Our scientists are going under  a inventing explosion being  able to explore and create unchecked by most laws or ethics.  I do not believe that there has ever been as much freedom in the scientific exploration world as there is now.  There are no restrictions on stem cell research as there were strict restrictions during the President Bush era.  Because of unrestricted DNA testing, in the past six years during the Obama Administration many death row inmates have been proven to be innocent of the crimes they were incarcerated because   of new scientific evidence now being allowed to enter a case as new evidence even if the crime occurred 30 years ago.  That is a good thing.  But where there are good   things, there are bad applications of new inventions as well.

The explosion of DNA testing and stem cell research is allowing scientists to play God with   life.  Wonderful things are happening like organ banks where   one day we will be able to simply replace our old damaged kidney with a new kidney that they grew from our own genes and DNA.  It is a rich man’s dream to attain health and longevity and eternal life which at one time old age was impossible to escape no matter how much money you had.  Lots of money can also fund lots of experiments.  Imagine being able to take the best attributes from all species to create one  supreme being.  I know I am going into science fiction territory here but it is  not  so  much fiction any more.  How about some creature with a brain from some genius, a body from a strong  guerrilla, the eyes from bees, strong cutting teeth from a shark and flapping arms to soar like an eagle.  That would be my present day Frankenstein.

Many people believe now that strange creatures are being created that could possibly take over the world.  A new breed of part animal part human exists out there somewhere.  Baboon heart   valves   are already being transplanted into humans with much   success.   With the creation of some sort of thing could the human race be threatened?  Animal cruelty investigators are noticing new horrors being done to animals in scientific laboratories. There are pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies. Mice with human brain parts. All kinds of unregulated experiments are being done le:- in laboratories these days totally unregulated.

Could there be para-human monsters being created? Who or what agency is the watch dog over these laboratories? No branch of our governments is currently monitoring these experiments.  Dr. Gordon Gallop an Evolutionary Psychologist recalls an article in a 1976 edition of Time Magazine where it featured a creature known as Oliver that was apish but walked looked and behaved like a human and at that time received international attention.  He believes the creature was a human chimpanzee hybrid.  He coined the term humanzee.

Dr. William Hurlbilt is a specialist in bioethics.  He advises the government as to how far researchers can cross into gene mixing.  One scientist , Dr Stewart Newman, a Cell Biology &Anatomy Professor  who was successful tried to get a patent for a  humanzee in an attempt to stop other scientists from creating them.  A judge rejected it because the creature  was beyond a certain percentage human but did not commit to what an appropriate percentage would be acceptable.  If a patented is turned down in the United States that does not necessarily mean that it is illegal.

The United States Congress is the only group that can decide what to do with this situation.  Remember these are the same people that cannot even decide on a balanced budget yet we  expect them to decide what is legal and illegal in this country even in terms of science.  We are in big trouble if the future of humankind is being left in the hands of the elected democrats and republicans.  Right now according to  Federal standards in the United States it is prohibited to take an embryo that  was made from the cells of two different species and to implant it  into a human female uterus but  it is not prohibited to take that mixture and  implant it in a chimpanzee uterus.  As it stands there is no law preventing you from creating a humanzee if you use the female chimpanzee as the carrier.  If the government is looking to create some sort of super soldier, perhaps this is why they are quite all about the situation.  We can only hope that there are ethical people creating the new  destiny for humankind. Let us hope that they are doing the right thing at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Georgia.

Leave me alone.  Just leave me alone and let me think.  How many times have you told that to   someone or even said it to yourself?  We have so much on our mind one can be so stressed that sometimes we need a break from everything.  It can be so bad we can almost wish to be back in the quiet waters of our mother’s womb. Really?   There is a guy who   opened a business offering something similar to that and believes that real solitude and quiet time is the key to better health and   the lack of mental depression. 

They call it an isolation tank where many of your problems can be lifted.  If life seems more stressful and hectic than ever and you feel like your brain is constantly spinning, the tank is the opportunity for stillness and rest and privacy.  They call it the sensory deprivation business.  I thought I heard of everything but who am I to judge anything?  There is   a business called Float Seattle where you get a chance to get away from it all by going nowhere but floating in a closed box.  Sometimes I wish I could put some people I know in a closed box floating down a river but   that is another   issue in my wicked warped fantasies. Stop do not call the authorities, I’m just joking.

The goal is to float in a box filled with 10 inches of water loaded with 1000 pounds of Epsom salt.  There is no light and no sound and no distractions.  All you do is float and eventually enter a state of deep meditation and even hallucinate.  It is all a void, sensory deprivation in the quest to provide the perfect outlet to unplug all that you are searching for all day.  Imagine purposely   being unplugged to all devices?  No phones and computers.  Hey finish reading this before you run into a tank somewhere.

For many people it is a big deal having no access to the phone for an hour.  People who habitually meditate find quietly floating in water taking relaxation to the next step.   I suppose the only way to truly   experience   the    sensation is to try it for yourself.  I imagine that I would find it way to claustrophobic   and would get out of there fast.  However many people find the water to be quite warm and the circulating jets keep the water moving.

The idea of sensory deprivation tanks and flooding is not new.  Neuroscientist John Lilly first developed   them in the 1950s to study the effects of total isolation on the brain.  An important book on this subject is called The Deep Self which is the book that launched the theory of altered states through tank isolation.  Back then they used drugs; a practice made famous and terrifying in the 1980 science fiction movie called Altered States starring William Hurt as a scientist who regresses to a murderous proto human   while using a tank.  Floating has turned up elsewhere from the   recent   science fiction TV show called Fringe to the Simpson's where even Lisa and Homer took a   dip in the tank.

Scientists first thought that the brain would shut down without incessant input but what researchers found is just the opposite.  It enters a state similar to meditation but by eliminating gravity through floating, the brain reacts even deeper.  Overall you experience a better mood, less pain, less depression.  There are physical therapists that offer flotation as part of their services. DR. Robert Schreyer the Co-Founder of Aspire the Center for Health &  Wellness  noticed that not only did they come out of a floating session feeling physically relaxed but mentally and cognitively relaxed.  Then  should we throw out all our   booze, cigarettes   and pot that we used to use as an excuse for relaxation?  At least it is a healthier  way to relax.

The classically trained actors are selling out again and profiting from the acclaim from their new audiences. The last time we saw this happen was when the English actor Orlando Bloom who was known to perform Shakespearian plays sold out and profited greatly from the Pirates of the Caribbean series of films. The summer season of blockbuster films has begun.  One of the films   with the most stars in   it is the latest installment of   the X Men series.  Despite all the high priced special effects and the skin tight costumes, the most striking thing about the movie might be the caliber of the acting.  This science fiction   movie is full of Oscar winners. Since when did science fiction anything get so much respect?

The film has Oscar winners   and Oscar nominees and even two real life knights, Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart who plays   the leader of the X Men who are a group of mutant superheroes who all come together in the fifth installment of the franchise called Days of Future Passed.

  Apparently audiences have not grown tired of comic book movies.  Somehow Comic books   have always had a philosophical and moral content. Perhaps   that is why such distinguished actors decided to star in just a money making film full of special effects to keep uneducated audiences interested. Both actors were just in two Broadway plays called   Waiting  for Godot and the dark comedy No Man’s Land and audiences did not race to the theater to buy tickets but the comic book movie is selling millions of dollars in tickets worldwide.

Patrick Stewart threw out his classical standards   years ago when he made a ton of money playing the Captain in the Star Trek movie called The Next Generation.  Not a bad pay day fora 73 year old man.  He claims that he firmly said no to   performing   in science fiction movies and that it was his agent that urged him to do so.  He was told that more people would see him act in that movie than in total of his entire career.  That must feel gratifying and horrifying at the same time.  Patrick Stewart is so wealthy now that he can pick and choose whatever he wants to star in.  He is even testing the waters of comedy and   is a featured voice in the animated Seth MacFarlane production called American Dad.  Now that  is really far from classical theater.

Patrick Stewart has over 1,000,000 Twitter followers and got a lot of laughs with a  UTube clip that went viral.  I am not opposed to classical anything going mainstream.  I just hope that there will be continued  new  actors performing Shakespeare before they sell out their ethics and just do whatever the biggest payday is.  A cultured voice and thought out   words can never be a bad thing.

Hey You!  Put that burger and beer down for a minute and shut up and say to yourself something that resembles a prayer or some form of thankfulness to people you never even knew who were real dare devils and went to some foreign country where they couldn’t   even speak the language held up a gun that failed to save their own life.  Yeah!  That is what Memorial Day is all about.  Not the latest sale at the department store or a nice   barbecue with   your buddies.  It is about saying thanks to all the strangers you never met who died with an American flag sewed onto their clothes with their own blood soaked into the stars and stripes.

You say to yourself, who in   their right mind would do something like that?  Who would risk the    one   life   they have for anyone no less for some cause in some foreign country?  It does sound crazy but we call those American soldiers brave representatives of our country and it can make you sick when you realize the amount of   handsome and beautiful able bodied young people died in some war somewhere.  Go to Washington and visit Arlington National Cemetery and just look out at the sea of thousands of white tombstones lined up tightly and efficiently of rows and rows of some of the most famous soldiers who have died fighting for this country. It   will make you feel sick.  Then you have to think about all the unknown soldiers   scattered all over the world without a proper burial and the soldiers who are buried next to their wives and moms.

I love to look at the old veterans of war.  Those old guys that stand in front of supermarkets wearing those little triangle hats, proudly wearing an American flag sewed to their clothes still.  They might be near 80 years old but their demeanor is still of a proud soldier.  They still have a toughness and a roughness to their faces and can still remember in detail the day and the time they gallantly fought and survived some senseless   battle somewhere in the world.  On Memorial Day we should thank those guys and listen to their stories and donate money to whatever cause or battle they are   representing for us today.

Unfortunately there are many young soldiers who have fought in recent wars that we need to thank too.  I wish war was just a  part of foolish history.  I wish humans who are supposed to be at the top of the food chain would have the bravery and the intelligence to work out our differences without a single act of violence.  I want to thank President Jimmy Carter who was the only recent President who is still alive who never sent a single soldier to war during his presidency.  That took a lot of courage and intelligence in a world where there seems to be always someone killing somebody somewhere sometimes for no reason at all.

Here are the number of people we need to thank in recent wars:

The Civil War  498,332   dead soldiers

World War I    146,516   dead soldiers

World War II   405,399   dead soldiers

Korea              36,574    dead soldiers

Vietnam          58,220    dead soldiers

Iraq                 4,476    dead soldiers

Afghanistan        2,184   dead soldiers

Read the words inscribed in the stone base of the statue at Arlington’s Confederate War Memorial that say, Not for fame or reward. Not for place or rank or lured by ambition or gone by necessity but in simple obedience to duty.as they understood it

 

Every single person who has stepped forward to go to a place like Afghanistan or any war deserves that respect. Ok, Now you can finish your burger and drink your beer and enjoy the safe Memorial Day weekend of fun and pleasure with people you love and want to be with safe and sound in our backyards.

This is just another America has been very, very good to me story.  It is about a famous Yankee pitcher who you can see pretty much anytime you want now with his wife, the Pastor of a church in   New Rochelle, New York. Mariano Rivera is known as the Closer in Yankee games because he would successfully close the deal for the Yankees and win   games.  He has gone from saving games to saving souls now.  It is an incredible story of opportunity in America where a person took a   chance at dramatically   changing his life and becoming a baseball American legend.

