ken atchity door to door: October 2017

Happy Halloween!

Attention happy campers, just in time for Halloween let’s go back to Waco GA, October 1988. For your trick-or-treat pleasure, a news feature with behind-the-scenes footage about the making of Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland.

(We actually wrapped principal photography of SC3 on Halloween Day!)

~ Michael A. Simpson

This Japanese Photographer Specializes In Shooting Ninja Cats, And The Result Is Too Purrfect

Turns out, cats know more martial arts than ninjutsu. Japanese photographer Hisakata Hiroyuki has decided to dedicate a fair portion of his time to shooting cats during their totally serious combat practices, and the result is purrrfect.

Threatening stares, explosive kicks, powerful punches, Hiroyuki has captured it all. He has successfully proven that felines have unlocked all of the secret fighting techniques, and even Mr. Miyagi could learn a thing or two from these martial arts masters.

Ninja-Cats-Photography-Hisakata-Hiroyuki

Why a song gets stuck in your head

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the impact music
has on the brain.

Cassini Interrupted: How a Hippie in a Lawn Chair Delayed the Launch [Via Ron Pontiac]

After a journey of 4.9 billion miles the Cassini Orbiter has disappeared into the object of its obsession, the planet Saturn. Six moons, two oceans, three seas, and hundreds of small lakes were among the discoveries made. Here’s hoping 72.3 pounds of plutonium didn’t trigger a disaster in dimensions of Saturn beyond our senses, or to a future Saturn which we can’t comprehend. Or perhaps we just accidentally provided a mutation that will bring the planet to life some day?

The story of how the first launch got scrubbed begins with a thunderstorm shaking a tin shack on a Sioux reservation in early October 1997. A respected grandmother had a dream of the eastern seaboard in flames. Grandmother’s dreams always came true. She didn’t understand the dream until a story came on the reservation radio station about the Cassini launch, only a few days away. Grandmother believed that the dream was a warning about the rocket exploding, drizzling plutonium all over Florida and the world.

She didn’t know what to do about it so she told her daughter. Now it was her daughter’s problem. What could she do? How could she possibly warn anyone?

So she called our mutual friend Kevin Marsh, a very cool indigenous cat in the immediate crew of the late great John Trudell. Back in the day Kevin had been the driver for Miceli, the owner of the first Italian restaurant in Hollywood, CA. But Kevin matured into a multiple Emerald Cup winning legal marijuana farmer, one of the pioneers of the movement.

Kevin groused around the house until his wife Darlene told him to take it to the local Humboldt CA radio station. The DJ being a friend of Kevin’s the predicament was offered up to listeners. If they were willing to raise some money to send Kevin to Cape Canaveral he would do his best to figure out something to do to stop that launch. To Kevin’s surprise donations poured in. People even walked and drove to the station to drop off cash.

So Kevin went straight to the airport. When he arrived in Florida a relative of a listener who had donated to Kevin’s trip recognized him. Now Kevin had a driver. But where did he want to go? He figured he should go to Cape Canaveral.

KSC_DIGITAL_PHOTOGRAPH_OF_CASSINI_LAUNCH

Cassini launch Oct 15 1997.

As his ride dropped him off, Kevin surveyed the scene. A tourist area. Formidable security gates. Surveillance equipment. Deadly force. The rest was a swamp. What could he do? He decided to pull up a lawn chair and have a seat. “What was he doing there?” An officer and soldiers who ventured out wanted to know.

Kevin explained that he was protesting the launch of a deadly amount of Plutonium. He said grandmother had a dream and grandmother’s dreams always come true. The officer explained the rules. If Kevin fell asleep they would arrest him. His protest was protected by law only as long as he could stay awake.
Then began one of the most amazing, unlikely and little known acts of protest in American history. There followed a series of strange visitations.

A retired fellow in a red outfit on a matching bicycle brought some supplies and explained that Kevin could use the bathroom and water fountain in the tourist hospitality area. They could not deny him that. He kept watch while Kevin took a nap. As long as somebody was awake in that lawn chair the protest continued.
A biker with a parrot drove up from Christmas, Florida to share some supplies and encouragement. He invited Kevin to visit after Oct. 12. Maybe Kevin could inspire the people there to fight for their rights in a town overrun by corruption and greed.

But then there were the tempters. The shady guy out of nowhere offering to sell Kevin meth so he could be sure to stay awake. Kevin explained he didn’t do meth but he was willing to share his weed. The shady guy pointed out the illegality of weed. But Kevin told him about being one of the first legal marijuana farmers in California. Pulling a recorder out of his pocket the narc took out the tape and destroyed it. He confessed that weed helped his mother with her medical problem more than any prescription.

A Corvette convertible with the top down drove out from inside the base. The sexy female driver offered Kevin a feast, some cocaine, her hot tub and her soft fluffy bed. Kevin pointed out that the wedding ring he wears on a chain around his neck is there to remind him not to accept such invitations.

Several days passed this way with Kevin in his folding chair by the swamp. A worker gave him hell because somehow he felt Kevin’s protest threatened his job. The daughter of the base commander showed up to share some of her own excellent weed and to shoot the shit. She thought what Kevin was doing was pretty damn cool. She told him about the night she snuck inside a nuclear sub and graffitied the control room with peace symbols.
Then a local reporter covered the story. Some crazy hippie was sitting out in front of the base. A group of high school jocks showed up to question Kevin about his motives. Once he explained they asked if they could protest, too. They didn’t even know they had the right. They returned the next day with their parents, many fellow students and some teachers. A star football player carried a sign that read: “NASA sucks alien cock.”

Soon more reporters gathered and more. Then the networks arrived. Protestors professional and amateur, locals and travelers, poured into the area.

Oct 12 arrived. As the countdown began some protestors swarmed the gate. The few who made it over the first fence, under the watchful gaze of snipers, were immediately arrested. Helicopters in the air and gun boats in the water added drama to the already dramatic countdown. Kevin didn’t know what to do. He had done everything he could. When asked he told the protestors to form a giant peace sign and pray.

As Kevin walked past a news van rumored to have Dan Rather inside he heard someone loudly carping that he was not be bothered with such a ridiculous story again. The door of the van opened and a crumpled up piece of paper fell directly into Kevin’s path. Naturally, Kevin picked it up. He found a fax about a judge in Hawaii ruling that NASA had not satisfied the requirements for a full environmental report before the launch.

Kevin took that sheet of paper straight to the gate of Cape Canaveral where he demanded that the soldier on guard take him to the base commander, there Kevin would make a citizen’s arrest. The soldier was dumbfounded. So was the officer that followed. And his superior, too. They all stood around until a limo pulled up inside the base. By now the local sheriff had gotten involved and as is usually the case the local authorities and the federal authorities did not exactly see eye to eye. The sheriff took that sheet of paper from Kevin and she walked to that limo and got inside. We don’t know what was said but we do know the launch was scrubbed.

Jubilant protestors celebrated. Kevin sat exhausted in his folding chair answering questions and saying you’re welcome. After everyone had their moment, a personable woman with blonde hair approached Kevin. She introduced herself as an Assistant Press Secretary to the President of the United States. He remembered seeing her on the news a few times. She offered to drive him to the airport if he was ready to go home.

On the road she told him that no leaders of government stayed on the eastern side of the United States on that day for fear of grandmother’s prophecy. She thought he also deserved to know that as soon as the launch had been scrubbed technical problems were found. NASA insisted the cancellation was due to weather and minor technical issues. But is any technical issue minor when you’re launching 72.3 pounds of plutonium on a rocket?

The Press Secretary drove Kevin to a nearby trailer park where the mysterious man in red could not be found. No one had ever seen such a person even though he had told Kevin he lived there. She drove him to Christmas, Florida, too, where she heard the stories of the locals and promised to tell the president. Then she dropped him off at the airport, with a silly grin on her face at what this rough looking character from the west had done by simply sitting in a lawn chair.

It’s odd that Getty’s photo of Kevin at Cape Canaveral is labeled the only protestor at the launch. AP provides a pic of the Grandmothers for Peace and many other protestors at Canaveral the same day.

I didn’t believe this story either when I first heard it. But Kevin provided a folder of press clippings. I could see photos of media trucks and groups of protestors with signs and flags. A clipping from a local newspaper included a photo where half a sign was visible. You could easily tell that the missing letters spelled out “NASA sucks alien cock.”

***

Read more

In Ravenna, Italy [via Nina Reznick]

Sound Bytes...

KJA: I wish I could be perfect like you and your father.

KM: Me too!

--10/3/17, La Piazza

Photographing the Microscopic: Winners of Nikon Small World 2017 [via NIna Reznick]

Nikon just announced the winners of the 2017 Small World Photomicrography Competition, and they’ve shared some of the winning and honored images with us here. The contest invites photographers and scientists to submit images of all things visible under a microscope. More than 2,000 entries were received from 88 countries in 2017, the 43rd year of the competition.

The 12th place winner shows a closeup of the eye of an Opiliones (daddy longlegs) magnified 20x. #

Charles Krebs, Issaquah, Washington
2nd Place: A Senecio vulgaris (a flowering plant) seed head, magnified 2x. #

Dr. Havi Sarfaty, Yahud-Monoson, Israel
11th place shows an image of plastic fracturing on a credit card hologram magnified 10x. #

Steven Simon, Grand Prairie, Texas
Image of Distinction: Nsutite and Cacoxenite (minerals), magnified 5x. #

Emilio Carabajal Márquez, Madrid, Spain
Honorable Mention: The eyes of a jumping spider, magnified 6x. #

Emre Can Alagöz, Istanbul, Turkey
The 15th place winner is an image of a 3rd trimester fetus of a Megachiroptera (fruit bat), magnified 18x. #

Dr. Rick Adams, Greeley, Colorado
Image of Distinction: Moth eggs in spider silk, magnified 16x. #

Walter Piorkowski, South Beloit, Illinois
Image of Distinction: A natural bridge (petiole nodes) connecting the abdomen and thorax of an ant, magnified 5x. #

Can Tunçer, Izmir, Turkey
Honorable Mention: Human tongue blood vessels injected with lead chromate, magnified 100x. #

Frank Reiser, Garden City, New York
8th Place: An image of a newborn rat cochlea with sensory hair cells (green) and spiral ganglion neurons (red), magnified 100x. #

Dr. Michael Perny, Bern, Switzerland
5th Place: Mold on a tomato magnified 3.9x. #

Dean Lerman, Netanya, Israel
Honorable Mention: A Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) cross section showing curved stigma with pollen, magnified 25x. #

Dr. Robert Markus, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Image of Distinction: Simple eyes of an Ectemnius (digger wasp), with condensation, magnified 20x. #

Laurie Knight, Tonbridge, United Kingdom
The 7th place winner shows individually labeled axons in an embryonic chick ciliary ganglion magnified 30x. #

Dr. Ryo Egawa, Nagoya, Japan
Image of Distinction: A Cladocera (water flea) magnified 10x. #

Rogelio Moreno, Panama City, Panama
Image of Distinction: A group of rotifers magnified 20x. #

Frank Fox, Konz, Germany
Image of Distinction: The face of a small moth magnified 5x. #

Jan Rosenboom, Rostock, Germany
9th Place: Growing cartilage-like tissue in the lab using bone stem cells (collagen fibers in green and fat deposits in red), magnified 20x for collagen; 40x for fat deposits. #

Catarina Moura, Dr. Sumeet Mahajan, Dr. Richard Oreffo & Dr. Rahul Tare, Southampton, United Kingdom
Image of Distinction: Abdominal proleg of a Lasiocampa (caterpillar) magnified 3.7x. #

Dean Lerman, Netanya, Israel
The 4th place winner shows the everted scolex (head) of a Taenia solium (tapeworm), magnified 200x. #

Teresa Zgoda, Rochester, New York

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Yoga Gives Back

Written by Kayoko Mitsumatsu

From Posture To Power: Microcredit Changes Lives On Both Sides of the Ocean

We can talk about making change. But affecting real change in the world comes from impacting the lives of individuals. It comes from empowering people to be independent and able to make a living on their own while at the same time being fully integrated in our interdependent global community. Sometimes it takes something that seems to be radical to make this change, but these shifts can be deceptively small. They can be even as small (or as large) as the cost of a Los Angeles Yoga class.

How could this be? In the practice of microcredit, lending seemingly small amounts of money to small-scale entrepreneurs allows them to succeed and change their circumstances. This is the fundamental basis of microcredit’s transformative power; it’s a revolutionary concept in finance. This practice shifts the emphasis from financial transactions being focused only about large loans and large scale businesses, which are out of reach of many one-person operations, institutions and organizations – to lending practices that actually make a positive difference in a person’s life. Microcredit practices based on social justice and empowerment operate through a combination of small-scale loans based on trust and community support, with structured repayment plans and programs that encourage savings. In these situations, people actually have the opportunity to solidify long-term change in their lives.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Yoga Gives Back Team: Joel Bender, Leslie Hendry, Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Kayoko Mitsumatsu (left-right)

In 2006, economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the institution he founded, the Grameen Bank, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This award was in recognition of their revolutionary efforts to create this micro-credit model, support sustainable economic practices, and provide an alternative to what were exploitive norms. When a person is caught in a cycle of poverty, they may become trapped in the system, particularly since large banking institutions have historically ignored people without assets or credit histories, who are just starting out and who may not have already proven themselves. Most banks prefer to lend large sums of money that represent a greater profit margin and are set up only for large loans in order to make a profit themselves. And even making it more challenging, people at the bottom of the economic scale worldwide have had to rely on moneylenders charging usurious terms and interest rates to obtain funds to plant the next crop, buy inventory of new equipment, or upgrade a business in any way. Institutions such as the Grameen Bank and their affiliates are offering another approach. It’s one that has significantly impacted millions of people.

As Dr. Yunus described in an exclusive interview with Yoga Gives Back in May, 2009, “We started in 1976, and today within Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, eight million people borrow micro loans, ninety-seven percent of them women.” This represents an enormous potential for change and empowerment that just did not exist on a large scale in this form prior to 1976.

There is a social cycle in economics, and Dr. Yunus explained this: “Poverty is not inside the person. Poverty is forced from outside. Poor people are as capable [a] human being as anybody else. They have the same power and energy, same potential. But they are denied such facilities. They cannot express themselves. Money is one of the most important items missing in their lives. You need a dollar to catch a dollar. You cannot catch a dollar with an empty hand. So, that first dollar, nobody has given to her. So she remains dependent on someone else. She has to be hired, to slave; she has to work to make food available on the table. What we have done, we have put that first dollar into her hands as a banking proposition. Conventional banks never come to the poor people. They go to rich people to make more money. The person who does not have a dollar – she cannot get it. So we did it. We did it in a way that is affordable to her. Because we do not insist on collateral. There is no collateral.”

While that may seem like a radical concept, the Grameen Bank has proven that their success is much more than ideological. Dr Yunus cited statistics for us, “The repayment rate is almost 100%, without collateral or anything. This is the strength of microcredit which is now spread all over the world. There are by now at least 150 million borrowers in the world today. Bu it is still very small comparing to the need. We need more microcredit organizations in the world so that more people can be reached.”

Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization begun in LA, with the goal to provide a way for Western Yoga practitioners to give back to India, the birthplace of Yoga, which has given us so much. We’re heeding Dr. Yunus’ call to reach more people through expanded opportunities for and awareness of microcredit and have targeted India and Indian families, women, and would-be entrepreneurs, who would be otherwise stuck in the cycle of poverty that Dr. Yunus described. Yoga Gives Back supports microfinancing operations in India, through the Grameen Foundation, headquartered in Washington, DC. Donations go directly to Grameen Koota, Bangalore, South India and our YGB awareness campaign focuses on the real stories of how poor women are changing their lives with small loans from Grameen Koota.

