Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

On Jun 23, 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU. The economic and political consequences will be significant and long lasting, and not just for the UK and the EU. The repercussions will be felt everywhere. The key concern for EasyJet and Ryanair, among a number of airlines hypothetically affected, is what will happen if the UK fails to remain part of Europe’s single market in air services when Brexit negotiations accomplish.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

A challenge for Ryanair is that its biggest base is in the UK, at London Stansted. Its two busiest UK routes in June this year are Dublin–Stansted and Dublin–London Gatwick.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

CEO Michael O’Leary was upfront, opinionated and amusing as ever today at a Bloomberg News conference where he warned that Brexit could lead to contagion. The CEO of one of Europe’s largest airlines said that he would leave that to greater minds than his—referring to his treasury administrators. He warned that the budget airline would be forced to rationalize investment if Britain votes to leave the EU.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

Appearing on a platform with British chancellor George Osborne at Stansted Airport, Mr O’Leary spoke that inward investment will be lost to participant EU member states such as Ireland and Germany if Britain votes for Brexit. O’Leary said,

It is this type of large-scale foreign inward investment that is helping to drive the UK economy and job creation. It is exactly this type of investment that will be lost to other competitor EU members if the UK votes to leave the European Union. The single market has enabled Ryanair to lead the low-fare air travel revolution in Europe, as we bring millions of British citizens to Europe each year, and welcome millions of European visitors to Britain, and we are calling on everyone to turn out in large numbers and vote remain.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

Brexit may result in Ryanair’s formation of UK subsidiary. Ryanair has reported it may create a new subsidiary to operate UK domestic flights if a “hard Brexit” happens, the company said. Under the worst outcome, the UK would be forced to leave the European open-skies system as it exits the EU, which would thwart Ryanair as a European carrier from remaining to operate routes from London to Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

It would then need to establish a separate UK company, of which Ryanair would be able to own a maximum of 49.9 percent. If the UK continues part of the open-skies area, the company said it forecasts no change in the ownership structures of Ryanair or UK carriers. Ryanair said airlines have been invited to a round table discussion organized by the government department charged with navigating the UK’s exit from the EU to discuss the impact this will have on their sector.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

Ryanair has stepped up warnings that flights between the UK and Europe are jeopardized by Brexit, with the airline’s chief executive Michael O’Leary claiming that the prospect of upsetting aviation was one of the quickest and best ways for the EU27 to “stick it to the British”.

If Britain votes to leave it will be damaging for the UK economy and the European economy for the next two or three years … there’ll be huge uncertainty while Britain tries to negotiate an exit out of a single market and tries to replace that with a whole series of trade deals which they won’t get done … yet staying in is the way forward the British economy is performing fundamentally well at the moment … unemployment is low … the economy’s doing well … it’s one of the most competitive economies in Europe … this is the time to stay in and continue to benefit from European membership not leave now.

We speak as Britain’s largest airline we carry 40 million passengers to and from the UK this year we’re also a large foreign in word investor here in the UK I fly from 2060 British airports I employ more than three thousand pilots, cabin crew, and engineers and I want to keep investing in Britain I want to keep growing the business here in Britain but I can only do that if Britain remains a member of the European Union.

Were they not want to leave not just European Union but also the single market we may not be able to free to fly anymore between the UK and Europe as an Irish airline … now of course the UK is part of the European Union … it’s not part of the euro and the single currency … Ireland of course is there’s lots of criticisms about the future of the euro if it can survive in its current form overall has Ireland benefited from being a part of the single currency can the single currency survive as it is I think overall iron has benefits usually by being a member the single currency I think the single currency will survive because the strongest economy in Europe … Germany is behind the euro and I think they’ll do whatever needs to be done to make sure it does survive but there does need to be more harmonization between the outer relying countries the Greeks, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Irish who have suffered real economic problems in recent years as a result of very low interest rates and … you know property bubbles … but that’s why I a single market needs reform we’ve been very critical of Brussels and over-regulation and I think why this election will bring about more reform in Brussels as long as Britain votes to stay in.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary Protests Brexit in London with Funny Costume

Traditional Recipe: Baingan Aloo (Potato-Eggplant Indian Curry)

Baingan Aloo - Recipe for Potato-Eggplant Indian Curry

The simple and yet so scrumptious Aloo baingan sabji is a delicately spiced up Indian vegetarian recipe with diced aloo or potatoes stir fried with chopped baigan or brinjals. Aloo Baingan is an easy to make dish from North India. Eggplant and potato make for a fantastic combo and when roasted together in a shallow pan. Serve with bread or rice.

