Category: Disasters & Accidents

Samantha Power invites Syrian refugees over for a photo-op

Samantha Power, United States ambassador to the United Nations, wants to welcome refugees into the country with open arms. The next time you think you’re being clever by asking Power how many Syrian refugee families she’s taken in, keep in mind that she’s taken in one family more than you have for dinner and a photo-op and just might have them back for her Super Bowl party. The New York Times notes that the Al Teibawi family, who have settled in New Jersey, weren’t greeted at the airport by U.S. government officials, unlike those lucky refugees who landed in Canada and were personally greeted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Perhaps to make up for that slight, the Al Teibawis were invited to join Power for dinner at her official penthouse residence atop the Waldorf Towers. I wanted to make sure that at least one family could hear directly from me as a representative of President Obama but also as an immigrant, myself, to this country just how much we value the contribution that we know that they’ll make to this country, Power told the Times. Power is from Ireland, while her husband, Cass Sunstein, is proud of his Lithuanian lineage. “Over a meal of pizza, chicken parmigiana and spaghetti, broccoli and salad, Mr. Sunstein welcomed them and mentioned that the immigration papers of his great-great-Lithuanian ancestors were hung in another room. Were a nation of immigrants, Mr. Sunstein said. What a curious thing to say over pizza. You obviously haven’t learned the lesson of the article not that there was a lesson in it. No, it was just an interesting anecdote, really. 5fa83e79-5584-3603-a9bf-fa8221033a66 Was there any leftover spaghetti?
Read more: http://twitchy.com/2015/12/30/refugeeswelcome-samantha-power-invites-syrian-refugee-family-over-for-dinner-and-a-photo-op/

This Baby’s Life Was Saved Thanks To A Smartphone App.

Usually, when you see a smartphone involved in a life or death situation, it’s the cause of the problem — but this time it was the solution. At a dance shop in Spokane, WA, clerk Leslie Reckord was told an infant was unable to breathe and had started turning blue. A former lifeguard, she immediately called 911 and began attempting CPR. Two blocks away, volunteer EMT Jeff Olson was working on cars in his day job as a mechanic when his phone sent him a notification about the emergency taking place nearby. So he dropped everything, ran over, and saved the little boy’s life. Olson still seemed rattled while talking about his heroism to the local news afterward. Take a look.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c9IkLbVRlQ]
(via Business Insider.) I guess smartphones are more useful than just beating your high score on Candy Crush after all. tumblr-n2chfl-Mi-DM1sg2ylao1-540 Read more: May Blitz – Smoking The Day Away (1970)

Bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway collapses; 22 people and 2 buses missing – Times of India

d78d91176314caf9d5e7065a0346efc5-reasonably-small A British-era bridge across the Savitri River on the Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed late on Tuesday night, bringing traffic to a halt on the stretch. Around 20 people are believed to be missing. Two Mumbai-bound buses are among the dozen or so vehicles that are believed to have fallen into the flooded river. Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Maharashtra-bridge-collapse-22-missing-Savitri-River-rescue-operations-underway/articleshow/53516755.cms

Support Programs Are Vital To Families Of Children With Brain Tumors And Brain Cancer

