George Kosch, Worldprofit’s Bootcamp Instructor, kicked off today’s Home Business Bootcamp Training session with a revealing  discussion on why people quit a business opportunity.

New Members were directed to the VIDEO for Beginners posted in the Worldprofit Member area under the training section so as not to get off track.

Following this discussion, George dove right into the focus of today’s session – the big picture. Specifically what you need to do and why you need to do it to build your successful online business. Considerable time was spent trying to help people understand why list building is so critical to making sales.

George revealed today what he thinks is a $10,000 strategy for list building and profiting from your blog. If you missed the LIVE training today, you will want to watch the recorded version to hear for yourself this powerful money-making strategy.

Other topics covered in today’s Home Business Bootcamp Training:

Blogging
Commenting
PLR Products
ClickBank
List Building with optin subscribers
Aweber
Sign up Bonuses
Get Response
Worldprofit’s Offer Builder
Drop Box
Landing Pages
JV Zoo OTO Secret Weapons
Worldprofit Goody Bag

George spent some time making Members aware of some powerful resources included in the Worldprofit Membership.

George reminded Members that Worldprofit regularly buys PLR Products than makes them available FREE exclusively to Silver and Platinum VIP Members. This is an under-utilized resource that many members aren’t even aware of! Currently we have over 200 valuable products that you can download FREE! The products cover money-making and learning topics including blogging, article marketing, link building, traffic generation, ad copy, social media, Google and much more. The value of these products alone is well over $2,500 so take advantage of this!

The Article Marketing Directory is another valuable resource at the fingertips of Worldprofit Members. Currently we have over 525 articles available for you to use in your blogs, for article marketing, your website etc.  We post new articles several times a week so you always have access to new and unique content. Search engines LOVE this stuff and is powerful for helping with your search engine ranking.  If you are not using this resource – go have a look.  You will find the Article Directory in your Member area under the MONEY MAKERS section.   You can learn just by reading these articles and list build and earn by promoting them.

Offers are the key to drumming up sales. Who doesn’t like to get something for free!  The Offer Builder is yet another resource that Members have access to within the Worldprofit Member area.  This tool has one purpose: to help you make sales.  Find the Offer Builder in your Member area under the left menu, select RESELLERS CLUB, there you will find the link.  Start creating your own bonuses to make sales, use the free products as giveaways to keep a grumpy person happy.  All the resources to do so are in your Member area.  Are you starting to see why building your list is so important? Promote an offer to your list, include an offer, get a  sale!

Throughout the training, George took questions from participants. All questions are encouraged.

IMPORTANT NOTE for NEW Worldprofit Members: If you are brand new to Worldprofit and feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount of information you have been provided, or the various terms being use, we urge you watch the BASIC TRAINING VIDEO. The basic training video covers terms you should know, the basics of our program and what you need to focus on to get on track to making money online with the Worldprofit system. Find this video in your Member area, on the TOP MENU select TRAINING then click on the link for the video that is marked as the MUST WATCH BEGINNER’S VIDEO. If you have any questions submit a Support form so we can also help you that way.

Thank you to each of you for participating in today’s LIVE interactive Home business bootcamp training. We had lots of questions today and we encourage this. The LIVE training is the perfect opportunity to tap into George Kosch’s expertise and get direct instant answers with on-screen demonstration.

A few comments from today’s Home Business Bootcamp participants about the training and latest Worldprofit innovations being developed for Members.

Arthur: Thank for the lesson
Richard:  I love it
Ned: Thanks much!
Liz: Thank you George
James: Thank you George and Sandi for all of your support and ongoing development of our platform. I really appreciate it!

Recording of April 6th, 2012 Bootcamp Training:  The recording of today’s session will be posted later today to the Member area (under top menu TRAINING) for the convenience of those not able to attend the LIVE training or who arrived late.

Next LIVE Home Business Bootcamp Training: April 13th at 10 AM CT.

For more information on Worldprofit’s Home Business Training and Earn at Home programs, get a free Associate Membership at http://www.worldprofit.com
We have some free goodies for everyone who signs up as a free Member.   

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. Future historians, if any of Clio’s ranks remain, will scrutinize this period of our planet as the days when Earth reached its tipping point and began its descent to the unimaginable horrors of the Apocalypse. At least this is the sobering prediction of the International Panel on Climate Change, founded in 1988 by the United Nations. This article highlights this panel, its work, its dire predictions… and asks you not only to contemplate what is happening to us all… but what you can do to save yourself, your family and the pied a terre in the Cosmos for our vulnerable species.

But first, go to any search engine and smile. For not all weather predictions are cataclysmic. Take the one made in 1982 by The Weather Girls, also known as Two Tons o’ Fun. Their hit — their one and only hit — was called “It’s Raining  Men” and featured two plus-size African-American women cavorting with scantily clad boy toys falling from a beneficent heaven. It was cheeky, irreverent… and a superbly good dance song. When this ancient body was much younger and more limber, I cut the rug with it myself. Listen to it now…. because it’s the last thing in this article that gives you absolutely nothing to worry about.

About the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

March 28, 2012 this Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists released its latest bomb shell, in the form of a 594-page report. This report represents an important development in its work. Up until now, the panel has focused on the slow, inexorable rise of temperatures and oceans as part of global warning. Their work, while important and telling to anyone who could read between the lines, didn’t attract much notice. Indeed, since it was the work of scientists and climate wonks who never met a somnifacient phrase they didn’t like, their important work went largely unread.

