Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Tells Stories: Omnipresence or The Parable of Ganesh and the Divine Mother

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886,) the eminent Hindu mystic of 19th-century India, used stories and parables to portray the core elements of his philosophy. The meaning of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s stories and parables are usually not explicitly stated. The meanings are not intended to be mysterious or confidential but are, in contrast, quite uncomplicated and obvious.

In the Hindu and other traditions of the major religions of the world, parables form the language of the wise for enlightening the simple, just as well as they form the language of the simple for enlightening the wise.

Once Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was asked why he did not lead the life of a householder with his wife. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is supposed to have related the following story.

The Parable of Ganesh and the Divine Mother

One day, Lord Ganesh (son of Lord Shiva) happened to scratch a cat with his nail.

Upon returning home, Lord Ganesh observed that there was a mark of a scratch on the cheek of his divine mother, Goddess Parvati. Seeing this Lord Ganesh asked her, “Mother, how did you get this ugly scar on your cheek?”

Goddess Parvati, regarded in Hindu mythology as the Mother of the universe, replied, “This is the work of your hand; it is the scratch of your nail, Ganesh.”

Lord Ganesh asked in wonder, “How is it, Mother? I do not remember to have scratched you at any time.”

The Mother replied, “Darling, have you forgotten the fact of your having scratched a cat, this morning?”

Lord Ganesh said “Yes, I did scratch a cat, but how did your cheek get the scar?”

The Mother replied, “Dear child, nothing exists in this world but me. The whole creation is I; whomsoever you may hurt you only hurt me.”

Lord Ganesh was greatly surprised to hear this and then he determined never to marry. For, whom could he marry? Every woman was mother to him. Realizing thus the motherhood of woman, he gave up marriage.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa concluded, “I am like Lord Ganesh. I consider every woman as my Divine Mother.”

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once said, “A devotee who can call on God while living a householder’s life is a hero indeed. God thinks: ‘He is blessed indeed who prays to me in the midst of his worldly duties. He is trying to find me, overcoming a great obstacle — pushing away, as it were, a huge block of stone weighing a ton. Such a man is a real hero.'”

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The Very Best of GS Elevator Gossip’s Tweets

Goldman Sachs Logo If you think twitter is just a waste of time, think again. One could argue that twitter is first and foremost just noise and clutter—merely, one more time drain. Twitter can actually be good for something beyond revealing, in less than 140 characters, your whereabouts, posting unintelligent commentary, or which of your friends needs to get out more.

Consider @GSElevator, GS Elevator Gossip, a twitter account. Obscuring the thin line between the hysterically preposterous and extremely realistic, this twitter claims to dish the dirt on the happenings in the elevators at Goldman Sachs’s offices. “The first few were either conversations that I have overheard directly, or that have been told to me by colleagues,” he claims in this interview with NYT’s Deal Book column.

Here’s a sampling of some of the very best of GS Elevator Gossip’s tweets:

  • The most and least successful people all share the same trait: thinking they’re never wrong.
  • Don’t worry, some people are their own punishment in life.
  • #1: A lot of people who start their own business do it because they’re unemployable.
    #2: Yup. Look at Meredith Whitney.
  • Most people don’t understand that God cast them as extras in this movie.
  • You’ll never feel special if 100% of your friends are in the top 1%.
  • Handshakes and tie knots. I don’t have time for someone who can’t master those basic skills.
  • Relationships are like a seesaw. If one of you gets too bored or too fat, the fun is over.
  • The difference between us and everybody else is that, even in a bad year, we still make the playoffs.
  • Listening is part waiting for your turn to speak and part reminding yourself to change facial expressions every 10 seconds.
  • Only idiots get bored when we’ve all got handheld devices containing infinite knowledge at our fingertips.
  • Before people are allowed to opine about Syria, they should have to locate it on a map.
  • Too many people are smart enough to be angry, but not smart enough to be successful.
  • 'What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness ' by Stanley Bing (ISBN 0066620104) Let’s be honest. There’s no way your guess is as good as mine.
  • Don’t apologize for being late with a Starbucks latte in your hand.
  • Most celebrities barely have high school diplomas so who gives a shit what they think on substantive issues.
  • And sometimes, people who don’t say much, don’t say much for a reason.
  • It’s okay to trade the possibility of your 80s and 90s for more guaranteed fun in your 20s and 30s.
  • 98% of people making comments about Nelson Mandela on social media would fail a history quiz on Nelson Mandela.
  • I never said I was better than anyone, just more successful.
  • When I hear, “Got a minute?” I know I’m about to lose a half hour of my life that I can never get back.
  • I never give money to homeless people. I can’t reward failure in good conscience.
  • I don’t even remember how I managed to ignore my wife at dinner before the Blackberry era.
  • Checking your phone after someone else pulls out their phone is the yawn of our generation.
  • Date women outside your social set. You’ll be surprised.
  • In life, as in sports, the boos always come from the cheap seats.
  • 'The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions' by Scott Adams (ISBN 0887308589) It’s not the lie that bothers me. It’s the insult to my intelligence that I find offensive.
  • Do 50 push-ups, sit-ups, and dips before you shower each morning.
  • Some of the best moments in life are the ones you can’t tell anyone about.
  • Being spotted in economy class must be like having your parents visit you at boarding school in a shitty rental car.
  • Pretty women who are unaccompanied want you to talk to them.
  • For people who believe everything happens for a reason, that reason is that they’re idiots who make shitty decisions.
  • Act like you’ve been there before. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the end zone at the Super Bowl or on a private plane.
  • You shouldn’t retire until your money starts making more money than you made in your best year.
  • Money might not buy happiness, but I’ll take my chances!
  • I start every cell conversation with “my phone’s about to die” so they don’t waste my time.
  • I doubt alcohol kills more people than it creates.
  • There are only 2 paths to happiness in life. Stupidity or exceptional wealth.
  • If life’s a game, money is how you keep score.
  • 'Crazy Bosses' by Stanley Bing (ISBN 0060731575) Clearly the NSA doesn’t monitor Facebook. That’s where all the experts are solving this Government standoff.
  • Black Friday is the Special Olympics of Capitalism.
  • People who always fly business class don’t post photos of themselves flying business class.
  • Skirt #1: I can always tell a banker within the first 2 minutes of meeting him in a bar… because he tells me.
  • Feminists are just ugly underachievers who need an excuse for their failures.
  • It’s too bad stupidity isn’t painful.
  • Flowers and an apology are a lot easier than actually changing.
  • If she expects the person you are 20% of the time, 100% of the time, then she doesn’t want you.
  • There are no feminists when the ship hits an iceberg.
  • You can never awaken a man who Is pretending to be asleep.
  • Bribery, corruption… It’s the cost of doing business in emerging markets. As Mao said, “no fish can live in pure water.”
  • Stop talking about where you went to college.
  • I don’t care if any one comes to my funeral. It’s not like I’ll be there.
  • '21 Dirty Tricks at Work: How to Beat the Game of Office Politics' by Mike Phipps, Colin Gautrey (ISBN 1841126578) Too many people still answer the phone like they don’t know who’s calling.
  • If you abstain from smoking, drinking, and using drugs, you don’t actually live longer. It just seems longer.
  • #1: “The only reason I have a home phone is so I can find my cell phone.”
    #2: “Our maid does that.”
  • If you brag about starting at the bottom and making it to the top, you are probably still closer to the bottom.
  • The fact that most people are too stupid to know how dumb they really are is the fabric holding our society together.
  • The difference between petting and hitting a dog is it’s tolerance for pain. Same goes for 1st year analysts.
  • The Cheesecake Factory looks like a restaurant poor people think rich people might eat at.
  • I’d rather be me now, than have been the quarterback in high school.
  • If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it tried to do better, but decided to just settle with you.
  • Don’t confuse friends, work friends, and friends of convenience.
  • Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
  • Getting an idea around is as important as getting an idea.
  • If riding the bus doesn’t incentivize you to improve your station in life, nothing will.
  • 'Throwing the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up' by Stanley Bing (ISBN 0060934220) The lottery is just a way of taxing poor people who don’t know math.
  • In sensitivity training, they say we should avoid sports analogies bc they’re sexist… Which seems even more sexist.
  • It’s sweet how my wife thinks the silent treatment is a punishment for me.
  • Getting rich isn’t hard. Any hot girl with questionable morals can do it.
  • Work hard. Eat right. Exercise. Don’t drink too much. And only buy what you can afford. It’s not rocket science.
  • Guys who mime golf swings in the office never break 100 on the course.
  • One of the biggest problems with todays society is that we’ve run out of colonies to send our undesirables to.
  • I wish I loved anything as much as I hate almost everything.
  • Truly intelligent people don’t feel compelled to talk about their IQ. In fact, I don’t even know what mine is.
  • #1: “A year from now, he’ll be the guy that starts off every sentence with “When I was at Goldman Sachs …””
    #2: “I hate those people.”
  • “Just be yourself” is good advice to probably 5% of people.
  • Blacking out is just your brain clearing it’s browser history.
  • If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.
  • Remember, “rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.”
  • 'How to Lie with Statistics' by Darrell Huff (ISBN 0393310728) Skirt #1: “It really hurts my feelings when an ugly guy hits on me.”
  • When you tell a story, all I can think about is how much shorter it should be.
  • Right now is the oldest you’ve ever been & the youngest you’ll ever be again.
  • If you can only be good at one thing, be good at lying… because if you’re good at lying, you’re good at everything.
  • Most people wouldn’t even be the main character in a movie about their own lives.
  • My favorite part of dinner with my fiance is when she goes to the bathroom and I can check my Blackberry.
  • I say “keep the change” purely for my own convenience.

