London’s Burning!
out of control mobs
This week in Britain, out of control youths have taken control of the streets in what has been described as one of the worst cases of street violence on British streets for more than sixty years. Buildings and businesses which had survived the wars in Europe have been burned to the ground in the worst mayhem London has seen in years.
Violence and criminality such as looting, stealing, hijacking and assault have now spread to all five major cities in England namely Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol. Sixteen thousand police were told to return from their holidays or days off and sent to London to try to control the chaos last night. To date more than 630 young people have been arrested in connection with these incidents, one child as young as eleven was arrested by police on Monday night for looting from a local store.
People in Britain are now asking: who is to blame? Some have criticised the police for not responding quickly or strongly enough. Some say the government is responsible for young peoples’ anger because so many youths today are unemployed and cannot afford to go to university due to the government’s decision to increase education fees. A lot of people are pointing the finger of blame at the country’s teachers as they feel they have not done a good enough job at teaching respect and discipline to this generation of students. Police however are saying something different. They are asking parents: “Where was your child last night? If you don’t know then you are the main part of the problem. If you cannot make sure your children and teenagers stay indoors in the safety of their homes during such a dangerous week, then it is completely impossible for any police force in the world to control the outcome of your deplorable child-rearing skills.”
hooligans crowd burning streets
Tags: London burning out of control mayhem chaos violence britain
TED (Technology Entertainment and Design)
- Al Gore speaks at TED
is an international set of conferences set up to share “ideas worth spreading.”
TED was founded in 1984 as a one-time only gathering of great minds and the conference was so popular that it was then decided that to hold it annually from 1990 in California would be a great idea.TED’s focus in the beginning was predominantly technology and design. The events are now held in other locations in the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the speeches and presentations. They look at an ever widening range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most captivating and engaging ways they can. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Bill Gates, Salman Khan, Larry Page , JK Rowling and many Nobel Prize winners.
From 2005 to 2009, three $100,000 TED Prizes were awarded year on year to help its winners achieve a chosen wish to change the world. From 2010, in an overhauled selection process, a sole winner is chosen to ensure that TED can maximize its attempts in making the winner’s wish a reality. Each winner reveals their wish at the main annual conference.
- jk-rowling speaking on TED
Since June 2006,the talks have been available for free viewing online through TED.com. Since July 2010, over 700 talks are available for free online. By January 2009 they had been viewed 50 million times. In June 2011, the viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, demonstrating the power and curiosity of its ever expanding international audience.
Want something done…anything?Quick and fast? Check out this website!
YourManInIndia.com (YMI) is a company of the with a massive turnover major presence across India and several other markets. They are quality certified by the world’s leading bodies, and has experience with leading global corporations, such as SSL International, UK(Durex brand of condoms). It is now a household name in India. It is built on a strong sense of trust as well as a feeling of being part of people’s lives in India and beyond. It came to be known YourManInIndia in April 2004 and reshaped its business model to become a complete online concierge service company for busy professionals around the world. The website also came to be known as yourmaninindia.com This brought about a radical change in general perception towards the business and it got praise and positive attention through an article that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor in 2004 giving the service a global recognition among the relevant community.
yourmaninindia
From being a service provider that could cope with a wide range of tasks in India on behalf of customers, the company acquired special expertise and found a void in document procurement and attestation services across the country. If you need to find a rare or lost document, YMII is the place to go to have it found. YMII has evolved and moved into poll position in the legalisation market with a client base that includes the top IT companies in India. YourManInIndia is able to provide a wide range of services it has developed over the years. The company also has a department called ‘GetFriday‘ which is a world leader in the person-to-person outsourcing division. GetFriday has been appeared regularly in the international press for its innovative provisions by way of virtual help to busy individuals and small companies across the planet. The company has an energetic and motivated team of professionals with profound knowledge in the service sector that continuously seeks towards improving value to our customers.
get friday
Tags: global, India, online concierge service, ymii, yourmaninindia, yourmaninindia.com
japan disaster
japan quake
nuclear plant at fukushima
At 05.46 GMT in Japan a huge earthquake, 8.9 on the Richter scale, released a huge tsunami which rips through Japan’s eastern coastline, sweeping buildings, boats, cars and citizens miles inland.In Tokyo – miles from the quake – huge buildings rock violently and workers scurry into the streets for safety.More than 50 aftershocks follow – seven at above 6.3 on the Richter scale, the size of the quake which hit New Zealand on February 22.Sendai airport, north of Tokyo, is rushed with cars, trucks and buses and thick, slimy mud cover its runways.A large fire breaks out at the Cosmo oil refinery in Ichihara city near Tokyo and blazes out of control, with 100ft flames roaring into the clouds.
Japan earthquake:A crisis centre has been set up to co-ordinate Britain’s aid to japan and offer advice to anyone worried about relations or mates in Japan.The Government’s Cobra emergency response committee meets to talk about Britain’s response. Britain is ready to give any necessary help required.The afternoon sees the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh send their messages of sympathy to the people of Japan, sending expressions of their sympathy at the “tragic loss of life”.A “state of emergency” is announced at one of the country’s nuclear power plants after the Fukushima reactor, roughly 30 miles inland from the north east coast, suffers a cooling system failure. Around 3,000 people are ordered to evacuate from a 6.2-mile area.The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall send a message of sympathy.Throughout the day follows confirmation of hundreds of deceased.• Saturday Japan’s government begins a massive rescue mission bringing in thousands of soldiers, 300 planes and 40 ships with grave fears more than a thousand people have died.US military vessels and aircraft carriers are sent, along with relief teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.Japan asks for help from the UK.There is an unexplained explosion at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.Workers at the plant’s Unit 1 detect eight times the normal radiation levels outside and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1′s control room.Teams of international search and rescue specialists and medics fly out.Japan’s government spokesman says the explosion that ripped through the nuclear plant did not seriously damage the reactor.The death toll rises to at least 1,300 dead but thousands more are unaccounted for – including 10,000 from the sea-side town of Minamisanriku.More than 215,000 people are living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five areas, or states, the national police agency says.More than one million householders have no running water. Four million buildings are without electric power.• Sunday Japan’s nuclear safety agency says the cooling system of a third nuclear reactor at Fukushima has failed – experts are constantly monitoring levels of radioactivity in the evacuated area.The British embassy in Tokyo has a “long list” of people who are missing.Around 170,000 people have been evacuated from a 12-mile radius around the Fukushima nuclear plant.A spokesman says the blast destroyed a building which held a nuclear reactor, but the reactor has reportedly remained unscathed.
The Japanese government increases the number of soldiers sent into rescue and recovery operations to about 100,000.Save The Children launches an appeal to raise £1 million for Japan’s youth.The Foreign Office receives more than 3,200 phone calls from worried friends and relatives.Prime minister Naoto Kan asks Japanese citizens to unite in overcoming what he says is the country’s worst disaster since the Second World War.Nuclear plant operators are still trying to keep temperatures down in a series of reactors.Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano warns a hydrogen explosion could happen at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facories – the latest reactor to threaten a possible meltdown.Mr Edano says the radiation released into the environment so far is so small it should not be a health threat.Japan’s nuclear agency says up to 160 people were taken to hospital after possibly being exposed to radiation while waiting to be evacuated.
Seismologists say the quake – one of the largest in history – was really 9.0 rather 8.9 on the Richter scale.
Tags: earthquake, exposure, japan, nuclear, quake, radiation, radioactivity, tsunami
Stadium Australia
An amazing design and functionality, completely accessible to the blind and disabled, partially powered by its own solar energy and containing its own water treatment facilities and on site pubic transport:
anz stadium
Why should we be concerned about the construction and design of a stadium? Surely, as long as the sports are enjoyable and the construction and design is secure and relatively cozy, why should the beauty of it be important? If we consider that sporting achievement is as important an outlet for human expression as the theatre or cinema, or the rest of the arts, why shouldn’t the structures in which we stage this outlet be as impressive and as awe inspiring as those we would hope for in other parts of cultural life? In fact, it could be argued that because stadiums are often far more filled with customers than theatres etc, we should really give more, and not less, attention to their shape, construction and design. Stadiums have often been called ‘cathedrals’. Football has often been named ‘the opera of the people’. How better, therefore, to increase the general public’s exposure to quality aesthetics than to give them the very best structures, constructions and designs in the one part of life that seems to affect them most? Could it even be possible that better stadiums might just create happier and better citizens?
Olympic Stadium Australia
Perhaps I am a dreamer. Maybe I should simply agree that sport, and its affiliates is just a gaudy business, while stadium design and construction is usually driven by pragmatists and misers. Indeed, bizarrely some of the most popular stadium constructions in the world are also amongst the least beautiful, innovative or architecturally pleasing or best designed. Old Trafford football ground in Manchester, the Yankee Stadium in New York, Ellis Park in Johannesburg: each has gotten its renown more from the events that have taken place there, from its associations, than from the actual shape , construction or design . In addition, stadiums whose designs and shapes have been praised – such as the Maracana in Rio, or the San Siro in Milan – have been disappointing several functional design aspects. It has never been easy to strike precisely the right balance between aesthetics and design and functionality.
Grand Final, Stadium Australia
Homebush Bay, Australia was the location of the principle Olympic Games compound for the Sydney Olympics of 2000. If approached practically and with imagination, the possibility to host the Games can bring magnificent advantages in the long term if not for sport then for the noble cause of urban regeneration and construction. Following in Barcelona’s footsteps, Sydney certainly began its urban re-generation in a very impressive way. Initially, the 760-hectare site at Homebush Bay, once the site of an abattoir, a racecourse, brickworks and light industrial units, seemed in the middle of nowhere – it was in fact fifteen kilometres from the centre of Sydney and in the heart of the city’s extensive conurbation. Some ₤1.3 billion worth of construction and design and reclamation was set up with a view to post-Olympic functionality. Strict guidelines, diligently monitored by Greenpeace, made sure that the 2000 Games would be the most environmentally friendly ever. In addition, much of the work was attractive, unique and lively. ‘A reflection of the Australian spirit,’ they said.
Aerial View Stadium Australia
At the heart of Homebush, Australia was the main location for the Olympics, Stadium Australia. It was paid for by a BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) contract, which meant that the Stadium Australia, led by the contractors Multiplex and the financiers Hambros, bore the bulk of the construction costs, in return for which it was permitted to operate the facility for thirty years, and therefore, it hopes, regain its costs, before handing the construction over to the New South Wales government in the year 2030.
Tags: aesthetics, australia, construction, design, shape, stadium
Types of Volcanoes
Geological experts who analyse volcanoes, usually classify them into three principal types–cinder cones, composite volcanoes and shield volcanoes.
Cinder cones
cinder cone
Cinder cones are the simplest type of volcano. They are made from particles and lumps of congealed lava spat out from a single vent or hole. As the gas-charged lava is blown with force into the air, it dissolves into small pieces that solidify and fall as cinders around the entrance to create a circular or oval cone. Most cinder cones have a bowl-shaped crater at the top, and they seldom rise more than a thousand feet or so above the surrounding area. Cinder cones are common in North America as well as throughout other volcanic regions of the world.
A cinder cone started developing on a farm near the village of Parícutin in Mexico in 1943. Massive eruptions caused by gas quickly expanding and escaping from melted lava caused cinders that fell down around the opening , and this built the cone to a height of 1,200 feet. The last eruption that happened, left a funnel-shaped crater at the top of the cone. After the excess gases had mainly gone, the molten rock quietly spilled out onto the surrounding area of the cone and moved down the volcano slope as a stream of lava. This order of events – first eruption, then formation of cone and crater, followed by a lava flow – is a common train of events in the creation of cinder cones volcanoes.
Over the course of 9 years , Paricutin built a noticeable cone, spanned an area over 100 square kilometers with ashes, as well as destroying the town of San Juan. Geologists from many parts of the world studied Paricutin during its lifetime and learned a lot about volcanoes, its impact, and the changes to the surrounding topography by erosion.
Composite volcanoes
composite volcanoes
Often the Earth’s greatest mountains are composite volcanoes – sometimes called strato volcanoes. They generally have steep-sides, symmetrical cones of large span made of interlocking layers of lava flows, volcanic ash, cinders, blocks, and bombs, and they may rise as much as 8,000 feet above their bases. The beautiful mountains in the world are sometimes composite volcanoes, including Mount Fuji in Japan, Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador, Mount Shasta in California USA, Mount Hood in Oregon USA, and Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier in Washington USA. Most of these composite volcanoes have a crater at the peak which houses a central vent or opening or a clustered group of vents. Lava either flows through breaks in the crater wall or comes from cracks on the sides of the cone. Lava, becomes hard within the cracks and forms dikes that act as ribs which greatly strengthen the cone.
The important feature of a composite volcano is a conduit system through which the hot magma (volcanic material) from a reservoir deep within the Earth’s core rises to the surface. The volcano is built up by the accumulation of material erupted through the conduit and it grows in size as lava, cinders, and ash, are added to the sides of the slopes.
When a composite volcano no longer erupts, erosion begins to eat away the cone. As the cone is eroded away, the toughened magma filling the conduit (the volcanic plug) and fissures (the dikes) becomes exposed, and this is slowly worn away by erosion. In the end, all that is left is the plug and dike combo sticking up above the land – this is all that is left to prove that a volcano has now disappered.
An interesting twist on a composite volcano can be seen at Crater Lake in Oregon USA. From what can be interpred, a high volcano–called Mount Mazama- quite similar to present-day Mount Rainier was once situated at this spot. After a rain of awful explosions about 6,800 years ago, the volcano became topless. Massive quantities of volcanic ash and dust were ejected and washed down the slopes as ash streams and avalanches. These large explosions quickly ejaculated the lava under the mountain and compromised the strength of the upper part. The summit then collapsed to create a large hole, which would later fill with water and is now totally filled up by beautiful Crater Lake. Final groups of eruptions created a smaller cinder cone, which protrudes above the water surface as Wizard Island near the edge of the lake. Punch bowls such as Crater Lake, molded from the collapse of volcanoes, are called calderas. They are in general big, steep-walled, bowled-shaped holes molded by the fall of a wide area over, and around, a volcanic vent. Calderas are varied in shape and size from fairly circular holes 1 to 15 miles in diameter to large, long holes as much as 60 miles in length.
