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  • Pope Francis at the Presidential Palace with HH Mohammed bin Rashid, Mohamed bin Zayed

    Pope Francis at the Presidential Palace with HH Mohammed bin Rashid, Mohamed bin Zayed

    Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received this morning Head of the Catholic Church Pope Francis. Pope Francis is in state visit to the UAE.

    Upon his arrival at the Presidential Palace, Pope Francis, accompanied by cavalry on Arabian horses, was accorded an official reception. A 21-gun salute was fired in honour of the Pontiff, following which the Papal Anthem and that of the United Arab Emirates were played.

    Pope Visit at the Presidential Palace

    Mohammed bin Rashid, Mohamed bin Zayed receive Pope Francis at Presidential Palace

    Their Highness welcomed the state guest and expressed their happiness for this historic visit. They also expressed their confidence that the visit contributes to strengthening the values and practices of tolerance as practised by our country, whose people live in social harmony, peaceful coexistence, and culture dialogue.

    Pope Francis with UAE Leaders

    Abu Dhabi Ruler’s Representative in Al Dhafra Region His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Speaker of Federal National Council Dr. Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi, Abu Dhabi Ruler’s Representative in Al Ain Region His Highness Sheikh Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, His Highness Sheikh Suroor bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council His Highness Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt. General His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor His Highness Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court His Highness Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of Zayed Foundation for Charity and Humanitarian Works His Highness Sheikh Omer bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of Zayed Higher Organization for Humanitarian Care and Special Needs His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Zayed al Nahyan, Advisor to the President His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Dhiab bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan attended the perception.

    Mohammed bin Rashid, Mohamed bin Zayed receive Pope Francis at Presidential Palace

    source:  Dubai OFW

     

  • Transparent Solar Panels Will Turn Windows Into Green Energy Collectors

    Transparent Solar Panels Will Turn Windows Into Green Energy Collectors

    Researchers from Michigan State University developed completely transparent solar panels, which can have numerous applications in architecture, and other fields like mobile electronics or the automotive industry.

    Researchers have tried to create such a device before as well, but the final results were never satisfying.

    The team focused on the see-through factor, so they developed a transparent luminescent solar concentrator, or TLSC, which can be placed over a clear surface like a window. It can harvest solar energy without affecting the transmittance of light.

    The technology uses organic molecules which absorb light wavelengths which are not visible to the human eye, such as infrared and ultraviolet light. Richard Lunt, assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science at MSU’s College of Engineering, says:

    “We can tune these materials to pick up just the ultraviolet and the near infrared wavelengths that then ‘glow’ at another wavelength in the infrared. The captured light is transported to the contour of the panel, where it is converted to electricity with the help of thin strips of photovoltaic solar cells.”

    Since the vertical footprint is bigger than the rooftop one, especially in glass towers, these devices could make the most out of the buildings’ facades. They would not affect the architectural design but will represent a far more efficient technology.  Yet, they can also be integrated into old buildings as well.

    According to the New York Times:

    “If the cells can be made long-lasting, they could be integrated into windows relatively cheaply, as much of the cost of conventional photovoltaics is not from the solar cell itself, but the materials it is mounted on, like aluminum and glass. Coating existing structures with solar cells would eliminate some of this material cost.

    If the transparent cells ultimately prove commercially viable, the power they generate could significantly offset the energy use of large buildings, said Dr. Lunt, who will begin teaching at Michigan State University this fall.

    “We’re not saying we could power the whole building, but we are talking about a significant amount of energy, enough for things like lighting and powering everyday electronics,” he said.”

    Further research has been funded by the Center for Excitonics, an Energy Frontier Research Center financed by the Department of Energy.

    source:  Healthy Food House

  • Nick Sandmann’s Lawyer Sends Letters To These 54 Entities For Potential Lawsuits

    Nick Sandmann’s Lawyer Sends Letters To These 54 Entities For Potential Lawsuits

    Attorneys representing Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann and his family indicated on Friday that they have sent letters for potential lawsuits to over 50 entities ranging from Democratic politicians to celebrities to media figures.

