Los Angeles residents turn in guns for gift cards

This needs to be done in Stockton CA!

We have the Nations highest murder rate per capita, and have an alarming rate of citizens below poverty.

Myanmar Shakes to 6.6 magnitude earthquake Sunday

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A strong earthquake struck northern Myanmar on Sunday, causing residents to flee their homes, but no injuries or major damage were immediately reported.

The magnitude-6.6 temblor hit the area at 7:42 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake had a depth of just 10 kilometers (6 miles) and hit 117 kilometers (72 miles) north of Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city.

Four residents of Mandalay, contacted by phone, said the quake was strong enough to send people dashing out of their homes for safety, as water splashed out of jars. They said they saw no major structural damage in their immediate neighborhoods, but added that it did cause cracks in some walls.

The epicenter of the quake is a region frequently hit by small temblors that usually cause little damage.
The quake was felt in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand. It comes just a week ahead of a scheduled visit to Myanmar by President Barack Obama. He will be the first U.S. president to visit the one-time pariah nation, which is emerging from decades of military rule.

Associated Press

Poems to my Mother on my 27th Birthday. Thank You!

Love. Your. Mother.





What is it about nature that draws us in and erases our mental boundaries?

Fading sorbet-colored skies at dusk, ruminations under the brilliancy of the Milky Way or the fresh scent of spring flowers, break down the idea of singularity and allow for a moment of melting; an opportunity for a true meeting between the earth—the mother that bore us—and this human mind.

It might be an interesting experience to delve into the fundamental source of our existence and reach toward the very mother of our being; we could learn a great deal about ourselves while looking into the heart of life.

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

~ John Muir

And yet, today, it seems her children work incessantly and unknowingly against her, slicing down forests and polluting her life-giving seas.

When I look around, staring out at the expansive sprawl of Los Angeles or watching the smog build up over San Jose in the afternoon, I often wonder how we got here; seven and a half billion people, the sixth great extinction event in the history of life on earth, human-induced global warming, all on this grain of sand, swirling in the midst of infinity.

I look to the religious traditions—the archetypal creation myths coursing through the veins of modern human society—and hear about some place called heaven, yet I can’t imagine one more profound than a redwood grove or a black sand beach (the velvet texture of sand grains oozing up between our toes only to have that experience meld into gazing upon the majesty of swaying monoliths).

When our eyes our opened, it becomes difficult to deny the beauty of it all; the way ocean waves greet the shoreline and how these coastal zones bleed inland to intertwine with desert landscapes and towering mountains, to form a habitat that nourishes us, moment after moment.

How do we, as a species, remain out of touch with this reality?

Is it modernity? Is it the idea that our home is not heaven and that we will all go to a carnival in the sky? Is it that many of us don’t believe that we are the descendants of apes, only a few million years removed?

Or is it the rampant nature of our complex minds? In the end, it is something for you to look into and examine carefully.

If we keep looking away, if we continue to stay out of touch with our vital connection to the mother that bore us, we will miss the heaven that is here, all around us and in our ignorance, we will destroy it.

There is so much we can do.

Joining an organization and giving our time or currency is one idea, while lobbying the government to be more proactive is another.

But, fundamentally, there is something far more important we can all do first: we can rekindle that vital, pulsating connection we have to our mother.

This mind, when quieted and flayed out, is the way into a deep relationship with life.

The more people who can ignite it through consciously wading into nature and realizing the vibrancy of life and our place within the interconnected dynamic of vastness, the faster we can save the real, tangible heaven.




“Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.”

~ W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939



Be a steward for the earth and cherish life.



~

Editor: Bryonie Wise

Like elephant green on Facebook.

photo by: DonkeyHotey

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"We elect mayors and city council members for a reason: to represent us. Ballot box budgeting might solve one problem, but single-mindedly pursuing a single solution can create ripples with far wider repercussions." - Dan Oney

EXCLUSIVE: Ron Paul Shocks Campaign Staff With New Position On Israel

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul revealed this week that he would support moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a surprising position that contradicts conventional wisdom about Paul's stance toward the Jewish state.

Paul first made this position known Wednesday night, during a private meeting with evangelical leaders interested in helping the Texas Congressman reach out to the conservative Christian community.

According to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider, the leaders started off the meeting by asking Paul whether he would sign an Executive Order to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a major policy objective for Israeli hardliners and many leaders in the Christian Right.

"The real issue here is not what America wants, but what does Israel want," Paul told evangelical leaders, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider. "If Israel wants their capital to be Jerusalem, then the United States should honor that."

"How would we like it if some other nation said 'We decided to recognize New York City as your capital instead, so we will build our embassy there?'" he added.

Even Paul's senior campaign aides were surprised by his response.

"We were floored," senior advisor Doug Wead told Business Insider. "It sounds like pure Ron Paul, but it still caught us off guard...If someone would have asked him that in a national debate, I suppose it would have popped right out, but nobody did!"

Wead added that Paul's position "makes sense after the fact," noting that the candidate has frequently emphasized Israel's sovereignty.

