Is a paradigm shift underway in sugary beverages like Coke and Pepsi? Let’s hope so. According to the following NY Times article, a seismic shift is underway as schools begin to ban these drinks from their campuses in favor of healthier alternatives. This trend is likely to accelerate as the connection between disease and sugar is amplified. This excellent Natural News article on sugar is worth reading. And, for now, New York State has shelved the idea of a soda tax on sugary sodas and juice drinks. But New York City’s public health officials opened a new front in their struggle against high-calorie beverages on Monday, unveiling a new ad campaign that graphically depicts globs of human fat gushing from a sideways drink bottle.

Today’s economic crisis is capitalism’s worst since the Great Depression. Millions have lost their jobs, homes and healthcare while those who work watch their pensions, benefits and job security decline. As more and more are impacted by the crisis, the system continues to make the very wealthy even richer. In eye-opening interviews with prominent economist Richard Wolff, David Barsamian probes the root causes of the current economic crisis, its unjust social consequences and what can and should be done to turn things around. While others blame corrupt bankers and unregulated speculators or the government or even the poor who borrowed, the authors show that the causes of the crisis run much deeper. They reach back to the 1970s when the capitalist system itself shifted, ending the century-old pattern of rising wages for U.S. workers and thereby enabling the top 1% to become ultra-rich at the expense of the 99%. Since then, economic injustice has become chronic and further corrupted politics. The Occupy movement, by articulating deep indignation with the whole system, mobilizes huge numbers who seek basic change. Occupy the Economy not only clarifies and analyzes the crisis in U.S. capitalism today, it also points toward solutions that can shape a far better future for all.

Richard D. Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at U. Mass, and Visiting Professor at the New School University. Author of Capitalism Hits the Fan, he’s been a guest on NPR, Glenn Beck Show, and Democracy Now!

David Barsamian is founder and director of Alternative Radio and author of Targeting Iran. He is best known for his interview books with Noam Chomsky, including What We Say Goes.

Listen to Richard Wolff’s recent radio interview.

On November 13th 2011, economists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst drafted an open statement to the Occupy Wall Street movement pledging their support. Since then, more than 250 economists from around the world have added their names.

A new light has gone on in the Green Party. Her name is Dr.  Jill Stein and it appears she will be their Presidential nominee. She may not win but her voice is clear and she tells the truth, a rarity in politics today. Visit her website http://www.jillstein.org

by Andy Isaacson
From UTNE

Five years ago, while he was harvesting mussels on the Pacific coast, Kaichang Li, a wood science and engineering professor at Oregon State University, marveled at how the mollusks were able to cling to shoreline rocks even when they were being pounded by ocean waves. Later, munching on a bowl of tofu, Li started to think about how the small threads the mussel uses to anchor itself contain a protein that functions as a sort of adhesive. He had a revelation: Amino acids could be added to soybeans—a protein-rich, locally abundant crop (not to mention a tasty lunch)—to create a water-resistant, all-natural bonding agent.

Read more…

Read more about Biommicry:

http://janinebenyus.com

http://chirp.wildcenter.org/gallery/moi/index.html?gclid=CKHntP2qm64CFeIQNAodOUoSLA#mother-of-invention

Paradise or Oblivion details the root causes of the systemic value disorders and detrimental symptoms caused by our current established system. This video presentation advocates a new socio-economic system, which is updated to present-day knowledge, featuring the life-long work of Social Engineer, Futurist, Inventor and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco, which he calls a Resource-Based Economy.

The film details the need to outgrow the dated and inefficient methods of politics, law, business, or any other “establishment” notions of human affairs, and use the methods of science, combined with high technology, to provide for the needs of all the world’s people. It is not based on the opinions of the political and financial elite or on illusionary so-called democracies, but on maintaining a dynamic equilibrium with the planet that could ultimately provide abundance for all people.

Paradise or Oblivion, by The Venus Project, introduces the viewer to a more appropriate value system that would be required to enable this caring and holistic approach to benefit human civilization. This alternative surpasses the need for a monetary-based, controlled, and scarcity-oriented environment, which we find ourselves in today.

