Inspirational Quotations | Famous Quotation | Biography | Self Development

Jane Austen Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:31:00 +0000

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction set among the gentry have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature.[1] Amongst scholars and critics, Austen's realism and biting social commentary have cemented her historical importance as a writer.

Austen lived her entire life as part of a small and close-knit family located on the lower fringes of English gentry.[2] She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to Austen's development as a professional writer.[3] Austen's artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years until she was about thirty-five years old. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel which she tried and then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth.[B] From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it.

Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the eighteenth century and are part of the transition to nineteenth-century realism.[4][C] Austen's plots, though fundamentally comic,[5] highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security.[6] Like those of Samuel Johnson, one of the strongest influences on her writing, her works are concerned with moral issues.[7]

During Austen's lifetime, because she chose to publish anonymously, her works brought her little personal fame and only a few positive reviews. Through the mid-nineteenth century, her novels were admired mainly by members of the literary elite. However, the publication of her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869 introduced her to a far wider public as an appealing personality and kindled popular interest in her works. By the 1940s, Austen had become widely accepted in academia as a "great English writer". The second half of the twentieth century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship, which explored many aspects of her novels: artistic, ideological, and historical. In popular culture, a Janeite fan culture has developed, centered on Austen's life, her works, and the various film and television adaptations of them.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org

Preparing Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:51:00 +0000

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

Famous Quotation by Abraham Lincoln
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

As said by Seneca that " Luck is what happen when preparation meets Opportunity ". Preparation is a must for anyone who wants to succeed. Although at that preparing time, they do not get a commensurate reward. But they remain convinced that one day will come opportunities. At that moment they, no longer hesitate to take this opportunity and make it to be the proofs event. How many times have you passed the opportunities, because you are not ready?

If you reveal your secrets

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:43:00 +0000

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

Inspirational quotation by Kahlil Gibran

I've never been very secretive, and so it is very hard for me not to share my joys and sorrows with anyone who loves me or has a wholesome interest in my thoughts and actions. You can imagine my bewilderment when I decided to take a year to live apart from my husband for reasons I may or may not share later with you and he begged me not to tell anyone about it. As the days went by he realized the unfairness of that request and we developed together growing lists of those who would be in or out of the secret. It felt lovely to share my secret with these special people, and yet I mourned the fact that certain others would not appreciate the holiness (wholeness?) of my decision.
It's been just over a week since I moved out of my home of more than twenty years, and I'm trying to make sense of a million different feelings and emotions. Writing about it is one way in which I get to reflect deeply on my life's issues. Listening to my friends' responses helps me put my reflections in context. Since I am not able to share with all of them, I will have to trust you, dear readers, with the pieces of my heart that I gradually unearth. I only ask that, just as the believer is asked to take their shoes off before treading on holy ground, that you leave all bitterness, prejudice, and fear as you receive this delicate gift from the depths of my soul. You, the trees that surround me, provide me with shelter and protection. Please be gentle with the bits of secrets that the wind gently drops on your leaves.

Seneca Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Miriam Griffin says in her standard modern biography of Seneca that The evidence for Seneca's life before his exile in 41 is so slight, and the potential interest of these years, for social history as well as for biography, is so great that few writers on Seneca have resisted the temptation to eke out knowledge with imagination.

It is thus necessary to regard what one reads as alleged fact with extreme skepticism.

Griffin infers from ancient sources that Seneca was born in either 8, 4, or 1 BCE. She thinks he was born between[vague] 4 and 1 BCE and was resident in Rome by 5 CE. Seneca says that he was carried to Rome in the arms of his mother's stepsister. Griffin says that allowing for rhetorical exaggeration means "it is fair to conclude that Seneca was in Rome as a very small boy."

His family was from Cordoba in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula), and one might infer that he may have been born there, although there is no documentary evidence for it.

He was the second son of Helvia and Lucius Annaeus Seneca (there is no ancient evidence for the name Marcus),[vague] the wealthy rhetorician known as Seneca the Elder. Griffin says that it is probable that the Annaei came from Etruria or the "area further east towards Illyria." There is no way of knowing when the family came to Spain.

