Haiti Relief Now

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Our hearts go out to the people of Haiti, for the trauma and loss they’ve already experienced since Tuesday night’s calamitous 7.0 earthquake hit, with its epicenter not far from the densely populated capital of Port-au-Prince. News agencies report that thousands have perished, many are still trapped in the rubble of buildings, and hundreds of thousands of others are without shelter, medical care, or other life necessities. Governments and relief agencies are deploying to deal with what amounts to one of the worst disasters of modern times, with its impact compounded by the chronic poverty, deficient infrastructure, bare-bones medical care, and other problems that afflict the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.

Damage from the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti
Logan Abass/United Nations / CC BY 2.0
Damage from the Jan. 12 earthquake.

When people suffer in this terrible way, so do animals. The HSUS, Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, and our global affiliate Humane Society International are working on a preliminary assessment of Haiti’s animal-care needs, taking into account the security, transportation, housing, and supply challenges that we would face in deployment. Fortunately, one of our veterinary teams had been conducting a program at a veterinary school in the neighboring Dominican Republic when the quake struck. We are looking to determine if they can get into Haiti to conduct an on-the-ground assessment. We are also communicating with human relief agencies, and looking to cooperate with them. One difficulty is that there are no organized animal welfare groups anywhere in the country, and no animal shelters or veterinary schools. This lack of infrastructure will complicate any response.

If you would like to support our disaster response work around the world, you can give here. Please stay tuned to the blog, and to humanesociety.org for continuing updates.

If you haven’t done anything yet to help out regarding this disaster in Haiti, even getting word out by spreading info #’s – please – I ask you to help.  Time is of the utmost importance right now and is critical.  Text “YELE” to #501501 or “HAITI” to “90999″ – we are one human race. It MATTERS. Wake up everyone. There is no such thing as too small – this includes our animals.  I have donated to Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, and of course, am working tightly within the Humane Society.  Each small effort adds up to an enormous gesture and even greater change.  Do it now.

Thank you, JL

The Meaning of Life

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According to one of my favorite nerds, Rainn Wilson.

Numerology Is Interesting

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LIFE PATH 11 (Jamie Leigh)

Your Life Path (sometimes called Destiny) is derived from your birth date July 12,1981. Your Life path is the road you are traveling. It reveals the opportunities and challenges you will face in life. Your Life Path number is the single most important information available in your Personality Chart.You have the potential to be a source of inspiration and illumination for people. You possess an inordinate amount of energy and intuition. There is so much going on in your psyche that you are often misunderstood early in life, making you shy and withdrawn. You have far more potential than you know. You galvanize every situation you enter. You inspire people, but without your conscious effort. Energy seems to flow through you without your controlling it. This gives you both power and sometimes emotional turmoil. You are a channel for information between the higher and the lower, between the realm of the archetype and the relative world. Ideas, thoughts, understanding, and insight – all of these can come to you without your having to go through a rational thought process. There seems to be a bridge, or connection, between your conscious and unconscious realms, attuning you to a high level of intuition through which even psychic information can flow. All of this amounts to a great capacity for invention. Many inventors, artists, religious leaders, prophets, and leading figures in history have had the 11 prominent in their chart.

Because you are so highly charged, you experience the consequences of a two-edged sword. You possess great abilities, but indulge in much self-reflection and self- criticism. You often feel highly self-conscious. You are aware on some level that you stand out. Even when you try to blend with your environment, you often feel conspicuous, alien, and out-of-place. You are blessed with a message, or a specific role to play in life. But you must develop yourself sufficiently to take full advantage of that opportunity. Until that time, your inner development takes precedence over your ability to materialize the great undertaking you were chosen to perform. Consequently, 11s seem to develop slowly, but they simply have more to accomplish in their evolution than the average person. Thus, your real success does not usually begin until maturity, between the ages of 35 and 45, when you have progressed further along your path.

You may often be frustrated, largely because you have extremely high expectations of yourself. But these expectations can be unrealistic, and can prevent you from accomplishing anything. You can be very impractical, envisioning a skyscraper when all that was necessary was a two-story house. You may also suffer from bouts of confusion and lack of direction. This gives rise to loss of confidence and the onset of deep depression. The cause of these emotional problems is your lack of understanding of your own sensitivity and potential. Your desire to achieve some great ambition is enormous. However, a lack of confidence in your own ability to realize this dream may cause you much frustration. You sense the enormous potential you possess, which requires equally enormous confidence in your ability to materialize your dream. Confidence is the key that unlocks your potential. On a strictly physical level, you must protect your nervous system, which is inordinately vulnerable to stress because of your acute sensitivity. Depression is often the result of long periods of stress that have gone unrelieved. Seek out peaceful and harmonious environments, relaxing music, and follow a healthful diet in order to restore balance and peace. As an 11 Life Path, you are a highly charged version of the 2 and possess many of the characteristics and talents of that number.

You can be extremely diplomatic and tactful. You are also patient and cooperative. You work well with groups and somehow find a way of creating harmony among diverse opinions. You enjoy music and poetry and require a harmonious environment. You have an eye for beauty and a fine sense of balance and rhythm. You have healing capabilities, especially in such fields as massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, and counseling. You are a sensitive and passionate lover; your perceptiveness makes you aware of your partner’s needs and desires, which you are able to fulfill with almost magical delicacy. However, when you feel you have been mistreated or jilted, you can react with devastating power, sometimes using personal criticisms vindictively.

You are a fine companion and possess a good sense of humor. When you have found your niche in life and begun to realize your true potential, your rewards will more than compensatefor your trials earlier in life.

Sent To Me Earlier Today From Wilco

Anne Frank: The Only Existing Film Images

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July 22 1941. The girl next door is getting married. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on film. At the time of her wedding, the bride lived on the second floor at Merwedeplein 39. The Frank family lived at number 37, also on the second floor. The Anne Frank House can offer you this film footage thanks to the cooperation of the couple.

And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world. I live in a crazy time. I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank

Rescue Ink

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RESCUE INK is a rescue group unlike any you’ve seen before: a bunch of tattooed, motorcycle-riding tough guys who have joined together to fight animal cruelty, educate abusers and help resolve situations other rescue groups can’t – or won’t – handle themselves.

Some of the guys grew up in the projects, some had their brushes with the law, some used their smarts to survive, even thrive on the streets. But that was then, this is now, and today they all share a common goal: Using every means within the thin boundaries of the law, they persuade and educate abusers about the right way to treat animals.

Like many of the animals they save, the members of Rescue Ink know what it’s like to be given a second chance in life. And they’re using theirs to help the animals, no matter what it takes.

RescueInk.Org
Rescue Ink On National Geographic

A Christmas Carol

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a-christmas-carol-1Fact.  We named our beloved Marley after the character of  Jacob Marley from The Christmas Carol.  In the story though, his name was Jacob Marley, we switched it up, and Marley Jacob was born. 

This story is one of my all time favorites.  With a fresh take on the Dickens tale, director Robert Zemeckis, my Back To The Future hero, uses performance capture technology to bring out the many faces of Jim Carrey as he takes on the multiple roles of Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.  Taking place in Victorian London, I’ve looked at and studied the concept art from a few months back, and now the new pieces, and can’t wait to see the final product.  I like seeing the creation of something from the beginning sketches of pen to paper, to the final product.  To me, that is where real genius is born. Because before that, it was just some weird idea in space that someone or something decided to put to form. I love stories about time travel.  When they are done with intellect and meaning, and you mix in some creative spices, I’m locked.

I’m probably the only person on the planet who jumped for joy when the different anniversary updates on Walt Disneys films came out, because I knew I could see all those early sketchings and drawings – those real old, dirty, scratched doodles they were afraid to show – pause them –  and wonder…  what if?  What if they chose to make that characters nose more pointy? What would have happened if instead of bringing a reminder of the human condition to earth, ET was scary and looked more like a lagoon monster? Would it have been so timeless and cherished?  Who was the voice behind all these creatures?  In Fantasia, where they broke ground with animated artwork illustrated with a real musical concert, what if it was a silent film in black and white instead? Would it still seem so alive? Anything is possible!  I  guess sometimes it’s just fun for us to imagine more… most likely what the creative team behind this take on The Christmas Carol thought. 

Seasons Greedings November 6th.

Sources

Official                   
The Scientists
Hi there.

The Cove. Shallow water. Deep secret.

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Winner of audience awards across the world, including Sundance, SilverDocs and Hot Docs, The Cove follows a team of activists and filmmakers as they infiltrate a heavily-guarded cove in Taiji, Japan. In this remote village they witness and document activities deliberately being hidden from the public: More than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises are being slaughtered each year and their meat, containing toxic levels of mercury, is being sold as food in Japan, often times labeled as whale meat.

The majority of the world is not aware this is happening. The Taiji cove is blocked off from the public. Cameras are not allowed inside and the media does not cover the story. It’s critical that we get the word out in Japan. It’s critical that we get the word out—everywhere. We believe that once the Japanese people know, they will demand change.

http://www.takepart.com/thecove/

A Worthwhile Cause I Believe In

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Martin Seamus “Marty” McFly is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy, played by actor Michael J. Fox.  It’s one of my favorite movies of all time, and he’s a hero of mine both on and off screen.  His cause is finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda, and to ensure the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today.  It’s a worthwhile cause I believe in, and encourage you to learn about. 

Doc Brown: “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”

http://www.michaeljfox.org/

Oh Kath.

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Sarcasm abounds! Love her. She fights for our Vets and our dogs. A great organization.
Visit VetDogs.Org

And just because I had to… So sorry Jeff. Loved you in Jurassic Park.

T-Minus 7 days until my love, my Shia, returns to the big screen in TROTF. Can we say countdown?

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”

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I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. - Benjamin Harrison

Memorial Day is a day I always take incredibly seriously.  If it weren’t for our men and women in service past, present, and future, I would not be able to do what I do today.  To them, I say thank you.  With many friends in the armed forces, my friend James living in Hull, Massachusetts who I will see in a few days, and everyone else, I tip my hat to you.  On behalf of all of us, we appreciate and acknowledge all of you.

Jamie Leigh

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