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 20 Nov 2005 @ 11:29, by silviamar. Science
Who has never cried while cutting an onion? (well, apart from those who have never cut one hehehe). This is a little explanation in easy terms. More >
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20 Nov 2005 @ 09:25, by lugon. Medicine, Healthcare
In my previous article I mentioned avian flu and the possibility of a pandemic. The links are still relevant if you want to take a look there.
Here's an update:
It looks like China is having more flu outbreaks in birds, with a couple of human cases. See details.
A Californian man has created a blog to write about his local community preparation. Knowing the ability of influenza viri to cause silent disease and spread while there are no symptoms, and knowing the inability of a number of governments to do their (our) thing all that well, it looks like it's at least one of the right things to do.
Current statistics are not all that important. The important thing is the unknown: when will a mutated strain start spreading effectively and unstoppably?
Lots of extremely well presented stuff is here if you want to educate yourself. I insist: it's really good stuff. Powerpoint/PDF presentations are nice, easy reading.
C'mon: get a bit anxious, despair at the complexity of the challenge (see the "daunting task" article), then roll up your sleeves! More >
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 20 Nov 2005 @ 05:01, by raypows. Inventions
BitLight LightHitParade: Old CDs Put to Good Use
November 18, 2005 01:20 PM - Collin Dunn, Durham, North Carolina
Recycling CDs is not as easy as it should be, and they are definitely not landfill or incinerator-friendly, with their persistent plastic and ugly chemical characteristics. Artist Serghej Petrov has figured out a way to recycle them into art, without turning them into a disco ball or hanging collage over baby's crib. Check out his BitLight LightHitParade lamp; it has about 800 used CDs and creates a very cool ambient light source. He uses both an LED light source, which consumes only eight watts of power, and a cold cathode lamp, which is a little closer to 30 watts, but neither emit enough heat to be dangerous to the lamps artistic shell. This version stands 100 cm (a trifle over three feet), and he also has a suspended smaller version. More >
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19 Nov 2005 @ 14:12, by ming. Internet
Doc Searls has an excellent and long article, "Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes". Basically the net as we know it is in grave danger if the large telco carriers that own most of the pipes it runs on manage to get their way. You might think that the net is just this common free space where we all can share and communicate. But some very large companies think it is merely their property, and their delivery mechanism for their content that you'll have to pay for. And if we don't watch it, they might get their way, by getting their business plans put into law. Well, U.S. law at least, but that unfortunately sets the tone for how things work. This quote from Edward Whiteacre, CEO of SBC, epitomises the problem: Q: How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google, MSN, Vonage, and others?
A: How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?
The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!
He was asked this, as far as I remember, because SBC started blocking VoIP (voice conversations over the net) on their network. Which they think they have a right to do, because they don't make money off of them. Well, they do - people pay for their internet connection, but SBC also sells phone service, and they don't want competition. So, where we think we're free to do whatever it is technically possible to do on the net, these guys have in mind to only let you do things they get paid a cut of. I.e. they regard the net as the vehicle for big companies to deliver paid content to you, the consumer, rather than as your way to peruse the information you're interested in.
One of the many good points in Doc's article is that the battle is about semantics. Not "just semantics", but it is semantics in the sense that one side is somewhat succeeding in positioning the discussion to be about ownership and property. They "own" the pipes, the copyrights, the content, and everybody else are freeloades who'd want to rip it off for free. And law, particularly in the U.S., tends to be on the side of property owners. Here's from a previous article, particularly about copyright, discussing that beyond the legal and political contexts there is the metaphorical: The third is metaphorical. I believe Hollywood won because they have successfully repositioned copyright as a property issue. In other words, they successfully urged the world to understand copyright in terms of property. Copyright = property may not be accurate in a strict legal sense, but it still makes common sense, even to the Supreme Court. Here's how Richard Bennett puts it:
The issue here isn't enumeration, or the ability of Congress to pass laws of national scope regarding copyright; the copyright power is clearly enumerated in the Constitution. The issue, at least for the conservative justices who sided with the majority, is more likely the protection of property rights. In order to argue against that, Lessig would have had to argue for a communal property right that was put at odds with the individual property right of the copyright holder, and even that would be thin skating at best. So the Supremes did the only possible thing with respect to property rights and the clearly enumerated power the Constitution gives Congress to protect copyright.
Watch the language. While the one side talks about licenses with verbs like copy, distribute, play, share and perform, the other side talks about rights with verbs like own, protect, safeguard, protect, secure, authorize, buy, sell, infringe, pirate, infringe, and steal.
This isn't just a battle of words. It's a battle of understandings. And understandings are framed by conceptual metaphors. We use them all the time without being the least bit aware of it. We talk about time in terms of money (save, waste, spend, gain, lose) and life in terms of travel (arrive, depart, speed up, slow down, get stuck), without realizing that we're speaking about one thing in terms of something quite different. As the cognitive linguists will tell you, this is not a bad thing. In fact, it's very much the way our minds work.
But if we want to change minds, we need to pay attention to exactly these kinds of details.
"The Commons" and "the public domain" might be legitimate concepts with deep and relevant histories, but they're too arcane to most of us. Eric Raymond has told me more than once that the Commons Thing kinda rubs him the wrong way. Communist and Commonist are just a little too close for comfort. Too social. Not private enough. He didn't say he was against it, but he did say it was a stretch. (Maybe he'll come in here and correct me or enlarge on his point.) For many other libertarians, however, the stretch goes too far. Same goes for conservatives who subscribe to the same metaphorical system in respect to property.
So the work we have cut out for us isn't just legal and political. It's conceptual. Until we find a way to win that one, we'll keep losing in Congress as well as the courts.
Doc wrote another excellent article with David Weinberger, called The World of Ends, essentially arguing that the net is a neutral medium that connects up a lot of ends. It is about connecting everything to everything, with zero distance. The things to connect might be us having a conversation, or it can be you making a purchase in a store. Doesn't really matter. The net itself is stupid, and just acts as the connecting substrate. It is a place, to connect up end users. And that's what works. If anybody succeeds in re-defining it as merely their distribution mechanism, which they can slice up and monetize like they feel like, it starts not working any longer. While the Net's nature is a world-wide place, the Web's nature is a world-wide publishing system. The Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist who wanted a simple way documents could be published and read, anywhere in the world, without restriction by physical location or underlying transport system. That's why it has hypertext protocols, "languages" and "formatting" standards. It's also why we "write", "author" and "mark up" "documents" called "pages" and "files" which we "post", "publish" or "put up" so others can "index", "catalog" and "browse" them.
To sum up, the Net has all these natures:
1. transport system (pipes)
2. place (or world)
3. publishing system
--and others as well. But those aren't at war with one another, and that's what matters most.
Right now #1 is at war with #2 and #3, and that war isn't happening only in the media and in congressional hearing rooms. It's happening in our own heads. When we talk about "delivering content to consumers through the Net", rather than "selling products to customers on the Net", we take sides with #1 against #2. We unconsciously agree that the Net is just a piping system. We literally devolve: our lungs turn to gills, our legs turn into flippers, and we waddle back into the sea--where we are eaten by sharks.
Hopefully it doesn't end up happening. Law makers might see the light and not just hand ownership of the net to a few corporation. We might collectively understand the matter clearly enough to not allow it. And there might be technological solutions that take it in a different direction, and bypass the monopolies. Community wifi networks, for example. More >
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18 Nov 2005 @ 15:51, by shreepal. History, Ancient World
A nation-state is composed of individuals. These individuals share common interests and they are like synchronous parts of a machine. A nation-state has its own personality, a complex one that is changing and defining every moment, just as a human being.
Today all nation-states on Earth are united. They have evolved themselves into a loose organism: United Nations Organization.
Until very recently these nation-states were not united at the global level. There was free for all, for at least past 5000 years, about which we know something and call historic period of mankind.
But human beings have not dwelt here on Earth only for the last 5000 years. The prehistoric period of human race, Homo sapiens, spans for much longer period in duration.
