To Be and To Have

Jul 31
2010

A rich individual like Zalman Silber is broadly admired for making a lot of money and giving it away. From a certain perspective, that is the best of all worlds, to be a winner in life with access to the world’s luxuries while also doing good: to be respected for one’s material achievements as well as spiritual aspirations.

Yet for all the Zalman Silbers of the world, there is a world of difference between being and having. Many mistake having with being – the more they have, the bigger they are, as if a better person is produced by ever more goods. Yet real good comes about not from possession – or, even, good works – but from being, true being.

It is a hard thing to understand, as most of us take life very much for granted. We believe that to be is the simplest thing in the world – but we discount our own humanity in supposing that, plant-like, all we need is some light and water and we are all that we can be.

No, not even having a beachfront mansion with a helicopter out front and a yacht out back on your very own island makes you all that you can be. To be fully human, we must also understand deprivation, fear, want – we must experience life in all its totality.

We must empathize. For the act of empathy makes us most human – the exercise of our imaginations, the use of our unique ability to almost literally put ourselves in another’s stead.

And hence the distinction between being and having. One sees this very clearly in a classroom, even in college, where most students scribble away furiously, taking down notes as the professor speaks. Yet how much are they really retaining if half their brains are busy recording what was said instead of being fully engaged in what is said?

Full undivided attention means precisely that. It is the total direct no-holds-barred personal experience of what is going on, what is being said – and what that means in all its implications. In the act of note-taking, however, one is necessarily forever playing “catch up,” with a significant amount of one’s attention focused on the act of recording – and editing, moreover: a necessarily “distancing” set of behaviors.

It is as if these students imagine that the very having of some notes of the lecture constitutes knowledge itself – literally having knowledge – while the fact of the matter is that one best knows, most completely knows, in the direct experiencing of what is to be known.

This direct experience does not come from notes hastily jotted in a strobe light-like manner. It comes from being fully in the moment, as opposed to standing outside of it recording.

The Different Kinds Of House Arrests

Jul 31
2010

House arrest, also referred to as home incarceration, home confinement, and home detention, is a legal measure whereby a person is “jailed” at his or her own residence. Travel restrictions are severe and generally absolute, though in almost all other respects house arrest is extraordinarily more lenient alternative to actual imprisonment. It is normally employed in instances where such imprisonment might seem inappropriate given the nature of the crime or the circumstances of the criminal’s health, for instance.

House arrest is also a favorite tactic of authoritarian governments which adopt it as a half-way measure that might effectively neutralize a dissident while appearing humane. In such instances, communications are also heavily restricted, and it’s not unusual for such prisoners to be held incommunicado. Confinement under these circumstances also involves armed guards around the clock. For non-political crimes, however, electronic monitoring devices are almost always employed in lieu of security personnel.

Home incarceration has been tried as far back as the turn of the twentieth century, but could not grow to be a practical approach for widespread use until the invention of electronic monitoring devices that made such sentences inexpensive and easy to carry out and manage. This did not happen till 1983, but home confinement is now quite common and has become standardized. Usually, the subject has to wear a wrist or ankle bracelet (also called a tether) that contains a sensor which monitors how far he or she is from home.

Authorities are immediately summoned when proscribed boundaries are breached. Another approach of home incarceration involves the use of automated calling services that record the subject’s voice, checking it against a database of voice patterns. Authorities are notified if the call is not answered or if the voice does not seem to match. As can be imagined, electronic monitoring has made house arrests practical and economical to implement – especially with the stipulation that offenders pay for the costs associated with their own confinement!

GSM Cell Phones And Their Existence In Life

Jul 30
2010

GSM cellulars are the most popular in the earth. Estimates suggest that the standard comprises some 80% of all mobile phones in use throughout the planet. And while GSM cellphone devices are a all-pervasive feature of 1st world countries, it is their presence in far less “civilized” locations that best shows the reach and influence of current communications.

Think about Somalia: a huge, desert country on the eastern horn of Africa which for the past 20 years has been wracked by civil war as well as famine. Bombed out bullet riddled cities dot the barren landscape where for thousands of years, nomads have roamed the desert herding goats and camels across hundreds of miles from pastures in the damp season to market in the dry season. Even practical measures of distance here do not abide by the metric or imperial conditions utilized by the rest of the world.

Nomad measure distance through units called a Gedi: the distance a browsing herd animal may travel in a single day, which changes every season based on the physical strength of each herd. Even working automobiles are rare here, much less something sophisticated as a GSM cell phone. However the simple application of GSM cell phones, which we in the western world have long taken for granted, has proven unbelievably practical to this nomadic life style.

