Fungus in Coke

Fungus in Coke

India's most admired business leaders.

Ratan Naval Tata
Chairman, Tata Group

In 1991, he took over as group chairman from J R D Tata, pushing out the old guard and ushering in younger managers.

Under his guidance, Tata Consultancy Services went public and Tata Motors was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1998, Tata Motors introduced his brainchild, the Tata Indica.

On January 31, 2007, Tata Sons successfully acquired Corus Group, an Anglo-Dutch steel and aluminium producer.

The merger created the fifth largest steel producing entity in the world. On March 26, 2008,Tata Motors bought Jaguar & Land Rover from Ford Motor Company.

Ratan Tata's dream was to manufacture a car costing Rs 100,000. He realised his dream by unveiling the Nano in New Delhi Auto Expo on January 10, 2008. It was finally launched on March 23, 2009.

Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy
Founder & chief mentor, Infosys

He was the CEO  of the company for 21 years, from 1981 to 2002. After stepping down as CEO in 2002, he has broadened his scope of activities to social services as well as promoting India globally.

Murthy started a new venture capital fund called Catamaran Venture Fund  with the money he got by selling 800,000 Infosys shares worth Rs 174 crore (Rs 1.74 billion).

His wife, Sudha Murthy, also helped him set up his VC fund by giving him Rs 430 crore (Rs 4.3 billion) which she got by selling quarter of her stake in Infosys.

Murthy, "I want Infosys to be a place where people of different genders, nationalities, races and religious beliefs work together in an environment of intense competition but utmost harmony, courtesy and dignity to add more and more value to our customers day after day."

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani
Chairman, Reliance Industries

Mukesh Ambani was the richest man in Asia and the fourth richest man in the world with a personal wealth of $29.0 billion.

He joined Reliance Industries in 1981. He directed and led the creation of the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar with a current capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure.

In August 2010 Reliance announced a $392 million stake in an American natural gas interest located in central and northeast Pennsylvania.

Reliance has also purchased significant stakes in the shale gas assets of Atlas Energy Inc and Pioneer Natural Resources.

Vijay Mallya
Chairman, United Breweries Group & Kingfisher Airlines

Mallya took over as chairman of United Breweries Group  in 1984.

In May 2007, United Breweries Group announced the all-cash acquisition of scotch whisky maker Whyte & Mackay for pound 595 million (approximately Rs 6000 crore).

In 2005, Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines, which later bought a 26 per cent stake in Air Deccan, a low cost Indian airline. Mallya later rebranded it as Kingfisher Red.

In 2007, Mallya and the Mol family from The Netherlands bought the Spyker F1 team for euro 88 million. The team changed its name to Force India F1 from the 2008 Season.

Mallya's United Breweries sponsors the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan football clubs in Kolkata.

He also was part of the consortium that acquired Queens Park Rangers FC, as part of the Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal.

Mallya entered politics in 2000 and replaced Subramanian Swamy as the president of the Janata Party. He is a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha.

In 2004, he placed the winning bid of pound 175,000 for the sword of Tipu Sultan at an auction in London, and brought it back to India.

In March 2009, Mallya successfully bid for the belongings of Mahatma Gandhi at $1.8 million, in a New York auction.

Azim Hashim Premji
Chairman, Wipro Limited

At the age of 21 he took over the family business -- Western India Vegetable Product Company -- when his father, M H Premji, suddenly passed away in 1966.

The Western India Vegetable Product later became Wipro Products Ltd, Wipro Technologies and Wipro Corporation.

Under Premji's leadership Wipro embarked on an ambitious phase of expansion and diversification. The Company began manufacturing light bulbs with General Electric and other consumer products including soaps, baby care products, shampoos, powder

In the 1980s Wipro entered the IT field, taking advantage of the expulsion of IBM from the Indian market in 1975.

Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite of his wealth.

He drives a Toyota Corolla, flies economy class prefers to stay in company guest houses.

Premji has been recognised by Business Week as one of the greatest entrepreneurs globally.

In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, for his outstanding philanthropic work.

Sunil Bharti Mittal
Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises

A first generation entrepreneur, Mittal started his first business  -- to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers -- in April 1976 at the age of 18, with a capital investment of Rs 20,000 borrowed from his father. 

In 1980 he sold his bicycle parts and yarn factories and moved to Mumbai. In 1984, he started assembling push-button phones in India.

In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licences auctioned in India. His plans were finally approved by the government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi in 1995.

Bharti Cellular Limited offered services under the brand name AirTel. In November 2006, he struck a joint venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India.

In July 2006, he attracted many key executives from Reliance ADAG, NIS Sparta and created Bharti Comtel.

Mittal, failed in his bid to buy South African telecom giant MTN, but was successful in buying Zain Telecom of Kuwait.

Kishore Biyani

Group Chief Executive Officer, Future Group

Biyani has had a long journey and he is still unstoppable. Starting of with working in the family textile business, he emerged as India's largest retailer.

Future Group's flagship Pantaloon Retail operates via various formats like hypermarkets, supermarkets and department stores, with the customer perception remaining on the top.

For success in retail, there need to be a brain which studies the buying habits of the customers.

All the formats that he has launched intermingles the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
Chairman, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

Ambani joined Reliance in 1983 as co-chief executive officer and is credited with having pioneered many financial innovations in the Indian capital markets.

One of his major achievements in the entertainment industry is the takeover of Adlabs, the movie production to distribution to multiplex company that owns India's only dome theatre and the joint venture worth $825 million with Steven Spielberg.

Ambani was in talks with Everton officials over a deal to takeover the club.

Before this he was also on the brink of buying Newcastle United.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Ltd

She founded Biocon India with a capital of Rs 10,000 in 1978. The initial operation was to extract an enzyme from papaya.

Her application for loans was turned down by banks on two counts - biotechnology  was then a new word and the company lacked assets.

Over the years, the company grew under her leadership and is today the biggest biopharmaceutical firm in India.

Adi Godrej
Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej Group

He took the Godrej Group to great height even during controlled economy era.

An industrialist and a philanthropist, Godrej modernised and systematised management structures and implemented process improvements.

After India's economy was opened up, Godrej restructured the company's policies to meet the challenges of globalisation.

In the early 2000s, the Group completed a 10-year restructuring process through which each business became a stand-alone company with a CEO/COO from outside the Godrej family.

Godrej, a major supporter of the World Wildlife Fund in India, has developed a green business campus in the Vikhroli township of Mumbai, which includes a 150-acre mangrove forest and a school for the children of company employees.

Kushal Pal Singh
Chairman & CEO, DLF Ltd

Gurgaon became a world-famous outsourcing destination in span of a decade because of K P Singh's world-class earthquake-proof office buildings, apartments, shopping malls and leisure facilities.

In 2008 he became the world's richest real estate tycoon.

In 1960, he joined American Universal Electric Company and soon after its merger with DLF Universal Limited in 1979, he took over as the managing sirector of this new company.

DLF has an estimated land bank of 10,255 acres.

Brijmohan Lall Munjal
Chairman, Hero Group

In 1944, when he was 20, Munjal along with elder brothers Dayanand, Satyanand and younger brother Om Prakash came from Kamalia (now in Pakistan) and settled in Amritsar.

The brothers initially started a business by supplying components to manufacturers of bicycles in and around Amritsar.

After the partition in 1947 the Munjal family completely shifted their base from Pakistan to Ludhiana.

Slowly they expanded their distribution network and by early 1950s they were supplying components of bicycles throughout India.

In 1954, Hero Cycles Ltd moved up the value chain by making a shift from supplying to manufacturing. In 1984, the Hero Group started a joint venture with Japan's Honda Group, to manufacture motorbikes.

Hero, Honda ends 26-year partnership in December 2010 and rebranded as Hero MotoCop.

Kumar Mangalam Birla
Chairman, Aditya Birla Group

A chartered accountant, Birla earned an MBA from London Business School, where he is also an Honorary Fellow.

He served as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India's Committee on Corporate Governance, and as chairman of Sebi's Committee on Insider Trading.

He has authored the nation's First Report on Corporate Governance.

On the academic front, Birla is the Chancellor of BITS, Pilani, Hyderabad, Goa and Dubai.

He is a director of the G D Birla Medical Research and Education foundation.

Chanda Kochhar
MD & CEO, ICICI Bank

In May 2009, Chanda Kochhar took over the reins of the bank from K V Kamath.

Kochhar has also consistently figured in Fortune's list of 'Most Powerful Women in Business' since 2005.

In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes 'World's 100 Most Powerful Women list'.

Shiv Nadar
Chairman & chief strategy officer, HCL Technologies

Along with Ajai Chowdhry (chairman, HCL Infosystems), Arjun Malhotra (CEO and chairman, Headstrong), Subhash Arora, Yogesh Vaidya and D S Puri, he started Microcomp to sell teledigital calculators in the Indian market under the brand name Televista.

HCL was founded later in 1976 with an investment of Rs 187,000 from the 6 founders and Uttar Pradesh government was added as 26 per cent equity partner.

Nadar took HCL Technologies public in 1999.

His partnernship with Singapore Telecom  to address the now-booming Indian Telecom market was unsuccessful as well as his attempts in the granite and aquaculture business.

Anand Mahindra
Vice chairman & MD, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd

In the summer of 1991, he was appointed deputy managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

In April 1997, he was appointed managing director and in January 2003 given the additional responsibility of vice chairman.

Mahindra was a co-promoter of Kotak Mahindra Finance, which in 2003 was converted into a bank.

Mahindra is the co-founder of the Harvard Business School Association of India.

In 2009, Tech Mahindra, successfully acquires Satyam Computer.

Yogesh Chander Deveshwar
Chairman & CEO, ITC Limited

In 1994 Deveshwar rejoined ITC and was appointed whole time director and vice chairman of the company.

He took over as chairman of ITC in January 1996.

He is the person who dreamt of making ITC Limited into India's largest fast moving consumer goods company.

Subramanian Ramadorai
Vice-chairman, Tata Consultancy Services

Beginning his career with TCS as a junior engineer, he rose through the ranks and eventually was charged with setting up TCS' operations in the United States in 1979 in New York City.

Ramadorai spearheaded TCS' quality initiatives, taking sixteen of its Development Centers to SEI's CMM Level 5, the highest and most prestigious performance assessment issued by the Software Engineering Institute.

Om Prakash Bhatt
Chairman, SBI

He was appointed chairman of SBI in June 2006.

The five-year term of Bhatt will expire in March 2011. 

His will be the longest serving chairman of SBI in recent past.

Starting his career as a probationary officer in SBI in 1972, Bhatt held several key assignments in the bank.

He served as managing director of State Bank of Travancore from January 2005 to April 2006.

Anil Agarwal
Founder & chairman, Vedanta Resources Corporation

He founded Sterlite Industries in 1976 and then in 1986 established Vedanta Resources bringing together a variety of businesses owned by the Agarwal family.

Then followed a spate of acquisitions both in India and overseas -- and with it came the controversies, since many of them, such as Bharat Aluminium and Hindustan Zinc, involved public sector undertakings over which there was much resistance, mainly political.

Recently he acquired up to 60 per cent of British energy giant Cairn's Indian arm -- which is into oil and gas exploration -- for around a whopping $9.5 billion. 

The Indian government, however, rejected his bauxite-mining project in Orissa, citing environmental issues.

Naina Lal Kidwai
Group general manager & Country Head, HSBC Group.

At HSBC she has held positions as chief executive officer and deputy chief executive officer of HSBC Bank in India and managing director aof HSBC Securities and Capital Markets India Private Limited.

She became the group's country head in 2009.

Kidwai has repeatedly ranked in the Fortune global list of Top Women in Business, 12th in the Wall Street Journal 2006 Global Listing of Women to Watch ad listed by Time magazine as one of their 15 Global Influentials 2002.

Aditya Puri
MD, HDFC Bank

Puri has been the managing director of the bank since September 1994.

He has about 36 years of banking experience in India and abroad.

