Money on the Mind

Food for thought... wealth & values.

I find there's a lot of truth in this experiment. Wealth changes a person. Come to think of it, I have noticed fist hand, among friends who became rich, or wealthier. There's an very noticeable change in their attitudes and character, before & after. The curious thing is that they are absolutely oblivious to the change themselves. It seems to occur subconsciously, and they displayed the exact traits and behaviour as shown in the Monopoly experiment in the video.

Watch the video, and then as an experiment, and observe the people around you who started off not wealthy and later had acquired wealth.

On the other hand, I have met people, who are extremely wealthy, who are among the nicest and most humble people I know.

In my opinion, those who are most prone to display the traits highlighted in the video fall into the "nouveau riche" or "new rich" category... it's actually a common behaviour across the world.

Buddhism in the West - Famous Buddhists

Keanu Reeves

Orlando Bloom

Tina Turner

Famous Buddhist Women

Not sure how accurate this is, but just for the fun of it, here goes...

List of Celebrity Buddhists

• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Nigerian-English actor
• Roberto Baggio, soccer (football) star for Italy
• Orlando Bloom, English actor
• Kate Bosworth, American actress
• Jeff Bridges, American actor
• Jackie Chan, actor
• John Cleese, actor, writer
• Leonard Cohen Canadian singer/songwriter/poet
• Patrick Duffy, actor
• William Ford, Jr., Executive Director of the Board at Ford Motor Co.
• Richard Gere, American actor
• Allen Ginsberg, poet
• Philip Glass, composer
• Herbie Hancock, musician
• Goldie Hawn, actress
• Hermann Hesse, Noble Prize winning author
• bell hooks, author
• Kate Hudson, actress
• Michael Imperioli, American actor
• Phil Jackson, Basketball coach of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers
• Angelina Jolie, American actress, humanist activist, Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency
• Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc.
• Jack Kerouac, author, poet, painter
• Miranda Kerr, Australian supermodel, one of Victoria's Secret Angels
• K.D. Lang, Canadian singer
• Jet Li, Chinese martial artist, Hollywood actor
• Jennifer Lopez, actress, singer
• Courtney Love, American singer-songwriter
• George Lucas, American filmmaker, director of Star Wars
• Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer-songwriter
• Maya Soetoro-Ng, university professor, sister of U.S. president (Barack Obama)
• Ellison Onizuka, U.S. Air Force colonel, NASA astronaut
• Sarah Jessica Parker, actress, producer
• Victor Pelevin, novelist
• Brad Pitt, actor
• Ron Reagan, talk show host, son of former U.S. president (Ronald Reagan)
• Keanu Reeves, American actor
• Alex Rodriguez, American baseball player
• Steven Seagal, American actor and aikido expert
• Russell Simmons, Entertainment and Fashion Mogul
• Sting, English singer-songwriter, lead vocalist of The Police
• Oliver Stone, film director
• Sharon Stone, American actress, producer, and former fashion model
• George Takei, American actor, "Sulu" on Star Trek
• Uma Thurman, American actress
• Thuy Trang (1973-2001), Vietnamese American Actress
• Tina Turner, American singer-songwriter
• Alice Walker, author (Color Purple and others)
• Naomi Watts, British-Australian actress
• Dennis Weaver, actor
• Ming-Na Wen, Chinese American Actress
• Tiger Woods American Golfer
• Elaine Wynn, Wynn Resorts, charities
• Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts Limited, Las Vegas
• Adam Yauch, American musician, director, producer, Beastie

Buddhist politicians

• Bill Clinton, U.S. President (1993-2001)
• Mazie Hirono, U.S. Congresswoman, (2007-2013) and U.S. Senator (2013- ) Democrat from Hawaii
• Hank Johnson, U.S. Congressman, (2007- ) Democrat from Georgia
• Eric Lubbock, United Kingdom, elected member of the House of Lords
• Rosa Parks, U.S. Civil Rights activist

 

Crime - when the odds are even

A couple of videos that show that when the victims have the means to fight back.

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Quite an old video, but I find it still interesting and relevant in today's education environment, especially in Malaysia.

In my opinion, parents nowadays should be more proactive in their children's education, or rather more accurately, teaching them the skills of learning. Schools do not teach that. Today, more than ever, schools have become too exam oriented. The method of instruction play a crucial role. Currently, school children are not encouraged to be creative, to experience & experiment, to discover. These are skills that will provide them with the right attitude and capacity to seek knowledge for themselves.

The interesting is, when left alone, without any adult interference in their learning experience, they are actually able to learn faster. It's as if kids are born with a natural ability to learn on their own. Below is a video titled: Sugata Mitra's new experiments in self-teaching.

In the working world, we often see employees waiting to be given instructions and directions from their superiors or employer. Why? Because they were conditioned since they were young. How the brain develops during childhood will determine the outcome in adulthood.

New Perspectives on Early Brain Development

Of all the discoveries that have come out of brain research in recent years, one of the most intriguing has been a hint of how the neural circuitry develops. The “wiring” of the brain is an amazing phenomenon of precision considering that the mature brain contains in excess of 100 billion neurons that are intricately connected with one another in ways that make possible the amazing functions underlying human behavior. Each neuron links up with thousands of other neurons to form trillions of connections. The total length of “wiring” between neurons is estimated at 62,000 miles (Coveney & Highfield, 1995).

As early as 15 years ago researchers believed that the wiring diagram for each person was primarily “programmed” by one’s genetic blueprints, much like the wiring of a new house before being occupied. However, the contemporary view is that while the main circuits may be prewired, such as for breathing, control of heart beat, and reflexes, other basic pathways are quite rudimentary, containing trillions of finer “unprogrammed” tentative connections. These connections are dependent upon stimulation from the environment and experience in the environment. It is this stimulation that completes the architecture of the brain.

Scientists now believe that to achieve the precision of the mature brain, stimulation in the form of movement and sensory experiences during the early developing years is necessary (Greenough & Black, 1992; Shatz, 1992). Experience appears to exert its effects by strengthening and bonding synapses, which are the connections that are made between neurons. Connections that are not made by activity, or are weak, are “pruned away,” much like the pruning of dead or weak branches of a tree. If the neurons are used, they become integrated into the circuitry of the brain. Due to differences in experience, not even identical twins are wired the same (Chugani, 1998).

 Source: Optimizing Early Brain and Motor Development Through Movement

Crime - some video footages

Below are some video footages I came across on youtube. Some are quite graphic but that's the reality of crimes...

Another angle of the above robbery.

Notice the pistol on one of the robbers.