74 notes
While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.
During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.
“I don’t know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I’m going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass.”
-Marlon Brando (via drmacro)
Be my guest, young Marlon Brando.
Website devoted to showing pretty Japanese girls apologizing for various things - i.e. eating all the steak during family dinner
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2009/12/web-site-shows-pretty-japanese-girls-apologizing.html
What happens when a really gargantuan star – one hundreds of times bigger than our sun – blows up? Although a theory developed years ago describes what the explosion of such an enormous star should look like, no one had actually observed one – until now. An international team, led by scientists in Israel, and including researchers from Germany, the US, UK and China, tracked a supernova – an exploding star – for over a year and a half, and found that it neatly fits the predictions for the explosion of a star of over 150 times the sun’s mass. Their findings, which could influence our understanding of everything from natural limits on star size to the evolution of the universe, appeared recently in Nature.
Why is there no dust in elliptical galaxies?
Firstly, the universe is rational and the rationality is proportion at large scale systems such as galaxies. Proportion means that the distribution of matters in the universe is orderly. For example, there are four giants standing in array. Their heights are respectively A, B, C, D, and A, B stand in the first row from left to right, C, D in the second row from left to right. Proportion requires that A divided by C be equal to B divided by D. Rational structures are either circularly symmetric with respect to the center point, or bilaterally symmetric.
In Buddhism, we distinguish between spiritual experiences and spiritual realizations. Spiritual experiences are usually more vivid and intense than realizations because they are generally accompanied by physiological and psychological changes. Realizations, on the other hand, may be felt, but the experience is less pronounced. Realization is about acquiring insight. Therefore, while realizations arise out of our spiritual experiences, they are not identical to them. Spiritual realizations are considered vastly more important because they cannot fluctuate.
The distinction between spiritual experiences and realizations is continually emphasized in Buddhist thought. If we avoid excessively fixating on our experiences, we will be under less stress in our practice. Without that stress, we will be better able to cope with whatever arises, the possibility of suffering from psychic disturbances will be greatly reduced, and we will notice a significant shift in the fundamental texture of our experience. - Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche