War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterised by extreme aggression, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. An absence of war is usually called "peace". Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that isn't restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or additional non-combatant casualties.

While a few scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural or ecological circumstances.

The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths after its start, is the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, with 60–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests which was greater than 41 million. As concerns a belligerent's losses in proportion to its prewar population, the most destructive war in modern history might have been the War of the Triple Alliance (see Paraguayan War casualties). In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths, down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. In 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine, large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. For instance, of the nine million people who were on the territory of Soviet Belarus in 1941, a few 1.6 million were killed by the Germans in actions away from battlefields, including about 700,000 prisoners of war, 500,000 Jews, and 320,000 people counted as partisans (the vast majority of whom were unarmed civilians). An Additional byproduct of a few wars is the prevalence of propaganda by a few or all parties in the conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers.

The English word war derives from the late Old English (circa.1050) words wyrre and werre, from Old French werre (also guerre as in modern French), in turn from the Frankish *werra, ultimately deriving from the Proto-Germanic *werzō 'mixture, confusion'. The word is related to the Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, and the German verwirren, meaning “to confuse”, “to perplex”, and “to bring into confusion”. In German, the equivalent is Krieg (from Proto-Germanic *krīganą 'to strive, be stubborn'); the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian term for "war" is guerra, derived like the Old French term from the Germanic word. Etymologic legend has it that the Romanic peoples adopted a foreign, Germanic word for "war", to avoid using the Latin bellum, because, when sounded, it tended to merge with the sound of the word bello ("beautiful").

The scholarly study of war is at times called polemology (American English: /ˌpɑːləˈmɑːləi/ pah-lə-MAHL-ə-jee), from the Greek polemos, meaning "war", and -logy, meaning "the study of".

War must entail a few degree of confrontation using weapons and additional military technology and equipment by armed forces employing military tactics and operational art within a broad military strategy subject to military logistics. Studies of war by military theorists throughout military history have sought to identify the philosophy of war, and to reduce it to a military science. Modern military science considers several factors before a national defence policy is created to allow a war to commence: the environment in the area(s) of combat operations, the posture national forces will adopt on the commencement of a war, and the type of warfare troops will be engaged in.

  • Chemical warfare involves the use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas as a chemical weapon was principally used throughout World War I, and resulted in over a million estimated casualties, including more than 100,000 civilians.

The percentages of men killed in war in eight tribal societies, and Europe and the U.S. in the twentieth century. (Lawrence H. Keeley, Archeologist)

The earliest recorded evidence of war belongs to the Mesolithic cemetery Site 117, which has been determined to be approximately 14,000 years old. About 45 percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death. Since the rise of the state a few 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late twentieth century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20).". An unfavourable review of this estimate mentions the following regarding one of the proponents of this estimate: «In addition, perhaps feeling that the war casualties figure was improbably high, he changed "approximately 3,640,000,000 human beings have been killed by war or the diseases produced by war" to "approximately 1,240,000,000 human beings...&c.".» The lower figure is more plausible. In pre-civilization times, warfare is estimated to have accounted for 15.1 % of deaths and claimed 400 million victims. Added to the previous figure of 1,240 million this would mean a total of 1,640,000,000 people killed by war (including deaths from famine and disease caused by war) throughout the history and pre-history of mankind. For comparison, an estimated 1,680,000,000 people died from infectious diseases in the twentieth Century. Nuclear warfare breaking out in August 1988, when nuclear arsenals were at peak level, and the aftermath thereof, could have reduced human population from 5,150,000,000 by 1,850,000,000 to 3,300,000,000 within a period of about one year, according to a projection that doesn't consider "the most severe predictions concerning nuclear winter". This would have been a proportional reduction of the world’s population exceeding the reduction caused in the fourteenth Century by the Black Death, and comparable in proportional terms with the plague’s impact on Europe's population in 1346-53.

In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, says approximately 90–95% of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare, and a large number of fought constantly.

Keeley describes several styles of primitive combat such as small raids, large raids, and massacres. All of these forms of warfare were used by primitive societies, a finding supported by additional researchers. Keeley explains that early war raids weren't well organized, as the participants didn't have any formal training. Scarcity of resources meant defensive works weren't a cost effective way to protect the society against enemy raids.

Japanese samurai attacking a Mongol ship, thirteenth century

In Western Europe, after the late eighteenth century, more than 150 conflicts and about 600 battles have taken place. During the twentieth century, war resulted in a dramatic intensification of the pace of social changes, and was a crucial catalyst for the emergence of the Left as a force to be reckoned with.

Recent rapid increases in the technologies of war, and therefore in its destructiveness (see mutual assured destruction), have caused widespread public concern, and have in all probability forestalled, and might altogether prevent the outbreak of a nuclear World War III. At the end of each of the last two World Wars, concerted and popular efforts were made to come to a greater understanding of the underlying dynamics of war and to thereby hopefully reduce or even eliminate it altogether. These efforts materialised in the forms of the League of Nations, and its successor, the United Nations.

Shortly after World War II, as a token of support for this concept, most nations joined the United Nations. During this same post-war period, with the aim of further delegitimizing war as an acceptable and logical extension of foreign policy, most national governments additionally renamed their Ministries or Departments of War as their Ministries or Departments of Defense, for example, the former U.S. Department of War was renamed as the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1894), the Indian Wars of the nineteenth century cost the lives of about 50,000.

Mao Zedong urged the socialist camp not to fear nuclear war with the United States since, even if "half of mankind died, the additional half would remain while imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist."

The Human Security Report 2005 documented a significant decline in the number and severity of armed conflicts after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. Notwithstanding the evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management's "Peace and Conflict" study indicated the overall decline in conflicts had stalled.

Largest by death toll

Three of the ten most costly wars, in terms of loss of life, have been waged in the last century. These are the two World Wars, followed by the Second Sino-Japanese War (which is at times considered part of World War II, or as overlapping). Most of the others involved China or neighbouring peoples. The death toll of World War II, being over 60 million, surpasses all additional war-death-tolls.

60.7–84.61939–1945World War II (see World War II casualties)
6013th centuryMongol Conquests (see Mongol invasions and Tatar invasions)
401850–1864Taiping Rebellion (see Dungan revolt)
391914–1918World War I (see World War I casualties)
36755–763An Shi Rebellion (death toll uncertain)
251616–1662Qing dynasty conquest of Ming dynasty
201937–1945Second Sino-Japanese War
201370–1405Conquests of Tamerlane
161862–1877Dungan revolt
5–91917–1922Russian Civil War and Foreign Intervention

Disability-adjusted life year for war per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004
  no data
  less than 100
  more than 8800

On military personnel

In every war in which American soldiers have fought in, the chances of fitting a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for a few period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire.

— No More Heroes, Richard Gabriel

During World War II, research conducted by US Army Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall found, on average, fifteen percent to twenty percent of American riflemen in WWII combat fired at the enemy. In Civil War Collector’s Encyclopedia, F.A. Lord notes that of the 27,574 discarded muskets found on the Gettysburg battlefield, nearly ninety percent were loaded, with 12,000 loaded more than once and 6,000 loaded 3 to 10 times. These studies suggest most military personnel resist firing their weapons in combat, that – as a few theorists argue – human beings have an inherent resistance to killing their fellow human beings. Swank and Marchand’s WWII study found that after sixty days of continuous combat, 98 percent of all surviving military personnel will become psychiatric casualties. Psychiatric casualties manifest themselves in fatigue cases, confusional states, conversion hysteria, anxiety, obsessional and compulsive states, and character disorders.

One-tenth of mobilised American men were hospitalised for mental disturbances between 1942 and 1945, and after 35 days of uninterrupted combat, 98 percent of them manifested psychiatric disturbances in varying degrees.

The Apotheosis of War (1871) by Vasily Vereshchagin

Additionally, it has been estimated anywhere from eighteen percent to 54 percent of Vietnam war veterans suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Based on 1860 census figures, eight percent of all white American males aged 13 to 43 died in the American Civil War, including about six percent in the North and approximately eighteen percent in the South. The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 military personnel. United States military casualties of war after 1775 have totaled over two million. Of the 60 million European military personnel who were mobilised in World War I, 8 million were killed, 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million were seriously injured.

During Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, more French military personnel died of typhus than were killed by the Russians. Of the 450,000 soldiers who crossed the Neman on 25 June 1812, less than 40,000 returned. More military personnel were killed from 1500–1914 by typhus than from military action. In addition, if it weren't for modern medical advances there would be thousands more dead from disease and infection. For instance, throughout the Seven Years' War, the Royal Navy reported it conscripted 184,899 sailors, of whom 133,708 died of disease or were 'missing'.

On civilians

Les Grandes Misères de la guerre depict the destruction unleashed on civilians throughout the Thirty Years' War.

Most wars have resulted in significant loss of life, along with destruction of infrastructure and resources (which might lead to famine, disease, and death in the civilian population). During the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the population of the Holy Roman Empire was reduced by 15 to 40 percent. Civilians in war zones might additionally be subject to war atrocities such as genocide, while survivors might suffer the psychological aftereffects of witnessing the destruction of war.

Most estimates of World War II casualties indicate around 60 million people died, 40 million of which were civilians. Deaths in the Soviet Union were around 27 million. Since a high proportion of those killed were young men who hadn't yet fathered any children, population growth in the postwar Soviet Union was much lower than it otherwise would have been.

On the economy

Once a war has ended, losing nations are at times required to pay war reparations to the victorious nations. In certain cases, land is ceded to the victorious nations. For example, the territory of Alsace-Lorraine has been traded between France and Germany on three different occasions.

Typically, war becomes intertwined with the economy and a large number of wars are partially or entirely based on economic reasons. Some economists believe war can stimulate a country's economy (high government spending for World War II is often credited with bringing the USA out of the Great Depression by most Keynesian economists) but in a large number of cases, such as the wars of Louis XIV, the Franco-Prussian War, and World War I, warfare primarily results in damage the economy of the countries involved. For example, Russia's involvement in World War I took such a toll on the Russian economy that it almost collapsed and greatly contributed to the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

World War II

Ruins of Warsaw's Napoleon Square in the aftermath of World War II.

World War II was the most financially costly conflict in history: its belligerents cumulatively spent about a trillion U.S. dollars on the war effort (as adjusted to 1940 prices). The Great Depression of the 1930s ended as nations increased their production of war materials.

By the end of the war, seventy percent of European industrial infrastructure was destroyed. Property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated at a value of 679 billion rubles. The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 40,000 mi (64,374 km) of railroad, 4100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries.

On the arts

War leads to forced migration causing potentially large displacements of population. Among forced migrants there are usually relatively large shares of artists and additional types of creative people, causing so the war effects to be particularly harmful for the country’s creative potential in the long-run. War additionally has a negative effect on an artists’ individual life-cycle output.

In war, cultural institutions, such as libraries, can become "targets in themselves; their elimination was a way to denigrate and demoralise the enemy population." The impact such destruction can have on a society is important because "in an era in which competing ideologies fuel internal and international conflict, the destruction of libraries and additional items of cultural significance is neither random nor irrelevant. Preserving the world’s repositories of knowledge is crucial to ensuring that the darkest moments of history don't endlessly repeat themselves."

Entities deliberately contemplating going to war and entities considering whether to end a war might formulate war aims as an evaluation/propaganda tool. War aims might stand as a proxy for national-military resolve.

Fried defines war aims as "the desired territorial, economic, military or additional benefits expected following successful conclusion of a war".

Tangible/intangible aims:

  • Tangible war aims might involve (for example) the acquisition of territory (as in the German goal of Lebensraum in the first half of the twentieth century) or the recognition of economic concessions (as in the Anglo-Dutch Wars).
  • Intangible war aims - like the accumulation of credibility or reputation - might have more tangible expression ("conquest restores prestige, annexation increases power").

Explicit/implicit aims:

  • Explicit war aims might involve published policy decisions.
  • Implicit war aims can take the form of minutes of discussion, memoranda and instructions.

Positive/negative aims:

  • "Positive war aims" cover tangible outcomes.
  • "Negative war aims" forestall or prevent undesired outcomes.

War aims can change in the course of conflict and might eventually morph into "peace conditions" - the minimal conditions under which a state might cease to wage a particular war.

Ongoing conflicts

Limiting and stopping

Anti-war movements have existed for every major war in the twentieth century, including, most prominently, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. In the twenty-first century, worldwide anti-war movements occurred in response to the United States invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Protests opposing the War in Afghanistan occurred in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Organizations like Stop the War Coalition, based in the United Kingdom, worked on campaigning against the war.

The Mexican Drug War, with estimated casualties of 40,000 after December 2006, has recently faced fundamental opposition. In 2011, the movement for peace and justice has started a popular middle-class movement against the war. It won the recognition of President Calderon, who began war.

Theories for motivation

The Ottoman campaign for territorial expansion in Europe in 1566.

There is no scholarly agreement on which are the most common motivations for war. Carl von Clausewitz said, 'Every age had its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its own peculiar preconceptions.'

Psychoanalytic psychology

Dutch psychoanalyst Joost Meerloo held that, "War is often...a mass discharge of accumulated internal rage (where)...the inner fears of mankind are discharged in mass destruction." Thus war can at times be a means by which man's own frustration at his inability to master his own self is expressed and temporarily relieved via his unleashing of destructive behaviour upon others. In this destructive scenario, these others are made to serve as the scapegoat of unspoken and subconscious frustrations and fears.

Other psychoanalysts such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued human beings are inherently violent. This aggressiveness is fueled by displacement and projection where a person transfers their grievances into bias and hatred against additional races, religions, nations or ideologies. By this theory, the nation state preserves order in the local society while creating an outlet for aggression through warfare.

The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari, a follower of Melanie Klein, thought war was the paranoid or projective “elaboration” of mourning. Fornari thought war and violence develop out of our “love need”: our wish to preserve and defend the sacred object to which we're attached, namely our early mother and our fusion with her. For the adult, nations are the sacred objects that generate warfare. Fornari focused upon sacrifice as the essence of war: the astonishing willingness of human beings to die for their country, to give over their bodies to their nation.

— Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg trials, April 18, 1946

Several theories concern the evolutionary origins of warfare. There are two main schools: One sees organised warfare as emerging in or after the Mesolithic as a result of complex social organisation and greater population density and competition over resources; the additional sees human warfare as a more ancient practise derived from common animal tendencies, such as territoriality and sexual competition.

The latter school argues that after warlike behaviour patterns are found in a large number of primate species such as chimpanzees, as well as in a large number of ant species, group conflict might be a general feature of animal social behavior. Some proponents of the idea argue that war, while innate, has been intensified greatly by developments of technology and social organisation such as weaponry and states.

Psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker argued that war-related behaviours might have been naturally selected in the ancestral environment due to the benefits of victory. He additionally argued that in order to have credible deterrence against additional groups (as well as on an individual level), it was important to have a reputation for retaliation, causing humans to develop instincts for revenge as well as for protecting a group's (or an individual's) reputation ("honor").

Increasing population and constant warfare among the Maya city-states over resources might have contributed to the eventual collapse of the Maya civilization by AD 900.

Crofoot and Wrangham have argued that warfare, if defined as group interactions in which "coalitions attempt to aggressively dominate or kill members of additional groups", is a characteristic of most human societies. Those in which it has been lacking "tend to be societies that were politically dominated by their neighbors".

Ashley Montagu strongly denied universalistic instinctual arguments, arguing that social factors and childhood socialisation are important in determining the nature and presence of warfare. Thus, he argues, warfare isn't a universal human occurrence and appears to have been a historical invention, associated with certain types of human societies. Montagu's argument is supported by ethnographic research conducted in societies where the concept of aggression seems to be entirely absent, e.g. the Chewong and Semai of the Malay peninsula. Bobbi S. Low has observed correlation between warfare and education, noting societies where warfare is commonplace encourage their children to be more aggressive.

Kuwaiti oil wells on fire, throughout the Gulf War, 1 March 1991

War can be seen as a growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. In this view wars begin as a pursuit of markets for natural resources and for wealth. War has additionally been linked to economic development by economic historians and development economists studying state-building and fiscal capacity. While this theory has been applied to a large number of conflicts, such counter arguments become less valid as the increasing mobility of capital and information level the distributions of wealth worldwide, or when considering that it is relative, not absolute, wealth differences that might fuel wars. There are those on the extreme right of the political spectrum who provide support, fascists in particular, by asserting a natural right of a strong nation to whatever the weak can't hold by force. Some centrist, capitalist, world leaders, including Presidents of the United States and U.S. Generals, expressed support for an economic view of war.

The Marxist theory of war is quasi-economic in that it states all modern wars are caused by competition for resources and markets between great (imperialist) powers, claiming these wars are a natural result of the free market and class system. Part of the theory is that war will disappear once a world revolution, over-throwing free markets and class systems, has occurred. Marxist philosopher Rosa Luxemburg theorised that imperialism was the result of capitalist countries needing new markets. Expansion of the means of production is only possible if there's a corresponding growth in consumer demand. Since the workers in a capitalist economy would be unable to fill the demand, producers must expand into non-capitalist markets to find consumers for their goods, hence driving imperialism.

This is one of the earliest expressions of what has come to be called the Malthusian theory of war, in which wars are caused by expanding populations and limited resources. Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) wrote that populations always increase until they're limited by war, disease, or famine.

Youth bulge

According to Heinsohn, who proposed youth bulge theory in its most generalised form, a youth bulge occurs when 30 to 40 percent of the males of a nation belong to the "fighting age" cohorts from 15 to 29 years of age. It will follow periods with total fertility rates as high as 4–8 children per woman with a 15–29-year delay.

Heinsohn saw both past "Christianist" European colonialism and imperialism, as wellas today's Islamist civil unrest and terrorism as results of high birth rates producing youth bulges. Among prominent historical events that have been attributed to youth bulges are the role played by the historically large youth cohorts in the rebellion and revolution waves of early modern Europe, including the French Revolution of 1789, and the effect of economic depression upon the largest German youth cohorts ever in explaining the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s. The 1994 Rwandan Genocide has additionally been analysed as following a massive youth bulge.

Youth bulge theory has been subjected to statistical analysis by the World Bank, Population Action International, and the Berlin Institute for Population and Development. Youth bulge theories have been criticised as leading to racial, gender and age discrimination.

Rationalism is an international relations theory or framework. Rationalism (and Neorealism (international relations)) operate under the assumption that states or international actors are rational, seek the best possible outcomes for themselves, and desire to avoid the costs of war. Under a Game theory approach, rationalist theories posit all actors can bargain, would be better off if war didn't occur, and likewise seek to understand why war nonetheless reoccurs. In "Rationalist Explanations for War", James Fearon examined three rationalist explanations for why a few countries engage in war:

  1. Issue Indivisibilities
  2. Incentives to Misrepresent or Information Asymmetry
  3. Commitment Problems

"Issue indivisibility" occurs when the two parties can't avoid war by bargaining, because the thing over which they're fighting can't be shared between them, but only owned entirely by one side or the other.

"Information asymmetry with incentives to misrepresent" occurs when two countries have secrets about their individual capabilities, and don't agree on either: who would win a war between them, or the magnitude of state's victory or loss. For instance, Geoffrey Blainey argues that war is a result of miscalculation of strength. He cites historical examples of war and demonstrates, "war is usually the outcome of a diplomatic crisis which can't be solved because both sides have conflicting estimates of their bargaining power." Thirdly, bargaining might fail due to the states' inability to make credible commitments.

Within the rationalist tradition, a few theorists have suggested individuals engaged in war suffer a normal level of cognitive bias, but are still "as rational as you and me". According to philosopher Iain King, "Most instigators of conflict overrate their chances of success, while most participants underrate their chances of injury...." King asserts that "Most catastrophic military decisions are rooted in GroupThink" which is faulty, but still rational.

The rationalist theory focused around bargaining is currently under debate. The Iraq War proved to be an anomaly that undercuts the validity of applying rationalist theory to a few wars.

Political science

System-level theories

There are several different international relations theory schools. Supporters of realism in international relations argue that the motivation of states is the quest for security, and conflicts can arise from the inability to distinguish defence from offense, which is called the security dilemma.:145

  1. Balance of power theory: States have the goal of preventing a single state from fitting a hegemon, and war is the result of the would-be hegemon's persistent attempts at power acquisition. In this view, an international system with more equal distribution of power is more stable, and "movements toward unipolarity are destabilizing.":147 Notwithstanding evidence has shown power polarity isn't actually a major factor in the occurrence of wars.:147–148
  2. Power transition theory: Hegemons impose stabilising conditions on the world order, but they eventually decline, and war occurs when a declining hegemon is challenged by another rising power or aims to preemptively suppress them.:148 On this view, unlike for balance-of-power theory, wars become more probable when power is more equally distributed. This "power preponderance" hypothesis has empirical support.:148

The two theories aren't mutually exclusive, and might be used to explain disparate events according to the circumstance.:148

Liberalism at it relates to international relations emphasises factors such as trade, and its role in disincentivizing conflict which will damage economic relations. Realists respond that military force might at times be at least as effective as trade at achieving economic benefits, especially historically if not as much today.:149 Furthermore, trade relations which result in a high level of dependency, might escalate tensions and lead to conflict.:150 Empirical data on the relationship of trade to peace are mixed, and moreover, a few evidence suggests countries at war don't necessarily trade less with each other.:150

Societal-level theories

  • Diversionary theory, additionally known as the "scapegoat hypothesis", suggests the politically powerful might use war to as a diversion or to rally domestic popular support.:152 This is supported by literature showing outgroup hostility enhances ingroup bonding, and a significant domestic "rally effect" has been demonstrated when conflicts begin.:152–153 Notwithstanding studies examining the increased use of force as a function of need for internal political support are more mixed.:152–153 U.S. war-time presidential popularity surveys taken throughout the presidencies of several recent U.S. leaders have supported diversionary theory.

Individual-level theories

These theories suggest differences in people's personalities, decision-making, emotions, belief systems, and biases are important in determining whether conflicts get out of hand.:157 For instance, it has been proposed that conflict is modulated by bounded rationality and various cognitive biases,:157 such as prospect theory.

The two principle aspects of ethics in war, according the Just War Theory are jus ad bellum and Jus in bello.

Jus in bello (right in war), is the set of ethical rules when conducting war. The two main principles are proportionality and discrimination. Proportionality regards how much force is necessary and morally appropriate to the ends being sought and the injustice suffered. The principle of discrimination determines who're the legitimate targets in a war, and specifically makes a separation between combatants, who it is permissible to kill, and who it is not. Failure to follow these rules can result in the loss of legitimacy for the just-war-belligerent.

Fascism, and the ideals it encompasses, such as Pragmatism, racism, and social Darwinism, hold that violence is good. Pragmatism holds that war and violence can be good if it serves the ends of the people, without regard for universal morality. Racism holds that violence is good so that a master race can be established, or to purge an inferior race from the earth, or both. Social Darwinism asserts that violence is at times necessary to weed the unfit from society so civilization can flourish. These are broad archetypes for the general position that the ends justify the means. Lewis Coser, U.S. conflict theorist and sociologist, argued conflict provides a function and a process whereby a succession of new equilibriums are created. Thus, the struggle of opposing forces, rather than being disruptive, might be a means of balancing and maintaining a social structure or society.

General reference
War-related lists


The fall and rise of borders

This article was originally published on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda blog. Shared with their permission.

The world is becoming more global. More than ever people are proactively deciding where to live, where to study, where to work. Sometimes it’s out of necessity, sometimes it’s out of choice. But the opening up of the world thanks to technology and other factors like simpler regulation means we don’t need to stay within the borders of the country we were born in. It’s even possible to be an e-Resident of a country.

Being a ‘global citizen’ is not something reserved for the global elite any more. Thanks to the democratising power of technology, it’s not a trend determined by privilege or even age but by attitude.

Technology allows us a level of interconnectedness that we’ve never before been able to experience on a global level. If we couple that physical/ virtual interconnectedness with an attitude of openness, then the world becomes limitless and a whole lot smaller.

This macro-trend seems to be experiencing a few setbacks right now. There’s an increased rhetoric in parts of the world about the need for borders and walls. The voices in favour of borders that are heard at the moment come from a position of fear. Maybe it’s a fear of change or a fear of the unknown. In some cases they highlight some of the challenges in a society that’s changing at speed and those voices need to be heard and solutions found. In other cases, they come from the fear that the balance of power will change. Well, maybe it needs to. Because once you start building borders then the world retreats into different cells, closed off from each other and competing out of insecurity and limitation. It closes down potential and opportunity.

Look at the financial sector. In theory, it should operate well on a global level — it is after all a global system because of its role in facilitating international trade for example. And there is no reason for money not to move as easily as sending an email.In reality, it’s quite the opposite.

It functions very much within national borders. Some of those constraints started for the right reasons, such as to avoid criminal use of the system; many did not. More often than not the constraints are there out of self-interest or laziness and now function as a way to protect the status quo.

Banks have always used technology. But they’ve used it in the back-end to cut costs not to benefit their customers. The driving force has been profit, with the focus on what’s good for the bank rather than what’s good for consumers. Compare that to the new generation of financial services companies who use technology to make the system fair. At TransferWise we started out as — and continue as — idealists. We start with what we can do to make things better and how we can solve problems, focusing on what people need. It turns out you can focus on building the best service and be successful as business.

Sometimes, companies are better placed than politicians and governments to make change happen. That doesn’t mean that they should not be held to account and follow international rules. But with the right motivation, they can be the force for change. That’s what we’re seeing in the financial sector right now.

The new generation of financial services companies refuse to accept the limitations of the status quo; they demonstrate that an interconnected, open world leads to a positive impact and inclusion rather than exclusion.

Hopefully, the walls will continue to be knocked down in the financial world. And the wider talk of borders and separation will turn out to be a short-term obstacle as, longer-term, we continue on track to a global unified world.


Under the tax microscope

 Income tax, payroll tax and property tax are off the table – but only for now.

The Cayman Islands government managed to gain a reprieve, but had to concede to the UK Foreign Office that an independent commission will assess Cayman’s ability to generate stable revenues without direct taxes.

What may have been nothing more than a bargaining chip in negotiations with the UK, in order to delay the unwanted and perhaps the inevitable, is actually something that common sense requires: a study into the effects that direct taxes would have for the Cayman Islands.

In a time when most industrialised nations are concerned with reducing direct taxation, the UK government believes direct taxes are just what the Cayman Islands needs.

In an opinion piece in UK newspaper the Guardian on 18 September UK Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant reiterated his claim that the Cayman government will have little choice but to introduce some form of direct taxation to deal with its financial woes.

“It is clearly in the interests of all the overseas territories to have open, transparent fiscal arrangements and sustainable revenue from a wide and diverse tax base,” he wrote.

“Mere tax haven status will not pay the bills, nor will an over-reliance on indirect taxation.”

It is difficult to find anyone in Cayman who agrees with the UK minister responsible for the overseas territories.

“To now react to pressure from the UK to introduce payroll/income tax would be just short of a crime,” says Kim Lund, Broker/Owner at Re/Max.

Mr Lund believes that the introduction of direct taxation would be an overreaction to a one-time global financial crisis that hit almost every country and is not unique to Cayman.

“Cayman has an incredible and successful business model that works,” he adds.

“It is envied worldwide. Unfortunately, some of the established tax regimes are extremely envious and their solution and hidden agenda is to make us like them, despite their system being dysfunctional and a burden on their citizens.”

Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush takes the same line and points to different ideologies on taxation in countries like the UK. He argues, with regard to their high tax burden, that it is those countries that “have mismanaged”.

“Money is going to find its way to those jurisdictions that are well managed, like the Cayman Islands”, Mr Bush says, citing the country’s record with international organisation such as IOSCO, the IMF and the OECD.

He contends: “The fact is that, barring any agenda, the UK still has a valid point in that the Cayman Islands needs sustainable revenue streams,” but he maintains that direct taxes are not what is needed.

While the UK is busy shifting revenue income from direct to indirect consumption-based taxes, the Cayman Islands until now does not have direct taxation.

When considering direct taxation, Cayman would have three basic options: a payroll tax paid by an employer on payroll, a similar income tax paid by the employee on salary or a property tax linked to property ownership.

Seismic shift

Each option would present the Cayman government with its individual set of problems.

No matter which tax was introduced, the effect on the economy and Cayman society would be considerable.

The Cayman Islands would become a tax experiment, observed by tax theorists across the world interested in seeing how the introduction of direct taxation would affect the Cayman economy and influence the behaviour of market participants, including employees, consumers and businesses.

“If we introduce direct taxation, it will be the start of the end for Cayman,” says Mr Lund.

“We will lose one of our most important attractions, of being an efficient society who pays fees based on what we personally use or consume,” he says, describing one of the fundamental benefits of a system of indirect taxation.

Direct corporate taxes have decreased world-wide owing to the competitive pressures between different tax regimes. In many European countries, including the UK, direct taxes are being reduced, whereas indirect taxes are increased in the hope that these will provide more stable revenues.

It is currently a key advantage that the indirect taxes in the Cayman Islands are not directly exposed to international competition. Direct income or corporate taxes, in contrast, would be very susceptible to businesses and individuals relocating abroad.

Anthony Travers, chairman of the Cayman Islands Financial Services Association, argues: “The move from an indirect to a direct system of taxation is a seismic shift which has not been thought through and which is not justified on the facts.”

The argument that the introduction of direct taxes would not have been thought through is an understatement.

In the wake of the arrangement with the UK Foreign Office, the Cayman Islands government has now time to study the effect of such a move.

Any tax will create incentives and disincentives for tax payers. Irrespective of the type of tax introduced, it will have repercussions for the economy and in the medium and longer term for the society of a country.

When a new tax is contemplated, tax revenue is therefore an important but by no means the only factor that should be analysed.

One of the most important things to remember is that tax rates and tax revenue are not positively correlated.

This means that higher taxes do not automatically mean more revenue, because tax payers, whether businesses or individuals, adapt and find ways of reducing the amount of tax they have to pay.

This change in behaviour in turn has an effect on the economy, on businesses, jobs and living conditions.

“I have canvassed senior business players in Cayman and they have indicated that at the first sign of a payroll tax they will have to consider their options,” says Mr Travers.

“I believe this will inevitably lead to job losses and it will affect both the highly paid and more junior members of staff and lead not to a revenue increase, but a decrease.”

Taxes in general are assumed to have a negative effect on the economy, because they create disincentives for those who have to pay them.  A sales tax discourages retail purchases, taxing income or payroll reduces the incentive to work or create jobs and a tax on savings reduces the incentive to save.

The less a tax distorts economic activity, the better. But many taxes have unwanted effects.

No window tax please

Taxes tend to impose an excess burden on consumers and producers by creating what economists call a “deadweight loss”.

In 1696, King William III introduced a levy in Great Britain, based on the number of windows a house featured, in a crude effort to measure the wealth of the owner. The “window tax” led in some cases to windows being blocked up with bricks to reduce the tax charge. Some allege it coined the term daylight robbery. The lack of sunlight and revenue constituted the deadweight loss of the tax.

Modern taxes face the same problem. To determine the effect of taxes theorists analyse the price elasticity of supply and demand.

For example, the more elastic the demand, in other words the more demand is able to respond to a tax on supply, the higher the deadweight loss of the tax. The more inelastic the demand is, the higher the tax revenue.

Applying tax to a base that has little or zero elasticity is therefore preferable, as the overall burden is lower and the tax revenue higher.

Income and sales taxes for instance vary considerably, whereas property taxes are highly stable regardless of the economic situation.

Tax fairness

Another concern, when deciding on taxation, is whether people in similar circumstances will carry a similar tax burden. This includes the question whether the more affluent tax payers carry more of the tax burden than less well-off tax payers.

In order to make taxes fairer, different structures such as proportional, progressive or regressive can be applied. A progressive tax would for example be an income tax that applies higher tax rates with increasing income. In a proportional tax the ratio remains constant and in a regressive tax the ratio declines with income.

A major criticism of indirect taxes is that they are regressive. It is argued that indirect taxes, affect the poor more than the rich. One example would be a fixed tax on tobacco, which will be more of a burden to someone with less disposable income.

However, indirect taxes such as sales taxes are less complex.

Complexity is an important factor, because a simple tax will also appear fairer to the tax payer, than a complex direct tax with many exemptions that can only be reduced by wealthier tax payers with the resources to do so.

How to collect?

A tax also needs to be collected effectively. The ease with which a tax can be collected will directly affect the kinds of structures that have to be put in place to be able to collect the revenue quickly and in full.

A tax may be expensive to administer depending on how easily it can be avoided, evaded, audited and policed.

Direct taxes would have the disadvantage that they require a system for tax assessment and collection that Cayman so far does not have. Such a system would take time and money to implement.

Shadow economy

If the costs are high enough, a tax on income or payroll will immediately create a market for tax evasion.

High tax countries are familiar with shadow economies that reduce tax revenue and affect employees.

Employers able and willing not to pay taxes for certain employees will also not pay pension contributions and healthcare, with all the social and financial ramifications this has for employees.

To prevent the creation of a shadow economy, it will be necessary to create an authority that supervises and polices tax payments.

This all comes at a cost. In terms of timing and with regard to the volume of tax revenue that can be generated in the short term, it means that direct taxes are not likely to be suitable to address Cayman’s immediate financial difficulties.

No taxation without representation

The imposition of direct taxes will also require a much higher degree of accountability and transparency from government.

It is doubtful that tax payers will tolerate ever increasing tax rates in the face of unaudited budgets, wrong economic forecasts and excessive government spending.

Social change may be another consequence. A direct tax imposed on expats may mean that they would have to be granted more rights.

Can for example state schools in the future refuse expat children, when they are financed by direct taxes?

Taxes that apply only to tax payers above a certain salary level to protect low wage workers could at the same time lead to an influx of workers that earn wages below this threshold.

All these issues and potential effects have to considered and balanced with the actual objective of diversifying and stabilising the revenue base, before any tax, direct or indirect, could be introduced.

Are direct taxes in Caymans best interests?

While it may be justified and easy to demand a diversification of the revenue base, it is clear that it will be much more difficult to implement.

McKeeva Bush believes that with the right management and the right attitude towards business the crisis can be resolved.

“Fees will increase, we will broaden our revenue base and we will make it more sustainable,” he says.

Mr Travers meanwhile asks, what is in the best interest of the Cayman Islands?

“It is not, in the view of CIFSA, in those best interests to seek to introduce any form of new or increased taxation without at the same time bringing expenditure under control.”

He adds: “Failure to bring expenditure under control means that tax rates can only rise inexorably over time.  That in turn will fundamentally and negatively affect the attraction of all sectors of the Cayman economy in terms of essential inward investment and that in turn means that increasing levels of revenue will have to be found from a smaller and smaller cross section of the community.”

He states, other countries, including the UK, have discovered that this is not a sustainable model for fiscal management.

Mr Lund agrees, saying if direct taxation was introduced, “future government budgets will simply be balanced by raising the tax rate and/or introducing new direct taxes, as history has shown us in these other countries.

“The overseas investors, who help support our economy, will find we are really not any different or better than other locations and choices they have for investment and domicile,” he says.

“The bottom line is we will lose our allure and appeal, with the result being that even more money will be needed, through direct taxation, because we will not be getting it from overseas investment.

“It will become a vicious circle.”


