Monthly Archives: December 2008

Environment News Service

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2008 Among 10 Warmest Years on Record, UN Reports

Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe and persistent droughts, snowstorms, and heat and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world. …

Brazil Declares Whale Sanctuary Along Entire Coast

Brazilian waters stretch along the nation’s 8,000 kilometer (5,000 mile) long coastline on the east and northeast coast of South America. In September, Chile enacted a law declaring Chilean jurisdictional waters to be a whale sanctuary. …

Smart Lighting Will Save Trillions of Dollars, Gigatons of CO2

Innovations in photonics and solid state lighting will lead to trillions of dollars in cost savings, along with a massive reduction in the amount of energy required to light homes and businesses around the globe, write co-authors E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim. …

via Environment News Service.

Pew Forum: Faith on the Hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress

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The study finds that there is at least one major difference between Congress and the nation as a whole: Members of Congress are much more likely than the public overall to say they are affiliated with a particular religion.

Ho ho ho

via Pew Forum: Faith on the Hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress.

Atheism and Buddhism — Buddhism as an Atheistic Religion

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I linked to this article in the comments to the preceding post.  It occurs to me that a) some folks might have questions in this regard, and b) that there may be someone in South Keokuk who hasn’t had the pleasure of discovering its author’s writing, which comprises the most lucid explanation of Buddhism that I’ve ever read.  Enjoy.

Buddhism is not about either believing or not believing in God or gods. Rather, the historical Buddha taught that believing in gods was not useful for those seeking to realize enlightenment. In other words, God is unnecessary in Buddhism. For this reason, Buddhism is more accurately called nontheistic than atheistic. …

via Atheism and Buddhism — Buddhism as an Atheistic Religion.

Why Atheism May Be the Best Way to Understand God | | AlterNet

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Editor’s note: Religion is among the most volatile and divisive issues in the world today. Yet there’s little serious investigation into why people believe, or why some will kill and die for their faith. Larry Beinhart, in his new novel, Salvation Boulevard — and this series of articles — is hoping to start a conversation about these issues. This is the second in the series…

via Why Atheism May Be the Best Way to Understand God | | AlterNet.

50 Visionaries who are changing your world

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“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

—Audre Lorde, writer and activist

“The dreamers are the saviors of the world.”

—James Allen, writer

“Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.”

—Frank Gaines, mayor, Berkeley, California, 1939–1943

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”

—Howard Aiken, computing pioneer

via 50 Visionaries who are changing your world.

Honoring Ani-La

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Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar has this appreciation of a worthy practice.

…As it happens, my friend is a Registered Nurse in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Since this is her thirtieth year in the profession, the people who are alive through her efforts range in age from thirty to just a few moments ago. It is more than likely that none of them have ever given her a moment’s thought; nor indeed, do they even know of her existence. Nor is it probable that their parents think much about her, as to them she is but a nameless artifact from a time of crisis and expense they choose to forget. Thus, the thanks she has received are slender, and the work itself has been her reward. …

via Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar.

Tigers at Thai Temple Drugged Up or Loved Up?

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…the abbot feels that these tigers are his family. As he told ABC

News, “I think they are my babies: my son, my daughter, my father, mother. If not in the present life, in the past life.”

Buddhists also believe that animals, like humans, are sentient beings.

“When the tiger angry, when you angry, it’s the same. When you hungry, when the tiger hungry, it’s the same. When you tired, when the tiger tired, it’s the same!” the abbot explains.

He has used this understanding to raise some of the tamest tigers in the world, catapulting this small forest monastery into the international limelight.

Every afternoon, up to 1,000 tourists from across the world flock to the Tiger Temple for their very own personal tiger experience.

And what they see is unlike any American zoo exhibit. Tiger Temple is hands-on, meaning visitors can pet the enormous cats and even hold their heads in their laps for photos….

via ABC News: Tigers at Thai Temple Drugged Up or Loved Up?.

Bush Administration Covered Up 500+ Blocked Water Pollution Cases

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“Our investigation reveals that the clean water program has been decimated as hundreds of enforcement cases have been dropped, downgraded, delayed, or never brought in the first place. We need to work with the new Administration to restore the effectiveness and integrity to this vital program.”

via Bush Administration Covered Up 500+ Blocked Water Pollution Cases.

McCartney lashes out at ‘meat-eating’ Dalai Lama > Entertainment > LIVENEWS.com.au

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In his tirade, McCartney wrote to The Dalai Lama to highlight that meat eaters create suffering for animals, and that this fact contradicted a basic tenant of Buddhism that its followers should “not cause suffering to any sentient beings”.

When the Dalai Lama explained that he had been told by doctors to eat meat for health reasons, this wasn’t enough for the passionate superstar.

via McCartney lashes out at ‘meat-eating’ Dalai Lama > Entertainment > LIVENEWS.com.au.

Microsoft Issues Emergency Security Patch For IE – washingtonpost.com

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Microsoft will issue an emergency security patch Wednesday for all versions of Internet Explorer. The patch is considered a critical fix for the security flaw currently plaguing the IE browser. So far, more than 2 million computers are believed to have been infected.

via Microsoft Issues Emergency Security Patch For IE – washingtonpost.com.

Great diffusion

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IT is fascinating how philosophic and cultural ideas spread freely in ancient times across formidable barriers such as mountains and oceans. Ideas can have a life of their own and it is often impossible to contain them within national or geographical boundaries. One of the greatest stories of the diffusion of ideas is that of Buddhism via Great diffusion.

Putting the Episcopal rift in a historical context

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Putting the Episcopal rift in a historical context – Los Angeles Times

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sees the latest discord in historical terms, a view that sheds light on Episcopalians’ religious and cultural DNA.

Similar controversies have come and gone, she told Times reporters earlier this month, but the 2.4-million-member church has remained largely intact — even if unity has sometimes come at a steep price.

“The place of gay and lesbian people in the church is the latest expression of the ancient human struggle over who is ‘the other,’ ” Jefferts Schori said. “There will be another group. I don’t know who it is going to be.”