Movies In Which Buddhism Is Central Theme
Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East
Movies In Which Buddhism Is An Important Theme
Documentary
10 Questions for the Dalai Lama
Peace Is Every Step-Meditation In Action: The Live and Work of Thich Nhat Hanh
Journey Into Buddhism (3-part series)
Teachings
Movies Containing Tangential Buddhist-Inspired Themes
More Resources
Healthcare reform isn’t over.
The concessions Democrats gave away to attract Republican votes, which proved futile in the end, undercut many of the most significant changes proposed.
We must keep pushing for those and more reforms to guarantee every American quality healthcare.
During the national healthcare discussion In 2009, many good citizens were misled by the insurance companies, insurance company lobbyists, and right-wing media into believing reform would come between them and their care. Of course that belief is patently false. Healthcare reform would offer more choice, for less. Often their furvor overran intellectually honest and pragmatic discussions. We must have those discussions.
Furthermore, cynical pundits who continue to oppose healthcare reform should have to answer the following question: Who in America should be bankrupted, be put out of work, or die due to a lack of a comprehensive national healthcare program?
While an improvement, the healthcare changes going into effect over the next 4 years still put too much emphasis on for-profit health insurance companies, fail to cover everyone, is a burden for small businesses, and does little to reduce costs long-term.
Here are some resources I recommend:
This American Life Episode 391: More Is Less - An hour explaining the American health care system, specifically, why it is that costs keep rising. One story looks at the doctors, one at the patients and one at the insurance industry.
This American Life Episode 392: Someone Else’s Money - This week, we bring you a deeper look inside the health insurance industry. The dark side of prescription drug coupons.
PBS Frontline: Sick Around the World (Stream Online)
In Sick Around the World, FRONTLINE teams up with veteran Washington Post foreign correspondent T.R. Reid to find out how five other capitalist democracies — the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland — deliver health care, and what the United States might learn from their successes and their failures.
PBS Frontline: Sick Around America (Steam Online)
As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses—potentially forcing millions more Americans to go without health insurance—FRONTLINE travels the country examining the nation’s broken health care system and explores the need for a fundamental overhaul. Veteran FRONTLINE producer Jon Palfreman dissects the private insurance system, a system that not only fails to cover 46 million Americans but also leaves millions more underinsured and at risk of bankruptcy.
Healthcare-NOW! is an education and advocacy organization that addresses the health insurance crisis in the U.S by advocating for the passage of national, single-payer healthcare legislation. Right now, the National Health Insurance Act (HR 676) is the only legislation that will create a national, single-payer healthcare system. We see healthcare as a human right, not a privilege tied to the ability to pay.
What Is Single Payer? (Animation)
Physicians for a National Health Program
Progressive Democrats of America
Labor Campaign for Single Payer
Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care
The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care is a coalition of doctors, nurses and other health care providers; labor unions; nonprofit agencies; reform advocates and faith-based organizations working to achieve guaranteed comprehensive, high quality, and affordable health care coverage for everyone.
Amnesty International - Health Care is a Human Right
Republicans for Single-Payer Universal Healthcare
i have recommended mac software, open-source mac software, and mac software for law students and lawyers, but I would like to recommend some web services I use or like:
mobileme seamlessly keeps my e-mail, contacts, and calendar in sync between my mac and my iphone and hosts my photos in professional looking galleries allowing me to post them directly from iPhoto. it is worth the $99/year right there & it replaced my flickr pro membership, saving me $25/year. hint: you can save $30 on mobileme when purchasing it with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac at the Apple Store and you can ‘stack’ them for multiple years. mobileme also offers easy file storage (20GB) and file sharing. it has saved my iphone a few times with it’s find-my-iphone feature. you can also use it to host your own website with your own domain name.
i am new to evernote but I really like the concept. you can keep your ideas, notes, important pdfs synced between your mac, iphone, ipad, and about a dozen other device platforms. free for basics. $5/month or $45/year for additional storage and file support. video tutorials to get you started. +iphone app
i follow 50+ news sources, from mainstream media to blogs and i need to be able to rapidly skim headlines and select interesting articles to return to later. i use it on my mac and on my iphone. third-party newsreaders, even those that use google reader on the backend, i found are sluggish for the amount of content I digest. free. +iphone [web] app
instapaper is where I archive important scholarly articles. free. keeps in sync with instapaper pro on my iphone ($4.99). gets kudos for updating app to support the ipad as a universal app and not forcing me to pay more for a special ‘HD’ version just for the ipad.
delicious is where I archive important bookmarks which I don’t visit frequently enough to keep bookmarked in safari but still like to have tagged. free. on my mac, i use cocoalicious (free) to sort and tag my delicious bookmarks. delibar ($18) is also an interesting concept. iphone apps available, most suck.
track goals, get help, help others attain theirs. free. +free iphone app
scans your itunes library for your favorite artists and notifies you via text-message, e-mail, or ical subscription (my favorite) when they are in town. free.
healthy living and weight-loss community. i use it for the amazing nutrition tracker. really offers so much more: custom exercise plans, community support, and recipes. free. +free iphone app
self-explanatory:
facebook +free iphone app
twitter +free official iphone app and dozens 3rd party. i like and use echofon pro ($4.99).
linkedin +free iphone app
Where to find me on the web:
Facebook - personal profile
LinkedIn - professional profile
Twitter - micro-blog
MobileMe Gallery - photos
i use this - mac software
43 Things - personal goals
Foodspotting - a new way to find great places to eat, with photos of the dishes!
Every six months or so, some analyst who is almost always wrong about these things and who is simply trying to hawk his thousand-dollar insider ‘reports’ to hedge funds and wealthy investors, proclaims that the iPhone is coming to Verizon.
Naturally, the entire Internet erupts with speculation and rumors. Mainstream media trumpets it like dogma. North Georgia rednecks get convinced and will argue with you, an Apple Store employee, that yes, the iPhone will run on Verizon. Of course as with most Apple rumors, they are unfounded and wrong.
I also don’t get the fascination. AT&T is universally reviled, to be sure (and to some extent undeservedly so) but Verizon is no benevolent cupcake either. Let’s be honest, there really is no competition in the US cellular market. Contracts are anti-consumer. Plan pricing is nearly identical. Customer service is disgusting.
But I have some reasons why I don’t believe we will see an iPhone on Verizon (or Sprint) anytime soon:
Reason #1: When designing a phone you plan to sell internationally, use an international standard. Verizon and Sprint are based on a cellular technology known as CDMA. In contrast to Verizon and Sprint, AT&T (and T-Mobile) are based on a cellular technology known as GSM. GSM is the international standard for mobile phones with over 80% of mobile phones in the world powered by GSM. Seeking Alpha estimates that as many as 85% of iPhones will be sold outside the US.
Reason #2: Apple embraces open standards (802.11b/g/n, IEEE1394a/b, HTML5, Mini DisplayPort, Objective-C). GSM is a relatively open standard. CDMA is a closed specification whose patents are largely controlled by Qualcomm.
Reason #4: Apple would not collaborate with a direct competitor. Qualcomm develops the Snapdragon ARM-based processor, found in the HTC and Google Nexus One. Apple developed it’s own ARM-based processor, the A4, for the iPad and presumably, the next iPhone.
Reason #5: Apple is about what is next. CDMA is over. Qualcomm abandoned the successor to CDMA, UMB, in 2008, in favor of LTE.
However… The emerging fourth generation (4G) wireless technologies include WiMax and LTE. LTE is GSM-based and like GSM, an open standard. Verizon has announced plans to deploy LTE in up to 30 markets in 2010. It is possible, I believe, we will see an iPhone on Verizon’s LTE network in 2011+ (maybe even on the 700mhz band Verizon acquired in 2008), but never on Verizon’s current CDMA network.
I have been continuously updating my directory of Baltimore and Maryland links and adding cool new stuff. Updates include a new table of contents, a slightly tweaked structure, and new links to: financial services, lgbt interest, and utilities.
Notable Apps
Adium - IM Client
Burn - Disc Burning
Growl - System Event Notifications
Camino - Web Browser
Cocoalicious - delicious Bookmark Manager
Cyberduck - FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Client
GrandPerspective - Disk Visualizer
Handbrake - Video Encoder
Frostwire - Gnutella Client
Miro - Video Player
Monolingual - Remove Unnecessary Language Files
NatsuLion - Twitter Client
NeoOffice - OS X Port of the OpenOffice Office Suite
OpenOffice - Office Suite
Perian - Quicktime Component Enabling Additional Media Formats
Pomodoro - Time Management
Plex - Media Center
UnRarX - Uncompresses RAR Archive
VirtualBox - Virtualization
VLC - Media Player
Q - Virtualization
QuickSilver - Launcher
Stellarium - Planetarium
Transmission - BitTorrent Client
Creative
GIMP on OS X - GIMP in Cocoa for OS X
Blender - 3D Creation Suite
Seashore - End-User Image Editing Based on GIMP
Scribus - Desktop Publishing
Audacity - Audio Editor
Free-Software Based
Mac OS X - Desktop Operating System
Mac OS X Server - Server Operating System
Crossover Games - Commercial WINE Implementation
Boxer - Slick FreeDOS Implementation
Advanced
Apache - WWW Server
CalDAV - Calendar Server
CardDAV - Contact Server
Chicken of the VNC - VNC Client
CoRD - MS RDP Client
Darwin Streaming Server - Open Source Implementation of Quicktime Server
Drupal - WWW Server
Fink - Open-Source Package Management (Fink Commander or Phynchronicity Front-End)
GlassFish - Java Application Server
jEdit - Text Editor for Programming
Joomla - WWW CMS Stack
Lynx - Terminal-Based WWW Browser
LyX - LateX Implementation
MacPorts - Open-Source Package Management (PortAuthority Front-End)
MacRuby - Ruby Implementation
MacFUSE - File System Extensions
MediaWiki - WWW CMS Stack
OpenDS - OpenLDAP Server in Java
Pine - Terminal-Based E-Mail
PsyncX - psync/cron Utility
Samba - Windows File Sharing Implementation
TrueCrypt - Disk Encryption
WineBottler - WINE Implementation
WordPress - WWW CMS Stack
Vine Server - VNC Server (former OSXvnc)
Addt’l Resources
Apple - Downloads - Mac OSX - UNIX & Open Source
FreeSMUG [Free Software Mac User Group]
Two posts from my friends at FIRE - The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - which discuss our reply brief in support of our motion for summary judgement and issues surrounding personal liability for school administrators who violate student’s rights.
First, “Damning Reply Brief Filed with Federal District Court in Hayden Barnes’ Case” which “examines the [reply] brief’s discussion of the violation of [my…I guess] First Amendment rights.”
The second post, “Brief in Valdosta State Lawsuit Argues Why Administrators Should Be Personally Liable for Rights Violations” includes the following analysis by FIRE’s Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Will Creely:
The state of the law when it comes to free speech on public campuses is
and has long been crystal clear: the First Amendment applies in full. Accordingly, administrators should no longer be able to claim that depriving a student of his or her First Amendment rights is something a “reasonable” administrator would have done, or that the law on the question is sufficiently murky to allow them to invoke qualified immunity.
Thanks to FIRE, my case has received wide publicity (including a short film), which makes it less likely other college or university administrations will ignore student’s rights so blatantly. I also appreciate that FIRE connected me with renowned First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere at the international law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine who has vigorously pursued my case in court. Other team members from DWT include Lisa Zycherman, Chris Fedeli, Erin Reid, and Brigham Bowen (now with the US DOJ Civil Division Federal Programs Branch) as well as local Atlanta counsel Cary Wiggins and Irma Espino of the Wiggins Law Group (formerly Cook Youngelson & Wiggins).
Without FIRE’s assistance, this is one injustice that would have undoubtedly gone unanswered.
Believe college students and faculty are entitled to rights enshrined in the Constitution like free speech, diversity of ideas, and due process?
mac software for law students
iwork - productivity suite from Apple
think - focus on one application at a time
concentrate - manage one activity at a time (bonus: will block social media web sites when you need to focus)
things - task management using GTD system
textexpander - eliminate repetitive typing
evernote - keep your notes in sync between your mac, iphone, ipad, blackberry, android, windows, windows mobile, and palm.
undercover - recover a stolen Mac (96% recovery rate)
optimism - keep track of your sanity (syncs with iphone)
mindnode pro - visualize ideas
macspeech dictate legal - talk and type
mac software for lawyers
billings - time tracking and invoicing
daylight - CRM and project management
pdfpenpro - edit PDFs
pagesender - fax from the desktop
paperless - document management
other essentials
time capsule or time machine + ext hdd
legal-centric mac blogs/podcasts
general mac blogs/podcasts
…As Long As You Don’t Need Help With It
Updated 4/30/2010.
“…streamlined, simple, visually appealing, and easy to jump into.” - The Apple Blog
Pros:
Cons:
Intuit support for Quicken Essentials for Mac is horrible. The 24/7 chat is unusable. I tried chatting with Mohammad for about 45 minutes. It took Mohammad 5 - 10 minutes to respond to each of my questions which was complicated by his incredibly broken and cryptic English. The e-mail support is simply cookie cutter form letter responses and like the chat, you feel like you’re talking to a brick wall with a distinct, infuriating communication barrier. For example, I would get an e-mail requesting additional information regarding my issue, reply with that information, and then receive the same request for information. The phone support was equally mind-numbing and offered little more than bizarre excuses for why I was having a problem. I ended up needing to call the corporate office to get any decent support after Essentials stopped connecting to one of my financial accounts (the operator implied this was a routine resort for Intuit customers). For the record, they say they are working on it, even though it worked perfectly fine before it just stopped working altogether (and according to the IT guy in charge of ensuring Quicken connectivity at the small financial institution in question, nothing has changed on their end). Awful support (in particular the communication barrier and resolving online banking connection issues) is a huge knock for this otherwise excellent product.
I would encourage the management at Intuit to read “Losing Money By Spending Less: When Outsourcing Customer Service Doesn’t Make Business Sense: A Case Study”
Other Notes:
Mint.com users will note a great deal of similarity between Quicken Essentials for Mac and Mint.com and they are correct. The maker of Quicken, Intuit, acquired Mint.com in September 2009 and there is a definite design influence, however Quicken Essentials for Mac trades Mint.com’s garden-inspired motif for an airy, cloud-inspired motif that’s fresh and friendly.
There is also a technological influence from Mint.com: The online account integration back-end is the same back-end that powers Mint.com, which accounts for why Quicken Essentials for Mac supports over 12,000 financial institutions.
There is no TurboTax integration. I prefer TaxAct anyways. TurboTax integration promised August 2010.
Some users complain about the lack of built-in bill pay functionality. I don’t. Quicken’s bill pay service is $9.95 per month and is a service my credit union provides for free.
