HAL 9000

Afflictions

2011-12-19T19:50:00.000-06:00

People who do not know how to practice the way
want to get rid of afflictions.
Afflictions are originally void and null;
you are trying to use the way to seek the way beyond.

~ Pao-chih

Attitude

2011-09-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

If you can cultivate the right attitude, your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because their presence provides you with the opportunity to enhance and develop tolerance, patience and understanding.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Transcience

2011-08-05T12:15:00.000-05:00

All formations are transient; all formations are subject to suffering; all things are without a self. Therefore, whatever there be of form, of feeling, perception, mental formations, or consciousness, whether past, present, or future, one's own or external, gross or subtle, lofty or low, far or near, one should understand according to reality and true wisdom: "This does not belong to me; this am I not; this is not my Self."

- Anguttara Nikaya and Samyutta Nikaya

In every age

2011-01-31T12:54:00.001-06:00

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Whenever dharma declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to re-establish dharma.

- Bhagavad Gita 4:7-8

Attachment

2010-12-02T10:40:00.001-06:00

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When you keep thinking about sense objects, attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire, the lust of possession that burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgment; you can no longer learn from past mistakes. Lost is the power to choose between what is wise and what is unwise, and your life is utter waste.

But when you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end, and you live in the wisdom of the Self.

- Bhagavad Gita 2:62-65

Location

2010-10-23T23:30:00.000-05:00

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That which makes the eye see but cannot be Seen by the eye, that is the Self indeed. This Self is not someone other than you.

- Kena Upanishad

Ceaseless births

2010-06-17T11:10:00.001-05:00

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At all times and to all creatures
The seed of ceaseless births is desire.
If you must desire, desire freedom from birth.
That will only come by desiring desirelessness.
~ Tirukkural 37:361-362

The weeds

2010-04-12T18:37:00.000-05:00

Those who have spent ten or twenty years brushing aside the weeds looking for the way and yet have not see the buddha nature often say they are trapped by oblivion and excitement. What they don't realize is that the substance of this very oblivion and excitement is itself buddha nature.
~ Kao-feng

Development

2010-02-19T16:22:00.001-06:00

When tranquility is developed, what purpose does it serve?
The mind is developed.

And when the mind is developed, what purpose does it serve?
Passion is abandoned.

When insight is developed, what purpose does it serve?
Discernment is developed.

And when discernment is developed, what purpose does it serve?
Ignorance is abandoned.

~ Anguttara Nikaya

Discovery

2010-02-18T11:01:00.003-06:00

Don't wave lights and incense, or offer flowers and food. He is found effortlessly when worshipped through self-realization alone.

-- Maharamayana

Sic semper tyrannis

2009-12-31T15:25:00.001-06:00

China Is Losing a War Over Internet
Beijing Has Prevailed in Battles, but Segment of Society Has Awakened to the Constraints
By Loretta Chao and Jason Dean, The Wall Street Journal, December 31, 2009

BEIJING — These appear to be dark days for the Internet in China.

Four months into a crusade against Internet pornography, the government is closing thousands of sites—some pornographic, some not—and tightening rules on who can register Web addresses inside China.

Foreign sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, blocked by censors in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1, remain inaccessible to most Chinese users. Several prominent critics of the state who used the Internet to spread their message have been detained or imprisoned.

Yet this list of casualties obscures a larger truth: The censors are losing. ...

The censors "are winning the battles everywhere," says Isaac Mao, a blogging pioneer based in China and Chinese-Internet researcher, "but losing the war." ...

~ Full Story here

"Some animals are more equal than others"

2009-11-10T15:51:00.002-06:00

Russia's News Agency Allegedly Looking To Rebrand Stalin
By Jennifer Wright, Brandchannel, November 9, 2009

Stalin – he gave woman equal rights in Russia! Admittedly, that also meant the right to be massacred horribly as a portion of the 20 million people he purged. But it would seem the Russian government would have you focus on the former rather than the latter. To that end, they’re holding discussions with PR firms, looking to rebrand Stalin as kind of a good guy, according to EUobserver.

In addition to taking pitches on how to generally improve the image of Russia abroad (clue: this is not the right way to go about it), Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reportedly met with PR firms in Brussels to hear ideas for a campaign to rehabilitate Stalin. . . .

Pictured: Joseph Stalin in 1902

Full story here

Middle of nowhere

2009-10-26T18:40:00.001-05:00

Infographic of the Day: It's a Small World, Afterall
By Cliff Kuang, Fast Company, October 23, 2009

If you're wondering how "close" two places are, a geographic map doesn't help much anymore. If the airports are good--or if there's a bullet train nearby--hundreds of miles might as well be down the street. Point being, "distance" is now really a function less of geography, than of the transport networks we've invented.

Which is why researchers at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, and the World Bank, created this gorgeous map. They first created a model, which calculated how long it would take to travel from a given point, to the nearest city of 50,000 people or more; the model includes rail, road, and river networks. . . .

~ Full story here

Anglo-Saxon gold

2009-09-24T20:48:00.000-05:00

Huge hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure uncovered in UK
By Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press, September 24, 2009

LONDON – It's an unprecedented find that could revolutionize ideas about medieval England's Germanic rulers: An amateur treasure-hunter searching a farmer's field with a metal detector unearthed a huge collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts.

The discovery sent a thrill through Britain's archaeological community, which said that it offers new insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England from the fifth century until the 1066 Norman invasion and whose cultural influence is still felt throughout the English-speaking world.

"This is just a fantastic find completely out of the blue," Roger Bland, who managed the cache's excavation, told The Associated Press. "It will make us rethink the Dark Ages."

The treasure trove includes intricately designed helmet crests embossed with a frieze of running animals, enamel-studded sword fittings and a checkerboard piece inlaid with garnets and gold. One gold band bore a biblical inscription in Latin calling on God to drive away the bearer's enemies. . . .

~ Full story here

Bravery

2009-09-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

Sutton, inspiration of 'Norma Rae' . . . dead at 68
Times-News (Burlington, VT), September 11, 2009

Crystal Lee Sutton, the Burlington (Vermont) resident and former textile mill worker who tirelessly campaigned for workers’ rights and inspired an Oscar-winning film, died Friday.

Formerly known as Crystal Lee Jordan, Sutton died at the Hospice Home of Burlington. She was 68.

In 1975, New York Times reporter Hank Leiferman wrote “Crystal Lee, A Woman of Inheritance,” a book that chronicles Sutton’s life and efforts to unionize employees of the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids in the early 1970s. That story was later adapted into the 1979 film “Norma Rae.”

Sally Field portrayed Sutton and won her first Academy Award.

“Crystal Lee Sutton was a remarkable woman whose brave struggles have left a lasting impact on this country and without doubt, on me personally,” Field said in a statement Friday. “Portraying Crystal Lee in ‘Norma Rae,’ however loosely based, not only elevated me as an actress, but as a human being.” . . .

~ Full article here

Racism is alive and well in the United States

2009-09-14T10:09:00.002-05:00

Boy, Oh, Boy
By Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, September 12, 2009

. . . I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race. . . . But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it. . . .

Lost Horizon

2009-09-08T17:25:00.001-05:00

Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New Guinea
By Robert Booth, The Guardian, 7 September 2009

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea.

A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world. . . .

~ Full here

pressing the "reset" button

2009-08-20T09:27:00.000-05:00

Time to Press the 'Reset' Button
Kurt Andersen on Building a More Sustainable Economy, World
By James B. Arndorfer, Advertising Age, August 19, 2009

Given we've already seen a bumper crop of books explaining what caused the Great Recession, we're now due for a flood explaining what it means. And what comes next.

Kurt Andersen may have seized first-mover advantage in March with a well-regarded article in Time magazine titled "The End of Excess." In the article, he argued that the crisis was "good for America" as it took us off an unsustainable track. No less resonant was the image of a red "reset" button on the issue cover. The word "reset" was on the lips on more than a few executives then describing the landscape.

"Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America" is an expanded -- well, to 72 pages of content -- version of the article. As founder of Spy magazine and author of panoramic novels ("Heyday," "Turn of the Century"), Andersen seems a natural to distill the zeitgeist.

His argument: Our current woes are a result of the go-go '80s ethos never ending (not an unsurprising argument from a Spy alum) and now we, as a country, have an historic opportunity to build a more grounded and sustainable world. It's a moral tale, with Andersen in the role of 21st-century Puritan minister. But instead of warning of damnation, Andersen's optimism runs through every page: "This is the end of the world as we've known it," he writes. "But it isn't the end of the world."

Critics can take issue with any number of Andersen's points (Does history really move in cycles? Are we really ready to leave behind old ideological splits?), but it's hard to argue against the fact of "a reset." The bursting of the housing bubble destroyed trillions in household wealth. It's not coming back anytime soon. That simple fact is going to have profound consequences on consumer behavior and the economy. . . .

~ Full article here

Google Blogger arbitrarily shuts down blogs

2009-08-19T16:22:00.001-05:00

Details at this Web site:

http://googlebloggerclosesgayblogs.blogspot.com/

forty (impossible) years from Woodstock

2009-08-07T17:33:00.001-05:00

Woodstock: A Moment of Muddy Grace
By Jon Pareles, The New York Times, Publication date August 9, 2009

Baby boomers won’t let go of the Woodstock Festival. Why should we? It’s one of the few defining events of the late 1960s that had a clear happy ending.

On Aug. 15 to 17, 1969, hundreds of thousands of people, me among them, gathered in a lovely natural amphitheater in Bethel (not Woodstock), N.Y. We listened to some of the best rock musicians of the era, enjoyed other legal and illegal pleasures, endured rain and mud and exhaustion and hunger pangs, felt like a giant community and dispersed, all without catastrophe. . . .

