I haven’t yet read Bill Shanley’s new compendium, Alice and the Quantum Cat, but I’m so excited to do so that I’ve mocked up a review from the publisher’s notes.  So many of our favorite philosophers and thinkers have contributed!

There is one thing, major in our opinion, that is suspiciously absent from Shanley’s book, it would appear – our late friend Marilyn Ferguson was not included in the contributing authors, content, or even an acknowledgement in the forward. William Brandon Shanley, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, “Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!”

Few works of fiction have inspired more reworkings than Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. From Disney’s 1951 animation, Tim Burton’s 2010 adaptation. Grace Slick’s White Rabbit, Alan Moore’s Lost Girls to the definitive Annotated Alice by Scientific American’s Martin Gardner, this little Victorian girl’s adventures in a world of fantasy have captured the imaginations of millions.

“Why shouldn’t Alice’s story be brought up to date and used to illustrate the bizarre nature of quantum reality?” reasoned William Shanley, an East-Coast media personality. So Shanley engaged myself and a number of others to refashion Alice’s adventures to explicate the mysterious world of quantum physics. Shanley’s passion to be all things to all people brought more and more writers into the project each with their own point of view. Every author invented their own new worlds for Alice to explore and the manuscript soon became a giant kaleidoscope of altered states.

(Read more…)

From Acharya S –

“When I first read this poem over 20 years ago, I immediately understood it. I “got” it both spiritually and anthropologically. I once shared it with a couple I encountered, but when I got to the part about Hitler, the woman snapped, “I don’t agree with that at all” and stormed away, followed sheepishly by her partner. I was flummoxed by her reaction, because I saw the poem as a statement of the human condition as a whole, whereby we human beings do possess the capacity for both good and evil.

 

Isaac Abrams
All Things are One Thing 1966
© Isaac Abrams. Photo: Alvan Meyerowitz

(Read more…)

Dr. Larry Dossey, Deepak Chopra and Dr. Rustum Roy, writing in Huffington Post, had some interesting insights on what they call the “Mythology Of Science-Based Medicine.”

The current healthcare debate has brought up basic questions about how medicine should work. On one hand we have the medical establishment with its enormous cadre of M.D.s, medical schools, big pharma, and incredibly expensive hospital care. On the other we have the semi-condoned field of alternative medicine that attracts millions of patients a year and embraces literally thousands of treatment modalities not taught in medical school.

Huffington | January 7, 2010 –

One side, mainstream medicine, promotes the notion that it alone should be considered “real” medicine, but more and more this claim is being exposed as an officially sanctioned myth. When scientific minds turn to tackling the complex business of healing the sick, they simultaneously warn us that it’s dangerous and foolish to look at integrative medicine, complementary and alternative medicine, or God forbid, indigenous medicine for answers. Because these other modalities are enormously popular, mainstream medicine has made a few grudging concessions to the placebo effect, natural herbal remedies, and acupuncture over the years. But M.D.s are still taught that other approaches are risky and inferior to their own training; they insist, year after year, that all we need are science-based procedures and the huge spectrum of drugs upon which modern medicine depends.

(Read more…)

Business owners often ask us what they should they be doing for social media their company. In our “expert” (LOL) opinion, this question cannot be glossed over, let alone without doing bonafide research. That being said, asking is the first step and so we will answer it with the help of social media expert Nicole Fletcher (follow her).

Here is Nicole’s quick list of what your company MUST first be doing to get into the swing of things – (source: Jacob Tyler)

1. Create a Facebook fan page and Twitter account and use them. Keep them updated with fresh, relevant content and bring in your personal network for growth. Ask your community what they want to hear about and then provide them with that information. Talk to them, respond to them and do it in a timely manner…not just today, but tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. Make time for these tools – you’ll be glad you did.

(Read more…)

Source: Lynnea Bylund | Catalyst QuickBooks

Its a new era for bargain seekers with a constant stream of strongly discounted coupon offers: 40% off a Princess Cruise ticket, 55% off a facial, or $125 worth of laundry and dry cleaning for $60.

Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and big corporations are gambling that the new discount coupon promotional services represent a tectonic shift in consumer trends, and a profound new way to pull in new customers. Last year, Groupon, one of the largest players, turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google, and LivingSocial, the Web site that distributes daily deals for restaurants, spas and retail outlets, added $400 million to its coffers last week as investors continued to funnel money into the fast-growing company.

Even the megalithic facebook is launching a Daily Deals program to test the waters. And Yahoo announced the launch of Local Offers program recently and is partnering with websites like Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, and others to provide a wide selection of local deals and coupons from nearby restaurants and other local retailers.

So what’s the scoop here? Can these help or hurt a small business?

(Read more…)

The U.S government may be positioning to establish private currency barter of any sort as an unlawful transaction, pursuant to a recent criminal conviction of Liberty Dollar’s founder Bernard Von NotHaus for “counterfeiting” and “conspiracy,” supposedly intending to illegally mint and replace US currency with a private one using silver and gold-based coins and silver-backed paper dollars.

See – Liberty Dollars Creator Convicted of Federal Crimes

And the US Attorney in charge of von NotHaus’s successful prosecution, is now parlaying the conviction to say that this ruling sets forth a precedent against “…any private barter transactions that use any form of currency besides established Federal Reserve Notes and U.S. minted coins.”

The federal government also is seeking to take permenant receipt of eight tons of silver and gold ($7+ Million dollars) bullion and silver ‘Liberty Dollars’ that were minted and sold by von NotHaus.

(Read more…)