Uncultured.com by Shawn

I met yet another human aspiring to do something for his fellow humans on the YouTube...Shawn. This is a self-introduction of Shawn in his blog..I am a 26 year old former graduate student from the University of Notre Dame. After attending the 2006 Notre Dame Forum on Global Health and meeting Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (author of the book "The End of Poverty") - I was inspired to come to Bangladesh for a small, short-term, and self-funded project to see what difference I can make in helping some of the world's worst off. My goal is to inspire those who read this to ask themselves the question "are we doing enough to make a the world a better place?".
for more information on Shawn pls visit http://uncultured.com/
thankyou Shawn for spreading love..


The Young Hardworking Poor of Rural Bangladesh



Poor But Not Working Poorly

Creative Stimulation Workshop, Chennai,India

The Creativity Stimulation Workshop was organized as a part of 'Science Empowerment Program' by Suyam Charitable Trust and PRM Trust, for a healthy interaction with our younger generation. This workshop was conducted under Seva Talent organized by CIOSA, on the
occasion of Seva Mela 2008 at Valluvarkottam, Nungambakkam, Chennai on 15/03/2008 and 16/03/2008. More than 900 students from various schools and colleges in and around Chennai, participated at the event. There was a main introductory event through PowerPoint presentations and short documentary films to provide the children a brief world view. There were seven main events in which thirteen types of competitions were held. The motivation behind the theme has been to impart with seriousness, sensitivity and also to give a direction for their thought process. This was also intended to give an understanding about scientific thought and also social responsibility.
please check out the complete detailed report with photographs from http://suyamprojects.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
Posted by Muthuram.

Evil Mad Scientists at work!!

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories- Making the World a better place, One evil mad scientist at a time!



for more details on the evil mad scientist projects..pls visit..
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
http://evilmadscience.com/
http://www.becausewecan.org/

mmuaahhhh....!!!!!!

for more please visit http://funny-cats.blogspot.com/

A Part of the Whole - 4 - Triveni Sangamam

the unity of oceans..and my thoughts..and contradictions..the moments..
the bay of bengal, indian ocean and the arabian sea..

A Part of the Whole -3 - carefree spirits..

the carefree spirits know not or think not about the mysteries that surround them...
but the bliss is worth..and an infinite lives can be sacrificed for its sake!

what kind of feeling is this?

what kind of feeling is this?
am i feeling lonely..amidst all this love in the universe?
when all begins for me and ends in me?
every flower blooms for me..
and every time my earth moves with life..
i ought to be overwhelmed at the immense perseverance it endures..
but here i am..feeling lonely?
no...no..i need to come out of this..and accept the life that is given to me!

LOSS??

they say i lost another part of me today..
why do they use the word 'lost'?
there is nothing to lose when all that is lost is still here..within..
of what use is the word 'lost' when everything has to come back to me..one way or the other..
there is no place beyond the infinite where anything can go..
then why am i made to feel this way..?
i stand here, yearning to get in touch with the parts that will make me 'one' with the Whole..
do i understand anything here..?? i know not..
for.. i am the mystery!

TIBETAN UPRISING...for PEACE!

Dear Friend,

The time has come for me to go to Tibet again. Last time when I went to Tibet in 1997 - after my graduation - I was arrested by the Chinese authorities, beaten up, interrogated, starved and finally thrown out of Tibet after keeping me in their jails for three months in Lhasa and Ngari. I walked to Tibet, on my own, alone, across the Himalayan Mountains from the Ladakh. Eleven years later, I am walking to Tibet again; this time too, without permission. I am returning home; why should I bother about papers from Chinese colonial regime who have not only occupied Tibet, but also is running a military rule there; making our people in Tibet live in tyranny and brutal suppression day after day, everyday for fifty years.

The Year 2008 is a huge opportunity for the Tibet movement to present the injustices the Tibetans have been subjected to, when China is going to attract international media attention. I am taking part in the return march from Dharamsala to Tibet, that is being organized as a part of the "Tibetan People's Uprising Movement", a united effort put together by five major Tibetan NGOs: Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet (an association of former political prisoners), National Democratic Party of Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet, India.