*This is NOT the “major motion picture” that The Venus Project is working towards but rather is a 52 min. documentary to introduce the aims and proposals to new people. Paradise or Oblivion will be released in March 2012 and we will post a link to the documentary as soon as it is released.

In the meantime, if you are not familiar with the work of Jacque Fresco and his Venus Project, here is a link to his highly informative newsletter and The Venue Project site. Fresco is one of the most brilliant minds of our time and his visionary proposals make total sense. He just raised funds to hire a screenwriter to develop a feature film that can inform the world that a solution exists to humanity’s challenges. This film cannot arrive too soon. Like Buckminster Fuller before him, the world is fortunate to have his brilliant mind and heart in service to life. NPD will continue to update readers on Jacque’s progress as it means our progress.

YouTube’s statistics continue to boggle the mind. It serves 4 billion videos every day, a 25% increase in the past eight months. It served a trillion videos in 2011, about 140 views for every living human being. in 2010, it reported “nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined” every day, and has doubled its daily audience again this year.

ANCIENT FUTURE

World Without Walls is world fusion music’s Ancient Future at their finest along with special guest, Zakir Hussain. There are Middle Eastern, Oriental, Spanish, Celtic and Indian flavors throughout this early offering from 1990 and the result is a multicultural musical treat worth adding to your collection if you may have missed this piece of their musical legacy.

FOSTER GAMBLE’S RESPONSE

TO GEORGIA KELLY’S

“THRIVE: DECONSTRUCTING THE FILM”

Foster Gamble’s well reasoned response is definitely worth a read. In it, he further articulates many of THRIVE’s main points. If you have not seen the film yet, this may be the catalyst that will compel you to do so. In a world of hidden agendas, it’s refreshing to read reasonable, compassionate and intelligent commentary.

RESEARCHERS: SUGAR IS A TOXIN AND SHOULD BE REGULATED

Sugar causes inflammation in the body and a myriad of other problems including brain chemistry disorders. Click here to view the video.

LOVE AND BUSINESS

Do you ever feel that you have to choose between love and business? Or have you heard this before? “Love or Business, you have to choose.”  The message is direct – you have to decide what you value more, something/one you love or your work/business. Actually, there is a more factual statement – Love is Good Business. You can read about how love is good for your business in integral business expert, Marilyn Tam’s great article by clicking here

WELLNESS TRENDS

From LOHAS, here are 12 emerging trends.

PROJECT PEACE ON EARTH CONCERT

Bringing together the Middle East in Peace was a dream of Steve Robertson. His dream came true in December. Watch this inspiring concert now.

Thanks to the success of TOMS Shoes, it seems like a new lifestyle company putting charitable giving at the center of its brand debuts every week. Jewelry, rugs, and eyeglasses have all been transformed into instruments of philanthropy, supporting causes from clean oceans to rural development in Afghanistan.

So Sevenly, a newcomer in the crowded space, may appear to be riding the coattails of other ideas and businesses that have come before it. But several tweaks to the clothes-for-good business model make Sevenly stand out. Every week, the company posts a new T-shirt and hoodie design to its site: Each seven-day flash sale benefits a different charity. Every $22 t-shirt sold offers $7 to the charity of the week, 30 percent of the revenue. Just seven months after launching, the Fullerton, California-based company has already sold nearly 27,000 T-shirts and raised about $200,000 for charity.

“Sevenly is a connector,” says Ryan Wood, the company’s director of public awareness and partnerships. “What our customers appreciate most is that we connect them with charities and causes they wouldn’t otherwise know about. A T-shirt is simply the vehicle for what we hope is a lifetime connection and passion for a charity and cause.” Wood says Sevenly first selects important causes to fund, then finds a specific charity that seems to be operating most effectively in each cause’s space. This week, proceeds will fund research and advocacy group Autism Speaks—in the past, Sevenly’s given to everyone from the Breast Cancer Foundation to the anti-slavery organization Somamly Mam Foundation. Charities aspiring to work with Sevenly can apply here.

How to Get More Stuff Done Faster

Procrastination slowing you down? Marketer Michael Fortin shaes 6 tips on how to achieve more in less time.