Seneca's older brother, Gallio, became proconsul in the Roman province of Achaea. His younger brother Annaeus Mela's son was Marcus Annaeus Lucanus became the poet Lucan.

At Rome he was trained in rhetoric and was introduced to Hellenized Stoic philosophy by Attalus and Sotion. Seneca's own writings describe his poor health. At some stage he was nursed by his aunt; as she was in Egypt from 16 to 31 CE, he must have at least visited and perhaps lived for a period in Hellenistic Egypt.

Seneca and his aunt returned to Rome in 31, and she helped him in his campaign for his first magistracy.

Caligula began his first year as emperor in 38, and there was a severe conflict between him and Seneca; the emperor is said to have spared his life only because he expected Seneca's natural life to be near its end.

In 41, Emperor Claudius succeeded Caligula, and then, at the behest of his wife Messalina, banished Seneca to Corsica on a charge of adultery with Julia Livilla. Seneca spent his exile in philosophical and natural study (a life counseled by Roman Stoic thought) and wrote the Consolations, fulfilling a request for the text made by his sons for the sake of posterity. In 49, Claudius' new wife Agrippina had Seneca recalled to Rome to tutor her son Nero, then 12 years old; on Claudius' death in 54, she secured Nero's recognition as emperor, rather than Claudius' son Britannicus.

From 54 to 62, Seneca acted as Nero's advisor, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus. Seneca's influence was said to be especially strong in the first year.[5] Many historians consider Nero's early rule with Seneca and Burrus to be quite competent. However, over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over Nero. In 59 they had reluctantly agreed to Agrippina's murder, and afterward Seneca wrote a dishonest[vague] exculpation of Nero to the Senate.[6] With the death of Burrus in 62 and accusations[vague] of embezzlement, Seneca retired and devoted his time again to study and writing.
Luca Giordano, The death of Seneca (1684)

In 65, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero. Although it is unlikely that he conspired, he was ordered by Nero to kill himself. He followed tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death, and his wife Pompeia Paulina attempted to share his fate. Tacitus (writing in Book XV, Chapters 60 through 64 of his Annals, a generation later, after the Julio-Claudian emperors) gives an account of the suicide, perhaps, in light of Tacitus's Republican sympathies, somewhat romanticized. According to it, Nero ordered for Seneca's wife to be saved. Her wounds were bound up and she made no further attempt to kill herself. As for Seneca himself, his age and diet were blamed for slow loss of blood, and extended pain rather than a quick death; taking poison was also not fatal. After dictating his last words to a scribe, and with a circle of friends attending him in his home, he immersed himself in a warm bath, which was expected to speed blood flow and ease his pain. Tacitus, however, in his Annals of Imperial Rome says that Seneca suffocated by the vapor rising from the bath. “He was then carried into a bath, with the steam of which he was suffocated, and he was burnt without any of the usual funeral rites. So he had directed in a codicil of his will, even when in the height of his wealth and power he was thinking of life’s close

Source : Wikipedia.org

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity

Inspirational Quotations by Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

Then You would ask, "When luck in determining the success / failure of us, why we need to learn?" The simple answer, because all the events in this world is not regulated in the binary logic of black and white, yes and no. All events in the world operate in probabilistic. Function of Learning is to increase our probability to achieve what we want and reduce the negative impacts when we meet the other fate. In other words, learning does not ensure you will succeed, but will increase your probability of success than those who do not learn. How much probability is, no one knows except the Almighty.

Advantages probability also does not mean you will always win against their smaller probability. If you have a probability of 60-40 and 40-60 your friends, and his fate chose 40% chance that your friend has than your 60%, you still lose the opportunity. Probability would only be on your side, when the same events can be repeated several times. The more frequent the same events over and over, the more probability will help you. You might protest that not all of us were given more opportunity. But with the knowledge and the right attitude, you should be able to create opportunities for more

Worker types by work ethic

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:41:00 +0000

Here, I shall not write worker type from physically, position or earnings. But I prefer to tell you about type of workers' by work ethic.

1. Employees

Type of employees usually want safe. Means, that would earn from the companies they work to. Usually they assume that the job is a demand that they have to do for a reward of monthly salary. They're just doing the work ordered or delegated to them without thinking of how to develop themselves and make the job as the arena of creativity and achievement excavation. If the work has been completed, they busied themselves with talking and looking for entertainment. They were poor innovation. Come to office early, doing routine job, go home, take a rest and find entertainment. I emphasize once again, for this employee, the job is no more than a "demand".

2. Professional

This type level, I guess above the type level employees. They think, work is a responsibility delegated to them and make it a learning tool for self-development. These professionals are desperately needed to advance the company. In their hands, development of products, increase sales and financial management were determined. This type have been aware of the name "achievement". Upgrade the knowledge in their respective sectors are compulsory for the their career path and they feel it is a necessity. Come to office rather late, doing routine job, develop themselves and go home to take the rest.

3. Entrepreneur

This one type one deserved to thumbs up. They are a very brave type to take high risks. Full of innovation, responsible and never stop developing theirself. Maybe, the nature of which I mentioned above, appear automatically. Because, their fate, the company and employees depend on their hands. Come to office is up to them, be creative and innovate, develop themselves and go home to rest.

Well, Wich one are you?

Inspirational quotations by Albert Einstein

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:52:00 +0000

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Albert Einstein
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

Albert Einstein is known as a bit strange. When every people is required to pursue formal education for his future, he considers formal education is a boring thing.
This quote is not meant for you to leave formal education, but since the past until now, formal education is only contains matters which concern mere knowledge. Sometimes creativity can not be developed in formal education.
Maybe it is because einstein the very thought that imagination is Very Important

The way of Lao-tzu | Famous Quotations

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:51:00 +0000

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

If life is likened a journey, and then thousands of miles that we've been through must been started from small steps. This small steps is a benchmark of how meaningful the journey we take.

Oprah Winfrey Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:47:00 +0000

Oprah Winfrey came from a humble background to become one of America's most influential women. Winfrey has amassed a great fortune through her media and publishing interests and uses her fame and wealth to positively influence the lives of people in need.

Born Orpah (after a character from the Bible) Winfrey on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi - USA, but now goes by the name of Oprah. At a young age Winfrey's parents separated and sent her to live with grandparents in very poor surroundings until the age of 6 when she moved to live with her mother. She was consequently se-xually mol-ested by male relatives at a young age and endured the hardship up until she was 14 when Winfrey moved to live with her father in Nashville Tennessee.

Living with her father did not eliminate her problems even though he was loving (yet strict) towards her. Winfrey struggled with dr-ugs and rebellious behavior and lost a baby after giving birth to it prematurely. Although her wild behavior conflicted with her father's strict rules and high standards she eventually began to settle after being awarded a University Scholarship.

"I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life because I had read about it. I knew there were other places, and there was another way of being." Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey studied at the Tennessee State University and received a BA in Speech and Performing Arts. Her father's high standards inspired her to aim for and achieve more from life. Winfrey became involved in several groups and pursued her interests in media and journalism while at University. Even though her early years in life where filled with hardship, she was always gifted with intelligence and she graduated as an honors student.

Oprah Winfrey's career in the media industry began as a news anchor and reporter for a television station in Nashville (although she also worked in radio during high school as a newscaster). She was the first black African American woman television news anchor to work in Nashville on the WTVF-TV station at the young age of 19. Winfrey never felt comfortable in her position as a news anchor and only began to enjoy her work when she was moved to the early morning talk show "People are Talking" at WJZ-TV in Baltimore where she was able to be herself and express her own opinions and share her true feelings about topics that moved her.

Winfrey's career really began to take off after moving to Chicago in 1984 to host "AM Chicago", an early morning talk show at WLS-TV's. It went on to become the number one ranked talk show shortly after she started and it was renamed "The Oprah Winfrey Show" after one year.

The Oprah Winfrey Show went on to become one of the most successful and highest ranked television talk show programs in history. The program is viewed by more than 20 million Americans (USA) every week and broadcast Internationally to more than one hundred countries worldwide. Winfrey's production company "Harpo Productions, Inc" produces the program and she is the host.

The daytime talk show focuses on issues close to Winfrey's heart and she has continued to cover topics of value to her mostly female audience for more than 17 successful seasons of broadcasting. The Oprah Winfrey Show started the wildly influential "Oprah's Book Club" in 1996 where Oprah endorses what she considers to be books of value. Books that received the Oprah endorsement often suddenly went to number 1.

Winfrey's business and personal interests are wide ranging and she has managed to accomplish success in several areas. Apart from being a successful Talk show host she is also a producer, successful actress, Founder of the successful "O, the Oprah Magazine", co founder of "Oxygen Media", and a generous Philanthropist. Her entrepreneurial spirit and desire to change society for the better have brought her and her numerous companies many awards and achievements.

"What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people's lives." Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey continues to follow her dreams through her many business and media interests. She is one of the wealthiest women in the United States of America and is regularly placed high up on the Forbes magazine Rich List each year. Winfrey continues to influence and inspire people worldwide with her example of overcoming great odds to achieve great success financially, spiritually and socially.

Famous Quotation from Oprah Winfrey about our thought

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:37:00 +0000

If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think.

Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine
US actress & television talk show host (1954 - )

By changing the ways of thinking, we will change our actions automatically. Action will change the habit. Habits will change character. And then the characters will change our lives become more precious. So, Change your way of thinking, because all things happen starting from a thought.

Aristotle Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:10:00 +0000

Aristotle, one of Plato's greatest students, was born in 384 BC. Aristotle's father was a physician to the king of Mecadonia, and when Aristotle was seven years old, his father sent him to study at the Academy. He was there at the beginning as a student, then became a researcher and finally a teacher. He seemed to adopted and developed Platonic ideas while there and to have expressed them in dialogue form. When Plato died, Plato willed the Academy not to Aristotle, but to his nephew Speusippus. Aristotle then left Athens with Xenocrates to go to Assos, in Asia Minor, where he opened a branch of the Academy. This Academy focused more on biology than its predecessor that relied on mathematics.

There he met Hermias, another former student of Plato, who had become king of Assos. Aristotle married Hermias niece, Pythias, who died ten years later. During these years in Assos, Aristotle started to break away from Platonism and developed his own ideas.

King Philip of Macedonia invited Aristotle to the capitol around 343 BC to tutor his thirteen-ear-old don, Alexander. Tutoring Alexander in the Academy in Assos, Aristotle still remained the president of the Academy. In 359 BC, Alexander's father, King Philip decided to set off to subdue the Greek city-states, and left Alexander in charge, thus stopping Aristotle's tutoring of Alexander.

King Philip was then murdered, in 336 BC, and Alexander then became king. He mobilized his father's great army and subdued some city-states, thus becoming "Alexander The Great".

In 335 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens. Speusippus had died, but Aristotle was again not given the presidency of the Academy in Athens, instead, it was given to one of his colleagues Xenocrates. So, Aristotle founded his own school this time, it was named the Lyceum, named after Apollo Lyceus. In 323 BC, twelve years after founding the Lyceum, Alexander the Great died. In Greece resentment against the Macedonia hegemony seethed and riots broke out. Aristotle was accused of impiety, and his life become in serious jeopardy. So he left Athens, and went to his late mother's estate at Chalcis on the island of Euboea. He died there in the next year, 322 BC.

Martin Luther King, Jr Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches.

A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.

Inspirational Quotations from Martin Luther King Jr.

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:52:00 +0000

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King Jr.
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)

Inspirational quotation from Martin luther king Jr above try to explain us that, In fact, as an human we rarely catch something that implied meaning of the attitude of a friend. We often think of words of the enemy. Some people say that the friends who laughed and cried together in our arms, he was the love that we are not aware of.

Famous quotation | Friend Is A second self

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:42:00 +0000

A friend is a second self.: Quotation by Aristotle
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC – 322 BC)

Like Stevie Wonder’s song “That’s what friend are for” :

And I

Never thought I’d feel this way

And as far as I’m concerned I’m glad I got the chance to say

That I do believe I love you

And if I should ever go away

Well then close your eyes and try to feel the way we do today

And than if you can’t remember…..

