1.1 11-year old who skipped pop for a year for $500.
1.2 Germany's autobahns hit the limit.
1.3 World leaders to attend massive 'unity rally' in France.
1.4 Google's Project Ara
1.5 The biggest, baddest threats we face over next 10 years.
!.6 Doomsday Clock Moved To 3 Minutes To Midnight.
2.1 Stock Buybacks are killing the American Economy
2.2 Falun Gong
2.3 Israel Urges Mass Jewish Immigration After Denmark Attacks
----------------
1.1 11-year old who skipped pop for a year for $500 (3/1/2015)
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) — If you think you can't stick to a New Year's resolution, maybe this 11-year-old's story will inspire you.
At Christmastime last year, Jonathan Sarisky's parents, mother Renee Shifley and stepfather Rick Shifley, of Livingston, and father Jason Sarisky, of Washington state, offered then-10-year-old Jonathan and his older brother, Andrew, a choice. They could have $100 now, or, if they chose to accept it, a payout of $500 later, with just one condition — avoiding all sugary beverages for an entire year.
...The contract is a real live contract, complete with legal-sounding language. For example, it states, "For the purposes of this contract, the term 'drink' means to take a liquid into the mouth by means of a cup, bottle, straw or any other such device normally used for drinking. Consuming cereal, soup, and other such liquid foods is considered 'eating,' not drinking.'"
And "Attempts to circumvent the spirit of this agreement are fraudulent and strictly prohibited."
The contract concludes, "This is a zero-tolerance agreement. Therefore, under no circumstances will Child receive a 'second chance.' Child takes full responsibility for honoring and upholding this contract."
... Jon said that the big prize for giving up pop was worth it.
"If it was just $100, I don't think I would have done it," he said. "The price was right."
http://www.chron.com/news/
1.2 Germany's autobahns hit the limit (6/1/2015)
Germany's vast freeway network was once a symbol of the nation's much-praised transport system. But now, the grim state of the 12 800km of autobahns is more of a sign of the nation's crumbling infrastructure and the threat it poses to growth in Europe's biggest economy. ...
http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/
1.3 World leader's to attend massive 'unity rally' in France (11/1/2015)
http://www.euronews.com/2015/
1.4 Google's Project Ara (15/1/2015)
The Ara looks to do away with the upgrade cycle completely, with owners able to add brand new modules to the original endoskeleton as they come onto the market.
Part of the philosophy behind the approach is to reduce electronic waste. However, questions remain as to whether Google will need to release upgrades of the endoskeleton itself, resulting in the modules having to be upgraded too.
Yet perhaps the biggest quirk in the Ara's unique approach is that Google is outsourcing the manufacture of the phone's key hardware parts to anyone willing and able to make them
http://www.stuff.co.nz/
1.5 The biggest, baddest threats we face over next 10 years (16/1/2015)
TOP 10 GLOBAL RISKS IN TERMS OF LIKELIHOOD
1. Interstate conflict
2. Extreme weather events
3. Failure of national governance
4. State collapse or crisis
5. Unemployment or underemployment
6. Natural catastrophes
7. Failure of climate-change adaptation
8. Water crises
9. Data fraud or theft
10. Cyber attacks
TOP 10 GLOBAL RISKS IN TERMS OF IMPACT
1. Water crises
2. Spread of infectious diseases
3. Weapons of mass destruction
4. Interstate conflict
5. Failure of climate-change adaptation
6. Energy price shock
7. Critical information infrastructure breakdown
8. Fiscal crises
9. Unemployment or underemployment
10. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
http://www.usatoday.com/story/
1.6 Doomsday Clock Moved To 3 Minutes To Midnight (26/1/2015)
http://www.bendbulletin.com/
2.1 Stock Buybacks are killing the American Economy (9/2/2015)
Where did all this money go?
The answer is as simple as it is surprising: Much of it went to stock buybacks—more than $6.9 trillion of them since 2004, according to data compiled by Mustafa Erdem Sakinç of The Academic-Industry Research Network. Over the past decade, the companies that make up the S&P 500 have spent an astounding 54 percent of profits on stock buybacks. Last year alone, U.S. corporations spent about $700 billion, or roughly 4 percent of GDP, to prop up their share prices by repurchasing their own stock.
http://www.theatlantic.com/
2.2 Falun Gong (13/2/2015)
Falun Gong was first taught publicly in Northeast China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. It emerged toward the end of China's "qigong boom"—a period which saw the proliferation of similar practices of meditation, slow-moving exercises and regulated breathing. It differs from other qigong schools in its absence of fees or formal membership, lack of daily rituals of worship, its greater emphasis on morality, and the theological nature of its teachings. Western academics have described Falun Gong as a qigong discipline, a "spiritual movement", a "cultivation system" in the tradition of Chinese antiquity, or as a form of Chinese religion.
Although the practice initially enjoyed considerable support from Chinese officialdom, by the mid- to late-1990s, the Communist Party and public security organizations increasingly viewed Falun Gong as a potential threat due to its size, independence from the state, and spiritual teachings. By 1999, some estimates placed the number of Falun Gong practitioners in the tens of millions.[1] Tensions culminated in April 1999, when over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered peacefully near the central government compound in Beijing to request legal recognition and freedom from state interference. This demonstration is widely seen as catalyzing the suppression that followed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Late on a Friday afternoon the White House responded to a petition submitted to their “We the People” site about 3 years ago that called for investigating and publicly condemning organ harvesting from Falun Gong believers in China.
The White House should be praised for publicly condemning the organ harvesting from executed prisoners.
But it remained silent about the request made in the original petition.
The White House doesn’t mention organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and doesn’t mention investigating this atrocity.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/
---------
The Chinese Communist Party fearing Falun Gong practitioners appears irrational. It would be comparable to the Government of India prosecuting Yoga practitioners (or, am I missing something, is there some serious problems with Falun Gong practitioners??).
Part of the problem could be with the very nature of modern science. Communism is actually a child of the modern scientific movement, which holds such things as religion in contempt. Communism was widely supported by intellectuals in the beginning of the twentieth century.
Hence the weakness of modern Darwinian science gets carried over to communism. Modern science we must remember does not properly recognize the deep connect between mind and body. Hence so far as modern science is concerned Yoga, Falun Gong etc. are fringe activities, not activities which need the full investigative might of modern science.
The Darwinian science is also behind the massive damage we are doing to our environment. So far as Darwinian science is concerned Nature is not live and beautiful, it is just inanimate matter undergoing natural selection and random mutation.
Selvaraj
2.3 Israel Urges Mass Jewish Immigration After Denmark Attacks (16/2/2015)
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Jews in Europe to move to Israel after a synagogue guard in Copenhagen was among two people shot dead in attacks that stunned the Danish capital.
Assaults on Jews in Europe are expected to continue, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday, according to a statement from his office.
“Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home,” he said. “We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,” he said.
Netanyahu asked the cabinet to allocate 180 million shekels
($46 million) for a plan to absorb new immigrants from France
and Belgium, where safety concerns rose after Islamist militants
attacked Jewish targets, and from war-ravaged Ukraine.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/
------------------
After reading all the depressing news one can only wonder what all the thought leaders are doing. Are they all asleep? What are all the religious leaders doing? What is the UN doing? What precisely is being taught in our schools and colleges?
To begin with we need to understand that in terms of obtaining an advantage over other nations, other religious groups and other ethnic groups we have reached a stalemate. Either we are going to prosper together or we are going to be doomed together.
National leaders need to change their conversation from how great they are and how great their individual countries are to seeking the common good of everyone on this planet.
Selvaraj
3.1 The Ever See (1/3/2015)
1.2 Germany's autobahns hit the limit.
1.3 World leaders to attend massive 'unity rally' in France.
1.4 Google's Project Ara
1.5 The biggest, baddest threats we face over next 10 years.
!.6 Doomsday Clock Moved To 3 Minutes To Midnight.
2.1 Stock Buybacks are killing the American Economy
2.2 Falun Gong
2.3 Israel Urges Mass Jewish Immigration After Denmark Attacks
----------------
1.1 11-year old who skipped pop for a year for $500 (3/1/2015)
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) — If you think you can't stick to a New Year's resolution, maybe this 11-year-old's story will inspire you.
At Christmastime last year, Jonathan Sarisky's parents, mother Renee Shifley and stepfather Rick Shifley, of Livingston, and father Jason Sarisky, of Washington state, offered then-10-year-old Jonathan and his older brother, Andrew, a choice. They could have $100 now, or, if they chose to accept it, a payout of $500 later, with just one condition — avoiding all sugary beverages for an entire year.
...The contract is a real live contract, complete with legal-sounding language. For example, it states, "For the purposes of this contract, the term 'drink' means to take a liquid into the mouth by means of a cup, bottle, straw or any other such device normally used for drinking. Consuming cereal, soup, and other such liquid foods is considered 'eating,' not drinking.'"
And "Attempts to circumvent the spirit of this agreement are fraudulent and strictly prohibited."
The contract concludes, "This is a zero-tolerance agreement. Therefore, under no circumstances will Child receive a 'second chance.' Child takes full responsibility for honoring and upholding this contract."
... Jon said that the big prize for giving up pop was worth it.
"If it was just $100, I don't think I would have done it," he said. "The price was right."
http://www.chron.com/news/
1.2 Germany's autobahns hit the limit (6/1/2015)
Germany's vast freeway network was once a symbol of the nation's much-praised transport system. But now, the grim state of the 12 800km of autobahns is more of a sign of the nation's crumbling infrastructure and the threat it poses to growth in Europe's biggest economy. ...
http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/
1.3 World leader's to attend massive 'unity rally' in France (11/1/2015)
(CNN)Dignitaries
and world leaders are expected to join hundreds of thousands of people
in France on Sunday in what government officials are calling a "unity
rally" in defiance of a terrorism spree that claimed 17 lives.
French
officials announced "exceptional measures" to protect not only the
throngs expected to gather near the Place de la Republique in central
Paris, but also a veritable who's who of foreign leaders that will test
security forces of a nation rocked by days of terrorist violence.http://www.euronews.com/2015/
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let *the world* awake.
- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Where-
-------------Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let *the world* awake.
- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Where-
Forget
ordinary folks, our thought leaders are still to embrace this vision of
Tagore's. Collectively we seem to be wasting our time and resources on
many brands of useless activities.
I took the liberty of changing 'my country' to 'the world'.
I. Selvaraj, IITM, 721.4 Google's Project Ara (15/1/2015)
The Ara looks to do away with the upgrade cycle completely, with owners able to add brand new modules to the original endoskeleton as they come onto the market.
Part of the philosophy behind the approach is to reduce electronic waste. However, questions remain as to whether Google will need to release upgrades of the endoskeleton itself, resulting in the modules having to be upgraded too.
Yet perhaps the biggest quirk in the Ara's unique approach is that Google is outsourcing the manufacture of the phone's key hardware parts to anyone willing and able to make them
http://www.stuff.co.nz/
1.5 The biggest, baddest threats we face over next 10 years (16/1/2015)
TOP 10 GLOBAL RISKS IN TERMS OF LIKELIHOOD
1. Interstate conflict
2. Extreme weather events
3. Failure of national governance
4. State collapse or crisis
5. Unemployment or underemployment
6. Natural catastrophes
7. Failure of climate-change adaptation
8. Water crises
9. Data fraud or theft
10. Cyber attacks
TOP 10 GLOBAL RISKS IN TERMS OF IMPACT
1. Water crises
2. Spread of infectious diseases
3. Weapons of mass destruction
4. Interstate conflict
5. Failure of climate-change adaptation
6. Energy price shock
7. Critical information infrastructure breakdown
8. Fiscal crises
9. Unemployment or underemployment
10. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
http://www.usatoday.com/story/
1.6 Doomsday Clock Moved To 3 Minutes To Midnight (26/1/2015)
The world is closer to
doomsday, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which moved
its Doomsday Clock up to three minutes to midnight. This is the “latest”
it has been since 1984, during the Cold War between the Soviet Union
and the United States.
The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board considers global issues to
decide whether to move the minute hand on the clock, with a great
emphasis on the status of nuclear weapons and global reaction to climate
problems, according to CNN.
Dooms day clock ticking a bit faster:
... The clock is designed
as a visual metaphor to warn the public of how close the world is to a
potential catastrophe. Every year, the magazine’s board analyzes threats
to humanity to decide what time to set the clock. The board said they
felt a sense of urgency this year due to the world’s ongoing addiction
to fossil fuels, little effort to get rid of nuclear weapons, and little
in the way of laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to
Scientific American.
The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947. The closest it has been to midnight was in 1953, when the clock was set to 11:58 pm.
Read more at: http://www.immortal.org/4848/The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947. The closest it has been to midnight was in 1953, when the clock was set to 11:58 pm.
http://www.bendbulletin.com/
2.1 Stock Buybacks are killing the American Economy (9/2/2015)
Where did all this money go?
The answer is as simple as it is surprising: Much of it went to stock buybacks—more than $6.9 trillion of them since 2004, according to data compiled by Mustafa Erdem Sakinç of The Academic-Industry Research Network. Over the past decade, the companies that make up the S&P 500 have spent an astounding 54 percent of profits on stock buybacks. Last year alone, U.S. corporations spent about $700 billion, or roughly 4 percent of GDP, to prop up their share prices by repurchasing their own stock.
http://www.theatlantic.com/
2.2 Falun Gong (13/2/2015)
Falun Gong was first taught publicly in Northeast China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. It emerged toward the end of China's "qigong boom"—a period which saw the proliferation of similar practices of meditation, slow-moving exercises and regulated breathing. It differs from other qigong schools in its absence of fees or formal membership, lack of daily rituals of worship, its greater emphasis on morality, and the theological nature of its teachings. Western academics have described Falun Gong as a qigong discipline, a "spiritual movement", a "cultivation system" in the tradition of Chinese antiquity, or as a form of Chinese religion.
Although the practice initially enjoyed considerable support from Chinese officialdom, by the mid- to late-1990s, the Communist Party and public security organizations increasingly viewed Falun Gong as a potential threat due to its size, independence from the state, and spiritual teachings. By 1999, some estimates placed the number of Falun Gong practitioners in the tens of millions.[1] Tensions culminated in April 1999, when over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered peacefully near the central government compound in Beijing to request legal recognition and freedom from state interference. This demonstration is widely seen as catalyzing the suppression that followed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Late on a Friday afternoon the White House responded to a petition submitted to their “We the People” site about 3 years ago that called for investigating and publicly condemning organ harvesting from Falun Gong believers in China.
The White House should be praised for publicly condemning the organ harvesting from executed prisoners.
But it remained silent about the request made in the original petition.
The White House doesn’t mention organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and doesn’t mention investigating this atrocity.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/
---------
The Chinese Communist Party fearing Falun Gong practitioners appears irrational. It would be comparable to the Government of India prosecuting Yoga practitioners (or, am I missing something, is there some serious problems with Falun Gong practitioners??).
Part of the problem could be with the very nature of modern science. Communism is actually a child of the modern scientific movement, which holds such things as religion in contempt. Communism was widely supported by intellectuals in the beginning of the twentieth century.
Hence the weakness of modern Darwinian science gets carried over to communism. Modern science we must remember does not properly recognize the deep connect between mind and body. Hence so far as modern science is concerned Yoga, Falun Gong etc. are fringe activities, not activities which need the full investigative might of modern science.
The Darwinian science is also behind the massive damage we are doing to our environment. So far as Darwinian science is concerned Nature is not live and beautiful, it is just inanimate matter undergoing natural selection and random mutation.
Selvaraj
2.3 Israel Urges Mass Jewish Immigration After Denmark Attacks (16/2/2015)
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Jews in Europe to move to Israel after a synagogue guard in Copenhagen was among two people shot dead in attacks that stunned the Danish capital.
Assaults on Jews in Europe are expected to continue, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday, according to a statement from his office.
“Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home,” he said. “We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,” he said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/
------------------
After reading all the depressing news one can only wonder what all the thought leaders are doing. Are they all asleep? What are all the religious leaders doing? What is the UN doing? What precisely is being taught in our schools and colleges?
To begin with we need to understand that in terms of obtaining an advantage over other nations, other religious groups and other ethnic groups we have reached a stalemate. Either we are going to prosper together or we are going to be doomed together.
National leaders need to change their conversation from how great they are and how great their individual countries are to seeking the common good of everyone on this planet.
Selvaraj
3.1 The Ever See (1/3/2015)
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