Solar Cycle 24 Begins
1.10.2008

"On January 4, 2008, a reversed-polarity sunspot appeared-and this signals the start of Solar Cycle 24," says David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Above: Images of the first sunspot of Solar Cycle 24 taken by the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

Solar activity waxes and wanes in 11-year cycles. Lately, we've been experiencing the low ebb, "very few flares, sunspots, or activity of any kind," says Hathaway. "Solar minimum is upon us."

The previous solar cycle, Solar Cycle 23, peaked in 2000-2002 with many furious solar storms. That cycle decayed as usual to the present quiet leaving solar physicists little to do other than wonder, when would the next cycle begin?

The answer is now.
"New solar cycles always begin with a high-latitude, reversed polarity sunspot," explains Hathaway. "Reversed polarity" means a sunspot with opposite magnetic polarity compared to sunspots from the previous solar cycle. "High-latitude" refers to the sun's grid of latitude and longitude. Old cycle spots congregate near the sun's equator. New cycle spots appear higher, around 25 or 30 degrees latitude.
The sunspot that appeared on January 4th fits both these criteria. It was high latitude (30 degrees N) and magnetically reversed. NOAA named the spot AR10981, or "sunspot 981" for short.
Sunspot 981 was small--only about as wide as Earth, which counts as small on the grand scale of the sun--and it has already faded away. But its three day appearance on Jan. 4-6 was enough to convince most solar physicists that Solar Cycle 24 is underway.

Doug Biesecker of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, likens sunspot 981 "to the first robin of spring. There's still snow on the ground, but the seasons are changing." Last year, Biesecker chaired the Solar Cycle 24 Prediction Panel, an international group of experts from many universities and government agencies. "We predicted that Solar Cycle 24 would begin around March 2008 and it looks like we weren't far off," he says..

The onset of a new solar cycle is significant because of our increasingly space-based technological society.
"Solar storms can disable satellites that we depend on for weather forecasts and GPS navigation," says Hathaway. Radio bursts from solar flares can directly interfere with cell phone reception while coronal mass ejections (CMEs) hitting Earth can cause electrical power outages. "The most famous example is the Quebec outage of 1989, which left some Canadians without power for as much as six days."

Air travel can be affected, too.
Every year, intercontinental flights carry thousands of passengers over Earth's poles. It's the shortest distance between, say, New York and Tokyo or Beijing and Chicago. In 1999, United Airlines made just twelve trips over the Arctic. By 2005, the number of flights had ballooned to 1,402. Other airlines report similar growth.

"Solar storms have a big effect on polar regions of our planet," says Steve Hill of the Space Weather Prediction Center. "When airplanes fly over the poles during solar storms, they can experience radio blackouts, navigation errors and computer reboots all caused by space radiation." Avoiding the poles during solar storms solves the problem, but it costs extra time, money and fuel to "take the long way around."

An increasing number of international business flights cross Earth's Arctic to save time, fuel and money.

Now for the good news: More solar storms also means more auroras-"the greatest show on Earth." During the last solar maximum, Northern Lights were spotted as far south as Arizona, Florida and California. Not so long ago, only visitors to the Arctic regularly enjoyed auroras, but with increasing attention to space weather and constantly improving forecasts, millions of people at all latitudes will know when to go out and look.

Much of this is still years away. "Intense solar activity won't begin immediately, " notes Hathaway. "Solar cycles usually take a few years to build from solar minimum (where we are now) to Solar Max, expected in 2011 or 2012."
It's a slow journey, but we're on our way. *** Courtesy Marshall Space Flight Center. 


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In a vacuum is the Intrinsic Consciousness,
The struggle between good and evil, is not in a vacuum,
Shaped by the Moon, doubt and trust, exist fear and love.
From fear of LOVE in these days of the doubt to the confidence,
confidence to the vacuum ...
And in a vacuum .... Intrinsic Consciousness ...

The Time is Now !

 * G A i A *

May be I exist in the light, simple, clear , in peace, joyful and natural.
May I flow being playful, cheerful, and with the beauty to the wild things , always fresh , to get mahamudra.
May I could continue dancing in Ecstasy, and my limbs dissolved to nurture the Earth.
May I remember me , just to remember you , in Freedom .
To Be .
Just to happens, just to happen to you .
My heart beats in gratitude, purity and Infinite true Love.
Let me shower more flowers and stars to your heart.
Thank you everybody to giving me the opportunity, to share me.
And for let me continue to grow until the Sun with the light to the Moon .
As a star in bloom, which can expand and stretch my arms to reach your Soul .
And extent my soul to meet your soul & shine more to share with Your own Light.
I want a starry Heaven to You.
Happy New Year.
So be it .
&
Love , Love , Love X
Namaste

G A i A

Happy Holy-day's & Love to everyone ! ! !

Shared the vision produces changes, if the CHANGE is our CHALLENGE and an act of LOVE,
generosity, respect and gratitude are the inspiration to produce the TRANSFORMATION of the VISION.
The pic above is this what happened to me from the first picture that exposed a friend of mine S.L.D. , here below
When I had finished this latest transformation of the pics, this tree , a brainstorm came to my mind and my soul.
These are the words and feelings that arose in me, they have been "the engine" of transformation as well.
And they are my wishes to  Mary Christmas  , in gratitude & joy , for all the souls who arrives in my life: vision, alert, sensitivity , observation , imagination , feeling , seeds , intent , reflection , ocean , exploration , collaboration , spirit , planting , harvesting , protection , risks , courage , flow , generosity , appreciation , gratitude , unity ,cooperation ,
achievement , determination , mystery , night , stars , infinite , sky , speed , desire ,
vision , limits , enjoyment , inspiration , courage , magic , empathy , flexibility , will,
movement , caution , warriors , angels , action , far , near , distance , fusion , space , perspective , liquid , depth , color , light , darkness , brightness , intensity , light ,
shadow , balance , complicity , care , dreams , trust , will , strength , change ,
imagination , transformation , evolution , awakening , lightinig ,
joy , art , life , love , laughter , they , you , me , us
God , One

LoveOmLove

* G A i A *

The pic of my friend , the first step



                          The One , the Original , thanks love . . .

I TRUST in ME  . I TRUST in YOU
I CHOOSE .  I TRUST in the LOVE

IF YOU MEDITATE, BY AND BY YOU WILL SEE: EVERYTHING IS GOOD, EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE. TATHATA, suchness, arises. Then, seeing a thief you don't think that he should be transformed -- you simply respond. Then you don't think that he is bad. And when you don't think about a man that he is bad, evil, you are creating a possibility for the man to be transformed. You are accepting the man as he is. And through that acceptance is transformation.
Have you watched it happen in your life too? WHENEVER SOMEBODY ACCEPTS YOU UTTERLY, UNCONDITIONALLY, YOU START CHANGING. His acceptance gives you such courage.... When there is somebody who simply loves you as you are, have you not seen the miracle happening that something changes, immediately starts changing, fast? The very acceptance that you are loved as you are -- NOTHING IS EXPECTED     
OF YOU -- gives you soul, makes you integrated, makes you confident, gives you trust. Makes you feel that you ARE. That you need not fulfill expectations, that you can BE, that your original being is respected.
EVEN IF YOU CAN FIND A SINGLE PERSON WHO RESPECTS YOU UTTERLY -- BECAUSE ALL JUDGMENT IS DISRESPECT -- who accepts you as you are, who does not make any demand on you, who says, 'Be as you are. Be authentically yourself. I love you. I love you, not what you do. I love you as you are in your self, your innermost core; I am not worried about your periphery and your clothes. I love your being -- not what you have. I am not concerned with what you have, I am concerned only with one thing -- what you are. And you are tremendously beautiful.'...
THAT'S WHAT LOVE IS. That's why love is such nourishment. When you can find a woman or a man who simply loves you -- for no reason at all, just for love's sake... AND LOVE TRANSFORMS. Suddenly you are another person you have never been. Suddenly the sadness has disappeared, the dullness gone. Suddenly you find a dance in your step, a song in your heart. You start moving in a different way -- a grace arises.
WATCH IT: WHENEVER SOMEBODY LOVES YOU, THE VERY PHENOMENON OF LOVE IS ENOUGH. Your coldness disappears, you start warming up. Your heart is no more indifferent towards the world. You look at flowers more, you look at the sky more -- the sky has a message... because a woman has looked into your eyes, or a man has looked into your eyes, and has accepted you utterly, with no expectation.

 I trust my family , in my friends , in my dog, in my relationship, in all the LOVE around me .
The love around my childhood has being the secret. ( Thanks...Thanks)
That has make feel me more free, more open,  more fearless.
This give me Understanding = given me Compassion, compassion has taught me to no take nothing personal and be in Gratitude.
Heaven has given me a life filled with gifts, some of them made me mourn with joy, others pain, but I trust .
I am grateful for everything that I have received.
Mainly this,  that taught to me to trust in the love & to be loved .
We have the opportunity to choose the way of Understanding , Forgiven & Compassion
We have the opportunity to choose .

I TRUST in ME  . I TRUST in YOU
I CHOOSE .  I TRUST in the LOVE , 

YOU ARE LOVED . . .  * G A i A *

33

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly rich.
If you stay in the center
and embrace death with your whole heart,
you will endure forever.

