“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
Margaret Mitchell
“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.”
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
In his latest video, “Man vs. Earth” spoken word artist Prince Ea opens by saying,
“Fun fact:
In “Man vs. Earth,” spoken word artist Prince Ea opens by saying, “Fun fact: Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old, mankind, about 140,000 years old. Let me put that in perspective. If you condense the Earth’s lifespan into 24 hours—that’s one full day—then we have been here for, drum roll please, three seconds.” Only by coming together, he says, can we make it to the proverbial fourth second.
Prince Ea objects to us calling ourselves homo sapiens, or “wise man” because, though we may be intelligent, we lack wisdom. “While intelligence speaks, wisdom listens,” he says. “And we willingly covered our ears to Mother Nature’s screams and closed our eyes to all of her help wanted signs.
Let me put that in perspective. If you condense the Earth’s lifespan into 24 hours – that’s one full day – then we have been here for, drum roll please, three seconds.” Only by coming together, he says, can we make it to the proverbial fourth second.”
Prince Ea objects to us calling ourselves homo sapiens, or “wise man” because, though we may be intelligent, we lack wisdom.
“While intelligence speaks, wisdom listens,” he says. “And we willingly covered our ears to Mother Nature’s screams and closed our eyes to all of her help wanted signs.
New Prince Ea video: Man vs Earth
Natalie Prolman on Nov. 24, 2015
Last Earth Day, activist and spoken word artist Prince Ea brought us the powerful and thought-provoking video Dear Future Generations:Sorry. With over 96 million views on Facebook to date, Prince Ea achieved something pretty incredible for the environmental community.
He clearly communicated the urgency of protecting our planet and inspired millions to understand the importance of mitigating climate change and taking action to stop deforestation.
He was able to reach the hearts of the generation to whom this issue matters to most: young people. And reminded us all that the power of change is in OUR hands!
I had the honor of sitting down with Prince Ea in London last week to discuss his newest video in support of the Stand For Trees campaign.
Natalie
“What was your inspiration for doing a second Stand For Trees video?”
Prince Ea
“I felt like there was more to say. The story was unfinished, I had more to get out there and in a different way. When I was brainstorming the original concept of writing a letter to future generations I came up with other dynamic ideas which I thought could be just as compelling. One of which was the 3 seconds theme, which I use in this one. This particular video is coming from an anthropological perspective (what I studied in school), looking at us as a species and the ramifications of our existence.”
Natalie
“What is the message you’re sending to the world?”
Prince Ea
“The message is: An inner revolution needs to take place. Global warming, climate change, animal agriculture, pollution, pesticides … all of these things are symptoms. They are byproducts of our inner reflection and how we see the world, how we see each other and how we see the environment. We’re very separated and divided, but that is not the truth about reality.
That is the truth about our socially constructed reality. The main message is to find the truth and see that we are connected to all beings both great and small. I always end with a message of hope, I believe that we can and will turn it all around. However, I don’t think the goal is to save the world, but to reshape it.
“Why do you think young people are such a critical audience for this message?”
Prince Ea
“I think because it’s really our future that’s at stake. We are the first generation to really see the impact of climate change and the last one who will be able to do something about it. So it’s definitely crucial that young people will become more aware. We have an opportunity to really evolve the human species into a new direction. A totally new direction from our past. One with mindfulness and love and care and understanding. No longer a business as usual approach.”
Polina Semionova (born 13 September 1984) is a Russian ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. She also has an older brother, Dmitry Semionov, who is now a principal in the Staatsballett Berlin.
Studying at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, Russia, she won awards in the top ballet competitions; including a gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition 2001, First Prize at the Vaganova-Prix Ballet Competition in St Petersburg 2002, and Junior Prize at the Nagoya (Japan) International Ballet Competition 2002.
Graduating in 2002, Semionova joined the Ballet Staatsoper Berlin as a principal upon the invitation of Vladimir Malakhov, becoming the youngest principal in the company’s history at the age of 18. She toured Japan as Malakhov’s partner, the reason he had invited her to be a principal in the company. He gave her the lead roles in The Nutcracker and La Bayadère during her first season, following with the role of Tatiana in , which became her favorite role.
In 2003, at the age of 19, Semionova performed with the English National Ballet in Swan Lake, receiving approving reviews from English critics.
The following year she joined the California Ballet in their production of The Sleeping Beauty, again impressing critics despite what they termed a disappointing overall ballet.
Once we have taken out the trash, we often forget that it all has to go somewhere. But not many of us know exactly where it goes, nor do we usually think about it.
The Life Cycle of Garbage shows what happens to your trash once it leaves your home, to give you an idea of where it ends up and how much of it there really is.
The Life Cycle of Garbage begins in your home
Your kitchen trash can fills up …
So you take the garbage bag out to your curbside trash container …
And the garbage man comes to empty it …
What happens to all your trash once the garbage man takes it away?
Typically it goes to a Transfer Station …
A transfer station is where local trash is taken and dumped before it is transferred to its final destination. The final destination could be:
A Landfill …
where the waste is buried and left to decompose, a process which takes hundreds of years even for biodegradable materials …
An Incinerator …
where the garbage is burned and turns into ash and heat, sometimes used to generate energy (called waste-to-energy) …
Or a Recycling Center …
where it will be transferred to a manufacturing plant so these materials can be used to make new products!
Or In the Ocean …
If waste is not correctly managed, it can end up harming the environment and polluting our air and water.
Illegally dumped trash and litter can end up:
Littering our Communities …
This is why it is so important that we put our trash into the proper containers and recycle as much as we can. Garbage does not simply disappear once it leaves our homes, it all ends up somewhere and has an impact on every single person in some way.
Small actions can have a huge impact.
“As it appears in … full read/full credit/more pictures”
The 17-year-old daughter of Steve Irwin says show has ‘changed her life’ as she is announced winner of the US reality show with partner Derek Hough. They triumphed in the final of the reality TV show on Tuesday night, November 25, 2015. Clem Bastow
The pair got a perfect score of 30 for their final dance routine and brought audience members to tears.
“Thank you so much for everything.
I can’t believe I’m here.
Thank you for changing my life,” Irwin said.
Irwin, who like her her father Steve Irwin works as a conservationist and a TV presenter, has been impressing audiences with her dancing flair during the past three months.
Steve Irwin died in 2006 after a stingray stuck its barb into his heart, and his daughter’s final Dancing with the Stars performance on Monday, November 23, 2015, was dedicated to him.
First she and Hough danced quickstep to Dr. Bones, by Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, and then moved to a freestyle dance to Footprints in the Sand, by Leona Lewis.
In a video intro to the dance, Hough said: “It reminds me of where you’re from and your dad always being there no matter what.”
Irwin said: “I’ve tried to just remember his strength, knowing that Dad is kind of still with me.”
Celine Dion sings L’Hymne a L’Amour in tribute to Paris attack victims at American Music Awards 2015
The American Music Awards took a sombre turn on Sunday when Celine Dion sang in tribute to the victims of Paris’s terror attacks.
The Canadian singer covered Edith Piaf’s L’Hymne a L’Amour after actor-musician Jared Leto delivered an emotional speech about the deadly events.
Leto spoke about an impromptu show his band Thirty Seconds To Mars had performed at Le Bataclan in Paris, the scene where 89 people lost their lives in the attacks 10 days ago.
He said: “Seven months later that same venue was under siege, one of a series of attacks that changed the world forever.
“Tonight we honor the victims of the unimaginable violence that took place in Paris and around the world.
“France matters, Syria matters, Russia matters, Mali matters, the Middle East matters, the entire world matters and peace is possible.”
Introducing Dion’s performance, Leto added:
“Many of us here are the sons and daughters of immigrants and Steve Jobs, the son of a Syrian immigrant, and President Barack Obama.
“The American Music Awards wanted to show its support for the people of France and the entire world.”
AMONG THE MANY ASININE, INACCURATE STATEMENTS, PLAIN LIES
THIS IS JUST ONE AMONG THE MANY
Allegra Kirkland
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has been characteristically unapologeticabout his claim that “thousands and thousands” of New Jersey residents cheered as the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001, even though contemporaneous news reports don’t support it.
And his insistence on that recollection, which has no basis in fact, shows just how expert he is at roping together conspiracy theories, urban legends, and rumors that lurk on the fringes of the Internet and bringing them into the mainstream.
Rumors of groups of people celebrating the attacks in “tailgate-style parties” popped up in national publications like The Washington Post and Associated Press, but were never confirmed as true. A highly publicized video of Muslims cheering and flashing victory signs on the day of the attack was shot in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of Palestine, not in the Garden State. A video of American Muslims celebrating the terrorist attack doesn’t appear to exist and none of the unconfirmed reports of such an incident comes anywhere near the scale that Trump describes.
I’ve been reading about these comments since this weekend. I just finished watching Rachel Maddow’s TV show for today, November 23. I would recommend that you look for the video on this particular topic.
I cannot believe that this is happening in this country. I cannot believe that no one is standing up to this man. There are those who cheer and egg him on. There are those who even believe him.
Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks
Glenn Kessler
“Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
This is a bit like writing about the hole in the doughnut — how can you write about nothing?
Trump says that he saw this with his own eyes on television and that it was well covered. But an extensive examination of news clips from that period turns up nothing. There were some reports of celebrations overseas, in Muslim countries, but nothing that we can find involving the Arab populations of New Jersey except for unconfirmed reports. This claim has never been authenticated.
As the Newark Star-Ledger put it in an article on Sept. 18, 2001, “rumors of rooftop celebrations of the attack by Muslims here proved unfounded.”
Guru Nanak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539) was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the Sikh Gurus.
His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Poornima, the full-moon day which falls on different dates each year in the month of Katak, October–November.
Guru Nanak traveled far and wide teaching people the message of one God who dwells in every one of His creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. He set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue.
New Year 2015: Google wishes Happy New Year with an animated doodle
New Delhi
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2015, Google has posted an animated doodle on its homepage. The doodle has been created by guest artist Cindy Suen.
This doodle is in tune with Google’s tradition of posting doodles on New Year.
The last year’s New Year doodle was in continuation to the New year’s eve 2013 doodle. The animated doodle showed a party on with speakers blaring and the digits 2-0-1-3 grooving on the dance floor and the digit 4 that had been waiting for the new year to begin replaced the digit 3 to form “2014”.
~~GALLERY~~
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
~~New Year 2015~~
Google Doodle Collection
~~Published on Dec 31, 2014~~
Here is the Google Doodle about the New Year 2015 on January 1st, 2015. Google celebrates the year 2015 with this Doodle. It is a worldwide Google Doodle about the New Year 2015.
Have fun celebrating this day and the upcoming year. Happy New Year!
Some of you may know that I worked as a physician with the Veterans Administration for almost 28 years. I worked with patients from WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the current conflicts. All deserve their merit but the POW’s are way beyond deserving.
Watching this movie, reminded me of all those that I took care of.
A great movie to watch. Excellent directing job by Angelina Jolie and superb acting job by Jack O’Connell, the British actor who played Zamperini.
Louis Silvie “Louie” Zamperini (January 26, 1917 – July 2, 2014) was an American World War II prisoner of war survivor, Christian inspirational speaker, and Olympic distance runner. Zamperini is the subject of two biographies and the 2014 film Unbroken.
