Thursday, April 20, 2006

Multitasking

Edward Scotswood
Of Elswick,
Newcastle,
Is a modern man.

He is good at cooking:
He knows how to
Boil a kettle
Without burning
The water inside,
And he knows how to
Unwrap a chocolate bar
Without guilt.

Guilt is a
Girl-thing,
Anyway.

Edward
Looks around
For a girl.

He is feeling

Hungry.


Olive restaurant in Bromley

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

We are water beings

We are water beings
Living
On a water planet.

Listen:
Sometimes it rains.

Perhaps raindrops are angels
Training for a higher destiny:
A liquidity of light
In the empyrean.

Listen:
Sometimes streams flow.

Perhaps flowing streams are angels
Trying to take off:
Bounding bubbles
Aspiring upwards.

Listen:
Sometimes water stands still.

Perhaps standing water
Is a concentrated tincture
Of angels:
Cordial for the crestfallen.

It is difficult to know.

But it is easy to hope.

Hope is fluent:
It flows like water
And forms droplets
On that which is
Unnecessarily dry.

Listen well to the water;
Learn its fluidity of being.
Return to the experience
Of smooth,
Bubbling,
Lubricity,
And flow free.


.........................................................


Water droplets on a grass leaf
Photograph by Mary Stebbins

Flowing stream in Autumn
Photograph by Mary Stebbins

The Deleware Water Gap in October
Photograph by Mary Stebbins

More of Mary Stebbins’ work can be found here and here.

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Very refreshing

Unusual cloud-form over Launceston

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Monday, April 17, 2006

About netball

Even in
Casual conversation
With female undergraduates
About netball,
Dr Piers Stockton,
Of Cambridge University,
Lards his observations
With layers
Of arcane symbolic referents
To Beowulf

And the Teletubbies.


The Piers Stockton cycle of koans

Myth signifiers

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Science = Religion ?

Page update: 31.05.06

Religion, like science, helps people understand a complex and uncertain world. Like science, it helps people define priorities and choose lifestyles. And like science, it is full of competing claims made by sincere people struggling to interpret basic truths.

This is the opening paragraph of an article entitled Evangelicals and environmentalists united
by R.Bruce Hull, Professor of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, USA). It was published in the New Scientist (London) on the 1st April 2006.


.........................................................

The Counterbalance Meta Library
A shared collection of topics, definitions, audio and video clips which cover the constructive interaction of science, ethics, philosophy and religion.

.........................................................


Cambridge Science Park

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching






Thursday, April 13, 2006

Cambridge Science Park

Dr Piers Stockton,
Of Cambridge University,
Amassed his private fortune
Early on in the history
Of the Cambridge Science Park
When he set up
A company called
Quid Pro Quotidian Intellectual Services,
And began to run courses
On fundamentalist poesy
For inner circle members
Of the Skull and Bones Club

At Yale University.


The Piers Stockton cycle of koans

The game continued

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Convent girl

A well-brought-up
Roman Catholic convent girl,
She looks into his eyes
And catches a glimpse
Of the very abyss
Of Hell.

She marries him immediately.

Somehow the grass
Seems greener

On the other side.


Why is church so serious?

In Sussex

Pumpkin candlelight

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Monday, April 10, 2006

The Piers Stockton cycle of koans



Dr Piers Stockton is The Al-Saud Lecturer in Progressive Hermeneutics at Cambridge University. Several Traditional Norfolk Koans detail his particular contributions to human civilisation. For ease of reference, these koans are listed below:

Syntactically flawless

Myth signifiers

Cambridge Science Park

About netball

Distant and severe

Generation gap

The feast of Corpus Christi

Myth signifiers

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2006/04/myth-signifiers.html
Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home


Dr Piers Stockton,
Who has been lecturing hard
All morning
At Cambridge University
On the progressive hermeneutics
Of myth signifiers,
Reflects that is
Rather gratifying
To be misunderstood

By pedants.



...................................................




The Piers Stockton cycle of koans

Syntactically flawless

The libraries do not fool us

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Saturday, April 08, 2006

2012 AD – A spiritual terminus or a change of trains?

Page update: 07.04.10

The Mayan calendar of human history ends on Friday 21st December 2012. The End. Then what? Then where? Are we talking about the end of everything? Is 21.12.12 really the terminal point for the evolution of all human experience on this planet? Or are other interpretations of the calendar possible? The exact nature of the the closure event of our civilisation has been the subject of discussion for centuries.

High-status spiritual information suggests that the accuracy of the Mayan Calendar is about 99.5% and that the 0.5% inaccuracy came and went years ago. I refer to Zoosh through Robert Shapiro in the Explorer Race books.

But what is going to happen, exactly, at the Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice in the year 2012 CE? It may be not so much the end of the world as the beginning of two new worlds: one in the third dimension and the other in the fifth dimension. A new Iron Age for some; a new Golden Age for others. A new Earth for some; a new Heaven for others. The Last Division, one might say, or the parting of the ways. The Last Judgment.

The consensus seems to be that we judge ourselves on the basis of our own personal spiritual evolution. And in 2012, or thereabouts, we move on to a new world - a new dimensional space - which is suitable to nurture our particular state of evolutionary development and to take us forwards and upwards. And as for the individual human, so for Planet Earth. The talk is of planetary ascension. This process has begun already.

The vibrations are becoming faster. The transit from low vibration third dimension to higher vibration fourth dimension is underway. At the moment we and the planet are somewhere between 3.47 and 3.55. It's an incremental thing. Those people whose low vibration negative energy cannot stand the stress of the rising frequencies are dying off prematurely in mysterious circumstances or from modern Western diseases. Others will die off soon, or self-terminate, as their covert negativity becomes manifest through disclosure, exposure and publication.

For centuries the Schumann Resonance of the Earth was 7.8 hertz. The planetary heartbeat was steady. Orthodox science thought it was a constant. Since 1980, however, Norwegian and Russian researchers, among others, have observed that the Schumann Resonance has risen to 11 hertz. It is still rising and some report that it is now around 12. The macroenergetics of the Earth have changed by more than 50% in a generation. Our planet is getting excited about something.

Orthodox human history places the start of the Mayan civilisation in MesoAmerica in the first or second century CE. Zoosh says no, it was 10,000 years earlier than that. At that point the Mayans who had been living deep underground in the Inner Earth's Agartha territories, came to the surface through closely-guarded cave-networks in the vicinity of places such as Macchu Picchu and other remote landscape powerpoints further north. At the end of the Mayan civilisation, or when it began to degrade, they went back into the Inner Earth where they live still.

Three of the leading Mayans, it is said, were given privileged data by The Higher Evolution, the advanced benign extraterrestrials who oversee the local spiritual evolution of Sol 3, Planet Earth. The advanced civilisations who provided these data were from Orion, Sirius and Arcturus. One of the extraterrestrials is known to human history as Moroni. The data given were recorded in calendric form.

One of the three leading Mayans reincarnated again recently in the surface human population. He was Joseph Smith (1805-1844), founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (The Mormons). Moroni gave him a set of powerful extraterrestrial artefacts called the golden plates. These still exist, secure in a hidden location. It is expected that they will be activated in the run-up to 2012.

Other developed spiritual traditions, in addition to the Mayans, were also given the 2012 information, including the Hopi, the ancient Egyptians, the Essenes and their Gnostic descendants, the Qero elders of Peru, the Navajo, Cherokee, Apache and Iroquois, the Dogon tribe, certain Tibetan Buddhist traditions and the Australian Aborigines.

Each of these groups has been regarded as primitive by modern western materialistic and religious culture. In actuality, each of them is more advanced spiritually, it is suggested, and more attuned to the underlying spiritual culture of the planet, than most élite groups within post-renaissance modernity.



...............................................


Mayan calendrics
Some background detail

Planetary Ascension year 2012
Some resources for exploration

Channie Centara speaking about The New Earth
Channie introduces some information about planetary ascension and the higher dimension we are moving into now, in the New Age.

The Aura of Earth and the Aura of The New Earth Touched
A key event in the process of our planetary ascension happened on the 21st September 2003. Channie Centara talks about the new spiritual frequency which has been experienced since that moment.

New Earth by an Archangel
A colleague of Channie Centara describes the new musical frequency of Earth's planetary ascension.

Information about Channie Centara

A Message from a friend
A poem by an unnamed lightworker who is assisting the ascension process of Planet Earth.

2012 - An evolutionary step forwards for humanity
Hans de Waard discusses the Schumann base frequency of the Earth, the impending Central Sun alignment, benign extraterrestrial visitations and the functional evolution of human DNA from 2 to 12 strands.

DNA upgrades - making the new you
An extraterrestrial view of human spiritual evolution in the run-up to 2012

The Mayan Calendar Portal
Carl Johan Calleman's website

Judgement Day
Ashtar through Toltec - from the LightVoyager website

Staying grounded and healthy during planetary ascension
Some advice from the benevolent ETs of The Ashtar Command

Journeys through nine dimensions
The website of Barbara Hand Clow & Gerry Clow

Alchemy of Nine Dimensions
Decoding the vertical axis, crop circles and the Mayan Calendar - introducing a book by Barbara Hand Clow and Gerry Clow.

Photographed light blessings from Jesus

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2006/04/photographed-light-blessings-from.html
Alcuin Bramerton Twitter .. Alcuin Bramerton Medium
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In recent years, curious anomalies have been appearing on photographs all over the world. Share International Magazine has reported that many of these were caused by Jesus. He happened to be sending a light-energy blessing to certain individuals at the moment a photograph was being taken of them or by them.

In each case the light blessing was not seen by the photographer until the picture was processed. A column or swirl of light was discovered on the image after development. It is claimed that these streaks of light are not caused by film or camera faults, or by accidents in the developing process. They are only seen on the exposure in question, not on the whole film, or on adjacent digital exposures.

Listed below are links to forty eight examples of the images Share International has published. Some of these relate to light blessings received by human beings such as here, here, here, here and here. Others seem to be blessings given at landscape power-points or sacred sites while people watched, such as here and here.



Photographic image of a blessing from the Master Jesus taken in August 2002 in Roeselare (Belgium) showing N.P. with her grandson S.
(Share International Magazine July 2007)


Photographic image of a blessing from the Master Jesus taken by B.D. from Gorey (Ireland) on the 7th April 2007 at her grandniece’s christening.
(Share International Magazine June 2007)


Photographic image of a blessing from the Master Jesus taken by J.C. from Miltoen Malbay (Ireland) while her granddaughter Aoibheann (aged 4 months) was being bathed by her mother.
(Share International Magazine June 2007)


Photographic image of a blessing from the Master Jesus taken by R.v.d.P. (from Holland) at Amsterdam Zoo. At the moment the picture was taken of a group of owls, the photographer had in mind the birds' history as ancient symbols of wisdom.
(Share International Magazine June 2007)


Photographic image of a blessing from the Master Jesus taken in November 2003 on the birthday of K.A.’s daughter in Solothurn (Switzerland). The object behind the light blessing is a burning wooden log.
(Share International Magazine June 2007)


Photographic image of a blessing from the Master Jesus taken on the 4th December 2002 at the home of J.v.d.B’s parents in Utrecht (Netherlands), on the occasion of their 40th wedding anniversary. The energy of the blessing shows as a column of light at the right-hand edge of the picture.
(Share International Magazine May 2007)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of the Arc de Triomphe taken in Paris (France) in 1994.
(Share International Magazine April 2007)


Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph taken in April 2006 at Chiba-ken, Shirai-Shi (Japan) at the wake of a brother-in-law of Mutsumi Ueda.

