12+24 Hour Self-Transcendence Race of Basel- a Mekka for Ultra Runners

On May 8/9, 2010, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team organized the 22nd edition of the 12+24 Hour Race in the Sports Stadium St. Jakobs in Basel, Switzerland. This time we had many new runners that joined the group the comes to Basel regularly – all together 122 from 13 nations. All races of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team use a round course that gives them the best opportunity to be of serve to the runners around the clock with counter, food and medical stations. In addition to this several music groups such as “Mountain-Silence” and Adesh & Ajita performed at the course for inspiration. Although the weather was not ideal in the evening and during the night, the atmosphere was friendly and enthusiastic until the finish on Sunday noon. First among the men in the 24 hour category was Ludger Robert Boewer with a distance of 238 k and among the women Heike Christ with 208 k, both from Germany. Fastest 12 hour runners were Thomas Herget (134 k) and Dorothea Pfeffer (115 k), also from Germany. A 7 minute summary of the 24 hour event can be watched on srichinmoytv.

A spectacular view on M13

In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, “This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.” Of course, M13 is now modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. Telescopic views reveal the spectacular cluster’s hundreds of thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter, but approaching the cluster core upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. Along with the cluster’s dense core, the outer reaches of M13 are highlighted in this sharp color image. The cluster’s evolved red and blue giant stars show up in yellowish and blue tints. Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Burali, Tiziano Capecchi, Marco Mancini (Osservatorio MTM)

Strange Sounds of Saturn

Saturn is a source of intense radio emissions, which have been monitored by the Cassini spacecraft. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet. These auroras are similar to Earth’s northern and southern lights. This is an audio file of radio emissions from Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft began detecting these radio emissions in April 2002, when Cassini was 374 million kilometers (234 million miles) from the planet, using the Cassini radio and plasma wave science instrument. The radio and plasma wave instrument has now provided the first high resolution observations of these emissions, showing an amazing array of variations in frequency and time. The complex radio spectrum with rising and falling tones, is very similar to Earth’s auroral radio emissions. These structures indicate that there are numerous small radio sources moving along magnetic field lines threading the auroral region. Time on this recording has been compressed, so that 73 seconds corresponds to 27 minutes. Since the frequencies of these emissions are well above the audio frequency range, we have shifted them downward by a factor of 44. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio and plasma wave science team is based at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team’s home page, http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/cassini/ .Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Iowa

Jessica Watson (16) finishes solo sailing around the world

Teen solo sailor Jessica Watson has crossed the finish line, ending her seven-month-long round-the-world voyage. Thousands of people have packed the Opera House and Botanic Gardens as intrepid teen sailor Jessica Watson sails back into Sydney Harbour. Many were seated on the steps of the Opera House as they listened to a live interview and watched pictures of Watson as she headed back to land – 210 days after she first left on a solo round-the-world voyage last October. However a tear in Jessica’s mainsail has delayed her return. The Queenslander had been due to sail through the Sydney Heads at around 11.30am (AEST), but now wasn’t expected to enter Sydney Harbour until closer to 2pm. The tear was caused by winds of up to 30 knots early on Saturday as she sailed up the NSW south coast. (Source: theage.com.au)

Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail around the globe solo, nonstop and unassisted when she cruised into Sydney Harbour in her pink, 34-foot yacht to a rock-star welcome. She successfully maneuvered her boat through raging storms, 40-foot waves and seven knockdowns during the 23,000 nautical mile journey that critics thought she wouldn’t survive. “Amazingly, I just enjoyed it much, much more than I ever thought I would and handled the challenges better than I thought,” Watson said. “You don’t actually have a choice – you’re in the middle of a storm, you’re being knocked down – you can’t fall apart.” After standing on land for the first time in 210 days, the teen said she’s eager to learn how to drive a car, to eat fresh fruit and salad after months of packaged meals, get a full night’s sleep instead of catnaps and shake off her sea legs with a long walk on the beach. “You will pass your driving test with flying colors,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd assured Watson, who laughed along with a crowd of thousands, many wearing pink or waving pink flags in honor of her yacht, Ella’s Pink Lady. It was a lighthearted moment in an emotional day for Watson, who admitted she was overwhelmed by the attention after so much solitude. Minutes earlier, she wept with relief after stepping off the yacht and into the arms of her tearful parents, whose decision to let their daughter attempt the feat was dubbed an act of insanity by some. “People don’t think you’re capable of these things – they don’t realize what young people, what 16-year-olds and girls are capable of,” she told the crowd. “It’s amazing, when you take away those expectations, what you can do.” Watson, from Buderim, north of Brisbane in Queensland state, sailed out of Sydney on Oct. 18 despite protests by critics that she was too young and inexperienced for the treacherous journey. Her parents maintained that she was well-prepared and noted she has been sailing since age 8. “She said she’d sail around the world, and she has,” a tearful Julie Watson said from a nearby boat as she watched her grinning daughter cruise past the finish line. “She’s home.” (Source: The Huffington Post)

A Special Sunset

In recent weeks the sunsets are getting more and more spectacular.

