Welcome to Earth!

Top 10 new species discovered in 2012.

The top 10 species were selected by an international committee of taxon experts from more than 140 nominated species out of an estimated 18,000 species named in 2012.
The top 10 list is released each year on or about Carolus Linnaeus’ birthday on May 23rd. Linnaeus is the “Father of Taxonomy” and his work in the mid 18th century was the beginning point for “modern” naming and classification of plants and animals.

Here they are:

Chondrocladia lyra: A carnivorous sponge, that lives 2 miles below the surface of the northwest Pacific Ocean.

Chondrocladia lyra

Sibon noalamina: Resembling poisonous coral snakes, this harmless snake eats slugs, earthworms and snails.
Sibon noalamina

Cercopithecus lomamiensis: A monkey with a delicate human-like face surrounded by a frill of fur.

Cercopithecus lomamiensis
Ochroconis anomala: Staining the prehistoric arts on the walls of the Lascaux cave, this fungus is black in color.

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Eugenia petrikensis: A 6.5 feet high evergreen shrub that’s endangered. This shrub displays clusters of dark pink flowers.

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Viola lilliputana: This tiny, Lilliputian violet stands just 1 cm tall and grows only in the Peruvian Andes.

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Paedophryne amanuensis: Even smaller than the Lilliputian violet, this frog is just a mere 7.7 millimeteres in length.

Paedophryne amanuensis

Semachrysa jade: Posted on Flickr and spotted by an entomologist, this lacewing insect is green in color.

Semachrysa jade
Lucihormetica luckae: A cockroach that glows in the dark! A single specimen discovered 70 years ago, it is thought to be extinct.

Lucihormetica luckae

Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia: Resembling a gingko, this hangingfly lived in the Middle Jurassic period.

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We are not alone. We share our Earth with millions of different species. But most of us are too busy with humans. We do not spend much time to learn about others. At least we can try to give a warm welcome to ten new species every year.

One world. One passport.

I received a Universal Citizenship Passport yesterday. The organizers seriously issued passports for 100 people . A milestone was achieved yesterday with the official launch of the Organisation for Universal Citizenship at UNESCO in Paris and the official handover of passports to people. I am grateful to Emmaüs International, France Libertés and Mouvement Utopia for making my dream of one world and one passport come true.

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Passport number. Surname. First name. Date of birth. Date of issue. That’s all. No mention of birthplace, country of birth, gender, religion, colour, country.

The passport says:

The states that recognise the validity of the Universal Citizenship Passport allow holders to cross their borders and settle freely in their territory without a visa.
In order to be valid, every Universal Citizenship Passport must be countersigned by the official representative of the relevant state and by the Organisation for Universal Citizenship.

This passport is a travel document and does not serve as an identity document.

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The world is a shared heritage: no-one chooses the place, time or circumstances, political, economic or environmental, of their birth.
Universal Citizenship has its roots in the history of the struggle for the recognition of human rights.
It is based on major texts such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and more recently World Charter for Migrants. As an extension of these documents, this Manifesto is contributing to the struggle to secure their application.

Universal Citizenship is based on freedom of movement and settlement anywhere in the world for all individuals, irrespective of their nationality
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The signatories to this Manifesto are committed to considering Universal Citizenship as a fundamental value whose implementation they will defend, alongside with following political goals.

*Abolishing policies aimed at restricting people’s freedom of movement and settlement, with particular reference to visas.
*No migrant may be classed as illegal.
*Unconditional access for migrants to the rights in force in the host country, in the areas of education, social protection, and more especially health-care and employment.
*Recognition of the right to asylum is a fundamental and inalienable right.

Ecuador is the first country which is going to recognise Universal Citizenship Passport. Other countries should think about recognising it. If humans move forward, there will be no national border to restrict movement of humans. Universal Passport may look like a fiction today, but one day it will definitely be reality.

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The bearded man standing beside me is Adolfo Kaminsky. He started forging documents after escaping deportation to a Nazi death camp. He went on to become one of the world’s best forgers, creating documents that saved the lives of Jews, spies and freedom fighters. Adolfo Kaminsky has received Universal Passport. Many other extra-ordinary people and victims of repressive migration policy have also received Universal Passport.

Isn’t it wonderful?

I will eat 3D printed food only if it is tasty

It is true. You can print food now.

NASA paid to develop a prototype 3D printer for food, so astronauts may one day enjoy 3D-printed pizza on Mars. NASA hopes the technology may one day be used to feed astronauts on longer space missions, such as the roughly 520 days required for a manned flight to Mars. Manned missions to destinations deeper in the solar system would require food that can last an even longer amount of time.
Dividing the various components of food in powder cartridges would theoretically enable users to mix them together, like the ingredients in normal recipes, to create a diverse array of nutritious meals.