    “The legal counsel representing Nick and his family, Todd McMurtry and experienced libel and defamation lawyer L. Lin Wood of Atlanta, have said they will seek justice for the harm allegedly done to the teen,” The Enquirer reported. “McMurtry is with the law firm of Hemmer Defrank Wessels and has practiced law in Greater Cincinnati since 1991. He said a team of seven lawyers has been working full-time to review the media accounts of what happened.”

    The letters come in response to the media’s smearing of Sandmann after a selectively edited clip of an incident on January 19, 2019, went viral that showed Sandmann standing face-to-face with Native American Nathan Phillips, who was beating a drum in Sandmann’s face.

    The Enquirer added: “This week they have prepared documentation preservation letters addressed to organizations and individuals they believe may have defamed or libeled Nick with false reporting.”

    “They know they crossed the line,” McMurtry said. “Do they want 12 people in Kentucky to decide their fate? I don’t think so.”

    The list of entities that letters were sent to includes:

    Hours after the initial clip, which was only several seconds long, went viral on social media, longer videos began to emerge that showed the initial way the incident was framed was misleading and false. The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported:

    The three-minute video was posted online by a group of Native American protesters who claimed they were harassed and intimidated by a group of Covington Catholic High School students waiting for their bus near the Lincoln Memorial. The video is heavily clipped at the beginning and end, and shows only an apparent “confrontation” between a protester named Nathan Phillips and a Make America Great Again-hat wearing teen. …

    Saturday night, a two-hour long, full video of the confrontation became widely available on social media, and that video shows a very different interaction than the one initially portrayed. The video, taken from the point of view of a second group of protesters who witnessed the interaction, shows that Phillips approached the teens — not the other way around, as Phillips claims — and that the teens were relatively peaceful during the incident, laughing and clapping along with Phillips’ drumming, and occasionally asking questions like, “what is going on here?”

    The Daily Wire further noted that “the Covington Catholic students were verbally attacked by a designated hate group that called them ‘Child molesting f**gots,’ ‘Dirty a*s crackers,’ ‘Future school shooters,’ and ‘Incest babies.’”

    source:  Daily Wire

    Source

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/42988/nick-sandmanns-lawyer-sends-letters-these-54-ryan-saavedra

  • Poland is pushing the EU into crisis

    Poland is pushing the EU into crisis

    Poland is changing. Every year the country celebrates its national Independence Day in the capital, Warsaw. There are parades and speeches But in 2017, Poland’s Independence Day made worldwide news because of these signs: 60,000 people showed up for a march led by Nationalist and white-supremacist groups. That’s because they have reason to celebrate, too. Poland’s right-wing political party, PiS, is in power. After winning the Presidency and a majority in Parliament, they’ve ignored the constitution, Taken over the courts, purged the military, and cracked down on the media. PiS is bringing authoritarianism back to Poland and openly rebelling against the European Union. It’s a shocking turn for a country that, just a few years ago was hailed as one of Europe’s most promising young democracies.

    So, how did this happen? And can it be stopped? It was an old story to the Polish population – conquest, subjugation, enslavement. it had happened before in Poland’s troubled history but never with such inhumanity Poland had a traumatic 20th century. It was invaded twice during World War Two. First by the Germans and then by the Soviets… …who re-established the country after the war, but as a communist state under their control. In fact, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin directly contributed to a draft of Poland’s constitution, which was formalized in 1952. These are his handwritten notes. For the next several decades, Poland developed very little while it was cut off from the rest of the world. It became one of several Soviet-backed, communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe that made up the Soviet bloc.

    The rest of the Soviet bloc soon followed. This posed a challenge for Western Europe. We cannot aim at anything less than the union of Europe as a whole and we look with confidence for the day that union is achieved Since the end of World War Two, the continent’s democracies had been growing closer; signing free trade deals that became the precursor to today’s European Union. At first, the trade deals just covered coal and steel, but as they grew to include agriculture, energy, and other markets, more countries joined– making Europe more economically and politically integrated than it had ever been before. As the former Soviet bloc countries started establishing democracies of their own; Western Europe needed to find a way to include them. So in 1993, the established EU countries came up with a strict checklist for admitting new members. New member-states needed to have a free market economy, respect human rights and the rule of law.

    Meaning courts had to be independent and impartial– so everyone could get a fair trial. These EU rules helped bring former-communist countries in while also keeping them from sliding back into authoritarianism. They were designed to keep the peace in Europe. Poland joined the EU in 2004 and because of Solidarity’s success it became one of the most promising new member. Poland was given more money than any other EU country which it used to build highways, schools, hospitals, and modern infrastructure.

    The country’s economy grew more than any other ex-communist country. Each year after it joined, Poland received millions of Euros to help fund highways, schools, hospitals, and modern infrastructure. By 2014, Poland became one of the EU’s strongest and most resilient members. It even avoided the recession in 2009 that crippled economies worldwide. Polling showed 72% of Poles were satisfied with EU membership. More than any other member state. Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski: “Ladies & Gentleman, 10 years ago we joined the European Union. We did not become part of the EU on a whim. We became part of the union because we put in tremendous efforts to build a democracy and a free market economy; two pillars of a united Europe.” And Poland’s charismatic, pro-EU Prime minister, Donald Tusk, was chosen to become president of the EU’s European Council.

    But in his absence, leaders with a very different vision for Poland’s future rose to power. In 2015 PiS, Poland’s right-wing party, shocked the world and won an absolute majority in the parliament. Since 2001, PiS had been led by former-Solidarity leaders Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who felt that Poland’s center-left parties had become elitist and corrupt. It appealed to Poland’s conservative population in rural areas. PiS only earned 38% of the vote in 2015, on par with the previous election results, but after Tusk left for the EU, his coalition of center-left parties fell apart, making room for the right-wing party to take over.h According to PiS, after decades of Soviet control, Poland was now being controlled by the EU. So when it came into power, it pledged to take back Poland’s independence … legally or illegally. The party already controlled BOTH HOUSE OF Parliament and the Presidency, so it initiated a hostile takeover of the judicial branch. First it packed this Constitutional court with loyal judges and then forced out more than a third of the judges in this other court. Both acts were illegal under the Polish constitution, but the PiS-majority parliament and Presidency signed them into law anyway.

    The party also fired over 11,000 civil-service workers and at least 280 military officers, calling them ex-communists. It cracked down on the media. It started leveling fines on news organizations when it didn’t like their coverage. Meanwhile, it’s been using Polish nationalism to justify these moves. Remember this 2017 controversial march? A PiS politician called it “a beautiful site” While the party cracked down on protests against their authoritarian moves. As PiS tightened its grip on Poland, the EU issued several warnings to stop it from breaking its rules…. But PiS ignored them. “It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to initiate Article 7.1”, “But the facts leave us with no choice.” In December 2017, the EU invoked Article 7– its nuclear option– for the first time in its history.

    It allows the EU to strip a member of its voting rights if it feels it is breaking the criteria it established in 1993. // a significant number of laws have been adopted… which put at serious risk the independence of the judiciary and separation of powers, in Poland//. According to the EU, the PiS purging of the courts violates the country’s commitment to respecting the rule of law. The problem for the EU is that Article 7 is not going to work. The punishment requires a unanimous vote by all EU countries — and there is one country that has sworn to protect Poland… Hungary, another former Soviet bloc country, has taken a turn towards authoritarianism under President Viktor Orban. And he vowed to veto any punishment against Poland. So PiS continues to systematically strip… on Poland while still receiving huge sums of money from the EU. It’s proving that a member country can stay in the EU, reap its economic benefits, while ignoring its rules on rule of law.

    PiS is proving that it’s possible to reap the economic benefits of EU membership while flouting the rule of law. And that has sparked an existential crisis for the EU… The rules that were written to prevent authoritarianism from ever re-appearing in Europe, aren’t being followed, and there’s not much it can do about it. The EU could try cutting off Poland’s funding but it’s unclear how that would work.

    source:  YouTube

    So for now, the EU remains in a crisis. For decades it’s tried to keep Europe democratic. But Poland, once the EU’s most promising new addition, is Is now threatening to unravel the whole thing. .

