If I Had a Pony: "Charlie the Unicorn" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly (post "Burning Man" post)

"Shun the nonbeliever" on the way to kidney-free Candy Mountain with Charlie and friends.

• Radical Truth: Knowledge and Revolution
  
• 5 Types of Men Women Want
• A Mournful Mix of Happiness and Math
• Post-Vacation Afterglow Fades Fast
• The new women of social media sites
• Be a college professor, brainiac
• Sacred Mysteries (longevity alchemy)

Burning Man from Space

Burning Man from 373 miles above Earth: A European space satellite took photos of the 2011 Burning Man [Labor Day week] festival in the Nevada desert.

(CSM) Burning Man is a weeklong art and self-expression festival that meets every year around Labor Day. This year, it runs from Aug. 29 to Sept. 5. Attendance was capped at 50,000, and the event sold out in July. This year marks the 25th anniversary... The event began modestly in 1986, when a handful of friends torched an 8-foot (2.4-m) wooden man on a San Francisco beach. More

• Few know that Russia has a similar absolute freedom hippie festival called the Empty Hills (Pustye Kholmy) festival.

(englishrussia.com)

"The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth" (book)

In a smart, entertaining, reassuring book that reads like fiction, New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Robbins manages to cross Gossip Girl with Freaks and Geeks and explain the fascinating psychology and science behind popularity and outcasthood.

Robbins reveals that the things that set students apart in high school are the things that help them stand out later in life. Robbins follows seven real people grappling with the uncertainties of high school social life, including:

• The Loner, who has withdrawn from classmates since they persuaded her to unwittingly join her own hate club;
• The Popular Bitch, a cheerleading captain both seduced by and trapped within her clique's perceived prestige;
• The Nerd, whose differences cause students to laugh at him and his mother to needle him for not being "normal";
• The New Girl, determined to stay positive as classmates harass her for her mannerisms and target her because of her race;
• The Gamer, an underachiever in danger of not graduating, despite his intellect and his yearning to connect with other students;
• The Weird Girl, who battles discrimination and gossipy politics in school but leads a joyous life outside of it;
• The Band Geek, who is alternately branded too serious and too emo, yet annually runs for class president.

In the middle of the year, Robbins surprises her subjects with a secret challenge -- experiments that force them to change how classmates see them.

Robbins intertwines these narratives -- often triumphant, occasionally heartbreaking, and always captivating -- with essays exploring subjects like the secrets of popularity, being excluded doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you, why outsiders succeed, how schools make the social scene worse -- and how to fix it.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth is not just essential reading for students, teachers, parents, and anyone who deals with teenagers, but for all of us, because at some point in our lives we've all been on the outside looking in. More

• Coast to Coast: The Psychology of Highschool
• Egyptian pyramids found by infra-red satellite images

• • • Inspiring Story of Woman Who Had Her Brain Completely Erased at Age 22

• • • • The Strangest Numbers in String Theory

Yoga of Non-Injury will set you free

Ahimsa: The Yoga of Non-Injury will set you free

"If there is one yoga practice that leads to Self-Realization, it is non-injury or ahimsa." -Yoga Master Swami Satchidananda. Imagine, as John Lennon said, what a world it would be if there were no wars and no suffering. How cool it would be if we could set just one day aside each year when we all stop causing pain and focus on harmlessness. A day when peace is more important than all our differences.

On the Death of Osama bin Laden
Barbara O'Brien (About.com Guide May 2, 2011)

After I learned of the death of Osama bin Laden this morning I took inventory of my emotions. I was in lower Manhattan during the September 11 attacks, so I suppose I have as much reason as anyone to feel something about the death of the man thought to be most responsible.But I just felt sad, for all the deaths, all the suffering, caused by anger and ignorance. I briefly flipped on the television and saw a crowd of jubilant people chanting USA! USA! This depressed me even more; I turned the television off. In coming, nothing is gained; in going, nothing is lost. Those are words I have heard at Zen memorial services...

• France to mull faster exit from Afghanistan
• Compassion: Leading Osama to the Light
  
• Osama resisted? What does "resistance" mean?
• No release of bin Laden photos - Bin Laden's wife
• A celebrity with Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
• More military torture? Interrogation tactics debated
• Spyware claim hits rental chain - Computer security tips - Sony breach accusation - FBI's video virus warning
• Bin Laden death prompts questions about legality
• Despite economic growth, India lets its girls die

The Golden Buddha in the mountains of India
Anoop Negi (Flicker.com)

It rained half an hour ago. A slight drizzle left the flag stones wet. Huge ponderous clouds hung over the hilltown of Tawang. The yellow roofed monastery sat on top of a hillock at 3,400 meters. It can accommodate 500 monks. They are Gelugpa sect, the gentler Monpa tribe. Two monks were on duty and there were no tourists in sight. The lamasery courtyard slopes with a library on the west, a museum on the south, and the sanctum sanctotum facing north. The east side the valley drops down. Over the small yellow roofs of the monks' quarters flush with the sloping hill side, the Tawang valley is laid out.