Articles by Dietrich Fischer

We found 494 results.


Truthful
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Feb 2017

An applicant was filling out a job application.

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Quickies
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Jan 2017

George Bush came late to a cabinet meeting.

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Truthful…?
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Jan 2017

Sweden has built a new bridge to an island.

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Mistakes
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Jan 2017

A biology teacher wanted to warn his students about the harmful effects of alcohol.

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Sharing
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Jan 2017

A mother was preparing pancakes for her two sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3.

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Peace Is the Way
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Dec 2016

It is impossible to establish peace once and for all, and to expect that it will remain that way.

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So Much for ‘Understanding’
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Dec 2016

The UN. conducted a worldwide survey asking “Would you please give your honest opinion about the solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?” Not surprisingly, it was a huge failure.

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Tests & Exams
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Dec 2016

Some actual answers to test questions:

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Psychiatrists
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

A psychiatrist needed a plumber.

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Traitors
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

When relations between the Soviet Union and China soured in the early 1960s, Khrushchev met Zhou En Lai and told him,

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A Best Selling Author
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Sylvia Nasar was a brilliant economics student at New York University and one of four assistants of Wassily Leontief, who had won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Economic Science for his invention of input-output analysis.

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Opportunism & Greed
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business.

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Let It Cool Down
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Nov 2016

A folktale from Uganda told by TRANSCEND member Stella Sabiiti. A king had a beautiful daughter. Many men asked to marry her, but the king gave them a difficult test.

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The Salary Theory…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Nov 2016

Dilbert’s “Salary Theorem” states that “Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives and sales people.”

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Musicians
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Nov 2016

A little boy rang the neighbor’s bell. “Does it disturb you that I practice the piano every day?”

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Clean Politicians
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 Oct 2016

A cannibal was walking through the jungle and came upon a restaurant operated by a fellow cannibal.

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Drunks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Oct 2016

Recently, a routine police patrol was parked outside a local neighborhood bar in Minnesota. Late in the evening, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk.

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Poor Driver
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Sep 2016

After a summit meeting, Reagan, Brezhnev and Deng Xiaoping were being driven to the airport in a limousine.

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Arithmetic
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Little Billy returns home from school and says he got an F in arithmetic.

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Musicians
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Aug 2016

Ben Zanders, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, led an audience of 1000 at a conference…

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Never Thought of That…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Aug 2016

Gee!

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A Farmer and His Horse
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jul 2016

How a Seemingly Bad Luck Can Turn Out to Be a Good Luck

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Heaven and Hell
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jul 2016

St. Peter showed a visitor heaven and hell.

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Reconciliation in Bosnia
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2016

In Travnik, there were two communities (Bosniaks and Croats). For one and a half year of weekly lectures, they did not mingle at all. All the Croats, who are Catholics, sat on the left side of the room, along with a nun, separated by a walkway from all the Bosniaks, who are Muslims, who sat on the right side, along with an Imam. During breaks, they went to separate rooms to drink tea.

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Assembly Line & Automation Works
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2016

Two people went along a road with pick and shovel.

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Life Management
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2016

A professor was giving a lecture on time management.

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Managers
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2016

A man is flying in a hot-air balloon and realizes he is lost.

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By the Way
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2016

Having email is like…

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Drunks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 May 2016

Recently, a routine police patrol was parked outside a local neighborhood bar in Minnesota. Late in the evening, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk.

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Dictionary Wisdom
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 May 2016

Ruth and Golda were walking along Hendon High Street. Ruth says,

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Good Deeds
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 May 2016

Scouts are supposed to do at least one good deed every day. A scout master asked three little scouts at camp in the evening, “What good deed did you do today?”

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Minor Mistake
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Apr 2016

A new monk shows up at a monastery where the monks spend their time making copies of ancient books.

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Successful Skills
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Apr 2016

The radio announcer Daniel Shorr was considering working in television early in his career and asked someone what it would take to be successful there.

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Truly Religious
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Apr 2016

A convent was being renovated. The workers worked hard all day practically without any breaks.

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Wives
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Mar 2016

“My wife is good; she made me a necktie out of an old pair of pants.”

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Keen Observation
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Feb 2016

A famous surgeon told his students,

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Church Announcements
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Feb 2016

Ladies don’t forget the rummage sale.

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Children
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jan 2016

All parents want their children to be independent.

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Mistaken Identity
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Dec 2015

An old cowboy, dressed in a cowboy shirt, hat, jeans and boots went to a bar, sat down, and ordered a drink.

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It Figures…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Dec 2015

Johnny and Billy, who sat next to each other at school, both had 17 mistakes in their dictation, and all in the same places.

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Conflict and Cooperation
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Dec 2015

During World War I, Muzafer Sherif from Turkey was in a group of civilians who were massacred by enemy soldiers. He was the only survivor, because he lay motionless under a pile of bodies and the soldiers thought he was dead. After that horrible experience, he decided to do everything he could to understand better the sources of hostility and ways to overcome them.

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Automatism
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Nov 2015

Two people went along a road with pick and shovel.

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Buckminster Fuller
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Nov 2015

Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) studied aerospace engineering, and later changed to architecture. One morning he decided to figure out how a house would look like if it was built according to the principles he had learned in aerospace engineering.

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Alfred Nobel
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Nov 2015

Sometimes, mistakes, even lies, can have a serendipitous effect.

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On the Phone
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Nov 2015

A man spoke frantically into the phone.

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Call Me by My Name
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Nov 2015

French Pres. Charles De Gaulle got up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom in the dark, wearing nothing.

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The Milgram Experiment
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Nov 2015

The “student” was led away into a cabin where he was presumably hooked to electric wires. The “teacher” was told to ask him a series of questions, and each time he gave a wrong answer, to administer to the “student” an electric shock of increasing intensity, to study if the fear of pain would improve people’s concentration and ability to think straight.

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Brain
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Nov 2015

George W. Bush went to see a specialist to examine his brain.

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The Burlington 23
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Nov 2015

During the Vietnam war, a group of citizens in Burlington, Vermont, USA, tried for a long time in vain to persuade their Congressman to hold hearings about the legality of the war.

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Smoke Signal
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Nov 2015

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

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Random Inspections
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Oct 2015

If a suspected drug smuggler could tell a border guard, “You may check my trunk, but don’t open the glove compartment,” such an “inspection” would be meaningless.

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Blood Circulation
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Oct 2015

biology teacher was giving a lesson on blood circulation.

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Commuters
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Oct 2015

Alice used to come to the office with public transportation, and Bill, who lived a little farther away in the same direction, drove to the office by car. He offered to Alice to pick her up on his way to the office every morning and bring her home after work. Both were happy with this arrangement.

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The Power of Nonviolence
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Oct 2015

When Ferdinand Marcos tried to rig elections to stay in power in the Philippines in 1986, two army units defected. He sent the rest of his army to crush them, but they were surrounded and protected by half a million unarmed civilians.

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Annoying Questions
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Oct 2015

Little Johnny came home from the first day in school. His mother asked him how his teacher was.

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Effect of Germany’s Occupation on Norway
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Oct 2015

Joint suffering can sometimes bring former opponents together if three conditions are fulfilled…

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Heaven and Hell
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Sep 2015

In heaven, the cooks are French, the police officers English, the mechanics German, the Swiss run the trains and the Italians are lovers.

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Structural Violence
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Sep 2015

Structural violence is equivalent to 236 Hiroshima bombs being dropped on the children of the world each year. However, because the suffering is diffuse, not concentrated in one place at one time, it is ignored by the media and society.

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Responsibility
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Sep 2015

One can distinguish between two concepts of responsibility, in the narrow sense of someone who has caused a problem, and in the wider sense of anyone who can correct a problem, even if he or she has not caused it, as the following story told by Roger Fisher illustrates.

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Good Question
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Sep 2015

Someone who farms is a farmer.

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Children
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Sep 2015

We spend the first 2 years of children’s life teaching them to walk and talk.

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Bishop Desmond Tutu
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Sep 2015

In 1984 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent struggle against apartheid. In 1995, one year after the first democratic elections in which all South Africans were allowed to participate, President Nelson Mandela appointed Bishop Tutu to head the 17-member South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which exposed atrocities committed by all sides during the long apartheid regime.

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By Accident
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Sep 2015

A car skidded on wet pavement and struck a light pole.

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The Origins of Peace Research
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Sep 2015

Johan Galtung, born 1930, refused to do military service in Norway. He was sentenced to six months in prison in winter 1954-55. While in prison, he completed his first book, “Gandhi’s Political Ethics”, together with his mentor, the philosopher Arne Naess.

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Breast Fed
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 Aug 2015

A woman and a baby came into the doctor’s office. She was told to go into the room and wait for the doctor.

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The Camera Is Mightier Than the Sword
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 Aug 2015

From 1936-79, Nicaragua was ruled by the corrupt Somoza family, which owned more than half of Nicaragua’s land. In the 1970s, the Sandinista guerrilla movement fought against the Somoza dictatorship.

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Peace Research Is Value-Oriented
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Aug 2015

Imagine you are sick and visit a doctor. He takes your temperature, pulse, listens to your lungs and looks at your tongue. Then he tells you, “You have a very interesting disease, I will write it up in my next scientific publication.” You ask, “But don’t you have a cure for me?” The doctor protests, “Oh no, I am objective! I simply observe, I do not intervene.”