Mankind has existed for several tens of thousands of years and all along this long period she had MIND. Today she possesses an evolved mind that has the capability to explore things in the UNKNOWN zone to a considerable degree, though this zone is INFINITE.
Mind has explored into the PAST part of this unknown zone and now sketchy picture of emergence of life on Earth and history of mankind is available.
Life on Earth (in the form of First shellfish) has existed at least since 530 millions of years (the end of Precambrian period). The first modern humans have appeared on Earth at about 1.8 millions years ago (at the start of Quaternary period). March of life is really slow! But, lo! when one puts this period in relation to the vast span of time that our Earth took to make itself hospitable to life it is very fast!! And if we compare this period of origin of life and its evolution into human beings with the extremely vast span of time since OUR Big Bang (the last one in which we live, out of an endless cyclic occurrences of Big Bangs in universe) the emergence of life and evolution of human race occurred in fraction of a second.
The evolution of Homo Erectus - modern human beings - took place during the Ice Ages (about 290 millions years ago the first Ice Age gripped our Earth and thereafter Earth passed through four such Ages, last being about 10 thousands years ago) and human-like animals – Hominids – first made their debut about 4 millions years ago somewhere in grasslands of Africa.
Perhaps – Homo sapiens- human beings as we know them today made their appearance by branching out them from the rest of the herd within comparatively a very short period of time. Perhaps it was when one of their common herd or a group of them REALIZED, like a sudden flicker of thought, that he or they can DEVISE tools, perhaps during chiseling a stone piece, in leisure hours, that accidentally turned into a pointed dart, to defend them against rival contenders. It was an unintentional experiment that yielded discovery. It was a discovery, a small step forward in making their life easier and safer but it was a giant leap in evolutionary march.
It was the glimpse – light - of MIND. It must have happened as a sudden event on the scale of time (spanning for centuries, if not more) that grew steadily in its multifarious dimension and scope. Then, perhaps it spread like wild fire from one individual to another because it was very useful ability for human beings. This inner insight had a practical utility, and therefore it got a momentum after having the first kick start. What were the current problems then of the herd that this ABILITY of human beings did solve? They were overweighed with the problem of survival. They had to contend with rivals - animals, similar clans and natural forces - and to win and survive in the struggle. The discovery of chiseled dart helped them in their struggle and their ability to make experiment to make discovery helped them much more.
There is another aspect of this event that happened in the long past, and of which we have no way of having any record, that needs to be investigated. Is it possible that the event of sudden thought, a glimpse of thinking process of Mind, happened in the herd for the first time and immediately it was picked up and spread by a splinter group of the herd? No, it could not have been the first and solo event. It must have happened so many times in the past and involving so many individuals. It must have, then in the past, been attempted by those individuals who had that glimpse of thinking process to spread the idea to other members of the herd but must have failed to pick up and spread further. The idea to be accepted by large enough number of herd-members and spread spontaneously further required a certain level of collective consciousness of herd members. Initially, the idea must have been glimpsed by a series of individuals, attempted to be spread further but failed. But all these attempts contributed in heightening the level of collective consciousness and eventually made the herd, or a splinter group of the herd, to accept the idea, the thought process of Mind, and to make it a part of their daily life. Therefore, there must haven a series of pioneers of thought process in the past before that process was finally picked up by the members generally as their own part of consciousness. We do not have any evidence of such an event having taken place. There is no way to collect such evidence, for the event relates to subtle process of consciousness and leaves no material impact on the outside world. But this hypothesis gets support from the evidence of current events concerning animals’ thought process happening occasionally around the globe. There are occasional reports that an animal, monkey or chimpanzee, when faced with difficult puzzle, a situation, that concerned with its immediate benefit or loss SUDDENLY got the glimpse of thought-process and learnt to use Mind to solve that puzzle. A large number of experimental cases with animals are available today that suggest that there is an event of initiation of thought process in animals in given situations. Animals in their natural habitat also are reported to have SUDDENLY started behaving in a way that proves that there was initiation of thought process in the animal. But in all these cases, this individual event is not carried forward in a sustainable manner. And much more, this process is not spread further to other members of the animals group. It requires really very long period of time and sustained spurring conditions (puzzles in the struggle for survival) before the glimpse of thought process – or a series of such glimpses in different individuals – becomes acceptable to the common herd and part of their collective consciousness. Let us pick up our journey from that point where thought process of Hominids became part of their collective consciousness and proceed further.