Ingredients

  1. 3/4 cup (170 ml) new potatoes, cut in half (1 small potato)
  2. 2 tsp (30 ml) vegetable oil
  3. 1 tsp / 5 ml black mustard seeds
  4. 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) cumin seeds
  5. 1 clove garlic, crushed
  6. 2 tsp (30 ml) Patak’s Madras Curry Paste
  7. 1.25 cups (300 ml) tomatoes, chopped (about 2 tomatoes)
  8. 1 cup (230 ml) eggplants, diced (about 1/4 eggplant)
  9. Salt, to taste
  10. 1 teaspoon (5 ml) sugar
  11. 1 tsp (1 15 ml) cilantro, chopped
  12. 1 tsp (5 ml) shredded coconut to garnish

Method

  1. Patak's Madras Curry Paste In a pan of boiling water, cook the new potatoes for 15 minutes, until they are almost cooked trough yet give some resistance when pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside.
  2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and the cumin seeds. When they begin to crackle, add the garlic and Patak’s Madras Curry Paste. Cook for 2 minutes.
  3. Add the chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil.
  4. Add the aubergines (eggplants) and potatoes and cook, covered at a simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add salt to taste and stire in the sugar.
  5. Serve garnished with cilantro and shredded coconut.

Notes

  • Aubergines (eggplants) begin to discolor once cut so put them in a bowl of cold water with a squeeze of lemon juice

Zen Koan #16: Parable of Not Far from Buddhahood – Buddhist Teaching on Reality

Zen Koan #16: Parable of Not Far from Buddhahood - Buddhist Teaching on Reality The realization of a Zen koan includes a somatic (non-verbal) constituent with variable levels of cognition, and occasionally the understanding includes some emotional aspects. Although the realization includes one or more of these three constituents, no single one of the three is essential to the experience of insight. That’s the kind of role model who embodies the warrior commitment.

Making time for friendship to develop—persevering with the challenges that relationship inevitably brings—respects the value that community plays on our path. These two lines are speaking of the limitlessness of space. But if we fail to optically discern that a merely conventional, superficial purification is very much homogeneous to groping in the dark without the erudition of the import of ease, our spiritual horizon will draw itself within narrow limits like a snail retiring within the shell, and we may lose our pristine, intrinsic, spontaneous liberation and tranquility, which belong to the mind by its own constitution. As opposed to the pure fruition, approach where it is said that primordially here is nothing to purify. We may put ourselves under a nonessential yoke, moving only within a prescribed circle.

There is a paradox here: a universal orientation and an appropriation of the essence of our particular Zen traditions. As perception is free from conception, it is unconfused.

Zen Koan: “Not Far from Buddhahood” Parable

A university student while visiting Gasan asked him: “Have you ever read the Christian Bible?”

“No, read it to me,” said Gasan.

The student opened the Bible and read from St. Matthew: “And why take ye thought for rainment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these… Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”

Gasan said: “Whoever uttered those words I consider an enlightened man.”

The student continued reading: “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”

Gasan remarked: “That is excellent. Whoever said that is not far from Buddhahood.”

