Enjoy this “World Version” of John Lennon’s iconic song Imagine with dozens of celebrities and children from across the globe singing along. Features Sonu Nigam, Katy Perry, Priyanka Chopra, will.i.am and many more. Enjoy!
Where to get legally free-to-use photos
You’ve become aware that copying photos and graphic images you find on the internet might be considered stealing them. This may or may not be morally wrong but breaking the law is at least a bit problematic. If you need pictures and don’t want to pay for them, here are sources for getting them legally free:
Images licensed under Creative Commons terms are free to use although they do have some strings attached to them (creators want to be named, for one thing). Photopin is a repository where you can find plenty of “free” Creative Commons pictures.
Some thoughts on copyright law – mine and others’
I came across a pretty interesting discussion on copyright law today, which was sparked by photographer Tony Bynum’s post on the illegality of using photographs found on the internet and copied. Yes, that’s right: we are supposed to get permission to use photographs and custom graphics by obtaining the creator’s verbal or written authorization or by paying … because all images are somebody’s intellectual or creative property and they’re protected by a body of law known as copyright law. Images are owned by their creator or the company they were working for when an image was created.
Comedian Jim Jeffries insanely serious on crazy topic of guns
Why have I been padding around my home for 40 minutes enjoying a great laugh? Because a friend shared this video of Aussie comedian Jim Jeffries doing a very special comedy routine on the serious topic of gun violence. Jeffries presents truths so unbelievable, it’s easy to see that they should be jokes. Knowing they are real life scenarios provokes us to laugh over our country’s insane obsession with guns and our tolerance for arms-related violence. Here are some highlights from his routine:
25 year study shows poverty as greatest determinant in children’s success
Two John Hopkins professors tracked the scholastic and employment developments of 790 students via annual interviews conducted over 25 years from the time the students were 1st graders in Baltimore’s public school system until age 28. Their findings are disturbing, although certainly not surprising. The Washington Post article tell us,
A mere 4 percent of the first-graders Alexander and Entwisle had classified as the “urban disadvantaged” had by the end of the study completed the college degree that’s become more valuable than ever in the modern economy. A related reality: Just 33 of 314 had left the low-income socioeconomic status of their parents for the middle class by age 28.
Possession of Wisdom – from Saint Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukural
Chapter 43: Possession of Wisdom
A chapter from South Indian saint Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukural, ‘Holy Couplets.’
Kural 421
Wisdom is a weapon that can ward off destruction.
It is an inner fortress that no enemy can assail.
Kural 422
Wisdom will harness the mind, diverting it
from wrong and directing it toward right.
Kural 423
Whatever is heard from whomever’s lips,
wisdom will rightly discern its true meaning.
Kural 424
Wisdom speaks well, conveying each meaning clearly,
and listens for the subtlest sense in others’ speech.
Kural 425
The wise befriend the wise and keep that friendship constant,
not opening and closing it like the petaled lotus.
Kural 426
It is wisdom to live in the world
in the way that the world lives.
Kural 427
Those who know, know what will happen next.
Such things are unknown to the unknowing.
Kural 428
It is folly not to fear what ought to be feared.
So the wise dread what should be dreaded.
Kural 429
Fearsome sufferings shall never happen
to knowing ones who guard against future happenings.
Kural 430
Those who possess wisdom possess everything.
Whatever others possess, without wisdom they have nothing.
Try UCLA’s free guided meditations
The UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center has free guided meditations you can download from iTunes or play on your computer.
A Business Insider article on how to sleep better and why you should, points out, “Studies show that mindfulness meditation lowers stress and promotes psychological well-being.” As a newly minted practitioner, I’m learning that even a five minute meditation session is a good investment for my attention and energy levels, and my outlook.
Lion King Crew’s I Can’t Breathe Challenge
I Can’t Breathe Challenge featuring the Cast & Crew from Disney’s The Lion King Nat’l Tour
While the national dialogue around #ICantBreathe #BlackLivesMatter is being framed, it’s important to remember that racism hurts all people in a society: those who practice it and those victimized by it.
