masterwordsmith-unplugged

Happy Birthday, Roswell, N.M!

It was 65 years ago today that the Roswell Daily Record blasted an infamous headline claiming local military officials had captured a flying saucer on a nearby ranch. And now, a former CIA agent says it really happened.



"It was not a damn weather balloon -- it was what it was billed when people first reported it," said Chase Brandon, a 35-year CIA veteran. "It was a craft that clearly did not come from this planet, it crashed and I don't doubt for a second that the use of the word 'remains' and 'cadavers' was exactly what people were talking about."

Brandon served as an undercover, covert operations officer in the agency's Clandestine Service for 25 years, where he was assigned missions in international terrorism, counterinsurgency, global narcotics trafficking and weapons smuggling. He spent his final 10 years of CIA service on the director's staff as the agency's first official liaison to the entertainment and publication industries. It was during this time, in the mid-1990s, that he walked into a special section of CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., called the Historical Intelligence Collection.

"It was a vaulted area and not everybody could get in it," Brandon told The Huffington Post. "One day, I was looking around in there and reading some of the titles that were mostly hand-scribbled summations of what was in the boxes. And there was one box that really caught my eye. It had one word on it: Roswell.

"I took the box down, lifted the lid up, rummaged around inside it, put the box back on the shelf and said, 'My god, it really happened!'"

What exactly did the box contain that had such a powerful impact on Brandon?

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS INTERESTING ARTICLE THAT HAS MORE THAN 3903 COMMENTS!

Thomas H. Maugh II, who has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from MIT and a doctorate from UCSB, was a science and medical reporter at the L.A. Times for 27 years.

A few days ago, Los Angeles Times carried a very interesting article written by him about how "an international team of archaeologists have discovered that two mummies found on an island off the coast of Scotland are, like Dr. Frankenstein's monster, composed of body parts from several different humans. The mummified remains, as much as 3,500 years old, suggest that the first residents of the island of South Uist in the Hebrides had some previously unsuspected burial practices."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Did you know that seven people walked past snatch theft victim Tan Kim Chuan, 60, without lifting a finger to help her as she lay unconscious on the road with a cracked skull at the Rifle Range flats in Penang?

According to The Star, CCTV footage showed her lying on the road for about seven minutes (see sequence of events HERE).

Nine hours later, Kim Chuan, who fell and knocked her head on the road in the 6.02am incident on two days ago (Tuesday) succumbed to her injuries at the Penang Hospital.

The victim was a widow who had just moved into the Rifle Range flats two weeks ago. She was walking alone near Block J of the flats when her handbag was snatched by a motorcyclist.

At about 6.10am, three good Samaritans (including airport cargo worker B. Saravana Kumar, 37, and fellow flat resident, Khoo Ean Ooi, 57) lifted her to the side of the road and called for an ambulance.

Another Rifle Range resident who only wanted to be known as Beh, 77, who was captured on the CCTV footage walking away from the victim, said he had intended to help, but was too frail. (Click here for the report on the good Samaritans)

This incident, which echoes the Parable of the Good Samaritan is but one example of how many in modern society have forgotten how to care, to love and to help others.

A similar event happened to the mother of one of my former students, C.C.S., Regional Manager of a Foundation in another Asian city. She was walking along Leandros Lane in front of Bellisa View when two motor-cyclists came close to hear and tried to snatch her handbag. As she had her American passport with her, she struggled and hung on to her bag. Tragically, the pillion rider took off his helmet and smashed her head with it a few times. She fell to the ground and hit her head and was bleeding badly. Passers-by rushed her to the hospital where she passed away a few hours later without regaining consciousness. A tragic death, C.C.S. never got to see his mom who never got the chance to attend his graduation. :-(

What has happened to Malaysian society? Why are many lacking in compassion and in sympathy for the less fortunate or those in need? Do we have the desire to develop civic consciousness and to help? What good is it if we enjoy material success and have forgotten how to feel, to care and to help those in need? We would be worse than animals.

When there is an accident, people usually surround the victims because:

• they want to note the number plate of the vehicles involved in the accident so that they can buy those numbers at the four-digit centres
• they are touts working for tow-truck companies
• some unscruplous ones try to steal stuff from the victims...my friend's daughter who had a very bad accident lost her phone, handbag and even her designer shoes!!!!

