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Session Four, Day Two: History of the Vinaya Lineages
Bhikkhu Sujato, Abbot of the Santi Forest Monastery, Sydney, Australia
"The Origin of the Three Existing Vinaya Lineages: Theravada, Dharmaguptaka, and Mulasarvastivada"
Indian ordination lineages did not develop because of formal schisms in the sangha, despite assertions to the contrary found in the earliest Sri Lankan chronicle, The Great Chronicle (Pali: Dipavamsa), as espoused by conservative Theravadins. Moreover, there were never any Mahayana Vinaya or ordination lineages. The ordination lineages either descend from or were closely associated with Theravada and they developed because of geographic dispersion. Theravada derived from the missions of Mahinda and Sanghamitta, Emperor Ashoka's son and daughter, to Sri Lanka. Dharmaguptaka, according to the Austrian scholar Erich Frauwallner, descended from the Greek monk Yonaka Dhammarakkhita's mission to Bactria, northwest of India, with Ashoka's brother Tissa serving as interpreter. The Dharmaguptaka teachings are very similar to those of Theravada and may be regarded as the northwest branch of Theravada. Although Mulasarvastivada emerged only at the beginning of the eighth century CE; nevertheless, according to Frauwallner, its seat was Mathura. Passages linking this school with Kashmir were later interpolations. Mathura was also the meditation retreat area for the Theravadins and Dharmaguptakas. Although the Mulasarvastivada doctrines are quite distinct, the three Vinaya communities lived harmoniously in Mathura. Thus, because of this closeness of the three Vinaya lineages, that harmony needs to be continued today and ordination procedural differences among them should be considered not so important.
Dr. Hema Goonatilake, President of the Buddhist Resource Centre, Sri Lanka; formerly University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
"The Unbroken Lineage of the Sinhalese Bhikkhuni Sangha from the 3rd to the 11th Century"
The bhikkhuni ordination in Sri Lanka, introduced by Emperor Ashoka's daughter, Sanghamitta, continued unbrokenly until 1017 CE. Thus, the Sri Lankan bhikkhunis who participated in dual sangha ordination of bhikkhunis for the Chinese nuns in Nanjing in 433 CE had an unbroken lineage. Before then, Chinese bhikkhunis were ordained by a single sangha comprising only Dharmaguptaka bhikkhus.
Just as there were four Theravada Vinaya lineages at the four main monasteries in Sri Lanka, each with a slightly different interpretation of the bhikkhu vows, there were probably also slightly different bhikkhuni lineages as well. Although the revival of the Theravada bhikkhuni ordination lineage in Sri Lanka entailed re-ordination of the bhikkhunis from Dharmaguptaka to Theravada, in accordance with the dalhikamma strengthening procedure followed among the four Sri Lanka Theravada bhikkhu sanghas, it would be preferable to reinstate the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination through the single sangha procedure.
Prof. Dr. Le Manh That, Vietnam Buddhist University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
"On the History of the Buddhist Nun Order in Vietnam"
The historical accounts of the Vietnamese bhikshunis are only partial; in many periods of history, little is known. The earliest reference is in the second century CE. Throughout history, however, the women who ordained in Vietnam were mostly from the upper class and already had led a family life before becoming nuns.
Roseanne Freese, U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service
"The First Bhikshuni Ordination in East Asia: Giving Birth to a New Way of Life"
The Vinaya texts for both monks and nuns were brought to China at the same time. But, bhikshu and bhikshuni ordination began even before that, based on manuals of guidelines composed in China. In 357 CE, the first Chinese bhikshunis were ordained by the single sangha method according to the newly translated Mahasanghika bhikshuni Vinaya. The validity of this ordination, however, was challenged at that time by Dao Chang.
The complete translation of the Tripitaka into Chinese was completed in 382 CE, almost 300 years after Buddhism arrived in China. After this, the complete Dharmaguptaka Vinaya texts were available in Chinese. With the arrival of Sri Lankan bhikshunis and with the dual sangha Dharmaguptaka bhikshuni ordination of 300 Chinese women in 434 CE that they and Chinese Dharmaguptaka bhikshus held, there were no longer any challenges to the validity of the ordination.
Prof. Dr. Yu-chen Yi, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
"The Ordination System of Late Imperial China"
During the Six Dynasties Period (317-589 CE), the Buddhist sangha in China received imperial patronage. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties (581-907 CE), the central government developed a bureaucratic structure to register the monks and nuns and to supervise monastic affairs. Thus, the government issued ordination certificates (Chin. dudie) to monks and nuns upon passing a national sutra examination and then receiving full ordination. These certificates entitled the holders to cropland and soon these ordination certificates became an alternative form of money.
During the Five Dynasties and Song Period (907-1206 CE), the government built national ordination platforms and required the costly purchase of three ordination certificates for monks and nuns. The government also instituted three separate ordination platforms for the granting of novice, full ordination, and bodhisattva vows, and required payment for each ordination. During the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368 CE), the Mongol rulers instituted the burning of three to twelve joss sticks on the heads of Han Chinese bhikshus and bhikshunis to distinguish them from non-Han monastics.
During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE), all bhikshu and bhikshuni candidates were required to buy expensive ordination certificates. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 CE), however, the state abolished the sale of ordination certificates and decentralized the system of ordination. Nevertheless, the state maintained a certain level of control through an official ordination ritual. Local monasteries established ordination platforms and increased the price of ordination that they themselves conferred. Women under the age of forty were prohibited from receiving ordination. The nuns had to be officially registered and that helped to protect them and their rights.
From among all these Chinese customs, it might be helpful if there were official ordination records kept by the Tibetans in the future.
Dr. Hyangsoon Yi, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
"Vicissitudes in the Order of Buddhist Nuns during Choson Korea"
Dual Dharmaguptaka bhikshuni ordination was institutionalized in the Paekche (Baekje) kingdom of Korea (18 BCE – 660 CE) at least in 588 CE, when the first Japanese bhikshunis were ordained there with this procedure. No historical material is available for the Silla (57 BCE – 935 CE) and Koguyo (Goguryeo) Kingdoms (37 BCE – 668 CE). During the Koryo (Goryeo) Dynasty (918-1392 CE), Buddhism was the state religion and it is inferred that the dual sangha ordination procedure for bhikshunis was maintained during that time. During the Choson (Joseon) Dynasty (1392-1910 CE), Buddhism was severely restricted due to strong Confucian influence. Bhikshus were prohibited from entering the capital and had to pay for ordination. Only widows with no unmarried children and who had finished the three-year mourning period were allowed to become nuns. Unmarried women were not permitted to ordain and women in general were prohibited from visiting temples. Bhikshuni ordination continued, but was most likely given by the single sangha method, without the preliminary shikshamana period. The relation between the nun teachers and disciples was modeled after Confucian filial piety.
Prof. Dr. David Jackson, Curator of the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA; formally Hamburg University, Germany
"Strategies for the Preservation of Endangered Ordination Traditions in the Sakya School"
The Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism preserves two distinct Mulasarvastivada ordination lineages through the Kashmiri Abbot Shakyashribhadra (1140s-1225 CE). One lineage eventually spread to the four Sakya monastic communities and the other was passed on by Sakya Pandita. Sometimes one or another sub-lineage became rare. To preserve it, bhikshus would give up their old ordination and take a new ordination in the rare lineage, as in the case of the late sixteenth-century Sakya master Mangto Ludrub Gyatso (Mang-thos Klu-sgrub rgya-mtsho). This was in contradistinction to the Theravada dalhidhamma strengthening procedure which allows receiving a second bhikshu ordination without relinquishing the prior ordination. In some cases, Sakya masters bent the rules in order to preserve a lineage under dire circumstances, such as using four bhikshus instead of five for the ordination procedure. As this ordination was generally accepted, flexibility is also needed regarding reinstating the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination.
Prof. Dr. Jan-Ulrich Sobisch, Copenhagen University, Denmark
"Bhikshuni Ordination: Lineages and Procedures as Instruments of Power"
Since the Buddha himself altered the ordination procedure several times without causing previous ordinations to be invalid, the mere fact of carrying out ordination in accordance with what has been established as the law renders it correct. In other words: If the law is changed authoritatively, the new procedure is as correct as the previous one.
Since the lineages of the full monk vows cannot be traced without gap in their Indian parts – too few lineages holders appear in the lineages to convincingly bridge over a full millennium – the fact that some monks demand such a tracing from the nuns is either based on a lack of knowledge of the state of their own lineage beginnings or it is an unfair demand from a position of power alone. It would be more honest to base the validity of ordination on a procedure that is established autonomously and authoritatively by any one of the established sanghas, since that is what appears to have happened in the male sanghas many times
Session Five, Day Two: Polarity between Tradition and Requirements of Modern Times, Part I
Prof. Dr. Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
"The Vinaya between History and Modernity: Some General Reflection"
We should not become tangled in legal arguments about reinstating the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination, since that simply delays taking a decision. Over history, the Vinaya has been changed many times and enlarged. Complete texts of seven different Vinayas are still extant. It is hard to say that all were taught by Buddha, so it makes more sense that they evolved to suit different situations. One cannot say that one lineage is more valid than another, and one cannot use rationality to doubt other lineages and belief to legitimize one's own lineage. Buddha was pragmatic and so now we must also be pragmatic and not worry about the validity of having dual sangha ordination from two different lineages.
Bhikkhu Dr. Bodhi, Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, New York, USA; formerly editor for the Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka
"The Revival of the Bhikkhuni Ordination in the Theravada Tradition"
The Theravada Vinaya can be read as permitting or forbidding revival of bhikkhuni ordination depending on how one interprets it. The issue cannot be definitively settled from a legalistic point of view. For many conservative bhikkhus who are against the revival, their opposition seems to be arising more from emotional and political grounds. If Buddha were present, however, it is clear that out of compassion and skillful means, he would choose to allow the revival.
Prof. Dr. Hae-ju Jeon Sunim, Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea
"Dual Ordination in the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism and the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya"
Although the dual sangha Dharmaguptaka bhikshuni ordination was restored in Korea in 1982 CE in the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, there are still problems. On a popular level, some people would like ordination to be conferred only by bhikshunis with no bhikshus. Some protest at the eight gurudharmas. Some question the giving of bhikshuni ordination and bodhisattva vows from The Net of Brahma Sutra (Skt. Brahmajvala Sutra) simultaneously.
Parallel Session Six, Day Two: Polarity between Tradition and Requirements of Modern Times, Part II
Bhiksuni Tenzin Palmo, Director of Dongyu Gatsal Ling, Tashi Jong, India
"A Brief Overview of the Situation for Nuns in the Tibetan Tradition"
Historically, the situation of Tibetan novice nuns has been very difficult, with few opportunities to study. In Tibet, they often returned to their families to care for their elderly parents. In exile in India, most of the few nunneries that have been established are completely full. The Tibetan Nuns' Association is helping to support them, but most nunneries still struggle to support their members and cannot afford to pay well-qualified teachers. Even in those nunneries where the nuns are able to prepare for the Geshema and Khenma degrees, the rule that they cannot study Vinaya without already being bhikshunis restricts their ability to earn these degrees. To raise the status of Tibetan nuns, it is important not only to re-establish the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination, but also for the new bhikshunis to ignore the eight gurudharmas that have regulated their lower status. These eight, after all, were formulated for the sole purpose of avoiding censure by the lay society. In the modern world, disallowing the re-establishment of the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination and honoring these eight risk that very censure.
Prof. Dr. Janet Gyatso, Harvard University Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
"Future Perspectives and Necessities of Bhikshuni Ordination"
The decline of the status of bhikshunis in the Buddhist world has been primarily due to cultural and social forces. Therefore, social consensus and acceptance of bhikshunis by the Buddhist lay community at large will be responsible for the re-establishment of the bhikshuni ordination. This is already visible in Sri Lanka, where doubts about the moral ethics of many of the bhikkhus is leading to laypeople increasingly inviting bhikkhunis to their homes to perform such religious functions as conducting the rites for the dead.
Some Vinaya rules may need to be bent in order to re-establish the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination, and certain discriminatory customs that are not part of the ordination ritual, such as agreement to the eight gurudharmas, need to be discontinued. It is vitally important that Buddhism in the modern world be based on total gender equality. After all, Buddha himself showed great flexibility in adjusting Vinaya rules to accord with public sentiment. Settlement of these ordination issues and the future flourishing of a strong female Buddhist monastic order may help to present a more dignified image of women to the world and thus enable Buddhism to contribute even more significantly to world peace and environmental harmony based on emotional equilibrium and self-discipline.
Bhikkhuni Wu Yin, Abbess of the Luminary Buddhist International Society, Taiwan; President of the Buddhist Institute of the Hsiang Kuang Temple, Taiwan
"The Noble Task for the Tibetan Buddhist Community: To Establish Its Bhikkhuni Lineage"
The restoration of the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination is essential for the thriving of Buddhism with a complete sangha. This is not a matter of establishing something new. Of the various manners of re-establishing the ordination, the single sangha method, although not perfect, seems to be the best choice. The time to act is now; it only depends on the willingness of the Tibetan bhikshu Vinaya masters.
Bhikkhuni Dr. Dhammananda (aka Prof. Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh), Abbess of the Song-dhamma-kalyani Nunnery, Thailand
"The Need to Look at the Popular Interpretations of the Tripitaka (Theravada Context)"
Bhikkhuni ordination never arrived in Thailand. The tradition of maeji (maechi), eight- precept practitioners, who shave their heads, wear white robes, and lead a somewhat religious lifestyle, has been in existence for at least four centuries. The maeji receive neither government recognition nor support. In 1782 CE, King Rama I of Thailand promulgated the Sangha Act of the Thai Government, which defined the sangha as a male sangha. Further, in 1928 CE, the Sangharaja Jinavornsiriratna issued an order forbidding all Thai bhikkhus from giving ordination to women, despite this prohibition contradicting the Vinaya. This law still stands. The first Thai bhikkhunis, however, were ordained in the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka in 2003 CE. Currently, in 2007 CE, there are eight Thai and two Indonesian Theravada bhikkhunis. Public and government recognition is slow in coming and, in Indonesia, the Theravada bhikkhunis are forbidden to teach in Buddhist temples.
