Nice Folks, Those Insurance People – BOOOOO CIGNA!

Posted on Friday, December 21, 2007 by Bill

On Thursday, the family rallied supporters online and staged a protest at Cigna’s Glendale office with about 150 people, including many members of the local Armenian community and the California Nurses Assn., which had released statements supporting the family’s cause.

Later in the day, Cigna released a statement approving the transplant payment.

“Although it is outside the scope of the plan’s coverage, and despite the lack of medical evidence regarding the effectiveness of such treatment,” spokesman Wendell Potter wrote, “Cigna HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case, and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant. Our thoughts and payers are with Nataline and her family at this time.”

Nataline died about 6 p.m.

Family blames HMO for teen’s death – Los Angeles Times

From the Environment News Service (ENS)

Posted on Friday, December 21, 2007 by Bill

AUSTRALIA WANTS JAPANESE WHALERS OUT OF WHALE SANCTUARY

CANBERRA, Australia, December 20, 2007 (ENS) – With less than three weeks in office, the new Australian government is planning diplomatic and legal action against Japan’s so-called “research” whaling. Much Japanese whaling takes place in the Australian Whale Sanctuary in the Southern Ocean, where the Japanese whaling fleet is right now, pursuing whales.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-20-01.asp

ARSENIC IN RICE THREATENS ASIAN PUBLIC HEALTH

ROME, Italy, December 20, 2007 (ENS) – Improved irrigation practices in Asia could reduce the high levels of arsenic found in rice, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, said Wednesday, warning of the increased food safety risk posed by the toxic substance.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-20-04.asp

STUDY: THAILAND COULD SUPPORT 2,000 TIGERS

NEW YORK, New York, December 20, 2007 (ENS) – Conservationists estimate that today 5,000 tigers remain in the wild, down from 100,000 tigers that inhabited Asia alone just 150 years ago. Now, a new study
of the potential for tigers to survive in Thailand has hope soaring that the endangered big cats may not be headed for extinction.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-20-02.asp

Cloned Animals to be Tracked for Food Processors

Million Tons of CO2 Will Be Injected Under Illinois

Off Road Vehicle Damage Closes North Carolina Trails

Winter Forecast Shows Little Drought Relief for Southeast

Bacteria Keep Undersea Methane Out of the Atmosphere

Colorado Water District Ordered to Restore River

Are You a Perennialist?

Posted on Thursday, December 20, 2007 by Bill

Perennialism rejects a modern world that has slipped off the rails. Yet it also embraces all variations of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faith, as well as Asian religions and indigenous schools of thought. Perennialists believe that all religions are part of one great religion; that all wisdom makes up a great river of truth that all modern people should return to for what the Gospels call “living water.”
Faith Without Borders

From Tricycle.com

Posted on Thursday, December 20, 2007 by Bill

Ask Pamela Gayle White about Tibetan visualization practice. The noted translator and dharma teacher will be taking questions until December 21.

Buddhism emphasizes the emptiness of all phenomena and does not posit a personal god. Does that mean that Buddhism is amoral and nihilistic? Read Joseph Goldstein‘s answers from our most recently featured Q&A here.

Can you teach your child about death? Read Family Dharma: The Elephant’s Footprint. Beth Roth writes about helping our children understand death.

On Generosity: Gifts That Keep Giving. Joan Duncan Oliver profiles some of the better options for compassionate gift-giving this holiday season.

And keep an eye on our Editor’s Blog where we report on books, Burma and all Buddhist issues of the day!

Best Buy Bodhisattva

Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 by Bill

Best Buy during the holidays is a special kind of hell. Swarms of soccer moms trailing toddlers, looking for the new game of the year. Overweight dads butt-glued into recliners in front of NASA-style walls of aggressive televisions, commenting on the silent football games arrayed before them. Hordes of middle aged couples making dreadfully misguided computer purchases.

But the best part of the Best Buy holiday extravaganza are the demo kids. And it was one of these kids who showed me something I will never see again.

Guitar Hero 3. “Through the Fire and the Flames.” Expert.

