Numerous Narratives

Hard power makes sense under some circumstances. But there's not a universal solution to global problems. A major country like the United States has to have a broadly-conceived program for effective international action, influence and cooperation with others. ~ Zbigniew Brzezinski "Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes you want, and that can be done by coercion, payment or attraction." ~ Joseph Nye "Money and donations are an important part of our political system. They ar...

As an educator and someone always interested in lifelong learning for all adult students, I believe the launch of the Peterson Academy's college-level courses is an outstanding addition to the competition, alongside Coursera and many other online college course programs. Peterson Academy has just launched its Beta version, marking the beginning of new features and improvements. The feedback from early beta users will help shape the platform into the best possible learning experience in the comi...

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." ~ Bertrand Russell "Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success." ~ Robert Kiyosaki "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed." ~ Michael Jordan "Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out." ~ Karl A. Menninger "He w...

"In a sense, artificial intelligence will be the ultimate tool because it will help us build all possible tools." ~ K. Eric Drexler "You can't just stop technological progress. Even if one country stops researching artificial intelligence, some other countries will continue to do it. The real question is what to do with the technology. You can use exactly the same technology for very different social and political purposes. So I think people shouldn't be focused on the question of how to stop ...

"The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things." ~ Elise M. Boulding "When I admire a writer, it's for the recognizable palette - Hemingway's minimalism, the dialogue, those isolated bar scenes. But with each story or novel, he shows me something different within the framework he's built - like noticing that there's a chair in the corner I didn't see in another story." ~ Jill Talbot "Essentialism is...

Summer is a great time to learn/read up on some good books, here's a quick rundown of each that I am diving into each day for the two months of July and August: The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention by Nicolas Cole teaches the ins and outs of writing for the web. A super interesting straight to the point read. Whether starting a blog, write content for a website, or just improve your online writing skills, this book is a valuable resourc...

"There are 4 billion cell phones in use today. Many of them are in the hands of market vendors, rickshaw drivers, and others who've historically lacked access to education and opportunity. Information networks have become a great leveler, and we should use them together to help lift people out of poverty and give them a freedom from want." ~ Hillary Clinton "Technologies, including cell phones, have the potential to help millions of poor people out of poverty by enabling access to a range of s...

"Hewlett Packard at one point had only three private offices. One belonged to Hewlett, one to Packard, and the third to a guy named Paul Ely who annoyed so many coworkers with his bellowing on the phone that the company finally extended his cubicle walls to the ceiling." ~ Robert X. Cringely "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." ~ Isaac Asimov "I know nothing more annoying when people I don't know jump to conclusions on my person based on nothing...

"Always assume incompetence before looking for conspiracy." ~ Niccolo Machiavelli "We have politicians that are grossly incompetent. We have leaders that are incompetent and we have negotiators that are incompetent." ~ Donald Trump "The Obama administration's agenda of maximizing dependency involves political favoritism cloaked in the raiment of "economic planning" and "social justice" that somehow produce results superior to what markets produce when freedom allows merit to manifest itself, ...

To those of you watching this at home tonight, I’d like to deliver a message that the media doesn’t want you to hear from the Republican Party. Our message to Black Americans is this, the media has tried to convince you for decades that Republicans don’t care about your communities, but we do. We want for you what we want for every American, safe neighbourhoods, clean streets, good jobs, a better life for your children, and a justice system that treats everyone equally regardless of your skin c...

"The state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight." ~ Mike Lofgren "I am quite confident that there are numerous discussions going in various "deep states" throughout the world about how to contain Trump's America geopolitically and economically, given the early indications that his policies will intensify conflict in many parts of the world." ~ Richard A. Falk "I don't care what you want to call it. You can call it the deep state. You can get specific and you can say that it's membe...

"I have complete confidence in Secret Service. These guys and gals are unbelievably professional. They know what they’re doing and I basically do what they tell me to do. Now, sometimes I’m the first one to admit that it chafes a little bit being inside this bubble. It’s the hardest adjustment of being president, not being able to just take a walk." ~ Barack Obama "The Secret Service is a strange group. They don't really have a leader. It's not set up like a military. Each one is supposed to b...

"The important thing to know about an assassination or an attempted assassination is not who fired the shot, but who paid for the bullet." ~ Eric Ambler "At the first meeting of the newly constituted Warren Commission, [former CIA Director] Allen Dulles handed out copies of a book to help define the ideological parameters he proposed for the Commission's forthcoming work. American assassinations were different from European ones, he told the Commission. European assassinations were the work of...

"in the mornin' po-lice at my door Fresh adidas squeak across the bathroom floor Out the back window.. I make a escape Don't even get a chance to grab my old school tape" ~ Ice T "Globally, proving myself working well with Adidas, showing my work could be globally distributed and loved and appreciated and still be challenging. Maybe I'm one of the first people on a larger scale to make more challenging and more unique items." ~ Jeremy Scott A recent experience at an Adidas store left me surp...

"The hardest obstacle I've ever had to overcome is probably my first steps into adulthood: paying rent, groceries, cooking, taxes. I was so anxious to grow up, and now I'm wishing I was still a kid." ~ Dillon Lane "In Harlem, for instance, all of the stores are owned by white people, all of the buildings are owned by white people. The black people are just there - paying rent, buying the groceries; but they don't own the stores, clothing stores, food stores, any kind of stores; don't even own ...