His achievements include being chosen to play in the All-Star games 13 times, a five time world champion, and major league   baseball’s   all   time   saves and   ERA leader.  But the   greatest closer in Major League History grew up in Panama very poor.  How did   the big shots even find this guy?  Fame and fortune never ruined him like it often    does to other rich athletes.  He has strong family ties and has been with his girl that he has known since first grade.  He doesn’t make his money rain on prostitutes, doesn’t take performance   enhancing drugs and doesn’t make a celebrity out of himself.  Yes he is quite different from the average baseball player you see these days.

Mariano Rivera worked on a fishing boat where the captain was his father.  At the time Rivera had hoped to be able to go to mechanic school someday.  But fate intervened.  One day he was playing baseball for an adult league and wasn’t even supposed to be pitching in the game and was noticed and was asked to play with better players in better leagues as he stood up to every challenge even been chosen to be a Yankee.  Mariano Rivera tells us about his remarkable life in detail in his book a new memoir called The Closer which is also his nickname.  This guy deserves to be more famous than Jeater and  Rodriguez but then he never did anything wrong in his life.  It is always the bad boys that get famous.

He signed in 1990 with the New York Yankees for only $2000 that was it.  Mariano had to prove himself to get more money.  When the fisherman from Panama made his way to the United States, he did not speak any English.  Imagine   being a simple guy from a small fishing town getting that telephone call inviting him to the big leagues.  I guess dreams do come true.  He was not a product of any famous baseball camp and did not have a talent scout or promoter to get him noticed.  He moved and never looked back.  Not only did he become a fabulous picture but a beloved teammate that everyone liked.

When it was time for him to retire and all the travel games were   over, his family from the fishing village was still there waiting for him.  They were there for him with every step of his journey. He grew up with Clara and knew her since first grade and they are married now. She is very religious so he bought her a church and is there by her side.  So, bring his number 42 Yankee jersey shirt to Sunday services and not only will you be spiritually renewed but you’ll also meet and probably get your shirt autographed by one of the best Yankee players of alltime.  To me this is one of the greatest ways to start the summer season.

Summer is quickly approaching and we are already shedding more clothes   each day and for many of us revealing not such a great body.  It happens every year that unless we go to the gym regularly all year long, you’re not going to want to take your shirt off on that hot sticky   day.  If you are looking good and feeling good, wear the bare minimum.  The battle of the bulge has been the longest battle in history and for many people, they never win.

This is an old story about the quest to lose weight quickly and easily but is also a new story about a new way to lose weight quickly that is not approved in the United States yet.  It is a new magic pill that radically suppresses your appetite and helps you to shed pounds..  It sound like the classic to good to be true scenario and I am not product endorsing anything here.  I am classically old school about weight loss.  Just get that food out of your mouth and exercise.  I’m just talking about this a new way of losing weight because I believe it will become very popular in the United States soon and it is a new innovation.

If you want it, you are   going to have to go to Mexico to get it.  This pill is ideal for the 300 pound person who is always hungry.  It is also ideal for most of us that carry that extra up to 30 pounds that we feel we just can’t lose.  The new pill is more like a capsule or magic bullet. It claims the type of   results that so far only evasive gastric bypass surgery has done.  We want to lose weight but most of us do not have the courage or will to go through major surgery and have our stomach stapled or   have a lap band tying off a portion of your stomach.

We all know that your stomach is not the main issue.  The issues lie in our desire to eat and in the type of foods that we eat that seem to linger in our bodies.  Many Americans are crossing the Mexican border to go to Tijuana to get a pill to swallow that will blow up like a balloon in your stomach and make you feel full.  Tijuana is not a fun place to be lately.  It is a big city with a reputation for violence and crime.  Every year thousands of Americans go there anyway in search for cut rate medical procedures.  This capsule is a controversial device called the Obalone Balloon..  Once it is inserted into the stomach it is inflated quickly into a small balloon.  Patients can feel full immediately.

There is an obesity control center in Tijuana run by Americans where everyone speaks English.  You would think you were still in the United States once you enter the premises.  To get the magic pill cost about $500 which is noninvasive.  A lap band cost about $5000 and you need major surgery.  This American Dr. prefers to work in Mexico because   he can make all his own decisions and not have to answer to anyone.  70% of his patients are Americans that cross the   border   from San Diego.  The   pill   comes  with its own set of strict guidelines.  Once it is inserted you probably will not want to eat more than one small plate   of food per day.

The capsule is so new that there is no consensus yet from the American Medical community about it   but there is plenty of   intrigue.  Doctors know   that   geriatric surgery is very effective and really should be a last resort.  Doctor David Katz teaches weight management at the Yale- Griffin Prevention Research Center and says that sustaining weight loss after the pill is removed it is his major concern.  This   balloon in your stomach should only remain there for   three months.  The stomach is a hormone producing organ.  Is this balloon just confusing your system?  Most people don’t care, they just want to lose weight fast.

Death!!! What can you do when confronted with a near death experience? Should you stand away and call 911? Yell for someone to get hot water and blankets? I don’t know why. Panic and just run away? Or if it is a choking victim take out your pocket knife, cut a hole in somebody’s throat, put a straw in it   and give an emergency tracheotomy like Sandra Bullock did   in   the movie Heat? Don’t do that. If you saw the movie, that wasn’t a very good idea.  But there is a way out there to cheat death and I don’t know why it’s not being broadcast every night on the news.

Now You Can Fight Death  And Win

Bringing the dead back to life has been a dream for humankind since the beginning of time.  Your quest in life could be to accumulate all the wealth in the world but no one has been able to stop ageing or death.  We have new proof that death could be prevented by   exposing the body to extreme cold.  Doctors now believe that if any of those bodies that froze alive in the icy waters after the Titanic Ship sank was saved today, perhaps some of them could have lived.  Medical professionals believe that   potentially dying in  icy water your  brain and cells  would be preserved.  You will live.

