Pigeons Beat the Internet
Pigeons are apparently faster than the Internet. In October, Nick Andreef began a commercial operation -- using homing pigeons to deliver photographs. His Waitomo Adventures company runs various tours through a network of caves; he wanted to have digital photographs ready before the tourist bus returned, so they didn't have to spend time downloading and printing. Internet was too slow, but pigeo... posted on Jan 07 2004, 831 reads

Universe Surrenders
For nearly nine days after an earthquake demolished her city in Iran, 97-year-old Sharbanou Mazandarani lay trapped under furniture and crumbled masonry, passing fear-filled days and cold nights with death all around. But on Saturday, elated rescuers pulled her out of the rubble alive -- and unhurt! While the doctors said a low metabolism helped her pull through, the petite, wrinkled woman said ... posted on Jan 06 2004, 995 reads

Everything is Necessary
... posted on Jan 05 2004, 1,168 reads

Song of Silence
... posted on Jan 04 2004, 615 reads

Timeless
More than half of Americans believe in 'anomalous phenomena' like clairvoyance, unexplained coincidence, prayer healing and psychokinesis. Yet mainstream science remains unconvinced. After all, these anomalies appear to fly in the face of everything we know about how mind and matter interact. But that may be about to change. This year, Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, a professor of psychology at the Univer... posted on Jan 03 2004, 1,121 reads

The Living Poem
Michael DeGroote is not a man who uses fancy words. He belongs to none of the right clubs, and isn't all that interested in hanging around with the right people. He made a fortune in trucking and garbage; rough-and-tumble businesses that tend to attract rough-and-tumble characters. And he's just given away $105-million -- the single biggest gift in Canadian history.... posted on Jan 02 2004, 1,094 reads

Nobel Prize for Love
Every year, to much less fanfare, the "real" Nobel Prizes are preceded by the Alternative Nobel Prizes, formally known as the Right Livelihood Awards. Think of it as the Nobel Prize for Love. This year's winners are relatively unsung heros of planetary transformation, champions of sustainability, democracy, and justice. There's Walden Bello and Nicanor Perlas, two Philippine intellectual activ... posted on Jan 01 2004, 983 reads

Pursuit of Happiness
If this Harvard psychology professor is right, then you are wrong. That is to say, if Daniel Gilbert is right, then you are wrong to believe that a new car will make you as happy as you imagine. What Gilbert has found is that we overestimate the intensity and the duration of our emotional reactions -- our "affect" -- to future events. On average, bad events proved less intense and more transient... posted on Dec 31 2003, 1,246 reads

Only Good News
Germany's top-selling newspaper published nothing but good news on Christmas, dropping its normal fare of crime, violence and scandal for stories about tax cuts, falling petrol prices and accelerating economic growth. "There's only good news today," Bild wrote in two-inch high letters at the top of page one, where the giant headlines are usually devoted to sex scandals, Germany's cannibal trial, k... posted on Dec 30 2003, 1,066 reads

Freedom in Humility
... posted on Dec 29 2003, 914 reads