You might think that it’s a no-brainer why one should live an honest life. But it’s apparent to me that a life of integrity is the exception rather than the rule. How many people do you know who are honest all the time? We could make a case about the morality and the “rightness” of living honestly. Religions have been advocating this for thousands of years, but it’s doubtful if many followers could provide a true model of integrity. I believe in the moral and ethical value of integrity but I also think there are very practical and worthwhile reasons for living an impeccable life. The right thing to do is seldom the easy thing to do. But it’s worth it.

• 1. Trust. In order to be successful in anything, a person must have a reputation of honesty.
• 2. Good Health. People who tell the truth are healthier. They have less concern, less stress and feel better about themselves. This has to translate into better health.
• 3. Pride. I’ve yet to meet a liar who has any real pride in themselves.
• 4. Peace of Mind. It’s impossible to worry and be happy at the same time.
• 5. Remembering. It’s been said that no one has a good enough memory to be a good liar.6. Good Sleep. If you lie—unless you have no conscience at all—you’ll often lose sleep because of your fears of being found out.
• 7. Confidence. There’s no way to have real confidence in oneself when you’re walking on “bull.”
• 8. Good Relationships. The more one trusts the better the relationship he or she is in, whether personal or business,
• 9. Legal Problems. We don’t have to look very far to see the legal trouble people get themselves into from dishonesty.
• 10. It Doesn’t Work. All too often our deceptions and duplicity are discovered.

Benazir Bhutto

Throughout human history, political leaders of all kinds have been killed for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they’re killed because of the threat to authority they represent to those in power, while in other cases they are murdered due to a controversial stance they have taken.  In the most extreme cases, the killer is simply looking for fame or operating under the guise of insanity, with no real reason for his actions. Whatever the case may be, these murders can sometimes have a profound influence on a country, and at times on the world itself.

10. Benazir Bhutto – Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, 2007

While no longer a sitting head of state, Bhuto’s influence on Pakistani politics was considerable. A moderate voice in a country fraught with extremism, her death at the hands of Islamic militants may have single-handedly destroyed any chance the nation might have had for political stability and likely contributed to the general downward spiral the nation has experienced ever since.

9. Reinhard Heydrich – Senior Nazi Official, 1942

Every bit as ruthless and twice as smart as his protégé, Adolf Hitler, the man was being groomed to be the Fuhrer’s successor when he died; had he lived, who knows if he might not of eventually found the kahunas to oust an increasingly frail and delusional Hitler and take the reins of the Third Reich himself—a prospect that could have had profound implications for the allies.

8. Indira Gandhi- Indian Prime Minister, 1984

Indira Gandhi was the voice of modernization whose death resulted in a period of considerable political instability in India for several years afterwards. Though often considered a controversial figure in Indian politics, her influence and desire to bring India into the twentieth century cannot be underestimated, nor the damage done to those plans—at least in the short term—be denied.

7. John F. Kennedy – U.S. President, 1963

While his death had only a minor impact on the political course he had set for the country can never be denied how profoundly his death cast a pall over the American people that has, in some ways, remained to this day. But even more than that, his death resulted in the creation of the entire cottage industry of conspiracy theories, all of which have done much to stoke the fires of paranoia and cynicism that burn so strongly in this country.

6. Mahatma Gandhi – Indian political activist and spiritual leader, 1948

The voice of non-violence in an increasingly violent world, when the emaciated Indian holy man was gunned down on the streets of New Delhi by a university student turned activist, it was a tremendous blow not only to India, but to the entire world. His policies of compassion towards the poor and non-violent resistance served as a blueprint for peaceful change, while his ability to affect both Hindu and Muslim alike made peace—of a kind—possible in his war-torn nation.

5. Julius Caesar – Emperor of Rome, 44BCE

The murder of Rome’s greatest general and first emperor at the hands of his own senators set the Roman Empire on a course that was to set her on the path of centuries of turmoil and treachery. What Rome might have looked like had he stayed in power is unknown, of course, but it’s likely the transition of power in the future would have been a far less messy affair.

4. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Civil Rights Activist, 1968

While it’s impossible to know how things would have gone for the black community in the late sixties and early seventies had King not been silenced by an assassin, the loss of their chief spokesman was unquestionably a huge blow to the entire civil rights movement.

