April 2008 Archives

This photo illustrates rather graphically a point I once made to my stepson, that you should always be nice to people because you never know when you'll meet them again. According to the rules of karma, it may wait until a next life to get back at you if you don't play nice, but these days it often works a little faster than that.

Of course you should always be nice to people. Period. But when you're explaining this concept to a teenager, whose eyes glaze over as you explain the finer points of being a good member of the human race, appealing to their self-interest can help drive the point home.

In this case, my stepson (who, it should be noted, is now much older and wiser) thought it was a good idea to break up with his girlfriend via text message. Exploiting the brevity of the medium, he sent two words to this poor, unsuspecting girl: "You're Dumped."

I tried explaining that this might not have been the most tactful approach. I asked him how he would feel if a girl did the same thing to him. And I offered alternative lines (to be used strictly in person) that would get the message across, but in a much nicer way: You're too good for me. I feel we're growing apart. I'm not sure what I want right now, so don't feel it's fair on you to continue this relationship. Etc.., etc...

Thanks to his teenage years, this appeal to his better nature was met with rolling eyes, so I decided to change tactics. I explained to him that the older you get the more you realize how small the world really is. The friend you shunned at school may turn out to be your new boss, and the girl you dumped by text message may turn out to be the heart surgeon who literally has your life in their hands one day.

Seeing this picture, brought memories of that life lesson back. In this fast paced world, karma doesn't always wait until the next life to bite you in the proverbial ass.

New research suggests that clever women are more likely to experience problems climaxing.

A survey, conducted by a German lifestyle website, found that 62% of women who had "completed their education" reported that they often had trouble reaching orgasm. That compared with just 38% of their less qualified colleagues. Over 2,000 women between the ages of 18 and 49 participated in the study.

Experts concluded that intelligent women are "too busy thinking" in bed. Seems like these smarter women may need to clear their minds with a meditation Rx.

With Sex And The City's Carrie Bradshaw taking to the New York streets again in her skyscraper high Manolo Blahnik shoes, it's time to learn an essential equation which could turn stiletto wearing into a science as well as an art.

The equation was formulated after a SITC-loving publicist, working at London's Institute of Physics, pondered the physical limitations of Bradshaw's stiletto shoed feet (or should that be feat?).

"I sat there thinking: How can she wear heels that height? There must be some kind of formula that says you can only go so high before you fall over," Dianne Stilwell recalls.

A colleague, Professor Paul Stevenson, of the University of Surrey, came to her aid, formulating an equation that would answer Stilwell's curiosity. (It should be noted, that when he's not pondering the physics of stilettos, Professor Stevenson turns his mind to more traditional scientific pursuits, such as researching nuclear structure theory.)

The equation he came up with to explain the secret of stilettos was:
H=Q x (12+3S/8).

In this equation H represents the height of heel, S represents the length of the shoe in terms of UK shoe sizes (a limitation given that Carrie may not know this), with Q representing a variety of sociological factors.

The key to this equation, is the value of Q, which takes into account the probability that wearing the shoes will turn heads (P), the number of years experience you have wearing high heels (Y), the cost of the shoes in British pounds (L), the time in months since the shoe was the height of fashion (T), and the units of alcohol consumed (A), and is defined by the following sub-equation: Q=[P •(Y+9)•L]/[(T+1) •(A+1)•(Y+10) •(L+£20)].

It should be noted that the equation only applies to stilettos, since shoes with wider heels are much sturdier. Professor Stevenson also feels that before publishing his work in a scientific journal of record he should find a way to express within the equation the curve of increased pain that higher heels induce.

If you’d like to give Professor Stevenson's formula a whirl before purchasing your next pair of shoes, click HERE for an international shoe size conversion chart and HERE for a currency converter. However, those who are more spiritual than scientific may want to achieve balance in their stilettos by tweaking their root chakra. If that’s your chosen stiletto-heeled footpath, click HERE.

We're enjoying the irony that one Chinese garment factory has been caught manufacturing forbidden Tibet freedom flags. The factory owner claims he had no idea what the brightly colored flags meant. He was shopped by some workers who saw images of similar flags on TV.

Police seized thousands of boxed flags from the factory, which is in the country's richest province, Guangdong, in Southern China. Chinese authorities fear thousands more may have already been exported in time for Olympic torch protests in Hong Kong and beyond. I'm sure the Dalai Lama would be most amused, since he's well endowed in the humor department.

The Daily Mantra is dedicated to the journey of enlightenment, and hopes to encourage its readers to put aside preconceived notions in order to allow themselves to be open to all the lessons and opportunities the Universe presents. I'd therefore like to illustrate this idea with a tale of serial serendipities from a recent trip I took to New York.

In a year when womens' pay has actually gone down relative to men’s, John McCain voted against the Equal Pay bill, which was killed in the senate on Wednesday night. To add insult to injury, he said that what women really needed was “education and training." Tell that to the many woman with strings of letters after their names, that are still getting paid less than their equally, or lesser qualified male counterparts for similar work.

On the up side, listen to Chelsea Clinton's incredibly erudite thoughts on the subject, which she gave in an off-the-cuff response to a tough audience question during an Open Thread campaign appearance in support of her mom at Duke University. Has Hillary sold-out her feminist principles? McCain has certainly sold out his (that's if he ever had any in the first place.) Given the values Hillary’s obviously instilled in her daughter, we think her feminist heart is in the right place.

In a tongue-in-cheek move the animal lovers over at PETA are asking you to go vegetarian to offset Al Gore's environmentally unfriendly diet. They say that though the former vice president has done a lot to raise global warming awareness, his meat eating habits speak louder than words when it comes to follow through and action, since meat production is one of the leading sources of climate changing pollution.

PETA has created a special page where you can pledge to go vegetarian to compensate for Gore's meat munching ways. The animal rights organization have also posted a few inconvenient truths of their own for the former Vice President to peruse:

• A major United Nations study determined that the meat industry generates 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, SUVs, ships, and planes in the world combined.
  
  
  
• Researchers at the University of Chicago concluded that going vegan is 50 percent more effective in combating the climate crisis than switching to a hybrid car.
  
  
  
• The official handbook of the Live Earth concerts that Gore helped organize acknowledges that not eating meat is the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your climate change impact.

While we’re aware of the toll meat production takes on the planet, we understand the superhuman eco-warrior needs to keep his strength up, and appreciate he has a lot of official dinners he needs to attend. Since he therefore might find it harder than the average person to go vegetarian overnight, the Daily Mantra is offering to purchase credits to carbon offset Gore's diet for a year if the earth-saving superstar promises to stick to a heart and earth friendlier diet of vegetables, organic white meat and fish from now on. How about it Mr. Gore?

Editors note: We don't mean to give the should've-been-president a hard time. We'd just hate to see him prematurely croak due to his beef-eating ways before his work securing the sustainability of our human habitat is complete.

CharityWater.org hope to raise awareness and funds for the 1.1 billion people on the planet that don't have access to safe drinking water with this video featuring Blood Diamond actress Jennifer Connelly. The ad is also a reminder that having instant access to fresh water at the turn of a tap makes it far too easy for us to undervalue this relatively rare and most valuable commodity.

Click HERE if player fails to load.

The world's most entertaining Scientologist, Tom Cruise, is set to return to Oprah's couch, where he will face his most challenging role to date: acting normal. Cruise's previous over-exuberant appearance on Oprah's soft furnishings in 2005, during which he debuted his much imitated scary laugh, proved to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons, so the move is a Risky Business for the star.

Oprah will tape an interview with Cruise at his Colorado home, in which, according to a press release sent out by the show, he will discuss "his family, his life and the future." Cruise will then head to Oprah's headquarters in Chicago to tape a show on May 5 celebrating his 25 years in show business. The interview is good news for Oprah, but it remains to be seen if the actor who was once Hollywood’s Top Gun can repair his damaged reputation. Regrettably, the Daily Mantra thinks that mission is impossible.

With the Olympic torch serving a catalyst, it seems that the Chinese government is bowing under the weight of international pressure and is seeking to resume a dialog with the Dalai Lama. Xinhua, the official Chinese government press agency, has announced that direct talks between government officials and a representative of the exiled Tibetan leader are likely to begin in the "coming days." Xinhua quoted an unnamed official government source in a statement released today (April 25).

"In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai's private representative in the coming days."

The Chinese government has repeatedly claimed that the Dalai Lama is behind the recent protests and violence in China, and has accused him of "scheming and instigating."

Referring to the charges in his statements, the official is quoted as saying, "It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks."

As we reported last week, the Dalai Lama had indicated that "some efforts" were being made with regards to diplomacy. When asked about China's latest overtures on Friday, the Dalai Lama's spokesman, Tenzin Taklha, said they had yet to be officially contacted by the Chinese government, but would be open to talks.

"Since His Holiness is committed to dialog, we would welcome this," said Taklha. "We also have to look at when the offer does officially arrive."

With the Tibetan troubles threatening to overshadow the Beijing Olympics, and mounting pressure from international governments (including our own) for China to resume talks with the Dalai Lama, it's questionable whether this is merely a public relations exercise or a sincere attempt at meaningful dialog. The Daily Mantra therefore thought we'd consult with a practitioner of the ancient Chinese art of astrology to gain some insight into the situation.

Looking at the Dalai Lama's astrological chart (he's a home loving Cancer BTW), our experts tell us that the "transiting Saturn in Virgo is weighing heavily on the 72-year-old" and that any talks with the Chinese are likely to be "stymied and frustrating."

On the plus side, since Saturn also rules accomplishment, we're told that "these talks may ultimately create a stronger foundation from which to negotiate Tibet's freedom." Oops sorry, since freedom is a dirty word as far the Chinese government is concerned when used in reference to Tibet, perhaps those pesky, all-seeing stars are just predicting some form of "autonomy" (a word The People's Republic seems marginally more comfortable with). For now, we'll just have to wait and see how the fortune cookie crumbles.

We've all experienced it. You're in mid-conversation and all of a sudden you forget a word or name. It's on the tip of your tongue, you've used the word numerous times in the past, but for some inexplicable reason you just can't recall it.

Surprisingly, a new study reveals that you should stop right there, since straining to recall something in this way may actually reinforce the "mistake pathway," making it more likely to happen again.

In the study, which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, a group of thirty students were asked to perform word retrieval exercises. They were given a series of definitions, and had to come up the corresponding words.

They were then asked do indicate whether or not they knew the answer, or if it was on the tip of their tongue (TOT). If the answer was TOT, students were given either 10 or 30 seconds to recall the answer. In follow up tests performed two days later using the same set of definitions, those given more time to recall the answers in the previous test were more likely to get stuck again.

"We know this is how the brain works, it reinforces whatever it does. So [the study results] completely make sense," says researcher Karin Humphreys of McMaster University in Ontario. "But at the same time, it's so counterintuitive to how we feel, we should learn from all our mistakes."

So next time, rather than torturing yourself with the prolonged anguish of attempting to recall an evasive word, save yourself the frustration and just go look it up on Google. You'll be doing yourself (and your friends) a favor.

Remember the good old days when, once every blue moon, you'd buy an album on CD and get surprised by a secret song? These unlisted ghost tracks were often hidden beyond the last song, and would reveal themselves after a brief moment of silence. Also known as "easter eggs," these elusive gems have been concealed by a myriad of artists from Dave Matthews to Dido and Nirvana to No Doubt. HiddenSongs.com has uncovered the secrets of many CDs, and has compiled a database of these invisible tracks. Click HERE to find out if your favorite artist or band has a ghost song entombed in the digital code of an otherwise ordinary looking compact disc.

The Daily Mantra has a new favorite chocolate. It's a delicious and nutritious gourmet confection that borrows its name from the Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo.

The region is known for its macadamia nuts, which have been cultivated by the indigenous people there for centuries. The Woolloomooloo chocolate bar combines roasted & salted macadamia nuts with Indonesian coconut, and yummy hemp seeds. The well-balanced, salty-sweet mix is submerged in what the manufacturer calls "deep milk chocolate," which has all the smoothness of milk chocolate and just enough of the bitterness of dark.

As the label says, the "hemp seeds are the true secret weapon in this scrumptious bar." They're packed with beneficial omega fatty acids, amino acids, and minerals, which are said to soften skin, strengthen nails, and add shine and thickness to hair. (With the state of our nails, we need to eat a lot of this stuff!)

Our new love is manufactured by a boutique company called Vosges Chocolate, which was founded by Chocolatier Katrina Markoff. The company manufactures an inspirational range of unusual premium bars and truffles. The exotic flavors, which feature rare spices and flowers, are inspired by Markoff's extensive travels.

Markoff believes in maximizing the green factor while minimizing the guilt. Her Chicago kitchen is a certified organic manufacturing facility. She uses organic ingredients where possible, packages her chocolates in boxes made of 100% recycled paperboard, and purchases renewable energy to offset the electricity used in the manufacturing process.

If that's not enough yin with chocolate's slightly wicked yang, Markoff is a strong believer in the healing power of the dark stuff. She runs yoga and chocolate retreats (which sound like our kind of Nirvana), and has a range of confections that are blended according to the ancient medicinal principles of Ayurveda.

One or more of three special truffles (Vata, Pitta and Kapha) are recommended according to the balance of your doshas. Click HERE to take a test to find out which type of truffle would best harmonize yours. You can order your prescribed dosha dose from the Vosges website. That's our kind of alternative medication.

This animated video states what should now be the obvious as far as global warming is concerned, albeit in a very entertaining way. However one Australian physicist, Phil Chapman, thinks we should be worrying about climate change in the other direction, as he touts the possibility of a return to an Ice Age.

Chapman cites an 11-year low in sunspot activity, and says that our plant actually cooled by 0.7 degrees Centigrade between January 2006 and 2007. "This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record," notes Chapman in an article that appears in today's Australian.

As the ice caps melt before our Googled eyes, critics have accused Chapman of cherry picking data, but regardless of whether we should be reaching for the sun tan lotion or for another layer of warm clothes to prepare for the future, living a green life still makes sense. There are so many reasons beyond global warming for ending our reliance on fossil fuels.

A recent study has concluded that even short-term exposure to smog can be linked to premature death. Our ever increasing appetite for oil funds wars and corrupt regimes, and is contributing massively to the food crisis we now face. The latter, which is caused, in the most part, by the fact that rising fuel prices are raising the cost of food production and transportation beyond what many consumers can afford, is ALREADY pushing many here at home over the poverty line into privation.

While experts can't agree on the extent and exact direction of climate change (two recently released reports claim that global warming may be far worse than the U.N. had previously predicted), there is a general consensus that the food crisis will bite before global warming does. And since the causes of both global warming and the food crisis are the same, namely over use of fossil fuels and over population, working towards a comprehensive solution should be a no-brainer.

In the scheme of things the dire problems we now face are so easily fixed. We already have the know-how to replace oil power with renewable, clean energy. We also know that cutting down rainforest and turning away from food crops in order to produce biofuel is "profoundly stupid," to recycle the words of Professor John Beddington, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor (who, unlike our scientific advisers, at least has the benefit of talking real, unabridged science with his boss).

The issue of the planet’s burgeoning population is a little trickier. While environment and sustainability issues are now firmly on the agenda, population control is the other side of the coin, and the elephant in the room that few in the West like to talk about (unless it’s in terms of “pro-life,” a policy that ironically, in global terms, results in more death). Again, it's not like we don't have the methods, but motivation is a problem, which is compounded by religious beliefs and our delicate sensibilities. How ironic that China, with their birth control already in place, may ultimately look enlightened where this issue is concerned.

Their one kid per couple policy may seem harsh by our standards, but five kids, with two more mechanical gas-guzzlers in the garage, is not a sustainable existence. We really have to learn one very simple lesson: we can't have it all. But next to the possible oblivion of our planet and/or our race, a little compromise and a lot of enlightenment, and action, seems like a small price to pay. For now, let’s at least get population control on our “to do” list alongside ending war, hunger, poverty, pollution and oil reliance, since these issues cannot be dealt with in isolation, and require a holistic approach.

Norwegian electric carmakers Think have announced plans to manufacture and sell their reasonably priced, eco-friendly vehicles here in the U.S.

The company has partnered with two leading clean-tech venture capital firms, RockPort Capital Partners and Kleiner Perkins, Caulfield and Byers, to form Think North America. The new venture was announced at the 2008 Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference held in Pasadena, California (April 21-22, 2008). The aim of the invitation-only event is to bring industry leaders together to discuss the impact and opportunities presented by the green-movement.

Think North America hope to have their first vehicle, the Think City, in production in the U.S. sometime in 2009. It is likely that the company will be based in Southern California, and that cars will be assembled locally. The electric car, which is currently only available in Norway, is a 100% emission free, battery-powered vehicle. Made of 95% recycled material, it has a top speed of 100 km (65 miles) per hour and can drive up to 180 km (110 miles) on a single charge.

The Think City "is a mass-market vehicle," said Kleiner managing partner, Ray Lane . "Our desire is to be selling 30-40-50,000 of these cars in a couple of years." The two-seater cars, which can be fitted with additional rear seats intended for children, will retail for under $25,000.
Think was founded under the name Pivco (Personal Independent Vehicle Company) in Oslo in 1991. Ford acquired the company in 1999, but sold its stake in 2003, around the same time that General Motors dropped the now mythical EV1 after California passed legislation significantly backtracking on its ZEV (zero-emissions vehicle) mandate. In March of this year General Electric announced an alliance with Think at the Geneva Motor Show, investing $4 million in the EV company, and a further $20 million in A123 Systems, who will manufacture the car's batteries.

Interestingly, in Norway, Think offer a "Mobility Pack" lease program for the car's batteries. Under this business model, Think own the batteries and charge a monthly fee in exchange for a full maintenance, service and replacement plan. They promise to "take responsibility for battery performance throughout the car's life span" for a fee of around 200 EUR (approx $290), which also covers insurance and electricity costs. The move is intended to give customers peace of mind, and maintain the car's re-sale value. It has yet to be announced if a similar program will be available for North American customers.

Can you hear that choking sound? That’s the sound of Madonna extracting her thigh-high boot from her mouth, where it appears to have got stuck. When asked by a reporter from New York Magazine if she sympathized with Tom Cruise, Madonna, who is doing the rounds to promote the release of her new album Hard Candy, responded by saying:

"I don't care if people worship turtles or frogs - if they're good people, that's all I care about, and he (Cruise) is a good person. I think he gets a raw deal, just as I think the orphans in Malawi get a raw deal; just as I think a lot of marginalized people get a raw deal."

While the material girl clearly meant well, we can't help but enjoy that fact that she inadvertently called the much maligned Cruise a "marginalized" person, and compared his Scientology beliefs to the deification of amphibians. With friends like this....

Just a reminder on Earth Day, that as students of the Law of Attraction, we should focus on the positive rather than the negative in order to bring about the planetary change we desire. So don’t get caught up in the doom and gloom of global warming, or get depressed about the oceans of trash. Instead, focus on the beauty of this planet we call home, and how you can nurture it, both in big and small ways, everyday, to preserve it for generations to come. And celebrate the fact that there are millions of like-minded individuals all around the globe with similar goals on this very special day.

Happy Earth Day!

I've never subscribed to the philosophy of debt, which seems to be one of the leading sources of misery in the Western world. I've always valued the peace of mind that zero debt gives me far above the stuff that going into debt allows me to buy.

I'm not naive, I know for some it's hard to escape debt since a minimum wage hardly covers even the necessaries of life (which is obscene, and a whole other story). But most of us do have a choice: A new car and new debt vs. keeping your old car, and your peace of mind. A new flat screen TV and new debt vs. keeping your old tube TV, and your peace of mind. It's a question of values, and what you value more.

Americans are tempted and brainwashed into debt from a very early age, with credit and debit cards marketed to kids, and obligatory student loans ensuring that we embark on our adult lives chained and enslaved by our society of debt.

We all know to stay away from loan sharks, but few question the wisdom of "respectable" institutionalized debt, such as car loans, which are likely to be our biggest monthly expense after rent or mortgage payments.

We're conditioned to believe we can have the car we "deserve" now, rather than merely the one we can afford. Worse still, we are told if we don't drive the "right" car it'll harm our personal and job prospects, the “right” car for our social group inevitably being one that’s more expensive than we can really afford.

This form of corporate-driven peer pressure is truly insidious. Few realize that by subscribing to this philosophy, and something as seemingly innocuous as a modest monthly car payment, they may well be trading in their future financial security.

Do the math. If you saved up and bought a more modest used car cash down, and put the $400 a month the average American spends on their car payments in a high yield mutual fund that earns 12% annually, after 30 years you'd have a nest egg of well over $1 million.

So what does that BMW say about you now? Is the luxury car company really selling you "sheer driving pleasure" or "sheer debt forever?"

In the future, as in the past, we may very well be fighting our wars over fresh water rather than oil. After all, there are many alternatives to crude oil, but not that many for drinkable H2O. This video from Good Magazine explains the issues of supply and demand well.

We're amazed at this story of a British hypnotist, who practiced what he preached, and underwent surgery without any anesthetic.

Alex Lenkei, 61, is a registered hypnotist and underwent surgery on his hand and wrist to alleviate his arthritis. During the 83-minute operation the surgeon removed a piece of the bone at the base of Lenkei’s thumb, cut tendons, and fused several joints together.

It was the second time Lenkei had undergone surgery without the aid of anesthetic. He’d previously been hypnotized by a colleague before a hernia operation in 1996. But this time Lenkei opted to hypnotize himself. The operation was undertaken by Dr. David Llewellyn-Clark at Worthing Hospital in West Sussex on the south coast of England.

"It took between 30 seconds to a minute for me to place myself under hypnosis, and from that point I felt a very deep relaxation," says Lenkei. He was conscious throughout the operation, and could hear his surgeon talking, which caused a little concern at one point.

"I heard him say, 'Can I have the saw please?' and imagined him holding this great big thing in his hand. But fortunately he then said 'I think we'll use the smaller one,'" recalls Lenkei.

"He used a hammer and chisel at one stage and I could hear him hammering away at the bone.

"I heard everything he was saying to his assistants and anesthetist, but there was no gossip. It was a shame - I was hoping to hear something juicy."

The doctors, who were not used to holding conversations with their patients while they were operating on them, were shocked at one point when Lenkei asked how everything was going.

An anesthetist was on stand by throughout the operation, but was not needed. Lenkei says he felt no pain. "I could have certainly told them if I was in pain. I told them to zap me straight away if I cried out."

Mr. Lenkei has been practicing hypnosis since he was 16, and has lectured on the subject at the prestigious Royal College of Nursing. Dr. Llewellyn-Clark says he was confident that Lenkei was a skilled hypnotist before the operation, and was “delighted” that it went so well.

"If he had been grinning and bearing it we would have known - but his heart rate and breathing remained constant throughout.”

The Daily mantra is excited to be one of a select few invited by Current.com to curate its Earth Day page. The organizers of Earth Day hope to promote "environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide."

Current is the "world's leading peer-to-peer news and information network," where what's considered news is a democratic affair. Environment superman Al Gore, someone who understands the meaning of democracy (and the lack thereof), is the network's chairman.

We're sad Al's not running for president, but understand that he has more important things to do. In the meantime, since we worry about the environment everyday, we're making April 22nd the unofficial Worldwide Al Gore Day.

Click HERE for a special message from the man who should have been president.

Check out this video post from our favorite camellia sinensis-pusher Dr. Tea, on the pros and cons of common tea additives such as milk and sugar. Personally we think that if you have to add something to make it taste better, you're not drinking the right tea. But for those who can’t drink a cup of the the brown stuff without a little milk and sugar, this is well worth a view.

Dr. Tea reveals that adding dairy to your tea may interfere with its antioxidant properties, and suggests using soy or almond milk instead. And those that need a spoonful of sugar to make their tea go down should steer clear of the addictive white powder, and its various artificial substitutes. A healthier option is agave syrup. The honey-like substance, which is derived naturally from the succulent agave plant, sweetens without the deadly sugar high (and subsequent low).

Click HERE for more Top Tips from Dr. Tea.

Actor Jason Beghe, who became Scientology’s public enemy number one after releasing a three-minute tirade against the celebrity-mad cult on YouTube (see video), has revealed more of the organization’s dirty little secrets in a shocking interview with New York’s Village Voice weekly newspaper.

Beghe got drawn into the church in 1994 after taking acting classes with famed Hollywood acting coach Milton Katselas, who was a Scientologist. A fellow student in his class, Bodie Elfman (who went on to marry Jenna), gave him a copy of What is Scientology, a reference book published by the church. Beghe was hooked by the religion’s promise of superhuman capabilities and the idea of its detoxification rituals. "This clear thing sounded good," said Beghe, speaking to a Voice reporter from his home in Malibu.

The 48-year old actor estimates that he and his wife have paid over a million dollars to the church over the twelve years they were in its fold. He says his move up the ranks was rapid, with church leader David Miscavige considering him a "poster boy" for the organization.

"I was Miscavige's favorite boy, so they were doing all kinds of things to keep me happy," he says. "I moved up the Bridge faster than anyone in history. I went at it 24/7 for about a year. I went clear. Got to OT V. I was a trained auditor."

"I'm farther up the Bridge than Travolta, and he's been in there a thousand years. He's not a trained auditor."

As one of its highly prized celebs, Beghe enjoyed the perks of his special status within the church. He says he had access to the "Celebrity Centre. My own private sauna. Everybody kissing my ass, which I was uncomfortable with. But nice people. Couldn't be nicer.”

