Freedom and Jeff

Not many people get a picture of this proud bird
Snuggled up next to them!

Freedom and I have been together 11 years this summer.
She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings.
Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery,
It was broken in 4 places.
She's my baby.

When Freedom came in she could not stand
And both wings were broken. She was
Emaciated and covered in lice. We made the
Decision to give her a chance at life, so I took
Her to the vet's office. From then
On, I was always around her. We had her in a
Huge dog carrier with the top off, and it
Was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to
Lay in. I used to sit and talk to her,
Urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay
There looking at me with those big brown eyes.
We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still
Couldn't stand. It got to the point where the
Decision was made to euthanize her
If she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't
Want to cross that line between torture and
Rehab, and it looked like death was
Winning. She was going to be put
Down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in
On that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go
To the center that Thursday, because I couldn't
Bear the thought of her being euthanized;
But I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone
Was grinning from ear to ear. I went
Immediately back to her cage; and there she was,
Standing on her own, a big beautiful
Eagle. She was ready to live. I was
Just about in tears by then. That
Was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director
Asked me to glove train her.
I got her used to the glove,
And then to jesses, and we started
Doing education programs for schools
In western Washington .
We wound up in the newspapers,
Radio (believe it or not) and some
TV. Miracle Pets even did a show
About us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I had stage 3,
Which is not good (one major organ plus
Everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of
Chemo. Lost the hair - the whole
Bit. I missed a lot of work. When I
Felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey
And take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would
Also come to me in my dreams and help me fight
The cancer. This happened time and time again.

Fast forward to November 2000

The day after Thanksgiving,
I went in for my last checkup.
I was told that if the cancer was not
All gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last
Option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they
Did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for
The results. I went in Monday, and I was
Told that all the cancer was gone.

So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and
Take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty
And cold. I went to her flight and jessed her
Up, and we went out front to the top of the
Hill. I hadn't said a word to
Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me
And wrapped both
Her wings around me to where I
Could feel them pressing in on my back
(I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she
Touched my nose with her beak and stared into my
Eyes, and we just stood there like that
For I don't know how long . That was a
Magic moment. We have been soul mates ever
Since she came in. This is a very special bird.

On a side note: I have had people who
Were sick come up to us when we are out, and
Freedom has some kind of hold on
Them. I once had a guy who was
Terminal come up to us and
I let him hold her.
His knees just about buckled and he
Swore he could feel her power course through his
Body. I have so many stories like that..

I never forget the honor I have of being so close
To such a magnificent spirit as Freedom.

Lovely Owls [via Nina Reznick]

The Weight of One Feather ... [via David Angsten]

Earth As Art: 'How Did Nature Do That?' [via Ivonne de Cervantes ]

Satellites are powerful tools. They beam our TV signals, phone calls and data around the planet. They help us spy, they track storms, they power the GPS signals in our cars and on our phones. But they also send back striking, totally disarming images of planet Earth.

Phytoplankton Bloom, Baltic Sea, 2005 Massive congregations of greenish phytoplankton swirl in the dark water around Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Phytoplankton are microscopic marine plants that form the first link in nearly all ocean food chains. Blooms of phytoplankton, occur when deep currents bring nutrients up to sunlit surface waters.

See More Images

[via Vincent Atchity]

The triumph of progressivism: Graduation 2013 and 1968

Robert Reich, professor of public policy | 5/14/13 | 14 comments | Leave a comment

Many of you soon-to-be college graduates are determined to make the world a better place. Some of you are choosing careers in public service or joining nonprofits or volunteering in your communities.

But many of you are cynical about politics. You see the system as inherently corrupt. You doubt real progress is possible.

“What chance do we have against the Koch brothers and the other billionaires?” you’ve asked me. “How can we fight against Monsanto, Boeing, JP Morgan, and Bank of America? They buy elections. They run America.”

Let me remind you: Cynicism is a self-fulfilling prophesy. You have no chance if you assume you have no chance.

“But it was different when you graduated,” you say. “The sixties were a time of social progress.”

You don’t know your history.

When I graduated in 1968, the Vietnam War was raging. Over half a million American troops were already there. I didn’t know if I’d be drafted. A member of my class who spoke at commencement said he was heading to Canada and urged us to join him.

Two months before, Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. America’s cities were burning. Bobby Kennedy had just been gunned down.

George (“segregation forever”) Wallace was on his way to garnering 10 million votes and carrying five southern states. Richard Nixon was well on his way to becoming president.

America was still mired in bigotry.

I remember a classmate who was dating a black girl being spit on in a movie theater. The Supreme Court had only the year before struck down state laws against interracial marriage.

My entire graduating class of almost 800 contained only six young black men and four Hispanics.

I remember the girlfriend of another classmate almost dying from a back-alley abortion, because safe abortions were almost impossible to get.

I remember a bright young woman law school graduate in tears because no law firm would hire her because she was a woman.

I remember one of my classmates telling me in anguish that he was a homosexual, fearing he’d be discovered and his career ruined.

The environmental movement had yet not been born. Two-thirds of America’s waterways were unsafe for swimming or fishing because of industrial waste and sewage.

I remember rivers so polluted they caught fire. When the Cuyahoga River went up in flames Time Magazine described it as the river that “oozes rather than flows,” in which a person “does not drown but decays.”

In those days, universal health insurance was a pipe dream.

It all seemed pretty hopeless. I assumed America was going to hell.

And yet, reforms did occur. America changed. The changes didn’t come easily. Every positive step was met with determined resistance. But we became better and stronger because we were determined to change.

When I graduated college I would not have believed that in my lifetime women would gain rights over their own bodies, including the legal right to have an abortion. Or women would become chief executives of major corporations, secretaries of state, contenders for the presidency. Or they’d outnumber men in college.

I would not have imagined that eleven states would allow gays and lesbians to marry, and a majority of Americans would support equal marriage rights.

Or that the nation would have a large and growing black middle class.

It would have seemed beyond possibility that a black man, the child of an interracial couple, would become President of the United States.

I would not have predicted that the rate of college enrollment among Hispanics would exceed that of whites.

Or that more than 80 percent of Americans would have health insurance, most of it through government.

I wouldn’t have foreseen that the Cuyahoga River – the one that used to catch fire regularly – would come to support 44 species of fish. And that over half our rivers and 70 percent of bays and estuaries would become safe for swimming and fishing.

Or that some 200,000 premature deaths and 700,000 cases of chronic bronchitis would have been prevented because the air is cleaner.

Or that the portion of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood would have dropped from 88 percent to just over 4 percent.

I would not have believed our nation capable of so much positive change.

Yet we achieved it. And we have just begun. Widening inequality, a shrinking middle class, global warming, the corruption of our democracy by big money – all of these, and more, must be addressed. To make progress on these — and to prevent ourselves from slipping backwards — will require no less steadfastness, intelligence, and patience than was necessitated before.

The genius of America lies in its resilience and pragmatism. We believe in social progress because we were born into it. It is our national creed.

Which is to say, I understand your cynicism. It looks pretty hopeless.

But, believe me, it isn’t.

Not if you pitch in.

Cross-posted from Robert Reich’s blog.

Park Avenue Tulips [via Nina Reznick}

Nine Year Old Wisdom [via Nina Reznick]

Navy Dolphins Find Rare Torpedo Off California Coast

This is dolphin-itely a great find.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Navy dolphins have discovered a Howell torpedo, a rare weapon that was cutting edge technology when it was used in the late 19th century.

Nathan Teklemariam, Carson Rinehart Butt-Dial 911 While Breaking Into Car: Cops

Nathan Teklemariam and Carson Rinehart have been charged with breaking and entering, possession of stolen property and conspiracy.

Two alleged thieves might have gotten away with a stolen car, BUTT one of their cellphones helped cops CRACK the case.