We human beings have come very far from that point. We have emerged from caves to make houses on moon; we have started from a point where we chiseled stone-darts and reached a point where we make fusion bombs; we stepped on a journey at a point where we knew that fire is made by wooden friction and reached in that journey on a point where we know all fundamental forces of nature are ONE and they seem differently under different conditions. It was a long journey. But at the initial point of our journey we were living in a twilight zone where the Old ended and New started. At that time it was a critical point in life’s evolutionary march. It must have a very difficult period also. The Hominids herd divided into two: the old members went their way and ridiculed the New who frolicked with stones and claimed they were superior to the rest who did not know to do so. In fact, in practical terms, the majority was right for chiseling darts was not a great advantage over the old and proven strategy of superiority of number and of maneuvering in antagonistic clash. But the Old were proven wrong in long run. The Old did not realize the potency of experimenting and inventing and they are still left in jungles to fend for themselves for their mistake.
Today we are in a twilight zone again. Mind is offering a flicker of something higher than itself. This glimpse of Light - here and there, among scientists, saints, thinkers – is making our herd – Homo sapiens – restless. The air of expectancy is laden with heavy portents. Perhaps New Civilization is a cry of those who saw something new and of utility, an ability of Heart that is superior to Mind and is pregnant with more potential.
There are billions of individuals on our Earth. All are not alike in the state of their consciousness.
There are individuals who are not satisfied with the present state of things. Their MIND is in quest of the UNKNOWN. They are open to the MYSTERY OF UNIVERSE. They belong to New Civilization.
Then, there are others. Their HEART longs for the UNKNOWN. They are open to the MYSTERY OF UNIVERSE. They belong to New Civilization.
And, still there are others. They are fed up of the drudgery of repetitively meeting demands of their BODY and its Desires. Their body wails for the UNKNOWN. Their DESIRES are centered on KNOWING the UNKNOWN. Their MIND is in quest of the UNKNOWN. Their HEART longs to know the UNKNOWN. Such individuals are in extremely short supply on Earth - almost rare - but they are very much there on Earth. They are the pioneers of New Civilization. All these three kinds of people, put together, are in minority on our Earth and therefore New Civilization has not yet dawned on our planet. And the coming of New Civilization depends upon them. They are talking to one another today, as the members of splinter group of Homo Erectus must have had talked in the past to one another while trying to know more and to get victory over blind nature.
Also there are individuals who are satisfied in meeting the demands of their body and desires. Their mind is satisfied with what in known to them. Their heart is content with what it possesses. They are the pillars of old civilization. On Earth such individuals are in majority and therefore old civilization is thriving.
Is it possible that some of us, we human beings, are opened to the MYSTERY OF UNIVERSE for the first time? Is it possible that this REALIZATION of the existence of something that is mystery to Mind has occurred all of a sudden for the first time today among some of the members of mankind? No, it cannot be so. In the past of Homo sapiens, there has been a series of individuals who had a glimpse of the MYSTERY OF UNIVERSE and who tried to spread the same to other members of the herd of Homo sapiens. About 5000 years ago, Zurthustra of Zend-Avesta had a glimpse of this Mystery and tried to spread it. Some members of the herd listened to him, the thing was accepted by some and the level of collective consciousness was raised a bit. Then, about 2500 years ago, Lord Buddha had a glimpse of this Mystery and tried to spread it. It was accepted by some and the level of collective consciousness was heightened further. About 2005 years ago, Lord Jesus Christ had a glimpse of this Mystery and he tried to spread it to other members of the herd. Homo sapiens’ collective consciousness was further raised to new level. These are the well known cases of which mankind is generally aware. And, there are many more cases of individuals in the past of mankind who had the glimpse of this Mystery and tried to spread a word about it. And, then came a new creed - science - came on the scene whose avowed mission is to search TRUTH and whose avowed method of searching truth is to perform experiment and match its result with the hypothesis. This creed uncovered many secrets of nature and currently it is on its drive to uncover many more. It is bringing the collective consciousness of mankind to a point where lessons of Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences, Psychology, Para-psychology and all other conceivable branches of positive sciences are converging on a single point with lessons of Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus Christ and all other great saints of the world. All these contributed in raising the level of collective consciousness of modern day mankind. Is the herd of Homo sapiens ready to accept this Mysterious glimpse as part of their collective consciousness? Has mankind reached a point where this glimpse could become an integral part of its consciousness? The time will tell.
