Pada suatu hari seperti biasanya aku dan ayahku berkendara menuju ke suatu tempat. Dan akulah yang mengemudi.

Setelah beberapa puluh kilometer, tiba-tiba awan hitam datang bersama angin kencang. Dan langit menjadi gelap. Kulihat beberapa kendaraan mulai menepi dan berhenti.

FIRST WISDOM
If you are right, there is no need to get angry.
And if you are wrong, then you don't have any right to be angry.

SECOND WISDOM
Patience with family is love
Patience with others is respect.
Patience with self is confidence.

Alkisah, tersebutlah seorang pria yang putus asa dan ingin meninggalkan segalanya. Meninggalkan pekerjaan, hubungan, dan berhenti hidup.

Ia lalu pergi ke hutan untuk bicara yang terakhir kalinya dengan Tuhan Sang Maha Pencipta.

“Tuhan,” katanya. “Apakah Tuhan bisa memberi saya satu alasan yang baik untuk jangan berhenti hidup dan menyerah ?”

A businessman was deep in debt and could see no way out.

Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him.
"I can see that something is troubling you," said the old man.

Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. Lewis is known for his work on medieval literature, Christian apologetics, literary criticism and fiction. He is best known today for his series The Chronicles of Narnia.

Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, and both were leading figures in the English faculty at Oxford University and in the informal Oxford literary group known as the "Inklings". Due in part to Tolkien's influence, Lewis converted to Christianity, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England". (Lewis 1952, pp. 6) His conversion had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim. Late in life he married the American writer Joy Gresham, who died of bone cancer four years later at the age of 45.

As far back as I can remember, the pickle jar sat on the floor beside the dresser in my parents' bedroom. When he got ready for bed, Dad would empty his pockets and toss his coins into the jar. As a small boy, I was always fascinated at the sounds the coins made as they were dropped into the jar. They landed with a merry jingle when the jar was almost empty. Then, the tones gradually muted to a dull thud as the jar was filled.

I used to squat on the floor in front of the jar and admire the copper and silver circles that glinted like a pirate's treasure when the sun poured through the bedroom window. When the jar was filled, Dad would sit at the kitchen table and roll the coins before taking them to the bank. Taking the coins to the bank was always a big production. Stacked neatly in a small cardboard box, the coins were placed between Dad and me on the seat of his old truck.

Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming’s covert force was the only intelligence-gathering unit trained and armed well enough for a daring raid on a Nazi radar installation in Norway

In 1942, a Whitehall official visited the notorious safebreaker and cat burglar John Ramsey in Peterhead prison.

The civil servant had an intriguing offer from a naval intelligence officer called Ian Fleming. If Ramsey was prepared to put his criminal expertise to use in the war effort, he could expect a pardon. Ramsey, who had learnt to use explosives in the mining industry, readily agreed.

Keysi Fighting Method (KFM) is a method of self defense that is based on natural fighting instincts and several street fighting techniques, developed by Justo Diéguez Serrano from his fighting experiences in the streets of Spain. The system was founded with the help of Andy Norman. Both founders, Justo Diéguez and Andy Norman, are certified Jeet Kune Do instructors under Dan Inosanto. The Keysi Fighting Method became famous after it was used in the fighting choreography of the movies Batman Begins and its sequel, The Dark Knight.

Easy is to get a place in someone's address book
Difficult is to get a place in someone's heart

Easy is to judge the mistakes of others
Difficult is to recognize our own mistakes

Easy is to talk without thinking
Difficult is to refrain the tongue

Easy is to hurt someone who loves us
Difficult is to heal the wound...

Easy is to forgive others
Difficult is to ask for forgiveness

The superdollar, or superbill, refers to a very high quality counterfeit United States $100 bill that has been circulating around the world. After investigations by the United States, Great Britain, China and other world powers, certain crime syndicates and federal governments have been suspected and implemented in creating the notes. The U.S. Government believes that the counterfeit one hundred-dollar bills are most likely being produced in North Korea. However, other possible sources include Iran or criminal gangs operating out of China. Some have even suggested the possibility of an American CIA involvement.

Many people don’t realize that grapefruit and grapefruit juice has the potential to negatively interact with many drugs and prescribed medications. This happens because the organic compounds in the grapefruit interfere with the intestinal enzyme cytochrome P450 isoform CYP3A4. This causes either an increasing or decreasing bioavailability. The interaction can be witnessed in a number of therapeutic, medical and recreational drugs. Grapefruit juice does not influence injected drugs, only oral substances that undergo first-pass metabolism by the enzyme.

click for hi-res image

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third film in the Transformers film series, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and is scheduled for release on June 29 in selected locations and July 1, 2011 in the US. The film will be presented in regular 2D, Real D 3D and IMAX, featuring Dolby Surround 7.1 sound.

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro are set to reprise their starring roles, with Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving returning as the voice of Megatron. Ehren Kruger, who collaborated in the writing of the second film, was again involved in the writing.

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took a hold on the rope, and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens.

