In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on Nov. 18, just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan. The tour includes scenes of each of the station’s modules and research facilities with a running narrative by Williams of the work that has taken place and which is ongoing aboard the orbital outpost.
Born to rule – the chasm between the rich and everyone else [article]
George Monibot, writing in the Guardian, expounds on one of the reasons why the rulers (politicians/ plutocrats) seem to make decisions almost entirely disconnected with the reality of the vast majority of who they rule. When the rich are born to rule, the results can be fatal. It has some interesting observations of the the impacts that elite private / boarding schools have on the impressionable young minds going through the system.
Dedication…[old but inspiring news article]
This is an older story – from 2009. An Italian brain surgeon, Claudio Vitale, suffered a heart attack as he was performing a brain surgery. Despite worsening pains, he continued his work, saying his patient would die if he had stopped to get treatment himself. ,
Un-natural wonders of the world…[pictures]
Takes a look at the outliers in the human race. Words fail to describe.
Should you be merciful towards robots? [Article]
More & more robots are getting into mainstream work, replacing humans at a fraction of the cost – an industrialist’s dream come true. They’re also becoming more human-like in their appearances, as Scott Adams points out, and asks the question: ‘Who has the right to kill a robot?’ But more importantly, as this other article about a 2007 research discovers, the way humans relate to ‘human-like’ machines is changing too – discover how
A psychic experience [Video]
All I will say is watch this video: for your own online & offline life’s sake.. and do something about it.
Development? Or Displacement? [Article]
What does development mean, really? For the very poor in every nation? Around the world, development essentially has been anything but good for those whose lands have been taken for ‘construction’. A recent example from Liberia, whose landless people have a lesson for visiting world leaders.
Cultural progress: A Russian perspective from 1886 [Letter]
We all have our notions of what it means to be cultured. Money, public behaviour, private standards of decency, morality, etc ad infinitum. Anton Chekov, the Russian author wrote this letter in 1886, when he was 26, to his elder brother Nikolay who was 28, with the ‘eight traits of cultured people’. Timeless truths, if you are wondering how our idea of culture has progressed over 125 years since Chekov advised his brother.
Radically reviving the true meaning of education [article]
Susan Sontag was a prolific American writer, film maker, political activist and professor. Having been a part of the education system, she echoes Henry Miller’s words about what seems to be our theory of education: “…based on the absurd notion that we must learn to swim on land before tackling the water.” She wonders why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all the time.”
The Masters of Time [Article/ Video]
Successful people – whatever be your definition of success – have mastered their time. The quintessence of any time management technique is, ironically, managing not time, but activity. The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency. Read this brief article for some simple tips. And does time bother you? After the serious article, watch one of my favourite philosophers (who for most people is a comedian) give some more tips on how to manage time.