Prior to joining HDFC Bank, Puri was the CEO of Citibank, Malaysia from 1992 to 1994.

Puri in an interview once said, he always finds time for golf and family.

He spends just an hour each day on planning.

The rest of the time in bugging people to do their jobs.

Creative Thinkers of 2011.

1. Eric Dishman/Intel: 

Intel's director of health innovation, Eric is responsible for driving Intel's worldwide research, new product innovation and usability engineering activities in the healthcare area. Dishman joined Intel in 1999 as a senior researcher, and has been involved in a variety of research and management roles related to Intel's consumer and healthcare businesses. Trained as a social scientist, he has been involved with bringing an ethnographic approach to Intel's research and product development efforts. According to Eric, Healthcare needs tech based solutions based in communities and homes, focused on empowering patients to manage their own health and change their behavior as necessary. His goal is to enable 50% of care in the U.S. to be delivered in the home by 2020. "That's game-changing for quality of life, and a trillion dollars in potential savings."

2. Alex Kipman/Microsoft:

The man who incubated the game console, Kinect. Kinect was previously called the Project Natal, a Brazilian c

ity name as a tribute to the country by Brazilian-born Microsoft Director. The name Natal was also chosen because the word natal means "of or relating to birth", reflecting Microsoft's view of the project as "the birth of the next generation of home entertainment". Since its release in November, Kinect -- which consists of a depth sensor, microphones, and a motion camera tracking 20 points on the body in three-dimensional space--has inspired not only sales (some 10 million units) but also excitement among tinkerers who will soon have a Kinect software-development kit to advance their pet projects in, say, robotics or 3-D mapping. "This is a new era," says Kipman, "and it's going to require a ton of pioneering, a ton of innovation, and a ton of incubation. That's not going to happen all within Microsoft."

3. Chris Cox/Facebook:

Christopher Cox is called the 'triple threat' for the simple reason that Chris has mastered in three different ski

lls- an engineer who can build company-defining products, an operator who can recruit and manage good people, and a long-term strategic thinker. Chris, a math nerd who loved science friction went on to do the legendary Symbolic Systems program at Stanford, and into post-graduate work in the university's natural language processing group. "I loved artificial intelligence -- it seemed like the craziest and most expansive thing in the Stanford course reader," said Cox. When Facebook came calling, Cox passed at first. "I didn't think they were working on solving a serious problem." But after a series of meetings, a picture emerged in his mind. "I could see an unencumbered ability for people to communicate with each other," he says. "I saw it as a map -- a modern form of cartography, but of relationships and people." Cox envisions a future in which what your friends recommend on social networks plays a bigger role in what you buy, do, or watch on TV.

4. Andy Mooney/Disney:

Andrew Mooney was the Chairman of Disney Consumer Products (DCP). Mooney has been credited with pioneering the $4

billion Disney Princess franchise, an idea that Mooney says struck him at a Disney on Ice performance a few years earlier. Under Mooney's leadership and the DCP umbrella are The Baby Einstein Company, Disney Publishing Worldwide and newly re-acquired retail chain The Disney Store. "To make your mark, you have to do things other people thought were insane," says Andy Mooney. He is also behind Disney Baby onesies, which will be doled out to new moms in the hospital mere moments after they give birth.

5. Sebastian Thrun/Google:

When Sebastian was growing up in Germany, a car accident killed a childhood friend, and last November, anot

her accident claimed the life of a coworker. Both crashes were avoidable. Both the accidents instigated him to develop robotic cars that drive more safely. His invention also won government's $2 million DARPA challenge. His vehicle drove itself across the 132-mile desert racecourse. After which he hired two of his competitors to join him at Google. Each car is equipped with sensors that gather millions of data points per second about the surroundings and differentiate cars, pedestrians, birds, you name it. The unmanned vehicles of theirs have driven more than 140,000 miles till date.

6. Scott Forstall/Apple:

If Jonathan Ives astonishes people with his impressive designs of Apple, Scoot Forstall makes Apple experience

smooth with his smart software. s senior VP of iPhone software, Forstall is the chief architect of iOS, the industry-defining operating system that runs on more than 160 million iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Forstall, who went to work for Jobs right out of college, is one of the key architects of Apple's current success. His name is on about 50 Apple patents that cover everything from how application icons are laid out on the iPhone screen to the method of turning off a device with a finger swipe. On a crucial 2009 patent for a touchscreen device controlled by finger commands, 'Forstall, Scott' is listed second, right after 'Jobs, Steven P.' In many ways, Forstall is a mini-Steve. He's a hard-driving manager who obsesses over every detail. He has Jobs's knack for translating technical, feature-set jargon into plain English.

7. Chetan Bhagat/Writer:

Chetan Bhagat's four best sellers have sold almost 4 million books since 2004. Bhagat, also an op-ed columnist

in both Hindi and English newspapers, focusing on youth and issues based on national development is beloved. He knows his demographic of 21st-century global workers, as reflected by the plots and themes in books such as One Night @ the Call Center. In 2008, The New York Times called Bhagat "the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history".

8. Trevor Edwards/Nike:

Trevor Edwards sounds more like an existential philosopher than a marketing chief. "You bought a running shoe, a

football boot, for a reason. Now, who do you want to become?" he wonders. To respond -- "to make data more motivational" -- Edwards, Nike's VP of global brand management, has launched an array of simple tools (like wearable sensors linked to social apps and online communities) that record workouts, offer sophisticated coaching, and encourage support from friends -- for everyone from future elite athletes to regular folks seeking well-being.

Date with a Woman … Very Sweet And Touching

 
After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie.. 

She said I love you but I know this other woman loves you and would love to spend some time with you.
 
The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it possible to visit her only occasionally.
 
That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.
‘What’s wrong, are you well,’ she asked? My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.
 
‘I thought that it would be pleasant to be with you,’ I responded. ‘Just the two of us.’
She thought about it for a moment, and then said, ‘I would like that very much…..’
That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous.
 
When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date. She waited in the door with her coat on.. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary.
She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel’s.
 
‘I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed, ‘she said, as she got into the car.
 ‘They can’t wait to hear about our meeting’. We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. 

My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady.
After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me.
A nostalgic smile was on her lips.
 
‘It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small,’ she said. ‘Then it’s time that you relax and let me return the favor,’ I responded.
During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation – nothing extraordinary, but catching up on recent events of each other’s life..
We talked so much that we missed the movie..
As we arrived at her house later, she said, ‘I’ll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.’ I agreed.
 
‘How was your dinner date?’ asked my wife when I got home. ‘Very nice.
Much more so than I could have imagined,’ I answered.
A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I didn’t have time to do anything for her.
Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place mother and I had dined.
 
An attached note said: ‘I paid this bill in advance. I wasn’t sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates – one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me..
 
I love you, son.’
At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: ‘I LOVE YOU!’ and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve.
 
 Nothing in life is more important than God and your family and friends. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till ‘some other time.’

SCAMS OF HISTORY MAKERS

NEVER TRUST ANY ONE VERY  EASILY.

10. Adolf Hitler

 


Fact: Hitler was a tax evader.
 
Recent research into papers relating to Hitler has uncovered the fact that when he became chancellor of Germany in 1934 he had evaded paying 405,500 million Reichsmarks in tax (6.3 million USD in today’s currency). Fortunately for Hitler, he was forgiven his tax debts when he was elected. It is believed that he earned 1.2 million Reichsmarks for sales of Mein Kampf alone, and avoided paying 600,000 Reichsmarks in tax on it. The official who forgave Hitler’s tax debt was “rewarded” with a 2,000 Reichsmarks per month tax free allowance (a huge amount considering teachers at the time were paid 4,800 per annum).

9. Winston Churchill

 


Fact: Churchill was racist.
 
Sir Winston Churchill is so highly regarded for his skills as an orator and statesman that he was voted Britain’s greatest individual by the BBC in 2002. There is no doubt that his speech writing is a class above virtually every other modern writer of English speeches, and we are all familiar with at least one or two of his famous quotations, but what many people don’t know is that he also had a dark side. The best way to illustrate that is to let the man speak for himself:
“I do not admit… that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia… by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race… has come in and taken its place.” -Churchill to Palestine Royal Commission, 1937
“I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas against uncivilised tribes” - Writing as president of the Air Council.
“First there are the Jews who, dwelling in every country throughout the world, identify themselves with that country, enter into its national life, and, while adhering faithfully to their own religion, regard themselves as citizens in the fullest sense of the State which has received them…In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their fathers…This worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation…has steadily growing” — Writing on ‘Zionism versus Bolshevism’ in the Illustrated Sunday Herald, February 1920.

8. Gandhi

 


Fact: Gandhi was a dirty old man.
 
At the age of 36, whilst married, Gandhi decided to become celibate in order to achieve a state of enlightenment (through the Hindu religion). As he got older, he became more and more fascinated with sex to the point that, second only to non-violence, it was the subject he most talked about. In order to “perfect” his celibate state, Gandhi would sleep naked with young naked women. One of the women was the 16 year old wife of his grand-nephew Kanu Gandhi. When he wanted to share his bed with his 19 year old grandniece Manu Gandhi, he wrote to her father and told him that they were sharing a bed so that he could “correct her sleeping posture”. When his stenographer R. P. Parasuram found him sleeping naked with Manu, he resigned in disgust. 

7. George Washington

Fact: Washington cleverly tricked congress into paying him obscene amounts of money.

 
First of all, this is what elementary schools teach about Washington: “Later, in 1775, at age 43, Washington was appointed military advisor for New York, defending it from British attack. A few weeks later he was appointed Commander-and-Chief of the entire American army. He did not ask for this position, and did not even ask to be paid for it. […] The most important reason George was asked to be president was that he was very honest, and people both trusted and admired him. He was the most trusted, admired, and respected man in the whole country.”
Unfortunately what they miss entirely is the fact that he turned down a salary of what would have amounted to a little over 1,000 per month, but said: “Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to have accepted this arduous employment, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and that is all I desire.”
And then the shopping began:
- To cash paid for Sadlery, a Letter Case, Maps, Glasses, &c &c &c. for the use of my Command… $831.45
- To sundry Exp.’s paid by myself at different times and places… on the Retreat of the Army thro’ the Jerseys into Pennsylvania & while there… $3,776
- From September 1775 to March 1776, Washington spent over six thousand dollars on liquor
In eight years, by turning down a salary and taking an expense account, instead of being paid around $12,000, he was paid $449,261.51 in 1780 dollars (around $4,250,000.00 in today’s money).
Washington, being a clever man, tried the same ploy when he was elected President but he was turned down and given a set salary of $25,000 per year. You can view scans of Washington’s expense account at the Library of Congress.


6. Martin Luther

Fact: Martin Luther was an anti-semite.

 
Martin Luther, the famous Monk who started the protestant reformation, is often touted as a hero for standing up against excesses in the Catholic Church at the time, but what most people don’t know is that he was violently anti-Jewish and he made no secret of it. In 1543, he wrote “On The Jews And Their Lies”, in which he recommends that Jews be deprived of money, civil rights, religious teaching, and education, and that they be forced to labor on the land, or else be expelled from Germany and possibly killed (sound like someone familiar from more recent times?) He referred to the Jews as a “base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth.” He said that Jews were “full of the devil’s feces … which they wallow in like swine,” and the synagogue is an “incorrigible whore and an evil slut …”
He also put together an eight point plan to get rid of the Jews:
- “First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. …”
- “Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. …”
- “Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. …”
- “Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. …”
- “Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. …”
- “Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them. … Such money should now be used in … the following [way]… Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [a certain amount]…”
- “Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow… For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.”
- “If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews’ blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country” and “we must drive them out like mad dogs.” [Source: Luther, On the Jews, 47:268-288, 292.]


5. Thomas Jefferson

Fact: Jefferson preached against whites having children with blacks, whilst doing that very thing and denying his offspring.
 