Still, Paul's stance will likely come as a surprise to GOP leaders, most of whom view Paul's non-interventionist foreign policy ideas — and particularly his stance towards Israel — as his greatest weakness. The septuagenarian Congressman has largely been snubbed by the right-wing Jewish community, and was even excluded from a December presidential candidates' forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition because of his "misguided and extreme" foreign policy views.

"I appreciate what he said about Israel — as a matter of fact, I was pleasantly surprised," Brian Jacobs, a Texas pastor who attended Wednesday's meeting, told Business Insider. "It helped answer a lot of questions that I had."


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FOX: ROMNEY LOSING DELEGATES

“RON PAUL WINS MINNESOTA DELEGATES BY A LANDSLIDE”

That’s the headline right now at Slate where Dave Weigel writes:

A few weeks back, when Rick Santorum was arguing that he could power out delegate wins by organizing the little-noticed state conventions and caucuses, I agreed with him. And then Santorum quit. This left the state delegate pool hot and panting for Romneymentum, right?

Not quite yet. Over the weekend, Minnesota held congressional district conventions. Now, the state’s February caucus — one of the trio of non-binding contests Santorum won early that month — went 45 percent for Santorum, 27 percent for Paul, and only 17 percent for Romney. The Associated Press and other groups went on to estimate that Santorum would win 17 of Minnesota’s delegates, Paul would win 10, and Romney 6.

Wrong. Ron Paul dominated the CD conventions. According to a tweet from RNC committeewoman Pat Anderson, Paul took 20 of the 24 delegates available in the CDs.

That’s 20 delegates more than the zero that Paul got from Minnesota in 2008. Keep watching this. The Paul movement spent five years prepping for a guerilla delegate campaign…

This Race is just getting started. Do not believe the Lies coming from your TV...

Four Year Olds Have Brains Too

No matter how much we may disagree, here's proof!

Meet a 4-year-old girl whose IQ is just one point shy of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. Legos first, the theory of relativity next.

Heidi Hankins, from Winchester, England, is the newest kid on the block to join Mensa, the intellectual organization, with an IQ of 159. At the age of 2, Hankins was reportedly already reading at an 8-year-old level. There are no standardized IQ tests for children under the age of 10, so the toddler was psychologically evaluated.

Back in 2009, Oscar Wrigly joined Mensa at the age of 2 with an IQ of 160 to become the youngest child to ever join the organization. The average IQ in the general population is said to be about 100.

Mensa only recruits members whose IQs belong into the top 2% of the population. According to the Toronto Star, Heidi is one of approximately 90 children under the age of 10 who belong to the British chapter of Mensa.

“She will remember times and events and things you wouldn’t even notice,” Hankin’s father told the Star. “She has a really good memory for times and places and details.”

Erica Ho is a contributor at TIME and the editor of Map Happy. Find her on Twitter at @ericamho and Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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2pac On Stage at 2012 Coachella Festival

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The stars came out on the final day of So-Cal's Coachella festival, only at Coachella would a surprise dance tent performance by a superstar like Rihanna (more on that later) not be THE most talked-about event of the day. Instead, everyone was talking about another, much more surprising superstar cameo, by Tupac. Yes, the late Tupac Shakur. In hologram form.
Tupac died in 1996, three years before the first Coachella festival took place, but that didn't stop him--or at least his bizarrely lifelike 3D image--from joining Dr. Dre onstage during Dre's much-hyped festival finale this year. Call it better gigging through technology: About halfway through Dre's 70-minute set, what appeared to be an actual shirtless Tupac appeared onstage, greeted the crowd with "What up, Coachella?"--and then traded rhymes with Dre's co-billed Coachella partner, the flesh-and-blood Snoop Dogg, on "Come With Me," "Hail Mary," and "Gangsta Party." Concertgoers at first seemed confused--the audience momentarily grew abnormally silent--and that confusion only increased when Tupac suddenly vaporized and vanished from the stage as quickly as he had materialized. All eyez were on him, so to speak, and then, POOF--'Pac was gone.

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All-you-can-fly airline gets ready for take off in California

The first all-you-can-fly airline , Surf Air, plans to begin operations this summer, offering members unlimited service between Palo Alto, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles for as low as $790 a month.

On Thursday, Surf Air founders, brothers Wade and David Eyerly, announced their business plan, concentrating on frequent-flyers who represent 85 percent of the business travel
industry. In 2011 alone, more than 20 million frequent travelers flew between the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Wade Eyerly is a former intelligence officer and served as aide to Vice President, Dick Cheney. David Eyerly is a licensed commercial pilot and former manager of the Dallas Fort-Worth airport for Frontier Airlines.

"We are fulfilling a real need in the marketplace, a professional and affordable service between very popular regions," said Wade Eyerly, CEO and Founder of Surf Air. "We foresee our members forming personal and business bonds on our flights as they experience the benefits of this exclusive travel club. With Surf Air, you can arrive at your aircraft minutes before your flight, receive a warm welcome from the captain and concierge, and then be quickly on your way to your destination in the company of your fellow Surf Air members."


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