...as Fred Turner points out in his revealing new book, “From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism” (University of Chicago Press), there is no way to separate cyberculture from counterculture; indeed, cyberculture grew from its predecessor’s compost. Mr. Turner suggests that Stewart Brand, who created the “Whole Earth Catalog,” was the major node in a network of countercultural speculators, promoters, inventors and entrepreneurs who helped change the world in ways quite different from those they originally envisioned. -- Mr. Turner, who teaches in the communication department at Stanford University, is rigorous in his argument... and impressive in his range. The basic premise, though, is not unfamiliar. A decade ago the cultural critic Mark Dery suggested in his book “Escape Velocity” that the PC revolution could well be called “Counterculture 2.0.” Other writers have also pointed out uncanny overlaps. ...   more »

This is a fun site, for when you want to take a quick break from staring at your computer screen. -- Beware: Zen stories can blow your mind ...   more »

You have entered an Alchemical Garden at the Edge of Time.
There is haze upon the distant hills, spreading Acacias bend low over reflecting pools.
The air is filled with an all pervasive hum; these are the reveries of the Proustian bees.
Your guide will be gardener/curator Terence McKenna ...   more »

The work of M.C. Escher needs no introduction. We have all learned to appreciate the impossibilities that this master of illusion's artwork presents to the layman's eye. Nevertheless, it may come as a surprise for some, but many of the so-called 'impossible' drawings of M. C. Escher can be realized as actual physical objects. These objects will resemble the Escher's drawing, of the same name, from a certain viewing direction. This work below presents some of these three-dimensional models that were designed and built using geometric modeling and computer graphics tools. ...   more »

IN 1999, legendary theoretical physicist Hans Bethe delivered three lectures on quantum theory to his neighbors at the Kendal of Ithaca retirement community (near Cornell University). Given by Professor Bethe at age 93, the lectures are presented here as QuickTime videos synchronized with slides of his talking points and archival material. -- Intended for an audience of Professor Bethe's neighbors at Kendal, the lectures hold appeal for experts and non-experts alike. The presentation makes use of limited mathematics while focusing on the personal and historical perspectives of one of the principal architects of quantum theory whose career in physics spans 75 years. ...   more »

Cosmology is the science of the universe. It deals with questions of extreme proportions in a scientific manner. At this site, you can see results from cutting edge computer experiments designed to explore the detailed formation of the large-scale space-time fabric in which we live. -- No single computation can cover the entire range of scales over which structure exists in our real universe, but we can create a "virtual universe" which replicates the properties of the real one over a finite range of space and time. The Hubble Volume simulations attempt to capture the formation of the largest cosmic structures we can ever hope to see. They are novel in at least two respects: ...   more »

The Virgo Consortium for Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations was founded in 1994 in response to the UK's High Performance Computing Initiative. Virgo developed rapidly into the international collaboration that it is today. The Virgo Consortium has a core membership of about a dozen scientists in the UK, Germany, Canada the USA and Japan. -- The science goals of Virgo are to carry out state-of-the-art cosmological simulations. The research areas include the large-scale distribution of dark matter, the formation of dark matter haloes, the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters, the physics of the intergalactic medium and the properties of the intracluster gas. ...   more »

One is only micrometers wide. The other is billions of light-years across. One shows neurons in a mouse brain (quite similar to human neurons). The other is a simulated supercomputer image of the universe as a whole. Together they suggest the surprisingly similar patters found in vastly different natural phenomena. ...   more »

We focus on understanding the root causes of unsustainable behavior in complex systems to help restructure systems and shift mindsets that will help move human society toward sustainability. Our staff includes biologists, writers, social scientists, system dynamics modelers, and facilitators bringing a wide variety of experiences and skills to our work. ...   more »

If the world's population were
reduced to a tiny village of 100 people,
it would look like this ...   more »

Here's an interesting blog covering China's exploding economy, with an emphasis on investment opportunities and risks:

"China is a land of seemingly boundess opportunities but also considerable challenges, particularly for western businesses engaging with this giant market for the first time. EngagingChina aims to help you reap the rewards offered by China's fast-growing economy and avoid the pitfalls. -- We do not pretend to offer an insider's guide to doing business in Shanghai. Nor can we tell you where to find an internet cafe or fast food joint in Jinan. There are plenty of sites out there that do that. But in their enthusiasm to describe this fascinating country, you risk not seeing the wood for the trees.

Our focus at EngagingChina is strategy, pure and simple. If you want to know where the high-growth opportunities lie in China's new economy, or if you need to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, then EngagingChina is for you ...   more »

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against anonymous "John Does 1-10" whom they allege have broken Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM [Digital Rights Management] with stolen source code. The only currently-known "John Doe" in the case is a hacker who goes by the handle "Viodentia" and is the author of FairUse4WM. The software strips songs purchased from Microsoft partners, such as Yahoo! Music and Napster, of their Windows Media DRM, allowing users to continue listening to songs after canceling their subscriptions to said services and to use the songs on other platforms—things that would not normally be allowed with the DRM in place. ...    more »

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. ...   more »

The first major scientific analysis of the “Mona Lisa” in 50 years has uncovered some unexpected secrets, including signs that Leonardo da Vinci changed his mind about his composition, French and Canadian researchers said Tuesday.

An Infared photograph suggests that Leonardo originally painted the Mona Lisa with a gauzy overdress for nursing (visible, at right), and a tiny bonnet (vague outline visible about the sitter's head). ...   more »

The practice of loving-kindness is a specific meditation practice that can be used both to develop concentration and to develop the quality of kindness. The following instructions are taken from "A Path With Heart" by Jack Kornfield, (Bantham Books 1993) but it is also possible to recite to oneself the Buddha's discourse on kindness. ...   more »

Four Noble Truths

1. Suffering exists
2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path

Noble Eightfold Path ...   more »

...A cultural revolution is a revolution in thinking. Profound change in the world only happens when thinking changes, and in What Is Enlightenment? magazine, we’re endeavoring to communicate with our growing body of readers in ways that are going to compel all of us to think more deeply. We seek out those individuals who challenge us to stretch beyond familiar mindsets in order to meet the overwhelming demands of our time. And as we learn from this ever-expanding network of leading thinkers, we simultaneously try to create an enlightened context in which their voices and visions will be amplified. It is my firm conviction that through the practice of sincere inquiry, of honest dialogue together, we can discover new perspectives that will enable all of us to make much greater sense of our shared human experience."
- Andrew Cohen, WIE Founder & Editor   more »

I think these new developments in portable virtualization technology bear close watching indeed, especially for their potential impact in Asian countries like India.

...With MojoPac, you have to install applications on your device before transferring data, to safeguard intellectual property. -- Once you’ve made these installations, though, it takes two minutes to transfer data, via your iPod to any other PC. That means you can use the same iTunes music wherever you go. And if you install your Outlook and VPN solution, it becomes your virtual office — where you can check your email, for example. -- Appajodu says he expects MojoPac to have good adoption in Asia, where people have fewer laptops, and rely on public computing facilities, such as cyber-kiosks.

"PCs are increasingly hard to manage and hard to use, even for sophisticated users. moka5 brings a whole new approach that is much simpler and more powerful for the user, and has the potential to redefine the PC business." -- Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures ...   more »

The next-generation Sony PlayStation 3 is a graphical powerhouse and Blu-ray movie player with an impressive array of extra features. - Like the PS2 did for DVDs, the PS3 hopes to give a boost to the nascent Blu-ray movie format. The console's built-in Blu-ray drive allows it to double as a high-def movie player, making its otherwise hefty $600 price tag seem like a bargain compared to that of dedicated stand-alone Blu-ray players, which bottom out at $1,000.   more »

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday declassified portions of a high-level intelligence report that describes the Iraq conflict as a major catalyst for Islamist radicalism around the world, but also cites other causes for the expanding terrorist threat. ...   more »

The United States fell to sixth place in the World Economic Forum's 2006 global competitiveness rankings, ceding the top place to Switzerland, as macroeconomic concerns eroded prospects for the world's largest economy.

In a report released on Tuesday, the World Economic Forum said Washington's huge defense and homeland security spending commitments, plans to lower taxes further, and long-term potential costs from health care and pensions were creating worrisome fiscal strains.   more »

Global temperatures are dangerously close to the highest ever estimated to have occurred in the past million years, scientists reported Monday. -- In a study that analyzed temperatures around the globe, researchers found that Earth has been warming rapidly, nearly 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) in the last 30 years. -- If global temperatures go up another 1.8 degrees F (1 degree C), it would be equal to the maximum temperature of the past million years.

"This evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made (anthropogenic) pollution," said study leader James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. ..."   more »

The ValdiChy Project was born to attract creative people to settle in the Valchiusella. People with open minds; positive thinkers with a pioneering spirit; practical dreamers with the desire to experiment with a new way of living; enthusiastic individuals or groups willing to contribute their talents and ideas to create a new and positive example.

An ideal valley where ecology, health and harmony of the mind, body and spirit, blossom in every form of art and craft. A place where solidarity, innovative and ecological technology, sustainability, collaboration and respect between institutions and citizens, are not just a hope for the future but are, as in Damanhur, a daily and concrete reality.

Thanks to the Federation of Damanhur, the Valchiusella is fast becoming a reference point for a New Renaissance of human, social and spiritual values. Every year more and more people, families and groups are deciding to come and live in the Valchiusella attracted by the possibility of realizing their ideals. The Valchiusella is where, those who dream of a healthy future for our planet, are actively making it a reality. ...   more »

...But as in physical knowledge the multiplication of scientific processes has its disadvantages, as that tends, for instance, to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human life under a load of machinery and to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude, so the preoccupation with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its disadvantages and losses. The Yogin tends to draw away from the common existence and lose his hold upon it; he tends to purchase wealth of spirit by an impoverishment of his human activities, the inner freedom by an outer death. If he gains God, he loses life, or if he turns his efforts outward to conquer life, he is in danger of losing God... No synthesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim, reunite God and Nature in a liberated and perfected human life or, in its method, not only permit but favour the harmony of our inner and outer activities and experiences in the divine consummation of both. For man is precisely that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. To avoid the life which is given him for the realisation of that possibility, can never be either the indispensable condition or the whole and ultimate object of his supreme endeavour or of his most powerful means of self-fulfilment... The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: ``All life is Yoga.''   more »

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. ...   more »

From an early age, my parents instilled in me, a desire to explore and learn first hand, about the world around me. Our family vacations and weekend excursions were general education courses disguised as fun. Knowingly or unknowingly they set me on course for a journey that today, I feel, is still just beginning.

The ongoing quest to document the world's people and the global events that shape our common humanity, has for me, been instrumental in breaking down stereotypes, preconceptions and prejudices. I believe that the more of the world we see and experience, the more we understand. It seems, people everywhere, share similar goals, aspirations, hopes and desires.

It is with a strong sense of obligation that I share, through photographs, the people, places and events that have profoundly shaped my vision of our world. By sharing these experiences with you, I hope to make a small, positive contribution to a heightened sense of world community.

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." -Gandhi-    more »

ARTI is an NGO based in Maharashtra, founded by a group of scientists and social workers in 1996. The mission of the organisation is to serve as an instrument of sustainable rural development through the application of scientific and technological knowledge.

