‘Connecting the people that help the world to the people that help them.’ Yes, this is how ‘Changents’ (Change + Agents = Changents) describe themselves on their website. I do not know if I should call ‘Changents’ an organisation, a network, a support-system, a charity or what? Because to me it seems all-in-one. The reason for that is that ‘Changents’ is made up of numerous individuals. Individuals just like you and me. Nobody significant if you think in terms of financial, political or glamorous influence on the world at large. But they’re all making a difference at the grass root level, where it matters the most. Individuals from all over the world are starting and championing movements every single day in various communities. Some of them are “green” champions, some are heralding a community development project, some promoting education, some others seeking health and sanitation facilities while someone else might be rooting for human rights. ‘Changents’ is a place where they all come to share their stories with the world. And it is also a place for people like me who want to help them help the world.
The categories listed on the ‘Changents’ website in which the various Changents work are Corporate Responsibility, Disaster, Education, Energy, Environment, Health, Homelessness, Human Rights, Hunger, Politics, Refugees, Terrorism, Tolerance, Violence, War & Conflict. So those who’re passionate about any of these causes can find people making a difference in these fields at a click of the mouse. Each Changent has their own blog to share the updates of their triumphs and trials. And others can share these stories as well as comment on them. One can also find Changents based on geographical location of their work. Making good use of social media Changents has presence on Twitter and on Facebook. The website even has the Facebook connect feature which lets you share your activity and the Changent stories with your Facebook contacts. And you can start making a “ripple” in the world by inviting friends to join Changents.
I have only recently come across and joined Changents. And in my capacity as an author and blogger I am going to be featuring various Changent stories on my blog in the coming days. I will try and maintain diversity by writing about stories from different parts of the world and also people working in diverse fields like education, eco-conservation, human rights and many more. So keep your eyes peeled for the updates and search for posts tagged with “Changents”. I hope that at least one of these numerous gems of selfless acts will inspire to take an action and spread the word.
It is a brand new year of brand new possibilities. And I am writing my first post of the year about a community that helps make brand new possibilities into reality. If we are ready to accept the reality with open heart, all of us have a potential to help someone else lead a better life. We can chose to keep complaining about our own and not do anything about it. Or we can be grateful for what we’ve got and try to make a difference for someone else. If you are the one of the latter kind, Kiva.org is the place for you to go to. I came across Kiva.org some time back but didn’t register as a lender until recently. I am yet to give my first loan but I am really glad to be participating in UPrinting.com’s Kiva Blogathon.
As Kiva’s own website describes, “Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.” What I find unique about Kiva is that they provide “loans” and not charity or donation to people who want to be entrepreneurs. This is very empowering for the individual who receives the money as there comes a responsibility with it. It makes the person confident of their self-worth and doesn’t make them resent for living on charity. It boosts the entrepreneur’s self-esteem to know they’ve been shown confidence in by their lender. They are expected to put in an effort to set up and run a business profitably so the money can be returned to the lender. I feel this is a very powerful way of touching someone’s life and improving it.
Also reassuring is Kiva’s effort to maintain transparency throughout the whole process. Usually when one gives a donation or charity, there is an underlying resignation that the money may or may not reach the proposed cause. But we give it away anyway for our mental and moral satisfaction. Kiva helps you “give” the money to someone in need but not “give away”. There is accountability in the whole process. There is a basic assumption that the entrepreneur may fail and you will never see your money back. But at least there is an expectation that the entrepreneur should put in some effort to make the business work. It may or may not. But what is important is the intention of the giver and the taker. Kiva has set up a great network of fellows and volunteers worldwide who make sure the feedback loop is constantly fed and the lenders are updated with the status of the “project”. And on a given lender’s profile you can see the history and success of the loans they’ve given to the date. I was pleasantly surprised to see almost 95% of the loans being repaid and hence being reused over and over to change so many lives.
Kiva community is made up of various levels and teams that contribute to the whole process in their won capacity. The core team looks after the management and administration at the highest level. But the supporters (corporate and institutional partners), field partners (micro-finance institutions), fellows (individuals who get to visit and experience Kiva’s working on the field) and volunteers are the people that make Kiva a grass-root level organisation. I am also impressed with the ‘apps gallery’ that Kiva has developed. These various applications help those interested setup alerts to watch the progress of and get notified of the loan requirements that they’re interested in. For example, I wish to give a loan in India to an entrepreneur in the field of education and computing. Kiva’s Facebook and Twitter alerts let me set up an alert with these criteria. So when a request from a field partner or an entrepreneur gets entered into Kiva’s database, I get an alert that I might want to consider this opportunity for making my contribution. Isn’t that just wonderful!
So if you think you are ready to touch someone’s life and make a difference, head to Kiva.org, register yourself as a lender and make that contribution. You will literally see it keep coming back at you over the course of your life. Happy 2010 and happy loaning!!!
This time the Sunday Spotlight is focused on a very different kind of subject. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you will know that I usually focus on science or ecological topics. However, this blog itself and the ease with which I can use it to spread science and eco awareness are products of the social media revolution. Hence I thought of dedicating a blog post to this whole affair that has come to be known as Web2.0.
Media for a long time has been a one way bridge. Various people used the media, TV, radio, cinema, theatre, newspapers, pamphlets and other printed material, as a means of putting forth their ideas, issues, solutions, news etc. However the proportion of “givers” of information has been far less than the “receivers”. And that was probably the power of conventional media. The advent of internet and the social media changed this to a large extent. People are interacting on one-to-one bases and anyone can be the “giver” and the “receiver” of information. Of course, this boon of freedom of expression in true sense comes with a bane of misuse to spread information detrimental to the human race in mere seconds all over the world. So, IMHO, one should take the whole Web2.0 explosion with a pinch of salt.
I am one of those people who try their best to keep abreast of the new developments and trends in social media. Albeit I don’t require doing that professionally I do understand that it is for my own benefit. After starting my blog about a year ago, I’ve especially taken interest in Web2.0 as I could clearly see its wonderful potential in promoting my blog and hence my ideas and passions with millions of people who are internet savvy. Among many other social media platforms, Twitter helped me get my blog posts out there and also make new connections with people from my niche. However, I realised very soon that tweeting and RTing can become a job in itself if not automated. A bit of Google search brought me in contact with a fabulous service called SocialOomph (then known as TweetLater). This service (free version) lets you set a date and time in future for your tweets so you don’t have to be online at some ghastly hour, trying to keep feeding your Twitter. The RSS feed lets you feed your tweets into RSS feed readers of all sorts and lets others subscribe to it. However, the Pro version is the real showstopper (or rather show-runner). This paid service lets you do much more with your tweets and your network. Besides all features of free version, it lets you setup criteria for automatically following and unfollowing fellow tweeters. You can vet this feature if you like or set it in autopilot with SocialOomph. When someone follows you, you can have SocialOomph send them a DM (with your Twitter ID of course) with a welcome message. But what I like best are, bulk upload, recurring tweets and spinning of tweet text. The first one, as name suggests, lets you upload as many tweets as you want in one go. The second lets you set a recurrence frequency for any number of tweets and forget about them for as long as you wish. Spinning tweet text involves you giving as many different versions of a given tweet you like and SocialOomph will randomly chose a version to tweet when you’ve told it to. This is really a great feature because let’s face it, it get boring to see same old tweets recurring every so many days on the same account. People are going to ignore you! So all in all, if you haven’t already done so, I will definitely suggest you try out the Pro SocialOomph for their trial period. I’m sure you’ll want to upgrade for the cheap value that offers so much more freedom to do your real work.
Twitter started as a simple idea of sharing 140 character updates with your friends and family. Of course the end users themselves have evolved it to something much more. It is now a leading platform on web2.0 to stay updated with latest news (e.g.: Iran elections), to promote your product (e.g.: Amazon Kindle), spread the word about your campaign (e.g.: climate change) or even make some money out of your tweets (e.g.: Magpie). Monetisation using web2.0 and social media has become a big obsession with a lot of bloggers or anyone involved in the cyberspace in any capacity. And a lot of services like Chitika, Sponsored tweets, Nuffnang (currently only for Asia-Pacific) have sprung up like mushrooms to provide you ways to make some dough out of your cyber-investment.
