Wise Beyond His Years

High Schooler With Cancer Delivers Inspiring Speech About Living Fully

"None of us get out of life alive, so be gallant, be great, be gracious, and be grateful for the opportunities you have."

Dominique MosbergenSenior Writer, The Huffington Post

Posted: 11/09/2015 03:00 AM EST | Edited: 3 hours ago

"None of us get out of life alive, so be gallant, be great, be gracious, and be grateful for the opportunities you have." 

Those were the poignant, emotional words uttered by 18-year-old Jake Bailey, a cancer patient who left his hospital bed last week so he could deliver an inspiring message to his classmates.

Bailey is the senior monitor, similar to a student body president, at Christchurch Boys' High School in New Zealand. Last Wednesday, the young man was meant to give a speech at an awards ceremony for graduating seniors at his school. Just the week before, however, he was diagnosed with Burkitts non-Hodgkins lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer.

Doctors said that without treatment, he’d only have weeks to live. They also told him that he definitely wouldn’t be able to attend the ceremony to give his speech.

Bailey, however, defied their expectations.

Sitting in a wheelchair, the high school senior, who has been in the hospital undergoing treatment, didn’t just attend the event; he also got to share the speech he’d prepared with his classmates and friends. 

In it, he thanked mentors, teachers and parents on behalf of his graduating class, and reflected on the experiences and friendships they’d enjoyed in their years in school.

He also shared the story of his uncle, Ross Bailey, a world-renowned surgeon who had performed New Zealand’s first kidney transplant and who had drowned unexpectedly during a holiday in Sri Lanka.

His uncle had "sought higher things," said Bailey. "He dared to make a difference."

"Moral strength is about making a conscious decision to be a person who doesn't give up when it would be easy to, to be lesser because the journey is less arduous," the young man told the audience.

Bailey ended his speech by encouraging his classmates to seize the day.

"The future is truly in our hands. Forget about having long-term dreams. Let's be passionately dedicated to the pursuit of short-term goals. Micro-ambitious," the high schooler said. "Work with pride on what is in front of us. We don't know where we might end up. Or when it might end up." 

At the end of Bailey’s speech, the audience leapt to its feet to give him a standing ovation.

His classmates then performed a spontaneous haka, a traditional ancestral dance, to honor him. An overwhelmed Bailey mouthed "thank you" to his friends, his eyes wet with tears.

On Sunday, the headmaster of Christchurch Boys’ High School, Nic Hill, said that Bailey’s "courage has been an inspiration" not just to the school, but "to the wider community and even internationally."

"I couldn’t have more respect for Jake as a leader and someone who has inspired people throughout the world," Hill wrote on Facebook. "Jake’s many attributes will help him through this battle and we’ll be with him every step of the way."

According to U.S. National Library of Medicine, Burkitt lymphoma is a "very fast growing form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma." More than half of patients with the disease can be treated with intensive chemotherapy. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jack-bailey-cancer-speech_5640446de4b0411d307180fa

Malcolm X: Speeches and Interviews (1960-65)

History omitted.

James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)

Watch this.  It's an hour well spent.

How To Fry An Egg

From  The Huffington Post - (click on the picture to see the video)

This Is The ONLY Way You Should Be Frying Your Eggs

Your breakfast won't know what hit it.

James CaveLifestyle Staff Writer, The Huffington Post

Posted: 11/06/2015 04:17 PM EST

Just when you thought eggs couldn't be any more incredible or edible, a video emerges forth from the Internet ready to scramble your whole belief system.

And as if to vouch for its significance, the video below was posted to Instagram by not one celebrity chef, but three -- Anthony Bourdain, Eric Ripert and Jose Andres -- all claiming it as the singular way to fry an egg.

It's called the Olive Oil Fried Egg, and a representative told HuffPost that it's served at many of Andres' restaurants as it's his favorite way to fry an egg.

The three aforementioned chefs were in Puerto Rico participating in the first annual Dorado Beach Culinary Getaway, where Bourdain, Ripert, Andres and Jose Enrique show off their best tricks.

To do this one, Andres lays a cracked egg into a saute pan that's been drizzled with four tablespoons of olive oil and brought up to medium-high heat. He then tips the pan so that the oil pools together at the edge of the pan, and spoons the oil over the yolk until the egg is fried into a crisp roll.

He demonstrated it for the New York Times a few years ago and explained that he'd been trying to find the best way to fry an egg "my whole life." He loves this method due to "the humbleness of the dish. Why do you need to do anything more complex?”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-to-fry-eggs-jose-andres_563d0a68e4b0411d3071074a

Using Rap as a Tool to Educate

From The Root - 

Rapper Jahi Educates in the Classroom and From Behind the Mic

The front man for the second coming of rap group Public Enemy, PE 2.0, is also an educator of young black boys in Oakland, Calif.

An excerpt - 

The Root: I am curious about how your two lives—artist and educator—intersect. How did you come to the African-American Male Achievement program?

Jahi: Well, I was rocking with KRS-One one night in San Francisco, and after the concert, me and a brother named Chris Chatmon were together, and he was like, "You gotta meet this brother." So KRS-One and I met. I told him I was back in Oakland but had been helping sites and community centers and a school down the street from my house. He started laughing. I said, "What's funny?" He said, "My kids go to that school and that's the school where we want to pioneer AAMA." AAMA was not in middle schools; they were only in high schools at the time. Two weeks later, I was pioneering it in middle schools. Been doing it for six years now.

It's the first organization in the U.S. that serves black males in a public school system. We offer grades for our class. It's not an after-school program, it's not an extra pullout. You can take it as an elective credit; it's called "Mastering our Cultural Identity," and if you're in elementary school, you get a grade as well.

TR: How did the program come about?

J: In 2010 the superintendent was Tony Smith, a white man who called out structural racism in the Oakland Unified School District. It was probably one of the most courageous things that could have happened. Then he created this Office of African-American Male Achievement. It was an office of one—with just Chris Chatmon. He was told, "Don't quit your day job, it's not gonna work, there's no way you're gonna be able to serve black boys only."

One of our methodologies is using targeted universalism, a concept introduced by a U.C. Berkeley professor. [A targeted universal strategy is one that is inclusive of the needs of both the dominant and the marginal group, but pays particular attention to the situation of the marginal group.] Chapman did a listening campaign to try to figure out what were the big problems.

What we found was that young black boys did not feel loved, appreciated or safe in public schools. They felt targeted, criminalized and devalued. We had to figure out something, almost like an inoculation—like, what can we give them right now?

That's how the manhood program started. We went from year 1, with a few facilitators in a few schools to now, here we are year 6, with our Kephra curriculum, and it follows California standards and Common Core. All of our facilitators are certified teachers. We are in the forefront in the national academic discourse in how do you serve black boys with a public school education.

TR: Black male teachers are teaching exclusively black boys. What does it look like on a typical day?

J: We actually recruited and retained African-American males to come in and run a 10-month marathon of being a teacher in a different kind of way. We call our students "kings." If you continue to call a young black boy a king, you will see transformation. We operate out of a position of love. We operate out of an asset-based model.

Public schools across the nation, by and large, are operating out of a deficit model. When it comes to black boys, it's what we don't have, what we didn't show up with. What we need. So this comes from an asset-based model. Our kings have innate greatness. We don't have to give them anything. We just have to provide the platform for that to be able to come out in a loving and safe environment. There's also advanced academic discourse. We fill in the gaps about black history and also prior to slavery. They can take revolutionary literature instead of English. Reading Malcolm X, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Asa Hilliard, Ivan Van Sertima.

We are recruiting and hand-picking brothers to be teachers. We have a 90 percent retention rate for teachers, which is better than the entire Oakland Unified School District. They have a teacher shortage. So part of it is buy-in. Do you really want to make a change in your neighborhood?

The level of maturity and personal belief and self-efficacy and advocacy in them is amazing. They know how to show up. Transformed how they relate to their families and communities. Take trips around the nation to speak about what they do. That's been life changing. This year, students won $16,000 in scholarships to college.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/11/rapper_jahi_educates_in_the_classroom_and_from_behind_the_mic.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

Joe's Version

No Thanks. I Got This.

Real Time with Bill Maher: New Rules – November 6, 2015 (HBO)

YUCK!

