Understanding the Tao Te Ching First, it is helpful to realize that the Tao Te Ching doesn’t convey truth per se. As Chuang Tzu said, “But these ancients, and what it was not possible for them to convey, are dead and gone: so then what you, my Ruler, are reading is but their dregs and sediments!”. The truth we seek only blossoms through personal experience—not through analytical and intellectual nit picking. Thus, the Tao Te Ching does not teach us anything… in reading it, we simply see our own minds glimpsing what is ‘not possible to convey’. A case in point, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. Now, I’m a philosophy gossip and mouth off about everything I notice. Another case in point, The empire is a sacred vessel and nothing should be done to it. On the Translations of the Tao Te Ching A number of popular ‘translations’ out there are actually interpretations of other original translations. D.C. It’s in the Eye of the Beholder Other Thoughts
Make A Bee Waterer And Help Hydrate Our Pollinators A single bee tends to at least 2,000 flowers daily, with their tiny wings beating 10,000 times per minute, carrying pollen, and dramatically assisting our food supply. All that work makes the bees thirsty, especially on a hot day. Bees need access to safe water sources, they often risk drowning in birdbaths or being eaten at rivers and lakes among birds, fish, frogs and other wildlife. This is why they often fly around our clothes lines and may even land on us if we are in an outdoor pool on a hot day. Kim Flottum, editor of the Bee Culture magazine, writes in her book The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden: “Water is used to dissolve crystallized honey, to dilute honey when producing larval food, for evaporation cooling during warm weather, and for a cool drink on a hot day.” “Bees know exactly where to return for the same water source. One solution to this problem is to add marbles or pebbles to a bowl or pan and then add water.
An introduction to Taoism and the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu Taoism Taoism (pronounced and also spelled Daoism; is a philosophical and religious tradition that emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao . The term Tao (or Dao, depending on the romanization system used) originally means "way", "path" or "principle", and can be found in Chinese philosophies and religions other than Taoism. In Taoism, however, Tao denotes something that is both the source and the driving source of everything that exists, and that ultimately is ineffable: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao." Influences Taoism has had profound influence on Chinese culture in the course of the centuries, and clerics of institutionalised Taoism (Chinese; pinyin: dàoshi) usually take care to note distinction between their ritual tradition and the customs and practices found in Chinese folk religion as these distinctions sometimes appear blurred. More information can be found at the menu right of this page >>
Paul Ford: What is Code? | Bloomberg A computer is a clock with benefits. They all work the same, doing second-grade math, one step at a time: Tick, take a number and put it in box one. Tick, take another number, put it in box two. Tick, operate (an operation might be addition or subtraction) on those two numbers and put the resulting number in box one. Tick, check if the result is zero, and if it is, go to some other box and follow a new set of instructions. You, using a pen and paper, can do anything a computer can; you just can’t do those things billions of times per second. Apple has always made computers; Microsoft used to make only software (and occasional accessory hardware, such as mice and keyboards), but now it’s in the hardware business, with Xbox game consoles, Surface tablets, and Lumia phones. So many things are computers, or will be. When you “batch” process a thousand images in Photoshop or sum numbers in Excel, you’re programming, at least a little. 2.1 How Do You Type an “A”? It’s simple now, right?
The Way and the Life: Tao Te Ching | Peace is Our True Nature You may want to have a few coffees for this one… on a roll today it seems. I want to go out and do some juggling, but I feel moved to add this. Inspiration can be a hard task master…. When I was in London, I suddenly saw a sign that I had seen many times on the London Underground. Also if you want to know how it works in today’s world I would recommend you go and download an audio book of Byron Katie ‘A thousand names for joy’. Full text available Richard Wilhelm (trans.) (1985) LAO TZU | TAO TE CHING The Book of Meaning and Life. No other work of Chinese literature has attracted as much attention as Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. Richard Wilhelm, renowned for his superb translation and commentary on the I Ching, completed his translation of the Tao Te Ching in 1910 and it is only now appearing in the English language. THE DAO DE JING Part I: DAO Part II: DE, or LIFE 1. But this was not the end of it.
Cheap Water from the World's Largest Modern Seawater Desalination Plant The world’s largest and cheapest reverse-osmosis desalination plant is up and running in Israel. Availability: now Breakthrough Demonstrating that seawater desalination can cost-effectively provide a substantial portion of a nation’s water supply. Why It Matters The world’s supplies of fresh water are inadequate to meet the needs of a growing population. Key Players IDE Technologies Poseidon Water Desalitech Evoqua On a Mediterranean beach 10 miles south of Tel Aviv, Israel, a vast new industrial facility hums around the clock. Worldwide, some 700 million people don’t have access to enough clean water. The new plant in Israel, called Sorek, was finished in late 2013 but is just now ramping up to its full capacity; it will produce 627,000 cubic meters of water daily, providing evidence that such large desalination facilities are practical. The traditional criticism of reverse-osmosis technology is that it costs too much. —David Talbot
Taoism - Resources This page provides further online Taoist resources by topics. More resources will be added soon - please register with our newsletter to be informed of updates. Taoism > Introduction to Taoism by Huston Smith (PDF)No civilization is monochrome. > Daoism and Ecology by James MillerDaoism, as the indigenous religion of China, is profoundly ecological in its theoretical disposition, but in practice does not conform easily to Western notions of what this should entail. > Taoist ResourcesA collection of Taoist scriptures located at the Internet Archive. Tao-te ching > The Complete Tao-te ching - translation by James Legge (PDF). > A comparative version (Legge, Suzuki, Goddard) plus Chinese version. > Tao-te ching - A matrix translation with Chinese text (PDF). > Chinese version with vocabulary and English explanation of each character. > A few comments on Tao-te ching by D. > 175+ translations of the first chapter. > Sixty interactive translations provided by Mobilewords Limited I-ching Lieh-tzu
Is Human Empathy an Evolutionary Advantage?' Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live.” This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. Nye is the host of three currently-running television series.
