A LONG LIFE JOURNEY DEPICTED IN A SMALL PICTURE
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Clever Ideas to make your life easier!!
Gotcha! Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a stocking over the vacuum hose..
Look up! Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor..
Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys..
Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags..
Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting crosses into a box lid..
Why didn’t I think of that?! We guarantee you’ll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday problems … some you never knew you had! (Above: hull strawberries easily using a straw)..
Overhaul your linen cupboard – store bed linen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match. Think I may try this one..
Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band.
Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40 (also works on walls)..
Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone / iPod in a bowl – the concave shape amplifies the music..
Clever Ideas to make your life easier!!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
A dog's seeing eye dog
A dog's seeing eye dog
Lily is a Great Dane that has been
blind since a bizarre medical condition required that she have both eyes
removed. For the last 5 years, Maddison, another Great Dane, has been
her sight. The two are, of course,
inseparable.
"People will forget what you said; People will forget what you did.
But people will never forget how you made them feel."
Monday, December 19, 2011
WOW.... big Passion Fruit
Recently, in Maranhao, Brazil ....
http://brazuka.net/en/maracuja-diferente-chama-a-atencao-no-maranhao/
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Must I change my email address from Google Mail to Gmail? l
Must I change my email address from Google Mail to Gmail?
Q I use the Google Mail service for email. Some time back, everything on the website seemed to change to a very small font – with letters just a millimetre or so high.
At 82 years of age I find it difficult to read, even with my glasses on. I can find no options on the website to enlarge the font. Is there something I am overlooking and would it be the same if I took up the offer to switch from Google Mail to Gmail?
Geoff Wilkins
A We’ll deal with your question about switching from Google Mail to Gmail first, just to clear up any confusion about the difference between the two – which is to say, practically none. But to understand why, it’s useful to know a little about Gmail’s history.
Google debuted its webmail service in April 2004, calling it Gmail. However, the Google Mail name came about as a result of a trademark dispute between Google and various organisations around the world that claimed prior rights to the ‘Gmail’ name.
From 2005 in the UK, this resulted in newcomers to the Gmail service being issued with email addresses ending in ‘@googlemail.com’ rather than ‘@gmail.com’.
As noted, this made little practical difference as Google continued parsing and delivering emails sent to either variation of the address (so messages to youremailaddress @googlemail.com or youremailaddress@gmail.com would end up in the same inbox.
However, messages sent during those four years would have appeared to have come from ‘@googlemail.com’ addresses. This situation persisted until just a couple of years ago, when the service’s official name reverted to Gmail.
Since then, all new sign-ups to the UK version of the webmail service have been issued with an ‘@gmail.com’ email address.
Regardless, this means many millions of people registered for accounts during the Google Mail years – and plenty of those users are still sending messages that appear to recipients as being from an ‘@googlemail.com’ email address.
As one of them, when signing in to Gmail, you will see a message that reads: “Google Mail is becoming Gmail in the UK. Want to switch to [youremailaddress@gmail.com]?” along with a “Maybe! Tell me more…” link. Click this link and an explanation and instructions will be displayed.
Alternatively, click the cog icon at the top right of the Gmail window, choose Mail settings and click the Accounts and Imports tab. Now click the ‘Switch to @gmail.com’ alongside the ‘Send mail as’ heading and follow the prompts to make the change.
Note that messages sent to both youremailaddress@googlemail.com and youremailaddress@gmail.com will continue to be delivered to your inbox, but from now on, messages you send will appear to the recipient as having originated from ‘@gmail.com’.
So, while accepting the offer to switch makes sense – it’s simply easier to say or type ‘Gmail’ – it will not resolve your problem of tiny fonts.
For that, the answer is to hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and tap 0 (that’s the zero key). This will restore the browser’s default zoom level, which we believe has been reduced inadvertently – typically with a twist of the mouse’s scroll wheel (try holding down Control while spinning the wheel to see what we mean).
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/pc-help/2119493/change-email-address-google-mail-gmail#ixzz1g0GpgT5b
Q I use the Google Mail service for email. Some time back, everything on the website seemed to change to a very small font – with letters just a millimetre or so high.
At 82 years of age I find it difficult to read, even with my glasses on. I can find no options on the website to enlarge the font. Is there something I am overlooking and would it be the same if I took up the offer to switch from Google Mail to Gmail?
