The fifth of the Five Precepts the Buddha advised humans to adopt is to abstain from intoxicants that occasion heedlessness such as alcohol, drugs, and such substances [12, 13].
The Five Precepts (guidelines for morality, virtue, human ethics, harmlessness, ahimsa) are called pañca-sīla, binding on all Buddhist laypeople. They are to abstain and refrain from:
killing any living being
stealing (taking what is not given)
sexual misconduct
false speech (which means speaking falsehoods or lying and malicious speech, harsh speech, and frivolous speech or "animal talk"* mislabeled as gossip)
the use of intoxicants (such as beer and spirits or surāmeraya).
Early Buddhist texts nearly always condemn alcohol as do Chinese Buddhist later post-canonical texts (of the Mahayana tradition).
Smoking is sometimes also included here.
In modern times, traditional Buddhist countries have seen revival movements to promote the Five Precepts, the least good karma if we hope to ever be reborn on the human plane again and avoid the subhuman planes.
In the West, the precepts play a major role in Buddhist organizations. They have also been integrated into mindfulness training programs -- though many modern "mindfulness" specialists, having changed the definition of "mindfulness" (which the Buddha called sati) to something that better suits them -- do not support this because of the precepts' spiritual religious import.
Lastly, many conflict prevention programs make use of the precepts. More
What do we do when drinking other than "animal talk"?
Back off, Bich! - Don't call me 'bich,' Birdbrain!
*What is "animal talk"? It is lowly speech, literally "beastly talk," the name the sutras (ancient texts) give for the following: "Talk about:
Has mystery of Nord Stream Pipeline bombing been solved? Ukrainian suspect flees arrest
(Democracy Now!)
Aug. 16, 2024: Latest Shows
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Ukraine's government is trying to deny a Wall Street Journal report this week that Kyiv (Kiev) approved a plan to blow up the Russian-owned Nord Stream pipelines in 2022.
I approved it, but I tried to change my mind. Then we did it.
According to the credible newspaper, a crew of Ukrainian civilians and active-duty soldiers used a rented yacht to reach the pipelines, which deliver Russian natural methane gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea; they then used explosives to sever three of the four pipelines, putting many in the cold, doing great harm to world's environment, and raising prices of European energy.
This comes as Poland says it was unable to carry out a German arrest warrant for a new suspect in its investigation into the Nord Stream attack, a 44-year-old Ukrainian diving professional who is alleged to have attached explosive charges to the pipelines.
Polish authorities say the suspect fled to Ukraine in July. For more on the investigation, DN! speaks with German journalist Holger Stark, deputy editor-in-chief and head of the investigative team at _Die Zeit_, who has been reporting on the Nord Stream attack for years.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 am ET.
Enormous hidden ocean discovered under Mars, and it could contain life: Geophysicists have discovered a gigantic hidden ocean beneath Mars' surface, and they say it could harbor life. The massive underground reservoir, discovered using seismic data taken by NASA's InSight Lander, contains enough liquid to cover the entire planet with a mile of water. However, it is far too deep to access by any known means. Trapped inside a layer of fractured rock 7 to 13 miles (11.5 to 20 kms) beneath the Red Planet's outer crust, reaching the water would require a drilling operation that has yet-to-be achieved on Earth. More
(Popular Mechanics) In its ancient past, Mars likely contained many of the necessary ingredients for microbial life to flourish on its surface.
Now, a new discovery by NASA’s Perseverance rover shows a trifecta of compelling evidence — including the presence of water, organic compounds, and a chemical energy source — all on one rock located in the Jezero Crater.
One would think the word "organic" were life enough, but extraplanetary fossils found decades ago were not enough to overcome doubters in science. If Martian scientists bring us rock samples showing clear signs of earlier life on Mars, we still won't believe them. Life is earth-only. Just ask God (or read His bestseller). We are alone with Lord. Just Lord and us. That's it. No aliens!
Although this is the best clue yet that microbial life existed on Mars, there are still other explanations that could explain account for this geologic display without the existence of microbes.
“Is there life on Mars” is a question that has vexed astrobiologists and [Buddhist rockstar] David Bowie [who almost became a Vajrayana Buddhist monk rather than a human-alien hybrid pop singer] alike.
