18 september 2013

The Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu and A Funny Story



The Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu


***


A Beggar asked a rich Bishop for Charity, demanding a pound. 

— ‘A Pound to a beggar! That would be extravagant.’ 

— ‘A Shilling then!’ 

— ‘Oh, it’s still too much!’ 

— ‘A twopence then or your Benediction.’ 

— ‘Of course, I will give you my Benediction.’

 — ‘I don’t want it, for if it were worth a twopence, you wouldn’t give it me.’




Ten opening verses from Tao Te Ching by Lau Tzu




Ten opening verses from Tao Te Ching by Lau Tzu


1
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.


2
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.


3
If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.

The Master leads
by emptying people's minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.


4
The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.


5
The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.

The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Hold on to the center.


6
The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.

It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want.


7
The Tao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It was never born;
thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has no desires for itself;
thus it is present for all beings.

The Master stays behind;
that is why she is ahead.
She is detached from all things;
that is why she is one with them.
Because she has let go of herself,
she is perfectly fulfilled.


8
The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.


9
Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.


10
Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from you own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.



29 augusti 2013

THE INTERNET EXPLAINED 90s - everythingisterribleDOTcom



http://www.everythingisterrible.com/

Scenes from Internet and Street Smarts 90s

Internet before search engines- from the 1990's point of view



Imagine NO hyperlinks, No Google or Yahoo, typing web addresses MANUALLY, No 

mouse, NO touch or flat screens, CD/DVD tech was Science-Fiction, dial-up Internet 


connect@56k was awesome, and what was wireless? Trine Gallegos hosts this 


segment that was taped in 1995 when the Internet was first becoming an icon. This 


is 
an interesting look back at how clunky the applications really were. What did 


people do without Google, YouTube, Facebook, SmartPhones, Twitter, Craigslist, 


eBay, Apple. Guests: Robert Huff, Mike McKnelly. Subjects: Telnet Antioch Library 


Contra Costa County FTP Gopher Archie Lynx browser NASA News Yellow Pages Free 


Games Research Information Superhighway.






Internet users guide from 1990 - Embarassing 2013

16 juli 2013

Ask My Mom! -1 - Sad Sack - Maria Bamford



In this episode, Maria's mom dishes wisdom on what a sad sack can offer the world.

"Hi, I'm Maria Bamford! My Mom is Marilyn Bamford, a 70-year-old retired family therapist and a Netflix connoisseur. She has years of wisdom to tackle any query, question or fact of life. But, she's also one of the busiest senior citizens on the planet! We can only get her to answer questions while she's getting something done, but it's priceless hard-hitting advice - whether she's microwaving baked potatoes, doing yard work or jumping on a mini-trampoline.

Together, we toggle my thinly veiled personal questions along with your posts, tweets, and emails - with heartfelt, absurd, and liberal Christian advice from my Mom.
Wanna ask my mom something?" 

Ask her here: http://www.ask-my-mom.com/
Part of the My Damn Channel Comedy Network.

produced by: PRECISION Productions + Post

Director: Joseph Arnao
Executive Producer: Joseph Arnao
Co-Executive Producer: Carolyn Jacobs
Producer: Milka Alexandrino
Director of Photography: Drew Lahat
Gaffer: Terry Meadows
Gripticians: John Gomez, Mike Butters
Best Boy: Kevin
Art Director: Martin Orchard
Wardrobe: Jamie Brown
Make-Up: Marina Coria
Site Rep: Terry Musso
Asst. Producer: Dan Sheldon
Production Assts:
Tim Johnson
Alex Picker
Chris Abraham
Greg Sumners
Post Producer: Jason Baran
Editor: Jonathan Wallace
Assistant Editor: Ben Miles

CATERING: Independent Kitchen Fiesta

ELECTRIC and GRIP EQUIPMENT: Cinepower and light
PRODUCTION SUPPLIES: Cooperative
POST PRODUCTION: Precision Post

Ask My Mom Hangout - Maria Bamford



Ask My Mom! Hangout with Maria Bamford's mom!


David Frost intervjuar Olof Palme 1969 - 31.20m



Hela David Frosts intervju med Olof Palme som sändes den 12te april 1969.

