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Stranded, Long-beaked Common dolphin

Many times I’ve been silently joyed to see dolphins cruising the surf on southern California beaches. They find me and I find them. I’ve seen them happily surfing the pressure wave off the bows of medium, fast ocean craft on which I’ve been a passenger. To me these are mystical, brilliant creatures with which I strongly identify. Their welcome presence is noted in thousands of years of our kind’s cultures, around our tiny blue planet. I sometimes see them in meditations. I sometimes dream them.

When they’re alive and healthy, they’re my miner’s canaries that Earth is well. Only once in my half-century of life have I personally seen any cetacean stranded on any beach. This was that time. I’ve seen hundreds of beaches, thousands of times, in 11 countries.

You may have heard of recent, mysterious cetacean strandings which are happening on both coasts of North America. This is one. Before I left the lovely sunset scene on a beautiful beach at which millions would envy the experience, I thank whatever, whoever made me turn one last time toward the Sun and notice this one, lifeless.

I know people, and I know the Earth. That I found this seemingly unhurt dolphin dead this evening, on Sycamore Canyon Beach at Pt. Mugu State Park, California, is an indication to me of a planet in deep trouble. You and I have choices, and now is the time to make them. Not later. Now.

The reason I’d want to know why this dolphin died would be to ascertain what could be done for it not to happen to others. Gershon Cohen, my founder friend at the Great Whale Conservancy, and his co-founder Michael Fishbach, wrote to me that this is a Long-beaked Common dolphin.

Its colors were quite beautiful and subtle, both thalassic and Earthy. Its greys were slate or ocean grey. Its tans were like a foothill flower common here after it dries, Everlast, or the color of desert soil. Its white was like chalk.

Stranded, Long-beaked Common dolphin from left

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David Koch*

Never has the aphorism, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” been more apropos than when it was confirmed that über-rich, right-wingers like the Kochs and the DeVos have been systematically repressing science about anthropogenic Earth changes. Of course, now they’ve been found out, and the tips of their disappearing icebergs are showing. Dark puns noted. Since you’re reading this, *you* already know that corporate media have been kneeling at the altar of corporate advertising dollars for decades, and you won’t see them standing about this anytime soon.

It’s not an over-statement that the actions right-wingers or theocratic rightists have taken are systematically linked to drought, starvation, human deaths and social unrest. You do the thinking and follow the big money. Let the facts which underlay George Monbiot’s article in the UK’s Guardian, “The educational charities that do PR for the rightwing ultra-rich,” start the talking for you:

“Conspiracies against the public don’t get much uglier than this. As the Guardian revealed last week, two secretive organisations working for US billionaires have spent $118m to ensure that no action is taken to prevent manmade climate change. While inflicting untold suffering on the world’s people, their funders have used these opaque structures to ensure that their identities are never exposed.

The two organisations – the Donors’ Trust and the Donors’ Capital Fund – were set up as political funding channels for people handing over $1m or more. They have financed 102 organisations which either dismiss climate science or downplay the need to take action. The large number of recipients creates the impression of many independent voices challenging climate science. These groups, working through the media, mobilising gullible voters and lobbying politicians, helped to derail Obama’s cap and trade bill and the climate talks at Copenhagen. Now they’re seeking to prevent the US president from trying again.

This covers only part of the funding. In total, between 2002 and 2010 the two identity-laundering groups paid $311m to 480 organisations, most of which take positions of interest to the ultra-rich and the corporations they run: less tax, less regulation, a smaller public sector. Around a quarter of the money received by the rightwing opinion swarm comes from the two foundations. If this funding were not effective, it wouldn’t exist: the ultra-rich didn’t get that way by throwing their money around randomly. The organisations they support are those that advance their interests.

A small number of the funders have been exposed by researchers trawling through tax records. They include the billionaire Koch brothers (paying into the two groups through their Knowledge and Progress Fund) and the DeVos family (the billionaire owners of Amway). More significantly, we now know a little more about the recipients. Many describe themselves as free-market or conservative thinktanks.

Among them are the American Enterprise Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council, Hudson Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Reason Foundation, Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Mont Pelerin Society and Discovery Institute. All pose as learned societies, earnestly trying to determine the best interests of the public. The exposure of this funding reinforces the claim by David Frum, formerly a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, that such groups ‘increasingly function as public relations agencies’.” Read the rest here.

*: “… of Koch Industries, pictured here in his role as chairman of Americans for Prosperity at the Defending the American Dream Summit in November 2011. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images”

Related articles

• “The educational charities that do PR for the rightwing ultra-rich | George Monbiot” (guardian.co.uk)
• “Secrets of the Rich” (prn.fm)
• “Secrets of the Rich” (monbiot.com)

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Nuclear “storage” at Hanford, WA. Photo Planetsave.com.

