Virtual Choir 1
Virtual Choir 1 ‘Lux Aurumque’ was launched in March 2010 and featured online performances by 185 singers. It received over 1 million hits in the first two months of its release, and has since been watched by nearly 5 million people.
It began in May 2009 as a simple experiment in social media, when Britlin Losee – a fan of Eric’s music – recorded a video of herself singing ‘Sleep’ and shared it on YouTube. After watching the video, Eric responded by sending a call out to his online fans to purchase Polyphony’s recording of ‘Sleep’, record themselves singing along to it, and upload the result.
Virtual Choir 2
Featuring Eric’s composition ‘Sleep’, Virtual Choir 2 was released in April 2011 and was met with a staggering response, incorporating 2052 videos from 58 countries and from all walks of life, including 9 year olds to senior citizens. The official launch took place at Paley Center for Media in New York. The event was webcast worldwide on WQXR and posted on YouTube that evening.
For more videos of this kind visit Eric Whitacre’s website – www.ericwhitacre.com
Decades ago, famed Australian ocean experts and cinematographers Valerie Taylor and her husband Ron began swimming the oceans, studying marine life.
Ron captured hours of footage of Valerie sharing special bonds with different aquatic species, but one of the more incredible moments was her unique relationship with a spotted moral eel named Honey.
When the two first met in 1974 at Honey’s home near Banda Island, Indonesia, the eel was very timid around Valerie.
But after a few years, something changed.
“She didn’t just come out. She swam around me, she swam between my legs, she nuzzled my face, and I thought this is amazing,” Valerie says in the video posted by the Central Florida Aquarium Society. “And after that, we have been great friends, and now when she sees me coming… and I might not see her for a year (once I didn’t see her for three years!), this thing comes out across the sand, and comes over to me and hugs and loves… there is no doubt in my mind that eel really likes me.”…
Text from Youtube:
On April 4th 2015, we witnessed this shark approach our shark feed and ASK for help to remove a rope that was tight around her throat! We thankfully succeeded and now have named this lovely lady, ‘Lucy’! We hope to see a lot more of her. Watch the amazing footage of the shark rescue here!!!
It’s easy to think there are more things dividing us than uniting us. But we actually have much more in common with other nationalities than you’d think. We asked 67 people from all over the world to take a DNA test, and it turns out they have much more in common with other nationalities than they would ever have thought.
Let’s Open Our World is an invitation to travel across boundaries, embrace our differences and open our world. At momondo we believe that everybody should be able to travel the world, to meet other people, and experience other cultures and religions. Travel opens our minds: when we experience something different, we begin to see things differently.
Jim Carrey gave the commencement address to Maharishi University of Management’s class of 2014. The University Board of Trustees also presented Mr. Carrey with the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa, in recognition of his significant lifetime achievements as a world-renowned comedian and actor, artist, author and philanthropist.
Inspiring Speech by Robin Williams. All footage is from Robin Williams Movies.
Transcript:
You know, as we come to the end of this phase of our life,
we find ourselves trying to remember the good times
and trying to forget the bad times,
and we find ourselves thinking about the future.
We start to worry , thinking, “What am I gonna do?
Where am I gonna be in ten years?”
But I say to you, “Hey, look at me!”
Please, don’t worry so much.
Because in the end, none of us have very long on this Earth.
Life is fleeting.
And if you’re ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky
when the stars are strung across the velvety night.
And when a shooting star streaks through the blackness, turning night into day…
make a wish and think of me.
Make your life spectacular.
I know I did.
Ulmer takes the time to pay several compliments to each and every one of the eight students in his special education classroom at Mainspring Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.
“I love having you in my class. I think you’re very funny. You’re a great soccer player. Everyone in here loves you,” Ulmer says to the kids as they each take their turn standing in front of the class, facing Ulmer.
In his first year of teaching, he said, each day had a theme, like “Monday Funday” and “Toast Tuesday,” which is when the affirmations began. “I noticed the kids were always more motivated, happier and better behaved on Tuesdays. So we started doing it every day.”
Ulmer said the change has been remarkable in his students, whose diagnoses range from autism to traumatic brain injury to speech apraxia to agenesis of corpus callosum.
“They all came from a segregated environment [from general education students]. Now they’re participating in school activities, dancing in front of hundreds of other kids and in the debate club.” And while Ulmer agrees academics are important, he thought it even more important to reverse the psychological damage that came from being made to feel like outcasts.
