Creative Problem

How do you find a “creative problem”? Because this is a challenge when you’re first starting to think creatively, here are some tips for getting started.

Keep a list of things that bother you. Do you consistently get annoyed with something? Do you have pet peeves? Write them down. Periodically look over your list when you’re in the absorb brainset. Is there a pattern in these irritations that you could do something about? Are there procedures or changes in objects that would remove the source of annoyance? Think about the de Mestral and Alexander Fleming examples from the last chapter. Rather than letting small things like burrs or mold bother them, they became fascinated by them . . . and the rest is history.

When something goes wrong, brainstorm possible causes. Even minor things, such as breaking a glass, could have causes (for example, slippery floor, shape of glass, and so on) that might suggest a creative problem. When something goes wrong, rather than getting angry, slip into the connect brainset and generate a list of potential causes. Once you have a list of potential causes, you also have a list of creative dilemmas that could be worked on.

Think about what slows you down. Do unexpected things happen during your day that keeps you from being as productive or efficient as you might be? Those unexpected things could involve a creative problem that you could solve. Enter into the envision brainset and imagine what could be done differently to speed up whatever procedure was time-consuming.

Pay attention to your negative emotions. Are you experiencing anxiety, sadness, or frustration that others have faced? Can you express this in a creative manner—with paint, music, or pen? Don’t just be a victim of your negative moods; get into the transform brainset and use them to be creatively productive. Remember that you don’t have to have expertise to express your emotions in a way that will resonate with others.

Scan your environment regularly for things that could be changed and improved. Most of the time we are so busy in our daily tasks that we forget to problem find. Sometimes just remembering to take a few minutes and look for “problems” will yield a number of interesting possibilities. And remember that when you’re thinking creatively, “problems” are opportunities.

[Source: Your Creative Brain Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life]

Canada

The second largest country in the world, Canada occupies two-fifths of the North American continent, stretches across five time zones, and is divided into 10 provinces and three territories. It was once inhabited only by native peoples including the Inuit. The French were the first Europeans to settle in Canada, but after years of fighting the British gained control in 1763.Gradually they took over the rest of the country, as pioneers and settlers moved west and north. Today, Canada is an important industrial nation and one of the world’s richest countries. Most of its manufacturing is based on the natural resources of wood, metals, and mineral fuels.

The first Canadians Native peoples, including the Inuit, are sometimes called Canada’s “First Nations” because they lived in Canada long before European settlers arrived and took over their lands. Since 1970, the government has tried to draw these peoples into Canadian society, but many prefer their own culture and traditions. Across Canada colourful ceremonies and festivals demonstrate their proud spirit.

Recently, First Nations have begun to win battles for their rights to ancestral lands. In 1999, the Nunavut area in the Northwest Territories became a self-governing Inuit territory, the first part of Canada to be governed by native Canadians in modern history.

AGRICULTURE

Wheat and cattle farming dominate Canada’s main farming area, the prairies. Elsewhere, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables are grown. Apples, shown growing here in British Columbia, are the country’s most important fruit crop. Between lakes Ontario and Erie lies the Niagara fruit belt. The lakes protect this area from the worst of Canada’s weather, making it the ideal place for growing tender fruits such as pears, plums, peaches, and cherries.

JAMES BAY

In 1971, construction began on a vast hydroelectric project to dam the rivers that flow into James Bay and Hudson Bay, generating electricity for use in Canada and the US. However, the project threatened thousands of Cree Indians who live in this region. An agreement was reached in 1975 that led to the finishing of the project, and special compensation for the Indians.

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY

The last spike of the transcontinental rail link of the Canadian Pacific Railway was pounded in at Eagle Pass, British Columbia, on November 7, 1885. It was the start of a new era for Canada, opening up the west for trade and settlement, and finally making the vast country seem like one nation. One of the railroad’s most amazing engineering feats is a spiral tunnel-road drilled into the Rocky Mountains. Curving steadily around, the tunnel rises for more than 3,000 ft (914 m). In spite of quicker alternatives, tourists often take the spectacular trip across Canada by train. However, the railroad is mostly used for cargo.

Goddess in love

Because the cold rain last night, I dwindled to dreamland relentlessly. I saw a goddess who handed me scriblings. According to her, it was her unreluctant weave of expression for the man she truly loves. She likewise entrusted me with the following to take good care of. Affections from goddess, truly they are. Thanks, T3...

I am a princess in my golden tower

Having fun with my royal followers

Enjoying lavish things

Along came a humble commoner

Eyeing me as his princess in his own tower

I am a princess in my own tower

Enchanted by this humble and loving commoner

His good deeds & his best, much farther

Set his pace as we gow along together

I am a princess now in his tower

Together in fun and love, much maybe, forever..

Everything came so easy.

You're keeping me warm

Crashing down in,

You're making me smile.

I never felt so wanted,

You're taking me home.

Don't give back,

I miss you, I kiss you,

But nobody knows.

Too much to ask

Something between us

Sweet beginnings, sweet endings.

I'm your side

But I can't spell it out

Meet me halfway, I could be the same for you

Freedom and truth

The liberal tradition in politics is, first and foremost, about individual liberty. Although its roots go far back in the history of political thought, liberalism emerged as a distinct political theory as a call for freedom of speech and of thought. As one eminent political theorist observed, freedom of thought ‘is an idea which emerges slowly in the West in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and yet today, in the eyes of the liberal, it is this liberty which is most precious of all’. Right from the outset, the liberal case for freedom of conscience has derived from devotion to human reason.

In Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty on Unlicensed Printing (1644), John Milton argued for freedom of conscience and of the press by appealing to reason and truth. ‘Truth’, Milton argued, is ‘our richest Merchandise’. ‘Let her [i.e., truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew truth put to worse, in a free and open encounter?’ Given freedom of speech and thought, truth will win out because, unlike superstition and error, which varies from group to group and time to time, truth appeals to our universal, shared, reason. Hence, proclaimed Milton, ‘Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties’. Over two hundred years later (1859), John Stuart Mill again appealed to truth and reason in his case for freedom of thought and speech:

The beliefs which we have most warrant for, have no safeguard to rest on, but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded. If the challenge is not accepted, or is accepted and the attempt fails, we are far enough from certainty still; but we have done the best that the existing state of human reason admits of; we have neglected nothing that could give the truth a chance of reaching us: if the lists are kept open, we may hope that if there be a better truth, it will be found when the human mind is capable of receiving it; and in the meantime we may rely on having attained such approach to truth, as is possible in our own day. This is the amount of certainty attainable by a fallible being, and this the sole way of attaining it.

Mill is struck by our fallibility: no matter how much we have thought an issue through, we can never be certain that we are correct – it is always possible we have fallen into error. Such fallible creatures, Mill insists, can only suppose their beliefs approach the truth if those beliefs are subject to criticism in free debate. Like Milton, Mill believes that true opinions are more likely to be embraced in free discussion because they appeal to our reason.

Milton and Mill advance classic statements of a basic liberal theme: given freedom of thought, speech and inquiry, our common human reason leads us toward increasing agreement on truths and rejection of falsehoods. Sometimes this is put in terms of the ‘free marketplace of ideas’: in a free competition of ideas, the truth will eventually win out, and the longer the competition goes on, the more truths will be uncovered. Underlying this is the conviction that while we are all subject to various sorts of biases, superstitions, and errors, these differ from one person (or group) to another. My biases and superstitions may appeal to me and some like-minded bigots, but they are unlikely to gain universal acceptance because not everyone shares my biases and superstitions. But, the liberal insists, the powers of reason are shared and universal. Reason is what unites us. In the words of a twentieth-century liberal, ‘[a]ll that man is and all that raises him above animals he owes to his reason’. Overall reason selects the case for what is true rather than what is false.

The exercise of our reason, then, leads us to agree. Mill – and here he speaks for much of the liberal tradition – was thus convinced that one aspect of social progress was convergence on an increasing body of truths.

Sightings...

