Lesbianism vs. $65 million dowry?

Lesbian heiress Gigi Chao is on "loving terms" with father despite $65 million dowry offer

(fanpop.com)

   

Gigi has a flood of offers (Bobby Yip/Reuters)

HONG KONG (AP) - The daughter of a flamboyant Hong Kong tycoon -- who has offered $65 million to any man who can woo her away from her lesbian partner -- said she's not upset with her father.

  

But it's unlikely she will be accepting any of the marriage proposals flooding in.
  

I'm not a feminist, but... (inourwordsblog.com)

 

Tycoon Cecil Chao made world headlines this week when he offered the unusual marriage bounty after learning that his daughter, Gigi Chao, had eloped with her lesbian partner to France.

  

"I'm actually on very, very loving terms with my father. We speak on a daily basis. He just has a very interesting way of expressing his fatherly love," the 33-year-old told The Associated Press.

  
CNBC's Robert Frank has all the details on the story about Gigi Chao's father who is offering $65 million to any man able to marry her.
  

She said her father offered the reward because he was upset after learning she had "a church blessing in Paris" with her girlfriend of the past several years. 

"What this whole episode really highlights is that perhaps still, the Chinese -- or in fact the Hong Kong mentality -- can perhaps tolerate the 'don't ask, don't tell' view of sexuality," she said. "But as a social statement, it's still very much a sensitive issue."

Hong Kong decriminalized homosexuality in 1991 without yet legally recognizing same-sex marriage. More + Video

Comedy fodder

Ashley Wells and Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

This story will never die because it is being immortalized by Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat," "Bruno," "Ali G"). He plans to make his next movie, which may be a comedy for a change, imagining how this dowry offer could turn out.

  

To give men a fighting chance, professional pickup artists are coming to the rescue: What can ordinary men learn from them? (And what can women learn from the lengths men have to go to to find their ideal dating/predation style?) Effeminate Southern California Public Radio (SCPR.org) personality Larry Mantle gets to the bottom of the matter: The Game: Penetrating the Society of Pickup Artists. 

  

Many men might be interested anyway, but when $65 million is hanging in the balance, there are some who would learn Chinese, move to Hong Kong, and hang around the worlds of HK high finance and Parisian fashion... all just to score. Good luck, players, but consider that Gigi might be happy now and ask yourself, Would you make her any happier?

• Hong Kong "playboy tycoon" offers $65 million to find husband for lesbian daughter
• Why hair grays: "Science" confuses the issue 
• Asian Moon Cake craze in Los Angeles
• Giants under Athens (etupdates.com)
• The Biology, Psychology, and Sociology of Sex
  Why do men and women feel the way they do about the opposite sex? Who is hot and who is not? And do we actually makes decisions about sexual attraction, or is it all beyond our control? In his new book, How Sex Works, Dr. Sharon Moalem explores the unique dynamic between biological imperatives, societal standards, and individual choice. Larry Mantle talks with him about these provocative issues. (And later in the week he discusses the new book  The Game and asks, Does the pickup artist's playbook still work?)

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America growing increasingly Atheist

Patt Morrison (KPCC, SCPR.org)

Smile, there may be many hells and heavens yet no "God" due to workings of  karma.

  

Stephen Batchelor - atheist

The belief in God, or gods, is changing and some new research shows that the practice is on the decline worldwide. 

According to a new poll by WIN-Gallup International, the percentage of Americans who identify as “religious” dropped 13 points -- from 73 to 60 percent since 2005. The number of Americans who identify as atheists jumped from 1 percent to 5 percent in the same period. 

  

The poll posed the same question to 50,000 people in 57 countries and five continents: “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person, or a convinced atheist?”
  

“When we say religious, the definition of religious and religiosity has changed, especially for Americans. And so you ask the question, ‘Are you more religious?’ The answer may be that I’m not religious or as religious or more religious but I’m spiritual,” Dr. Carolyn Gordon, associate professor of communication and preaching at Fuller Seminary, told Patt Morrison. More

Was the Buddha an atheist?

Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha surrounded by humans and devas

If theism is defined as a belief, faith, or reliance on a creator/controller "God," the Buddha certainly was an atheist. But the issue is not that straightforward. The Buddha spoke of (and to) many "gods" (brahmas and devas).
  
Therefore, if theism includes the belief in "gods" (devas or "shining light beings" superior to humans in happiness, beauty, longevity, and other qualities), then the Buddha was no atheist.

The Buddha pointed out the wrong-view of relying on an all-powerful God as an explanation for the universe, karma, or as a means to enlightenment and final liberation from suffering.
  

Buddha in Thailand (Dongissel/flickr.com)

Buddhism is non-theistic. That is not at all the same as atheistic. It means that whether there are or are not gods or a God makes no difference to the need to exert oneself to develop compassion, insight-wisdom, and "salvation" (liberation from ignorance and samsara, the wheel of rebirth and suffering).
  
There are worlds in space, "heavenly" planes, some subtle (rupa), some immaterial (arupa). But even in this Sensual Sphere (kama loka), there are better planes/worlds to be reborn in.

Therefore, there is sex after death, sex in lower "heavenly worlds." In the world of Brahma -- which transcends sex, sensuality, and sexual dimorphism (Great Brahma and the other Gods being neither male nor female) -- is peaceful and sublime. But it is no final end of suffering, no escape from the round of rebirth or karmic results. It is no solution to the problem of ignorance and the suffering it brings about.

Enlightenment is a solution.

The Buddha was not a god, prophet, avatar, or an advocate for the gods/God. Instead, he demonstrated what an ordinary human being can attain in terms of wisdom, compassion, and most importantly a liberation surpassing that of God/the gods. He is therefore regarded as a teacher of devas, brahmas, and human beings.

