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Tencent Holdings chairman pledged to advance China's semiconductor industry, saying the blow to ZTE Corp from Washington's ban on U.S. firms supplying telecommunications company was a "wake-up" call, local media reported. China's No.2 telecom equipment maker ZTE was banned in April from buying U.S. technology components for seven years for breaking an agreement reached after it violated U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea. American firms are estimated to provide 25-30 percent of the components used in ZTE's equipment.
If the crypto market sentiments weren't depressing enough, regulatory news and chatter from all around the world are indicating tough times ahead for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is taking continuous blows and recovery seems pretty tough. The world's first and largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin is famous for being the decentralized peer-to-peer network.
How much money is in your checking account? Markets are experiencing another period of volatility this week, and new research suggests checking account customers are doing something that indicates they don't feel as secure as they would like about the economy. Moebs Services, an economic-research firm in Lake Bluff, Ill., analyzed over 12,000 depository call reports and compared them to the Federal Reserve monetary data for 2017.
China's largest initial public offering since 2015 has gotten the attention of the nation's top internet companies. Affiliates of Baidu Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., known collectively as BAT, are becoming strategic investors in Foxconn Industrial Internet Co. The companies are buying 21.8 million shares each in FII's listing at 13.77 yuan apiece, the firm said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange Sunday. China's largest tech corporations join a plethora of major names that're buying into the smart factory unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Apple Inc.'s most important assembler.
U.S. oil futures sank to six-week lows on Monday on expectations that major producers may raise output, while Asian stocks and U.S. share futures gained on signs the United States and North Korea were still working towards holding a summit. The euro bounced back from a 6-1/2-month low after the Italian president rejected a eurosceptic as a key economy minister. Oil prices extended their decline from last week on growing expectations that major oil producers may ease their 17-month-old production cuts.
China's top-performing drugmaker stock may be about to head even higher. At least eight brokers lifted their price targets on CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. after the company reported a 43 percent surge in first-quarter profit on Friday. The result beat the market's already high expectations, according to Credit Suisse Group AG, which raised its target by 24 percent -- the most bullish among analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
Mark Tinker of AXA Investment Managers says exposure to emerging markets via equity indexes limits the opportunity for investors to be more selective.
Amazon appears to be restarting its funding efforts in India after Acko, the digital insurance startup in India, confirmed that the U.S. retail giant led a new round of funding for its business. Amazon -- which has been linked with an Acko investment since the start of this year -- backed lending startup Capital Float last month, and now it has led a $12 million funding round for Acko alongside Ashish Dhawan, the founder of PE firm ChrysCapital, and existing backer Catamaran Ventures. Acko was founded in late 2016 by Varun Dua, one of the co-founders of insurance comparison site Coverfox.
Indeed, the S&P 500 index (^GSPC) is staged for the best May performance in nine years, boasting a month-to-date return of 2.8% thus far, while the Dow Jones Industrial (^DJI) also headed for the best May since 2009, according to FactSet data. Back in 2009, the Dow booked a 4.1% return for May as the S&P 500 returned 5.3% that month. The Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) is the outperformer, on track for a May return of 5.2%, which would represent the technology-tilted index's best rise for that month since 2005, when it advanced by 7.63%.
Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) is expected to meet regulators in China this week to push for a green light on its proposed $44 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), according to media reports over the weekend. NXPI stock climbed more than 4.7% on Friday, compared to the Nasdaq Composite index's 1.3% gain. Qualcomm could meet Chinese antitrust regulators before U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross arrives in Beijing on June 2, Reuters reported on Sunday. Qualcomm representative and officials from the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation met in Beijing on May 25 and had "productive" talks, according to the report.
Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, with the Kospi leading gains in the region. Delegations from the U.S. and North Korea met on Sunday at the border between North Korea and South Korea. Oil prices extended declines after news that top producers could ease quotas on output cuts.
OPEC and allied oil producers including Russia concluded that the crude market re-balanced in April, when their output cuts achieved a key goal of eliminating the global surplus. The excess in oil inventories, which has weighed on prices for three years, plunged in April to less than the five-year average for stockpiles in developed nations, according to people with knowledge of the data assessed at the meeting of the Joint Technical Committee of OPEC and other producers last week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The re-balance is sure to be the focus of a tense meeting between OPEC and its partners in the production cuts when they meet in Vienna next month.
Dow futures closed lower on Friday after giving up earlier gains. After the initial thrust to the upside, the market fell victim to low pre-holiday volume and the buying dried up. The fundamentals were mixed going into the session with the Fed minutes
The FANG stocks have become some of the stock market's most dominant stocks, disproportionately powering its gains, as well as its losses. (Apple is often added, making the group the FAANG stocks), sometimes a bad week for the group of stocks can lead the market down. For instance, Facebook led a steep decline in the FAANG stocks in March, after its data misuse scandal came to light on Sunday, March 18.
Elias Haddad of Commonwealth Bank says the U.S. dollar tends to perform well during periods of "heightened risk aversion."
Here's a detailed look at how the irreverent Turtleboy has offended Facebook's (FB) users and management, or not, and why Facebook keeps banning the blog. This huge company owns 40% of "Fortnite's" developer and is still growing very quickly.
Both Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp lost exclusive contracts, but their stocks surged following the news. Analysts said the pair of announcements may indicate that the lab services didn't have to resort to rock-bottom pricing to hold onto their agreements. Losing exclusive contracts might normally seem like bad news, but shares of Quest Diagnostics DGX and LabCorp LH surged on Friday after the rival lab services firms announced new non-exclusive agreements with health insurers.
David Kline Contributor David Kline is a journalist, author and intellectual property strategist. Although top senators, including Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Marco Rubio, are urging the administration not to bend on ZTE, President Trump is planning to ease penalties on the Chinese telecommunications giant for violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea.
Friday marked a quiet day on Wall Street as the price of oil declined and tensions between North Korea and the U.S. eased a bit. With the stock market closing Monday for Memorial Day, we're looking ahead to a short week. Here are the top trades to make
Workplace retirement plans get a lot of bad press, primarily if they are loaded with high fees. Put simply, 401(k)s work. The bad news is that otherwise-diligent savers can still leave money on the table with a 401(k), often without realizing it.
The major U.S. stock indexes finished mixed on Friday, but were still able to hold on to their weekly gains. Solid corporate earnings helped underpin the indexes, but gains were limited by geopolitical fears following President Donald Trump's decision to cancel a key summit with North Korea. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 24753.09, down 58.67 or -0.24% and the tech-driven NASDAQ Composite ended the session at 7435.79, up 11.36 or +0.15%.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent crude oil settled sharply lower last week. July WTI crude oil settled at $67.88, down $3.49 or -4.89% and July Brent crude oil finished the week at $76.44, down $2.07 or -2.64%. Helping to trigger the steep drop in prices was Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, who said a group of producer nations could soon begin easing production limits aimed at balancing the market.
ExxonMobil, unlike most of its peers and competitors, has decided to ramp up spending and drilling on large-scale projects, to the dismay of its shareholders and Wall Street. Earlier this year, ExxonMobil outlined plans to right the ship, but it has faced its share of skeptics. Wall Street has demanded that oil companies stop spending recklessly on growth, and instead redirect profits back to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks.
The outlook for oil is still bullish, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. A plan by Saudi Arabia and Russia to revive production after over a year of curbs to clear a global glut signals supplies are currently tight, and isn't a bearish development, analysts including Damien Courvalin wrote in a report. Goldman has been an oil bull since early last year, saying growing demand and output reductions by OPEC and its allies will help revive crude from the worst crash in a generation.
U.S. stock futures rose in Asian trading as President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was back on, three days after it was abruptly called off. U.S. financial markets will be closed Monday for Memorial Day. The risk-on in U.S. stock futures comes as the State Department confirmed reports that a U.S. delegation is meeting with North Korean officials to prepare for the summit, which had been set for June 12 in Singapore.


