The Scariest Environmental Fact in the World

By Bryan Walsh

See this sobering graph from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA):

As the data show, China is now burning almost as much coal as the rest of the world — combined. And despite impressive support from Beijing for renewable energy and a dawning understanding about the dangers of air pollution, coal use in China is poised to continue rising, if slower than it has in recent years. That’s deadly for the Chinese people — see the truly horrific air pollution in Beijing this past month — and it’s dangerous for the rest of the world. Coal already accounts for 20% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, making it one of the biggest causes of man-made climate change. Combine that with the direct damage that air pollution from coal combustion does to human health, and there’s a reason why some have called coal the enemy of the human race.

Of course, there’s a reason why coal is so popular in China and in much of the rest of the world: it’s very, very cheap. And that’s why, despite the danger coal poses to health and the environment, neither China nor many other rapidly growing developing nations are likely to turn away from it. (If you really want to get scared, see this report from the International Energy Agency — hat tip to Ed Crooks of the Financial Times — which notes that by 2017, India could be burning more importing as much coal as China.) That’s likely to remain the case in poor nations until clean energy can compete with coal on price — and that day hasn’t come yet.

The World’s Most Educated Countries

Like many proud citizens of the world today, there are times when you might feel like the country you live in is one of the best on Earth—and there are times when you might feel that your country could make some improvements. When it comes to education in particular, some countries are ahead of the […]

Like many proud citizens of the world today, there are times when you might feel like the country you live in is one of the best on Earth—and there are times when you might feel that your country could make some improvements. When it comes to education in particular, some countries are ahead of the game. What does a “well-educated” country look like? Things like high school graduation rates, number of citizens with a college degree, and even things like employment and rate of pay, can be combined together to serve as a reasonable meter for educational success. At the end of 2012, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calculated what proportion of residents in 34 countries had obtained a college degree or the equivalent of one. From there, the top 10 “most educated” countries were determined. Some countries are more surprising than others, but all seem to have their own unique way of ensuring that their citizens are educated properly. While not all countries have the same resources available to create wonderful education opportunities, those countries that use their highly-educated citizens to further world progress and assist those countries who have less can do amazing things for the future. Take a look at the stats behind these well-learned nations.

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मनपरि गर्ने भारतीय विद्यालयबारे सरकारले छानबिन गर्ने

-प्रकाश सिलवाल

१७ माघ, काठमाडौँ । नेपालमा भारतीय सम्बन्धनबाट सञ्चालित कतिपय विद्यालयले भारतीय राष्ट्रियतामा आधारित पाठ्यपुस्तक पढाइरहेको भन्ने गुनासो आएपछि शिक्षा मन्त्रालयले छानबिन प्रक्रिया अघि बढाएको छ ।

नेपालको विद्यमान कानुनी व्यवस्थाअनुसार विद्यालय तहसम्म कुनै पनि विदेशी शिक्षण संस्थाको सम्बन्धनबाट विद्यालय सञ्चालन गर्न मिल्दैन । ललितपुरस्थित डिएभी सुशील केडिया विश्व भारती उमाविले कक्षा ६ को ‘इन्टि्रगेटेड सोसल स्टडी’ विषयमा भारतको राष्ट्रियगान जन गण मन, राष्ट्रिय जनावर बाघ, लुम्बिनी भारतमा पर्ने र गौतम बुद्ध भारतमा जन्मेको जस्तो आपत्तिजनक पाठ्यपुस्तक पढाइरहेकोे भनी अखिल नेपाल शिक्षक सङ्गठनले आन्दोलन प्रारम्भ गरेपछि सो विषय नेपाल र भारतबीचको उपल्लो तहमा पुगेको छ ।

भारतीय दूतावासले हालै शिक्षा मन्त्रालयमा पत्राचार गरी भारतीय शैक्षिक बोर्डअन्तर्गत चार विद्यालयको विधिवत् मान्यताका लागि आवश्यक समन्वय गर्न आग्रह गरेको मन्त्रालयका सहप्रवक्ता डा रोजनाथ पाण्डेले जानकारी दिनुभयो । उहाँले सो विषयको किनारा लगाउन मन्त्रिपरिषद्मा प्रस्ताव लैजाने तयारी भएको बुझिएको छ ।

Yoga and the Mind: Can Yoga Reduce Symptoms of Major Psychiatric Disorders?

By Alexandra Sifferlin

Yoga does the body good, and according to a new study, it may ease the mind as well.

“Yoga has also become such a cultural phenomenon that it has become difficult for physicians and consumers to differentiate legitimate claims from hype,” researchers from Duke University Medical Center write in their study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. In order to explore the widely held belief that practicing yoga can relieve mental stress, the team reviewed more than 100 studies on the effect of yoga and mental health.

“Most individuals already know that yoga produces some kind of a calming effect. Individually, people feel better after doing the physical exercise,” says lead study author Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University Medical Center. “Mentally, people feel calmer, sharper, maybe more content. We thought it’s time to see if we could pull all [the literature] together … to see if there’s enough evidence that the benefits individual people notice can be used to help people with mental illness.”

(MORE: Yoga Can Help Stroke Survivors Regain Their Balance)

Their findings suggest that yoga does in fact have positive effects on mild depression and sleep problems, and it improves the symptoms of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and ADHD among patients using medication.

The researchers focused on 16 studies that recorded the effects of practicing yoga on mental-health issues ranging from depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, sleep complaints and eating disorders to cognitive problems. They found positive effects of the mind-and-body practice for all conditions with the exception of eating disorders and cognition. Those studies involved too few participants or produced conflicting results to draw any meaningful conclusions.

Queen Beatrix To Abdicate Dutch Throne April 30

By MIKE CORDER  

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix announced Monday that she is ending her reign after 33 years and passing the crown to her eldest son, who has long been groomed to be king but who will have to work hard to match his mother’s popularity.

The widely expected abdication comes at a time of debate over the future of the largely ceremonial Dutch monarchy, but also as calm has descended upon the Netherlands after a decade of turmoil that saw Beatrix act as the glue that held together an increasingly divided society.

“Responsibility for our country must now lie in the hands of a new generation,” Beatrix, one of Europe’s longest-serving monarchs, said in the simple, televised speech announcing her abdication.

The queen, who turns 75 in just a few days, said she will step down from the throne on April 30. That same day, her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, will be appointed king at an inauguration in Amsterdam. He will be the Netherlands’ first king since Willem III died in 1890.

Willem-Alexander is a 45-year-old father of three young daughters, an International Olympic Committee member, a pilot and a water management expert.

Over the years, he has struggled to win the affection of this nation of 16 million, but his immensely popular wife, the Argentine-born Maxima, has helped him gain more acceptance ever since she brushed away a tear during their wedding in 2002.

They are a hard-working couple: Willem-Alexander regularly gives speeches at water conferences, sharing his low-lying nation’s centuries of experience battling to stay dry, while soon-to-be Queen Maxima, a former investment banker, has carved out acareer as a microfinance expert.

How Meditation May Change the Brain

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

Getty Images

Over the December holidays, my husband went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Not my idea of fun, but he came back rejuvenated and energetic.

He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening, until the end of March. He’s running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life.

I’ll admit I’m a skeptic.

But now, scientists say that meditators like my husband may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. The findings will appear in the Jan. 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

After Successful Missile Launch, North Korea Threatens New Nuclear Test

By Austin Ramzy

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the West Sea Satellite Launch Site in Cholsan county, North Pyongan province, in this picture released by the KCNA news agency on Dec. 15, 2012

When North Korea put a satellite into orbit last month, it declared that the launch was an exercise of its “right to use space for peaceful purposes” and denounced criticism by the U.S. and others that it was carrying out a ballistic-missile test meant to threaten its neighbors. On Tuesday the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn the launch, which it said was banned under previous resolutions, and moved to strengthen existing sanctions. Today North Korea responded angrily to the Security Council’s move, declaring that it may soon carry out another nuclear test — the isolated totalitarian state’s third — a move its National Defense Commission said was aimed at the U.S.

तिमी मुस्कुराउँदै गर प्रियतम

By रामकुमार श्रेष्ठ

प्रियतम,
असीम प्यार!

मैले बारंबार भन्ने गरेको छु म यस धर्तीमा जन्मेको मेरो लागि होइन, तिम्रो लागि हो । म शरीर हुँ भने तिमी आत्मा हौ, म धर्ती हुँ भने तिमी आकाश, म मन हुँ भने तिमी मस्तिस्क । मलाई थाहा छैन म भनेकै तिमी हौ कि होइनौ, तर तिमी भनेकै म हुँ भन्ने मलाई लाग्छ र तिम्रा हरेक इच्छा आकांक्षा पुरा गर्नुलाई नै म आफ्नो दायित्व ठान्छु, कर्तब्य ठान्छु । एकदिन तिमीले मसंग ठूलो मान्छेकी श्रीमती हुने इच्छा जाहेर गरेकी थियौ र तिम्रो त्यही इच्छा पुरा गर्ने अभिप्रायले म हपहपी गर्मीको पर्बाह नगरी यो मरुभूमिमा म एक्लै फाल हालेको थिएँ आमा बाबाले पुल्पुल्याएर राखेकी एकलौटी छोरी तिमीलाई दु:ख पर्ला भनेर ।

मलाई थाहा छैन मानिसहरु तिमीलाई मेरो कमजोरीको रुपमा लिन्छन अथवा शक्तिको रुपमा, तर तिमी नै मेरो अजश्र शक्ति हौ भन्ने कुरामा मलाई पूर्ण विश्वाश छ । यो छोटो समयमा मैले तिम्रै इच्छा पुरा गर्ने क्रममा उल्लेखनीय उपलब्धी हासिल गरिसकेको छु । सीधा औंलाले घ्यू नआउने रहेछ भन्ने बुझेर यहाँ आएर घ्यू निकाल्ने धेरै तरीकाहरु सिकिसकेको छु । सबैभन्दा पहिला त आफ्नै कामदारहरुबाट फायदा लिने तरीकाहरु सिके । आफ्ना भएका कामदारलाई उनीहरु घर जाने बेलामा धेरै पैसा लैजान सुरक्षित रुपमा राखिदिने मीठो आस्वासन दिंदै पाँच – छ: महिनाको तलब रोकिदिने गरेको छु र उनीहरुकै पैसा लगानी गर्दै नयाँ बिजिनेस शुरु गरेर नयाँ कामदार थप्दै जान थालेको छु । यो तरीकाबाट त गजबकै आम्दानी पो हुँदो रहेछ त । निर्ब्याजी पैसाको लगानीबाट आम्दानी गजबकै हुने – आफ्नो बिजनेस पनि बढदै जाने, कामदार पनि बढदै जाने, आम्दानी पनि । म बिहानैदेखि राती अबेरसम्म खट्छु, तिमी यहाँ भएकी भए यसरी खटन कहाँ सकिन्थ्यो र त?

आफ्नो बिजिनेस बढन थालेपछि अरुलाई संयुक्त रुपमा काम गर्न लगानी गर्न लोभ्याउन सजिलो भयो । अरुलाई लगानी गर्न लगाएको पैसामा आफू डाइरेक्टर भएको तलब पनि लिने र अफिसको खर्चमा पनि शेयर गर्न लगाएर केही बर्षपछि ब्यापार घाटामा गएको देखाएर उस्लाई समका सम दिएर बिजिनेस बेच्दा घाटामा गएको बिजिनेसमा पनि लगानी गरेको सबै फिर्ता दिएको भनेर उता ऊ मख्ख यता यत्तिका बर्ष उस्को पैसा निर्ब्याजी लगानी गर्दै त्यसबाट तलब खाएको र अफिस खर्च गर्न पाएकोमा आफू मख्ख, नदेखिने गरी गरिने फायदाको त कुरो छँदै छ । ब्यापारमा उकालो लाग्न थालेपछि त गजबै पो हुने रहेछ बा । आजकाल त सामाजिक कामहरुमा अवस्था हेरी सानो ठूलो चन्दा दिन समेत शुरु पो गरेको छु त ।

10 Things Extraordinary People Say Every Day

Jeff Haden

 [Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up fromghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden]

They’re small things, but each has the power to dramatically change someone’s day. Including yours.

Getty

Want to make a huge difference in someone’s life? Here are things you should say every day to your employees, colleagues, family members, friends, and everyone you care about:

“Here’s what I’m thinking.”

You’re in charge, but that doesn’t mean you’re smarter, savvier, or more insightful than everyone else. Back up your statements and decisions. Give reasons. Justify with logic, not with position or authority.

Though taking the time to explain your decisions opens those decisions up to discussion or criticism, it also opens up your decisions to improvement.

Authority can make you “right,” but collaboration makes everyone right–and makes everyone pull together.

How Great Leaders Communicate

  George Anders

[On the Web, George shares the best and worst of current-day management thinking, with a special focus on how we pick talent. In Forbes magazine, he writes about innovators and idealists in Silicon Valley and beyond. Over the years, he   has profiled the likes of George Soros, Mark Cuban and a Nevada bordello owner who went bust for reasons too lurid to mention. In 1997, while at The Wall Street Journal, he shared in a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Along the way,  he has written four books: “Merchants of Debt,” “Health Against Wealth,” “Perfect Enough” and “The Rare Find.”

His current project: Sharing insights and leading conversations with business audiences in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. He is speaking a lot these days about innovation, social media and the secrets of great hiring. Appearances are coordinated by my lecture agent, Tom Neilssen, at BrightSight Group,]

You’ve just been promoted into one of your organization’s Big Jobs. Now you’ve got an impressive office, a hefty budget and vast expectations about how you will lead dozens or even thousands of people. Can you stick with the leadership style that brought you this far? Or do you need to recalibrate your approach, starting with the way you communicate?

Some fascinating rethinking is under way on exactly that topic. Scholars such as Harvard Business School’s Boris Groysberg argue that effective leadership no longer revolves around brilliant speeches and heroic exhortations. (We can call that the Fidel Castro approach – and it doesn’t work especially well in either government or mainstream business.) Instead, Groysberg and co-author Michael Slind argue in their 2012 book “Talk Inc.” that the higher you go in an organization, the more you must engage other people in conversations, rather than trying to shout them into submission.

I’m in favor of traveling 70% of the way down that road with Groysberg and Slind, without becoming so chatty that you lose the ability to stretch people’s horizons. Over the past 25 years, as a business-book author and writer for the likes of Forbes, Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal, I’ve seen a lot of corporate leaders in action. Here are seven ways that the best leaders increase their effectiveness by the ways they communicate.

Nepalese Participating in Pako Festa – the Biggest of its kind in Australia

Nepalese Community is going to participate first time in Pako Festa that will held on 23rd of February, 2013. Different organizations from Melbourne and Ballarat will join the festival and Lumbini-Kapilvastu Day Movement effort will to introduce Nepal as the birthplace of Buddha. In the festival Miss Nepal Australia, 2012 Deepashree Shah will perform Kumari dance.

Pako Festa, now in its  thirty-first year, is Geelong’s much loved, award-winning, free,  annual community arts festival – the biggest of its kind in Australia. Managed by Diversitat and held on the last weekend of February in Pakington Street, Geelong West, “the multicultural heart of Geelong”, it incorporates an extravagant street parade featuring around ninety floats and hundreds of performers representing forty-five affiliated ethnic communities and around sixty other community groups and organisations. The street is lined with stalls selling traditional foods and arts and crafts, and nine separate stages in the precinct offer performances of music and dance as well as interactive workshops and exhibitions. Pako Festa has become Victoria’s premier multicultural event, attended by well over 100,000 people in each of the last three years and estimated to inject close to $2.5 million dollars into the local economy just over the course of the day itself.

UN tightens sanctions on North Korea

Stressing its condemnation of North Korea’s recent rocket launch, the UN Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution expanding existing sanctions against Pyongyang. In response, the communist state vowed to step up its nuclear deterrence.

On Tuesday the council once again reiterated its demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear program, and “deplored” Pyongyang’s violations of previous resolutions.

December’s rocket launch put a satellite into orbit, but is suspected of being part of a covert program to develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying warheads.

The new resolution contains “important new sanctions on its companies and government agencies, including North Korea’s space agency, which was responsible for the launch, a bank and on North Korean individuals. It also updates current lists of nuclear and ballistic missile technology banned for transfer” to and from North Korea, said US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.

In retaliation for the move, Pyongyang has threatened to step up its nuclear deterrence and pull out from the process of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

“We will take measures to boost and strengthen our defensive military power including nuclear deterrence,” its foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

Personality: Dichen Lachman

Dichen Lachman (born 22 February 1982) is a Nepalese-born Australian actress and producer, best known for appearing in the soap opera Neighbours as Katya Kinski and Joss Whedon‘s science fiction drama television series Dollhouse asSierra. Lachman played Suren in the supernatural drama television series Being Human. She is currently appearing as Tani Tumrenjack in the ABC military drama series Last Resort. She acted as executive producer on Lust for Love.

Lachman was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, and lived in Nepal until she was eight years old, before her family moved to Adelaide, Australia. Her mother is Tibetan, and her Australian father is of German heritage. She attended Norwood Morialta High School, St Mary’s College, Adelaide, Annesley College, and the University of Adelaide.

Lachman filmed an advert for Wanadoo which was filmed in Australia and aired in the United Kingdom. In 2005, Lachman joined the cast of the Australian soap opera Neighbours as Katya Kinski. She originally auditioned for the role of Elle Robinson, but the producers decided to create the part of Katya for her.

Kenzo Tange Master Plan for Lumbini

 

When U Thant visited Nepal in April 1967 as Secretary-General of the United Nations, he proposed the development of Lumbini into a major centre of pilgrimage. This was followed by a UNDP consultant mission in December 1969, which led to a report that established the basis for further planning around Lumbini.

In 1970, the International Committee for the Development of Lumbini (ICDL) was set up comprising initially of 13 members and later expanded to 16 member states. The initial member states were Afghanistan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Later, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Republic of Korea also joined. At the national level, the Lumbini Development Committee was formed. ICDL initiated the preparation of the Master Plan for Lumbini, which was conceptualized by Kenzo Tange starting from 1972. The Kenzo Tange Master Plan was finalized and approved in 1978.

‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Is Osama bin Laden’s Last Victory Over America

Booker T. Washington High School

I went to see Zero Dark Thirty this weekend with great anticipation. I’ve always loved Kathryn Bigelow’s movies – I’m a fan to an almost embarrassing degree. Like most people I liked the Busey-Keanu surf-and-bromance film Point Break, but I also loved the The Weight of Water, as well as Strange Days, The Widowmaker… Bigelow’s movies are visually engrossing, innovative and smart, and I couldn’t wait to see what she did with a real-life subject matter that had the potential to be both the greatest detective story and the greatest action-movie plot of all time.

So I went to see the movie and like most people I know who watched it, I was blown away. On a pure whodunit level, the bulk of the film was an unbelievably compelling thriller, and purely on the level of action cinematography, the final scene – with all its real-world drama and consequence, plus the unique fact the movie revealed secrets about one of the shadowiest, most highly-classified operations ever – was about as pulse-pounding and exciting as movies get.

The way Bigelow shot that last sequence in Abbotabad, constantly declining to Michael-Bay-ize the action sequences with goofball explosions and kung-fu battles, and not glossing over the brutality or the mission’s mistakes (God, what a screw-up to crash that helicopter!), it was ingenious. For however long it lasted, you felt exactly how long 14 or 15 minutes can be, with so much on the line, crowds beginning to form, Pakistani jets on the way.