Courting celebs was more than a mere PR exercise for the church’s minions however. Founder L. Ron Hubbard was so focused on attracting high profile members, that those who brought them in were given a highly prized incentive. In exchange for a celebrity enrollment, members had their “ethics files” wiped, the Scientologist equivalent of absolution.

Misdeeds were recorded in a member’s ethics file during auditing sessions, an ongoing confessional process that lies at the core of the church’s training. These sessions are supposed to be private and confidential, but Beghe claims that they are all secretly recorded.

This is one of the reasons Beghe chose to speak out. He’s concerned for the welfare of other celebrities that may be ensnared by the church. "Will Smith is supposedly dabbling in Scientology. Let Will Smith know that his shit was fucking recorded. And tell him to look them in the eye and see if he believes it when they deny it."

"Everything's supposed to be confidential. But all they do is chat about it," says Beghe. He also reveals that Tom Cruise virtually severed ties to the church for almost a decade, but was somehow brought back into the fold. "He was out for like ten years. There are people who just aren't doing anything. Some are out but don't talk about it. Why? The church is scary. These are bad motherfuckers."

Ultimately Beghe became disenfranchised with the church after a car crash. His high level training was supposed to give him superhuman powers that would protect him against such incidents. The event was seen as a sign by his superiors that he’d come under the influence of “suppressives,” and his relationship with the church soured.

Beghe left the church seven months ago, and reached out to Andreas Heldal-Lund, who runs the prominent anti-Scientology Operation Clambake website Xenu.net. It was Lund who put Beghe in contact with Mark Bunker, who shot the YouTube video, which is a teaser for a more extensive interview that’s yet to go live.

"They came to my place out here, and we spent the day together. They set up a camera and I blabbed. And I barely scratched the surface," says Beghe. He warns that, "Scientology seduces you into thinking that it's a process through which you can truly become yourself. But ultimately, what it turns you into is a Scientologist, a brainwashed version of yourself."

The Daily Mantra joined actors Elaine Hendrix (What The Bleep, CSI, Joan of Arcadia) and Patrick Kilpatrick (Shark and Minority Report) last night at the U.S. premiere of Water, a film which carries on from where the 2004 sleeper hit What The Bleep Do We Know!? left off, exploring the mystical properties of water. The event was presented by Sandy Fox and Lex Lang, the husband and wife team who founded H2Om, the bottled water brand that comes pre-packaged with good intensions.

Photos (Nicole Powers): Top row, center Patrick Kilpatrick and Elaine Hendrix. Bottom row, l-r Elaine Hendrix, Lex Lang, Sandy Fox, and filmmaker David Sereda (The Voice).

Dr. Neal Barnard MD is to vegetarianism what Al Gore is to environmentalism. His lectures on the benefits of a plant based diet are smart, entertaining, down to earth, and offer hope rather than peddling despondency.

The son of a cattle rancher, Barnard trained is psychiatry, but has spent much of his life focusing on the impact of diet on human health. He had a job at McDonald's while at high school, but, while working as an assistant at a morgue during a year out before medical school, experienced first hand exactly what a modern Western diet does to the insides of those laid out on the morticians slab. He now serves as PETA's medical adviser, and is a committed, and evangelical, vegetarian. But don't let that put you off. Whether you're a carnivore or a herbivore, we can all benefit (and indeed have) from the good doctor's wit and wisdom.

As the president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (an organization which Bernard founded in 1985), he took the government to task for their fudged dietary guidelines.

"Of the 11 members on the committee, six of them had ties to the dairy industry, meat industry or egg industry," says Bernard. After he prevailed in court, the government issued radically revised guidelines in January 2005 (though as we mentioned in our previous story, these guidelines still massively underestimate the servings of fruit and veg needed for a healthy diet).

Barnard believes that much of the illness we experience today is a result of what we eat, and that much of what we eat is addictive, and pushed on us by food corporations whose major concern is the size of their own bottom lines, rather than the size of our bottoms.

In his book, Breaking The Food Seduction, Barnard writes about the opiate effects of foods, and gives advice on how to kick our bad food habits. He reveals that sugar works like heroin, and dairy like morphine, so it's not surprising that the food industry has us right where they want us, craving our next chocolate fix.

For those in need of a dietary intervention, he suggests that you familiarize yourself with the four new food groups (grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit) and give them a three-week trial period (which will give your body, and your taste buds, enough time to adapt). For those ready to cut the beef and go cold turkey, he offers these seven basic tips:

• 1. Start with a healthy breakfast (you'll snack less the rest of the day).
  
• 2. Use foods (such as beans and pasta) to hold blood sugar steady.
  
• 3. Dieters: Use the rule of ten for minimum calorie intake.
  (For example, if your ideal body weight is 150 Ibs, your minimum intake should be no less than 1,500 calories per day.)
  
• 4. Break craving cycles.
  (Resisting the bad stuff today, will make it easier tomorrow, and the day after that.)
  
• 5. Have regular exercise and rest.
  (It's easier to make the correct food choices if you're well rested.)
  
• 6. Use social support. Don't do it alone.
  (Go to the Betty Ford Cheese Clinic with a friend.)
  
• 7. Take advantage of other motivators.
  (Bernard tells young males that they'll be less likely to be impotent when they're old if they eat well today, and reminds animal lovers of the million animals per hour that die so Americans can have the privilege of eating badly).
  

A study done by the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit healthcare advisory body, has found that vitamins may not deliver all that they promise and may actually decrease life expectancy rather than increase it. Their review of data from 67 trials found "no evidence to support antioxidant supplements for primary or secondary prevention." Alarmingly they also found that the intake of Vitamin A, beta-carotene, and vitamin E supplements "may increase mortality."

In light of these recent findings, The Daily Mantra decided to go back to school to find out how we could increase our nutrient intake without resorting to pills from a bottle. Bottom line, there's no faking a healthy diet.

Our nutritionist recommended that we eat between 9 and 11 cups of fruit and vegetables a day. This is much higher than the 2 1/2 cups of veg and 2 cups of fruit that the USDA recommends for someone requiring a 2,000 calorie a day diet. Indeed the fruit and veg goals set by the government organization were deliberately dumbed down from those recommended by their scientists due to fears that the public might be deterred if the bar was set at a level that some might perceive as being unattainably high.

When setting out to prepare a balanced meal, as a basic guide our nutritionist suggested we fill at least half our plate with veg. Portions of protein (tofu/fish/meat) and carbohydrates (rice/potatoes etc..) should take up no more than a quarter of the plate each.

We were shown how to make our fruit and veg more appealing by using simple techniques such as roasting and stir frying, which can seriously rev up the flavor factor. A little garlic and chili can seriously spice things up. Adding balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, honey, maple syrup, a handful almonds or pine nuts also makes the good stuff more exciting. A teaspoon of maple syrup may contain around 70 calories, but they're calories well spent if it means you're more likely to actually eat your veg.

We were also given tips on how to introduce fruit and veg into our diet by stealth. Chopped spinach can be added to almost any pasta sauce to give it an instant nutritional bump. Adding pineapple fruit and juice to rice at the end of cooking will give the grain a similar vitamin, and flavor, boost.

Research has shown that vegetarians, and those who eat moderate amounts of white meat and fish, on average, live longer (with some studies showing an increase in life expectancy of up to a staggering ten years). And as the Cochrane Collaboration research indicated, it's becoming increasingly apparent that antioxidants need to be consumed in their natural form, since we're only beginning to understand the complex role that individual compounds such as lycopene have in the bigger picture.

Make sure the fruit and veg you eat is as fresh as possible. Buy it from your local farmer, or farmers' market if you can. Also be sure to wash it well, to get rid of residual pesticides on the surface that can build up in your body over time. If you need some inspiration, try paying a visit to the Mayo Clinic website which has loads of yummy, and healthy, recipes, and lots of other info on healthy food choices.

Jason Beghe has made a YouTube video in which he slams the Church of Scientology. The actor, who played Demi Moore's love interest in G.I.Jane, and has appeared in numerous TV shows including Melrose Place, Chicago Hope, American Dreams, and Cane, calls the church "destructive" and a "rip off."

Beghe, who became a Scientologist in 1994, says the church, which targets celebrities, is "very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution." The three-minute video is a teaser for a longer interview, which has yet to be released. "If Scientology is real, then something's f*** up, 'cause it ain't delivering what it promised," says a clearly angry Beghe, who uses expletives throughout.

The actor is billed as the "first celebrity Scientologist to sit down and publicly talk about his experiences after leaving the group." The video was uploaded by Emmy Award-winning journalist Mark Bunker, who has had several run-ins with the controversial church, which he documents on his XenuTV1 profile page. Bunker says he hopes to use his YouTube channel to expose Scientology's "fraud and abuse through streaming video."

Meanwhile help is at hand for those who'd like more bedtime reading featuring the adventures of Xenu, but don't have the estimated $ 380,000 it takes to get to the full text through official Scientology channels. Anonymous exposé site WikiLeaks has obtained an unedited copy of the Operating Thetan manual, which features tales of Xenu, the dictator of the Galactic Confederacy. The documents, which contain instructions for novice OTs right through to Level 8's, can be downloaded from the site in PDF format.

Though the Church of Scientology has failed in its attempts to have the documents on WikiLeaks removed, it has succeeded in having Andrew Morton's biography of Tom Cruise shelved in the UK. "We will not now be publishing the book," said a spokesman for the publishers, Macmillian, who had been in negotiations with Cruise's lawyers after the Mission Impossible star made legal threats. "We have explored every possible option but have concluded that once the potentially defamatory sections are taken out, there is not enough left to make a good enough read."

That's one point to Scientology, and two to the champions of freedom the Church calls "suppressives." Let the game of cat and mouse continue.

Pope Benedict XVI said he was "deeply ashamed" of the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church. He addressed reporters, answering prescreened questions, during a special Alitalia flight from Rome to Washington, where he began his U.S. tour today.

"It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the church in general and for me personally that this could happen," said Benedict. "It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission ... to these children."

"I am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future...We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry," he continued. "It is more important to have good priests than many priests. We will do everything possible to heal this wound."

Benedict's claim that it is difficult to comprehend how the scandal happened is somewhat hollow however when you consider, as we reported yesterday (see story), that he was directly involved in the cover up of the scandal. For many, his apology will not go far enough, especially since he failed to acknowledge any responsibility, or his own well documented role in the scandal.

"It's easy and tempting to continually focus on the pedophile priests themselves," said Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's harder but crucial to focus on the broader problem - complicity in the rest of the church hierarchy."

Benedict was up to his papal collar in both the church's complicity and attempted concealment of the abuse scandal. He personally ordered the relocation of perpetrators, and demanded silence, under threat of excommunication, from Roman Catholic clergy around the world.

China now has the dubious honor of being the world's biggest polluter. Research done by a team from the University of California suggests that we have previously underestimated China's power to pollute, and that the growing superpower probably took the title of polluter number one sometime in 2006 or 2007.

Not to be outdone, the U.S. is putting an intergalactic spin on the international trash wars. China may have taken the "Chief Trasher of the Planet" title, but that pales in comparison to America's goal of trashing the universe to turn our entire galaxy into a giant garbage heap.

Man put his first piece of junk, Sputnik One, into space just 51 years ago. Since then, we've managed to deposit tens of millions of items, with American taking the Space Junk lead since the end of the Cold War. Much of the debris, which is made up of dead satellites, discarded rocket sections, Shuttle and Space Station refuse, tools, nuts, bolts, fragments of metal, and, believe it or not, the odd glove, now circulates the earth in low orbit 200-300 miles above the planet's surface. New computer generated images show how the trash is forming rings around our planet, an accessory which previously had been exclusive to Saturn in our solar system.

Like our earth-bound rubbish, this space junk has life-threatening ramifications. NASA now tracks the trajectories of thousands of the larger items, which pose a serious threat to the structural integrity of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, and the astronauts who work on them.

Indeed, the Daily Mail reports that one glove, which was lost in space after it was dropped by Gemini 4 astronaut Edward White in 1965, became the most dangerous item of clothing in history as it orbited the planet at a speed of 17,500 mph. At that velocity the discarded gauntlet could have turned deadly had any space walking astronaut accidentally stumbled into its path. Fortunately that particular item of killer apparel burnt up in the atmosphere upon reentry a few months later, but there are millions more pieces of space junk out there to get you.

It's easier to live your life in balance when you've got four legs rather than two, so we love the nuggets of inspiration offered up by Dahrma the Cat. For more furlosophy and to check out the moggy's cartoon eBook go to: www.dharmathecatcartoons.com/

The Dalai Lama indicated that "some efforts" in diplomacy were underway between his aides and the Chinese Government during a news conference on Sunday in Seattle. The Tibetan leader arrived in Seattle on Thursday. The trip is his first foreign foray since the current crisis with China, sparked by the impending Beijing Olympics, began.

Meanwhile it's been announced that a special envoy of George W. Bush will meet with the Dalai Lama next week. At a news conference, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, the government's special envoy for Tibet, "is going to be meeting with the Dalai Lama in Michigan on April 21st."

"They're going to be talking about our view that the Chinese authorities ought to engage in a discussion with the Dalai Lama. We'll be interested in hearing his views on the situation there," said Casey.

As international pressure mounts, this latest move has upset Chinese officials. "We believe that the Tibetan affairs are internal affairs of China, and (are) strongly opposed to external interference in this respect," said Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, in a statement released to the AFP news service.

"We always demand that the US administration and US officials adhere to their commitment to recognizing Tibet as part of China, not supporting Tibetan independence, and refrain from holding any contact with the Dalai Lama and his clique," he said.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, is between a rock and a hard place. The Chinese government has accused him of "scheming and instigating violence," despite lack of evidence to support the accusation, and the Tibetan leader's numerous pleas for peaceful protest. Meanwhile, many of his followers are frustrated by the lack of progress and are calling for a more proactive approach. To complicate matters further, one of the conditions of residence for the Dalai Lama and his followers living in exile in India, is that they must not protest against the Chinese government on Indian soil. (And people wonder why he threatened to resign.)

When asked at Sunday's news conference in Seattle if the Tibetans would make concessions in order to secure talks with China, the Dalai Lama said that they had little to concede. "We've become refugees."

The Daily Mantra saw Morcheeba live last night at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. The show was the band's final stop on their North American tour to promote their new album Dive Deep, a CD that is quite possibly one of the finest produced this millennium (see previous story).

The show featured the delicate yet very capable vocals of Manda, a Parisian singer Morcheeba brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey found via MySpace. The set opened as the new album does, with the Judy Tzuke-penned "Enjoy The Ride," a song that reminds us of how we're masters of how we choose to perceive our own destinies.

Ross then introduced one of the band's classic tracks, "The Sea," from the 1998 album Big Calm. He revealed the soporific song was about the seaside town of Dover, where he and his brother grew up. He lamented that over-fishing has turned the once vibrant ocean there into a dead sea where little now lives, and urged those in the crowd to pay a visit to the Ocean Conservancy website.

The excellent live show, which exuded far more joie de vive than past live forays, featured a mix of songs from the band's six studio albums, and finished with a four-song encore, which included a delightful acoustic rendition of "Au Dela." The deceptively simple ditty, which is written in French, was the first song Manda wrote with the band, and is another of the many highlights to be found on Dive Deep. Did we mention we love (and make love to) this album?

We love this story of a seemingly psychic dog called Sam, who busted through an electric fence, and embarked on a two-day trek to pay his last respects to his owner, who had recently died of cancer. Sam had never been to the church where the funeral was held, but managed to find his own way there, arriving moments before the service was due to start.







Click HERE to watch an ABC news report about this amazing, mega-faithful, furry friend.

Real Time host Bill Maher called the Roman Catholic Church "the Bear Stearns of Pedophilia," in the New Rules section of the latest episode of his HBO show (click HERE to view). "If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you Pope. It's like if you can't pay your mortgage, you're a deadbeat, but if you can't pay a million mortgages you're Bear Stearns, and we bail you out."

Certainly, it does seem to be a question of volume. To misquote Joseph Stalin, "one case of child abuse is a tragedy; a million is a statistic." After all, it's hard to explain why the Yearning for Zion Ranch in the Texas was raided, and its leaders arrested for child abuse, while Pope Benedict XVI is set to receive the red carpet treatment on his forthcoming trip to the U.S. .

During a BBC special investigation for the documentary series Panorama, reporters revealed the existence of an updated version of the 1962 document Crimen Sollicitationis (Latin for "The Crime of Solicitation"), which was authored by Pope Benedict XVI in 2001 while he was working under the former Pope John Paul II. In the missive, the then Cardinal, ordered bishops to put the interests of the church above those of the victims, and demanded that they keep quiet about the abuse under threat of excommunication.

In addition, under his policy of "Exclusive Competence," all abuse issues were to be handled directly by Rome, which dealt with the issue by systematically shuffling known perpetrators to fresh dioceses. This means the buck directly stopped at the Pontiff's office. Yet still, we're rolling out the red carpet rather than getting our handcuffs ready.

The Daily Mantra has very mixed feelings about the Beijing Olympic Games. One the one hand, we of course want to support the Tibetan people, and register our displeasure at the atrocious human rights record of the Chinese Government (and are aware that right now, sadly, America is not in a position to cast the first stone in that department). On the other hand, this is a sporting event that should transcend politics in order to celebrate international cooperation and human achievement at its finest.

