"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us: it's in everyone. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
— Nelson Mandela
Friday, June 24, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Here is a Georgia State Trooper in riot gear at a KKK protest in a north Georgia city back in the 80s. The Trooper is black. Standing in front of him and touching his shield is a curious little boy dressed in a Klan hood and robe. I have stared at this picture and wondered what must have been going through that Trooper’s mind. Before the Trooper is an innocent child who is being taught to hate him because of the color of his skin. The child doesn’t understand what he is being taught, and at this point he doesn’t seem to care. Like any other child his curiosity takes hold and he wants to explore this new thing that this man is holding probably because he can see his reflection in it and that’s a neat thing and he wants to check it out. In this picture I see innocence mixed with hate, the irony of a black man protecting the right of white people to assemble in protest against him, temperance in the face of ignorance, and hope that racism can be broken because this young boy may remember that a black man smiled at him once and he didn’t seem so bad after all.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Music Of Love. This picture was taken in Tenganan Village, Bali (2010). Tenganan is the most famous Bali Aga (original Balinese) village and is located close to Candi Dasa in East Bali. A man was playing bamboo music to entertain a disabled child which is not his son, but he loves this child likes he loves his own son. (Photo and caption by Ario Wibisono)
This is the kind of thing that happens to an Atheist philosopher...
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?
—Nietzsche, The Gay Science
I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
I'm sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama's little chauvinists
I've had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
Monday, June 6, 2011
National Library of Medicine- Robert Hookes Micrographica
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/26NzGR/archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/hooke/hooke.html
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/26NzGR/archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/hooke/hooke.html
June 5, 2011
Doctors claim to have "functional cure" for HIV
Timothy Ray Brown was diagnosed with HIV in 1995, but is now the first to have the virus completely eliminated from his body
- Timothy Ray Brown, the first man to have received a "functional cure" for HIV. (CBS News)
(CBS News)
Thirty years ago from Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control issued the first report on the emerging AIDS epidemic. Now, after years of progress in holding back the disease, there is finally an apparent case of one successful cure.
CBS News correspondent Hank Plante, with San Francisco affiliate KCBS, reports that 45-year-old Timothy Ray Brown, now living in the Bay Area, tested positive for HIV back in 1995, but now has entered the scientific journals as the first man in world history to have his HIV completely eliminated from his body. It's what doctors call a "functional cure."
He was living in Berlin, Germany, in 2007, dealing with HIV and leukemia, when scientists there gave him a bone marrow, stem cell transplant that had astounding results.
"I quit taking my HIV medication on the day that I got the transplant and haven't had to take any since," Brown says, adding that his diseases are effectively gone.
In fact, his only medical problem these days is one involving his speech and motor skills because of neurological damage after the treatment, but that's getting better.
"The Berlin Patient," as Brown is known, received stem cells from a donor who was immune to HIV. In fact, about one percent of Caucasians are immune to HIV. Some say it goes back to the Great Plague; People who survived the plague developed an immunity, and that immunity was passed down to their heirs today.
Brown says being the first man to be cured of HIV makes him very, very happy.
Needless to say, Brown is now being monitored by doctors at San Francisco General Hospital and here at UCSF, where we sought out a medical opinion from one of the most respected AIDS researchers in the world, Dr. Jay Levy, who was one of the co-discoverers of the HIV virus.
"If you're able to take the white cells from someone and manipulate them so they're no longer infectable by HIV, and those white cells become the whole immune system of that individual, you've got essentially what we call a functional cure," Dr. Levy says.
We also sought out a medical opinion from Dr. Paul Volberding, another pioneering AIDS expert, who has studied the disease for all of its 30 years.
"One element of his treatment, and we don't know which, allowed apparently the virus to be purged from his body. So its going to be an interesting, I think, productive area to study," Dr. Volderding says. "He hasn't had any recurrence now for several years I think of the virus, and that hasn't happened before in our experience."
Timothy Brown's radical procedure may not be applicable to many other people with HIV, because of the difficulty in doing stem cell transplants, and finding the right donor. But this one case does open the door to the field of "cure research," which is now gaining more attention.
"I'm cured of HIV," Brown says. "I had HIV, but I don't anymore."
