So Lady Camilla has been walking around on a public engagement with a very expensive necklace. Sources say that it was probably given to her by a rich benefactor, such as an arab. Various newspapers today have given different accounts as to how much it is actually worth - ranging from £500,000 to £5 million. The truth is that we would never know unless it was officially valued. The point that I am writing this is that a lady friend of mine, rather than admiring the necklace, condemned it as an obsence gesture, to wear a piece of jewellery that is worth enough to feed thousands of people in a developing country. Are not members of the Royal family supposed to set an example to the rest of us. My friend said that it would serve her right if someone grabbed it from her neck and ran off with it. What do you think?

This is a picture of my latest plumbing model. This is made out of steel pipe, and I cut the threads on the ends myself so that all the fittings would screw on.
I had a good sense of achievement when I had finished it and it passed the water pressure test. It's hard work doing steel pipe, as opposed to copper.

Has anyone out there driven/owned a Toyota Prius car?
I have been doing some research on lower emission engines, and this car comes out tops at 104 grammes of CO2 per Km. It is a hybrid which has a petrol engine plus a battery to get it round town without using the engine.

The engine would start up if it needed, such as during acceleration. I wondered if this would cause a problem, if there was a delay when you needed to speed up suddenly.

Has anyone got any opinions, or know anyone who has opinions?

Tesco had announced that they are entering the global warming fray. Amongst other measures they are cutting their carbon emissions by 50% over the next few years by using alternative fuel for their lorries, and by other methods. Curiously they are going to introduce a labelling scheme where packed goods will be labelled with a figure which gives it's carbon footprint, so customers can choose to buy goods with a lower carbon footprint. As part of this scheme, they will be putting aeroplane symbols on the 3% of their goods that are air freighted in. They are also going to reduce the amount of goods airfreighted in down to 1%. They don't want to reduce it to nothing because they say they will put some suppliers out of business if they did.

Well that seems odd, because in the past supermarkets have been quite willing to drop suppliers when it suits them. And apparently according to DEFRA that 1 % would actually add up to a much larger percentage of total air carbon emission miles, say 10%. So why can't Tesco drop the air freighted goods altogether?

Also, I think it is only nibbling at the edges of the problem of co2 emissions when schemes are launched to help customers choose low carbon goods. The problem is too urgent to leave things in the hands of the consumer. Instead, steps should be taken to stop selling the higher carbon goods in the first place.

So, the Catholic church's adoption agencies want to be exempt from the law that says they have to let gay couples adopt as well as straight ones? I admire the Church for taking a stance on something that they feel strongly about, but are not equality laws just that - to make things equal? The government can hardly make exceptions for one organisation and not for all the others. Perhaps the question that is more pertinent is: should adoption be allowed for gay couples at all? I haven't seen any evidence about if a gay couple arrangement may actually harm a child's development, but one thing is for sure, alot of conventional marriage arrangements have screwed up many a child's development through abuse, divorce and so on, so I don't think a gay couple can do any worse than that.

It struck me that in one important way, gay couples are actually quite environmentally friendly. By definition they cannot have children of their own (unless they went for artifical insemination), so therefore gay couples are going to introduce less new people in this world to use up the remaining resources. And if they can take the burden from a mother who cannot look after her child properly, that is another bonus.

I watched the climate change program the other night by David Attenborough. Apparently , despite being an 'ambassador' for this planet and all the animals on it, he has up until now kept quiet about global warming and the effects it might have, because he didn't want to get involved with something that was still being debated as to wether it was true or not. Well now he is now speaking out about it, and that says something, doesn't it. The evidence put forward by Attenborough was very similar to that put forward by Al Gore in his film, 'An Inconvenient Truth', except that the BBC program focused almost entirely on the United Kingdom. I thought the program as a whole was quite neutral, but without playing down any of the predictions. He did not mention anything about the gulf stream though. According to Al Gore's film, if Greenland melts down, it could disrupt the gulf stream and Western Europe would be plunged into a mini Ice age.

I hope Shilpa gets to stay in Big Brother, she is one of the most attractive drop dead georgeous women I have seen.

I hope Germain Jackson wins, because he is trying really hard to unite people, and he seems a very wise sort of person.

Well, sparks have cetainly been flying in Big Brother house. I wonder why Shilpa decided to take part in the first place, she must have known it would not be easy in there. Also a retailer has withdrawn jade's perfume from sale following her outbursts.
I think when she finds out when she gets out, she will realise that she just cannot say what she wants all the time.

Another shocking headline awaited when I opened up the BBC news page this morning. Saddams' half brother and someone else has been hung. When Saddam was hung, the Iraqis were criticised for shouting abuse at him. Now when his half brother has been hung, no one shouted insults but they cocked the execution up. Do they ever get it right?

I do not agree with the death penalty, but I do think it should be done as humanely as possible. the problem is that capital punishment is rarely humane at all, but cruel and unusual punishment. To treat a convict like an animal is the same as stooping down to the same level that got them into trouble in the first place.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6263787.stm

I read in the paper the other day that Bush is doing a bit of a U turn with global warming. He is going to instigate policies to reduce carbon emissions of the USA.

This is fantastic, but perhaps just a gesture to help get into power again at the next end of term election?

I saw a news article yesterday about jay walking; apparently it's illegal in Atlanta, as someone got arrested for it. He was a visitor from London who was not aware, and tried to cross the road between one conference venue and another.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6251431.stm

I think it should be make illegal in this country too. It really annoys me when I am driving along and get people crossing the road at random points when they could perhaps have walked a few more yards up the road and used the pedestrian crossing, for goodness sake. In fact it increases the chances of getting run over if you cross close to a crossing because drivers will be focusing more on the crossing itself rather than a few yard in front of it or beyond it.

I feel particularly nervous when going past my local high school in the mornings on the way to work. There may be a large group of kids waiting to cross as I approach, and I don't know if they are going to make a dash for it or not. The problem is that if I slow down, like it says you should in the safety adverts, that seems to encourage them to walk out right in front of me, which makes it more dangerous, not less!
The local authority recently installed a pelican crossing outside the school, but alot of kids are not using it.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to accelerate and put your lights on full beam while blowing your horn and shouting 'get out the way' out of your window!

Apparently there is a rising incidence of shady motorists deliberately crashing their cars into other motorists, to enable them to make bogus insurance claims for whiplash etc, or to demand cash on the spot. This makes me sick. There is always some low life, inventing scams to rip people off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6248515.stm

The advice is that if you suspect you are the victim of this:
Do not raise your concerns with the motorist but with the police later;
Do not give in to any requests for on the spot money, but swap insurance details;
take photos of the cars and passengers and driver.

By the way it's always a good idea to have a camera with you in the car. I have a disposable one in the boot just in case of accident.

This is an extract from a newsletter I have recently received from a Buddhist monastry I visited in Northumberland. It has been written by the Abbott there. He gives a rather fresh perspective on it, and I wondered what you think to it:

"What is on my mind right now is a conversation I had recently about global warming. I was asked what Buddhist monks think about the current situation and whether they have any suggestions for dealing with it. I responded to this question by indicating that I commonly see two opposing reactions – either a fundamentalist response, attached to a fixed position about how things should and shouldn’t be, whilst trying all means to persuade everybody else to agree with that view. Or a cynical response – too clever in its ideas and dismissive of any problem. But I also suggested another option, which is the option of awareness – freed from the need to take any fixed position.

The truth of the situation we all find ourselves in is that we don't know the best way of dealing with it. Recognising how lost we are can be unsettling. Without awareness we easily react by this taking of fixed positions. But we don't have to. We can also examine, from a place of awareness, how it feels to not know. And this is where we need to be doing our inner work. The outer work of paying attention to social, political and economic structures of course has its place, but if we are not also doing our own inner work then it will be difficult to relate to these things in a wise and balanced way.

Although the challenges posed by global warming (or any other of the current complex difficulties that our information-saturated minds are grappling to deal with) appear daunting, if not impossible, the truth remains that we don't know. We don't know what the solution might be or if there is one at all. But there is plenty of evidence from the past that when people are faced with the great unknown, yet refuse to be intimidated by the apparent reality of feared loss, even in death, then wonderful discoveries can be made. Imagine, for example, how it must have been for those who ventured out in sailing boats towards what they thought was the edge of the world, and yet kept going, out of interest in discovering 'the new'. Their conditioned reactions to the idea of the world being flat, with an edge to fall off, could have dissuaded them from their adventure. But it didn't and they discovered the reality. The fears that had dramatically limited human behaviour for so long were conquered by the right understanding of the way things are.