But this year and this report are very different.

This report is the first to examine the less common but far more noticeable extreme weather changes, which in recent years have been causing $80 billion annually in damage. As Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, one of the report’s top editors, says, “We mostly experience weather and climate change through the extreme. That’s where we have the losses. That’s where we have the insurance payments. That’s where things have the potential to fall apart.”

“There is disaster risk almost everywhere.”

The conclusion of Field and fellow panelists is stark and cannot be misunderstood. Thus, you can almost hear the instructions given to participants at the start of their important work…

“Friends and colleagues. Our many previous endeavors reported facts in a calm, deliberative fashion. We knew what the findings meant… but because we were not explicit in our conclusions almost no one else did. Thus we assuaged our consciences by reassuring ourselves that we had done our work… and it was for others to draw the implications and do the necessary follow-up work to make sure that the science we knew became the basis for necessary policy changes. But this is no longer enough. We must not only be accurate fact finders, but absolutely clear on what this means and what must be done. In other words, we must go beyond the usual role of scientist and behave as a citizen of the world committed to saving our planet by doing what is necessary before it is too late.”

On this basis, the panel has produced what is to date their most important and influential work.

Item: Some places, particularly parts of Mumbai in India could become uninhabitable from floods, storms, and rising seas. In 2005, over 24 hours nearly 3 feet of rain fell on the city, killing more than 1000 people at once and causing massive damage. Roughly 2.7 million people live in areas at risk of flooding.

Item: Many other cities are also at high risk including Miami, Shanghai, Bangkok, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, Myanmar’s Yangon (formerly Rangoon), and India’s Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).

Item: Entire countries like the Maldives are at risk, facing submersion because of rising seas and fierce storms.

Said Field, “The decision about whether or not to move is achingly difficult, and I think it’s one that the world community will have to face with increasing frequency in the future.”

At risk.

This report is unique because it emphasizes managing risks and how taking precautions can work. In other words, it not only highlights risks but is explicit in its recommendations about how to handle them. In fact, the panel report uses the word “risk” 4,387 times… and gives examples of how various cities and countries have learned from them, thereby providing solutions and models for other challenged entities.

Item: Field pointed to storm-and-flood-prone Bangladesh, an impoverished nation that has learned from past disasters. In 1970, a Category 3 tropical cyclone named Bhola killed more than 300,000 people. In 2007, a stronger cyclone killed just 4,200 people. Despite the loss of life, the country is reckoned a success story because it was better prepared and invested in warning and disaster prevention.

By comparison, a country that was not so prepared, Myanmar, was hit with a similar-size storm in 2008, which killed over 138,000 people. This avoidable disaster makes it clear why the work of this panel is so important. Over 138,000 people might well be alive if the repressive government of Myanmar focused less time and money crushing its people and more on the early warning and other tools needed to diminish the horrific weather effects that batter them so often and which this report makes clear will worsen in the years ahead.

The worst is yet to come… unless…

The study — all 594 pages of it — is a Pandora’s box of looming catastrophes. Tropical cyclones — including hurricanes in the United States — will get stronger because of present-day and worse-to-come climate changes. Heat waves and record hot temperatures worldwide will increase with increased downpours in Alaska, Canada, northern and central Europe, East Africa, and north Asia.

Action now… or worldwide grief later.

In the face of so much alarming news, all supported by exact science, it is easy to opt out, confident there is nothing the average person can do but wait and hope. Such a conclusion is not only wrong but calamitous. Here’s what you can do:

1) Urge school officials to disseminate these findings so that young people, who have so much to lose, can be informed.

2) Ask your elected representatives what they are doing to stem the tide and give us meaningful measures, not just partisan rhetoric that is so out-of-place in solving this problem.

3) Make every day “Earth Day”, a top priority. For there can be no progressive change of any kind if the very Earth is threatened, at risk, and increasingly vulnerable.

And I tell you this: when all the water is polluted, when all the air is toxic, when every once fertile acre is arid, we shall still have money. For unlike all the other elements, God-made, money is man made; so let’s spend what is necessary to ensure that our one and only home — Earth — remains as secure as possible, as verdant and productive… a place not of lamentation and anxieties but where all the crucial weather information can be sung by Weather Girls who tell you, “According to our sources, the street’s the place to go/ Cause tonight for the first time/ Just about half past ten/ For the first time in history/ It’s gonna start raining men!” And that’s a fact.

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

We know now that history is a tricky business, that it is easy to forget times and dates and confuse and muddle what actually happened. Suzy tells everyone she must have been the first person he spoke to, but Suzy is an unreliable source… and besides was a confirmed addict who often disappeared into her own world where she heard voices and saw people who didn’t really exist but frightened her anyway….  still when she tells this story she gets a far away look in her eyes… and she looks younger, calmer and she’s almost beautiful again. What drug, I wondered, has that quality?

Here’s what we do know.

One day the man who called himself Jesus wasn’t here in Harvard Square…. then the next day he was. That isn’t unusual. When the first mild spring days arrive run-aways, addicts, the homeless and down and out spread out from the Pit at the main subway entrance, in the stretch along Massachusetts Avenue from the Coop to the bus stop at the corner of Mass and Garden St. It’s all hospitable territory for the panhandling down-and-out. That’s why no one took much notice of Jesus; he was just another loser blown in, to stay for a while, then go on his tangled way.