The Olympic torch's troubled trip around the globe perhaps highlights that fact that the world's trouble spots are the very places that can benefit most from the global spotlight that follows such sporting events. Certainly, we very much hope that the current overwhelming international condemnation of China, that the torch is serving as a catalyst for, will at least result in some benefit for those oppressed by the communist state.

The issue is not an easy one. We certainly can't let China off the hook, simply so everyone can have a jolly good time at the games. Nor do we want to back China into the kind of corner where their only face-saving response will be harsher repression and greater isolation. It is therefore a question of balance, and of the delicate application of both the carrot and the stick.

The need for a little of the ying along with the yang when approaching the issue of China came into focus for me on a recent visit to New York's Guggenheim Museum, which is hosting a major retrospective on the work of Cai Guo-Qiang, a Chinese artist who has been bestowed with the prestigious job of creating a fireworks spectacular for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Cai Guo-Qiang, an artist who works in video, and on paper and canvas with gunpowder, has had an interesting relationship with his motherland. Both Cai and China have suffered at each other's hand, but ultimately, in choosing to persevere with their relationship, despite its difficulties, everyone has benefited.

Cai was born in 1957 in Quanzhou City, China. His father, who was also an artist, ran a bookstore favored by the party elite. With access to a little privilege, he was able to slip his son the odd forbidden book, such as the iconic Death of a Salesman and Waiting for Godot. Cai moved to Tokyo to study in 1986, and, after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, remained in self-imposed exile in Japan until 1995, when he moved to New York.

In 1999 he attracted the wrath of the Chinese government thanks to his ironic recreation of a famous Maoist work of art, the Rent Collection Courtyard, which celebrates the "People's Revolution" by reminding the viewer of the cruelty of the pre-revolution overlords. A copyright lawsuit ensued, but was subsequently dropped. The artwork also earned Cai the Golden Lion Award at the 48th Venice Biennale for which it was created.

Moving to the West and creating the artistic equivalent of a red flag to China's bull aren't the best ways to court favor with the Communist Party there. But Cai's international fame and success proved to be an irresistible carrot, and he was invited back to China and honored with a solo show at the Shanghai Art Museum in 2002. The show was the first solo exhibition for a contemporary artist in China, and created new opportunities for the nation's growing stable of modern artists.

Of course Cai could have chosen to stay away. To punish China with a personal boycott. But that is not in his nature, or true to his work, which he sees in social terms as a means to break down boundaries and unite people. Such themes are intrinsic to his work. For example, an ancient fishing boat resurrected from the sea, which is filled with shards of the white porcelain it might once have been used to transport, is always installed with the help of the Japanese villagers who originally helped Cai raise it from its watery grave (a team traveled from Japan to New York for the Guggenheim show).

In another conceptual piece yet to be physically realized entitled Project for Extraterrestrials No.6, Cai hopes to gain the cooperation of the Chinese and Japanese governments in order to set off a series of gunpowder footprints that will stomp across the border between the two giant superpowers.

Cai's choice of gunpowder as his primary medium is a nod to the Maoist principle that things must be destroyed before being reformatted or rebuilt in order to wipe the slate clean. So while China's current regime may be in need of such treatment, let Cai's Olympic art speak for itself as it explodes above Beijing. And give China some credit for allowing Cai’s revolutionary voice to burst forth, for that is the carrot that goes with the stick.

The American public is used to getting its Fox News (or Faux News as we like to call it) served up through red-tinted spectacles, a phenomenon that The Daily Show parodied rather excellently in the clip above. But should the country shift into the blue come November, don't be surprised to see Fox bend with the wind of change, indeed there are major signs that it already is.

As we previously reported, in the late 90's there was a significant shift in the editorial slant of Fox owner Rupert Murdoch's British news outlets as Margaret Thatcher and John Major's monetarist (read: right-wing / Republican) empire was being swept aside due to increasing popular support for "New Labour" (akin to our left-leaning Democrats) and its promise of more egalitarian trickle-up economics. Sensing the changing political tide, Murdoch held a come-to-Jesus meeting with Labour leader Tony Blair in Australia in Dec '96, where it was agreed that some of his outlets would switch teams in exchange for future political concessions. In May '97, with Murdoch's support, Blair swept to victory in the General Elections, becoming the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in nearly two decades.

It seems that the Murdoch clan may be laying the groundwork for a similar seismic shift here in the U.S.. In an editorial published on Jan 30 of this year the Murdoch/News Corp. owned New York Post endorsed Obama, ironically claiming (given the politics of the paper's mother ship) that, "Obama represents a fresh start."

Now the Murdoch/Obama connection is getting more personal. On April 28 Rupert's daughter Elisabeth is planning a discreet fundraiser for Barack Obama at her London home. Gwyneth Paltrow is one of the event's co-chairs, and VIP tickets are priced at the individual donation limit of $2,300 (see invite below).

The Daily Mantra thinks that people can be judged by the quality of their friends. How do you feel about the ones Obama is getting into bed with?

I'm posting this video in memory of Harvey the cat, who really did love doing yoga with me. He was also partial to massage too! R.I.P.

It's only paranoia if they aren’t out to get you right? So the jury's still out on Mr. Radivoje Lajic. The Bosnian native is developing a slight persecution complex, to say the least, after a series of five meteorites landed on his property in the village of Gornja Lamovite.

"I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don't know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense," says Lajic. "The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit five times has to be deliberate."

The first missile from space hit its target in November. Since then four more space rocks have rained down on Lajic in this alien campaign of shock and awe. The strikes always happen during heavy rain, so the only time Lajic feels safe is when the skies are clear. In an effort to strengthen his defenses, Lajic has reinforced the roof of his home with a steel girder.

"I did not know what the strange-looking stones were at first but I have since had them all confirmed as meteorites by experts at Belgrade University," says Lajic. Belgrade University is now investigating local magnetic fields to see if they can shed any light on the ET assault.

"I am being targeted by aliens. They are playing games with me," complains Lajic. "I don't know why they are doing this. When it rains I can't sleep for worrying about another strike."

Today there are two different stories in the press concerning heart transplant recipients who took on some of the personality traits of their organ donors. Apparently the phenomenon is not uncommon, with about 70 such cases documented by scientists.

In the most recently reported case, a Georgia man named Sonny Graham received the heart of a 33 year old man named Terry Cottle who had committed suicide by putting a gun to his head. Wanting to thank the family of the donor, Sonny got in touch with Terry 's widow Cheryl. When they met, despite a very large age gap (Sonny was thirty years older than Cheryl), the two felt an instant attraction, and subsequently married in 2004. "I felt like I had known her for years," said Sonny. "I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I just stared."

Sadly, last week, in a bizarre turn of events, Sonny was found dead with a single bullet to the throat. With no foul play suspected, it appears that Sonny had used the same suicide method as the first owner of his heart to tragically end his life.

The second similar case, which was reported by The Daily Mail, has a less gruesome ending. Claire Sylvia, a former professional dancer from Massachusetts, had a heart and lung transplant in 1988 at the age of 47. While recovering from surgery she discovered she had developed entirely new cravings for very un-dancer-like consumables such as Snickers bars, green peppers, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and beer. "For some bizarre reason, I was convinced that nothing else in the world could quench my thirst," recalls Claire.

She noticed other physical and emotional changes too. She was much healthier, easily fighting off the colds to which she would have previously succumbed. She found she was becoming more independent, assertive and aggressive, and even began to walk with a more confident, and masculine, swagger. After dreaming of a man called "Tim L." one night, she searched through obituaries in old newspapers on file at a local library, and eventually saw one for a man named Tim Leighton, who matched the vague donor description she'd been given of an 18-year old male who died in a motorcycle accident. Like Sonny, Claire wanted to contact her donor's family to thank them. After tracking them down, a meeting was arranged, during which the family confirmed that Tim had shared Claire's new-found robust constitution and cravings.

Such stories certainly leave us thinking about the nature of our soul and where it resides. Those that would like to read more on the subject might like to read Claire's book A Change of Heart, which was first published in 1997 and is available via Amazon.com.

While those who meditate may focus on the ethereal, scientists are getting to grips with the tangible physical effects that meditation has been proven to produce. And armed with this new empirical evidence, the men and ladies in white coats are hitting the lotus position alongside those who may have previously been dismissed as kooks and hippies.

Dr. Sara Lazar, a mediation researcher from Massachusetts General Hospital, used MRI scans to compare the brains of experienced meditation practitioners against the gray matter of those that have never practiced the ancient Buddhist technique. She found marked differences in the thickness of certain areas of the brain's cortex, including the area associated with emotion, and hypothesizes that meditation had caused the physical changes.

In another study, Harvard Psychology and Psychiatry professor Dr. Richard Davidson, a longtime friend of the Dalai Lama who has been working with the spiritual leader in his quest to validate Buddhism with science, observed the brains of a test group of office workers. He found that after a course of meditation and stress reduction techniques the participants' brains appeared to have changed the way in which they functioned, and showed increased activity on the left side, which is associated with happiness and enthusiasm.

Numerous other studies have found mediation helpful in warding off stress-related illness such as heart disease, high blood pressure and digestive disorders. But while the physiological effects and benefits of meditation are easier for scientists to track, the emotional empowerment meditative practices bring should not be overlooked.

The thought-controlling discipline is a powerful tool in psychiatry's box. A treatment known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is heavily based on meditation techniques, is even available to British citizens on the nation's National Health plan.

As we master physical conditions, those of the mind are increasingly coming into focus, especially as populations in the West age, and quality as well as quantity of life becomes a priority. Indeed, one recent study found that those with a history of depression are two and a half times more likely to develop Alzheimer's in old age, so a holistic approach to peace of mind, happiness and mental illness also appears to be a pragmatic one.

For many, depression can be a downward spiral that starts with issues of low self-esteem, fear of judgment and failure. Such thoughts can start a cycle where the negative becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, and depression ensues. But meditation can help control such thoughts, and arrest the cycle.

"It teaches a way of looking at problems, observing them clearly but not necessarily trying to fix them or solve them," says Professor Mark Williams of Oxford University, who is a pioneer in the field of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. "It suggests to people that they begin to see all their thoughts as just thoughts, whether they are positive, negative or neutral."

Professor Davidson concurs, "All of these things are just thoughts. And, they will come up in meditation, and learning to recognize what they are as thoughts, and let them go, can be enormously empowering for anybody."

Dr. Lazar, who practices and is a strong advocate of both yoga and meditation, hopes that "by providing concrete evidence of meditation's benefits, more people will at least try it and see if it is beneficial for them."

To get started try visiting the following sites:
learningmeditation.com (great site for meditation 101)
how-to-meditate.org (good basic information on meditation and Buddhism)
breathetogether.net (our favorite online communal breathing site - see story)
tm.org (for Transcendental Meditation)
dalailama.com/page.17.htm (The Dalai Lama on 'Training The Mind')

This is very funny. Every woman at some point has had to treat a patient with this baffling and troublesome condition.

If player fails to load, click HERE to view video.

Richard Gere and Archbishop Desmond Tutu teamed up to lend their support to the people of Tibet at a protest rally in San Francisco last night in anticipation of today's Olympic Torch sprint through the city. "We must tell the leaders of the world, 'For goodness sake, for God's sake, for the sake of your children, our children, for the sake of the beautiful people of Tibet, don't go,'" said Mr Tutu, who urged Bush to abstain from attending the Olympic opening ceremony during his address to the crowd. Gere, like the Dalai Lama, stressed the importance of peaceful protest. "I hope that a point is made, but non-violently," said Gere.

Meanwhile Tibet's Chinese-appointed governor warned of "severe" punishment for protesters who cause "trouble" on the torch's journey through the Himalayas to Mount Everest next month. "For these separatist forces, the Olympics in Beijing will be a rare opportunity," Governor Champa Phuntsok said in Beijing (as reported by The Daily Mail). "Therefore they wish to create major troubles or incidents. I don't doubt they will create trouble during the torch relay in Tibet....During the torch relay in Tibet and in climbing Mount Everest, if anyone should attempt to disrupt or undermine the torch relay, then they will be dealt with severely according to the law."

Such rhetoric only serves to heighten the irony that China is hosting the games. They are clearly missing the point of an event whose stated goal is to "strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace." Clearly we could do with sending China to "charm" school in order to optimize the "joy" of the Olympics.

The torch's trip around the planet, which has raised much proverbial and literal hot air (and a projected 11 million pounds of CO2 by journey's end), is serving a greater purpose than could possibly have been anticipated, with the flame shining a global light on China's unacceptable attitudes to human rights, though, given our own recent transgressions, human rights violation is certainly a sport that we could seriously compete with China in for the dubious honor of gold.

Al Gore, the man that puts the (renewable) power in Powerpoint, debuted his brand new slideshow for TED.com, a website which showcases the finer thinkers on our planet. In his presentation, the eco Yoda talks about how global warming is a global conflict that requires the mobilization of political will. He also shows how climate change may be far worse than scientists have previously predicted, and provides a feast of food for thought for the flat-earth brigade, who, despite overwhelming evidence, still think that global warming is a myth. He challenges us to raise our sense of urgency in this culture of distraction, and provides workable ideas for change. Above all, he drives the point home that everything starts with a change political in culture, which in turn starts with activist citizens. We've changed our light bulbs, now let's change the world.

"I was reminded by Karen Armstrong's fantastic presentation, that if religion, really properly understood, is not about belief but behavior, perhaps we should say the same thing about optimism. How dare we be optimistic? Optimism is sometimes characterized as a belief, an intellectual posture, whereas Mahatma Ghandi famously said you must become the change you wish to see in the world. And the outcome about which we wish to become optimistic is not going to be created by the belief alone, except to the extent that the belief brings about new behavior."

"As important as it is to change the light bulbs, it's more important to change the laws. And when we change our behavior in our daily lives we sometimes leave out the citizenship part and the democracy part. In order to be optimistic about this we have to become incredibly active as citizens in our democracy. In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to solve the democracy crisis. And we have one."

"Many years ago when I was a young congressman I spent an awful lot of time dealing with the challenge of nuclear arms control, the nuclear arms race. And the military historians taught me during that quest that military conflicts are typically put into three categories: Local battles, regional or theatre wars, and the rare, but all important, global, world wars, strategic conflicts. And each level of conflict requires a different allocation of resources, a different approach, a different organizational model. Environmental challenges fall into the same three categories, and most of what we think of as local environmental problems, air pollution, water pollution, hazardous waste dumps. There are also regional problems like acid rain..."

"But the climate crisis is the rare, but all important, global or strategic conflict. Everything is affected, and we have to organize our response appropriately. We need a worldwide, global mobilization for renewable energy, conservation, efficiency, and a global transition to a low-carbon economy. We have work to do. We can mobilize resources, and political will. But the political will has to be mobilized in order to mobilize the resources...."

"I'm optimistic because I believe we have the capacity at moments of great challenge to set aside the causes of distraction and rise to the challenge that history is presenting us. Sometimes I hear people respond to the disturbing facts of the climate crises, by saying 'oh, this is so terrible, what a burden we have.' I would like to ask you to reframe that. How many generations in all of human history have had the opportunity to rise to a challenge that is worthy of our best efforts? A challenge that can pull from us more than we knew we could do."

"I think we ought to approach this challenge with a sense of profound joy and gratitude that we are the generation about which a thousand years from now philharmonic orchestras, and poets, and singers will celebrate by saying 'they were the ones that found it within themselves to solves this crisis and lay the basis for a bright an optimistic human future. Let's do that."

Al Gore, speaking in front of a live audience for Ted.com

View the full presentation below. It's well worth watching to the end, since Gore hangs around for an enlightening post-presentation Q&A in which he discusses the current presidential candidates.

These two brothers raised a lion from a baby at home in London. When it got too big they released it to an animal preserve in Africa. A year later they returned to try and find it to see how it was doing. They were told by authorities and the wildlife people the lion would not remember them. Happily for the brothers, the experts were wrong.

Be warned, this short video has no sound, but it's well worth watching.







If player fails to load click HERE to view.

"You can't take it with you," is a platitude that's often wheeled out when referring to wealth and earthly possessions. But the meaning of this worn out phrase is driven home at the point when you have to clear out an elderly or recently deceased person's home. All the things that they saved for best and never used, are sent to be used daily by strangers via Goodwill, and often the only footprint left from such precious life is the trinkets that are left behind.

Having been brought up by parents who grew up during World War II when commodities were scarce, I was always taught to treasure and value my possessions. Perhaps too much. My books were treated with such reverence that they appeared as if unread, my toys always looked like new, and everything was carefully and neatly put away in cupboards and draws.

When I grew up and left home, my things began dictating my life as I struggled to move my vast collection of stuff around with me. In a sense I became entombed by my things, as opposed to the pharaohs who entombed themselves with their things. But unlike the pharaohs, when I chose to move on to my next life across the Atlantic here in America, I had to leave the things I'd grown over-attached to behind. This separation from my stuff of life, though painful at the time (since it also represented stability and security), was the most freeing experience. It's one that has profoundly changed my life.

