Susan Sarandon questioned her religion.


Susan Sarandon questioned her religion

Susan Sarandon said that as a child, she had many questions about religion — questions that got her into trouble and ultimately made her rethink her relationship with religion as an adult. She said some of the Catholic teachings she never understood and she shared what happened when she asked innocent questions to better understand her religion.

She said, “I was a very quiet kid, a very wanting-to-please kid.But certain things didn’t make sense to me and when I questioned them, there was a problem.”

The religious teachings Sarandon questioned was the rule that marriage must take place in the Catholic Church. She wanted to know how Joseph and Mary were married, since Jesus didn’t make it up until later. She got punishment for questioning religion. She had to go stand in the hallway. She was in third grade.

Sarandon was looking for answers that made sense to her. She said “I was not trying to be a wise-ass, I just didn’t understand why they would put babies in limbo just because they weren’t baptized..Why would they say every other religion was bad. I think that all religions at their core have some really magnificent teachings, and most of them are very similar. It’s the institutionalization of these religious principles that don’t serve me well.”

And what do I think? I think all the magnificent teachings religion have are not owned by religion. Those teachings or ethic code or morality already exited in every society before religion was created. Religion just hijacked those teachings without mentioning the source. We should give credits to the philosophers and wise men/women of ancient society for those magnificent teachings. Let’s read some of ancient teachings or the golden rule that existed long before religion.

Ancient China

The Golden Rule existed among all the major philosophical schools of Ancient China: Mohism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Examples of the concept include:

“Zi Gong asked, saying, “Is there one word that may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?” The Master said, “Is not reciprocity such a word?” – Confucius
“Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” – Confucius
“If people regarded other people’s families in the same way that they regard their own, who then would incite their own family to attack that of another? For one would do for others as one would do for oneself.” – Mozi
“The sage has no interest of his own, but takes the interests of the people as his own. He is kind to the kind; he is also kind to the unkind: for Virtue is kind. He is faithful to the faithful; he is also faithful to the unfaithful: for Virtue is faithful.” –Laozi
“Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” –Laozi

Ancient Egypt

An early example of the Golden Rule that reflects the Ancient Egyptian concept of Maat appears in the story of The Eloquent Peasant, which dates to the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1650 BC): “Now this is the command: Do to the doer to cause that he do thus to you.” An example from a Late Period (c. 664 BC – 323 BC) papyrus: “That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.”

Ancient Greece

The Golden Rule in its prohibitive form was a common principle in ancient Greek philosophy. Examples of the general concept include:

“Do not do to your neighbor what you would take ill from him.” – Pittacus (c. 640–568 BC)
“Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.” – Thales (c. 624 BC – c. 546 BC)
“What you do not want to happen to you, do not do it yourself either. ” – Sextus the Pythagorean. The oldest extant reference to Sextus is by Origen in the third century of the common era.
“Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others.” – Isocrates (436–338 BC)
“What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.” – Epictetus
“It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly (agreeing ‘neither to harm nor be harmed’), and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.” – Epicurus
“…it has been shown that to injure anyone is never just anywhere.” – Socrates, in Plato’s Republic. Plato is the first person known to have said this.

Ancient Rome

Seneca, maybe following Publilius Syrus, told “ab alio expectes alteri quod feceris” (expect from others what you did to them) and “non est quod credas quemquam fieri aliena infelicitate felicem” (it is not so, as you might believe, that one is made happy through the unhappiness of others).

The good teachings do not belong to religion, some of the bad teachings against humanity and some of the lies and ignorance about the universe do.

Mass Virginity Test

350 women were put through virginity test during a mass marriage programme organised by the Madhya Pradesh government in India. marriage-1_660_060813080135 It is not the first time. The same state forced women to have virginity tests during a mass marriage ceremony in 2009. Girja Vyas, the head of national commission of women then said, “Such a shameful act where girls had to reportedly undergo tests to prove their chastity to avail the government’s financial aid were sinful and could not be tolerated in a sane society.”

