Biotech will spur decade-long medical revolution 2010 to 2020
"If you live 20 more years, you may never die”. Much decorated entrepreneur and technologist Ray Kurzweil sums up how new technologies might play out between now and 2025 in this simple futuristic claim. Most of the progress Kurzweil refers to will happen from 2010 to 2020, resulting from new biotech innovations in stem cell research and genetic engineering.
Nearly all diseases will become curable during this period; replacing aging and worn body parts will become common practice. By 2020, barring accidents, most adults will look forward to a radically increased lifespan with near-perfect health.
Our 21st Century future: the possibilities are mind-blowing by Dick Pelletier
What can we expect over the next nine decades? Of course, no one can predict the future this far in advance with 100% accuracy, but if we multi-track expected breakthroughs in nanotech, biotech, infotech, and cognitive sciences; we can create a plausible scenario of how the future could unfold.
The following timeline reveals achievements and events that experts predict could become reality as we trek through this 21st Century journey:
2010s – More people become techno-savvy in a fully-wired world. Smart phones, the Internet, global trade, and automatic language translators give birth to a humanity focused on improving healthcare and raising living standards. Stem cell and genetic engineering breakthroughs emerge almost daily.
2020s – Nanotech, computers, robots make life easier. Medical nanotech improves healthcare, ending many causes of death; quantum computers unravel the mysteries of consciousness, lowering crime rates worldwide; and household robots surpass cars as the most indispensable family purchase.
2030s – Improved transportation, longer lifespan, stronger security systems make the world safer, more enjoyable. Driverless collision-proof cars have reduced auto deaths to near zero; hyperjets fly to anywhere on Earth in an hour or less; and except for violence and accidents, most people now enjoy an indefinite lifespan. Children born in the 2030s are predicted to live well into the next millennium.
Pessimistic views of the future portray a world filled with terrorism and violence. However, this picture was proven wrong. By late 2030s, most military and police forces employ nano-sprays developed by the U.S. DOD that temporarily disrupts minds without killing. Although this system is seen by some as invading personal rights, it reduces crime and violence and has become the weapon of choice for wars.
2040-2060 – Human-machine merges become reality, bringing us closer to conquering death. Physicist Paul Davies, in his book The Eerie Silence writes that humanity's future lies in transitioning into non-biological beings. "Biological life is transitory," he says, "It is only a fleeting phase of evolution."
Futurist Ray Kurzweil agrees. In his recent book The Singularity is Near, Kurzweil says that merging with machines is the only logical outcome of future technologies. He predicts that by the 2040s, artificial intelligence will outthink humans and continue to improve exponentially. At this time, researchers will develop creative ways to interface with these smart machines allowing us to share their vast knowledge.
By 2050, a few bold pioneers begin replacing their biology with stronger non-biological muscles, bones, organs, and brains. By 2060, overwhelming advantages of living in non-biological bodies has convinced most people to swap their biology for these powerful new bodies. Non-bio bodies auto-repair themselves when damaged; and in fatal accidents, consciousness and memories can be transferred into a new body.
Instead of dying, victims of fatal accidents or acts of violence simply continue life in their new body. Death is now considered no more disruptive than a brief mental lapse. Most patients are not even aware that they had died.
Economically built with nanotech machines, non-bio body parts are affordable and available worldwide. By 2100, nearly all 10 billion humans on Earth, Mars, and Moon live in powerful non-biological bodies.
2060-2075 – After developing new energy systems, humanity heads for the stars. In searching for energy, forward thinkers see fusion-power, zero-point energy, and anti-gravity schemes as essential for our future. Interest in desktop fusion sky-rocketed after a 60-Minutes interview of SRI scientist Michael McKubre, who predicted fusion cells would one day power cars for four years between charges. Other ideas include zero-point energy, and devices that defy gravity and propel rockets without using any fuel.
Influenced by successful Moon and Mars forays, a new era in world peace and prosperity has been achieved as countries begin collaborative efforts to develop the high frontier. By mid-century, humanity has embarked on a mass exodus to space.
By 2060, terraforming efforts began to provide pleasant atmospheres on offworld communities with breathable air and Earth-like gravity. By 2075, Moon population had reached 10,000, Mars 50,000. By 2100, projected growth will rise to 2 million, Moon; 10 million, Mars.
2075-2100 – Create faster-than-light travel via new drive systems, develop ways to control wormholes, locate other universes and learn how to communicate with them. Recognizing that the vast distances in space must become more manageable; scientists selected fusion-power and zero-point energy as the most probable technologies that could enable space ships to break the light speed barrier.
For example, a 2070s hyper-drive vessel or 2080s warp-speed ship might reach Alpha Centauri, 4-light-years away in just 30 days, or make the 6-month trip to Mars in only 3-hours. Officials at NASA's Glenn Research Center have been searching for other options to travel faster than light-speeds and believe that in a distant future, humans could indeed harness wormholes for instant access to faraway stars.
Travel through wormholes is the stuff of science fiction, but scientists have suggested that the quantum mechanics of something called the 'Casimer effect' could be used to produce a locally mass-negative region of space-time. Theoretically, this could one day lead to stabilizing wormholes, which would allow matter to be sent through its passageways.
This would enable future space travelers to step into a Star Trek-like transport system, and instantly appear at a selected destination site billions of light years away.
How quick might we become a space-faring civilization? NASA Glenn's Geoffrey Landis believes that by 2100, we will break the light-speed barrier and soon after, begin scattering our populations to the stars.
Finally, we'll close this glance into the future with the following mind-blowing scenario: studies at the Swiss Large Hadron Collider revealed that other universes exist. Experts say the next step in exploring these universes will be to send and receive messages. This begs the question, could future technologies help us locate our alternate selves in a parallel world and interact with that world? Welcome, to the future.
http://www.positivefuturist.com/;
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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Another great article from The Art of Manliness - Ernest Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea
Lessons in Manliness from The Old Man and the Sea
Posted By Bryan Schatz On July 12, 2011 @ 3:48 pm In A Man's Life
29 Comments
[1]
“Que va,” the boy said, “It is what a man must do.”
“Success” is all too often assumed to be the indicator of the value of a man. But success, in and of itself, merely speaks to a particular status and may have nothing to do with the journey that the man took to get there, or whether or not he retained his integrity along the way. Among the many aspects of the story, it is the idea of redefining success and victory that makes The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway’s classic novella, so profound.
It is a seemingly simple story: Santiago is an old, experienced fisherman who hasn’t brought in a catch for months. On the 85th day of this dry spell, he heads far out into the Gulf of Mexico where he hooks a giant marlin. Unable to pull the fish into his skiff, he holds onto the line for three days before killing it with a harpoon. After lashing the fish to his boat, Santiago heads home with his hard-won prize. But along the way, sharks reduce the fish to bones, and the old man returns to port as he left–empty-handed.
Yes, a simple story on the surface, but also a tale with a much deeper message and a relevance that transcends time and place. It speaks to the universal truths of a man’s existence within this world, where pride, respect, tenacity, and dreams fuel a man in his quest to thrive in the face of struggle. It is a story about the indomitable spirit of man; Santiago stands as a symbol of an attitude toward life, and his fight with the mighty marlin offers numerous lessons to all men.
Lessons in Manliness from The Old Man and the Sea
“A man is not made for defeat.”
Santiago has nothing but a broken-down shed and a rickety skiff with a sail that is “patched with flour sacks” and looks “like the flag of permanent defeat.” The skin of his gaunt body illustrates his hardships and is marked with deeply-set wrinkles, scars, and blotches from the punishing sun. And because of his terrible misfortune, he is a pariah in his small fishing village.
But while nearly “everything about Santiago is old,” his eyes remain “the same color as the sea and are cheerful and undefeated.” Instead of throwing in the towel after 84 days of terrible luck, he sails farther out into the Gulf than he has gone before.
A man continues to do whatever he must do to the best of his ability, no matter what tribulations befall him. While challenges and setbacks can strip a man of all outward signs of success, still his spirit can remain undefeated. For it can will a man to never give up and to keep on trying.
Or as Hemingway puts it: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
A man does not depend on luck.
Luck plays a major role in the story and in our everyday lives, and to a superstitious lot like fishermen, poor luck can seem paralyzing. In Santiago’s little Cuban fishing village he is labeled “salao, which is the worst form of unlucky,” after having gone eighty-four days without taking a single fish.
This makes him a outsider among his peers, and it costs him his trusty partner, the boy Manolin, whose parents forbid him from fishing with the old man. While Santiago deals with the suffering of being hungry and poor, other boats from his village continue pulling in good fish every day.
Anyone can have luck of course, but not everyone one can have determination, skill, and perseverance. Santiago knows this and therefore believes in his ability rather than chance. “To hell with luck,” he thinks. “I’ll bring the luck with me.”
He does this by not taking any shortcuts in his work. He keeps his fishing lines straighter than anyone, and he makes sure that, “at each level…there [will] be a bait waiting exactly where he wishes it to be for any fish that swim there.” Santiago keeps his lines with precision, and he is ready for whatever comes.
We cannot attain success simply by waiting for good things to happen. It is when we strive forward towards a goal that we open ourselves up to opportunity. As Santiago muses, “It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when the luck comes you are ready.”
A man bears pain and hardship without complaint.
“He was shivering with the morning cold. But he knew he would shiver himself warm and that soon he would be rowing.”
Whether it’s something as trivial as being cold or as significant as skirting along the borders of death, a man simply does what must be done, without self-pity and without complaint. Santiago does not whine about hunger pains or thirst, nor does he mope about the fishing line that cuts into his hands.
Out at sea, far beyond the other boats, Santiago is presented with the greatest challenge of his life. It comes in the form of an eighteen-foot marlin and makes for a long, long battle that spans days. Near the edge of his exhaustion, Santiago’s hand is cut deeply and cramps up “as tight as the gripped claws of an eagle.” He washes the cut in the salt water and lets it dry and warm in the sun. But the hand refuses him and he is forced to work with his right hand alone, against the powerful fish that is two feet longer than his own skiff. Drained, Santiago “settles against the wood” and simply “takes his suffering as it comes. He is comfortable but suffering, although he does not admit the suffering at all.”
A man does not boast.The quality of a man is best seen through his actions, and developing humility is a key ingredient in letting our actions do the talking for us. Santiago is given plenty opportunity to boast during a conversation with his young friend, Manolin, but he does not.
Manolin asks, “Who is the greatest manager, really, Luque or Mike Gonzalez?”
