my left eyebrow :)

Inside The Body Beautiful (2012) Ep1 - How Cosmetic Surgery Works
Gypsy Child Thieves (BBC Documentary) by ThyDocumentaries Gypsy Child Thieves (BBC Documentary) Documentary - How Gypsies Live in Bulgaria

"So help me God"

Documentar - "Revenirea fostilor detinuti pe piata muncii si integrarea lor in societate" Condamnatii - 15 decembrie 2013 - emisiune completa Young Kids, Hard Time Director's Cut

The German's enigma

The Making of Merkel with Andrew Marr Die Toten Hosen Wort zum Sonntag

megafactories: lego

tempting orders

Floored: Into The Pit - Epic Trader Movie!

"In my opinion, the fault lies with the international authorities. The place is a war zone. Civilian aircraft had NO business flying above a war zone in an era of surface" - Shelly Minor

Vladimir Putin Full Length Documentary: The Putin System
"How or why would any normal person believe a documentary that is so obviously biased towards USA and it's cronies? Is "western" world and it's criminal organizations better than anyone else? I say criminal because they are actively supporting and promoting aggression of any kind, everywhere. USA has entangled most of the world with it's criminal organization that is the US ARMY and threatens to throw the whole world in the abyss of a war like we can't even imagine if the will of it's puppeteers isn't done. Honestly, Putin looks like the better leader by contrast with everyone else in the west or elsewhere. He is at least honest and showed he cares about his people!" - Yuxz Wzxy

let's see.......

1. Define Your Area of Expertise
People who hire professional bloggers have high expectations from those bloggers. Professional bloggers need to create fresh, timely and meaningful content for their readers, and they need to be able to participate in the blog's community providing information that readers want to see. You'll need to be able to establish yourself as extremely knowledgeable in any subject matter for which you apply to be a professional blogger. Just like any job, the most qualified person will get the position.

2. Learn to Blog
Before a hiring manager can be interested in your skills, you need to polish them. Create a personal blog on a topic of interest to you that you are passionate about and begin to blog about it. Take the time needed to fully understand all of the blogging tools available to you.

Learning to blog also requires learning how to promote your blog through social bookmarking, social networking, participating in forums and more. Invest quality time in learning how to market your blog as hiring managers will expect this from the professional bloggers they hire.

3. Build Your Online Presence
Once you establish your own blog and your area of expertise, invest quality time in growing your online presence. To be considered an expert and knowledgeable in your topic, you need to develop your credibility by networking online. You can do this through social networking and forum participation as mentioned in step 2 above. You can also accomplish this by guest blogging and writing great content on websites such as Yahoo Voices, HubPages,or another site that allows anyone to join and post content.

As you build your online presence, remember that you're also building your online brand. Everything you say online can be found and seen by a hiring manager. Keep your online content appropriate to the type of brand image you're trying to create.

4. Conduct Your Job Search
Take the time to view the websites where blogging jobs are posted and apply to the ones in your area of expertise. You need to commit to your blogger job search, because many qualified bloggers apply to every blogging job. You need to apply quickly to be considered.

You can find professional blogging jobs using this list of blogging job sources.

5. Show You Can Add Value
When you apply for a blogging job, remember the competition is tough. Show the hiring manager how you can bring value to that blog through great content and promotion which will lead to increased page views and subscribers, which will then lead to ad revenue for the blog owner. Include your blogging experience in your application along with links to your blog posts or other online writing clips that demonstrate you understand the blog's topic and what the hiring company wants.

Read more about what hiring managers look for in terms of professional blogger skills, then brush up on those skills and reference your abilities related to those skills in your application.

6. Make Your Writing Sample Shine
Many hiring managers will request that professional blogging applicants provide a sample blog post related to the blog's topic to get a better understanding of the type of content the applicant would write if they got the job. This is your opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Write a sample post that is relevant and timely and shows you know the topic better than anyone else. Include useful links to show you understand the topic's place in the blogosphere. Finally, make sure your sample post does not contain spelling or grammatical errors. In other words, make it impossible for the hiring manager to refuse your application.
http://weblogs.about.com/od/professionalblogging/tp/GetJobBlogging.htm
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-a-Paid-Blogging-Job

si pentru restantieri ;) :)

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds: The New Generation - Brave New World

War of The Worlds New Generation - Complete Soundtrack

Education education

Scholarslip: A documentary about the student debt crisis

The College Conspiracy Full Documentary

Education Education - Why Poverty?

Adevărul despre revoluţia română din decembrie 1989

Quadrophenia (film)

Quadrophenia is a 1979 British film, loosely based on the 1973 rock opera of the same name by The Who. The film stars Phil Daniels as Jimmy, a Mod. It was directed by Franc Roddam in his feature directing début. Unlike the film adaptation of Tommy, Quadrophenia is not a musical film.

Quadrophenia 1/5

さらば青春の光 quadrophenia （字幕版）

Keep calm and keep playing :)

Steve Jacksons cardgame Illuminati (330 cards) 1 of 2

Steve Jacksons cardgame Illuminati (330 cards) 2 of 2

The Illuminati Game: (The future on cards)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati_(game)

Bill Cooper predicted 911
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_William_Cooper

William Cooper - The Secret Government, UFO's, MJ12 and Drugs
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_mj12_1.htm

Ambassadors of the Jungle (full documentary)

dealing with all sorts of ......crises

"În epoca în care frumuseţea este definită de fotomodele, succesul - de bogăţie, iar celebritatea de câte persoane te urmăresc pe reţelele sociale, Lizzie Velásquez, „cea mai urâtă femeie din lume”, îşi prezintă propria viziune despre frumuseţe şi fericire, în cadrul unui eveniment TEDx."
http://adevarul.ro/life-style/stil-de-viata/femeia-considerata-cea-mai-urata-lume-frumusetea-adevarata-vine-interior-8_52cbb88ec7b855ff564581d0/index.html