The march will start on 10 March 2008, from Dharamsala, the capital of Tibetan exiles and will pass through Delhi and then head towards Tibet. Walking for six months, we might reach the Tibet border around the time China opens the Beijing 2008 Olympics (August 14-25). Presently it’s too early to approximate at which border point we would be crossing; Tibet and India share a border that runs 4,075 Km along the length of the Himalayas. We might choose any point, or even multiple points. We’ll see the situation. I know there had been similar attempts in the past, but this is 2008, and I have seen the organizers working extra hard with strategic planning, taking care of every minute detail, and the best thing is that we have all the NGOs working unitedly for the common goal. This unity is our strength! I do not know where we would end up, that’s why I am giving away the little collection of books (my only possession in life) to a library at is being setup in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala. My friends: Lobsang and Nyingje (who served in the Indian army as part of the Tibetan battalion) are also giving away their personal belongings; committing themselves for the march. Of course the Indian police will do their duty; the Chinese army at the Tibet border would be overtly enthusiastic. Since we are leading a peaceful march, with absolute commitment to non-violence, I do not think anyone - either from Indian authority or Chinese - would impose themselves on us.

Inspired by Gandhi’s Salt March, even if they did try to stop us, we are not stopping. For how many days can they jail us for just walking peacefully? And why should the Indian government stop Tibetan refugees voluntarily returning home on foot? In the past I have climbed buildings to shout for freedom, thrown myself at the Chinese embassy gate in New Delhi, spent months in jails, got beaten up police, fought court cases, but I never lost the dignity of the struggle: my believe in Non-violence.

The March to Tibet will be non-violent; it is a sadhana, a spiritual tribute to the truth and justice that we are fighting for. This is our Long March to freedom. And on our journey home, we will cook and camp in tents on the roadside, there will be the marchers and the support marchers, the kitchen team, logistics, media and the medical team. There will be dancing and singing, and theatre and film shows on the road as we take this long journey home. Dear friend,Here is an opportunity to join a historic non-violent freedom struggle, a people’s effort to win freedom for a country that remains subjugated even in 2008.

I request you to join us, support us in whatever ways possible. We need people to know about it, so spread the word. You can walk with us, as we walk for six months, maybe you can join us for a day along the path, even one hour, or for a week, months as a supporter. Schools, colleges and even whole town can walk with us.

We need volunteers, media people, writers, photographers, bloggers can help us. We need nurses, cooks, technicians and your prayers. Ever since the march was announced on 4th January 2008, Tibetans have been talking about it; it’s a major discussion in the refugee camps. Recently the organizers launched the entry form. And I heard people are slowly getting themselves registered. You too can register your volunteer online.

For more information please visit: http://www.tibetanuprising.org/ For enquiries email the coordinators: Lobsang yeshi <lobsangyeshi2006@hotmail.com> or sherab woser <sherabwoeser@yahoo.com> Join us.

Tenzin Tsundue

Dharamsala

Nostalgia? maybe a reminder of a past life...

This song...i have posted in this blog..thanks to Youtube...(thanks is such a mild word) Youtube will bring humanity together...i hope..someday soon..

i used to hear songs on my small radio..back in the 80's..this was one of my favorite songs and i had no idea what the video looked like then (there was no way we could watch movies or television)...and as a natural thing to do, i imagined how it would be like..but today there is a face i can attach to this song...yet..the lyrics and the music haunt my soul just like the past..we still live for moments like these...my being is filled with so much peace..what can i say? words aren't enough..hmmm...pls do listen and let me know..

A Part of the Whole - 2- Monkey Love

Love is the answer..Happiness is real when you share it with someone you love...a loving sight at the temple AzhagarKovil, located at Madurai, TamilNadu, South India.

A Part of the Whole -1

A moment captured - of the wild - on the way to Melur, a place in Madurai, TamilNadu...this place is called AzhagarKovil...the palm trees, the sky, the rock, the grass....co-existing...where is my place in all this?? I wonder if I have alienated myself from all this...what do you think??

Passion..Passion..Passion for life through music - SURAJ MANI

How often do you get to see a friend being passionate about something and pursuing it like it were the very thing that gives life?

well...i have been fortunate enough to have a friend for around 17 earth years...who breathes music and spreads the love for life through his passion for music..though i have not had the opportunity to listen to any of his concerts lately...i know i have been there personally, each time..and witnessed his unconditional love for humanity and every single thing about this universe -- which he reveals through his music!

Let me introduce Suraj Mani...passion flows in every bit of his compositions...

here's one example...this is one of my favorites from the album INSANE BIOGRAPHY..you can download the songs from his blog..

