Audio

I was asked for a link to the audio of talks and classes I gave. Here it is:

http://prairiezen.org/Audio/Audio_list.html

And here is a list of some recent ones:

Mother's Day Zazen  5/12/13

Buddhas  Sentient Beings  One Mind  5/5/13

Forgetting Self  4/28/13

Different - Same  4/21/13

What is a "near koan"?

How does the format of Facebook effect or limit the ways we use it, if we do, or determine the ways we are used by it?

Fascinating article about what occurs behind the scenes at Facebook.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/how-facebook-designs-the-perfect-empty-vessel-for-your-mind/275426/
 
Is it really a "near koan"?  What is that?

Is Facebook really "the perfect empty vessel" - what makes it empty?

What is not empty ?

(c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith

Religion and Public Life in America

What are the legal limits of the free exercise of religion?

What are the limits of the governmental support of religious activity?

The following article is an exploration of the nature of religious freedoms and governmental power in the United States. Though it has a definite conservative political perspective, it raises important issues that are worth exploring - even if you are agnostic about or do not agree with the author's politics.

This exploration is especially important for those connected to a religious practice life or with an interest in the relation of religious life and political issues.

 

http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp#.UYu8SuAK-Lc

(c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith

Prejudice without "acting prejudiced"

Below is an interesting exploration of prejudice (or reverse prejudice?) and privileging - even when there seems to be no overt or conscious prejudice. The article and studies cited seem especially relevant regarding politicians, pundits and celebrities of sports and media. Thought provoking.

WHAT DOES MODERN PREJUDICE LOOK LIKE?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/22/177455764/What-Does-Modern-Prejudice-Look-Like?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20130428

If we look, what privileging or "modern prejudice" do we discover in our life?

Are there ways we have acted based on this?

If so, how to notice when this arises, how to practice with this arising?


(c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith

Difficult Circumstances make for Happiness - Dalai Lama

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/newsmakers/conflict-peace-enlightenment-wisdom-dalai-lama-041130372.html?vp=1http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/newsmakers/conflict-peace-enlightenment-wisdom-dalai-lama-041130372.html?vp=1

Thermals

"When [the hand-launched Tactical Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial System] TALEUAS encounters a thermal it senses the lift and spirals around to take advantage of it. Vultures and eagles use the same technique, and Kevin Jones, who is in charge of the project, says he has often found TALEUAS sharing the air with these raptors. On some occasions, the birds found that the thermals they were attempting to join were too weak for their weight, as the drone is more efficient at gliding than they are.

TALEUAS’s endurance is limited only by the power requirements of its electronics and payload, which at the moment are battery powered. Dr. Jones and his team are, however, covering the craft’s wings with solar cells that will generate power during the day, and are replacing its lithium-polymer battery with a lithium-ion one capable of storing enough energy to last the night. That done, TALEUAS will be able to stay aloft indefinitely.

TALEUAS does, however, depend on chance to locate useful thermals in the first place. Roke Manor Research, a British firm, hopes to eliminate that element of chance by allowing drones actively to seek out rising air in places where the hunt is most likely to be propitious. As well as thermals, Mike Hook, the project’s leader, and his team are looking at orographic lift, produced by wind blowing over a ridge, and lee waves caused by wind striking mountains. Their software combines several approaches to the search for rising air. It analyses the local landscape for large flat areas that are likely to produce thermals, and for ridges that might generate orographic lift. It also employs cameras to spot cumulus clouds formed by rapidly rising hot air.

Perhaps the most ambitious scheme for a robot glider, however, is the artificial albatross proposed by Philip Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in Massachusetts. Like its natural counterpart, this artificial bird harnesses wind shear—the difference in wind speed at different heights—in a technique called dynamic soaring.

The air is quite still near the surface of the sea even when it is blowing strongly just a few metres above, so an albatross can rise to gain height like a kite in a breeze, then glide down in any direction. By repeating this trick it can fly thousands of kilometres without flapping its wings, and by tacking it can travel anywhere, regardless of the wind direction. Dr Richardson hopes to replicate this with his robot bird. If he can, he will surely break all records for the time a heavier-than-air artifact has stayed aloft."

 

http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21572927-unmanned-gliders-powered-drones-are-old-hat-latest-robot-aircraft-are-wafted

Crime and Punishment

A thought provoking article worth reading:

Smart on Crime

Being tough on criminals hasn’t worked, but neither has being lenient. Here’s how to prevent—and punish—crime the right way.

Mark A.R. Kleiman

 

When I was young and irresponsible, I met with the domestic policy team of a Democratic presidential nominee. To my suggestion that the candidate run on smarter crime control—and the gross failure of mere toughness as a strategy—the head of the team said, “No, crime isn’t our issue; it’s their issue.”..........

http://www.democracyjournal.org/28/smart-on-crime.php?page=all