Still, the man wasn’t what we usually saw hereabouts.  He didn’t seem to be strung out on drugs, wasn’t up to snuff on where to find drugs, which drugs you could mix to intensify the high… and which ones you must never mix if you want to wake up again. He didn’t talk to you or even seem to listen to the conversations about where to find drugs, who had them, who you needed to conciliate, who was a good guy and who wasn’t.

But then there was that incident with Ben…

Ben was Suzie’s… what? Lover? Boy toy? Child? One minute you’d see Ben up and pan handling; the next moment his head would be in Suzie’s lap, a pieta’ not quite blocking the way into the CVS store. she coddled him, held him, tolerated his infidelities. One day, and it must have been the first such day, Ben started vomiting, screaming, moaning. Suzie was hysterical. She kept saying “Help us! Help us! Help us!” But no one wanted to hear, much less help…

… except Jesus.

And as it happened, I saw the entire episode myself. Jesus appeared as if from nowhere. But it was his eyes which were so arresting. His eyes… and his hands. He looked first at Suzie; she stopped screaming. I can tell you that Jesus didn’t say a single word… then he placed his hands on Ben’s head, as if to comfort and reassure. First Ben stopped moaning… then he sat up and smiled, “Thanks, man,” he said. “I’m better now.” With his hands still on Ben’s head, Jesus said these words, his eyes were infinite and kind:

“Don’t think about tomorrow. Think about today for tomorrow will take care of itself. Remember, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

“Cool”, said Ben.

I thought, he’s one of these new street healers popping up in the Square. But they always ask for something; Jesus didn’t. Maybe there’s some kind of free offer.

I didn’t see Jesus again for a few weeks. that, too, was completely normal. I was immersed in my business…until one springtime Sunday in the late afternoon I saw about 40 people gathered around the Lincoln Memorial. Jesus was standing on one of the concrete benches. He hadn’t yet started to speak.

It was a lovely afternoon and the people were happy and, at the margins, a bit obstreperous and boisterous, too. Drugs of course, or liquor.

Raising his hands in an embracing gesture, arms outstretched, palms up, he commenced, without welcoming word or introduction. It was almost a chant, simple, moving; I reached into my pocket for my pen and found not paper but a used napkin for my notes:

“The poor in spirit are blessed.The kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

There was no commentary, no explanation, just one declarative sentence like this after another, the words delivered softly, his voice never raised.

“Are you mourning for someone you loved? You shall be comforted.

Are you meek of temperament? Then you’ll be blessed. You shall inherit the earth

Are you merciful? Then you are blessed, for you will get mercy.

Are you working hard to find the righteous way? You will get what you seek.”

As a public speaker myself, I was fascinated by his delivery.The words were simple, the delivery free of artifice even emphasis. Nothing seemed radical or revolutionary about Jesus… but nothing seemed very important about him either.  However, in retrospect two items do stand out. First, as the obstreperous part of the crowd grew even more restive, he simply looked at them with his fathomless eyes. He bid them to come forward… and after being asked again by Jesus and coaxed by the crowd, some did. And I do not think I am wrong in saying that there was a touch of fire and heightened tone in what he said:

“You will be blessed when men shall attack and prosecute you. You will be even more blessed when men shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

This was the first time anyone had heard Jesus say such a thing for the words  “for my sake” clearly indicated he saw himself as a person of consequence. Most people in the crowd missed this. But I didn’t.

At just that moment, Ben ran into the Common and shouted, “Jesus, your friend Lazarus has died and his sisters are upset. Can you come at once?”

“Are you sure he is dead?”, he said. “Oh, yes,” said Ben. And so Jesus walked to Huron Avenue… and into history. I don’t have to remember what happened next;  it’s all over the Internet… Jesus’ arrival at Lazarus’; the determination he was dead… and the call he made to Lazarus to get up, get up and walk… even the awe of the crowd when he did, changing the life of everyone there and the people worldwide who were willing to trust what they saw.

For the moment these video clips went online and viral, the whole thing became a zoo… these reaffirming what they saw and advocating for him…. those proclaiming their acute disbelief in what could only be a hoax.

To help sort out the matter, Jesus accepted an invitation from Rush  Limbaugh; in retrospect a terrible mistake for Limbaugh lacerated Jesus up and down, calling him a fake, an impostor, a charlatan, out for money, a man who lied, scammed, and deceived.

Jesus didn’t retaliate, didn’t raise his voice, and simply said, “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they will see God.” And as Limbaugh continued his stream of unending venom, rousing his listeners to hate and frenzy, a man named Judas who lived near the studio grabbed his gun. He shot Jesus three times as he walked out the door. In terrible pain, he said just before he died, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

But now we do. Starting with Judas, who immediately shot himself mingling the blood of ignominy with the most precious blood on earth.

Note: The title for this article comes from a sublime 1770 aria by C.W. von Gluck entitled “Of my sweet ardor” (O del mio dolce ardor). Go now to any search engine and play it. “I seek you, I call you, I hope, and I sigh.” It will comfort you.

**** We invite your comments on this article.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today at http://www.Worldprofit.com

Keep some of these on hand for immediate giving and recognition!

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. In 1952 Teresa Brewer sang a peppy little ditty called “Gonna get along without ya now.” It was bubble gum music, all bobby socks and pony tails. Sweet sixteen though it was, its lyrics perfect for the soda shop, there was yet a salient point here that none of us can ever forget. We are all expendable, replaceable, just a movable part in any organization. It is a sobering thought for any person, but it’s vital every CEO of every organization not only understand this essential truth, but build his administration on it and rule accordingly.