Lizzie Velasquez speaks at Hope Ministries' Wake Up Call youth event

Svensk maffia - unavailable

I wrote few words.....at some point......about my occupation from now.....what does implies......why am I m notorious.......who might be the people who's following me and how much money are in the world, as we speak. Those words, are vanished. As many of the movies I have post it. I even took the decision (motivated, I still believe!) to stop feeding my blogs, because of the censure issue. I realize now, that is not only the censure which I must struggle with. No. I must get ally with these days world's biggest "contamination": NARCOTICS! I must say that I feel myself vulnerable and quite helpless, in this case. It's structure, is a "bite" which I certainly, cannot chew. And by it's "structure", I understand to include even the influentially and notorious people I once admire and look up to. I am sorry, I'll pass this challenge!
http://www.tv4play.se/program/svensk-maffia?video_id=1222548

Svensk mafia "Victor"

BRÖDRASKAPET - SVENSK MAFFIA

future sights

Future in 2050

Future Transportation Technology Will Blow Your Mind

"Earth In The Future" [2014 Documentary]

HBO production

Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden 2013 HD

Pink Floyd - The Wall - 1982

http://www.citizen.tv/pink-floyd-the-wall-hd-movie-by-roger-waters-full-mdDuSd9t99.html http://matadornetwork.com/life/unplugged-breaking-your-television-addiction/
http://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-Television-Addiction

The Cher World, my world!

Cher Dressed To Kill Live In Phoenix Full Concert

Cher - Behind The Music

Cher Not Commercial (Full Album) Unreleased in Stores

Cher - Closer to the Truth Full Album (Deluxe)

Tea with Mussolini Official Trailer

high tech vs. high cheating

Cheating in Online Casinos As long as there has been gambling, there have been players seeking to cheat in order to win. These days, those efforts continue in the realm of online gambling, as players look for ways to break through the state-of-the-art digital security methods employed by online casinos. While the online cheating methods may be new, and the risks and rewards might be different, these players are part of a tradition of underhanded attempts to gain a gambling advantage that actually dates back hundreds of years. The Wild West Wild Bill Hickok was killed in a poker game holding a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights. That hand is now known as "Dead Mans’s Hand" Western movies tell us about a world where fights over card games happened with stunning regularity. There was no arbitration back then and shootouts were the common way of settling any disputes that might have arisen. Well, perhaps that isn't a truly accurate depiction of how things worked. Even in the early days the American West wasn't that wild, but stories did not simply come out of nowhere. There were real incidents where disputes over a hand of poker led to gunfights and death for some of the participants. One famous example took place on Christmas Day in 1869. On that day, John Wesley Hardin, one of the most prolific gunslingers in the Old West, decided to play in a card game in the small town of Towash, Texas.

