Today the technology is there to give early and normally ample warning when a powerful tornado approaches. When a tornado strikes all of us are at risk.

The Internet will win because it is relentless. Like a cannibal it even turns on it own. Though early portals like Prodigy and AOL once benefited from their first-mover status competitors surpassed them as technology and consumer preferences changed.

In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.

In the depth of the near depression that he faced when he came in Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress provided 'recovery funds' that literally kept our classrooms open. Two years ago these funds saved nearly 20 000 teacher and education jobs - just here in North Carolina.

I enjoyed school - although I ran away on the first day. I'd reminded the teacher that it was nearly time for 'Watch With Mother' on TV.

I guess by taking lessons early on and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff and try to have it sound as good as my teacher. It took a lot of practice which I enjoyed and still do.

From a very early age my wife and I told our son that there are times and places for everything. I told him look when you're in class you have to be quiet and listen to your teacher but when you go out to the playground you can scream and be silly.

I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music if thought of as a language would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial.

Adversity is a great teacher but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction and often the profit we derive is not worth the price we paid.

My parents were early converts to Christianity in my part of Nigeria. They were not just converts my father was an evangelist a religious teacher. He and my mother traveled for thirty-five years to different parts of Igboland spreading the gospel.