-- You, on the other hand, have to get your big butt in gear. Otherwise, you'll just sit there dreaming.

-- > Would you have bet on these guys?

--> This, my friend, is your lucky day. Everything is FREE. -- We, the IASL, haven't charged you for our services, other than when you join - a first year Association Dues. -- You, on the other hand, have to get your big butt in gear. Otherwise, you'll just sit there dreaming.

%:-}~[||)\\===;

-- "To be conscience that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscience of our own existence." -- Aristotle, Nicomachear Ethics

-- Whether you have been working on an idea for years, just got this zillion dollar idea, have been struggling on a prototype -- and now you're stuck and want more help...this IASL website is the place for good - honest - advice:

-- "Fight for the full loaf, take half a loaf; you can always come back and fight for the other half tomorrow." -- Hubert Humphrey

-- "Food Inventors Network" --

-- "YOUR RECIPE Professionaly Developed * Labeled & Bottled

>--> "Top Secret Recipes - What's New"

-- "10 Extra Large and Extra Cheesy Pizza Ads" -- More Sexxy Ads

E-readers face tough competition | Technology | Reuters

-- -- A Penny for Your Thoughts -- --

-- "There is more stainless steel used in the U.S. each year for bottle caps than for automobile bodies." -- The History Channel

-- "The automobile was invented in 1886; the used car lot (17 cars) was invented in 1897."

-- We didn't consider the fact that we were all somewhat poor 'in the good old days' :-)
-- A Few Choice Prices from 1949
-- First Class Stamp, 3 cents
-- A Daily Post-Dispatch Newspaper, 3 cents, and the Sunday only 10 cents
-- Bread, 14 cents a loaf
-- Gasoline, 26 cents a gallon
-- Kraft's Velveeta, 30 cents for 8 ounces
-- Del Monte asparagus, 35 cents for a
19 ounce can
-- Milk, 84 cents a gallon
-- Roses, $1.98 for 25
-- Lowest-priced 1949 Ford, $1,472
-- Lowest priced Cadillac, $2,966
-- The minimum wage was 40 cents an hour (about $882 a year, based on a 40-hour week). --Congress mandated a dollar-an-hour minimum wage in 1970.

-- 1967 introduced NEW Words and Phrases into our vocabulary: Boutique, Hippie or Hippy, Teeny-Bopper, Nitty Gritty, Permanent Press, Narc, Hipsters, Kinky, Public Television, Scam, Swap Meet and Think Tank. Counterculture figurehead Dr.Timothy Leary advises, "Turn on, tune in, drop out".

-- -- The average income in the 1920s was $2,000 a year.

-- -- Of course, a hundred years before, 1849, a Spanish Silver Dollar was scored to be broken into 8 pieces. That's were we got the expression, "2-bits," i.e., a quarter of a dollar (for a loose woman, a good piece of ...). Most people worked for 10-cents an hour, a dollar a day. And farmers only made about $40.00 a month. A prospector's gold-dust brought $18.00 an ounce. - Did you ever see ten or twenty-dollar gold-pieces and see how small they were? And what their values are today? - Gold is heavy--hence gold coins are small. - There are many metals heavier than lead and gold being one of them.

-- "Uranium is the heaviest metal found in nature.."

-- "I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want." -- Mark Twain

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS: --
-- -- Not giving up before you start. - Not giving up 'after' you start. Figuring out where you are. "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line." -- Only losers give up. Winners look around and see that they've moved further up in the line. -- And if you do hit a barrier, go around it or over it--keep climbing, and KEEP THINKING: --> "How can I take advantage of my situation? -->

-- --> In 1858, it took three weeks to send a message from Missouri to California by stagecoach.
-- --> In 1860, it took three days to send it much faster from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacremento, California by Pony Express.
-- --> In 1861, it took less than an hour to send a message from the east-coast to the west-coast by telegraph wire.

-- I'm thinking of that pathetically-funny cartoon of that forlorn female skeleton. sitting there on a park bench covered with spider-webs. She's wearing a hat, coat and shoes. - Sitting there with dead posies in her clenched boney fists. The caption reads: "Waiting For The Perfect Man".
:-))
-- Nobody said life would ever be perfect. --
-- -- A skeleton goes into a bar and says to the bartender, "Quick! Give me a shot of whiskey and a mop." --

-- Perhaps you will be the one with the perfect solution or invention to make the hurt go away? -- Robert Scheinkman

-- "Wal-Mart says it classifies its customers into three groups: brand aspirationals, price sensitive affluents, and value-price shoppers. Wal-Mart says the new categories will replace the old customer classifications: teeth or no teeth."
-- Conan O'Brien

-- "Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened." -- Sir Winston Churchill

-- -- "Staying in a rut means that you are on the well travelled road. Getting off that road leads to an adventure of a lifetime." -- R.S.

-- A Touchstone of History --
-- Who first said? -
- "You'll need us for protection."
- A. James Bond -
--- On His Majesty's Secret Service
- B. John Wayne -
--- U.S. Military Security Command
- C. The Mafia -
--- Community Development Production Workers
- D. Kimberly-Clark® -
--- Personal Hygiene Aids: Perfect Fit
A 'gotcha' factoid - always do your research - don't believe everything you read.

-- Benjamin Franklin invented crop insurance. --

-- An eleven-year old boy invented the popsicle.

-- -- Go Forth And Multiply -- Just don't go around moping; slumping low in someone else's shadow, whimpering, "I could have been rich -- that new invention would have been mine if only I'd.." --

-- -- "One day you will be in this room
with your shadows and bad memories.."
-- Dustin Hoffman, to Gene Hackman, in Runaway Jury

-- You've read your three inventors' books and are looking around for a fourth. -- Next, read "MILLIONS from the MIND" by Alan R. Tripp.
-- With stories of 50 successful inventors, this is the book that you should seriously consider before spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. A real value @ $29.95

-- -- "Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."-- Chinese Proverb

-- -- "Because, the atomic bomb is the invention to end all inventions."

-- If I give you a dollar and you give me a dollar, we both have one dollar. But if I give you an idea and you give me an idea, we each have two ideas. That's the power of brainstorming -- creating a lot of ideas to help solve problems or do things better.

-- I thrive on creativity, and brainstorming is creativity at its grass roots. Unfortunately, most of us have been in brainstorming sessions when something destroys the mood that allows people to openly express their ideas. It can be as simple as a snicker or a laugh. When you're brainstorming, rule #1 should be that there are no bad ideas. Sometimes you have to go on a wild goose chase to realize wildly creative ideas.

-- Advertising genius Alex Osborn integrated creativity with everything he did, every day. Considered the "father of brainstorming," a term he helped coin in 1939, Osborn devoted his life to promoting and teaching creative thinking. And the fiercest enemy of creativity, he believed, was criticism: "Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud. Any of us will put out more and better ideas if our efforts are appreciated."

-- Here are some brainstorm killers to strongly avoid if you want your session to be profitable and the remedies I recommend for each:

• Allow criticism: - Nothing will kill a brainstorming session faster than allowing comments like, "Are you kidding?" "You're crazy." "Boy that's stupid." No one should laugh at another's idea or shake their head in disgust.
• Don't have any fun: - Brainstorming is supposed to be fun. For 40-plus years at MackayMitchell Envelope Company, we've opened all our sales meetings with everyone going around the table and telling a funny, tasteful joke. Laughter relaxes people. You have to create a relaxed atmosphere to get people in the mood to brainstorm ideas.
• Favor some ideas: - Every idea is equal. You can't play favorites. Remember, there is no such thing as a bad idea in a brainstorming session. Some turkey suggestions can turn into soaring eagles.
• Everybody speaks only when it is their turn: - Brainstorming is improvisation at its best. You can't slow things down and make sure everyone goes in order. Spontaneity is important. Allow participants to share ideas whenever inspiration hits. Take advantage of flashes of genius.
• The boss has a lead role: - There is no problem with the boss being on hand, but he or she is on an even footing with everyone else. All are there to provide ideas. The boss is merely a member of the group. Don't allow a hostile takeover.
• Type of participants isn't important: - If you truly want to brainstorm a problem, you can't have everyone from the same department in the room. You need people from sales, customer service and production. "Outsiders" provide a different point of view. But you can't have forced participation. People should want to be there. Similarly, employees can't be afraid of "consequences" if they say the wrong thing.
• Write everything down: - I can't tell you how many times I've been in brainstorming sessions where every idea gets written down on a board and the time delay slows the creativity process. Have a note taker who can write fast or knows shorthand. Maybe you want to have two people take notes so you don't miss anything. But don't slow down the creative process.
• Don't set any ground rules: - Set a time limit. Let people know what to expect.
• Bad atmosphere: - On-site is best, but the setting needs to be comfortable and free of distractions. Pick a time when people are fresh and not rushed.
• Lack of a skilled facilitator: - You need someone who can keep things moving, fun and focused on the task at hand. Look for someone who will stop any criticism of ideas and keep the boss in his or her place. A facilitator need not be a good brainstormer, just good at pulling ideas out of people.
• Don't act on any ideas: - If you or your company have a history of not following through on anything, employees will view the exercise as a waste of time and all you get is sarcastic input.

--> Mackay's Moral: "Minds are like parachutes; not much good unless they are open."
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You know it is time to reassess your relationship with your computer when.....

1. You wake up at 4 O'clock in the morning to go to the bathroom and stop to check your email on the way back to bed.

2. You turn off your computer and get an awful empty feeling, as if you just pulled the plug on a loved one.

3. You decide to stay in college for an additional year or two, just for the free internet access.

4. You laugh at people with 28.8 modems.

5. You start using smileys :-) in your snail mail.

6. You find yourself typing "com" after every period when using a word processor.com

7. You can't correspond with your mother because she doesn't have a computer.

8. When your email box shows "no new messages" and you feel really depressed.

9. You don't know the gender of your three closest friends because they have nondescript screen name and you never bothered to ask.

10. You move into a new house and you decide to "Netscape" before you landscape.

11. Your family always knows where you are.

12. In real life conversations, you don't laugh, you just say "LOL, LOL".

13. After reading this message, you immediately forward it to a friend!