Though the game began in high spirits (it was Christmas after all), things quickly turned ugly. Hardin would eventually end up in a heated argument over one hand with a man known as James Bradley. The two decided to settle it in a showdown on the streets of Towash. Despite Wesley's skill with a pistol, Bradley shot first, but missed; Hardin was far more accurate though and Bradley was shot and killed. Stories like these happened time and time again throughout the 19th century. Famous names like Wild Bill Hickok and Doc Holliday repeatedly found themselves in situations where a gun proved a more valuable recourse for settling a gambling dispute, than a dealer. The Evolution of Safe Playing Spaces When several Vegas casinos were controlled by the Mob, cheaters could expect rough justice. Over the years, it became obvious that poker and other gambling games couldn't survive without a safer environment in which to play these games. When casinos began to be developed in Las Vegas in the 1930s, they immediately became a haven for average gamblers to try their luck, rather than risking their lives in the illegal underground games that thrived in many cities. Slowly, the classic western saloons that had been so popular in the previous century began to fall out of favor with the gambling community. That didn't mean that these casinos were entirely safe for everyone, of course. By the 1950s, organized crime had taken control of most of the major casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. Despite what this might suggest, the games themselves were most likely on the level for most players, most of the time. In fact, many of the groups behind the hotel-casinos constructed in this period saw them as a way of making legitimate income, even if the money used to develop these properties might have been from a far more dubious source. Las Vegas quickly put most major centers of illegal gambling out of business, thanks in large part to the legitimacy of Vegas compared to places like Galveston and Hot Springs. Of course, not everyone was treated well in the days when organized crime ruled Las Vegas, and cheaters had an especially hard time of it when they were caught. According to many insiders from the era, there were a variety of methods used to "dissuade" cheaters from ever trying it again. Some casinos were content to just threaten or scare cheaters into returning their ill gotten winnings and making sure they'd never come back again. Even in casinos that took a hard line on cheaters, this was the preferred way of dealing with the "nickel-and-dime" cheats who hadn't cost casino a particularly large amount of money. On the other hand, some big cheaters really did get the treatment that's now been made famous in movies and television shows. Broken bones and bloodied faces were often used as a way to let cheaters know they weren't welcome to return, with the distinct implication that even worse might be waiting for them if they tried again. Usually, this was enough to get the message through to the scammers. Meanwhile, other players continued to find games wherever they could, particularly in the world of poker. Since the widespread popularity of casino poker games is a relatively new phenomenon, players often looked for games wherever they could be found. Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim and other famous early poker legends toured the United States looking for juicy games wherever they could make a quick score. But while these games were lucrative, they were also dangerous; Brunson himself recalls instances where he was robbed, beaten, or had guns pulled on him during games. While such games still exist, the modern professional poker player can play a variety of safe poker games at casinos just about anywhere in the world, or simply play online poker from the comfort of their own home. Modern Casino Security Modern security measures in casinos are now high tech to catch any cheating schemes quickly. While the modern casino isn't immune to cheaters and their methods, a variety of techniques are used to minimize their impact and virtually guarantee that a cheater will be caught after the fact, even if they get away with the scheme initially. The first line of defense for the casino is the dealer themselves. Dealers today are incredibly well-trained to perform their jobs in the same manner, day in and day out. This lowers the risk of lazy or sloppy dealers missing a scam that's taking place. If you've ever played in a live casino, you've probably seen dealers stop the action and call over a supervisor when even the most minor issue crops up, or if anything out of the ordinary happens; this is to ensure that there is no possibility of an unfair game taking place, either in terms of a cheating player or some error that would change the odds of the game. But the biggest weapon in the casino's arsenal is undoubtedly the extensive network of security cameras that can be found in just about every live casino around the world. Every action taken by every person in the casino is recorded, allowing a record to exist for later examination. Casino employees are constantly watching the camera feeds as well, keeping an eye out for suspicious activity that they might be able to catch on the fly. In recent years, more advanced technological aids have also been employed to help casinos figure out who might be cheating them, as well as to catch advantage players - those players who aren't doing things that are strictly against the rules and who have found a way to gain an edge over the casino. Perhaps the best example is the use of facial recognition software. This software can allow cameras to notice when a known cheat has entered a casino, even before any human casino personnel have recognized them, making it easier than ever to keep unwanted guests off the casino floor before they even get into a game. Other programs can track betting histories of individuals and groups of players in the hopes of catching suspicious patterns that could indicate advantage plays or cheating. A Scam that Worked - For a While Before the Tran Organization were busted their casino scam netted over $7 million in winnings. No matter how hard the casinos try to keep cheaters out, though, some groups will continue to penetrate their defenses and succeed at scamming casinos for large amounts of money, at least until they get caught. One recent example is that of the Tran Organization, which developed a system by which they managed to rip casinos off for nearly $7 million. The scam was complex in the number of players who were involved: over 40 members of the Tran Organization would eventually plead guilty to various charges for taking part in the scam. However, the actual techniques used were rather simple. Essentially, Van Thu Tran and her husband (the leaders of the group) found ways to bribe dealers into helping them at baccarat, Pai Gow poker and blackjack tables at nearly 30 different casinos across the United States and Canada. Tran would work to seduce and bribe male dealers into doing exactly what the group needed in order to make their scheme successful. The scam was based around a very simple concept: a false shuffle. After watching the initial distribution of cards in a given game, the players would wait for the dealers to keep some of those cards together in a fixed group. These cards, known as a "slug", would then show up again during the next shoe, allowing the conspirators to place large winning bets with full knowledge of the cards to come. Over time, increasing the number of people in their group allowed the Tran Organization to add card trackers who used concealed devices to record the order of the cards in each slug. This information was then relayed to computer operators, who in turn gave instructions of when to bet and when to stay away to the designated bettors. The organization also utilized scouts to figure out which casinos would give them the best chances to successfully cheat. While the scam was about as well-conceived as any could be, the Tran Organization was eventually caught. Casinos and law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, began watching for evidence of the scam, and caught the cheaters in the act. In May 2007, 19 members of the group were arrested, and eventually, the rest of the group would be brought in as well. Card Counting: Cheating or Legitimate Tactic? Doyle Brunson encountered many cheaters in the early days of poker. Among the general public, card counting is perhaps the most widely-known form of casino "cheating," though it is widely misunderstood. Movies such as Rainman have left most people believing that card counting relies on the ability to keep track of every card in the deck, allowing card counters to know exactly what cards will come and when and win easily. Even the film's depiction of casino personnel supports this view, with one man saying that it's impossible to count through an eight-deck shoe. In reality, card counting is not nearly this difficult - but it also doesn't turn players into instant millionaires. There are many card counting techniques out there, but they all rely on keeping track of which cards have come out of the shoe in order to have an idea of what cards still remain in it. By knowing the composition of the shoe, a card counter can adjust their bets, attempting to wager more when the shoe favors them (generally when more aces and high cards are remaining in the shoe) and less, or even not at all, when the shoe is overloaded with unfavorable low cards. In advanced systems, card counters will push this advantage by adjusting basic strategy when the shoe's math suggests it is correct, such as taking insurance when the odds justify it. By doing this, the card counter will get a small edge over the casino: but not much more than what the casino would normally have over the typical blackjack player. Of course, the casinos hate letting a player hold an advantage over them. That's why casinos have taken plenty of measures to dissuade or prevent card counting. But one thing most casinos agree with players on is that strictly speaking, card counting isn't cheating. Players aren't using any illegal devices, doing anything to influence the cards that are coming, or altering the results of each hand; they're simply betting strategically based on the information being given to them. But just because you're not cheating doesn't mean the casino has to stand by and watch you play at an advantage. In most jurisdictions, it's perfectly acceptable for a casino to simply refuse you service; they may bar you from the casino entirely, or (more likely these days) just ask you to try playing one of the many other fine games they have on offer. They might also try to distract a suspected card counter to throw him or her off their game. Some casinos have made some more structural changes to their games in order to prevent card counting. Many casinos now use automatic shufflers that constantly recycle the cards in the shoe; this effectively prevents card counting, as the composition of the shoe hardly changes at all from hand to hand. Other casinos have chosen not to do this; in many cases, inviting "card counting" leads to a handful of successful counters beating the casino, but multitudes of pretenders losing due to their poor understanding of how card counting works. Online Cheating Collusion is often the most common form of online cheating, with players deliberately collaborating to win. Online gambling has brought a whole new world of opportunities for players to enjoy their favorite casino games from home. But it has also opened up a new arena in which casino operators must be on guard against the potential for cheaters to prosper. And while in some ways online casinos are much more secure than their live counterparts, there have been examples of cheating even in online gambling. Of course, the traditional methods of cheating won't work in the digital world. You can't mark the cards, you can't hide anything up your sleeves, and you can't adjust your bets at the last minute. In fact, in most online casino games, the only way a player could cheat would be by exploiting a bug in the casino software, or - if it were possible - to gain access to the random number generator (RNG) that determined the results of each hand or spin. Modern online casinos often even prevent this by making sure the RNG only operates after the players have already made their bets or decisions. There are two areas in which online casinos and poker rooms have shown some vulnerability to cheating. First, there's cheating from the side of the casino. Often, players accuse major casino sites of having cheated them just because they lose; in most cases, these claims are entirely unfounded, and can be proven so mathematically by analyzing large numbers of bets. However, there are some rogue casino sites out there that have been known to cheat players. These casinos generally come and go from the online casino scene rapidly, quickly appearing on blacklists that circulate around the internet. This is one of the major reasons why players are usually advised to play only at online casinos with strong reputations; while most online casinos are on the up-and-up, it's certainly possible for a new site that's using some unknown software to be pulling some kind of scam. Online poker has also famously had its share of issues with cheating. In the early days of online poker, some ambitious players figured out that the RNG at one poker site didn't produce a completely random set of "decks;" instead, it chose from about only 200,000 different possible deck configurations. This allowed the players to know what flop was coming if they knew the hands being held by three players – an example of how early online gambling wasn't nearly as secure as it is today. In more modern times, issues like the "Superuser" scandal at Absolute Poker showed how a player inside a company that had access to an administrative account which allowed them to see the hands held by all players could win at will. That particular cheating scandal may be the most famous in the history of online gambling, having been covered on the mainstream media after being uncovered by players who realized the guilty party was having an impossible level of success at the tables. Players have looked for other ways to cheat as well, though these methods are constantly being fought by major poker rooms. For instance, some players have developed "bots". These are automated computer gamblers that take their places at the tables and play according to pre-programmed strategies 24/7. Others have tried working together in collusion rings, sharing the contents of their hands and working together to win pots. However, poker rooms have taken steps to combat these measures, and players who are caught using these or other illegal tactics are banned, with some sites going so far as to refund every penny to players who lost money to their cheating opponents.

