Mostly good news

• I have to confess I sometimes feel a bit despondent about where we’re going as a society, but then I see a video like this and I feel very hopeful. These kids just seem to love the physical act of singing, and of hearing themselves singing.

• A Fake Buddha Quote courtesy of Jnanagarbha, who received it in his twitter feed:

• "An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea. Buddha."

  It’s actually fairly Buddhist in spirit, but in tone it’s very unlike any Buddhist scripture I’ve ever come across. Sure enough, it’s found attributed to the Buddha in any number of quotes sites, and it’s likewise listed in a number of books in Amazon. A little investigation, however, showed this to be a quote from page 47 of Edward de Bono’s book, "Serious creativity: using the power of lateral thinking to create new ideas."

• More fake stuff on Twitter: A Buddhist friend (I won’t embarrass him by mentioning his name) posted the following:

   "Amber alert!!! Portland 3 yr old girl taken by a man driving a new silver truck plate 72B381 KEEP IT GOING SO THEY FIND HER"

  My first thought was, that this was unattributed (no link to a website confirming the details) and could even be malicious in origin — not from the part of my friend, who was passing it along in good faith, but say you really wanted to mess someone’s life up, it would be really easy to put their car license plate into a fake Amber Alert. Sure enough it’s not only fake but it’s been doing the rounds on Twitter since February! Most people passing it on are surely doing it for good motives (although don’t they pave the way to hell?) but the fact that the town and other details keep changing suggests a number of malicious people, or at least pathological attention-seekers.

  I just checked Twitter Search and found that the fake Amber Alert is being passed on at a rate of approximately once per minute (assuming that no one has changed the license number in other tweets, in which case the real number is much higher). It’s this kind of collective gullibility that makes me worry about the future of our society. It seems people will believe anything. But then I read the following three items and I feel optimistic again.

• Jimmy Carter has quit the Baptist Church over sexism: The words of God do not justify cruelty to women. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)"
• It’s official: Happiness is contagious
• People in Blue Springs, Missouri, keep on paying it forward.

2 Responses to “Mostly good news”

1. Angelina says:

   July 16, 2009 at 7:28 pm

   I love your investigative mind. Your findings go to prove that in pays to look deeper. : )
2. bodhipaksa says:

   July 16, 2009 at 8:50 pm

   Thanks. Of course it could just be that I’m easily distracted from writing my book…