last updated 21st August 2007
 

Kazakhstani online petition

Kazakhstani online petition

By Radha Mohan Dasa

Please visit http://www.krishnatemple.com NOW and click the link to the new petition, or go straight to the petition webpage:

http://harekrishna.epetitions.net

Please sign it soon as you can, and please tell as many people as you can about it.

Background: Workers and police arrived on 15th June at the village near Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the embattled Hare Krishna commune is based to demolish twelve more Hare Krishna-owned homes. “The houses were literally crushed into dust. By ten o’clock it was all over,” said ISKCON spokesperson Maksim Varfolomeyev.

The temple, which the devotees have been ordered to destroy, has not been touched but the devotees fear it could be the next target. Human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis is outraged at the continuing destruction. “The authorities are showing that they will do what they want, despite the international outrage at the earlier demolitions of Hare Krishna-owned homes.” He believes the local administration chief “doesn’t care about the political damage to Kazakhstan’s reputation – or to its desire to chair the OSCE.”

ys Radha Mohan das

August 19th, 2007 Editor

The corruption continues…

By OLESSYA IVANOVA, Associated Press Writer Sun Aug 19, 3:03 PM ET

ASTANA, Kazakhstan - The authoritarian president’s party swept Kazakhstan’s parliamentary election, winning all the seats in a vote that was rejected Sunday by the opposition and deemed flawed by international observers.
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Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party received 88 percent of Saturday’s vote, and no other party cleared the 7 percent barrier needed to win a seat in the legislature, according to preliminary results released Sunday by the Central Elections Commission.

The two largest opposition groups condemned the results, saying they had been manipulated.

Nazarbayev, who has ruled the oil-rich Central Asian country since 1989 when it was still a Soviet republic, had pledged the elections would be free and fair. He is pushing for Kazakhstan to become chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2009, and the group has delayed making a decision because of concerns over Kazakhstan’s commitment to democracy.

The election, which was called two years early after Nazarbayev pushed through constitutional amendments in May, was widely seen as a maneuver by him to try to improve Kazakhstan’s democratic image while maintaining his grip on power. But there had been some hope that he would be willing to loosen his hold a bit.

The stability of Kazakhstan, the most prosperous nation in ex-Soviet Central Asia, is of particular importance to regional powers Russia and China because of its substantial oil and gas reserves. The United States has also sought greater access to Kazakh energy resources.

The OSCE, which had sent more than 400 election observers to Kazakhstan, said there were irregularities in the vote count in more than 40 percent of the polling stations visited, mainly due to procedural problems and lack of transparency.

Lubomir Kopaj, who heads the long-term election observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said the results showed Kazakhstan still needs to improve its election process.

“I have never seen a democratic country with one political party in parliament,” Kopaj said at a news conference in the capital, Astana.

However, the head of the OSCE observer mission, Canadian senator Consiglio Di Nino, noted there was some progress in the vote.

“Notwithstanding the concerns contained in the report, I believe that these elections continue to move Kazakhstan forward in its evolution toward a democratic country,” he said in a statement.

The election had been expected to slightly improve the position of the opposition, which held only one seat in the outgoing parliament. Instead, the largest opposition groups were shut out.

“We don’t recognize the results of the election. They absolutely do not reflect the actual alignment of political forces and the social support they draw,” Burikhan Nurmukhamedov, a leader of the Ak Zhol party, was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Interfax.

The elections commission said Ak Zhol received 3.25 percent of the vote, but Nurmukhamedov said the party’s own surveys indicated it had won about 12 percent.

“We have definitely won those votes,” he said, adding the party was preparing reports on voting irregularities to be given to the elections commission and the prosecutor-general, Interfax said.

“The elections have been utterly profaned,” said Ualikhan Kaisarov of the National Social Democratic Party, which received less than 5 percent of the vote, according to Interfax.

The OSCE mission expressed concern over the requirement that a party garner at least 7 percent of the vote in order to be represented in parliament. The same threshold has been introduced in Russia, where parliamentary elections are scheduled for December.

An observer mission from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group comprising Russia, Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics, said the Kazakh elections were “free and transparent,” the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, quoting CIS secretary Vladimir Rushailo.

The CIS observers consider the elections “a reflection of the stable social and economic development of Kazakhstan,” said Rushailo, a former Russian interior minister.

Nazarbayev has brought relative prosperity to the nation of 15 million, where economic growth has been in the double digits in recent years. But his rule has been marred by accusations of autocratic policies and the slayings of two vocal critics of his policies, which opposition leaders said were politically motivated.

At an Osce conference, the countries religious authorities vaunt Astana’s religious freedom and tolerance. At the same time Jehovah Witnesses are sentenced for having gathered in prayer and the temple of the Hare Krishna is demolished. The systematic persecution of religious minorities.

Astana (AsiaNews/F18) – In a conference in Romania against religious discrimination, the Kazak delegate vaunted his countries promotion of religious freedom and tolerance.  At the same time in the homeland the Hare Krishna are ordered to tear down their temple and the Jehovah’s witnesses are sentenced for having held a prayer meeting.

June 7th in Bucharest, at a conference sponsored by the Organisation for security and cooperation in Europe, Yeraly Tugzhanov, Chief of the Kazk Committee for religious affairs, said that his country is “an oasis of stability and religious harmony” and that religious discrimination does not exist.

But Forum 18 reveals that on June 5th the Hare Krishna in Seleksia village, Karasai district, was ordered to demolish their temple and dwellings by Sri Vrindavan Dham twon council, as they were deemed to have been illegally built.  The commune originally had 66 Hare Krishna-owned homes, plus the 47.7-hectare (118 acre) farm. Amid an international outcry, the authorities bulldozed 13 of the 66 homes in November 2006 and have repeatedly threatened to resume demolitions, most recently in early May. The faithful protest that the temple and homes are not illegal, and the arbitrary treatment at the hands of the authorities who have cut off water and electricity supplies.

On 4 June, six Jehovah's Witnesses in the Caspian Sea port of Atyrau were given huge fines – between 50 and 100 times an average salary - to punish them for their community's unregistered religious activity.

In Kazakistan non registered religious groups are forbidden to meet or hold religious activities.  But the Jehovah’s witnesses requested to be registered in 2001 and have so far received no response, even if a January 30th law sets down that all request must be processed within 60 days.

The Osce does not allow limitations on religious freedom and Tughzhanov says his country wants to change the law but has neither said when or how.  Since 1992 religious legislation has been amended on various occasions, but always in a more restrictive sense.  In the interim there is a rising tide of intolerance towards religious minorities in Kazakhstan, comprising Protestants and Armadi Muslims, to which state media contributes with damaging propaganda.

