our common doom

“The best that we can do 

is to be kindly and helpful 

toward our friends and fellow passengers 

who are clinging to the same speck of dirt 

while we are drifting side by side 

to our common doom”

Clarence Darrow

death by cannon

Counter-protester with her daughters at a civil liberties rally by black people, Bogalusa, Louisiana, 1965

Toffs and Toughs – The famous photo by Jimmy Sime that illustrates the class divide in pre-war Britain, 1937

The last commercial sailing ship, Pamir, to round Cape Horn in 1949

Searchlights on the Rock of Gibraltar, 1942

James Dean posing in the coffin in the local undertaker in his home town in the year of his car crash and ensuing death, January 1955

Major General Horatio Gordon Robley with his collection of tattooed Maori heads, 1895

Japanese guards bow before US prisoners of war being released from a Yokohama detention center following the capitulation of Japan, 1945

Iranian woman before the Islamic Revolution, 1960

Georges Blind, a Member of the French Resistance, Smiling at a German Firing Squad, October 1944

Fidel Castro plays baseball in Havana, 1959

Execution by cannon, in Shiraz, Iran, mid-late 19th century

Kuikuro people

No stress no crime 

no homeless no bombs 

no debt no prisons 

no pollution no poverty 

and some people 

call them primitive !

the meaning of life

the context of ecstasy

Narayanan Krishnan

am i my brother's keeper ?

Yes !

the sandwich man

John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

alone

we are born alone...

we live alone...

and we die alone...

what have we if not each other ?

people

"You don't hate people...

you hate what they DO !...

GOD didn't make any bad people."

androcles and the lion

The earliest form of the story is found in the fifth book of Aulus Gellius's 2nd century Attic Nights. The author relates there a story told by Apion in his lost work Aegyptiacorum ("Wonders of Egypt"), the events of which Apion claimed to have personally witnessed in Rome. In this version, Androcles is given the Latin name of Androclus, a runaway slave of a former Roman consul administering a part of Africa. He takes shelter in a cave, which turns out to be the den of a wounded lion. He removes a large thorn from the animal's foot pad, forces pus from the infected wound, and bandages it. As a result, the lion recovers and becomes tame toward him, acting like a domesticated dog, including wagging its tail and bringing home game that it shares with the slave.

After several years, the slave eventually craves a return to civilization, resulting in his imprisonment as a fugitive slave and condemnation to be devoured by wild animals in the Circus Maximus of Rome. In the presence of an unnamed emperor, presumably either Caligula or Claudius, the most imposing of these beasts turns out to be the same lion, which again displays its affection toward the slave. The emperor pardons the slave on the spot, in recognition of this testimony to the power of friendship, and he is left in possession of the lion. Apion then continues:

"Afterwards we used to see Androclus with the lion attached to a slender leash, making the rounds of the tabernae throughout the city; Androclus was given money, the lion was sprinkled with flowers, and everyone who met them anywhere exclaimed, This is the lion, a man's friend; this is the man, a lion's doctor." (read more)

freak show

okay

Robert Wadlow with his father

Robert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 – July 15, 1940) also known as the Alton Giant and the Giant of Illinois, is the tallest person in history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. The Alton and Illinois monikers reflect the fact that he was born and grew up in Alton, Illinois.

Wadlow reached 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) in height and weighed 439 lb (199 kg) at his death at age 22. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hyperplasia of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. He showed no indication of an end to his growth even at the time of his death. (read more)

Ubuntu

According to Michael Onyebuchi Eze, the core of ubuntu can best be summarized as follows:

"A person is a person through other people" strikes an affirmation of one’s humanity through recognition of an "other" in his or her uniqueness and difference.

It is a demand for a creative intersubjective formation in which the "other" becomes a mirror (but only a mirror) for my subjectivity.

This idealism suggests to us that humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual; my humanity is co-substantively bestowed upon the other and me.

Humanity is a quality we owe to each other. We create each other and need to sustain this otherness creation.

And if we belong to each other, we participate in our creations: we are because you are, and since you are, definitely I am.

The "I am" is not a rigid subject, but a dynamic self-constitution dependent on this otherness creation of relation and distance".

(ubuntu philosophy) (nelson mandela) (paradise or oblivion)

Kindness

Rest In Peace Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, film producer, and screenwriter.

Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy (1978–82), Williams went on to establish a successful career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. His film career included such acclaimed films as The World According to Garp (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), and Good Will Hunting (1997), as well as financial successes such as Popeye (1980), Hook (1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Night at the Museum (2006), and Happy Feet (2006). He also appeared in the video "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, Williams received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting. He also received two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.

On August 11, 2014, Williams was found unresponsive at his residence in Marin County, California and was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the Marin County Sheriff's Office, the cause of death was asphyxiation by hanging. (read more)

the struggle itself

sisyphus

so sad

prison state

watch "prison state" on pbs