Support and Resistant Level for ERD/USD, 24 Dec 2013

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Beloved and Cute Animals

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What is Good About Khmer Foods

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Wat Chet Yot, A Buddhist Holy Temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Wat Chet Yot is located northwest of the city centre of Chiang Mai along the Super Highway Chiang Mai - Lampang (Highway 11), north of the intersection of Huai Kaeo road and Nimmanhemin road.

The design of the central sanctuary, the Maha Pho wihan (also called Maha Chedi, Thai: มหาเจดีย์), does indeed somewhat resemble the Mahabodhi temple, clearly having Indian influences. Crowning the flat roof of the rectangular windowless building are seven spires (In Thai: chet yot) which gives the temple its name: a pyramid-like spire with a square base set back from the centre surrounded by four smaller similar spires, and, set atop the two smaller annexes of the main building, two bell-shaped chedis.

The interior of the building contains a barrel vaulted corridor which leads to a Buddha statue at its end. Right and left of the Buddha statue narrow stairs lead up to the roof. In days past a bodhi tree grew on top of the roof but which was removed in 1910 CE to prevent the structure from collapse. Women should not climb up to the roof as only men are allowed to enter this part of the temple.

The exterior façades of the building feature 70, partially strongly weathered, stucco reliefs of Thewada (Devas), divine beings, the faces of whom have allegedly been modelled after relatives of King Tilokarat.

Construction history

King Tilokarat commissioned the construction of the temple in 1455 CE after he had sent monks to Bagan in Burma to study the design of the Mahabodhi temple there, itself a copy of theMahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya in northern India, the location where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, attained enlightenment.

According to the Jinakālamālī chronicle, in 1455 CE the king planted a bodhi tree on the spot and in 1476 CE "had established a large sanctuary in this monastery", probably for the celebration ceremony commemorating 2000 years of Buddhism. The following year the 8th Buddhist World Council was held at Wat Chet Yot to renew the Tripitaka (the Pali Canon).

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THE USA SPORT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The voice of reason inside the Kansas City Chiefs locker room boomed over the rest of the delicate flowers who were trying to whisper away their boo-boos. As his teammates rationalized the 23-7 shellacking the Indianapolis Colts laid on the Chiefs, veteran cornerback Dunta Robinson staked out a spot in front of his locker, stood tall and encapsulated Kansas City's entire season in 51 succinct, spot-on words.

"They came in and kicked our ass today," Robinson said. "No excuses. We've got to look in the mirror and decide what kind of team we want to be moving forward.

"Yeah, OK. You dominate Oakland. Yeah. You dominate the Redskins. But what are we going to do when we face other powerhouses?"

Boiled down to its essence, Robinson asked a simple question that observers of this surprising Chiefs team have echoed for the last four months: Are these Chiefs frauds?

If the 15th game of their season is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes. The Chiefs on Sunday were not just bad. They were bad at Arrowhead Stadium, the former house of horrors in which they've now lost three consecutive games. They were bad against another playoff team, a foreboding thought considering chances are they'll play these very Colts in two weeks – at Lucas Oil Stadium. They were bad at taking care of the ball, bad at protecting quarterback Alex Smith, bad at controlling their emotions and bad at tackling.

This was a bury-your-face-in-a-plate-of-barbeque-to-drown-the-sorrows game, the sort that doesn't linger on a team's palate so much as inject nasty granules of bitterness, and do something like remind Robinson, the 10-year veteran, that no matter how good these Chiefs have looked, they've done the vast majority of their damage against a last-place schedule.

Fact: The Chiefs have 11 wins. Those victories came against teams that entered Sunday with a combined 51-103 record.

Fact: The Chiefs have four losses. Those defeats came against teams that entered Sunday with a combined 38-18 record.

"When you don't come to play," cornerback Brandon Flowers said, "this is what happens."

It happened so quickly, too. Less than four minutes into the game, Kansas City held a 7-0 lead after Jamaal Charlesrushed through Indianapolis' defense for a 31-yard touchdown. From there, the offense went stagnant. Knile Davis lost a fumble. Alex Smith literally punched an interception. And then threw another. And all the while, the Colts ran a balanced offense, with Donald Brown running for a touchdown and catching another from quarterback Andrew Luck, who was methodical, patient and exacting in finding holes on a day the Chiefs had more blown coverage than a cell phone in rural areas.

The nadir may well have come late in the third quarter, when Indianapolis led 20-7. Luck threw an incomplete pass on third-and-3, only for a late flag to fly in because second-year defensive tackle Dontari Poe drew a taunting penalty for shoving a finger in the face of offensive lineman Mike McGlynn while barking at him.

That is the sort of day it was for the Chiefs: Eat a 15-yard penalty for trash-talking an anonymous offensive lineman, and watch the Colts march down for an Adam Vinatieri field goal and 23-7 lead.

"In a 16-game season, it happens every now and then," Chiefs guard Geoff Schwartz said. "Today was a bad day for it to happen."

It was particularly bad because it left the Chiefs prone again to those questions about their viability going forward. Give them this: Coming off a 2-14 disaster, this year is an unabashed success for Kansas City. Despite his flaws, Smith is the best quarterback the Chiefs have seen in nearly a decade. Charles is a week-in, week-out revelation. The defense carried them to the 9-0 start that came courtesy of a schedule stuffed with patsies.

Those victories, along with the combined 101 points Kansas City laid on Washington and Oakland the past two weeks, instilled in the Chiefs that the fraud tag is unfair.

"This is the best team I've ever been on," Robinson said. "I played in Atlanta last year, for the past three years, and we were a pretty good football team. But if we don't get focused, we're going to be sitting back here."

Robinson's words weren't as constructive as they were instructive. He didn't say how the Chiefs needed to get better other than some platitudes about getting to the stadium earlier or focusing harder. No, this was a move out of the veteran playbook designed to remind the Chiefs just how fragile their season is and to force them to ask themselves if they're merely a team that beats up on the dregs or can play up to their superiors.

They may well be. The Chiefs are, as Robinson pointed out, a well-rounded team. They can score. They can defend. They can put the special in special teams. Everything with this team, of course, necessitates "can" as a modifier, something the team owner himself uses as well.

"Once you're in the playoffs," Clark Hunt said, "anything can happen."

The Chiefs are there, locked into the AFC's No. 5 slot, and so chances are next week won't teach us much about which Kansas City team will show up the first weekend of January. Is it the team that dominated Oakland and Washington or the team that went meekly into the cold night Sunday, much as it had against Denver twice earlier in the season?

Soon enough, they'll answer Dunta Robinson's question for him.

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Protestors in Bangkok

Protesters hoping to stall Thailand's general elections, scheduled for February, thronged central Bangkok on Sunday as part of on-going rallies against the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.  Meanwhile, the prime minister travelled to a governing party stronghold to campaign.

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters brought central Bangkok to a halt Sunday in the campaign to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign and put a halt to national elections on February 2.  The protests were generally good-natured.

Protest leader and former opposition lawmaker Suthep Thangsuban told the crowds he was confident of ending influence in the government by Yingluck's older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who protesters accuse of corruption and abuse of power.

Protester Khun Kitina, an employee of a global information technology corporation, supported Suthep’s call to postpone the February ballot due to fears of corruption in the vote.

"We cannot accept the Thaksin system anymore and as you know they not do anything for the people.  And if we have the election on the 2nd of February it will still have the corruption and Thaksin still have the power for the election team to perform the election.  It cannot be a pure [clean] election from the people," she said. 

Thaksin remains in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for corruption and other charges linked to his five-year term in office before the army ousted him in 2006.  But pro-Thaksin parties, buoyed by rural voters, have won elections since then, the last in July 2011.  But largely urban protesters accuse the government of abuse of power.

The rallies in Bangkok were launched in November after the Yingluck government passed legislation providing a blanket amnesty covering corruption and political crimes dating back eight years.  The last-minute amended bill was seen to favor Thaksin to enable him to return to Thailand a free man.

Protester Khun Nat, a post-graduate university student, said he supported the call for the election to be delayed until political reforms were implemented.

"I want to see change in the right way, in the right way that we open our heart and speak together.  We have the democracy, we have to respect the democracy but we have something bad behind it.  We are Thai, we have the right to claim this back to our people," he said.

The outline for reforms remains unclear.  Prime Minister Yingluck said after the election a national reform council would be set up to work towards widespread reforms.  Protesters said the reforms should occur before an election.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Yingluck travelled to the northern provinces - a stronghold of the governing Pheu Thai Party, as anti-government protesters rallied outside her Bangkok residence, scuffling briefly with police.

The governing party appears set to strengthen its grip on parliament after the main opposition Democrat Party announced Saturday a boycott of the poll until reforms are implemented.

Thailand's Election Commission is weighing the possibility of relocating the venue for the registration of party-list parliamentary candidates in Bangkok, scheduled to start Monday, amid fears that protesters may try to prevent the registration going ahead. 

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Angkor Wat, The Holy Temple in Cambodia

Angkor Wat (Khmer: អង្គ​រវត្ត) was first a Hindu, then subsequently, a Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura (Khmer:យសោធរបុរៈ, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaivismtradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on earlyDravidian Architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerousdevatas adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ), which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (नगर). Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds", derived from the Pali word "vatta" (वत्त). Prior to this time the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok (Vara Vishnuloka in Sanskrit), after the posthumous title of its founder

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