American Buddhist Net

In a sane nation with a reasonable government, this would be a fine idea. It is surely something sorely missing in the corridors of power where neocons still lurk and rule. But in this nation, which seems overrun with psychotic personalities, one can only wonder which academics they will listen to and which of their ideas will be applied to what. In the recent past, psychologists have been used to amp up torture sessions or do mind-control experiments. Sociologists have made disturbing "contributions" to crowd-control and the mass psychology of propaganda and fear. Historians have been used to distort history, linguists hounded into silence (Sibel Edmonds), scientists forced to fudge research (FDA, EPA, NIST, FEMA), journalists muzzled, and so on and on. We do need something like this, but with this administration it is always the same--we do not need to have them do it because they will twist it so much it will hurt. ABN
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By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: June 18, 2008

Eager to embrace eggheads and ideas, the Pentagon has started an ambitious and unusual program to recruit social scientists and direct the nation’s brainpower to combating security threats like the Chinese military, Iraq, terrorism and religious fundamentalism.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has compared the initiative — named Minerva, after the Roman goddess of wisdom (and warriors) — to the government’s effort to pump up its intellectual capital during the cold war after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957.

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Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones

STANFORD (BCN)

The Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies has received $5 million from the Hong Kong-based philanthropic organization Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, university officials announced Monday.

The money will fund graduate fellowships in Buddhist studies and will help support faculty and student research, visiting fellows, curriculum development and academic and public events.

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Sunday, 22 June 2008

A charitable trust is planning to build the UK's first Buddhist state primary school in Birmingham.

The Birmingham Buddhist Vihara Trust, which set up the Peace Pagoda in Edgbaston 10 years ago, wants to built the school within five years.

State funding would be sought for the scheme, which would mainly serve the city's 3,000-strong Buddhist community.

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By DOUG WHITEMAN

COLUMBUS, Ohio—The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.

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If they did make the pact, and since they broke no laws, maybe the good people of Gloucester should help them do just what they want to do--raise their children together. This is really unusual behavior and can and will be viewed largely as a "problem." But maybe it was a brilliant, creative act as well. Why not help them do what they want to do? The alternative will probably be counseling, drug therapy, keeping the girls apart, making an example of them, and so on. By this single act, the girls have shown their desire--indeed forced it upon the world--to live differently from the rest of society, which itself has more sins than this to contend with. There are surely many aspects of this case that I do not understand, but the general outline seems clear enough, if the reports are true. The girls want to live not as atomized individuals in a rough-and-tumble world, but as a group of loving friends and mothers in a community they conceived of themselves, in both senses of the word.

As for the fathers who broke the law, the strength of the girls' will and bond should a consideration when judging them. ABN
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By Tania deLuzuriaga
Globe Staff / June 19, 2008

Gloucester school officials have discovered at least part of the reason that their high school pregnancy rate has more than quadrupled over the past year, according to a Time magazine story that hits newsstands today.
more stories like this

"Nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together," the magazine's story said, after reporters talked with Joseph Sullivan, Gloucester High School principal.

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Worth reading if China or the Olympics interests you. ABN
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By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: June 20, 2008

SHANGHAI — When China’s champion 10-meter platform diver suffered a detached retina while training, a year after winning a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, family members and fans speculated about the imminent end of a great career.

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By Jane Rochstad Lim • June 18, 2008

A secondary school in north eastern Thailand has designed a new bathroom for its growing community of transvestites.

The "transvestite toilet", designated by a human figure split into half man in blue and half female in red, has since been used since class started last month.

"I am so happy about this," student Vichai Sangsakul told Thailand's PBS news channel on Tuesday.

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Prison Dharma Network (PDN) was founded in 1989 by Fleet Maull, a federal prisoner then serving a 14-year sentence for drug trafficking. Since its founding, PDN's Books Behind Bars program has provided books on meditation and contemplative spirituality to over 25,000 prisoners in over 900 prisons around the world.

We have connected hundreds of prisoners with pen pal mentors. Our network now includes over 75 member organizations and prison dharma groups of various faiths and over 2,500 individual members and supporters, many of whom are active prison dharma volunteers.

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Well-said! ABN
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Reflections of a frustrated graduating student

By: Jay Dyer

...So, I learned fairly early on that the system was about promoting and sustaining the system, a form of Weberian "rationalization." The beast has no other end than the perpetual existence of the beast itself. The only students who generally excel in this system are the one's who jump through all the hoops, bowing before big brother. Granted, many of the more intelligent "rebellious" sophomores and juniors end up wanting to "fight the system," but they've already been brainwashed into accepting moral relativism, so why does it really matter? In this worldview, there is no objective moral reason to "fight the system." So, by the time they are in grad school, they have abandoned the phony, elite-controlled left, become apathetic, and are reduced to occultists or nihilists, concentrating on their thesis concerning the reliability of the gnostic Gospels and the unreliability of the synoptics. Elite objective achieved: new recruit fully brainwashed, taking his seat as the incoming professor in place of the previous zombie.

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Sirikul Bunnag

The good news is that more high school graduates are furthering their studies in universities. The bad news is that some are committing suicide because they lack the money to pay the fees.

The situation is "very unexpected", said secretary-general of the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC), Sumeth Yamnoon.

One of the cases which highlighted the tragedy of student suicides happened in Sing Buri on May 17.

An 18-year-old girl and a prospective student at Silpakorn University, Sukchaya Kaewsomchart, hung herself at her house. She was supposed to report to the university that day, but decided not to go, simply because her family was poor and could not afford to pay the tuition fees.

