Gandhi’s Top 10 tips for Changing the World

by Henrik Edbert

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems."

1. Change yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

2. You are in control.“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don’t have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

5. Take care of this moment.“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences – or reflecting on past failures – of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.Have a look at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment for tips on how quickly step into the now. And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit – a sort of muscle – that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

6. Everyone is human.“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”When you start to make myths out of people – even though they may have produced extraordinary results – you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.And I think it’s important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within you.It’s also important to remember this to avoid falling into the pretty useless habit of beating yourself up over mistakes that you have made. And instead be able to see with clarity where you went wrong and what you can learn from your mistake. And then try again.

7. Persist.“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.Find what you really like to do. Then you’ll find the inner motivation to keep going, going and going. You can also find a lot of useful tips on how keep your motivation up in How to Get Out of a Motivational Slump and 25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself.One reason Gandhi was so successful with his method of non-violence was because he and his followers were so persistent. They just didn’t give up.Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don’t get what they want is simply because they give up too soon. The time they think an achievement will require isn’t the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal. This faulty belief partly comes from the world we live in. A world full of magic pill solutions where advertising continually promises us that we can lose a lot of weight or earn a ton of money in just 30 days. You can read more about this in One Big Mistake a Whole Lot of People Make.Finally, one useful tip to keep your persistence going is to listen to Gandhi’s third quote in this article and keep a sense of humor. It can lighten things up at the toughest of times.

8. See the good in people and help them.“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.And when you see the good in people it becomes easier to motivate yourself to be of service to them. By being of service to other people, by giving them value you not only make their lives better. Over time you tend to get what you give. And the people you help may feel more inclined to help other people. And so you, together, create an upward spiral of positive change that grows and becomes stronger.By strengthening your social skills you can become a more influential person and make this upward spiral even stronger. A few articles that may provide you with useful advice in that department are Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation? and Dale Carnegie’s Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Social Skills. Or you can just move on to the next tip.

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”I think that one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself.When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. Because now you have your voice tonality and body language – some say they are over 90 percent of communication – in alignment with your words.With these channels in alignment people tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness.Also, if your actions aren’t in alignment with what you’re communicating then you start to hurt your own belief in what you can do. And other people’s belief in you too.

10. Continue to grow and evolve.”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.Sure, you may look inconsistent or like you don’t know what you are doing from time to time. You may have trouble to act congruently or to communicate authentically. But if you don’t then you will, as Gandhi says, drive yourself into a false position. A place where you try to uphold or cling to your old views to appear consistent while you realise within that something is wrong. It’s not a fun place to be. To choose to grow and evolve is a happier and more useful path to take.

Hubble deep field image of the universe

http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/large/heic1408a.jpg
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/04/23/hubble_galaxies_deep_image_reveals_thousands_of_weird_galaxies.html


A HUBBLE IMAGE THAT WILL DRILL INTO YOUR BRAIN

APRIL 23 2014 12:00 PM
Hubble Drills Deep Into the Universe
By Phil Plait

Phil Plait writes Slate's Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!  

What happens when you take a 2.4-meter telescope, launch it into space, and command it to stare at one spot in the sky for a solid 14 hours, taking data both in visible light (like our eyes see) and infrared?This. This.Give me a moment to tell you why this image will destroy your brain. Click to nicely galactinate, or click here to hugely do so.All photos by NASA/ ESAAdvertisement Can I get a "Yowza!" from the congregation? No? Maybe that's because when I shrink this Hubble Space Telescope picture down to fit the blog you can't really get a sense of what you're seeing here. So click the picture to get the 1280 x 1280 image, or better yet, do yourself and your eyeballs a favor and take a poke at the huge 3900 x 3900 pixel version, because holy wow.
!  
What you're seeing here is a view of thousands of galaxies. Thousands. Sure, there are some stars in our own Milky Way punctuating this picture here and there but they are few, and just stomped flat by the number of whole galaxies you're seeing. The stars can be distinguished from galaxies because they're point sources; small dots. They also might have those lines going through them called diffraction spikes. Galaxies don't usually get those because they're fuzzier, spread out over many pixels. That suppresses the diffraction spikes.So for example that bright point with pretty spikes you see toward the upper right is a star, probably a few thousand light years from Earth. That's a long way to be sure, but even the nearest galaxies you can see in this image are hundreds of millions of light years away! Some are billions; the most distant objects in this shot are at least 9 billion light years distant. That's a million times farther away than any star in the picture.When the light we see here left those galaxies, the Sun hadn't yet formed. When the Earth itself was coalescing from countless specks of dust, that light still had half its journey here ahead of it.So yeah. This stuff is far.CLASS B1608+656, a cluster of galaxies far, far away.In fact you're seeing galaxies at all different distances from Earth in this image, but the observation itself was taken to look at the cluster of galaxies in the center. Called CLASS B1608+656, it's a clump of galaxies about five billion light years away. The mass of that cluster acts like a lens, bending space, magnifying objects behind it. This gravitational lens has distorted and amped up the brightness of a luminous galaxy located an additional several billion light years behind it, creating the weirdly shaped mess you see in the close-up above. Rings and arcs are common in such events.But there's so much more to this image; just scanning across it reveals an incredible variety and diversity of galaxies. Remember, too, you're looking at objects as they existed eons ago; many are still growing, suffering collisions with other galaxies, giving them fantastic shapes. As an example, I'm fond of this little group near the top of the main image:A cosmic train wreck a million light years long.I'm not precisely sure what to make of this. The bigger galaxies look to all be about the same distance from us, but that could be a coincidental alignment. Some of the galaxies are blue and clumpy looking, indicating they're aggressively forming stars (hot, young, massive stars are preferentially blue), while some are quite red. The red ones may be very dusty, which reddens the light from stars, or they may be farther away, their light redshifted as it fights against the expansion of the Universe itself, losing energy along the way. It may be a mix of both. Unfortunately, this image was made using only two filters, so colors can be difficult to interpret, and don't yield a lot of subtle information. The only way to know more about the galaxies would be to measure their distance, and I didn't find anything in the literature about them.Top CommentOkay, now you've done it. My mind is completely and irrevocably blown.  More...-Tom132 CommentsJoin InThat's worth taking a moment to ponder, actually. These are entire galaxies, collections of tens of billions of stars, planets, dust, and gas clouds, each and every one a monstrous object on scales that dwarf our everyday experience … yet there are so many of each of them in this image alone we can't possibly know their details. We can determine their coordinates on the sky, get a rough estimate of their distance, but there is simply no way to get a measure of them as individuals. They are too many. It's like trying to get the life history of everyone who passes you on a busy New York City street corner. The task is too overwhelming.And just in case I have not yet crushed your puny human mind, this image represents a tiny fraction of the entire sky; perhaps only one ten-millionth of it. That means there are hundreds of billions of galaxies like these scattered throughout the Universe.So gaze again at that image, one that drills a narrow but incredibly deep view through our cosmos, one that shows us both the awe-inducing grandeur and soul-squeezing immensity of it, and remember: The Universe is far, far larger than this still.And yet here we are, pondering it. To those galaxies, we are the ones who are lost in the anonymous throng. Yet I would argue we are as important and interesting a piece of the Universe as any other we can imagine. We are part of it at the same time as we study it, and to me, that is part of what makes us great.

