Now that Gaddafi is gone, may Libya find peace and its citizens breath a sigh of relief. May they form a government founded on the principles of freedom, a true republic that will ensure their freedom for generations to come. May the wealth brought by the country's vast national resources be spread among the people to allow them a greater quality of life. May they be the "true democracy" that Gaddafi claimed they were, whilst in reality he knew nothing of the meaning of the word.
A Siberian coal mining region Kemerovo said on its website the footprints and hair of yetis were found on an expedition to the remotest mountains in the region.
"During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the 'Snow Man'," the Kemerovo region administration claimed.
"They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement continued.
Researchers from around the world were invited to discuss evidence of the creature as well as encounters.
Yetis are generally considered to be mythological white upright walking creatures, somewhat like apes, but more intelligent and are thought by those who believe in them to mainly be found in the Himalaya mountain range.
The evidence will be turned into special laboratory, it has been stated.
Some believe Russia's remoter mountain regions hold what they call"Snowmen."
This remote mostly industrial region of Russia has been trying to attract tourism for years. Is this a hoax to get people to visit? Or, even better, is it yet another Vladimir Putin scheme to induce fear and attract attention worldwide?
Alex Jones: “Focus should instead be on the real source of power for the out-of-control bankster class- the private, unaccountable Federal Reserve bank that creates money out of thin air, issues secret loans to insiders and foreign governments and systematically institutes debt on the American people through their undue powers.”
Republican candidate Herman Cain said this,"The proof is quite simply the bankers and the people on Wall Street didn't write these failed policies of the Obama administration. They didn't spend a trillion dollars that didn't work. The administration and the Democrats spent a trillion dollars," Cain said. Citing the president's new jobs bill, Cain added that the "administration is proposing another $450 billion wrapped in different rhetoric. So it's a distraction, so many people won't focus on the failed policies of this administration."
Cain is merely trying to politicize the unrest and claim them for his own, when it is clear for all to see by his statement he really doesn't understand what is going on (that is if he genuinely believes his own statement - in all likelihood he does not).
He also said, "We know that the unions and certain union-related organizations have been behind these protests that have gone on." Is he unaware that the movement has spread to several other countries? All the way to Honk Kong? It's hard to make the claim the unions are behind the protests in other countries. Come on, Herman, what kind of crack are you smoking these days? It must be something good....
Nancy Pelosi says she supports "the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen." I'm sorry, Nancy, but the movement is against you too. You who are at the heart of the establishment. Why are the politicians trying to side with the movement when so clearly it is aimed at them? Because they see that the numbers are growing, the coverage of the event is growing, the movement is growing, its force and power are becoming undeniable.
Those in control of the banks Obama propped up as well as the executives of the car companies Obama backed are the real problem in this country, as is Obama himself. It is un-American for the government to rescue a failed business or several of them, to make them government owned companies. This is not the Soviet Union, this is not China, but I seriously doubt Obama sees any difference between the three.
The movement is also against the wars, which are increasingly expanded and protracted under the Obama administration. They are increasingly violent, killing civilians, women and children, with their drone strikes in countries other than Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya where we have wars the government refuses to acknowledge even though it is blatantly obvious that they exist. Why the need for secrecy about the existence of operations in certain countries? Surely it cannot put the United States at risk merely to say they are occupying a certain country, not to discuss what specifically they are doing there (though some accountability would be nice), but just to say they are there. The only reason to not admit to being in a country is because it is illegal; in defiance of the Geneva Conventions. Classification to conceal criminality.
Lastly, of the protests on Wall Street, Joseph Knippenberg said:
"I have no doubt that God is with the folks near Wall Street, but I doubt they've recognized Him yet."
Bank of America is a deeply troubled bank and it is taking its problems out on the poor. The $5 a month fee on debit cards is an all too obvious clue. Bank of America's problem is it takes its customers for granted, assuming they will always be there. What Bank of America customers need to do now (and what Citibank customers and those who use banks implementing the same ill-judged charges need to do) is withdraw their money and close their accounts, taking their business elsewhere. This will shut these ill-willed corporations down for good and show future banks and corporations that Americans will not tolerate this kind of abuse. Banks used to get this money in other ways, by placing fees on transactions, until Congress made a law reducing these charges (the Durban amendment of the Dodd-Frank Act pushing down what banks can charge merchants for transactions from 44c to 24c). Now they are punishing the public for past abusive practices the government has stopped them from doing.
Bank of America has been calling its customers and telling them they will begin charging $15 a month for having a checking account with them, when the customers refuse saying they will take their money elsewhere, Bank of America says OK, we'll only charge you $9 a month. On a second refusal they agree to keep the charge at $0. Shortly after this embarrassment, the bank decided to roll out the ATM fee. What is the CEO of Bank of America thinking? What are any of the heads of the company thinking coming up with this approach? Clearly, they're not.
Forbes said this:
As we wrote in a previous piece, back in the mid of the subprime crisis, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) committed two strategic mistakes that end up costing the bank dearly: the purchase of Countrywide Financial and the purchase of Merrill Lynch. Last week, the bank committed a third strategic mistake, announcing a $5 monthly fee for its debit cardholders. While this fee is a way for the bank to offset the loss of revenues caused by the Durbin Amendment of Dodd-Frank Act (a reduction in the fee banks can charge merchants from 44 cents to 24 cents per transaction), it may end up hurting the bank in the long run. Rushing to improve its top line, BAC’s leadership commits a common mistake large corporations make: taking the customer for granted, holding the belief that whatever products or services they offer are unique and indispensible, so their customers will always be there. While this theory applied in the old days when corporations were the center of the economic universe and customers had limited options, it doesn’t apply in today’s markets where customers have a variety of options. For example, McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) that have made such a mistake in the past suffered the consequences; their top and bottom lines contracted, as consumers fled to competitors; and their stock headed south. We do believe that the same fate awaits Bank of America, as its customers have a variety of options: First, they can appeal to US Congress to repeal the fee, as the Dodd-Frank regulation wasn’t intended to sting debit card holders with this fee, but to make banks and merchants efficient. Second, they can cut the card and send it back to Bank of America, moving their money elsewhere. Third, with interest rates so low, they can stay away form banks altogether. Forth, they can switch into alternatives—special purpose—debit cards like the ones issued by non-banking institutions. The bottom line: The debit card fee may boost Bank of America’s top line in the short-run, but it may cost dearly in the long-run, as customers will flee to competitors or cut their debit cards altogether.
Citibank started charing $15 a month for people with accounts under $6000. This is a huge punishment to the people who make them what they are. Naturally, everyone with accounts at Citibank need to leave it for the good of the country. With interest rates as low as they currently are people are better off sticking the money in their mattresses.
Perhaps it would be wisest for Americans to make their reliance on Wall Street a thing of the past, for them to get out of the large corporate banking systems they belong to and end this corporate raiding of the little guy (and gal) once and forever. How do you convince the people? Simply by making them aware of it. And bloggers like myself don't have to worry about spreading awareness; the fact that Bank of America is doing something as stupid as a $5 ATM card charge will spread the news quickly enough. We are in a rapidly changing world and those in the top 1% of wealth will not be their for long. They know they need the support of the masses, but appear not to realize how quickly knowledge of their increasingly deceptive ways is spreading like wildfire (the reason the Wall Street protests across the country are stifled by mainstream media? Obviously).
"I don't want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers."
The Onion said: "Jobs will be remembered both for the life-changing products he created and for the fact that he was able to sit down, think clearly, and execute his ideas - attributes he shared with no other U.S. citizen."
Google executive Vic Gundotra related a story about a call from Jobs on the Sunday before the release of the iPhone 4: '"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.
"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"
'When I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.'
Walter Isaacson, Jobs' biographer wrote:
"Because I assumed that he was still in the middle of an oscillating career that had many more ups and downs left, I demurred. Not now, I said. Maybe in a decade or two, when you retire.
"But I later realized that he had called me just before he was going to be operated on for cancer for the first time. As I watched him battle that disease, with an awesome intensity combined with an astonishing emotional romanticism, I came to find him deeply compelling, and I realized how much his personality was ingrained in the products he created. His passions, demons, desires, artistry, devilry and obsession for control were integrally connected to his approach to business, so I decided to try to write his tale as a case study in creativity."