Before reading the rest of this article, go to any search engine and find this tale of comeuppance warbled by Ms. Brewer. Carefully read its lyrics, including this unforgettable couplet:

“Got along without ya before I met ya Gonna get along without ya now.”

What a CEO is and what a CEO must do… crucial aspects of the job you never learn at Harvard Business School.

For the last almost 20 years now, I have been a CEO, specifically CEO of worldprofit.com, which began its life in 1994 as an Internet hosting company, expanding since then into providing complete Web traffic and online services, tools for every kind of business organization. Let me be perfectly candid with you; the daily education I’ve had over the past two decades has been not only practical, exhaustive and timely, but hands-on and never-ending, as must inevitably be any training and instruction about e-matters.

The necessary training has included, but was never just limited to matters fiduciary, legal, product development, marketing, and sales. But the most important instruction of all has been what I’ve learned about handling people; in this case the other partners, employees, our unique online monitors, and, always, our customers worldwide for together these far-flung people constitute the vital essence of our business… as such people will constitute the vital essence of yours. Just how you handle them will determine not only the degree of success delivered by your administration but whether you will be allowed to keep your lofty position at all.

My father’s insight.

My father, Donald Marshall Lant, spent almost all his life in business managerial positions. As a result he came to develop a keen understanding of why some executives rise, whilst others stumble, fall, and pass as a matter of course into oblivion.

As sharp as a tack at age 86, he is still adamant on a significant point he insisted my siblings and I understand, a principle not only for business success but also for living the best lived life: “Learn to manage people,” he insisted, “and you can achieve anything.” Right as rain here as elsewhere, he reminded us (particularly at such moments when we seemed to have forgotten) of this crucial adage; at these times he also taught us clear, practical and field-tested admonitions, tactics, and the wisdom that only comes from experience.

Now, here, I am enriching you with as many of these people management insights as the space allows.

1) Know their names.

The first rule for successful CEOs is to know the names of the people, ALL the people, who are part of your patrimony. People like to know that you, Poobah of the Western Isles, know them…. and their names.

Hint: Make up flash cards with the names of people associated with the enterprise you head. This is a superb way to turn “scrap” time into stronger relations with your people.  2) Use them.

This ought to be self evident to every CEO; yet how many of you wonder whether your CEO knows you even exist, much less your name?

3) Know their families.

Family and all its elements are most important to the people most important to you. Make it a point to get the names of spouse and children. And when you’ve congratulated their proud mama or papa, send this intelligence to them, so that they understand just how valued their parent is and how essential their services to you.

4) Contact them when they’re ill.

This is a biggie. When those connected with your enterprise fall ill, each wonders whether this will adversely affect their relationship with you and their job. By calling and visiting you reassure them at a difficult time. And, remember, while sending flowers and a fruit basket is nice; they want to hear from YOU!

5) Pop up at their work stations… and never come empty-handed.

Do you know every nook and cranny, every department and project of the company you head? If not master the elements of your enterprise by stopping by the various work stations which constitute the parts of your empire. And never, ever go empty- handed. Bring gifts, gift certificates, checks. Remember, you are the deliverer of the loaves and fishes. Act like it.

6) Share your (particularly edible) gifts and treats.

CEOs by virtue of their high office gets lots of presents. Share these with some of the hard working folks in your business. They will never forget the gesture, your kindness and thoughtfulness. These are the memories that they’ll remember forever… and the person who made it happen — you.

7) Praise and congratulate… and (get the drift?) never come empty-handed.

No one is better placed in your organization to give plaudits and kudos than you are. Thus because you can, you must. Within your company you are, like the sovereign of England in hers, the Fountain of Honor. It is an evocative image, an image of liberality, giving, and above all the empathy that should epitomize your administration.

Make impromptu invitations.

No particular plans for lunch today? Great! Select two or three of the essential people in your organization and invite them to share tuna fish sandwiches with you. Make it clear it’s a chance to get better acquainted and to share their views and informed opinions with you. You’ll soon grow addicted to these “come as you are” events, making friend after friend, supporter after supporter.

9) Deliver promotions, raises and bonuses personally.

When the news is good, make yourself its Mercury. When was the last time you saw your CEO deliver even the best of news? Exactly. That’s why when you get to the top of the corporate tree, you’ll perform this task yourself… and gladly.

10) Implement at least one of these recommendations every day you wish to remain CEO, or advance from your present position. Don’t miss a single day or opportunity. If you do that, Teresa Brewer will have a very different song to sing, for they can’t get along without you now. Boom Boom Boom Boom.

* * * * * * * * * *

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today at http://www.Worldprofit.com

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. March 25, 2012 the Boston Globe ran a story about the auction of treasures from the estate of the late Reverend Peter Gomes,  the well known Harvard minister who died young (just 68), February 28, 2011. Gomes was a certified pack rat who searched the ordinarily unpromising antiques shops of Boston and New England in search of the elusive “finds” that make a collector’s life so satisfying  — or so frustrating.

Gomes was out early and late in hot  pursuit of — what? — he couldn’t say in advance, no collector can, but he’d know it when he saw it. I am an obsessive collector myself, and I am writing this article in the hope not merely of understanding collectors in general, but myself in particular… for I’ll be darned if I can figure out why I who have so much spends so much time and treasure collecting — more! Perhaps this article will help you; I certainly hope it helps me!

“You can’t take it with you.” (1936).

We all know this well-known saying, but I long ago reached the conclusion that it most assuredly doesn’t pertain to bona fide collectors. Just how we make the transport and presentation arrangements in heaven (much less in that other place), I cannot say. But I do know this: every single collector I know (serious or otherwise) believes they most assuredly get an exemption. For if it all (every last baseball card, match box or movie star autograph) cannot go… why then we have some serious explaining to do, what with all the trouble (to say nothing of the expense) we’ve gone through to acquire everything that is now mine, mine, all mine. For you see, the more we collect the more others believe us to be (and certainly say right to our faces) that we are mad as a hatter. (That reference, by the way, is from  “Alice in Wonderland”, and if you had an autographed first edition (1865) in your collection it would be worth a packet… but I digress.)

Equally if you had the autographed sheet music to Cole Porter’s most famous tune “Night and Day” (1932) that, too, would be a great find and a worthy acquisition. However, for right now, I recommend you go to any search engine and listen up. I selected this incidental music because collectors never stop looking, participants day and night in the great hunt and always know “you are the one” when they find their next “must have” acquisition. Porter would have understood; after all, he was a strenuous collector himself, of the silver cigarette case variety.

Important things you should know about collectors.

There are things you really need to know about us collectors. First, things that alarm and distress more pedestrian people positively make us giddy and thrilled. I mean things like death, economic turmoil, wars, revolutions, even garden-variety mayhem… we positively thrive in circumstances which depress others. When, for instance, a great empire falls with massive misfortune for millions, you can be sure its bibelots, artifacts, and what-nots will, in short order, pop up in the royal and imperial “yard sales” held at the world’s greatest auction houses, names like Sothebys, Christie’s, Dorotheum, et al. We collectors positively thrive on other people’s miseries; it’s what we do.

We have to say, of course, (and we must deliver these sentiments with as much sincerity as we are able) that we regret such catastrophes… but, in truth, that’s generally a little white lie. This lie was very much apparent at Gomes’ estate auction. Gomes had spent a lifetime acquiring items from the overrated antiques stores of Beacon Hill, Essex and Groton… items his many friends, former students, congregants in Harvard’s Memorial Church… even readers of his books and sermons … picked through with avidity, enthusiasm, and a jaundiced eye. For such people, collectors all, a demise, however untimely, means pure, unadulterated bliss… unless they fail at the auction to secure the things they “had” to have.

Scrutinizing you and your possessions.

Collectors love meeting others who collect the same kinds of things… but not for the reasons you suppose. Collectors want to meet you and visit chez vous not to swap tips, bond, or brainstorm. By no means. They wish to see and minutely scrutinize and peruse what you’ve got that they, hopefully sooner rather than later,would like; indeed must have. Thus, when husband calls wife to “see Dr. Lant’s marvelous portrait by Lawrence of Lord Shaftesbury” and lauds it over much whilst taking out his pocket diary the better to take notes, you must understand that he is thinking there is only one thing between where this highly desirable object now resides and its potential new home… and that thing is you. Make a hasty excuse about why such creatures must be shown the door and at once, for they cannot possibly wish you well. Absolutely no collector is or ever will be that magnanimous. After all, you’re not. And neither am I!

Close mouthed before… unendingly voluble forever after.

I aver that collectors would all be suitable for the CIA and all other “spook” organizations. Why? Because we can most assuredly be discrete with information. Consider this: When I was a young man working on my first book (“Insubstantial Pageant: Ceremony and Confusion at Queen Victoria’s Court”) I was the first American ever admitted to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle. Thus, I was able to walk across to Eton, its famous school, and a High Street well stocked in those days with antiques stores. And there I applied my specialized knowledge to the flotsam and jetsam on display in these stores… scoring, I am pleased as punch to tell you, bulls-eye after bulls-eye; to name but one satisfying “steal”, the acquisition — and for just about 50 cents each –of a pleasant quantity of rare hand-colored royal prints in mint condition; now worth thousands. I have them to this day and whenever I have the need to gloat review them with the greatest possible glee. I tell you this now, decades after the fact, because it cannot help my erstwhile colleagues and fellow sleuths. When this event was taking place, however, nothing, absolutely nothing would have caused me to be so indiscrete. And so it is with all collectors…. secret as the grave whilst in the process of acquiring; the exact reverse, a positive Niagara of self-praise and egotism, once acquisition was secured… self-praise and egotism available anywhere, anytime lavishly applied — whether asked for or not.

Provenance, or Marie Antoinette emptied this stone from her plum-colored slippers as she went to the guillotine.

Collectors collect for many reasons but to one-up friends, family and the ill-educated and credulous is clearly the most important of these. Here provenance is absolutely crucial, that is to say who possessed and may actually have used the object in question. Be clear on this: collectors always want the most detailed and exalted provenance possible. Thus to have a cracked plate from the Siberia service of the Empress Catherine of all the Russias is more desirable and socially elevating that a complete place setting from the 3rd Prince Regnant of Moldava… or an entire and immediately useful service for 12 owned by your next door neighbor. And be clear on this as well: not only do you want such absolutely essential historical reference… but you must learn to say it with hauteur, panache and such exquisite intonation that you must surely be noble yourself. Parbleu!