For generations, Somali herdsmen have followed an annual pattern. Towards the end of the year as soon as the dry season comes, they migrate from the more fertile areas elsewhere in the country, across the desert, to coastal cities where they can market their stock in the markets to traders from the Middle East and elsewhere. Keeping their animals in pens inside the cities while they organize a sale is incredibly costly, as they must consistently feed and water their herd with stores provided for by local merchants at obscene prices. They have no alternative. However, GSM cell phones have allowed them to forego this course of action.

A Somali nomad, a man dressed up in hand sewn clothes he has likely worn for most of his life, carrying a staff in the traditional posture – horizontally over his shoulders, his arms resting atop – a person who sleeps using a mat of thatched grass under the stars, beside a fire he built himself, can now merely make a phone call and organize the sale of his herd in advance. As opposed to lingering in the city for several days, expending what meager wealth he has on maintaining his herd there, hoping his sale can recover his losses and even turn a profit, he can now simply arrange to have a buyer prepared for him as soon as he arrives. Such high technology might appear incredibly out of place in Somalia, but it’s application is flawlessly suited to the needs of a nomad.

How A Ice Maker Machine Operates

Jul 30
2010

Ever wonder how a home ice maker machine works? Isn’t it magical that ice cubes materialize, just like that, as if out of thin air? Only a century ago ice was a luxury even in the United States and Europe, never mind ice makers! Back then, a delivery man would come around about once a week with huge heavy blocks of ice on his wagon. This ice came from much colder places, and had traveled far.

Even with the invention of modern refrigeration it wouldn’t be for several decades more that a home ice maker machine was offered for purchase – not to mention affordable for most! It was a whole other world back then, such that if you had lived in a much hotter locale, especially those near the equator, you could actually live your whole life without ever having seen an ice cube first-hand! And just how do these little modern marvels manage to make our lives so convenient now?

Almost all icemakers operate on a motor, a water valve, and a heating unit – yes, that’s correct, heating! This heating unit is what loosens the ice cubes produced from their mold; after all, ice can have quite a sticky quality, as you might unfortunately know all too well if you’ve ever licked a very cold fresh piece! The valve, of course, is to control the water coming from your water line. The motor powers it all.

But, guess what – it’s in fact the cooling unit of your refrigerator itself that does the actual work of freezing the water, not the ice maker itself! The ice maker does have a built-in thermostat that monitors the temperature of the water in the mold, however, as well as other parts necessary to produce the final product, a slew of ice cubes!

The Right Wedding Favors Can Make A Lasting Impression

Jul 29
2010

For the hosts, the right wedding favors can be as hard to find as wedding gifts might be to their guests. For while gifts have to reflect the social importance of the occasion while still accounting for the individual tastes of the recipients (both of them!), wedding favors need to satisfy one and all by being appropriate on several more levels. It can be tough enough to shop for one person, or even a couple – but how about for an entire guest list that may span some twenty to two hundred different tastes?

Of course, not very many individuals put so much thought (and consternation!) into deciding upon the wedding favors they will give out, for those who do it’s an crucial choice right up there alongside the kind of food to serve and the kind of venue to use. A great idea, however, is both safely innocuous while being practical as well as elegant and reflective of the occasion: Wine glasses!

Of course, it may be cheesy to give precisely the very gifts you yourself would be receiving, but then again it might not, depending on the quality of the set you give and, let’s be honest, how “important” your wedding is socially – after all, such favors from a high-society wedding will probably be more treasured than something from Aunt May’s sixth time up the aisle!

All kidding aside, however, the choice of favors is an important one as it is something by which you want your guests – your friends, family, and even colleagues – to remember you and your significant other at one of the high-points of your lives. It is like going to an exotic locale for vacation and bringing back a souvenir to your loved ones…a tee shirt. No, you will probably want your wedding to be rather more noteworthy than that!

When Giving Is Paying

Jul 28
2010

Paying forward is an idea much related to paying back, or as philanthropists such as Zalman Silber are used to saying, giving back. The reasoning behind it (more emotional than logical though it may be, it’s still a kind of reasoning) is that one gets as good as one gives. Of course, entirely altruistic motivations may be present for some – but there is surely no harm in the good will generated by the good publicity generated by the donation of one’s wealth towards communal edifices and institutions.

Not to single out Zalman Silber, of course; it is almost a rite of passage for a businessman to donate money. Indeed, there is no truer sign of having “made it” than being able to give large amounts of money away. But isn’t it interesting how much of this money winds up in the hands of religious institutions and political campaigns? Yes, yes, it’s their money and they can do with it whatever they wish – but we’re merely wondering aloud here, not claiming no one has a right to do with their own money anything they wish (so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone).

The concept of paying it forward means to set in motion a chain of events whereby complete strangers are helped out without any chance of reward or recompense for the helper. Someone needs bus fare? You help him or her out. That’s it. Nothing expected in return – except that he or she help someone else when they can, another stranger whom they would never meet again.

Sounds silly, no? People helping one another out for nothing at all, no fame, no public acclaim, no networking or connections made, nothing. Not simply donating to some esteemed charity and getting your name on a building somewhere, but just giving money away to complete strangers who need it with no more than the admonition to “pay it forward,” for them to help others out as well.

Do businessmen do this? Or do they only help their own? Is it a great credit to a man to help out his own family, his own friends, his own people? The great thing about paying it forward is that it is completely anonymous and totally thankless from a businessman’s bottom-line mentality. Money – or anything else, really – is given, and that’s all. It is about as genuine an act of altruism as possible, performed towards a complete stranger whom one would not ever expect meeting again and from whom one there is no indication of any reward or thanks. Truly paying it forward is almost Christian in its altruism and, even, sacrifice, though of course many cultures have long recognized the concept as one which distinguishes true giving from mere payment.

Celebrate Your Impending Brood with Baby Shower Party Supplies

Jul 28
2010

Baby showers are increasingly well-liked close to the world, and businesses have responded with baby shower party supplies specially created for the occasion. A baby shower is a celebration of the pending or recent birth of a baby, and typically although not necessarily women-only, specifically when held informally at one’s workplace with colleagues. Hispanics seem to be the ones who indulge in this kind of commemorative events the most, although as previously mentioned the practice is a growing one worldwide.

Baby showers are, nonetheless, usually regarded as getting an American tradition, having been started by a German immigrant during the eighteenth century, a silversmith and businessman who encouraged gift-giving amongst the upper classes of New York. (Whether he also sold them cheap party supplies is unknown!) Also, the word “shower” in “baby shower” is assumed to refer to the fact that the woman receiving the honors is showered with gifts, but this etymology is in dispute.

Baby showers were originally meant for ladies but with its popularity has come the attendance of men. It had also been traditional for baby showers to be held only for the first child, even though over time the tradition was extended for each birth. Nowadays, you will find even men-only baby showers, usually for homosexuals. In some cultures, for instance amongst particular Jews and Ethiopians, a celebration only takes place after the actual birth.

Baby showers are now getting held in Europe and Asia too. Within the a lot more conventional cultures of Third World countries, baby showers still remain a women-only affair. In the United States, more formal baby showers take spot outside the workplace while those occurring at work usually involve the mother being taken out to lunch or dinner by her colleagues in addition to receiving gifts and even outright cash. Even though this kind of events can involve organization approval, they are nearly often organized by a close friend between coworkers.

Being that these kinds of baby showers are fairly ad hoc events, you can find very few typical practices or rules. Thus, like bridal showers and bachelor’s parties, they’re often open to new ideas. For instance, rubbing the expectant mother’s belly is now something that’s usually entertained. In this regard, 3D ultrasound photos are also passed around. Less elaborate celebrations are occasionally called diaper showers, involving small necessities for example diapers and baby food, usually for those expectant mothers who already have kids and presumably need far less.

Have Your Hair Back with Kosher Wigs

Jul 26
2010

Kosher Wigs are certified by rabbinical oversight to make sure that they comply with all halachic requirements, especially after controversies in 1990 and 2005 over using Indian hair in such wigs. Individuals incidents included the query of whether or not hair shorn during pagan religious ceremonies ought to be considered unclean, right after the age-old stipulation concerning the use of objects associated with idol worship, namely that no good can come from such points. In both cases a complete rabbinical inquiry, total with “on the ground” investigative teams, concluded that practically nothing was halachically amiss. But the harm had been done by then, as many wigmakers now shun using Indian hair as a result of every one of the bad publicity produced. As an alternative, a lot with the Asian hair utilized in manufacturing these wigs come from China, from its westernmost parts in which the folks are considered to be racially or ethnically closer to Europeans.

Kosher Wigs are produced from two chief kinds of hair, individuals from Eastern Europe and individuals from Asia. Asian types are often treated for color and texture, although European hair is frequently left alone and therefore also identified as “virgin” hair. Kosher Wigs can also be made from synthetic fibers, which can rival even highly-prized premium 100% human hair wigs in initial price and upkeep expenses. For all the effort place into creating them and certifying them, several rabbis actually discover them insufficiently modest. In fact, almost half of all the observant wives in Israel don’t use wigs whatsoever on account of their rabbis, and wear as an alternative snoods, scarves, along with other headgear to totally cover their hair.