To prove his idea works, Contractor printed chocolate. Now, he’s aiming to build a more advanced prototype to print a pizza, according to Quartz.

The system will start by “printing” a sheet of dough, followed by a layer of tomato “sauce,” which will consist of the powder mixed with water and oil. Instead of traditional toppings, the 3D-printed pizza will be finished off with a layer of protein, which can be derived from animals, milk or plants, Contractor told Quartz.

While NASA sees applications for 3D printers on future manned space missions, Contractor said his food synthesizer could also be an effective way of addressing the problem of food shortages from rapid population growth.

I guess 3D printed food is not only useful for the astronauts in space, it is useful for the ordinary people during food shortages on earth and probably it is the ultimate food for new busy and lazy future generation.

3D printed food will definitely be nutritious and healthy. But what about taste? Will the printer be able to print taste?

Misogyny knows no bounds

First, a top general blames ‘hookup mentality’ for the Air Force’s massive sexual assault problem . Then,  Hong Kong’s security minister   said   that women should avoid drinking too much if they don’t want to get raped.  He said, “Some of these cases also involved the victims being raped after drinking quite a lot of alcohol. So I would appeal that young ladies should not drink too much.

 

Women should not wear ‘provocative dresses’, women should not drink alcohol too much,women should not go to bars, women should not go to the streets at night, women should not go out alone,  women should not go outside without  burqas. They have to do hundreds of different  things to avoid rape.

 

Men do not stop raping. Men are not   advised  not to rape the way women are advised not to be raped.  Most people probably believe men will never control  the urge of raping  women, so it is women, or the potential victims  should   reduce or sacrifice  their freedom and rights if they want  to save themselves from being raped, abused, assaulted, killed by their fellow humans.

 

Women will still   be raped even If women stop   wearing  provocative dresses, stop  drinking alcohol,    do not walk outside  alone, or do not go to bars. Most men  still do not believe  raping is bad because they know that  it is not considered bad to treat  women as sex objects and slaves in patriarchal societies.

 

 

 

 

Life is more important than boobs!

‘Angelina Jolie wrote on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times that she had tested positive for a genetic mutation known as BRCA1, which left her with an exceedingly high risk for developing breast and ovarian cancer. Her mother died at 56 after nearly a decade with cancer. After genetic counseling, Ms. Jolie opted to have both breasts removed and to undergo re-constructive surgery.’

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Angelina Jolie has taken a very good decision to undergo preventive surgery that, doctors say, will reduce her breast cancer risk to less than 5%. Many people are now crying for Brad Pitt, because he will not be able to enjoy Jolie’s body anymore. They believe, women’s boobs are more important than women’s lives.

I hope every woman will be able to get their gene tested and take control of their lives like Angelina Jolie. But all women are not so lucky. Most women in the world do not have much money. They do not have the right to choose. Because of the patriarchal tradition in most parts of the world, women suffer unbearable inequalities and injustices. They suffer from different physical and psychological problems that are not treated. Women remain untreated because they are not taken to hospitals until they reach terminal stages. Women are not supposed to become sick, because they must remain busy with household chores, bear and rear children, take care of the family, and make sure that the male members of the family are happy. A woman’s destiny is to be ruled by the father in childhood, by the husband when she is young, and by her son when she is old.

My mother had symptoms of colon cancer. But she was not allowed to see a doctor until she was bedridden. It was too late when she saw a doctor. She already got metastasis in her liver. She died without any treatment. She was 57. My father was a doctor, we were called an educated upper middle class family, if it happened in our house, imagine what could happened in other houses.

Women’s role is to stay at home and to obey her husband. Women are considered weak, so they should be taken care of, their body and mind, their desire and wishes, their rights and freedom must be controlled by men. Women are treated as inferior beings, child bearing machines and mere sex–objects. Whatever happens, sex objects must not remove their breasts. If they do, they are not anymore women and they are not anymore beauty, not anymore worthy. It is hard to change patriarchal mindset.

Genetic testing will remain dreams for women until women’s lives are considered valuable.

Please read some comments I got on Twitter about this issue:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

‘I am proud to be an atheist’

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Free Arabs says, In the Islamic kingdom of Morocco, atheism itself is not a criminal offense. “Shaking the Muslim’s faith” is.

Police is looking for Imad Iddine Habib for saying, “there is no God but Mickey Mouse”. Habib is now in hiding.

I congratulate Habib for declaring he is an atheist. Atheists should come out of the closet and speak up. If they do not do it now, it would be too late to save humanity. The authorities will imprison you when you are a few in number, they will be scared when you are a million.

