Hot Monkey Bath!

Read and see more of these blissful Japanese macaques at the Daily Mail.

Tyron Edwards Quotes

- Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

- Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws -- a thing which can never be demonstrated.

- Between two evils choose neither; between two goods, choose both.

- Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past.

- Hell is truth seen too late -- duty neglected in its season.

Satish Kumar, Jain monk and environmental activist

The following is a transcript of a converation with Satish Kumar on the PRI program, To the Best of Our Knowledge (Listen to the interview yourself here):

How about going on a pilgrimage, and walking 8,000 miles barefoot across India. When he was only nine years old, Satish Kumar joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks in his native India. At 18, he became a campaigner for land reform and one of Gandhi's followers. To protest the nuclear arms race, he made an 8,000 mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America, without any money. Years later, he did it again, celebrating his 50th birthday by walking 2,000 miles with no money around Great Britain. Now in his 70s, Satish Kumar is one of the leading voices bringing together spirituality and ecology. He's the editor of Resurgence magazine and the founder of Schumacher College in England. Steve Paulson sat down with Mr. Kumar recently and asked how his spiritual values have informed his life.

Steve Paulson: When you were nine years old, you joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks, and you stayed a monk until you were 18. What did those years living as a monk teach you about nature?

When I was a monk, I meditated upon nature. I would go out in nature, and stand under a tree because I would remember that even the Buddha learned from the tree. He was enlightened while sitting under a tree, because when you are standing or sitting under a tree, you can see how all life is connected. The rain is falling and nourishing the tree roots. The birds are coming and sitting on the tree. The seeds are falling and giving fruit and food and nourishment to the worms. Worms are making the land fertile and nourishing the tree. So how, the cycle of life and the connectivity of life, how it is all together, how the interrelationship of all living beings act, I learn by standing and meditating under a tree.

SP: I wonder if there is something about Jainism, about this religious order that you joined that let you into some of these insights.

The specific quality of Jain religion is adherence and its belief in nonviolence. There is no other religion greater than nonviolence. So as a Jain, I will not even wear shoes, because if you are wearing shoes you might tread on some creatures on the earth, and they might get hurt. Whereas the feet are soft, and even if I am walking bare feet, I will look down watching the earth, so I don't tread on any creatures. And, if at night I'm walking, I'll have a little brush in my hand, and I'll sweep the floor before I put my foot down. So this way, Jains practice nonviolence to its extreme level, and that's what I love. And so nonviolence to nature, my nonviolent ecology, came from Jain ecology.

SP: Let me ask you more about walking, because you've spent years walking. I mean, I know you went on pilgrimages in various points in your life. You would walk across an entire continent. It sounds like you're saying that walking can have real spiritual significance.

Absolutely. For when you are walking, you are touching the earth. When you are touching the earth, you feel a sense of belonging to the earth. And earth is holding you, earth is sustaining you, and walking becomes a spiritual practice. This is why all great religious teachers have gone on pilgrimages because walking is the best form of meditation and best form of relationship with the natural world, the earth, the trees, the air, the sunshine, with the whole, whole existence. And so walking is a beautiful and a very high form of spiritual practice.

SP: I'm surprised that you didn't also say that it forces you to slow down, that you can't go too fast.

Spirituality and speed don't go together. The very fact that you are walking, you have to go slowly and you have to believe that when God made time, he made plenty of it. There is no shortage of time. You don't have to get somewhere quickly. Getting somewhere is not as important as how you get there. So the process of living, the process of walking, is more important. This is why I call my autobiography, No Destination, because when you are obsessed with reaching somewhere, you take any means of travel. But when journey itself becomes important, then you realize that not only this walking, where you are going somewhere, the life itself is the journey.

SP: Well, I have to ask you about this because you are not a monk anymore, living in England you edit a magazine, you teach at a college, you give talks around the world, it sounds like it can be very demanding. I'm wondering how much you can incorporate these principles of slowness and walking and not venturing too far off, how much that you can incorporate all that into your own life.

All those things I do slowly. I get up in the morning and I spend an hour reading spiritual scripts, I spend at least half an hour doing yoga and meditation every day. And then I have a siesta after lunch at least half an hour, so whatever work I'm doing, editing a magazine, or lecturing, or whatever work I'm doing, I'm never hurried. The quality of your work is more important then the speed and quantity of your work. So I always shift my consciousness from quantity to quality.

SP: Do you end up saying no a lot, when people ask you to do things?

Um, yes, to some extent I have to say no because if somebody's asking me to go to a conference, and I'm already doing something else in my diary, then I will have to say no. But I try to say yes as much as I can because I like to honor people's requests and people's invitation. So, I do it with a very light, light sort of foot. I don't feel any kind of stress or strain when I do something. I do slowly, and I do with love and with care, and that way I can live simple and slow life.

SP: I'm trying to figure out how you manage to do this when I can't, and so many other people can't. I mean, for me it seems to be this, this test to see if I can fit everything that I seem to need to do into a day.

I do only one thing at a time. When I'm doing that thing, I'm doing only that thing at that time. I'm not doing anything, I'm not thinking about anything else that I have to do too much other things. I will do what I am doing fully, totally present in that moment, and when I finish doing that, then whatever next comes, I will do that fully and totally at that moment. So I live in the moment, in the here and now, every moment is a very beautiful moment and my full concentration, full attention, full mindfulness is there. And that way, I don't feel any stress. I don't think that I have to do too much. I have a day, a whole day, time is always coming, I have plenty of time to come, and plenty of time to do things and if I don't accomplish everything in this life, there's a next life. So I...

SP: [Laughing] So are you saying you don't have any stress in your life?

No stress.

SP: No stress at all?

No stress at all. Because if you are living in the moment, in the here and now, and everything you do is a work of spiritual practice, and a work of art, then there is no stress. When you are painting a picture, you can't feel stress because this is what you want to do. If you are writing a poem, you can't feel stress because this is what you want to do. So I do only what I want to do, and when I do it, I do it with imagination, with mindfulness, with slowness and with creativity, with imagination and with full presence and mindfulness. And there's no stress. Stress is because we are worried, "Am I going to achieve?" I'm not trying to achieve anything. There's nothing to achieve. Action in itself is its own reward.

SP: Doesn't success also come from trying to do certain things, to take responsiblity. I mean maybe you have a job most of the day, you have children and you have all kinds of responsiblities there. I'm just trying to think of how some of what you're talking about applies to the typical American lifestyle.

I do things without doing them. I'm not the doer. Things are happening through me, but I am not the doer. I don't take any burden of the action. Action is naturally flowing through me so, like children come through you not from you, Khalil Gibran said. In the same way, actions and words come through you. I'm speaking to you now. These words are coming through me, I'm not taking any kind of ownership, or worry, or I'm not in any stress, I'm not in any hurry. I'm just speaking in a nice, relaxed way. So this way, I do every action, and there is no need to have any stress. I'm not interested in any outcome, I'm not interested in any achievement, I'm not trying to get somewhere. I'm not trying to succeed in my life. My life is not about success, my life is about self-realization and fulfillment. And if we seek fulfillment, we'll have no stress. If we seek success, we will have stress.

SP: As you look around the world right now, you are an activist, and you campaign for the principles of simplicity. You're shaking your head. You don't do that?

I am, but not in a kind of visionary way. I'm not trying to preach anything. And I'm not saying that people must listen to me, and follow me, and they must change as I want them to change. Like you plant a seed, and the planting the seed is your action. After that, the seed will grow by itself. And your work is to water the seed maybe. So what I am doing in my mission, and it's not really a mission, in my work when I'm trying to promote simplicity, sustainabilty, nonviolence, peace, all these things are like watering the seed. The tree will grow by itself. The seed knows how to become a tree. I don't have to tell people to be peaceful. People know how to be peaceful. I am only there to encourage them, to remind them to water the seeds of peace in their heart. That's all I'm doing and if the peace does not grow, then too bad. I'm not taking any responsiblity. So you can say I'm very irresponsible in that way. But I don't want to take the burden of the world on my shoulders. I'm not God, I'm not shaping the whole world. It's not my responsiblity to change the whole world. I'm here not to change the world, but to serve the world. When you want to change the world, you take a burden of changing and responsiblity of changing. And that can be stressful. When you are serving the world, you do your best and that's it.

African Proverb

Do not look at where you fell, but where you slipped.

Confucius Says...

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

Obama Family

Love this photo of the Obama family from the NYT.

Shy the Sun

The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

View more of Shy the Sun's animation here.

Dark Days

A must see.

Puppy Cam

Stream videos at Ustream

GoW2 Trailer

Fall Foliage

Check out the 2008 Fall Foliage map here.
See more images at National Geographic and Batish.

Don't Vote Posters

View all of the posters here.

If Mos Def Were President

Manufactured Landscapes by Edward Burtynsky

Nature transformed through industry is a predominate theme in my work...These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence...Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction.

View Mr. Burtynsky's portfolio here.

Compassion

"Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things."
- Thomas Merton

Europe - The Final Countdown

Wingsuit Flying

Hanggliding

My feeble attempt at flying.

Chuck Close

Twenty years ago, Chuck Close was a successful artist, painting photorealistic portraits with incredible technical skill. Then, one day he was suddenly paralyzed by a rare spinal artery collapse. Although the partial paralysis left him unable to paint with the precision he was renowned for, his art evolved into a more abstract and interesting form (see pics above). He talks about the transformation and its effect on the Charlie Rose Show.