~ Full article here

Photos from those attending, via The New York Times

anger and desire

2009-08-07T16:21:00.000-05:00

It is not that anger and desire are inherently evil or that we should feel ashamed when they arise. It is a matter of seeing them as the delusions that they are: distorted conceptions that paint a false picture of reality. They are negative because they lead to unhappiness and confusion.

~ Kathleen McDonald, "How to Meditate"

"in vitro designed"

2009-07-08T15:44:00.001-05:00

Sperm created from stem cells
By Clive Cookson, Science Editor, Financial Times, July 8 2009

Scientists have created human sperm for the first time from stem cells.

The research, carried out at Newcastle university, might enable infertile men to have children, while provoking another ethical debate on the progress of reproductive biology.

Karim Nayernia, project leader, said the “in vitro designed” sperm produced in his laboratory looked fully mobile and functional under the microscope, though more research would be needed before IVD sperm were used to fertilise human eggs. The work might lead to a fertility treatment in five to 10 years, he said.

The scientists cultured stem cells, derived from a male embryo, with special chemicals to set them on the path towards becoming sperm. A few of the cells underwent the crucial step of meiosis, cell division, followed by growth into mobile sperm with a head, to fertilise the egg, and tail (for mobility). . . .

~ Full article here

it's life's illusions I recall

2009-06-15T19:48:00.001-05:00

New cloud type? It would be 1st since '51
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY, June 15, 2009

It's an exciting time to have your head in the clouds.

Meteorologists are debating whether to seek formal recognition for the first new cloud variety since 1951, prompted in part by strange clouds photographed in 2006 by Jane Wiggins, a paralegal in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

She later posted the image she labeled "Armageddon" on the website of the Cloud Appreciation Society, an England-based group of more than 16,000 cloud enthusiasts created in 2005.

After several more photos of similar formations were posted on the site, society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney asked the Royal Meteorological Society in Reading, England, if they depict a previously unclassified cloud type.

Wiggins' photo is part of the evidence meteorologists there are weighing as they decide whether to ask the World Meteorological Organization to recognize the undulus asperatus, Latin for "turbulent undulation." . . .

~ Full story here

pimping the ride

2009-05-26T20:54:00.001-05:00

It's a very small step from "female companionship" on the golf course to some form of paid, professional prostitution. And from the following story, which does not pass the smell test, it may be possible the step has been taken.

Lady Golfers for Rent: Escort Service for Duffers?
By Sean Gregory, Time magazine, May. 21, 2009

Visit any public or private golf course, any day of the week, and you'll spot the same things. Manicured trees and flush fairways. Ecstatic fist pumps, as hacks somehow chip it near the cup. Displays of intense frustration, as the scratch golfers blow 4-ft. putts.

Most of all, you'll see guys. Lots and lots of guys, in ill-striped shirts, in ill-fitting pants and with ill-considered caps on their balding heads. To combat this mass of masculinity on the nation's golf courses, a growing Las Vegas–based company called Play Golf Designs has started a fairway-beautification project. Founded by Nisha Sadekar, a former LPGA prospect, Play Golf Designs offers a simple service. For a substantial fee, one of the company's roster of beautiful female professional golfers will play a round or two with you and your co-workers at a corporate outing, with your clients who need to be schmoozed or just with you and your buddies during a bachelor party. "One of the girls will show up on the golf course and change the day," says Sadekar, 28, who grew up playing in Toronto. "They'll liven things up. When you see these beautiful women, with their smiles, fashion sense and great skill, it rubs off on you."

And how. The company is not shy about playing up the sexuality of its golfers, a strategy that disturbs some women's sports advocates. Two women, standing back to back in high heels, tight sleeveless shirts and black shorts shorter than a tap-in putt, greet visitors to the company's website, PlayGolfDesigns.com. "Whenever anyone, including the athletes themselves, chooses to portray female athletes in other than sport-appropriate attire on the golf course, like these two golfers on the fairway, they're selling a sexual stereotype, not a skilled professional golfer," says Donna Lopiano, former CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation and the current president of Sports Management Resources. "It offends me as a woman and fan of women's professional golf. Even the course superintendent wouldn't allow them on the course — unless it was to aerate the fairways with their spiked heels." . . .

~ Full story here

yes we can.

2009-04-06T22:04:00.001-05:00

How Obama Is Using the Science of Change
By Michael Grunwald, Time, April 2, 2009

... We all know Obama won the election because he looked like change, sounded like change and never stopped campaigning for change. But he didn't call for just change in Washington — or even just change in America. From his declarations that "change comes from the bottom up" to his admonitions about "an era of profound irresponsibility," Obama called for change in Americans. And not just in bankers or insurers — in all of us. His Zen koan, "We are the change we've been waiting for," may sound like New Age gibberish, but it's at the core of his agenda.

In fact, Obama is betting his presidency on our ability to change our behavior. His top priorities — the economy, health care and energy — all depend on it. We need to spend more money now to avert a short-term depression, then save more money later to secure our long-term economic future. We need to consume less energy in order to reduce our oil imports and carbon emissions as well as our household expenses. We need to quit smoking, lay off the Twinkies and avoid other risky behaviors that both damage our personal health and boost the costs of care that are ravaging the nation's fiscal health. Basically, we need to make better choices — about mortgages and credit cards, insurance and retirement plans — so we won't need bailouts down the road.

The problem, as anyone with a sweet tooth, an alcoholic relative or a maxed-out Visa card knows, is that old habits die hard. Temptation is strong. We are weak. We've got plenty of gurus, talk-show hosts and celebrity spokespeople badgering us to save energy, lose weight and live within our means, but we're still addicted to oil, junk food and debt. It's fair to ask whether we're even capable of changing. ...

Behavioral science — especially the burgeoning field of behavioral economics that has been popularized by Freakonomics, The Wisdom of Crowds, Predictably Irrational, Nudge and Animal Spirits, which is the new must-read in Obamaworld — is already shaping dozens of Administration policies. "It really applies to all the big areas where we need change," says Obama budget director Peter Orszag. ...

~ Full article here

the world

2009-04-02T11:57:00.000-05:00

Thus shall ye think of this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud;
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

~ Diamond Sutra

instrument

2009-03-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

The body will be turned by the power of the spiritual consciousness into a true and fit and perfectly responsive instrument of the Spirit.

~ Sri Aurobindo

nothing dehumanizing about this

2009-03-03T16:51:00.001-06:00

German twenty-somethings prefer Internet to partner
Reuters, March 2, 2009

HANOVER - German twenty-somethings would ditch their spouses and do without a car in a heartbeat if they had to choose between having them or Internet access or a mobile phone, according to an industry study.

In a survey by German broadband association Bitkom around 84 percent of respondents aged 19-29 said they would rather do without their current partner or an automobile than forego their connection to the Web.

Living without a mobile phone was also unthinkable for 97 percent of those questioned in that age range.

Nevertheless, Bitkom president August-Wilhelm Scheer said on Monday in Hanover that did not mean that "the Web is an anonymous medium that leads to social indifference." . . .

~ Full story here

true Self

2009-02-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

Love your true Self,
Which is naturally happy
And peaceful and bright!

Awaken to your own nature,
And all delusion melts like a dream.

-Ashtavakra Gita 18:1

carbon sink

2009-02-19T17:09:00.002-06:00

Forests absorb 20 percent of fossil fuel emissions: study
By Michael Kahn, Reuters, February 18, 2009

LONDON - Tropical trees have grown bigger over the past 40 years and now absorb 20 percent of fossil fuel emissions from the atmosphere, highlighting the need to preserve threatened forests, British researchers said Wednesday.

Using data collected from nearly 250,000 trees in the world's tropical forests over the past 40 years, their study found that tropical forests across the world remove 4.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

"To get an idea of the value of the sink, the removal of nearly 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by intact tropical forests, based on realistic prices for a ton of carbon, should be valued at around 13 billion pounds per year," said Lee White, Gabon's chief climate change scientist, who co-led the study, said in a statement.

The researchers do not know exactly why trees are getting bigger and mopping up more carbon but they suspect that extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be acting like a fertilizer. . . .

~ Full story here

an end to the Roaring 2000s

2009-02-19T17:03:00.001-06:00

The Shopper of Tomorrow: Trading Down
February 18, 2009, in Knowledge@Wharton, The Wharton School

Attention Shoppers: We no longer have the following items -- "a sense of entitlement," "conspicuous consumption" and "a golden period of luxury." At least that is the word from Wharton faculty and other experts who point to a new logic that is defining not just what U.S. consumers buy, but how they view the shopping experience.

While shoppers typically pull back during the downward phase of any economic cycle, the severity and uncertainty of today's crisis is likely to have longer-lasting effects on their attitudes than most slumps, these experts note. Consumers, they suggest, will eventually start spending again, but without the vigor enabled by easy credit in the Roaring 2000s.

"The Great Depression certainly changed consumer behavior and attitudes for a generation," says Wharton marketing professor Wesley Hutchinson. "It's not obvious that we will have that psychological scar, but there is precedent for a very large shift."

Over the next 18 months, Hutchinson predicts, consumers will learn to become more frugal and are likely to carry those skills over once the economy recovers. "At some level, everybody has now been schooled about financial markets and overextending one's credit -- something American consumers have been notoriously bad at. We had a habit of not paying a lot of attention to the cost of using borrowed money."

Wharton marketing professor Stephen Hoch sees consumers as embracing a new logic. "Until recently, there has been a theme of entitlement that people really latched onto," he says. It was built on the belief that consumers worked hard and were entitled to splurge on rewards to compensate for the time and energy devoted to making money. Luxury goods marketers promoted the "entitlement" theme heavily, although they have now backed away almost entirely from this pitch.

Consumers who had learned to trade up when times were flush are now learning to trade down, Hoch adds. They realize they were wasting money on higher-priced goods and services when less expensive alternatives were available with little real trade-off in quality or satisfaction. Indeed, many consumers regret what they used to spend; they are finding a new sense of well-being in becoming more discerning shoppers. "There will be more of a premium placed on seeking value," Hoch says. "People will realize that's being smart." . . .

