China. Holidays in blogging hell; SOMETIMES language can obscure as much as it reveals, particularly when the world changes faster than our ability to create new vocabulary Before we criticise Media Dragons and bloggers, let’s define our terms
• · · · Malcolm is an iceberg swimmer and a character who even swam the Cold River - Malcolm Turnbull had no idea, as he was wafting home to Australia at the weekend from Venice, that within days he would be installed as Liberal leader. His own judgement, for once, was to go gently - to let Brendan Nelson's foundering leadership die a natural death, and not to push anything. But Nelson wasn't going to wait around for that ignominious end He took the plunge - and landed badly; Malcolm Turnbull could reshape the Liberal Party and, ultimately, Australia Turnbull the great contradiction ; Australia has never had a political leader quite like Malcolm Turnbull. The rise of Malcolm Turnbull ; The term poisoned chalice wasn’t coined for nothing;

• · · · · Like my surname, Malcolm Turnbull is a rich man. Estimates of his net worth range from $125 million to $140million, which easily makes him the wealthiest man in federal politics. In the vernacular, he is a silvertail, though most people know his wealth and influence came by dint of hard work and application rather than as a result of having been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Turnbull's Turn; Voters impressed by wealth of ideas ; Kerry Packer's ambitions for the Fairfax empire came unstuck with the sundering of his friendship with Malcolm Turnbull. FEW if any media issues in Australian history have provoked such a widespread and strong public response as Kerry Packer's 1991 bid to buy 14.99 per cent of Fairfax as part of the Tourang syndicate with the (now disgraced) Canadian press proprietor Conrad Black and the American private equity group, Hellman and Friedman. Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser had barely spoken to each other in the 16 years following the vice-regal dismissal of Whitlam’s government in November 1975, but in 1991, for the first time ever, they shared a political platform to oppose this threat of yet further media concentration. How Packer slipped on Fairfax - with help from Malcolm Turnbull
• · · · · · Without links, the Liberals are doomed Without ideas, the Liberals are doomed ; Google Does it better; Political links

CODA: Malcolm and I also love the BA Pool not just the icy berg - 100 YEARS SINCE "THE BOY" COMPETED IN THE OLYMPICS Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool

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The mill of the gods grinds slowly, they say, but it grinds exceeding small. In Washington, something very like the mill of the gods is the GAO (Government Accountability Office), whose anonymous researchers crank out facts about nearly everything the government does. Without opprobrious adjectives, the GAO just publishes facts and numbers with a droll combination of fearless frankness and resolute neutrality ("average cost of can opener for base kitchen in Kibangistan, $150," a report might say, its language primly denuded of words like "exorbitant" or "outrageous"). In a word—why pay taxes when you can buy politicians?

Who matters There comes a point in your life when you realize
LABOR'S Prague Spring is over. The election of a factionally unaligned Prime Minister who picked his own front bench rather than roll over for the party heavies was not, it turns out, a new dawn for Labor more widely.

Some saw the rise of Kevin Rudd as a tipping point, the equivalent of Tony Blair's Clause Four moment, when the political arm of Britain's Labour Party finally asserted its authority over the industrial arm.
How foolish we were to dream such dreams, for as the ugly events in NSW have shown this week, when party headquarters gives the order, the tanks come crashing through the gate

