Ingrid Marie Rivera, Miss World Puerto Rico 2005

Ingrid Marie Rivera, 2nd Runner-up at the 2005 Miss World pageant. Link

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Ingrid Marie Rivera, Miss World Puerto Rico 2005

Ingrid Marie Rivera, 2nd Runner-up at the 2005 Miss World pageant. Link

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Ingrid Marie Rivera, Miss World Puerto Rico 2005

Ingrid Marie Rivera, 2nd Runner-up at the 2005 Miss World pageant. Link

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Page and Brin Invest in the Big Screen

It was learned that Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are doing something beyond Google common businesses.


After becoming Internet moguls, Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are dipping their toes into Hollywood.

The pair are executive producers of a low-budget, independent film to be released next year, "Broken Arrows," written and directed by a friend of theirs, Reid Gershbein.

Google's founders tapped into their vast personal fortunes, estimated at $16 billion each, to fund about half the film's budget. Production cost just under $1 million, according to Gershbein......

A spokeswoman for Google confirmed the role of her company's founders in the film but declined to discuss any other details.

The investment by Google's founders may give insight into how they plan to use their deep pockets, a topic they have never discussed publicly. Although relatively thrifty, they have splurged on occasion, such as their film investment and buying a Boeing 767 jet to help ferry themselves and employees around the globe. (link)

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Vitamin D Keeps Cancer Away

An apple a day keeps docotor away, now vitamin D can also serve the same purpose.

NEW YORK: A daily intake of vitamin D can keep the cancer away, or so says a new study. It reduces the risk of breast, colon and ovary cancer by up to half, according to a 40-year research review carried out at the University of California, San Diego.

Vitamin D has been subject of interesting studies and there have been mounting evidence of its vital role in controlling heart and lung diseases, diabetes, hypertension, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and now cancer. The vitamin, the natural source being the sun's rays, is also essential for bone health and protects against rickets in children and osteoporosis in the elderly. (Link)

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Wonders of New China (10)

Linked Hybrid, Beijing
Steven Holl Architects;
Li Hu, lead architect

Scheduled for completion in 2008

Linked Hybrid, which will house 2,500 people in 700 apartments covering 1.6 million square feet, is a model for large-scale sustainable residential architecture. The site will feature one of the world's largest geothermal cooling and heating systems, which will stabilize the temperature within the complex of eight buildings, all linked at the 20th floor by a "ring" of service establishments, like cafés and dry cleaners. A set of dual pipes pumps water from 100 meters below ground, circulating the liquid between the buildings' concrete floors.

The result: The water-circulation system serves as a giant radiator in the winter and cooling system in the summer. It has no boilers to supply heat, no electric air conditioners to supply cool. The apartments also feature gray-water recycling -- a process that's just starting to catch on in Beijing in much smaller buildings -- to filter waste water from kitchen sinks and wash basins back into toilets.

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Wonders of New China (9)

Olympic Stadium, Beijing
Herzog & de Meuron
Under construction, to be completed in 2008

Sports stadiums have long followed the enduring design of one of the original wonders of the world, Rome's Coliseum. Herzog & de Meuron's National Stadium in Beijing is an attempt to rethink the classic sports-arena layout for more ecologically correct times.

The Swiss architects (of Tate Modern fame) wanted to provide natural ventilation for the 91,000-seat structure -- perhaps the largest "eco-friendly" sports stadium designed to date. To achieve this, they set out to create a building that could function without a strictly enclosed shell, yet also provide constant shelter for the audience and athletes alike.

To solve these design problems, they looked to nature for inspiration. The stadium's outer grid resembles a bird's nest constructed of delicately placed branches and twigs. Each discrete space within the facility, from restrooms to restaurants, is constructed as an independent unit within the outer lattice -- making it possible to encase the entire complex with an open grid that allows for natural air circulation. The architects also incorporated a layer of translucent membrane to fill any gaps in the lacy exterior.

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Wonders of New China (8)

Dongtan Eco City, Dongtan
Masterplan by Arup, for the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corp.

In planning stages, first phase to be completed in 2010

Developed by the Shanghai Industrial investment Corp., Dongtan Eco City, roughly the size of Manhattan, will be the world's first fully sustainable cosmopolis when completed in 2040. Like Manhattan, it's situated on an island -- the third-largest in China. Located on the Yangtze River, Dongtan is within close proximity of the bustle of Shanghai.

By the time the Shanghai Expo trade fair opens in 2010, the city's first phase should be completed, and 50,000 residents will call Dongtan home-sweet-sustainable-home. The goals to be accomplished in the next five years: systems for water purification, waste management, and renewable energy. An infrastructure of roads will connect the former agricultural land with Shanghai.

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Wonders of New China (7)

Donghai Bridge, Shanghai/Yangshan Island
China Zhongtie Major Bridge Engineering Group, Shanghai # 2 Engineering Co., Shanghai Urban Construction Group Officially opened in December, 2005

A key phase in the development of the world's largest deep-sea port was completed when China's first cross-sea bridge -- the 20-mile, six-lane Donghai Bridge -- was officially opened in December, 2005. Stretching across the East China Sea, the graceful cable-stay structure connects Shanghai to Yangshan Island, set to become China's first free-trade port (and the world's largest container port) upon its completion in 2010.

To provide a safer driving route in the typhoons and high waves known to hit the region, Donghai Bridge is designed in an S-shape. The structure, reported by Shanghai Daily to have cost $1.2 billion, will hold its title of China's -- and one of the world's -- longest over-sea bridge for only a couple of years, though. In 2008, the nearby 22-mile Hangzhou Bay Transoceanic Bridge, which also begins (or ends, depending on your journey) in Shanghai, will earn the superlative.