12 juni 2013

Svidande EU-kritik mot USAs övervakning




– Det är fullkomligt oacceptabelt att USA vad gäller myndigheternas tillgång till persondata har olika regler för amerikanska medborgare och medborgare från andra länder, sade tyske kristdemokraten Manfred Weber som talade för EU:s konservativa partiers räkning.
– Parlamentet och alla partigrupper borde ge kommissionen sitt stöd och hålla USA och Eric Holder ansvariga för att ha för över information om våra medborgare som kan ha varit fullkomligt ointressant i kampen mot terrorismen, sade Claude Moraes från brittiska Labour.
– Vi borde skämmas, tyckte i sin tur nederländska liberalen Sophie in 't Veld och beklagade att så få fanns på plats under parlamentets morgondebatt.
– Jag vet inte om ni hörde Barack Obamas uttalande när han talade till den oroliga amerikanska allmänheten? Han sade 'Var inte oroliga. Vi spionerar inte på amerikanska medborgare. Vi spionerar bara på utlänningar'. Utlänningar! Det är alltså vi. Det är europeiska medborgare. Vad för sorts 'särskild relation' är det? Under de senaste tolv åren har Europa vikt sig fullständigt för att vara amerikanernas närmaste allierade i kampen mot terrorismen, sade in 't Veld.

Svenska ledamöter kritiska

Också svenska EU-parlamentariker är överens i kritiken av USA.
- Det här är mycket allvarligt, vi är på väg att få bättre dataskydd inom EU och ny måste vi ta en rejäl debatt med amerikanerna,  säger Christofer Fjellner (M) till SVT i Strasbourg.
- Det här visar att USA gått för långt, och inom EU bör man börja tillämpa en försiktighetsprincip när stora datamängder hanteras, säger Marita Ulvskog (S).
- Det är väldigt allvarligt men jag är inte förvånad, säger Amelia Andersdotter (PP). Det första EU nu borde göra är att inte tillåta amerikanska företag att slentrianmässigt föra över data till USA och sen behöver vi få en egen, stark datatskyddsförordning inom EU.

Holder ställs till svars

EU kommer att ta upp frågan om den amerikanska dataövervakningen med USA:s justitieminister Eric Holder i ett möte på fredag, berättar EU-kommissionären Cecilia Malmström.
– Det vi vet - och vi vet väldigt lite ännu - är naturligtvis oerhört bekymmersamt. Vi är oroliga för vad det här betyder för europeiska medborgare, för vår data, för vår kommunikation; hur det har blivit övervakat, säger Malmström till TT.
– Vi har tagit kontakt med våra amerikanska motsvarigheter för att försöka få svar på detta: Vad innebär det här? Hur länge har det pågått? Vad får det för konsekvenser? Vad är det för rättssäkerhet inblandad i detta? Vi har inte fått de svaren ännu, men vi ska ha ett möte med den amerikanske justitieministern i slutet på veckan och jag hoppas att vi kan få en del svar då.


6 juni 2013

Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America - The one percent reallity!


Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers.

 The reality is often not what we think it is.

References:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2...
http://danariely.com/2010/09/30/wealt...
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011...
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/...

Svenska folket tycker att skillnaden mellan fattig och rik ska minska




Svenska folket tycker att skillnaden mellan fattig och rik ska minska rejält, visar 

Aftonbladet/United Minds undersökning.

Svenskarna vill att den rikaste femtedelen ska äga 25 procent av alla 

förmögenheter. Sanningen är att de äger 87 procent av tillgångarna.

I dag presenteras ­Skatteverkets nya ­inkomstlistor.

Aftonbladet bad United Minds att ställa frågor till svenskarna om fördelningen av landets samlade privata nettoförmögenhet på 5 500 miljarder. Resultat:
 Svenskarna vill att den rikaste femtedelen ska äga 25 procent, medan den fattigaste femtedelen ska äga 15 procent av förmögen­heten.
Svenskarna tror att den rikaste femtedelen i verkligheten äger 38 procent, och den fattigaste femte­delen 10 procent.
Sanningen är att den rikaste femtedelen äger 87 procent av nettoförmögenheten. Den fattigaste femtedelen äger ingenting, utan har enbart skulder.
Statistik kring svenskarnas nettoförmögenhet – som innefattar både tillgångar och skulder – slutade Skatteverket att sammanställa 2007, när förmögenhetsskatten hade avskaffats av den nytillträdda alliansregeringen.