• My Two Decades At NSW Bear Pit reflected in one week of turmoil; [ SEEING the pitiful demise of the once all-powerful New South Wales Labor Right is like witnessing first hand the collapse of the Roman Booze, techno and undies ; TWO days before his surprise resignation, the former premier Morris Iemma confronted the right-wing faction leader Joe Tripodi, the man he had regarded as a key lieutenant, and accused him of betrayal NSW Bear Pit ; Google on NSW]
• · The decision to stand up and say ‘enough’ is rarely easy and too often carries heavy costs, Senator Faulkner said. We depend very much on whistleblowers to alert us to misconduct and malfeasance ; WHISTLEBLOWERS who expose major government fraud would be financially rewarded with a proportion of public funds recovered, under a radical scheme presented to the Rudd Government. Reward plan for major fraud whistleblowers
• · Former premier Morris Iemma has blamed his forced resignation on the Finance Minister and ALP numbers man Joe Tripodi.In an interview with the Herald last night he also urged his successor Nathan Rees to keep the North West Metro project because a metro system Iemma dumps on Tripodi and Costa ; THE jailed former Labor MP Milton Orkopoulos is adamant that the Premier, Nathan Rees, did not know about his involvement with teenage boys when working as his chief of staff, because he had been clever enough to fool even those closest to him Rees didn't know: Orkopoulos ; Mr O'Grady told The Sunday Telegraph: "Nathan raised the issue with me on at least two, if not three, occasions. I said to him: 'As someone who wants to be a [political] candidate, do you think that's an intelligent question to ask?' 'As someone who wants to be a [political] candidate
• · · Voters stuck it to the NSW government big time with the message that sacking an elected council is not on. Sending a message to Macquarie Street; THEY call her "the Grim" for short and Reba Meagher's haughtiness during a 14-year parliamentary career was up and running yesterday as she delivered one last raspberry to Nathan Rees, the man Labor chose to sweep up the mess she and others left behind. Grim Reba
• · · · Rare insight into the Bear Pit where I spent two decades serving outside the corridors of power. Some poker hands can never win. The NSW Labor Right and Sussex Street ALP headquarters dealt Nathan Rees such a hand. He made a Faustian deal to get the premiership, surrendering any chance of the fresh start he crowed about at his elevation eight days ago. The price of ambition fulfilled was to be stuck with the very powerbrokers and bit players who have besmirched the Government's standing. Losing Joe Tripodi, Eddie Obeid and Eric Roozendaal would have made a good start to a fresh start, but they remain entrenched as ever. The joker is wild ; Wood
• · · · · JUST after midday on Thursday, June 26, one of the most powerful media executives in Australia, John Westacott, caught a taxi to the NSW parliament to visit his state political reporter, Adam Walters.Westacott, the Nine Network's head of news and current affairs, had told Walters he wanted to see him for "a cup of tea". But when Westacott asked a cameraman to leave the room, Walters realised something was up. Westacott said yesterday that he wanted to visit Walters to give him a "tip" that the powers that be in the Labor Party were moving to replace premier Morris Iemma with Nathan Rees. The move was slated to happen in October. Walters sees it very differently. "Instead of getting the cup of tea all I got was a shit sandwich," he said this week. According to notes Walters took afterwards, Westacott told him that key people in the Labor Party "don't like us -- Channel Nine -- and they don't like you". It's not surprising some in the Government didn't like Walters. A story the journalist had broken the year before exposing a cover-up led to the resignation of police minister Carl Scully and earned him a Walkley nomination. He also did a sensitive story about Rees, then a Labor staffer, and Milton Orkopoulos, a minister now serving a 13-year jail sentence for child-sex and drug charges. Walters asked Westacott bluntly if he was talking about former Labor senator Graham Richardson and Labor identity Peter Barron? Secret deals behind Morris Iemma ousting ; POLITICS is a rough, tough, hard and brutal business
• · · · · · UK Spin doctor Adam Walters acts out career switch ; LORD ASHCROFT, deputy chairman of the Conservative party, has channelled money into party funds from the Central American tax haven of Belize, despite a ban on overseas donations Lord Ashcroft funds Tories from Belize tax haven

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Who amongst us has never unleashed some trivia at unsuspecting friends or family members? Could my daughter Gabbie be numero 3 (III) at the General Pants foto shoot competition. As the young teen, Gabbie and her sister Sasha used to beat all kinds of potential Olympic swimmers during the school competitions and now in their mid teens one is shooting at the stars with her peep hole while Alex is melting down music live venues such as the Kellet Street Melt bar

A couple of days ago I came across a list of what are supposed to be must-grab careers of the future. So here is my list which will win you praise, love, inspiration and the lifestyle of your dreams. Let’s start simple. The ability to tell stories has been admired since humans first gathered round a campfire. Now, with cultures merging and technology connecting everybody with anybody, storytelling will become even more highly sought after. Not everyone can do it well, but we all have a spark of the storyteller in us and it’s a skill to nurture. Where storyteller merges into mythmaker, that’s where the future lies. Creative Commons of Foto Magic