Gifts With Meaning Photo IT’S time for my annual holiday gift guide, the chance to recommend presents more meaningful than a tie or sweater. For $20, through Heifer International (heifer.org), you can buy a flock of ducks and help a family work its way to a better life. Or $74 through CARE (care.org) pays for a schoolgirl’s books and supplies so she can attend school for a year — and girls’ education may be the highest-return investment available in the world today. Here are some other ideas: ■ We’re seeing painful upheavals about race on university campuses these days, but the civil rights issue in America today is our pre-K through 12th grade education system, which routinely sends the neediest kids to the worst schools. For $15 a month per child, it offers mentoring, pregnancy prevention, college counseling and more, and it’s effective: 91 percent of the students it helps end up graduating from high school. Continue reading the main story ■ I wrote this month about Dr. ■ In June I wrote about Dr. Dr.
IKEA's Innovative Solution for Refugee Shelter Can't Keep Up with Demand by Natalie Shoemaker How are we housing millions of Syrian refugees? The question is easily answered. A quick Google image search reveals tent houses — hundreds of rows of these flimsy tents. The IKEA Foundation is helping Syrian refugees in their major transition by building easy-to-assemble shelters. “I mean they’re really people running for their lives,” said British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie. The brain behind these shelters is industrial designer Johan Karlsson. “The average stay in an UNHCR refugee camp is 17 years,” Karlsson told The Globe and Mail in an interview. The finished product stands six feet tall and comes in two sizes: 57 square feet or 188 square feet. Watch one get assembled in Greece: The good news is camps across Europe — in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden — are demanding these shelters. “What started as a humanitarian project for people far away in distant, war-torn countries is now right on our doorstep,” he explained. Photo Credit: Better Shelter
Malawi Chief Annuls Over 300 Child Marriages In February 2015, Malawi passed a law banning child marriage, raising the minimum marrying age to 18 in a country where half of its girls end up as child brides. Human rights activists pushed for The Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations (“The Marriage Act”) bill, and Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika approved the new law, which carries a 10 year prison sentence for anyone who marries under the age of 18, despite pushback from traditionalists. Parliamentarian Jessie Kabwila was one of the people who helped drive the legislation, stating, “This law is extremely crucial because child marriage is a big, big problem in our country,” adding, “The country will for the first time clearly articulate that we are saying ‘No’ to child marriage.” The new law is promising news for children in the landlocked African nation, but what about those who were married off before the law was passed? Whether properly enforced or not, The Marriage Act has room for improvement.
At Age 3 — Transitioning From Jack To Jackie : NPR Ed It's controlled after-school anarchy at the Christian-Carter household. Seven-year-old Chloe has rolled herself up in an exercise mat in the living room of the family's Oakland, Calif., home. "Look I'm a burrito," Chloe shouts. Her 4-year-old sister, Jackie, swoops in for a bite — and a hard push. "Ow!" Chloe shouts. Just two sisters playing, occasionally sparring, as dad, James Christian, and mom, Mary Carter, watch nearby. Jackie's birthday is in mid-October, but for Carter and Christian, a second date is seared in memory almost as intensely — what Carter calls "The Day." Five Makeshift Ponytails "It was May 15, 2014, and I remember the date because Jackie was out of school that day," she says. Jackie was 3 then, and she was called Jack. Sisters Jackie Carter Christian (left) and Chloe Marie Christian at the beach. itoggle caption Courtesy of the Christian family Sisters Jackie Carter Christian (left) and Chloe Marie Christian at the beach. Courtesy of the Christian family "So I asked.
Blood Donors In Sweden Get A Text Whenever They Save A Life Donate blood in Sweden and you’ll get an automatic ‘thank you’ text for your contribution to the country’s blood supply. You’ll also receive a text when your blood is used to help someone else. In a recent initiative to combat blood stock shortages, Sweden has taken to digital media to raise public awareness and to get people talking about blood donation. “We are constantly trying to develop ways to express [donors'] importance,” Karolina Blom Wiberg, a communications manager at the Stockholm blood service, told The Independent. The initiative started three years ago as a pilot scheme by Stockholm-based blood service Blodcentralen, and since then it has received such a great response that it’s being rolled out country-wide. “It's a great feeling to know you made such a big difference and maybe even saved someone else's life,” said Blom Wiberg. “The same info as we have internally is shown externally,” says Blom Wiberg. [H/T: Independent]