The Tao Te Ching

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                                                  ECKHART  TOLLE
 

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                                               THE DALAI  LAMA

A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life, With 7 Practices

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama

"My message is the practice of compassion, love and kindness. These things are very useful in our daily life, and also for the whole of human society these practices can be very important." - Dalai Lama

I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives. I'm not talking about the short-term gratification of pleasures like sex, drugs or gambling (though I'm not knocking them), but something that will bring true and lasting happiness. The kind that sticks.

The key to developing compassion in your life is to make it a daily practice.

Meditate upon it in the morning (you can do it while checking email), think about it when you interact with others, and reflect on it at night. In this way, it becomes a part of your life. Or as the Dalai Lama also said, "This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."

Definition
Let's use the Wikipedia definition of Compassion:

Compassion is an emotion that is a sense of shared suffering, most often combined with a desire to alleviate or reduce the suffering of another; to show special kindness to those who suffer. Compassion essentially arises through empathy, and is often characterized through actions, wherein a person acting with compassion will seek to aid those they feel compassionate for.

Compassionate acts are generally considered those which take into account the suffering of others and attempt to alleviate that suffering as if it were one's own. In this sense, the various forms of the Golden Rule are clearly based on the concept of compassion.

Compassion differs from other forms of helpful or humane behavior in that its focus is primarily on the alleviation of suffering.

Benefits
Why develop compassion in your life? Well, there are scientific studies that suggest there are physical benefits to practicing compassion - people who practice it produce 100 percent more DHEA, which is a hormone that counteracts the aging process, and 23 percent less cortisol - the "stress hormone."

But there are other benefits as well, and these are emotional and spiritual. The main benefit is that it helps you to be more happy, and brings others around you to be more happy. If we agree that it is a common aim of each of us to strive to be happy, then compassion is one of the main tools for achieving that happiness. It is therefore of utmost importance that we cultivate compassion in our lives and practice compassion every day.

How do we do that? This guide contains 7 different practices that you can try out and perhaps incorporate into your every day life.

7 Compassion Practices

1. Morning ritual. Greet each morning with a ritual. Try this one, suggest by the Dalai Lama: "Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can." Then, when you've done this, try one of the practices below.
2. Empathy Practice. The first step in cultivating compassion is to develop empathy for your fellow human beings. Many of us believe that we have empathy, and on some level nearly all of us do. But many times we are centered on ourselves (I'm no exception) and we let our sense of empathy get rusty. Try this practice: Imagine that a loved one is suffering. Something terrible has happened to him or her. Now try to imagine the pain they are going through. Imagine the suffering in as much detail as possible. After doing this practice for a couple of weeks, you should try moving on to imagining the suffering of others you know, not just those who are close to you.
3. Commonalities practice. Instead of recognizing the differences between yourself and others, try to recognize what you have in common. At the root of it all, we are all human beings. We need food, and shelter, and love. We crave attention, and recognition, and affection, and above all, happiness. Reflect on these commonalities you have with every other human being, and ignore the differences. One of my favorite exercises comes from a great article from Ode Magazine - it's a five-step exercise to try when you meet friends and strangers. Do it discreetly and try to do all the steps with the same person. With your attention geared to the other person, tell yourself:
   1. Step 1: "Just like me, this person is seeking happiness in his/her life."
   2. Step 2: "Just like me, this person is trying to avoid suffering in his/her life."
   3. Step 3: "Just like me, this person has known sadness, loneliness and despair."
   4. Step 4: "Just like me, this person is seeking to fill his/her needs."
   5. Step 5: "Just like me, this person is learning about life."
4. Relief of suffering practice. Once you can empathize with another person, and understand his humanity and suffering, the next step is to want that person to be free from suffering. This is the heart of compassion - actually the definition of it. Try this exercise: Imagine the suffering of a human being you've met recently. Now imagine that you are the one going through that suffering. Reflect on how much you would like that suffering to end. Reflect on how happy you would be if another human being desired your suffering to end, and acted upon it. Open your heart to that human being and if you feel even a little that you'd want their suffering to end, reflect on that feeling. That's the feeling that you want to develop. With constant practice, that feeling can be grown and nurtured.
5. Act of kindness practice. Now that you've gotten good at the 4th practice, take the exercise a step further. Imagine again the suffering of someone you know or met recently. Imagine again that you are that person, and are going through that suffering. Now imagine that another human being would like your suffering to end - perhaps your mother or another loved one. What would you like for that person to do to end your suffering? Now reverse roles: you are the person who desires for the other person's suffering to end. Imagine that you do something to help ease the suffering, or end it completely. Once you get good at this stage, practice doing something small each day to help end the suffering of others, even in a tiny way. Even a smile, or a kind word, or doing an errand or chore, or just talking about a problem with another person. Practice doing something kind to help ease the suffering of others. When you are good at this, find a way to make it a daily practice, and eventually a throughout-the-day practice.
6. Those who mistreat us practice. The final stage in these compassion practices is to not only want to ease the suffering of those we love and meet, but even those who mistreat us. When we encounter someone who mistreats us, instead of acting in anger, withdraw. Later, when you are calm and more detached, reflect on that person who mistreated you. Try to imagine the background of that person. Try to imagine what that person was taught as a child. Try to imagine the day or week that person was going through, and what kind of bad things had happened to that person. Try to imagine the mood and state of mind that person was in - the suffering that person must have been going through to mistreat you that way. And understand that their action was not about you, but about what they were going through. Now think some more about the suffering of that poor person, and see if you can imagine trying to stop the suffering of that person. And then reflect that if you mistreated someone, and they acted with kindness and compassion toward you, whether that would make you less likely to mistreat that person the next time, and more likely to be kind to that person. Once you have mastered this practice of reflection, try acting with compassion and understanding the next time a person treats you. Do it in little doses, until you are good at it. Practice makes perfect.
7. Evening routine. I highly recommend that you take a few minutes before you go to bed to reflect upon your day. Think about the people you met and talked to, and how you treated each other. Think about your goal that you stated this morning, to act with compassion towards others. How well did you do? What could you do better? What did you learn from your experiences today? And if you have time, try one of the above practices and exercises.

