Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 16, 2009
"Even without a documented connection to a notable forebear, experts say the odds are virtually 100 percent that every person on Earth is descended from one royal personage or another." [quoted from
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 9, 2009
The City of Kokomo, in an effort to economize through efficiency, is requiring us to put all trash containers on the same side of the street. Since mine is the only container on the west side of Webster St., I move mine to the East side. I cannot remember to do this, so I have set up email
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 2, 2009
STOLEN RAFT
Some Boeing employees on the airfield decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting it out of the plane and home. Shortly after they took it for a float on the river, they noticed a Coast Guard helicopter coming toward them. It turned out that the
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 2, 2009
Only the forequarter of a Kosher slaughtered animal is brought to Kosher butcheries. The hindquarters are not brought into Kosher butcheries. In Genesis (32:25-33) the Torah recounts the fight that Jacob had with an angel who dislocated his sciatic nerve. Because of that injury we are instructed
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 28, 2009
At Kokomo’s Jackson Morrow Park, Marylu and I were hiking. We like to walk several times a week, and a walk in the woods can add an pleasant environment. I decided to take a short cut near the creek…I thought the ground was solid, but I immediately sunk in mud up to my thigh! And I wasn’t dressed
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 19, 2009
“The Tarsier is one of the smallest primates and lives in the forests of Borneo and Sumatra and the Philippines. Tarsiers have a maximum body length of 6⅓ inches and a 10½ inch tail. Their eyes are so large that they would be equivalent to grapefruit-sized eyes in a human being.
Tarsiers,
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 19, 2009
Stress can be both positive or negative; it can drain us, but it can also charge us!
1. Distress -- demotivates us, brings us down
2. Eustress-- motivates us, it is tiring in the short term by invigorating in the long…
• Meeting a challenge
• Coming
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 19, 2009
Walking with God can be a great source of Eustress (positive stress)…
example: Some of you this week found time in your crazy schedule to listen to or read your Bible. How did you feel afterward?
It’s Wednesday night, and you help with AWANA. It’s been a busy day and you’re tired. But you
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 12, 2009
CALL ON ANOTHER LINE
My son, Scott, an insurance broker in Florida, loves ocean fishing and takes his cell phone along on the boat. One morning we were drifting about ten miles offshore as Scott discussed business on the phone. Suddenly his rod bent double, and the reel screamed as line poured off
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 5, 2009
I came across this true account from Reader’s Digest:
My cell phone quit as I tried to let my wife know that I was caught in freeway gridlock and would be late for our anniversary dinner. I wrote a message on my laptop asking other motorists to call her, printed it on a portable inkjet and taped
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 5, 2009
The BBC (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3157570.stm) did a study five years ago and published some interesting conclusions. According to the October 2, 2003 article, the happiest localities in the world are (in order): Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico.
What might surprise
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 5, 2009
"Endogamic marriages (i.e., within the circle of one’s relatives) were preferred by ancient tribes. The chosen suitor for a girl was her cousin; it was actually forbidden for the eldest daughter to marry outside the family." (The Jewish Encyclopedia)
Since the human race was younger, birth
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 15, 2008
Wikipedia adds this insight:
"Humility, or being humble, is the defining characteristic of an unpretentious and modest person, someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others. The opposite of humility is pride.
The term "humility" is derived from the Latin word
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 15, 2008
" Compassion is a profound human emotion prompted by the pain of others. More vigorous than empathy, the feeling commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism. In
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 15, 2008
Plymouth, England, December 1: Being too particular about cleanliness can make you a lenient judge, says a strange but interesting British study.
Dr. Simone Schnall, a psychologist at University of Plymouth, stated that people who tend to wash their hands before making judgments are more likely to
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 15, 2008
"But Jewish tradition also sees Esav in another light. The famous Talmudic sage, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, was known for the great care he took in fulfilling the Mitzvah of honoring one’s parents. Yet he stated: ’I served my father faithfully all my life, yet I did not even reach the smallest level
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Nov 24, 2008
The Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower were not the first to celebrate Thanksgiving in the New World. Several groups before them had done similar things.
But the Plymouth Rock Thanksgiving is the one we model our celebration after; for one thing, it included turkey:
Governor William Bradford
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