Comic Book Collectors; Nerdy Geeks or Shrewd Investors?

When one says, yeah, I collect comic books, what is the general public response? Oh no, a slightly off the wall geek. Here is someone who has lost touch with reality. Or someone that is in his or her own little world. I think not. Yes, comic book collectors may sometimes march to the beat of a different drummer, but who says we all have to be cut from the same mold. Comic books are big business.

Back in the days of my youth (what, several millennia ago?), I loved reading comic books. And so did a lot of my friends. Whenever we had an extra dime or sometimes a quarter, we could run up to the local small town grocery and spend some very happy times at the comic book rack.

We would even go out and find small odds jobs for pocket change, which was enough then to purchase 2 or 3 good flights of adventure and fantasy. I can even remember crawling under our house to retrieve a cat that had the misfortune of dying there. My Dad couldn't stomach the smell and enticed my friend and I to accomplish the chore for ample pocket change. We braved the spiders and other crawly creatures to retrieve and bury the unfortunate cat. Not long after that, we were the proud owners of yet, several more intriguing comic books. Even the local bully (who was really a pretty good guy) would purchase our worn out or unwanted magazines for far more than they were worth, so we could purchase new ones.

I didn't know much about collecting then. I just liked saving what I enjoyed. I had a large cardboard box that I kept under my bed, filled with all my little treasures. I didn't realize that I had the beginnings of what could have been something very lucrative. In later years when I headed off to college, I dragged my large cardboard box with me. At one point in time, I left most of my belongings in the charge of what I thought were trusted friends. When I returned from my forest firefighting adventures, my box full of magazines were no where to be found. And needless to say, were my trusted friends either. Others had seen the value in what I had and wanted it for themselves. Oh well, live and learn. That limited collection of comic books and other magazines would have been worth a small fortune today.

Are there big bucks in the comic book genre? Just look at what Hollywood has been up to for the last few decades. As far as I can tell, the really big blockbusters started back in 1978 with the release of Superman, The Movie. And since then there has been comic book hero after comic book hero to hit the silver screen. And they all make tons of money. The Hollywood moguls may or may not be "into" the genre, but the can smell large profits. And these kinds of profits aren't harvested from a small out of touch with reality niche. It take large numbers of individuals forking out 5 to 10 dollars a pop, to accumulate the astronomical profits that Hollywood is seeing these days. Individuals who may or may not want to admit their avid interest in comic book characters. I will stand up and say, I enjoy watching these movies and have even started my own collection of comic book character DVDs. Who knows, maybe some day my DVDs will become as valuable as comic books. Probably not.

Although, not every individual's collection has magazines worth thousands of dollars, there are a sizable amount of collections that can be worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. These are not people that have lost touch with reality. A while back, the actor, Nicholas Cage, put his comic book collection of about 400 magazines up for auction. Word was that he might have realized a value into seven figures. That ain't chicken feed.

It is not uncommon for single additions to be worth several hundred to several thousand dollars. Some comic books can enter the realm of several hundred thousand dollars for one magazine. Now the owners have to be some pretty rich economically savvy geeks. Are these the types of small niche individuals who have lost touch with reality or don't want to confess they like comic books? So the next time you hear someone profess, yeah I collect comic books, you may want to look inside yourself and say, how do I release my hidden passion and start collecting myself?

What is Knowledge Management?

When we talked about knowledge, came across in our mind about knowledge management. It is very hard to characterize the learning the executives except if we don't have a solid thought of what is the information is. Before characterizing the information the executives needs to successfully characterize the term learning first, that we will examine later. 

Be that as it may, first we can characterize learning the board as an action which has two essential goals in a business. The main target is to gather the information that is critical for the business and has coordinate worries with the business procedure, strategy and routine with regards to an association at all dimensions. The second goal of the learning the executives s to outline scholarly resources of the association, making these huge measures of corporate data available and sharing the accepted procedures through the innovation that empowers above capacity including intranet and groupware. 

Job of learning the board in the business 

Learning the board has a critical job in keeping up a fruitful business process. In the event that you think about you will see that there is a sound association between the executives techniques, practices and business issues with the information the executives. Learning the executives likewise influences the distinctive territories of a business including; Change the board, Best practices, Risk the executives, Benchmarking Most of the specialists in business class and corporate dimension see information the board as business process reengineering. In the majority of the investigates in the ongoing past about business systems has recognized that that data and learning are business resources, and that organizations require arrangements and devices to deal with those advantages. 

Requirement for the Knowledge Management 

There is a great deal of discussion on the issue that why an association needs information the board. There are a lot of conclusions about the techniques, ways and targets of learning the executives frameworks. More often than not, requirement for learning the board is centered around upgrading inventiveness and making new information esteem — while different projects underscore utilizing existing learning. 

There is an expanding understanding that scholarly capital is essential for the development of the associations and discourse about scholarly capital has multiplied everywhere throughout the world however couple of organizations has followed up on this comprehension. Where organizations have make a move — and a developing number are doing as such — executions of "learning the executives" may go from innovation driven strategies for getting to, controlling, and conveying data to monstrous endeavors to change corporate culture. 

What is the genuine information? 

More often than not the terms data and information are regularly utilized reciprocally by business essayists. How about we pick a basic definition and continue ahead with it: Knowledge has two fundamental meanings of intrigue. The main relates to a characterized group of data. Contingent upon the definition, the assemblage of data may comprise of certainties, feelings, thoughts, hypotheses, standards, and models (or different structures). Plainly, different classes are conceivable, as well. Topic (e.g., science, arithmetic, and so forth.) is only one plausibility. Learning likewise alludes to a man's condition of being concerning some assemblage of data. These states incorporate numbness, mindfulness, commonality, comprehension, office, et cetera. In conventional impression of the job of learning in business organizations, inferred information is frequently seen as the genuine key to completing things and making new esteem. Not unequivocal information. In this manner we frequently experience an accentuation on the "learning association" and different methodologies that pressure disguise of data (through experience and activity) and age of new information through overseen connection.

Did You Inherit Your Religion?

Before we talk about other religion other than some post before, let's see how we think about it first...

One Saturday morning I was sipping my coffee and reading the newspaper when the doorbell rang.  This was an unusual occurrence as we lived in a somewhat isolated log cabin in the mountains outside Denver.  At the door stood two attractive college-age girls who wanted to talk to me about becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.

Normally I would politely say, “No thanks” and return to my paper, but that morning I decided to engage with them.  After hearing their initial pitch, I asked one of them, “Are your parents Jehovah’s Witnesses?”

“Our whole family is,” she replied.

“Do you think religion is an important thing for people to have in their lives?”

“Very,” she replied, and I agreed.

“How many other religions have you studied and investigated?”

“None.”

“Is a car an important thing in your life?” I asked.

“Well, yes, but not as important as religion.”

Again I agreed. “What kind of car do you drive?”

“A Toyota.”

“Is that what your parents drive?”

“No.”

“Why not?” I inquired.

“Because I like Toyotas better.”  She was starting to get impatient but politely continued to humor me.

“How do you know?”

“Because I like the way my Toyota looks and drives, plus it was inexpensive and gets good gas mileage.”

I nodded toward my Toyota sitting in the driveway and agreed.  “How did you know that about your car when you bought it?”

“I test drove different cars and talked to my friends about their cars.” she said, increasingly exasperated.

“So you checked out lots of different cars before deciding on your Toyota,” I gently summarized, “but your religion, which is much more important, you inherited from your parents without knowing anything about the alternatives?”

“Yeah,” she replied rather sheepishly, catching my drift.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said.  “Spend the next five years investigating and studying the other great religions of the world and then if you still want to talk to me about becoming a Jehovah’s Witness, we’ll talk.”

The girls, realizing they had a hopeless case on their hands, thanked me for my time and left.

The vast majority of people worldwide inherit their religion—one of the most important things in their lives—unquestioningly from their parents, without ever investigating the alternatives. Religion is invaluable in that it provides moral codes for societies to live by.  Yet they can also be decisive--many people are convince their religion is the only way to God, believe that other religions are heresy, and some will fight and die for it.  Did you inherit your religion?

About the author: John Penberthy is the author of To Bee or Not to Bee, A book for beings who feel there’s more to life than just making honey, an illustrated, inspirational allegory—fun yet deep—about the spiritual journey of a worker bee entrenched in the mindless tedium of life in a honeybee colony.  See the unique and creative 60 second audio-visual flash Preview at www.ToBeeBook.com/preview.html

Tips on Reading a Book Effectively

Just shared a free book in a previous post but some may find difficulties in reading it. One of the problems we face is of information overload. We read books, handouts, newspapers, magazines and Internet articles and are expected to have instant recall of the right information at the right time. For students effective reading is of even more critical importance.

Students at top b-schools have to read more than a hundred books during their course. So how do they ensure they get the best out of their reading?

The answer is ensuring a high recall of whatever they read.

What creates good recall?

Remember doodling in class? Very enjoyable, and sometimes, part of your notes are inside that doodle. How can I make doodling a part of notes-taking? Remember the game of remembering 10 objects in a tray? If you used the ‘a-b-c-d’ concept of linked association, you could remember it. Most good mnemonics are humourous in nature.

If I take one concept at a time, or one paragraph at a time and, in real time, categorise this topic and put it in conjunction with other topics, I would have made a better imprint in my mind. Add to this some colour, some squiggles, some cartoons and some highlighting, then I am interested in and looking forward to what the lecturer is going to say (of the book is talking about) so that I can make more squiggles and create something Picasso-ish (or maybe Pollock-ish).

If I repeat, I remember.

If my memory is refreshed, I will recall faster.

I don’t need to remember every line, unless it is a drama script. If I remove everything but keywords, an article/chapter can become quite small.

If I have a top level map of where I am and where I need to be, I remember the roads quite well. So a map of a book shows me how things are linked and helps me remember

If I can use sight, sound and other senses, I can recall better. My daughter creates a rap song for her history lessons, throws in some guitar chords and she remembers it all!!!

Is there a methodology to make notes in such a way that it is easy to recall?

Can this be used to take down lectures and notes from books?

I use something called mind maps .

Freemind and XMind are pretty good Open Source software, which you can install and use to make notes. It can also be used for brainstorming, outlining a project, a project report and I even use it for presentations.

But before you jump into mind maps, there are a few things to keep in mind. If you just create a mind map of a book, it is like taking a short cut, and purposeless.

Some tips on how to read a book

Approach the book outside in. This is not ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (you know, “begin at the beginning…”). Look at the cover, back cover, about the author, and read the table of contents. Close it and try to recall the table. This starts creating a map in your mind about the book and the overall territory. Read the TOC again. Think about what is different about this book. Why did this book get written (and no facetious remark, please, about making money etc.)

Understand why you want to read the book. What is it that you want from it? Is it just the concepts? Or is it to prepare for an exam? What type of exam is it? Therefore what do you need to extract from the book.

Get an idea of the time it will take to read the book. If you do not have enough time, what are your priorities? Do you need to read every line, every chapter? So what happens if you do not read this book?

All the above should take you 15 minutes maximum.

Now start with the first chapter (or the chapter you need to study)

Take a guess about the chapter. Read the section headings. Look at all the diagrams. Skim very fast, without stopping.

Now read the first line of each paragraph

This is the time when you are going to do your first recall. Create a preliminary mind map.

This should take you another 15 minutes. Later this will improve to 5 minutes.

Now read the details of the chapter, which are necessary and fill out your mind map.

If you have to remember stuff, create funny mnemonics.

Time taken for this depends on length of the chapter, the complexity and the amount of work needed.

Take a break. Reward yourself. Then go to the next chapter and do the same thing.

Link up all the chapters in the mind map. One advantage of this is that if you leave the book half way and come back to it, just by looking at the mind maps, you will retain the continuity.

If you can get together in a group and every one does a book and gives a presentation, you can all cover a lot of books. Share the maps.

What about those lectures?

Create a mind map during the lecture in your notebook. Do not use your laptop. Use color pencils, doodles (and save the desks).

Listen to what the instructor is saying, and THEN put the keywords down. This is important. If you don’t understand, you cannot write it down. Ask for a clarification. If we just blindly make notes, might as well bring a Dictaphone to class. Don’t worry that your mind map is a mess.

In the evening, recreate the mind map on your laptop. This is your first revision. Add in more details from the internet or the book. See if you can cross reference with other lectures or book reviews.

Revisit the map before the next class or while waiting for the instructor. This should hardly take you one minute and you will know what happened last time. If there is a spot quiz, you are ready!!

Modern Spirituality

When it comes to spirituality, each religion and culture have a uniqueness to offer. Some believe in reaching up to their spirit by dancing along with trance music, like in Islamic Sufism or by acts of self nullification like in strict catholic beliefs.  Psychic readings is the modern spirituality.

When it comes to spirituality, each religion and culture have a uniqueness to offer. Some believe in reaching up to their spirit by dancing along with trance music, like in Islamic Sufism or by acts of self nullification like in strict catholic beliefs.

No one is born to believe in a particular religion. It is the way a child is brought up and then what he or she chooses to believe in that determines the religion he or she will follow. A very strong link of this determination is with the faith that a person has in him or her.

One aspect of this faith then is Mysticism.

Mysticism or sometimes known as mystery religion is a conscious awareness of a superior and a definitive reality. This reality for many is closeness achieved through various means with God.

The concept of God is difficult for the human brain to accept given the scientific explanations that are present for each and every transaction that occurs in this world. It is strangely difficult to comprehend the power and existence of a being, stronger and more self sufficient than all other beings, which controls the processes occurring in this world.

This being, which cannot be heard, seen or touched, can only be experienced through the sense of feeling, which too is not physically explainable. What explains this feeling then is the concept of Mysticism.

In Mahayana Buddhism, Mysticism refers to the union of a human being, in a unique and deeply intrinsic connection, with a definitive reality. Followers of Buddhism, who are also the practitioners of Mysticism work towards the nurture and further establishment of these connection through various means.

These means can include meditation, dancing, performing standard rituals, singing, chanting along with various others.

What is interesting about this concept is that it does not bound people to a certain religion. Meaning to say that if a person is practicing Sufism for develop a connection with Allah, then, it in no way means that such a connection cannot be formed in Hinduism of Christianity. The fact of the matter is that not only are the roads towards attaining this connection very similar to each other, the destination of these roads in similar too and that is the development of a union with the ultimate truth, as has already been mentioned earlier.

According to the history of Mysticism, its roots are found in the sub continent, especially with Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism. However, researchers who work on this topic are of the view that mysticism is significantly different from any of the many stream religious practices and that the most important requirement of practicing this out of all is faith, determination and concentration. These are elements then, that have nothing or very little to do with the type of religion that a person is following. The only part that the respective religion of a person who chooses to practice mysticism play is determination of the type of practice that he or she does.

There is a part of today’s existence that not everybody is aware of. It is usual to see today, people fighting over religion, trying to prove that they are the ones on the right track of religion but it is unusual to find people who readily accept others of different religions into a movement, which helps survive the chaos that has now been created by the advent of the Age of Aquarius.

For those who believe and for those who look beyond the restrictive dogmas of this society, the New Age movement is a spiritual movement that incorporates the metaphysical and spiritual teachings in a combination from both the eastern and western traditions and religions.

As mentioned above, the new age movement does not differentiate people on the basis of their traditions or their religions and therefore, the view it presents to this world today is a holistic one incorporating again, both science and spirit.

The idea of this is to combine and utilize the knowledge and the traditions that are already helping a certain sect of people to provide peaceful help to the others too.

Rachel Saxon

Rachel Saxon writes for the psychic & metaphysical arena and is a reiki master.

Interesting Islamic Traditions

Religion is part of knowledge. Every religion has its own unique traditions and cultures which makes it different from other religions. These traditions may differ from another religion in such a way that it may get awkward for the people of other religions, but in any case, we should respect the traditions and cultures of other religions so that they would respect our religion in a good way.

The Arab culture has the high population of Muslims due to which people significantly follow the Islamic traditions and cultures. These Islamic practices can be clearly seen in there day to day life.

First tradition of Islam to say the name of Allah before doing any act. For example, if a Muslim is about to eat something or drink something, he would say Bismillah which means that the person is saying the name of their Lord before he is about to eat something or drink something. Then to eat or drink anything, Muslims uses their right hand always. They try their best to avoid using the left hand for the purpose of eating or drinking anything.

When a new born baby is born, Muslims always recite Azaan in his or her right ear which declares that the newborn is born in a Muslim family, and will spend the rest of his life as a Muslim. Also, when a Muslim is travelling to perform the holy obligation of Umrah and Hajj by any of Ramadan Umrah 2017 Low Cost Deals, these interesting packages can be availed only by just a simple call on ramadan umrah customer service number, while beforming hajj or umrah, he shaves his head and remove the hair completely as an Islamic tradition, but this tradition is only for men, not for women. Women just have to cover their head completely so that their hair doesn’t show up.