Let’s make 2015 the Year of The People and take our world back.
Can the Jewish approach to education benefit public schools?
I don’t agree with the Orthodox Jewish practice of choking public schools of money in order to fund transportation to, and expenses for, their own community’s schools. But, I do understand why the Orthodox community does feel that the taxes they pay should be funding their children’s education as well as other students’. And I understand why the Orthodox want their children to have yeshiva educations.
Yeshivas are better academically than public schools; they have dual language (Hebrew and English) curricula; midot (values) are taught; and a completely different approach to learning is part of the Torah (biblical) studies component, where students challenge the knowledge and positions of the study mates they partner up with and school days stretch from 7am until almost midnight. The learning culture at traditional yeshivas is fantastic and exceeds anything else I’ve encountered in a school environment.
Krishnan shares food & love with his city’s homeless, elderly, ill
Narayanan Krishnan cares for his city’s homeless, elderly, mentally ill. He worked for a major hotel in Bangalore and one day thought, I am feeding the rich but the poor of my region are dying for want of food. Now every day he feeds these people, bathes them and cuts their hair.
The philanthropist says, “Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood. I am just a man.” On the social controversy of a person of his social class hugging and caring for the people India calls ‘Untouchables’ he says, “Food is one part, love is another part. The love and affection which you show will give them mental nutrition. Life’s ultimate purpose is to give. Start giving,” he urges. “Feel the joy of giving!”
Black maleness in America as told by someone who chose to be a man
I almost didn’t read this, as I don’t have such a big interest in how women transition into being men and vice-versa but I’m glad I did, because that’s not what this article talks about. It’s about the experience of being a black man in the US on the queer spectrum … the experience of being a black trans-gender man … the family and sociological ramifications of becoming a transgender person and the experience of being a black man in America today amidst all the social unrest, told from the perspective of a person who chose to be a man.
Writing tip: add visualization with just a few extra words
I came across a beautiful snippet of writing this morning. By adding several words about the woman who walks into the village carrying a tote, Shirley Rousseau Murphy transformed an abstract sentence into a visual treat replete with a subject who lays claim to habits, personality and wow – even a history. I’ve never so clearly experienced the power of the power of visualization, until now. From Cat Breaking Free (2005, p 66):
Maybe he’d wait until tomorrow, take the sensible route, lay low until Chichi walked into the village early, as she often did, carrying her big canvas tote.
Hungry for privacy? Facebook de-friending won’t even get you close
I’ve been really thinking about a Facebook friend’s earlier post, saying she feels exposed by having 822 friends and will start deleting some in order to get more privacy. I just had to reply to the privacy issue and afterwards, realized that my assertions needed to be backed up by reliable data. “I must say,” I commented to my friend, “I find it strange that you would play a game on Facebook or post anything here and voice concerns about privacy,” and followed that with my first information point: “Facebook sells your data to game creators – this is a well-known fact.”
Can you legally record a conversation in New Jersey?
You can legally record both phone and in-person conversations in New Jersey as long as one of the people in that conversation agrees to the recording of it – and it’s fine if the one person is you. State law makes the phone recording legal; and federal law makes the in-person conversation recordings legal. If you need guidance for your state, check the Digital Media Law Project website.
Digital Media Law Project tells us that New Jersey is a “one-party consent” law state as regards the recording of both phone and in-person conversations:
Michael Jackson’s banned 1995 song about racism “They Don’t Care About Us”
D.B. Anderson tells us about the suppression and history of “They Don’t Care About Us”, the anti-racism song Michael Jackson wrote and recorded two years after being strip-searched by police in 1993.
“They Don’t Care About Us” was denounced by The New York Times even before its release, and did not reach much of its intended audience because the controversy caused by the New York Times article would go on to overshadow the song itself. Radio stations were reluctant to play it and one of the short films Jackson created for the song was banned in the US