Unemployment in the United Kingdom fell to 8.1 per cent in the March-May quarter, down from 8.3 per cent in the previous three months.
The number of people with jobs increased by 181,000, the biggest quarterly gain in two years.
UK Unemployment Unexpectedly Drops to 8.1 Percent
‘7 Habits’ Author Stephen Covey was a Global Inspiration in Life and Business (1932-2012)
Recognized as one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans, Stephen R. Covey dedicated his life to simple leadership principles that can help any person truly control their destiny and effectiveness. Since its publication in 1989, his landmark book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Covey, 79, died Monday from complications resulting from a cycling accident. He is being remembered as a business professor, management consultant, speaker and motivator, but also as an all around “lovely guy” and great family man, a grandfather to more than 50. Stephen truly believed that the greatest work we do is within the four walls of our own homes and was a model of a loving and committed husband and father to the end.
His teachings will live on even in those who never met him, the Covey principles having been installed like software in our brains, easily opening up their wisdom to us whenever we are wondering how to better improve our performance — in business or in our personal relationships. (Just the other day his words came back to me while I was looking at email in the morning, rather than working on what was most important: His admonition to “Put first things first”, chided me.)
Dr. Covey made a decision early in his life that his greatest contribution and life’s work would be as a teacher. Beginning with his role as a university professor at Brigham Young University, he has impacted the lives of countless millions worldwide. In 1984, Dr. Covey made the decision to leave full-time teaching as a university professor to establish a business organization, Covey Leadership Center, that could take principle-centered leadership throughout the world, with Covey himself focused on writing and speaking. From grade school and university students, to Fortune 100 CEOs and numerous heads of state, he made teaching principle-centered leadership his life’s work.
Covey’s series of 7 Habits
The First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e., self mastery):
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and how they align with life’s principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. Create a mission statement.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Prioritize, plan, and execute your week’s tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you toward goals, and enrich the roles and relationships that were elaborated in Habit 2.
Interdependence
The next three have to do with Interdependence (i.e., working with others):
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Value and respect people by understanding a “win” for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving.
Habit 6: Synergize
Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.
Self Renewal
The Last habit relates to self-rejuvenation:
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. It primarily emphasizes on exercise for physical renewal, prayer (meditation, yoga, etc.) and good reading for mental renewal. It also mentions service to the society for spiritual renewal.
Covey’s 2004 book “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
Photo credit: Stephen Covey 2010 – Hekerui-CC
World War II Veteran Marks 90th Birthday with Skydiving Jump
A World War II hero from Maine gave himself a 90th birthday present — his first skydiving jump from an airplane.
Lester Slate, of Exeter, said he wasn’t nervous strapping on the parachute, although he’d never jumped with one even during his more than 40 years flying for the Navy and the Coast Guard.
As he gracefully floated to the ground strapped in tandem with an instructor, another skydiver trailed a big American flag in the air behind them as family and friends watched on the ground.
(READ the story w/ photos in the Bangor Daily News)
Thanks to Chris Cloud for sending the link!
Bus Driver Saves 7-Year-old as she Plummets from 3rd Story Window (Video)
A Brooklyn girl with autism is safe thanks to a fast-acting neighbor who came to her rescue.
The 7-year-old crawled out of her window and was dancing and singing on top of an air conditioner before she tripped and fell from the ledge.
MTA bus driver Steve St Bernard, 52, was waiting below with his arms outstretched and managed to catch the girl, preventing disaster.
“I just prayed that I’d catch her,’ said St Bernard to the New York Daily News. I was right underneath her.”
(READ the story w/ photos in the Daily Mail)
Help Cancer Patients Laugh: Good News Network Author Enters Hospice
I’m reprising the 2011 article below because its author, Lori Hope is in hospice today. She wrote a book, 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know. One of the key reminders is: They want to laugh. Let’s send an avalanche of laughter to ease her pain and thank her for the articles and support on the Good News Network. Please send your funniest jokes and cartoons — post them today on her Facebook page, or at her blog, Lorihope.com. We love you Ms. Hope.
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It’s not just an “old adage” that tells us laughter is the best medicine these days. Scientists, doctors, mental health professionals, and patients themselves call humor a remedy for any ailment — at least temporarily.
Several studies show that humor builds hope, and hope is particularly crucial to people with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Author and journalist, Lori Hope, drew from a very personal challenge — her own cancer diagnosis — to create a practical guide for people who want to comfort and support a friend with cancer, but don’t know what to say.
Best Prank Ever: Aussie Gent Wears Wig of Own Hair
Two and a half million people around the world have been laughing at an Australia man’s prank to trick his friends and family using a wig of his own hair.
The idea:
Step 1: Cut off my long hair of three years
Step 2: Hot glue it into a wig
Step 3: Wear that wig, my friends thinking it’s my hair
Step 4: Pull it off suddenly and presto, friends freakout!
Watch the hair-larity ensue, reposted on YouTube after Jozaeh got permission to use the music.
Teresa Project Update: 375 Birthday Cards Deliver Well-wishes to Homebound Sister
We received an update on the “Teresa Project” birthday card campaign. As of today, Teresa, whose brother sought to flood her mailbox with birthday cards this year, has received 375 cards and letters, along with gifts from all across Florida and Tennessee and two dozen other states, as well as Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, Germany and The Netherlands.
Aaron’s Dying Wish: Family Leaves $500 Tip for a Pizza
A dying man’s last wish was to impact a stranger, to make their day with a lasting gift.
