Groundhogs and Blogosphere Round up

Well, the most famous groundhog in the world is predicting an early spring.
Phil and friends have turned a sleepy town in Pennsylvania into a tourist attraction. Even if you find the whole thing foolish, you have to love a place that has it's own groundhog club. In other news, the copycat New York city groundhog, Chuck, is also predicting an early spring. It can't come soon enough if you ask me.

Around the blogosphere, there are some posts of interest. Eco-yogini writes about some of the barriers to getting more men into active yoga practices. As a long time yoga student, I've found that even with a male teacher, women still outnumber men 2 to 1. And magazines like Yoga Journal, totally catering to middle and upper class women, don't help. I've subscribed to it for about 5 years now, mostly for the asana sequences, anatomy, and wisdom columns. It's got some good stuff in it, but in five years, there has been exactly ZERO men on the cover of the magazine, and only a few articles focusing on men practicing.

Arun has a post about a young adult conference being held at the Berkeley, CA Jodo Shinshu Center. Seems to me that we need more of these kinds of events, to support the practice of young folks, who are often a small minority in their sanghas.

Yoga Dork has a post about an interesting yoga program started by a taxi driver and tailored to the unique issues of taxi drivers. Considering how stressful it is to drive around crowded cities all day, this seems to be a smart idea. Although focused primarily on supporting "good health," one side benefit of the program is an increased sense of community amongst some of the drivers in the classes.

Algernon has a good post considering the second precept and people who pirate music, movies, and other works of art. A side discussion broke out in the comments about how crappy a lot of the systems are that artists and writers plug into to make a living, but the thrust of the post is offering us an opportunity to consider ways in which we might be stealing.

There is a provacative post over at No Zen in the West considering the history of slavery and Buddhism. Another good reminder that no tradition is unstained.

And finally, here's a hot potato post from Brad Warner about literal rebirth that has over 200 comments attached to it. I have nothing much to offer on the subject because I really don't know what happens after death.