Steve Jobs at a Stanford University speech in 2005:
"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. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."
Emma Barnett:
"Before iTunes, music executives had failed to be convinced about the success of an online music market. But coupled with Apple's hugely-successful iPod - launched just two years earlier - Steve Jobs proved it was a market worth exploring.
"The product was an immediate success selling one million songs in its first week and by December it had sold 25 million songs. In 2010 iTune song downloads hit 10 billion."
Jobs said:
"Death is very likely the single best invention of life"
He also said:
"There's nothing that makes my day more than getting an e-mail from some random person who just bought an iPad over in the UK and tells me the story about how it's the coolest product they've ever brought home in their lives. That's what keeps me going. It's what kept me five years ago [when he was diagnosed with cancer], it's what kept me going 10 years ago when the doors were almost closed. And it's what will keep me going five years from now whatever happens." - AllThingsD Conference, 2010
Conrad Quilty-Harper:
"The abundance of iPhones, iPads and iPods today makes it easy to forget that Apple wasn't always popular. If you owned a Macintosh before 1998, you were either a creative-type with expensive specialist software, a school or a member of the devoted but small 'Cult of Mac'. Before Jobs returned in 1997, the company was in a desperate state.
"In 1996 Michael Dell, Apple's historical rival in the desktop computer space, famously said he would 'shut [Apple] down and give the money back to the shareholders' if he was in charge. Gil Amelio, Apple's CEO for 500 days between 1996 and 1997, was said to have told Jobs that 'Apple is like a ship with a hole in the bottom, leaking water'. And Steve Jobs himself said "the company had a decade in which it took a nap" between his ousting and his return."
Jonathan Moss:
"Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock, put up for adoption at birth, dropped out of college, then changed the world. What's your excuse?"
Alexis Dormancy:
"I met Steve Jobs a couple of times in 2005, to talk about mobile phones. This was two years before the iPhone was launched. At the time it was rumoured it would be within three months. He wouldn’t launch the iPhone until it met his standards. The experience changed the way I look at businesses and leadership.
"What was it about Steve Jobs that meant he managed to transform four industries? The personal computer (Mac), music (iPod), mobile phones (iPhone) and computing as lifestyle (iPad) will never be the same again – and that's before we mention his creation of another $7bn company in Pixar, which has won more than 20 Academy Awards. If he’d achieved just one of those feats, he would be one of the greatest business people of this era. To have achieved all of them is more than just talent and luck – it’s doing things differently."
Jobs, another excerpt from the now famous Stanford speech:
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
Barack Obama:
"Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
"He transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."
Daniel Ek:
"Thank you Steve. You were a true inspiration in so many parts of my life, both personal and professional. My hat off to our time's Da Vinci."
Jobs:
"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful … that's what matters to me."
Bob Iger:
"Steve Jobs was a great friend as well as a trusted advisor. His legacy will extend far beyond the products he created or the businesses he built. It will be the millions of people he inspired, the lives he changed, and the culture he defined. Steve was such an “original,” with a thoroughly creative, imaginative mind that defined an era. Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started. With his passing the world has lost a rare original, Disney has lost a member of our family, and I have lost a great friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Laurene and his children during this difficult time."
Steven Spielberg:
“Steve Jobs was the greatest inventor since Thomas Edison. He put the world at our fingertips.”
RIchard Blackden:
"'Where will we find another one,' Steve Wozniak asked of the man he co-founded Apple with 35 years ago.
"Jobs is among a handful of people who have built companies that both reinvent industries and change the wider world. Here in the US Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are others. Wozniak added that no one could have predicted the success of Apple, which he and Jobs established in a garage in Los Altos, California, at a time of great political and economic uncertainty."
Others have made varied comments:
Andy Arry:
He created the ugliest overpriced elitist status symbols ever created. But to be fair to him, no-one has ever sold the Emperor's new clothes better.
Anonymous:
Rich ill man dies... And rich because he discovered that people are stupid enough to spend huge sums on technology if it looks pretty. iDon't care.
Steve Paul Jobs died, aged 56, on October 5, 2011.