Playing with reptilian monsters on earth
While the latter imagined some macabre collection of arachnids on the Red Planet [Spiders on Mars], NASA scientists are fixated on finding evidence that microbial life once flourished on the fourth rock from the Sun.
They are so fixated, in fact, that the space agency has spent more than $5 billion getting two immensely complicated robotic rovers — Curiosity and Perseverance — onto the Martian surface with this specific microbial mission in mind.
Now, one of those rovers might have discovered one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for Martian microbial life.
Movile Cave, Romania: Life erupts inside cave sealed for 5 million years
Located on an arrowhead-shaped, three-foot-long rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in the Jezero Crater (the 28-mile-wide crater that Perseverance has called home for the past three years), this “piece of evidence” is actually a trifecta of data points that suggest the presence of past microbial life.
The rock in question features two vertical veins of calcium sulfate that likely formed from past water, and these stripes both flank a red band of rock filled with “leopard spots.”
NASA has discovered evidence of past water on Mars before, but it’s this narrow band of rock that brings new meaning to this discovery.
Using its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry) instruments, Perseverance determined the existence of organic compounds within the rock.
What's in Area 51, Groom Lake, Dreamland?
Oh, and those “leopard spots?” Those likely indicate chemical reactions that could’ve supplied energy to ancient microbial Martians.
While each of these discoveries — the presence of water, organic compounds, and chemical reactions — would be notable even if discovered separately, NASA has never seen all three in one location, meaning the geological chemistry of Cheyava Falls is possibly our best clue yet that Mars once hosted life. More:
I have a Tesla, so I'm not part of the problem...most days, unless I run out of juice and use gas.
.
Gas prices soar higher in Southern California
Don't drink it; pore it in the tank
Buckle up, Southern California. Overly high gas prices are back with a vengeance [just as was predicted years ago to align with Big Oil's plan to milk the endless supply of polluting petroleum, which German scientists proved grows naturally in the ground by the magic of microbes in the soil and is not coming from old dinosaur fossil deposits. But it takes a long, long time to replenish and is very toxic and polluting when brought up and burned into the atmosphere. Big Oil also doesn't want anyone to know that clean, natural alcohol can be a gas as a byproduct of natural yeasts and microbes eating sugars].
Los Angeles County [the self-proclaimed Capital of the World because what happens here eventually happens everywhere else] prices are up to an average of $5.56 per gallon.
A month ago, that price was $5.22, according to AAA.
That’s higher than the state’s average of $5.46 and far higher than the national average of $3.84.
[They'll have us all in 5G remote controlled electric vehicles, which will be more polluting to fuel up even if less polluting to operate, by outlawing internal combustion engines that run on petroleum in the name of climate change alarmism. But sourcing rare earth minerals to make batteries on an industrial scale then burning coal to make electricity to power them is known to be far more polluting than the system now in place.]
[Though devices and techniques to get 100 MPG have been around for 50 years, they will not be allowed because that would bankrupt Big Oil, which has a graph and prognostication on how much money they are going to make from the remaining amount of peak oil at their disposal, over how long, and at what price at the pump.]
[They will not be deterred by engineering innovations, better fuel efficiency standards, alcohol as a replacement fuel, solar, wind, methane, free energy (which is not even allowed to mention), hydrogen fuel cells, or systems yet to be brought to market or dreamed up. But Big Oil will bow out to make room for "smart cities" and an agenda of greater government surveillance and control.]
It's already working as detailed in Blume's book
It’s also higher than this time last year, when a gallon was $5.41 on average.
However, it’s still lower than the highest local average ever for L.A. County, which was recorded a little over a year ago:
On June 14, 2022, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas was $6.44.
Despite the climbing costs, deals can still be found. GasBuddy.comshowspricesas low as $4.69 in the greater Los Angeles area. More
(David Blume, alcoholcanbeagas.com) ...We can reverse global warming. Since alcohol is made from plants, its production takes carbon dioxide out of the air, sequestering it, with the result that it reverses the greenhouse effect (while potentially vastly improving the soil).
Recent studies show that with a permaculture-designed mixed-crop alcohol fuel production system, the amount of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere by plants -- then exuded by plant roots into the soil as sugar -- can be 13 times what is emitted by processing the crops and burning the alcohol in our cars.
We can revitalize the economy instead of suffering through Peak Oil. Oil is running out, and what we replace it with will make a big difference in our environment and economy.
