Ecological footprint calculator

Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), a Canadian outdoor sports equipment manufacturer and retailer has an Ecological Footprint Calculator on their website. What's this for you ask?

Check this out: "Have you ever stopped to wonder how your lifestyle impacts the planet we're living on? This basic questionnaire will calculate a quick and relatively accurate Ecological Footprint for an individual living in North America. "

As they say in the fine print, the calculator is approximate at best, but it does give you pause for thought.

Here's my score (without any fudging or second guessing):

"Your footprint measures 80.25% of an average North American's footprint and 102.32% of an average MEC Eco-Footprint Calculation (based on average results from this calculator)."

I did well partly because I have travelled less lately in my job. If I go on the road again, my footprint will increase rapidly. Same result when my daughter moves out, which she will at some point before or after she's through college.  ⊕

Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium Weapons

This story from IPS News Agency today: Evidence Grows Against Depleted Uranium Weapons: " is prized by the military for its use in ammunition that can punch through walls and armoured tanks. The main problem, experts say, is that DU munitions vaporise on contact, generating dust that is easily inhaled into the lungs.

Several months ago a dozen soldiers from the National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company, stationed south of Baghdad, began suffering from dizziness, diarrhoea, blurred vision and other symptoms. Independent tests carried out by a New York newspaper found that four had high levels of depleted uranium in their systems.

The news does not come as a surprise for doctors working in parts of the world that have been bombarded with DU weaponry, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans."

The story goes on to describe what is emerging as a very serious problem that is nothing short of a tragedy for recent theatres. How about this:

"Maj Doug Rokke, the former head of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project and now a leading critic of DU, believes deploying the weaponry is a war crime.

"I was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Army depleted uranium assessment team as the health physicist and medic," Rokke says in an interview. "What we found can be explained in three words -- oh my God."

"Due to his work, Rokke currently has 5,000 times the normal levels of radiation in his body. At least 30 members of his DU clean-up team have died prematurely."

So what more evidence do we need to stop using DU in weapons?

If you are considering going to prior war zones where DU has been used, the above story would strongly suggest you don't.

Radiation contamination doesn't simply go away by itself after the fighting is over. If it can't be removed by clean-up operations, what's critical to understand is that radioactive decay is all about the 'half-life' of the isotopes in question. Half-life means the time it takes for the radiation output to be reduced in half. Depending upon what level you start at, halfway may or may not still be deadly.

The evidence seems to be that the DU residue is killing people, so we're still on the wrong side of the curve by all accounts.  ⊕

Perfect Orderliness - a quality of pure consciousness

"...to emphasize the afterlife is to deny life. To concentrate on Heaven is to create hell. In their desperate longing to transcend the disorderliness, friction, and unpredictability that pesters life; in their desire for a fresh start in a tidy habitat, germ-free and secured by angels, religious multitudes are gambling the only life they may ever have on a dark horse in a race that has no finish line."
Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All (1990)

"His vocation was orderliness, which is the basis of creation. Accordingly, when a letter came, he would turn it over in his hands for a long time, gazing at it meditatively; then he would put it away in a file without opening it, because everything had its own time."
Salvatore Satta (1902–1975), The Day of Judgment (1979)

I found these two quotations to be amusing in their contrast. My thought for the day is perfect orderliness, one of the Qualities of Pure Consciousness. The way I see it, perfect orderliness speaks to the condition that exists when all things are connected with no loose ends anywhere.

It goes beyond the existence of the here and now, though. The manifestations of things to come will occur in perfect orderliness, as well. How could they not? We perceive disorderliness because of our interpretations and evaluations of what we see around us. We may not like what we see, and what we see may indeed not be very desirable whatever way we look at it.

However, what is manifesting is in perfect response to the underlying structure. In order to see changes, we must change. We must change on a deep level and carry that change with us into our world. That's how I think of this. I am hopeful because I believe in our ability to make important changes. I am saddened because the process seems so slow right now.

But I must take heart. Sometimes ideas take on a life of their own and just need time to grow. It's like farming. You can't rush wheat, if you know what I mean.   ⊕

"Self-healing" discovered in a solar cell material

This little story dates back to 1999, but is worth repeating, if nothing else for its curiosity value. "Self-healing" discovered in a solar cell material: "Solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity, could offer a perfect way of using solar energy. But, unfortunately, such devices can only be built from materials that are either very expensive or unstable with respect to radiation or other environmental factors.

