Flobots- Stand Up

Stand Up
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

We still don't understand thunder and lightning
Flash back to when we didn't fund the dam
Didn't fund the dam levee? No wonder man
Now our whole damn city's torn asunder man
Under water but we still don't understand
We see hurricane spills overrun the land
Through gaps you couldn't fill with a 100 tons of sand
No we still don't understand
We've seen planes in the windows of buildings crumbled in
We've seen flames send the chills through London
And we've sent planes to kill them and some of them were children
But still we crumbling the building
Underfunded but we still don't understand
Under God but we kill like the son of Sam
But if you feel like I feel like about the son of man
We will overcome

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
Except by a freedom fighter bleeding on a cross for you
We shall not be moved
Except by a system thats rotten through
Neglecting the victims and ordering the cops to shoot
High treason now we need to prosecute

[ Flobots Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ]
So Stand up
We shall not be moved
And we won't fight a war for fossil fuel
Its times like this that you want to plot a coup
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up

Now shake, shake
A Polaroid dream
nightmare negatives develop on the screen
We sit back and wait for the government team
Criticize they but who the fuck are we
The people want peace but the leaders want war
Our neighbors don't speak, peek through the front door
House representatives preach "stay the course"
Time for a leap of faith
Once More

Put your hands up high if you haven't abandoned
Hope that the pen strokes stronger than the cannon
Balls to the wall, Nose to the grindstone
My interrogation techniques leave your mind blown
So Place your bets lets speak to the enemy
Don't let em pretend that we seek blood
And who's we anyways Kemo Sabe?
Mighty warlord wanna-be street thug
a threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified
blow for blow never settles the score
word for word is time need clarify
We the people did not want war

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up

Back on the Forbes List

No. 15 Mr. Monopoly

Michael Noer, 12.18.08, 06:00 PM EST

Board game real estate mogul boasts a net worth of $800 million on this year's list of fiction's richest.

Courtesy of Hasbro

Net Worth: $800 million
Source: Real Estate
Age: 71
Marital Status: Single
Hometown: Atlantic City, N.J.
Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.A.

Atlantic City real estate speculator also known as Rich Uncle Pennybags lost everything in 2007 subprime crash; did not pass go; was sent directly to jail. Then in a stunning display of Chance, Monopoly's Christmas fund matured, he got out of jail for free and advanced to the nearest railroad. Assisted by a generous dollop of federal bailout funds from the Community Chest, Monopoly began snapping up distressed properties; now owns luxury houses, hotels on Park Place, Pennsylvania Ave. Rumored to control all of Atlantic City's railroads.

Featured in: Parker Brothers' Monopoly game

--Michael Noer

Check out the rest of them at:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/18/fictional-15-richest-characters-oped-fictional1508_cx_mn_de_1218fict15_land.html

An Inconvenient Truth

The Pavlov Altoid Theory

In neuroscience class, we learned about conditional learning. The experiment described in class was a tone followed by a puff of air given to the eye of a rabbit. After sometime the rabbit was able to clsoe its eye in anticipation of the puff of air at the signal of the tone. This reminded me of a prank done by Jim (played by John Krasinkni) on Dwight (Rainn Wilson) on the show The Office. I need to try this out on someone!

Veteran's Day

This week, as a nation we honor our Veterans of the past and present, and remember the sacrifices made by soldiers and families across the States. Veterans Day has been celebrated for ninety years now as a Federal holiday with banks, schools, and government offices taking the day off in remembrance. Last Friday, it was observed here in our own backyard, at UCLA with ceremonies including a thunderous F-16 flyover and patriotic performances. However is a single day filled with gallantry parades, ornate ceremonies and decorous soldiers enough appreciation and activism to honor a disenfranchised group of American Heroes.

The majority soldiers of today are recruited from within poor minority communities, with promises of valor, glory and financial stability, much like the heavy Chicano drafting done during the Vietnam War with promises of citizenship. Often time’s soldiers are deployed for well beyond their initial agreements or have consecutive tours of duties. No matter how you feel about the wars, across America hundreds upon hundreds of G.I.s are coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan and many of them are unable to acquire the medical treatment necessary for physical and physiological rehabilitation including the all too common post-traumatic stress disorder.

On this day of remembrance, let us not only honor our veterans with ceremonies and parades, but also lay the foundations of compassion and empathy In building of new and improving old specialized veteran clinics and hospitals, creating an organized infrastructure and ridding of the excessive bureaucracies. It is only then that we truly honor their sacrifices and let our actions speak louder than our words of a single day.

Talib al Habib - Light of Dawn

I wake with the light of the dawn whispering
With joy in my heart and with praise on my lips
In stillness and twilight I stand before you
Bowing, prostrating I call Allahu

My eyes see your beauty in the dawn's golden hues
My ears hear the thunder as it glorifies you
The rhythm of my heart beats the sound of your name
My breaths rise and fall with the tide of your praise

My soul knew and loved you before I was born
And without your mercy is lost and forlorn
Wherever I may wander down the pathways of life
My cry to you, oh my Lord, is 'guide me to light'

Through all fear and helplessness, to you do I turn
For your breath of healing and peace do I yearn
For all that I have, my Lord, all that I am
Is from You, is for You and to You will return

Obama's Acceptance Speech

Excerpts from Obama:

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America

Source: CNN

My Powell Alarm Rant

The other night I was sitting in Powell Library, studying (cramming) for my next early morning Organic Chemistry Lab. At a certain point at night the library turns into night Powell, where only a part of the library is left open for the studious/crammers. NOTE: You Must Be a Student with A Valid ID, or you risk being TASERED at night. Well the UCLA community officers come around at this point in time to check IDs and lock the doors. Well this "officer" decided to demonstrate the alarm door to the new recruits. So he decided to trip the door in a hall of studying students. The noise that followed was a consistent and abnoxious:

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

What made it all the worse is that I was at the table closest to the door. The community officeres walked off nonchalantly off to protect the world (library) from hobos crashing the nigth at the library. The alarm stoped only when a lady janitor came and used her key on the door, to the releif of many students.

I can't belive how some people have so little regard for other people, and yet how others have so much capacity to do good even in the face of such arogance.

My Rhodes Inspiration

I came across the Rhodes Scholarship today. It's an amazing scholarship that provides the 32 US recipients a chance to study any post-undergrad discipline they choose at Oxford, all expenses paid for. The scholarship judges applicants at four standards:

-literary and scholastic attainments
-energy to use one's talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports
-truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship
-moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one's fellow beings

With former Rhodes Scholars going on to become powerhouses in their respective fields the Rhodes Scholarship bar is set high. This is all to apparent looking at the 2008 batch. Among them Isra Bhatty, a Muslim Pakistani American is an all-star. Having completed her first year at Yale Law she will be going to Oxford for a year. She also knows six languages and has worked as an interpreter at Gitmo, to say the least of her achievements.

Although it is probably to late for me to be a Rhodes Scholar, it definitely encourages me to excel in academics and community service.

Moments in Venice

Photos taken all Over Venice, Ca by Keith Baggett

Poetic Resonance

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it,

Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strengths
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for patience to win my freedom

Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone; but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.


-Rabindranath Tagore, Fruit-Gathering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore