thelerner

While I'm generally a skeptic on things, it might be a good idea to unplug ones computers and expensive electronics? At some point investing in a portable generator might make sense. Or even blowing a bigger amount on a natural gas generator that automatically kicks in could provide a whole lot of comfort.. Doing a little research, I get a mixed messages on unplugging electronics and a whole lotta conspiracy theories. The bottomline seems to be maybe, maybe not. With my minute or two of research pointing more towards maybe not, with many thing depending on intensity of the strike. If a perfect solar storm struck Earth, would turning off and unplugging all electronics save them from being damaged during the destructive power surge?from https://www.quora.com/If-a-perfect-solar-storm-struck-Earth-would-turning-off-and-unplugging-all-electronics-save-them-from-being-damaged-during-the-destructive-power-surge 2 Answers Ceirion Jones, Degree level studies63 Views No. An EMP or Electromagnetic Pulse causes destruction through magnetic induction. The rapidly moving magnetic field causes currents to flow in conductors. The longest conductors of course being power lines. However, induction will happen in any conductor - wires, printed circuit boards etc, and so sensitive electronic components, such as the front end of radios and televisions are likely to be harmed. Satellites would be harmed and so on. You can design in some protection to EMP by using a component such as a varistor, which short circuits the current pulse. But most commercial equipment does not do this. Written Sep 2 • View Upvotes

The great teacher Ajahn Brahm said you had to practice with things you love first, be it a person or puppy, pizza or favorite show kind of thing. Send and feel love to something you already like before you start tackling the harder subjects of yourself, others and those you can't stand. Here he is in action, don't be put off by the dress, he's a pretty hip kind of guy. note* you can turn this into an mp3 for replay with addon's from Firefox. Ajahn Brahms has dozens of great talks on the net, filled with Buddhists concepts of self love, acceptance and forgiveness. Its nice to collect them into an mp3 player and take walks listening to them. This site has many of his dharma talks ready for download - http://www.diydharma.org/search/node/ajahn%20brahm?page=1 There are also podcasts like InfiniteSmile that have many lectures that provide insights into being a whole person. Listening to one or two won't do much, but making a steady diet of listening to wisdom/dharma talks, it slowly sinks in.

Bought 3 tickets ($6) to drop my odds from 290,000,001 down to 289,999,998. Are those bad odds, considering the win is about 1.5 billion? Maybe 1 Billion after taxes. If you guys could spot me a couple hundred million I could pretty much guarantee to double your money.. eventually. Probably the best advice is to buy the ticket early since the big payoff is dreaming what to do with the money. Cause we're not gonna win. I don't even think I'd want to, a billion dollars is probably pretty destructive. I'd rather have a couple million then a billion. I think I'd quietly get rid of the ticket anonymously in exchange for that. And if I was somehow double crossed, it'd still make for a great story.

wah wah wa, no 100's of millions for me. Probably for the best, that much money easily turns toxic and corrupting.

I've been working a bit 'above' my head. Got the idea from some youtube. To spend more time conscious about the space above the head and aware of how small my thoughts/mind are. There's a world of space and consciousness that I miss because I'm conditioned to keep my awareness stuck in a little skull, influenced by societal programming and body hormones. If I can keep a focus above its free'er and quieter.

While some of those disease are created by afluenza, we've also beaten killer plagues that killed off 5 to 10% of the population regularly. Faced with polio, malaria, killer pneumonia's, small pox etc., they wish they had our medicine. About 65 years ago, the presidents son stubbed his toe while playing tennis barefoot. Without penicillin the son was dead in a few days. I'd also add many of those deaths are because we're living as a whole much longer. And the diseases were there but simply had different names. Our food supply while processed is also refrigerated and while its not fool proof, cleanliness is checked or places go out of business, versus relying on good will which brought us scenes from the book The Jungle. We are fatter on the whole then we were 20 years ago and thats effecting quite a few hormones. I think that's changing. Sugary drinks are on the doing worse each year and you see this reflected in kids obesity rates are finally turning down. The no fat paradigm is also fading and culprits of over size portions, excess carbs and processed foods is taking root. It's not tech that's making us fat, its eating too much of the wrong things.

Hmnn, Homo Technoligous, humanoid species that incorporates computers and various tech into its organism.

Where'd the cosmos picture come from? I grew up with a nice round picture of the constellations around earth with a 365 day calendar at its outer boundaries showing the relevant constellations to the seasons and when meteor storms would happen. I think it was this one: http://www.amazon.com/36-Map-Universe-Poster/dp/B00A91ZKLO/ref=pd_sim_229_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=61OD5iBjR2L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0SN3PNCV3Z28VZNV20HC

Ah you yougsters. In the 1950's Banana's got hit by a devastating fungus called Panama disease. It wiped out bananas as we knew them. Eventually a blander variety called Cavendish that was immune was found and planted. That became the banana we know and love today. Alas, a fiendish fungi has found Cavendish's weakness. Chaos and change until a new top banana becomes the boss. If one can't be found, we'll create it ourselves. After all we've been splitting bananas for decades.