3. Alexander II – Tsar of Russia, 1881

His death at the hands of terrorists in March of 1881 changed the course of Russia for the bad. Something of an enlightened monarch and a reformer, he was on the verge of creating a parliament in Russia at the time of his death, which likely would have led to the countries’ eventual democratization. Instead, his successors decided to take a more heavy handed approach, resulting in thirty more years of oppressive and corrupt leadership and sowing the seeds for the 1917 revolution that would introduce Communism to the world, the effects of which we are still feeling today.

2. Abraham Lincoln – U.S. President, 1865

No assassination has had as great an impact on a country than did that of the sixteenth president of the United States. His death was disastrous to the south as well, who would have fared much better under Lincoln’s conciliatory hand in the aftermath of the Civil War than it did under Andrew Johnson and subsequent administrations. In fact, it could be said that because of Booth’s treachery likely contributed greatly to the oppression of blacks in the south.

1. Archduke Franz Ferdinand – Heir Apparent to Austro-Hungarian Throne, 1914

The death of the Archduke and his wife as they rode in an open car through the streets of Sarajevo had immediate and profound repercussions. The problem was that the assassin was part of a group that had ties to the Serbian military itself; as such, in a world-class case of overreaction, Austro-Hungary held the Serbian government complicit in the murder and set in motion the wheels of war which would, in turn, start a chain of events that would, over the course a just a few weeks, not only bring the two countries to blows, but would drag the entire continent into the fray with it. The result? World War One—arguably one of the bloodiest and most futile conflicts in history. (Final death toll: 15 million.)

Original Posted in Toptenz. 

While politicians, military leaders and entertainers come and go throughout history, religious figures last for all time, millions still following, respecting or worshiping them thousands of years after their deaths. The list below does not just include what theologians would call prophets, but also lists figures who had a significant impact on real world religiosity.  The placing of Jesus Christ of Nazareth at number one and the Prophet Mohammad of Mecca at number two was based solely on the numbers of followers, and not because of one being less or more important than the other. Putting together a list like this will invite both controversy and emotion, but it is not the intention to annoy, bother or insult anyone. It is simply a look back on those who have most shaped our ideas about faith, religion and secular thought throughout the ages of humanity.

1. Jesus of Nazareth (circa 7 BCE-36 CE)

With more than 1.5 billion followers worldwide, Christianity remains the largest single religion on Earth, and is why Jesus of Nazareth sites atop the poll. Even if it wasn’t the largest religion, however, it is beyond serious debate the impact this itinerant rabbi from Galilee has had on the planet. What is especially remarkable about this is that his public ministry lasted little more than two years, he never had more than a few thousand followers during his lifetime, he left no personal writings, and was even executed for sedition by the Roman authorities, all of which should have made him little more than a footnote in history.

2. Prophet Mohammed of Mecca (571-632 CE)

It’s hard to underestimate the impact this middle-aged merchant turned mystic turned religious leader turned military commander has had on history and the role he continues to play in the lives of well over a billion people around the planet. Considered by one sixth of the world’s population to have been the last and greatest of all the prophets, he is best remembered as the man who penned the Koran, one of the best known and most widely read sacred writings in the world.

3. Gautama Buddha (circa 563-483 BCE)

We tend to use the term “Buddha” as a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment or wisdom, but there was a real flesh-and-blood person behind the mythology. Siddhartha Gautama ideas of enlightenment and nirvana thrived in his own day. Quickly attracting a legion of disciples, his teachings laid the foundation for one of the world’s great eastern faith structures, Buddhism, which as of this writing claims nearly 400 million adherents worldwide.

4. Krishna (circa 3228-3102 BCE)

Like the Buddha, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between historical fact and metaphor when it comes to some of the most ancient religious figures. Though Krishna didn’t actually found the modern religion of Hinduism—it’s basic tenets already being in place prior to his arrival—among all of the Vishnu avatars, he is the most popular and the one closest to the heart of the people, which is why he remains so venerated five thousand years later.

5. Confucius (551-479 BCE)

Confucius (the Latinized version of his Chinese name, Kong Zi) was not a religious leader per se, but more of a philosopher whose teachings on personal and governmental morality, justice, and sincerity deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese thought and life.

