Medley

Water is essential for life on Earth and other planets, and scientists have found ample evidence of water in Mars' early history. But Mars has no liquid water on its surface today. New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests a fundamental reason: Mars may be just too small to hold onto large amounts of water.

Remote sensing studies and analyses of Martian meteorites dating back to the 1980s posit that Mars was once water-rich, compared with Earth. NASA's Viking orbiter spacecraft -- and, more recently, the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the ground -- returned dramatic images of Martian landscapes marked by river valleys and flood channels.

More than 80 percent of people around the world consider themselves to be religious or spiritual. But research on the neuroscience of spirituality and religiosity has been sparse. Previous studies have used functional neuroimaging, in which an individual undergoes a brain scan while performing a task to see what areas of the brain light up. But these correlative studies have given a spotty and often inconsistent picture of spirituality.

Ananya Sri Ram Rajan – USA

Many years ago, my son attended a boarding school during his high school years. The school prided itself on the motto “Art Lives Here.”  As a mom of a student accepted to a rather prestigious school, I was enamored with this statement. My son was not. Every time we passed a banner or sign that stated, “Art Lives Here” he would say “Such nonsense!” I used to think it was just teenage angst until I finally asked him why he had such annoyance about the statement. His reply was very matter of fact. He said, “Art cannot be contained. It lives all around us. You can’t say “Art Lives Here” and then tell students their ideas are not art. It’s hypocrisy. If art lives here, so do artists and artists have a different way of looking at the world. In general, we don’t like being contained. But there are so many rules here that this where art comes to die.”

Tim Wyatt – England

Tim on a hike ,.... 

A covert war is raging that few people see  – and which even fewer admit exists at all. This isn’t a new war but a battle as old as time itself. This perma-conflict never ceases. This is a long-standing spiritual battle played out on the inner planes but regularly erupting into the physical world in usually unpredictable ways. Its modern guise is very often digital.

Some are familiar with this eternal scenario in which the forces of light and darkness constantly clash in their bid to impede the development of the world. Since Atlantean times many varieties of authoritarian and anti-evolutionary force have stalked the earth and engaged in constant conflict with their enemies. This underground and internecine war has raged for countless millennia unseen by most until it erupts into stark physical manifestation in some way.

Ananya Sri Ram – USA

What would you do if you had only five more minutes to live? October 2016 marked the thirtieth anniversary of a heartfelt sermon by Rabbi Kenneth Berger called “Five Minutes to Live” given during Yom Kippur in 1986. The Jewish holiday honors death while affirming life. The sermon was spurred by the tragedy of the Challenger space shuttle that took place ten months earlier. At the time of the explosion, it was believed that all seven astronauts died immediately. Later, evidence showed that it was likely that the crew was alive until the capsule plummeted to the sea. Rabbi Berger (as well as the whole nation) was deeply affected by this. In his sermon he states “For perhaps as much as five minutes, the astronauts were alive and conscious and yet knew that death was certain. The thought terrorizes me. Can you imagine knowing that in a few moments death was imminent? What would you think of?”

Tim Wyatt – England

The author has many questions ....

Was the Covid-19 pandemic an evil act of bio-terrorism? Was the virus unleashed deliberately and cynically by some party or other? If so, why? Was it part of a wider sinister plan by shadowy elites and demonic dark forces to enslave humanity and exert draconian mass control via fear, manipulation and authoritarian government action? Was it a dress rehearsal for something even worse to come? Was it a random event?

I’m not in a position to offer definitive answers. Nor are most other people. It’s all too easy to get sucked into conspiracy-infested wormholes which make rational thought and decisive action impossible. Conspiracies, of course, do exist. (As a long-standing journalist I’ve uncovered quite a few of them in my time.) However, I’m not convinced as some are that absolutely everything that happens in the world is a conspiracy.

Sonal Murali – India

The author 

With the arrival of Coronavirus over15 months ago now, everything has changed. Just a few weeks ago, all of us were living our usual busy lives. And then we slowly watched our world go off its axis – slowly but determinedly. The scale of change that Coronavirus has endangered is of mammoth proportions. Initially it was a mere health crisis and now it has impacted every sphere of human activity, affecting us socially, psychologically and economically, calling for an imminent restructuring of the global economic order. We do not know what its far-reaching impact would be. The suffering and personal losses of different kinds have been tremendous. The imperative now is to safeguard our lives and our livelihoods. However lessons will have to be learnt and priorities will have to be re-drawn for us collectively.