“I think they are equal.”
“And the best fisherman is you.”
“No. I know others better.”
“Que va,” the boy says, “There are many good fishermen and some great ones, but there is only you.”
"Thank you. You make me happy. I hope no fish will come along so great that he will prove us wrong.”
And it’s only because of Santiago’s determination that none do. Boasting only briefly satisfies insecurity. It leaves no lasting impression on the crowd who hears it.
A man finds inspiration from others.
“But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel.”
For Santiago, it is “the great Joe DiMaggio” who inspires and motivates him. He possesses traits that Santiago admires, reminding him that to be successful you have to put all of yourself into a task and bear up under difficulty. Looking up to others–having heroes–provides us with examples to follow, the knowledge that others have overcome obstacles as well, and the assurance of the great possibilities of a man’s life.
A man goes down swinging–no matter his age.
Old age is a common excuse, and for certain things it is legitimate, but all too often it is used either where it has no place or before any effort has been made to prove the assumption wrong. When the sharks begin attacking Santiago’s marlin, at first he fears that he cannot defend himself because of his age, but before long, he gathers his tools to be used as weapons and does what he must. When he breaks the blade off his knife in the body of one shark, the fear sinks in again. “Now they have beaten me,” he thinks. “I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.”
And many more sharks do come. He has to club and strike them with all of his strength. During the fight, the sun goes down and Santiago wonders, “What will you do now if they come in the night? What can you do?” He digs deep. “‘Fight them,” he says, “I’ll fight them until I die.”
Though the sharks do eventually tear Santiago’s marlin apart, they do not defeat him as a man, and he never gives up. Paddling in, he tastes blood in his mouth, so he spits into the ocean and says, “Eat that galanos. And make a dream you’ve killed a man.”
Every man has sharks that circle him; they gather when they smell the blood of real achievement. But you’re never too old to put up a fight.
A man’s legacy comes from maintaining his integrity.
Santiago drifts away from the pages of this story with exactly the same thing he had when it began: almost nothing. His catch does not bring him money nor “success,” but it does provide him with a legacy that will endure far beyond any monetary gain ever could have. For he retains his own integrity in the face of great challenge; he exhausts himself in a good fight. A man doesn’t quit.
Posted By Bryan Schatz On July 12, 2011 @ 3:48 pm In A Man's Life
29 Comments
[1]
“Que va,” the boy said, “It is what a man must do.”
“Success” is all too often assumed to be the indicator of the value of a man. But success, in and of itself, merely speaks to a particular status and may have nothing to do with the journey that the man took to get there, or whether or not he retained his integrity along the way. Among the many aspects of the story, it is the idea of redefining success and victory that makes The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway’s classic novella, so profound.
It is a seemingly simple story: Santiago is an old, experienced fisherman who hasn’t brought in a catch for months. On the 85th day of this dry spell, he heads far out into the Gulf of Mexico where he hooks a giant marlin. Unable to pull the fish into his skiff, he holds onto the line for three days before killing it with a harpoon. After lashing the fish to his boat, Santiago heads home with his hard-won prize. But along the way, sharks reduce the fish to bones, and the old man returns to port as he left–empty-handed.
Yes, a simple story on the surface, but also a tale with a much deeper message and a relevance that transcends time and place. It speaks to the universal truths of a man’s existence within this world, where pride, respect, tenacity, and dreams fuel a man in his quest to thrive in the face of struggle. It is a story about the indomitable spirit of man; Santiago stands as a symbol of an attitude toward life, and his fight with the mighty marlin offers numerous lessons to all men.
Lessons in Manliness from The Old Man and the Sea
“A man is not made for defeat.”
Santiago has nothing but a broken-down shed and a rickety skiff with a sail that is “patched with flour sacks” and looks “like the flag of permanent defeat.” The skin of his gaunt body illustrates his hardships and is marked with deeply-set wrinkles, scars, and blotches from the punishing sun. And because of his terrible misfortune, he is a pariah in his small fishing village.
But while nearly “everything about Santiago is old,” his eyes remain “the same color as the sea and are cheerful and undefeated.” Instead of throwing in the towel after 84 days of terrible luck, he sails farther out into the Gulf than he has gone before.
A man continues to do whatever he must do to the best of his ability, no matter what tribulations befall him. While challenges and setbacks can strip a man of all outward signs of success, still his spirit can remain undefeated. For it can will a man to never give up and to keep on trying.
Or as Hemingway puts it: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
A man does not depend on luck.
Luck plays a major role in the story and in our everyday lives, and to a superstitious lot like fishermen, poor luck can seem paralyzing. In Santiago’s little Cuban fishing village he is labeled “salao, which is the worst form of unlucky,” after having gone eighty-four days without taking a single fish.
This makes him a outsider among his peers, and it costs him his trusty partner, the boy Manolin, whose parents forbid him from fishing with the old man. While Santiago deals with the suffering of being hungry and poor, other boats from his village continue pulling in good fish every day.
Anyone can have luck of course, but not everyone one can have determination, skill, and perseverance. Santiago knows this and therefore believes in his ability rather than chance. “To hell with luck,” he thinks. “I’ll bring the luck with me.”
He does this by not taking any shortcuts in his work. He keeps his fishing lines straighter than anyone, and he makes sure that, “at each level…there [will] be a bait waiting exactly where he wishes it to be for any fish that swim there.” Santiago keeps his lines with precision, and he is ready for whatever comes.
We cannot attain success simply by waiting for good things to happen. It is when we strive forward towards a goal that we open ourselves up to opportunity. As Santiago muses, “It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when the luck comes you are ready.”
A man bears pain and hardship without complaint.
“He was shivering with the morning cold. But he knew he would shiver himself warm and that soon he would be rowing.”
Whether it’s something as trivial as being cold or as significant as skirting along the borders of death, a man simply does what must be done, without self-pity and without complaint. Santiago does not whine about hunger pains or thirst, nor does he mope about the fishing line that cuts into his hands.
Out at sea, far beyond the other boats, Santiago is presented with the greatest challenge of his life. It comes in the form of an eighteen-foot marlin and makes for a long, long battle that spans days. Near the edge of his exhaustion, Santiago’s hand is cut deeply and cramps up “as tight as the gripped claws of an eagle.” He washes the cut in the salt water and lets it dry and warm in the sun. But the hand refuses him and he is forced to work with his right hand alone, against the powerful fish that is two feet longer than his own skiff. Drained, Santiago “settles against the wood” and simply “takes his suffering as it comes. He is comfortable but suffering, although he does not admit the suffering at all.”
A man does not boast.The quality of a man is best seen through his actions, and developing humility is a key ingredient in letting our actions do the talking for us. Santiago is given plenty opportunity to boast during a conversation with his young friend, Manolin, but he does not.
Manolin asks, “Who is the greatest manager, really, Luque or Mike Gonzalez?”
“I think they are equal.”
“And the best fisherman is you.”
“No. I know others better.”
“Que va,” the boy says, “There are many good fishermen and some great ones, but there is only you.”
"Thank you. You make me happy. I hope no fish will come along so great that he will prove us wrong.”
And it’s only because of Santiago’s determination that none do. Boasting only briefly satisfies insecurity. It leaves no lasting impression on the crowd who hears it.
A man finds inspiration from others.
“But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel.”
For Santiago, it is “the great Joe DiMaggio” who inspires and motivates him. He possesses traits that Santiago admires, reminding him that to be successful you have to put all of yourself into a task and bear up under difficulty. Looking up to others–having heroes–provides us with examples to follow, the knowledge that others have overcome obstacles as well, and the assurance of the great possibilities of a man’s life.
A man goes down swinging–no matter his age.
Old age is a common excuse, and for certain things it is legitimate, but all too often it is used either where it has no place or before any effort has been made to prove the assumption wrong. When the sharks begin attacking Santiago’s marlin, at first he fears that he cannot defend himself because of his age, but before long, he gathers his tools to be used as weapons and does what he must. When he breaks the blade off his knife in the body of one shark, the fear sinks in again. “Now they have beaten me,” he thinks. “I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.”
And many more sharks do come. He has to club and strike them with all of his strength. During the fight, the sun goes down and Santiago wonders, “What will you do now if they come in the night? What can you do?” He digs deep. “‘Fight them,” he says, “I’ll fight them until I die.”
Though the sharks do eventually tear Santiago’s marlin apart, they do not defeat him as a man, and he never gives up. Paddling in, he tastes blood in his mouth, so he spits into the ocean and says, “Eat that galanos. And make a dream you’ve killed a man.”
Every man has sharks that circle him; they gather when they smell the blood of real achievement. But you’re never too old to put up a fight.
A man’s legacy comes from maintaining his integrity.
Santiago drifts away from the pages of this story with exactly the same thing he had when it began: almost nothing. His catch does not bring him money nor “success,” but it does provide him with a legacy that will endure far beyond any monetary gain ever could have. For he retains his own integrity in the face of great challenge; he exhausts himself in a good fight. A man doesn’t quit.
It's a Wonderful Life - The Lessons
In A Man's Life,Lessons In Manliness
It’s a Wonderful Life.
Of course, “manly” is not a word typically associated with the film, especially given the fact that more than one man will find himself teary eyed and avoiding eye contact with his wife at its conclusion. But the film has a good deal to teach us about being a man, the right kind of man. So in the spirit of quality Christmas movies, I offer you a quick guide to manliness, as taught by It’s a Wonderful Life.
•Be a hero where you stand - This is the thread that weaves through George Bailey’s life. Saving his brother in the icy water. Keeping Mr. Gower from poisoning a child. Saving the Building & Loan multiple times. But it is the small things that make the hero; Bailey’s dedication to help others who are down on their luck is the true mark of his manliness.
•Treat women well - At a key moment of their relationship, George visits Mary (Donna Reed) at her home and acts like a boor. Luckily, this leads to a final acknowledgement of their love, and for the most part, George is an example of how to treat women well (despite some cultural changes). Despite human, stressful outbursts, he loves his wife, and remains true to her in temptation. He takes care of his mother and even treats Violet (a woman with a dulled reputation) like gold, as a real man should – without taking advantage.
•Love your family/family fidelity – In spite of his frustration and dreams, George honors his father’s work and keeps the Savings & Loan running. With a drafty house, sick kids, low wages, work stresses, and a normal man’s frustrations, he loves and supports his family. Is it easy? Heck no. But he comes through.