When a child is diagnosed with a brain tumor or brain cancer, the initial impact that news has on the family is simply overwhelming. This is a crucial time for the patient, parents, and families, as well as friends. Time is often of the essence; quick decisions and fast actions are typically required, and, in a split second, lives are changed forever. Thus begins a journey down a very long and difficult road. Where do parents go for information? Who do they turn to for support? How will they know what’s best for their child? It’s imperative that these families have resources available to them to assist them in making the critical decisions that they now face. Thankfully, there are a number of exceptional family support and outreach programs sponsored by nonprofit organizations focusing on children’s brain tumors and brain cancer. These programs provide valuable resources for education, assistance, and support. While there are many reasons for parents of children with brain tumors to connect with a support group, three of the primary reasons are discussed below. Education One of the first questions asked by parents of children newly diagnosed with brain tumors and brain cancer is “What does this mean for my child?” 4-u-s-a Family support and outreach programs can answer this and countless other questions by providing resources for general awareness of the disease, treatment options, and even facilities equipped to provide the best treatments available. Support programs can also help families stay abreast of the latest research that’s being done with regard to treatments, survivorship, and long-term effects for the survivors of this deadly disease. Assistance Assistance for families taking this difficult journey can come in a variety of forms. It may involve locating the right doctors and facilities to care for their child, or perhaps, working through the maze of insurance forms and red tape. Researching options for financial aid, or finding local resources for supplies or services that might be needed for the child’s care and recovery are also ways in which these support groups can offer help to these families. In addition to the assistance provided to individual families, these nonprofit organizations work tirelessly on promoting and servicing the overall mission – finding better treatments for kids suffering from brain tumors and brain cancer, and improving the quality of life for survivors. Support Above all else, the parents and loved ones of these kids need emotional support. They need to belong to a community of people who are traveling the same, long road that they find themselves on. They need to know that they are not alone in their journey. The emotional support that is given so freely in these family outreach programs cannot be found anywhere outside these unique groups of fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers. Who can better understand the grief a mother feels when she learns that her instincts about her child’s health were right? Or the sorrow that consumes a father when he finally allows himself to cry, alone in the shower? And who better to share the joy when a family transitions to survivorship? These family support groups offer not only support for parents and extended families but for the patients, as well. Understanding the toll that this dreadful journey takes on all, most support groups sponsor a variety of conferences, camps, and other events throughout the year as a respite to the families. These events provide opportunities to connect with others in this unique community, while also gaining insight into educational and vocational opportunities. Being very much aware of the needs of bereaved families, and families of survivors, as well, there are also support groups that are geared specifically to their needs. Some of these groups have mentors; parents who have stood in the same shoes, who work with families in a number of ways as they move through the difficult transitions. Education. Assistance. Support. Connecting with the right support group is essential for parents and families facing this difficult journey. Parents, you are not alone. Help is out there, waiting for your call.

