Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese architecture and engineering firm, has a plan to effectively turn the moon into a giant solar power plant, reports Inhabitat.

It proposes building a massive collection of solar panels (a "Luna Ring") 6,800 miles long by 12 miles wide on the moon's surface. That's certainly a heavy-duty construction job for human beings, so Shimizu plans to get the work done with robots, only involving humans in supervisory roles.

Once complete, this hypothetical plant could continuously send energy to "receiving stations" around the globe by way of lasers and microwave transmission. This idea gets around two major hurdles for solar power, as there is no weather or darkness to curb electricity production on the moon. If operating in ship-shape, Shimizu says it could continuously send 13,000 terawatts of power back to Earth. By comparison, it took the United States all of 2011 to generate 4,100 terawatts of power.

It's big thinking that we're skeptical will ever see fruition, but we like where Shimizu's coming from. It believes that "virtually inexhaustible, non-polluting solar energy is the ultimate source of green energy that brings prosperity to nature as well as our lives. Shimizu Corporation proposes the Luna Ring for the infinite coexistence of mankind and the Earth."

Join the conversation about this story »

 
 
 
  Reported by Business Insider 1 hour ago.

Researchers this week revealed that they may have found overfishing using images from Google Earth. The study, published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, shows that some fishing weirs located in the Persian Gulf are much larger than they … Reported by WebProNews 3 days ago.

Anyone who has watched the opening scene of last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey already knows elven king Thranduil is definitely a mean girl.

Running with that idea, YouTuber and animator OnlyLeigh cast the dwarves, elves and hobbits of The Lord of the Rings in a middle-earth remake of Mean Girls, making Thranduil a pointy-eared Regina George, with Tauriel and Legolas rounding out the Plastics.

See also: Trailer for 'The Hobbit' Sequel Reveals Smaug's Terrifying Voice

Watch the hilarious video, above; then tell us what you think in the comments

*
BONUS: Les Mean Girls Tumblr Is So LeFetch
* Read more...

More about Viral Videos, The Hobbit, Watercooler, Videos, and Mean Girls Reported by Mashable 3 days ago.

The recently established Biology, Geography and Health Online Magazine GeoScience.net has now been integrated into the Life, Earth & Health Sciences Website EurekaMag.com to provide an improved user experience for visitors interested in the basic and applied natural sciences. While EurekaMag.com has traditionally provided extensive bibliographic information in biology and in the health sciences, GeoScience.net contributes its vast stock of information in the geographic sciences.

Mannheim, Germany (PRWEB) November 28, 2013

After integration of the scientific information contributed by GeoScience.net, EurekaMag.com now provides a total of 38,897,688 bibliographic references from as early as the beginning of the 18th century. 22,387,131 or 58% of these entries feature a summary of their scientific content. With the inclusion of a large number of geographic references earlier retrievable from GeoScience.net only, EurekaMag.com thrives to become a leading provider of scientific information in the basic and applied natural sciences including biology, geography and health.

The Research Section 13 of the Life, Earth & Health Sciences Magazine contains a large number of the newly included geographic content. For example, Chapter 12126 of this section provides 293 studies on earth-sciences studies including the following entries about "Geographic Information Systems" (GIS) research: geographic information system predictions of past, present habitat distribution and areas for re-introduction of the endangered subtropical rainforest shrub Triunia robusta (Proteaceae) from south-east Queensland Australia, geographic information system and database for the soil survey for the State of Kuwait, geographic information system method for assessing chemo-diversity in medicinal plants, and geographic information systems in fisheries management and planning. Many more articles focus on the geographic variance, variability and variation of biological species on earth. Examples include the geographic range size, seedling ecophysiology and phenotypic plasticity in Australian Acacia species, geographic variability in lidar predictions of forest stand structure in the Pacific Northwest, geographic variation in diet composition of the grass snake along the mainland and an island of Italy, and geographic variation in habitat differentiation of subalpine forests in northeastern Japan.

The Life, Earth and Health Sciences Website EurekaMag.com was launched in 1998 and has become a comprehensive publisher of references in biology, in the applied life sciences agriculture, horticulture and forestry, in the earth sciences, in the environmental sciences, and in the health sciences. Besides its design optimized for speed, the site also features a mobile version for smartphones and accounts at Twitter and Facebook. Reported by PRWeb 3 days ago.

Officials with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have just released this beautiful photo of Earth, snapped by the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft. The satellite is currently getting ready to leave our planet's orbit, embarking on its 10-month cruise to Mars.  If this photo is any indication, then MOM will be capable of snapping some pretty interesting photos of the Red Planet once it achieves orbital insertion around our neighboring world, in September 2014.... Reported by Softpedia 2 days ago.

Before you tuck in to your gravy-drenched, slow-roasted turkey this Thanksgiving, you might want to give thanks that you’re not circling above the earth at 17,500 miles per hour. Forget for a moment that you probably couldn’t even keep the food down in microgravity – would you be willing to trade those creamy mashed potatoes or grandma’s green been casserole for something freeze-dried and wrapped in plastic?

For six astronauts currently working more than 200 miles above the surface of the earth, that choice is easy, as freeze-dried, irradiated and thermostablized food items are their only options. Luckily for them, food scientist Vickie Kloeris and her team at NASA have developed shelf-stable Thanksgiving meals to celebrate the holiday on the International Space Station. First though, they had to figure out a way to make the food taste good in space.

“One of our biggest challenges is that crew members in orbit do report that they feel like their taste buds are somewhat dulled,” Kloeris told CNN from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

“We’ve been able to do experiments to verify why that is the case, however, we do know that one big contributing factor is the fact that they’re not getting as much aroma from the food,” she said.

Kloeris acknowledged that nothing is going to taste like homemade food, but insisted all the food is tasty – her favorite is the cornbread dressing, which she said is the closest item to the original.

Kloeris and her team have even submitted a proposal to study the effect that microgravity has on taste buds. Prior experiments have been performed on shuttle missions, but because the time spent on the shuttle was minimal as compared to time spent on the ISS, the results were inconclusive. Their proposal is ongoing as of press time.

In space, Kloeris said astronauts are battling a shift in body fluid which results in congestion, and similar to having a cold on earth, congestion can affect the way astronauts taste their food. Additionally, much of the flavor we “taste” is actually absorbed through our sense of smell, and because heat does not necessarily rise upward in space, astronauts will not necessarily get a strong sense of aroma from the food, resulting in food that is less tasty.

This Thanksgiving, there are two Americans, one Japanese and three Russians that will be – for lack of a better term – breaking bread aboard the ISS. But instead of smothering their stuffing in gravy and dunking their turkey in cranberry sauce, the astronauts will be eating their meals out of plastic or foil-wrapped packaging.

According to Kloeris, there are 200 different food and beverage items available aboard the ISS, which include all the traditional Thanksgiving trimmings like cornbread dressing, green beans and sliced turkey. Due to the lack of freezers and refrigerators on the ISS, all food items have to be freeze-dried, thermostablized or irradiated to ensure microbiological requirements and stable shelf life. NASA packages these items to send to the ISS several months before sending them to space: about four to five months prior to shipment for beverages, and about six to eight months for rehydratable items.

Astronaut Tom Marshburn, who spent 146 days on the ISS, told CNN that “you can’t have too much variety,

For those astronauts who want something extra outside of the NASA menu, they can take items up to the ISS that meet NASA’s requirements in something called a “bonus box.”

“There was some past bonus food that people hadn’t had time to eat when I was up there, so we were digging around, eating food that had been left for previous crews,” Marshburn said. For example, Astronaut Suni Williams once requested Marshmallow Fluff when she was in space, and then supposedly left it on the ISS for another astronaut to make “candied yams” on Thanksgiving.

Astronauts can also take up non-Thanksgiving themed items. Kloeris told a story where one Japanese space agency astronaut asked NASA if there was any way to send up sushi.

“And it was like, ‘sigh’ Not without refrigeration,” Kloeris remembered. “Sorry. Not gonna happen,” she added, laughing.

Thanksgiving isn’t the only holiday that astronauts observe in space. Marshburn recalled celebrating Christmas aboard the station last year.

“Keep in mind you’re talking about six dudes, some test pilots, engineers and a doctor, so our ambiance wasn’t too great."

For the two Americans currently aboard the ISS right now, Thanksgiving will still be a work day, but they plan on enjoying a big meal after their work is done.

While the sliced turkey is heated on a hot plate-like device, much of the food is rehydrated with hot water inserted into the foil or plastic-wrapped packaging, and then manipulated with the astronaut's fingers to spread the water around.

Since the astronauts obviously can't eat off of a plate in space due to lack of gravity, they will cut an X into the plastic-wrapped mashed potatoes, stuffing and green beans so that the flaps keep the food inside the container. The astronauts then rely on the surface tension of the wet product to keep the product in the container and on the fork.

“If we can’t be at home with our families during the holidays, then this is the next best place that any of us would like to be,” astronaut Rick Mastracchio said in a message posted on YouTube.

“From the International Space Station orbiting 260 miles above the earth, we wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.” Reported by Click Orlando 2 days ago.

Are people who do physically demanding, not-afraid-to-get-dirty jobs like farming, mining and sheep castration (yes, you read that right) the happiest people on earth? So says Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs." See if he changes your mind about what it means to be happy at work.

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TEDWeekends will highlight some of today's most intriguing ideas and allow them to develop in real time through your voice! Tweet #TEDWeekends to share your perspective or email tedweekends@huffingtonpost.com to learn about future weekend's ideas to contribute as a writer. Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

A group of scientists with the Carnegie Institution for Science determined in a new study that the early Earth did not feature the vast diversity of mineral species it boasts today. In fact, only less than 8 percent of current minerals existed on the planet 550 million years after it formed.  This finding is very import... Reported by Softpedia 2 days ago.

Shimizu Construction plans to fit 250-mile-wide belt of solar panels around 6,850 miles of the moon's surfacePower generated would be sent to Earth using microwaves Reported by CapitalBay 1 day ago.

*Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online*

A Japanese civil engineering and construction firm is planning to install a “solar belt” around the moon’s equator to turn it into a giant solar panel.

Shimizu says it plans on building this giant solar panel station, known as Luna Ring, by using remote-controlled robots. Luna Ring would run about 6,800 miles around the Moon’s equator and will be about 248 miles wide.

Solar energy collected by Luna Ring would be converted and beamed back to Earth through microwaves and a laser, after which it would be converted into electricity and then potentially supplied to the national grid. Shimizu says the Luna Ring could generate a massive 13,000 terawatts of energy. The microwave power transmission antennas used in this project would be about 12 miles in diameter.

“Virtually inexhaustible, non-polluting solar energy is the ultimate source of green energy that brings prosperity to nature as well as our lives,” Shimizu said about the concept.

The company points out that this concept would eliminate solar power inefficiency due to bad weather, and achieve 24/7 continuous power generation.

The ground energy conversion facilities would help convert energy into hydrogen for use as fuel, or for storage. Shimizu says with this proposed concept, “a world where all human beings can use energy equally will be realized.”

The solar belt will be made using lunar resources, according to the company. Water can be produced by reducing lunar soil with hydrogen that is imported from the Earth. Cementing material can also be extracted from lunar resources.

“These materials will be mixed with lunar soil and gravel to make concrete. Bricks, glass fibers and other structural materials can also be produced by solar-heat treatments,” Shimizu said.

The remote-controlled robots will be operated 24 hours a day from Earth as they perform various tasks on the lunar surface, including ground leveling and excavation of hard bottom strata. Machines and equipment from Earth will be assembled in space and landed on the moon for installation. Shimizu also said astronauts will support robotic surface operation on site.

''A shift from economical use of limited resources to the unlimited use of clean energy is the ultimate dream of mankind,'' Shimizu said. ''The luna ring translates this dream into reality through ingenious ideas coupled with advanced space technologies.''

The company is planning to have a pilot demonstration by 2020 and to begin construction by 2035, assuming adequate funding is met.

Shimizu has also proposed a concept for lunar bases, which it says will be an important component of space infrastructure. These bases would be constructed using concrete from lunar resources and would be shaped in a hexagonal column. The lunar base concept also requires robot construction systems on the moon. The company did not link the technologies between the lunar base and the solar panel project, but both concepts use similar proposals. Reported by redOrbit 23 hours ago.

Earlier we reported  ISON survived and later on CNN and other media sources also confirmed Comet ISON survived the Sun. Now in latest update, according to NASA STEREO Science Center website present estimation comet ISON will pass by earth on New Year's Eve December...

read more Reported by NowPublic 1 day ago.

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It's Black Friday, which means there are deals on hardware, accessories and even software. Check out our list below of some of the best discounts on iOS and OS X software.

-iOS Discounts-

· *FlickStackr for Flickr [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* FlickStackr brings Flickr photo sharing to the iPad.

· *TodoMovies [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* TodoMovies is the easiest and best way to manage movies you want to watch.

· *Blur Studio [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* Remix photos to create stunning personal wallpapers that feel right at home in iOS 7.

· *Readdle [iOS; Category: Productivity; On sale for 50% off]* All Readdle apps are on sale for 50% titles include Scanner Pro, Printer Pro for iPad, Printer Pro for iPhone, Calendars 5, PDF Expert for iPad, PDF Expert for iPhone and PDF Converter.

· *Filterstorm Neue [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $3.99]* Filterstorm Neue provides you with all the photo editing tools you need; everything from powerful masking tools to simple pre-made filters.

· *The Elements in Action [iOS Universal; Category: Reference; On sale for $1.99, down from $3.99]* The periodic table comes to life with 79 video explorations of the weird, wonderful, and sometimes alarming properties of the elements.

· *Phlo [iOS Universal; Category: Reference; On sale for $1.99, down from $2.99]* Type once, search everywhere. Launch the app, type your search, and find what you're looking for on any search engine.

· *Localscope [iPhone; Category: Navigation; On sale for $1.99, down from $2.99]* Localscope is a window to your world that lets you explore your surroundings like never before.

· *MyScript Notes Mobile [iPad; Category: Productivity; On sale for $1.99, down from $7.99]* MyScript Notes Mobile, the application which turns your iPad tablet into a real library of virtual notebooks.

· *Downcast [iOS Universal; Category: News; On sale for $0.99, down from $2.99]* Download and listen to your favorite podcasts directly from your iOS device without the need to sync with iTunes.

· *A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving [iOS Universal; Category: Books; On sale for $2.99, down from $5.99]* This holiday season, join Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang around the table for a (very!) unique Thanksgiving dinner.

· *Frax [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* Frax raises the fractal in 3D height, uses complex color gradients to smoothly tint and shade them, adds two light sources for glossy reflections and infinitely scaleable chaotic textures - all in all using almost 100 parameters and controls.

· *Frax HD [iPad; Category: Entertainment; On sale for $1.99, down from $3.99]* Frax raises the fractal in 3D height, uses complex color gradients to smoothly tint and shade them, adds two light sources for glossy reflections and infinitely scaleable chaotic textures - all in all using almost 100 parameters and controls.

· *MoneyWiz - Personal Finance [iPhone; Category: Finance; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99]* Have all your accounts, transactions, budgets and bills in one place.

· *Don't Let the Pigeon [iOS Universal; Category: Books; On sale for $0.99, down from $5.99]* "Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App!" lets you create your own Pigeon stories with your pal, Mo Willems. Just follow as the Bus Driver asks you for your ideas-then shake the Pigeon.

· *Polaris Office [iOS Universal; Category: Business; On sale for $0.99, down from $3.99]* POLARIS Office is a mobile office solution that allows users to view/edit MS Office documents on iPhone/iPad. Users can view/edit text files and view .pdf and .hwp files.

· *TextTool [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; On sale for $2.99, down from $4.99]* TextTool is a text editor that makes it easy to manipulate text through multiple, built-in, powerful transformation options.

· *Screens [iOS Universal; Category: Utilities; On sale for $9.99, down from $19.99]* Leave your computer behind and travel light! Screens is a beautiful, yet powerful Screen Sharing and VNC client that lets you connect back to your Mac, Windows or Linux PC from the comfort of your living room, the corner coffee shop or anywhere in the world.

· *Write for iPad [iPad; Category: Productivity; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* Writing. Automated Dropbox/iCloud Syncing. Markdown. Fastest Sharing. Free Mac Addon. Beautiful Design. Love.

· *FileCentral [iPad; Category: Business; On sale for $0.99, down from $6.99]* FileCentral will enable you to view read and display large PDF, Office & iWork documents.

· *DEVONthink To Go [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; On sale for $9.99, down from $14.99]* DEVONthink To Go is a COMPANION to DEVONthink and DEVONnote for the Mac.

· *Chordion [iPad; Category: Music; On sale for $0.99, down from $3.99]* Chordion is a fun new way to make music on the iPad. Choose chords with one hand and play melodies with the other - never hit a wrong note.

· *Actions for iPad [iPad; Category: Productivity; On sale for $0.99, down from $3.99]* Advanced but incredibly simple to use, Actions is a revolutionary app that lets you interact more naturally with your computer, thanks to your beloved iPad.

· *Delivery Status touch [iOS Universal; Category: Utilities; On sale for $2.99, down from $4.99]* Delivery Status helps you keep track of all your packages, so you always know when they're going to arrive. The main view shows the latest status of all your packages, and counts down to the estimated delivery date.

· *Gneo [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; On sale for $4.99, down from $9.99]* Gneo helps you take action with your to-dos by prioritising all the things you need to get done.

· *BeatMaker 2 [iOS Universal; Category: Music; On sale for $4.99, down from $19.99]*Combining music production tools that were behind the success of countless artists, BeatMaker 2 is a powerful, easy-to-use composition interface for amateurs and professionals alike.

· *Pinner - social bookmarking [iOS Universal; Category: News; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* A delightful app for managing your Pinboard.in bookmarks.

· *Filtatron [iOS Universal; Category: Music; On sale for $0.99, down from $7.99]* Filtatron can act as a source, a destination, or a filter for audio from other compatible apps.

· *Recordium [iOS Universal; Category: Business; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99]* Recordium is a powerful yet elegant recording app designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

· *Terminology 3 [iOS Universal; Category: Reference; On sale for $1.99, down from $2.99]* Terminology is a browser for the English language - part dictionary/thesaurus and part research tool.

· *Money for iPad [iPad; Category: Finance; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99]* Manage your personal finances in the most comprehensive manner with Money.

· *1Password [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; On sale for $9.99, down from $17.99]* Every day there are new passwords to remember. They are often forgotten. Using weak passwords or re-using them makes it easy to remember, but criminals love it when you do this. 1Password solves all these problems.

· *Spark Camera [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* Shoot, edit and share beautiful movies in seconds with Spark.

· *Plex [iOS Universal; Category: Entertainment; On sale for $1.99, down from $4.99]* With Plex, you can stream your music, videos and photos from your home computers running Plex Media Server (available from http://www.plexapp.com/) and access content from a wide range of channels.

· *SlowCam [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99]* Record amazing slow motion videos in real time with SlowCam.

· *Videon [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $2.99]*Videon contains all the features necessary to record great videos - from capture to editing to viewing.

· *HDR [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99]* Capture High-Dynamic-Range photographs with HDR.

· *Elasticam [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99]* Turn any photo into a surreal masterpiece with Elasticam. Stretch, squeeze, pinch and prod your prints to create magical effects with ease.

· *Noise Master [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99]* Noise Master is the fastest, most effective app to remove noise from photos.

· *Slow Shutter [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99]* Capture Long-Exposure photographs with Slow Shutter.

· *Photoristic HD [iPad; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99]* Photoristic HD is the ultra fast photo editor. It implements unique algorithms that allow to preview and apply photo effects & filters in a matter of seconds. Price will rise gradually over the weekend, until the sale ends on Tuesday.

· *Tap & Edit [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $0.99]* Tap & Edit makes creating, designing and sharing documents a snap.

· *Sync Photo to Storage [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $0.99]* Sync Photos to Storage is a universal app for iPhone and iPad. It allows you to browse and save new content from Camera Roll to the selected computers or Dropbox.

