…“The Poona Sanskrit dictionary, which, when completed, will probably be the greatest work of lexicography the world has seen. And true to this observation, the work done so far has already drawn attention worldwide.” The first volume of the dictionary titled “an encyclopaedic dictionary of Sanskrit on historical principles” was published in 1976 under the general editorship of A.M. Ghatge and at least one part of a volume has been released every two to three years. With the recent advancement in information technology, the Deccan College has also commenced computerisation of the dictionary.   more »

...The transition model emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this big question: for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to:

    * significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil)
    * drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change)?

Typically, self-determined solutions will involve some flavour of relocalisation. -- We're building a range of materials, training courses, events, tools & techniques, resources and a general support capability to help these communities. ... We're hoping that through this work, communities across the UK will unleash their own collective genius and embark on an imaginative and practical range of connected initiatives, leading to a way of life that is more resilient, more fulfilling and more equitable, and that has dramatically lower levels of carbon emissions. ...   more »

Leibniz was well-acquainted with the philosophies of Descartes, Gassendi, Malbranche, and Spinoza. Descartes thought that mind and matter are unrelated and independent of each other, and that in a living creature mind acts on the body through the medium of what he called ‘vital spirits’. Malbranche and Gieulincx (both of them pupils of Descartes) rejected the idea of vital spirits, and maintained that the mind and the body were only providentially parallel. Gieulincx supplied the famous analogy of the two clocks: By looking at a clock and hearing another, we may find that whenever one is marking four, the other is striking four, and we may conclude that the two clocks are interconnected. But actually they are parallel only through an outside cause. The clock-paradigm caught, as we shall see later, the imagination of Leibniz also. Spinoza said that neither is mind material (as held by the materialists), nor is matter mental (as held by the idealists); they are the two aspects of one and the same thing. Spinoza said that the ultimate reality is one. He was a monist: in fact, a pantheist, holding the view that God is the only reality and that this world is the creation of God out of himself. Spinoza’s monism was thus dialectical in nature, in the sense that consciousness and matter according to him, were two aspects of one and the same ultimate. Spinoza said that the ultimate reality can think and has extension in space. We intend here, at the cost of a digression, to say that the Spinozistic viewpoint of the ‘dialectical’ oneness of the ultimate matches perfectly well with the viewpoint of the Nasadiya Sukta of the Rigveda where it was said that the one who was covered by a paltry sheath energized himself and expanded himself. It may be recalled that Sri Aurobindo described the ultimate as ‘Conscious Force’ which clearly shows that he was aware of the extra-consciousness part of reality, which according to him (and according to modern science), is more force-like than matter-like in its depth. Now, while we fully agree about the double aspect of the ultimate one, we do not think that the ultimate in its own being is extended in space. To have extension in space means to be plural and limited. Both are unimaginable about the ultimate in its own self. We would like to think that space itself is a creation. It is a creation immediately prior to or concomitant with the creation of physical objects in space. It may be mentioned that this is precisely what the Rishi of the Prashna Upanishad says in his explanation of the sixteen features of the ultimate…   more »

Greens have brought much laughter to the world, but most of it has been at their expense. The British comedian, Marcus Brigstocke, says he struggles with this problem on a daily basis, more so since he increased his riffs on global warming in his routines following his 2007 Arctic voyage with Cape Farewell, an organisation that brings together artists and scientists to raise awareness of climate change. “It’s far and away the most difficult comedy subject IR 17;ve ever dealt with,” he says. “It’s tested me to the outer reaches of my ability as a writer.” Mr. Brigstocke is one of a small but growing number of comedians trying to wrestle some humour from climate change. Fellow British comic Rob Newman has been a committed environmental and political campaigner for many years. Recently he was at Hebden Bridge, northern England, doing stand-up at the town’s monthly Climate Chaos Kitchen on the subjects of peak oil and climate change…    more »

...the Global Information Technology Report... assesses 127 economies on scores of factors ranging from the cost of mobile phone calls and available Internet bandwidth to the quality of higher education. Not just a catalog of technical specifications, the report weighs these measures to determine which economies are best positioned to compete in the information-intensive 21st century economy.

