Bacteria Live At 33,000 Feet!

Awesome! Now what? By Stephanie Warren Earth’s upper atmosphere—below freezing, nearly without oxygen, flooded by UV radiation—is no place to live. coque iphone 6 But last winter, scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that billions of bacteria actually thrive up there. coque iphone 8 Expecting only a smattering of microorganisms, the researchers flew six miles above Earth’s surface in a NASA jet plane. There, they pumped outside air through a filter to collect particles. coque iphone Back on the ground, they tallied the organisms, and the count was staggering: 20 percent of what they had assumed to be just dust or other particles was alive. Earth, it seems, is surrounded by a bubble of bacteria. It’s Alive! & Airborne In the midst of airborne sea salt and dust, researchers from Georgia Tech unexpectedly found thousands of living fungal cells and bacteria, including E. coli and Streptococcus. acheter coque iphone en ligne NOW WHAT? Scientists don’t yet know what the bacteria are doing up there, but they may be essential to how the atmosphere functions, says Kostas Konstantinidis, an environmental microbiologist on the Georgia Tech team. For example, they could be responsible for recycling nutrients in the atmosphere, like they do on Earth. And similar to other particles, they could influence weather patterns by helping clouds form. However, they also may be transmitting diseases from one side of the globe to the other. The researchers found E. coli in their samples (which they think hurricanes lifted from cities), and they plan to investigate whether plagues are raining down on us. coque iphone 2019 pas cher If we can find out more about the role of bacteria in the atmosphere, says Ann Womack, a microbial ecologist at the University of Oregon, scientists could even fight climate change by engineering the bacteria to break down greenhouse gases into other, less harmful compounds.

Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

New York Times Bestseller What happens when you eat an apple? The answer is vastly more complex than you imagine. soldes coque iphone Every apple contains thousands of antioxidants whose names, beyond a few like vitamin C, are unfamiliar to us, and each of these powerful chemicals has the potential to play an important role in supporting our health. acheter coque iphone en ligne They impact thousands upon thousands of metabolic reactions inside the human body. coque iphone 2019 But calculating the specific influence of each of these chemicals isn’t nearly sufficient to explain the effect of the apple as a whole. Because almost every chemical can affect every other chemical, there is an almost infinite number of possible biological consequences. And that’s just from an apple. coque iphone 8 Nutritional science, long stuck in a reductionist mindset, is at the cusp of a revolution. acheter coque iphone en ligne The traditional “gold standard” of nutrition research has been to study one chemical at a time in an attempt to determine its particular impact on the human body. coque iphone xs max These sorts of studies are helpful to food companies trying to prove there is a chemical in milk or pre-packaged dinners that is “good” for us, but they provide little insight into the complexity of what actually happens in our bodies or how those chemicals contribute to our health. In The China Study, T. soldes coque iphone Colin Campbell (alongside his son, Thomas M. Campbell) revolutionized the way we think about our food with the evidence that a whole food, plant-based diet is the healthiest way to eat. Now, in Whole, he explains the science behind that evidence, the ways our current scientific paradigm ignores the fascinating complexity of the human body, and why, if we have such overwhelming evidence that everything we think we know about nutrition is wrong, our eating habits haven’t changed.