Is it possible that people belonging to New Civilization get united? It is in the realm of future. Technologically, it is possible today. Internet is there to make it possible. But all such individuals are not wired. And many, for good reason, do not want to be connected.
What is the superiority of New Civilization over Old one? What are the current problems that our herd – herd of Homo sapiens – is facing? Our herd knows today that there is One and Single fundamental force operating in nature: the Unified Field. It also knows how to blow ourselves up in flames by realeasing the energy from the coils of matter where it is formetted by nature in unimagineably vast amount (E=mc squared). It also realizes that in the vast span of universal space we are a tiny speck, an island, blooming with life. It wants to know all that it does not know yet but knows that it must exist somehow. It also wants to reach out of our crammed Earth to other islands in our universe. There is a sense of urgency in the air. And also there is a sense of lurking danger around us. This fear is emanating from our own capability and distrust. What contribution can New Civilization make to solves these current problems?
With people belonging to New Civilization getting united as a single force and one voice, several benefits would accrue to mankind. Such people, once united, would have participation in taking decisions on Earth that are now being taken by nation-states. Then, there would be lesser number of wars, if not cessation of them. There would be then more peace on Earth than now. After all, New Civilization is to some degree higher than the old one on mankind’s evolutionary upward path.
Is it possible that individuals belonging to New Civilization get together as United Peoples Organization? Is it possible that they use New Civilization Network as their HQ?
More >
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 18 Nov 2005 @ 05:22, by judih. Children, Parenting
a love poem to my daughter
serenades the house
her essence scents the room
the couch begs her to stay
She enters the door
and silence starts to sing
fear dwindles, life lightens
the idiocy of others fades into irrelevance
What is love
till this daughter arrives?
It pales even sighs in dim peaks
what is happiness
till this daughter returns?
a low thud in a sinking heart
rise, oh soul felt laughter
as daughter walks this silent floor
the earth is her living room
the sky her endless trail
november 18th
judih More >
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17 Nov 2005 @ 18:49, by oasiian. Science
For some time I've been fiddling around with the idea of string theory, or Unified Physics. These are some of my conclusions. More >
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 17 Nov 2005 @ 10:52, by jazzolog. Politics
Mauve takes offense at my having said, "I am an artist"---which I do not take back, because that word included, of course, the meaning: always seeking without absolutely finding. As far as I know, that word means: "I am seeking, I am striving, I am in with all my heart."
---Vincent Van Gogh
As soon as a man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
---Albert Schweitzer
Freedom is when the people can speak,
democracy is when the government listens.
---Alastair Farrugia
A coal pile at the Egan Mountain mine, operated by Mountainside Coal Co. © Kari Lydersen 2005
The subject title belongs to Dan Tokaji, assistant professor of law at Ohio State, who maintains often maddeningly sensible commentary on election law at this site [link] . He's referring to the national election last week...and in particular of course to our experience---again---in Ohio. On our state ballot were 4 issues meant to reform the way we run them, motivated largely by what happened in the presidential election last year. All 4 issues were defeated...maybe...probably...well, that's what this is about.
