The world says good-bye to Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Memorable Quotes from Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem.

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Death is the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life.

The ULTIMATE motivational speech ...

Love all the inspirational and motivational posters ... here's a few:

Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.

Inspiration - It doesn't pay the electric bill.

As far as motivational speeches go -- this is the world's greatest.


And, then there's the posters like this one ...

Thank you to JR and to those that didn't make it home ...

JR Martinez taking part in Dancing With The Stars ... dancing his tribute to others that didn't make it back. He has endured so much defending our nation and our freedom...
A beautiful performance done with honor --

Taylor Swift ... yeah, and Ellen :-)

What more can you say except here's Ellen with Taylor Swift ... hilarious!

How 'bout those Dawgs, saving the world again. Go Dawgs!!!

The sky's the limit - University of Washington at it again!

Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle

Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

Photo by AFP

The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.
Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.
Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of many diseases and developing drugs to block them.
But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal potential targets for drugs.
This is where Foldit comes in.
Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.
To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.
Cracking the enzyme "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs," says the study, referring to the lifeline medication against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
It is believed to be the first time that gamers have resolved a long-standing scientific problem.
"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Firas Khatib of the university's biochemistry lab said in a press release. "The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."
One of Foldit's creators, Seth Cooper, explained why gamers had succeeded where computers had failed.
"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," he said.
"Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."

America's got talent ... these dummies prove it!

The world is full of dummies... To some of them - that's not an insult. This one loves to sing as well as some of Terry's other buddies. Terry Fator, one of the finest to ever emerge from "America's Got Talent" -- Here he is guest-starring last night...


Here he is from his own winning season of AGT...






And he is one of the reasons I could be convinced to go to Las Vegas ...


Terry Fator with Shawn from the audience performing Sonny & Cher's "I've Got You Babe"


And performing for MDA Telethon ...


Yes, America ... ventriloquism is alive and well.

God bless our troops and those that are taking care of them ...

The story is about Spc. Channing Moss, who was impaled by a live RPG during an ambush while on patrol. It gives meaning and substance to the term "Band of Brothers". Army protocol says that medivac choppers are never to carry anyone with a live round in him. Even knowing the risks, the flight crew flew him to the nearest aid station. There at the aid station protocol said that in such a case the patient is to be put in a sandbagged area, away from the surgical unit, given a shot of morphine and left to wait until others are treated or until the live round exploded -- whichever came first. Again, the medical team ignored the protocol.
For them, there was only one choice.

Here's a short video put together by the Military Times, which includes actual footage of the surgery where Dr. John Oh removed the live round with the help of volunteers and a member of the EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) team. Thanks to the brave men around him, Spc. Moss did survive that day and has since undergone six operations and is doing well at home in Gainesville, GA.

I think you'll find the video absolutely remarkable. (Warning ... some of the following footage is graphic)

                                                                                  Thanks to Military Times & to Suz