• 30 under 30 2019 Social Entrepreneurs: Leveraging business smarts to save the world
• Organic products still on growth track worldwide
• Richard Branson just launched a $3 million prize for a better air conditioner

• World media on Transcendental Meditation
• On Veterans Day - Remembrance Day: Transcendental Meditation helps veterans overcome PTSD
• Principles of Vastu Planning in the Light of Group Theory: New book published

• Mountain birds on 'escalator to extinction' as planet warms
• WHO says air pollution kills 600,000 children every year
• AP Investigation: Hospital patients held hostage for cash

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

30 under 30 2019 Social Entrepreneurs: Leveraging business smarts to save the world
17 November 2018 - Fourth-generation beekeeper Leigh-Kathryn Bonner is just one of 30 innovative ventures on this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs list using business acumen to make an lasting impact on the world. The list was judged by a blue-ribbon panel of judges: Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation; Lisa Curtis, Founder of Kuli Kuli; Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green; and Randall Lane, Chief Content Officer of Forbes Media. Here are the inspiring startups to keep an eye on in 2019: (more)

Organic products still on growth track worldwide
12 November 2018 - There's a good outlook for the international organic food industry -- both in Europe and worldwide. European and international markets remain on a growth track. Experts currently put global revenues above USD 95 billion; Europe accounts for more than EUR 33 billion. The market is now growing very vigorously in many European countries. 'We're seeing lively growth in North America and Europe, but the Asian market is also catching up fast,' notes Amarjit Sahota of the London market research and consulting firm Ecovia (formerly Organic Monitor). (more)

Richard Branson just launched a $3 million prize for a better air conditioner
11 November 2018 - When people move out of poverty, one of the first things they buy is an air conditioner -- and the world can't handle the emissions that are going to come from an air conditioning boom. 'The increase in energy consumption for cooling represents a massive risk to meeting our climate goals,' says Richard Branson, who today helped launch both the report and the Global Cooling Prize, a $3 million competition to spur new technology. ... It's supported in part by the Indian government, as that country alone will add around 1 billion room air conditioners by the middle of the century. (more)

CoverGirl becomes largest makeup brand to go cruelty free
5 November 2018 - CoverGirl cosmetics on Monday became the biggest makeup brand to go cruelty-free and completely eliminate animal testing. The beauty company announced that it has received certification for eliminating animal testing from every step of its productions process. Cruelty Free International (CFI), which sets the industry's cruelty-free standards, awarded CoverGirl the 'Leaping Bunny' certification, which means they are certified as cruelty free by the animal rights group. (more)

UN says Earth's ozone layer is healing
5 November 2018 - Earth's protective ozone layer is finally healing from damage caused by aerosol sprays and coolants, a new United Nations report said. The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s. Scientists raised the alarm and ozone-depleting chemicals were phased out worldwide. High in the atmosphere, ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer, crop damage, and other problems. (more)

Scientists get better at searching for dark matter
30 October 2018 - October 31 is 'Dark Matter Day,' ... it does focus more attention on the unknown stuff that comprises 85 percent of the total mass of the known Universe. On Dark Matter Day many different events dedicated to dark matter will take place all over the world. Researchers from Lund University in Sweden seems to have timed the release of a new technique in the continuing search for dark matter to coincide with the second staging of Dark Matter Day. (more)

Scientists refine the search for dark matter
29 October 2018 - Researchers from Lund University in Sweden, among others, have developed a more effective technique in the search for clues about dark matter in the universe. They can now analyze much larger amounts of the data generated at CERN. (more)

Ship financiers back tougher action to cut CO2 emissions at sea
24 October 2018 - Leading shipping finance banks have joined industry players in support of faster action to cut carbon emissions by the sector. The UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO) is meeting in London this week to work on an initial strategy on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In the meantime, bankers in the shipping sector have come together for the first time aiming to boost momentum toward de-carbonization. (more)

Study finds eating organic food lowers your cancer risks
23 October 2018 - People who buy organic food are usually convinced it's better for their health . . . But until now, evidence of the benefits of eating organic has been lacking. Now a new French study that followed 70,000 adults, most of them women, for five years has reported that the most frequent consumers of organic food had 25 percent fewer cancers over all than those who never ate organic. (more)

Scientists across the globe to celebrate the mysterious material they believe holds the universe together
20 October 2018 - On 31 October, scientists across the globe will celebrate the mysterious material they believe holds the universe together. Across Britain, the US, and Europe, talks, demonstrations, and parties highlighting this great astronomical search will be held on 31 October -- which has been designated Dark Matter Day by scientists who are seeking to discover the make-up of this elusive material. Theorists came up with the idea that invisible dark matter must be providing the mass that gives galaxies their gravitational force, which has since been born out by other observations. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

