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Caption :This image shows a frame from a video released by Islamic State militants on Aug. 19, 2014, that shows the killing of journalist James Foley by a militant who spoke with a British accent.
(Photo: AP)

Katharine Lackey, USA TODAY, August 24, 2014

British intelligence officials have identified the man who killed an American journalist in a brutal beheading video that surfaced last week, NBC News reported Sunday citing unnamed U.K. security officials.

NBC News said it has not yet confirmed the name of the suspect seen in the video released by Islamic State militants on Tuesday that shows the killing of James Foley, 40.

Earlier Sunday, British ambassador to the U.S. Peter Westmacott, told multiple media outlets that officials were “close” to identifying the man.

“We’re putting a great deal into the search,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to the use of sophisticated technology to analyze the man’s voice. Westmacott also spoke on NBC’s Meet the Press.

In the video, the man who beheaded Foley is heard speaking with a British accent. United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond acknowledged last week that the militant in the video could be a British national.
Steven Joel Sotloff, a photojournalist and former University of Central Florida student, remains a hostage of the terrorist group and was threatened with death in the same video.

On Sunday, another kidnapped American journalist was released. Peter Theo Curtis, 45, who writes under the name Theo Padnos, had been held by the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda in Syria.

Seven-year old AJ brought me some string beans, but ate a few of them before handed them over. Then brought back another two! He said he likes the light green one more, but still wanted to bring back with him, both the dark and the light green ones.

Photo credit: @azcentral

The Huffington Post, August 24, 2014
By Dominique Mosbergen

The last eight years of Fatcat the bulldog’s life have been hard. In 2006, she was reportedly snatched from outside her owner’s home and since then, she’s lived a life of neglect and abuse, apparently at the hands of people who had used her as a “breeding machine.”

But Fatcat’s story recently took a wonderful, fortuitous turn — and today, against all the odds, she’s on the road to recovery and back home with her beloved owner of so long ago.

LaShena Harris says she still remembers the day she lost Fatcat. She told Today.com that she had left the pooch outside her house in Memphis for just a few minutes as she ran in to get the dog’s new collar. When she emerged, however, Harris says she saw a “truck speeding off down the street” and her dog was nowhere to be found.

“I knew whoever had her would probably breed her, and I would never see her again,” Harris said.

Months passed, then years; and in that time, Harris moved from Tennessee to Arizona, and at some point along the way, she resigned herself to never seeing Fatcat again.

That is, until a few weeks ago, when Harris got unexpected news: Her long-lost Fatcat, she learned, had been brought in to an animal shelter in Memphis.

“The lady’s like, ‘I think I have your dog,'” Harris told Today.com of speaking to staff at the West Memphis Animal Shelter, who had found her thanks to Fatcat’s microchip. “I burst into tears at my desk.”

But despite the amazing news, all was not well. Fatcat, it turned out, was very sick. Years of neglect, abuse and over-breeding had ravaged her body. She was suffering from heartworm and major dental issues, as well as a slew of other medical problems, writes the Arizona Republic.

@azcentral

Considering Fatcat’s condition and that Harris was finding difficulty getting the dog to Arizona, shelter staff floated euthanasia as an option. Harris said she was heartbroken and agonized over the decision. She wanted, after all, to see her furry friend again after all these years.

But in the end, she didn’t have to make that hard decision at all.

According to the Arizona Republic, a friend of the shelter’s director offered to drive Fatcat to Harris.

The pair was reunited earlier this month.

“I feel like the luckiest person in the world right now. I’m just glad she’s finally home,” Harris wrote on the GoFundMe page that she’s set up to help with Fatcat’s medical bills.

So far, more than $7,000 has been raised and Harris says she’s been overwhelmed by the support she’s received from strangers around the world.

“It’s been crazy, insane,” Harris told Today.com. “I’m so appreciative of it. These people don’t know me, they only know my story, and they still felt compelled to help me.”

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Everybody hurts
One of the songs I love most
When your day is long
And the night
The night is yours alone
When you’re sure you’ve had enough of this life
Well hang on

Don’t let yourself go
Cause everybody cries
And everybody hurts
Sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it’s time to sing along
(When your day is night alone)
Hold on, hold on
(If you feel like letting go)
Hold on
If you think you’ve had too much of this life
Well hang on

Cause everybody hurts
Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts

Don’t throw your hand

Oh, no
Don’t throw your hand
When you feel like you’re alone
No, no, no, you’re not alone

If you’re on your own
In this life
The days and nights are long
When you think you’ve had too much
Of this life
To hang on

Well, everybody hurts
Sometimes, everybody cries
And everybody hurts
Sometimes

And everybody hurts
Sometimes

So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
(Everybody hurts
You are not alone)

The Corrs Everybody Hurts Lyrics
Artist: The Corrs Lyrics

December 27, 2013

Source: fromquarkstoquasars.com 

Galaxies. The Universe is littered with them. They have speckled the
vast darkness of intergalactic space for 13-billion years with their
numerous stars and planets.