Shield volcanoes
shield volcanoes
Shield volcanoes, the last main type of volcano, are constructed pretty much of liquid lava flows. Wave upon wave pours out in all directions from a central top vent, building a wide, mildly sloping cone of flat, domical shape, with an aspect much like that of a warrior’s shield. They are formed slowly by the accretion of thousands of fluid lava flows called basalt lava that spread generously over huge distances, and then cool as thin, sheets. Lavas also often erupt from vents along breaks (rift zones) that grow on the flanks of the cone. Some of the biggest volcanoes in the world are shield volcanoes. In northern California and Oregon, many shield volcanoes have diameters of 3 or 4 miles and heights of 1,500 to 2,000 feet. The Hawaiian Islands are made up of linear chains of these volcanoes including Kilauea and Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii– two of the world’s most active volcanoes. The ocean floor is more than 15,000 feet deep at the bases of the islands. As Mauna Loa, the greatest of the shield volcanoes (and also the world’s largest active volcano), protrudes 13,677 feet above sea level, its peak is over 28,000 feet above the profound ocean floor.
In some eruptions, basaltic lava spills out silently from elongated fissures in lieu of central vents and floods the surrounding countryside with lava flow upon lava flow, creating wide plateaus. Lava plateaus of this kind or type can be found in Iceland, southeastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and southern Idaho. On the Snake River in Idaho, and the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon, these lava spills are beautifully exposed and stretch more than a mile in total thickness.
Tags: cinder, cinders, composite, cone, cones, lava, shield, volcano, volcanoes
What makes a really good management book?
famous writer Frederick Taylor
The history of management books:
Preceding World War 2, all the existing management books could be stacked on a few shelves. Today, you would need a very large, with oodles of room for expansion, to shelve all these wonderful and indeed not so wonderful management books. The last thirty years has produced a myriad of new titles in management books . In 1975, 771 management books were published about business . By the year 2000, the total for the year had risen to 3,203, and the increase is steadily creeping up.
Change in management requirements=change in management books
The increase in publishing activity in management books has followed the enormous rise of management to the point where it constitutes a mini-industry in its own right. In the USA , the entire management book market is worth over $ 1 bn. Management consistencies, professional bodies and business schools were part of this new phenomenon, all sharing at least one common need: to be printed. Nor were they the only aspiring authors. Management books containing personal stories by and about business leaders in real organisations tempered the more hard core management books by academics. How-to management books by current managers and business writers appeared on everything from making a presentation to developing a business plan. With this dramatic upswing in output, it is no surprise that the caliber of available management books is so very mixed.
An expert talks about management books:
Not many people are in a stronger position to assess the management book canon than Carol Kennedy, a business journalist and author of Guide to the Management Gurus, an overview of the world’s most influential management thinkers and their management books. She is also the management books editor of The Director. Naturally, it is normally the best of the bunch that are reviewed in the pages of The Director. However from time to time, Kennedy is moved to use The Director’s vital column to warn readers of certain books. Her recent review of The Leader’s Edge spelled out her annoyance with writers who over-promise and under-deliver. The banality of the treatment of core competencies for leaders, including the ability to pay attention, was a conceit too far in the context of a leaden text. ‘Somewhere in this management book’ she wrote, ‘there may be an idea worth reading and taking note of, but my own competency of paying attention ran out on page 31.’ Her opinion of many of the other books that never make it to the review pages is even more harsh. ‘Unreadable’ management books is her diagnosis.
How to recognize a good management book:
Simon Caulkin, contributing editor of the Observer’s management page and former editor of Management Today, has formed a similar view. ‘A lot of management books are containing pretty depressing, unimpressive stuff’. Caulkin is philosophical about the likelihood of finding so much rubbish. Business and management books, he says, ‘range from total drivel to the ambitious stuff. Although the confusing thing is that the really ambitious stuff can sometimes be drivel’. Which begs the question as to why the subject of management books is such a literary wasteland. There are some potential reasons.
Management books: who’ll have the next big idea?
In spite of the attempts of Frederick Taylor, the early twentieth-century founder of scientific management, to set up a solid, rule-based foundation for the practice, management (as well as management books) has come to be seen as just as much an art as a science. Once psychologists like Abraham Maslow, behaviouralists and social anthropologists persuaded business to look at management from a human point of view, the topic became more multi- dimensional and complicated. Couple with that the requirement for managers to mirror the changing demands of the times, the effect of information technology and other factors, and it is easy to see why management (not to mention management books) is in a never ending state of confusion. There is a constant need for reinvention, innovation and creative thinking: Caulkin’s ambitious stuff. For their part, publishers keep dreaming about discovering the next big management book, a topic discussed in Kennedy’s book, The Next Big Idea.
famous writer Henry Drucker
Standing the test of time is often the challenge for management book writers
Michael Hammer and James Champy famous writers
Peters and Waterman Famous writers
In a way, it tracks one of the occurences of the past 20 years or so: the management books which have become blockbusters and do amazing things for publishers’ balance sheets and transform authors’ careers. Peters and Waterman’s In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies achieved spectacular success. So did Michael Hammer and James Champy’s management book,Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. Still the early excitement with which such management books are received often loses its sheen as the foundation for the ideas starts to look less than secure. In the case of In Search of Excellence, it was the very quick turn around that turned several of the exemplar companies into overnight sheep. For Hammer’s and Champy’s readers, disillusion arrived with the realisation that their management books prescription for reviving corporate fortunes caused more problems than it fixed.
When writing a management book: Keep the language simple!
However one of the good things about these managment books is that they could be understood. There is a whole genre of management books that fail this basic assessment. ‘Some management books are stuffed with jargon,’ says Kennedy. ‘Consultants who write management books are among the worst offenders.’ She contends there is a simple reason for this desertion of plain English. ‘They all use this jargon in their management books because they can’t think clearly. It disguises the paucity of thought.’
Management books: no jargon please!
Charles Handy famous writer
Conversely, the management book writers and thinkers who have remained steadfastly admired, put across their ideas in plain English. Peter Drucker, widely hailed as the doyen of management thinkers, has written a constant flow of influential management books over fifty years. ‘Drunker writes beautiful, clear prose,’ says Kennedy, ‘and his thoughts come through.’ He is among the very few writers whose work, she believes, goes beyond the specific interests of the management community. Caulkin also agrees that Drucker’s management books speak to wider readership. ‘What you get is a sense of the larger cultural background,’ he says. That’s what is missing in so much management book writing.’ Charles Handy, perhaps the most influential UK business and management book writer to command an international audience, is a further rare example of an author with a message for everypne…not just the big bosses!
Tags: book, famous writer, management, management book, management books, writers
THE CLOUD MESSENGER
cummulus clouds
One evening in winter 1802, in a damp and stifled laboratory in London, an unknown young amateur meteorologist gave the lecture that was to make him famous.
Luke Howard had been talking for almost sixty minutes about clouds, during which his audience had become more and more ensconced in a gradually mounting state of excitement. When he finally reached the conclusion of his address, the Plough Court laboratory was in an uproar. Everyone in the audience had realized the significance of what they had just heard, and all were ready to have it confirmed loudly by their colleagues and peers in the room. During the preceeding hour, they had been introduced to not only explanations of the formation and lifespan of clouds, but also to a poetic new terminology: ‘Cirrus clouds’ ‘Stratus clouds’, ‘Cumulus clouds’, ‘Nimbus clouds’, and the other names, too, the names of intermediate compounds and modified forms, whose differences were founded on altitude, air temperature and the shaping powers of upward radiation. There was much that needed to be mentally digested.
stratus clouds
Clouds, as everyone in the lecture hall would already have known, were staging the rise and fall of water as it made its way on ongoing compensating journeys between the earth and the bountiful sky. However the means of clouds’ exact make up remained a mystery to most observers who, overall, were still in thrall to the vesicular or ‘bubble’ theory that had dominated meteorological thinking for the best part of a hundred years. The earlier speculations, in all their weirdness, had mostly been forgotten or were treated as historical oddities to be glanced at, criticized and then abandoned. Howard, however, was convinced that clouds were created from actual solid drops of water and ice, condensed from their vaporous forms by the fall in temperature which they came across as they ascended through the quickly cooling lower atmosphere. Balloon pioneers during the 1780s had confirmed just how cold it could get up in the realm of the clouds: the temperature fell some 6.5°C for every thousand metres they climbed. By the time the middle of a major cumulus clouds had been reached, the temperature would have dropped to below freezing, while the oxygen concentration of the air would be starting to thin quite significantly. That was what the balloonists meant by ‘dizzy heights’.
Howard, naturally, was not the first to maintain that clouds were best understood as entities with physical properties of their own, following the same essential laws which governed the rest of the natural world (with one or two interesting anomalies: water, after all, is a very strange material). It had long been accepted by many of the more scientifically minded that clouds, despite their distance and their intangibility, should be understood like any other objects in creation.
Luke Howard also felt that there was a fixed and constant number of basic cloud types and this number was not (as the audience might have expected from clouds) in the hundreds or the thousands, like the teeming clouds themselves, with each individual as a thumbprint. Had this been the case, it would make them both unclassifiable and unaccountable; just so many stains upon the sky. Howard’s claim, conversely, was that there were just three basic families of clouds, into which every one of the thousands of ambiguous forms could be categorised with certainty. The clouds followed a system and, once recognised in outline, their basic forms would be ‘as distinguishable from each other as a tree from a hill, or the latter from a lake’, for each displayed the simplest possible visual characteristics.
cirrus clouds
The names which Howard devised for them were designed to convey a descriptive sense of each cloud type’s outward characteristics (a practice derived from the usual procedures of natural history classification), and were taken from the Latin, for ease of adoption ‘by the learned of different nations’: Cirrus clouds (from the Latin for fibre or hair), Cumulus clouds (from the Latin for heap or pile) and Stratus clouds (from the Latin for layer or sheet). Clouds were therefore divided into tendrils, heaps and layers: the three formations at the heart of their design. Howard then went on to name four other cloud types, all of which were either modifications or aggregates of the three major families of formation. Clouds continually unite, pass into one another and disperse, but always in recognizable stages. The rain clouds Nimbus, for example (from the Latin for cloud), was, according to Howard, a rainy combination of all types, although Nimbus clouds was reclassified as nimbostratus by meteorologists in 1932, by which time the science of rain had developed beyond all recognition.
nimbus clouds
The modification of clouds was a major new idea, and what struck the audience most vividly about it was its elegant and powerful fittingness. All of what they had just heard seemed so obvious . Some people must have wondered how it was that no one – not even in ancient history – had named or graded the clouds before, or if they had, why their attempts had left no record in the language. How could it be that the job had been waiting for Howard, who had managed to wring a kind of exactitude from out of the ? Their forms, though shapeless and unresolved, had finally, been grasped. Howard had given names to a fluidity and impermanence that seemed every bit as mystical, to that first audience, as the Eskimo’s fabled vocabulary of snow. Clouds, now a little more understood perhaps, but always mystical.
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nimbus stratus cummulus cumulus cirrus
Tags: cirrus clouds, clouds, cummulus clouds, nimbus clouds, stratus clouds
Complementary and alternative medicine
What do experts in Western countries think about ‘alternative’ therapies? Orla Kennedy reads a surprising survey.
reflexology
Are complementary medicinal practices aerie faerie or do they merit in depth scientific research? Should science scout beyond traditional medicine and carry out studies on unorthodox treatments and the growing connections links between mind and our well being? This has been hotly argued at the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Medical-Marijuana
One in every 5 Europeans uses complementary medicine, and one in ten uses herbalism or homoeopathy. Around ￡130 million is spent on oils, potions and pills every year in Britain, and the alternative medicine industry is estimated to be worth ￡1 .6 billion. With the help of Professor Edzard Ernst Laing, chair of complementary medicine at The Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exter and Plymouth, we asked the scientists their opinions on complementary and alternative treatments. Seventy-five scientists, in specialities ranging from molecular biology to neuroscience, give their opinion below.
acupuncture
Amazinfly, our test cases of scientists was twice as likely as the ordinary people to actually use some form of complementary medicine, at around four in 10 compared with two in 10 of the general population. 75% of scientific users believed they were working. Acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy were the most commonly used complementary treatments among scientists and more than 55 per cent believed these were more effective than a placebo and should be available to all on the National Health Service.
chiropractic
Scientists do seem to place more store in the more widely accepted areas of complementary and alternative medicine, such as acupuncture, osteopathy, chiropractic for which there are professional organisations and recognised training methods, than therapies such as aromatherapy and spiritual healing. ‘Osteopathy is now a recognized profession which requires a certified four-year degree before you can publicize and practise’, said one neuroscientist who used the treatment.
reiki
Almost 66% of the scientists who responded to our survey stated that aromatherapy and homoeopathy were no better than placebos, with almost a half believing the same of herbalism and spiritual thinking. Some of the responses we received were highly critical, even though one tenth of our subjects had used homoeopathy. ‘Aromatherapy and homoeopathy are scientifically nonsensical’, said one molecular biologist from the University of Bristol. Dr Romke Bron, a molecular biologist at the Medical Research Council Centre at King’s college London, added: ‘Homoeopathy is a big scam and I am convinced that if someone sneaked into a homeopathic pharmacy and swapped labels, nobody would notice anything.’
naturapath endochrinologist
Two hundred years after homeopathy was introduced, it still lacks any true proof that its effective. Scientists are sure that the placebo solutions and sugar pills have no side effects, but are perplexed by how they can do anything.
homeopathy
According to followers of the ‘integrated health approach complementary and conventional medicine should be used in routine health care. However the scientists who took part in our survey voiced serious misgivings about this approach, with more than 50% feeling that integrated medicine was merely an effort to sidestep rigorous scientific testing. Dr Bron said: ‘There is an awful lot of bad science going on in alternative medicine and the general public has a hard time to distinguish between scientific myth and fact. It is absolutely paramount to maintain rigorous quality control in health care. Although the majority of alternative health workers mean well, there are just too many frauds out there preying on vulnerable people.’
lavender field-aromatherapy
One molecular biologist from the University of Warwick admitted that ‘by doing this poll I have realised how shamefully little I understand about alternative therapy. Insufficient scientific research has done. There is adequate anecdotal evidence to convince that at least some alternative treatments are effective for some patients, which suggests that this is an area ripe for research.’
osteopath_with_patient
When questioned on whether complementary and alternative medicine should get more funding for research, scientists stated the top three (acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy) should get money, as should herbalism. It seems that therapies based on physical manipulation or a known action – like the active ingredients in a herb on a receptor in the body – are the ones that the scientific field has faith in. Less than 25% felt that therapies such as aromatherapy, homoeopathy and spiritual healing should get any extra government aid.
alternative medicine
Scientists believed that the ‘feel good’ counseling services offered with complementary medicine and the time taken to listen to patients’ problems was what was working best, rather than any medicinal properties. Conversely, the general visit to the doctor lasts only eight minutes, says the British Medical Association. Dr Stephen Nurrish, a molecular biologist at University College of London, said: ‘Much of the benefit people get from complementary medicine is the time to talk to someone and be listened to sympathetically, something that is now lacking from medicine in general.’