  • A Pop-Up Japanese Cafe With Robot Servers Remotely Controlled by People With Disabilities

    A Pop-Up Japanese Cafe With Robot Servers Remotely Controlled by People With Disabilities

    Hello World! Today we find ourselves at a robot cafe in Japan, but it’s not the robot cafe you’re thinking of. This cafe’s servers are OriHime robots. I’m Takemura from the Public Service Projects Department at Nippon Foundation. We help people with disabilities find work. This cafe is operated by people with ALS and other severe disabilities that remotely control the robots. Hello, konnichiwa, hello! Welcome to Japan! Please take your drinks one by one from my tray.

    It’s hot, so please be careful. Thank you very much. Please feel free to use the sugar and milk on the table. People with ALS slowly lose their ability to control their muscles. And at some point, they’ll need to use a breathing machine to live, and without technology, they’ll need a helper to do most things. The concept that everyone only has a single body never felt right to me. If we had more than two bodies we could do a lot of things. There are 3 people who control their avatars only using eye movements. So people with ALS who can only use their eyes can operate robots. Oh, right, these two here use their hands to operate their avatars.

    So this cafe was a trial cafe running for only two weeks, but the aim is to launch a permanent cafe by the time the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games come to town. The workers are located all over Japan and can see, hear, and talk with the customers via their avatars over the internet. Where are you from? From Canada. – Ah Canada! – Vancouver, do you know Vancouver? Maple syrup. I’m from Gifu. Ah Gifu! I have never been to Gifu yet. My name is Naoko Kazu (Katsu?) – Naoko Kazu (Katsu?)! – Please call me Naa-chan Ah, Naa-chan.

    Nice to meet you. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Nice to meet you too! Onegaishimasu. My company makes body double robots. So called “avatars” in English. Using those avatars, people who are hospitalized could do… for example I didn’t go to school for 3 1/2 years, but if I had this avatar, perhaps I could have looked at the blackboard, listened to the teachers, and interacted with my fellow classmates. I could have been to field trips, and together, enjoyed school festivals. I should explain, that even though Yoshifuji san is healthy now, at age 11 he became ill. At this time he wasn’t good at communicating with people and was bullied.

    My life was like a living hell. I couldn’t even step out of my house. I only stared at my ceiling. There were times that I wanted to die. We want to eliminate people’s loneliness. Because when you can’t participate in society, you feel loneliness. Then how can you participate in society? So we made avatars. And how can we use the avatars we made? With telework, being at home, you could get a job and develop stuff, but it can be really difficult without a lot of knowledge. It’s also difficult to get connections because you don’t meet people.

    You need a place to meet people, interact with them, and spend time together. So we created a cafe. Yuka-san, can you see over here? Yes, I can clearly see everyone’s clothes. Yeah, everyone has their camera on me. I can see very well. I have ALS, which doesn’t allow me to freely move my muscles. But I can still use my hands right now. So I can still use my mouse to control things. When I have a tracheotomy and can’t talk on my own, there’s a talk button I can use. I will talk using it. What are you talking about? What are you doing? (alternate translation) What’s going on? (another translation) Something like that. At first, they were shy with no confidence, but as time went by they started to gain confidence, which was a happy surprise. Even though it’s a robot, at the beginning it was as if they were looking down.

    But now it’s like they’re standing up straight with confidence. Unexpectedly, customers really enjoyed the experience, which we were happy to see. I’m also very happy, thank you very much! Thank you! I’m so glad to know that you like cheese and mabo dofu. That’s right. By 2020, you might see them working at ANA check-in counters, and actually we’ve been talking with a coffee company, In 2020 people visiting Japan from all over the world may be able to see OriHime working in various places.

    Now Japan is an old society where people live for a long time. Average life expectancy is very long in this country. But the reality is that there are people living with tubes, prolonging their life, whether or not they’re conscious, treatment is the main goal. But using this technology, my friends with ALS can go places using their avatar robots, operating them with their eyes. There are ALS patients that can work at a place like this, and in fact there are those who are already working and making money. Living in bed, not able to talk, only using their eye movement, people can communicate using SNS, putting their art into art exhibitions. There are people like that. Of course, there are no right answers. For a human being, it’s important that someone needs you. But one day our bodies will eventually stop working.

    Then if we had another body, in the future we could take care of ourselves (using our avatars). Bye bye. Thanks for watching, see you next time, bye! How is technology being used to give people independence where you’re from? .

    source:  YouTube

  • The 2018 State of the Union in 4 minutes

    The 2018 State of the Union in 4 minutes

    Less than one year has passed since I first stood at this podium. I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people. African American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining eight trillion dollars and more in value in just this short period of time. This in fact, is our new American moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream. We have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any Administration in the history of our country. We have ended the war on American energy and we have ended the war on beautiful clean coal. We are now very proudly an exporter of energy to the world. America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals, that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our wealth.

    The era of economic surrender is totally over. We built the Empire State Building in just one year. Isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a miner permit approved for the building of a simple road? The sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber is to defend Americans, to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American dream, because Americans are dreamers too. We must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it so strong and so powerful, that it will deter any acts of aggression by any other nation or anyone else. In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous terrorists only to meet them again on the battlefield.

    So today I’m keeping another promise. I just signed, prior to walking in, an order directing secretary Mattis, who is doing a great job thank you, to re-examine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay. I am asking Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign assistance dollars always serve American interests and only go to friends of America. And freedom stands tall over one more monument. This one. This Capitol, this living monument. This is the monument to the American people.

    source:  YouTube

  • 5 Reasons Why Finland Is A Global Education Leader

    5 Reasons Why Finland Is A Global Education Leader

    Within the usa, we love to brag about becoming no. 1 Except when it comes to training that’s where we on a regular basis rank around 37th worldwide Frankly, most of us are fortunate we can cause USA sufficiently to chant it in sporting events nevertheless know very well what country does consistently price the best worldwide in training? Finland. It Seems That. That is right. The tiny Nordic country best known for providing the world Nokia phones, angry wild birds and terrible heavy metal music is truly a leader in globe training just does Finland have the highest highschool graduation price in European countries but on Global exams, Finish college students regularly rank around the very top in Reading, mathematics and research in addition to Finns do this without overloading young ones with endless hours of homework or turning class into meaningless drudgery. Why does Finland have the most ass-kicking informative system on earth Here are the 5 reasons that arranged Finland aside factor number 1: No kid gets left. Actually. Finland provides all individuals specially low income individuals with an enormous social safety net the final government directs a pitty box of items to each and every household with a baby kid following from that point on, childcare is greatly subsidized permitting most individuals to send their children for some kind of early childhood training Finland’s community schools in addition concentrate on ensuring every student achieves standard competence in topics which they study whereas within the united states college students and class districts are expected to vie against one another for limited sources, undoubtedly producing a method of winners and losers this difference between approach is just one of the main reasons why the achievement gap that is present between the rich and poor in US schools is more compact in Finland than anywhere else worldwide cause number two.

    They’re just like more chill man. Finnish kids don’t even begin class until they change 7 and once they’re in school they get nearly triple the actual quantity of recess time as US college students. They truly are seldom designated homework until high-school and they hardly ever simply take standardise exams actually, Finnish college students are only necessary to simply take one standardise test and that isn’t up until the end of highschool cause Number three. Teachers are now actually (get this) respected getting a teacher isn’t really effortless in Finland there are just 8 universities offering the Masters programes necessary to make a teaching credential and only one out of ten individuals get acknowledged so it is no surprise that instructors in Finland receive about the same amount of regard as doctors and solicitors plus, courtesy powerful unions, Finnish instructors only spent 4 hours daily in classroom and simply take couple of hours a week for specialist development additionally they need not handle merit pay which was the main cause behind lots of much talked about instances within the united states where instructors and administrators cheating on standardise exams cause number 4.

