http://factoidz.com/profile/Aratus/ Alan articles on Factoidz en-us http://factoidz.com/a-brand-is-an-intellectual-commodity/ http://factoidz.com/a-brand-is-an-intellectual-commodity/ A Brand operates very much like real estate, it appreciates over time if it is maintained and well located. I like to think of Branding as intellectual property development (IPD). But Brands reside in a very volatile place: the brain of their market. This means that a Brand’... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/brainstorm-your-brand-identity.jpg http://factoidz.com/why-you-need-a-content-managed-website/ http://factoidz.com/why-you-need-a-content-managed-website/ A Content Managed Website (or Content Managed System - CMS) is a system of website creation which allows the website owner to control their own website content and gi... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/searching-for-a-wireless-option-in-rural-area.jpg http://factoidz.com/a-website-upgrade-just-the-thing-for-the-recession/ http://factoidz.com/a-website-upgrade-just-the-thing-for-the-recession/ Thomas Jefferson said "The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time." So, let's take stock, the big corporate are un-bundeling leaving holes in markets everywhere. But your marketing budget is under pressu... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/rebranding-your-small-business-to-differentiate-from-the-competition.jpg http://factoidz.com/belief/ http://factoidz.com/belief/ "We're never gonna win the world We're never gonna stop the war We're never gonna beat this If belief is what we're fighting for" These are John Mayer's words, I'd like to ask him just how strongly he believes that... Surely having the courage of this particula... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/images/p/default-17.jpg http://factoidz.com/nostalgia-relational-obesity/ http://factoidz.com/nostalgia-relational-obesity/ It's a strange concept that we should become attached in a relational way to things utterly incapable of relational reciprocation. But we do, and we call this irrational action, with a certain fondness mind you, Sentiment. And sentiment sells more songs than iTunes! "All I ... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/images/p/default-1.jpg http://factoidz.com/bird-brained-why-we-should-question-the-theory-of-evolution/ http://factoidz.com/bird-brained-why-we-should-question-the-theory-of-evolution/ I was watching a TED-cast the other day, TED (www.ted.com) is a good mix of the best popular opinion. A very helpful resource but don't misunderstand me, it is merely the very best of the current popular opinion, in other words the highest of the lowest common denominators. In this TED-c... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/images/post/bird-brained-why-we-should-question-the-theory-of-evolution.jpg http://factoidz.com/smiling-back-at-god-3-of-3/ http://factoidz.com/smiling-back-at-god-3-of-3/ I read a Facebook profile recently "Don't try to understand me, just love me." When I read that I wondered what life would be like if that was God's Facebook profile. I think life would be pretty much what we see. There are three other options presented to us for a potential God's Fac... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/smiling-back-at-god-3-of-3.jpg http://factoidz.com/smiling-back-at-god-2-of-3/ http://factoidz.com/smiling-back-at-god-2-of-3/ So I am arguing for Relationality - it's a word I made up based on what I observe. And the question I ask is this: What then are the options of ultimate reality and original state that are presented to my reason? I see four options: There are Religious options that explain, or a... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/smiling-back-at-god-2-of-3.jpg http://factoidz.com/smiling-back-at-god-1-of-3/ http://factoidz.com/smiling-back-at-god-1-of-3/ I was listening to Imogen Heap's "I can't take it in" recently. What a magnificent song. It speaks to me of ultimate joy and peace. Two things which it seems to me people desire above all things. Any real joy in this life is to be found in the responses and initiations of other persons to one's s... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/smiling-back-at-god-1-of-3.jpg http://factoidz.com/charity-and-contradiction/ http://factoidz.com/charity-and-contradiction/ In answer to JrodN's second post on Buddhism, here. I wish I could get to writing more often. I really love the work that I do (I have two jobs), and I intensely enjoy my family; so writing has to take a third, or usually fo... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/images/p/default-9.jpg http://factoidz.com/aletheia/ http://factoidz.com/aletheia/ Aletheia; it's a beautiful word... say it. It sounds like an Elf word straight out of the Lord of the Rings, doesn't it? But it is actually ancient Greek, and it means simply "Truth". I was thinking about truth the other day, just the concept of truth what it is and what it isn't, and I wonder... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/aletheia.jpg http://factoidz.com/gnosis-and-sophia/ http://factoidz.com/gnosis-and-sophia/ There is a vast difference between Wisdom (Sophia) and Knowledge (Gnosis). They are certainly not the same thing, they are also not two sisters, they are not even a brother and a sister... they are an old man and his tool box. Their difference is best described in the saying, "if all you h... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/gnosis-and-sophia.jpg http://factoidz.com/experts-get-it-wrong/ http://factoidz.com/experts-get-it-wrong/ Doom and gloom predictions threaten to swamp us. The sea will rise by 10m by next Tuesday, food will become so expensive that people will die by the millions, mosquitoes will thrive while bees will die, a natural part of global warming will be global cooling, etc, etc. The "experts" are not gi... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/experts-get-it-wrong.jpg http://factoidz.com/be-good-for-goodness-sake/ http://factoidz.com/be-good-for-goodness-sake/ Busses in Washington DC over Christmas were decorated with this slogan, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." The American Humanist Association are funding a similar advertising campaign to the the one launched in London by their British counterparts a few months ago. ... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/be-good-for-goodness-sake.jpg http://factoidz.com/surprise/ http://factoidz.com/surprise/ It never ceases to amaze me how few people recognize that life continues to be an absolute surprise! Every second of every day. This is an area where children can help us enormously: One little three year old asked his mom while she was breast feeding his little sister "Mom, why have you g... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:29 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/surprise.jpg http://factoidz.com/what-is-buddhism/ http://factoidz.com/what-is-buddhism/ Well the truth is I don't really know, but I think I have a better idea than any Buddhist. It is a curious thing, when one looks at Buddhism initially, that those outside of it can define it much better than those inside of it. One want's to put it down to modes of thinking - Ethos. But it is not ju... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/what-is-buddhism.jpg http://factoidz.com/a-migraine-to-help-appreciate-life/ http://factoidz.com/a-migraine-to-help-appreciate-life/ I suffer from migraines. Thankfully they do not strike regularly and they do not last longer than a day. But when they do, I am completely debilitated. The pain is intolerable, I cannot stand, let alone walk, I have no balance, the room I'm in spins wildly; any kind of light or movement is like need... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/a-migraine-to-help-appreciate-life.jpg http://factoidz.com/the-benefits-of-gratitude-and-saying-thank-you/ http://factoidz.com/the-benefits-of-gratitude-and-saying-thank-you/ "The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly know to whom. Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he puts in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/the-benefits-of-gratitude-and-saying-thank-you.jpg http://factoidz.com/do-taurus-and-gemini-make-a-good-match/ http://factoidz.com/do-taurus-and-gemini-make-a-good-match/ Taurus and Gemini have nothing whatsoever to do with you being a good match. There are only 2 things that determine how long your love will last and how good it will be: 1. One of you is male and the other female. That makes for a good match physically, emotionally, spiritually and in many oth... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/do-taurus-and-gemini-make-a-good-match.jpg http://factoidz.com/why-are-people-christian/ http://factoidz.com/why-are-people-christian/ I'm tempted to answer that people are Christian because it is impossible for rocks, goats and trees to be Christian. But, although perfectly true, it does not look like a very helpful answer... Until we think about it a bit; and we find that it is a very helpful answer indeed. Only people can be Chr... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/images/p/default-15.jpg http://factoidz.com/religious-arguments-of-secular-atheists-and-materialists/ http://factoidz.com/religious-arguments-of-secular-atheists-and-materialists/ Whenever I am discussing the rational reasons for my faith with people outside of my faith I invariably get the "Bollocks!" response, followed by what I assume is sincere incredulousness at my faith. (I would not suggest any research whatsoever into the origin of the word "Bollocks" - personally it ... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/images/p/default-8.jpg http://factoidz.com/googles-thesis-of-data/ http://factoidz.com/googles-thesis-of-data/ Einstein once said, "only daring speculation can lead us further, and not accumulation of facts." It seems he was wrong, data is leading us further; but where is it leading us to? In a well researched article Wired's Chris Anderson tells us that the scientific process is drowni... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/images/p/default-17.jpg http://factoidz.com/does-the-existence-of-horror-betray-the-existence-of-a-merciful-god/ http://factoidz.com/does-the-existence-of-horror-betray-the-existence-of-a-merciful-god/ Sir David Attenborough made a comment about the larvae of the black simulium fly which finds it's way under the skin to it's host victim's eye and then slowly and painfully blinds them. He wondered how a merciful God could have created such a thing. Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:33:28 CST Aratus http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/does-the-existence-of-horror-betray-the-existence-of-a-merciful-god.jpg