"The Great Mandala"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfmYF6Yboa4&sns=em

The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)
Peter, Paul and Mary

So I told him that he'd better shut his mouth
And do his job like a man.
And he answered "Listen, Father,I will never kill another.
"He thinks he's better than his brother that died
What the hell does he think he's doing
To his father who brought him up right?

Chorus:
Take your place on The Great Mandala
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now you must choose now
And if you lose you're only losing your life.
Tell the jailer not to bother
With his meal of bread and water today.
He is fasting 'til the killing's over
He's a martyr, he thinks he's a prophet.
But he's a coward, he's just playing a game
He can't do it, he can't change it
It's been going on for ten thousand years
(Chorus)
Tell the people they are safe now
Hunger stopped him, he lies still in his cell.
Death has gagged his accusations
We are free now, we can kill now,
We can hate now, now we can end the world
We're not guilty, he was crazy
And it's been going on for ten thousand years!
Take your place on The Great Mandala
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now you must choose now
And if you lose you've only wasted your life.

**********************
The song is about a conscientious objector who chooses to die (by starving himself)rather than kill.
The song is about a man making a morally unpopular existential choice  and giving his life for it no matter what his father or the public says.
Its one of the best anti-war songs ever written.

************
Groujo
"I can't say enough about this song. It's absolutely haunting. It tears my heart out and leaves me shaken. The phrasing and the chord progression is unique and disturbing and lovely. But it is the story that is devastating. A man of principle, a man of peace and dignity, gives up everything he has to effect change. Like so many have. He dies alone in a jail cell for his principles, without a friend, estranged from family, not appreciated or understood, an "enemy of the people". And ultimately there is no indication his sacrifice matters in the least: the killing continues unabated, he not a martyr for his cause. He was never thanked or supported and he will never know if he made the right decisions.We can feel certain the man was admirably in the right. The songwriter clearly agrees values this man's principles and courage, even if the 3 speakers in the song do not. We see him as a lonely prophet being cut down by the runaway train of cruelty and ignorance and fear that is our society. Like so many have. But he is never celebrated, never martyred. He is forgotten or reviled. An utterly purposeless tragedy.He has taken his place on the great mandala. For good or ill. The wheel of time doesn't notice. And so have the others in the song: the father, the jailer, the ruler, and the people. They take their places beside his. And the wheel rolls on, until they aren't even a memory. Is change even possible? The wheel metaphor suggest that ultimately it is not. As the second singer says, "He can't do it. He can't change it. It's been going on for 10,000 years." From this perspective, the man is misguided. He threw away his life for a hopeless cause. He's has "lost" and wasted his life. But knowing the songwriter as we do, this is not the intended message. We know he disagrees with the second singer, because he's been fighting for change his whole life. The losers are really the people who choose to rationalize their own views and refuse to accept the man's message, because they are creating exactly the dystopia they think is unavoidable. Like so many have.So we are forced to ask: what place will we ourselves take on the wheel? Consciously or not, we all choose our place on the great mandala. We have this brief moment to choose who we will be and what we will stand for. And, we are forced to confront the possibility that all our hopes and efforts will amount to nothing. I find it both excruciating and sublime that even the song refuses to reward the man for his sacrifice. Because the great mandala won't reward you either. The song ends on the disturbing thought that "if you lose you've only wasted your life." It's very ambiguous who the loser is here. And as frustrating as that is, that's exactly as it should be. You must decide for yourself."

*************
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gp4G-pQ-JI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

"collateral damage" --a euphemism for "murder"!

Americans bomb hospital in effort to retake Kunduz from the Taliban.

The Quebec City-born president of Doctors Without Borders offered up harrowing details of the attack on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, saying "patients burned alive in their beds."
"This was not just an attack on our hospital, it was an attack on the Geneva conventions," said Joanne Liu, president MSF International. "This cannot be tolerated."

"If we let this go, as if was a non-event, we are basically giving a blank check to any countries who are at war," she concluded. 
Then "war has no rules!"

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kunduz-airstrike-doctors-without-borders-wants-unprecedented-probe-n439856

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/europe/kunduz-afghanistan-hospital-doctors-without-borders.html?referer=http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&rct=j&q=THE%20NATIONAL%20%7C%20Oct%203%2C%202015%20%7C%202%3A50%20Doctors%20Without%20Borders%20reacts%20to%20attack%20on%20Afghan%20hospital&ved=0CCIQqQIwAmoVChMIsOSw0tOwyAIVEzKICh0eRw2O&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2015%2F10%2F08%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fkunduz-afghanistan-hospital-doctors-without-borders.html&usg=AFQjCNHntThFExiN4jLBeeJmPojHG_1UcQ

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/06/why-bombing-kunduz-hospital-was-probably-a-war-crime/

Obama's speach to UN / SEPT 28 2015

Excerpts from Obama's speach:

"We, the nations of the world, cannot return to the old ways of conflict and coercion. We cannot look backwards," he said. "We live in an integrated world, one in which we all have a stake in each other's success. We cannot turn back those forces of integration."

"A politics and solidarity that depend on demonizing others, that draws on religious sectarianism or narrow tribalism or jingoism may at times look like strength in the moment, but over time its weakness will be exposed. And history tells us that the dark forces unleashed by this type of politics surely makes all of us less secure. Our world has been there before. We gain nothing from going back.
Instead, I believe that we must go forward in pursuit of our ideals, not abandon them at this critical time. We must give expression to our best hopes, not our deepest fears. This institution was founded because men and women who came before us had the foresight to know that our nations are more secure when we uphold basic laws and basic norms, and pursue a path of cooperation over conflict. And strong nations, above all, have a responsibility to uphold this international order."

... "in the old ways of thinking, the plight of the powerless, the plight of refugees, the plight of the marginalized did not matter. They were on the periphery of the world’s concerns. Today, our concern for them is driven not just by conscience, but should also be drive by self-interest. For helping people who have been pushed to the margins of our world is not mere charity, it is a matter of collective security."

"To believe in the dignity of every individual, to believe we can bridge our differences, and choose cooperation over conflict -- that is not weakness, that is strength. (Applause.) It is a practical necessity in this interconnected world"

"we are called upon to offer a different type of leadership -- leadership strong enough to recognize that nations share common interests and people share a common humanity, and, yes, there are certain ideas and principles that are universal."


Full text:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/president-obama-un-speech-transcript-full-text-video-214152

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6oxByE_lEU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-talk-syria-isis-during-u-n-address-n434816

http://abcnews.go.com/US/president-obama-decries-support-syrias-assad/story?id=34100522

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/27/politics/obama-un-general-assembly/

Andromeda,our nearest neighbor galaxy, in all its glory!

Jaw-dropping Andromeda galaxy photo comprises 37 hours of exposure, originally appeared on CNET.com
This image was taken from earth by a pair of "backyard" astrophotographers who collaborated to produce a stunning image of our nearest galactic neighbour.www.cnet.com

Michelle Starr
September 24, 2015


It has been the focus of a lot of attention. Its proximity makes it brilliant for studying spiral galaxy construction, which helps understand our own spiral galaxy. Space telescopes such as the Hubble and the Spitzer have spent a lot of time photographing it, and we've seen it in many forms: infrared, false-colour composite, even enormously high-resolution at 1.5 billion pixels.
the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that Andromeda contains one trillion stars 1,000,000,000,000 =10^12
: at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.

We can't, for obvious reasons, take photos of our own Milky Way galaxy within which we are embedded.
Luckily, our closest major galactic neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, at 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation of Andromeda, 220,000 light years across, it is the largest galaxy of the Local Group,
The image you see here, showing the Andromeda Galaxy in visible light, was captured and processed by two astrophotographers right here on Earth, US-based David Lane and Finland-based J-P Metsavainio.
Using a STL-11000M, 35mm format, 11-megapixel CCD Camera by SBIG coupled with a William Optics Gran Turismo 81 telescope, data collection was Lane's contribution. For 37 hours (non-consecutive), he trained camera and telescope at the tiny section of sky wherein the Andromeda Galaxy lies. He shot 18 hours of visible light exposure, one hour through a hydrogen alpha filter to pick out ionised hydrogen details and six hours each with a red, green and blue filter.

The raw images obtained from these exposures were then sent to Metsavainio, who corrected the optical distortion caused by the telescope using CCDStack 2software. He then combined the images and adjusted the levels and curves using PhotoShop CS3. This is similar to the processing applied to images obtained from space telescopes.The resulting image shows Andromeda in all her glory.



The Andromeda Galaxy(also known as Messier 31)is a lot bigger than the Milky Way. It contains around a trillion stars, compared with the Milky Way's estimated 200 billion to 400 billion stars. It also measures around 220,000 light-years in diameter, compared with the Milky Way's 100,000 light-years.
The Andromeda Galaxy is estimated to be 1.5×1012 solar masses,[7] while the mass of the Milky Way is estimated to be 8.5×1011 solar masses.

Because it's so big and so close, it's one of the brightest Messier objects in the night sky and can be seen with the naked eye on a moonless night from a dark location.

Here's its size relative to the moon as seen from Earth. Given that it's so much farther away, you can start to get some idea of how massive it is.Fun fact: The Andromeda Galaxy is moving through space at a rate of around 400,000 kph (250,000 mph)... directly toward the Milky Way. In roughly four billion years, the two are going to meet in a galactic collision of epic proportions, and probably merge into a giant super-galaxy.

Politics of fear

• 

staggering number of refugees confined to concentration camps

Humanitarian catastrophe:
To understand the sheer scale of the Syrian refugee situation, here's a picture of a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.

There are another 2 million refugees in Turkey!

Many are escaping the oppressive conditions of tbese camps in a desperate flight to Europe, the land of hope!


Europe overwhelmed by asylum seekers

A HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL sets the rules

We need a few thousand more principals like this.

When you listen to the young people," F-this, F-that", and nary anyone will step
up and correct them- even with wife and kids in tow! ...you have to wonder about our education system. 

FINALLY - - Someone in the teaching profession had the courage to set the standards so badly needed. 

New high school principal  Dennis Prager of Colorado,

This is the guy that should be running for President in 2016
************************** 
A Speech By Dennis Prager
Every American High School Principal Should Give.

" To the students and faculty of our high school: I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people. I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country. 

First ,this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity, race and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America , one of its three central values -- E pluribus unum, "from many, one." And this school will be guided by America 's values. This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness. Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interested in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.
Second , I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America 's citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English -- but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.
Third , because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor , everything in this school will reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school. 
Fourth , no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can't speak without using the f -word, you can't speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when used by one black student to address another black, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.
Fifth , we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.
Sixth , and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue... There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately fortunate -- to be alive and to be an American. Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you. 

Astronomers find a galaxy cluster 5 billion light years in diameter

Artist's illustration of a bright gamma-ray burst. (Photo: NASA/Swift/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith and John Jones)

Astronomers discover humongous structure one-ninth the size of the observable universe

The mysterious structure's existence could contradict current models of the universe.

By: Bryan Nelson
August 6, 2015,

The sheer size of our universe is just about unfathomable, so you can imagine the surprise that researchers must have experienced when they recently discovered a structure within our universe that measured 5 billion light years across. That's more than one-ninth the size of the entire observable universe, and by far the largest structure ever discovered.In fact, this mysterious structure is so colossal that it could shatter our current understanding of the cosmos."If we are right, this structure contradicts the current models of the universe," said Lajos Balazs, lead author on the paper, in a press release by the Royal Astronomical Society. "It was a huge surprise to find something this big – and we still don't quite understand how it came to exist at all."Just what is this massive structure? It's not a single, physical object, but rather a cluster of nine massive galaxies bound together gravitationally, much like how our Milky Way is part of a cluster of galaxies. It was discovered after researchers identified a ring of nine gamma ray bursts (GRBs) that appeared to be at very similar distances from us, each around 7 billion light years away.GRBs are the brightest electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe, caused by a supernova. Their detection typically indicates the presence of a galaxy, so all of the GRBs in this ring are believed to each come from a different galaxy. But their close proximity to one another suggests that these galaxies must be linked together. There is only a 1 in 20,000 probability of the GRBs being in this distribution by chance.A mega-cluster of this size shouldn't be possible, at least not if you think in terms of our current theories. Those theories predict that the universe ought to be relatively uniform on the largest scales, meaning that the sizes of structures shouldn't vary by much. In fact, the theoretical limit to structure size has been calculated at around 1.2 billion light years across.If the Hungarian-American team's calculations are correct, then this giant new structure-- which measures in at over 5 billion light years across — would blow that classic model out of the water. In fact, either the researchers' calculations are wrong on this, or scientists will need to radically revise their theories on the evolution of the cosmos.Needless to say, this GRB cluster discovery has the potential to cause a sweeping paradigm shift in astronomy. At the very least, it reminds us just how small our view of the universe really is.Read more:
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/astronomers-discover-humongous-structure-one-ninth-size-observable-universe#ixzz3i3Bw6oQg

What kind of country do you want to live in?

And what kind of country do you want to pass on to your children?!

the mindset of "war": the "military option" is no longer an option

diplomacy or war

The "mindset of war" is characterized by a preference for military action over diplomacy
"Leaders did not inform their people of the cost of war"

full text and video  of Obama's speach at American University on the topic of Iran deal:

http://wapo.st/1IHwBh4

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/05/text-obama-gives-a-speech-about-the-iran-nuclear-deal/

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/obama-and-the-iran-deal/400535/

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-05/obama-reruns-specter-of-iraq-invasion-to-make-case-for-iran-deal

Obama rode to the White House in 2008 on his early, vocal and mostly lonely opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. More than a decade later, he says the fight over the Iran deal is with the same group of neoconservative politicians and commentators who beat the drum for war over diplomacy to meet what turned out to be a non-existent threat in Iraq.
Listening to them again on Iran, he argued in a speech Wednesday in Washington, would be another historic mistake.
"More than a decade later we still live with the consequences of the invasion of Iraq," Obama said at American University, the same venue where in 1963 President John F. Kennedy called for a recalibration in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. "I raise this history because now more than ever we need clear-thinking in our foreign policy."Obama and his aides have invoked some of the most prominent proponents of going to war in Iraq: former Vice President Dick Cheney to former UN Ambassador John Bolton and Bill Kristol, founder of The Weekly Standard.Kristol, for one, is unapologetic either for his support for the Iraq invasion or his opposition to the deal with Iran.

Failing the Test

"Obama's free to re-litigate Iraq," Kristol said Wednesday before the president spoke. "But he's losing the argument over Iran.""Obama said Iran couldn't be permitted a nuclear weapons infrastructure," Kristol said in an e-mail. "Obama condemned Iranian terrorism. Obama denounced Iran for killing Americans in Iraq. Obama signed the sanctions legislation. Obama said he had Israel's back. The deal fails all these tests."Another backer of the 2003 Iraq invasion, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, dismissed Obama's arguments in a statement Wednesday opening his Armed Services Committee hearing on the Iran agreement.The administration, he said, "suggests that any criticism of this deal is tantamount to a call to war. Such scare tactics are to be expected from this administration, but they have no place in a debate of this magnitude."Obama said in his address today that his critics were repeatedly wrong in assessing threats from Iraq and Iran. Rejecting the Iran deal would unravel economic sanctions that forced the Islamic Republic to negotiate, accelerate its nuclear program and hurt U.S. credibility in the world, he said.

Easy Choice

"I've had to make a lot of tough calls as president, but whether or not this deal is good for American security is not one of those calls," he said. "It's not even close."In anticipation of a vote in the Republican-led Congress to disapprove the accord next month, Obama and his allies are girding against a well-funded campaign to influence lawmakers by groups including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. They also face adamant opposition by the Israeli government.The agreement announced last month in Vienna between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers eases sanctions in return for verifiable limits on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.Obama has vowed to veto a resolution of disapproval if Congress passes one at the end of a 60-day review period that ends in mid-September.He is counting on Democrats to prevent the Republican-led opposition from overriding his veto. He'd need at least 44 House Democrats and 13 Senate Democrats to stand with him.

'Selling a Fantasy'

In his speech, Obama said a rejection of the agreement by Congress would leave the U.S. standing alone and Iran in a stronger position."Those who say we can just walk away from this deal and maintain sanctions are selling a fantasy," he said.AIPAC on Wednesday distributed a memo citing polls that suggest Americans are increasingly skeptical of the deal.Just over half of Americans believe the Iraq war was a mistake, according to a Gallup poll conducted in June. Polls on the Iran deal have shown varying levels of support, depending on how the question is framed.A CBS News poll released Tuesday found that almost half of Americans don't know enough about the deal to form an opinion. Among those with an opinion, opponents outnumber supporters 33 percent to 20 percent.

Consequential Choice

The Iran agreement "is historically consequential for the national security of the United States," Hardin Lang, a former diplomat and researcher at the Center for American Progress, a Washington group which backs the agreement, said in a telephone interview. "I spent a couple of years in Iraq, and I think people need to understand the gravity of the choice before us."Obama explicitly drew a parallel with Kennedy's 1963 address, which urged Americans to support a nuclear test-ban treaty with the Soviets despite deep suspicion and animosity." We do not want a war," Kennedy said. "This generation of Americans has already had enough - - more than enough - - of war and hate and oppression."Obama said the standoff with the Soviet Union was much more dangerous than what the world faces today. Kennedy, he said, rejected the idea of "security with perpetual war footing" for "a practical and attainable peace."The Iran agreement "builds on this tradition of strong, principled policy diplomacy," Obama said.

Bernie Sanders

https://m.facebook.com/senatorsanders

Bernie Sanders for President

July 6,2015

Mainers Back Bernie at Big Rally

PORTLAND, Maine –

More than 7,500 people packed an arena here Monday night in another big show of grassroots support for Bernie Sanders.“In case you didn’t notice, this is a big turnout,” Sanders told the placard-waving crowd as they cheered his call to take on the billionaire class and rebuild the American middle class.“From Maine to California, the American people understand that establishment politics and establishment economics are not working for America,” Sanders said. “They understand that the greed of Wall Street and corporate America is destroying the great middle class of this country and people from coast to coast are saying, ‘You can’t keep getting away with it.’”In his fiery speech, Sanders pledged to address gaps in wealth and income inequality that are greater than at any time since the Great Depression. The big turnouts, he said, are sending a powerful message that Americans are tired of a system rigged to help the rich and powerful instead of working families.“It is not acceptable that a handful of billionaires is now controlling our political process and the time is long overdue for the corporate media to start talking about the real issues,” Sanders said. “People are becoming involved in this campaign because they want change – real change – and that is what this campaign is about.”Sanders was introduced by Troy Jackson, a logger from Allagash, Maine, who praised the senator’s willingness to take on “the big corporate structure.” Sanders’ proposals for improving health care, raising the minimum wage and making higher education tuition-free also were cited by the Democratic National Committee member and former Maine Senate majority leader. “What a lot of people are feeling is that there is somebody speaking to their issues,” Jackson told the Portland Press-Herald.“That’s why you’re seeing so many people come out.”He also called for closing tax loopholes that let profitable corporations stash income in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. He said he would break up the largest financial institutions in the country that are bigger today than before they were bailed out by taxpayers after the 2008 Wall Street crash.The Portland turnout was another in a string of big crowds coming out for Sanders. A 10,000-seat arena in Madison, Wisconsin, was filled to capacity last Wednesday when more people turned out than for any presidential candidate anywhere so far this campaign. On the Friday night before the Fourth of July, more than 2,500 showed up at a convention center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the biggest Iowa audience for any candidate to date.

V404 Cygni

This photograph was produced by European Southern Observatory (ESO). (an artist's rendition)


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nearby-black-hole-just-emitted-220730283.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=ma

A nearby black hole just erupted for the first time in 26 years and scientists are ecstatic

Business Insider
By Jessica Orwig 

Lurking 8,000 light years from Earth is a black hole 12 times more massive than our sun. It's been peacefully sleeping for 26 years.But on June 15, astronomers detected something signaling that it had woken up.Now, scientists around the world are using highly sophisticated instruments to learn as much as they can about this mysterious beast of nature before the black hole returns to its slumber, which will be soon.Black holes are very dense, massive objects in space that have an immensely powerful gravitational field that traps anything and everything that comes too close, including light. But on occasion they'll spit out material as well as suck it in.On June 15, one of NASA's satellites picked up a torrent of x-rays all coming from a single source: the black hole."Relative to the lifetime of space observatories, these black hole eruptions are quite rare," said Neil Gehrels, the principal investigator for Swift, the NASA satellite that first identified the eruption in a NASA press release. "So when we see one of them flare up, we try to throw everything we have at it, monitoring across the spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays."

A deadly companion

This black hole is just one half of a two-body system called V404 Cygni. Its partner is a star slightly smaller than our sun, and it's been nourishing the black hole for at least 77 years. The x-rays that astronomers observed on June 15 were the heated guts from the companion star that had spiraled into the mouth of the black hole.When black holes in binary systems, like V404 Cygni, feed, they do so by gravitationally attracting a single thread of gas from the star. The black hole is 12 times more massive than its companion and therefore has a much stronger gravitational grip which slowly pulls gas from the star as the star orbits around it, like in the animation below:.As the gas gets pulled in, it orbits around the black hole, forming a disc. The closer the gas gets to the black hole, the stronger gravitational force it feels and so the faster it moves, heating up to searing-hot temperatures. When the gas reaches temperatures of more than 1.7 million degrees Fahrenheit, it emits a jet of high-energy particles, which satellites like NASA's Swift instrument then detect — albeit 8,000 years later because of the time it takes light to travel from the V404 Cygni to Earth.But there isn't always a steady stream of gas falling into the black hole, which is why it takes such long naps in between feedings.
That disc has two regions: an inner, hot region, and an outer cool region. You need a lot of gas to provide enough pressure and push to cross this barrier, which takes time to generate. Once the black hole has consumed all of the gas in the inner region, which it does in a few days, it has to wait for more. But scientists don't understand the details of how much gas is necessary or exactly how long it takes to build up. That's why this event is so exciting because it gives astronomers a chance to better understand the mechanism that's driving these eruptions. 

A once-in-a-professional-lifetime opportunity

.(European Southern Observatory on Flickr) V404 Cygni's black hole has erupted before.However, when astronomers first saw the outbursts more than 77 years ago, in 1938, they didn't have half of the instruments that are around today. The black hole erupted again in 1956, and then again in 1989. While the eruption of 1989 was studied with a handful of instruments, the outburst wasn't studied in half the detail compared to this year's event.Outbursts like this usually only last for a few weeks to months, so astronomers have culminated a total of nine instruments in space and on the ground to study the black hole in all wavelengths, from very low energy like radio waves to the most energetic like gamma rays, before time runs out.Some of the instruments they're using include the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL satellite, Japan's MAXI, and the 10.4-meter Gran Telescope Canarias operated by Spain in the Canary Islands."It is definitely a 'once in a professional lifetime' opportunity," said Erik Kuulkers, the INTEGRAL project scientist in the NASA press release. 

the horror of war

Kim Phuc's journey from war to forgiveness:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/22/world/kim-phuc-where-is-she-now/index.html

a historical and emotional day for Canada

Truth and Reconciliation Report
exposes
historical abuse of aboriginals as genocide

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/politics/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-urges-canada-to-confront-cultural-genocide-of-residential-schools-1.3096229

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=580

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/canadians-face-ugly-truth-report-residential-schools-released-080011004.html

no right to vote in America's "democracy"

http://www.globalresearch.ca/repeal-of-important-civil-rights-legislation-us-supreme-court-guts-the-1965-voting-rights-act/5340539

US Supreme Court guts "Voting Rights Act"

June 2013 decision by the US Supreme Court gutting the 1965 Voting Rights Act is an outrage that must be answered by working people. This act of judicial oppression is a milestone in the mounting attacks on democratic rights by the US financial aristocracy and its political servants.By a 5-4 margin, the court effectively abrogated one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in American history. The Voting Rights Act remains on the books, but its enforcement mechanism has been declared unconstitutional and struck down.The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts is insolent in its dismissal of any concern over five unelected judges overturning an act of Congress and defying the popular will. This ruling will shock and anger millions of working people—and it should.Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy will go down in history alongside those high court justices who issued the pro-slavery Dred Scott decision in 1857. On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, these minions of American capitalism have demonstrated that the US ruling class is opposed to the democratic principles for which millions of working people have given their lives.The narrow majority dropped any pretense to judicial restraint or respect for the separation of powers, overturning a law that was reauthorized only seven years ago by overwhelming votes—98-0 in the Senate, 390-33 in the House of Representatives—and signed into law by a Republican president, George W. Bush.In striking down a key section of the Voting Rights Act, the court majority defied the plain language of the Constitution. The Fifteenth Amendment, adopted in the wake of the Civil War, reads:Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.For nearly a century, Congress took no action to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, while African Americans were systematically disenfranchised throughout the southern states. Only in response to mass civil rights struggles that spanned more than a decade was the Voting Rights Act finally enacted in 1965. The law is explicitly grounded on the language of Section 2, which provides the most sweeping grant of legislative power that can be afforded by the Constitution.Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act identified those states, mainly in the South, which were to face federal oversight of voting and election law changes because of their long history of excluding African Americans from the polls. . These justices are encouraged by the general atmosphere of reaction that permeates government and media circles.The president of the United States asserts the right to target any individual, including US citizens, for assassination. Those such as Edward Snowden who expose government criminality are witch-hunted and vilified as traitors. An entire American city, Boston, is placed on lockdown in complete disregard of fundamental constitutional rights—all without any significant opposition from within the political establishment.The five arch-reactionaries would not dare to hand down such a ruling if they were not encouraged as well by the cowardice and complicity of American liberalism and the Democratic Party, which have gone along with sweeping attacks on democratic rights. None of these spent forces will lift a finger to defend the democratic rights of the people.The claim by Roberts that there is no longer any significant racial discrimination in the states targeted by the Voting Rights Act is patently false. These states, particularly in the Deep South, remain among the most politically reactionary and backward in the US, with the highest rates of executions, the worst conditions of life for the masses, and incessant efforts to curtail the right of workers and minorities to vote.The dissenting opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and signed by three other justices, had no difficulty citing a mass of empirical evidence of ongoing racially-motivated discrimination, including efforts to purge the rolls of black voters, the redrawing of electoral boundaries to eliminate black office-holders, and the moving of polling places to make it harder for blacks to vote.Ginsburg noted the character of the plaintiff, Shelby County, Alabama, in the suburbs of the city of Birmingham, one of the key battlegrounds of the civil rights era. The majority opinion made no attempt to explain why federal oversight of Shelby County should be ended, nor could it since both the county and towns within it have repeatedly been sanctioned under the Voting Rights Act for discriminatory practices, as recently as 2008.The attack on the right to vote is not fundamentally a racial issue. It is part of an assault on the democratic rights of the entire working class. Dozens of states in recent years have enacted voter ID laws and other anti-democratic provisions in a deliberate effort to make it harder for the poor, the elderly, and students to vote.There is a definite class logic behind this campaign: the American ruling elite is well aware that its policies of militarism and social austerity are opposed by the vast majority of the population. Opinion polls show only 15 percent support the Obama administration’s drive to war in Syria, and even fewer back cuts in Social Security, overturning a law that was reauthorized only seven years ago by overwhelming votes—98-0 in the Senate, 390-33 in the House of Representatives—and signed into law by a Republican president, George W. Bush.In striking down a key section of the Voting Rights Act, the court majority defied the plain language of the Constitution. The Fifteenth Amendment, adopted in the wake of the Civil War, reads:Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous the Fifteenth Amendment, while African Americans were systematically disenfranchised throughout the southern states. Only in response to mass civil rights struggles that spanned more than a decade was the Voting Rights Act finally enacted in 1965. The law is explicitly grounded on the language of Section 2, which provides the most sweeping grant of legislative power that can be afforded by the Constitution.Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act identified those states, mainly in the South, which were to face federal oversight of voting and election law changes because of their long history of excluding African Americans from the polls. These justices are encouraged by the general atmosphere of reaction that permeates government and media circles.The president of the United States asserts the right to target any individual, including US citizens, for assassination. Those such as Edward Snowden who expose government criminality are witch-hunted and vilified as traitors. An entire American city, Boston, is placed on lockdown in complete disregard of fundamental constitutional rights—all without any significant opposition from within the political establishment.The five arch-reactionaries would not dare to hand down such a ruling if they were not encouraged as well by the cowardice and complicity of American liberalism and the Democratic Party, which have gone along with sweeping attacks on democratic rights. None of these spent forces will lift a finger to defend the democratic rights of the people.The claim by Roberts that there is no longer any significant racial discrimination in the states targeted by the Voting Rights Act is patently false. These states, particularly in the Deep South, remain among the most politically reactionary and backward in the US, with the highest rates of executions, the worst conditions of life for the masses, and incessant efforts to curtail the right of workers and minorities to vote.The dissenting opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and signed by three other justices, had no difficulty citing a mass of empirical evidence of ongoing racially-motivated discrimination, including efforts to purge the rolls of black voters, the redrawing of electoral boundaries to eliminate black office-holders, and the moving of polling places to make it harder for blacks to vote.The attack on the right to vote is not fundamentally a racial issue. It is part of an assault on the democratic rights of the entire working class. Dozens of states in recent years have enacted voter ID laws and other anti-democratic provisions in a deliberate effort to make it harder for the poor, the elderly, and students to vote.There is a definite class logic behind this campaign: the American ruling elite is well aware that its policies of militarism and social austerity are opposed by the vast majority of the population.

The defense of democratic rights requires the development of a mass popular movement of working people and youth in opposition to the entire political establishment, its two-party system, and the capitalist state institutions they defend.