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By John Glatt
Read or Download Live at the Fillmore East and West: Getting Backstage and Personal with Rock's Greatest Legends PDF
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Additional info for Live at the Fillmore East and West: Getting Backstage and Personal with Rock's Greatest Legends
For all I care, this group can fucking shrivel up and die in the event that they proceed to permit themselves be represented by way of that bunch of cheap-ass chicken-shit punks. " but inside a number of days, Graham subsidized down and agreed to permit the Motherfuckers using the Fillmore each Wednesday evening. but the first loose Wednesday after the Village Voice piece was once a catastrophe, attracting Bowery bums, winos, and velocity freaks from St. Marks position, who vandalized the Fillmore. Then the police stepped in, ordering Graham to forestall the open drug taking throughout the loose nights or probability wasting his working license. Graham responded by way of circulating an open letter to the group, beautiful for order. It stated, "Incidents of actual disagreement, and the blatant use, distribution, and sale of gear at the premises—obviously unlawful" and instructed "intelligence, realizing and charm. " The Motherfuckers answered with a letter in their personal. within the radical black-and-white rhetoric of the days it learn: "Situation: Pigs and invoice Graham cease loose evening. Why? they are saying we smoke, they are saying we take dope, yet we all know it's simply because they're terrified of us. Afraid that we'll social gathering there to wreck their global and create our personal. The pigs threaten to shut Graham down except he stops our unfastened evening. He doesn't need to fear concerning the pigs. We'll shut him down. No unfastened evening, no pay evening. " Then invoice Graham—to the anger of many—canceled the loose nights and stored the Fillmore closed on Wednesdays. initially of November, the thankful lifeless eventually dosed invoice Graham with LSD. It used to be in the course of a weekend run on the Fillmore West, and even though Graham and his employees at either Fillmores by no means ate or drank something until they'd introduced it themselves, the Dead's so-called "Assassination Squad," ultimately hit their number-one aim. "That used to be . . . in the course of my 7Up era," Graham later defined. "We'd positioned plastic barrels jam-packed with soda and ice within the dressing rooms. and so they took the 7Up cans on most sensible of those barrels and used a hypodermic needle. to install their sweets. " The thankful useless figured that finally "Uncle Bill," as they known as him, might drink one of many doctored cans. "I picked up a can of 7Up," he acknowledged. "Just in regards to the time they have been going onstage, it hit. fairly seriously. " As a smiling and extremely stoned invoice Graham stood within the wings digging the powerfully psychedelic thankful lifeless song, drummer Mickey Hart invited him onstage to affix them, handing him a cowbell. "I spent the subsequent 4 and a part hours onstage with the Dead," acknowledged Graham. "I simply had one of many nice evenings of my lifestyles. "10 the subsequent weekend, kingdom Joe and the Fish headlined the Fillmore East. They have been in big apple recording a brand new album, and their checklist corporation, leading edge, sought after photos of the band enjoying bare for an album hide. "So we went to the Fillmore East," recalled keyboard participant David Bennett Cohen, "and we took off all our outfits and performed. "11 whereas onstage taking part in, a photographer shot nonetheless pictures, yet Joshua White was once additionally there secretly recording the motion on sixteen mm movie.


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I arranged to meet Brian somewhere up the Pennines for a quick play in the snow and our cars met on the snowy A689 just past Killhope Wheel.
We finally met at Cowshill in an area of extensive lead mining – a likely place for some steepish but safe snow on which to practise climbing up and sliding down and climbing up again.
And then sliding down.
I had hoped that the snow would be dead 'ard, like, but this was not meant to be, in fact it was a bit soft. This meant that you had to work a bit harder at sliding down since when I lifted my legs in the air (I had me crampons on) my bum was a better brake than my ice axe.
We had a long chat at one point with a couple from a house up the hill – who had things in common with Brian in particular. Theyt pointed us to a waterfall which was pretty and had some significant lumps of ice dangling next to it which I levered off to form a nice iceberg in the beck.
And that was pretty much that.
It was another foggy day and the thaw, apparently, continues very slowly. It was snowing slightly every now and then and the road west of Killhope was starting to get "interesting".
The message for anybody seeking hard snow is that higher up, where there seems to have been much less of a thaw (it was still minus 1.5C), the snow hasn't stiffened up as much as at lower levels where its as hard as a hard thing strengthened by extra hard stuff.
No, unfortunately, its a bit soft.
This trip wasn't quite long enough to count as a walk, so I haven't. Nice to have a play in the snow, though.
Tonight we visit Bishop Auckland Town Hall with a box of matches and some candles to see Isla Sinclair (good game, good game) – yes folks, its Burns Night once again here in Co Durham. We have a different Burns night to everybody else. This is Colin Burns from Spennymoor, not yer Rabbie. Still, there'll be Neeps and Stotties as per tradition and somebody will play the drainpipes and witter on about mice and stuff. I might have the odd sweet sherry, I'm not sure yet.


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M.M. Patel, Vice Chancellor of Gujarat University, gave a sign of relief to students by announcing that no students will be denied to take the examination just because they had failed to pay the fees for the second term. The varsity has directed all the colleges to issue hall tickets even if the students did not pay the examination fee.
Also read: - Students of IIM Raipur Hail Demonetization
The VC has taken the grievances of the students into consideration as most of the students were unable to pay the examination fee due to demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes. Students expressed that they were unable to exchange the notes due to a long queue at the banks. On the other hand, most of the students fail to withdraw money from ATMs due to heavy rush. They thanked the Vice Chancellor for considering their grievances.
Also read: - Demonetisation: Students Unable to Pay Examination Fee, Exams Scheduled to Begin in a Week
Mr. Patel also indicated that the colleges could accept cheques from the students.
A similar situation has been reported in Telangana where the college managements are denying Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes. The semester examinations for engineering courses are scheduled to begin in a week, and most of the students did not pay the examination fee. They were facing hardship to withdraw money from ATMs due to heavy rush. So far, the government has not taken any decision regarding the issue. The Board of Intermediate has extended the date for fee payment until November 21, 2016, for students.


