CEO Dan Price Cuts His One Million Dollar Salary To Seventy Thousand Dollars To Ensure His Workers Will Earn The Same...

The cynical will say it's a public relations gesture to get Dan Price's company good press.
But hey, here's a young man who mightn't look like your average CEO who is prepared to do what your average CEO wouldn't even consider.
Dan Price has had the growing income inequality issue on his mind for some time and he's decided to do something about it.
To put his money where his mouth is.
This Dan fellow who drives a twelve year old Audi is the founder and CEO of the Seattle based company Gravity Payments.
He has a staff of 120 who have an average salary of forty eight thousand. Dan's move will double 30 workers salary and within thirtysix months will raise the base salary to seventy thousand dollars.
The average salary for a CEO in the US is
on average, three hundred and fifty times more than their workers.
Dan wants to address the balance.
He wants to invest in his people.
Good on you Dan. I like the talk you're walking...

The Last Day Of The Year...

It's the last day of the year.
A good time to give more serious consideration to loving our fellow man.
No matter what his or her differences.
To walk the talk and actually do unto others
as we'd have done to ourselves.
And all that sort of thing...

If Certain Countries Leaders Were Serious About Peace They'd Stop Making And Selling Weapons Of Mass Destruction...

It's a fantasy but it's not rocket science.
If the top ten weapon manufacturing and exporting countries, the US, Russia, Germany, France, China, United Kingdom, Italy, Israel, Sweden and the Ukraine ceased making armaments, the world would be
a better place.
It's a shame they don't walk the talk.
The reason these countries make and sell weapons is because of money. Masses of it.
In this fairy story we see the presidents and prime ministers of all these countries that manufacture arms, invited into a very large stadium, you know, like the Colosseum.
Then they are shot.
With their own weapons of course.
That would then self destruct.
And then the world would be a better place.
And we'd all live happily ever after...

Enjoy The Timeless Elegence And Simplicity Of These Beautiful Wooden Watches...

Until I saw these beautiful, elegant and simple wooden watches featured on Treehugger,
I hadn't even considered wooden timepieces like these would even exist.
The folk at the small independent Analog Watch Co based in Philedalphia Pennsylvania spent months researching, prototyping and sourcing material, then countless caffeine fueled hours they say, experimenting, testing and creating.
They care about craftsmanship, beauty and simplicity. They are inspired by nature, leaves, trees, rocks, trickling water and crickets singing
in the night.
They are a little company who have a great philosophy. It's important for them to put back to the environment from which they take.
So, for every watch sold, they plant a tree.
Their beautiful watches are made using wood off-cuts, genuine leather for the straps and recycled packaging.
A company for our times...

The Dean Of Huston-Tillotson University In Texas, Professor Jeff Wilson, Is Happily Living In A 36 Sq Ft Dumpster Bin...

It's not the usual place you'd find a dean of a university faculty residing, but Professor Wilson who isn't your usual sort of dean, went to the dumpster, in Thoreau's words, not 'just because he wanted to live deliberately' but to show his students by example about the environmental impact of day to day life.
Sure, the dumpster doesn't have any bathroom or cooking facilities right now but it's still a great story, one that I think you'll enjoy.
About this man who is, in his own way,
and sharing it with others, walking the talk...

Saturday 23 August 2014. Brando Wildboy Yelavich Becomes The First Person To Walk The Entire New Zealand Coastline...

I'm back! he called with a huge grin on his face a few meters from the end and the crowd of family, friends and supporters cheered him on.
He'd left there exactly six hundred days earlier.
Brando had climbed his Everest and strode into the history books and the country's folklore becoming, on Saturday August 23 at 3.45pm,
the first person to ever walk the entire coastline of New Zealand.
He had walked the talk.
He had dreamed it and he had done it.
And as we watched, instead of coming up the hill, he raced down the steep sandy slope, took off his pack and clothes and ran into the embrace of The Tasman Sea that had looked after him and fed him on his way south all those days ago. Then, to our cheering, he made his way up the final slope towards us.
My young friend had invited me to spend his last night before the final few kilometers with him at Tapotupotu Bay, just to the east of Cape Reinga. There was no way The Flying Tortoise wasn't going to be there.
A film crew were there too, making a doco about Wildboy for the New Zealand ADHD Association on how he'd quieted his demons and resolved the issues surrounding ADHD and his Dyslexia. They pall into insignificance now.
Throughout his journey his words and deeds inspired many thousands of young and not so young children with similar issues.
And those without any.
I arrived at Cape Reinga at the northern tip of Aotearoa New Zealand, The Land Of The Long White Cloud. My country. And couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
I knew it was a spiritual place but I wasn't ready for the strength of emotions and the profound affect actually being there would evoke in me.
If I didn't know better I would swear I had Maori ancestry. And I would be proud to.
The Cape is a place where The Tasman Sea
and The Pacific Ocean meet, their respective currents doing battle and causing much turmoil for seafarers.
Many were the reasons for tears of joy to flow on Saturday and flow they did. It was an emotional homecoming for the boy who left there all those days and experiences ago. While the crowd of well wishers watched, they realised the wayward boy had become a wonderful, confident, personable and articulate young man.
His parents Todd and Donella, his sister Brooke, his Grandparents, his Uncles and Aunts his girlfriend Ngaio, all of us there and those who couldn't be, have cause to be immensely
proud of Brando.
There were people there, and many too who weren't, who've been proud to met Brando on his walk and think about him as being the son they'd have liked to have had, but never did.
I am one of them...

Brando Yelavich Continues His Epic Journey To Become The First Person To Walk The Entire New Zealand Coastline...

A few days ago I had the delight of catching up with my young friend Brando on the Mahia Peninsula. Wildboy is the name he's using these days but since I met him on day two of his epic adventure to walk the entire New Zealand coastline, this remarkable young person has become an inspirational man.
His parents Todd and Donella have every reason to be immensely proud of their son with his attention deficit disorder and his dyslexia for achieving what nobody has ever achieved.
Many have talked about it but Brando is walking the talk and when he reaches Cape Reinga in early August he'll deserve every accolade that comes his way.
He will have conquered his first Everest.
He's got others in mind, like writing a book, continuing to inspire others, being the first person to climb a mountain on the moon and getting a car.
He jokes he's fed up with walking.
As you might well imagine he's had some wonderful adventures on his journey, catching his first Hapuka at Ngawi with my friend Malcolm was one, living off the land has been an incredible experience and he's met many amazing people.
Some like Tarsh from Dunedin have gone to great lengths to travel part of the way with him.
Right now she's walking with him from Mahia up the coast to Gisborne on the East Cape. You can follow Brando every step of the way too and on that matter, so far he reckons he's made over seven and a half million steps on the five thousand eight hundred kilometers already walked.
It was great to see him but I'm glad I'm not carrying his pack.
It's so heavy I could hardly lift it.
I'll catch up with him again before Cape Reinga.
And yes Brando. Life is good...