Geoff Wilkins
A We’ll deal with your question about switching from Google Mail to Gmail first, just to clear up any confusion about the difference between the two – which is to say, practically none. But to understand why, it’s useful to know a little about Gmail’s history.
Google debuted its webmail service in April 2004, calling it Gmail. However, the Google Mail name came about as a result of a trademark dispute between Google and various organisations around the world that claimed prior rights to the ‘Gmail’ name.
From 2005 in the UK, this resulted in newcomers to the Gmail service being issued with email addresses ending in ‘@googlemail.com’ rather than ‘@gmail.com’.
As noted, this made little practical difference as Google continued parsing and delivering emails sent to either variation of the address (so messages to youremailaddress @googlemail.com or youremailaddress@gmail.com would end up in the same inbox.
However, messages sent during those four years would have appeared to have come from ‘@googlemail.com’ addresses. This situation persisted until just a couple of years ago, when the service’s official name reverted to Gmail.
Since then, all new sign-ups to the UK version of the webmail service have been issued with an ‘@gmail.com’ email address.
Regardless, this means many millions of people registered for accounts during the Google Mail years – and plenty of those users are still sending messages that appear to recipients as being from an ‘@googlemail.com’ email address.
As one of them, when signing in to Gmail, you will see a message that reads: “Google Mail is becoming Gmail in the UK. Want to switch to [youremailaddress@gmail.com]?” along with a “Maybe! Tell me more…” link. Click this link and an explanation and instructions will be displayed.
Alternatively, click the cog icon at the top right of the Gmail window, choose Mail settings and click the Accounts and Imports tab. Now click the ‘Switch to @gmail.com’ alongside the ‘Send mail as’ heading and follow the prompts to make the change.
Note that messages sent to both youremailaddress@googlemail.com and youremailaddress@gmail.com will continue to be delivered to your inbox, but from now on, messages you send will appear to the recipient as having originated from ‘@gmail.com’.
So, while accepting the offer to switch makes sense – it’s simply easier to say or type ‘Gmail’ – it will not resolve your problem of tiny fonts.
For that, the answer is to hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and tap 0 (that’s the zero key). This will restore the browser’s default zoom level, which we believe has been reduced inadvertently – typically with a twist of the mouse’s scroll wheel (try holding down Control while spinning the wheel to see what we mean).
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/pc-help/2119493/change-email-address-google-mail-gmail#ixzz1g0GpgT5b
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The smiling crippled girl
Qian HongYan lost her legs in an accident
Her family in China are poor and couldn't afford prosthetic legs, so she uses a basketball to help her move. - Qian uses two wooden props to drag herself, and never complain, even though she has worn out six basketballs. -
She attends her class- She always smiles
Always cheerful
Be gratefull with what you have
The smiling crippled girl
Smile always
Be grateful with what you have.
Her family in China are poor and couldn't afford prosthetic legs, so she uses a basketball to help her move. - Qian uses two wooden props to drag herself, and never complain, even though she has worn out six basketballs. -
She attends her class- She always smiles
Always cheerful
Be gratefull with what you have
The smiling crippled girl
Smile always
Be grateful with what you have.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?
When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?
Every generation brings a new definition of masculinity and femininity that manifests itself in children’s dress
By Jeanne Maglaty
Smithsonian.com, April 08, 2011
Little Franklin Delano Roosevelt sits primly on a stool, his white skirt spread smoothly over his lap, his hands clasping a hat trimmed with a marabou feather. Shoulder-length hair and patent leather party shoes complete the ensemble.
We find the look unsettling today, yet social convention of 1884, when FDR was photographed at age 2 1/2, dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7, also the time of their first haircut. Franklin’s outfit was considered gender-neutral.
But nowadays people just have to know the sex of a baby or young child at first glance, says Jo B. Paoletti, a historian at the University of Maryland and author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, to be published later this year. Thus we see, for example, a pink headband encircling the bald head of an infant girl.
Why have young children’s clothing styles changed so dramatically? How did we end up with two “teams”—boys in blue and girls in pink?
“It’s really a story of what happened to neutral clothing,” says Paoletti, who has explored the meaning of children’s clothing for 30 years. For centuries, she says, children wore dainty white dresses up to age 6. “What was once a matter of practicality—you dress your baby in white dresses and diapers; white cotton can be bleached—became a matter of ‘Oh my God, if I dress my baby in the wrong thing, they’ll grow up perverted,’ ” Paoletti says.
The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid. Pink and blue arrived, along with other pastels, as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I—and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out.
For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.
In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. In Boston, Filene’s told parents to dress boys in pink. So did Best & Co. in New York City, Halle’s in Cleveland and Marshall Field in Chicago.
Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers. “It could have gone the other way,” Paoletti says.
So the baby boomers were raised in gender-specific clothing. Boys dressed like their fathers, girls like their mothers. Girls had to wear dresses to school, though unadorned styles and tomboy play clothes were acceptable.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html#ixzz1e8ZOuL4V
Every generation brings a new definition of masculinity and femininity that manifests itself in children’s dress
By Jeanne Maglaty
Smithsonian.com, April 08, 2011
Little Franklin Delano Roosevelt sits primly on a stool, his white skirt spread smoothly over his lap, his hands clasping a hat trimmed with a marabou feather. Shoulder-length hair and patent leather party shoes complete the ensemble.
We find the look unsettling today, yet social convention of 1884, when FDR was photographed at age 2 1/2, dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7, also the time of their first haircut. Franklin’s outfit was considered gender-neutral.
But nowadays people just have to know the sex of a baby or young child at first glance, says Jo B. Paoletti, a historian at the University of Maryland and author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, to be published later this year. Thus we see, for example, a pink headband encircling the bald head of an infant girl.
Why have young children’s clothing styles changed so dramatically? How did we end up with two “teams”—boys in blue and girls in pink?
“It’s really a story of what happened to neutral clothing,” says Paoletti, who has explored the meaning of children’s clothing for 30 years. For centuries, she says, children wore dainty white dresses up to age 6. “What was once a matter of practicality—you dress your baby in white dresses and diapers; white cotton can be bleached—became a matter of ‘Oh my God, if I dress my baby in the wrong thing, they’ll grow up perverted,’ ” Paoletti says.
The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid. Pink and blue arrived, along with other pastels, as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I—and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out.
For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.
In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. In Boston, Filene’s told parents to dress boys in pink. So did Best & Co. in New York City, Halle’s in Cleveland and Marshall Field in Chicago.
Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers. “It could have gone the other way,” Paoletti says.
So the baby boomers were raised in gender-specific clothing. Boys dressed like their fathers, girls like their mothers. Girls had to wear dresses to school, though unadorned styles and tomboy play clothes were acceptable.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html#ixzz1e8ZOuL4V
San Quentin Cell Tour
San Quentin Cell Tour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6yai4SMGfU&feature=player_embedded
San Quentin, California – In the 1930′s, San Quentin was rife with corruption by management, until a new director, Clinton Truman Duffy, appalled at the inhumane conditions at the prison, decided to implement reforms in the 1940′s. Prior to his appointment, prisoners made counterfeit currency in the prison shops, had their heads shaved and were forced to wear numbered uniforms, while eating out of pails and enduring solitary confinement in poured-concrete cells that had little air and no light. Even a petty offense to prison regulations would land an inmate in solitary, and race riots would put inmate lives at risk on a regular basis. San Quentin is still a harsh environment, filled with California’s most violent offenders, and the high ratio of guards to general population, just barely keeps the prison system from spiraling out of control.
Read more: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-deadliest-prisons-world.php#ixzz1e8Y6PF9M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6yai4SMGfU&feature=player_embedded
San Quentin, California – In the 1930′s, San Quentin was rife with corruption by management, until a new director, Clinton Truman Duffy, appalled at the inhumane conditions at the prison, decided to implement reforms in the 1940′s. Prior to his appointment, prisoners made counterfeit currency in the prison shops, had their heads shaved and were forced to wear numbered uniforms, while eating out of pails and enduring solitary confinement in poured-concrete cells that had little air and no light. Even a petty offense to prison regulations would land an inmate in solitary, and race riots would put inmate lives at risk on a regular basis. San Quentin is still a harsh environment, filled with California’s most violent offenders, and the high ratio of guards to general population, just barely keeps the prison system from spiraling out of control.
