10 Questions for the Dalai Lama — a Rambo-less movie trailer. And here’s a depression-prevention technique inspired by the Dalai Lama. A day in the life of a Zen monk, thanks to Sujatin. An article on the environmental horrors of the beef industry, in the U.S. and around the world:

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days. . . Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption, according to Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University. It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States.

A U.S. State Department briefing on what was done at Davos to help the Burmese people. And Thailand has a new Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, an ally of former P.M. Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the 2006 coup. And a little story about the Bhiksu Dhamakara from the Infinite Light Amitabha Organization of Canada.

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