American Lung Association: State Ozone Page

Here's a study done by the American Lung Association listing various cities and their ozone ratings, which directly relates to smog and air pollution. You can type in a zip code to switch to a state other than California. Looks like we've got some pretty bad air unless you live on the coast.
American Lung Association:�SOTA05 State Ozone Page

After the Tsunami, Rebuilding Paradise

Article in the NY Times travel section about the drops in tourism and the rebuilding going on in Thailand.

The New York Times > Travel > After the Tsunami, Rebuilding Paradise

Lewis and Clark National Historical Park

The national park service has just added a new National Park, the "Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks". Looks like another place to add to my visit list.
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park

Helping Others in the Bay Area

Nice article from Metroblogging describing some ways to serve in the bay area.
Metroblogging San Francisco: Helping Others in the Bay Area

Mindful Clock

I ran across this nifty freeware program called "Mindful Clock". Its basically a timer that will ring a bell every hour, or 15 mins to remind you to be mindful. It also has a nice little meditation timer. The program was written by some devotees of Thich Nhat Hanh:

For those of us who practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, when the temple bell or grandfather clock sounds, we stop what we are doing and come back to our breath, for at least three full breaths. Sometimes, to remind ourselves of our intent, we say the gatha:

Listen, listen,
this wonderful sound
brings me back
to my true self

In a Mindfulness at Work workshop in 1996, Mitchell Ratner mentioned that it would be wonderful to have a computer program that would simulate the bells of mindfulness and grandfather clocks at Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh's retreat center in France. David Steigerwald, a software and sound engineer, said it should not be difficult to design one. Several months later, he had a working model.

Mindful Clock

First solar city

From worldchanging, a city in Gujarat, India is planning to become the first city powered entirely by solar energy!Economy & Policy

Wrapping texts

Neerav wrapping texts
Originally uploaded by Fred Hsu.

Once again we headed up to Berkeley to bind buddhist texts to be distributed in India. This group is totally volunteer/donation driven and provides thousands of books for free at the World Peace ceremony. More pictures from the event can be found here.

Surprise!

Surprise!
Originally uploaded by Fred Hsu.

Well we finally did it! This past Sunday we took a trip up to Yosemite, and at Mirror Lake I proposed (and she accepted :) ). I had the ring in my pocket, and asked her to take out a spare "camera battery" for me. When she finally wrestled it out of my pocket she opened it and found the ring. Shveta's Mom was right there as well, since she requested to be present, one extra benefit of that is that we have pictures! You can find the pictures below:

Engagement Photos"

Flying Cars Ready To Take Off

Maybe living like the Jetsons isn't so far off! How cool would it be to fly to work or for short trips?

CBS News | Flying Cars Ready To Take Off | April 17, 2005�23:34:36

Starbucks Makes Commitment to Renewable Energy

Great news from Worldchanging, Starbucks is planning to power 5% of their electricity needs from renewable energy sources, the equivalent of removing 3,200 cars from the road! Makes me feel better about buying that White Chocolate Mocha! I hope more companies will follow suit, and that they can increase that percentage!
Science News Article | Reuters.com

Google.org

From /., we all know google.com for searching.. but here comes google.org for philanthropy! I hope its as successful as their search engine!
Google.org

Quote-a-day

I really liked today's quote, from one of my favorite authors:

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. --Henry David Thoreau

Cecilia's Amazing Travel Tips

From Gadling, a simple website with a bunch of good international travel tips:

Cecilia's Amazing Travel Tips, last updated 14 February 2005

Sesame Street: 25 Of My Favorite Memories - Progressive Boink

This was was a really great trip down memory lane.. I actually liked the higher numbered entries better than the lower numbered ones.
Sesame Street: 25 Of My Favorite Memories - Progressive Boink

Trading in Kodak moments for some real-life memories

Interesting article from the SF Chronicle about taking too many travel photos :) Something I know I can be guilty of!
Trading in Kodak moments for some real-life memories

Gandhi Prayer

Shveta sent me this very cool prayer which was a favorite of Gandhi's, I thought I'd post it here:

Speak only as godlike of the man who feels another's pain
Who shares another's sorrow and pride does disdain
Who regards himself lowliest of the low
Speaks not a word of evil against anyone
Blessed is the mother who gave birth to such a son
Who looks upon everyone as his equal,
Lust he has renounced
Who honours women like he honours his mother
Whose tongue knows not the taste of falsehood
Nor covets another's worldly goods
Who longs not for worldly wealth (or fame)
For he treads the path of renunciation
Ever on his lips is Ram's holy name
All places of pilgrimage are within him
He has conquered greed, is free of deceit, lust and anger
Through him Narsinh has godly vision
And his generation to come will attain salvation.

Naturalist quote

A quote I found in Sierra magazine regarding deforestation:

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools."
-John Muir

Greetings from Vancouver

Well I'm here in Vancouver for the Cisco Partner Summit, and what a beautiful city it is. I've been here once before, but didn't get to spend that much time in the city. I'm amazed at how clean everything is, and the view of the harbor and mountains is gorgeous. If only it weren't so cold and rainy here. I'm also surprised by the number of homeless around here. It must be really hard to be homeless in such cold and wet weather. But at least they all have free health insurance! I wish I had more time to go exploring and hit those mountains in North Vancouver!

One night we ate at Cin Cin, which is a very nice Italian restaurant on Robeson St. I had the Mushroom Risotto, which was pretty good, but probably not what they're best known for. They did have some really good wine though.

Last night we ate at Glowbal Grill which was a satay/grill type restaurant. I had their Halibut, stuffed with crab. That was okay. They actually had mushroom risotto here too, wonder if its the 'standard' veggie dish in Vancouver. :)

What has been a real treat are the "staff lunches" at the convention center. Usually all we get are some decent sandwiches, but here we've had some really great meals. Indian food complete with Chai and Lassi's to drink one day, Dim Sum another, and today mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and soup. Even more amazing is that the staff lunches have been so veggie friendly! Yup I definitely like this town, its like the Canadian San Francisco. I'll have to come back again sometime when I have more time to be a tourist.

Great Pilgrimage Stories

Check out some great stories from Nipun & Guri's pilgramage on Nipun's blog