Discussions on God, Sheldrake and Dawkins and Vermeer's Hat a great book

Friday, February 22, 2008

Vermeer's Hat by Timothy Brook



Ah! Remember when you first learned about stream of conciousness? I remember well, because it was like a light went on in my head! I loved it, from the day I set eyes on The Sound and The Fury and read Faulkner with gusto, my next favorites being , A Rose For Emily, and As I Lay Dying



Now, with Vermeer's Hat, we have a new form of stream of consciousness. Yes, this time the author goes into a Vermeer painting and discovers thru a doorway from the painting, (and from his learned history of the world), a glimpse through the eyes ( stream of consciousness almost) of the author of what was happening at the time of Vermeer in his world.



Tobacco, silver, beaver hats, chinese trade, the perils of the shipping industry and much more as the world started on its course to become smaller. It is amazing from the ship register's of the time where people came from, and how traveled they were.



It is a memorable book, slow reading because it is not full of suspense, but full of facts, that draw you back to learn more. Also, the idea of visiting the world of the time through the paintings of Vermeer, is clever, and insightful. It is worth reading, the sub title is ,The Seventeeth Century and the Dawn of the Global World.

Posted by madlyn at 7:31 AM 0 comments

Labels: Books, mostly books, newest read

Friday, January 11, 2008

Richard Dawkins vs Rupert Sheldrake



In the interest of God, and the interest of mankind, this is worth reading....a point of view that promotes a book at the expense of the truth, is not what a scientist should be searching for. I wonder what you think?



This release came to me from the Rupert Sheldrake site, I subscribe to.





News Release from Rupert Sheldrake Online



11th January 2008

From Rupert Sheldrake





"Richard Dawkins Comes to Call" has just been published in Network Review: The Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network and is now on the web site - It is also pasted below.



Richard Dawkins comes to call

Rupert Sheldrake

Richard Dawkins is a man with a mission – the eradication of religion and superstition, and their total replacement with science and reason. Channel 4 TV has repeatedly provided him with a pulpit. His two-part polemic in August 2007, called Enemies of Reason, was a sequel to his 2006 diatribe against religion, The Root of All Evil?

Soon before Enemies of Reason was filmed, the production company, IWC Media, told me that Richard Dawkins wanted to visit me to discuss my research on unexplained abilities of people and animals. I was reluctant to take part, but the company’s representative assured me that “this documentary, at Channel 4’s insistence, will be an entirely more balanced affair than The Root of All Evil was.” She added, “We are very keen for it to be a discussion between two scientists, about scientific modes of enquiry”. So I agreed and we fixed a date.

I was still not sure what to expect. Was Richard Dawkins going to be dogmatic, with a mental firewall that blocked out any evidence that went against his beliefs? Or would he be open-minded, and fun to talk to?

The Director asked us to stand facing each other; we were filmed with a hand-held camera. Richard began by saying that he thought we probably agreed about many things, “But what worries me about you is that you are prepared to believe almost anything. Science should be based on the minimum number of beliefs.”

I agreed that we had a lot in common, “But what worries me about you is that you come across as dogmatic, giving people a bad impression of science.”

He then said that in a romantic spirit he himself would like to believe in telepathy, but there just wasn’t any evidence for it. He dismissed all research on the subject out of hand. He compared the lack of acceptance of telepathy by scientists such as himself with the way in which the echo-location system had been discovered in bats, followed by its rapid acceptance within the scientific community in the 1940s. In fact, as I later discovered, Lazzaro Spallanzani had shown in 1793 that bats rely on hearing to find their way around, but sceptical opponents dismissed his experiments as flawed, and helped set back research for well over a century. However, Richard recognized that telepathy posed a more radical challenge than echo-location. He said that if it really occurred, it would “turn the laws of physics upside down,” and added, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

“This depends on what you regard as extraordinary”, I replied. “Most people say they have experienced telepathy, especially in connection with telephone calls. In that sense, telepathy is ordinary. The claim that most people are deluded about their own experience is extraordinary. Where is the extraordinary evidence for that?”

He produced any evidence at all, apart from generic arguments about the fallibility of human judgment. He assumed that people want to believe in “the paranormal” because of wishful thinking.

We then agreed that controlled experiments were necessary. I said that this was why I had actually been doing such experiments, including tests to find out if people really could tell who was calling them on the telephone when the caller was selected at random. The results were far above the chance level.

The previous week I had sent Richard copies of some of my papers, published in peer-reviewed journals, so that he could look at the data.

Richard seemed uneasy and said, “I’m don’t want to discuss evidence”. “Why not?” I asked. “There isn’t time. It’s too complicated. And that’s not what this programme is about.” The camera stopped.

The Director, Russell Barnes, confirmed that he too was not interested in evidence. The film he was making was another Dawkins polemic.

I said to Russell, “If you’re treating telepathy as an irrational belief, surely evidence about whether it exists or not is essential for the discussion. If telepathy occurs, it’s not irrational to believe in it. I thought that’s what we were going to talk about. I made it clear from the outset that I wasn’t interested in taking part in another low grade debunking exercise.”

Richard said, “It’s not a low grade debunking exercise; it’s a high grade debunking exercise.”

In that case, I replied, there had been a serious misunderstanding, because I had been led to believe that this was to be a balanced scientific discussion about evidence. Russell Barnes asked to see the emails I had received from his assistant. He read them with obvious dismay, and said the assurances she had given me were wrong. The team packed up and left.

Richard Dawkins has long proclaimed his conviction that “The paranormal is bunk. Those who try to sell it to us are fakes and charlatans”. Enemies of Reason was intended to popularize this belief. But does his crusade really promote “the public understanding of science,” of which he is the professor at Oxford? Should science be a vehicle of prejudice, a kind of fundamentalist belief-system? Or should it be a method of enquiry into the unknown?

Rupert Sheldrake



Note

Some Email filters block any messages containing links to web sites, sounfortunately we cannot include links in this newsletter, but all the links are easily accessible form the home page of the website Sheldrake.org.



Best wishes,

Editor

Posted by madlyn at 8:13 AM 0 comments



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Vermeer's Hat by Timothy Brook

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Richard Dawkins vs Rupert Sheldrake

Going to Wintertur for Point to Point races

A team of grey Kladruby horses, pulls an antique coach in the parade at Wintertur. Cheyenne Fafard is on the box seat with Sir Paul.  Howard is behind him and all you can see is Howard's grey hat.  First weekend in May, this is a fabulous event in Delaware.

 My book, Secrets of the Heart is a dramatic telling of stories that hide within them the secrets of our universal consciousness.  As a first novel, it was a difficult job, but, hopefully it will reach people who never give a thought to consciousness, or how it causes us to participate in life.  Maybe this will help us  to slow down to evaluate our choices before we make them.

The developing consciousness from childhood to death, is written in short spurts, just as our own thoughts come to us. We meditate daily unknowingly on why, and how. We participate, sometimes without thinking, and we suffer the consequences of our actions. In the end the total goal of life is learning to love, learning to respond without damage to others, as best we can, and learning that there is more to life than what we experience in matter. Each action we take has long reaching repurcussions, not only on us, but on those around us. We are creating an aura around ourselves and around our closest networks, this aura continues to grow into the aura of our very culture. This is all hidden behind the rise of the media, and how our culture is changing based on what is happening with the media, the entertainment world and whomever can grab the spotlight.  There is so much more to our developing cultural aura, such as people convinced that the end of the world is coming in 2012, when it might just be a change in consciousness as we know it.  Is there a right and wrong decision in any universal cause?  Should we be so passionate about our causes that we hurt others?  There are dozens of questions, that bring on even more for the thoughtful.




At the end of World War 2, we children thought, that war was forever over. We thought we had learned from this terrible destruction. The aura was of peace time. What happened to that aura, why did it destruct and get replaced with more wars? Have we gone too far in our free society? Is our largess eating away at the very country we prize because of our generosity? All these questions come to the reader who reads between the lines, in the more than one voice recounting emotional journeys in life.

New anti aging tools coming soon

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/feed/view/213222

Secrets of the Heart

After years of love for books, I have finally tried my hand at a book. Secrets of the Heart, is a  story  told by an old woman reviewing her life.  She is joined by her friends voices , as they recount their stories to her and with her.  A book full of emotion; the pain of war from the eyes of a child, the pain of a loved one dying, life long love and the magic of emotions coming to life on a computer.  It recounts the universal theme of love from different perspectives along the time line of the 1940s and 1950's.  

