Heartbeats of the Universe

When we receive the first signal, life on Earth will change forever...
NASA's SETI project has installed gigantic antennas to receive signals from extraterrestrial beings, and at the same time, sending out signals as radio waves that travel at the speed of light. The nearest star to us is 60 light-years away. Look at it both ways: if there were intelligent lives in another part of the galaxy, their "noises" would have reached us by now. But we haven't received any signal. Why?
Is life so rare that it exists only on Earth? Look at Earth's conditions, one can't help but realize lives on Earth - including non-human lives - are precious. Take Europa, whose surface is a frozen ocean, for comparison - there may be lives underneath the icy surface, but probably not intelligent lives. Or look at Io (another Jupiter's moon), a world comparable to Dante's Inferno, where volcanoes never stop erupting.
Lives are being able to thrive on Earth because of the Sun and the Earth's atmosphere that protects us.
But our Sun, too - 5 billion years from now - will die.
By that time, everything will end here.
But will it be the end of humanity?
Death is the ultimate price we will pay to have human consciousness, intelligence, emotions and other capabilities, to be aware of all that shimmering awareness and all that love.
Being in this world is already a privilege. Considering all possible genetic combinations that happen by chance, it's amazing that I happened at all.

What does it mean to be immortal?

Unlike all other creatures on this planet, we humans are the only ones who are aware of our transience.

Immortality - a quest for more Time - is a dream that has driven humanity for generations.
We are in a constant search for the Elixir of Life. We yearn for the lost time that lingers on in our memory.

Of all time's effects on us, the most profound is that one day, it will end. Our time is limited, so our Time is precious. The knowledge of limited Time has shaped us as humans.

If we could hold back an amount of Time, what would it mean for us?

Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth

What are these humans doing?
Dancing.
Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend boundaries and occur in every human society.
Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch this video without smiling.

Praan (the ‘Stream of Life’) song:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

ID Fraud Alerts

http://www.equifax.com/answers/set-fraud-alerts/en_cp

How do Identity Thieves do it?
First, they steal your personal information by...

• Going through your mail or trash, looking for bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, and tax information.
• Stealing personal information from your wallet or purse such as identification, credit, or bank cards.
• Completing change-of-address forms to redirect your mail.
• Acquiring personal information you share on unsecured sites on the Internet.
• Buying personal information about you from an inside source -- for example, a store employee that gets your information from a credit application or by "skimming" your credit card information when you make a purchase.
• Getting your personnel records at work.
• By being family members, roommates, or close friends that have access to your personal information.

Then they use your personal information by...

• Opening new credit card accounts using your name, date of birth, and SSN. When they use the credit cards and don't pay the bills, the delinquency is reported on your credit report.
• Establishing phone or cellular service in your name.
• Opening a bank account in your name and writing bad checks on the account.
• Counterfeiting checks or debit cards, and draining your bank account.
• Buying cars by taking out auto loans in your name.
• Calling your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, changing the address on the account. Bills get sent to the new address, so you don't realize there's a problem until you check your credit report.
• Filing for bankruptcy using your name to avoid paying debts they've incurred under your name.

What can you do if you are a Victim of Identity Theft?
Keep a record. Because recovering from identity theft can be a long and complicated process, it's important to keep a record of all of your communications. Send all letters by certified mail and keep copies. If you think your case might lead to a lawsuit, keep track of how much time you spend dealing with the problem.
Call the police. Report the crime to the police department that has jurisdiction in your case and request a police report. Though the authorities are often unable to assist you, a police report may be necessary to help convince creditors that someone else has opened an account in your name.
Contact the Federal Trade Commission. Call the FTC's identity theft hotline at 877-438-4338 and file a complaint. The FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems itself, but your complaint may lead to law enforcement action.
Check your credit reports. Get your credit reports from all three nationwide credit reporting agencies and check for inquiries that you do not recognize and any new accounts opened in your name. Because new accounts may take up to six months to show up on the report, continue to monitor your credit reports on a regular basis.
Contact 1 of the 3 Nationwide Credit Reporting Agencies to place a fraud alert. Have one of the agencies put a fraud alert on your file, which will aid in preventing new credit accounts from being opened without your express permission. Equifax and the other two credit reporting agencies, Experian and TransUnion, work together so that when you place an alert with one of these agencies, your request is automatically sent to the other two agencies (see information about fraud alerts).
Place a security freeze on your credit files at each of the 3 Nationwide Credit Reporting Agencies. You may request a security freeze be placed on your credit files at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You will have to contact each of them individually in order to place a security freeze on their credit file on you (see information about a security freeze).
Block or close fraudulent accounts. Contact the appropriate creditors, banks, phone companies, and utility companies and have them close and discontinue reporting the accounts. You'll probably be liable for only $50 of the fraudulent charges, but different issuers have different policies. Most creditors promptly issue replacement cards with new account numbers.
Mail fraud. If you suspect that someone has changed your address with the post office or used the mail to commit identity theft, notify the US Postal Inspector.
Fraud using your Social Security number. If your Social Security number has been used to commit identity theft, contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is charged with handling most identity theft complaints at 1-877-IDTHEFT (1-877-438-4338).
To order a copy of your Social Security Administration earnings and benefits statement to check whether someone has used your Social Security number to get a job or to avoid paying taxes visit www.socialsecurity.gov/statement/.
Fraud involving your driver's license number. If your driver's license number has been used to open accounts or verify checks, contact your state's Department of Motor Vehicles.
Fraud involving your passport. Notify the U.S. State Department's Passport Services Department of the identity theft so that it can intercept anyone ordering a new passport in your name.
Fraud involving a business scam. If the fraud was perpetrated as part of a business scam, contact the National Fraud Information Center at 800-876-7060.
Bankruptcy filed using your name. If someone filed for bankruptcy using your name write to the U.S. Trustee in the region where the bankruptcy was filed. A listing of the U.S. Trustee Program's Regions can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/, or look in the blue pages of your phone book under US Government: Bankruptcy Administration. Your letter should describe the situation and provide proof of your identity.

More profit with LESS carbon!

* Focusing on energy efficiency will do more than protect Earth's climate: it will make businesses and consumers richer!

Continue: http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/pdf/Lovinsforweb.pdf

That's the reason I'm totally supporting the Climate Change Bill !

This bill is imperfect, AND AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY! Please write and call your congress people! Without this bill in hand, the chances that the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) will fail go up dramatically with drastic consequences. The 2009 International Scientific Congress concluded that climate change is happening faster than the worst-case scenarios. But we can make a huge difference with current technology, political will and personal choice. If we fail, the consequences will make our current recession seem paltry, dwarfing the cost of WWII. This is our Pearl Harbor!
Will you join me in committing to making a change for a low-carbon future?
http://climatecongress.ku.dk/newsroom/congress_key_messages/

.

Gestalt Prayer

"I am I.

You are you.

I do my thing and you do your thing.

I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,

And you are not in this world to live up to mine.

You are you, and I am I,

And if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.

If not, it can't be helped."

*

私 は 私。

あなた は あなた。

私 は 私 の ために 生き

あなた は あなた の ために 生きる。

私 は あなた の 期待に 応える ために この世に 生きてる わけじゃない。

そして、あなた も 私 の 期待に 応える ために この世に 生きてる わけじゃない。

あなた は あなた、私 は 私。

もしふたり が 出会えれば それは 素晴らしい こと

出会えないくても それは やむをえない ことだ。

-- by psychotherapist Fritz Perls

1969

Climax of Humanity

BY GEORGE MUSSER from Scientific American :

The 21st century feels like a letdown.
We were promised flying cars, space colonies and 15-hour workweeks.
Robots were supposed to do our chores, except when they were organizing rebellions;
children were supposed to learn about disease from history books;
portable fusion reactors were supposed to be on sale at the Home Depot.
Even dystopian visions of the future predicted leaps of technology and social organization
that leave our era in the dust.

As humanity grows in size and wealth, however, it increasingly presses against the limits of the planet. Already we pump out carbon dioxide three times as fast as the oceans and land can absorb it; midcentury is when climatologists think global warming will really begin to bite. At the rate things are going, the world’s forests and fisheries will be exhausted even sooner.

The trends are evident in everyday life. Many of us have had the experience of getting lost in our hometowns becausethey have grown so much. But growth is slowing as families shrink. Ever more children grow up not just without siblingsbut also without aunts, uncles or cousins. (Some people find that sad, but the only other way to have a stable populationis for death rates to rise)

Continue: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-climax-of-humanity

. . .

Inspirational thoughts

"The world you desire can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours!"

--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the OTHER people!" (Professor Randy Pausch)

"When life kicks you, let it kick you forward" (Kay Yow).

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever" (Gandhi)

"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character." (Horace Greeley)

"We never know how high we are

Till we are asked to rise

And then if we are true to plan

Our statures touch the skies?"

- Emily Dickinson -

"Our doubts are traitors

and make us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt."

- William Shakespeare -

"For when the One Great Scorer comes

To write against your name,

He marks -- not that you won or lost,

but how you played the game."

- Grantland Rice -

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands in moments of challenge and controversy".  (Martin Luther King).

"The most intelligent people disguise the fact that they are intelligent. Wise men do not wear nametags. The more people talk about their own skills, the more desperate they are—their work should speak for itself."

~M (Death Note)

"Truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." 

~ Albus Dumbledore

"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me, and when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

~ Bene Gesserit

Sorting Hat Songs

Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone

Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can top them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a steady mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.

So put me on!
Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!

* * *

Chamber of Secrets

Harry wasn't the only one to miss the sorting in Chamber of Secrets. He and Ron flew the Weasleys' car to Hogwarts after Dobby had sealed the gateway to Platform 9 3/4, then crashed it into the Whomping Willow that sits on the school grounds.

Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry missed the sorting because a dementor had crawled into the trio's compartment on the Hogwarts Express, and the very presence of the dementor made Harry pass out.

* * *

Goblet of Fire

A thousand years or more ago,
When I was newly sewn,
There lived four wizards of renown,
Whose names are still well known:
Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,
Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,
Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,
Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.

They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,
They hatched a daring plan
To educate young sorcerers
Thus Hogwarts School began.
Now each of these four founders
Formed their own house, for each
Did value different virtues
In the ones they had to teach.

By Gryffindor, the bravest were
Prized far beyond the rest;
For Ravenclaw, the cleverest
Would always be the best;
For Hufflepuff, hard workers were
Most worthy of admission;
And power-hungry Slytherin
Loved those of great ambition.

While still alive they did divide
Their favourites from the throng,
Yet how to pick the worthy ones
When they were dead and gone?

'Twas Gryffindor who found the way,
He whipped me off his head
The founders put some brains in me
So I could choose instead!

Now slip me snug about your ears,
I've never yet been wrong,
I'll have a look inside your mind
And tell where you belong!

* * *

Order of the Phoenix

In times of old when I was new
And Hogwarts barely started
The Founders of our noble school
Thought never to be parted:
nited by a common goal,
They had the selfsame yearning
To make the world's best magic school
And pass along their learning.
"Together we will build and teach!"
The Four good friends decided
And never did they dream that they
Might someday be divided,
For were there such friends anywhere
As Slytherin and Gryffindor?
Unless it was the second pair
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?
So how could it have gone so wrong?
How could such friendships fail?
Why, I was there and so can tell
The whole sad, sorry tale.

Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those
Whose ancestry is purest."
Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those
Whose intelligence is surest."
Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those
With brave deeds to their name,"
Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,
And treat them just the same."

These differences caused little strife
When first they came to light,
For each of the four founders had
A House in which they might
Take only those they wanted, so,
For instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards
Of great cunning, just like him,
And only those of sharpest mind
Were taught by Ravenclaw
While the bravest and the boldest
Went to daring Gryffindor,
Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,
And taught them all she knew,
Thus the Houses and their founders
Retained friendships firm and true.

So Hogwarts worked in harmony
For several happy years,
But the discord crept among us
Feeding on our faults and fears.
The Houses that, like pillars four,
Had once held up our school,
Now turned upon each other and,
Divided, sought to rule.

And for a while it seemed the school
Must meet an early end,
What with dueling and with fighting
And the clash of friend on friend
And at last there came a morning
When old Slytherin departed
And though the fighting then died out
He left us quite downhearted.

And never since the founders four
Were whittled down to three
Have the Houses been united
And they once were meant to be.

And now the Sorting Hat is here
And you all know the score:
I sort you into Houses
Because that is what I'm for,
But this year I'll go further,
Listen closely to my song:

Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it's wrong,
Though I must fulfill my duty
And must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether sorting
May not bring the end I fear.

Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
The warning history shows,
For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external, deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we'll crumble from within
I have told you, I have warned you...
Let the sorting now begin!

* * *

Half-Blood Prince

After Harry's meeting with the "Slug Club" on the train towards Hogwarts, Harry decided to follow Slytherin Blaise Zabini as he entered into a Slytherin compartment containing Malfoy. However, when done 'spying' on him, Malfoy cast the body-binding spell and Harry couldn't move a muscle, especially after Malfoy completely stomped all over his face. However, Tonks came to the train and healed Harry, but he arrived late, and missed the Sorting Ceremony.

Are we alone in the Universe?

For ~50 years, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been scanning the galaxy for a message from an alien civilization. So far to no avail, but a recent breakthrough suggests they may one day succeed:
Horizon joins the planet hunters who've discovered a new world called Gliese 581c [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmTjAmop688 ]. It is the most Earth-like planet yet found orbiting around another star and may have habitats capable of supporting life. NASA too hopes to find 50 more Earth-like planets by the end of the decade, all of which dramatically increases the chance that alien life has begun elsewhere in the galaxy.

We must be assuming that aliens are peaceful in order to search for them like this.
What if they're not ?

"We spend our life in 3 spatial dimensions, confident that what we can see with our telescopes is all there is, ignorant of the possibility of 10-dimensional hyperspace. Although these higher dimensions are invisible, their ripples can clearly be seen and felt. We call these ripples gravity and light."