Buddhist Insight on Reality, Practice, and Path

In Zen Buddhism, if one is to do well, it must be done in the minute particulars. It’s true about jobs too; there is not the perfect job. That is how one should think about reality. The flower engagement has no form in practice and path. This set of strategies, if it’s too strong, you can rather cool it out a little by raising energy when you feel yourself being too sleepy or dull, or by working with mercy when the anger is too strong to just witness. The American Buddhist author Claude Whitmyer writes in Mindfulness and Meaningful Work,

All of us are apprenticed to the same teacher that the religious institutions originally worked with: reality. Reality-insight says get a sense of immediate politics and history, get control of your own time; master the twenty four hours. Do it well, without self-pity. It is as hard to get the children herded into the car pool and down the road to the bus as it is to chant sutras in the Buddha-hall on a cold morning. One move is not better than the other, each can be quite boring, and they both have the virtuous quality of repetition. Repetition and ritual and their good results come in many forms. Changing the filter, wiping noses, going to meetings, picking up around the house, washing dishes, checking the dipstick – don’t let yourself think these are distracting you from your more serious pursuits. Such a round of chores is not a set of difficulties we hope to escape from so that we may do our ‘practice’ which will put us on a ‘path’ – it is our path.

Architectural Highlights of the Iconic Krishna Temple in Hampi

Architectural Highlights of the Iconic Krishna Temple in Hampi

Krishnadevaraya, the most celebrated king of the Vijayanagar dynasty, invaded Udayagiri kingdom in modern-day Orissa in 1513 A.D., and conquered the Gajapati ruler there and brought an image of Lord Krishna as war trophy. He built a temple to house this image at Hampi and it is famous as Krishna Temple.

Krishnadevaraya even minted gold coins with a portrait of Balakrishna to celebrate this remarkable event. The entire temple is built in the centre of an enclosure, which measures 88 and 60 meters in length and breadth respectively. The entire structure is surrounded by a tall prakara wall, which opens to the east, north, and south.

Krishna Temple is built of granite and consists of a garbhagriha, an antarala, an ardhamandapa, a sabhamandapa and a mahamandapa. All these are enclosed within a high prakara wall with a mahadvara, which has a gopura built of brick and mortar. The gopura is in ruins but it contains some good stucco figures associated with Krishna.

Central pillars with relief sculptures at Krishna Temple, Hampi The square garbhagriha is bare now, as the original image of Krishna has been removed. It is made out of greenish black granite showing Krishna as a child seated on a pedestal. The front entrance is well decorated with Vaishnava dvarapalas on either side and Gajalakshmi on the lintel. The sabhamandapa has four central pillars with relief sculptures of Garuda, Hanuman, Krishna as Kalingamardana, etc.

The mukhamandapa is an graceful structure with 32 pillars with entrances at north, south, and east. These tall and lean pillars have fine sculptures of Vaishnava deities. There is a garuda mandapa of Dravidian type and a dipastambha (lamp pillar) in its front. At the four corners of this temple once stood small shrines intended for subsidiary Gods. However, they are derelict now. The composite pillars and pillars with horses and yalis add exquisiteness to the temple.

Mahadvara and Huge Gateways of the Krishna Temple, Hampi This temple is famous for the huge gateways at north, south, and east. The eastern gateway or the mahadvara is enormous and graceful and perhaps one of the best specimens of that type in Hampi. Thus, Krishna temple was one of the most popular temples at Hampi built by the most famous king Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara Empire.

Zen Koan #15: Parable of Shoun & His Mother – Buddhist Teaching on the Present Moment

Zen Koan #15: Parable of Shoun & His Mother - Buddhist Teaching on the Present Moment Zen’s influence over the culture has spread in part for the reason that Japan’s rulers commenced to patronize Zen hundreds of years ago. Zen was thus adopted by the highest classes, and through them, its principles commenced to shape a range of Japanese arts, divesting away the ostensibly frivolous and engendering meaning with impressively austere metaphors or flicks of the brush.

You have left behind the sense of small self and have entered the state of great self. The reality is that anyone truly involved in one of the practices will at least realize there isn’t any special state of mind. Sapience is a very consequential quality to possess. Sapience is very limpidly spelt out in the edifications of the Buddha, in the Noble Eightfold Path. Right understanding refers to our construal of fundamental truths about life and the world around us. We should endeavor to understand two laws; the Four Noble Truths and the law of cause and effect—karma. This is very rudimental and fundamental to Zen Buddhism.

The temporality of momentariness is thereby understood to reside in its very passing away, in its actual and ineradicable finitude. However, it can be experienced for the reason that if your practice reaches a certain depth.

