lifelong_learning’s posterous

Feeling down? Or up? This should put it into perspective

 


 

 


     Turn up the sound.  This clever piece originated in Australia.
 
 It is very well done, most folks don't realize how much info he is sharing!
 
 Just click once on the link below or paste it. 
 
 Speakers on. Photos by NASA.

 Enjoy Your Journey and the punchline at the very end....!!!
 
 http://dingo.care-mail.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf 
   

 

 
 

  

  

 

    

              

    

 

 
 

      
           

    


 

 
 

    
           

!



















No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.422 / Virus Database: 270.14.20/2444 - Release Date: 10/18/09 09:04:00



Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail. http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTFnY201cHJnBHRtX2RtZWNoA1RleHQgTGluawR0bV9sbmsDVTExMDQ3NjAEdG1fbmV0A1lhaG9vIQ--/SIG=11aljvgo4/*http://au.overview.mail.yahoo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Learn more.


Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail. Learn more.

Windows 7: Easily stream music. Find out how.


Windows Live: Make it easier for your friends to see what you’re up to on Facebook.


--
light and laughs....

Comments [0]

Fulgurites


 

Comments [0]

Very sad, but true. Pollution in China.


 

 


Every time we buy a product that is "MADE IN CHINA" we force the greedy government to produce more pollution and contribute to the death and disfigurement of the poor and innocent children and people of China. They are helpless and suffer excruciating pain and horrible death (their own and also witness the death of their loved ones) in silence. What if this was happening to us, and our children, and we were powerless to change it or stop it? It is NOT in the hands of our government to force the change in China but in OUR hands (the consumers, the grassroots) to stop buying products that are made in China,a if that government continues to ignore the cries of its own innocent people and continue to pollute their air and water for profit. We have to stop buying products made in China NOW.

Watch this article to the end, and witness the result of our greed (to buy cheap products frm China) on the young, the old, and the innocent children of China.

Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China

by Key
October 21st, 2009

October 14, 2009, the 30th annual awards ceremony of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund took place at the Asia Society in New York City. Lu Guang (卢广) from People’s Republic of China won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”

Lu Guang (卢广), freelancer photographer, started as an amateur photographer in 1980. He was a factory worker, later started his own photo studio and advertising agency. August of 1993 he returned to post-graduate studies at the Central Arts and Design Academy in Beijing (now is the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University). During graduate school, he studied, traveled all over the country and carved out a career, became the “dark horse” of the photographer circle in Beijing. Skilled at social documentary photography, his insightful, creative and artistic work often focused on “social phenomena and people living at the bottom of society”, attracted the attentions of the national photography circle and the media. Many of his award winning works focused on social issues like, “gold rush in the west”, “drug girl”, “small coal pit”, “HIV village”, “the Grand Canal”, “development of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway” and so on.

1. “At the junction of Ningxia province and Inner Mongolia province, I saw a tall chimney puffing out golden smoke covering the blue sky, large tracts of the grassland have become industrial waste dumps; unbearable foul smell made people want to cough; Surging industrial sewage flowed into the Yellow River…”
- Lu Guang

2. Chemical waste from Jiangsu Taixing Chemical Industrial District (苏泰兴化工园区) dumped on top of the Yangtze River bank. May 15, 2009

3. Fan Jai Zhuang in Anyang City, Henan province, (河南安阳市范家庄) there is only one wall separating this village from the steelmaking furnaces. The villagers live in this heavily polluted environment where the village is under the iron rain every day. March 24, 2008

4. Industrial sewage of Zhejiang Xiaoshan Industrial District (浙江萧山化工园区) eventually flowed into Qiantang River. April 24, 2009

5. Henan Anyang iron and steel plant’s (河南安阳钢铁厂) sewage flowed into Anyang River. March 25, 2008

6. Guiyu, Guangdong province, (广东省贵屿镇) rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated, the villager is washing in a seriously polluted pond. November 25, 2005

7. Shizuishan Industrial district in Ningxia province (宁夏石嘴山湖滨工业园区), the tall chimneys spitted out smoke and dust. Residents took preventive measure for the falling dust from the sky when going outside. April 22, 2006

8. In the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes buried in the beach and even extending into the deep sea. April 28, 2008

9. In Ma’anshan, Anhui province (安徽马鞍山), along the Yangtze River there are many small-scaled Iron selection factories and plastic processing plants. Large amounts of sewage discharged into the Yangtze River June 18, 2009

10. In Inner Mongolia there were 2 “black dragons” from the Lasengmiao Power Plant (内蒙古拉僧庙发电厂) covering the nearby villages. July 26, 2005

11. Jiangsu province Changshu City Fluorine Chemical industry land sewage treatment plant (苏省常熟市氟化学工业园污水处理厂) was responsible for collection and processing of the industrial sewage. However they did not, the sewage pipe was extended 1500 meters under the Yangtze River and releasing the sewage there. 2009 June 11

12. Soil by Yangtze River, was polluted by Anhui Province Ma’anshan Chemical Industrial District (安徽省马鞍山化工园区). June 26, 2009

13. Large amount of the industrial wastewater flowed to Yellow River from Inner Mongolia Lasengmiao Industrial District (内蒙古拉僧庙工业园区) every day. July 26, 2005

14. A Large amount of the chemical wastewater discharged into Yangtze River from Zhenjiang Titanium mill (镇江市钛粉厂) every day. Less than 1,000 meters away downstream is where the water department of Danyang City gets its water from. June 10, 2009

15. In Haimen city, Jiangsu province Chemical Industrial District sewage treatment Plant (苏省海门市化工园区污水处理厂) discharged wastewater into Yangtze River. June 5, 2009

16. Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and steel plant (河北省县天津钢铁厂) is a heavily polluting company. Company scale is still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. March 18, 2008

17. Longmen town in Hanchen city, Shaanxi Province (陕西省韩城市龙门镇) has large-scaled industrial development. Environment is very seriously polluted there. April 8, 2008

18. There are over 100 chemical plants in Jiangsu province coastal industry district. (苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) Some of them discharge wastewater into the ocean; some heavily contaminated sewage is stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”. During the 2 high tides in every month, the sewage then gets discharged into the ocean with the tides. June 20, 2008

19. Jiangxi Province Hu Ko County Chemical Industry district (江西省胡口县化工园区) is by the Yangtze River. Chemical factory landfill the Yangtze River bank to expand the scale of the factory without authorization.

20. Anhui Province Cihu Chemical Industry District (安徽省慈湖化工园区) built a underground pipe to discharge wastewater into the Yangtze River. The wastewater sometimes is black, gray, dark red, or yellow, wastewater from different chemical factories has different colors. June 18, 2009

21. Shanxi Province is the most polluted areas of China. It is also the province with the highest rate of birth defects. This loving farmer couple adopted 17 disabled children. April 15, 2009
“In Some areas of China people’s lives were threatened because of the environmental pollution. Residents suffering from all kinds of obscured diseases, the cancer villages, increase of deformed babies, these were the results of sacrificing environment and blindly seeking economical gain.”
- Lu Guang

22. Elder shepherd by the Yellow River cannot stand the smell. April 23, 2006

23. 15-year-old boy from Tianshui, Gansu Province (肃天水), dropped out of the school after 2nd grade, followed his parents to Heilonggui (龙贵) Industrial District. He earns 16 yuan a day. April 8, 2005

24. Inner Mongolia province Heilonggui (龙贵) Industrial District, the couple who worked at the Plaster Kiln and just got home. March 22, 2007

25. Villagers from Kang village in Linfen City, Shanxi Province (山西省临汾市下康村) due to long-term consumption of the polluted water contaminated by industrial waste, there were 50 people who have cancer and cerebral thrombosis. 64-year-old Wang Baosheng got ill since 2003, he has fester all over his body so he cannot go to bed and lying face down on the edge of the bed each day. July 10, 2005

26. Breathing in large amount of dust into the lungs, people gets sick after working there for 1-2 years. Most of these migrant workers come from area of poverty. April 10, 2005

27. Zhangqiao village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan Province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的张桥村), a 45-year-old woman Sun Xiaojun (孙晓军) could not move her feet and hands since 4 years ago. The numerous hospital treatments were not effective. April 7, 2009

28. Zhaozhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的赵庄村), 66-year-old Zhao Bingkun suffering from esophageal cancer since 2004, after the second surgery, treatment cost already have reached over 200,000 yuan. His condition is in late stage, he is having fever everyday, waiting for death. April 7, 2009

29. Zhaozhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (洪河边的河南省西平县张于庄村), Gao Wanshun’s (高万) wife died of cancer. Now he lives in poverty. April 3, 2009

30. Linfen City in Shanxi province (山西临汾市) is seriously polluted area. Farmers after working in the cotton fields for 2 hours are filled with coal ashes. September 24 2007

31. Salt factory worker in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province (苏连云港) said angrily, “when the wind blowing towards our side, the foul smell from the chemical factories is unbearable. There is even more poison gas at night." July 19, 2008

32. People form Fanjiazhuang (范家庄) are ready to submit a complain filled with their fingerprints, to seek compensation for pollution damages. March 19, 2008

33. In Shanxi Province there are a lot of charitable nursing homes, to help disabled infants abandoned by their parents. April 14, 2009

34. Liujiawan village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的刘家湾村), 13 year old Yang Xiao in November 2008 was ill with obscure disease. She was saved by the donation of the villagers. When the grandmother saw the old village chief came to visit his granddaughter, she kneeled on the ground holding granddaughter’s hand. April 19, 2009

35. The oldest is 9, not going to school. The youngest is less than 2 years old. They lived in severely polluted area. They hands and faces were always dirty. April 10, 2005

36. Mazhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province, (河南省舞钢市洪河边的马庄村) 58-year-old Ma Haipeng (马海朋) was suffering from stomach cancer since 2006 and could not work in the field. He must take medicine every day, otherwise it is too painful. April 6, 2009

37. Every year, a lot of deficiency babies in Shanxi Province were abandoned. Kong Zhenlan (贞兰) in Qi town () who was making a living by recycling trash adopted 25 abandoned children. April 14, 2009

38. Xuanwei (宣威) in Yunnan province is a cancer village. Every year there are more than 20 people die of cancer. 11-year-old student Xu Li () is suffering from bone cancer. May 8, 2007

39. In Shexian Village, Hebei Province, (河北省县固新村) the existing cancer patients are more than 50 people and more than 20 cancer patients die each year. March 18, 2008

40. Zhangyuzhuan village by the Hong River in Xiping county, Henan province, (河南省西平县洪河边的张于庄村) 22-year-old Zhu Xiaoyan (朱小燕) had a tumor in her stomach in 2007. She died after number of hospital treatments on July 2008. 4-year-old girl with her grandfather came to mother’s tomb. April 2009 2
 

 

P       http://www.politicsandcurrentaffairs.co.UK/Forum/peak-oil-economics-environment/77432-amazing-pictures-pollution-China.HTML#post875823      M

 

 

 

Comments [0]

STUNNING PHOTOS

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Comments [0]

Concentration Camps and Comic Books... A Column by Naif Al-Mutawa

Concentration Camps and Comic Books
by Naif Al-Mutawa
Creator of THE 99

When I was 20 years old I boarded a train for Auschwitz.

The year was 1992. Courtesy of 10 years at a predominantly Jewish
summer camp in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I was probably
the only Arab child that ever grew up fearing the Holocaust. I took
the initiative of seeing with my own eyes a place whose existence is
held to be an absolute truth by some, so much so that its denial is
punishable by law in some countries. Nonbelievers have told me that it
didn't exist. Typically this debate is about heaven. What I saw was
hell.

It was a dreary winter day. Having arrived in Berlin, I connected to
Krakow where I took a cab to the camp. Walking around, I absorbed the
unfathomable. That same winter I also visited Terezin in
Czechoslovakia and Dachau in Germany trying to wrap my mind around
what I had seen. I remember wishing I could go back to the days when
the only Jewish camp I had ever set foot in was in New England.

Thirty years ago, I boarded a plane to Camp Robin Hood.

My parents wanted me to concentrate on strengthening my English.
America was the future. I made friends at camp and I read and I wrote
and I imagined. I became enamored with fiction and the endless
possibilities on the pages of books. I learned about the duplicitous
nature of stories. I learned that some of what I had been raised with
as true was false. And I returned the favor. The most salient lesson I
learned was the importance of perception in shaping how I am seen and
how I see others. I would later solidify that knowledge in my
education and training as a psychologist.

In 1996 I met my Manhattan optometrist, Dr. Koty, for the first time.
He asked me where I was from. And when I told him I was from Kuwait,
he asked if I knew what Koty was short for, replying rhetorically that
Koty is short for Kuwaiti. My doctor, it seems, is a fourth generation
Kuwaiti Jew born in New York. Small world. He could have been, he
should have been, my optometrist in Kuwait.

It is easy to forget that for over 1000 years the only place to be
Jewish and safe was among Arabs. The terrible history of persecution
culminating in the Holocaust wrought on the Jews in Europe shamed the
world and hastened international acknowledgment of the need to create
a safe haven for the Jewish people. But one people's gain would soon
become another's loss. There is no escaping the fact that the creation
of a homeland for the survivors of one of history’s most terrible
tragedies was in itself a tragedy for the existing inhabitants of that
homeland, any more than we can escape the horrible reality of those
who were gassed in concentration camps. These are mutual truths. One
cannot accept one without accepting the other. To do so would be
morally and intellectually dishonest. And frankly, would be the worst
kind of fiction.

My children now attend Camp Robin Hood. I hope they grow up fearing
the Holocaust as I did. And I hope their Jewish counterparts at camp
grow up fearing the idea of waking up one day only to find that a
group that had survived a terrible massacre was now being allowed to
take over their home using a holy book as their deed. It is through
this type of social interaction that real change can happen. Perhaps
the fifth generation of Kotys will move back to Kuwait to open up
their businesses. I will certainly raise my children to welcome such
possibilities.

But it will take more than individual efforts based on idiosyncratic
experiences to make a significant difference. It will require
concentrated efforts from the educational as well as the entertainment
industries in entities where prejudice has been institutionalized and
fiction is routinely peddled as fact, and fact as fiction. Just as it
took several positive portrayals of African-American presidents in NBC
TV's "24" to pave the way for President Obama and his message of hope,
so it will take a concentrated effort of established entertainment
properties that represent various cultures to interact in a meaningful
and exploratory way to pave the way for cross cultural communication
through mass media.

When I created THE 99, I made sure that the heroes were from 99
countries to facilitate such interaction. I thought I would have to
work alone. I was wrong.

THE 99 and DC's Justice League of America have joined forces. By
working with their American counterparts such as Superman, Batman and
Wonder Woman, THE 99 will work hard to implement President Obama's
recent message of cultural tolerance. THE 99 and the The Justice
League heroes are never identified by religious orientation but it is
clear what archetypes they are based on. Together, they will likely
explore issues of trust, multiculturalism, and how people, real and
super, perceive one another. Imagine the good that can come from a
frank conversation between THE 99's burqa clad hero, Batina the
Hidden, and JLA's Wonder Woman the, well, the not so hidden. If we can
show how perceptions are unfairly formed, we can take great leaps in a
single bound towards transforming them. And what better characters to
explore such issues than Superman and Batman who were created by
Jewish young men from New York and Cleveland at the height of
anti-Semitism and THE 99 who were created by a Muslim during the
height of Islamophobia (and who went to camp with a bunch of Jews from
Cleveland and New York!).

When I was an undergraduate in the United States, the Middle East Club
was celebrating the Independence Day of one of its countries. We took
shifts at a table to distribute falafel with a big red sign behind us
that read FREE FALAFEL in bold letters. Students wandered over,
mingled, learned a little history and ate some falafel. The event ran
smoothly until a woman left a meeting being hosted by Amnesty
International, hurried toward us, dropped her bag on the floor,
pointed up to the sign with both hands and exclaimed "Whose Falafel?!"
We were confused until we realized that she actually wanted to free
Mr. Falafel.

Sounds like a job for Superman (and THE 99!)
____
* Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa is creator of THE 99, a group of superheroes
based on Islamic archetypes. He is a 2009 recipient of the Schwab
Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the World Economic
Forum. This is a version of an article which appeared in Washington
Post/Newsweek-On Faith and is distributed by the Common Ground News
Service (CGNews) with permission from the author.


Comments [0]

Saudi maids

QATAR: Public outrage rises with demand for Saudi maids

August 12, 2009 |  7:22 am

 Residents of Qatar are outraged over media reports that 30 Saudi
women have had to work in the same “humiliating” conditions that were
formerly deemed acceptable only for foreign migrant workers.

The women, ages 20 to 45, arrived in Qatar to be placed with families
as maids, earning about $400 per month, slightly more than their
mostly Asian and African counterparts, according to the Middle East
and North Africa Financial Network (MENAFN).

One maids agency told newspapers that the demand for Saudi women had
gone up sharply due to widespread fears that foreign maids practiced
magic.

MENAFN went on to report that even more Saudi women had applied to
work in Qatar.

Although Saudi Arabia projects an image of opulent prosperity,
problems such as poverty, illiteracy and high unemployment rates
persist. The video above is an excerpt from a report on poverty in
Saudi Arabia by satellite news channel Al Arabiya.

But the thought of Saudi women working as servants for families in
neighboring Qatar has struck a raw nerve in conservative Saudi Arabia,
where women are often the legal wards of their male relatives. Their
protection and well-being are a sensitive matter of family honor.

Qatari psychologist Moza Al Malki told MENAFN he was disappointed that
Saudi women were working as maids at a time of economic prosperity for
the oil-rich Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia , which has the biggest oil
reserves in the world.

"It breaks my heart to know that Saudi women are venturing out to get
involved in such a pursuit," he said. "The women will be exposed to
all kinds of humiliation."

Still, domestic workers from Asia and Africa have endured similar
conditions for years. Qatar, like most Gulf states, is regularly
criticized by human-rights organizations and the international media
for its treatment of foreign labor, especially domestic workers, who
are often treated as virtual slaves by employers who withhold their
passports and deny them wages and time off.

Comments [0]

Perception/Pl read...........

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The
man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During
that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of
them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed
there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few
seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in
the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at
his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly The
kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard
and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This
action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without
exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened
for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their
normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one
applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the
greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate
pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two
days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats
averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro
station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social
experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The
questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate
hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we
recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best
musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written,
with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many
other things are we missing?

Comments [0]

Rebirth of the Eagle

(download)

Comments [0]

Real Engineering feat-world's highest bridge

(download)

Comments [0]

Vanishing data

Comments [0]