Quote of the Day

I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.

- Erma Bombeck

Vatican Library Goes Hi-Tech

The Telegraph reports that the Vatican Library has had an extensive renovation. An excerpt:

The library, started by Pope Nicholas V in the 1450s, includes the world's oldest known complete Bible, dating from around 325 and believed to have been commissioned by Emperor Constantine, the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity.

The library's frescoed reading and research rooms will officially reopen on Sept 20.

Around 5,000 scholars are given permission to conduct research each year but only the Pope is allowed to take a book out of the library.

Career Advice from Adrian Savage

While digging through some papers, I found this bit of wisdom from Adrian Savage, who used to write the now departed and deeply missed Slow Leadership blog and who wrote many fine management articles under the name of Carmine Coyote:

You don't need a life plan. You don't need motivation, self-confidence, peer support or even luck. All you need is the willingness to take the most obvious step - then repeat the process again and again, regardless of how you feel. Try it. Happiness comes from seeing the results of your efforts. You don't need it before you start.

Contrarian

I suspect that if the truth were known...

1. Many tombstones would read, "I Wish I'd Spent More Time at the Office."
2. A large number of attorneys think their clients are out of their minds.
3. There are many congregations in which the members possess a stronger faith than the minister.
4. The average Beltway journalist would support the creation of an American House of Lords, provided they -and others who believe as they do - would be members.
5. One of the key abilities of a college graduate is to be able to go through four years of indoctrination and be an independent thinker.
6. Human Resources departments would be transformed if the organization's entire leadership team had to reapply for their jobs every four years.
7. The massive amounts of information that swirl about us do not mean that we are better informed, but instead become the means through which we can pretend to be better informed.

Miscellaneous and Fast

• The Man Who Never Sleeps: Nicholas Bate is back!


• Renovation before innovation: An interview with marketing expert Sergio Zyman.


• Revisionist view: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu.


• FutureLawyer on VersusLaw.


• You know you want one: The Lower 48 by Ida Automotive.


• Cats and people with way too much time on their hands.


• Keep in desk: To combat melancholia.


• The trailer for "The Deep."


• At Cultural Offering: Possible future presidential contender?


• CoolTools looks at the TreeGator.
  

Quote of the Day

If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.

- Saint Francis of Assisi

Khan Academy

Are you up for some free online education via video?

Check out the Khan Academy.

[HT: What Would Dad Say]

Music Break: Satisfaction Guaranteed

It's the weekend.

Kick back and listen to Little Richard and Tom Jones sing "Send Me Some Lovin'."

Something Happened

I returned back to my town, and remained for the day at headquarters. We all seemed lost a bit, not completely comprehending what happened. We traded some stories of the small injuries, the trip into downtown. Some began assembling for volunteer crews into NYC for the overnight. They would end up parked on the FDR drive and remain empty and unused for several days. Waiting. No injured to treat, none to transport to the hospital ERs that also waited, stretchers ready, treatment rooms lit and stocked. The only survivors it seemed were those who posted the notices on walls, mailboxes, construction sites, who sat at phones, hands clasped, at tables, in driveways on chairs, looking for those missing, waiting for people to call, to come home. Waiting.

Several days later, I had to head into NYC for an appointment. I was early so stopped in at a coffee shop on my way out of Penn Station. While I sipped my coffee, a plane flew overhead. An ordinary plane, on an ordinary day. But everything, everyone, every sound, in that cafe, suddenly stopped. Silence. Waiting. As we listened to the plane fade away….

- From recollection of what happened that day and later at View From the Ledge.

Pyramid Break

Tara Brown of 60 Minutes (Australia) follows archaeologist John Romer as he discusses the secret of the pyramids:

Part One.

Part Two.