But enough of these insider secrets. I’ve got important work today… yes, for the benefit of my burgeoning collection. And if you think I’ll share a single syllable about the work at hand, think again. Mum’s the word… that is until I get the this or that I’m after now. And when I get it, prepare to be impressed… and say so… over and over again. I deserve it.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today at http://www.worldprofit.com

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. This story started, for me at least, about 3 months ago when my helper Aime Joseph and I were at the Shaw’s Market in Porter Square, Cambridge. I almost always visit their floral department while I’m there, since flowers for me are as necessary as food; not luxuries, but essentials, especially during the long, dour days that characterize a Bay State winter.

I knew my options like the back of my hand… especially the roses which these days come in a far wider array of colors than were available when I was growing up. But roses, breathtaking when you make your selection in the store, fade quickly when taken home despite the detailed suggestions for cutting the stem, adding plant food, and changing the water. The rose dazzles, captivates… but too soon dies… at the last a source of dismay.

I needed something else… something different… something to entice… and last… but what?

Then there they were… serenely confident…. an explosion of color… something new, at least for me; they may have been there before but today my eye perceived them rather than overlooked… and while I didn’t know it then these blooms had already begun their insidious maneuvers to seize not merely my eye… but in very short order… my heart.

So did the Lily of the Incas and I commence our relationship… like the person you loved from first glance and later wondered how you ever lived without. Yes, these flowers have such a power and I welcomed them without cavil for I needed their gifts… especially their long-lasting presence, a presence (it pains me to recall) I once doubted.

Each morning, not yet a true believer, still uncertain, skeptical, anxious I ran to my beloved… to see, perhaps to mourn their passing, only to be rebuked by the lilies not just with their beauty but their tenacity and commitment.  For such a love one searches for a lifetime. I had found mine in the grocery store.

The Incas and their lily.

Like many flowers the lilies of the Incas have several different names. They are called Peruvian lilies; they are also known as parrot lilies. And like all plants they also bear a sonorous scientific sobriquet, alstroemeria, named by Carolus Linnaeus for his close friend Swedish baron Clas Alstromer (1736-1794). But no name suits them so well or do they cherish as much as Lily of the Incas.

Atahaulpa… Pizarro… destiny… and the flower that remembers.

This plant and its explosion of colors calls us sharply back to the greatest tragedy of the Inca nation; its subversion and destruction by a handful of rapacious soldiers under the command of a destructive genius, Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541). He was born poor, illegitimate and suffered for it in every way. Rage, anger, a need to prove himself to himself and others fueled his ambition. He had nothing to lose and so learned the benefits of unbridled audacity. Such a man, shrewd, inventive, always bold was dangerous… as the Inca emperor Atahualpa — and his entire nation — soon learned.

For both sides their encounter at Cajamarca in 1532 was epochal, for there the tiny Spanish force of just 180 men and 37 horses, masters of stratagem, courage, lies and trickery captured the Sapa Inca (“unique Inca”) and so in an instant made Spain the richest and most important nation on earth… and every Spaniard in the piratical expedition richer than Croesus. This is how it happened…

Pizarro’s force was as nothing against the might of the Incas… but Pizarro would do anything to conquer… and here he had the advantage against the uncomprehending Incas. And so, by treachery Atahualpa fell into his hands. To free himself, or at the very least to preserve his life, he offered to fill a room about 22 feet long and 17 feet wide up to a height of 8 feet once with gold and twice with silver within 2 months.

With this offer Atahualpa enriched the Spaniards and signed the death warrant of himself and all his people… for once apprized of the riches of the Incas, the Spaniards had absolutely no intention of doing anything but extracting more and more. And so was Atahualpa strangled… for he had not merely outlived his usefulness but (now understanding the Spaniards better) understood what must be done to eradicate them. That made him dangerous …. and his brutal end inevitable. The date was July 26, 1533….

And here legend steps in…

For within just days, on the very spot where the last Sapa Inca, the hapless Atahualpa died, his clothes and part of his body incinerated, a flower never seen before began to grow, strengthened by the blood of Atahualpa, soon a vision of loveliness. Of course the Spaniards, who had everything else, wanted this, too. But they could not pluck it… or uproot it. It was tenacious, impervious to whatever they did… but it yielded to an Inca maiden of the royal line. To the astonishment of all, this princess succeeded where the avarice and connivance of the Spaniards failed. The legend states that Pizarro himself tried to pick the flower, but failed. “This,” he said, “is a lily of the Incas.” And so it was, and so it has remained.

The Spanish empire, all of Nueva Espana, is long gone now, forgotten. But the lily of the Incas has flourished. Many hybrids and about 190 cultivars have been developed, with different markings and colors, ranging from white, golden yellow and orange to apricot, pink, red, purple and lavender. The most popular and showy hybrids commonly grown today result from crosses between species from Chile (winter-growing) with species from Brazil (summer-growing). This strategy has resulted in plants that are evergreen and flower for most of the year.

El condor pasa.

Over this exuberance of never-ending beauty flies the majestic condor, the great eyes of the Incas. Peruvian composer Daniel Alomia Robles wrote their anthem in 1913, inspired by Andean folk tunes. Go now to any search engine and find the version you like best. My personal favorite is by Wayna Picchu, a Latin folk band from Peru. Simon and Garfunckel’s version (1970) made the song famous and makes the words plain: “A man gets tied up to the ground. He gives the earth its saddest sound. Its saddest sound.”  To rise, strew your hard path with lilies of the Incas… and look up in wonder whenever the condor passes. The unyielding flowers are for beauty… the condor shows you deliverance… freedom… joy. Look up now… he is passing somewhere near you and beckons… Perhaps this time you will respond… and soar.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today at http://www.worldprofit.com

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. The first thing scientists engaged in seeking life on other planets look for is whether there is water there. For without it they know there can be no life… and no species like ours. Water, you see, is the defining element, the sine qua non without which life is not merely improbable… but impossible.