~ Full article here

how to make singers lazy

2009-02-16T14:34:00.001-06:00

Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect
By Josh Tyrangiel, TIME, February 5, 2009

If you haven't been listening to pop radio in the past few months, you've missed the rise of two seemingly opposing trends. In a medium in which mediocre singing has never been a bar to entry, a lot of pop vocals suddenly sound great. Better than great: note- and pitch-perfect, as if there's been an unspoken tightening of standards at record labels or an evolutionary leap in the development of vocal cords. At the other extreme are a few hip-hop singers who also hit their notes but with a precision so exaggerated that on first listen, their songs sound comically artificial, like a chorus of '50s robots singing Motown.

The force behind both trends is an ingenious plug-in called Auto-Tune, a downloadable studio trick that can take a vocal and instantly nudge it onto the proper note or move it to the correct pitch. It's like Photoshop for the human voice. Auto-Tune doesn't make it possible for just anyone to sing like a pro, but used as its creator intended, it can transform a wavering performance into something technically flawless. "Right now, if you listen to pop, everything is in perfect pitch, perfect time and perfect tune," says producer Rick Rubin. "That's how ubiquitous Auto-Tune is."

Auto-Tune's inventor is a man named Andy Hildebrand, who worked for years interpreting seismic data for the oil industry. Using a mathematical formula called autocorrelation, Hildebrand would send sound waves into the ground and record their reflections, providing an accurate map of potential drill sites. It's a technique that saves oil companies lots of money and allowed Hildebrand to retire at 40. He was debating the next chapter of his life at a dinner party when a guest challenged him to invent a box that would allow her to sing in tune. After he tinkered with autocorrelation for a few months, Auto-Tune was born in late 1996.

Almost immediately, studio engineers adopted it as a trade secret to fix flubbed notes, saving them the expense and hassle of having to redo sessions. The first time common ears heard Auto-Tune was on the immensely irritating 1998 Cher hit "Believe." In the first verse, when Cher sings "I can't break through" as though she's standing behind an electric fan, that's Auto-Tune--but it's not the way Hildebrand meant it to be used. The program's retune speed, which adjusts the singer's voice, can be set from zero to 400. "If you set it to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds," says Hildebrand. "But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch instantaneously"--eliminating the natural transition between notes and making the singer sound jumpy and automated. "I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that," he says. . . .

~ Complete story here

"justice" in American sports

2009-02-11T10:10:00.002-06:00

Phelps gets suspended, A-Rod gets ... nothing
By Daniel Trotta, Reuters, February 11, 2009

The punishments of swimmer Michael Phelps and baseball star Alex Rodriguez don't fit their relative crimes, experts said, raising questions about how Americans treat their sports heroes when they fall from grace.

Phelps partied with marijuana, a performance-detracting drug, and was suspended from swimming. Rodriguez took banned performance-enhancing drugs for three years and suffered no penalty but an uncomfortable television interview.

The American swimmer Phelps, 23, won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Games last summer but lost an endorsement deal with U.S. food giant Kellogg Co after a British newspaper published a picture of the Olympic champion apparently smoking marijuana.

USA Swimming then suspended him for three months.

Rodriguez, 33, the highest paid player in baseball, admitted to ESPN television on Monday that he took a banned substance from 2001 to 2003 after Sports Illustrated reported he tested positive for testosterone and the anabolic steroid Primobolan in 2003.

He escapes sanctions from Major League baseball because it did not punish players at that time for using steroids.

"We should leave Michael Phelps alone. He's a kid. So he made a mistake. He owned up to it right away -- as opposed to A-Rod, whose been lying about it for a number of years," said Deborah Cohn, professor of marketing at New York's Touro College.

So far other sponsors have stood by Phelps, including Speedo swimwear, Omega watches, Visa Inc, Subway sandwiches and Hilton Hotels Corp. . . .

~ Full story here

shrinking winter

2009-02-10T17:11:00.002-06:00

Study: Birds shifting north; global warming cited
By Dina Cappiello, Associated Press, February 10, 2009

When it comes to global warming, the canary in the coal mine isn't a canary at all. It's a purple finch.

As the temperature across the U.S. has gotten warmer, the purple finch has been spending its winters more than 400 miles farther north than it used to.

And it's not alone.

An Audubon Society study has found that more than half of 305 birds species in North America, a hodgepodge that includes robins, gulls, chickadees and owls, are spending the winter about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago.

The purple finch was the biggest northward mover. Its wintering grounds are now more along the latitude of Milwaukee, Wis., instead of Springfield, Mo.

Bird ranges can expand and shift for many reasons, among them urban sprawl, deforestation and the supplemental diet provided by backyard feeders. But researchers say the only explanation for why so many birds over such a broad area are wintering in more northern locales is global warming.

Over the 40 years covered by the study, the average January temperature in the United States climbed by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. That warming was most pronounced in northern states, which have already recorded an influx of more southern species and could see some northern species retreat into Canada as ranges shift. . . .

~ Full story here

fire

2009-02-10T16:58:00.002-06:00

Suffering chastens us and makes us remember. We are like the child who tries to pick up fire and is unlikely to do it again, once she has seen the consequences. With material things, seeing is easy; but when it comes to picking up the fires of greed, aversion, and delusion, most of us aren’t even aware we’re holding fires at all. On the contrary, we misguidedly believe them to be lovable and desirable, and so we are never chastened. We never learn our lesson.

~ Buddhadhasa Bhikku, "Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree"

mors arboris

2009-01-23T10:00:00.000-06:00

Study Ties Tree Deaths To Change in Climate
By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, January 23, 2009

The death rates of trees in Western U.S. forests have doubled over the past two to three decades, according to a new study spearheaded by the U.S. Geological Survey, driven in large part by higher temperatures and water scarcity linked to climate change.

The findings, being published today in the online journal Science, examined changes in 76 long-term forest plots in three broad regions across the West, and found similar shifts regardless of the areas' elevations, fire histories, dominant species and tree sizes. It is the largest research project ever done on old-growth forests in North America.

Nathan L. Stephenson, one of the lead authors, said summers are getting longer and hotter in the West, subjecting trees to greater stress from droughts and attacks by insect infestations, factors that contribute to tree die-offs.

"It's very likely that mortality rates will continue to rise," said Stephenson, a scientist at the Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center, adding that the death of older trees is rapidly exceeding the growth of new ones, akin to a town where the deaths of old people are outpacing the number of babies being born. "If you saw that going on in your home town, you'd be concerned." . . .

~ Full story here

more news from the ovarian lottery

2009-01-14T09:59:00.002-06:00

In High-Stakes Stock Trading, Finger Length Matters
Study finds testosterone exposure in womb creates long ring finger, financial success
By Alan Mozes, HealthDay Reporter, MSN.com/HealthDay News, January 12, 2009

For all those whose ring finger far outstretches their index finger, British researchers have pinpointed the perfect job: high-volume stock trader.

According to a new study, having a relatively long ring finger augurs well for success in those high-stress financial arenas where fast thinking, good reflexes and good old-fashioned guts matter most. A lengthy fourth digit, the authors note, indicates greater exposure to testosterone in the womb, which in turn gives what they call "high-frequency" traders a biological leg up by encouraging the development of the right mix of mental attitude and physical skills for making money in a cutthroat business.

The finding is reported in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. . . .

The team noted that a reliable marker for high prenatal testosterone exposure is having a fourth finger (ring finger) that is longer than the second finger (index finger), a ratio previously used to predict improved performance in a range of competitive sports. The authors then used this finger size indicator -- known as 2D:4D -- to stack up each trader's financial success with his testosterone exposure while in the womb.

After accounting for both trader age and years of job experience, Coates and his associates concluded that having a relatively long ring finger (meaning more testosterone exposure in the womb) appeared to be equal to experience as a harbinger of greater financial success in high-frequency trading.

They stressed that in other financial arenas, the testosterone effect might not be as central. But in the specific world of high-frequency trading, having a lengthy ring finger relative to the index finger definitely appeared to translate into both higher long-term profitability and a longer period of time in which the person remained in the high-frequency trading field. . . .

~Full story here

Georgey Bushy Agonistes

2009-01-13T21:38:00.001-06:00

With a nod toward Gary Wills -- Surprise, surprise. It turns out, upon his "exit strategy," that George Bush is even more unbearable than we could have realized.

Analysis: With odd news conference, Bush offers extraordinary glimpse into presidency
By Ted Anthony, Associated Press National Writer, January 13, 2009

Picture Lincoln, in the throes of the Civil War, suddenly mocking his critics in a nyah-nyah voice. Imagine Theodore Roosevelt, leaving office, lamenting out loud about how hated he was by Standard Oil. Summon an image of FDR cracking wise about his wheelchair and grousing about the nasty things Hitler was saying about him.

Now consider George W. Bush on Monday. He bobbed and weaved and smiled wistfully, quipped about giving up drinking, deployed a mock European accent to kid a reporter, vowed to make his wife coffee. At the same time, he warned about terrorism, bristled at comments that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was slow and said finding no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — the rationale for a six-year war — was "a significant disappointment."

"You never escape the presidency," says Bush, who is about to. But before he did, the guy who is the most powerful leader on the planet for one more week had some things to say in what he called "the ultimate exit interview."

The session, televised live, was offered up as a valedictory news conference. But it also proved an extraordinary glimpse behind the psychic curtain and an illuminating window into what we want — and may not want — out of the modern presidency.

Bush was at turns erratic and eloquent, nostalgic and melancholy, gracious and cantankerous, regular guy-ish and resignation-era Nixonian. It all felt strangely intimate and, occasionally, uncomfortable in the manner of seeing a plumber wearing jeans that ride too low.

