I posted an essay, Listen To The Drums, by Aldous Huxley, from the LA Times, July 20, 1952 on my Blogspot page, if anyone is interested.

Nicholas Roerich, (October 9, 1874 - December 13, 1947) also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Russian: Николай Константинович Рерих), was a Russian painter and spiritual teacher. He was the father of Tibetologist George Roerich (a.k.a. Yuri Roerich) and artist Svetoslav Roerich. Nicholas and his wife Helena Roerich were co-founders of the theosophical Agni Yoga Society.

Born in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg, Russia to the family of a well-to-do notary public, he lived around the world until his death in Punjab, India. Trained as an artist and a lawyer, his interests lay in literature, philosophy, archaeology and especially art. (from Wikipedia)

For a more in depth biography, please see the Nicholas Roerich Museum on line, which for the sake of brevity here, I am regretably leaving out. He was not just an artist, but a  highly spiritual being, a peace activist, and founder of the Agni Yoga Society.

Here are two videos of his art, with Tibetan Singing Bowl meditative music by Frank Perry. The second video you might want to keep the volume low- there is a gong that had so much bass I felt it in my chest and my speakers walked!  Roerich is a favorite of mine. 

A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, "Sir, there are living here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others that it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the body and others that it lives on forever, and so forth. What, Sir, would you say concerning them?"

The Buddha answered, "Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, 'Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind... and show them an elephant.' 'Very good, sire,' replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, 'Here is an elephant,' and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant.

"When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?'

"Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, 'Sire, an elephant is like a pot.' And the men who had observed the ear replied, 'An elephant is like a winnowing basket.' Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a grainery; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.

"Then they began to quarrel, shouting, 'Yes it is!' 'No, it is not!' 'An elephant is not that!' 'Yes, it's like that!' and so on, till they came to blows over the matter.

"Brethren, the raja was delighted with the scene.

"Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing.... In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus."

Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift,
O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing.

Gaia domination (punny!), and what does that mean to me? I don't know, really. Change can be good or bad, and all points in between. Gaiam, Inc. 22.53 -1.52 on the NASDAQ, as I write this, is the leading distributor of special interest programming with more than 46 percent of the fitness and wellness market. It seems there has to be some corporate buy out of nearly everything- phone companies, hospitals and healthcare, TV networks, radio stations, etc. I realize Zaadz had it's sponsors, and conscientious entrepreneurs that helped maintain the costs of running such a site, which is one thing, but it is quite another thing for a big corporate identity to buy and own a site or business. Fox Entertainment Group, a News Corp. subsidiary, who also owns 20th Century Fox and various TV networks bought Beliefnet, Inc. (as reported in the Wall Street Journal, 12/05/07), a community Web site devoted to religion, faith, and spirituality. This is disturbing, because the same folks who control a great portion of the media and news we watch, selectively choosing, with intentional bias, what we watch, and what opinions or views they deem worthy, influencing us more than we would like to give credit, now own a web community (the largest) about spirituality and belief. Disturbing, to say the least. I do not want that for Zaadz, or the folks that were formerly known as Zaadz. Therein lies the difference- we were Zaadz (seeds of change), very democratic- a site by people for people. Now we are becoming a corporate identity? What adds to my reservations is the allusion of being the planet (Gaia, who was considered a Goddess, Mother Earth in Greek mythology), and a worldly corporation, which Zaadz is now owned by- very Big Brother-ish in its implications.

I cannot say I know what Gaia or Gaiam Inc., is about, other than, "nifty yoga videos!", and that they are connected to the Mayo Clinic, about health, wellness and fitness, nifty, and some of what I have seen on the beta pages, but just like Fox Entertainment Group buying Beliefnet, I wonder if that very human, individual contributed, collective spirit, and personal expression will be lost behind a logo, commercialization, big business (and all that the term entails), and for some corporate identity which has their own agendas, and no doubt at least one of which is making more money. I guess the proof, as they say, will be in the pudding, and it is too early to tell. But I have my reservations, which I think are worth mentioning, so I am proceeding with caution and my eyes wide open.

A paradigm.

From his MySpace page:

Today, Dr. Michio Kaku holds the Henry Semat Professorship in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York (CUNY), where he has taught for over 25 years.

Dr. Kaku hosts a weekly syndicated radio program, "Explorations in Science," which is a production of station WBAI-FM in New York City, a Pacifica owned station. "Explorations" is heard on the Pacifica stations as well as community and independent radio stations and on the world wide web. Dr. Kaku defines the show as dealing with the general topics of science, war, peace and the environment. Podcasts Coming Soon!

In April, 2006, Dr. Kaku started broadcasting on 90 commercial radio stations. The program is called "Science Fantastic," and is the only nationally syndicated science program on commercial radio in the country. It airs from 5pm to 8pm (EDT) on Saturdays, and takes listener phone calls from around the country. Guests have included Nobel Laureates as well as top researchers in areas such as string theory, time travel, black holes, gene therapy, aging, space travel, artificial intelligence, SETI, and futurology. Its focus is the future of science. Podcasts Coming Soon!

I am not a big TV watcher, but if there was a program I would bother to autotune, it would be one of the many shows featuring Dr. Kaku!  I find myself glued to the TV when any program featuring him is on. If you haven't yet seen the BBC series' Time, and Parallel Universe, Science Channel is re-airing them this week, or check out the many videos featuring Dr. Kaku on his MySpace page or YouTube, or visit his website for articles and information on his books.