Honduras

The hot, steamy climate of Honduras is ideal for growing fruit, and for many years the banana industry has dominated the life of the country. Today, Honduras has developed other exports, such as coffee, sugar, and beef. About half of the Honduran population lives in the countryside, in small villages or isolated settlements. Many are poor farmers, growing corn, beans, or rice for their own use. Life is hard, and many people go hungry. Land is unevenly distributed as evidently, wealthy families and fruit companies own 60 percent of the land.

HONDURAN PEOPLE

Most Hondurans are mestizos – mixed descendants of native Indians and the Europeans who arrived in the 16^th century. Some are descended from black Africans who were shipped to the Caribbean as slaves. Some are white (European) or Indian.

BANANA PLANTATIONS

Banana exports are important to the economy of Honduras. Many are grown on huge plantations, particularly around La Lima in northeastern Honduras. Laborers work long hours and the pay is low. Cutters regularly have to carry loads of bananas weighing about 88 lb (40 kg). Once cut down, the bananas are washed, inspected, and weighed into boxes, ready to be shipped abroad. 

World Population

People have lived on earth for at least 2 million years. For most of that time, population size remained steady, because the number of people born roughly equalled the number that died. Disease and famine ensured that the size of the population did not overtake supplies of food and other resources. However, as farming methods became more efficient and medical knowledge improved, population size rapidly began to increase. It now stands in excess of 6 billion people, with more than one million babies born every four days. In many parts of the world, rapid population growth has created serious problems, such as food shortages and overcrowding in cities.

 People are not evenly distributed among the world’s continents. The fact that a continent is large, such as North America, does not necessarily mean that it has a large population. Some regions cannot support more than a few people, while others, with fertile soils and good communications, can support many. The world map below shows the average number of people who live in a square mile, or kilometer, in each country. This is called population density.

The number of babies a woman has varies from one country to another. In the Sudan, above, the birth rate is high, with an average of 4.9 babies per mother. Better health care, even in the poorer countries of the world, means that fewer babies now die of hunger or disease, and fewer women die in childbirth. In wealthy countries, such as Canada, the birth rate is low because people can choose to have small families. Advances in medical knowledge also mean that people are living longer.

Human Rights economics

There are many reasons for economics not ignoring human rights. First of all, there is an entire set of proclaimed human rights that concern economics directly. According to this set of rights it has to be recognized that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and deprivation can only be achieved if the conditions are created for everyone to enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights, as well as their civil and political rights.

Indeed, one may legitimately question the substance of the individual’s right to choose, be it a political leadership or a religious belief, when facing the possibility of immediate death through a lack of the economic means to obtain medical treatment, for instance. On the other hand, realizing that the individual, having duties to other individuals and the community to which he or she belongs, is under a responsibility to strive for the promotion and observance of these recognized rights, responsibility becomes one of the major issues in the assertion of human rights. In other words the definition of who or what is responsible for providing rights to the individual more or less outweighs the discussion on the foundations of their legitimacy.

Cooking Healthy

Living healthy is a way of rewarding yourself with the best things life has to offer. And one way to reach or achieve this is by cooking healthy. Below are some tips to cook healthy. We should be wary of the food entering our body, which is why we should cook them [food] wisely.

1. Using less fat in cooking.

Cooking methods that require no added fat, such as simmering, poaching, baking, steaming, and grilling, can be considered the most healthful. For sautéing, non-stick pans are becoming more widely used because little or no fat is needed. With regular pans, one can be careful to use as little fat as possible. Grilling is popular because it can be done without first coating the food with fat. If this is done, however, one must be careful not to let the food dry out.

Using less fat in cooking also means using ingredients with less fat. Excess external fat can be trimmed from meats and poultry. Low-fat sauces, such as salsas and vegetable purées, can often be used instead of high-fat sauces. Recipes can often be modified so that quantities of high-fat ingredients, such as butter, cheese, and bacon, are reduced.

2. Using unsaturated fats.

When you do use fats, try to substitute monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil or canola oil, for saturated fats when appropriate.

3. Emphasizing flavor.

Taste is the most important factor in preparing nutritious food. The most vitamin packed dish does no one any good if it is uneaten because it doesn’t taste good. Preparing flavorful foods requires knowledge of the principles of cooking. You can’t rely simply on nutritional information. Rely more on the natural flavors of foods and less on salt and other additives that should be decreased in the diet.

4. Using the freshest, highest-quality foods possible.

In order to prepare delicious foods with little or no added salt and with less reliance on high-fat, high-sodium sauces and condiments, it is important to use high quality natural ingredients at their peak of flavor. Healthful cooking means letting the true flavors of foods dominate. To enhance natural flavors without added salt, cooks are using more fresh herbs, hot seasonings such as chilies, ginger, and pepper, and flavorful ingredients like garlic, browned onions, and flavored vinegars.

5. Storing foods properly.

Foods in storage lose nutrients as they age. The loss of nutrients can be slowed, however, by proper storage. This applies particularly to proper refrigeration.

6. Modifying portion sizes.

It is not necessary to feature huge slabs of meat to serve satisfying meals. Smaller portions of well-trimmed meat, poultry, or fish, nicely balanced on the plate with an assortment of attractive fresh vegetables and complex carbohydrates, are likely to be more healthful. Sauces often get the blame for adding calories to a meal, but if a sauce is flavorful, you don’t need much. Make a better sauce and serve less of it. Also, if a sauce isn’t too thick, it won’t cling as heavily to the food, and a little will go farther.

THE FOUNDATION OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Ethics is a discipline specializing in the examination of answers to the questions “How should I act?” or “What standards ought I to use to guide my conduct?” This is not a trouble-free discipline, by any means – many prominent thinkers consider it bogus, as they might view astrology, mainly because they deny the twin supports on which ethics rests, namely, that human beings can make bona fide choices and that there can be some firm standard by which to judge the choices they make. “Ought” implies “can,” which is to say that acting on any answer to the question of ethics or any of its divisions, including business ethics, assumes that we have both the freedom to choose how we act, and certain standards for acting rightly versus wrongly.

Assuming, for now, that ethics is a bona fide area of human concern, business ethics is a division of professional ethics, focusing on the special areas of commerce and the profession of business. It seeks the right answer to the question “How ought I to act, in my capacity as a commercial agent or professional merchant, manager, marketer, advertiser, executive and even consumer?” Unlike the other major discipline that looks at business, namely economics, business ethics does not assume that there are innate motives driving one to maximize profits or utilities or long term self-interest. Business ethics, as any other look at human morality, takes it that we are all capable of doing the right or the wrong thing and that we aren’t naturally driven either way – it’s up to us which we will chose. That, too, is the assumption underlying criminal law in most societies.

Given the nature of ethics as such, it follows that if one’s will is tyrannized, regimented, regulated, etc., in the bulk of one’s life, one cannot act ethically, because then one is not making the decisions as to how one will act. To claim that a banker or employer or advertiser ought to do or avoid doing such and such, that individual must be able to choose, and there must be some way of showing that what he or she should or should not do is possible. Barring that, all talk of ethics, including business ethics, is just lamentation, as when one complains about bad or cheers good weather. This, indeed, also explains why such institutions as slavery and serfdom are widely seen to be assaults on human dignity, since they rob people of the capacity to be morally responsible agents.

Liberty in human communities is secured mainly via the right to private property. If one has no authority to dispose of one’s assets as one sees fit, one isn’t in charge of one’s own life. If others do this, by government regulation or planning, or by criminal intrusion, one cannot be responsible for one’s conduct, at least to the extent one is being regimented. Paternalistic laws treat one as a child may be treated, dependent on the decisions of others and not fully responsible for how one acts. A well-guarded right to private property is, then, a prerequisite for the exercise of virtuous conduct in any sphere but especially in commerce and business.

Thus, arguably, without a substantial measure of capitalism, there cannot be any intelligible concern about business ethics, for people will lack the choice-making capacity or opportunity that is a prerequisite of ethics.

Do you know where you're going to?

...use your GPS, or compass, perhaps...

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:35-45.

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 

He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?" 

They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." 

Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"

They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;  but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared." 

When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. 

Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.

But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. 

For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."