Doctor Sam Parnia runs the Resuscitation  Research Program at New York’s Stonybrook Medical School and writes that death is NOT  a moment but a process that can be interrupted and often reversed with the help of new techniques.  In this century since the Titanic  disaster we have learned a few things about cold water.  In 1986 a young girl drowned in an icy stream in Utah.  The girl was submerged for  more than an hour and technically dead but the cold water chilled her temperature down to 66°which was enough to stop brain damage.  Eventually the 2 and a half year old girl Michelle Funk  woke up and went on with her  life.

Michelle remembers nothing of that terrible day and her doctors will never forget it.  Today Hospitals are equipped with cooling devices that can probably go in a picnic basket to keep your  beverages cold except these look like vests or are fitted to parts of your body.  They are created to do the same thing to your body as the icy stream did which is to chill people whose hearts have stopped and preserve their brains till doctors can figure out how to get their hearts  going again.  Cooling people’s bodies down to  66 degrees gives doctors time to fix whatever else is going on and help bring them back to life.  Why aren’t stories like this being reported every night on the nightly news?

The Dr. goes on to say that even if someone collapses and dies at home, what we can do is get all of our frozen peas and meats out of the freezer and pack them around the body and perform CPR at the same time.  I think the cooling suits  should be available for  purchase to the general public.  If it is that effective to be able to keep someone alive it should be available everywhere and everyone should know how important this knowledge is in  first aid.  Cooling the body in combination with CPR efforts can slow down the rate that the body could possibly be getting brain damage.

Despite what we have learned the chances of being brought back from the dead are still pretty small.  Ambulances are not being  equipped with  cooling  devices and people in general are not performing CPR  long enough to bring someone back.  Last year in the United States just  24% of those who had Cardiac Arrest in a hospital survived the experience.  Outside the hospital the survival  rate was only 10%.  The numbers prove how ignorant and helpless we are when it comes to emergencies at home.  Most of us would gladly empty out the freezer and perform CPR if we even knew how important it was in a possible revival of a loved one.  Instead most family members would consider us hysterical, tell us they are dead, go find a bed sheet to put over their face.

One of the reasons why the death rate is still so high is because sometimes emergency workers quit performing CPR too soon.  It is harder than some of the most grueling workouts in a gym.  You have to press  both arms  down on the chest in a rhythm continuously for an hour.  No one person has the ability to be able to do that.  You would need lots of people to take turns every 10 minutes.  Many times after only 10 minutes you are officially declared dead and the organ donor lineup to take your bits and pieces.  Compression machines are available and can carry on for an extended time because longer is often better.  You still do not see  machines in  hospitals pressing down on dead bodies with the hope of reviving the people.

A lot of doctors will stop compressions after  20 minutes but we now know through  research that at least 40 minutes to an hour of compressions will increase the chances of bringing that body back to life.  Knowledge is power and knowing these techniques is powerful enough to possibly bring someone back to life. 

This is a story about a guy who took a two week vacation and ended up with 15,000 children being indebted to him for their lives.  It is another one of those amazing World War Two stories.  This quiet hero lived to be at least  104 years old now and admitted that he forged documents and did illegal things in order to save 659 Jewish children from death in NAZI Germany.  Years later since then he has been knighted in England and received countless awards for his bravery and   ingenuity.  You will not recognize his name because he has spent the last 50 years of his life living quietly and looking forward not bragging about his past. Recently we heard of countless silent hero's saving lives during the hurricane in Houston. There broken lives is not the way they wanted to celebrate Labor Weekend.

His life is   a   humanitarian story about a young British guy named Nicholas Winton who went to Prague in 1938 when Europe was on the brink of war.  At the time in Germany, violence against the Jews was increasing.  What is most interesting about this story is that this guy was not necessarily very political.  He made a good living as a stockbroker and just seemed to notice the injustice and wanted to do something to help.  I wish an old movie starring Cary Grant was made about this incredible story.  I wish more quiet heroes were made famous instead of the monsters who are spreading hate over damn statues being made famous.

It was the infamous   Munich Agreement   that paved the way for Hitler’s armies to march unopposed into Czechoslovakia.  What do you do if you are just a young man making a living for yourself in   political times like those?  We have this monster Putin currently taking over the Ukraine.  Should we just sit  silently and let Dictator types get in power who will supress freedom?  In London Nicholas Winton had been following the events and knew   refugees fleeing the Nazis were not having much success.  What is strange is that for almost 50 years he hardly told anyone about what he had accomplished.  Modest heroes are also hard to find these days.  For 50 years the children knew nothing about who had saved them or how. Children in America right now are being faced with deportation because Trump doesn't like DACA, a program set up by Obama to protect children of undocumented individuals. Immigration in this country is becoming a very tense issue with Trump as our President. Those kids would like to enjoy their end of summer weekend but are living in fear right now.

He was 29 years old at the time and knew that people couldn’t get out and were desperate to save the children.  He saw that immigration was not an option for these people.  In Jerusalem there is a memorial to victims of the holocaust that keeps   very good records of what happened to people during this time.  They know that Nicholas set up shop in a hotel in Prague.  There without any experience in immigration he became part of   a small organization with only one aim which was to get as many kids out of that country as quickly as possible.

By the time he returned to London, he had a list of hundreds of children and tried to convince British authorities to take him seriously.  He did it by taking stationary from an established organization called The British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia and added Children’s Section there by making himself Chairman.  Who would have the guts to do something like that?  The Children’s Section operated from a tiny office in Central London.  His mother was in charge and the staff were all volunteers.  During the day he worked as a stockbroker, in the evenings he wrestled with the British bureaucracy.  He   tried to approach America to take some of the children, but the Americans wouldn’t take any of them.

Nicholas Winton had written President Roosevelt requesting  America to take in children and a minor official at the U.S. embassy in London wrote back that the United States was unable to help.  Imagine how many more children could have been saved if he got permission from the United States.  He managed to get them to accept the children but only if Winton found families willing to take them in.  So he circulated the children’s photos to advertise them.  Even after he was able to find a family who wanted the child, the British government was slow in issuing the proper documents.   Nicholas started having them forged as well.  What a gutsy guy. He also spread a little bit of money around to bribe people to look the other way.