The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engined grand touring car. It is the most expensive modern car in the world at US$1,900,000. The Super Sport version is the fastest road-legal car in the world, with a top speed of 431.07 km/h (267.85 mph). The original version has a top speed of 408.00 km/h (253.52 mph).

I got shocked when i first read these strange facts on CocaCola.It made me think and i had actually no answer. These facts actually show what happens to your body when you drink CocaCola. Sharing these facts with you,its upto you whether you agree or disagree. Read after the break..

Facts:

In The First 10 minutes
10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

Saya melangkahkan kaki saya memasuki pintu masuk Starbuck, Supermall, pada hari Senin malam yang baru lalu dan menuju ke counter.

Saya melihat sebuah buku dengan judul "Onward" yang ditulis oleh Howard Schultz, di atas counter dan barista yang sedang bertugas merekomendasikan saya untuk membeli dan membacanya.

If you’re a designer, entrepreneur, or creative – you probably haven’t been asked for your resume in a long time. Instead, people Google you – and quickly assess your talents based on your website, portfolio, and social media profiles. Do they resonate with what you’re sharing? Do they identify with your story? Are you even giving them a story to wrap their head around?

What is decaffeinated coffee?
According to legislation within the EU markets decaffeinated coffee is a coffee with a caffeine content reduced to 0.1% or less in roasted coffee beans, and to 0.3% or less in soluble/instant coffee.

Decaffeinated coffee is available as a choice for those consumers who wish to enjoy the taste and aroma of coffee without experiencing the mild stimulant effects provided by the caffeine.

How to Explain God was written by Danny Dutton, age 8, from Chula Vista, California, for his third grade homework assignment "Explain God".

"One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.

Mario Gianluigi Puzo (October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film with Francis Ford Coppola. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in both 1972, and 1974.

He was a blacksmith and a most wretchedly wicked man. He knew everything that was blatant and blasphemous in infidelity. He hated everything that was good, and loved everything that was bad. He studied to make himself an irritation to all who believed God, never sparing his wife who did the best she could in the patience and Kingdom of Jesus. This man was given up as altogether beyond moral recovery, and so indeed he seemed. Prayer was made as though he had no existence; churches were opened and shut, but never with reference to him; The Gospel was preached and mercy offered, but no one connected him with God's Message to the world.

click for larger image

There is a tree in South Africa which is very interesting. From the distance it is just an ordinary tree just like any other tress. But if we move closer and we will see that something extraordinary about this tree.

There are many beautiful carvings in the body of the tree. But no one knows who did the carving.

See the photos.

Ada sebuah pohon yang menarik di Afrika Selatan. Dari kejauhan, pohon ini nampak eperti pohon-pohon lainnya. Tapi jika kita mendekat, akan kelihatan sesuatu yang luar biasa pada pohon ini.


Ada banyak ukiran (pahatan) di batang pohon ini. Tetapi tidak ada yang tahu siapa yang memahat.


Lihat foto-foto nya.

Mengapa hanya ada istilah "Brotherhood" tapi tidak dikenal istilah "Sisterhood"?

Ada artikel di salah satu majalah di AS yang isinya sangat lucu dan menarik. Artikel tsb berbunyi sbb.

Suatu malam, seorang wanita tidak pulang ke rumahnya. Esok harinya dia memberitahu suaminya bahwa dia menginap di rumah teman wanitanya. Suaminya menelepon 10 orang teman istrinya yang paling akrab, dan hasilnya tidak seorang pun dari mereka yang mengetahui tentang itu.

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out-patients at the clinic.

One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face ... lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."

Once upon a time there was a little boy who was raised in a orphanage.

The little boy had always wished that he could fly like a bird. It was very difficult for him to understand why he could not fly. There were birds at the zoo that were much bigger than he, and they could fly.

Total Time: 10 min
Pre: 5 min - Cook: 5 min

Yield: 1 cup

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 ounces thick-cut pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch-thick cubes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Directions
Special Equipment: 1 (6 to 8-ounce) decorative jar

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the famous 19th-century poet and artist, was once approached by an elderly man. The old fellow had some sketches and drawings that he wanted Rossetti to look at and tell him if they were any good, or if they at least showed potential talent.

Rossetti looked them over carefully. After the first few, he knew that they were worthless, showing not the least sign of artistic talent. But Rossetti was a kind man, and he told the elderly man as gently as possible that the pictures were without much value and showed little talent. He was sorry, but he could not lie to the man. The visitor was disappointed, but seemed to expect Rossetti’s judgment.

Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood. Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of Albrecht Durer the Elder’s children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.

“Silencers”, also known as “suppressors”, on guns don’t make them anywhere near silent.  Silencers primarily only suppress the noise due to the pressure wave from the rapidly expanding propellant gases.  This is only a portion of what makes a gunshot loud.  The primary other source of noise in a gunshot is the sonic crack created by the bullet (for bullets that exceed the sound barrier, which is a large majority, unless they are modified to specifically be subsonic).

