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Friendly Fuedalism - The Tibet Myth. I.

Friendly Fuedalism - The Tibet Myth

For Lords and Lamas Along with the blood drenched landscape of religious conflict there is the experience of inner peace and solace that every religion promises, none more so than Buddhism. Standing in marked contrast to the intolerant savagery of other religions, Buddhism is neither fanatical nor dogmatic--so say its adherents. For many of them Buddhism is less a theology and more a meditative and investigative discipline intended to promote an inner harmony and enlightenment while directing us to a path of right living. Generally, the spiritual focus is not only on oneself but on the welfare of others. A glance at history, however, reveals that not all the many and widely varying forms of Buddhism have been free of doctrinal fanaticism, nor free of the violent and exploitative pursuits so characteristic of other religions.

As with any religion, squabbles between or within Buddhist sects are often fueled by the material corruption and personal deficiencies of the leadership. II. Sept. 19, 1982: Can’t You Take a Joke? :-) 1982: At precisely 11:44 a.m., Scott Fahlman posts the following electronic message to a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University: 19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman From: Scott E FahlmanI propose that the following character sequence for joke markers: Read it sideways.

Sept. 19, 1982: Can’t You Take a Joke? :-)

Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use: With that post, Fahlman became the acknowledged originator of the ASCII-based emoticon. From those two simple emoticons (a portmanteau combining the words emotion and icon) have sprung dozens of others that are the joy, or bane, of e-mail, text-message and instant-message correspondence the world over. Fahlman was not, however, the first person to use typographical symbols to convey emotions. In 1881, the American satirical magazine Puck published what we would now call emoticons, using hand-set type. But none of those caught on. To remedy this, Fahlman suggested using and. HEH: Math joke from Anna, the bartender and civil engineering student: an infinite number of math…

Number Of U.S. Millionaires Soared In 2009: Spectrem Group. It was a good year to be rich.

Number Of U.S. Millionaires Soared In 2009: Spectrem Group

Or ultra-rich, for that matter. The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more -- excluding wealth derived from a primary residence -- grew 16 percent last year, according to a new report by the Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm. After a 27 percent decline in the number of millionaire households in 2008, the ranks of U.S. millionaires swelled to 7.8 million last year. And it was an even better year to be an "Ultra High Net Worth Individual," defined as someone with a net worth of $5 million or more.

That population grew 17 percent in 2009 to 980,000. "The nation's millionaires -- together with its Ultra High Net Worth households -- are bouncing back from the recession. The number of American millionaires seems to have risen in tandem with both work productivity growth and, unfortunately, with the unemployment rate, which has hovered around 10 percent in the last few months.