(Something regular practitioners have known all along ....)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7319043.stm
Limited research

Research into the health claims made for meditation has limitations and few
conclusions can be reached, partly because meditation is rarely isolated -
it is often practised alongside other lifestyle changes such as diet, or
exercise, or as part of group therapy.

So should we dismiss it as quackery? Studies from the field of neuroscience
suggest not.

It is a new area of research, but indications are intriguing and suggest
that meditation may have a measurable impact on the brain.

In Boston, Massachusetts, Dr Sara Lazar has used a technique called MRI
scanning to analyse the brains of people who have been meditating for
several years.

She compared the brains of these experienced practitioners with people who
had never meditated and found that there were differences in the thickness
of certain areas of the brain's cortex, including areas involved in the
processing of emotion.

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I was amused by the title to this article, but the content might
possibly be of interest as well:

From The Sunday Times
March 30, 2008

Bridge-building Vladimir Putin wants tunnel to US

Nicola Smith and Chris Hutchins

VLADIMIR PUTIN, the Russian president, is to raise plans for a tunnel
to link his country with America when he meets his US counterpart,
George W Bush, next Sunday.

The 64-mile tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka,
in the Russian far east, and Alaska; the cost is estimated at £33
billion.

Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club and governor of
Chukotka, has invested £80m in the world’s largest drill but has
denied that it is linked with the development.

Proposals for such a tunnel were approved by Tsar Nicholas II in the
early 20th century but were abandoned during the Soviet era. If
finally built, the tunnel would allow rail connections between London
and New York.

Those are the figures given by a theological think-tank.

60%% believe in the resurrection
30%% believe in the _physical_ resurrection

(Presumably non-physical is more ghostly or "in spirit" as opposed to
walking around).

It's higher than I expected. I wonder who they asked.

- Richard

If you want to separate the bank holiday weekend from when the Pope with his
astrolabe decides Easter should be, vote for the change at:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/easterdate/

Not only will moving it to the second weekend in April be a poke in the eye
for Christian influence over the calendar, but it's a sensible move to put
it in the middle of a school holiday without disrupting term lengths and
encouraging absenteeism for the remainder of the week. It might also be a
bit warmer.

Go on, do it now. You know it makes sense.

And you'll be joining two professors of philosophy as well as Polly Toynbee.

This one is new to me. A magazine for humanists!
http://newhumanist.org.uk/

Steve M

my original post hasn't showed up yet but anyway ...

Full speech by Bishop of Carlisle can be found here
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/80124-0011.htm

scary !

Steve M

The Cumbria Humanists website has a link to the very worrying speech by the
Bishop of Carlisle. I find it astonishing that the Church is to be handed
control of welfare and I'm very worried as to what they are to take on. We
have a history poor welfare in the area as it is. If the Church has its way
we won't know quite how poor.

The full speech from the House of Lords.
The Lord Bishop of Carlisle: My Lords, I thank you for the opportunity to
speak in this debate. I wish to offer some important perspectives from where
the Church of England stands. For two years or more, Government Ministers
have been in conversation with church leaders about the possibility of the
church providing extensive welfare services, rather in the way that the
church plays a major part in education. The new direction of the state, it
seems, is to be a commissioning state, rather than one that has extensive
institutions providing welfare.

Lauren Keane wrote:

Question: Is denouncing NAZI literature as
"fascist" and "inciting people to murder" ...
"clearly crass and self-serving exercises that
pay lip service to the idea of freedom of
speech while being little more than vehicles
for xenophobia?"

I think this article from The Independent website suggests some
interesting reasons why Blair et al. opted for war with Iraq.

Steve Richards: Overwhelming and still underestimated factors
propelled Blair into war in Iraq

Thursday, 27 March 2008

A pattern is forming. This week's debate about whether or not there
should be a government inquiry into the war in Iraq was fuelled by a
range of domestic political calculations. The Conservatives instigated
the Commons debate in order to distance themselves from their robust,
and highly influential, support for the war. The Government refused to
hold an inquiry now because the nightmare of Iraq would be revisited
as the next election approaches. The Liberal Democrats called for an
apology from those who supported the war in order to emphasise that
they did not do so.

There is a depressing symmetry about the way that domestic political
considerations continue to define attitudes towards the war. In my
view, there were overwhelming and still underestimated factors which
propelled Tony Blair towards war in the first place.