How Thais think about words vs. actions

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Swine Flu Amulet, anyone?

BANGKOK - Responding quickly to the H1N1 pandemic, Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai announced today that the FDA has completed fast-track approval for a special amulet which would protect all who wore it from catching the virus. The amulet is being manufactured by the Nakhon Si Thamarat temple, which gained notoriety a few years ago for creating the Jatukam Ramathep amulets which were believed to bring fortune to its owners. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Thai-Fda-Approves-Production-Buddh-t285486.html
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Helpful Worldview Chart

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This chart was introduced in a philosophy class I took last year. I have found it to be a very useful tool to understand worldview from this particular perspective. It has also served as a way to help me evaluate the differences between Buddhist and Christian worldviews. A colleague noticed it is very Western and does not leave much room for "phenomenology" but after a long discussion about what exactly phenomenology is and how it could fit in this chart, we decided we weren't sure where it would go. So, although there are many models and ideas about worldviews, this is one I found particularly helpful. I will include some excerpts from a book by Clement Vidal (The Beginning and the End: The Meaning of Life in a Cosmological Perspective) that helps explain this model. Philosophical Discipline 1. What is? Ontology (model of reality as a whole) 2. Where does it all come from? Explanation (model of the past) 3. Where are we going? Prediction (model of the futur...
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Hospitality in Thailand

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