Of course the heinous crimes have been tolerated. Otherwise how could the same people commit the same crime against women in 2013? In the name of helping poor people through mass marriages the authority provides men tight virgin vaginas, so that men can loose themselves and go fuck them as much as they want. The authority has reduced women to mere vaginas. They believes in women’s chastity. Are they concerned about men’s chastity as well? Of course not. A woman must be a virgin if she wants to get married. Who she is married to is not at all important, Nothing matters if the bridegroom is a polygamous or polygynous man, or a women abuser, a dowry murderer, a trafficker!

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Let’s learn about virginity test.

Some cultures require proof of a bride’s virginity prior to her marriage. This has traditionally been tested by the presence of an intact hymen, which was verified by either a physical examination (usually by a physician, who would provide a certificate of virginity) or by a “proof of blood”, which refers to vaginal bleeding that results from the tearing of the hymen. The physical examination would normally be undertaken before the marriage ceremony, while the “proof by blood” involves an inspection for signs of bleeding as part of the consummation of marriage, after the ceremony.

I do not think mass marriage organizers called skilled physicians to do the virginity test. Men in authority know how to do it. They just need a proof of blood. I think they pushed their fingers, their arms, their dicks, their dickheads, their bamboos, their bottles, their iron rods into the vaginas to see how the poor girls bleed. Men like to see women bleeding and crying in pain. They get enormous pleasure exploiting, abusing, humiliating and insulting women. Nothing new.

Freedom of movement and settlement.

I was at UNESCO to receive Universal Citizenship Passport on May 23. It was really a great day. André Cohen, from Mouvement Utopia wrote an article here as a guest blogger about our celebration for the freedom of movement and settlement.

Freedom of movement and settlement – It used to be a Utopia, it is now a necessity.

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As with drug prohibition, sexual and gender education, as well as market regulation, what seems like the greatest difficulty with migratory policies is not imagining realistic alternatives, but establishing that there can, and that in fact there must be alternatives to today’s dead-end repressive consensus among the governing classes of dominant powers.

I will not delve into the complex issues of identity and multiculturalism, save to remind our readers that top anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, historians have established at least four decades ago that identity, be it national, gender, local, class or ethnic, is an ever-fluctuating social construct, which evolves according to the political and social issues of each era. So far, to my knowledge, none of the so-called scientific arguments of the mainly right-wing anti-immigrant populists have succeeded in proving these theories wrong in any substantial way.

No, today, most people I will expose the idea of freedom of movement and settlement will agree with the principle but object that it is unfeasible, utopian, in one word, unrealistic.
Now, in order to escape the most obvious counterargument, that of security issues, I will immediately make it clear that free movement and opened border policies are not the same thing. Indeed, as a European citizen, I have full freedom to enter Great Britain, Germany or any other neighboring country, and the right to settle and work there too. It does not mean however, that all these borders are unmanned, that the border patrols, customs officers and coast guards have all been let off. These borders, rife with cameras, mobile patrols and immigration service officers, are as “safe” as they ever have been, and the army and police can do their job looking for contraband, weapons, terrorists, criminals and smugglers. And Germany or Spain are free to kick me out if I behave improperly. Now that is made clear, I will show why, to me, the global freedom of movement and settlement is not a danger, but a necessity.

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The invasion of the poor

The idea most often heard in rich countries regarding open immigration policies is the following: opening our borders would bring about a foreign invasion of poor people, a massive flow of starving masses, which would tear apart the national social fabric. They point to this or that neighborhood, this or that passageway to Europe, this or that crisis or conflict sending thousands of refugees at our doors.
As it turns out, most of it is not to be feared: of the more than 200 million migrants around the world, the immense majority have migrated from a southern country to another southern country, or from a northern country to another. This represents somewhere along 80% of migrations, leaving us with approximately 20% of South-to-North migratory trajectories. Not much of an invasion.
Moreover, despite our heavily armed and sealed borders being both costly and inefficient, letting through thousands of migrants, the total share of illegal immigrants among the world total is estimated at around 2%, a lot of them in a few major regions where the demand for a low-cost, undocumented labor force is concentrated. This explains both why the poorest neighborhoods in these regions are often cited as counterexamples, and why they are not representative of any major trend.

