Science, Culture and Integral Yoga

Albert Hofmann, 102; Swiss chemist discovered LSD

ronjon — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:00:00 -0700

Albert Hofmann was a synthetic chemist with Sandoz Laboratories, now Novartis, in Switzerland when in 1943 he stumbled on the hallucinatory effects of LSD. After it became seen by Harvard's Timothy Leary and others in the '60s as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment, and then as a major recreational drug, ...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults Recognition and Management

rakesh — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:04:59 -0700

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered the most common psychiatric disorder experienced during childhood. Some references indicate an incidence as high as 10% of American school-age children. Most references, however, place the incidence in this age group at around 2%–5%. Approximately 80% of children with ADHD continue to have symptoms of the condition as adolescents, and more than 60% of children experience symptoms as adults. If these estimates are correct, between 2 and 5 million adults who had ADHD as a child continue to be affected by the condition. Many adults with ADHD have not been diagnosed as such.

Brain Doping In Academics, No Joking

ronjon — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:00:00 -0700

Nature magazine publishes the results of an online survey of 1400 scientists from 60 countries. -- One in five respondents said they had used drugs for non-medical reasons to stimulate their focus, concentration or memory.

For those who choose to use, methylphenidate (Ritalin) was the most popular: 62% of users reported taking it. 44% reported taking modafinil (Provigil), and 15% said they had taken beta blockers such as propanolol, revealing an overlap between drugs. 80 respondents specified other drugs that they were taking. The most common of these was adderall, an amphetamine similar to methylphenidate. But there were also reports of centrophenoxine, piractem, dexedrine and various alternative medicines such as ginkgo and omega-3 fatty acids. ...

Arlington Institute Report on Global Demographic Shifts

ronjon — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:48:23 -0700

...the emergence of a new demographic trend has largely been ignored. Today, worldwide fertility rates are at an all time low, and in the decades following 2050 the global population is actually expected to stabilize and possibly decrease. The two factors driving this new pattern are the emergence of women’s rights on a global scale and the expectation among parents that all their children will survive to maturity.

Fertility rates, the best indicators of long term population changes, refer to the average number of children a woman will have. In order for a given population to replace itself, its fertility rate must be at 2.1 or higher. Graph 1[2] illustrates the decline of fertility rates that has occurred in the last fifty years, and shows projections for the next fifty years. ...

World food stocks dwindling rapidly, UN warns

ronjon — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 02:00:00 -0800

In an "unforeseen and unprecedented" shift, the world food supply is dwindling rapidly and food prices are soaring to historic levels, the top food and agriculture official of the United Nations warned Monday. -- The changes created "a very serious risk that fewer people will be able to get food," particularly in the developing world, said Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

The agency's food price index rose by more than 40 percent this year, compared with 9 percent the year before - a rate that was already unacceptable, he said. New figures show that the total cost of foodstuffs imported by the neediest countries rose 25 percent, to $107 million, in the last year.

At the same time, reserves of cereals are severely depleted, FAO records show. World wheat stores declined 11 percent this year, to the lowest level since 1980. That corresponds to 12 weeks of the world's total consumption - much less than the average of 18 weeks consumption in storage during the period 2000-2005. There are only 8 weeks of corn left, down from 11 weeks in the earlier period.

Prices of wheat and oilseeds are at record highs, Diouf said Monday. Wheat prices have risen by $130 per ton, or 52 percent, since a year ago. U.S. wheat futures broke $10 a bushel for the first time Monday, the agricultural equivalent of $100 a barrel oil. ...

FDA Confirms Infant-Meds Recall

rakesh — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:09:31 -0800

Months after drugmakers pulled infant cold remedies from most pharmacy shelves, the FDA warns consumers of their life-threatening side effects

"The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus & the World of Renaissance Magic and Science," a review by Erik Davis

ronjon — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:00:00 -0800

...[I recently read] "The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science," by the British science writer Philip Ball. As part of an ongoing but essentially lazy quest to wrap my psyche around alchemy, I had recently been drawn towards Paracelsus: the wonder-working itinerant sixteenth-century healer who is sometimes cast as the Copernicus of medicine. Rejecting the leech-loving, bass-ackwards, and literally by-the-book healing practices of most medieval doctors, Paracelsus instead made room for a medicine based on plants, material causality, and self-healing powers of the body.

Having already brushed up against Paracelsus' own rich but impenetrable prose, I was immensely relieved that Ball had appeared to lead me through the Renaissance thickets by the secondary hand. (I told you I was lazy.) Given the noodle-limp dollar, The Devil's Doctor was about the only thing I purchased in the UK. I read almost the whole thing on the plane ride home, in between marveling at the glittering, melting majesty of Iceland and Greenland as they unrolled below me and marveling at the complete absorption of all but one of my fellow travelers in the movies flickering across their cramped little screens. ...