I love coffee, but I'm not a coffee fanatic.  As I've shared recently, you can't find brewed American coffee here, so I've learned to love instant coffee.

No eye rolling allowed coffee snobs!

You, too, would learn very quickly how to enjoy this instant brew if that was your only choice.

Anyway, some folks have come up with another way to consume coffee - a gummy bear like cube.

Can't say I'd run and try these.

What do you think?

Blue-Eyed Soul Singing Honky Tonk

I've always liked country music, even though many of the good 'ol boys who sing it leave a lot to be desired.  I can probably blame this affinity on Texas, too.

The thing is, I think country music is one of the best genres when it comes to telling a story in 3-4 minutes.

Check out this duet below singing "Drink You Away," which is technically not country, but it fits right in with the twangy crowd.

He's the Epitome of Resiliency

This is a wonderful article about an unlikely kid who grew up to play in the NFL.

Interestingly, he has ties to Sacramento.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/sports/football/lorenzo-mauldin-new-york-jets-keeps-bouncing-back.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0

Lessons In Equal Pay From Kids

Amazing Eggshell Carvings

From The Daily Good - 

Former Prisoner Depicts Life Behind Bars With Astonishing Eggshell Carvings

by Rafi Schwartz

Artist Gil Batle had spent more than two decades of his 53 years shuffling through California’s penal system, including prison time spent in San Quentin, Jamestown, and Chuckawalla Valley for a variety of nonviolent offenses. There, his natural artistic ability was put to use drawing and tattooing—skills that served Batle well by impressing his fellow inmates. Now free, Batle has been documenting his experience behind bars in a series of pieces done in a medium as delicate and fragile as prison life can be hard and unyielding: eggshells. 

http://magazine.good.is/articles/eggshell-prison-art-gil-batle?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood

Doing the Right Thing

DADDY DON'T GO TRAILER from Pureland Pictures on Vimeo.

Experience Cuba in 360-degrees (English)

http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/cuba360/?csp=travel

Mormons Preferred

From Atlas Obscura - 

An excerpt -

A few years back, when the Pew Research Center surveyed Mormons in America about their place in society, more than 60 percent of the participants said that Americans “are uninformed about Mormonism.” Mormons make up about 2 percent of the American population—about the same as Jews—but they’re not sure that the rest of the country quite understands or accepts them. Overwhelmingly, most Mormons described misperceptions about their religion or “lack of acceptance in American society.”

But there’s at least one place in American society where Mormons have found an unusual degree of acceptance—in agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, which see Mormons as particularly desirable recruits and have a reputation for hiring a disproportionate number of people who belong to the church. 

And another - 

But, in reality, Mormons end up in these agencies for perfectly logical reasons. The disproportionate number of Mormons is usually chalked up to three factors: Mormon people often have strong foreign language skills, from missions overseas; a relatively easy time getting security clearances, given their abstention from drugs and alcohol; and a willingness to serve.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-mormons-make-great-fbi-recruits?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=dd4aa2b9b9-Newsletter_11_5_201511_4_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-dd4aa2b9b9-59905913&ct=t(Newsletter_11_5_201511_4_2015)&mc_cid=dd4aa2b9b9&mc_eid=866176a63f

MARWENCOL official theatrical trailer

http://www.wired.com/2011/04/marwencol/

Hidden Cameras + Rising Temps = A Social Experiment | Upworthy Original ...

Dude, Put a Shirt On!

