inothernews:

A woman, identified as Cub Scout troop leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, confronts one of two suspects who moments before viciously beheaded a British soldier on a street in London in what government officials called a “terror-related” incident. The attackers had claimed responsibility for the murder, saying on camera “The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth.” Loyau-Kennett, who wasn’t hurt, is also captured on video telling one of the men “Right now it is only you versus many people. You are going to lose.  What would you like to do?”  Both suspects were later killed shot and wounded by police.    (Photo: @sibiillamlaw / Twitter via The New York Daily News)
God damn it.

One hardly knows what to say.  Again human beings infected with one of the most toxic of cultural upbringings demonstrate brazenly how evil acts sanctioned by that culture can be. Someone on an earlier post suggested the appalling butchery perpetrated on an 8-year old child “bride” might not have been a “genuine” account, because the news source was “questionable”. Well open your eyes sweetheart! Here is another example of barbarity fostered within that toxic culture - a culture that sanctions cutting throats. Look at the photo. The murderers bloody knife still in his hand, on display for every news source in the world. His religion, by his own admission, was the sole motive for the attack. Take your pick among your news sources. But don’t dare - for shame - make excuses for that culture! Don’t dare - for the sake of the man who they just killed in cold blood - blame the victim.  What a miserable excuse for a human being of a man. “An eye for an eye”. What a vile and vacuous excuse for murdering and butchering someone, randomly on the basis of their occupation, not even for anything done by that person. Gandhi I think said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. But so does turning a “blind eye” to evil among us. What an appalling excuse for such a barbarous crime. Nowhere are muslims being targetted by Western governments and “murdered” for being “muslims” - only for being terrorists, actively engaged in committing or plotting acts of violence. Western powers are not attacking “ordinary” muslims. The only people who specifically murder muslims for being muslims in those countries are other muslims - sunnis vs shiites. Western troops in so-called muslim nations are fighting to protect law and order and facilitate the secular work of governments on behalf of their citizens. Western forces are constrained by laws, and punishments are meted to those who violate them, who “take the law into their own hands”. Westerners in general have no hatred toward muslims as muslims. What about the volunteers who have for decades been coming from the West to provide humanitarian aid and medical assistance to “muslims” in those same countries? And all those muslims who have willingly come to Western nations to escape poverty, persecution and misery in their own countries. They have been welcomed and granted extraordinary generosity to rebuild their lives freely, on the basis of Western respect for humanity above any creed. No, what we have seen today is an evil manifestation of a primitive culture which we “tolerate” growing in our communities, and even protect via an unofficial media censorship and fearful political silence in the name of “tolerance”.  But this terrible story has a heroic counterpoint, and one which we can rally around. That heroic woman! A Cub Scout troop leader who confronted the murderer, bloody knife still in his hand. I was a Cub as a child. I still recall the pledges - “Be Prepared”, “Akela, We’ll do our best”, “On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, to do my duty… to help other people and to keep the Cub law”. What a living embodiment of the “everyday hero” ethos of scouting! I hope Scout numbers surge. Community organizations are the lifeblood of a culture. If more people were prepared, each individually, to “do our best” we can not only turn around the decline of Western culture, but even help re-educate those brought up by toxic cultures, and integrate them into a truly life-enhancing, humanity-affirming civilization. I encourage all fair-minded citizens of western democracies, to find the contact addresses of local muslim organizations and officials at mosques, and to begin writing to them. Not attacking them for what has happened, not attacking their religion or their god, but calling on them to denounce such murderous violence committed in the name of their religion; reminding them that their god is blasphemed by anyone committing evil in his name. We need to be calling them out on these types of atrocity, making their leaders stand up publicly and either confess their approval, or condemn it without equivocation.  I want to hear the chorus of “western” muslim organizations decrying this evil act; cursing and excommunicating this murderer; announcing their shame at the violation of the tenants of their religion; calling on the courts to deal with this evil man as harshly as his acts demand. It is through being confronted by the shame of evil that we all learned to do what is right and avoid what is wrong. We need to let these religious leaders know that they stand in our eyes shamed if they fail to renounce this type of behaviour. And if each time such atrocities occur, they hear their leaders condemn them, then their followers will also gradually come to share their leaders sense of the wrongness of these actions. Then muslim culture will be able to integrate and contribute to the life of our society. Then religious terrorism will simply die out. Please write a letter today! I am needing to have my faith in humanity restored.

