Spirituality with Jernigan Pontiac and Marc Estrin
Series: VERMONT AUTHORS: SPIRITUALITY, NATURE, AND ART Taxi driver/storyteller, Jernigan Pontiac, and writer/cellist, Marc Estrin, join host Fran Stoddard fo...
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Spring Solstice: Living in Balance with Life and Spiritual Selves (2 of 5) – Video
Spring Solstice: Living in Balance with Life and Spiritual Selves (2 of 5)
To honor the Spring Solstice, the Higher Self will teach us how to create balance in our lives by living with a deeper spiritual connection. Understand the c...
By: Channel Higher Self
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Spring Solstice: Living in Balance with Life and Spiritual Selves (2 of 5) - Video
CRUCIBLE: Truth and Khutbah
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 26 March) It is another case of dj vu or plain coincidence that as we talked about the subject of bayan (speech) and its grade as shown in the tradition of discourses including khutbah (preaching) last Friday, there was a report from the Arab News two days ago about a survey in several mosques in Saudi Arabia wherein 53% of those who attend do not remember the Friday sermon.
Accordingly, over half of Friday sermon listeners do not remember the subject of the sermon. This is according to the survey conducted by the King Abdulaziz National Dialogue Center (KANDC). Also, two-third of the 865 respondents picked randomly from the Kingdoms 13 regions said that sermons had impacted their lives.
But about 52.4% of respondents wanted sermons to focus on social issues, while more than 74% said they do not seek guidance from prayer leaders, indicating according to the report, a lack of personal communication between preachers and their guidance. Although about 60.4% of participants said they found the sermons appealing, around 31.6% said preachers encourage them to deal with personal and social issues in a positive manner.
According to Ismael Maritheri of the King Abdulaziz University, the significance of Friday sermons in changing society and renewing spiritual energy is undeniably important. But there is a need, he said, to train spiritual leaders to deliver more appealing sermons in order to attract people. He also said there must be an element of information and enlightenment as well as conducive methods for personal, social and family development. Finally, Maritheri said preachers who deliver sermons must be able to inform, motivate and enlighten people to achieve success in this world and in the hereafter.
We are quite sad but a bit elated with the findings of the King Abdulaziz National Dialogue Center. We had felt the same even long time ago the limitation on how discourses or khutubah are being conducted in many countries. What could be the most representative if not the case of supposedly holy sites in Saudi Arabia; yet the statistics seemingly confirmed what we had long felt?
Truth and bayan
Hence, this is not to raise our selves. Like many others, we had been, in our own simple way, trying to raise the bar of informed and enlightened discourses; wed long struggled to fully reflect the wisdom of the tradition of bayan or speech in the Holy Quran.
As we had already provided a simple frame about the relationship between bayan and truth, we just would like to reiterate that bayan, in a sense, could be considered as instrument of truth. According to the Quran, truth is from thy Lord so be not at all in doubt (Al-baqarah: 147).
Bayan then should be anchored on truth and pinpoints truth. There is supposedly no element that should interfere in the process since there is only one truth. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) reminded us: speak the truth even if it is bitter (murran). The notion of murran or bitter is something that is intended to heal the sickness of the heart that is, to refine and purify it.
You know men, unlike animals, operate in a kind of moral pendulum that sways from one point to another. There is much dynamics in the moral make-up of a person. Hence, there are times when one may develop the sickness of the heart. Truth is the way into which the heart is softened and thus be purified so that it regains its original constitution as seat of spiritual essence. What is directed, then, is actually the purification and the removal of blemishes that can incidentally develop in ones being. Hence, truth is the anchor of the whole corpus of tradition as far as discourse like khutbah is concerned.
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Recycling Water on Space Station – Video
Recycling Water on Space Station
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata discusses the the International Space Station #39;s Water Recovery System, which recycles urine and wa...
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Gravitation beweist die flache Erde – Leonard Susskind – Video
Gravitation beweist die flache Erde - Leonard Susskind
The Earth is Flat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5OrSq76yY The Flat Earth Proof They Hide From You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDCWv3bkXsc The Earth i...
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Gravitation beweist die flache Erde - Leonard Susskind - Video
Why Russian capsule won't dock with Space Station, yet
Two Russians and an American blasted off successfully Wednesday. But a 24-second engine burn in orbit failed to occur, and their docking with the International Space Station is delayed until Thursday.
An engine snag has delayed the arrival of a Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station until Thursday.
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A rocket carrying Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and American Steve Swanson to the space station blasted off successfully early Wednesday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 3:17 a.m. local time Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday). It entered a designated orbit about 10 minutes after the launch and was expected to reach the space station in six hours. All onboard systems were working flawlessly, and the crew was feeling fine.
NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said shortly before the planned docking that the arrival had been delayed after a 24-second engine burn that was necessary to adjust the Soyuz spacecraft's orbiting path "did not occur as planned."
The crew is in no danger, but will have to wait until Thursday for the Soyuz TMA-12M to arrive and dock at the space station, NASA said. The arrival is now scheduled for 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358 GMT) Thursday.
Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said on Wednesday that the glitch occurred because of a failure of the ship's orientation system. The crew is in good spirits and they have taken off their space suits to prepare for the long flight, Ostapenko said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.
The Russian official said the crew is now working to adjust the spacecraft to the right orbit to make it for the Thursday docking.
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Future Space Flight Technologies! New Documentary 2014 – Video
Future Space Flight Technologies! New Documentary 2014
Hey Guys! This video is very interesting and intellectual and is a great watch! It will give you a deeper insight in to what Space Flight Technology we may p...
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Future Space Flight Technologies! New Documentary 2014 - Video
Private Space Flight Is Worth the Risk, Experts Say
The space shuttle Endeavour as it launches from NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad on July 15, 2009. By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer for Space.com 2014-03-26 16:30:08 UTC
NEW YORK Space tourism and commercial space mining projects are ushering in a new era of human spaceflight, but the success of private spaceflight will depend on ensuring safety and reducing the cost, experts say.
Spaceflight companies such as SpaceX or Space Adventures, Ltd., could make the dream of space travel a reality for some, and may take on the role NASA once had in pushing the frontier of space, a panel of experts said during the 2014 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate debate March 19 at the American Museum of Natural History.
Some speakers looked to U.S. history for comparison to the potential of private spaceflight today.
The 19th-century adventurers Lewis and Clark, for example, weren't the actual people who colonized Montana, said Michael Gold, director of Washington, D.C., operations and business growth for the Bigelow Aerospace, a company that is developing private inflatable space stations. It was the homesteaders, the farmers and the businessmen who followed later.
"You can't just go to space like Montana homesteaders and pitch a tent," said Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum's Hayden Planetarium and the host of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey." Tyson moderated the evening's debate, which had the theme of "Selling Space."
In addition to Gold, the panel included several luminaries in human spaceflight, including Wanda Austin, president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation; John Logsdon, space policy analyst and professor emeritus at George Washington University; Elliot Pulham, CEO of the Space Foundation; Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures, Ltd. and Robert Walker, former chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Like all new forms of travel, private spaceflight carries significant risks. But the panelists said they didn't see the risks as insurmountable.
Ultimately, a bad safety record would hurt companies. "There's a perception that commercial space is less safe," Gold said. But "if we have a bad day, we lose everything."
But beyond having a good safety record, it's important to understand the risks, Austin said. "It doesn't matter how safe [a spaceship] has been, it matters what one you're sitting on."
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Rixton Rob Thomas Rihanna- Broken Heart Lonely No More Unfaithful (Acoustic Cover) – Midnight Red – Video
Rixton Rob Thomas Rihanna- Broken Heart Lonely No More Unfaithful (Acoustic Cover) - Midnight Red
We #39;re back at it again! Hope you guys enjoy this MASHUP as much as we do; we enjoyed the Rixton song so much we just had to play with it! Love You Red Heads*
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Debate Over Red Light Cameras Heads To Ohio Courts
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
More Ohio drivers are taking their concerns regarding traffic cameras to court.
On Tuesday, attorneys representing eight drivers in Dayton filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that the cameras violate due process rights and that they improperly bypass the courts.
But a Central Ohio couple whose daughter was killed by a driver who drove through a red light say they disagree.
At 31, Sarah Oberhauser was a gifted science teacher, an accomplished athlete, and a mother.
"She was always happy, great personality," said Sarahs son, Drew Vanwinkle.
Sarah was killed one weekend in 2002 when a driver ran a red light and T-boned her.
"It was a beautiful Saturday morning and a guy was in a rush and he ran a red light," said Sarahs father, Paul Oberhauser.
Her family said it took nearly five years for them to cope with her death, but in 2007, they found a way to honor her memory. Her family decided to testify in front of lawmakers to create safer intersections.