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Seven Minutes of Terror (Mars)

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

America, intent on keeping complex multicellular life on Mars a secret, will land on the red planet tonight. Far from inhospitable, the fallen planet and what remains of its culture are inviting. But the shortest distance to its surface is driving to El Segundo where a nondescript building holds a portal in the form of an elevator -- but that is above top secret. JPL (the Jet Propulsion Lab) in Pasadena has an expensive distraction in its Mars "Curiosity" rover project. Pasadena's KPCC/SCPR.org is all over the story. Rather than showing archeological features or the strange and dangerous creatures (as mimicked in "John Carter"), the scientists will be careful to land this rover in yet another desolate area, a meteoric indentation in a desert.

Car-sized Mars rover "Curiosity" roaming deep crater (space.com)

It will -- if it can keep from burning up during the "seven minutes of terror" as it passes through the atmosphere -- look for water, nutrients, and maybe even traces of cellular life. Will its mission be sacrificed to discredit NASA/JPL's efforts to get us to Mars? Or will it be allowed to "succeed" and reveal the remnants of a soupy primordial sea now all brine and microfossils with a subterranean water store? Tune in tonight at 10:00 pm (PST) to find out!

   

Imagine landing a probe in the Sahara then telling the Venutians, "See, Earth is mostly sand." What's a Venutian to think in the face of photographic evidence? Just so, what are earthlings to think of Mars? (AFP)

   
Scientists look to martian rocks for history of life 

Joe Palca and Jessica Stoller-Conrad (NPR)

A rover poised for a Mars landing late Sunday night will explore higher and farther than any before. It's loaded down with experiments designed to test the rocks and atmosphere of Mars. Question 1: Was there ever life there?

Red planet, green thumb: NASA scientist engineers garden

Cosmic cab: NASA awards $1.1B to Space Taxi program

• Who will rule the business of space? Humans...or robots?
• Mars pop culture check: 6 things we need to know
• NASA's Mars mission challenges JPL employees
• Bookman David Kipen: California invented Mars
• Mars 101: What we know of our celestial neighbor

KPCC reporters have been talking to Southland scientists and engineers and counting down the days until NASA's most ambitious rover yet -- Curiosity -- prepares to land on the Martian surface. Follow the series online

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Asian-Americans and Religion (Pew Forum)

Leslie Berestein Rojas (MultiAmerican.SCPR.org); Pew Forum

One-in-seven Americans are now Buddhists. Most in the US are fluid and searching.

  

A month after a Pew Research Center report on Asians becoming the nation’s fastest-growing immigrant group faced criticism for downplaying Asian Americans’ diversity, Pew has come back with a new report that focuses on the diversity of their religious beliefs.

   

While it does not address the socioeconomic and educational diversity and disparities that critics pointed out in the last month, the report from the Pew Forum on Religious & Public Life does adjust some misperceptions, while revealing several facts that are not particularly well known beyond Asian American diasporas. Here’s [some]: 

• Asian Americans are neither predominantly Buddhist nor Hindu.
• In the United States, there are more Asian Americans who are Christian (42 percent) than any other religion.
• Many of these Christians are Filipinos, who are traditionally Catholic, and Koreans, many of whom are Protestant.
• The percentage of Buddhists (14 percent), Hindus (10 percent), and Muslims (4 percent) is small by comparison. 

Labels do not really tell us what people believe.

Still, as migration from Asia has increased, so has the the nation’s share of Buddhists and Hindus. 

   

Buddhists now account for one in seven Americans, according to the report, and counted together, the share of Americans who practice Buddhism and Hinduism is about the same as that of those practicing Judaism (about 2 percent).

  

At the same time, in contrast, a large share (26 percent) of Asian Americans consider themselves “unaffiliated,” that is, not practicing any particular religion. More

   

We have a choice, even if our choice is "none."

  

Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths 

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (pewforum.org)

When it comes to religion, the Asian-American community is a study in contrasts, encompassing groups that run the gamut from highly religious to highly secular. A new survey report examines the Asian-American population from the angle of religious affiliation, highlighting the beliefs, practices and views of diverse faith groups. More

• The Dalai Lama's generosity in San Diego 
• Pew study says politics now divides Americans more than race
• Pew Poll: Trust In Government Hits Near-Historic Low
  New Pew report says one in five adults doesn't use the Internet

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Going to the Beach in SoCal (video)

Molly Peterson and Scott Sterling (Pacific Swell, KPCC, SCPR.org)

Waves of the US Pacific extend from Hawaii to the west coast of the mainland (loltops.org)

  

The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission is the lead agency running lagoon restoration.

  

It’s an independent state agency, funded in part by a nonprofit foundation. Members of the commission are appointed from local government and environmental groups.
   

(LINK) Saving the Santa Monica Bay starts on land in Los Angeles County

  

The lagoon sits on land managed by the California State Parks system. One interesting thing is that the state parks website seems to show awareness of the fact that there is opposition: it lists the mainstream environmental groups and people that back it.

  

Commission staffers, the people who work there, are scientists and, in the most neutral sense of the word, bureaucrats. What I mean by that word is that they believe in the process. And over a period of several years, they say, they’ve gone through a lengthy one. Along the way, the public has participated, and regulators and scientists have cast scrutiny on the plans. More

• "Star Wars" characters sell plug-in Prius in Japan
  
• Green party: Happy World Environment Day 2012!
  
• Coastal cities consider backing away from the beach
  
• Court ruling restricts gold mining in the West
  
• Malibu Lagoon supporters anticipate restoration work

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