Tanuu Blog

What is it that stops you from jumping off a 5 story building, is it the fear of falling, the sudden stop at the bottom or knowing that you cannot fly?

As a youngster you lay in bed at night fearing to let you leg or arm drop over the side of the bed lest the bed monster gets you. You knew there was a monster in your closet waiting to attack you the moment you built up enough courage to move out of your position.

Again you felt that natural fear when you went into water over your head. What was it that allowed you to finally give way and jump into the water, what happened to the fear?

These were not natural fears; they were a learned response since you were an infant. A baby has only two natural fears; they are for loud noises and being dropped. The rest of the fears come from training, those taught to us by others and personal experience.

We do not know about monsters or drowning until we see them on TV or hear about someone drowning, or our parents tell us about the dangers. We forget that babies are natural swimmers and we don’t know about monsters but we can relate to them because of our natural fear of the unknown.

Fear is a caution light; it is built in for our protection so that we do not rush into something that is beyond what we believe to be our own limitations. We do not jump because we know that we cannot fly or we cannot swim.

Fear is the greatest enemy of mankind and especially the fear of the unknown, the unproven, and the untamed. Fear has such a strong grip that it can make us physically ill the second we contemplate moving out of our box and it is fear alone that holds us back.

There is one thing only that can overcome fear and it is absolute, there is nothing that can equalize or neutralize it. Faith, trust, and believing pale in the light of “knowing.” It is “knowing,” that is the great manifestor, the creator of all that is and when we get into the position of knowing, fear is not a factor. If you know that you can fly, you will have no fear of jumping. If you know that you can swim, you will have no fear of going in over your head. When you get into the position of knowing a thing you are as God, you are the creator of what it is you desire. When you say you know you can do this and it is your truth, the deed shall be done and nothing can change that until you know something else.

Man’s greatest fear is in moving out of his religious box. Men of great minds and conviction treble at the thought of angering a vengeful God. Wise men fall to their knees and whimper for forgiveness should they question the word of this God. There is

With the spread of various coffee beans into our lives, it can be more and more difficult to discern what you’re buying at the market. And that’s not surprising given the sheer numbers game.

From what we know, there are more than 6,000 types of coffees beans in the world, with at least 25 major types of beans underneath that. When it comes down to it, though, the three most commercially important types of beans are Arabica, Robusta, and Kona.

Kona is extremely small commercially compared to Arabica and Robusta, but is extremely expensive and therefore important economically. Kona beans are grown in Hawaii.

Kona offers average bite and body but is in high demand worldwide because of its powerful aroma. These coffee beans are rarely blended with others because of their high desirability in and of themselves.

Arabica coffee beans account for over 60% of coffee production worldwide. The Arabica plant is a large bush and is very susceptible to frost, disease, and pests. Because of this, its beans are more expensive.

Arabica can be used in its pure form or used as the base for coffee blends with Robusta. Arabica has a delicate flavor and is used to add body to the coffee when used in blends.

The flavor of Arabica beans varies widely according to the region of the world where they are grown. Indonesian beans produce the richest, most full-bodied cup of coffee. Hailing from Java and Sumatra, the brew is a good dessert coffee and very suitable to flavoring with cream and sugar.

Arabica beans grown in Central and South America offer moderate body and aroma. Most breakfast blends are made with American coffees, as are most flavored coffees.

By contrast, Robusta coffee accounts for almost 40% of world production. Robusta differs from Arabica in that it’s much easier to grow and is resistant to disease and weather and is therefore cheaper.

However, this does not necessarily mean that a coffee blend with Robusta is lower quality than pure Arabica - coffee blends are designed to bring out the best in different flavors. Robusta has a strong flavor and is used to give ‘kick’ to coffees.

Robusta doesn’t vary in flavor as widely as Arabica does. It was first discovered growing naturally in the area now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Growers in Africa produce a coffee of medium aroma and body. If you like very flavorful coffees, you will like those from Kenya and Tanzania.

Now that you understand the basics of coffee beans, the question turns to which type of beans are right for you. It really depends on with what you’re planning to serve the coffee. If you’re serving with breakfast or a dessert of fruit and sorbet, beans from East Africa (particularly Kenya and Ethiopia) or Mexico will best complement the food.

If you’re going to offer your guests light desserts like cakes, cookies, or pie, the beans of Guatemala and Cololmbia will warm up the food with their slight acidic tendancy. With rich desserts like truffles, trifles, and tiramius, Indonesian coffee

Fee Increase Leaves Some Sellers Angry, Others Thrilled

Much of my email from readers this month concerned the recent announcement from eBay that it will increase many seller fees on February 18, 2005. Since many business people use eBay’s online store system as their primary ecommerce point of sale, it’s no surprise that most of the emails I received were of the angry variety.

One email in particular caught my attention because it urged me to visit a website to sign an online petition protesting the fee hike. The email directed me to http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/petition.html and upon further investigation I found that 22,548 digital signatures had already been collected (as of this writing).

Thank goodness not all of them had my email address.

This will be the fifth rate hike in as many years for the auction giant and should really come as no surprise. Price hikes are a normal course of business. It was the size of the hike that has many sellers upset.

The rate hike involved the following fees: