There's always a ditch in front of someone in a hurry.

- Punjabi proverb

Fail harder. Then learn from it.

Knowledge is not given, it is taken.

30 things I am grateful for:

1. My family
2. My partner and her kitty (2-for-1 deal)
3. Soy
4. Dahl
5. Friends
6. My three black belts
7. My three university degrees
8. A career that shows me the world
9. The respect I have found for all living beings
10. Public transport
11. Bruce Lee, who inspires me to exceed boundaries and expectations
12. Gandhi, who inspires me to practice non-violence in all aspects of life
13. Columbia University Taekwondo, my New York family
14. Naruto
15. Capital gains
16. Earplugs
17. Good history documentaries
18. My RSS feeds
19. Good PS3 games
20. Good listeners
21. Refrigerators
22. People reaching for their dreams
23. Ibuprofen
24. Great quotes
25. Shaving oil
26. Duke basketball
27. Our ability to heal
28. The way I look at things
29. Emotions
30. You, for reading this

The PhD student is someone who forgoes current income in order to forgo future income.

(I don't believe this entirely, but it's amusing)

It takes 16 times more fossil fuels to produce a meat meal than a vegetarian meal.

The livestock industry produces more greenhouse gasses than all transportation.

Why be Vegetarian?

VEGETARIANS ARE HEALTHY

Vegetarians have the lowest rate of atherosclerotic heart disease of anygroup in the United States. The process of atherosclerosis doesn't just cause heart attacks; it also causes impotence. Meat eaters have a ten times greater risk of breast and colon cancer than do pure vegetarians.

On a low fat vegetarian diet 90% of adult-onset diabetics can reduce or entirely eliminate their insulin injections. Tens of millions of Americans suffer from osteoporosis and kidney failure due to excess animal protein consumption. Meat-eating women have levels of chemical pollution in their breast milk 35 times higher than in the breast milk of pure vegetarians.

VEGETARIANS ARE ECOLOGICAL

75% of our food-growing topsoil in the United States has eroded, almost all of it off farmland and grazing land used for animal agriculture. One acre of land growing broccoli will supply ten times as much protein as an acre of land producing beef. If acreage now being used for grazing cattle and raising feed grains were growing trees or fiber plants to burn for energy, we would have no need to import foreign oil. More than half of the water used for all purposes in the United States is used for livestock production. Water pollution from feedlots and feed grain field runoff (manure, topsoil, pesticides, fertilizer, etc.) contaminates more streams and rivers than do all the wastes from all U.S. cities and industries combined.

VEGETARIANS ARE COMPASSIONATE

In the United States ten billion animals are killed for food every year. Veal calves are chained in crates to prevent movement and fed iron-deficient food to make them anemic in order to keep their flesh pale. Egg-laying hens are painfully de-beaked, then raised in cages so small that they are unable to stretch their wings. Fishing depletes fish populations, disrupting vital food chains and forcing marine mammals and sea birds to extinction through starvation. Vegans do not eat animal products and therefore do not contribute to the suffering and needless death of animals raised for food.


- From the homepage of the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.
- Chinese proverb

What if no one has been where you want to go?

The packaged-goods and fast-food industries spend billions each year on marketing to children, so all our children, rich and poor and everybody in between, need to learn what constitutes a healthy diet and to develop a taste for fresh, healthy foods, especially fruits and vegetables.

- Janet Poppendieck, sociologist and author of "Free for All"

Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University, is convinced that the approach to matchmaking embodied by many dating sites represents a market failure. In a recent book, “The Upside of Irrationality”, he argues that the sites treat human beings as if they are goods that can be fully defined according to a set of standard attributes, in much the same way that, say, a digital camera can be described by the number of megapixels that it has and other characteristics. But this cold, drearily functional approach to assessing compatibility fails to capture the indefinable spark that triggers romance.

- The Economist

For as long as anyone can remember, millions of monarch butterflies have wintered in central Mexico after traveling south, but they were greeted by hail last March. In 3 of the last 10 winters, at least half of the population died as a result of the erratic weather.

- NY Times

"The metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet."

- Dave Barry

There will be 5,500 fewer CEOs by 2018, due to mergers and streamlining.

- (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics

It's more important to be useful than clever.

When you've been living out of one suitcase for about 3 weeks, you realize you don't need to own a lot of clothes.