•Facilitate others’ success – Helping people move out of the slums. Investing in the little people. Sacrificing for his brother Harry’s success. George’s dedication to his brother’s success is truly touching. The richness of George’s legacy lies in how he touched others’ lives and made them better for it, quietly sacrificing to improve the lot of those around him.
•Stand up for what is right – Bailey’s morals may be simple common sense, but he lives them and fights for them. This is perhaps seen best when George strongly turns down Mr. Potter’s lucrative offer for everything he ever wanted: success, travel, luxury and security for his family, just to maintain the honor of his name. “I don’t need 24 hours!” he tells the man.
•Know your faults and correct them – Of course our protagonist is not perfect. When facing personal failure, he is particularly prone to outbursts towards those with whom he is closest. And it takes a strong woman to keep him straight. He also has a knowable weakness for luxury and a misplaced view of himself and life. But George tries to lift himself above it, and in the end – with a little help from a different point of view and an angel named Clarence – he finds in himself what is beautiful in life.
•Live your life with gratitude - Life is not measured in salaries, homes, trips, cars or Facebook friends. But it is truly measured in those moments when we love and touch others’ lives. Family and friends. Time and love. It may be sappy, but on your deathbed you won’t be looking to hold the hand of your Porsche.
Finally, it is not just the fictional character of George Bailey that provides valuable lessons in manliness; the real life of the film’s star, my personal acting hero, Jimmy Stewart, does as well. Jimmy epitomized the ideals of a gentleman. He took his responsibility to fight in WWII seriously and flew untold missions over Germany in a B-24 (retiring as a Brigadier General from the US Air Force). Known as a kind and soft-spoken guy, Stewart was discrete and chivalrous in his Hollywood relationships and remained humble despite his great success (his only Oscar stood in his father’s hardware store for years). As a philanthropist, lifelong Boy Scout (Silver Buffalo winner), loving father of 4 (adoptive father too), and a devoted husband for 45 years, Stewart was a man boys could look up to and other men could seek to emulate. President Truman said of him, “If Bess and I had a son, we’d want him to be just like Jimmy Stewart.” His last words were of his wife, “I’m going to be with Gloria now.” You couldn’t ask for a better man example. If you want another example of Stewart working his holiday magic, watch his touching portrayal in Mr. Krueger’s Christmas.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sometimes we just like a great breakfast
Over the past couple of years, I have been drawn to the Vegan/Vegetarian/Buddhist readings and lifestyle, even watching many of the secular movies of healthy diets/lifestyles, such as FORKS OVER KNIVES, etc. but the truth is, I have never liked LABELS, of any type, and as a man, I simply enjoy sometimes setting down and having a great all american breakfast. I have no guilt, no concerns I'm betraying some cause, otherthan being mindful, that I shouldn't eat like this very ofter, it simply isn't healthy, but otherwise, live and be a FLEXITARIAN.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
A poem called “Youth” by Samuel Ullman.
By Samuel Ullman
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.
But on second thought!
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Buying American Goods Again
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Gentleman's Cufflinks
I know men with hundreds of ties and matching cufflinks, it’s an unnecessary expense. Get a few pairs of classic designs, and you won’t go far wrong. Cartier & Brookes brothers do some amazingly elegant cufflinks to add style to any shirt.
Quote from Robert A. Heinlein
"A HUMAN BEING SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHANGE A DIAPER, PLAN AN INVASION, BUTCHER A HOG, CONN A SHIP, DESIGN A BUILDING, WRITE A SONNET, BALANCE ACCOUNTS, BUILD A WALL, SET A BONE, COMFORT THE DYING, TAKE ORDERS, GIVE ORDERS, COOPERATE, ACT ALONE, SOLVE EQUATIONS, ANALYZE A NEW PROBLEM, PITCH MANURE, PROGRAM A COMPUTER, COOK A TASTY MEAL, FIGHT EFFICIENTLY, DIE GALLANTLY. SPECIALIZATION IS FOR INSECTS."
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Samuel Adams Utopias Beer
“The Samuel Adams Utopias is one of the rarest and most sought after beers in the world – it is also one of the most unique. Brewed only once every 4 years it is aged in cognac, madeira, bourbon, sherry, and brandy barrels to create a masterfully blended 27% beer that is uncarbonated, designed to be served warm, and can be opened and then re-sealed. There is no mistaking it though, this certainly is a beer, one the Modern Gentleman will stand high above the crowds with.”
For the Gentlemen's Home - A Lamp with Serious Horsepower
Years ago, I came across Vault cabinets for the auto enthusiast. We liked the idea so much that we bought an early prototype of a work chest, which we use today to display driving gloves, driving shoes, and other automotive related accessories. As we were getting ready to open the new store, Vault put us in touch with Edward Levy, founder of Campbell Levy Designs.
Campbell Levy creates probably the most masculine lamp we've seen to date...and we've seen a lot of lamps! They are made out of the crankshafts of automobiles, especially luxury marques like BMW, Maserati, and Porsche. They also source parts from American muscle cars past and present, including a Corvair and a Viper.
Mr. Levy was kind enough to crate up two of these lamps, which weigh almost 100 lbs each, and ship them to us in time for our grand opening last month. We have a lamp made from the crankshaft of a 4.7L Jeep V-8, and one from a 4.4L BMW V-8 in the Library at Wingtip.
If you love cars and you love light, you're going to have a tough time resisting his Gallery of past projects.
Friday, June 10, 2011
The Qualities of a Gentleman
He acts kindly from the impulse of his kind heart.
He is brave, because, with a conscience void of offence, he has nothing to fear.
He is never embarrassed, for he respects himself and is profoundly conscious of right intentions.
He keeps his honor unstained, and to retain the good opinion of others he neglects no civility.
He respects even the prejudices of men whom he believes are honest.
He opposes without bitterness and yields without admitting defeat.
He is never arrogant, never weak.
He bears himself with dignity, but never haughtily.
Too wise to despise trifles, he is too noble to be mastered by them.
To superiors he is respectful without servility; to equals courteous; to inferiors’ kind.
He carries himself with grace in all places, is easy but never familiar, genteel without affection.
He unites gentleness of manner with firmness of mind.
He commands with mild authority, and asks favors with grace and assurance
He is brave, because, with a conscience void of offence, he has nothing to fear.
He is never embarrassed, for he respects himself and is profoundly conscious of right intentions.
He keeps his honor unstained, and to retain the good opinion of others he neglects no civility.
He respects even the prejudices of men whom he believes are honest.
He opposes without bitterness and yields without admitting defeat.
He is never arrogant, never weak.
He bears himself with dignity, but never haughtily.
Too wise to despise trifles, he is too noble to be mastered by them.
To superiors he is respectful without servility; to equals courteous; to inferiors’ kind.
He carries himself with grace in all places, is easy but never familiar, genteel without affection.
He unites gentleness of manner with firmness of mind.
He commands with mild authority, and asks favors with grace and assurance
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
At only 5'6" 3/4 Tall, I enjoyed the following article.
Dressing Taller: 10 Tips for Short Men
This series is supported by Gillette. Learn more about Gillette and its products at Gillette.com. What’s this?
Short men have always had a tougher road to hoe than their taller fellows. It can be frustrating to be picked last for the pick-up basketball game, to feel like you’re overlooked when walking into a party, and to struggle to see your favorite band at a concert.
And then there are those studies that say that tall men are perceived as more powerful and better leaders, are more desirable to women, and make more money (almost $1,000 more for every inch of height).
But short men shouldn’t despair. The news isn’t all bad.
First, while height may give men a leg up in the race for success (US presidents have been on average 4 inches taller than the general male population), there are always exceptions to the rule. Andrew Carnegie (5’0”)! Martin Luther King Jr. (5’7”)! Harry Houdini (5’5”)! TE Lawrence (5’6”)! Robert Reich (4’10’)! And have you seen Dennis Kucinich’s wife?
And second, while there isn’t much you can do, short of gruesomely lengthening your bones, to physically increase your height, there are ways to appear taller. Key in this is the way you dress and present yourself, and today we’ll share ten tips on how you can use style to enhance your stature, and perhaps more importantly, your confidence.
The Guiding Rule – Always Streamline Your Look
Looking taller is all about getting viewers’ eyes to travel smoothly up your body. It’s pure illusion: the more their eyes have to sweep upward, the taller their brains will register whatever they’re looking at as being.
That means that a shorter man wants to ease and encourage the viewer’s eyes upward towards his face. Visual clutter–such as eye-grabbing stuff on the body–breaks up the impression of height. That means staying away from obvious accessories like big, chunky watches, but it also means keeping an eye out for things as simple as the pockets on your suits and shirts. Something as simple as a pocket flap instead of an unadorned slit pocket can clutter up your appearance and lessen the impression of height.
10 Tips on Dressing Taller
FYI – I put these ten tips in orders of practicality and cost. I realize some of these are beyond some men’s resources or not options worth considering–but I lay them out there so that you can make that decision yourself.
1. Monochromatic Color Themes
Along the same lines as minimizing visual clutter, removing contrasting color from your appearance helps streamline the way you look. Keeping all your clothes within a fairly consistent color theme, especially a dark one, will create an illusion of height. Different color shades are fine–just try to keep it loosely monochrome.
When you do wear different colors or different shades of the same color, try to weight the darker colors toward the bottom half of your body. That way people’s attention starts down near your feet and travels upward. Dark trousers with a lighter shirt create a lengthening effect; a darker shirt with lighter pants shortens your appearance.
2. Wear Vertically-Oriented Patterns
Most people have heard that vertical stripes are “slimming” and horizontal stripes are “widening.” That’s just a simplification of the same visual effect we’ve already been talking about: where people’s eyes go when they look at you. Patterns that run horizontally make you seem wider because the eye wants to follow them naturally out to the sides of your body.
Unbroken vertical stripes are one of the best ways to add an impression of height without seeming to try for it. Dress shirts that increase the perception of height ideally have striping that is narrow enough to not create broad empty spaces of monochrome but wide enough to be visible at a glance. The equal-width alternation of white and colored stripes–often called candystriping–is a good choice.
Textured cloth with a visible up-and-down pattern has the same effect as any other vertical striping, so corduroy or very narrow herringbone weaves are also worth working into the wardrobe. Other than those very definitively vertical textures, however, stick to smoother fabrics where possible — rough textures add the visual clutter you want to avoid.
