Currently How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History) By Thomas Cahill see related

Worth Sharing

From: Thomas Wippler
Sent: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:12:08
Subject: Economics lesson


Simple Lesson....

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little.. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that...

The Neglected Rhino

The Neglected Rhino

And the YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.

The very breath of life enters into the adam through the nose.

The nose has 10 million odor receptors arrayed in an area the size of a thumb print. There are over 350 receptor types (some classify 1000), each one expressing a different receptor gene. All of this takes up to 3 percent of the human genome. With most smells the mind binds together hundreds of distinct smell receptors into a coherent sensation.

Studies suggest that 90% of what we perceive as taste is really smell.

Usually the brain deciphers smells by making the context in which we experience an odor an arbiter. One interesting study conducted in 2001 with fifty-seven wine experts served the same wine from two different bottles – one with the label of a fancy expensive wine and the other as common table wine. When dispensed from the fancy bottle the wine's nose was described as “agreeable, woody, complex, balanced, rounded” while the table wine was “weak, short, light, flat, and faulty”. Very often the pleasantness or unpleasantness of smells is connected to the initial condition or circumstance in which the smell is received.

Neurological studies regarding the formation of memories purport that some of the most strong and vivid memories we possess are connected to particular odors (or aromas if you wish). Ever wonder why realtors pop a loaf of bread into the oven for the open house, or light scented candles?

Smell is such a powerful part of our memories it can influence moods and even affect our work performance. Because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain's limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling it is sometimes called the "emotional brain," smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.

When something is learned in the presence of a certain aroma, it is more readily, more vividly, and more emotionally recalled when that particular aroma is encountered in the future.

The nose's role in worship has been long neglected or forgotten in the western protestant evangelical church. In fact sensuality in worship of any kind but aural seems to be grossly neglected. Apart from music and sermon, sight, smell, taste and kinesthetic aspects of the worship experience are virtually neglected.

How wise the Creator in creating special smells in incense and oils for the worship environment of the Old Covenant. And why does the Church historic retain the use of incense creating beautiful smells in worship? Beside the obvious rich meanings of smoke and incense in Scripture and the many things it conveys as a visual sermon, perhaps our forebears intuitively understood the great value of smell in the pedagogical life of the Church. The nose would connect powerful words and images with special beautiful smells etching the the rich meanings and experiences of worship more vividly in the hearts and minds of worshipers.

Stuggle

Currently Slumdog Millionaire By Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Rajendranath Zutshi see related

The Neglected Rhino

Wherefore the nose?

It protrudes from the center of the face as its most prominent feature. The nose's claim to fame? The first direct mention of any body part in Scripture:

And the YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.

The very breath of life enters into the adam through the nose.

The nose has 10 million odor receptors arrayed in an area the size of a thumb print. There are over 350 receptor types (some classify 1000), each one expressing a different receptor gene taking up to 3 percent of the human genome. With most smells the mind binds together hundreds of distinct smell receptors into a coherent sensation.

Studies suggest that 90% of what we perceive as taste is really smell.

Usually the brain deciphers smells by making the context in which we experience an odor an arbiter. One interesting study conducted in 2001 with fifty-seven wine experts served the same wine from two different bottles – one with the label of a fancy expensive wine and the other as common table wine. When dispensed form the fancy bottle the wine was described as “agreeable, woody, complex, balanced, rounded” while the table wine was “weak, short, light, flat, and faulty”. Very often the pleasantness or unpleasantness of smells are connected to the intial condition or circumstance in which the smell is received.

Neurological studies regarding the formation of memories purport that some of the most strong and vivid memories we possess are connected to particular odors (or aromas if you wish). Ever wonder why realtors pop a loaf of bread into the oven for the open house, or light scented candles?

Smell is a powerful part of our memories influencing moods and even affecting our work performance. Because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain's limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling it's sometimes called the "emotional brain," smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.

When something is learned in the presence of a certain aroma, it is more readily, more vividly, and more emotionally recalled when that particular aroma is encountered in the future.

The nose's role in worship has been long neglected or forgotten in the western protestant evangelical church. In fact sensuality in worship of any kind but aural seems to be grossly neglected. Apart from music and sermon, sight, smell, taste and kinesthetic aspects of the worship experience are virtually neglected.

How wise the Creator in creating special smells in incense and oils for the worship environment of the Old Covenant Church. And why does the Church historic retain the use of incense creating beautiful smells in worship? Beside the obvious rich meanings of smoke and incense in Scripture and the many things it conveys as a visual sermon, perhaps our forebears intuitively understood the great value of smell in the pedagogical life of the Church. The nose would connect powerful words and images with special beautiful smells etching the the rich meanings and experiences of worship more vividly in the hearts and minds of worshipers.

Currently The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis By Leon R. Kass see related

Congratulations to All English Readers

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

               -- B. Shaw