9 Mar 2010 @ 07:35, by scotty. Peace
Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. ~Robert Brault
If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. ~Bob Hope
Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up. ~Jesse Jackson
A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. ~Charles H. Spurgeon
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. ~Author Unknown
Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are. ~Author Unknown
What this world needs is a new kind of army - the army of the kind. ~Cleveland Amory
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~Dalai Lama More >
7 Mar 2010 @ 18:16, by susannahbe. Environment, Ecology
. . . The view from my window when sitting at my desk.
"The little things? The little moments? They aren't little." - John Zabat-Zinn
The Doves have spent a few days now hanging out on the fence enjoying the sunshine, and then flying over to the bird table for some seed, then back to sunbathing and courting! I watch as they gently groom one another, then I tactfully avert my eyes as they mate!- regularly! ;-)
It is wonderful to have my computer right in front of this window, as it feels like I am part of what is going on out there. . . the changing light, the hundreds of birds that visit the bird table and hanging feeders throughout the day.
I know that as I watch, before long all the trees will have their leaves and the bush to the right in the bottom photo will be dripping with huge lilac blooms that I will be able to smell through the open window.
It is wonderful to watch the sun go down, it sets just behind the red heart in the window, and in the morning to watch the pink light of sunrise bathe those trees in a gentle golden light.
I think this is a great place to have my computer!
6 Mar 2010 @ 07:49, by scotty. Philosophy
WOW !
Just discovered this book - how could I have missed it !!
It's now at the head of my wish list !
The Word for World Is Forest is a science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1976 and based on her 1972 novella. It is part of the 'Hainish Cycle'.
Setting
Several centuries in the future, humans from Earth have established a logging colony and military base named "New Tahiti" on Athshe, a tree-covered planet whose small, green-furred, big-eyed inhabitants have formed a culture centered on lucid dreaming. Terran greed spirals around native innocence and wisdom, turning the ancient society upside down.
Humans have learned interstellar travel from the people of Hain (the origin-planet of all humanoid races, including the Athsheans, despite their appearance). The various planets have been expanding independently, but during the novel it is learned that the 'League of All Worlds' has been formed. News arrives via an ansible, a new discovery. Previously they had been cut off, 27 light-years from Earth, meaning a 54-year delay in question and response.
Athshe's plants and animals are similar to those of Earth, placed there by the Hainish people in their first wave of colonisation that also settled Earth. The Cetian visitor also states categorically that the native humans "came from the same, original, Hainist stock". It is not explained why they are green-furred and only one meter tall. Other distinctive humans such as the Gethenians are said to have been produced by genetic manipulation by the ancient Hainish colonisers.
The events of the novel occur after The Dispossessed, where both the ansible and the League of Worlds are unrealised dreams. Also well before Planet of Exile, where human settlers have learned to coexist. A date in the 24th century has been suggested More >
5 Things That Will Make You Happier
LiveScience.com
LiveScience.com clara Moskowitz
livescience Senior Writer
livescience.com – Mon Feb 22, 11:50 am ET
Here are five things that research has shown can improve happiness:
1. Be grateful - Some study participants were asked to write letters of gratitude to people who had helped them in some way. The study found that these people reported a lasting increase in happiness - over weeks and even months - after implementing the habit. What's even more surprising: Sending the letter is not necessary. Even when people wrote letters but never delivered them to the addressee, they still reported feeling better afterwards.
2. Be optimistic - Another practice that seems to help is optimistic thinking. Study participants were asked to visualize an ideal future - for example, living with a loving and supportive partner, or finding a job that was fulfilling - and describe the image in a journal entry. After doing this for a few weeks, these people too reported increased feelings of well-being.
3. Count your blessings - People who practice writing down three good things that have happened to them every week show significant boosts in happiness, studies have found. It seems the act of focusing on the positive helps people remember reasons to be glad.
4. Use your strengths - Another study asked people to identify their greatest strengths, and then to try to use these strengths in new ways. For example, someone who says they have a good sense of humor could try telling jokes to lighten up business meetings or cheer up sad friends. This habit, too, seems to heighten happiness.
5. Commit acts of kindness - It turns out helping others also helps ourselves. People who donate time or money to charity, or who altruistically assist people in need, report improvements in their own happiness.
Lyubomirsky has also created an iPhone application, called Live Happy, to help people boost their well-being. More >
17 Feb 2010 @ 08:15, by scotty. Personal Development
"Whenever fear comes to you, don't suppress it, don't repress it, don't avoid it, don't get occupied in something so that you can forget about it.
No! When fear comes, watch it.
Be face to face with it.
Encounter it.
Look deep into it.
Gaze into the valley of fear.
