8thman

[8thman]

On this day, July 16, 1969...

Celebrating the 54th year anniversary…

The First Mission To Land Men on the Moon Begins as the Apollo 11 is Launched Atop a Saturn V Rocket, Destination: the Moon

Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and began the first manned mission

“Mankind had been waiting for millennia with much anticipation by all who had looked up at the Moon in wonder and imagined a day when they or other men would walk on its silvery surface. The launch of Apollo 11 was the first step in the realization of that dream. ”

The Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched atop a Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy at 13:32:00 UT on July 16, 1969. After 2 hr and 33 min in Earth orbit, the S-IVB engine was reignited for acceleration of the spacecraft to the velocity required for Earth gravity escape. Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. The first steps by humans on another planetary body were taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20,1969. Broadcast on live TV to a world-wide audience, Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and described the event as “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by the late US President John F. Kennedy in a speech before the United States Congress, “before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” The astronauts also returned to Earth the first samples from another planetary body. Apollo 11 achieved its primary mission - to perform a manned lunar landing and return the mission safely to Earth - and paved the way for the Apollo lunar landing missions to follow.

Read more about this historic event of human civilization here:

[8thman]

[8thman]

On this day, July 13, 1985

"Live Aid" concert raises over $70 million for African famine relief

"Humanity at its best... musicians trying to make a difference when it was most needed... to 'Feed The World'"

"For one day — July 13, 1985 — an estimated 1.4 billion of the planet’s 5 billion people stopped and watched former Boomtown Rats frontman and concert organizer Bob Geldof’s “global jukebox” and were treated to one of the biggest, most ambitious concerts ever staged. At one point, according to a stage announcement, 95 percent of the world’s television sets were tuned in to Live Aid — an even more incredible statistic when you consider that it happened before the Internet, cell phones, e-mail, text messaging, streaming video and Twitter."

"The seeds for Live Aid were first planted in 1984, after Bob Geldof saw a BBC documentary about the famine in Ethiopia, which claimed more than 1 million victims in 1984-85 alone. He decided to write a song to help raise money for the starving citizens of the East African nation."

"Live Aid was a dual-venue concert held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom (attended by 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (attended by about 100,000 people). On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative happened in other countries, such as Australia and Germany. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast." Left: Live Aid stage at Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom; Right: Live Aid stage at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Some of the artists in attendance

Left: Freddie Mercury and Queen performing 'Radio Ga-Ga' ; Right: WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: Freddie Mercury and Queen unashamedly stole the show at Wembley, to this day some still consider it the best live set of all time.

Coda

A number of controversies arose surrounding funds allocation and expenditures by and for organizers, these can be explored more fully by consulting the "Sources" cited below. Directly below I address one such complaint cited in the media:

"Fund use in Ethiopia

Although a professed admirer of Geldof's generosity and concern, Fox News Channel television host Bill O'Reilly has been critical of the Live Aid producer's oversight of the money raised for starving Ethiopian people, claiming (in June 2005) that much of the funds were siphoned off by Mengistu Haile Mariam and his army (which included the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front). This coalition battled, at the time against Derg. O'Reilly believes that charity organizations, operating in aid-receiving countries, should control donations, rather than possibly corrupt governments.

Arguing that Live Aid accomplished good ends while inadvertently causing harm at the same time, David Rieff gave a presentation of similar concerns in The Guardian at the time of Live 8. Tim Russert, in an interview on Meet the Press shortly after O'Reilly's comments, addressed these concerns to Bono. Bono responded that corruption, not disease or famine, was the greatest threat to Africa, agreeing with the belief that foreign relief organizations should decide how the money is spent. On the other hand, Bono said that it was better to spill some funds into nefarious quarters for the sake of those who needed it, than to stifle aid because of possible theft."

IMHO:

"As with all things which touch on the character of man, so too is the possibility of theft and malfeasance when money and human avarice are involved. I think that the intent was in the right place for bringing some relief to people who were in dire straights in Africa, it is admirable that someone even attempted to help.

Too often that instinct is lacking today, I commend those who at least tried, dubious allocations of funds are part and parcel to the endeavors of man (remember those $500 toilette seats purchased by our military?). I don't applaud those who sought only personal gain but to be honest is that such a surprise?