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March 24, 2014
By Elif M. Gokcigdem
Ever since I heard Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a Nobel Laureate in the field of Genetics, describe how his heart skipped a beat at the very moment of his discovery, my heart has been telling me that there is more to what took place at that split-second than what meets the eye.
What would make a Nobel Laureate's heart skip a beat? After explaining the amazing story behind his discovery, Dr. Yamanaka's tone of voice slightly changed as if imparting a secret. He paused for a moment. Clearly emotional, but with the caution of a scientist facing an unsolved mystery, he put it as objectively as possible: "I saw those skin cells that were converted into heart cells, and they were beating like a heart… and, my own heart synchronized…" With an affirmative nod, he continued: "I remember that moment."
Dr. Yamanaka was referring to his experiment to reverse-engineer mature skin cells into acting like stem cells, which are pluripotent, having the potential to become any cell to form any organ in our bodies. Imagine, just a drop of your blood could give you a new heart or a new liver. On this journey, mature skin cells plus a combination of 4 factors (the Yamanaka Factors) soon start beating, as they have just become heart cells. This confirmed Dr. Yamanaka's theory that contrary to existing thinking at the time, not only stem cells but also mature skin cells can be engineered backwards to become pluripotent.
I find this discovery extraordinary, not only because it will lead to many medical treatments, but also because it simply touches my heart. This discovery makes me feel like I have just witnessed an extraordinary moment of empathic connection between a fully formed human heart, peering into and synchronizing with its microscopic origins and potential.
"There is a road from one heart to another," my grandmother would say, reflecting a wisdom that has been passed through generations. This invisible highway of empathy between hearts has been traveled by many wise men and women before. People with such abilities, regardless of their religious or cultural affiliations, often shared a unified view of the world where no one and nothing is left out, not even a single heart cell.
In a way, this invisible highway connects our hearts to the rest of the Universe like a thread that runs through everything in existence. This makes me ponder the immense potential we each carry within ourselves. Just like the cells that we are made of, which required a mixture of proteins to be reprogrammed to unleash their true potential, we can also realize our true capacity when it comes to being one with the variety within and beyond ourselves, through empathy and love.
Recently, I have been reading about how scientists can now view where on our brain the emotion of empathy appears and I cannot help but wonder how a heart-on-empathy would look like. A timeless voice on humanity and love, Rumi said: when brain tries to understand love, it looks like a donkey struggling to get out of a mud pool. The more he struggles to get out, the deeper he sinks. Your heart is the only guide when it comes to love.*
There is certainly more to a human heart than what meets the eye. Perhaps one day we will have the scientific capability to truly comprehend all of the visible and invisible attributes of a human heart; how it can cover the entire Universe when it comes to harboring love and empathy, and how two hearts sometimes can beat as one, or how small and confined the heart can feel when it is crowded with thoughts and feelings that blur its real potential.
We are hard-wired to feel empathy, which is mostly described as an inherent ability to think or feel like another. However, empathy can be many things. If it is not to feel understanding and compassion for another, it is a survival tool that has become an integral part of our nature. We use the soft, nurturing side of empathy to care for our newborn and our elderly, to tell compelling stories to transfer our knowledge and wisdom, to create and enjoy art, and to remain social beings by trying to understand and relate to others.
We also use empathy when hunting, not only for food and animals, but also for ideas in the business world. It is a way for us to stay ahead of the game by thinking like another to predict the next steps ahead. Empathy is something that we do every day without even realizing it. Empathy is a tool that when used for the greater good can provide us with creative thinking skills that might lead us to new scientific discoveries, better designed products that are good for us and also for our environment, or might lead us to positive behavior change which might simply enable us to be better friends, parents, and global citizens.
Dr. Yamanaka's discovery of pluripotent cells therefore gives me hope, albeit based on a metaphorical quest. If we are wise enough, and nurture our inherent ability to practice empathy systematically, I believe in my heart that the goodness that can come out of it can also be pluripotent.
*I am grateful to Mr. Kabir Helminski for providing me with the proper translation of this Rumi poem:
"…When faced with Love itself
When faced with Love itself
I'm ashamed of my explanations.
Whatever the tongue can make clear,
Love's silence is better.
And though the pen wanted badly to write,
when it came to Love its nib split apart.
When it was the turn of the Intellect
To unfold the meaning of Love,
It stumbled like a donkey in the mud.
In the end only Love
Could explain itself
And what it is to be a lover."
April 21, 2014
Human behavior flows from three main sources: Desire, emotions, and knowledge. –Plato
As I type these words, I am taking a break from my coursework with the closest of my 12,000+ classmates from 148 countries around the world who are busy conducting a global brain-storming session for the greater good of the society. "Human-Centered Design for Social Innovation" is a seven-week "Design-Thinking," or "Human-Centric Design" problem solving exercise co-created by IDEO.org and +Acumen that encourages participants to form local teams to create solutions for social problems such as encouraging low-income families to save a little more each week, or enabling more young people to become social entrepreneurs (PlusAcumen 2014; IDEO.org 2014).
Global initiatives such as this course highlight an online learning landscape where "knowledge" is open sourced for those who are on the path to become social innovators. However, what brings a global community of problem solvers together is not only the availability of content, but it is a "desire to act" by putting knowledge into good use to contribute to social progress. An "emotion," which is as old as the humanity's most profound problems such as political conflicts, economic growth, and sharing of natural resources, is a potent antidote for its powers to change behavior, and re-emerges in the social innovation domain where it is being systematically utilized around the globe as a catalyst for societal progress.
Empathy, our inherent ability to share someone else's feelings, is a foundational strength observed in successful social and business entrepreneurs, and is also being recognized for its applicability as a professional problem-solving skill as part of the popular Design-Thinking method (Ashoka 2014; d.school 2014; HCD Toolkit 2014). Empathy also surfaces through the aspirations of our Millennial generation for a society where there are more purpose-driven, socially and environmentally responsible institutions mindful of the "big picture," and jobs that contribute to this world-view. Employers and educational institutions that seek and foster competency in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, Math) disciplines seem to be in agreement that soft-skills such as empathy is important to sustain economic growth through a workforce that is competent, but also has capacity to collaborate and create original ideas (Csikszentmihalyi 1997, 12; Van der Ploeg and White 2014).
Our world faces an increasing need for empathy, not only to effectively utilize and create new problem solving methods to design better products, services, and mechanisms for our communities and our planet, but also to inspire a next generation of global citizens who are mindful of the big-picture no matter which career choices they make, and inspire decision makers to think creatively, collaborate, and make wise decisions (Swanbrow 2010; AshokaU 2014, 121). It is true that empathy is a natural ability. However, activating and unleashing it might require a more systematic approach collectively undertaken by formal and informal education institutions through creative alliances with other industries, especially if the expectation is to utilize this skill for a specific set of entrepreneurial goals.
This momentum deserves a closer examination by any public institution with a mission to serve the society, as their sustainability in the long run might depend on it. Understanding what triggers empathy, how it is reflected through individual, social, or institutional behavior, and how it can be cultivated and harnessed as entrepreneurial skills such as creative thinking, communication, teamwork, and leadership, will be the sign of those institutions that will cause positive societal progress and remain relevant to the society in the 21st century.
Museums can play a critical role as informal learning platforms as being safe places for unique and authentic experiences of empathy, by leveraging their strengths in collections and storytelling, and acting as incubators incorporating trans-disciplinary research, experiential learning, and multi-cultural dialogue to foster empathic and creative thinking skills with the goal of positive behavior change, and societal progress.
Empathy & Connecting to the Big Picture
Storytellers and artists have explored empathy long before writing was invented, and wise people throughout history utilized it when putting their knowledge into action to address social problems. Only recently scientists began to understand where in our brain the feeling of empathy appears, and that it can be learned and nurtured towards positive behavior change, a critical step towards societal progress. As empathy has found its many reflections through arts and humanities for thousands of years, cultural institutions such as museums took upon the task to progressively make these treasures accessible to people. Museums should expand their invaluable contributions to public education by aligning themselves with emerging trends and requirements in social innovation and business entrepreneurship and bring empathy to public discourse as a problem-solving tool that can address societal problems.
Empathy can be many things and the domains where it can be applied vary accordingly. If it is not to feel understanding and compassion for another, it is an instinctive survival tool that has become an integral part of our nature. We use the soft, nurturing side of empathy to care for our newborn and our elderly, to tell compelling stories to transfer our knowledge and wisdom, to create and enjoy art, and to remain social beings by trying to understand and relate to others. We also use empathy when hunting, not only for food and animals, but also for ideas in the business world. It is a way for us to stay ahead in the game by thinking like another to predict the next steps ahead (R. Root-Bernstein and M. Root-Bernstein 2011a, 182-201; Csikszentmihalyi 1997, 316-42; Gokcigdem 2014). There is an increasing awareness and exploration of empathy and its applications not only in arts, sciences, literature, or performing arts, but also in politics and governance to solve global environmental challenges such as the climate change. An interesting study commissioned by the U.S. Defense Department looks into how the content of illustrated children's books published in Arabic in the Middle East might contribute to tolerance that could help alleviate societal problems such as political conflicts, and war (Zellman, Martini, and Perlman 2011).
Dr. Root-Bernstein, a professor of Physiology at the Michigan State University, and the co-author of Sparks of Genius, argues; "Empathizing is a critical imaginative skill, one of the thinking tools common to creative individuals across the arts and sciences, in any and every kind of work. First and foremost, empathizing involves recognizing the emotional state of other people (including other living beings, as well as inanimate materials), putting yourself in their place, seeing the world through their eyes. Stories, drawings, music and other arts have been exploiting our capacity for empathy for thousands of years. In the last few decades, neuroscience has confirmed that the brain has "intricate circuitry for understanding other people's thoughts and feelings" (R. Root-Bernstein and M. Root-Bernstein 2011b). Understanding the many ways in which arts and crafts can make innovation in sciences and engineering possible, would enable the society to develop the full potential of students in those fields (R. Root-Bernstein and M. Root-Bernstein 2013).
Empathy is an important aspect of connecting to the "big-picture" by closing the artificial gap between arts and sciences, which equally benefit from imagination, and seeing the Universe within and around us as parts of a whole. This holistic view of the Universe is known to have transformative powers towards positive behavior change, and has been utilized by many spiritual traditions. Inspirational thought leaders around the world have long been arguing for empathy, some based upon major personal life experiences after which, superficial issues did not matter anymore, and what mattered was what was in your heart; which was an inherent wisdom that we are all part of a whole, and tolerance and empathy are essential to sustain and celebrate this unity (Kelley and Kelley 2013; Senge et al. 2004; Goleman 2005). Emotional Intelligence, Learning Organization, Systems Thinking, Theory U, and Design-Thinking, are examples of this worldview that find implementations in corporate, educational, and non-profit institutions that take the "whole human" and the "greater whole" into account, and value empathy as a tool that might enable people with a holistic worldview. There seems to be a collective understanding that knowledge should be augmented with wisdom and empathy to benefit the whole. However, as Peter Senge reflects in his Fifth Discipline, on the practicality of creating such empathetic experiences leading to wisdom, where a true dialogue between the individual and the Universe occurs is a rare phenomenon, "a product of circumstance rather than systematic effort and disciplined practice" (Senge 2006, 222).
As nations are racing to create knowledge societies that are built upon the skills offered by STEM disciplines, the role of human behavior remains little explored as a critical element in societal progress. "What makes behavior change, and what makes us act?" are still central questions that could help define, or predict the outcome of social and economic development projects and policies around the world. While investing in empowering individuals with infrastructure, content, technologies, and jobs, we also need to pay attention to what knowledge will mean to these individuals within an increasingly virtually-connected world, how will they use it, and how will they interact with each other when faced with global problems. Will they be able to collaborate, and look through each other's eyes to identify core problems and make wise decisions when it comes to solving them? Will they be able to think creatively and come up with original ideas, and analyze such ideas investigating them through multiple perspectives, always keeping the "big-picture" in mind? Achieving an awareness of our "connectedness" to a larger picture has long been a challenge faced by humanity. Although there are many paths leading to it, empathy has always been a critical element, and the arrival at this awareness is often described as a profound, enlightening, and liberating experience that intimately connects us not only to the Universe around us, but also within. Museums have all the right tools to bring to life and let visitors explore for themselves what empathy might have meant to our predecessors in solving behavioral and social problems, and what potential it can present for our collective future.