Global Tipping Point Crisis – Vive la Révolution

(Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Recently, I posted an exclusive report about a new NASA-backed scientific research project at the US National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (Sesync) to model the risks of civilisational collapse, based on analysis of the key factors involved in the rise and fall of past civilisations. The story went viral and was quickly picked up by other news outlets around the world which, however, often offered rather misleading headlines. ‘Nasa-backed study says humanity is pretty much screwed’, said Gizmodo. ‘Nasa-funded study says modern society doomed, like the dodo’, said the Washington Times. Are we doomed? Doom is not the import of this study, nor of my own original research on these issues as encapsulated in my book, A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilisation: And How to Save It. Rather what we are seeing, as I’ve argued in detail before, are escalating, interconnected symptoms of the unsustainability of the global system in its current form. While the available evidence suggests that business-as-usual is likely to guarantee worst-case scenarios, simultaneously humanity faces an unprecedented opportunity to create a civilisational form that is in harmony with our environment, and ourselves. Of course, there are those who go so far as to argue that humanity is heading for extinction by 2030, and that it’s too late to do anything about it. But as other scientists have pointed out, while the number of positive-feedbacks that could go into ‘runaway’ on a business-as-usual scenario appears overwhelming, whether they have yet is at best unclear from the numbers – and at worst, we find that proponents of fatalism are actually systematically misrepresenting and obfuscating the science to justify hopelessness. Neoliberal-ostrichism Then there are those on the opposite end of the spectrum who have taken up the personal crusade of spreading joy and happiness by pretending that everything’s going to be just fine – all the while ignoring the fact that our leading lights of science such as the US National Academy of Sciences, Nature and the Royal Society are pointing to the convergence of environmental, agricultural and energy challenges in coming decades without some sort of major change. What the cross-disciplinary study I wrote about last week suggests – like previous research – is that our current trajectory is unsustainable because our demand for ecological resources and services is increasingly going beyond what the planet is able to provide. This ‘overshoot’ is already responsible for a range of overlapping crises – the financial crash, the food crisis, intensifying civil unrest to name just a few – and is likely to worsen without meaningful action. Overshoot and inequality are part of the same failing system Why is this happening? The Sesync study lends credence to an argument I’ve also made frequently – that at the core of our current civilisational model is a dramatic inequality in access to the Earth’s resources, coupled with an ideology which sees those resources as nothing more than a playing field for a minority of members of the human species to accumulate material wealth without limits. The vast majority of the world’s resources – not just monetary wealth, but land, resources and raw materials – is owned and controlled by a tiny minority of states, monarchs, aristocratic families, banks and corporations. It is no accident that the Queen of Great Britain – arguably the harbinger of contemporary global capitalism before its supercession by the United States – is the world’s largest landlord, owning about 6.6 billion acres of land. That is one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface. It gets worse. 1,318 corporations own 80 per cent of the world’s wealth, and out of that, a tiny interlocking nexus of 147 ‘super corporations’ own half of that. But across the board, as an extensive Chatham House report showed presciently two years ago, resources are depleting, scarcity is increasing, and prices are rising according to the best data available. This is happening, Chatham House argued, due to a combination of stagnating economic growth, continued demographic expansion, intensifying demand, and increasing costs of resource extraction. The party’s over… welcome to the after-party Since 2005, the world food price index has doubled, remaining at record levels. Simultaneously, dramatic oil price rises have not helped the energy industry sustain profits. Instead, even as investment in oil field development and extraction has increased by 200-300% since 2000, this has translated into a tepid oil supply increase of just 12%. All the best evidence indicates that the dawn of fracking represents not a new revolution for fossil fuels, but rather a “retirement party“, to quote US energy analyst Chris Nelder. Faced with the overwhelming scale of the multiplicity of global challenges we now face, a sense of disempowerment is understandable. However, as I’ve argued before, it is unnecessary and self-defeating. Indeed, what we are facing is something far more complex than an ‘end-is-nigh’ scenario: not the end of the world, but the end of the old industrial paradigm of endless growth premised on practically endless oil, that is increasingly breaching its own biophysical limits; and the emergence of an emerging paradigm of civilisation based on a vision of a global commons for all. Death throes of fossil fuels As Nelder writes in his latest column, we find ourselves at a potentially exciting crossroads: the literal death throes of the fossil fuel industry, amidst the inexorable, sporadic rise of a new renewable energy