In the end the concert did organize people to do something to help those in need and that is admirable in itself. I am sure that some of the money got to the people that the organizers had originally intended to help.

In the end all we can ask is that someone cares and tries for the sake of community, caring and humanity. We have to know that we are not perfect and cannot predict what lies in the hearts of all concerned, but the effort was heartfelt by the world and of course the concerts were spectacular successes to those who attended and shared what they could to assist those in need."

Multimedia Resources:

"It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for: Live Aid ...." Richard Skinner opening the show

Live Aid 1985 Video Artist Menagerie

(For some songs the satellite link came down so the audio was completed using a radio broadcast feed.)

Live Aid full concert (video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEO6v-YiS00&list=PLynkmjHqHHWB6g-mvoL0tGmRc6a3L42Wp Queen - Live at LIVE AID 1985/07/13 (video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkFHYODzRTs Live Aid Quintessential Archetypical Performance

For Africa - We Are The World

Sources: http://www.live8live.com/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3604680.stm http://www.atu2.com/news/live-aid-and-the-swirl-of-criticism.html http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/12/us/briefing-live-aid-live-spend.html http://www.theweek.co.uk/photos/34019/picture-past-july-13-1985-live-aid http://www.mtv.com/news/1643506/looking-back-at-live-aid-25-years-later/

http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/17484791/Los-10-mejores-recitales-musicales.html http://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/2009/07/13/on-this-day-in-show-biz-live-aid-attracts-15-billion/ http://www.mtv.com/news/1504968/live-aid-a-look-back-at-a-concert-that-actually-changed-the-world/ http://articles.philly.com/2005-06-26/entertainment/25437381_1_live-aid-philadelphia-s-jfk-stadium-wembley-and-jfk http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2329571/Freddie-Mercury-trying-Bono-The-Live-Aid-story-youve-heard-before.html

Click on the pictures below to view greater detail:

](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWnQBW0FYg)

](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22oy8dFjqc)

[8thman]

On this July 4th "We" must remember this history: AMERICAN POLITICS AND POLITICIANS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN EMBATTLED AND SHRILL. This article cites the day-to-day political battles we see today as being a characteristic of America and its governance from the very start... I was made highly aware of this fact from reading numerous accounts of the political wrangling in which all our founding fathers engaged. Most notable and surprising to me was the political acumen of the "Father of the US Constitution"; James Madison. I recently finished a biography that not only astounded but completely changed my entire view and understanding of this founding father. I think you might glean some important insights into just how our nation was imagined by the founders of our nation. Here is a small expose on a book that I can recommend; it certainly gave me a perspective of how the founders looked upon how they envisage OUR "self governance." "Madison was involved in nearly every political controversy and decision of his age: he was Thomas Jefferson’s indispensable ally in the struggle for religious liberty in revolutionary Virginia; he served tirelessly as a delegate to the Continental Congress during the most trying years of the Revolutionary War; he is deservedly remembered as “the Father of the Constitution”; he was the principal, albeit reluctant, author of what would become our federal Bill of Rights; as the prime organizer of the Jeffersonian Republican Party, he was in many ways the inventor of the very idea of a modern party system; he served as President Jefferson’s secretary of state and most trusted adviser; finally, as a wartime president, Madison had to endure not only the burning of Washington, but also conflict and intrigue within his own party and beyond. The amount of scholarship chronicling these events is immense, and although Brookhiser is somewhat sparing in acknowledging his debts to historians who have preceded him, his sprightly narrative will serve as an entertaining introduction for those who are making their first acquaintance with Madison. Moreover, Brookhiser’s book is a useful corrective to some of the recent works in the fields of political science and law that place excessive emphasis on Madison the theorist." While Brookhiser respects the quality of Madison’s intellect, he is more interested in Madison the politician, less concerned with the consistency of Madison’s thought than with Madison’s skill as an activist. As an avid observer of the hyper partisan political environment of our own age, Brookhiser uses Madison’s often tumultuous career to remind us that day-to-day politics have never been very pretty. Anyone involved in the political wars as long and as relentlessly as Madison was surely bound to make a few missteps, and a few enemies, along the way. But Brookhiser effectively argues that Madison, by melding his knowledge of political theory with shrewd political instincts, deserves a place close to the top of the list of America’s most successful politicians." - By RICHARD BEEMAN, (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/books/review/james-madison-by-richard-brookhiser-book-review.html) The quoted excerpts cited by Mr Beeman are from the book: JAMES MADISON By Richard Brookhiser, 287 pp. By reading this excellent treatise, I hope you will treat yourself to the kind of history and understanding "We the People" need today. Below, the image of James Madison, National Archive, copy of portrait by Gilbert Stuart:

