Jupiter and Saturn up close

This remarkable video was made using NASA video footage taken during flybys by the Voyager and Cassini space missions. The video was produced by Sander van den Berg. It includes a simple but affecting  music track.

Jupiter

Saturn

Jupiter is the fifih planet from the Sun. It's distance from Earth varies between 392 and 576 million miles.   Saturn is the sixth planet, and is hundreds of millions of miles beyond Jupiter.

Here is a link to van den Berg's remarkable video...

http://vimeo.com/40234826

NASA Cassini spacecraft

NASA Voyager Spacecraft

When you look at van den Berg's video of Jupiter and Saturn, and think about the technology it took to go there and deliver this amazing video imagery, it is truly jaw dropping.  You have to wonder, when humans prove capable of such stupendous technical feats, why can't  we find the committment and the means to take better care of the Earth, the one little planet we all depend on for life.

Net Neutrality and Open Access

This is one of the most important issues of our time.  It is also perhaps the most under reported.  Net neutrality is about open and unimpeaded access to all resources on the internet.  Providers like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast are pressing Congress to pass regulations that give them the right to control  access to and flow of information on the internet. 

Net neutrality is the way the First Amendment of the Constitution is manifested on line.  Access should remain free and open,  without undue manipulation by those guided only by profit or those interested in limiting access.

Free and unencumbered access to information on the internet is fundimental to democratic expression.  We all have a stake in this. We all need to engage in the dialogue about net neutrality and open access.

Here is a link to a non-profit that is focused on this very important human rights issue...

http://www.savetheinternet.com/

The View From Earth Orbit

This NASA video Is a compilation of clips from orbiting satellites. It is remarkable and beautiful to watch.  The lights on Earth's surface beneath the night sky; the Aurora Borealis lighting up the atmosphere at the poles, Amazing stuff.    We are very fortunate to have a place like the Earth to call home. We need to stop abusing it. 

Here is a link to this marvelous video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWz5ltE_I4c&feature=player_embedded#!

Ten People Who Have Inspired Me

Over my lifetime, I have crossed paths, through my reading or through personal encounter,  with a some amazing human beings. They are my heros and a source of ongoing inspiration.   They have helped shape the person that I am.  I list them below alphabetically.  I can't say enough about them. These are just personal choices. Everybody's list is going to be different. I will be doing blog entries on each of them individually as time goes on..  

My Heros

Lester Brown
Riane Eisler
Eve Ensler
Thom Hartmann
Paul Hawken
Naomi Klein
Amory Lovins
George Bernard Shaw
Michael Charles Tobias
E.O. Wilson


Here are a few more inspiring individuals, who are in the same league...

Deganwidah, the Great Iroquois Peacemaker
Dr. Paul Farmer
Richard Feynman
Leonardo DaVinci
Galileo
Mohandas Gandhi
Johannes Kepler
Nicolaus Kopernicus
Teddy Roosevelt
Carl Sagan
Elisabet Sahtouris
Margaret Sanger
Elisabeth Cady Stanton
Alexander Von Humboldt
Colonel Jirayr H. Zorthian

Target Ain't People

This video is amazing. These people get it, and they're doing something about it.

I love this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FhMMmqzbD8&feature=player_embedded#!

Educating Solutionaries

Just read a splendid interview on the Forbes magazine webpage. Zoe Weil is an educator, and the co-founder of the Institute for Humane Education, IHE.

The focus of  IHE is educating educators about how to teach caring and compassion.  Here is how Ms. Weil puts it...

 Humane education has four elements that are keys to its power and success, and these include: 1) providing accurate information about the pressing issues of our time so people have the knowledge they need to address global challenges; 2) fostering the 3 Cs of curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking so people have the skills they need to address challenges; 3) instilling the 3 Rs of reverence, respect, and responsibility, so people have the will to address challenges, and 4) providing positive choices and the tools for problem-solving, so people can solve challenges. 

The quote above was taken from an interview conducted by Forbes contributor, Michael Tobias. The link to the Forbes piece on Zoe Weil is...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltobias/2012/04/25/the-heart-of-education-a-discussion-with-zoe-weil/

The term 'solitionary'  goes with the concept of humane education and reflects the hope of what a humanely educated child will become.  It's a noble idea that is very much needed to prepare kids for the unpprecidented social, economic, and environmental challenges they will have to deal with as adults.  

Toxic Sludge is Good for You

'The PR industry seeks to manipulate public opinion and government policy, but can only manipulate while it remains invisible'  - page20, Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry  by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton.

I read this book some time ago, and it really opened my eyes about the ways public relations professionals use the media to control the public discourse.  The scary thing is, the best and brightest of these folks go to work for big money, serving rich and powerful corporations.

Exxon has an ad campaign with ethnically diverse employees talking about how gratified they are by their work, obtaining natural gas to meet the public's burgeoning energy needs. That's just a smoke screen to coverup the destructive fracking practices they use to get at underground gas deposits that require the pumping of toxic chemicals into the ground.  Ever seen somebody's kitchen water tap catch fire? That's the kind of thing that can happen when fracking contaminates water supplies.

Too often, PR people become bottom feeders, heaping dishonesty on top of dishonesty to sell the company line.

Climate denial is a cottage industry for PR flacks. They stuff their own pockets, while pushing every kind of misinformation to deceive the public about something that should not be in question..

Stauber and Rampton started a group called PR WATCH to shine a glaring spotlight on the shenanigans of the PR business, See the link below...

http://www.prwatch.org/