J.Krishnamurti & Pupul Jayakar: The Significance of Death, Ending, & Ren...

J.Krishnamurti & Pupul Jayakar discuss the significance of Death, Ending, & Renewal. The Mind cannot enter into a totally new dimension if there is a shadow of memory of anything. Brockwood Park, England. 7th June,1981.

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Link: https://youtu.be/5jNAnm4it-U

David Allen: Getting Things Done

GTD is an organizational system. It doesn't put rules around how you actually do your work. Instead, it focuses on how you capture the work you need to do, organize it, and choose what needs your attention. At its core, GTD stands on five "pillars," or steps to getting and staying organized:

Capture everything. Your to-dos, your ideas, your recurring tasks, everything. Put it in a pen-and-paper notebook, a to-do app, a planner, whatever you prefer to use to get organized. GTD doesn't say to use a specific tool, but whatever you use has to fit into your normal flow. The barrier to using it should be so low that there's never a reason for you to say "I'll add it to my list later." You want to capture everything as soon as it happens so you don't have to think about it again until it's time to do it.
Clarify the things you have to do. Don't just write down "Plan vacation," break it down into actionable steps so there's no barrier to just doing the task. If there's anything you can do right away and have time to do, get it done. If there's anything you can delegate, delegate it. Here's a helpful video where David Allen explains how to clarify your to-dos so they don't require more time to figure out what you meant than it takes to actually do the thing you wanted to do.
Organize those actionable items by category and priority. Assign due dates where you can, and set reminders so you follow up on them. Pay special attention to each item's priority, as well. You're not actually doing any of the items on your list right now, you're just making sure they're in the right buckets for later, and your reminders are set. In short, this is quality time with your to-do list, inbox, and calendar.
Reflect on your to-do list. First, look over your to-dos to see what your next action should be. This is where the clarifying step pays off, because you should be able to pick something you have the time and the energy to do right away. If you see something that's so vague that you know you won't be able to just pick up and run with it, break it down. Second, give your to-do list an in-depth review periodically to see where you're making progress, where you need to adjust your priorities, and determine how the system is working for you.
Engage and get to work. Choose your next action and get to it. Your system is, as this point, set up to make figuring that out easy. Your to-dos are organized by priority and placed in categories. You know what to work on, and when. They're broken into manageable, bite-sized chunks that are easy to start. It's time to get to work.

Those are the basic principles of GTD. At its core, GTD gives you a way to get everything you need to remember out of your head and into a system that can remember them for you, organize them, and break them down into pieces you can work with. That way the next time you look at your to-do list, there should be no confusion over what you have time to tackle, or what's most important. You can spend less time thinking about what to do and how to work and more time actually working.
How to Get Started with GTD

Now that you understand the basic premise of GTD, getting started is simple. In fact, it's likely that many of the pillars of GTD are already part of your workflow. Maybe you have a to-do app already, or a regular meeting with your boss to discuss priorities. It may seem daunting—or like you'll spend more time getting organized with something like GTD than you'll actually spend doing your work—but it doesn't have to be that way. Here's how to get started.

First, you need some tool to capture and organize all of your ideas, to-dos, responsibilities—everything you need to remember. You likely already have a favorite to-do list app, journal, and planner that you use to stay organized. If you don't, look for one that works with your flow. When the boss surprises you with a new task while you're working on something else, you want a tool that lets you get that task out of your head and into your system as quickly as possible. That way you don't have to stress over it, or try to remember it later. If your current to-do app doesn't give you that freedom, find one that does, even if it's post-it notes or a whiteboard.

Next—and here's the thing most of us don't do now—set aside a little time every week, or at the beginning of every day to really get in touch with your to-dos. After all, there's no faster way to waste time on work than working blindly without thinking about the big picture, or what else you have to do that's more pressing. Make sure those to-dos are arranged in specific tasks that you can pick up and run with whenever you have time to do them. Make sure they're also organized by priority, so you never have to waste time figuring out what's most important to work on. Ideally, when you're finished, your to-dos should be easy to scan, you'll be able to quickly see what's most important, what takes the most or least time to accomplish, and what you should tackle next (and after that, and after that.)

How to Prioritize When Everything Is Important

You know that sinking feeling you have when there's too much on your plate? When you try to…Read more

How you organize those to-dos is up to you, but remember, don't over-hack your method. It's the small things that make it, and if your to-do list is starting to get bloated with categories, varying priorities, and all sorts of labels and flags and functions, it's time to go back to square one and simplify. Personally, every morning I spend about five minutes making sure everything on my to-do list reflects everything I need to do that day, and anything that's big or vague has enough clarity that I can run with it. Then, once a week, I give myself about a half-hour to an hour for a weekly review, where I do a deeper dive, make sure I follow-up on anything I've been meaning to but neglected, add any lingering ideas to my to-do list, delegate what I can, do a little brainstorming, and shift priorities around if I need to.

Do I Really Need to Learn a Productivity Method?

I've heard of productivity systems like Getting Things Done or the Pomodoro Technique, and…Read more
Find a GTD-Friendly System that Works For You

You might think that David Allen himself uses some expensive planner, or a plethora of to-do apps to do what he does. He doesn't. Actually, he really just uses paper. In fact, his workspace always has notepads nearby, so he can jot down ideas and to-dos quickly and get them out of his head.

The Tools David Allen Uses to Get Things Done

GTD guru David Allen recently spoke in an interview with The Atlantic about all the things that…Read more

If you like the paper approach too, the previously mentioned Bullet Journal system is very GTD-friendly, in that it encourages you to spend time reviewing and prioritiing your to-dos, and it makes it easy to add new to-dos to your list. It adds more structure than GTD requires, but that may work for you.

The Bullet Journal Productivity Method Empowers Your Paper Notebook

If pen and paper are your favorite tools, or at least are the ones you're most comfortable…Read more

If you prefer the app-centric approach, you have plenty of options. Evernote is a popular choice, and we've mentioned how to make it GTD-friendly in the past, along with some templates to get you started. I you prefer Springpad, it's easily massaged into a GTD-friendly organizer as well. Microsoft OneNote is equally powerful and equally GTD-friendly. All three are great for GTD, even if they're a bit heavy and feature-rich.

The Secret Weapon Combines GTD and Evernote into One Synchronized Productivity System

Getting Things Done (GTD) is one of the most popular productivity methods and Evernote the most…Read more

You don't have to use multipurpose apps like Evernote or OneNote for GTD if you don't want to. Even simple to-do apps, like GQueues, Doit.im, and even Apple's own Reminders app that fit the mold well. In fact, any to-do app or note-taking tool that also lets you organize, prioritize, and review the things you have to do will work nicely. That said, some make it easier than others, and some are designed with GTD in mind. Keep an eye out for that if you're looking.

GQueues Is a Feature-Packed, Cross-Platform, GTD Friendly To-Do App

Android/iOS/Web: If you're still on the hunt for a solid Astrid alternative (or just a really…Read more
Remember, This Is Just One Philosophy

GTD has a lot going for it, but let's not forget: it's just one philosophy. It isn't for everyone, and it may not be the best productivity system for you. There are lots of productivity systems and methods out there, and while some people worship GTD like the Bible, it's just one very popular system of many. The best way to use it is to massage it into a system that works best for yourneeds, not to strictly adhere to all its rules. It's dying to be remixed and adapted.

For example, if your to-dos come in the form of emails, your inbox should be part of your system. Keeping your inbox clean—or at least organized—is part of the "capture" and "organize" steps above. This Gmail workflow helped our own Melanie Pinola get her inbox under control, and I still swear by Gina Trapani's "Trusted Trio" of mail folders, not because it makes my inbox look clean, but because it combines capturing and clarifying in one. If you're a student,this college-friendly workflow may appeal to you because it deals in both time-sensitive (assignments, papers, exams) and context-specitic (studying, organizing notes, research) items. Whatever you do, make sure it works for you and that it's easy. Don't get caught up in productivity for productivity's sake.

This GTD Workflow Is How I Finally Got My Email Inbox Under Control

I have a confession to make: I hate email. I hate it so much that emails would just pile up,…Read more
Additional Reading

By now you have the tools by now to get started with GTD and make it work for you. We've really only scratched the surface, and the actual book offers more specific tips and examples you can apply to your specific needs. If you're looking for more resources, here's a short list of articles worth reading:

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Amazon.com

Practicing Simplified GTD
GTD Times
Zen Habits' Getting Things Done FAQ
43 Folders' Getting Started with GTD Guide
Mashable's GTD Toolbox
Our GTD tagpage

Remember, the goal of GTD is to spend a little time organizing to get a big payoff of time you would have spent on unnecessary, unproductive work. For your efforts, you'll be more organized and relaxed, because you'll never have to stress out about what to do next, how to do it, and when you'll have time—your system will handle that for you. The end result is that you're more in tune with your work and you're more engaged with your life.

David Allen Explains How GTD Can Make You More Engaged with Life

In this TED-Ed talk, David Allen, creator of the Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity method,…Read more

Title photo made using donatas1205 (Shutterstock), nemo, and Openclips. Other photos by Irish Typepad, David Chico Pham, Teo, and Dennis Hamilton.














Next—and here's the thing most of us don't do now—set aside a little time every week, or at the beginning of every day to really get in touch with your to-dos. After all, there's no faster way to waste time on work than working blindly without thinking about the big picture, or what else you have to do that's more pressing.

Make sure those to-dos are arranged in specific tasks that you can pick up and run with whenever you have time to do them. Make sure they're also organized by priority, so you never have to waste time figuring out what's most important to work on. Ideally, when you're finished, your to-dos should be easy to scan, you'll be able to quickly see what's most important, what takes the most or least time to accomplish, and what you should tackle next (and after that, and after that.)

Five minutes every morning at 9am to look at what you have on deck for the day is all you need here.

Any.Do's 'Moment' is a pretty good implementation of this, though it isn't really broad enough to be perfect.



Link: https://youtu.be/Qo7vUdKTlhk

Permission to eradicate protected seagulls

 I remember watching seagulls chasing rats on the rocks by Grandville Island Market in Vancouver. Sip a cappuccino while watching the slaughter... Ya gotta love Nature and how rats manage to over run food establishments.

Just let your imagination run wild for a moment and picture the market after dark when all the humans have gone home, the rodents ascend from the filthy beach and descend from the rafters to munch away at the food kiosks' offerings....

Let this picture help you imagine the nightly scene:

Scarborough given special permission to eradicate protected seagulls
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3207196/A-license-kill-Seaside-town-given-special-permission-eradicate-protected-seagulls-series-attacks-people-pets.html
'via Blog this'

ENERGY ACCOUNT

Beautiful reflection. @bonesweber

Grizzlies hunting salmon

Grizzlies getting fat for the winter

tim cornwell ‏@247razz Aug 21

The Environmental Impact of Meat

Aeon Magazine ‏@aeonmag

Diminishing the environmental impact of meat will require re-imagining both supply and demand. http://ow.ly/RahY4

Link: Aeon Magazine ‏@aeonmag 

Tower Diving Horse 1943

c. 1943

A trained horse dives on a ranch in Plainview, Texas.

IMAGE: UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

Animal Emotions

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From Apes to Elephants, Wolves to Whales, a Tour of Animals’ Minds and Emotions
By ANDREW C. REVKIN JULY 15, 2015 1:28 PM July 15, 2015 1:28 pm 16 Comments

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Carl Safina visited a nursery for orphaned elephants in Kenya while researching his book on animals' minds and feelings.Credit Julius Shivegha

Regular readers of Dot Earth will already know the work of Carl Safina, who for decades has meshed conservation science, campaigning and communication in a career devoted to building a durable relationship between human beings and the rest of Earth’s living things.
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His focus, until now, has been on the ocean and winged, finned or flipperedspecies that depend on it. In his new book, “Beyond Words,” Safina divides his time between the marine and terrestrial worlds, examining animals’ intelligence and feelings both through the lens of science and simply through wonder-filled observation. Apes, lemurs, wolves and their domesticated kin, elephants, dolphins and killer whales are among the subjects in this captivating bestiary of animal behavior.

