CommUnity of Minds — Judy Wilken writes: Now, he will stand out, Mary thought to herself while watching the red canvas glisten in the sunlight. She filled her favorite round brush with her white and began creating the boundary of the egret’s body, fleshing out a large oval shape at first. “I have to get the nose to tail,” she said as she pulled some of the wet white pigment up, up, and up, at least a full three feet, on the canvas creating a long vertical line for his neck. “Any water snake could slip down that neck,” she told the egret. Perfect, she thought. More pigment went on top of the wet line and she saw his head, his whole face in her mind for the first time. Nose to tail, she reminded herself. A wingspan of five feet lifting only two pounds? She marveled. “I’ve got boxes of chocolates heavier than you,” she chuckled to herself. When she looked again she noticed the feathers on the right side of his body were quiet. She began brushing in his purplish-blue shadow on his quiet side with one of her Brights. It extended from his nose and shadowed him all the way down to his tail. The smallest round brush she loaded with black pigment. Two black eyes she painted, one on each side of his head. Then, the “straight as an arrow” bill in yellow. She painted his spindly legs a mud-black. “My god, they’re like black, hinged toothpicks,” she thought. They were as narrow as the blades of the narrowleaf cattails just twenty five feet away. After the last few strokes of yellow for his “get a load of those feet”, she looked over at the egret and said, “You look like you’re lost on a wind farm.”

Mary picked up her long handled raggedy brush planning on feathering out a distinct look for the egret’s main gliding and soaring feathers with its bristles. She knew that the tips of the bristles could do all the work. They are perfect for pulling the pigment out from his chest with just a few strokes, she thought. “That five foot wingspan has got to be something of an event,” she told the egret. She began building his “gliding” feathers slowly, long strokes piled on top of one another, slightly angled toward his foie gras. By making each stroke a little shorter than the previous one, she could fluff up his wing space until you were sure that that wingspan was very possible. “Such a perfect wind. You’re crazy with feathers. I can’t believe it.” Mary told the egret.

As she was gently brushing in some grey splashes giving the wings some depth, Mary leaned away from the canvas and got caught in a quick gust of wind causing her to shift her weight once again from one mud boot to the other. She steadied her body with legs a few feet apart while she studied the egret’s “canvas” head. Instantly, she decided to add what was glaringly missing. “A spot of red in that eye. Of course. How could I not see that?” She took her round sable brush, just barely touched it to a tiny smudge of red pigment on her palette then leaned toward the egret’s left “canvas” eye. With a steady hand she lowered the brush into the black eye and watched a red spot spread into it. “Red blood in there. Life in there,” she whispered to herself. Suddenly, she felt the hairs of her brush move, pulse just once while inside the black. She stared at the “canvas” eye, keeping the bristles in the red spot. She felt another pulse run up her brush and into her arm. She kept the bristles in the black and slightly leaned away from the canvas, somewhat startled by what she just felt. What did I feel? she asked herself. “Oneness,” she said outloud. (06/03/2013)

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Future Positive– Karyn M. Peterson interviews Educator, John Hunter. At the start of a national tour to promote his new book about his experiences teaching the game, World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements (Houghton Harcourt, 2013), Hunter addressed the crowd at SLJ’s recent Public Library Leadership Think Tank, then sat down to speak to us about unlocking kids’ infinite potential, his faith in kids to improve our world, and how he daily inspires (and is inspired by) his students.

At our Think Tank, you spoke about the lasting impact of even the smallest gestures. Can you tell us more about this concept?

We are completely interdependent; this is what I’ve come to understand and see. Everything I do is important to someone in that room or someone connected to them. So I’m obligated to do the best that I possibly can every moment. I constantly have to work at that every day so that I can be less of a barrier or an obstacle to their learning. My students have come back over decades now to let me know the range and effect of gestures I’ve made, of words I’ve said, of things we’ve done. And I’m sure every teacher has instances like this. So this circle of influence that you might have can be so broad. …

Did you always want to be a teacher?

Really, in some ways I’m an introvert who just happens to appear to be an extrovert. There was a moment in Japan—I’m sitting in this 500-year-old cypress wood meditation hall on a bamboo-covered mountainside near the Sea of Japan—and I thought, ‘You know, this is where I should be. I really don’t need to go anywhere else.’ But I had obligations; I had things to do in the world. Had I not been a teacher, I was very inclined to find a place like that and simply go into meditation.

So how do you summon your inner extrovert? Or embrace it?

The foundation was of course, I had a very happy life. My parents were both very sweet and loving, so it was a very quiet family life. And that calm safety that we had in the home made a comfort in the world. And so going out into it, I didn’t feel defensive or afraid.

How that transformed to be more of a performance art, like teaching? Well, it was called for. In a classroom…[you] really bring every tool that you have to the situation. You adapt and become whatever creature you must. You’re an academic and social amphibian; you grow gills when you have to and you drop fins when you have to, to help children be what they need to be.  And playing in a band doesn’t hurt either! I had a studio practice for about 20 years, sound design, ambient music, Waveform Records. It’s still something I do in what little spare time I have.

Do you bring music into the classroom as well?

Absolutely! Some children like it to be quiet, so we’re quiet sometimes, but there may be some Miles Davis in the background, “Sketches of Spain,” something very open and spacious.

I take the children through different modalities of thinking using Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, [with] eight different pieces of music, all within the space of an hour. It’s astounding what they do in that time [and] music is the springboard for that. I want them to have an expanded world, so I’m playing Indonesian gamelan or opera arias or glitchcore from Vladislav Delay, this Finnish DJ—something they’re not going to run into on the radio or around the house.

And the library was fundamental in that, too! In the Richmond Public Library when I was a young man, I would go and check out  records. I listened to Turkish music, to music from the bauls of India. That library was instrumental in my becoming who I was musically.

How has your teaching shaped your vision of the future?

I’m completely optimistic. There is no doubt in my mind that high school students can save this planet completely, in every way. No doubt. They’re relentlessly compassionate. The more we empower those young people to be in charge…the better off we’ll be.

Is compassion the most important legacy of your World Peace game?

How else can we be if we’re going to survive? It’s our fundamental as human beings…preemptively going at things with kindness gives a little bit of ease to every difficult situation we face. (06/03/2013)

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BBC Ecology Science — The destruction of tropical rainforests is having an even greater impact on the environment than was previously thought, a study suggests. Scientists have found that deforestation in Brazil is causing trees to produce smaller, weaker seeds that are less likely to regenerate.

They believe this has been triggered by the loss of large birds from the forests, which have beaks big enough to feed on and disperse the seeds. The study is published in Science.

Pedro Jordano, from the Donana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, said: “One of our major surprises was how rapidly deforestation could not only be influencing the disappearance of the fauna, but to observe how deforestation could influence the evolution of the plant traits so rapidly – within a few generations.”

Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest was once home to a vibrant array of plants and animals. But with the arrival of sugar and coffee plantations in the early part of the 19th Century, it was rapidly destroyed.

Today, just 12% of the original forest remains. To assess the impact, researchers looked at more than 9,000 seeds collected from palm trees throughout the rainforest. Those taken from areas that had suffered heavy destruction were much smaller than seeds collected in undisturbed patches of forest.

The researchers considered a wide array of factors that might have led to the shrinkage, such as the climate, soil fertility and forest cover. “But we found no evidence for any of those effects,” explained Prof Jordano, who carried out the research with Sao Paulo State University, in Brazil. “The main factor was the disappearance of the large frugivore (fruit-eating) species.”

Usually, species such as the toucan and cotinga use their large beaks to eat the fruit, eventually spreading the seeds throughout the forest. But as the rainforest was flattened, these birds vanished, leaving smaller birds behind such as the thrush.

By evolving to produce smaller fruits, which birds with tinier beaks could handle, they were more likely to be dispersed.

However the researchers found these seeds were weaker. “Unfortunately the smaller seed size also means a lower probability for successful recruitment in the forest,” said Prof Jordano. “Smaller seeds are less likely to germinate, they are prone to losses by desiccation and they are more quickly attacked by fungi.” He added that projected climate change could render rainforests drier and hotter, making the survival of the seeds even less likely. (06/03/2013)

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BBC Weather Science — This spring is on track to be the coldest for more than 50 years, provisional Met Office figures suggest. This month has seen lower than average temperatures and it has been wetter than usual, forecasters said. The UK’s mean temperature for spring – based on figures from 1 March to 28 May – is currently 6C.

If conditions stay the same in the last days of May, it will be the coldest spring since 1962, and the fifth coldest since records began in 1910. The Met Office said earlier figures from 1 March to 15 May suggested spring was on track to be the sixth coldest since records began, and the coldest since 1979.

The provisional temperature for this spring goes against recent form for the season, forecasters said, with eight of the past 10 years seeing warmer than average springs compared to the long-term (1981-2010) average of 7.7C.

The main reason for the low temperatures in spring was a colder than usual March, which had a mean temperature of 2.2C to 3.3C below the long-term average. This made it the coldest March since 1962. The forecasters added that the colder than average conditions had been caused by frequent easterly and northerly winds, bringing cold air to the UK from polar and northern European regions.

Earlier this month, snow hit Shropshire and Devon and Cornwall, while Wales saw widespread snow in March. But cooler than average weather in the past fortnight has pushed the mean temperature for the season slightly lower, it said. (06/03/2013)

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BBC Life Sciences — A stocktake of UK nature suggests 60% of animal and plant species studied have declined in the past 50 years. The State of Nature report, compiled by 25 wildlife organisations – from the RSPB to the British Lichen Society – collates assessments of 3,148 species. Conservationists hope it will offer clues to the fate of the UK’s 59,000 species. Beetles and wildlfowers are among the most vulnerable species.

According to the document, reasons for the decline are “many and varied” but include rising temperatures and habitat degradation. …

“This ground-breaking report is a stark warning – but it is also a sign of hope,” said naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who launches the report today.

“We have in this country a network of passionate conservation groups supported by millions of people who love wildlife,” he said.

“The experts have come together today to highlight the amazing nature we have around us and to ensure that it remains here for generations to come.” …

The State of Nature report outlines a new “watchlist indicator” which charts how populations of these species have fared in the last 50 years and the overall trend is a 77% decline, despite successes for some including bitterns and adonis blue butterflies.

A further 6,225 UK species have been assessed according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List criteria, 12% of which are considered under threat of extinction. The highest number of threatened species are found within the flowering plants but bees, flies, moths and butterflies each have more than 200 listed. (05-22-2013)

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BBC Animal Science — A scientist who has developed a genetic test to identify pure Scottish wildcats has warned that the species could be extinct within two years. Dr Paul O’Donoghue said cross breeding with feral and hybrid cats made extinction a certainty unless “urgent” conservation activity took place. The University of Chester biologist said pure wildcats should be trapped. He also suggested that private individuals could be keeping the “very best” wildcats as pets. The senior lecturer in biology asked for these people to come forward and help with the conservation effort.

In remote and rural parts of the Highlands it is known for people to take wildcats that visit their properties into their care. Dr O’Donoghue and his team have developed a test that can look at a small blood sample and scan all of the 63,000 genes that make up any individual cat. …

The biologist said the species was now one of the rarest in the world. He said it was of the “utmost importance” that large scale live trapping took place and cats found to be pure-bred wildcats then be placed in protected areas in the west Highlands.

In September last year, conservationists forecast that Scottish wildcats would be extinct in the wild within months as numbers of pure-bred cats had fallen to about 35 individuals. (05/22/2013)

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BBC Science & Technology – The Solar Impulse solar-powered plane has set off on the second leg of its trans-American journey. It took off at 04:47 local time (12:47 BST) from Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 bound for Dallas, Texas. The craft will also stop over in St Louis and Washington DC before heading to New York in early July.

It has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340 but at a weight of just 1.6 tonnes, its backers hope to show off the capabilities of renewable energy. By comparison, a fully laden A340 weighs about 370 tonnes.

The Across America bid is the first cross-continental flight of a solar-powered plane. It is the last showpiece with the prototype aircraft before the Solar Impulse co-founders and pilots, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, attempt a trans-oceanic flight and an eventual around-the-world flight in 2015. Solar Impulse already holds records for the first night flight of a solar-powered craft in 2010, the first international flight in 2011, and first inter-continental flight in 2012.

The plane’s wing and stabiliser are covered with nearly 12,000 solar cells, which drive its four propellers and charge the plane’s 400kg of lithium-ion batteries for night-time flying. The plane completed its first leg, between San Francisco and Phoenix in early May, in a flight lasting 18 hours. (05/22/2013)

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*** Registration is still open, and you can download any sessions you that you miss.

Awakening Your Unique Self – Marc Gafni writes: My new book Your Unique Self which came out recently, represents 30 years of teaching, and you could say is the culmination of my life’s work to date in this area. It has been a delight and blessing to hear so much gratitude and appreciation from people who’ve read it.

The teaching of Unique Self is so fundamental to our world right now I’ve been working hard to weave it’s principles into a course that will allow anyone to experience the power of it.

And I want you to come and study with me on it.So, to give you a flavor of what’s available I’ve put together a free mini-course. It’s a great way to take a quick, yet deep dive into the Unique Self teaching. All you need is an email address to sign up.

Free Awakening Your Unique Self Mini-Course (self-paced)

Or, if you want to just jump right into the paid full 10-week course, you can find the registration info below.

10-Week Awakening Your Unique Self (led by me over the phone and online)

Our full 10-week course which starts this week on April 24th is not merely information, it is a tested wisdom process honed over the last two decades. It is a direct and guided transmission of the love, insight, and practice which is necessary to Awaken into and as Your Unique Self. This course provides the process and community to help you realize the next stage of your life and make dreams long forgotten, or dreams you never dared to dream, become a genuine possibility in your life. Life is inviting you right now — if you are moved and audacious — to take a unique risk and sign up as a dramatic and tender act of self love. Love, as we will learn in the course, is a Unique Self perception. Self love begins with the first glimmer of perception of Your Evolutionary Unique Self in its radiant and actualized possibility.

I want to invite you, encourage you, urge you with all my heart to join me for this course.

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Timothy Wilken, MD writes: I am very impressed with Marc Gafni. The breadth of his knowledge is staggering. He is a master teacher. He has been studying Hebrew Mysticism and seeking Enlightenment for 30 years.

I first became aware of Gafni in early 2008. He had resumed teaching here in America, and his work was highly recommended to me by someone I greatly respected. I had the privilege of actually hearing him speak at a local church in the Monterey area, and decided that I needed to examine his work more carefully. In past four years, I have read two of his books, Soul Prints and The Mystery of Love, both which impressed me.

I then obtained and listened to recordings of his Soul Prints Workshop recorded in 2004 and to The EROTIC and the HOLY Workshop recorded in 2006. I found them both so compelling, I have listened to the 15 hours of recordings many times. I also signed up and paid  for a number of his online courses , and found them all of great value. I am currently reading his latest book Your Unique Self . I can’t recommend his teachings too strongly. (04/22/2013)

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The Gifting Earth — Timothy Wilken writes: Dearest Community, I want to share a powerful new tool for co-operation with you.

This tool is a gift from me to you — a gift from me to every member of my human family. It is available as a free online website that enables a community of users to easily help and be helped through the gifting and sharing of: Goods, Services, Knowledge and Compassion.

I want to thank all of you that have joined us. If you haven’t joined yet, it’s really easy, just click on the New Account link at the top of every page on TGE. Then you can begin to help others by gifting and sharing, and others can begin to help you by gifting and sharing.

Why The Gifting Earth?

Web of Debt – Ellen Brown writes: Cyprus-style confiscation of depositor funds has been called the “new normal.”  Bail-in policies are appearing in multiple countries directing failing TBTF banks to convert the funds of “unsecured creditors” into capital; and those creditors, it turns out, include ordinary depositors. Even “secured” creditors, including state and local governments, may be at risk.  Derivatives have “super-priority” status in bankruptcy, and Dodd Frank precludes further taxpayer bailouts. In a big derivatives bust, there may be no collateral left for the creditors who are next in line.

Shock waves went around the world when the IMF, the EU, and the ECB not only approved but mandated the confiscation of depositor funds to “bail in” two bankrupt banks in Cyprus. A “bail in” is a quantum leap beyond a “bail out.” When governments are no longer willing to use taxpayer money to bail out banks that have gambled away their capital, the banks are now being instructed to “recapitalize” themselves by confiscating the funds of their creditors, turning debt into equity, or stock; and the “creditors” include the depositors who put their money in the bank thinking it was a secure place to store their savings.

The Cyprus bail-in was not a one-off emergency measure but was consistent with similar policies already in the works for the US, UK, EU, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, as detailed in my earlier articles here and here.  “Too big to fail” now trumps all.  Rather than banks being put into bankruptcy to salvage the deposits of their customers, the customers will be put into bankruptcy to save the banks.

The big risk behind all this is the massive $230 trillion derivatives boondoggle managed by US banks. Derivatives are sold as a kind of insurance for managing profits and risk; but as Satyajit Das points out in Extreme Money, they actually increase risk to the system as a whole.

In the US after the Glass-Steagall Act was implemented in 1933, a bank could not gamble with depositor funds for its own account; but in 1999, that barrier was removed. Recent congressional investigations have revealed that in the biggest derivative banks, JPMorgan and Bank of America, massive commingling has occurred between their depository arms and their unregulated and highly vulnerable derivatives arms.  (04/18/2013)

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EarthSky — On 23 occasions over the past several years, wild dolphins were observed giving gifts to humans at the Tangalooma Island Resort in Australia. The gifts included eels, tuna, squid, an octopus and an assortment of many other types of different fin fish. While these gifts might not be your choice for a gift to find underneath your Christmas tree, some of the items that were offered to humans are highly valued food sources for cetaceans such as dolphins. A report describing this rare form of food sharing behavior in wild dolphins was published on December 4, 2012 in the journal Anthrozoös: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People & Animals.

Food sharing is a fairly common behavior among animals of the same species, but it is a much rarer phenomenon between animals that are from different species. Perhaps one of the best known examples of inter-species food sharing occurs in domesticated cats that have a tendency to drop prey items at their owner’s feet. Inter-species food sharing in wild animal populations has not been widely documented in the scientific literature. …

Dolphins of diverse ages and both sexes engaged in the gift-giving behavior, and scientists are not entirely sure of what is motivating their behavior. Food sharing in animals is often motivated by an urge to play, a desire to reciprocate food sharing or the belief that the recipient of the food is an incompetent hunter. Based on their detailed observations, the scientists think that gift giving among the wild dolphins at the Tangalooma Island Resort was likely a form of play behavior. (04/18/2013)

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Future Positive — Timothy Wilken writes: Happy Leonardo Day, April 15, 2013. GIFTing has been activated at The Gifting Earth website. Members can now begin helping each other with gifting and sharing.

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(04/15/2013)

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