Questions
Is time not an illusion?

Why does that sound so insane?

I’ve seen my life just turn to moments Snapshots in pain
Now I cannot, live the present

And it doesn’t take too much to blur these lines

So why can’t I learn to accept,

The past is what you leave behind
Questions dipped in poison

Burning with seeds of doubt

Helpless I turn to the heavens

But the silence is still too loud
Will I ever burn these bridges

I’ve built so strong and so sure

Or bound by my need for them

Will I linger by these shores
Questions dipped in poison

Burning with seeds of doubt

Helpless I turn to the heavens

But the silence is still too loud
I watch the shadows play with my mind

Weary ghosts that will weaken with time

And I know that one day I will find the answers

That there’s reprieve for the blind
Questions I will not fear them

Though I’m still so full of doubt

Searching for the answers

In the echoes of my shout
Is time not an illusion?

Why does that sound so insane?

I’ve seen my life just turn to moments

Snapshots in pain

for more on Suraj's compositions...go to http://surajmani.typepad.com/

Also visit his website www.motherjane.net

where you can download songs from his first album INSANE BIOGRAPHY

Hello from the OBLIVION!

Hello my counterparts...i know it has been such a long time since i've been in touch...but the gap was just in the physical world...i have been thinking so much about all of you during the entire trip to the other side of our Earth...India...so it would be apt if i said "you were there with me"!

how can i explain what i experienced? language has its boundaries but the heart does not...so, i will try to patiently bring each and every experience to you...

My faith that humanity will organize itself to save the WHOLE is still going strong...after i met my other PARTS...

hmmm....where do i start?

i keep getting images of the Earth breathing and living and awakening each of us to our purpose...the peace it gives me within..that i am not alone..

one more thing that i have realized from all of these experiences is that human has to become a human after all...he cannot turn into anything else...it is time our energies get organized to revive our WHOLE...!

wow...it is so good to be back my comrades! i love you all...

Novelist ISABEL ALLENDE - TED TALK...

As a novelist and memoirist, Isabel Allende writes of passionate lives, including her own. Born into a Chilean family with political ties, she went into exile in the United States in the 1970s -- an event that, she believes, created her as a writer. Her voice blends sweeping narrative with touches of magical realism; her stories are romantic, in the very best sense of the word. Her novels include The House of the Spirits, Eva Luna and The Stories of Eva Luna, and her latest, Ines of My Soul and La Suma de los Dias (The Sum of Our Days). And don't forget her adventure trilogy for young readers -- City of the Beasts, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon and Forest of the Pygmies.
As a memoirist, she has written about her vision of her lost Chile, in My Invented Country, and movingly tells the story of her life to her own daughter, in Paula. Her book Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses memorably linked two sections of the bookstore that don't see much crossover: Erotica and Cookbooks. Just as vital is her community work: The Isabel Allende Foundation works with nonprofits in the SF Bay Area and Chile to empower and protect women and girls -- understanding that empowering women is the only true route to social and economic justice.

In one of the most beloved talks from TED2007, novelist Isabel Allende talks about writing, women, passion, feminism. She tells the stories of powerful women she has known, some larger-than-life (listen for a beauty tip from Sophia Loren), and some simply living with grace, dignity and ingenuity in a world that, in too many ways, still treats women unjustly.

Republic of Lakota = Lakota Oyate

I got this email from a friend recently...I am just sharing it with you all...
Less than a month has gone by since some Lakota people announced their re-assertion of sovereignity as either Lakota Oyate http://www.lakotaoyate.net/index.html or the Republic
of Lakotah http://www.republicoflakotah.com/. Everything I read about the situation looks like it could use a stiff infusion of intentional communication and social design. Is anyone following this or interested, and does anyone see this as a festering opportunity for us to roll up our sleeves and do something revolutionary?
the email ends here.
What do you think about this my dear friends...i had no idea this was going on within the U.S...and how many such individual movements are going on around us that we have no idea about..??
Let us keep our eyes open to the world around us instead of confining ourselves to the system that surrounds us...the internet is the new social consciousness and it is time we 'see' the world as it is...and not what it appears to be..!
But personally on this topic of countries wanting to separate from each other, I feel there should come a day when all of them want to unite as a single EARTH...it should not be 'us' and 'them'...but a complete "WE"!!!

Are you Bored???

