VedaBase Hint: Copying Large Quotes

I attended Ekanath’s presentation at the Festival of Inspiration on using the VedaBase and got a good hint. It helped solve one of those pesky little inconveniences.

When I would try to copy a quote larger than the window size it was always a hassle. Because the VedaBase has so much information in it, if I tried to expand the selected area for copying beyond the viewable area by dragging the mouse down, it would just go crazy fast and I would end up way down the page. It is uncontrollable.

Clicking at the start of the quote, then going to the end and using Shift/Click, usually a reliable method in Windows programs, just didn’t work. I would have to copy the first part of the quote, then scroll down and copy the next part in an additional Copy and Paste operation or even do it several times if the quote was really large.

Ekanath gave the obeisances worthy hint — click at the beginning of the quote and then use Shift/Arrow keys to move around the page to increase or decrease the size of the selected area.

Shift/Arrow keys ki jaya!

Playing with it, I found that while the Shift/Arrow keys enable moving around the page one letter or whole line at a time, Shift/Page Down does exactly what you think it would do — increases the selected area by a whole screenful at a time. This would be great for even larger quotes.

Using Shift/Page Down to cover large areas and then fine tune it with the Shift/Arrow keys would be the way to do larger quotes.

Another hint he gave that I already use but when he polled the room surprisingly few were aware of is worth mentioning. That is using the Copy With Reference and Copy With Reference — Without Diacritics buttons. They are located on the toolbar at the top of the page about 3/4s of the way to the right past all the Navigation and Search buttons. If you squint they look like little clipboards or copies of pages.

Once you have selected the area you want to copy, if you use these buttons instead of Edit/Copy or Ctrl+C, when you go to Paste it automatically gives you the citation for the quote.

Examples:

Using regular Copy and Paste:

Thus we find that in Bhagavad-gétä Lord Kåñëa advises go-rakñya, the protection of cows.

Using Copy With Reference:

Thus we find that in Bhagavad-gétä Lord Kåñëa advises go-rakñya, the protection of cows.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 9.15.25

Using Copy With Reference — Without Diacritics:

Thus we find that in Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna advises go-raksya, the protection of cows.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 9.15.25

While Krsna has hundreds and millions of names, most lay persons won’t recognize Kanea as one of them so I use Copy With Reference — Without Diacritics most frequently, because I can’t remember the name of the font in Word programs that make the diacritics look right.

The only fly in the ointment here is the “>>> Ref. VedaBase => ” that I feel compelled to remove and is a little chore but that is written into the code of the program and no way to opt out of it.

Anyway, select the quotable area, Copy With Reference — Without Diacritics, Paste, delete the branding, add quotation marks and viola:

“Thus we find that in Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna advises go-raksya, the protection of cows.”

SB 9.15.25

 

New Vrindaban Festival of Inspiration 2008

Well, the FOI is officially over. A great festival that thousands of words couldn’t capture. Assume that the big guns did what big guns do, and did it well. I tend to avoid crowds but when I open the door to the temple room and see it is packed from side to side, front to back, I know things are going well.

The official schedule was great — the classes, the kirtans, the presentations and the entertainment was more than anyone was capable of absorbing everything.

I liked some of the off schedule stuff best, like the spontaneous bhajans that seemed to go on continuously in the yajnashalla.

Or Yoga Dave demonstrating the form of yoga he teaches called Danda Yoga.

Then there were the personal joys, like watching soon to be 2 years old granddaughter Sydney climb the ladder on the play set and then laugh with triumph while her mother (Manjari, lower left) negotiates with her to come down.

Of course it takes a lot of devotees working in the background and missing the festival itself in order that others can enjoy it. The kitchen crew, the cleanup crew, the data entry and phone crew, registration, the runners and problem fixers. More than I can mention.

A lot of New Vrindaban devotees play those roles but many outside devotees came early to help setup and be part of the logistics of running the thing.

One of them was Manu who came with a bus load of devotees from Alachua. He missed much of the festival because he spent all of one day and I don’t know how much of the next running cable and setting up a webcam for New Vrindaban.

Every 15 seconds the camera moves and takes a shot of different views of the temple room, including Srila Prabhupada on his vyasasana, each of the Deities, and the location of the class giver. I see those decorating the temple haven’t adapted to this yet as a decoration is blocking some of the views this morning, and it may not be active when the Deities are at rest. I haven’t figured out all the details yet.

There is also an audio cable so at some point kirtans and classes will be broadcast but I haven’t figured that out yet.

