Causes of the British Younghusband Expedition (1903-1904)

" In 1898, Lord George Curzon had been appointed as Viceroy of British India. By December 1903 Curzon had dispatched a British force of three thousand soldiers, heavily made up of Afghans and Gurkhas from British India, in order to deal with the harsh Himalayan terrain, along with seven thousand support troops into Tibet. The military contingent was led by Brigadier General J.R. Macdonald and Major Francis Younghusband under the public pretext of solving “trading difficulties” through a “peaceful mission”."

http://tibettalk.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/causes-of-the-british-younghusband-expedition-1903-1904/

TibetInfoNet

"TibetInfoNet is a new non-profit organisation that, as the sole truly independent organisation of its type, provides a balanced and comprehensive information service about contemporary Tibet. "

http://www.tibetinfonet.net/

Tibet Times, A Tibetan Language Newspaper

"Inspired by His Holiness The Dalai Lama's desire to promote democratic development throughout the Tibetan community, Bod-kyi-Dus-Bab (Tibet Times) was established in 1996. With Tibet under the Chinese Communist control, Tibetans inside Tibet do not have the opportunity to study, much less experiment with democratic systems of government. Only Tibetans outside Tibet have this opportunity. In exile, by establishing institutions such as an independent press, we can study, learn and practice to foster greater democracy in the society, through which we can gain experience which will be invaluable in the future. "

http://www.tibettimes.net/

The Story of Losar (New Year)

"The celebration of Losar can be traced back to the pre-Buddhist period in Tibet. During the period when Tibetans practiced the Bon religion, every winter a spiritual ceremony was held, in which people offered large quantities of incense to appease the local spirits, deities and protectors. This religious festival later evolved into an annual Buddhist festival which is believed to have originated during the reign of Pude Gungyal, the ninth King of Tibet. The festival is said to have begun when an old woman named Belma introduced the measurement of time based on the phases of the moon. This festival took place during the flowering of the apricot trees of the Lhokha Yarla Shampo region in autumn, and it may have been the first celebration of what has become the traditional farmers' festival. It was during this period that the arts of cultivation, irrigation, refining iron from ore and building bridges were first introduced in Tibet. The ceremonies which were instituted to celebrate these new capabilities can be recognized as precursors of the Losar festival. Later when the rudiments of the science of astrology, based on the five elements, were introduced in Tibet, this farmer's festival became what we now call the Losar or New Year's festival. "

http://www.buddhapia.com/tibet/newyear.html

"Ten years in the making, this award-winning feature-length documentary was filmed during nine journeys throughout Tibet, India and Nepal. CRY OF THE SNOW LION brings audiences to the long-forbidden "rooftop of the world" with an unprecedented richness of imagery... from rarely-seen rituals in remote monasteries, to horse races with Khamba warriors; from brothels and slums in the holy city of Lhasa, to magnificent Himalayan peaks still traveled by nomadic yak caravans. The dark secrets of Tibet's recent past are powerfully chronicled through personal stories and interviews, and a collection of undercover and archival images never before assembled in one film. A definitive exploration of a legendary subject, CRY OF THE SNOW LION is an epic story of courage and compassion."

http://www.cryofthesnowlion.com/

Creation and Destruction of Sand Mandalas

"Sand Mandalas are the sacred ancient tradition of highly detailed art, practiced by Buddhist monks in Tibet. With a rare dedication and utmost care they spend days constructing an intricate masterpiece out of many-colored grains of sand - then they sanctify it and (quite philosophically) demolish in a similarly prayerful & dedicated fashion."

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/08/creation-and-destruction-of-sand.html

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (JIATS)

"The Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (JIATS) is an online, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal. JIATS is an official publication of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS), which organizes the world’s major conference for Tibetan Studies, the results of which are published in the Proceedings of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (PIATS) series. All scholars of Tibet, whether members of IATS or not, are welcome to submit work for publication in JIATS. JIATS is hosted by the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, which presents collaborative projects in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies over the web."

http://www.thdl.org/collections/journal/jiats/index.php

KartOO visual meta search engine

http://www.kartoo.com/

Tibetan

"Tibetan is one of the oldest Sino-Tibetan language to be recorded. The earliest Tibetan inscriptions date from 7th to 8th century CE in what is called the dbu can (which translates into "with a head") script, which also appeared on manuscripts from around 11th CE and remained until the modern day in the form of printed Tibetan text. Another script tradition, the dbu med ("without a head", "acephalous"), appearing first around the 12th century CE. The main difference between the two script traditions is that the dbu can script has the top line (hence the name "with a head") and less cursive than the dbu med script."

http://www.ancientscripts.com/tibetan.html

Tibetbook

"In 2005 we founded tibetbook.net as we realized the growing demand for someone able to provide the community of tibetologists, librarians, Tibetans and Buddhists outside China with books written in Tibetan language.

tibetbook.net keeps track of new publications, such as books, magazines and journals as well as the bulk of scattered independent publications and grey literature. tibetbook.net will also research rare and out-of-print pulications on request."

http://tibetbook.net/

Learn Tibetan

"The Tibetan alphabet is derived from the ancient Brahmi script - so one can see similarities to the Indian alphabets. There are actually two different styles of the Tibetan script. The one presented here is dbu can (u-chen) or headed writing. This is most commonly found in print - that is in newspapers, books, etc. and electronic format."