After waking up this morning and doing a bit of browsing, reading, writing, eating, browsing,reading and reading, walking, playing with my kitty...i felt bored...and typed these words on the google search engine..."WHAT TO DO"....and yes! i am serious i typed that....
i invite you all to do that and some beautiful soul has opened a website called www.bored.com
What can i say?? It actually made my day!
To think that someone has taken enough care to think about people's boredom...and ways to end it!!
So much of fun stuff to browse within the site...there are a bunch of Crazy and Funny Billboards from all over the world.
There are CRAZY THOUGHTS, HUMOR Etc...
If you get bored...once a while...you now know what to do?? That is...only if you aren't bored of the computer and the Internet!!

OPEN CONTENT ALLIANCE-Libraries going open!

Imagine a world where each human can have access to information from books, no matter where on earth he or she is! Open Content Alliance is striving to get the books from libraries in universities, online, for each of us to access...the abundant information that would be possible will enable us to view the world with endless possibilities...and alternatives...
This would also unite a lot of elements which are disjointed from each other..in this world..in the current system!
A new consciousness would evolve bringing us together and giving meaning to the yet unrealized phrase - WE ARE ALL CONNECTED!!!

What is the Open Content Alliance?

The Open Content Alliance (OCA) represents the collaborative efforts of a group of cultural, technology, nonprofit, and governmental organizations from around the world that will help build a permanent archive of multilingual digitized text and multimedia content. Content in the OCA archive will be accessible soon through this website and through Yahoo!

The OCA will encourage the greatest possible degree of access to and reuse of collections in the archive, while respecting the content owners and contributors. Contributors to the OCA must agree to the principles set forth in the Call for Participation.

Building a Digital Archive of Global Content for Universal Access.
For further details please visit: http://www.opencontentalliance.org/
http://www.openlibrary.org/details/oca_test_004
This movie was commissioned by Internet Archive for the 2007 Open Content Alliance meeting held on October 17, 2007. click here for the movie

HOLE-IN-THE-WALL Project - A new way to learn!

A typical Learning station

"Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be rather a sort of amusement." - Plato.

The driving force behind Hole-in-the-Wall is the the concept of Minimally Invasive Education which is truly path breaking. That children could learn on their own, was something not many people would have imagined and that too in such a cost effective manner with benefits like improved group dynamics, better in-class behavior etc.
Minimally Invasive Education is defined as a pedagogic method that uses the learning environment to generate an adequate level of motivation to induce learning in groups of children, with minimal, or no, intervention by a teacher.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

Hole-in-the-Wall is one such idea, which offers the world a surprisingly fresh perspective on the learning process. Breaking the traditional confines of a school, Hole-in-The-Wall Education Limited (HiWEL) takes the Learning Station to the playground, employs a unique collaborative learning approach and encourages children to explore, learn and just enjoy!

As a concept, Hole-in-the-Wall has multiple dimensions and a potential which is virtually limitless. What it offers someone depends on the perspective one is looking from.

For experts, like Nicholas Negroponte of MIT, Hole-in-the-Wall is a ‘Shared Blackboard’ which children in underprivileged communities can collectively own and access, to express themselves, to learn, to explore together, and at some stage to even brainstorm and come up with exciting ideas.

For villagers, it is more like a village Well, where children assemble to draw knowledge and, in the process, engage in meaningful conversation and immersive learning activities that broaden their horizons.

And finally for children, it is an extension of their playground where they can play together, teach each other new things, and more importantly, just be themselves.

for more information please click here.
http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/education-challenge.html
Courtesy:HOLE-IN-THE-WALL
Picture Courtesy: Holeinthewall.com

What do you think the children learn from a place like this?? Have any of you actually seen one? please do let us know your experience, if you have come across one hole-in-the-wall computer.
Here is one article by Dan Simmons from the BBC news who writes about the project.
Something new has arrived at this slum on the outskirts of Delhi and it is exciting the locals.Most people at Vivekananda Camp had never touched or used a computer. Then three came along at once. for more click here

A few quotes your way...

Your Thoughts Build Your Life

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday,
and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life
is the creation of our mind.
The Buddha

Stay Positive

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

Rabindranath Tagore

Positive Action

Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail. Og Mandino

One Positive Thought

It takes but one positive thought, when given a chance to survive and thrive, to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.
Robert H. Schuller

Courtesy:Lucy MacDonald