3. Wear Close Fitting Clothing
A loose fit on a short man actually emphasizes his petite frame–it makes him look sloppy, and it signals that he’s too small to find clothing that fits him right. Don’t let your own clothing send this message to the world.
When shopping for menswear, pay close attention to where your clothing sits on your body when you try it on. Most men are used to wearing clothing that is 1 to 2 sizes too large on them, and smaller men who have never given it much attention are some of the worst offenders.
Steer clear of jackets that hang loose in the armpits, even if the sleeves are short enough for your arms, and avoid any trousers with a lot of slack cloth in the crotch. Trust me, this doesn’t make you look more endowed. Instead, that sort of bagginess leads straight to the stereotypical “kid in his father’s suit” look.
Remember that most menswear is deliberately cut loose to accommodate as many body types as possible. Clothing marked small isn’t made for one type of small; it’s often made to try to accommodate shorter men who are anything from stout to round to thin. And the results are rarely flattering.
Savvy short shoppers often find a brand, oftentimes from a particular designer, that consistently suits them. They do this because designer clothing is often built for a narrower variety of body types, and as a result accommodates those limited builds better than the one size made to fit all variety. Designer clothes generally cost a bit more, but carefully watching sales and knowing when and where to shop for your particular size can lead to savings that make buying higher end clothing affordable.
Finally, have a trusted tailor who you can take your clothing to. Ensure he has an understanding of proportion and the needs of your body type, and you’ll find the adjustments he makes can transform your look more than any of the other tips in this article. It’s relatively inexpensive to have sleeves or cuffs shortened; more complicated work like having your trousers slimmed or jacket torso tightened isn’t too expensive either. Having a jacket shortened, or adjusting shoulders on a shirt is often limited by proportion–but again these small adjustments will transform your look from dopey to dashing.
4. Smaller Proportions
Be aware that as a smaller man you won’t always want the exact same proportions in your clothes as other men. For example, it’s traditional to wear a sport coat or suit cut so that a half-inch or so of shirt cuff shows beyond the end of the sleeve. A shorter man, however, wants to pair shirts and jackets so that there’s less of a broad band–as little as a quarter-inch. A sliver of cloth color down around the wrists will look more proportional on shorter arms than ¾ of an inch.
The parts of your clothing that fold over one another contribute a lot to your visual effect. On your upper body, that usually means the shirt collar and the jacket lapel, if a jacket is worn. Try to keep both of those on the narrower side–though be cautious with lapels; jackets with very broad or very wide lapels run the risk of looking dated, depending on when that particular extreme was in fashion.
Collars with shorter points that aim downward help as well. Stay away from anything with an extreme spread (more than 120 degrees) or longer collar points (2.5+ inches), especially when the collar points are angled dramatically outward.
Your necktie should be on the slimmer side as well, particularly if you have a smaller torso; if your torso is very broad, a narrow tie may start to look undersized. However, this is a better problem than overemphasizing the latter.
It may seem like splitting hairs to recommend narrower collar spreads, shorter trouser cuffs (or no cuffs at all), 2 or 1 button jackets, thinner lapels, and pockets closer together on a jacket. But when you start combining all the usual elements of a piece of clothing in smaller proportions, the effects add up. A small difference here, a small improvement there–next thing you know you have a significantly improved look.
Most of these details are things that different companies do in their own style–you don’t need lots of expensive tailoring, just the patience to figure out which brands have the smaller, more vertically-tilted details that work best for you.
5. Wear Attention Grabbing Details Up High
You can keep attention moving up from your feet toward your head by weighting the brightest details at the top of your body. A pocket square or a brightly-colored tie help guide the eye’s motion upward. Just be careful of adding too much clutter all at once. A bright lapel pin on its own is helpful–worn at the same time as a patterned tie and a pocket square, it edges into the distracting category. More casual outfits can utilize details such as epaulets on a shirt’s shoulders or a contrast inner collar on a dress shirt.
Resist the temptation to add a few inches with a hat unless you regularly wear one–if not worn naturally or with confidence it can backfire on the wearer. Some even argue that the visual effect is actually shortening–a hat puts a “lid” on your body and stops the viewer’s gaze dead. I have seen it work both ways. Again, this is an attention-getting detail that takes confidence, practice, and the knowledge of which hat compliments you.
Always keep it simple, vertically-oriented, and limited to one or two extras at most.
6. Wear the Right Clothing
Wear a Jacket – Wearing a sport jacket or suit jacket builds up the shoulders–taller and more pronounced shoulders emphasize height. Use this to your advantage every chance you can and match the jacket with either trousers of the same fabric (suit) or trousers of a similar shade (sport jacket). Again–know how to buy the right type of suit for maximizing height by following the guidelines in this article.
Trousers at the Waist – Shorter men benefit from a longer leg line, and you get a longer trouser leg by wearing the waistband higher. Wear your pants at the natural waist rather than down on the hips which only makes your legs look stubby. Trousers at the natural waist don’t need a belt cinched tight the way that they do on the hips, which helps your middle from looking distractingly pinched. For the best effect, wear trousers without belt loops and use suspenders.
Avoid Shorts and Short-Sleeved Shirts – Short men are short because their limbs are smaller than those of their tall counterparts. Wearing clothing that draws attention to your limbs, especially if you’re big or built, makes you look shorter because your limbs are proportionally more compact. Although not always practical–especially in the summer–a man on the short side should consider linen trousers and lightweight long sleeve shirts he can roll up on the forearm. A classier look that helps create a streamlined appearance.
7. Physically Add Height
Playing around with patterns and collar sizes and details are all good ways to make a combined impression of extra height. But what if you actually want to add real height?
It’s doable. But remember to do this in moderation. Some short men find it useful to wear a heeled shoe, and there are definitely styles that look fine with a half-inch or so of heel on them, but know what you’re buying. Manufacturers that advertise specifically as “for short men” are often slapping chunky heels on styles meant to be worn with a more moderate heel, and the result is eye-catching and tacky. Stick to black pumps for a formal look or heeled boots in more casual situations. And always avoid athletic shoes or regular dress shoes that come with an exaggerated heel–you’ll just end up tripping.
Heel inserts are a matter of personal preference. They add height but can be uncomfortable, and it can be embarrassing to have to take your shoes off in public if you have inserts. Definitely don’t wear them with an already thick-heeled shoe–you’ll end up tilted forward like a woman in high heels.
8. Shop Internationally
Mass manufactured clothing is made for specific regions based off taste and average target customer size. As such, American clothing is big; however, there are regions outside the ole USA that make clothing for a smaller demographic. Think Japan & Italy–two countries where style is at the forefront and clothing is manufactured for a man who is much smaller than the average American frame.
The internet has made it possible to get clothing from overseas without a trip yourself–the downside is that international shipping isn’t always cheap and many of the best online stores in Italy or Japan do not have an English storefront. Google translate helps–but it doesn’t translate size, especially when you’re trying to figure out what equals what–inches to centimeters, and then you have to account for brand variation! If you go this route, try to work with a merchant with excellent customer service or a website that gives you exact measurements of the garment you’ll be sent. Start slowly, ensure you get the fit right, and then buy in bulk to save on the shipping!
Ideally though, you’d be able to travel to the country and find the deals yourself, getting a closet full of great clothes and a memorable experience.
9. Visit the Young Man’s Department
There is great clothing to be found in the “Youth” section of American stores. Some styles obviously won’t work on an adult, but there’s a good number of clothing manufacturers who make scaled-down versions of perfectly presentable adult outfits.
The biggest challenge of the Youth/Boys department may turn out to be fit in the chest and stomach. Most adult men wearing youth sizes need an XL or a L, which have recently started to be made looser and looser. “XL” for a child carries an expectation of weight as well as height, which wasn’t as true ten or fifteen years ago–you may need to seek out long-established and more old-fashioned manufacturers to find youth-sized clothing that’s long enough for a short adult and also not cut for a very heavyset kid.
An added bonus is that these clothes are oftentimes value priced. If you’re small enough to fit clothing marketed for children and young adults, it’s worth the minor hit to the pride to browse the children’s section of a few high-quality clothing or department stores.
10. Go Custom or Buy from a Specialty Store
Seeking out a custom men’s clothier or short clothing specialist who can help optimize your look is an option many men take. They realize a second set of eyes and years of experience dealing with hundreds of men with similar problems gives a clothier expert status; the best study their craft and can build entire wardrobes for their clients that not only make them look taller but are interchangeable and functional for maximum wear.
Finally, keep your look natural. By this I mean you have to be comfortable in your clothing – wear IT, don’t let it wear YOU. There are a lot of tips in this post…DO NOT implement all of them into a single outfit. Instead pick a few and apply them in moderation over the next few months. Keep the ones that work, discard the tips that don’t.
And remember that being a sharp dressed man is all about confidence. Know who you are and have fun expressing that individuality with your personal style.
This series is supported by Gillette. Learn more about Gillette and its products at Gillette.com. What’s this?
Short men have always had a tougher road to hoe than their taller fellows. It can be frustrating to be picked last for the pick-up basketball game, to feel like you’re overlooked when walking into a party, and to struggle to see your favorite band at a concert.
And then there are those studies that say that tall men are perceived as more powerful and better leaders, are more desirable to women, and make more money (almost $1,000 more for every inch of height).
But short men shouldn’t despair. The news isn’t all bad.
First, while height may give men a leg up in the race for success (US presidents have been on average 4 inches taller than the general male population), there are always exceptions to the rule. Andrew Carnegie (5’0”)! Martin Luther King Jr. (5’7”)! Harry Houdini (5’5”)! TE Lawrence (5’6”)! Robert Reich (4’10’)! And have you seen Dennis Kucinich’s wife?
And second, while there isn’t much you can do, short of gruesomely lengthening your bones, to physically increase your height, there are ways to appear taller. Key in this is the way you dress and present yourself, and today we’ll share ten tips on how you can use style to enhance your stature, and perhaps more importantly, your confidence.
The Guiding Rule – Always Streamline Your Look
Looking taller is all about getting viewers’ eyes to travel smoothly up your body. It’s pure illusion: the more their eyes have to sweep upward, the taller their brains will register whatever they’re looking at as being.
That means that a shorter man wants to ease and encourage the viewer’s eyes upward towards his face. Visual clutter–such as eye-grabbing stuff on the body–breaks up the impression of height. That means staying away from obvious accessories like big, chunky watches, but it also means keeping an eye out for things as simple as the pockets on your suits and shirts. Something as simple as a pocket flap instead of an unadorned slit pocket can clutter up your appearance and lessen the impression of height.