Of course you will perspire, and you will tremble, and it will be like a death, and you will have to live it many times. But by and by, the more your eyes become clear, the more your awareness becomes alert, the more your focus is there on the fear, the fear will disappear Like a mist. And once fear disappears, sometimes, even for only a moment, suddenly you are deathless.
There is no death.
Death is the greatest illusion there is, the greatest myth -- a lie.
For even a single moment, if you can see that you are deathless.
Then no meditation is needed.
Then live that experience, then act out of that experience, and the doors of eternal life are open for you.
Much is being missed because of fear.
We are too attached to the body and we go on creating more and more fear because of that attachment.
The body is going to die, the body is part of death, the body is death -- but you are beyond the body.
You are not the body; you are the bodiless.
Remember it.
Realize it.
Awaken yourself to this truth -- that you are beyond the body. You are the witness, the seer.
Then death disappears and fear disappears, and there arises tremendously glorious life ." More >
10 Feb 2010 @ 18:50, by jhs. Philosophy
For some time now I wanted to map out the contect of modern day Ifa.
At the same time I want to revive the concept of 'Ifa for the 21st Century', a project from the early 2000's and very useful for 2,3 years but shredded when I was traveling/working so intensely that I hardly answered my e-mails.
Recently I found MindOMO [link] , a mind-mapping software that is easy to use and share/collaborate.
As a first map, I posted above mentioned map. Whoever finds some errors, has suggestions, or wants to on or off this map, please mail me or leave a comment to this post.
Standard Disclaimer: I don't necessarily endorse every of the links, especially those that are NOT explicitly using Ifa but provide a branch of a holistic approach (which for necessarily includes the energy and archetypes of Ifa). I do not receive any compensation or favor in listing or not listing a certain provider, organization or author. More >
9 Feb 2010 @ 20:13, by feecor. Technology
Berlin is again
beside the Transmediale [link] and the Berlinale [link] full of media glitter and creative media movers and shakers. What a time... We are at the edge to thinking deep - not new for me as 3D vizualisation was my think & do "thing" (in deep and in colour since 25+ years), but only now the technology is at the edge of reaching the public eye and mind as we can see in movies and interfaces.
I will hop between the events and lounges , and my heart and concerns are with immersion into old & new spaces, as an old and new door and vistas opened, for example with new intefaces. See gesture cubes ! [link] or what we called Advanced Visual Interfaces. [link] Interfaces even for Cultural Heritage ! - see also this more recent virtual worlds proposal: [link] Going from 2d-3d is not new for me, from flat to deep and maybe also from Show to Schau ! [link] and being aware of interface design and immersion or the challenges of virtual reality [link] , but what it means to have all walls as monitors and connect the space in-between still rocks my mind. I know that we need spaces for knowledge in modern times of internet and media, like we need space for living, if we do not want to end in the noise of Cyberculture, and I know we can agree on spaces and frames, orders and rules, like we can agree to drive on the right lane and stop at the red light. But who dares to challenge orders and frames, not by postmodern irgnorance, but by negotiating, creating and moving line and objects. I always come back to the citation of Rueckert, maybe someone will check it out and help translate it to the modern media age!?
Whoever imagines mental deep permeable barriers which actually do not exist
and then thinks them away, has understood the world.
As space is entrapped in geometry's network of lines,
thought is caught in its (own) inherent laws.
Maps make the world comprehensible to us;
we are still waiting for the star-maps of the spirit.
In the same way than ambling through fields we risk getting lost,
the spirit negotiates its terrain.
Friedrich Rückert, Wisdom of the Brahmins, a didactic poem, Charles T. Brooks in 1882 – above is unfortunately only a clumsy first translation by Robinson/Benking as we could only get hold of the original German version. More at BRINGING DOWN NEW WALLS: [link]
So maybe we can find ways together between the movies, media, and realities locally and globally instead of being sumbmerged in the glut of endless, no-return Cyberculture [link]
If you care to see what agreed frames and spaces might look like, goto: TONY [link] or check out what we mean by deep and flatworlds: [link]
A footnote:
I am shocked getting today this [link] to get a Journal covering the topics above for a subscription of 500+ Dollar per year. See still high tech with lots of insider development potentials.
7 Jan 2009 @ 15:36, by niphtrique. Economics, Financing, Banking The answer may be yes!
As the current financial system is in collapse, the threat of famine, war and complete chaos in the world becomes a real possibility. Mankind is in a difficult position because war can mean a near complete annihilation of mankind. Also nature is destroyed on a massive scale as rainforests are burned down, sees are overfished and chemicals are spread. It probably is not a coincidence that the end of times is predicted to be on december 21, 2012. The good news is that the end of times can also be a new beginning for earth and mankind. More >
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9 Feb 2010 @ 20:13, by feecor. Technology