system. Renewable sceptics are simply wrong, obsessed with the slow, centralised economic dynamics of fossil fuels rather than understanding the unique, distributed dynamics of the new. In Nelder’s words: “Underlying the abundance hype over tight oil, tar sands and other ‘unconventional’ sources of liquid fuel has been a dirty little secret: They’re expensive. The soaring cost of producing oil has far outpaced the rise in oil prices as the world has relied on these marginal sources to keep production growing since conventional oil production peaked in 2005… The toxic combination of rising production costs, the rapid decline rates of the wells, diminishing prospects for drilling new wells, and a drilling program so out of control that it caused a glut and destroyed profitability, have finally taken their toll.” And it’s not just the oil companies enduring “major write-downs against reserves” (Nelder points to… Chesapeake Energy, Encana, Apache, Anadarko Petroleum, BP, and BHP Billiton). Coal-fired power capacity will be slashed by 60 gigawatts (GW) by 2016, “more than double” 2012 predictions, while last year nuclear plants were being retired at an “unprecedented rate” with “more on the way” – largely due to issues with “profitability.” The core driver behind this fossil fuel death-spiral is: “… competition from lower-cost wind, solar, and natural gas generators, and by rising operational and maintenance costs. As more renewable power is added to the grid, the economics continue to worsen for utilities clinging to old fossil-fuel generating assets.” In Germany, for instance, where 25% of the grid is powered by decentralised renewables (over 50% of which is owned by citizens), the three largest utilities, E.ON, RWE, and EnBW “are struggling with what the CEO of RWE called ‘the worst structural crisis in the history of energy supply.'” As Nelder explains, the one-way shift to solar and storage systems constitutes a “real, near and present” threat to centralised utilities: “Falling consumption and growing renewable power have cut the wholesale price of electricity by 60 percent since 2008, making it unprofitable to continue operating coal, gas and oil-fired plants. Renewable energy now supplies 23 percent of global electricity generation, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with capacity having doubled from 2000 to 2012. coque iphone 2019 If that growth rate continues, it could become the dominant source of electricity by the next decade.” A new report by Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Institute suggests that if renewables continue to be adopted this aggressively, “off-grid systems” will prove “cheaper than all utility-sold electricity in the region just a decade out from today.” A Deutsch Bank report late last year confirmed much the same, predicting that solar and renewables are “just at the beginning of the grid parity era.” The rise of the new clean, decentralised energy system is happening faster than anyone anticipated, and in spite of huge government subsidies for the old fossil fuel industry. But it is merely one step on the ladder to a new post-carbon paradigm. As energy is the underpinning of a society, the unravelling of the fossil fuel system signifies the demise of the old paradigm. By the end of this century, one way or another, this paradigm will be obsolete. It’s up to us what will take its place – and as the death-spiral of the old paradigm accelerates, so do the opportunities to explore viable alternatives. The rise of the new paradigm The new emerging paradigm is premised on a fundamentally different ethos, in which we see ourselves not as disconnected, competing units fixated on maximising consumerist conquest over one another; but as interdependent members of a single human family. Our economies, rather than being assumed to exist in a vacuum of unlimited material expansion, are seen as embedded in wider society, such that economic activity for its own sake is recognised as the pathology that it is. Instead, economic enterprise becomes aligned with the deeper values that make us human – values like meeting our basic needs, education and discovery, arts and culture, sharing and giving: the values which psychologists say contribute to well-being and happiness, far more than mere money and things. And in turn, our societies are seen not as autonomous entities to which the whole of the planet must be ruthlessly subjugated, but rather as inherently embedded in the natural environment. In this model, households, communities and towns become producers and consumers of clean energy – and the same could apply to food. On the one hand, we need to put an end to the wasteful practices of the existing industrial food system, by which one third of global food production is lost or wasted every year. On the other, we must shift away from resource-intensive forms of traditional corporate-dominated agriculture. In some cases, given that at least 70% of global food production comes from small-farmers, we will find that shifting to agro-ecological farming could dramatically increase sustainability and yields. coque iphone Communal organic farming offers immense potential not only for employment, but also for households to become local owners and producers in the existing food supply chain, particularly in poorer countries – and an increasing shift to agro-ecology could meet the challenges faced by the existing global food system. This verdict is not being promoted by organic zealots, but by the world’s leading food scientists convened by the UN Commission on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) and the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). This new paradigm of distributed clean energy production, decentralised farming, and participatory economic cooperation, offers a model of development free from the imperative of endless growth for its own sake; and it leads us directly to a new model of democracy, based not on large-scale, hierarchical-control, but on the wholesale decentralisation of power, towards smaller, local ownership and decision-making. In the new paradigm, households and communities become owners of capital, in their increasing appropriation of the means to produce energy, food and water at a local level. Economic democratisation drives political empowerment, by ensuring that critical decisions about production and distribution of wealth take place in communities, by communities. But participatory enterprise requires commensurate mechanisms of monetary exchange which are equitable and transparent, free from the fantasies and injustices of the conventional model. In the new paradigm, neither money nor credit will be tied to the generation of debt. Banks will be community-owned institutions fully accountable to their depositors; and whirlwind speculation on financial fictions will be replaced by equitable investment schemes in which banks share risks with their customers, and divide returns fairly. coque iphone The new currency will not be a form of debt-money, but, if anything, will be linked more closely to real-world assets. But equally, the very notions of growth, progress, and happiness will be redefined. We now know, thanks to research by the likes of psychologist Oliver James and epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson, that material prosperity in the West has not only failed to make us happy, it has proliferated mental illnesses, and widened social inequalities, which are scientifically linked to a prevalence of crime, violence, drug abuse, teenage births, obesity, and other symptoms of social malaise. coque iphone 2019 This doesn’t mean that material progress is irrelevant – but that when it becomes the overriding force of society, it is dysfunctional. So arguably we must accept that the old paradigm of unlimited material acquisition is in its death throes – and that the new paradigm of community cooperation is far more in tune with both human nature, and the natural order. This new paradigm may well still be nascent, like small seeds, planted in disparate places. But as the Crisis of Civilization accelerates over the next decades, communities everywhere will become increasingly angry and disillusioned with what went before. soldes coque iphone And in that disillusionment with the old paradigm, the seeds we’re planting today will blossom and offer a vision of hope that will be irresistible tomorrow. The Crisis of Civilization – Documentary Film Click here to view this video on YouTube. As I wrote four years ago: “Any vision for ‘another world’, if it is to overcome the deep-rooted structural failures of our current business-as-usual model, will need to explore how we can develop new social, political and economic structures which encourage the following: 1. Widespread distribution of ownership of productive resources so that all members of society have a stake in agricultural, industrial and commercial productive enterprises, rather than a tiny minority monopolising resources for their own interests. 2. More decentralised politico-economic participation through self-managerial producer and consumer councils to facilitate participatory decision-making in economic enterprises. 3. coque iphone 6 Re-defining the meaning of economic growth to focus less on materially-focused GDP, and more on the capacity to deliver values such as health, education, well-being, longevity, political and cultural freedom. 4. Fostering a new, distributed renewable energy infrastructure based on successful models. 5. coque iphone 2019 Structural reform of the monetary, banking and financial system including abolition of interest, in particular the cessation of money-creation through government borrowing on compound interest. 6. Elimination of unrestricted lending system based on faulty quantitative risk-assessment models, with mechanisms to facilitate greater regulation of lending practices by bank depositors themselves. 7. Development of parallel grassroots participatory political structures that are both transnational and community-oriented, by which to facilitate community governance as well as greater popular involvement in mainstream political institutions. 8. Development of parallel grassroots participatory economic institutions that are both transnational and community-oriented, to facilitate emergence of alternative equitable media of exchange and loans between North and South. 9. Emergence of a ‘post-materialist’ scientific paradigm and worldview which recognizes that the cutting-edge insights of physics and biology undermine traditional, mechanistic conceptions of the natural order, pointing to a more holistic understanding of life and nature. 10. Emergence of a ‘post-materialist’ ethic recognising that progressive values and ideals such as justice, compassion, and generosity are more conducive to the survival of the human species, and thus more in harmony with the natural order, than the conventional ‘materialistic’ behaviours associated with neoliberal consumerism.” And as I wrote last year: “We do not have the option of pessimism and fatalism. There’s enough of that to go around. Our task is to work together to co-create viable visions for what could be, and to start building those visions now, from the ground up.” Dr Nafeez Ahmed is executive director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development and author of A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilisation: And How to Save It among other books.