I meant to get into this earlier, but I got involved in the premiere of that Wal-Mart movie and just haven't found the time. Per a request from the West Coast to tell you how it went, I'm happy to report last night's showing at the Athens Library packed the room we'd reserved to twice what we thought its capacity was. We set up the 60 chairs they have for the room, then emptied out the rest of the library of chairs for the tables and even pillows for the kids section. Besides that, people brought their own chairs from home. And what an audience! Even if there'd been no movie, we'd have had a great time. More >
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17 Nov 2005 @ 03:53, by shreepal. Systems Thinking
New Civilization, which may be able to resolve the irreconcilable differences of faiths, cultures, politics etc. plaguing our civilization – Old Civilization - ( irreconcilable differences or, still better, irreconcilable contradictions, which reminds one of W.F. Hegel’s Dialectics of Idea and of Karl Marx’s Dialectics of Matter - and of which we shall speak later), may dawn on our planet only if collective consciousness of mankind at the present juncture of her evolutionary march is READY TO ACCEPT its (New Civilization’s) values as mankind’s own need and FEEL as if there is something hollow without them.
What are the values of New Civilization of which mankind may feel as if there is something hollow without them and therefore may become ready to accept them?
To delineate them I intend to resume publishing a series of articles on these pages. Also they are aimed at provoking our collective consciousness to open up and take a stand on the burning issues of our civilization. Most of these issues relate with the very SURVIVAL of mankind and with shaping her DESTINY on Earth. I invite all those who visit these pages to take a clear stand – for or against - and contribute by making comments. Also I invite them to join the Workgroup – a workgroup of individuals making New Civilization Global Initiative – and become part of the process of CONSCIOUS evolution of human race at the present CROSSROADS of her destiny.
The (draft) Charter of Action of New Civilization Global Movement contains a definite number of BASIC PREMISE. An overview of these propositions is given here. In subsequent articles, each of these propositions would be taken up and dealt with. At appropriate intervals some other relevant topics may also be taken up to make the matter more clear. The basic propositions of Charter are:
Charter is founded on FIVE FAITHS (that relate to HEART) and THREE CONVICTIONS (that relate to MIND) of global citizens. Charter seeks to DENY the respect and dominant place to the Present Civilization and to GIVE the same to New Civilization, which Civilization seeks to accomplish FIVE OBJECTIVES of human beings.
The faith propositions are:
1. Planet Earth is our COMMON HOME.
2. We have inherited it only in TRUST for use in decent manner and not for spoiling it by our improper acts.
3. Earth is not only for OUR use but also for the use of all other life-species dwelling on it.
4. This trust casts an obligation on us to PASS ON this planet not in inferior health but, if possible in better health to SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS of human beings and to all other life-species that would overtake it from us.
5. All life-species are miracle, blooming flowers in Universe’s barren desert and sacrosanct in their right to exist. We human beings have evolved our MIND to an extent where we are able enough to realize that all these non-human life-species have equal right to co-exist with us. Unless these life-species pose a danger to our safe dwelling on Earth, they deserve protection and preservation at our hands.
6. All man-made disputes of any nature can be resolved by man. And man has evolved his MIND to that evolutionary stage where he can realize that it is in his own interest that these disputes are resolved in PEACE and AMITY.
7. All life is evolving on Earth. Human being is a product of this evolution. Evolution has not stopped with the advent of human being. The process is extremely slow – barely perceptible in thousands of years – yet the process is on. We human beings must accept that we human beings are not the FINAL PRODUCT of this process and our MIND is not the ultimate TOOL of exploring realty around it and in universe.
8. But we human beings have evolved us SIGNIFICANTLY and have MIND that is capable to explore the unknown universe, in both directions of scale – micro and macro. We can harness to our use the secrets of nature and her forces. This our capability enables us today, if we are wise enough and choose this wisdom, to CONSCIOUSLY shape our DESTINY. This capability makes it possible for us to shape the destiny of EARTH also. Human beings can make an impact even on the destiny of UNIVERSE.
The conviction propositions are:
1. Human beings are capable to destroy themselves. This capability is now PRESENT and they need only the DECISION to destroy. Any serious man-made dispute may act as a TRIGGER to take this decision.
2. Sustainable human-unity, if we achieve at the global scale, is the only EEFECTIVE and WORKABLE guarantee against the danger of self-annihilation posed by divided human beings.
3. This unity can only be established if we human beings realize that our INTERESTS are common, that the PURPOSE OF LIFE on Earth is common and that the DESTINY of human race is common.