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Wonders of New China (6)

National Grand Theater, Beijing
Paul Andreu and ADP
Under construction, to be completed in 2008

Located near Tiananmen Square, the 490,485-square-foot glass-and-titanium National Grand Theater, scheduled to open in 2008, seems to float above a man-made lake. Intended to stand out amid the Chinese capital's bustling streets and ancient buildings, the structure has garnered criticism among Bejing's citizens for clashing with classic landmarks like the Monument to the People's Heroes (dedicated to revolutionary martyrs), the vast home of the National People's Congress, or Tiananmen Gate itself (the Gate of Heavenly Peace).

French architect Paul Andreu is no stranger to controversy -- or to innovative forms. A generation ago, in 1974, his untraditional design for Terminal 1 of Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport was criticized for its unusual curves, yet Andreu's groundbreaking, futuristic building later was seen to distinguish de Gaulle from more generic European and international air hubs. (The same airport's Terminal 2E, also designed by Andreu, gained attention in 2004 when it collapsed, tragically killing four people.)

Beijing's daring National Grand Theater is as much a spectacle as the productions that will be staged inside in the 2,416-seat opera house, the 2,017-seat concert hall, and the 1,040-seat theater. At night, the semi-transparent skin will give passersby a glimpse at the performance inside one of three auditoriums, a feature that highlights the building's public nature.

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Wonders of New China (5)

Central Chinese Television CCTV, Beijing
OMA/Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas
Under construction, scheduled for completion in 2008

The design of the new Central Chinese Television (CCTV) headquarters defies the popular conception of a skyscraper -- and it broke Beijing's building codes and required approval by a special review panel. The standard systems for engineering gravity and lateral loads in buildings didn't apply to the CCTV building, which is formed by two leaning towers, each bent 90 degrees at the top and bottom to form a continuous loop.

The engineer's solution is to create a structural "tube" of diagonal supports. The irregular pattern of this "diagrid" system reflects the distribution of forces across the tube's surface. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren and engineered by Ove Arup, the new CCTV tower rethinks what a skyscraper can be.

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Wonders of New China (4)

National Swimming Center, Beijing
PTW and Ove Aru
Under construction, completion scheduled for 2008

The striking exterior of the National Swimming Center, being constructed for the 2008 Olympic Games and nicknamed, the "Water Cube," is made from panels of a lightweight form of Teflon that transforms the building into an energy-efficient greenhouse-like environment. Solar energy will also be used to heat the swimming pools, which are designed to reuse double-filtered, backwashed pool water that's usually dumped as waste.

Excess rainwater will also be collected and stored in subterranean tanks and used to fill the pools. The complex engineering system of curvy steel frames that form the structure of the bubble-like skin are based on research into the structural properties of soap bubbles by two physicists at Dublin's Trinity College. The unique structure is designed to help the building withstand nearly any seismic disruptions.

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Wonders of New China (3)

Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai
Kohn Pederson Fox Architects
Under construction, completion scheduled for 2008

Rising in the Lujiazhui financial district in Pudong, the Shanghai World Financial Center is a tower among towers. The elegant 101-story skyscraper will be (for a moment, at least) the world's tallest when completed in early 2008.

One of the biggest challenges of building tall is creating a structure that can withstand high winds. The architects devised an innovation solution to alleviate wind pressure by adding a rectangular cut-out at the building's apex. Not only does the open area help reduce the building's sway but it also will be home to the world's highest outdoor observation deck -- a 100th-floor vista that will take vertigo to new heights.

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Wonders of New China (2)

Beijing International Airport, Beijing
Foster & Partners
Under construction, to be completed in late 2007

According to the U.S. Embassy to China, the country will be building 108 new airports between 2004 and 2009 -- including what will be the world's largest: the Beijing International Airport, designed by Foster & Partners. Set to open at the end of 2007, in time for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the airport terminal will cover more than 1 million square meters, giving it a bigger footprint than the Pentagon.

It's designed to handle 43 million passengers a year initially and 55 million by 2015, figures that will probably push the new facility into the ranks of the top 10 busiest airports, going by the 2004 numbers from the Airports Council International. Given the scale and traffic, Foster & Partners focused on the traveler's experience, making sure that walking distances are short, for instance.

Building on Foster's experience designing Hong Kong's new mega-airport, the massive Check Lap Kok, the sprawling Beijing terminal is housed under a single roof. To help passengers distinguish between different sections of the vast space, skylights cast different shades of yellow and red light across walls -- a subtle but innovative navigational aid. The architects also kept sustainability in mind: An environmental-control system reduces carbon emissions, and skylights situated on a south-east axis lessen solar heat, keeping the building cool.

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Wonders of New China (1)

The Commune, Beijing
First phase completed 2002, expansion scheduled for completion in 2010

Even if the Commune didn't sit beside that wonder of the ancient world, the Great Wall of China, it would still qualify as a wonder. The complex includes houses by 12 of Asia's leading architects. It was conceived by married real-estate developers Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, who gave each architect a $1 million budget. Shigeru Ban, the Japanese architect most famous for the paper houses he designed for refugees of the Kobe earthquake, designed the Furniture House, featuring the laminated plywood typically used for modular furniture, and China's Yung Ho Chang created the Split House, which takes the idea of a boxy dwelling, slices it in half, and spreads it out like a fan.

The Commune is now operated as a boutique hotel by the Germany luxury hotel group Kempinski, which is responsible for an upcoming expansion, which will feature 21 homes (including replications of the originals). One element will remain untouched in the new development: the Commune's private pedestrian trails, which trace untouched sections of the Great Wall.

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One Second Longer

On December 31, 2005 a "leap second" will be added to the world's clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This corresponds to 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time, when the extra second will be inserted at the U.S. Naval Observatory. This marks the 23rd leap second to be added to UTC, a uniform time-scale kept by atomic clocks around the world. Although you normally don't think about it, for most conventional uses the "civil" time you use is based on UTC. At the U.S. Naval Observatory, UTC is determined by averaging the time signals from cesium beam atomic clocks and hydrogen masers (the last being an improvement over the tried and true cesium clocks for measuring short periods of time).


Man's oldest clock has always been the Earth. We know it's morning when the Sun rises, noon when the Sun is overhead, and evening when the Sun sets. The Earth's accuracy as a clock is good to about one thousandth of a second per day - more than enough accuracy for most people. However, the invention of "atomic" clocks, which operate by measuring the resonant frequency of a given atom - (currently Cesium, Hydrogen or Mercury) - greatly increased that accuracy, and has now led to the capability at the U.S. Naval Observatory of measuring time to accuracies exceeding a billionth of a second per day.

Time measured by the rotation of the Earth is not uniform when compared to the time kept by atomic clocks. In fact, radio telescopes now observe the most distant objects in the universe, known as quasars, to determine the irregularities in the Earth's rotation, an important function performed by the Naval Observatory in our Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)program. As a result of these irregularities, atomic clocks gradually get out of sync with the Earth.

In 1972, by international agreement, it was decided to let atomic clocks run independently of the Earth, keep two separate time-scales, and then coordinate the two. In order to keep the difference between Earth time and atomic time within nine-tenths of a second as the two time-scales get out of sync, leap seconds are factored into the atomic time-scale. The International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (for which the U.S. Naval Observatory provides the Rapid Service and Prediction Product Center) is the organization which monitors the differences in the two time scales and calls for leap seconds to be inserted when necessary. Since 1972 leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from six months to two years. This leap second is occuring seven years since the last one. Leap seconds are added because the Earth's rotation tends to slow down relative to atomic time. If the Earth were to speed up, a leap second could be removed.

The U.S. Naval Observatory is charged with the responsibility for precise determination and management of time dissemination, and as such provides the Master Clock for the Department of Defense. USNO, together with the National Institutes for Standards and Technology (NIST), determines time for the entire nation. Modern electronic systems, such as electronic navigation or communication systems, depend increasingly on precise time and time interval (PTTI). Examples are the ground-based LORAN-C navigation system and the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS).

These systems are all based on the travel time of electromagnetic signals: an accuracy of 10 nanoseconds (ten billionths of a second) corresponds to a positional accuracy of about three meters or 10 feet. In fast communications, time synchronization is equally important. All of these systems are referenced to the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock.

The present Master Clock is required by the Department of Defense to be accurate to better than a billionth of a second per day. It is based on an ensemble of 60 independently operating cesium-beam atomic clocks and 15 hydrogen maser atomic clocks. These clocks operate in environmentally controlled vaults to ensure their stability. By automatic inter-comparison of all of the clocks every 100 seconds, a time-scale can be computed which is not only reliable but also extremely stable. Its rate does not change by more than about 100 picoseconds (0.000 000 000 1 seconds) per day from day to day. On the basis of this computed time-scale, a clock reference system is steered to produce clock signals which serve as the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock.

The U.S. Naval Observatory's success in its time standard function is evident in the fact that it is the largest single contributor to the international time scale (UTC), which is computed in Paris, France, at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Moreover, its principal role in keeping track of the change in the "Earth clock" (i.e., Earth rotation) and its dissemination of this information as the Rapid Service Bureau and Predictions Product Center for the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service attests to the fact that globally, as well as nationally, the U.S. Naval Observatory remains the leader in precise time.

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Sir Elton John: 'I do! I do!'

Britain's showbiz royalty, Elton John and David Furnish, exchanged vows and diamond wedding bands during a ceremony that capped the first week of legalized civil unions in the United Kingdom.

Opting to use the 17th century Town Hall where Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles got married in April, John and Furnish sealed their union with a kiss before facing hundreds of photographers and fans on the cobbled streets outside......


John, 58, and Furnish, 43, were among hundreds of same-sex couples tying the knot in England and Wales on Wednesday, the first day such ceremonies were possible. Others wed earlier this week in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

At a news conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair congratulated the couple for exercising their newfound legal right. Activists saw the union as a watershed moment for gay rights -- a public expression of commitment that would be impossible to ignore.

''This will give hope to millions of isolated, vulnerable, lesbian and gay people, especially those living in repressive and homophobic countries,'' said Peter Tatchell, spokesman for the gay-rights group OutRage.

The new law -- passed last year -- allows civil ceremonies that will give same-sex couples the same social security, tax, pension and inheritance rights as married heterosexual couples.

Furnish, a Canadian-born filmmaker, and John have been together for 12 years. Both have said they understand the implications of their union.

''Being such a high-profile couple and the fact that we decided to do it straight away does carry a certain message,'' John was quoted as saying by Attitude magazine. ''I'm doing this first and foremost because I want to do it for David and I want to be with David for the rest of my life, but I also want to do it to say that [the civil union law] shouldn't be something that just sits there in law. It should be embraced.''

Known for his flashy glasses, flamboyant clothes and extravagant lifestyle, the pop star chose an understated outfit and ceremony behind closed doors for his big day.

The few who attended included John's mother, Sheila, and stepfather Fred, and Furnish's parents, Gladys and Jack.

The ceremony, which took less than an hour, was conducted by Registrar Clair Williams, who also presided over the union between Charles and Camilla.

One of the guests, art dealer Jay Jopling, described the union as being ''like any other couple getting married.''

The couple emerged to a shower of rice and the click of cameras, walking arm in arm to face the paparazzi. John lifted his hand to show off a whopping diamond ring.