So now he is involved in blackmail and forgery to save the children.  What risks he was taking that he just didn’t have to do?  The humanitarian spirit in people is so important in life no matter what risk you do to   yourself.  Movie stars and many people are now donating some of their summer fun money to the thousands of homeless people affected by the hurricane in Texas. The humanitarian spirit has never died. Even later in life he looked back without remorse for his treachery being able to realize he saved a lot of kids from death.  By 1939 Hitler’s plans to cleanse Europe of the Jews was in full force.  The children were   being told by Nicholas that someday they would be reunited with their parents even though the slaughter of adults had already begun. Children today need to be told that someday they will be reunited with their parents even though they have already been deported from America.

How did the parents even have the strength to entrust their children with someone they didn’t even know?  Over   the spring and summer of 1939, seven trains carried over 600 children through the heart of NAZI Germany to Holland where they took a ferry to the English Coast.  From there they took a   train to London.  90,000 adults were killed and no children were ever reunited with their parents.  The names of every Czechoslovakian Jewish person   murdered   in the Holocaust is painted on walls in a Prague synagogue.  Over 70,000 names.

During the war Nicholas volunteered for an ambulance unit for   the Red Cross.  But when there he trained pilots of all things for the Air Force.  Got married and raised a family, earned a comfortable living and for 50 years he hardly told anyone of his boldness in saving children.  In 1988 the BBC learned about Winton’s act of daringnes  and located an audience filmed with now adults of the children he saved.  The moderator asked  if anyone in the audience owes their life to  Nicholas Winton to please stand up.  Everyone stood up.  He cried that evening tears of joy since  he was not aware that the evening was all about him.

We can all use a bit of modesty and just be there, do it and   get it done mentality since there are  always other things to accomplish. Labor Day should not be just about how we slave at our jobs but in how we laborusly do some act of kindness to someone else.  For the last 50 years, he had been helping mentally handicapped people and building homes for the elderly.  Did he even know he’s lived to be at least 104 years old and is considered the super elderly?  I didn’t think so, he didn’t have time for that.  In 2003 Winton  was knighted and became Sir Nicholas Winton.  In the Czech Republic he has become a national hero and was celebrated in a documentary called Nickie’s.  Now some of the children even have great grandchildren.  All thanks to Sir Nick.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom! But what if you  don’t have a Mom? Today’s modern family could have two Dads. The new modern family seems to be widely more accepted in society each year.  Other than giving a biological birth, are we really sure   what a Mom is?  Even female stay at home caregivers can   assume many different roles.  Many of us honor our   Mothers   today by giving her    flowers or take them out for dinner or buy them chocolate or maybe even orchestrate an event where all the family’s get together with the various Moms.  You will get a lot of family photos out of   that one.

Today is at least   a day for proclaiming that we are   family and the makeup of family has certainly changed in recent years.  In schools the teachers don’t say anymore, go tell your parents to sign your homework, they know better.  Now they say,    Seek   the adult you live with and have them sign your homework. Like many other things in life, the definition of family is changing.  The cereal Cheerios recently had advertisements for   their   breakfast food that featured a white   Mother, African American Dad and an adorable mixed race child.  The overwhelmingly response to the ad was positive but there   was hateful backlash on the Internet much of it were overtly racist.  There was so many negative comments, the company chose to take down the comments section off of the website: for a while.

It did not stop General Mills from running follow up ads with this same kind of family on Super Bowl Sunday, the most watched advertisement day of the year.  This time the family was going to share their Cheerios with a new family member.  It was the same company,   General Mills that commissioned Norman Rockwell to paint scenes from American family life in 1938.  The American family now is looking less and less than the images that were painted half   a century ago.  The difference in the family of 1965 and now is enormous says   Sociology Professor Andrew Turlington at John Hopkins University who has   been   writing about the American family: for over three decades.

We are currently going through a period of extreme change in defining a family.  Marriage has hit an   all   time   low of 51% of Americans.  More than 15% of marriages are either interracial or interethnic or both.  As for raising children, more than one million homes are raising children by a single parent. The  number of same sex parents with  children has risen to an all time high of 120,000 families.  In the 1950s, the  message was that there was only one kind of family.  It was the  married family as seen in the popular  Leave it to Beaver Show when Dad was male and Mom was female they had biological children he left home for work and she ran a perfect household with their perfect children.

Now we have popular TV shows like Mom’s and Modern Family that shares with  America  the new type of family.  We have gone to diverse pathways to  achieve happy families.  Should we even bother to have a Mother’s Day anymore?  There are blurred lines between even gender roles and   the   type of chores that men and women handle at home.  There are many stay at home Dads now making the cupcakes.  There are many east same gender couples who have been married for many years choosing to be parents now.  No set Mom no set Dad.  Could Mothers  actually become a thing of the past?

Much of America still does not accept same  sex marriage.  It is legal in 17 states and is still being decided in Washington State and Arkansas.  Even interracial couples on TV can draw a  negative response.  There’s definitely two groups of people out there.  One that accepts change and one that refuses   to change.  I think more emphasis should be spent on analyzing the the quality of  life  children are receiving in any kind of family.  Perhaps they might be doing better without  a traditional Mother around r and who knows?  We are not two Americans.  We are one  America going through a rebirth.  What will never change will be a desire to nurture children in a loving and tender way and that is what Mother was to most of us if we were lucky.  A Mother loves  you no matter what.  Love back today.

Where is the outrage over black slavery this year? There seems to be plenty of outrage over comments an owner of a basketball team made in the privacy of his own home but yet no outrage from his black team over the kidnapping and slavery of black women?  Respect should be demanded anywhere and everywhere all over the world especially when it comes to young innocent woman in a school.  Be the gallant and respect demanding American black male and demand some action to be done to find the women that were kidnapped.