Alcohol fuel production and use is clean and environmentally sustainable, and will revitalize families, farms, towns, cities, industries, as well as the environment.
A national switch to alcohol fuel would provide many millions of new permanent jobs. No new technological breakthroughs are needed. We can make alcohol fuel out of what we have, where we have it....
Unlike hydrogen fuel cells, we can easily use alcohol fuel in the vehicles we already own.
Unmodified cars can run on 50% alcohol. And converting to 100% alcohol or flexible fueling (using both alcohol and gas) costs only a few hundred dollars.
Most auto companies already sell new dual-fuel vehicles.
This would've bankrupted us and Bush Dynasty
Alcohol is a superior fuel to gasoline! It’s 105 octane, burns much cooler with less vibration, is less flammable in case of accident, is 98% pollution-free, has lower evaporative emissions, and deposits no carbon in the engine or oil, resulting in a tripling of engine life. More
Arvin Ash, 12/22; Secrets of U, 4/22; Sheldon S., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Black holes are even weirder than thought
(Arvin Ash) SUMMARY: Karl Schwarzschild crafted the first exact solution to Einstein's equations of general relativity. He found that as gravity increased around an object, there must be a point where even light could not escape.
Genius Einstein had regard for Buddhism?
He theorized black holes.
Stars are in a balance between gravity trying to collapse it inward, and energy of fusion in its core which pushes outward. But when large stars run out of fuel, gravity causes it to collapse.
If the star is massive enough, this results in a supernova. A black hole remains in the center of the debris, if the collapsed core has a mass of 2 to 3 times the mass of our sun.
In a black hole, general relativity says all its mass is collapsed into an infinitesimally small volume, called a singularity. A singularity has all its mass in zero volume of space, thus it has infinite density.
But infinities usually mean errors in math, so singularities may not be real.
The singularity is enclosed by a boundary, the event horizon, within which the curvature of spacetime is so strong that light cannot escape. #blackhole#eventhorizon
CHAPTERS
0:00 Karl Schwarzschild theorizes black holes
1:58 Inspiration for this video
3:16 How black holes form
5:28 What is the event horizon? 7:25
How time flows near and inside a black hole
9:57 How can black holes be so bright if no light escapes?
11:34 How do we detect black holes if we can't see them?
12:29 Can life form on a planet orbiting a black hole?
The radius of this sphere is called the Schwarzschild radius. Since no light can escape from the event horizon, anything inside, including the singularity, can’t be directly seen. Anything that crosses into this horizon is swallowed forever [or no time at all, or for two Tuesdays, or we have no objective idea].
For this reason, black holes are considered the of edge of space, a one-way exit from our universe.
The size of a black hole is defined by its event horizon and is very small. If the sun were a black hole, it would be a sphere 6 km or 4 miles wide, and earth would be the size of a ping pong ball.
As you get closer to the event horizon, the flow of time slows, compared to flow of time from a point far away from it.
From the perspective of an observer far from the black hole, time stops completely at the event horizon. General relativity still works inside it but not at the singularity.
According to relativity, time and space trade places inside the black hole. Relativity predicts that time gets destroyed at the singularity. So a black hole is like the "reverse of creation."
Whatever is inside the event horizon is causally disconnected from us. It remains forever in the future. Whatever is inside hasn't happened yet from our perspective.
Since no light can escape, we can only “see” black holes indirectly because of the way their gravity affects stars and pulls matter into orbit.
As gas flows around some black holes, it heats up, paradoxically making them some of the brightest things in the universe.
But most black holes don’t have accretion discs, so they are not easily seen. Other methods have to be used to find them.
The supermassive black hole near the center of our Milky way galaxy called Saggitarious A* was found because of the tight orbits of stars we COULD see orbiting it.
Black holes are [now thought] rather common. Scientists estimate that a new black hole is formed in our universe every second [because this is a multiverse after all].
There are an estimated 100 million black holes [or zero] floating around in the Milky Way. So for every 1,000 stars we can see in the sky, there is a black hole among them that we can’t see.
The gravitational gradient around a black hole is so steep that it allows for MILLIONS of potential orbiting planets around them, whereas a regular stars can only support a fraction of that.
The maximum theoretical number of Earth-like planets that could exist around our Sun in the habitable zone is six. Replace our Sun with a black hole a million times its mass but about the same size and 550 Earth-size planets could orbit in the same region without bumping into each other.