They then got into a black Rolls Royce -- rolling down the windows to wave to their fans -- before heading off for a family lunch. The reception cost an estimated $1.75 million, featuring pink champagne and lamb for 700 guests inside two giant white tents erected at John's Windsor mansion.

John, married once before to studio engineer Renate Blauel, is known for such songs as ''Crocodile Rock'' and ''Rocket Man.'' He was a close friend of Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, and was knighted in 1998 -- an honor he described as the pinnacle of his decades-long career.

Furnish is best known for a documentary about the pop star called ''Tantrums and Tiaras.'' He also produced a film about U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His latest work is titled ''It's a Boy Girl Thing.''

Several European countries have legalized same-sex unions. In the United States, only Massachusetts allows gay marriage, while Vermont and Connecticut permit civil unions.

AP

Same-sex from toppers to towels

BY LUCIO GUERRERO Staff Reporter

You only need to go to your favorite card store to see how far we've come toward accepting same-sex marriages.

Because between the "Get Well Soon" section and the "Happy Birthday" section, there are now cards that cater to same-sex commitment ceremonies. Instead of the traditional card with a bride and groom on the cover, many of today's wedding cards have gender-neutral pictures and phrases to highlight almost any ceremony.

"We make cards that are appropriate for any kind of wedding," said Rachel Bolton, a spokeswoman for Hallmark. "What's important is the message it conveys: love and commitment."

But many smaller cardmakers have decided to embrace the same-sex market wholeheartedly with wedding invitations, thank-you notes and anniversary cards. Some have pictures of same-sex couples. Others are written in rainbow colors.

That's just one of many things businesses are doing to be more gay-friendly. Here are some other ways wedding-related retailers are going after the pink dollar:

*Bridal registries: First, lots of companies have pretty much stopped calling them bridal registries and now call them gift registries. They also have tweaked their language to make sure no one is offended. Instead of looking up a registry by "bride" and "groom," many stores are now asking for "registrant" and "co-registrant." Marshall Field's, for example, only asks for a name and then classifies it under "couple." And don't fret -- the store's new owner, Macy's, has a similar policy using the term "partner."

*Cake toppers: You've seen the traditional topper with the tuxedoed groom standing next to the white-dressed bride. Now you can get two grooms standing side-by-side or two brides holding hands on top of the cake.

*Wedding announcements: Although still in their infancy, many newspapers carry same-sex commitment announcements in their wedding pages. The trend is still controversial, but with large papers, such as the New York Times and Boston Globe, accepting them, other papers are expected to begin the practice.

*Wedding bands: Although the marriages are not recognized as legal unions in the United States, many gay couples are opting for wedding rings made specifically for gay couples. Similar to traditional bands, some same-sex bands include a small, pink triangle in the middle, or rainbow inlays.

*Traditional wedding gifts: Most newlyweds have a "his" and "hers" towel set somewhere in their closet. For same-sex unions, that doesn't have to be any different -- with a little tweaking, of course. Available online is the "his" and "his" towel set, along with the "hers" and "hers" set. How about a wedding album? You can get one of those, as well, decorated with a picture of a same-sex couple on the cover.

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Cometary and Interstellar Dust en route to Earth

NASA's Stardust mission is nearing Earth after a 2.88 billion mile round-trip journey to return cometary and interstellar dust particles back to Earth. Scientists believe the cargo will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system.

The velocity of the sample return capsule, as it enters the Earth's atmosphere at 28,860 mph, will be the fastest of any human-made object on record. It surpasses the record set in May 1969 during the return of the Apollo 10 command module. The capsule is scheduled to return on Jan. 15.

"Comets are some of the most informative occupants of the solar system. The more we can learn from science exploration missions like Stardust, the more we can prepare for human exploration to the moon, Mars and beyond," said Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Several events must occur before scientists can retrieve cosmic samples from the capsule landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City. Mission navigators will command the spacecraft to perform targeting maneuvers on Jan. 5 and 13. On Jan. 15 at 12:57 a.m. EST, Stardust will release its sample return capsule. Four hours later, the capsule will enter Earth's atmosphere 410,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.

The capsule will release a drogue parachute at approximately 105,000 feet. Once the capsule has descended to about 10,000 feet, the main parachute will deploy. The capsule is scheduled to land on the range at 5:12 a.m. EST.

After the capsule lands, if conditions allow, a helicopter crew will fly it to the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, for initial processing. If weather does not allow helicopters to fly, special off-road vehicles will retrieve the capsule and return it to Dugway. Samples will be moved to a special laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, where they will be preserved and studied.

"Locked within the cometary particles is unique chemical and physical information that could be the record of the formation of the planets and the materials from which they were made," said Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator at the University of Washington, Seattle.

NASA expects most of the collected particles to be no more than a third of a millimeter across. Scientists will slice these particle samples into even smaller pieces for study.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. manages the Stardust mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft.

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Russia Not to Savor Norwegian salmon

Russia will ban all fresh Norwegian salmon imports from January 1 2006 because its vets say they have found dangerously high levels of lead and cadmium in the fish and Norway‘s monitoring system is not adequate.

Norway disputes the claims but failed on Tuesday at a meeting in Moscow to dissuade Russia from extending a partial ban it imposed earlier this month to all fresh salmon imports, Sergei Dankvert, Russia‘s chief animal and plant safety officer said.......

"We are not happy with the Norwegian system of monitoring heavy metal content in their products," he told Reuters.

"We are now checking other Norwegian fish products and if we are not satisfied we will ban all fish imports from Norway including frozen fish."

Russia imposed a temporary ban on fish from four Norwegian farms this month.

Norway is the world‘s biggest producer of salmon, and fish is the Nordic country‘s third most valuable export after energy and metals.