[8thman]

___ . AMERICA CELEBRATES 60 YEARS IN SPACE! . . “Sixty years ago, on January 31, 1958, the First Explorer was successfully launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency on a Jupiter-C rocket. Inaugurating the era of space exploration for the United States, Explorer I was a thirty pound satellite that carried instruments to measure temperatures, and micrometeorite impacts, along with an experiment designed by James A. Van Allen to measure the density of electrons and ions in space. The measurements made by Van Allen’s experiment led to an unexpected and then startling discovery of two earth-encircling belts of high energy electrons and ions trapped in the magnetosphere. Now known as the Van Allen Radiation belts, the regions are located in the inner magnetosphere, beyond low Earth orbit. Explorer I ceased transmitting on February 28, 1958, but remained in orbit until March of 1970.” . “Less than a lifetime ago, humankind just barely left the limits of Earth’s atmosphere. Who could have imagined that only 60 years later we would be touching the surface of the Sun, arriving at the most distant object humans have ever explored, and soon to be launching the world’s most powerful telescope to get a glimpse of the first galaxies born after the Big Bang? As NASA celebrates the 60th Anniversary of Explorer 1, the satellite that blazed the way for hundreds of missions to follow, some of the most ambitions explorations are yet to come.” . Read, view and hear more about this historic event here: http://www.lions-gate.us/Energon/Jan_31_1958.html . . . ___ .

. Launch of Explorer I, America’s first artificial satellite atop a Jupiter-C rocket (NASA) .

[8thman]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

___ . Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) with main NASA website at http://apod.nasa.gov/. If you are a fan of APOD, please consider joining the Friends of APOD at http://friendsofapod.org/. . Enjoy seeing a new aspect of our universe, day to day! . . Click on this link for the latest and greatest show of our universe! . https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ (picture changes daily, so everyday is a surprise that always fascinates!) .

The Helix Nebula, given a technical designation of NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away towards the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius) and spans about 2.5 light-years. Will our Sun look like this one day? The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The outer gasses of the star expelled into space appear from our vantage point as if we are looking down a helix. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a white dwarf star, glows in light so energetic it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce.

. ___

[8thman]

On this day,  November 16, 1974

Mankind's first intentional interstellar radio message is sent from the Arecibo Radio telescope towards M13, a globular cluster of stars in the halo of our galaxy some 25,000 light years away

In 1974, the most powerful broadcast ever deliberately beamed into space was made from Puerto Rico. The broadcast formed part of the ceremonies held to mark a major upgrade to the Arecibo Radio Telescope. The transmission consisted of a simple, pictorial message, aimed at our putative cosmic companions in the globular star cluster M13. This cluster is roughly 21,000 light-years from us, near the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, and contains approximately a third of a million stars. The broadcast was particularly powerful because it used Arecibo's megawatt transmitter attached to its 305 meter antenna. The latter concentrates the transmitter energy by beaming it into a very small patch of sky. The emission was equivalent to a 20 trillion watt omnidirectional broadcast, and would be detectable by a SETI experiment just about anywhere in the galaxy, assuming a receiving antenna similar in size to Arecibo's. The message consists of 1679 bits, arranged into 73 lines of 23 characters per line (these are both prime numbers, and may help the aliens decode the message). The "ones" and "zeroes" were transmitted by frequency shifting at the rate of 10 bits per second. The total broadcast was less than three minutes. A graphic showing the message is reproduced here. It consists, among other things, of the Arecibo telescope, our solar system, DNA, a stick figure of a human, and some of the biochemicals of earthly life. Although it's unlikely that this short inquiry will ever prompt a reply, the experiment was useful in getting us to think a bit about the difficulties of communicating across space, time, and a presumably wide culture gap.

http://www.lions-gate.us/Energon/Nov_16_1974b.html

[8thman]

The Pale Blue Dot - Our Home

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space 

Pictured below: The Pale Blue Dot - Our Home. The Earth from 4 billion miles away. This picture was taken by Voyager 1 in 1991 as it approached the outer limits of our solar system.