Meditation – A Transformation of Consciousness

Real happiness is spiritual, it’s an inside job. This being so, why don’t we experience happiness on an ongoing daily basis? To answer this let us explore what may be blocking our natural happiness and how we can rectify such. Let us examine how religious dogma, literal interpretation of scriptures and their resultant mind-sets, may have confused, mislead or ill-served us in life. Baptismal Contract Awakening out of ” formal religion” conditioning reveals that we were living a religious / baptismal contract not of our own choosing or signing. And, strangely, but for the subtly imposed fear clause, this water over the head “contract” could have been opted out of at any time. Misguided, we lived the fear, delusion, and accepted domination; we relinquished our own Christ-within determination and became “literal” prisoners of the institutional “arrangements”. Even though we sensed “our church” were holding back on the essence of the Jesus-intended Way to soul liberation, we conformed to Institutional liberalism and its democracy premised on collective ignorance maintained through fear-instilling dogmas. The reality of course is, that we rely solely on direct experiential contact with our already present inner Christ nature. In other words, we each possess a cosmically-designed constitution (brain, nervous system/spiritual mechanisms) drawn up by the Almighty and managed by evolution for the sole purpose of “saving” each soul through our own Christ “within” consciousness. As spirit beings we’re each encoded to finding or coming upon this saving Truth through inward endeavor. We’re each given the tools (endocrine or glandular system / chakras) to actualize Truth: become Self or Christ-Realized experientially now, in consciousness, and not some time in the future. Sense-Based Happiness Many seem not to realize that by constantly (unwittingly) seeking and experiencing solely through sense-based happiness we’re unconsciously stating that lasting happiness can only be found WITHOUT thereby subjectively denying our real “within” bliss consciousness. An automatic loop is proclaiming: when I find that special person, house, employment, fame etc., happiness will COME, then I’ll be happy. Such mind-sets are delusional. Outcomes as these will of course make the ego feel happy or inflated but, due to evolution and change, such happiness can never be lasting, only fleeting, as such, requires constant “topping-up”. Dependence on outer-world happiness leads to addictive personality — mind / senses becoming overpowered through stimulant attachment to almost everything it/they encounter thereby denying our innately present Heart happiness. The mind, through on-going discontent, instinctively seeks happiness through the senses, that’s its nature — but mind can never be satisfied until it comes upon its true nature — bliss. With the senses duty-bound to serve the mind, the non-spiritually awakening mind will accept artificial happiness from any source — to include political, religious or corporate dogmas,not to mention the “world” menu — but this sense thirst craving can never be quenched by the “world” — by outer sources. While the mind is cosmically encoded to fulfilling its full stature of expanded eternality in bliss or divine consciousness, the process requires individual conscious decision, meaning, engaging in meditational practices such as deep inner silence leading to bliss-consciousness. So long as the addictive-driven senses remain the sole provider of contentment, mind remains out of its own cosmic bliss nature, thus functioning in the realm of sub consciousness or spiritual ignorance. In finding bliss mind finds everlasting natural fulfillment, contentment, and, no longer scours the “world” junk-menu for sense-fixes. “Lost” to Wisdom and Life Direction Consider the following. Have we ever been lost in a strange location in a foreign Country? And through a sense of panic, we automatically take every wrong turn thus leading to more anxiety – we lose our natural bearings. Out of fear we tune OUT instead of IN. We do this instinctively when we lose inner calm and come under the controlling grip of ice-chilling fear. Similarly, through discontentment, self-doubt, lack of Self-awareness, contradicting mind-sets, stress, fear, worry and “fix” hunting, (addictions), mind / nervous system become exhausted and spiritually disorientated — “lost”. Panic severs our route to divine wisdom and we’re automatically drawn outwards, become ego or fear-led (scripture puts it: “Peter drew his sword and severed the arresting guard’s right ear”, in Gethsemane, John 18:1-10, meaning fear / dominant ego, cuts of the path to our Higher Self wisdom). “Peter” in scripture, of course, represents the lower ego, to which Jesus rebukes saying: “get behind Me heathen” (negative mind-sets). In other words, don’t lead through lower ego or “world”-formed conditioning, rather through “Me”, our own inner awakening love-natured, wisdom-full soul. Similarly, through weariness and fatiguing lifestyles, we seem naturally to make strange and irrational decisions all of which can lead mind to settling for a crutched existence, a fake unnatural or contrived happiness to ease life’s burdens and respite from chore responsibilities. Wisdom is blocked and we classically miss the calm portal to where this Glorious bliss happiness dwells transcendentally (within). I’m sure most of us are familiar with the following, but, for the benefit of those not, here’s a repeat. When the Good Lord was looking for a safe spot to place this Jewel of Happiness, (biblical Prince of Peace) he placed it where we could never lose it no matter how ‘lost’ we became. He placed it within consciousness for such requires transcendental journeying, requires activating the metamorphic meditation button to inner cosmic calm nature. This within-consciousness represents our eternal Spiritual Essence as separate from egoism finite mind. This “within spot” isn’t a physical place, rather a state: our unseen transcendental or raised Christ Nature. When we cease frantically searching WITHOUT for happiness, and direct mind (in meditation) to within thus do we engage or activate were the Good Lord placed the wondrous happiness Jewel. Here we discover the calm-imbued doorway leading “lost” egoistical mind from its finite island-refuge of outer happiness reliance to the expansive, eternal ocean of inner transcendental bliss; the soul’s sonar becoming re-attuned with its “forgotten” (conditioned over) cosmic nature. On reaching the “Jewel spot” within, the mind’s subconscious programming (addictive mind-sets) begin dissolving, defragging — prioritizing through wisdom — and, in proportion to senses / mind purification, human consciousness comes within the range of the never-changing state of Cosmic Consciousness — “Will of God” — or Eternal Truth. Conscious “Contact” God is Love /Spirit and man/woman is made (of Spirit) in the (creative) image (imagination) and likeness (love nature) of God. True, BUT, it’s “conscious contact” which validates Love experientially, which gives meaning to all this spiritual language we speak and read about, for, intellectual knowledge alone (of Spirit) isn’t sufficient. Although unconditional by nature, (as in, the reservoir unconditionally supplies water to every pipe RAISED to it) Love, in this regard, is conditional that we make “meditational silence” contact. Thus, the emphasis needs to be on raising our consciousness, engaging Spirit Consciousness through technique-based practices such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness rather than relentlessly “searching” for intellectual validations. Meditational nature lived through our nervous system validates ALL scriptures simultaneously even if we’ve never read any scriptures. In fact it’s only after a degree of meditational purification, (mind expansion) that any of these biblical scriptures begin making any practical, everyday-life sense. My interpretation of Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the Kingdom and all its righteousness and all else shall be added unto you”, is: seek meditational bliss silence thereby activating the Thymus love gland — the Sacred or Cosmic Heart — thus is human consciousness set upon the transformational process of becoming realized in Christ Consciousness. http://www.amazon.com/TRANSFORMING-YOUR-LIFE-How-That/dp/1477251545