6. Zoroaster (Unknown. Anywhere between the 18th and 6th centuries BCE)

Zoroaster, also called Zarathustra, was an ancient Persian prophet who founded the first historically acknowledged world religion known, not surprisingly, as Zoroastrianism. According to the Zend Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrian philosophy entered the West through Judaism and Platonism and has even been identified as one of the key early events in the development of philosophy.

7. Martin Luther (1483-1546)

While Christianity is wrought with dozens of individuals who played a major role in shaping its doctrines and making it the faith structure it is today, few men had a greater impact upon the fragmenting the church in general than this fiery German theologian from Eisleben.

8. Moses (circa 1391-1271 BCE)

While the history of Judaism is filled with famous prophets and leaders-from Kings David and Solomon to the prophets Elijah and Ezekiel—no one man had more impact than did Moses, without whose guidance and leadership the modern Jewish religion would not exist.

9. Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844)

Easily one of the most controversial figures from the first half of the nineteenth century, it is difficult to imagine how one man, persuaded that he was a prophet of God, could start a religion—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (officially the LDS but commonly referred to as the Mormon church)—practically single-handedly, that would one day grow to over fourteen million worldwide followers.

10. Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910)

Though the founder of Christian Science doesn’t have all that many followers any more (only around 30,000 or so as of late) her impact on American religious beliefs in the nineteenth century cannot be underestimated. Her controversial perspectives on everything from the illusory nature of the material world to her de facto rejection of a personal God and the concept of hell definitely put her somewhat outside of what is usually referred to as “orthodoxy”, though many of her ideas survive and can still be found in some New Age churches and other metaphysical and mystical traditions today

Source: Toptenz.net

With Libya now in the hands of its own factions, for better or for worse, the fate of the country will be decided by the many and not the one. Moammar Gadhafi, the crazed and eccentric dictator, is done. He has blamed his downfall on America, Al-Qaida, foreign influence, jealously and even drug use.  People who have that much power for a long time, simply cannot accept any other ideas but their own and that in and of itself may drive individuals to insanity.

Gadhafi’s infamous Green Book is a representation of just how mad the man truly is. Libya’s number one best selling book of all time, Libyans have been forced to study it from the age of eight for two hours week, every week since he published it in 1975. Subtitled ‘The Solution to the Problems of Democracy; The Social Basis in the Third Universal Theory,’ the formerly mandatory traditional reading is a rambling treatise of contradicting, disconnected ideas, that are often enough unintentionally hilarious. Below we present our ten favorite quotes from Gadhafi’s book that is now all but but fallen into the dustbin of history.  

• 1. “Women, like men, are human beings. This is an incontestable truth… Women are different from men in form because they are females, just as all females in the kingdom of plants and animals differ from the male of their species… According to gynecologists women, unlike men, menstruate each month… Since men cannot be impregnated they do not experience the ailments that women do. She breastfeeds for nearly two years.”
• 2. “There are inevitable cycles of social history: the yellow race’s domination of the world, when it came from Asia, and the white race’s attempts at colonizing extensive areas of all continents of the world. Now, it is the turn of the black race to prevail in the world.”
• 3. “While it is democratically not permissible for an individual to own any information or publishing medium, all individuals have a natural right to self-expression by any means, even if such means were insane and meant to prove a person’s insanity.”
• 4. “Mandatory education is a coercive education that suppresses freedom. To impose specific teaching materials is a dictatorial act.”
• 5. “If a community of people wears white on a mournful occasion and another dresses in black, then one community would like white and dislike black and the other would like black and dislike white. Moreover, this attitude leaves a physical effect on the cells as well as on the genes in the body.”
• 6. “Sporting clubs which constitute the traditional sports institutions in the world today are rapacious social instruments. The grandstands of public athletic fields are actually constructed to obstruct access to the fields.”
• 7. “Placing a child in a day nursery is coercive and tyrannical and a violation of the child’s free and natural disposition.”
• 8. “Labour in return for wages is virtually the same as enslaving a human being. In a socialist society no person may own a private means of transportation for the purpose of renting to others, because this represents controlling the needs of others.”
• 9. “The democratic system is a cohesive structure whose foundation stones are firmly laid one above the other, the Basic People’s Conferences, the People’s Conferences, and the People’s Committees, which finally come together when the General People’s Conference convenes. There is absolutely no conception of democratic society other than this.”
• 10. “No representation of the people—representation is a falsehood. The mere existence of parliaments underlies the absence of the people, for democracy can only exist with the presence of the people and not in the presence of representatives of the people.”