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Calif. high school paper shut down after running flag-burning photo granted reprieve

AP News
Jun 14, 2008 18:33 EST

Officials at a Northern California high school have reversed their decision to shut down a school newspaper that published a front-page photo of a student burning an American flag.

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Is it possible that Bush and Cheney have been doing something like this to us for seven years? ABN
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By ALLISON HOFFMAN – 7 hours ago

OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) — On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.

A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax — a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.

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June 12, 2008

Seven Buddhist teachers in a public school in Banang Sata district have requested for transfer out of the restive region, citing security concern, their director said.

Director of the Ban Tharnthip School in Tambon Banang Sta, Abdulloh Ja-oh, said the June 11 shooting death of a fellow teacher, Harit Sa-I, have jolted all 27 teachers and added that seven Buddhist teachers have put in for transfer.

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Lisa Miller
Jun 16, 2008

...Now, even on very conservative Christian campuses, there are gays who are "out" and who want their authority figures to recognize them—and their sexuality—as deserving of God's love. Thanks largely to the efforts of Soul Force, which encourages dialogue between gays and Christians on campus, these students are trying to get organized.

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With only six million university places at stake, the results can spell the difference between poverty and plenty, reports Jason Burke in Beijing

Sunday June 8, 2008

AT 11.31 yesterday morning, Xu Ziwen strode through the gap the police had forced in the ranks of waiting parents and said the words that, even if no one believed him, everyone wanted to hear: 'No problem. It was easy.'

Behind him a horde of track-suited teenagers poured out of the examination halls into the pale sunshine of Beijing.

Xu had just done the first part of an exam taken by the most people ever at one sitting, the Chinese equivalent of A-levels or gaokao. This weekend more than 10 million 18-year-olds across China sat through four critically important papers. Tonight they will celebrate - or simply sleep. 'A piece of cake,' bragged Xu Ziwen as he cycled off.

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By Buzz Ball
Carthage Press
New! Sun Jun 08, 2008

CARTHAGE, Mo. -

For the first time in more than three years, the Mark Benz family has returned to Carthage from its High Tower Ministries work in Cambodia.

But they have returned with a lot more than what they had when they left in 2004.

• Established is the Cambodian Orphan Aid;

• The Bykota House, a Christian Children’s Home, is in full operation with 16 kids;

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6 Jun, 2008

BEIJING: In a rare gesture, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today personally presented India's coveted civilian award Padma Bhushan to Ji Xianlin, renowned Chinese Indologist who has inspired love for Indian culture and literature among generations of his countrymen.

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DC checkpoint plan latest 'police state' tactic: Councilman

By Tim O'Keeffe on June 4, 2008 4:49 PM

Vic Mansfield, a longtime professor of physics and astronomy who helped lead an insightful workshop during the recent campus visit by the Dalai Lama, died Tuesday after a two-year battle with lymphoma. He was 67.

Mansfield joined the Colgate faculty in 1973, armed with a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics from Cornell University and burning interests in cosmology, computational methods, and the conjunction of science and spirituality.

In his 35 years at Colgate, he lectured in physics, astronomy, numerical analysis, and in all components of the core curriculum, inspiring students with his eloquence, enthusiasm, expertise and high expectations.

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By JOHN CURRAN

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Call it poetic justice: More than two dozen young people who broke into Robert Frost's former home for a beer party and trashed the place are being required to take classes in his poetry as part of their punishment.

Using "The Road Not Taken" and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways - and the redemptive power of poetry.

"I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," said prosecutor John Quinn.

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By P.J. DICKERSCHEID
May 31, 2008

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — It's not just concern for the squeamish biology students who wince at the feel and smell of cutting into a formaldehyde-soaked animal.

Think about the frog. The pig. Or even the rat.

That's what animal rights activists in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle had in mind when they donated interactive software that replicates a frog dissection to Wheeling Park High School.

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30/05/2008

Children will learn by downloading information directly into their brains within 30 years, the head of Britain's top private schools organisation has predicted.

Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said "Matrix-style" technology would render traditional lessons obsolete.

He told the Times Educational Supplement: "It's a very short route from wireless technology to actually getting the electrical connections in your brain to absorb that knowledge."

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Brain-Eating Amoeba Strikes in Summer

Eden Samiee
May 30, 2008

I have been in two different schools so far in my high school career, both of which are religiously affiliated. Although they are the same in many ways, they are both enormously different.

...What it all comes down to is, when or if you are a religious school, please don't forget about the students who aren't that particular religion and try to widen your horizons a bit. Encourage them and maybe more would appreciate the religion in the end.

Eden Samiee of Salem is a 16-year-old high school student.

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Saturday May 24, 2008
Polly Curtis and Martin Hodgson

A masters student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and detained for six days after his university informed police about al-Qaida-related material he downloaded has spoken of the "psychological torture" he endured in custody.

Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading the materials for illegal use. The student had obtained a copy of the al-Qaida training manual from a US government website for his research into terrorist tactics.

The case highlights what lecturers are claiming is a direct assault on academic freedom led by the government which, in its attempt to establish a "prevent agenda" against terrorist activity, is putting pressure on academics to become police informers.

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Kids have fun, learn to defend values

May 23, 2008
BY VALERIE BAUMAN

ALBANY, N.Y. -- When Joe Fox sends his daughters away to summer camp, he's confident they'll be surrounded by kids who share his family's beliefs and values.

Caitlin, 16, and Elizabeth, 10, go to Camp Quest, which in 1996 created a niche getaway for children who are agnostic, atheist, or just not sure what to believe yet.

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