Affiliate marketing is another big avenue that many bloggers, including yours truly, have taken in order to make their blogging profitable. Writing was once upon a time considered a talent that came naturally. However, now a lot of cyber-gurus have taken upon themselves to teach others how to write a blog, promote it and monetise it. One such person I myself learn from is Problogger Darren Rowse. I participated in Darren’s 31 days to build a better blog (31DBBB) workshop online and gained tremendously from it. Darren’s own insights on various topics related to blogs, which stem from his own experience of past 5-6 years as a blogger, were definitely the highlight of this workshop. And I loved the little tasks that we were assigned everyday to complete and improve pur blog in the process. These insights and assignments, along with other useful material are now on sale as a book (Click here to view more details). Even though I participated in the workshop I felt this book was worth buying (especially for the price its being offered) as a reference for future. If you’re getting serious about blogging and pursuing it as more than a hobby, I suggest you buy this book.
There have been millions of items written on the topics of social media, web2.0, monetising, affiliate marketing and the likes. This was my little take on the same. I’m still a newbie in this world of web2.0 and I sometimes feel like a kid in a candy shop. There are too many things that I want. But lately I’ve learnt to focus on what my goal is and then trying to look for tools that I’d need. Because it is very easy for the web2.0 to take control and lead you astray if you don’t keep strong hold on the virtual steering wheel.
While there are numerous good resources available on the Internet to the student of modern / contemporary languages, same is not the case for someone interested in studying ancient scripts around the world. Given that the number of such people will be very small, this is understandable. However, the creator of the websiteAncient Scripts took it onto himself to create first such dedicated website for scripts used by our distant ancestors around the world. The creator, Lawrence Lo, is a software engineer whose spare-time activity involves researching about these ancient scripts and updating the website he created. The website gives comprehensive list of various families of scripts used in ancient and modern times, origins of language and writing, the types of scripts such as syllabic, alphabetic, logophonetic etc. Lawrence has tried to make the website content interesting by making available some fonts as well as games for the visitors of the site to download. The best feature of the website for those interested in further pursuing their own research is the comprehensive listing of references and links to various little sections of websites that talk about ancient scripts. So overall it is a very useful “starting point” for anyone interested in just knowing about or indulging seriously into research about language scripts used thousands of years ago.
From the Internet links section of above site, I came across another website, Omniglot.com, which, as its name suggests, deals with all sorts of languages, not just ancient.
A cute little dog called Rockford gets lost and ends up in the Land of Infinity. There he meets lot of fascinating creatures who, to his surprise, turn out to be the last one of each that has gone extinct from our planet! They sing and dance and tell Rockford the stories of their extinction. Sounds like a great way of teaching your kids about ecology, extinction and their role in preserving the nature? It definitely is!
Rockford’s rock opera is a unique adventure in sound for adults and children. With narration, sound effects, songs and videos, it's a totally new kind of musical experience. Its Facebook page describes it with words “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy meets The War of the Worlds, or Jungle Book meets Jurassic Park...” The members of this “musical experience” include Matthew Sweetapple, Steve Punt, Elaine Sweetapple and Jess Hodge along with others. Each one of them has contributed to this musical in their own capacities as producer, script writer, narrator, singer, voice-over for characters, illustrator to name only a few aspects. The first part of the story (52 minutes long) is available as mp3 audio for free download on their website. They also have a YouTube channel which lets you sample some of the animation videos that are part of this incredible story. I have listened to the audio book and watched the videos and cannot praise the creators of them enough. The music is catchy, lyrics are simple to understand and the animation is fascinating.
The first work of the Sweetapple label that I came across wasn’t the Opera at all. I saw their video Distant Generation on YouTube which was favourited by a friend and instantaneously fell in love with these folks. I then decided to dig a bit deeper and found a treasure trove of creative works in form of Rockford’s Rock Opera audio and video. Ever since then I have shared these works with people whenever I’ve gotten a chance. But I’ve always wanted to do a Sunday Spotlight on them and today seems to have been the fateful day. I am going to share the words directly from the website as I think they best describe the Opera and its purpose and scope.
Rockford's Rock Opera is an amazing adventure in sound for adults and children. Part One of the story (six chapters: 52 minutes) is free! It features narration, read along text, characters, sound effects and music and is available as a free mp3 download and an audio stream. Great to listen to on your computer, your ipod or burnt onto CD, this is a free audiobook like no other. The website also contains useful background information about the story (including key information and free downloadable teaching resources about extinction and ecology), how the story was made and the facts behind the fiction.
Once you've sampled the story, you can buy it as an unabridged book on compact disc, together with illustrations and animated digital videos. Rockford's Rock Opera
is more than an electronic book, it's a Musical Story about animals and an adventure about life on earth. It's an original tale about extinction, but it's also a story of hope. Created by Sweetapple and scripted by comedian and writer, Steve Punt, Rockford's Rock Opera’s book on CD is funny, thoughtful, magical and like nothing you'll ever have experienced before. Also, included are useful free Lesson Plans for teachers. Just press play to enjoy it online, click for Free Downloads - as an mp3 or iPod Story – then visit the shop to buy the specially enhanced discs that come with 24 page colour books, illustrations and videos. Truly a collectors’ audiobook on CD.
Much more than an adventure story, with animated videos, amazing sound effects and music, this is a children's talking book like no other, available in a variety of easy-to-enjoy formats. It's great for adults too and includes our own audiobook blog. Perfect for learning, great for storytelling in the classroom or for a wonderful, relaxing bedtime story treat, Rockford's Rock Opera is first in a new generation of best children's books. From the very young to older kids and adults, you'll never have heard anything like this before. Edutainment at its very best for parents, teachers and especially, children!
Rockford’s Rock Opera has received rave reviews from the likes of WWF, BBC radio, The Independent, The Observer and more. And the great news is it is coming on to the stage in 2010. That’s going to be fantabulous! So now learning about our ecosystem and our role in it is really all song and dance.
Ethnologue is an encyclopedic reference work cataloguing all of the world’s 6,912 known living languages. The print version is in its 15th edition being 1272 pages thick. The web version presents the data used to prepare the printed volumes, along with links to the SIL Bibliography and the International Academic Bookstore. It is a place where you can conveniently find many resources to help you with your research of the world's languages. The website is owned by SIL International, a service organization that works with people who speak the world’s lesser-known languages.
The Ethnologue database has been an active research project for more than fifty years. It is probably the most comprehensive listing of information about the currently known languages of the world. Thousands of linguists and other researchers all over the world rely on and have contributed to the Ethnologue database. The website gives a country index (with maps) that lists (and shows) the languages spoken in a given region/country. It has a comprehensive section on the various language families and how the linguistic scholars determine which language belongs to which family? The information is also presented in statistical format by country, language family etc. There is a separate section on the ‘nearly extinct languages’, 516 in total. They are classified in this way when "only a few elderly speakers are still living." Almost half of them are in the pacific region, with some of the languages being spoken by as less as just one individual! For those who are interested in digging deeper into the sources of the database, there is a very extensive bibliography on the website for linguists to feast on. Various print and online publications by SIL have also been listed and are available for sale in the online bookstore.
SIL has also produced some computer resources including an extensive library for language researchers and software tools and fonts. The freeware available for download can be used world-wide for any linguistics project. Technical support for the software users is also offered. Most of the material on the website is free for use without any permission needed. I found this website a GREAT resource for serious linguistic research as well as just information for curiosity’s sake.
One can find out interesting facts about their country’s linguistic make up. I found out that India has 427 spoken languages, 415 of which are indigenous. These make up for 6.2% of the world’s languages. And the diversity index for India is 0.93 which means if you select 2 Indians randomly, there is a 93% chance that their spoken language will be different from each other!
“'The Age of Stupid' is the new cinema documentary from the Director of 'McLibel' and the Producer of the Oscar-winning 'One Day in September'. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching 'archive' footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?”, says the synopsis of the film on its official website.
“The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, which had its world premiere in London on March 15th 2009 and was released in UK cinemas on March 20th 2009. The film will be released in Australia & New Zealand on August 19th, the global premiere will be live from New York to 45 countries on September 21st 2009. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off) stars as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at archive footage from 2007 and asking: why didnt we stop climate change when we had the chance?”, says the YouTube channel of Spanner Films that is responsible for making of this documentary.
As you would have read above, the documentary is being premiered globally on the 21st (in US) and 22nd (in rest of the world) September, 2009. That’s next Monday/Tuesday. Hence I thought this was an appropriate time for me to focus the spotlight on it. Even though the documentary has been premiered in Australia in August, I haven’t yet gotten a chance to see it. I’m hoping to catch the live online broadcast from NY during the global premier. However, from the trailers I’ve watched and reviews I’ve read it seems like a very different take on the climate change issue. It weaves together 6 stories recorded in present day to make a fabric of human psyche. These are real people and not actors posing as someone. Fernand Pareau, 82-year old French mountain guide; Jeh Wadia, starting a low-cost airline in India; Alvin DuVernay, Shell oil man who rescued 100 people after Hurricane Katrina; Layefa Malemi, living in Shell’s most profitable oil region in Nigeria; Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud, two Iraqi refugee kids trying to find their brother and Piers Guy, a windfarm developer fighting the anti windfarm lobby in England ... all show us different aspects of human mentality. The documentary does not set out to show us what we’ve already done to the planet because the assumption is we already know that. It, however, gives us a peak into the future that will be if we continue on our merry (?) way.
Another difference of this documentary from many others is that £450,000 of its budget was raised by “crowd-funding” - selling shares to individuals and groups. Film is therefore completely independent. The people’s contribution does not stop here. Even for the global premier people from various participating countries have organised their own “Indie screenings” to make it truly global. So for me this documentary also serves as a great example of how one can make a difference on a shoestring budget with support of other people who’re probably living on a shoestring budget themselves. I would strongly recommend all my readers to spread the word about The age of stupid and try to get as many people as you can to watch it. You can do your bit in many ways, organising your own screening, spread the word on social media, write a blog or at least watch it yourself.
CPAK (Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge) began in 2004 as a means of bringing together scientists from various disciplines together; scientists who were truly open-minded and were ready to think unconventionally; scientists who didn’t believe all of what the text books tell us and wanted to consider what the so called legends and myths of cultures worldwide say; scientists who wanted to know what really happened on this planet in the past. According to CPAK website, “Over the last five years CPAK has become the premiere gathering place for those interested in ancient cultures, lost knowledge and the cycle of the ages. Leading explorers, authors, professors and scientists make presentations and examine the latest archaeological finds, astronomical research and new interpretations of structures, myth and folklore that shed light on the true history of mankind. The result is an epiphany of awareness as we collectively begin to understand where we came from and where we are going in this ascending age.”
I thought of sharing this event with my readers as I feel at least some of you will find it interesting like I do. This year’s conference is on October 10th at the University of California’s Irvine campus in CA, USA. If you are truly interested, I’ll leave it up to you to visit the website, read, watch and listen more. There are some samples of past presentations at the conference to whet your appetite. Happy “knowledging”!
SOS is a long used and recognised distress call in Morse code which consists of “... --- ...” (3 dots, 3 dashes, 3 dots) and is used in a serious crisis situation that needs immediate attention. The SOS that I’m going to write about today is also a distress call but it is meant for entire population of this planet. The Story of Stuff (or SOS) is a web-based documentary about the life-cycle of goods and services. The documentary, released online on 4 December 2007, is narrated by Annie Leonard who is an activist who has spent the past 10 years travelling the globe tracking down the path that consumer goods take from their cradle to grave.
As described on the SOS website, “From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.” Well, it certainly taught me a few things and also made me glad about a few things I do, knowing that they matter to the planet.
Even though SOS is mainly focused on the materialist and consumerist lifestyle in the US, rest of the world definitely has a lot to learn from it. Especially given that majority of the nations want to follow in US’s footsteps and want to live like Americans! The best thing about the documentary is that Annie explains everything is layman terms. Someone like me, not very knowledgeable in world economy, commerce, consumerism etc., can easily understand the crux of the matter. The explanation is also well-supported by animated illustrations. The documentary very easily achieves the difficult goal of explaining the “story of stuff” to its audience successfully in 20 minutes. That’s very commendable! It explains the “fine print” of the extraction – production – distribution – consumption – disposal cycle that has become the story of our life..... without us even knowing it. The story describes how we’ve used up 1/3rd of Earth’s natural resources in past decade, how erosion of these ecosystems pushes the natives towards cities for livelihood, how they (and all of us) get exposed to the synthetic, toxic chemicals used in production, how the distributors afford to sell us goods real cheap by “externalising the costs”, how the goods are designed for obsolescence to keep the “golden arrow of consumption” afloat and eventually, how 99% of goods end up in landfills or as super-toxins in air within 6 months of purchase! Yes, SOS holds a lot of shocking revelations for you and me.
