Video shows florescence, showing how electrical signals move down the leaves of sensitive plant Mimosa pudica Reenacting wear patterns on recreations of medieval book illustrations E-ZPass reduced the rate of premature births to mothers who live near toll booths by 9.1% How to understand cough medicines, including why some cough syrups don’t really have active … Continue reading Linkdump: November 2022
The CRUMB Circuit Simulator, a breadboard simulator Deep Fried Coffee Beans Conserve the Sound: “Your Museum for endangered sounds.” Furby source code What is the price of a Big Mac across the country? Floppy disk costumes for SD cards De visdeurbel (Fish Doorbell; Dutch language.) When a fish in the canals needs the lock opened, … Continue reading Linkdump: April 2023
We’re pleased to note the release of AxiDraw software version 3.9 this week, with a couple of neat new features. One of them is that the “preview mode” button — which lets you simulate plotting to see how the results will come out — is now accessible no matter which function is selected. The other, … Continue reading Hidden line removal for AxiDraw
Space Elevator (Also, from the same site: Password game) The Amazing Story of How Philly Cheesesteaks Became Huge in Lahore, Pakistan Early computer art in the 50’s & 60’s Maryland License Plates Advertising Filipino Casino My Benihana, Myself How much does animation cost? A price guide Cats apparently recognize their names A rubber block that … Continue reading Linkdump: August 2023
Tracing the Line is a book of plotter art available for preorder now, coming out this November. Many of our featured artists are included in the book, and AxiDraw makes several appearances in the video teaser. Looks like it will be fantastic!
Tiny product update: A new version of the pen holder for AxiDraw, with slots for quick adjustment between the vertical and 45 degree angle positions.
Inside a Flexible Circuit Board Factory in China (YouTube) Measurement of Galactic Neutral Hydrogen in Noisy Urban Environment Using Kitchenware Estimating the Nuclear Yield of the Davy Crockett Weapon A magnificent marble clock (YouTube): Pt 1, Pt 2 John Cage – 4′ 33” Death Metal Cover by Dead Territory Understanding Quake’s Fast Inverse Square Root … Continue reading Linkdump: December 2023
В дни Гран При болельщики могут слышать радиопереговоры гонщиков Williams со своими гоночными инженерами, и в британской команде решили поподробнее рассказать об этих специалистах...
В аукционном доме RM Sotheby’s выставляют на торги Williams Жака Вильнёва и прогнозируют, что машина уйдёт с молотка примерно за 200-300 тысяч евро...
Have you ever found something you started writing but never finished? Here's something I started in October 2014. I've just rediscovered it in July 2020....
#54-Enlightenment - Waking Up from Our Dreamed Life
The post #54-Enlightenment – Waking Up from Our Dreamed Life appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.
#55 Enlightenment - How to Let Go of Our Suffering & Live
The post #55 Enlightenment – How to Let Go of Our Suffering & Live appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.
#56 Enlightenment - The Effortless Living of an Enlightened Life
The post #56 Enlightenment – The Effortless Living of an Enlightened Life appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.
When I was an undergraduate at university many years ago, my deep enjoyment and love for the works of William Shakespeare blossomed. I had the privilege of taking a Shakespearean class and then during one summer in my undergraduate years, I was able to travel through Europe inexpensively on a bike and a Europass to see the great sites. A memory I remember most is going to Stratford-upon-Avon and watching a William Shakespeare play. I don’t know where my passion and love for his plays comes from but it has been a deep part of my life. His writings have also taught me many things.
When I was in England many years ago for the first time, I was standing in the back of the audience watching the play ‘As You Like It’ that was performed not too far from the ... Read More »
The post What Shakespeare Can Teach Us About Enlightenment: All the world’s a stage appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.
When we wake up to who we are, something happens. We stop identifying with our egoic selves because we realize they are impermanent and only that which is permanent can be who we are.
We aren’t our bodies, we aren’t our memories, we aren’t our thoughts, we aren’t our feelings… We aren’t any of these things, so we stop identifying with them. What happens is that detachment develops. An aloofness or distancing from everything that occurs. We wake up to the fact that life is an extended dream and a relaxation is able to set in. It’s a sense of calm or a feeling that ‘all is well.’
We lose our identity with our lives, thoughts and feelings, so we witness them but we don’t engage with them. We notice them, but we don’t create stories with them. Since we don’t create ... Read More »
The post The Paradoxical World of Spiritual Enlightenment: We are nothing but we are everything appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.
#57 Enlightenment - Ending Our Suffering through Witnessing Our Suffering
The post #57 Enlightenment – Ending Our Suffering through Witnessing Our Suffering appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.
The post #59 Enlightenment – How to End the Suffering in Life appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.
The government deregulated the airline industry in 1978. Since that time, the basic pricing in the industry, as well as airline fortunes, have been more or less continuously on the downward slope. It has been a very long trip down.
The industry may be heading up again, though. In the third quarter of 2010, the average domestic airfare was 11% higher than a year earlier. Profits returned to the industry in 2010 behind higher prices. In some part, these higher prices were the result of the additional fees that most of the domestic carriers charged passengers for checked baggage, better seating, rerouting and so forth. Still, the industry was able to hold its higher prices.
These prices are holding because the major industry players are less enamored of discounted flying. All of the big airlines are finding ways to extract prices from industry customers. Now that airline capacity utilization is high, the industry is more careful about capacity additions. Higher prices are here to stay.
The consumer still is far ahead. Even at these higher prices, ticket prices are a bargain. In fact, ticket prices, adjusted for inflation, are 20% below the levels of 1995. The industry has continuously stripped benefits from the base product in order to save costs. In 2010, the industry added back a few of those benefits (for example, economy plus seating) for an additional charge. We may see more of that over the next few years.
The home appliance market has been a difficult place to compete during several periods over the last thirty years. It is tough again today. Sales of large appliances have fallen steadily since 2007. Competition is intensifying with the pressure of the South Korean competitors, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics, on Whirlpool Corp and Electrolux AB. Whirlpool and Electrolux are suffering from rising costs for steel, copper, plastics and other raw materials. To offset these cost increases, the two companies plan price increases of 8% to 10% in the spring.
The problem: the Koreans aren’t playing ball. The two South Korean firms are pricing aggressively and have been doing so since Thanksgiving 2010.
The South Koreans are formidable competitors. At one time, LG was known as Lucky Goldstar, a seller of low-end, cheaply made, products. Today, it has a much better brand name and sells quality products. Samsung does as well. It is a leader in the large screen TV market. The products that the South Korean companies are pricing aggressively are not the low-end products. They are the mainstream, heart-of-the-market, products.
The domestic U.S. market is slow growing. So is the market in the rest of the world. The North American market is growing 2% to 3% a year. Europe is growing 2% to 4%, while Latin American and Asia grow in the 5% to 10% range. Large appliance companies will have no trouble supplying all the capacity the market needs at these demand growth rates. The industry is likely to have excess capacity for the foreseeable future.
If the two Western competitors institute their price increases without the two South Korean companies in a lock-step march, they will be in a Leader’s Trap. A Leader’s Trap occurs when one or more of the leading companies in an industry hold its prices high in the mistaken belief that customers will stay loyal despite the lower prices of competition. Leader’s Traps rarely end well. Either the Western competitors will lose market share or they will ultimately rescind their price premiums.
These four giant large appliance competitors are peers of one another. The only way to stop the Koreans from discounting against the Western competitors is to have a cost structure that scares them out of the discounts. The discounting competitors have to see that their discounts will only cost them margins because the other peer competitors in the market will match their low prices since they have equally low cost structures.
UODATE: The bike sold, quickly, for the full asking price to the first person who showed up. Which was cool. And even better, the guy was like, "Who did the pictures? They jumped out at me."
(Tiny speedlights FTW...)
Have you tried to buy a new bike lately? Or even a used bike?
The coronavirus pandemic has made them very tough to find. Between homebound people snapping them up and all of the various broken supply chains, most of the bike inventory — other than very pricey specialty bikes — has pretty much vanished.
Which means that if you have a functional bike in your garage that you don't need, it will likely never be worth more than it is right now.
My daughter Emily has an unneeded bike in the garage. It's a Trek 7100, which is decent hybrid. She rode it to middle school. But she's just graduated college and won't be bringing it to her new job.