Charlie Rose: What was the hardest thing about adjusting to what happened to you? I mean, you were a very healthy man. You were 49 years old.

Chuck Close: Well, 48, the same age my father was when he died. And it's interesting to have an event that corresponds...because I thought about every year that I had with my children that he didn't have with me. And as hard as my life was, I realized that every one of those years was a gift, and was to be cherished and appreciated. I think, in a funny way, it's made it a lot easier.

CR: How many years have you had since then?

CC: Nineteen.

CR: That's incredible. Nineteen years of gift to your children, that your father hadn't...

CC: Well, I'm not so sure they think it's a gift. [Laughing]. Some of those years I don't think they appreciated it.

Videos that Make You Feel Better

Here a few of my favs:

Puppy Lullaby


Where the Hell is Matt?


Bert and Ernie Gangsta Rap


from Ze Frank.

The Immortal Burger

America's Best Adventures

In 2004, National Geographic Adventure put out a list of the top 100 outdoor expeditions in the United States. Here's the top 10:

1. Rafting the Colorado River, Grand Canyon, Arizona
2. Sea Kayaking the Na Pali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii
3. DogSledding in the Brooks Range, Alaska
4. Mountain Biking Kokopelli's Trail, Colorado and Utah
5. Hiking the Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah
6. Skiing Corbet's Couloir, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
7. Climbing the El Capitan, Yosemite
8. Hiking the Presidential Range Traverse, New Hampshire
9. Competing in the "Beast" Adventure Race, Alaska Range
10. Diving Bonne Terre Mine, Bonne Terre, Missouri

Thus far, I can only scratch off one of the items of the list, hiking the Narrows of Zion NP (#5). So much to do, so little time!

The Small Stakes

Jason Munn is an artist who lives in the "O" (Oakland). I first saw his beautiful silk screen posters at the SFMOMA a few weeks ago, and was delighted to see that his work is also on sale at the Small Stakes website for $20-45.

Apropos of the Times

"Our lives are controlled by a ruling class with vested interests not merely in change but in crisis and chaos. 'Uninterrupted disturbance, everlasting uncertainty and agitation,' instead of subverting this society, actually serve to strengthen it. Catastrophes are transformed into lucrative opportunities for redevelopment and renewal."

- Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts into Air

An Ideal Society

“In an ideal society, everyone should work for the well being of others.”
- Mencius

TED Talks: James Howard Kunstler

"When you degrade the public realm, you automatically degrade the quality of your civic life and the character of all of the enactments of your public life and communal life that take place there."

View Mr. Kunstler's diatribe here.

Encouraging Healthy Eating Habits

Trying to convince someone to eat healthier? This article in the New York Times gives some good, sound advice.

I particularly encourage getting folks into the kitchen -- I've been eating much healthier since I've taken up cooking.

Fun with Gravity

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

Fun with Gas

Career Advice, Manga Style

1. There is no plan. "Playing it safe" or "keeping your options open," generally speaking, don't lead to advancement. Instead, decide what you really want now -- take a job because it's cool or interesting, not because you think it'll lead you somewhere. In the end, you'll probably end up somewhere better.
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses. Research shows successful folks don't worry about their weaknesses but capitalize on their strengths.
3. It's not about you. Your job is about serving others, not serving yourself.
4. Persistence trumps talent. Persistence and performance feed on each other, allowing for faster growth than talent alone.
5. Make excellent mistakes. Mistakes don't mean that you're a failure -- they mean that you've tried. You improve yourself by going out there and trying to succeed where others haven't.
6. Leave an imprint. Think about what you want to accomplish at the end of your lifetime, and start doing something about that now.

from "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need" by Daniel H. Pink.

Here's a trailer for the book:

Hate

"Being a hater just means that you are the one not having fun."

Burning Man 2008

Check out pics from this year's festival at Camp Montage.

My favorite overheard quote from BRC:
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"How many glow sticks are in your outfit?"
"Umm, I'm not sure. Around 500."
"Cool."

Academic Humor

Hilarious

The Great American West

Buffalo in Yellowstone

"Me Voy" by Julieta Venegas

Yearning to travel?

Go by cargo ship.

72 and sunny

72 and Sunny makes some of my favorite ads, including those for Bugaboo, Callaway, and, of course, Discovery Channel.

Patton Oswalt's Commencement Speech

This is a great speech.

Rattlesnake!

My brother Jeff, his girlfriend Danielle, my friend Joe and I went camping up at Lake George this past weekend. After two days of roughing it and camping in the wilderness, we decided to give ourselves a break and camp in a designated site. As soon as we pitched our tents, I heard my brother scream like a little girl and run towards the car. Usually I ignore my brother's screaming, but Danielle screamed too. So I took a look and here is what I saw:



The funny thing is, no one really freaked out. After the snake went along its way, we continued to pitch our tents with hardly a worry. If this had happened in 'the wilderness' (a site not designated for camping), we all would have insisted on a motel room.

