The Living Room

Just comic

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Glerikud

Posted in Glances | 1 Comment

24 hours after Hiroshima

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Michaela

August 6, 1945.

Experience the second-by-second events just moments before an atomic bomb is used on people for the first time in human history.The use of atomic weapons brought a quick end to World War II, but at an incredible human cost. Hiroshima was the first time atomic weapons had been used in combat, and they have only ever been used on one other occassion, in the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki.

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The last straw

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Michaela

By Stephen S. Roach,

The Chinese have long admired America’s economic dynamism. But they have lost confidence in America’s government and its dysfunctional economic stewardship. That message came through loud and clear in my recent travels to Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Hong Kong.

Coming so shortly on the heels of the subprime crisis, the debate over the debt ceiling and the budget deficit is the last straw. Senior Chinese officials are appalled at how the United States allows politics to trump financial stability. One high-ranking policymaker noted in mid-July, “This is truly shocking … We understand politics, but your government’s continued recklessness is astonishing.”

China is no innocent bystander in America’s race to the abyss. In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990’s, China amassed some $3.2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves in order to insulate its system from external shocks. Fully two-thirds of that total – around $2 trillion – is invested in dollar-based assets, largely U.S. Treasuries and agency securities (i.e., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). As a result, China surpassed Japan in late 2008 as the largest foreign holder of US financial assets.

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Posted in The world we live in Now | Tagged China, Economy of the People's Republic of China, Federal government of the United States, United States, United States Treasury security, US Treasuries | 1 Comment

Now

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Michaela

By Jim Angus
I am a Canadian songwriter wishing to share my new song called “NOW”
with you and your group.

Posted in Original Music | 1 Comment

The limitation of science

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Michaela

Newton's law of gravitation generally works, but breaks down when two objects get infinitely close together

By Tony Rothman

Each February, I begin the introductory electricity and magnetism course at Princeton University by telling my students that the material we will cover during the semester provides the basis for modern civilisation.

Who could quibble with such an innocent statement? Without the discoveries of nineteenth-century physicists and their successors, we could hardly imagine today’s world: no electrical power grid, no televisions, no satellites, no iPads.

Physicists are justly proud of the many ways that their achievements have benefited humankind. But building a light bulb or a telephone doesn’t mean that you understand its basic principles – Thomas Edison and Alexander Bell certainly didn’t. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues – particularly those who write textbooks – present physics as a towering, seamless basilica, ignoring the gaps in our hodge-podge of skewed models. In fact, what is presented as a shimmering cathedral often more closely resembles a hastily erected shantytown.

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Posted in The world we live in Now | Tagged Classical mechanics, Newton's law of universal gravitation, Physics, Quantum mechanics | 3 Comments

Battle

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Michaela

A Libyan girl stood near the pockmarked wall of a home on the outskirts of Tripoli.

Posted in Photographs, The world we live in Now | 1 Comment

Second Great Contraction

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Michaela

By Kenneth Rogoff

Why is everyone still referring to the recent financial crisis as the “Great Recession”? The term, after all, is predicated on a dangerous misdiagnosis of the problems that confront the United States and other countries, leading to bad forecasts and bad policy.

The phrase “Great Recession” creates the impression that the economy is following the contours of a typical recession, only more severe – something like a really bad cold. That is why, throughout this downturn, forecasters and analysts who have tried to make analogies to past post-war US recessions have gotten it so wrong. Moreover, too many policymakers have relied on the belief that, at the end of the day, this is just a deep recession that can be subdued by a generous helping of conventional policy tools, whether fiscal policy or massive bailouts.

But the real problem is that the global economy is badly overleveraged, and there is no quick escape without a scheme to transfer wealth from creditors to debtors, either through defaults, financial repression, or inflation.

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Posted in The world we live in Now | Tagged Depression, United States | 1 Comment

The promise that is never kept

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Michaela

A talk with Adyashanti about ” the place of not knowing” and addiction.

What does it mean to rest in the unknown and how do we pierce through the many addictions that keep in the seemingly infinite loop of incarnation ?

Posted in Teacher & Teachings, The Sacred Disease | Tagged Addiction, Adyashanti | 2 Comments

Famine

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Michaela

Millions of famished Somalis have two bleak choices: they can beg for help from a weak, corrupt and divided transitional government, or remain in areas controlled by the Shabab, the ruthless, Al Qaeda-linked group that rules much of southern Somalia and has banned most Western aid organizations, even in a time of famine.The magnitude of the suffering could shift the political landscape here, which has been dominated by chaos since 1991 when clan warlords overthrew the central government, then tore apart the country.

Se also: Weather or War

Posted in The world we live in Now | Tagged Al-Shabaab, Famine, Horn of Africa, Somalia | Leave a comment

Feeling into the being

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Michaela

Another deep enquiry with Adyashanti on the subjects of humility, compassion, letting go of the self, more on open-heartedness and how to find clarity and wisdom beyond fear.