These compassionate practices can be done anywhere, any time. At work, at home, on the road, while traveling, while at a store, while at the home of a friend or family member. By sandwiching your day with a morning and evening ritual, you can frame your day properly, in an attitude of trying to practice compassion and develop it within yourself. And with practice, you can begin to do it throughout the day, and throughout your lifetime.

This, above all, with bring happiness to your life and to those around you.


                                                    TO ME .  .  . The Key of the L O V E 

                                                                         * G A i A *

JORGE DREXLER  , Uruguay, 2007

Jorge Drexler born in Montevideo, Uruguay 1964,  is with his unique lyricism, his naturalness and his very personal way of saying things: so subtle, so intimate and at the same time so universal,  an exceptional artist.

"Best Song" for the film "The Motorcycle diaries". It was the first time in the Oscar´s history that the Academy granted this award for a song written in a different language than english. In 2006 he was nominated in the category "Best latin pop album" for the Grammys.

The multiple nominations and finally the Oscar spread the word about Drexlers music, and so he started to tour very successfully new territories from USA to South America most of the times in sold out venues.
Performing in theaters, auditoriums as well as world music and jazz festivals, he proved many times that his versatile music style fits in a very wide range of events.
Jorge D. has played recently different European cities i.e. Madrid, Paris and Berlin to present to the European audiences his new album "12 segundos de oscuridad" gaining everywhere overwhelming reactions!

An artist that knows how to mix electronic music and poetry like nobody else and who makes songs that follow in the tradition of great songwriters, Drexler now offers a more sensitive and complete work.

 Produced by Juan Campodónico and was recorded with members of the Bajofondo Tango Club like Campodónico, Javier Casalla, Gabriel Casacuberta, and Luciano Supervielle.
His characteristic elegant arrangments, his poetic lyrics and his visionary fusioning style are clearer than ever.

The quality of the above mentioned albums has turned Jorge Drexler into one of the most acclaimed authors by the specialists as well as respected by the most renowned Spanish and Latin American artists. 
Furthermore, he is the only singer-songwriter who dared to present a bold combination of traditional and technological music: his work is a synthesis of musical influences mixing Latin American sensuality,  experimental contemporary Spanish music and the down-to-earth beats of Anglo Saxon tradition. 
Jorge had the intuition that it was anachronistic for a singer to turn his back on modern music technology. He believed that samplers, loops, synthesisers and rhythm boxes play such a legitimate role in his sound palette as his long-time friend, his guitar. Thus, he has been able to design a personal, unique sound.
And that's why he is not a typical Latin American singer-songwriter.

He said me "I don't care if I am modern or not, if I frighten the listener or if I cause an impact on him. I detest going to a club, I don't like neither the smoke nor the high volume of the music. But I believe that electronic music is now leading the European music scene. If you ask me about dance music, I must say I find house the less appealing. I like what's going on in Bristol: Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead. And I love Roni Size and DJ Shadow. This is, the kind of aesthetics that is not exclusive for the dance floors."

And the most important thing to me . . . Jorge is an excellent human being, simple, loving, transparently and with full awareness of the evolution of humanity.

                           In memory of all those who perished under the rule of the Junta . . .

 PLEASE, PRAY  WITH ME FOR THE PEOPLE OF BURMA . . .
Thank You All !
I Love You
* G A i A *