Faith_healing
However an unnamed neuroscientist at King’s College London had a more synical view of this advantage: ‘On the validity of complementary and alternative medicines, no one would dispute that ‘feeling good’ is good for your health, but why discriminate between museum-trip therapy, patting-a-dog therapy and aromatherapy? Is it because only the latter has a cadre of professional ‘practitioners’?’
conventional medicine
There are other more extreme leaning scientists who contend that there should be no such thing as complementary and alternative medicine. As Professor David Moore, director of the Medical Research Council’s Institute of Hearing Research, said: ‘Either a treatment works or it doesn’t. The only way to determine if it works is to test it against appropriate controls (that is, scientifically).’
alternative-medicine-for-dogs
JOBS IN THE MOVIES are not just for actors
Subtitling for movies is a precise element in any translating career. Melanie Leyshon talked to Virginie Verdier of London translation company VSI about the high life and the hard life in her exciting job!
movie director
When asked what she does for a living,French translator Virginie Vernier finds it tempting to say equivically: ’0h me? I’m in the movies’. It’s technically true, but her principal role is very much back stage. In terms of translating, it doesn’t get more interesting or glitzy than subtitling movies. If you’re fortunate, you get the opportunity to work on the new hit films before they’re even released to the public, and if you’re just lucky, you get to work on the hit movies that are going to video or DVD.
Virginie points out that this is a job which requires 100% precision. ‘You work hard. It’s not all entertainment as you are doing the translating. You need all the skills of a good translator and those of a top-notch editor. You have to be precise and, of course, much more concise than in traditional translation work.
movie subtitle news
The job begins when you get the finalized script and a tape. ‘We would start with translating and adapting the film script. The next step is what we call ‘timing’, which means synchronising the subtitles to the dialogue pictures.’ This task requires persistence and discipline. ‘You play the film, listen to the voice and the subtitles are up on your screen ready to be timed. You insert your subtitle when you hear the corresponding dialogue and delete it when the dialogue finishes. The video tape carries a time code which runs in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. Think of it as a clock. The subtitling unit has an insert key to capture the time code where you want the subtitle to appear. When you press the delete key, it captures the time code where you want the subtitle to disappear. So each subtitle would have an ‘in’ point and an ‘out’ point which represent the exact time when the subtitle comes in and goes out. This process is then followed by a manual review, subtitle by subtitle, and time codes are adjusted to improve synchronization changes. This process involves playing the film literally frame by frame as it is essential the subtitles respect the visual rhythm of the film.’
Various subtitles use a range of techniques. ‘I would go through the film and do the whole translation and then go right back from the beginning and start the timing process. But you could do it in different stages, translate let’s say 20 minutes of the film, then time this section and translate the next 20 minutes, and so on. It’s just a different method.’
the oscars
For multi-lingual jobs, the timing is finalized first to set up what is known as a ‘spotting list’, a subtitle template, which is basically a list of English subtitles timed and altered for translation requirements. This is then translated and the timing is changed to the target language with the aid of the translator for quality assurance.
‘Like any translation work, you can’t hurry subtitling, says Virginie. ‘If subtitles are translated and timed in a rush, the quality will be affected and it will show’. Errors normally happen when the translator does not fully grasp the original language and misunderstands the original script. ‘Our work also involves checking and reworking subtitles when the translation is not up to standard. However, the reason for redoing subtitles is not just because of poor quality translation. We may need to adapt subtitles to a new version of the film: the time code may be different, the film may have been edited or the subtitles may have been set up for the silver screen instead of video. If subtitles were done for cinema on 35mm, we would have to reconfigure the timing for the A.V. as subtitles may be out of kilter or too fast. If the translation is high quality, we would naturally leave untouched the work of the original translator.
Moreover, there are blanket subtitling guidelines to respect, says Virginie. ‘Subtitles should pop up at the bottom of the screen and in the centre.’ She says that different states use their own standards and rules. ‘In Scandinavian countries and Holland, for example, subtitles are traditionally left justified. Characters usually appear in white with a thin black border for easy reading against a white or light background. We can also use different colours for each speaker when subtitling for the hearing impaired. Subtitles should have a maximum of two lines and the maximum number of characters on each line should be between 32 and 39. Our company standard is 37 (different companies and countries have different standards).’
Translators usually have a preferred genre, whether it’s action films, musicals, romantic comedies (one of the most difficult because of the subtleties and nuances of comedy in different countries), drama or corporate programmes. Each calls for a particular tone and style. ‘VSI employs American subtitlers, which is incredibly useful as many of the films we subtitle are American,’ says Virginie. ‘For an English person, it would not be so easy to understand the meaning behind typically American expressions, and vice-versa.’
Tags: movies, subtitlers, translator
Difficult to match Sydney with its Opera and its bay.
Sydney-Australia
opera-house
But if Melbourne lack of standards, it does not relieve a vitality least exacerbated, driving with a lot of artists, festivals, architectural, night-clubbers and chefs decades of apathy and austerity.
melbourne-city
It all started twenty years ago. At the time, the city is a conglomeration of buildings and offices that urbanites leave without regret in the morning. ” It could not last, remembers Rob Adams, head of the Department of Urban Design and Environment in the city. It was absolutely necessary to show that Melbourne was more than a place to work. “Since 1992, the program is launched Postcode 3000 . Old buildings and old warehouses reborn as lofts and apartment design. Meanwhile, Victorian works are valued, broader avenues, planted with trees or made for pedestrians. And the banks of the Yarra River, previously assigned to factories, car parks and railways, are completely refurbished, welcoming bars, restaurants, parks and shopping centers. ” From beginning to end, the river became the backbone of the city , “says Adams. Now, you can go jogging and rowing. There is also a nap on the grass, as we drink a drink on the terrace. Toward the center, multiple arches (alleys and tunnels) mingle happily coffees, pastries and retro funky designer, stormed the weekend. While at the cocktail hour, bars and clubs took over in a swirl of lights, music, high heels and unusual scenery.
australia-melbourne-square
The craze is such that it also sweeps in the neighborhoods where nobody wanted to even a decade ago. Thus, the very residential Chapel Street is needed there as “the” bobo-den chic galleries, trendy boutiques and its famous Prahran Market. Same in Brunswick, where the atmosphere and underground cosmopolitan never fails to attract new fans who, every ray of sunshine can be found on the beach of St Kilda, a place of celebration and cultural resorts.Result: In 2009, the British magazine The Economist propelled Melbourne to third place in its Top 10 cities in which to live. Evidence that Sydney must now reckon with the state capital of Victoria.
melbourne-airport
Tags: Cheap Hotels, sydney, Sydney hoel
You’ve probably already arranged your vacations, but some people are still thinking about it …
You might be hoping to find the incredible last minute bargain, or more simply you can not decide between a getaway in a European city and beach holiday you’ve always dreamed of.
Whatever the type of destination you choose, what is certain is that you’d like to enjoy the sun. Want to be the envy of your friends with your tan, do not embarrass yourself by coming back whiter than you were when you left!
As the tragic events in southern France have shown, we can be sure of anything in terms of climate. That said, choosing certain destinations you have more opportunities to enjoy the weather.
Here is our top 5 destinations in Europe where you’re more likely to catch that much sought after tan as well as have a cultural and romantic experience.
1: Faro
faro from the air
Faro can not possibly compete with destinations such as Cyprus or the south of Spain in high temperatures, but with an average of 3170 hours of sunshine per year (the highest in Europe), more than 11 hours sunshine per day during the summer and rainy days on average in June and July, the capital of the Algarve Portugal is a relatively safe option in terms of sunshine.
In addition to sun, Faro is lively and exciting, especially at night and in the area of the University. Lovers of art and culture will enjoy many examples of architecture and buildings worth visiting, including Arab and Roman ruins dating from the 9th century and beyond.
Most of the best beaches in the Algarve are also nearby, which makes Faro a great base if you want to visit this region.
And if you’re looking for something a little different for your holiday and enjoy the speed, go to Faro on the penultimate weekend in July to attend one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the world – the International Motorcycle Rally Faro.
Where to stay: There are many hostels in Faro where you can relax after enjoying your 11 hours of sunshine. That said if you are looking for the best comfort, see a bit of luxury without breaking the bank, try the charming Hotel Residencial S. Algarve with its tranquil setting. See justcheaphotel.com for further details.
2. Seville
seville
Knowing that the region of Seville is nicknamed “the frying pan of Europe”, you will not be surprised to learn that it is damn hot in this city! In July and August, the mercury reaches 35 degrees on a regular basis and it almost never rains.
That said, climate is not the only asset of the fourth city of Spain. Seville is more than 2000 years old and contains examples of the most stunning architecture in Europe. Seville Cathedral, built on the site of the former mosque of the city, Visigoth and Arab influences, while the Alcazar blend the traditional styles of Moors and Christians.
Andalusia is known to be an area for partying and Seville, as the capital of the region, leading by example. Perhaps because of the heat, many people like to meet for a drink in places such as pre-arranged Plaza San Salvador or along the Guadalquivir River – the so-called botellón.
If you want to party in the style of Seville, just go Alafa Plaza or the nearby Calle Betis – but keep in mind that the locals would not leave before 23h or 23:30, so be prepared to party until the end of the night!
Where to stay: You’ll need a cool and comfortable to escape the heat during your stay in Seville. Fortunately, there are many cheap hotels and hostels in Seville that meet these criteria, including one of our hostels with the best estimates, Samay Hostels Sevilla.
3. Crete
crete
With average temperatures around 30 degrees, little or no rain and 1000 kilometers of coastline with beautiful sandy beaches, bays and pretty peninsulas, Crete is really a paradise for beach lovers.
The best place to enjoy the sun is south of the island, although there are good chances that you get a blue, cloudless sky and hot sun, whatever your destination.
Chania is the unofficial capital of the island, and that’s where you find most holidaymakers, but there are prettier and calmer beaches south and west of the island.
The advantage of Crete, is that you can do as much (or as little) as you want. If you’re there to relax, you can sunbathe on a lounger with a slice of watermelon in one hand and a delicious cocktail in the other while admiring the turquoise waters.
If you’re more of an active person , you can try the many water sports or exploring the rich heritage of the island. Crete is known for being home to the Minoan civilization and tens of thousands of visitors come every year to admire the Knossos ruins of this fascinating period. The gorge of Samaria, with its breathtaking views and stunning scenery, is another strong point of the island.
And to explore the island in peace, rent a car.
Where to stay: It depends entirely on the type of holiday you want to spend. If you’re there to party, so choose a hostel near Chania. If you want to spend a quieter, calmer day try the Summer Lodge. For more options, check out the hostels in Crete on the site HostelBookers.
4. Cyprus
cyprus
At the heart of the Mediterranean, with Syria to the east and Turkey to the north, Cyprus is a popular tourist destination for several years thanks to its well-deserved reputation for pristine beaches and sunny destination.
You can find the highest temperatures in Nicosia, the capital of the island, where they regularly reach the 36 or 37 degrees. At Larnaca and Paphos, temperatures often exceed 30 degrees, but in reality it is nice everywhere, including in Ayia Napa, an island that is the mecca of clubbing.
In addition to the endless parties and boosted sonos of Ayia Napa, Cyprus also has a rich culture and many World Heritage sites by UNESCO that you can explore.
Whether you’re planning to party or to learn more about the 10,000 years of history in Cyprus, be sure not to miss a thing: food! Halloumi, dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) and lamb Kleftiko are just a sampling of the many specialties that you should try at all costs. And in the case of an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it goes without saying that fish and seafood are also delicious!
Where to stay: To obtain independent housing with access to a bar and a pool on site, all in the heart of Ayia Napa Napa Prince Hotel Apartments are among the best in Cyprus.
5. Rome
rome:
5: Rome
Last but not least, the destinations on our list is Rome. Here temperatures are known to sometimes reach over 40 degrees, but rest assured, the average is around 30 degrees.
It does not really need an introduction to Rome. With the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the beautiful gardens of Villa Borghese, the city is home to some of the buildings and legendary world attractions .
Rome is also very fashionable, stylish and, of course, romantic. You will see many couples walking hand in hand under the summer sun or share one of the lenses to the panorama that you can find in this city.
Add to that the Vatican City and more bars and restaurants that you can try in your life, and you get the perfect destination for a city break.
