We lost a musical genius at the beginning of 2016.
My earliest memory of the legendary David Robert Jones was when my mother bought a record of his and I saw the cover (I think it was 'Space Oddity'). I was 9 years old and fell madly in love with this androgynous, mysterious, beautiful, outrageous looking creature.
He was the poetic and rebellious inspiration I needed in my teens and I never outgrew his innovative and ground-breaking style of music. He inspired me to write poetry, to be a musician and to be insanely weird…and proud of it.
I have been practicing madly this week for a David Bowie tribute concert that I have agreed to do (I play the bass guitar) next Saturday in Cape Town. Within a couple of weeks of the show being announced it was sold out — a real testament to the popularity of this British musical icon even in the Southern most tip of Africa!
I had the privilege of seeing him live in action at Wembley Stadium, London, when he was on his 'Reality' tour. He was well into his 60's at the time but his performance was monumental — an evening I shall never forget.
Rehearsing for this gig has given me a new-found respect for Mr. Bowie as his songs are some of the most complicated and difficult I've ever attempted. But what speaks to the soul must be pursued.
Okay, no. 8 and 9 aren't exactly THAT spiritual but I like them anyway. Anyone with a fetish for reading and books would understand the hair-pulling anxiety of lending books (and never seeing them again!).
I love no. 7 because we should all strive to please ourselves and stop trying to placate those around us forsaking our own needs and creativity. That should not be taken as a selfish thing but a self love thing (read more HERE). When you're happy, you're going to exude joy and that will affect all of those in your sphere.
Thank you, David Bowie, for all the inspiration and boundary pushing!
Related article: Can Music Jump-Start Humanity's Awakening?
Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can also follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment).
Memory is the most important part of a person's identity, so it's baffling that today there is still so little we understand about how human memory works. In PBS' "Memory Hackers," scientists from around the world let us in on their research into how to manipulate our memories in order to forget or even create new ones. The hour-long documentary interviews cognitive scientists and neurobiologists as well as their subjects to gain more insight into how these fascinating processes work and what the amazing results are.
For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays it intact, but now, researchers are discovering that memory is far more malleable, always being written and rewritten, not just by us but by others. We are discovering the precise mechanisms that can explain and even control our memories.
If you're thinking about how these studies might relate to the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you're not far off. Among the subjects the film studies, the research of Karim Nader is explored. Nader discovered that the human memory may not be permanent but may, instead, be vulnerable to alteration each time a memory is recalled. This discovery led to hundreds of other studies around the world that were rooted in this theory, and is rumored to be an inspiration for the well-known independent movie.
One of the patients in the film is Jake Hausler, a 12-year-old boy with a fascinating and rare ability to remember everything he has ever experienced since he was 8. Jake is the youngest person to ever be diagnosed with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, a mental ability that allows him to recall everything he's ever done but makes it difficult to distinguish between important and trivial memories and events. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine are mapping Jake's brain to understand what makes his memory so strong and to see if this leads to new insights about how memory works.
Professor Julia Shaw, who is a researcher that the film follows as well, is an expert on false memory and the implantation of memories. Her research, which has a 70% success rate for convincing people that they committed a crime that they actually were not involved in, reveals the flaws in the criminal justice system and prisoners who were convicted purely based on eyewitness testimonythat was likely faulty.
While Shaw is researching the implantation of memories, another scientist, André Fenton, is studying the science of forgetting memories. He believes that, "Forgetting is probably one of the most important things that brains will do," and that it's possible that an injection could erase a painful memory. His hopes are that his research will one day help those suffering with dementia and Alzheimer's by having a better understanding of how our brain works to remove memories.
Merel Kindt has also discovered that medication can help to remove negative associations of some memories. In her research, she was able to cure patients who suffered from severe cases of arachnophobia, which is the fear of spiders. This could lead to breakthroughs in reducing anxieties and fears in those who find daily functions intimidating, as well as help with a range of other anxiety-related issues like eating disorders.
Though this research may be fascinating and innovative, it raises the question of whether or not humans are ready for these kinds of breakthroughs. Just as the abuse of implanting memories can be dangerous for important aspects of society like being an eyewitness to a crime, forgetting memories could be hazardous for people's personal lives and individual development. When the research turns into concrete medication or treatments available to the public, we will have to ask ourselves if we are prepared for such unknown consequences.
Watch the trailer for "Memory Hackers" below and tell us what you think in the comments!