"We have a right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that was all taken away from her by one careless young man who ran a red light," said Paul. He and his wife, Sue, are the national co-chairs of the Traffic Safety Coalition.
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2014 Preview: Boston Red Sox
Between now and Opening Day, HardballTalk will take a look at each of baseballs 30 teams, asking the key questions, the not-so-key questions, and generally breaking down their chances for the 2014 season. Next up: The Boston Red Sox.
The Big Question:Have the Red Sox taken the steps necessary to avoid a post-championship decline?
No team has repeated as World Series champions since the Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. The Red Sox, though, didnt suffer from any championship hangovers their last two times around, winning 95 games and returning to the postseason in both 2005 and 2008.
The Red Soxdidnt desire to partake in any sort of shakeup over the winter; they just werent willing to outbid the Yankees for Jacoby Ellsbury or commit to substantial multiyear deals for fellow free agents Stephen Drew and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Replacing the trio will be either rookie Jackie Bradley Jr. or former superstar Grady Sizemore in center field, phenom Xander Bogaerts at shortstop and the much beloved A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate. Interestingly, the teams only newcomer to get a multiyear deal was new setup man Edward Mujica (two years, $9.5 million).
The pitching staff has survived almost entirely intact, with the rotation set to include Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, John Lackey, Jake Peavy and Felix Doubront. The surprising exit of Ryan Dempster turned heads he gave up $13 million to spend the year with his family but he was being viewed as a middle reliever or swingman. Replacing him in that role is left-hander Chris Capuano.
So, the Red Sox are counting on their returning stars and a gradual infusion of youngtalent to stave off any decline. Boasting one of the games very best farm systems makes that an easier choice, and if it turns out that they do need help as the season goes along, theyll have about as much artillery to pull off a trade as any team in the league.
What else is going on?
Prediction: If spring training numbers are any indication, its going to take some time for the Red Sox lineupto start clicking. Still, the bats are there to make the team a top-three offense in the AL, and the pitching staff has both top-level talent and excellent depth. The Red Soxs decision to largely stand pat could cost them a few wins and perhaps the AL East, but the team should return to the postseason in some form.
Secondplace, American League East.
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100% CONFIRMED Multiple Objects Bombarded The Moon Multiple Craters Why Is NASA SILENT? – Video
100% CONFIRMED Multiple Objects Bombarded The Moon Multiple Craters Why Is NASA SILENT?
2014 DarkSkyWatchers Global Skywatch Network - Recorded Live 07:03am UTC Kingman Arizona - (NASA I #39;M CALLING YOU OUT DIRECTLY TO RELEASE IMMEDIATE CONFIRMAT...
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100% CONFIRMED Multiple Objects Bombarded The Moon Multiple Craters Why Is NASA SILENT? - Video
Our Doom Will Come ‘Sci Fi Style’, Says NASA Study – Video
Our Doom Will Come #39;Sci Fi Style #39;, Says NASA Study
Join #FOWLERNATION!! http://bit.ly/SubscribeFowlerNation We #39;ve all seen movies depicting a dystopian future. Usually they envision a small group of elites li...
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NASA Update – Overview (Kerbal Space Program) – Video
NASA Update - Overview (Kerbal Space Program)
The NASA Pack has arrived! It #39;ll be released at the end of the KSP ARM stream, go watch: http://www.twitch.tv/ksptv/ T-SHIRTS! http://hocgaming.spreadshirt.c...
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nasa rodinka Budaiovci – Video
Actor Luke Wilson talks about NASA helping to make life better for people on Earth – Video
Actor Luke Wilson talks about NASA helping to make life better for people on Earth
Actor Luke Wilson promotes notable NASA Spinoff technologies -- technologies used in everyday products and services derived from investments, innovations and...
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Actor Luke Wilson talks about NASA helping to make life better for people on Earth - Video
NASA Crowdsources New Spacesuit Design
Internet users and space enthusiasts are about to come one step closer to deciding the future of space travel. NASA is using the crowdsourcing power of the Web to help to pick the final cover layer design for its next generation spacesuit, and you can vote online until April 15.
More than 83,000 people had already cast their votes as of Wednesday morning on three prototypes, designed jointly by NASA engineers, suit manufacturer ILC Dover and design students from Philadelphia University.
All three candidates are equally as trendy in form and function, but ultimately only one cover layer will be built to go over the Z-2 prototype spacesuit, which NASA spokesman Dan Huot said will be more mobile and can be put on and taken off more easily than the previous Z-1 suit.
Where the bulky, white spacesuits worn by astronauts for the last 30 years have worked well on previous missions where youre floating around, theres no gravity and you dont have to worry about weight," the old suits "won't work very well" on planet surfaces where there's gravity, such as Mars, Huot told ABC news.
Weve always known we need a different suit for when we get on Mars, Huot said.
Astronauts' Space Suits Through The Years
What people are actually voting on is not the spacesuit itself but the cover layer, which serves to protect the layers underneath from snags and abrasions.
So far, the most popular is the Technology cover layer, which has received almost 65 percent of votes, said Huot.
The Technology one looks a lot like an old Apollo suit. It kind of has that same general look, except with the addition of the light emitting patches, Huot said. Luminex wire and light-emitting patches on the upper torso will make it easier for astronauts to identify their fellow space walkers, but they "may or may not be incorporated in the final design," Huot said.
NASA
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NASA Measures Snowpack in California, Colorado
The snowpack atop mountain peaks in California and Colorado has a new set of eyes watching from high above to better gauge the amount of water that will rumble down rivers and streams each spring as runoff.
In a new mission, NASA fixed a lumbering twin-engine plane with high-tech equipment to make regular snow surveys, starting last weekend in drought-stricken California before the weather front expected to bring snow to the Sierra this week. At an altitude of up to 20,000 feet, the so-called Airborne Snow Observatory measures snowpack's depth and water content with precision.
Improving on the old method of taking snow samples from the ground, scientists said that from the lofty heights they can calculate snow depth to within 4 inches and water content to within 5 percent.
The figures will answer a list of questions about mountain snowpack, said Tom Painter, NASA's lead investigator for the mission.
"About 75 to 80 percent of our water comes from the snowmelt," Painter said. "Understanding the snowpack is really, really important."
For decades, snowpack's water content was based on estimates and fraught with errors. Each month, surveyors hiked out to sparse locations, typically at low and medium elevations. By hand, they plunged a long tube down into the snowpack, pulling up a core sample to be measured.
Yet much of the snowpack is higher up in the mountain ranges and out of reach of surveyors. So NASA is taking a different approach.
The first flight of the year for a de Havilland Twin Otter plane took off recently from Mammoth Yosemite Airport in the heart of the Sierra Nevada.
Lasers first scan the snow to find out its depth, indicating how much water is locked inside. An image is next taken to measure the amount of sunlight reflected and absorbed by the snow to gauge how quickly it will melt into runoff.
Scientists will combine these two pieces of information and track them over time to monitor changes, providing an accurate picture of the runoff, Painter said.
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NASA Invites Public to 'Titan Through Time' Free Lecture: 101 Flybys and Counting
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Visitor Center inGreenbelt, Md., will host a free public event celebrating the science and exploration of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The free event will be held at the NASA Goddard Visitor's Center onTuesday, Apr. 8, 2014, at7 p.m. EDT.
The hour-long event will feature a selection of talks and videos presented by experts from NASA's Cassini mission. As part of its groundbreaking exploration of the Saturn system, Cassini has made regular encounters with Titan and will reach the milestone of its 101st Titan flyby onApr. 7.
Cassini's unique view of this Mercury-sized moon has enabled the discovery an extensive layer of liquid water deep beneath Titan's surface. The spacecraft has mapped lakes and seas larger thanNorth America'sGreat Lakes but made of liquid methane and ethane. And the onboard instrument suite has probed the dense, smog-like atmosphere to study the organic molecules formed from the breakup of methane by solar radiation.
To celebrate this decade of exceptional science, Cassini Science Planning EngineersTrina RayandKimberly Steadmanfrom NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory inPasadena, Calif., will discuss how the mission team plans a Titan flyby, followed by a synopsis of Cassini's top 10 Titan discoveries so far.
Goddard planetary scientistConor Nixonwill moderate the evening, and a question-and-answer session will follow the presentations. Visitors also are invited to watch the latest Science on a Sphere movies and, conditions permitting, to view planets and other celestial objects through telescopes provided by the Goddard Astronomy Club.
The lecture is intended for members of the public of high-school age and older. Doors open at6:30 p.m., and the lecture will start promptly at7 p.m. EDT. Space is limited.
Please direct any questions toElizabeth Zubritskyat 301-614-5438 orelizabeth.a.zubritsky@nasa.gov.