Empathy & Social Innovation
Global social innovation initiatives and independent on-line platforms share a common goal to raise awareness on empathy for its applicability to solve various societal challenges. Just like empathy can be many things, its applications can also serve to a wide spectrum of social issues on various domains such as; bullying at schools and playgrounds, corporate philanthropy, health care and care giving, policy-making, governance and conflict resolution.
Ashoka, a network of 3,000 social entrepreneurs around the globe is a leading entity advocating empathy and social innovation through fellowships, community building, and other programs, and has been in operation for thirty years. Ashoka envisions a global community of "changemakers" that responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and one where each individual has the freedom, confidence, and societal support to address any social problem. Throughout its development Ashoka leadership discovered core entrepreneurial skills that exist within this community. Specifically, they identified universal entrepreneurial strengths as teamwork, initiative, leadership, and one that is foundational to the rest: Empathy. This led to the Ashoka's "Start Empathy" initiative. "Start Empathy" aims to elevate empathy as a key 21st century skill in our schools, our homes, and our communities, and is an online platform that informs and empowers its community with tools and resources compiled from a variety of experts, social innovators or "changemakers" and institutions on how empathy can be nurtured and utilized for social good (Ashoka 2014; Changemakers 2014; Start Empathy 2014).
Another successful empathy initiative for social progress has been successfully pioneered by Mary Gordon through the Roots of Empathy, an empathy-building program in operation since 1969 with a goal to build caring, peaceful and civil societies, and advocates that empathy can be unleashed in classroom setting where babies act as teachers (Roots of Empathy 2014).
The Greater Good Science Center at University of California Berkeley utilizes the results of academic and scientific studies to promote empathy as a tool for happiness, mindfulness, and wellbeing through seminars and workshops catered to students, educators, and professionals (Greater Good Science Center 2014). The Center for Building a Culture of Empathy, an online platform established by Edwin Rutsch, facilitates multiple conversations on empathy, exploring how it can be nurtured and reflected in a variety of domains such as politics, governance, music, arts, poetry, education, and interfaith dialogue (Culture of Empathy 2014). Roman Krznaric, a philosopher and a lecturer at the School of Life based in the U.K. leads an Empathy Revolution, where the first on-line Empathy Library and an upcoming Empathy Museum in the works support his argument that the creation of a more empathetic society begins with individuals and they should be provided with a variety of resources and experiential learning opportunities on this path (Empathy Library 2014; Krznaric 2014).
Initially implemented to cater to a business need, the Design-Thinking method which begins with the first step of "Empathy" was originally used to develop popular consumer products such as the first Apple mouse, and now is being used worldwide to tackle social issues. Here, this soft skill is used to "listen" to better understand and gain insight into a real world problem with the goal of designing a sustainable solution. This method can be used not only when developing products and services for large and small corporations that are for-profit, but also can be utilized to unleash the creative potential in any individual who is willing to contribute to positive social change and progress around the world through social entrepreneurship initiatives. I believe that empathy is not only the first step but acts as an adhesive throughout the process by continuously inspiring participants to stay on task until the most viable solution is found, and by giving them the courage to take a leap from theory to practice to implement the solution.
Real world examples of such collaborative work that begins with the critical step of empathic listening can be an app that would allow customers to customize their news feeds, or can result in the invention of an insulated baby swaddle to save the lives of premature babies born in rural communities without electricity or access to hospitals. The same process can also connect one to groups and individuals working on alleviating poverty, improving safety for women, or eliminating food deserts, and diseases around the world. Empathic listening skills are considered a pre-requisite to really understand and identify the challenge, or the problem vs. making assumptions on behalf of the user.
This approach is very much in alignment with the worldview of our Millennial generation and current trends in higher education where service-learning and volunteer work around the world is encouraged, and more and more social innovation related courses appear in higher education curriculums (AshokaU 2014). Millennials value giving back to society through philanthropy and volunteerism, and they want to work at places with good record of social and environmental responsibility. They work independently but their "big ideas" come from teams, from workplace "organized playtime." Unlike any other generation before them, they are very much inspired to focus on social business models and launch entrepreneurial ventures that aim to solve a global or local issue (Zogby and Snyder Kuhl 2013, 15, 23; Esfahani Smith and Aaker 2013, 1).
Tom and David Kelley, founders of IDEO, a leading human-centric design firm where the CEO Tim Brown coined the term Design-Thinking, argue in their recent book titled: Creative Confidence, that a human-centered approach and empathy are key elements of good design or products that utilize our creative power (T. Kelley and D. Kelley 2013; Brown 2009). Their human-centered design process helped increase the emphasis on empathy in business and non-profit circles around the globe. Stanford University's d. school, where David Kelley is one of the founders, and IDEO.org the socially-minded sibling of IDEO, are major driving forces behind the Design-Thinking trend that is augmented by online resources, toolkits, and design challenges that encourage aspiring social and business entrepreneurs around the world simply to unpack these toolkits, form local or global communities and teams and get to work, starting with getting out of the building to exercise their "empathy muscle" (d. school 2014; HCD Toolkit 2014).
Empathy is at the convening point of three powerful streams and is currently being used to shape positive social change. Here, human desire to help others meet with a methodology that enables the use of an inherent emotion as a tool, to put knowledge into practice for the greater good of the society. Social innovation advocates consider empathy as a characteristic, and a foundational skill for entrepreneurs, and Design-Thinking method requires it as a problem-solving tool, while the Millennials are very much inclined to explore both domains which would enable them to focus their energy on social issues. This "perfect storm" presents a unique opportunity for museums where they can find creative ways to align their institutional behavior and offerings with these trends through an emphasis on empathy and its numerous societal applications.
Empathy & Museums
As more and more people from various disciplines and walks of life join a global community of social innovators and business entrepreneurs, an increased awareness and demand for empathy as a personal, professional, or institutional skill, as well as an appetite to cultivate it through neutral and safe platforms will be inevitable.
A timely observation, and an important step in this direction was undertaken by Gretchen Jennings, a veteran museum professional who coined the term "Empathetic Museum" in 2013 at a pop-up discussion session at the American Alliance of Museums, where the topic was first presented and immediately sparked an ongoing discussion (Jennings 2013). Jennings suggests that just like people, museums might also benefit from an institutional behavior change and become "empathetic." Her blog titled the Museum Commons facilitates discussions within the museum community on how museums can be more "empathetic" by design and offers many examples and inspirational stories on how museums continue to interpret being "empathetic" through their policies and programs, issues of accessibility and visitors' experience, collections and exhibitions, diversity of their workforce, and timely response to social crises (Jennings 2014; Bossert 2013).
While it is remarkable to observe that museums can creatively express "institutional" empathy through a variety of ways, I believe that it is also important to explore "empathy" at museum setting as a phenomenal human social behavior. Considering emerging attempts observed in businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations, more exploration and experimentation around empathy-building might soon become an expectation from cultural organizations, as these efforts need trusted public platforms such as museums to take hold at societal level. Empathy's many attributes which might also appear as "entrepreneurial" skills such as curiosity, creative thinking, collaboration, teamwork, problem-solving, and leadership, can be better illustrated with inspirational authentic objects, experiences, and stories to highlight the role of this age old emotion known for its powers for positive behavior change, as a force to motivate social innovation, entrepreneurship, economic growth, and conflict resolution. This approach could provide the museums with new ways to present their content in thematic ways to shed light on our human behavior and its consequences through arts, sciences, and experiential learning. In this approach, the focus of the exhibition would not be the objects on display, but an exploration of our own emotions and insight we gain by interacting with them.
An example of this is the Exploratorium's "Science of Sharing," an innovative exhibition that highlights the role of empathy –or the lack of it, through a carefully designed set of experiences where visitors explore the act of sharing. The Exploratorium argues that fostering an understanding of human social behavior is of fundamental importance in meeting the challenges of the modern world such as energy crises, arms races, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. They support this statement with several exhibit prototypes that highlight the importance of sharing and collaboration, which are two positive outcomes of empathy (Exploratorium 2013).
I have first experienced the concept at the 2013 Association of Science and Technology Centers Conference and Expo, where in keeping with the Exploratorium's well-tested approach two prototypes were introduced by Dr. Hugh McDonald. A social psychologist and the project director and senior science writer, Dr. McDonald invited me to play with him the "Sip, or Squirt" game, an activity designed to spark "collaborative problem-solving." As curious visitors gathered around us, I must have looked tense, like a dueling cowboy in a Western movie, trying to read the other's mind in order to survive. What was interesting that as soon as I chose to share and collaborate, suddenly, there were no longer any reasons to get stressed. Of course, I felt grateful that my opponent also chose to share, preventing a real duel! In a social setting such individual choices would have defined the outcome with implications on the whole society. "Sip or Squirt" simply explored the human reaction towards sharing, which could only be achieved if one had empathy towards the other. In this experience, each player controls the other's water fountain. Both players have a choice to let their opponent drink water or get water squirted at his/her face. If both parties intend to harm the other party by selecting "squirt" neither party can have access to the water. If both choose to sip, then they can both enjoy the resource that they are sharing. If one picks sip, while the other picks squirt intending to harm the other, then it becomes a grudge that only escalates with multiple attempts to get even. Sounds familiar?
Grounded in research in social psychology, economics, and game theory, the Exploratorium's "Science of Sharing" is designed to provoke public insight into strategies for balancing short-term personal gains and long-term outcomes for communities and societies. The project is co-developed by museum partners with demonstrated histories of investigating emerging issues in science and technology, such as the Museum of Life and Science, Dialogue Social Enterprise, and the Heroic Imagination Project. It is a part of a 3-year project that is funded by the National Science Foundation to bring scientific study of human social behavior to a broad audience, and nears its completion in late 2014. The project is based on the argument that social phenomena –such as those underlying the way we perceive social situations, share resources, interpret the motives of others, and work together to solve problems –are open to inquiry and experimentation just as are physical and biological phenomena explored in museums and science centers.
Experiencing the Exploratorium's "Science of Sharing" prototypes prompted me to ask the following questions: How nurturing empathy can help us create better global citizens; who are full of curiosity and an appreciation of the big-picture, but also better entrepreneurs who are willing to use their knowledge for the greater good through economic growth, and social innovation. The prototypes were intended just to accomplish this: "A moment of reflection, a moment of contemplation, a moment of discussion with someone else" (Chang 2012, D3). I found this powerful not only at a personal level, but also for its potential implications on existing and emerging cultural institutions around the world, as this would make a unique "human-centric" museum experience, especially when it is combined with collections through carefully designed programs geared towards the cultivation of empathy as an entrepreneurial skill. While existing museums could find creative ways to augment their offerings with empathy-based programs, emerging cultural projects taking shape around the world with the goal of cultural and economic development could also benefit from this approach (Gokcigdem and Seaters 2013; R. Root-Bernstein 2012).
The public discussion of empathy as a phenomena at museum setting is critical to disseminate a public message that despite all the resources that we have (natural, economical, skill, or knowledge-based) without empathy towards one another, ultimately all is obsolete if we do not learn how to cooperate with one another towards putting our knowledge in the service of the whole. A reliance on formal education or heavy investment on infrastructure and technologies alone are not equipped to meet the most profound challenges the humanity is facing. Cultural institutions with a mission to serve their communities are destined to tackle this imminent societal challenge of empathy-building. Their ability to analyze such emerging global challenges and willingness to collaborate with others to overcome them might be important criteria to determine their relevance to their communities, and their sustainability in the 21st century.
