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continue reading "Kenya a Victim of Terrorism"

What is soul? Who is soul? Thomas Merton offers the following.

Speaking as a Christian existentialist, I mean by "soul" not simply the Aristotelian essential form but the mature personal identity, the creative fruit of an authentic and lucid search, the "self" that is found after other partial and exterior selves have been discarded as masks. (Thomas Merton, Love and Living, p 4)

continue reading "What Is Soul?"

continue reading "Libya's New Role in Africa"

The New York Times has a front-page story today about a New York chef suing a competitor whom she claims ripped off her recipes and the look-and-feel of her restaurant. Rebecca Charles, the owner and chef of the Pearl Street Oyster Bar claims that Ed’s Lobster Bar copied “each and every element” of her restaurant, from the white marble bar, the gray wainscoting and even the Caesar salad. This is one of those dog-bites-man stories that is irresistible to the Times – a sophisticated chuckle for its highbrow readers – but it does little to illuminate the wisdom of “intellectual property law” in this case or the specific legal arguments being made.

Earlier this month a sixty two year old student of mine wrote a short appreciation of the Emerald Tablet for me. I was amazed at the new perspectives she brought to it. The Emerald Tablet as most of you will know is a one page summary of the most important principles of alchemy.

I learned it by heart when I began my interest in alchemy at age seventeen. I read it, contemplated it and repeated it at least once every day for ten years or so until I finally got what it meant. When I began my studies in mathematics I thought of the consummate genius Newton, who I knew was one of the last famous alchemists. I got hold of his translation and used that too. So when I read the report of my student I had thought about, read about, and contemplated the Emerald Tablet for sixty years. Her take on it was refreshing and contained all kinds of new dots and perspectives to connect.

continue reading "The Innocent Eye"

Amateur photographer Chip Py was wandering around the newly developed downtown section of Silver Spring when he decided to snap a few pictures. He thought the building rooftops set against the blue sky made for a handsome image. A security guard promptly rushed out to tell him that he was not allowed to take pictures; the Peterson Companies, the developer of Ellsworth Street, prohibited it.

Welcome to the latest enclosure of the commons: privately controlled public streets. Even if streets may be nominally public, companies have few qualms about claiming them as private and bullying people into forfeiting their rights as citizens.

The consumption side: how should we allocate information among consumers?

I've probably been too wordy in previous posts, and will try to keep this section brief.

Patents obviously are what create private property rights in information and allow it to be bought and sold. The problem with this is that prices serve as a rationing mechanism—only those willing to pay the price are allowed to use the information. The problem is that unless the information itself causes harm to others, additional use imposes no additional costs. In fact, in many cases additional use creates additional benefit.

The Nature of the Resource: market relevant characteristics of information

As a resource, information has unique characteristics. Many of the things we commonly think about as resources are competitive in use: if I chop down a tree to build some furniture, that tree is not available to you to build your house; if I drink a beer, that same beer is not available for you to drink. Economists refer to such resources as rival—my use leaves less for you to use. However, if I use information, it has no impact on the amount of information left for you to use—certainly the fact that you're reading this blog doesn't leave any fewer ideas for the next person to read! Economists refer to such resources as non-rival. But information is unlike other non-rival resources: the more people use information, the better it gets. The reason I am writing this blog is so that I can get feedback on the ideas here and improve them. I coin the term 'anti-rival' to describe information, but would be surprised if I were the first to do so.

Founding conference attracts diverse gathering resolved to create physical spaces for progressive Muslims

Bronxville, NY/Los Angeles, CA: The progressive Muslim movement in the United States took a significant step forward as a diverse collection of activists, organizers, and academics gathered at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, May 15-17, for the first conference of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV, website: www.mpvusa.org). Coming together in fellowship, they joined in communal devotion, shared the various personal, intellectual, and spiritual journeys that brought them there, discussed how to formulate their positions on political, social, and cultural issues and how to interact with other progressives and other Muslims. They also elected an Executive Board to lead them for the next two years.

continue reading "PROGRESSIVE MUSLIMS CONVENE; STRUCTURE NEW ORGANIZATION"

Subsequent to attack 9/11, 2001 on WTC in New York by AlQaeda. USA went hunting down the terrorists around the world with a hammer. It has taken up operations against Abu Sayyaf Group and the Terrorist group Jemmah Islamiyah in and around Philippines apart from its major war against AlQaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan. It also took operations in Yemen, Somalia and Sudan on minor scale. Iraq war came later.

The Philippines (Filipino: Pilipinas), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Republika ng Pilipinas; RP), is an island nation located in Southeast Asia, with Manila as its capital city. The Philippine Archipelago comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean.…Although these nations are small, strategically they are important due to the sea routes that cover many South East Asian nations and sea trade and naval movements of various countries.

continue reading "Southern Phillipines and Terrorism"

In the recent development, renowned Jihadi Group led by terrorist and criminal, Osama Bin Ladin Al-Qaeda on June 08, 2007 declared Jihad against India (Ailan-e-Jahad-e-Hind). In a statement Abu Abdul Rahman Ansari who claimed to be the spokesperson of ’Al Qaeda Hind' warned all Mainstream and Separatist political organizations to stop deceiving the people of Kashmir.

“With the blessings of Almighty Allah we declare a Jihad against the Indian occupation in Kashmir, and we warn the all political and militant organizations operating in Kashmir, not to mislead Kashmiris”.

continue reading "Al Qaeda Declares Jihad On India"

June brides were a pop song cliché when I was young. But it wasn’t just because June rhymed with Moon. It is a very ancient custom. People tended to get married in June for centuries because in the old days when Beltane was celebrated as the beginning of summer in May, that month was the month in which the god and goddess were wed and conceived the divine child to be born at Yule, nine months later. (See my posting Hooray! Hooray! The first of May…Beltane 4/27/2007).

continue reading "June Brides and Harry Potter…Connecting Wild Solstice Dots"

The iCommons Summit in Dubrovnik wrapped up yesterday, and what a colossal gathering of commoners from around the world it was! The group included the heads of dozens of Creative Commons affiliates (Korea, Pakistan, Mexico, others), free software hackers from eastern Europe and developing nations, the Gnu Girl Power Lounge Collective from Zagreb, copyright scholars from the United States, activists from the U.K. and Europe, Arab-language commoners devising new social networking websites, and many, many others. The international movement for a more open, participatory and creative digital culture does not really have an adequate name – “free culture” comes closest, perhaps – or even a single focus or “ideology.” It is a swarm, a network, a federation of many projects loosely joined. It does share many ideals about culture and human betterment, and is verging toward a new set of social justice issues, especially in the developing world. Significantly, the many disparate strands of this movement are starting to discover each other and lend support to each other’s struggles.

continue reading "Religion and Nonviolence"

The explosion of “free culture” initiatives are on full display at the iCommons Summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which I am attending this weekend. iCommons is the international organization spun off by the Creative Commons to convene the countless commoners around the world who are building the new digital, democratic republic. From bloggers to free software to Wikipedia to Creative Commons affiliates to open education and open science practitioners, this wildly diverse community now flourishes in more than 50 countries. This Dubrovnik gathering is a kind of staging area for imagining, and building, a new type of open, democratic culture -- one that competes in a fashion with the more stodgy and/or corrupt democratic norms of nation-states.

continue reading "Rituals, Faith and Superstition"

continue reading "Al Qaeda Active on Russian Soil in Chechnya"