Minskar för fattiga

Hur förmögenhetsklyftan har utvecklats sedan dess vet ingen. Men förändringen av inkomstklyftorna, som syns i Statistiska centralbyråns statistik, ger en fingervisning:
Sedan 2006 har den ­tiondel av svenskarna som har lägst disponibel årsinkomst fått se den minska från 82 100 kronor till 78 600 kronor.
Samtidigt ökade den disponibla års­inkomsten för de tio procent av befolkningen som tjänar mest från 538 100 kronor till 594 300 kronor.

”Väldigt olyckligt”

En ny undersökning från den ekonomiska samarbetsorganisationen OECD visar också att Sverige är det land inom OECD där den relativa fattigdomen ökade snabbast mellan 1995 och 2010, från 3,7 till 9,1 procent.
Relativt fattig är den som har lägre än 50 procent av landets medianinkomst.
Daniel Waldenström, professor i nationalekonomi vid Uppsala universitet, är bekymrad över bristen på ny förmögenhetsstatistik:
– Det är väldigt olyckligt. Vi kan inte få en korrekt bild av välfärdens fördelning och effekterna av ­regeringens ekonomiska politik, säger Waldenström.

Tvingades backa

Riksbankschefen Stefan Ingves vill återinföra förmögenhetsstatistiken, men har tvingats backa.
Riksbanksdirektionen – det vill säga riksbankschefen och de fem direktionsledamöterna – konstaterade i januari 2013 att sådana uppgifter samlas in i både Norge och Danmark, och att en förmögenhetsstatistik skulle underlätta Riksbankens arbete med att ­förebygga finansiella ­kriser.

”Stör de borgerliga”

Vice ordförande i riksbanksfullmäktige, Sven-­Erik Österberg (S), stödde direktionens förslag men konstaterar att den borgerliga majoriteten i fullmäktige var emot:
– Det är en starkt politiskt laddad fråga. Vi vet att borgerligheten inte har varit intresserade av dessa uppgifter, de tycker att de stör den personliga integriteten.
I slutet av april drog riksbanksdirektionen tillbaka förslaget. Det skrivs nu om så att risken för integritetskränkning ska minska:
– Direktionen ska precisera förutsättningarna för insamlingen och återkomma med ett nytt förslag, säger Riksbankens chefsjurist Eric Frieberg.




28 maj 2013

Where Science and Buddhism Meet PART 1 ( scroll dwn 4 No 2 )




Where Science and Buddhism Meet: Emptiness, Interconnectivity and the Nature of Reality 

Don't forget to "like" if you enjoy! :)

Join the conversation here: http://www.youtube.com/user/GeraldP1983
and
Find my latest project here: http://www.innerprisms.com

Thank you for taking the time to watch this! If you enjoy this video and think it would be of some benefit or interest to others please share! My intentions are of a pure and positive nature and with this I hope to share what I believe to be a very meaningful message. I've made this to share what I believe to a profound convergence of two way seemingly opposite ways of perceiving and understanding reality. Lots of love!! 
- Gerald

You can download a version of this video directly from Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/2293696 )

Here is a very partial list of resources, please message me with any questions!

-Wave/Particle Duality -- 
Tao of Physics - pg 67, 69 
Quantum Enigma -- pg 10 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-par...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT7xJ0...
http://science.howstuffworks.com/atom...
The Fabric of the Cosmos -- pg. 206


-The Emptiness of Atoms-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kypne2...
http://education.jlab.org/qa/atomicst...

-The Quantum Field -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_...
Tao of Physics -- pg. 210

Part Two: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlmrHM...

If you have any questions on the content or need some good resources please send me a message! Thanks again :)



Where Science and Buddhism Meet PART 2





Join the Conversation Here:http://www.youtube.com/user/GeraldP1983
and 
Check out my latest project here: http://www.innerprisms.com/ 
:)
Where Science and Buddhism Meet: Emptiness, Interconnectivity and the Nature of Reality 

Check out my latest project at www.innerprisms.com! :)

Please don't forget to rate and favorite if you enjoy! :)

Thank you for taking the time to watch this! If you enjoy this video and think it would be of some benefit or interest to others please share! My intentions are of a pure and positive nature and with this I hope to share what I believe to be a very meaningful message. I've made this to share what I believe to a profound convergence of two way seemingly opposite ways of perceiving and understanding reality. Lots of love!! 
- Gerald

Here is a very partial list of resources, please message me with any questions!

