‘Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.’

-Charles William Eliot

Literature, in the form of novels, short stories, poetry or plays, can enable us to transcend our physical environment. In just a few sentences we can be transported to 1950s Cuba with Hemingway,  Narnia with Lewis and contemporary Afghanistan with Hosseini.

Writers walk us through unfamiliar paths in the shoes of fictional characters that we learn to empathize with. However, by the time we put down the book it is often ourselves that we have learnt something about.

This transcendent quality was the focus of an online course, titled Literature and Mental Health: Reading for Well Being, which the University of Warwick, England hosted. Speaking to writers, actors and professors the aim of the course is to show that reading fiction is an effective way to deal with a myriad of mental health issues and emotional situations.

Stephen Fry on reading and depression

One of the key figures that the team in charge of the course spoke to was celebrated English intellectual Stephen Fry.

As a respected comedian, actor, television presenter and writer, Fry has become one of the most recognisable faces in English culture, renowned for his wit and knowledge. He has also, over the course of his life, struggled with manic depression and bipolar disorder.

In the face of his mental health issues he has found solace and understanding in novels and poetry. He believes the latter has been critical to his ability to understand and express himself, whether he is reading or writing it. Continue reading →

How much would you pay for a space rock? If you’re anything like the Washington-based asteroid mining company known as Planetary Resources, you might be willing to shell out a lot of money for a bunch of rocks that can still be found on Earth anyway. And you wouldn’t be the only ones.

Why Asteroid Mining is Important

“The economic arguments for mining asteroids are overwhelming,” says Peter Marquez, the vice president of Planetary Resources. “On Earth, we sit at the bottom of a gravity well, and it takes enormous energy and expense to pull anything out into space. About 10,000 dollars per pound to break free of Earth’s gravity. That’s 10,000 dollars for a can of Coke.”

Asteroids provide the perfect solution to this problem, providing us access to resources which are rare on Earth but abundant in space, such as platinum-group metals used in the manufacturing of high-tech electronics. Asteroids are also rich in metals like nickel, iron, and cobalt, which can be used to make steel for spacecraft, or just about anything else.

Another lucrative resource that is present on many asteroids is water, which is plentiful in a type of rock known as carbonaceous chondrites. In addition to drinking, water is used as radiation shielding, and its constituent elements can even be used as rocket fuel.

Although asteroid mining would drastically cut the cost of manned space exploration, the program’s biggest draw is creating a budding space economy, and potentially creating the framework to colonize outer space! Continue reading →

A team of paleontologists have uncovered a site in the Canadian province of Alberta that contains hundreds of dinosaur fossils, all from the same time period. The find is an essential collection as one of the most significant paleontological discoveries in recent years.

The team is led by Dr. Jordan Mallon, a world-leading paleobiologist who works for the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, and who believes there could be tens of thousands of individual dinosaurs on the site. Their aim is to uncover the full set of bones that are present in the ‘graveyard’ and to try to piece together what could have led to a mass death on this scale.

The Discovery

Although a campsite on a grassy prairie, surrounded by old farm buildings doesn’t immediately strike you as the type of place that would be a hotspot for dinosaurs; the landscape and weather are significantly different than they would have been 65 million years ago.

The small town of Hilda, where the site is situated, would have been filled with lush vegetation, pterosaurs (flying dinosaurs) and crocodiles. The weather would have been hotter and much more volatile than it is today, with regular, violent storms hitting the region.

The fossils that found by Dr. Mallon and his team have largely been from one species, centrosaurines. The centrosaurus was a horned herbivore, with a rhino-like horn and a bony frill. These social dinosaurs, clearly moved in large herds, which explains why there is such a significant number of them in the same spot.

Discovering just one species of dinosaur at the site proves to Dr. Mallon’s team that the bones must have been left at the same time, rather than accumulated over a longer period. ‘It seems to have been from a single event,’ Dr. Mallon explains. ‘We’re talking about tens of thousands of individuals dying at once, it would have been an epic disaster.’ Although what exactly the disaster was is still open for debate.

This study is by no means the first at the site. It was originally discovered in 1950 by the celebrated paleontologist Wann Langston Jr. and has occasionally been researched ever since. However, Dr. Mallon’s decision to revisit the site in 2013 led to the discovery of the centrosaurus graveyard. Previously it had been believed that there were only a few fossils in the area.

Such an assumption is hard to explain because the area is a near-perfect place for preserving animal bones in fossil. The massive flow of sediment that was rolling off the Rockies into the lowland areas of Alberta, when they first formed around 80 million years ago ensured the near immaculate preservation of the bones.

‘You ended up with pretty much the perfect conditions for dinosaurs to be preserved,’ said Jon Noad, a geologist and consultant based in Calgary who has studied the region.

It was these perfect conditions that brought Dr. Mallon back, as he attempts to piece together the life stories of the long-dead animals that he studies. Such a huge number of dinosaurs of the same species is an essential collection for scientists who try to understand the life cycles and behavior of a species. ‘You can learn about how these animals changed as they grew up, about the differences between males and females. You can learn about the population structure of the herd,’ Mallon said.

For anyone interested in dinosaurs and the history of life on earth it is unlikely that this is the last you will hear about the town of Hilda.

This article was written by The Hearty Soul. The Hearty Soul is a rapidly growing community dedicated to helping you discover your most healthy, balanced, and natural life.

Sources:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/alberta-fossil-site-hints-to-epic-disaster-for-group-of-dinosaurs/article31219826/

Image Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfguXl9tou4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RHTHJOupss

You get home from work, you throw some food in the oven and turn on the TV. This scenario has become a standard feature of many homes across the world. Television has become part of our daily routine, a numb, unthinking part of our lives that we can’t live without. 49% of people in the United States admit to believing they watch too much, but every year the number of hours we spend in front of ‘the box’ increases.

Not all television is bad for you, but the over-consumption of aimless mind-numbing images and commercials is severely damaging to your spiritual journey. Being ‘plugged in’ shuts you off from the rest of the world.  The finite time you have on the planet is wasted and your understanding of life becomes warped. However, you’ve taken the time away from the TV to read this article, so there is still hope…

Death of concentration

Televisions and smartphones have led to a dangerous drop in our ability to concentrate for even short periods of time. Dr. Manfred Spitzer, a highly regarded neuroscientist, coined the term ‘digital dementia’ to describe the lack of focus that the general population now has. Our ‘normal’ concentration levels are now at such a low level that they are in line with what was once considered the standard for people who had suffered a head injury.

Our quest to understand our spirituality takes a great deal of concentration. Whether you are meditating or even trying to take in a greater awareness of ‘the moment,’ both these acts are impossible to do when you struggle to concentrate on one thing for longer than 30 seconds.

Even while we watch TV, we don’t often take the time to focus on what is in front of us. We eat or play on our phones. Even the act of disconnecting from reality can’t hold our attention. Take stock next time you sit in front of the TV and at the very least focus solely on that one task.

Reality complex

The ultimate aim of spirituality should always be to wake us up to the reality of the world and universe we live in. Understanding our place within that framework is critical if we aim to live a fulfilled existence. However, our over-indulgence in TV screens shifts us further away from reality. Continue reading →

It is no secret that relationships have changed and evolved since our parents’ time. How could they stay the same? The entire world has grown and changed and is no longer the one that our mothers and fathers passed onto us when we were born.

Despite this fact, we should still be pretty knowledgeable when it comes to modern relationships and dating. Why? Because this is our time. We not only grew up in this world, but we shaped its ideals and beliefs, just like it shaped ours.

So why are so many people miserable with modern relationships? Whatever the reason, only true knowledge and understanding can help to lift the curtain around this thorny issue. With that in mind, here are 7 reasons why modern relationships are so different.

1. Instant Gratification

Today’s culture is becoming increasingly obsessed with doing things fast over doing them right. We want pills to lose weight instantly, Start-ups and multi-level marketing schemes to get rich quick, and Netflix to be entertained on demand. We are slowly growing unused to having to wait and work for things. Relationships might be one of the only aspects of our lives that can refuse to be rushed. Real connections must take time.

2. Normalization of Drugs and Alcohol

Our culture is also normalizing the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol. More and more people are turning to these substances as a release, or an escape from reality.

While potential risks are mitigated by responsible habits, it is becoming more acceptable for people to rely too heavily on drugs and alcohol.

Those who are looking for companionship turn instead to their addiction as a means to cope. This association can often lead to a person spiraling into negativity.

3. Sex Positivity

However you feel about our sexually liberated culture that prides itself on separating sexuality and emotions, you must agree that every lifestyle has drawbacks. People who try to separate sexuality and emotions may find that they have become out of touch with one or the other. Separating sexuality and emotions runs the risk that eventually, these two essential parts of humanity may remain separate. People should make their own choices, but choices also understand that every choice has consequences. Continue reading →

 ‘Holding anger is a poison…It eats you from inside…We think that by hating someone we hurt them…But hatred is a curved blade…and the harm we do to others…we also do to ourselves.’

-Mitch Albom

When we are wronged, it is easy to become bitter and cynical. Often our anger turns into hate, which only serves to harm us more than the people who have wronged us. Learning to forgive and move on can be one of life’s toughest lessons. Ricky Jackson, a man who was released from prison in 2014 after serving 39 years for a crime he did not commit is a shining example to all of us on how to do exactly that.

Ricky Jackson’s story

Jackson was convicted of the murder of a man named Harold Franks, along with two friends, in 1975, at the age of 19. The evidence against Jackson was all based on the witness statement of a thirteen-year-old boy, on a school bus that was a block away from the scene.

The boy, Eddie Vernon, was challenged by classmates at the time, as they all claimed that it would have been impossible for him to have seen the murder from where the bus was.

There was no further evidence presented to the jury in Cleveland, Ohio, to back up the unreliable witness statement, but it was enough to see Jackson sentenced to death. Jackson and his friends only avoided execution because of a paperwork error, which opened up the opportunity for them to appeal their charges.

At an appeal hearing in 2014, Vernon finally admitted that it had in fact been impossible for him to witness the crime from his position on the bus. He went on to claim that he had been coerced into testifying against Jackson by police. The case once more highlights the flaws in the US justice system.

‘The scale of the miscarriage of justice in Ricky Jackson’s case is staggering,’ said Clive Stafford-Smith, the head of Reprieve, a London-based human rights charity. ‘Much of what went wrong in Mr. Jackson’s case is very familiar: a witness coached by the police into a version of events that would gain an easy conviction; a woeful lack of reliable evidence linking him to the crime; inept lawyering, especially for poor people; a jury or judge not willing to countenance doubt; and a ‘justice’ system where, once convicted, it becomes nearly impossible to overturn a sentence.’ Continue reading →