Stroke of insight

Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor(Ted Talks) had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story demonstrating the importance of balance and our potential to feel totally connected.
"I am an energy-being connected to the energy all around me

through the consciousness of my right hemisphere.

We are energy-beings connected to one another

through the consciousness of our right hemispheres as one human family.

And right here, right now, we are brothers and sisters on this planet,

here to make the world a better place.

And in this moment we are perfect, we are whole and we are beautiful."

tipping point

Is industrialised civilisation on the verge of a tipping point to decline? Well, if you have the patience, this sobering analysis is well worth the read.. Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production "We are at the cusp of rapid and severely disruptive changes. From now on the risk of entering a collapse must be considered significant and rising. The challenge is not about how we introduce energy infrastructure to maintain the viability of the systems we depend upon, rather it is how we deal with the consequences of not having the energy and other resources to maintain those same systems."

In the same vein, is the snappily titled Nine Meals from Anarchy from the New Economics Foundation in a 2008 Schumacher Lecture.

As a late addition, here is a link to David Malone's, High Anxieties - The Mathematics of Chaos, in which James Lovelock prefers the model of a slope as opposed to a tipping point in reference to climate change. "..I like to think of it not so much as a tipping point, but as a slope that gets ever steeper and at some point it gets so steep you can't hold on any longer.."

And then of course there is the eponymous book by Malcom Gladwell. And his enjoyable TED talk on spaghetti sauce.

Do we walk wrong?

It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. Now we're wrecking it with every step we take.. "Admittedly, there’s something counterintuitive about the idea that less padding on your foot equals less shock on your body. But that’s only if we continue to think of our feet as lifeless blocks of flesh that hold us upright. The sole of your foot has over 200,000 nerve endings in it, one of the highest concentrations anywhere in the body. Our feet are designed to act as earthward antennae, helping us balance and transmitting information to us about the ground we’re walking on." -New Yorker Magazine Article

Here's a guy who knows a thing or two about walking, John Francis Walks the Earth.

We were not born with wheels upon our feet, oh no,

Not even wings to help us fly,

It's for this reason I'd suppose,

We walk the earth for our short lives..

Check out Barefoot Ted if you're interested to make yourself a pair of minimalist running sandals.