Right now, collectively, as the human family, we need to discover something new. I would suggest that we can't allow ourselves to be fooled by the way things appear to be, however daunting. When I mentioned to the group of people gathered that I thought it was wise to assume the disposition of a strategic optimist, somebody responded that when they observed the behaviour of politicians they couldn't help but be pessimistic. So I pulled out one of my favourite images, of the power of light over the darkness of a room. It doesn't matter how long that room has been dark, or how intense the darkness is, turning on one light bulb totally and instantly transforms the darkness. If you compare that large dark room with the apparently insignificant little tungsten filament, then that filament seems irrelevant. But when a current of electricity flows through it, transformation takes place, right there and then. That's reality.

So it's not wise to allow ourselves to be impressed or intimidated by the apparent enormity of the task. If the Buddha had allowed himself to be dissuaded from his aspirations by conditioned reactions, he would have been no different from anybody else 2500 years ago. But he didn't, and he was different. He didn’t react by taking sides for or against anything. And in his commitment and interest in finding a new quality of awareness, one that was inherently free, he endured through the unendurable and arrived at his realisation of the Middle Way. That was 'new'. Yes, global warming is a challenge. It threatens the well-being of the planet and its’ people, not just the luxury of this false heaven that the richer 10% of us have been living in for the last 50 years. But, to the degree that we live in harmony with the middle way – which manifests first in our hearts and minds – then our actions of body and speech will contribute to discovering what is best for all beings."

Yours optimistically,

Ajahn Munindo

Elsewhere in this blog I have wondered if the Government is going to come up with anything substantial to tackle global warming.
The Guardian today reported Tony Blair saying that it is not realistic for people to expect him to cut down on his plane journeys to reduce carbon emissions. However he did a u turn by agreeing to pay Climate Care.org to offset his emissions for his holiday flights.

The Guardian commented that he is offsetting his own emissions but doing nothing to curb air travel in general.

So I think the answer to my question is: not alot going on regarding real action plans.

This is a link to an interesting news article about decision making. It says that sometimes we come to better decisions by making a snap decision, rather than thinking about it for too long. That is because some decisions are made in the sub concious mind and we should trust our instincts more. Instead we tend to overide our instincts and think that we have to think about it alot.

My personal view is that yes, we should follow our instincts if a quick decision is needed. However, if more time is available, we can think about it for a while, and then stop thinking, because the sub conscious mind is still working on in in the back ground even when we go to bed. The next day, everything may become clear to us. That's why people often say, 'let me sleep on it'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6243787.stm

David

There's a big drive for people to install low energy lightbulbs, and I think it is a jolly good idea. I reckon that just in my living room alone I will save about £60 over the life of the low energy bulbs. They are ideal in rooms where they are needed for substantial amounts of time, such as living spaces, kitchens, bathrooms etc. In the bathroom I've got an excellent bulb which has an instant start up, so it manages to light up before I've had a pee rather than afterwards.
Some people complain that they look dull compared to normal lightbulbs. This is because they give out a different kind of light compared to incandescent (filament) bulbs. Never the less they are excellent for general lighting, and if you want to read a book then you can always use a small low powered reading lamp; i've got a 20w halogen lamp on my desk in the living room.
By the way, there is an 'urban myth' that it takes more energy to start a low energy bulb up than it does to keep it on all the time. But this is simply not true, and they should be switched off when not in use;
There is a small energy peak when they start up but this equivalent to about only 2 minutes of normal use.

I've decided to go on a diet in the new year, to get rid of my slowly growing podge. I reckon I've got it because I seem to be doing less and less physical activity at work, but eating the same. I am getting out of the office less.

Although I had a decent bowl of soup and a good chicken sandwich a couple of hours ago, i could murder a Toblerone I got for Christmas. I have realised I am probably addicted to the sugar hit.