5 Easy Tips to Beat Anxiety!

Hey everyone Today, I’m going to talk with you about five tips to beat anxiety, So stay tuned. So, like I said Today, I want to talk with you about five helpful tips to beat anxiety. I’ve heard from so many of you that you struggle with this, And there are so many ways that we can help ourselves, And this is only five. There are tons of ways, But these are just some helpful tips to get. You started Number one Keeping busy all day. I know that sounds really silly and simple, But often times our anxiety, loves and lives in the quiet When we have nothing to do And we are sitting at home And we are moping about It. Kind of takes a mole hill and turns it into a mountain When we have time to ruminate and think about things, It can make it so much worse. But if we are just going about our day, We’re doing things We’re making deals. We’re breaking hearts. We don’t have time to think about it. So I would encourage you if you are able plan your days out, Make sure you have things happening Back to back to back You,’re scooting on through The second helpful tip. Is what we call’feeling focusing 39, And this is something that we can do, no matter where we are, Which I love about tips, Because we never know when the anxiety may strike And feeling focusing is when we focus on the area in our body where We feel the anxiety For some of us. It might be our throat Our chest, Our stomach. It could be in our shoulders Wherever you feel it physically. I want you to focus on that spot And I want you to slowly breath into it And if you find your mind wandering Bring it back to that spot Keep breathing. Slowly – And I know this is just one of those things where you are like’Kati – that sounds really weird 39, But I promise you, by drawing your focus back to the area in your body. Back to that area Over and over Your anxiety will diminish It.’s because our mind can’t go out, searching for more things to worry us with It slowly, dissipates. The third helpful tip is exercise Now. Obviously I don’t want you to do anything to an extreme, But taking a thirty minute walk If you like to run and it’s not unhealthy, You go for a run. Maybe you jump some rope. Maybe you take your dog out. Maybe you walk with a friend, Maybe you do yoga Whatever it is. If you play tennis Play basketball There’s, so many things to do Just last week I went to Target and got Sean and I some tennis, rackets and basketballs. So we can play Anything. You can do to exert some physical energy Can help with anxiety, Often times when we have a lot of pent up. Energy Anxiety thrives So having an outlet for that. Even if it’s just nervous energy, Having an outlet like exercise Can really help bring it down. The fourth helpful tip is phoning a friend I feel like we are on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, But it’s really important to contact people and to have people on what I always talk to my clients about on your’emergency call list’And this isn’t a real this isn’t like an emergency 39. I’m going to the ER I’m bleeding I broke a bone 39. This is 39. I’m feeling stressed I’m feeling overwhelmed. I don’t know what to do right now. 39. We need to have at least five people on this list. If you can, Because we never know who can pick up right, Some people might be in class. Some people might be asleep. Some people might be at work, We don’t know, But we want to make sure we have people that we can contact Even if it’s a text. I know now we text more than we actually call, But I want you to reach out to people Because having someone on the line Having someone talking to us, I think calling is the best Because hearing someone’s voice can be so soothing And sometimes when We feel like we are a ten on our anxiety scale. It can help bring us back down to maybe a six Or a five And the more we talk with them And the more we kind of vent to them about what’s going on with us. The better we will start to feel The fifth and final tip Is something that I don’t really talk that much about on my channel, And that is going to see a psychiatrist. And the reason that I wanted to put this in here Is because there are those of us who doing these things. This feeling focusing we’re exercising, We’re trying everything to help ourselves. We’re seeing our own therapist And nothing gives It’s not getting better, And sometimes it’s getting worse And seeing a psychiatrist. They can offer medications that can help with it. Now. Obviously, I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I’m, not a physician. I don’t prescribe medication, But it can be so helpful and so pivotal in your recovery And don’t be ashamed of it. Many people seek help from psychiatrists. How else would they even exist? They wouldn’t have a job or career People see them. When we can’t do enough ourselves, The medication can help us get there. I often tell my clients – and this still rings. True. All research shows that therapy and medication gives us the best possible outcome, Because sometimes our mind is running so quickly. Things are happening so fast That we can’t even think about doing anything to help ourselves. We’re just trying to stay afloat. It’s so overwhelming, And medication can help with that, Bring that anxiety level down enough That we can actually take action. We can start making steps towards our recovery, Putting things in place, Creating plans. It can give us that little bit of squish. We need to get started, So I would encourage you If you have tried a lot of things And that’s not helping Reach out to your psychiatrist Or your general practitioner doctor And let’s start working on recovery. As always, don’t forget to subscribe to my channel. I put out videos five days a week And you don’t want to miss them, And if you have any tips and tricks of your own That have helped with your anxiety. Can you let us know below, Because we’re a wonderful community Sharing in our experience And together we’re getting better And we are towards a healthy mind and a healthy body. Now don’t forget to like the video And if you click below there,’s a little share button. Don’t forget to share it on reddit. That will help more people, get the tips and tricks that we know about. It will help get that information out there And keep working with me Towards a healthy mind and a healthy body. The snaps don’t bug the Okay, I like to snap Subtitles by the Amara org community.