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| Reader 1 The Silent River
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Can an android ever be made which can think, dream and aspire? And can a human being be "unmade" so that he can stop thinking, dreaming and desiring — and see the truth for what it is? In both cases, there is beauty, poetry and transcendence. One marks the artificial birth of true mind, while the other leads to the true death of natural mind. We present sutras of Yoda — the killer poet — along with many science tidbits, which can possibly evoke a sense of wonder even in an android.
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The cichlid fish are an important model for evolutionary biologists because no other group of vertebrates has split into so many species — about 2,000 — so quickly. Scientists also generally believe that originating a new species requires geographical isolation — such as two continents drifting apart. The fact that two different cichlid fish species live side by side is puzzling.
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An estimated 3 percent to 5 percent of children in the developed world exhibit antisocial behavior — such as vandalism, mugging and starting fights — that can get them expelled from school, in trouble with the police or even sent to jail. Antisocial behavior is probably more biologically based than many people recognize and is similar to conditions like depression and anxiety.
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NASA's car-sized MESSENGER probe is due to fly about 124 miles above Mercury's surface at nearly 15,000 mph. The only previous times Mercury was visited by a spacecraft was in 1974 and 1975 when NASA's Mariner 10 flew past it three times and mapped about 45 percent of its surface. |
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Oceans absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Ocean captures CO2 in two ways, or what are known as pumps. The gas is absorbed by seawater, mixing with the turbulent surface layer and carried to the depths by ocean circulation patterns. The gas is also absorbed by billions of tiny phytoplankton and other organisms, which fall to the ocean bottom when they die, trapping carbon in deep bottom layers of sediment.
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Conservation groups have raised fears that large birds could get caught in wind turbines and that the structures could disturb other species. But, in a new study, scientists found only one of the 23 species studied, the pheasant, was affected during their survey of two wind farms in eastern England.
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Scientists believe they have found a way to map the hugely complex genetic code of wheat, the staple food for 35 percent of the world's population. The move could lead to improved crop varieties that are resistant to drought and disease. The scientists had constructed a map of the largest wheat chromosome, chromosome 3B, and demonstrated it should be possible to sequence the plant's entire genetic code.
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‘Siddha’ means one who has arrived. Now, there is nowhere to go; you have found it, for which others are searching. The word ‘adept’ is not a good translation for ‘siddha’. In English, there is no word for ‘siddha’ just as there is no word for ‘buddha’. Both are ways of saying the same thing. ‘Buddha’ means becoming absolutely aware, and ‘siddha’ means becoming absolutely contented. They happen simultaneously. The word ‘adept’ is very ordinary, it does not carry the heights and depths of the word ‘siddha’. But it is difficult to translate from one language to another language, and particularly with experiences which are not easy to put into words. Now, nobody in the West has ever used the phrase ‘The Awakened One’; not for Pythagoras, nor for Anaxagoras, nor for Socrates, nor for Aristotle. That dimension is simply not opened up. Aristotle is a great rational intellectual, and Socrates has the sharpest logic one can conceive, but as far as awareness is concerned, they are as far away as anybody else. They are not buddhas, and they are not siddhas.
- Osho
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Confluence No.6
