This is important.

—-

Dear Colleague,

Starting this week, Californians will begin receiving ballots in the mail for the June 5 election. We need you to vote, and to vote Yes on Prop 29. If you are an absentee ballot voter in California, you have the chance to save lives with your vote right now. 

The reasons are quite simple.

We wrote Proposition 29 – a $1.00 tax on cigarettes – because it will:

- Save lives

- Prevent kids from starting to smoke

- Fund cancer research

The tobacco industry knows it will work too. That’s why they’ve already spent $40 million so far to oppose it. They’re not spending that kind of money to protect consumers. Their only goal is to protect their own bottom line – selling more cigarettes to kids.

And how is the tobacco industry using their $40 million? To spread lies about the true impact of Proposition 29. They’re trying to distract from the fact that it will prevent 228,000 kids from starting to smoke and save 104,000 lives. 

Please vote Yes on Proposition 29. 

If you want to learn more, I encourage you to visit www.CaliforniansForACure.org. This information is provided by organizations you know you can trust, like the American Cancer Society, Livestrong and others. 

So, who are you going to believe – the nation’s leading health organizations or the tobacco industry?

This is going to be an extremely close vote, so please make your voice heard. Vote Yes on Proposition 29.

Thank you for voting, 

David F. Veneziano
Chief Executive Officer
American Cancer Society
California Division Inc.

Dear Mr. President, 

You are the boldest president ever. I hope you meant what you said, and didn’t say this just as a political card. I support. Real proud of you.

Best,

H.

“Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently,” Obama said. “It wouldn’t make sense to them. And frankly, that’s the kind of thinking that prompts a change in perspective.”

I went to Monterey this weekend with my friends V.T. and D.L. (who might be my distant cousin). V. and I have been wanting to go there to watch whales for ages, and I’m glad we finally made it. We saw a lot of sea animals, such as sea otters, sea lions, pelicans, and jellyfish, on top of two beautiful kinds of whales: humpback whales and Risso’s dolphins. It was absolutely exciting.

I like whales. Since I didn’t grow up near the sea, I always had a fantasy about it the marine world. I’m not a crazy beach lover or diver or anything, but I always think about the vast world under the surface of the ocean. The aqua universe, where the whales live.

Whales are magnificent animals. The gentle curves, powerful muscles, and wisdom make them awe-inspiring in every way. I learned this weekend that they are also very patient animals. Baleen whales eat only during the summer, and when the winter comes they do not eat anything and live off of the fat they had built during the feeding season. And they migrate, solely using the calories they had prepared during the summer. Baleen whales have feminist features: female whales are larger than male. It is for biological reasons rather than social—they need to nurture the calf in their wombs over the winter and also need to feed it milk when it is born, until the summer is back. And over those long months they eat nothing at all.

Another reason I like whales is that they belong to both worlds, because even though they live in the sea, they must surface to breathe air every few minutes. They are residents, yet foreigners in the sea. But they cannot go back to the land where their ancestors came from, because now this is their home. I feel connected to them because I am also a foreigner and a resident at the same time in all places.

Photo source: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/humpback-whale/

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (thank you, theknifebusiness)

(Source: the-final-sentence)

Rumi, from “No Expectations”, in Bridge to the Soul, translated by C. Barks (via the-final-sentence)

(Source: growing-orbits, via the-final-sentence)

큰일이네…

Science of the Physical Pain Associated with Heartbreak

You lose a part of yourself when connections are lost, and its not far-fetched to say that you feel completely empty inside. There’s an ache, a deep ache that erupts from the inside of our bodies longing for the past. The pain is real and there’s no other way to describe how bad it really hurts than to name it heartbreak.

When a person feels secluded or feels loss, changes in the brain’s blood flow occur. The anterior cingulate cortex (responsible for regulating physical pain distress) becomes more active during these times, causing the physical pain associated with heartbreak. (via)

(via geneticist)

robertreich:

As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote in 1904, “taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.”

But the wealthiest Americans, who haven’t raked in as much of America’s income and wealth since the 1920s, are today paying a lower tax rate than they have in over thirty years. Even…

nikkotine:

(via fwarg)

I probably won’t sleep that much tonight either, which is AWESOME!

treeporn:

Submitted by (another) Ben Roberts.