ARTI undertakes research to study, develop, standardise, implement, commercialise and popularise innovative appropriate rural technologies with special emphasis on making traditional rural businesses more profitable and also on generating novel employment opportunities in rural areas. We have now nearly 25 standardised and field-tested technologies to offer to rural entrepreneurs through our Rural Entrepreneurship Development Centre (REDC). Our sphere of activities is no longer restricted to Maharashtra, but has spread to other states including Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pardesh, Sikkim, Tripura and Kerala. Some of our technologies are also being tried out in other developing countries in Asia and Africa. ...   more »

The Venus Project is a educational think tank operating out of a 25-acre Research Center located in Venus, Florida.

Experience tells us that human behavior can be modified, either toward constructive or destructive activity. This is what The Venus Project is all about - directing our technology and resources toward the positive, for the maximum benefit of people and planet and seeking out new ways of thinking and living that emphasize and celebrate the vast potential of the human spirit. We have the tools at hand to design - and build - a future that is worthy of the human potential. The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. What follows is not an attempt to predict what will be done - only what could be done. The responsibility for our future is in our hands, and depends on the decisions that we make today. The greatest resource that is available today is our own ingenuity. ...   more »

"Imagine a world where war is outdated, there is no shortage of resources, and every human being enjoys a high standard of living."

The Story of Jacque Fresco -- A modern-day Da Vinci. Peer to Einstein and Buckminster Fuller, Jacque is a self-taught futurist who describes himself most often as a “generalist” or multi-disciplinarian -- a student of many inter-related fields. He is a prolific inventor, having spent his entire life (he is now 90 years old) conceiving of and devising inventions on various scales which entail the use of innovative technology. As a futurist, Jacque is not only a conceptualist and a theoretician, he is also an engineer and a designer.

“I found Future by Design totally fascinating. I admire Jacque Fresco enormously for his bold and brilliant imagination, his renaissance-man knowledge, and his humanism.” - Howard Zinn   more »

...The synthesis we propose cannot, then, be arrived at either by combination in mass or by successive practice. It must therefore be effected by neglecting the forms and outsides of the Yogic disciplines and seizing rather on some central principle common to all which will include and utilise in the right place and proportion their particular principles, and on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of their divergent methods and capable therefore of organising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities. This was the aim which we set before ourselves at first when we entered upon our comparative examination of the methods of Nature and the methods of Yoga and we now return to it with the possibility of hazarding some definite solution. ...   more »

Lenovo (now owner of the IBM PC division) has confirmed that the Thinkpad that caught fire [last weekend] at Los Angeles International airport airport had a Sony battery. ... This article includes some dramatic photos of spontaneously combusted laptops.   more »

The arid badlands of Ethiopia's Afar region have long been a favorite hunting ground for paleoanthropologists. The area is perhaps best known for having yielded "Lucy," the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton of a human ancestor known as Australopithecus afarensis. Now researchers have unveiled another incredible find, from a site called Dikika, just four kilometers from where Lucy turned up. It is the skeleton of an A. afarensis child who lived 3.3 million years ago. ...   more »

Sir Richard Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, said today that all profits from his five airlines and train company, projected to be $3 billion through the next 10 years, would be invested in developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming. -- Richard Branson announced the pledge on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.   more »

This is a remarkable paper!

Successful entrepreneurs are passionate innovative risk-takers whose actions are informed by accurate intuitions about future business opportunities. Often such intuitive foreknowledge involves perception of implicit information about non-local objects and/or events by the body’s psychophysiological systems. Recent experiments have shown that intuitive perception of a future event is related to the degree of emotional significance of that event, and a new study shows that both the brain and the heart are involved in processing a pre-stimulus emotional response to the future event. Drawing on this research and on the principles of quantum holography, we develop a theory of intuitive perception. ...   more »

Not since NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft saw our home as a pale blue dot from beyond the orbit of Neptune has Earth been imaged in color from the outer solar system. Now, Cassini casts powerful eyes on our home planet, and captures Earth, a pale blue orb -- and a faint suggestion of our moon -- among the glories of the Saturn system.

The Earth-and-moon system is visible as a bright blue point on the right side of the image above center. Here, Cassini is looking down on the Atlantic Ocean and the western coast of north Africa. The phase angle of Earth, seen from Cassini is about 30 degrees. ...   more »

Sri Aurobindo falls into the exclusive category of poet-seers who have achieved the highest realisations and have endeavoured to share that experience with the rest of humankind. The teachings and very utterances that spiritual masters of this calibre offer to the world come from the most sublime realms of consciousness that human beings can attain to. Their poetry transcends the page to become mantra, an invocation to the transcendental consciousness. ...   more »

Dharmasphere is an interesting blog. You can get a sense of it by checking out this article on Auroville, which I think is a good, though short, summary of AV, with some great photos. ...   more »

Why is the universe bio-friendly? Bioastronomy, once an intriguing and speculative sideline, has become a major focus for cosmologists. James N. Gardner presents a startling hypothesis for how our apparently bio-friendly universe began and what its ultimate destiny will be. Originally presented in peer-reviewed scientific journals, his radical “Selfish Biocosm” hypothesis proposes that life and intelligence have not emerged in a series of Darwinian accidents but are essentially hardwired into the cycle of cosmic creation, evolution, death, and rebirth. He argues that the destiny of highly evolved intelligence (perhaps our distant progeny) is to infuse the entire universe with life, eventually to accomplish the ultimate feat of cosmic reproduction by spawning one or more “baby universes,” which will themselves be endowed with life generating properties. ...   more »

The EARTHscope (ES) is a new tool for displaying the profound, yet often invisible trends affecting global and local communities. It allows partner organizations to publish their information as engaging geo-stories: downloadable presentations that combine dynamic maps with supporting graphics, imagery, sound, and text.

ES is a project of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) and an extension of Fuller's lifelong commitment to promoting world literacy about global problems, trends, and needs.   more »

ThinkCycle is an academic, non-profit initiative engaged in supporting distributed collaboration towards design challenges among underserved communities and the environment. ThinkCycle seeks to create a culture of open-source design innovation, with ongoing collaboration among individuals, communities and organizations around the world.

How does one apply an Open Source approach to Hardware Products and Engineering Design? How can a global community of distributed domain experts and stakeholders collaborate towards evolving solutions to critical problem domains? –– That is the driving motivation behind the ThinkCycle Initiative. ...   more »

...Consciousness studies are at a critical juncture. It is now possible for the first time to synthesize rigorous scientific research in such disciplines as neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry with the techniques of consciousness study and development found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism.

The Santa Barbara Institute was established as a nexus for advancing interdisciplinary and cross-cultural understanding that joins scientific knowledge and spiritual practice. It is a non-sectarian organization that reaches out to the scientific and academic communities, a variety of contemplative traditions, and the general public. ...   more »

Researchers...have created a silicon-based chip that can produce laser beams. The advance will make it possible to use laser light rather than wires to send data between chips, removing the most significant bottleneck in computer design.

As a result, chip makers may be able to put the high-speed data communications industry on the same curve of increased processing speed and diminishing costs — the phenomenon known as Moore’s law — that has driven the computer industry for the last four decades. ...   more »

Humanity is undergoing a period of rapid transformation at every level — spiritual, social, and scientific/technological. At this time of accelerated change there is a need for the connecting, coordinating, and integrating of individual and organizational initiatives working on behalf of balanced, ethical, and life-enhancing evolution for humanity and Earth.

This is the mission of EVOLVE: a Global Community Center for Conscious Evolution — to serve as a central resource hub for individuals and communities worldwide that are choosing to embrace and apply the emerging principles, tools and templates of cocreative self and social conscious evolution.    more »

According to data from NASA's QuikSCAT satellite, between 2004 and 2005 the Arctic lost an unprecedented 14 percent of its perennial sea ice (shown in white)—some 280,000 square miles (725,000 square kilometers), or an area the size of Texas. ...   more »

Arctic meltdown is speeding up... sea ice is vanishing faster than ever before... polar bears face extinction... and America's top climate scientist warns we only have a decade to save the planet ...   more »

Dear Steward of Mother Earth,

As the last hours of the ancient sunlight are slowly setting over our 7,000-year-old civilization, something new is waiting to be born. The field of humanity is pregnant with a new turning of the wheel, a new understanding and view of what it is to be human and with that realization the responsibility to act in resonance with the evolutionary impulse that is consciously emerging from the depth of our being.

The adventure of consciousness and evolution is now inherently collective.

In our own experience, becoming more engaged in this evolutionary wave of securing the future and making it possible for something new to arise, has been greatly nourished by our participation in some thing bigger than ourselves and our personal self-interest. It is with this sense of purpose and stewardship that a few of us have taken on the mission to establish the Ecodaya Island Sanctuary. ...   more »

Ecodaya is being funded and created by a group of long-term Auroville residents and their friends. I visited there for a week early this year and was very impressed, both by the inspiring quality of the natural surroundings and the great work in preservation, eco-education, and local village development being done by those involved. Kim and I have been donating some funds to this worthly project and I encourage others to also consider doing so. ~ ron

The Ecodaya Island Sanctuary is situated along the Thungabhadra River near the ancient ruins of the World Heritage Site of Hampi, located in Karnataka State, South India. By securing all the land on the island from development and putting it under the stewardship of a Trust, the Ecodaya Island Sanctuary is being established as an ecologically protected and enhanced ecosystem.

Further, it is envisioned that the Ecodaya Island Sanctuary can become a model for Sustainable Integral Living: a way of living within the tapestry of an ecological, social, cultural and spiritual matrix, integrating harmoniously any human presence within the natural landscape while minimizing the ecological footprint. ...   more »

This is the 3D technology that the World Memory Theatre (see prior posting) will be using for its public-access exploratorium theatre. I'm looking forward to experiencing it myself.

IN a nondescript optics lab in tucked into an anonymous office park in the San Fernando Valley, the photon hackers of Deep Light are showing me the future of media. The object of their affection is a small screen on which an animated gladiator is clashing scimitars with a horned monster in a Coliseum-like setting. But this isn't a flat cartoon image: it's full 3-D space, the combatants circling each other inches from my eyes so convincingly that my hand twinges to grab them - and I'm not wearing those clunky red-and-blue cardboard glasses, either. I'm seeing a 3-D image with the naked eye. ...   more »

As the impact of 'globalization' on the world’s cultures escalates, so does the need to honor and preserve the rich treasury of perennial wisdom that we share. Cross-cultural storytelling can be an opportunity to explore the genius of all the world’s indigenous and traditional communities. Within that vast and varied repository of human art and spirituality are the keys to hold and understand our collective nature, even as the accelerating pace of change transforms life on the planet. ...   more »

Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry is for everyone that wants to know or even think that they know what freemasonry is about. Dr. Brent Morris has been a mathematician with the U.S. government since 1975. He currently serves as executive of the Cryptologic Mathematician Program at the National Security Agency. ...   more »

In chaos theory, "The Butterfly Effect" refers to the discovery that in a chaotic system such as the global weather, tiny perturbations in the system may sometimes lead to major changes in the overall system. It is theoretically possible that a butterfly flapping its wings in Mexico could create tiny changes in the air flow that would eventually lead to different weather in Europe. In most cases the flapping wings would make no difference whatsoever, but just occasionally, very very occasionally, when the system is at a cusp where it could go either way (like a ball ballanced on top of a cone), the flapping may be just the difference that causes the future to unfold differently.

The same principle applies to human society. Tiny changes in one person's state of mind can, on occasions, lead to major changes in society as a whole. ...   more »

Humanity is clearly in crisis. If we continue consuming and polluting as we have done, with little regard for the long-term health of our environment, we will almost certainly trigger some or other ecological catastrophe. We may even render ourselves extinct. -- Looking to the underlying causes of this crisis we find, time and again, the human factor–human decisions based on human desires, needs and priorities, often driven by human fear, greed and self-centeredness. It is clear that the crisis is, at its root, a crisis of consciousness.

If we are to navigate our way safely through these challenging times, we need to see some significant shifts in attitudes and values. We need to recognize that inner peace does not depend on what we own, our social status, the roles we play, or how wealthy we are. We need to wake up to a deeper sense of self that is not at the mercy of external circumstances, and that does not need to be continually defended and maintained. We need a degree of care and compassion that extends beyond our immediate circle of family and friends to embrace strangers and people of different race and background–and also the many other species with whom we share this planet. We need to know in our hearts that their well-being is our well-being.

What is the most effective way of promoting such shifts in consciousness? The evidence points to spiritual experience. Rather than distracting us from the course of scientific progress, spirituality could be our saving grace. ...   more »

For thousands of years people have pursued happiness, but the problem has been that it has always been seen as a kind of fuzzy concept. But now, in a new BBC Two series called "The Happiness Formula," neuroscientists say happiness is tangible and the result of brain activity - you can see it and even measure it. ...   more »

In light of new computer simulations, a team of scientists say more than a third of known planetary systems—made up of a central star, like our Sun, surrounded by gaseous planets and rocky debris—could include planets similar to Earth. These other "Earths" would be much like our home planet, except that they would be completely covered by water.   more »

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. ...   more »

SCIY is continuing its remarkable growth rate. Our total page views for the month of August 2006 increased by 63% over July, to over 20,000 views! - Here are the details: ...   more »

...What of humanity? Do we have a central project? Our very name refers to our central project. Humanity's scientific designation is as homo sapiens sapiens. To be "sapient" is to be wise, but we are more than that -- we are "sapient sapient" which means to be doubly wise. It has often been remarked that where animals "know," only humans "know that they know." One way of describing our highest potential as a species is our ability to achieve full self-reflective consciousness or the double-wisdom of "knowing that we know." This is not a utopian agenda for humanity -- with self-reflective consciousness we can become self-directing agents of the co-evolution of our global culture.

In the words of the Dalai Lama, "The aim of the awakening mind is twofold -- to attain enlightenment and to benefit all sentient beings." ...   more »

...It is indeed a noble cause to find an effective method to find a solution to a long standing dispute and create harmony among people especially the family members. Many times, a court case results out of misunderstanding and lack of effective communication between parties. When an objective mediator facilitates removal of misunderstanding between the parties without going into the legal rigour and corresponding expenditure, there is a fair chance of early settlement of the cases as a win-win situation. I would like to talk on the topic "Innovations in Justice Delivery". ...   more »

India is moving towards a Knowledge Based Society (KBS) with the help of Information Technology (IT). IT enablement of the villages is critical for empowering the rural India and to bring about eR-Commerce. The villagers of Hansdehar have taken this initiative to bridge the gap between the Government and the Citizens through this web interface for all the stakeholders involved in the development and upliftment of the village. This initiative is not a government initiative and is purely an effort of the village community to create itself an 'Empowered Knowledge Village' which can escalate its problems to the stakeholders through the IT.   more »

Carbon dioxide levels are substantially higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years, the latest study of ice drilled out of Antarctica confirms. The in-depth analysis of air bubbles trapped in a 3.2km-long core of frozen snow shows current greenhouse gas concentrations are unprecedented.

The East Antarctic core is the longest, deepest ice column yet extracted. Project scientists say its contents indicate humans could be bringing about dangerous climate changes.
"My point would be that there's nothing in the ice core that gives us any cause for comfort," said Dr Eric Wolff from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). ...   more »