The International Foundation of Yoga and Meditation (IFYM) is an educational membership-based network to bring people together to get the benefits and advances of yoga and meditation. International Foundation of Yoga and Meditation is open to all meditation teachers, students, yogis, yoginis, research institutes, meditation organizations and yoga organizations. Know more about IFYM.

Six Most Powerful Mindfulness Quotes with Benefits

Scientific studies confirmed that benefits of mindfulness-based meditation are remarkable. I discussed here, the six most powerful benefits of mindfulness meditation with six inspirational quotes. Whether you are doctor, engineer, lawyer or any other professionals, practicing mindfulness will give you immense benefits.

The cultivation of joy is an important element of mindfulness practice. Joy helps us to be more fully present to life, and it also gives us the motivation. The actual practice of mindfulness involves moment to moment happiness awareness of what is happening now, both internally and externally.

1 Mindfulness as Collaboration with Nature:

A University of Washington study divided participants into three groups. One received an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation, another received some training later and the third received only body relaxation training.

Only the individuals who received the meditation training showed cognitive improvements on the test and those participants’ concentration abilities “improved significantly.”

This change is thought to be due to the way meditation improves neural communication, including among attentional networks and between those areas and the frontal region.

Collaboration is the essence of life. The wind, bees and flowers work together, to spread the pollen.  -- Amit Ray

Collaboration is the essence of life - mindfulness quote

2. Mindfulness to Conquer Pain and Anxiety

Studies have repeatedly shown the efficacy of meditation as a method of managing chronic pain. Research shows that the benefit is achieved through reducing pain intensity by activating specific areas of the brain related to “pain processing.”

If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath. - Amit Ray

live in the moment - mindfulness quote

3. Mindfulness Reduces Loneliness, Inflammation

In 2012, a small study was launched to see the effects of meditation on a group of seniors versus a control group who did not meditate.

The results were clear: meditating seniors were less lonely and physically healthier. The physical benefits were linked to “a significant drop in the expression of inflammation-related genes.”

In every bend of time there is some surprise, joy and beauty. Mindfulness is the light to discover it. -- Amit Ray

In every bend of time there is some surprise, joy and beauty - mindfulness quote amit ray

4. Mindfulness Improves Stress Resilience:

Mindfulness improves self-control, objectivity,  tolerance, enhanced flexibility, equanimity, improved concentration and mental clarity, and emotional intelligence.

Life is a collection of moments. Mindfulness is beautification of the moments. - Amit Ray

Life is a collection of moments. Stress Resilience Mindfulness Quote

5. Mindfulness Improves Emotional Intelligence and Attention

Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance. - Amit Ray

Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance. - Amit Ray Mindfulness Quote

6. Mindfulness enhances creativity

The two main factors that determine levels of creativity are: divergent thinking (coming up with lots of ideas) and convergent thinking (solidifying those ideas into one brilliant concept.)

Researchers at Leiden University led by Cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato studied the effects of two different types of meditation practices on divergent and convergent thinking. They found that mindful meditation significantly improved both divergent and convergent thinking.

Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world. - Amit Ray

Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world. - Amit Ray Mindfulness and Creativity Quote

If you are interested about mindfulness and meditation, commit to a daily practice. Start by committing to a time-frame that you can be easily achieved.  It can be  5-10 minutes per day. After practicing for a week, re-evaluate and see if you'd like to meditate longer or shorter. The most powerful evidence of whether these practices will “work” for you isn't a study, but direct experience. So, give it a try and understand for yourself.

Source: From the book:   Mindfulness : Living in the Moment - Living in the Breath By Amit Ray

Meditation Types

Types of Meditation

Meditation TypesWhat are the different types of meditation? Just as there are different forms of exercises to train and relax the body, there are different ways to train and relax the mind. There are many ways to meditate depending on what you are personally trying to achieve. Our ability to resist an impulse determines our success. It’s probably the single most important skill for our growth and development. Meditation teaches us to resist the urge of that counterproductive follow through (McCown, Reibel, & Micozzi, 2010).  The eight most powerful meditation techniques are:

  1. Om Meditation

    Om meditation is the combination of the two great meditation techniques – breath and sound. They are combined form of yoga posture, breathing exercises and sound exercises. As Amit Ray said “Om is the mantra of harmony and celebration. Om is the mantra to access the Supreme Divinity residing within us. Om is the mysterious cosmic energy that is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists. Om meditation is accessing that divine peace and silence” (Ray, 2010a).

  2. Mindfulness Meditation

    Mindfulness Meditation is an adaptation from traditional Buddhist meditation practices, especially Vipassana, but also having strong influence from other lineages. This form of meditation simply requires that you be fully present with each of your activities. Rather than allowing your mind to bounce from thought to thought during the day, take the time to be mindful of what you do or think during daily activities. This type of meditation can be done while you are walking to your car, washing the dishes, typing on your computer, or any other type of daily activity. Often with everyday activities we start and finish almost automatically, not even remembering the in-between of what we just did. Being mindful and present is about being there for the in-between. As you drive home from work, take in your surroundings, be mindful of how you drive, shift gears, how the car sounds, or the noises around you. Being present and mindful on your drive home will not only make you a more alert driver, but you will find yourself arriving at home with a clearer memory of the in-between. The core of mindfulness meditation is: “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath. (Ray, 2015)”

  3. Zen Meditation

Once you sit comfortably, count each inhalation and each exhalation, until you get to ten.  If your mind wanders, which it will, cast off the thought and then continue back counting from one again. When you are able to get to ten repeatedly without any intruding thoughts, it's time to start counting an inhalation and an exhalation as one rather than counting them separately. Eventually you will be able to just concentrate on the breath and abandon the counting. For this to happen you need to practice zazen on a daily basis. You can practice Zen in as little as 15 minutes each day.

  1. Walking Meditation

  2. Loving-Kindness Meditation:

    This form of meditation allows you to develop positive emotions and release negative ones. An individual repeats silent mental phrases directing feelings of love toward a loved one, toward themselves, toward a person they might not know, toward someone who has harmed them, and lastly, towards everyone.

      Reciting a phrase like: I will be kind enough to take the time to listen to

  • 1. Myself
  • 2. A loved one (e.g. my wife/ husband, child or friend)
  • 3. A person I do not know well (e.g. someone at work you might not have talked to before)
  • 4. Someone who has done  harm (e.g.someone you might have had a disagreement with)
  • 5. Anyone that I meet (e.g. a store clerk) Using positive phrases

6. Dance Meditation:

7. Daily Life Practice Meditation:

8. Breathing Meditation:

9. Transcendental Meditation (TM):

Maharishi, an advocate of Transcendental Meditation defines the purpose, “The goal of Transcendental Meditation is the state of enlightenment. This means we experience that inner calmness, that quiet state of least excitation, even when we are dynamically busy.” In this Hindu tradition you sit in Lotus, internally chant a mantra, and focus on rising above the negativity.

10. Samatha and Vipassana Meditation:

"Vipassana" means clear insight into the real characteristics of body and mind. Vipassana bhavana (insight meditation) is sometimes called mindfulness meditation. The technique of Vipassana uses mindfulness to note every detail of our mental and physical experience from moment-to-moment, with an unbiased attitude. Mainly it includes nonjudgmental attention to body, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations of touch, pain or pleasant feeling, thoughts, etc.

Source:  Types of Yoga and Meditation for Health and Well Being

Science of Yoga Six Powerful Inspirations

Science of yoga is not just about philosophy. It is all about how yoga can change your health and mental well-being, which is measurable, observable and quantifiable. Yoga is a systematic way to attain perfection, through physical and mental exercises.

Yoga has been noted to reduce anxiety and depression.  Scientific studies have also shown that yoga can improve several conditions including psychological and pain syndromes, musculoskeletal and neurological disorders and autoimmune and immune syndromes.

Volumes have been written on the healing properties of yoga. Although very little research has been conducted on potential underlying mechanisms for the effects of yoga, it appears yoga stimulates pressure receptors under the skin which, in turn, leads to enhanced vagal activity and reduced cortisol.

Scientist observed that yoga exercises gives superior parietal cortex, involved in directing attention, and the visual cortex.

1. Yoga Improves Immunity Function

There are numerous scientific studies that show that yoga improves immune functioning. Yoga, perhaps, is one of the most effective and time-tested natural immunity boosters that we can adopt for a healthier life. It is an ancient art that strengthens the body and also relaxes the mind.

Science of Yoga - Popular Quotes

"Yoga means addition - addition of energy, strength and beauty to body, mind and soul" -- Amit Ray

2. Yoga Cures Addiction

Dopamine, a chemical in the brain that gives one contentment during a high on ones drug of choice is generated naturally by doing yoga. Thus, the craving for that level of contentment from addiction is no longer manifested. Yoga can give one the same level of dopamine high or contentment, thus cutting out the craving of addiction.

3. Activates Parasympathetic Nervous System

Yoga actually activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms us down and restores balance after a major stress is over. When the parasympathetic nervous system switches on, blood is directed toward endocrine glands, digestive organs, and other organs, thus reducing the heartbeat rate and lowering the blood pressure.