Museums can response to this challenge in a variety of ways: By becoming more "empathetic" institutions as Jennings suggests, which would be reflected through their institutional culture, the diversity of their workforce and leadership, timeliness of their response to social events, or by the degree of their collections' accessibility to visitors. Or, as suggested by the Exploratorium's "Science of Sharing" exhibition, empathy can also be explored as a phenomenon on its own, which could be described as a "human-centric exhibition" or a visitor's experience as the feelings and the emotions of the visitors would be the focus of such exhibitions instead of the objects that might be on display. In collecting museums, this exploration could be customized to highlight the institution's content through creative storytelling around universal human themes to provide the visitor with a "thematic" lens to acquire knowledge versus a chronological or geographically fragmented, encyclopedic presentation. Museums could also create their own curated adaptations of Design-Thinking challenges at museum setting, incorporating the museum's content and strengths as part of the design process.
Museums are uniquely advantageous for their awe-inspiring authentic objects to tell powerful stories that could enable visitors imagine, explore, and experiment empathy first-hand. More importantly, by becoming incubators of innovation through creative alliances, museums can enable new ideas to cross-pollinate towards groundbreaking human-centric products, services, mechanisms, and experiences that might have long-term positive societal impact, which can also help their institutional sustainability.
Responding to this momentum calls for its own Design-Thinking session for museums. Local and global teams consisting of museum professionals, representatives from social innovation and empathy initiatives, along with museum visitors of all ages and backgrounds combined with representatives from businesses, international development, non-profit, civic and government agencies, and formal and informal education sector could discuss what kind of a role museums play within this ecosystem. A good next step for this would be to develop a toolkit, specifically designed for this challenge.
Back in my coursework for "human-centric design for social innovation," our team consisting of three members, including an economist, a business executive, and yours truly, have started our journey three weeks ago with the pre-identified challenge posed by the course organizers: "How might we enable more young people to become social entrepreneurs?" This challenge led us to utilize our empathetic listening skills where we conducted interviews with students, teachers, parents, museum professionals, as well as social entrepreneurs. This helped us narrow down our design challenge as posed in the following question: "How might we enable K-12 students get exposed to empathy as an important entrepreneurial skill through museums?" According to our on-line toolkit, next we need to conduct an intense, but fun brain storming session that involves hundreds of post-it notes, to turn our collective "insight" into various "prototypes." The final steps of our coursework would require us to turn these prototypes into a single final "product," which would be shared along with thousands of other products contributed by our classmates from around the world, hopefully inspiring new ideas, jobs, collaboration, and solutions for various social problems.
This is work in progress. As we are about to embark on the "ideation" phase, we are far from having a final "product" which is a requirement to complete the challenge. However, in keeping with the open-source spirit of Design-Thinking, I am allowed to share with you our aspirations which are currently shaping my team's direction: We have realized that museums should be on the forefront of discussions on empathy's real-world applications by incorporating it into their existing efforts to align their offerings with STEAM disciplines. "E" for empathy would be an effective adhesive to the existing STEAM formula as knowledge becomes more meaningful when used for social good as evidenced by social innovation projects around the globe. This could help not only fill jobs with competent and creative people, but also can lead to the creation of new jobs through innovative thinking. This would help foster economic growth, as well as the role of the museums in society by positioning them as critical players in economic development and societal progress through their contributions to positive behavior change in individuals. The ESTEAM approach would enable us to keep the big picture in mind in our social or business entrepreneurship initiatives reminding us of our connectedness to a greater whole so that our future is built upon societies that value not only technical skills and knowledge; but also wisdom.
Ashoka. 2014. "Innovators for the Public." Accessed April 18. https://www.ashoka.org/about.
AshokaU Changemaker Campus 2014. Trends in Social Innovation Education 2014. Arlington, VA: Ashoka Global Headquarters.
Bossert, Carol. 2013. "The Empathetic Museum with Gretchen Jennings." VoiceAmerica audio recording. Museum Life by Carol Bossert. Accessed April 18. http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/73653/the-empathetic-museum.
Brown, Tim. 2009. Change by Design. Harper Collins: New York.
Chang, Kenneth. 2012. "San Francisco Exploratorium to Show New Face in a New Place," New York Times, August 14.
Changemakers. 2014. "Projects." Accessed April 18. http://www.changemakers.com/.
Culture of Empathy. 2014. "Center for Building a Culture for Empathy." Accessed April 18. http://cultureofempathy.com/.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. 1997. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial.
d.school. 2014. "Our Point of View." Accessed April 18. http://dschool.stanford.edu/.
Empathy Library. 2014. Accessed January 18, 2014. http://empathylibrary.com/.
Esfahani Smith, Emily and Jennifer L. Aaker. 2013. "Millenial Searchers." New York Times Sunday Review, December 1.
Exploratorium. 2013. "The Science of Sharing: Exhibits and Activities Fostering Investigation of
Cooperation, Competition, and Social Interdependence." Exhibition handout distributed by the Exploratorium, at the Association of Science and Technology Center Conference, Albuquerque, NM, October 19-22.
Gokcigdem, Elif M. 2014. "A Heart to Heart Conversation on Empathy," Ashoka – Start Empathy Blog, March 6. http://startempathy.org/blog/2014/03/heart-heart-conversation-empathy.
Gokcigdem, Elif and Michelle Seaters. 2013. "One Zellij at a Time: Building Local and Global Cultural Connections and Creative Thinking Skills through an Exhibition of Islamic Arts for Children in Saudi Arabia." In Museums in a Global Context, edited by Jennifer Dickey, Samir El Azhar, Catherine Lewis, 162-85. Washington, D.C.: The AAM Press.
Goleman, Daniel. 2005. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.
Greater Good Science Center, University of California Berkeley. 2014. "How to Cultivate Empathy." Accessed April 18. http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/empathy/definition#how_to_cultivate.
HCD Toolkit. 2014. "Human-Centered Design Toolkit: A Free Innovation Guide for Social Enterprises and NGOs Worldwide." Accessed March 31. http://www.ideo.com/work/human-centered-design-toolkit/.
IDEO.org. 2014. "Let's Design a Better World with Everyone." Accessed April 18. http://www.ideo.org/.
Jennings, Gretchen. 2013. "The Empathetic Museum: A 'Pop-Up' Conversation." June 7. http://www.museumcommons.com/2013/06/the-empathetic-museum-pop-up.html.
Jennings, Gretchen. 2014. "The Museum Commons." Accessed April 11. http://www.museumcommons.com/?s=empathy.
Kelley, Tom and David Kelley. 2013. Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All. New York: Crown Business.
Krznaric, Roman. 2014. "How to Start an Empathy Revolution." Accessed January 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT5X6NIJR88.
PlusAcumen. 2014. "Human Centered Design for Social Innovation Course Materials." Accessed April 8.
Root-Bernstein, Robert S. and Michele M. Root-Bernstein. 2011a. Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People. New York: Mariner Books.
Root-Bernstein, Robert S. and Michele Root-Bernstein. 2011b. "The Empathizing Dilemma, or
Confessions of the Eagle-Cam Addict." Imagine That! Annals of Ordinary and Extraordinary Genius. June 25, 2011. Accessed on October, 14, 2013. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine/201106/the-empathizing-dilemma-or-confessions-the-eagle-cam-addict.
Root-Bernstein, Robert. 2012. "ArtSmarts: Arts and Crafts Participation Correlates with
Entrepreneurial Innovation among Scientists and Engineers." Paper presented at the Brookings Institution's The Arts, New Growth Theory, and Economic Development, Washington, D.C. May 9.
Root-Bernstein, Robert S. and Michele Root-Bernstein. 2013. "The Importance of Early and
Persistent Arts and Crafts Education for Future Scientists and Engineers," SEAD: White Papers. Accessed on November 11, 2013.
Roots of Empathy. 2014. "Who We Are." Accessed April 18.
Scharmer, Otto C. 2007. Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges. New York: Society of
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York: Doubleday.
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Human Purpose and the Field of the Future. New York: Society of Organizational Learning.
Start Empathy. 2014. "Imagine a World Where Every Child Masters Empathy." Accessed April
Swanbrow, Diane. 2010. "Empathy: College Students Don't Have As Much As They Used To."
University of Michigan News Service, May 27. Accessed October 23, 2013. http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/7724
Van der Ploeg, Alexandra, and Deirdre White. 2014. "Social Sabbaticals and the New Face of
Leadership." Stanford Social Review, March 31.
Zellman, Gail L., Jeffrey Martini, and Michal Perlman. 2011. Identifying Arabic Language
Materials for Children That Promote Tolerance and Critical Thinking. Washington, D.C.: RAND National Defense Research Institute. http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR856.html.
Zogby, John and Joan Snyder Kuhl. 2013. First Globals: Understanding, Managing, & Unleashing
the Potential of Our Millenial Generation. Washington, D.C.: John Zogby and Joan Snyder Kuhl.
My father had a story for every occasion, but my favorite was "watch our garden grow" where on long summer days he would take me on a contemplative journey through the eyes of simple seeds. No matter which plant I became, the story always ended with a mysterious tone in my father's voice as he delivered the punch line: "How come you were one of many simple seeds that looked alike and nurtured by the very same earth, the sun, and the rain, yet you became a tomato, while the others became grapes, cucumbers, or an olive tree?" This was my father's way of sharing his wisdom with me to help me see that the variety around us is actually a manifestation of a greater whole, and we need to "empathize" by looking through each other's eyes to celebrate and sustain this wonderful diversity within unity. I still remember this, not only because my father was a great storyteller, but also because while he was telling me his story we would be observing actual plants at our garden, sometimes making a salad out of them for lunch, which enabled me to empathize with these creatures going through various life cycles right in front of my eyes.
Storytellers and artists have explored empathy, our inherent ability to understand and share the feelings of another, long before writing was invented, and wise people throughout history utilized it when putting their knowledge into action to solve problems. Only recently scientists began to understand where in our brain the feeling of empathy appears, and that it can be learned and nurtured towards positive behavior change, a critical step towards societal progress. As more and more industries are discovering the benefits of empathy to create better products, and that it can lead to critical thinking, problem solving and innovation, it will be vital for any institution with a goal to serve the public to analyze this emerging global challenge of empathy-building in order to remain relevant in the 21st century.
Museums should be on the front lines to nurture empathy by leveraging their strengths in storytelling, being safe places for unique and authentic experiences, and acting as innovation labs incorporating trans-disciplinary research, experimentation, and multi-cultural dialogue. Museums are uniquely advantageous for their awe-inspiring real objects to tell powerful stories that could enable visitors to imagine, explore, and experiment empathy first-hand. More importantly, by becoming incubators of innovation, museums can enable new ideas to cross-pollinate towards groundbreaking human-centric products, mechanisms, and experiences that might have long-term positive impact. This requires creative alliances, and a strategic approach where institutional goals are clearly outlined and new criteria and mechanisms are developed to measure impact.
Recently, I had a déjà-vu when the words "wisdom" and "tomato" caught my eye in the same sentence. At a Mediterranean inspired fast-food chain as I was getting lunch, a quote on an employee's t-shirt read: "Knowledge is to know that tomato is a fruit, wisdom is to know not to put it in fruit salad." Suddenly my falafel became more meaningful as I started contemplating how there is so much emphasis on providing the future generations with information, infrastructure, technologies, and skills to get better paying jobs, while not enough attention is given to how these model members of the society will interact with each other; will they be able to look through each other's eyes to make wise decisions when it comes to sharing and utilizing limited resources? What is knowledge worth if it is not acted upon wisely, and is not utilized for the service of the whole? Perhaps because of this unexpected lunch-time quote, all of a sudden I felt grateful how each of my father's stories were infused with wisdom, and how lucky I was to be an audience. I also realized, how there are so few instances and places in life where one can have a real, sincere, and meaningful dialogue with another that makes you feel unique and precious, yet empowered with the knowledge that there is a greater whole that you are part of… Wouldn't it be great if I could share my experience with others and not leave such meaningful experiences to chance? Hence, I came up with the following recipe which I call: "ESTEAM," a new educational strategy that could be pioneered by museums to explore the power of purposeful storytelling through authentic objects and experiences augmenting the tools offered by STEAM disciplines, by adding "Empathy" as an adhesive towards building healthy communities that value not only knowledge; but also wisdom. Currently, I am working on developing a comprehensive list of tools, alliances, and ingredients. Would you care to join me as I give it a try?
Note from the Author: This exact article was first written on December 25, 2013, and publication was shared via email the same day with few select thought-leaders on empathy, creativity, and innovation. This blog was the seed thought for the author to launch "empathy-building through museums" initiative.


