From musician Matthew Hemerlein comes this unusual and lovely little music video featuring a pop hit you may know — though you haven’t heard it like this before. Enjoy:

Matthew Hemerlein – Phnom Penh, Cambodia from Dave Adams on Vimeo.

Visit Hemerlein’s blog for the story, and for more about his music.

The other day we pointed you to an article that Nate at Precious Metal linked to about wasps having built a nest in the shape of a Buddha.

Not to be outdone, Cambodian termites are now getting in on the act. Here’s a link from jaunted, and another from the Inquirer in the Philippines.

Thanks to kin for this one.

This commercial has just the slightest tinge of Dharma-Burger sauce to it.

It’s one of those “Esurance” spots, wherein live-action customers become animated versions of themselves so they can hang with the impossibly skinny Erin, Esurance’s primary mascot and bondage-wear enthusiast.

Paul — who’s saving so much “green” thanks to his choice of insurer — is seen traveling the world, drinking booze on the beach, going diving, and so on. He even appears, for a fleeting second, in front of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple, meditating and intoning a quick “Om.”

You can see the ad here.

And hey: a representative from Esurance actually dropped a line to the Horse about this ad. See her comment about it for more. Way cool.

Just heard about a special report on CNN, airing this weekend:

“Go inside the world of Buddhism with Christiane Amanpour. In the fight for freedom and democracy, their weapon is peace. They are ‘Buddha’s Warriors,’ Saturday & Sunday, 8 p.m. ET.”

Mark yr calendars! (Here‘s the schedule, by the way.)

A sample here, and a link:

“Temporary Monks,” by Justin Mott.