Science Says: Meditation Can Change Your Brain

Chasing your thoughts around all day long can be exhausting and stressful. coque iphone 2019 soldes Feeling controlled by your emotions instead of the other way around? Harvard Neuroscientists have proven that daily meditation can change the physical makeup of your brain and thus your thought patterns in a real way. Having a restless, stressed out mind is a symptom of our general human condition. vente de coque iphone But when meditation is proposed as a way to fix it – we balk. How could that work? What good could it really do, scientifically? Turns out – a lot. A recent Harvard study has proven that meditation can in fact change our brain matter in a highly beneficial way. It can alter the size of key regions, improving our memory and making us more empathetic, compassionate, and resilient under stress. The study took two groups – one daily meditators and the other not — and compared their regions of the brain and the gray matter within. After only 8 weeks of meditation practice, indeed the brain scans show noticeable changes. Magnetic resonance images (MRI scans) of everyone’s brains were taken before and after they completed the meditation training, and a control group of people who didn’t do any meditation also had their brains scanned. coque iphone After completing the meditation course, all participants reported significant improvement in measures of mindfulness, such as “acting with awareness” and “non-judging.” Even more enlightening was that the MRI scans showed changes in the brain’s ‘ gray matter’ (the regions of the brain involved in muscle control and sensory perception such as seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making, and self-control). coque iphone 2019 The meditating groups increased gray matter concentration within the brain regions involved in learning and memory, emotion regulation, sense of self, and perspective analysis. The data concludes that meditation benefits those suffering from psychological issues such as depression, anxiety disorders and insomnia. But even more promising – it can improve your overall quality of life. Dr. coque iphone Sara Lazar, part of the Harvard study, states: “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day.” How this happens has to do with the brain and its ‘neuroplasticity’, which is the ability neurons have to change they way they talk to each other with differing experiences. The messages the neurons send began to change when a daily meditation practice started. Britta Hölzel, the lead author on the paper states: “It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life.” Another Harvard alum, Dr. John Denninger, is leading a 5-year study that builds on these findings and takes them one step further to the body as well and how meditation can affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed. His latest work follows a study he and others published earlier this year showing how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function. soldes coque iphone 2019 “There is a true biological effect,” said Denninger. “The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.” In other words – meditation equals a win/win for us all. Mind, Body and Soul. By: Sara E.

unplug meditation

Unplug Meditation is a guided-meditation studio that offers 30- and 45-minute drop-in classes in a clean, modern and calming atmosphere. coque iphone Our inspirational guides will effortlessly move you in and out of your meditation. coque iphone xr All you need to do is sit back and relax. Take a break from busy lives, hectic schedules and never-ending demands. Our mission is to be your remedy. Once will change your day and more will change your life. Makeover guru makes over meditation in new L.A. studio Los Angeles, CA (April 8, 2014) — A peaceful haven is emerging in a surprising location. As drivers whiz past concrete buildings on Wilshire Boulevard in West L.A., they speed by an oasis of calm they’d be delighted to discover. Hidden next to a courtyard, with a bamboo garden and 15-foot water fountain, is the perfect place to take a grown-up time-out. Starting April 15, 2014, unplug meditation will provide a serene studio where you can take a break from traffic, devices, kids and bosses, morning, noon and night. coque iphone 8 Suze Yalof Schwartz, whom the New York Times called “the fairy godmother” of makeovers, is now making over meditation. The busy mom and fashion editor was looking for a place to meditate but couldn’t find anything that fit her fast-paced life and high-end taste. She tried all the venues at which you could possibly meditate in Los Angeles, but instead of tuning into her breath, she cast her editor’s eye on all the things she could make better, from the spaces to the classes to the instructors. coque iphone 8 Yalof Schwartz wanted to merge soul with science, and balance the best of both. So she took over a dark, grey, head-hunting office and transformed it into a contemporary, clean, light studio for meditation. And she set classes for 30- and 45-minute intervals, so busy people could drop in, tune out the world and tune into themselves. “Can you meditate at home?” Yalof Schwartz asks. “Absolutely. Do I wish could? I could, but I don’t. I’m much better when I’m guided. And frankly, it’s a lot easier.” Yalof Schwartz wants to disprove the most common meditation myth: I can’t meditate because I think too much. acheter coque iphone en ligne The truth is everyone thinks too much and everyone can meditate. coque iphone pas cher It’s all about learning how to deal with those thoughts and move back to your focus point. “I’ve yet to meet anyone who has been able to stop thinking,” she says. unplug medition is a space for people who want to try out meditation and learn that they actually can do it. But it is also a great space for experienced meditators to get away from the world and be guided by exceptional teachers who understand real people. “Meditation has a host of scientifically proven benefits, yet so few people know how to do it,” Yalof Schwartz says. “I want to show everyone just how easy it is to learn, and how great it is for your mind, body and soul.” Opening April 15th, unplug meditation, 12401 Wilshire Boulevard, Studio 101, will offer daily classes at all hours, including lunchtime “quickies.” Clients can drop in and pay $20 per-class, purchase packages of 10 or 20 classes, or buy unlimited monthly memberships. Class descriptions, schedule, prices and the benefits of meditation can be found at www.unplugmeditation.com.