There were nearly 300 schoolgirls who were kidnapped nearly half around the world.  At least now Hollywood stars are joining this desperate search to save them.  They’re using social media to at least get people involved and   bring   more concern throughout the world.  The message is bring back our girls sent out into cyberspace from famous people Iike  Kerry  Washington, Amy Poehler to Chris Brown all celebrities joining the global outrage. Yet anyone associated with the Clipper outrage seems to be silent about this terrible act of discrimination

We are all pleading for the safe return of nearly 300 Nigerian girls   kidnapped from their   school in the middle of the night loaded onto trucks,   taken hostage by militant Islamists gunman who are now planning to sell them into slavery.  For weeks these girls have been missing with little attention paid outside of Nigeria.  It wasn’t until Ramaa Mosey, a Los Angeles  director launch a” Bring Back Our Girls” Facebook page that people in America started talking about the outrage.  No one in the United States had made any calls to protest this act of slavery in 2014.

This causes has now consumed her life and at least she will not stop her   efforts till the   girls   are free. If our American basketball players will rightfully not tolerate   any form of discrimination then they should join in the effort to stop slavery everywhere in the world.  At least her message was heard around the world very quickly.  In just over the first week she got over 33,000 likes and on Twitter the hash tag was used more than 800,000 times.  At least finally a fury has been ignited against the man who ordered the kidnapping.

He is the leader of the Islamist terrorists group known as Boko Haram which means, Western Education Is   A Sin.  Videos have been taken of him smiling as he says, “I took your girls, they are our slaves, I will sell them in the market’ Where is the Peace Corp?  Where is the United   Nations Army?  Where   is the Nigerian police?  Must there   always be persecution in this world?  Why should some people be completely outraged about some things but not about all forms of discrimination?  Boko Haram’s targets are schools and children.  The group is already   responsible for dozens of massacres   including the slaughter of 50 schoolboys earlier this year.

At least now the world is waiting and watching for action.  Hillary Clinton has spoken out demanding the safe return of the children.  About 50 girls did manage to escape.  People have been protesting in the streets of Nigeria demanding that the government does more.  The United States offered to help in the search using drones and our intelligence to aid    in the search process.  At least now there is a global push that is growing ever louder to aid those who are really being persecuted by their own people.  Awareness should be made by anyone being persecuted anywhere in the world

They have distorted the meaning of the season.  We know our seasons because of the changes in the weather.  The television used to have its TV seasons from   September till June when you could watch your favorite show each week on the same day at the same time.  Not anymore.  Now you can purchase box sets of DVDs of seasons of your favorite series since they started.  You can also subscribe to Netflix where they might have your favorite series and you could watch that for three days straight.  But now the entertainment industry is controlling us like a woman you love and is holding back and controlling you.

Recently Mad Men kicked off its final season. The final season finale   won’t air for   over a year from now.  They are splitting the seventh season into two parts.  Seven episodes to air now   and the other seven to air in 2015.  That is like a girl saying she loves you now but is saving herself for   marriage in   2015.  I’m sure they’re   advertising this as something that is good for the viewer and a way to cherish every last moment with our favorite characters.  As a fan it is hard not to feel as if the network is just milking every last drop out of this successful series.  Like a woman holding onto her private parts till the last moment.

The networks have done it before.  Breaking   Bad   aired   Its   last season in two installments a year apart.  Sex in the City, The Sopranos and   Battlestar   Gallictar  all made fans wait for months during their final acts.  There are a lot of reasons that could make sense of why networks would drag out a final season.  They could maximize   the sale of DVD sales and sponsorships.  The show can compete in two different years of Emmies and actors can sometimes be kept from getting a raise. As   the viewer, all this waiting could be very frustrating.  No man wants to wait for marriage these days.

We are seeing it   more and more at the box office lately.  Let us blame it on Harry Potter.  The final Harry Potter book called The Deathly Hallows was split into two films.  Backdrop to Twilight split its final book into two films which prompted the Hunger   Games to split its final book into two films.  Is this all about money?  It is like an engagement lasting two years.  The Hunger Games Mocking Jay Part I comes out this thanksgiving.  I have to be thankful for a stupid film that they got me hooked into?  Like in a too long engagement, you can forget what you are looking forward to.  Part II comes out in November of 2015.  Will I even be alive then?

Peter Jackson has turned   The Hobbit, a book   that is only a little over 300 pages, into three separate major films.  I have no problem with long romances but in high school it took me about a minute and a half   to   finish. Ok Sorry, too much information.  I guess as long as viewers keep tuning in and   buying   tickets   in the theaters, we are going to continue to be seeing these to be continued approaches to our favorite shows.  If you want to know what else I think, you can find the rest of this rant in the spring of 2015.  As always, thanks for reading.

Pharrell Williams has got to be the happiest guy because it seems nowadays he is   singing about how happy he is everywhere. “Because   I’m happy” Is   on the lips of people of all ages,   all races,   all   over the world.  We have to take notice of this guy because his songs are   the greatest of hits on the song charts recently.  Most artists can only dream about having the successful year that Pharrell has had this past year.  He also sang and co-wrote the song, Get Lucky.  He produced and co-wrote the song Blurred Lines but it is with his first solo number   one that featured himself that became the greatest hit of all.

Billboard Magazine ranked him the top producer of the past decade.  He was behind hits for Nellie, JayZ, Justin Timberlake and Brittany Spears.  He takes pride in being different and in been able to try different things musically.  He likes   being in the room without a roof, wants to be limitless in style, lyrics and melody.  Lately every type of music   he has touched has turned to gold.  Even the goofy hat he   wears is his signature.  He even wore his goofy hat the night he won four   Grammys.  It is a mountain hat designed by Vivian Westwood.  His hat is so famous, it has its own Twitter account.

This guy had a clothing line before he was famous for his music.  He is a designer with two clothing lines.  Esquire magazine once ranked him the best dressed man in the world.  Now that one I feel is hard to believe.  First of all he is not gay and gay guys dress   really well.  And when I look at him on his music videos, he dresses   quite ordinary except of course for his goofy hat.  They say never judge a book by its cover but at times, his cover, says a lot. Pharrell says that he is an extrovert and likes to think in color.  Even as a child he liked to wear colorful shirts.

He grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia the son of a handyman and a teacher.  It was his grandmother who urged him to get serious about music.  She was diagnosed with cancer when he was 15 years old and urged him to play drums in the school band. There he met music teachers and other influences in his life.  He gives credit for most of his success to his past teaches and mentors when he says,  ”Who am I without them?” without them he would have been a struggling  whatever. Pharrell Williams is a poster boy for why we always need to have the Arts in schools.

Grades in all his other subjects were poor.  It was the Art classes that gave him a sense of design and the music classes that allowed him to express himself in a fun way.  Before long he was taking spare hip hop beats and fusing them with rock   and pop.  His music flooded the radio.  One of   Pharrell’s  few  disappointments  was his first solo album in 2006.  It didn’t sell and he thought it was full of ego.  Now he is 41 years old and married to fashion designer Helen Lasichanh  in 2013.   His new   album called Girl is very successful.

The change in his success he attributes to now having music with a purpose.  He looks  back to the music of Stevie Wonder and other artists who had a message in their songs.  Maybe that is why people of all ages and in all countries are singing together about being   happy.  He wants his music to lift people up.  At least he is learning from the past and noticed that uplifting songs lasted.  The song Happy released last July in the movie Despicable Me II, went nowhere at first. When they took it to radio they hardly picked up played it saying that   it was too different.  Then in November his own label released a video and overseas they love it.  The song is number one in 21 countries.

At least we have a simple song that brings people of every color and every age together. 

Throughout history it seems that Jewish people had to always run away from some sort of persecution.  Recently the Russian President Poutin wanted Jewish people to register in the Ukraine at office buildings. Why?  Are we approaching another holocaust?  I certainly hope not.  Recently they found a 80  year old man in a small apartment with millions of dollars of stolen art from the world war two era when the Jews had to register then and if they were lucky they could leave all their precious art  and belongings to live another day.  We can read the bible or the Torah and listen to all the stories of how the Jewish people were   always running away from something and as a result, roaming the desert.

I think the clearest evidence of their past is witnessed in the type of bread they cooked which didn’t amount to much of a bread at all.  They are a people that thrives on tradition so they keep the tradition of making Matzos.  It is the simplest form of bread with basic ingredients of flour and water.  Thankfully these days, most Jewish people don’t have to roam the deserts fleeing from something.  They have settled everywhere and are thriving once again.  In Manhattan on the lower east side, where it is very expensive and trendy filled with fancy restaurants and nightclubs frequented by really hip people and celebrities you will find something that looks a little bit out of place that has been in that place for many years now.

There on the corner of Riviington and Suffolk is Streit’s Matzos factory turning out   25,000 pounds of matzo every day as it has done nearly every day since 1925.  Back then the lower east side was largely a Jewish neighborhood full of delis, push carts and families. The factory looks antique with the same machines they operated in the 1930s.  A great grandson of Aaron Streit, the company’s founder runs the company today.  The factory is converted old apartments in tenement buildings.  There is a younger generation running the business now who is trying to increase the appeal of the virtually tasteless hard cracker by offering different varieties.

They now sell Egg Matzo’s, Lightly Salted Matzo’s that tastes like a cracker,  Milk Chocolate Matzo’s and Mediterranean Matzo’s that have sun dried tomato basil, garlic and olive oil.  Matzo that is kosher for Passover comes in only one flavor and has just two ingredients.  The secret recipe for Passover matzo is   80 pounds of flour and 30 gallons of water.  Talk about a product would no additives or preservatives, this is it.  The process all goes back to the tradition of what happened in Egypt centuries ago.  We should all know the story of Passover that is rich in the Jewish religion and tradition.  Everyone needs to be respected for what they choose to believe.

The eight day holiday of Passover commemorates leaving slavery from Egypt.  The  people did not have enough time to make the bread dough rise so they went into the desert with the dough on their shoulders where the sun baked it and thus was unleavened bread created and they called it Matzo’s.  At Streit’s there is a team of rabbis on hand to see that it is all done according to kosher law.  The whole process from mixing to baking must be completed in less than 18 minutes to ensure that the dough does not rise. The   clock starts ticking as soon as the water hits the flour.  After   the mixing, the dough is pushed down to the floor below to be rolled thin before baking.  Little holes are pressed into the dough to make sure that it doesn’t rise at all.  Then baked at 800°in the ovens and in a few minutes it is done.  After that it is cooled as it snakes through the floors   of the old tenement buildings till it arrives in the box.

In a world where everything seems to be changing, this is one place that hasn’t changed at all.  It is nice to know that some things have remained the same.  Flour and water mixed with tradition and respect for the past sounds like a pretty good recipe.

What if your kid created a Stonehenge kind of object made out of Legos which is pretty cool but then went a step further and suggested that he would build a park with trees and walking trails and even   a swimming pool with the water cascading over the sides?  All of this on tap of this Stonehenge design on the horizontal top.  At this point,   most   people would say, stop being silly be realistic. Luckily no one stopped this dreamer of an architect who did exactly that. Lego’s is more than just a toy and is used seriously by a famous architect.  His name is Moshe Safdie   who was born in Israel and who is Canadian.  He may be best known for his modern day Stonehenge.  He took the design from the famous vertical rocks with a horizontal rock on top of them and made his building into a 10,000,000 square foot resort in Singapore.

