You wonder if this is not a photograph taken by a pro-photographer in a studio, then what the heck this might be?
Check it out here
This is Not a Photograph!
Aug 2009 08
George Carlin
Aug 2009 04
GEORGE CARLIN (His wife recently died….and George followed her, dying July 2008)
Isn’t it amazing that George Carlin – comedian of the 70’s and 80’s – could write something so very eloquent…and so very appropriate.
A Message by George Carlin:
~
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways,but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less.. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.
Remember, to say, ‘I love you’ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
George Carlin
Rain: the Handmade Sound Effect!
Jul 2009 12
George Bernard Shaw and HUMAN RIGHTS
Jun 2009 27
In 1889, London, a man who described himself as a ‘conservative minister’ was arrested as an accomplice in the operation of a house of male prostitution. A trial was quietly and without notice, carried out. Then a publication called TRUTH broke the story as a sensational cover-up with promises to name names. Various well-known aristocrats were being threatened with penal servitude, blackmail and death-threats. Finally, some names were printed with the expected summons to law. With the solemn understanding that the crime in question involved adults and not children, Shaw recognized this as a violation of basic human rights and wrote to the editor of the threatening newspaper.
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“I am sorry to have to ask you to allow me to mention what everybody declares unmentionable. My justification shall be that we may presently be saddled with the moral responsibility for monstrously severe punishments inflicted not only on persons who have corrupted children, but on others whose conduct, however nasty and ridiculous, has been perfectly within their admitted rights as individuals. To a fully occupied person in normal health, with due opportunities for a healthy social enjoyment, the mere idea of the subject of the threatened prosecutions is so expressively disagreeable as to appear unnatural. But everybody does not find it so. There are among us highly respected citizens who have been expelled from public schools for giving effect to the contrary opinion; and there are hundreds of others who might have been expelled on the same ground had they been found out. Greek philosophers, otherwise of unquestioned virtue, have differed with us on the point. So have soldiers, sailors, convicts, and in fact members of all communities deprived of intercourse with women. A whole series of Balzac’s novels turns upon attachments formed by galley slaves for one another – attachments which are represented as redeeming them from utter savagery. Women, from Sappho onwards, have shown that this appetite is not confined to one sex. Now, I do not believe myself to be the only man in England acquainted with these facts. And I strongly protest against any journalist writing, as nine out of ten are at this moment dipping their pens to write, as if he had never heard of such things except as vague and sinister rumors concerning the most corrupt phases in the decadence of Babylon, Greece and Rome. I appeal now to the champions of individual rights to join me in a protest against a law by which two adult men can be sentenced to twenty years penal servitude for a private act, freely consented to and desired by both, which concerns themselves alone. There is absolutely no justification for the law except the old theological one of making the secular arm the instrument of God’s vengeance. It is a survival from that discarded system with its stonings and burnings; and it survives because it is so unpleasant that men are loath to meddle with it even with the object of getting rid of it, lest they should be suspected of acting in their personal interest. We are now free to face with the evil of our relic of Inquisition law, and of the moral cowardice, which prevents our getting rid of it. For my own part, I protest against the principle of the law under which the warrants have been issued; and I hope that no attempt will be made to enforce its outrageous penalties in the case of adult men.” — George Bernard Shaw
–
George Bernard Shaw
(26 July 1856 ~ 2 November 1950)
Shaw, born in Dublin, moved to London when twenty.. His first success was as a music and literary critic, but he was drawn to drama. He decided to write plays, and continued to write them until his death at 94. He was fiercely proud of being a free-thinking humanist, dedicated to presenting the cause of human rights for all. He and Al Gore are the only people to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar: Shaw, (1925) for his contribution to literature and an Oscar (1938) for his PYGMALION screenplay. His dedication to encouraging all people to forge an individual path in life while taking responsibility for these life choices has been our inspiration at the Gingold Theatrical Group. GTG’s Project Shaw is dedicated to presenting every play ever written by Shaw. Produced and directed by David Staller, we’re now in our fourth astounding year. For more information check out
www.projectshaw.com
PROJECT SHAW
your monthly guide to reason
Projectshaw.com
Survival!
May 2009 29
Survival! - It was a long block, and this little fragile fellow seemed so sturdy in holding to its defense, not wanting to lose the game of survival!
Bipolar Disorder: Are You Bipolar too?
May 2009 16
“What is Bipolar Disorder?”
Source: www.nimh.nih.org
National Institute of Mental Health
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They are different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through from time to time. Bipolar disorder symptoms can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.
Bipolar disorder often develops in a person’s late teens or early adult years. At least half of all cases start before age 25.1 Some people have their first symptoms during childhood, while others may develop symptoms late in life.