One type of experimental semiconductor could provide an answer. Copper indium gallium diselenide doesn't cost much because only very small amounts of it are needed. It is also extremely stable, a characteristic that has long baffled the scientific community because it appears to defy common sense: Copper indium gallium diselenide is so complex that one would expect it to be easily disrupted, yet it manages to survive intact for long periods of time under harsh conditions, including those present in space.

Now this mystery has been solved by an international team consisting of Prof. David Cahen of the Weizmann Institute's Materials and Interfaces Department, working with consultant Dr. Leeor Kronik of Tel Aviv University and colleagues from France's CNRS and Germany's Stuttgart University."

"Once some atomic bonds have been broken, the copper atoms, which are capable of moving throughout the crystal, wander around until they reach the damaged spot and undo the effects of the damage. This 'self-repair' mechanism stems from the material's tendency to try and stay close to equilibrium.

'Now we understand how solar cells made of copper indium gallium diselenide manage to survive and function effectively in hostile environments such as those encountered on satellites: Once damaged, for example by radiation, this 'smart' material simply 'heals' itself and restores its previous function,' Cahen says."  ⊕

Infinite Organizing Power

"We trained hard....but every time we formed up teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn that we meet any new situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."
Petronius Arbiter, 210 bc

"It is against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail, and learning to be self-critical?"
Alan Perlis

Now how do you like those two quotations? They are separated by over 2000 years and what has changed? Not much.

Here's one way to explain this that hit me on the funny bone:

"Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it."
Max Frisch. Homo Faber

Being so involved with technology in my day job, I thought Max represented a great twist on the subject. And what is the subject? I was starting out looking for signs of infinite organizing power, one of the Qualities of Pure Consciousness.

I am often being pulled in many directions. Sometimes that's the story of my whole week. Which is not news, but I'm pleased by how I have learnt to handle it. It is easy to get caught up in the adrenaline flow, but now I avoid that and set limits for myself. I agree with myself what to work on when and take breaks at the right times.

I haven't mastered infinite organizing power, but I'm managing to stay more on an even keel emotionally and energetically. Infinite organizing power, as I see it, talks to the process of manifestation at its basest level. If we connect with the non-local field of pure potentiality and accept the notion that desire has within it all the mechanics of its manifestation, then there must be an infinite organizing power for the manifestations to come off.

I'd like to tap into that directly, wouldn't you?  ⊕

Clinical holistic medicine: classic art of healing or the therapeutic touch

While we're at digging in the research abstracts, here's a gem from the Quality of Life Research Center in Denmark published in ScientificWorldJournal. 2004 Mar 4;4:134-47. The authors (Ventegodt S, Morad M, Merrick J.) comes at this with the idea that touch matters, but is missing from traditional medicine.

"Touching is often a forgotten part of medicine. The manual medicine or therapeutic touch (TT) is much more powerful than many modern, biomedically oriented physicians think. Pain and discomfort can be alleviated just by touching the sick area and in this way help the patient to be in better contact with the tissue and organs of their body. Lack of presence in the body seems to be connected with many symptoms that can be readily reversed simply by sensitive touch. When touch is combined with therapeutic work on mind and feelings, holistic healing seems to be facilitated and many problems can be solved in a direct and easy way in the clinic without drugs. This paper gives examples of the strength of manual medicine or therapeutic touch in its most simple form, and points to the power of physical contact between physician and his patient in the context of the theory and practice of holistic healing. Intimacy seems highly beneficial for the process of healing and it is very important to distinguish clearly between intimacy and sexuality for the physician and his patent to be able to give and receive touch without fear and without holding back emotionally."  ⊕

Treating children with therapeutic and healing touch

I came across this abstract of a paper to be published in Pediatr Ann. 2004 Apr;33(4):248-52

The author is Kelly EA Kemper of Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The abstract tells us that: "HT and TT are unique touch techniques with origins in the nursing profession. They are widely available in pediatric hospitals and often are used as adjunct therapies to decrease stress, anxiety, and pain. Practitioners, as well as patients, may notice improved sense of well-being during and after treatments. Additional research is needed to determine the mechanisms by which these effects occur, the optimal duration and frequency of treatments, factors predictive of treatment response, and the overall costs and benefits of including TT and HT in treatment in addition to traditional therapies. These therapies are safe and readily available."

Thought you'd like to know.  ⊕