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👁 :168
DR. SHEPPARD AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE
Catagory:Reading
Author:Agatha Christie(The murder of Roger Ackroyd)
Posted Date:04/25/2025
Posted By:utopia online

MRS. FERRARS died on the night of the 16th–17th September a Thursday. I was sent for at eight o’clock on the morning of Friday the 17th. There was nothing to be done. She had been dead some hours.It was just a few minutes after nine when I reached home once more. I opened the front door with my latch-key, and purposely delayed a few moments in the hall, hanging up my hat and the light overcoat that I had deemed a wise precaution against the chill of an early autumn morning. To tell the truth, I was considerably upset and worried. I am not going to pretend that at that moment I foresaw the events of the next few weeks. I emphatically did not do so. But my instinct told me that there were stirring times ahead. From the dining-room on my left there came the rattle of tea-cups and the short, dry cough of my sister Caroline. “Is that you, James?” she called. An unnecessary question, since who else could it be? To tell the truth, it was precisely my sister Caroline who was the cause of my few minutes’ delay. The motto of the mongoose family, so Mr. Kipling tells us, is: “Go and find out.” If Caroline ever adopts a crest, I should certainly suggest a mongoose rampant. One2 might omit the first part of the motto. Caroline can do any amount of finding out by sitting placidly at home. I don’t know how she manages it, but there it is. I suspect that the servants and the tradesmen constitute her Intelligence Corps. When she goes out, it is not to gather in information, but to spread it. At that, too, she is amazingly expert. It was really this last named trait of hers which was causing me these pangs of indecision. Whatever I told Caroline now concerning the demise of Mrs. Ferrars would be common knowledge all over the village within the space of an hour and a half. As a professional man, I naturally aim at discretion. Therefore I have got into the habit of continually withholding all information possible from my sister. She usually finds out just the same, but I have the moral satisfaction of knowing that I am in no way to blame.Mrs. Ferrars’ husband died just over a year ago, and Caroline has constantly asserted, without the least foundation for the assertion, that his wife poisoned him. She scorns my invariable rejoinder that Mr. Ferrars died of acute gastritis, helped on by habitual over-indulgence in alcoholic beverages. The symptoms of gastritis and arsenical poisoning are not, I agree, unlike, but Caroline bases her accusation on quite different lines.“You’ve only got to look at her,” I have heard her say.Mrs. Ferrars, though not in her first youth, was a very attractive woman, and her clothes, though simple, always seemed to fit her very well, but all the same, lots of women buy their clothes in Paris and have not, on that account, necessarily poisoned their husbands. As I stood hesitating in the hall, with all this passing through my mind, Caroline’s voice came again, with a sharper note in it.“What on earth are you doing out there, James? Why don’t you come and get your breakfast? “Just coming, my dear,” I said hastily. “I’ve been hanging up my overcoat.” “You could have hung up half a dozen overcoats in this time.” She was quite right. I could have. I walked into the dining-room, gave Caroline the accustomed peck on the cheek, and sat down to eggs and bacon. The bacon was rather cold. “You’ve had an early call,” remarked Caroline. “Yes,” I said. “King’s Paddock. Mrs. Ferrars.” “I know,” said my sister. “How did you know?” “Annie told me.” Annie is the house parlormaid. A nice girl, but an inveterate talker.There was a pause. I continued to eat eggs and bacon. My sister’s nose, which is long and thin, quivered a little at the tip, as it always does when she is interested or excited over anything. “Well?” she demanded. “A bad business. Nothing