Wed, 16 Aug 2006
Kagyu Monlam
It looks like the 2007 Kagyu Monlam is going to be a bigger deal than just the prayer ceremony. His Holiness the Karmapa is going to give teachings and empowerments before and after the ceremony.
Before the Kagyu Monlam, on December 21st, His Holiness will give the Chakrasamvara Empowerment. The empowerment will begin at 7pm and the main portion will resume at 10am on December 22nd. The empowerment will be followed by teachings on the "Four Extraordinary Foundations" from December 23d to 26th. Teaching will be given by His Holiness Karmapa in the mornings, and by Mingyur Rinpoche in the evenings.
After the Kagyu Monlam, on January 4th, His Holiness will bestow the Thousand Buddha Empowerment. January 5th will be a festive day at Tergar Monestary, complete with Tibetan cultural performances and food. All are cordially invited to attend.
Bomb Hoax
It looks like the scare over the London bombers is another hoax, or at least overblown.
Arrests were made at night, catching the culprits at home. Houses have been raided, and are being searched. So far as we know at this point, no bombs have been found. No chemicals. No equipment. No labs. No testing ground. Now, in order to get on an airplane, even the most devout suicide terrorist needs a ticket, and these generally must be purchased with money. Apparently, not one ticket had been purchased by the detainees. Further, to get on an international flight from Britain to the United States, in these days of the modern nation-state, you need something else. It's a document called a passport. Apparently, some of the detainees don't have them.
The liquids that the supposed bombers were going to mix to make a bomb are acetone and hydrogen peroxide. Here are the instructions on making the explosive. You tell me how likely terrorists are to follow this procedure unobserved in the cabin of a plane.
To a 500-mL beaker add 50 mL of acetone, then stir in 30 mL of 30% hydrogen peroxide. Place the beaker in a salt-ice bath and cool it to 5 C. After cooling, slowly add 3 mL of 75% sulfuric acid drop by drop with an eye dropper. Stir the mixture continuously while adding the acid, keep the temperature between 5 C to 10 C, stop adding acid if the temperature gets to high. It is very important that you moderate the reaction, high temperatures will lower your yield and cause the formation of the less useful dicyclo isomer. After adding all the acid, continue stirring for 5 minutes. Keep the mixture in the bath for 1 to 3 hours, or even up to 24 hours.
It looks like airline passengers everywhere are going to be inconvenienced indefinitely as a result of an overblown "threat" that was splashed across the media to give a short term boost to President Bush's political fortunes.
