Check out Thriving Spirit by Rabbi Malkah Binah Klein

My wife Malkah Binah has a relatively new web site/blog called Thriving Spirit. Since moved back to Philly from Allentown, where she had served as the rabbi of Congregation Am Haskalah from 2002-2009, she's been studying and teaching spiritual practices. The writings on her blog come from her experiences as a student of Judaism, Torah, sacred chant, activism and Qigong. Most recently she has been studying with Rabbi Shefa Gold (sacred chant) and Daisy Lee (Qigong).

Time flies and my son is blogging, sort of

I came home today to find out Tani started a new web site on WordPress called action goobs. Not exactly a blog yet, but hopefully they'll have some things to post shortly. Actually it's kind of hard to tell the difference between regular ole web sites and blogs - I think it's called a blog if there's a comment box underneath the page. I have a Tumblr blog also but rarely post there - even less so here on Blogger. I don't have a WordPress blog but do have an account. I haven't had a personal web page since leaving academia even though I've been on the 'net since a couple guys in our lab unpacked Mozilla and put it on our SGI's when it came out. Looking forward to seeing what today's kids will do next with the 'net.

The Titanic: A Short And Moving Retelling

Melissa, Tani and I spent Columbus Day weekend in Wildwood, NJ with our friends Mike & Miriam and their kids Ariella, Rafi, and Tamar. We did go to the beach, but it was quite windy with sand blowing across the beach. Too windy to fly a kite. Playing in the surf was fun, but it was cold and we went back to the house. The kids decided to make a movie and below is the result. This is a very creative bunch. Ariella has been performing in school plays for many years and directed all the kids in a version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory two years ago on New Years Day. Ariella does a great job directing, editing and assembling this little movie. Starring: Tani, Tamar, and Rafi (and Liebe the dog)

Thank you to meditation teachers

As I was driving to work listening to a Tara Brach podcast I was appreciating how grateful I am to have such meaningful content to listen to - before I get to work I get reminded of what's really important in my life, what traps I can get into if I let my primitive brain take over my actions. I also occationally listen to Dharma Seed, where I can hear the soothing voice and anecdotes of Sylvia Boorstein and Jack Kornfield. I chuckle at the clever book titles and quotes they come up with: Sylvia's book Don't Just Do Something, Sit There or her sharing how our GPS doesn't yell at us when we make a wrong turn but instead just says "recalculating...".  Jack introduced me to one of my favorite quotes: "I am a very old man and have suffered a great many misfortunes, most of which never happened" by Mark Twain. They all remind us of the wisdom of the Buddha: the four noble truths, dependent origination, the metta sutta - these teachings have helped me greatly. And finally, the Springboard Studio in my neighborhood and the members and teachers who model meditation and community. I believe the more we focus on staying present in the moment and acting from a place of loving kindness, the happier we will be.

From Don McGuire: Organize to Rid Mt Airy of Asian Tiger Mosquito

To all my Pelham neighbors, Happy Spring! I am looking forward to the seasons of warm and hot weather now, but I am not looking forward to another summer of mosquitos in the yard. We have had a new species the past few seasons, the one called the asian tiger mosquito - you know the one - with its banded legs, its really irritating bites, and its habit of hunting aggressively for a blood meal at any time of the day, not just in the evening. 

I learned of a new approach to mosquito control recently on WHYY: Mike McGrath's show You Bet Your Garden, and I think it might be possible for us as a neighborhood to create real relief for ourselves and our neighbors. You can hear Mike's presentation by going on line to youbetyourgarden.org and listening to the last 10 or 15 minutes of the March 23 show. The essence of this control method is to leave containers of water around your yard, making it easy for mosquitos to find water to breed in, while treating this water with BTI, a substance made from soil bacteria that is harmless to living things other than the larvae of insects. You can google terms like 'BTI granules', 'Aquabac', or 'VectoMax FG' to learn more about BTI and its uses. Apparently it kills mosquito larvae within minutes of exposure to it, and the dead larvae can be eaten by fish, frogs, etc. without any harm coming to them.