Bipolar disorder is not easy to spot when it starts. The symptoms may seem like separate problems, not recognized as parts of a larger problem. Some people suffer for years before they are properly diagnosed and treated. Like diabetes or heart disease, bipolar disorder is a long-term illness that must be carefully managed throughout a person’s life.
Bipolar disorder goes by many names: manic depression, manic-depressive disorder, manic-depressive illness, bipolar mood disorder, and bipolar affective disorder are medical terms for the same condition.
Bipolar disorder is classified into four different types: Bipolar I, Bipolar II, Cyclothymic Disorder, or Bipolar Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Mental health experts separate the condition into these four types because the symptoms of bipolar disorder show up differently in different people. When doctors know what type someone has, they can tailor treatment to that person’s specific needs.
How Does It Affect People?
Bipolar disorder affects both men and women. For many people, the first symptoms show up in their early twenties. However, research has shown that the first episode of bipolar disorder is occurring earlier: It often shows up in adolescence, and even children can have the disorder.
Recent research suggests that kids and teens with bipolar disorder don’t always have the same behavioral patterns that adults with bipolar disorder do. For example, kids who have bipolar disorder may experience particularly rapid mood changes and may have some of the other mood-related symptoms listed below, such as irritability and high levels of anxiety. But they may not show other symptoms that are more commonly seen in adults.
Because brain function is involved, the ways people with bipolar disorder think, act, and feel are all affected. This can make it especially difficult for other people to understand their condition. It can be incredibly frustrating if other people act as though someone with bipolar disorder should just “snap out of it,” as if a person who is sick can become well simply by wanting to. Bipolar disorder isn’t a sign of weakness or a character flaw; it’s a serious medical condition that requires treatment, just like any other condition.
What Are the Signs and Symptoms?
A person with bipolar disorder will go through episodes of mania (highs) and at other times experience episodes of depression (lows). These aren’t the normal periods of happiness and sadness that everyone experiences from time to time. Instead, the episodes are intense or severe mood swings, like a pendulum that keeps arcing higher and higher.
Symptoms of mania include:
- racing speech and thoughts
- increased energy
- decreased need for sleep
- elevated mood and exaggerated optimism
- increased physical and mental activity
- excessive irritability, aggressive behavior, and impatience
- poor judgment
- reckless behavior, like excessive spending, making rash decisions, and erratic driving
- difficulty concentrating
- inflated sense of self-importance
Symptoms of depression include:
- loss of interest in usual activities
- prolonged sad or irritable mood
- loss of energy or fatigue
- feelings of guilt or worthlessness
- sleeping too much or inability to sleep
- drop in grades and inability to concentrate
- inability to experience pleasure
- appetite loss or overeating
- anger, worry, and anxiety
- thoughts of death or suicide
In adults, episodes of mania or depression usually last for weeks or months, although they can be shorter in length. In children and adolescents, though, these episodes can be much shorter, and a kid or teen can even go back and forth between mania and depression throughout the day. Episodes of mania or depression may happen irregularly and follow an unpredictable pattern or they may be linked, with a manic episode always following a period of depression, or vice versa. Sometimes episodes have a seasonal pattern. Mania in the spring, for example, may be followed by depression in the winter.
Between episodes, a person with bipolar disorder usually returns to normal (or near-normal) functioning. For some people, though, there is little or no “break period” between their cycles. These mood swing cycles can change slowly or rapidly, with rapid cycling between mania and depression being much more common in women, children, and adolescents.
Some people with bipolar disorder turn to alcohol and drugs because they feel temporarily better when they’re high. But using alcohol and drugs can have disastrous results for people with bipolar disorder. Substance abuse can actually make the symptoms worse, as well as making the condition hard for doctors to diagnose.
What Causes Bipolar Disorder?
Doctors and scientists don’t know the exact cause of bipolar disorder, but they think that biochemical, genetic, and environmental factors may all be involved. It’s believed this condition is caused by imbalances in certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. If the neurotransmitters aren’t in balance, the brain’s mood-regulating system won’t work the way it should.
Genes also play a role. If a close relative has bipolar disorder, a person’s risk of developing the condition is higher. This doesn’t mean, though, that if you have a relative with bipolar disorder you will automatically develop it! Even in studies involving identical twins raised in the same home, one twin sometimes had bipolar disorder whereas the other did not. Researchers are now working on identifying the gene or genes involved in bipolar disorder.
Environmental factors may play a role in bipolar disorder. For some teens, stresses such as a death in the family, their parents’ divorce, or other traumatic events could trigger a first episode of mania or depression. Sometimes, going through the changes of puberty can set off an episode. In girls, symptoms can be tied to their monthly menstrual cycle.