Best Buy Bodhisattva | Gamers With Jobs

From the Environment News Service

Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 by Bill

FUTUREGEN, WORLD’S CLEANEST COAL PLANT, SITED IN ILLINOIS

WASHINGTON, DC, December 18, 2007 (ENS)A consortium of some of
the world’s largest coal companies and electric utilities has selected
the small east-central Illinois town of Mattoon for FutureGen, a $1.4
billion coal-fueled power plant that is planned as the cleanest in the
world. The FutureGen Alliance today announced that Mattoon was chosen
over three other sites in Tuscola, Illinois; Jewett, Texas; and Odessa,
Texas.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-18-01.asp

TWO NEW MAMMALS FOUND IN REMOTE NEW GUINEA

ARLINGTON, Virginia, December 18, 2007 (ENS)A miniscule possum
and an enormous rat were recorded by scientists as probable new species
on a recent expedition to a remote and virtually unknown area of
Indonesia in the pristine wilderness of western New Guinea’s Foja
Mountains. “It’s comforting to know that there is a place on earth so
isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature,” said
Conservation International Vice President Bruce Beehler, who led the
expedition.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-18-03.asp

SENATE PASSES FARM BILL STRONG ON BIOENERGY, CONSERVATION

WASHINGTON, DC, December 17, 2007 (ENS) – The U.S. Senate Friday
approved a $286 billion farm bill shepherded through by Senator Tom
Harkin of Iowa, who chairs the Agriculture Committee. The measure
improves farm income protection and makes investments for the future in
energy, conservation, nutrition and rural development initiatives. The
final vote count was 79-14, more than enough to turn back a veto threat
by President Bush.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-17-01.asp

COUNTRIES AGREE TO WRITE NEW CLIMATE ACTION PACT

NUSA DUA Bali, Indonesia, December 15, 2007 (ENS)Governments
meeting in Bali today agreed to launch negotiations towards a
strengthened international climate change pact as a successor to the
Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012. “This is a real
breakthrough, a real opportunity for the international community to
successfully fight climate change,” said Indonesian Environment
Minister and President of the conference, Rachmat Witoelar.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-15-01.asp

Whalers to be tracked

Posted on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 by Bill

The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, set his country on a diplomatic collision course with Japan yesterday amid reports that he plans to send an armed vessel to monitor a whaling expedition to the Southern Ocean.

Japan’s annual scientific hunt plans to slaughter more than 1,000 whales in the area this year, but it is the plan to kill 50 humpbacks – a protected species – that has most angered anti-whaling nations….

Whalers to be tracked | Environment | The Guardian

Obama confronts rumor he is a Muslim

Posted on Monday, December 17, 2007 by Bill

Obama staffers and volunteers say they periodically encounter voters who say they cannot support Obama because he is Muslim, an assertion that has been making its way through Internet sites and blogs since he announced his candidacy for president.

Obama confronts rumor he is a Muslim – The Boston Globe

Excuse me for not dying

Posted on Sunday, December 16, 2007 by Bill

What would Buddha do?

Every spring and fall, enlightenment-seekers from all over come here to find out, converging for arduous weeklong retreats at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in a red rock canyon among the thermal springs and Indian pueblos west of Santa Fe.

Dressed in black robes, they strive to live in the moment and awaken to the oneness of everything by rising at 3 a.m. for 18-hour sessions sitting lotus-style in the zenda, or meditation hall, eating communal vegan meals in silence, chanting and taking restorative dips in the hot pools.

But mostly they come to practice with an impish, smooth-faced Japanese monk, Joshu Sasaki Roshi, a 100-year-old Rinzai Zen master, one of the oldest in the world, who tells followers, “Excuse me for not dying.”

Monk says, ‘Excuse me for not dying’ / Rinzai Zen master challenges students with tough love – Buddhist style

The battle over the new Dalai Lama

Posted on Saturday, December 15, 2007 by Bill

Imagine a committee of the Left parties … secretly meeting in Kolkata to select the reincarnation of the CPI-M leader.

After a couple of days, white smoke may appear above the building where they are meeting and a Vatican-style announcement made, Habemus Pappam (‘We have a new pope’ or, in this case, a new general secretary).

You may politely tell me: ‘Do not play an April fool joke on me.’

Unfortunately, it is not a joke. It has happened in China. The stage was set for the tragicomedy when, on July 13, the Communist government in Beijing decided to implement the ‘Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism.’ … The battle over the new Dalai Lama