4. Anxiety Reduction

Several studies have focused on anxiety, and several studies on various conditions have used anxiety as a measure of the condition improving. It is observed that who participated in the yoga training showed decreased stress, anxiety, fatigue and depression as well as increased well-being and vigor.

5.   Yoga Heals Chronic Insomnia

Reduced sleep problems following yoga may mediate decreased depression. In a chronic insomnia sample, yoga led to improvements on virtually every sleep measure including sleep efficiency, total sleep time, sleep onset latency, number of awakenings and sleep quality measures based on sleep-wake diaries.

Yoga also reduced sleep disturbances in a geriatric sample after 6 months of yoga practice. The Yoga group versus the standard control group had a significantly shorter latency to sleep as well as a significant increase in the total number of sleep hours and in the feeling of being rested in the morning. Increasing deep sleep (restorative, quiet sleep) may reduce pain syndromes via a reduction in, for example, substance P that causes pain. In  the  Field study,  when quiet sleep increased, based on activity watch monitors, both substance P (measured in saliva) and pain decreased. Similar measures might provide more confirmatory data for the sleep-enhancing and pain-reducing effects of yoga.

Yoga is the art work of awareness - Amit Ray

"Yoga is the art work of awareness on the canvas of body, mind, and soul." - Amit Ray

6. Reduction of  Lower back pain

In a study yoga participants attended weekly yoga sessions for 16 weeks. The control group was given education on low back pain for the same time period. Results revealed reduced pain intensity (by 64%), functional disability (77%) and pain medication usage (88%) in the yoga group.

The physiological effects of yoga including decreased heart rate and blood pressure and the physical effects including weight loss and increased muscle strength are the common benefits of yoga.  Yoga enhance vagal activity and reduce cortisol. The reduction in cortisol, in turn, may contribute to positive effects such as enhanced immune function and overall well-being.

Mindfulness Meditation In Nature

Mindfulness meditation can be defined in many ways and can be used for a variety of different therapies. Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment, which can be developed through the practice of meditation and other training. The term "mindfulness" is a translation of the Pali term sati, which is a significant element of some Buddhist traditions.

Mindfulness meditation is practiced sitting with eyes closed, cross-legged on a cushion, or on a chair, with the back straight. Recent interest has emerged for studying the effects of mindfulness on the brain using neuroimaging techniques, physiological measures and behavioral tests.

Life is a mystery- mystery of beauty, bliss and divinity. Meditation is the art of unfolding that mystery. -- Amit Ray

Mindfulness is a special way of paying attention that can help with how you cope with everyday life, or bounce back from tough times, and there are great benefits for your physical and mental health. Mindfulness is something that everyone can develop, and it's something that everyone stands to gain from.

Mindfulness Meditation In Nature:

Mindful Breathing

Use this meditation twice daily to develop better focus, attention and a greater overall sense of clarity and calm over time. Mindfulness is the practice of awareness of the present moment, enabling us to disassociate with notions of past and future that trigger rumination and stress.

Mindful Concentration

Mindful Body  Awareness

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon_Kabat-ZinnBorn in 1944 is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches mindfulness, which he says can help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness. The stress reduction program created by Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness-based stress reduction, is offered by medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations.

His Holiness Sri Amit Ray

Amit Ray MeditationAmit Ray born in 1960 is an Indian author whose teachings and writings on meditation, yoga and compassion deeply influenced people across the world. He showed a spiritual tendency and heightened awareness right from the age of 8 years. From his childhood, he learnt meditation from the wandering monks and ascetics who happened to pass by their village farmhouse. He was a meritorious student. He did his engineering from Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, University of Calcutta. He did his M.Tech and PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. His first deep realization occurs at Thornton Heath, London. While he was working in a corporate job in London, many uncommon mystical experiences happened to him.

He is famous across the world for peace, love, compassion, and positive vibrations. He is an author and a great philanthropist. His words give inspiration to millions. His work has huge impact to improve the dignity and the worth of humanity. He is strong advocate of non-violence as the way for peace. He has the courage of his convictions. He is promoting peace not only in his country but across the world. By his words and efforts Amit Ray helped to make the world a better and safer place.

With a scientific bent of mind, he undertook meditation practices of Hindu and Buddhist traditions, without being entangled in the dogmatic views and rituals. He pursued a dedicated search for the truth in their cottage on the high mountain in a Himalayan village, undergoing intense spiritual practices of deep meditation and silence. From 2004 to 2010 he went for long silence meditation in Uttarkashi, Himalaya. His deeper realization of cosmic God consciousness happens at Uttarkashi and Gomukh.

He experienced a series of powerful and profound awakening, which revealed to him the true nature of human reality and existence. Realizing the liberating truth, he started sharing his wisdom and spreading spiritual knowledge and serving mankind.

His work is helping to awaken the conscience of the people across the world. He addresses these issues with extraordinary vigor, integrity and selflessness. A man of greatness of spirit, he works for the fellow human beings to live in freedom and happiness.

Adi Shankaracharya

adi shankaracharyaBorn in 788 AD in a village called Kaladi in Kerala Adi Shankaracharya was a philosopher of the greatest renown because he brought new life to the Vedas and restored them to their ancient glory. He revived Vedanta at a time when Vedanta philosophy was going through a period of darkness due to the excesses of ritualistic practice. His correct interpretations saw a revival in the status of the Vedas and so he was able to successfully advocate Advaita Vedanta. He founded the Dashanami monastic order and believed in worship of the Shanmata tradition. He established four Adi Shankaracharya Peeths and devoted one of the Vedas to each:

  1. South - Sarada Peetha, Sringeri
  2. East - Govardhana Peetha, Jagannath Puri
  3. West - Kalika Peetha, Dwaraka
  4. North - Jyothir Peetha, Badrinath

Swami Satyananda

Born in 1923 at Almora, Uttarakhand Swami Satyananda showed a spiritual tendency and heightened awareness right from the age of 6 years. In 1943 he left home and came in contact with Swami Sivananda at Rishikesh and the Swami initiated him into the Dashnami Sannyas. Satyananda performed such intense nishkam seva that he was able to realize the secrets of spirituality. He studied yoga, tantra and Vedanta and kundalini yoga in such a through fashion that he founded the new Bihar School of Yoga in 1963 and became the pioneer of this yoga practice.

Swami Sivananda

swami sivanandaBorn in 1887 at Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu, India in 1887 Swami Sivananda was a Doctor in Malaysia but he renounced his medical practice in 1924 when Swami Vishwananda Saraswati initiated him into Dashnami Sannyasa. He practiced intense sadhana, yoga and learnt the scriptures. He became a wondering monk and toured the length and breadth of India. Wherever Sivananda went he tried to awaken the moral and spiritual consciousness of people. In 1936 he founded the Divine Life Society at Rishikesh with the main aim of spreading spiritual knowledge and serving mankind. Being a doctor he started the Sivananda Ayurvedic Pharmacy in 1945.


Monday, January 26, 2015

Some very British bubbles

Today I was lucky enough to be invited to a tour and tasting at Hattingley Valley winery in Hampshire.  To those who are still dismissive of English Sparkling Wine, I simply say, where's your sense of adventure?  For those willing to explore this growing category of wine there are some absolute gems to be found.

We started off with a tour of the winery, modest-looking from the outside, it was actually a much larger operation than I expected.  Hattingley Valley is a relatively young winery, founded in 2008 they grow the traditional grapes used in Champagne, namely; Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.  They produced their first wine in 2010 and have been going from strength to strength since, now producing 4 different sparkling wines, all made according to the traditional Champagne method.  They achieve their unique style of wine by fermenting a small proportion of their wine in oak barrels each year, as well as ageing it on lees in stainless steel tanks.

After the tour came my favourite part, the tasting.  We naturally started off with the Classic Cuvee which was enjoyable but not my favourite wine of the tasting.  We moved onto the Blanc de Blancs, made with 100% Chardonnay.  This was for a short time my favourite wine of the tasting, with a distinct flavour of green apple and citrus the wine was fresh and fruity which balanced the acidity nicely, perfect for a celebration.

However, a few minutes later the Blanc de Blancs was surpassed by the Kings Cuvee as my favourite.  The wine used to make up this blend has all been fermented in oak barrels, giving it a unique taste.  Normally, only a small proportion of the wine in a blend would be aged in oak barrels meaning you would only get a subtle hint of that oakiness in the flavour.  The only downside is that at £65 a bottle, the Kings Cuvee is rather out of my price range.

Finally, we were given a sample of a wine which they are still experimenting with.  Having grown some Bacchus Hattingley Valley are trying out a dessert wine in the style of an ice wine.  This was right up my street, there were notes of elderflower and peach and the wine was not overly sweet and cloying, like some dessert wines can be.  I hope to see more where that came from in the future!

Unfortunately the Rose was so popular they didn't have any left for tastings!  They've certainly left me wanting more.

If you want to find out more about Hattingley Valley check out their website, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

My Top Ten Kitchen Essentials

For those of you who, like me, don't have access to a fully-stocked kitchen, here are my ten essentials which will enable you to cook pretty much anything.

While at university I had a small kitchen with limited equipment, meaning what I had, had to be versatile.  This was taken to the extreme when I moved to Germany for a year with just two suitcases.  In that year I learnt that you really don't need masses of fancy equipment, it sure does make life easier, but it is by no means essential.

So here you go, my ten kitchen essentials:
  1. A plate - this is without a doubt one of the most important things you'll need.  You can use it not only to eat off but also as a chopping board and preparation surface.  During my time in Germany I didn't have a work surface, just a ridged draining board, meaning I needed my plate for pretty much all food preparation as it was the only flat surface I had.
  2. A bowl - the bowl should be large enough to hold a can of soup.  Great for mixing ingredients, beating eggs and generally holding anything for which a plate it too flat.
  3. A can opener - on the topic of soup, this really is a must.  You can force your way into most packaging but cans really are a nightmare without a can opener, especially as they don't always have ring pulls.  Given how many of my basic ingredients come in cans (since they last a lot longer in this form meaning I waste less) a can opener is definitely high on my list of essentials.
  4. Cutlery - this is technically three items; a knife, a fork and a spoon, but they tend to come as a set.  They are also useful for more than just eating.  For example, a spoon can be used to mix ingredients while a fork can be used to beat eggs (although I would not advise trying meringues without a whisk or mixer).
  5. A vegetable peeler - I know that you can peel veg with a knife but I always find I waste way more when I do, so this is another item which I couldn't live without.  You can also use it to cut very fine strips of veg such as carrots and courgettes when making salads and side dishes to add a bit of interest.
  6. A mug/cup - essential when you want a drink and with many other uses besides.  If you don't have access to a set of scales then a mug is a life-saver.  Ok so you can estimate how much of an ingredient you need but with a mug you can be a little more accurate.  I knew the volume of my mug as I acquired it from a Christmas market meaning the 200ml line was marked on it.  I suggest finding out the volume of your mug if you can (borrow some scales/a measuring jug) as you can then convert quantities into volumes and measure them using your mug.  Alternatively you can use American recipes which do everything by the cup anyway.
  7. A chef's knife - nothing fancy, just a sharp knife which can be used for all forms of prep, from chopping vegetables, to slicing meat.  There is nothing more dangerous than working with a blunt knife so if you're not able to keep your knife sharp yourself just buy a cheap one and replace it when it gets blunt.
  8. A saucepan - so you've got everything you need to prep your food, now onto the actual cooking.  The saucepan doesn't have to be anything fancy, just big enough to prepare your food.  I was also grateful to have one which had a strainer on the lid to make it easier when draining water from food such as pasta (although this isn't essential as a plate can also act as a strainer).
  9. Frying pan - although you can fry things in a saucepan it is useful to have a frying pan, especially if you have two hob rings as it means you can have two elements of your dinner on the go at once and it gives you a bit more flexibility.
  10. A box grater - this would probably be my luxury item.  You never really need to grate things, but I really love grated cheese as it's so much easier to use in sauces and as a topping, so I always like to have a grater to hand.  I've recommended a box grater as it has a different texture on each side meaning you can also use it to grate things more finely, such as lemon zest or garlic, and given that a garlic crusher hasn't made it onto my list this is a very handy tool!
Don't underrate the basics
There you have it, my top ten kitchen essentials.  With these in your cupboard I think you can make a huge variety of recipes.  Remember, just because you've got limited space or money, doesn't mean you can't cook varied and interesting food, you just have to be a little more resourceful.

If you want any other tips on cooking with limited equipment or space just ask me in the comments below.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Rösti - a Swiss hash brown

As you may have realised by now, bruch is one of my favourite meals and Rösti is up there with asparagus and eggs as one of my favourites.  For those of you who don't know, rösti is a swiss version of a hash brown, eaten for breakfast and often served with a fried egg and spinach.  I kept it simple and just went for the rösti and some roasted cherry tomatoes to add a bit of colour (it means you can at least pretend you're being healthy).

Rösti with roasted cherry tomatoes
This was a super simple recipe which makes a perfect brunch for two.  All you need to do is parboil 400g of potatoes (Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes work best), fry half an onion and a crushed garlic clove until soft, followed by a handful of pancetta until it is crispy.  After about 15 minutes strain the potatoes and allow them to steam dry.  Once they're cool enough to handle dice them and mix them in a bowl with a large handful of grated cheese (I would definitely recommend splashing out on some gruyere), a large beaten egg, the onion, garlic and pancetta.  Season at this point and add some parsley too if you fancy.

Frozen herbs are a great way to avoid wasting lots of fresh herbs if you want to use them but can't get through a whole bunch before they go off, as they keep for ages and you can defrost as much or as little as you need.  Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a medium frying pan and tip in the potato mixture before pressing it down with a spatula.  Fy over a medium heat for 15 minutes (the bottom should be golden brown, although be careful not to break the rösti when checking).  Tip the rösti onto a plate then slide it back into the frying pan, cooked side up.  Fry for another 15 minutes and serve with some roasted cherry tomatoes (just drizzle some oil over the tomatoes in a baking dish and roast them in an oven pre-heated to a medium heat while you're cooking the rösti).

Perfect for sharing
Now isn't that just the tastiest thing you've seen all day?  Go on, you know you want to try it!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

To tempt Hansel and Gretel

For years I have been saying that I will make a gingerbread house from scratch and I've never quite got round to it.  However, this was the year I actually found the time to do it! Rather than using one of my few days off in December to chill out, I (perhaps foolishly) decided to spend the entire day in the kitchen baking gingerbread, making copious amounts of icing, and constructing a gingerbread house.

I followed Mary Berry's gingerbread house recipe and in true Mary Berry style it was easy to follow and make.  Unlike in the shop-bought kits you can get, when you make the gingerbread yourself it turns out sturdy enough to build the house, but still enjoyably soft and tasty.  I made a few alterations to the recipe as my dough came out incredibly dry, meaning I had to add quite a bit of water to make it soft enough and stick together enough to roll and cut out.  I also decided to keep the windows square and as I didn't have a small enough star cutter I left out that part of the design too.

One part I was determined to try was the stained-glass windows made out of boiled sweets.  Simply crush up some boiled sweets (I used rosy apples to get the mottled effect) and when the gingerbread is nearly baked remove it from the oven, sprinkle the crushed sweets into the window gaps and return to the oven.  The sweets should melt and form a thin window pane.

Before assembling the house use icing to stick giant chocolate buttons onto the roof panels to create a tiled effect.  For a house of this size I needed two packets of giant chocolate buttons.  I don't have any photos of the assembly process as I was too preoccupied trying to hold all the components together until the icing was dry enough to do the job on its own.

As well as the buttons and the boiled sweets I also used some silver sugar balls and honeycomb to decorate the house and as I'd already made rather too much icing I used the extra as added snow around the joints on the house.  I also had extra gingerbread which I rolled out and cut out into stars before baking and icing.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

New Beginnings

With the craziness of December over and a somewhat more relaxed January to look forward to I've finally found some time to get back to blogging.  In this post I've decided to take a look back over my year, it's had its ups and downs but here are some of the highlights.

My year began with the discovery of one of my now all-time favourite cafes Afternoon Tease. This is a gorgeous little Cambridge-based cafe, perfect for a cuppa and a slice of what must be the best cake in town (my personal favourite is the chocolate Guinness cake).

Having received a subscription to the BBC Good Food Magazine for Christmas I was keen to try out new recipes each month and in February I made the perfect meal for two - pan-fried trout with mixed salad, bacon, almonds and beetroot.  This made the perfect Valentine's day meal and went really well with a bottle of Bacchus from the Chapel Down Winery followed by a favourite dessert wine of mine, Royal Tokaji .

March saw me on the road again heading back to Bamberg to revisit some of my favourite places and take a much-needed break from work.  I spent my free time over the Easter holidays cooking, of course brunch featured along with some Easter-themed creations.  In April I also managed to finish my Beekeeper's quilt after months of hard work.

With exams looming I didn't manage to do as much cooking as I would have liked in May and June but that didn't stop me from having some foodie fun.  In between writing essays and revising I managed to fit in trips to the first ever Cambridge street food market (Food Park is now a regular feature on the streets of Cambridge) and the main Eat Cambridge event.  This was also when I discovered the best burger I have ever had, courtesy of Steak and Honour.

Despite graduating I couldn't stay away from Cambridge for long and in July I returned just in time to try some of Cambridge Smokeworks incredible slow food done fast.

After an amazing few weeks spent in Disneyland and Vegas, August saw me back in the kitchen and creating some of my best food of the year (even if I do say so myself). My first ever attempts at home-made scotch eggs and macaroons turned out beautifully, as did my rendition of a traditional French tian

With the prospect of leaving home looming on the horizon I spent some time in September learning some essentials from my mum, including how to cook a traditional roast dinner.  Moving to Southampton has been eventful.  In just four months I moved house four times and D and I still haven't managed to move into our more permanent home (here's hoping we'll be settled by February).  What with moving and starting a new job blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.

My blog celebrated it's first birthday in October and I celebrated in style (albeit a little late) with an awesome Halloween-themed fondue.

I may not have found the time to blog in December but that didn't mean I had completely abandoned the kitchen.  Hopefully I'll now have a bit more time to actually write some posts about what I got up to in December but for now here's a sneaky peak.

Apple and Cinnamon Cake
Red Velvet Cake
Gingerbread House
So, a new year, a new job, a new home in a new city, here's to new beginnings and a year as good as the last.


Title: Experiences in the LAPACK Project and Automating Eigenvalue Calculations Abstract: This presentation will consist of two parts. First, I will talk about some aspects of my participation in the LAPACK Project, in particular in the implementation of the dqds algorithm (subroutine dlasq) for the computation of singular values of a bidiagonal matrix to high relative accuracy, and in hardening the implementation of the algorithm of multiple relatively robust representations (MRRR) for the symmetric tridiagonal eigenproblem (subroutine dstemr). These two implementations motivated the development of an (auxiliary) infrastructure for exhaustive testing, therefore making it possible for any other new or competing algorithm to be stressed in a similar way. Second, I will talk about the prototype of a software toolbox - EigAdept - that aims at guiding a non expert user through a set of available eigenvalue solvers (often with various parameters that can be set or tuned) , and at determining the more appropriate solver based on the type of the application, and the properties of the associated matrices.


Monday, 24 November 2008

Mulching, compost and humus

Cabbages in the process of being mulched.

Although there has been a fair bit of rain recently I have still been able to get out and work in the vegetable garden, and I have been mulching some of the vegetable beds over the last few days.
Artichoke beds mulched on Friday

Mulches are an integral part of our no dig growing systems for the hotel vegetable garden. We usually apply the mulches at the beginning of the crops growing season, and the most common mulch we use is our compost. First we remove the smaller weeds from the vegetable bed and then apply 10 to 15cms of compost carefully spreading it around the plants.

Mulching the larger pepper plants.

The mulch has a wide range of benefits including stabilizing soil, suppressing weeds, retaining moisture, and increasing the organic matter content of the soil.

We avoid mulching very small plants as our compost at times can be quite “coarse”, but having said that, the effects on the crops we mulch with our compost can be quite spectacular. I often admire the plants a few weeks after they have been mulched and ask myself what is it that makes them respond so well?

Courgette plants basking on their compost mulch.

Could it be the humus? This makes up a large portion of the dark material in compost and is very valuable for improving the chemical and physical quality of the soil. Humic substances are a large range of complex molecules, but you can actually buy soluble “humic acids” from the chemical companies, sold as wonder potions for intensive crop production. In my previous career as a crop productionist I used them, but never found them to work.

Our compost; much more than a single component.

To me these soluble humic acids produced by the multinationals are rather like the “wonder health food additives” such as; eggs with Omeg 3, milk with added Calcium, yogurt with Danacol etc. May be the scientists trying to isolate the latest wonder molecule should look at my cabbages mulched with compost!

Mulched cabbages coming to maturity

So often it’s not a single factor which constitutes to the health of a plant or person but it is the result of all the different components of a complex natural system, working together, and this is what we should come to respect and appreciate

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Does running end-of-life software lead to compliance violations?

There are several risks involved when using end-of-life software, including the possibility of compliance violations. Expert Mike Chapple explains.

An auditor recently told me that running end-of-life software is a fairly significant risk and constitutes a compliance...

violation under many regulatory and compliance standards. Why is this, and which standards in particular frown upon this?

Ask the Expert!

The auditor is entirely correct. Running software that is unsupported by the vendor not only violates a number of regulatory requirements, but also poses a significant security risk to your organization. When vendors completely discontinue support for a product, they no longer produce patches for security vulnerabilities identified in the product. Therefore, organizations running end-of-life software may be subject to vulnerabilities that they have no ability to correct.

Almost every IT compliance regulation that comes to mind requires an organization to take reasonable steps to protect the security of information and/or systems under its control. For example, section 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(B) of the HIPAA Security Rule states that covered entities must "implement security measures sufficient to reduce risks and vulnerabilities to a reasonable and appropriate level." Any company would be hard pressed to argue that running unsupported software has reduced risk to a reasonable and appropriate level, absent some significant compensating controls.

Some regulations also address the issue of end-of-life software directly. For example, PCI DSS section 6.1 states that all organizations must "Ensure that all system components and software are protected from known vulnerabilities by having the latest vendor-supplied security patches installed. Install critical security patches within one month of release." If the vendor no longer supplies security patches, you fall outside of compliance as soon as a new vulnerability is discovered.

When deciding whether software has truly reached end of life from a compliance perspective, it's also worth mentioning that not all vendors define "end of life" the same way. In some cases, vendors will actually provide several different EOL milestones. The first milestone might indicate the date that new features will no longer be added to a product, while future milestones might provide timeframes for the end of bug fixes and the end of security patches. As long as the vendor is still issuing security patches -- and those patches are being implemented in a timely fashion -- the organization should be OK from a compliance perspective.

This was last published in October 2013

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It's very important to keep not only your security software updated with the latest patches but also your systems OS' and operational applications. These can develop vulnerabilities that vendors work to keep patched. So don't complain about having to pay annual maintenance fees. This is the lifeblood of keeping software updated and improved.

Just one example of one of our vendors that we use for managing our secure file transfers. Over time they've consistently kept up with security vulnerabilities, added new features and functionality that keep us on top of addressing the challenges with our trading partners.

Here's just one example of some new features released on the product. http://www.goanywheremft.com/news/news_2014/goanywhere_services_3.4_released

Any viable software vendor should be constantly working to keep their software current and improving functionality. As customers, we need to understand that we provide the income stream for them to accomplish this. If not, then the vendor will have an end of life!


Intern Profile: Sigbrit Jaccard Søchting

Internship: Biodiversity and Perennial Crops
Supervisor: Mel Sylvestre

I am a 5th year student in the Global Resource Systems program in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems with a specialization in Global Health.

For me, global health is unfortunately a very economic and political issue. Helping to achieve equity in health for all people worldwide is one of my goals and I want to achieve that not only through medicine or food but by encompassing political, economic and social aspects of well-being as well.

Interning at UBC Farm showed me how food and sustainability are integral to good health which made me see the UBC Farm as a home of solutions for local challenges that can eventually lead to global changes.

What was your internship about?

Through my internship, I had the chance to work on many different tasks. I worked with various projects encompassing all aspects of perennial crops and herbs (strawberries, blueberries, flower fields, hop yard, herb garden, etc). We also did research trials looking at which crops grew best, so growing different varieties of crops to see which ones had the best outcomes, all to help farmers across BC.

The Seed Saving Project was one of the tasks that I could label as my own role. The Seed Saving Project involves seed germination tests to determine the viability of the seeds that UBC Farm sells. In two months, I was able to learn and take on the project with minimal supervision. Having one large focus allowed me to improve significantly in that part of the discipline. However, taking on other smaller tasks enabled me to become familiar with all aspects in a broader way. It is good to have a focus, like a particular project to hand in at the end of the internship, but at the same time I liked helping with whichever project was happening that day. It was nice to get to know every little piece of the whole system.

What was something that surprised you the most during your internship?

The most surprising aspect of my internship was finding out how everyone came from different backgrounds. I first pictured the Farm as everyone being an expert farmer, but as I encountered many students, researchers, and other members of CSFS throughout my internship, I saw how they all had their own stories and came from different angles and different lenses.

I see the farm as a very inclusive environment that allows everyone to be involved in some way. Interns or newly graduates may tend to look for jobs that fit their qualifications perfectly, but the Farm is a place for learning and improvements and you don’t necessarily need any specific expertise. You could know nothing and still be able to help and be a part of it.

What intrigues you about the food system?

The linkage between food and urbanization is an intriguing concept for me and it is why I find the UBC Farm quite interesting. I like how the Farm embodies this intersection and is able to bridge these two concepts fully. It is hard to envision a good food system and there are a lot of things that are not going so right. UBC Farm shows us a path to know what we need to work on and how we can have good food systems in cities. My interest in urban farming is what led me to apply for this internship as well as to gain hands-on farming experience.

What inspires you?

I am inspired by reading about different places and times. It is how I connect and learn to think about the world. Interning at the Farm gave me a chance to appreciate the importance of learning once again. You never are done learning and especially with farming and food. There is so much you don’t know, like different ways of farming, different cultures and techniques. And it’s constantly growing.

I viewed my supervisor, Mel Sylvestre, as an expert throughout my internship but even Mel feels that there is so much to learn and never an end to it. Being part of a community that grows every day, and part of a land that is always changing, showed me how learning needs to be continuous at all times.

What is your favourite crop that grows at the Farm?

Sunflowers. When they are almost 3 metres tall, they look beautiful.

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