to be done. Must have died in her sleep.” “I know,” said my sister again. This time I was annoyed. “You can’t know,” I snapped. “I didn’t know myself4 until I got there, and I haven’t mentioned it to a soul yet. If that girl Annie knows, she must be a clairvoyant.” “It wasn’t Annie who told me. It was the milkman. He had it from the Ferrars’ cook.” As I say, there is no need for Caroline to go out to get information. She sits at home, and it comes to her. My sister continued: “What did she die of? Heart failure?” “Didn’t the milkman tell you that?” I inquired sarcastically. Sarcasm is wasted on Caroline. She takes it seriously and answers accordingly. “He didn’t know,” she explained.After all, Caroline was bound to hear sooner or later. She might as well hear from me. “She died of an overdose of veronal. She’s been taking it lately for sleeplessness. Must have taken too much.” “Nonsense,” said Caroline immediately. “She took it on purpose. Don’t tell me!” It is odd how, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by some one else will rouse you to a fury of denial. I burst immediately into indignant speech. “There you go again,” I said. “Rushing along without rhyme or reason. Why on earth should Mrs. Ferrars wish to commit suicide? A widow, fairly young still, very well off, good health, and nothing to do but enjoy life. It’s absurd.” “Not at all. Even you must have noticed how different she has been looking lately. It’s been coming on for the last six months. She’s looked positively hag-ridden. And you have just admitted that she hasn’t been able to sleep.” “What is your diagnosis?” I demanded coldly. “An unfortunate love affair, I suppose?” My sister shook her head. “Remorse,” she said, with great gusto. “Remorse?” “Yes. You never would believe me when I told you she poisoned her husband. I’m more than ever convinced of it now.” “I don’t think you’re very logical,” I objected. “Surely if a woman committed a crime like murder, she’d be sufficiently cold-blooded to enjoy the fruits of it without any weak-minded sentimentality such as repentance.” Caroline shook her head. “There probably are women like that—but Mrs. Ferrars wasn’t one of them. She was a mass of nerves. An overmastering impulse drove her on to get rid of her husband because she was the sort of person who simply can’t endure suffering of any kind, and there’s no doubt that the wife of a man like Ashley Ferrars must have had to suffer a good deal——” I nodded. “And ever since she’s been haunted by what she did. I can’t help feeling sorry for her.” I don’t think Caroline ever felt sorry for Mrs. Ferrars whilst she was alive. Now that she has gone where (presumably) Paris frocks can no longer be worn, Caroline is prepared to indulge in the softer emotions of pity and comprehension. I told her firmly that her whole idea was nonsense. I was all the more firm because I secretly agreed with some part, at least, of what she had said. But it is all wrong that Caroline should arrive at the truth simply by a kind of inspired guesswork. I wasn’t going to encourage that sort of thing. She will go round the village airing her views, and every one will think that she is doing so on medical data supplied by me. Life is very trying. “Nonsense,” said Caroline, in reply to my strictures. “You’ll see. Ten to one she’s left a letter confessing everything.” “She didn’t leave a letter of any kind,” I said sharply, and not seeing where the admission was going to land me. “Oh!” said Caroline. “So you did inquire about that, did you? I believe, James, that in your heart of hearts, you think very much as I do. You’re a precious old humbug.” “One always has to take the possibility of suicide into consideration,” I said repressively. “Will there be an inquest?” “There may be. It all depends. If I am able to declare myself absolutely satisfied that the overdose was taken accidentally, an inquest might be dispensed with.” “And are you absolutely satisfied?” asked my sister shrewdly. I did not answer, but got up from table.


