While you’ve been obsessing over who was unhappy at Kim Kardashian’s Florentine wedding or where Pitbull got his mom-capris in Brazil (I know, right?), some serious things have gone down in the real world.
We’re talking wreck-the-global-economy, rewrite-history kinds of things.
LIST ONLY:
1. Iraq and Syria: Two conflicts beat as one
2. China vs. Japan: Asia’s next great war?
3. The rise of Europe’s far right
4. Russia vs. Ukraine (and the rest of Europe): Back in the USSR?
5. Washington, DC: A snake pit of vitriolic ineptitude
Forty six years of doing my own experimental research, plus reading several thousand studies done by others has convinced me — on the basis of data, not ideology, theology, or simple speculation — that all living beings have a measure of consciousness, and that they are all interlinked and interdependent, joined in a matrix of life.
In support of that fact here is some new data that may fascinate you as much as it did me. I remember meeting the late Cleve Backster back in the early 70s when my friends Christopher Bird and Peter Tompkins, both also now gone, were working on first a Harper's article and, then, the book that grew out of it, The Secret Life of Plants. Cleve was doing research showing that plants reacted through some kind of nonlocal linkage when shrimp across the room with which they had no physical connection, were dumped into boiling water. At the time materialist biologists derided this work as “fantasy” and “nonsense for the gullible.” They were wrong as several thousand studies showing nonlocal linkages between organisms across the full spectrum of life have subsequently shown. Of course that doesn't stop materialists who, like climate deniers, and creationists, are not really interested in facts on this subject, however prestigious they may be in other areas. A! s with the other deniers they hold their views with religious fervor.
An interesting addition to the last article we published about the Mimosa plant and memory. The evidence for plant consciousness seems to be stacking more and more each day. How fascinating.
New research from a team of scientists at the University of Western Australia will change the way you think about the difference between plants and animals. Mimosa pundica plants, they found, can learn and remember, despite not having a brain. Those active little fern-like things always did seem sort of smart, though, didn’t they?
Better late than never. Ghani won the election — now we need to see if the US Government will stand by our principles and help assure a legitimate count. See also the second headline, for an understanding of how Iran controlled the non-signing of the BSA in Iraq to create this situation. If Abdullah is fradulently election, I anticipate that he will NOT sign the BSA, this having been a condition for Iran's funding of his campaign and Karzai-Daudzai fraud.
KABUL, Afghanistan — When dealing with Western officials, Ashraf Ghani presents himself as the rare technocrat who possesses both the cultural savvy and practical expertise needed to put Afghanistan back on track if he is elected president in the runoff vote on Saturday.
After all, as Mr. Ghani readily reminds people, he has written a book titled “Fixing Failed States.”
Few people – including myself until recently – have realized how important empathy is to co-intelligence. Here I focus on four important connectors between empathy and co-intelligence – being heard, random selection, effective deep understanding, and resonant intelligence – that are fundamental to the creation of a truly wise democracy.
At first this struck me as odd. While I have written about empathy a number of times, it has certainly not been my central focus. Furthermore, I know a number of colleagues for whom empathy IS their focus – and some of them are doing excellent work worthy of such an award. (I think of Miki Kashtan, in particular.)
Although I suggested this to the person responsible for the award, he insisted that he wanted me as their first recipient. As we talked about this and about what I might say in the speech he wanted me to give in October when I formally received the award, I had some interesting realizations I want to share with you about empathy and co-intelligence.
The attentional window for short-term memory might be smaller than previously thought. Chunking information is one key strategy that can be exapted to infotentional practice.
Further evidence that Earth's ecosystems constitute an interlocking interdependent fractal matrix of subsystems far more complex than we understand. Here is an example you have probably never heard of. I certainly had not. Until we realize and accept our ignorance our arrogance will keep us from learning. We do not have dominion over the Earth, one of the most toxic Judea-Christian myths. The Earth was here before us, and will be here long after our species is gone. At b! est we can be sand in the gears or lubricant. And it is yet another arrogance to believe we are the only conscious beings. We have no idea what the consciousness of dinosaurs was, any more than we can truly inhabit a whale's reality — or a flowers.
Research shows forest debris that drains into lakes is an important contributor to freshwater food chains – bolstering fish diets to the extent that increased forest cover causes fish to get ‘fat’ and sparse forest leaves smaller, underfed fish.
Phi Beta Iota: RYP wrote this in part to react to Abdullah's cavalier rejection of the Iraq scenario playing out today, for Afghanistan. His over-all point is that both candidates — Abdullah and Ghani — have pluses and minuses that voters and donors must consider BUT that there is only one clean candidate capable of reintegrating the Taliban in a sustainable manner. Abdullah equals civil war and the diviison of Afghanistan into a wealthy north and west controlled by Iran and an impoverished south and east overseen by a complacent Pakistan. If we are to honor the blood, treasure, and spirit that America and others have devoted these past twelve years, then all forms of fraud must be rejected, Iranian covert operations in support of Abdullah must be countered, and the public allowed to elect — as it has — the clean candidate. Now we move to the count. If the USA is to act in accordance with its democratic principles, it cannot allow Karzai and Daudzai to get away with the Iranian-funded fraud that is known to be positioned to deliver 55-45 for Abdullah instead of the actual vote closer to 60-40 for Ghani. Here is his last thought on the subject, part of an afterthought at the end of this post:
Abdullah is at best a proxy for the Panjshiri businessmen and aligned kleptocrats and at worst a weak person who will be killed by the ISI. Ghani may not have the overwhelming support of the Karzai crowd but with power and patience comes reconciliation amongst the Deobandis and the new generation . So lets all hope the election is for him.
ON AFGHANISTAN
Robert Young Pelton
Freely Available for Re-Publication with Attribution to the Author
The election in Afghanistan is important. Very important. Although candidate Dr. Abudullah insists that the events in Iraq won’t happen in his country he is very wrong. Let me tell you why.