But right now it should fetch a nice price in the Craigslist Bicycle Hunger Games. Especially if it is photographed and presented well.
So that's exactly what we are going to do today: photograph a bike with a basic two speedlight kit.Read more »
Quick, guess the lighting.
If you said two lights, and use of high-speed sync to get the shallow depth of field, that's a pretty good guess.
If you said zero lights and a rigid high-efficiency reflector, that's an even better (and correct) guess.
When working with an inexperienced assistant — or looking to introduce someone to the world of off-camera lighting — a rigid/high-efficiency reflector is a fantastic and inexpensive place to start.
Read more »
Lighting with flash can give you more than just the ability to control the quality of your light. With the inherent consistency of light from (manual) flash, you can layer in slices of time as well.
But first, you’ll want to lock down two things: the ambient light portion of your exposure, and your camera’s physical position.
Read more »The Paul C. Buff Link monobloc studio strobe ($895.95) delivers 800ws of portable power, and deserves consideration from anyone in the United States who is considering a big gun for use on location.
Please note: This is not a full review.
There have been several thorough examples already published — most notably this one by Mike McGee. There are many others, from the usual suspects, a Google search away.
Rather, this is a quick write-up of some first-hand impressions, thoughts and features I have not seen much mention of elsewhere.
Read more »
I have been busy this month! I took my mom to Pit Ed a couple of weeks ago to show her the ropes and I got to see some of my special old Bad Rap friends.
I had a "dog sitter" experience this month, too. This man and lady called Aunt and Uncle came and stayed at my house while my family went away for a couple of days. At first I wasn't sure I was going to have fun with them, but once I saw that they had my magical purple leash I figured they must be great. Here I am wrestling with Uncle.
This is my friend Gordon. He belongs to a lady called Grandma. He's 15 years old and can't play much anymore so we lick each other's faces and sniff stuff on short walks. I really like him.
This is my neighbor, Cooper. Even though he is only 9 months old, he is giant. I kind of like him. He has good manners. I think he has potential. Here we are having some down time, but Cooper told me his dad's command for this is "chillax".
So, that's my report on my social life lately!
Grace
Although often confused with guilt and shame, remorse is actually a much higher calibrating "emotion." It's the 21st Century alternative to feeling bad about yourself, and making others around you feel bad too.
It not only feels better and helps you move forward in your life, but it is healing for the Earth... and as we ride the 2012 Transition, Mother Earth needs all the help we can give her!
This article explains how it works, and why you are worthy of forgiveness.
Remorse is a method to heal yourself, and others, after making a mistake.
After all, anything that brings a feeling of remorse is a mistake -- just a mistake. Did you know that's the origin of the word "sin"? "Sin" was an archery term; it means missing the mark. That leaves a lot more possibility for positive growth, doesn't it!
So you don't need to berate yourself for eternity. There is nothing to berate yourself for if you didn't know any better, or if you did the best you could.
And I believe we always do the best we can, with what we have in the moment.
We're not perfect. Sometimes we do things we're not proud of. But, in the moment, that was undoubtedly the best that we could do.
Maybe you gave in to your meaner impulses. If you could have held yourself to a higher ideal in that moment, you would have done so. What would you have to gain, by not?
Maybe you didn't know how to do better. You can only work with what you know.
God does not expect you to know what you do not yet know!
For whatever reason -- fatigue, stress, anxiety, confusion, distraction, etc -- maybe you didn't do the best you hoped for. Maybe it wasn't as good as you could have done another day.
But you obviously did the best you could in that moment.
Why would anyone do less than that?
God doesn't need you to burn in hell for it, not even the hell of your own harsh thoughts. She only wants you to learn from the process, and to use it to grow. That's what remorse is all about.
There are four parts to the process of remorse.
The first part is a pang in your Heart. There is an energy there, call it an emotion if you like, that signals you are not happy with your actions.
From here, many people get derailed into guilt, instead of continuing the process of remorse.
The second part is the most important, the core of remorse...
You accept that you made a mistake. And you make an unemotional, practical assessment of your actions.
When your actions and choices don't live up to your ideals or ethics... you figure out how you could do better, discover what was moving in you (probably subconsciously) that caused that action, and -- here's the critical bit -- resolve to do better next time.
Remorse is calm and determined. Rather than destroying your self-respect, remorse enhances it. It provides you with the opportunity to grow, to live up to your ideals.
It recognises that within you there is a perfect being, capable of the best.
And that there is always another opportunity to try.
Contrast that with shame, which says that you are worthless and hopeless. There's just nowhere good to go, from there!
Remorse doesn't take the mistake personally. It sees an action as wrong, but not you as a person.
Remorse knows that people can't accurately, honestly be judged in terms of "wrong" and "bad."
The next step is always making amends. You must undo the error, to the best of your ability. And apologise, if it won't make things worse.
We must be clear -- this step has nothing to do with being forgiven by another person. Whether they forgive you or not is about them and their process, and is not about you.
To seek someone's forgiveness when they aren't ready to give it can be a further harm.
You fix the mistake if you can. That is the only purpose of this step.
Inherent in this process is self-forgiveness. You see a mistake, you acknowledge it, you figure out what went wrong, you fix it if you can, and you determine to not make that mistake again.
When you've done all that, forgiveness is a lot easier.
You can forgive yourself, because you know you aren't a bad person who intentionally did wrong... and because you are doing your best not to slip up that way in the future.
No one is perfect. No one is expected, by the Divine, not to make mistakes. On the contrary, that's often how we learn and grow.
That's all the Divine wants of you. Not perfection. But learning and growing from your slip-ups.
So you can accept that you did the best you were able to, at the time. And forgive yourself, for being human and humanly fallible.
If you get stuck in guilt, look for the underlying shame. Shame is like Velcro to guilt. It tells you that you deserve to feel terrible guilt, that you are not worthy of forgiveness or compassion or kindness.
But shame LIES.
You are worthy of forgiveness, because you are not a flawed person.You are Divinity tasting life as a mortal individual -- nothing else.
It doesn't matter what your family or coworkers or boss thinks of you. It doesn't matter how you've been treated by others -- that's nothing to do with YOU, that's all about the (human) blindness of others.
You are infinitely worthy and loveable!
And when others can't see that it's only because they haven't realised that they are infinitely worthy and loveable. When people get tied down, in their minds, into one little frail animal body and one small human life, all kinds of such misconceptions arise!
But it's not the truth.
The truth is that you are eternal -- learning and growing and polishing yourself on challenge after challenge, life after life.
The soul that is truly you is infinitely worthy and Divine. The body and mind you think of as you are only a costume that put on for a while, and then point aside, to go home for dinner and a bath, a good rest, to get up and come play again.
So how do you as a mere mortal forgive yourself?
The same way you forgive anyone... With compassion for your human frailty: you really are doing our best with what you have. With perspective: understanding that this life is a playground and schoolroom, and not the life-or-death struggle it seems. With determination to not make the same mistake again.
With Bright Blessings,
There is no avoiding it. The only constant anymore is constant change.
This is something our forebears didn't have to worry about. For hundreds of generations, nothing much changed. They could mosey along with their noses to the agricultural grindstone, doing the same thing their parents and grandparents and greatgrandparents did. We have it in our genes to like things this way (mostly).
But that's not the reality any longer.
Surviving 2012 calls for a different approach, because life is different... even from 10 years ago!
Changes that took millennia in the beginning of time, half a millennium around the time of Christ, and decades in the 1900's are now occurring at 20 day intervals! We can't see anymore where we're going or what's coming next -- the only certainty is that it's coming fast.
And we have to change the way we live, to live with the change.
The more you hang on to what you already know, what you're comfortable with, the harder these times will feel and the more difficulty you'll have surviving the 2012 Transition. We are all being called to immense rapid change. It's natural to want things to slow down... but they won't.
And the more you resist it, the more suffering you create for yourself.
So let go of resistance.
Accept that this is the new reality.
Practice letting go easily and flowing with the tide of change.
I call this Dancing Lightly On The Edge. If you're standing on ground that keeps shifting underfoot, you just have to stay light on your feet.
It's kind of like levitation.
I read one guidebook on levitation said it's a matter of switching your gravitational "pole" -- instead of being held by the gravity of Earth, you are held by the gravity of the Sun or Moon or stars. Then you naturally "fall" upward.
If you can shift your "polarity" from worldly-existence to Divine-process, you will be upheld by that energy.
What I mean is by worldly existence is holding onto ideas like... "I have to look out for myself first" "It's work work work that makes the world go 'round" "I must stay in control in order to survive" "I want things to go back to the way they were" "I already know who I am, and all I need is better stuff and a more obliging lover to make me happy" "All that spiritual mumbo-jumbo is pure fantasy; the world is made of dead rock, man is at the pinnacle of evolution, and the physical world is real enough for me!"
This is a recipe for not surviving the 2012 Transition! It's a recipe for a very hard, unpleasant life!
The more you can switch to Divine process, the more easily, successfully, and beautifully your life will flow.
That means working from ideas like... "The more I help others, the more I ultimately help myself." "It's love that will save me, and compassionate kindness that will save the Earth." "I rest my life in the hands of the Divine, and so I am perfectly safe." "I am part of the most wondrous evolution ever experienced, and I am thrilled to allow it to flow through me." "I am Divine Light; I am Divine Love; I need nothing else: I am One with everything." "The only real reality is Consciousness."
Surviving 2012 is do-able. It may even be easy, depending on how well you master this skill.
In fact, it could very well be the best thing ever, as the entire planet is uplifted to this more beautiful state of consciousness!
With Bright Blessings,
Do I want to live forever?
When I was a child I desperately wanted to live forever. I think most kids did. It was one of those fantasy things.
Today my thoughts have changed quite a bit. I now believe that once I pass beyond the veil in death that I will eventually come back to live again through reincarnation. This, in a way, is living forever. One of the biggest draw back from actually living forever is that everyone you care about will pass beyond and leave you. Yea you will make new friends and lovers but they too will pass beyond and leave you to move in an endless cycle. Oh sure it would be interesting to experience the advances, turmoil, wars, times of peace, and other things, I don't believe that would make the endless cycle of loss easier.
Today we are infatuated with the concept of eternal life in the form of vampires in such movies as the Twilight Saga and TV shows like True Blood and Vampire Diaries. Yes they live 'forever' but they must also suffer with living forever.
For me I look forward to seeing The Summerland, to enjoy a rest before returning and living again. That being said I expect to live well into my 90's. Gods willing.
Blessed Be.
NEWS – As the holiday season approaches, Creality is thrilled to launch its biggest-ever Black Friday event! From October 21 to December 3 on the Creality Store and November 21 to December 2 on Amazon, enjoy record-low prices on an extensive range of 3D printers and accessories. Whether you’re a 3D printing enthusiast or a […]
REVIEW – I’ve had my two Dell monitors for a while, but I’ve yet to find a monitor arm that fits the weight of my 32″ curved screen. I tried my heavy duty work arms, yet no matter how tight I made it, it would slide down and rest on the desk. The LiftSync Dual […]
REVIEW – I’ve been updating my EDC and talking about it on my YouTube channel for the past few months. My next category to discuss is flashlights and it turned out to be a good choice because I was recently offered the chance to review the SPERAS ARC Ti Titanium USB-C keychain flashlight. Let’s check […]
REVIEW – 3D printing is fun and challenging. You can download countless free files from sites like Thingiverse and Printables, Cults 3D, and Thangs, or create your own using Fusion 360 TinkerCAD. It takes time, patience, and a love of tinkering, but it can be great fun. Many 3D printing enthusiasts will agree that incessant […]
NEWS – The color-capable K2 Plus has been a hot topic, since Creality, a world-leading 3D printer brand, heralded it in the spring of 2024. “Your dreams in color come true” as the K2 Plus x CFS Combo hits the shelve on November 11. Unifying multicolor, speed, intelligence, and a 350mm cubed format in one, […]
REVIEW – I previously reviewed The James Brand Carter XL which has been a dependable knife but I also have a penchant for utility knives so when The James Brand sent me their new Palmer Clear utility knife that retails for only $39 I couldn’t wait to try it out. What is it? The James […]