Type:Science
👁 :132
The Town of Mirrors
Catagory:Facts
Author:BILL O’NEILL
Posted Date:04/24/2025
Posted By:utopia online

There are a number of towns in the extreme north of the world where daylight is limited and restricted throughout the winter months. However, a town in Norway has an added issue of there being mountains near it that then block out even more of the low-slung sun for those three months. Ultimately, it means that they are living in nothing more than a shadow making it rather bleak and dull. But then, the residents of Rjukan have decided that they are not going to settle for this and they have taken action in order to try to rectify things as best they can. Of course, they cannot move the town or move the mountains, so what do you think they then did? The answer was that they built huge mirrors on the mountains so they could then reflect the little amount of sunlight that appears and it now shines down onto the town. Instantly, it brightens up various areas and it has made a difference when it comes to improving the quality of life that is experienced by the inhabitants.


Type:Social
👁 :77
The Crystal Skull of Doom
Catagory: History
Author:Brian Haughton(LOST CIVILILATTONS)
Posted Date:04/24/2025
Posted By:utopia online

The Crystal Skull of Doom reproduced from the July 1936 issue of Man, when the skull was the property of Sidney Burney.The crystal skulls are enigmatic and controversial objects. Credited by some as ancient artifacts with remarkable magical and healing properties-but dismissed by others as relatively modern forgeries-there is no agreement about their origins. Some researchers have claimed that there are 13 crystal skulls located in various places around the world, only five of which have so far been located. The objects themselves are models of human skulls carved from clear quartz crystal, and the examples so far recovered vary in size from a few inches to the size of a human head. Where the skulls originated or what they were used for is a mystery, but an origin with the preColumbian cultures of South America, such as the Aztecs and Maya, have been suggested.Without doubt the most fascinating and puzzling of these crystal skulls is theMitchellHedges Skull, which possesses an eerie, alluring beauty, unequalled in other examples. The baffling story of the Skull of Doom, as it has becomeknown, is almost as strange as the object itself. The fearsome Skull of Doom is a lifesize rock which weighs around 11 pounds, 7 ounces, and is beautifully carved from a single, clear, quartz crystal. The skull features a fitted detachable jaw, which would allow for movement, as if the head was speaking. Apart from small flaws in the temples and cheekbone, it is an anatomically correct model of a human skull. The origins and discovery of this enigmatic artifact are shrouded in mystery, and as a result, the MitchellHedges Skull has no confirmed provenance. The story goes that in 1927 (or possibly 1924) English explorer and adventurer F.A. MitchellHedges (1882-1959) was investigating the ruins of a Mayan ceremonial center at Lubaantun, Belize, as part of his search for the lost site of Atlantis. With MitchellHedges on this expedition was his adopted daughter Anna MitchellHedges. On Anna's 17th birthday she was wandering around the site, when she found the top part of the rock crystal skull, underneath what appeared to be an altar. Only three months later, in the same room, the jaw part of the skull was discovered. After seeing the reaction of the locals to this strange discovery, MitchellHedges apparently offered this skull to them. But later, as he and his party were about to depart from the area, the local high priest gave the skull to MitchellHedges as a gift, in gratitude for the food, medicine, and clothing the explorer had given to his people. Doubts were cast on this romantic story with the discovery that MitchellHedges had, in fact, bought the skull for £400 at Sotheby's, London, in 1943, from Sidney Burney, the owner of an art gallery. This would tie in with the fact that MitchellHedges inexplicably makes no mention of the skull in the various newspaper articles on Atlantis which he authored in the 1930s, and the lack of photographs of the exotic artifact among those taken on his Lubaatun expedition. In fac MitchellHedges did not write anything about the skull until 1954, when he devoted only a few vague lines to it in his book Danger My Ally, the first time he mentions the crystal skull since its alleged discovery in 1927. Perhaps this was why Hedges wrote about the Skull of Doom "how it came to be in my possession I have reason for not revealing." Further evidence against Hedges discovering the artifact in Belize is provided in the July 1936 issue of Man, the journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. This issue of the journal contains an article about a study carried out of two crystal skulls, one from the British Museum, and the other called the Burney Skull. This latter artifact is none other than Hedges' Skull of Doom, obviously then the property of art dealer Sidney Burney.


Type:Social
👁 :259
CONCENTRATION
Catagory:Reading
Author:NAPOLEON HILL(LAW OF SUCCESS)
Posted Date:04/24/2025
Posted By:utopia online

T HIS LESSON HOLDS A KEYSTONE POSITION in this course, because the psychological law upon which it is based is of vital importance to every other lesson of the course.Let me first define the word concentration as it is used in this lesson: "Concentration is the act of focusing the mind on a given desire until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation." Two important laws enter into the act of concentrating the mind on a given desire. One is the law of autosuggestion and the other is the law of habit. The former having been fully described in previous lessons,I will now briefly describe the law of habit. Habit grows out of environment-the sum total of all sources by which you are influenced through the aid of the five senses of seeing,hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling-and out of doing the same thing in the same way over and over again, out of repetition, out of thinking the same thoughts over and over. Except on rare occasions when it rises above environment, the human mind draws from its surroundings the material out of which thought is created. Habit crystallizes this thought into a permanent fixture, storing it away in the subconscious mind where it becomes a vital part of our personality and silently influences our actions, forms our prejudices and our biases, and controls our opinions. A great philosopher had in mind the power of habit when he said: "We first endure, then pity, and finally embrace," in speaking of the manner in which honest men come to indulge in crime.We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.


Type:Education
👁 :180
HOW TO BECOME THE MOST FULFILLED PERSON YOU KNOW
Catagory:Reading
Author:MEL Robbins(5 SECOND RULL)
Posted Date:04/23/2025
Posted By:utopia online

We’re nearing the end of the book. You’ve learned the story of the Rule, you understand the concept of everyday courage, and you’ve covered the more tactical uses of the #5SecondRule to change behavior and change your mind. Yo u’re now ready to dive into the deeper and more soulful topics that impact your connection to yourself. First, you’ll explore confidence and how you can build it using acts of everyday courage. You’ll learn about the surprising connection between confidence and personality. You’ll meet people who have had great success building their confidence and you’ll read some deeply honest social media posts about how to reconnect with the most important person in your life yourself. Second, you’ll learn how everyday courage helps you discover your passion. You’ll meet men and women who are using the #5SecondRule to win the battle with fear and find the courage to pursue what’s in their hearts. Their examples will inspire you to do the same. Third, you’ll explore what creates deep and meaningful connections in relationships and why courage is such a critical component. The amazing stories in this section will inspire you to make the most of the time you have with the people you love and give you one simple thing that you can do at any moment and at any time to deepen your relationships. Bring tissues. This is my favorite section of the book. If you can enrich your self-confidence, passion, and connection with people, your life will transform in ways that you thought you could only dream of.


Type:Technology
👁 :92
Pope Francis
Catagory:Biography
Author:-
Posted Date:04/22/2025
Posted By:utopia online

The first Pope of the Americas Jorge Mario Bergoglio hails from Argentina. The 76-year-old Jesuit Archbishop of Buenos Aires is a prominent figure throughout the continent, yet remains a simple pastor who is deeply loved by his diocese, throughout which he has travelled extensively on the underground and by bus during the 15 years of his episcopal ministry. He was born in Buenos Aires on 17 December 1936, the son of Italian immigrants. His father Mario was an accountant employed by the railways and his mother Regina Sivori was a committed wife dedicated to raising their five children. He graduated as a chemical technician and then chose the path of the priesthood, entering the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto. On 11 March 1958 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. He completed his studies of the humanities in Chile and returned to Argentina in 1963 to graduate with a degree in philosophy from the Colegio de San José in San Miguel. From 1964 to 1965 he taught literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fé and in 1966 he taught the same subject at the Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires. From 1967-70 he studied theology and obtained a degree from the Colegio of San José. On 13 December 1969 he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano. He continued his training between 1970 and 1971 at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and on 22 April 1973 made his final profession with the Jesuits. Back in Argentina, he was novice master at Villa Barilari, San Miguel; professor at the Faculty of Theology of San Miguel; consultor to the Province of the Society of Jesus and also Rector of the Colegio Máximo of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology. On 31 July 1973 he was appointed Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina, an office he held for six years. He then resumed his work in the university sector and from 1980 to 1986 served once again as Rector of the Colegio de San José, as well as parish priest, again in San Miguel. In March 1986 he went to Germany to finish his doctoral thesis; his superiors then sent him to the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires and next to the Jesuit Church in the city of Córdoba as spiritual director and confessor. In October 2001 he was appointed General Relator to the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Episcopal Ministry. This task was entrusted to him at the last minute to replace Cardinal Edward Michael Egan, Archbishop of New York, who was obliged to stay in his homeland because of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. At the Synod he placed particular emphasis on “the prophetic mission of the bishop”, his being a “prophet of justice”, his duty to “preach ceaselessly” the social doctrine of the Church and also “to express an authentic judgement in matters of faith and morals”. Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic Church’s first Latin American pontiff who was known for his progressive stances on social issues, died in his residence in the Vatican on April 21. The 88-year-old’s death came just hours after delivering his yearly address on Easter Sunday.


