Facts that make you go hmmmm…

In the 1400’s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have ‘the rule of thumb’

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Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was
invented. It was ruled ‘Gentlemen Only…Ladies Forbidden’.. .and thus, the word GOLF entered
into the English language.

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It is impossible to lick your elbow.

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The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.

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The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%.
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

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111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321

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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

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Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter ‘A’?
A. One thousand

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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?
A. All were invented by women.

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Q. What is the only food that doesn’t spoil?
A. Honey

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Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father’s Day

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In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase…’Goodnight , sleep tight’

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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

Links of Interest – 02Jul2010

  1. How Google Search Works (Infographic)
  2. The Boston Globe: Big Picture : Afghanistan June 2010 Yet another incredible news story in photographs – Afghanistan this time.
  3. IBM shifts to Firefox "There’s another reason we want to get as many of our employees using Firefox as soon as possible, and that is Cloud Computing. For the shift to the cloud to be successful, open standards must be used in the infrastructure, in the applications, and in the way people exchange data."
  4. Joel Stein creates a storm with his article on Indians in NJ. And Kal Penn responds to the xenophobia in Huffington Post.

Collaboration – More or The Right Way?

The idealist in me would like to believe that collaboration within organizations is an absolute must. More the better. Or is it?

Morten Hansen questions the above & shares his perspective on The Right Way to Collaborate in this HBR podcast.

Good hear.

My key takeaways from this piece –

More efforts to improve collaboration is not always better. Do not take up initiatives for the sake of collaboration alone. Instead focus on the business goals expected from collaboration.

The collaboration jig saw has multiple pieces – common organizational goals, type of people, people’s collaboration competencies, reward mechanism & structure. You need to get a certain extent of all of them right to leverage collaboration.

Other resources on the topic that might interest you:

Tony Hsieh – Delivering Happiness

With Tony Hsieh’s new book Delivering Happiness hitting the stores today, there is a buzz around about Zappos, Tony & his book. One of the first write-ups I have read about the book is a Fast Company blog post.

The Happiness Culture: Zappos Isn’t a Company — It’s a Mission

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

Some quotes I like from the write-up are as follows:

But today Zappos has an employee culture that seems very much of one mind, focused on customer service and not in some sort of cookie-cutter corporate way. Zappos really cares that you’re happy, and it’s baked into their beliefs, their customer interaction, and even the way they hire.

“It’s not me saying to our employees, this is where our culture is. It’s more about giving employees permission and encouraging them to just be themselves.”

As you read Delivering Happiness, it’s clear that Hsieh is talking about customer happiness, but also employee happiness, and even his happiness. He says the goals of Happiness aren’t mutually exclusive.


“There’s three types of happiness and really happiness is about being able to combine pleasure, passion, and purpose in one’s personal life. I think it’s helpful and useful to actually think about all three in terms of how you can make customers happier, employees happier, and ultimately, investors happier.”