(Share International Magazine January/February 2007)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on one of seven photographs of Christmas presents being opened in 2002, submitted by SA of Elk, California, USA.
(Share International Magazine December 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of BE’s dog, North Carolina, USA.
(Share International Magazine December 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of HN’s daughter on the day of her Coming of Age ceremony in Kurashiki, Japan, January 2003.
(Share International Magazine December 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph taken in the French Alps by FE of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (Share International Magazine December 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of HH, two children and a dog, in Ameland Island, Holland, taken in June 2006.
(Share International Magazine November 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus in a woodland garden in Saga-Pref, Kyunen Iori, Japan, taken by MH in 2002.
(Share International Magazine November 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of patterns of light on a building in London (UK), taken by JG in 2005.
(Share International Magazine November 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of the Lago de Piedluco, Terni, Italy, taken by AMcL of County Wexford, Ireland.
(Share International Magazine November 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on photographs of Milan Cathedral, Italy, taken during a honeymoon trip by T of Hiroshima, Japan.
(Share International Magazine November 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus at a children's play park in Yokohama, Japan.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of a wedding party in Yokohama, Japan, in 1993.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2006)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus at an adult social event.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2006)

Image of a light blessing manifested by the Master Jesus while a child plays in the garden.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2006)

Image of a light blessing from the Master Jesus on a photo of the preparations for a Pooja in Sri Lanka.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2006)

Image of a light blessing from the Master Jesus while a guitar is being played.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2006)

Image of a light blessing from the Master Jesus as a child opens his presents at Christmas 1982.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2006)

Image of an orb of light manifested by the Master Jesus next to a woodland grave cross.
(Share International Magazine June 2006)

Photograph taken in the USA in August 2004
Image shows PH, the day after his birthday with a rainbow-coloured blessing from the Master Jesus. The photographer was his aunt, CO, from Dallas, Texas, USA. (Share International Magazine May 2006)

Photograph taken at Machu Picchu, Peru, in 1990
(Share International Magazine May 2006)

Photograph taken in Japan in April 2005
Light blessing from the Master Jesus on cherry blossom. Photographed by YI, Japan. (Share International Magazine May 2006)

Photograph taken in Nazareth, Israel in December 1992
Light blessing from the Master Jesus photographed in the Basilica of the Annunciation Chapel by HL, from Spain. (Share International Magazine May 2006)

Image of a light blessing being received from Jesus by a child in Japan
(Share International Magazine April 2006)

Light blessing from the Master Jesus
(Share International Magazine April 2006)

Light blessing from the Master Jesus
on a photograph of a student theatre production in Edinburgh, Scotland.
(Share International Magazine January/February 2006)

Image of a light blessing from the Master Jesus on a party photograph taken in Tokyo, Japan, in April 2005.
(Share International Magazine January/February 2006)

Image of a light blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph taken at a rock concert
(Share International Magazine December 2005)

Light blessing from the Master Jesus
on a photograph taken at Universal Studio, Japan, in August 2002.
(Share International Magazine November 2005)


Photograph taken during the baptism of Liliane Alix's son Brieuc
in Marseille, France, on Easter Day, 2002. The light blessing is from the Master Jesus.
(Share International Magazine November 2005)


Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of four women in Chigasaki City, Japan, submitted by SK.
(Share International Magazine October 2005)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of a mother and child in Hokkaido, Japan, submitted by KT.
(Share International Magazine September 2005)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of three people looking at cherry blossom in April 2005, submitted by YI.
(Share International Magazine September 2005)

Photograph taken in Tokyo, Japan
in April 2005, showing a light blessing from the Master Jesus in the immediate vicinity of a man and a woman out socialising. (Share International Magazine July/August 2005)

Photograph taken at Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
in November 2000, showing a light blessing from the Master Jesus.
(Share International Magazine July/August 2005)


Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of two women taken in a San Francisco hotel (California, USA) in November 2000.
(Share International Magazine June 2005)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of a woman at home in America in 1966, submitted by her sister in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
(Share International Magazine June 2005)

Rose-coloured light blessing from the Master Jesus
on a photograph of a schoolteacher visiting the Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy, during a 2001 school trip.
(Share International Magazine May 2005)


Column of light manifested by the Master Jesus
on photographs in Enniscorthy, Ireland, at a wedding.
(Share International Magazine April 2005)


Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of a dancing class on the 5th December 1984.
(Share International Magazine March 2005)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of two men taken in 2002.
(Share International Magazine January/February 2005)

Image of a blessing from the Master Jesus on a photograph of a woman taken at the Memorial Hospital, Colorado Springs, USA.
(Share International Magazine January/February 2005)


Share International’s picture links page can be found here


Biographical note: The Ascended Master commonly known in the West as Jesus is also known on the spiritual planes (the inner planes) as Sananda. In his Palestinian incarnation (24BC – 9AD) he was known locally as Joshua Ben Pandira. He was an active Essene mystic in a progressive Jewish tradition of the time. Modern Western culture refers to him as Jesus of Nazareth. In 16AD he took another physical incarnation known to history as Apollonius of Tyana. A few centuries later, working from the spiritual planes, he gave the Prophet Muhammad the original text of The Holy Qur'an and taught the Prophet during his night journeys to the Holy Land. On the 13th April 1952, speaking to a meditation group in Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA), Jesus said: "And soon will come the time when the light which I pour forth to individuals in response to their calls to me can be easily photographed, even by that mechanical perfection to which you have attained thus far."


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The Share International revelations

Christ and Jesus at the BBC - London 1986

Strange news; strange times


Friday, April 07, 2006

The Gospel of Judas

Page update: 05.06.06

In the run up to the year 2012, several previously hidden ancient manuscripts will be brought to light. These will be authoritative in challenging fundamentalist superstitions about Christian origins. The manuscripts will be made available to scholars beyond the reach of religious interference.

One of these documents, The Gospel of Judas, was published by the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art (Basel, Switzerland) in partnership with the National Geographic Society (Washington, USA) on Maundy Thursday 13th April 2006. On Sunday 9th April 2006, the National Geographic TV channel ran a special two-hour documentary on the manuscript.

The 31-page Coptic document was originally discovered near Beni Masar in Egypt in the 1970s. It is thought to be a translation of a Greek original source written by an early Christian group sometime before 180 AD.

The Gospel of Judas presents Judas in a positive light, identifying him as Jesus of Nazareth’s favourite disciple and depicting his betrayal as the fulfilment of a divine mission to enable the crucifixion - and thus the foundation of Christianity - to take place. In this it is consistent with the original Gnostic Christian view before the idea was suppressed by revisionist Churchianity and stigmatised as heretical.

Professor Bart Ehrman (Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina) suggests that: “This gospel has a completely different understanding of God, the world, Christ, salvation, human existence—not to mention of Judas himself—than came to be embodied in the Christian creeds and canon."

The links below outline the emerging story of The Gospel of Judas.


National Geographic Society (Washington, USA)
Announcement about the Gospel of Judas – 28.02.06

Gospel of Judas? Expert is a Doubting Thomas
Article by Richard Ostling (Associated Press, New York) – 03.03.06

Revelations and betrayal
Article by Jill Rowbotham in The Australian (Sydney) - 30.03.06

Lost Gospel Revealed; Says Jesus Asked Judas to Betray Him
Article by Stefan Lovgren in National Geographic News (Washington, USA) – 06.04.06

Judas helped Jesus save mankind
BBC (London) article - 07.04.06

Is it really the Gospel truth?
Article by Damian Thompson in the Daily Telegraph (London) – 08.04.06

How the Gospel of Judas Emerged
Article by Barry Meier and John Noble Wilford in the New York Times – 13.04.06


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The Gospel of Judas – links and resources
At Altreligion.about.com

Gnostic Christianity and the Myth of Sophia
An essay by Bette Stockbauer

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Why is church so serious?

A new scripture shortly to be published

Da Vinci's Magdalene

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Thursday, April 06, 2006

The quest is on

It's a bit of a laugh,
But the quest is on.

The quest is on
For an organised understanding
Of the nature
Of pure consciousness.

The quest involves
A which-hunt.

Which means shall we use?
Which data shall we accept as veridical?
Which metanarrative shall we pursue?

The quest is for something specific;
The quest is for something valuable;
The quest is for something liberating.

The quest is for
A means
Of accurately distinguishing
The workable from the unworkable;
The benevolent from the malign;
Truth from falsehood.

Only intuitive data are sought.

But the intuitive data
Must be able to load
Into the spiritualised mind
In non-linear terms.

Pattern-recognition must be employed.

The quest is for pieces
Of jigsaw puzzle
That fit snugly into
What we already feel
To be true
When we are fast asleep
And fully conscious.

There may be only one
Missing piece of jigsaw puzzle -
A sort of Higgs boson
Piece of puzzle -
Or there may be many
Missing pieces of jigsaw puzzle –
A sort of flutter
Of butterfly pieces
Dipping and dancing
Across the shifting surface
Of equivocal perception.

But we know this:
The puzzle pieces
Are there,
And the puzzle pieces
Are accessible,
And the puzzle pieces
Are waiting
To ambush us with surprise
And to assist our destiny
Which is
To discover them soon
While laughing lightly.




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Ontological real deal

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The illusion of linear time

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2006/04/illusion-of-linear-time.html
Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home

He looks
At the clock on the wall.

It seems
To be going backwards.

He asks his colleague
In the next cubicle
To look at the clock on the wall.

His colleague
In the next cubicle
Looks at the clock on the wall.

The clock seems
To be going backwards.

But are they looking
At the same clock?

The clock
Disappears
Through the wall
And comes out
The other side
In the next office.

So it is true.

The clock
Is going

Backwards.




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Time of his life

Myth signifiers

Stream of consciousness

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Monday, April 03, 2006

Beautiful blogger

You are connected to cyberspace;
An umbilicus has been attached.

You are connected to cyberspace;
Prepare to receive a data input.

You are connected to cyberspace;
It is time to communicate with The Others.

The Others have known you
A long time.

Thank you
For returning
Their call.



The next blog button

More Norfolk koans

Weblog spirituality

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Lent in the open ocean

Munching heartily on her
Fresh dolphin sandwich,
She wonders
What happened
To her environmentally conscious,
Vegan dream.

But it was always unlikely
That someone like her –
A big,
Butch,
Lesbian
Killer whale -
Would ever stick with
Bamboo shoots
And lettuce consommé

Much past Shrove Tuesday.


We are water beings

School run

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Feline pause

Never underestimate
The pixie-power
Of that little

Fluffy person
Sitting on your lap.

Cat people
Have a knowing

Beyond purring.


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Contact

Intruders

Smelling the cat

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Sol 3

Information about Planet Earth from human sources

Page update: 27.05.06

>> In May 2006, the US National Marine Fisheries Service ruled that two species of coral - elkhorn and staghorn - must officially be registered as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act. Under US law, the USA Government is now obliged to take action to reduce the pollution that is causing the coral-threatening climate changes. Elkhorn and staghorn coral species in Florida and Caribbean waters — ecosystem anchors for nearly 500,000 years — are at risk of extinction. The coral species have suffered a 97 percent decline in areas off the Florida Keys and in the Caribbean since 1985.

Global warming is to blame. The warmer waters cause the symbiotic algae that provide food for the coral to die and turn white. If coral remains bleached for more than a week, the chance of death soars. Other stresses on coral include sewage and storm damage. The U.S. Virgin Islands have been particularly hard hit. Of more than 460 elkhorn colonies in the Virgin Islands National Park monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey, 45 percent were found to be bleached, 13 percent had some die-off, and 8 percent were completely wiped out.
Sources: The Coral Reef Alliance
(San Francisco) - 05.05.06 and The Independent on Sunday newspaper (London) – 14.05.06


>> Oil was the substance that defined the century just ended; ice will define the one just begun. Frozen in the ice sheets of the globe's high latitudes and the glaciers of its high altitudes are more than 33m cubic kilometres of fresh water. And as the Earth's atmosphere warms, so the cryosphere - that part of the planet constituted by ice - dwindles.

Ice does not go quietly. In 2002, the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica, a plate of floating ice the size of Luxembourg, suddenly shattered into thousands of vast icebergs, which then dispersed into the south Atlantic. In the Andes and the Himalayas, glacial meltwater lakes are filling to their capacity, and then bursting. In Spitzbergen, the glaciers howl as they calve into the ocean.

Source: Robert Macfarlane in The Guardian newspaper (London) 22.04.06

>> Concealed miles below the Antarctic ice are at least 150 lakes containing liquid fresh water. They are connected by flowing watercourses the size of the River Thames. The sub-glacial lakes are thought to have been sealed off from the surface for millions of years. The largest subglacial lake discovered so far in Antarctica is Lake Vostok. This is 250km (155 miles) long, 40km (25 miles) wide and 400m (1,300ft) deep – about the size of Lake Ontario in North America.
Source: BBC (London) Science News 19.04.06

>> The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. September 2005 saw the lowest extent of sea ice cover for more than a century. Scientists say the temperature there could rise by a further 4C-7C by 2100. The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the year 2060.
Source: The Guardian newspaper
(London) 18.04.06


>> There is a useful slide-sequence called “Pretty Blue Planet” available online here. This document is a PowerPoint presentation showing various photographs of Earth taken from space. The speed of the slideshow can be controlled by left-clicking the mouse.

>> The carbon dioxide (CO2) content of the atmosphere has risen considerably since the Industrial Revolution, but we are talking of a change from 0.030 per cent (300 parts per million) to 0.038 per cent (380ppm). Whether this small amount of CO2 is the reason for the average temperature rise (global warming) is open to doubt. We are still a long way from the heady levels of 6,000-7,000 years ago, when the average near-surface temperature of the northern hemisphere was more than 16C (currently 15.4C) yet CO2 levels were around 200ppm. (Interestingly, the level by the late 1700s was already 280ppm.)

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution the world's population has risen by about 5 billion (about 4 billion of which has been since 1950). Each person's exhalations are about 4 per cent CO2 (about 1 litre per minute on average) so that today people themselves contribute to the carbon in the atmosphere to the tune of around 1.84 billion tonnes per year (fossil fuels are said to contribute around 7 billion tonnes a year). In February this year world population passed 6.5 billion. Curbing population growth could serve to reduce global warming, if that is a real threat, as well as alleviate poverty.
Source: Letter from M.C.Gilbert to the Sunday Telegraph (London) 02.04.06

>> Of the 1.3 billion people worldwide in extreme poverty, 70 per cent of them are women or girls. Gender discrimination is a major cause of poverty and, in many poor countries, women still have great difficulties in getting a basic education, finding a job, or having fair control of household income. Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, yet own less than one per cent of the world’s property; they hold only 14 per cent of parliamentary seats worldwide; and gender-based violence causes more deaths and disability among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war put together.
Source: Oxfam Generation Why (Oxford) 31.03.06

>> 6,500 Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs which can be bought at any Western drug store. In South East Asia 150,000 lives were lost in the Tsunami. In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. It’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.
Source: Rockstar Bono on Data.org (London and Washington) 02.02.06


>> Speaking about the possible forthcoming bird flu pandemic, Dmitry Lvov, the Director of the Russian Academy of Science’s Virology Research Institute said that one-third of the world’s population might become infected with the virus in a short period of time. “Bird flu is a very serious infection, which has existed among birds for millions of years. In 1918, the Spanish influenza killed about 50 million people all over the world. The history of fighting a pandemic shows that quarantine measures are unable to hold in check the circulation of the virus."

The H5N1 virus has killed more than 90 people since 2003, mostly in Asia. It may mutate into a form which can pass between humans. The world’s population is about 6.5 billion at present. According to Lvov’s projection, if a third of these were to succumb, it might mean 2,170,000,000 human cases. Not all of these would die if a good vaccine were made available.
Source: MosNews.com (Russia) 07.03.06

>> 80% of global warming is due to atmospheric pollution and 20% is due to the Earth moving closer to the Sun.
Source: Share International Magazine (London) March 2006.

>> 90% of Planet Earth’s ice is contained within the Antarctic ice sheet. 36 cubic miles of this ice are melting every year. A modern city the size of Los Angeles uses one cubic mile of fresh water every year. Antarctica is the Earth's fifth largest continent and contains 70% of its total fresh water resources. The ice sheet covers 98% of the continent and is, on average, 2,000 metres thick.
Source: The Guardian newspaper (London) 03.03.06


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