Via JMG: Bill Gates Will Pay For A Better Condom

Bill Gates has issued a "grand challenge" for a better condom and is offering a $100,000 prize to the start-up that comes up with a "next-generation" version. From the challenge site:

We are looking for a Next Generation Condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use. Additional concepts that might increase uptake include attributes that increase ease-of-use for male and female condoms, for example better packaging or designs that are easier to properly apply. In addition, attributes that address and overcome cultural barriers are also desired. Proposals must (i) have a testable hypothesis, (ii) include an associated plan for how the idea would be tested or validated, and (iii) yield interpretable and unambiguous data in Phase I, in order to be considered for Phase II funding.

Several years ago a German company introduced a spray-on condom, but the product was withdrawn because men did not want to wait the full minute for the product to dry.  That, and you couldn't really travel with the applicator in your wallet.

Labels: Bill Gates, condoms, safer sex, science

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: She Had A Dream

Labels: civil rights, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Signorile: It Was Grassroots Activists And Not Gay Inc Who Got Us To SCOTUS

"Whether it was ACT UP organizing civil disobedience at the height of the government ignorance of the AIDS epidemic in the late '80s, or Get Equal members chaining themselves to the White House fence to push the president on 'don't ask, don't tell,' it took brave people who put their reputations, their privacy, their futures, their jobs, their families and sometimes literally their own bodies on the line to push things forward. They withstood attack not just from antigay zealots,the police and the media, but from the gay establishment, telling them to just be good little boys and girls.

"Sometimes these champions weren't even gay themselves but were allies of gay rights as well: When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began marrying couples in San Francisco in 2004, the Democratic establishment, and the gay establishment which is very much a part of it, went ballistic. It affected Newsom's political career, but there's no doubt Newsom is a hero of marriage equality whose action was pivotal.

"If not for grass-roots activists pressuring President Obama, gay leaders seemed likely to have given him a pass on 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal in his first term and on defending DOMA in court, let alone moving forward on marriage equality. So let's not forget these brave people as we watch all the talk shows and read the media interviews which highlight the very gay leaders who were often opposed to the exact strategy they're now embracing." - Michelangelo Signorile, writing for the Huffington Post.

Labels: activism, LGBT rights, Michelangelo Signorile, SCOTUS

posted by Joe

Via JMG: Edith Windsor: NYC Pride Grand Marshal

Via press release from New York City Pride:

NYC Pride announced that it has selected and confirmed Edith Windsor, Harry Belafonte and Earl Fowlkes as Grand Marshals for the 44th annual NYC LGBT Pride March. These individuals represent dedication, greatness and inspiration within the LGBT community. Edith Windsor will be taking her fight against DOMA all the way to the Supreme Court after paying more than $360,000 in federal estate taxes upon the death of her partner of 44 years. Harry Belafonte has been a longtime advocate for civil rights and universal equality on a global scale. Earl Fowlkes serves as the President/CEO of the Center for Black Equity, whose mission is to fight for health, social and economic equity in the Black LGBT community.

Fantastic selection!

Labels: DOMA, Edith Windsor, NYC Pride, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Signorile: It Was Grassroots Activists And Not Gay Inc Who Got Us To SCOTUS

"Whether it was ACT UP organizing civil disobedience at the height of the government ignorance of the AIDS epidemic in the late '80s, or Get Equal members chaining themselves to the White House fence to push the president on 'don't ask, don't tell,' it took brave people who put their reputations, their privacy, their futures, their jobs, their families and sometimes literally their own bodies on the line to push things forward. They withstood attack not just from antigay zealots,the police and the media, but from the gay establishment, telling them to just be good little boys and girls.

"Sometimes these champions weren't even gay themselves but were allies of gay rights as well: When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began marrying couples in San Francisco in 2004, the Democratic establishment, a

Location

nd the gay establishment which is very much a part of it, went ballistic. It affected Newsom's political career, but there's no doubt Newsom is a hero of marriage equality whose action was pivotal.

"If not for grass-roots activists pressuring President Obama, gay leaders seemed likely to have given him a pass on 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal in his first term and on defending DOMA in court, let alone moving forward on marriage equality. So let's not forget these brave people as we watch all the talk shows and read the media interviews which highlight the very gay leaders who were often opposed to the exact strategy they're now embracing." - Michelangelo Signorile, writing for the Huffington Post.

Labels: activism, LGBT rights, Michelangelo Signorile, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	It does not matter whether you are a theist or atheist, what matters is sincerity, forgiveness, and compassion. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 23, 2013

Deep Engagement

It is a misunderstanding to think that enlightenment is some sort of final escape from life and that the doctrine of the unsatisfactory nature of samsara obviates any need for involvement with other beings or social responsibility. Because nirvana is selfless, there is no self that enjoys a state of being beyond the world. Wisdom and compassion are ultimately inseparable, wisdom being the complete knowledge of ultimate selflessness and compassion being the selfless commitment to the happiness of others.

- Robert Thurman, "The Politics of Enlightenment"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 24th, 2013
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 22, 2013

Taking Risks

In order to practice, we have to surrender, we have to take a risk. Otherwise what we’re doing is standing back in order to judge, in order to feel superior. Often the obstacle is fear: we don’t think we’ll ever succeed. And so we’d rather stand apart and be cynical, to feel protected in that way, not having to try.

- Sharon Salzberg, "Sitting on the Fence"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 23rd, 2013
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Tricycle Daily Dharma March 21, 2013

The Potency of the Present

Once we abandon the belief that there is a more spiritually useful moment than the one we are in, we have embraced our life and infused it with the energy for awakening.

- Rodney Smith, "Undivided Mind"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 22nd, 2013
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F*F - Flash Mob de Pedido de Casamento (Wedding Proposal) - Gabriel e Daniel

Via JMG: Marriage Support Hits Record High

ABC News reports:

Support for gay marriage reached a new high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, marking a dramatic change in public attitudes on the subject across the past decade. Fifty-eight percent of Americans now say it should be legal for gay and lesbian couples to wed. That number has grown sharply in ABC News/Washington Post polls, from a low of 32 percent in a 2004 survey of registered voters, advancing to a narrow majority for the first time only two years ago, and now up again to a significant majority for the first time.

The survey breakdown is here.

Labels: ABC, marriage equality, polls, WaPo

posted by Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	If you worship those worthy of worship, --Awakened Ones or their disciples-- who've transcended complications, lamentation, & grief, who are unendangered, fearless, unbound: there's no measure for reckoning that your merit's 'this much.' - Dhammapada 13, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 20, 2013

Skillful Desire

The notion of a skillful desire may sound strange, but a mature mind intuitively pursues the desires it sees as skillful and drops those it perceives as not. Basic in everyone is the desire for happiness. Every other desire is a strategy for attaining that happiness.

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "Pushing the Limits"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 21st, 2013
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 19, 2013

The Haven of Meditation

Meditation is a haven away from the ubiquitous world of self-improvement. It's not just that there's no such thing as 'bad' meditation, but there's no such thing as 'good' meditation either. It is what it is.

- Barry Evans, "The Myth of the Experienced Meditator"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 20th, 2013
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 18, 2013

Breaking the Chain of Suffering

Our suffering was not caused by our parents or grandparents. It was merely passed down. We are social animals. We grow through modeling. We teach what we have learned. We act as we have been acted upon. A person who is not loving has not experienced love. It is not his fault. Realizing this gives rise to forgiveness. And in Chan we vow that suffering will stop with us. We will not pass it down.

- Guo Jun, "A Special Transmission"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 19th, 2013
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 17, 2013

Our Capacity for Joy

Joy is not something we have to manufacture. It is already in us when we come into the world. We need only release the layers of contraction and fear that keep us from it.

- James Baraz, “Lighten Up!”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 18th, 2013
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Location

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 16, 2013

Being Grateful for our Mistakes

It’s only our mistakes that bring us to the place where we should have been all along.

- Pico Iyer, "My Bad"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 17th, 2013
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JMG Photo Of The Day :

NBC News reports on today's tribal wedding in Michigan:

Dexter McNamara, chairman of the 4,600-member Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in northern Michigan, wed Tim LaCroix, 53, and Gene Barfield, 60, of Boyne City. After McNamara read the couple's vows and led the ceremony in English, a member of the tribe followed and conducted a tribal ceremony in their language. "How could the world be better? How could the world be better? … I'm just full of joy and happiness and I love my husband," Barfield said. "We’re so unbelievably grateful to the tribe and so full of respect for their position in this.”

The couple met 30 years ago when they were stationed at Orlando's Naval Training Center.
UNRELATED: My family briefly lived on that base when we first moved to Orlando.  I learned to drive on the deserted access road around the base parade grounds, the one place my mother knew I wouldn't crash into other cars. Not long after that, I was dropping swabbies off at the front gate after meeting them at the Parliament House. Good times.

Labels: gay weddings, LGBT History, Michigan, Native Americans

posted by Joe

Via JMG: More Gay Sniping In Venezuela

 

"If I were gay I'd take ownership of it with pride and shout it to the four winds and I would have no problem loving whoever I had to love with my heart. Because the worst homophobe is one who is gay and discriminates against his own. It's similar to a foreman in a slave-owner's farm. A black traitor who whips an African man's back. That's the worst homophobe: He who denies his identity and discriminates against his equals. We introduced a constitutional amendment to acknowledge their existence and the supreme respect the nation has towards our sexually diverse brothers and sisters - and our opponents and the right called for a vote against that amendment." - Interim Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, firing back at homophobia charges by opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by again hinting that Capriles is gay. At the link, Andres Duque points out that Capriles did not oppose the above-cited amendment.  The election is April 14th.
RELATED: Maduro also claims that Hugo Chavez is now "face-to-face with Christ" and therefore influenced the selection of a South American pope.

Labels: 2013 elections, Henrique Capriles, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela

Reposted from Joe