Foot Care

No Hiding

Forwarded email - H/T Forrest

~~~~~~~~~~

Ever wonder how they found the Boston bombers in just a few days? 

 

This may help you to understand what the government is looking at. This photo was taken in Canada and shows about 700,000 people. Hard to disappear in a crowd.     

Pick on a small part of the  crowd click a couple of times -- wait -- click a few more times and see how clear each individual face will become each time. 

Or use the wheel on your mouse.  This picture was taken with a 70,000 x 30,000 pixel camera  (2100 Mega  Pixels.).  

These cameras are not sold to the public and are being installed in strategic locations. The camera can identify a face among a multitude of people. 

 

Place your computer cursor in the mass of people and double-click a couple times. 

Scary sharp!!  

Not so easy to hide in a crowd anymore.

 

  

http://www.gigapixel.com/mobile/?id=79995

Is It Sad or Liberating or Both?

Although I wasn't over 50 when it happened, divorce was liberating for me.  

From The New York Times - 

In 2014, people age 50 and above were twice as likely to go through a divorce than in 1990, according to the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. For those over 65, the increase was even higher. At the same time, divorce rates have plateaued or dropped among other age groups.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/your-money/after-full-lives-together-more-older-couples-are-divorcing.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%2011.3.15&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All&_r=0

How 'Bout a Razor Instead?

He Understood the Power of Photography

Courtesy of W. W. Norton

Frederick Douglass's Faith in PhotographyHow the former slave and abolitionist became the most photographed man in America. 

By Matthew Pratt Guterl 

An excerpt - 

An excerpt -

Douglass, we learn in Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American, was convinced of the importance of photography. He wrote essays on the photograph and its majesty, posed for hundreds of different portraits, many of them endlessly copied and distributed around the United States. He was a theorist of the technology and a student of its social impact, one of the first to consider the fixed image as a public relations instrument. Indeed, the determined abolitionist believed fervently that he could represent the dignity of his race, inspiring others, and expanding the visual vocabulary of mass culture. 

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123191/frederick-douglasss-faith-photography?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=TNR%20Daily%20Newsletter

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123191/frederick-douglasss-faith-photography?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=TNR%20Daily%20Newsletter

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123191/frederick-douglasss-faith-photography?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=TNR%20Daily%20Newsletter

A Game Changer?

From The Daily Good - 

New Paint Kills Hospital Pathogens

by DJ Pangburn

 191

 

 62

 

 45

 

 

 

 

 

 November 2, 2015 at 8:10

Share on FacebookClick me! Share on TwitterClick me! Copy Link

 

Image via Flickr user Phalinn Ooi

Maintaining a controlled, sterile environment in hospitals is vital for both routine and life-saving medical care. One way of fighting hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) is to apply robust paint or epoxy layers on walls and floors that can be easily and repeatedly cleaned to keep bacteria out.

In addition to preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses, paints used in healthcare facilities have low or zero volatile organic compounds (VOCs) so that patients aren’t breathing in harmful chemical compounds. But paint manufacturer Sherwin-Williams just upped the ante with Paint Shield, a new paint created in collaboration with microbiologists that kills more than 99.9 percent of “Staph (Staphylococcus aureus), MRSA, E. coli, VRE, and Enterobacter aerogens after two hours of exposure on a painted surface.”

http://magazine.good.is/articles/sherwin-williams-bacteria-killing-paint?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood

Soul Patches, Explained

He Needs a Test?

From The Root - 

‘It’s Not Unusual’ for People to Ask Tom Jones if He’s Black ... Now He’s Taking a DNA Test to See

The world really wouldn’t be shocked if the Welsh singer’s DNA tests showed that he does have African ancestry.

After decades of questions, Jones must have gotten tired of people asking about his nonexistent black background, and the singer has decided to get a DNA test. The 75-year-old singer says a lot of people still think he’s black.

“When I first came to America, people who had heard me sing on the radio would be surprised that I was white when they saw me. Because of my hair, a lot of black people still tell me I’m just passing as white,” Jones said in an interview.

Jones was born Thomas Jones Woodward in Pontypridd, South Wales. His mother Freda was of Welsh and English ancestry, and his father was of English descent. Even his mother was questioned about her ethnicity when she was born. According to Jones, she was born with dark patches all over her body.

Nowadays, DNA tests that trace your ancestry are pretty commonplace. From Ancestry.com to 23andMe, with something as simple as a sample of your saliva, you’ll be able to get information about your ancestry.

What will be interesting to see with Jones’ results, if he makes them public, is whether the speculation about his African ancestry is true. Considering that a lot of British people are descendants of Vikings, Romans, Indians and Africans, Jones may not have to wonder much longer where his tan and his coarse hair come from.

BUILD V1

The language of lying — Noah Zandan

Learning to Love Sac

I've always liked Sacramento, but I really grew to love it when I moved away.  I always said it was a great place to raise kids, but it's more than that.  It's a great place to "be."

If you're lucky enough to live there, enjoy it.

I was reminded of this when I read this article in the Bee.