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Among Geniuses
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Aug 2015

Albert Einstein met a colleague on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

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Humor Defeating the Law about Conscientious Objectors
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Aug 2015

When [TRANSCEND member] Jorgen Johansen from Norway (born 1956) was 18, he received a letter requesting that he join the army. He wrote back that he would not do so, as a conscientious objector to military service. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison, the standard Norwegian punishment at that time for refusing military service.

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How Switzerland Ended Its Involvement in War
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Aug 2015

For the first 200 years of its history, Switzerland was involved in many wars, first to defend itself against repeated attempts by the German emperor to reconquer the cantons that had declared themselves independent in 1291, and later to acquire more territory. Two events brought an end to this involvement in war.

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Truthful
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Aug 2015

Someone was walking with the devil. The person in front of them bent down and picked something up.

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The Tiger’s Whisker
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Aug 2015

A Korean Folktale – A woman came to seek help from a famous herbalist.

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Some Charity
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Aug 2015

After the church service a little boy told the pastor, “When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money.”

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Turning Enemies into Allies
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jul 2015

At the 1919 Versailles peace conference after World War I, the French Prime Minister Georges Clémenceau insisted that Germany be held solely responsible for starting World War I, and be forced to pay huge reparations over the next fifty years, to bring Germany to its knees, so that it would never be able again to build up its industrial capacity and become a military threat to its neighbors.

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Accuracy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jul 2015

The following joke was circulating in Moscow in 1998:

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An Active Peace Policy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jul 2015

In the nuclear age, we can no longer afford to wait until war breaks out and then react with military force. We must pursue an active peace policy that seeks to avoid or resolve conflicts long before they lead to war.

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On Life
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jul 2015

A minister, a priest and a rabbi were discussing when life begins.

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Women Preventing War
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jul 2015

In 1905, Norway declared its independence from Sweden. Norwegian and Swedish troops faced each other along the border, ready to fight.

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In Church
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jul 2015

During the sermon, a little boy kept moving in his seat and making noises.

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Dare to Change
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jul 2015

A bird barely survived in a nest on a lonely tree on a vast deserted plain.

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Gifts for Mom
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Jun 2015

Four brothers left home for college, and they became successful doctors and lawyers and prospered.

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Majority Rule
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Jun 2015

A Frenchman arrives on a South Sea island.

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Greed
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Jun 2015

An antique dealer used to visit farms in his area to try to find valuable old furniture, and buy it cheap.

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Forgot
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Jun 2015

A weed scientist goes into a shop.

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An Immodest Wish
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Jun 2015

A wealthy maharajah was so delighted with the game of chess that he offered the inventor of the game anything in his realm that he might wish.

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Duality
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Jun 2015

There are 10 kinds of people in this world:

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Thrust into Freedom
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Jun 2015

A husband and wife in the city of Medellin, Colombia, had a cow on a small plot of grass land in front of their house, and they barely subsisted by feeding some of her milk to their children and selling the rest.

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Sick
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Jun 2015

A little boy did not want to go to school.

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The Olive Jar
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

A merchant in 8th century Baghdad went on a long trip to the orient.

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Demands
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

A group of terrorists burst into the Annual Convention of the American Bar Association at the New York Hilton Hotel and took three hundred lawyers as hostages.

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The Oak Tree and the Reed Grass
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

A mighty oak tree ridiculed the soft thin reed grass bending back and forth in the lake.

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Checking for Accuracy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.

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Honesty and Insight
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 May 2015

An Indian Guru realized that he was getting old and could not teach much longer.

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Arriving
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 May 2015

The director of a prison tells the warden, “Tomorrow, everything has to be perfectly clean, the chief justice is coming.”

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Mathematicians
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

A physicist, a chemist and a mathematician were stranded on an island after a shipwreck.

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Flying Lessons
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

A flock of birds that could not fly met in a nice hotel on top of a cliff overlooking the sea for a training workshop on flying.

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Different Customs
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 May 2015

A Chinese man put a bowl of rice on his deceased wife’s grave every day.

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Too Proud?
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 May 2015

Most American politicians talk as if they had been born in a log cabin…

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On the Historic Role of the Peace Movement
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Apr 2015

One can distinguish between four forms of power: military, economic, cultural and political. Military power says, “If you don’t do what I want, I will hurt you.” Economic power says, “If you do what I want, I will reward you.” Cultural power says, “If you do what I want, I will praise you, and if you don’t do what I want, I will criticize you.” Political power manipulates the other three forms of power to achieve goals.

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Solution
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Apr 2015

One reverend complained to the other, “I have no people coming to listen to my sermon.”

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