I vowed I would never again accumulate enough stuff to entrap me. It's enough to go through life weighed down with emotional baggage, without physical things adding to your load. And now, after my Granny moved into care at the start of this year, I'm seeing that the burden of her stuff has been passed on to my parents to bear. Every spare day my Mother and Father make the two hundred mile round trip to the place my Granny once called home. They spend their days there sorting through rooms full of stuff, making piles for family members, Goodwill and the trash collector. How sad, that in the twilight of my Granny's life it's her things that demand the bulk of their attention. But it's work that has to be done since the house she can no longer afford alongside nursing home fees must be cleared in order for life to move on.

Moving to America gave me a unique perspective on how much stuff actually gets in the way of life. The only things I miss from the stuff I left behind in England is my music collection. Not the physical vinyl, paper and plastic of my records and CDs, but the melodies and lyrics that made up the soundtrack of my young life. With any new music now compressed into MP3s, the most valuable possession to me is the data in my computer's hard drive, which also contains photographic memories and echoes of my thoughts, such as the words that are printed here. I often joke that my computer's memory is an extension of my mind, and my mind and my computer's carefully stores memories (which are religiously backed up) are the only two things that I really wouldn't care to lose.

Tips On How To Avoid The Accumulation of The Clutter of Life

• Rent if possible, don't buy.
  
• If you do buy, once you've stopped using it, pass it on.
  
• If you're only likely to use something once, see if you can borrow one first. Or go halves and share an item with a friend, that way you're not only sharing the cost but the storage responsibility.
  
• Think before you buy. Do you really need it? Where will you put it?
  
• If the answer to either of the above is "no" or "don't know" then leave it in the store. You need your money more than Walmart.
  
• Buy fair trade or from charity, or at least ethically sound, stores. That way, when you do spend money, it's not just paying for stuff, but is improving other people's lives too.
  
• You don't live in your own museum. Use and enjoy the stuff you do have. Everyday is a “best” day.

Don't get mad, get even. This very funny video turns the tables on the likes of Sally Kern. Much truth is often said in jest, and it certainly applies in this case. In 2005, New Scientist reported on a study that suggested that "genes contribute about 40% of the variability in a person's religiousness." A more recent study, also published in New Scientist, found that political ideology may be genetically inherited too. The Daily Mantra wonders if aversion therapy is as useful when used to treat political leanings and/or religion as it is when used to treat homosexuality? Perhaps gene therapy may ultimately provide a more reliable cure for right-wing Christian fundamentalists such a Sally Kern and our old pal Bill Donohue.

Meet the parrot that puts people to shame when it comes to solving complex metal puzzles.

File this under bizarre. We're not quite sure of the back-story, but were amused by this random footage we found of a breakdancing crew doing their thing for the previous pontiff, John Paul II.

I love this video pod from Current reporter Karney Hatch, who made his bank pay for the error of their ways (see video). After incurring a spate of outrageous overdraft charges, Hatch took Wells Fargo to small claims court to challenge "the common sense and fairness" of their fees. Rather than waste time and money in court, Wells Fargo decided to settle, rescinding the charges in question and agreeing to pay Hatch's court filing fees. "It was cheaper to give me back my fees rather than pay someone to defend the bank in court," notes Hatch.

A similar thing happened to me about a month ago. My husband and I have three accounts with our bank, two personal and one business. In addition, over the years I've done business management for several other companies, who have all held accounts at the same bank. I've have a relationship with our bank for over ten years, and during that time none of the accounts I've managed had ever gone into the red. With a longtime track record of being a model customer, I was therefore very upset when the bank chose to penalize me with inflated charges when a snafu occurred.

One of our checks was accidentally deposited into the wrong account, which caused it to go overdrawn when checks we had written cleared. Even though we had more than enough money to cover the checks over the three accounts we had with the bank, the bank decided to return three checks, which, if they had cleared would have created an overdraft of less than $250. The bank then charged us $36 per check for the privilege of refusing to honor them. In addition, we faced check return and late payment fees from our car insurance, phone and credit card companies because of the bank's actions.

I was particularly upset that the bank hadn't bothered to call me (which they did regularly to confirm other transactions for the many accounts I supervised), or taken my highly responsible banking record into account before they decided to bounce the three checks. Had they called, the situation could have been resolved instantly with a transfer between accounts. Instead, it seems to me, the bank saw an opportunity to make a quick buck ($108 actually) and took it, charging me fees, and putting my good credit, and car insurance policy, at risk in the process.

My initial complaints fell on officious and intransigent ears. The bank refused to refund the charges, insisting that they "couldn't" rather then "wouldn't" do it. Luckily for me, they'd erroneously mailed someone else's overdraft notice in the same envelope as mine, so with this as leverage, I agreed to do the right thing and hand over "John Doe's" letter on condition that the bank did the right thing and rescinded my fees.

But the episode left a very bitter taste in my mouth, and got me thinking about those less fortunate than myself, for whom the system is particularly unfair. Just one of the three fees the bank had taken from my account, without my permission, was the equivalent to the best part of a day's pay for someone on minimum wage. Put the three together and it's well over half a week's salary for the hard working poor. How can that be fair?

"If you took out a $40 overdraft loan at the prevailing overdraft fee of just over $27, and you paid it back in a week, it would be over three-thousand, five hundred percent interest," said Eric Halperin from the Center For Responsible Lending in an interview with Hatch. How can such extortion even be legal?

"I felt like I was at the bottom of this elaborate pyramid scheme designed to extract money from people who didn't have it to just funnel it up to the CEOs and the higher up in the company," confessed a former Wells Fargo loans collection officer in Hatch's film.

With such sharp practices these banks are no better than loan sharks. And with the economy in crisis, such money generating policies are likely to increase as the banks desperately try to claw back the funds they've been forced to write off due to the mortgage fiasco we're in the midst of right now. Once again the consumer is paying (dearly) for the mistakes fat cat, big business has made.

So what can we do? Certainly it's all our responsibilities to refuse to take such treatment lying down. The banks are only able to charge such outrageous fees because on some level we allow them to get away with it. Next time you get an unfair charge, call the bank on it. You may be able to afford to eat it, but the person standing in line behind you might not, and, as a society, we stand or fall together. If one employee refuses to help, refuse to be brushed off. Ask to see their superior, and if they can't help, ask to see theirs. Threaten to close your account down and take your business elsewhere, and DO IT if they fail to offer an acceptable resolution. Remember, money talks loudly when it walks out the door.

If all else fails, take a leaf out of Hatch's playbook, and take your bank or credit card company to small claims court. As Ralph Nader says, "If a million consumers filed a million small claims court actions a year against the banks, the banks would either try to abolish the small claims court or try to improve their performance." Perhaps it's our responsibility to put that theory to the test. Once we've knocked the banks into shape, my next raison d'être will be local councils and the parking fines they charge. Try paying those on a minimum wage!

Two separate studies published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine have found that Tai Chi can help control type 2 diabetes. Both sets of researchers, working independently at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan and the University of Queensland in Australia, found that a 12 week exercise program based on the ancient Chinese meditative martial art form boosted the immune system and significantly reduced blood sugar levels.

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the (over) developed world. Over 20 million Americans suffer from the condition. Type 2, which is linked to obesity, accounts for 90-95% of diabetes cases in America. Over the last fifteen years the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has doubled, and the Center For Disease Control predicts the incidence of diabetes will double again by the year 2050, which means a lot of Americans should start practicing Tai Chi's gentle movements and controlled breathing.

"Exercise helps people with diabetes by improving the control of blood glucose level, as well as minimizing the complications of diabetes," says physician and Tai Chi expert Dr Paul Lam, who was ahead of the curve, producing a Tai Chi for Diabetes DVD in 2002. "Stress is shown to make the control of diabetes worse and relaxation is especially beneficial. It is well established that tai chi reduces stress and improves relaxation."

The CDC estimates that nearly one third of the 20 million-plus Americans with diabetes do not know they have it. Find out if you're one of the 6.2 millions American that has yet to be diagnosed by clicking HERE to take the American Diabetes Association's Risk Test.

And since Tai Chi has been found to be beneficial for numerous other conditions, including ADHD, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, even if you're not at risk from diabetes, you may want to consider giving Tai Chi a try. Unlike most martial arts, it's primarily a non-contact discipline and is suitable for people of all ages.

Click HERE to apply to become a Virgle pioneer. For more information about the open source, inter-planetary colonization project, view Richard Branson's orientation video by clicking HERE .

Enjoy this seasonal mocumentary on the migration habits of tropical sun-loving penguins from the jokers over at the BBC (click HERE to view video if player fails to load).