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/9594/tibet.html

Learn Tibetan

"The Tibetan language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. It is the main language of about 6 million people living in Tibet, parts of Nepal, India, Bhutan, as well as in exile communities all over the world.

Spoken Tibetan varies a great deal between different regions and localities. Distinct dialects have developed and it can even be difficult for Tibetans to understand each other if they do not come from the same area. Written Tibetan, on the other hand, is the same everywhere. This is especially true for religious texts. "

http://www.learntibetan.net/

Maps & Images of Tibet

"The purpose of this document is to provide central access point to online maps and graphics depicting Tibet and Tibetan culture."

http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/TibPages/tib-maps.html

Catatonia - International Velvet Live - Every day when I wake up, I thank the Lord I'm Welsh

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6M8TwtdWFlg

Old Orthography

"The da drag, or ‘strong da’ was a standard feature of Old Tibetan orthography. A final da syllable often followed a nga, ra or la, so that for example we have gyurd (which later becomes gyur) and pheld (later phel). Initally the da drag may have been a fundamental element of grammer. If so it had lost this aspect by the time of the earliest extant documents. The da drag appears in the ancient grammatical treatise ascribed to Tönmi Sambhoṭa, The Thirty Verses, but no grammatical role is assigned to it there. More importantly, the da drag had a phonetic role indicating the way the nga, ra and la were pronounced when followed by certain other syllables. This can still be seen in Classical Tibetan. When the statement particle –o follows a consonant, that consonant is normally reduplicated; for example, yin no and byung ngo. But some syllables which orginally had the da drag act as if they still have it; for example when –o is added to gyur it becomes gyur to. Thus the da drag lived on as a phonetic element after its disappearance from writing."

http://readingtibetan.wordpress.com/tutorial/old-orthography/

Embrace the Reality and Logic of Choice

"South Africa’s recent adoption of the 230V/50Hz residential electrical standard represents a tact that will blunt innovation, much needed for their developing economy. The policy choice – which actually reduces electrical current choice – runs contrary to worldwide policy trends, where multiple electrical standards rule, thus threatening to separate South Africa from the wealth creating abilities of the global electrical industry."

http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/04/embrace-reality-and-logic-of-choice.html

Storing data for the next 1000 years

"Santa Cruz (CA) – Have you ever thought how vulnerable your data may be through the simple fact that you may be storing your entire digital life on a single hard drive? On single drive can hold tens of thousands of pictures, thousands of music files, videos, letters and countless other documents. One malfunctioning drive can wipe out your virtual life in a blink of an eye. A scary thought. On a greater scale, at least portions of the digital information describing our generation may be put at risk by current storage technologies. There are only a few decades of life in tape and disk storage these days, but a team of researchers claims to have come up with a power-efficient, scalable way to reliably store data with regular hard drives for an estimated (theoretical) 1400 years."

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37073/113/

Becta's response to the approval of Office Open XML

"During the standard approval process Becta wrote to the British Standards committee responsible for co-ordinating the UK’s response to the proposed Office Open XML standard asking that it considers carefully whether two different ISO standards was the best outcome that could be achieved in this important area. We were clear that the interests of non technical users (including most teachers and parents) would be best served by a single standard which accommodated the existing Open Document Format (ODF) specification, and any extensions necessary to provide the required compatibility with various legacy Microsoft formats."

http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=35948&page=1657&catID=1632

ISO/IEC DIS 29500 receives necessary votes for approval as an International Standard

"2008-04-02

ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML file formats, has received the necessary number of votes for approval as an ISO/IEC International Standard. "

http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1123

Study sees Microsoft brand in sharp decline

"Microsoft's brand power has been in sharp decline over the past four years, an indication the company is losing credibility and mindshare with U.S. business users, according to a recent study by market research firm CoreBrand."

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2421/microsoft-brand-in-decline-080328/index.html

Windows XP to Live On At Least Until 2010

"Call it the operating system that wouldn't die. Microsoft announced yesterday plans to continuing selling Windows XP up through June 2010. The software company will prolong the OS's availability for use on lower-end notebooks two years after its discontinued for more mainstream systems."

http://www.appscout.com/2008/04/windows_xp_to_live_on_at_least.php

Windows is 'collapsing,' Gartner analysts warn

"Calling the situation "untenable" and describing Windows as "collapsing," a pair of Gartner analysts this week said Microsoft must make radical changes to the operating system or risk becoming a has-been."

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1870375122;fp;;fpid;;pf;1

Dell to Keep Shipping Windows XP after Microsoft Deadline

"If operating systems were monster movies, Windows XP would be The OS That Wouldn't Die--not because it's inherently invulnerable or wonderful, but because the initial cries of Vista failure from pundits have proven to be more than just short-term rumblings. One service pack later, the distaste for Microsoft's newest OS has proven to run deep, with plenty of new computer buyers still eying it with the sort of mistrust generally relegated to mainstream opinions of Linux-based systems."

http://www.appscout.com/2008/04/dell_to_ship_windows_xp_after.php

Save DOS: The Ultimate Antidote to Vista's Bloat

"To deny the world's computer users access to DOS is to deny them a familiar, powerful, and affordable operating system. But that's precisely what Microsoft did when it discontinued sales of MS-DOS on November 1, 2001--foisting Windows onto corporate and home users alike, whether they wanted it or not. It isn't too late to right that wrong."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143819-c,dos/article.html