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Recipe: Make Basmati Rice the Traditional Way

Traditional Basmati Rice Recipe

Arguably the most famous rice in the world, basmati rice is a variety of long grain rice renowned for its fragrance and delicate flavor. In Hindi, basmati literally means “queen of fragrance.” Characteristically, the grains of basmati rice are longer than usual forms of rice. The grains grow longer as they cook. They aren’t sticky and remain firm and separate.

The lyohe fertile plains in the Indian subcontinent have cultivated basmati rice since the dawn of civilization. The best basmati rice grows in the foothills of the Himalaya range of mountains in Northern India, where the rice crops are fed by the mineral-rich rivers sourced in the melting snow of the Himalaya mountains. The best of basmati rice, traditionally aged for several years before it is milled and sold, consists of lower moisture content and therefore rice cooks better.

Basmati Rice Recipe: Traditional Method

  1. Clean the rice. Soak it in water for five to seven minutes. Never soak Basmati for too long since the grains are softer than most varieties of rice and over soaking makes it soggy when you cook.
  2. Boil water first and then add the rice to it.
  3. Cook till the grains get tender. This generally does not take much time. You have to check repeatedly to make sure that the rice is not overcooked. Now, since I cook rice such that there is water to be drained, I have a specific measurement for water. But generally I pour enough to ensure that the rice is completely soaked and if the water gets less due to evaporation, I add some more so that it does not get sticky or dry.
  4. Drain the extra water. You can do this by letting the rice settle first at the bottom of the container and then drain as much water as you can on the top. There will be some water still remaining. Cover the container with a dish of the same size as the rim of the container and gradually pour out the rest of the water. Now, with the mouth covered with the dish/lid invert the container completely and let it rest on the kitchen slab near the sink for a while so that most of the water drains out and flows into the sink. (you don’t want a mess right! Also remember to be careful while draining the water. Hold the dish/lid with a cloth so that you don’t burn yourself.
  5. To ensure that the grains are completely separated add some cold (room temperature) water into the rice again and repeat step 4. I have found that this really helps and separates the grain.