10 Tips on Dressing Taller
FYI – I put these ten tips in orders of practicality and cost. I realize some of these are beyond some men’s resources or not options worth considering–but I lay them out there so that you can make that decision yourself.
1. Monochromatic Color Themes
Along the same lines as minimizing visual clutter, removing contrasting color from your appearance helps streamline the way you look. Keeping all your clothes within a fairly consistent color theme, especially a dark one, will create an illusion of height. Different color shades are fine–just try to keep it loosely monochrome.
When you do wear different colors or different shades of the same color, try to weight the darker colors toward the bottom half of your body. That way people’s attention starts down near your feet and travels upward. Dark trousers with a lighter shirt create a lengthening effect; a darker shirt with lighter pants shortens your appearance.
2. Wear Vertically-Oriented Patterns
Most people have heard that vertical stripes are “slimming” and horizontal stripes are “widening.” That’s just a simplification of the same visual effect we’ve already been talking about: where people’s eyes go when they look at you. Patterns that run horizontally make you seem wider because the eye wants to follow them naturally out to the sides of your body.
Unbroken vertical stripes are one of the best ways to add an impression of height without seeming to try for it. Dress shirts that increase the perception of height ideally have striping that is narrow enough to not create broad empty spaces of monochrome but wide enough to be visible at a glance. The equal-width alternation of white and colored stripes–often called candystriping–is a good choice.
Textured cloth with a visible up-and-down pattern has the same effect as any other vertical striping, so corduroy or very narrow herringbone weaves are also worth working into the wardrobe. Other than those very definitively vertical textures, however, stick to smoother fabrics where possible — rough textures add the visual clutter you want to avoid.
3. Wear Close Fitting Clothing
A loose fit on a short man actually emphasizes his petite frame–it makes him look sloppy, and it signals that he’s too small to find clothing that fits him right. Don’t let your own clothing send this message to the world.
When shopping for menswear, pay close attention to where your clothing sits on your body when you try it on. Most men are used to wearing clothing that is 1 to 2 sizes too large on them, and smaller men who have never given it much attention are some of the worst offenders.
Steer clear of jackets that hang loose in the armpits, even if the sleeves are short enough for your arms, and avoid any trousers with a lot of slack cloth in the crotch. Trust me, this doesn’t make you look more endowed. Instead, that sort of bagginess leads straight to the stereotypical “kid in his father’s suit” look.
Remember that most menswear is deliberately cut loose to accommodate as many body types as possible. Clothing marked small isn’t made for one type of small; it’s often made to try to accommodate shorter men who are anything from stout to round to thin. And the results are rarely flattering.
Savvy short shoppers often find a brand, oftentimes from a particular designer, that consistently suits them. They do this because designer clothing is often built for a narrower variety of body types, and as a result accommodates those limited builds better than the one size made to fit all variety. Designer clothes generally cost a bit more, but carefully watching sales and knowing when and where to shop for your particular size can lead to savings that make buying higher end clothing affordable.
Finally, have a trusted tailor who you can take your clothing to. Ensure he has an understanding of proportion and the needs of your body type, and you’ll find the adjustments he makes can transform your look more than any of the other tips in this article. It’s relatively inexpensive to have sleeves or cuffs shortened; more complicated work like having your trousers slimmed or jacket torso tightened isn’t too expensive either. Having a jacket shortened, or adjusting shoulders on a shirt is often limited by proportion–but again these small adjustments will transform your look from dopey to dashing.
4. Smaller Proportions
Be aware that as a smaller man you won’t always want the exact same proportions in your clothes as other men. For example, it’s traditional to wear a sport coat or suit cut so that a half-inch or so of shirt cuff shows beyond the end of the sleeve. A shorter man, however, wants to pair shirts and jackets so that there’s less of a broad band–as little as a quarter-inch. A sliver of cloth color down around the wrists will look more proportional on shorter arms than ¾ of an inch.
The parts of your clothing that fold over one another contribute a lot to your visual effect. On your upper body, that usually means the shirt collar and the jacket lapel, if a jacket is worn. Try to keep both of those on the narrower side–though be cautious with lapels; jackets with very broad or very wide lapels run the risk of looking dated, depending on when that particular extreme was in fashion.
Collars with shorter points that aim downward help as well. Stay away from anything with an extreme spread (more than 120 degrees) or longer collar points (2.5+ inches), especially when the collar points are angled dramatically outward.
Your necktie should be on the slimmer side as well, particularly if you have a smaller torso; if your torso is very broad, a narrow tie may start to look undersized. However, this is a better problem than overemphasizing the latter.
It may seem like splitting hairs to recommend narrower collar spreads, shorter trouser cuffs (or no cuffs at all), 2 or 1 button jackets, thinner lapels, and pockets closer together on a jacket. But when you start combining all the usual elements of a piece of clothing in smaller proportions, the effects add up. A small difference here, a small improvement there–next thing you know you have a significantly improved look.
Most of these details are things that different companies do in their own style–you don’t need lots of expensive tailoring, just the patience to figure out which brands have the smaller, more vertically-tilted details that work best for you.
5. Wear Attention Grabbing Details Up High
You can keep attention moving up from your feet toward your head by weighting the brightest details at the top of your body. A pocket square or a brightly-colored tie help guide the eye’s motion upward. Just be careful of adding too much clutter all at once. A bright lapel pin on its own is helpful–worn at the same time as a patterned tie and a pocket square, it edges into the distracting category. More casual outfits can utilize details such as epaulets on a shirt’s shoulders or a contrast inner collar on a dress shirt.
Resist the temptation to add a few inches with a hat unless you regularly wear one–if not worn naturally or with confidence it can backfire on the wearer. Some even argue that the visual effect is actually shortening–a hat puts a “lid” on your body and stops the viewer’s gaze dead. I have seen it work both ways. Again, this is an attention-getting detail that takes confidence, practice, and the knowledge of which hat compliments you.
Always keep it simple, vertically-oriented, and limited to one or two extras at most.
6. Wear the Right Clothing
Wear a Jacket – Wearing a sport jacket or suit jacket builds up the shoulders–taller and more pronounced shoulders emphasize height. Use this to your advantage every chance you can and match the jacket with either trousers of the same fabric (suit) or trousers of a similar shade (sport jacket). Again–know how to buy the right type of suit for maximizing height by following the guidelines in this article.
Trousers at the Waist – Shorter men benefit from a longer leg line, and you get a longer trouser leg by wearing the waistband higher. Wear your pants at the natural waist rather than down on the hips which only makes your legs look stubby. Trousers at the natural waist don’t need a belt cinched tight the way that they do on the hips, which helps your middle from looking distractingly pinched. For the best effect, wear trousers without belt loops and use suspenders.
Avoid Shorts and Short-Sleeved Shirts – Short men are short because their limbs are smaller than those of their tall counterparts. Wearing clothing that draws attention to your limbs, especially if you’re big or built, makes you look shorter because your limbs are proportionally more compact. Although not always practical–especially in the summer–a man on the short side should consider linen trousers and lightweight long sleeve shirts he can roll up on the forearm. A classier look that helps create a streamlined appearance.
7. Physically Add Height
Playing around with patterns and collar sizes and details are all good ways to make a combined impression of extra height. But what if you actually want to add real height?
It’s doable. But remember to do this in moderation. Some short men find it useful to wear a heeled shoe, and there are definitely styles that look fine with a half-inch or so of heel on them, but know what you’re buying. Manufacturers that advertise specifically as “for short men” are often slapping chunky heels on styles meant to be worn with a more moderate heel, and the result is eye-catching and tacky. Stick to black pumps for a formal look or heeled boots in more casual situations. And always avoid athletic shoes or regular dress shoes that come with an exaggerated heel–you’ll just end up tripping.
Heel inserts are a matter of personal preference. They add height but can be uncomfortable, and it can be embarrassing to have to take your shoes off in public if you have inserts. Definitely don’t wear them with an already thick-heeled shoe–you’ll end up tilted forward like a woman in high heels.
8. Shop Internationally
Mass manufactured clothing is made for specific regions based off taste and average target customer size. As such, American clothing is big; however, there are regions outside the ole USA that make clothing for a smaller demographic. Think Japan & Italy–two countries where style is at the forefront and clothing is manufactured for a man who is much smaller than the average American frame.
The internet has made it possible to get clothing from overseas without a trip yourself–the downside is that international shipping isn’t always cheap and many of the best online stores in Italy or Japan do not have an English storefront. Google translate helps–but it doesn’t translate size, especially when you’re trying to figure out what equals what–inches to centimeters, and then you have to account for brand variation! If you go this route, try to work with a merchant with excellent customer service or a website that gives you exact measurements of the garment you’ll be sent. Start slowly, ensure you get the fit right, and then buy in bulk to save on the shipping!
Ideally though, you’d be able to travel to the country and find the deals yourself, getting a closet full of great clothes and a memorable experience.
9. Visit the Young Man’s Department
There is great clothing to be found in the “Youth” section of American stores. Some styles obviously won’t work on an adult, but there’s a good number of clothing manufacturers who make scaled-down versions of perfectly presentable adult outfits.
The biggest challenge of the Youth/Boys department may turn out to be fit in the chest and stomach. Most adult men wearing youth sizes need an XL or a L, which have recently started to be made looser and looser. “XL” for a child carries an expectation of weight as well as height, which wasn’t as true ten or fifteen years ago–you may need to seek out long-established and more old-fashioned manufacturers to find youth-sized clothing that’s long enough for a short adult and also not cut for a very heavyset kid.
An added bonus is that these clothes are oftentimes value priced. If you’re small enough to fit clothing marketed for children and young adults, it’s worth the minor hit to the pride to browse the children’s section of a few high-quality clothing or department stores.
10. Go Custom or Buy from a Specialty Store
Seeking out a custom men’s clothier or short clothing specialist who can help optimize your look is an option many men take. They realize a second set of eyes and years of experience dealing with hundreds of men with similar problems gives a clothier expert status; the best study their craft and can build entire wardrobes for their clients that not only make them look taller but are interchangeable and functional for maximum wear.
Finally, keep your look natural. By this I mean you have to be comfortable in your clothing – wear IT, don’t let it wear YOU. There are a lot of tips in this post…DO NOT implement all of them into a single outfit. Instead pick a few and apply them in moderation over the next few months. Keep the ones that work, discard the tips that don’t.
