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POPSThey did not give up R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York City caught on. When Bell telephone was struggling to get started, its owners offered all their rights to Western Union for $100,000. The offer was disdainfully rejected with the pronouncement, "What use could this company make of an electrical toy." Rocket scientist Robert Goddard found his ideas bitterly rejected by his scientific peers on the grounds that rocket propulsion would not work An expert said of Vince Lombardi: "He possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation." Michael Jordan and Bob Cousy were each cut from their high school basketball teams. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." After Fred Astaire's first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." When Lucille Ball began studying to be actress, she was to"Try any other profes
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POPSDon't Write Like An Idiot This is a reclip of an older clip that Invictus made. His original exceeded the current clip limit so I couldn't revive it. Refresher everyone.
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POPSThe 10 Weirdest Facts about American Presidents 7. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was reported to be a very interesting character. When not having his head massaged with Vaseline during breakfasts in bed or riding his own mechanical bull, he was ringing the White House doorbell and then running off to hide. 8. So far, all American presidents have claimed ancestry limited to one or more of just seven nationalities: Dutch, English, German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh. 9. Grover Cleveland was the only president to openly admit that he had fathered an illegitimate child. 10. There were four presidents who were not actual presidents of the United States: Sam Houston, Mirabeau Lamar, and Anson Jones were all presidents of the Republic of Texas. Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America.
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POPSWhy doing nothing may sometimes be the best action of all
By taking action — even if it’s neither rational nor likely to be successful — they can at least be seen to have done something.If they stand and wait until the ball is kicked and then fail to stop it, they feel worse because of their inaction; and others are far more likely to criticize them for not appearing even to try. It’s better to try a poor action than try a better — but seemingly passive — response if both fail; even though the “inactive” response is more rational and based on a better likelihood of success. In today’s business world, action is preferred over the alternatives and is more likely to result in forgiveness when a mistake is made. You can always say that you tried. The person who does nothing is doubly damned: once for the mistake and again for not “doing something.”This urge to action — to get things done — is more emotional than rational. “Wait and see” risks your credibility and reputation, even where it can be shown to be the optimal course.
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POPSSEAL Awarded Medal of Honor There's not a more deserving warrior patriot. I read of his courage under fire as written by the survivor mentioned, his fellow SEAL and best friend, Marcus Luttrell, in his book Lone Survivor. They were all incredible men, thus it was an incredible loss.
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POPSAncient Chinese Bells The importance of that discovery grows when we realize that it took the West a thousand years to develop the cathedral bell, and we didn't have it until the middle ages. Bells are very hard to make, yet China had these remarkably sophisticated Zhong bells during the Golden Age of Athens. The bells produce a rich tone, they take far less bronze to get it than a cathedral bell, and then they deliver two sounds for the cost of one. It's easy to look right at something that's very sophisticated without seeing the sophistication. It took us eighty years to catch on to these remarkable, but unassuming, bells. The best inventions are like that. In the best inventions, elegance masquerades as simplicity.
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POPSHigher rate of gun ownership does not mean higher violent crime rate Some more: "The reason that gun ownership doesn't correlate with murder rates, the authors show, is that violent crime rates are determined instead by underlying cultural factors. "Ordinary people," they note, "simply do not murder." Rather, "the murderers are a small minority of extreme antisocial aberrants who manage to obtain guns whatever the level of gun ownership" in their society."
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POPSA Few Things Moore Forgot in Sicko Michael Moore forgot to mention what the United States does have that other countries do not: A Declaration of Independence. A Constitution. A Bill of Rights. The concepts of individual rights, personal choice, free markets, private investment that develops most of the world's new medications, and the benefit of a private relationship between physicians and their patients without third-party interference. In his hymn to every other nation's superiority to America—in proportion to their commitment to collectivism—Michael Moore forgot to mention any American values at all.
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POPSMedia Dishonesty Matters - 101 Frauds 21 - 101 at the source, along with brief summaries on each link. Quite a collection of deception and plagiarism. No, I didn't triple check on or even read most of these.
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POPSCapitalism - The Only Possible Choice There is scarcely anything so absurd as the fundamental principle of Marx's materialist interpretation of history: "The hand mill made feudal society; the steam mill, capitalist society." It was precisely capitalist society that was needed to create the necessary conditions for the original conception of the steam mill to be developed and put into effect. It was capitalism that created the technology, and not the other way round. Liberalism - In the Classical Tradition Ludwig von Mises, 1927
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POPSIllegals deporting themselves One of the counters by the amnesty crowd is always "how are you going to deport the millions who are here illegally?" My answer has always been that you won't have to deport them because they will deport themselves. If they come here for the jobs and the jobs go away, then so will they. I think the US as a whole needs to follow Arizona's example and then create a more robust guest worker program that will allow for workers from other countries to come here legally to work. But under no circumstances should we reward criminal behavior with US citizenship.
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POPSWhere to Put Your Money From an article on the author of Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment , a summary of professor and star investor David Swensen's advice for how individuals should be investing in markets driven by full-time professionals like him. While perhaps unconventional, Swensen would certainly seem to have the authority to advise on such matters. Yale University recently announced a 23 percent return on its investments, swelling its endowment to a whopping $18 billion. The man behind that investment success is David Swensen, one of the most gifted investors in the world. He's made an average 16 percent annual return over 21 years — better than any portfolio manager at any other university.
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