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Lucky Teen 13 ... Happy Birthday Godson OLEK - Military way for 15th September

History is a subject rich in insight for executive decision making and behaviour History does the executive suite ; Future - Leadership and Social Change: Making a Difference in the World

Hasta la Beijinsta True Patriotism at the Olympics
Becky Hammon, Liang Chow, and Kobe Bryant gave spectators of the Beijing Olympics something to remember besides athletic achievement. According to Independent Institute Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa, all three individuals exemplified the original meaning of the modern Olympic games--not collectivist nationalism, but universal fraternity. Vargas explains why in "True Patriotism," his latest column for the Washington Post Writers Group.

At a time when some critics see the United States as increasingly nationalistic, NBA star and U.S. Olympic basketball player Kobe Bryant gave European journalists interviews in Italian (which he learned growing up in Italy) and Spanish (which he learned from an L.A. Lakers teammate). An even more dramatic example of a universal, non-nationalistic ideal came from former the current U.S. women's gymnastics coach Liang Chow. This former Beijing resident helped Shawn Johnson win a gold medal on the balance beam and thereby taught the collectivist government in Beijing about the power of the individual. Vargas Llosa characterizes this lesson as more powerful than the protestors' attempts at demonstrating against repression in Tibet during the games.
And then there was the personal drama in women's basketball: Becky Hammon, who plays pro basketball for the San Antonio Silver Spurs but could not make the U.S. Olympic team, endured criticism from the U.S. women's coach for competing on the side of Russia. A traitor? asks Vargas Llosa. No, an heir to America's grandest tradition: the right to the pursuit of happiness.
Despite the best intentions of the Baron de Coubertin, the French aristocrat credited with reviving the Olympic Games in the 19th century, the international competition has as much to do with collectivist nationalism as it does with universal fraternity," continues Vargas Llosa. "Any individual act, however small, that tears down a nationalist barrier during the Olympics should be applauded as restoring the games' true meaning.

• True Patriots ; [ The Art and Science of Leadership; Right push for Turnbull-Abbott team How many effective leaders do we have in leadership positions? Death knell for a failed leadership ]
• · Political courage and leadership, not partisan finger-pointing and brinkmanship, are needed to navigate the current economic downturn InRICH: Brinkmanship Is No Substitute for Leadership ; NSW Labor was also in damage control after its dramatic leadership shake-up on Friday, which saw Morris Iemma's sudden exit as premier. THE State Government has scrapped laws requiring MPs to disclose the address of their homes and investment properties. New laws hide MPs' property assets
• · Back in 1999 the NSW Auditor General Tony Harris was concerned about the states having several books just like the Mafia or the black economy The States are in a State ; The NSW Labor government must now correct the last three years of neglect under Morris Iemma and his cabinet Rees: I'm in charge, not the factions; 'Underpants' minister loses job
• · · It is critical that leaders understand who they are and how their identity affects their capacity to communicate (and to collaborate). Leaders need to model the kind of communication that they view as critical to the success of their organisation The new leadership challenge: removing the emotional barriers to sustainable performance in a flat world ; The Age's editor Andrew Jaspan was the first staff member sacked. FAIRFAX LEADERSHIP
• · · · A symposium [on 4 July] organised by CSIRO and the Statistical Society of Australia will explore how technology is generating masses of information and creating exciting home-grown opportunities for new services for business, government and consumers. Symposium to explore opportunities from the information explosion ; Abstracts of papers
• · · · · Most organisations will state that their people are their most important assets. However, not as many managers personally act as though this is true. The talent lie ; The best change leaders work hard to create supporters out of skeptics and to change the minds of rational opponents On leadership: cherish the resistors and Media Dragons
• · · · · · More and more organisations across the globe are facing the challenge of diversity management. This article looks at the negative effects on employees who experience discrimination and exclusion in the workplace. Exclusive workplace systems; The cross-enterprise leader is someone who, at any level of leadership, sees the issues and analyses them, and then acts with the interests and perspectives of the total enterprise in mind. The cross enterprise leader

