esotericvoyage.com

Just when people need spiritually and a connection to the Universe the most, they are seeking it in smaller and smaller numbers.  The following is a graph of the relative number of searches on Google for the word “meditation” over the last six years from Google Insight:

This graph is searches for “spiritual”:

This one is searches for “ghosts” (See Why Hunt Ghosts): Notice it peaks during Halloween ever year… a time when the veil gets thinner between this reality and other realities.

And these are at a time when the number of people connected to the Internet is rising. 

Here is the opposite; the relative number of searches for “money”:

When economic times are tough, people focus more on their physical well-being and less on their spiritual well-being.

from http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110393/seven-flaws-in-chinas-growth-model

…Chinese colleges graduate many times the number of engineers and scientists that American universities produce, but such statistics are misleading. To meet the quotas for graduates set by Beijing, academic programs dilute their standards.

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Those engineers and scientists who do measure up — the cream of Chinese universities or those who study overseas and return home — often have little freedom to explore. If they work for state-owned firms or universities, Beijing dictates the direction of research and development. Many gravitate to the more open atmosphere at private firms, but these companies can’t get loans to grow because state enterprises gobble up the capital.

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Water pollution and water shortages pose the most serious problems. They cause health ailments, damage agriculture, jam up hydroelectric dams, interfere with manufacturing and limit urbanization.

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One of the major reasons Beijing has such a hard time dealing with all the problems mentioned above is that so many individuals have a vested interest in keeping things exactly as they are. Communist Party officials pay for their advancement, then aim to earn back their investment. Local governments seize houses and land, sell it to developers with little compensation for those displaced, then take kickbacks from the construction companies

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As the generation of the Cultural Revolution retires, the burden of their care falls heavily on the smaller generation of the one-child policy.

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from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/843240–solved-the-mystery-artist-behind-the-humber-statues?bn=1

An egret hunts for small fish among the inukshuk-like rock statues in the Humber River near the Old Mill.

RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR

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Katie Daubs Staff Reporter

The intricately balanced rock statues that appeared in the Humber River this weekend are the work of Toronto photographer Peter Riedel.A story in Tuesday’s Star described the mysterious statues that appeared “overnight” in the Humber River near the Old Mill area.

People who live in the area thought it was the work of engineering students or anonymous urban artists.

Riedel’s friend called him Tuesday morning to alert him.

“It was a real thrill to see it in the paper,” Riedel, 48 said at his home Tuesday morning. “It was a nice way to wake up with a coffee.”

But as for balancing rocks under the cloak of darkness, that’s not the case. He waded into the Humber River on Sunday afternoon, and balanced rocks for four hours.

“I find it a really nice way to relax and get a bit of a workout at the same time,” he said.

A few years ago, Riedel was intrigued when he saw a man in Vancouver’s English Bay balancing rocks. He started off stacking rocks side to side and then balanced them corner to corner.

Riedel now moves with instinct— when he’s lifting 20 kilogram rocks he doesn’t really have a choice.

“There’s a centre of gravity, an invisible spine where it will stay in place. You just have to jiggle it around until it’s standing on its own,” he said. “Over time you get a really good feel for matching rock surfaces and counter balancing.”

Riedel said the rocks usually will stay balanced for a few days, depending on wind gusts and accessibility.

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from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012302516_proton08.html

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European researchers dropped a potential bombshell on their colleagues around the world Wednesday by reporting that sophisticated new measurements indicate the radius of the proton is 4 percent smaller than previously believed.

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If the standard model turns out to be wrong, “it would be quite revolutionary. It would mean that we know a lot less than we thought we knew,” said physicist Peter Mohr of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., who was not involved in the research. “If it is a fundamental problem, we don’t know what the consequences are yet.”

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In an editorial accompanying the report in the journal Nature, physicist Jeff Flowers of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, England, said there are three possibilities: Either the experimenters have made a mistake, the calculations used in determining the size of the proton are wrong or, potentially most exciting and disturbing, the standard model has a problem.

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The Scherrer team is rechecking its calculations, as will physicists around the world. Meanwhile, the Scherrer team plans to repeat the experiment using helium atoms, which have two protons and two electrons, instead of hydrogen. That should either confirm or refute their findings.

For now, it’s unclear whether the result will be confirmed as an experimental mistake or a revolution in physics. “I wouldn’t bet on anything now,” Mohr said. “It’s not at all clear.”