Thus for the incidental music to today’s article, I give you the mastery of that aquatic choreographer and tongue-in-cheek provocateur Busby Berkeley (1895-1976), imp, troublemaker, artiste, American original , and — above all — genius. In 1933 he put his mind of high originality to work crafting for the film “Footlight Parade” a complex geometric water ballet to the tune of “By a Waterfall,” music by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Irving Kahal.

It was designed to mesmerize, titillate, enthrall, entrance… it was cheeky, scandalous… just plain fun for those who enjoyed the beach and its unending possibilities for naughtiness — and an innocence which is now long gone from the Great Republic.

To create this undoubted masterpiece, which had “made in America” stamped all over it, the exigent Berkeley, never one to economize, demanded a 40 x 80 foot swimming pool that filled an entire sound stage. Its walls and floor were glass, and before shooting started 100 chorus girls took two weeks to practice their exacting routines in it. The actual filming lasted six days and required 20,000 gallons of water per minute to be pumped across the set.

Busby’s genius and his innovative use of not just comely young maidens but of cameras did the rest. So instead of filming numbers from set angles, like other, lesser men, he instead set his cameras into motion on custom built booms and monorails and as necessary, even cutting through the studio roof to get the right shot…for to get his great vision on film for eternity was ever his objective.

And so stars Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler found themselves “By a waterfall”. “Just a winding stream where I can drift and dream….” We have all had this experience, transformed into poetry if we were there with our beloved… It is this scenario that is at growing risk worldwide as we learn from two sobering reports just released on the subject of the future of water.

Too little water here…. too much water there.

March 22, 2012 US intelligence agencies reported that droughts, floods and a lack of fresh water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the decades dead ahead. The report makes clear that developing countries, already severely challenged, will have to scramble to meet demand from exploding populations while dealing with the effects of climate changes.

This report, reflecting the joint judgement of federal intelligence agencies, concludes that in the next decade the risk of water shortages and related issues is minimal, although they assert there will be discernible tensions between affected states thereby destabilizing national and global food markets. This phase of the matter offers important issues and challenges but not chaos. ..

…  that, they conclude, begins beyond 2022. Then it begins with a vengeance. Then water becomes a weapon of war, a tool of terrorism and a vehicle for the utmost dislocation, despair, and dismay. Amidst such well founded deductions heralding Armageddon, we are as far as possible from Powell and Keeler at their enchanting waterfall, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa where the crisis has already commenced, with far, far worse foreseeable and on its way.

The report is based on a classified National Intelligence Estimate on water security which was requested by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and was concluded in the fall of 2011. Its stark conclusion: floods, scarce and poor quality water, worsened by poverty, poor leadership, and weak governments will contribute to acute instability; this in turn could lead to the failure of numerous states with massive possibilities for mischief by aggressive regimes like China and by terrorists of every kind; people adept at promising reforms they cannot deliver but which prove fertile in the minds of people who have nothing but who see every day what we in the West have… and which they want for themselves, whatever it takes to get it. Thus does the bitter brew of this witches’ cauldron heat to a boil… its toxic ingredients instability and state failure, exacerbated regional tensions, and with such distractions, the report concludes, that may prevent them from working with the Unites States and our Allies on important policy objectives, thereby further imperiling the tenuous lives of millions, each one subject to events they do not control, but which most assuredly control them.

World Water Day, March 22, 2012

At this year’s WWD event, Secretary Clinton unveiled a new US Water Partnership that aims to share American water management expertise with the rest of the world, calling the findings of the report disturbing, sobering, a call to action before no action beyond prayer will matter. Thus, the conclusion of this timely report:

“We judge that as water shortages become more acute beyond the next 10 years, water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives.”

But water will wend its terrible way with us in other grave matters, too…

4 million to be at flood risk, study says.

Whilst researchers and policy makers contemplate the serious matters above, others of their ilk have been at work on another aspect of the problem, this time expected flooding from rising seas fueled by global warming. Their blunt findings were published March 15, 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal “Environmental Research Letter.” This report, in the form of two scientific articles, makes alarming reading, asserting as it does projected sea level rise by the year 2100. Nearly 4 million people across the United States, from Los Angeles to much of the East Coast are in the danger zone.

The cities that have the most people living within three feet of high tide — the projected sea level rise by 2100 — are in Florida, Louisiana, and New York.  Boston, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, and the capital of the Great Republic itself, Washington, D.C. will be seriously affected with catastrophic results for property and lives.

What can we do, or are we, too, simply at  the mercy of events?

I believe that God helps those who help themselves… and what we can do here is plain. We must keep the feet of our leaders to the fire, reminding them of the necessity to focus on recognizing and solving these problems. The younger you are the more you must do so, understanding as soon as possible that you have power, if only you will use it.

And if each of us will claim our infinitesimal share of these monumental problems and remain dedicated to their solution, we will have won the right to these words:

“By a waterfall I’m calling you. We can share it all beneath a ceiling of blue. We’ll spend a heavenly day Here where the whispering waters play.”

