"the desire for beauty is getting stronger"

well, it's sad, but it's a very good analysis of culture- especially culture in LA. Too bad people can't find a place to feel known for a person with an appearance that is imperfect and beautiful at the same time.

Sports the Way they should be- completely upside down

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

The best gospel preaching I've ever seen. The Kingdom come to the world of sports.

South Africa Trip Blog

http://3weeksinsa.blogspot.com/

The Audio from NPR on politics and archetypes

From NPR's website:

"Collision of Myths"


"What American myths do Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain embody? And how do those myths collide? Larry talks with Todd Gitlin, a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, about the aspects of this campaign that go deeper than the slogans, strategies and attacks."

http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/

(scroll down to "Collision of Myths" from the October 7th 2008 show)

NPR on Antidepressants

Another interesting piece I ran across on NPR's website. This one to do with antidepressants:


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18184538

Archetypes and the Political Campaigns

On NPR today I heard a segment on how each presidential candidate is tapping into some unspoken archetypes that voters may unwillingly associate with. The campaign organizers surely are all to aware of the character they are selling the public and the narrative they are placing their character into, but their story has to stick be relevant to the public in order for their character to save the day. Here's an interesting piece from the sociologist, Todd Gitlin, I heard today on NPR. It's a very interesting piece:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-gitlin28-2008sep28,0,7896539.story

The interview from my local NPR station will hopefully get up here tomorrow if I remember.

Jesus and Politics

Left, Right, or Center? (by Ron Sanders)

An article about how following Jesus and American politics, or any politics for that matter, mix. Enjoy...

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life_article.php?id=7624

Community Through Bike Repair

http://www.bikekitchen.org/

Christian the Lion

The music may be cheesy, but the story is pretty amazing...

Nina's Story

Nina was born into a wealthy family in a nice area of the Polish city of L'vov (now in the Ukraine). When the Russians took over in 1939, a general liked their apartment and moved in. She and her mother were allowed to stay on as servants in their own home.

Shortly after she graduated from high school, the Russians and the Germans broke up. She was on vacation in the mountains near home in 1941, when her dad called and said they had to come back to town. The next Sunday morning they woke to the sounds of the German bombs.

When the Russians left and the Germans arrived, she was forced to move to the poor part of town, which was walled off with guard towers and became a ghetto of 115,000 Jews. She refused to wear the yellow star armband because she didn't look Jewish and nobody bothered her. But one day a nice German soldier stopped her and said she's in great danger if she doesn't, because she could be killed on the spot if anybody finds out. She spent a lot of time doing odd jobs, mostly cleaning the street, because they'd beat her if she didn't. She applied for a job as a nanny to a German family and was accepted.

They were good to her, and even offered to take her out of the ghetto when they left, but she said no because she wanted to stick around Poland to see whether her family would turn up. Her brother was a famous doctor. Because he operated the first and only EKG machine in Poland, she figured the Germans would have to let him live, so
eventually he'd be looking for her. She more-or-less enjoyed working for the family because the baby really liked her, and she had food and a clean place to sleep. She didn't get paid, but she said she was "happy enough not to get shot."

Eventually they moved her to a concentration camp nearby, where she did physical labor like moving stones and making building materials. She wasn't there for long before they rounded everybody up and took them into the forest to shoot them. She fainted, and so they thought she was dead. When she woke up, she took off running into the forest.

She hid there for a while, then went back to the ghetto to look for her family. She stayed around the area in hiding with Polish families for a year, and then decided it was too dangerous, and headed west. She was in hiding until the end of the war, and moved to New York in 1947. All of her father's substantial property in Berlin and Poland/Ukraine was lost. None of her family survived except her.

(Nina's life story summary was emailed to me by my friend Kenny Garrett, he helped her out legally somehow and heard her entire life story. She is emailing him her memoirs, so maybe they'll show up here too.)

NT Wright Interview

Here's an NT Wright article worth reading. It's a good overview of some of his major messages for the church and humanity in general. It's worth a read and luckily it's not too long.

Guerrilla Gardening

Look around your section of your community and see if there isn't a piece of abandoned dirt somewhere waiting for transformation and recreation.

That's what these guys are doing: guerrilla gardeners are "vandalizing" cities all over the world by voluntarily landscaping forgotten plots of land throughout major cities. Seems like it's getting back to our human roots.

"And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed... The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it."

NT Wright on The Colbert Report

Gandhi on Art

"We have somehow accustomed ourselves to the belief that art is independent of the purity of private life. I can say with all the experience at my command that nothing could be more untrue. As I am nearing the end of my earthly life I can say that purity of life is the highest and truest art. The art of producing good music from a cultivated voice can be achieved by many, but the art of producing that music from the harmony of a pure life is achieved very rarely."

US Swimming Olympic Team Trials TV Schedule

http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&ItemId=1990&mid=2943

Gandhi: Education

"I hold that true education of the intellect can only come through a proper exercise and training of the bodily organs, e.g., hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, etc. In other words an intelligent use of the bodily organs in a child provides the best and quickest way of developing his intellect. But unless the development of the mind and body goes hand in hand with a corresponding awakening of the soul, the former alone could prove to be a poor lopsided affair. By spiritual training I mean education of the heart. A proper and all-round development of the mind, therefore, can take place only when it proceeds pari passu with the education of the physical and spiritual faculties of the child. They constitute an indivisible whole. According to this theory, therefore, it would be a gross fallacy to suppose that they can be developed piecemeal or independently of one another."

Daily Bread and a Communal Table

http://www.painquotidien.com/

That's a great idea for a restaurant- good tasting, organic breads with simple ingredients combined with communal tables so you meet people. Someone should open one up on California Avenue next to a smoothie shop. That'd be a perfect combination.

Vegan Athletes Accel

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=keri/080616&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab6pos2

Even a 246 lbs. Hall of Fame tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs thinks you can play at the highest levels with a vegan diet.

Gandhi: All Men are Brothers (Autobiographical Reflections)

"'Earn thy bread by the sweat of thy brow' says the Bible. Sacrifices may be of many kinds. One of them may well be bread labour. If all laboured for their bread and no more, then there would be enough food and enough leisure for all."

"Indeed at the root of this doctrine of equal distribution must lie that of trusteeship of the wealthy for superfluous wealth possessed by them. For according to the doctrine they may not possess a rupee more than their neighbours. How is this to be brought about? Nonviolently? Or should the wealthy be dispossessed of their possessions? To do this we would naturally have to resort to violence. This violent action cannot benefit the society. Society will be the poorer, for it will lose the gifts of a man who knows how to accumulate wealth. Therefore the nonviolent way is evidently superior. The rich man will be left in possession of his wealth, of which he will use what he reasonably requires for his personal needs and will act as a trustee for the remainder to be used for the society. In this argument honesty on the part of the trustee is assumed."

Who Needs Gas, How About Salt Water?

England vs USA Friendly

Do you think human beings can affect the courtship dance of a bird in the deep woods of some remote part of our planet?

Watch the section from 1:45 until 3:00 or so. This bird does some pretty amazing sound imitations. You'll be surprised at what it can do- I promise. That's an amazing creature.

Time Banking

Time Banking

What a great idea for building relationships and community: Time Dollars. If you've never heard of them, read this article and check out this website.

Here's a brief explanation from the website:

For every hour you spend doing something for someone in your community, you earn one Time Dollar. Then you have a Time Dollar to spend on having someone do something for you. It's that simple. Yet it also has profound effects. Time Banks change neighborhoods and whole communities. Time Banking is a social change movement in 22 countries and six continents.

Slow is the New Fast

Authority? Biblical Authority?: NT on Biblical authority

http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Bible_Authoritative.htm

Beer Launching Fridge

Robotic Beer Launching Refrigerator - video powered by Metacafe

Peter Underwater Dolphin Kick

Just so you can compare with your underwater kicks

Peter Underwater swim at 80%

I'm flat just like you are. Again, we both need to elongate our entry and be patient enough to wait for our hips to set up a good powerful and efficient rotation through our pulling stroke.

Phil Dolphin Kick Underwater

Looks good to me...

Phil Under Water at 80%

Phil, same goes here for the hips- you can see how flat they are. Also, your hand's entry point is too far behind your head. Try and widen it out to just past your shoulder in order to be more efficient. You have some wasted motion after the entry, so if we move it out wider you will save some energy and probably help your shoulder problems as well.

Phil, you look a bit flat with the hips. We both need to connect our hips more to our hand entry and rotate more. It will feel like we are reaching a little more at the entry point of our stroke but it is necessary for efficiency and power- both good things.

Play Pumps

Really Turning the Other Cheek

Here's a story about a band of truly courageous Israeli Air Force Pilots who had a serious metamorphosis of mind en route to refusing to fly bombing and troop deployment missions against the Palestinians because, from their perspective, that was an irresponsible action only serving as fuel for the circle of violence plaguing the region. Perhaps the most moving story of love, forgiveness, transformation, and courage I've ever heard. I am not sure why it is not talked about with more regularity. National Public Radio did a story about it on January 25th out here in LA and it was very powerful. I couldn't find the story that I heard anywhere, but I did find a brief summary story that at least gives you a taste of the story. If I find the interview I heard I will put it up.



http://www.fmep.org/analysis/articles/pilots_letter.html

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/transcripts/2003/sep/030925.gradstein.html

Here's an interesting article from China as they get ready to launch an Olympic Sports channel in preparation for the Olympic Games later this summer. I wonder what happened to the lady in the article...