Another important factor here: we often cite the number of migrants who, legally or not, make it into rich countries, but rarely do the right-wing politicians evoke the number who willingly leave. It’s like they can barely imagine someone wanting to go back to Asia or Africa. Who would want that? I mean our Northern democracies are so much more civilized and…well, better!
In truth, a clear majority of migrants head back home after an average stay of 6 years. In the case of France, the share of migrants who leave within ten years of their arrival is 60%! And this share is comparable in most wealthy countries.

So, there we are with these few thousand people getting around our border fences and into rich countries, most of them planning to eventually go back to their countries of origin. It doesn’t seem like any invasion to me, but for the sake of debate, let’s admit this number could increase significantly if borders were suddenly opened. What then, would be our issues?

The first issue in the case of rich countries with well-developed models of welfare State is the perceived “social burden” that migrants would constitute, too often represented as slothful paupers enjoying a “Western lifestyle” without working or women with five or more children profiting from our school systems and child assistance policies. While everyone who lives or works in the bleak de-industrialized zones of these countries may be able to name an example of unemployed migrants who have given up on looking for a job, statistics show us this is anything but the main trend. The great majority of migrants are working age people who are quite productive and pay taxes (in many cases, undocumented workers pay taxes anyway, but do not have access to most public services). In fact, according to the World Bank’s figures for the early 2000’s migrants had brought over 160 billion dollars to the economies of industrialized countries. So in fact, migrants contribute quite heavily to our economies, on average more than non-migrants (since they are net contributors to State budgets that are in deficit), which can partially be explained by the fact that most are working-age, and even young and in good shape, in countries that are on average not so young anymore, and that so many leave before retirement age.
So not only does the deportation of an undocumented migrant very costly (costing a country such as France an estimated 700 million to 2 billion euros a year), it actually hurts the economy quite a bit. In fact, the risks taken to enter northern countries are such that although they don’t effectively deter candidates to immigration, they do deter migrants from going to their countries of origin, knowing full well that they would have trouble coming back. So these policies actually artificially creates undocumented workers (who feel stuck in the host country) and illegal immigration (by kicking out migrants who sneak back in).

Now to picture exactly how much this costs us, you must also take into account the effect of migrations on countries of origin. While these are not always positive (we’ve all heard of the infamous “brain drain”), they can be amazingly powerful on local and even national scales. Indeed, the money sent home by migrants is the first source of income of several different countries, in a few cases representing more than a third of the national income. Moreover, if you take all the combined sums sent back home to migrants’ families, this adds up (in 2007, once again according to the World Bank) to something around 337 billion dollars. This represents a whooping three times the total amount of the international aid to developing countries – probably a lot more considering the amount of that declared aid which simply consists in tax breaks for investors, debt reduction and canceling, and transfers to poor territories within rich countries, such as the American Samoa or the French Overseas Territories.
As we can see, not only are migrations a powerful factor for the development of their countries of origin, they also outbid the industrialized countries’ participation to this effort by a three-to-one ratio, which is that much less that rich countries have to give to avoid this or that country’s economic collapse.

