The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks says it is releasing more than two million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and corporations. “Ground-breaking” news stories derived from the “Syria files” will be published over the next two months, Wikileaks said.Its founder Julian Assange was quoted as saying the material was embarrassing – not only to Syria but [...]

This was a fast moving talk that is easily digestible and yet effective in disinfecting rather contaminated air waves of the so called alternative news and interviewing sites on the Internet. See it on Scoop.it, via Mindscape

Once again, science and anthropology have teamed up to solve questions concerning the fascinating, brilliantly hued pigment known as Maya Blue.Impervious to the effects of chemical or physical weathering, the pigment was applied to pottery, sculpture, and murals in Mesoamerica largely during the Classic and Postclassic periods (AD 250-1520), playing a central role in ancient [...]

Former government drugs adviser Prof David Nutt has said that regulations should be relaxed to enable researchers to experiment on mind-altering drugs. Prof Nutt told BBC News that magic mushrooms, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis and mephedrone all have potential therapeutic applications.   “feel quite passionately that these drugs are profound drugs; they change the brain in [...]

n Chinese culture, every year has an animal mascot. It’s the “year of the monkey,” for example, or the year of the rooster. 2012 is the year of consciousness (or conscious awakening, in a sense). Does this mean we’re going to abandon the mundane daily news of planet earth and float off into la-la land [...]

Raven: post-resurrection emotions of a character. NTT Vol. 2, #39 (Jan. 1988).  This has been a strange holiday season.  Every week, I have heard about 3-4 deaths, either acquaintances, or public figures. Today, more sad news. Farewell to a fine illustrator from Uruguay, Eduardo Barreto, who died on December 15.  He graced the pages of DC's [...]

What makes the Tantric Buddhism of Tibet more mysterious than the Buddhist traditions that gave us mindfulness and loving kindness become household words? The convergence of timeless contemplative arts with current science and contemporary life may seem like yesterday’s news. Yet there are still some Asian contemplative traditions as little known in the West as [...]