There is a lot more I could go on writing about the documentary and about what I learnt from it, what it made me think etc. But I will leave you with a few key points.
· It turns out that breast milk, ideally the first “meal” of a newborn, is the most toxic one a human can ever get. Because it is loaded with all toxins the mother has inhaled, ingested and absorbed in her body in her lifetime. So the most basic right of the youngest members of our race has become a threat to its life! But as a species, we have an escape route. Cleverly, human mothers can switch to formula milk. What about the babies of other mammals on this planet whose parents didn’t even make and release all these toxins in the environment? Why should they pay the price for the actions of some really “intelligent” but equally ignorant species they co-habit the planet with?
· I loved the bit where Annie talks about a $4.95 radio from Radioshack and how she thought how can it be so cheap? “I didn’t pay the full price of the radio. The kids from Congo paid it with their future!”
· Some things have become so much a way of life for us that when the con is clarified, it is utterly shocking. SOS describes how the goods are “designed for dumps” to keep us buying new things. The stuff becomes obsolete in two ways; planned obsolescence (PC chips are designed in different shape each year so when earlier becomes obsolete, you have to throw out entire CPU and buy a new one. You can’t just buy the chip because it will not fit in the old CPU/motherboard.) and perceived obsolescence (Why do women’s shoes go from thin heel to thick heel to thin heel again and again? So every fashion “season” you have to buy a new one to fit in!)
Well yeah, there are a lot more “enlightening” things about SOS so I’d suggest you go and watch it for yourself. 20 minutes is worth giving for the future of your children and grandchildren. Also, the website has lot of information and resources for those interested in “clicking around and joining in”, as Annie says.
Update:New York Times ran a front page story about SoS on 10th May, 2009 about the ways the film is supplementing and expanding sustainability education!!!
From an article in the New Scientist, I found out about National Geographic’s endeavour to chart the migratory history of humans. It’s called ‘The Genographic Project’ and it involves collecting DNA samples from a vast array of humans (especially indigenous and traditional people) and using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis to establish the migratory history of as many human beings on this planet as possible. This unprecedented, mammoth, real-time research effort is lead by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Spencer Wells and his team involves renowned international scientists. As creditable and important this project in itself is, I was also very impressed with the website the project has created and maintained.
The ‘Atlas of human journey’ allows you to select an era (from 200,000 to 5000 BC, pre-historic period) and then gives the details of milestones of human migration and evolution in it. On the world map, various routes of human migration are shown which have been ascertained based on the Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA analysis. The ‘Globe of human history’ is a section spanning 5000 BC to 2000 AD, the era of recorded human history. A revolving Earth globe can be spun to a desired position and the historical milestones in that geographical region can be read about.
My most favourite and probably the most “information-studded” section of the website is the ‘Genetics overview’. It describes the ideology and methodology behind the DNA analysis and how it actually leads to finding out ones migratory history in a very easy-to-understand, graphics-aided manner. I will not go into too much detail of all the information it shares with the reader and those interested can visit the website if so inclined. But what I learned from this section was that while the Y-chromosome is passed down from father to son, the mitochondrial DNA is passed down from the mother to both son and daughter. Therefore, to track genetic lineage, Y-chromosome acts as the unique “tracking agent” in males whereas mitochondrial DNA serves the same purpose in females. Mutations are random changes in one’s DNA sequence that occur very rarely. But once it has occurred it is carried forward to following generations and therefore can act as “genetic markers” in backtracking the genetic lineage.
The field researchers involved in this project go out to various parts of the world and collect DNA samples from indigenous and traditional people as the main interest is in tracking their migration route out of Africa. However, the project welcomes and encourages general public to send in their DNA samples (which are just a couple of cheek-swabs inside your mouth) as the ultimate goal is to find out migration patterns and history of as many humans as possible. Males have a choice of getting a paternal (Y-chromosome) or a maternal (mitochondrial) DNA tracking done. Female’s DNA can only get them their maternal DNA tracking. But a male member from father’s side of family can send in their sample and that can determine the female’s paternal DNA lineage. For little over a 100 USD, you can find out where all did your ancestors wander before coming to your town where you were born! A REALLY good deal, I’d say. If you’re not convinced, have a look at the website and I’m sure you’ll be a convert. I’m going to get mine done and find out where I really come from. So when are you doing yours?