Ms. Vinatha M Reddy

Grameen Koota was started by visionary teacher and philanthropist, Ms. Vinatha M Reddy (pictured, above) in 1999, who learned about Nobel Peace Recipient Dr Muhammad Yunus’ microfinancing and immediately began exploring ways of replicating his work in her hometown. In 2000, she started providing small microcredit loans, averaging $25.00 a month, to fifty local women. Today, Grameen Koota’s work is reaching out to over 280,000 women in Bangalore, Mysore and many areas of Karnataka state, in South India, making real impact on these women’s lives as well as on the local economy.

Yoga Gives Back

The Los Angeles-based Yoga Gives Back has a worldwide reach and began out of the inspiration and dedication of my Yoga mentor Joel Bender and me. Our group has suddenly started growing almost daily and our mission is shared by a quickly expanding and loving Yoga community.

When I was growing up in Japan, which is a very middle-class society, I had never experienced or seen any real poverty, especially growing up in Tokyo in 1960s and 1970s, when Japan's post-war economic miracle was taking place. Then, I had a chance to live in Brazil in the late 1970s for two years, where as a teenager, I saw the divide between poverty and wealth, the reality of the real slums, kids on the streets begging every time you stopped the car at the traffic light, all very much like India. Social injustice hit me hard.

Once I started Yoga practice and feeling my life being so enriched by it , I felt a need to use my resources to help others. I was producing a documentary on Social Entrepreneurship and learned about microfinancing. I shared this information with Joel [featured in the teacher profile in this month’s issue of LA YOGA] who had been looking for the way he could give back to India since his first visit there – so we teamed up.

When I think about the growth of Yoga Gives Back thus far, I give a lot of credit to the entrepreneurship and volunteer spirit of Americans, willing to embrace and support a new grass roots campaign like ours.

Kayoko Mitsumatsu, co-founder of Yoga Gives Back, is a documentary filmmaker whose films deal with social justice issues, including First They Killed My Father a memoir of a Cambodia’s Killing Fields’ survivor.

A Life Changing Story of Microcredit: Jayashree

Jayashree

Jayashree lives in the suburbs of Bangalore and is married and the mother of two children. We visited her at her humble dirt floor one room home for the first time in 2007. We were touched by her warm smile and most generous hospitality, serving us hot tea and cookies.

Jayashree was born into a very poor family in Bangalore. When she was a child, her family’s financial situation became so severe that she had to drop out of school and work at a garment factory. She toiled throughout her childhood and after she got married at fifteen, her meager earnings had to support her ailing in-laws. She had two children. Her husband’s rickshaw business was not enough to pay her sons’ education or secure food for the family.

In 2007, Jayashree learned from her neighbors about Grameen Koota’s microcredit program and applied for her first loan. She was granted a first loan of 7,000 rupees ($175), and immediately bought her husband’s auto rickshaw. Owning their own rickshaw business increased their income significantly.

Jayashree was able to pay back her entire loan in one year and became eligible for her second loan in 2008. Having proven her diligence, her second loan amount doubled to 15,000 rupees ($375). This time, she bought a sewing machine and started stitching bags. The family’s earnings have now tripled and she is earning 150 rupees ($3.75) a day. In addition, she opened a small shop next to her house to sell her products which is earning her an additional 100 rupees ($2.50) a day.

She is sending her elder son to a medical school. Her son dreams of becoming a doctor and thanks his mother’s business for providing his education, their own home and daily food.

To participate in a Yoga practice where the proceeds support Yoga Gives Back and directly impact the transformation of not only your own life, but that of someone in India, start your Thanksgiving week at Yogaglo, Sunday, November 22, 10:00 A.M. - 12 noon. Some of the teachers include John Sahakian, Felicia Tomasko, Alexandra Aiken and Ally Hamilton; more to be announced. Yogaglo.com; yogagivesback.com.

For more information on Yoga Gives Back or to host a Yoga Gives Back class at your own studio or location, visit: yogagivesback.org or contact yogagivesback@earthlink.net.