August 21 will mark a rare event for North America: a total solar eclipse. This celestial event, billed as the “Great American Total Solar Eclipse,” will be visible from most of the continent. The longest period when the moon completely blocks the sun from any given location along the path will be about two minutes and 40 seconds. The last time the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979.

In 2003, Tibetan lama Phakyab Rinpoche was admitted to the emergency clinic of the Program for Survivors of Torture at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital. After a dramatic escape from imprisonment in China, at the hands of authorities bent on uprooting Tibet’s traditional religion and culture, his ordeal had left him with life-threatening injuries, including gangrene of the right ankle. American doctors gave Rinpoche a shocking choice: accept leg amputation or risk a slow, painful death. An inner voice, however, prompted him to try an unconventional cure: meditation.

When you’re the fifth largest economy in the world, throwing your weight around can make a big difference. As reported in The New York Times, “California is emerging as the nation’s de facto negotiator with the world on the environment. The state is pushing back on everything from White House efforts to roll back pollution rules on tailpipes and smokestacks, to plans to withdraw or weaken the United States’ commitments under the Paris climate change accord.” Trump, who has called global warming a hoax, has been leaning towards exiting from the Paris agreement, and recently signed away plenty of Obama-era climate change prevention measures. Even scarier is the anti-science, climate change denying stance of the current administration, and the fact that EPA data is disappearing.

The Cosmic Hologram – Information at the Center of Creation is that rare creature, in that it is a wonderful addition to the fields of science, consciousness, and spirituality. With her thoughtful and elegantly written prose, Jude Currivan has done a remarkable job of illuminating the most cutting edge research in physics and our understanding of the nature of reality. Her thesis, that information is at the center of creation and more fundamental than matter, energy, space or time, is rendered in easy to understand terms and backed up by the data she presents.

Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore has a new routine: instead of using more traditional methods disciplining students, it’s assigning them meditation. It’s part of a growing trend among educators, advocates for prison reform, and staff at crisis centers teaching kids mindfulness and meditation techniques. The Maryland school joins the a list that includes Minnesota, California, New York, other states and the United Kingdom.