Where to stay: Rome is not the cheapest destination for a holiday, but there are many youth hostels in Rome offering affordable stays, like Domus Elisa. Offering private rooms complete with complimentary breakfast, refrigerator and wireless Internet access from 20 €
san diego by night
San Diego , the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California, has a huge population. The urban area of San Diego reaches passed the governmental city limits with a population of 2,880,333. This is part of a greater region with a population of approximately 22 million. It is situated on the Pacific Ocean at the most southerly of the west coast of the United States mainland.
The city was ranked the fifth-best place to live in the US in 2004. As published in Forbes magazine, San Diego is the fifth-richest city in the U S. San Diego’s four major industries are manufacturing, defense, tourism, and agriculture. San Diego is also ear marked as an iHub Innovation Center by the California Office of Economic Development
san diego landmark
Tourism In San Diego
Tourism is a massive economy due to the city’s agreeable climate, its pleasant beaches, and manifold tourist attractions such as Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park, and many more. San Diego’s Spanish heritage is evident in the many ancient sites across the ville, for example Mission San Diego de Alcalaand Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Yearly events in San Diego comprise Comic-Con, the Buick Invitational golf competition San Diego Black Film Festival, and Street Scene Music Festival.
San Diego (greater) was visited by 33 million visitors in 2010 ; together they spent a sum supposed to be at $8.8 billion locally.
The cruise ship sector, which is one of the largest industries in California, turns overs an estimated $2.4 million yearly from the vending of food, fuel, provisions, and mechanical services. In 2009 the harbour welcomed 256 ship calls and more than 800,333travelers.
Tags: california, san diego hotels
babar_ali at 16
Millions of children around the world are not getting even basic education because their families are too impoverished to be able to send them to school. In India, one young but determined schoolboy is trying to change that. In BBC’s Hunger to Learn series, Damian Grammaticas met Babar Ali, whose amazing education project is offering hope and opportunity to hundreds of poor children.
At 16 years old, Babar Ali is arguably the youngest headmaster in the world. He’s in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family’s garden, where he offers lessons for poor children from his village. The story of this young man from Murshidabad in West Bengal is an incredible tale of the hunger to learn amid the most insufferable conditions and poverty.
Babar Ali’s day is a lot harder than the routine of his western counterparts. He wakes, does the household chores, then sets out on a 10km (six mile) ride to the Raj Govinda school. He has to walk the last few of kilometers .
His school is the best in this part of West Bengal. There are hundreds of students. The classrooms are tidy but bare. But there at least desks, chairs, a blackboard, and the teachers are all motivated and well-qualified. In class Babar Ali sits in the middle in the front row. He is the model student.
Babar Ali is the first member of his family ever to get a proper education. “It’s not easy for me to come to school because I live so far away,” he says, “but the teachers are good and I love learning. And my parents believe I must get the best education possible that’s why I am here.”
Raj Govinda school is government-run so it is free; all Babar Ali has to pay for is his uniform, his books and the ride to get there. But still that means his family has to find around 1,800 rupees a year ($40) to send him to school. In this part of West Bengal that is a lot of money. Most poor families simply can’t afford to send their children to school, even when it is free.
16-year-old Babar Ali has determined to help hundreds of poor children in his village. When his own classes are over at Raj Govinda school, Babar Ali doesn’t go home and relax, he goes immediately to share what he’s learnt with other children from his village.
Indian school
At four o’clock every afternoon after Babar Ali gets home a bell rings to call the children to his house. They flock through the gate into the garden behind his house, where Babar Ali now acts as headmaster of his own, unofficial school.
In his back yard the children sing the national anthem. Standing on a podium, Babar Ali teaches them about discipline, and then studycommences. Babar Ali tries to give lessons just the way he has heard them from his teachers. Some children have no choice but to be seated in the mud, others on creaky benches under a flimsy shelter. In every corner of the yard groups of children study hard.
Babar Ali was only nine when he began teaching a few friends as a game. They were all eager to know what he learnt in school every morning and he liked pretending to be their teacher.
Now his unofficial school has 800 students, all from poor families, all taught for free. Most of the girls come here after working as domestic helps in the morning, and the boys after they have finished their work in the fields.
“In the beginning I was just playing, teaching my friends,” Babar Ali says, “but then I realized these children will never learn to read and write if they don’t have proper lessons. It’s my duty to educate them, to help our country build a better future.”
There are now 10 teachers at the school including Babar Ali. Like him they are all students at school or college, who work voluntarily. Babar Ali doesn’t ask for money for anything, even books and food are given free, paid for by donations. It means even the poorest of the poor can come here. “Without this school many kids wouldn’t get an education, they’d never even be literate.” he says.
The school has now been recognized by the local authorities, it has helped increase literacy rates in the area, and Babar Ali has won many awards for his work.
The youngest children are just four or five, and they are all packed into a small veranda. There are a couple of electric bulbs to give light because lessons stretch into the evening when there are no power cuts.
Day in day out they strive to better themselves; eight hundred poor children, unable to afford an education, but desperate for anything they can learn at Babar Ali’s school.
Tags: Babar Ali, Raj Govinda, West Bengal, youngest headmaster
the earth from space
Chris Hadfield has a rare hobby – he likes to take photos of Canada from space. Regardless of the significant risk involved, astronaut Chris believes that it is crucial for the world that manned space flight should be proliferated. ‘Humankind will never stop exploring…’, he said, ‘If we give up space exploration, we shall be denying ourselves the opportunity to participate in the exploration of the universe and, by so doing, to contribute to the improvement of life here on earth. Exploration has never been a risk-free enterprise, but risk has always been part of the price that mankind has paid for progress.’
Chris Hadfield
Chris Hadfield is an unorthodox type of traveler – and has the photographic evidence to prove it. He was the first Canadian to leave a spacecraft and float in space. During this and other adventures, Hadfield took scores of pictures, many of which showed technical aspects of the missions and the condition of the shuttle but others are inspirational pictures of some of the wonders of the world from space.
One thing he’s learned is that taking pictures is no walk in the park. ‘In the first place’, Hadfield explains, ‘there are all the problems weightlessness entails. Then there is the speed at which the spacecraft is travelling, which means that what you want to photograph is only in your viewfinder for very short intervals. Basically you have to prepare for a photograph well in advance. The speed of the spacecraft, of course, means that many pictures are blurred but when you get the occasional amazing picture, you realise it is worth all the trouble. After all, a picture is said to be worth a thousand words. Space photography allows us to see Earth from a unique angle and to observe significant and often unsettling changes in the environment.’
When Hadfield visited a space station recently, he was fascinated by the change in the minds of the permanent crew – ‘they had come to understand Earth as a separate and distant entity.’ Hadfield believes that this is the kind of mental adjustment that is needed if we are to live in space and before we go to Mars. Hadfield is convinced that there will be manned flights to Mars – and perhaps permanent settlement there or on other planets. He says: ‘When the early navigators first developed the confidence to sail out of sight of land and visit the then unexplored areas of the globe, there was no idea of settlement but, of course, that came later.’
Tags: Canada, Chris Hadfield, earth, space
malta ocean
Malta has an amazing, 7,000-year history that has left an unparalleled mark. The whole city is a World Heritage Site. Its little-known temples are the oldest and most ahead of their time stone structures in the world (older even than the pyramids of Egypt). The remains of Roman invasions and occupation, colossal churches and huge fortifications of the Knights of St John and the many markers of Malta’s corner stone role played in the Second World War, mean that this small country is like a giant open air museum. Warm sun is abundant, and the country is enveloped by blue Mediterranean sea. It’s an incomparable destination for those who love history, culture, good weather and of course fine cuisine!
malta
Want to avoid long flights and frustrating waiting times?
Unlike many other destinations, Malta is a mere three-hour flight the British isles. There are a number of low cost carriers to choose from and plenty of competition on the route to drive costs down.EasyJet flies out of Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle; Ryanair from Luton, Bristol and Edinburgh; and BMI Baby flies twice a week from East Midlands Airport. Air Malta operates from Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and, during peak season, Glasgow. The airport is within convenient driving distance from any holiday destination on the island.
What about accommodation?
Xara Palace is the only hotel inside the walls of Mdina, Malta’s ancient capital. It contains antique-furnished rooms, in a 17th-century palazzo. This hotel has been visited by a myriad of a-list celebrities including Brad Pitt and many more. De Mondion restaurant which it houses is rated number one in Malta’s restaurant and good food guide. Expect to pay in the region of 200 euros for a double room per night.
The Corinthia Palace Hotel is a reasonable five-star hotel in a tranquil, classy area, with open green spaces, swimming pool and spa. Doubles from 126 euros for bed and breakfast.
Another option is the Castille Hotel,a more affordable three-star in a fabulous location within easy reach of the Knights Auberges de Castille and metres from the Upper Barracca Gardens. prices in the range of 80 euros B & B.
What to do?
Explore the enchanting center Valletta. Constructed by the Knights of Malta in the 1570s, it is hemmed in on three sides by ocean and reinforced by gigantic defense mechanisms designed to ward off attempts at invasion by the Turks who attempted to take the islands in the Great Siege of 1565.
See Malta’s Prehistoric World Heritage Sites. Start at the temples of Mnajdra and Hagar Qim which were constructed in 3,600-2,500BC. Words can’t describe this trip back in time.
On almost any Saturday night from May to September, join the locals at festa celebrations (www.visitmalta.com/village-festas) with music, food, drink and firework displays.
Why not check out the Upper Barracca Gardens and the bastion walls at the Grand Harbour and take in the panorama, which was pivotal to the Allied victory in North Africa. Don’t miss the Baroque luxury of the Knights’ main church, St John’s Co-Cathedral Republic Street. Visit the Museum of Archaeology to see 5,000-year-old stone carvings and more.
Find the Hypogeum, a subterranean cemetery carved out of rock to resemble the architecture temples above. There is a 5,000-year-old room, the “Holy of Holies” which looks as if though it were carved in modern times. Book well in advance.
Feeling peckish?
Malata a prestigious restaurant and eat excellent, unfussy Mediterranean/French food . If this doesn’t float your boat… relax in the arcade square and watch the world go by over a light snack which you can choose from an array of little cafes and and bars.
Rubino : this exquisite and cozy restaurant has no menu, no prices, but great food. Call ahead for bookings.
Cruises on the Grand Harbour is a charming way to while away the afternoon. Explore the ancient streets of the Knights’ first capital in Malta (1530-70). Visit the Malta at War Museum for an educational tour through a wonderland of historical information and an underground war shelter, wrought by hand from the rock. This save the lives of scores during heavy bombing in ww2 and has incredible tales to tell.
Further information
Malta & Gozo: The Bradt Guide, by Juliet Rix www.visitmalta.com
Tags: explore, Malta, World Heritage Site
Emigration to the US
immigrating to us
American history has been mainly the story of migrations. That of the century or so between the Battle of waterloo and the beginning of the First World War must certainly be considered the largest peaceful displacement in recorded history; possible the largest ever . It is supposed that some thirty-five million people entered the United States during that time, never mind the large numbers who were also moving to Latin America or Australia. Historians may come to distinguish that in the twentieth and later centuries this displacement was out done when Africa, Asia and South America began to export their people; but if so, they will be noticing a pattern, of a whole continent in motion, that was first begun in nineteenth century Europe. Only the French seemed to be immune. Besides them, all caught it, and all traveled. Spaniards, Italians, Poles, Greeks, Jews, Portuguese, Dutch, Hungarians, Czechs, Croats, Slovenes, Serbs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Lithuanians,English, Irish, Welsh, Scots, Germans, Scandinavians Russians, Basques. There were general and particular causes.
To begin with the general causes, the rise in population meant that more and more people were trying to survive on the same amount of land; understandably, some were forced off it. The rising cost of the armies and navies, with their need for state of the art equipment, that every great European power required, meant bigger taxes which many found difficult or impossible to pay, and widespread conscription, which quite as many obviously wanted to escape. The opening up of new, fertile and productive lands in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, added to the availability of transport to distribute their products, meant that European commoners could not compete effectively in the world market: they would always be under cut, especially as the arrival of free trade was breaking the old mercantilist barriers everywhere. Steam was also important because it became a relatively easy thing to cross land and ocean, and to get information about distant parts. The invention of the telegraph also sped up the distribution of news, especially after a cable was successfully placed across the Atlantic in 1866. New printing and paper-making machines and a quickly growing literacy made large newspaper businesses possible for the first time. Basically, worlds opened, even for those who chose not to travel. Most important of all, the displacements in social structure caused by the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the various wars of nineteenth-century Europe destroyed the old ways. New states sprung up, old ones dissolved, borders were cast, the laws of land property ownership were dramaticially changed, internal customs barriers and feudal dues both disappeared, payment in money replaced bartering, new industries created new needs and destroyed self-sufficiency of lower class households and the saleability of farming products. The basic structure of rural Europe was completely changed. Bad times at home caused stress, good times abroad offered an escape (American factories were usually crying out for labourers): no surprise that people moved.
Specific reasons were just as important as these general ones. For example: between 1845 and 1848 Ireland suffered the terrible potato famine. An estimated 1 million people died of hunger or disease; a million more emigrated (1846-51). Things did not greatly improve when the Great Famine was over: it was followed by numerous smaller ones, and the fundamental weaknesses of the then Irish economy made the outlook bleak anyway. Mass emigration was a natural tendancy, at first to America, then, in the twentieth century, more and more, to England and Scotland. Emigration was not frowned upon, as in the Irish case as in many others, support retured to loved ones by letters sent home and by remittances of money. The first explorers thus helped to pay the fares of their followers. Political events could sometimes drive Europeans across the ocean too. In 1848 thousands upon thousands of Germans fled the failure of the liberal revolution of that year (but many thousands emigrated for purely economic reasons).
emigrants
If such external circumstances failed, American capitalism was more than happy to fill the gap. The high cost of workers had been an ongoing problem in American society since the first pilgrims; now, as the Industrial Revolution made itself known, the need for workers was more pressing than ever. The supply of available locals was too small to meet the demand: while times were good on the family farm, as they were on the whole until the 1880s, or while there was new land to be taken up in the West, the drift out of agriculture would not be significant enough to run the factories. So employers looked for the help they needed in Europe, whether skilled, like Cornish miners, or unskilled like Irish labourers. Then, the transcontinental railroads desperately required settlers on their Western land grants, as well as workers: they could not make steady profits until the lands their tracks crossed were regularly producing arable crops that needed transport to market. Soon every harbour in Europe knew the ins and outs of American shipping lines and their agents, competing with each other to offer beneficial terms to possible emigrants. They posted banners, they advertised in the papers, they patiently answered questions, and they herded their customers from their native hometowns, by train, to the ships, and then made sure they were safely sent to the steerage section.