Hitching a Ride on the Infinite Subway (Dr. Stan Grof's 'holotropic' research)

ronjon — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:35:50 -0800

Here's another excerpt from Michael Talbot's fascinating book The Holographic Universe. I continue to recommend this book.

...Other experiences included the accessing of racial and collective memories. Individuals of Slavic origin experienced what it was like to participate in the conquests of Genghis Khan's Mongolian hordes, to dance in trance with the Kalahari bushmen, to undergo the initiation rites of the Australian aborigines, and to die as sacrificial victims of the Aztecs. And again the descriptions frequently contained obscure historical facts and a degree of knowledge that was often completely at odds with the patient's education, race, and previous exposure to the subject. For instance, one uneducated patient gave a richly detailed account of the techniques involved in the Egyptian practice of embalming and mummification, including the form and meaning of various amulets and sepulchral boxes, a list of the materials used in the fixing of the mummy cloth, the size and shape of the mummy bandages, and other esoteric facets of Egyptian funeral services. Other individuals tuned into the cultures of the Far East and not only gave impressive descriptions of what it was like to have a Japanese, Chinese, or Tibetan psyche, but also related various Taoist or Buddhist teachings.

In fact, there did not seem to be any limit to what Grof's LSD subjects could tap into. They seemed capable of knowing what it was like to be every animal, and even plant, on the tree of evolution. They could experience what it was like to be a blood cell, an atom, a thermonuclear process inside the sun, the consciousness of the entire planet, and even the consciousness of the entire cosmos. More than that, they displayed the ability to transcend space and time, and occasionally they related uncannily accurate precognitive information. In an even stranger vein they sometimes encountered nonhuman intelligences during their cerebral travels, discarnate beings, spirit guides from "higher planes of consciousness," and other suprahuman entities...

Perhaps Grof's most remarkable discovery is that the same phenomena reported by individuals who have taken LSD can also be experienced without resorting to drugs of any kind...The Grofs call their technique holotropic therapy and use only rapid and controlled breathing, evocative music, and massage and body work, to induce altered states of consciousness. To date, thousands of individuals have attended their workshops and report experiences that are every bit as spectacular and emotionally profound as those described by subjects of Grof's previous work on LSD...

Cancer will claim 7.6 million lives worldwide this year

ronjon — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:53:49 -0800

Cancer will claim 7.6 million lives worldwide this year, and more than 12 million people will receive cancer diagnoses, according to Global Cancer Facts and Figures 2007, the newest edition to the American Cancer Society's family of Facts and Figures reports. ...

Global Cancer Facts and Figures 2007 also includes data on growing tobacco use in developing countries, warning that if current patterns continue, the number of smokers worldwide will reach 2 billion by 2030. In 2000, an estimated 5 million people died from diseases related to smoking, and of these, about 1.42 million were from cancer. Approximately 84% of the nearly 1.3 billion smokers worldwide live in developing countries, says the World Health Organization. ...

A Dangerous Mix

rakesh — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:24:12 -0800

You're taking a couple of prescription medications and you develop a cold -- so you head to the nearest pharmacy to get something for your headache, cough and stuffy nose.

Not so fast, experts advise. Mixing medications can be dangerous-- even deadly, a fact highlighted by the death in November of popular R&B singer Gerald Levert. An autopsy determined that Levert, 40 -- who reportedly had been suffering from a shoulder problem, pneumonia and the effects of surgery in 2005 to repair a severed Achilles tendon -- died of accidental acute intoxication caused by a mixture of the pain medications Darvocet, Percocet and Vicodin, the anxiety medicine Xanax and two over-the-counter antihistamines.

A report this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that deaths from accidental drug interactions rose 68 percent between 1999 and 2004, continuing a steady climb since the early 1990s. Unintentional drug poisonings accounted for nearly 20,000 deaths in 2004, said the CDC, making the problem now the second-leading cause of accidental death in the United States, after automobile accidents. "Prescription drugs, especially prescription painkillers, are driving the prolonged increase," the report stated. ...

What I'm optimistic about (and not), by Ray Kurzweil

ronjon — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:34:01 -0800

Optimism exists on a continuum in between confidence and hope. Let me take these in order.

I am confident that the acceleration and expanding purview of information technology will solve within twenty years the problems that now preoccupy us. -- Consider energy. We are awash in energy (10,000 times more than required to meet all our needs falls on Earth) but we are not very good at capturing it. That will change with the full nanotechnology-based assembly of macro objects at the nano scale, controlled by massively parallel information processes, which will be feasible within twenty years. Even though our energy needs are projected to triple within that time, we'll capture that .0003 of the sunlight needed to meet our energy needs with no use of fossil fuels, using extremely inexpensive, highly efficient, lightweight, nano-engineered solar panels, and we'll store the energy in highly distributed (and therefore safe) nanotechnology-based fuel cells. Solar power is now providing 1 part in 1,000 of our needs, but that percentage is doubling every two years, which means multiplying by 1,000 in twenty years.