Pyrrhic Victory

Pyrrhic victory \PIR-ik\, noun:
A victory achieved at great or excessive cost; a ruinous victory.

Studio DDT

DDT is the studio that creates the wonderfully bizarre special effects in Guillermo del Toro's movies Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone. I can't wait to see del Toro's latest, Hellboy II.

Seven Deadly Social Sins

1. Politics without principle
2. Wealth without work
3. Commerce without morality
4. Pleasure without conscience
5. Education without character
6. Science without humanity
7. Worship without sacrifice

Bake Sales

Resistance

Wall-E Origami

Brian Chan has designed an original origami of Wall-E for Geekologie. See more pics of Wall-E (and Iron Man) here.

Fahrenheit Roller Coaster

Hershey Park's newest ride is the steepest roller coaster ever, featuring a 97-degree slope (7 degrees beyond vertical!) that results in 4 G's worth of force. Looks like a piece of cake.

Good Magazine Presents Barack Obama and John McCain

Darwin Quote

"It's not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most
intelligent, but most responsive to change." -Charles Darwin

DJ Fingertips visits NYC!

DNCHRD III: DJ FINGERTIPS from LVHRD on Vimeo.

Unleash the superstar inside you!

The Science Barge

How do we city folk get our food?

The answer today is grim: our food is grown far away, mass produced on giant industrial farms using harmful chemical pesticides, and transported at a great cost to our environment.

The good people at New York Sun Works are trying to change that paradigm by building a prototype urban farm called "The Science Barge."

The Science Barge grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce with zero cost to the environment -- the farm is completely sustainable, wasting no energy, using no chemical pesticides, and producing no carbon dioxide.

You can visit the Science Barge at Riverside Park South throughout the summer.

Images from the Hubble Telescope

Check out Harvard Magazine's "Eye on the Universe," an interesting article accompanied by amazing photographs taken from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Crank Dat Flying Squirrel

Listen to this funny skit off of Wale's mixtape.

Jake Beckman

I checked out the website of an acquaintance from college today and was really impressed. Jake Beckman is an incredibly gifted artist. I love his artwork: well-executed, fun, and thoughtful.

NYC's Top 10 Ice Cream Sandwiches

Time for your first homework assignment of the summer: Read this article. Choose a destination. Grab a friend and get a bite. Take pics and write a food review. Publish. I want to know what's good!

Goodbye, MH3!

My four year tenure at Mott Hall 3 ended yesterday with little pomp and circumstance. I moved a few things from my room, handed out yearbooks to 8th graders, and turned in my keys to Ms. Rose. Quiet, just the way I like it.

A few words I wished I told you...I leave Mott Hall 3 feeling blessed. Blessed that I had the opportunity to teach awesome kids, work with cool colleagues, and grow as a teacher and human being. Certainly, MH3 has seen the best and worst of me -- things I never knew I had in my me.

I leave knowing that I have learned, taken, and given so much, and I hope that whatever I do next will afford me the same opportunity.

A million thanks to all of you!

Central Park Summerstage

Check out the 2008 calendar for Summerstage, the free summer concert series at Central Park.

A few highlights:

1) Friday, July 11, 2008 | 8-10 p.m.
Rennie Harris / Pure Movement
Francesca Harper Project
Rennie Harris Pure Movement is a hip hop dance company out of Illadelph (Philly). They do a lot of exciting and athletic dancing -- if you like ABDC (America's Best Dance Crew), then you'll probably enjoy this free show.

2) Thursday, July 17, 2008 | 7-10 p.m.
Junot Diaz
Junot Diaz is a Dominican-American writer who wrote this year's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He also wrote the popular short story collection Drown. If you haven't read his stuff yet, then do yourself a favor and go to the library, find these books, and read them. Thank me later.

The Largest Rodent in the World

The capybara is the largest rodent in the world. Its extinct ancestors were once the size of grizzly bears! Discover more about capybaras on Wikipedia.

Learn From Laurence Fishburne

"You're the prince. You're the prince and I'm the king."

"Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

Dry or Wet Earwax?

When I was young, I always wondered why they called the gunk in your ear "wax." My ear wax has always been powdery, and today I discovered that I'm not alone.

Unlike other ethnicities, most East Asians have a mutation that make their ear wax dry and flaky. Eureka.

Read the Live Science article here and the New York Times article here.

Slow Mo Dogs

Ben Kingsley on Adolescence

"I think youth has become very tangled up with consumerism. And I think the very extraordinary years that we call adolescence, moving from childhood to adulthood, they're very fleeting. And, I don't recall my adolescence being so consumer driven, so constantly invaded by peer pressure, fashion, gossip, uhhh very transient musical fashions and tastes, clothes, uh umm role models. It seems to be very cluttered, and adolescence is hard enough without a whole multibillion dollar consumer industry jumping on the backs of adolescence and making them, and squeezing them, squeezing dollars out of them. Well in fact, the reverse should be happening, that we should as an adult society, be squeezing encouragement into them and decent values into them and beautiful thoughts and ideas into them. No, we just want their money. It's pathetic, and I think somewhere in this story and in the dynamic, in the essentials of adolescence being a necessary time for experiment...But at the heart of it is, in order to grow, you have to make mistakes, you must be reckless, you cannot follow the herd, you have to follow your heart, you have to, to quote my crazy character, end up face down in the gutter, get your heart broken, make a mess of things because that is what adolescence is. And it's self healing. We make a mess as adolescents and it's self healing. Unless of course we stray into narcotics which will kill us or into alcohol which will kill us or into any kind of very compulsive destructive behavior but we are constantly, adolescents are constantly invited to be constant consumers. So it's a little unfair to expect adolescents to be free of certain substances, eating disorders, drug disorders, alcohol disorders and at the same time say but you do have to consume. It's very unfair of them, you know."

Watch the video of Ben Kingsley on the June 17, 2008 taping of the Tavis Smiley Show here.

Watch the trailer for Ben Kingsley's new movie The Wackness here.

Watch an example of rampant childhood consumerism here.

NYC Waterfalls

This summer's fun new public art project is almost here: four waterfalls created on the East River by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. More info here.

Entertaining Review of the Incredible Hulk

Movie review of the Hulk. Written in the voice of the Hulk himself. Review funny. Movie not. Read here.

Lupe Fiasco's Album "The Cool"

Lupe talks about the concept behind his newest album, "The Cool" on the Tavis Smiley Show:

Suicide Prevention Workshop

When students have a half day, teachers have to stay after school and attend class. Today, we had a suicide prevention workshop. A well-respected physician from Montefiore Medical Center came in and talked about suicide among adolescents. Certainly a grim but important topic.

A few highlights from today's lecture:
1. Suicide rates increase with age. There are virtually no suicides among children younger than 10 and very little among middle schoolers. The suicide rate begins to climb steadily from high school onwards. Senior citizens have the highest rate of suicide -- it's just not publicized because it's the 25th leading cause of death among the elderly. On the other hand, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States among those aged 15-24 (behind accidents and homicide).

2. Suicides can happen in waves. A single suicide can spark copycats throughout a community. Therefore, it's very important how leaders in the community handle these crises -- drawing lots of media and community attention may be unhealthy for others going through problems of their own.

3. Boys are four times more likely to succeed in a suicide attempt than girls. The common perception is that girls are more dramatic than boys and attempt suicide to not kill themselves but to draw attention. This, at best, is a partial truth. Rather, girls are much more likely to attempt suicide by digesting pills and boys are much more likely to use more violent and effective methods. It's much easier for a physician to save a patient who overdoses on drugs than it is to save a patient who shoots him/herself.

4. Girls are four times more likely to attempt suicide than boys. The risk factors leading to suicide among teens -- family disruption, substance/sexual abuse, gay/lesbian sexual orientation -- lead to feelings of powerlessness in our society. Girls, I believe, have less avenues to excise these feelings and are therefore more likely to act out on their own bodies (e.g., cutting, anorexia, bulimia, and suicide) than boys.

So, what do we do? The support system in the Bronx is woefully inadequate -- our speaker today acknowledged that the medical system here does "triage" -- since there are an overwhelming number of individuals who need help, doctors attend only to the worst cases. Really, it's up to the rest of us -- friends, family, teachers, etc. -- to look out for our own.

Sustainable South Bronx

Majora Carter is one of those few brilliant people trying to make a difference. See what she has to say about "greening" the South Bronx.


Majora, I love you.

Floating Pool at Baretto Point Park

According to online local news sources Curbed and Gothamist, a 260 foot long barge with a full-sized swimming pool, AKA The Floating Pool will be docked at Baretto Point Park this summer.

Baretto Point Park is a relatively new NYC Park located in Hunts Point, a neighborhood located in the South Bronx. It's part of the community's plan to "green the ghetto." Although there have been complaints of foul odors emanating from nearby industrial plants, the Floating Pool should help draw thousands of locals this summer to the area.

Aurora

Check out the Google Image search results for "Aurora Borealis." Stunning.

NYC Bridges

Even though I hate sitting in traffic and polluting the environment, I will miss driving to work every day across the Whitestone Bridge. The views of both Manhattan and the Long Island Sound are spectacular.

"Man Made," an interesting and informative series on the National Geographic channel, had a great episode on NYC bridges earlier this year. The combination of science, engineering, and history makes for irresistible television!

