• In an Egyptian orchestra, blind women shine
• Buddhist leaders from 85 countries to Join Buddhajayanti in Thailand
• Russia: Eco-activists turn farm into green architecture incubator

• Britpop star Tim Burgess on success, excess and consciousness - 'I haven't missed a TM session in four years'
• David Lynch Foundation comedy night to honor legendary Seinfeld producer George Shapiro - 30 June
• Transcendental Meditation and spirituality: Demystifying transcendence

• Decline of linguistic and cultural diversity linked
• Corruption scandal shakes Vatican as internal letters leaked
• Cyberbullying a problem around the globe: poll

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

In an Egyptian orchestra, blind women shine
20 May 2012 - Egypt's Blind Girls Chamber Orchestra has performed on five continents in 24 countries. The assembly of white-veiled Egyptian women in matching black gowns first learn the songs by reading sheet music in Braille. Since it is impossible to read Braille and play an instrument at the same time, the musicians must memorize every note of every song. The orchestra was born out of the El Nour Wal Amal (Light and Hope) Association, a group founded in 1954 by women volunteers who sought to educate blind women and help them become independent women. (more)

Buddhist leaders from 85 countries to Join Buddhajayanti in Thailand
19 May 2012 - Buddhist leaders from all over the world will join the ninth International Buddhist Conference on the United Nations Day of Vesak in Thailand. The conference is part of celebrations for the 2,600th anniversary of the enlightenment of the Buddha, or Buddhajayanti, the biggest Buddhist event of the year. In celebration of the world Visakha Puja Day 2012 and Buddhajayanti, Thailand will hold a Buddhism Week at Sanam Luang ceremonial ground in Bangkok from 29 May to 4 June. (more)

Russia: Eco-activists turn farm into green architecture incubator
18 May 2012 - An ambitious young architect has joined efforts with other activists to turn a traditional Soviet farm into an example of green architecture. In the beginning there was simply an old farm an hour outside Moscow, rented by Ivan Ovchinnikov and his friends -- a place to practice architectural creativity and experiment with design in the countryside. But the idea really took off, eventually attracting creative youth from all walks of life. (more)

British Library explores UK landscape over millennium
17 May 2012 - The 150 works chosen to represent more than 1,000 years of British literature in 'Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands' is a new British Library exhibition on how landscape permeates some of the best British writing, and how writers have responded to space and place. Curator Jamie Andrews, head of English and Drama at the British Library, selected thematic snapshots of different types of places for the exhibition, which he describes as 'choose your own adventure' in style. (more)

Palestinians perform Shakespeare's 'Richard II' in Arabic
17 May 2012 - Palestinian theatre group Ashtar, best known for the 2010 production of 'The Gaza Monologues', performed their version of Shakespeare's 'Richard II' in Arabic on 4 May at London's Globe theatre as part of the Globe to Globe Festival. Troupes and performers from all over the world will perform Shakespeare plays in 37 languages at this year's festival. (more)

UK: Boats, Bollywood, and bagpipes in Queen's flotilla
17 May 2012 - A Chinese junk, Venetian gondolas, and a boat rowed by Olympic champions will be part of the 1,000-vessel flotilla on London's River Thames as part of a pageant to celebrate The Queen's diamond jubilee next month, organizers said on Thursday. 'This will be a historic event in the life of London and indeed the nation, really without parallel in scale and vision,' Michael Lockett, chief executive of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation said at briefing in central London. (more)

US: Take in Yosemite views -- by computer
15 May 2012 - Just in time for spring snowmelt: a webcam pointed at one of Yosemite National Park's main attractions, the soaring 2,425-foot Yosemite Falls. The HD camera went live on North America's tallest fall Monday, allowing anyone with computer access to watch in stunning detail as shadows race across the towering granite monolith over which Yosemite Creek crashes in a series of plunges and cascades. It's the fourth webcam the nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy has set up -- the other three are pointed toward the park icons Half Dome, Yosemite's most recognizable granite feature, and El Capitan, the 3,000-foot sheer-faced monolith popular with climbers. It joins a smattering of others across the nation, including one at Yellowstone's renowned geyser Old Faithful. (more)

Mass photo project thinks global, but encourages local
14 May 2012 - Photographers participating in a global effort to capture human life in all its variety and moods are being urged to 'think local, think small'. The aday.org project -- in which photographers in more than 190 nations will share images online taken on one day, Tuesday 15 May -- draws inspiration from 'Family of Man,' a 1955 international exhibition that became a multi-million-selling book. (more)

US: Wyoming's Heart Mountain centre gets museum award
14 May 2012 - The Heart Mountain Interpretive Centre in Park County has been recognized with an award from the American Association of Museums. The site of a World War II Japanese American internment camp received the association's 'Eloquent Presentation of Topic' award. The Heart Mountain centre opened in August 2011. (more)

Greece: Olympia torch lighting starts London countdown
10 May 2012 - The countdown to the London Olympics began with the kindling of the Games torch by the sun's rays in ancient Olympia on Thursday, sparking a relay that will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic stadium's cauldron at the opening ceremony on 27 July. 'The energy that passes from the sun to the Olympic flame will light a torch that will travel from this birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games to the country that invented modern sport and the spirit of fair play, heralding the opening of the 2012 London Games on July 27,' International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Britpop star Tim Burgess on success, excess and consciousness - 'I haven't missed a TM session in four years'
19 May 2012 - The lead singer of the British band The Charlatans talks to Metro, the Telegraph and The Independent about making it, detox, and Transcendental Meditation. 'Tim Burgess, 44, should by rights be merely yet another rock casualty,' writes Nick Durden in The Independent, referring to Burgess's wilder years in the 90's as the Britpop band's frontman. Instead the singer comes across as youthful and 'breezy charm personified', as he describes the ups and downs of the rock 'n' roll years and how he has more recently maintained a healthier lifestyle through good diet, yoga, and Transcendental Meditation. (more)

David Lynch Foundation comedy night to honor legendary Seinfeld producer George Shapiro - 30 June
16 May 2012 - On Saturday, 30 June in Los Angeles, legendary talent manager and producer George Shapiro will receive the 'Lifetime of Bliss Award' at a benefit for the David Lynch Foundation. George has been Jerry Seinfeld's manager for 30 years, and is perhaps best known for his role as executive producer of the immensely popular TV series Seinfeld. Mr Shapiro has been practising Transcendental Meditation for 30 years, and all proceeds from the event will go to providing Transcendental Meditation to heal traumatic stress and raise performance for veterans and at-risk youth. (more)

Transcendental Meditation and spirituality: Demystifying transcendence
12 May 2012 - Whether one is searching for inner beatitude or simply to move through each day with grace, the Transcendental Meditation technique naturally unfolds the wholeness of one's inmost Self--the spiritual essence of life. (more)

Everyone can enjoy experiences of the transcendent, celebrated by great poets: New essay
30 April 2012 - The extraordinary--and extraordinarily natural--experiences of the transcendental field of life, on which William Wordsworth based his famous poems, including 'Tintern Abbey', need not be left to chance, writes Craig Pearson, PhD, in a new essay in his series on great historical figures in world culture. With the Transcendental Meditation Technique, direct experience of this field--and the many benefits it brings to human life--is now available to everyone. (more)

Paralympic medalist Daniel Westley relies on Transcendental Meditation to ease training pressures
28 April 2012 - Daniel Westley is a Canadian athlete who won 12 medals while competing in five Paralympic Games--four of which were gold. Westley says he relied on his daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation Technique to help him compete in the Paralympics, a biennial event run in parallel with the Olympic Games for elite athletes with a physical disability. He also says that the positive influence of the TM program has extended far beyond sports. (more)

'New Paradigm' North American tour visits Chicago
22 April 2012 - The 'New Paradigm' tour of 10 North American cities came to Chicago Sunday evening, 22 April. At the event--entitled 'A New Paradigm: Veda, Consciousness, the Ramayana, and the Self'--leading scientists, artists and business leaders explored 'the meeting point of science and spirituality' by presenting pioneering research that reveals the Veda and the Ramayana as blueprints of the human body and the entire universe. Although 650 members of the Indo-American community registered for the sold-out event, hundreds more continued to stream in throughout the evening. (more)

Expert on Transcendental Meditation and the brain presents to Oprah employees
17 April 2012 - Employees of Oprah Winfrey at Harpo Studios in Chicago recently had the opportunity to learn from Maharishi University of Management faculty neuroscientist Dr Fred Travis how stress affects the brain and how the Transcendental Meditation technique helps. (more)