Here's a video from his just released new album. It's pretty out there, experimental but its gotten good reviews. Its the way an artist should go out, with new passionate material.

Thanks for letting me know about some of Bill Bodri's lesser known works. He has a good youtube channel. Here's an interesting talk on his The Little Book of Hercules-

I'd say forget the profound wisdom, cosmic love and all that crappy drama, that's what some call stinking of zen. Roll up one's sleeves and do some serious charity work. There's a reason it's called Karma yoga. There are organizations that need able bodies, find one, stop philosophizing and start doing work that helps others. Extra points if one can do it in a kind, loving manner but points the nonetheless if one gets out of their head and into helping people or an organization that needs it.

Wondering if we should put to 'sleep' any subforums that are stagnant. Every now and then threads are pinned and experimental subforums made and if they're not being used much end up cluttering the site. I'm a believer that clean and lean is good. The sooner people get to usable threads the better. Too many pinned threads and subforums keep the number of discussions on a page low, which leads to good threads getting lost on page 2 and flowing downstream into oblivion. I think there's a Men's SubForum hasn't gotten much use for a month and isn't drawing interest. Things like that could be on the cutting board. Just a thought.

A few times a year I'll buy a 'humble bundle' game pack, its a cheap way to get some good games. This week or month they have a Book Bundle from Lonely Planet. I just bought and haven't looked through it yet, but in the past I've liked the Lonely Planet book series + cook books, and this is a way to get 11 (or more) books for under $10. Lonely Planet tends to be particularly aimed for adventure travel and the back pack set, providing deeper understanding and opportunities then most tourista travel books aim at. Here's a link: https://www.humblebundle.com/morebooks

I think what Apech said above is very well balanced. Part of the reason that papers are self censoring is that the truth feeds the far right neo-nazi fascist groups. The truth should bring people over to a view like Apech's, balanced, trying to find humane but protective solutions, but it also fuels nationalistic fascist groups that harass and murder immigrants. Its a bad situation. Balance is hard, made worse by people who stir up hatred and paranoia, as well as the opposite end that welcomes all without acknowledging the price the country will pay. I hope this thread dies soon. I think most people have made there points.

Metatron, referred to as the Big M in some Kabbalic circles. Tends to be linked to space; emptiness of the Universe, this moment in time and space, the potential out of which everything arises. Kind of a force or spirit of nature which we might be able to communicate with according to Kabbalah. Most of that I get from Rabbi David Cooper's CD Invoking Angels, which has a meditation on Metatron. Not really my cup of tea, I'm more a Shekhina kind of guy. I really like his Ecstatic Kabbalah CD which deals with kotodama, sacred sounds.

Was there anything the Mao-shan sorcerers were proven or reputed to do?

I don't know. Didn't Buddha travel around and learn from many masters, the whole Siddhartha journey, from Brahmans to ascetics? Hard to say what teachers Jesus had. Just cause they're not mentioned doesn't mean they didn't exist. Perhaps the high respect he showed John the Baptist means he was used to being with esoteric high level teachers. They didn't stay in the guru system, but they probably had teachers and/or masters. To learn from and reject too. Even the rejection is part of the learning process.

You can also Not Use the dao bums search function and go straight to googles. type- THEDAOBUMS.COM:What your seaching for Into your browser and there's a good chance it'll show up in the first page or two.

Good question, unfortunately I don't think the answer gonna be what we'd see in the movies . In one of his audio's Michael Winn talked about a lifelong Taoist monk who was sent to a re-education camp. Very nasty place with many dying of starvation and deprivation. Perhaps the only victory was the man kept up his practices, kept up his spirits and stayed alive during it. But any kind of magical retribution or super martial arts attack power was not in the cards. Similar to Franz Bardon a famous Hermetic Magician in a concentration camp, spiritual powers vs. guns and guards don't mean much.

Its kind of amazing, they got what they wanted, what must be a satisfactory ending yet they create the same troll-like arguments over and over and over again. Don't they realize they're typing the same posts over and over and over, literally, they could be a bot with like 20 responses.

There's often a spot or more of madness in most high level people. Total freedom can mean saying and doing anything you want, and its only a heavy dose of humility that can temper it. Yet we shouldn't throw the philosophy out with disgraced philosopher. It can be hard to swallow but we can learn and grow from a failed teacher. There are many aspects to life and though they may have failed at some, they've mastered others.

The greats still need to have there own guru's and friends tell them when they're screwing up and veering off the path. As you rise higher you fight battles against egotism disguised as greater progress and paranoia disguised as secret insights.

Wait..back up, are they real? I'd be willing to try the sugar or no sugar version. later edit. They are real. Life is worth living..

Out of curiosity are most people basing there ghost immortal beliefs on the Buddhist model? It'd be interesting if someone knowledgeable talked about how Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism treated the concept of immortal ghost. Where they agree, where they split off. It may be people are using different religious traditions in the discussion here.