9. Exhilaration
Photographer Ken Shung: “I shot this photograph in June 1987 in Taishan, a city in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. I was there visiting the village where my father grew up. The boy in front was part of a group of children following me around that day while I took pictures. This moment of the boy laughing as it started to rain reminded me of lyrics from the song, 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.' Because I’m free, nothing’s worrying me… Simple joys bring happiness to kids who have only a few friends and not much of material value."

8. Color
Photographer Jeff Rennicke: “As a volunteer at the Northwoods Children’s Museum in Eagle River, Wisconsin, last year, I witnessed creativity in action: a dozen eight- to ten-year-olds dipping their hands in jars of finger paints and swirling yellow and green and red to make sunflowers and fire trucks on drawing paper. After the kids left, all that remained was a row of their paint-splattered smocks. Hung together in a haphazard way, the smocks created a tapestry that reminded me that art should be joyous and raucous. Kids know that already.”

7. Joy
 Photographer Vern Evans: “I caught this moment as a group of Tibetan Buddhist nuns took a break from class outside their school in Dharamsala, India, in 2008. [The Chinese government] prevents Tibetan nuns from learning and practicing Buddhism in their home country. I’m a big guy who wears a cowboy hat, so I think my appearance got them smiling. All the nuns’ eyes sparkle with such joy—you can almost hear them giggling. We all know the stories of the Tibetan people’s suffering, so to see the nuns in a moment of spontaneous laughter makes me feel that everything will be OK.”

6. Movement
 Photographer Steve Vaccariello: “I love photographing dancers because we can collaborate as artists to come up with an amazing image comprising athleticism, form, light, composition, expression, and emotion. One fall day in 2010, I asked this ballerina, a performer with the American Ballet Theatre, to show me something powerful and joyous from a recent show. Because the movement was so taxing on her body, I had only three chances to get the shot. When I saw this image, I thought, This is the perfect moment!”

5. Exuberance
Photographer Josh Rothstein: “This is my friend Cara jumping down the stairs in an old apartment building in Brooklyn. The dreamy quality of the photo transforms the gritty surroundings into a beautiful, serene place. I also took a leap soon after I shot this photo. Cara set me up on a blind date with a woman who eventually became my wife.”

4. Victory
Photographer Tom Hussey: “In 2008 and 2009, I traveled all over North Texas documenting my sons playing football for the Lakehill Preparatory School Warriors, a football team from Dallas that competed with only six players on the field at one time—instead of the traditional 11—and played other small schools that did the same. The games were frenetic and high scoring, and in a lot of ways, these boys were the ultimate athletes. Many of them played both offense and defense, and they loved it. I captured this moment of the opposing team after a game in 2009.”

3. Delight
Photographer Seamus Murphy: “I shot this photo of a coal miner in front of his daily haul of coal in 2004 in the Takhar province of Afghanistan. I’ve been documenting people’s lives for decades, but this man, a member of a small community of Afghan Arabs, had the most carefree laugh I have ever seen.”

2. Enchantment
Photographer Andrew Brusso: “I’m from Weeki Wachee, Florida, home of the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park mermaids, a roadside attraction that started in 1947. When I heard that the park was in danger of closing a few years ago, I volunteered to take promotional photographs. A mermaid asked me to photograph her with her 18-month-old twin daughters, who had been learning to swim at the spring since infancy. I consider the underwater images, which display the importance of tradition and reveal a connection to nature and the wonder of fantasy, some of the most meaningful of my career.”

1. Elation
Photographer Marcus Bleasdale: “In 2007, Human Rights Watch asked me to photograph the street children in Kinshasa, a war-ravaged city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I took this photo inside a local resource center that provides the children a few meals and running water. The boy in front is one of the thousands of kids who sleep on the streets and scavenge at a local market for food and charcoal to sell. Despite his desperate situation, he still relishes taking a shower, a luxury that most of us take for granted

Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) , who was considered one of the brightest young minds in tech activism, hanged himself on Friday night in his Brooklyn apartment. He had been struggling with depression for many years.
There was no apparent suicide note, officials said.
Swartz’s death cast a pall over the tech world and prompted soul-searching questions among policy experts and university officials — not to mention his grieving family and friends.

