HOT-AIR 'CONSENSUS'

Memo to the cap-and-taxers on Capitol Hill, who want the United States to cripple its economy by "leading the way" on curbing carbon-gas emissions to halt global warming, or climate change, or whatever the term du jour is:
That's the message that came out of the latest G-8 summit in Italy, where President Obama hoped to reach a comprehensive international agreement on capping heat-trapping gases by mid-century.
Seems developing nations like China, Mexico, Brazil and India -- which are responsible for an increasingly greater share of global carbon emissions -- refused to endorse a proposal that would have them cut such emissions in half by 2050, with industrialized countries cutting theirs by 80%.
China, India, et al. understand that placing severe restrictions on their industrial output would bring their rise out of poverty to a shuddering halt -- and they have no intention of committing economic suicide.
No reasonable person would expect otherwise.
Still, without their support, any comprehensive climate deal would effectively be worthless.
Which is what the US Senate understood back during the Clinton administration when it unanimously rejected the Kyoto Protocol -- which placed binding emission-reduction targets only on developed countries like the United States.
True, the developing nations signed on to a statement recognizing that average global temperatures should not rise more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit -- but without committing themselves to reducing emissions to pursue that outcome.
As far as President Obama is concerned, that's a historic, actionable consensus on global warming.
But the Senate needs to read the fine print before signing on to a program that threatens to bankrupt our economy -- especially since so much of the rest of the world is unwilling to go along.

Leading brain researcher explains how Transcendental Meditation supports success in life

'Whatever you want to do and be you can do and be.' This was the message of Dr Fred Travis*, one of the world's leading researchers into the connection of brain functioning and higher states of consciousness, when he spoke to top educators and business people during his recent highly successful tour of Great Britain. Please also see Part I and Part II of this series. In his presentations, Dr Travis described with great clarity how the Transcendental Meditation Programme benefits brain functioning and every area of life. Dr Travis explained that in order to increase 'the power output of any system, you need to increase the connection between the elements of the system. In terms of the brain it's the frontal lobes—the frontal lobes actually connect all other parts of the brain. 'When the frontal lobes are more connected, the brain works as one. That means the brain can be more creative, it can be more successful, performance can be higher. 'When you solve a problem by creative insight, you find that the frontal lobes are more active. When you have to make a decision with incomplete information—which is what all businesses need to do—frontal areas are more activated. 'The good news is you can actually increase the integration of the frontal areas of your brain. Transcendental Meditation practice does this. What you see is increased activation of the frontal areas while the mind is completely quiet. And with regular practice this deep silence and heightened alertness during meditation practice is seen afterwards in activity. 'Your brain changes throughout your life. Your brain is not a rock; it's a river. Every time you see or hear something it creates a wave of electrical activity that goes to the left, to the right, to the back, to the front, and it leaves its impressions in the brain in terms of greater connections between specific circuits. 'That means every time you do something today, you're strengthening circuits so you can do it better tomorrow. So the reality of life is we create our own destiny in a very physical way. If we want to be good at tennis, we just need to put in the hours and we'll be great at tennis. Whatever you want to do or be you can do and be. 'Transcendental Meditation leads to a new experience, an experience where your alert attentional circuits are more active, the frontal areas are more integrated, at the same time you're more quiet—''restful alertness''. And this state of restful alertness has its own associated brain circuits with it. 'What you see is that the brain patterns during meditation begin to be seen during activity. That means that when you're in a very turbulent, trying time, you've added something new to your experience—inner stability, inner rest, inner expansion. 'This is the value of adding Transcendental Meditation to your life. You begin to change those brain circuits so you can have fullness and alertness, inner stability, happiness in whatever situation you're in,' Dr Travis concluded. *Dr Fred Travis is the Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA

Potato famine disease striking home gardens in US

Late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms, U.S. plant scientists said on Friday. 'Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States,' said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University's extension center in Riverhead, New York. She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States. 'Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart, and Lowe's are some of the stores the plants have been seen in,' McGrath said in a telephone interview. The disease, known officially as Phytophthora infestans, causes large mold-ringed olive-green or brown spots on plant leaves, blackened stems, and can quickly wipe out weeks of tender care in a home garden. McGrath said in her 21 years of research, she has only seen five outbreaks in the United States. The destructive disease can spread rapidly in cooler, moist weather, infecting an entire field within days. 'What's unique about it this year is we have never seen plants affected in garden centers being sold to home gardeners,' she said. This year's cool, wet weather created perfect conditions for the disease. 'Hopefully, it will turn sunny,' McGrath said. 'If we get into our real summer hot dry weather, this disease is going to slow way down.' FUNGICIDES WILL CONTROL BLIGHT According to its website, the University Maryland's Plant Diagnostic Lab got a suspect tomato sample as early as June 12, very early in the tomato growing season, which runs from April-September. McGrath said the risk is that many gardeners will not recognize it, putting commercial farms and especially organic growers at risk. 'My concern is for growers. They are going to have to put a lot more time and effort in trying to control the disease. It's going to be a very tough year,' she said. 'This pathogen can move great distances in the air. It often does little jumps, but it can make some big leaps.' McGrath said the impact on the farmer will depend on how much the pathogen is spread. 'Eastern New York is seeing a lot of disease,' she said. She said commercial farmers will be able to use fungicides containing chlorothalonil to control the blight. And while some sprays have also been approved for organic use, many organic farmers do not use them, making it much harder to control. 'If they are not on top of this right from the very beginning, it can go very fast,' she said.

A beautiful vision of the Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems Practitioner Training Course

Speaking at the recent graduation ceremony for participants in the international Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems Practitioners Training Course, Dr Joachim Roller, department head for the new therapy, said that gems are a modality of Maharishi Ayur-Veda designed to help realize higher states of consciousness. 'Human beings are designed and constructed in harmony with the design of the whole universe,' he said. 'Gemstones can give us the same experience of great expansion and wholeness that comes from the reverberation of the Self, Atma, within itself [experienced during the Transcendental Meditation Programme] and they help re-establish the connection between us and the cosmos.' Dr Iris Roller explained that the training course has intellectual, experiential, and practical aspects and includes study of principles, practice, and application of Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems as developed under the direct guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This is a programme of Vedic Medicine (Consciousness-Based Health Care), she said, which combines the ancient knowledge of gems in Ayurveda with modern technology. Through the application of light, the orderly and intelligent quality of gems is harnessed to awaken the inner intelligence of the physiology of the person receiving treatment, helping to improve health and bring balance to body and mind. 'Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems also helps to refine perception, leading to the development of higher states of consciousness,' she said. 'This is a gentle and very profound method for developing invincibility for the individual. Experience shows not only that is it a very blissful experience to have Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems treatment, but also that to give this treatment to others is like bathing in light!' 'It is such a beautiful vision that Dr Joachim Roller and Dr Iris Roller have given us—of the orderly and nourishing qualities of gems being harnessed by the light, and then transferred to the physiology and consciousness of the person receiving treatment,' commented Dr Peter Swan, Minister of Communication for the Global Country of World Peace. 'Now, with the graduation of the students, Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems treatment will be offered in twelve countries.'

Canadian farmers opposed to GM wheat: survey

Canadian farmers oppose the introduction of genetically modified wheat until market conditions change, a Canadian Wheat Board survey has found. In the CWB's annual survey of 1,300 Western Canadian farmers, only 9 percent said GMO wheat should be grown as soon as it's available, with the majority saying it shouldn't be grown until conditions are met such as proving benefits to farmers and demonstrating market demand. Nineteen percent said it should not be grown in Canada. Farmers were close to evenly split when asked how interested they are in growing GM wheat. Fifty-one percent said they're not interested, with 46 percent very or somewhat interested. 'My sense is that farmers are mostly taking an economic look at it,' said CWB chairman Larry Hill, a farmer in the western province of Saskatchewan. 'They're pretty aware that there's not major acceptance by customers and if it's going to be introduced they want to be sure it's going to make them money.' Canadian farmers grow other GMO crops, particularly canola, but there's greater sensitivity around wheat because it's a direct human food ingredient unlike canola which is crushed for vegetable oil or biofuel, Hill said. Debate about genetically modified wheat resurfaced in May when farmer groups in the top wheat-exporting countries of Canada, the United States and Australia jointly called for synchronized production of GMO wheat. Other farm and environmental groups later issued a joint statement of opposition. A new publicly funded academic study, to be published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research, shows Canadian farmers were overwhelmingly opposed in 2004 to Monsanto's aborted proposal for herbicide-resistant genetically modified wheat. That study surveyed 1,566 Prairie farmers five years ago and found 83 percent disagreed Roundup-Ready wheat should be commercially developed. Farmers felt the benefits of Roundup-Ready wheat outweighed the risks of losing markets, increasing corporate control of the food supply and contamination of non-GMO crops, said Ian Mauro, the lead author and a post-doctoral fellow at University of Victoria in British Columbia. 'All of the research indicates that the marketplace is very sensitive to any GM trait and what we found is farmers are concerned about market risks,' Mauro said. 'Although we've identified the risks specific to Roundup-Ready wheat, I can definitely see that many of them could apply to other GM wheat.' The Roundup-Ready wheat survey is irrelevant today because five years have passed and Monsanto is no longer pursuing that or any GMO wheat, said Trish Jordan, the company's spokeswoman in Canada. The CWB's results aren't surprising because no private companies are known to be developing GMO wheat, she said. 'In the absence of having that information (on potential GMO benefits) it's very difficult for a farmer to decide,' Jordan said, adding that market acceptance would also be critical. Syngenta AG, the world's largest agrochemical group, said in February it's not actively pursuing genetically modified wheat because of consumer resistance.

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture at the centre of France

The Transcendental Meditation organization in France owns nine hectares of land at the Brahma-Sthan* (geographical centre) of France where three years ago, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi asked Dr Dominique Lemoine, National Director of France for the Global Country of World Peace, and a team of Transcendental Meditation Teachers to begin a project to create a Maharishi Peace Colony** there. They have been cultivating the land and are now selling beautiful flowers and organic vegetables. They also have honey bees and gather their honey for use by the organization. Dr Lemoine said there is also a possibility for 67 hectares of beautiful land near the Brahma-Sthan, with a lake, rivers, hills, meadows, and forests, for which the zoning has been changed from agricultural to residential. This land would offer the potential to build about 200-300 houses, so about 800 people could live there in different types of houses and apartments. There could also be a possibility of building a Maharishi Spa, Maharishi School and facilities for a university and for Maharishi Vedic Pandits. Everything is possible there, Dr Lemoine said. Town officials are supportive of the project. Because it is a rural area, it has a very deep silence, 'no pollution or industry, no noise except a few tractors, so it's a very beautiful place for creating a peace colony,' Dr Lemoine said. * Brahma-Sthan: Dr Eike Hartmann, Minister of Global Reconstruction for the Global Country of World Peace, has explained that the centre point of a country has a very special and precious quality of balance and unifying wholeness. In the Vedic language, this central place is called Brahma-Sthan, and from here, the wholeness of life can be administered according to the Constitution of the Universe, the Will of God, which silently administers the ever-expanding universe in perfect order and harmony. ** Peace Colony: A community founded to help create invincibility for a nation, based on Maharishi's Vedic Science and its practical applications for living perfection in all areas of life—featuring a Maharishi Peace Palace, Maharishi School, Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Centre, homes, and buildings for group practice of Yogic Flying—all built according to Vedic Architecture, Maharishi Sthapatya Veda.

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture at the centre of France

The Transcendental Meditation organization in France owns nine hectares of land at the Brahma-Sthan* (geographical centre) of France where three years ago, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi asked Dr Dominique Lemoine, National Director of France for the Global Country of World Peace, and a team of Transcendental Meditation Teachers to begin a project to create a Maharishi Peace Colony** there. They have been cultivating the land and are now selling beautiful flowers and organic vegetables. They also have honey bees and gather their honey for use by the organization. Dr Lemoine said there is also a possibility for 67 hectares of beautiful land near the Brahma-Sthan, with a lake, rivers, hills, meadows, and forests, for which the zoning has been changed from agricultural to residential. This land would offer the potential to build about 200-300 houses, so about 800 people could live there in different types of houses and apartments. There could also be a possibility of building a Maharishi Spa, Maharishi School and facilities for a university and for Maharishi Vedic Pandits. Everything is possible there, Dr Lemoine said. Town officials are supportive of the project. Because it is a rural area, it has a very deep silence, 'no pollution or industry, no noise except a few tractors, so it's a very beautiful place for creating a peace colony,' Dr Lemoine said. * Brahma-Sthan: Dr Eike Hartmann, Minister of Global Reconstruction for the Global Country of World Peace, has explained that the centre point of a country has a very special and precious quality of balance and unifying wholeness. In the Vedic language, this central place is called Brahma-Sthan, and from here, the wholeness of life can be administered according to the Constitution of the Universe, the Will of God, which silently administers the ever-expanding universe in perfect order and harmony. ** Peace Colony: A community founded to help create invincibility for a nation, based on Maharishi's Vedic Science and its practical applications for living perfection in all areas of life—featuring a Maharishi Peace Palace, Maharishi School, Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Centre, homes, and buildings for group practice of Yogic Flying—all built according to Vedic Architecture, Maharishi Sthapatya Veda.