Why Consciouness is a Necessary Tool

I think the time has come to acknowledge that consciousness itself, our minds, and our innate intelligence, all of it, is as much an instrument of science as any instrument ever invented. More so in fact. In historical terms, now that we are on the verge of being able to engineer greater-than-human levels of intelligence, this acknowledgement could not come soon enough.
Like using a telescope to explore outerspace, our consciousness is our tool, our instrument to explore inner space. I find it odd then that Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Intelligence Augmentation (IA) researchers are trying to improve upon an instrument (the mind/brain) without actually using that very instrument (subjective experience) to determine how it works. This idea of reducing our understanding of the brain from the outside, examining its parts, neurons, glia cells and neurotransmitter functioning, without actually using the instrument itself seems disconcertingly inadequate. It would be like a sports fan telling a pro athelete how to play the sport better based on reading a book at the library, but without ever having played the sport themselves.

Multinational Joint Captured Material Exploitation Center

It was midnight local time March 26 when the 221st Military Intelligence Battalion arrived in Kuwait. The war was in its seventh day. Command Sgt. Maj. Lance T. Rygmyr remembers that despite suffering from jet lag, the excitement and apprehension everyone seemed to be feeling filled the air.
"After arriving at Camp Wolf near the Kuwait International Airport, we linked up with the Army’s 513th Military Intelligence Brigade," related Rygmyr. "Part of the battalion remained at Doha while the remainder boarded busses and traveled 42 miles north to Udairi, the northernmost staging base in Kuwait." With the war already underway, the 3rd Infantry Division was streaking its way to Baghdad, and the 101st Airborne was moving out when the Georgia unit arrived at Udairi. Rygmyr said the 221st rolled up its sleeves and went to work.
Some of the members of Company A were among the first soldiers of the 513th to set foot in hostile territory. Their days and nights were spent gathering intelligence from enemy combatants and providing support to other government agencies, Rygmyr explained. The remainder of Company A stayed at Udairi continuing to train. The soldiers of Company H, realizing they weren’t going to get a conventional long range surveillance mission, immediately went into a training mode and "retooled" their efforts to fit the need for other missions.
"They spent an enormous amount of their energies on live fire training, and close-order combat drills," Rygmyr said. "The unit also provided other units with tactical and force protection and convoy security training. "At the same time, they mounted a quick reaction force that supported Udairi, and later a platoon became the main security force for elements of the 513th at Talill Air Base and Baghdad," he said.
LRS soldiers would also provide site and convoy security for teams working for the multinational Joint Captured Material Exploitation Center (JCMEC).

what have you learned about meditation?

I wish that everybody could just let go of all these little notions, these biased notions of what meditation is all about, and just realize that meditation is not just a thing that you do, but actually what’s inside of it, what it’s capable of. To me the meditation and the practice was just a release, such a profound experience. At points when I was meditating, most the time, I even forgot that I was locked up. I forgot about all the things that were unimportant, and all the things that just made me feel bad in my life. Meditation got me to visualize all that there is to be grateful for.

capacity-building and training of youth service

Customized for an urban youth population and delivered by our extremely dynamic instructors in a language and framework relevant to their lives, our programs are successfully helping teens to develop self-regulation, empathy, and mindful attention, gain impulse control, and relieve the extremely high levels of anxiety and stress they struggle with. These are the real tools youth today need – tools that bring an inner revolution of the heart and mind. Our long-term goal is to become a new national model for adapting mindfulness and emotional literacy programming to the needs of at-risk, gang-involved and incarcerated youth. Through a combination of ground-breaking direct service, extensive research and evaluation efforts, advocacy and coalition-building, and capacity-building and training of youth service providers, we are working to create a world where all young people can find authentic freedom.

What is The Mind Body Awareness Project?

At the Mind Body Awareness Project we believe at-risk & incarcerated youth have the potential to take control of their actions and fully transform their lives – they are literally one breath away from making better decisions. As a non-profit organization, we have developed a unique mental training program consisting of mindfulness meditation and emotional intelligence exercises designed to strengthen youth’s minds, relieve their toxic stress, and build their ability to make better decisions.While the medical benefits of mindfulness meditation are well documented, our program is one of the first to bring this cost-effective rehabilitation service into institutions serving at-risk youth.

New York Festival’s 2010

The broadcast subdivision of the award-winning international writers’ journal “New Letters,” New Letters on the Air was recently nominated for a prestigious award. Announced in April of 2010, New Letters on the Air could possibly take the prize in the Culture and Arts category for the 2010 New York Festival’s International Radio Programming Awards.New Letters on the Air was started by KCUR hosts David and Judy Ray back in 1977, and has been on the air since its creation. Producer/host Angela Elam works to continue the tradition that began over 33 years ago.

International Radio Programming Awards

The broadcast subdivision of the award-winning international writers’ journal “New Letters,” New Letters on the Air was recently nominated for a prestigious award. Announced in April of 2010, New Letters on the Air could possibly take the prize in the Culture and Arts category for the 2010 New York Festival’s International Radio Programming Awards.
New Letters on the Air was started by KCUR hosts David and Judy Ray back in 1977, and has been on the air since its creation. Producer/host Angela Elam works to continue the tradition that began over 33 years ago.
“I am very hopeful that we do win the award,” Elam said.
The show is a half-hour radio show supplemental to the literary quarterly magazine called “New Letters,” now in its 76th year of print. “Each week the program features intimate conversations with contemporary writers who reveal secrets about their creative methods, read a few favorite passages, and inspire the listener’s imagination,” says the official website. BBC Radio 4, RTE Radio 1 (Ireland) and Radio Television Hong Kong all hope to claim the prize. Elam and producer Denis Conrow submitted an anthology of past productions of the radio show to the contest. Currently, the New Letters on Air cast is working with the Marr Sound Archives in the Miller Nichols Library to create digital files of their library of past broadcasts.

University of New Mexico

Head coach Mike McGinty says that while the result of an exhibition game is important, the real importance of an exhibition game is the high-level training it provides for the regular season.
Once the regular season starts, at the University of New Mexico on Wednesday, Sept. 1, the Billikens will begin their attack on a litany of ambitious goals.
“We have goals in our locker room that we look at every day: we want to be the national champion; we want to be the regular-season Atlantic 10 champion; and we want to be the conference tournament champion,” McGinty said.
“So those are things we put out there that are definitely tangible goals, and we’re trying to figure out the best way to get there.”
The Billikens’ many goals for this season form a sort of pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid are character-related qualities, such as discipline and teamwork. These characteristics provide the foundation for the higher-order goals, such as the conference championship and the NCAA championship.
On Aug. 9, the head coaches of all the men’s soccer teams in the A-10 picked SLU to win the conference.Senior James Dice says that more is expected of the players on the men’s soccer team, both on and off the field.“In training, we’re more structured; we’re more organized,” Dice said. “The intensity has gone up a lot since [McGinty’s] arrival in spring. People are a lot more accountable for things they do on and off the field. Responsibility for the older guys is there.”

Authentic information about Indian higher education

University News’-- a weekly news journal brought out by the Association, contains a mammoth of information about higher education in general and Indian higher education in particular. It is the only Indian journal referred internationally for authentic information about Indian higher education. The regular features of the Journal are the Articles that delineate current, national and global thinking; Campus News; Doctoral Theses accepted by Indian Universities; Advertisements for Openings in Universities, Institutions, Colleges and Research Institutions; Admission Notifications; and Calendar of Events. It is also a valuable source of information on developments in the field of higher education, youth affairs, sports and culture and is very popular among Indian universities and academia for its regularity and the richness of its contents. Time to time the special numbers of the Journal are brought out on different vital issues to collect, disseminate and document the views of the experts. A widely circulated medium of communication among Indian universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher learning and research, it is indeed an indispensable reading for all those connected with higher education. Subscription amount is payable in advance through Money Order or Demand Draft for Inland subscriptions and through International Bank Draft/Banker's Cheque/Pay Order for overseas subscriptions favouring:

Mexico issues new 500-peso currency note

A new 500-peso Mexican currency note is presented at the Banco de Mexico, in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on Aug. 30, 2010. The new note was officially circulated from Aug. 30. (Xinhua/Jorge Dan)

Australian National University in Canberra

From Australia, the Australian National University in Canberra was ranked in 59th place and Melbourne moved up to 62nd position from 75 on the back of alumna Elizabeth Blackburn winning the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

six indicators to rank universities globally

The ARWU uses six indicators to rank universities globally including the number of alumni and staff with Nobel prizes, the number of highly cited researchers, the number of articles published and cited in top journals and the per capita performance with respect to size of the institution.
From the Asia-Pacific region, the top performer was Tokyo University which was again listed in 20th place followed by Kyoto in 24th position. However Japan's overall performance was weaker with just 25 universities in the top 500, down from 31 last year.

Chinese universities in the top

"While the ranking methodology has been kept the same, the number of top 500 Chinese universities reaches 34 in 2010, which is more than double that in 2004 (16)," Shanghai Jiao Tong University said in a statement.
Chinese universities in the top 200 included Peking; Tsinghua and Chinese University of Hong Kong. National Taiwan University in Taiwan was also in the list.

Global standing of Chinese universities

But the ranking, initially set up to find the global standing of Chinese universities, showed Asian universities were advancing up the list with 106 from the Asia Pacific region making the top 500 and Chinese universities performing better.

Best ranked British universities

The best ranked British universities were Cambridge, slipping to fifth place from fourth last year, and Oxford retaining the 10th position. Overall the number of British universities in the top 500 rankings dropped to 38 from 40.

2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities

The 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published since 2003 by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said the United States dominates the list with eight in the top 10 and 54 in the top 100.
Joining Harvard in the top 10 were the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; California Institute of Technology; Princeton; Columbia and Chicago. Yale came 11th.

Harvard best varsity in world's top 500

Harvard retains the crown as top university for the eighth year in an annual ranking of the world’s universities which is dominated by the United States but shows China’s performance improving. The 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published since 2003 by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said the United States dominates the list with eight in the top 10 and 54 in the top 100.
Joining Harvard in the top 10 were the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; California Institute of Technology; Princeton; Columbia and Chicago. Yale came 11th.