Type:Technology
👁 :168
How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits
Catagory:Reading
Author:James Clear (Atomic habit)
Posted Date:04/22/2025
Posted By:utopia online

IN LATE 2012, I was sitting in an old apartment just a few blocks from Istanbul’s most famous street, Istiklal Caddesi. I was in the middle of a four-day trip to Turkey and my guide, Mike, was relaxing in a worn-out armchair a few feet away.Mike wasn’t really a guide. He was just a guy from Maine who had been living in Turkey for five years, but he offered to show me around while I was visiting the country and I took him up on it. On this particular night, I had been invited to dinner with him and a handful of his Turkish friends. There were seven of us, and I was the only one who hadn’t, at some point, smoked at least one pack of cigarettes per day. I asked one of the Turks how he got started. “Friends,” he said. “It always starts with your friends. One friend smokes, then you try it.” What was truly fascinating was that half of the people in the room had managed to quit smoking. Mike had been smoke-free for a few years at that point, and he swore up and down that he broke the habit because of a book called Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking. “It frees you from the mental burden of smoking,” he said. “It tells you: ‘Stop lying to yourself. You know you don’t actually want to smoke. You know you don’t really enjoy this.’ It helps you feel like you’re not the victim anymore. You start to realize that you don’t need to smoke.” I had never tried a cigarette, but I took a look at the book afterward out of curiosity. The author employs an interesting strategy to help smokers eliminate their cravings. He systematically reframes each cue associated with smoking and gives it a new meaning.He says things like: You think you are quitti You think you are quitting something, but you’re not quitting anything because cigarettes do nothing for you. You think smoking is something you need to do to be social, but it’s not. You can be social without smoking at all.You think smoking is about relieving stress, but it’s not. Smoking does not relieve your nerves, it destroys them. Over and over, he repeats these phrases and others like them. “Get it clearly into your mind,” he says. “You are losing nothing and you are making marvelous positive gains not only in health, energy and money but also in confidence, self-respect, freedom and, most important of all, in the length and quality of your future life.” By the time you get to the end of the book, smoking seems like the most ridiculous thing in the world to do. And if you no longer expect smoking to bring you any benefits, you have no reason to smoke. It is an inversion of the 2nd Law of Behavior Change: make it unattractive. Now, I know this idea might sound overly simplistic. Just change your mind and you can quit smoking. But stick with me for a minute.


Type:Technology
👁 :198
Break out of your soul cage
Catagory:Reading
Author:Chandler, Steve
Posted Date:04/17/2025
Posted By:utopia online

Our society encourages us to seek comfort. Most products and services advertised day and night are designed to make us more comfortable and less challenged. And yet, only challenge causes growth. Only challenge will test our skills and make us better. Only challenge and the self-motivation to engage the challenge will transform us. Every challenge we face is an opportunity to create a more skillful self. So it is up to you to constantly look for challenges to motivate yourself with. And it's up to you to notice when you're buried alive in a comfort zone. It's up to you to notice when you are spending your life, in the image of the poet William Olsen, like a flower "living under the wind." Use your comfort zones to rest in, not to live in. Use them consciously to relax and restore your energy as you mentally prepare for your next challenge. But if you use comfort zones to live in forever, they become what rock singer Sting calls your "soul cages." Break free. Fly away. Experience what the philosopher Fichte meant when he said, "Being free is nothing. Becoming free is heavenly." *** “You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. The intense effort, the giving of everything you’ve got, is a very pleasant bonus.” Edmund Hillary explorer


Type:Technology

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