A married woman’s hair is held to be a symbol of her sensuality and even sexuality and not to be shared with anyone but her husband. For people who take this sort of suggestions literally, as the fundamentalists and orthodox do, it is understandable how even wigs do not completely provide for compliance.

Obviously, Kosher Wigs aren’t exclusive to observant wives, but can be used by even the least religious, for instance during times of medical crises like cancer. Undergoing chemotherapy, for example, a woman may possibly feel a lot more secure affirming her ethnic heritage by donning this sort of hairpieces. Kosher Wigs are usually much more expensive than typical wigs simply because from the religious oversight required to their manufacture, but they make up very a rather successful cottage industry, and can often be crafted while using most loving workmanship anyplace.

Gun Safes Are A Necessity For Firearms And Ammunition

Jul 25
2010

Gun safes are used to keep firearms and ammunition secure under lock and key. They prevent access and, in more robust models, prevent damage as well, most importantly during such catastrophes as flood or fire. Electronic locks as well as mechanical ones are obtainable, though the mechanical variety is regarded to possess the highest of reliability. They are, however, a lot more time-consuming to open, which may be a factor in emergency situations.

Gun safes used to be designed with looks in mind, and were as much a way to display one’s collection as they were to store it. Legal obligations in many jurisdictions have since placed an emphasis on safety and security, and numerous safes these days are built to blend into their surroundings or be otherwise invisible. For instance, some such safes can now be installed inside a closet or wardrobe, hidden behind a false wall. But old-fashioned display cases and cabinets are still available, with modified security features, for the avid collector eager to show off.

Whatever the style or purpose, however, such safes, cases, and cabinets must always be locked after use and should even be, where possible, bolted down, as the heaviest part of several designs is the door itself which, in the absence of firearms and munitions, may tip the whole structure over. Indeed, safety is an important aspect of modern firearms ownership, and such considerations concern not only the quality of construction or thoughtfulness of design but installation and placement as well. Thus many people will order “white glove” services along with their safes, with professional setup and installation so that no detail is compromised in creating a gun-safe environment!

Gun safes are a necessary part of the sport nowadays, and legally mandated in those places that even allow for the hobby. Owners can best vouchsafe their rights to firearms ownership by displaying not their weapons but their common-sense concerns for safety and security with well-made and placed gun safes.

Release the Pressure with Pressure Seal Equipment

Jul 25
2010

Pressure Seal Equipment works by folding a special piece of paper, then using mechanical Pressure to physically force the paper’s pre-glued edges to bind in such a way that the paper serves as its own fully sealed envelope. Pressure Seal Equipment creates one-piece mailers of this kind that are extremely helpful for payroll checks, rebate forms, customer invoices, or anything else requiring a higher than average degree of confidentiality when going by means of the postal method. Direct mail marketing campaigns also frequently employ this kind of hardware to create promotional materials that seem really official and essential.

Pressure Seal Equipment is typically more cost-effective than insertion machines or, obviously, old-fashioned folding and stuffing by hand – not to mention sealing by tongue, rubbing your tongue raw like a cat’s by licking pre-glued envelope flaps! Indeed, just print from your computer through a program such as QuickBooks and feed the output by means of a single and it’s done, with nothing a lot more to worry about. It can be really a minimally complicated method. Speaking of worries, Pressure Seal Equipment virtually eliminates the risk of error for instance enclosing too much or not enough with the materials to be sent by automating this kind of routine tasks. Entry-level Pressure Seal Equipment is epitomized by the Formax AutoSeal FD 1500, which is really a tabletop machine that can generate one-piece mailers for moderate-volume environments. It can process as much as eighty-five docs a minute and includes a monthly duty cycle of twenty thousand documents. This means that the machine is rated to handle no more than twenty thousand jobs a month – hence the “moderate-volume” description just given. Not that it will simply break down if used to create more than twenty thousand mailers a month, but that the manufacturer only guarantees reliability with that level of a workload placed on it. Thus it can be nicely situated between the house user and a small business, something which is economical but reliable.

The paper designed for use with these machines includes a narrow strip of pressure-sensitive adhesive called “Cohesive” given that glue is applied to both sides of these strips. Utilizing these narrow bands of pressure-sensitive adhesive to produce totally secure seals that totally eliminate the need for envelopes, Pressure Seal Equipment like the FD 1500 can accept paperwork up to fourteen inches in height or width. The Formax 402 Series Jogger is available as an choice that enables it to automatically align and square any document. It has a top-fed three-roller program to ensure smooth jam-free feeding of those documents through the hardware, and an eighteen-inch conveyor belt to keep everything in neat sequential order. A six-digit resettable counter and locking cabinet for types set on casters round out the rich feature-set of this machine that aims to pays for itself with increased productivity and operational efficiency straight out with the box.