Swartz’s passing triggered an outpouring of grief from those who knew him well, and the broader technology and Internet community.
Prior to his death, Swartz faced up to 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million for the alleged JSTOR downloads. He had pleaded not guilty. His trial was set to begin next month. Several prominent observers, including Lessig, called the potential penalty disproportionate to the alleged crime.

Two days later, on 11 January, Swartz hanged himself with his belt in the Brooklyn apartment he shared with his girlfriend. There was no suicide note. Stinebrickner-Kauffman was the one who found him when she got back from work. He was wearing the same clothes she had seen him in when she left for the office that morning: a V-neck black T-shirt and brown corduroy trousers. He had his coat on. When she called the emergency services, she was screaming so hard that at first they couldn't hear the address.

She says now that it would be too easy to explain away Swartz's suicide by saying he was depressed.

"I've read a lot about depression and it just doesn't sound like Aaron." When she speaks, she chooses her words cautiously. Her face is pale and tense, her eyes tired. Her every gesture seems to carry within it a sadness that is all the more unbearable for being contained.

"He didn't have an absence of joy. He didn't have an absence of human emotion… I think he was in a lot of pain. A lot of it was to do with the case. I don't think he would have killed himself if it weren't for the case, put it that way.

"The thing that I regret is that I didn't know I should be looking for anything… In retrospect, there are clues I could have picked up on and I just didn't know to.

"I think he made a really dumb decision. But I also think I understand how it happened. The biggest problem with the decision is that it's permanent. Other dumb decisions, you can usually recover from. People make mistakes." She breaks off and starts to cry, lowering her head as her shoulders shake. "It hurt me," she says finally, her voice quiet, "but I don't think it was his intention to do so."

Is winning all that counts? Are you absolutely sure about that?
On December 2, Basque athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai - bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. 
As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner - the certain winner of the race - mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line. 
 Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.
 Ivan Fernandez Anaya, a Basque runner of 24 years who is considered an athlete with a big future (champion of Spain of 5,000 meters in promise category two years ago) 
 "But even if they had told me that winning would have earned me a place in the Spanish team for the European championships, I wouldn't have done it either. I also think that I have earned more of a name having done what I did than if I had won. And that is very important, because today, with the way things are in all circles, in soccer, in society, in politics, where it seems anything goes, a gesture of honesty goes down well." 

Unfortunately, very little has been said of the gesture. And it's a shame. In my opinion, it would be nice to explain to children, so they do not think that sport is only what they see on TV: violent kicks in abundance, posh statements, fingers in the eyes of the enemy ... Taken from crossfitmeridian.net

Lynton Clarke is 74, and five days a week he gets on his bike at 5am to ride 2km to Stows Newsagency, in Bairnsdale. 
There he loads up the morning papers and starts his round. It takes him a little under two hours to deliver his 60 papers, then it's home for breakfast with his wife, Jan.
 Mr Clarke delivered his first newspaper about 62 years ago in Croydon. 
"We used to carry the papers in a sugar bag and pour hot water into the handlebars to keep our fingers warm," he said.
 "I retired from my round when I was about 14 but about nine years ago I realised I was walking every morning for fitness, so I decided to deliver papers and get paid to keep fit.
 "The newspaper round and a diet has helped me lose 13kg in that time." Mr Clarke's boss, Trevor Stow, says his paperboy is one of the best. 
"Lyn does his deliveries come rain, hail or shine," he said. "He's excellent and his service is appreciated by his customers. 
"He not only delivers the papers, but he places them in convenient positions for his customers to find. 
 "In wet weather he rides his bike up to the door of most houses and places the paper on the veranda to save his customers getting wet."
 Despite his years, Mr Clarke said he has no plans to retire. "Why would I? It's fun." Taken from HeraldSun

The life of a six year old, anywhere in the world should be filled with bubbles and love and comfort and caring.
For poor Ah Long, an HIV carrier from Guangxi Province, China, life is difficult and extremely lonely.

