Buddhist Geeks has for a while been one of my favorite podcasts. The show deals with how traditional Buddhism can be incorporated into the 21st century and find its place in a modern western world. It´s really a good podcast, and I´ll recommend highly to check it out. 

The Buddhist Geeks has just gotten a new site, and are starting up a community. Should you have any interest in Buddhism, and how the ancient ideology can be linked with a modern western life, then head over to the site and join in.  

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

- Isaac Newton

Make your voice heard, support the COP15 and a new climate bill - sign up now!

What are your favorite social media projects on climate change? 

(pic from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25874822@N07/3677876395/ )

I was standing at a buss stop today in the middle of São Paulo.

A poster on the wall behind the buss stop grapped my attention. The poster read: 

"Fora Sarney! - Fora Todos!" (Get out Sarney! - Get out everyone!).

Usually I don´t care much about day-to-day politics in Brazil. But here I couldn´t stop but smiling.

In my personal opinion, one of the major challenges keeping Brazil from really entering the first world, is the corruption in Brazilian politics. Scandals often appear in the media, yet they don´t seem to have much of a consequence for the politicians in question (in Brazil politicians are allowed to run for office even if they are convicted for corruption or having a case of corruption pending against them).  

Unfortunately, the corruption seems to be so integrated in the political system in Brazil, that the people almost appear to accept that "this is just how things are!".

So why the smile?

This blog will not turn into a political commentator. But what I liked about the poster, and what I care about, is when people fight to get their voice heard! And this poster did! Or rather, the people behind the poster did.

Arriving home tonight I told my (Brazilian) wife about the poster. The picture I had taken with my phone did not give justice, so I went online to see if anyone else had posted the picture.

What I found was better!

Not only has people posted pics on Flickr, there is even a forasarney on Twitter and a website dedicated to the cause with more than 22.000 comments. Amazing! Brazil - I am proud of you!

For those of you who haven´t made your voice heard, its not too late - do it now, make a stand against corruption and for the future of Brazil!

Go and leave your comment on forasarney.com.br and follow @forasarney on Twitter.

I assumed that it would be extremely easy to do so - But I was wrong.

Apparently some information was needed which was not easily found by a common mortal blogger.

After a few emails forth and back, Andy the tech support at Tubu (my host) cleared it all for me, so I got it all working without having to lift a finger.

Now, I guess hosting is a tough business. There are a ton of companies competing in this market, and bluntly stated, not much difference in the rather generic product they offer.

So how do they differentiate themselves? SERVICE!

Service and brand name are often the main differentiator when talking about all kinds of generic products, be it web hosting, toothpaste or industrial pumps.

So Andy and Tubu gave me service - which in turn provides them with BRAND marketing!!

Now, go and sign up for Tubu - they understand the meaning of service!