Kung fu nuns teach CERN scientists

Robert Evans, Reuters (via CalgaryHerald.com); Wisdom Quarterly

Lama, center, poses with accompanying kung fu trained nuns (anis) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Meyrin, near Geneva (Valentin Flauraud/Reuters).

  

LHC at CERN (ts-dep.web.cern.ch)

GENEVA, Switzerland - A dozen kung fu nuns from an Asian Buddhist order displayed their martial arts prowess to bemused scientists at CERN this week as their [Tibetan] spiritual leader explained how their energy was like that of the cosmos.

  

The nuns, all from the [Indian] Himalayan region, struck poses of hand-chops, high-kicks, and punches on Thursday while touring the research center where physicists at the frontiers of science are probing the origins of the universe.

  

“Men and women carry different energy,” said His Holiness [the 12th] Gyalwang Drukpa, [Jigme Pema Wangchen,] a monk who ranks only slightly below the Dalai Lama in the global Buddhist hierarchy. “Both male and female energies are needed to better the world.”

  

ATLAS empowering women (msnbc.msn.com)

This, he said, was a scientific principle “as fundamental as the relationship between the sun and the moon” and its importance was similar to that of the particle collisions in CERN’s vast “Big Bang” machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

  

The nuns, mostly slim and fit-looking teenagers with shaven heads and clad in flowing burgundy robes, nodded sagely. More

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Women are "Half the Sky" (PBS video)

PBS (Independent Lens)

"Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," premiering October 1-2, 2012

"Half the Sky" is a landmark transmedia project featuring a four-hour PBS primetime national and international broadcast event, a Facebook-hosted social action game, mobile games, two interactive websites, educational video modules with companion text, and an impact assessment plan. All of this was inspired by the eponymous, widely acclaimed book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

The series follows Kristof, WuDunn, and six celebrity activists including Diane Lane, America Ferrera, Olivia Wilde, and Nicole Kidman as they travel to nine countries and meet inspiring, courageous individuals. 

   

Across the globe oppression is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. 

   

Embedded in the linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality -- which still needlessly claims one woman every 90 seconds -- is the single most vital opportunity of our time. And all over the world, women are seizing it.

• PBS WEBSITE: Half the Sky 
• HalfTheSkyMovement.org
• WomenAndGirlsLead.org

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Human Barbie voted world's most beautiful

Wisdom Quarterly

India's Kaif in pink at the launch of the Barbie doll she inspired (brit-asian.com)

   

FHM has voted Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif, 27, the world's most beautiful woman, an honor that follows her very own sari-clad Barbie doll debut at the 50th anniversary of the iconic doll in 2009. She has been a reader favorite four four years running as the "sexiest woman alive." According to India Journal Kaif defines "sexy" as not being about her clothes. "The sexiest thing is not trying. For me to wear a cotton sari, be without makeup, and still be desirable is sexy." What skillful karma could have led to her beauty, fame, success, and influence? The Buddha on Beauty

  

Devi and Punk Barbie (friendskorner.com; dailymail.co.uk)

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B.S. Obama's birth certificate is fake (AP)

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