Galaxies are grouped within three size variations: dwarf galaxies, mid-range spiral galaxies, and gigantic elliptical galaxies.

Dwarf galaxies – these are the smallest galaxies that have been classified. And they are rather small (relatively speaking; they’re still unbelievably large in “human terms”). Many of these galaxies are only about 200 light-years across, and contain only a few tens-of-millions of stars, weighing only slightly more than a star cluster.

The second grouping includes the Spiral galaxies, such as our very own Milky Way (more specifically, it’s a barred spiral galaxy). These are the most common galaxies observed in the Universe, making up 60% – 75% of all galaxies ever found.

Now we approach the largest galaxies – the Ellipticals. They range in shape from nearly spherical to nearly flat, and they can contain as many as a trillion stars.

Image Credit: NASA

Let’s get to the feature of this article – IC 1101. Shown in the image, IC 1101 is the single largest galaxy that has ever been found in the Universe. It is located almost a billion light-years away.

Just how large is it? Prepare to have your mind blown, because this galaxy has a diameter of 6-million light-years and a mass of about 100-trillion stars. It is nearly 50x the size of our very own Milky Way galaxy and 2000x as massive. If our galaxy were to be replaced with this super-giant, it would swallow up both Magellanic clouds, the Andromeda galaxy, the Triangulum galaxy, and almost all the space in between. That is simply staggering.

Over billion of years, galaxies the size of our own have collided and combined together to form this immense structure. Telescopic observations have also revealed an interesting fact about the stars within this galaxy. Normally, blue-tinted galaxies signal active star formation, while yellow-red hues indicate a cease in the birth of new stars. IC 1101 is giving birth to very few new stars. Unless it continues to collide and join with other younger galaxies, IC 1101 will eventually fade away.

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Greenwich Thames seal Touching moment. A seal plays hide and seek
with a pet Golden Retriever. Seal pup and Golden Retriever filmed
playing for around five minutes.

Sunrise at Sraas Srang, Siem Reap, Cambodia

By Lance Ekum, Jungle of life

There’s a sun­set within the soul of each of us. Have you lis­tened to your heart and your soul? 

This sun­set within each of us…it’s there.  We just have to find it.  Maybe it’s over­cast in the world of you today.  Maybe it has been for a while.  Or maybe it’s a full-fledged storm.  In either case, when our sun­set within is blocked, we are not being com­pletely authen­tic and true to our­selves.  And we’re not liv­ing a life that is con­nect­ing with our deep­est being.

What keeps it hidden?

• Doing what we’re told is the right thing to do
• Pur­suit of the pay­check over the heart
• Not lis­ten­ing to that voice inside
• Going through the motions of life

Telling our­selves that some­day we’ll pur­sue our dreams (does some­day ever come?)
When we allow any on this list to be the pre­vail­ing force in our life, we sup­press that sun­set that is within.  And all of this is not to say that some­times we might have to do things for rea­sons our heart does not agree.  There will be unex­pected storms that come into our life — and it may mean doing some­thing that isn’t nec­es­sar­ily in line with what our heart speaks.

Life hap­pens.

Still, though, it doesn’t mean we have to be locked into these choices.  Even in the midst of an unex­pected storm, or for that mat­ter, a period of much cloudi­ness in our life — we can still  search for the sun­set within.

It’s there.

“Twenty years from now you will be more dis­ap­pointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow­lines. Sail away from the safe har­bor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Dis­cover.” ~ Mark Twain

Take some time to really lis­ten to your heart.  Explore what mat­ters deeply to you.

Your Sun­set

We have this one life here on earth that we’re liv­ing.  How are you choos­ing to live that life out?

Don’t wait for some­day…it’s a day that may never come.

“Today is your day! Your moun­tain is wait­ing. So… get on your way.” ~ Dr. Seuss

What can you do, today, that will take you one step closer toward that amaz­ing sun­set within your soul?  And if you’re there already, what can you do to keep that sun­set shin­ing , illu­mi­nat­ing your life and all you do?

You are amaz­ing — each and every one of you!  And when you allow your heart-filled sun­set to shine onto the world, that light and all it’s mag­i­cal col­ors will fill the world around you with the pas­sion you have within the depths of your soul.