Steve Jobs' Commencement Speech

A few years ago, Steve Jobs, the current CEO of Apple, gave an inspiring commencement speech at Stanford University. He had three personal stories to share, with three simple lessons:
1) Your life is a random assortment of events that you can't (completely) control. Even though you may have no idea how these 'dots' will connect, you just have to believe that they will, somehow. "You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
2) Do what you love. "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
3) Be in control of your own life. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

Thanks for the advice, Mr. Jobs.
Read the full transcript of his speech on Stanford's website.

What Funky Body Odor Says About You

With temperatures rising above 100 degrees this week in New York City, it's inevitable your olfactory nerves are going to be impinged upon by another person's body odor. Even though you may not enjoy the experience, you can learn something about your neighbor just by taking a whiff.

For one, body odor can indicate a person's health. For example, people who give off the scent of ammonia may be suffering from kidney or liver disease. And for those who smell sweet -- while it may sound great in theory, it may mean that you're developing diabetes. So...not so great.

Even though most of us try to mask our natural scents, scientists believe that we may be covering up a good thing -- these odors may be used to communicate information and emotions to others. We're more likely to recognize and feel comfortable around the smell of our kin, and feel fear around those who smell different than us.

And guys -- worried about sweating in front of your crush across the table from you? It turns out it may not work against you: women who are fertile pick up on certain chemicals found in men's sweat that women who are not fertile do not. So if you're interested in picking up a beautiful young lady, your best bet may be to work up a sweat! Just try not to sweat on the lady; I'm pretty sure they're not too keen on that.

Read the article here for yourself.

David Sedaris

David Sedaris has released a new book of essays entitled "When You Are Engulfed In Flames." I have been a fan of Sedaris since high school -- his writings are often both touching and funny -- and look forward to reading his new book.

You can watch Mr. Sedaris read one of his famous essays below:

Wu Chess

The Wu-Tang Clan has a new social networking website centered around chess. Apparently, RZA is pretty good. You can challenge him here.

"Cucurrucu Paloma" by Caetano Veloso

Caetano Veloso performs "Cucurrucu Paloma" in Pedro Almodovar's 2004 film, Talk to Her. You probably won't understand a single word in the song (it's sung in Portuguese), but you don't need to speak the language to understand the emotion Veloso is conveying in his performance. Beautiful!

Words to Live by

The superior man goes through life without any one preconceived course of action or any taboo. He merely decides for the moment what is the right thing to do.
- Confucius

nobody but you

by Charles Bukowski

nobody can save you but
yourself.
you will be put again and again
into nearly impossible
situations.
they will attempt again and again
through subterfuge, guise and
force
to make you submit, quit and/or die quietly
inside.

nobody can save you but
yourself
and it will be easy enough to fail
so very easily
but don't, don't, don't.
just watch them.
listen to them.
do you want to be like that?
a faceless, mindless, heartless
being?
do you want to experience
death before death?

nobody can save you but
yourself
and you're worth saving.
it's a war not easily won
but if anything is worth winning then
this is it.

think about it.
think about saving your self.
your spiritual self.
your gut self.
your singing magical self and
your beautiful self.
save it.
don't join the dead-in-spirit.

maintain your self
with humor and grace
and finally if necessary
wager your life as you struggle,
damn the odds, damn
the price.

only you can save your
self.

do it! do it!

then you'll know exactly what
I am talking about.

"What?!?! Oh...My...God."

Street Art

Interested in graffiti and street art?

Here's your to do list:
1. Watch Infamy, a top notch documentary.
2. View photos at The Wooster Collective, an online gallery of street art. Tagged by artist.
3. Visit 5 Pointz, an abandoned warehouse in Long Island City, Queens
4. Check out the Graffiti Hall of Fame at 106 and Park.
5. Hang out with graffiti artists at The Point in the South Bronx.
6. Read up on David Choe, my favorite graffiti artist.

Bored?

Read these blogs and try these ideas from the Free Idea Factory or these assignments from Learning to Love You More.

Miracle Fruit

The New York Times reports about a so-called miracle fruit that makes everything taste sweet.

The miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, is native to West Africa and has been known to Westerners since the 18th century. The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, according to a scientist who has studied the fruit, Linda Bartoshuk at the University of Florida’s Center for Smell and Taste.

Read the original article here.

I Will Derive

Geeky math humor.

Drugstore Cowboy

I saw Drugstore Cowboy last night, a 1989 film directed by Gus Van Sant. It's about a crew of drug addicts who rob drugstores to feed their addiction for dope. I was impressed with many elements of the movie and particularly struck by the character of the protagonist, Bob.

Bob is the undisputed ringleader of his crew, a lifelong junkie who has spent his entire life trying to get high. His need for a steady diet of dope has led him to a life of crime, and he's found himself down a path where he will be spending the rest of his life on the lam or in prison.