World media on Transcendental Meditation
20 February 2017 - A selection of recent news media reports about Transcendental Meditation includes the Danish magazine IN interviewing Dr Charlotte Bech, a medical doctor who has been teaching the technique in Denmark for over 20 years; Bridgewater Associates hedge fund founder Ray Dalio's comments to Business Insider about introducing TM to 735 employees; and New York Times articles about Saturday Night Live actress Vanessa Bayer, and George Stephanopoulos of ABC's Good Morning America, who starts his day with an early morning TM session. Forbes magazine reported, 'TM has been having a renaissance in recent years: Celebrities, businesspeople, and regular folk are practicing it in record numbers.' (more)

On Veterans Day - Remembrance Day: Transcendental Meditation helps veterans overcome PTSD
11 November 2016 - Operation Warrior Wellness (OWW), a division of the David Lynch Foundation, offers the Transcendental Meditation-based Resilient Warrior Program, a simple, easy-to-learn, evidence-based approach to relieving symptoms of PTSD and major depression and developing greater resilience to stress. Since its launch in 2010 in the USA, the OWW initiative has partnered with leading veterans service organizations and VA medical centers to deliver the Resilient Warrior Program to veterans, active-duty personnel and military families in need. The initiative also partners with military colleges to create a new generation of more resilient officers. (more)

Principles of Vastu Planning in the Light of Group Theory: New book published
17 January 2016 - A new book--Principles of Vastu Planning in the Light of Group Theory--describes the principles that underlie the measurement system used in Maharishi Vedic architecture in the language of Group theory. The Vastu measurement system is based on the square and its eight levels of symmetry. Using the concepts of modern Group theory from mathematics, the author shows the deep principles at the foundation of the measurement system of Maharishi Vastu design in a way that explains their logical significance. (more)

Creating world peace on the International Day of Peace and every day
21 September 2015 - Today, 21 September, is the day designated by the United Nations and observed around the world as the 'International Day of Peace' or 'World Peace Day'. For this annual observance, the UN 'invites all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities during the Day, and to otherwise commemorate the Day through education and public awareness on issues related to peace.' Organizations teaching Transcendental Meditation worldwide are upholding the ultimate value of this theme--simply by continuing what they've offered every day for many years: the TM programme. This natural, effective technology of consciousness has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, violence and conflict and create peace for the individual and society. Creating world peace is not the reason most people give for why they want to learn to meditate. Yet this was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's goal when he first introduced Transcendental Meditation in 1958. (more)

Transcendental Meditation improves school performance
15 April 2015 - It seems common sense that happy, focused students learn more and feel better at school. Yet the idea that educational outcomes depend on the learner's state of mind, and not just on what is taught and how, usually gets far less attention than it deserves. Fortunately, there are schools in many countries where developing the 'knower' is considered an essential part of education--through incorporating Transcendental Meditation practice into the school day. Research has found that even in high-risk, low-performing districts, schools with curricular TM practice show high academic achievements. Outcomes include reduced stress, improved brain functioning, increased intelligence, and higher graduation rates. (more)

Today - Conference call for women: 'Women transforming the world'
1 February 2015 - Today the 10,000 Women Initiative continues in 2015, with the first in a series of six phone conferences to be held throughout the year. Women are invited to join in this bimonthly 'virtual assembly' and learn how women can become a powerfully nourishing agent for positive change in the world, by awakening the nourishing power of consciousness within. Today's conference call features a discussion on the topic of 'Women transforming the world'. (more)

New book features experiences of enlightenment throughout history, and how to culture them today
4 January 2015 - A new book, The Supreme Awakening: Experiences of Enlightenment Throughout Time--and How You Can Cultivate Them, by Craig Pearson, PhD, features a wide range of sublime, exalted, transcendent experiences reported by great saints, sages, poets, scientists, political leaders, athletes, and others representing the world's cultures through history. The Supreme Awakening shows that what they described are experiences of advanced stages of human development, higher states of consciousness--experiences of enlightenment. Drawing on the work of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the book explains the origins of these experiences and categorizes them according to Maharishi's model of seven states of consciousness. Dr Pearson explains that ordinary men and women today are enjoying these same kinds of sublime experiences--how they can be cultivated systematically, naturally, and effortlessly through the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation. (more)

21 new Maharishi Vastu architects complete training
25 September 2014 - Earlier this summer 21 architects from 13 countries graduated from an intensive, two-month training programme as fully certified Maharishi Vastu architects. Their country affiliations, contact information, and pictures are featured on the Maharishi Vastu page on Facebook, organized according to their region of the world. (more)

Twenty-one architects, newly trained in Maharishi Vastu architecture, practising in 13 countries
27 August 2014 - Maharishi Vastu Architecture News is featuring more information about the recent international professional training course on Maharishi Vastu architecture in the Netherlands. Twenty-one architects from 13 countries graduated from the recent comprehensive, two-month training course at Maharishi European Research University (MERU) in Holland. The news post includes photos of the 21 architects, grouped according to country and region of the world, and their contact information, for those wishing to pursue Maharishi Vastu building projects in their areas. (more)

Silence and dynamism - The basis of progress
21 August 2014 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explains that Transcendental Meditation is a process to 'bring the mind back to silence, and from there release the thought. Bring the mind back to silence, and then you have a lively basis for the projection of a thought, lively basis for the sprouting of a thought. Then the thought will be promoted by the infinite creative intelligence of Natural Law. That is the theme. Let the thought be promoted from a lively field at the basis of all evolutionary process, which is the field of silence.' (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Mountain birds on 'escalator to extinction' as planet warms
29 October 2018 - A meticulous re-creation of a 3-decade-old study of birds on a mountainside in Peru has given scientists a rare chance to prove how the changing climate is pushing species out of the places they are best adapted to. Surveys of more than 400 species of birds in 1985 and then in 2017 have found that populations of almost all had declined, as many as eight had disappeared completely, and nearly all had moved to higher elevations in what scientists call 'an escalator to extinction.' (more)

WHO says air pollution kills 600,000 children every year
29 October 2018 - Air pollution kills an estimated 600,000 children every year and causing symptoms ranging from loss of intelligence to obesity and ear infections but there is a limited amount parents can do, a World Health Organization report said on Monday (29 October). Large parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America are among the worst affected. (more)

AP Investigation: Hospital patients held hostage for cash
25 October 2018 - The Kenyatta National Hospital is east Africa's biggest medical institution, home to more than a dozen donor-funded projects with international partners -- a 'Center of Excellence,' says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At Kenyatta National Hospital and at an astonishing number of other hospitals around the world, if you don't pay up, you don't go home. The hospitals often illegally detain patients long after they should be medically discharged, using armed guards, locked doors, and even chains to hold those who have not settled their accounts. Mothers and babies are sometimes separated. (more)

Heart attacks more likely when weather is frigid
24 October 2018 - Heart attacks occur more often when temperatures plummet, a large new study suggests. Based on more than a decade and a half of medical and weather data, researchers linked an increased incidence of heart attacks to lower air temperatures, lower atmospheric pressure, higher wind velocity, and shorter durations of sunshine, according to the report in JAMA Cardiology. ... While lower air temperature, lower atmospheric air pressure, higher wind velocity, and shorter sunshine duration all were associated with statistically meaningful increased risk of heart attack, the most pronounced effect was from temperature. (more)

Invasion of the 'frankenbees': the danger of building a better bee
16 October 2018 - The spring of 2008 was brutal for Europe's honeybees. . . . An investigation in July of that year concluded that the bees in Germany died of mass poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin, which can be 10,000 times more potent than DDT. In the months leading up to the bee crisis, clothianidin, developed by Bayer Crop Science from a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, had been used up and down the Rhine following an outbreak of corn rootworm. The pesticide is designed to attack the nervous system of crop-munching pests, but studies have shown it can be harmful to insects such as the European honeybee. (more)

Dangerous pesticide found in 75 percent of global honey samples
10 October 2018 - Seventy-five percent of honey samples tested between 2012 and 2016 showed levels of a class of pesticide called neonicotinoid known to impair honeybees' cognitive function. The findings, published in the recent issue of the journal Science, point to North America as having the highest levels of neonicotinoid contamination at 86 percent. Asia samples came in at 80 percent, Europe at 79 percent, and South America the lowest at 57 percent. Neonics, as they're also called have been directly linked to bee decline and a condition called colony collapse disorder where bees become disoriented, abandon their hives, and often die. (more)

The dire warnings of the United Nations' latest climate-change report
8 October 2018 - Last night, in Incheon, South Korea, after a week of deliberation, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (I.P.C.C.) released the new findings. The summary tells a nightmarish tale -- one much worse than any of those in the I.P.C.C.'s previous reports -- surveying the climate-change impacts we're already experiencing with one degree of warming, and the severity of the impacts to come once we surpass 1.5 degrees of warming. (more)

Chemical pollution could wipe out half of all killer whale populations
27 September 2018 - Chemical pollutants banned more than 40 years ago are still having a devastating effect on marine life and could lead to the disappearance of half the world's killer whale populations before the end of the century. That's according to a new study, published in the journal Science, which found that killer whales, or orcas, are most at risk from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were once widely used as coolants and in the production of carbonless copy paper before they were found to be highly toxic and carcinogenic. (more)

Pollution threatens the future of killer whales
27 September 2018 - Killer whales are in deep trouble because of persistent chemical pollution in the environment, researchers say. A new study suggests the long-term viability of more than half of the different orca groups around the globe is now in question. Some populations, such as those around the UK, the Strait of Gibraltar, off Brazil, Japan, and California, are almost certainly doomed. The assessment is in Science magazine. The issue is polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. (more)

Alcohol abuse kills 3 million a year, most of them men: WHO
21 September 2018 - More than 3 million people died in 2016 due to drinking too much alcohol, meaning one in 20 deaths worldwide was linked to harmful drinking, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday (21 September). And despite evidence of the health risks it carries, global consumption of alcohol is predicted to rise in the next 10 years. (more)