Cheating: Is It Worth the Risk? In the end, casino cheating is a high-risk, high-reward proposition. There's a lot of money out there in the casino industry, and that makes it a very tempting target for those inclined to cheat or scam their way into riches. But overall, it's hard to see cheating as being a worthwhile enterprise in gambling. At both live and online casinos, security measures have risen to the point where even envisioning getting away with a scam requires complex planning and meticulous attention to detail. And even if you don't make a single mistake, you'll eventually catch the eye of casino security, law enforcement, other players, or some combination of all three. At that point, the consequences can be severe, including massive fines and potentially even jail time. For most people, that should be more than enough to keep their play on the level. Resources There are many additional casino cheating stories out there, and some are truly stranger than fiction. We have gathered up some interesting resources for you to continue exploring.

http://www.casino.org/cheating.php
http://richardmarcus-pokercheats.blogspot.se/2013/09/so-are-casinos-harder-to-cheat-these.
html http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/14/3857842/las-vegas-casino-security-versus-cheating-technology
http://www.freeslotsforfun.net/online-casinos.php
http://www.safe-online-casino.co.uk/
http://www.usaonlinesportsbooks.com/is-it-safe-to-bet-sports-online-in-the-us.html http://www.onlinegamblingsites.org/safe/
Thomas Azier - Ghostcity from sander houtkruijer on Vimeo.
Thomas Azier - Ghostcity

 Aram MP3 - Not Alone (Armenia) 2014 Eurovision Song Contest

addicted to his routine :)

FACEBOOK CEO Mark Zuckerberg FULL STORY 2013

Patima (1975)

Cornel Fugaru - Am ales nemărginirea

How to teach math and science without scaring kids

It’s no breaking headline that the U.S. is falling behind in math and science to its global competitors. Despite the fact that the U.S. is the wealthiest nation in the world, Asia overwhelmingly fills the first five slots in an international comparison of math and science scores, while the U.S. rests comfortably at number 11. In an increasingly technologically-driven world, this data leads to one clear implication: the U.S. in jeopardy of losing its, thus far, unchallenged position as the leading global economic giant. Time Magazine has recently reported on policymakers’ and educators’ ongoing push for the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) program at schools, in an effort to expose and attract students to the engineering field. So what are some practical steps that parents, educators, and administrators could take to encourage students toward math and science without trembling, or even mildly perspiring? Here are some practical tips: Encourage students to apply math and science to practical, everyday life, especially at a young age. Get children into the habit of seeing math and science skills as aides to understanding and manipulating the world. As a parent, take your child shopping and ask him/her to calculate the final cost of an item during a “20 percent off” sale, claiming you’re not sure if you have enough money to purchase it. You can even do something as simple as taking a morning stroll and asking questions about your observations, such as, “Why do you think the grass is wet on some mornings when it hasn’t rained?” Children will not only feel helpful and excited at the practicality of math and science, but they will learn to become analytical and feel confident that they can understand and tackle these subjects. Make them feel like Sherlock Holmes. Keep students challenged, empowered, and engaged by treating math and science like puzzles. Children enjoy playing (and winning) games, reading and watching detective stories, and generally solving fun problems, so why should math and science make them feel any differently? Math and science should be analytical and exciting. Teachers, empower students to use their problem-solving tools by presenting the curriculum in a procedural, objective, and analytical manner. Model how to use various strategies and facts, and demonstrate how math and science are inter- and intraconnected. Introduce the STEM program to your school. Engineering lessons are available through the National Center for Technological Literacy (“Engineering is Elementary”). Administrators should carve out a specific amount of time each week or month to designate to classroom engineering projects. Although it is true that every school year is an intricate web of delicate scheduling compromises, administrators should be encouraged to consider making space for STEM (for example, cancelling specials one week for a school-wide day of engineering). In addition, schools should invite professional engineers, mathematicians, scientists to speak at assemblies or visit classrooms in order to expose students to real-life insight into the works of the field (these may even give kids new role models). Lastly, keep students challenged, do not bore or underestimate them. Apply the golden rule to this one: just like adults, many children will perform to the level of expectation set for them. Keep them challenged—they’ll thank you for it. http://www.examiner.com/article/how-to-teach-math-and-science-without-scaring-kids http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/ http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ Vetenskapens värld Vårt nya universum del 2

demanding civil(ization)

SYRİA - THE TRUTH (full documentary) Featured Documentaries - Arab Awakening - Libya Inside the Iraq War

The Century Of Self: Happiness Machines

The Century Of Self: Happiness Machines (Episode1) from Roses of Time on Vimeo.

The Century of the Self is an award-winning British television documentary series by Adam Curtis. It focuses on how the work of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Edward Bernays influenced the way corporations and governments have analyzed,‭ dealt with, and controlled ‬people. This series is banned on YouTube because of the secrets it contains. "This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." —Adam Curtis' introduction to the first episode. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings. The series describes the propaganda that Western governments and corporations have utilized stemming from Freud's theories. Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in public relations, are discussed. Freud's daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as is one of the main opponents of Freud's theories, Wilhelm Reich, in the third part. Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy, commodification and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitudes to fashion and superficiality. The business and political world uses psychological techniques to read, create and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process was about engaging people's rational, conscious minds, as well as facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population. Paul Mazur, a leading Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers, is cited as declaring: "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs". In Episode 4 the main subjects are Philip Gould and Matthew Freud, the great-grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. They were part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in the US and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they have now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the "Democracity" during the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is widely believed that the series was inspired and informed by a book written by the American historian, Stuart Ewen, "PR! A Social History of Spin".

"Ooooh aah, Mother should I build a wall"

Muslims in Europe - documentary by Zvi Yehezkeli and David Deryi (Allah Islam) Documentary - Chechnya: The Dirty War (2005) Battleships : Documentary on the Battleships of the 20th Century The Life and Times of Khattab Pink Floyd The Wall Mother

prepare your IQ taste for this summer :) .....

Transcendence Official Trailer #1 (2014)

Jupiter Ascending - Official Teaser Trailer [HD]

DIVERGENT - Trailer - Official [HD] - 2014

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | Official Trailer | 20th Century FOX

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Larry King 1 of 5

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Larry King 2 of 5

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Larry King 3 of 5

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Larry King 4 of 5

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Larry King 5 of 5








http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbc-news/20904057#20904057

Stigmata

Stigmata - Trailer HD

occupied by gratitude

The only popular thought about beauty today, the one that has the widest currency in the world, is the idea that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. It’s a kindly notion. It seeks to make peace between people who have very different tastes. People are delighted by wildly variant things and that’s how it should be, the thinking goes – so don’t get worked up trying to figure out which things are beautiful.
Yet the success of this generous approach keeps attention away from deeper, more important questions. Whether it is a Baroque Cathedral, the face of a child, or the coast of Sweden seen from a plane window, we have all had the mysterious experience of finding something beautiful. But what is actually going on when we find these things beautiful?
Popular now
Do psychiatrists really think that everyone is crazy?
Art is a waste of time – or so Effective Altruism claims
Just one concussion blew the whistle on the game I loved
In 1795, the German dramatist and poet Friedrich Schiller published a book with a fearsome title – On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters. It has never become well-known, which is a pity, because it contains some of our most useful insights into the nature and value of beauty. Schiller’s starting point is an analysis of the human condition. He wants to understand our delight in what we find beautiful. Instead of asking which things are beautiful, Schiller is curious about what is going on in us when we respond with this distinctive, intimate thrill and enthusiasm that leads us to say ‘that’s beautiful’. Different things might provoke this response in different people. But why do we have it at all?
Schiller thinks of human nature as an arena in which two powerful psychological drives are at work. On the one hand, there is the ‘sense’ drive which lives in the moment and seeks immediate gratification. It craves contact and possession. It can be coarse, as when one yearns to swig great draughts of beer; but it can also be elevated. Schiller associated the sense drive with his friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who longed to see things with his own eyes. Goethe was a direct observer, a natural empiricist who immersed himself in practical detail.
The second drive identified by Schiller was the ‘form’ drive: the inner demand for coherence over time, for abstract understanding and rational order. This drive, thought Schiller, seeks to leave behind the peculiarities of one’s own experience and discover universal principles. It is at the heart of justice – which is not about getting what you want for yourself – and is animated by principle. When we think that a person is entitled to a fair trial, we are motivated, Schiller says, by the rational ‘form’ drive. We are loyal to the abstract, general ideal of due process.
What he’s calling the sense drive and the form drive are powerful impulses in us. But they are often in conflict. The demands of the short term are at odds with the hopes of the longer view. Comfort and ease struggle against a sense of duty and responsibility. The allure of freedom clashes with the longing to be steadfast and rooted in existing commitments.
Schiller’s point is that human nature is fired by two divergent kinds of longing: we can’t hope to see why beauty matters to us unless we pay attention to them both. If we want to understand beauty, we can’t just talk about the things we find beautiful. We have to talk about our lives.
It might look as though Schiller is trying to resuscitate an old religious theme, the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. But there is a crucial difference. Thinkers ranging from St Paul to Immanuel Kant have all believed that one of these aspects of our nature – which they usually call the spiritual or rational – should triumph. But Schiller does not believe that one side is more important than the other. Rather, the two sides are in need of each other. If the sense drive dominates, we become brutish and superficial. If the form drive is too dominant, we become dry and callous. We need the two to interact harmoniously in order to see the role that beauty can play in our lives.
For Schiller, true beauty is whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time. When we find something beautiful, we are called towards a vision of harmonious perfection. This is not only a quality in the object, but a longing in ourselves.
Take the statue of Apollo – known as the Belvedere – which allows us to feel the sensuous joy of a body at the peak of development and ease. Apollo looks strong but not too muscular, and agile but not in any way skittish or unstable. We admire, and maybe desire, his physique. Has he just unleashed an arrow, we wonder, or is he about to set the arrow to the string? Either way, he is active, energetic and concentrated, and our sense drive responds powerfully to him.
At the same time, the form drive is also at work in the Belvedere. We respond to the artistic structure to it, its proportion and unity. The hands extend away from the body but not too far. The technical problem of how to imply motion in a still object has been elegantly resolved. The folds of the cloak round the neck and over the arm have been coaxed into a clear rhythm. Here is a man of self-possession and poise.
In this case – a case of beauty – both drives are at full power, but they do not work against one another. Instead, they co-operate, and Schiller’s point is that to experience a statue in this dual way is to find it beautiful. More importantly, these experiences of beauty teach us how we should be. Not that we should try to adopt the pose or hairstyle of Apollo, or to pick up a bow and arrow. Rather, we should seek to realise in ourselves the fusion of the drives embodied by the sculpture.
Schiller was obsessed with the way we seem to be able to read a person’s character in his or her face. And he thought that the beauty of a face was – as with the statue of Apollo – dependent upon the implied integration of the otherwise divergent drives that power our lives.
Portrait of Madame Duvaucey  by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1807. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Photo by Getty Portrait of Madame Devaucay by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1807. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Photo by Getty
The portrait of Madame Devaucay, painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in Rome in 1807, exemplifies his ideal. In one sense, the portrait is highly organised. Each detail has been manipulated so that it fits with every other. The rounded back of the chair is calculated to take the eye to her mouth, but it also balances the curve of her draped arm. The point of her chin is exactly halfway between the top of her head and the neckline of her gown. Nothing is left to chance. A hugely determined will to order dominates the image, meaning that the form drive is at full stretch. And this clarity and organisation appear to belong to the sitter as well. She seems calm, lucid and intellectually elegant.
Equally, however, the sense drive is given free rein. She appears merely to be sitting in her natural way, as we might encounter her by chance in the corner of a salon. Maybe in a moment she will laugh or adjust her necklace. For all her finery, she looks as if she would be warm and understanding – the perfect person with whom to discuss one’s troubles. The beauty of the painting is the way it calls simultaneously to our need for control and our longing for tenderness and intimacy.
It’s not a problem for Schiller if someone happens not to be moved by the particular examples that excite him. What matters is that something does, and that something is what we call beautiful.  This explains why beauty can be so moving – why it can make us weep. When we recognise beauty in a piece of music, or the graciousness of someone’s conduct, we see things that we know we have neglected or betrayed, and we feel an astonishing combination of anguish and delight.
To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience
Like many people today, Schiller worried that beauty was too connected to social status. And indeed, many loathsome people own beautiful things, and the possession of these objects does not seem to make them more humane or especially gracious. Schiller was convinced that to regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience, because for him the point of beauty is to elevate the soul.
Schiller was an enthusiastic reformer, desperate to usher in a newly just and noble society. But he had grown pessimistic about what political reform could achieve. In his lifetime, he had watched the French Revolution degenerate into terror and what looked to him like a combination of mob anarchy and cold, bureaucratic tyranny. He saw the ferocious ‘san-culottes’ of his day as the sense impulse acting alone, and the French government’s Committee of Public Safety as the form drive manifested in a fanatical devotion to purity. The Revolutionary situation in France seemed to exemplify – on the scale of society as a whole – what happens when the basic drives of human nature are split off from one another.

Schiller’s diagnosis of the ills of society ran parallel to his account of the strife within an individual life. What was missing, he argued in both cases, was a full, harmonious humanity, and he thought it would stay missing – both in the leaders and the people. And he came to the unnerving – but perhaps correct – conviction that ambitious social reform would always be frustrated until a much larger number of people had reached a higher level of inner development of the sort enabled by beauty.
Sometimes, we seek to understand thinkers such as Schiller out of curiosity, or to understand a larger trend in the history of ideas. We are fascinated to learn how the cosmos was conceived before the revelations of modern science. Or how prehistoric times were understood before the advent of archeology. We encounter such thoughts as observers, sympathetic perhaps, but not as potential converts. We do not expect to be convinced. We have progressed, after all, and we live in a new world.  But every once in a while we encounter ideas from the past that are sorely missing from the present. And so it is with Schiller, whose notions about beauty are more than a dry record of what one man living in the town of Weimar at the end of the 18th century happened to believe. Instead, they are a guide, for how we might elevate ourselves with beauty today.
14 February 2014
http://aeon.co/magazine/altered-states/can-beauty-help-us-to-become-better-people/
http://dressingyourtruth.com/about/beauty-profiling/
http://alltypesofbeauty.com/findtype.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme

Anjo - Tubular Bells [ Trance Remix ] HQ

the plot named....."Ridiculous" ;)

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/apr/02/employers-lose-age-old-excuse
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20216614/fast-food-workers-protest-for-higher-wages
http://www.grubstreet.com/2013/04/fast-food-workers-strike-again.html



We Are Slowly Dying": Fast Food Workers Launch Strike For Living Wage and Right to Unionize

McDonald's Oakland Fast Food Workers Walk-Out In National Workers Action For Union Rights

things we probably wonder about :) ....

Top 10 Fictional Languages

How People Disappear

What if You Were Born in Space?

Are We Ready For Aliens?

Why Are Things Creepy?

Capitalism: A Love Story - Documentary

<

love this game! ;)