Now Russia, which has a growing appetite for fresh salmon and has imported 60 percent more so far this year than last year from Norway, says it has found such high levels of the metals cadmium and lead that it would turn the fish into poison.

Norway says it monitors the fish, which can absorb the metals from fish feed used by farms, and has invited Russian vets to inspect its farms.

But they have not so far accepted, Ingellis Jacobsen, Norway‘s seafood marketing manger in Russia, said.

"The Norwegian authorities are still trying to get the Russian inspectors to Norway as quickly as possible so they can see for themselves and lift any ban," she said.

She said Russian inspectors should arrive in Norway during the first few months of next year.

Shares in Norwegian fish farmers fell to around one month lows on the news before recovering slightly.

Pan Fish closed at 2.06 Norwegian crowns, down 1.4 percent, Fjord Seafood closed at 4.33 crowns, a 3.1 percent fall, and Cermaq closed at 52.50 crowns, down 1.4 percent.

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Novel Police Patrolling Vehicle?!

Two Chinese policemen patrolling in Pekíng, where temperatures have dropped well below zero!

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Kobe Hits Records Again!

Kobe Bryant was at his incredible best Tuesday night, scoring a career-high 62 points in just three quarters to lead the Los Angeles Lakers over the Dallas Mavericks 112-90.

The 27-year-old Bryant, who brought a 31.3-point average into the game, shot 18-of-31, including 4-of-10 from 3-point range, and made 22 of 25 foul shots while playing only 33 minutes......



Bryant scored 15 points in the first quarter, 17 in the second, and a franchise-record 30 in the third before taking a seat for good with the Lakers leading 95-61.

The previous Lakers record for points in a quarter was 24 shared by Bryant and Hall of Famers Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.

The NBA record for points in a quarter is 33 by George Gervin for San Antonio in 1978. Denver's David Thompson scored 32 in a quarter that same season, and Wilt Chamberlain scored 31 in a quarter for Philadelphia in 1962, when he set the single-game NBA record with 100 points.

Baylor scored a franchise-record 71 points on Nov. 15, 1960, at New York. Bryant's total is the sixth-highest in club history and the most for the Lakers since Chamberlain scored 66 at Phoenix on Feb. 9, 1969.

The capacity crowd of 18,997 began chanting, "We want Kobe! We want Kobe!" early in the final period, but with the Lakers holding an insurmountable lead, there was no need for coach Phil Jackson to put the 6-foot-6 star back into the game.

Bryant matched his previous career high of 56 points by making two free throws with 1:02 left in the third quarter. He went on to score six more points in the period, capping his amazing night by making a long 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left.

As the period ended – after Los Angeles had outscored Dallas 42-17 – Bryant held a hand to his ear, and the volume increased even more. Bryant then called it a night.

Bryant became the first NBA player to reach 60 points since Philadelphia's Allen Iverson scored 60 in a 112-99 victory over Orlando last February.

Bryant reached the 50-point plateau for the sixth time in his career, and the first since March 28, 2003, against Washington. Cleveland's LeBron James had the previous single-game high this season with 52 points on Dec. 10.

Nobody else scored in double figures for the Lakers (14-11), who won for the eighth time in 10 games. The loss was just the second in 10 games for the Mavericks (18-7). The other defeat was a 109-106 setback to the Lakers on Dec. 12 in Dallas, when Bryant scored 43 points.

Dirk Nowitzki had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Mavericks. Like Bryant, he sat out the fourth quarter. Devin Harris also scored 18 for Dallas before fouling out with 3:15 to play.

Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said before the game he would use "the whole team" to guard Bryant, and several different Dallas players gave it a go with very little success.

Johnson was ejected after being hit with two technical fouls early in the third quarter.

Steve Javie called technicals on Johnson and Nowitzki with 10:16 left in the period after Nowitzki was inadvertently struck in the face by Bryant, but was called for a foul.

Johnson picked up his second technical 2½ minutes later, leaving with the Mavericks trailing 68-50. Bryant had 41 points at that stage.

Bryant was 11-of-18 from the floor, including 2-of-4 from 3-point range, and 8-of-9 from the foul line for 32 points at halftime. Lamar Odom was the Lakers' second-leading scorer at that stage with six points.

Bryant had 15 points and five rebounds in the first nine minutes to spark the Lakers to a 22-17 lead. It was 25-18 entering the second period.

Notes: Dallas guard Jerry Stackhouse hopes to play for the first time this season Friday night in Seattle. He hasn't played because of an injured right knee. "I'm just thankful the time has come for me to be out there," said Stackhouse, averaging 20.4 points in his 10-year NBA career. ... The Lakers are 8-5 on the road compared to 6-6 at home. ... Dallas G Marquis Daniels returned to action after missing two games because of a strained neck and had six points in 25 minutes. ... Rick Fox, who helped the Lakers win three championships before retiring after the 2003-04 season, was honored in a brief ceremony after the first quarter.

By John Nadel
ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:17 p.m. December 20, 2005

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Have Privacy or Not?

Have you say! Just curious if such pictures published by the Chinese media is reasonable or not? Anyway, the prostitution is absolutely not decent, not moral......however there are still a lot over the worldwide range! :-(

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Have Privacy or Not?

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Sorber virus also helpful?

Email worms aren't always as harmful as generally thought.

The Sober Y Internet worm forced a 20-year-old German man to surrender before police for owning child pornography.

The man had received a copy of a mass email worm which warned that he was being investigated. The messages had a subject line in German that stated, "Preliminary investigation commenced".

And it went on to say that, "The downloading of movies, software and mp3s is illegal and therefore punishable. We can hereby inform you that your computer and IP address have been confiscated. The contents of your computer have been seized as evidence and a preliminary investigation will be launched. In the coming days, you will receive a written statement informing you of the charges and your options to file a statement." The email was signed by the German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigations and landed in the mail box with an attachment containing the Sober Y virus. The message prompted the man to confess before the police that he owned pornographic pictures of children. He turned himself up at a police station in the city of Paderborn in Germany on Thursday, a local police press release claimed. According to the release, an investigation showed that the man had sent images by email and stored images on his hard drive. Sober Y worm spreads itself using several email messages. Security firm F-Secure recently had issued a Radar Level 1 alert, which is the highest, on a new variant of the Sober internet worm being sent as an email attachment. F-Secure had said that the worm seemed to be very successful in spreading partly because the messages contained bogus warnings from the FBI, the CIA or the German Bundeskriminalamt.

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World Player of the Year

Brazil's super star Ronaldinho, unquestionably, was graced by winning the second consecutive reward--World Player of the Year! Let's put some thoughts on his humble while ambitious speech addressed at FIFA World Player Gala 2005 !May Ronaldinho Good luck!


"I would like to dedicate this award to all my team mates at my club, my family - who have always stuck by me during the difficult times and to God for given me the health to do what I enjoy doing which is playing football. Any one of us could have won the award, it's a dream come true for all of us.

After winning this award I want to help my team by producing my best form. I want to go on helping my team mates and be worthy of representing the team. I'm getting ready for the World Cup - I want to go back to Brazil with another title.

I'm the happiest man on earth - I play for a great team, I have lots of friends, people appreciate the way I play, they appreciate my club and I want to continue to give happiness.



Photo Courtesy of Xinhua/Reuters!

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Earbuds may greet you with deafness!

For those like to listen muscic with earbuds should pay attention to this kind of matter.


Earbuds used with the iPod and other music players can increase the risk of hearing loss, according to a US audiologist.

Dean Garstecki, of Northwestern University, said that an increasing number of young people were now experiencing the kind of hearing loss found in aging adults.

Low cost earbuds were more likely to increase the risk of loss in hearing than muff-type earphones, according to Garstecki.

The research found that MP3 users often listen to music at 110 to 120 decibels which can cause hearing loss after about an hour of listening. Because earbuds are placed directly into the ear, they cause damage by boosting the sound signal by as much as six to nine decibels.

Garstecki advised lowering the volume levels while listening to music. "If music listeners are willing to turn the volume down further still and use different headphones, they can increase the amount of time that they can safely listen," he said.

Noise-cancelling headphones are better because they reduce or eliminate background noise. But such headphones are often less popular because they are more costly and more visible than the tiny earbuds.

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Say goodbye to IE?

Firefox Moves Farther Ahead of the Hunt



The browser that finally broke Microsoft's monopoly just got its first major update. If you haven't switched from Internet Explorer yet, consider Firefox 1.5 your invitation to do so. This new release (Win 98 or newer, Mac OS X 10.3 or newer, Linux, free at http://www.mozilla.com/ ) looks almost like its predecessor, but it's worth downloading for that very reason. It incorporates useful improvements without forcing users to learn anything new.

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The Mona Lisa Smile: Not Quite

It's now official; the legendary "Mona Lisa's smile" may seem enigmatic because she is, in fact, a blend of many different emotions.

The Renaissance masterpiece was analyzed by a computer, to reveal that Mona Lisa is 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful and 2 percent angry.



Leonardo Da Vinci's work-of-art was scrutinized by an "emotion-recognition software" or algorithm, developed by Dr Nicu Sebe - University of Amsterdam, in conjunction with the University of Illinois, Chicago. The software is said to "tease apart the different emotions behind a facial expression".

Dr Sebe's "emotion-recognition software" assesses human mood by examining key features such as curvature of lips and crinkles around eyes; then makes a score with respect to 6 "universal" emotions - happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. According to the principles of psychology, these emotions are behind all facial expressions.

Sebe said that the Mona Lisa smile was similarly broken down into its constituent parts using the software. Sebe said that no one really shows just one single facial expression, and this is true of Mona Lisa as well.

The study revealed that although the overwhelming emotion was one of happiness, the second most important was that of disgust. Sebe however said that no one really knows for sure why Mona Lisa looks so enigmatic, since they do not know the context of why she is smiling.

The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1506; and never in the history of art has one painting been so ardently admired... The Mona Lisa is also known as "La Gioconda," since the model is believed to have been the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy silk merchant living in Florence. Many have been fascinated by the faint smile at the corner of Mona Lisa's mouth.

Earlier on, Prof Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University, had published research saying that the elusive quality of Mona Lisa's smile can be explained by the fact that her smile is almost entirely in low spatial frequencies, and hence is best seen by a human being's peripheral vision.

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Fantanstic Thai Massage

Fantanstic Thai Massage!

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Will Yahoo! Phone Out Skype?

A picture appearing on here

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Will Yahoo! Phone Out Skype?

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To Be a Chinaman?!

Below is an email recently from my friend working in China, it's true that one really will be so helpless and distraught as a Chinaman in a current China society! Without questions, my country China though has a booming economy after 20+ years development, some basic rights of her civilians were abused!!

To be a Chinaman is woeful luck, you have no right to vote, and of course you have no chance to be voted. To be a Chinaman is ashamed, people cheat, you can't trust. To be a Chinaman is awful, people are snobbish; you are even unable to give a hand when your parents are treated unequal. To be a Chinaman is funny, there is so fierce competition and there is so much unfairness. When you have got a foreigner ..................You are always fighting for the glory of China but you will never win. Am I a Chinaman? Yeah. for sure. I can't change it but I hate it!

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Cat-Fox Found!