    They believe significantly less is more. and I’m rhyming today Finns believe when it comes to training, patience, hands-on reading and emphasizing problem-solving tend to be more vital than listening to lectures, meaningless examination preparations and memorization of info that college students will probably forget once they leave the exam place I’m sure it’s a very insane concept correct? following Finnish instructors don’t race through lessons to stuff the maximum amount of information as you possibly can into college students heads to ensure the college students are able to spit that information right back on a standardise examination instead they provide priority to moving gradually and using the maximum amount of time as essential to thoroughly research fewer subject areas in a lot greater depth cause number five: They have fewer social ills Finland may not be the socialists utopia every Bernie Sanders voter dreams intensely about but it’s very near almost everyone in Finland is middle class so earnings inequality is not almost the trouble indeed there as opposed in the US nearly all Finnish young ones arrived at school well fed, rested and able to learn there aren’t any steel detectors, no police patrolling the institution hallways and certainly none for this Finland comes with a lot less immigrant college students that’s kinda like Donald Trump’s fantasy I guess singular in forty college students in Finnish schools features immigrant moms and dads contrast that number for the United States community schools where that figure is one in five that means there are perhaps not almost as many young ones in Finland schools that happen to be learning mathematics, technology and background in an absolutely brand-new language mostly well in addition learning that brand-new language itself therefore should we in the US just admit the Finns know training better than we would and go on and abandon our system and embrace theirs? Needless to say not.

    That’s absurd For one thing where would we discover sufficient instructors exactly who talk Finnish? zing but what we have to confess is that when it comes to training we just lack all the responses and in case we do we’d most likely cheated to have all of them There’s numerous techniques to study on countries like Finland which do circumstances really in different ways but I have a proven track record of attaining greater results we just need to be much more ready to accept exactly what informative innovators are performing worldwide whenever we could only prevent shouting ‘we are no. 1″ for a lengthy period to concentrate for an alteration

    source:  YouTube

     

  • 5 Interesting Chinese New Year Facts

    5 Interesting Chinese New Year Facts

    Xīnnián kuàilè! (新年快乐) to all of you~ (aha~ I butchered it didn’t I?) Anyways that means Happy New Year in Chinese and the Chinese New Year is coming real soon. So here are facts about the Chinese New Year to give a general understanding about it. 1. The date is always changing What I mean is that, the date of the Chinese New Year doesn’t use the normal calendar of January to December, which people call the Gregorian calendar or Western calendar. So rather than using the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese lunar calendar follows the lunar cycle of moon phases where the start of the day is at midnight and the start of the month is when there is a new moon. Now, the Chinese New Year always fall in between the end of January and early February which they call the start of spring. Currently, the Chinese calendar is not used on a day to day basis because the Gregorian calendar is used universally.

    But the Chinese calendar are mostly used for important dates such as traditional Chinese holidays like the moon festival and the hungry ghost festival. They are also used for selecting lucky days for weddings, funerals, starting a business and other important events in life. 2. Each year has an animal representative Well, 1 animal per year and 12 in rotation. There’s a folklore story about how that came to be and I’ve actually made a video about it. So you could go and check that out later. So, this Chinese New Year, which is said to be on the 8th February 2016, will be the year of the monkey. Currently, while I’m making this video, it is still the year of the goat. Now, the animals in the 12 year rotation are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and the pig. Here are the list of years and the animals they correspond with. And apparently, it is believed that the year you were born or the animal year you were born under could determine some of your luck, prosperity and even personality. A bit like the Astrology Zodiac signs and the horoscopes. 3. Red packets They are red packets or envelops filled with money that people give to acquaintances.

    It’s a gesture for wishing someone good wishes and good luck. Its not really the money that is significant but instead wrapping money in a red wrapping is the main thing here. So it is usually rude to check the contents of the envelops in front of the giver. The red packets are usually given by those who are working or those who have gotten married, anyone else does not need to give the red packets. Those who should be given red packets are the elders especially parents and grandparents, young people such as your own children, your friend’s children or your relatives or any acquaintances who needs it. So mostly you give red envelops to those who have no or less income than you as a gesture of kindness and wishing the best would come for them. Thus, how much you should give can range between $5 to however generous you are.

    4. New Year sales and celebration The Chinese New Year is celebrated more like Christmas than the new years because that is the time when shopping is done and the New Years sale is the best. So, if you’re planning a shopping holiday, think of the East and South East Asian countries during the Chinese New Year season for a good experience. The sales are crazy during this time because it is the time of the year for the house to be decorated with new things and be rid of old stuff to welcome the new year with a fresh and clean start.