A closer reading of the scriptural basis often cited as supporting the Theravada prejudice against women reveals that there has been much misinterpretation. Buddha's hesitation to ordain Mahapajapati was not a refusal, but rather Buddha merely advised her not to take delight in the ordained life. Buddha conferred ordination upon her after Ananda enquired whether Buddha's hesitation was based on the fact that women are unable to attain nirvana. Buddha answered that women are capable of attaining nirvana, passing through the four stages of stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and arhat.
In the sentence immediately following Buddha's statement that ordaining women would weaken the sangha and shorten the life of the Dhamma from 1000 to 500 years, Buddha added that by laying down the eight garudhammas, however, he was preventing such a decline. Further, although Buddha stated before his passing away that if the sangha found some minor Vinaya rules troublesome, they can change or revoke them, the First Council was unable to decide which rules were minor. Therefore, Mahakassapa proposed that they keep them all, with no additions or eliminations. This conservative approach has been followed ever since.
Bhikkhu Kirama Wimalajothi Thera, Director of the Buddhist Cultural Center, Dehiwala, Sri Lanka
"The Current Cultural Re-awakening and Its Impact on the Bhikkhuni Order in Sri Lanka"
In recent years, more than 2000 temples have closed in Sri Lanka due to an insufficient number of bhikkhus in them. Thus, the establishment of Theravada bhikkhunis is helping to revitalize Buddhism in Sri Lanka. There has been no negative response from the Sri Lankan Buddhist patriarchs regarding the newly ordained bhikkhunis and no objections to their ordination procedures. The public has accepted bhikkhunis, as demonstrated by their frequent invitation of bhikkhunis to their homes to perform funerary rites. The relations between the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis have been cordial and bhikkhus have been inviting bhikkhunis to their temples to preach to the public. More institutions for the bhikkhunis, however, are needed to train them not only in the Dhamma, but also in counseling methods for helping the lay community.
Prof. Dr. Barend Jan Terwiel, Prof. Emeritus, Hamburg University, Germany
"Some Problems in Establishing the Bhikkhuni-sangha in Theravadin Thailand"
One of the main problems regarding the establishment of Theravada bhikkhunis in Thailand is the prominent role that magic plays in the practice of Thai Buddhists. Monks and their yellow robes are viewed by most Thais as bringers of good fortune. Consequently, hundreds of millions of amulets are blessed and distributed by monks and worn by the general public. Thai society considers monks, however, to be defiled by any contact with females, even with female animals. Such contact supposedly robs them of the spiritual power they have gained through meditation and sexual abstinence. Even palaces traditionally had only one storey, so as to avoid men being defiled by women walking over them on a higher floor. Burmese and Sri Lankan Buddhists do not share these superstitions. With the advent of multi-story apartment buildings in modern Thailand, certain aspects of this prejudice against women are beginning to fade. But still its presence is causing much opposition to gender equality in the Thai sangha.
Dr. Martin Seeger, University of Leeds, England
"The Revival of the Theravada Nun Order in Thailand: Scriptural Authority and Cultural Resistance"
Although there is still great resistance to the establishment of Theravada bhikkhunis in Thailand, eight-precept maechis are slowly receiving broader public recognition than they have in the past. Only a few maechis, however, have become charismatic teachers, and maechis as a whole still lack institutional charisma. Despite their commonly low status, however, an apparently growing number of maechis have achieved a rather high standing and in some cases gained a huge number of very influential devotees and disciples. Many of these maechis, but by no means all, are former members of the Thai middle-class, while their followers and supporters are in many cases middle-class, too. Almost 7000 Thai temples have been abandoned in recent times, while interest among women in receiving ordination has been growing. With little opportunity available within the institutions of Thai Theravada Buddhism, Thai women are turning to other schools for ordination, such as Thich Nhat Hanh's Vietnamese tradition or the Taiwanese Fo Guang Shan Order, which has a branch temple in Bangkok. If the Supreme Buddhist Council of Thailand and the two main Thai Buddhist universities continue to avoid finding an acceptable solution to the bhikkhuni ordination question, a further decline in traditional Thai Buddhism may be unavoidable. However, the demarginalization of Thai Buddhist women may help to revitalize Buddhism as a whole in Thailand.
Bhikshu Thich Quang Ba, Abbot of Van Hanh Monastery, Canberra, Australia, and of Nguyen Thieu Monastery, Sydney, Australia
"Bhikkhuni Sangha in Vietnam and Australia: An Overview on Its History and Contemporary Developments"
Vietnamese refugees have been working steadily to establish temples and ordain bhikshus and bhikshunis in many countries around the world. At present, the proportion of bhikshus to bhikshunis in the Vietnamese community is three to two. It is important for the Tibetans, as well as for the Thais and Burmese, to reinstate the bhikshuni ordination in their lineages, especially in the face of the precarious position of Buddhism in many parts of the world today. A bhikshuni world conference may help to further this process.
Geshe Lharampa Bhikshu Rinchen Ngudrup, Drolmaling Institute Nunnery, Dharamsala, India
"The Flawless Ordination of Bhikshunis by a Bhikshu Only Sangha"
Buddha stated in The Minor Vinaya Precepts ('Dul-ba lung phran-tshegs, Skt. Vinayagamakshudraka) that upasika, shramanerika, shikshamana, and brahmacharya ordinations are to be given in sequence by bhikshunis. However, according to The Summer Retreat Instructions, Buddha said that if a shramanerika or shikshamana requests the bhikshus to give her full ordination, then the bhikshus should take proper leave of their summer retreat for seven days and confer the ordination. This second passage can be understood to imply that, in such a situation, the bhikshus may confer the bhikshuni ordination even as a single sangha ceremony if no bhikshunis exist to complete a dual sangha. This is supported by Gunaprabha's statement in The Vinaya Root Sutra that bhikshus may confer the brahmacharya ordination. Since brahmacharya ordination must be followed on the same day by bhikshuni ordination, it follows that the bhikshus may also give bhikshuni ordination by the single sangha method. Further, Differentiations within the Bhikshuni Vinaya (dGe-slong-ma'i 'dul-ba rnam-par 'byed-pa, Skt. Bhiksunivinayavibhanga) states that if a qualified woman wishes to become a bhikshuni and the sangha does not ordain her, the bhikshus incur a fault. Thus, single sangha ordination is permitted by scripture for re-establishing the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination and, in following this method, the ordaining bhikshus do not incur even a minor infraction.
Parallel Session Six, Day Two: Polarity between Tradition and Requirements of Modern Times, Part III: Theravada: Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Bangladesh
Bhikkhu Prof. Dhammavihari Thera, Sangha Nayaka of the Amarapura Dharmarakshita Sect, Sri Lanka
"Gender Not a Major Issue in the Self-operative Liberation Process of Buddhism as a Religion"
As both men and women are equally qualified for spiritual attainment, all levels of ordination need to be made available for all women seeking renunciation of household life and aiming for nirvana. A central education institute needs to be established to educate bhikkhunis in the Dhamma after ordination, and meditation facilities with full instruction need to be provided.
Bhikkhuni Ayya Gunasari, Thanti-Thitsar Vipassana Meditation Center, Riverside, California, USA
"Building Bridges for Theravadin Bhikkhuni Sangha in Diverse Worlds"
At present, women in Burma may only become silashin, eight-precept practitioners. The silashin, as well as female Dhamma workers, and future ordained female sangha need to receive better education and training in order to help disseminate the Dhamma properly in Burma. For this purpose, the ten perfections (Pali: parami) can form the basis for cooperation between the male and female sanghas and Dhamma workers.
Dr. Tomomi Ito, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba City, Japan
"Bhikkhuni Restoration in Theravada Buddhism: Grounds for Authenticity for Newly Ordained Bhikkhunis"
The only option for bhikkhuni ordination by Thai women to be considered "right" by Thai society is for them to receive such ordination in Sri Lanka from a dual sangha comprising Theravada bhikkhus and bhikkhunis. Financial difficulties, as well as language and cultural differences and age factors, however, have been presenting obstacles to such course of action. Several Thai samaneri have received bhikkhuni ordination from a single Theravada sangha in Thailand, starting in 2005 CE, and again from an international dual sangha in 2006 CE. However, Thai abbots have declined their request for admission to their temples, citing as a reason that they were not properly ordained in Sri Lanka. Such reason, however, may hide deeper cultural factors that are involved. Newly ordained Thai bhikkhunis will need to live as a community and develop a consolidated order in order to gain that social trust that would grant legitimacy to their ordination.
Dr. Barbara Kameniar, Flinders University, The University of Melbourne, Australia
"Rurality, Ordination Debates and Thai Mae Chi"
In general, Thai lay society and the bhikkhu sangha lack respect for maechi. It is important that Western scholars not continue to contribute to this derogatory opinion that becoming a maechi is an inferior spiritual path. Many women in Thailand go to wats in order to recuperate from stressful situations. They need to have available not only the option to become bhikkhunis, but also to become maechis as a spiritual path worthy of respect in Thai society.
Bhikkhuni Ayya Tathaaloka, Abbess of the Dhammadharini Vihara, Freemont, California, USA
"Mining for Gold: A Bright Vision and Exploration into the Essential Nature and Purpose of the Bhikkhuni Sangha"
Buddhas of the past have had bhikkhuni sanghas and Shakyamuni Buddha himself ordained the first bhikkhuni. Buddha had many enlightened bhikkhuni disciples. Popular misconceptions about the inferior spiritual status of bhikkhunis need to be refuted with scriptural quotations. With the help of Chinese and Sri Lankan sanghas, the Korean bhikkhu and bhikkhuni sanghas that had been decimated during the Korean War have been revived so that now there are more than 10,000 bhikkhus and 10,000 bhikkhunis in South Korea. Therefore, the revival of the bhikkhuni sangha is needed in other countries in which there is interest, including Thailand.
Dr. Emma Tomalin, University of Leeds, England
"The Thai Bhikkhuni Movement and Women's Empowerment"
The low status of women in Thai Buddhism and the inferior position of women in general in Thai society are related issues. If the free religious and general education that is available to young boys were also made available to young girls, this might help to lessen the likelihood of the sex trafficking of young girls. The establishment of the bhikkhuni ordination in Thailand has the potential to help balance gender inequality in Thai society. Thus, "religious feminism" may contribute to the empowerment of women in Thailand.
Prajna Bangsha Bhikshu, Chief Abbot of World Peace Pagoda, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh
"Key Issues Relating to the Establishment of Restoration of Bhikkhuni Lineage in Bangladesh Theravada Buddhist Tradition Where It Does Not Currently Exist"
A bhikkhuni sangha was present in Bengal until the twelfth century CE, however no information is available on their exact activities. After that, only a few pockets of Buddhism continued to exist in Bengal, primarily in the Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. In 1864 CE, a leading monk of the Arakan district of coastal Burma re-established Theravada Buddhism in the Vajarayana Buddhist Society of these hill tracts. The practice of Theravada Buddhism has continued there until the present.
Although there are approximately one million Buddhists in Bangladesh, about one percent of the total population, only a very few women are practicing the eight precepts in different temples. Although Bangladeshi society and many leading monks there are not in favor of the re-establishment of the Theravada bhikkhuni ordination there, the Venerable Bana Bhante Sadhananda Mahathero is willing to confer bhikkhuni ordination to Bangladeshi women once they have studied the basic Vinaya texts that have been translated by me into Bengali.
Parallel Session Six, Day Two: Polarity between Tradition and Requirements of Modern Times, Part IV: Mahayana: China, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, Thailand
Dr. Christie Yu-ling Chang, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
"From Anila to Gelongma – Naming, Language, and Gender Equality"
The Correct Naming Movement in Taiwan has been working to educate people to stop using derogatory manners of address for nuns, as well as for minority groups, and to use more respectful ones instead. The use of derogatory names for certain groups within a society is a form of "symbolic violence." Thus, among the aims of this movement, efforts have been made to educate the public and the media to replace the Chinese term nigu, meaning "auntie," with biqiuni, the correct term for a bhikkhuni. These efforts have received support not only from the Chinese Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association, but also from various Taiwanese bhikkhu associations as well. The protests of this movement have been quite successful. It is time that a similar movement takes place within the Tibetan community to replace the derogatory term for nuns, anila, with chöla and gelongma.
Stefania Travagnin, Ph.D. Candidate, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London, England
"Life and Mission of Elder Gongga (1903-1997): Bridging Dharma Traditions and beyond Gender Discrimination"
The spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Taiwan spans two periods. From 1950 to 1982 CE, mostly mainland Chinese lay followers of Tibetan Buddhism went to Taiwan, with only a few ordained Tibetan and Mongolian lamas. Since 1982 CE, a steadily growing number of Tibetan monastics have been going. Elder Gongga was a Chinese woman who transmitted and spread the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism first in mainland China up until 1958 CE and then after that in Taiwan. Able to fuse together both Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist identities, she taught at first as a laywoman and ordained as a bhikkhuni only in 1982 CE. Her preserved body is widely venerated as having produced many relics. Another Chinese nun, Longlian (1909-2006 CE), from the Gelug school, has also contributed greatly to the spread of Tibetan Buddhism among the Chinese, primarily through her translation work.
Bhikkuni Thich Nu Hue Huong, Deputy Head of the Charity Committee of the Central Vietnamese Buddhist Association, Thong Nhat, Vietnam
"The Role of the Women in Buddhist Sangha"
The eight gurudharmas were formulated by Buddha out of kindness for women. They were necessary to help Queen Mahaprajapati Gautami and her retinue to overcome their arrogance of having been part of the royal court. They were also needed to protect the nuns from harm. Bhikkhunis have contributed greatly to Buddhism in Vietnam. In 1956 CE, Bhikkhuni Nhu Thanh founded the Vietnamese Nun Mahayana Association. With the reunification of North and South Vietnam, the Vietnamese Buddhist Association Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha was established in 1981 to standardize and regulate Buddhist practice throughout the country, jointly for both bhikkhus and bhikkhunis. It has ensured continuing harmony and gender equality within the sangha. If the eight gurudharmas and the bhikkhuni Vinaya have not been upheld properly in other Buddhist countries so that bhikkhunis have been forced to show respect to bhikkhus with degenerated ethics, the behavior of those bhikkhus need to be corrected. With proper implementation of the eight gurudharmas, upholding them serves as a boat to bring bhikkhunis to nirvana.