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both dying on the fiftieth anniversary of American independence.
Robert del Valle, Detroit USA
I once read that during WW2 a rail bridge in Belgium had been prepared with explosive in case it needed to be destroyed at short notice. Whilst not one but TWO trains were crossing on it, it was struck by lightning and blew up killing most or all involved. Work out the odds against that happening.
Paul Wright, Basildon UK
It's a pretty amazing coincidence that the sun and the moon appear to be exactly the same size when viewed from the surface of the earth, thus allowing total solar eclipses to occur.
Justin Rigden, Adelaide Australia
The one about someone phoning a person's National Insurance number instead of their home phone number and being connected to a payphone. The person that answered the phone - surprise, surprise - was the right person. Smacks a little of an urban myth perhaps.
Phil, Cardiff
Some years ago my brother- in law, who lived some 5 kms away, was visiting my house. We heard the loud sound of a Volkswagen car coming into my street, sputtering and then going very quiet. We looked out of the front door to see that it was in fact my brother in law's car being abandoned by would be thieves, breaking down right in front of my house.
Angela Shaw, Port Lincoln Australia
Perhaps the fact that someone's asked this question before; it's in the Speculative Science section, I believe.
John, Wellington, New Zealand
The fact that the apparent size of the sun in our sky is exactly the same as that of the moon. Making eclipses possible.
Matthew Payne, London UK
Check out the opening 20 minutes of the movie Magnolia for some amazing coincidences. I shan't spoil it for you, just rent it and be amazed.
Matthew, Cardiff Wales
A show on BBC2 a few years ago told the story about the AA guy who was walking past a phonebox in the middle of nowhere, when the phone began to ring. On a whim, he answered, and was amazed to find he was talking to his dispatcher. She had meant to ring his mobile, but had rung his staff number instead - which happened to be the phone number of the phone he was walking past. I thought that was pretty weird.
Caimin McGovern, Dublin Ireland
Do you know, I was going to ask exactly the same question.... (and a load of people gave this reply, I suspect)
Angus Dobbie, Oxford UK
I don't think that this question can be answered absolutely - there are many possibilities and it all depends on what definition of the word "coincidence" you accept (if any). That said, here's my contender: The late naturalist and artist Sir Peter Scott was a great believer in the Loch Ness monster as a real flesh and blood animal, so much so that he coined a new scientific Latin name for it, "Nessiteras rhombopteryx", meaning something like "the inhabitant of Ness with the diamond-shaped fins". He was very pleased with the name he had invented until a journalist pointed out that an anagram of it is "Monster hoax by Sir Peter S". This is the most amazing anagram coincidence I've ever heard of.
Martin McDonald, Manchester UK
This is from the Book of Lists, published 1976, under the heading "15 Favourite Oddities of All-Time": "On December 5, 1664, the first in the greatest series of coincidences in history occurred. On this date, aship in the Menai Strait, off North Wales, sank with 81 passengers on board. There was one survivor- a man named Hugh Williams. On the same date in 1785, a ship sank with 60 passengers on board. There was one survivor- a man named Hugh Williams. On the very same date in 1860, a ship sank with 25 passengers on board. there was one survivo r- a man named Hugh Williams."
Jacqueline Davidson, Belfast Northern Ireland
How about the fact that Papa Bush's (George Bush Senior) investment group just happens to own a chunk of BioPort the company that makes anthrax vaccine ?
David, Dothan Alabama USA
Scuba diving in the middle of the south pacific and bumping into your mother who had you adopted when she was younger. Doesn't that sound like a great idea for a Julia Roberts movie?
Adelina, Newbury UK
There was a fascinating TV programme on this subject a few years ago. My favourite was a man who had walked past a payphone which started ringing. He answered it, and on the other end was a secretary at his work who had accidentally dialled his payroll number instead of his mobile number...
Alice, Reading UK
Violet Jessup surviving the sinking of the Titanic and the subsequent sinking of its sister ship, the Brittanic.
Robert del Valle, Detroit USA
I remember hearing a few years ago, although I can't remember the exact details of an event which occurred in America (where else ?). Apparently a man was charged with his son's murder and the attempted murder of his wife. Not that unusual, but it turns out that the son had leapt voluntarily from the top of the building in which his parents lived. The son's descent from the roof to the pavement happened at a time when his parents were in the middle of an argument, and seeking to frighten his wife, the father picked up a shotgun and pointed it at her, thinking it was unloaded. To annoy her even more, he pulled the trigger and discovered to his horror that it was in fact loaded. Fortunately he missed his wife, but unfortunately the pellets went through the window and hit his son as he fell past their window and killed him before he hit the ground.
Keith Wood, Perth Australia
Local chap (Perth, Western Australia) lost his boat after it broke its moorings during a storm. It drifted out to sea and was given up for lost. Something like 8 months afterwards a close friend found the boat, and recognised it immediately - on a deserted beach on the east coast of Madagascar. As I recall, it was in such good condition it was transported back to Australia intact.
Robert, Perth Australia
While I suspect that the payroll/mobile mix-up is an urban legend, a very similar thing once happened to me. My brother Ben and I both worked at the same pub and the landlord was trying to get hold of me by ringing a number marked "Ben-Home" on the staff contact list. This was in fact another Ben's number which he then misdialled by accidentally reversing the last two digits. The number he actually rang was the pub across town where I was having a drink. The barman handed me the phone and my boss refused point-blank to believe that I wasn't at home, since that was the number he thought he'd called!
Jon, Cambridge
To add to Robert del Valle's answer, I think Violet Jessop was also aboard the Olympic when that sank (was sunk?) in World War I. Olympic was, of course, the other sister of the Titanic.
Benjamin Craig, Oxford UK
Some years ago, whilst watching "The Price is Right" I said "I wonder what would happen if Leslie Crowther called out a name (to choose the next contestant from the audience) and two people had the same name?" At that moment, he called out a name and two people, both with the same name, stood up!
Jan, London UK
How about Virgina Bottomley being a perfect anagram of "I'm an evil Tory bigot"?
Simon, Bournemouth UK
Another Titanic coincidence. In the 1880s, a novel was published about the biggest ship ever built, that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank. The name of the ship in the novel was the Titan.
Jo, Pencader Cymru
When I was snorkelling in the Gulf of Mexico, my dad suggested we go on a 'Snuba' trip (a sort of scuba-like snorkelling involving a long pipe through which you breathe from an air cylinder. The gas tank floats on a dinghy on the surface). Two guys, an Australian and an English guy, were running the Snuba, and it turns out that the English bloke grew up my my village that I live in now. It's a small world, eh?
Dominic, Huddersfield UK
Not very impressed by these coincidences...This happened to me and is absolutely true. In 1992 before I left London to live in the Basque Country I arranged for a friend of a friend to take over my rented flat in Forest Gate. Four years later I went on a holiday to Morocco. I was playing the travel game with my friend - the one where you get points for meeting people you know when travelling. We hadn't met anyone in Morocco and the score was nil nil. On the boat from Tangiers we went to the bar and sure enough standing there was one of the last people I had seen in Britain before I left for Spain four years earlier. The guy I handed my flat over to. I won the game hands down!
John Hird, Al Khobar KSA
Isn't it an amazing coincidence that in America, the land of equal opportunity for all, the curent president is the son of the last but one?!
Micky Flick, Knotterby, UK
I was living in Paris, in the Neuilly area. A friend of mine travelled all the way from Portugal to see me but mislaid my address. He actually knocked at the door of my flat saying: "Arent'you famous! Leaving the underground (as he 'd managed to recall the name of the right station, Porte de Neuilly) I asked a lady passing by if she, by any chance, knew a certain Monsieur Melo...". "Yes, she said, he lives on the 3rd floor right of no. 43 Avenue de Neuilly". She just happened to be the 'concierge' of the building...
Alberto Melo, Faro, Portugal