Tags: america, emigration, laborer, migration, U.S.A
Mayan city
Mayan city
Mayan cities were the political and spiritual centres for regions which included both the city itself and farming areas. The largest Mayan cities were home to large populations. At the capital of Tikal, for example, within a six-square-mile area, there were over 10,000 unique structures ranging from temples to pyramids to shacks with straw roofs. Its population is estimated to be at around 60,000, giving it a population per square kilometre several times larger than acomparable city in Europe or America at the same time in history.
A Mayan city from the Classical Period of time, usually contained a series of staired platforms roofed by stone carved structures, ranging from giant temple-pyramids and castles to individual house huts or small collines where the houses had once been. These buildings were scattered around wide courtyards. Mayan architecture is known for a sophisticated sense of decor and design, expressed in carvings and wall paintings. At important sites like Tikal, large structures might also have been interwoven by stone paths or bridges. Mayan cities were not often laid out in tidy grids, and they have apparently developed in a sporadic fashion, with temples and palaces knocked down and rebuilt repeatedly throughout the ages. Because of this apparently unplanned pattern of construction, the frontiers of Mayan cities are often hard to find. Some cities were surrounded by a moat, and some had earth mounds around them as a defensive mechanism; however, this was uncommon. City walls are rarely seen at Mayan sites, with the exception of some recently discovered towns dating from the fall of Mayan civilization, when defensive walls were suddenly tumbled around cities under attack from outside foes.
Temple-pyramids were the most stunning feature of a Classic Mayan city. They were constructed built from hand-cut limestone blocks and dwarfed all surrounding structures. Although the temples themselves usually consisted of one or more chambers, the rooms were so small that they could only have been used on ceremonial days and were probably not intended for everyday use. Although the temples were the most striking constructions within a Mayan city, the majority of construction at a Mayan site was of palaces: single-storey buildingds built like temple-pyramids but on much lower foundations and with as many as 30 rooms which were plastered. In contrast to temple-pyramids, palaces often had one or two interior courtyards. There is no real accord on what the palaces were for. Leaders and other elite members of society could have lived in them, although the rooms are small and without lavish decor. Archaeologists think that the rich were more likely to have lived in less permanent buildings which haven’t survived over time. Archaeologists also suggest that the cell-like rooms of the palaces could mean that monks, nuns or priests lived there, although there is little proof of ecclesiastical or monastic orders among the ancient Mayan.
In some regions, groundwater was hard to find, and large cities like Tikal would have had large man-made reservoirs to feed their populations during the dry seasons. Many Mayan sites had sports fields; others had steam rooms, ideas possibly imported from Mexico. Majort cities also had numerous stelae or pillars placed in the stucco floors of plazas, usually facing important sites. The stelae were sometimes on platforms, supporting temple-pyramids, and usually had a low, round flat-topped altar for religious purposes in front of them.
Pyramid like temple structure
Normal Mayan architectural tendencies included the corbel vault and the roof comb. The corbel vault feature has no keystone, as European architectural arches do, making the Mayan vault appear more like a narrow triangle than an archway through which people can pass. It has been said that this unusual form exists because the Mayan never learned the technology to create keystones. Others suggest that the lack of keystone was purposeful: the Maya vault always had nine stone layers, symbolizing the nine layers of the Underworld. A keystone would have created a tenth layer, which would have been outside the Mayan understanding of the universe or world. The Mayan roof comb was a lattice of stone which was put on to the building, despite the height of the temple-pyramids. Perhaps Mayan architects did not feel the temples were regal enough, and so added an upper extension to improve their appearance. The roof comb was always highly ornate with painted stucco reliefs, as was the front part of the temple. Equally embellished were the entrances, doorjambs and facades of many other Mayan buildings, which were decorated with intricate carving in stone or in wood.
Tags: ancient, architecture, maya, mayan
GLOW – WORMS
Glow worms
The glow-worm belongs to a family of beetles known as the lampyridae or fireflies. The fireflies are a huge group containing over 2000 species, with new ones being discovered all the time. The feature which makes fireflies and glow-worms so appealing is their ability to produce an often dazzling display of light. The light is used by the adult fireflies as a signal to attract a mate, and each species must develop its own ‘call-sign’ to avoid being confused with other species glowing nearby. So within any one area each species will differ from its neighbours in some way, For example in the colour or pattern of its light, how long the pulses of light last, the interval between pulses and whether it displays in flight or from the ground. B The fireflies’ almost magical light has attracted human attention for generations. It is described in an ancient Chinese encyclopedia written over 2000 years ago by a pupil of Confucius. Fireflies often featured in Japanese and Arabian folk medicine. All over the world they have been the inspiration for countless poems, paintings and stories. In Britain, for example, there are plenty of anecdotes describing how glow-worms have been used to read by or used as emergency bicycle lamps when a cyclist’s batteries have failed without warning. Early travelers in the New World came back with similar stories, of how the native people of Central America would collect a type of click beetle and release them indoors to light up their huts. Girls threaded them around their feet to illuminate the forest paths at night. Fireflies very similar to those we see today have been found fossilised in rocks which were formed about 30 million years ago, and their ancestors were probably glowing long before then. It is impossible to be sure exactly when and where the first firefly appeared. The highest concentrations of firefly species today are to be found in the tropics of South America, which may mean either that this is where they First evolved, or simply that they prefer the conditions there. Wherever they first arose, fireflies have since spread to almost every part of the globe. Today members of the firefly family can be found almost anywhere outside the Arctic and Antarctic circles. C As with many insects, the glow-worm’s life is divided into four distinct stages: the egg, the larva (equivalent to the caterpillar of a butterfly), the pupa (or chrysalis) and the adult. The glow-worm begins its life in the autumn as a pale yellow egg. The freshly laid egg is extremely fragile but within a day its surface has hardened into a shell. The egg usually takes about 35 days to hatch, but the exact time varies according to the temperature, from about 27 days in hot weather to more than 45 days in cold weather. By the time it is due to hatch, the glow-worm’s light organ is fully developed, and its glow signals that the egg will soon hatch. After it has left the egg, the larva slowly grows from a few millimetres into the size and shape of a matchstick. The larval stage is the only time the insect can feed. The larva devotes much of its life to feeding and building up its food reserves so that as an adult it will be free to concentrate all its efforts on the task of finding a mate and reproducing. Throughout its time as a larva, approximately 15 months, the glow-worm emits a bright light. The larva’s light is much fainter than the adult female’s but it can still be seen more than five metres away. In the final stage of a glow-worm’s life, the larva encases itself in a pupa or skin while it changes from the simple larva to the more complex adult fly. When the adult emerges from the pupa the male seeks a female with whom it can mate. After mating, the female lays about 120 eggs. The adult flies have no mouth parts, cannot eat and therefore only live a few days. When people talk of seeing a glow-worm they normally mean the brightly glowing adult female. D In some countries the numbers of glow-worms have been falling. Evidence suggests that there has been a steady decrease in the British glow-worm population since the 1950s and possibly before that. Possible causes for the decline include habitat destruction, pollution and changes in climate. Thousands of acres of grassland have been built upon and glow-worm sites have become increasingly isolated from each other. The widespread use of pesticides and fertilisers may also have endangered the glow-worm. Being at the top of a food chain it is likely to absorb any pollutants eaten by the snails on which it feeds. The effect of global warming on rainfall and other weather patterns may also be playing a part in the disappearance of glow-worms. A lot more research will be needed, however, before the causes of the glow-worm’s gradual decline are clear. E Although glow-worms are found wherever conditions are damp, food is in good supply and there is an over-hanging wall, they are most spectacular in caves. For more than 100 years the glow-worm caves in New Zealand have attracted millions of people from all over the world. The caves were first explored in 1887 by a local Maori chief, Tane Tinorau, and an English surveyor, Fred Mace. They built a raft and, with candles as their only light, they floated into the cave where the stream goes underground. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness they saw myriad lights reflecting off the water. Looking up they discovered that the ceiling was dotted with the lights of thousands of glow-worms. They returned many times to explore further, and on an independent trip Tane discovered the upper level of the cave and an easier access. The authorities were advised and government surveyors mapped the caves. By 1888 Tane Tinorau had opened the cave to tourists.
Adapted from: www.ielts-exam.net
Tags: fireflies, global warming, glow worm, larva
Vanished
Who pulled the plug on the Mediterranean? And could it happen again?
Mediterranean region
Cannes. Monte Carlo. St Tropez. Magic names all. And much of the enchantment comes from the deep blue water that laps their shores. But what if somebody pulled the plug? Suppose the Mediterranean Sea vanished, leaving behind an expanse of salt desert the size of India. Hard to imagine? It happened.
‘It would have looked like Death Valley’ says Bill Ryan, from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, one of the leaders of the team that discovered the Mediterranean had once dried up, then refilled in a deluge of Biblical proportions. Between five and six million years ago, the great desiccation touched off what scientists call the Messinian Salinity Crisis – a global chemical imbalance that triggered a wrenching series of extinctions and plunged the Earth into an ice age.
The first indications of some extraordinary past events came in the 1960s, when geologists discovered that major rivers flowing into the Mediterranean had eroded deep canyons in the rock at the bottom of the sea. River erosion of bedrock cannot occur below sea level, yet somehow the River Rhone in the South of France had managed to create a channel 1000 metres deep in the sea floor, while the Nile had cut nearly 1500 metres into the rock off the North African coast. There was more: despite the fact that the formation of caves can only take place above water, scientists discovered a whole network beneath the island of Malta that reached an astonishing depth of 2000 metres below sea level.
Further evidence came to light in 1970, when an international team chugged across the Mediterranean in a drilling ship to study the sea floor near the Spanish island of Majorca. Strange things started turning up in core samples: layers of microscopic plants and soil sandwiched between beds of salt more than two kilometres below today’s sea level. The plants had grown in sunlight. Also discovered inside the rock was fossilised shallow-water shellfish, together with salt and silt: particles of sand and mud that had once been carried by river water. Could the sea floor once have been near a shoreline?
That question led Ryan and his fellow team leader, Kenneth Hsu, to piece together a staggering chain of events. About 5.8 million years ago, they concluded, the Mediterranean was gradually cut off from the Atlantic Ocean when continental drift pinned morocco against Spain. As the opening became both narrower and shallower, the deep outward flow from sea to ocean was progressively cut off, leaving only the shallow inward flow of ocean water into the Mediterranean. As this water evaporated, the sea became more saline and creatures that couldn’t handle the rising salt content perished. ‘The sea’s interior was dead as a door nail, except for bacteria,’ says Ryan. When the shallow opening at Gibraltar finally closed completely, the Mediterranean, with only rivers to feed it, dried up and died.
Meanwhile, the evaporated water was falling back to Earth as rain. When the fresh water reached the oceans, it made them less saline. With less salt in it to act as an antifreeze, parts of the ocean that would normally freeze began to turn to ice. ‘The ice reflects sunlight into space,’ says Ryan. ‘The plant cools. You drive yourself into an ice age.’
Eventually, a small breach in the Gibraltar dam sent the process into reverse. Ocean water cut a tiny channel to the Mediterranean. As the gap enlarged, the water flowed faster and faster, until the torrent ripped through the emerging Straits of Gibraltar at more than 100 knots. ‘The Gibraltar Falls were 100 times bigger than Victoria Falls and a thousand times greater than Niagara,’ Hsu wrote in his book The Mediterranean was a Desert (Princeton University Press 1983).
In the end the riding waters of the vast inland sea drowned the falls and warm water began to escape to the Atlantic, reheating the oceans and the planet. The salinity crisis ended about 5.4 million years ago. It had lasted roughly 400, 000 years.
Subsequent drilling expeditions have added a few wrinkles to Ryan and Hsu’s scenario. For example, researchers have found salt deposits more than two kilometres thick – so thick, some believe, that the Mediterranean must have dried up and refilled many times. But those are just geological details. For tourists the crucial question is, could it happen again? Should Malaga start stockpiling dynamite?
Not yet, says Ryan. If continental drift does reseal the Mediterranean, it won’t be for several million years. ‘Some future creatures may face the issue of how to respond to nature’s closure. It’s not something our species has to worry about.’
Source: (By Douglas McInnis)
Tags: Cannes, Mediterranean, Monte Carlo, St Tropez
How Dolphins Communicate
dolphins
Among animals, birds take the first place in being able to imitate sounds, including human words, but surprisingly, marine mammals are a close second. Some species of seals have learned to make barely recognizable words, and whales imitate each other during the development of long, complex songs. However, the most widely studied marine mammals which vocalize sounds aredolphins.
Dolphins can communicate with a great number of different sounds, from the repetitive clicks they use for echolocation (locating things) (and possibly to communicate) to sounds such as whistles and grunts; in captivity, they can imitate human words to some extent. Their echolocation skills appear to be truly remarkable. A dolphin, that has its eyes covered with a blindfold, can locate an object the size of a twenty cent piece on the bottom of a swimming pool, and they can distinguish small objects based on their shape and the material they are made of. The most remarkable thing is that their vocalizations are used for communication.