Who says hoaxing can’t be useful, especially in wartime? Not the British, who decided to confuse the Germans by taking the body of a deceased pneumonia victim, dressing him in a Royal Marine Uniform, handcuffing him to a briefcase full of “top secret” invasion plans, and setting him adrift off the coast of Sicily. The payoff? The Italians found the body and turned the briefcase over to their German allies, who learned from it that the allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia rather than Sicily. The only problem was the allies had no such intention, making the landings in southern Sicily in July, 1943 a piece of cake thanks to the Germans thoughtfully leaving the coastline largely undefended—all because of a nameless hero and a bit of simple but clever hoaxing
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http://www.bizarrebytes.com/top-ten-famous-hoaxes-in-history/

So much in this world is unexplained.  The more mysterious it is, the more we like it.  The more unexplainable, the harder we try to explain.  Such is the nature of the human condition.  Why else would there be so many television programs and channels devoted to solving the Earth’s mysteries?  Why else would my husband watch an average of 20 hours of History Channel per week?  Because he has to KNOW, obviously.  Not because the couch is so comfy.

Conan the Barbarian, previously titled Conan 3D, is an upcoming 3-D sword and sorcery film based on the character Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard. It is a new adaptation, separate from the earlier 1980s Arnold Schwarzenegger films. The film is set to star Jason Momoa in the lead role, being supported by Rose McGowan, Stephen Lang, Ron Perlman, Bob Sapp and Rachel Nichols, with Marcus Nispel directing.

The film had spent seven years in development at Warner Bros. before the rights were shifted to Nu Image/Millennium Films in 2007, with a clause wishing for immediate start on production. Lionsgate and Sony Pictures entered negotiations for distribution, with the film seeing many directors, prominently Brett Ratner, before settling on Nispel in 2009 and has since brought together a cast and crew. Filming began on March 15, 2010 and concluded on June 5, 2010. The film will be released on August 19, 2011.

Valley Baptist Church Gunnar Hanson Says His 2 Worlds Collided

A North County pastor who used to be a Navy SEAL spoke with 10News on Sunday about his unique perspective on the military's raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Ten years ago, Gunnar Hanson was a Navy SEAL. Now, Hanson is the senior pastor at Valley Baptist Church in Valley Center.

Preparation Time: 10 min.

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar, optional*
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil
Mesclun salad mix or favorite greens, for accompaniment
Assortment of salad ingredients, such as cherry tomatoes, chopped carrots, sliced red onion, chopped celery, diced cucumbers, walnuts
Blue cheese, for garnish

1. Enjoy a pint of water first thing in the morning.
If you haven’t got time for anything else in the morning, make time to drink a big glass of water. We lose a lot of oxygen through the night and to rejuvenate our cells, we need to supply them with water and oxygen. Drink a glass of water and within a week you’ll begin to feel less tired. I like the taste of water, but I know some people do not so if you’re one of them, squeeze some fresh lime into your water to give it taste and drink up.

The Leopard 2 is a German main battle tank (Kampfpanzer) developed by Krauss-Maffei in the early 1970s and first entering service in 1979. The Leopard 2 replaced the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the German Army. Various versions have served in the armed forces of Germany and twelve other European countries, as well as several non-European nations. More than 3,480 Leopard 2s have been manufactured. The Leopard 2 first saw combat in Kosovo with the German Army and has also seen action in Afghanistan with the Danish and Canadian ISAF forces.

Last May, in the small village of Qualaday in western Kandahar Province, a young Army lieutenant and his sergeants met with several elders to discuss the recent killing of a local mullah. The desert heat was fierce, and the elders led the soldiers across their village to sit under the shade of nearby trees. Three days had passed since they were last there; during that interval the place appeared to have been abandoned. When they sat down, some of the soldiers removed their helmets, and a few elders their sandals and turbans. A freelance photographer was permitted to make an audio recording of the discussion. The lieutenant wanted to know where everyone had gone. One elder explained: People left because they were afraid.

In 1982 Steven Callahan was crossing the Atlantic alone in his sailboat when it struck something and sank. He was out of the shipping lanes and floating in a life raft, alone. His supplies were few. His chances were small. Yet when three fishermen found him seventy-six days later (the longest anyone has survived a shipwreck on a life raft alone), he was alive -- much skinnier than he was when he started, but alive.

His account of how he survived is fascinating. His ingenuity -- how he managed to catch fish, how he fixed his solar still (evaporates sea water to make fresh) -- is very interesting.

1. LEPASKAN DARI RASA KUATIR DAN KETAKUTAN
Ketakutan dan kekuatiran hanyalah imajinasi pikiran akan suatu kejadian di masa depan yg belum tentu terjadi, kebanyakan hal-hal yg Anda kuatirkan dan takutkan tak pernah terjadi !

It's all only in your mind.

Dua pesan penting:

(1) Berhentilah menuntut ilmu, karena ilmu tidak bersalah.

(2) Janganlah membalas budi, karena belum tentu budi yang melakukan.

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Kiriman dari Handoko Wignyowargo via BlackBerry
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/coming-out-crazy/files/2010/09/letter-writing.jpg