[8thman]

____ . THERE IS A REASON... . THEY CALL IT "MOTHER NATURE"...

From a post an FB friend had sent:

Once upon a time, When women were birds, There was the simple understanding That to sing at dawn And to sing at dusk Was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, That the world is meant to be celebrated. - Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds

Art by Jennifer Lommers

Wonderful sentiment. I only hope that we will see a day once again when women will be back in place to heal all the schisms we see today.

A good start would be... to have a woman as president of the strongest and most influential nation on Earth. Such a leader could help to heal the world and help every woman to find an equal place... I am of the view that that itself could bring more joy to every girl and woman and as a consequence to every boy and man.

"We the People" should never forget; it is the women who raise the children and thereby from their caretaking and guidance lay the foundation of every civilization.

____ . "We all need to remember where it all came from... from the swaddling and caressing, the smiles and laughing, the careful feeding and pampering... these are all the methods that one person gave and never sought anything but our health and sustenance, and all so that we may become the man or woman She would be proud of... that one person, every life has, is the one person most responsible for the beings you and I have become, of course, it was.... our Mom."

Blessings Mom, I miss your sparkling eyes and soft voice... and what you said: "Now, be a good boy."

____ . The original picture attached was linked to this FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/shamantube/photos/a.281586071898124.69173.113759895347410/607797542610307/?type=3&theater

____ . Source:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156226941470608&set=a.269814630607.309554.535540607&type=3&theater

____

[8thman]

___ . A BEAUTY BEYOND IMAGINATION... . A WORLD, UNLIKE ANY OTHER... . THAT WE KNOW.

The photo attached brings to mind those words that inspire and remind us of the tragedy of losing a treasure that can never be replaced.

I offer these words to cogitate upon and which adds to our life and understanding and reminds us too, of the words of the Bard:

 "To love that well which thou must leave ere long."

...

"Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)"

Starry, starry night Paint your palette blue and gray Look out on a summer's day With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills Sketch the trees and the daffodils Catch the breeze and the winter chills In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand What you tried to say to me And how you suffered for your sanity And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry, starry night Flaming flowers that brightly blaze Swirling clouds in violet haze Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

Colors changing hue Morning fields of amber grain Weathered faces lined in pain Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

Now I understand What you tried to say to me And how you suffered for your sanity And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you But still your love was true And when no hope was left in sight On that starry, starry night

You took your life, as lovers often do But I could've told you Vincent This world was never meant for One as beautiful as you

Starry, starry night Portraits hung in empty halls Frame-less heads on nameless walls With eyes that watch the world and can't forget

Like the strangers that you've met The ragged men in ragged clothes The silver thorn of bloody rose Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know What you tried to say to me And how you suffered for your sanity And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they're not listening still Perhaps they never will

- DON MCLEAN

And to hear the music of the words, here is a link that you can use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVprz0nm0Y4

I hope you enjoy...

___ . https://twitter.com/doleyar/status/661925559052709888 ___ Could #OUR #world get more #beautiful? #TheEarthTheOnlyPlaceWeKnowWhereLifeResides! https://t.co/1lN3lz5qGG https://twitter.com/doleyar/status/661925559052709888 ___

[8thman]

____ . INTERESTING... . . WE "CAN' FIND A BETTER WAY.

Couple this idea with a scientific truth, with the exception of the energy derived from radioactive elements, ALL energy on Earth is derived from the energy impinging on the Earth from the Sun.

Of course there are the obvious sources, fossil fuels to the plants we eat, derive their energy from direct harnessing of the light from the Sun.

OUR Fossil fuels come from the plants that fell and died millions of years ago and through the pressure of the Earth have changed into the oil and gas and coal we harvest today in oil wells and coal mines and even the fracking of natural gas.

Of course life can only be sustained by life, we eat the plants directly, the plants derive their nutritiousness by converting the Sun's light into the elements and proteins we need to survive.  We also eat the muscle meat and other products of animals who derive their weight and meat by eating the plants which as cited have already produced their sustenance by converting Sun energy into their feed.