Zen Koan: “Shoun & His Mother” Parable

Shoun became a teacher of Soto Zen. When he was still a student his father passed away, leaving him to care for his old mother.

Whenever Shoun went to a meditation hall he always took his mother with him. Since she accompanied him, when he visited monasteries he could not live with the monks. So he would built a little house and care for her there. He would copy sutras, Buddhist verses, and in this manner receive a few coins for food.

When Shoun bought fish for his mother, the people would scoff at him, fo a monk is not supposed to eat fish. But Shoun did not mind. His mother, however, was hurt to see others laugh at her son. Finally she told Shoun: “I think I will become a nun. I can be vegetarian too.” She did, and they studied together.

Shoun was fond of music and was a master of the harp, which his mother also played. On full-moon nights they used to play together. One night a young lady passed by their house and heard music. Deeply touched, she invited Shoun to visit her the next evening and play. He accepted the invitation. A few days later he met the young lady on the street and thanked her for her hospitality. Others laughed at him. He had visited the house of a woman of the streets.

One day Shoun left for a distant temple to deliver a lecture. A few months afterwards he returned home to find his mother dead. Friends had not known where to reach him, so the funeral was in progress.

Shoun walked up and hit the coffin with his staff. “Mother, your son has returned,” he said.

“I am glad to see you have returned, son,” he answered for his mother.

“Yes, I am glad too,” Shoun responded. Then he announced to the people about him: “The funeral ceremony is over. You may bury the body.”

When Shoun was old he knew his end was approaching. He asked his disciples to gather around him in the morning, telling them he was going to pass on at noon. Burning incense before the picture of his mother and his old teacher, he wrote a poem:

For fifty-six years I lived as best I could,
Making my way in this world.
Now the rain has ended, the clouds are clearing,
The blue sky has a full moon.

His disciples gathered around him, reciting sutra, and Shoun passed on during the invocation.

Buddhist Insight on The Value of Present Moment

The true elimination of suffering is only concerned with yourself in this present moment. Compassion produces happiness for those who suffer. This is because their nature is uncompounded by the present moment. To work with these forces, along with naming them and being aware of them, you really have to let yourself touch them with your heart. In Zen Buddhism, Remedy violations of every aspect of these and try to confess them. One further point must be addressed. This is the time for parents to practice compassionate joy and value the present moment. The British meditation teacher Christina Feldman and American vipassana teacher Jack Kornfield write in Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart,

The present moment is the most profound and challenging teacher we will ever meet in our lives. It is a compassionate teacher, it extends to us no judgment, no censure, no measurement of success and failure. The present moment is a mirror, in its reflection we learn how to see. Learning how to look into this mirror without deluding ourselves is the source of all wisdom. In this mirror we see what contributes to the confusion and discord in our lives and what contributes to harmony and understanding. We see the relationship between pain and its cause on a moment-to-moment level, we see the bond between love and its source. We see what it is that connects us and what it is that alienates us.

Birthplace Of Silicon Valley – The HP Garage

Birthplace Of Silicon Valley - Hewlett Packard

With only $538 as investment in 1938, a time when the long fingers of the Great Depression still stuck the nation by its financial gullet, two aspiring entrepreneurs named Bill Hewlett and David Packard used a one-car garage as a part-time workshop in Palo Alto, California, to birth a company intended to become a world leader in engineering measurement and computer technology. From such unpretentious beginnings, the two Stanford University alumnae and close friends molded an organization that for half a century would outpace its competitors through groundbreaking products, progressive employee policies, and an enduring commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.

In 1938, Dave Packard left his job at General Electric in New York and returned to Palo Alto while Hewlett looked for a place to set up shop. Hewitt found a great place in suburbs, with the 12×18 foot garage the main selling point of the property on Addison Avenue. The home had a three-room, ground floor flat for Packard and his wife Lucille, while Hewlett got the shed out back. The rent was $45 per month.

In 1989, during the 50th anniversary of the recognized Hewlett-Packard corporation, the State of California termed the one-car garage first used as a workspace by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in Palo Alto as the “birthplace of Silicon Valley.” This historic landmark also represents the beginning of innovation, chance taking, and common sense policies in a company that would bourgeon as few have before or since.