IF YOU CAN TAKE IT, YOU CAN MAKE IT
~~Plot~~
The film opens showing Louis “Louie” Zamperini flying as a bombardier of a United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber, during an April 1943 bombing mission against the Japanese-held island of Nauru. The plane is badly damaged in combat, with a number of the crew injured. The brakes of the plane are shot away, but the pilot manages to bring it to a stop at the end of the runway thanks to a lucky flat tire.
The movie then flashes back to Louie’s childhood as a young Italian immigrant boy. Louie was a trouble maker, stealing, drinking liquor, and smoking, to the disappointment of his parents. He was picked on by other kids for being Italian.
One day Louie was caught looking up womens’ dresses from under bleachers during a track meet, and runs. His brother Peter sees how fast he runs, and decides to train him to be a runner. Peter trains Louie everyday to become his best. As he grows, Louie becomes an accomplished distance runner, earning him the nickname “The Torrance Tornado” (he grew up in Torrance, California), and eventually qualifies for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Louie does surprisingly well in the Olympics, coming in 8th and setting a record for speed in the final lap in the the 5000 metres race, running it in 56 seconds.
Returning to the present day, Louie and the surviving crew of the previous mission, along with replacement crewmen, are sent on a search and rescue mission with a plane that had previously been used for spare parts. Louie does not believe that the plane is airworthy, but the others tell him that it is suitable.
During the mission, however, both of the plane’s left engines fail, causing them to crash in the ocean. Louie and two other survivors, Mac and Phil, survive and live on two floating safety rafts. After three days a search plane flies over them but does not see them and they are unable to get its attention.
After 45 days, they get the attention of a Japanese plane which strafes the floating rafts but misses them. On the 46th day Mac dies, leaving only Louie and Phil.
On the 47th day, Japanese forces capture Louie and Phil and they become prisoners of war. The Japanese force Louie and Phil to tell them what they know about the Allies. Louie tells them that he doesn’t know anything because he’s been stuck on the boat for more than a month. Their captors do not believe them and send Louie and Phil to a POW. camp.
Louie and Phil are separated into different camps. At the camp in Tokyo where Zamperini is sent, he meets a Japanese guard, Mutsuhiro “Bird” Watanabe, who treats him very cruelly, in part because of Zamperini’s status as a former Olympian. “Bird” is especially tough on Louie out of jealousy, beating him often. Louie is given the opportunity to broadcast a message home saying that he is alive. When he refuses to broadcast a second message that would be anti American he is sent back to camp where Watanabe has all the other prisoners punch him for not showing respect.
After two years, Watanabe gets a promotion and is taken out of the camp where Zamperini is being held. Louie is grateful that he is gone. One night the camp is damaged when Tokyo is bombed by American forces. Louie and the other internees are forced to move to another camp where Zamperini discovers that Watanabe is in charge. The prisoners are now put to work loading coal barges. One day after Louis sprains his ankle and is unable to work, “Bird” tells him to lift a giant piece of wood. Louis successfully lifts and holds the wood, angering Watanabe leading to a harsh beating.
At the end of the war, Zamperini and the other prisoners in the camp are set free to return to their homes.
Back home in America, he kisses the ground and hugs his family.
At the end of the film there is a slideshow showing what happened after the war. Louis was married and had two children. Phil survived and eventually married his sweetheart. Mutsuhiro “Bird” Watanabe went into hiding for several years and successfully evaded prosecution in spite of being listed in the top 40 most-wanted Japanese war criminals by General Douglas MacArthur. Louie forgave his war-time captors and met with many of them. Watanabe, however, refused to meet with Zamperini.
In January of 1998, Louis had an opportunity to revisit his time as an Olympian when he ran a leg of the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. He was four days short of his 81st birthday. The site for his leg of the relay was not far from one of the POW camps where he was held during the war.
Watanabe was known as “The Bird,” and had gone into hiding during the American occupation of Japan. However, in 1952, the United States granted amnesty to Japanese war criminals, after which he emerged to become a businessman.
"the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord shine His face upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace"