Reviewed by: David V. Sheslow, PhD
Date reviewed: January 2007
Source (except the introductory section of “What is Bipolar Disorder?”): Kidshealth.org
Sphere: Related ContentInternet Watch Foundation: Let’s Be More Watchful
May 2009 15
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Please do kindly report websites which contain images of child s ex ual abuse.
Your clicks may potentially save a child!
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Sphere: Related ContentPitch ‘n’ Putt with Joyce and Beckett
May 2009 09
Watching this, “I feel like I’m having a literary orgasm!”
I can clearly see Beckett’s “Not I,” “Molloy,” “Waiting for Godot,” and Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist…,” “Dubliners,” and “Finnegans Wake” properly put into it.
Love it!
Do you Empower or Enable?
May 2009 06
Empower or Enable – By Sharmen Lane
Do you enable or empower the people around you?
Imagine for a moment that you’re having a bad day. Not too hard to do, right, as we’ve all had them. Imagine now calling someone close to you, who you need to talk to, to help you through it. You tell them all the thoughts and feelings you’re having — the tough time at work, or the difficulties with your teenager, or the argument you had with your spouse. Everything just doesn’t seem to be going the way you want it to. Money’s tight, work is slow, and home life just downright sucks. Your friend says, “Suck it up and quit your complaining. It could be worse. What about the poverty in Africa or the war in Russia? You don’t have it so bad.” Does this make you feel better or worse?
Have you ever heard the saying, “I was complaining of my shoes, until I saw the man with no feet”? Now, I agree, things could always be worse. Somewhere, someone has it worse. However, does that change our reality? After all, we are living our life, not someone else’s. Whatever is happening to us, at that moment, is real and doesn’t feel so great. Does denying that or focusing on another’s reality change yours? NO! Right now, in this place, in this moment, this reality sucks. Does someone telling you that you don’t have it so bad empower you or enable you? Think about the opposite. If someone was to communicate on an understanding level, where they empathize and understand, would that make you feel better or worse?
I ask you this so you will think before you speak when someone is sharing their moment of despair, sadness, disappointment, or whatever with you. Doesn’t it feel like a slap in the face when someone basically tells you that what you are feeling isn’t important or real? I’m sure your answer is yes. Are you thinking, “Yes, but if I indulge them in their sadness, aren’t I just enabling them to wallow in their pessimism?”? I personally don’t think so. I think when I am given the forum and the safe place to share my real true feelings and have a sympathetic or understanding ear, I feel better and am able to move through it faster. Many times, just having a shoulder to lean on is enough to help you see through the darkness and reach the light. It allows me to focus on the solution, instead of the problem. I think that is empowering, not enabling.
Which do you prefer? Do you prefer to have the cold, swift kick in the rear, or do you prefer an understanding lending ear?
I ask you to think about this question, “Do I empower or enable?” Don’t you want to be the one who helps someone see the light at the end of the tunnel, instead of being the one who says that your thoughts and feelings, and quite frankly your reality, aren’t important because someone else’s is worse? I believe if you empower others, then you can change the world.
Author’s Bio
Sharmen Lane, Motivational Speaker, author and radio host inspires you to find your passion, MOTIVATES you to take action and EMPOWERS you to go from now to wow. Shar gives you the tools to strategies to overcome life’s everyday challenges. Are you procrastinating, setting goals and not achieving them, feeling down in the dumps, unproductive or stuck in a rut?
Shar helps you by identifying the problem areas and delivering strategies that are customized to create the desired results. She provides proven techniques to help you overcome obstacles and roadblocks to achieve success. She delivers tools that provide step-by-step details and instructions to get you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow.
Sharmen Lane has personally gone from manicurist to millionaire and has trained, managed, and coached thousands of individuals and corporations on what it takes to get what they want for their business and personal lives. sharspeaks.com
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A worm! a god!
Apr 2009 17
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful, is man!
How passing wonder He, who made him such!
Who centred in our make such strange extremes!
From diff’rent natures marvellously mixt,
Connexion exquisite of distant worlds!
Distinguish’d link in being’s endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the deity!
A beam ethereal, sullied, and absorpt!
Tho’ sullied, and dishonour’d, still divine!
Dim miniature of greatness absolute!
An heir of glory! a frail child of dust!
Helpless immortal! insect infinite!
A worm! a g o d!——I tremble at myself,
And in myself am lost! at home a stranger,
Thought wanders up and down, surpris’d, aghast,
And wond’ring at her own: how reason reels!
O what a miracle to man is man,
Triumphantly diatress’d! what joy, what dread!
Alternately transported, and alarm’d!
What can preserve my life? or what destroy?
An angel’s arm can’t snatch me from the grave;
Legions of angels can’t confine me there.