Almost all the discussions I've seen about energy and its consequences (such as global warming) fail to consider the ability of future nanotechnology-based solutions to solve this problem. This development will be motivated not just by concern for the environment but also by the $2 trillion we spend annually on energy. This is already a major area of venture funding.

Consider health. As of just recently, we have the tools to reprogram biology. This is also at an early stage but is progressing through the same exponential growth of information technology, which we see in every aspect of biological progress. The amount of genetic data we have sequenced has doubled every year, and the price per base pair has come down commensurately. The first genome cost a billion dollars. The National Institutes of Health is now starting a project to collect a million genomes at $1,000 apiece. We can turn genes off with RNA interference, add new genes (to adults) with new reliable forms of gene therapy, and turn on and off proteins and enzymes at critical stages of disease progression. We are gaining the means to model, simulate, and reprogram disease and aging processes as information processes. In ten years, these technologies will be 1,000 times more powerful than they are today, and it will be a very different world, in terms of our ability to turn off disease and aging. ...

Pollution pouring into nation's waters far beyond legal limits

ronjon — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:48:50 -0700

More than half of all industrial and municipal facilities across the country dumped more sewage and other pollutants into the nation's waterways than allowed under the Clean Water Act, according to a report released Thursday by an environmental group.

California was among the 10 states with the highest percentage of facilities leaking more pollutants into waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency obtained by the environmental group, U.S. PIRG. -- California also had the dubious distinction of having the most large-scale violations - or "exceedances" - of Clean Water Act permits of any state. The large-scale violations are those that exceed the permitted level by at least 500 percent.

Environmentalists said the figures show that industrial plants and municipal wastewater facilities continue to flout the law because of insufficient policing by federal regulators. -- "The bottom line is the Bush administration isn't doing enough enforcement of the Clean Water Act," said Christy Leavitt, clean water advocate for U.S. PIRG, a federation of state Public Interest Research Groups. ...

Al Gore, UN Climate Panel Share 2007 Nobel Peace Prize

ronjon — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:18:49 -0700

Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to publicize and understand human-caused global warming. -- The Norwegian Nobel Committee this morning announced that the former U.S. vice president and the United Nations' climate panel will equally share the prestigious award for "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Gore and the IPCC were chosen from a list of 181 candidates to split the prize, worth 10 million Swedish kronors (about 1.5 million U.S. dollars). -- The award committee, based in Oslo, Norway, said their decision was intended to bring into sharper focus the actions "necessary to protect the world's future climate and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind.

"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the committee added. ...

Bio-dynamised water from Auroville to hit Indian market

ronjon — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:17:50 -0700

Bio-dynamised water, believed to cure various ailments including diabetes and heart problems, is set to hit Indian markets with a research centre at Auroville township near here commercially launching the equipment to produce it.

Aqua Dyn, the centre that has developed commercially viable equipment to carry out the "bio-dynamising" technique developed in France in the early 20th century, has been selling the processed water within the township for the past five years...

"Bio-dynamised water helps remove toxins from the body and has proven properties to heal diseases, including arthritis, diabetes, skin cancer and heart ailments," he said. ...

Is Your Printer Polluting the Air You Breathe?

ronjon — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:51:00 -0700

Be advised: researchers from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, have discovered that certain laser printers emit high concentrations of tiny particles into the air. "People could be exposed to dangerous levels of ultrafine particles emitted by printers if they are in an environment that is poorly ventilated and the printer operation is frequent or continuous," says Lidia Morawska, a physicist and co-author of the study, which appears in this month's online issue of the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science & Technology. ...

Echinacea Helps You Avoid And Recover From Colds Say Scientists

ronjon — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:00:43 -0700

US researchers who reviewed over a dozen studies on the effect of echinacea have concluded that the popular herbal remedy reduces a person's chance of catching a cold by 58 per cent. And they found that it also cuts the duration of a cold by an average of 1.4 days. ...

Using a method that calculates the Odds Ratio of incidence of the common cold in the pooled participants, the researchers found that echinacea decreased the odds by 58 per cent (the statistically significant odds ratio was 0.42 with a 95 per cent confidence interval ranging from 0.25 to 0.71). -- They also found by using a random effects statistical model that the effect of echinacea was to reduce the duration of a cold by 1.4 days (the statistically significant weighted mean difference was -1.44 with a 95 per cent confidence interval ranging from -2.24 to -0.64).

Only one of the studies they reviewed looked at a echinacea in combination with vitamin C. This reported a reduction in cold incidence of 86 per cent for the combined dose. Because there was only one study in this category the authors felt they were not able to say with confidence whether the two supplements were better than echinacea alone at fighting off colds. ...

Cancer Risks from Mobile Phone Microwaves Confirmed

ronjon — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:36:40 -0700

...Evidence linking weak electromagnetic radiation (EMR) to leukaemia and other cancers has been fast accumulating in recent years... Such ‘non-thermal' effects of EMR – due to levels well below that sufficient to bring about any heating - have been observed even before World War II...

During the cold war period, a four-fold excess of cancer cases was diagnosed among the staff of the American Embassy in Moscow that had been secretly irradiated with microwaves at well below the threshold set in current guidelines. The US State Department study on this episode was described in a paper published in 1997. This was among the earliest evidence for non-thermal effects of microwaves, and many studies are now confirming the high cancer risks of people exposed to microwaves from mobile phone base stations and transmitters around the world. Microwaves are no different from EMRs in the lower frequency range in that respect; except that microwaves may be even more potent in promoting cancer and other illnesses ...

China suspends new maglev train project due to EM radiation health concerns

ronjon — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:37:01 -0700

BEIJING (AFX) - China has suspended the planned construction of a high-speed magnetic levitation train linking the eastern cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou due to health concerns, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

Citing unnamed Shanghai officials, Xinhua said the project has been suspended following petitions from residents living along the proposed route worried about possible health problems from the maglev's high powered magnets.

A question of whether the project can eventually recover the more than 40 bln yuan invested in it also casts a shadow over its feasibility, Xinhua said. -- It's now 'hard to say' if the train will be built at all, Xinhua quoted Wang Qingyun, the official in charge of transportation at the National Development and Reform Commission, as saying. ...

Is China Slowly Poisoning the World?

ronjon — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 15:35:09 -0700

...So then what exactly is causing the recent spate of pet illnesses and deaths? As a scientist I must initially conclude that there is not enough data to come to a firm conclusion. However, that does not mean that we cannot make well educated assumptions. Because melamine is not particularly toxic and is not known to cause kidney failure, it is logical to assume that there are other contaminants in pet food in addition to the melamine.

Obviously, Chinese farmers, chemical producers, and food additive distributors have no compunction against putting harmful or even toxic compounds into products that are to be consumed by either animals or humans. China has a history recently of putting business interests far ahead of human interests. Manufacturers in China have few restrictions on how they operate and whether or not they are permitted to pollute the air and water. Cancer rates have soared in many parts of China that have become industrialized. It has been noted by Western journalists that the smog is so thick in some Chinese cities in that you can stare at the sun without worry because it looks like a dim orange ball in the sky.

Another assumption that we can make based on what is known about toxicology is that it is not uncommon for two mildly toxic compounds to have a cumulative effect that is far more toxic than either compound alone. As such, it seems quite likely that other chemical contaminants originating in China, which have not yet been identified, are also present in Chinese food products. Melamine would almost certainly put a strain on the kidneys because it contains a great deal of nitrogen, and one of the major functions of the kidneys is to clear excess nitrogen from the body in the form of urea (present at high levels in the urine). If Chinese farmers and food product distributors have been putting other toxic compounds into their products for similar, nefarious reasons as they have been using melamine, then it seems quite possible that two or more mildly toxic compounds are having a synergistic effect in causing kidney damage, and eventually failure. ...

Cheap, 'safe' drug kills most cancers

ronjon — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:11:54 -0700

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their "immortality". The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.

It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks. ...

ISEC: The International society for Ecology & Culture

ronjon — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:47:52 -0700

I got to know the remarkable Helena Norberg-Hodge, the Founder of ISEC, back in the 70's, when she was setting up the Ladakh Project, for which she shared the 1986 Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize.' –- Her selfless, Buddhist commitment to protecting the indigenous peoples of the Tibetan high plateau from Western commercial development deeply impressed me. I'll always remember her inspiring photos of the unique and glowing faces of the Ladakh people who hadn't yet been exposed to Western culture. Knowing Helena, I can unreservedly attest to the quality and integrity of ISEC. ... ~ ron

Forty Initiatives that are changing our world (Resurgence Mag.)

ronjon — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:12:56 -0700

This informative list of annotated links compiled by Resurgence Magazine includes interesting initiatives in the areas of Activism, Agricultural Development, Ecology, Economics, Education & Community, the Internet, Political & Corporate, Publishing, and Scientific Principles. The few I’ve had a chance to check out so far look like they’re indeed doing important work; e.g., ISEC (the International society for Ecology & Culture), which I’ll post more info about in my next article. — Recommended.

Dream Farm 2 - Story So Far: Its conceptual underpinnings and update with a potential site in mind

ronjon — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:47:40 -0700

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho: "Many people have asked what exactly is Dream Farm 2. There are several answers. First of all, Dream Farm 2 is a model of an integrated, ‘zero-emission’, ‘zero-waste’ highly productive farm that maximises the use of renewable energies and turns ‘wastes’ into food and energy resources, thereby completely obviating the need for fossil fuels. It is our answer to the energy crisis and climate change, and more. It is a microcosm of a different way of being and becoming in the world, and in that respect, nothing short of a social revolution.