It is interesting to note as established by this book, that the period gave birth to the cult of the teenager, while nurturing the most influential generation in the history of the world.  Just glimpsing the events of the 20 year period, brings to life the times, helped by names of songs of the period, books and poems.  I hope you like it!  I have enclosed a link to the site
.www.xlibris.com/SecretsoftheHeart.html

New discoveries in physics, cosmology

The Spontaneous Healing of Belief, by Gregg Braden


Truly eye opening, easy to understand
What we have known for ages, to keep something hidden place it in clear view...Braden illustrates that and then points out how it happens. Take the vibrations that happen when you pluck a string on one guitar, and the other guitar nearby vibrates the same string. It is obvious, that vibrations are everywhere. There we are with magnetic and electrical currents all around us, emanating from us and toward us. Interesting that our hearts out shine the brain in electrical energy and magnetic energy output. Have you ever noticed that it is the heart area that is ripped asunder by a death of a loved one, the injury of a loved one, or a disappointment in love. The heart is where the action is. The emotions gathered with thought become powerful. If there is no emotion with the thought, it lies ineffective, in the brain and dissipates, maybe that explains people that can not seem to achieve, or complete things. They are emotionless in certain areas. All the more reason to make a career of something you love. More reason, also, for us to think about what emotions we allow to carry our thoughts into the atmosphere. The one question I still have is about Peace. We all want peace, but if negative and positive is what the universe thrives on and needs, then how can we maintain peace? We have shown we can put it in place by a certain number of people thinking it into existence, but to maintain it, we need balance between negative and positive. Is it attainable forever? Would there be a way to determine how we can maintain it, if we can think it into existence? Right now we would need a certain number of the population maintaining the thought all the time. Obviously this book has me thinking, and you will be thinking too. Wonderful, enjoyable.

Sir John Templeton

Sir John Templeton passed away about two weeks ago, a man truly for All Seasons, someone who went quietly, but who left a legacy, unmatched by many who have received more adulation than he. This is a little of what you can read in the book Sir John Templeton, By Robert L. Herrmann

Born in Tennessee, an outstanding student, who loved Henry Wadsworth Longellow's poems, particulary "A Psalm of Life" One of the stanza's, which he loved;

"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."

Sir John left his footprints on the sands of time, he became a world class investor, founding the Templeton Fund, which is world renown. When he achieved monetary success, he planned to give back in a most challenging way, and that was to unite science and religion, by establishing the John Templeton Foundation,in 1987.

In those days scientists, would turn away, when you established something by intuition, and not by the scientific method, forgetting that much of the Western World knowledge came from Intuitives, like Plato, and Socrates, for example.

Today, I like to think that the advances we are making into consciousness, are partially spurred by the dream of this outstanding human being, who wanted to find God in all religions, and in so doing bestow the prestigious Templeton Prize on outstanding people, for their efforts, toward these advances.

For example, the 1995 winner was mathematical physicist Prof Paul Davies who has written more than a dozen books , revealing how physics, mathematics and cosmology point to purpose and meaning in the Universe.

The prize has now been renamed, The Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities.

For those of us who are very spiritual, those of us who are "knowing" about the underlying reality of life, the words of Davies when he accepted that award are important,
"The emergence of life and consciousness, I maintain are written into the laws of the universe in a very basic way." (page 151) Sir John Templeton

Many other outstanding people have won the prizes which span over 25 years now, leading us to the conclusion that the universe is particularly suited for fostering the attitude of self sacrificing love, and requires it for its harmonious functioning at every level.

In my opinion, after absorbing the wonder of this man, who reached for the stars to help humankind, I think,these thoughts:
In these days of Terrorists fighting in the name of God, one can only wonder, how the great Religions of the World have lost their way? Why aren't radicals ousted from their religions, instead of being able to claim it as theirs? The true leaders of the true lessons of the Masters/God, have to go back to the tenents of the reality of the great religions, LOVE.

That is the challenge of this Century, it is obvious that the world is waiting for the second coming, which is not one man, but a group of men, who are known as leaders of the world's religions, who can stand up and say, enough! Religion is LOVE, in all its many ways, anyone claiming to be in our religion/s must follow the Master's teaching, or be ousted, forbidden to claim fellowship with the rest of us., forever shunned, until repentence and forgiveness is asked, and given.

Science and Spirit

Reading , Our Solarian Legacy , there are so many times, you will want to tag a page, and go back to it, that it is a project for the rest of the summer. The book is amazing. It is full of information from many sources , so much so, that I was astonished at the level of study that went into creating this book. Many of us have read the 100 books or so that Paul VAN WARD references in, Our Solarian Legacy, but for those that have not had the opportunity to delve into so many other books, this is really exceptional in what it accomplishes; by bringing us up to date with the thoughts that are uniting spirit and science.

Also, if you have been a follower and reader of many of the books he cites, it is still amazing to read this book, and follow the author's thought and references. An avid reader of the subject, and familiar with the many references, I am IMPRESSED.

LabPixies - Coolest Gadgets On The Web

LabPixies - Coolest Gadgets On The Web THIS IS ONE GREAT SPOT,it even has movies you can watch, reminder page, etc....the new aol page is great for gadgets, just as google is..

Sir John Templeton

Sir John Templeton, truly a hero! A man who discovered the purpose of life and lived it.
Contrarian Investor? Contrary to what? I do not understand the title, as this man deserves more than to be called a contraian Investor. Templeton, made a great advance in the world, by trying to reconcile science and spirituality. People have been making greater and greater strides to the reality of our lives, because of Templeton. We are becoming more aware of Intention and Love as the driving forces of the universe. I would have loved to see a better recognition of his greatness. He gave the greatest gift the world has seen, the Templeton Prize and he should be revered in return for his giving. He did not give all his wealth and become poor because that would not have answered the needs of the world, he BECAME, he joined in the continuing process of creativity, which we are all here for., at the level of status he had achieved in the world. Rich or poor we all have reasons to create, life is a continuous creation from chaos to order, special people have the ability to bring order into the world. I salute one of the hero's of my time, the world is sad at his loss.

The Concubine's Tattoo

Barnes & Noble.com - Books: The Concubine's Tattoo, by Laura Joh Rowland, Paperback


Wow! this is a page turner. I have been bored with reading too much factual...so I picked up this and I can not put it down, it is full of suspense and exotic scenes from another world. You will love it...

London Trial of Al Gore Film

Click here: Al Gore told there are nine inconvienient truths in his film - Times Online
Here is another look at the film, which according to Television news has earned $100 million dollars profit for Al Gore. Your opinion?

Dusenberg model maker, terrific!

Interesting internet article and great picture of the Dusenberg we own.

Click here: Duesenberg SJ Walker LaGrande Torpedo Phaeton - Ultimatecarpage.com - Images, Specifications and Information

Click here: http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/images/Wingrove17.jpg

Greenwich car show

The car show was set up for American cars on Saturday , foreign cars on Sunday. It was a hot weekend, but the show was great, as was the visit they planned for the exhibitors at Netjets!

We loved the tour around Greewich and the hospitality, except for the parking . We parked in the nearest lot with the big rigs., perfect for us. All of big rigs were off to the side of the lot.

We were all told to leave, for another lot, that was inadequate for trailers of all sizes, because of the height of the driveway. Each trailer scraped and dragged its way in, and we were too big, for the lot!

Finally , the police took mercy on us and moved our rig over to the public works lot off exit 4. What a relief, but we dragged the hitch and bent it, and had many exercises in maneuvering in small lots with a 45 foot motor home pulling a 22 foot trailer...


Click here: Hot stuff at car show - Greenwich Time

Love, the meaning of

Watching the invasion of Normandy, on the History Channel, I could not help but think of the tremendous loss of LOVE, in the world on that day. LOVE of family, children, mother's, fathers, everyone sacrificed, present and future love. I believe that we need to look at this event from the point of view of LOVE.

The men said,"We are not heroes, we just did our job." Their job entailed a tremendous loss of LOVE all of it wiped out, as rivers of blood poured into the Atlantic Ocean on the beaches of France, in a battle between what looks to be Good against Evil. Hitler was driven by his visions that he was destined to control the world. The world responded to that vision of conquest through death and destruction, in kind.

Has there ever been a winning, by other means? Will we prevent a future war by talking? Talking and Peace treaties do not seem to be holding. Is the consciousness of the world ready for the higher step, we long to take?

Education, freedom from agrarian beliefs, freedom from the idea that your birth legacy is the correct way to live, think and adore our maker, are we ready to quit these ideas? I say we are not prepared. I wonder, if we are fair yet, in our judgements.

The people of the Amazon, are bursting into the civilized world, yet, the documentary on them states that we want to keep them within their own civilization. Isn't this what we are trying to overcome? Isn't this incongruous?

Physics of the Impossible

The book, Physics of the Impossible, is a fun read, bringing lots of fun things into the realms of possibility.

The author divides the ideas into three classes, maybe we could realize these within a century for the first group, the second violates no laws of physics, but are less plausible, and the third group, violate the laws of physics, so seem within the realm of impossibility.

The thought that some of the dreams of science fiction and futuristic technology may not, cannot come true, is hard to swallow, because, if we are beings of light, and creators of our own environment, maybe we can make it what we want it to be . The laws of science have been established and then shown to be different in the past, could this happen again, with new ideas, new breakthroughs? Why not?