From the Christian Science Monitor on 2-16-13:

“Hanford nuclear tank in Washington State is leaking liquids:

OLYMPIA, Wash.

The long-delayed cleanup of the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site became the subject of more bad news Friday, when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that a radioactive waste tank there is leaking.

The news raises concerns about the integrity of similar tanks at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation and puts added pressure on the federal government to resolve construction problems with the plant being built to alleviate environmental and safety risks from the waste.

The tanks, which are already long past their intended 20-year life span, hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons…” Read the rest here.

From Stephan A. Schwartz’ SchwartzReport is this note about this Christian Science Monitor article:

“These tanks of nuclear waste are dotted across America. They are, as the report explains, often long past their planned lifespan because the governmental agencies delegated to oversee the nuclear industry failed in their duties and were captured by the industry. The potential for disaster grows day-by-day. And when one remembers that this stuff has to be maintained in impeccable continuity for 25,000 years, the absurdity of nuclear power becomes obvious.”

This again puts what we *think* has happened – and is still happening - at Fukushima in the proper perspective. Or Chernobyl, or Three Mile Island, or Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley at the Santa Susana Field Lab. At Santa Susana, the Los Angeles Times reported that a single nuclear accident released 240 times more radioactivity than did 1979′s Three Mile Island. Now ask yourself if you believe the most toxic and long-lived substance known, nuclear materials, will be safe or sane to handle for tens of thousands of years.

Bear in mind that medicines prescribed by medical doctors work in your body at a concentration of as little as 0.035 parts per billion (ppb), as does NuvaRing. One part per billion is equivalent to, “…one pancake in stack of pancakes, 4,000 miles high.”

One dose of albuterol delivered at 2.1 ppb stops an asthma attack. Paxil and Cialis are active at 30 ppb. This is reported in Environmental Working Group’s video, “Ten Americans.” The video is also funny in addition to sobering. Low exposures to now common, toxic chemicals matter. The less common nuclear chemicals are even more toxic and the dangerous levels of exposure are even lower, and they are measured in different units. The diseases caused by nuclear accidents often take generations to appear, and they affect every living thing on Earth. The environmental destruction caused by nuclear accidents is incalculable.

If you’d like more background on the toxic doses needed to cause disease or birth defects from nuclear materials, I’d recommend looking at physician Helen Caldicott’s site, Nuclear Free Planet. Look up the word, “dose,” and see what results are returned for you.

The next time a government or utility or company tells you nuclear is safe, you’ll know better.

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If you’d care to see what Exxon seemingly had scrubbed from broadcast, here ’tis. This spot was brought to you by the Other 98, Oil Change International and Environmental Action.

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From Farmers Weekly

This news report, “US farmers may stop planting GMs after poor global yields,” comes from Farmers Weekly:

“Some US farmers are considering returning to conventional seed after increased pest resistance and crop failures meant GM crops saw smaller yields globally than their non-GM counterparts.

Farmers in the USA pay about an extra $100 per acre for GM seed, and many are questioning whether they will continue to see benefits from using GMs.” Read the rest here.

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For those of you who’d enjoy an accessible digest about the dangerous lack of safe science behind the U.S. advent of GMOs, I’d recommend that you read Stephan A. Schwartz‘ excellent article, “The Great Experiment: Genetically Modified Organisms, Scientific Integrity, and National Wellness,” in “Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing” (Volume 9, Issue 1 , Pages 12-16, January 2013).

Tumorous rats fed GMO corn

“In September 2012, pictures of seriously tumorous rats (Figure 1) went viral across the Internet, setting off passionate and acrimonious exchanges between proponents and opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Charges and countercharges flew like verbal grapeshot across the various levels of the digital world and scientific media as each side tried to spin what these photos meant.

‘GMOs may be creating an entire generation of cancer victims who have a frighteningly heightened risk of growing massive mammary gland tumors caused by the consumption of GM foods. We are witnessing what may turn out to be the worst and most costly blunder in the history of western science: the mass poisoning of billions of people with a toxic food crop that was never properly tested in the first place, wrote…” read the rest here.

Are you most inclined to trust the pseudo-science of a gigantic corporation which stands to make billions from selling you and your family toxic foodstuffs? Or are you most inclined to trust the aggregate reputations of mere thousands of independent scientists, whose primary headrush is good science, who might individually be earning just a family sized income? Consider this: in one of his books about anthropogenic change, James Lovelock mentions it’s nearly impossible to get scientists sitting in one room to agree upon anything. But here you have thousands of scientists from different countries agreeing that science behind testing of GMOs was completely flawed.

The stakes here are astronomically high. They’ve seldom been higher. The Earth is changing beneath our feet, caused by us. And if we don’t speak up for what we believe, our children will have Hell to pay. The U.S. government and the massive corporations which have corrupted scientific review of the data assessing whether or not GMOs are safe, are killing us softly while we accept their toxic, destructive conclusions.

*****

Now, if you need examples from real life about how I could make these shocking declarations, I’d offer you the anecdotes below. You don’t always need a scientist to tell you what you’re experiencing is real. Scientists are not priests, nor are priests scientists.

Consider carefully the sources of your data. Most of us, including me, don’t know everything about everything. I might next week. I’ll let you know. So you must come to depend on people and sources you trust who can interpret things for you. This has been a fundament of life on Earth for the last 15,000 years. Paraphrasing Arthur C. Clarke, the truth will always be stranger than science fiction.

The very same Stephan A. Schwartz who penned the article above once said to me, “…my life is about the arc of the data.” In context, he meant that he’s an honest seeker of truth through scientific study. He steers around sloppy science because the truth is far more fascinating and inspiring. He works diligently to do good science. Stephan is author and director of some of the most remarkable research projects and books I’ve ever seen chronicled. Every so often, I’ve met and talked with some of the respondents in his studies and books, people who are at the top of their own field.

A few years I noticed that Stephan was presenting at astronaut emeritus’ Edgar Mitchell’s Institute of Noetic Sciences, and I wrote that he’s a “courageous empiricist.” I’m sparing with that designation because I don’t find many of his mind. I wouldn’t currently include the brilliant thinker, Daniel Dennett, PhD in that group. Stephan once debated Dennett with Ed May in front of a group of ABC News executives, managers and staff; Dennett was rendered red-faced and speechless by an honest, simple question of Stephan’s. Dennett excused himself early from the debate, and I’ve read that guffaws from the ABC audience about his behavior encouraged his exit.*

It’s also my honor to know a rocket scientist friend – one who worked on the engines for the International Space Station. Two mutual friends introduced us. He’s humble, and has the kind of profession where he can’t really tell you exactly what he does for a living. When I first met him, he explained to me he does, “computational fluid dynamics.” Years later as I recalled for him that he told me that, he was mildly surprised and perhaps a little nervous that I’d remember such a casual conversation. He politely said he had never done that kind of work.

This rocket scientist is quite a good person – one who many of us would aspire to be like. He’s a good father and has a better memory than mine -  I didn’t attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We both appreciate beer. It’s a curious twist of life that we both share a passion for music from the band, Rush. We became concert buddies and shared enthusiasms about Neal Peart’s lyrics and the Rush brand of special speed metal. He has also introduced me to the guitar-driven music of the band Dada.

Once, I was excited about the possibility to discuss a book with my rocket scientist friend, “God is Not Dead,” from Amit Goswami, PhD. Goswami’s book is meta-physical, about accessible comparisons between upward causation (atheism) and downward causation (god or monism). Now, bear in mind that any rocket scientist will know lots about physics.

In beautiful southern California on a warm evening, my friend and I stood in the early evening Sun, in the parking lot of a popular concert venue before we entered. I had encouraged his honest opinion, although I could sense he wanted to hold back because he knew I was newly acquainted with Goswami. Once he understood I’d be open about his opinion, my friend dismissed Goswami as, “a quack.”  Point taken. But I don’t think he ever finished Goswami’s book because he found Goswami’s reasoning to be faulty.

On that occasion, my friend handed me two of Daniel Dennett’s books. At that point in time I didn’t know Stephan had debated Dennett, and I hadn’t an inkling my friend would offer Dennett’s thought. I think one of the two books was, “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea,” and in this moment I don’t recall the other one. In earnest, I took them home and started to read them. About 20 minutes into the first one, I had to put it down because I felt that Dennett was going nowhere I believed to be reasonable, based upon my own experiences and intuitions. I was surprised. I actually got an upset stomach from trying to read it. I’ve come to trust my gut instincts, as I’ve found them highly accurate. Eventually I returned the books to my friend, explaining that I couldn’t make it through them.

So, why did I ask you to read through all this? It felt like I needed to explain that its important you not only check facts yourself, but also it’s very important that you find the right experts, those who depend on real science instead of massive hush money. You know what to do. Trust your intuitions, instincts and experiences. Speak up.

*****

*: From Russ Targ’s book, “The Reality of ESP,” is this section of the forward by Stephan A. Schwartz on page XV:

“Along with Ed May, I once debated with Daniel Dennett, a prominent critic of ESP research, at an event produced by ABC News for station news staffs and station managers. We debated along for about thirty minutes, with Dennett making dismissive and disparaging remarks to anything Ed or I said, but always in generalities. Finally I said to him: ‘Let’s pick an experiment we both know, and you tell me what it wrong with it, and I will respond.’ Without a moment’s hesitation he shot back in the most deliberately condescending act I have ever witnessed, saying, ‘You don’t actually think I read this stuff, do you?’ There was a moment’s silence, the laughter began, first as giggles, then as chuckles, and finally, as guffaws. It suddenly dawned on Dennett what he had said. He blushed and sat down, and left as soon as he could.”

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Brainstorming? That’s new-school. Making fire, Fire in the Belly? That’s old-school and yeah – it’s your liver talkin’.

My excellent acquaintance, social business strategist, Aleks Blumentals from Siriti, gave this fascinating address about organizational change at TEDx Vilnius. The video is below. A transcript of Aleks’ TEDx talk, “About Being Bright,” is here.

There’s a subtle subtext to be inferred from this talk that not many of us will have heard about – that specific organs in the human body seem to have an “intelligence” on their own. Yeah, I know that’ll twist your Occidental melon. That’s one reason why Aleks would have mentioned Prometheus’ liver. This is not a new thought to humanity but it’s new because most of us have forgotten about it. Ancient Oriental traditions held it long before the new guys from Western allopathic medicine came around.

This talk was held in Lithuania‘s capital city. Aleks described himself to me as a “professional foreigner,” although he will stay for some time there. He grew up in Venezuela, has lived and worked in many countries and speaks several languages. As you listen to him, it seems that he’s among the few individuals who have original, creative thought all his own. He’s humble, so he might politely disagree and defer to the inspiration of his Muses.

Also, very worthwhile: Aleks and I talked at length via Skype about his very unusual first-of-breed, open-source dreams database, dreamer’s journal and community site, Dreamver.se™. Aleks and his partner, Veronica started Dreamver.se as an inspired avocation from her special, personal dreams.

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For an update on how anthropogenic climate change is affecting you and your family, you could tune in to Climate Reality Project’s “24 Hours of Climate Reality” global broadcast this evening at 5 PM Pacific time. You could also find out what you can do to solve things.

Here are some vids, starting with a funny, gallows humor reel:

 

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Nine months after the idea was conceived, my original essay about Gaia consciousness, “Dreaming Earth,” is now available on page 195 of Spanda Foundation’s special Journal issue, “Consciousness and Development 2.0: An Operating Manual.” Spanda created this issue, “… to highlight the newest directions of research and the latest advancements in the field of consciousness studies,” and it contains thought from many well-respected or popular authors in their fields and circles including Marilyn Schlitz, Stanislav Grof, Fred Alan Wolf, Roger D. Nelson, Amit Goswami and Riane Eisler.

Below is an image of the journal’s back cover. I thank Spanda’s founder, Sahlan Momo, for inviting me to pen my contribution. You can read it here. I hope you enjoy it along with the thought of the other people in this issue!

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This evening on a TED Radio Hour podcast via the NPR app of my iPhone 3GS, I heard an astonishing presentation by Marcin Jakubowski, creator of the open-source hardware project, the Global Village Construction Set. You simply have to hear it and see it to believe it.

Below is also his TED video.

From their Wiki page: “The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that enables fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.”

Imagine the 50 most important machines for a small village to sustain life, printed via 3D methods – eight times less than the cost of purchasing it from an industrial manufacturing company. Wow.

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Mike Austin

HealthyLife.net Arts & Entertainment hostess Ariana Kaiser interviewed me about meditation and the excellent activities of the David Lynch Foundation. At this page for a few days will be the first interview of four discussing what the Foundation does, which aired on 8-3-12.

The next interviews will feature Bob Roth (on 8/10), Vice President of the Foundation, Stephen Collins (No Ordinary Family and 7th Heaven) and Thomas Jane (Hung, The Punisher and Give ‘em Hell Malone). Below Ariana’s lovely picture at the page, click the A&E recording noted by the date 8/3/12 to listen! Bliss, blessings and whirled peas!

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Cotharin Rd. near Malibu provides a lovely view of California’s Channel Islands in the distance. Photo Mike Austin.

From Stephan A. Schwartz comes this in-depth, scientifically-inclined exposition on the positive effects of meditation. Because knowledge of, and understanding of high level performance has been Stephan’s stock-in-trade for decades, he has developed a very effective non-sectarian, non-dogmatic method for meditation which he includes in this essay, “Meditation—The Controlled Psychophysical Self-Regulation Process That Works.” Here’s its beginning:

“The sense of spiritual consciousness, connecting to something greater than oneself, is one of the most intoxicating realms a human can enter. Across the millennia such experiences have shaped the lives of individuals and, upon occasion, whole cultures. The experiences and their effects are historical fact. The question for science is not to deny them, but to seek to understand the processes by which they occur, and the domain into which they lead us. Central to these true stories is a special state of mindfulness, what the psychologist Charles Tart described in his classic 1972 Science paper as a state of consciousness.1

Stephan A. Schwartz

Whether it is a physicist achieving understanding of a physical principle, a spiritual pilgrim having an epiphany, a great painter or composer creating a masterpiece, or a remote viewer describing a teacup hidden in a closet, all report that when the experience is happening, when they feel that they are “in the zone” they are in a state of nonlocal consciousness. They experience themselves as being in a domain in which space and time are just informational enrichers, not limitations. They all report a timeless spaceless connection to something greater. For each the experience is modulated by their context and their intention, but regardless of whether they are physicists, painters, or meditators, it is essentially the same.

Although such experiences occur spontaneously only once or a few times in an individual life, almost every human culture has discovered they can be evoked and has developed practices, usually in a spiritual or religious context, for attaining this state. Similarly, all the martial arts have this component of mindful discipline, a practice of focusing intentioned awareness. Collectively, we have come to call these practices meditation.

This ability to open to nonlocal consciousness is a function of coherence, that is, intentioned awareness, and the ability to focus. There are two ways people achieve this state on a regular basis—one negative, the other positive—and the outcomes are quite different. The negative way is through the development of neurotic obsessions that compel us to such focus—this is, the realm of psychiatry. It can cause great pain and dysfunctionality. The positive way is the kind of training that comes from the consistent practice of meditation.

Of all the things that you can do to come to know yourself, nothing will serve you as well as developing the practice of meditation. Although meditation is often associated with Asian cultures, it is not Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Satanic, or any faith at all. It can be done in the name of any of these faiths, or without faith in a religion—as distinct from a spiritual sense. It is a single term defining many practices, some of which have no spiritual component whatever.

The purpose these paths—whether Christian, Muslim, or something else—all share is they are designed to give practitioners a measure of focused control over mind and body. Inevitably the paths incorporate some model of nonlocal consciousness, because the experience of mind connected to a greater whole is virtually universal among long-time meditators. Empirical observation across millennia has vouchsafed this effect. One ancient source of particular interest is the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, which date at least to the second century BCE. The Sutras speak at length about moving into nonlocal awareness through meditation.

Psychologist William Braud, who has made a particular study of this, notes: “The sixth, seventh, and eight ‘limbs’ of ashtanga Yoga are dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (profound absorption), respectively.”2

The Patanjali source refines this further, Braud explains. “The repeated continuation, or uninterrupted stream of that one point of focus is called absorption in meditation (dhyana), and is the seventh of the eight steps (tatra pratyaya ekatanata dhyanam).” When these three are practiced together, the composite process is called samyama.

Samyama might be translated as constraint; thorough, complete, or perfect restraint; or full control; it might also be translated as communion or mind-poise. Samyama conveys a sense of knowing through being or awareness through becoming what is to be known. Through mastery of samyama comes insight (prajna), and through its progressive application, in stages, come knowledge of the Self and of the various principles of reality (tattvas). With increasing yogic practice come a variety of mystical, unitive experiences, states, conditions, or fulfillments—the various samadhis—along with the attainments or powers (siddhis).”2

Although couched in Buddhist terms the Putanjali Sutras describe the same insights and processes concerning nonlocal functioning that modern research has discovered. For the first time in what I believe will be seen as one of history’s great confluences, the practices of the spiritual and martial traditions and the practices of science have found common ground, and reached the same conclusions.”

Read the rest here in “Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing,” Volume 7, Issue 6 , Pages 348-353, November 2011.

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Stephen Collins (Photo John Shearer/Invision for David Lynch Foundation/AP Images)

On HealthyLife.net’s Friday Arts & Entertainment segment, tomorrow, August 3rd, 2012, you can hear me talking with Ariana Kaiser about how the fabulous practice of meditation has given positive effect to the lives of millions of people. I’m one of them.

Ariana and I are doing a four-part series on the activities of the David Lynch Foundation, and in the next four weeks we’re interviewing David Lynch Foundation Vice President Bob Roth, and actors Thomas Jane (Hung and Give ‘em Hell Malone) and Stephen Collins (No Ordinary Family and 7th Heaven).

David Lynch (Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet) is, of course, the widely-regarded movie director. The first interview in the series is of yours truly, a meditator using TM since the mid-1970s.

This Wikipedia entry has a list of fairly surprising, notable people who are transcending meditators and includes athletes, politicians, business people, musicians, scientists, actors, journalists, fashion models, designers and authors. Listen in!

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The Bodélé depression, 17,000 square miles in the Sahara. Photo The Atlantic.

As a dedication in her 1973 book, Wholly Round, Rasa Gustaitis presents the Hindu proverb, “What is here is elsewhere. What is not here is nowhere.” What that means is pretty simple: if it exists, it affects other things. If it doesn’t exist, it doesn’t affect anything. For the Westerners among us, bear in mind that the Yoga Sutras are thought to have been written about 2,500 B.C.E.

Fans of quantum entanglement would appreciate this concept of distant effect as nonlocality. Aboriginal people might call it a Great Spirit. Environmentalists, geoscientists and earth spirits would all call it by different names. For the long time we’ve been on the life planet, we’ve spent the last 200 years trying to forget we have an impact. But it was never true we can’t have an impact, and never will be.