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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Statt ins Cafe in die WG
Posted by The Flawed Hero at 8:11 PM
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Despite claiming a bumper harvest some Malawians have been heavily affected by hunger in some parts of the country
This has been reviewed following the distribution of relief assistance which has reportedly started.
Distribution of relief assistance to families affected by hunger in some parts of the country has reportedly started.
The distribution exercise is being done by the department of disaster management affairs.
Up to two hundred thousand people are reportedly without food in some parts of the country following a poor harvest last year.
Principal Secretary and commissioner for disaster Geoffrey Kanyinji told Capital fm that over 4 thousand metric tonnes of maize will be distributed in parts of Blantyre, Chikhwawa, Nsanje, and Chiradzulu, among other districts.


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According to Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of the cardiology department of the Cleveland Clinic, today's 75-year-old can live to be 90 or 95. But there are some things to do and not do to stay healthy, especially heart healthy. Here is his #1 thing to stay away from: Fad Diets! He says there are many diet books out there and all are mostly contradictory. "One will say eat no fat. The next one will say eat no carbs. They're all wrong. None of these diets is healthy or appropriate for cardiac health." That is a quote from Dr. Nissen. His #2 thing to stay away from is dietary supplements. He stated, "There's no way to know what's in them (they are largely unregulated).
He says heart health is determined by the quantity and types of foods one eats. He cited a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine that looked at a low-fat diet versus a Mediterranean-style diet. Those who consumed a diet rich in olive oil and nuts (both have fat content but they are good fats) had a much lower risk for heart disease. That would be a Mediterranean-style diet.