Islam should be scrutinized critically

Qatar jailed a Nepali teacher on charges of insulting Islam.

A Nepali teacher who taught chemistry at Qatar Academy has been jailed in Doha on felony charges for insulting Islam. Dorje Gurung, who has taught chemistry to middle and high school students in the United States, Britain and Australia, appeared in a Doha court on Thursday. If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.

Gurung was fired from Qatar Academy after arguments with students on April 22 and 23. Although he was set to leave the country, he was summoned by the police and has been jailed since last Wednesday.

Gurung has been accused of comparing all Muslims to terrorists.

Islam doesn’t feel insulted. Islam is not a human, it is just an ideology. Ideologies have no hearts and minds. Islamists may feel insulted when we critically scrutinize Islam. The truth is, whoever scrutinizes Islam gets killed, jailed or exiled. All other religions can be scrutinized except Islam. This is so ridiculously weird. Who gives Muslims the right to constantly violate our human rights? The barbaric and brutal blasphemy law must be abolished. Muslims must not have the right to terrorize the whole world in the 21st century with their 7th century’s laws that are against democracy, human rights and freedom of expression.

Why don’t you blame god?

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Why don’t you blame God for not saving Amanda from being kidnapped?
Why don’t you blame God for not saving innocent girls from being raped & tortured year after year?
Why don’t you blame God for helping Ariel Castro to commit heinous crimes year after year?
Why don’t you blame God for destroying three young lives, their youth, their future forever?
Why don’t you blame God for humiliating, insulting, abusing humanity year after year?

Why I respect Islamists

I like Islamists much more than I like so called non-Islamists, secularists and modernists in the Indian subcontinent. Islamists are less hypocrites than many other groups of people. They speak their minds. When they want to kill, they say they want to kill. They do not claim they are good guys, they are against violence. Others kill secretly. Others wear masks. Islamists kill publicly. They do not say things they do not mean. Others often do. Tehreek-e-Taliban gave an interview. See how honest they are.

”What is your opinion about the upcoming elections?

Tehreek-e-Taliban is an Islamic militia organization to enforce the Islamic system in the country. We do not believe in democracy because democracy is secular. We stand against this system and ideology. Whoever supports democracy violates Islam. We want Islamic law in this country because this country got independence [from British rule] on the basis of Islamic ideology. We will never support democracy.

Why does your group attack politicians and their supporters?

Three parties [Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and the Awami National Party] are openly calling themselves secular and liberal. They do not realize that secularism represents a set of beliefs abhorrent to Islam. These parties have essentially declared themselves non-Muslims, and so we have every right to attack them. They have the blood of the innocent Muslims of Swat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi, Balochistan, and the tribal areas on their hands. They consider the U.S. war [on terror] their own war. So we will target them. They will reap what they have sown.

How opposed is your group to women running for public office?

Islam gives a specifically valuable position to women. We are not against women. We are against democracy, and we will attack anyone, male or female, who supports it. Women must veil themselves and act in accordance with Islamic code. They should be content with what Islam has already given them. Whoever is part of the U.S. war—whether it’s a woman or man, journalist or propagandist, security officer or ideological sympathizer—we have every right to attack them.

The Taliban appear to be soft on Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan. Is this accurate?

We will not support anyone who believes in democracy. We have declared our war against three political parties because these parties are vicious and imposed brutalities on innocent people. We cannot make any assessments about the parties which were not in power when the government was targeting the Taliban. People shout popular slogans before coming into power. Once they get power, they change their tune and forget to implement their promises. We will carefully watch what [Sharif or Khan] does when in power. We will see what policies they have toward the mujahideen of Islam and toward the U.S. We will be in a position to comment only after their real policies are made clear.

As you said you don’t believe in democracy and elections are going to be held on May 11. Are you going to disrupt the elections on May 11?

We are against the system. This is not specific to just one day. Whether it’s today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, our way of protest is very clear, it is through militancy, and we will continue to record our protest. ”

Bravo. I congratulate Islamists for telling the truth. They are clearly saying that democracy is against Islam. They prefer to impose theocracy. They want 7th century’s laws. They want women to wear veils and be submissive to men. Women must not have equal rights and freedom. Islamists are not hypocrites like most secular politicians in the subcontinent who say secularism is not against Islam. Islamists are not hypocrites like most secular politicians who promise to secularize state and society and to do everything for women’s equality, but do not really do anything. Islamists hate secularism, they know very well that secularism, democracy, women’s rights are not compatible with Islam. Islamists kill, destroy, terrorize the world. They do not deny that Allah asks them to kill infidels, and non-Muslims. They do not lie, they do not say terrorism has no religion, they do not claim that Islam is a religion of peace.