In a way, I have dedicated the past 20 years to developing the idea, and trying to live up to it. -- The challenge now is to make Dream Farm 2 a reality, to put flesh on the bare bones of the diagram, so we can start building the best when the site is agreed. Watch this space. ..."

Quantum Jazz: “The meaning of life, the universe and everything,” by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

ronjon — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:24:45 -0700

Quantum jazz is the music of the organism dancing life into being, from the top of her head to her toes and fingertips, every single cell, molecule and atom taking part in a remarkable ensemble that spins and sways to rhythms from pico (10-12) seconds to minutes, hours, a day, a month, a year and longer, emitting light and sound waves from atomic dimensions of nanometres up to metres, spanning a musical range of 70 octaves (for that is the range of living activities). And each and every player, the tinniest molecule not withstanding, is improvising spontaneously and freely, yet keeping in tune and in step with the whole.

There is no conductor, no choreographer, the organism is creating and recreating herself afresh with each passing moment. Quantum coherent action is effortless action, effortless creation, the Taoist ideal of art and poetry, of life itself...

It’s about the physics of organisms in place of the physics of dead matter in mainstream biology and the world at large. It is why we are stuck in debates about the hazards of mobile phones and genetic engineering, or the benefits of complimentary medicine. There is nothing in mainstream biology that deals with wholeness or coherence, nothing that tells you how, because the whole body is interconnected, even very weak electromagnetic fields could be harmful or, if appropriately applied, beneficial. And because we fail to see nature as an interconnected whole, life appears entirely as a struggle for survival of the fittest, one against all and all against nature. We wage wars and exploit our planet to death. ...

'The Real Bioinformatics Revolution,' by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

ronjon — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:09:30 -0700

The idea of molecules communicating and exchanging energy by electromagnetic resonance fits in with accumulating evidence that cells and organisms are liquid crystalline, that all the molecules, including especially the 70 percent or water, are aligned and working coherently together [9, 12]. There is little or no free diffusion in such a system, as Fröhlich [14, 15] had pointed out earlier, and before that, cell physiologist Gilbert Ling [24, 25] ( Strong Medicine for Cell Biology , SiS 24) and biochemist/historian of Chinese science, Joseph Needham [26]. Instead, energy transfer - by molecular resonance or coherent excitations – probably has to occur through large distances, activating entire populations of similar molecules that are in different parts of the cell or different parts of the body, so long-range coordinating of function can happen instantaneously...

What is clearly emerging is the predominant electronic nature of the living matrix and living activities, which will require a complete rewrite of biochemistry and cell biology, if not also physiology and medicine. ...

Everything You Know About AIDS is Wrong

ronjon — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 14:36:22 -0800

...Oster argues that health is an investment. If you’re expecting to live a good, long time, you might be more inclined to make health investments than if you expect to die soon. If your life expectancy is only 40-50 years due to environmental factors, you might be more willing to take this 3% risk than a gay man in America who otherwise expects to live almost 80 years.

To test this effect, Oster looked at sexual behavior rates in countries that had high, low and medium levels of malaria. In countries with low malaria, there’s a very strong correlation between prevalence of AIDS and change in behavior - in countries with high malaria, there’s no correlation, or in fact, an opposite effect. There’s a similar correlation with maternal health and child mortality. This suggests that if you want to combat AIDS, you also need to deal with malaria, internal air quality and maternal health. ...

Biovillage approach represents the greening of development

ronjon — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:14:15 -0800

Selvi Alagappan rises early each day to tend to her small patch of crossandra and jasmine flowers in the rural Indian village of Mangalam, in the Union of Pondicherry. These and the mushrooms she cultivates in a nearby shack bring in a monthly income that, while still below the poverty line, keeps her large family from going hungry. — Two years ago, however, starvation was very much a reality for Selvi and her family. But like many other participants of the Biovillage Project, a collaborative development programme described by its authors as "pro-nature, pro-women, pro-poor", Selvi was given the tools and technical assistance to increase her household income and get her back on her feet again.

The project is run by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, a local non-governmental organization in Chennai, with funding and technical assistance from the Government of India and international agencies including FAO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The project began in 1992 with 42 participants in three villages. It now operates in 19 villages with a team of 24 project specialists. ...

Chennai Declaration: UN urged to help achieve hunger-free world

ronjon — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:05:11 -0800

The United Nations (UN) has been recommended to set up a Statutory Body comprising G8 and G20 nations to provide political oversight to the global and national efforts to achieve the goal of a hunger-free world by 2015. — The recommendation was made in the Chennai Declaration that was adopted yesterday on the concluding day of the three-day international workshop on "Food Security: A Great Threat to Human Security" held at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSRRF) in Chennai in India.