The conclusion, as in previous studies, finds Nordic countries grabbing five of the top 10 slots, with Denmark and Sweden placing No.1 and No.2 for the second year running. Credit widespread Internet usage, supportive government policies, and good education. The U.S. came in at No.4, up three positions from last year. Although the U.S. gets top marks in innovation and education, it's pulled down by "red tape and rigidities" that stifle its business environment...   more »

New life for an old church in Maastricht: a lesson for all. What other store can boast ceiling paintings dating back so far? The dominant new element in the church is the high-rise bookshelf structure…    more »

The former President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, cited an example from the life of Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman to stress the dedication needed by teachers, especially in research institutions. The name of Raman was included in the first batch of Bharat Ratna winners, the highest civilian award given by the President of India. The then President, Rajendra Prasad, wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go. He had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a PhD student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January…   more »

Among the giants of the imaginative promotion of the ideas of interplanetary travel, the colonising by man of nearby planets and the urgent need for peaceful exploration of outer space, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who has died aged 90, was pre-eminent, because of his hard and accurate predictions of the detailed technologies of space flight and the use of near-Earth space for global communications. Yet, in spite of his deep seriousness, JB Priestley described him in the 1950s as the happiest writer he had ever known. Tallish, bespectacled, rather big-eared and thinning on top, Clarke tended to be described by friends as a beaming and highly articulate shambles of a chap, a man to whom convention meant very little. Yet his mind was like a razor. Unlike earlier writers on space travel, his imagination and creativity sprang, not from fantasy, but from sharp scientific and technical insight, unfettered by the arbitrary limitations of the perceptions of his time. His amazing career was possible largely because he was never, in any ordinary sense, quite a part of this world. Indeed, he chose to live in Sri Lanka, partly because it helped him neutralise the influence of western culture. As he approached 80, it seemed that he had done almost everything that was possible in a lifetime…    more »

The Hindu dated 24 February 2008 carries the following report from New York about the grave threat faced by a large number of languages in the world. Here we may also note a few relevant facts about the International Mother Language Day. Its history is as follows: “On 21 February 1952, corresponding to 8 Falgun 1359 in the Bangla calendar, a number of students campaigning for the recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan were killed when police fired upon them. At a public meeting on 21 March 1948, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Governor general of Pakistan, declared that Urdu will be the only language for both West and East Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), whose main language is Bengali, started to protest against this. A student meeting on 21 February called for a province-wide strike. But the government invoked Section 144 on 20 February. The student community at a meeting on the morning of 21 February agreed to continue with their protest but not to break the law of Section 144. Even then the police opened fire and killed the students.”

The decision to observe 21st February as the International Mother Language Day was unanimously taken at the 30th General Conference of the UNESCO held on 17 November 1999. The details as how this was proposed can be accessed at 21st February as the International Mother Language Day. The second entry given below highlights these. Researchers say that many languages are dying. Randolph E Schmid reports in The Huffington Post, dated 18 September 2007, that languages embody the history and traditions of people. He is concerned that they are dying. I’ve put his report as the third item in the present posting.   more »

The twin village Hanehalli-Bankikodla in North Kanara, Karnatak, South India, together form a community of people coming from different castes and religions. Literature, folk art, spiritual lore, music and sports keep thriving here. Just to the north of this village, the Gangavali River joins the Arabian Sea. The town of Gokarna, just to the south, is known as Kashi of the South and is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus. The surrounding Sahyadri Mountains hug the Arabian sea; the open fields provide lot of recreational opportunities to the locals. It has creeks, and shallow ponds, and bridges vulnerable to rainy season. For religious or spiritual people, there are lots of temples, Churches and Masjids to worship in.

It is a place rich in culture and education. During the British rule in India, the Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins built the Anandrashram High School (1943) for their children, but a majority of them eventually moved out to Mumbai. The younger population is now moving out of village, they preparing for the careers of their choices. As the younger generations are moving out, the older generations, especially the retired communities, have started coming back to the village.

Anandashram High School is one of the oldest schools in Karwar, The Jai Hind High School Ankola and the Gibbs High School, Kumta, are other two schools. It has continued to do great work among weaker sections of the society. To keep the lamp of knowledge burning, the then leaders of Chitrapur Saraswats established the Rural Education Society (RES) and took the task of spreading education to the deserved here and in the surrounding villages. From then on, the School has been making steady progress in its curricular and co-curricular activities; in fact, it has given to society innumerable scholars. …   more »

The 6th grade has arrived safely and well at Yosemite. They have already had dinner - their shift is at 5:05—the weather is gorgeous, J G told me. No one was car sick on the bus trip, everyone is in good spirits and having a great time, so far. I will send you another bulletin tomorrow, but it sounds like everything is going well. Enjoy your week!...   more »

A previously unknown sub-species of bird has been discovered in the southern grasslands of Nepal… But the conservationists are warning that with habitat loss and degradation, the newly-identified variety is highly threatened, with at most 500 birds currently alive. …   more »

On February 12, 2009, most of the world will celebrate the 200th birth anniversary of a great scientist whose theory—based on incredibly laborious empirical observation and once-in-a-millennium insights—forever changed humankind’s perceptions of itself and of the natural world around. Next year will also mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s great work On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. …   more »

Every one of you should have an aim. But do not forget that on the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others. But whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realized unless you have realised perfection in yourself. To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man’s nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs… we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre… As you pursue this labour of purification and unification, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being. When the higher truth manifests, it must find in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity… And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all the movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection…   more »

We understand globalisation essentially in terms of economics, commerce, industry and political dynamics; but there are basic social, religious, philosophical, scientific, cultural or idealistic aspects which often get sidelined in the respective discussions. The question of humanity in its proper sense, of harmonious life of happiness as expressed by mystics, sages, rishis, enlightened thinkers is hardly raised and seen in its deeper or far-reaching implications. Globalisation today is driven by a motive force and does not have its true or authentic content offered to the larger collectivity in the enduring values of the spirit. It is a mechanistic or, to use the modern idiom, a digital phenomenon. The identity of man with things material, the appreciation of the wonder that living reality in its thousand moods is, the recognition of the all-pervasive beauty in nature, or the sweep of cosmic thought, the subtlety of creative perception and expression have to be a part of the global perception. There have to be different families and nations, there have to be different races, different languages, different arts, and even in the same kind of art different expressions, different games, different sports activities, different recreations; yet there can be a kind of genuine underlying globality in all our occupations. This world is not just a shrunken global village; it is one rich Family of God, vasudhaiva kutumbakam, as says the ancient scripture. In it each member of the family has his own unique soul, his own inalienable individuality and it is that which is valued most in the progress of the both. In the all-inclusive collective life is provided the scope for one’s own uninterrupted growth which, in turn, helps to grow itself, symbiotically helping each other. That is what true globalisation should mean. Are we nearer to it? ...   more »

Most of the qualified professionals tend to remain taciturn about Sri Aurobindo’s creations, partly awed by his personality, partly because of their inability to research patiently and perceptively some 3000 pages of his poetic work consisting of two epics, narratives, short poems, long poems, sonnets, experiments in different metres, poetic dramas, translations, and an equally vast body of his criticism in the form of essays and letters. Sri Aurobindo has yet to be studied. In that respect the present work of Dr Pakle can be considered to be a pretty good attempt, though somewhat general in character. Coming as it does from an academician, it has the merit of well-organised presentation rapidly covering a couple of aspects, essentially the aspects of simulacrum. Simulacrum in the broadest sense can be defined as “something that has a vague, tentative, or shadowy resemblance to something else.” It could include a host of features such as image, myth, symbol, simile, metaphor, and these become powerful aids in describing what otherwise escapes all representation. And yet they need not be just algebraic substitutes or notations, even as they do carry a breathing vibrancy which gives to them their true meaning and significance. Dr Pakle’s work is concerned with these features that give to poetry a poetic character…   more »

SAN FRANCISCO — A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country’s commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization’s laptops in favor of Intel PCs. -- Intel and the group had a rocky relationship from the start in their short-lived effort to get inexpensive laptops into the hands of the world’s poorest children.

But the saleswoman’s tactic was the final straw for Nicholas Negroponte, the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer researcher and founder of the nonprofit effort.He demanded that Intel stop what he saw as efforts to undermine the group’s sales, which meant ceasing to sell the rival computer. Intel chose instead to withdraw its support from One Laptop this week.

The project has been a lightning rod for controversy largely because the world’s most powerful software and chip making companies — Microsoft and Intel — had long resisted the project, for fear, according to many industry executives, that it would compete in markets they hoped to develop. ...   more »

Here's an interesting article re the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project. I disagree with the article's conclusion (it omits the vast online support to be provided to olpc students), but I think it deserves further discussion here on SCIY. What do you think?

---

At the Consumer Electronic Show this week, the One Laptop Per Child foundation was supposed to make two announcements—the number of computers it sold under the Give One, Get One holiday program and a new olpc machine made jointly with Intel. But now Intel has pulled out or been pushed out of the project with olpc, depending on who you believe. It’s a mess and a mess of huge dimensions that encompasses a conversation of profit vs. nonprofit, nationalism vs. colonialism, technology vs. pedagogy, rote vs. experiential learning, Western design vs. Eastern design, good intentions vs. bad intentions. It doesn’t get bigger, or nastier. ...   more »