A Peek at Quest App "Star Wars - Tales From The Galaxy's Edge" A quick " sales brochure " for the Quest is worth a look if you are totally new to the device. The next thing people want to know is - how much? In Canada, from Amazon , it's $399. $299 in US. My own feeling is that this is not a bad entry point if you want to see what it's all about, but it's "pong" compared to what's coming. I expect to replace my Oculus Quest I with the next one, not the Oculus Quest II, which is simply a polished version of I. I look for fundamental upgrades in capability. What else do you need? Just WIFI. No computer needed (most competing headsets are peripherals to a PC application, requiring a cable connection to the PC. Even then, you need a compatible PC graphics card). One thing that's easy to miss in all this is that the WIFI, Quest, the smart phone and Facebook (er "Meta") are kinda bound at the hip. In my view, this combination i...
The fundamental flash of insight Buddha had under the banyan tree is that suffering is the result of attachment. The strongest attachment we have is to the "self itself" - fear of dying, fear of letting go entirely. Part of his insight was that all things are impermanent, including the "self". My comments reference both the impermanence of "self" and the importance of the self-created illusion of self-who we imagine ourselves to be. Attachment to our self-image causes a lot of suffering. Attacks on this self-image (challenges to the story we tell ourselves about who we are) are met with the vigorous defense which attempts to defend our "selves" or re-define them in some way that seems to turn away the attack. This has the effect of strengthening our attachment to our "self", weakening our ability to hold it lightly and detach. This is the wrong direction to take in life - at least according to Buddha - and the net effect is increasing ...
Press "coverage" is 99.99% alarmist and activist. Phrases like "Climate Crisis" don't raise eyebrows any more. Senior politicians routinely talk about impending doom. The net effect is to make skeptics appear as "denialist" - denying what "everyone" knows. There seems to be no air left for anyone expressing the mildest skepticism over the core claims: 1.5 degrees is some kind of "tipping point", beyond which is catastrophe 2030 is a critical deadline Economic collapse now is totally justified since the alternative is economic disaster in the near future These days, a Climate "skeptic" is someone who doubts that the world will avoid catastrophe - skeptical about the promises. Everybody is a "skeptic" these days and that refers to universal skepticism over COP26 achieving anything PLUS a sense of despair, since the goals of COP26 are "universally" accepted. We are fucked. To my mind, the panic itself is n...
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