Whistle sounds at first appear to say one simple thing: “Hi! I’m Flipper. Hi! I’m Flipper.” Research since the 1960s has indicated that dolphins each have a unique whistle, called a signature whistle. This information suggests that dolphins can produce several different whistles—at least 10 to 25, and this number corresponds with the number of individual dolphins in an average-sized group. Furthermore, dolphins must learn the signature whistles of every other dolphin in their group. Research into the whistles of more than 100 dolphins suggests that they do not choose a signature from a fixed set of whistles, but that they develop an individual whistle. As the dolphin matures, its signature becomes somewhat stereotyped. To identify individuals by their whistles, dolphins must also have the mental ability to link the individual whistle with a particular dolphin. This seems likely, judging from some research experiments which taught dolphins to link human hand signals, human whistles and even electronically generated sounds to particular objects; for example, the dolphins in the research were able to link the tune “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with a Frisbee object.
Behaviorist researchers Peter Tyack of Stanford University and Laela Sayigh of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington studied a population of wild dolphins near Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. These dolphins, were a group that had been studied for decades by Randal Wells of the Chicago Zoological Society. They remained in one area, so researchers can repeatedly recognize particularly by the dolphins’ individual markings. Because the researchers cannot tell which dolphin is making a particular sound in a group, they record the dolphins individually after they use a net to isolate them from the rest of the group. This technique has revealed some interesting information.
First, the researcher Sayigh found that individual dolphins have a recognizable signature whistle, and that their whistle remains unchanged for at least a decade. She also found in her research that mothers and babies remain in vocal (voice) contact when one is isolated, but when the other group members are swimming nearby. When Sayigh began recording infant calf whistles, she found that each dolphin baby made a faint, weak sound that varied from whistle to whistle, like the written signature of a young child who is learning to write. By the time that the young dolphin had reached the age of one year old, they had learned to produce an individual whistle that then remained more or less constant for a decade.
Sayigh also found male and female calves develop whistles differently. A female calf learns a whistle which is distinctly different from her mother’s, whereas a brother’s whistle, on the other hand, develops from a variable baby whistle to an adult form which closely resembles his mother’s. In dolphin populations, females with newborn calves remain near their mothers, grandmothers and other females, and form a long-lasting group. If the babies had similar signature whistles to their mother then it would lead to confusion for the mother, grandmother and other females. An example of this would be having a family group with two members with the same name. This would mean that the wrong person was always taking the telephone call meant for the other person. Because male calves leave the group at a young age when they mature, they have little chance of being misidentified if they develop a whistle which closely resembles their mother’s whistle.
Studying signature whistles can produce problems for researchers. Although humans can hear dolphin whistles under water, they cannot locate the source of the whistles. Nor can they locate the source of the whistles picked up by underwater microphones. Isolating the dolphins solves the problem of identifying which dolphin is making the sound being recorded. However, even when two dolphins can communicate by way of a sort of underwater walkie-talkie—as they could in one experiment – it was found that isolation severely disrupts social communication.
Tags: communicate, dolphin, sounds, vocal, vocalize, whistle
haunted-palace
Ghosts and spirits come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from almost imperceptible bog dwelling spirits to the terrible Crom Cruach, or the Dullahan, headless atop his terrifying black steed. We still hear of malignant spirits, mischievous ghosts and inexplicable voices from beyond – places with hair raising reputations and stories of terrible deaths, but are all these phenomena the result of ghostly shenanigans?Irish ghosts are not merely the stuff of old tales of spooks and spirits in days before television, or to black, cold, foggy nights. They are still the stuff of fireside tales and warnings from those wiser elders who have had first hand encounters with them. Spirits frequent ruined castles and the houses of old proud clans, while that scariest of spirits, the banshee still pursues true Irish families, whether they be in isolated country areas, in the midst of Ireland’s ancient cities or even across vast expanses of ocean.
ghost-stories-ireland
Superstition and fact are not usually easy to reconcile. While the headless horseman and the Werewolves of Ossory may be incredible tales, among the communities of the four provinces, people continue to recount the tales of phantoms malicious and benign who have made themselves known to a myriad of people from the poor to the rich, from the drunk to the teetotal! From them we learn the important survival skills of the Irish landscape where the mortal and the immortal share an uncomfortable existence. One such lesson: never send a man on his own to fetch a midwife to a woman in labour as the devil will surely intervene to make him stray from his path and thus hopefully earn the soul of a stillborn , unchristened child.
Another: when riding horseback at night, if your horse stops dead and refuses to advance, it is because he sees something you don’t, turn back for horses have long been known to have a much deeper connection to the world beyond ours and should be trusted in such circumstances!
Or if you see a dark figure walking across the bog holding only a dull lantern to light his way, steer clear for he is Jack o Lantern, a spirit roaming the earth until the end of the world at which time God and the devil will make their final decision about where it is he belongs in eternity.
Tags: ghosts, haunt, ireland, spirits, supernatural
Success_Failure
The road to millions as an entrepreneur is hard to chart. Google maps will hopefully update their data base with that one soon… but, in the meantime here are some pretty recurring themes that many successful people used to help keep them on the right path to riches!
The modern elite live among us and we don’t even realise it! They, more often than not, live in average Joe neighbourhoods, work 9-5 and shop during the sales only, just like us mere mortals”. They are not inspired to work towards wealth by a desire to consume endless purchases but the freedom from worry that money brings. Here are five basic lessons that most really wealthy people already know!
Figure out where you’re going. Have a clear picture. Don’t undersell yourself, set the bar high. And remember that everyone has to start at the bottom. Envisage where you want to go exactly, and then begin making small leaps to achieve your goals.
small-steps-giant-results
Keep learning. Read books and magazines, newspapers and blogs. If you want to learn about something, research it online. We are not taught about finance management at school but most people’s financial success is directly connected to learning about personal finance. Knowledge is power but for some reason , this sort of knowledge is not included in the national high school curriculum of any single nation in the world. Maybe this information is too powerful and they would rather see us poor. Afterall, the poor pay the most taxes!
charting-road-to-riches
Do a job you enjoy. If you hate your job, you will never be promoted or achieve your true potential in it. When you’re happy in your work, you care about the outcomes of your labour and the results will show. “According to Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, over 80 percent of millionaires say they never would have been successful if their vocation wasn’t something they cared about.”
Forget about the latest pair of thigh high boots or dinner at the new fancy restaurant downtown. When you’re living hand to mouth, it can be easy to say: Oh I can’t afford to save! But it’s precisely by doing this that you’ll have the best chance for escaping your financial rat race marathon. Start saving for your retirement, or for other investments be it property or whatever.
If you’re not in, you can’t win! Take risks. Richard Branson has had umpteen failures in his entrepreneurial career.The secret to success is trying again and again after every failure. Most people never try because they’re afraid of what people will say about them if it all goes belly up. Successful people focus only on the potential benefits of their latest gamble (whilst trying of course to make sure to have enough information to make informed decisions).
But the ultimate common denominator is this…stop spending!
shopaholic
“Every millionaire we spoke to has one thing in common: They weigh up with level headed reason the pros and cons of every purchase they consider. None of them lack control over their credit card or ever claim to be shopaholics…even after they have become filthy rich!” At the end of the day, if we are not entrepreneurs, then we have to continue in our nine to five job. This means there is a ceiling on the amount of salary increases we will gain in our lives, so in order to maximize the punch power of our pay check…reduce costs…get rid of subscription tv, move further from major cities to reduce rent…one of our biggest overheads, get health insurance and a private retirement plan with the money you save! You can get out there and live your life, take up some exercise…its free and will improve your future health…thus saving you even more money!
success-happiness
Source: Jemu81-rocks
Tags: entrepreneurs, millionaire, richard branson, success
Each square meter of the City of Paris seems steeped in history, passion and splendor. Any city or almost deserves to be discovered, preferably on foot, or over water during a cruise on the Seine. Yes but now you must make a choice, establish priorities among the many activities available during your stay in the City of Light.
So here’s a list of places and activities not to miss the classification ‘Paris Top 10′of chicline somehow, both landmarks in the history of France, famous monuments, or landmarks French culture and international. This guide will help you plan your stay in the beautiful capital of France, we hope you stay the longest and most enjoyable. Welcome to Paris!
1. Eiffel tower
This iconic landmark of Paris and France is known around the world. Originally, the project engineer Gustave Eiffel was to erect a tower 300 meters at the Universal Exhibition of 1889. The Eiffel Tower is now the ninth most visited site in France and visited paid monument in the world with 6,893,000 visitors in 2007. … More
2. Louvre
Located in the heart of Paris, in the 1st arrondissement, between the docks and the Rue de Rivoli, the largest museum in Paris was originally a royal palace. The Louvre is one of the oldest museums in the world and 3rd largest by land area. The museum presents a broad chronology covers works of art, from antiquity to 1848, from Western Europe to Iran. … More
3. Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most remarkable cathedrals of France. A marvel of Gothic architecture, it was his time, the largest cathedral in Christendom. It is located on the Ile de la Cité, birthplace of the original city. Its construction lasted almost two centuries, the site of ancient pagan temples. Finally, a true architectural masterpiece. … More
4. Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees
Napoleon ordered the construction of the Arc de Triomphe in 1806, and was the architect Chalgrin. The arch is located on the Place de l’Étoile, at the west end of the Champs-Elysées, considered the most beautiful avenue in the world. The mythological name ‘Elysian Fields’ means the place of hell where the souls staying virtuous. The avenue ends at the east on the Place de la Concorde. … More
5. Orsay Museum
National Museum located on the left bank of the Seine, the Orsay museum exhibit works of Western painting and sculpture from 1848 to 1914. It presents including masterpieces like Manet’s Olympia, the Little Dancer by Degas, the Origin of the World by Courbet, works by Van Gogh, and a large collection of Impressionist painting. more. ..
6. Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur
Montmartre is one of the places of Paris’s most visited by tourists. Former village annexed to the city of Paris in 1860, is located north of Paris (18th arrondissement). The village Montmartre was one of the most active during the Paris Commune (1871). In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Montmartre was the rendezvous of artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Van Gogh. … More
7. Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou is situated in the Beaubourg, (4th arrondissement), near the district of Les Halles and the Marais. The Centre Pompidou, wanted by the former President of the Republic Georges Pompidou, annually hosts 5.3 million visitors, was the third institution most visited in France after the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. More. ..
8. The Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne
The Sorbonne means a building in the heart of the Latin Quarter of Paris. It derives its name from Robert de Sorbon thirteenth century theologian and founder of the College of Sorbonne. The area around the university is naturally attended by many students and teachers. He was an epicenter of protest movements estudiantinsde May 1968. … More
9. Pere Lachaise Cemetery
Pere Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris. This cemetery, located in the 20th district, is known for his great poetry. It is also one of the most famous in the world because it contains the graves of many French and international personalities: Edith Piaf, Georges Seurat, Rossini, Proust, Molière, Beaumarchais, La Fontaine, Apollinaire, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde .. . … More
10. Cruise on the Seine
A cruise on the Seine is an experience not to be missed. You will find many sites that are among the finest in Paris. Cruises day and night. You can opt for a romantic evening dinner cruise preceded by a visit to the Eiffel Tower. An unforgettable evening and a great memory that will always bring a smile!
Tags: Cheap Hotels, france hotels, Paris Hotels
5 years ago, we filmed the WTC attack on our 36th floor window at 500 yards from the North Tower. Publish the video was a difficult decision for us because of its emotional and personal, or instrumentalization of fear. Nevertheless, this unique perspective is historically significant and shows the horror of that day without soundtrack or effects (as often). Please respect the content of this document and know that some scenes may you encounter. Share, please, this video unchanged.
We chose Revver to distribute this video because of its license Creative Commons
Bob and Bri
The original video “What we saw” in Creative Commons: www.revver.com/view.php?id=59686
Credit: Bor and Bri
On conspiracy theories, see the work of a researcher débunkage CNRS http://www.bastison.net/
Tags: 9/11, New York City Hotels, September 11, September 11 attacks
By David Ray Griffin
Professor emeritus of philosophy of religion at the University of Claremont (California)
There is still no official version of events of 11 September 2001. No judicial investigation was opened into the attacks themselves, or parliamentary inquiry elsewhere. At most, do we have an explicit government’s version of a report made by a presidential commission. Professor David Ray Griffin, who has spent a reference to the study of this report, are found 115 lies that he stands by the list.
Collapse of tower 7 World Trade Center
The inquiry did not address the issue. This building has been hit by any airplane and its collapse has the characteristics of a controlled demolition (see video).
For every lie, we refer to the analysis by Professor David Ray Griffin in his book Omissions and manipulation of the Commission of Inquiry. Figures in parenthesis refer to the pages of the book in its original U.S. edition.
1. The omission of evidence that at least six of the alleged hijackers (including Waleed al-Shehri, the Commission accused of stabbing a stewardess UA11 flight before it crashed on the north tower of World Trade Center) are still alive (19-20).
2. The omission of evidence about Mohamed Atta (as reported penchant for alcohol, pork and private dances erotic – lap dances -) are in contradiction with the assertions of the Commission that he had become a religious fanatic (20 – 21).
3. The confusion deliberately created around the evidence that Hani Hanjour was too incompetent pilot to bring an airliner to crash into the Pentagon (21-22).
4. The omission of the fact that the lists of passengers (flight manifests) released contained no names of Arabic (23).
5. The omission of the fact that fire has never caused the total collapse of a steel-framed building before or after 11 September (25).
6. The omission of the fact that the fires of the Twin Towers were not very extensive, or particularly intense, or even very long compared with other fires in tall buildings (structures) like, which they have never collapsed (25-26).
“Omissions and manipulations of the Committee of Inquiry on 11 September ”
The book by D. Ray Griffin, in French, is available for sale on the library of the Voltaire Network.
7. The omission of the fact that, given the assumption that the collapse was caused by the fire, the South Tower, hit later that the North Tower and a prey to the flames of lower intensity, should not have s ‘the first collapse (26).
8. The omission of the fact that Building 7 WTC (which was not hit by a plane and that was the scene that small localized fires) also collapsed, an event that the Federal Agency for Treatment of Emergencies (FEMA) has recognized can not explain (26).
9. The omission of the fact that the collapse of the Twin Towers (and Building 7) has at least 10 characteristics of controlled demolition (26-27). 10. The assertion that the core of the structure of each of the Twin Towers was ” an empty steel shafts , “an assertion that denies the presence of 47 massive steel columns that in reality constituted the core of each tower, which according the theory of “stacking of floors (the” pancake theory “) explanation of the collapses, should have remained upright towards the sky over many tens of meters (27-28).
11. The omission of Larry Silverstein’s statement [owner of the WTC] that he decided, in agreement with the firefighters, ” demolish “(to” pull “technology slang) Building No. 7 (28).
12. The omission of the fact that the steel of the WTC buildings was quickly cleared of the crime scene and loaded onto ships bound for overseas BEFORE it can be screened to detect traces of explosives (30) .
13. The omission of the fact that Building 7 had been evacuated before it collapsed, the official reason for the rapid removal of the steel [this site] (what some people might still be alive under the rubble) was no meaning in this case (30).
14. The omission of the statement of Mayor R. Giuliani that he had been warned that WTC was going to collapse (30-31).
15. The omission of the fact that Marvin Bush, the president’s brother and his cousin Wirt Walker III were both principals of the company responsible for security of the WTC (31-32).
16. The omission of the fact that the west wing of the Pentagon [that actually hit] was the least likely to be targeted by terrorists of al-Qaeda, for several reasons (33-34).
17. The omission of any discussion to determine whether the damage to the Pentagon was consistent with the impact of a Boeing 757 traveling at several hundred kilometers per hour (34).
18. The omission of the fact that there are photos showing the facade of the West Wing did that collapsed 30 minutes after the strike, and also that the entrance hole appears too small for a Boeing 757 (34 ).
19. The omission of any contradictory evidence about the presence or absence of visible debris of a Boeing 757 either inside or outside the Pentagon (34-36).
20. The absence of any discussion to determine if the Pentagon had a system of missile defense that can shoot down a commercial airliner, even though the Commission suggested that the terrorists of al-Qaeda did not attack a power plant nuclear because they had it would be thus defended (36).
21. The omission of the fact that images from different cameras (including the gas station across from the Pentagon, whose film was confiscated by the FBI immediately after the strike) could probably give an answer to what really struck the Pentagon (37-38).
22. The omission of reference to the Minister of Defence D. Rumsfeld ” a missile [used] to damage [the Pentagon] “(39).
23. The apparent approval of the totally unsatisfactory answer to the question of why the Secret Service agents allowed President Bush to remain in the Sarasota school at a time when, according to the official, they would have faced a plane could have turned the school to target (41-44).
24. The failure to explain why the Secret Service did not request the protection of hunters [the presidential plane] Air Force One (43-46).
25. Claims that when the presidential motorcade arrived at the school [Sarasota], nobody in the audience knew that several planes had been hijacked (47-48).
26. The omission of the report that the Minister of Justice John Ashcroft was warned to stop using commercial airlines prior to 11 September (50).
27. The omission of David Schippers’s statement that he had, on the basis of information provided by FBI agents about planned attacks in the south of Manhattan, tried unsuccessfully to convey this information to the Minister of Attorney General John Ashcroft during the six weeks prior to 11 September (51).
28. The omission of any mention that FBI agents have reportedly claimed to have known targets and dates of attacks [terrorists] in advance (51-52).
29. The statement, a rebuttal by circular begs the question unresolved, the unusual volume of purchases of options down before 11 September did not imply that buyers knew in advance that attacks would occur. (52-57)
30. The omission of reports that the mayor of [San Francisco] Willie Brown and some Pentagon officials received warnings about having to fly on 11 September (57).
31. The omission of the report that Osama bin Laden, who was already the most wanted criminal of the United States, was treated in July 2001 by an American doctor at the American Hospital in Dubai and be visited by the local agent The CIA (59).
32. The omission of articles suggesting that after 11 September, the U.S. military deliberately allowed Osama bin Laden escape (60).
33. The omission of reports, including one on the visit by the chief of Saudi intelligence for Osama bin Laden at the hospital in Dubai, which contradict the official version that Osama was disowned by his family and his country ( 60-61).
34. The omission of the report by Gerald Posner on the testimony of Abu Zubaydah, according to which three members of the Saudi royal family (who all died mysteriously in eight days apart) were financing al-Qaeda and had prior knowledge of attacks 11 September (61-65).
35. The denial by the Commission to have found evidence of financing al-Qaeda by the Saudis (65-68).
36. The denial by the Commission to have found evidence that money from Prince Bandar’s wife, Princess Haifa, went to agents of al-Qaeda (69-70).
37. The denial, simply ignoring the distinction between commercial flights and private flights, the private flight carrying Saudis from Tampa to Lexington on 13 September violated airspace regulations in force on that date (71-76).
38. The denial that the Saudis were allowed to leave the territory of the United States shortly after 11 September without being subject to a proper investigation (76-82).
39. The omission of evidence that Prince Bandar was granted a special permit from the White House for the Saudi flights (82-86).
40. The omission of Coleen Rowley’s statement that officials at Q.-G. FBI had seen the memo from Phoenix agent Kenneth Williams of the (89-90).
41. The omission of the fact that FBI agent Robert Wright in Chicago says the Q.-G. FBI closed its investigation into a terrorist cell, then tried to intimidate him to prevent him from publishing a book about experiences (91).
42. The omission of evidence that the Q.-G. FBI sabotaged attempted Coleen Rowley and other agents [FBI] in Minneapolis to get a warrant to search Zacarias Moussaoui’s computer (91-94).
43. The omission of half past three in testimony before the Commission by Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator, who according to testimony released by a letter she addressed to the Chairman of the [Commission] Kean, revealed serious cover-ups by officials FBI in connection with 11 September, and at the same FBI headquarters (94-101).
44. The omission of the fact that General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of the ISI [Pakistani Intelligence Services] was in Washington a week before 11 September, and met the Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet and other High U.S. officials (103-04).
45. The omission of evidence that Ahmad, the head of the ISI [Pakistani Intelligence Services] had ordered the dispatch of $ 100,000 to Mohamed Atta prior to 11 September (104-07).
46. The Commission’s assertion that it found no evidence that a single foreign government, including Pakistan, had financed agents of al-Qaeda (106).
47. The omission of the report that the Bush administration pressured Pakistan to dismiss Ahmad from his post as head of the ISI after the disclosure that he had ordered the sending of money from the ISI Mohamed Atta (107-09).
48. The omission of evidence that the ISI (and not just al-Qaeda) was behind the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud (commander of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan), which occurred just after a meeting that lasted one week between officials of the CIA and the ISI (110-112).
49. The omission of evidence that the ISI is involved in the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl, reporter for the Wall Street Journal (113).
50. The omission of Gerald Posner’s report that Abu Zubaydah claimed that a Pakistani military officer, Mushaf Ali Mir, who have close links with the ISI and al-Qaeda had foreknowledge of the attacks of 11 September (114).
51. The failure of the prediction made in 1999 by Rajaa Gülüm Abbas, an official of the ISI, that the Twin Towers’ collapse (114).
52. The omission of the fact that President Bush and other members of his Administration began talking to several attacks of 11 September as ” opportunities “(116-17).
53. The omission of the fact that the Project for the New American Century (“The Project for the New American Century”), many of whose members became key figures in the Bush administration published a document in 2000 saying that “a new Pearl Harbor “would help in obtaining funds for a rapid technological transformation the U.S. military (117-18).
54. The omission of the fact that Donald Rumsfeld, who was chairman of the Committee and the U.S. Space Command had recommended increasing the budget, used the attacks of 11 September that same evening to secure such credits (119 -22).
55. The failure to mention that the three men responsible for the failure to prevent attacks of 11 September (the Minister Rumsfeld, General Richard Myers, and General Ralph Eberhart) were also the three main sponsors of the U.S. Space Command (122).
56. The omission of the fact that Unocal had declared that the Taliban could not provide adequate safety to begin construction of its pipelines (oil and gas) from the Caspian basin through Afghanistan and Pakistan (122-25 ).
57. The omission of the report that representatives of the United States said at a meeting in July 2001 that, because the Taliban refused their proposal to develop the pipeline, a war against them would begin in October (125-26).
58. The omission of the fact that in his book published in 1997 Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that for the United States maintains its global primacy, it needed the control of Central Asia, with its vast oil reserves, and a new Pearl Harbor would be helpful to obtain the support of the American public for these imperial ambitions (127-28).
59. The omission of the fact that key members of the Bush administration, including Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, had struggled for a new war against Iraq for many years (129-33).
60. The omission of notes of conversations Donald Rumsfeld on 11 September show that he was determined to use the attacks as a pretext for a war against Iraq (131-32).
61. The omission of the statement in the Project for a New American Century that ” the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf beyond the scope of Saddam Hussein “(133-34).
62. The statement that the protocol of the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) on 11 September required the long process to go through several steps in the chain of command, even if the Official Report [Commission] cites evidence to the contrary ( 158).
63. The assertion that these days, only two bases for the U.S. Air Force in the North East of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command Centre for Defence Command of Aerospace North America) hunters kept on alert and that in particular there were no fighters on alert at McGuire or Andrews (159-162).
64. The omission of the fact that the basis of the U.S. Andrews Air Force convervait several fighters on alert permanently (162-64).
65. The acceptance of dual claim that Colonel Marr of NEADS (North East Air Defense Sector) would call a supervisor for permission to send fighters from [base] Otis and that this call required eight minutes ( 165-66).
66. The approval of the assertion that the loss of a transponder signal makes it virtually impossible for her airplane tracking by radar for the U.S. military (166-67).
67. The assertion that Payne Stewart interception did not show that the response time of NORAD Flight 11 was extraordinarily slow (167-69).
68. The assertion that hunters based Otis remained grounded seven minutes after they had been ordered because they did not know where to go (174-75).
69. The assertion that the U.S. military was unaware of the hijacking of Flight 175 until 9:03, exactly when it crashed into the WTC South Tower (181-82).
70. The omission of an explanation (a) why NORAD’s earlier report, that the FAA notified the military of hijacked Flight 175 at 8:43, was now considered false and (b) how this report, s it was false, has been published and then left uncorrected for almost three years (182).
71. The assertion that the FAA has installed teleconference until 9:20 that morning (183).
72. The omission of the fact that a memo by Laura Brown of the FAA said that the teleconference was established at approximately 8:50 ET she wore especially about the hijacking of Flight 175 (183-84, 186).
73. The claim that the NMCC Teleconference (Centre National Military Command or the National Military Command Center) did not begin until 9:29 (186-88).
74. The omission in the Commission’s assertion that Flight 77 has not deviated from its course before 8:54, because previous reports had said 8:46 (189-90). 75. The failure to mention that the announcement of a jet crash in Kentucky, at about the time Flight 77 disappeared from FAA radar, was taken sufficiently seriously by the FAA and the cons-terrorism unit of the FBI to be relayed to the White House (190).
76. The claim that Flight 77 flew almost 40 minutes in American airspace towards Washington without being detected by radar of the military (191-92).
77. The failure to explain, if NORAD’s earlier report that he was notified of Flight 77 at 9:24 was “incorrect,” how this erroneous report could be created, that is to say, whether the responsible NORAD lied or were “confused” for nearly three years (192-93).
78. The claim that the Langley fighter jets, which NORAD had at first said they were dispatched to intercept Flight 77, were actually made in response to an erroneous report from a controller (not identified) of the FAA at 9:21 that Flight 11 was still in the air and headed towards Washington (193-99).
79. The assertion that the military were not contacted by the FAA about the probable hijacking of Flight 77 before the Pentagon is struck (204-12).
80. The claim that Jane Garvey did not join Richard Clarke’s videoconference until 9:40, that is to say, after the Pentagon is hit (210).
81. The assertion that none of the teleconferences succeeded in coordinating not the FAA and military responses to hijackings because ” none of [them] included the right officials within the FAA and the Department of Defense , “although Richard Clarke says that his videoconference included FAA Director Jane Garvey as the Minister of Defense Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, the Chief of the Armed Forces Acting (211).
82. The Commission’s assertion that she did not know who, within the Ministry of Defence, attended the video conference with Richard Clarke when Clarke says in his book that it was Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers ( 211-212). 83. Approval of the statement of General Myers that he was on Capitol Hill during the attacks, without mentioning the contradictory account of Richard Clarke, that Myers was at the Pentagon and participated in the videoconference with Clarke (213-17 ).
84. The failure to mention the contradiction between the testimony of Clarke about Rumsfeld’s schedule this morning and Rumsfeld’s own statements (217-19).
85. The omission of testimony Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, gave the Commission itself, that Vice President Cheney and others [those present] in the underground shelter were aware at 9:26 am that a plane was approaching the Pentagon (220).
86. The claim that Pentagon officials knew nothing of a plane approaching them before 9:32, 9:34 or 9:36, and in any case only a few minutes before the building is affected (223).
87. The acceptance of two contradictory versions about the plane that crashed into the Pentagon: one that tells the execution of a spiral downward 330 degrees (a ” high-speed dive “) and another in which n is no mention of this maneuver (222-23).
88. The claim that the fighter jets from Langley, who received the so-called quickly scrambled to protect Washington against the “phantom flight AA11″ were nowhere near Washington because they were sent to the ocean error (223-24).
89. The omission of any evidence suggesting that what hit the Pentagon was not Flight 77 (224-25).
90. The assertion that the military were not informed by the FAA of hijacked Flight 93 before it crashed (227-29, 232, 253).
91. The dual claim that the NMCC did not monitor the FAA-initiated conference and then was unable to connect to the FAA initiated by the NMCC teleconference (230-31).
92. The omission of the fact that the Secret Service are able to know everything that the FAA knows (233).
93. The omission of any investigation into why the NMCC launched its own teleconference if, as Laura Brown of the FAA said, this is not the standard protocol (234).
94. The omission of any investigation of why General Montague Winfield not only was replaced by a “blue” (a rookie), Captain Leidig, as Director of Operations for the NMCC but still left in command when it was clear that the Pentagon was facing an unprecedented crisis (235-36).