Those are words that so many in the scientific community are now cautiously clinging to.
Drawing Autism
Drawing Autism is an incredible collection of artwork by people diagnosed with autism, from teenage amateurs to established artists.
Michelle Bachmann brands Planned Parenthood a criminal enterprise
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE Jun 3, 2011 8:24PM
WASHINGTON -- Sounding every bit like a candidate on the campaign trail, Rep. Michele Bachmann scorched President Barack Obama’s Israel policy Friday, urged conservative activists to block the new health care law in their states and branded Planned Parenthood a criminal enterprise.
Speaking to scores of conservatives at a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, Bachmann gave a sample of what her key themes are likely to be if she enters the race for the 2012 Republican nomination as expected. She said 2012 presents a prime opportunity for conservatives to take make headway on the abortion issue and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Bachmann, R-Stillwater, called for defunding of Planned Parenthood, which provides family planning programs and other services for women, such as cancer screenings, breast exams and HIV testing.
“We’re giving money to corrupt groups like Planned Parenthood,” an organization that she said is “committing crimes and enabling young, minor girls. This organization has by their own records performed 324,008 abortions in 2008 and 2009, and that’s in addition to the trafficking of underage girls that has gone on under Planned Parenthood’s nose.”
Planned Parenthood said in a statement that the organization has an excellent track record of providing care to millions of women and teens.
“The health and safety of patients is our No. 1 priority and Planned Parenthood has a zero-tolerance policy for any staff member who does not comply with the law in reporting threats to the welfare of a minor,” the statement said. “Planned Parenthood takes very seriously the trust placed in us by the public.”
Having won a third term to the House of Representatives last November, Bachmann, 55, is weighing a presidential bid. Political experts expect the tea party champion to enter the fray, and there have been more signs recently that she’s preparing to announce her candidacy.
On Wednesday, Bachmann’s chief of staff, Andy Parrish, notified staff via e-mail that he was taking a leave of absence to work for Bachmann in a different capacity. And CNN announced Friday that Bachmann would be among seven Republican 2012 prospects participating in the first presidential debate in New Hampshire, on June 13. Bachmann has said she intends to reveal her decision this month.
If she enters the race, Bachmann would join fellow Minnesotan Tim Pawlenty, the former governor, in a GOP field that includes former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 candidate who is considered the frontrunner. The field also includes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Georgia businessman Herman Cain and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
While Bachmann did not announce her candidacy during her speech Friday, she reiterated her goal of making Obama a one-term president. She harshly criticized the president’s recent remarks on settling the territorial dispute between Israel and Palestinians and declared her support for Israel.
“President Obama speaks for a very tiny minority,” Bachmann said. “He may be president of the United States, but he doesn’t speak for us on the issue of Israel.”
Bachmann also repeated her assertion that Obama and Democrats hid $105 billion in funding for the health care law, a charge that several fact-finding organizations have debunked. She urged the activists in the audience to “work in your states to prevent the early implementation of ObamaCare.”
“I will not rest until we repeal ObamaCare,” Bachmann shouted, bringing many in the crowd to their feet with applause.
On the issue of gay marriage, Bachmann said she was encouraged by what she sees happening at the state level, citing the Minnesota legislature’s recent decision to put the question of gay marriage before voters in a 2012 referendum.
“This is the time,” Bachmann said. “If you don’t have an amendment in your state, consider it.”
Bachmann pointed out she and her husband have raised five children and 23 foster children and will celebrate their 33rd anniversary this year. But, she added, the latest U.S. Census data offers depressing statistics on marriage. The bureau’s latest survey found that the percentage of people in their late 20s who have been married was 53 percent in 2009, compared to 73 percent in 1986.
“Marriage is under siege like no other time in America,” Bachmann said.
In closing, Bachmann led the audience in prayer. Afterward, she declined to expand on her charge about the alleged trafficking of young girls as she was being whisked away from reporters. But she did reiterate that she believes Obama is vulnerable.
“He’s at a very low ebb right now,” Bachmann said, “as far as public opinion polls are concerned.”
Yet, a recent Suffolk University poll found Obama’s favorability rating at 51 percent, compared to 42 percent who had an unfavorable view. The favorable-unfavorable results for Bachmann were 20 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
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