Thich Nu Hanh Tri (aka Dr. Lani Hunter), Founder of the World Peace Foundation, Freemont, California, USA
"Buddhist Nun Ordination and Charity Work"
Although it is difficult for bhikkhunis to engage in charity work while keeping all the rules of conduct purely according to the Vinaya, it is nevertheless possible to do so, based on the practice of giving, the first of the six paramitas.
Ven. Losang Dechen, Co-director of the Tibetan Nuns' Project, Dharamsala, India
"Tibetan Nuns and Bhikshuni Ordination"
Although Tibet has never had a bhikshuni ordination lineage and only a tradition of novice nuns, it has had a number of famous women practitioners, starting with Machig Labdron (Ma-chig Lab-sgron) in the eleventh century CE. An attempt was made in the thirteenth century CE to begin bhikshuni ordination by a single sangha, but that was never continued. In the fifteenth century CE, Princess Chokyi Dronme (Chos-kyi sgron-me) was recognized as the embodiment of the Buddha figure Vajra Varahi. She became known as Samding Dorje Pagmo (bSam-lding rDo-rje phag-mo) and began a line of female tulkus, reincarnate lamas. At present, the twelfth of this line lives in Tibet. Another female tulku lineage, that of Shugseb Jetsun Rinpoche (Shug-gseb rJe-btsun Rin-po-che), began in the nineteenth century CE.
Although most Tibetan novice nuns have traditionally lacked the opportunity to study Buddhist philosophy and debate, there have been some who have done so and excelled in that area, specifically in the seventeenth century CE at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Less than twenty years ago, however, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama instituted the study of Buddhist philosophy and debate in the Tibetan Buddhist nunneries in exile. Some nuns have now become teachers at the Tibetan schools and some have become Tibetan doctors. More, however, have successfully finished their training in the philosophy sections of the traditional Geshe and Khenpo degree programs, but have been unable to complete these degrees with the full study of the Vinaya. As novice nuns, they have only been permitted to study the shramanerika Vinaya, and not the bhikshuni Vinaya. This restriction, however, has helped to make them realize even more strongly the importance of re-establishing the bhikshuni ordination for the Tibetan Mulasarvastivada tradition.
Many years of research concerning this ordination, undertaken with the support of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and many conferences on the topic have helped to convince an increasingly larger number of bhikshu Vinaya-holders of the necessity and feasibility of restarting this tradition of bhikshuni ordination. The Tibetan novice nuns hoping to receive bhikshuni ordination are hopeful that this will be possible soon and wish for it to be conducted by an assembly comprising solely a Mulasarvastivada bhikshu sangha.
Dr. Kim Gitschow, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA, and Skalzang Lhamo, President of the Zangskar Nuns Association, Karsha, Zangskar, India
"Ordination and Status in Zangskar"
Buddhist nuns were present in the Himalayan regions of Spiti and Guge as late as the early eleventh century CE, although it is not clear whether they were bhikshunis or sramanerikas. For example, at the end of the tenth-century CE, King Yeshe Ö invited the East Indian master Dharmapala and several of his followers to Guge, Western Tibet, to confer Mulasarvastivada bhikshu ordination. The King's daughter took ordination at that time, although it is unclear whether this was as a novice or a full nun.
The oldest nunnery in Zangskar dates from the first half of the fifteenth century CE and, following the Tibetan tradition, has only novice nuns. Similar nunneries were founded in Ladakh starting in the eighteenth century CE. At present, Zangskar has ten nunneries, with roughly 120 novice nuns, and eight monasteries with roughly 300 monks. The nunneries own far less fields than the monks do and financial support for the nuns has been sparse. The educational and economic situations of the nunneries in Zangskar and Ladakh have improved with the founding of the Ladakh Nuns Association in 1996 CE and the Zangskar Nuns Association in 2006 CE.
Master Shi Kuang Seng, First Thai Woman to Receive Dharmaguptaka Bhikshuni Ordination, Thailand
"Implication of Mother's Virtues towards Buddhist Society"
With the re-establishment of the bhikshuni ordination, bhikshunis will be able to take more fully the mother's role in providing spiritual comfort to women and children, especially those who have been victims of abuse.
Session Seven, Day Two: Examples for the Revival of the Dual Ordination and Vinaya Training
Bhikshuni Myoom Sunim, Rector of the Diamond Vinaya Institute, South Korea; President of the Pongnyongsa Monastic Seminary for Nuns, Suwon, South Korea
"The Structure and Curriculum of the Bhiksuni Vinaya Institute of the Pongnyongsa Nunnery in Korea"
During the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945 CE), the number of celibate bhikshus drastically declined due to the influence of the Japanese Buddhist custom of married priests. At the end of World War II, only a few celibate Korean bhikshus were left who had studied Vinaya. The Korean War (1950-1953 CE) brought about further damage to the monastic order. Slowly, the Vinaya was revitalized and, in 1982 CE, dual sangha ordination for bhikshunis was reinstated within the Jogye Order. In 1999 CE, the Diamond Vinaya Institute was founded to educate bhikshunis according to a strict schedule and extensive curriculum. In 2007 CE, for the first time, the bhikshuni Vinaya lineage was passed from one bhikshuni to another bhikshuni.
Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, Abbess of Sravasti Abbey, Newport, Washington, USA
"A Tibetan Precedent for Multi-tradition Ordination Support for Giving Bhikshuni Ordination with a Dual Sangha of Mulasarvastivada Bhikshus and Dharmaguptakaka Bhikshunis"
After the persecution of Buddhism in Central Tibet by King Langdarma in the mid-ninth or early tenth century CE, three Tibetan Mulasarvastivada bhikshus, led by Tsang-rabsel (Tsang Rab-gsal), fled to Amdo, where they gave full bhikshu ordination to Gongpa Rabsel (dGongs-pa rab-gsal) with the help of two Chinese bhikshus. As for the question of which Vinaya lineage these Chinese bhikshus followed, the assertion made by many conservative Tibetan scholars that they must have been Mulasarvastivada has no historical basis.
From the mid-third until the early fifth century CE, Chinese bhikshus were ordained according to the Dharmaguptaka rituals, but followed the Mahasanghika version of the pratimoksha vows in daily life. Once the appropriate texts were translated into Chinese, then from the early-fifth to the mid-seventh century CE, the bhikshus were still ordained according to the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, but in different parts of China the bhikshus followed the Sarvastivada, Dharmaguptaka, Mahasanghika, or Mahishasaka Vinayas.
In the mid-seventh century CE, Daoxuan, the first patriarch of the Vinaya School in China, decreed that the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya must be followed for both ordination and daily life, and in 709 CE, the Tang Emperor Zhong-zong formalized this with an imperial edict. The Mulasarvastivada Vinaya was translated into Chinese only at the beginning of the eighth century CE, but there is no evidence that it was ever followed. Thus, the two Chinese bhikshus that completed the assembly of five bhikshus required to confer bhikshu ordination in a border region were clearly Dharmaguptaka. Therefore, there is a precedent in Tibetan history for conferring ordination by a sangha comprising members from two Vinaya schools and, consequently, dual sangha ordination from members of two Vinaya schools may be used for reestablishing the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination. Moreover, Tsang-rabsel gave permission for Gongpa Rabsel to serve as preceptor (mkhan-po, Skt. upadhyaya) for the ordination of Lu-me (Klu-mes Tshul-khrims shes-rab), although Gongpa Rabsel had not been a bhikshu yet for the five years required in a border region. This serves as a precedent for adjusting the ordination procedure described in the Vinaya under reasonable conditions.
Bhikshu Dr. Hung Sure, Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, Berkeley, California, USA
"The Flourishing of the Bhikshuni Sangha in North America: Master Hsuan Hua's Vision of Sangha Organization and Implementation"
Since the early fifth century CE, the Dharmaguptaka bhikshu and bhikshuni ordination rituals have included the taking of the bodhisattva vows according to their presentation in The Net of Brahma Sutra (Skt. Brahmajvala Sutra). By the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the ordination procedures at many monasteries had become lax. Therefore, in 1660 CE, Jian Yue revitalized the pure ordination rituals, including the taking of the bodhisattva vows as part of the ordination. His ordination manuals have been followed ever since.
In 1969 CE, Master Hua established the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association in California USA. Since 1972, this association has conducted Dharmaguptaka bhikshu and bhikshuni ordinations eleven times at Gold Mountain Monastery in San Francisco and the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, California, in accord with Jian Yue's manuals. Theravada bhikkhu elders have overseen, participated in, and certified these ordinations. Following ordination, the bhikshu and bhikshuni sanghas receive training and live in harmony within a Western context.
Bhikkhuni Dr. Karuna Dharma, Abbess of the International Buddhist Meditation Center, Los Angeles, California, USA
"Experiences with Ordaining Bhikhhunis in Los Angeles from 1994 to 2004"
Starting in 1994 CE, there has been ordination of bhikshus and bhiskhunis at the International Buddhist Meditation Center, Los Angeles, California, USA, following the Dharmaguptaka procedure. The bhikshus and bhikshunis have been ordained together in one ritual. Each of the three officiating positions for the ordination has been shared by one bhikshu and one bhikshuni, with the bhikshus conferring the bhikshu vows and the bhikshunis conferring the bhikshuni vows. These officiating bhikshus and bhikshunis have been from different schools and countries, all functioning together as one ordaining body – Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and American Dharmaguptaka and Sri Lankan Theravada. The other members of the ordaining sangha have been bhikshus and bhikshunis from all three Vinaya schools and various countries. The ordaining women have all been shramanerika novice nuns for at least three years and there has been no requirement that they have been shikshamanas. Although the ordination ritual has been solely Dharmaguptaka, each of the new bhikshus and bhikshunis must feel that they receive ordination in their own lineage – Theravada, Mulasarvastivada, or Dharmaguptaka. Twenty Western women have ordained as bhikshunis in this way in the Mulasarvastivada tradition.
Bhikkhuni Dr. Kusuma Devendra, Director of Sri Gotami Ashram, Sri Lanka
"Theravada Bhikkhunis"
Since the break in the Theravada bhikkhuni ordination lineage in 1017 CE, Sri Lankan women have only been able to ordain as ten-precept nuns. The bhikkhuni ordination was first revived for Sri Lankan women in Sarnath by the Korean Dharmaguptaka sangha of the Chogyo sic, Chogye, Jogye Order in 1996 CE. The Sri Lankan bhikkhus in attendance recognized the legitimacy of the ordination and, subsequently, these ten Sri Lankan bhikkhunis have followed the Theravada tradition of Vinaya while holding Dharmaguptaka ordination. In 1998 CE, twenty more ten-precept Sri Lankan nuns received single sangha Dharmaguptaka bhikkhuni ordination in Bodh Gaya from Taiwanese bhikshus and, subsequently, single sangha bhikkhuni re-ordination by Theravada bhikkhus in Sarnath. Now, in 2007 CE, there are over 500 bhikkhunis in Sri Lanka who have received ordination in Taiwan and now by dual sangha ordination comprising Sri Lankan bhikkhus and bhikkhunis in Sri Lanka. There is no basis for the objection by some conservative Sri Lankan bhikkhus that the Dharmaguptaka ordination is a Mahayana ordination. The President of Sri Lanka, His Excellency Mahindra Rajapaksa, has recognized this ordination and now there is official government support.
Bhikshuni Chuehmen, South Asia and Theravada Buddhism Coordinator for Fo Guang Shan Monastery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
"The Right to Be Ordained as Bhikshunis: Sharing Our Experiences"
The Fo Guang Shan Order was established in Taiwan in 1967 CE. Bhikshus and bhikshunis from this order have conferred dual sangha Dharmaguptaka bhikshuni ordination for nuns following Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism at the Hsi Lai Temple in Los Angeles in 1988, Bodh Gaya in 1998, and Taiwan in 2000 CE. It is best to think in terms of Buddhism and the Vinaya, rather than in terms of specific lineages of either. At the time of the Buddha, there were no divisions into lineages and schools, such as Theravada, Dharmaguptaka, and Mulasarvastivada. Although the disciplinary rules in each of these three lineages have slight differences, all are valid; none are wrong. Therefore, these differences should not be the basis for preventing bhikshuni ordination.
Lama Choedak Rinpoche, Director of the Sakya International Buddhist Academy, Manuka, Australia
"Experience of Being the Tibetan Buddhist Teacher to Convene and Sponsor the First Tibetan Initiated Bhikshuni Ordination Ceremony held in Canberra, Australia in October 2003"
In 2003 CE, nine women were given Dharmaguptaka dual sangha ordination as bhikshunis by a Council of Preceptors in Canberra, Australia, comprising Vietnamese bhikshus and bhikshunis. It would be good to create a similar Council of Preceptors of Bhikshuni Ordination and, with the assistance of the Department of Religion and Culture, Tibetan Government in Exile, Dharamsala, India, to hold a Dharmaguptaka dual sangha bhikshuni ordination for Tibetan nuns in India and Nepal. It would be good for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to give permission for this to happen.
Evening Discussion, Day Two
The Tibetan nuns attending from the nunneries in India are unanimous in favoring single sangha Mulasarvastivada ordination, given in whatever manner is found to be correct according to the Vinaya. They explained that, although there is no fault in other Vinaya traditions, receiving such a Mulasarvastivada ordination will enable them to be accepted and integrated into Tibetan society with the least objections from conservative factions. The nuns wish to be able to practice the Dharma as fully as possible and especially to be able to receive the full Geshema education and degree. For this, Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination is necessary, since it will enable them to study the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya. Although the human rights and gender issues may be important in general, they felt that they are irrelevant here. The issue is not one of how to gain status as a bhikshuni or Geshema, but how best to tame the mind. Although the Department of Religion and Culture has approved and prepared their study of the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni Vinaya, the bhikshu elder instructors have insisted on strictly following the textual tradition of not allowed this study without prior bhikshuni ordination.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said that it is important for the bhikshuni ordination question to be settled during his lifetime. Tibetan Buddhist monastic training emphasizes reliance on textual tradition and the resolution of seemingly conflicting textual statements in them through the use of debate and logic. Therefore, the only way to settle the question is through authoritative sources within the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya texts themselves and their correct interpretation through debate. This is an internal discussion that must be decided solely within the context of the Tibetan monastic tradition and mentality. Although the re-establishment of the Mulasarvastivada bhikshuni ordination and the method used to re-establish it do not require the approval of the monastic elders of the other Asian Buddhist traditions, His Holiness feels it is important that the final decision taken be respected by these traditions. The Vietnamese bhikshu Thich Quang Ba added that if the Tibetans re-establish their bhikshuni ordination, the Theravadin countries that have not yet re-established their bhikshuni ordination traditions may more easily follow suit.


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Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton was one of the most talked-about arrivals on the "new folk" acoustic music scene. The guitarist, singer, and songwriter has an amazing vocal range and makes effective use of it on his recordings and in his live shows. Unlike so many other contemporary singer/songwriters, his vocal style can be described as truly soulful, combining the best qualities of singers like Van Morrison, Al Green, Aaron Neville, and Otis Redding.
Sexton, a self-taught guitarist and singer, was raised in a family of 14 and formed his first rock & roll band in eighth grade. In high school he was in a profusion of garage bands, playing the music of the Beatles, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin. He left his home in Syracuse, NY -- and the rock & roll life -- in 1988 and headed for Boston, encouraged by what he'd heard about the coffeehouse scene in that city. Despite the ultra-competitive nature of the Boston scene, with too many folksingers and too few coffeehouses, Sexton quickly rose through the ranks. He began playing his brand of soul-filled folk music around Boston's open-mike nights and street corners in 1989.
In 1991 he released his own record, In the Journey, in cassette format, and much of the material on this and Black Sheep, his 1996 debut for Eastern Front Records, is autobiographical in nature, concerning his life on the road. Remarkably, Sexton sold 15,000 copies of his cassette-only album through the strength of his live shows and grueling tours around the U.S. In 1994, Sexton won the National Academy of Songwriters' Artist of the Year Award. By 1996, Sexton was sharing stages with Art Garfunkel, Jackson Browne, and John Hiatt on tours. Sexton subsequently signed a deal with Atlantic Records, releasing The American in 1998 and Wonder Bar in 2000. Sexton continued to tour, building a sizable following throughout the States. He released the Christmas-themed Camp Holiday in November 2005, followed by the intriguing Seeds in 2007. Sugarcoating, produced by Sexton and Crit Harmon, appeared in 2010. ~ Richard Skelly, Rovi

subset: commoncrawl


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Stress and financial strain may take toll.
Moms who had children outside of marriage may be at risk for poor health later in life. Thousands of mothers who participated in a 30-year study, but the ones who had delivered children outside of marriage reported being less healthy when they reached their 40s than the ones who had postponed motherhood until after marriage.
And marriage, when it occurred after motherhood, did not appear to remedy the women's health problems, said study researcher Kristi Williams, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University.
The findings suggest public health campaigns to promote marriage, which were started by the government in 1996 and aimed at single, low-income mothers, may not improve these women's health as once hoped, the researchers said.
Because many more women have out-of-wedlock children today than several decades ago, the researchers predicted an increasing public health problem as these women enter their midlife.
About 40 percent of newborns in the United States come from single moms, compared with 10 percent in 1960, the researchers said.
Williams and her colleagues analyzed survey responses from close to 4,000 women who were ages 14 to 22 when the study began in 1979. The women were interviewed every year until 1994, and then every two years afterward until 2008.
Women who had their first child out of wedlock reported lower levels of health at age 40 than did those who were married when they had their first child. The results held even after the researchers took into account factors that could influence the mother's health, including education level and health conditions that existed before 1979.
Getting married later on did not tend to ameliorate the single mother's poor health unless she married the biological father, remained married to him, and was white or Hispanic. There was no beneficial effect of later marriage for black mothers, the researchers said.
The study did not determine why single mothers had poorer health, but the researchers speculated it may be due to the stress and financial strain that often accompany single parenthood. Both of these factors are implicated in a wide range of health problems, Williams said.
It's important to note a bad relationship or bad marriage also can be deleterious to one's health. For instance, a 2009 study found women who have more conflict in their relationships have a higher risk for health conditions such as high blood pressure and high blood sugar.
The researchers noted the study was relatively small and was based on self-reports of health.
The study suggested policymakers should look for other ways to help single mothers improve their health, Williams said, such as providing access to job training, child care assistance and health insurance.
Other experts agreed that the increase in the number of single mothers could lead to public health problems down the road. One suggested that the lack of financial support was the main driver of poor health.
Women who have children out of wedlock today may have different levels of income and family support than the single moms of decades ago, said William Avison, a sociologist at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, who was not involved with the study.
The health effects seen in this study were probably largely a result of the single mothers' economic disadvantage, Avison said. If a large percentage of single mothers today had the family and financial support they needed to raise a child, then they might face fewer health problems.
"In the long run, it's still a case of the socioeconomic disparities that produce all sorts of negative outcomes for people," Avison said.
The new study will be published in the June issue of the journal American Sociological Review.
Photo credit: Service Needs
Via MSNBC


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Noah already delivered a takedown of Dana Milbank's dishonest report of a Heritage Foundation panel on Benghazi, but the story didn't quite end there. The emergence of the video of the event thoroughly discredited Milbank, but he didn't back down from his conclusion that the panel attacked a soft-spoken young Muslim woman who just offered a question, and suffered intimidation from the audience as a result. Claiming that "it's all subjective," Milbank then offered to provide audio of his interview with the young woman, Saba Ahmed:
I much prefer @joanwalsh's take to @dylanbyers. It's all subjective, but I was there and I think I accurately captured the hostility.
— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) June 17, 2014
I spoke to the Muslim woman, Saba Ahmed, after the event, and she spoke of feeling "targeted," @DylanByers. You can have the audio.
— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) June 17, 2014
If it comes down to the credibility of the witness, then perhaps knowing a little more of her back story might help with that "subjective" judgment. Ms. Ahmed is a little more than a law student at American University, as she introduced herself. She is same Saba Ahmed that tried to win the Democratic nomination to the US House of Representatives in the 2012 cycle, only to change party affiliation to the GOP after drawing less than one percent of the Democratic vote (via Gary Eaton and Michelle Ray):
Saba Ahmed, the young Muslim woman from Beavertonwho ran in the Democratic primary for Oregon's 1st District congressional seat, says she has switched to the Republican Party.
From her Facebook page:
"Never thought I would see this day, but I am officially a registered REPUBLICAN. Thank you to all the Oregon Democrats for helping me realize my Conservative Potential. Looking forward to 2012 Republican Victories!"
Ahmed, who had interned for then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, has been a frequent participant in Democratic events. She received less than a half-percent of the votes in last week's primary.
The same Facebook link features a number of items about Ahmed's appearance at the Heritage panel, too. She's clearly not just a young naïf who might have been overwhelmed by a panel response. In fact, in an earlier profile from The Oregonian, Ahmed's background shows that she has solid experience in public activism:
In 2004, at the age of 19, she graduated with a double major in electrical engineering and physics at Portland State University. She's been active in Democratic volunteer circles in recent years, participated in a pair of programs to train women to run for political office and did internships for then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.
She has also been frequently interviewed as a friend of the family of Mohamed Mohamud, the Somali-American teenager accused of attempting to bomb a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland last year.
The Oregon blog 54-40 or Fight had these links, plus other subjective assessments of Ahmed's politics:
Saba Ahmed has garnered attention for being friends with Mohammed Osman Mohamud, the Portland Christmas Tree Bomber – so much so that she was removed from his court hearing when the judge charged her with contempt. She is also a 9-11 truther who believes that the Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, PA was staged.
She tends to seek out any opportunity to get in front of microphones and cameras to undermine conservative causes and messages. She has been removed from many Republican events in Oregon as well as Tea Party rallies, and most conservatives recognize her as unwelcome due to her ulterior motives.
So it's no surprise that when one door closes, she seeks other avenues to project her message – like, for instance, Occupy Portland[.]
Ahmed acknowledged the hostility from conservative grassroots in the area, but chalked them up to Islamophobia:
And yes I was banned from the Oregon Tea Party and Washington County Republicans earlier this year because of my Islamic beliefs, but I have to believe there is room for learning. I have to try and make a place for myself even if i'm unwelcomed. I know several tea party republicans hate me because they somehow blame me for 9/11. But I know once we talk to each other, get to know one another, we can all heal together. Inshallah!
Sounds something like what Milbank tried in his hit piece, too. The only problem was that Heritage videotapes their events, and the videotape shows that the panel and the audience was enthusiastic but hardly intimidating — and that Ahmed herself was polite and respectful, if not entirely quite honest about herself. As Erick Erickson also points out, Ahmed's question was actually off-topic for the panel, which might have been entirely benign — or an attempt to generate the kind of gotcha that Milbank thought he'd scored.
Dylan Byers' analysis seems even more spot-on after getting some background on Ahmed:
Video of that panel has since surfaced and — in my view — Milbank grossly misrepresented the nature of that exchange.
The woman in question, Saba Ahmed, an American University law student, does not seem to have been "taunted." Both panelists who responded to her accepted the premise of her question entirely. One of them — Brigitte Gabriel, the founder and CEO of ACT! for America — strongly rebutted Ahmed's concerns, but never dismissed her right to ask the question.
In an email, Milbank explained that he "was there in the room yesterday, and the reaction in the crowd – the long, standing ovation, the cheers for Gabriel, the fingers pointed at Ahmed, the war whoops — was intense, and a bit scary. The video captures some but not all of that."
Milbank is right on that point — the video may not capture everything that took place. However, I do believe that the video disproves or casts doubt on several of Milbank's assertions.
Whatever audio Milbank has of Ahmed's reaction should take her own credibility into account for his "subjective" analysis. Milbank himself seems to be singularly lacking in that quality.
Update: I should have also hat-tipped Adam Baldwin, who pointed the way to the above links from Gary and Michelle. My apologies for the omission.


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It must be noted that this is an unofficial community created project and therefore is in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.
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If you're using more than one cloud storage service (hard not to, with all the free space being thrown around), managing your files between them can be tricky. Otixo gives you a centralized view of all your online files for easy copying and pasting between accounts from the web interface or through a mapped drive on your desktop.
Otixo currently connects to Dropbox, Google Docs, Box, SkyDrive, SugarSync, Picasa, MobileMe, and Amazon S3. You can also add your own FTP or WebDav servers to connect to. Otixo doesn't store your files on its servers or save your login credentials—in most cases, that is (the SugarSync API seems to work differently than Dropbox, Google, and SkyDrive, but you can choose not to have your password saved in the service).
Once you connect your accounts, you've got an Explorer- or Finder-like view of all your files and can drag-and-drop them at will, as well as rename files, download to disk, share, and, for PDFs and images, preview the files online.
As a centralized manager for online files, Otixo is similar to previously mentioned Primadesk, with a couple of advantages or differences: The support for adding FTP or WebDav servers and access to all your online files as a drive on your Windows or Mac desktop. With the latter, once you add Otixo as a WebDav drive, all your online accounts will appear as folders under the new Otixo drive. Another unique feature, in beta, is Otixo Workspaces, where you can add files from any/multiple services to a workspace and share those folders with others.
The service might be most helpful for getting all your online files organized and accessing them on the go—you can login from anywhere to this one site to access all your files.
The free plan offers 250MB of bandwidth usage (the amount of network traffic used copying files or moving them around, for example) a month; for unlimited bandwidth usage, upgrade to the $9.99 plan.
Thanks EternalCharax!


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Supreme Court strikes down key section of Voting Rights Act
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court struck down a key part of the historic Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, ruling that Southern states may no longer be forced to seek federal approval before making changes in their election laws.
The ruling came on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. speaking for the court.
Roberts said the 1965 law had been a "resounding success" and has ensured that blacks now register and vote at the same rate as whites.
But he said it was no longer fair or rational to subject these states and municipalities to special scrutiny based on a formula that is more than 40 years old.
"States must beseech the federal government for permission to implement laws that they would otherwise have a right to enact and execute on their own," he wrote. This conflicts with the principle that all the states enjoy "equal sovereignty" and cannot be subjected to different federal laws, he said.
PHOTOS: 2013's memorable political moments
"Our country has changed in the last 50 years," the chief justice said. He said that Congress needs to "speak to current conditions."
As it currently stand, nine states are covered by the law based on voting data from the 1960s and early 1970s.
Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined with the chief justice.
The decision may have an immediate impact. Texas has been fighting federal courts over its voter ID law and plans to redistrict its congressional districts. Those state actions were halted under the part of the law struck down Tuesday.
The decision leaves open the possibility that Congress could adopt a new formula to target states or municipalities for special scrutiny.
The decision leaves intact the rest of the Voting Rights Act, which makes it illegal to adopt or enforce laws that have a discriminatory effect on minority voters. But civil rights advocates say the provision struck down Tuesday was still needed because it stopped discriminatory measures before they could take effect.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke for the four dissenters. She said the court had made an "egregious" error by striking down a law that had been extended in 2006 by a near unanimous vote in Congress.
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Royals waited out Boston manhunt in hotel
BOSTON -- The Royals were in a lockdown at their downtown hotel during the hunt for a Boston Marathon bomber suspect and their scheduled Friday night game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park was postponed.
The Red Sox announced the postponement "to support the efforts of law enforcement officers." With the manhunt continuing, no announcement was made concerning a new date for the series opener.
Shortly before 8 p.m. CT, the entire area breathed a deep sigh of relief when it was announced that the suspect had been apprehended in Watertown, Mass.
The second game of the series is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET on Saturday.
"We're just planning on it until we hear different, that's all we can do," Royals manager Ned Yost said.
As the crisis continued throughout Friday, an eerie silence enveloped the metropolitan area as police concentrated on finding the fugitive who eluded them overnight after one officer and one suspect were killed. A city-wide lockdown was lifted after 6 p.m. ET.
"We're locked in, they've told us not to leave the hotel and every place is closed right now," said Royals vice president of communications Mike Swanson.
Yost, who had been at his home near Atlanta after the series there, checked into the hotel on Friday morning.
"We're going to do like everybody else," Yost said. "We're just waiting it out and seeing what happens. They're not opening the ballpark right now until the situation is resolved."
The streets around the Boston hotel, as well as Cambridge and communities across the Charles River, were virtually deserted as authorities warned people to stay indoors because of the danger.
"There's no way to describe it," Swanson said. "Usually you see some kind of foot traffic or car traffic and horns honking but all you've got here is a periodic police siren. That's about it."
Royals reliever Tim Collins, from nearby Worcester, Mass., was in his hotel room like his teammates.
"It's pretty scary," Collins said. "I've never been part of anything like this and, obviously, there are tons of people affected by it but you just have to wait and, hopefully, they get the guy."
His family and some friends had been due to go to Fenway Park for Friday night's game.
"They're about 40 minutes away so obviously they're not on lockdown. They're not going to be able to get into the city but they're not affected by this because they're so far away," Collins said.
Collins said the Royals' charter flight from Atlanta on Wednesday evening was calm despite the uncertainty over Monday's bombings not far from the hotel where the team stays.
"I think this is probably the safest place you can be because there are so many officers, FBI and stuff like that," Collins said. "Until they catch the guy, this is a pretty safe place to be. You really couldn't tell anything outside when we flew in but once we got closer to the hotel, you could really see what was going on."
He did not visit the site of the bombings at the marathon finish line during Thursday's off day.
"I like to stay in the hotel," Collins said. "It's probably the safest rather than going out to explore."
The Royals had set up a noon buffet on Friday at the hotel to feed the players as a group.
"You can't go out and get anything to eat so we're going to eat at the hotel and just see what happens," Yost said.
Left fielder Alex Gordon said that he hadn't left his room all morning but had been talking to teammates by phone. Their reaction?
"It's just crazy, that's all," he said.
Pitcher James Shields planned to join his teammates at the in-hotel lunch.
Shields noted that throughout baseball, players, teams and cities have expressed their support for Boston by the playing of the Red Sox theme "Sweet Caroline" and other heartfelt tributes.
"Baseball is a very tight family and we tend to stick together in times like this, no matter what," Shields said. "I think we've done a good job of staying a family that's close-knit. Obviously, playing that song 'Sweet Caroline' always reminds you of the city of Boston."
Meanwhile, like Boston, the nation and the world, the players were waiting.
"I'm just watching the news," Collins said. "We're locked down and not going to be able to go anywhere until further notice."