Most of us would rather be at home at any given point during the day, but work is an unfortunate fact of life. We will spend our best years and most alert hours of lives in the workplace, but sometimes we simply have to move on to the next job. These are many reasons why you might want to quit your current job.  Below are difficult, if not impossible, work problems to solve.  In the end, we all need to look our for our own best interest. Our jobs consume too many hours of too many days of our lives for us to stay where we are if we’re miserable. No excuses, now. If these problems exist in your current job, make a plan and get the hell out of there!

• 1. Your company is experiencing a downward spiral
• 2. Your relationship with your manager is damaged beyond repair
• 3. Your life situation has changed
• 4. Your values are at odds with the corporate culture
• 5. You simply find nothing about your job you enjoy anymore
• 6. Your workplace is ethically challenged
• 7. You have found yourself behaving in way that are improper
• 8. You’ve burned your bridges with too many co-workers
• 9. Your stress level is so high its affecting your home life
• 10. You are unchallenged

So you’re out at a club with your friends and you see the a girl across the bar. You get the nerve to go over to her and say, “Is your dad a theif?…because he stole the stars out of the sky and put them into your eyes.”

So then what happens? Does she laugh, bat her eyes or throw the rest of her beer in your face? It all depends on the circumstances. Movies have long been the source of some of the funniest and most memorable pick-up lines and here at RELATIVITY Online we thought to put together a some of our favorites. Enjoy, but we don’t recommend using any of them!

• 1. “You know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains, I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts.” - Owen Wilson, “The Wedding Crashers” (credit: New Line Cinema)
• 2. “I don’t exactly know what I am required to say in order for you to have intercourse with me. But could we assume that I said all that. I mean essentially we are talking about fluid exchange right? So could we go just straight to the sex?” – Russell Crowe, “A Beautiful Mind” (credit: Universal Pictures
• 3.“I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal.” – Will Ferrell, “Anchorman” (credit: DreamWorks)
• 4.“What color are your eyes?”
• “Um – they’re blue.”
• “I’d like to invite you both to come with me to Oviedo. For the weekend. We leave in an hour.” - Javier Bardem, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (credit: The Weinstein Company)
• 5.“God, you’re a real live outlaw!”
  
• “I may be the outlaw, but you’re the one stealing my heart.” – Brad Pitt, “Thelma and Louise” (credit: MGM)
• 6.“Are you stalking me? Because that would be super.” – Ryan Reynolds, “Van Wilder” (credit: Artisan Entertainment)
• 7.“Marry me, and I’ll never look at another horse.” - Groucho Marx, “A Day at the Races” (credit: MGM)
• 8.“I couldn’t help but notice that you look a lot like my next girlfriend.” - “Hitch” (credit: Sony Pictures Classics)
• 9.“Do you have a cell phone I could use?”
• “Why?”
• “Someone has to call God and tell him that one of his angels is missing.” - Vince Vaughn, “Couples Retreat” (credit: Universal Pictures)
• 10.“There’s something I want to say that’s always been very difficult for me to say. ‘I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit.’ There. I’ve never been relaxed enough around anyone to say that. “ - Steve Martin, “The Jerk” (credit: Universal Pictures)

The Holiday Season is often the one time of year people send cards or letters to loved ones and friends. Some countries however, handle just a little more mail than others. With Christmas around the corner and cards on there way to their many destinations the world over, RELATIVITY Online asked a simple question: Who gets the most mail? Below is a list of the top ten countries sending and receiving the most cards or letters in 2009.

