teachingliteracy:

diy: School Under Bridge in New Delhi Offers Free Education To India’s Poor Children

One Indian man has become a hero after he began educating New Delhi’s poorest children — and even went as far as creating a free school for them under a metro bridge.  He has persuaded local laborers and farmers to allow their children to attend his school instead of working to add to the family income, and hopes to equip these children with the tools necessary to overcome their poverty. 

(via scinerds)

Source: diy

ikenbot:

Milky Way Shows 84 Million Stars in 9 Billion Pixels

Side Note: The two images shown above are mere crop outs from ESA’s recent hit: The 9 Billion Pixel Image of 84 Million Stars. These two focus on the bright center of the image for the purpose of highlighting what a peak at 84,000,000 stars looks like.

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile have released a breathtaking new photograph showing the central area of our Milky Way galaxy. The photograph shows a whopping 84 million stars in an image measuring 108500 × 81500, which contains nearly 9 billion pixels.

It’s actually a composite of thousands of individual photographs shot with the observatory’s VISTA survey telescope, the same camera that captured the amazing 55-hour exposure. Three different infrared filters were used to capture the different details present in the final image.

(via scinerds)

Source: ikenbot

via rubenfeld:

Occupy Long Island opened a free store in the Centereach Wal-Mart parking lot as part of the nationwide coordinated protests on Black Friday against the Bentonville, Ark.-based company. Clothes, produce books and more were available; activists offered to help customers bag their items.

Favorite: “If you work for a living, you should make a living.”

Most people thought that Marilyn was playing herself in roles like she had in Show Business, Monkey Business, or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Viewers based this opinion upon the seeming lack of skill that her roles required and upon the similarity between these characters and the public image she projected during the first half of her career.

However, most of the roles that were given to Marilyn were the opposite of her personality. Marilyn was not a dumb blond. She was thoughtful and determined and a workaholic. She insisted on perfection from herself in her scenes. On the set, Marilyn was her own slave driver. Off the set, over her lifetime, she allowed herself very few vacations. She appeared where she had to appear at the request of the studio, but she was not a social butterfly and stayed too busy to do much dating. Although she left high school after the eleventh grade, and although there were gaps in her general knowledge, she had a good academic record and throughout her life was a voracious reader. Marilyn’s constant reading only seemed to earn her criticism and ridicule. The real Marilyn thought to be the phony one.

-My Sister Marilyn by Berniece Baker Miracle and Mona Rae Miracle.

(via tessameow)

sagansense:

The Oldest Trees on the Planet

Trees are some of the longest-lived organisms on the planet. At least 50 trees have been around for more than a millenium, but there may be countless other ancient trees that haven’t been discovered yet.

Trees can live such a long time for several reasons. One secret to their longevity is their compartmentalized vascular system, which allows parts of the tree to die while other portions thrive. Many create defensive compounds to fight off deadly bacteria or parasites.

And some of the oldest trees on earth, the great bristlecone pines, don’t seem to age like we do. At 3,000-plus years, these trees continue to grow just as vigorously as their 100-year-old counterparts. Unlike animals, these pines don’t rack up genetic mutations in their cells as the years go by.

Some trees defy time by sending out clones, or genetically identical shoots, so that one trunk’s demise doesn’t spell the end for the organism. The giant colonies can have thousands of individual trunks, but share the same network of roots. 

via kickstarter, a post expedition update and news about the future

As we continue to adjust and experience ever shifting more intense weather patterns, I am reminded of the tenor in the air as I packed for the Arctic expedition. News was rampant about the melting of the Greenlandic Ice Sheet. I left New York’s JFK airport with great anticipation and fear for what we might come across once we got to Greenland.

Upon my arrival I found an Arctic that was unusually warm and almost balmy. There were days that I stripped down to a t-shirt during hikes. I was told by many Greenlanders that this weather was a change from years ago. As I became part of the communities there, I was brought to see lines on the sides of islands that marked where ice once thrived. I was told about how winter ice and snow affected the lifestyles of hunters and communities living with sea ice and tremendous snow falls as a part of life. I went aboard research vessels that tracked populations of fish and whales affected by the recent and more extensive use of seismic sounding for oil, gas, and other types of resource exploration. I eventually left our ship, The Wanderbird, and took the opportunity to travel with two anthropologists, one a native of Greenland. We then went further North and deeper into the communities than the original chartered ship would allow. We went far up the coast, reaching 73 degrees and farther North into small, remote villages and along the ice sheet where thunderous sounds and cracking squeaking noises marked the tremendous activity of the ice.

In addition to collecting environmental data, taking field recordings, and videotape, I sat in on interviews with hunters who told me of the changes in sea ice over the last 20-60 years that they witnessed. I was welcomed into Greenlandic homes and I was taken to places along the ice sheet and around the waters of the Arctic Seas that most people will never experience. I will always feel honored for these special opportunities.

steven-brooks:

Southeastern WA Loop

from The Other Side (a series in progress)

(via storyboard)

Source: steven-brooks

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