I am thrilled as a lay reader that Micho Kaku, provides me with an opportunity to know the difference between possible and impossible, as we understand physics today. I wonder, as people change places on earth, as history comes to be made and goes to be studied, as the past recedes and the future becomes, does the impossible also become possible?

Intent

Years and years of questions and answers, sometimes lead nowhere, but last night in my dreaming state, the thought came to me, and it does appear to have merit., that we are beings of light.

As a college student the philosphy professor asked, "If there is a tree in the forest that falls, and no one is around to hear it, is there a sound?"

In those days, no one thought to ask," if there is no one to see the forest, or see the tree, does it exsist? "

In quantum theory, we know the particle is seen only if there is an observer, yet light exsists without an observer.

With this in mind, it appears that we are beings of light, and that we are here with the intent to observe, therefore, what we observe exsists, and what we do not observe is non exsistant in particle form, everything is light/waves. We exsist with intent to exsist and intent to observe, and when our time in the play of life is reached, we leave particle form to become a wave of light again.

This takes my thought even further, I am convinced that we have lessons in love to learn in this world, and that the main intent of being an observer is to learn lessons in love., or to help others learn. One can not think of love as just giving, it is more than that, and the depth of love is learned in many ways, too numerous to discuss, but never too numerous to learn.

Should we turn our cheek when the Terrorists attacks us? Should we as a nation allow ourselves to be called Terrorists? The depth of the questions and the answers are deep, thoughtful and heart wrenching. Choosing to become, is for the brave, for those of us who have agendas, not all good, not all bad, we are in a tug of war, between right and wrong just to learn how to love.

Is there really a devil? If there is a devil, is he a volunteer in the play of life, so that we have forces of evil to work against, or is he real? Was Hitler a volunteer in the observation of the life play that we call The Great War , that he had the lead in, or was he the devil incarnate?


Are the people in the United States that call our own country a Terrorist nation, really believers that our country has stooped to that dimension in the play of life, or are they taking volunteer parts to get us to review our actions, our directions and our intentions.

When we established our Nation, we formulated it on the Bible , justice, freedom of religion, wonderful rights that caused many in the world to long to become part of the United States. My Grandmother came to the United States around the turn of the Century with her brothers, and her three children, for a better life.

Let freedom ring, and it did, it was our Intent to be free, to live in a land where there was justice, opportunity to get ahead, to learn, to grow, wihout opression, from Government, or other powerful groups.

Where is the belief of the Founding Fathers today? Is it strong enough, to give us back our Intent, to be a shining Nation, a prmised land where the streets where paved with gold, as so many immigrants thought?

Our forebears did not have it easy, but they were not constrained either. Opportunity was everywhere, and they struggled. Each small struggle showed that the Intent was there, to become better. Intent, caused some poor people to begin to rise above poverty level, as my family did. As they stepped up the ladder they made room for people of Intent to join them.

Intent, love for mankind and lessons in love, are the only reason for our being here.
Remove all your clothes, dispense of all your possessions, they are only here by Intent, and what do you have left? Now you can ask yourself again, why am I here?

Am I here to gain clothing, housing, shelter from the cold, food, water, amass fortunes, lean on welfare, create jobs for others, pave the way for new comers to the world, or to grow the soul, in lessons in Love., in all the ways provided by the Intent we carry with us.

Antique Bentley Tour

The site of the 2008 Bentley Tour was the Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vermont. I looked it up on the computer and saw some remarks that made me wary of the condition of the rooms. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were clean and comfortable. The bed was reminiscent of Austria, and the food was terrific, more than enough with fresh baked pastries and breads.

We enjoyed the tour, especially the Smugglers Notch. We entered the gap at Smugglers Notch in the morning around 10 am, heading north. This turned out to be the best time and best direction to approach the gap. The light was perfect, the scene was surreal. I felt as though I was in a contemporary art gallery, as we passed the hugh stones, surrounded by trees spaced out in the special light. If you go to the gap, please be sure you go north in the morning. We returned later in the day and the effect was still great, but, the approach heading south will not give you the same feeling.

The Soul Genome by Paul Von Ward

This link is to a pod cast..
.http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/oas-150-the-soul-genome-with-paul-von-ward-part-2/8683500/

This book is an interesting and very plausible beginning on the road to lifting the veil of mystery. In thinking about the book, I remembered a book I read shortly after my daughter died, it gave me hope and I loved it. In fact, I was drawn to the book store the day I bought it. Crying over the loss of my daughter, I decided to take a ride, and as I approached the book store, I decided suddenly to go in and look for hope in the aisles.

I walked over to the new book section and as I browsed, this book, fell out of the books into my hand. I did not have any idea what it was about, but, it caught my attention and after I read it, I began to think about the co-incidence of finding it, the way I did.

The Hearts Code....talks about the results of heart transplants and how people change as a result of a transplant. It is a breathtaking book, written by a doctor who had a heart transplant himself. Read the review, from the link.
http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Code-Paul-P-Pearsall/dp/0767900952

The Hearts Code is yet another factual story, an interesting possibility of the existence of a soul, separate from the matter that we are encased in, yet enter twined in that matter, to the point where it still exists in the organs that are transplanted.

When you are cremated, do you thus remove all portions of the soul, that are still in the organs that have not given up with brain death? Is this why Buddhists desire cremation, as my daughter did, after embracing Buddhism?

The Soul Genome, speaks of Rupert Sheldrake's studies, and Dean Radin (Entangled Minds) and their findings, both of which I am familiar with. It is certainly worth getting these three minds in a room and having them discuss what they are working on, together. Why is this not believable?

As I read , The Soul Genome, at around page 78, it occurred to me that this gives more fact to
the Virgin Birth, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, if true. Faith is necessary now, if you believe in Jesus. But, just think about this, if the possibilities of the soul entering separately into the new person are so, re-incarnated or not, then a Virgin birth could rise into the realm of possibility,and the crucifixion of Christ as described could be more plausible, and the mystery of what appears to be radiation on the Shroud of Turin, could be possibly radiation to cause the Resurrection.

Global Warming, more against Gore

Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor (Hardcover)
by Roy Spencer (Author)

Sometimes I sit and wonder why I am so interested in this, I have nothing to gain, and maybe will not make any difference, by my blogging. Last Saturday night, I was speaking with some friends and when I brought up the subject of the scientists that say we can not stop global warming, I was cut off quickly by someone who is a big fan of the movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", how can people be so blindly followers, of a movie?

How can we accept this movie and not accept the words of professors and scholars who have been studying climate change for most of their career? What makes us so set in our ways? Why do we see only what we want to see? I mentioned a book that was full of facts and information on people studying climate change, Unstoppable Global Warming, and I was told that , that is only one book, without her even showing any interst in keeping an open mind....because it is not in fact just a book, but facts, information and reasons for the conclusions the scientists are coming to.

Global Warming more interesting news

Anyone showing the Al Gore film, or speaking about global warming, should know, more than they obviously know from his film. this is from the Hawaii Reporter

Why 'Global Warming' is Not a Global Crisis
Special to the Hawaii Reporter
By Christopher Monckton, 1/22/2008 8:06:23 AM
I earned my Nobel Peace Prize by making the United Nations fix a deliberate error in its latest climate assessment. After the scientists had finalized the draft, UN bureaucrats inserted a new table, but with four decimal points right-shifted. The bureaucrats had multiplied tenfold the true contribution of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets to sea-level rise. Were they trying to support Al Gore’s fantasy that these two ice-sheets would imminently cause sea level to rise 20ft, displacing tens of millions worldwide?

How do we know the UN’s error was deliberate? The table, as it first appeared, said the units for sea-level rise were being changed. But the table was new. There was nothing to change from. I wrote to the UN that this misconduct was unacceptable. Two days later, the bureaucracy corrected, relabeled and moved the table, and quietly posted the new version on its Web site. The two ice sheets will contribute, between them, over 100 years, just two and a half inches to sea-level rise. Gore had exaggerated a hundredfold; the UN tenfold. Hawaii is not about to disappear beneath the waves.

The High Court in London recently ordered the British Government to correct nine of the 36 serious errors in Al Gore’s climate movie before innocent pupils were exposed to it. It was Gore who, in 1994, announced that Mars was covered in canals full of water. This notion had been disproved before his birth. It was Gore who recently spent $4 million of the profits from his sci-fi comedy horror movie on a luxury condo just feet from the supposedly rising ocean at Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco. No surprise that he and the mad scientists with whom he has close financial and political links are under investigation for racketeering -- peddling a false prospectus to investors in his “green” investment corporation by distorting climate science even after the UK judge’s ruling.

It is not so well known that the UN’s climate reports are also error-packed and misleading.