President Barack Obama's Speech in Selma

Full Text of President Barack Obama's Speech in Selma

http://time.com/3736357/barack-obama-selma-speech-transcript/

Maya Rhodan @m_rhodan3:18 PM ET

The President spoke on March 7,2015 on the 50th anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday'

President Obama spoke before thousands on Saturday during a commemorative ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the events of "Bloody Sunday" when over 600 non-violent protesters were attacked by Alabama state troopers as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights.Here is the full text of Saturday's speech, as prepared for delivery

"It is a rare honor in this life to follow one of your heroes. And John Lewis is one of my heroes.Now, I have to imagine that when a younger John Lewis woke up that morning fifty years ago and made his way to Brown Chapel, heroics were not on his mind. A day like this was not on his mind. Young folks with bedrolls and backpacks were milling about. Veterans of the movement trained newcomers in the tactics of non-violence; the right way to protect yourself when attacked. A doctor described what tear gas does to the body, while marchers scribbled down instructions for contacting their loved ones. The air was thick with doubt, anticipation, and fear. They comforted themselves with the final verse of the final hymn they sung:No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you;Lean, weary one, upon His breast, God will take care of you.Then, his knapsack stocked with an apple, a toothbrush, a book on government – all you need for a night behind bars – John Lewis led them out of the church on a mission to change America.President Bush and Mrs. Bush, Governor Bentley, Members of Congress, Mayor Evans, Reverend Strong, friends and fellow Americans:There are places, and moments in America where this nation's destiny has been decided. Many are sites of war – Concord and Lexington, Appomattox and Gettysburg. Others are sites that symbolize the daring of America's character – Independence Hall and Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.Selma is such a place.In one afternoon fifty years ago, so much of our turbulent history – the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher – met on this bridge.It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the meaning of America.And because of men and women like John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Ralph Abernathy, C.T. Vivian, Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. King, and so many more, the idea of a just America, a fair America, an inclusive America, a generous America – that idea ultimately triumphed.As is true across the landscape of American history, we cannot examine this moment in isolation. The march on Selma was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations; the leaders that day part of a long line of heroes.We gather here to celebrate them. We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; tear gas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching toward justice.They did as Scripture instructed: "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." And in the days to come, they went back again and again. When the trumpet call sounded for more to join, the people came – black and white, young and old, Christian and Jew, waving the American flag and singing the same anthems full of faith and hope. A white newsman, Bill Plante, who covered the marches then and who is with us here today, quipped that the growing number of white people lowered the quality of the singing. To those who marched, though, those old gospel songs must have never sounded so sweet.In time, their chorus would reach President Johnson. And he would send them protection, echoing their call for the nation and the world to hear:"We shall overcome."What enormous faith these men and women had. Faith in God – but also faith in America.The Americans who crossed this bridge were not physically imposing. But they gave courage to millions. They held no elected office. But they led a nation. They marched as Americans who had endured hundreds of years of brutal violence, and countless daily indignities – but they didn't seek special treatment, just the equal treatment promised to them almost a century before.What they did here will reverberate through the ages. Not because the change they won was preordained; not because their victory was complete; but because they proved that nonviolent change is possible; that love and hope can conquer hate.As we commemorate their achievement, we are well-served to remember that at the time of the marches, many in power condemned rather than praised them. Back then, they were called Communists, half-breeds, outside agitators, sexual and moral degenerates, and worse – everything but the name their parents gave them. Their faith was questioned. Their lives were threatened. Their patriotism was challenged.And yet, what could be more American than what happened in this place?What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people – the unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many – coming together to shape their country's course?What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this; what greater form of patriotism is there; than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?That's why Selma is not some outlier in the American experience. That's why it's not a museum or static monument to behold from a d
istance. It is instead the manifestation of a creed written into our founding documents:"We the People…in order to form a more perfect union.""We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."These are not just words. They are a living thing, a call to action, a roadmap for citizenship and an insistence in the capacity of free men and women to shape our own destiny. For founders like Franklin and Jefferson, for leaders like Lincoln and FDR, the success of our experiment in self-government rested on engaging all our citizens in this work. That's what we celebrate here in Selma. That's what this movement was all about, one leg in our long journey toward freedom.The American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge is the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny. It's the same instinct that drew immigrants from across oceans and the Rio Grande; the same instinct that led women to reach for the ballot and workers to organize against an unjust status quo; the same instinct that led us to plant a flag at Iwo Jima and on the surface of the Moon.It's the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what's right and shake up the status quo.That's what makes us unique, and cements our reputation as a beacon of opportunity. Young people behind the Iron Curtain would see Selma and eventually tear down a wall. Young people in Soweto would hear Bobby Kennedy talk about ripples of hope and eventually banish the scourge of apartheid. Young people in Burma went to prison rather than submit to military rule. From the streets of Tunis to the Maidan in Ukraine, this generation of young people can draw strength from this place, where the powerless could change the world's greatest superpower, and push their leaders to expand the boundaries of freedom.They saw that idea made real in Selma, Alabama. They saw it made real in America.Because of campaigns like this, a Voting Rights Act was passed. Political, economic, and social barriers came down, and the change these men and women wrought is visible here today in the presence of African-Americans who run boardrooms, who sit on the bench, who serve in elected office from small towns to big cities; from the Congressional Black Caucus to the Oval Office.Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for African-Americans, but for every American. Women marched through those doors. Latinos marched through those doors. Asian-Americans, gay Americans, and Americans with disabilities came through those doors. Their endeavors gave the entire South the chance to rise again, not by reasserting the past, but by transcending the past.What a glorious thing, Dr. King might say.What a solemn debt we owe.Which leads us to ask, just how might we repay that debt?First and foremost, we have to recognize that one day's commemoration, no matter how special, is not enough. If Selma taught us anything, it's that our work is never done – the American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.Selma teaches us, too, that action requires that we shed our cynicism. For when it comes to the pursuit of justice, we can afford neither complacency nor despair.Just this week, I was asked whether I thought the Department of Justice's Ferguson report shows that, with respect to race, little has changed in this country. I understand the question, for the report's narrative was woefully familiar. It evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the Civil Rights Movement. But I rejected the notion that nothing's changed. What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it's no longer endemic, or sanctioned by law and custom; and before the Civil Rights Movement, it most surely was.We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, or that racial division is inherent to America. If you think nothing's changed in the past fifty years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or L.A. of the Fifties. Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing's changed. Ask your gay friend if it's easier to be out and proud in America now than it was thirty years ago. To deny this progress – our progress – would be to rob us of our own agency; our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that racism is banished, that the work that drew men and women to Selma is complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the "race card" for their own purposes. We don't need the Ferguson report to know that's not true. We just need to open our eyes, and ears, and hearts, to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us. We know the march is not yet over, the race is not yet won, and that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character – requires admitting as much."We are capable of bearing a great burden," James Baldwin wrote, "once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is."This is work for all Americans, and not just some. Not just whites. Not just blacks. If we want to honor the courage of those who marched that day, then all of us are called to possess their moral imagination. All of us will need to feel, as they did, the fierce urgency of now. All of us need to recognize, as they did, that change depends on our actions, our attitudes, the things we teach our children. And if we make such effort, no matter how hard it may seem, laws can be passed, and consciences can be stirred, and consensus can be built.With such effort, we can make sure our criminal justice system serves all and not just some. Together, we can raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on – the idea that police officers are members of the communities they risk their lives to protect, and citizens in Ferguson and New York and Cleveland just want the same thing young people here marched for – the protection of the law. Together, we can address unfair sentencing, and overcrowded prisons, and the stunted circumstances that rob too many boys of the chance to become men, and rob the nation of too many men who could be good dads, and workers, and neighbors.With effort, we can roll back poverty and the roadblocks to opportunity. Americans don't accept a free ride for anyone, nor do we believe in equality of outcomes. But we do expect equal opportunity, and if we really mean it, if we're willing to sacrifice for it, then we can make sure every child gets an education suitable to this new century, one that expands imaginations and lifts their sights and gives them skills. We can make sure every person willing to work has the dignity of a job, and a fair wage, and a real voice, and sturdier rungs on that ladder into the middle class.And with effort, we can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge – and that is the right to vote. Right now, in 2015, fifty years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood and sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, stands weakened, its future subject to partisan rancor.How can that be? The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic effort. President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred Members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right it protects. If we want to honor this day, let these hundred go back to Washington, and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore the law this year.Of course, our democracy is not the task of Congress alone, or the courts alone, or the President alone. If every new voter suppression law was struck down today, we'd still have one of the lowest voting rates among free peoples. Fifty years ago, registering to vote here in Selma and much of the South meant guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar or bubbles on a bar of soap. It meant risking your dignity, and sometimes, your life. What is our excuse today for not voting? How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought? How do we so fully give away our power, our voice, in shaping America's future?Fellow marchers, so much has changed in fifty years. We've endured war, and fashioned peace. We've seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives, and take for granted convenience our parents might scarcely imagine. But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship, that willingness of a 26 year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five, to decide they loved this country so much that they'd risk everything to realize its promise.That's what it means to love America. That's what it means to believe in America. That's what it means when we say America is exceptional.For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That's why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction, because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea – pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, entrepreneurs and hucksters. That's our spirit.We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some; and we're Susan B. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth. That's our character.We're the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free – Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan. We are the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because they want their kids to know a better life. That's how we came to be.We're the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South. We're the ranch hands and cowboys who opened the West, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers' rights.We're the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent, and we're the Tuskeegee Airmen, Navajo code-talkers, and Japanese-Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied. We're the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, and the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.We are the gay Americans whose blood ran on the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge.We are storytellers, writers, poets, and artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.We are the inventors of gospel and jazz and the blues, bluegrass and country, hip-hop and rock and roll, our very own sounds with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.We are Jackie Robinson, enduring scorn and spiked cleats and pitches coming straight to his head, and stealing home in the World Series anyway.We are the people Langston Hughes wrote of, who "build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how."We are the people Emerson wrote of, "who for truth and honor's sake stand fast and suffer long;" who are "never tired, so long as we can see far enough."That's what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American as others. We respect the past, but we don't pine for it. We don't fear the future; we grab for it. America is not some fragile thing; we are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes. We are boisterous and diverse and full of energy, perpetually young in spirit. That's why someone like John Lewis at the ripe age of 25 could lead a mighty march.And that's what the young people here today and listening all across the country must take away from this day. You are America. Unconstrained by habits and convention. Unencumbered by what is, and ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, and new ground to cover, and bridges to be crossed. And it is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow.Because Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person.Because the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word "We." We The People. We Shall Overcome. Yes We Can. It is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished. But we are getting closer. Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation's founding, our union is not yet perfect. But we are getting closer. Our job's easier because somebody already got us through that first mile. Somebody already got us over that bridge. When it feels the road's too hard, when the torch we've been passed feels too heavy, we will remember these early travelers, and draw strength from their example, and hold firmly the words of the prophet Isaiah:"Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint."We honor those who walked so we could run. We must run so our children soar. And we will not grow weary. For we believe in the power of an awesome God, and we believe in this country's sacred promise.
May He bless those warriors of justice no longer with us, and bless the United States of America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FWD8KkNUs0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

what a 100 billion stars looks like

http://images.gizmag.com/hero/hubble-andromeda.jpg

NASA Releases high resolution photo Of The Andromeda Galaxy

--a glimpse of the immense scale of our nearest galactic neighbor!

Get ready to feel very, very, very tiny.
Absolutely mind blowing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAL48P5NJU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Also watch: Tour of the Andromeda galaxy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWxBTHVhc3I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

How long before the Milky Way fuses with Andromeda?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LwWdfxUuuY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WEI8WBJkKk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

"Middle class" economics vs "trickle up" economics

Excerpted from Obama's State of the Union 2015 report:

"It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next fifteen years, and for decades to come.Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?

"middle-class economics" means.... lowering the taxes of working families and putting thousands of dollars back into their pockets each year.

These ideas won’t make everybody rich, or relieve every hardship. That’s not the job of government. To give working families a fair shot, we’ll still need more employers to see beyond next quarter’s earnings and recognize that investing in their workforce is in their company’s long-term interest. We still need laws that strengthen rather than weaken unions, and give American workers a voice. But things like child care and sick leave and equal pay; things like lower mortgage premiums and a higher minimum wage — these ideas will make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of families. 
Let’s close loopholes so we stop rewarding companies that keep profits abroad, and reward those that invest in America. Let’s use those savings to rebuild our infrastructure and make it more attractive for companies to bring jobs home. Let’s simplify the system and let a small business owner file based on her actual bank statement, instead of the number of accountants she can afford. And let’s close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top one percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. We can use that money to help more families pay for childcare and send their kids to college. We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy, and we can achieve that together.