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters. Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both were shot in the head. Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners. Both successors were named Johnson. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939. Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names comprise fifteen letters. Booth ran from the theatre and was caught in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theatre. Booth and Oswald were both assassinated before their trials. A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
S Whibley, Ryton UK
During the 1950s, my grandmother lost her wedding ring whilst digging in her garden on her 40th birthday. 20 years later to the day, her daughter (my auntie) was digging in the same part of the garden and did her back in. Amazing.
Stuart Goodacre, Lincoln, UK
Pursuant to the Titianic coincidences above, Morgan Robertson's book "Futility," published in 1898 (14 years before Titanic left her berth), details the story of the world's largest liner, some 800 feet long, with the rich and powerful aboard, striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage on an April night, and most of the passengers perishing for want of sufficient lifeboats. Better yet, one of Robertson's later books (indeed, his latest one when Titanic went down) chronicled a massive war in the Pacific beginning with a Japanese surprise attack on an American naval base in Hawaii and ending when American planes dropped massively destructive "sun bombs" on Japan.
Michael Cavanagh, Toronto Canada
The AA guy story I can confirm is TRUE as I was working for the company at the time, the odds must have been staggering.
Mark G, Wakefield UK
In the early 1950s my uncle Guus had a hitchhiking holiday together with his best friend in Belgium. In Brussels they meet a British cyclist, they become friendly and have a picture taken of them together. A few months later, my uncle is again hitchhiking in the Netherlands, on the way to Rotterdam to his best friend with in his pocket the pictures of that holiday in Belgium. A truck driver offers to take him, but says he should go in the back of the truck saying that there is another hitchhiker. And that is ... the British biker. My uncle takes out the photo and says: "here is your picture".
Bokke, Gdynia Poland
Once I took a picture of my girlfriend in Pompeii (Italy) with her standing on a column. Nice picture, clear sky and clear background. Years later, when she had a new boy friend, they browsed together through her photo-albums and he spots himself somewhere in the background of this picture. Amazing, and tempting to think they were meant for each other ...
Bokke, Gdynia Poland
My Uncle recently moved to Jacksonville, Florida. As a keen golfer he tries to play as many golf courses as possible. One day he tried to play at a course recommended to him by a friend. As it was a weekday he assumed that the course wouldn't be booked. He therefore turned up at the course and was told that the club championship was happening that day, but that as he had made an effort, if he started at the 10th he could play holes 10-18 followed by holes 1-9 without holding up or affecting the members play. My Uncle therefore started at the 10th and was met by the Club pro. The Club pro, who couldn't enter the club championship as it was for members only, then offered to play the round with my Uncle and show him the course. Well, after talking it turns out that the club pro was my uncle's cousin but the families had lost contact when they were both about 5 or so, when my uncle's cousin's family moved to Sweden. Amazed by the coincidence they agreed to meet for dinner. The club pro suggested my uncle swing by (pun intended) to his for a meal so gave his address. It was two doors away from where my uncle had just brought his apartment.
David Breach, Edinburgh, Scotland
In early 1988 I stopped William Hartston in the street and asked him to be the first person to read through a list of some 30 coincidences I had experienced. Whilst doing so he had what he regarded as the strongest coincidence of his life. 6 months later we discovered that in Stan Gooch´s 1978 book The Paranormal, Hartston is the first person mentioned in the section on Synchronicity and Coincidence.
James Plaskett, Cartagena, Spain
The most amazing coincidence I know of is this: in Bermuda in 1975 a man was hit and killed while riding a moped by a taxi. exactly one year later, to the day, his brother was killed while riding the same moped. By the same taxi. Driven by the same driver. Carrying the same passenger. 100% true story.
George Balorge, Dryden, NY USA
my grandfather before he retired working in a steel factory. The factory was under going some renovations and he spotted some old road maps in a skip. Being intrested in this type of thing he picked them out and took them home. When he got home and eventually looked at them a envolope fell out. It contained our family tree on his wifes side (my grandmother) from quite awhile back, all way up to her mother. My great grandmother.
sam allott, sheffield england
This coincidence is verifiable. It was seen on American television. On April 27 2008,CBS aired a The EDS Byron Nelson Classic golf tournament,which resulted in a playoff between Adam Scott and Ryan Morre. Later that same day CBS aired the finale of Big Brother 9, which consisted of two finalists named Adam Jasinski and Ryan Quicksall. Stay with me here. In both competitions Adam was the winner and Ryan came in second place. Think about it.
Michael "Hops" Hodges, Hyattsville MD USA
My father was in WWII and had an army buddy that he corresponded with for about 30 years. He lived on the other side of the country and they got together only once in all those years. In October of 1978 my father died very unexpectedly at the age of 55. My Mother, wanting to spare all of us of the heartbreaking arrival of the annual Christmas card, wrote to him with the news of his death. When she went out to put it in the mailbox to be picked up, our daily mail had arrived. In retrieving it, she found a letter from the army friend's wife saying that he had died also.
A Martin, Pittsburgh, PA, US
Anurag Basu, a Prominent director in Bollywood was once writing a death scene in a movie. As a method director he imagined 'how will he feel if his father dies. He indeed gave a good script for the scene but on the same night his father died. Leaving him alone saying "I blame myself for my father's death" ref: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-22/news-interviews/34003293_1_production-houses-cancer-cells-film
Shuaieb Anwar, Mumbai India
Our existence in this universe is by far the biggest coincidence of all time. The odds are beyond calculation. From the quadrillions of solar systems in the Universe, ours is still the only known one to support life.
Steven, Cuddebackville USA
This is just the most interesting thing that has happened to me: I was once interested in a woman by the name of Stephanie Cole. Her favorite genre of music happened to be Christmas music. Once, when I was conversing with one of her best friends about how to properly "court" Miss Cole, my phone suddenly began to play a completely random song of the nearly 1,500 I have on it (this happens from time to time for some unknown reason). Laughing about how strange it was, I found it curious that the song playing was The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. It was the only Christmas song I had on my phone.
Joseph Anderson, Chicago, Illinois, US
On my first overseas backpacking trip, I'd traveled from Australia to San Sebastian, Spain, and was introducing myself to the girl sleeping in the bunk above me. Only to find out she grew up over the back fence from me in a tiny town 80km south of Melbourne.
Aussie Lad, Melbourne, Australia
In 1838 Edgar Allen Poe wrote a novel called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket that tells the story of a ship wreck. Four survivors adrift in a lifeboat run out of food and draw straws to choose which of the four would be killed and cannibalized. The cabin boy, Richard Parker, drew the short straw. In 1884 a ship wreck occurred off of Nantucket. Four survivors end up adrift in a lifeboat. They run out of food and draw straws to determine which of the four would be eaten. The loser was the cabin boy ... named Richard Parker.
Mark Henson, Saint Louis, US
I once passed a closed second hand shop on the way home from shopping and there was a painting in the window of a morning winters scene with a sheep farmer and his sheep. I spent about 10mins trying to figure out if the painting was genuine or not as I really liked it then I went home. When I got home I immediately turned on the TV and the soap opera 'Coronation street' was on and Vera Duckworth was arguing with her husband in their frontroom and I noticed hanging above their fireplace the very picture I had just been examining about 5 mins earlier.
Nick C, Littlehampton UK
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21361,00.html

Amazing and Mind Blowing Coincidences

http://www.cracked.com/article_18421_6-insane-coincidences-you-wont-believe-actually-happened.html

Futility or the wreck of the TITAN by Morgan Robertson

7 Amazing Coincidences That Truly Happened