Madam Lichtenstein's Cosmic World

Thai Temple Built From Over One Million Recycled Bottles

Here is something "new agey", spiritual, ecological, magical and very unique. It is a Thai Buddhist Temple built from recycled bottles. Hopefully it will give other countries ideas for re-using materials in a "constructive" way:

 

The Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple, roughly 370 miles northeast of Bangkok is made of more than a million recycled glass bottles. True to its nickname, “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” features glass bottles throughout the premises of the temple, including the crematorium, surrounding shelters, and even the toilets. There’s an estimated 1.5 million recycled bottles built into the temple.

The bottle-collection-turned-building started in 1984, when the monks used them to decorate their shelters. The shiny building material attracted more people to donate more bottles, until eventually they had enough to build the temple standing today. Bottle caps are also integrated as decorative mosaic murals. Going beyond use of glass as a sustainable building material, the bottle bricks don’t fade, let natural light into the space and are easy to maintain. So if you’re looking to find Nirvana in a bottle, you might want to consider making a stop at the Wat Pa Maha Kaew Temple.

Blue Lights to Stop Suicides?

I just read that the Japanese Railway system is installing flickering blue lights on their platforms to stop the rash of suicides. The theory is that they think blue lights will calm people and bring them out of their despair. Suicides on the Japanese Rails is increasing, possibly because of the high unemployment. But this blue light fix may or may not not do the trick - it is in the testing stage.

In thinking about this plan, I recall a post on the impact of colors on our moods. Blue is considered a calming color as well as an appetite supressor. But will blue lights have such a dramatic impact on someone's mood that they will change their behavior? Wouldn't they want to choose a color that elevates mood rather than calms the mood? More testing needs to be done....

Looking for the Virgin Mary at the Knock Shrine in Ireland

I love visiting shrines. I find them fascinating. One of my favorites is Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. But one in particluar, the Knock Shrine near Dublin in Ireland, has had recent news. Recently almost 10,000 pilgrims showed up in Ireland in County Cork hoping to see a vision of the Virgin Mary at the Knock Shrine. "Spiritual healer" Joe Coleman told followers that Mary would appear on a specific date in October. Unfortunately, she did not appear. Now what?

The Knock Shrine received international fame after local people reported seeing the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist at their parish church on August 21, 1879. The Catholic Church has declared the visions trustworthy and in 1979 Pope John Paul II made a personal pilgrimage to Knock. Mother Teresa visited in 1993. Today, over one and a half million pilgrims visit the Knock Shrine every year.

If you want to read more about Catholic shrines, check out Catholic Shrines of Western Europe: A Pilgrim's Travel Guide

Reclaiming the night sky: award-winning astrophotography

With all of the man-made light in today's cities and suburbs, we have lost some of our ability to really see the night sky with its beautiful range of constellations of stars, planets, asteroids and vast darkness. But if you are away from all the lights, like in some quiet dark desert, there is still the opportunity to star gaze like the old days.

 

 

Iranian photographer Babak Tafreshi has won the 2009 Lennart Nilsson scientific photography prize. According to the award panel, his images "reclaim a night sky that most modern people have lost". See some of his fantastic photographs here.

 

 

Museum of Death

Are we on a theme here for Day of The Dead on November 2? Maybe....

I just read in Cool News / USA Today that there is a new museum in Mexico called the National Museum of Death. The collection is rooted in Octavio Bajonero Gil's art collection. Octavio's collection includes "dozens of tiny calaveritas," or small, decorated skulls, "along with hundreds of other death-related artworks he had acquired over 50 years."

This museum embraces Mexicos' s folk heritage and interest in death-related art. In addition to the calaveritas the museum includes depictions of death from other countries, from American Halloween decorations to small replicas of the terra cotta soldiers of China.

Also featured are various statues of 'Saint Death,' the grim reaper, which is increasingly worshipped at shrines and chapels in poor neighborhoods of Mexico. Some visitors are so taken by this that they try to leave offerings. "We get some unusual people here," says Juan Manuel Vizcaino, assistant director of exhibits.

The Museum of Death attracts some 70,000 visitors each year, about one-third "from other countries, mainly the United States." One visitor, Spencer Garcia-Stinson of New Hampshire, left impressed: "It's definitely kind of bizarre," he says.