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'Little Big Town' Ready For The ACM's
It's been several years since Little Big Town took home their first ACM Award. Another might be in their immediate future.
According to the Associated Press, the band is ready!
(AP) - Little Big Town got their first award five years ago at the Academy of Country Music Awards, and they want to repeat that.
Singer Kimberly Schlapman says they'd like to take some more home, and singer Karen Fairchild says it's been a long break that they're ready to end.
Singer Jimi Westbrook says they pushed themselves on their "Tornado" album and tried new things. He says the fact that fans have latched onto that is very rewarding.
The ACMs are on Sunday.


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Hold your breath! Before you blink an eye and are totally baffled, we are not talking about the new season of...
Hold your breath! Before you blink an eye and are totally baffled, we are not talking about the new season of the swayamvar or one of the many men desiring the sassy item girl. The show in question here is Imagine's Rakhi Ka Insaaf. Apparently the blatant drama queen is taking her role as 'Insaaf ki Devi' very seriously. There have been many issues that she has resolved on her show with people coming from different walks of life. We all know that wherever Rakhi Sawant sets foot, drama is surely to follow. A source from the production house tells us that there has been a lot of drama and action when Rakhi doles out justice. There have been instances where during the course of justice, people on the show have got into heated arguments and become totally aggressive, thereby scaring the life out of Rakhi! Not an easy task we say. However we are told that not one to take this lightly and to ensure that her life is not threatened Rakhi has summoned the production house and the channel to provide her with big and brawny body-guards. And mind it we say! Her request had been paid heed to and we hear that she now addresses them as her Karan-Arjun!...being a human...


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Events for December 9, 2017
Day Navigation
9:00 am
Lisbon Holiday Jubilee 2017
Lisbon Holiday Jubilee includes activities throughout the day.Find out more »
10:00 am
Mount Vernon Winter Farmers' Market
The Mt Vernon Winter Farmers' Market is each Saturday in the First Street Community Center. The products offered are raised, produced, or created locally.Find out more »
12:00 pm
High School Book Group
If you are interested in this book discussion group, you can join any time. The books are donated by Hills Bank and Trust, so the members get to keep the books.Find out more »
3:30 pm
6:30 pm
7:30 pm
Eastern Iowa Brass Band Concert
$4 - $10
The Eastern Iowa Brass Band (EIBB) is Iowa's only British-styled brass band. Attend the 2017-2018 Subscription Series. The first concert of this series is on Saturday, October 21.Find out more »


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About Me
- Denani's Music World!
- I love music so much!
I bet all of you too, right.. So, I'd like to share free download links here.. Enjoy!
Please :
• DELETE the downloaded file(s) within 24 hours.
• Report for any broken file(s) link or error(s) to me.
• Buy the ORIGINAL CD for best quality audio.
• DO NOT distribute the song you have downloaded to others.
• Download At Your Own Risk, as I'm Not Responsible For Any Of Your Actions.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Jason Mraz - Live & Acoustic (2001)
Track Listings :
1. Running
2. Did I Fool Ya
3. Little You & I
4. You and I Both
5. 1000 Things
6. Unfold
7. Dream Life Of Rand McNally
8. Halfway Home
9. Bright Eyes
10. After an Afternoon
11. Conversation With Myself
12. Common Pleasure
13. Zero Percent
14. At Last - Sleep All Day
15. Hey Love
Download full album here :
Part 1 and Part 2
Credit goes to original uploader!
Posted by Denani's Music World!
Labels: Acoustic, All Musics, Jason Mraz, Live Music, pop, R n B, Western
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Curious George Makes Pancakes
By Margret Rey , H. A. Rey
PreK-K, 1-2

Every year George and the man with the yellow hat attend the pancake breakfast to benefit the children's hospital. Always curious, George finds his way to the pancake table. After making some of the most interesting pancakes the crowd has ever seen George gets into even more monkey mischief.

The adventures of Curious George continue in an all-new series beginning in fall 1998 with eight new stories. Written and illustrated in the style of Margret and H. A. Rey.

Other Books You Might Like


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Make X-CAMP a big part of your summer
Join us for the University of Montana Western's X-Camp: Operation Explore. Now in it's third year, X-Camp provides two weeks of exploration, adventure and learning in summer 2016. Growing each year, X-Camp is truly an opportunity to learn while doing.
Campers will learn skills and gain knowledge in two, one-week sessions including:
Eco-Explorer (July 18-22)
Our eco-explorers will discover the natural world and the adaptations that allow a variety of wildlife to thrive in southwestern Montana. From magnifying nature's smallest creatures to engineering animal habitats and exploring Montana Western's campus garden where campers will learn what it takes to grow their food.
Making Your Own Path (August 1-5)
Campers will investigate their surroundings and adapt to challenges on the path to the prize. Clues will help guide them along the way. An interactive look at map creation and time travel will keep explorers on their toes as they learn.
X-Camp is open to incoming second through fifth graders and costs $100 per session.
Early registration not required but strongly encouraged.
Please contact Tori Durham or Christina Peltier at the School of Outreach at 406-683-7537 or 406-683-7324 or send an email to Tori at firstname.lastname@example.com for more information and to register your child(ren).
The School of Outreach invites you to join us for the annual Administrative Professionals Day Luncheon. Enjoy entertainment while dining on a delicious lunch catered by UMW's fine dining services. Door prizes are provided by generous local merchants. Please RSVP by April 18.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016; 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. UMW campus, Lewis & Clark Room Fee: $17/person or $15/person if more than three people attend from the same office.
Coming to Montana Western was part of fulfilling a childhood dream of becoming a doctor for Lindsey Densmore.
UMW grad Justinn Marshall was accepted into the University of Washington's regional medical education program.
Marcus Williams came to Montana Western to play football and major in business administration.
Kolby Brown is a literature major at the University of Montana Western.
Recent Montana Western graduate Taeler Rodriguez has been accepted to the University of Denver's graduate program.