And remember that being a sharp dressed man is all about confidence. Know who you are and have fun expressing that individuality with your personal style.
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Facing the Mistakes of Life - By William George Jordan
There are only two classes of people who never make mistakes—they are the dead and the unborn. Mistakes are the inevitable accompaniment of the greatest gift given to man—individual freedom of action. If he were only a pawn in the fingers of Omnipotence, with no self-moving power, man would never make a mistake, but his very immunity would degrade him to the ranks of the lower animals and the plants. An oyster never makes a mistake—it has not the mind that would permit it to forsake an instinct.
Let us be glad of the dignity of our privilege to make mistakes, glad of the wisdom that enables us to recognize them, glad of the power that permits us to turn their light as a glowing illumination along the pathway of our future.
Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom, the assessments we pay on our stock of experience, the raw material of error to be transformed into higher living. Without them there would be no individual growth, no progress, no conquest. Mistakes are the knots, the tangles, the broken threads, the dropped stitches in the web of our living. They are the misdeals in judgment, our unwise investments in morals, the profit and loss account of wisdom. They are the misleading bypaths from the straight road of truth and truth in our highest living is but the accuracy of the soul.
Life is simply time given to man to learn how to live. Mistakes are always part of learning. The real dignity of life consists in cultivating a fine attitude towards our own mistakes and those of others. It is the fine tolerance of a fine soul. Man becomes great, not through never making mistakes, but by profiting by those he does make; by being satisfied with a single rendition of a mistake, not encoring it into a continuous performance; by getting from it the honey of new, regenerating inspiration with no irritating sting of morbid regret; by building better to-day because of his poor yesterday; and by rising with renewed strength, finer purpose and freshened courage every time he falls.
In great chain factories, power machines are specially built to test chains—to make them fail, to show their weakness, to reveal the mistakes of workmanship. Let us thank God when a mistake shows us the weak link in the chain of our living. It is a new revelation of how to live. It means the rich red blood of a new inspiration.
If we have made an error, done a wrong, been unjust to another or to ourselves, or, like the Pharisee, passed by some opportunity for good, we should have the courage to face our mistake squarely, to call it boldly by its right name, to acknowledge it frankly and to put in no flimsy alibis of excuse to protect an anemic self-esteem.
If we have been selfish, unselfishness should atone; if we have wronged, we should right; if we have hurt, we should heal; if we have taken unjustly, we should restore; if we have been unfair, we should become just. Every possible reparation should be made. If confession of regret for the wrong and for our inability to set it right be the maximum of our power let us at least do that. A quick atonement sometimes almost effaces the memory. If foolish pride stands in our way we are aggravating the first mistake by a new one. Some people’s mistakes are never born singly—they come in litters.
Those who waken to the realization of their wrong act, weeks, months or years later, sometimes feel it is better to let confession or reparation lapse, that it is too late to reopen a closed account; but men rarely feel deeply wounded if asked to accept payment on an old promissory note—outlawed for years.
Some people like to wander in the cemetery of their past errors, to reread the old epitaphs and to spend hours in mourning over the grave of a wrong. This new mistake does not antidote the old one. The remorse that paralyzes hope, corrodes purpose, and deadens energy is not moral health, it is—an indigestion of the soul that cannot assimilate an act. It is selfish, cowardly surrender to the dominance of the past. It is lost motion in morals; it does no good to the individual, to the injured, to others, or to the world. If the past be unworthy live it down; if it be worthy live up to it and—surpass it.
Omnipotence cannot change the past, so why should we try? Our duty is to compel that past to vitalize our future with new courage and purpose, making it a larger, greater future than would have been possible without the past that has so grieved us. If we can get real, fine, appetizing dividends from our mistakes they prove themselves not losses but—wise investments. They seem like old mining shares, laid aside in the lavender of memory of our optimism and now, by some sudden change in the market of speculation, proved to be of real value.
Musing over the dreams of youth, the golden hopes that have not blossomed into deeds, is a dangerous mental dissipation. In very small doses it may stimulate; in large ones it weakens effort. It over-emphasizes the past at the expense of the present; it adds weights, not wings, to purpose. “It might have been” is the lullaby of regret with which man often puts to sleep the mighty courage and confidence that should inspire him. We do not need narcotics in life so much as we need tonics. We may try sometimes, sadly and speculatively, to reconstruct our life from some date in the past when we might have taken a different course. We build on a dead “if.” This is the most unwise brand of air-castle.
The other road always looks attractive. Distant sails are always white; far-off hills always green. It may perhaps have been the poorer road after all, could our imagination, through some magic, see with perfect vision the finality of its possibility. The other road might have meant wealth but less happiness; fame might have charmed our ears with the sweet music of praise, but the little hand of love that rests so trustingly in ours might have been denied us. Death itself might have come earlier to us or his touch stilled the beatings of a heart we hold dearer than our own. What the other road might have meant no eternity of conjecture could ever reveal; no omnipotence could enable us now to walk therein even if we wished.
It is a greater mistake to err in purpose, in aim, in principle, than in our method of attaining them…Right principles are vital and primary. They bring the maximum of profit from mistakes, reduce the loss to a minimum. False pride perpetuates our mistakes, deters us from confessing them, debars us from repairing them and ceasing them.
Let us never accept mistakes as final; let us organize victory out of the broken ranks of failure and, despite all odds, fight on calmly, courageously, unflinchingly, serenely confident that, in the end, right living and right doing must triumph.
Let us be glad of the dignity of our privilege to make mistakes, glad of the wisdom that enables us to recognize them, glad of the power that permits us to turn their light as a glowing illumination along the pathway of our future.
Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom, the assessments we pay on our stock of experience, the raw material of error to be transformed into higher living. Without them there would be no individual growth, no progress, no conquest. Mistakes are the knots, the tangles, the broken threads, the dropped stitches in the web of our living. They are the misdeals in judgment, our unwise investments in morals, the profit and loss account of wisdom. They are the misleading bypaths from the straight road of truth and truth in our highest living is but the accuracy of the soul.
Life is simply time given to man to learn how to live. Mistakes are always part of learning. The real dignity of life consists in cultivating a fine attitude towards our own mistakes and those of others. It is the fine tolerance of a fine soul. Man becomes great, not through never making mistakes, but by profiting by those he does make; by being satisfied with a single rendition of a mistake, not encoring it into a continuous performance; by getting from it the honey of new, regenerating inspiration with no irritating sting of morbid regret; by building better to-day because of his poor yesterday; and by rising with renewed strength, finer purpose and freshened courage every time he falls.
In great chain factories, power machines are specially built to test chains—to make them fail, to show their weakness, to reveal the mistakes of workmanship. Let us thank God when a mistake shows us the weak link in the chain of our living. It is a new revelation of how to live. It means the rich red blood of a new inspiration.
If we have made an error, done a wrong, been unjust to another or to ourselves, or, like the Pharisee, passed by some opportunity for good, we should have the courage to face our mistake squarely, to call it boldly by its right name, to acknowledge it frankly and to put in no flimsy alibis of excuse to protect an anemic self-esteem.
If we have been selfish, unselfishness should atone; if we have wronged, we should right; if we have hurt, we should heal; if we have taken unjustly, we should restore; if we have been unfair, we should become just. Every possible reparation should be made. If confession of regret for the wrong and for our inability to set it right be the maximum of our power let us at least do that. A quick atonement sometimes almost effaces the memory. If foolish pride stands in our way we are aggravating the first mistake by a new one. Some people’s mistakes are never born singly—they come in litters.
Those who waken to the realization of their wrong act, weeks, months or years later, sometimes feel it is better to let confession or reparation lapse, that it is too late to reopen a closed account; but men rarely feel deeply wounded if asked to accept payment on an old promissory note—outlawed for years.
Some people like to wander in the cemetery of their past errors, to reread the old epitaphs and to spend hours in mourning over the grave of a wrong. This new mistake does not antidote the old one. The remorse that paralyzes hope, corrodes purpose, and deadens energy is not moral health, it is—an indigestion of the soul that cannot assimilate an act. It is selfish, cowardly surrender to the dominance of the past. It is lost motion in morals; it does no good to the individual, to the injured, to others, or to the world. If the past be unworthy live it down; if it be worthy live up to it and—surpass it.
Omnipotence cannot change the past, so why should we try? Our duty is to compel that past to vitalize our future with new courage and purpose, making it a larger, greater future than would have been possible without the past that has so grieved us. If we can get real, fine, appetizing dividends from our mistakes they prove themselves not losses but—wise investments. They seem like old mining shares, laid aside in the lavender of memory of our optimism and now, by some sudden change in the market of speculation, proved to be of real value.
Musing over the dreams of youth, the golden hopes that have not blossomed into deeds, is a dangerous mental dissipation. In very small doses it may stimulate; in large ones it weakens effort. It over-emphasizes the past at the expense of the present; it adds weights, not wings, to purpose. “It might have been” is the lullaby of regret with which man often puts to sleep the mighty courage and confidence that should inspire him. We do not need narcotics in life so much as we need tonics. We may try sometimes, sadly and speculatively, to reconstruct our life from some date in the past when we might have taken a different course. We build on a dead “if.” This is the most unwise brand of air-castle.
The other road always looks attractive. Distant sails are always white; far-off hills always green. It may perhaps have been the poorer road after all, could our imagination, through some magic, see with perfect vision the finality of its possibility. The other road might have meant wealth but less happiness; fame might have charmed our ears with the sweet music of praise, but the little hand of love that rests so trustingly in ours might have been denied us. Death itself might have come earlier to us or his touch stilled the beatings of a heart we hold dearer than our own. What the other road might have meant no eternity of conjecture could ever reveal; no omnipotence could enable us now to walk therein even if we wished.
It is a greater mistake to err in purpose, in aim, in principle, than in our method of attaining them…Right principles are vital and primary. They bring the maximum of profit from mistakes, reduce the loss to a minimum. False pride perpetuates our mistakes, deters us from confessing them, debars us from repairing them and ceasing them.
Let us never accept mistakes as final; let us organize victory out of the broken ranks of failure and, despite all odds, fight on calmly, courageously, unflinchingly, serenely confident that, in the end, right living and right doing must triumph.
Friday, June 03, 2011
Learn to ride a Motorcycle - from the Art of Manliness
Learning to Ride Your First Motorcycle
So you’ve already read up on how to buy your first motorcycle. What about learning to ride it?