The Marina Bay Sands Resort dominates the Singapore skyline.  It is 57 stories high and 650 feet off the ground.  There is the park on the roof and a pool that seems to spill right over the edge.  This little boy had a dream of an unusual building and managed to make his dreams come true.  He wasn’t sure   what it would feel like to swim outdoors on the 57^Th floor.  Would it be too windy or would you feel vertigo?  Nevertheless, possible problems were worked   out and the building exists today.  He has completed 85 other projects across five continents.  Museums, colleges, apartment complexes, libraries, government buildings, airports and even an entire town called Madlin, Israel.

He is known now as the global citizen.  Few people will get to have expositions   at museums giving   tribute to their work at a museum that they designed but that is exactly what is going on at the Scerbo Cultural Center in Los Angeles.  Moshe is a citizen of three countries, Israel by birth, Canada   by adoption and the United States by adoption so he has   three passports. Born in 1938 he spent his childhood in Israel and his teen years in Montreal Canada.  He went on to study architecture and his thesis was a concept for reinventing the apartment building. His design made him world famous and the complex was built   called Habitat 67 which was featured in Canada’s World’s Fair.

It is rare to get such accolades at only 24 years old.  The point was to create a better way to live in an inner city.  They were affordable apartments that were not like cells but more like   houses accessible to nature.  Most 24 year olds aren’t able to build a place for them to live in.  Thinking about the Lego design, each of the boxes were   prefabricated in a factory installed with bathrooms and kitchens in the factory.  Each box was then lifted by cranes and assembled on tap of each other like a Lego project.  Each apartment was made up of two or three or four of each boxes.  50,000,000 people saw his World’s Fair Project and plans were being made for them to be built in places like New York City, Jerusalem and   Puerto Rico but none of them got built which was a big disappointment to him.

He still feels that his apartments is an idea that has yet to come because he thinks that it will proliferate.  Meanwhile there is still waiting lists to habitat the apartments that have been built. The architect says he tried to create with light and water what musicians create with rhythms and melodies to be beyond functional.  He is unique in that he likes to create symbolism into structure.  The holocaust museum is a building that goes through a mountain symbolizing death and rebirth.  This architect does not build boxes, he builds experiences.

His philosophy is that architecture should have the same effect on us as   music does.  Utility should be beyond functional.  It has all to do with spirituality.  Who knew that bricks and mortar could be so euphoric?  Visit the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC that he designed that is full of windows because to him,  light is peaceful and it penetrate through all aspects of that building.  He is currently working on a large project designed to humanize city living.  The complex will have 3000 units designed to fit   10,000   people in a residential setting built in a Chinese city where each unit will have a garden.

:America is known for many things.  We have been leaders in engineering.  We offered the world   the smart phone, computer operating systems like Windows, social media like Facebook and Twitter.  The world is in   love with   American music and most of all American movies.  The latest Spider man movie already made $150,000,000 before any American was able to see it on American soil.. America is   also   the land of opportunity for actors from other countries to make it big in movies. 

The   classically trained English actor Orlando Bloom made his millions from Block Buster American movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean series. The latest success story from other parts of the world is that beautiful young chocolate actress that went from being completely unknown in one year to receiving  all kinds of awards in America. 

She went from   amenity to a household name in the span of one award season and she   won most of the awards. Lupita Nyong’o seems to be everywhere now and is a very recognizable actress.  In a span of one year she is   mostly known for   winning the Academy Award   for her   work in the movie called      12 Years A Slave.  This week she was also named People’s Magazines most   beautiful woman of 2014.  Her  educated  accent is appealing.  Her beautiful chocolate complexion makes you just want to lick   her and and I love how she usually wears her hair in the natural curls she   was born with.  She was even featured at the MTV Music Awards while she is not known for singing a single word.  Lupita’s charm and sophistication is helping to ignite her career even further.

Lupita in her dark   beauty seems to have captured the eye of many people.  This week she announced that she is the new ambassadoress of  Lancome from Paris.  It is a very big deal because she  is the very first  African spokeswoman for the international makeup giant company.  It is another international barrior broken. She is part Mexican and part Kenyan.  The Lancome  deal will  ensure   that we will be seeing  her face everywhere on billboards and in magazine printed ads.  We already embraced the beauty of dark skin when she wore that pale powder blue flowing Prada gown to the Academy Awards.  It only enhanced the beauty of her dark creamy chocolate   complexion.

She admits that as a child she used to pray to God for a lighter complexion simply as a sort of solution to being more accepted in society.  She doesn’t pray for  that anymore because not only does she have the confidence to fit in society now but to also be a role model for anyone who looks in the mirror and might not be happy with what they see.  When she received an award from the Essence Hollywood Award Luncheon, in a speech Lupita read a letter from a fan.  The fan  wrote that she was just about to buy a type of cream that lightens skin.  The room hushed in horror since Essencee is all about celebrating the Black woman.  She went on to  read the letter that expressed thankfulness to Lupita  for being true to herself, embracing her natural dark beauty and promoting the natural  black woman again where artists like Bionce seem to be getting blonder and whiter with each appearance. 

Lupita’s mom always told  her that she was beautiful just the way she was.  It wasn’t until a photographer took  interest in her in Mexico where she was a minority and did not feel like she  fit in.  It was his glamorous photos of her that gave her increased confidence in herself and then went on to study acting in college from the ivy league school , the Yale  School of Drama.  Another vote of confidence for her was when she saw black actresses and actors in serious acting roles like in the movie called The Color Purple.  She wasn’t necessarily thinking about race but was happy to see actors and actresses with hair like hers and dark complexions.  I admire her  willingness to discuss things that seem to be so sensitive to others.  We need to celebrate our differences in the world and be happy that humans come in very different shades of color and talents.

She had gotten more than 20 awards from one movie appearance.  She is aware that there  are ebbs and flows in everyone’s career and realizes that she is on the way to the top of the roller coaster ride of life.