95. The assertion that the FAA notified (incorrectly) the Secret Service between 10:10 ET 10:15 that Flight 93 was still in the sky and headed for Washington (237).
96. The assertion that Vice President Cheney did not give permission to fire after 10:10 (several minutes after Flight 93 was crashed is) and that such authorization was not transmitted to the U.S. Army before 10:31 (237 – 41).
97. The omission of any evidence indicating that Flight 93 was shot down by a military plane (238-39, 252-53).
98. The assertion that [the Czar of Counterterrorism] Richard Clarke received the request for authorization to shoot at 10:25 (240).
99. The omission of Clarke’s own testimony, which suggests that he received this request for authorization to shoot to 9:50 am (240).
100. The claim that Cheney did not win the shelter underground PEOC [or PEOC Center for Presidential Emergency Operations]) to 9:58 (241-44).
101. The failure of multiple testimony, including that of Norman Mineta [the Minister of Transport] to the Commission itself, that [Vice President] Cheney was in the PEOC before 9:20 (241-44).
102. The statement that the authorization to shoot down a civilian aircraft had to be given by the President (245).
103. The omission of reports that Colonel Marr ordered to shoot down Flight 93 and that General Winfield indicated that he and other [officers] at the NMCC had expected a hunter reach Flight 93 ( 252).
104. The omission of reports indicating that there were two fighter planes in the sky a few miles from New York and three in only 320 miles from Washington (251).
105. The omission of the fact that there were at least six bases with fighters on alert in north-eastern United States (257-58).
106. Approval of the statement of General Myers that NORAD had defined its mission in terms of defending only against threats directed [toward the U.S.] from abroad (258-62).
107. The approval of the statement of General Myers that NORAD had not considered the possibility that terrorists might use hijacked airliners as missiles (262-63).
108. The failure to put into perspective the significance of the fact presented in the report itself, or mention other facts showing that NORAD had indeed considered the threat of hijacked airliners being used as missiles (264-67).
109. The failure to probe the implications of the question of how the military exercises (war games) scheduled that day could affect the military failed to intercept the hijacked airliners (268-69).
110. The failure to discuss the possible relevance of Operation Northwoods to the attacks of 11 September (269-71).
111. The statement (made to explain why the military did not obtain information about the hijacked planes in time to intercept) that FAA personnel inexplicably fails to follow standard procedures some 16 times (155-56, 157 , 179, 180, 181, 190, 191, 193, 194, 200, 202-03, 227, 237, 272-75).
112. The failure to mention that proclaimed the independence of the Commission was fatally undermined by the fact that Philip Zelikow, Executive Director, was virtually a member of the Bush administration (7-9, 11-12, 282-84). (Ndt: a close associate of Ms. Condoleezza Rice)
113. The failure to mention that the White House first sought to prevent the establishment of the Commission [Official to Investigate Terrorist Attacks of 11 September], then placed many obstacles in his way, as a result of grant a very small budget (283-85). (Ndt: estimated at approximately $ 15 million, when the feature film ” United 93 “Paul Greengrass has cost $ 18, and” World Trade Center “by Oliver Stone 4 TIMES or 60 million dollars on the first point, it took 441 days for this Commission be established and Mr. Bush suggested that Mr. Kissinger is president … then retracted under withering criticism from the public.)
114. The failure to mention that the President of the Commission, most of the other Commissioners, and at least half the staff had serious conflicts of interest (285-90, 292-95).
115. The failure of the Commission, who boasted that the submission of its final report was made “without dissent”, mentioning that it had been possible only because Max Cleland, the most Forwarding criticism the White House vowed ” he would not be an accomplice to a biased treatment of information “had to resign to accept a position with the Export-Import Bank, and the White House forwarded his nomination only after he has become very direct in his criticisms (290-291).
I conclude by saying that I concluded my study I have come to call “the Kean-Zelikow Report” by writing this: In the end, the Report of the Inquiry on 11 September, away to hunt My suspicions about official complicity only served to confirm them. Why those responsible for drafting the final report would engage in such business of deception, if it was trying to cover very high crimes? (291).
Source: voltairenet.org
Tags: 9/11, New York City Hotels, September 11, September 11 attacks
One of the advantages of being single is having a smaller number of obligation and a responsibility. Celibacy is a form of freedom, you can live your life your way without having to answer some of your actions. When it comes to travel, here are some travel ideas that you will not soon forget.
- Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- London, United Kingdom
- Cancun, Mexico
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- San Diego, California, United States
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Miami, Florida, USA
- New York, United States
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Rome, Italy
The city of pleasure located in Nevada is famous for its lights and casinos that illuminate the city at night as if it was day.This wonderful city is now home to several million people.When you’re a tourist, you are the king of this city and you can do whatever you want. Beware the lure of Caesar’s Palace, gambling is bad when you exceed the limits. Night clubs, strip bars and the hedonistic lifestyle of Las Vegas have made him famous slogan: “What is happening in Vegas stays in Vegas”. This is not the ideal for family holidays but for a single journey between is perfect.
The largest city in Europe, London, is home to more than 8 million inhabitants. The River Thames is one of the points of interest the most famous of the city. The city is so ethnically diverse that you will regard it as a tourist at all. This is a matter of time before you find people who speak the same language as you and make your experience memorable. The Londoners speak over 200 languages collectively making the city easy to visit. The fantastic museums, art galleries, opera houses in the city you will attract. Do not forget the very famous English pubs. Millions of tourists arrive every year to visit Buckingham Palace, the Cathedral of St. Paul, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and much more.
This city is truly born of a political desire to attract tourists to Mexico. It annually hosts more than 2 million tourists. In Cancun, you will find the ultra-modern buildings near beautiful beaches of white sand. You can do sports such as parachite, scuba diving or golf. Do not forget the large number of bars and nightclubs in the city, which is still alive after nightfall.
The nightclubs of Buenos Aires, frequented by beautiful supermodels are known around the world. Even if you are unlucky and do not cross the supermodels, chances are high that you will find a pleasant traveling companion who will visit this city more interesting. It is also an ideal place to learn the Tango.
As the second most populous city of California, San Diego is rich without being extravagant. This city is perfect freedom which is also associated with celibacy. This city loves the simple people who take life lightly and enjoy to the fullest.
For lovers of art history and beautiful beaches, San Juan is the logical choice. The food is also excellent in doing what makes sense for gourmets. A paradise ideal for socializing.
Bikinis and endless beaches, two attractions that make Miami a city to visit if you are single. Discover the South Beach bars, learn Salsa and visiting art galleries, what better way to spend your holidays?
The City of New York is a good choice of destination for singles who enjoy living life at full speed. You’ll fall in love with the skyscrapers still wished to see higher, farther.
What do you want more than plugging in a city that lets you live the way you want? This is a fantastic destination for singles who want to live wild adventures. The city also has more than 1,000 parks and 160 channels, making it a romantic place par excellence.
If you are manic history and romance, Rome is the city made for you. A bit of Chianti in the excellent restaurants in the Italian capital, a reputation beyond its borders, what better than a trip to Rome for a single?
Tags: amsterdam hotels, buenos aires hotels, cancun hotels, Cheap Hotels, Hotels, las vegas hotels, London Hotels, miami hotels, new york hotels, puerto rico hotels, Rome Hotels, san diego hotels
Tokyo (37.2 million in 2009)
It is the de facto administrative capital of Japan since 1868. It is world renowned for its ultra-modern look combining and tradition. It is characterized by its skyscrapers, its electronics stores, but also by its numerous Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.
New York City (25.9 million in 2009)
The largest and most populated cities in the United States of America. It is also known as The Big Apple (the big apple). It is located on the East Coast of the United States, near Washington, the capital.
Mexico City (23,300,000 in 2009)
The capital of Mexico. It is the largest city of Mexico. It is located in the center of the country, in the Valley of Mexico, a plateau at an altitude of 2250 meters.
Seoul (22.6 million in 2009)
For over 600 years, the capital of Korea since the Korean War, the capital of the Republic of Korea. It is also the largest city of the Korean peninsula.
Mumbai (Bombay) (21.3 million in 2009)
Mumbai is the commercial capital of India. It generates 5% of GDP and accounting for 25% of industrial output, 40% of maritime trade and 70% of capital transactions to India’s economy.
Sao Paulo (20.2 million in 2009)
The largest city in Brazil located in the south-east, is the capital of the State of São Paulo and the financial and industrial center of Latin America.
Manila (19.2 million in 2009)
Located on the island of Luzon. It is the capital of the Philippines.
Delhi (18.6 million in 2009)
Delhi is the second largest city of the Republic of India after Mumbai. The metropolis consists of three cities coincident: the Delhi Cantonment, Delhi and New Delhi – as well as 214 villages.
Jakarta (18.5 million in 2008)
The capital of the Republic of Indonesia. The population of Jakarta, cosmopolitan city for centuries, comes from all regions of Indonesia. However, there is a population that sees itself as “indigenous” Jakarta: The Betawi, whose name comes from Batavia.
Los Angeles (18.5 million in 2009)
A U.S. city located on the west coast in the state of California. The city is famous for film and TV since that’s where Hollywood is.
The top 10 travel lists the 10 largest world cities based on population
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Colosseum
One of the wonders of the modern world. The Coliseum is a must-see on your visit Rome. Get ready, however, have to wait in a queue long enough before they visited the main attraction of Rome. If you do not want to queue, you can avoid it if you choose to participate in a guided tour.
Circus Maximus
This is the place were held chariot races in ancient Rome. It is now an archaeological site. The last remnants are located south-east of the building.
Pantheon
Located in the historic center of Rome near the Piazza Navona. It is a marvel of ancient architecture, the temple of all deities of the ancient religion, transformed into a Christian church in the seventh century and remained until today, practically intact. Pantheon dome bearing most of all antiquity.
The Roman Forum
It is located between the Capitol and the Colosseum. It is a vast area comprising many ruins of the Roman era.
Forum and Trajan column
This is the last of the Imperial Forums constructed. In his time, he was also the most grandiose. It is especially on this site, the impressive column trajanne which was built under the reign of Emperor Trajan in 113.
Pyramid of Caius Cestius
Outside the Porta San Paolo is the Pyramid of Caius Cestius monument strange that an official had built for his burial BC.
Trevi Fountain
Located near the Piazza Navona. This is one of the most famous monuments of Rome. It is customary to throw a coin in his back to the fountain before leaving Rome. They say that whoever made this gesture is sure to return to Rome to retrieve her room.
Castel Sant’Angelo
The original structure of the fortress of Castel Sant ‘Angelo and the bridge of the same name have been established by the architect Demetriano c. 117 AD. It is the family mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian.
Vatican City
The Vatican City is the smallest state in the world. It is also the seat of Catholicism. You can visit the place and the basilica of St. Peter and the Vatican Museums. Obviously, the beauty and richness of the place make it an essential step for a stay in Rome.
Piazza Navona (Piazza Navona)
It is located in the historic heart of the city, near the Pantheon. The Piazza Navona is one of the most famous places of Rome and the largest piazzas. The monumental fountain that adorns the center of the square is the work of Bernini. It focuses on four rivers represented by statues representing the four continents. It is the pride of Baroque Rome.
Rome is the capital of Italy. The city of Rome is located in the region of Lazio in central Italy, in the province of the same name, at the confluence of the Tiber and Aniene. The center is located about 24 kilometers from the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but the territory of the city extends to it. The Italian capital has about 3 million inhabitants.
Resulting from its long history, Rome is a city rich in monuments and museums. It is the second most visited city in the world after Paris. If you’re planning a trip to Rome for seven days or less, make sure to define in advance your itinerary.
The top 10 best attractions in Rome was set up to help you in choosing your visit.
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Rio Carnival
The carnival is undoubtedly one of the main reasons that leads tourists to want to stay in Rio. Carnival is the most popular celebration in Brazil, and Rio de Janeiro in particular. It takes place every year between Epiphany and Lent, during the four days preceding Ash Wednesday.
Tijuca National Park
Tijuca we present all that remains of the forest surrounding Rio de Janeiro. It’s sort of the largest urban forest in the world, with an area of approximately 3200 hectares, comprises hundreds of species of fauna and flora that are found only in the
Dominating the All-Rio, the statue of Cristo Redentor extends his arms on top of Corcovado, Mount hunchback.
Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar)
Curiously shaped monolith that overlooks the entrance of 270 m of the Baia de Guanabara. To reach the top you can take the cable-shaped pods with large bubbles that provide a 360 °. The cable car stops first at Morro da Urca (Hill seconded the mountain) then climbed to the summit.
Copacabana
It remains the ultimate symbol of the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, although the beach is, over time his popularity has diminished especially because the presence of large hotels encourages crime. The beach is 4 km in length and describes a perfect curve.
Ipanema
Ipanema Beach is located in the most exclusive residential district of the city or côtois upper middle class and nouveau riche. Today, Ipanema is the center of fashion and sophistication. The most fashionable shops, Rio de Janeiro along the streets of Ipanema and Leblon.
Maracanã
The Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro is the temple of Brazilian football. The stadium named after the district of Rio where it rises is downright huge. This is one of the largest in the world. It can hold up to 120,000 people. Attend one of the game is an unforgettable experience. You’ll soon see that football is actually the second religion of Brazil.
Guanabara Bay
The Guanabara Bay is a real pleasure to see with his two strengths of 17 and 19 th centuries who keep their edge. It is easy to cross the Guanabara Bay to Niterói to travel or in the islands. From there, you’ll get one of the best views of Rio de Janeiro.
Museums in Rio de Janeiro
The city has several museums including the Museum of National History, which is south of the Bay of Guanabara, a modern art museum located on the Marina de Gloria, or a national art museum located just further north of the Museum of Modern Art, which offers the works of great artists from Brazil.
The Favelas
If every city has its own Brazilian favelas, they are often very close to the city centre and are over populated. Whilst they can be dangerous areas to wonder in, you can find organised tours to take you around for a safe and closer look to Brazilian culture.
Tags: Cheap Hotels, Rio Hotels