· *SkySafari 3 [iOS Universal; Category: Education; Now free, down from $2.99]* SkySafari 3 accurately shows you the sky from any place on Earth, at any time up to one hundred years in the past or future.

· *SkySafari Plus [iOS Universal; Category: Education; On sale for $9.99, down from $14.99]* SkySafari 3 accurately shows you the sky from any place on Earth, at any time up to one hundred years in the past or future.

· *SkySafari Pro [iOS Universal; Category: Education; On sale for $29.99, down from $39.99]* SkySafari 3 accurately shows you the sky from any place on Earth, at any time up to one hundred years in the past or future.

· *Prizmo [iOS Universal; Category: Business; On sale for $4.99, down from $9.99]* Prizmo is a universal photo-based scanner app that lets you scan and recognize text documents, business cards, and images, and then export them as PDF/Text, vCard, or JPEG/PNG.

· *Art Authority for iPad [iPad; Category: Reference; On sale for $4.99, down from $9.99]* Art Authority for iPad transports you to an enthralling, real-world art museum with works by 1000+ major western artists.

· *Art Authority K-12 for iPad](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/art-authority-k-12-for-ipad/id573199638?mt=8) [iPad; Category: Reference; On sale for $3.99, down from $7.99]* Art Authority for iPad transports you to an enthralling, real-world art museum with works by 1000+ major western artists. Kid friendly edition.

· *StreetPilot Onboard iPhone USA [iPhone; Category: Navigation; On sale for $24.99, down from $49.99]* Garmin StreetPilot(R) Onboard U.S.A. and give your iPhone(R) or iPad(R) the best in GPS navigation with photoReal junction views, 3D buildings, speed/red light camera alerts and more.

· *StreetPilot Onboard iPhone North America [iPhone; Category: Navigation; On sale for $29.99, down from $39.99]* Download Garmin StreetPilot(R) Onboard North America and give your iPhone(R) or iPad(R) the best in GPS navigation with photoReal junction views, 3D buildings, speed/red light camera alerts and more.

· *NAVIGON iOS USA [iOS Universal; Category: Navigation; On sale for $24.99, down from $49.99]* With NAVIGON you can turn your iPhone or iPad into a fully functional mobile navigation system.

· *NAVIGON iOS North America [iOS Universal; Category: Navigation; On sale for $29.99, down from $59.99]* With NAVIGON you can turn your iPhone or iPad into a fully functional mobile navigation system.

· *NAVIGON iOS MyRegion [iOS Universal; Category: Navigation; On sale for $14.99, down from $29.99] *With NAVIGON you can turn your iPhone or iPad into a fully functional mobile navigation system.

· *Wonderful Color House [iPad; Category: Books; On sale for $0.99, down from $2.99]* Travel with Tullik from the cold white wilds of the North Pole to the warm colorful southern summer ... and a wonderful, colorful house he can truly call home.

· *Time Planner [iPhone; Category: Productivity; In-app purchase now on sale for $1.99, down from $4.99]* TIME Planner is an activity planning app that brings diversity into your everyday life. It helps you organize and fill your day with tasks of different nature

-OS X Discounts-

· *Art Authority for Mac [OS X; Category: Reference; On sale for $4.99, down from $9.99]* Art Authority transports you to an enthralling, real-world art museum with works by 1000+ major western artists.

· *Prizmo[OS X; Category: Business; On sale for $24.99, down from $49.99]* , Prizmo is the key for scanning and performing OCR. It works with pictures taken with your iPhone, iPad, or digital camera, with documents coming from connected or Wi-Fi scanners, even with screenshots

· *SkySafari 1.8 [OS X; Category: Education; Now free, down from $14.99]* SkySafari 3 accurately shows you the sky from any place on Earth, at any time up to one hundred years in the past or future.

· *SkySafari Plus [OS X; Category: Education; On sale for $14.99, down from $19.99]* SkySafari 3 accurately shows you the sky from any place on Earth, at any time up to one hundred years in the past or future.

· *Phlo [OS X; Category: Reference; On sale for $1.99, down from $3.99]* Type once, search everywhere. Launch the app, type your search, and find what you're looking for on any search engine.

Best deals on iOS and OS X software for Black Friday weekend originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Nov 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments Reported by TUAW 1 day ago.

VANCOUVER, Nov. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - Alternative Earth Resources Inc. (formerly Nevada Geothermal Power Inc.) ("Alternative Earth" or "the Company") (TSXV: AER) today announced results for the three months ended September 30, 2013.  The Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial... Reported by PR Newswire 21 hours ago.

“Mr. President,” said former roadie and production manager for The Police Charlie Hernandez in April 2011, taking a pen out of his pocket, “I can get this pen anywhere on Earth in 72 hours.” He was talking to Bill Clinton after an awards dinner for Clinton’s Global Initiative featuring Sting and Trudie Styler. “Wow,” Clinton answered in his Southern drawl, “Can I borrow your pen?” Reported by Forbes.com 14 hours ago.

When you go home for the holidays, spend less money, and more time on these fun family activities. From high-tech to highly unexpected, these affordable Christmas gift ideas will bring your family together.

Jacksonville, FL (PRWEB) November 30, 2013

Home for the Holidays? Christmas Gift Ideas for Family Activities:

The holiday season is about spending time with family. All too often, we become so consumed with Christmas gift ideas that we forget to make time for bonding. Family activities and Christmas gift ideas can go hand-in-hand with these unexpected family activities that also serve as fun family Christmas gifts.

If you are going or have someone coming home for the holidays, you'll want to make sure everyone will be entertained. Consider giving fun family Christmas gifts that can extend the Christmas family activities even after the festivities end. If you are struggling to decide upon Christmas present ideas, consider a few of these fun family Christmas gifts.

Ravensburger Puzzleball Earth Globe Puzzle:

The best Christmas present ideas also serve as family games ideas and educational tools. If your family wants more than sculpting animals, perhaps they would enjoy building the world itself. Puzzles from Ravensburger are meant to be challenging but fun. The 125 year old company creates a wide range of puzzles that can be considered as Christmas gift ideas including the World’s Largest Puzzle with over 32,000 pieces. Even more impressive are their 3D puzzles, such as the 540-piece Earth puzzle, which is perfect if you're lost on what to do for Christmas.

The 3D puzzle forms the shape of the earth and, once finished, operates as a fully-functional globe. Family gifts ideas like these can be enjoyed by everyone even after being completed. The pieces need no glue to retain the spherical shape. The design and curvature allows for a perfect fit, resulting in a smooth solid ball. The kit comes with a plastic base and metal rotation stand.