Despite this bleak future, Bob is an admirable character -- he is strong, handsome, smart, principled and caring. He just has one fatal flaw -- his hopeless addiction to drugs -- and that one flaw has set him upon a path for destruction.

Bob is the quintessential tragic character -- a person built for a life of glory, success, and honor, brought down by his Achilles heel.

I can't help but reflect on my own life and those of my friends, family, and students, and worry that we may suffer from the same fate. My Achilles heel? A lack of discipline -- an overt distaste for the mundane, an inability to persist and follow commitments through to the end. This flaw, unfortunately, extends in both my professional and personal life, and I worry that it may be my undoing.

I think (I am popular), therefore I am.

The key to your social success is what other people think of you, right? Wrong. According to this Newsweek article, what matters is your perception: if you think people like you, then you're more likely to get the house party invite (even if you are a jerk, weirdo, or dork). The converse is also true: if you think people don't like you, then you're less likely to get invited to Eric's super cool bash on Saturday night. It doesn't matter whether or not you're well liked -- it matters whether you think you are or not. Mind over reality, apparently.

Listening to this song will do you no good in the popularity department, but I love it anyway.

World Science Festival 2008

The World Science Festival is coming to NYC next weekend, which means a whole lot of events with famous science people. Check out the website here.

I will be attending this performance/lecture on Music and the Brain.

Oh! My Mama by Alela Diane

This Tuesday will mark the 10th anniversary of my mother's death. I miss you, Mom.

Zen Master and the Little Boy

I like this quote from Charlie Wilson's War:

There was a little boy. And this boy, at his 14th birthday, gets a horse. And everybody in the village says, "How wonderful, the boy got a horse!" The Zen master says, "We'll see."

Two years later, the boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg and the whole village says, "How terrible!" The Zen master says, "We'll see."

Then a war breaks out and all the young men have to go out and fight, except that this boy can't, because his leg is all messed up, so now everybody in the village says, "How wonderful!"

...You know what the Zen master said.
And the Zen master says 'We'll see.'

Love Hurts

Ouch.

Food Party 3

My brother showed me a copy of this video a friend of his friend made. I have to admit, I watched the DVD and fell in love with the the creator. What a weirdo!

Spanish Dancers

Check out the beautiful movement of this graceful animal, the sea slug (which is classified in the mollusk phylum and more specifically the gastropod class). They are called "Spanish Dancers" for good reason!

Reminds me of the flamenco dance I saw at Riverdance in high school.

Giant centipede eating mouse.

Truly frightening.

Rock the Bells

This festival is loaded.

Performing artists include A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Mos Def, The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Rakim, Method Man & Redman, Raekwon & Ghostface, Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, Murs, Spankrock, Wale, Santogold, Jay Electronica, B.O.B., Kidz in the Hall, Amanda Blank.

Sunday, August 3 at Jones Beach. Ticket prices start at $40. Probably need to get them early before they sell out.

More info here.

And check out two of the best hip hop tracks ever -- "Drop" and "Runnin'" by The Pharcyde.

Mr. Rogers breaking with Jermaine

Mr. Rogers

"Going On" by Gnarls Barkley

Love this song & music video.

Black Latino Lineages and Linkages: Historical Ties that Bind

I got this email the other day. Looks pretty good --I've heard about the Schomburg Center and have wanted to visit, and Mark Naison is an entertaining speaker.

Saturday, May 17, 2008 1 – 4 pm
Schomburg Center — 135th Street & Malcolm X Blvd.

Join us for a public conversation on the historical and cultural connections between New York's
African American and Caribbean communities with particular attention to the AfroLatino/a experience.

Co-hosted by Schomburg Center & El Museo del Barrio

Participants:
William "Sandy" Darity – Duke University
Manuela Arciniegas – Cultural activist, The Legacy Circle
Mark Naison – The Bronx African-American History Project
Victoria Archibald-Good – Social Worker & long-time Patterson Houses resident
Ryan Mann-Hamilton – Graduate student researching U.S.–Samaná, D.R. migrations
"Music of Morrisania"– students of PS 140

What do we spend our money on?

Here's a cool NYT interactive graphic.

Dance Parade

The 2nd annual NYC Dance Parade will be held May 17. So far there's 28 dance styles registered to participate -- from roller disco to tangoliquide to Korean contemporary. Check out the website here.

Blackout Poems

Austin Kleon creates wonderful poems in a unique way. The formula: The New York Times + Sharpie = Poems

Click the pics above to view full size images, or, even better, visit his blog here.

U.S. News' Overrated Careers

According to U.S. News, the most overrated careers in 2008 are

Advertising executive
Architect
Attorney
Chef
Chiropractor
Clinical psychologist
Medical scientist
Nonprofit manager
Physician
Police officer
Real estate agent
Small-business owner
Teacher

The article discusses the upsides and downsides of each career choice, and best of all, offers an alternative career that may be a more suitable choice.

Find out more here.

Using Metamaterials to Render Objects Invisible

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku discusses the possibility of rendering objects invisible using tiny light-bending materials in this Natural History article.

In order to make an object invisible, visible light needs to be bent around the object. Think of a stream of water flowing around the surface of a stone: water flows around the perimeter until it makes it way completely around that stone and continues along its original path. If the same feat can be done with light rays, that stone would be invisible!

Doing so requires light waves to be bent at extreme angles previously thought impossible. But scientists have synthesized new "metamaterials," that do just that. In 2006, researchers at Duke University and Imperial College London built materials that made objects invisible to microwave radiation.

These metamaterials must be smaller than the wavelengths of the radiation they are bending, so doing the same with visible light is a considerably more difficult feat: while microwaves have a wavelength of 3 centimeters, visible light waves have a wavelength of only a few hundred nanometers. (One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. That's really really small: approximately five atoms fit across one nanometer.)

Developing the nanotechnology required to make invisibility cloaks appear to be researchers' biggest challenge. So scientific teams across the world are currently exploring different methods of refracting red light, since red light has the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum. Whether or not any of these methods succeeds is anybody's guess; but, the ultimate goal is to bend all frequencies of light completely around the object, rendering it invisible. Far out.

Bring Back Board Games!

I will freely admit that (1) I'm 26 years young and (2) I still love playing board games. Although I'll never be a true gamer, I wish I could play more often than I currently do -- a few times a year, when a sufficient number of my dorky friends gather together.

Just like Michael Jackson's Thriller album, board games need to make a comeback. KanYe West proves that you needn't be a nerd to enjoy a good game:


Connect 4 - Jonah Hill vs. Kanye from kwest on Vimeo.

(BTW, I found this video at Kanye West's blog. He's got lots of cool stuff to check out.)

Synchronization

This demonstration blew me away.

Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg

"They Will Say"
Of my city the worst that men will ever say is this:
You took little children away from the sun and the dew,
And the glimmers that played in the grass under the great sky,
And the reckless rain; you put them between walls
To work, broken and smothered, for bread and wages,
To eat dust in their throats and die empty-hearted
For a little handful of pay on a few Saturday nights.


"Who Am I?"
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back may times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading "Keep Off."

My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.


"At a Window"
Give me hunger,
O you gods that sit and give
The world its orders.
Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!

But leave me a little love,
A voice to speak to me in the day end,
A hand to touch me in the dark room
Breaking the long loneliness
In the dusk of day-shapes
Blurring the sunset,
One little wandering, western star
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow.
Let me go to the window,
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk
And wait and know the coming
Of a little love.

Breaking as Art, Self-Expression

The "Transformer" Owl

What do you do when confronted by an enemy -- ruffle up your feathers and prepare for a showdown, or shrink in size and try to hide? If you're the Southern White-Faced Owl (P. granti), it all depends on the enemy. When confronted with a slightly larger bird, the owl increases its size and aggressiveness to ward off a potential conflict. When confronted with a much larger bird, however, it decreases its size and attempts to hide and avoid confrontation. Check out the YouTube video above -- it's hilarious.

Milwaukee Arts Museum

A few years ago, I attended an exhibition of Santiago Calatrava's sculptures at the Met. His designs had a unique organic structure/fluidity to them, leaving a distinct impression on me. So when I visited friends in Chicago this Spring Break, I made it a priority to check out the Milwaukee Arts Museum, and, in particular, the pavilion the Spanish architect designed. I was not disappointed -- stepping into the space literally took my breath away.
For more of his work, visit his website. Two of his most recent projects are proposed structures in NYC -- the WTC Transportation Hub and the residential complex 80 South Street.

Archaeologists Use Ancient Droppings to Date the Presence of Humans in North America

Recent evidence suggests people settled North America at least 14,000 years ago. The evidence? None other than human coprolites -- a fancy scientific term for fossilized feces -- discovered in an Oregon cave.
The photograph above is none other than a healthy helping of number two deposited over 12,300 years ago, containing 14,000 year old human DNA and protein. (Not sure why a person's doo-doo contains human DNA and protein -- the New York Times article, unfortunately, doesn't address this issue).

This is certainly not the first time I've heard of scientists using scat for evidence. Wildlife enthusiasts often use dookie to track and locate animals. Because of my field trip to Taconic three years ago, I can now discern deer defecation from other animal leavings (they are small round balls often in neat little piles). And one of my coolest professors from Swarthmore College was an ethnobotanist who analyzed the chemistry of elephant droppings to determine the nutrients elephants consumed when they became ill -- information that could potentially be used to synthesize new medicines for humans. Pretty neat (though mildly nauseating) stuff.

So the next time you take time to vacate your bowels, ponder this: What are you leaving behind for the rest of the world to discover, and what is it saying about you?

:-/