Organics Delivere to Your Door

Green PolkaDot Box, a new company that offers affordable nationwide delivery of natural, organic and GMO-free foods has just opened for business. They offer savings up to 60% off. To explore their site, click here.

The Shadow Side of Education

The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America is a book that you may want to read if you have children in school or may want to recommend to anyone you know anyone who does. It’s available as a free download now. It’s a #1 Bestseller in Barnes & Nobel’s History of Education category.

Next Generation Robot

From Institute of Noetic Sciences

Ed. Note: There are few scholars in the world better equipped to evaluate where civilization is headed than eminent professor of philosophy and cultural history Richard Tarnas. In the following dialogue, excerpted and edited from the Institute of Noetic Sciences’ teleseminar series, Shifting Paradigms, IONS Senior Scientist Dean Radin talks with Dr. Tarnas about the notion of paradigm shifts and what is required for a society to make such a leap. To read a chapter from Tarnas’s book, Cosmos and Psyche, go here.

Radin: In your first book, The Passion of the Western Mind (1993), you explain the context in which we find ourselves, how we got where we are. Most people most of the time don’t think much about why they believe the things that they do and why society works the way that it does. In your second book, Cosmos and Psyche (2006), you use an enchanted view of reality, in a sense, to show why some of the aspects of traditional astrology are actually quite useful in seeing where we are and where we are going.

Tarnas: I wrote The Passion of the Western Mind as a kind of overview of the history of the Western worldview up until the late twentieth century. I wanted to try to see the larger paradigm shifts that took place and the major factors that were at work in forming our current worldview. We really can’t understand ourselves or the present without having a good grasp of the historical factors that shaped us. I love that sentence from historian Daniel Boorstein: “Trying to understand and create the future without knowing the past is like planting cut flowers.” We need a sense of our roots. The Passion of the Western Mind gives that kind of overview.

It’s particularly focused on the West, starting from the ancient Greeks, because that’s the cultural worldview that is so fundamental in shaping the global context today. For better or worse, modernity is the most powerful influence on our global civilization now, and that history goes from the ancient Greeks up through the Roman period, right through the medieval era to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the scientific revolution, and so forth, up to the modern and postmodern periods. In my first book, I attempted to see the big picture as well as the ways in which a culture’s philosophy, religion, and science interact in any given era; it will shape the worldview, the cosmology, the notion of the divine, the notion of our understanding of the human self and its place in the universe. All these things constitute a worldview. So, in that book, I sought to understand that evolution of consciousness as well as I could.

My second book, Cosmos and Psyche, is actually the reason I wrote the first book, which served as a kind of prelude and a foundation to the second one—I’ll go into that in a second.

But perhaps we might want to engage some of the larger issues that go into paradigm shifts and why a culture seems ready or ripe for a major change of vision at a particular time? What makes a difference?

To continue reading this penetrating interview, click here.

Three upcoming IONS events:

“Conscious Aging” Telecourse

On January 18th, IONS begins its next 8-week educational program, “Conscious Aging,” facilitated by Kathleen Erickson-Freeman, IONS Elder Education Program Manager, and featuring experts in the field of conscious aging. Sessions will take place on eight consecutive Wednesday evenings from 5–7pm PT through March 7th. The course is $75 for IONS members and $235 for nonmembers (you can join for as low as $35!); low income rates are also available. To register, go here. Next on the schedule: “Buddha’s Brain: Taking in the Good” with Rick Hanson, PhD, from March 14 – May 2. More details coming soon…

Spirituality and Psychology Conference
February 17–19, 2012
Menlo College, Atherton, CA

The third biennial ATP-ITP Spirituality & Psychology Conference will bring together clinicians, therapists, spiritual guides, faith-based and healing practitioners, academics, and researchers to explore the promises and pitfalls of the spiritual path. Join keynote speakers Roger Walsh, Shauna Shapiro, Jeanne Achterberg and a host of luminaries including Jim Fadiman, Arthur Hastings, Olga Louchakova, and David Lukoff to examine the nature of spiritual illusion while we seek the wisdom and health benefits available in spirituality. Enjoy workshops, presentations, music, ritual, yoga, meditation, drumming, and social networking. For more information and to register, visit www.regonline.com/spiritualitypsychology.

Noetic Film Experience

From psi research and positive psychology to meditation, mythology, and personal transformation, IONS’ first Noetic Film Experience will have something for everyone. Join us March 9–11, 2012, at the IONS EarthRise Retreat Center where we will celebrate the power of film while sharing our experiences via panels, receptions, and Q&A with filmmakers and scientists. The lineup is coming together, and additional films just booked include The Dhamma Brothers, a powerful documentary about the introduction of meditation techniques into a high-security Alabama prison. Finding Joe, which explores the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell and his focus on The Hero’s Journey. May I Be Frank, the inspiring story of a troubled man whose life starts to change when he meets the folks at Café Gratitude. Something Unknown, considered by many to be the best film on parapsychology research ever made.

And this just in: Jean Houston will be joining us to introduce and discuss her new movie, A Passion for the Possible, premiering at the festival! Go here to register or for more information.

For sponsorship information, contact Matthew Gilbert at mgilbert@noetic.org.

Judith Thompson and James O’Dey are pioneers in this emergent field and Judith has written a brilliant overview that beautifully articulates the story and framework of Social Healing. I invite you to enjoy her article and if you want to know more to download the free The Social Healing Project Report available at http://www.charityfocus.org/docs/books/socialhealing.pdf

We Are Between Stories
by Judith Thompson

We live in an exciting time. As cultural historian, Thomas Berry put it: “We are between stories.” The old story — bracketed on the one side by reductionist scientific materialism, and on the other by institutional religious dogmas — is no longer able to guide us toward human or planetary flourishing. Instead, the chasms created by both science and religion, and the various social philosophies they spawned, are implicated in pushing us toward the precipitous edge upon which we now stand. At this edge we see both breakdowns and breakthroughs.

While the story of scientific materialism has been part of our evolutionary journey, it has created a map of reality — a worldview — that de-legitimized a vast portion of wisdom and experience. It placed reason over intuition, intellect over emotion, material over spiritual, objectivity over subjectivity, exteriority over interiority, and condensed this into a story that we live in a mechanistic, material world that can only be known through objective and measurable observation in which human reason reigns supreme.

Institutionalized religion upheld a story that gave male authority figures the power to interpret and mediate purported divine
laws and construct theological justifications for power over women, children, the natural world, and non-believers. While scientific and
religious stories were at odds with each other, both saw it in their interests to label metaphysical or spiritual worldviews outside their boundaries as heresy, superstition or witchcraft.

Yet ironically, science itself has now begun to step into the realm of the mystics. The “new sciences” story finds biologists and neuroscientists astounded by the hitherto unstudied capacities of the human brain and heart, indicating our ability to intentionally amplify love and compassion. It finds psychologists exploring the territory of contemplatives and revealing a map of human consciousness far beyond the individual ego-self. It finds physicists discovering that the presumed separation of observed and observer doesn’t exist.

Much like the African worldview of Ubuntu — “I am because you are” – all things exists as a communion of subjects, not an assortment of objects. The new story frames the human journey, not within the context of tribes or nations, but embedded in a constantly evolving planet and cosmos, interconnected and interdependent at every level. The implications of this framing could signal dramatic changes in
every field of human endeavor. The trends we are seeing within restorative justice, reconciliation, transitional justice, dialogue and other forms of peace practice, are evidence of new ways of addressing human conflict that are moving beyond the old dichotomies. We have chosen to name this trend social healing partly because we see an evolving paradigm that is not fundamentally hinged around the dualities of good vs. bad and right vs. wrong, but is rather inclined toward viewing human conflict through the lens of wounding and healing. Social healing, then, is not guided by revenge, retribution or punishment, but rather by the compassionate response of relating to all people — victims, transgressors and bystanders alike – as inextricably connected.

–JudithThompson, in _Social Healing Project [1]_report
Links:
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[1] http://charityfocus.org/docs/books/socialhealing.pdf