An Introduction to Buddhism An Introduction to Buddhism To do no evil; To cultivate good; To purify one's mind: This is the teaching of the Buddhas. --The Dhammapada The Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama, a prince of the Sakya tribe of Nepal, in approximately 566 BC. On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, the enlightened one. The Buddha wandered the plains of northeastern India for 45 years more, teaching the path or Dharma he had realized in that moment. Impermanent are all created things; Strive on with awareness.
Spectrum: Empire Off The Grid Of course, to take full advantage of the potential savings of LEDs, a homeowner would, like Kamen, have a Teletrol building controller to control the LEDs. These systems start at several thousand dollars and go way up from there. The controller is incredibly granular. Tapping through a succession of screens on the display in the basement, Kamen eventually gets to a plot of the day’s energy generation. Colorful lines represent the different incoming sources: a black line tracks shifts in solar intensity and a paired red line shadows it precisely, representing the current feed to the island’s rechargeable batteries through the charge converters. The red and black lines hover at zero during the nighttime hours, creep up a bit around dawn, then rise steeply at around 7 a.m. But what happens when the island gets neither sun nor wind? A Stirling engine contains a sealed cylinder, one end hot, the other cool, with a sliding piston that moves the gas back and forth.
You Ain't No Picasso This year was kind of a bum year for music. Nothing thrilled me like it had for the past four years and few new bands really stuck out. In fact, it was kind of an off year for tours as well. But in the midst of all that, I had one of the best concert years of my entire life. #30: The Whigs @ the Dame [ Original Post ] I saw the Whigs twice in 2008, but their show at the Dame — the first time I’d seen them — was the best. #29: We Are Scientists @ the Southgate House [ Original Post ] I thought We Are Scientists’ Brain Thrust Mastery was an OK album, but they really one-upped their live show in 2008. #28: Andrew Bird @ Memorial Hall [MusicNOW] [ Original Post ] Maybe one of my least favorite times I’ve seen Andrew Bird, but still good enough to crack the list. #27: The Cool Kids @ Gorilla vs Booze [SXSW] [ Original Post ] The Cool Kids are pretty popular these days. #26: Jens Lekman @ Club DeVille [Hot Freaks! [ Original Post ] We lucked into getting Jens Lekman to play our Hot Freaks!
Beginners' four faults | Writing As an editor, I know when I am reading someone's first novel. I have nicknames for the four give-away faults beginners make: (1) Walk and Chew Gum (2) Furry Dice (3) Tea, Vicar? (4) Styrofoam. I see at least one of these in every manuscript where the author has not mastered the craft of writing before submitting in his or her work. What are these four faults and, more importantly, how can you cure them? (1) Walk and Chew GumThe writer has not integrated action and dialogue, internal monologue and action, or internal monologue with dialogue. "If you think you're going to town you'd better thing again," said Ralph. Not integrating action and dialogue makes for jerky, lifeless prose. "If you think you're going to town you'd better think again," Ralph snapped, putting down his can of beer. This might not be award-winning prose, but it reflects the reality of the action and feelings better by having action, thought and dialogue knitted together. She snatched the gun and aimed. (3) Tea, Vicar?
Stripe Generator - ajax diagonal stripes background designer TIP: You can share your stripes clicking "SHARE" near the stripe preview. stripe sizespacingstripe color(s)background styleshadowgradient heightbackground color(s)stripe orientation preview Tile size: 41px * 41px open fullscreen preview Tiled 15 seconds how-to Play with sliders and color pickers, untill you obtain a super-cool stripe tile Press "Download" to save your creation Edit your css adding this line to the element you want to stripe:background-image: url("path-to-stripe.png"); If you want to only repeat horizontally your tile (as in the case of tiles with gradient), you must add this line too: background-repeat: repeat-x; stay tuned about new webdesign, ajax, web 2.0 tools!
Bokeh Effect in Web Design: Showcase, Tutorials and Resources Today I would like to present the use of bokeh effect in web design. But what is Bokeh? In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light“. – Wikipedia. In this article you will find inspirational showcase of beautiful and very colorful websites with bokeh effect. Showcase of Bokeh Effect in Web Design Wonderful bokeh effect looks very impressive in web design projects. In this showcase you will find over 20 beautiful examples of bokeh effect in web design. Hybrid WordPress Theme ($32) Mintozine WordPress Theme (Free) Envato Theme Bokeh ($14) Lisa Maya 404 error theme ($8) Traffik Dark ‘n Clean WordPress Theme ($27) Unuidesign Javascript Showcase ($10) Light is Light Make Photoshop Faster Onvo Media Moi Magazine WordPress Theme (Free) Webexpedition18 Sebcreation Bitwork WordPress Theme ($27) Klar IconDock 72 thinking Pristilo WordPress Theme (Free) Newism Designed by Dave Sleek Icon Design
MPM Liquid Demo Check out my blog! E-mail: kotsoft@gmail.com Fluid Instructions: You can drag the fluid around with your mouse and adjust the sliders at the top to change the properties of the fluid in real-time. Please check out this video if you're having trouble figuring out what the sliders do. Check out my newest app: Grantophone! More cool demos! Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=" About This is my implementation of the Material Point Method. For interpolation, I use the quadratic B-spline presented here: Analysis and Reduction of Quadrature Errors in the Material Point Method. Instead of integrating the density over time (which is what most of the MPM papers do), I do a density summation every frame. Material Parameters Some of these parameters are hard to explain in one or two sentences (and a couple I made up) so I'll also link you to their corresponding Wikipedia pages. Density - Target density for the particles. Stiffness - How compressible the fluid is. ©2011 Grant Kot
Tequila Lime Steak Fajitas — Our Life In The Kitchen What to do with a London broil? I almost never buy a London broil because no matter how pretty they might look, especially when they’re on sale, I just can’t seem to get the hang of preparing it any way that isn’t just too tough. This still wasn’t exactly filet mignon, but the recipe, inspired by my son Chris, who is a Grill Man Extraordinaire, turned out to be quite tasty. The assortment of fixings here is what we like. The Meat and The Marinade London Broil or other steakLimes, 6 to 8Peppers – I have a bunch of these Thai chiles in my garden but jalapenos would be great too.Cilantro, 1/4 cup snippedOlive Oil, 1/3 cupGarlic, 4 or 5 clovesTequila (not shown) The Rest OnionsRed or Green Bell PeppersTomatoesAvocadoLimeCheddar and Pepper Jack CheesesCilantro, snippedSour CreamTortillas Here’s the real trick to the flavor. Mince the peppers and garlic. I mixed it all up and realized that unless I juiced a bunch more limes it just wasn’t going to be enough. Slice a lime into wedges. Enjoy!
Dilapidated 18th Century Church Transformed Into a Private Home Adaptive reuse projects generally call to mind industrial warehouses and factories turned into trendy studios, or shabby-chic restaurants and bars, but the transformation of the St. Nicholas Church in Kyloe, Northumberland, England has taken this concept of renewal and grounded it much closer to home. The church was purchased not too long ago by Sally Onions and Ian Bottomley, who went the unconventional route when scouting for their newest digs. Far from a Norman Foster style box, or even a classic and quaint Victorian house, the duo instead opted to transform an 18th century basilica into the sanctuary they now call “home.” The church was originally built in 1792, so the couple wanted to maintain as much of the building’s classic architecture as possible. While sofas and beds have replaced pews, the integrity of the architecture remains – you can even find the old cemetery within the churchyard.