Recently a so-called new creature (see left) was camera-caputred in the rain-forests of Borneo Island in South-East Asia. It attracted a lot of interests from worldwide medias, such as Nature.com, Scientific American, Washington Post, BBC.......Yupe, one is really delighted with that as the world has wheeled into the 21st century, however, maybe someone wanna to ask how about the speed of creatures extinguishs nowadays? The answer is undoubtedly much FASTER than that to discover, :-( So, don't be too much indulged in such alone a discovery, more attention may godirectly to protect Mother Nature and keep more cat-foxs living harmonyly with our humankinds!

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Cat-Fox Found!

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Word of the Year!

Podcast is relatively a new word generated since Apple Inc. 's iPod, a popularity-winning MP3 player was invented recent years, referred to as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player". Now it has been credenced Word of the Year 2005 by the New Oxford American Dictionary! No any reseaon not to applaud its marvelousness!!! Many have taken advantage of iTunes to subscribe to the online feeds from vast providers, why wouldn't you have a trial?

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Word of the Year!

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FortiGuard Guards everything ?

Confused long long time, as the one firewall-like FortiGuard installed in our uni's server blocked me to reach my sister-in-law's renowned blogspot in Chinese blog communities. What I can't understand most is that FortiGuard identifies it as a Pornography site, :-((( It's ridculous?!!!! By FortiGuard, is it necessary that everything be guarded?

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FortiGuard Guards everything ?

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Something new learned

Never had a glimpse at any kinds of webpage codes, however after viewing kshern's imaginative contribute at various web-hosts, an idea to learn something new suddenly struck me. Though the blog changed by myself is yet uglily remaining , it's the first time ever to do, thereby fulfilling much sensation :-). Congratulations? Applause? Whatever! May later the fish study research goes well, :-O

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Kiss Steals the Life of Peanut-Allergied Canadian Teen Girl

I first time heard such deadly power of peanut! Emma Price's article on Earthtimes.Org is noteworthy of paying much attention.



Christina Desforges, a Canadian teenager allergic to peanuts actually lost her life after she stole a kiss with her boyfriend who had just consumed a peanut-based snack. The allergy that affects just over a percent of the population caused the 15-year old to go into anaphylactic shock despite an immediately administered adrenalin shot. The girl eventually died four days after the lethal kiss of respiratory failure.

A resident of Saguenay lying to the north of Quebec, the girl was known to be allergic to peanuts among family and relatives. However it appears that her boyfriend was not aware of the seriousness of this problem and as a result became instrumental in Desforges death. Despite an adrenalin dose and rushing her to a Quebec hospital, the allergic reaction was far too strong for doctors to treat. Dr. Nina Verreault of Chicoutimi Hospital in Saguenay who was to perform an autopsy on Desforges body suggested her case as being “very rare and worrisome”.

Food related allergies have been on the rise in recent years with peanut allergies being particularly high. In America at least 1.5 million suffer adverse reactions to traces of peanut that appear in their bloodstream through food or cosmetic lotions, with anywhere between 50 and 100 dying as a result yearly. Though the reasons for this rise are unclear, one study has pointed to a link between the use of baby creams and lotions with a peanut oil content in early childhood and allergies that arise later.

The symptoms of food allergies range from minor reactions such as rashes, vomiting and diarrhea to more severe reactions like swelling of the face, throat or body, gasping and falling blood pressure. The reactions are usually dependent on the quantity of the allergen ingested and the person's own history of reactions to casual contact. Karen Sigman, a paediatric allergist suggests that even traces of peanut on the tongue and lips are sufficient to cause such a reaction in a person who is severely allergic. She stressed that in such cases it is of paramount importance, "They (allergic youngsters) tell the people they are close to make sure they are not in contact with nuts or peanuts".

In most cases of allergy, an immediate adrenaline shot is the standard tool to treat anaphylactic shock while hospitalization serves to monitor the patient's progress or control recurrent attacks. The Montreal Children's Hospital peanut allergist, Rhoda Kagan citing instances of severe reactions to peanut dust said, “Some people have an extremely low threshold (which) varies greatly from person to person and is highly unpredictable”. For now it appears that Christina Desforges' death is a case of a severe allergy and a failure to take it seriously by letting people close to her know and help her steer clear of peanuts.

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The Most Generous Philanthropists

Gordon and Betty Moore
2001-05 Total Gifts and Pledges: $7.046 billion


With charitable gifts totaling well above $7 billion dollars, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore and wife Betty have given the equivalent of nearly $4 million per day for half a decade. In 2001, the couple gave $5 billion to the Moore Foundation, based in an eco-friendly "Green Building" where they coordinate global conservation initiatives. The Moores also fund scientific and medical institutions in the San Francisco Bay area.



Bill and Melinda Gates
2001-05 Total Gifts and Pledges: $5.458 billion


The world's richest couple, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, have turned their financial clout into a philanthropic powerhouse. Last year, the couple pledged $3.35 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, topping their endowment at a staggering $29 billion. Now on a crusade against malaria, the Gateses fund world disease research and treatment. They also back K-12 education initiatives.



More information available at Businessweek!

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Sound of Music Gives Feel for Language

A good artice By Susan Brown for those parents who want to cultivate their children to genius.
Source: Science NOW Daily News 17 November 2005



WASHINGTON, D.C.--Some parents play Mozart for their infants, hoping to instill genius, or at least give them a leg up when they start school. While the strategy has been discounted as a path toward early achievement, musicians may have an edge over nonmusicians when distinguishing between speech sounds. The results may help explain how music therapy sometimes aids children struggling with language and reading.

Listening to people speak is more complicated than it might seem. The brain must make out the individual sounds--called phonemes--that make up words. The critical contrasts can be slight: The acoustic difference between the syllables "ba" and "da," for instance, lasts only 40 milliseconds. Trouble with these distinctions may make reading difficult for dyslexic children. But studies have shown that singing and rhythm games improve dyslexic children's spelling and phonological skills.