While alive, 30-year-old Aaron Collins, a computer technician, didn’t have the means to make it happen. After his death on July 7, Aaron’s family set about to fulfill his wish, ordering a pizza and leaving the waitress a $500 tip.
Charlie Sheen Gives $1 Million to the U.S.O. to Support Military Families
Actor Charlie Sheen will donate at least $1 million of profits from his show, “Anger Management”, to help the nation’s injured troops.
The “Platoon” star announced Monday that he’ll donate 1 percent of the profits from the show, with no cap on the final amount, to the United Service Organizations. Popularly known as the USO, the group called the gift one of the largest donations ever from a private individual.
Czechs Fly 4 More Endangered Wild Horses to Mongolia
The Prague zoo on Monday shipped out four rare Przewalski’s wild horses sending them to their ancient homeland in the Mongolian steppe as part of an ongoing project to save the critically endangered species.
Of four horses reintroduced last year, two mares have already given birth in the steppe.
The Czech zoo runs a breeding program and is charged with keeping records for the equines which previously survived only in captivity since becoming extinct in the wild in 1969.
Mexican President Says Drug Murders Down 15-20 Percent
Mexico’s president said homicides dropped in Mexico by 15-20 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the same period of 2011.
“Today, violence related to rivalries between criminals is declining,” President Felipe Calderon told the newspaper El Pais.
New Procedure Saves Dog Poisoned By Mushrooms
Veterinarians in Berkeley and a Santa Cruz doctor teamed up to save a dog who was poisoned by mushrooms — trying a procedure that may help save human lives, too.
California owner Helen Abel was told her dog, like so many toadstool-eating dogs before him, would die after eating death cap mushrooms.
But, weeks later the two-year-old Mini Australian shepherd is still alive thanks to innovative doctors.
(READ the story from CBS San Francisco)
Photo by badeendjuh via Morguefile
Just 10 Years-old, a Hero for the Homeless Wins $10,000 Award
Just ten years old, Clara Pilley started Keys for Hope last September decorating keys and selling them to raise money for the local homeless shelter in Charleston, S.C. Since then, Clara and her friends have sold 2,000 keys and raised $12,000.
The girls use beads, buttons and ribbons to embellish old keys for use as necklace, key chain, zipper pull or ornament. The decorative keys symbolizes “shelter” and the hope for a better future for Charleston’s homeless families.
Ships Rerouted to Save Whales in San Francisco Bay
Federal maritime officials have approved a plan to protect whales in and around San Francisco Bay.
Shipping industry representatives joined with whale researchers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish new cargo lanes that will likely take effect next year for one of the world’s busiest ports.
Ships Rerouted to Save Whales in San Francisco Bay
Federal maritime officials have approved a plan to protect whales in and around San Francisco Bay.
Shipping industry representatives joined with whale researchers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish new cargo lanes that will likely take effect next year for one of the world’s busiest ports.
‘Quiet Hero’ Took in Abused, Abandoned Kids and Raised Them to be Successful
80-year-old Ruby Dunson has been raising abandoned children for 42 years — a job she first embraced after she agreed to babysit and the mother never returned for her infant.
In all, she raised 10 successful children in her small brick home on Detroit’s west side, eight of whom she agreed to take in after they were abandoned at birth or abused as kids.
Polish Citizens Who Rescued Jews in WWII Hailed as Heroes
Dozens of elderly Poles who helped save Jews during World War II have gathered in Warsaw to be recognized by Jewish representatives who hailed them for their heroism.
The meeting, over a kosher lunch Sunday in an upscale hotel, comes amid a growing appreciation in Poland for the thousands of people, most of them Roman Catholics, who risked their lives to help Jews during the brutal six-year-long Nazi occupation of Poland.
13-Year-old Recycles Cooking Grease into Heating Oil for Needy Families
After reading an article in the local newspaper, Cassandra Lin of Westerly, Rhode Island discovered that many residents could not afford to heat their homes. Inspired to do something, she formed a team of five seventh graders to recycle waste cooking oil and turn it into biofuel for distribution to needy families.
Started in 2008, TGIF (Turn Grease Into Fuel) works with local biofuel companies to recycle the grease from residents and restaurants, and refine it into biodiesel. The award-winning project has been collecting more than 36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year, bringing an estimated value of $60,000 of alternative energy that keeps 92 needy families warm in the winter.
13-Year-old Recycles Cooking Grease into Heating Oil for Needy Families
After reading an article in the local newspaper, Cassandra Lin of Westerly, Rhode Island discovered that many residents could not afford to heat their homes. Inspired to do something, she formed a team of five seventh graders to recycle waste cooking oil and turn it into biofuel for distribution to needy families.
Started in 2008, TGIF (Turn Grease Into Fuel) works with local biofuel companies to recycle the grease from residents and restaurants, and refine it into biodiesel. The award-winning project has been collecting more than 36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year, bringing an estimated value of $60,000 of alternative energy that keeps 92 needy families warm in the winter.
Man Plants Heart-shaped Tribute to Late Wife Using 6000 Oak Trees
A bereaved husband painstakingly planted a tribute to his late wife, Janet using 6,000 oak trees to imprint a giant heart-shaped meadow in the middle of his 112-acre farm in South Gloucestershire, England.
In a sudden flash of inspiration to mark her legacy, Winston Howe hired a gardener and spent weeks planning and setting out each oak, carefully creating an acre-long heart, which points in the direction of Janet’s childhood hometown.
The huge heart, with hedges planted around the perimeter, was spotted by a hot air balloonist soaring over Mr. Howe’s estate.
(WATCH a slideshow below or READ the story in the UK Sun)