Some of us reacted to this new toy in a grave responsible manner — we would figure out where the camera was going to shoot next, then run stand in front of it and then run back to see ourselves on a laptop over the internet. Very mature.

My personal most inspiring memory came in a quiet off moment though. An amazing kirtan was going on in the temple room but I was outside yakking it up with various devotees. Out of the corner of my eye I saw two visitors picking up shoes and moving them. This struck me as odd but they were putting them in neat rows and it wasn’t my problem and as it was an anomalous action, my mind did as many minds do in similar situations and ignored it.

When the devotee I was talking to left, I walked over and noticed that two similar pairs of shoes were mismatched and as I can be a bit compulsive about organization, I switched them so they were correct. Then I looked at what the two guys were doing.

In what must have seemed like a good idea at the time, somehow or other all the shoes that had been in the temple foyer had been swept out into a pile right in front of the door. I immediately appreciated what the two guys were doing. They were searching through the merged shoes, finding pairs, and setting them in neat rows so when the devotees left the temple, there wouldn’t be a huge traffic jam as individuals searched through the pile.

As I hadn’t done my daily Sudoku (mental calisthenics) in three days, the puzzle part of my brain was jonsing so I started helping them. Once you got past the concept of touching someone else’s shoes, it was kind of fun — the little thrill of satisfaction at finding a match and watching the pile diminish.

Finally it was down to about 20 unmatched shoes left. We scoured the area and found some unmatched ones away from the pile and got it down to about 10. Then we went back over existing pairs that had been set aside, and found several that looked very similar but weren’t, brought them back, and managed to match every shoe in the pile. Anyone who finishes a large crossword puzzle will understand the joy of completing the task.

I was very much appreciating that these two guests had spontaneously done this. First, that they had the mental acuity to recognize that the pile of mixed up shoes would cause a lot of anxiety to devotees leaving the temple. I probably would have walked right past the pile and not even have noticed it. Then that they would take the time, and it took well over 30 minutes, maybe an hour, to do it, to sort them all out.

They did it with no one asking them, and with no expectation of any recognition or reward other than the desire of serving the literal feet of the devotees. If I hadn’t noticed them doing this service, no one would have even realized it happened. When I asked one of them why he did it, he said, “The devotees are having such a nice experience in the temple and now it can still be a nice experience when they come out.” Anyone who has left the temple and had a hard time finding their shoes can relate to what he was talking about.

I ran into him the next day and asked if he knew the other guy who was helping him and he said no, that he had just met him then. So by his humble example he inspired at least two of us to serve the devotees, and I hope that by hearing this you will also be inspired.

 

Write Like a Blogger

I was a part of a presentation at the FOI. Sri Nandanandana had a slot and asked Sankirtan and me to do part of it. He has a website that gets over 3000 unique visitors a day and has published numerous books.

The session was entitled:

Writing to Share Krsna Consciousness: Srinandanandana Das with Madhava Ghosh Das & Sankirtan Das

He spoke on the process of getting books published by self publishing, commercial publishing, and print on demand publishing. He spoke about how to use each method and the advantages and disadvantages of each method. He has done all three.

Sankirtan spoke on publishing booklets and how to use them in preaching.

My Plan A was to use a computer set up with a projector, go on the internet, set up a new blog, take a picture of the participants, upload it to the blog, and post it to the internet. I figured this would take about 15-29 minutes, then spend the balance of my 30 minutes adding some links and categories and whatever else we had time for.

Soma let me borrow his laptop and the night before we did a trial run and everything worked — we got connected to the internet and projected an image onto the screen. About an hour before the presentation, we went in to set it up and we couldn’t get an internet connection. The festival staff sent someone to help, even trying to get a hard wire connection but nothing worked so Plan A dissolved.

Fortunately, I had a Plan B which was to take someone else’s blog post on writing like a blogger, throwing in a couple of quotes from Prabhupada, and discuss that. Notes which follow:

“All students should be encouraged to write some article after reading Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. They should realize the information, and they must present their assimilation in their own words. Otherwise, how they can become preachers?”

Letter to: Brahmananda – Los Angeles 1 July, 1969

“If you sit down and write some article on Krsna, that means you have to concentrate on Krsna’s activities or Krsna’s devotees’ activities, and that very process will purify your heart. Therefore we always recommend to our students that you write articles, read our magazine, read our books.”

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.12-14 — Allahabad, January 17, 1971, at Kumbha-mela

Write like a blogger

You can improve your writing (your business writing, your ad writing, your thank you notes and your essays) if you start thinking like a blogger:

1. Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect for engaging busy readers.

2. Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and more exciting.

3. Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don’t have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time. (300- 600 words)

4. It’s okay if you leave. Bloggers aren’t afraid to include links or distractions in their writing, because we know you’ll come back if what we had to say was interesting.

5. Interactivity is a great shortcut. Your readers care about someone’s opinion even more than yours… their own. So reading your email or your comments or your trackbacks (your choice) makes it easy to stay relevant.

6. Gimmicks aren’t as useful as insight. If you’re going to blog successfully for months or years, sooner or later you need to actually say something. Same goes for your writing.

7. Don’t be afraid of lists. People like lists.

8. Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.

9. Say it. Don’t hide, don’t embellish.

Use categories and tags to show up in search engines.

Use key words in your post titles.

 

“On Hearing Of A Death” by Rainer Maria Rilke

We lack all knowledge of this parting. Death
does not deal with us. We have no reason
to show death admiration, love or hate;
his mask of feigned tragic lament gives us

a false impression. The world’s stage is still
filled with roles which we play. While we worry
that our performances may not please,
death also performs, although to no applause.

But as you left us, there broke upon this stage
a glimpse of reality, shown through the slight
opening through which you disappeared: green,
evergreen, bathed in sunlight, actual woods.

We keep on playing, still anxious, our difficult roles
declaiming, accompanied by matching gestures
as required. But your presence so suddenly
removed from our midst and from our play, at times

overcomes us like a sense of that other
reality: yours, that we are so overwhelmed
and play our actual lives instead of the performance,
forgetting altogether the applause.

(Translated by Albert Ernest Fleming)

(In Memory of Gopi Lila)

 

Annotations

The latest topic amongst those in ISKCON addicted to debating is the annotation of Prabhupada’s books. For those of you not familiar with the specifics, I will not provide links because a.) I am too lazy to find and include them and b.) why disturb your mind about it when you were having a perfectly fine day without worrying about it already.

I stipulate I haven’t read the GBC resolution and don’t know their specific reasons for deciding to annotate Prabhupada’s books. I am speaking only from my own perspective on the topic and neither approve nor disapprove of their method of arriving at their decision.

My first impression on reading some of the feedback is that I think that half the opposing commentators or more don’t know what annotation is, ergo I include this definition:

Main Entry: an·no·ta·tion
Function:noun
Date:15th century

1 a note added by way of comment or explanation 2: the act of annotating.

One example would be like Srimad Bhagvatam class where after reading the verse and purport, the person giving class gives a critical analysis of what has been read. An oral annotation in other words.

My premise is that the only way that Srila Prabhupada’s books can be retained in their original version is through the use of annotations. Think of Shakespeare.

He wrote hundreds of years ago and since then the English language, being very fluid, has shifted. In order to understand not only what the now archaic words meant but the cultural context and nuance of how those words were used, one would need to do an extensive study of the culture of that time.

Fortunately, qualified scholars have already done this for us so when we get stuck we can read the annotations and continue to enjoy Shakespeare as he originally wrote it.

Annotations don’t change books, they clarify points in them. Shakespeare comes in both annotated and unannotated versions. Just because an annotated version of a book exists, doesn’t mean an unannotated version can’t also exist, so there is no need to worry an annotated version of SP’s books will replace the current ones.

As language morphs, the need to annotate will become greater if the desire is there to retain Prabhupada’s books in original versions. That may seem academic now, but will be a greater need as decades slip by.

Consider the word “gay” and how its meaning has drastically changed:

Main Entry:¹gay

Function:adjective

Date:14th century

1 a: happily excited : merry <in a gay mood> b: keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits <a bird’s gay spring song>2 a: bright, lively <gay sunny meadows> b: brilliant in color3: given to social pleasures; also : licentious4 a: homosexual <gay men> b: of, relating to, or used by homosexuals <the gay rights movement> <a gay bar>

Most would agree that the 4th meaning should now be put as the first, at least in America. If it were, the old Christmas carol “Deck the Halls Boughs of Holly” would need to be annotated in scholarly quarters so it was clear that the refrain “don we now our gay apparel” wasn’t understood to be an exhortation to dress in drag.

Consider this quote from Srila Prabhupada’s original Bhagvatam:

“The Lord was then married with great pomp and gay and began to preach the Congregational chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord at Nabadwipa.”

SB 1-1962: Introduction

Do we think that SP was saying Lord Chaitanya was a homosexual? Of course not, but an annotation would be in order to clarify it.