Both his parents died of AIDS and the poor child is too much on his own, doing his own washing, cooking and studying.
His 84-year-old grandmother has planted vegetables for him and visits frequently. She cooks for him, for him, but will not live with the child.
Everyone else in his world, including the nearby primary school has rejected him.
His only friend and companion is a dog named Lao Hei.
The Welfare department has also declined to take responsibility for the little boy and the monthly allowance of 70 yuan (about $US 10) he gets form the civil bureau is nowhere near enough.
The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in China is powerful and it is totally responsible for this poor child’s neglect.
Since the 1980s, the disease has spread from the gay population and drug users to the general population, but there is still a total lack of education, understanding and a pervasive denial that fuels the fires of hatred and discrimination.
There is hope for Ah Long as after his story as published in Chinese newspapers one couple announced publicly that they would adopt the boy.
To date, however, this is yet to happen. Many Chinese believe that AIDS only infects immoral people. How could a six-year-old boy be immoral?

Taken from www.weirdasianews.com .... and there I thought I was stigmatised.... *filled with embarrassment*

The Hobbit

Galadriel : “Mithrandir, why the halfling?”

Gandalf responds: “Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found.
 I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love.
Why Bilbo Baggins? That’s because I am afraid and it gives me courage.”

FB Story

Stochastic Probability Theory - Pregnant Deer Scenario Consider this scenario: 
In a remote forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth to a baby. It finds a remote grass field near by a river and slowly goes there thinking it would be safe. As she moves slowly, she gets labor pain…. at the same moment, dark clouds gather around that area and lightning starts a forest fire. Turning left she sees a hunter who is aiming an arrow from a distance. As she tries to move towards right, she spots a hungry lion approaching towards her.
 Stochastic Probability Theory - Pregnant Deer Scenario What can the pregnant deer do ….as she is already under labor pain ? … … … 
What do you think will happen ? Will the deer survive ? 
 Will it give birth to a fawn ? Will the fawn survive ? or Will everything be burnt by the forest fire ? … … … … That particular moment ? … … … Can the deer go left ? – Hunter’s arrow is pointing 
 Can she go right ? – Hungry male lion approaching Can she move up ? – Forest fire 
 Can she move down ? – Fierce river

 Answer: She does nothing. She just focuses on giving birth to a new LIFE. The sequence of events that happens at that fraction of a second (moment) are as follows:
 In a spur of MOMENT …a lightning strikes (already it is cloudy ) and blinds the eyes of the Hunter. At that MOMENT, he releases the arrow missing and zipping past the deer. 
At that MOMENT the arrow hits and injures the lion badly. 
At that MOMENT, it starts to rain heavily and puts out the forest fire. At that next MOMENT, the deer gives birth to a healthy fawn. 
In our life, it’s our MOMENT of CHOICE and we all have to deal with such negative thoughts from all sides always. Some thoughts are so powerful they overpower us and makes us clueless. 
Let us not decide anything in a hurry. Let’s think of ourselves as the pregnant deer with the ultimate happy ending. Anything can happen in a MOMENT in this life. If you are religious, superstitious, atheist, agnostic… or whatever… you can attribute this MOMENT as divine intervention, faith, sudden luck, chance (serendipity), coincidence… or a simple ‘don’t know’.

We all feel the same. But, whatever one may call it, I would see the priority of the deer in that given moment was to giving birth to a baby…. because LIFE IS PRECIOUS. Hence, whether you are deer or a human, keep that faith and hope within you always...

I incidentally switched on the radio and heard a very famous geomancy professional (fortune teller) on interview. The Deejays were asking about his personal life and if he now understood the deeper meaning of his hardships in his past.
"No, no. Like what I always say. Never question the karmic reason of the difficulties in your life. That is the ultimatum to depression. I believe the main reason of my current success was never due to my EQ nor IQ, but my 'YikLik' (cantonese) -the defying spirit, unwilling to be accept passive outlook, ability to overcome setbacks in life, which I believe it now has a term for it, MQ "