A black hole’s gravity is so dominant, it negates how planets disrupt each other, and that allows for far more stable orbits to exist.
It is possible that a planet around a black hole could support life.
Black holes last much longer than our sun, 10^84 years vs 10^10 years. They are going to be around for a long time, after the all the stars have died out, and the universe goes dark [again in this cyclical process as explained in Buddhist cosmology].
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Einstein Questions, Buddha Answers
This thought-provoking book (Einstein Questions, Buddha Answers) uses Einstein’s interest in wanting to find the absolute ruling point in nature and his quest for the theory of everything as the basis to connect with the Buddha’s wisdom regarding the existence of the ultimate, which he called "Nirvana." The author's prime duty is to help understand that this ultimate, absolute, unconditioned element has everything to do with each of us, intimately and significantly.
This is reflected in the contents of the book: finding our true "self" [in an impersonal universe], the state of a normal mind, the final frontier, and so on.
It also reveals the nature of the ultimate truth by connecting it with neutral terms such as "here and now," "truth and reality," and "the innocent perception."
No one, no idea, no concept, no theory, no solution can be called "perfect"; things can only be as perfect as they can be in relation to time and space.
Even the absolute truth is within the realm of constant movement [impermanence]. So even a fully enlightened person is not perfect; the perfection of an arhat (a fully enlightened/liberated person) is strictly in the relative sense.
We merely learn how to live in harmony with change if we know the ultimate truth.
Stunning PLUTO images show something unusual going on there
(The Secrets of the Universe) Pluto is an icy world that was once considered the ninth planet of the solar system. It's so far away that ground-based telescopes can hardly reveal any surface images of the dwarf planet.
Hence, Pluto remained a mystery for several decades after its discovery.
[NOTE: Never mind the terrible CGI that conceals real images.]
In 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons probe to study Pluto, which was still considered the ninth planet.
New Horizons reached Pluto after more than nine years and became the first spacecraft to fly by the far-flung world.
It [allegedly] sent back stunning images of the dwarf planet that revealed striking details of its surface.
Although New Horizons has now crossed the mark of 50 AU ("astronomical units") from Earth, data from the space probe is still being analyzed after six years of the Pluto flyby. And now research has shown that Pluto is not as calm as it seems. It is covered with ice volcanoes and the icy body might harbor liquid-water ocean underneath its surface.
In the fifth episode of the Sunday Discoveries Series, let's learn about the discovery of ice volcanoes on Pluto in detail.
Ukrainian military, like the Russian, hates gays and its tiny LGBTQIA movement at home.
Rashida Tlaib confronted about sending $100 billion to US Proxy-War on Russia in Ukraine
(The Jimmy Dore Show) March 9, 2023. During a recent constituent gathering to discuss environmental concerns in the Dearborn, Michigan area, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was asked whether some of the $100+ billion she voted to send to Ukraine could have been applied to domestic issues like the ones being discussed. Rather than answer the question, Representative Tlaib and her co-host, public health professional Abdul El-Sayed, deflected, ignored the questioner, and insisted on moving on to a different subject entirely.
Jimmy Dore and Americans’ comedian Kurt Metzger discuss the cardinal sin of violating protocol even when facing global thermonuclear war. #TheJimmyDoreShowMore
(NOVA PBS Official) Feb. 19, 2020. This cave in Canada remains frozen every summer — as it has for every summer in the last 10,000 years. It was the last Ice Age when it went into a deep freeze it has yet to emerge from. What can it tell us about the earth's future climate?
Indolent cows languidly chewing their cud while befuddled motorists honk and maneuver their vehicles around them are images as stereotypically Indian as saffron-clad holy men and the Taj Mahal. Now, however, India's ubiquitous cows -- of which there are 283 million, more than anywhere else in the world -- have assumed a more menacing role as they become part of the climate change debate.
By burping, belching, and excreting copious amounts of methane -- a greenhouse gas that traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide -- India's livestock of roughly 485 million (including sheep and goats) contribute more to global warming than the vehicles they obstruct.
With new research suggesting that emission of methane by Indian livestock is higher than previously estimated, scientists are furiously working at designing diets to help bovines and other ruminants eat better, stay more energetic and secrete lesser amounts of the offensive gas. (See pictures of India's largest ruminant: the Asian elephant.) More>>
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