Researches have discovered that the Earth has a heartbeat. This just sounds neat! I wonder where exactly the heart is.

“In the early half of the 20th century, Serbian physicist Milutin Milankovitch first proposed that cyclical variations in the Earth-Sun geometry can alter the Earth’s climate and these changes can be discovered in the Earth’s geological archives, which is exactly what this research team, consisting of members from the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Canada, has done.”

Over at the BBC’s Green Room, there is a recent article by Menghestab Haile in which he argues that the best thing people can do for one another is essentially change the way we live. Climate change is destroying the way many poor people survive and the best gift we can give them is to try to stop more damage from happening, if not undoing the damage done.

So you can make a difference by fighting climate change and thereby giving a gift to the entire world.

“Ask Mohamed Abey, a pastoralist leader in the dusty roadside community of Skanska in north-eastern Kenya. The 47-year-old says he owned 400 livestock before the 2005 drought; now he has just 20.

He admits pastoralism is no longer sustainable. While he is grateful for the monthly package of food aid, he urges the world to do more so the 2,000 people in Skanska can get back on their own feet.”

A farmer in the states has successfully used an electric tractor for all his farming purposes. THe tractor was converted from a gas machine into an electric one that can run for 4 hours.

“If you are doing all electric, most people are very aware of the environment,” Wallace said. “Some just want to get off gas. There are so many different reasons for doing this. Some people are aware of the energy independence and don’t like buying foreign oil. Some like the clean air aspects. Some just want to be different.”

An historian has finally received the remaining FBI documents on John Lennon, that were kept secret for decades.  Jon Wiener obtained 10 pages detailing the intense scrutiny Lennon received from the FBI. 

One report describes how two prominent British leftists tried to persuade Lennon to finance “a left-wing bookshop and reading room in London”, but Lennon gave them no money.

Another page states that there was “no certain proof” that Lennon had provided money “for subversive purposes.”

Wiener told the L.A. Times, “Today, we can see that the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning.”

Wiener had originally asked for the documents in 1981, a year after Lennon was killed.  The FBI originally provided some files showing how closely monitored he was from 1971-1972.  The rest were not given, for reasons of national security.  In addition, the Freedom of Information Act was declared to not apply.

Wiener sued the U.S. government and received some of the documents in 1997. In 2004, a judge ordered the FBI to hand over the remaining 10 pages.

As I ring in the holidays with my family down in southern California, the warmth of my sunny Christmas tan is not all that has given me warm fuzzies today. I learned that this is also the greatest season of giving to great global causes by many individuals like you and me! So Christmas is not just a season of capitalism and extravagant frivolous spending after all. People all over North America are also giving back and giving more each year to good causes. 

Here are some factoids I found from here in the US……

• $260 billion: Charitable giving in the U.S. in 2005, up 2.7 percent.

• 50 percent: Of the charitable giving of individuals is done between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.

• 77 percent: Charitable giving in the U.S. by individuals, (or $199 billion).

So if you haven’t thought about it already, maybe this is a season where you too can give back in some way! Help spread a little love around the World!

Happy holidays everyone!!