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All books are either dreams or swords, you can cut, or you can drug with words. Words are the most powerful drugs used by mankind. Getting it first and getting it write what a tension …

Blogs offer a window into mainly middle-class segments of societies rarely examined in the West. Speaking for themselves - the culture of blogging; BLOGGING is an inelegant term for an often inelegant activity. It is easy to be turned off by bloggers for whom civil discourse equates to personal insult — anonymously delivered — but this undersells the vast range of blogging swirling through cyberspace. Bloggers lead revolution - Lindsay Tanner blogs exclusively for Business Day

Hungry Media Dragon The Emotional Digital Tribe
As it evolves, who can miss the fact that the Internet is becoming more and more emotional? To claim it was an emotional place even five years ago raised eyebrows

Many people, and not only young ones, have learnt to share how they feel online in ways that would have been inconceivable when we began our tentative attempts at those mysterious functions: email, browsing, search, purchasing and blogging. If you still have doubts about this reshaping of cyberspace, visit We Feel Fine. This wonderful site is the brain child (or is it lovechild?) of Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. The site is inspired by a simple idea about a simple phrase. The phrase is “I feel” (or “I am feeling”) and the idea is to gather together all the instances where it appears on the Web. Harris and Kamvar then present them in what they call 'six movements'. This has nothing to do with orchestral music, and is all about six different and interesting ways they have identified to theme their examples. And, as usual, examples explain the idea best:
I feel pretty.
I feel I don’t really have a clue what love is.
I feel the ghosts were cool but unnecessary.
I feel so lonely.
I feel like every time I find a product I really rave about, they change it.
I feel that I’m somehow being blackmailed into using Facebook.
Etc. Etc.

• Strangely compelling; [The Blogging Revolution author Antony Loewenstein introduces us to members of the Digital tribe ; Finally the power of paradox is gaining ground. F. Scott Fitzgerald probably captured the idea best when he suggested that "The ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function is the sign of a first-rate intelligence Either/Or are driven crazy ]
• · It’s said we may be heading for the big R - recession. If that’s the case, how will the arts be affected? The state of the arts in tough economic times; Funner. Impactful. Blowiest. What do all these words have in common? Someone, somewhere, is using them with a disclaimer like I know it's not a real word ... Chillax: if it works like a word, just use it
• · Spring of Quotes; Google: Wall Street Correspondent Lehman Brothers effectively put itself up for sale yesterday alongside a last-ditch restructuring to stem Blogging Quotes ; Live-Blogging the Lehman Conference Call- Wall Street - Deal Journal is blogging the conference call, which is hosted by CEO Dick Fuld and Bart McDade Blogging Media Dragons
• · · Internet campaigners for civil liberties and women's rights pay a high price for their "online crimes" Battle of the blogs; Steve Jobs has taken the stage at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and he looks about as thin as he did at the Worldwide Developers Conference. But he acknowledged the controversy swirling around his health by pointing to a sentence on the screen that read, "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Blogging live from the Apple event
• · · · As the rabbi of Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem in Cote St. Luc, Quebec, 46-year-old Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz not only gives sermons from the bimah, he has also found a way to offer words of wisdom through a virtual pulpit, by blogging. Blogging rabbis reach out to the world ; Elected government officials and members of the news media often are engaged in a strange, sometimes awkward dance in which each partner tries to lead without stepping too hard on the other's toes Rolly: Blogging legislators blast the Deseret News and reporters over news story
• · · · · Last month in Washington we got a rare look inside the global private banking industry, whose high purpose it is to gather up the assets of the world's wealthiest people and many of its worst villains, and shelter them from tax collectors, prosecutors, creditors, disgruntled business associates, family members and each other HMRC gives British investors in tax havens a chance to come clean in exchange for reduced penalties ; A Wordpress lead developer has described the Philippine blogging community as “impressive and very organized RP blogging community
• · · · · · With blogging, it is possible the only real protection is to stay anonymous. It worked for London prostitute Belle de Jour, and while it can be frustrating not to get the acknowledgement you feel you deserve for your insightful polemic and creativity, it's altogether safer. When personal and professional worlds collide: Social networking and blogging ; The whole subject smacks of narcissism. Why Blog???