So you see, we use "middle men" to conserve and consume the energy that OUR Sun provides for free.  Is it really so hard to see that the Sun and its energy could be harvested directly?

We have many advantages in modern life, we need electricity and through our innovation and creation have found the ways to directly take the rays of the Sun and change them into electricity.

We also have a need for heat and cool, the electricity can provide both but we can also directly use the light of the Sun to heat water for drinking, taking warm showers or heating our homes.

So, as this graphic asks a question and muses on what IF;  we today know what the answer is:  We need to finally free ourselves from the "middle men" from coal and oil and harness the light of the Sun directly, in this way we not only can power OUR industries and businesses and homes... we can help to avert the catastrophe that will be if we do not change.. of course I am speaking of thwarting our collision course with "climate change" and "global warming."

If we do the sage thing today, and help avert a stark destiny for our children and grandchildren that would befall them in a world destroyed by "global warming"; we would be living up to that scientific moniker of mankind known as "Homo Sapiens"... an artful world which if you know Latin means:  "Wise man."

I hope you join me in encouraging our leaders to take the path that leads us to a world not savaged by "climate change" and to a world where we indeed wisely use the "free" energy of OUR Sun.

Read more here about our species and how it was framed when it was first identified in ancient bones of our ancestors:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens

____

[8thman]

____ . WHO WAS FIRST IN PROMOTING... . THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN OUR WORLD... . AT THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY? . SHE MADE A WORLD RECOGNIZED CONTRIBUTION THEN... . SHE STILL PROMOTES AND SUPPORTS... . "EQUALITY FOR WOMEN."

I have heard her say numerous times that Bill was the president, he called the shots. That doesn't sound like "taking the credit" for what her husband did.

She did, and was the first person to do this however, to go to China and espouse the rights of women at a UN sponsored convention, you might remember it?

Here is the text of what she said:

" I would like to thank the Secretary General for inviting me to be part of this important United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. This is truly a celebration, a celebration of the contributions women make in every aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in the community, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens, and leaders.

It is also a coming together, much the way women come together every day in every country. We come together in fields and factories, in village markets and supermarkets, in living rooms and board rooms. Whether it is while playing with our children in the park, or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concern. And time and again, our talk turns to our children and our families. However different we may appear, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future, and we are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world, and in so doing bring new strength and stability to families as well.

By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in our lives -- the lives of women and their families: access to education, health care, jobs and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and to participate fully in the political life of our countries.

There are some who question the reason for this conference. Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe. Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou -- the homemakers and nurses, the teachers and lawyers, the policymakers and women who run their own businesses. It is conferences like this that compel governments and peoples everywhere to listen, look, and face the world’s most pressing problems. Wasn’t it after all -- after the women’s conference in Nairobi ten years ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of domestic violence?

Earlier today, I participated in a World Health Organization forum. In that forum, we talked about ways that government officials, NGOs, and individual citizens are working to address the health problems of women and girls. Tomorrow, I will attend a gathering of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. There, the discussion will focus on local -- and highly successful -- programs that give hard-working women access to credit so they can improve their own lives and the lives of their families.

What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well. That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on this planet does have a stake in the discussion that takes place here.

Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families. Over the past two and a half years, I've had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my own country and around the world.

I have met new mothers in Indonesia, who come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care. I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared for in safe, and nurturing after-school centers. I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid and are now helping to build a new democracy. I have met with the leading women of my own hemisphere who are working every day to promote literacy and better health care for children in their countries. I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out small loans to buy milk cows, or rickshaws, or thread in order to create a livelihood for themselves and their families. I have met the doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who are trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of Chernobyl.

The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard. Women comprise more than half the world’s population, 70% of the world’s poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write. We are the primary caretakers for most of the world’s children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued -- not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.

At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countries. Women also are dying from diseases that should have been prevented or treated. They are watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation. They are being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and brothers. They are being forced into prostitution, and they are being barred from the bank lending offices and banned from the ballot box.

Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the responsibility to speak for those who could not. As an American, I want to speak for those women in my own country, women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who can’t afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes.

