Eric Smalls Is A Sophomore At Stanford Studying Computer Science. In 2012, President Barack Obama Featured

Dear America: Meet Bernie Sanders. Properly, this time.

Time to set the record straight.

I need to collect all of the Bernie Sanders images/quotes I’ve collected from FB and turn them into an animated gif...  #project

I’m still skeptical... but out of all of the politicians he sounds like the best bet....

some links

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/bernie-sanders-can-become-president-has-replaced-i-like-him-but-he-cant-win_b_7733476.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/almost-every-major-poll-shows-bernie-sanders_b_7937906.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

Bharara, Teachout, Lessig are all going to be here... and it's free and open to the public...

program here: http://calendars.fordham.edu/EventList.aspx…

register here: http://calendars.fordham.edu/EventRegistration.aspx…

Cuomo vs Bharara

Cuomo's Office Hobbled Ethics Inquiries by Moreland Commission

moon glow

Adding to the reading list...

Uncertainty and Our Search for Meaning: Legendary Psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom on How We Glean Our Sense of Purpose  by Brain Pickings

This is why not everything we call awesome is actually awesome

How many times did you use the word awesome today? Five, ten, fifteen times? We use the word awesome so often and, most of the time, so incorrectly that the term has lost its original sense— maybe forever. Comedian Jill Shargaa explains why in this AWESOME TED talk.

Star Wars, Kidneys, and PT

I just signed up for the Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon and created a campaign to raise money for the American Kidney Fund :)  

Dialysis saved my life.  Help me raise some money to help the AKF make a difference to others in need.   

I experienced Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) when I was in the hospital this past fall.  I had double pneumonia and sepsis.  I was kept sedated and placed on an ECMO machine while receiving dialysis.  I spent 6 weeks in the hospital.  I am very fortunate that I've regained kidney function and no longer need dialysis.

Right now, if your kidneys fail you the only options are dialysis or transplant.  Dialysis is very expensive and the current waitlist for a transplant is about 7 years.  

During the rest of February and the month of March, I will combine the miles I do with my love of Star Wars and a campaign to help support others still on dialysis.    

I’ll be sharing updates on my progress here and on Flickr & IG...  

If you’d like to contribute to my campaign, please visit my AKF page.  Thanks!!

#empathy #perspective

A friend of mine posted this on FB today:

"When confronted with someone whose “normal” is not our “normal,” we are forced to confront the most frightening prospect of all: that there is no such thing as “normal.” Just the accidental cultural moment we happened to be born into, a cultural happenstance that never existed before, and will never exist again.

We resist difference because it requires we acknowledge that the culture we grew up with as “normal” is just a momentary accident. It requires we accept that the world we were born into will never be the same as the world we die in. The longer we live, the more we become interlopers, even in our home towns. But, if we’d let it happen, also, the more we will learn.

...someday, someone will look back and think, “Those were the days! That was what was normal!” And that person will be wrong. And that person will be right."

(which, side note, led me here and here, but that’s a story for another occasion)  

While another friend of mine emailed me today and talked about having to unfriend someone on FB today because of racist comments on a friend’s timeline related to what’s going on in politics today...

In some respects, I think that tools like Virtual Reality could be a real help in teaching people to learn to acquire a less judgeful and more peaceful mindset-- take a look at this article: The Virtual Reality Renaissance: How Learning in VR Will Inspire Action Like Never Before

...  of course, technology is never the panacea, VR could be a great tool in the arsenal of the one thing if anything would help solve this problem--- education...  

Education has the power to change the world...  that is truly one of my core beliefs...

I’m encouraged by organizations like following as well as articles that I’ve tagged  #empathy on delicious

StartEmpathy.org

 ActionSprout.io

 RootsofEmpathy.org

So while it's very telling that the largest factor of predictors for Trump is education- or lack of education that is-  there’s still the hope that rationality will win out...  

And if all else fails there’s:

How to move to Canada – Google search spikes after Donald Trump Super Tuesday success

July 4th