Oprah's TV show on Transcendental Meditation in 'America's most unusual town' - Replay Sunday, 15 April
14 April 2012 - Oprah Winfrey's primetime TV show about Transcendental Meditation, first shown 3 weeks ago, will be rebroadcast this Sunday, 15 April on the OWN network. The hourlong episode of 'Oprah's Next Chapter' follows her through one day in Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA--'one of the safest, greenest and most unusual communities in America . . . where thousands practice the Transcendental Meditation technique twice a day.' Hundreds of thousands across America watched the original broadcast and have been flooding the TM.org website and local centres to learn more about it. (more)

Donovan: Catching up with a folk rock superman - Billboard interview
13 April 2012 - Legendary singer, songwriter and poet Donovan is being honoured Saturday, 14 April 2012 by being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A recent wide-ranging interview with Billboard went in depth into many facets of his life and the development of his music. A topic of special interest was Donovan's many years practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and how it has affected his music; and his involvement with the David Lynch Foundation, which supports the teaching of TM to help at-risk groups overcome the devastating effects of traumatic stress. (more)

Sunday 8 April: Oprah's TV show on Transcendental Meditation in 'America's most unusual town'
8 April 2012 - Oprah Winfrey's primetime TV show about Transcendental Meditation, first shown two weeks ago, was rebroadcast Sunday, 8 April on the OWN network. The hourlong episode of 'Oprah's Next Chapter' follows her through one day in Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA--'one of the safest, greenest and most unusual communities in America . . . where thousands practice the Transcendental Meditation technique twice a day.' Hundreds of thousands across America watched the original broadcast and have been flooding the TM.org website and local centres to learn more about it. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Decline of linguistic and cultural diversity linked
13 May 2012 - The decline of linguistic and cultural diversity is linked to the loss of biodiversity, a study has suggested. The authors said that 70 per cent of the world's languages were found within the planet's biodiversity hotspots. Data showed that as these important environmental areas were degraded over time, cultures and languages in the area were also being lost. The results of the study have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 'Biologists estimate annual loss of species at 1,000 times or more greater than historic rates, and linguists predict that 50-90 per cent of the world's languages will disappear by the end of the century,' the researchers wrote. (more)

Corruption scandal shakes Vatican as internal letters leaked
26 January 2012 - The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandalafter an Italian television investigation said a former top official had been transferred against his will after complaining about irregularities in awarding contracts. The show 'The Untouchables' showed what it said were several letters that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was then deputy-governor of Vatican City, sent to superiors, including Pope Benedict, in 2011 about the corruption. Vigano, currently the Vatican's ambassador in Washington, said in the letters that when he took the job in 2009 he discovered a web of corruption, nepotism, and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to outside companies at inflated prices. In one letter, Vigano tells the pope of a smear campaign against him (Vigano) by other Vatican officials who wanted him transferred because they were upset that he had taken drastic steps to save the Vatican money by cleaning up its procedures. Despite his appeals to the pope that a transfer 'would be a defeat difficult for me to accept', Vigano was named ambassador to Washington in October of last year. (more)

Cyberbullying a problem around the globe: poll
11 January 2012 - More than 10 per cent of parents around the world say their child has been cyberbullied and nearly one-fourth know a youngster who has been a victim, according to a new Ipsos/Reuters poll. And more than three-quarters of people questioned in the global survey thought cyberbullying differed from other types of harassment and warranted special attention and efforts from parents and schools. 'The key to this study is that it measures parental awareness of cyberbullying, not actual rates of the behaviour,' said Keren Gottfried, of the global research firm Ipsos. 'While we can't speculate on what actually happens, it is quite possible that the proportion of children actually being cyberbullied is in fact understated, since we are speaking with the parents, not the kids.' (more)

US: Cell phones, devices biggest driving distractions
7 July 2011 - Driving distractions, primarily by cell phones and other electronic devices, are associated with up to 25 per cent of US car crashes, according to a report released in June. The study by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), a nonprofit group that works to improve traffic safety, assessed research from more than 350 scientific papers published since 2000. It showed that drivers are distracted up to half the time and that crashes caused by distractions range from minor damage to fatal injury. Cell phone use raises the risk of crashing, but texting is likely to increase crash risk more than cell phone use. (more)

