A long-lost, highly valuable Moon rock brought back from the Apollo 17 mission has turned up in the files of Bill Clinton.

The rock was one of 50 presented to each state, and was given to Arkansas while the ex-president was governor. The rock, worth millions of dollars, had been missing since at least 1980 until an archivist found it in old gubernatorial papers. Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, told Reuters the archivist opened a box previously archived as “Arkansas flag plaque.” The rock and a state flag were originally affixed to the plaque, but the rock had fallen off and the plaque had been misplaced.

“The moon rock, which is in a plastic container, had fallen off the plaque,” Roberts said, explaining that the rock was at the bottom of the box. “The archivist immediately knew what he had discovered.”

The rock was originally presented to Arkansas Gov. David Pryor in 1976 and hung in the governor’s office during the term of Pryor’s successor, the future president. Roberts figures that when Clinton lost his bid for re-election in 1980, everything got packed up and the plaque and its rock from outer space were misplaced.

Other states have misplaced their Apollo 17 Moon rocks, including New Jersey ad Alaska. Last year, former Colorado Gov. John Vanderhoof admitted he had kept his state’s rock, and agreed to give it back. Perhaps they should have entrusted The File Room’s secured stroage facility for such a major keepsake.

“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.” ~ Oliver Goldsmith ( 1730-1774, Writer and Poet )

There are only 16 more Selling Days in August and 37 remaining in the Quarter!!! 

In the category of human achievement there are many antidotes, words of wisdom, and quotes from famous people, some long gone, and some still living. But rather than merely reciting these cool phrases, and motivational hot buttons as I usually do in this space daily, perhaps you and I  should stop talking about it all, stop sitting in committees, stop proposing “what if’s”, and just write down what you have so far, and commit to doing something about it. It’s easy to get ready, to take aim, to go back and get ready again, but sometimes it is most important to just pull the trigger; to start.

You can’t win if you never try, and talk is cheap in business, talk is cheap in  sports, about the only thing talk is good for is the courtroom or the political podium. If you are a politician, perhaps you can keep on talking yourself into a higher office, or if you are a lawyer maybe you can convince the jury that you actually have the better argument for the case. But if you are someone who would like to achieve something in your life, something worthy, then isn’t it about time you go out and do something?

Now then, we both know all the quotes off the top of our heads, and we know all the slogans such as; go for it, or just do it. And yet those words and phrases don’t mean anything if you don’t take action. Look, we all have  people that come to us all day long with ideas, concepts, and even inventions, and I never know what industry they will be in, but generally there’s always an excuse why the individual, group, or business did not act on their innovation.

What good is a great idea sitting on a sketch pad, or on the back burner in the back of your mind, or sitting on a white board with a 20 person committee brainstorming and shouting out ideas, if you are never going to act on a single one of them – tell me that question – or don’t tell me, let me tell you. It is no good, it’s worthless, it’s junk. If you don’t do something about it will never happen.

If you want to achieve anything in life you’ve got to get out and do it, you’ve gotta want it, you have to care, you have to set your sites, and you have to start with passion. Indeed, rather than me continue this article and harp on something you already know to be true, let me end this article right now, and you get off the Internet, stop procrastinating (I said to myself) and go do it. That’s all I have to say.

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

Medical Data Breaches Prompt Calls for Stronger Patient Privacy Rules.

Federal officials are working to ramp up enforcement of existing medical privacy rules, but some experts say stronger protections are necessary to ensure the security of health data, the New York Times reports. According to data on a federal website, at least 7.8 million people have experienced a breach of their medical data within the last two years. In addition, Health and Human Services reported that the agency had identified dozens of vulnerabilities in systems designed to protect patient data at seven large hospitals. The Obama administration already has imposed penalties for violations of HIPAA privacy and security rules. In addition, HHS’ Office for Civil Rights recently levied its first civil penalty under HIPAA. Despite these efforts, some experts are calling for tighter regulations on health data security. 

Wes Rishel, a health care analyst and adviser to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT said, “Your ability to control access to your health information is a horse that is already out of the stable. What is really needed is legislation that controls the use of such medical data” (New York Times, 5/30/11).