Message For the Day…”Nothing Can be More Powerful Than Character …”

It is often declared that knowledge is power. No! No! Character is power. Nothing can be more powerful on earth than character. Riches, scholarship, status, authority, etc. are all frail and flimsy before it. There is no dearth of books today; nor is there lack of gurus. Educational institutions spread knowledge everywhere. The Sun of Knowledge (Jnaana Bhaskara) is showering His rays in plenty to all alike. But, one can hardly find those who have imbibed the nectarous wisdom thus offered and are dwelling in the ecstasy it can confer. The mountain range with lust, anger, hatred, envy and pride as the peaks, shuts out the splendor of the Sun. Charity, compassion, fortitude, sympathy, and sacrifice, arise from the higher levels of consciousness while opposite tendencies breed in the lower levels. Remember, a strong virtuous character cannot be earned from any book; it is earned only through intimate involvement with society.

Sathya Sai Baba

Jokes of The day… ” Midnight Come Here… ” !!!

“Have you got any kittens going cheap?” Asked a customer in a pet shop.

“No, sir,” replied the owner. “All our kittens go “Meow.

“Please keep your dog beside you, sir,” a woman said crossly to the man sitting opposite to her on the bench at the park. “I can feel a

flea in my shoe.” “Midnight, come here,” replied the man. “This woman has fleas.”

These bear hunters were sitting around the cabin the night before the hunt bragging about their passt hunts.
The cabin boy was listening and went over and said “you guys make it seem pretty hard on capturing a bear”.
They all laughed and said “it is hard; do you think you could bag one”?
“I can go out and bag you 2 if you will skin them, and I will bet each of you $100.00.
They agreed and off he went out into the night.
Soon he spotted a big grizzly; he waved his arm and started hollering the big bear started after him and he started running for the shack. When he got close to the shack he started yelling. “Open the door he yelled”.
They looked out and saw the bear chasing the boy. Just as he got to the door they opened it and he stepped aside and the bear went in. He slammed the door and locked it and shouted. “OK skin him I’ll go and get the other one”.

Source::: Joke a day .com

Natarajan

Image of the day… A Drone Flies Thro Fireworks !!!

Jos Stiglingh captured this stunning video with a GoPro Hero 3 Silver, showing the view from a DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter flying in and above a fireworks display. He filmed it in West Palm Beach, Florida. Jos said:

Be sure to watch in HD!

Not everyone agrees flying a drone through fireworks is a good idea. Gregory S. McNeal said today (July 4, 2014) on Forbes that flying a drone through fireworks might land you in prison:

There’s no doubt that [Stiglingh’s] HD video is stunning. It’s also dangerous and likely unlawful (at least if it occurred in the United States). The flight is unsafe as the existence of the drone in the airspace above the fireworks display creates an increased risk of hazardous debris (from the fireworks or the drone) falling into spectator areas. There is also the possibility that a firework colliding with a drone may divert the pyrotechnic downward into spectator areas, causing it to detonate where it otherwise should not.

McNeal later adds that Steglingh’s drone might have been directed through a safety zone over the ocean, established by the coast guard.

Bottom line: Don’t try this at home! Jos Steglingh has captured a video of a drone flying through fireworks that many are viewing today. No wonder. It’s stunning.

 

 

Source:::: Earth Sky News

Natarajan

Message For the Day…” Dedicate Yourself to the Progress Of Society and Your Country …”

You must regard the prosperity and joy of others in the community as your own. Only then will India or any other country deserve prosperity and joy. Your happiness is bound up with the happiness of Society. Your physical, mental and intellectual strength and skills have to be dedicated, not merely to your own progress, but equally to the progress of Society. You must try to benefit yourself and the Society through such service. Use the strength, skills, and spirit of service for such work. A machine gets rested if it is not put to use; the human machine too gets rusted if it is not put to constant meaningful work. The pulse is not the correct indicator of your being alive; work and activity is the evidence and the value of real living. Your role is to translate your strength into activity along the path of duty.

Sathya Sai Baba

Image of the Day…Dust Storm …

 

Dramatic shots of the July 3 dust storm – aka haboob – in Phoenix. Thanks to all who posted on EarthSky’s Facebook page.

View larger. | Kathleen Kingma, an EarthSky friend on Facebook, caught this dramatic shot of the July 3 haboob in Phoenix.

Phoenix, Arizona got its first big dust storm yesterday (July 3, 2014). These storms, also known as haboobs, occur the summer months in the southwest United States. They’re caused by the monsoonal flow that helps provide rain for parts of Arizona. If some storms develop away from a dry area, then the outflow and winds from that storm can produce dust storms in the region. Check out these amazing images of yesterday’s storm!

This photo of the July 3 haboob in Phoenix is by Richard Payne.  Via Abc15.com

Benita Skalada as her plane took off from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to St. Louis! She got out just in time.  Via 12 News on Facebook.

View larger. | Joe Mason on Facebook said,

Abc15.com has a huge gallery of images of the July 3, 2014 storm in Phoenix

Source:::: Earth sky news

Natarajan

 

Joke of the Day…” What did the Chicken do … ? “

So there’s this man with a parrot. And his parrot swears like a sailor, I mean he’s a pistol. He can swear for five minutes straight without repeating himself.

The trouble is that the guy who owns the parrot is a quiet, conservative type, and this bird’s foul mouth is driving him crazy.

One day, it gets to be too much, so the guy grabs the bird by the throat, shakes him really hard, and yells, “QUIT IT!” But this just makes the bird mad and he swears more than ever.

