Charging interest on a loan is so intrinsic to our economic system that few of us ever question it. Yet usury—as the practice is called—has been banned, at one time or another, by just about every religion. Not only does make the rich richer, and the poor poorer—with all the social tensions that engenders. It […]
Continue readingLoving Your True Self
Love your self. It’s a common refrain. One way to interpret this is loving who you are—accepting yourself just as you are, warts and all; having compassion for your shortfalls, while rejoicing in your gifts. Loving ourselves in this way relieves us of much self-judgment and self-criticism. We can also love ourselves at a deeper […]
Continue readingThe Roots of Thinking
Much of our thinking takes the form of self-talk—conversations we have with ourselves, inside our minds. Clearly, the original root of this verbal thinking is speech. Speech gave humans the ability to communicate with each other, share experiences, learn from each other, and amass a collective body of knowledge. Using verbal language within our own […]
Continue readingPigeon Play
It is a windy day. Across the street is a seven-storey office block with a flat roof. Two pigeons fly across the rooftop and over the edge. The gusting wind catches the pair, throwing them around in the air, tumbling them down towards the ground. Nearing the ground, they fly out of the wind. Then […]
Continue readingRat Smarts
Psychologists run laboratory rats through mazes and to test their learning abilities. But this example in the wild beats any laboratory experiment. Rats had nested in a rockery outside my kitchen door. Wanting to move them away to a more comfortable location in the forest, I set up one of those humane rat traps with […]
Continue readingBehind the Mirror Test for Self-Consciousness
It was recently shown that elephants passed the mirror test for self-consciousness. Along with chimps, orangutans, and dolphins, they recognized that they are seeing themselves in the mirror. However, other animals that may not pass the mirror test in its hard form, i.e. a positive recognizing themselves, do pass a softer form of the test […]
Continue readingWhalesong
We stopped the boat about two miles offshore, and switched off the engines. Immediately we could hear the singing of a humpback whale. I have heard them underwater many times. They are the ocean equivalent of birdsong in a forest; their moaning songs playing in the background, sometimes coming from miles away. But to hear […]
Continue readingGroup Mind in Flocks of Birds
The water pipits have just returned for their winter sojourn. In the morning they often skim the water in flocks of 50 to a 100, turning this way, then that, seemingly as a whole. Many times I’ve watched flocks of birds wheeling together, and wondered if this is truly a collective phenomenon, a consequence of […]
Continue readingPete’s Pond
This is one of the most fascinating webcams I know. It is focused on Pete’s Pond (nothing to do with me) — a watering hole in Botswana. In recent days I’ve seen lions, elephants, monkeys, various deer, crocodile, umpteen species of bird, and more. You can access it at: http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/index.html Or open the following directly […]
Continue readingHow does the rest of the world feel about us?
How does the rest of the world feel about us? I don’t mean what do the French think of Americans? Or what do the Yamamani of Amazonia think of Western civilization? But what do all the other creatures on this planet think of us? Or perhaps I should ask what do they feel about us, […]
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