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." ~ John Ruskin "There's no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes." ~ Billy Connolly "While we would not want to attribute every extreme weather event to climate change - the pattern is building and the costs are rising - the human costs and the financial costs" ~ Edward Davey My teenage son showed me a satellite heat map comparison of Edmonton, Alberta, during its coldest day in January at -43°C and i...

"Face your problems head on. Do what you have to do to take care of it. Develop a good work ethic." ~ George Chuvalo "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." ~ Colin Powell "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." ~ Colin Powell Engaging in physically hard, laborious work can make a young person reflect deeply on their future career and lifestyle. Recently, I had a conversat...

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." ~ Mahatma Gandhi "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." ~ Dalai Lama "It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul." ~ Desmond Tutu Forgiveness is like a shield that protects you from negativity. Release anger and bitterness to experience true peace and healing. Prayer can connect us to a highe...

"Cyclists live with pain. If you can't handle it, you will win nothing" ~ Eddy Merckx "Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride." ~ John F. Kennedy "Ever bike? Now that's something that makes life worth living!" ~ Jack London Some time ago, I regularly visited my grandmother at her elderly care home a block from the private school that I taught at. During each visit, she eagerly shared 10 or more photo albums filled with a treasure trove of memories capturing different relativ...

"Email is familiar. It's comfortable. It's easy to use. But it might just be the biggest killer of time and productivity in the office today." ~ Ryan Holmes "There's life and death in every email." ~ Bill Gates "The age of technology has both revived the use of writing and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace. Emails are letters, after all, more lasting than phone calls, even if many of them r 2 cursory 4 u." ~ Anna Quindlen "Email is a system that delivers other people's prio...

I just noticed on TSN a Canadian sports channel, asking/begging viewers to donate to National level Canadian athletes. Wow, if this were a business, it would be can you please complete the professional development of our workers so they can become better workers? Private companies, government organizations, civil/City, and provincial and federal governments invest in their employees. Do we Canadians especially our governments at all three levels: City, provincial, and federal invest in our a...

"I think the kids always they look forward to be always the big stars. Not only football, any profession. They want to be the best, singer, they want to be the best political, only the stars. But I think sometime the life give you opportunity, and long to be a big star, but you don't need to be a big star, you need to be beautiful, excellent man. Human being. This is the first." ~ Pele "Football is a more beautiful game in high definition." ~ Jose Mourinho "Ronaldinho is a special player, but...

"There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." ~ Moshe Dayan "I believe that in the long run, separation between Israel and the Palestinians is the best solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." ~ Yitzhak Rabin "We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places." ~ David Ben-Gurion "Goldstone has done terrible damage to the cause of truth and justice and the rule of law. He has poisoned Jewish-Palestinian re...

"I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school." ~ Peter De Vries "The first dream I had was just to get a college education. I got through college in three years, taking extra classes in summer school." ~ Eli Broad "Mom put a note in my lunch again, I see... Dear son, I hope you will study hard in summer school... Do not look upon it as a punishment, but rather as a privilege... We are very proud of you, and want you to have a good education. This...

If you have made a mistake cut your losses as quickly as possible. ~ Bernard Baruch I may as well cut my losses and make a hasty exit while I still had enough self-esteem to walk upright. Crawling was so demoralizing. ~ Darynda Jones When it comes to finishing things, there are a few key terms to understand. "Completed" means you achieved everything you set out to do on a task. "Done" is simpler - you finished the task, but maybe not exactly how you originally planned. And "dropped" means ...

"Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die." ~ Pierre Trudeau "Canada is the homeland of equality, justice and tolerance." ~ Kim Campbell "I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all...

"As a coach, I want players to challenge me, to question me and ask why we're doing a certain thing, so they feel that they're taking ownership." ~ Warren Gatland "The first thing is to be willing. You must become willing to feel the discomfort that's occurred and/or shown up. Some of it is taking ownership of your part in the situation, to clean it up and be willing to make amends." ~ Gabrielle Bernstein "Have more than you show, Speak less than you know." ~ William Shakespeare "For maximum...

To become more athletic and improve their game, a non-athletic basketball player can focus on several key areas. First, developing a solid foundation is a must. Strength training builds this foundation by focusing on compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups simultaneously. Key exercises include squats, lunges, bench presses, pull-ups, and deadlifts. Additionally, cardiovascular conditioning is essential for improving endurance and stamina. This can be achieved through activities like...

"Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad." ~ Anne Geddes "It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was." ~ Anne Sexton "My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." ~ Clarence Budington Kelland "My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass'; 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.'" ~ Harmon Killebrew As a young un...

Why Countries Implode Simmering rage builds tension by highlighting the underlying anger and frustration that fuel these eruptions. Political oppression tells us what causes the simmering rage and puts potential violence in context. Spontaneous, emphasizes how unpredictable these uprisings are, making them hard to stop. Power and fragility are contradictions that make these events dangerous. They can be highly destructive but also surprisingly brief. When a population experiences prolonged opp...