Fractals by Michael Aaron Coleman

An amazing portfolio by Michael Aaron Coleman, Jackson Mississippi/Nashville can be seen here: www.miqel.com

First Crop Circle of the Season

As stated on the www.cropcirclewisdom.com the first formation of 2010 has finally arrived. The winter of 2009/2010 was the coldest for over 30 years with heavy snowfall, freezing temperatures and then followed by heavy rain. All these elements hampered a steady growth to slow growth so the expectancy was that spring would not be greeted by blooming Canola. This indeed was the case so is it safe to say that the 2010 season was delayed due to this fact or was it indeed another reason? Much needed sunshine temporarily arrived to stimulate plant growth so within the last 2 weeks of April fields planted with Canola begun to bloom, but then in the 1st week of May, temperatures plummeted to lows of around  5 -6 to 8 degrees C. Could this be a theory to contemplate on that due to the low temperature the plant stem becomes stiffer and more upright and would therefore lack the flexibility required for the plant to bend? The May Bank Holiday weekend had a  variable temperature forecast so we decided to head off into the regular hotspots of Wiltshire for a night watch vigil. The night was cold and very still – silent enough to hear the most distant sounds. We felt that it was time for the first formation to arrive – so we sat quietly and patiently staring into dark fields. We didnt have to wait to long before the first signs of activity had begun. Pale blue flashes lit up a nearby field on 3 occasions, then followed by thin streaks of light shooting over our heads. Then a beam of light appeared, followed by balls of light an hour or so later. At the break of dawn the anticipation of a formation were high indeed but after checking all the regular hot spots and Canola fields by ground and air we soon realised that no formation was laid. Well – certainly not in this area – approx 20 miles from Alton Barnes the Makers were happily creating the first formation of the season below Boscombe Military airspace. This formation was originally discovered on the 3rd of May but never reported – it is only the vigilance of a civilian who spotted this formation a day later. Is this a ring, a Mayan head band with the third eye  in the center or another cryptic message which will keep us theorizing for the next few months.

Statement from Matt Holloway, who first announced the arrival of the first crop circle formation of the year: “I must say I was quite surprised that I was the first to report the circle. Maybe I should give you a brief rundown of events to give you some idea of time scale. I work at a factory a few miles north of the city and we have a works bus that takes us in, so I first passed that field at about 7:15 am.  As an avid enthusiast for Crop circles and other strange phenomenon I am always looking out for strange events wherever I travel and I can say with complete confidence the formation was not there when I proceeded to work. When I was returning from work at about 5.20 pm I only noticed an area of flattened crop. I wasn’t totally sure if it was a formation as it wasn’t well defined from the road.  After returning home I had a quick search on a few website to see if anything had been reported. As there hadn’t I grabbed my camera and headed up to Old Sarum. I expected there to be at another formation already as we don’t have many formations appear that close to Salisbury, usually they appear around Stonehenge, and I was aware of previous formations at Pepperbox Hill, near Alderbury. But most formations are on the Plain and  we haven’t had such a close formation for a number of years. After reaching Old Sarum at about 8.40 pm I went round to the north side and there it was. I got my camera out and started snapping away.  Even from the hill the perspective of the formation wasn’t great and it was quite hard to make out the design. But as I focussed on it I almost went into a trance, the usually noisy sheep grazing the grass of the fort and the pigs across at Mr Paynes farm went silent and I heard no sound from the busy main road. I was just focussed on the circle oblivious to anything else around me.

So, from the time I first saw the formation to the time I revisited the site was a period of at least three hours. I expected there to be other people looking upon it or even some tracks going into the field, but there was nothing. I decided to try and gain permission to go into the field so I walked to the houses set back behind the fields and knocked on the door. A lady named Jenny answered the door and I asked her for permission to enter the field, but she informed me she only rented the cottage and I would have to get permission from the farm manager, who I was unable to contact that evening. ( I have since spoken to him and he has allowed me to visit the field on Sunday 9th May for an hour to take a look with a maximum of two other people.) Also she was unaware that there was a formation in the field. As too the construction. I find it hard to believe that it was created in broad daylight by people without being seen, which leaves alternative explanations of which I am still very undecided about… The symbols of the circle are very intriguing, in fact the disc with wings seems to be prevelant in many cultures from the Sumarians and Egyptians through to native Americans. Is there a connection? I shall keep an open mind until we have more proof.”

24 h LIVE Coverage of 24 h Self-Transcendence Race in Basel, Switzerland

The 22nd Basel Self-Transcendence Race will have for the first time a 24 h LIVE COVERAGE on http://www.livestream.com/srichinmoyraces. Together with the Deutschen Ultramarathon-Vereinigung there will also be news and interviews at the top of the hour. Start of Live Coverage is this Saturday May 8th at 11:30 h CET; the start of the race is scheduled for 12:00 h and at midnight there will be the start of the 12-hour race. On Sunday May 9th from 11:00 to 12:00 h you can witness the finish, which is always a powerful and moving event.

Japanese World Harmony Run Closing Ceremony 2010 in Nagasaki

The Japan leg of the 20,000 km Asian World Harmony Run Torch Relay ended in Nagasaki on April 28. A team of 26 international runners carried the torch 400km from Hiroshima to Nagasaki. The team continues onto Korea, China, Mongolia, and finish in Moscow on September 27. Founded in 1987 by Sri Chinmoy the message of the Run is “Harmony begins in the heart of each one of us.” Follow their progress at www.worldharmonyrun.org

An Indigo Child’s Views on How to Save the World

If you want to know more about the world of the new “Children of Light” (Indigo, Crystal, Rainbow etc), check out this video on YouTube of an Indigo boy lecturing and being interviewed. He shares his opinion on saving the world…