The spirit behind that Hindu proverb has informed my life and consciousness since I found Wholly Round in an Oxnard, California library around 1975. At that time, or even now, Oxnard would be the last place you’d surmise you’d find a book on cosmic consciousness. But, there it was, waiting for me.

Now slip through time to the present. From the pages of Atlantic magazine come this surprising little article demonstrating that we still don’t understand how Gaia functions. The Sahara desert sends 40 million tons a year of sand to the Amazon. In the article, “Today in Astonishment: The Amazon Rainforest Gets Half Its Nutrients From a Single, Tiny Spot in the Sahara”, the Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal explains that amounts to half the Amazon’s nutrients. I’d say that’s on the high side, but I would never feel like quibbling about such an inspiring, astonishing finding. Still, you might want to rethink the idea that deserts are wastelands.

For your salubrious astonishment, please read the article here.

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David Lynch, Russell Brand and Bob Roth

On June 30th, 2012, I chatted with David Lynch (Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet), Thomas Jane (Hung and Give ‘em Hell Malone) and Stephen Collins (No Ordinary Family and 7th Heaven) about meditation, which underlies all the David Lynch Foundation‘s activities. I covered the red carpet ceremonies of the Foundation’s “A Night of Comedy,” a tribute fund raiser for producer George Shapiro, as a journalist for Healthy Life talk radio. There I was introduced to the dynamic Bob Roth, Vice President of the Foundation, but we had to defer our conversation until later because he was directing the event.

But now we’re pleased that Bob will be our guest Friday after next, August 10, 2012, on HealthyLife.net’s Friday morning Arts & Entertainment segment with Ariana Kaiser and me. Listen in! We invited Bob to guest on Ariana’s show because of one key reason: when you’re cultivating sustainability in any sense, your decisions and actions are directly affected by your sense of calm clarity.

A natural outgrowth of mediation, regardless of the technique you use, is your ever-growing sense of compassion and connection to other people and the Earth. Your sense of ubuntu, or “I am because we are” grows gracefully over time as meditation calms you to see your connections with the world. Roth will talk with us about David Lynch Foundation’s programs which are now actively working in schools, the military, for women, homeless shelters and even prisons.

From his Website, Roth explains he has: “… helped to direct the introduction of the TM program to over 150,000 at-risk students in 130 public and charter schools in the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.“

And that: “He also serves a national director of the Center for Leadership Performance, where he helped to oversee the introduction of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program in business, industry, and governmental organizations. “… educator, author, and meditation teacher for nearly 40 years. He serves as vice president of the David Lynch Foundation and works closely with David Lynch establishing and overseeing Foundation-sponsored Transcendental Meditation programs in schools, colleges, and universities; American Indian reservations (for tribe members who suffer from diabetes); prisons and rehab centers; and homeless shelters, as well as programs for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bobby loves to travel for the Foundation, cares a bit too much (to his continued dismay) about the fate of the San Francisco Giants, and is mildly famous for baking during the cold winter months sticky-sweet cinnamon rolls for unsuspecting family and friends.”

Here’s a two-minute clip of Roth explaining how TM works. At that page are also vids thumb-nailing other aspects of TM including scientific research:

*******

Ariana Kaiser

HRN7 HealthyLife.net talk radio is syndicated/simulcast 24/7 over 58 distribution channels including Internet, WiFi, PDAs, Smartphones, mobile, podcasts, iTunes, downloadable MP3s, RSS feeds, archives and private radio networks. Averaging 3 million listeners monthly, HealthyLife.net is a member station of the National Association of Broadcasters, and carried as one of only 64 talk radio stations in Microsoft® Windows Media® News + Talk and Windows Media Player® Radio Tuner, available on every Internet Explorer on Earth. Healthy Life’s all-positive programs span a variety of news/talk genres and are hosted by recognized experts in TV, film and radio. HRN7 HealthyLife.net talk radio listeners hail from 108 countries. About 83% hear their favorite programs in 1,240 cities through all 50 U.S. states.

Blue Planet Almanac’s news site is humming away while a new book is prepared on consciousness & sustainability. Blue Planet Almanac was all-positive Healthy Life.net’s 1st comprehensive reporting and show on sustainability. Lifestyles of health and sustainability are encouraged on Blue Planet Almanac – including science and policy of importance to Earthlings. At Blue Planet Almanac’s news site are contained links to stories, news and reviews from the radio hour, where listeners and Web surfers can reflect and act. Blue Planet Almanac provides Good Choices for Earthlings. Blue Planet Almanac radio and the hors d’oeuvres of Thursday’s News@7 Environmental Super-Segment both aired on the HealthyLife.net talk radio network, and are currently on hiatus.

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From The Guardian. See the note* at the end of this article for its caption.

