Norway Memorial Speech by Dagfinn Høybråten

"-All that lives is subject to the recreative power of love, our national poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote in his poem "Love your neighbour". This is the power that is now let loose in Norway"


From the Speech by Dagfinn Høybråten* at the Memorial for the Norwegian terror attacks...

"The acts of terror offends what we hold dearest as a people: Human life and dignity, freedom and democracy. But the Norwegian plural democracy can not be stopped by bullets. After this, there will be more unity and more plurality. Plurality does not threaten our culture. It strengthens and builds our culture.

Today I want to say thanks to Norwegian muslims in general and the Pakistani community in particular for your contribution to build Norway as a society of culture and welfare. I have worked with muslim leaders for years and in them I have met a strong feeling of responsibility and desire to contribute to a peaceful, non-violent and more human society....... It is meaningless to label the suspects confused thinking Christian fundamentalist. His acts and his thinking is contrary to true Christianity.

-All that lives is subject to the recreative power of love, our national poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote in his poem "Love your neighbour". This is the power that is now let loose in Norway. Love is strong enough to conquer hate and desire for revenge. The power of life is stronger than the power of death. Greatest of all is love. By focusing this way, the leaders of our land may release new strengths and energies among the people. "

Love Your Neighbour

by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 

Love your neighbour, you Christian leal *

tread him never with iron heel

though in the dust he’s lying.

Living creatures will celebrate 

love’s mild power to recreate

given the chance of trying.

                                                

*

 To be “leal” means to be “true or genuine”

**Dagfinn Høybråten
Leader of the Christian Democratic Party
In office
23 January 2004 – 30 April 2011

I Don't Take Pictures of Ugly People

Great story out of the U.K.....

Photographer refuses to take 

the pictures of high school Facebook bullies, telling them 'You're too ugly... on the inside' 

By HANNAH ROBERTS

Last updated at 3:09 PM on 20th August 2011

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 A photographer has refused to take pictures of a group of high school girls who were bullying other teens on Facebook.

Pennsylvania photographer Jennifer McKendrick was scheduled to shoot the school girls for their senior photo.

But when she came across a Facebook page with cruel comments from four high school girls whose names matched her scheduled clients she saw red. 

Photographer Jennifer McKendrick says she won't photograph 'ugly people'

McKendrick emailed the girls and their parents to cancel their portraits, including screen-shots of their comments to explain why she was calling off the session.

 

More...

• German state orders its offices to shut down Facebook pages after fears 'Like' button 'breaks European laws'

McKendrick wrote more about her decision on her personal blog, in a post titled 'I Won't Photograph Ugly People.'

She wrote: 'I mean how could I spend two hours with someone during our session trying to make beautiful photos of them knowing they could do such UGLY things.'

'Realistically, I know by cancelling their shoots it's not going to make them 'nicer people' but I refuse to let people like that represent my business.'

The comments were 'vicious' the photographer told WTAE-TV.

Facebook: Online bullying is a growing concern to parents

She added: 'It was beyond 'your clothes are ugly' or 'you don't have any brand clothes' or 'you are ugly, your hair is not right.' 

'It was vicious. It was talking about sexuality.'

'If you are ugly on the inside, I'm sorry but I won't take your photos to make you look pretty on the outside … I simply don't want to photograph ugly people.'

Her Facebook page has since been flooded with hundreds of comments from people supporting her decision. 

According to her blog there has been no backlash to McKendrick's decision so far, but she's prepared if she does. 

The photographer said that two of the girl's parents responded to her with apologies, noting that they were surprised by their daughters' actions.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028164/Facebook-bullies-Photographer-Jennifer-McKendrick-refuses-picture.html#ixzz1VaUcQwfq

Rhianna "Man Down"

Finally watched Rhianna's video "man down". Not a bad song and understand the point but there is a big difference between self-defense and vengeance.... I don't think she is ready to accept any responsibility as a role model ( who is these days ?) so it is (and should be ) up to the parents to watch what their kids are watching.....

Top 5 World Cities and the Ways They are Measured

The following information was collected mostly from Wikipedia, Worldatlas.com and Citymayor.com.

Its always good to know your geography and demographics!

Ambiguities in measuring the "size" of a city

The question of determining the world's largest cities does not allow a single, simple answer. It depends on which definitions of "city" and "size" are used, and how those definitions are applied. Complex political/cultural/social situations, sometimes controversial or disputed, further confuse the discussion. Debate on this field is highly vulnerable to bias or manipulation, as people^[who?] tend to prefer whichever definition most flatters their own city.

The "size" of a city can refer to either its land area or, more typically, its population.

The boundaries of a city can also be defined in any of several ways:

Morphological / Urban    ( Space, Density)

"City" defined as a physically contiguous urban area, without regard to territorial or other boundaries. The delineation is usually done using some type of urban density, such aspopulation density or density of buildings (for example, "gaps between structures may not exceed 200 metres"). Satellite and/or aerial maps may be used. For statistical convenience, such areas are sometimes adjusted to appropriate administrative boundaries, yielding anagglomeration.

Main articles: List of urban areas by population and List of urban agglomerations by population (United Nations)

Functional / Metropolitan  (People, Demographics)

"City" as defined by the habits of its demographic population, as by metropolitan area, labour market area, or similar. Such definitions are usually based on commuting between home andwork. Commuter flow thresholds into the core urban area are established by the national censusauthority, determining which areas are included.

Main article: List of metropolitan areas by population

City Proper (Administrative, City Council)

"City" as strictly defined by a given government (city proper). Typically based on a municipality or equivalent entity, or sometimes a group of municipalities under a regional government.

Main articles: List of cities proper by population, World's largest municipalities by population, and List of cities by surface area

Urban / Morph - Wikipedia 

Tokyo

Jakarta

New York

Mumbai

Manila

Urban / Morph – U.N.

Tokyo

New York

Mexico City

Mumbai

Sao Paulo

Urban / Morph - Citymayor.com

Tokyo

Mexico City

Mumbai

New York

Sao Paulo

Average:    Tokyo /  New York / Mumbai / Mexico City / Sao Paulo

Metro / Functional  – Wikipedia

Tokyo

Seoul

Mexico City

New York

Mumbai

(Jakarta, Sao Paulo)

Metro / Functional - Citymayor.com -

Tokyo

New York

Sao Paulo

Seoul

Mexico City

Metro – Worldatlas.com

1. Tokyo, Japan - 32,450,000 
2. Seóul, South Korea - 20,550,000 
3. Mexico City, Mexico - 20,450,000 
4. New York City, USA - 19,750,000 
5. Mumbai, India - 19,200,000 
(6. Jakarta, Indonesia - 18,900,000  7. Sáo Paulo, Brazil - 18,850,000 )

Average:  Tokyo /  Seoul / New York / Mexico City / Mumbai / Sao Paulo

City Proper – Wikipedia

Shanghai

Mumbai

Karachi

Delhi

Istanbul

(Sao Paulo, Moscow, Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo)

City Proper  - Citymayor.com

Karachi

Shanghai

Mumbai

Beijing

Delhi

City Proper – worldatlas.com

Shanghai, China 13.3 million
Mumbai (Bombay), India 12.6 million 
Buenos Aires, Argentina 11.92 million 
Moscow, Russia 11.3 million 
Karachi, Pakistan 10.9 million 

Average:  Shanghai / Mumbai - Karachi / Delhi / Moscow / Buenos Aires / Istanbul

Metro – Worldatlas.com

1. Tokyo, Japan - 32,450,000 
2. Seóul, South Korea - 20,550,000 
3. Mexico City, Mexico - 20,450,000 
4. New York City, USA - 19,750,000 
5. Mumbai, India - 19,200,000 
6. Jakarta, Indonesia - 18,900,000 
7. Sáo Paulo, Brazil - 18,850,000 
8. Delhi, India - 18,680,000 
9. Õsaka/Kobe, Japan - 17,350,000 
10. Shanghai, China - 16,650,000

11. Manila, Philippines - 16,300,000 
12. Los Angeles, USA - 15,250,000 
13. Calcutta, India - 15,100,000 
14. Moscow, Russian Fed. - 15,000,000 
15. Cairo, Egypt - 14,450,000 
16. Lagos, Nigeria - 13,488,000 
17. Buenos Aires, Argentina - 13,170,000 
18. London, United Kingdom - 12,875,000 
19. Beijing, China - 12,500,000 
20. Karachi, Pakistan - 11,800,000

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes What You See - Kids & Movies

Some great advice for parents with young children....

Plugged In

 479 Posts

0

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes What You See

Posted by Adam_Holz Aug 12, 2011

Here's a paragraph I didn't write, but I certainly could have:

I see a lot of movies for my job, and at almost every R-rated offering, I see someone trot in holding the hand of a toddler, or I hear that child's telltale wail after the violence begins. Sometimes I can't hear the child once the film starts to roll, but yes, my judgey mom side is still worrying about them, wondering what they're thinking when that guy gets brutally stabbed in The Expendables or almost every single character gets violently torn apart in Predators.

Those words come from today.com contributor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, as she confessed one area in which she's not shy about being judgmental as a mom. At the end of the article she added, "Yes, I can only control what my child sees, not the decisions other parents make. But that doesn't mean I'm not sitting there in the dark, getting my Sanctimommy on."

And I have to confess that I sometimes get my, um, Sanctidaddy on for the exact same reason.

One of the foulest films I've reviewed in the last year was Your Highness. And I watched it while sitting next to a man who saw fit to bring his barely adolescent son with him. Before the movie rolled, he asked me what publication I wrote for (our press seats are reserved, so he knew I was a movie reviewer), and I told him a bit about Plugged In. I said that one of our goals is to give parents the information they need to help make good decisions regarding their families' media choices.

After the film—which included a litany of content so foul I struggled even to know how to describe it in my review with words my editor would allow on our site—he joked something to the effect of, "Well, I guess that's not a good one for families." Never mind that his 10- or 11-year-old son was right next to him. I wasn't sure whether this was some kind of nervous admission that he'd made a mistake or whether he really didn't see the connection between his statement and his own family. Either way, his son had been exposed to some pretty awful imagery.

At the risk of sounding … old, let me say that when I was growing up, there were bad movies too. Plenty of 'em. And my buddies and I managed, clandestinely, to get our hands on a few of them. But here's the difference: Everyone knew they were bad movies, the kind of stuff you weren't supposed to see. And if our parents had been wise to some of the sly ways we procured those R-rated flicks, they would not have been happy. There would have been consequences. R-rated movies were simply out of bounds. And that was the attitude among all my friends' parents—without exception.

What's changed today, it seems, is that much of the social stigma regarding adult-oriented, age-restricted entertainment has, in large measure, simply evaporated. At virtually every R-rated film I screen, there are families with young children plunking down in seats all over the theater. None of those families, it seems, have too much concern about the graphic violence, explicit sexual contact or exceedingly harsh profanity that fill many of those films.

And every time, I find myself looking at those little eyes and ears, hoping and praying that what they've been exposed to doesn't warp their sense of reality as much as I fear it might.

Original article link  here