Sunday 3 April 2016

MONDAY 4th APRIL 2016 07:53 BST

Read my book - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 

Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 
WISDOM, HUMOUR, AND LOTS OF OTHER INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON MY PINTEREST PAGE and FACEBOOK PAGE
TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

4th April 1949: 
The North Atlantic Treaty
This treaty was signed by 12 countries who agreed to form a mutual defence organization called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the basic premise of which was that if one signatory was attacked, the rest would consider it an attack against them all and would come to that country's aid.

The founding twelve nations were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. A further 16 have subsequently joined.

NATO was set up to counter the military threat of the Soviet Union. As such it was an extremely successful deterrent, and no NATO country ever needed to invoke the treaty against the Soviets. 

NATO as an organization performed no hostile military action until 1990 when it made the first of a series of interventions in smaller conflicts, beginning with countering the Iraqi conquest of Kuwait. Subsequent interventions took place in the Bosnian War and the Kosovan War of Independence. 

The treaty was invoked for the first time by the United States after the 9/11 attacks of 2001 against the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the White House, by terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. This led to intervention in Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda was successfully expelled, but NATO failed to destroy its local allies the Taliban, though it did remove them from political power. 

In recent times NATO has found itself in a three-cornered conflict of interest between themselves, post-Soviet Russia and disparate Islamist terrorist groups, the most powerful of which is Islamic State.

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Housework
Lunch
Client prep, sessions and follow up
Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,116 (up 4)
Never-followed unfollowers eliminated = 1

untraced
Followed unfollowers eliminated = 0
-
New Followers followed back = 2
@deniseleeyohn, @nerdw0rld
Spammers not followed back = 3
@gmnykfan97, @MRrousyboyvlh, @rVdreaux88rm, 

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION
The start of a busy-in-a-good-way week! Such times are beautifully simple - you know what you're doing and why you're doing it, so you just get on with it, doing your best within the constraints of time and resources. I'm making a difference, getting recognition for it, and the ever-present threats are out beyond the boundaries of everyday experience. For this period of time I am profoundly grateful.

Such a gainfully busy life has the benefit of keeping the mind wonderfully uncluttered. That doesn't however mean it maintains itself! Alotting it adequate maintenance time (that means shutting it down!) and keeping focus in healthy places are crucial to prevent self-sabotage.

Recognizing my vulnerabilities and ephemeral existence as this avatar, yet with a baseline emotion of profound gratitude, I am at this point thoroughly enjoying the movie.

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
Do you know who you are, why you're here, what you're doing and why you're doing it?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD

















Moon





Weathertrack














Air Pressure
1000 millibars and static

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
Common sense is actually so rare it should be classified as a superpower  :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
The Two Ronnies: The Crossed Lines Sketch

8. TRIVIA
Facebook Messager has an "Easter Egg" (a hidden program launched by an unlikely sequence of steps) consisting of a video basketball game.

9. ZEN WISDOM
By helping other people become happy, we too become happy. How can those suffering in the depths of hell, who have lost the will to live, get back on their feet? Merely thinking about our own problems often causes us to fall even deeper into despair. But, by offering a hand to someone who is also suffering, we ourselves regain the will to live. Taking action out of concern for others enables us to heal our own lives.

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