Mount Kailash (Sacred Mountain) – Mountains Wallpaper 134320 – Desktop Nexus Nature
A great mass of rock soaring to over 22,000 feet, Mt. Kailash has the unique distinction of being the world’s most venerated holy place at the same time that it is the least visited. The supremely sacred site of four religions and billions of people, Kailash is seen by no more than a few thousand pilgrims each year.
Probably the best way to remember Walter Cronkite is by posting these two videos of one of his greatest moments, and one of the saddest:
Winning the ultimate battle: How humans could end war – science-in-society – 07 July 2009 – New Scientist
…findings about violence among our ancestors and primate cousins have perpetuated what anthropologist Robert Sussman from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, calls the “5 o’clock news” view of human nature. Just as evening news shows follow the dictum “if it bleeds, it leads”, so many accounts of human behaviour emphasise conflict. However, Sussman believes the popular focus on violence and warfare is disproportionate. “Statistically, it is more common for humans to be cooperative and to attempt to get along than it is for them to be uncooperative and aggressive towards one another,” he says. And he is not alone in this view.
Human life is cheap in the Southwest Desert
Officially, migrant deaths here each year number in the hundreds. Humanitarians who hike this country call those numbers bullshit. They say the desert is haunted by thousands of unfound dead people. Out here, a corpse gets about two weeks, tops. By then, sun and scavengers have sealed the deal.
A handful of rescue volunteers have come across bodies, but everyone has seen the bones. And in a place where mortality crunches underfoot, folks can get a bit touchy.
Take the feds and the humanitarian outfits. They’ve never shared much in the way of mutual adoration. Sure, everyone pledges bonhomie—each appreciates the other’s “tough job” or “dedication” or “good intentions.” But those are just words muttered to reporters. As it happens, the thing keeping them at odds also binds them together: death all around. Death behind that shrub or in that wash, or settled in the shade of that half-buried boulder.
Death is the third partner in a relationship that nobody wants. The humanitarians provide assistance, food and water to migrants. The feds mostly leave them alone to do so.
Until recently.
Cursing and Pain Relief – TierneyLab Blog – NYTimes.com
If you bang your thumb with a hammer, does it really lessen the pain to let loose with a string of curse words? Automatically or involuntarily cursing under such circumstances is extremely common, if not universal, and a group of British scientists wondered if cursing helps reduce the agony..
Environment – 13 July 2009 – New Scientist
ONE of Africa’s most important food crops is likely to become increasingly toxic as a result of carbon emissions.
Monitoring faulted in rise of soldier suicides – USATODAY.com
Army commanders are failing at the day-to-day task of monitoring troubled young soldiers in their barracks back home, which is helping push suicides to record numbers, the head of the Army’s suicide task force says.
Saffron robes or jeans and T-shirt? | Naseem Khan | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
In the days when I was an Indian classical dancer, we were beset by doubts and anxieties about authenticity. How could we possibly practise an ancient art form in the rootless west? Were modifications to the form or the teaching method possible? Or were they anathema? If we learned one form of the dance, was it alright to go to a teacher of another form?
I was reminded of those anguished late-night debates at Joseph Goldstein’s session at King’s Place for London Insight Meditation on Sunday. Similar anxieties were raised in the questions from the packed and respectful audience. Broadly, they provided a stream of queries that fell into two camps – firstly how to live the dharma in daily life here – “How do I deal “skilfully” with a neighbour who persistently hems my car in?” – and secondly, how precise about its boundaries should western Buddhism be….
Even Amish values aren’t recession-proof
In a 20,000-person community of Amish in northern Indiana, fancy Dutch Harness horses and carriages lined “in dark velvet and illuminated … with battery-powered LED lighting” were the definition of living large. But no matter what your value system, when the economy turns south and you’re suddenly living beyond your means, trouble looms.
An Indian court has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act, overturning a federal law dating from the colonial era. MORE>>>
