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WITandWISDOM(tm) - October 28, 2003 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "The only true gift is a portion of yourself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson Source: Arizona Humor, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arizona_humor/ ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs during his baseball career, but on this particular day toward the end of his career, the Braves were playing the Reds in Cincinnati, and the great Bambino was no hero. He fumbled the ball and threw badly. In one inning alone, his errors were responsible for most of the five runs scored by Cincinnati. As the Babe walked off the field and headed toward the dugout after the third out, a crescendo of angry cries and boos rose to greet him. Then . . . a boy jumped over the railing and ran out onto the field. With tears streaming down his face, he threw his arms around the legs of his hero. Ruth didn't hesitate for a second. He picked up the boy, hugged him, then set him down and patted his head. The cries from the crowd abruptly stopped. A hush fell over the entire park. In that brief moment, the fans saw two heroes on the field: Ruth, who, in spite of his own dismal day in fielding, cared about the feelings of a young fan; and a small boy, who cared about the feelings of another human being. Source: God's Little Devotional Book, by Honor Books Publishing Staff, Published by Honor Books (c) June 1995, ISBN: 1562920960, http://isbn.nu/1562920960 ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: My friend was driving through the Australian outback when he spotted some road work ahead with a green Go sign next to it. As he got closer, a workman appeared from a nearby tent and, for no apparent reason, turned the sign to Stop. "Why did you do that?" asked my friend after he had pulled over. "Come on, mate," the workman said. "You're the first person to pass by here in two weeks. Won't you stop for half an hour and have a cup of tea?" Contributed by Helen Cowley Source: Reader's Digest, Copyright (c) September 2000, http://www.readersdigest.com/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: "The difference between a violin and a viola is that a viola burns longer." - Victor Borge Source: Clean Laffs, http://www.shagmail.com/sub/sub-jokes.html ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: If All of Earth's Glacial and Polar Ice Melted, How Much Land Would Be Left? By Ryan Fleming, Jersey City, New Jersey Well, it wouldn't be a bad idea to round up animals in pairs: The oceans could surge more than 250 feet. Pretty much all of Florida would be gone, and every low-lying Gulf state would see its borders shrink significantly. Antarctica would contribute an estimated 230 feet to the rising sea level; Greenland, 21 feet; and the rest of the Earth's ice, 2 feet. (Because the floating ice of the North Pole is already displacing water, its melting would not contribute to an overall increase in sea level.) "Even a five-meter [16.4-foot] rise would take out most of the world's major cities; New York, Bombay, Amsterdam," says Roger Barry, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado http://www.nsidc.org But hold off on purchasing that beachfront property in Atlanta. Even given what appears to be an acceleration in global warming due to greenhouse gases and a progressing interglacial period (the time between ice ages), any large-scale melt will be a longtime coming. And even if warming continues at its present rate (no one is sure it will), Greenland wouldn't liquefy for a few thousand years; Antarctica's 5,245,738 square miles of ice, because of elevation and where the continent is situated on the globe, may never completely melt. Make no mistake, however: A thaw has begun. For more information, visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse Source National Geographic Adventure, October 2003, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure |