TIME IS ON YOUR SIDE By BOB CONDOR When Dr. Stephan Rechtschaffen visits a big city, he often tests out his theory about how most of us perceive time. Which would be haphazardly. Rechtschaffen will spot someone who has just looked at his or her watch, maybe walking on a busy downtown sidewalk or waiting for a commuter ferry. He waits a moment, then asks the person for the time. Speed-Dialing Down By Paul Loeb The ad in the airline magazine shows a young boy on a swing, the backdrop for an interactive pager being held by a man's hands. "Maybe you don't have to send an e-mail right now," says BellSouth's ad for their interactive paging service. "But isn't it cool that you can?" The ad, with its headline of work @ lifespeed, celebrates a world where our jobs engulf our every waking moment.   Shopping with a Conscience By Anna Lappé It’s only fair to begin an article on responsible clothing with a personal audit. Let’s see…my Kookai jacket doesn’t say where it was made, but the label’s Chinese characters are a dead giveaway. My British Karen Millen pants—purchased in a jet-lagged delusion before remembering one dollar does not equal one pound—say "Made in Cyprus." My "Silver Woman" cowboy-inspired shirt was a Goodwill purchase and doesn’t seem to have a label; and my tattered cotton tank top’s label is long since gone. From the Editor by Bob Condor The conference started in earnest on a recent Monday morning at the Whidbey Institute in Clinton. Many participants took the ferry over from Mukilteo while others went many journey legs beyond that. There were representatives from Burundi, Haiti, Israel, Palestinian territories, Kashmir and Colombia. They were gathered to discuss "the practice of peace," a term that embraces learning peacemaking lessons and applying them to any country, region, town or neighborhood. The conference proceedings can be reviewed at http://practiceofpeace.com. StarWatch by James Jarvis By adding the universal year 2003, (2+0+0+3) = 5, to 12th month of December, we come up with the vibration of 17/8. The 8 month represents an opportunity to achieve greater mastery in our lives. It’s a great month for taking a look at your goals and brainstorming new possibilities for accomplishing them that you might not have thought of before. Try to suspend the critic, the cynic and the skeptic and move into new, uncharted territory.