To begin with, the UN denies that global temperatures were warmer than today in the medieval warm period. It overlooks the dozens of peer-reviewed papers that establish this fact, and continues to rely on the bogus and now-discredited “hockey-stick” graph by which its previous assessment in 2001 had tried to rewrite history.

It was also warmer than today in Roman times, and in the Minoan warm period or Holocene climate optimum, when temperatures were warmer than today for 2000 years in the Bronze Age, firing the emergence of great civilizations worldwide. In each of the four previous interglacial periods, temperatures were 10F warmer than today’s. For most of the past half billion years, temperatures were nearly always 12.5F warmer than the present. So the warming that has now stopped (there has been no statistically significant warming since 1998) was well within the natural variability of the climate.

The only chapters in the UN’s 1,600-page ramblings that are worth close analysis are those which consider “climate sensitivity” -- how big is the effect of greenhouse gases on temperature? The scientific debate centers not, as the Greens try to suggest, on whether adding CO2 to the atmosphere will cause warmer weather (it will), but instead on how much warmer the weather will be. So the only variable that truly matters in this debate is lambda -- the “climate sensitivity parameter.” Here are just some of the UN’s errors and exaggerations in calculating lambda.

First and foremost, the UN’s crafty definition of lambda allows it to overlook the fact that the oceans -- 1,100 times denser than the atmosphere at the surface, and many times denser still at depth -- soak up a good proportion of any additional radiant energy in the atmosphere (see papers by Lyman et al., 2006; Schwartz, 2007). The oceans cancel a great deal of “global warming,” because the next Ice Age will arrive long before the oceans lose their capacity to take up heat from the atmosphere.

Next, the UN has unwisely repealed the Stefan-Boltzmann radiative-transfer equation, the fundamental astrophysical law that relates changes in radiant energy to changes in temperature. The entire debate is about exactly that matter. Yet in 1,600 pages the UN does not mention this crucial equation once. Result: the UN’s “no-feedbacks” value of lambda is way too high. As an eminent physics professor pointed out to me recently, if the UN were correct, global surface temperature would now be 20F higher than it is.

It gets worse. The UN’s computer models predict that in the tropics the rate of increase in temperature five miles above the surface will be three times the rate of increase down here. But 50 years of atmospheric measurement, first by balloon-borne radiosondes and then by satellites, show that the air above the tropics is not merely failing to warm at three times the surface rate: for 25 years it has been cooling. The absence of the tropical mid-troposphere “hot-spot” indicates that the computer models -- expensive guesswork -- on which the UN’s rickety case is founded are, in a fundamental way, misunderstanding the way the atmosphere behaves (Douglass & Knox, 2004; Douglass et al., 2007).

On top of the “radiative forcings” from greenhouse gases, the UN says the mere fact of temperature change will cause more change still, through what it calls “feedbacks.” The UN has hiked the feedback multiplier by more than 52 percent since its 1995 report, without quite saying why. Shaviv (2006) and Schwartz (2007) calculate that the sum total of all feedbacks is either nil or very small; Wentz et al. (2007) report that the UN has missed out two-thirds of the cooling effect of evaporation in its assessment of the water-vapor feedback; Spencer (2007) finds that the cloud albedo feedback, which the UN says is strongly positive, is in fact negative; Ahlbeck (2004, 2005) says the CO2 feedback has been enormously exaggerated.

I have mentioned a dozen scientific papers. I could have mentioned hundreds more that challenge the UN “consensus.” There has never been and can never be a scientific consensus on climate change. Lorenz (1963), in the landmark climate paper that founded chaos theory, stated and proved his famous theorem that the long-run evolution of mathematically chaotic objects like the climate cannot be predicted unless one knows the initial state of the object to a degree of precision that is in practice unattainable. Whenever you hear anyone recite the propaganda mantra “The Science Is Settled,” laugh at his redneck scientific illiteracy. The science can never be settled.

Schulte (2008: in press) reviewed 539 papers on “global climate change” in the scientific journals. Only one paper mentioned that “global warming” might be catastrophic, and even that paper offered not a shred of evidence for the supposed apocalypse.

Bottom line: a recent peer-reviewed paper (Lindzen, December 2007) says all the UN’s climate sensitivity estimates should be divided by three. We don’t have a climate problem. The correct policy to deal with a non-problem is to have the courage to do nothing. Don’t let your legislators in Hawaii waste time on this non-problem. The real problem of the 21st century will not be “global warming” but resource depletion, starting with oil. Let your lawmakers do some real work, and get to grips with that.


Gore predicts an imminent 20ft sea-level rise: but …

Gore does not believe his own prediction. He has bought a $4 million condo near Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco (marked “A” above).


The UK High Court judge’s verdict on sea level.

Zonal mean predicted atmospheric temperature change (ºC/century, 1890-1999), from two natural causes, three anthropogenic causes and a combined cause, simulated by the IPCC’s PCM model. The “hot-spot” signature of greenhouse warming is visible in (c) and (f) (IPCC, 2007, p. 675, based on Santer et al., 2003, & see IPCC, 2007, Appendix 9C).





Tropical mid-troposphere “hot-spot”: predicted (CCSP, 2006), but not observed (HadAT, in IPCC (2007).


Left panel: Surface global temperature data, 1979-2004 (HadCRUt). Centre panel: Satellite global microwave sounding unit data for 0 to 400 hPa (surface to 5 miles up), 1979-2004. (Christy et al., 2000, updated). Right panel: Radiosonde global temperature data for 850 to 300 hPa (1 mile to 6 miles up), 1979-2004 (Angell et al., 1999, updated). The UN’s computer models do not predict this steep real-world decline in the rate of global temperature change with altitude. Five miles above the tropics, temperature has actually been falling for 25 years.

Christopher Monckton of Brenchley is an international business consultant specializing in the investigation of scientific frauds. He is a former adviser to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is presenter of the 90-minute climate movie Apocalypse? NO! He wrote this oped for Hawaii Reporter. He can be reached at mailto:monckton@mail.com and more of his studies and reports can be found at http://www.scienceandpublicpolicy.org

HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com


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GLOBAL WARMING

Here we go again, with humans beings causing the climate change. Last night on televsion I listened to the reporters, who do not do enough research telling the world that we are now causing the magnetic storms to get uglier. The hurricanes, tornadoes etc are increasing, all because of human beings.

Wired, ,page 044, April, 2008 has an article, called," Here Comes the Sun", essentially, the article points out that every 11 years the sun goes through phases, On January 3,2008 ,scientists discovered a reverse- polarity sunspot signaling the start of a new cycle. The predictions for the next 4 years are dire, but not due to human beings, due to the universe. Again, the purpose of this is not to stop us from cleaning up our act, but to be aware, that even when we try to enable climate change from our efforts, there is not much we can do to prevent what is coming. What we have to do is prepare for the change.

The Genome of the Soul

The book,The Genome of the Soul, just crossed my path, when I was reading, "Shift", the April edition on line. So, I decided to do some browzing, I was excited about the possibilities that are developing along the line of a genome of the Soul.

When I was a teacher, I often thought of how sad it was to have children in the class that could never really succeed to the level of the other "kids". This does not happen only with the intellectually challenged, but even with normal intelligence. I remember Virginia Durgin, who was a math whiz, in elementary school with me, every question , her hand shot up before I could even begin to think of an answer. So, I sympathized when teaching with the slow learners and tried to think of ways to give them success. Often I felt we were not doing them a service, by putting them in the classroom to experience difficulties they could not overcome.

Now, perhaps some educators will consider the possibility that we should train children to be the best they can be, with the skills and intellect they have to work with. Success has much to do with happiness, and perhaps the early training for success in classes to develop the intellectually challenged to be the best they can be, will lower the prison population. We need to stop being politically correct at the expense of our fellow human beings. It does not hurt to try to improve the quality of life we offer our intellectually challenged children, and adults, with the right education, an education they can benefit from, not a vacuum that they can not fight against to enter. Here is a link to some reading on the subject.

http://http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Genome-Secular-Soul-Mauron.htm

The Classical Greeks

The Classical Greeks, by Michael Grant..wonderful if you are a scholar of ancient Greece. Ponderous if you are not.

Basically, the Greeks learned from the many wars, and power struggles, that cooperation was better than non cooperation. At the same time in history, deductive thinking became more prevalent as a fruit of the newly acquired leisure time, afforded by their society.

A burst of creativity led to further didactic thinking that traveled through the society, in paintings, and literature. This developed into more sophisticated presentations, as the creativity of the artists caught on encouraged by the release from the back breaking toil of centuries.

Largess toward others began, not only in the form of government , as the Greeks headed toward early Democracy, but in the sharing of the beauty of their creativity, through the arts.

What are the lessons of the ancients? I guess it is that we all need time to develop our own pattern of growth. Just as a child goes through stages of development each society has to go through stages of development. Each society, whether modern or ancient, has to develop a way to allow their people to rise up from the back binding toil of hand to mouth existence. Providing sustenance, is not enough, since we have not shown success with that program.

I happen to disagree with our elitist way of taking jobs from people in other nations, that are not being paid "sufficient money" , by out standards. Jobs are needed everywhere in the world, to allow people to rise into the different standards of living, from poor, to working poor, to middle class, and so on.

Just look at the mess we are in , in our own country. We had to wait for the figures to show that jobs where being lost during this recession, that started in August 2005. Anytime a major industry is in trouble, it has a trickle down effect.

My Dad, was not a scholar, but he knew, that our national industries, housing and cars, could have a devastating trickle down effect. That hint from our conversations, and the experience I have accumulated now convince me beyond a doubt, that we can not let our national industries fail without severe economic problems. Where jobs are lost, new ones must be created, not only job re-training, but new jobs in a related industry.

Maybe I am wrong in my deductions, but, I believe that if we put the construction workers back to work, on the most needed projects, rebuilding roads, and bridges that are over 50 years old , we will be on the right track. Pork barrel projects have unfairly used the taxes that are collected for the maintenance of roads and bridges, and when more disasters occur, what do we tell the loved ones? A bridge to nowhere in Alaska, was worth more than the life of your loved one who died on a bridge crossing the Mississippi.

Global warming

If you are feeling guilty about Global warming , it is time to stop listening to people who do not know anything about the studies , or maybe they do not want to know anything about the studies that have been done.

Anyone who is concerned about our planet, should be concerned about protection of the planet, but, should we go blindly ahead without knowing the scientific details? Should we be as sheep, who follow the pied piper, as he tells his/her tale, of woe?

Take a look at this book, which helps you understand how lucky we are to be living in a warming period on earth. In the midlle ages, there was a mini ice age. It is too bad, that there are among us, leaders who feel it necessary to say that the scientists who are saying that the earth goes through warming and cooling cycles are like people that believe that the earth is flat.

How dare anyone say that? Everything that we profess, we need to profess with a grain of salt, because so called truths , can prove to be wrong. Are the ice cores wrong? Is the fact that the Romans grew grapes in Britain, and that it is still not warm enough in Britain to grow grapes a mis-statement ? History unveils itself to those that search for answers, just as science, opens itself to those that search for answers.

Take a look at this article I copied for your convenience. There is a little summary of the book at the end of the chapter list. The book is easy to read, and as a justice to the people of the world, we should spread the word about the information in this book. Our teachers are teaching our children the wrong stuff...do we want this to continue? How many schools are showing the film, An Inconvenient Truth, when the truth should be taught from this book?.


NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
HOME / DONATE / ONE LEVEL UP / ABOUT NCPA / CONTACT US
The Physical Evidence of Earth's Unstoppable 1,500-Year Climate Cycle
NCPA Study

No. 279

September 30, 2005 Read Article as PDF | Get Adobe Reader





by S. Fred Singer & Dennis T. Avery

Executive Summary
Introduction
The Ice Cores
Seabed Sediments
Lake Sediments
Cave Stalagmites
Fossilized Pollen
Boreholes
Tree Rings
Mountain Tree Line Elevations
Glacier Advances and Retreats
Miscellaneous Climate Proxies
Summing Up the Worldwide Physical Evidence
Sidebar: Climate Cycling in North America
Notes
About the Authors


Executive Summary
The Earth currently is experiencing a warming trend, but there is scientific evidence that human activities have little to do with it. Instead, the warming seems to be part of a 1,500-year cycle (plus or minus 500 years) of moderate temperature swings.

It has long been accepted that the Earth has experienced climate cycles, most notably the 90,000-year Ice Age cycles. But in the past 20 years or so, modern science has discovered evidence that within those broad Ice Age cycles, the Earth also experiences 1,500-year warming-cooling cycles. The Earth has been in the Modern Warming portion of the current cycle since about 1850, following a Little Ice Age from about 1300 to 1850. It appears likely that warming will continue for some time into the future, perhaps 200 years or more, regardless of human activity.

Evidence of the global nature of the 1,500-year climate cycles includes very long-term proxies for temperature change — ice cores, seabed and lake sediments, and fossils of pollen grains and tiny sea creatures. There are also shorter-term proxies — cave stalagmites, tree rings from trees both living and buried, boreholes and a wide variety of other temperature .

Scientists got the first unequivocal evidence of a continuing moderate natural climate cycle in the 1980s, when Willi Dansgaard of Denmark and Hans Oeschger of Switzerland first saw two mile-long ice cores from Greenland representing 250,000 years of Earth’s frozen, layered climate history. From their initial examination, Dansgaard and Oeschger estimated the smaller temperature cycles at 2,550 years. Subsequent research shortened the estimated length of the cycles to 1,500 years (plus or minus 500 years). Other substantiating findings followed:

An ice core from the Antarctic’s Vostok Glacier — at the other end of the world from Greenland — showed the same 1,500-year cycle through its 400,000-year length.
The ice-core findings correlated with known glacier advances and retreats in northern Europe.
Independent data in a seabed sediment core from the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland, reported in 1997, showed nine of the 1,500-year cycles in the last 12,000 years.
Other seabed sediment cores of varying ages near Iceland, in the Norwegian and Baltic seas, off Alaska, in the eastern Mediterranean, in the Arabian Sea, near the Philippines and off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula all also showed evidence of the 1,500-year cycles. So did lake sediment cores from Switzerland, Alaska, various parts of Africa and Argentina, as did cave stalagmites in Europe, Asia and Africa, and fossilized pollen, boreholes, tree rings and mountain tree lines.

None of these pieces of evidence would be convincing in and of themselves. However, to dismiss the evidence of the 1,500-year climate cycle, it is necessary to dismiss not only the known human histories from the past 2,000 years but also an enormous range and variety of physical evidence found by a huge body of serious researchers.

Loren Eisley

My favorite author of all time. I love his prose. I lived in his stories for many days during and after reading his books. There is not a big collection of writing by him, but what exsists is truly worth reading, for prose that will stop you in your tracks, and make you think about the beauty of the words. Here is one link to copy in to your browser.

www.amazon.com/Star-Thrower-Loren-Eiseley/dp/015...

Comments from the reviewers of The Invisible Pyramid. .

His writing delivered science to nonscientists in the lyrical language of earthly metaphor, irony, simile, and narrative, all paced like a good mystery."—The Bloomsbury Review


New York Times Book Review :
"A relentless haunting and haunted figure devils the man [Eiseley] and twists from him some of the best prose we have.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

A love story, but also a selfish story. by Gabriel Garcia Marquez...great reviews...Oprah chose it.

You can not put it down , once you get into it. The lead character is a selfish, mean defeating person, who focuses on his one great love, and destroys a young innocent girl in the meantime.
You become fascinated with the personality of this odd ball guy, and anxious to learn if he succeeds in his life long obsession.

His love is so tender and great for the one person he is obsessed with, but his actions with others are selfish and self satisfying.

The end of the story, was kind of ....well you will see.

Wired Magazine

I happen to pick this magazine up, at a doctor's office last winter, and found it interesting. Take a peek at the web site, and See if you agree. This month the title over the name of the magaine is Google's Plan to Conquer the Moon.

The business I am in requires me to study, design and work with floor plans and layouts, making the most of the space we have to work with to give our customers the most home they can get for the best dollar.
So, I love to look at ideas about how to use technology in the home. We can not use the fabulous ideas, because people at entry living housing can not always afford the wonders, but , when our business comes back again, from its present slouch, I will find a way to include some of the wonders of today, if possible. I happen to like the ideas on HP TouchSmart PC page 151..

Hyperspace:A scientific Odyssey

When reading the reveiw of Paul Davies, new book, I was able to recall reading this book. What fun! I love the chase! It is so exciting that our physicists are capable of putting pen to paper, and bringing us into their worlds. How I longed to understand the universe on their terms, how I wished I had been guided in that direction at graduation from high school It was not meant to be, even if I had the choice or the chance, because math and I are strangers at a certain point. Now, with the wisdom from age, and experience, I can luxuriate in the worlds that are painted in the only language I can understand, the written word, translated from mathmatical formulas of such beauty, I can only imagine them and wish, to be entered into that world of knowledge.

Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension
by Michio Kaku, Robert O'Keefe (Illustrator)
Product Details
Annotation
From the Publisher
From The Critics
Customer Reviews
Author Description

Product Details
ISBN: 0385477058ISBN-13: 9780385477055
Format: Paperback, 359pp
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Sales Rank: 20,818


AnnotationKaku, a physicist, paints a vivid portrait of the groundbreaking theory of hyperspace and its newest wrinkle--superstring theory.
From the PublisherAre there other dimensions beyond our own? Is time travel possible? Can we change the past? Are there gateways to parallel universes? All of us have pondered such questions, but there was a time when scientists dismissed these notions as outlandish speculations. Not any more. Today, they are the focus of the most intense scientific activity in recent memory. In Hyperspace, Michio Kaku, author of the widely acclaimed Beyond Einstein and a leading theoretical physicist, offers the first book-length tour of the most exciting (and perhaps most bizarre) work in modern physics, work which includes research on the tenth dimension, time warps, black holes, and multiple universes. The theory of hyperspace (or higher dimensional space) - and its newest wrinkle, superstring theory - stand at the center of this revolution, with adherents in every major research laboratory in the world, including several Nobel laureates. Beginning where Hawking's Brief History of Time left off, Kaku paints a vivid portrayal of the breakthroughs now rocking the physics establishment. Why all the excitement? As the author points out, for over half a century, scientists have puzzled over why the basic forces of the cosmos - gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces - require markedly different mathematical descriptions. But if we see these forces as vibrations in a higher dimensional space, their field equations suddenly fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, perfectly snug, in an elegant, astonishingly simple form. This may thus be our leading candidate for the Theory of Everything. If so, it would be the crowning achievement of 2,000 years of scientific investigation into matter and its forces. Already, the theory has inspired several thousand research papers, and has been the focus of over 200 international conferences. Many leading scientists believe the theory will unlock the deepest secrets of creation and answer some of the most intriguing questions of all
From The Critics
Publishers Weekly
Since ingesting Einstein's relativity theory 50 years ago, physics fell down a quantum rabbit hole and, ever since, physicists' reports to the world of popular science have been curiouser and curiouser. This version, from the author of the graduate text Quantum Field Theory , is very curious as he delineates the ``delicious contradictions'' of the quantum revolution: that the new paradigms of subatomic matter require the existence of ``hyperspace,'' an ultimate universe of many dimensions, to accomodate their mostly mathematical behaviors. Unified field theory as it is currently understood does not preclude any of the hypotheses that Kaku invites to this Mad Hatter's Theory Party: superstrings, parallel universes and, his centerpiece, time travel. Although occasionally facile, Kaku remains on solid theoretical ground up to the point of his untestable hypotheses, which lead to his more abstract arguments. In the past decade particle physics has lurched to astonishing contradictions and Kaku's adventurous, tantalizing book should not be penalized for promising more than present technology can test. His intellectual perceptions will thrill lay readers, SF fans and the physics-literate. Illustrations. (Apr.)
Library Journal

With erudition and wisdom, Kaku (physics, CUNY) has written a fascinating overview of the major scientists, discoveries, and ideas involved in an ongoing quest for synthesizing quantum mechanics and relativity physics into a superstring theory of our entire universe (unifying gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces). His clear and concise exposition in cosmology explores many topics, ranging from subatomic particles (e.g., quarks and leptons), exobiology, and black holes to wormholes, time travel, and other universes. Kaku stresses that modern physics still needs a more powerful topology mathematics in order to understand completely our expanding and evolving cosmos. Of value for both specialists and general readers, Hyperspace is an engaging and intriguing book. Highly recommended for all science collections in academic and public libraries.-- James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Booknews
Popular science writer and theoretical physicist, Kaku (physics, City College of the City University of New York), offers a look for the general reader into the newest scientific revolution: the theory of hyperspace. Discussion includes the fifth dimension, superstrings, wormholes, time machines, and the fate of the universe. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Author DescriptionMichio Kaku is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the City College of the City University of New York. He graduated from Harvard and received his Ph.D. from Berkeley. He is author of Beyond Einstein (with Jennifer Trainer), Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Introduction, and Introduction to Superstrings. He has also hosted a weekly hour-long science program on radio for the past ten years.
City College of the City University of New York

Books I loved

The Seven Daughers of Eve, by Bryan Sykes, the discovery of the maternal line of DNA, allows us to trace our genetic makeup back to prehistoric times, "to seven primeval women".

Sykes is a professor of genetics at the Institue of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University and his book is wonderful. I highly recommend it

The Divine Matrix, bridging time, space, miracles and belief, by Gregg Braden Gregg was a former senior aerospace computer systems designer, and he has been trying to answer many questions for himself, that we all want to dream of and answer. A book to ponder over. I noticed that I have many page markers to go back to during dreaming time.

I have not read, but I am looking at , The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart
and The Cosmic Jackpot by Paul Davies. Davies is particularly interesting to me, because I just read a brief review in my subscription magazine, Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness #16, Sept-Nov. Page 7 first column on the left.

The review states that Davies argues "for a grand cosmic plan. The universe, he believes , is filled with meaning and purpose. He goes on to suggest that human beings-through the sheer act of observation-may have helped shape the laws of physics billions of years ago. What's more he says the universe seems to work like a giant computer. Indeed, it's possible that's exactly what it is, and we-like Neo in The Matrix, might just be living in a simulated virtual world. " This quote was taken from, "We are Meant to Be Here" Steve Paulson,www.salon.com (July3,2007)

Wow! I love it...Davies is an eminent physicist who has written a number of great books, and received many rewards. I am going to that book site to review it some more, I am very interested in that idea. I have had thoughts that we are truly a reflection of a world beyond, that our loved ones return to after they complete their earthly journey, and I say that for reasons, that are hard to believe, but give deep thought to the idea.

Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life
by:
Paul Davies

HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

Historical Societies have much to offer our children and others. They tell the story of life, of globalization, of where we came from, and how we got here. They tells the story of where we are going. What better gift, then for a reunion class to remember the Historical Society of the town that they graduated high shcool from.

My dad was an immigrant from Salsa Maggiore, Italy, my mother was born in this country from Italian immigrants. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to grow up in Framingham, Mass., and I love to think about the history of the town, the people and how it came to be at one time the population center of Massachusetts and the typical American town in the 1950's. It was at that time that the United States government used Framingham as a bell marker for the country,

Famous people, companies, owners and their success came from Framingham, Perini Construction, Bianchi wedding gowns, Ken's Foods, Christa McAuliffe, etc. So hopefully our little Historical Society will be able to preserve , the immigrants, the children of the immigrants, and the change that came to our town in the 50's leading us into the new century. I suggest we consider a program for our museum focusing on these three areas, and that we call it,Becoming Americans.

Globalization, and understanding it

Bound Together, How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization by Nayan Chanda

This is a wonderful book to help those taking a stand on Globalization, to understand that it is a normal part of being human. Globalization began when we walked out of Africa.

Wow! I have tried to correct the spelling three times, and it will not work! I have allowed some posts to go without editing for that reason...sorry.

Rupert Sheldrake

Interested in morphic forms, and other similar events? This is the place to find. Rupert Sheldrake has a web site and this is the latest from that web site....If interested just type in Rupert Sheldrake in your browser . It should come up with information to his web site.

www.sheldrake.org/ - 28k


News Release from Rupert Sheldrake
11th September 2007

In August, at Hollyhock, on Cortes Island, British Columbia I took
part in trialogue with Andrew Weil and Ralph Abraham on recent
research on the placebo effect and mind-body relationships. This is
now available in streaming audio on my website, and can be accessed
through the stop press section on the homepage.

I’m also planning to appoint ten more Research Helpers in September/
October to help with the precognitive text message test and the email
telepathy test. Details are given on the website. If you are
interested, or if you know anyone who would like to take part, please
let me know.

The tapes of many of the trialogues between myself, Terence McKenna
and Ralph Abraham recently came to light, and we are putting them
online in streaming audio with a new one each month. There is now a
special trialogues page on my website, and Paddy Rose-Price is kindly
serving as the trialogues editor, providing a summary of each
trialogue so that you can see what the gist of it is and decide
whether you would like to listen to it.


Rupert Sheldrake

The Shroud of Turin

Christ told Peter before the cock crows, you shall deny me three times. The famous words from the gospel. Don't we all deny Christ, at some time in our lives, even the most devout believers, when we read something that challenges our belief, or when something happens that makes us wonder if there is a God? Even Mother Theresa, in her recently released letters stated that there was just emptiness ( in so many words) when seeking answers from God.



The Shroud of Turin has become an object ot doubt, to many who believed it to be the burial cloth of Christ.. It was reported that the examined cloth, could only be from the middle ages, until it was found that there was a layer of contamination on the cloth, from the middle ages and one had to get below the layer of contamination.



The subsequent discovery of the cloth being of the time of Jesus, was then cast in doubt because of the fact that spices were not found on the cloth, but rather plant remains. I would like to add here the information on the image that has been discovered, if you wish to review the latest finds



The miracle of this happening at any time in the distant past, is almost preposterous. Did you know there was a second face, on the back of the shroud, that matches the face on the front of the shroud?



