Today is World Environment Day: - Save our Rainforests

Nilma DOLE

Today, Sri Lanka celebrates World Environment Day (WED) under one flag and it is imperative that we formulate a policy to prevent the illegal encroaching, deforestation and wildlife threat that is taking place right under our noses. It is definitely no joke that the next natural disaster since the extinction of the dinosaurs will be climate change and the consequences would be worse since it is a human-made catastrophe.

Climate change will no doubt affect us as studies are being conducted on our changing weather patterns and as we hear of global warming calamities taking place around the world, the problem will be closer to home.

The United Nations has declared the theme for this year as `Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change` with Mexico being the host nation.

In Sri Lanka, activities have been planned island-wide with regard to World Environment Day with the main event being held at the Vihara Maha Devi Park by the Environment Ministry where Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayake will be the chief guest. In order to coincide with this event, an island-wide school program will bring children together in understanding the value of Mother Nature.

Tree planting excursions, growing of vegetables, essay and drawing competitions will be held as well, cementing the love of nature amongst the present generation.

A National Photographic Exhibition organized by the Central Environmental Authority together with the Environment Ministry which was opened yesterday (4th June) will conclude tomorrow displaying the best of flora and fauna in Sri Lanka.

After worldwide celebrations of WED, yet another key international environment date is the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen to be held from the 7th till the 18th of December that will see many developed countries in the hot seats being questioned by developing countries on reducing global warming.

A recent comment made by Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka stated that the West are already on the way to becoming `climate change terrorists` for the under-developed countries have had to pay the price for global warming. He emphasized, International law should be harsh in dealing with environment issues because every human being is threatened .

Further he commented, Developed countries are exploiting developing countries as they have not come to a collective compromise to cut carbon emissions by surpassing the limits set by the Kyoto Protocol with regard to this, he said.

According to Ranawaka, Sri Lanka`s carbon emissions a year amounts to about 660 kg per person and a recent study revealed that Sri Lanka has the potential to cut carbon emissions by 6.7 million tonnes a year.

The IUCN has researched that an annual loss of 33,000ha of forest cover is rampant in Sri Lanka making it one of world`s eight hot spots of habitat loss.

According to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka, 72 flowering plant species were extinct. Sixty percent of them had been endemic species.

Twenty one amphibians found their way to the extinct list as well, and these species were all endemic to Sri Lanka`s wet zones with a whopping 33 percent of vertebrate species that are nationally threatened.

The good news is that Sri Lanka could generate more than US$ 100 million through carbon credit sales a year.

Many corporations are planning WED activities that are steered by their CSR projects which have proved beneficial in providing a sustainable mechanism in helping the environment.

MAS Holdings, under the patronage of the Ministry of Education Sri Lanka, is doing their bid in commemorating WED by holding a one and half day workshop on Sustainable Development Leadership for youth. The participants will be students from 29 schools in rural Sri Lanka.


These schools have been involved with the MAS ECO GO Beyond Sustainable Development Education Program since 2006. This program is a corporate citizenship initiative of MAS Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd. a leading apparel solutions provider in Sri Lanka. The leadership camp will end with a tree growing event in the MAS Fabric Park in Thulhiriya.

An ongoing project done by Jetwing is the Eternal Earth project at Hunas Falls where visitors and school children plant trees to offset carbon emissions generated by traveling there. British Council will also have nature friendly activities today.

Rainforests all over the world play an essential role in absorbing carbon dioxide and environmental researcher Dr. Simon L. Lewis said, Tropical forest trees absorb about 18% of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change . It is vital to protect our remaining rainforests to no only save habitats, but to prevent climate change in Sri Lanka.

Tree huggers Rainforest Rescue International (RRI) is organizing a wide-scale cleanup of Kottowa Forest, one of the closest rainforest fragments to Galle. Nearly 250 people from the Galle District will participate on June 5th to conserve and raise awareness of the importance of this forest area - uniting together in efforts to conserve this important carbon sink and to help combat climate change.

Sri Lanka`s ecoregions include lowland, montane and dry evergreen rainforests so a firm emphasis on protecting these and key forest reserves like Sinharaja, Yala, Horton Plains and the Peak Wilderness sanctuary should be done.

So let`s unite on World Environment Day this year to help Mother Nature or else we`ll all be wiped off the face of our planet thanks to climate change!

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How You Can Help!
Little habits go a long way in saving Mother Nature. Here are some tips:

1. Plant trees - As many as possible. Tree huggers are the best friends you`ll ever have.

2. Save Water and Electricity - Do not waste water by running the tap and insulate your water heater and turn off lights when not in use.

3. Reduce Waste - Try as much as possible to reduce using plastic, polythene bags, disposable items and use towels instead of tissues. For women, there are reusable sanitary napkins called `Momoji` available that are clean and safe.

4. Recycle reading material - Give old newspapers to the paper collector or give them to a local shop so that they can make reusable paper bags.

5. Cut down carbon emissions - Try to car pool or use office transport to get to work instead of taking the car. Bicycles and buggies are a great way to get around.

6. If there isn`t an office recycling system, start one yourself! Recycling our trash actually contributes to reducing global warming emissions. Estimates show that 75% of what is thrown in the trash could actually be recycled, though currently only 25% is present. For example, if you must have a paper copy, make sure you default your printer option to use both sides. Most computer accessories like ink cartridges and CDs and DVDs are made of materials that could be reused.

7. If you`re in search of something to personalize your workspace, look no further than the humble houseplant. Houseplants are good for the environment because they remove quantities of pollutants present in the air.

Will Our Rain Forests Survive?

AT THE beginning of this century, the passenger pigeon of North America became extinct. It was possibly the most numerous bird that had ever existed. Ornithologists calculate that two centuries ago its population numbered between five billion and ten billion!

However, within a hundred years, an apparently inexhaustible supply of inexpensive bird meat disappeared in what is described as "the most dramatic decline [of a species] of all time." The monument to the passenger pigeon in Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin, U.S.A., reads: "This species became extinct through the avarice and thoughtlessness of man."

The fate of the passenger pigeon reminds us that even the most prolific of earth's creatures are vulnerable to man's assault. Avarice and thoughtlessness are still rampant. And today it is not just one species but an entire ecosystem that is in jeopardy. If the rain forests go, all their inhabitants—about half the species of the planet—will go with them. Scientists say that such a cataclysm would be "the greatest biological disaster ever [perpetrated] by man."

True, we have greater knowledge of the environment than we had a century ago. But this insight has not sufficed to stem the relentless tide of destruction. "We are destroying something that is priceless," laments botanist Manuel Fidalgo, "and we don't have much time left. I fear that in a few years' time, the only forests left intact will be those that are situated on mountain slopes inaccessible to the loggers."

Naturalists are alarmed because the rain forests are so difficult to restore. The book The Emerald Realm: Earth's Precious Rain Forests frankly describes reforestation as "slow and expensive, . . . a last-resort response to rain forest destruction." At best, replanting would probably involve only a few species of tropical trees, and the saplings would need constant attention to prevent weeds from choking them.

Whether a forest could ever regain its former splendor would depend on the nearness of the replanted area to virgin rain forest. Only close proximity would enable the reforested area eventually to be colonized by the tens of thousands of species that make up a true rain forest. Even then, the process would take centuries. Some areas abandoned a thousand years ago when the Mayan civilization collapsed have still not fully recovered.

"A New Internationalism"?

One scientist at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., proposed that 10 percent of existing rain forests be set aside for posterity, to safeguard as many species as possible. At the moment about 8 percent are protected, but many of these reserves or national parks are parks in name only, since there are neither funds nor personnel to protect them. Clearly, something more must be done.

Peter Raven, a spokesman for rain-forest conservation, explains: "Efforts to save the rain forests call for a new internationalism, a realization that people everywhere share a role in the fate of the earth. Ways to alleviate poverty and hunger throughout the world must be found. New agreements between nations will need to be developed."

His recommendation makes sense to many people. Saving the rain forests requires a global solution—as do many other situations facing mankind. The problem lies in getting "agreements between nations" before a worldwide catastrophe occurs and before the damage done is irreparable. As Peter Raven implies, the destruction of the rain forests is closely related to other intractable problems of the developing world, such as hunger and poverty.

So far, international efforts to address such problems have met with limited success. Some people ask, Will nations one day rise above their narrow and conflicting national interests for the sake of the common good, or is the quest for "a new internationalism" just a dream?

History does not appear to give grounds for optimism. Nevertheless, one factor is often ignored—the viewpoint of the rain forest's Creator. "It should be borne in mind that we are destroying part of the Creation," points out Harvard Professor Edward O. Wilson, "thereby depriving all future generations of what we ourselves were bequeathed."

Will the Creator of the earth allow mankind to destroy his handiwork completely? That would be inconceivable.* Rather, the Bible predicts that God will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth." (Revelation 11:18) How will God impose his solution? He promises to establish a Kingdom—a supranational heavenly government—that will solve all earth's problems and that "will never be brought to ruin."—Daniel 2:44.

Not only will God's Kingdom bring an end to man's abuse of the planet but it will also supervise the restoration of earth's natural beauty. The whole earth will eventually become a global park, just as our Creator intended at the beginning. (Genesis 1:28; 2:15; Luke 23:42, 43) People everywhere will be "taught by Jehovah," and they will learn to love and appreciate all of his creation, including the rain forest.—Isaiah 54:13.

Describing that blessed time, the psalmist wrote: "Let all the trees of the forest break out joyfully before Jehovah. For he has come; for he has come to judge the earth. He will judge the productive land with righteousness and the peoples with his faithfulness."—Psalm 96:12, 13.

Happily, the future of the rain forest does not hinge on the concern—or the avarice—of man. The Bible gives us reason to be confident that the Creator himself will intervene to save our tropical forests. In God's promised new world, future generations will see the glory that is the rain forest.—Revelation 21:1-4.

Are the Internets Rotting Our Brains? 7/1/2008 10:52:32 AM by Bennett Gordon Tags: internet, web 2.0, philosophy, human knowledge, the Atlantic, B

“Are you concerned about internet addiction?” a woman asked a panel of internet entrepreneurs, including Craig from Craigslist, at the National Conference for Media Reform.

“No,” the panel answered resounding. Of course they weren’t concerned. The business models for companies like Craigslist depend on people with internet addictions.

Many in the media, however, fret that the internet is rotting people’s brains. In the cover story for the latest issue of the Atlantic, Nicholas Carr argues that Google is making human knowledge more superficial. Once upon a time, people spent hours poring over enormous novels, but today people just skim headlines. “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words,” Carr writes. “Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”

In spite of the neo-luddite undertones of his argument, Carr makes some interesting points about how the medium of information changes the wiring in people’s brains. Socrates once believed that the written word would lead people to forget more information, since people tend to forget what they aren’t forced to remember. Carr writes, “Socrates wasn’t wrong—the new technology did often have the effects he feared—but he was shortsighted.”

Other writers have taken a more hysterical tone, lamenting the effect of the internet on culture. In the book The Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen called the digital revolution, “ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule… on steroids.” In a point-counterpoint for the Guardian, Keen wrote that the internet produces the “dumbing-down of culture.” Since publishing his 2007 polemic, Keen admitted to the Futurist that he’s “more optimistic now,” but still sticks by his argument that the Web 2.0 is bad for society.

Railing against technology’s interminable advance seems like tilting at windmills, but now is a good time to consider the internet’s effect on human knowledge. Writing for the Boston Globe, Drake Bennett calls attention to the enormous influence that Google has over people’s intellectual lives. Since Google has emerged as the dominant search engine, the website has become the primary way in which people organize the internet. Bennett quotes Greg Lastowka, an associate professor of law at Rutgers, who wrote, “Google's control over 'results' constitutes an awesome ability to set the course of human knowledge.” Even if that knowledge is making people smarter, and not more stupid, handing control over that information to a single company—albeit one with a mantra of “don’t be evil”—can be dangerous.

Image by Jason Cumberland, licensed under Creative Commons.

Our Brain Tumor Dream Team

Our meeting with Dr. Black and his staff left us with one very strong impression. Every single person working in the neurological institute was born to be there. It's their calling. From the sign-in attendant to the insurance payment woman to the nurse to Dr. Black himself, these people are there to save lives. And while doing so, they want to make you feel safe, comfortable, happy and know that they are going to do everything they can to make you better again. It is unbelievably inspiring. The few hours spent in their offices has really made me consider changing my career path.

Before getting laid-off last month, I worked in advertising for almost 10 years. I loved almost every moment of it, but I can't say that my or my agency's work was changing lives. Sure, there were some fantastic research projects, amazing colleagues and intriguing creative work, but at the end of the day we were selling __________ [fill in the blank]. Developing advertising, and strategic planning specifically (my specialty), is incredibly interesting and hard work, but our measure of success was always making sure people were a) aware of a brand, b) had a positive perception of the brand, and c) ultimately, bought the brand's product or service. While my many clients over the years might disagree, I'd say 99% of the CPG or luxury automotive products that we advertised didn't truly change anyone's life.

Conversely, success for Dr. Black's team means saving the lives of people with brain tumors. And in our case, we're working to save Bryan's life. For perspective, let me share just how rare it is to find a truly specialized brain tumor specialist. The following excerpt is from a Time Magazine article written on Dr. Black and his team.

"Of the 5,000 or so neurosurgeons working in the U.S. today, 4,900 concentrate mostly on the spine and deal on average with only five or six brain tumors a year. Of the 100 who routinely work inside the skull, perhaps 50 specialize in blood-vessel repairs rather than tumors. Only the remaining 50 can be considered brain-tumor specialists, averaging 100 surgeries annually. Along with a handful of others, Black averages more like 250 such operations a year. His referrals come not only from the U.S. but from Europe, the Middle East, South America, Japan and Australia as well. A tumor that is inoperable for the average neurosurgeon is not necessarily inoperable for Black."

Only 50 brain tumor specialists in the country, and we were meeting with the best one. Immediately after walking inside Black's office, we were whisked away into an exam room. We barely had time to breathe before Black walked in, bringing with him his sense of zen and purpose. Whatever news we were about to get, we felt much more comfortable getting it here than anywhere else.

Black asked us if we had been shown, in detail, Bryan's MRI scan. As a matter of fact, no, we had not. It might be nice to actually see the in-depth, 100+ scans of Bryan's brain before being given a prognosis. Black took us into their imaging room, where Bryan's MRI was already on the screen. He sat down and took us through the entire MRI scan. He pinpointed and explained to us the different parts of the brain, which look incredibly different than they do in a textbook or a brain cancer pamphlet.

Sure enough, Bryan's tumor was right in the middle of the brain stem, sitting there like a little egg. Compared to the rest of his brain, it was small. It LOOKED harmless enough. But no matter how harmless it looked, it was the enemy. It was hurting Bryan and therefore, it had to go. While a small part of me was (reasonably?) afraid of it – this little white poofball of a tumor on an MRI scan – another, much more powerful part of me was commited to absolutely killing it. There is no way in hell I would let this thing control the fate of my soon-to-be husband. He is the one of the best sons, friends and overall human beings anyone has ever met. If you've met Bryan, you know this is an understatement.

Dr. Black leads us back into the exam room and tells us that he is 99% sure that this is a low-grade glioma. It is a classic case; one that looks as though it has been there for several, if not many, years. However, because of it's location in the brain stem/pons (which control all the motor functions in the body), it is inoperable. However, Dr. Black's explanation is not a scary one. He says "you do not want to operate on it" rather than, "you can't operate on it." Even a biopsy carries of a 1-3% chance of bleeding or harm, which could lead to paralysis or worse. His respect for the brain and the patient is such that rather than put a patient at any risk, no matter how small, he immediately explains other options.

We have two options left: chemotherapy and radiation. He says while "no one wants to have a brain tumor, this is the kind to have. It's bad, but I've seen way, way worse." It was the most optimistic comment we had gotten, so we took it and ran with it.

Black told us that since surgery was not an option, we would be treated by his neuro oncology and radiation team. We were personally escorted downstairs to Dr. Black's neuro oncology (brain cancer) portion of the Institute. We met with his top specialist who had cleared his calendar to meet with us. He spent a whopping three hours answering every question we asked, but more importantly, brought up the questions we hadn't yet thought of asking. He took us through the MRI again (as well as full-body PET-CT scan) and confirmed that the cancer was limited to Bryan's brain. While at the end of the day we obviously wish we didn't have to be in the Neuro Insitute at all, we loved our new doctor immediately.

At this point we had gotten opinions from three top hospitals in L.A. and Bryan's parents were working on getting an opinion from UCSF. Our bases were covered, and Bryan was feeling comfortable with the attention, care and most importantly, expertise of the medical dream team we found at Cedars. We were ready to get started with treatment. We had done enough talking. It was time for action.

Our neuro oncologist wrote a perscription of oral chemo and made a call to the radiation oncology unit. We were being fast-tracked to the unit and were given an appointment the next morning. Since Bryan's cancer is in his brain, radiation is given through a custom mask. Typically it takes 1-2 weeks to be set up and fitted for the mask. Because our doctor called in a favor, we were set-up and fitted in 2 hours. I can't thank this team and our contacts enough.

By the end of the next day, we were ready to go. It had been exactly one week since Dr. Doom's diagnosis and we were ready to start chemo and radiation. Talk about a whirlwind, emotional, exhausting and humbling SEVEN days. But we were ready to kick some tumor ass. Thankfully, by the grace of God or whatever else is out there, we have the right medical team to do it.

The Perfection & Deception of Perception – Explained

Please read the post “The Perfection & Deception of Perception” before you read this post for maximum impact and benefit.

When we watch a film at the cinema, no matter where we look on the screen, the image is detailed, crisp and clear. It is uniform in quality and even at the corners and edges the details are sharp and in focus. It doesn’t matter where we choose to look the picture is good.

The implications of the large cinema screen are that when we look away from one area of the screen to view part of the picture on another part of the screen, the detail is still there on the area of the screen we are no longer looking at. The detail doesn’t stop being there just because we aren’t looking at it anymore.

When we look out onto the world it appears like we are looking out on a large cinema screen. What we see is a seamless, uninterrupted image that is clear and in focus just like the cinema screen. When we move our eye from one area of the image to another, we see a beautiful panning action worthy of the best cinematographer with no jumping juddering or blurring and with absolutely consistent detail and focus across the image. Unlike the large cinema screen though, this is an illusion, the very clever end result of a number of different complex biological systems interacting with one another to create this impression.

To visualize what our eye actually sees when we look at a scene, imagine the cinema screen again but instead of a uniformly clear and focused image, imagine the whole screen is out of focus and blurry with all the colour washed out except for a small circular area on the cinema screen about the size of a basketball. This small circle is crisp, clear and in focus with well-defined colours.

To understand why our eye sees an image like this requires a basic understanding of the structure and function of the eye.

Light passes through our pupil and is focused by the lens on our retina. The light sensitive cells on the retina then send data via the optic nerve to our visual cortex in the brain to be processed to produce an image we can understand.

The retina is not uniform in structure. There is a tiny pitted area on the retina called the fovea on which the lens centres the focused image. The fovea though tiny accounts for 50% of the data sent from the eye to the visual cortex. The other 50% of the data comes from the rest of the retina. So 50% of the data used to create the image in our brain comes from an area that is approximately 1/10,000^th of our total visual field. The other 50% comes from the other 99.9999% of the retina.

The fovea differs from the rest of the retina in other ways too. It is densely packed with light sensitive cells called cones which see colour. We have three different types of cone, each of which contains a pigment that responds to a different wavelength of light – green, red or blue and release differing amounts of different neurotransmitters depending on the wavelength and intensity of that light. Depending on the intensity of each wavelength, each receptor will release varying levels of neurotransmittor on through the optic nerve, and in the case of some colors, no neurotransmitter. Just like mixing paints, we see different colours by combining the information from the primary colours detected by 3 different cones. Due to the fact that we need input from 3 cones to see a colour, their response time is comparatively slow so they aren’t good at detecting very quick changes or movement. They are also very poor at seeing in low levels of light.

The part of an image we see with our fovea is called foveal vision. What we see with the rest of our retina is called peripheral vision.

The rest of the retina has a high density of light sensitive cells called rods. Rods are the simpler of the two cell types, as they really only interprets “dim light”. Since Rods are light intensity specific cells, they respond very fast, and to this day rival the quickest response time of the fastest computer. Rods control the amount of neurotransmitter released, which is basically the amount of light that is stimulating the rod at that precise moment. One simple experiment is to go out at night and look at the stars (preferably the Orion constellation) using peripheral vision (side view). Pick out a faint star from the periphery of your eye and then look at it directly. The star should disappear, turn and look at it from the periphery again, it will pop back into view.

In summary and roughly speaking, foveal vision is a very small area at the centre of our visual field that sees things in sharp crisp colourful detail but is bad at spotting movement or change where as peripheral vision, the majority of our visual field sees very low detail, is poorly focused and the colour is very washed out but is excellent at noticing movement and change.

Here is an example of what a line of text looks like to our eye when reading which demonstrates the effect of foveal vision.

If 99.9999% of our visual field is actually a black and white blur, how then does it appear to be a clear focused colourful image?

This is where evolution and survival have played a large part in the design and function of our visual system. Being able to focus 50% of our attention on 0.0001% of an image allows us to concentrate intensely on a specific object when we need to. In primitive cultures, this may have been prey we were hunting or a tool we were making. If we received an equal amount of information from the whole of our retina, our brain would have to perform a massive amount of processing to filter out all the stuff we didn’t want to be distracted by whilest attempting to perform the focused task, most of which would be out of focus anyway because of the nature and function of lenses.

So the eye naturally performs the filtering for us. While we focus our attention on what we are interested in everything in the periphery is seen in much lower detail to prevent our visual cortex from being overwhelmed with data. However, the peripheral vision is one of the fastest reacting light sensitive systems known to man and is fantastic at spotting sudden movement. If while we are intensely focused on our prey or our tool making, a predator should start to hunt us, our peripheral vision is the perfect tool to spot its stealthy movement towards us out of the corner of our eye and alert us to the danger. Our basic survival program would make us then look directly at the source of movement and register the detail of the movement using foveal vision.

So this explains why we have 2 types of vision and the different types of information they are providing to our visual cortex but does not explain why it appears to us that we can see everything clearly. The reason is that our visual cortex holds an image of what is within our visual field in our ‘minds eye’. It creates this image by taking a series of ‘still’ pictures by moving our focus of attention (fovea) around the image to collect the details of the image. The static image is then retained in the brain in apparent detail and focus. The brain again through evolution has developed a program that tells it what is most important or most likely to change in an image and automatically instructs our eyes to keep looking back to those areas with the fovea to check for change in detail.

Here is an animated example showing how a human subjects foveal vision scanned a still photograph of a house, gathering the detail of the image for the mental snapshot. You will need to press the “Next” button on the webpage sveral times until you see the picture of the house, then press the “start” button.

One possible explanation as to why the brain maintains an out of date image in our minds eye is that when we move our eye to a different area of an image, the eye moves so fast that our visual system cannot refresh fast enough to see the detail and the image should just be a blur. To prevent us seeing blurred vision when our eye moves, the visual cortex ignores the blurred data and the static image in the mind is used to hold the image steady.

Millions of years of testing have shown that the system works perfectly as designed but it does introduce the anomalies demonstrated in the previous post. Most people report being aware of something moving at the edge of their visual field but are amazed when it turns out to be a gorilla that they didn’t see. The reason the gorilla is not seen by the majority of people is because I set you a focused task that required you to override your urge to investigate the movement of the gorilla detected by your peripheral vision. For the gorilla to be recognised as anything other than a movement you needed to move the image of the gorilla onto your fovea, which in turn would have made you lose count of the passes made by the white team. Fail a task – no never – I’d rather ignore a gorilla

So simply put, we only see what we look at directly and what we look at directly depends on what our brain thinks is most likely to change or be of importance to us. If we don’t look directly, we can’t see! On a more philosophical note, our beliefs affect what we expect to see or not see, so they affect what we look for in life. If we look for something we will see it, (search and you shall find) if we don’t there is a chance we may not see it even if it’s right in front of our noses just like the gorilla. In modern life we are just so busy, we barely ever have time to stop, sit back and look around and see what’s really out there. In this fully occupied state it becomes easy for others to manipulate this design flaw in our visual system to their own advantage and influence our behaviour in ways we cannot even begin to imagine.

There is a famous story of the Conquistadors arrival in South America in their ships. It is said that the native South Americans brains having never seen a man made structure like a European battle ship before, simply ignored the ships on the horizon. Their brains weren’t programmed to look for hazards like that and so like the Gorilla, they simply didn’t see the arrival of the vehice of their own demise.

So I invite you to listen to Madonna’s famous track Frozen with new eyes and ponder on what you might not be able to see because you haven’t taken time to look yet or simply because you think it’s not worth looking because you don’t believe it’s there. When you have done that you might like to watch some other fun experiments which demonstrate the brains innability to see what it doesn’t expect to happen here and here.

How to Use Our Brain Effectively

The first step on how to use our brain more effectively is by learning at least a little bit about this fantastic ‘thing’ we have within our heads. Unfortunately it doesn’t come with a manual – it would be so helpful!

Within our heads we keep this precious and incredible organ that represents just 2% of our total weight and is always switched on, never turns off, since we were born to until death no rest, even when we are sleeping.

Made of 100 billion very small cells called neurons. These neurons work in groups and the groups interact with each other forming a huge network of information. When you think about a lime, one group has the green information, another one has the round information, another has the texture information and another has the sour flavour bit and so on. You can even have groups of neurons that store other information about lime connecting it with a sad or happy memory that can make you have some other emotions attached to a lime.

The point is every one of us has our own memories, beliefs, skills, abilities stored in these groups of neurons. Therefore every time we encounter a situation in our lives these groups in connection with other groups are going to fire off and make us respond in a certain way. It can make us react in exactly the same way every time we have a specific stimulus.

However when we do something new a group of neurons will form new groups connections creating a new network of neurons. If we do it only once it will not create strong connections in these networks. If you repeat it again and again it will form stronger connections that will last. This is the process that the brain uses to learn and can serve us immensely but it can also make it difficulty to break unwanted connections i.e. bad habits. Luckily neuroscience tells us that we can also break the unwanted connections. If we are really willing to stop any mental or physical pattern we just have to continuously interrupt the pattern until we get the neurons network to stop working together in that particular way.

The learning process occurs is two ways through our intellect where we have to study long and hard to master a subject or through experience and the latest is the most powerful one. That is why we never forget how to ride a bike or drive.

The frontal lobe is an area of our brain located in the front. The frontal lobe is responsible for our focus and concentration. It allows us to make choices and decisions. It represents our free will.

When making choices we have two ways to do so, first is the biological response that allows us to save our lives in a danger situation the famous fight or flee reaction. The groups of neurons interact with other groups activating an entire network to have a response that will save our lives. However the same applies to habitual behaviours. Which not always are good ones.

The second way to make choices is by using the power of your frontal lobe, the power of focus and concentration and separate ourselves from the environment and observe. Observe as if we are outside the scene of our experience, as if we are a second person. If we, using the power of observation, can unplug unwanted neuron connections and plug new connections than we have the power of building an entire new network. A new ‘me’ and a new ‘you’. Observing we can realise - I have these neuron connections that fires and cause me to blame someone or something else for the unwanted results I have in my life.

Being observers of ourselves we are using our consciousness to make our brain examine all our choices and possibilities. We can make our brain work for us and not against us. Plug and unplug we have the power!

Our brains are wired up for god

THE brain of every human being, from believers to atheists, has been revealed to contain at least three "god spots", all linked to religious beliefs and thoughts.

A team of US researchers has obtained strong evidence that religiosity is managed by the same parts of the brain that are used every day to interpret other people's moods and intentions and to analyse experiences.

Moreover, the spots exist in the brains of ordinary people, not just those whose extraordinary religious experiences have been triggered by brain injury or neurological conditions like epilepsy.

Scientists, philosophers and theologians have long argued about whether religious belief is a biological or a sociological phenomenon. Britain's controversial evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins contends that religion is essentially a cultural virus, spread from brain to brain.

Others argue that it arises from the structure of the brain itself.

The new findings by researchers at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland -- obtained by non-invasive brain scans of 26 Americans -- have gone far to resolving the debate.

Jordan Grafman and his colleagues wrote in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the evolution of the brain networks that handle religious thoughts "was likely driven by their primary roles in social (thinking), language and logical reasoning".

According to University of NSW evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks, the study shows that religion taps into existing parts of the brain that evolved to handle complex social interactions.

"It exploits existing parts of our brain," Associate Professor Brooks suggested.

He agreed with the US team that, regardless of whether god existed, the work showed that religious beliefs did exist and could be studied rigorously.

Dr Grafman's group broke down religious belief into three "psychological" components: god's perceived emotion, god's involvement with the world and doctrinal, or knowledge, aspects of religion.

They then used functional magnetic resonance imaging to watch what went on in the brains of volunteers as they evaluated statements about religious belief.

The scans revealed that the volunteers' brains evaluated the actions of other people in the same way they contemplated god's mood and involvement with humanity.

The imaging also pinpointed an association between a person's previous religious teachings and a part of the brain involved in memory and speech.

Save Our Endangered Invisible World!

By Bob Belinoff

The American Environmental movement as we’ve come to know it has largely run its course. It suffers from a lack of imagination and, despite the fact that its been right at least 50% of the time, a certain amount of shrill paranoia that has alienated, according to a poll recently reported in the “New York Times,” about 40% of the voting public.

Al Gore was scared stiff to even mention the environment in the 2000 election, despite the fact that he authored one of the great tracts in defense of it, “Earth in the Balance.” And currently President Bush, having walked away from the Kyoto Accords, is set to begin drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.

We have branded movements, organized coalitions, packaged dissention and intellectual certitude while legions of groups have signed ad after ad, with decidedly mixed results. And over time the environment’s most visible marketing strategy, eco gangsterism – featuring such tactics as chaining oneself to bulldozers and redecorating Hummers with spray paint, has become increasingly unforgiving and, in a post 911 world, considerably less endearing, even to environmental radicals.

When it comes to the environment, groups, movements and organizations might help but they won’t get us where we need to be. A strange thing happens when you create a brand or a movement. Such organizations become, well, organizations with hierarchies and bureaucracies and investments in their brand. Often they become internally contentious while people on the outside do nothing, thinking the problem is being taken care of by the folks down at the brand.

Clearly the time has come to do the saving ourselves. One by one. This means everyone will have to stop protesting a favored vanishing species and the damage we’re doing to the environment and do something positive instead, on their own, alone, when no one is looking. And do it over and over. As this activity becomes unconscious and enters a community of like-minded energies it creates an interconnected world of energy and intention embraced by ancient cultures and described so enduringly in the Hindu Vedas.

It is just such a community consciousness that produces the force field that drives the advertising and the public clamor that creates the policy that encourages investment in alternative energy. It’s how the Hybrid car came to be, and now with the help of high oil prices, it’s how the Hybrid is going to be a major player in our driving future.
Along with the grass roots, connections at the highest level are getting us where we need to be. There is an interconnected invisible world that exists in the ether and in the consciousness of each of us. This is truly God’s world. It is full of variety, excitement, chance, and out of a mess of impossibilities – an exquisite order. The systems in place are massive, antiquated and possibly unstoppable in time. We need new ones. One place to find them is through this invisible community of interconnected mind sets. It is self organizing, and arguably the most powerful force on earth, especially when it comes to orchestrating small benevolent acts into a cohesive benevolent whole.

Does it exist? Of course it does. You know it as a palpable change in the atmosphere after a group meditation. You demonstrate the existence of this invisible community every time you get in the car and drive twenty miles of ten lane freeway while talking on your cell phone, without, for the most part, hitting anyone. As much as driving on the road you are driving in a field of other-minds-driving. It is a community of road people interconnected by an often unconscious intention – the general idea of getting somewhere without anyone getting hurt. Other invisible fields connect our thoughts to our body organs, our dreams to the future, and acts of love and kindness to each other and the eco system.

Appealing to these invisible forces through our personal practice is what each of us does when we meditate or practice yoga and what everyone should be doing a good part of the time. Making an interconnected world visible is also something the media and advertising can do. Kaiser Permanente is running a radio campaign in Southern California that talks about the unseen connections between knee bones, white blood cells, sleep, stress, cancer and relationships.

And the Los Angeles Storm Water Public Education Program has broken new ground when it comes to making connections a priority in our consciousness. Several years ago it began a campaign which put the cause of the environment squarely on everyone’s doorstep. The Program started stenciling signage into the curb above 35,000 city drains reading “This drain leads to ocean.” In doing this it initiated a courageous environmental campaign that acknowledged the power each of us have to make a difference and honored us with having the goodness at heart to make the right choice. It also pointed out in letters carved on stone a connection people might not otherwise make.

City dwellers have come so far from the natural order that it’s easy to forget the connection to the places food comes from, where waste goes, and the interconnectedness of everything around us. One reason we want to save the endangered Cassowary is because the life of this beautiful bird is connected to the survival of the rain forest which is connected, invisibly, to the survival of us all.

Many ancient societies were intimate with the invisible world day in and day out. They lived in the world of nature, God’s world. It was a world influenced by ritual, nuance, uncertainty and faith in serendipity and happenstance. Now we live in environments of asphalt, steel, fiber optics and a perpetually elusive quest for security.

Being so far removed from God’s world we forget what it is that God does, the incredible patterns woven by God. We forget God’s ever-changing structures and put our faith in things made by our hand, which are, by and large, three-dimensional objects, which we move around, sit in, watch or buy in a store.

When the President makes plans to invade one of the last pristine wildernesses in the United States on a ten-year search for two years worth of oil, what he is really doing is eliminating a part of God from the environment. It doesn’t matter that it’s hidden away in Alaska; that Northern outpost is as connected to the collective mindset as the Larchmont storm drain is connected to the ocean. Drilling in the Artic Refuge steals one more reference point to who we really are, and instead of finding God in nature it drives us to seek God in man made structures – like the church and the mall. We are forced more and more to believe in a three dimensional world, an interesting world but one that hardly asks us to live up to our potential.

Manipulating this three dimensional world or even contemplating other dimensions takes up only a small portion of the potential of our brain. People who study brain waves and consciousness say that everyday living requires about ten percent of our brain’s capacity. The other 90% remains in cold storage.

Despite the fact that we can manipulate genes with bio-machines made out of custom designed molecules and watch movies from Mars, there are some very obvious accomplishments of ancient civilizations that have no explanation - other than perhaps the use of a world of invisible connections in concert with some portion of the other 90% of our brain capacity. For example there is no consensus on how the text of the Hindu Vedas anticipates algorhythyms of a sub set of quantum physics called string theory, or how the Pyramids or Stonehedge were built. If we were operating at full capacity we might be able to move mountains to save the environment – which may indeed be what the other 90% of our brain is for.

For now I suggest we take the issue of saving the environment into our own hands with simple but continual individual acts of reclamation and redemption. And when it comes to marketing – let’s follow instead the lead of our most enlightened corporate and public service advertisers by making very clear the role connections play in our lives.
There are Friends of the Egrets, Friends of the Earth and Friends of the wild Kokako. I propose we have a marketing campaign called Friends of the Invisible World, and teach people about connections in places high and low. A veteran of Madison Avenue myself, I would make some adjustments to standard advertising practice. The campaign should have no brand, no slogan, no expectations, no evaluation, be blessedly short lived and die a graceful death. At which point someone else should start a new campaign – completely different , but spelling out in simple words the idea that we are connected up down and sideways to past present and future and each other.

The invisible world is a massive old growth forest of powerful energies, submerged, as far as most of the getting and spending world is concerned, under a sea of material objects and antiquated ambitions. While more and more attention is being paid to this world in some quarters of popular culture, the question remains: Can we take this invisible world seriously enough, employ its powers fast enough to save our planet or ourselves?

Lake Hartwell Association joins Save Our Lake Now group

ANDERSON — The Lake Hartwell Association recently announced they have joined a group dedicated to advocating for higher water levels in lakes Hartwell, Russell and Thurmond.

The Save Our Lake Now group has been in existence for two months to help businesses, residents, municipalities and organizations with vested interest in those three lakes.

The group is advocating for a reduction in Thurmond outflow from 3,600 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 3,100cfs, which they think will increase the water levels in all three lakes by about three feet each year.

Save Our Lake Now officials are asking residents to visit www.saveourlakesnow.org to add their names to a petition advocating for that change and for it to continue until all three lakes are full.

Mike Massey, the chairman of the South Carolina Legislative Committee of the Lake Hartwell Association, said Sunday that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said last month that the Thurmond outflow reduction would result in increased water levels for the lakes. However, potential issues with sturgeon spawning and spider lilies have hindered the Corps’ ability to make the change, he said.

“There is a number of issues that at any one time could result in an requirement to increase flows,” Massey said.

Corps officials have said recently that the spawning success for the short-nosed sturgeon, an endangered species that certain water levels, is unknown .

He said that Save Our Lake Now group would take the signatures from the petition and present them to federal and state elected officials. Many state elected officials do not understand the severity of the problem at the three lakes, Massey said.

The water lever at Lake Hartwell was 647.32 feet Saturday morning, which is 12.68 feet below full pool. Heavy rain and snow in the area contributed to a recent increase in the lake level.

Massey said he appreciated the temporary stoppage of discharges out of Hartwell Lake but acknowledges it will only continue until those water levels are balanced between Hartwell and Thurmond.

Jane W. Davis, the owner of Big Water Marina in Starr, said that she supports the reduction in outflow from Thurmond. She said that the recent snow and temporary stoppage of Lake Hartwell discharges have created reason for optimism but more needs to be done.

“I would like to see us maintaining 3,100 cubic feet per second for an extended period of time to make sure it doesn’t negatively impact the downstream and there is a chance to recover to a normal level,” Davis said. “We haven’t had a chance to see if it will work.”

Davis said that the past four or five months have been devastating to her business. She said many of her customers have left the lake entirely because they didn’t have any hope for change or faith in the Corps to turn the situation around.

She said that the amount of rain that the area receives in March would be the key to how the entire summer will shape up. Big Water Marina is hanging on just to stay in business and action needs to be taken to improve the situation, Davis said.

“The drought plan isn’t working,” she said. “The triggers are not working.”

Independent-Mail freelance writer Vince Jackson contributed to this article.

'Save Our Brains'

'Save Our Brains'

Protesters fighting Reading University's proposal to close a second department this year gathered en masse on Wednesday outside Earley Gate to demonstrate their opposition as the Universtity Senate met to discuss whether to implement the propsals.

Campaigners are unhappy about the level of consultation as suggestions continue to circulate that the final decision is cut and dried.

However the Senate decided against voting on the proposals in order to assess alternative arrangements, which may include transferring the department to another institution.

University spokesman Alex Brannen explained that a £450,000 government funding cut to ELQ qualifications in 2009/10 at Reading meant other courses would have to subsidise the department to keep it open.

Meanwhile an unnamed tutor commented that "the local community has been let down" as the closure will "leave a gap in the heart of Reading intellectually and culturally."

"Thousands of people participate and are involved in lifelong learning which the Government is supposed to be promoting and showing there is life beyond watching the wall and retirement."

Continuing student Sara Scott, said "We should be encouraged to keep ourselves intellectually alive rather than sitting at home waiting for dementia to hit us."

Reading University later released this statement:

"The Senate has urged the University to apply its best endeavours, in collaboration with other parties, to facilitate the continued availability of public programmes in the locality. This view was reached by consensus and no vote was taken. The view of the Senate will now be passed for consideration to the University’s Council, the University’s governing body."

Reading University Council will meet on Tuesday 7th July to make a final decision over whether to close it's School of Continuing Education.

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Penerapan UU PLH terhadap Pengelolan Perikanan Danau Tempe di Kabupaten Wajo

Peneliti: Muhammad Yusuf

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui (1) efektivitas penerapan peraturan lingkungan dalam pengelolaan perikanan Danau Tempe, (2) kesesuaian kegiatan perikanan oleh masyarakat nelayan dengan prinsip kelestarian lingkungan, dan (3) sinkronisasi PERDA yang dibuat oleh Pemda Kab. Wajo dalam pengelolaan perikanan danau dengan UU PLH dan UU Perikanan.

Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di empat kecamatan pesisir Danau Tempe Kabupaten Wajo yaitu Tempe, Tanasitolo, Sabbangparu dan Belawa. Metode yang digunakan adalah survei lapangan dengan teknik pengumpulan data yaitu cara sensus pada instansi pemerintah, kuisioner pada 182 responden nelayan, serta wawancara pada tokoh masyarakat dan aparat pemerintah. Analisis data menggunakan metode kuantitatif yaitu uji hipotesis statistik t dan metode kualitatif yaitu analisis deskriptif.

Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penerapan peraturan lingkungan tidak efektif karena kemampuan aparat yang terbatas dan kurangnya kesadaran masyarakat, kegiatan perikanan nelayan kurang memperhatikan prinsip lingkungan karena rendahnya pengetahuan masyarakat, serta Perda pengelolaan perikanan Danau Tempe kurang sinkron dengan UU PLH dan UU Perikanan karena aspek peraturan serta kurangnya keseimbangan ekologi dan ekonomi. Pengelolaan perikanan Danau Tempe harus dikelola melalui pendekatan ekosistem dan memiliki lembaga pengelola yang independen.

Penelitian Danau Tempe

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui (1) efektivitas penerapan peraturan lingkungan dalam pengelolaan perikanan Danau Tempe, (2) kesesuaian kegiatan perikanan oleh masyarakat nelayan dengan prinsip kelestarian lingkungan, dan (3) sinkronisasi PERDA yang dibuat oleh Pemda Kab. Wajo dalam pengelolaan perikanan danau dengan UU PLH dan UU Perikanan.

Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di empat kecamatan pesisir Danau Tempe Kabupaten Wajo yaitu Tempe, Tanasitolo, Sabbangparu dan Belawa. Metode yang digunakan adalah survei lapangan dengan teknik pengumpulan data yaitu cara sensus pada instansi pemerintah, kuisioner pada 182 responden nelayan, serta wawancara pada tokoh masyarakat dan aparat pemerintah. Analisis data menggunakan metode kuantitatif yaitu uji hipotesis statistik t dan metode kualitatif yaitu analisis deskriptif.

Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penerapan peraturan lingkungan tidak efektif karena kemampuan aparat yang terbatas dan kurangnya kesadaran masyarakat, kegiatan perikanan nelayan kurang memperhatikan prinsip lingkungan karena rendahnya pengetahuan masyarakat, serta Perda pengelolaan perikanan Danau Tempe kurang sinkron dengan UU PLH dan UU Perikanan karena aspek peraturan serta kurangnya keseimbangan ekologi dan ekonomi. Pengelolaan perikanan Danau Tempe harus dikelola melalui pendekatan ekosistem dan memiliki lembaga pengelola yang independen.