So I personally have no problems with the concept of annotating SP’s books IF it is done by devotees who have an understanding of the principles of Vaisnava philosophy.

 

Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic?

Dr. Schambaugh, of the University of Oklahoma School of Chemical Engineering, Final Exam question for May of 1997. Dr. Schambaugh is known for asking questions such as, “why do airplanes fly?” on his final exams. His one and only final exam question in May 1997 for his Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer II class was: “Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with proof.”

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

“First, We postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls leaving? I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave.

Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for souls entering hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, then you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and souls go to hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in hell. Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant. Two options exist:

1. If hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase until all hell breaks loose.
2. If hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the quote given to me by Theresa Manyan during Freshman year, “that it will be a cold night in hell before I sleep with you” and take into account the fact that I still have NOT succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then Option 2 cannot be true…Thus, hell is exothermic.”

The student, Tim Graham, got the only A.

 

Devotee Women: Do Not Read This Post!

Tough job: Volunteers needed for chocolate study

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - Calling all chocoholics: British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.

The trial starting in June will explore whether compounds called flavonoids found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease for menopausal women with type 2 diabetes, the researchers said on Monday.

“We are looking at a high risk group first,” said Aedin Cassidy, a biochemist at the University of East Anglia, who will lead the study. “We hope there will be an additional benefit from dietary intervention in addition to the women’s drug therapy.”

Previous studies have suggested dark chocolate is rich in the beneficial compounds linked with heart health but experts note the high sugar and fat content of most commercially available chocolate might cancel out some of the advantages.

A host of other research has also shown dark chocolate appears to lower blood pressure, improve the function of blood vessels and reduce the risk of heart attack.

This has spurred companies such as Hershey Co and Lindt & Spruengli to market specific products containing dark chocolate. Mars Inc has introduced CocoaVia, a line of dark and premium chocolates that plays up such health advantages.

Cassidy said her team will also publish findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showing that flavonoids found in soy and cocoa appear to have the strongest effects of the compounds in reducing risk of heart disease.

The next step will be recruiting 150 women past menopause with type 2 diabetes. The researchers will look at whether the compounds help reduce blood pressure, cut cholesterol levels and improve the condition of arteries.

Half the women in the year-long study will eat a super-charged chocolate bar containing 30 grams of flavonoids found in soy, cocoa and other fruits and vegetables. The others will get chocolate without the active compounds.

The researchers hope the study could have implications for the wider population if results show significant benefits from the isoflavones contained in soy and epicatechin found in cocoa.

This could help doctors tailor advice to patients on the type and amount of foods to eat to reduce heart disease risk — and it does not necessarily need to be chocolate, Cassidy said.

“If this trial works we will be able to give advice on a whole range of foods,” Cassidy said. “People won’t have to go around eating a specially designed chocolate bar.”

 

Keyboards ‘Dirtier Than a Toilet’

Some computer keyboards harbour more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat, research has suggested.

Consumer group Which? said tests at its London offices found equipment carrying bugs that could cause food poisoning.

Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office’s toilet seats.

Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson said a keyboard was often “a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut”.

During the Which? tests in January this year, a microbiologist deemed one of the office’s keyboards to be so dirty he ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned.

It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria - five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time, the research found.

The equipment was swabbed for bugs, such as those that can cause food poisoning like E.coli and staphylococcus aureus.

Dr Wilson, a consultant microbiologist at University College London Hospital, told BBC Radio 5 Live sharing a keyboard could be passing on illnesses among office workers.

“If you look at what grows on computer keyboards, and hospitals are worse, believe it or not, it’s more or less a reflection of what’s in your nose and in your gut,” he said.

“Should somebody have a cold in your office, or even have gastroenteritis, you’re very likely to pick it up from a keyboard.”

Which? said one of the causes of dirty keyboards was users eating lunch at their desk, with crumbs encouraging the growth of bacteria.

Poor personal hygiene, such as not washing hands after going to the toilet, could also be to blame, it said.

Cleaning techniques

Which? computing editor Sarah Kidner advised users to give their computer “a spring clean”.

“It’s quite simple to do and could prevent your computer from becoming a health hazard,” she said.

She said dust and food crumbs should be shaken out of keyboards and they should be wiped with a soft, lightly dampened, lint-free cloth. They should also be disinfected with alcohol wipes.

Research by the University of Arizona last year found the average office desktop harboured 400 times more bacteria than the average office toilet seat.

They also found that, compared to men, on average women have three to four times the amount of germs in, on and around their work area.

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