I always cook rice by draining the extra water and thus the starch.

Love of Parents and Love of God: Sense of Security

Love of Parents and Love of God Sense of Security

The sense of security is an indispensable need for emotional health. We need to feel secure on several practical dimensions: financial, physical, social, interpersonal, & emotional. We also need to feel secure at a much deeper level—this is called existential insecurity.

The question to ponder is, what is it that can make a person feel secure and protected in the world? Our parents have often been held responsible for developing it in us. The love of a father and a mother creates in the child the feeling of being wanted, filling the child’s world with warmth and loving kindness. In this manner is engendered the sense of security which we all need for a happy response to the rigorous demands of everyday living.

There is no uncertainty that parental love will add to the child’s feeling of security in the world, particularly for the very young child. Yet parental love is an inadequate anchor for emotional security. For our parents are worldly and mortal, and we are bound to lose them. And even while we have them, they do not always offer us enough anchorage in life, for as we grow in emotional and worldly perception, we comprehend that our parents are but finite creatures. We are limited in the resources of wisdom and strength with which to support our own lives. We need another love to bolster parental love if we are to have durable sources of security for living.

The love which time cannot undermine, and which is available to under-gird us in our need for feeling at home in the world, is the love of God. The Holy Quran (2:165) says, “Yet there are men who take (for worship) others besides God, as equal (with God): They love them as they should love God. But those of Faith are overflowing in their love for God.”

One who recognizes God’s love is psychologically prepared for the arduous business of living. For His sense of security is based on unwavering foundations. The Holy Bible says, “The steadfast love of God endures all the day” (Psalm 52:1.)

During what periods of your life have you felt secure and insecure? How have you learned to live with a certain degree of existential insecurity?

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Tells Stories: Thagya and Vairagya or the Parable of Akbar and the Fakir

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886,) the eminent Hindu mystic of 19th-century India, used stories and parables to portray the core elements of his philosophy. The meaning of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s stories and parables are usually not explicitly stated. The meanings are not intended to be mysterious or confidential but are, in contrast, quite uncomplicated and obvious.

In the Hindu and other traditions of the major religions of the world, parables form the language of the wise for enlightening the simple, just as well as they form the language of the simple for enlightening the wise.

The Parable of Akbar and the Fakir

During the reign of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, there lived a Fakir (a Muslim ascetic) in a particular forest near Delhi. Many used to resort to the cottage of this holy man. However, he had nothing to show hospitality to these visitors. He was in need of some money for this purpose and went for help to Akbar Shah, who was well known for his kindness towards holy men.

Akbar Shah was then saying his prayers and the Fakir took his seat in the prayer room. In the course of his prayers, the Fakir heard Akbar ask, “O Lord, do Thou grant me more wealth, more power, more territories!”

At once the Fakir rose and was about to depart from the waiting room when the Emperor beckoned him to be seated again.

At the end of the prayer, Akbar asked the Fakir, “Sir, you came to see me. How is it then that you wanted to depart without saying anything to me?”

The Fakir said, “The purpose of my visit to your Majesty, I need not concern you with that.”

When Akbar repetitively pressed him to say what he wanted, the Fakir at last said, “Your Majesty, many people come to me to be taught, but for want of money I am unable to see to their comforts. So I thought it well to come to your Majesty for help.”

Akbar then asked why he was about to go away without having told him the purpose of his visit.

The Fakir replied, “Why should I go begging to a person who is himself a beggar? I had better beg of the Lord Himself, if indeed it is not possible for me to do without begging altogether.”

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay and initiated a religious school of thought that guided the formation of the Ramakrishna Order of monks that transformed into the Ramakrishna Mission under the leadership of his principle disciple Swami Vivekananda. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa initially attracted several monastic and household disciples as a priest at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once said, “To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward or fear of any punishment in this world or the next. Work so done is a means to the end, and God is the end.”

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The Graceful Sharklet of Airbus A350 XWB

Sharklet of Airbus A350 XWB

The “sharklets,” the signature blended winglets, on the new Airbus A350-XWB sweep 5.20m from its leading-edge attachment to its rear tip and give the aircraft a total wingspan of 64.8m (212ft).

Customarily, wingtip devices are arrow-shaped surfaces attached to the tip of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. They improve the overall efficiency of aircraft by reducing aerodynamic drag through partial recovery of the tip vortex energy. This results in saving fuel, lowering noise emissions, and improving take-off performance. Wingtip devices also enhance aircraft handling characteristics and improve safety for aircraft following the aircrafts with wingtip devices.

Airbus A350 Sharklets reduce aerodynamic drag

Blended winglets are special types of wingtip devices that are attached to the wing with smooth curve instead of a sharp angle. Blended winglets aim to reduce interference drag at the seams between the wings and the winglets.

Airbus pioneered the use of wingtip devices beginning with the Airbus A300 and Airbus A310 jetliner programs. Both the Airbus A300 and the Airbus A310 aircraft were fitted with wingtip fences that helped trim down the effects of the aerodynamic drag created by the spiral-shaped vortices at the wingtips of any aircraft during flight.

Airbus A350 Sharklets Blended winglets

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Sam Walton and Frugality at Wal-Mart

Sam Walton Homespun Frugality

Sam Walton, the iconic founder of Wal-Mart, loved retailing and pursued it with boundless energy. He was famously frugal and devoted to the concept of beating merchandise prices down as part of the trademark “everyday lower prices” promise to customers. Walton once wrote, “A lot of what goes on these days with high-flying companies and these overpaid CEOs, who’re really just looting from the top and aren’t watching out for anybody but themselves, really upsets me. It’s one of the main things wrong with American business today.”

Despite being America’s richest man, Sam Walton flew first class only once in his life on a flight from South America to Africa. Wal-Mart did not have a corporate jet until the retailing giant was approaching $40 billion in sales. Walton’s “corporate car” consisted of a red pick-up truck. Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, once recalled having lunch with Sam Walton, “I hopped into Sam’s red pick-up truck. No air-conditioning. Seats stained by coffee. And by the time I go to the restaurant, my shirt was soaked through and through. And that was Sam Walton—no airs, no pomposity.”

Wal-Mart's Small-town Roots

Under the leadership of Sam Walton, Wal-Mart stuck to its small-town roots. “Every time Wal-Mart spends one dollar foolishly, it comes out of our customers’ pockets,” Walton preached wherever he went. Some particulars on how Sam Walton’s homespun frugality is still ingrained in Wal-Mart’s culture:

  • As part of corporate policy, Wal-Mart employees are required to be thrifty as well. They were required to sleep two to a room in properties of Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn, Days Inn, and other economy hotel brands. They are encouraged to eat in family restaurants.
  • At a 2007 convention of 250 CEOs of suppliers, Wal-Mart’s third CEO Lee Scott famously raised a pen he had picked up from the Embassy Suites hosting the conference. He declared that Wal-Mart asked its business travelers to bring pens and notepads from their hotel rooms (yes, with the hotels’ logos) back to their offices and use them as office supplies. With thousands of business trips, the Wal-Mart home office in Bentonville probably accumulated thousands of dozens of pens.
  • On business or purchasing trips to New York City, Wal-Mart employees would avoid taking cabs, and instead walk or take subway wherever possible.

Such corporate-instilled policies to drive frugality across the Wal-Mart organization were more about instilling in its employees the miserly, no-waste, keep-costs-down attitude than about saving, for instance, $10,000 or more on the cost of office pens every year. Wal-Mart aimed to limit purchasing overhead expenses to 1 percent of their purchases.

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Best Budget Binoculars Your Money can Buy

Best Budget Binoculars Your Money can Buy

What to Look for in Binoculars: the Essential Features and Guidelines

Whether you are considering buying a pair of binoculars for casual use during a cruise or upcoming travel or for more serious uses in bird gazing or stargazing, here are the essential features to consider when buying a pair of binoculars.

  • Magnification and objective lens. The optics of binoculars are designated using two numbers, for e.g., 10×50. 10×50 means that a binocular offers 10 times magnification—distant objects appear ten times larger than they would without the binocular.—and consists of a 50mm objective lenses. For general use during casual travels, cruises, bird-watching, and nature observations, something in the range of 8×32, 8×42, 10×42 would be more than sufficient. For sporting events, 10×50, 12×50, 10×42, 8×32 are recommended. Astronomy users need better magnification and a wider field of view and might find 7×50, 10×50, 15×70, 20×90 configurations helpful.
  • Ease on the eyes, especially if you wear glasses. Good quality binoculars offer a comfortable eye relief. Eye relief measures the allowable maximum distance between your eye and the eyepiece before the field of view starts to diminish. Greater the eye relief, smaller the image (think of a tunnel) through the eye piece. This can affect you if you wear glasses: you must hold the binoculars a little farther away from your eyes than somebody who doesn’t wear glasses. Buy binoculars with eye relief of 14mm or more.
  • Light-weight, compact in size and the ability to fold and store.
  • Water-resistant or waterproof design can be handy features for use during damp or humid conditions.
  • Image stabilization technology to diminish the effects of shakes and vibrations caused by hand motion.

Note that good eye relief, waterproof designs and image stabilization technologies will be absent in budget binoculars.

Budget Binoculars that Offer Value for Money

Below are my top picks for binoculars that are inexpensive and yet offer great optics and range for the average user. Most of these binoculars feature built-in diopter adjustments which can help you adjust for differences in your vision from one eye to the other. Many of the mid-range consist of an antireflective coating to reduce glare and maintain optimal image quality.

Personally, I carry Bushnell Falcon 10 X 50mm binoculars on my travels and presented a Bushnell Powerview 10 X 25mm Compact Folding binoculars for my mother.

  • Tasco Essentials Binoculars: 10 X 25mm starting $9 Tasco Essentials Binoculars (10 X 25mm, Start at $9) feature fold-down eyecups for use with eyeglasses and come with black rubber armoring. These are perfect for use during casual travels where carrying normal-sized and heavy binoculars might become very cumbersome and for use indoors. Users of the Tasco Essentials binoculars tend to be especially like the clear vision that can zoom on a bird’s from as far as 150 yards.
  • Bushnell Powerview Compact Folding Roof Prism Binoculars: 10 X 25mm starting $12 Bushnell Powerview Compact Folding Roof Prism Binoculars (10 X 25mm, Start at $12) are an excellent value. They are small and light and consist of extraordinarily sharp optics compared to the other low-end binoculars in its price range. The compact size of its design comes with a drawback though: to compensate for the short eye relief distance, users will have to roll down the eye cup. And for users who wear glasses, this can diminish the field of view. Great choice for children who tend to lose or break them more frequently than adults do.
  • Coleman Binoculars: 10 X 25mm starting $19 Coleman Binoculars (10 X 25mm, Start at $19) are well-made, compact in shape, and come with a belt-attachable carry case. When collapsed and fit in their case, they are just 2in X 3 in X 5 in. One drawback is that the Coleman consists of almost no eye relief. Therefore, expect long eyelashes to interfere with your view.
  • Tasco Essentials Zip Focus Binoculars: 10 X 50mm starting $33 Tasco Essentials Zip Focus Binoculars (10 X 50mm, Start at $33) promises the most superior optics among binoculars that cost less than $100. They are lightweight, easy to hold, and offer first-rate optics. Those who use this model for stargazing can gaze at constellations with sharp optics and no reflection of any kind inside, even with urban lights outside. Birdwatchers will be amazed at the clarity and sharpness of the lens.
  • Bushnell Falcon Wide Angle Binoculars: 10 X 50mm starting $34 Bushnell Falcon Wide Angle Binoculars (10 X 50mm, Start at $34) are specially useful for people who have trouble focusing & adjusting binoculars, even to view objects that are 25 yards away. The lens caps on the eye pieces seem floppy and drop easily. The tilt focus (in addition to the knobs) can let an user change the focus without having to run a finger along a knob, shaking the view as it focuses. The quality of the strap and a bag are inadequate, but the binoculars are an excellent value for money.
  • Olympus Roamer DPC: 10 X 21mm starting $42 Olympus Roamer DPC (10 X 21mm, Start at $42) appeals to backpackers with their 6-ounce weight and compact size. Olympus Roamer DPC’s satisfactory optics is a great buy for value seekers who need binoculars for sporting events, opera shows and other short-medium range close-up viewing. Olympus claims that the special optical material used for the lenses can protect the eyes from harmful UV rays.
  • Bushnell PermaFocus Wide Angle Porro Prism Binoculars: 7 X 50mm starting $49 Bushnell PermaFocus Wide Angle Porro Prism Binoculars (7 X 50mm, Start at $49) brag about a wide field of view consisting of 578 feet from 1,000 yards away. The most appealing feature is the Permafocus that can zero in on anything more than 50 feet away without requiring any adjustment. This feature can be especially handy for keeping an eye on sports action or an animal on the move. However, this model is heavier than the others in its price range.
  • Nikon 7218 Action Binoculars: 10 X 50mm starting $207 Nikon 7218 Action Binoculars (10 X 50mm, Start at $207) are perhaps the best binoculars that money can buy for an amateur user and a low-end for people seriously interested in bird-watching, star-gazing, and other recreational activities. Nikon’s aspheric technology offers a the particularly bright and sharp image. It’s wide angle design, a field of view of 446 feet at 1000 yards and a 12 foot-close focus range makes it an ideal medium-powered binoculars for back yard astronomy.

