A date with the Dalai
Dharma Network are delighted to announce that His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be giving 5 days of teachings at Nottingham Arena over the May Bank Holiday weekend in 2008. Children are the future and an element of participation for children into the five days of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings will be at the heart of this event. The Network believes children's imagination carries them far further than previous generations could have dreamed of. The weekend of public talks on the subject 'Bringing Meaning to our Lives' gives the opportunity for the Dalai Lama to cover the broadest spectrum of thought and advice, which would be of benefit and interest to the widest audience possible . Children will have the opportunity to put their thoughts into words and present them to His Holiness on stage in front of nearly 8,000 people. If our special event manages to make just a small impact, perhaps it will be that children will feel a little empowered in their own spheres to make a difference, through dance, through poetry and through thinking of ways in which they might be able to help care for our world - and preserve it for their children. And they will be able to tell those children that they have read their poem to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. That's pretty special, too! Visit www.nottingham-arena.com/dalai_lama/programme

Acting in our best interest?
Since Christmas, mediums, psychics, clairvoyants and healers have been in contact regarding the Repeal of the Fraudulent Mediums Act scheduled for April 2008. Many sincere, hardworking and caring people are extremely worried that their work will then be regulated by the Consumer Protection Act. This Act places the emphasis on the medium or healer, if prosecuted, to be able to prove that their work is valid and can show acceptable (scientific) evidence in a court of law! Many of these people could find this impossible as repeatable or measurable results are not available. Unfortunately this sorry state of affairs has been exasberted by the many mediums who refuse any form of testing (claiming that they have a special gift) and have resisted forming a unified professional body which could have licensed them and importantly regulated their activities. The result is that any person can claim to be medium or a healer, tell their clients anything which comes into their head and charge exorbitant fees to doing so. Obviously there are fraudulent people in every walk of life, but as doctors, solicitors, trades people and even retailers all have to prove their innocence in the event of a problem, why should healers and mediums be exempt? Since 1989 the Psychic Club Great Britain has taught Tarot, Palmistry and Name Analysis in a logical system, stressing that this method provided an accurate framework to which the reader could add any additional psychic information. In light of the new legislation the Psychic Club has agreed to support any member who is prosecuted only if they have passed the relevant examination, work strictly to the course content and record every reading. The support will be to work with a solicitor, supplying details of the relevant course, examination results and where necessary appearing as a witness. If you would like to know more about the Psychic Club Tel. 0161 256 0509.

Red Rain
A controversial theory, that strange red rains in India six years ago might have contained microbes from outer space, is making headlines again. A new study suggests the claimed connection between scarlet rain and tiny celestial visitors may be consistent with historical accounts linking coloured rain to meteor passings. The study, by doctoral student Patrick McCafferty of Queen's University Belfast, states "80 accounts of red rain, another 20 references to lakes and rivers turning blood-red, and 68 examples of other phenomena such as coloured rain, black rain, milk, bricks, or honey falling from the sky." Sixty of these events, or 36 percent, "were linked to meteoritic or comet activity," he went on. The phenomena were recorded in times and places as varied as Classical Rome, medieval Ireland, Norman Britain and 19th century California, noted McCafferty, who has a master's degree in archaeology and studies Irish myth and astronomy. The curious events began on July 25, 2001, when residents of Kerala, a region in southwestern India, started seeing scarlet rain. It persisted on-and-off for some weeks, even two months. Two Indian scientists later published a chemical and biological analysis suggesting, they said, that the specks might indeed be little aliens. They "have much similarity with biological cells" but without DNA, wrote the researchers, Godfrey Louis and A. Santhosh Kumar of India's Mahatma Gandhi University. Some researchers, including Chandra Wickramasinghe, director of the Centre for Astrobiology at Cardiff University, have said that Louis and Kumar's idea may well be correct. He and other supporters pointed to the consistency of the alien-cell hypothesis with the popular "panspermia" theory, which holds that meteors and comets might have seeded life throughout many planets.

Deadly Progression
HIV/AIDS is spreading among tribal peoples due to increased contact with outsiders and dramatic social change, says Survival International. West Papua has a rate of HIV/AIDS at least 15 times the rate in Indonesia as a whole. The province is home to 312 tribes who have suffered extreme oppression and violence since the Indonesian occupation in the 1960s. Many tribes-people even believe that the Indonesian military is introducing HIV/AIDS deliberately in order to wipe them out. HIV/AIDS was virtually unknown among the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari in Botswana before the government evicted them from their land. But in New Xade resettlement camp in 2002, at least 40% of Bushman deaths were due to AIDS. Yanomami Indians in Brazil report that soldiers stationed on their land have brought gonorrhoea and syphilis to their communities through sexual exploitation of tribal women. They fear that the soldiers will also transmit HIV/AIDS. Survival's director Stephen Corry said, 'Tribal people die because their land is invaded and taken and because they succumb to outside diseases they never knew before. It is striking the most vulnerable peoples of all: those who have no grasp of the risks of unprotected sex; no access to condoms; no appropriate treatment; and whose numbers are already small. The first solution is the simplest - governments must ensure tribal lands are properly protected.' For more information visit www.survival-international.org/campaigns/progresscankill or contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org