David

Found an interesting article in the BBC news about how British people use the word 'sorry'. We say it too much apparently, and as for the reasons for saying it, expressing an apology for doing something wrong comes at the bottom of the list.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6241411.stm

I remember a few years ago when the environmental/global warming was really starting to come to the fore, I did an online quiz on the BBC website to find out how big my Environmental 'footprint' was. The idea is that the bigger the footprint, the more resources I use; so a small foot print is better to help sustain the planet. I answered all the questions, such as do I have a car,(yes); how many miles do I drive, (about 12000 miles per year); how many bedrooms has my house got (2) etc. I clicked the submit button, with no idea of what sort of answer I would get, but I thought that I live fairly modestly, I'm not a big consumer by any means, I try to recycle where possible. A few moments later, a picture of four and a half planet Earths appeared on my screen. The explanation below said: If everyone on this planet lived the same way that I do, then there would have to be four and a half planet Earths to sustain it all! I was quite gobsmacked

This made me realise that although I think I am modest, I am actually in the top few percent of the population that uses most of the Earth's resources. As a buddhist I believe in the 'Middle Way' of doing things, so I'm not about to live as a hermit in a cave, but I'm going to try and make my footprint smaller. If you are interested, I have found a useful link where you can download some suggestions:

http://www.mandalamagazine.org/climate_crisis/

If I find that on line quiz, I will post the link to that too, so that you can have some fun doing it.

David

I purchased a sonic toothbrush after christmas. I have an old electric toothbrush which is getting worn down as the battery does not last very long now on a full charge. I am going to reluctantly throw it away because I don't get new things just for the sake of it, so I think I have a reasonable excuse to chuck it, but I wonder if it can be somehow recycled.

Anyway, I bought the sonic toothbrush and I thought it might be like Dr. Who's sonic screwdriver which can do allsorts of wonderful things, like repel nasty aliens. so I thought I would be able to just point the brush at my mouth and it would clean my teeth, and refurbish all my fillings at the same time. However toothbrushes are not yet that advanced yet! It looks like a normal manual toothbrush except that it vibrates in a sonic kind of way, instead of spinning round like a rotary brush. I'm not sure if I like it, because it makes my teeth vibrate if I catch the handle part on them, but the results look good so far; my teeth look quite well 'polished'. :D

David

An Inconvenient Truth - A Global Warning, by Al Gore. I watched this DVD film/documentary yesterday, having got it as a christmas present. It is about global warming, and the global catastrophe which awaits us pretty soon if we don't do something about global warming.
After watching this, I am am now totally convinced that global warming is in the main caused by our activities on this planet. If we don't do something about it NOW, there is going to be massive global changes, which will spell disaster for millions of people, animals and crops. The positive message that came across is that if everyone collectively does as much as they can to reduce their carbon emissions, it is quite possible to reduce the carbon dioxide levels to pre 1970 levels, but we have to act NOW.

Go to www.climatecrisis.net for more information and suggestions on what to do.

Al Gore, you might know, is the man who 'used to be the next President' as he puts it on his film. He ran for the presidency but got beaten by Bush on a few disputed votes in Florida. At the time, I did not realise that Gore was a strong environmentalist. As you might know, Bush has always dragged his heels over global warming. Who knows what would have happened if Gore had got into power instead. I'm pretty sure that the world would be different place now, if an environmentalist was at the helm of a world superpower.
He is also very intelligent, articulate and charismatic.

One of the main themes in this film is how sudden the changes are occurring. The planet is not going to get gradually warmer in a controlled sort of way, because all the weather and environmental systems are linked to each other and depend on each other, so some the effects will be against common sense. For example, there is now strong evidence that Greenland will start to melt if nothing is done, and this will release large quantities of fresh water into the salty ocean. This will have the effect of disrupting the GULF STREAM which normally keeps us here in Britain fairly warm, because it brings warm water up from the south. If this stream stopped, it would only take TEN YEARS for our country to be plunged into a mini ice age. That's right, not 1000 years, or 100 years even, but TEN years.

Industry of course has a large part to play in carbon emissions of course, but if we all act as individuals to change our consumption habits, then we can all influence industry indirectly.

David