Taliban sharia is terrorism, says DG ISPR
ISLAMABAD: The peace deal signed with the Taliban in Swat has provided them an opportunity to re-emerge in the area, and the sharia imposed by them is terrorism…
globeandmail.com: Vatican posting the gospel on YouTube
First there was Vatican II, now there’s Vatican 2.0.Today the Roman Catholic Church will expand its presence in cyberspace when Pope Benedict XVI launches the Vatican’s own channel on YouTube.
The church will join the ranks of other influential international institutions that already have carved out a niche of followers on YouTube, including the White House, Buckingham Palace and the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Pope will use the site to post daily news clips, videos of his speeches and other ceremonies from the Vatican, with audio and text in four languages: English, Spanish, German and Italian. The channel is due to go online today during a news conference in the press room of the Holy See in Rome. …
It seems to me that this is an issue that will resolve itself as people become more cognizant of the actual meaning of the lay judgeship, and the judiciary considers some case law. Nonetheless, it ties in with other philosophical issues that concern all Buddhists.
Religious groups fret over lay judges
Some religious organizations have expressed uncertainty about how to deal with the nation’s lay judge system scheduled to begin in May.Under the system, ordinary citizens, along with professional judges, will have to pass judgment on defendants in criminal trials.
Observers point out that religious leaders who seek to help people are unsure about whether they should play a role in bringing criminals to justice.
They also note the lay judge system has stirred debate over the stance religions should take over participation in social processes such as the lay judge system, under which lay judges might have to become involved in death sentence decisions….
DDay writes:
Obama is really setting a bad precedent of keeping campaign promises and abiding by the rule of law. It’s like the oath of office reboot, setting the horrible precedent of acknowledging mistakes and seeking to rectify them. Who does this guy think he is?
Google Earth Emerges as a Critical Tool for Environmental and Social Justice Activists
The first known maps were carved into stone some millennia ago. Still, the map as a tool for social justice and environmental activists is a relatively new phenomenon. Google Earth has been something of a novelty since its release in 2006. Bloggers post images of their neighborhoods, roadside attractions, sunbathers, even suspected UFOs. But for communities stretching from the Amazonian rainforest to a Santa Cruz Canyon, Google Earth is seeding a revolution.
Raising Global Awareness with Google Earth
What do you do after flying to your home?
Rebecca Moore
Technical Lead, Google Earth Layers
Google, Inc.
Mountain View, Calif.
earth.google.comWhat is the first thing most users do in Google Earth? Typically they fly to their homes, navigate around their neighborhoods and perhaps explore potential travel and vacation spots.
While this is a wonderful introduction to the power, utility and even pleasure of using Google Earth, increasingly there are much more interesting applications being launched that leverage the power of Google Earth to help the people, animals and plants of our planet.
As of this writing, Google Earth includes high-resolution imagery (sub-meter accuracy) for more than 30% of the world’s landmass and 50% of the world’s population. The 3D terrain model is also steadily increasing in accuracy all over the world. Try flying around Switzerland or Hawaii (10-meter horizontal accuracy) or Mount St. Helens (3-meter accuracy). In Africa, we have blended in extremely high resolution (2.5cm/pixel) aerial photographs taken by National Geographic explorer Michael Fay, allowing users to fly in seconds from outer space to see the eyelashes on a camel. Google continues to publish frequent updates to the imagery, terrain and vector databases, increasing our global high-resolution coverage, spatial accuracy and data freshness.
The power and reach of this technology have now been discovered by many non-profit groups, NGO’s, governmental agencies, scientists, concerned citizens and indigenous peoples who are engaged in efforts to raise awareness and inspire action on a range of issues: environmental, humanitarian, cultural, educational and disaster relief/response, among others. …
Obama Orders Halt to Prosecutions at Guantánamo – NYTimes.com
In the first hours of his presidency, President Obama directed an immediate halt to the Bush administration’s military commissions system for prosecuting detainees at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Notice of the decision came in a legal filing in Guantanamo by military prosecutors just before midnight Tuesday. The decision, which had been expected as part of Mr. Obama’s pledge to close the detention camp, was described as a pause in all war-crimes proceedings there so that the new administration can evaluate how to proceed with prosecutions.
Switzerland to consider hosting Guantanamo inmates | U.S. | Reuters
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland is ready to consider taking in detainees from the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba if that helps to shut it down, the Swiss government said on Wednesday.“For Switzerland, the detention of people in Guantanamo is in conflict with international law. Switzerland is ready to consider how it can contribute to the solution of the Guantanamo problem,” the government said in a statement.
Inauguration 2009: Presidential Inauguration Day Coverage : NPR
For many, Jan. 20 represents not just change, but the possibility of more changes — and more changes for the better….
Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.
JUKAI! JUKAI! JUKAI! – Treeleaf Zen
What exactly is “Jukai”??Jukai literally means “to receive” or “to undertake the Precepts”. It is the ceremony both of one’s formally committing to the Buddhist Sangha and to the Practice of Zen Buddhism, and of one’s undertaking the “Sixteen Mahayana Bodhisattva Precepts” as guidelines for life. Traditionally for Jukai, one receives from a teacher the “Rakusu”, which represents the robe of the Buddha, the “Kechimyaku”, a written lineage chart connecting the recipient to the Buddhas and Ancestors of the past, and a “Dharma Name” selected by the teacher and representing qualities of the recipient’s personality and practice.
My teacher, Nishijima Roshi, has written this …
…There are intentions, of course, and intentions. Some are lightly made, and lightly kept. I noticed, as we made the rounds, how often one of our number would speak about “trying” to do something: “I’m going to try to get into the studio more often,” or “I’m planning to try to find a gallery to show my work.” I hear myself saying something similar, and believe it no more than when I hear it from others. As the old saw has it, if you keep trying to feed the dog, the dog will soon starve to death.That’s one kind of intention, and clearly not a very productive one. The other kind is made of sterner stuff, and comes from a deeper level of consciousness. It’s mind-altering, and life-changing. Once the seed of this kind of intention is planted, it will inevitably take a long while to germinate–perhaps even below the level of consciousness–and when it at last appears in the form of a conscious thought, does so in the form of a quiet and confident determination to make change, a paradigm shift in the mind that is no longer debatable but seems quite simply self-evident in its clarity, a confirmation of what had always been “intended” but never fully realized. … (more)
Back in 1989, on the day after my eighteenth birthday, I caught a flight to Pakistan. I had a job of sorts, teaching English in a school in Lahore. I was untrained, had no experience in teaching English (or, for that matter, anything else), and knew almost nothing about Pakistan: hardly the best qualifications….
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. ….
Jason Quinnell is not in a hurry when he takes pictures. He likes to make pinhole cameras out of soft drink cans lined with photographic paper, and use long exposures. Like, six months!
The image on the left is an example, although it’s teeny and only a little ol’ three month exposure. The glowing curves are the sun passing through the sky, and the jaggedy look is caused by cloud cover.
To view some of his images, Click here to download a PDF file. (Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to view the pages.) Then visit Justin’s site to find out how he does it — and how you can do it too.
Fascinating — Daily Routines