Go now to any searc

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today at http://www.Worldprofit.com

h engine and play this tune… after all, it’s your future they’re singing about.

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. Tyler Clementi was a young violinist who with his obliging instrument produced sounds that touched the heart. Given world enough and time who knows where this undeniable talent, showcased in the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Youth Orchestra, would have taken him?  But because he was attracted to men rather than to women, he was never to know. And so today, I sit here in Cambridge starring at a photograph of a dead boy we cannot afford to forget, for to forget would be the real crime…

… but memory is sharp, hard, remorseless, exquisitely painful…

And so we must have Mozart. Mozart who so well understood life… and who with such grandeur enables us to cope with death…

Thus, as the occasional music to this tale I give you the Master’s Requiem Mass in D Minor (K. 626), composed in Vienna (1791) available in any search engine…  Focusing on his life, whilst never forgetting his death and uneasy spirit…

The thousands of pages dedicated to the matter of Tyler Clementi focus on when he died, how he died, why he died, and, above all, who is responsible that he died… and I shall also deal with these crucial questions. But, first and foremost, we must never lose sight of the boy at the center of this matter… for this is above all his story…

Tyler was born in 1991 in Buffalo, New York and raised in  Ridgewood, New Jersey. He was a good student and like so many other aspiring musicians found life, beauty, meaning and sustenance in the celestial purity of sound, often so intense as to produce exaltation, apotheosis, catharsis, ecstasy. Tyler was one of the gifted who took mere notes on a page and produced beauty… and whenever he picked up his violin that beauty was his to command…. and to give…

… and he gave freely, liberally, with the exuberance and trust of youth and a heart that sought love and meant no harm to anyone…

And so Tyler Clementi went to Rutgers, to test himself against the best of his peers… He was just 18 years old… with a mere handful of days to live.  What happened next is now a matter of detailed record… why it happened will always require the judgement of Solomon and perhaps more… for the person we long to ask — Tyler himself — cannot tell us.

Dramatis personnae.

Now come the principal actors…

Tyler, his roommate Dharun Ravi, fellow hallmate Molly Wei… and the gaping worldwide community found on the Internet and without which there would have been no story, no tragedy, and a happier life for all.

Here is what happened….

On the nights of September 19 and 22, 2010 Clementi texted Ravi about using their room for the evening, a thing college students have been asking their roommates forever. On the first occasion Ravi met Clementi’s friend, an older man whom Ravi did not like. Nothing so far meant very much; surely no one thought that Tyler would be soon dead. But the mad chemistry of  tragedy had started… and it fermented in the brain of Dharun Ravi.

Ravi now says, as well he might, that he wasn’t  the agent provocateur for what happened, but as he stands convicted before the world, this is not surprising.

Fact: He thought it fitting and proper to use a webcam to view  a portion of Clementi’s dorm-room liaison with another man… and immediately tweeted it to his list of 150 people, thus beginning its viral dissemination.

Fact: Ravi posted text messages saying “Yeah, keep the gays away” and “People are having a viewing party with a bottle of Bacardi and beer in this kid’s room for my roommate”, along with directions on how to view it remotely.

Fact: Ravi set up his webcam and pointed it toward’s Clementi’s bed, where it was found by police, still so pointed.

All this Tyler learned…  and acted responsibly, complaining to his resident assistant and two other college officials. He also wrote in detail about these events on the “Just Us Boys” message board and  the Yahoo message board. He asked for a new room, a new roommate, and for help. He was doing what he had to do and he was doing it responsibly.

But here is where things went so very wrong…

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” (Hamlet)

But something gnawed at Clementi and so 38 times following his first webcam viewing he returned… returned… and returned again and again to that bit of video that he became convinced had destroyed his life, his future, his peace of mind. He was wrong, so very wrong, but he was young, inexperienced, and, he thought alone. And that is the real tragedy…

Thus did his dark purpose commence.

8:42 PM September 22.

The cast of characters was growing now. College administrators were now involved.. Ravi was back peddling as quick as he could, minimizing what he did, why he did it, stating over and over again that he meant nothing by it, didn’t mean it, apologized for it.

But already Tyler had his foot upon a very different  path… He was Hamlet now, without even knowing it:

“To be, or not to be: that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or take arms against a sea of troubles.”

He had solved this conundrum…. tragically, finally, unnecessarily… an act of passion from a mind in turmoil.  “The George Washington Bridge over the  Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world.” Le Corbusier

And it was here Tyler Clementi came to die, that is to say to do the extremest thing in his power… to embrace oblivion. What made him do this deed of rashness, to end everything and remove the future and every joy to come? We can never know, for his final words, sent on his cell phone from the great marvel towering above him, picked out in the brightest of lights, was brief, inadequate, far too little for such an epochal event:

“Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”

And so he jumped, alive for seconds still… already gone from the living, en route to eternity, the last things he saw, the dark waters of the Hudson, the explosion of light that was Manhattan. Then nothing… a dead boy of enigmas and secrets which I so long to know but never shall.

Envoi.

On March 16, 2012 now 20 year old Dharun Ravi was convicted of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, a hate crime. Wherever he goes in life, however long he lives, every day he will think on young Tyler Clementi, whose vivid memory and restive spirit will be ever present… “To die, to sleep/No more… Be all my sins remember’d.”

* * * * *About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today at http://www.worldprofit.com