—
~Edward Young~
Nigh Thoughts. Night I: Complaints
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Playing for a Change: “Stand By Me!”
Apr 2009 13
This song says uh, no matter who you are, no matter where you go in your life
At some point you’re gona need somebody to stand by you
Playing for change – stand by me ( lyrics)
Oh yeah, Oh my darling, Stand by me
No matter who you are,
No matter where you go in life,
You’ll need somebody,
to stand by you
No matter how much money you got,
ALl the freedom you got
you’ll need somebody,
to stand by you
When the night has come and the land is dark
And that moon is the only light we see
No I won’t be afraid, No he won’t get it
Just as long as you people stand by me
And darling darling,standy by me, OH stand by me,Oh stand stand(stand by me)come on stand (stand by me) by me yea
Oh when that sky that we look upon,
when it should tumble and fall
On mountains they should crumble through the sea
I won’t cry, I won’t cry No i won’t shed a tear,
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
SO darling darling stand by me,
Oh stand by me, Please stand, Stand by me, stand by me
and darling darling stand, by me
Oh stand by me, please stand, stand by me , stand by me
OH baby baby
so darling darling stand, (na ala mi)
Woah stand, (na ala mi) oh stand,(oh stand)
stand, stand by me, come on stand by me
Stand ( na ala mi)
oh won’t you stand ( na ala mi)
oh stand (na ala mi)
stand by me, come on stand by me
When the night has come, and the land is dark
and that moon is the only light we’ll see
I won’t be afraid, I wont be afraid
Just as long, just as long as you yeah
Stand by me.
Petronas F1 Showcase
Apr 2009 07
Maslovian Approach towards Literature
Apr 2009 05
Initially, texts started to be looked upon from a much diversified and flexible theory in human beings’ case; however, it also was struggling to shed some light on previously vague and cloudy concepts of love, creativity, hope, loneliness, self-reverence, health, nature and noticeably ‘being’ in its sheer untouched meaning.
In 1943, Abraham Maslow chose a contradictory way of observation through which he not only eliminated the presence of invalids – either mentally or physically – as the sole source of his investigation, but more exerted to examine figures who were epitomization of maintained selfhood, prosperity and social achievement such as scholars and globally recognized figures; for instance Roosevelt and Einstein. As a result of such findings, he presented his “Hierarchy of Human needs: Humanistic Model;” a model which illustrated how amalgam of deviatory phases of success and existence might affect one’s pattern of life (Toward a Psychology of Being 49). By having leading features of both politics and literature observed, he depicted how an urge for meaningful existence in one’s life can be presented into reality; for instance, a literary work of art, a successful career, aimed educational efforts, etc.
Such preliminary concepts can simply be touched and relatively acknowledged through characterization in works of literary giants, i.e., those of Beckett, Morrison, Joyce, Hemingway, Conrad and so forth. In works of all previously mentioned authors’, one can conspicuously spot out how a desire for meaning and identity had turned into a pursued main goal of their characters. Take Beckett’s Trilogy: The Unnamable, Joyce’s Portrait of an artist as a young man, Morrison’s compound of projected anti-racist criterion for African-Americans in most of her novels say, Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992) and indeed Paradise (1999), and Hemingway’s clichéd The man and the sea, all can be taken as seriously earnest witnesses.
Maslow condemned Freud’s works as well, although he accepted the existence of an unconscious part within humans’ psyche. In fact, he refuted Freud’s idea that the bulk of our being is hidden far from our consciousness. Maslow purported that humanity is aware of motivation and drives on the whole. Without life’s obstacles, all of humanity would become psychologically healthy, attaining a deep self-understanding and acceptance of society and the surrounding world. He, additionally, directed his energy towards realizing the positive aspects of mankind, while Freud saw mostly negativity, repressed society, sexually abusive drives and death driven world which sounded more like Schopenhauer’s pessimism.
Source: Freudian Psychoanalysis and Maslovian Humanistic Psychology
Sphere: Related ContentIdentity Crisis
Apr 2009 05
The term “identity crisis” was first used, if I remember correctly, for a specific clinical purpose in the Mr. Zion Veteran’s Rehabilitation Clinic during the Second World War, a national emergency which permitted psychiatric workers of different persuasions and denominations […] to work together harmoniously. Most of our patients, so we concluded at that time, had neither been “shell-shocked” nor become malingerers, but had through the exigencies of war lost a sense of personal sameness and historical continuity. They were impaired in that central control over themselves for which, in the psychoanalytic scheme, only the “inner agency” of the ego could be held responsible. Therefore I spoke of loss of “ego identity.”
Erik Erikson
Identity: Youth and Crisis 17
Sphere: Related ContentHer Elegant Morning!
Mar 2009 31