Warren Buffett’s Opening Statement at Salomon Brothers Testimony

In 1991, Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers was embroiled in a bond-rigging scandal. U.S. Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Mike Basham ascertained that, between December 1990 and May 1991, Salomon Brothers’ trader Paul Mozer had dishonestly been submitting false bids to purchase more Treasury bonds than a limit imposed per buyer. Salomon was fined $290 million for this breach of rules.

Warren Buffett was the largest investor in Salomon Brothers during the days of this Salomon scandal. Warren Buffett took the helm as chairman and chief executive of the embattled company for an annual salary of $1.

Here is Warren Buffett’s opening statement before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives:

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee. I would like to start by apologizing for the acts that have brought us here. The nation has a right to expect its rules and laws to be obeyed. And at Salomon, certain of these were broken. Almost all of Salomon’s 8,000 employees regret this as deeply as I do. And I apologize on their behalf as well as mine.

My job is to deal with both the past and the future. The past actions of Salomon are presently causing our 8,000 employees and their families to bear a stain. Virtually all of these employees are hardworking, able and honest. I want to find out exactly what happened in the past so that this stain is borne by the guilty few and removed from the innocent. To help do this, I promise to you, Mr. Chairman, and to the American people, Salomon’s wholehearted cooperation with all authorities. These authorities have the power of subpoena, the ability to immunize witnesses, and the power to prosecute for perjury. Our internal investigation has not had these tools. We welcome their use.

As to the future, the submission to this subcommittee details actions that I believe will make Salomon the leader within the financial services industry in controls and compliance procedures. But in the end, the spirit about compliance is as important or more so than words about compliance. I want the right words and I want the full range of internal controls. But I also have asked every Salomon employee to be his or her own compliance officer. After they first obey all rules, I then want employees to ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear the next day on the front page of their local paper, to be read by their spouses, children, and friends, with the reporting done by an informed and critical reporter. If they follow this test, they need not fear my other message to them: Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.

'Liar's Poker' by Michael Lewis (ISBN 039333869X) Recommended Reading: Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, an autobiographical account of Michael Lewis’s own experience as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers where the Liar’s Poker is a figure of speech for the Salomon culture of intense risk-taking with immediate payoffs.