"He was like a second-semester senior — the grades don't matter anymore," said John Baick, a historian at Western New England College who studies the presidency.

Americans are forever insisting they want a regular Joe in the Oval Office, someone they could go out and grab a beer with. Could it be, though, that in this post-Monicagate era of the celebrity full monty, there are actually some presidential ruminations we can do without? Was George W. Bush, of all people, too intimate on Monday? . . .

~Full article here

bottomed-out boomers

2009-01-13T17:56:00.003-06:00

Boomers Caught in Squeeze Play
Why this group's changing fortunes could mean a slowdown in consumption for years to come
By Noreen O'Leary, Adweek, January 12, 2009

American consumers have no recollection of life in the Great Depression. Not only are most simply too young to remember it, but for the last quarter century they've lived without extended economic hardship, becoming ever more acquisitive in a world of instant gratification and easy credit. No one knows how long or severe the current downturn will be.

The circumstances of this recession are unprecedented in the history of modern consumerism: For a generation that has substituted rising home equity and stock prices for personal savings, the current economic meltdown -- with the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Index plunging 40 percent from its peak and $4 trillion lost in home equity -- has been psychologically wrenching after a quarter century of unquestioned prosperity.

Factor in the loss of confidence in financial institutions and an investing world where even the very rich can be wiped out through Ponzi schemes and you have a group of shell-shocked consumers who are reconsidering long-held spending habits.

Much has been made about the everyday stuff of thrifty consumerism -- coupon clipping, fewer restaurant meals, brown-bagging it to work, staying close to home for vacations. But those thumbnail sketches of a contracting economy miss the big picture: The fears among baby boomers, who account for more than half of U.S. spending and who traditionally have grown more affluent with age.

Eric Almquist, a Bain & Co. partner, points to the number of retirement-age individuals who are becoming more conservative with money. "One of the unique things in the Western world now is that you have a huge group of pre-retirement baby boomers, a huge number of people who are asking, 'Can I live off my savings and social security for the rest of my life?'" observes Almquist. "This creates the potential to switch behaviors. They'll watch pennies more closely, be more careful with credit, avoid losses and be more risk adverse, preserve the status quo, rather than gain gains."

Already there are signs of that change. In one of the most dramatic reversals in post-World War II history, Americans -- who in recent years have had negative savings rate -- are expected to flip those patterns, with Goldman Sachs now saying the U.S. savings rate could be as high as 6 percent to 10 percent this year. . . .

~ Full story here

the modern Nero

2009-01-05T16:37:00.003-06:00

In its enitrety, here is an essay by Bob Herbert that sums up the complete and total disaster of the Bush Administration and the damage it has done to the United States.

Add Up the Damage
By Bob Herbert, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times, December 30, 2008

Does anyone know where George W. Bush is?

You don’t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad.

We’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions.

But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd.

When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country.

This is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job.

The Bush administration specialized in deceit. How else could you get the public (and a feckless Congress) to go along with an invasion of Iraq as an absolutely essential response to the Sept. 11 attacks, when Iraq had had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

Exploiting the public’s understandable fears, Mr. Bush made it sound as if Iraq was about to nuke us: “We cannot wait,” he said, “for the final proof — the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

He then set the blaze that has continued to rage for nearly six years, consuming more than 4,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. (A car bomb over the weekend killed two dozen more Iraqis, many of them religious pilgrims.) The financial cost to the U.S. will eventually reach $3 trillion or more, according to the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.

A year into the war Mr. Bush was cracking jokes about it at the annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association. He displayed a series of photos that showed him searching the Oval Office, peering behind curtains and looking under the furniture. A mock caption had Mr. Bush saying: “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.”

And then there’s the Bush economy, another disaster, a trapdoor through which middle-class Americans can plunge toward the bracing experiences normally reserved for the poor and the destitute.

Mr. Bush traveled the country in the early days of his presidency, promoting his tax cut plans as hugely beneficial to small-business people and families of modest means. This was more deceit. The tax cuts would go overwhelmingly to the very rich.

The president would give the wealthy and the powerful virtually everything they wanted. He would throw sand into the regulatory apparatus and help foster the most extreme income disparities since the years leading up to the Great Depression. Once again he was lighting a fire. This time the flames would engulf the economy and, as with Iraq, bring catastrophe.

If the U.S. were a product line, it would be seen now as deeply damaged goods, subject to recall.

There seemed to be no end to Mr. Bush’s talent for destruction. He tried to hand the piggy bank known as Social Security over to the marauders of the financial sector, but saner heads prevailed.

In New Orleans, the president failed to intervene swiftly and decisively to aid the tens of thousands of poor people who were very publicly suffering and, in many cases, dying. He then compounded this colossal failure of leadership by traveling to New Orleans and promising, in a dramatic, floodlit appearance, to spare no effort in rebuilding the flood-torn region and the wrecked lives of the victims.

He went further, vowing to confront the issue of poverty in America “with bold action.”

It was all nonsense, of course. He did nothing of the kind.

The catalog of his transgressions against the nation’s interests — sins of commission and omission — would keep Mr. Bush in a confessional for the rest of his life. Don’t hold your breath. He’s hardly the contrite sort.

He told ABC’s Charlie Gibson: “I don’t spend a lot of time really worrying about short-term history. I guess I don’t worry about long-term history, either, since I’m not going to be around to read it.”

The president chuckled, thinking — as he did when he made his jokes about the missing weapons of mass destruction — that there was something funny going on.

~ The article appears here / Copyright The New York Times 2008

golden birds

2009-01-05T14:27:00.001-06:00

The ego and the Self dwell as intimate friends in the same body, like two golden birds perched in the same tree.

The ego eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree, while the Self looks on detached.

For as long as you identify with the ego, you will feel joy and sorrow.

~ Mundaka Upanishad

on earth

2008-12-24T09:53:00.001-06:00

Live in rooms full of light.
-- Aulus Cornelius Celsus (ca. 25 BC—ca. 50)

storm

2008-12-19T13:39:00.001-06:00

Knowing yourself as That
In which the worlds rise and fall
Like waves in the ocean,
Why do you run about so wretchedly?

~ Ashtavakra Gita 3:3

From "The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita," by Thomas Byrom

an "enterprising" idea

2008-12-16T17:13:00.003-06:00

Paying down the deficit with whizzing shoes
By Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, December 15, 2008

A Saudi reportedly has offered $10 million for just one of the shoes thrown at President Bush in Iraq. That got me thinking. The journalist who threw the shoes no longer possesses them, of course, but hopefully some member of the White House staff picked them up and will do a deal with the Saudi buyer. The second one could be put on Ebay to defray the White House travel costs.

But that got me thinking. The Times article about the Saudi offer says that the shoe-thrower is a hero around Iraq, and indeed in much of the Arab world. That suggests that the resale market for shoes thrown at Mr. Bush is fairly deep. And in this difficult economic environment, can we as a nation overlook any way of raising money?

Couldn’t we trot out Mr. Bush before a series of, er, unfriendly audiences, with a White house aide then designated to collect the shoes and auction them off? (To protect Mr. Bush, we could insist that attendees wear only slippers, but in any case he seems to have excellent reflexes and is a pretty good sport.) My own research suggests that a three-week presidential tour of the Islamic world, Latin America and Western Europe would generate a considerable number of flying shoes. Even if there are diminishing returns and we can sell them for an average of only $3 million each, that could bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Treasury. If a Saudi will pay $10 million for a single shoe that missed the president, consider the income-earning potential of a pair of slippers that actually grazed a presidential ear, perhaps autographed by him as well? Given that a lame-duck president doesn’t have much else to do, Mr. Bush might as well spend his final weeks raising money to pay for a fiscal stimulus, and the United States might capitalize on his global unpopularity.

312 million years

2008-12-03T17:47:00.003-06:00

Ancient insect imprint found in Massachusetts
By Gene Emery, Reuters, December 3, 2008

U.S. researchers say they have discovered what appears to be the oldest imprint of a prehistoric insect, made while the dragonfly-like creature was still alive.

The imprint found at a rocky outcrop near a large shopping center in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, is believed to have been made by an insect about three inches long as it stood on mud some 312 million years ago.

"It's not a dragonfly but picture a dragonfly-like body. We're looking at something related, maybe a mayfly. They have the same body plan," said the discoverer, Richard Knecht, a geology student at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

The fossilized remains of a wing that may have belonged to the same species were uncovered two weeks ago. . . .

~ Full story here

awakened

2008-11-30T19:01:00.000-06:00

An act of meditation is actually an act of faith -- of faith in your spirit, in your own potential. Faith is the basis of meditation. Not of faith in something outside you -- a metaphysical buddha, an unattainable ideal, or someone else's words. The faith is in yourself, in your own "buddha-nature." You too can be a buddha, an awakened being that lives and responds in a wise, creative, and compassionate way.

~ Martine Batchelor, "Meditation for Life"

$7.8 trillion. That's $7.8 TRILLION.

2008-11-26T22:40:00.000-06:00

Any attempt to comprehend the current economic situation in the United States requires a willing suspension of disbelief never even remotely imagined by science fiction writers. The size and scope of the federal government's bailout numbers are genuinely frightening. The U.S. Treasury's eagerness to print money on this scale cannot be sustained without causing massive harm to U.S. taxpayers in the years ahead.

This is the horrific mess that George Bush and his incompetent goons have left behind for Barack Obama. Sure, there's delicious (but disturbing) irony in seeing the wholesale socialization of America's economy occur during the watch of "free market," laissez faire Republican hypocrites, but there's no joy in seeing the comeuppance of greedy GOP jerks. Everyone is now doomed to suffer the terrible consequences of the the New Gilded Age of the Bush era.

Michael Ramirez / Creator's Syndicate

U.S. Details $800 Billion Loan Plans
By Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times, November 26, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve and the Treasury announced $800 billion in new lending programs . . . sending a message that they would print as much money as needed to revive the nation’s crippled banking system.

The gargantuan efforts — one to finance loans for consumers, and a bigger one to push down home mortgage rates — were the latest but probably not the last of the federal government’s initiatives to absorb the shocks that began with losses on subprime mortgages and have spread to every corner of the economy.

In the last year, the government has assumed about $7.8 trillion in direct and indirect financial obligations. That is equal to about half the size of the nation’s entire economy and far eclipses the $700 billion that Congress authorized for the Treasury’s financial rescue plan.

Those obligations include about $1.4 trillion that has already been committed to loans, capital infusions to banks and the rescues of firms like Bear Stearns and the American International Group, the troubled insurance conglomerate. But they also include additional trillions in government guarantees on mortgages, bank deposits, commercial loans and money market funds. . . .

The long-term risks are enormous but difficult to estimate. They begin with the danger of a new surge of inflation, at least after the economy comes out of its current downturn. Beyond that, taxpayers will have to pick up the losses from loans that default or guarantees that have to be made good.

But the most troublesome unknowns are how the maze of protections for investors and consumers will change economic and political behavior in the future. . . .

~ Full story here

mist

2008-11-07T10:50:00.000-06:00

Body impermanent like spring mist;
mind insubstantial like empty sky;
thoughts unestablished like breezes in space.
Think about these three points over and over.

-Adept Godrakpa, "Hermit of Go Cliffs"

ivy.covered.

2008-10-29T17:44:00.001-05:00

Brands in a League of Their Own
by Barry Silverstein, BrandChannel.com, October 27, 2008 issue

The Ivies are renowned for their history, reputation, quality, and selectivity. While average consumers may not be able to name every one of the eight “Ivy League” schools, they know exactly the type of institution to which the term refers. (For the record, the schools are, in alphabetical order, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.)

The Ivy League is a collection of schools along the east coast of the United States that are among the country’s oldest. They are also at the pinnacle of the competitive admissions scale. While “Ivy” refers to the plant that adorns the buildings on some of the campuses, the famous label actually resulted from the fact that these schools competed with each other in the same athletic conference. A sports writer coined the term “Ivy League” in the 1930s, and it remained as the name associated with the schools. Only years later did these competitors think of themselves truly as a collective force.

From a branding perspective, cooperation turned out to be a strategically wise move. Over the years, Ivy League has taken on a meaning far beyond its original intention. Now the term connotes an exceptional education, prestige, and business connections that virtually guarantee career success. While other colleges and universities may be of equal or even better quality, they can never achieve the perceived status of the Ivy League. To demonstrate the point, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), two outstanding universities in their own right, are sometimes referred to as the “Ivy Plus” schools.

But the brand image is not always positive. The Ivy League is perceived by some to smack of elitism. That perception would not be entirely erroneous. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The New Yorker in 2005 that Ivy League admission directors “are in the luxury-brand-management business, and ‘The Chosen,’ in the end, is a testament to just how well the brand managers in Cambridge, New Haven, and Princeton have done their job in the past seventy-five years.”

A 2007 BusinessWeek article entitled “The Dangerous Wealth of the Ivy League” reports that “… the wealth gap between the Ivies and everyone else has never been wider. The $5.7 billion in investment gains generated by Harvard’s endowment for the year ended June 30 exceeded the total endowment assets of all but six U.S. universities…” . . .

While the eight schools are privileged to be part of the Ivy League, each must also pay close to attention to its individual brand. Sometimes that brand may need refurbishing, as was the case with Cornell. Several years ago, a group of students became concerned about the university’s “country cousin” status in the Ivy League. According to an article in The New York Times (“Cornell’s Worried Image Makers Wrap Themselves in Ivy,” April 22, 2006), the students felt Cornell was underappreciated. They formed a committee, “making it their mission to press the university into marketing and branding itself more aggressively.”

The result of the student push was the abandonment of the university’s modern logo—the word CORNELL in contemporary type on a red background—in favor of using the traditional school crest. “The committee also persuaded the bookstore to stock a line of vintage hats and sweatshirts that decidedly emphasize Cornell’s Ivy League roots,” said the Times article. The university’s website was revamped to be “more traditional and more elegant.” As one student put it, the image committee confirmed that “we are an Ivy League school, and it’s O.K. to be an Ivy League school.” . . .

~ Full aricle here

how many canaries in the mine do we need?

2008-10-17T12:40:00.003-05:00

Report: Arctic temperatures at record highs
By Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press Science Writer, via USA Today, October 16, 2008

Autumn temperatures in the Arctic are at record levels, the Arctic Ocean is getting warmer and less salty as sea ice melts, and reindeer herds appear to be declining, researchers reported Thursday.

"Obviously, the planet is interconnected, so what happens in the Arctic does matter" to the rest of the world, Jackie Richter-Menge of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., said in releasing the third annual Arctic Report Card.

The report, compiled by 46 scientists from 10 countries, looks at a variety of conditions in the Arctic.

The region has long been expected to be among the first areas to show impacts from global warming, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says is largely a result of human activities adding carbon dioxide and other gases to the atmosphere.

"Changes in the Arctic show a domino effect from multiple causes more clearly than in other regions," said James Overland, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "It's a sensitive system and often reflects changes in relatively fast and dramatic ways."

For example, autumn air temperatures in the Arctic are at a record 9 degrees above normal.

The report noted that 2007 was the warmest year on record the Arctic, leading to a record loss of sea ice. This year's sea ice melt was second only to 2007. . . .

~ Full story here

how to vote with your wallet

2008-10-14T22:18:00.001-05:00

Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants
By Tommy McCall, The New York Times, October 14, 2008

Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?

As of Friday [10/10/2008], a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.

click on image to enlarge

~ copyright The New York Times 2008

the self

2008-10-12T23:48:00.001-05:00

Those who dwell on and long for sense-pleasure
Are born in a world of separateness.

But let them realize they are the Self
And all separateness will fall away.

~ Mundaka Upanishad

the politics of destruction

2008-10-02T15:38:00.002-05:00

Amazon forest destruction speeding up, officials say
Associated Press via CNN, October 2, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The Amazon is being deforested more than three times as fast as last year, Brazilian officials said Monday, acknowledging a sharp reversal after three years of declines in the deforestation rate.

Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said upcoming nationwide elections are partly to blame, with mayors in the Amazon region turning a blind eye to illegal logging in hopes of gaining votes locally.

Non-government environmentalists blame the global spike in food prices for encouraging soy farmers and cattle ranchers to clear land for crops and grazing.

Elections no doubt play a part, but "the tendency of deforestation rising is deeply related to the fact that food prices are going up," said Paulo Adario, who coordinates Greenpeace's Amazon campaign.

"When you have elections, the appetite of authorities to enforce laws is reduced," Adario said. "But the federal government has to step in and do its job." . . .

~ Complete story here

connectedness. and conduct.

2008-09-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

My call for a spiritual revolution is thus not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow other-worldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather, it is a call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others’ interests alongside our own.

-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

50. million. years.

2008-09-29T17:20:00.002-05:00

The hills are alive? How islands came to rise atop the Himalayas
Dan Vergano, USA Today, September 29, 2008

Home to hundreds of the world's loftiest mountains, including Everest, the Himalayas take their name from a Sanskrit word meaning "the Abode of Snow." But parts of these lofty mountains were once sun-kissed isles glistening in a now-vanished sea.
That's according to an upcoming study that highlights this geological reminder of impermanence on Earth.

"The islands are actually tipped on their sides," says the University of Houston's Shuhab Khan, lead author of the study scheduled for release in the October Geological Society of America Bulletin. "So you can walk — it's incredible — from the bedrock to the seafloor sediment of these islands."

What scraped the islands off the seafloor and lifted them up to the top of northern Pakistan was the collision between the continental crusts of India and Asia. Khan and his colleagues show the collision that built the Himalayas came 50 million years ago in their analysis, which ties together satellite maps, field geology, mineralogy, chemistry and magnetic dating data from the Kohistan-Ladakh bloc, the one-time archipelago dating to the time of the dinosaurs.

The collision of India with Asia continues to this day, with the Indian subcontinent essentially diving beneath the Asian one, lifting up the Tibetan plateau. Geologists have long agreed the Kohistan bloc islands represent the contact point between the two continents, but until now they weren't certain how they made their journey to the Himalayas. . . .

~ Complete story here

Liar Liar

2008-09-28T08:51:00.001-05:00

Here are "The Twelve Lies of Sarah Palin" posted by Andrew Sullivan at "The Daily Dish" (at The Atlantic.com). Andrew makes clear that "these are not hyperbolic claims or rhetorical excess. They are assertions of fact that are demonstrably untrue and remain uncorrected."

. . . for the record, let it be known that the candidate for vice-president for the GOP is a compulsive, repetitive, demonstrable liar. If you follow the links, here is the proof. I repeat: proof:

- She has lied about the Bridge To Nowhere. She ran for office favoring it, wore a sweatshirt defending it, and only gave it up when the federal congress, Senator McCain in particular, went ballistic. She kept the money anyway and favors funding Don Young's Way, at twice the cost of the original bridge.
- She has lied about her firing of the town librarian and police chief of Wasilla, Alaska.
- She has lied about pressure on Alaska's public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law.
- She has lied about her previous statements on climate change.
- She has lied about Alaska's contribution to America's oil and gas production.
- She has lied about when she asked her daughters for their permission for her to run for vice-president.
- She has lied about the actual progress in constructing a natural gas pipeline from Alaska.
- She has lied about Obama's position on habeas corpus.
- She has lied about her alleged tolerance of homosexuality.
- She has lied about the use or non-use of a TelePrompter at the St Paul convention.
- She has lied about her alleged pay-cut as mayor of Wasilla.
- She has lied about what Alaska's state scientists concluded about the health of the polar bear population in Alaska.