"The goal should be eradication of hunger by 2015, and not halving the proportion or the number of the hungry in relation to any chosen base year," the declaration recommended. — It said all the member states of the UN should make the right to a balance diet, clean drinking water, environmental sanitation, primary health care and primary education a basic human right...

The programme will be completed today (Thursday) through visiting Biovillage and Auroville, a MSSRF project in Pondicherry. ...

Environmental governance (The Hindu)

ronjon — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:54:06 -0800

Another interesting article from 'The Hindu,' courtesy of RY Deshpande.

Robert Angus Smith, a Scottish chemist coined the term "acid rain" as far back as 1870 to describe the quality of the rain which was affected by sulphur dioxide (SO2) released from coal burnt in factories. Yet it has taken more than a century for countries to grapple with the effects of gaseous emissions. After years of denial by the Thatcher Government in the U.K. and the Reagan administration in the U.S., both these countries as well as most countries of Europe (including the East Block) and Canada made a concerted effort by 1993 to roll back SO2 emissions by as much as 30 per cent compared to the 1980 baseline. Their record on oxides of nitrogen (NOx) is not so dramatic, since vehicles, which are a major source of NOx, are constantly increasing. Western Europe and U.S. have stabilised NOx emissions, while Russia and Eastern Europe have been less successful. ...

'Waterworld China' wins top prize in international design competition

ronjon — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:27:26 -0800

Atkin's Architecture Group recently won the first prize award for an international design competition with this stunning entry. Set in a spectacular water filled quarry in Songjiang, China, the 400 bed resort hotel is uniquely constructed within the natural elements of the quarry. Underwater public areas and guest rooms add to the uniqueness, but the resort also boasts cafes, restaurants and sporting facilities.

The lowest level runs with the aquatic theme by housing a luxurious swimming pool and an extreme sports center for activities such as rock climbing and bungee jumping which will be cantilevered over the quarry and accessed by special lifts from the water. With a stunning visual presentation as shown here, it's no wonder this project took home the first prize. This is a fine example of an ultra modern facility co-existing amongst its natural environment. ...

Adaptive Environments: What is Universal Design?

ronjon — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:01:54 -0800

Universal Design is a framework for the design of places, things, information, communication and policy to be usable by the widest range of people operating in the widest range of situations without special or separate design. Most simply, Universal Design is human-centered design of everything with everyone in mind.

Universal Design is also called Inclusive Design, Design-for-All and Lifespan Design. It is not a design style but an orientation to any design process that starts with a responsibility to the experience of the user. It has a parallel in the green design movement that also offers a framework for design problem solving based on the core value of environmental responsibility. Universal Design and green design are comfortably two sides of the same coin but at different evolutionary stages. Green design focuses on environmental sustainability, Universal Design on social sustainability. ...

The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation (IONS)

ronjon — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:28:03 -0800

...Dhyana is the generic Sanskrit term for meditation, which in the Yoga Sutras refers to both the act of inward contemplation in the broadest sense and more technically to the intermediate state between mere attention to an object (dharana) and complete absorption in it (samadhi). The earliest known reference to such practice on the Indian subcontinent occurs on one of the seals, a figure seated in the lotus posture, found in the ruins of the pre-Aryan civilizations at Harappa and Mohenjodaro which existed prior to 1500 BCE. Most of the orthodox Hindu schools of philosophy derive their meditation techniques from yoga, but superimpose their own theoretical understanding of consciousness onto the results of the practice...

Meditation is also referred to as a spiritual practice in China. Chinese forms of meditation have their origins in the early roots of popular Taoism which existed long before the codification of Taoism as a formal philosophy during the seventh century, B.C.. However, there is no concrete evidence to prove that meditation first arose in Hindu culture and then spread elsewhere. Thus, for the time being the original meditative traditions in China and India should be considered as separate and indigenous. To further complicate the issue, analogies between meditative states and trance consciousness suggest that even earlier precursors to the Asian meditative arts can be found in shamanic cultures such as those in Siberia and Africa.

As for modern developments, in trying to formulate a definition of meditation, a useful rule of thumb is to consider all meditative techniques to be culturally embedded. This means that any specific technique cannot be understood unless it is considered in the context of some particular spiritual tradition, situated in a specific historical time period, or codified in a specific text according to the philosophy of some particular individual. Thus, to refer to Hindu meditation or Buddhist meditation is not enough, since the cultural traditions from which a particular kind of meditation comes are quite different and even within a single tradition differ in complex ways. The specific name of a school of thought or a teacher or the title of a specific text is often quite important for identifying a particular type of meditation...
The attempt to abstract out the primary characteristics of meditation from a grab bag of traditions in order to come to some purified essence or generic definition is a uniquely Western and relatively recent phenomenon. This tendency should be considered, however powerful and convincing its claim as an objective, universal, and value-free method, to be an artifact of one culture attempting to comprehend another that is completely different. ...

Esalen Center for Theory & Research

ronjon — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 14:48:47 -0800

The Esalen Center for Theory & Research supports essential philosophic, academic, and research aims of the Esalen Institute. It evaluates frontier inquiry, creates networks of pioneering individuals, and works to catalyze new discoveries that promote personal and social transformation. It carries forward projects at the growing edge of philosophy, psychology, comparative religious studies, education, sociology, somatics, the arts, ecology, and related disciplines that bear upon transformative practice and the continued evolution of humankind. Among these projects are an archive of extraordinary human functioning and a bibliography of scientific research on meditation. ...

"One Cosmos," Robert Godwin's Blog

ronjon — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 15:26:21 -0800

This is the personal blog of Robert Godwin, the author of "One Cosmos under God," which he discussed in the WIE interview in my previous SCIY posting. Godwin describes his book as: "the fruit of a lifetime of thought attempting to synthesize material from a number of diverse domains, including cosmology, theoretical biology, quantum physics, developmental psychoanalysis, attachment theory, anthropology, history, mysticism and theology, into a coherent, self-consistent, non-reductionistic whole." — In "One Cosmos," Dr. Godwin reveals a humorous alter-ego whom he calls: 'Gagdad Bob.' His posting for today begins as follows:

Now, I'm not an anthropopogist. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn, and I do know a thing or two about a thing or three. And one of the things I know is that pre-human hominids only became human because of the specifically trinitarian nature of the human developmental situation: mother-father-helpless baby. This, by the way, is one of the many reasons I do not believe intellignt life will ever be found on other planets, because genes and natural selection are only the necessary but not sufficient cause of our humanness.
In other words, even supposing that life arose elsewhere and began evolving large brains, a large brain would never be sufficient to allow for humanness. Rather, the key to the entire enterprise -- the missing link, so to speak -- is the extremely unlikely invention of the helpless and neurologically incomplete infant who must be born approximately 12 months "premature" so that his brain can be assembled at the same time it is being mothered. If we had come out of the womb neurologically complete, then there would be no "space" for humanness to emerge or take root. We would be Neanderthals. Literally. ...

Gene Tied To Longevity Also Preserves Ability To Think Clearly

ronjon — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 16:31:47 -0800

A gene variant linked to living a very long life--to 90 and beyond--also serves to help very old people think clearly and retain their memories, according to new research by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Their findings are published in the December 26, 2006 issue of Neurology. ...

"Together They Run:" An Inspiring Christmas Story

ronjon — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:00:00 -0800

Kim sent me the link for this story a couple of days ago. At first I was a bit skeptical; it seemed almost too much to really be true. I checked it out, and it's in fact a true story, with its own website, lots of independent news stories, YouTube videos, and a segment next week (Dec. 26) on the NBC Today Show. It's a wonderful testimony to the human spirit, and a real life love story. So I thought to share it with you all during this Holiday season.

*** MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL! ***

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.
At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.
"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now." ...

Brian's Story

ronjon — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:58:55 -0800

I'm posting below an item recently placed by my brother Brian into his blog on MySpace.com. It's about the impact the Internet has had on his life.

Brian was born, when I was 7 years old, with severe asthma, excema, and many allergies to both foods and inhalants. I'll always remember going to visit him on the second floor of our parents' home, in his special bedroom outfitted with air conditioning and electrostatic dust filters. The room felt cold and had a strange ozone smell from the dust filter, which would crackle and pop as it zapped dust particles. -- Brian was a tiny child and had to sleep in a special jacket; its sleeves were tied to his crib and it had stiff balsa wood inserts to keep him from scratching and infecting his allergic skin rashes. I could only imagine what it must have been like for him not being able to scratch what the doctors described as some of the most intense itches humans can feel. -- His doctors predicted for many years that Brian would never live out the next year. But Mom and Dad never gave up on him, sacrificing much to pay for his medical expenses and frequent emergency trips to specialists at the Children's Hospital 25 miles away in Boston. -- And Brian never gave up either. ...

Are millions of our children being damaged by industrial pollution?

ronjon — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 22:59:57 -0800

Millions of children may have suffered brain damage as a result of industrial pollution, scientists will say today. -- American and Danish researchers describe a "silent pandemic" of disorders including autism, attention deficit syndrome, mental retardation and cerebral palsy caused by chemical pollution. ...

Belly Fat Of US Children Grew By Over 65% Since 1999

ronjon — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 13:05:25 -0800

The tummies of US teens and children have 65% more fat than in 1999, say researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. ... Belly fat is more dangerous for health than overall weight gain, there is a much closer link between visceral fat - the fat around your internal organs - and serious diseases. ...