The Council of Baptist Churches refuses to register, a move it sees as being against the concept of religious freedom and merely a means for the government to gain control.  The government sentences faithful who meet to heavy fines.  Aleksandr Rozinov, leader of Atyrau’s Jehovah’s witnesses tells F18 that “public official’s mentality is still that of the soviet regime”.

Read HERE how the original issue began in Kazakstan

Read HERE what the previous articles from November 2006 were

Iskcon Kazakstan
http://www.palaceofthesoul.com/news/index.php

PLEASE VISIT THIS PAGE
http://kazakhkrishna.com/en-main/

Kazakh
http://vedabase.net/kazakhstan/

Thursday, August 9, 2007

ISKCON devotees in Moscow have permission to build a temple on the outskirts of the city. The traditional Indian temple will be constructed on land recently allocated by the Moscow mayor. The process for obtaining building permits in Moscow typically takes up to a year to complete. Approval for the temple came in just ten weeks.

“After so much struggle, the door is finally fully open for us to proceed. And, in fact, it is essential that we proceed as quickly as possible before some new problem arises,” reveals Bhakti Vijnana Goswami, president of ISKCON Russia.
The Moscow devotees still need to complete the architectural plans, engineering and apply for final approval from the City government. This process usually takes a further twelve to eighteen months but they hope to get it completed within eight months and begin construction.

In 2004 Moscow's Hare Krishna temple was demolished under a city development plan, and ISKCON was offered another piece of land to build a temple. However, the offer was withdrawn following protests from the Russian Orthodox Church against plans to build a temple that would eclipse their Christ the Saviour Cathedral.

Archbishop Nikon is quoted as having described Lord Krishna as 'an evil demon, the personified power of hell, opposing God'. The Russian Orthodox opposition invoked a backlash of protest that attracted the support of both Hindu and non-Hindu dignitaries worldwide including the mayor of London and fifty seven British MPs.

After a visit and request from Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the Moscow mayor relented and allocated about five acres of land for the construction of the temple about ten kilometres from Moscow.

http://www.moscowtemple.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=17&Itemid=45
New Temple Project Objective: To create an environment conducive for achieving the above aims and objectives of the Vedic Cultural Center, the Center.

-View the slide show with all the images of the New Temple Project at the Gallery link on the left navigation menu-

Features:

1. Vedic temple
2. Veda-expo multimedia hall
3. Educational and cultural center
4. Library of Vedic classics
5. Social service center
6. Health Care Center
7. Conference hall
8. Restaurant of Vedic cuisine
9. Winter garden

1. Vedic Temple

The Vedic temple is a place for conducting daily temple services (puja), Vedic ceremonies (samskaras), and traditional Hindu festivals and celebrations (Janmashtami, Ram-navami, etc)

The Vedic temple complex will include:

Temple hall
Designed to suit the requirements of traditional Vedic temple worship — the majestic temple hall will comfortably accommodate over 500 people. It will also accommodate daily tours. The hall will provide  natural illumination through glass panels in ceiling and walls. Air conditioning will provide  a pleasant atmosphere throughout the year. The hall will utilize Vedic classical decorative art, using bas-relief and artistry by Indian masters. It will enable visitors to get a first-hand experience of the artistic culture of India.
Altar  (simhasana)
The Vedic altar, the heart of the temple,  is the center of the spiritual life for the followers of Vedic traditions. Here from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. qualified brahmana priests conduct Vedic ceremonies for the spiritual welfare of all visitors as well as that of the whole city. According to the Vedic tradition, there will be several sanctified sculptural images of God installed on the simhasana, such as Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, Sri Jagannatha and Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai.
Wall dioramas
Three-dimensional dioramas will decorate the temple hall with graphic narrations  from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Srimad Bhagavatam and other ancient Vedic epics.
Exterior design
The exact spot of the altar is traditionally marked externally by a magnificent dome over it called sikhara. The Vedic Cultural Center's architecture includes a 20-meter high sikhara as well as various other traditional elements of Vedic architecture combined with modern design and construction materials.

2. Veda-expo Multimedia Hall

The Veda-expo multimedia hall will use  state-of-the-art multimedia technology to transfer its visitors into a  world of  ancient Vedic civilization. The exhibit will include the following expositions:

"Searching for the Self"
Interactive exposition demonstrating eternal spiritual nature of consciousness.
"Invisible Laws of the Universe"
Knowledge of the laws of karma, described with utmost precision in the Vedas, give us a tool to shape our own future.
"Forbidden archeology"
Refuting most common ideas about the origin of human beings, revolutionary scientific discoveries lead us to startling conclusions.
"Technology of  ancient times"
Space travel, precise astronomy, cloning and atomic energy — did it exist many years ago?

3. Educational and Cultural Center

The Vedic Cultural Center is an ideal place to experience  the multifaceted Vedic culture.

Theatre of Indian Arts
Experienced teachers of classical Indian music, art, dance and drama will share with students their ancient skills.
Lecture Hall
Educational Multipurpose Auditoriums
Multipurpose auditoriums are designed to hold classes in different branches of  Vedic science.

4. Library of Vedic classics

A comprehensive collection of the ancient Vedic literature of India and other literary works, both ancient and contemporary, provides  a convenient reference point for students, scholars and the inquisitive.

5. Social Service Center

The Center will  organize educational and charitable programs to help solve urgent social issues such as drug addiction, decline of morality, stress and anxiety,  disorientation, etc.

6. Health Care Center

Qualified teachers will guide visitors in the practical application of  time-tested Vedic methods of physical, psychological and moral rehabilitation.

7. Conference Hall

The modern  hall of 300 seats will serve as a place for conducting

Official ceremonies
Reception of official delegations
Press-conferences
Scientific conferences
Inter-religious meetings.

8. Restaurant of Vedic Cuisine

Anyone will get a full experience that Vedic vegetarian cuisine is not only healthy, but also unlimitedly diverse, exquisite and irresistibly delicious.

9. Winter garden sanctuary

Tropical lianas intertwined with the aroma of exotic flowers and the gentle murmur of a  brook amidst the snows of Moscow will help a guest  put aside his or her anxieties and tune into an atmosphere of tranquility and contemplation.

http://www.physorg.com/news106238636.html

UNITED KINGDOM, August 17, 2007: A little-known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton according to new research. Dr. George Gheverghese Joseph from the University of Manchester says the Kerala School identified the infinite series--one of the basic components of calculus--in about 1350. The discovery is currently--and wrongly--attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the seventeenth centuries. The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the pi series and used it to calculate pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places. And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century. That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually bee n passed on to Newton himself.

Dr. Joseph made the revelations while trawling through obscure Indian papers for a yet to be published third edition of his book "The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics" by Princeton University Press. He said: "The beginnings of modern maths is usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries have been ignored or forgotten. "The brilliance of Newton's work at the end of the seventeenth century stands undiminished--especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus. "But other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus--infinite series."

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Indians predated Newton 'discovery' by 250 years
http://www.physorg.com/news106238636.html

A little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton according to new research.

Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester says the 'Kerala School' identified the 'infinite series'- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350.

The discovery is currently - and wrongly - attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the seventeenth centuries.

The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.

And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century.

That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself.

Dr Joseph made the revelations while trawling through obscure Indian papers for a yet to be published third edition of his best selling book 'The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics' by Princeton University Press.

He said: "The beginnings of modern maths is usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries have been ignored or forgotten.

"The brilliance of Newton's work at the end of the seventeenth century stands undiminished - especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus.

"But other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus- infinite series.

"There were many reasons why the contribution of the Kerala school has not been acknowledged - a prime reason is neglect of scientific ideas emanating from the Non-European world - a legacy of European colonialism and beyond.

"But there is also little knowledge of the medieval form of the local language of Kerala, Malayalam, in which some of most seminal texts, such as the Yuktibhasa, from much of the documentation of this remarkable mathematics is written."

He added: "For some unfathomable reasons, the standard of evidence required to claim transmission of knowledge from East to West is greater than the standard of evidence required to knowledge from West to East.

"Certainly it's hard to imagine that the West would abandon a 500-year-old tradition of importing knowledge and books from India and the Islamic world.

"But we've found evidence which goes far beyond that: for example, there was plenty of opportunity to collect the information as European Jesuits were present in the area at that time.

"They were learned with a strong background in maths and were well versed in the local languages.

"And there was strong motivation: Pope Gregory XIII set up a committee to look into modernising the Julian calendar.

"On the committee was the German Jesuit astronomer/mathematician Clavius who repeatedly requested information on how people constructed calendars in other parts of the world. The Kerala School was undoubtedly a leading light in this area.

"Similarly there was a rising need for better navigational methods including keeping accurate time on voyages of exploration and large prizes were offered to mathematicians who specialised in astronomy.

"Again, there were many such requests for information across the world from leading Jesuit researchers in Europe. Kerala mathematicians were hugely skilled in this area."

Source: University of Manchester

Religion News Service

PORTLAND, OREGON, August 9, 2007: If you wanted to be crass about it, you might explain River View Cemetery's dilemma this way: People just aren't dying to get in there anymore. They're still dying, of course. But more and more, particularly on the West Coast, consumers are choosing cremation over burial. That slow, steady change in the market, in the works for several decades, has cemeteries scrambling for new ways to turn a profit or ensure they can pay for future maintenance. In River View's case, the cemetery's board of trustees wants to turn 120 acres of vacant graveyard land into houses, apartments or perhaps an annex to Lewis & Clark College. They note that at the current rate, it would take 400 years to use up all the potential grave sites at one of the city's premier historic burial grounds
Forty years ago, fewer than 5 percent of Americans who died opted for cremation. In 1987, it was 15 percent. This year, more than 32 percent of U.S. deaths will end in cremation, and the experts at the Cremation Association of North America expect the national total to pass 50 percent within 25 years. Perhaps it's the "Six Feet Under" factor -- more people are thinking about how they want to go. It certainly helps that several religions, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, have decided in the past few decades that cremation is an acceptable alternative. Cremations are generally cheaper, starting at about $1,500 compared with the $6,000 or so you'll shell out for a basic burial. Many people also consider them more environmentally friendly. And they provide a dead person's loved ones more flexibility about how and when to memorialize. Cemeteries have an even tougher sell to make. Most now offer some version of a "cremation garden," where urns can be buried or ashes legally scattered. Despite the freedom with which many people scatter their loved ones on bodies of water or in state and federal parks, there are actually strict laws about where cremations can be placed.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

August 10th, 2007 Editor

  Jaya Radha Madhava (8:58) Downloads: http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?p=1620

  Class Pt. 1 (40:38) Downloads: http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?p=1620

HH Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami’s class from New Vraja Dhama. This is Pt 1:
The concept of relationship comes from the spiritual world.
Masculine and feminine principle and their natures.
Sankarsana, Aniruddha, Pradyumna and Vasudeva and sambandha-abhideya-prajoyana in connection to relationships.
A man leads by first doing what he wants the wife to do.
We deal with everything according to it’s nature except for people.
If we follow Krishna’s rules marriage is no longer maya.
Women start fights due to a sense of insecurity.

Relationships (cont’d)

August 11th, 2007 Editor

  Pt. 2 (51:05) Downloads: http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?p=1621

  Pt. 3 (45:29) Downloads: http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?p=1621

Parts 2 & 3 of Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaja’s talk on Relationships in the Grhastha Ashram, from yesterday’s class in NVD:
We often have strength in philosophy but not in culture.
How to resolve an argument.
When attraction crosses reason it becomes attachment. When attachment deepens consideration appears.
Srila Rupa Goswami’s explanation of how relationships deepen.
The principles applied to the guru-disciple relationship.
Women without men’s support.
A man’s role is to operate the relationship; this is what women want.
A man takes the leading role in a relationship by properly performing the activities he wants the wife to do
To go back to Godhead, you have to learn the same lesson in the grhastha ashram as the brahmacari has to learn in his ashram; if you want the marriage to work, and if you want to go back to Godhead, you have to learn the lesson.
The culture works as well today as it did 5,000 years ago, because the principles are the same.
If you don’t know the science of Krishna consciousness, how will you be peaceful?
Understanding the statement, “in Kali-yuga men are like women and women are like men.”
Unless the attitude is right, it is hard to see things in their traditional form.
Even if a woman is performing male duties (ie: management), her nature doesn’t change.
Women generally end up alone; men have a nasty habit of dying first
Women are four times more clever than men: “clever” means practical intelligence.
In old age, women tend to become more reclusive and simple; the mode of goodness is actually very important to women.
Hladini potency reflects goodness; the feminine nature is situated in goodness.
Women deal in “the moment,” not past, not future — it only takes 1/11th of a second to start an argument.
“If you can successfully live with a woman, you can deal with an empire” — men can learn so many good qualities from marriage.

Conclusion of Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaja’s talk on Relationships, from Friday’s class in NVD:
http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?p=1638

A man’s role is to operate the relationship; this is what women want.
A man takes the leading role in a relationship by properly performing the activities he wants the wife to do
To go back to Godhead, you have to learn the same lesson in the grhastha ashram as the brahmacari has to learn in his ashram; if you want the marriage to work, and if you want to go back to Godhead, you have to learn the lesson.
The culture works as well today as it did 5,000 years ago, because the principles are the same.
If you don’t know the science of Krishna consciousness, how will you be peaceful?
Understanding the statement, “in Kali-yuga men are like women and women are like men.”
Unless the attitude is right, it is hard to see things in their traditional form.
Even if a woman is performing male duties (ie: management), her nature doesn’t change.
Women generally end up alone; men have a nasty habit of dying first
Women are four times more clever than men: “clever” means practical intelligence.
In old age, women tend to become more reclusive and simple; the mode of goodness is actually very important to women.
Hladini potency reflects goodness; the feminine nature is situated in goodness.
Women deal in “the moment,” not past, not future — it only takes 1/11th of a second to start an argument.
“If you can successfully live with a woman, you can deal with an empire” — men can learn so many good qualities from marriage.