You cannot trust a word she says. On anything.

(Thanks to Gabriel at Modern Fabulousity)

Chan Lowe / South Florida Sun-Sentinel

not simply "clever"

2008-09-24T11:53:00.002-05:00

They’re ‘passionate’ about punctuation
By Phil Kloer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 24, 2008

Today is National Punctuation Day, the day set aside to lament bad punctuation and celebrate the good. As usual, there will be the traditional parades, rallies, walk-a-thons, TV specials, speeches by the presidential candidates and fireworks at dusk.

But amid all that hoopla, take a quiet moment to salute those unsung heroes who are always on the “lookout” for “misplaced” quotation marks. You can find them chuckling over them on the Internet at The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks (http://www.quotation-marks.blogspot.com/) or cavorting in the Facebook group Quotation Mark “Hunters.”

“People don’t think that punctuation means things, so they just throw it in there,” says Bethany Keeley, a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia who runs the blog.

“Most of the time people are using the quotes to draw attention to something,” she adds. And the abusers seem unaware that putting words in quotes usually signifies irony or some sort of wink.

On the blog, people submit “photos” of signs in which the quote marks make no sense and are, in fact, sometimes mocking the very words they hoped to “emphasize.”

Thus the high school banner exhorting the basketball team to do its “best,” or the sign welcoming visitors to “Historic” Fort Meade. A woman in the Facebook group said her mother made her a wedding album and captioned a photo “Here comes ‘the Bride’.” . . .

So on National Punctuation Day, while others ponder the slackening of “standards” of the serial comma or the maddening misuse of the apostrophe in “its,” the “crusade” against unnecessary quotation marks goes on.

Learn more about National Punctuation Day and the people behind it. At http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/.

~ Complete story here

a message from Henry Clay Frick

2008-09-23T20:32:00.001-05:00

The facts about conservative Republicans:

When they're given free reign of the markets, they're Freidmanite-free-enterprise deregulationists. When their avaricious corruption and greed result in massive losses, they're dedicated socialists. And whenever they draw a breath, they're hypocrites. Need proof? Look around you.

Chan Lowe / South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Nick Anderson / Houston Chronicle

Steve Greenberg / Ventura County Star

the great mandala

2008-09-21T20:51:00.000-05:00

Sherffius / Boulder Camera

a noble soul

2008-09-19T14:24:00.003-05:00

A superior being does not render evil for evil. Never harm the wicked or the good or even criminals meeting death. A noble soul is always compassionate, even toward those who enjoy injuring others or who are actually committing cruel deeds -- for who is without fault?

~ The Rāmāyaṇa (रामायण)

Linteau représentant un épisode du Ramayana: ici, l'alliance de Rama et de son frère Laksamana avec le singe Sugriva. Cambodge, province de Battambang, Vat Baset, style du Baphuon, 11ème siècle. Grès.Musée Guimet, Paris.

~ Photo here

just try putting lipstick on this

2008-09-19T11:03:00.002-05:00

It was Sarah Palin's own idea to compare herself with a pit bull. So it's certainly "fair game" to expose the ruthlessness and brutality that she not only espouses but supports. Should have been more careful what you wish for, Palin.

Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

it's hard out there for a pimp

2008-09-17T22:33:00.002-05:00

Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune

Ed Stein / Rocky Mountain News

pre-solar

2008-09-13T18:41:00.000-05:00

There is surely a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun.

-- Sir Thomas Browne (1605 - 1682)

Bump me, Father

2008-09-12T23:17:00.001-05:00

Yet another reason to trust and admire the Catholic Church.

Priest at U of I is arrested on drug charges
Associated Press, September 12, 2008

URBANA, Ill. — A Catholic priest on the University of Illinois campus has been suspended after being charged with selling cocaine from his church office and rectory.

The priest, the Rev. Christopher Layden, pleaded not guilty Thursday to two counts of delivery of less than 1 gram of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a church and one count of possession with intent to deliver 1 to 15 grams of cocaine near a church.

His defense attorney, Mark Lipton, told the court Layden wanted to waive a preliminary hearing and entered the pleas.

Police said Layden, 33, was arrested Wednesday at St. John's Catholic Newman Center. They say investigators found 3 grams of cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria said that before the arrest, officials never suspected drug use. . . .

A Post-American World

2008-09-10T22:15:00.000-05:00

So much for the endurance of American imperialism

Reduced Dominance Is Predicted for U.S.
Analyst Previews Report to Next President

By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus, Washington Post, September 10, 2008

An intelligence forecast being prepared for the next president on future global risks envisions a steady decline in U.S. dominance in the coming decades, as the world is reshaped by globalization, battered by climate change, and destabilized by regional upheavals over shortages of food, water and energy.

The report, previewed in a speech by Thomas Fingar, the U.S. intelligence community's top analyst, also concludes that the one key area of continued U.S. superiority -- military power -- will "be the least significant" asset in the increasingly competitive world of the future, because "nobody is going to attack us with massive conventional force."

Fingar's remarks last week were based on a partially completed "Global Trends 2025" report that assesses how international events could affect the United States in the next 15 to 17 years. Speaking at a conference of intelligence professionals in Orlando, Fingar gave an overview of key findings that he said will be presented to the next occupant of the White House early in the new year.

"The U.S. will remain the preeminent power, but that American dominance will be much diminished," Fingar said, according to a transcript of the speech. He saw U.S. leadership eroding "at an accelerating pace" in "political, economic and arguably, cultural arenas."

The 2025 report will lay out what Fingar called the "dynamics, the dimensions, the drivers" that will shape the world for the next administration and beyond. . . .

As described by Fingar, the intelligence community's long-term outlook has darkened somewhat since the last report in 2004, which also focused on the impact of globalization but was more upbeat about its consequences for the United States. The new view is in line with that of prominent economists and other global thinkers who have argued that America's influence is shrinking as economic powerhouses such as China assert themselves on the global stage. The trend is described in the new book "The Post-American World," in which author Fareed Zakaria writes that the shift is not about the "decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." . . .

~ Complete story here

“To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.”

2008-08-30T17:52:00.001-05:00

Giant, Bulging-Eyed Roman Emperor Statue Found
National Geographic News, August 27, 2008

An "exquisitely carved" statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius—with heavy-lidded, bulging eyes and a feathery beard—has been discovered in western Turkey, archaeologists announced.

The Turkish and Belgian team were not entirely surprised to find the sculpture of the Roman leader and philosopher, who ruled from A.D. 161 to 180, in Roman-era baths in the ancient city of Sagalassos.

That's because a rich repository of artifacts from the second century A.D. had already been unearthed at the baths, including the 2007 discovery of a colossal statue of the emperor Hadrian. . . .

~ Complete story here

attraction

2008-08-26T20:40:00.001-05:00

Moo North: Cows Sense Earth's Magnetism
by Nell Greenfieldboyce, All Things Considered, NPR Radio, August 25, 2008

A new study suggests that cows sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it to line up their bodies so they face either north or south when grazing or resting.

The discovery was made by a team led by Hynek Burda of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. "I think the really amazing thing is that hunters and herdsmen and farmers didn't notice it," Burda says. . . .

Eventually, his team used Google Earth to look at more than 8,500 cows, over 300 pastures all around the world, according to a report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By analyzing the images, the team found that cows tend to face either magnetic north or south when grazing or resting.

"Most of them actually align in a north-south direction," says Burda, and this held true regardless of where the sun was, or how the wind blew. . . .

~ Complete story here

"haven't we had enough?"

2008-08-25T11:20:00.003-05:00

Huffington, Silverstein to Ambush GOP Convention
Will Unveil Bus-Shelter Ads on Popular Routes in Twin Cities
Posted by Andrew Hampp, Advertising Age -- Campaign Trail, August 22, 2008

The number of protesters at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul in two weeks could total up to 40,000. Add Rich Silverstein and Arianna Huffington to that list.

And Mr. Silverstein, co-founder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, will be bringing his Cannes Lions-award winning "Haven't We Had Enough?" posters featuring the names, slogans and events that played key roles in all eight years of the Bush administration as submitted by Huffington Post commenters. The ads will appear in 12 bus shelters across the Twin Cities, in an effort that Mr. Silverstein reluctantly describes as ambush marketing.

"I guess it's a little poke in the eye," he allowed. "There's nothing on these posters that is subjective. It's purely what's happened, it's fact. I guess the tagline is subjective, but the information is fact."

The posters are an extension of Mr. Silverstein and his partner Jeff Goodby's efforts to make an impact on the Democratic elections, having unsuccessfully tried to work on specific candidates' campaigns. "We went back to the Democrats so many years ago, and it was really frustrating. The marketers ... I don't believe they'll do anything as impactful as Hal Riney did for the Republicans," he said, pointing to the legendary 1984 Ronald Reagan re-election campaign that proclaimed it "Morning in America." Mr. Silverstein was hard-pressed to pinpoint a moment in the 2008 presidential race that's come close to having the same impact. . . .

~ Complete story here

tired institutional thinking

2008-08-20T13:27:00.003-05:00

Debatable Choices
By Michel Martin, TheRoot.com

A trio of news veterans will moderate this fall's presidential debates, but who and what do they represent?

Aug. 19, 2008--In case you missed it, earlier this month, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced their picks to moderate the three presidential debates this fall. The chosen: NBC's Tom Brokaw, CBS's Bob Schieffer and PBS's Jim Lehrer.

So, in an election year in which race, gender and generational change have dominated politics and public discourse, the commission decided that these three white men, aged 68, 71 and 74, respectively, are our nation's best choices to question the candidates and represent voter consciousness about the issues? When one—and only one—of the candidates is also a 70-plus-year-old white man?

