The Beatles' song Across the Universe pays thanks to Guru Dev who taught Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who, in turn, taught millions of followers including, for a while, the Beatles.
The Maharishi died last Tuesday, 5th February, aged 91 in Vlodrop, The Netherlands. Last year he "prepared for death by retiring to concentrate on silence and study the texts which had first inspired his teaching."
By coincidence, or serendipity, I hadn't used the following story from last month; perhaps I was waiting for an opportune time to use it. That's cosmic, man.
On midnight of Monday, 21st January, the National Aeronatical Space Agency (NASA) started to beam a song towards the North Star, 431 light years from Earth.
However, fears have been voiced that malevolent aliens will tune into the broadcast and the transmission raises questions about what we would want aliens to learn about our world.
Douglas Vakoch of the Seti (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) Institute, Mountain View, California, says, "Before sending out even symbolic messages, we need an open discussion about the potential risks."
The song was, of course, Across The Universe, drawing congratulations from former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who mused that it marked "the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe."
This all leads to the flippant thought that there might be more appropriate songs: Fly Me To The Moon might be too parochial, so suggestions would be welcome. What might be more interesting is to consider the most inappropriate songs or groups.
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Bill Guerin R.I.P.
From Asia Times OnlineBill Guerin passed away the weekend of 2/3 February in Jakarta. Bill, a correspondent for ATonline since its early days in 2000, had lived in Indonesia for 20 years and specialized in Indonesian political, business and economic analysis. He was an easy-going gentleman, though he liked to call himself a "dour old Scot".
Bill spoke fluent Bahasa Indonesia, and hosted a television political talk show, Face to Face, broadcast on two Indonesia-based satellite channels. He was also an accredited journalist to correspondent.com and his editorials on global issues were distributed by GlobalVision News. His dedication to Asia Times Online, though, never wavered over the years and he could always be relied on to produce copy on time, invariably accompanied with a cheery note.
He was a good friend to Jakartass, mainly online, and gave me great encouragement in the early days of my 'writing career'. All who knew him feel sad at his passing and our thoughts go to his family.