PlayDoh MegaPack:

The PlayDoh name is synonymous with arts and crafts. As Christmas present ideas, adults enjoy it for its nostalgic qualities while children love to mold it into their favorite animals. The brand of modeling clay is so recognizable Demeter Fragrances even released a scent of it. It's come a long way from once being used as wallpaper cleaner. When you're home for the holidays, be sure to pose this as one of the Christmas ideas for the family to relive your childhood.

The biggest collection of PlayDoh comes in the form of the PlayDoh MegaPack. The MegaPack features 36 bright colors with which you can create your own versatile sculptures. Each can contains three ounces of clay to spark limitless creativity and holiday fun with your little ones. If you've thought about what to do for Christmas, erase your plans for family Christmas ideas and play again.

Google Chromecast:

Other Christmas present ideas involve combining everyone's priorities. These days, family activities are harder to come by as everyone is usually busy with their smart phones and electronic gadgets. Now, thanks to Google Chromecast, family activities can be combined with the electronic toys you bring home for the holidays. Christmas ideas for the family can include fun family Christmas gifts that allow everyone to enjoy what they love.

Google's latest creation is a digital media player that allows you to stream audio and visual content through your TV via a wireless Internet connection. The device supports popular streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO GO, YouTube, Pandora and Google Play. It also has the ability to mirror content played on a computer through the Chrome browser. It works with Android, iOS, and Google Chrome for Mac and Windows to stream content from your smart phone, laptop or tablet.

Cards Against Humanity:

Once you have put the kids to bed, it's time for the grownups in the family to enjoy their own family activities. What better Christmas ideas for the family than politically incorrect card games to keep you in the holiday spirit? You may never be invited home for the holidays again. Cards Against Humanity is named after the phrase "crimes against humanity" due to its boastfully inappropriate content. While not exactly one of the traditional family games ideas, it is an adult version of family games ideas. The game was originally created as a means to add excitement to New Year's celebrations, but it can be played for any holiday or occasion.

The game involves filling in blanks and answering questions posed on black and white cards. Black cards pose questions and players turn in their white cards consisting of nouns or gerunds in order to answer them. The results can become raunchy, quickly, so as far as Christmas gift ideas go, it's not one of the typical family activities. Players can even make their own cards for free by downloading the template and turning it into one of their own family game ideas. The version you create can even be given again as future family gifts ideas.

Home for the Holidays:

When you're home for the holidays, you want to soak up as much time as you can. While Christmas present ideas should be given much effort, it is more valuable to consider Christmas family activities when deciding what to do for Christmas. Some of the best Christmas ideas for the family don't involve money at all.

Spend time instead with a variety of family games ideas. These games make fun family Christmas gifts as well as Christmas family activities. Christmas ideas for the family, Christmas gift ideas and Christmas family activities don't have to be expensive or boring. Incorporate family games ideas to spark bonding moments and lasting memories.

Top Internet Offers scours the web for the best deals on the most popular products. With so many options online, Top Internet Offers makes life simple for today's online shopper. Visit the website today to sign up to receive the best offers online directly to your mailbox. Top Internet Offers - "we bring the best deals to you." Reported by PRWeb 11 hours ago.

After the Trojan war, Odysseus sets off on his journey back to Ithaca. He survives encounters with the Lotus Eaters and Sirens only to face another challenge: the homecoming. What can Homer's epic poem tell us about how soldiers cope when conflicts end?

Last month, the 7th Armoured Brigade, the "Desert Rats", arrived at Camp Bastion in Helmand: the last major deployment to Afghanistan before the UK pulls out its combat troops at the end of next year. Britain's wars, for now, are coming to an end. But what does that ending mean for the soldiers coming home? David Finkel, author of Thank You for Your Service, a new account of the travails of the returning warrior, puts it brutally: it means coming "out of one war into another".

Homer's Iliad is the first and greatest poetic account of the first type of war. But it is the Odyssey that takes on the second kind: the war of the homecoming.

The Odyssey is a poem that we tend to remember as the hero's colourful, salt-caked adventures on the high seas: his encounters with witches, nymphs and cyclopes, his journey to the land of the dead, his shrewd and quick-tongued and fast-witted outsmarting of the terrors in his path as he strives for a decade to reach his home after the sack of Troy. He drags his crew bodily away from the island where the inhabitants gorge themselves on the memory-wiping, pleasure-giving lotus; he withstands the ruinous song of the Sirens, who long to lure him to his death, by having himself lashed to the mast by his crew, whose ears he has stopped with wax; he outwits the glamorous enchantress Circe, who turns his men into pigs; he steers his ship between the maneating, many–headed Scylla and the deadly whirlpool Charybdis. He is the original unlikely survivor, the man who always struggles free of the car crash and walks clear of the wreckage as the flames curl out: the latest iteration of the type, which runs through storytelling from archaic Greece to Hollywood, is Sandra Bullock's character in Alfonso Cuarón's blockbuster, Gravity.

But, as Aristotle put it in the Poetics, these are "episodes". The essence of the story is that of a veteran combatant who, after a long absence, must find his way back into a household he finds threatened by outside forces and dangerously altered.

He is at first unrecognisable to his wife (he has come back "a different person"– literally, in that he has disguised himself and assumed a false name, but military spouses will understand the metaphor of the warrior utterly changed by war). The necessary process of recognition and reintegration is accomplished, but only violently, painfully. And so the Odyssey speaks urgently to our times. It did, too, in the post-Vietnam era, when the psychologist Jonathan Shay, who worked with veterans of the conflict, used the epic in his book Odysseus in America as the overarching metaphor for the postcombat warrior's psychic traumas.

The Odyssey invites us to ask: can soldiers ever, truly, return home? Will they "recognise" their family, and vice versa? Can they survive not just the war itself, but the war's aftermath? Will they, in some dread way, bring the war home with them? The Odyssey says: you thought it was tough getting through the war. Now, see if you can get through the nostos – the homecoming.

The invisible, interior wounds of veterans have long been recognised. Ben Shepard, in his book A War of Nerves, has charted their diagnosis, from the "shell shock" of the first world war to the "nerve problems" of the second, through to the naming of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by American psychiatrists in the troubled aftermath of Vietnam. It is now estimated that 20%-30% of the two million US soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have come home with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury (TBI). "Depression, anxiety, nightmares, memory problems, personality changes, suicidal thoughts: every war has its after-war," Finkel writes, "and so it is with the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, which have created some 500,000 mentally wounded American veterans."

Sing to me, Muse, of that endlessly cunning man
who was blown off course to the ends of the earth, in the years
after he plundered Troy. He passed through the cities
of many people and learned how they thought, and he suffered
many bitter hardships upon the high seas
as he tried to save his own life and bring his companions
back to their home. But however bravely he struggled,
he could not rescue them, fools that they were – their own
recklessness brought disaster upon them all...