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Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
- Mother Theresa, spoken like the true Virgo she was

Some birthdays are milestones in a young person’s life. Obviously reaching 10 or 13 or 16 are important achievements. But what about reaching 18? In many ways reaching 18 means reaching adulthood. It signifies a true beginning to being a grown-up. Sydney won’t find any better or more funky, authentic Bohemian blues, in their own inimitable manner, than what’s on at Melt Gallery, level 1, 12 Kellet St, Kings Cross Sydney on 19 September 2008 Here's to celebrating you and your music!

Memories are made of birthdays Happy Birthday, Sasha aka Roxy Ray!
Earthy Virgo is symbolized by the ear of wheat and the bunch of grapes -- or alternately, an ear of wheat and a sickle. According to the ancient poets, the virgin Virgo is also sometimes known as Astraea or Alexandra ;-)

I hope that your day is filled with many blessings as you begin your 18th year. I can't begin to say what a blessing your existence … On 10th day of September 1990 I learned what the miracle of child birth is … The dictionary says a miracle is any amazing or wonderful occurrence. As a child in Czechoslovakia I learned a lot about miracles that happened hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years ago. Usually they were caused by the actions of saints. So I grew up thinking of a miracle as (1) something that was performed (2) by a religiously inspired person. The greatest of all miracle is the miracle of childbirth. It's a common thing, one that has been going on for ... well ... a pretty long time. This miracle is way beyond our understanding, and is almost beyond our belief. It's an everyday event. It is the greatest event of all!
Who would have thought that you would be a singer and writer and musician when you entered the world at the Benevolent Royal Hospital -Birth Center- at Paddington? Your band improvises a stellar piece of smooth, harmony-laden soul with a chunky beat and a funky bassline that sounds unique almost in spite of its dozen debts to Billie Holiday; Ella Fitzgerald; Erykah Badu; Miles Davis; Sarah Vaughan;
Etta James, Betty Davis, Jeff Buckley, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Edith Piaf.
As they say, there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle

• We now enter in earnest the harvest season; [Famous Virgos: Cameron Diaz, Sean Connery, Rachel Welch, Sophia Loren, Stephen King Shania Twain; Hitch your wagon to a star All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them]
• · There are differing evils, but they are common works of man. They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellows. Give me a place to standand I will move the world; A taste of the underground

CODA: Travis Jie was born in Tokyo on 11 September 2008 - Congratulations Godfather Steve and Tong Ling [Travis is a day older ;-]

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Can it really be a year ago I said 'I do'? Time flies when you're having fun at Berry at Broughtom Mill Farm and catching with wonderful films and books ... and sensational coffee

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. As Mal says, there is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else. There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved

The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind What Makes Happy People Happy?

Happiness can mean different things to different people. For one person, it may mean being in a relationship, whereas for someone else it may mean feeling you have the ability to handle whatever life throws at you.
We might think that happy people have lots of money, are physically attractive, have great jobs, or own the latest gadgets. Or, we might just think happy people are plain lucky, and are born that way.
However, there are a number of variables that make a far greater contribution to happiness than external and more superficial factors.That doesn't mean that if you have a lot of money you won't be happy, or that having a lot of money is bad, it just means that other factors are more important in determining happiness. In fact, a strong positive relationship between job status/income/wealth and happiness only exists for those who live below the poverty line and/or who are unemployed.
What distinguishes happy people, is that they have a different attitude - a different way of thinking about things and doing things. They interpret the world in a different way, and go about their lives in a different way.

• You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. Meaning of life; [The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers. Moments ; How to Stop Struggling and Start Living ]
• · The science of happiness; Happiness is a spring day, coming after a winter that has been cruel — a gentle day of sunshine and promise and daffodils. Highs of happiness found after lows of sorrow