T
his Week:TDH’s 201st Column, The Large Hadron Collider Hasn’t Destroyed Earth-Yet, 6th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference, Nat Geo Wild Channel, Gendercide, Poincare Conjecture Solved, Erotic Capital, and more…
201st TDH Column! Ohio’s best film critic Bill Clark, who runs FromTheBalcony.com and hosts The Devil’s Hammer, tells me that this column is TDH’s 201st!
The Large Hadron Collider Hasn’t Destroyed Earth. Yet. The Large Hadron Collider—the world’s largest, most expensive particle accelerator—achieved a milestone on the quest to discover the secrets of the physical universe.
Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), announced they had circulated the highest energy particle beams ever produced by humans around the LHC.
When CERN scientists finally achieve their goal of colliding two 7 TeV beams together next year, they hope to observe in microcosm the same conditions that existed immediately following the “big bang,” the widely held theory that the universe emerged from a single, unimaginably violent expansion of particles from one superdense, superhot state some 15 billion years ago.
One of CERN’s ultimate objectives for the LHC is to use it to definitively answer whether such a particle exists or not, which would result in either the confirmation or refutation of the theoretical building blocks of all modern physics.
A widely disseminated and “allegedly” erroneous fear is that the LHC could produce a black hole capable of destroying the Earth.
And what will knowing about this particle mean to us? Will it change anything? The answer must be a very important one to everyone on Earth since the LHC’s final cost has been estimated to be $4.3 billion.
Well, with a price tag of $4.3 billion, CERN’s public relations machine must discredit as “erroneous” the fear of a black hole destroying Earth. I’m not convinced.
6th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: “Grace and Madness.” Held July 
10th–17th, 2010 in Iquitos, Peru. www.soga-del-alma.org. John and I presented at the 4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference and we highly recommend the Conference for anyone interested in shamanism. We are planning to return for the 7th Conference in 2011!
“The shaman, the ‘Maker of Myths,’ who classically keeps one foot in this world and the other with the spirits, is not to be confused with the brujo or witch, dancing with evil. Both are powerful. A shaman ‘holds hands with the Divine’ working as a medium between this World’s reality and the spiritual realm. They charm the divine into their rituals by prayer and song. Theirs is a world of visions and hallucinations; a world of Grace and Madness.” (Excerpt from Alan Shoemaker’s manuscript: "Grace and Madness." www.chinchilejo-tours.com)
The 6th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: “Grace and Madness” will be once again held in the Upper Amazon, in Iquitos, Peru, one of the most isolated cities in the World. Iquitos has a population of almost 500,000 people and from the reports given by the local authorities, they believe that 10% of the population is in Ceremony every Friday night. That’s 50,000 people drinking Ayahuasca. Amazing! Ayahuasca is just one of the many healing medicines made by the curanderos (shamans) of the Amazon.
During the Conference period, you’ll have three opportunities to partake in Ceremony with a shaman of your choice. The Shamanism Conference is focused on folkloric healing modalities of “La Madre Ayahuasca” and Hauchuma (San Pedro). There will be other healers at the Conference. The Ceremonies held during the Conference week are optional and your arrangements are made directly with the shaman of your choice.
This 6th Conference already has an incredible line-up of illustrious presenters and there are more to come: Peter Gorman (pictured, www.pgorman.com), Howard Charing, Steven Byer, Alexander Beiner, Dr. Dennis Mckenna, Dr. Richard Grossman, Richard Fowler, Alan Shoemaker, Martin Ball, and Isabella Stoloff. For further information, please contact Alan Shoemaker (alanshoemaker@hotmail.com).
NAT GEO WILD. National Geographic Channel is launching a new network, Nat Geo WILD (natgeowild.com) March 29, 2010. They must know I’m going off to the Peruvian Amazon in July—they sent me a survival kit. Lots of DVDs, a great cap, a hardcover book on the series, postcards and a bunch of other stuff I can use. There is also a toy if I run across rebel monkeys.
Here is a preview of three of the programs that are kicking off this launch: Expedition Wild with Casey Anderson, Mystery Gorillas with Mireya Mayor, and Rebel Monkeys.
EXPEDITION WILD with Casey Anderson, Premieres Monday, April 5 at 9 p.m. The premiere episode of Expedition Wild is a multipart look at North America’s mightiest carnivores, featuring naturalist Casey Anderson and a 900-pound grizzly bear named Brutus. Casey goes to Montana to see if he can teach a bear raised in captivity to fish for himself, in an aquarium designed for that purpose. Future episodes of Expedition Wild will focus on the wild wolves of Yellowstone and a one-hour special with the complete history of his relationship with Brutus.
MYSTERY GORILLAS with Mireya Mayor premieres Monday, April 5 at 10PM. National Geographic Emerging Explorer Mireya Mayor (pictured) immerses herself in the secret lives of wild gorillas, learning about new behaviors and group dynamics, such as the role of female choice and limited tool use.
Travel to the forests of northern Congo with Mireya, where record numbers of western lowland gorillas live unseen in the dense foliage. Mireya gets to know the intimate details of one family—a big male named Kingo and his clan of females and young. She also travels to a gorilla gathering spot to witness their group dynamics and study their larger social structure.
In Rwanda, the gorillas are trained to know when humans are coming to see them. The guides have a special cry they give to alert the gorillas that company has arrived. Usually, tourists (accompanied by armed guards) arrive at set times when the gorillas are busy eating. We got very, very close to the gorillas!
REBEL MONKEYS premieres Wednesday, March 31 at 8 p.m. They’re a diabolical nuisance, yet considered sacred. I lived among them in Monghr, Bihar, India. And in Nepal, they are all over the shrines mingling with the tourists and devotees. They love to steal things from tourists!
For a gang of monkeys making their home at the Galta Temple in the Indian city of Jaipur, it’s an easy life—lounge by the sacred pool, groom your friends and accept handouts from worshippers paying respect to the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman.
Hanuman is one of my personal favorites and I have statues of him all over my house.
When a lingering drought threatens local food supplies, the monkeys face an end to their easy gravy train.
(Photo taken in Kathmandu during our 2001 Nepal trek.)
Gendercide. What happened to 100 million baby girls? The Economist (March 6–12, 2010) has this cover 
story on the shocking worldwide war on baby girls. It’s not just China. However, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China in 2020 will have 30–40 million more men than women. They are called “bare branches.” In Asian societies, where marriage and children are the recognized routes into society, single men are almost like outlaws.
The article states that the selective destruction of baby girls in not confined to China and India, but is global.
There are these men going to find wives?
A Hindu saying goes: “Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbors’ garden.”
But now the good news. The need for brides means a new tolerance of outsiders. In India girls’ parents are no longer expected to pay big dowries and young men must provide well for their future brides.
Poincare Conjecture Solved. I read “The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles Of Our Time
” by Keith J. Devlin. I was going to solve the Poincare Conjecture but a strange, unwashed Russian beat me to it!
Thank God there are a few problems left!
In May, 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute posted a million-dollar prize to anyone able to solve any of what it considered the seven most important mathematical problems of the 21st century.
An impoverished Russian, Dr. Grigory Perelman, said he does not need a $1 million prize awarded by the Clay Mathematics Institute for solving one of the most intractable problems in mathematics.
Dr. Perelman prefers to live as a recluse in his grim cockroach-infested flat in St. Petersburg. Told about the financial prize for solving the Poincare Conjecture which had confounded mathematicians for a century, he said through his closed front door: “I don’t need anything. I have all I want.”
The bearded genius, aged 44, was named last week as winner of the $1 million prize.
Four years ago, after posting his solution on the web, he failed to turn up to receive his prestigious Fields Medal from the International Mathematical Union in Madrid. At the time he stated: “I’m not interested in money or fame. I don’t want to be on display like an animal in a zoo.”
Neighbor Vera Petrovna said: “I was once in his flat and I was astounded. He only has a table, a stool and a bed with a dirty mattress which was left by previous owners—alcoholics who sold the flat to him.”
You know Dr. Perelman will not be alone in his squalid apartment for long. There are probably a line of females outside his building right now.
If you have some spare time, here are the other unsolved problems: The Riemann Hypothesis, Yang-Mills Theory and the Mass Gap Hypothesis, The P vs. NP Problem, The Navier-Stokes Equations, The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture and The Hodge Conjecture.
Erotic Capital. Do you have it? Have you lost it to laziness? Scientists claim to have pinpointed what gives a certain person the elusive ‘erotic capital’—a specific mix of six social and physical categories—that ensures they are particularly desirable and thereby successful in modern society.
Dr. Catherine Hakim, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, coined the term for the exact combination that makes some people more attractive than others.
Dr. Hakim makes her case for ‘erotic capital’ to be recognized as a fourth category of personal asset alongside cultural, economic and social capital.
THE SIX COMPONENTS OF EROTIC CAPITAL
1. Beauty—Large eyes and mouths and sculpted faces are especially prized.
2. Sexual attractiveness—A desirable body, personality and style are key attributes.
3. Social attractiveness—A crucial mix of grace, charm and social skills.
4. Liveliness - Physical fitness, social energy and humor are what counts here.
5. Presentation—A chic mix of personal style and a smart turn-out.
6. Sexuality—Another distinctive mix, this time including sexual competence, energy and playfulness.
Women are also more in demand as sexual partners due to a ‘sex deficit,’ Dr Hakim said. She attributed this conclusion to surveys from around the globe which indicate that men’s sexual interest greatly exceeds women’s.