If you’re like most men, you may be thinking, “How hard can it be? I’ve had that two-wheeled thing down since, what, age 6?” But a motorcycle does not suffer fools. Most motorcycles will go from zero to 60 faster than you can read this sentence. There are no seatbelts or airbags on motorcycles. If cars are more and more about being protected in a cocoon, motorcycles are about being out there in the wind. With a motorcycle, you wear your protection. Screw up in a car and you might bend some sheet metal; screw up on a bike and you might die. Riding a motorcycle will always include an element of danger; there’s no way around that. But there are ways to minimize your risk and put the odds more in your favor.
Get some training. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation has training programs all over the country. Find out where by going to www.msf-usa.org. Many of these programs are official parts of state programs. Some, like those in Ohio for example, even provide the bike for beginning students. They’ve trained close to 6 million students since 1974. They’ll teach you the techniques of throttle, clutch and brake control and more. And they don’t stop there. As you get better, you can also take their Experienced and Advanced courses.
Ride like you’re invisible and everybody else is drunk. Car drivers, at least the ones who aren’t texting, fighting with their spouse on the phone, applying make-up or messing with their iPods, are looking for moving objects the size of cars and trucks. A motorcycle is a much smaller thing and might not even register with a driver. And since so many cars are wired to have their lights on all the time, even the bike’s headlight doesn’t make it stand out in traffic. Never assume that the car driver sees you. Always assume that the car driver will do something dumb. Be ready for it. Plan accordingly.
Look as far down the road as possible. This is a corollary to the previous paragraph. The best riders don’t want to be surprised, so they anticipate. They see a truck on an entrance ramp and move left long before the truck merges. They see cars waiting at an intersection, so they slow down and put the first two fingers of their right hand on the front brake lever so they can reduce reaction time if they have to get on the brakes. They ride a little faster than average traffic to stay out of blind spots. In short, they anticipate the dumb things a driver might do and position themselves to avoid the consequences if the driver does, indeed, do that dumb thing. The best riders are the smoothest riders, constantly moving their machines to the least risky place.
Head protection: A fedora doesn't count.
Wear a helmet. A helmet won’t protect your head if you hit a tree at 60 mph. Nothing will. A helmet is designed to protect your head in a fall from ride height (4 or 5 feet) to the ground and the ensuing scrapage. You’ve seen riders whose only head protection is a bandana. These people aren’t cool; they’re stupid. Years ago, Bell Helmets had an advertising campaign that said, “If you have a $10 head, buy a $10 helmet.” What does it say about the value of your head if you don’t even wear one?
Always wear your gear. Your skin is your body’s largest organ. Guess what happens to your skin if you fall off your bike. Experienced riders call it road rash. So protect your body’s largest organ with a jacket, pants, and gloves every time you ride. There are jackets on the market that pass air almost as well as a t-shirt, yet protect well in a crash. Jeans aren’t the best in a crash, but they protect better than shorts. Shoes that lace up will stay on your feet; loafers or flip-flops won’t.
Practice, Practice, Practice. Given a good surface, a motorcycle will stop faster than any car. But it won’t if you’re timid about using the brakes. Go find an empty parking lot and practice a series of stops from 25 or so, squeezing the brakes a little harder each time you stop until you get used to maximum braking. Some motorcycles have ABS, most don’t, so practice is valuable when it comes to stopping as quickly as possible. Get used to the fact that the front brake contributes far more to a fast stop than the rear brake.
Learn to maintain your machine. We’re not talking about rebuilding the engine–we’re talking about the really simple stuff. Make sure your tires are properly inflated and have enough tread. Check your oil. Make sure your lights aren’t burned out. Ask your dealer’s service department to teach you how to adjust your chain. Here’s why all of this is important: If your tires are underinflated, or even overinflated, your bike won’t handle properly. If your lights are burned out, it’s harder for cars to see you. If your chain isn’t adjusted properly, well, chains are expensive and you don’t want to replace one if you don’t have to.
Don’t scare your girlfriend. Don’t ride with your significant other on the back until you’re thoroughly comfortable riding by yourself. Adding a passenger drastically changes the riding characteristics of the bike. Do some short distances at lower speeds with a passenger to get used to how the bike handles. And don’t give in to the temptation to show your passenger how quick your bike is. Scaring the crap out of your passenger is not manly, just dumb.
Riding a motorcycle will never be as safe as driving a car. But, as Helen Keller once wrote:
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
Get out there and ride.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
A Little Wit
“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”
— James Carse
— James Carse
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
RIP Gil Scott-Heron
His death was announced in a Twitter message on Friday night by his British publisher, Jamie Byng, and confirmed early Saturday by an American representative of his record label, XL. The cause was not immediately known, although The Associated Press reported that he had become ill after returning from a trip to Europe.
Mr. Scott-Heron often bristled at the suggestion that his work had prefigured rap. “I don’t know if I can take the blame for it,” he said in an interview last year with the music Web site The Daily Swarm. He preferred to call himself a “bluesologist,” drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem renaissance poetics.
Yet, along with the work of the Last Poets, a group of black nationalist performance poets who emerged alongside him in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Mr. Scott-Heron established much of the attitude and the stylistic vocabulary that would characterize the socially conscious work of early rap groups like Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions. And he has remained part of the DNA of hip-hop by being sampled by stars like Kanye West.
“You can go into Ginsberg and the Beat poets and Dylan, but Gil Scott-Heron is the manifestation of the modern word,” Chuck D, the leader of Public Enemy, told The New Yorker in 2010. “He and the Last Poets set the stage for everyone else.”
Mr. Scott-Heron’s career began with a literary rather than a musical bent. He was born in Chicago on April 1, 1949, and reared in Tennessee and New York. His mother was a librarian and an English teacher; his estranged father was a Jamaican soccer player.
In his early teens, Mr. Scott-Heron wrote detective stories, and his work as a writer won him a scholarship to the Fieldston School in the Bronx, where he was one of 5 black students in a class of 100. Following in the footsteps of Langston Hughes, he went to the historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and he wrote his first novel at 19, a murder mystery called “The Vulture.” A book of verse, “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox,” and a second novel, “The Nigger Factory,” soon followed.
Working with a college friend, Brian Jackson, Mr. Scott-Heron turned to music in search of a wider audience. His first album, “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox,” was released in 1970 on Flying Dutchman, a small label, and included a live recitation of “Revolution” accompanied by conga and bongo drums. Another version of that piece, recorded with a full band including the jazz bassist Ron Carter, was released on Mr. Scott-Heron’s second album, “Pieces of a Man,” in 1971.
“Revolution” established Mr. Scott-Heron as a rising star of the black cultural left, and its cool, biting ridicule of a nation anesthetized by mass media has resonated with the socially disaffected of various stripes — campus activists, media theorists, coffeehouse poets — for four decades. With sharp, sardonic wit and a barrage of pop-culture references, he derided society’s dominating forces as well as the gullibly dominated.
During the 1970s, Mr. Scott-Heron was seen as a prodigy with significant potential, although he never achieved more than cult popularity. He recorded 13 albums from 1970 to 1982, and was one of the first acts that the music executive Clive Davis signed after starting Arista Records in 1974. In 1979, Mr. Scott-Heron performed at Musicians United for Safe Energy’s “No Nukes” benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden, and in 1985, he appeared on the all-star anti-apartheid album “Sun City.”
But by the mid-1980s, Mr. Scott-Heron had begun to fade, and his recording output slowed to a trickle. In later years, he struggled publicly with addiction. Since 2001, Mr. Scott-Heron had been convicted twice for cocaine possession, and he served a sentence at Rikers Island in New York for parole violation.
Commentators sometimes used Mr. Scott-Heron’s plight as an example of the harshness of New York’s drug laws. Yet his friends were also horrified by his descent. In interviews Mr. Scott-Heron often dodged questions about drugs, but the writer of the New Yorker profile reported witnessing Mr. Scott-Heron’s crack smoking and being so troubled by his own ravaged physical appearance that he avoided mirrors. “Ten to 15 minutes of this, I don’t have pain,” Mr. Scott-Heron said in the article, as he lighted a glass crack pipe.
That image seemed to contrast tragically with Mr. Scott-Heron’s legacy as someone who had once so trenchantly mocked the psychology of addiction. “You keep sayin’ kick it, quit it, kick it quit it!” he said in his 1971 song “Home Is Where the Hatred Is.” “God, did you ever try to turn your sick soul inside out so that the world could watch you die?”
Despite Mr. Scott-Heron’s public problems, he remained an admired figure. Reviews for the album inevitably called Mr. Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap,” but he made it clear he had different tastes.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Short Quote
“Anyone can be heroic from time to time, but a gentleman is something you have to be all the time.”
— Luigi Pirandello
— Luigi Pirandello
Modern-day Gentleman’s Tray
The design team at Hekseskudd re-envisions the classic gentleman’s tray as not just a convenient container for loose change and keys, but one that also caters to the modern user by providing a place to recharge and house electronics like the iPhone and Apple keyboard. 3 configurations of varying size, capacity, and functionality are available in a number of handsome wood finishes for a custom made feel that compliments the heritage of the classic product.
Designer: Hekseskudd
How to Be a Host, How to Be a Guest
Jewish ethical literature provides practical, down-to-earth guidelines on how to behave towards one's guests and towards one's hosts.
By Rabbi Louis Jacobs
The rules set down in the pre-modern sources consulted by Rabbi Jacobs assume that real hospitality is more than just having friends visit in your home. It involves directly providing for wayfarers and others who might be in need of a meal and of people with whom to share it. Reprinted with permission from Louis Jacobs, The Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University Press.
The Jewish moralists often refer to the etiquette to be observed by both host and guest. The host should have considerations for the feelings of his poor guests and not embarrass them. The guests should not conduct themselves in a manner likely to cause embarrassment to their host. Naive but typical of conditions in medieval German Jewry, is the advice given to hosts and guests in the Sefer Hasidim.
"A guest eating in a house in which he has been offered hospitality should leave something on his plate in order to show that he was given enough. If he eats everything, people might say it is because he was not given sufficient. If, however, the host said to him, 'Please do not leave anything; what is the good of throwing food away to the dogs,' he should listen to the host and leave nothing on his plate. It once happened that a certain guest regularly took no notice of his host who urged him to eat well. When the host observed this he naturally gave him smaller portions, and then the guest complained. A sage said to the guest, 'Your host was quite right, for you should have listened to him in the first place. Your intention was to pay him honor, but the best way of honoring a man is to do what he wants.' A guest should not bring into the home which offers hospitality another, uninvited guest."
