Reconsidering the Past and Future of Planet Earth

Though we are bound to our planet and it is often impossible to see beyond our immediate future, few things are striking as an image of Earth as seen from outer space. The fascination with our place in the solar system has been alive ever since the homo sapien began prowling the land and navigating the waters of this unusual planet. At a time when many people say our time on Earth - like the dinosaur's - may be finite, it is interesting to reconsider the past and future of our planet.

A Unique and Unusual Terrestrial Planet

Considering the lack of life on other planets in our solar system, it is Earth that is the unusual planet of the group. Statistically, there are four planets larger than Earth, which is the third planet from the sun. Most agree that the Earth has existed some 4.5 billion years. While life forms developed over 3 billion years ago, periods of mass extinction have altered the course of the planet dramatically. No single species has ever had as great an impact as human beings on the planet. Because of the capacity of human brains, we have dominated and influenced the entire planet in way never considered by other species.

A Doomed Planet?

A quick look at our solar system would point to the existence of life on Earth as a temporary thing. In fact, many scientists would agree that the planet will not exist forever. While it doesn't mean things can change within the next 500 million years (the minimum ballpark guess for the end of life on Earth), it is interesting to consider the fact that human life on Earth may not continue forever. Other more pessimistic figures will put our time as far shorter on the planet, yet most estimates are over a billion years. When considering our ability to travel distances never thought possible and build civilizations in places previously unheard of, it might not be the end of the world.

The Surface of the Earth

Since it is difficult for many of us to consider life on other planets - not to mention our potential for colonization of those planets - it is instructive to analyse the surface of the Earth. Most striking is the fact that over 70% of the planet is water. These waters cover a majority of the land - a stunning network, of caves, volcanoes, plains and canyons. Nature programs on television are so fascinating because there is so much life submerged in our waters. Many scientists believe that Earth is the only planet to have significant tectonic plate activity. While volcanoes have been identified on other planets, this unique plate activity occurs only on Earth.

A Realistic View of the Future of Earth

Pictures of Earth's future must include the sun to be complete. As the amount of helium inside the sun increases, its rays will decrease in intensity and life on the planet will suffer dramatically. In fact, it could spell the end of the oceans. Considering there would be only 30% of the planet left, life would likely cease to exist. There is about 600 million years until this event occurs, while human beings may have another 300 million more years afterwards.

A planet as unique in the history of our solar system is fascinating to comprehend, no matter what doomsday predictions may exist. It is likely an alternative plan will have been drawn up by the time Earth becomes uninhabitable.

Though we are bound to our planet and it is often impossible to see beyond our immediate future, few things are striking as an image of Earth as seen from outer space. The fascination with our place in the solar system has been alive ever since the homo sapien began prowling the land and navigating the waters of this unusual planet. At a time when many people say our time on Earth - like the dinosaur's - may be finite, it is interesting to reconsider the past and future of our planet.

Review of "Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort"

Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort is Dr. Mark Dussault's masterpiece. He explains how to make studying more efficient, more enjoyable and more productive. The text is very easy to understand and the techniques reasonably easy to implement. This eBook is a great tool for making yourself smarter than the majority of people. The strategies can be applied to any situation where you must perform at your best.

This e-work does keep its assurance of moulding you into a super learner and has the expertise it promises for a more comprehensive and much faster reading perception. You will be able to make a notable movement forward in your results for more than a brief duration, if you are able to adopt the techniques provided in this e-book carefully. One thing should be said at the beginning that an e-work such as Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort is bound to show different results for different students. It will depend on how closely you are able to come or go after the guidelines and strategies advised in the work in to better your grades. Or then you could just continue heaping in C- from your educational courses.

The book is inspirationally written and won't make you yawn. It is very straightforward in its methods and appeals to readers of all ages. The author clearly has a talent to simplify things and thus being his ways are very goal-driven. He shows you how to start from small goals and build up toward bigger ones. But he doesn't stop there. He provides clear strategies for success and ways to let you get everything done effortlessly. In addition, some great methods for the classroom are included.

Dr. Dussault has experiences in business and law. His excellence previously used only for tutoring students is now available in the from of this book. What makes this book even more valuable is the fact that it can benefit a wide range of students from different ages and different interests. The books methods allow anyone to science success as long as instructions are followed to the letter.

Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort is also smarter named. "the Least Amount of Effort" notes the fact that some effort must be used in order to achieve anything in life.

The Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Book by Professor David Bohm and Master Intelligent Plan

I. INTRODUCTION:

Professor David Bohm, (1917-1992) was a renowned scientist. His books on quantum theory were widely acclaimed. He was a close associate of J.Krishnamurti from the early 1960s and also associated with the Krishnamurti School in Brookwood Park. Prof Bohm and J.K used to have regular discussions on various topics on Philosophy, the most important being 'The Ending of Time' and 'the Future of Humanity'

He independently worked on his own Philosophy and proposed the theory of 'The Wholeness and the Implicate Order'; which was published by ARK paper backs, London.

The book consists of seven chapters namely,

1. Fragmentation and wholeness
2. The rheomode - an experiment with language and thought
3. Reality and knowledge, considered as process
4. Hidden variables in the quantum theory
5. Quantum theory as an indication of a new order in physics, Part A: The

Development of new orders as shown through the history of physics

6. Quantum theory as an indication of a new order in physics, Part B: Implicate and

Explicate order in physical law

7. The enfolding-unfolding universe and consciousness

The contents of the book are highly philosophical and scientific in nature and meant for serious readers of Philosophy of Science. Let a brief review of the contents along with own derivations based on Master Intelligent Plan be given in the following paragraphs.

II. What is 'Implicate Order?'

According to David Bohm's theory, implicate and explicate orders are characterised by the following clarification: 'in the enfolded [or implicate] order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is called the "explicate" or "unfolded" order, which is a special and distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the implicate orders '

Discussions:

In this book, the learned Professor puts forth the theory that we are guided by a self willed view and perceive and also experience the world as fragmented. Such a view is false because it is based on our mistaking the contents of our thought for a description of the world. Bohm, on the other hand, introduces the concept of an implicate ORDER in which any element contains within itself the totality of the whole Universe known as the WHOLENESS. The most important thing which is to be noted is that this theory includes both matter and consciousness. In another discussion with Dr Renee Weber, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University, he describes consciousness as an 'implicate order' which is manifested as a part of wholeness, and wholeness as the container of the implicate order.

Prof Weber compares each individual to a bee serving the beehive which is the whole, whereas Prof Bohm compares it to individual notes making a symphony. One who has seen the huge temple towers of South India might see that hundreds of carvings on the huge Gopuras (Temple towers) make the full tower. Here, beehive, symphony or tower is the wholeness and the individual bees, musical notes and the carvings are the implicate order.

One is striken with the astounding similarity between Vedanta and what Bohm expresses in the following words, ' an individual is eternally unfolding his potential'. J.K elsewhere puts it as 'continuously flowering, revealing more and more what it is'.

Regarding the discussions on the book, the following three concepts deserve special attention
A. Cosmology and the Implicate Order:
B. the Implicate order, Life and the force of overall necessity and
C. Consciousness and the implicate order.

Reading of the above three sub titles will suffice to provide a thorough knowledge of the topic of wholeness and the implicate order. They will, in general have the following key factors:

1. a set of implicate orders.
2. A special distinguished case of the above set, which constitutes an explicate order of manifestation.
3. A general relationship or law expressing a force of necessity which binds together a certain set of the implicate order in such a way that they contribute to a common explicate end.

The three examples given above clarify the above factors and these factors constitute the essence of the book and the readers are welcome to go through the contents and have an understanding of the points mentioned therein.

III: LIGHT as the Implicate Order:

As a celebrated scientist, he is dealing with physical matter, light, space and time. He describes matter as condensed or 'frozen' light. When we come to light, we are coming to the fundamental activity in which existence has its ground. Movement is the prime reality in perception and when we say there is no speed at light it is ordinary language. But, in a self referential state, it means there is no time, no speed nor space. It is approaching a timeless state and Bohm logically derives that time originates out of Timeless.

Professor Bohm puts a very interesting hypothesis that Particles are implicit in the information content of light. He makes a daring declaration "the light, as it were, determines itself to make particles, to allow for a richer Universe. In other words, Light (the wholeness) transforms aspects of itself into particles (implicate order) in order that the particles will reveal the light.

IV: WHOLENESS and TIME:

About Time, Prof Bohm suggests that Time is enrichment of Eternity. Can we visualise nothing happens but everything just 'is'. Past and future are always present as overtones of the 'present'. Past, we remember as memory. But memory is present. Future is our expectation in the present. Thus "the past ends in the presence extending into the endless future"- J.Krishnamurti.

