what is the truth, said jesting Pilate

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"

while in this body

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

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

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

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

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.

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

--Donald Trump

it's a (show me) gas

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

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

--Baltasar Gracián, Spanish writer and philosopher

death is no object

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

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