From long-time friend Stephan A. Schwartz, via his SchwartzReport, came notice of this watermark article in The Guardian. Grim pun intended. Stephan and I have discussed rising sea levels, and both agree it’s a significant problem which only scientists have noticed. I’d agree with virtually anything Stephan would say or write about this because I know him to be one of the most accurate scientists alive. Atmospheric scientist and proponent of the Gaia Theory, James Lovelock, has written that sea level rise is a better indicator of anthropogenic climate changes than are global CO2 or other greenhouse gases. You’ll want to remember this if you’re inclined to vote a climate change denier into office in a few months.

Stephan wrote about this Guardian article:

“You have probably already seen the charts, if not please click through and look at them. They are stunning. So radical that I have waited a couple of days on this story, to make sure it was not being overstated. I did this because the implications are so dire I did not want to be charged with over-reacting. Two days of research leaves me convinced that it really is that bad, and I am not.

This story also illustrates what I have said before: the one thing that changes in the climate change we are experiencing is the collapse of the time line.

The rise of sea level is going to impact the world’s coasts, and coastal cities sooner than expected, it is now clear. The time to prepare for this rise just shrank. Your life just got more complicated. If you live on the coast somewhere I would start watching this trend very very closely. The beginning of the migration away from those coastal regions will start when the reinsurance giants like Zurich stop writing policies, or price them beyond most buyer’s limits.”

That last sentence will fill with darkness the hearts of disaster capitalists like those who benefited from Hurricane Katrina or the BP Gulf oil disaster.

The Guardian article:

“The Greenland ice sheet melted at a faster rate this month than at any other time in recorded history, with virtually the entire ice sheet showing signs of thaw.

The rapid melting over just four days was captured by three satellites. It has stunned and alarmed scientists, and deepened fears about the pace and future consequences of climate change.

In a statement posted on Nasa‘s website on Tuesday, scientists admitted the satellite data was so striking they thought at first there had to be a mistake.

‘This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error?” Son Nghiem of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said in the release.” … Read the rest by clicking here.

* The Guardian’s photo caption: “Extent of surface melt over Greenland’s ice sheet on 8 July (left) and 12 July (right). Measurements from three satellites showed that on 8 July, about 40% of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97% of the ice sheet surface had thawed by 12 July. In the image, the areas classified as ‘probable melt’ (light pink) correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas classified as ‘melt’ (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface melting. Photograph: Nasa”

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There is an especially interesting group, the Lifeboat Foundation, which you might like to peruse. The mission statement for Lifeboat Foundation is this:

“… a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.
 
Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity, including new methods to combat viruses (such as RNA interference and new vaccine methods), effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail.
 
We believe that, in some situations, it might be feasible to relinquish technological capacity in the public interest (for example, we are against the U.S. government posting the recipe for the 1918 flu virus on the Internet). We have some of the best minds on the planet working on programs to enable our survival. We invite you to join our cause!”

Lifeboat Foundation activities will be worthwhile as our species moves forward into its future. I’m not a fan of unchecked technological developments. In fact, I tend to believe the lowest levels of technology are often best, and that’s reflected in my upcoming essay, “Dreaming Earth,” for the Spanda Foundation. If I could be a successful Luddite, I might entertain the notion. GMO agricultural or livestock technologies are one of my favorite examples of irreparably flawed thinking. But our species will continue on its fast and furious bent toward technology, so it’s smart to manage our impulses toward new toys and solutions by discussing them openly. Maybe you’d enjoy seeing what Lifeboat Foundation’s up to?

I’m now on these Lifeboat Foundation advisory boards:

• Media & Arts Board
• Religion/Spirituality Board
• Sustainability Board

… and Lifeboat’s bio about me is here.

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Today a new friend at Dreamverse shared “Fun and Facts” facebook photo with its long caption, below. Ubuntu started long before it inspired the open source computer language.

Ubuntu in practice.

“An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ‘Ubuntu,’ how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?’ Ubuntu in the Xhosa culture means: ‘I am because we are.”

Here’s what Wikipedia says about the concept of Ubuntu.

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Just as a little reminder of the amounts of air and water we have on the only planet known to support life, I’m posting this image created by scientist Adam Nieman. If you’re reading this on Blue Planet Almanac, you might’ve already seen it. In that case, maybe you’d share it on Nieman’s behalf for everyone on the planet who breathes or drinks? This image is available for purchase at Science Photo Library, and it’s copyrighted. Please share it when you point viewers to Science Photo Library.

Nieman’s caption says: “Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth’s atmosphere (right) shown as spheres (blue and pink). The spheres show how finite water and air supplies are. The water sphere measures 1390 kilometres across and has a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometres. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water, and that in the atmosphere. The air sphere measures 1999 kilometres across and weighs 5140 trillion tonnes. As the atmosphere extends from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of the air lies within the first 5 kilometres of the atmosphere.”

Having Wolfram Alpha at my fingertips doesn’t incline me to convert the units from metric to ‘Merican. You get the idea, right?

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David Lynch presents the Lifetime of Bliss Award to George Shapiro during the “David Lynch Foundation: A Night of Comedy honoring George Shapiro” at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Looking on are Sarah Silverman and Garry Shandling. (Photo John Shearer/Invision for David Lynch Foundation/AP Images)

Last evening I felt fortunate to have very pleasant conversations with David Lynch (Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet), Thomas Jane (Hung and Give ‘em Hell Malone) and Stephen Collins (No Ordinary Family and 7th Heaven) about meditation. I covered the red carpet ceremonies of David Lynch Foundation’s “A Night of Comedy,” a tribute fund raiser for George Shapiro (Carl Reiner’s nephew), as a journalist for Healthy Life talk radio. George is a very amusing guy and appreciated that I understood his little pun, spoken in Spanish, about his “mantra.” He was Jerry Seinfeld’s producer for many years. George’s interview could soon be on Entertainment Tonight (CBS from L.A.) in the next couple of days. It’s also likely that David Lynch Foundation Television will have it.

Thomas Jane

Stephen Collins and I talked with Jane’s lovely date. Steve mentioned that many household names like Clint Eastwood, Howard Stern and Paul McCartney are meditators. This Wikipedia entry has a list of fairly surprising, notable people who are meditators and includes athletes, politicians, business people, musicians, scientists, actors, journalists, fashion models, designers and authors.

Dressed in a sports jacket and casual shirt, Jane wore neither shoes or socks ;) His date commented that he feels more grounded without them. That instantly made me feel at ease with the man, because I often walk around outside sans shoes. So, when I talked with him, I shucked my shoes. He was pleased and observed, “Now I can see your real height.” We were eye-to-eye.

The broader story for you fans of sustainability and Blue Planet Almanac will come a couple of weeks from now, when actress, journalist and radio host, Ariana Kaiser, brings me aboard her enlivening, Friday morning Arts and Entertainment segment on HealthyLife.net talk radio. Of course, Ariana and I will be talking about the work of Lynch’s foundation. My upcoming article, Dreaming Earth, in Spanda Foundation’s peer-reviewed Journal, Consciousness & Development 2.0: An Operating Manual, will touch upon how Transcendental Meditation has provided me a sense of Gaia consciousness, and suggests how meditation can provide windows to your own appreciation how Earth is put together.

Stephen Collins (Photo John Shearer/Invision for David Lynch Foundation/AP Images)

I made it a point to ask Lynch, Collins and Jane about their personal experiences of meditation, how it has affected their lives, and work, and what it has done for them. You’ll hear their inspiring stories when you tune into Ariana’s show.

Russell Brand, Jay Leno, Joely Fisher, and Jerry Seinfeld were among those in attendance this evening. I said, “Hey,” to Connie Stevens, Joely Fisher’s mother. Stevens stood next to me as I listened to an interview of her daughter.

Ariana and I will enjoy having you as listeners on HealthyLife.net talk radio, and I’ll post the air time and date here. Blessings and Whirled Peas ;)

*******

Ariana Kaiser

HRN7 HealthyLife.net talk radio is syndicated/simulcast 24/7 over 55 distribution channels including Internet, WiFi, PDAs, Smartphones, mobile, podcasts, iTunes, downloadable MP3s, RSS feeds, archives and private radio networks. Averaging 3 million listeners monthly, HealthyLife.net is a member station of the National Association of Broadcasters, and carried as one of only 64 talk radio stations in Microsoft® Windows Media® News + Talk and Windows Media Player® Radio Tuner, available on every Internet Explorer on Earth. Healthy Life’s all-positive programs span a variety of news/talk genres and are hosted by recognized experts in TV, film and radio. HRN7 HealthyLife.net talk radio listeners hail from 108 countries. About 83% hear their favorite programs in 1,240 cities through all 50 U.S. states.

Blue Planet Almanac’s news site is humming away while a new book is prepared on consciousness & sustainability. Blue Planet Almanac was all-positive Healthy Life.net’s 1st comprehensive reporting and show on sustainability. Lifestyles of health and sustainability are encouraged on Blue Planet Almanac – including science and policy of importance to Earthlings. At Blue Planet Almanac’s news site are contained links to stories, news and reviews from the radio hour, where listeners and Web surfers can reflect and act. Blue Planet Almanac provides Good Choices for Earthlings. Blue Planet Almanac radio and the hors d’oeuvres of Thursday’s News@7 Environmental Super-Segment both aired on the HealthyLife.net talk radio network, and are currently on hiatus. Blue Planet Almanac radio aired from January 2009 through March 2011, and offered thoughtful perspectives on conscious, green living on our favorite planet.