Bohm says: The present idea of this Universe may represent some age of the Universe. The Universe of light is eternal as far as we are concerned. But at a certain stage, some of these light rays got together and made the big bang. And that unfolded the present Universe which may have its end. But the Universe of life is beyond time and therefore they could be other Universes. There may be many ages, not necessarily in succession.

V: Implicate Order, Consciousness and Master Intelligent Plan:

Implicate order would be the material aspect and the Super implicate order would be the conscious aspect. (There could be super-super implicate orders too) whereas the wholeness is the origin implicated in all these. A brief description of Master Intelligent plan will clarify this aspect. In the theory of Master Intelligent plan, it was clearly defined that space and time are explicit forms of energy, a Universal energy known as Master Intelligent Plan. That cosmic energy is the cause of the entire Universe. Dissipation and/or accumulation of the energy cause various objects and change we observe. Such objects, including the so called Ether constitute space and measurements of such changes constitute time. Time and space are only measurement or observation of various changes in the single source of energy

Thus Master Intelligent Plan of Holistic Philosophy is a replica of the Wholeness in the implicate order Philosophy.

VI. The concept of 'GOD':

Having discussed the commonness in Wholeness and the Holistic Philosophy, it may be appropriate to conclude this article with a discussion on GOD. Some scientists may be averse in using the word God; there are some great scientists like, none other
than Einstein who declared that the entire Universe is according to a 'grand design' of God. But is there a celebrated scientist who has clarified the existence of God in unambiguous, that too in scientific terms?

Professor David Bohm by propounding the Wholeness theory has explained clearly that there is a 'super' power or Intelligence which is represented in all the matter and consciousness, which again try to enrich the wholeness as explained in the above paragraphs. The super intelligence need not be neutral and it is benevolent and compassionate. Which are precisely the attributes to God as per Vedanta.

In fact, one is stricken with the similarity between Vedanta and what Prof Bohm expresses in the book under discussion. Two quotations from Vedanta will make these points clear.

"THAT which is in the Universe is in the molecule and THAT which is in the molecule is in the Universe"

"THAT is more ancient than the most ancient and

THAT is more nascent than the most nascent"

The word THAT is very important. Upanishads say OHM TAT SAT which means
"THAT is" and here the word THAT contains the entire Universe and all the time, present, past and the future..
:
God is considered as an acronym consisting of the three words Generator, Operator and Destroyer. Here, all the three functions are done by the wholeness or the Master Intelligent Plan with the difference that there is no destruction, but only a Changing process, because the energy "is eternally unfolding its potential". He quotes J.K as saying "continuously flowering, revealing more and more what it is". This may be called 'creative Lila' (Eternal Play). We may also call it, 'flowering', as J.K puts it.

Conclusion:

Thus one of the very serious books on Philosophy is simplified in the above paragraphs for readers to read and understand. Along with examples of the author of the book own examples were also given to make matters simple. The greatest contribution of this article to Philosophy of Science is an Explanation to the Philosophy of God is given in scientific terms. The correlation between Professor Bohm's Wholeness Philosophy with Vedanta is presented in simple terms.

One important aspect of this article is that, the implicate order and the wholeness is represented in all the concepts explained therein..

In short, readers who are interested in Scientific Philosophy will be greatly benefited by reading this article.

We wish the readers all the best.

Dr B.Sathyanarayanan (65) is an experienced administrator, teacher and writer. He is M.Sc (Physics) from Annamalai University. He studied Psychology and Philosophy as two additional subjects for graduation. He worked as a PHYSICS LECTURER for 2 years (1969-1971). Later, he had to take up a bank job and continued Physics and Philosophy research privately. At the age of 50, he got voluntary retirement from banking service to devote more time for social, educational and research activities. In 2005, he took up Physics teaching once again and is continuously teaching for the past 8 years as a regular professor of Physics.

He continued his interest in Psychology and got his PhD in Psychological counselling in 2000 and is counselling on HIV/AIDS matters. He conducted several intervention programmes. He is a well known writer in English in fiction and article writing. His writing is recognised internationally by listing in the directory of World Philosophers, Bowling Green State University, U.S.A.

All along his life so far, he remained a scientific philosopher in thought and deeds. He considers Albert Einstein as his role model in Science and J.Krishnamurti, in Philosophy. His first book 'The Simple Truth", a comparative study of Religion and Science, was published in 1987. He is publishing the annual magazine 'Philosophy of Science' (since re-started). He founded Holistic Philosophy Society for the study of Physics and Philosophy. His latest book 'Glimpses of Holistic Philosophy' has been widely acclaimed. He conducts regular meetings on various topics on Physics and Philosophy in Chennai. He recently conducted a "Two days seminar on Religion, Science and Social Services" in Chennai, India which was attended by senior Professors of Physics and Philosophy. As an experienced author, he is glad to present the above article for the kind attention of readers.

The Joys Of Selecting Classic Children's Books For Your Kids

Parents take a lot of pleasure and delight when selecting children's books for their kids especially if they are classic books. Parents are like walking down memory lane as they go through piles of books and remember their own childhood when they also look forward to reading their own books.

So how should you choose children's books?

Bright and Colorful

Children are naturally fun and active. However, they easily lose interest and attention if they are doing a particular activity for a long time. It's the same thing with reading. You need to capture their attention and keep them long enough to enjoy the books in front of them. Bright and colorful children's books are guaranteed to catch their attention. Dr. Seuss books are classic examples of books that create visual impact on children. They have vibrant colors and illustrations that are really meant to capture the kids' attention.

Good story

Do not underestimate a child's capacity to understand; good stories are really appreciated by children especially if they make them laugh a lot. Select children's books that are well-written, funny, and, as much as possible, those that teach good moral and values. Parents should utilize books not only to entertain children but to educate them as well. It's worthwhile to note that children learn more in a fun environment. So when you they enjoy the books that you read to them, they are likely to pay more attention and learn more in the process.
Engaging and with good recall

Children have very good imagination and they just love children's books that challenge their creativity and imagination. As such, you should choose books that are very engaging; those that ask questions or allow the children to participate in story-telling are very much recommended.

These days, there's what we call personalized children's books where the name of your child can appear as the main character of the book. This will be thrilling for the kids who can really feel like they're real princesses or super heroes.

When you're able to choose the right books, remember that parents also have important roles to play in making such children's books valuable to kids. Make story-telling a regular bonding activity with your kids. Aside from bedtime stories, you can set-aside a specific time of day or specific day of the week when you will just read books to your children. This way, your kids will have something to look forward to and will associate reading with fun and excitement.

Another innovative way of getting your children to enjoy reading is to look for interactive or download-able children's books. With interactive books, story characters can come to life and kids will have more fun. You can also download or print story books so you can read them to your children. There are literally hundreds of websites that offer free download-able books for children of all ages. You can choose from different stories and select ones with colorful illustrations too. You can bring them anywhere and distribute copies to other children as well.

Exposing Your Children To Educational Books

One cannot undermine the importance of reading in a child's education. That's why educational books are important as they help increase a child's vocabulary and awaken his interest to learn more. Reading is the first step and the basic foundation for a child to perform well in school. When a child develops love for reading, learning other things becomes a lot easier. It is, therefore, important for parents to get the children's interest to read at a very young age.

In order to capture your child's interest for educational books, develop the habit of reading aloud to them. They will find it interesting as you read to them different stories and imitate various characters. Set aside a specific time of day dedicated to reading alone. This will have the children something to look forward to every day. Once the children develop love for reading, they will also develop the initiative to read on their own as they grow old. Reading is especially good to unwind and relax that's why many parents prefer to read bedtime stories to their children.

Another good way to get your child exposed to the wonders of educational books is to take them to libraries. This will both teach them to develop appreciation for good books and learn the responsibility of returning them properly. If they're old enough to select their books and reading materials, you can encourage them to get their own library card so they can explore and borrow on their own. Show them the area in the library where children's educational books are found.

One important tip to get the attention of your children is to engage them every time you read stories. When you read with feelings and emotions and, at the same time, interact with children as you tell stories, they are challenged to use their imagination and listen intently. As you read educational books, include your children as part of the characters in the story. This will thrill them so much that they will want to participate in the story-telling until they learn to tell the story on their own. There are movies that were created based on best-selling books. It would help to buy these books and watch the movie with your kids. This will help them to relate the movie to the original story in the book. This will test their memory and understanding of what they watch and read.

Children should be able to associate reading with fun; as such, you should know how to create a good environment that's conducive to reading and learning. It's best to set up a separate area in your house or room that's dedicated to reading and studying. Provide the appropriate furniture such as study table, chair and book shelves for all the educational books that you will buy for your children. Do not force them to read when they're not in a good mood as this might make them develop negative notions about reading and studying.

There's no specific age set to introduce your child to reading; but the earlier you expose them to the beauty of books and the wonders of reading, the better it is for them.