367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto - Hewlett Packard.jpg

367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California, is the house and one-car garage—dubbed the “birthplace of Silicon Valley”—where William (Bill) Hewlett and David Packard began making their first product in 1939. Mr. Packard died in 1996, Mr. Hewlett in 2001. HP bought the property in 2000, 13 years after the garage was designated California Registered Landmark No. 976.

 

This garage is the birthplace of the world’s first high-technology region, “Silicon Valley.” The idea for such a region originated with Dr. Frederick Terman, a Stanford University professor who encouraged his students to start up their own electronics companies in the area instead of joining established firms in the East. The first two students to follow his advice were William R. Hewlett and David Packard, who in 1938 began developing their first product, an audio oscillator, in this garage.

California Registered Historical Landmark No. 976

California Registered Historical Landmark No. 976 - Birthplace Of Silicon Valley

Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard Company, May 19, 1989.

The Hewlett-Packard House and Garage is also National Register Listing 07000307.

Although the garage has become Silicon Valley legend, Hewlett and Packard only stayed at the garage a mere 18 months. The company was officially founded in 1939, with HP outgrowing the garage by 1940. The company moved to a larger property nearby on Page Mill Road. The garage was bestowed the honour of the birthplace of Silicon Valley in 1989, with HP buying the property in 2000.

The Twelve Apostles: Jesus’ Dearest and Closest Companions

The Twelve Apostles in Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper

The Gospels record that Jesus had many disciples, from whom he chose a dozen to be his hand-picked affiliates. He called this group “the Twelve.”

The term apostle comes from the Greek word “apostolos” which means, “one who is sent out.” The twelve apostles abandoned of their home, family, and all else for the sake of spreading the “Good News.” To the twelve apostles, Jesus gave the power to cast out evil, to heal, and to preach his teachings.

Jesus instilled in his apostles commitment to one particular task: to announce the “Good News,” the news of the coming kingdom of God. Jesus said to the apostles, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

The apostles lived in poverty, carried no money, accepted any hospitality and generosity offered to them, and shared the nomadic way of life with Jesus. They thus were able to focus unhindered to their task as his selected messengers. No apostle looked back to his old life with regret.

The list of the disciples of Jesus who comprised the Twelve appears in all three synoptic gospels in the Bible:

The lists are matching:

  • Peter/Simon (sometimes called Cephas) and his brother Andrew,
  • James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
  • Philip,
  • Bartholomew (Nathanael in John’s gospel),
  • Matthew (or Levi) the tax collector,
  • Thomas Didymus (” the Twin”),
  • James, the son of Alphaeus,
  • Simon the Zealot,
  • Thaddaeus, the son of James, sometimes called Lebbaeus, and
  • Judas Iscariot.

The Twelve were a set group who remained closest to Jesus. After the death of Judas Iscariot, the group of twelve was maintained by choosing Matthias because he accompanied Jesus throughout his entire ministry. Until their deaths, the new twelve continued to carry out Jesus’ work.

The Twelve Apostles: Jesus' Dearest and Closest Companions The number twelve corresponded to that of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel. This was a purposeful choice: Jesus assured the Twelve that at the time of reckoning, their reward would be to sit on twelve thrones and to judge the twelve tribes.

Jesus’ specially chosen disciples—his Twelve Apostles—carried his Word to the people, building the foundation of early Christianity. Nevertheless who were the men who dedicated their lives and their souls to this sacred task?

The Twelve Apostles series is a wonderful introduction to Jesus’ dearest and closest companions, and the important mission that bound them into an everlasting brotherhood.

  1. Apostle Peter
  2. Apostle Andrew
  3. Apostle James the Elder
  4. Apostle John the Evangelist
  5. Apostle Matthew
  6. Apostle Philip
  7. Apostle Bartholomew
  8. Apostle Jude Thaddeus
  9. Apostle Simon, the Zealot
  10. Apostle James the Younger
  11. Apostle Thomas
  12. Apostles Judas and Matthias