Vaccine-Resistant Bird Flu Spreading in Asia

ronjon — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 14:42:14 -0800

A new strain of vaccine-resistant H5N1 bird flu virus has emerged in China and is spreading through southeast Asia, Hong Kong researchers report. -- "The implications are that current control measures are ineffective with dealing with the evolutionary changes that H5N1 undergoes," warned Dr. Yi Guan, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Diseases at the University of Hong Kong and lead author of a report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. -- The new strain has become dominant throughout the region, replacing other variants of the virus, the report said. ...

America's Internet Addiction?

ronjon — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:13:15 -0700

Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have taken a step toward resolving the debate over whether compulsive use of the Internet merits a medical diagnosis, but opens many questions along the way. In a telephone-based study, the researchers found that more than one out of eight Americans exhibited at least one possible sign of problematic Internet use. ...

Apple, Motorola to Help Fight AIDS with "RED" iPods & Cellphones

ronjon — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:33:46 -0700

In an initiative to contribute significantly to the AIDS affected, two global brands - Apple Computer and Motorola, have come up with products in collaboration with RED, an organization founded by U2 lead singer, Bono, and Bobby Shriver to fight against AIDS in Africa. ...

Stanford prof's Nobel-winning work opens up gene research

ronjon — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:11:47 -0700

When Andrew Z. Fire applied to Stanford University as a Sunnyvale teenager, he was turned down. Decades later, his biological research became so compelling that Fire was recruited to the Stanford faculty, and on Monday he shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. -- Fire, 47, a professor of pathology and genetics, and Craig Mello, 45, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, discovered the mechanism that lets the body turn off genes within a cell. -- While it has not yet led to medical treatments, it has opened up a promising area of research that could allow scientists to silence genes that cause afflictions from HIV to cancer, bridging the gulf between the Human Genome Project and the death bed. The two scientists' 1998 discovery quickly turned into a lab tool embraced by thousands of researchers around the world. ...

Delhi may declare dengue as epidemic

ronjon — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 12:01:53 -0700

NEW DELHI: With scores of dengue cases being reported in the national capital and Uttar Pradesh, authorities have stepped up efforts to contain the outbreak that has claimed at least 13 lives. Eleven people, including a student of the prestigious AIIMS, have died of dengue in Delhi while two deaths were reported from Uttar Pradesh. ...

Doctors fly high for first ever operation in zero gravity

ronjon — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:55:58 -0700

BORDEAUX, France - French doctors on Wednesday were carrying out the world’s first ever operation on a human in zero-gravity, using a specially-adapted aircraft to simulate conditions in space.

The team of surgeons and anaesthetists took off from Bordeaux airport in southwest France for a three-hour journey to remove a benign tumour from the fore-arm of a volunteer. ...

Seva Foundation: Alleviating suffering caused by disease and poverty.

ronjon — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:42:56 -0700

Seva Foundation is dedicated to finding skillful means to relieve suffering. We call this compassion in action. Our work isn't based upon an ideology or religious affiliation, but we do have guiding principles:

* We affirm both the rational and the intuitive in all our work. We respect the spiritual and cultural roots of individuals and communities in helping them to create sustainable solutions.
* We seek long-term solutions that will support economic independence while remaining committed to methods that are environmentally sound.
* We promote solutions to problems that come from within individuals and communities. This principle is inherent in Seva's concept of self-reliance.
* We listen attentively to the people with whom we work and to each other. This kind of listening deepens intercultural understanding, allows lasting relationships to develop, and brings "wholeness" to our work.
* We are flexible in responding to the changing needs and conditions of the people and programs we help. We follow their lead in establishing goals and setting schedules. ...

Institute of HeartMath - decoding the intelligence of the heart

ronjon — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:44:47 -0700

For centuries, the heart has been considered the source of emotion, courage and wisdom. At the Institute of HeartMath (IHM) Research Center, we are exploring the physiological mechanisms by which the heart communicates with the brain, thereby influencing information processing, perceptions, emotions and health. We are asking questions such as: Why do people experience the feeling or sensation of love and other positive emotional states in the area of the heart and what are the physiological ramifications of these emotions? How do stress and different emotional states affect the autonomic nervous system, the hormonal and immune systems, the heart and brain? Over the years we have experimented with different psychological and physiological measures, but it was consistently heart rate variability, or heart rhythms, that stood out as the most dynamic and reflective of inner emotional states and stress. It became clear that negative emotions lead to increased disorder in the heart's rhythms and in the autonomic nervous system, thereby adversely affecting the rest of the body. In contrast, positive emotions create increased harmony and coherence in heart rhythms and improve balance in the nervous system. The health implications are easy to understand: Disharmony in the nervous system leads to inefficiency and increased stress on the heart and other organs while harmonious rhythms are more efficient and less stressful to the body's systems...

Our research and that of others indicate that the heart is far more than a simple pump. The heart is, in fact, a highly complex, self-organized information processing center with its own functional "brain" that communicates with and influences the cranial brain via the nervous system, hormonal system and other pathways. These influences profoundly affect brain function and most of the body's major organs, and ultimately determine the quality of life. ...