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Go 2 Guy: Buckeyes will deliver dose of reality
Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, September 12, 2007
ALL RIGHT, HUSKIES fans, you've finally got a decent team. It remains to be seen if you're really decent, just plain decent or half decent.
So before you puff out your purple-and-gold chests -- oh, wait a minute, you already have -- let's see how the next five games go -- in your book, all possible W's on your way back to football prominence; in my book, all possible L's on your way back to the Pac-10 basement.
If you beat Ohio State, God help all of us in Cougar Nation. You will be a big-time program again, a player on the national scene again, all of which will make you officially obnoxious again.
I read the other day where Marcel Reece said the Huskies have their swagger back again, and I thought, really? After beating a terrible Syracuse team and a Boise State team that isn't the same team that went undefeated last year?
Reece is the talented and wonderfully outspoken passcatcher-and-dropper who believes the Huskies will go 13-0 this season. To his credit, it's still possible. But swagger and all, Reece must be reminded that 2-11 is also still possible, not to mention preferable to those of us who are already finding Dawgs fans insufferable.
Now the Huskies think they can beat the 10th-ranked team in the land when, just four games ago, they couldn't beat Stanford, one of the worst college football teams ever. Turnarounds of this magnitude don't happen this fast.
I long for the past because Washington does not give me much to work with anymore. It's harder to poke fun at the Dawgs because their quarterback is pretty darn good, and their team seems to be, too.
Hopefully Ohio State arrives with a huge dose of reality, but I've reached a point where I wouldn't be shocked if Tyrone Willingham's young men stun the Buckeyes.
The Huskies are 4-point underdogs in a line that looks like a lock for Ohio State, which means it probably isn't -- oddsmakers are uncannily accurate with their handicapping.
So I'm guessing it will be a close game, while hoping for something along the lines of 31-0 featuring a completely dominating performance by the Buckeyes defense.
A more likely scenario is that Washington, fueled by its frenzied faithful -- the same fans who were unfaithful at the Stanford game -- hangs around before the superior team takes over in the second half. No matter how good they look, horses that move up in class generally lose, which is the case here.
There are reasons to like the Huskies' chances -- the one that stands out the most is Ohio State's sputtering offense. As evidence, the Buckeyes led Akron 3-2 last week at halftime.
Add this to that -- new quarterbacks typically struggle at Husky Stadium. Though he's 23 years old, 6-foot-5 Todd Boeckman doesn't have much game experience, and never will be Troy Smith, anyway.
Also, the offensive line has not provided enough room to run for Beanie Wells -- my Ohio State scout tells me that Beanie doesn't bring it against lesser opponents, so obviously that's a concern again this week.
(My Ohio State scout has been to 66 consecutive Buckeyes games and knows of what he speaks -- or at least a lot more than I do.)
The offensive problems can be contributed to a combination of things -- the losses of Smith, running back Antonio Pittman and receivers Teddy Ginn and Tony Gonzalez to the NFL; and the caliber of Ohio State's first two opponents -- how do you get up for Youngstown State and Akron?
But the Buckeyes might have the best defense in the country. My scout calls tackle Vernon Gholston "a beast" and cornerback Malcolm Jenkins "a freak of nature." Middle linebacker James Laurinaitis sounds like he's a little of both.
Even as spectacular as Jake Locker is, I can't see a redshirt freshman quarterback having his way with these guys.
One thing I like about Ohio State -- it will be great to see another coach with a sweater vest on the sidelines at Husky Stadium again.
One thing I can't stand -- the Monday night NFL games when former Buckeyes introduce themselves as being from "Theee Ohio State University," as if they're somehow better than you. I enjoyed it when Florida said "Theee this" in last year's national championship game.
If it comes down to the kicking game, my money's on Ohio State. Then again, even if it doesn't, my money's on Ohio State. But if it does, Ryan Pretorius has the edge over Ryan Perkins.
Pretorius is 28. He's been married and divorced, and had servants at his house while growing up in South Africa. I'm assuming Perkins can't match up to any of that.
The pick: comeuppance time for Johnny-come-lately. Ohio State 17, Washington 10.


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Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 26 and 27th from 11am-3pm in the Festival Ballroom. Different companies will be attending each day and the fair is for all majors.
Please check out the Career Fair Page for more information about who will be attending and how students should prepare. There are also employer lists by academic area for each day. Day 1 and Day 2 . These lists break down the companies by positions, majors they are seeking as well as position type-full time, part time or internship.


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Android is an operating system from Google. It was primarily designed for mobile phones but has since been enhanced to work with phablets, tablets, and more devices.
In many ways, it is quite similar to iOS, Symbian, Windows Phone and Blackberry OS. There are differences too since Android is based on Linux, a free cross-platform core operating system.
The best part of the Android operating system for many users and developers is that it's completely free. Anyone can download the source code, inspect, compile and even change it. That is probably why many of the world mobile manufacturers prefer Android as their operating system and design mobile phones according to it. Android currently stands as the top one mobile operating system in usage, applications, and market.
Google, the popular search engine company bought Android in 2005.
Photo credit: Android Lineup – Beige via PhotoPin (License)
Filed Under:
Tagged as: What is Android?
Microsoft and the Office logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.


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Banner Advertising
Please contact the athletic department and or booster club member to purchase advertising space on this website. Your website can be just a click away when viewers see your banner at the top of the screen! Intense Topper Web Traffic to YOUR site!
Call Chardon's Athletic Department at 440-286-0414
Website traffic can be located here: www.Quantcast.com/https://chardonathletics.org.


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At home we have mostly wooden or tiled floors and, as well as it being an old house, it means that our feet get cold easily. Because of this we wear slippers at home – often all year round. But, sometimes slippers aren't practical, socks make us slip on the floors and we crave something both practical and warm on our feet.
But this year we have discovered Moccis – the perfect blend of sock and slipper that have sizes and designs to suit the whole family. We were sent matching Moccis for LP and I and as soon as we put them on we knew we were in for a real treat for our feet.
Moccis are pretty much the softest and warmest things I have ever had on my feet – and LP agrees. They are hand sewn and originally created in Scandinavia but now we can enjoy them here too. They are so snuggly that we put them on whenever we're at home and only take them off again at bedtime.
We both wear them walking around, relaxing on the sofa and during meal times. They're never uncomfortable, never in the way and really they just feel like really good quality socks that never get too tight around our ankles and don't slip on the floor either. They really are the perfect accessory for a busy family life.
I love wearing Moccis as they keep my feet so toasty warm but my feet never feel sweaty either. Moccis use breathable fabrics that move moisture out and away from your feet, keeping them lovely and dry but warm too.
Unlike socks, Moccis have an invisible support strap that keeps them nicely in place. Even small children can't kick them off and they don't lose shape or roll down either. Plus, you can even machine wash them. Even though the soles are leather they are machine washable at 40 degrees and feel as good as new after every wash.
Moccis are so comfortable and super durable too – designed to stand the test of time. In the time we've been wearing them they haven't shown any sign of wear, haven't got holes the stitching hasn't become loose and they haven't changed shape. They have just been so comfortable, great quality and warm to wear time and time again and I know they will last so much longer than my old slippers that I have to replace every few months.
I have teamed up with Moccis to give away a pair of Moccis to one lucky reader. To be in with a chance of winning a pair of Moccis in your choice of size and style, just complete one or more entries in the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!
Don't forget to check out our other giveaways over on the giveaways page!