Paul Walker, the actor famous for Fast & Furious, died in a car crash yesterday, with his friend who was driving the car. I only knew about this because it was all over twitter. If you said his name to me, I wouldn't know who he is (haven't watched F&F) but he did look familiar when I saw his pics.

So a celeb dies and you get people on social media sending their prayers, upset and crying. Then you get the people who're all like "Look at how much they care about a celeb's death, but they don't care about those dying in wars and the poverty-ridden". Tbh I think I have been one of those people in the past. But I came to realise the disrespect that is giving to a life and to the family and friends of the life that has gone. 

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UN Secretary-General's Campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women

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Do you think this is possible, realistically? If a country agrees to accept domestic violence as a crime, how will they enforce this law and ensure that it doesn't happen? How will they encourage those who are sworn into secrecy to speak out?

This week the "Pakistani Taliban" (TTP for short) waded into a very serious issue for a second time. An issue more important than life and death for many people - Cricket.

The situation arose when the talented Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar retired and the press was pretty much unanimous that a cricketing great had retired.

Even the Pakistani press lavished him with praise and apparently this was too much for the TTP.

They decided to warn the Pakistani media against such a thing - after all, Sachin Tendulkar didn't play for Pakistan but for India! How dare the "corrupt media" lavish him with praise? this was "against the motherland" and probably treasonous.

Another copy and paste job, but this is an interesting article. Some of these points are easily dismissed, so it makes you think outside the box. Though the last one contradicts the first point.

Nine Ways To Become Smarter Than You Think:

1. Spend Significant Chunks of Time Offline

2. Engage in “Cognitive Diversity”: Do Something Mentally Different

3. Don’t Isolate Yourself: Learn Social Thinking

4. Find Your Passion: It Drives Memory and Creativity

5. Don’t Just Follow The “Thought Leaders” Or Elite

6. Know When (And When Not) To Rely On “Outsourced Intelligence”

7. Play Video Games, The Gateway Drug To New Learning 

8. Be Willing To Adapt Your Thinking Strategies

This weekend more talks are underway to try to get some sort of deal with Iran in relation to its nuclear programmes. At the last round France had destroyed the chance of a settlement being reached.

While Iran has not made a concerted effort to produce nuclear warheads, it shouldn't write them off the table too easily.

Iran has a good reason to get a settlement - it (supposedly) stops the US from attacking and the cripling warlike sanctions imposed by the US but (at gunpoint) honoured by the rest of the world may be eased allowing some respite for the people.

However Iran should be wary as history repeats the tale of the nation which gave up something key as part of some grand bargain only for its enemies to destroy it shortly afterwards.

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Mentally strong people have healthy habits. They manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in ways that set them up for success in life.

1. They Don’t Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves

2. They Don’t Give Away Their Power

3. They Don’t Shy Away from Change

4. They Don’t Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control

5. They Don’t Worry About Pleasing Everyone

6. They Don’t Fear Taking Calculated Risks

7. They Don’t Dwell on the Past

8. They Don’t Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over

9. They Don’t Resent Other People’s Success

10. They Don’t Give Up After the First Failure

11. They Don’t Fear Alone Time

12. They Don’t Feel the World Owes Them Anything

Have you ever considered the compliments that you get?

Whether they have been out of pity or not?

Whether they were serious?

How much faith do you put on compliments and praises?