UCSB Religious Studies Professor Greg Hillis delivered a lecture on April 8, 2009 at the Unity Church in Santa Barbara. This event was one of many leading up to the April 24 appearance by the Dalai Lama. (voice only)
http://www.kcsb.org/news/an-introduction-to-tibetan-buddhism-by-greg-hillis
U.S. Youths Addicted to Video Games, Study Finds – washingtonpost.com
A new study concludes that children can become addicted to playing video games, with some skimping on homework, lying about how much they play and struggling, without success, when they try to cut back.In what is described as the first nationally representative study in the United States on the subject, researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University found that 8.5 percent of American youths ages 8 to 18 who play video games show multiple signs of behavioral addiction.
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Don’t have a cow! | Salon Life
As a former analyst, Masson is keenly interested in the many ways that meat eaters, like me, use denial to avoid having to think about the actual lives of the animals that they eat. Yet, in his estimation, even the most humanely raised farm chicken, goat, pig or cow cannot be said to have a good life, much less a good death, when it ultimately goes to slaughter. But his overall tone is a gentle one, as he tries to demystify his diet by devoting a chapter to “A Day in the Life of a Vegan,” in which he characterizes himself as “cooking-challenged,” while waxing about the nutty flavor of organic avocadoes.No stranger to the media spotlight, Masson famously sued New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm for libel after she wrote an unflattering profile of him back in his psychoanalyst days. The author has spent the last eight years in New Zealand with his wife, a pediatrician, and their two children, ages 7 and 12, because he couldn’t stand to live in the United States while George Bush was in power. With the Obamas in the White House, the family is now moving to Berkeley, Calif.
I spoke with Masson at Salon’s offices in San Francisco, where he enthused about the new White House vegetable garden, and challenged Michael Pollan, the author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” to a friendly public debate. …
Serf Liberation, Mass Oppression, or Something Else?
In the May issue of In These Times, Stephen Asma takes a decidedly middle path on the situation in Tibet (article not available online), and recommends a cooling of the rhetoric on both sides. He cites problematic “doublespeak” from both China and the Tibetan exiles, influencing how the West has framed the debate: …
Former President George W. Bush and his deputies opposed putting mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for years on the grounds that it would harm the economy; Congress is considering legislation that would do so but it remains unclear whether it can pass the proposal and enact it into law in the near future.
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Memos reveal harsh CIA interrogation methods – Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington — Prisoners could be kept awake for more than a week. They could be stripped of their clothes, fed nothing but liquid and thrown against a wall 30 consecutive times.In one case, the CIA was told it could prey on a top Al Qaeda prisoner’s fear of insects by stuffing him into a box with a bug. When all else failed, the CIA could turn to what a Justice Department memo described as “the most traumatic” interrogation technique of all — waterboarding….
Poor Economy, New Tricks Drive Up Job Scams By 500%
Bogus jobs, phony inside information and worthless training aim to relieve you of your money in these job scams: Internet Scambusters™…
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Two recent studies suggest that our society is in the midst of a dramatic and progressive slide toward disconnection. In the first, using data from the General Social Survey (GSS), Duke University researchers found that between 1985 and 2004 the number of people with whom the average American discussed “important matters” dropped from three to two. Even more stunning, the number of people who said there was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled: In 2004 individuals without a single confidant made up a quarter of those surveyed. Our country is now filled with them.
The second study was the 2000 U.S. census. One of the most remarkable facts to emerge from this census is that one of four households consists of one person only. The number of one-person households has been increasing steadily since 1940, when they accounted for roughly 7 percent of households. Today, there are more people living alone than at any point in U.S. history. Placing the census data and the GSS side by side, the evidence that this country is in the midst of a major social change is overwhelming.
The significance of this increased aloneness is amplified by a very different body of research. There is now a clear consensus among medical researchers that social connection has powerful effects on health. Socially connected people live longer, respond better to stress, have more robust immune systems, and do better at fighting a variety of specific illnesses. Health and happiness, the two things we all say matter most, are certifiably linked to social connectedness.
Yet people in this country continue to drift apart. We need to know why….
Are Buddhists Violent? – Forbes.com
Like many former residents of Bangkok, I have been watching the country’s slide into virtual civil war with a mixture of incredulity and tetchy disillusion. It is hard for us to think of one of the world’s only truly Buddhist states descending into a chaotic thuggery that would, alas, be less remarkable elsewhere. But why? Is it because of misperceptions we have about Buddhism?
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