In any controversy it can be helpful to consider the views of disinterested parties. So, on the subject of agricultural policy and practice, it’s worth noting that an unimpeachably neutral group has joined the ranks of those who prefer organic foods over foods produced with the help of synthetic chemicals. That group is 40 Swiss rats.

I recently heard a woman say, “least but not last.” She meant to say the usual, “last but not least,” but somehow, due to a slip of the lip, or perhaps because of some mild form of dyslexia, she inverted the words in this somewhat humorous way. And this got me thinking about humility, which people sometimes confuse with low self-esteem, thus viewing it as an inferior quality. To think of oneself as “least” is the last thing one would want to do.

Indian metallurgists have developed a type of corrosion-resistant iron that construction engineers would love. And vital clues for it came for Delhi's famous Iron Pillar that has been standing tall for over 1,600 years.

Even with a math degree, Chris Kuttenkuler had never seen anything like Vedic math before. Now he cannot stop thinking about it. Vedic (Vay-dik) math refers to an ancient Indian system of mathematics rooted in 16 principles. Calculations can be completed mentally and solved without traditional math methods.

As a longtime vegetarian, I've always been confident that my diet is better for the planet than that of your typical carnivore. But a vegan pal of mine says I could be doing a lot more, by rejecting all animal products—no eggs, no milk, not even the occasional bowl of mac 'n cheese. Is veganism really that much better for the environment?

The British government is being urged to speak to the Kazakhstan President to stop the harassment and human rights abuse against minority Hindu communities in that country. British MP's this week said they would pressure the Foreign Secretary to act after attending an event organized by the Hindu Forum of Europe at the House of Commons.

Suicide by pesticide: It's an epidemic in India, where farmers try to keep up with the latest pest-resistant seeds only to find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of pesticides that don't work, drought and debt. Since 1997, more than 25,000 farmers have committed suicide, many drinking the chemical that was supposed to make their crops more, not less, productive.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Sweden wants to curb the influence of religion in private confessional schools in a move to prevent the spread of fundamentalism, government officials said Monday. The new rules being drafted by the center-right government would ban religious elements in subjects other than religion, such as biology, Education Minister Jan Bjorklund told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Iskcon has turned its personal experience of the reality of terrorism into a reel weapon in the fight against terror across the world. A year after an act of violence sullied its precincts midway through a Janmashtami function, the management of the Iskcon temple in Imphal, Manipur has produced a documentary that it hopes will hold a mirror to practitioners of terror.

So-called hurricane modifiers aim to steer dangerous weather patterns off course and to weaken hurricanes in the hope of preventing disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Scientists have devised a plan to reduce hurricane wind speeds by having a plane drop soot into near-freezing clouds at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm.

People are getting fatter in all parts of the world, with the possible exception of south and east Asia, a one-day global snapshot shows.

Ohio University’s Global Leadership Center traveled three and a half hours last weekend through the multicolored autumnal Appalachian hills to visit New Vrindaban, a Hare Krishna farm — or an oasis or an amusement park, depending on whom you ask.

What do C.S. Lewis, Quentin Tarantino and J.K. Rowling have in common? Maybe nothing, but here's what I think. One, all will have hit the big screen by December 2005; two, all are considered innovators; three, all have written about their characters entering a parallel world.

The devotee who turned '60s rock group the Beatles on to Krishna consciousness and introduced them to Srila Prabhupada, Shyamasundar das, is recovering from a live-donor transplant after discovering he had a tumor on his liver.