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"buddhist" news and stories

The Ultimate in Recycling - A Beer Bottle Temple

In addition to being a moderately decent brewer, Heineken has also flirted with becoming a force for change in the world. In the early 1960's, during a vacation in the Caribbean, one of Heineken's brewers noticed two problems that he thought might have the same solution. While the local beaches were littered with beer bottles, many people weren't able to find reasonably-priced building materials. When he got back to work, the brewer convinced Heineken to create the "world bottle" (WOBO), which also became known as "the brick that holds beer." Basically a rectangular-shaped beer bottle, world bottles were designed to fit comfortably end-to-end, making it possible to make walls, doors, and windows without resorting to glass cutting.

Heineken ended up making a small production run of the world bottles, but never released them to the public. Today, the only two WOBO structures in the world are a shed on the Heineken estate and a wall at the Heineken museum in Amsterdam. However, even though the world bottle never went into production, other people have found a way to turn left over Heineken bottles into livable structures.

Using one million discarded Heineken and Chang beer bottles, Buddhist monks in Sisaket, Thailand constructed the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew monastery. A beautiful, graceful structure, it shows that all those empties that we put in our recycling bin have the power to make a major difference!

Filed under: Liquor Cabinet, Ingredients, Drink Recipes, Drinks

Please don't feed the animals

Most people are already aware that you should not give your dog chocolates - but what about your elephant? Elephants are largely vegetarian and apparently like chocolate quite a lot. That doesn't mean you should let them indulge, though. Raja, who at 45 is the most famous elephant in Sri Lanka, has become very ill after eating too much chocolate and other fattening foods. The chocolates, deep-fried cookies, sweet rice and fermented pineapple slices were fed to him by fans while celebrating the Buddhist New Year.

The monks who care for the elephant found him in great distress, writhing on the ground, the day after the celebration. A vet said that his digestive system could not cope with the fattened and processed foods or "the cookies... literally are soaked in oil." There is now a sign outside his enclosure which reads "Do not feed the elephant."

[Image Yahoo!]

Source

Filed under: Vegetarian, Newspapers

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