The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society WDCS has just launched an interactive web banner of a life-size blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived on earth. It is part part of WDCS’s Stop Bloody Whaling campaign, and highlights the growing danger to great whales from a cruel and increasingly aggressive commercial whaling industry.

“The banner is both a fascinating impression of this gigantic animal, the blue whale, and a key reminder of the very real danger of commercial exploitation faced by this and other great whales should pro-whaling countries succeed in overturning the ban on commercial whaling.” Says Nicolas Entrup, spokesperson for WDCS. In the Antarctic alone, between 1904 and 1978, 1.4 million whales were killed. This number includes the 350,000 blue whales taken by whaling fleets during that time.

See also our blogposts on “Earthlings” – Dealing with Animals, Vegetarianism – A Contribution to Fighting Climate Change and Ideas of World’s Most Brilliant Scientists for the Future.

When I’m looking at the statistics of the good-will website, I’m always astonished that the most frequented pages are those of the background images or wallpapers.

I’d put them in just for fun – but it seems that changing the desktop background is quite a favorite pastime of many. Today I came across a site with beautiful free wallpapers, where you find hundreds of motives from nature:

In spirituality the word “background” denotes what is at the background of our being – the pure existence, which continues to be there, whether we are awake, dream or sleep. Without this background you wouldn’t be back next morning to get up. You can’t call that a “wallpaper” – it’s not only the wall, but the space into which the wall is built…

In the March issue the NZZ Folio magazine reported about an experiment of Albert Michelson, a Polish-born German-American physicist, who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1907. The article said that he did “the most successful” failure experiment in the history of science by trying to prove the existence of ether.

He thought that the earth moves through space in ether, and thus he wanted to show the existence of ether by measuring the adverse “winds” of its substance. However, the light rays which he projected through an “interference refractometer” always travelled with the same speed, always with the famous speed of 300 000 km/s. He did not want to accept that the consequence of this result would mean, in the eyes of science: Ether is not existing.

Later, in 1905, Einstein explained this paradox of light with his relativity theory: That the speed of light is always constant and that time passes-by differently with observers travelling with different speed. So the article resumed that for physicists ether was proven non-existing, but the writer ended stating that up to now however, it cannot be explained how a wave can expand in “nothingness”.

I had to smile a bit about this “nothingness” where the light-wave passes through and the so-called “non-existence” of ether. As you can read in the Lunar Messenger on “Space and Consciousness“, that from a spiritual viewpoint there is nothing such as empty space. When manifest, space is dynamic, pulsating, full of subtle structures. Eastern wisdom calls it Akasha, the content or consciousness of space, unfolding through many planes of etheric substance.
And in the Lunar Messenger on “Etheric Existence and Good Will” there is explained: “We live in the ether and are penetrated by it, like a tumbler lying in a big tank: The water is as well in the tank as in the glass, it isn’t locked up in it like in a bottle. We are in contact with the other etheric bodies, it is one ether penetrating all layers. The earth, the sun and the planets float in this big etheric ocean and move along its lines of force because of the movements of this ether. Just like the lines of force of a big magnet control smaller magnets, the ether of our planet arranges and regulates the etheric currents of its living beings and works on them.”

A contradiction to science? Not at all. The wisdom teachings explain that ether, the basis of all formations, precedes the dense forms. So you cannot “prove” its existence with physical means, but with the development of etheric view. Try to see not only the physical flower, but the vital form, or look into the eyes of a vital, living person, then you come closer to the etheric existence.

Withered flowers losing their etheric or vital energy

A Californian friend just sent me a heartwarming news video clip about the friendship between a man, his dog and a Canadian goose in Michigan by the name of Daisy Kare. It is fascinating to see how this friendship goes beyond the boundaries of species which normally keep them apart. An inspiring example for living together with differences.

You can see the short clip either in a rather bad quality from YouTube or, if you have Windows Media Player, as a streaming from here.

The European Union just decided about obligatory measures for climate protection in the fight against global warming. The president of the EU commission, José Manuel Barroso, was asked by journalists about his personal commitment in this fight. He is driving a German luxury car as well as a big cross-country vehicle, known for high CO2-outputs. He answered that he doesn’t want to do without his cars, that it is not a matter of moral role models, but of political solutions of Europe.

Where does arrogance start? It seems to be normal that politicians take their liberty of living in contradiction to their official opinions. Nations too take their liberties to behave against their declared positions: Many EU-countries are far from reaching their own Kyoto-commitments. If these will really be effective remains a question. Nations are made of individuals and thus often behave like unintegrated personalities.

On the spiritual path these discrepancies between a behaviour out of outer compulsions and different inner attitudes are quite dangerous, for tensions arise. If we want to behave in a good way, we should do it for ourselves, to be truthful towards ourselves. Then only we can come to an integration of the different areas of our personality and fill the gap between knowledge and action.

The UN has published a computer game called “Stop Disasters” in order to sensitise people how to prevent natural catastrophies. There are scenarios of measures against conflagrations, tsunamis, hurricanes� or floods. The goal of the game is to save the population in dangerous areas. This free game is a way to bridge the digital divide between the so-called developed world and third-world countries.

The UN World Food Program has also launched a game where you can help to satisfy the world hunger: Food-Force. There you not only have the game, but also information about the reality, a blog as well as a possibility to donate. And another game entitled: “Darfur is Dying” uses the means of the web to call for help stopping the crisis in Darfur. Very interesting new ways of informing about disasters and entertaining. And a great way to motivate people for goodwill actions.

A friend just sent me a spectacular powerpoint presentation entitled Blue Beauty – beautiful images of our earth seen from space – especially impressive are the photos of nightfall. (1.7 MB). Enjoy

NASA has just published pictures from the Cassini spacecraft, which has captured never-before-seen views of Saturn from perspectives high above and below the planet’s rings. Dr. Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.: “Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant, copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we’ve never seen before. It just doesn’t look like the same place. It’s so utterly breath-taking, it almost gives you vertigo.” Here are photos and movies from Saturn.

Quite other perspectives from “inner views” you find in spiritual astrology, where Saturn is described as the deepest of the 7 planetary principles. In the Indian Scriptures he is called “the Old Man”. Through him we receive the things that we don’t like, because that which we don’t like is nothing but our limitation. He gives a small dose of dislike and sees how we work with it. The time sense of man is governed by Saturn. So we are made to wait by our own limitations.

Read more about it in the book on “Saturn” by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, it gives deep insights into the way this principle of Saturn is working.

This morning a friend mailed me a link to a video on Google France entitled Earthlings (with French sub-titles). The film shows how animals serve mankind and how man is dealing with animals. The entry to the film says: “The images you are about to see are not isolated cases. These are the Industry Standard for animals bred as pets, food, clothing, for entertainment and research. Viewer discretion is advised.” And a comment besides the film says in French that the documentary is not recommended for children under 16 years or for sensitive souls.

I had a look into the 1.36 h film, which left quite an impact. The speaker brought a quote which summarises the message: “We need a wiser, more comprehensive and maybe a more mystical concept of animals.”

For this topic see also the blogpost on “Vegetarianism – A Contribution to Fighting Climate Change“.

A friend from the States just sent me a link to the website of photographer John Hyde, on “Wild Things“. Enjoy the beautiful pictures of Alaska: