GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, JANUARY 16, 2002: “I was destined to do this. I grew sick of Sanskrit in school, but it’s caught me again,” says 74-year-old composer Vanraj Bhatia, of his newest double album Ananta. He was trained in Indian classical ragas as a child and later studied composition in Western classical music with Nadia Boulanger. The…
GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK, USA, February 11, 2002: War, pollution and logging are despoiling the world’s mountain ranges. The Alps, the Rockies and the Hindu Kush are most threatened, according to a UN study released today. Mountains are the “water towers of the world,” supplying water to more than half the world’s population, said the report by the Tokyo-based…
GO TO SOURCE MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, February 15, 2002: In a growing scandal for the Archdiocese of Boston, Roman Catholic leaders on Friday named 14 New Hampshire priests accused of sexual misconduct over a quarter-century. The Diocese of Manchester, which covers the state, gave the names to prosecutors and the public. “What I report is sad in one way because…
GO TO SOURCE BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, February 14, 2002: The Universidad Abierta Interamericana (Interamerican Open University), Argentina, is offering the first universitary post-degree course for Spanish-speaking medical doctors in ayurveda medicine starting March 2002. This one year training course is being offered through the Department of Ayurveda Medicine of the university and the Chairman Professor Doctor Sergio Lais, pioneer of…
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Wasson’s identification of Vedic soma as the psychoactive mushroom Amanita muscaria (fly-agaric), this article reviews unpublished letters by Wasson in which he considered and rejected other psychoactive plants as candidates, including the mint Lagochilus inebrians, Convolvulaceae (morning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…