Most milk is produced on factory farms. It contains traces of blood, pus and bacteria, which is why it's dangerous when it's not been boiled first. You're still ingesting that stuff! Quit dairy and find an alternative. Your actions will make restaurants and stores offer different options.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AO2GE20101125

When Singaporeans take foreigners out for a night on the town one activity is usually to make them try durian.

You see all those lights across the water? That's not Indonesia, those are all oil tankers.

- Marlon to me, while we were on a beach in Singapore at night, looking out at hundreds of lights along the horizon.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

- Teddy Roosevelt

We shall now have tea and speak of absurdities.

- Third Uncle from "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" (1955)

I have begun to view men wearing jackets/blazers with shoulder pads in the same way as women who wear padded bras or "cutlets" inside their bras.

For a long time men have been enhancing their masculinity and image with clothing and armor. It's the same as women wearing makeup and making other adjustments to their appearance.

These practices are baked into our culture. People who don't follow don't get the same level of treatment.

At a business trip earlier this year in Egypt a man was asked why he was wearing a suit and tie even though it was hot and we were by the sea. He said that he's English, and dressing casual just means not polishing your shoes. It's an extreme example, but illustrates how tied we are to visual enhancements.

Raise the bar, don't close the bar.

S.M.

A European engineering company is alleged to have paid over $1 billion in bribes to government officials in order to win infrastructure contracts. It has been reported that the company settled with the US Department of Justice and SEC at around $800million; a further €201 million fine was paid to the local government; and over €850million was paid to external consultants during the investigations.

The biggest slap in the face was probably what they paid to external consultants. They gained more than the governments!

Whatever you do there will always be people who don't like what you are doing. It's normal.

Two Princeton University professors found that in most of the US, people feel comfortably middle class if they earn $70,000 per year. In New York City, the figure is $165,000. The median income of New York City is $55,980, according to the Census Bureau.

Why do you need to earn three times the median income to feel middle class in New York? There's something inherently wrong with that. To me if one earns the median income, or 10% less, or 30% more, then they should feel middle class. It's a sorry state (or a situation which keeps you humble) when people need to earn 295% more than the median income to feel middle class.

Is it that the incomes at the upper end are skewed very high, and there's a lot of upward comparison? Or that there are too many ways to spend money in NY, and people can't afford to do that all the time? Or that the tax rates are higher in NY? Or that you get a lot less for your money here? Or that you have to pay a lot to avoid living in old buildings and having inconvenient commutes? Or remembering how much space and the other comforts you had when you were living in other places? It's likely a combination of all this and more.

I read an article that says to sell videogames well, the female lead characters need to be beautiful but not slutty, strong but not butch, and smart but not nerdy. It's interesting how they almost ALL comply with this description.

Imagine if we had this narrow a view of who we hired at our places of work. There would be an uproar. Will there be a movement towards a more normal range of female characters in games?

Barbie dolls have come under fire over the years for intensifying body-image issues in society. No one has pointed any fingers at the video game industry. Today almost 30% of console gamers, and about 40% of PC gamers are female. With people spending more time playing video games, it's only a matter of time that game developers will be pressured to create more normal characters.

What would happen if a tiger appeared in the office? I wonder what people would do. Hide under their desk and use the chair to blockade them in? Run out the emergency exit and hope they're not followed? Run into an office and lock the door, hoping the tiger won't break through the glass? Run to the bathroom, find a stall and lock themselves in? Ensure that there's someone else that's between them and the tiger?

"Much of modern culture is built around the notion of disenchantment with one's current state. As marketers we count on this angst and insecurity to kick start the engine of daily commerce but what if we could be happy AND unhappy all at once, what would that be like?"

- Blurb for a short talk called "The lost art of being satisfied," which I won't be able to attend.

Disenchantment is a big motivator for action (and consumption), so it's interesting how modern society is shifting us in this way.

Obesity is a growing threat to public health in all the advanced countries throughout the world.
- OECD spokesman Matthias Rumpf, as quoted by USA TODAY

This is a side-effect of the urbanized lifestyle that most of us have. Food is easily available, easy to store, and you don't have to exert much to get what you want. Physical exertion in urbanized environments tends to remind me of hamsters running in a wheel.

Not many are able to break out of what modern society is sucking us in to. I propose we all engage in something that constantly challenges our bodies. Don't neglect your physical condition. Your body is your connection to the natural world, which in urbanized environments, slips further and further away.

