The Strangest Secret

This 55 year old audio of the secrets of success by Earl Nightingale Conant (1956), despite the male focused wording, still is perfectly spot-on in 2011. As he states about 8 minutes into the recording - the secret is that a man (or woman) creates in life what s/he thinks about. Simple, powerful, true. A bit dated American references, but worth 30 minutes to listen.

Validating in Daily Life

A really well done short movie (15 minutes) by Kurt Kuenne that builds on the importance of positive messages in an entertaining and endearing production.

thanks to my dear sis-in-law Susana for surfacing this video.

One in 30 US Citizens in Prison

Today, the U.S. prison population is the largest in the world, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of overall population.

Tallying up the total number of people in jail and those on probation, one finds that approximately 1 in every 30 U.S. citizens are now in the prison system – a very concerning statistic.

An unsung street photographer - Vivian Maier

I recently discovered the work of Vivian Maier, who spent years in a quiet domestic job, and took over 100,000 photos - mostly of Chicago streets and people. The work sat for years in storage lockers and was sadly only discovered near the time of her death in 2009. It makes me wonder - how many other unsung geniuses and artists hide among us?

An excellent blog by John Maloof, who has over 90% of her collection is linked here.

Thanks Michael for the tip.