"Awaken to the Truth" with John Lear (audio)

Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; John Lear (thelivingmoon.com)

The truth is too hard to awaken to, so when someone blows the whistle, we tend to duck and shield our eyes from the shattering revelations ("Immaculate Deception" movie).

Edward Snowden (The Guardian) The NSA will not shut up about whistleblower Snowden, but what about the spy who stole more? ...Snowden speaks out against the NSA via Google Hangouts at SxSW... technologists can really fix the deficiencies in the Internet to protect standards.

• 

  Use encryption, use it in layers (sxsw.com).

  WhistleBlogger (Gov't Accountability Project) Protecting corporate, government, and int'l whistleblowers since 1977. Edward Snowden speaks at SXSW: Daily Whistleblower News. GAP client and NSA whistleblower Snowden will speak live via videoconference...



Bradley Chelsea Manning is a hero.

• Who better to advise on business security than Snowden? He defends NSA surveillance whistleblowing at SXSW... secret government spy programs have rocked the world, [he] spoke live from Russia ....urging members of the tech-savvy audience to [use multiple layers of encryption]
• NSA...TV Archive Democracy Now! [on] the latest revelations from Snowden that the NSA...seek[ing] the records of millions of individuals goes against the very fabric of... 
• Free Julian Assange (Facebook) Assange rails against NSA surveillance. He and his team are preparing NEW WikiLeaks releases.

"Killing Yourself to Live"

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Chuck Klosterman, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story (Goodreads.com)

Does the heart learn love from heartache? (weheartit.com)

 

Attachment, addiction in Requiem for a Dream

“We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It's easy. The first girl I ever loved was someone I knew in the sixth grade. Her name was Missy; we talked about horses. The last girl I love will be someone I haven't even met yet. Probably. They all count. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are the most important people in your life, and you'll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years. But there's still one more tier to all this; there is always one person you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it always happens eventually.

Killing Yourself to Live (goodreads.com)

“This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of those lovable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. You will remember having conversations with this person that never actually happened. 

“You will recall sexual trysts with this person that never technically occurred. This is because the individual who embodies your personal definition of love does not really exist. The person is real, and the feelings are real -- but you create the context. And context is everything. The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they're often just the person you happen to meet first time you really, really want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about everyone else.”

WOW: (JH) What NASA's Otto Binder, Maurice Chatelain, and shamans reveal

NSA whistleblower journalist Greenwald: spying tech out of control

After gang rape, Indian attitude changing toward women

A 9,000 mile journey along India's borders

News of the World

• Buddhist Rebirth Stories (Jataka)
• The Worst Moments in Movie Sex
• Ethiopian village gained wealth, but bred hostility
  
• Italian bank caters to immigrants; business booming
• Rapper Kanye West has a policeman fan?
• NONFICTION: The correct World Map
• AUDIO: If we boozed like James Bond (NPR)
• PHOTOS: Ebaums(Funny)world
• PHOTOS: Objectifying women in lists
• VIDEO: Vegan vs. Meateater (The DRs)
• Colombia's Xmas message to rebels: Come home
• Check your MULTI-VITAMINS for potency
• Cover up continues: Missing 9-11 flag

Exploring the Moon from Beijing today

CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; NPR.org; News.XinhuaNet.com

The Rabbit (Yutu) and Moon (Chang'e) as seen from the surface of Gaia (4allreligion)

China's first lunar rover separates from Chang'e-3 Moon lander early Dec. 15, 2013 as seen from the screen of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, China (Xinhua).

  

Control Center, Beijing (Xinhua/NPR)

Very early Sunday morning [Dec. 15, 2013], China's Moon rover, Yutu or "Jade Rabbit," separated from its lander and began its exploration.

 

This means that China has officially joined the USA and the former USSR as the only three [imperial] countries to make a soft landing and drop an exploratory vehicle on the Moon [named Chang'e in Chinese] safely. The Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports:

"The 140 kg six-wheeled rover touched the lunar surface at 4:35 a.m., leaving deep trace on the loose lunar soil. The process was recorded by the camera on the lander and the images were sent to the Earth, according to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

"After the separation, the rover and lander will take photos of each other and start their own scientific explorations.

"Engineers made final checks of the environment of the landing site, the situation of the probe and the solar incidence angle late night on Saturday and sent signals of separation to Chang'e-3.

"Yutu, atop the probe, extended its solar panel and started to drive slowly to the transfer mechanism at 3:10. The transfer mechanism unlocked at 4:06 with one side reaching the moon's surface, allowing the rover to descend to the surface following a ladder mechanism."

As NPR reported yesterday, this is a big deal for China, as it shows off its technical prowess and is a point of national pride. But it's also a big deal for humankind. More

• PHOTOS: Secrets of the Moon, its ruins, and its civilization may be revealed by China (Richard C. Hoagland, enterprisemission.com)

Chinese to land on Moon on Dec. 16, 2013

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; ScienceFriday.com, NPR.org

Earth (Bhumi) with our satellite the Moon (Chandra) (blog.nuestroclima.com)

Earth's Moon, Chandra (radiosai.org)

(sarahmascarah/fought-ographs/flickr)

The Chinese are about to land a Jade Rabbit rover on the Moon. That means there will be more Buddhists in space -- beyond those otherworldly beings in "Space Station of the 33" (Trāyastriṃśa).

The Moon Rabbit
In folklore this rabbit lives on the Moon, based on appearances (pareidolia) that identifies markings on the Moon as a rabbit. The story exists in many cultures, particularly in East Asian folklore and Aztec mythology.

The Jade Rabbit pounding mortar and pestle

Some see the rabbit pounding a mortar and pestle. In Chinese folklore, the rabbit is often portrayed as the companion of the Moon Goddess Chang'e (Sanskrit Chandra), constantly pounding the elixir of life for her. But in Japanese and Korean versions, it is just pounding the ingredients for rice cake. More

China shoots Jade Rabbit rover to the Moon

ScienceFriday.com (NPR.org, Dec. 6, 2013)

(NPR) This week China launched its Chang'e-3 lunar lander, with the Jade Rabbit moon rover on board. BBC science editor David Shukman, who got a behind-the-scenes glimpse of China's secretive space program during a recent trip there, talks about the motivations behind the country's moonshot.

IRA FLATOW (Science Friday host, NPR): ...On July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were five days into their journey to the Moon. As he prepared for his historic landing, Buzz Aldrin received this advisory from Houston.

MAN (unidentified): Apollo 11, Houston, over. 

BUZZ ALDRIN: Houston, Apollo 11, go ahead. 

MAN: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl, called Chande, has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband.  You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported. 

ALDRIN: Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny [and] girl. 

MAN: Roger. 

FLATOW: No word on whether Buzz ever found that bunny. We'll have to ask him next time we see him. But this week, 44 years later, China launched its own Jade Rabbit to the Moon to explore the Bay of Rainbows. The Jade Rabbit is a rover carried on the Chang'e-3 spacecraft, and it's scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface 10 days from [Dec. 6, 2013].... LISTEN