Don't get it twisted; this is not about hating the players, just the game. The chosen ones are all esteemed journalists and have not only paid their dues but supported a number of younger reporters in their own careers, myself included. No, my criticism is aimed at the tired institutional thinking that automatically defaults to older white men to bring gravitas and credibility to important national events and assumes—wrongly—that the men are somehow free of a perspective shaped by their own life circumstances and life stories.

Think about it. What if the commission, a non-partisan, non-profit group that has sponsored all presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988, had picked three 40-something African Americans to moderate all three debates? No matter how much experience and name recognition those journalists brought with them, people would question whether, as a group, they represent the full range of views and perspectives in the American electorate, and indeed whether such a lineup was fair to both candidates. . . .

~ Complete story here

in spite of suffering

2008-08-19T14:58:00.001-05:00

Our peace of mind increases in spite of suffering; we become braver and more enterprising; we understand more clearly the difference between what is everlasting and what is not; we learn how to distinguish between what is our duty and what is not. Our pride melts away and we become humble. Our worldly attachments diminish and, likewise, the evil within us diminishes from day to day.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

now. only now.

2008-08-18T15:23:00.001-05:00

Never upset your mind
With yes and no.
Be quiet.
You are awareness itself.
Live in the happiness
Of your own nature,
Which is happiness itself.

-Ashtavakra Gita 15:19

the price of naiveté

2008-08-12T14:40:00.003-05:00

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
(And greed is eternal.)

The new age of authoritarianism
By Chrystia Freeland, Financial Times, August 11 2008

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, democracy was on the march and we declared the End of History. Nearly two decades later, a neo-imperialist Russia is at war with Georgia, Communist China is proudly hosting the Olympics, and we find that, instead, we have entered the Age of Authoritarianism.

It is worth recalling how different we thought the future would be in the immediate, happy aftermath of the end of the cold war. Remember Francis Fukuyama’s ringing assertion: “The triumph of the west, of the western idea, is evident first of all in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to western liberalism.”

Even in the heady days of 1989, that declaration of universal – and possibly eternal – ideological victory seemed a little hubristic to Professor Fukuyama’s many critics. Yet his essay made such an impact because it captured the enormity, and the enormous benefits, of the change sweeping through the world. Not only was the stifling Soviet – which was really the Russian – suzerainty over central and eastern Europe and central Asia coming to an end but, even more importantly, the very idea of a one-party state, ruthlessly presiding over a centrally planned economy, seemed to be discredited, if not forever, then surely for our lifetimes.

That collapse brought freedom and prosperity to millions of people who had lived under Soviet rule. Moreover, the implosion of Soviet communism inspired hundreds of millions of others around the world to embrace freer markets and demand more responsive governments. The great global economic boom of the past 20 years, which has brought more people out of poverty more quickly than at any other time in human history, would not have been possible had the Soviet way of ordering the world not been discredited first.

Yet today, in much of the world, the spread of freedom is being checked by an authoritarian revanche. That shift has been most obvious in the petro-states, where oil is casting its usual curse. From Latin America to Africa to the Middle East, the black-gold bonanza has given authoritarian regimes the currency to buy off or to repress their subjects. In Russia, oil has fuelled an economic boom that prime minister Vladimir Putin, and some of his foreign admirers, mistakenly attribute to his careful demolition of the chaotic democracy of the 1990s. . . .

Complete essay here

cheesehead. literally.

2008-08-12T14:00:00.003-05:00

Further proof that some football players are even more stupid than others

Is Brett a Bad Bet for the Jets?
By Allen Barra, The Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2008

Arriving in New York last Friday, Brett Favre sounded as if he had taken a page from Bull Durham's Nuke LaLoosh. "I'm here for one reason," he told reporters. "I'm here to help the Jets win."

It would have been refreshing if at least one of the worshipful media folk at the press conference had replied, "Well, actually, Brett, you're here because after months of vacillating on your retirement and putting the Packers through hell -- and forcing them into using a valuable draft pick on an extra quarterback because they didn't know whether you'd be playing for them this season -- you tried to bully them into either making you the starter or trading you to a team of your choice. Like a prima donna, you put your own desires ahead of the welfare of the organization to which you professed loyalty. Now you've been dumped on one of the NFL's most desperate franchises because no one else wanted you."

Instead, we're getting gush from a New York media that really ought to know better. Here's the Daily News's Mike Lupica on August 8: "The Jets became a viable franchise [by signing Favre], made you finally notice and talk about them and care about them." As if talking and caring translates into winning football games. And here's CBS's Phil Simms, former New York Giants quarterback and Super Bowl winner: "This is bigger than when Joe Montana left the Forty-Niners to go to Kansas City in 1993."

It would be if Brett Favre were as good as Joe Montana. Mr. Montana won four Super Bowls and was arguably the greatest quarterback in football history; Mr. Favre has won just one Super Bowl and is probably the most overrated, or at the very least overhyped, quarterback in the modern NFL. . . .

Complete story here

seeing eye

2008-08-07T13:02:00.003-05:00

Kodak camera, 1888

Researchers craft curved, eyelike electronic camera
Curved screen resembles retina
By Jeremy Manier, Chicago Tribune, August 7, 2008

Drawing inspiration from the simple design of the human eye, Illinois engineers have invented a new kind of eyelike camera that avoids some pitfalls of ordinary cameras and could lead to a host of novel devices based on flexible electronics.

The electronic eye made by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University collects light on a curved screen resembling a retina, in contrast to digital cameras that use lenses to focus images on a flat sheet of light detectors. A curved surface reduces the need for multiple lenses and cuts down on distortion that comes from projecting the light on a flat surface.

That allows for a compact camera with low distortion and a wide field of view, much like a natural eye, according to a study published in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.

Making curved arrays of electronics is far tougher than it sounds, experts say. Until now, nearly all complex electronics have been etched on flat wafers, with even slight curves posing a steep engineering and production challenge. . . .

Complete story here

yes, we can't

2008-08-06T22:04:00.002-05:00

MAD's Obama and McCain, the movies
This is one cover position that a candidate for president might rather pass
by Mark Silva, The Swamp, Chicago Tribune, August 4, 2008

If Barack Obama and John McCain were movies...

That's MAD magazine's jumping-off point for a couple of spoofs on the presidential candidates of the two major political parties.

[MAD covers via DC Comics]

Complete story here

the color of money

2008-08-05T17:09:00.004-05:00

Ivy Leaguers' Big Edge: Starting Pay
by Sarah E. Needleman, The Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2008

Where people go to college can make a big difference in starting pay, and that difference is largely sustained into midcareer, according to a large study of global compensation.

In the yearlong effort, PayScale Inc., an online provider of global compensation data, surveyed 1.2 million bachelor's degree graduates with a minimum of 10 years of work experience (with a median of 15.5 years). The subjects hailed from more than 300 U.S. schools ranging from state institutions to the Ivy League, and their incomes show that the subject you major in can have little to do with your long-term earning power. PayScale excluded survey respondents who reported having advanced degrees, including M.B.A.s, M.D.s and J.D.s.

Even though graduates from all types of schools increase their earnings throughout their careers, their incomes grow at almost the same rate, according to the survey. For instance, the median starting salary for Ivy Leaguers is 32% higher than that of liberal-arts college graduates -- and at 10 or more years into graduates' working lives, the spread is 34%, according to the survey.

One reason why Ivy Leaguers outpace their peers may be that they tend to choose roles where they're either managing or providing advice, says David Wise, a senior consultant at Hay Group Inc., a global management-consulting firm based in Philadelphia. By contrast, state-school graduates gravitate toward individual contributor and support roles. "Ivy Leaguers probably position themselves better for job opportunities that provide them with significant upside," says Mr. Wise, adding that this is the first survey he's seen that correlates school choice to a point later in a career. . . .

Complete story here

Big Brother Olympics

2008-08-05T16:49:00.002-05:00

In China, the Olympics are "not about sport and generosity in victory or defeat, but about showing the world that China is a powerful country that needs respect."

-- James Kynge, author of China Shakes the World

Beijing's welcome is mix of pride, spies and suspicion
By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY, August 5, 2008

BEIJING — Standing guard in a Beijing alley decorated with dozens of red Chinese flags, Lu Ruzi, 80, proudly patrols his neighborhood to "help bring glory to our motherland."

The great-grandfather is among a half-million Chinese mobilized for the Olympics who include police, commandos, SWAT units — and retirees such as Lu, who acknowledge they are not-so-covert volunteer spies for the communist government, assigned to report suspicious people or protesters.

"If anyone tries to sabotage the Olympics, we will control them," Lu says. "We want to protect foreigners, too. If they are coming here, they must be our friends, right?"

As Beijing welcomes tens of thousands of athletes, dignitaries and tourists from around the world for the Summer Olympics that begin Friday, it's clear nearly everywhere you look that the government is meshing its role as gracious host with its tradition of controlling many aspects of daily life. In a nation known for its tight security and intolerance of dissidents, the security and surveillance — of Chinese citizens and visitors alike — has been increased noticeably. . . .

Complete story here

the first object

2008-08-04T17:07:00.002-05:00

And yet they're still missing the point.

Researchers may have found cosmic Rosetta stone
By Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press via USA Today, August 1, 2008

Star light, star bright. The first star grew fast, but began slight. The first cosmological object formed in the universe was a tiny protostar with a mass of about 1% of our sun, according to U.S. and Japanese researchers who spent years developing a complex computer simulation of what it was like after the Big Bang that formed the universe.

This protostar was surrounded by a giant mass of gas and it grew to 100 times the sun's mass over about 10,000 years, according to Naoki Yoshida of Nagoya University in Japan. That is very rapid growth on a cosmic scale.

"The first stars were very different from stars like the sun," explained Harvard astronomy professor Lars Hernquist, co-author of a paper describing the findings in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

While the sun is mostly hydrogen, it also contains oxygen and carbon, he said. The early stars were primarily hydrogen and helium, and were much more luminous and had a shorter life.