Charter seeks to accomplish these objectives, which are in common interest of all human beings:
Firstly, COLLECTIVE SURVIVAL
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish survival not only of all ethnic divisions and subdivisions of human race living in different countries of the world but also of ALL life-species dwelling on Earth.
2. It seeks to secure this objective by ensuring that peoples of Earth stand on the side of PEACE and not war for any cause whatsoever.
3. It also seeks to accomplish this objective by ensuring that peoples establish on our planet GOOD ORDER and not anarchy under any ideology.
4. It further seeks to secure this objective by compelling all organized groups of human beings on Earth, whether organized under the banner of nation-states or of any other common human feelings, to DISARM themselves completely of the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
5. New Civilization seeks to accomplish this objective of collective survival not only by persuading peoples in the world to observe self-restraints in their inter se relations but also by paying RESPECT TO NATURE and its ways through its conservation.
Secondly, FREEDOM
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish freedom of individual from any kind of oppression, whether it is of political kind or of the kind of economic, culture or social.
2. It seeks to accomplish this freedom of individual from oppression within the human organization of nation-states and also international relations of such nation-states.
3. New Civilization seeks to secure this state of freedom for individuals by ensuring that the human rights of individual are protected in the organized society of human beings.
4. It also seeks to secure this freedom of individuals by ensuring that the interests of organized society are guarded against criminals and anarchy.
Thirdly, COMMON PROSPERITY
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish prosperity not only of one set of human beings (as against another set of those who remain poor) but of ALL.
2. It seeks to secure prosperity for all people by utilizing the TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS made by human beings. These advancements make it possible for human beings to REDUCE THE WORK HOURS for all those who are engaged in creating wealth. New Civilization does not permit utilization of these advancements to make a set of human beings WORK-LESS and to allow another set to ACCUMULATE wealth. Instead, it seeks to utilize these advancements to make available LEASURE-HOURS to all those who are engaged in wealth production.
3. It also seeks to secure this objective by utilizing SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT of natural resources of Earth so that waste of these precious resources is avoided, there is no unsustainable exploitation of these resources and, on that account, no ecological imbalance is created by man.
4. New Civilization seeks to utilize these measures in order to bring efficiency in production and distribution of man-made wealth.
Fourthly, GLOBAL UNITY
1. New Civilization aims at accomplishing UNITY among different subdivisions of mankind on Earth by promoting mutual RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY among them.
2. It also aims to secure this unity by promoting UNDERSTANDING with one another. (refer to the contribution that may be made in this respect by the concept of RELATIVITY and FRAMES OF REFERENCE).
3. New Civilization also seeks to secure this unity by admitting that there exists DIVERSITY among different subdivisions of mankind and promoting HARMONY amid this diversity.
And fifthly and finally, ENLIGHTNMENT
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish enlightenment of human beings by encouraging them to imbibe the KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENCE.
2. It seeks to encourage them to imbibe the knowledge of MATERIAL SCIENCE. It encourages them to learn and know what modern Physics and other branches of science have revealed to us, like our place in the Universal Time, Unity of Fundamental Forces of nature, Mirror- Images of OUR matter, Life and its Codes, convergence of all branches of science, etc. etc.
3. New Civilization also seeks to encourage them to imbibe the knowledge of PSYCHIC SCIENCE. It encourages them to learn and know what psychic sciences are revealing to us, like Near Death Perception, Extra-sensory Perception, Life after Death, Planes of Consciousness, etc. etc.
4. New Civilization also seeks to bring enlightenment among human beings by encouraging them to ALWAYS REMAIN OPEN and READY to change of one’s intellectual convictions.
(*) EXPLANATORY NOTE:
We are oblized to use a 'term' that conveys the reality. New Civilization Global Initiative - a global Workgroup of individuals - is in existence and is on the job. This Global Initiative may turn into a Global Movement or may not. Till this Initiative is swelled into Movement, we would prefer to employ the term 'Initiative'.
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16 Nov 2005 @ 19:36, by oasiian. Spirituality
This is an opinion on the conflict of religion, and how it is slowing our evolution down. More >
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