I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air, and clean airwaves; for older women, some of them widows, who find that, after raising their families, their skills and life experiences are not valued in the marketplace; for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, or fast food chefs so that they can be at home during the day with their children; and for women everywhere who simply don’t have time to do everything they are called upon to do each and every day.

Speaking to you today, I speak for them, just as each of us speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a say about the direction of their lives, simply because they are women. The truth is that most women around the world work both inside and outside the home, usually by necessity.

We need to understand there is no one formula for how women should lead our lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her own God-given potential. But we must recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected.

Our goals for this conference, to strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control over their own destinies, cannot be fully achieved unless all governments -- here and around the world -- accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognized human rights. The -- The international community has long acknowledged and recently reaffirmed at Vienna that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear. No one -- No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse, or torture.

Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now, in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees. And when women are excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse. I believe that now, on the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break the silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.

These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words. But the voices of this conference and of the women at Huairou must be heard loudly and clearly:

It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls.

It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution for human greed -- and the kinds of reasons that are used to justify this practice should no longer be tolerated.

It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.

It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.

It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes by their own relatives.

It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation.

It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.

If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely -- and the right to be heard.

Women must enjoy the rights to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries, if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. It is indefensible that many women in nongovernmental organizations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend -- or have been prohibited from fully taking part.

Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions.

In my country, we recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage. It took 150 years after the signing of our Declaration of Independence for women to win the right to vote. It took 72 years of organized struggle, before that happened, on the part of many courageous women and men. It was one of America’s most divisive philosophical wars. But it was a bloodless war. Suffrage was achieved without a shot being fired.

But we have also been reminded, in V-J Day observances last weekend, of the good that comes when men and women join together to combat the forces of tyranny and to build a better world. We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half century. We have avoided another world war. But we have not solved older, deeply-rooted problems that continue to diminish the potential of half the world’s population.

Now it is the time to act on behalf of women everywhere. If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too. Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care. Families rely on women for labor in the home. And increasingly, everywhere, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives.

As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled, subjected to violence in and outside their homes -- the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.

Let -- Let this conference be our -- and the world’s -- call to action. Let us heed that call so we can create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future. That is the work before you. That is the work before all of us who have a vision of the world we want to see -- for our children and our grandchildren.

The time is now. We must move beyond rhetoric. We must move beyond recognition of problems to working together, to have the comment efforts to build that common ground we hope to see.

God's blessing on you, your work, and all who will benefit from it.

Godspeed and thank you very much."

-  First Lady Hillary Rodham 

This speech is known around the world and to history as the "Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights" speech.  A milestone in the history for the pronouncement of women's rights as human rights.

As you can tell by what she said, Mrs. Clinton was very "ballsy" and far ahead of most women in America in promoting the "rights of women" all around the world.

You can't name another woman with more gravitas in 1995 than our former "first lady" Hillary Clinton.

Here is a video to make her message clear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXM4E23Efvk

____

[8thman]

____ . CELEBRATING THE 100TH YEAR... . ANNIVERSARY OF GENERAL RELATIVITY! . IT WAS 100 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH... . THAT EINSTEIN PRESENTED TO THE WORLD... . HIS EXPLANATION OF HOW SPACE IS CURVED AND... . HOW TO HIM THAT EXPLAINS, GRAVITATION.

Here is a short video to help explain just what all I have said, really means:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEZupmpTcOU

If you want to know more, here is the place to go if you are NOT a mathematician or a physicist:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity

The scientist reading this will need to consult several books, so I leave the selection to them instead.

____ . P.S.  Here is a video link for those interested in the history of General Relativity and other theories discovered and created by Albert Einstein:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0hwuyOmd4k ____ . P.P.S.  And for those who are REALLY interested, here is a link to read all of the papers that were published by Einstein in his lifetime:

http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/ ____

[8thman]

