"My passion is to show how fascinating Bangkok looks off the tourist tracks and how Thais manage their daily lives." - Holger Bauer
Wat [Temple] Bowon Niwet Vihara Rajavaravihara, a Buddhist temple off most tourists' radars, is located on Thanon Bowon Niwet and Thanon Phra Sumen, close to the backpacker's [paradise] of Khao San Road.
This stunning temple, [with] small canals (khlongs) and plenty of trees and flowers, provides visitors with a rare piece of calm in otherwise buzzing Bangkok.
But beautiful as the grounds are, be sure to visit the monks' retreat, which is made up of tiny, beautiful kutis with terraces surrounded by flowers. Visitors are allowed in, so you can sit with the monks as they study and have a talk, or just watch them go about their daily lives.
Many events take place at Wat Bowon Niwet, including Buddhist holidays, funerals and -- a highlight -- the inauguration of the new novice monks.
Also within the huge Wat Bowon Niwet compound is the Buddhist Thammayut Nikaya University, where the dean is more than happy to let visitors follow a lesson in one of the classes. Entrance is free... More
(IgniteTheMind) Are we all brainwashed? Or have we lost our minds? This journey through the subconscious mind explores the alleged usage of "subliminal messages" in advertising, music, film, television, anti-theft devices, political propaganda, military psychological operations (PsyOps), and advanced weapons. "Programming the Nation" opens Friday.
With their untucked flannel shirts, messy hair, and laid-back air, the three members of [the band] Nirvana -- Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic -- projected pure slackerdom when they burst onto the cultural scene in 1991. But that look was deceiving. As an expansive new multi-disc re-release of "Nevermind" reveals, the band worked incessantly for more than a year to craft an album that went on to rock the foundation of the music business in the same way that the Sex Pistols' (similarly titled) "Never Mind the Bollocks" caused a punk explosion in the disco age. "These guys were far from slackers; they were very ambitious," says Butch Vig... [Racist] jury convicts Muslims of interrupting Israeli ambassador An Orange County jury has reached a verdict in the Irvine 11 case of Muslim students accused of conspiring and disrupting a February 2010 speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States. The case garnered national attention over free-speech rights and centered on conflicting views of who was being censored.
Nepal to back Palestine's struggle for independence Prime Minister Bhattarai said that Nepal will support Palestine’s bid for statehood if there is voting at the United Nation’s 66th General Assembly. Talking to media in New York, PM Bhattarai said that Nepal would back Palestine’s long struggle for independence.
(ANI) Hindus are concerned at the play "Ganesh Versus the Third Reich," which is having a world premiere at Melbourne Festival in Australia on September 29. Hindu spokesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that Lord Ganesh was meant to be worshiped in temples and home shrines and not to be made a laughing stock on theater stages.
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Angela Davis is passionate about the hardships of US blacks
Discovered on the floor of a Scandinavian studio, this amazing assemblage of American Black Power voices from 1967-1975 opens in Los Angeles today. Danny Glover on DN!
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Buddhist project aims to develop pilgrimage in state PATNA, India - Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (University) in collaboration with the department of youth, art, and culture has initiated a project entitled Revival of the Ancient Buddhist Pilgrimage in Bihar." The project has twin objectives of taking the existing Buddhist pilgrimage [circuit] to other lesser known but important places associated with the Buddha and facilitate community-heritage interface.
Nepal hands over 23 detained Tibetans to UNHCR (VOA Tibet) AUDIO: 23 Tibetan refugees detained... in Nepal for "illegally crossing" into the country have been released Thursday and turned over to the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Nepal police arrested 20 Tibetans near a remote western Himalayan village on Sept. 11 for crossing into Nepal from China without having valid travel permits. On Sept. 13, police arrested 3 Tibetans in Barabise of Sindupalchowk district, north-central Nepal.
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Aung San Suu Kyi on Burma’s political changes Rangoon - The opposition leader confirms the beginning of change in the country, but warns that “Change is not always for the better.” For her, the international community must contribute to a solution. The United States is cautiously optimistic about the situation. After many years, some websites are... “It is the beginning of the beginning,” Burmese opposition leader said about her country’s political evolution.... Her words take a bit the sail out of the “winds of change” described by US diplomat Kurt Campbell, who is set to meet Myanmar’s foreign minister shortly.
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The general privacy policy published by Guardian News & Media Limited (GNM) applies to content provided by and your use of the Guardian Facebook app (the "App"). Collecting information about you. We collect different types of information about App users for four main reasons:
The Space Shuttle's last hurrah as seen through the atmosphere (nasa.gov)
A secret shadow government has suppressed advanced technology that it is repeatedly caught with but denies -- NASA insider Richard C. Hoagland (enterprisemission.com) exposes the startling connections between topics too hard to believe: US government secrecy, cover ups, official extraterrestrial contact, ancient monuments on nearby planets, moons, and asteroids, clandestine operations subverting our veneer of civil rights, NAZIs, CIA, CNN, and the complicity of the mainstream news. (Thank you, Rupert Murdoch and Fox News corporation's "Black Ops").
NASA Mars missions may have more occult than scientific motivations. On July 4th, 1997, NASA's "Pathfinder" touched down. Richard C. Hoagland was the first to point out that with its pronounced tetrahedral design and distinctive solar panels forming equilateral triangles, Pathfinder chose a landing site in Ares Vallis located at 19.5 degrees north latitude as seen above (The Mars Mystery, p. 136). NASA's secret work on Mars is also exposed by GoroAdachi.com/Etemenanki.
Banner says "ATOMIC POWER, NO THANKS." Demonstrators protest in front of Biblis nuclear power plant on March 20. In the wake of the Fukushina disaster, Germany plans to abandon nuclear energy (Reuters/Ralph Orlowski).
Germany will move out of nuclear power, keeping shut eight suspended reactors and closing the rest by 2022 in response to Japan's Fukushima disaster and following after a dramatic policy reversal by the coalition government at the weekend.
The decision, which came amid mass demonstrations against nuclear power, must be legally validated in parliament and could face strong opposition from utility companies.
Below is a list of the country's seven oldest reactors which were suspended after the Fukushima incident and an eighth, Vattenfall's Kruemmel, which was shut for other reasons. These were going to be shut until at least mid-June for safety reviews and now will probably never restart. More
Wat [Temple] Bowon Niwet Vihara Rajavaravihara, a Buddhist temple off most tourists' radars, is located on Thanon Bowon Niwet and Thanon Phra Sumen, close to the backpacker's [paradise] of Khao San Road. 
