Monks making money: A business beyond prayer - CNN.com

As I sit here wondering how I am going to move $3.75 around to pay $5 of debts again this month, I do think about things like this. But I wonder -- do they take oblates with cats?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/05/27/monks.money/index.html?hpt=C1

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My cat is plotting to kils me....

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Strong PAssword Syntax per NIST

Please follow this example as much as possible to reduce your chances of being hacked.

Strong Password Information
The syntax of a strong password will follow these guidelines:

A strong password must be at least eight (8) characters long and contain at least:
    One upper case letter (A, B, C,..).
    One lower case letter (a, b, c,..).
    One numeric digit (0 through 9).
    One special character (!, @, #, $, %, etc.)

A strong password cannot contain:
    More than 3 consecutive characters of the user's ID.
    Any English language word of more than 3 characters. The sequence "bar" in a password would be accepted, but the sequence 'barn' would be rejected.
    Repeating sequences of more than 2 characters. The password 'Tz$3zxczxc8' would be rejected, because although it meets the previous criteria, it contains the 3 letter repeating sequence 'zxczxc'.
    A palindrome. It cannot be the same backwards as it is forwards - like 'T$8zz8$T'

Ben
drben54@gmail.com

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Hasidic wisdom

On a very disappointing day, i was please to see this sent to me by a friend.  a (non-church-related) i belong has just disappointed me once again.  This helped a bit:

May 12

The community of the living is the carriage of the Lord.
 – Hasidic proverb

Where there is so little love that “the carriage of the Lord,” our essential unity, is torn asunder, we must love more. The less love there is around us, the more we need to love to make up the lack.

A man once came to Rabbi Israel, the Ba’al Shem Tov, and said, “My son is estranged from God; what shall I do?” The rabbi replied simply, “Love him more.”

Love him more. Make his happiness more important than your own. This was my grandmother’s approach to every problem, and I know of no more effective or artistic or satisfying way to realize the unity of life in the world today. It is an approach to life in which everything blossoms, everything comes to fruition. Where there is love, everything follows. To love is to know, is to act; all other paths to Self-realization are united in the way of love.

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The amazing "Shovelman"!

I saw this guy play at the Davis, Ca Whole Earth Festival yesterday. The wind was howling, the rain was dumping and under a patched old tent Isaac the "Shovelman" held forth. See how he got his name! BEN

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Rest in Peace, Pete Goodman

This morning, I received a call that my friend and union mentor, Pete Goodman had passed away in Los Angles overnight. He was 90.

I last saw Pete in February. He had traveled to a meeting in Davis, and other than using a cane seemed his usual boisterous and knowledgeable self.

Over the last 10 years, Pete's advice and encouragement were invaluable in my work as a leader of a sometimes troubled union Local. His advice to me and to several of the others in leadership were instrumental in our turning things around 4 years ago.

Over the years I got to listen to Pete's stories about his early days in organized labor. His parents were members of the IWW Industrial Workers of the World union also known in the 1920's and 30's as Wobblies.

Pete was one of those started my own union as well as serving on the initial organizing committees of a couple of more. He wads an unabashed socialist, dating form his childhood in a Communist commune in New York State. Yet he understood decisions made by management and the profit motives of large organizations as few did. Over the years, when I was asked to represent union members who had gotten themselves in trouble at work, Pete was the first person I emailed or called.

4 years ago, I asked Pete and Bob Dawson another founder of our union,, also deceased this year, if they would be interviewed as part of a living history. In 2008, both were interviewed by the Labor Institute in Berkeley. I hope we can see a compendium of their thoughts.

Rest in peace, Pete. You've worked long and hard. In my mind's eye, I see you figuring out how to "straighten out" the angels in heaven!

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