“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.””
-Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream”. August 28, 1963
I remember every Martin Luther King, Jr holiday, our teachers in elementary school would have us watch Dr. King’s famous speech from 1963. His voice echoing for equality was beyond an young child’s understanding, but his emotion was transcendent.
As I have grown up, the memory of watching Dr. King echoes through my mind every Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. For this holiday, the words of “I Have a Dream” became even more poignant for me. This year, the holiday to honor Dr. King coincided with the Presidential Inauguration of an African-American President and I was fortunate enough to bear witness.
The crowd in Washington, DC in 2013 must have mirrored the crowd on the National Mall in 1963. The crowd represented individuals of all ages, all races, all religions, all creeds from all states regardless of distance. It did not matter who they were, or if they knew each other before the event, the viewing of the inauguration was like a reunion between old friends. We joked about the trees blocking our view, we cheered with our first peek of Michelle Obama, and we shared stories about what this moment meant to us.
The most moving part of the crowd for me was seeing the older African Americans. They had braved the cold, braved the crowd, and braved their health to be witness to history. As I watched the excitement on their faces, I wondered how many of them were able to witness Dr. King’s speech fifty years ago, not as a videotape as I remembered, but as a live event. The emotion of this moment for them was given away by their voices when they cheered, “Amen” during Myrlie-Evers Williams’s invocation. In fifty years, they had come so far from the injustices of segregation to having an African-American President sworn into a second term.
The t-shirt vendors off the National Mall and streets of DC got it right. Their shirts had a picture of Dr. King and President Obama, with the caption, “Dream Fulfilled”. What a profound inaugural day. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream indeed.
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 5:00 PM ET
In case you’ve been under a rock for the past week, dethroned cyclist Lance Armstrong ‘told all’ to the queen of the confessional, Oprah Winfrey. And most people reacted much like Claude Rains’ character in Casablanca upon learning about gambling at Rick’s – “we’re shocked, simply shocked” – or something to that effect. The highly promoted, well-publicized interview covered many subjects, but I was surprised that Oprah stayed away from the good stuff, or at least what seems most interesting for a hopeless romantic like me who knows nothing about competitive cycling (but is addicted to Downton Abbey and Jane Austen): his love life! Armstrong has certainly been a cad to his teammates, trainers, sponsors, and anyone else he’s sued or insulted (and I love his defense of all the horrid things he said about his teammate’s wife, claiming as long as he didn’t say she was ‘fat’, all the other names he called her were okay). But he’s been spectacularly awful to his romantic partners, dumping his first wife for a glamorous rockstar, whom he then very publicly dumped because she wanted kids, ironically next taking up with a child star (okay, Ashley Olsen was an adult by that point but she still looks like a teenage waif), and then adding insult to injury by having two kids with the newest girlfriend.
I’m hoping the resilient and talented Ms. Crow will pull a Taylor Swift and write some devastating new song about Armstrong’s betrayal of her, but in the meantime, I’ve taken a stab at it myself.
By Nancy Slotnick, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET
I never would have thought, when I was single, that those 4 words could sound so sexy. “We’ve got an hour.” With a raised eyebrow it becomes a full-fledged turn-on. At least I have the hour. Usually.
As I prepare to fully enter the world of new media when my iPhone 5 arrives next week, I find myself sad to retire my Crackberry. Those little keys on the keypad are so easy and so soothing. I can get so much done. Or nothing at all. When both my husband and my son started complaining that I was so addicted to my Blackberry that I didn’t notice them, I knew I had a problem. I had just thought I was a Blackberry Girl.
So I started realizing that how I spend my time might have some impact on whether I am reaching my goals. I know I’m always busy. Emails, texts, constant communication. But maybe I’m just running a treadmill?
Ironically, they had a marathon of Ground Hog Day on TBS or something last week. (Yes, they played it over and over. Lol.) Like a sucker, I watched even though I have seen it many times before. (I watched in between emails, anyway.) I didn’t see the end but I asked my friend who is a huge Bill Murray fan: “What finally got him to the next day?” It was when he started focusing on the people in his life in a helpful and vulnerable way. He wasn’t concerned about what he was getting from them. But he still was going after what he wanted. (i.e. Andie MacDowell.)
I want to recommend to you, if you are single, to be Bill Murray. Try to be Bill Murray in the last go ‘round of Ground Hog Day, not Bill Murray in Caddyshack. (The pond is not so good for you.) Bill Murray in Lost in Translation is not bad either.
