My son is gay « Nerdy Apple Bottom

My son is gay « Nerdy Apple Bottom

The Rent Is Too Damn High Party s Jimmy McMillan at the NY Governor Debate

Healing is magical

“The tendency of nature is to restore the injured body to health, but in order for health to be maintained there must be a change in behavior or understanding. The burnt hand does not return to the fire. Healing includes not only ... the regrowth of damaged skin but the learning of a lesson which previously had been unknown.”

“In order to be healed, the patient must embrace something which was previously outside him or herself, while at the same time returning his or her organism to the care of nature. The intrusive, interventive element may come from God, the spirit, the supernatural, or the surgeon's scalpel, but at any rate it changes the patient intrinsically from the way he or she was before. Healing is magical.”

- Matthew Wood, “Vitalism”

UC Berkeley lawyers meditation class draws crowd

UC Berkeley lawyers meditation class draws crowd

By Little and By Little: A Girl Named Gia and A Blue Bicycle

By Little and By Little: A Girl Named Gia and A Blue Bicycle

Great story about how the Universe provides opportunities when we ask questions and are open.

DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #44: How You Get Unstuck - The Rumpus.net

DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #44: How You Get Unstuck - The Rumpus.net

Rumpus required reading.

Scientists suggest that cancer is purely man-made (The University of Manchester)

Scientists suggest that cancer is purely man-made (The University of Manchester)

News Analysis - When Avandia and Other Drugs Cause Problems They Are Supposed to Prevent - NYTimes.com

News Analysis - When Avandia and Other Drugs Cause Problems They Are Supposed to Prevent - NYTimes.com: "The population is aging, many have chronic diseases. And companies are going after giant markets, huge parts of the population, heavily advertising drugs that are to be taken for a lifetime.

And the way drugs are evaluated, with the emphasis on shorter-term studies before marketing, is not helping, Dr. Carpenter said.

“Here is a wide-scale institutional failure,” he said. “We have placed far more resources and requirements upon premarket assessment of drugs than on postmarket.”"

DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #52: Reach - The Rumpus.net

You MUST read this column. MUST. MUST, MUST, MUST.

Divided they ride - Canada - Macleans.ca

Physically separated bike lanes. So, so awesome. Hello, Toronto planners - are you listening????

100 yo physician

Every living thing yearns to be free

Every living thing yearns to be free
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

This is a photo I took in 2006 that I apparently didn't think was all that good, but when I looked at it today, it struck me for some reason. I cropped it a little and like it even more.

Christchurch earthquake photos

Christchurch earthquake photos

Three Approved GMOs Linked to Organ Damage

Three Approved GMOs Linked to Organ Damage

Italian canine lifeguards leap from speeding boats to save swimmers - thestar.com

Italian canine lifeguards leap from speeding boats to save swimmers - thestar.com

This post has absolutely nothing to do with running… « In Pursuit of Happy Hips Part II

This post has absolutely nothing to do with running… « In Pursuit of Happy Hips Part II

This is one of the most beautiful, inspiring, life-affirming blog entries I've ever read, and I hope you make the time to read it.

A know-nothing strain of conservatism - Andrew Coyne - Macleans.ca

A know-nothing strain of conservatism - Andrew Coyne - Macleans.ca: "It isn’t just that the Tories habitually ignore the expert consensus on a wide range of issues—crime, taxes, climate change—it’s that they want to be seen to be ignoring it. It’s the overt antagonism to experts, and by extension the educated classes, that marks the Tory style. In its own way, it’s a form of class war.

You can see it in the sneering references to Michael Ignatieff’s Harvard tenure, in the repeated denunciations of “elites” and “intellectuals.” In the partial dismantling of the census, we reach the final stage: not just hostile to experts, but to knowledge."

Daily Kos: Judging Obama

Truly insightful, worth the full read.: "The debate on whether it is more appropriate to say that Obama has done a lot or that he has done too little regularly divides DailyKos, and I'd like to tackle it from a slightly different perspective, to say that this is not really about Obama, but about the perspective of the different groups about our civilisation.

I would like to propose that those who think that Obama has not done enough consider that the current system is profoundly failing, and that it is time for systemic changes, instead of the tinkering they see Obama doing, whereas those that tend to focus on what Obama has done think that the system is flawed, but mendable, and that Obama is doing just that, moving things back in the right direction.

And the fact is - we don't know yet what group is right, and we may not know for a few more years."

The Perseid Meteor Showers

Just back from an observatory where 100s of people sprawled out on the grass to catch the Perseid meteor showers. I only saw the occasional "falling star", but the experience of so many races & cultures coming together to peacefully enjoy this celestial display - and the spontaneous rounds of applause it elicited - were 100% worth it. I ♥ Canada.

Royalty Free Music

This quirky, sombre snippet makes me want to use it as the soundtrack for a movie I had no previous intention of making.