The first line of the Odyssey, here in Stephen Mitchell's newly published translation, lands on "man": in the original Greek it is "andra"– man – that is the very first word of the epic. The Odyssey is an intensely human story. It is Odysseus' intelligence and above all, his capacity to endure, that finally sees him reinstalled on his throne, reunited with his wife and son.

The poem is as full of twists and turns as the questing mind of its hero. Unlike the Iliad, which is a straightforwardly linear narrative, telling of the rage of Achilles and the killing of the Trojan prince Hector, the Odyssey is conveyed through flashbacks and narratives-within-narratives, and in a range of exotic, sometimes supernatural, locations. Along the poem's dizzying pathways we are constantly reminded of what this story might have been if Odysseus' intelligence and self-control had been a degree meaner.

In the first few books of the poem, there are frequent references to another homecoming from Troy – that of the Greeks' victorious commander-in-chief, Agamemnon. This story inserts itself again and again into the early passages of the Odyssey: how Agamemnon came back to his kingdom, and how his wife Clytemnestra's lover, Aegisthus, murdered him. And then how Orestes, Agamemnon's son, avenged his father by killing both his mother and her lover. The insistent intrusion of this story into the Odyssey fulfils twin roles. For Odysseus' son Telemachus, it acts as a prompt: can the young man, unschooled in war, become the kind of hero that Orestes was – the true son of his father? But it also works as a warning for all that might go wrong for Odysseus. It tells us this: unless you play things right, you'll be destroyed at home – even though you won the war.

Odysseus is no fool. He does not return to his kingdom ostentatiously, as Agamemnon did. Fittingly for the warrior who invented the Trojan horse, who is skilled in subterfuge and military intelligence, he sneaks in, disguised in rags. He goes not to his own palace, but to the cottage of Eumaeus, a swineherd. He does not reveal his identity, even to the loyal old man. Then, posing as a beggar, he slips into his house, at once spying on the suitors who swarm around Penelope, and testing his wife and household's loyalty.

Penelope is indeed strong and true: she has kept the suitors at bay for a decade. In Finkel's book there is a heartrending story of a war widow who, though she keeps her husband's ashes close, is at some level convinced he is alive and nearby, preparing to come back home, but biding his time; she waits patiently, loyally. It is a kind of inverse Penelope story; it reminds me of Zachary Mason's dazzling novel of Homeric what-ifs, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, which unwinds skeins of alternative narratives, releasing counterstories as if they were somehow already implicit in the epic (Odysseus returns to find his wife remarried, or dead; Achilles is a golem fashioned by Odysseus, and so on).

What happens next in the Odyssey is this. Penelope, under increasing pressure to choose a husband from among the suitors, sets them a challenge. Whoever can string the great bow of Odysseus, left behind for 20 years, and shoot an arrow through the 12 axe heads that Telemachus sets out, shall win her as his bride.

In turn, the suitors try the task, and fail. Odysseus, wrapped in filthy rags, the butt of the suitors' contempt, stands up to attempt the feat. Easily, he strings the bow and flies an arrow, swift and shrill as a swallow, through the axe heads. Then, without a beat, he takes another arrow and switches his aim to one of the suitors' ringleaders, Antinous, who is tilting a goblet to his lips. Odysseus gets him right through his exposed neck: in one side, out the other, and the blood fountains forth. Then the bloodbath begins – or rather, a battle, the war brought literally home. The remaining suitors get their hands on weapons. Odysseus, aided by Telemachus, engages them. The father and son are vastly outnumbered: but they have a god on their side. Athene, in human disguise, weighs in. Soon the great hall is a charnel house.

Afterwards, Telemachus orders the disloyal maids to clean up the bodies and the gore. Then he takes them outside and hangs them. They twitch helplessly in their death throes, like thrushes in a snare. Shay, in his Odysseus in America, reads the episode as a kind of fantasy or wish fulfilment: it is warrior's rage vented on the civilian who has stayed comfortably behind, an eye on his wife. In Finkel's book there is a veteran who, after an injury, has no sensation or movement on his left side. Out and about, he wears a specially printed T-shirt. On the front it reads: "What have you done for your country?". On the back: "I took a bullet in the head for mine"– a gesture of suppressed fury if ever there was one.

❦

In the Odyssey, people tell each other stories about the war. Penelope hears the bard Phemius singing about how the other Greek war leaders found their way home after the sack of Troy, but she can't bear it and asks him to stop: it is too cruel a song when her own man is still unaccounted for. When Telemachus, prompted by the goddess Athene, leaves Ithaca and goes in search of his father, he arrives at the court of Menelaus and Helen: Menelaus tells him the tale of Agamemnon's return, a story so grievous that all of the listeners, each remembering his own war losses, weeps. When Odysseus himself ends up in the land of the Phaeacians, his last adventure before he finally reaches his homeland, he conceals his true identity. Entertained at the royal court, he asks the blind bard, Demodocus, to sing of the exploits of the Greeks at Troy. He does so (in the late Robert Fagles' translation):

but great Odysseus melted into tears,
running down from his eyes to wet his cheeks…
as a woman weeps, her arms flung round her darling husband,
a man who fell in battle, fighting for town and townsmen,
trying to beat the day of doom from home and children.

Thus the great warrior's remembered pain is made equal to that of the war widow.

❦

Telling stories about the war is also one way of understanding the nature of Greek tragedy, the art form that matured in Athens some 200 years after the Homeric epics were written down. The earliest playwright whose works survive complete is Aeschylus. His trilogy, the Oresteia, first performed in 458BC, is an expansion of the story of Agamemnon's return, taking its cue from the Odyssey. Reading Homer, you see how the poet opens the door to the tragic form – over half of the poem's lines are in direct speech and the scenes that describe the performances by bards such as Demodocus and Phemius suggest that epics would have been performed to an audience, with music, as part of an evening's feasting and entertainment.

Like the Oresteia, many of the works of the tragedians are sequels or prequels to the stories of the Trojan war, tying up the epics' loose ends, spiralling out from their stories to go down narrative byways of their own making. Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, for instance, tells the story of how Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter to ensure a fair wind to set his fleet on course for Troy. His Trojan Women tells of the fate of Hecuba and Andromache, enslaved after the war by the victorious Greeks. In Sophocles' Ajax, the hero is enraged that the god-forged armour of (the now dead) Achilles is bequeathed to Odysseus, not to him. He vows to kill the Greek leaders – but is sent mad by Athene, and massacres livestock instead of men, before committing suicide.

It is no coincidence that this last drama has, over the past weeks, been staged in London, rewritten for our times as Our Ajax by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Suicide is now as threatening to soldiers as bombs and guns. Finkel's book includes an account of a meeting of the Suicide Senior Review Group, a regular gathering of top US army officers to examine the previous month's shattering litany of soldiers' self-shootings, hangings, overdoses and plunges from bridges. A report published this February by the Department of Veteran Affairs found that, in 2010, 22 US veterans killed themselves every day, while in the UK more soldiers and veterans killed themselves in 2012 than died in combat in Afghanistan.

The causes of war, the collateral damage of war, the ghastly aftermath of war, the devastating impact of war on the self: this is Greek tragedy's stock in trade. The first audiences of these plays were, too, steeped in war. In the 480s BC, Athens and Sparta came together to head a small, shaky alliance of Greek city-states and withstood an invasion by Persia – though not before Athens had been burned to the ground, twice. In the years following the victory, Athens pursued a policy of aggressive imperial expansion and overseas intervention, culminating in the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war with Sparta in 431, which lasted, on and off, until 404.

Athens' army consisted of its citizens. None was untouched by war. Even that most pacific of philosophers Socrates had served in the Athenian army and – we learn in Plato's Symposium – saved the life of Alcibiades at the battle of Potidaea in 432 BC. The City Dionysia, the festival at which the plays were performed, included a parade of the children whose fathers had been killed in combat. The playwrights themselves were militarily embroiled, in one way or another: Aeschylus fought at Salamis, the decisive naval battle of the Persian wars; his brother, according to Herodotus, was killed in it. Sophocles took high office as a general. Euripides, it was later claimed, was born on the day of the battle of Salamis itself, and his plays have been interpreted as responses to the fraught, bloodsoaked events of the war against Sparta: the civilian massacres, the grievous loss of men and morals.

Thus the tragedies provided a communitarian context for telling stories about conflict and its effects. According to Edith Hall, professor of classics at King's College London, this direct expertise gave Greek authors the ability to discuss "the cost of war in terms of the mental health of combatants" with a "frankness and sophistication from which we can learn a great deal in the third millennium". The tragedians, she argues, were experts in what we would now term PTSD.

Exhibit A in this argument is Euripides' extraordinary play Heracles Mainomenos – "Heracles Being Mad". Until about two thirds of the way through the drama, its narrative is rather conventional. Heracles' wife, children and mortal father Amphitryon (the man who brought him up, though the hero is the son of Zeus) live in fear for their lives; their enemy is a usurping tyrant, Lycus. Heracles has been absent, fighting and performing his 12 labours. Now he returns and, reunited with his loving family, prepares to save the day.

Except a goddess called Lyssa appears and causes Heracles to lose his mind. The hero turns on his wife and children, supposing them to be his foes. He uses his bow against his first child, then clubs the next to death. As his wife tries to save the third, he kills them both with a single arrow. The episode passes: Heracles becomes aware of what he has done, and is utterly broken.

Who is Lyssa? She is madness. Not a generic madness, for Greek authors punctiliously identified varieties of disordered minds. For example, the ecstatic mania sent by Dionysus is different from the hallucinations sent by the Erinyes, the Furies who torture Orestes after his matricide. Lyssa, according to Hall, is "personified combat-craziness": the madness of the berserking soldier. Lyssa can, Hall has written, "attack arbitrarily, force entry into the body even of a superhero, send him into a wild state with physical symptoms of derangement, terrify him, wreck his cognitive skills, and make him destroy the things he loves the most". Lyssa is animalesque: she might be dog-faced, or likened to a snake-haired Gorgon. Unleash the dogs of war, and you unleash Lyssa. When Heracles is sent mad by Lyssa, he becomes "Gorgon-eyed" and "like a bull"; he "shakes his wild-eyed Gorgon face".

Poet Anne Carson's translation of part of one of Heracles' last speeches (in her Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides) captures the link between the violence in his heroic life (the labours, the wars) and its dreadful eruption into the home:

All those labours,
what can I say? Those lions.
Those typhons.
Those giants.
Those centaurs.
Those wars.
Then the hydra with her hundred heads snapping.
And down to hell to get the threeheaded dog.
And now, absolutely last labour.
I kill my children.
I finish my house in evil.

There are uncanny and disturbing echoes of this kind of domestic fury in Finkel's book. One wife keeps a secret diary of her husband's outbreaks of rage, charting how a once polite and loving man descends into a screaming tyrant ("I'm going to break every knuckle of your consciousness") before she flees their home with her child. Of one veteran, he writes: "He has a young daughter who was in the family truck one day when he all of a sudden went haywire, punched the rearview mirror, shattered the windshield, grabbed [his wife] by the top of her head, shook her back and forth, and screamed, 'I'm gonna fucking kill you.'" Another man chokes his wife in his sleep; he wakes up and has no memory of the attack, but her neck is bruised and sore.

Long-enduring, ever-devising Odysseus manages to fulfil the last great quest, the last labour that defeats even Heracles: he is able to return safely home. Penelope is the key. She is his match: a woman of wiles, long-enduring, just like her husband. In a ruse worthy of Odysseus himself, she tricks her suitors: she will make a decision, she says, when she has finished weaving her father's shroud. Every day, she weaves. And every night, she unravels.

After the massacre of the suitors, Odysseus reveals his identity to Penelope. But she does not recognise him, yet – or feigns not to. Telemachus berates his mother – how can you be so hardhearted, when he's been away for 20 years? Odysseus smiles. Leave us alone together, he says.

Penelope orders the marital bed to be brought out on to the terrace. Odysseus is furious. Who could move my bed, he asks. Impossible: it is carved from a living olive tree. (A wonderful image: the marital bed that grows and lives, rooting down through the house.) Now, at last, Penelope can truly believe it's him: no one else on earth, aside from his old nurse Eurycleia, knew about that immovable olive-tree bed.

Joy, warm as the joy that shipwrecked sailors feel
when they catch sight of the land – Poseidon has struck
their well-rigged ship on the open sea with gale winds
and crushing walls of waves, and only a few escape, swimming,
struggling out of the frothing surf to reach the shore,
their bodies crusted with salt but buoyed up with joy
as they plant their feet on solid ground again,
spared a deadly fate. So joyous now to her
the sight of her husband, vivid in her gaze,
that her white arms, embracing his neck
would never for a moment let him go ...

So is Penelope's elation, in Fagles' translation, conjured. The poet likens her to a shipwreck survivor, just as her husband has really been, over and over again. When a tearful Odysseus was listening to Demodocus' stories of the Trojan war, his grief was compared to that of a war-widowed woman who flings her arms around her fallen husband. So are the experiences of these two, man and wife, intertwined, made the same by the poet. There is recognition of the importance of this – the equality of experience and of pain – among the long-enduring wives in Finkel's book. One in particular identifies the possibility of healing in her husband's coming to see that "he could tell her anything about the war, anything at all. That she wanted to hear it. That she could take it."