The Chenchus themselves may not be fully aware of the presence of Kali (Chenchu Lakshmi) in Nallamalais. They sleepwalk on her lap blissfully. She guards not just the life but also the ancient man-made treasure as well as diamond mines. Those who tried to steal from her got disappeared in her vicinity. If the present rulers don't grasp this and follow their predecessors thinking that their god Lucifer or the Illuminati can save them, they are mistaken. Let history not repeat itself!
Government of India collects many statistics every year on everything and anything except on the displaced people from the resource rich forests or river banks or fertile lands. None in India in government circles have any figure for the number of people that have been or are being displaced by big developmental projects or sacrificed on the altar of Developmental Mantra by every national government.
Where do these displaced people go?
Eventually they end up in slums of urban centers on government lands or on disputed lands. They become vote bank for urban political parties. In most cases once the land title is allotted these slum dwellers are uprooted from these slums so that big corporation can build shopping malls or apartment complexes for the development of the nation.
Various courts in India including the Supreme Court are either silent on this human tragedy of forcible displacement or in rarest cases sided with the government and big MNCs in pursuing their agendas. In many cases even if there were no environmental clearances for such huge ecology damaging projects like Tehri Dam or Tata and POSOCO or Vedanta, still they went ahead grabbing the lands of poor and destroying the ecology for MNC interests.
It would appear as though these problems are just the result of bad management, planning and a general lack of oversight and holistic perspective. However true that maybe it is just the partial truth. Upon a closer observation infact one would find that these problems are not the result of mis-management, instead they are the results of a very systematic and strategically charted out policies in motion through a very long time.
Most of these above mentioned displaced people are from virgin forests from where coal to diamonds, rare earth metals to gold could be hauled out at throw away prices, which would be used to make high technology cutting edge products again to be sold to India at 10,000 times more profit than the actual cost of the materials/products hauled out.
MNCs want these tribal Indians to go away from their resource rich lands sometime like yesterday. But they are afraid just like the East India Company, that such evacuation (read rehabilitation) may create revolt among people. To avoid such inconvenience MNCs are now using the very democratically elected governments to do the eviction of population in the guise of protection of wildlife and sustainable development.
A massive such eviction is taking place in the State of Andhra Pradesh from the virgin forests of Nallamala range for the exclusive benefits of De Beers, a diamond mining corporation that wants the kimberlite or diamonds from the forest. But that is not the only thing De Beers is after. What De Beers is after is the buried wealth of Vijayanagara Empire to be hauled permanently into western fold.
The efforts of De Beers started at least 13 years ago when it was told to us that "they realized the massive diamond, gold and granite deposits in Mehaboob Nagar and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh". These deposits are spread under the thick jungles of Nallamala Forests. These forests needed to be cleared first for the diamond mining or De Beers should have to resort to the latest technology called horizontal drilling under the forests.
Now here comes the kicker. East India Companies when they ruled India tried to locate these kimberlite mines and declared that they were all exhausted and thus shifted their focus to South Africa. In South Africa they found diamonds and set up African gold and diamond mining companies under the ruthless exploitative ownership of Openheimers, who were one of the owners of the East India Companies. It is these Nallamala diamond mines that were the source of the riches of all the kingdoms of India including the Vijayanagara Kingdom, which at its height sold diamonds on streets not in carats but in kilograms. This fact was recorded by Portuguese, Russian, French and other chroniclers who had business and diplomatic ties with Vijayanagara kingdom. Every crown jewel of every European kingdom in those days came from India and from these mines along the banks of Krishna or Tungabhadra rivers.
For a detailed understanding kindly read our research report The Hunt for the Treasures of Vijayanagara Empire.
In the year 1600 East India Company was formed and given exclusive right to trade with India and South East Asia by the British Monarchy under the concept of Free Trade and Globalization. It was also given the right to civilize India. In the year 1965 the Club of Rome (top industrial houses-real owners of EICs or MNCs) divided the world in 10 economic segments and gave unbridled authority to ruthlessly exploit Segment 9 (India belongs to this segment 9), a group of mineral (diamond, gold, uranium, life saving medicinal plants, organic food and drinking water) oil and natural gas rich South East Asian nations consisting one third of the population of the world- under liberalization (liberalize domestic economy to globalize its owners) and privatization (privatize so that Free Trade can further control domestic economy via global owners) to a group of MNCs.
Liberalization and Privatization were the tools of the mercantile world in the long history of 400 year struggle to dominate resource rich Asia in general and India in particular. Since the beginning of liberalization of Indian economy for the supposed 'development' of India many Indians within the border of India became second-class citizens or non-citizens in their own native lands, country and cultural settings. They became the Helots of India, a derogatory term used by the Romans to indicate non-Romans in their country, intermediate in status between slaves and citizens. However still for whose sake is this development, is still not yet answered as it is tacitly understood that it is for the western countries to continue their geopolitical fight with their yester year cold war adversaries.
It wouldn't be farfetched to say that in the name of development India is now run only for the profit maximization of giant western Multinational Corporations (MNCs) which are in their latest avatar from the erstwhile East India Companies (EICs). In fact all the owners of current MNCs are the grand children of the previous East India Companies, in lineage, spirit, methods, tactics and business policies (read Business Intelligence).
For a detailed study of the origin of these EICs, their motives and the motives of MNCs along with the commodities EICs dealt with and MNCs plan to deal with or are already dealing with; along with the elusive owners of these MNCs tracking them back to their East India Company roots kindly refer to our East India Company Series – Part I Noble Motives.
All across the United States, thousands of animals live in cages for lab testing. Their entire lives are spent in captivity and they're used for research purposes. They never get to go outside, they never get to interact with other animals, and nothing about their lives is natural. You can definitely make the argument that medical testing on animals has been beneficial to mankind, but it is still an extremely sad way for any animal to spend its life.
Thankfully, the Humane Society of the United States is doing everything it can to give these animals a better life. As far as chimpanzees go, The Humane Society is actively rescuing lab chimps and giving them a natural habitat to climb trees and engage with other chimps.
The chimps you'll see in the video below are part of a massive chimp retirement. Over 100 chimps were released into a sanctuary. since they've been kept in captivity for most of their lives, they can never be released back into the wild, especially since most of them are over 50 years old. However, the sanctuary is the next best place for a chimp to live out their lives in peace.
Besides being able to play outside for the first time, this was also the first time many of the chimps are getting to interact with each other with out cages separating them. For the rest of their lives, these chimps will be able to socialize and explore a natural habitat.
Watch the chimps' retirement, and don't forget to SHARE this incredible moment with your family and friends!
If you want to learn more about the Humane Society and how they're helping animals all over the world, check out their website website and watch more of their videos on their YouTube channel!
Alpha Centauri , the nearest star to our Sun and the most likely destination for our first journey beyond the solar system.
Remarkably, it's anti-matter, the 'science fiction' fuel of choice that could take us there. Normally, it's only created in powerful jets that roar out of black holes.
We can now produce small quantities in Earth-bound particle colliders.
Will we journey out only to plunder other worlds?
Or will we come in peace?
The answer may depend on how we see Earth at that time in the distant future.
The year is 2154. Our planet has been ruined by environmental catastrophe. In the movie Avatar, greedy prospectors from Earth descend on the world of an innocent hunter-gatherer people called the Na'vi.
Their home is a lush moon far beyond our solar system called Pandora.
Could such a place exist?
And could our technology... and our appetite for exploration... one day send us hurtling out to reach it?
In fact, the supposed site of this fictional solar system is one of our most likely interstellar targets, until a better destination turns up.
Pandora orbits a fictional gas planet called Polyphemus. Its home is a real place... Alpha Centauri... the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus.
At 4.37 light years away, it's part of the closest star system to our sun. Alpha Centauri is actually two stars, A and B, one slightly larger and more luminous than our own sun, the other slightly smaller.
The two stars orbit one other, swinging in as close as Saturn is to our Sun... then back out to the distance of Pluto. This means that any outer planets in this system... anything beyond, say, the orbit of Mars... would likely have been pulled away by the companion and flung out into space.
For this reason, Alpha Centauri was not high on planet hunters' lists... until they began studying a star 45 light years away called " Gamma Cephei." It has a small companion star that goes around it every 76 years. Now, it seems... it also has at least one planet.
That world is about the size of Jupiter, and it has planet hunters excited. Perhaps two-thirds of all the stars in our galaxy are in so-called binary relationships. That means there could be many more planets in our galaxy that astronomers once assumed.
At least three teams are now conducting long-term studies of Alpha Centauri... searching for slight wobbles in the light of each companion star that could indicate the presence of planets. If they find a planet that passes in front of one of the stars, astronomers will begin intensive studies to find out what it's like.
One of their most promising tools will be the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014 or 2015.
From a position a million miles away from Earth, it will deploy a sun shield the size of a tennis court, and a mirror over 21 feet wide. The largest space telescope ever built, it will offer an extraordinary new window into potential solar systems like Alpha Centauri.
With its infrared light detectors, this telescope will be able to discern the chemical composition of a planet's atmosphere... and perhaps whether it harbors a moon like Pandora. One prominent planet hunter predicted that if a habitable world is found at Alpha Centauri, the planning for a space mission would begin immediately.
Here's that star duo as seen by the Cassini spacecraft just above the rings of Saturn.
To actually get to this pair of stairs, you have to travel as far as the orbit of Saturn, then go another 30,000 times further. Put another way, if the distance to Alpha Centauri is the equivalent of New York to Chicago, then Saturn would be just... one meter away.
So far, the immense distances of space have not stopped us from launching missions into deep space. In 1977, the twin Voyager spacecraft were each sent on their way aboard Titan 3 Centaur rockets.
After a series of gravitational assists from the giant outer planets, the spacecraft are now flying out of the solar system at about 40,000 miles per hour.
They are moving so quickly that they could whip around the Earth in just 45 minutes, twice as fast as the International Space Station. Voyager I has now traveled over 110 astronomical units. That's 110 times the distance from Earth to the Sun... or about 10 billion miles. But don't hold your breath.
If it was headed in the right direction, it would need another 73,000 years to travel the 273,000 astronomical units to Alpha Centauri.
Through the Wormhole - Are We Alone ?
Hosted by Morgan Freeman, Through the Wormhole will explore the deepest mysteries of existence - the questions that have puzzled mankind for eternity. What are we made of? What was there before the beginning? Are we really alone? Is there a creator? These questions have been pondered by the most exquisite minds of the human race. Now, science has evolved to the point where hard facts and evidence may be able to provide us with answers instead of philosophical theories. Through the Wormhole will bring together the brightest minds and best ideas from the very edges of science - Astrophysics, Astrobiology, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, and more - to reveal the extraordinary truth of our Universe.
Is There a Sixth Sense?
What Happened Before the Beginning?
Are There More Than 3 Dimensions?
Consciousness is non-local. We can view objects and occurrences remotely, using cameras and other equipment. We can also use consciousness itself to remotely view points from other perspectives.
Heisenberg 'proved' that an act of conscious observation alters that which is observed. We change reality by experiencing it. We also alter the consciousness of beings which we observe.
Many native peoples have been ascribed the belief that to record their image "steals their soul". It is a commonplace of sympathetic magic belief systems that to view someone's photograph or image provides a current conscious link to them.
At the moment an image which 'will' be viewed or heard in the 'future' is recorded, the consciousness of that future audience impinge upon that moment, directly interfacing/interlacing with the minds of those present. The more viewers of a work, the more conscious perspectives intersect at the moment of its inception. If a recording or creative work is to be successful in its transmission - ie experienced by a wide audience during or subsequent to its creation - then 'the muse' will be with the artist and the work will appear to produce itself, or by an act of inspiration. The consciousness of the audience - and creator - is the muse. The artist is an instrument of the audience. Time is no barrier, but a medium.
The Egyptian Pharaohs refused to have their countenances (or those of their families) accurately portrayed - with the exception of one notable heretic whose name and visage we almost erased from history before being recovered. Islam and other beliefs dislike portraying even the human form.
Each time we 'remember' the past a part of us is present there. We affect that moment and have 'already' done so. A memory - or imprint - to which we repeatedly return has 'fixed' itself in our awareness. It is overlaid with the multiple impressions communing with that moment throughout the 'future'. The focus of these 'future (often more evolved, aware, wiser) selves' alters the original moment of imprinting radically, cross-linking it. We are self-referencing in time.
Major experiences which we survive will be undergone in a field of intense focus of consciousness, which alters the possibilities - and probabilities - within the moment of imprinting.
When you were young(er) you may have experienced a life-altering event that impressed itself into your memory. At the time this was taking place you may have had the impression that you were encompassed by something 'larger' than yourself. Perhaps you experienced a 'guide' or even 'god' or 'higher being' that seemed to be present, guiding or preserving you. This was you in the 'future'; in fact, all the evolving layers of you who ever returned in their memory to relive that peak experience, overlaying all their alternative perceptions upon the moment of momentum.
The impression of peak experience is created not only by the experience itself but also by the focused concentration of consciousness from different timespace vectors.
Consciousness is non-local. Beings are self-created by focused will, self-referencing in timespace. Separation in time or space is an illusion based on evolution and life suspended in the waters of a gravity well. There are no external limits to awareness. 'Memory' is seeing through the fluid.