Read similar articles in seX-files

Friday, Jan. 19, 2007
By CHRISTINE GORMAN

Take a deep breath. Now exhale slowly. You're probably not aware of it, but your heart has just slowed down a bit. Not to worry; it will speed up again when you inhale. This regular-irregular beat is a sign of a healthy interaction between heart and head. Each time you exhale, your brain sends a signal down the vagus nerve to slow the cardiac muscle. With each inhale, the signal gets weaker and your heart revs up. Inhale, beat faster. Exhale, beat slower. It's an ancient rhythm that helps your heart last a lifetime. And it leads to lesson No. 1 in how to manage stress and avoid burnout.

NO. 1

REMEMBER TO BREATHE

EVOLUTION HAS BEQUEATHED TO OUR BRAINS A variety of mechanisms for handling the ups and downs of life--from built-in chemical circuit breakers that shut off the stress hormones to entire networks of nerves whose only job is to calm you down. The problem, in the context of our always wired, always on-call world, is that they all require that you take regular breaks from your normal routine--and not just an occasional weekend trip. You can try to ignore the biological need to periodically disengage, but there's growing evidence that it will eventually catch up with you. Insurance claims for stress, depression and job burnout are now the U.S.'s fastest-growing disability category.

Making matters worse, Americans tend to cope with stress in all the wrong ways. A November survey by the advocacy group Mental Health America found that we frequently deal with chronic stress by watching television, skipping exercise and forgoing healthy foods. The problem with these coping mechanisms is that they keep you from doing things that help buffer your stress load--like exercising or relaxing with friends or family--or add greater stress to your body. Indeed, using many of our most cherished time-saving gadgets can backfire. Cell phones and mobile e-mail devices--to give just two examples--make it harder to get away from the office to decompress. Working from home may, in some cases, exacerbate the situation because it isolates employees while simultaneously blurring the line between work and leisure.

We also have a lot of misconceptions about who gets stressed out and why. Twenty years ago, psychologists almost exclusively blamed job stress on high workloads or lack of control on the job. More recent studies, says Christina Maslach, a pioneer in burnout research at the University of California, Berkeley, show that unfairness and a mismatch in values between employees and their companies play an increasing role in triggering stress. "Probably one of the strongest predictors is when there's a vacuum of information--silence about why decisions were made the way they were," Maslach says. "Another is having to operate in conflict with your values. Do you need to shade the truth to get authorization from the insurance company? Are you selling things that you know people don't really need?"

NO. 2

STRESS ALTERS YOUR BLOOD CHEMISTRY

FOR YEARS PSYCHOLOGISTS HAVE concentrated on the behavioral symptoms of burnout: lost energy, lost enthusiasm and lost confidence. Now, thanks to new brain scans and more sophisticated blood tests, scientists can directly measure some of the effects of stress on mind and body--often with surprising results.

You are probably familiar with the signs of an adrenaline surge (racing pulse, hairs on the neck standing on end), which evolved to help us fight or flee predators and other immediate dangers. And you may have heard of cortisol, another stress hormone, which is produced more slowly than adrenaline and lingers in the bloodstream longer. But did you know that too little cortisol in your bloodstream can be just as bad as too much? Or that tucking into comfort foods, while soothing in the short term, can sabotage your long-term stress response by increasing the number of inflammatory proteins in your body?

What's emerging is a complex picture of the body's response to stress that involves several interrelated pathways. Scientists know the most about cortisol because until now that has been the easiest part to measure. "But when one thing changes, all the others change to some degree," says Bruce McEwen, a neuroendocrinologist at Rockefeller University who has spent decades studying the biology of stress, primarily in animals. So just because you see an imbalance in one area doesn't mean you understand why it is happening. "We're learning that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), burnout, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are all related in some ways," McEwen says. The next step is to figure out if there are any genetic predispositions that tip the response to stress toward one set of symptoms or another.

NO. 3

YOU CAN'T AVOID STRESS

EVEN GETTING OUT OF BED CAN BE TOUGH ON THE BODY. SEVERAL hours before you wake each morning, a tiny region at the base of your cerebrum called the hypothalamus sends a signal that ultimately alerts your adrenal glands, which sit on top of your kidneys, to start pumping out cortisol, which acts as a wake-up signal. Cortisol levels continue to rise after you become conscious in what is sometimes referred to as the "Oh, s___! It's another day" response. This may help explain why so many heart attacks and strokes occur between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.

Because cortisol is a long-acting hormone, you can dally under the covers a bit without losing any steam. But your brain is already taking steps to protect you from the shock of starting a new day. Rising cortisol levels signal the hypothalamus to stop sounding the alarm. Other parts of the brain chime in, and eventually the adrenal glands ratchet down their cortisol production. In other words, the brain's stress response contains its own off switch.

Most people's cortisol, as measured by a saliva test, peaks a few hours after waking. Levels then gradually decline during the course of the day--with a few blips scattered here and there. That pattern typically changes, however, in people who are severely depressed. Their cortisol level still rises early in the morning, but it stays high all day long. It's almost as if their hypothalamus has forgotten how to turn off the stress response. (Intriguingly, people who are sleep deprived also exhibit a high, flat cortisol level.)

Researchers figured something similar had to be happening in burnout victims. But rather than finding a prominent cortisol peak, investigators discovered a shallow bump in the morning followed by a low, flattened level throughout the day. Intriguingly, such blunted cortisol responses are also common among Holocaust survivors, rape victims and soldiers suffering from PTSD. The difference seems to be that people with PTSD are much more sensitive to cortisol at even these low levels than those with burnout. "We used to blame everything on high cortisol," says Rachel Yehuda, a neurochemist and PTSD expert at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "Now we can blame things on low cortisol as well."

NO. 4

STRESS CAN AGE YOU BEFORE YOUR TIME

SCIENTISTS HAVE LONG SUSPECTED THAT unremitting stress does damage to the immune system, but they weren't sure how. Then two years ago, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, looked at white blood cells from a group of mothers whose children suffered from chronic disorders like autism or cerebral palsy. The investigators found clear signs of accelerated aging in those study subjects who had cared the longest for children with disabilities or who reported the least control over their lives.