What this means— There’s a guy who was in the papers this week because he has spent $65,000 on Matchmakers and has not gotten a mate. I have not worked with him but supposedly I might be approached next. (at least that’s what the Yahoo reporter said when she quoted me)
Here’s what I would tell him: I run a matchmaking company, Matchmaker Cafe, but I don’t consider myself a matchmaker because finding love cannot be outsourced. It cannot be figured out on paper nor by an algorithm. You have to meet. Emailing and texting is only useful to the extent that you use that technology to set up a date. At Matchmaker Café we facilitate dates because you are busy and you may need a concierge. We don’t promise to find the person for you. You have to collaborate with us, to have some skin in the game. We know that you don’t need endless email noise and phone tag. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on matchmakers and your iPhone (or Blackberry!) is not going to help you that much. You need to have a date. And you need to show up for it. It’s as simple as that. But over and over. Until it works, like Bill Murray.
Read the rest of… Nancy Slotnick: We’ve Got an Hour
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Mon Jan 21, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET
Where was your country 3200 years ago? Were loin-clothed warriors chasing wild game with spears? Were people living nomadically or in cities? If they lived in cities, did their world extend beyond the city walls? Odds are you, like I, don’t know much about what happened at our home 3200 years ago. Egypt though is different, not only is their history known, but the temples, tools and writings still exist. There is nowhere that has as much history, as old as Egypt, making the entire country a true World Wonder.
Were your ancestors being subjugated by the powerful Egyptians as these “Asians” and “Africans” are depicted at the Abu Simbel Temple?
Egypt’s major sights are spread conveniently along the Nile as the Ancient Egyptian society was for thousands of years. Where to start though? How about the bottom end of the Empire, visiting sights as the Nile flows to the North? Not only does this make for easy trip planning, but also makes the trip easier to enjoy, beginning in tranquil Aswan, working your way towards the chaos of the 21-million person capital, Cairo.
Abu Simbel’s massive statues have stood along the Nile for over 3200 years to demonstrate Egyptian supremacy. They stand to warn welcome you to the Pharaoh’s territory…
What will you see by starting in Aswan? You’ll start walking like an Egyptian in one of the country’s best sights, the Abu Simbel Temples.
Read the rest of… Matt & Erica Chua: Walk Like an Egyptian — Starting Point
Learn by doing. Constantly test new ideas. Learn, share and repeat. The world is ever changing — stay ahead of the curve. Embrace the art of discovery.
We need to try more stuff. Innovation is never about silver bullets. It’s about experimentation and doing whatever it takes, even if it means trying 1,000 things, to deliver value. Business model innovation requires a lot more experimentation than we are comfortable with today. Tweaking existing business models won’t work. Technology as a sustaining innovation may improve the efficiency of current business models but will not result in the transformation that we all want and need. We need to learn how to leverage technology for disruptive innovation and to experiment with new business models.
Geoffrey Canada, the inspiring founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone in NYC, reminds us of the importance of constant experimentation. Everyone wants to know the one thing that makes a program like Harlem Children’s Zone successful. What is the silver bullet that will allow the program to be replicated with ease across the country? We are always looking for an easy answer. There is no silver bullet and it is not easy to transform any business model or social system. According to Canada, at Harlem Children’s Zone it is doing 1,000 things with passion to help those children succeed. It is about focusing on the customer, in this case, the children within 100 city blocks in Harlem and doing what ever it takes to help them secure a bright future. There is no one thing.
Business model innovation is all about experimentation. It is about combining and recombining capabilities from across silos until something clicks and value is delivered in a new way. It is never just one thing. It starts with a big idea that gets the juices flowing and attracts others with similar passion to the new approach. The big idea has to be translated from the white board on to a real world test bed to demonstrate that the idea is feasible. Starting small and demonstrating progress is key to building credibility and expanding a network of interested stakeholders. An ongoing portfolio of small-scale experiments to fail fast on those without merit and to prioritize those with the potential to scale is critical.
We also must get far more comfortable with hacking capabilities. Capabilities are the amino acids of innovation. They are the building blocks that enable value delivery. Innovation is a better way to deliver value and is often the result of repurposing existing capabilities. Locking capabilities into rigid organization structures and proprietary closed systems gets in the way of unleashing new sources of value and solving many of the important challenges of our time. Innovation is about hacking capabilities. Business model innovation happens when we enable random capability collisions resulting in new and unexpected ways to deliver value.
A good example of the power and potential of hacking capabilities is Microsoft’s (MSFT) Kinect. Microsoft introduced Kinect in November 2010 as a product extension to its Xbox franchise. Kinect adds a very cool capability for Xbox game players by getting rid of the hand held game controller and turning players into their own controllers. Microsoft and cool haven’t been used in the same sentence for a long time. Kinect is cool.
Read the rest of… Saul Kaplan: Experiment All the Time
Do you ever get so sick of your wardrobe that you want to toss the whole thing out the window? I often hear that sentiment from new clients – they’re tired of wearing the same boring blue shirt and khakis every day. I don’t blame them. If you don’t work at Blockbuster, why dress like it? If you’re in this kind of rut, now’s as good a time as ever to define a new personal style. Below are eight tips on how to do that:
1) Look for inspiration from celebrities, magazines and style blogs. Earmark looks or parts of looks that you want to try.
2) Try elements of what you like and ask a friend whose opinion you value and who you know will be honest.
3) Incorporate elements of your personality into your style. Love your Vespa? Wear a pair of cufflinks that pays homage to it. Integrating features of your unique personality into your look will help you feel more comfortable in your own skin – and make it more likely that you’ll actually wear your new items.
4)Go ground up. The easiest, most pain-free first step in a style redo is new footwear – mostly because there’s no tailoring involved, so you can literally walk out of the store in them. There’s something about a great pair of shoes that makes you stand straighter and walk with more swagger.
5) Make sure the new look you select works for your body type. How to tell? Check out your overall silhouette in the mirror. Many of us home in on a certain part of our bodies when checking ourselves out. Try a more macro approach and see yourself as a larger whole. If the overall shape appeals to you, you’ll know it’s flattering.
6) If you’re nervous to try something new, make like Gavin and take it for a test drive to the grocery store. See how you feel when you’re there. No one has to know you’re just going to the supermarket!
7)Try a little at a time. I’ve seen too many closets full of one particular style that the client went whole hog on without realizing that it wasn’t right for him (Western shirts, I’m looking at you!). So pick one to start. If you find yourself going to that item again and again, you’re ready to commit to getting more.
8)Be patient and open-minded when you look at yourself in the mirror. Your eye is used to seeing you dressed in one specific way. The new look might be jarring and take some getting used to – like a new haircut.
Defining your own personal style takes some work, but it’s definitely worth it. Try the steps above, and let me know in the comments how you do. And if you’d like more tailored help with ramping up your look, contact me.
For the past 4-5 years the fitness industry has seen the increased popularity of the kettlebell. This very simple, yet very effective piece of equipment can literally shape and form one’s physique. I can also point out that research states that no other piece of equipment burns as many calories per minute and increases lean body mass than the kettlebell. I and my clients (as you can see in the videos below) use kettlebells often. We can hit more muscles per exercise than most any other apparatus. So lets take a look at the history of this piece of equipment and show some different exercises:
Oh, you said “Kettlebell”!
The kettlebell (also called a girya) is a piece of cast iron that looks like a basketball with a suitcase handle. The kettlebell was born in Russia, and is centuries old and first appeared in a Russian dictionary in 1704. In a 1913 article “Not a single sport develops our muscular strength and bodies as well as kettlebells. The United States Secret Service utilizes a single arm snatch test: 10 minutes with a 24 kg kettlbell for 250 reps. So from a scientific point of view why would one pick kettlebells:
Displaced Center of Gravity – The center of gravity of the KB is six to eight inches below the center of your hand. Barbells and dumbbells center the weight with your hand. The offset of the KB makes the weight “alive” in your hand and increases the difficulty and benefit of many of the drills. KBs can do anything a dumbbell can do, even better – but not vice-versa.
Thick Handles – Thick bar training is a proven way to increase grip strength and the difficulty of certain drills.
Variety – The number of KB drills is only limited by your imagination and safety. One KB, two KB and combination drills provide unlimited protection from boredom.
Trains Hip Extension – Ballistic KB drills provide an intense load to the hips and posterior chain. Very similar to the vertical leap, this “grooved” hip extension transfers to many athletic skills such as jumping, running and throwing.
Trains Deceleration – When you “catch” the KB by “throwing” it behind you, the agonists and antagonists must co-contract to produce force reduction and deceleration of the weight. This is a skill we use daily when we change directions while walking or running.
