News

GO TO SOURCE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, February 15, 2002: Citing recently published challenges to R. Gordon Wasson’s identification of Vedic soma as the psychoactive mushroom Amanita muscaria (fly-agaric), this article reviews unpublished letters by Wasson in which he considered and rejected other psychoactive plants as candidates, including the mint Lagochilus inebrians, Convolvulaceae (morning glory) seeds, the fungal parasite Claviceps purpurea (ergot),…

GO TO SOURCE MUMBAI, INDIA, February 15, 2002: Hard-line slogan-shouting Shiv Sena Hindu activists burned cards and gifts in protest against Valentine’s Day which they say offends Indian tradition. Cane-wielding policemen guarded shops to prevent violence. The activists waved placards saying, “Down with Western Culture, Down with Valentine’s Day,” “Keep Hindu culture alive, Ban Valentine’s Day” as they set fire…

Source: HPI KAUAI, HAWAII, February 15, 2002: Several readers responded to the request for a font with diacritical marks for Sanskrit. Fonts are available on these web sites: http://www.omkarananda-ashram.org/Sanskrit/Itranslt.html; http://www.hknet.org.nz/fonts.htm; http://www.myfonts.com/Search?searchtext=devanagari; http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/indologie/font.html; http://www.vada.nl/talensa.htm#SAN

GO TO SOURCE FEBRUARY 3, 2002: For those who dream of a better life, science has bad news; this is the best it is going to get. Our species has reached its biological pinnacle and is no longer capable of changing. That is the controversial view of a group of biologists who believe a Western lifestyle now protects humanity from…

Source: Press Reports NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 8, 2002: Despite the December 1, 2000, High Court order, corporal punishment appears to be commonplace in Delhi schools. In just the past week, three cases of violence against students were reported. Eleven-year-old Arti fainted after her teacher beat her with a stick for not bringing her English notebook to school. Student of…

GO TO SOURCE LONDON, UK, Feb 9, 2002: Ethnic communities have condemned strongly the British Home Secretary after he urged families who arrange marriages to find partners in Britain and not in Asia, triggering a new row over multi-culturalism. Mr David Blunkett was accused of “dangerous interference” in Asian culture when he said parents and men and women taking part…

Source: Hindustan Times NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 30, 2002: This article in the Hindustan Times is the latest in a series of reports appearing in Delhi papers regarding corporal punishment in schools. When eight-year old Rachna could not properly read her Hindi lesson, her teacher at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) primary school reprimanded her by repeatingly banging her…

GO TO SOURCE KAUAI, HAWAII, February 14, 2002: An HPI reader asks, “Can you advise on where and how I can purchase fonts of roman characters with diacritical marks for the the transliteration of Sanskrit terms in English texts, to install in my PC (Word 95).” Any HPI readers who know of such fonts may kindly respond to “Source” above…

GO TO SOURCE OSLO, SPAIN, February 7, 2002: With significant reduced brain activity after using a cell phone for only a few minutes, child subjects at the Spanish Neuro Diagnostic Research center in Marbella were compared to adult subjects. Conducted by German investigator Michael Klieeisen, the tests clearly showed that brain activity in large sections of the brain was reduced…

Source: Reuters NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 7, 2002: With his “don’t worry, be happy” slogan and a breathing technique to reduce stress, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar is known as the laughing guru in India. Appealing to India’s Westernized urban elite who have lost contact with their religious roots and priests, Ravishankar’s message has given this group back their sense…