How fast are we moving?

When sitting on your couch or sleeping on your bed, how fast you think you are moving in the universe? Your speed varies depending on where on Earth you are but to give you an idea suppose you are on equator.

1) The Earth moves with a velocity of 0.5 km/s or 1800 km/h around itself.
2) The Earth also moves 30 km/s or 108,000 km/h around the Sun.
3) The Solar System is moving 230 km/s, 828,000 km/h, around the center of its galaxy.
Now the 0.5 km/s movement of the Earth around itself seems negligible. Let's ignore it now. For half of the year, the movement of the solar system and earth around the sun are in the same direction 230+30 = 260 km/s and for another half if moves in the opposite direction 230-30 = 200 km/s, or 720,000 km/h.
4) Finally, our own galaxy with a local velocity of 40 km/s and a larger cluster velocity of 600 km/s.

Adding it all up, for half of the year we are moving:

260 km/s + 40 km/s + 600 km/s = 900 km/s = 3,240,000 km/h.

and for another half we are moving:

200 km/s + 40 km/s + 600 km/s = 840 km/s = 3,024,000 km/h .

So, the next time you are sitting relaxing over a cup of tea and coffee, know that the whole universe is running around crazily more than 3 million kilometers per hour for you to be here. What are you waiting for you?

ابر و باد و مه خورشيد و فلك در كارند
تا تو نانى به كف آرى و به غفلت نخورى

Reference:
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=507

Margaret Sanger

A couple of days ago I listened to a program on NPR on life of Margaret Sanger, who lived during 1874-1966. Do you know her? It is amazing that considering her contributions, I had never heard of her before. She coined the term birth control, organized a campaign to legalize birth control 100 years ago, and established Planned Parenthood. She opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, which led to her arrest and being jailed. She continued educating women about contraception and birth control in jail. Her work was motivated and influenced by her mother's life, who became pregnant 18 times in 22 years and died at 48 from cervical cancer! Some accuse her of wanting to remove the black race by opening her clinics in poor black areas. The guest of the program argued that she would have been considered a racist had she not opened any clinics for those communities. Pro life groups argued that Sanger promoted abortion. Sanger died in 1966, years before abortion was legalized in the U.S. in 1971. Sanger believed women will be better mothers, raising children better if they could decide when to have children. She believed "no woman was free if she could not control her body". Regardless, she remains an iconic figure in Reproductive Rights movement. You can see the program's highlight here, and read its full script here.

References:

[1] http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-11-15/jean-baker-margaret-sanger-life-passion
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_Parenthood

The power of vunlerability

I thought of this talk today and felt the need to listen to it again.

"
... you cannot selectively numb emotion. You can't say, here's the bad stuff. Here's vulnerability, here's grief, here's shame, here's fear, here's disappointment, I don't want to feel these. I'm going to have a couple of beers and a banana nut muffin. I don't want to feel these. And I know that's knowing laughter. I hack into your lives for a living. God. You can't numb those hard feelings without numbing the affects, our emotions. You cannot selectively numb. So when we numb those, we numb joy, we numb gratitude, we numb happiness. And then we are miserable, and we are looking for purpose and meaning, and then we feel vulnerable, so then we have a couple of beers and a banana nut muffin. And it becomes this dangerous cycle.
"

Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability, full lecture here.

"
This is what I have found: to let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, even though there's no guarantee -- and that's really hard, and I can tell you as a parent, that's excruciatingly difficult -- to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror, when we're wondering, "Can I love you this much? Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?" just to be able to stop and, instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to say, "I'm just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I'm alive." And the last, which I think is probably the most important, is to believe that we're enough. Because when we work from a place I believe that says, "I'm enough," then we stop screaming and start listening, we're kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we're kinder and gentler to ourselves.
"

7 Billion and counting

The world's population reached 7 billion this past Monday! A baby girl who was born in India was chosen as the symbolic 7th Billion baby. Who is this baby? Nargis :-) She has already drawn attention to "the serious issue of declining child sex ratio in India". Good job Nargis! Keep it up. The world needs more of us. It may seem Narcissistic of us to most, but do we really care? ;-)

A Sense of Place

The theme for this year's TEDxMidAtlantic conference was "A Sense of Place":

"Our existence is defined through our experience of place: our place on Earth, in the universe, in culture, and in time. Understanding place is critical to the spread of knowledge, ideas and to progress. From the smallest sub-atomic particles to cities, to galaxies and undersea mountain ranges, everything has a place. TEDxMidAtlantic 2011 celebrates and explores place, mobility, context, and locality – and humanity's ongoing desire to achieve a sense of place."

What we learned more and more as the day progressed, was not only that we do not understand and appreciate our place on Earth, universe, and culture properly, rather that we have lost a sense of community and belonging in our local neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and cities. We do not embrace what each individual has to offer and bring to the table to build better communities rather we keep alienating and ignoring them. The Wire cast shared their experiences of growing up in poor areas of Baltimore, Brooklyn, and Washington D.C. and how after thirty years not only things have not changed for the better, but that they also have lost the sense of community in those neighborhoods, their only shelter and protection against violence and poverty, their only source of hope and encouragement.

In fact, I learned a disturbing fact from Rebecca Renard of DC's Public Libraries who noticed teenagers out of school with no work hanging around in her library without receiving any love, care, education, and attention. She mentioned that how people who lived, worked, and commuted to/from the Gallery Place China town area in D.C. were bothered with noisy loitering teenagers in the area and complained to city officials about them. What was the city's solution to that problem? Get rid of them! They installed Mosquito noise devices at Gallery Place China town, a noise that only teenagers' ears were sensitive to [1]. I cannot think of a more humiliating and offensive approach to the youth. Instead of trying to employ and educate them, the city sent them away to make them someone else's problem, and then they are surprised by seeing gangs and crime rates increasing. It is a sad story for the so called capital of the free world* int the 21st century!

Rebecca Renard recognized all the potential, talent, and energy that was being wasted daily by teenagers hanging around in her library and city. She made a social network aimed for teenagers to learn about activities of value and interest to them, to learn from each other, and run a radio together [2]! She engaged them, created a welcoming and supportive environment for them, and let them shine and grow. Something city officials should have done.

National Youth Rights Association filed a complaint and had the noise maker devices removed, but the youth problems and their need for care and attention remains [3].

Do you know your neighbors? Their kids? Your kids' school friends and teachers? Do you have a good community? Are you of any value to your local communities? What are you waiting for?

References:

[1] Mosquito noise device at Gallery Place aims to annoy potential troublemakers
[2] Generation PRX, Youth Radio Producer's Hub.
[3] DC City Council: Fight Youth Crime, Not Youth
[4] Rebecca Renard
* A slogan of one of D. C. area's radio stations.