I particularly enjoyed a chapter titled “Woo-Woo,” a term meant to describe marvels of animal behavior that science has yet to explain. Safina, a longtime friend and fishing buddy, gave me permission to publish an excerpt here. I hope you enjoy it, and explore the book in full. Here’s the excerpt:
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Killer whales along the Washington State coast.Credit Carl Safina


Woo-Woo

…The fact is, killer whales seem capable of random acts of kindness. Acts that defy explanation. Acts that make scientists consider some pretty far-out possibilities. It can seem that killer whale behavior falls into two categories: amazing behavior and inexplicable behavior.

Fog-guidance can seem like an exclusive service that killer whales feel inclined to provide—to people who work to protect them. Once, Alexandra Morton and an assistant were out in the open water of Queen Charlotte Strait in her inflatable boat when she was enveloped by fog so thick she felt like she was, “in a glass of milk.” No compass. No view of the sun. Flat calm; no wave pattern to inform a guess. A wrong guess about the direction home would have brought them out into open ocean. Worse, a giant cruise ship was moving closer in fog so reflective Morton could not tell where its sound was approaching from. She imagined it suddenly splitting the fog before it crushed them.

Then as if from nowhere, a smooth black fin popped up. Top Notch. Then Saddle. And then, Eve, the usually aloof matriarch. Sharky was suddenly peeking at her. Then Stripe. As they clumped close around her tiny boat, Alexandra folled in the fog like a blind person with a hand on their shoulder. “I never worried,” she recalled. “I trusted them with our lives.” Twenty minutes later they saw a materializing outline of their island’s massive cedars and rocky shoreline. The fog opened up. The whales left them. Earlier in the day the whales had been unusually difficult to follow, and had been traveling west toward open ocean. The whales had taken Morton south, home. When the whales left they changed direction toward where they’d just come from and where they had been headed.

Morton felt changed. “For more than twenty years, I have fought to keep the mythology of the orcas out of my work. When others would regale a group with stories of an orca’s sense of humor or music appreciation, I’d hold my tongue…. Yet there are times when I am confronted with profound evidence of something beyond our ability to scientifically quantify. Call them amazing coincidences if you like; for me they keep adding up… I can’t say that whales are telepathic—I can barely say the word—but… I have no explanation for that day’s events. I have only gratitude and a deep sense of mystery that continues to grow.”

~ ~ ~

We don’t have enough to really go on; the data aren’t enough to analyze. We have a few stories of free-living killer whales guiding people lost in fog; of the whales seemingly returning lost dogs, of free-living killer whales turning in circles as a person makes a circular motion with his finger, or returning a hat worn perfectly for the occasion, or seeing someone wave and waving back, of empathy—of sympathy. In Antarctica my friend Bob Pitman tossed a snowball near a killer whale and the whale immediately tossed back a piece of ice. These stories could be just coincidences. We don’t have the stories in which the whale ignored them and did not respond to their thoughts, their dogs, or their snowballs. I am a hard-hearted disbeliever of things unknown. As a scientist I am persuaded by evidence. And I tend to discount the less material explanations of puzzling phenomena.

More importantly, I don’t see that the whales—even if they are more intelligent than us (whatever intelligence means)—would be “sending us a message”—as one friend of mine believes with all her heart that they are trying to do.

Who wouldn’t like to believe that whales are trying to send us a message? That would make them special. But most important, it would make us very special. And how very special we are—is our favorite story. If humans have one overriding conceit and one universally shared delusion, it is that the world owes us for being so special.

Me, I am most skeptical of those things I’d most like to believe, precisely because I’d like to believe them. Wanting to believe something can bias one’s view of facts and events.