I figure that if we, as a group, can find at least 4 or 5 households per block to adopt this approach, we could have a significant impact on all our outdoor quality of life this summer. The other reason we might want to do this as a group is cost: I haven't been able to check with PRIMEX yet, but online suppliers are asking around $20-25 per pound for BTI in granular form, while I have found a bulk supplier who will ship a 40 pound bag for under $4 per pound. A pound of granules should last a family maintaining 4 - 5 buckets of water in the yard an entire summer, I think.

There are two different forms that BTI comes in, that will lead to slightly different methods:

• Using BTI in granular form, each water container needs to be dosed every 7-10 days with (I estimate) 1-2 teaspoons of granules.
• Using floating BTI 'briquettes' each container would need a new briquette added every 30 days. A blister pack of 20 briquettes retails for around $25, and they can be obtained in bulk for around $16. One blister pack should be sufficient to maintain 4 buckets for 5 months, or 5 buckets for 4 months - I'm actually a little hazy about the length of the mosquito season here in Philly. The advantage of this approach is that the water needs to be treated fewer times in a season; the disadvantage is higher cost.

BTI is stable if kept dry, and any leftovers could be used the next season. 

I would be happy to undertake the ordering of BTI  in bulk, its repackaging and distribution in the neighborhood at cost. What I need to know is the level of interest in doing this as a neighborhood, and what control method you think would best meet your needs this summer - I guess holiday plans, travel out of town and such would lead to a preference for the briquette method. Then again, if you can arrange for someone to water your plants while you are away, maybe you can arrange for water treatment as well.

Are you interested? Please let me know by email to aikidon -at- cavtel.net and I will keep a list of respondents and preferences; if we get enough interest, I guess we could try to get both kinds of BTI. My guess is that two pounds of granules will cost around $8-10, and 20 briquettes around $16-18, depending on shipping costs.

Here's looking forward to a pleasant summer outside!

Don McGuire

Project Learn in the Digital Age

I'm thrilled about how quickly my six year old son Tani is learning. A couple of days after he started kindergarden this year he was already reading. This is due in part to the fact that we've been reading to him every day since he was 1.5 years old, that he loves stories and his been listening to books on CD since he was 2.5, and due to practicing reading with an internet program called Starfall. I thought it was interesting that Tani picked up reading so quickly via an internet program. But after reading the article Beyond Gamification: Cutting-Edge Technology Meets Alternative, Progressive Education in Forbes Magazine by Jordan Shapiro, the father of one of Tani's classmates, it all makes sense to me. Computers (i.e. PCs, Macs, tablets, smart phones) allow for an integrated multi-dimensional learning platform that books alone could never provide. Apparently neuroscience research is also consistent with this observation. But it's not just computers - community plays a huge role as well.

Last year, when we were choosing a school for Tani we decided to send him to Project Learn (PL). PL is a community-based cooperative school. Parents co-op for 40 hours per year and thus are integrated into the school. PL is a place where children can be creative - education is not about passing tests but cultivating a love of learning. I have no doubt that my child would pass a standardized test because he is learning a lot - I can see by how his writing has improved and his ability to think and reason. He loves art and cooking and working on projects with his classmates. The fact that he is learning in a community that supports and embraces him also makes all the difference. Shapiro suggests we replace the word "co-op" with the more internet-aligned term "crowd-sourcing". I think whatever one calls it the more we model values of community and love of learning, the more our children will be lifelong learners. So now Tani is practicing math on the internet. I'm not sure he understands the concepts yet, but he's having fun and I have confidence he'll learn these skills as well - and hopefully develop the same love for mathematics as he has for reading.

Wissahickon Village Cohousing Outing

Today on this rainy Sunday I'm remembering the wonderful hike with our Wissahickon Village Cohousing group in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia last Sunday. We were wearing our "Ask Me About Cohousing" buttons. Tani talked it up with a few folks sitting on the benches by the creek. Hope to be out and about again soon having fun and talking with more folks! WVCohousing also has a Facebook page and Twitter account. We're using the #cohousing and #NWPhilly hashtags.