Steve Heyes .co .uk

"We’ve found that there are ways that you can train your brain to be able to become more positive. In just a two-minute span of time done for 21 days in a row, we can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully. We’ve done these things in research now in every single company that I’ve worked with, getting them to write down three new things that they’re grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that, their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first."

— Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work

(Source: ted.com)

"We shouldn’t ask for a faith that passes all understanding and then act surprised when we don’t understand it all"

— Bob Goff

"DANGEROUSLY ATTRACTIVE, CYNICISM is a way to “hide in the steel armor of pseudo-intellectual-babble.” An effective castle of self-protection, cynics can look down from a turret invincibly, not truly defending anything but pride."

— Cynicism vs. Suspicion

"I’ve wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don’t want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement."

— A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (via oh-sarah)

"Too many web designers have been sucked into the thinking that their chosen career is a ‘calling’ that demands all of their life rather than a job that enables them to do stuff outside of work."

— Paul Boag — How to put a dent in the Universe

(Source: boagworld.com)

"I hate it when people call themselves ‘entrepreneurs’ when what they are really trying to do is launch a startup and then sell or go public, so they can cash in and move on. They are unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business. That’s how you really make a contribution and add the legacy of those who went before. You build a company that will still stand for something a generation of two from now. That’s what Walt Disney did, and Hewlett and Packard, and the people who built Intel. That’s what I want Apple to be."

— Steve Jobs

(Source: xbitlabs.com)

"Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?"

—

Ezekiel 33 v 11 - The Bible

Gaddafi was a wicked man. He did some wicked things. But God is not celebrating his death. He is mourning.

"Lots of people think they want to start a coffeeshop. They likely don’t. That’s like buying a minimum wage job for two hundred grand. What they want is to be a customer and sit in a cafe, drink coffee, be nice to people, and possibly curate an art gallery."

— The coffeeshop fallacy - The Startup Toolkit

1. “The rioters are mindless”

There is nothing mindless about coordinated attacks on areas away from the police, avoiding residential targets, and going for commercial premises. People in some of the areas hit have described seeing older men telling younger people what to do. The undoubted criminality in what is happening requires some street knowledge.

2. “It’s like a warzone/the middle east/apocalypse”

No, it isn’t. It is terrifying to sit in your home with gangs of young men outside, ripping up your front yard, hurling missiles, setting fire to cars, burning buildings. Lives are being put at risk – and there is a grave danger somebody is about to be killed. But this is not like a warzone, or an intifada or a biblical destruction of the world. We must keep our sense of perspective.

3. “The police should crack down”

Just remember it was tough policing that started this whole episode – officers shooting dead a man they believed was an imminent threat. Remember too how furious people get at police using kettling at demonstrations, charging with horses, wielding their batons and hurting people as they did at the G20 protests. The police are under pressure to use reasonable force – what that is changes according to public mood, it seems.

—

krishnangm - Tonight is a major test for us all

Another great article putting things in perspective.

My own view is that the police in this country do an impressive job and unjustly carry the consequences of a much wider social dysfunction. Before you take a breath of sarcasm thinking “here she goes, excusing the criminals with some sob story”, I want to begin by stating two things. First, violence and looting can never be justified. Second, for those of us working at street level, we’re not surprised by these events.

Twitter and Facebook have kept the perverse momentum going, transmitting invitations such as: “Bare shops are gonna get smashed up. So come, get some (free stuff!!!!) F… the feds we will send them back with OUR riot! Dead the ends and colour war for now. So If you see a brother… SALUTE! If you see a fed… SHOOT!”

If this is a war, the enemy, on the face of it, are the “lawless”, the defenders are the law-abiding. An absence of morality can easily be found in the rioters and looters. How, we ask, could they attack their own community with such disregard? But the young people would reply “easily”, because they feel they don’t actually belong to the community. Community, they would say, has nothing to offer them. Instead, for years they have experienced themselves cut adrift from civil society’s legitimate structures. Society relies on collaborative behaviour; individuals are held accountable because belonging brings personal benefit. Fear or shame of being alienated keeps most of us pro-social.

— Camila Batmanghelidjh: Caring costs – but so do riots