    It’s also a way for the business owners to do a good deed, because : karma. Then other than new things for the new year, they would also need to decorate the house with a new years theme like how people during Christmas decorates the house all Christmas-y. They would decorate the house with red lanterns, new year paintings, banners of good wishes at the door frame and more. Food would also be cheap during this time because, what is a celebration without food? So during new years eve, this is when people have a family reunion and have a big feast while waiting for the new year to come. 5. Fire crackers and the monster Once upon a time, as stated in legends, there was a monster that would come out in the first night of Spring, which we now know as the New Years Eve. The monster’s name was Nián and it would destroy their homes, farms and maybe even, you know, feed. Apparently they like children, probably because they’re easier prey. So people were scared of the monster, they usually just hide or flee at the sight of it and it just became a common yearly occurrence.

    But one day, the night of the first Spring, while Nián was approaching the village, villagers were burning some bamboo to keep themselves warm, so loud pops and crackles could be heard. To their surprise, Nián did not attack them that night. So they did it again the next year and again Nián did not attack. So since then, to ward themselves from the monster, they made it a yearly thing to make loud noises every new year’s eve. Now rather than bamboo burning, people light fire crackers and fireworks to create loud noises as a tradition and the lion dances that you see during Chinese New Year, it originated from the legend of the Nián. Also, “Nián” became the word for “Year”, so again I say, Xīnnián kuàilè! (新年快乐) to all of you~~

    source:  YouTube

  • Trump nominates acting Secretary of Interior to serve in role officially

    Trump nominates acting Secretary of Interior to serve in role officially

    President Donald Trump has announced by tweet that he is nominating the current acting Secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt, to serve in the role officially “David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived,” Trump says of the acting secretary, who came into the role after Trump’s former embattled secretary, Ryan Zinke, departed from the role at the end of last year “I am pleased to announce that David Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Interior, will be nominated as Secretary of the Interior David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!” Trump tweeted Monday Critics have said Bernhardt is too close to his former clients who he sometimes represented in cases against the Interior Department Bernhardt recused himself from some of those topics but some of the recusals have expired, opening him up to work on policies that he formerly challenged on behalf of his clients Activists have pointed to meetings Bernhardt had with former clients to allege that they are playing too big a role in policy decisions at the department Environmental advocacy groups and democrats compare Bernhardt to Andrew Wheeler, who took over for former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt after a bevy of ethical scandals They say, like Wheeler, Bernhardt has more know-how about how to work within an agency and will pursue the same agenda outside the spotlight, which could make it harder for opponents to push back against policy decisions During his confirmation hearing, Bernhardt said Trump’s policy positions could outweigh science on climate change

    source: YouTube

  • Why is Finland building an underground city?

    Why is Finland building an underground city?

    We’re under the streets of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and I’m going to show you the elaborate tunnels and passageways they have. A lot of it is public space that looks like they’re sporting fields. People use this all the time and yet you can see the granite rock and the fact that this space can be turned into bedding for 1,500 people in three days. That’s the time limit they give themselves to turn this from a sporting field into a shelter if required. We’re going to walk through here, I’m going to show you some of the other tunnels, because they go right across, underneath the streets of Helsinki. It’s all part of their civil defence. They won’t say that it’s to do with a threat, possibly from Russia, it could be a nuclear attack, it could be chemical warfare, it could be anything. But they want to be prepared. So now we’re coming into one of the other tunnels. Have a look at this – these are the beds that they have prepared, bunk beds that people can sleep on. They’ve got medical equipment ready, and then over here this is how they would go to the toilet. So the toilets would be here, they’ve got the ventilation up there. The yellow lines on the floor are where each of the toilets would be put. And have a look at that tunnel there behind me, so you can imagine this runs all the way, if we kept following this, you would keep coming into some of those public areas that could be sporting fields, or swimming pools, areas that can be easily turned into some kind of shelter for the people of Helsinki. They could fit 700,000 people in here, that’s more than the entire population, if they have to. They maintain them very well, they make sure they’ve got their own air supply in case it is a nuclear accident from eastern Europe, and they have to come down here and protect themselves. They make sure that they’ve got everything set and ready to go. They are more advanced with this than just about any other city in Europe, and although they share this massive border with Russia, and there is this question about whether Russia is a threat to Finland, they say they’re taking into consideration any worse case scenario, and they’re ready for it.
    source:  YouTube

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