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See more of Valantin at http://www.youtube.com/preciosa454

“Waking Life”, a plethora of philosophical ideas from various viewpoints.

check out http://www.learntoquestion.com

Wise words from Walt Disney himself!!!

Keep them coming…I read them all!!!

via www.Harrysworld.com.au

Today I met a lady who told me that I was wasting my time with social media.  She said that it was a waste of time and that we (society) don’t need it, especially twitter.

I took a few deep breaths and listened to her opinions then tried to explain that it is a very powerful tool that should be embraced and used in a positive way.  She continued to tell me we don’t need it as she expressed her hatred of twitter and other forms of social media.

I again took a few deep breaths to try to think of something prudent to say then out of nowhere a cool analogy came to me.  I said in a very respectful way, it’s true we don’t need social media just like how you don’t need to wear make up.  And depending on how you apply it, it can be either positive or negative.

I certainly did not come across as rude, but it did make her stop and think about the analogy.

The human mind behaves as if it were divided into two parts, the Thinker and the Prover.

The Thinker can think about virtually anything.  History shows that it can think the earth is suspended on the back of infinite turtles or that the Earth is hollow, or that the Earth is floating in space; comparative religion and philosophy show that Thinker can regard itself as mortal, as immortal, as both mortal and immortal (the reincarnation model) or even as non-existent.  It can think itself into living in a Christian universe, a Marxist universe, a scientific-relativistic universe – among many possibilities.   (more…)

Published on Sunday, February 21, 2010 by The Boston Globe
Tracking a New Kind of Civil Disobedience by Kathleen Burge

NEWTON, Mass. – As Newton resident Lisa Dodson, a Boston College sociology professor in the thick of a research project, was interviewing a grocery story manager in the Midwest about the difficulties of the low-income workers he supervised, he asked her a curious question: “Don’t you want to know what this does to me too?”

She did.  And so the manager talked about the sense of unfairness he felt as a supervisor, making enough to live comfortably while overseeing workers who couldn’t feed their families on the money they earned.  That inequality, he told her, tainted his job, making him feel complicit in an unfair system that paid hard workers too little to cover basic needs. (more…)

A well-heeled Philadelphia school district gave out laptops to students, then used the webcams attached to covertly spy on them, both at school and at home, according to a class-action lawsuit.  The case, Blake J. Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, was filed after one of the school’s vice principals disciplined Robbins’s son for improper behavior in his home, using a photo taken from the camera as evidence, according to the filing.

The laptops were issued to 1,800 students at three high schools in the district, each with a built-in webcam that, according to the lawsuit, administrators can activate remotely and covertly.  The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all the students and their parents. They’re seeking damages for invasion of privacy, theft of private information, and unlawful interception and access of electronic information.

Share your thoughts!

via www.newser.com

“The questions challenge the beliefs, morals and foundation of “your world”…Sakiya proves his innovative talent as a wordsmith and utilizes each word to its creative capacity.” Melody Hoffman, JET Magazine

“The contents of this book possess a concept which is as vital to the human mind as water and oxygen are to the human body.” Harry O’Brien, Collingwood Football Club

BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO READ MY LATEST LITERARY EFFORT!
All pre-orders will be shipped prior to release date of March 22,2010,

To pre-order your copy today, click –>

(more…)

“The questions challenge the beliefs, morals and foundation of “your world”…Sakiya proves his innovative talent as a wordsmith and utilizes each word to its creative capacity.” Melody Hoffman, JET Magazine

“The contents of this book possess a concept which is as vital to the human mind as water and oxygen are to the human body.” Harry O’Brien, Collingwood Football Club

BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO READ MY LATEST LITERARY EFFORT!
All pre-orders will be shipped prior to release date of March 22,2010, PLUS the first 250 fellow thinkers to order will receive a signed and numbered metallic ink cover edition.

To pre-order your copy today, click –> (more…)

The myth of futility leads to internal depression in the face of external, economic depressions. It makes us feel like since there’s nothing we can do to influence the economy, then we’re just doomed to suffer along with everyone else.