Jefferson said “the amalgamation of whites with blacks produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of the excellence in the human character, can innocently consent.” Whilst preaching this rubbish, he had several children with his slave Sally Hemings who happened to be the illegitimate half-sister sister of his wife. While the rumours were around during their lifetime (which Jefferson implicitly denied), it was not until recent times that DNA testing proved that at least one of Hemings’ children was indeed fathered by Jefferson. In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith dated July 1, 1805, Jefferson also admitted to having tried to seduce his married neighbor Betsey Walker

4. Albert Einstein

 

Fact: Einstein was a philanderer.

 
Einstein is perhaps the greatest mind of the 20th century and he and his most famous formular E=MC^2 are known by virtually everyone. Most people know he had a passion for the violin and that he started out life as a clerk in a patent office; but what most people don’t know, is that he cheated on both of his wives repeatedly. After splitting up with his first wife (because of his infidelity), he married his cousin Elsa. Shortly after that he had an affair with his secretary Betty Neumann. In a new volume of letters held by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Einstein described about six women with whom he spent time and from whom he received gifts while being married to Elsa.

3. Elvis Presley

 


Fact: Elvis was unhealthily obsessed with James Dean.

 
Elvis exhibited many compulsive/obsessive qualities throughout his life which both helped and hindered his personal and public life. One of the areas that Elvis wanted to excel in was acting. He wanted to be the next James Dean and as a result was obsessed with Dean. He anguished over the fact that the roles he was given in movies were not (in his mind) substantial. Elvis knew all the words to “Rebel Without A Cause” that featured James Dean and Natalie Wood. Elvis sought out Wood because of her connection to James Dean. That relationship ended when Natalie came to visit Graceland and Elvis’ mother Gladys (who was domineering and jealous) drove Natalie away. Natalie confided to her sister Lana that “he can sing, but he can’t do much else”. The obsession with Dean led Elvis to intentionally befriend Nick Adams - a very close friend of Dean’s before he died and since his death rumors abound that Adams had a sexual relationship with both Dean and Elvis.

2. Andrew Johnson

Fact: Vice-President Andrew Johnson took his presidential oath whilst completely drunk.

 
Andrew Johnson was the Vice-President during Lincoln’s reign. He had a strong disliking for the aristocracy whom he thought were there by the labor of the poor such as his own family. “Glassy-eyed and smelling of whiskey, he reminded Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, and pretty much everyone within hearing distance that they owed their positions to “plebeians” such as himself, then kissed the Bible and staggered away”. In response, the New York Times said “To think that one frail life stands between this insolent, clownish creature and the presidency! May God bless and spare Abraham Lincoln!” History shows us that God didn’t spare Lincoln and Johnson eventually became president. His presidency was such a disaster that congress tried to impeach him twice - successfully on the second attempt! He avoided being fired by just one vote.

1. Pope Pius IX

Fact: Pope Pius IX Kidnapped a Jewish child and had him raised as a Catholic.

 
On the evening of 23 June 1858, in Bologna, then part of the Papal States, police arrived at the home of a Jewish couple, Salomone (”Momolo”) and Marianna Padovani Mortara, to seize one of their eight children, six-year-old Edgardo, and transport him to Rome to be raised as a ward of the state. The police had orders from Holy Office authorities in Rome, authorized by Pope Pius IX. Church officials had been told that a 14-year-old Catholic servant girl of the Mortaras, Anna Morisi, had baptized Edgardo while he was ill because she feared that he would otherwise die and go to Hell. Acorrding to Catholic Church doctrine, Edgardo’s baptism, even if illegal under canon law, was valid and made him a Christian. Under the canon law, non-Christians could not raise a Christian child, even their own. Edgardo was taken to a house for Catholic converts in Rome, maintained at state expense. His parents were not allowed to see him for several weeks, and then not alone. Pius IX took a personal interest in the case, and all appeals to the Church were rebuffed. Church authorities told the Mortaras that they could have Edgardo back if they abandoned their faith and converted to Catholicism, but they refused.
Despite international protests (including those from the United States government), Pope Pius IX did not relinquish Edgardo who eventually went on to become a priest. He was also a vehement supporter of the Vatican taking the first steps towards making Pius IX a saint.