The focus on self seems to surpass the collective good of society and this can be seen in:

• the way many (especially Penangites) park their car haphazardly in no-parking zones
• how some honk and/or weave their way through traffic just so they can reach their destination in time
• how many cut queue when trying to board the plane, especially for Air Asia flights
• how some declare their political apathy or unwillingness to vote just because they do not think their votes can make any difference
• the way some practise double standards when they persist in law-breaking behavious
• how littering is still a problem 
• how some rather do good to themselves than to others in a show of selfishness
• how many just do not care about others and are reluctant to lift a finger to help, even neighbours, friends or relatives, let alone strangers
• how many also forget the value of friendship and the way some have helped them along the way
• etc etc

The desire to reach out, touch lives, help others or even an attitude or gratitude is sorely missing in our society today.

Granted that conflicts exist which disturb all of thinking Malaysians. It is common knowledge that many inequalities exist and distribution of resources is fairly inequitable. All that is disturbing but more importantly, in our bid to progress in society, to be a winner in the rat race, the element of being human is startlingly MISSING.

Poor leadership, weak political will and the lack or even absence of towering Malaysians, exemplary behaviour or demonstrations of civic consciousness and the lack of civic consciousness and civic awakening are all missing or deficient. Even at public events, how many actually reach out to welcome others to such public meetings? I have attended so many and notice that many group in their cliques without engaging other newcomers or those who do not belong to any clique. Instead of being a self-serving community, we must really be more caring towards one another.

With little caring for our fellowmen, even with good leadership, plans may not be able to take off.

What we see is the disintegration of society where we become alienated from one another and maybe even ourselves and then dwell in the cold comfort of delusion.


Many years ago, one of my A-level students was absent for a few lessons. I asked the students about him and none new. Then I asked if any of them had his telephone number and some had. So I told them that if they had his number, they should call him. What if he was terminally ill or had died? The class went silent. One of them called him after the lesson and we were shocked to learn that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer and had had an operation to take out a section of his liver (about 10x2cm). Months later, the cancer re-surfaced and had penetrated the bones and lungs. A brave man, he advised us and his family not to be saddened by the turn of events and even gave instructions for his last rites. As requested, he was wearing his favourite MU football jersey on his final journey. We really wept at the wake service and the funeral.

It hurts to care. It is even worse to care too much. Even though I have been hurt/disappointed many times, that does not stop me from caring, loving or helping people. Those episodes have certainly taught me to be wiser in my association with people. Having said that, despite the cold and cruel world we live in,  I will always reach out to genuine ones in need and to others - with lots of discretion and wisdom.

I came across this article this morning in Twitter and am sharing it because it is well-written and most engaging for net addicts :-).

Newsweek's cover story this week posits that "new research says the Internet can make us lonely and depressed--and may even create more extreme forms of mental illness." We found an Internet addict to tell us all about his affliction.

One night in early July, Alexis Madrigal woke from a troubled night of sleep. His cat had been attacking his feet under the covers and he had to get up early the next morning for a conference call. He was worried and anxious. Looking for a hit of dopamine, Madrigal reached next to his bed and grabbed his omnipresent iPhone. Pulling the phone close to his eyes, right next to his frontal cortex, he peered through the darkness at his screen, his fingers nearly autonomously finding the little icon for Twitter, which had come to represent his social world.

There they were: his drug of choice, the friendly avatars of his life. Flicking backwards and forwards in time and jumping all over the globe almost as if he were on LSD, he favorited articles to read the next morning and soon, he was calm and tired and went back to sleep.

But imagine him lying there in the dark, face illuminated by a screen, scanning his Twitter feed for something to soothe his nerves, which connected to his brain, which had been rewired by a life on the Internet.

CLICK HERE for the rest of this entry.

When life brings us lemons, words of encouragement make such a difference. Fret not, fear not but be calm and composed for surely a new beginning will dawn soon enough. May this list of inspiring quotes help to dilute the sourness till it disappears. Have a wonderful day!

______________________

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
Henry Ford

“One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.”
Col. Harland Sanders

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe

“A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure.”
Unknown

“I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.”
James Cash Penney

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.”
Unknown

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain

“Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”
Henry Van Dyke

“Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.”
Dr. Robert Anthony

“Extraordinary struggles bring an extraordinary purpose for those who wait.”
Brianna Gazvoda

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
Henry David Thoreau

“Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll.”
Unknown

“Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.”
Sicilian Proverb

“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.”
Ivy Baker Priest

“It doesn’t matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s your first attempt at it.”
Wally Amos

“If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”
Mary Pickford

“He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.”
William James

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
Alexander Graham Bell

“Instead of giving myself reasons why I can’t, I give myself reasons why I can.”
Unknown