inothernews:

A woman, identified as Cub Scout troop leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, confronts one of two suspects who moments before viciously beheaded a British soldier on a street in London in what government officials called a “terror-related” incident. The attackers had claimed responsibility for the murder, saying on camera “The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth.” Loyau-Kennett, who wasn’t hurt, is also captured on video telling one of the men “Right now it is only you versus many people. You are going to lose.  What would you like to do?”  Both suspects were later killed shot and wounded by police.    (Photo: @sibiillamlaw / Twitter via The New York Daily News)

God damn it.

One hardly knows what to say.

Again human beings infected with one of the most toxic of cultural upbringings demonstrate brazenly how evil acts sanctioned by that culture can be. Someone on an earlier post suggested the appalling butchery perpetrated on an 8-year old child “bride” might not have been a “genuine” account, because the news source was “questionable”. Well open your eyes sweetheart! Here is another example of barbarity fostered within that toxic culture - a culture that sanctions cutting throats. Look at the photo. The murderers bloody knife still in his hand, on display for every news source in the world. His religion, by his own admission, was the sole motive for the attack. Take your pick among your news sources. But don’t dare - for shame - make excuses for that culture! Don’t dare - for the sake of the man who they just killed in cold blood - blame the victim.

What a miserable excuse for a human being of a man. “An eye for an eye”. What a vile and vacuous excuse for murdering and butchering someone, randomly on the basis of their occupation, not even for anything done by that person. Gandhi I think said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. But so does turning a “blind eye” to evil among us.

What an appalling excuse for such a barbarous crime. Nowhere are muslims being targetted by Western governments and “murdered” for being “muslims” - only for being terrorists, actively engaged in committing or plotting acts of violence. Western powers are not attacking “ordinary” muslims. The only people who specifically murder muslims for being muslims in those countries are other muslims - sunnis vs shiites. Western troops in so-called muslim nations are fighting to protect law and order and facilitate the secular work of governments on behalf of their citizens. Western forces are constrained by laws, and punishments are meted to those who violate them, who “take the law into their own hands”.

Westerners in general have no hatred toward muslims as muslims. What about the volunteers who have for decades been coming from the West to provide humanitarian aid and medical assistance to “muslims” in those same countries? And all those muslims who have willingly come to Western nations to escape poverty, persecution and misery in their own countries. They have been welcomed and granted extraordinary generosity to rebuild their lives freely, on the basis of Western respect for humanity above any creed.

No, what we have seen today is an evil manifestation of a primitive culture which we “tolerate” growing in our communities, and even protect via an unofficial media censorship and fearful political silence in the name of “tolerance”.

But this terrible story has a heroic counterpoint, and one which we can rally around. That heroic woman! A Cub Scout troop leader who confronted the murderer, bloody knife still in his hand.

I was a Cub as a child. I still recall the pledges - “Be Prepared”, “Akela, We’ll do our best”, “On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, to do my duty… to help other people and to keep the Cub law”. What a living embodiment of the “everyday hero” ethos of scouting! I hope Scout numbers surge. Community organizations are the lifeblood of a culture. If more people were prepared, each individually, to “do our best” we can not only turn around the decline of Western culture, but even help re-educate those brought up by toxic cultures, and integrate them into a truly life-enhancing, humanity-affirming civilization.

I encourage all fair-minded citizens of western democracies, to find the contact addresses of local muslim organizations and officials at mosques, and to begin writing to them. Not attacking them for what has happened, not attacking their religion or their god, but calling on them to denounce such murderous violence committed in the name of their religion; reminding them that their god is blasphemed by anyone committing evil in his name. We need to be calling them out on these types of atrocity, making their leaders stand up publicly and either confess their approval, or condemn it without equivocation.

I want to hear the chorus of “western” muslim organizations decrying this evil act; cursing and excommunicating this murderer; announcing their shame at the violation of the tenants of their religion; calling on the courts to deal with this evil man as harshly as his acts demand. It is through being confronted by the shame of evil that we all learned to do what is right and avoid what is wrong. We need to let these religious leaders know that they stand in our eyes shamed if they fail to renounce this type of behaviour. And if each time such atrocities occur, they hear their leaders condemn them, then their followers will also gradually come to share their leaders sense of the wrongness of these actions. Then muslim culture will be able to integrate and contribute to the life of our society. Then religious terrorism will simply die out.

Please write a letter today! I am needing to have my faith in humanity restored.
Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns… Our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees.

E.F. Schumacher (via wordchalice)

Specifically our left brain is reductionist and thinks everything is acorns - unconnected atoms. Our right brain is holistic and integrates us into a living reality. Today too many people make their left brain their “ordinary” mind and don’t question that everything is being called acorns even when the roots and trunks and branches and leaves are all around them. What the world really needs now is not so much religious “faith” but rather a balancing dose of right brain thinking. It can come in the form of art, literature, or deeper human relationships.

Article: The Unbelievable 3D Latte Art of Kazuki Yamamoto

This early in the day I need coffee. This so deserves to be appreciated!

The Unbelievable 3D Latte Art of Kazuki Yamamoto http://www.visualnews.com/2013/05/20/the-unbelievable-3d-latte-art-of-kazuki-yamamoto/

How many times have people used a pen or paintbrush because they couldn’t pull the trigger?

Virginia Woolf, from Selected Essays (via thesecretsits)

Virginia Woolf is a heroine in our household. My 17 year old son is studying her for his HSC this year, and announced earlier this week that “A Room of One’s Own” is among his top 3 greatest literary works. (Hamlet was number 1 - “Because Shakespeare is awesome and invented the language”)

How much more productive to use pen or paintbrush to try and confront one’s demons, to explore and express one’s anguish and the darkness that comprises part of every human’s life. Then we can show our solidarity - much more authentically than always pretending to share in each others’ happiness.

The tragedy of this quote is that eventually Virginia couldn’t live with her demons. She lost her faith in life and ended it. What insights, what comforting humanity, what literary brilliance that might yet have been … was swallowed up in the river! What a shame…

(via pancetta-justice)

holly-marie-image:

Happy Goth Day ! 
Here is a painting by John Henri Fuseli
Based around the idea of sleep paralysis and the folklore of this phenomena being to do with a demonic presence. Just for you, enjoy your day of “Gothness”.
Sleep well!
 

The painting is called “Nightmare” and always freaked me out when I was younger. 
Still does, now I think about it. Very successfully disconcerting art.
I would prefer to explore a Jungian understanding of Gothness, demonic archetypes, vulnerability as a feminine archetype perhaps.
Art is fuel for thought.

holly-marie-image:

Happy Goth Day ! 

Here is a painting by John Henri Fuseli

Based around the idea of sleep paralysis and the folklore of this phenomena being to do with a demonic presence. Just for you, enjoy your day of “Gothness”.

Sleep well!

 

The painting is called “Nightmare” and always freaked me out when I was younger.

Still does, now I think about it. Very successfully disconcerting art.

I would prefer to explore a Jungian understanding of Gothness, demonic archetypes, vulnerability as a feminine archetype perhaps.

Art is fuel for thought.

Everyone should make one of these and post it!
After the appalling story I responded to yesterday, it is time for something a little more hopeful.
I believe humans can be wonderful. 
While I cannot believe in a god the way religions do, I still hope and believe there is a sort of divine spirit weaving through the universe, inspiring the best and most creative and noble impulses within matter.
Kindness and goodness and creativity. That is a spirituality I can live with.

Everyone should make one of these and post it!

After the appalling story I responded to yesterday, it is time for something a little more hopeful.

I believe humans can be wonderful.

While I cannot believe in a god the way religions do, I still hope and believe there is a sort of divine spirit weaving through the universe, inspiring the best and most creative and noble impulses within matter.

Kindness and goodness and creativity. That is a spirituality I can live with.

(via osmunicorn)

We are not “tolerant” if we tolerate evil. We are complicit in it!

http://redflagnews.com/headlines/the-eight-year-old-girl-who-didnt-make-it-past-her-wedding-night-warning-story-is-extremely-graphic

This is too horrific for words. There is no “God” who could allow such barbarity. There are only the gods we create in our hearts and minds, which we enshrine and call “culture”. This poor innocent was a victim of one such culture - a vile and evil culture, one that empowers depraved old men and protects THEM against justice and vengeance through a system of control called religion.

The dominant religions of our day all teach their victims to venerate their priests and mullahs and rabbis, never to question or challenge. “Submission” is what they all claim their god wants - even demands.

But such a god is only a creation of depraved hearts and minds - such priests and mullahs and rabbis want believers to submit, so THEY can have power, can feast and feed on young flesh.

The civilized world humanity is striving for should be about creating the type of culture which fosters life, discovery, experimentation, freedom, happiness. This should be the kind of “god” we enshrine and venerate. We should not tolerate, let alone protect, these other toxic forms of culture - these “religions” (a word which means “to bind” after all)

What the civilized world needs to recover is an honest but fair culture of intolerance - intolerance of evil.

Evildoers thrive on our esteeming the virtue of “tolerance”. But those who would silence the virtuous by demanding “tolerance” are deliberately misusing the word, which would become nothing more than a false and weak “acceptance” of everything, including deliberate evil. But that is a travesty of tolerance. To tolerate everything is to value nothing, including ultimately even tolerance itself. There is no virtue, no discernment, no value in such a position. Tolerance is not automatic, it must be reasonable - it must be just. To tolerate evil is an abandonment of justice, a betrayal of victims, and condemns more innocents to suffering.

Civilized people can (indeed must) respond with horror, outrage and fury at the type of behaviour reported in this article. We cannot just “tolerate” such evildoing but must call it evil, and must call any culture that fails to punish such barbarity “evil”.

Indeed, anyone who fails to be moved to righteous outrage in the face of such evil, anyone who tries to silence criticism by insisting upon a vile pretence of “tolerance”, makes themselves complicit in these crimes. They stand forever shamed in the eyes of civilized humanity.

bobbycaputo:

The Only Known Photograph of Einstein Deriving his Famous E=mc2 Equation

At a public lecture in Pittsburgh in 1934, four hundred lucky students were privy to a lecture by Albert Einstein, in which the great man mathematically derived his famous mass-energy equivalence equation: E=mc2. What you see above is a photo from that lecture, and what is thought to be the only surviving photo that shows Einstein working on that derivation.

The photo was pulled from a halftone newspaper clipping by David Topper and Dwight Vincent of the University of Winnipeg, who discovered it in 2007. Sadly, everything is a bit fuzzy so you can’t really make out the famed equation itself. And even though the original article had a crisp picture of Einstein posing next to one of his blackboards, he’s next to the wrong one.

Here’s a closer look at the man and the math. If you look closely, you’ll see the mass-energy equivalence in the lower left hand corner of the blackboard on the right:

Fortunately, Topper and Vincent managed to take the blurry photo and reproduce both blackboards in their original paper. Here’s the math behind the magic, the derivation of mass-energy equivalence as presented by Albert Einstein.

In case you’re wondering why the famous equation says Δ

What I’d really love is a time machine to take a picture of my hero, Isaac Newton, inventing calculus, or physics, or optics, or reflecting telescopes.

In fact, even him playing around with alchemy would be pretty cool!

(via crookedindifference)