Balance of Tension and Relaxation – Tension is strength; relaxation is speed. An athlete must balance both to maximize skill. KB training utilizes a balance of tension and relaxation.
Training Will Power – When the KB drills are done for high repetitions, they forge an iron will and iron body. Try a 10-minute set of snatches for proof. Enjoy the pain.
Fun – With the ability to actually “juggle,” spin, pass hand to hand and throw the KB, KB training has a fun factor and variety not found in traditional training.
By Ronald J. Granieri, on Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET
FIRING LINE 2.0
Click here for the podcast
Moderated by Ronald J. Granieri, Director of FPRI’s Center for the Study of America and the West
Featuring James Kurth, Senior Fellow, FPRI Professor of Political Science Emeritus and Senior Research Scholar at Swarthmore College
The recent elections in the U.S. have unleashed a flood of articles from journalists and political operatives about the future of conservatism and the Republican Party. Nevertheless, few if any of those articles have considered the historical roots of the current situation, nor have their authors the historical and analytical skills to move beyond a simple analysis of immediate political tactics.
On November 15, 2012, FPRI Senior Fellow James Kurth presented his article, The Crisis of American Conservatism: Inherent Contradictions and the End of a Road, to the Study Group on America and the West. The combination of Professor Kurth’s deeper perspective and analytical skill inspired a lively conversation on the part of the participants of that evening’s seminar. Confident that it will also inspire interest and controversy among the larger circle of FPRI members and partners, we are excited to continue the conversation at this inaugural session of Firing Line 2.0, when moderator Ron Granieri will “interrogate” Professor Kurth — with help from theaudience.
About Firing Line 2.0: In the spirit of William Buckley’s Firing Line, TV’s longest-running public affairs show (1966-1999), FPRI’s Ron Granieri will “interrogate” guest scholars on subjects in the news—with help from the audience. Each month we will feature one or two scholars drawn from among FPRI’s 85 affiliated scholars or outside guests. We look forward to a uniquely interactive program, offering real substance and emphasizing active audience participation.
“Each Person’s life is like a mandala—a vast limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear, and think, forms the mandala of our life. We enter a room, and the room is our mandala. We get on the subway, and the subway car is our mandala, down to the teenager checking messages on her i-phone, and the homeless man slumped in the corner. We go for a hike in the mountains and everything as far as we can see is our mandala: the clouds, the trees, the snow on the peaks, even the rattlesnake coiled.”
~Pema Chodron, Living Life Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change
Standing in the center of our own lives is a powerful place to be. If life is in fact a vast limitless circle, it means that not only are all our experiences meaningful and brimming with potential, it also means that our loved ones have their own mandalas to create—even if that means they must make mistakes and experience painful struggle at times.
This was, is still sometimes, a tough concept for me as a mother. I want to prevent problems before they occur especially because my acute foresight spots a snag just as it begins to unravel. And why should it have to unravel if it doesn’t have to? Unraveling is bad. Bad unraveling, bad!
I have lost many nights of sleep and found many a pizza and pint of ice cream in my fretful worrying about unraveling. There are so many people in my life for who my help, if only they would follow it exactly as directed, could be spared struggle, disappointment, anguish, a sore throat, even.
But the truth is that considering the magnitude and mystery of the grand scheme of things here, there’s no way to tell if someone else’s experience is actually an unraveling. Chances are quite good in fact that one’s perception of another’s pitfall is really an incomplete view. You can only stand in the center of your own mandala, not someone else’s. What if their struggles, disappointments, anguish and re occurrent sore throat are meant to lead them to more deeply intricate aspects of personal mandala design?
This realization could unburden many a Catholic and Jewish mother.
What’s more, Pema Chodron goes on to say, “But it’s up to you whether your life is a mandala of neurosis or a mandala of sanity.”
If I habitually lose sleep and gain pizza because of someone else’s problem, I have carefully created a new problem where none existed, and, am choosing to live it as I decide to create a life of neurosis for myself.
Phew. Well, when I put it that way…
Conversely and coincidentally, as I sit down to edit this article this morning—waiting for my computer to boot up—I glance at Facebook on another device and see right there in my news feed the proof that this is all true: “My happiness depends on me, so you are off the hook.”
This realization could unburden many a spouse, parent, friend, employee, parent, grocery checker, teacher, aunt, and parent.
Dear loved ones, you are officially off the hook. And, I will officially really, really try to stop worrying about you—I know I’m off the hook. See you from the center.
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Jan 15, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
When people need a break from partisan politics, economic woes, traffic, overflowing email boxes, and the other challenges of modern life, many turn to the usual methods of escape – football playoffs, the 2-for-1 happy hour martini special, or catching up on “Say Yes To The Dress.” But for many of us, the ultimate escape is Downton Abbey, the PBS costume drama that has surprised even public t.v. fans and become a runaway cult hit.
And our devotion to the show can border on obsession – so to tell if you’re totally hooked, here are a few questions:
– Do you think Lord Grantham is blind to Thomas’s scheming, or just misses Bates so much that he doesn’t notice?
(and bonus point: Can you pronounce ‘valet’ properly?)
– Have you ever wondered how Daisy has worked in the kitchen at least since 1912 and by 1920 hasn’t found another job, used any of the money she got as a war widow, or in fact aged one bit?
– Was Lady Mary technically a virgin on her wedding night? (Which involves answering whether Mr. Pamuk’s heart attack was before or after they did or didn’t do anything, as well as debating whether Mary secretly wanted him to come to her room.)
– Have you started referring to Sybil’s husband as ‘Thom,’ or is he still ‘Branson’ to you? (And before they eloped, how many times did you watch a scene with them and shouted to the television, “Just kiss her already!”?)
– Will O’Brien ever confess about the bathtub episode which caused the miscarriage?, or if not, will she at least update her bangs?
– How does Anna get so much time off (to sleuth for her unjustly incarcerated husband) yet still manage to be both head housemaid and lady’s maid to the two girls?
If you understand these questions enough to answer any of them, then yes, you’re a Downton Abbey addict. However, if the questions make absolutely no sense to you and you fail to see the appeal of what sounds like a silly soap opera, try to see it from a fan’s point of view. Of course it’s silly, and like all good soap operas it’s full of ridiculous plot twists, overly convenient coincidences, and sappy, manipulative moments that make you cry even while you’re thinking, this is stupid.
BUT – and this is the key point – – also like a good soap opera, the characters engage the audience. Villains we love to hate, persecuted martyrs we root for, unrequited lovers we want to unite – Downton Abbey has all those and more, including the resident font of brilliant sarcasm, the Dowager Countess (and bonus points if you know her first name is ‘Violet’ but she should still be addressed as Lady Grantham even though Cora has superceded her as Countess). Plus Downton gilds all those soap opera traditions in a lovely veneer of historical details, fabulous period costumes and mellifluous English accents – so we get to feel intelligent while indulging in a guilty pleasure. Haven’t you ever known someone with a British accent, who can make even the most banal statement sound erudite? ( “Dahling, I’m terribly afraid that one must go to the loo” sounds ever so much more elegant than “I gotta pee.”) And we don’t mind the silly plot twists when the characters are dressed so beautifully (although am I the only one who wonders if they’re wearing equally period-authentic undergarments?) or using what look like real antique kitchen tools and feather dusters. Add in the magnificent Maggie Smith, who could read the phone book and make it witheringly brilliant, and it’s no wonder the show is such a success.
So here’s my version of the theme music (which is actually pretty strange and more suited to a Hercule Poirot mystery) in tribute to Downton Abbey fans and the people who love them but don’t quite understand them . . .
I remember every Martin Luther King, Jr holiday, our teachers in elementary school would have us watch Dr. King’s famous speech from 1963. His voice echoing for equality was beyond an young child’s understanding, but his emotion was transcendent.
I want to recommend to you, if you are single, to be Bill Murray. Try to be Bill Murray in the last go ‘round of Ground Hog Day, not Bill Murray in Caddyshack. (The pond is not so good for you.) Bill Murray in Lost in Translation is not bad either.
Business model innovation is all about experimentation. It is about combining and recombining capabilities from across silos until something clicks and value is delivered in a new way. It is never just one thing. It starts with a big idea that gets the juices flowing and attracts others with similar passion to the new approach. The big idea has to be translated from the white board on to a real world test bed to demonstrate that the idea is feasible. Starting small and demonstrating progress is key to building credibility and expanding a network of interested stakeholders. An ongoing portfolio of small-scale experiments to fail fast on those without merit and to prioritize those with the potential to scale is critical.
Conversely and coincidentally, as I sit down to edit this article this morning—waiting for my computer to boot up—I glance at Facebook on another device and see right there in my news feed the proof that this is all true: “My happiness depends on me, so you are off the hook.”