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The reserve army of capital

A second common perception of immigration which is widely spread by populist right-wing circles is that immigrants are the tools of the rich to keep the wages low, thus taking the “nationals”’s job away from them and driving them into poverty.
While in some cases, this statement is somewhat true, and much has been written about the subject by scholars much more knowledgeable than me on the matter, I can safely claim that this is not the case in a great number of cases.
In fact, a large number of unqualified jobs are unwanted by the local work force, not only because of the low wages but also due to the terrible work hours and working conditions, and above all for their near-complete absence of promotion perspectives (a terrible thing for those brought up in the Western myth of meritocracy). Among these, the most frequently cited are the lower wrung of construction jobs (dangerous, tiring), cooking job in restaurants (long and intense hours, terrible heat), gardening jobs (long hours, cold, rain and heat, very low wages), fruit-picking (only a part of the year, with very long days), janitorial jobs (dirty, thankless, exposed to toxic products and often in the very early morning), some factory jobs (noisy, exhausting and repetitive), taxi driving (long hours, irregular wage), and trash pick-up (dirty, early morning, quite physical). One striking example is that of slaughterhouses in French and German countrysides: since nobody in even remote villages is willing to do the dirty work, slaughterhouses have been recruiting out in the Turkish hill villages and Romanian hamlets, where the slaughter of chicken and goats is still an ordinary sight.
For most people growing up in rich countries, the wage is just not worth this kind of effort, risk-taking and degradation. Life is just better on public assistance or some part-time job as a clerk. These are the jobs European and North-American youth are just not raised to want. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs that have stayed vacant despite four decades of mass unemployment.

Another factor that makes this fear of the job-thieves unrealistic is the demographic trend in Europe (as well as in Japan, and to a lesser extent, North America), where the average couple has less than to children, making the workforce shrink from year to year. Finally, one has to say that this prejudiced view is based on the perception of migrants as necessarily unqualified. This has never been father from the truth. Beyond the fact that over a fifth of African doctors have left the continent for Northern countries, today more than 40% of incoming migrants to France are college-level students, that is more than the percentage in the native French population.

Even if the number of immigrant workers necessary to keep Europe’s economy afloat given by the U.N., 195 million people needed by 2025, is arguably excessive; even if one can also think of ways to stimulate the economy by raising wages and making the working conditions in these undesirable jobs less stressful, one must agree on the fact that putting the full blame on the employers is sometimes not justified, and criminalizing the immigrant is a lot more absurd.
In fact, there is no correlation between unemployment levels and immigration, and such high-immigration countries such as Switzerland, Australia and Canada keep their unemployment levels far below the OECD average, while regions that house fewer immigrants, such as western Ireland, central Greece, eastern Germany and southern Italy often struggle with persistent unemployment problems.

These are a few of the arguments against anti-immigrant rhetoric that are backed by solid science and statistics. But once one proves migrants are good for the economy, only half the job is done. And numbers alone can’t show how much more than money is at stake by allowing migrants to travel freely.

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Beyond the migrator economicus

To show the full picture, one has to take into account the dramatic human consequences of repressive migratory policies: migrant workers who’s only crime is their nationality are routinely detained, mistreated, deported; the filtering process for asylum seekers and refugees has become so rigged that less than 10% of files are accepted. While there certainly are some fakers, hundreds upon hundreds of cases of actual refugees sent back to war zones, dangerous situations, ravaged homes and miserable refugee camps. Every year, cases are revealed of people being denied asylum and getting killed just days after deportation, and many more people are jailed on arrival, with some countries considering illegal emigration a crime.
Moreover, over the last thirty years, thousands of migrants have died trying to enter northern countries through ever more dangerous routes.

The cultural aspect, taking into account all the cultural, linguistic, human wealth created by interactions between different people cannot be quantified but must surely be put forward. Immigrants today bring a huge influx of talent into scientific, musical, athletic, artistic sectors of industrialized countries.

But the bottom line argument is that of equity: today, the injustice created by the two tier travel system, residents of the global North being encouraged to study abroad, explore tourist destinations and take on jobs that let them travel around the world business class while citizens of southern countries are forced, sometimes brutally, to stay at home, no matter what their reason for traveling may be.

If you find these arguments convincing, I encourage you to learn more about the Organization for a Universal Citizenship and sign our Call for global freedom of movement and settlement, posted below.

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Let’s see what the organization for a Universal Citizenship says about universal citizenship and for freedom of movement and settlement of people on a global scale!

We, citizens and representatives of organizations from the various continents, united within the Organization for a Universal Citizenship, call for universal citizenship and the freedom of movement and settlement.

Today, a change of policy in the field of migrations has become necessary: the systems that regulate migrations are essentially prerogatives of the States and are therefor no longer adapted to the realities of migrations in the 21st century, marked by globalization. These systems trample what constitutes, in our eyes, a fundamental right inscribed in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

These regulative systems institutionalize a two-tier mobility: the more privileged countries can offer their citizens almost limitless travel possibilities, whereas three quarters of humanity cannot escape a form of de facto home imprisonment. This indeed leads to outrageous administrative processes, excessive financial guarantee conditions, working conditions reminiscent of slave labor and a growing criminalization of illegal immigration… Migrants have today become victims of arbitrary decisions and institutional violence as well as preys for criminal networks.

In a number of Northern countries, we see a resurgence of myths built on fear and on xenophobic and racist prejudice. These feed into multiple forms of political intoxication and exploitation; they nourish the most reactionary currents, dangerously waving the fables of foreign invasion, of threats upon national identity and of the dangers of a so-called impossible integration. The prejudices then serve as basis for the most irrational closed-border policies and as justifications for the systematic violations of the most fundamental rights conferred to migrants by international treaties and conventions.

More tragically, the closing and militarization of borders, most notably those of Europe, North America and Australia have revealed themselves to be a murderous system for thousands of people over more than two decades. Costly in human lives, this system is also costly in public funds, throwing away several hundred million dollars, in times of recession, all for obviously inefficient results.

We believe it is illusory to think that closed borders and controlled migratory flows can stop those who have lost all hope of a better life at home from taking their chances elsewhere. We are also certain that we can’t stop those whose living environment has been destroyed by the ecological crisis from moving to greener pastures either. Climate refugees, already an estimated 38 million people today, could number as many as 150 million by 2050.

It is urgent to finally take an appeased look at migration as an ordinary social fact, a characteristic of times past, present and future, deeply related to global transformations of which they are both a cause and a consequence.

We’ve learned that humanity has built its history and wealth through migrations: it is an error and a denial to think it could be otherwise in the future.

We are determined to act today, in order to guarantee that every person’s fundamental rights be respected.

We call for the organization of an international conference in the United Nations on the theme of freedom of movement and settlement, and for the adoption of a legally binding international convention on this subject. It should be prepared by broad talks between all parties involved.

We invite everyone to support a strong symbolic initiative : the Universal Citizenship Passport. This Passport will serve as a travel document, recognized by signatory States, and will symbolize their engagement for the respect of migrants’ rights and for the recognition of the freedom of movement and settlement as a fundamental right for every human being, based on Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

We demand the effective recognition of a universal citizenship for each inhabitant of our planet, guaranteeing for each person access to fundamental rights in each country where he may travel or reside. We also demand the parallel separation of citizenship from nationality, as is already partially the case in such frames as the European Union, the Mercosur, the CEDEAO or the Trans Tasman Travel Agreement.

Consequently, we call upon the associative and citizen movements, NGO’s, political parties, trade unions, social movements as well as economic actors who share our vision to support our initiatives, to spread our messages and to join the Organization for a Universal Citizenship.

We also call the States and their governments, the commonwealths and international organizations to join our Universal Citizenship Passport project and to struggle for the recognition of the effective right to a freedom of movement and settlement by international and United Nations institutions. We encourage them to sign multilateral agreements in favor of free circulation, to introduce national policies opening their borders and to guarantee the rights of migrants.

Finally, we call each citizen to mobilize for universal citizenship and for the global freedom of movement and settlement. We incite you to put pressure on all political levels for these perspectives to become realities.

Paris, May 23rd 2013.

Everything is so perfect! I just can’t stop loving it!

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’

moroccan

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.