Aboriginal Proverb

We are all visitors to this time, this place.
We are just passing through.
Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home.

The Gre8t Dictat0r

Have you seen this film?
"Charlie Chaplin's first dialogue picture, The Great Dictator (1940), was an act of defiance against Hitler and Nazism, filmed and released in the US one year before it abandoned its policy of isolationism to enter World War II. Chaplin played the role of a Nazi-like dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", Dictator of Tomainia, clearly modeled on Hitler.

The film was seen as an act of courage in the political environment of the time, both for its ridicule of Nazism and for the portrayal of overt Jewish characters and the depiction of their persecution. Chaplin played both the role of Adenoid Hynkel and also that of a look-alike Jewish barber cruelly persecuted by the Nazis. The barber physically resembles Chaplin's Tramp character, but is not considered to be the Tramp. At the conclusion, the two characters Chaplin portrayed swapped positions through a complex plot, and he dropped out of his comic character to address the audience directly in a speech." Above is the speech.

Look out

The future is here.

"But critics fear the technology could be exploited by mavericks to clone babies and accused the scientists of reducing the miracle of human life to a factory of spare parts."
Are they serious??

Sacrifice

Do you remember the stories of mothers sacrificing all for their children? Giving up their own food for their children? It seems a newly discovered palm in Madagascar does something similar. It expends so much energy on flowering that it eventually collapses and dies.

"It has an unusual and spectacular lifecycle; growing to dizzying heights before the stem tip converts into a giant terminal inflorescence and bursts into branches of hundreds of tiny flowers. Each flower is capable of being pollinated and developing into fruit and soon drips with nectar and is surrounded by swarming insects and birds. The nutrient reserves of the palm become completely depleted as soon as it fruits and the entire tree collapses and dies a macabre death." [kew]

The story made me sad.

It made me think of fireworks, where you get a brilliant show before sudden complete darkness and death.
I always find fireworks depressing.

Pie charts

Above is a pie chart about procrastination.

BS Saga

Unless you have been hiding up in a mountain somewhere, without access to electricity or telephone or newspaper or even message relaying birds, you must be aware of the deteriorating saga of Brittany Spears. I have found the whole thing so sad to watch and actually i no longer read the articles - i don't understand this obsession with her and this lack of respect for her as a human. She is having problems and instead of respecting that, the media latches onto her for more photos and articles and whatnot. They seem to be enjoying her breakdown. I think it is disgusting.
I read the following article on BBC about this so called Brittany effect which I thought was interesting. More so, the psychology of why the media has become such blood hounds.

"Gawping at mental breakdown is not so new. In the 18th Century, for a penny, you could peer into the cells at Bedlam and enjoy the inmates' antics."
"We live in what seem to be far less hierarchical times - we don't have this hang-up of 'knowing our place' anymore. Now everyone thinks they can be famous and wants to find the flaws in those who already are," says Phillip Hodson, a fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy."

Hilarious site

Check out this site for fun facts about Chuck Norris. These facts include:

Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.

There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.

Cruelty

Recently there has been much discussion on whether execution by lethal injection is cruel or not - seems that the combination of the three cocktail injection was rejected by the vets a long time ago because of the pain it might cause the animals who were being put down. The first injection to render the person unconscious, then another to stop all muscle movement except the heart (this paralysis is supposed to make the death less gruesome for the witnesses) and the final injection to stop the heart. The ongoing discussion is amazing to me - killing someone is ok, but just don't make it gruesome and cruel? death is not cruel? and what is with making the death easier to watch for the witnesses?
It is amazing to me how we can look down on other countries for their executions by hanging and label them inhumane and yet have executions (in whatever form) in our own countries.