The reality is that while national economic forces do impact you, you still have control over your prosperity. It’s a myth that the Great Depression was a time of suffering for all Americans; for many it was a time of great prosperity. James Gregory, Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington, says that, [During the Depression] about a third of the population suffered unemployment and difficulty.  About a third of the population maintained their standard of living, and another third of the population did better in the course of the 1930’s than they had done before.

The question is which third will you be in during the current economic downturn? Will you wallow in poverty, thinking that you have little control, will you simply maintain your current standard of living, or will you seize the opportunity to prosper?

via www.briantracey.com

 

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“…everybody has a good idea, nobody wants to put in the work. Don’t tell me what you’re going to do, show me what you’ve done and maybe… finally I’ll write you that check.”

- from HBO’s new show “How To Make It In America”

Â

By James Garvey

Is being opinionated a virtue or a vice? Is it a good trait in a philosopher?  I’m with Socrates in thinking that definitions really come at the end of an enquiry, not the beginning, so I don’t want to pin the notion down right at the start.  There are, though, two philosophical types.  One gets mentioned to prospective students in the promotional literature: philosophers are open-minded free enquirers, willing to question everything, resolute denouncers of dogmatism, pursuers of the truth, followers of arguments wherever they might lead — at this point you may wish to rise, stare into the middle distance, and allow the wind to blow back your hair.  This creature is mostly fictional. Maybe it’s just our way of luring easy targets to introductory classes. (more…)

“Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.”

- Benjamin Franklin

Any and all who are familiar with the Calvin Klein brand know that it’s not a stranger of creating very controversial advertisements. It seems as if anything goes as long as it has the CK logo on it…from what could’ve been interpreted as child pornography, to a straight to the point ménage à trois, to now this!

Of course I applaud the art director on this campaign because one can’t deny that it’s a very strong image that provokes thought which in turn definitely grabbed my attention…but once it had it, I was stuck on why?

Believing strongly in the power of imagery and that a picture says a thousand words, my mind raced to understand the intended message in this billboard advertisement AND more importantly how does it translate to someone eventually making a Calvin Klein purchase?

Pease share your thoughts on this one!

Sidebar: By no way am I being compensated for this…I’m just simply intrigued by the artistic expression in the advertisement.

This was the TED Talk video that was shown right before I went on at TEDx Istanbul and the only thing I was thinking was how am I going to follow this guy…LOL!!!

It’s definitely worth the watch…enjoy!!!

Dear Mr. Mathews,

First I would like to commend you for the passion you express in your beliefs, but unfortunately that’s where the compliments must end.  It seems that you have become so engulfed in “your world” that you have greatly compromised your perspective of “the world”.

You see sir, in “your world” it would make perfect sense that everyone would bow to your demands and have no freedom of self-expression.  Everyone would fear the consequences of going against the dress standards that you and your court have deemed inappropriate.  The flaw in your perspective is that it doesn’t seem to be strong enough to accept when someone else happens to be strong enough to consciously decides NOT to partake in “your world”.

Perhaps you didn’t get the e-mail, text message or even the tweet that there are a lot of rational independent thinkers that just happen to reside outside of your world… (more…)

Attitude is the way you mentally look at the world around you. It is how you view your environment and your future. It is the focus you develop toward life itself.

Alametifarika is launching the world’s most important intellectual platform in Turkey and I’m a honored to annouce that I’ve been invited to present my thoughts at their first TEDxIstanbul Conference on January 23, 2010 at the Sabanc Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The event’s theme is The Limits of Tolerance and can be watched live via www.TEDxIstanbul.com/webcast. I PRESENT AROUND 11AM (4AM EST)

Outstanding thinkers from around the world will address the presence, absence, possibility, impossibility, power, and weakness of tolerance in terms of science, art, politics, trade and technology.