That led Nadine Gaab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge to wonder whether music somehow enhances a student's ability to discriminate rapid changes within sound. She and colleagues looked for the answer by rounding up 14 adult musicians who had learned to play an instrument before they were 7 years old and who continued to play at least a few hours each week. They then pitted the speech discrimination abilities of these performers against 14 nonmusicians matched in age, gender, and general language ability. The researchers asked the subjects to listen to pairs of synthesized speech syllables and say whether they were the same, then made the sounds increasingly similar until the listeners could no longer distinguish between them.

Early music exposure appears to make a difference. While musicians and nonmusicians were equally matched when it came to distinguishing pairs of syllables that differed only in frequency, usually perceived as pitch, musicians were more adept when timing was involved. They heard finer differences in the brief gap between consonant and vowel that separates the syllables "ga" and "ka" than nonmusicians. And when both timing and frequency were involved, in the contrast between "ba" and "wa," musicians outperformed nonmusicians by a wide margin. This enhanced ability to correctly categorize speech may be what gives musicians a better memory for words, says Gaab, who presented her work at the Society for Neuroscience meeting this week.

Neuroscientist Robert Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, says the results are surprising. "You wouldn't necessarily expect that musicians would be better at speech," he said. Further work is needed, he said, to identify the specific type of musical experience that might lead to better language skills.

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Stuff again!

After long long time no any message here, I put some stuffs again. Thanks to a project in University of Oregon called e-Asia, we can review some works written by our President Mao (Tse-Tung). Enlosed please find a glimpse at some of his words:

THE CHINESE PEOPLE
CANNOT BE COWED BY THE ATOM BOMB
From the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,
Foreign Languages Press
Peking 1977
First Edition 1977
Vol. V, pp. 152-53.

Prepared for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo, djr@marx2mao.org?(November 1999)

January 25, 1955

China and Finland are friendly countries. Our relations are based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
China and Finland have never come into conflict. In the past, China's wars with European countries were only with Britain, France, Germany, tsarist Russia, Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Holland; these countries all came from afar to commit aggressions against China, as in the invasions by the Anglo-French allied forces and by the allied forces of the eight powers, including the United States and Japan. Sixteen countries took part in the war of aggression against Korea, including Turkey and Luxembourg. All these aggressor countries claimed to be peace-loving while branding Korea and China as aggressors.
Today, the danger of a world war and the threats to China come mainly from the warmongers in the United States. They have occupied our Taiwan and the Taiwan Straits and are contemplating an atomic war. We have two principles: first, we don't want war; second, we will strike back resolutely if anyone invades us. This is what we teach the members of the Communist Party and the whole nation. The Chinese people are not to be cowed by U.S. atomic blackmail. Our country has a population of 600 million and an area of 9,600,000 square kilometres. The United States cannot annihilate the Chinese nation with its small stack of atom bombs. Even if the U.S. atom bombs were so powerful that, when dropped on China, they would make a hole right through the earth, or even blow it up, that would hardly mean anything to the universe as a whole, though it might be a major event for the solar system.

* Main points of a conversation with Ambassador Carl-Johan (Cay) Sundstrom, the first Finnish envoy to China, when he presented his credentials.

We have an expression, millet plus rifles. In the case of the United States, it is planes plus the A-bomb. However, if the United States with its planes plus the A-bomb is to launch a war of aggression against China, then China with its millet plus rifles is sure to emerge the victor. The people of the whole world will support us. As a result of World War I, the tsar, the landlords and the capitalists in Russia were wiped out; as a result of World War II, Chiang Kai-shek and the landlords were overthrown in China and the East European countries and a number of countries in Asia were liberated. Should the United States launch a third world war and supposing it lasted eight or ten years, the result would be the elimination of the ruling classes in the United States, Britain and the other accomplice countries and the transformation of most of the world into countries led by Communist Parties. World wars end not in favour of the warmongers but in favour of the Communist Parties and the revolutionary people in all lands. If the warmongers are to make war, then they mustn't blame us for making revolution or engaging in "subversive activities", as they keep saying all the time. If they desist from war, they can survive a little longer on this earth. But the sooner they make war, the sooner they will be wiped from the face of the earth. Then a people's united nations would be set up, maybe in Shanghai, maybe somewhere in Europe, or it might be set up again in New York, provided the U.S. warmongers had been wiped out.

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The Hogans

Photo by Steve Granitz / WireImage.com

Hulk Hogan, son Nick Hogan, daugter Linda Hogan, and wife Brooke Hogan, were on the Los Angeles premiere of Get Rich or Die Tryin. Link

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The Hogans

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Sacrifice!

Once I experienced Indian Thaiposen Festive this Janurary, I noted that how Indian people to sacrifice themselves while celebrating their God--Murugan's Birthday!

From this picture, any feelings from you?

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Sacrifice!

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Fish Harvest!

Frankly speaking, I never imagined my future profession would be involved in something concerning with fish before I entered a Fisheries University in China, majoring in Aquaculture! After 4 years of undergraduate and 3 years of Master study on fish, I should have no reasons to say I don't like fish. How happy when Bangladesh farmer harvested such a big carp! What I am feeling now you, is like what you can read from those farmer's facial expressions!

Note: This picture was screen-captured, however I can't remember well where it was taken, and on the time I post this picture without providing its credit, as the copyright is a serious matter, I reserved this picture's copyright for its taker or the concerned agencies publishing it.

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This Will Be My Symphony

A lyrics received from a friend's email was liked by me so much!


To live connect with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion. To be worthy, not respectable and wealthy,
not rich; to study hard ,think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to bear all cheerfully, do all bracelly, await oceansions, hurry near.

In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and un conscious, grow up through the common.

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