Keep smilin’

Keep shinin’

Knowin’ you can always count on me

for sure

that’s what friends are for

In good times

And bad times

I’ll be on your side forever more

That’s what friends are for

Well you came and open me

And now there’s so much more I see

And so by the way I thank you….

Ohhh and then

For the times when we’re apart

Well just close your eyes and know

These words are comming from my heart

And then if you can’t remember….Ohhhhh

sometimes we prefer to tell a story to friend than our family, don’t we ?

Biography Benjamin franklin

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:35:00 +0000

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the tenth son of soap maker, Josiah Franklin. Benjamin's mother was Abiah Folger, the second wife of Josiah. In all, Josiah would father 17 children.

Josiah intended for Benjamin to enter into the clergy. However, Josiah could only afford to send his son to school for one year and clergymen needed years of schooling. But, as young Benjamin loved to read he had him apprenticed to his brother James, who was a printer. After helping James compose pamphlets and set type which was grueling work, 12-year-old Benjamin would sell their products in the streets.

Apprentice Printer

When Benjamin was 15 his brother started The New England Courant the first "newspaper" in Boston. Though there were two papers in the city before James's Courant, they only reprinted news from abroad. James's paper carried articles, opinion pieces written by James's friends, advertisements, and news of ship schedules.

Benjamin wanted to write for the paper too, but he knew that James would never let him. After all, Benjamin was just a lowly apprentice. So Ben began writing letters at night and signing them with the name of a fictional widow, Silence Dogood. Dogood was filled with advice and very critical of the world around her, particularly concerning the issue of how women were treated. Ben would sneak the letters under the print shop door at night so no one knew who was writing the pieces. They were a smash hit, and everyone wanted to know who was the real "Silence Dogood."

After 16 letters, Ben confessed that he had been writing the letters all along. While James's friends thought Ben was quite precocious and funny, James scolded his brother and was very jealous of the attention paid to him.

Before long the Franklins found themselves at odds with Boston's powerful Puritan preachers, the Mathers. Smallpox was a deadly disease in those times, and the Mathers supported inoculation; the Franklins' believed inoculation only made people sicker. And while most Bostonians agreed with the Franklins, they did not like the way James made fun of the clergy, during the debate. Ultimately, James was thrown in jail for his views, and Benjamin was left to run the paper for several issues.

Upon release from jail, James was not grateful to Ben for keeping the paper going. Instead he kept harassing his younger brother and administering beatings from time to time. Ben could not take it and decided to run away in 1723.

Escape to Philadelphia

Running away was illegal. In early America, people all had to have a place in society and runaways did not fit in anywhere. Regardless Ben took a boat to New York where he hoped to find work as a printer. He didn't, and walked across New Jersey, finally arriving in Philadelphia via a boat ride. After debarking, he used the last of his money to buy some rolls. He was wet, disheveled, and messy when his future wife, Deborah Read, saw him on that day, October, 6, 1723. She thought him odd-looking, never dreaming that seven years later they would be married.

Franklin found work as an apprentice printer. He did so well that the governor of Pennsylvania promised to set him up in business for himself if young Franklin would just go to London to buy fonts and printing equipment. Franklin did go to London, but the governor reneged on his promise and Benjamin was forced to spend several months in England doing print work.

Benjamin had been living with the Read family before he left for London. Deborah Read, the very same girl who had seen young Benjamin arrive in Philadelphia, started talking marriage, with the young printer. But Ben did not think he was ready. While he was gone, she married another man.

Upon returning to Philadelphia, Franklin tried his hand at helping to run a shop, but soon went back to being a printer's helper. Franklin was a better printer than the man he was working for, so he borrowed some money and set himself up in the printing business. Franklin seemed to work all the time, and the citizens of Philadelphia began to notice the diligent young businessman. Soon he began getting the contract to do government jobs and started thriving in business.

In 1728, Benjamin fathered a child named William. The mother of William is not known. However, in 1730 Benjamin married his childhood sweetheart, Deborah Read. Deborah's husband had run off, and now she was able to marry.

In addition to running a print shop, the Franklins also ran their own store at this time, with Deborah selling everything from soap to fabric. Ben also ran a book store. They were quite enterprising.

The Pennsylvania Gazette

In 1729, Benjamin Franklin bought a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin not only printed the paper, but often contributed pieces to the paper under aliases. His newspaper soon became the most successful in the colonies. This newspaper, among other firsts, would print the first political cartoon, authored by Ben himself.

During the 1720s and 1730s, the side of Franklin devoted to public good started to show itself. He organized the Junto, a young working-man's group dedicated to self- and-civic improvement. He joined the Masons. He was a very busy man socially.

Poor Richard's Almanack

But Franklin thrived on work. In 1733 he started publishing Poor Richard's Almanack. Almanacs of the era were printed annually, and contained things like weather reports, recipes, predictions and homilies. Franklin published his almanac under the guise of a man named Richard Saunders, a poor man who needed money to take care of his carping wife. What distinguished Franklin's almanac were his witty aphorisms and lively writing. Many of the famous phrases associated with Franklin, such as, "A penny saved is a penny earned" come from Poor Richard.

Fire Prevention

Franklin continued his civic contributions during the 1730s and 1740s. He helped launch projects to pave, clean and light Philadelphia's streets. He started agitating for environmental clean up. Among the chief accomplishments of Franklin in this era was helping to launch the Library Company in 1731. During this time books were scarce and expensive. Franklin recognized that by pooling together resources, members could afford to buy books from England. Thus was born the nation's first subscription library. In 1743, he helped to launch the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America. Recognizing that the city needed better help in treating the sick, Franklin brought together a group who formed the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751. The Library Company, Philosophical Society, and Pennsylvania Hospital are all in existence today.

Fires were very dangerous threat to Philadelphians, so Franklin set about trying to remedy the situation. In 1736, he organized Philadelphia's Union Fire Company, the first in the city. His famous saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," was actually fire-fighting advice.

Those who suffered fire damage to their homes often suffered irreversible economic loss. So, in 1752, Franklin helped to found the Philadelphia Contribution for Insurance Against Loss by Fire. Those with insurance policies were not wiped out financially. The Contributionship is still in business today.

Electricity

Franklin's printing business was thriving in this 1730s and 1740s. He also started setting up franchise printing partnerships in other cities. By 1749 he retired from business and started concentrating on science, experiments, and inventions. This was nothing new to Franklin. In 1743, he had already invented a heat-efficient stove — called the Franklin stove — to help warm houses efficiently. As the stove was invented to help improve society, he refused to take out a patent.

Among Franklin's other inventions are swim fins, the glass armonica (a musical instrument) and bifocals.

In the early 1750's he turned to the study of electricity. His observations, including his kite experiment which verified the nature of electricity and lightning brought Franklin international fame.

The Political Scene

Politics became more of an active interest for Franklin in the 1750s. In 1757, he went to England to represent Pennsylvania in its fight with the descendants of the Penn family over who should represent the Colony. He remained in England to 1775, as a Colonial representative not only of Pennsylvania, but of Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts as well.

Early in his time abroad, Franklin considered himself a loyal Englishman. England had many of the amenities that America lacked. The country also had fine thinkers, theater, witty conversation — things in short supply in America. He kept asking Deborah to come visit him in England. He had thoughts of staying there permanently, but she was afraid of traveling by ship.

In 1765, Franklin was caught by surprise by America's overwhelming opposition to the Stamp Act. His testimony before Parliament helped persuade the members to repeal the law. He started wondering if America should break free of England. Franklin, though he had many friends in England, was growing sick of the corruption he saw all around him in politics and royal circles. Franklin, who had proposed a plan for united colonies in 1754, now would earnestly start working toward that goal.

Franklin's big break with England occurred in the "Hutchinson Affair." Thomas Hutchinson was an English-appointed governor of Massachusetts. Although he pretended to take the side of the people of Massachusetts in their complaints against England, he was actually still working for the King. Franklin got a hold of some letters in which Hutchinson called for "an abridgment of what are called English Liberties" in America. He sent the letters to America where much of the population was outraged. After leaking the letters Franklin was called to Whitehall, the English Foreign Ministry, where he was condemned in public.

A New Nation

Franklin came home.

He started working actively for Independence. He naturally thought his son William, now the Royal governor of New Jersey, would agree with his views. William did not. William remained a Loyal Englishman. This caused a rift between father and son which was never healed.

Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and worked on a committee of five that helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. Though much of the writing is Thomas Jefferson's, much of the contribution is Franklin's. In 1776 Franklin signed the Declaration, and afterward sailed to France as an ambassador to the Court of Louis XVI.

The French loved Franklin. He was the man who had tamed lightning, the humble American who dressed like a backwoodsman but was a match for any wit in the world. He spoke French, though stutteringly. He was a favorite of the ladies. Several years earlier his wife Deborah had died, and Benjamin was now a notorious flirt.

In part via Franklin's popularity, the government of France signed a Treaty of Alliance with the Americans in 1778. Franklin also helped secure loans and persuade the French they were doing the right thing. Franklin was on hand to sign the Treaty of Paris in 1783, after the Americans had won the Revolution.

Now a man in his late seventies, Franklin returned to America. He became President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and signed the Constitution. One of his last public acts was writing an anti-slavery treatise in 1789.

Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. 20,000 people attended the funeral of the man who was called, "the harmonious human multitude."

His electric personality, however, still lights the world.

Biography Albert einstein

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:36:00 +0000

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich, where he later on began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later, they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland and in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he obtained his doctor’s degree.

During his stay at the Patent Office, and in his spare time, he produced much of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was appointed Privatdozent in Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton. He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945.

After World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement, he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance.

At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory of relativity stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light.

In his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish a theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity. During this time he also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics.

In the 1920’s, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified field theories, although he continued to work on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered with this work in America. He contributed to statistical mechanics by his development of the quantum theory of a monatomic gas and he has also accomplished valuable work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology.

After his retirement he continued to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics, taking the opposite approach, geometrisation, to the majority of physicists.

Einstein’s researches are, of course, well chronicled and his more important works include Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity (1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). Among his non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950) are perhaps the most important.

Albert Einstein received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities. During the 1920’s he lectured in Europe, America and the Far East and he was awarded Fellowships or Memberships of all the leading scientific academies throughout the world. He gained numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935.

Einstein’s gifts inevitably resulted in his dwelling much in intellectual solitude and, for relaxation, music played an important part in his life. He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons; their marriage was dissolved in 1919 and in the same year he married his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, who died in 1936. He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey.

You must be the change you want to see in the world

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:44:00 +0000

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

Quotations by Mahatma Gandhi

Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 – 1948)

Every people want see the change, but in reality they are just sounding it and do and act nothing. This world no need only a voice, but what we have done to change what we want is. Start it from yourself.

A fool & a wise man

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:39:00 +0000

John Churton Collins

” A fools oftens fails because he thinks what is difficult is easy, & a wise man because he thinks what is easy is difficult”

Inspirational Quotations by

John Churton Collins (March 26, 1848 – September 25, 1908)

Journalist, essayist and lecturer. Born at Gloucestershire.

It’s a simple quotations but it’s undoubtly true. It happends around us. We can see people who considers everything is easy (here refered as a fools) and people, who always think that everything is complicated (here refered as a wiseman).

Which kind of a person are you? hopefully not both

Be great in act, as you have been in thought

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:02:00 +0000

” Be great in act, as you have been in thought “

William Shakespeare

Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 – 1616)

This inspirational quotation explain us, that our actions are always influenced by our own thoughts. By thinking big, then our actions will lead us to big things, too

Energy and persistence conquer all things

noreply@blogger.com (Basrul) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:56:00 +0000

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Inspirational quotation by Benjamin Franklin

US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 – 1790)

Many people consider that the talent and intelligence is the most precious. But they forget that persistence conquer everything. Inspirational quotation by Benjamin Franklin