The Ayurvedic Institute

Ayurveda, the science of life, has brought true health and wellness to millions of individuals throughout the ages with simple changes in daily living practices. Incorporating just a few of these proven methods into your lifestyle can bring about radical changes in your life. This ancient art of healing has been practiced continuously for over 5,000 years. The principles of many natural healing systems now familiar in the West, such as Homeopathy and Polarity Therapy, have their roots in Ayurveda. Ayurvedic practices restore the balance and harmony of the individual, resulting in self-healing, good health and longevity.

Our Purpose

The Ayurvedic Institute is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that teaches the principles and practices of Ayurveda, the ancient science of life. We provide authentic education in a supportive environment that encourages the integration of Ayurveda by individuals into their daily living and by health care professionals into their clinical practices.

Educational Philosophy

Ayurveda is a healing art and a science. Descending from Charaka, Sushruta, and Vagbhata, it is one of apprenticeship in which the student learns from the teacher, who shares knowledge and experiences to assist the student in developing a conceptual framework and fundamental working knowledge.

The Ayurvedic Institute reflects the teaching traditions of ancient India. This tradition emphasizes the oral transmission of knowledge by being present with the teacher. It is taught, as the Vedic tradition emphasizes, with practical examples and stories, keeping the integral aspects of the body, mind, and spiritual components intact. It requires soul searching, faith, and trust without proof or guarantee. In its traditional form, the student is expected to trust the teacher to present the subjects in the manner the teacher feels are appropriate.

For each of us to develop as practitioners, experiencing this tradition and all its components helps to expand our inner awareness.

Goals

The integration of Ayurveda with modern medicine, yoga, Jyotish (Vedic astrology), other healing disciplines, and the individual Self to bring about total health, awareness, and harmony.
It is the dream of Vasant Lad and the goal of the Ayurvedic Institute to be able to offer a complete program of Ayurvedic study. This program would be similar in content to that taught in the traditional Ayurvedic colleges in India.

Organization

The Ayurvedic Institute was founded in 1984 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as a 501(c)(3) educational, non-profit corporation. The Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws and Board meeting minutes are open to inspection by any interested person with sufficient advance notice. The Institute is governed by a Board of Directors and corporate officers, whose directives are carried out by Institute staff members.

A Revelation of Science

An excerpt by Wade Davis

Let me share yet another amazing revelation of science. It’s the moon shot of this generation. Like that first vision of the Earth from space, it too will be remembered for a thousand years. Indeed nothing in our lifetimes has done more to liberate humanity from the parochial tyrannies that have haunted us since the birth of memory.

It also came about at the end of a long voyage of discovery, a journey into the very fiber of our beings. Over the last decade geneticists have proved to be true something that philosophers have always dreamed. We are all literally brothers and sisters. Studies of the human genome have left no doubt that the genetic endowment of humanity is a single continuum. Race is an utter fiction. We are all cut from the same genetic cloth, all descendants of a relatively small number of individuals who walked out of Africa some 60,000 years ago and then, on a journey that lasted 40,000 years, some 2500 generations, carried the human spirit to every corner of the habitable world.

But here is the amazing idea. If we are all cut from the same fabric of life, then by definition we all share essentially the same mental acuity, the same raw genius. So whether this intellectual potential is exercised through technological innovation, as has been the great achievement of the West, or through the untangling of complex threads of memory inherent in a myth, a priority of many other peoples in the world, is simply a matter of choice and orientation, adaptive insights and cultural emphasis.

There is no hierarchy of progress in the history of culture, no Social Darwinian ladder to success. The Victorian notion of the primitive and the civilized, with European industrial society sitting proudly at the apex of a pyramid of advancement that widens at the base to the so-called primitives of the world has been thoroughly discredited. The brilliance of scientific research, the revelations of modern genetics, has affirmed in an astonishing way the essential connectedness of humanity.

The other peoples of the world are not failed attempts to be us, failed attempts to be modern. They are unique expressions of the human imagination and heart, unique answers to a fundamental question. What does it mean to be human and alive? When asked that question they respond in 7000 different voices, and these collectively comprise our human repertoire for dealing with all the challenges that will confront us as a species even as we continue this never ending journey.”