75% of women claim they cannot achieve and maintain the look they want.

- not sure of the exact source of this, but it was referenced in some work by people that work on the Pantene brand

"A frog in a well cannot be talked to about the sea"
- Chuang Tzu

Don't be that frog.

The Success Delusion: Why It Can Be So Hard for Successful Leaders to Change

Any human, in fact, any animal will tend to repeat behavior that is followed by positive reinforcement. The more successful we become, the more positive reinforcement we get – and the more likely we are to experience the success delusion.

I behave this way. I am successful. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way. Wrong!

The higher we move up the organizational ladder, the more our employees let us know how wonderful we are! Our behavior is often followed by positive reinforcement, even when this behavior makes absolutely no sense. One night over dinner, I listened as a very wise military leader shared his learnings from years of experience with an eager, newly-minted General, “Recently, have you started to notice that when you tell jokes, everyone erupts into laughter - and that when you say something ‘wise’ everyone nods their heads in solemn agreement? The new General replied, “Why, yes, I have.” The older General laughed and continued, “Let me help you. You aren’t that funny, and you aren’t that smart! It’s only that star on your shoulder. Don’t ever let it go to your head.”

- Marshall Goldsmith

"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world... without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries; a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

- Neo, into the phone at the end of the first Matrix movie, before he flies away.

A golden rule in crisis communications: appropriate overreaction.

A mantra I've been hearing over the years:

underpromise and overdeliver

I am different from ordinary people. I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.

- from the Tao Te Ching

Saw this on a website, and I think the count is off a bit...

Krispy Kreme Expanding Into Thailand
302,837,616,408,595 people shared this.

Take the time to figure out your purpose in life. For those that do, it's very valuable. Otherwise later on you'll look back and wonder what you did with all the time.

Fines are a tax for doing bad. Taxes are a fine for doing well.

The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service found that one-third of chicken sold in the U.S. as "natural" was pumped up with additives that boosted sodium content and weight.

You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.

- Zig Ziglar

"Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle."

- Bob Hope

If you look at paintings of the Last Supper which were painted over the last 1000 years, you'll notice that food portion size has been increasing.

I guess what was a meal back then is only considered a snack now.

According to a recent survey by The Conference Board, just 45 percent of workers are satisfied with their jobs, down significantly from 61 percent in 1987.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

- Gail Godwin

I disagree with this. Theater is a component, but a bigger one is being present and connecting with everyone.

Tip for when you're going on a long drive alone -

If you have long hair trap some of it in the sun roof, so that if you start nodding away, you are woken up.

Note to reader:
This is a joke. If you follow this tip and get into an accident, you are not allowed to sue me...

The US tax code is 70,000 pages long.

Also on taxes:

"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has."
- Will Rogers

Ancient Egyptians believed two questions determined whether or not they would be allowed to proceed on to the afterlife:

Did you find joy?
Did you bring joy?

You know you work in a creative business when you're having a business dinner in Brazil and a country-CEO from the region sitting at your table says that the dessert (fried banana with vanilla ice cream) looks like "Michael Jackson's p****, black & white."

Life is like a roll of toilet paper.

The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

- unknown

Happiness tips for lawyers

Tip #1: Quit law.
Tip #2: Do what makes you happy.

- seen on abovethelaw.com

In Turkey the DUI punishment is that you are driven 12 miles out of town and forced to walk back.

Only When the last tree
Has been cut down
And the last river
Has dried to a trickle
Will man finally realise
That we cannot eat money
And reciting old proverbs
Makes you sound like a twat

- Banksy, “Wall And Piece”

Do you pirate media you already own? If so, is that unethical? For example, you bought a CD a long time ago, it's currently in a box at your parent's home, and you download a track.

This is a good discussion topic for law students.

If you purchase media in one format, is that a license to use it in any format?

Eating mostly vegetables, fruit and grains should become second nature. It's what we call the 'plate flip.' Meat shouldn't be the star of the plate.

- Registered dietitian Connie Guttersen

3% of Americans are vegetarian. 23% of consumers are eating more meatless entrées than they did a year ago. 40% of nonvegetarians say they sometimes order vegetarian or vegan menu items just because they sound good.

From http://www.rimag.com/article/452341-Menu_Trends_Meatless_Mains.php

Even the most powerful human being has a limited sphere of strength. Draw him outside of that sphere and into your own, and his strength will dissipate.

- Morihei Ueshiba