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I'm an Internet privacy advocate (regular readers will now pause – laugh – and say – "no kidding!"), and while the fight to rein in Google, and others, might seem unwinnable, privacy advocates have not lost the battle – yet. Which is why, I have a great interest in any tool that will either stop Google and other data accumulators from collecting, storing, and dissecting my private personal information, or inhibit their ability to do so.
As a result, I've long made it a practice to camouflage my IP address when searching for sensitive subject matter… sensitive subject matter doesn't always have to involve porn.
Take a look at the following free VPN (Virtual Private Network) application – Little TunnelBear (a paid version with enhanced features is available), which allows you to surf the Web while hiding your IP address. Hiding your "real" IP address won't leave traces of your private surfing activities – protecting you from snooping web sites, annoying advertisers, employers, curious family members, and of course – Google.
I've been running with TunnelBear, (for 6 months or so), on a daily basis – and I'm impressed – very impressed. This application is "snappy quick" which cannot be said of the majority of the 10 (or more), VPNs I've tested in the last few years.
While the service is not entirely free (500 MB monthly free – an additional 1 GB is available (free) if one "Tweets" the application. Even with my heavy usage, I generally don't run out of free data access (1.5 GB), until the 25/26th of the month.
At that point, I switch over to the free version of Expat Shield which unfortunately lacks the quickness of TunnelBear, with the additional handicap of being ad supported. Having said that, I'll emphasize that Expat Shield is a terrific application and, the developer is certainly entitled to generate revenue.
TunnelBear will get no points for a stylish user interface…
… but I can assure you, that in this case "hot looks" cannot compete with speed, simplicity and ease of use. And, TunnelBear has all that – and more.
Simplicity – no need to launch a Browser first. Switch on, choose your preferred locale (the UK or the US) then launch a Browser.
*Please note that occasionally, you may find that instead of the UK, you will be assigned an alternative European IP address. Hungary and Holland come quickly to mind. It would be preferable, in my view, if the GUI reflected that fact.
Boost the freebie – If you have a Twitter account, and should you choose to do so, a quick Tweet is all it takes to bump up free data access to 1.5 GB. A very sweet deal, I think.
Following which, an email similar to that shown below, will confirm your additional 1 GB of data access.
I'll repeat – Even with my heavy usage, I generally don't run out of free data access (1.5 GB), until the 25/26th of the month.
Significant points:
- There are no ads and the application doesn't have to run in the background, or at startup.
- Employs a minimum of AES 128-bit encryption.
- Normal surfing (hopping from site to site), showed no slowdown (none that I could measure in human terms) in connection speed.
- Once the application has been started – all applications that communicate with a remote address will do so through TunnelBear.
- As with all such applications, a leap of faith is required. While the application does shield you from prying eyes, the developer has full access. You need to consider the implications. In other words – do you trust the developer.
Here's what the developer has to say on the issue of privacy –
TunnelBear stores the absolute minimum amount of information required to operate our service. This information includes your email, first name, last name, # of times you've logged on and the overall amount of data you transferred for the month. We do NOT log any information as to the websites you visit, nor do we store your IP address after you disconnect.
Having tested my fair share of anonymous surfing applications in the last few years, I'd judge this application to be as good, or better, than most.
Supported Systems:
- Download at developers site: http://www.tunnelbear.com/
- Additional information available from the developer's FAQ page here: http://www.tunnelbear.com/help/


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- Home
- Government
- Departments
- Coroner
- Autopsies & Death Certificate
Autopsies & Death Certificate
Often families have questions about what to do next along with questions about autopsies and information about death certificates. It is our hope that the following explanations are helpful.
Not all cases that are investigated by the coroner's office have to be autopsied, in fact most cases are investigated and released typically from the scene of death or after a brief time being held at the morgue in Covington. When an autopsy is required to determine the cause and manner of death the deceased is transported to the GBI State Medical Examiner's Office where a medical examiner, completes the necessary autopsy. If the cause and manner of death are obvious at that time the medical examiner returns the information to the coroner and the death certificate can be signed out in a timely manner. However, if the cause and manner of death are delayed due to further investigation, toxicology and or histology testing these death certificates can be delayed as long as 90 days or more.
No matter if an autopsy is necessary or not it is important for the family to take the next step in having their loved one released to a funeral home to care for the disposition of the deceased in a timely manner.
Death Certificates
In the State of Georgia the death certificate is originated by the funeral home that handles the disposition of a deceased. The death certificate is then forwarded to the coroner's office for cause, manner and signature. Once that is completed the death certificate is returned to the funeral home. The funeral home at that point will either file the death certificate with the county of death and / or obtain certified copies of that filed death certificate for the family.
Death certificates are completed by this office as quickly as possible however, there can be delays in completing the death certificate and those delays are outside of the control of the coroner's office.


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Democrats Try To Tweak Health Care Law
Senate Democrats who supported passage of the Affordable Care Act have grown increasingly frustrated with the bumpy rollout of HealthCare.gov, the site Americans use to sign up for insurance. Guest host Don Gonyea talks with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who introduced the Keeping the Affordable Care Act Promise Act to address concerns about about the law.
President Obama apologized this week for the fact that some Americans are losing their health plans despite his promises they wouldn't. The President spoke with NBC News.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I am sorry that they are, you know, finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me. We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and that we're going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.
GONYEA: Some Democratic lawmakers have offered legislation to fix problems with the rollout. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is one of them. I asked her how her bill would address the President's promise.
SENATOR MARY LANDRIEU: Well, my bill makes it clear that that was a promise made and that's a promise we're going to keep. It's as simple as that. But let me explain a little bit about if you have insurance you can keep it. One point eight million people in my state have insurance through their employer. One point five have it through public programs, Medicare or Medicaid. And less than 4 percent have it through the individual market. That individual market was broken. People were getting dropped all the time, rates were getting raised, and the policies offered weren't even that great.
However, the President said if you have those kinds of policies, in that 4 percent, you are entitled to keep it. So I think that we should honor that.
GONYEA: And that doesn't undermine a core principle of the ACA, that people have access to health plans that are of a certain quality?
LANDRIEU: Well, if it was a much larger number, it might cause it to not work, but this is a small enough number that I think the concepts of this will still stay intact.
GONYEA: You were among a group of Senate Democrats who met with the President this week to talk about healthcare.gov. What did he have to say and did he fully address the concerns you brought to the table?
LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, there were a fairly large group of us and so everyone, you know, we talked about many, many different issues. But again, our group was meeting with the President to fix the Affordable Care Act. So that's basically what our discussion was about, to see what we could do to fix it and continue to build on its great promise.
GONYEA: And are you confident that the fixes will be forthcoming and in a timely manner?
LANDRIEU: Well, I remain hopeful and optimistic. There's no excuse for this, but it's understandable. This is a big change; there are a lot of states that were kind of obstructing this at the state level, refusing to start the exchanges, refusing to expand Medicaid. It's been much more difficult rollout than I think many of us envisioned. But in the states that have been leaning forward, Washington State, Kentucky; the New Mexico small business exchange is getting really rave reviews.
So there are some real pockets of hope and bright spots and let's just keep working to build this much better opportunity for the people of our country.
GONYEA: American Crossroads, the Conservative PAC affiliated with Carl Rove, has identified you and a couple of your colleagues in the Senate - Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina - as vulnerable democratic incumbents. Are you worried that the healthcare.gov rollout will affect your campaign for re-election next year?
LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, I think it's important to remember that Crossroads was against the Affordable Care Act before it was a bill. They've been against it every day since it passed and when the Supreme Court upheld it they were still against it. So they've never been for it, and I always have. So I'm going to continue to fix this bill and we'll just see as this goes on. But I'm confident that this is the right approach to take. We may have to fix it, but not to defund it or to tear it apart.
GONYEA: Senator Landrieu, thanks so much for your time.
LANDRIEU: Thank you so much.
GONYEA: You're listening to NPR News.
Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.


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San Francisco, CA (Mar. 28, 2012) — Citizen scientists and hardware hackers are being challenged to develop payloads for commercial reusable suborbital spacecraft during the International Space Apps Challenge, a NASA-sponsored event that takes place worldwide and aboard the International Space Station on April 21-22.
The International Space Apps Challenge is a two-day "codeathon" which invites developers, hobbyists, and hackers around the world to work on a variety of hardware and software challenges. Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy, is challenging participants to develop suborbital science payloads as part of the event.
Successful payloads may fly into space aboard one of the commercial reusable spacecraft that are now under development by companies such as XCOR Aerospace. XCOR Aerospace is building the Lynx, a two-seat rocketship that is expected to make its first flight before the end of this year.
"Citizens in Space has acquired a contract for 10 flights with XCOR Aerospace," Wright said. "This is, to the best of our knowledge, the largest single bulk purchase of spaceflights on a reusable suborbital vehicle. We intend to acquire additional flights with XCOR and other suborbital spaceflight companies in the future."
"We're challenging the citizen-science and Maker community to contribute payloads for these flights," said Lt. Col. Steve Heck (USAF-ret.), a middle-school science teacher and Citizens in Space Pathfinder astronaut candidate. "This community has shown tremendous drive and ingenuity. Citizen scientists are discovering exoplanets and dinosaurs, monitoring climate and endangered species, and helping to map the human genome. The development of low-cost reusable suborbital spacecraft will be the next great enabler, allowing citizens to participate in space exploration and space science. Our goal is to make all of these flights available for citizen science."
Citizens in Space is challenging participants to work on two types of payloads. One class of payload would fly inside the pressurized cabin of the Lynx or another suborbital vehicle. "In the case of the Lynx, these payloads would be carried in an experiment box behind the left seat," Heck said. "The payload operator — a citizen astronaut like myself — would activate the experiment during the flight. It will be exposed to microgravity but protected from the space environment. This class of payload is ideal for materials processing, fluid physics, life science, and engineering-test experiments."
The other class of payload would be exposed to the vacuum of space. These payloads would ride in a special payload port in the Lynx's aft cowling. At a predetermined time during the flight, a hatch would open to expose the payload directly to space. "This class of payload is ideal for experiments that need access to the space environment or the upper atmosphere," Heck said. Depending on the experiment requirements, the payload may be ejected from the vehicle by a spring launcher or return to the runway with the Lynx.
Additional details on payload requirements are available on the International Space Apps Challenge Website:
- http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/suborbital-payload-citizen-science-pressurized/
- http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/suborbital-payload-citizen-science-exposed-space/
Participants who have payload questions may email project manager Edward Wright: email@example.com
"Citizens in Space encourages every citizen scientist and hardware hacker to sign up and participate in the International Space Apps Challenge," Wright said. "NASA expects participants in a number of cities across the United States and around the world, at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and even aboard the International Space Station. This is a very exciting opportunity. We want to thank NASA for its vision and support of citizen science and citizen space exploration."


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Work on optimal commodity taxes by Professor of Economics Peter A. Diamond was mentioned in the citation for the Nobel Prize for Economics, awarded Tuesday to University of Cambridge Professor James A. Mirrlees and Columbia University Professor William Vickrey for their contributions to the economic theory of incentives in situations where decision-makers have differing information.
Professor Mirrlees, 60, who has done major work on optimal income taxes, was a visiting professor at MIT who worked with Professor Diamond in the fall of 1994.
The Nobel Prize citation commented, "Mirrlees has made several far-reaching contributions in public economics, particularly in optimal taxation and development. One of his most important contributions in public economics, carried out jointly with Peter Diamond, consists of a very thorough and almost definitive treatment of optimal commodity taxes."
Mirrlees's work on optimal income taxes developed a methodology "which has become a paradigm in the economics of asymmetric information," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its release, available on the Web at .
The Academy, citing other contributions by Dr. Mirrlees, wrote as follows:
"In collaboration with Peter Diamond, Mirrlees has also carried out a comprehensive analysis of commodity taxes in a second-best world. Due to the fact that commodity taxes create a `tax wedge' between consumer and producer prices, taxpayers are prepared to pay more in order to avoid the taxes than the amount which accrues to the government in tax revenue. Given that this social cost cannot be fully prevented, taxes have to be chosen in the second-best way.
"The general theory of optimal taxation in a second-best economy encompasses few clear-cut recommendations. If one condition for social efficiency is violated, as a rule there is reason to violate others as well. However, Diamond and Mirrlees (1971) obtained a highly universal result. Under relatively general conditions, it is desirable to maintain production efficiency. In concrete terms, this means that taxes should not be levied on factors of production.
"The underlying intuition is relatively simple. Assume that final consumption varies continuously with tax rates. Diamond and Mirrlees showed that, in general, there exists a change in the tax rates which is advantageous to all consumers. If production is not efficient at the outset, i.e., it is in the interior of the production set, there will be a sufficiently small change in tax rates which is favorable to all consumers and still keeps the economy within the production set (due to continuity). Hence, the initial situation could not have been optimal.
"As already indicated, this result has had widespread consequences for project appraisal and economic policy in developing countries. On a theoretical level, the analysis has been generalized in various directions in Mirrlees (1972) and Diamond and Mirrlees (1976)," the Nobel citation said.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 9, 1996.


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In our previous projects, usually the license plate was a part of a vehicle's texture, so there was no chance to dynamically alter it or pretend that the trucks and cars come from different countries. For Euro Truck 2, at first we thought about a system providing slightly more variety - have a small set of license plates for each country, and assign them around, but it turned out that too many people take it as an offense if they happen to see multiple vehicles in the world sharing the same license plate texture, not to speak about lack of variety.
In the end, we are about to bite the bullet and implement a system to be able to procedurally generate the license plates based on a set of rules for each country in the game.
See the image below to see an example of how this is setup for the Czech Republic (specifically these would be license plates for Prague from recent years). There is a background for the license plate ready to accept the letters and digits in a given pattern, and then we generate the "text" with the particular combination of letters and digits that follows the country's rules for license plates, picking the alphanumeric symbols from a font texture with font specific for the given country.
Our problem is that for some countries like our own, we know those rules and can implement them with no problem, but doing the research for other countries is a time consuming task for us, with the risk that we'll still misunderstand the rules and implement the license plates for some countries incorrectly.
That's where the idea to approach our community and ask for help on collecting this know-how came to us. We would be very grateful for any pointers or URLs of documents that may help us, or explanations that you can provide, on how to compose believable license plates for vehicles in the various countries in Europe, mostly those present in the game already. Especially if you could point out if there are any things to pay special attention to, like differences between front and back plates, possibly differences between trucks and passenger cars and again if anything special is in place just for trailers, license plates differences as they are issued in different years etc, all this could help us to create a world which will be more believable when you drive though it.
If you have something useful to suggest, please mention it in a comment to this blog post, or alternatively send it to us by mail to info [at] scssoft [dot] com.
Here is a short movie as a way to saying thank you very much in advance..


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KDM P.O.P. Solutions Group is pleased to announce the acquisition of a full-service, print production facility in Cleveland, Ohio. KDM adds four large format litho presses, capable of producing point-of-purchase materials up to 54" x 78", to their already substantial offset printing solutions.
The 40,000 square foot location specializes in printing on plastics, in-house finishing, kit-packing, and delivering customized POP materials to several retail industry markets, including consumer packaged goods, quick serve restaurants, beverage companies, convenience stores, and aftermarket automotive retailers. The addition of four litho printing technologies include: 78" 7-color, 77" 5-color, 60" 7-color, and a 60" 6-color press.
"Our new KDM Cleveland facility will substantially increase our capacity, our productivity, and expedite speed to market on large production runs, as well as create further opportunities to foster growth of product offerings to our customers," says Bob Kissel, president and CEO of KDM P.O.P. Solutions Group. "We will retain its current location, structure, and 20 employees, as well as its valued customers."
The acquisition is one of five company acquisitions made by KDM in the past seven years, giving them a physical footprint in Cincinnati, Nashville, Atlanta, and now Cleveland. Details of the deal were not disclosed.


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I'm running into a problem that seems to be an issue w/ mysql 5.1s limitations on UTF8 characters.
From http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/charset-unicode-utf8.html
Currently, MySQL support for UTF-8 does not include 4-byte sequences.
Our app is throwing periodic exceptions like
java.sql.SQLException: Incorrect string value: '\xF4\x80\x82\x8C ...'
The ultimate solution looks to be migrating to 5.5 which supports UTF-8 > 3 bytes
Unfortunately this wouldn't be as simple as bouncing the instances under newer binaries. Being a major version dump we'd need to do a full dump reload which will require some scheduled downtime.
Has anyone else had to deal this situation before? Are there any good work arounds?
The naive approach seems to be have the app search and replace multi-byte sequences with question marks or � . This seems pretty hacky and not a very palatable option to me or the developers.


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Coptic Christians Asking Free World to Cut Ties With Egypt Under Morsi
The founder of an international group of advocates for the equality and rights of Coptic Christians is appealing to the leaders of democratic nations to cut any ties with Egypt. The Voice of the Copts is attempting to thwart President Mohamed Morsi's regime from implementing a primarily Islamic-based constitution.
"We demand that world leaders withdraw their recognition of Egypt's phony 'pro-democracy' leader, Mr. Morsi, who is backed by the illegal Muslim Brotherhood party," states Dr. Ashraf Ramelah, president of Voice of the Copts, in an open letter sent Monday. "Freeze your political relationships with Egypt, halt all investments and aid to Egypt and force Mr. Morsi's regime to step down. This will facilitate legitimate democratic goals yet to be achieved by Egypt's freedom fighters."
Coptic organizations around the world, including the U.S.-based Egyptian Front for National Salvation and Coptic Solidarity have been issuing similar demands since Morsi issued a new constitutional declaration in which he arrogated to himself sweeping powers, and enabled himself to be shielded from legal challenge through the courts.
Thousands of Egyptians within the country have been demonstrating against Morsi's regime as well for the last several weeks.
Voice of the Copts is also appealing to "all Egyptian freedom fighters fearlessly and heroically standing up against the Morsi regime."
"We support you as you continue to stand up and exercise enormous courage once again as when recently you opposed the dictatorial constitutional amendment of November 22 made by Mr. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party," stated Ramelah. "Your bold action obligated Mr. Morsi to withdraw the power grab he executed in defiance of democratic principles. Now he has backed down and responded to your demands thanks to your brave persistence."
He is asking all Egyptians to oppose Morsi's new constitution draft by boycotting the Dec. 15 referendum.
"The new draft promotes anti-democratic Islamic principles of intolerance. With a boycott, Egyptians can avoid another corrupt election and reject the avenue paved by Mr. Morsi toward Islamic Shariah law," Ramelah said. "A select group chosen from the Muslim Brotherhood membership seeking Islamic supremacy has written Egypt's new draft constitution with the future goal of creating an Islamic Umma. Expunge this draft now!"
Voice of the Copts would like to see free world and human rights activists stand with Egyptian freedom fighters and "against any attempt by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to build a center of Islamic power and jihadist terrorism."
On Monday, Egypt's military was given responsibility for protecting state institutions and maintaining security as the government braces for likely mass demonstrations of both opponents and supporters of Morsi ahead of a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum.
International rights groups have voiced concern over the military's role as a security force for Egypt. The military ran the government for 16 months after President Mubarak's fall.
''Considering the track record of the army while they were in charge, with more than 120 protesters killed and in excess of 12,000 civilians unfairly tried before military courts, this sets a dangerous precedent,'' said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International, as reported by AP.