Buddhist resources

Buddhist information and educational network:

• Timeline of Buddhist history (go).


• Talks by Mediation teachers. Chanting and Buddhist songs (audio).


• Insight meditation online techniques (go).


• Go inside Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery, located in Singapore (go).


• The Thai Buddha Images (go).


• Daily readings from the Word of Buddha (read).

Historical Wonders of Sanxingdui

The site of Sanxingdui, located in the city of Guanghan, 40 km from Chengdu, Sichuan Province (China), is recognized as one of the most important ancient remains in the world for its vast size, lengthy period and enriched cultural contents.
The first Sanxingdui relics were discovered by a farmer in 1929 and excavation has continued ever since. During this period, generations of archaeologists have worked on the discovery and research of the Sanxingdui culture. In 1986, two major sacrificial pits were found and they aroused widespread academic attention around the world.
The Sanxingdui finds are exciting, but they remain enigmatic. No texts have been found, nor is there any mention of this culture in the records of other countries. Analysis of lead and other elements in the bronzes indicates sources similar to those of other cultures along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. At this point, however, the unique culture that produced these artifacts remains a mystery (View Pictures).

Book of Neuroscience

An Introduction for Young Students - is available electronically in English, Mandarin and Spanish from the British Neuroscience Association. The book is idea for those with little previous knowledge of the brain and is a wonderfully neat and concise 'primer' of neuroscience, touching on everything from development to drug addiction. A number of leading neuroscientists in the UK have contributed chapters describing their field of expertise in a simple yet imaginative and visually appealing way (View Full Text).

Neural substrates of envisioning the future

Cortical regions exhibiting activity differences and similarities during past and future thought. (A–D) Percent signal change for representative regions showing a significant interaction such that imagining of future events (SF) led to greater activation over the 10-modeled timepoints than did recollecting oneself in the past (SR). Both self-related tasks also led to greater activity than a control task involving imagery of another person participating in similar events (CI). (E–H) Percent signal change for selected regions showing a statistically indistinguishable pattern of activity across time while subjects envisioned their personal future (SF) and recollected the past (SR) in response to a series of event cues (e.g., Birthday). Imagining a familiar individual in similar scenarios (CI) resulted in a pattern of activity different from both the past and future tasks (View Full Text Paper).

Qur'an Recitation and Translation on-line

Listen to the Quran Recitation and Translation online in Arabic, English, and Urdu.

• Arabic audio recitation from 5 famous Qaris
• Arabic text with English and Urdu translation
• Audio Translations in English and Urdu

Manuscripts of the Renaissance

Hurricane Katrina simulation

Click on image to view movie.

Orange represents ocean temperatures at 82 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. This is the temperature required for hurricanes to form. The bottom left window shows wind analysis model data from NASA's Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction (MAP '05) program. The top right window shows rainfall accumulation for Hurricane Katrina from the TRMM spacecraft. The bottom right window shows energy-releasing deep convective clouds (as high as 16 km) in the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina. These clouds, called hot towers, formed on August 28 while the storm was intensifying to a category 5 hurricane.

Planets and stars size in scale

Cave Painting 15,000-10,000 BC

Wounded bison attacking a man. c. 15,000-10,000 BC. Bison length 43 in. (110 cm) Lascaux, France

The Christ of Dalí

Christ of Saint John of the Cross, 1951

Meteorite fragments

Click on the meteorite fragment to rotate the specimen and take a 360 degree look.

Meteorites are natural objects that survive their fall to Earth from space.When the Solar System formed, approximately 4570 million years ago, asteroids and comets were produced along with the Sun and planets. Meteorites are fragments broken from asteroids, and are our only opportunity for direct study of the material from which the Solar System was built.
Meteorites come in several forms. Iron meteorites are almost entirely metallic iron with several weight percent nickel (e.g., Henbury), whilst some are mixtures of stone and metal (e.g., Krasnojarsk). The biggest groups of meteorites are the stony meteorites, which are made from the same minerals that make up rocks on Earth. Some stony meteorite are close to terrestrial basalts (rocks made from lava: e.g., Stannern), whilst others have not melted since they formed. These unmelted stones are known as chondrites (e.g., Parnallee, Plainview). Although almost all meteorites come from the Asteroid Belt, one group of meteorites comes from Mars. (e.g., Nakhla).

Between Text and Image in Kandinsky’s Oeuvre

Wassily Kandinsky‘Klänge’ from the album Klänge, Munich c.1912.

In 1938 Wassily Kandinsky published the text ‘My Woodcuts’ in the French periodical XXe Siècle. As was so often the case, when he wrote about his prints he focused largely on general artistic principles: the majority of the text is devoted to a general discussion of the need to privilege ‘synthesis’ over ‘analysis’ in both art and in life. However, he specifically referred to the album of poetry and engravings Sounds (Klänge), which had been published in Munich c.1912, as ‘a small example of synthetic work’

Cossacks 1910-11

Wassily Kandinsky. Cossacks 1910-11. Tate Gallery.

The mysterious Cycladic civilization

The Cup-Bearer, a Cycladic figurine of unknown provenance dating between 2800-2200 B.C.. A new discovery of smashed marble figurines on an uninhabited Aegean Sea islet has shed new light on the mysterious Cycladic civilization, whose strikingly modern figurines are prized exhibits in museums and collections worldwide.