At the end of the poem, Odysseus and Penelope go to bed, they loosen their limbs in love, and tell each other stories about the war. Reported by guardian.co.uk 12 hours ago.

fish-reproduction010110.jpg

Consistent with a 2012 investigation of worldwide water temperatures, almost 90 percent of the overabundance hotness added to the Earth's atmosphere since the 1960s has gone straight into the seas.

Normal surface temperatures have climbed 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit, and expanded water temperatures were recorded even at profundities of
2,950 feet.

read more Reported by TopNews 10 hours ago.

Officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announce the selection of astronaut Takuya Onishi as flight engineer for an upcoming mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Onishi will fly into space for the first time around June 2016, as part of the Expedition 48/49 crew. Like all astronauts going to the station, he will be launched and returned to Earth aboard a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft that will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhs... Reported by Softpedia 10 hours ago.

Her recovery from a decade-long mental health crisis transformed Vironika Tugaleva into one of today's youngest and wisest spiritual teachers. In The Love Mindset, she reveals the surprising secrets to lasting love, peace of mind, and happiness.Coming out of a decade-long mental health crisis, Vironika Tugaleva's spiritual awakening transformed her into one of today's youngest and most down-to-earth spiritual teachers. She's a modern-day leader for a new generation of people who don't want fanciful fluff or indoctrinating dogma. Her new book The Love Mindset offers an unconventional and surprisingly simple look at how we can manifest lasting love, peace of mind, and enduring happiness.

Elephant Journal called it "a powerful book that will open the eyes and hearts of many, many people of all ages." Bestselling author Christina Rasmussen praised: "For anyone who's tired of feeling angry, depressed, or hurt, this book is a beacon of hope!" Mindful Creation's Reuben Lowe raved: "If I had two words to describe The Love Mindset, they would be: fresh and powerful. This is because when I read it, something grabbed hold of me like it was the first time I'd seen a book in 5 years!"

Vironika says: "The message in The Love Mindset is not one that has arisen out of some religious conditioning, nor out of a lifetime pursuit in some discipline. The pages of this book contain lessons about love from the fruit of my personal transformation that occurred after years of cynicism, self-loathing, and isolation."

Vironika is an author, speaker, former cynic, people lover, and a different kind of spiritual teacher. She is on a mission to help people around the world heal their minds and discover their inner strength. Vironika is available for interviews, commentary, and speaking. Read more about Vironika Tugaleva (www.vironika.org), The Love Mindset (www.thelovemindset.com), and download an Electronic Press Kit (www.vironika.org/presskit).

Company Contact Information
Vironika Tugaleva
William Reed
P.O. Box 98641
873 Jane St.
M6N 4C0
(647) 780-8386

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Planning your next holiday? www.kOala.com.au has just announced New Holiday Travel Deals, just in time for the Christmas and January break.Planning your next holiday? www.kOala.com.au has just announced New Holiday Travel Deals, just in time for the Christmas and January break.

Head to http://www.ikoala.com.au/holiday-s-escapes.html for a listing of all the new season Travel Deals. Whether it's the taste for adventure that drives you, a honeymoon break, the beach life or the desire to shop 'til you drop, we've got holiday ideas to get you excited and flight deals to get you there.

Here's just a few of our most popular Christmas Holiday ideas ... pack the swimmers!

Maldives Holiday: Return Flights plus 5 /7 /10 Nights, Breakfasts, Dinners, Transfers & More.

Voted The Best Luxury Romantic hotel in 2013, at the World Luxury Hotel Awards. The Royal Island Resort & Spa Maldives is truly heaven on Earth. It's 5 Star, like the scenery, the accommodation and the service!

You will get a choice of 5, 7 or 10 Nights accommodation, you will receive return flights from Sydney, Gold Coast or Perth, you will receive transfers via boat to your island paradise.

Breakfast and dinner is of course included as are access to the various sporting amenities.

From just $1925 per person, treat yourself to your dream holiday destination and go 5 Star all the way.

The Travel period is 21 April - 25 July 2014 ONLY, so consult your diary and lock it in! The Maldives await.

Holiday to Mexico for TWO: Endless Summer in All-Inclusive Cancun

Escape to one of the Cancun's most intimate and charming Hotels in the Mexican Caribbean, Beachscape Kin Ha Villas & Suites, located on the best beach in Cancun, Mexico.

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So head to beautiful sunny Mexico and live the life! From $770 for Two People!

USA: Lights, VEGAS, Action! Holiday to Las Vegas for TWO!

http://www.ikoala.com.au/usa-lights-vegas-action-holiday-to-las-vegas-for-two-deal4000035.html

Grab your closest pals and tell them you're all off to party like a VIP in the City of Sin! Vegas baby! Vegas!

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You will get 3, 4 or 5 Nights in a selection of top Vegas Hotels for TWO People!

You will receive unlimited VIP access to clubs of your choice, including well known clubs like Pure Nightclub or LAX Nightclub and party up with celebs!

You will get exclusive 2 for 1 offers, dining and drinks offers and special show offers.

So get a friend and head to VEGAS! From $375 for TWO PEOPLE for all this in 5 Star Luxury!

Cook Islands! Escape to Rarotonga for 7 Nights for Two People!

Today, ikOala brings you a 7 Night Holiday Escape for Two People
traveling to Rarotonga, Cook Islands!

Pay just $599 for Two People!

Deal Includes 7 Nights' Accommodation in Garden Unit, Airport
Transfers, Welcome Drinks and Fruit Basket on Arrival, FREE use of Snorkelling Gear and Reef Shoes, Free 30MB Internet Card, 10% Discount at the Polynesian Restaurant & Bar or the Garden Caf & Grill!

5 Star Tropical Langkawi Holiday, Breakfasts, Transfers, Connecting Flight

Langkawi Island! All-pervading serenity.

Nestled against a dramatic backdrop of mountains are ancient lakes, forests, waterfalls and beaches, all of which enhance the wonder that is Langkawi.

Blessed with a balmy climate that offers warm temperatures year round, it beckons visitors seeking escape from day to day life.

Today's travel discovery offers 4, 5 or 6 nights accommodation in Langkawi, with a selection of 5 Star hotels to choose.

You will receive a return flight from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi Island, PLUS Daily breakfast and Airport transfers (selected properties).

Paradise awaits so grab this deal while you can. From just $599 per person twin share.

IkOala regularly updates the holidays on offer, and will have a range of new Cruises, Indonesian and Thailand holiday offers coming soon.

Please contact support@ikoala.com.au for any media enquiries of further details on ikOala Travel Deals.

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ikOala.com.au Pty Ltd
ikOala Support
Address - PO Box 246 NSW, Australia 2057 Phone number - 1800456252 Email- support@ikoala.com.au
2057
1800456252

News and Press Release Distribution From I-Newswire.com Reported by i-Newswire.com 9 hours ago.