The changes took place in microscopic structures called telomeres, which are often compared to the plastic wrappers on the ends of shoelaces and which keep chromosomes from shredding. As a general rule, the youngest cells boast the longest telomeres. But telomeres in the more stressed-out moms were significantly shorter than those of their counterparts, making them, from a genetic point of view, anywhere from nine to 17 years older than their chronological age.

NO. 5

STRESS IS NOT AN EQUAL-OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

IN 1995, IN A NOW CLASSIC EXPERIMENT, SCIENTISTS AT THE University of Trier in Germany subjected 20 male volunteers to a situation guaranteed to raise their stress levels: participating in a mock job interview and solving arithmetic problems in front of strangers who corrected them if they made mistakes. As expected, each subject's cortisol level rose at first. But by the second day of the trial, most of the men's cortisol levels did not jump significantly. Experience had taught them that the situation wasn't that bad. Seven of the men, however, exhibited cortisol spikes every bit as high on the fourth day as the first. Only by the fifth day did their stress reaction begin to disappear.

More recently, researchers have found that subjects with low self-esteem are more vulnerable to stress. Jens Pruessner at McGill University in Montreal believes that the hippocampus, a finger-size structure located deep in the brain, is at least partially responsible. It turns out that the hippocampus, which helps you form new memories and retrieve old ones, is particularly sensitive to the amount of cortisol flooding your cerebrum. So when cortisol levels begin to rise, the hippocampus sends a set of signals that help shut down the cortisol cascade.

Using several different types of brain scans, Pruessner has shown that people who test below average on self-esteem also tend to have smaller-than-average hippocampi. The differences become clear only when you compare groups of people, Pruessner notes, so you can't look at any single person's brain scan and determine whether he or she has low self-esteem. But when you look at overall results, they suggest that a smaller hippocampus simply has more trouble persuading the rest of the brain to turn off the stress response.

Still unclear is how the body goes from having repeated activation of the stress response to showing the typically blunted cortisol levels of someone suffering from burnout. "We are still studying this," says Samuel Melamed of Tel Aviv University in Israel. "But if there is no relief and the cortisol stays up for long periods of time, the body stops responding and readjusts the level."

NO. 6

THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO RELIEVE STRESS

THIS IS PROBABLY THE TOUGHEST LESSON TO INTERNALIZE BECAUSE when stress overwhelms the system, your choices often seem more limited than they are. Behavioral scientists have a name for this psychological reaction. They call it learned helplessness, and they have studied the phenomenon closely in laboratory rodents, whose nervous system bears striking similarities to that of humans.

Here's how the experiment works: if you provide mice with an escape route, they typically learn very quickly how to avoid a mild electrical shock that occurs a few seconds after they hear a tone. But if the escape route is blocked whenever the tone is sounded, and new shocks occur, the mice will eventually stop trying to run away. Later, even after the escape route is cleared, the animals simply freeze at the sound of the tone--despite the fact that they once knew how to avoid the associated shock.

Obviously, humans have more intellectual resources at their disposal than mice do, but the underlying principle remains. When too many of the rules change, when what used to work doesn't anymore, your ability to reason takes a hit. Just being aware of your nervous system's built-in bias toward learned helplessness in the face of unrelieved stress can help you identify and develop healthy habits that will buffer at least some of the load (see box).

But the one thing you should not do is ignore the risks. Animal research has shown that there is a relatively small window for reversing the physiological effects of chronic stress. Studies of people are starting to produce similar results. Once a person's cortisol level gets completely blunted, it seems to stay that way for years. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones not to let that happen.

.........and if all that fails "Just Chant Hare Krishna"

http://www.news.bbc.co.uk

LONDON, ENGLAND, August 13, 2007: Memoirs of a British civil servant never published until now show how much the partition of India was decided by just two men. In a quiet village in the northern English county of Yorkshire, Robert Beaumont rifles through his father's archives. The various and somewhat tatty pieces of paper he unearths are no ordinary collection of paternal memoirs. They are the thoughts and reflections of his father, Christopher Beaumont, who played a central role in the partition of India in 1947, which resulted in arguably the largest mass migration of peoples the world has ever seen. It is estimated that around 14.5 million people moved to Pakistan from India or travelled in the opposite direction from Pakistan to India. After the death in 1989 of Mountbatten's Private Secretary, Sir George Abell, Beaumont was probably not exaggerating when he claimed to be the only person left who "knew the truth about partition."

The famil y documents show that Beaumont had a stark assessment of the role played by Britain in the last days of the Raj. "The viceroy, Mountbatten, must take the blame - though not the sole blame - for the massacres in the Punjab in which between 500,000 to a million men, women and children perished," he writes. "The handover of power was done too quickly." The central theme ever present in Beaumont's historic paperwork is that Mountbatten not only bent the rules when it came to partition - he also bent the border in India's favor. The documents repeatedly allege that Mountbatten put pressure on Radcliffe to alter the boundary in India's favor. On one occasion, he complains that he was "deftly excluded" from a lunch between the pair in which a substantial tract of Muslim-majority territory - which should have gone to Pakistan - was instead ceded to India.

For the rest of this article, click URL below.

Courtesy of Hinduism today

In the following article there are many links and side links to related topics, see the BBC URL below

Partitioning India over lunch
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6926464.stm
Memoirs of a British civil servant never seen in public until now show how much the partition of India was decided by just two men, the BBC's Alastair Lawson reports.

In a quiet village in the northern English county of Yorkshire, Robert Beaumont rifles through his father's archives.

The various and somewhat tatty pieces of paper he unearths are no ordinary collection of paternal memoirs.

They are the thoughts and reflections of his father, Christopher Beaumont, who played a central role in the partition of India in 1947, which resulted in arguably the largest mass migration of peoples the world has ever seen.

After the death in 1989 of Mountbatten's Private Secretary, Sir George Abell, Beaumont was probably not exaggerating when he claimed to be the only person left who "knew the truth about partition".

'Bending the border'

It is estimated that around 14.5 million people moved to Pakistan from India or travelled in the opposite direction from Pakistan to India.

It was a time of mass migration, uncertainty and bloodshed

In 1947, Beaumont was private secretary to the senior British judge, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was chairman of the Indo-Pakistan Boundary Commission.

Radcliffe was responsible for dividing the vast territories of British India into India and Pakistan, separating 400 million people along religious lines.

The family documents show that Beaumont had a stark assessment of the role played by Britain in the last days of the Raj.

"The viceroy, Mountbatten, must take the blame - though not the sole blame - for the massacres in the Punjab in which between 500,000 to a million men, women and children perished," he writes.

"The handover of power was done too quickly."

The central theme ever present in Beaumont's historic paperwork is that Mountbatten not only bent the rules when it came to partition - he also bent the border in India's favour.

The documents repeatedly allege that Mountbatten put pressure on Radcliffe to alter the boundary in India's favour.

On one occasion, he complains that he was "deftly excluded" from a lunch between the pair in which a substantial tract of Muslim-majority territory - which should have gone to Pakistan - was instead ceded to India.

Beaumont's papers say that the incident brought "grave discredit on both men".

Punjab 'disaster'

But Beaumont - who later in life was a circuit judge in the UK - is most scathing about how partition affected the Punjab, which was split between India and Pakistan.

"The Punjab partition was a disaster," he writes.

"Geography, canals, railways and roads all argued against dismemberment.

"The trouble was that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were an integrated population so that it was impossible to make a frontier without widespread dislocation.

"Thousands of people died or were uprooted from their homes in what was in effect a civil war.

"By the end of 1947 there were virtually no Hindus or Sikhs living in west Punjab - now part of Pakistan - and no Muslims in the Indian east.

"The British government and Mountbatten must bear a large part of the blame for this tragedy."

Personality clash

Beaumont goes on to argue that it was "irresponsible" of Lord Mountbatten to insist that Beaumont complete the boundary within a six-week deadline - despite his protests.

On Kashmir, Beaumont argues that it would have been "far more sensible" to have made the flash-point territory a separate country.

According to Beaumont, the "formidably intelligent" Radcliffe "did not get on well" with Mountbatten.

"They could not have been more different," he writes.

"Mountbatten was very good-looking and had a well-deserved history of personal bravery but, to put it mildly, he had few literary tastes.

"Radcliffe... was very quietly civilised. It was a relationship so like chalk and cheese that Lady Mountbatten had to use all her adroitness to keep conversation between them on an even keel."

Beaumont died in 2002 - his son Robert remembers him with great affection.

"He was also a man of supreme honesty, who spoke out on numerous occasions against the official British version of events surrounding partition without in any way being disloyal to his country," Robert Beaumont recalls.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6926464.stm

UNITED STATES, August 7, 2007: The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers. Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."

It's not the first blow to baby videos, and likely won't be the last. Mounting evidence suggests that passive screen sucking not only doesn't help children learn, but could also set back their development. Last spring, Christakis and his colleagues found that by three months, 40% of babies are regular viewers of DVDs, videos or television; by the time they are two years old, almost 90% are spending two to three hours each day in front of a screen. Three studies have shown that watching television, even if it includes educational programming such as Sesame Street, delays language development. "Babies require face-to-face interaction to learn," says Dr. Vic Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "They don't get that interaction from watching TV or videos. In fact, the watching probably interferes with the crucial wiring being laid down in their brains during early development." Previous studies have shown, for example, that babies learn faster and better from a native speaker of a language when they are interacting with that speaker instead of watching the same speaker talk on a video screen. "Even watching a live person speak to you via television is not the same thing as having that person in front of you," says Christakis. This growing evidence led the Academy to issue its recommendation in 1999 that no child under two years old watch any television. The authors of the new study might suggest reading instead: children who got daily reading or storytelling time with their parents showed a slight increase in language skills.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

See more articles regarding watching television HERE:

Friday, July 20, 2007
Author and researcher Michael Cremo discussed evidence for extreme human antiquity and also presented his thesis that human life has devolved from a higher state. Ancient Sanskrit from India speaks of prior human civilizations dating back much further than current science supposes. Cremo has sought physical evidence to bear this out, among which is the pictured round hematite objects with parallel grooves that have been dated to 2 billion years ago. Found in a mine in South Africa, the 1-2 inch spheres might have been game pieces, he theorized.Other objects include a coin found in an Illinois well that could be between 200,000 to 400,000 years old, and a small stone sculpture of a female figure found 300 ft. down in an Ohio layer, two million years old. Ancient Sanskrit texts write of long cycles that end in devastation, and the number of these correlate with modern paleontology's six great extinction events, he noted. Cremo has flipped Darwin's theory that humans evolved from simpler life forms upside down. Citing ancient wisdom sources, he suggested that more sophisticated or advanced beings were here first and they produced simpler life forms themselves.

(There are eleven video snips from Youtube that may be viewed presenting the facts)

Thursday, July 19, 2007
Hidden History of the Human Race Pts.1 -10

Author and researcher Michael Cremo discussed the evidence for "extreme human antiquity." Texts in ancient Sanskrit described previous civilizations that had high technology and he said he's found similar material across a number of ancient cultures. Cremo suggested a number of civilizations, far predating ones from the last 10,000 years, have come and gone, wiped out by various earth changes. According to different wisdom traditions, humanity goes through cycles such as Bronze and Iron Ages or what is called yugas by the Hindu. Evidence in the form of human fossils and artifacts, such as found in sedimentary layers dating back millions of years, contradicts the current theory of human origins. Yet Cremo has found most mainstream scientists are closed minded to his data, and seek to protect their power and the status quo. A few have been more receptive, and he has presented his work at prestigious venues such as the Royal Institution in London. He also touched on his notion of human devolution-- that people have devolved from a state of higher consciousness into a baser, more material reality.

(There are a further ten video snips from Youtube that may be viewed presenting the facts)
http://scientific-science.blogspot.com/

August 12th, 2007 Editor

Now you can destroy Ravana with the click of a mouse as Ramayana becomes an online video game…

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Now_Ramayan_as_online_video_game/rssarticleshow/2272436.cms

WASHINGTON: Richard Branson’s Virgin Comics is teaming up with Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) to bring the popular Indian epic Ramayan comic book to life as an online video game.

The deal was announced on Thursday in New York by John Smedley, president of SOE which is a global leader in the online gaming industry, Sharad Devarajan, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Virgin Comics, author and new age guru Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.

” Ramayan has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayan is one of the greatest stories ever told,” said Deepak Chopra.

Through this exclusive multi-year, worldwide license agreement, SOE will develop and publish a massively multiplayer online game capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously based on Ramayan ’s mythological story.

Virgin Comics will serve as a creative consultant on the project. Virgin’s creative involvement with SOE’s game development team will be spearheaded by its president and head Suresh Seetharaman, who has also overseen the development of the comic series. Virgin Comics’ Ramayan 3392 AD, initially released as a comic in late 2006, re-imagines one of India’s greatest epics into a futuristic realm.

SEE MORE HERE:

Epic Games!
http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa092300a.htm

Ramayana and Mahabharata come of age

The story of Rama as related in the Hindu epic Ramayana has always enjoyed a strong universal appeal. No wonder, the original author of this epic work, Valmiki is regarded as the adikavi or the first poet. But little did he know, that his account of the exploits of Lord Rama, millenniums later, would be the subject of numerous Web sites, CD-ROMs, and computer games.

The Thai Ramayana Game
In 2000, a video game based on the Ramayana legend won Thailand's national game software competition. In fact, the Ramayana game was the thesis project of three computer science majors from Bangkok's Faculty of Technical Education.

The prize-winning game portrays several wars between King Rama and Ravana, the evil ruler of Lanka who abducts Rama's beautiful wife, Sita. In an attempt to find his wife, Rama, aided by brother Lakshman and a battery of monkeys, reach the Lankan island. In the game, Rama and Laksman must successfully manoeuvre through four rounds of fight in order to rescue Sita.

The Thai threesome turned to the epic Ramakian, as the Thai version is called, for its unmatched fighting scenes and more than fifty interesting human and semi-human characters appropriate for an action-packed video game, like Super Mario or Street Fighter.

India Games
The online games site Indiagames.com is known for its mythological Flash games, the most popular being Mrigaya, again based on a Ramayana subplot. King Rama's golden deer flees into the jungle. To bring it back, Rama ventures into the forest and encounters demons. Kill these demons by clicking on Rama's bow and you are on to the second round - finding and capturing the prized animal among a herd of spotted deer.

Also interesting are the games based on Arjuna, the geat mytical archer of the Mahabharata. Propped up with background sound, voiceover in three languages and excellent Flash animation, these online games have quickly become popular, thanks to their epos themes.

Ancient Games
Ancient and medieval India was a fertile breeding ground of popular card and board games. Historians are of the opinion that Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Playing Cards had originated in India from where they were taken to foreign countries, where they developed into their present forms.

Playing cards was a popular pastime of Indians in ancient times. Here too the epics step in. These cards, known as Krida-patram, were made of cloth and depicted themes motifs from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

The Interactive Epics
Image Infotainment's CD-ROMs on Hindu epics and mythical stories are packed with features that provide a good interactive experience. These animated storybooks not only feature the full narration, they also include timelines, read-along option, chronological indices of events and characters, and search facility. The Ramayana CD, which also includes puzzles and games, like building and shooting cost around $ 40.

What Worth?
In a way, these new avatars of immortal epics - be they video games, online games, or interactive CDs - are worth their price in bytes, for they're marvelous ways to introduce today's young people to the rich cultural and spiritual tradition of their ancestors.

A Chinese restaurant is providing a new service offering diners the chance to smash plates and other breakables.

The "Dark" restaurant in Beijing city is setting aside three rooms for diners to release their stress.

"We painted two black human-shaped targets on the wall," said the owner. "And customers can see them as their most hated people."

Only diners whose bill is over 50 yuan ($100) can qualify to use it.

"Each plate is 10 yuan, other pieces cost between 30 yuan and 200 yuan," explained a waiter.

"We also have a stereo system, which can also be smashed, but none of the diners have tried that yet."

Some diners say they will not go there again, since it's not safe, reports Beijing Evening Post. - Ananova.com

The bogus paper uses random text

A collection of computer-generated gibberish in the form of an academic paper has been accepted at a scientific conference, to the delight of hoaxers.

Three US boffins built a programme designed to create research papers with random text, charts and diagrams.

Two bogus papers were submitted to a computing conference in Florida, and one of them was accepted.

One of the hoaxers said the fake paper was designed to expose the lack of standards at academic gatherings.

The paper has the nonsense headline "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy".

It was accepted for the World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI), due to be held in the city of Orlando in July.

Donation request

Hoaxer Jeremy Stribling, a computer science graduate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said they had targeted WMSCI because it sent large amounts of spam emails soliciting admissions for the conference.

"We were tired of the spam," he told Reuters news agency.

The trio are planning to attend the conference and give a randomly generated talk, for which they are requesting donations on their website.

They have so far received more than $2,000.

Visitors to the site are also invited to generate their own academic gobbledegook.

But conference organisers poured cold water on the proposed presentation, saying bogus papers would not be included in the conference agenda.

Conference General Chair Nagib Callaos said the paper had been passed because reviewers had not given feedback on it by a set deadline.

"We thought that it might be unfair to refuse a paper that was not refused by any of its three selected reviewers," Mr Callaos told Reuters news agency.

He added that the conference was now reviewing its acceptance procedures.

=======================================================
That shows the worth of such a "scientific conference" eh

See some links here on Srila Prabhupad's assessment of such scientists

http://hindustantimes.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 5, 2007: Dr. Satwant K. Pasricha, a NIMHANS Professor of Clinical Psychology and a leading national authority on reincarnations, has been using rigorous scientific methods to investigate reincarnation claims since 1974. Here are excerpts from an interview with Neha Tara Mehta: "It is important to first understand what we mean by reincarnation. For the purpose of our research, we use the term to refer to the concept that human beings consist of two components: a physical body and a non-physical component, some call it psyche, others may refer to it as mind, personality, or soul. At death, the physical body perishes but the non-physical component survives and after an interval, becomes associated with a new physical body. On the basis of meager data that we have, we can't make generalizations about whether or not everyone reincarnates. But what I can tell is that every one does not remember a previous life. I have investigated nearly 500 reincarnation claims in India, Seventy-seven per cent of them were authentic. Children who talk about previous lives usually do so between the ages of 2 and 5 and stop talking about their previous life between 5 and 8; rarely do they continue beyond 10 years of age. They display corresponding behavior that is unusual for their present circumstances but is appropriate for the behavior of the deceased person whose life they claim to remember. Some children have facial features, gait or mannerisms corresponding to their claimed previous personalities; some even have birthmarks or birth defects attributed to the previous lives."

One such reincarnation story is of a young boy named Sachin. Every time Sachin tried to tell the adults in his village that he was in fact Kanti, a domestic servant from the nearby Dhanaura village whose master had murdered him, the villagers would laugh. His family also thought the child's imagination was runnin g wild. "We thought it was a game of make-belief," says his elder sister Poonam. But Sachin, a Class III student at the village primary school, seldom spoke, behaved or conducted himself like the 12-year-old he was. "He was always so grownup, talking about development and other social issues," says Imran, Sachin's playmate. The boy soon earned the title of 'Netaji'. To read Sachi's story, click here.(http://hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=b7153bed-1e25-44cd-b0a7-684a93da3c57&&Headline=Born+again%3f)

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Report dated July 12, 2007

The Guinness World Records have endorsed Assam's scorching Bhut Jolokia as the world's hottest chilli peppers.

Little 17 month old Jayanta Lahan of Romai munches the searing chillis by the handful without batting an eyelid. He is said to have downed some 50 chillis in four hours, unscathed, according to his farmer father Ritul.

The kid was eight months old when he crawled to the kitchen and downed a handful of the chillies. His mother Rupjyoti panicked but the boy seemed just fine.

His parents are concerned and have consulted doctors and had medical tests done on him but he has been given a clean bill of health. His weight and growth is considered normal for his age.

The famed Bhut Jolokia chillies were rated at more than one million Scoville units, twice as hot as the fiery Red Savina Habaneros at about 580,000 Scoville units. The scale was developed by a pharmacist in 1912 and is a measure of the ratio of water required to neutralize the hotness of a chilli.

The Assam chilli pepper grows on hilly terrain and is a staple of every meal in the northeast of India.

Well funny you should ask. It turns out that this find is very near to the city of that well known blue personality named Krishna. The city's name was Dwaraka. It was built by Krsna and it sunk into the ocean soon after He left the planet. The stories related to to dwaraka are literally in the thousands. In the west a small single sentence about Atlantis has generated the whole Atlantis legend. whereas hundreds of books, thousands of stories and an actual city to this day near the old site, with the same name as Krishna's city of Dwaraka, is merely seen as religious belief. Now with repeated finds in the area of Dwaraka surely there is alot more to the legend of Dwaraka than there is to the legend of Atlantis. However if one were to browse the libraries, Tv guides, movies, books etc one is startled as to how the single sentence regarding Atlantis is enough to flood the world. Whereas the living culture of Hinduism and its authentic claim to a startling history are ignored and sielined as myth. It is presented by many as merely a religious emotional belief system unworthy of serious consideration. However there are many out there revealing the truth of our collective human history.

Vedik Culture list - Vrindavan Parker

Vedic World Heritage links:

See our pages supporting these views HERE:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/VWH.html (Vedik World Heritage)
Western Indologists been exposed page:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/WesternIndologists-page.htm
How British Misguided the World on Vedic History
http://www.hknet.org.nz/MotiveBritishRajMissionaries.html

Eating broccoli and cauliflower regularly reduces the risk of deadly prostate cancer, say US researchers.

A study of 1,300 men found they were better than any other vegetable at protecting against aggressive tumours.

Writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the researchers said broccoli and cauliflower were known to contain anti-cancer compounds.

Experts advised the best way to reduce cancer risk was to eat a balanced diet, including lots of fruit and vegetables.

Several studies have shown a link between eating vegetables and a reduced risk of prostate cancer, but results have not been consistent and many have not specifically looked at deadly forms of the disease.

 Experts have proven that the best way to reduce your risk of many cancers is to eat a healthy balanced diet Dr Kat Arney, Cancer Research UK

A team from the US National Cancer Institute and Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto carried out food questionnaires in a group of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer in a large screening trial.

Overall, they found that eating fruits and vegetables was not associated with decreased prostate cancer risk.

But greater consumption of dark green and cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli and cauliflower, was associated with a decreased risk of aggressive prostate cancer.

A weekly serving of cauliflower was associated with 52% decreased risk of aggressive disease and similar amounts of broccoli cut the risk by 45%.

Healthy diet

Spinach consumption also seemed to be associated with a reduced risk but the findings were not significant when the researchers looked at cancer which had spread beyond the prostate.

Study leader Dr Victoria Kirsch, Cancer Care Ontario, said: "Aggressive prostate cancer is biologically virulent and associated with poor prognosis.
 

"If the association that we observed is ultimately found to be causal, a possible means to reduce the burden of this disease may be primary prevention through increased consumption of broccoli, cauliflower, and possibly spinach."

However, she pointed out that men eating a lot of broccoli and cauliflower may be more healthy in general.

Prostate cancer kills one man an hour in the UK and 32,000 are diagnosed every year with the disease.

Dr Kat Arney, Cancer Research UK's senior science information officer, said: "When it comes to food, there is no one particular 'super' fruit or vegetable that will protect you from cancer.

"Experts have proven that the best way to reduce your risk of many cancers is to eat a healthy balanced diet.

"This should include at least five portions a day of a variety of fruit and vegetables including broccoli and cauliflower."

Chris Hiley, head of policy and research at The Prostate Cancer Charity said: "Broccoli and cauliflower have appeared in other studies as being potentially important in defences against prostate cancer.

"Whilst waiting for definitive evidence it's clear that men should be eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/6927359.stm

Published: 2007/08/02 10:57:43 GMT

(c) BBC MMVII

See our World Vegetarian Day Newsletters 2004 - 2005 - World Vege Day

See similar articles at Vegetarianism & beyond:
http://turn.to/Vegetarianism

There was one learned brahmana who knew so many languages.  He came to a king's court and he spoke in so many languages that no-one could find out what was his language.  He said, "If you can find out my language, then you are very clever."  The king was so confused.  "What is his language?"  But the king had a joker in his court whose name was Tenalilam.  He was from Tenali, a village in Andha Pradesa, and he was a very crooked cunning fellow.  He said to the king, "Don't worry.  Tonight I will find out what his language is."  So the king said, "If you find that out I will give you a thousand gold coins."  The joker said, "All right, I will find out."  So then in the evening the pandita was walking in the garden.  The joker had covered himself with a big blanket, and he sat on a tree.  When the pandit walked below, the joker jumped on him.  The pandit got a big fright.  "Oh my God!" he exclaimed in the Keralan language.  Thus his real language was revealed.

MORAL:  Philosophers may be speaking so much high philosophy, but then if they get emotional or angry, sometimes their real motive comes out.

See similar inspirational snippets HERE:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/parables.htm

The phaomnneil pweor of the hmuan mnid: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig!
Mybae the I can sotp slpel ckchenig?

http://www.gaura-gambhira.com/

Written by HH Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Dear Maharaj/ Prabujis/ Matajis,

It is my great pleasure to inform all the devotees of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that a great service opportunity has been offered by the temple authorities of Gambhira, in Puri dham, where Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spent the final years of His manifested pastimes on this earthly planet. Kasi Mishra's house, also known as Gambhira, and the Radha Kanta math, were both under the care of the Orissa government due to 20 years of litigation. Finally, this litigation problem has been resolved and the management of the institution has been returned to the temple mahanta.

The temple has sustained much damage over the years due to lack of proper maintenance. The whole place is very dirty and the roofs and walls are falling down. The temple roof is also cracking. Additionally, the temple has a lack of proper income for the maintenance of the devotees and for deity puja—and, of course, the more the Gambhira is allowed to deteriorate, the fewer visitors it will have.

At this crucial point, the mahanta of Gambhira has requested ISKCON to extend kind assistence to him in order to protect and maintain this most holy place. Devotees from all over the world come to offer their prayers and obeisances at Gambhira. This is one of the most important places for the followers of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and must be maintained nicely.

Thus, this is a golden opportunity for devotees to render service to this most sacred cause. I request all devotees to kindly donate towards this purpose. There are many things to be fixed at the place. For the time being we have prepared a rough budget, for whatever the most urgent needs are, just to bring the situation up to  survival position. Later on, we will let you know about further opportunities for service in the development of the Gambhira.

For further information contact

Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Phone: ++ 91 9434506434

E mail: bps@pamho.net

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