The New York Sophist

Sometimes I’m ambivalent that I chose to live without cable. But this article showed me a pretty good reason not to have it.

Apparently, the DVR/Cable box uses as much energy as a refrigerator.

The trend toward always on, always on the starting line devices is something that is both expensive, and a bit troubling.

It’s also one of those great statistics to keep in the back of your head for energy debates. Look at what most Americans use power to do!

Sometimes I’m ambivalent that I chose to live without cable. But this article showed me a pretty good reason not to have it.

Apparently, the DVR/Cable box uses as much energy as a refrigerator.

The trend toward always on, always on the starting line devices is something that is both expensive, and a bit troubling.

It’s also one of those great statistics to keep in the back of your head for energy debates. Look at what most Americans use power to do!

Lama Tsony on Crazy Wisdom

Crazy Wisdom is a new film about the life of Chogyam Trunga. I like this piece from Tricycle because of the metaphor – “he embodied a quality of fearlessness that was like licking honey off a razor blade.”


Getting the best out of a precarious and harmful situation – what a great image for it. My question now is, can this be taught? What would the Rinpoches say about teaching this? Is it an effect of Enlightenment, or a cause? Perhaps neither – perhaps it’s a rhetorical dimension necessary to recognize one as Enlightened.


Buddhists don’t like to talk about rhetoric, per se, they do like to talk about “right speech,” one of the precepts given by the Buddha. Right speech can and should include rhetoric. I’m certain it happens in Buddhist pedagogy, and has always happened. I think it’s a lot more overt than we might suspect. I think there’s some fertile ground for research here.


For practice, how does one teach the debate student to perform argumentation this way? How do you lick the honey from the razor’s edge? Sounds like a question of style to me. And a question of many hours of difficult practice.

Lama Tsony on Crazy Wisdom

Crazy Wisdom is a new film about the life of Chogyam Trunga. I like this piece from Tricycle because of the metaphor – “he embodied a quality of fearlessness that was like licking honey off a razor blade.”


Getting the best out of a precarious and harmful situation – what a great image for it. My question now is, can this be taught? What would the Rinpoches say about teaching this? Is it an effect of Enlightenment, or a cause? Perhaps neither – perhaps it’s a rhetorical dimension necessary to recognize one as Enlightened.


Buddhists don’t like to talk about rhetoric, per se, they do like to talk about “right speech,” one of the precepts given by the Buddha. Right speech can and should include rhetoric. I’m certain it happens in Buddhist pedagogy, and has always happened. I think it’s a lot more overt than we might suspect. I think there’s some fertile ground for research here.


For practice, how does one teach the debate student to perform argumentation this way? How do you lick the honey from the razor’s edge? Sounds like a question of style to me. And a question of many hours of difficult practice.

It was designed to hopefully increase diversity in tournament administration. We have the same people (mostly Tuna Snider and myself) running all the Worlds divisions on the East Coast, and I’d like to put a stop to that. More diversity means better, more diverse debates via more diverse topics, and a different eye reading feedback forms, setting wings and chairs, and other such tasks.

If you are coming to one of these East Coast tournaments and want to CA or tab it, sign up! A tournament director will be in touch.

Here’s a link to the website, designed and hosted by Tuna.