Then the guy gets mad and says, “That’s it. I’ll get you.” and locks the bird in a kitchen cabinet.

This really aggravates the bird and he claws and scratches, and when the guy finally lets him out, the bird cuts loose with a stream of invective that would make a veteran sailor blush.

At that point, the guy is so mad that he throws the bird into the freezer.

For the first few seconds, there is a terrible din. The bird kicks and claws and thrashes. Then it suddenly goes very quiet.

At first the guy just waits, but then he starts to think that the bird may be hurt. After a couple of minutes of silence, he’s so worried that he opens up the freezer door.

The bird calmly climbs onto the man’s outstretched arm and says, “Awfully sorry about the trouble I gave you. I’ll do my best to improve my vocabulary from now on.”

The man is astounded. He can’t understand the transformation that has come over the parrot.

Then the parrot says, “By the way, what did the chicken do?”

Source:::: Joke a day.com

Natarajan

Stunning Aerial Photos of Brazil”s Soccer Fields …

 

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via The Creators Project

 

 

The community surrounding ‘The Beautiful Game’ is huge, and is a unifying force for countries all over the world. All that soccer requires is a ball, a couple goals, and some players—that’s part of what makes it so brilliant.

As many cities in the World Cup’s current home country are occupied by the most famous soccer players in the world, Brazilian photographer and journalist Renato Stockler’s photo essay Terrão de Cima captures the pure democratic essence and simplicity of the soccer fields ensconced in Sao Paulo neighborhoods.

Stockler says in the project’s description that the fields he photographs, “Are a breath for the hard daily life of those who live in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. These fields show the urgency for public and communal places to practice sports, a portrait of those who fight for leisure in a city as Sao Paulo.”

The reddish dirt and uneven patches of grass that make up most of the fields are a harsh contrast to the soft greens that soccer fans are accustomed to watching. All the same, Stockler says that when the hard day’s work is at an end, it’s easy to find tight knit communities of players, friends, and family gathered around the sparse field to blow off steam.

Terrão de Cima, which loosely translates to, “The Ground from Above,” is a love letter to the rugged fields of Stockler’s home, which are fast disappearing due to land speculation.

Aerial photography is the perfect medium for the task, since it shows the incredible variance in color, shape, and texture of local soccer fields, yet also captures the players as a single unit—a culture, rather than just a bunch of people. We’re still not sure we’d want to slide tackle anyone on these fields, but we’re more than ok with ogling them from above.

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via The Creators Project

 

 

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via The Creators Project

 

 

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via The Creators Project

 

 

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via The Creators Project

 

 

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via The Creators Project

 

 

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via The Creators Project

 

 

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via The Creators

Source:::: Business Insider .com

Natarajan

Read more: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/see-the-soccer-fields-of-brazilian-favelas-from-up-in-the-clouds#ixzz36RuRAOD2

Message For the Day…” Who Is God … ” ?

What or who is God? When the answer to this question is sought, one discovers that God is the glory immanent in Nature. The earth rotates on its axis at a speed of thousand miles an hour. As a consequence, we have alternations of day and night, which helps us to live on this globe. Besides, it moves around the sun at the rate of 66,000 miles an hour, causing the seasons which bring rains for crops and vegetation which sustain human life. The earth does not profit in the least by these rotations but human beings survive, enjoy life and prosper on account of them. Nature must indeed be laughing at the sterile frenzies, the endless pursuits, and the countless miseries to which human beings submit themselves to, in their search for achieving the unachievable! You must search in Nature the sacred lessons it holds for you; then, you will understand how deep and how everlasting is the Truth that it conveys to you!

Sathya Sai Baba

” This Bird is A SuperStar …” !!!

 

This bird is a superstar

Fewer than 100 pairs of Spoon-billed Sandpipers remain in the wild. Their migration is long and arduous. This is the first hand-reared bird that’s returned to breed.

Against all odds, this spoon-billed sandpiper has returned to its birthplace to breed.  It is the first spoon-billed sandpiper from the captive-rearing scheme to do so.  Photo by Pavel Tomkovich and Egor Loktionov.

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is one of the rarest birds in the world. The bird in the image above has now become the first of a group of hand-reared birds in a special program to return to breed. The bird returned to Chukotka, Russia, where it was hatched two years ago.

Saving-Spoon-billed-Sandpiper.com tells the history of this bird:

… it is likely that fewer than 100 pairs remain in the wild.

WWT aviculturist Roland Digby has reared 24 Spoon-billed Sandpipers over the last two summers on their breeding grounds in northeastern Russia, giving them a head start to ensure they survived their crucial first days of life.

Once released, the birds migrated 5,000 miles to south Asia, facing exhaustion, starvation and illegal hunting along the way. There has been a two-year wait to see if any will survive to return to breed.

Now one of the group has been seen back at its birthplace by researchers from Birds Russia, Pavel Tomkovich and Egor Loktionov. They reported that the bird is looking heavy, indicating that she is a female carrying eggs and ready to breed for the first time.

Pavel Tomkovich of Birds Russia said:

Two years ago I attached a tiny plastic leg flag to this bird, so that we’d recognize it if it was ever seen again. The odds were severely stacked against that happening, but amazingly she was spotted, first by birdwatchers in Taiwan in April and then we see her here at her birthplace ready to have young of her own.

It’s a wonderful accomplishment by the people trying to save this bird from extinction. Congratulations to all.

Read more about this bird and its momentous return to breed from Saving-Spoon-billed-Sandpiper.com

Source:::: Earth sky News site

Natarajan