For more information and directions to the NASA Goddard Visitor Center, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/home/index.html http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/directions/index.html
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NASA Invites Public to 'Titan Through Time' Free Lecture: 101 Flybys and Counting
The promise and peril of nanotechnology
3 hours ago by Renee Cho, Earth Institute, Columbia University Computer-rendered view inside a carbon nanotube. Credit: Geoff Hutchison
Scientists at Northwestern University have found a way to detect metastatic breast cancer by arranging strands of DNA into spherical shapes and using them to cover a tiny particle of gold, creating a "nano-flare" that lights up only when it finds breast cancer cells. At MIT, researchers are trying to boost the photosynthetic capacity of plants by embedding tiny tubes of carbon called nanotubes into chloroplasts. They hope to eventually develop plants with the ability to monitor environmental pollution, pesticides, fungal infections, or exposure to bacterial toxins. These are just two instances of ongoing research in nanotechnology, one of the fastest growing areas of science, engineering and industry that is used in more and more consumer products each day.
Nanotechnology encompasses the production and manipulation of materials on a tiny scale measured in billionths of a meter, or nanometers. It sometimes involves layers of material just a single atom thick about 0.2 nanometers. By comparison, a human hair is 80,000 nanometers; a DNA molecule is 22.5 nm.
Nanoparticles do exist in naturein dust, forest fires, volcanoes, metals, etc. But nanotechnology generally involves engineered materials (which can include natural nanoparticles) with at least one dimension measuring 100 nm or less. At the nanoscale, the classic laws of physics no longer apply, resulting in material taking on different optical, electrical or magnetic properties than it would have in a bulkier form. This is partly because material at the nanoscale has a relatively larger surface area vis vis its volume than the same material in bulk form.
It is because nanomaterials have these altered properties that they are so useful. They can have increased capacity to conduct or resist electricity, excellent color purity, enhanced heat storage or transference ability, extra absorbability, or antibiotic properties. At the nanoscale, copper, normally opaque, becomes transparent; stable aluminum turns combustible; and gold, usually solid, becomes a liquid. Nano silver, an antibacterial, is used in bandages, socks and food packaging. Zinc oxide nanoparticles are found in sunscreen and cosmetics. Nano titanium dioxide is used in medicine capsules, nutritional supplements, food additives, skin creams, and toothpaste; and in foods like coconut and yogurt as a whitener.
Nanotechnology involves the creation of nanostructures like carbon-based graphene (a sheet of carbon atoms 1 atom thick) or carbon nanotubes (a tube of carbon atoms), which are excellent conductors of electricity; as well as the use of nanoparticles that are combined with other materials to optimize certain characteristics.
Scientists working in nanotechnology usually use molecules as building blocks. As an example, they may make something partly out of silicon, combined with an organic molecule and some nano widgets to produce a multifaceted nanostructure unlike anything found in nature, explained James Yardley, managing director of Columbia University's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. The choice of materials often depends on the area of research. Electronics researchers, for instance, often work with silicon or carbon; biotechnology researchers work with larger organic molecules; and materials researchers might utilize iron, steel or chromium.
Columbia's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, one of the first nanoscale science and engineering centers established by the National Nanotechnology Initiative, focuses its research on electronics. Scientists here, pioneers in research on graphene (the strongest material known to man per unit weight), are figuring out how to use it to replace silicon, essential in semiconductors and many electronic products. They are using it to develop applications for solar cells, touchscreens and sensors. The center is also working with carbon nanotubes, which are enabling the development of new electronic devices; and building photovoltaic devices on the nanoscale to make them much more efficient.
Every day, scientists are coming up with new applications for nanotechnology. An international nano research center has created a nanofiber mesh that can remove toxins from the blood, which could eliminate the need for dialysis for kidney failure patients. Swiss researchers recently succeeded in producing uniform antimony nanocrystals, which can store a large number of lithium and sodium ions, and could one day be used to produce high-energy-density batteries.
In the future, nanotechnology is expected to make communication and information technologies faster and cheaper, and create super-hard materials. In medicine, nanomaterials will be used as tiny sensors to detect disease or as chips to monitor bodily processes, for implants, and as drug delivery systems that can target specific cells. Nanomaterials will be able to filter pollutants from the environment or remove them from waste effluents. Nanotechnology will benefit space exploration by making lighter-weight vehicles and smaller robotic systems possible. Nano detectors of chemical and biological agents will improve national security. Some scientists predict that one day, they will be able to create programmable nanomatter whose properties can be controlled or altered.
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