• 1. United States – 200, 371,000,000
• 2. Japan – 21, 994,621,000
• 3. Germany – 20, 994, 857, 000
• 4. United Kingdom – 19, 903, 000, 000
  
• 5. France – 17, 202, 000, 000
• 6. Brazil – 8, 538, 594, 199
• 7. China – 6, 904, 013, 451
• 8. Italy – 6, 270, 201, 242
  
• 9. India – 5, 901, 300, 000
• 10. Spain – 5, 406, 100,000

***Top Ten Total – 313, 287, 829, 892

World Total – 433, 344. 087, 517

source: universal postal union

Last year overall global tourism shrank by approximately 4%. With that said, just under a million people still left their home countries to take a vacation on foreign soil. When visitors come they do one thing that makes the host country very happy – spend money – and this is no doubt why many countries the world over compete for the wallets of all those willing to leave their homeland behind for a bit of relaxation and adventure.  Below is a list of the ten most visited countries on 2009, including the actual numbers of visitors reported.  Many of the standards are there, but you may also be surprised by one or two of the nations that appear.

• 1. France – 79.3 million
• 2. USA – 58.1 million
• 3. Spain – 57.3 million
• 4. China – 53.1 million
  
• 5. Italy – 42.7 million
• 6. UK – 30.1 million
• 7. Ukraine – 25.3 million
• 8. Turkey – 24.9 million
  
• 9. Germany – 24.8 million
• 10. Mexico – 22.6 million

There are a lot of companies out there worth a lot of money, but these produce the biggest, most valuable brands on the planet. Interbrand consulting uses a method of measuring the value of a company that takes into account both profitability, as well as the potential for growth. Ask yourself how many times a year does some of the money in your pocket go towards the ten companies below. Following each brand is it’s estimated value in U.S. dollars at the end of 2009.

• 1. Coca-Cola – 68.7 billion
• 2. IBM – 60.2 billion
• 3. Microsoft – 56.6 billion
• 4. General Electric – 47.7 billion
• 5. Nokia – 34.8 billion
• 6. McDonald’s – 32.2 billion
• 7. Google – 31.9 billion
• 8. Toyota – 31.3 billion
• 9. Intel 30.6 billion
• 10. Disney – 28 billion

There is no doubt about it, the 20th century is unparalleled by any that came before it in terms of its rate of technological advances and scientific discoveries – a rate that continues to speed through these early years of century 21 at an unprecedented pace.  There were so many new developments and discoveries during this time, it was hard to narrow things down to just ten, but that’s what we did.  The list below has effected humanity both positively and negatively. Regardless, they have held a tremendous influence over how our world has unfolded over the last 100 years.  RELATIVITY OnLine’s list of greatest inventions and discoveries of the twentieth century follows, but allow us to ask – did we forget anything?

• 1. The Internet – The typewriter became obsolete after the personal computer was introduced to the general public and this slowly made writing in long-hand a thing of the past, but it took the internet to make the computer what it is today. While the airplane shrank our planet to the point that one could fly from Paris to New York in a few hours, the internet made it possible to be there in seconds.
• 2. Radio – suddenly it was possible for a person to be heard from thousands of miles away without the use of a wire (a real accomplishment in the early 1900s) but more importantly it was the center of family life until the onset of television in the 1950s.
• 3. Antibiotics – Until 1928 when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin  nearly any little bug someone picked up was potentially fatal.
• 4. Television – Where would we be without the boob tube?
• 5. The Airplane – The world was first made a smaller place by the locomotive in the 19th century, and the airplane did the same the 20th. Suddenly, any place in the world was there for the choosing. 
• 6. The Automobile – The automobile became the most practical and reliable source of transportation ever invented and people the world over still cannot imagine life without them.
  
• 7. The Personal Computer – It’s hard to imagine a world without computers these days. They may have been around since World War Two, but these clunky underachieving hunks of scrap cannot be compared to today’s models, in which a person’s entire life can be stored and organized.
  
• 8. Rocketry – The Chinese are credited with inventing rockets over three thousand years ago, but it was in the 20th century when they transformed from exciting amusement to an effective weapon of war and terror.
  
• 9. The Submarine – Although predating the 20th century, submarines as we know them today came into being during the 20th century.  With development of nuclear power, a submarine’s range and endurance become nearly unlimited effectively rendering all previous forms of  naval warfare obsolete.
• 10. Nuclear Energy – With nuclear energy, humanity suddenly had a power source that was efficient, virtually unlimited, and didn’t pollute.