"These differences have important implications for what happened afterward," he said at a teleconference. . . .

Complete story here

good question

2008-08-04T16:56:00.002-05:00

Separating Canadian Bottled Water From the Rest
By Jane L. Levere, The New York Times, August 4, 2008

A new campaign for a Canadian bottled water aims to educate the public about this resource and differentiate it from other waters.

The campaign, for ESKA natural spring water, features a new bilingual Web site, plus print, outdoor and online advertising, all created by the Toronto office of Zig, a unit of MDC Partners.

Some ads depict people who strike poses that indicate they are puzzled and ask questions like, “Am I drinking eight glasses of chemically processed water a day?” “Why do some bottled waters taste funny?” and “Why does my water have an ingredients list?” . . .

Complete story here

what is the truth, said jesting Pilate

2008-07-31T12:07:00.000-05:00

while in this body

2008-07-23T11:20:00.001-05:00

The oldest wisdom in the world tells us we can consciously unite with the divine while in this body; for this man is really born. If he misses his destiny, Nature is not in a hurry; she will catch him up some day, and compel him to fulfill her secret purpose.

~ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975)

frankenfoods

2008-07-11T16:08:00.003-05:00

When it comes to concerns about genetically modified (GM) crops and food ingredients, the proverbial cat is already out of the bag -- and on the loose . . . And then there's the issue of GM animals

A time to sow? GM food could curb cost of staples
By Clive Cookson, Financial Times, July 10 2008

So widely are genetically modified crops now grown around the world, for use in animal feed and as processed food ingredients, that feed importers in Europe and Asia are finding it difficult to supply customers who want non-GM soya or maize.

“You have to pay 10-15 per cent more for non-GM corn – if you can get it at all,” says Ross Korves, a leading US agricultural economist.

As world food prices surge and shortages loom, genetically modified crops look increasingly tempting as a way to raise agricultural yields without using more energy or chemicals. Even in Europe, where GM crops have faced the strongest public resistance, more politicians, experts and farmers’ leaders are speaking out in their favour. Sir David King, the UK government’s former chief scientist, is one who says GM is the only technology available to solve the world food price crisis. . . .

Americans may have come to accept food from genetically modified plants but GM animals seem to be a step too far even for US consumer opinion.

Scientists first added genes from other species to farm animals in the mid-1980s, at about the same time as they began to make experimental GM crops. Technically there is no reason why the fields should not be alive by now with sheep and cows genetically engineered to resist diseases such as mastitis or produce leaner meat and more nutritious milk.

Yet while millions of GM mice are used every year in pharmaceutical and biomedical research, an adverse political and regulatory environment has inhibited most development and all commercialisation of GM farm animals.

Last month the US Biotechnology Industry Organization issued a report enthusing about the potential of GM animals to “enhance human health, food production, environmental protection, animal health and cutting-edge industrial applications”. Scott Gottlieb, the report’s co-author, says: “The practical benefits of this technology have not yet reached patients and consumers primarily because of regulatory and political obstacles rather than the limits of science.” . . .

Complete story here

impermanence

2008-07-11T10:51:00.006-05:00

No village law, no law of market town,
No law of a single house is this—

Of all the world and the worlds of gods
This only is the Law, that all things are impermanent.

-- "Buddhist Parables," translated by E.W. Burlingame
(from "Teachings of the Buddha," edited by Jack Kornfield, 1993)

At left: "Mujo." Also: "anitya" in Sanskrit, "wuchang" in Mandarin, "mi rtag pa" in Tibetan, "impermanence" in English
// via The Invisible Cat

enough gluttony to go around

2008-07-11T09:39:00.003-05:00

Why are we not surprised by this kind of insensitivity and stupidity?

World leaders feast amidst a food shortage
Kimberly Maul, PR Week, July 10 2008

World leaders brought a large amount of media attention to the G8 Summit in Japan, but not in the best way: They hosted lavish feasts after discussing the world food crisis. From July 7 to 9, heads from eight of the world's wealthy nations, including President George Bush, discussed major global issues, including how to solve the rising costs of food.

But just a day after the discussions on households wasting food, the leaders enjoyed what the UK's Daily Mail termed a "gastronomic extravaganza," courtesy of Michelin-star winning Japanese chef Katsuhiro Nakamura. Menu items for the six-course lunch and eight-course dinner, with more than a dozen dishes, included caviar, tuna, grilled eel, milk-fed lamb, and a G8 "Fantasy" dessert, according to the Daily Mail. . . .

Complete story here

they pave paradise

2008-06-19T11:24:00.003-05:00

The destruction continues unabated.

City-Size Tract of Amazon Forest Cleared in April
06/11/2008, National Geographic Brasil via Amazonia

In just a month, an area nearly the size of New York City was cleared in the Amazon rain forest — an "alarming" and "worse-than-imagined" development, the Brazilian government said in a statement.

At least 433 square miles (1,123 square kilometers) were deforested in Brazil in April 2008. That's eight times more than the 55 square miles (145 square kilometers) destroyed the month before, according to data released last week by the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE), which monitors the Amazon.

The results suggest that the deforestation rate has accelerated, INPE said.

Complete story here

sayings that sound reasonable. but aren't.

2008-06-11T10:51:00.001-05:00

As long as you're going to be thinking anyway, think big.

--Donald Trump

it's a (show me) gas

2008-06-10T14:12:00.003-05:00

The state is in the heart of the heart of the country, and that's at least partly why Missouri has a lucky position when it comes to the price of gasoline these days.

Cheap Gas in Missouri
What keeps pump prices so low in certain states?

By Jacob Leibenluft, Slate online, Monday, June 9, 2008

While the average gas price nationwide passed $4 last weekend, Missouri could boast of prices around $3.825, the cheapest in the country. How come the Show Me State has the lowest gas prices?

Taxes, pipelines, and ethanol. State gas taxes—which are assessed on top of the federal rate of 18.4 cents per gallon—tend to get the most attention in comparisons of fuel prices across states. At 17.6 cents per gallon, Missouri's gas taxes are low, but they aren't quite as low as some other states'. New Jersey, for example, takes just 14.5 cents per gallon, but its prices remain more expensive than Missouri's. (The Garden State's ban on self-service pumps adds an estimated nickel or so per gallon to the retail price.)

In Missouri, geography helps keep prices low. The state doesn't have any oil refineries, and its share of U.S. crude oil production is so small that the Department of Energy reports it as 0 percent. But because of its proximity to Texas, Oklahoma, and the Gulf Coast states, Missouri is crisscrossed by some of the nation's larger pipelines. Oil barges also pass through the state on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Proximity to producers reduces transportation costs a little, but it also makes Missouri less susceptible to price spikes when individual refineries run into problems. . . .

~ More at Slate

little green monster

2008-06-10T13:27:00.005-05:00

Nothing arouses ambition so much as the trumpet clang of another's fame.

--Baltasar Gracián, Spanish writer and philosopher

death is no object

2008-06-10T12:56:00.006-05:00

Here's yet another innovative way in which U.S. company behave like pigs at the trough and exhibit absolutely no scruples about greed. . . .

Companies Promise CEOs Lavish Posthumous Paydays
Options Vest, Insurance Flows; Even Salaries May Continue

by Mark Maremont, The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 11, 2008

You still can't take it with you. But some executives have arranged for the next best thing: huge corporate payouts to their heirs if they die in office.

Take Eugene Isenberg, the 78-year-old chief executive of Nabors Industries Ltd. If Mr. Isenberg died tomorrow, Nabors would owe his estate a "severance" payment of at least $263.6 million, company filings show. That's more than the first-quarter earnings at the Houston oil-service company.

Dozens of other companies offer lush death-benefit packages to their top executives, according to a Wall Street Journal review of federal filings. Many companies accelerate unvested stock awards after a death, which by itself can amount to tens of millions of dollars. Some promise giant posthumous severance payouts, supercharged pensions or even a continuation of executives' salaries or bonuses for years after they're dead.

The CEO of Shaw Group Inc. is in line to be paid $17 million for not competing with the engineering and construction company after he dies.

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s top officer didn't even need to die to get a death benefit; Lockheed paid out the sum, about $1 million, in March while he was still very much alive.

Death benefits, sometimes called golden coffins, have been around for years, but until recently the amounts were often impossible to determine or were shrouded in the fog of proxy-statement language. A federal rule change 18 months ago required companies to be clearer about what they're obliged to pay if top executives end their employment, under various circumstances. . . .

~ Complete story here

iCandy, iHype

2008-06-09T14:55:00.003-05:00

Holy cow, run for your lives -- the great American Apple hype machine has been turned on again! The only catch is: this gadget really is hott.

Apple rolls out thinner, more robust iPhone
Priced from $199, it will compete with BlackBerry

By Eric Benderoff, Chicago Tribune, June 9, 2008

As widely expected, Apple Inc. announced an upgraded software platform, and a slightly thinner iPhone and cut the price to as little as $199 for what Apple now calls the iPhone 3G.

The iPhone 3G will go on sale July 11 and the 8-gigabyte version will sell for $199. An iPhone 3G with 16-gigabytes will sell for $299. Currently, the 8-gb iPhone is priced at $399 and the 16-gb version is $499.

More significantly, the iPhone 2.0 software will be able to connect directly to Microsoft's Exchange software for enterprises. Existing iPhone owners will be able to upgrade to the 2.0 version for free while iPod Touch owners can upgrade for $9.95.

That means the slightly thinner iPhone 3G will now be more competitive with the robust operating systems from Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry devices, and Microsoft's own Windows Mobile devices.

Apple also introduced a sweeping array of new software for individual users, including a new feature called "Mobile Me." That program sends all information a user may want to access--from new e-mails to calendar appointments -- directly to the Internet where it is automatically distributed instantly to any device as changes occur, from an office computer to an iPhone. . . .

~ Complete story here