DECISION STATS

The Race -by D.H Groberg

The Race�
by D. H. Groberg

Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure�s face,�
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.

A children�s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,�
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn�t hard to tell.

They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race�
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.

Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,�
and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,�
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy�s desire.

One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,�
was running in the lead and thought �My dad will be so proud.�

But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,�
the little boy who thought he�d win, lost his step and slipped.

Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,�
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.

As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn�t win it now.�
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.

But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,�
which to the boy so clearly said, �Get up and win that race!�

He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that�s all,�
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.

So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,�
his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.

He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.�
�I�m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn�t try to race.�

But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father�s face�
with a steady look that said again, �Get up and win that race!�

So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.�
�If I�m to gain those yards,� he thought, �I�ve got to run real fast!�

Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten…
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.

Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.�
�There�s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I�m out! Why try?�

I�ve lost, so what�s the use?� he thought. �I�ll live with my disgrace.��
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he�d have to face.

�Get up,� an echo sounded low, �you haven�t lost at all,�
for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.

Get up!� the echo urged him on, �Get up and take your place!�
You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!�

So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,�
and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn�t quit.

So far behind the others now, the most he�d ever been,�
still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.

Three times he�d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.�
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.

They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,�
head high and proud and happy — no falling, no disgrace.

But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,�
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.

And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,�
you would have thought he�d won the race, to listen to the crowd.

And to his dad he sadly said, �I didn�t do so well.��
�To me, you won,� his father said. �You rose each time you fell.�

And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,�
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.

For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.�
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.

And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,�
another voice within me says, �Get up and win that race!�

�

-This is a nice poem I found on the net. Hope you liked it.

Ajay

An Indian online pioneer is Mr John TP of www.johntp.com . With some 3000 Feedburner readers, he knows a trick or two about retaining and attracting traffic. His niche is the how-to or online equivalent of do-it-yourself blogging , which is how to make more money. Some of the tips are really handy and his whole site is designed thoughtfully.

It may not be as good looking as some international non Indian sites that I have seen, but from a pure no nonsense blogging tip site- it is quite nice.Maybe John needs to spend some of that money on getting the creatives done ,rather than edit the css himself. The coding tips he writes are quite simplistic and extremely useful for non-coders.

Recommended if you are starting a blog or website for making money ( which www.DecisionStats.com is not- its a non-profit as opposed to a non-making profit)

Carbon Footprints in the snow

Carbon Foot Print in terms of electricity usage-

A study at http://www.climatetalk.org.uk/downloads/CarbonCostofChristmas2007.pdf

"An analysis of the carbon footprint of Christmas in the UK shows that consumption of items such as food, travel, lighting and gifts at Christmas produces as much as 650 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per person – equal to 5.5% of the UK annual carbon footprint. Over Christmas, the average person could produce as much as:

26 kg of CO2 from Christmas food
96 kg of CO2 from Christmas Car travel
218 kg of CO2 from extravagant lighting displays
310 kg of CO2 on Christmas Shopping

Christmas carbon emissions could be reduced by up to 60 per cent to about 250 kg"

A good article that discusses the weighted average cost of carbon has been published by KyotoPlanet, view the http://kyotoplanet.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

Now I would be the last person to recommend you cut down on Christmas spending ( unless your mortgage ,credit card company are giving trouble – which they are doing for everyone)

A site here tells you to offset your carbon footprint by planting trees. So go ahead, leave your fottprint but try and plant a tree too.

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/plantingtrees.html

"Each tree planted ‘offsets’ your environmental impact by ‘breathing’ in about 1 tonne of CO2 emissions over its lifetime of 100 years. It is estimated that the average person needs to save about 7,000 kg of CO2 per year. So planting just 7 trees each year is one strategy for achieving this.

All trees planted are native broad-leaved trees, which as well as taking in CO2 also provide sustainable habitat for wildlife and enhance the natural landscape."

These could be an emerging market opportunity for planting trees, saving the world , making a profit ( and you dont have to be James Bond to save the world)

Ancient Hindu texts said that planting a tree is as beneficial as having seven sons ( or daughters in todays world).

So go ahead- shop for christmas, get a Christmas tree and plant some more trees.

It’s the season of joy- and in 2008 it starts early 🙂

Sources- Compiled from Wikipedia and the indispensable ,inevitable www.google.com

Newsletters by FeedBlitz

In case you did not know it the best free newsletter is by www.feedblitz.com, with much more features than www.feedburner.com which was a pioneer in the field of burning RSS feeds and making them into newsletters. So if you have a blog,a corporate intranet, or a group of friends, family you want to publish a newsletter to – try these sites. For free of course- though FeedBlitz has premium features to help get you rid of the default ads.

Book: SAS for Dummies

A surprisingly easy to read and affordable book for learning the SAS language as well as other aspects of SAS software is SAS for Dummies by Stephen McDaniel. Its only 30 USF full price and at Amazon you can get it even for 20 $ ( which is variable- today’s price). I found the contents of the book really interesting, great reviews by others, and given the high quality of Stephen’s contribution to the SAS -L list cant wait to get my copy before I give a detailed review.

Also you can read the man’s blog here at http://stephenmcdaniel.us/ to check the quality and simplicty of his analytical teachings in SAS.

Best Internet Marketing 2008:

No surprises here- The best Internet campaign belongs to the Obama Political Campaign .They raised a record sum of money from a record number of people thus changing the political fund raising game by eliminating the middle men also known as lobbyists.

Between January 2008 and Today the Obama campaign sent some 201 emails. Some innovative fatures –

1) Multiple Email Senders – Michelle Obama,Barack Obama, Campaign Managers David Plouffe Campaign CFO Marianne Markowitz , John Kerry and John Carson Joe Biden etc. These made for a refreshing change in the usual sender list.

2) Communication Style- The messages started positively and always ended with an urgent note to send atleast 5 $. Some more innovations were sponsoring T shirts front row seats ,matching donations or even helping with calls if not making donations.

3) Use of Links – Instead of long emails , the messages smartly used links to direct people to the appropriate places .

Here is a summary paste of the whole campaign-A detailed quantitaive note could have been done with the public disclosures to see corelation between messages and funds raised- but that can be done later 😉