American Buddhist Net

Sheepdogs have proved such perfect guardians for a colony of fairy penguins on a small south-coast Australian island that conservationists are confident the caring canines can be recruited to safeguard other endangered animals from being savaged by foxes and wild dogs.

'We're now starting to see some great results,' said Middle Island Maremma Project manager Ian Fitzgibbons. 'We've had our best penguin count since we began in 2006 with over 80 birds counted in one night and I think we have about 26 chicks on the island too.'

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Two German children - aged five and six - have been stopped by police from eloping to Africa to tie the knot in the sun, reports say.

The budding lovebirds, identified as Mika and Anna-Lena, packed bathing costumes, sunglasses and a lilo and headed for the airport.

...The young couple were "very much in love" and had decided to get married in Africa "where it is warm", police spokesman Holger Jureczko told the AFP news agency.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

The ranks of America's home-schooled children have continued a steady climb over the past five years, and new research suggests broader reasons for the appeal.

The number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 74% from when the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003. The percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled increased from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007. "There's no reason to believe it would not keep going up," says Gail Mulligan, a statistician at the center.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Many people are now realizing that a lot of their health problems cannot be treated with doctors and medicines and therefore are turning to yoga. Yoga also helps in relieving stress after a busy day so people can also relax with yoga. Yoga isn't a bunch of tough aerobics and exercises; it is much more than that.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A Buddhist group gave out more than a hundred debit cards yesterday to help families affected by the flooding in last month's storm.

Tzu Chi Foundation, based in Taiwan, gave out the cash cards at the Waialua District Park Gym with the help of the state Civil Defense and the Hawaii National Guard.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

‘NON-RELIGIOUS’: Since Max Gufler came to Taiwan in 1967, he has gone from being a Jesuit missionary to an ambracer of Taoism, Buddhism and environmental protection.

...“I was disappointed and disillusioned at the hierarchy in the Church,” he said in an interview with the Taipei Times on Dec. 30 at his suburban home in Hsinchu City.

“Don’t get me wrong — there are a lot of great nuns and priests around the world who are devoted to helping people. I respect them a lot, but I’m just disappointed at the hierarchy,” he said.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Apple has admitted that CEO Steve Jobs is skipping Tuesday's Macworld keynote for health-related reasons, after initially pointing to other reasons for his absence.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

THE state’s new law requiring young children attending licensed pre-school and child care centers to get flu vaccinations will be tested this week when thousands of children return to classrooms and playrooms after the long holiday break.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

LINK TO PHOTOS

On Sunday, RAW STORY ran video of a bombing in Gaza purported to be recent footage leaked from an exiled Palestinian blogger. We removed the video from the site early Sunday and issued a correction but the original was deleted in a database without the actual html file being removed, so the original persisted through Monday morning without our notice.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Government censorship of the Internet should be resisted wherever it occurs. What they fear is not "vulgarity" but people getting real info and thinking for themselves. ABN
___________

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest Internet market by users, announced a nationwide crackdown on Web sites that it says spread pornography, singling out search engines including Google and Baidu for criticism.

China’s Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies jointly opened a one-month campaign at a meeting today in Beijing. The central government announced the decision through an official Xinhua News Agency report posted on its Web site.

A vulgar tone on the Internet has seriously damaged the physical and mental health of youth, Cai Ming-zhao, deputy press chief of the State Council, said at the meeting. Participants asked all related government agencies to “strictly execute the law,” Xinhua said.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Jan 5, 2009 (DVB)–The first Burmese Buddhist monastery in Finland was officially consecrated in Kuopio on 3 January.by five monks led by Penang abbot U Pannya Wuntha and abbot U Uttara of London’s Sasana Ramsi Vihara.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Dharamshala: Kalon Tripa Prof Samdong Rinpoche will deliver an address on Buddhism to an inter-faith conference titled “ World Religion – Dialogue and Symphony” to be held at Kailash Gurukul in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat, India, from 6 -11 January 2009. The conference will be inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

The world premier of rock opera Where Elephants Weep was held in PPenh and presided over by Sok An, but angry monks now demand it be banned

LINK TO ORIGINAL

The earthquake swarm beneath Yellowstone National Park seems to have subsided for now. At least that is what the public data from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory are telling us about the supervolcano beneath the park.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea appointed Yu Yong Sun, a Buddhist leader, to head its office on South Korean affairs, Seoul-based JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified South Korean official.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

As Israel's IDF wages it's own "media war" via Twitter and YouTube, uncensored footage from Palestine has been completely blacked out in the US.

Until now.

Saturday, before Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Gaza, a Palestinian with a camera witnessed a devastating bombing. His video shows the brutal, bloody results of an air strike on what appears to be a civilian area.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Well-worth viewing. ABN
___________

WTC7: NIST Finally Admits Freefall (Part I)

WTC7: NIST Finally Admits Freefall (Part II)

Not much in this piece, no big questions asked, just a few hints, fairly typical, small amount of new info. Why is the FBI closing the anthrax investigation on such a weak case? ABN
___________

FREDERICK, Md. — Inside the Army laboratory at Fort Detrick, the government’s brain for biological defense, Bruce Edwards Ivins paused to memorialize his moment in the spotlight as the anthrax panic of 2001 reached its peak.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

WASHINGTON — An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

(TibetanReview.net, Jan 02) — Apart from control through oversight and censorship, China is now engaging in proactive shaping and influencing of public opinion over the Internet to control the direction of public opinion. Its latest antic involves employing university students to monitor electronic bulletin-boards to steer discussions away from anti-party comments and discussions and also advanced the party line.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

STONE circles on Mars are prompting a rethink about the planet's ancient climate.

Using cameras on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Matt Balme of the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and his colleagues mapped the Elysium Planitia, a region near the equator. They saw rings up to 23 metres across made up of stones sorted by size into concentric bands.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. In San Diego, on Sunday, January 11, see
'AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM'
1. Astrological Consultations, Courses, and Workshops
2. Learn Astrology One-on-One with Jim Shawvan
3. Llewellyn's 2009 Daily Planetary Guide
4. Quotations and Bonus Links: Important News Stories
5. JIM SHAWVAN'S ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTIONS,
JANUARY 2009
6. Meditation on Lovingkindness, Compassion,
Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity