Category: Uncategorized

Statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called “developing world.”

Sleep, or rather the lack of it makes us less able (if not downright dangerous) in the workplace according to sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley of the Norwich University Hospital. “Sleep is as important as diet and exercise when it comes to the nation’s health,” says Dr Stanley, “but we place no importance on it in our culture. When you are sleep deprived you are putting yourself in a stress situation. In our culture it is socially acceptable to have had no sleep and go into work, even though your ability to function is severely impaired and you could be dangerous.” The good doctor recommends ‘power napping’ as a way of countering the effects of too little rest. “A 20-minute nap gives you an amazing boost, it’s much better than having a coffee,” he says. “Even closing your eyes for 20 minutes is better than nothing, but in the UK it is culturally unacceptable for us to be found napping with our head on the keyboard. However, it’s fine to pump yourself with caffeine even though it it’s nowhere near as effective.” Whilst nodding off at work is still largely unacceptable here, across the world in Japan it’s almost mandatory. Know as ‘inemuri’ or ‘to be asleep while present’, the custom is seen as a demonstration of how committed you are to the job (i.e. you are exhausted because you are putting in so many hours for the company). So well regarded is inemuri that many workers apparently fake it even if they aren’t really tired just to impress their bosses. Interesting place Japan. You couldn’t make this up.

The Hidden Dangers of Cell Phone Radiation

By Sue Kovach

Every day, we’re swimming in a sea of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) produced by electrical appliances, power lines, wiring in buildings, and a slew of other technologies that are part of modern life. From the dishwasher and microwave oven in the kitchen and the clock radio next to your bed, to the cellular phone you hold to your ear—sometimes for hours each day—exposure to EMR is growing and becoming a serious health threat.

Read the entire article

Electromagnetic Radiation:
Intervention Recommendations from the Safe Wireless Initiative

To minimize dangerous electromagnetic radiation from your personal environment:
Keep your cell phone at least 6-7 inches away from the body while it is on. Continue reading “The Hidden Dangers of Cell Phone Radiation” →

One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo’s fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl.

Tell you the truth, she’s not that good-looking. She doesn’t stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn’t young, either – must be near thirty, not even close to a “girl,” properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She’s the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there’s a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

Maybe you have your own particular favorite type of girl – one with slim ankles, say, or big eyes, or graceful fingers, or you’re drawn for no good reason to girls who take their time with every meal. I have my own preferences, of course. Sometimes in a restaurant I’ll catch myself staring at the girl at the next table to mine because I like the shape of her nose.

But no one can insist that his 100% perfect girl correspond to some preconceived type. Much as I like noses, I can’t recall the shape of hers – or even if she had one. All I can remember for sure is that she was no great beauty. It’s weird.

“Yesterday on the street I passed the 100% girl,” I tell someone.

“Yeah?” he says. “Good-looking?”

“Not really.”

“Your favorite type, then?”

“I don’t know. I can’t seem to remember anything about her – the shape of her eyes or the size of her breasts.”

“Strange.”

“Yeah. Strange.”

“So anyhow,” he says, already bored, “what did you do? Talk to her? Follow her?”

“Nah. Just passed her on the street.”

She’s walking east to west, and I west to east. It’s a really nice April morning.

Wish I could talk to her. Half an hour would be plenty: just ask her about herself, tell her about myself, and – what I’d really like to do – explain to her the complexities of fate that have led to our passing each other on a side street in Harajuku on a beautiful April morning in 1981. This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock build when peace filled the world.

After talking, we’d have lunch somewhere, maybe see a Woody Allen movie, stop by a hotel bar for cocktails. With any kind of luck, we might end up in bed.

Potentiality knocks on the door of my heart.

Now the distance between us has narrowed to fifteen yards.

How can I approach her? What should I say?

“Good morning, miss. Do you think you could spare half an hour for a little conversation?”

Ridiculous. I’d sound like an insurance salesman.

“Pardon me, but would you happen to know if there is an all-night cleaners in the neighborhood?”

No, this is just as ridiculous. I’m not carrying any laundry, for one thing. Who’s going to buy a line like that?

Maybe the simple truth would do. “Good morning. You are the 100% perfect girl for me.”

No, she wouldn’t believe it. Or even if she did, she might not want to talk to me. Sorry, she could say, I might be the 100% perfect girl for you, but you’re not the 100% boy for me. It could happen. And if I found myself in that situation, I’d probably go to pieces. I’d never recover from the shock. I’m thirty-two, and that’s what growing older is all about.

We pass in front of a flower shop. A small, warm air mass touches my skin. The asphalt is damp, and I catch the scent of roses. I can’t bring myself to speak to her. She wears a white sweater, and in her right hand she holds a crisp white envelope lacking only a stamp. So: She’s written somebody a letter, maybe spent the whole night writing, to judge from the sleepy look in her eyes. The envelope could contain every secret she’s ever had.

I take a few more strides and turn: She’s lost in the crowd.

Now, of course, I know exactly what I should have said to her. It would have been a long speech, though, far too long for me to have delivered it properly. The ideas I come up with are never very practical.

Oh, well. It would have started “Once upon a time” and ended “A sad story, don’t you think?”

Once upon a time, there lived a boy and a girl. The boy was eighteen and the girl sixteen. He was not unusually handsome, and she was not especially beautiful. They were just an ordinary lonely boy and an ordinary lonely girl, like all the others. But they believed with their whole hearts that somewhere in the world there lived the 100% perfect boy and the 100% perfect girl for them. Yes, they believed in a miracle. And that miracle actually happened.

One day the two came upon each other on the corner of a street.

“This is amazing,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you all my life. You may not believe this, but you’re the 100% perfect girl for me.”

“And you,” she said to him, “are the 100% perfect boy for me, exactly as I’d pictured you in every detail. It’s like a dream.”

They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour. They were not lonely anymore. They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other. What a wonderful thing it is to find and be found by your 100% perfect other. It’s a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

As they sat and talked, however, a tiny, tiny sliver of doubt took root in their hearts: Was it really all right for one’s dreams to come true so easily?

And so, when there came a momentary lull in their conversation, the boy said to the girl, “Let’s test ourselves – just once. If we really are each other’s 100% perfect lovers, then sometime, somewhere, we will meet again without fail. And when that happens, and we know that we are the 100% perfect ones, we’ll marry then and there. What do you think?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is exactly what we should do.”

And so they parted, she to the east, and he to the west.

The test they had agreed upon, however, was utterly unnecessary. They should never have undertaken it, because they really and truly were each other’s 100% perfect lovers, and it was a miracle that they had ever met. But it was impossible for them to know this, young as they were. The cold, indifferent waves of fate proceeded to toss them unmercifully.

One winter, both the boy and the girl came down with the season’s terrible inluenza, and after drifting for weeks between life and death they lost all memory of their earlier years. When they awoke, their heads were as empty as the young D. H. Lawrence’s piggy bank.

They were two bright, determined young people, however, and through their unremitting efforts they were able to acquire once again the knowledge and feeling that qualified them to return as full-fledged members of society. Heaven be praised, they became truly upstanding citizens who knew how to transfer from one subway line to another, who were fully capable of sending a special-delivery letter at the post office. Indeed, they even experienced love again, sometimes as much as 75% or even 85% love.

Time passed with shocking swiftness, and soon the boy was thirty-two, the girl thirty.

One beautiful April morning, in search of a cup of coffee to start the day, the boy was walking from west to east, while the girl, intending to send a special-delivery letter, was walking from east to west, but along the same narrow street in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. They passed each other in the very center of the street. The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts. Each felt a rumbling in their chest. And they knew:

She is the 100% perfect girl for me.

He is the 100% perfect boy for me.

But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fouteen years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd. Forever.

A sad story, don’t you think?

Yes, that’s it, that is what I should have said to her.

Collect at IFC Mall, Hong Kong or buyer bears shipping costs.

Military and Leadership

Elite Forces – The world’s most formidable secret armies
Richard M Bennett
HK$110 [SOLD]

The Marine Corps Way – Using Maneuver Warfare to lead a winning organisation
Jason A Santamaria et al
HK$110

Semper Fi – Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way
Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh
HK$80

Be Know Do – Leadership the Army Way
Frances Hesselbein and General Eric K Shinseki (USA Ret.)
HK$110 [SOLD]

Commandos – The Inside Story of Britain’s most elite fighting force
John Parker
HK$60 [SOLD]

Business

Never Wrestle with a Pig
Mark H McCormack
HK$60

Magnetic Service – secrets for creating passionately devoted customers
Chip R Bell and Bilijack R Bell
HK$110

Rain Making – The Professional’s guide to attracting new clients
Ford Harding
HK$80 [SOLD]

How to be a Rainmaker
Jeffrey J Fox
HK$60 [SOLD]

The McKinsey Way
Ethan M. Rasiel
HK$100 [SOLD]

Principle-Centred Leadership
Stephen R Covey
HK$60

What Color is Your Parachute? 2005 Edition
Richard N Bolles
HK$100

iCon – Steve Jobs, the greatest second act in the history of business
Jeffrey S Young and William L Simon
HK$100

Goldman Sachs – The Culture of Success
Lisa Endlich
HK$80 [SOLD]

Financial Accounting, 9th Edition
Needles & Powers (recommended by CFA Institute)
HK$480 (HK$840 new)

Spirituality

The Places that Scare You – A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
Pema Chodron
HK$80

The Miracle of Mindfulness
Thich Nhat Hanh
HK$70

How to Free Your Mind
Thubten Chodron
HK$80

The Art of Happiness
HH Dalai Lama and Howard C Cutler
HK$70 [SOLD]

Advice From a Spiritual Friend
Geshe Rabtem and Geshe Dhargyey
HK$80

Remarkable Healings
Shakuntala Modi M.D.
HK$70

Through Time into Healing
Brian L Weiss M.D.
HK$70

Travel and Sport

Shenzhen – A Travelogue in China
Guy Delisle
HK$100 [SOLD]

Buenos Aires – Lonely Planet
3rd Edition – 2002
HK$60

The Fundamentals of Hogan
David Leadbetter
HK$100

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel
Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
HK$70

Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Albert Einstein

Favourite LCD TV: Sharp

Favourite LCD Monitor: Eizo

Favourite aquarium: Aqua Design Amano

Favourite briefcase: LV

Favourite pen: Montblanc

Favourite telephone: Bang & Olufsen Beocom 2

Favourite mobile phone: Nokia

Favourite headphones: Sennheiser

Favourite earphones: Shure

Favourite food: Maguro

Favourite vegetable: Wasabi

Favourite yoghurt: Wallaby Organic

Favourite mineral water: Ferrarelle

Favourite dessert: Gula Melaka (from Melaka)

Favourite fruit: Durian (from Penang)

Favourite sport: Ashtanga Yoga

Favourite car: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

Favourite motorcycle: Ducati 749 Testastretta

Favourite bicycle: Klein Attitude

Favourite backpack: Arcteryx

Favourite hydration system: Hydrapak

Favourite outdoor clothing: Arcteryx

Favourite climbing equipment: Petzl

Favourite scuba regulator: Scubapro

Favourite wetsuit: Bare

Favourite fin: Mares Plana Avanti Quattro

Favourite dive computer: Suunto Stinger

Favourite camera: Canon

Favourite torchlight: Surefire

Favourite waterbottle: Sigg

Favourite designer: Dries van Noten, Marni, Versace, Paul Smith

Favourite vitamins: Solgar

Favourite drink: Pu-Erh or Dongding Oolong

Favourite pet: Nishikigoi

Favourite DJ: Paul van Dyk

On women:

Favourite jeans: Rock and Republic

Favourite shoes: Manolo Blahnik

Favourite handbag: Chanel

Favourite cosmetics: Lancome

Favourite fragrance: Gucci Summer

Favourite beauty products: Aveda, Jurlique

There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60 years.

They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.

In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $25,000. He asked her about the contents.

“When we were to be married,” she said, “my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.”

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

“Honey,” he said, “that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?”

“Oh,” she said, “that’s the money I made from selling all the dolls.