You can download a version of this video directly from Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/2293696)!

-Wave/Particle Duality -- 
Tao of Physics - pg 67, 69 
Quantum Enigma -- pg 10 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-par...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT7xJ0...
http://science.howstuffworks.com/atom...
The Fabric of the Cosmos -- pg. 206


-The Emptiness of Atoms-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kypne2...
http://education.jlab.org/qa/atomicst...

-The Quantum Field -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_...
Tao of Physics -- pg. 210




13 maj 2013

Världens humör mäts via twitter






Både politiker och forskare blir allt mer intresserade av att mäta ett lands välstånd i lycka istället. Och i USA försöker nu forskare mäta av världshumöret dag för dag - via twitter.
PUBLICERAD 10 MAJ 2013 - 22:23

13 april 2013

The faith of idiots




Website
http://www.patcondell.net



Too lazy and stupid to think for yourself? Welcome to Jesus country.

BOOK OF VIDEO TRANSCRIPTS AVAILABLE
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback...

You can download an audio version of this video at 
http://patcondell.libsyn.com/

Subscribe via iTunes at
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZ...


9 april 2013

Momentum and Portal - Sixty Symbols



Professor Moriarty requested that we re-visit one aspect of physics in the game Portal 2 - humour him!

Previous videos at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6JIB... andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKAQ1P...

Visit our website at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/
We're on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sixtysymbols
And Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/periodicvideos
This project features scientists from The University of Nottingham
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/i...

Sixty Symbols videos by Brady Haran



















Wormholes n' Portal 2 - Sixty Symbols




We discuss wormholes and the new computer game called Portal 2

More physics at:
http://www.sixtysymbols.com/


7 april 2013

Sam Harris simply destroys catholicism - BRINGING THE VATICAN TO JUSTICE




That's how to look at things as they really are

http://www.samharris.org/


***



BRINGING THE VATICAN TO JUSTICE



By Sam Harris
I confess that, as a critic of religion, I have paid too little attention to the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Frankly, it always felt unsportsmanlike to shoot so large and languorous a fish in so tiny a barrel. This scandal was one of the most spectacular “own goals” in the history of religion, and there seemed to be no need to deride faith at its most vulnerable and self-abased. Even in retrospect, it is easy to understand the impulse to avert one’s eyes: Just imagine a pious mother and father sending their beloved child to the Church of a Thousand Hands for spiritual instruction, only to have him raped and terrified into silence by threats of hell. And then imagine this occurring to tens of thousands of children in our own time—and to children beyond reckoning for over a thousand years. The spectacle of faith so utterly misplaced, and so fully betrayed, is simply too depressing to think about.
But there was always more to this phenomenon that should have compelled my attention. Consider the ludicrous ideology that made it possible: The Catholic Church has spent two millennia demonizing human sexuality to a degree unmatched by any other institution, declaring the most basic, healthy, mature, and consensual behaviors taboo. Indeed, this organization stillopposes the use of contraception, preferring, instead, that the poorest people on earth be blessed with the largest families and the shortest lives. As a consequence of this hallowed and incorrigible stupidity, the Church has condemned generations of decent people to shame and hypocrisy—or to Neolithic fecundity, poverty, and death by AIDS. Add to this inhumanity the artifice of cloistered celibacy, and you now have an institution—one of the wealthiest on earth—that preferentially attracts pederasts, pedophiles, and sexual sadists into its ranks, promotes them to positions of authority, and grants them privileged access to children. Finally, consider that vast numbers of children will be born out of wedlock, and their unwed mothers vilified, wherever Church teaching holds sway—leading boys and girls by the thousands to be abandoned to Church-run orphanages only to be raped and terrorized by the clergy. Here, in this ghoulish machinery set to whirling through the ages by the opposing winds of shame and sadism, we mortals can finally glimpse how strangely perfect are the ways of the Lord.
In 2009, The Irish Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) investigated such of these events as occurred on Irish soil. Their report runs to 2,600 pages. Having read only an oppressive fraction of this document, I can say that when thinking about the ecclesiastical abuse of children, it is best not to imagine shades of ancient Athens and the blandishments of a “love that dare not speak its name.” Yes, there have surely been polite pederasts in the priesthood, expressing anguished affection for boys who would turn 18 the next morning. But behind these indiscretions there is a continuum of abuse that terminates in utter evil. The scandal in the Catholic Church—one might now safely say the scandal that is the Catholic Church—includes the systematic rape and torture of orphaned and disabled children. Its victims attest to being whipped with belts and sodomized until bloody—sometimes by multiple attackers—and then whipped again and threatened with death and hell fire if they breathed a word about their abuse. And yes, many of the children who were desperate or courageous enough to report these crimes were accused of lying and returned to their tormentors to be raped and tortured again.
The evidence suggests that the misery of these children was facilitated and concealed by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church at every level, up to and including the prefrontal cortex of the current Pope. In his former capacity as Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict personally oversaw the Vatican’s response to reports of sexual abuse in the Church. What did this wise and compassionate man do upon learning that his employees were raping children by the thousands?  Did he immediately alert the police and ensure that the victims would be protected from further torments? One still dares to imagine such an effulgence of basic human sanity might have been possible, even within the Church. On the contrary, repeated and increasingly desperate complaints of abuse were set aside, witnesses were pressured into silence, bishops were praised for their defiance of secular authority, and offending priests were relocated only to destroy fresh lives in unsuspecting parishes. It is no exaggeration to say that for decades (if not centuries) the Vatican has met the formal definition of a criminal organization, devoted not to gambling, prostitution, drugs, or any other venial sin, but to the sexual enslavement of children.
Consider the following passages from the CICA report:
7.129 In relation to one School, four witnesses gave detailed accounts of sexual abuse, including rape in all instances, by two or more Brothers and on one occasion along with an older resident. A witness from the second School, from which there were several reports, described being raped by three Brothers: ‘I was brought to the infirmary…they held me over the bed, they were animals….They penetrated me, I was bleeding’. Another witness reported he was abused twice weekly on particular days by two Brothers in the toilets off the dormitory:

One Brother kept watch while the other abused me ...(sexually)... then they changed over. Every time it ended with a severe beating. When I told the priest in Confession, he called me a liar. I never spoke about it again.
I would have to go into his ...(Br X’s)... room every time he wanted. You’d get a hiding if you didn’t, and he’d make me do it ...(masturbate)... to him. One night I didn’t ...(masturbate him)... and there was another Brother there who held me down and they hit me with a hurley and they burst my fingers ...displayed scar….
...
7.232 Witnesses reported being particularly fearful at night as they listened to residents screaming in cloakrooms, dormitories or in a staff member’s bedroom while they were being abused. Witnesses were conscious that co-residents whom they described as orphans had a particularly difficult time:
The orphan children, they had it bad. I knew ...(who they were)... by the size of them, I’d ask them and they’d say they come from ...named institution…. They were there from an early age. You’d hear the screams from the room where Br ...X… would be abusing them.
There was one night, I wasn’t long there and I seen one of the Brothers on the bed with one of the young boys ... and I heard the young lad screaming crying and Br ...X… said to me “if you don’t mind your own business you’ll get the same”. ... I heard kids screaming and you know they are getting abused and that’s a nightmare in anybody’s mind. You are going to try and break out. ... So there was no way I was going to let that happen to me…. I remember one boy and he was bleeding from the back passage and I made up my mind, there was no way it ...(anal rape)... was going to happen to me. ... That used to play on my mind.

This is the kind of abuse that the Church has practiced and concealed since time out of memory. Even the CICA report declined to name the offending priests due to pressure from the Vatican. The cover-up of these atrocities continues.
I have been awakened from my unconscionable slumber on this issue by recent press reports (1,2345, & 6) and especially by the eloquence of my colleagues Christopher Hitchens (1234, & 5) and Richard Dawkins (1 & 2). Both have begun a public effort to make the Pope accountable for the Church’s complicity in these crimes. Here, I would like to announce that Project Reason, the foundation that my wife and I started to spread scientific thinking and secular values, has joined Hitchens and Dawkins (both of whom sit on our advisory board) in an effort to end the “diplomatic immunity” which the Vatican claims protects the Pope from any responsibility. We would greatly appreciate your support in this cause.  All donations are tax-deductible in the United States.
May 10, 2010

Update (August 7, 2011): Project Reason has sponsored Geoffrey Robertson’s, The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse.

Related Articles:
Home, M. (2010). Author Sam Harris joins plot to have Pope arrested. The Sunday Times. (May 15).