If I told you that I could make you smarter, improve the structure of your brain, reduce your stress level, make you sleep better, concentrate better, be more creative, have a better functioning immune system, and become a better lover, would it catch your attention? If I said you could achieve this essentially cost free and it would only take a few minutes of your time each day, would you be interested? Or would you just assume I was some kind of scam artist trying to pick your pocket with outrageous claims? If you chose the second option, it wouldn’t surprise me. But the truth is, each of the above claims is backed by peer-reviewed, published, research papers, and they number into the thousands. I am speaking here of meditation. Its power to change our lives from the vitality of our cells-to an enhancement of our capacity for creativity-is extraordinarily well documented. This is the path that allows us to open to nonlocal awareness, the part of ourselves outside the domain of space time. The part of us Brahms described this way: ‘…in this exalted state I see clearly what is obscure in my ordinary moods; then I […]
The possibility that climate change might simply be a natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time is dimming, according to evidence in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published October 19. The research reveals that sediments retrieved by University at Buffalo geologists from a remote Arctic lake are unlike those seen during previous warming episodes. The UB researchers and their international colleagues were able to pinpoint that dramatic changes began occurring in unprecedented ways after the midpoint of the twentieth century. ‘The sediments from the mid-20th century were not all that different from previous warming intervals,’ said Jason P. Briner, PhD, assistant professor of geology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences. ‘But after that things really changed. And the change is unprecedented.’ The sediments are considered unique because they contain rare paleoclimate information about the past 200,000 years, providing a far longer record than most other sediments in the glaciated portion of the Arctic, which only reveals clues to the past 10,000 years. ‘Since much of the Arctic was covered by big ice sheets during the Ice Age, with the most recent glaciations ending around 10,000 years ago, […]
DADAAB, KENYA — A new kind of refugee has arrived: Those forced from their home regions not by war or persecution, but by the climate. A Kenyan camp is bursting with the displaced, some who share their stories. For centuries, Adam Abdi Ibrahim’s ancestors herded cattle and goats across an unforgiving landscape in southern Somalia where few others were hearty enough to survive. This year, Ibrahim became the first in his clan to throw in the towel, abandoning his land and walking for a week to bring his family to this overcrowded refugee camp in Kenya. He’s not fleeing warlords, Islamist insurgents or Somalia’s 18-year civil war. He’s fleeing the weather. ‘I give up,’ said the father of five as he stood in line recently to register at the camp. After enduring four years of drought and the death of his last 20 animals, Ibrahim, 28, said he has no plans to return. Asked how he planned to live, Ibrahim shrugged. ‘I want to be a refugee.’ Africa is already home to one-third of the 42 million people worldwide uprooted by ethnic slaughter, despots and war. But experts say climate change is quietly driving […]
A new mobile phone charger that will work with any handset has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body. Industry body the GSMA says that 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers are generated each year. Currently most chargers are product or brand specific, so people tend to change them when they upgrade to a new phone. However, the new energy-efficient chargers can be kept for much longer. The GSMA also estimates that they will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6m tonnes. ‘This is a significant step in reducing the environmental impact of mobile charging,’ said Malcolm Johnson, director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau. ‘Universal chargers are a common-sense solution that I look forward to seeing in other areas.’ The charger has a micro-USB port at the connecting end, using similar technology to digital cameras. It is not compulsory for manufacturers to adopt the new chargers but the ITU says that some have already signed up to it. ‘We are planning to launch the universal charger internationally during the first half of 2010,’ Aldo Liguori, spokesperson for Sony Ericsson told the BBC. ‘We will roll it […]
Asian nations discussed plans at a major summit Saturday to ‘lead the world’ by boosting economic and political cooperation and possibly forming an EU-style community. The prime ministers of regional giants China and India also looked to foster unity on the sidelines of the summit in Thailand after months of trading barbs over long-standing territorial issues. But nuclear-armed North Korea and military-ruled Myanmar were also set to top the agenda in the royal beach resort of Hua Hin, underscoring the challenges still facing the region. The summit groups the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with regional partners China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said a proposed East Asian community involving all 16 countries should aspire to take a leading role as the region makes an early rebound from the global economic crisis. ‘It would be meaningful for us to have the aspiration that East Asia is going to lead the world and with the various countries with different regimes cooperating with each other towards that perspective,’ Hatoyama, who took office last month, told the Bangkok Post newspaper. He described Japan’s alliance with the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
