How Freedom, Guidance and Support can change you: Benjamin Music at TEDxUWCCR – Video

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How Freedom, Guidance and Support can change you: Benjamin Music at TEDxUWCCR
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TED...

By: TEDx Talks

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How Freedom, Guidance and Support can change you: Benjamin Music at TEDxUWCCR - Video

Pussy Riot Talks Political Freedom With Matt Lauer

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Political freedom through music, lyrics and videos. That is the drive that keeps Pussy Riot going, even if it costs them their livelihood, even if they have to suffer through beatings.

Two members of the Russian punk rock band stopped by Today this morning for an interview with Matt Lauer. The Moscow-based feminist protest group is continuing to draw attention to their belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a dictator and that Russian people are not free.

Three band members were arrested back in March 2012 and charged with hooliganism for staging a protest performance in a cathedral during Vladimir Putins presidential campaign. The girls were denied bail and kept in custody for four months. Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were ultimately convicted and sentenced.

Both Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova spent 22 months in jail. They were eventually released under general amnesty. Samutsevich received a suspended sentence.

The bands plight for freedom in Russia has drawn a lot of attention from the rest of the world. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina spoke with Lauer about their struggles for freedom. Tolokonnikova said through a translator, I really sincerely wanted Russia that would be free, this idea we heard about free Russia it only became stronger in ourselves during [these] two years that we were in jail. If our government thought that they would just break us down by jailing us, I mean, it didnt work out at all.

Despite the bands run of success in the music world and their growing fame, they lead difficult lives. Lauer asked about how life has been since their release from prison. Tolokonnika responded, If we go to the people getting jailed and we want to get in, the people of the government, they attack us and they spray us so we have head concussions and burning of the eyes. Thats what we suffer.

Tolokonnikova and Alekhina are both set to appear at Tina Browns fifth annual Women in the World Summit. The group will take part in a panel discussion which will be moderated by Charlie Rose. Brown chose the band members because, They paid a heavy price for their resistance to Putin and I think that what theyve shown is exactly what is happening now: Putin is a thug, Putin is a bully. They were brave enough to stand up, they paid a price and they went in as students and they came out as world famous activists.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

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Pussy Riot Talks Political Freedom With Matt Lauer

Guide to San Diego Beaches | Official Ca. Travel Resource

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Guide to San Diego Beaches A Way of Life and a Source of Pride and Joy

If San Diego is known for one thing, it would be for our gorgeous beaches. With 70 miles of pristine coastline, year-around sunshine and mild temperatures, you can enjoy the surf and sand almost any day of the year. For visitors and locals alike, the beach is a veritable wonderland and the place to spend entire days with family and friends.

From expansive sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, reefs, tide pools and everything in between, the beaches in San Diego are as varied as the California beach towns that were built around them. Discover beaches perfect for families and dogs, beaches coveted by the worlds top surfers, or to enjoy a fire, play volleyball, spot sea creatures or simply relax and people watch. One things for sure, on any given day at any beach in San Diego, youll find a front row seat to a magnificent display of the western sky as the sun descents into the Pacific.

So grab your beach towels, slather on the sunscreen, and get out to explore some of the finest beaches in the world.

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Guide to San Diego Beaches | Official Ca. Travel Resource

Astronomy – Measuring Distance, Size, and Luminosity (3 of 30) The Size of the Moon – Video

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Astronomy - Measuring Distance, Size, and Luminosity (3 of 30) The Size of the Moon
Visit http://ilectureonline.com for more math and science lectures! In this video I will explain how Aristarchus calculated the size of our Moon around 200 B.C..

By: Michel van Biezen

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Astronomy - Measuring Distance, Size, and Luminosity (3 of 30) The Size of the Moon - Video

Astronomy apps: Planets v Star Walk

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Comprehensive: A screenshot of the Star Walk app.

Before you look to the skies it pays to glance at your smartphone.

The night sky is so vast it is easy for budding astronomers to become overwhelmed. An astronomy app on your smartphone is a great place to start, making it easier to dip your toe into the vast ocean that is the cosmos.

As the name suggests, Planets' primary goal is to help you find planets in the night sky. The moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn are visible from the suburbs through even a modest telescope or binoculars.

Better for beginners: A screenshot of the Planets app.

Planets offers an easy-to-read list of when the sun, moon and planets rise and set each day. To help you find them there are 2D maps to point you in the right direction and 3D maps that show the planets' positions in the sky against the constellations. The 3D map even moves as you turn around and lift your arms, so it's always displaying what is in front of you.

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Star Walk's maps also move as you turn around, but they offer a lot more detail - making it more daunting for beginners but more useful once you know your way around the night sky.

It includes extra information on stars, galaxies and nebulas, along with the real-time position of dwarf planets, comets, asteroids and man-made satellites.

Star Walk also makes it easier to plan your astronomical adventures in advance. You can check rise and set times in the future, fast-forward and rewind through the night and see extra details such as the phases of the moon. There is a calendar of events but it has a northern hemisphere bias, listing the summer solstice in June.

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Astronomy apps: Planets v Star Walk

Mumbai prepares for Global Astronomy Month 2014

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Gearing for Global Astronomy Month? Check out the astronomy action around the world and in Mumbai with Pooja Bhula

Astronomers Without Borders, based in the US, organises Global Astronomy Month in April every year to bring together enthusiasts from across the globe and share new ideas and opportunites. This year's schedule boasts over 20 events. There's a photography contest (last year's winning photos were widely broadcast by National Geographic, Sky and Telescope, Huffington Post, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day and others), a poetry contest, a special asteroid search campaignstudents get to make original discoveries, a Global Star Party, a Cosmic Concert by an Italian pianist and even a live audio-visual transmission performance between the earth and the moonradio signals will be used to send images to the moon and these signals will bounce off the moon and return to earth to be picked up by the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. Moon-bounced images will be presented in real time. For the detailed schedule visit: http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org.

Astronomy on the sidewalk If you plan to stroll on the sidewalks of Nariman Point, Worli Seaface, Shivaji Park, Dadar, Carter Road in Mumbai or a few locations in Thane, you can do much more than just walking. Keeping with the spirit of Global Astronomy Month several amateur astronomers, who have built their telescopes at Nehru Planetarium, plan to lend them to passers-by to view the treasures of the sky from 7 pm to 9 pm. Detailed information and updates are available on their Facebook Page: Sidewalk Astronomy Mumbai.

Evening Sky Show On all the weekends of April, you can have a heavenly time with celestial bodies. Nehru Planetarium plans to run free sky observation sessions, between 7 pm and 8.30 pm, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday; you can expect to see the moon, Jupiter and more, interact with astronomy buffs and query with the planetarium's staff too.

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Mumbai prepares for Global Astronomy Month 2014