When Muslims greet each other by saying Assalmualaikum and in return the other person says Walaikum Assalam. This is a specific way of greeting both Muslims. It basically means that one Muslim is saying “may peace be upon you” to the other Muslim which is the best way to greet anyone. Also, Muslims use Maswak to clean their teeth. It is a stem of a certain tree which cleans the teeth and protects them from many gum problems. Although this tradition is not commonly seen these days due to the inventions of many products, but some Muslims still use it to maintain the traditions of their holy religion b following all the beautiful cultures of Islam.

Marghoob Bin Safdar 

The best reflection of Islam can be find in the Islamic content of Marghoob Bin Safdar who is one of the most eminent writer about the religion.

Knowledge Is Knowledge, Not Power

"Knowledge is power." --Sir Francis Bacon 

In Sir Francis Bacon's day, that quote may have been nearer the truth than today. Any little bit of knowledge gave a man or woman an edge and perhaps the power...

Admittedly, even in today's intricate world, the right knowledge places a person in a better position to survive physically, emotionally, mentally, fiscally, and common sensically. I don't know if the last one's real, I just typed it. "Stet" as the editors say.

However, no matter how much knowledge an individual possesses, it is the use, the application of the knowledge which provides the power. A blackmailer potentially has power over the victim because of the knowledge he or she possesses about the victim. If contact is not made with the victim, and the threat communicated to them, the blackmailer might as well be as powerless as if they possessed nothing at all.

Knowledge is a tool. A hammer is a tool. In my garage are three hammers: a claw hammer, a ball peen hammer, and a two pound sledge. There they sit. They are fine hammers, and each has specific tasks for which it was designed and for which I bought it. I've had one a year, one about five years, and the claw hammer since my days on a construction crew back in 1963. I know how to use each and every one of them effectively and have used them often, but, despite their value as tools and my ability as a user of these tools they are useless lumps until I pick them up and put them to the task. There is also a maul which can be used as a hammer, but I don't want to be around to observe the consequences of that misuse of a tool.

I have to be careful, by the way, as my wife has publicly avowed that all tools are ultimately hammers, so if I send her to the garage for a "hammer" there's no telling what she might return with. This brings up another point. One person's "tool" or "knowledge" may be another's liability or catastrophe in the making. As much as I love her, my wife is dangerous with tools, sharp objects, or things that can catch on fire. Were she to attempt to learn how to wield a hammer, there's no telling how much damage might be done, and Thor would hopefully swoop down from Asgard to wrest it from her hands before the course of the universe was changed and his image tarnished forever.

On the other hand, give my wife a spreadsheet program on a computer, or just a sheet of paper, and a mass of data about what is happening in other countries and financial markets around the world she can give you a pretty accurate prediction of what is going to happen in the Forex market. That's why in our house, she is the investor, and I am the guy who uses tools for esoteric purposes that she equates with magic. As far as I am concerned, and remember, I am a trained accountant, what she DOES with the facts and figures on her computer are something that I would expect Harry Potter to be dabbling in. I wonder if she went to Hogwarts?It is not merely the possession of knowledge that makes for power. Yearly, our schools churn out bright young creatures burdened with knowledge they do not fully understand. Many feel that they have power because of this knowledge. In time, perhaps they will add enough wisdom to the knowledge to allow them to create power...hopefully for the good of their fellow men and women. In the meantime, they will continually bump their delicate psyches against the hard realities of the world until when, and if, they learn how to use the knowledge at their disposal to produce power. This, by the way, is what one of my old bosses, Cecil Bray, Assistant Comptroller of a testing lab at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, called "getting the corners knocked off".

Actually, once you have gotten your corners knocked off, it may be a little easier to fit in some previously unobtainable holes where knowledge can be gained, refined, and brought into focus. Maybe that's really a slightly better formula. Instead of Knowledge = Power, perhaps Knowledge + Polishing + Plugging In = Power. Anyway, that's how power works in my house. Plug it in. Turn it on.

Donovan Baldwin

Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer. He is a University of West Florida alumnus, a member of Mensa, and is retired from the U. S. Army. He is the owner of http://texasprepaidcellular.com. He has a blog on writing and poetry at http://ravensong-poetry.blogspot.com.