~~~~~~~~~~

An epiphany leads to loving the city of Sacramento

After cashing in on his dream, he realized the beauty of Sacramento

Reimagining the city’s neighborhoods, restaurants and inspiring places

A four-step guide to use your talents to make a difference in the city

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/the-conversation/article41743980.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

More Ben . . . The Big Picture

http://www.its.ucdavis.edu

Yes.

I'm a proud momma.

Ben is a Featured Aggie!

HIGHLIGHTS: OCTOBER 2015

An ongoing series, spotlighting ITS-Davis Alumni

Ben Sharpe’s UC Davis Doctoral Degree Leads to Research Career in International Transportation

  

 

By: Alex Lee

For Ben Sharpe—Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Davis, 2013—the focus is global.

As a senior researcher for the International Council of Clean Transportation (ICCT), Sharpe and his team actively study the impacts of heavy-duty vehicles for the governments of countries around the world, in particular: China, Brazil, Mexico, the European Union, the United States, and, most recently, India. With offices in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Berlin, the widely respected, independent, non-profit ICCT provides “first-rate, unbiased research and technical and scientific analysis to environmental regulators.”

Although Sharpe has been a senior researcher for only three years, his tenure at the ICCT spans more than six; he started his involvement with the council while still pursuing his Civil Engineering doctorate with a transportation focus at ITS-Davis. Not surprisingly, Sharpe credits a lot of his success in the position with the knowledge and connections he made through his UC Davis transportation graduate program. “My first contact with ICCT was back in 2007. I was super lucky to work with [ITS-Davis Researcher and Energy Efficiency Center Associate Director] Alan Meier. He was with the International Energy Agency for a number of years and knew that I had a strong interest in heavy-duty vehicle efficiency: As part of his class we had done some work looking at tractor-trailer operations in the U.S. Well, IEA was doing a workshop in Paris in 2007 to look at regulation of heavy-duty vehicle efficiency, and Alan was instrumental in getting me some funding and a formal invitation to attend that workshop.”

Now a few years into his career, Sharpe is currently tackling issues involving heavy-duty vehicle efficiency in a number of different countries and regions. Recently, Sharpe and his team authored numerous papers answering technical questions for regulatory design in India and also held a workshop in Delhi in April to foster discussions. His team offers policy and technical recommendations to governments around the world who have various levels of experience in traversing through contemporary transportation issues.

“The current mode that we are in is following need,” he said. “And one of the biggest needs right now in terms of fuel efficiency regulatory development for heavy-duty vehicle is in India.”

Sharpe now lives in Sacramento with his family, commuting to his office in San Francisco via the train a few times a week. As he reflects back, Sharpe notes the lasting impacts of his time at ITS-Davis.

“I really could not have asked for better training for the field I am in now. The research at ITS-Davis is extremely aligned with what we do here at the ICCT,” he said. “In terms of the coursework, getting all the exposure to analytical tools, models, and technical jargon—my experience at ITS was terrific. I could not have envisioned a better segue to the ICCT.”

Holiday Recipes From All 50 States

Just in time for holiday cooking.  Some of these look amazing.

From The New York Times -

The United States of Thanksgiving

We’ve scoured the nation for recipes that evoke each of the 50 states (and D.C. and Puerto Rico). These are our picks for the feast. Dig in, then tell us yours.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/18/dining/thanksgiving-recipes-across-the-united-states.html?mi_u=38867499

Studying Abroad

From The Root - 

Black Students Don’t Study Abroad, but a New Initiative Hopes to Change That

The Council on International Educational Exchange and the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Minority Serving Institutions are partnering to support and encourage presidents from colleges and universities that serve minorities in the expansion of their study-abroad programs.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/10/black_students_don_t_study_abroad_but_a_new_initiative_hopes_to_change_that.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

The President Meets the Pope

And the Winner Is . . .

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/simone-biles-gymnastics-video_5632b0e7e4b00aa54a4da1a8

This Kid is From "The Wire"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-is-what-it-feels-like-to-play-adeles-love-interest_562fdc3fe4b0c66bae59e8fb

Seal Jumps On Guy's Boat And Makes A Friend

STOMP makes basketball music with Harlem Globetrotters

Flying Beavers!