But the whales leave us with questions so puzzling they are disturbing. Why would these beings declare unilateral peace with humans and not with smaller dolphins and seals, whom they attack and eat? Why would they single us out to give assistance? And why no grudge? Why, after the chronic harassment, capture, and disruption we’ve visited upon them, no learned and handed-down fears of humans such as wolves and ravens and even some dolphins seem to teach their young? The dolphins of the vast Pacific tuna grounds have such fears. Tuna nets used to kill them by the thousands; they still flee in panic from a ship several miles away if it pivots toward them, or if its engine merely changes pitch. I have seen that myself, in person. The dolphins’ hard-learned fear of ships makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is: gigantic mega-brained predators patterned like pirate flags who eat everything from sea otters to whales and spend hours batting thousand-pound sea lions into the air specifically to beat them up before drowning and shredding them; who wash seals off ice and crush porpoises and slurp swimming deer and moose—indeed, seemingly any mammal they come across in the water; yet who have never so much as upended a single kayak and who appear—maybe—to bring lost dogs home.

Argentina is one of the places where killer whales sometimes burst through the surf to drag sea lions right off the beaches. You see the video and you think it would be insanity to stroll near the shoreline. Yet when park ranger Roberto Bubas stepped into the water and played his harmonica, the same individual killer whales would ring around him like puppies. They’d rally playfully around his kayak, and come as, by names he gave them, he called to them.

Through the squishy anecdotes runs a hard fact: free-living killer whales treat humans with a strange lack of violence. It’s especially strange when compared with the rate at which humans continue hurting and killing other humans. How to explain either fact? What can explain the whales’ striking forebearance? For the sea’s T. rex to stick its head up alongside a tiny boat uncountable times, and never hurt a human even in play; that begs an explanation. More crucially, it demands that we find a way to understand. What, in the world, is going on? Is it simply outside our cognition; are their reasons beyond our ability to comprehend? Perhaps one day—.

Click here for more on the book, including another excerpt. Here’s Safina explaining what he pursued:

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Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/from-apes-to-elephants-wolves-to-whales-a-tour-of-animals-minds-and-emotions/?emc=edit_ty_20150716&nl=opinion&nlid=59725256&_r=0

Snapping Turtle

Don't Bother the Stag Beetles

Giant Stag Beetle, Sally Kneidel

A rare treat -- a fabulous Giant Stag Beetle (Lucanus elaphus). My fingertips for scale. Incredible!!! Saw this one at Little Sugar Creek Greenway last week. The huge jaws are only on males, they fight for females just like male elk, deer, and moose. Check out this video of 2 males fighting (a different but similar species):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r34FSI2HKPY

Source: http://veggierevolution.blogspot.ca/2015/07/what-fun-find-giant-stag-beetle.html

Stag beetle fight

Published on Sep 26, 2012

The males fly out in search of a female, when they find a female, there may already be a male around so the males fight, - using their jaws to to wrestle each other for favoured mating sites. Fights may also be over food, such as tree sap and decaying fruits.

Stag beetle is Europes largest insect. In many countries they are now thought to be very rare or even extinct.

You can help Stag beetle by leaving old tree stumps and deadwood alone. Or by making a log pile.
Female stags lay their eggs in rotting log piles and the roots of various rotten trees, including oak, apple, ash cherry and many others. Leave fallen trees in large pieces in contact with the soil so that the wood remains moist and is able to rot. Don't remove tree stumps if you are cutting down a dead, unsafe tree. And please don't burn the dead wood. 

The more decayning wood there is, the more places there are for the female to lay here eggs. You can help this amazing insect, you can be apart of making sure that the stag beetles has a chance in our future.

Stag beetle, Ekoxe, hjortebille, Hirschkäfer, hirvesokk beetle, lucane, 

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r34FSI2HKPY

Leopard

 Sally Kneidel, PhD, a biologist, travel writer and trip planner from the United States who toured Welverdiend in 2007 and 2009.  She is co-writer of both of these blogs

 http://veggierevolution.blogspot.ca/2015/07/what-fun-find-giant-stag-beetle.html

http://welverdiendvillagetours.blogspot.ca/

Cuba’s Coral Garden

By Brent McDonald | Jul. 13, 2015 | 7:21

Jardines de la Reina is a wonderland of sharks, giant groupers, schools of colorful fish, and one of the Caribbean’s healthiest reefs.

Related: 

• Article: Crown Jewel of Cuba’s Coral Reefs