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We Stopped Dreaming

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s rant about how Congress is mortgaging the future of America.

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Famine in Somalia: What Can the World Do About It?

“Only about half of 1 percent of our federal budget goes to poverty-focused foreign aid, so cutting these programs will have no significant budget impact at home — only damaging humanitarian effects abroad.”

(via hellohmyhat-deactivated20111007)

External Content

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kateoplis:

Transitional federal government soldiers try to keep the crowds calm just before a stampede erupted at the gates of a makeshift hospital in the Hawlwadag district, Mogadishu, Somalia, on Monday. The United Nations airlifted humanitarian aid on Monday to Mogadishu, for the first time since Islamist fighters withdrew from the city over the weekend, but a funding shortfall continued to cast a shadow over future operations. This was the first time in five years that UNHCR brought in aid via an air delivery. Photo: Antoine De Ras

Photographed Illustrated

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“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Notable Quotable

thenewrepublic:

Four months after American submarines began launching missiles and U.S. pilots began flying sorties, does anyone, perhaps even including President Obama, really know what we are trying to do in Libya?

David Rieff, “We Have No Idea What We Are Doing in Libya”

Photographed Illustrated

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My father.

My father who is one of my heroes, my best friend and my brother has always been in combat against stress induced by a variety of issues; issues like failure of the revolution he was a part of in his impoverished country of Ethiopia, taking refuge in foreign lands from his homeland to Bulgaria then to England and today residing in the United states, and receiving his doctorate degree in medicine only for it to later mean nothing once coming to the states because of his language barrier. His stress has affected his ability to be the best husband to my loving mother who has her own history, which at times hurts, but he has been the best father anyone can ask for. His ability to make me laugh is unmatched; his love for me is infinite. These last years my father has worked fourteen hour shifts five to six days a week at Fresenius Medical Center as a Dialysis Technician in order for our family to survive, and he comes home every day tired and drenched in sweat. Still he has the inclination to study the English language and study for the USMLE board exams so he can practice medicine. If it was not for his ideals and work ethics, I would not be the intelligent hardworking free-spirited young man I am today.

Today, those at my father’s workplace surprised him with a party to celebrate his ten years at Fresenius Medical Center and gave him a certificate giving him tenure. When he came home he told me this in an indifferent manner, but I was thrilled and pleased to hear this. I hugged him as tears which I concealed fell from my eyelids. It made me so proud of him. It meant so much to me that his coworkers celebrated my father’s accomplishment. In a way I see this certificate as not only a reminder of his commitment to this job, but also as a reminder of the difficulties my father has had to overcome in the last few decades. Today I have been empowered, and I feel ready to take on the difficulties life may throw at me; all because of my father.

Complete Unabridged