Hey there,

Exciting news! The Internet Slowdown net neutrality protest planned for September 10th is really taking off. This morning, a dozen of the world’s largest websites announced that they’re joining in a big way. Sites you know and love like Etsy, Kickstarter, Wordpress, Vimeo,... ... "WE THE PEOPLE..." MUST SPEAK! Join me in trying to have a say in how the Internet will be governed and in keeping two things clear... "We the People..." used our tax dollars to build the Internet and want that to be REMEMBERED and "We the People..." require that we get the "speed" we pay for in accessing the Internet without having to pay "premiums" or to have vendors reduce competition by having carriers charge competitors exorbitant fees to compete. The first provision is to ensures OUR right to say how the Internet is governed, the second ensures that the Internet is a "fair playing field" for competition and to stay an environment where the small entrepreneur can compete and start the new resources we all want... that is how Skype, Amazon, and other institutions got started without the burden of non-competitive priority rate systems that will KILL Internet competition and innovation. We need the Internet to remain a "free and open market" without levels of access which depends on who can pay more to do commerce. Read more about this event here: http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/09/tech/web/internet-slowdown-day/index.html ... Here is the avatar to change your twitter and FB profile pix https://www.battleforthenet.com/sept10th/ or http://media.al.com/news_impact/photo/cat-loading-logojpg-53c2669d774be77c.jpg or https://www.battleforthenet.com/images/change_avatar/avatar-cat.gif ...

[8thman]

IS THIS THE EQUALITY AMERICA WANTS?

_____________________________

The video in the link below needs to be seen by every citizen and tax payer in America.

The question it poses and illuminates are much needed to ensure that our children and grand children will have a future with dignity.

Please watch the video and ask yourself, is this what America is all about?

__________________ View the video here: Wealth Inequality in America

___________________

The distribution of wealth by percentile group in America.

[8thman]

________________________ REMEMBERING AND HONORING A FALLEN AMERICAN HERO WHO DIED IN SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY It's been 50 years since that dark and fatal day when innocence was lost and America once again remembered the heartbreak of losing a leader to violence. Sadly during that same decade many others who shared that dream of an America with "liberty and justice for all" also felt the wrath of fatal violence, among them Robert his brother and Martin Luther King, Jr. The great and good can fall but their legacy and words can still ring, and so theirs did and has. The following recalls the stark detail of remembering this sad occasion but cannot portray the mourning of a nation: "Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas."

________________________ "The 1960s were full of tragedies that shook the nation and appalled the American people and left the nation off-balanced socially it was a time of tensions and bewilderment. Medgar Evers, JFK, MLK, RFK, Malcolm X all killed in the 1960's; needless to say, Americans felt a profound loss of innocence for an entire generation. For those who experienced those tragedies firsthand ...the pain and questions still reverberate today. It IS hard to believe that a dope like LHO could have taken down the leader of the free world... as time goes by and digital analyses are performed it looks like that is what happened with JFK. They weren't perfect men back then but compared to what we see today that they were "special" is more and more evident. And that adds to the bewilderment and the questions centered on: 'What might have been." ________________________ Read, view and hear more of this event that saddened a nation and will forever be remembered as a reminder to all of just how much difference one life can make. Enter here:  http://www.lions-gate.us/Energon/Nov_22_1963d.html ________________________ Twitter:

November 22, 1963, #President John F. Kennedy #JFK was #assassinated in Texas.#NARA http://tinyurl.com/k8kmdxh ________________________

[8thman]

_____________________________ ENJOY A VIEW THAT YOU PROBABLY WON'T SEE DIRECTLY BUT YOU OWE YOURSELF TO SEE

It is a wonder to watch and contemplate upon what you see; the seat of humanity as well as the only world that we know to harbor life...

All life that has ever lived and every human who has ever breathed the air and felt the warmth of the sun resides or has resided on this blue planet we call home.

Please treat yourself to a sight that can inspire and help you understand just how precious this gift of life is and how, despite our great intellect and industry, we have not been able to create such a world.

Our great fortune is that we have been given this great gift, our Earth, to live and love and enjoy.

Each day is precious to all life on our planet, this we must never forget.

We believe this of our loved ones and there is ample evidence that this is a universal characteristic of every form of life.

So enjoy this view and think of the wealth it imbues... every living thing there is can be seen in a single glance.

__________________ Click the link below to view all of humanity and every form of life in the universe we know:

https://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=23912963

___________________

Take a few minutes to enjoy a view that you probably won't see directly unless you happen to watch this video.

Enjoy a Kaguya Earthrise. ________________________________