The moralists advise a host that he should not take issue with any opinions expressed by his guest at the table because this might result in further humiliation for a poor man humiliated in any event by having to accept hospitality A poor man who can easily obtain his needs in the special communal guest-house should not insist on being given hospitality in a private home even if he senses that a private householder is willing to provide this. To trade without good cause on another's generosity smacks of theft. A husband should not bring the poor into his house without his wife's approval since the burden is far heavier on the mistress of the house than on the guest
By Rabbi Louis Jacobs
The rules set down in the pre-modern sources consulted by Rabbi Jacobs assume that real hospitality is more than just having friends visit in your home. It involves directly providing for wayfarers and others who might be in need of a meal and of people with whom to share it. Reprinted with permission from Louis Jacobs, The Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University Press.
The Jewish moralists often refer to the etiquette to be observed by both host and guest. The host should have considerations for the feelings of his poor guests and not embarrass them. The guests should not conduct themselves in a manner likely to cause embarrassment to their host. Naive but typical of conditions in medieval German Jewry, is the advice given to hosts and guests in the Sefer Hasidim.
"A guest eating in a house in which he has been offered hospitality should leave something on his plate in order to show that he was given enough. If he eats everything, people might say it is because he was not given sufficient. If, however, the host said to him, 'Please do not leave anything; what is the good of throwing food away to the dogs,' he should listen to the host and leave nothing on his plate. It once happened that a certain guest regularly took no notice of his host who urged him to eat well. When the host observed this he naturally gave him smaller portions, and then the guest complained. A sage said to the guest, 'Your host was quite right, for you should have listened to him in the first place. Your intention was to pay him honor, but the best way of honoring a man is to do what he wants.' A guest should not bring into the home which offers hospitality another, uninvited guest."
The moralists advise a host that he should not take issue with any opinions expressed by his guest at the table because this might result in further humiliation for a poor man humiliated in any event by having to accept hospitality A poor man who can easily obtain his needs in the special communal guest-house should not insist on being given hospitality in a private home even if he senses that a private householder is willing to provide this. To trade without good cause on another's generosity smacks of theft. A husband should not bring the poor into his house without his wife's approval since the burden is far heavier on the mistress of the house than on the guest
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Latest Rejuvenation Research, and the Most Important Debate
Quote: Possibly the biggest battle that I have had to fight over the past decade is to persuade people to take seriously the idea that it is time even to think about "reversing aging" while we remain so negligibly able even to slow aging down. The flaw in that logic is simple: it is that rejuvenation, i.e. the restoration of an organism's physiological state to how it was at an earlier age, will be achieved not by reversing the processes of aging but by repairing the accumulated damage that those processes create. To get back to where we came from, in other words, we do not need to retrace the route we took from there to here. Any route will do, and in this case there turns out to be a vastly more plausible route than the retracing one.The debate over the the large-scale course of longevity science, focusing on either repair of aging (thus effectively reversing its effects) or slowing aging through re-engineering human metabolism, will determine how long we all live.
Quote:It is likely to be easier and less costly to produce rejuvenation therapies than to produce a reliable and significant slowing of aging. A rejuvenation therapy doesn't require a whole new metabolism to be engineered, tested, and understood - it requires that we revert clearly identified changes to return to a metabolic model that we know works, as it's used by a few billion young people already. Those rejuvenation therapies will be far more effective than slowing aging in terms of additional years gained, since you can keep coming back to use them again and again. They will also help the aged, who are not helped at all by a therapy that merely slows aging.Whatever the course of research, the first resulting widespread therapies to significantly extend healthy human life are two or more decades away. Most of us will be old before the second generation of better and more reliable therapies emerges thereafter. Thus repair strategies for ongoing research must come to dominate the funding landscape over the next decade if we are to see meaningful progress in engineered human longevity within our lifetimes. Slowing aging will be of little use to us by the time it becomes available.
All of this means that this scientific debate is far too important for all of us to refrain from participation. We should all absolutely dive in and loudly offer our own opinions on the topic, and help the researchers and fundraisers focused on repair biotechnologies succeed in their aims: it is, after all, the future of all our lives on the line.
Quote:It is likely to be easier and less costly to produce rejuvenation therapies than to produce a reliable and significant slowing of aging. A rejuvenation therapy doesn't require a whole new metabolism to be engineered, tested, and understood - it requires that we revert clearly identified changes to return to a metabolic model that we know works, as it's used by a few billion young people already. Those rejuvenation therapies will be far more effective than slowing aging in terms of additional years gained, since you can keep coming back to use them again and again. They will also help the aged, who are not helped at all by a therapy that merely slows aging.Whatever the course of research, the first resulting widespread therapies to significantly extend healthy human life are two or more decades away. Most of us will be old before the second generation of better and more reliable therapies emerges thereafter. Thus repair strategies for ongoing research must come to dominate the funding landscape over the next decade if we are to see meaningful progress in engineered human longevity within our lifetimes. Slowing aging will be of little use to us by the time it becomes available.
All of this means that this scientific debate is far too important for all of us to refrain from participation. We should all absolutely dive in and loudly offer our own opinions on the topic, and help the researchers and fundraisers focused on repair biotechnologies succeed in their aims: it is, after all, the future of all our lives on the line.
Is It Possible To Live To 1,000?
Want to live to be a thousand years old? It's not far-fetched at all if you ask theoretician and geneticist Aubrey de Grey. He believes within the next 25 years there is a 50/50 chance we'll have the technologies to extend human life indefinitely. I learned of Aubrey and his ideas in 2005 and immediately pitched the story to NBC's Today Show. They were intrigued. With the help of correspondent Kerry Sanders and the London bureau, we went out and interviewed Aubrey in a pub in Cambridge. When we finished the story we sent it in to the show. It was promptly killed. Too out there for a mainstream audience. Plus it didn't help that Aubrey looked like Methuselah.
Fast forward to 2011 and there Aubrey was in the news again. This time I pitched the story to HDNet's World Report. The program is always looking for stories that deal with interesting issues and are not widely told. This time correspondent Willem Marx met up with Aubrey in a pub in Cambridge and also went punting with him on the Thames River. For my part, I finally got to meet Aubrey at his SENS Foundation laboratory in Mountain View, California. He is tall and wiry and moves like someone with no time to lose. He lovingly strokes the beard which hangs almost to his waist. I asked him if his distinctive look helped or hurt him as he went out in the world trying to win over scientists and venture capitalists to support his work. He said it helped because people looked at him and saw a guy who is not materialistic in the least. It's very clear to them that he is not doing this to get rich.
Through his SENS Foundation nonprofit, Aubrey and the scientists who work with him are creating an intersection between research on the biology of aging and regenerative medicine. By doing experiments with the building blocks of cells they hope to someday develop treatments that repair the damage caused by aging, and restore people to a state where they are biologically younger than they were when they started. In other words, people could live out their entire lives as healthy as young adults. Five years ago, the scientific community considered his ideas kind of kooky but now the research is catching up with his theories and Aubrey is gaining credibility. "This is not science fiction anymore, this is science forseeable," Aubrey proclaims.
Of course the implications are mind boggling but Aubrey brushes them off.
People always say hang on. If we stop the problem of aging we're going to have a whole lot of other problems. We're going to have overpopulation or dictators who live forever, or how will we have the pensions, or won't it be boring. If I want to be flippant, I say those are problems I'd like to have, thank you very much.
Ultimately I don't see people who want to get cancer or Alzheimer's disease or cardiovascular disease or Type 2 Diabetes or any of these things we are going to prevent by curing aging. I don't meet people who want any of those things so I find it frustrating when people take the view we're going to create the problems and refuse to adopt any sense of proportion about this and accept the problem we have today is a big one, a problem that kills 100,000 people every day, most of them after a long period of ill health and disease and debilitation and dependence and decrepitude.
It's pretty clear that the problem we would solve is quite a big one, and yes, the transition to a post aging world is going to be a big one, and the more forward planning we do to make it less turbulent the better, but the transition to the industrial revolution was pretty turbulent too, yet there aren't many people who believe the industrial revolution was a mistake.
Fast forward to 2011 and there Aubrey was in the news again. This time I pitched the story to HDNet's World Report. The program is always looking for stories that deal with interesting issues and are not widely told. This time correspondent Willem Marx met up with Aubrey in a pub in Cambridge and also went punting with him on the Thames River. For my part, I finally got to meet Aubrey at his SENS Foundation laboratory in Mountain View, California. He is tall and wiry and moves like someone with no time to lose. He lovingly strokes the beard which hangs almost to his waist. I asked him if his distinctive look helped or hurt him as he went out in the world trying to win over scientists and venture capitalists to support his work. He said it helped because people looked at him and saw a guy who is not materialistic in the least. It's very clear to them that he is not doing this to get rich.
Through his SENS Foundation nonprofit, Aubrey and the scientists who work with him are creating an intersection between research on the biology of aging and regenerative medicine. By doing experiments with the building blocks of cells they hope to someday develop treatments that repair the damage caused by aging, and restore people to a state where they are biologically younger than they were when they started. In other words, people could live out their entire lives as healthy as young adults. Five years ago, the scientific community considered his ideas kind of kooky but now the research is catching up with his theories and Aubrey is gaining credibility. "This is not science fiction anymore, this is science forseeable," Aubrey proclaims.
Of course the implications are mind boggling but Aubrey brushes them off.
People always say hang on. If we stop the problem of aging we're going to have a whole lot of other problems. We're going to have overpopulation or dictators who live forever, or how will we have the pensions, or won't it be boring. If I want to be flippant, I say those are problems I'd like to have, thank you very much.
Ultimately I don't see people who want to get cancer or Alzheimer's disease or cardiovascular disease or Type 2 Diabetes or any of these things we are going to prevent by curing aging. I don't meet people who want any of those things so I find it frustrating when people take the view we're going to create the problems and refuse to adopt any sense of proportion about this and accept the problem we have today is a big one, a problem that kills 100,000 people every day, most of them after a long period of ill health and disease and debilitation and dependence and decrepitude.
It's pretty clear that the problem we would solve is quite a big one, and yes, the transition to a post aging world is going to be a big one, and the more forward planning we do to make it less turbulent the better, but the transition to the industrial revolution was pretty turbulent too, yet there aren't many people who believe the industrial revolution was a mistake.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
I love the way this 60' Yacht sits in the water....
Monday, May 23, 2011
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