Speaker’s List:
Ann Pellegrini  / Janet Jakobsen  / Lone FrankÂ
J. Sakiya Sandifer / Arun Kundnani  / Sharon Begley
Babar Luck  / Sevan NiŸanyan  /Michel Bourse
Nihal Bengisu Karaca  /
Sertab Erener & Demir Demirkan  / Painted on Water

As being one of the world’s most important intellectual platforms, TED, is offering the opportunity to realize a TED-like experience with its local and self-organized events.  TED Conferences invites expert academics, politicians and artists with the slogan “Ideas worth Spreading for 18 minute speeches.

For more about  the TEDxIstanbul Conference, visit www.TedxIstanbul.com

The more and more that I discover about myself and others, the more and more I become convinced that one’s life just simply comes down to “will”. As Kid Cudi says,” it’s as simple as that for your simple ass”…and sidebar, I’m really digging the vibe of his album and I don’t even smoke…LOL!!!

Getting back to the point, one’s will is more powerful than most people think or even can imagine. There are countless examples of great accomplishments that were achieved by someone just making a total commitment to whatever their I will _____was.

My fellow thinkers, life is really just  that simple. I would even dare to say that everyone’s life after the age of about eleven or twelve is a clear reflection of their WILLs and WILL NOT THINK ABOUT IT!!!

First allow me to apologize for the lack of new posts lately.  My plan is to start writing more original content this year, but I’ve been too busy obsessing over my new book plus finishing up another book project that I co-authored/designed with Marc Cinque, CEO of Premio Foods and Matt Eventoff of Princeton Public Speaking. Click here to  check out the book cover.

So my fellow thinkers, finally a cover that I’m satisfied with…YIPEE!!!! After all the drafts created, I decided to go with simplicity.  I spent about six hours in book stores this past Saturday just looking at book covers and all the ones that stood out to me didn’t have anything on it that wasn’t necessary.

Although it’s simple, there’s multiple meanings in the cover.  One of the meanings for example is the gray color palette which represents how most questions and answers are subjective and shouldn’t be look at in black and white.

Stay tuned…available for pre-sale soon!!!

This is the time of year when many of us take time to reflect and relive the year’s ups and downs.  We miss our love ones who are no longer here, reminisce over our lovers from past and smile about our new ones.  Although there were some decisions that we surely regret, there were also some that made us feel as smart as Einstein.

We had moments of historic proportions as well as “more of the same”.  Unfortunately there were many people that  lost while a few gained when it comes to finances. I project 2010 will produce an unprecedented amount of entrepreneurs…not out of choice, but necessity.

It will pay to think outside the box when it comes to making money.

Especially when you find out there’s actually a niche for your crazy idea.  Here are a few of the craziest ways people are making money in this economy. (more…)

I was reading fellow thinker Harry Webbers’ blog (www.madisonavenew.com) recently about how when you see something so freaking great, that a part of you hates that it wasn’t something that you created.  Mr. Webber’s example was the Converse ad where Mos Def did the narration with just a CGI ball moving throughout a empty gym.  The first thing that came to my mind was the this Apple Commercial that I originally posted in August of 2008. (more…)

Barney Pressman, founder of New York-based luxury chain Barneys, owed a lot of his success to his wife.  When Pressman saw a small store in Manhattan going under in 1923, he wanted to buy it and open a clothing store of his own.

There was just one problem…he didn’t have the cash.  When Pressman told his wife, Bertha, about this predicament, she slipped off her engagement ring and told him to pawn it.  With the $500 Pressman got from hocking his wife’s diamond, he took over the failing store’s lease and bought 40 high-end suits, which were the original inventory when Barney’s Clothes opened its doors shortly thereafter.

What a trooper that Bertha was!!!  I really like this story because it exemplifies perfectly the importance of your circle of influence.  More often than not, it is the key factor that will have the greatest impact between your success or failure.

I leave you with the words of one of my best friends, Mr. Erik Canandy…success is a choice, so choose wisely!!!

Topics range from business to politics, religion to education, relationships to self-empowerment, to pop-culture and everything else in between. Tune in and join in the discussion where great minds don’t think a like…they think for themselves!!!

“In general, I feel if you can’t say it clearly you don’t understand it yourself.”

-fellow thinker
John Searle