American Buddhist Net

Monday, 7 July 2008
By Arifa Akbar

Perhaps, when the architect Daniel Libeskind produced his grand plans for an art museum and office tower designed to inspire civic pride in the heart of Milan, he should not have been surprised when Italy's gaffe-prone Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said the bent structure emanated a "sense of impotence" because it is not manly enough.

But Libeskind, an American born in Poland, was so outraged that he accused Mr Berlusconi of being a xenophobe who proffers "repugnant" politics, according to the The Art Newspaper. The war of words culminated in the premier's latest threat this month to withdraw planning permission for the museum.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

July 6, 2008
By HOLLAND COTTER

SAND is implacable here in far western China. It blows and shifts and eats away at everything, erasing boundaries, scouring graves, leaving farmers in despair.

It’s one of many threats to the major tourist draw of this oasis city on the lip of the Gobi desert: the hundreds of rock-cut Buddhist grottoes that pepper a cliff face outside town. Known as Mogaoku — “peerless caves” — and filled with paradisiacal frescos and hand-molded clay sculptures of savior-gods and saints, they are, in size and historical breadth, like nothing else in the Chinese Buddhist world.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

By Axel Bugge

CHAO DE PARADA, Portugal (Reuters) - Husband and wife Francisco and Casilda Figueiredo are among the last exponents of a traditional Portuguese handicraft -- making ornamental ceramic penises.

For more than three decades, the couple have carefully shaped thousands of ceramic male organs, moulding them into upright shapes and painting them in life-like colours for export to Germany, France and North America.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

July 6, 2008

They seemed an unlikely pair — the Tibetan Buddhist monk who had spent 33 years in Chinese prisons and labor camps and the aspiring Japanese filmmaker.

The filmmaker, Makoto Sasa, said she first heard of the monk, Palden Gyatso, when she was in college in Japan. After she arrived in New York to study film, alone and speaking no English, she read his memoir, “The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk” (Grove Press, 1997). “His story made me think my problem is nothing,” she said.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Larry Harmon, who popularized Bozo the Clown through the new medium of television 50 years ago, died today of heart failure in his Los Angeles home. He was 83.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

July 2, 2008
Written by Alisa Harris

Women from the busted polygamist sect in Texas are turning their publicity to profit. They’ve started a website selling “quality, handmade, modest, affordable” clothing in their own Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS) style. They report “a flood of interest.”

Their clothing choices —- pompadour hair, long dresses in pastel colors, capacious sleeves — attracted fascination earlier this year. Project Runway’s Tim Gunn demanded, “Who’s talking about their crimes against fashion?” The Associated Press called their clothes a fashion statement for modesty, conformity, unity and femininity.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Thursday, July 03, 2008

LAHORE: In the forest of Sravasti there lived some ascetics who scoffed at the teachings of Buddha and questioned his greatness. In order to put an end to this controversy, King Paranjit (or Parshajita) of Sravasti decided to invite the hermits as well as Buddha.

In an enormous hall a large gathering assembled for the occasion. The arrival of Buddha was awaited, that moment a dense cloud drifted in and slowly as it evaporated Buddha was seen standing in the centre.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

How the disabled - many of them victims of a long-running and bloody conflict - are helping bridge the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka against a background of escalating violence

01 July 2008
Victoria Brignell

...Sri Lanka has all the ingredients necessary to be a popular tourist destination. But this most beautiful and seductive country is also one of Asia's most tragic. Owing to its position, Sri Lanka has sometimes been referred to as "India's tear drop" and sadly this name is now all too appropriate. For the last 25 years life on the island has been marred by a bitter conflict raging between the country's two main ethnic groups, the majority Buddhist Sinhalese community and the minority Tamils.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

The Associated Press
Published: June 30, 2008

JAKARTA, Indonesia: The curator of a museum in central Indonesia was sentenced Monday to 18 months in jail for helping steal six ancient Buddhist statues and replacing them with replicas to cover up the crime, a judge said.

Suhadi Darmodipuro, who was among four people arrested for the 2006 theft at the Radya Pustaka Museum, said he regretted his involvement in the scam and would not appeal.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

June 30, 2008

JAKARTA - THE curator of a museum in central Indonesia was sentenced Monday to 18 months in jail for helping steal six ancient Buddhist statues and replacing them with replicas to cover up the crime, a judge said.

Suhadi Darmodipuro, who was among four people arrested for the 2006 theft at the Radya Pustaka Museum, said he regretted his involvement in the scam and would not appeal.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A Russian curator says she's developed a foolproof method of determining whether a piece of art was made before or after 1945 as a way of sniffing out fake paintings.

Elena Basner told The Art Newspaper that she has developed a method in collaboration with Russian scientists based on the idea that man-made nuclear explosions from the 1940s to 1960s released isotopes into the environment.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Terrific photos, well-worth viewing. The shot of the Martian moon Phobos is stunning IMHO. ABN
_______________

June 20, 2008 11:42 AM

Yesterday's announcement by NASA of the discovery of water ice on Mars by its Phoenix Lander probe made big news everywhere. The discovery involved the observation of water ice sublimating into the air - that is, the water went from solid to vapor state without reaching the liquid stage. The Martian atmosphere has perfect conditions for sublimation - extremely thin, dry and cold. How cold? Well, you can check the Live Martian Weather Report, with data from a station on board the Phoenix Lander. Today will see a high temperature of a toasty -26 degrees F.

What more do we know about Mars' atmosphere? It's hundreds of times thinner than Earth's atmosphere and is made of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane. We also know, from observations that it can support dust storms, dust devils, clouds and gusty winds. With an amazing number of six current live probes exploring Mars (two rovers, a lander, and three orbiters), there are many thousands of images available. Only a few, however show atmospheric phenomena. Presented here are some of the best images of Martian atmosphere (and beyond) in action.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Canada's most famous literary export is being feted around the world

Maria Kubacki

...The Japanese, known for their fanatical devotion to all things Anne, are also going big with festivities -- hardly surprising in a country where you can buy your very own Green Gables house and where an Anne of Green Gables theme park called Canadian World opened in 1990.

There's an Anne musical in Tokyo in September, as well as a travelling Anne exhibition and a slew of new Anne-related books.

Japanese fans are also expected to flock to P.E.I. for the centenary. They make up only about one per cent of all visitors to the Island, but 85 per cent of them visit Anne sites. Between two and four times the usual number of Japanese tourists are expected this year, according to Tourism PEI.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Thursday, Jun. 26, 2008

Mirza Hussain, and other prisoners like him, had labored for hours to stack mines, bombs and dynamite beneath the feet of Afghanistan's most iconic public artwork — a 175-foot standing statue of the Buddha carved from the sandstone cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley sometime in the 7th century. Finally, the local Taliban commander blew his whistle, and hundreds of observers plugged their ears, held their breath and waited for the Buddha to fall. It didn't. The first load of explosives only destroyed the statue's feet.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

June 25, 2008

A leading Catholic group in the US is helping Hindus boycott the controversial new Mike Myers movie "The Love Guru".

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has classified the movie as offensive. Hindu leader Rajan zed, who is leading a campaigning against the movie for "lampooning" Hindus, is happy that other religious groups have taken up the cause and called the USCCB move a "remarkable inter-faith gesture", contactmusic.com reports.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

WASHINGTON (AP) — Using clues from star and sun positions mentioned by the ancient Greek poet Homer, scholars think they have determined the date when King Odysseus returned from the Trojan War and slaughtered a group of suitors who had been pressing his wife to marry one of them.

It was on April 16, 1178 B.C. that the great warrior struck with arrows, swords and spears, killing those who sought to replace him, a pair of researchers say in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: June 23, 2008

DOUGLAS, Isle of Man — Halfway down the suburban road that descends Bray Hill, past the traffic lights, between the elementary school and rows of homes with families relaxing in their front yards, there is a barely perceptible bump.

Crouching on their 1,000-cubic-centimeter Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha motorcycles, the race leaders hit the bump at 185 miles an hour, their machines rearing up like prancing horses before settling back onto the asphalt and continuing down the hill at full throttle, engines shrieking. Near the bottom they pass a 30-miles-per-hour speed-limit sign at 195 m.p.h., then sweep through a right curve and out of sight.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

June 22, 2008

Rajan Zed, prominent Hindu leader, after watching on Friday, has given a worldwide boycott call for Hollywood movie “The Love Guru” by Hindus and other religious people because it lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu terms frivolously.

Sunday, June 22, 2008
SAM MOWE

I can't remember whose idea the reading group was. Vulin says it was his, which could very well be true. The way I remember it: I was on the phone with Vulin talking about my college class on "Ulysses." One of us suggested that during semester break I lead an English class on what's been called the greatest, most difficult novel of the 20th century. One of us mentioned the idea to Shimmy, and he wanted in.

Irish author James Joyce spent seven years writing "Ulysses," who knows how long researching it, and once famously told a friend, "In 'Ulysses' I have seen life clearly, I think, and as a whole."

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Sun, Jun. 22, 2008
By Steven Rea

'You know that Genghis Khan is one of the most unpopular names in Russia," says filmmaker Sergei Bodrov. "We Russians spent 250 years under Mongolian rule, so we still blame Mongols for all our problems. I read about Genghis Khan, of course, in my school books, and he is portrayed very badly. He is an evil warmonger, and so on.

"But I became suspicious, because I didn't think he was born as a monster, and I found interesting stories about his childhood, and the young years of his life."

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Launches Buddhist Film Series at the Film Center Cinemacafe in New Mexico

NEW YORK, NY -- 06/21/08 -- "Buddha Wild Monk in a Hut," Directed and Narrated by Anna Wilding, is launching the Film Center Cinemacafe Buddhist Film Series in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 6, 8, 10, 2008.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

WAH CANTT, June 20 (APP): The archaeologists team of the Federal Department of Archaeology and Museums found a statue of Bodhisattva Maitreya made of black shiest stone belongs to second century AD at the Buddhist monastery locally called Badal Pur situated about 13 km north-east of Taxila Museum.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

At the behest of a friend of mine, (actually a multi-year harangue), I went out and purchased a canister of snuff. For those who don’t know what snuff is, it is a powered tobacco product administered into your blood stream via small piles snorted into the nostrils. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

This is cool! For those of you who, like me, are not familiar with gaming jargon, I think MMOG stands for "Massively Multiplayer Online Game". Robyn
____________

By Promarcus

I was explaining to my Dad how death works in MMOGs when he brought up the idea of using Mahayana Buddhist cosmology to create a new death system.

In almost all MMOGs the player dies and respawns. MMOGs have differentiated themselves based upon how the player respawns and the consequences of dying. In some cases they are one in the same. This has lead to the creation of corpse running, resurrection sickness, and loss of experience points to name a few. It seems the only significant alternative is the controversial system of permanent death.

In Christianity when you die you end up in heaven or hell, sometimes purgatory. If you’re good you get to go to heaven for eternity. If you’re bad you go to hell for eternity. According to Mahayana Buddhist cosmology there are six realms of existence or paths of rebirth. The six realms are Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka. When you die your karma determines in which of the six realms you are reborn. However, unlike Christianity, there are no final destinations. Once you use up all of your karma in one realm you'll move onto the next and thus continue the cycle of reincarnation.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

LINK TO VIDEO