The Smoke Effect

> Smokers will usually die 10-12 years younger than non-smokers.
> Every eight seconds someone dies from tobacco use...that's about as long as it takes to read this sentence.
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What is Good News?

"What is good news for this person?": Could not get this poster off my mind...

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Are We Moving Row of Shadows?

We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumin'd Lantern held
In Midnight by the Master of the Show

-- Omar Khayyam, Verse 68

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All Freedom Loving Women

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Who is Meena?
(Please support the cause of RAWA and all Afghan women by ordering as many copies as possible of this poster and other RAWA publications, against its price and postal charges for sale/distribution to your friends and all interested to raise awareness about the horrible situation in Afghanistan.)

Illusion of Grandeur

We are so small yet think we are very big...possessed by an illusion of grandeur !
(Canute, Joe and I in Penang, Malaysia. Canute's comment.)

Do We Reflect Enough?

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Inspiration1b

View more OpenOffice presentations from smrebu.

(Source of pictures: Various including mine. This is general acknowledgement.)

Grief

Loss...That one moment of complete, total helplessness. We will live by but will we ever come to terms with the loss of loved ones? (Sharing: The grief of a warm teacher and friend of mine who just lost his loving wife. Remembering my mother, father, sister and brother.)

Smile and the World Smiles with You

About Smile:
* A smile is a universal expression of happiness and recognised as such by all cultures.
* A smile is the most frequently used facial expression It takes as few as five pairs of facial muscles and as many as all 53 to smile.
* Regardless of the precise number of muscles used, smiling causes far fewer muscles to contract and expand than frowning.
* Smiling releases endorphins and makes us feel better.
* Even faking a smile can lead to feeling happier.
* People are born with the ability to smile (They dont copy the expression, even babies who are born blind, smile).
* Babies reserve special smiles (Duchenne smiles of joy and happiness) for their loved ones.
* A newborn shows a preference for a smiling face over a non-smiling face.
* Women smile more than men.
* Younger people smile more than older American males with high testosterone, who smile least of all.
* There are 18 different kinds of smile used in a variety of social situations.
* Human beings can differentiate between the felt smile (of joy and happiness) and the social smile, in the eyes (literally).
* A smiling person is judged to be more pleasant, attractive, sincere, sociable, and competent than a non-smiling person.
* A person who studies laughter is called a gelotologist.
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Symptoms of a Spiritual Disease

Children at a brick factory in Fatullah (Bangla Desh). For each 1,000 bricks they carry, they earn the equivalent of 0.9 USD.

“All the problems of the world - child labor, corruption - are symptoms of a spiritual disease: lack of compassion.” Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama

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To be Nobody But Yourself...

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Dominant World Religion of the Planet

Rootless consumerism: "dominant world religion of the planet."
"Its God is economic growth for its own sake; its priests are economists and politicians; its evangelists are the advertisers; the shopping mall is its church,"...The consumer church has as its creeds, "More is better. Bigger is better. Faster is better. You can have it all," and the only blasphemy in the church is to say, "Enough!" Finally, the doctrine of salvation for the church of consumerism is "appearance, affluence and marketable achievement" summed up as, "I've made it."

-- Jay McDaniel, a Christian influenced by Buddhist teachings in Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque), October 24, 2001

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Why Do We Shout?

One day, a professor asked his students 'Why do we SHOUT instead of speaking softly when we are ANGRY?'
All the students thought for a while. One answered 'Because we lose our cool. That's why we SHOUT.'
The professor asked again, 'But the person is just right next to you, why can't you talk softly but instead have to SHOUT?'
Everyone gave their opinions but none was accepted by the professor.
At last the professor explained 'When we are ANGRY, our hearts drift apart. To mask the DISTANCE we feel, we instinctively SHOUT instead of speaking softly so that the other party can hear us.'
'But as we SHOUT, we get ANGRIER. And we feel we drift apart further. So we SHOUT even louder....'
'It is the opposite when we are in love. Not only we do not shout, we whisper into each other ears. Why?'
'This is because our hearts are very close, almost never apart. As our love deepens, we reach a state of communication where there is no need for words.'
'We understand each other well enough just by exchanging look,' concluded the professor.
'Therefore, when we argue next time, let us NOT speak words that will make our hearts drift apart. WAIT a few days. When we feel our hearts are no longer far apart, let us pick up the conversation and continue from there.'

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Killing Earth...Slowly.

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Whose Crisis Is It, Anyway?

Understanding the Class Nature of the Present Crisis:

"Top bosses of New York financial firms paid themselves bonuses worth $18 billion in 2008. The kleptocrats clearly believe that the crisis — one that has their personal stamp on it — is for others. They themselves flourish by divine right. And the bailouts seem to confirm that. The very gangs that spurred the meltdown are rewarded with huge amounts of taxpayer money so that they can go back to doing the same things they were doing before.

Meanwhile tens of millions of human beings across the world stand to lose their jobs. Many will descend into distress and chaos. The already hungry will have it much worse. Whose crisis is it, anyway?" (P. Sainath: The Meltdown: http://www.counterpunch.org/sainath02162009.html)


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Futility

Don't we sometimes act like this?
Reminded me of doing somethings all wrong: "No matter how hard you try, you will fail"...if you work hard and not necessarily smart.

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Are We Responsible For This?

If all of us are connected, are we - you and I - in any way responsible for this, even remotely?

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Do You Understand Yourself?

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Follow Your Dreams in 2009...

 

Have a great year and future.