A few days back I got an invite to join a group on LinkedIn. It was called The Virtual Telescope Project, a name that interested me enough to go ahead and check out what was this all about. And once I was on the website, I knew I had to write a Sunday Spotlight on this particular service provided by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory.
The homepage beckons you to enter the website with the message, "Enjoy the real Universe from your desktop, live!". It is available in English and Italian. This project/telescope is a participant in the IYA2009 activities. The website is created and directed by Gianluca Masi. Here you will find out what makes Virtual Telescope a unique case in the world. The Virtual Telescope offers live shows and astronomical Labs, in real-time or with archived material (the latter being free).
I am very much looking forward to participate in their next live show on Monday 3rd August, which is in Italian. But ... the fascinating beauty of the deep space is beyond spoken word.
I was really impressed with the research these people have done and the efforts they are putting in to get the word out there. I believe that there is a lot of ancient knowledge (not just in India but in other cultures as well) which is still "hidden" from us because we infact haven't reached the spiritual, scientific and cultural maturity that is needed to comprehend it. So I'm delighted to see someone put in some serious effort towards "uncovering" that knowledge. Hence I thought I would do my bit of "publicising" this commendable effort and write a blog entry about them. Check them out if you are interested in ancient Indian knowledge!
Jason Martell is a researcher and lecturer specialising and interested in connections between ancient knowledge and contemporary science. He has extensively studied the work of Zecharia Sitchin on Sumerian culture and the advanced technology mentioned therein. Jason has also given numerous lectures and presentations on the topic of Planet X (which has been reportedly spotted or at least its presence acknowledged by NASA), the 10th planet in our Solar system and the belief that this is the "Nibiru" of ancient Sumerians. The sites created by him, and collectively represented as Xfacts network, include AncientX.com, Xlectures.com, UfologyExpert.com, UfoStream.com, Mars-Earth.com and Alienscalpel.com.
AncientX.com is a collection of the video of and slides shown during the presentation given by Jason at MUFON, LA. Here he talks about various evidences provided by the Sumerian literature and artifacts that Sumerians knew about people of higher intelligence, originating from outside the Earth, whom they called Anunnaki. He goes on to show how planet Nibiru of Sumerians and its influence on the inner Solar system described by them could make it a very plausible candidate for Planet X that our astronomers are looking for today.
Xlectures.com is one-stop-resource to all the lectures and interviews given by Jason Martell to the date on various topics of his research, Nibiru/Planet X, ancient astronauts, Sumerian culture and artifacts, the Mars-Earth connection to name a few.
UfologyExpert.com tells you on its homepage that, "By watching the videos contained on this site, you will learn about some of the most substantial cases in Ufology. Evidence that can prove UFO's are real, and intelligent extraterrestrials have made formal treaties with various governments around the world."
UfoStream.com, as the name suggests, is a channel to watch innumerable videos concerning the UFOs and aliens. It also gives links to other similarly inclined channels, websites.
Mars-Earth.com took me to a page very similar to the "site map" page of Xfacts.com so I'm not sure if there's some problem with the link. However, the tab "mars research" on the top navigation bar takes you to a page which contains some really interesting articles and links about structures on Mars (the face on Mars, the pentagonal pyramid complex of Cydonia etc.) and how its been shown that NASA has been altering the images obtained from Mars to make the planet look hostile.
Alienscalpel.com greets you with the message "This website is the only website dedicated to the victims of the Alien Abduction Phenomenon."
So all I have tried to do in this blog entry is to give an overview of this vastly spread and informative network of sites and research generated by Jason Martell. In few of my blog entries earlier, I have picked some topics connected to Sumerian cosmology, which interest me and written my thoughts on them in some detail. I might write something about the structures on Mars some day. However, I'm not as keen on his other research interests such as UFOs and aliens. I do believe that there are a lot of thigs out there that need to be researched. But as for UFOs and aliens, I think its not the right time yet and hence we're taking it in the wrong direction of sensetionalism.
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