Previously in the News

Ancestral lands desecrated
Nowhere in the British Isles is the necessity for respect to be given to our ancestors being more clearly shown than at the M3 toll motorway route protests at Tara, north west of Dublin. For over a year, hardy souls camped on the 500-foot high hill with its complex of ancient features. They have been campaigning to protect other important archeological remains at the periphery of a huge archeological site known as the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland which is, for some, a portal to the spirit world. They want the motorway re-routed away from this potential tourist hotspot and claim the alternative is 7km shorter and 50 million euros cheaper. A second camp at Rath lugh is the base for direct action to prevent the earth movers from bulldozing important historical sites in the Gabhra (Skryne) Valley in County Meath, about a mile from Tara Hill. A key site here is a newly discovered wooden henge at Lismullen over 6,000 years old which protestors claim has been 'trashed' by a rushed archeological survey. The site was declared a national monument in April and the Irish government was told by the EU to stop work there as it is illegal. Another newly-discovered site, a ring fort behind Soldiers Hill, has seen the National Roads Authority refuse to halt work there. The campaigners' direct action battle cry, 'For the ancestors', voiced as they go 'digger diving' (climbing on to earth movers) may have had some effect - they claim they have repeatedly stopped construction work. Tim Shaw, a musician of Dinefwr Green Group in Wales, said after five days on the site: 'We came to re-awaken the spirit of the Tara and to pay respects to our ancestors who were buried there. What is happening in Ireland with the construction of the M3 is just criminal - ancient graves being dug up and bones put into plastic buckets. The EU has recently deemed the work illegal but the Irish government seems hell bent on an orgy of destruction to create a multi-billion euro road network that can have no long-term future when the world is starting to run out of oil.' For more information visit www.savetara.com, www.tarapixie.net and www.tarawatch.org

Planet of love, a real threat?
The lunar calendar accurately predicts 2012 to be the date the gravity of the planet Venus negatively affects the moon's lunar trajectory and causes disruptions in the weather patterns on planet earth. The event of venus' orbit pulling the moon away from us only happens once every 60,000 to 70,000 years and coincides with landmark claims of human survival such as the book of Genesis and the predictions of the Maya. For communities of the time, then dependent largely on agricultural industries, this was known as the beginning of the 'end times' or the apocalypse. There are some who believe we need to re-engineer the moon's orbit back into a position consistent with life on earth and that this should be the sole focus of Global Warming talks and endeavours.

Health before wealth
A new study into Britain's entrepreneurial attitude has revealed that a detrimental impact on health is the fastest growing concern when deciding whether to start up a business of our own. The research, commissioned by Orange Business Services, revealed that 34% felt starting a business would negatively impact their love life; 33% felt it would damage their quality of sleep; and 33% believed it would make them more aggressive and merciless. Hence one in two of people surveyed would pefer to maintain their wellbeing rather than seek their fortune.

Natural-born giver?
Scientists have found evidence that a particular gene may underlie generosity. A recent experiment at Hebrew University in Jerusalem used gameplay where one player was given a sum of money and could then decide how much of that to give to a second player. It provided 'the first evidence, to my knowledge, for a relationship between DNA variability and real (costly) human altruism', wrote reseacher Ariel Knafo. 'Games recreate social interactions in the laboratory using real money payoffs and thus engage people in "putn your money where your mouth is" decisions', said the study's authors. They found variations in generosity of upwards of 44% in association with variants in the AVPR1a gene, the gene now linked to our level of altruism. The gene is involved in the production of a molecule, called a receptor, that lets a hormone known as vasopressin act on brain cells. Vasopressin in turn has been implicated in social bonding. The researchers found greater altruism in players in which a key section of the AVPR1a gene, called its promoter, was longer. A promoter is the region of a gene that allows cellular machinery to read the gene and carry out instructions.

Mars, the red and green planet!
An image that seems to have all evidence of life (plant life that is) on Mars from the ESA Mars Express satellite reveals a 20km long patch of green growth. If it is not moss, it is some weird emerald green geological deposit that is 'coincidentally' deposited exactly how moss grows in barren terrain near hot springs moisture that is carried by wind. Judge for yourself by visiting www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html