Pictures of Jesus - The Second Face Picture - The Shroud of ...
Is the Shroud of Turin a picture of Jesus? In 2006, knowing that the carbon 14 dating was botched and knowing the sugar chemistry of the image, you decide.
www.shroudforum.com/ - 39k - Similar pages



I was promted to go to the shroud site while reading Desire of the Everlasting Hills, by Thomas Cahill, where I learned the name of the man who made the picture of the negative on the shroud, that came out positive to everyone's surprise.
THE FIRST SHROUD PHOTO
The proposal of Secundo Pia, to use a Shroud photo in the promotional ... Secundo Pia, planned his first trials on May 25, 1898, AFTER the closing of the ...
www.shroud.com/vanhels4.htm - 26k - Similar pages


About 7 years ago, the shroud was being displayed in Turin, Italy. It seems that every 50 years, people get the chance of a life time to see the shroud. We were in Italy and drove for hours from the Mediterranean area, with our friends, because I wanted to see the shroud. It was thrilling to have the opportunity.

We got to the Cathedral and it was closed, to open later in the afternoon. So, we gave up our parking space out front, and went to a very late lunch. Exhausted, from driving miles and miles,we lingered over lunch and then drove back to the Cathedral.



To our surprise, where there were no people earlier, there were now police, and lines of cars and people, no parking spaces, and outlying bus lots, where we had to go to park and now stand in line to see the shroud. Needless to say, I never got to see the shroud. The once in my lifetime occasion was missed. Oh, how I wish I had stayed at the Cathedral that day, and had been the first in.



But,somewhere I did see in one of the churches, the first picture of the man on the shroud, that I had ever seen in my life. I even saw a picture of the veil of Veronica. Yet doubt, has come to me on and off in my life, as I continue the journey to the answers.



I think the positive answers outweigh the negative answers. What have we to lose, to choose to follow the words of the gentle rabbi, who preached and demonstrated love in all its many facets, as the way to heaven.

Sir John Polkinghorne

Winner of the Templeton Prize in 2002, mathmatical physicist. After retirement he studied theology, and became an Episcopal priest. Everyone should know his name, as his contribution to the world is that science and theology are NOT opposed to one another, and by bringing forth this contribution, he has opened the road for new types and ideas of conceptual integration.

Why is this important? Faith can not be established by the scientific method, we have to search within ourselves for the answers. Hopefully science will help us prove through the scientific method that some of our faith based answers are true. But, if quantum theory holds true, what we are observing is only observed because we are looking at it. What we are not looking at, observing, is thus not seen. What we do not see is a wave that occurs at the same time as the observed. Hmmmmm!

In my estimation and conclusion from my readings, I agree with Shaye Cohen Ungerleider Professor of Jewish Studies at Brown, quoted fom section 90 in "Desire of the Everlasting Hills", by Thomas Cahill "Christianity, too is ( or at least once was) a form of Judaism. " The term Christianity was not added for a couple of 100 years.

Paul, who spread Messaianic Judaism was a persecutor of the Messianic faith, a learned scholoar of Judaism who fervently believed that the Messianic offshoot was a threat to the Pharisee rabbi version of Judaism. "Paul studied under Gamaliel, according to Luke, et al, the most renowned rabbi of his time", section 117 of Desire.

Here comes Paul, the Pharisee, after falling from his horse on the road to Damascus, having a vision, and now becoming the most fervent of Messianic followers ever to be. The man who will be responsible for carrying the ,"Good News". The first time in the ancient world that the good news was benevolent, is in itself striking!

Is there any doubt left that Christianity is a form of Judaism? As quoted in Desire, in the sidebar section 122, "We should not overlook how closely these most basic of Christian rituals adhere to Jewish models." He goes on to state that Baptism is as old as the Book of Leviticus, the rite of the Eucharist is a form of the Seder, and Missal a form of the Passover Haggada.

Any religion that threatens Judaism, is announcing essentially that it is also against Christianity.
This boils down to the totally unacceptable behavior that religion can incite wars and force beliefs on others. Somewhere, at some time in my growing up, the words I remember from always are, "The Kingdom of God is within you."

Iwo Jima

Mt Suribaci, and the raising of the flag. Have you ever thought how similar that must be to raising the cross of Jesus on the mount?



Often times I have thought that we have mini crucifixions in our lives, and when comparing something like this to the raising of the cross for Jesus, it appears that in our collective lives, we also have symbols of and mini crucifixions.

Somehow the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima equates to the loss of my childhood friend Bobby Thomas' brother Billie, who went off as a child, himself, probably 18 years old, to fight World War 2. I never met him, because I was just coming out of the fog of early childhood, when he went off to war. He may have died on Guadacanal, but in my childhood mind, I see the flag raising on Iwo Jima and recall that sad day, when our neighborhood stopped in mid stream, to register the shock of losing one of us! It became quiet that day, and somber for a week or two, while we all realized how close the war had come to our homes., while mourning his young loss of life.



Later, during the war, as I walked to first grade, I noted a gold star on the window of a home, and asked my Mom, why that was there. It and all the aspects of the war, frightened me. Didn't they know children were growing up?



I just finished reading The Secrets of Judas, it is too scholarly, and repetitive because it is a study, by James M. Robinson, about The Gospel of Judas in relation to other gospels and findings . It reads comfortably for awhile, but then it gets too scholarly, for the lay reader who is just trying to get the story.



Bascially, the gospels and other writings as determined by scholars are not original to one writer, and may have had more than one writer, portions could have been copied, or interchanged, or just changed, by who knows who, why or where.



The interesting conclusion for anyone to come to freely, is that Christ , no matter how you study him, no matter how you dice the subject matter, , no matter what, he changed the world to the good, and that is what counts. The Gospel of Judas, is Gnostic in conclusion and the gnostic belief was not in the man, Jesus, but in the spirit of Jesus the man, which was released at his death. So spirituality is the message in The Gospel of Judas, and I for one agree with that.

Belief in God, today on Doug Stephan/Uri Geller

Doug Stephan on his Good Day radio show( 8030am on your radio dial) between 3-6 am eastern time interviewed Uri Geller, and the talk started on magic, and mysticism ending up with belief in God.

Belief in God, comes from deep within, a searching of your own soul, as to the meaning of life . Why would we be here, for no reason? If there is no reason for life, then why is there life? Why is there joy in a child, the innocence of the child? Often I think of Wordsworth's poem, Intimations of Immortality, when contemplation of the meaning of life overwhelms me.

Today was an appropriate day, to contemplate my belief in God, because my dear friend is facing the loss of her daughter, as I did 3.5 years ago. It is a stunning loss to lose a child. The pain is always there, you never know when it is going to come mildly, or severly to your heart.

What comforted me most, during the dying, was that I felt blessed to have known and grown with my daughter Karen. Through her life long pain and suffering, we learned alot about life, and together we learned to believe in a hereafter.

Isn't it enough that we suffer constantly in our daily lives, without adding war to the mix? My
granddaughter who was only 7 when 9/11 happened, said to me that day, "Don't they know there are children growing up?"

How does God direct such actions? Would God do such a thing against his children? Has religion gone astray? What is the purpose of religion, if it is to kill people and or take over their minds and souls? For what gain, do we wish to take over the minds and souls of people? Is there ultimate power for the group pushing for this ? There has to be an earthly treasure, because there is ultimately no treasure in facing a benevolent and loving God, or spirit, who created us, knowing that we have worked at destroying what he has created.

Who would get your vote for Villan of the Century? Who has stirred up the most trouble in the world, as we enter the new Century, and for what reason? Go to incidents of terrorism map on the web and see the conflicts around the world, then think about what we have created here on earth.

Dr Inamullah Khan/Dr Dyson, physicist

Dr Inamullah Khan , Templeton Prize winner 1988...Secretary General of the World Muslim Congress, proponent of peace within and between the world religions. How wonderful that a Muslim has gained this , the greatest of all prizes in the world. Now, can we expect that a Muslim will once again get this prize in stopping the radical Muslim movement worldwide? Could we work for that in the Muslim world? Is there a man that can stand against the radical leaders, diminish their standing in the Muslim world, and gain the prize that to all of us, should be the most highly desired.

As Dr. Freeman Dyson, physicist, said, when he received his Templeton prize...."How little we yet know, how eager to search and learn?"(page 156)

At the public ceremony at Washington's National Cathedral, he said, "The greatest unsolved mysteries are the mysteries of our exsistence as conscious beings in a small corner of a vast universe. Why are we here? Does the universe have a purpose? When comes our knowledge of good and evil?" (PAGE 154)

Quotes are from ,John Templeton, supporting scientific research for Spiritual Discoveries

Truly, is there a greater quest?

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

The story about a young shepherd, who learns to follow his heart and soul, by living in the present, rather than the past, in doing so, his future will be allowed to come to him as he chooses it to be.



It is the whole idea of what we are here for in a short tale about life's adventures through the eyes of a young Spanish boy, who chases a treasure. Don't we all chase a treasure? How many of us realize that the treasure is not money wealth, but well being? If you are happy, if you follow your heart and follow your soul ,things will work out. The universe is there for you, listen to it and it will listen to you. This is a great introduction into the many books that are now presenting about quantum theory and how we as human beings are affected by this new learning about the universe.


I was reading Genghis Khan , but interrupted it because my grandson wants to read,
The Alchemist too, so it will be a great gift for him to get this message before he leaves for college. Note that I spelled Genghis wrong in my previous blog....I think I have seen it as Ghengis, and Genghis, so the spelling is ? Probably Genghis.

Ghengis Khan

Got trapped with out the book I was reading, so I started Ghengis Khan. It is astonishing that people think of the Mongols as vicious raiders of the steppes, when in fact, according to this book they united the world of ideas. The Mongols, carried across their conquered territories the ideas from many countries, bringing nothing from their world, but bringing everything from the conquered worlds.

They took the best and combined the best with the best of other cultures and in doing so they carried the world out of the dark ages and into the beginning of the Renaissance. They brought ideas, such as central fair government, new weapons of warfare, they penetrated enemy lines to spread fear and keep down the number of deaths, etc. Kings and Emperors were treated as the common man, no one was better than another. Astonishment, is what I am coming away with, in the beginning of this book.

The descendants of Ghengis Khan ruled for 700 years! The number of people and countries Ghengis managed to conquer and bring together under one rule, is astonishing. There is something to learning about the time of Ghengis Khan, that helps one to think about the spread of ideas in the ancient world. How and why the Renasissance started under the influence of one man of power, and how that relates to the world today? Interesting question! I will keep you posted.

Some serious reading going on

Just finished The Jesus Papers, by Michael Gaigent , put it in your browser, publisher Harper... you can then see the controversy, the television comments, etc. Does it matter to you that Jesus was a man? Does it matter to you that the Catholic Church created a myth around the figure of a man, who had moved the world to a new form of "Judaism'", as some refer to the Catholic religion?



What about a man (Jesus) that could say this, " If the flesh came for the sake of the spirit, it is a miracle. But, if the spirit for the sake of the flesh- it is a miracle of miracles." This is from the Gospel of Thomas discovered in 1945, Quoted from The Mathematical Experience, page 54 by P. Davis and R. Hersh, which I am reading along with Desire of the Everlasting Hills, by Thomas Cahill.



Ghengis Khan, is on the after burner, because as I was reading The Jesus Papers, my friend Skip recommended a book, that I am waiting for. While looking at the review for the book Skip suggested, I came across, Desire, and it was so close to the Jesus Papers I thought why not stay with Jesus for awhile, while I am in that world.



Interesting to note, the Temple when destroyed in 70, was then represented by the Temple in Egypt for a few hundred years, according to The Jesus Papers. Egypt was the land of mysticism, and it is thought that the ideas that Jesus came forward with, where learned in Egypt. In other books maybe by this same author, the teaching of the Egyptians, followed Moses into the promised land, since Moses was a Pharoh, he had to be ordained into the secret mysteries. There where divisions in the Jewish beliefs, at the time of Jesus, the orthodox beliefs were predominant, they had lost the mysticism of the past, and focused more on the flesh, such as the forebearers, and the line that carried the blood.

It is an interesting read. What it boils down to, is that like any religion the story is set by the authors of your religion, to what people are willing to accept and believe as the truth, but if you are spiritual, does it really change anything for you? Was Jesus worthy of sainthood? Does it matter if he is not God, but a Saint? What does any of this matter, except to bring us to the realization that religion is all seeking the same answers. Where do we come from? What is our purpose on earth? Shall we blindly follow murderers in the name of religion? Heaven is within us, and so are the answers.



I went into Desire of the Everlasting Hills, as my next read, because it discusses the world before and after Jesus. When I read a book, I enter that world, and want to stay in that world, while it is still in my mind. This book has fabulous reviews from the New York Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer. Will keep you posted on how it feels to read it, after The Jesus Papers

Lifelong learning

When I came across my high school graduation picture, the memories flooded back. I remember being overcome with lonliness for the future, because all my friends were going off in different directions. Some went to work at the telephone company for life long careers. I did not know what my future was going to bring me, because I wanted to go to college, but my mother and father, said that girls did not go to college. It was a waste of money, since girls got married, had children and stayed home to raise the children.

The fall of my senior year, Dad died. It was a year of tremendous pain and turmoil for the whole family. My whole life had been built around making Dad proud of me, showing him I could be as good as any son. But, now, my reason for being, my reflection plate was gone. I no longer could see the love I had for him, or him for me, in the reflection of his face, and I did not know what was to become of our family. Mom was lost in the lonliness of being a widow. Frank was only 12, and maybe too young to realize how this loss would affect his growing up. Dutifully, I followed my Mom's advice and attended secretarial school the summer after graduation. It was not a happy time. Then Mom found out that to work in a Doctor's office I needed a medical secretary degree from a two year college. She relented and let me go to Lasell Jr. College with my best friend, Barbara. It was still learning to be a secretary with medical knowledge tossed in. I was not happy. It was not my goal, it was my mother's goal. Sometimes I wonder, if we ever really learn from our mistakes, do we repeat them with our children. Do we make new mistakes, because we are afraid of committing the ones our parents made? Parenting is not perfect for anyone. All we can do is hope for our children to find their niche their path in the world, with purpose.

July wedding of , Juliette and Frank

Our lovely friends Juliette and Frank, finally were able to tie the knot, it was a beautiful second wedding for two deserving people who are committed to each other.

The highlight of the day was the tribute from Frank's grown son, to his father, and new mother.

Pictured with us at the wedding are our wonderful friends,

Gemma and John. You can see she is a beautiful Irish lady, full of fun, a former psychiatric nurse. John is a scientific patent attorney, very brilliant. We met through the sport of coaching. I am on the right, Howard is next to Gemma

Here we are coaching with a troika, Russian style., 3 horses up front. Naturally, Howard has tried every thing from 1,2,3,45,6 horses in a team. It get more difficult with more horses , naturally. This is in the front yard, with the 1912 Pierce Arrow in the background. We entertained this early evening to raise money for the cancer care center at the hospital in town, kicking off the fund raising. I am on the box seat next to the driver, and Howard is looking over my right shoulder. We were dressed formally for the occasion.(circa early 1980's)

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Consilience in action

At the Land trust dinner last night, I had a conversation with a former teacher, who immediately declared me his enemy, because I represented, construction noise, houses, and traffic. (He is opposed to development, now that he has his house). In essence he is declaring what many selfish people declare, that everyone around him/them, should not be allowed to sell their land to developers.



Harmony, is what we all want, and when we do not like the by-laws of the town we live in and when change comes, we have the freedom to pick up and move, rather than to deny our neighbor his rights under the law. Unfortunately, many people would rather deny their neighbor than to upset their own status quo. What is new under the sun?



In thinking about the contentions, a major one is property. Who owns it, how can I control it, reap rewards from it, and make it mine without paying for it? Bam! we are back in the ancient world! The Roman Empire was at its height and the Jews were fighting for the right to take back their land, practice their religion, and terrorists (Zealots) were at work, stoning the Roman soldiers and driving them out, only to have them return in more force, and more destruction of the Zealots. Consilience has a major role in the happenings of that time, what natural underlying laws of nature were causing the continuing violence, and how could it have been solved by the Romans who stepped out to grow an empire, with great success for a long period of time?



Consilience is interesting as we apply it to the problems of life. There are a million questions that you can pose, and discuss, about how far we should go, to provide happiness and equality to everyone. Is that the right role of us individually or collectively? If everyone is created equal, why are women paid less then men, and considered less valuable, in the rank of society for one example. Why are the borders closed to illegal immigrants, if they are equal, should they be allowed to travel anywhere they want in the world for a job? Do we need man made laws if everyone is equal ? You might think that this is leading to foolishness, but, in fact it is leading to deeper thinking about ourselves, our posturing, our laws, our abilities and what in reality we face on this earth.



To me it is clear that we are not all equal. We all have different problems and challenges to face.

Is it a challenge to figure out how to stay on welfare your whole life, or is the real challenge to face what kind of job you can hold, even if only one day a week, for four hours. People with fear of going out of their home, would they allow themselves to die, if they had to cooperate in the cave for food? On and on, we could go, about how we treat people on welfare, paying them to get rid of their problems instead of working to help them become able to face the challenges of life. Our actions commit generations of children to welfare existence, in my opinion, maybe not yours, but I sure would like to know you thought hard about what I am saying.



What would happen, if instead of handouts, we provided jobs, and you had to be at the job, picked up by a bus and delivered home by a bus, to get your welfare check. Your children would come with you and be cared for in a day care situation, so there is no excuse to stay home with babies. You would not get your own apartment , but rather a room, or number of rooms in a rooming house. Everyday, you would be expected to do something for your check, just as the original cave people did, every one according to his ability limited as it may be, had a chore or chores to do, survival depended on cooperation.



That is enough consilience for the day, but gives you something to think about, as you daydream your way through the improving future. Are we doing our soul work on earth?