Check out Christo’s latest installation [via Nina Reznick]

The artist's longtime collaborator says "Big Air Package" is the largest inflatable structure ever built

By Allison Meier

Christo’s latest project, an awe-inspiring installation in an industrial relic in Germany, looks more like a captured dirigible than much of the previous fabric-based work he’s created with his late wife Jeanne-Claude. In fact, a balloon-building company was involved in engineering the “Big Air Package,” a towering installation recently constructed in the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany.

Wolfgang Volz, a longtime collaborator and photographer for Christo and Jeanne-Claude and the project manager for the “Big Air Package,” explained over email the engineering challenges of the installation, for which they worked with balloon company GEO – Die Luftwerker. “They had great experience in building large inflatable skins even though they had never build anything of this size,” he wrote. “As a matter of fact, no one has ever built as big. The ‘Big Air Package’ is the biggest inflatable structure ever built.”

Bulgarian artist Christo poses during the unveiling of the installation "Big Air Package" at the industrial memorial Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany, Friday, March 15, 2013. (Credit: AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

This article originally appeared on Hyperallergic.

Construction of Christo’s “Big Air Package” at the Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany. February 2013. (Unless indicated, all photographs by Wolfgang Volz & courtesy of Christo.)

A Great Joke [via Mary Calhoun]

Two Irishmen, Murphy and O’Riely were applying for the same job, in an upscale construction company. One of the job requirements was to meet with the company’s psychologist. Murphy goes in first.

The doctor says," Murphy, I just want to ask you two questions, to which Murphy replied, fire away sir."

"Tell me Murphy, do you know how many wheels are on a wheel barrel?"

I sir, “a wheel barrel has got one wheel”.

"Very good," said the doctor.

"Now Murphy, this next question is a little more difficult. Can you think up a sentence using the word, great."

"I sir," said Murphy, “I have a brand new jacket and I really think it’s great”.

"Excellent, can you send O’Riely in."

Murphy goes out and says to O’Riely. "O’Riely, me boyo, tis a piece of cake to be sure. He’s gonna ask ya how many wheels does a wheel barrel have, and to think up a sentence using the word “great”.

"Murphy, me boyo, I’m beholden’ to ya for sure."

"What did you say, so I don’t say the same thing?"

So Murphy tells his, “I have a brand new jacket and I really think it’s great”.

"Ah, to be sure, says Murphy, thank you very much."

O’Riely walks in to the doctor’s office, smiling and feeling very confident.

The doctor says, "O’Riely, I just want to ask you two questions."

"Fire away sir."

"Tell me O’Riely do you know how many wheels are on a wheel barrel?"

"Aye sir, “a wheel barrel has got one wheel”.

"Very good," said the doctor. "Now this next question is a little harder. Can you think up a sentence using the word - fascinate?"

"Fascinate," says O’Riely, scratching his head. "I got it sir. “I have a brand new jacket, I really think it’ s great. It’s got nine buttons, but I only fascinate”.

THE ICEBERG WINS THE 2013 MIPIM AWARD [via Nina Reznick]

The residential apartment complex “The Iceberg” in Århus, Denmark designed by JDS Architects, Cebra, SeARCH and Louis Paillard wins the Mipim award for “Best Residential Project”.

The project provides an enormous opportunity for Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, to develop in a socially sustainable way by renovating its old, out-of-use container terminal. The area is meant to become a living city quarter and achieve a proper level of urban density, comprised of a multitude of cultural and social activities, generous amounts of workplaces, and of course, a highly mixed and diverse array of housing types.

The Iceberg has been designed in a way that it allows natural lighting and waterfront views into as many apartments as possible. The resulting open and sculptural block closely resembles an iceberg.

This year the MIPIM Award did not only start with a new presentation technique, PechaKucha which allows delegates to view each project and then make an informed vote. The MIPIM Awards did also attract a record number of entries with 175 projects from 46 countries competing.

Visit the project at http://jdsa.eu/tad and view the Drone Film Teaser here.

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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.