The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95 nations over a period of four years. It is reported here:

Independent News 30/03/05
The state of the world? It is on the brink of disaster

An authoritative study of the biological relationships vital to maintaining life has found disturbing evidence of man-made degradation. Steve Connor reports

Planet Earth stands on the cusp of disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st century. This is not the doom-laden talk of green activists but the considered opinion of 1,300 leading scientists from 95 countries who will
today publish a detailed assessment of the state of the world at the start of the new millennium.

The report does not make jolly reading. The academics found that two-thirds of the delicately-balanced ecosystems they
studied have suffered badly at the hands of man over the past 50 years.

Read more…

Dada Pranakrsnananda has now started a blog on his website. He is a yogic monk with an exceptionally sharp mind, a warm heart and outspoken wit.

His first post is entitled “Australia” - which is where Dada has just started living and working. Tellingly, in the space of a few lines of text, Dada blends the subject of Australian city planning with that of the different cakras (or “chakras” - psychic controlling centres) of the body. More to come, I’m sure…

Isn’t language incredible?! The human mouth and vocal cords can be manipulated with such precision to emit sound waves that another individual can discern and then decipher, to comprehend the feelings and ideas of the speaker.

And the written word - a collection of ordered squiggles on a page - can be recorded to convey exactly the same meaning, via the visual organs of another. Read more…

Been playing around with some Artificial Intelligence.

How would it be to create a bot that knows all the answers to all the questions - available 24/7, never tired, always ready?

Some initial experimentations. You can chat to Dharmabot here.
Read more…

Been doing some research. To see the potential of this thing…

There are many online projects around the world that aim to involve people as a community in the project itself. From citizen-based reporting for a Korean online newspaper, to commercial businesses trying to get their customers involved, to the community of bloggers on the Net. Read more…