Poll: Many Romanian teens rampantly intolerant
13 April 2011 - Teenagers in Romania are widely intolerant of Gypsies, gays, and people with AIDS, according to a new poll that called the results 'extremely worrisome'. The findings published late Tuesday came from a poll paid for by the Soros Foundation and conducted in November. The report says the results show a large number of Romanian teenagers could be described as racist and anti-Semitic. The poll also showed that 42 per cent are opposed to having a Muslim neighbour, and 34 per cent opposed to a Jewish neighbour. The findings showed that while children from more educated families were generally less intolerant, they were more intolerant of Gypsies, or Roma. In Romania, home to an estimated 1.5 million Roma, there is widespread prejudice against the minority. (more)

Russian traditional art, culture, withers away
10 April 2011 - Centuries-old Russian craft-making, such as the varnished boxes of Palekh -- which before the Soviet era bore pictures of religious icons -- and other famous Russian village handicrafts -- wooden toys from Bogorodsk, blue majolica ceramics from Gzhel, iron trays from Zhostovo, to name a few -- may soon become history. Artisans blame the decline in Russian crafts largely on an industrial recession in a country where plants and factories can compete neither with the sophistication of Western technologies nor the cheapness of Chinese manufacturing. (more)

Thousands rally in Pakistan for blasphemy laws
9 January 2011 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Pakistan's largest city on Sunday to oppose any change to national blasphemy laws and to praise a man charged with murdering a provincial governor who had campaigned against the divisive legislation. The rally of up to 50,000 people in downtown Karachi was one of the largest demonstrations of support for the laws, which make insulting Islam a capital offence. It was organized before the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was shot dead on Tuesday in Islamabad by a bodyguard who told a court he considered Taseer a blasphemer. Muslim groups have praised the bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, and have used Taseer's death to warn others not to speak out against the much-derided laws. The size of the Karachi rally, which was large even by the standards of the city of 16 million, showed how bitter the argument is over the decades-old laws. (more)

Facebook hurting Thai language
23 July 2010 - Facebook and Twitter are causing deteriorating language skills among Thai students and authorities want them to return to the bygone tradition of letter-writing, the Culture Ministry said Friday. A national survey conducted by the ministry found that four out of 10 Thai youths think 'proper Thai' should only be used on formal occasions. Roughly a third of Thai youths are not concerned about misspellings, abbreviations, and grammatical mistakes that are common in text messaging and social media conversations. 'Excessive use of Facebook, Twitter and mobile phone messages distorts the language. But we can't stop people from communicating,' Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombut told The Associated Press on Friday, a day after releasing results of the survey. (more)

Pakistan: 'The river has been stolen from us'
4 July 2010 - Once scattered all along the River Indus, the nomadic Kihals can now be found between the Chashma Barrage near Dera Ismail Khan and the Taunsa Barrage some 300km further south along the river in the Punjab, but are mostly concentrated in an area stretching 30km south of Dera Ismail Khan. Little data exists on this indigenous population but the Kihals, who say they are Muslim, face discrimination similar to that of other religious minorities -- such as the Ahmadis whose situation has been more extensively documented. The community has limited access to schooling, health care and adequate shelter -- living for the most part in huts that they move from place to place. As a people who have for centuries lived off the Indus river, the livelihoods of the Kihals are increasingly under threat because of commercial logging, the construction of big dams and corporate agricultural farming, according to a 2003 study by international NGO Minority Rights Group International. The system of contract fishing awarded by the government on the Indus means they cannot fish any longer, while increased pollution of the river has also reduced the fish population. The expanded cultivation of land by farmers along the banks of the Indus means the reed-like plants used by the Kihal to weave baskets have vanished. (more)

Japan's children population at new record low
5 May 2010 - Japan had fewer youngsters celebrating Children's Day for the 29th straight year Wednesday, highlighting concerns that the country may face difficulty finding enough workers and taxpayers to support a rapidly aging population. The proportion of children in Japan has kept declining for 36 straight years to about 13 per cent of the country's population of 127 million. The elderly population is rapidly swelling. Japan has the lowest percentage of children among 27 countries with populations of more than 40 million. (more)