Here are some videos to start:

Click here for the NY Times article.

Interestingly, the article claims that most of the archaeological discoveries about Old Europe civilization remained under lock and key because of the Cold War, as most of these findings occurred beyond the Iron Curtain. Glad to see these findings are being brought to light and now introduced to the English speaking population.

Slideshow of artifacts from Old Europe exhibit.

As I look forward, I can’t help but feel things will get worse before they get better. As such, I want to find ways to free myself from being dependent on others to live my life. When we examine our lives, we can easily find that much of our happiness is tied to things we think are important, things we often need to take possession of in order to define our goal of happiness. We need to remember that happiness is just a state of mind, a choice we make. Once that is realized, we can also realize our true power and claim our very own freedom.

Ok, I will shut up now – time for the video. Watch and let ideas permeate you much like the drops of water as they make their way into these ancient, yet vital, water harvesting systems in the desert.

Text messages for pop quizzes? Using your camera phone for homework assignments? It’s not far from reality, some schools are starting to utilize this technology.

Also, consider the NETS standards – new standards that demand students not just get content, but experience with technology.

In the future I will be posting articles on such a shift. In fact, I composed this very article from my cell phone.

I’ll attach a few photos and video that I took using my MyTouch 3g (sorry U2, not using the crackberry).

The boys played some of their old familiar hits, and their future ones. Bono said that they could play some really well, while others they couldn’t. Well, they played them all well and we in the crowd that was legion were moved. The crowd was over 70,000 strong and the RayJay proved to be a great host. “You have a pirate ship, we have a space ship!” Bono exclaimed.

One of the main concerns, for me, is the fact that it uses a SD micro card for the basis of its memory. Currently, it is stocked with a 4GB micro card, which sounds good, but what kind of performance will it have? The other concerns are the reviews about the touch screen keyboard size and functionality as well as the concerns over 3G coverage that Tmobile has.

It’s a mad world in the smart phone game these days. I feel compelled, like many others, to join in the game since I am currently stocked with a cell phone that takes pictures, plays music, etc. but doesn’t have that final bit of smart phone touch – internet usage and storage of media. Then I read about another smart phone coming out for Tmobile – in October.

When the G1 came out, I was hooked. I was intrigued by going the Google OS route because it was open source. This is a shrewd move by Google to get into the ground floor of the smart phone industry – which cost Apple tons to get into, but they have made their mark for sure. The problem with the G1 was its hoky and somewhat rushed design. It has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, sure, but it also has a strange shape. The specs on it are solid, but not sexy. In other words, lots of improvement.

HTC is the manufacturor of the G1 and with Tmobile as the carrier, they have teamed up to refine the G1 to bring out version 2 in what is looking to be a drop date of October. Reports are also saying the price will be $148 (with 2 year contract) and it will be pushed through Walmart in a major holiday marketing campaign.

From the looks of this design, which has been leaked as of May, most of the concerns about the G1 original version are addressed. The QWERTY keyboard is retained, which meets the concerns about the MyTouch 3G. What remains to be seen is if there is a gyroscope in there that allows one to shift from portrait to landscape mode with the simple flip of the wrist, ala the Iphone. I think I am going to hold off on the MyTouch 3G for now and see what other Android phones start hitting the market.

In this chapter, we focus on one notion – “it’s the environment, stupid”. This mantra keeps cropping up in relation to the study of cellular behavior. The cells, apparently, are greatly affected by their environments and retain the qualities of their lives while living in a particular environment.

First, Dr. Lipton reminds us, that we must remember that the concept that genes control biology is a theory. A theory, it turns out, that is based on hype and not on actual results – in fact, the latest research has demonstrated that this hypothesis is false. “When a gene product is needed, a signal from the environment, not an emergent property of the gene itself, activates expression of that gene.” (Lipton, The Biology of Belief, p. 52)

The truth is, it turns out, proteins are the most important parts of cells. Each protein is composed of a string of amino acids that are found along a flexible, peptide bonds. These bonds allow for the proteins to take on whatever shape required, which is based on the electromagnetic charges of the elements found along the protein’s string. Once these proteins take their shape, they can alter their shapes if the electromagnetic properties change due to several factors at the molecular level. These uniquely shaped proteins begin to interact with other uniquely shaped proteins much in the same way as gears work together to create motion and animation. The driving force, it seems, is the electromagnetic forces coming to play in the shaping of the protein molecules. This constant moving and shifting is the movement that propels life.

It was once believed that DNA was the primal force in the life of cells. The doctrine of “primacy of DNA” followed that there was one direction of information within the cell – from DNA to RNA to protein. Turns out, this is not true. The field of epigenetics stresses the importance of proteins and has now changed the doctrine of the “primacy of DNA” to work a bit differently: Environmental Signal to Regulatory Protein to DNA to RNA to Protein – AND back! Instead of just a one way street, a signal can actualy go back up the chain as well.

So traits of living things are not simply the result of the blueprint contained within their genes. In fact, living things, at their heart, are collections of systems of cells and if we understand how cells work then we understand how lifeforms are composed. As it turns out, Dr. Bruce Lipton is stating that the environment within which a cell lives has a direct effect on the information that is to be recorded in the gene. More importantly, this information is passed on generation to generation within the cell world. In other words, we shouldn’t look at someone’s genes but at the factors that went into shaping those genes in the first place. The biggest factor to examine straight away? The environment within which the cells had to live.

I am examining a copy that was lent to me to help me kind of get my head around some of these ideas. I feel instinctively drawn to these radical, new fields of science that are developing – mostly because in some way it seems like the kind of knowledge that was once known thousands of years ago. Yes, I do put great stock in the minds of antiquity.

For this exercise, mostly for my own selfish needs, I am going to kind of examine each chapter as I read the book. Starting with Chapter 1 (Lessons from the Petri Dish: In praise of smart cells and smart students) I want to try and flesh out ideas and points of interest to elicit discussion and also to remind me of things that seemed important at the time. So, let’s begin.

The chapter is basically focused on an introduction. Dr. Bruce Lipton has migrated to the Carribean, where he continues to teach and do his research. His academic needs aside, he also gets one of those opportunities we most often don’t recognize at first – a chance to do it your way and a chance to change. He describes his students and the situation he walked into at first – mid semester with under-prepared and bored students.

The basic tenet is the illustration of the battleground over the theory of evolution. In one camp, the Darwin camp, is the idea that species evolved over struggle and strife, meeting violent forces of nature and only the fit would outlive and endure. The weak are to be tossed aside as chafe. There is another notion, however, that is starting to take shape and possible prevail. The idea is that species interact with one another and are dependent on one another for their survival. This symbiotic idea also makes these communities more efficient in their means to survive, therby eliciting an evolution to take place.

Dr. Lipton really hashes out this idea by turning towards a method of anthropomorphizing the behavior of cells. He notes the danger of anthropomorphism, but is convincing in that concerns over such an approach are really misplaced. In fact, it is appropriate within a certain context and can be a useful tool for education. That said, the idea of cell activity – single cell organisms – are depicted to support this community-based evolution. He cites examples of somatic hypermutation as well as intra-species gene trading that goes on. It was long thought that species leave their progeny with genes, but now we see that species share gene traits with other species. Genes, however, are not the end all be all for determining an organism’s behavior. Genes are likened to tangible memories, by which an organism passes on the “data” of survival to its community – not just its progeny.

Basically, everything is either a single-celled organism or composed of a number of those single-celled organisms to make up a multi-celled organism. An amoeba, a rock, a human, a whale – all share the fundamental composition of celled structure and these cells all united to create systems whereby their mutual existence ensures a better, more productive and peaceful life span. It is this impulse that brings us all together and the need for us to unite with one another and connect. I suppose it is also this identification with a given community that forces us to create war with one another, too.

For Dr. Lipton, these single-celled organisms demonstrate learning and they pass this information on in their DNA and their genes. Thus we have evolution but as these cells come together and change their behavior, thus changing this DNA, they are also evolving as clumped units and systems. If we begin to see ourselves as a vast universe of collections of cells and these systems, we begin to understand fundamentally that we are all connected in some way and that seperation is just a matter of illusion. We also learn the valuable lesson of community and teamwork. We learn that we are stronger when we unite and shed the idea of the survival of the fittest. “Two can live as cheaply as one” is an idea brought forward by Dr. Lipton. It also demonstrates the idea that if survival is the key then organisms must come together and work together. United we stand, divided we fall is very true here. This also gives insight into the potential of the “hive mindset” which tools like the Internet make great use of.

If, for example, you want to learn about a particular subject – create a website about it. That way you will have a community of people, all with different experiences and knowledge about a given subject, coming together and discussing that topic. The ongoing body of knowledge, in this example of mine the website, would be like the DNA that is transmitted generation to generation being altered by each subsequent generation as the paradigms of knowledge shift and change.

Pretty good discussion to start with, I think.

Recently, some Italian archaeologists discovered five Roman ships that date from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. What is known is that the material remains left behind reveal the trading habits of the Roman empire – fish from Spain and northern Africa, wine from Italy. How all five ships came to sink in this one spot is not yet known.

“The ships appear to have been heading for safe anchorage, but they never made it,” said Timmy Gambin, head of archaeology for the Aurora Trust (www.auroratrust.com). “So in a relatively small area we have five wrecks…a graveyard of ships.”

Read the rest of the story.