Read more: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-deadliest-prisons-world.php#ixzz1e8Y6PF9M
Friday, November 11, 2011
Marc Jacobs Perfume Ad With Dakota Fanning Banned
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Marc Jacobs Perfume Ad With Dakota Fanning Banned
Unlike Beyonce's sexy TV commercial which was also banned a while back in the U.K., this banned Dakota Fanning perfume ad is a print ad in a magazine.
The Britain's advertising standards watchdog says that it seems to sexualise a child and could cause serious offence.
According to the Associated Press, four readers complained about the Marc Jacobs Oh Lola! advertisement which shows the 17-year-old actress in a short pale dress with an oversized perfume bottle that looks like a vase holding a giant red flower between her legs.
Looking younger than she is
Apparently, it's not so much about the ad being sexy as it is that she looks like she is below 16 and sexy. "We consider the ad could be seen to sexualise a child," it said. Where the bottle is positioned makes the ad sexually provocative.
The perfume maker says they have not received any complaints and the ad is targeted at readers over 25 years old. What's more, the company says that the image is not indecent although it is provocative.
Marc Jacobs chose Dakota because he says she could be a contemporary Lolita.
What do you think? Does she look too child-like for comfort in this ad?
Marc Jacobs Perfume Ad With Dakota Fanning Banned
Unlike Beyonce's sexy TV commercial which was also banned a while back in the U.K., this banned Dakota Fanning perfume ad is a print ad in a magazine.
The Britain's advertising standards watchdog says that it seems to sexualise a child and could cause serious offence.
According to the Associated Press, four readers complained about the Marc Jacobs Oh Lola! advertisement which shows the 17-year-old actress in a short pale dress with an oversized perfume bottle that looks like a vase holding a giant red flower between her legs.
Looking younger than she is
Apparently, it's not so much about the ad being sexy as it is that she looks like she is below 16 and sexy. "We consider the ad could be seen to sexualise a child," it said. Where the bottle is positioned makes the ad sexually provocative.
The perfume maker says they have not received any complaints and the ad is targeted at readers over 25 years old. What's more, the company says that the image is not indecent although it is provocative.
Marc Jacobs chose Dakota because he says she could be a contemporary Lolita.
What do you think? Does she look too child-like for comfort in this ad?
The World’s Worst Floods By Death Toll
The World’s Worst Floods By Death Toll
Throughout history, floods have proven to be the deadliest natural disasters. This is mainly due to the high population densities around rivers. When well-behaved, rivers provide the resources needed for agriculture, transportation, and industry. It is no accident that all of the ancient civilizations rose around rivers.
It also should be noted that not all of the dead were the victims of the initial floodwaters. Disease and famine that followed the disasters probably killed more than the floodwaters themselves.
Flooding disasters primarily as a result of typhoons or hurricanes have been excluded from this list and are instead included on the list of worst hurricane disasters.
1.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1931
Death Toll: 1,000,000 to 3,700,000
The Huang He River is prone to flooding because of the broad expanse of plain that lies around it. One of the major reasons for the flooding is the high silt content that gives the river its yellow tint (and thus its name). The silt—which constitutes as much as 60% of its volume—builds up until the river actually is higher than the surrounding land. The tendency to flood is exacerbated by ice dams which block the river in Mongolia; the dams back up the water, and then release devastating walls of water when they break.
The history of flooding has prompted the Communist Chinese government to embark on a program of building dams for flood control. The dams, however, have not proven entirely effective and have been the target of criticism from environmentalists.
2.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1887
Death Toll: 900,000 to 2,000,000
3.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1938
Death Toll: 500,000 - 900,000
The 1938 flood of the Huang He was caused by Nationalist Chinese troops under Chiang Kai-Shek when they broke the levees in an attempt to turn back advancing Japanese troops. The strategy was partly successful. By 1940, the Japanese were essentially in a stalemate with Chinese forces.
4.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1642
Death Toll: 300,000
Chinese rebels destroy the dikes along the city of Kaifeng, flooding the surrounding countryside.
5.
Ru River, Banqiao Dam, China
1975
Death Toll: 230,000
This flood was caused by the collapse of the Banquia Dam, along with several others, following a heavy rain caused by a typhoon. It is the worst dam related collapse in history.
6.
Yangtze River, China
1931
Death Toll: 145,000
Although the Huang He has caused more deaths, the Yangtze has had more than 1,000 recorded floods.
7.
The Netherlands and England
1099
Death Toll: 100,000
A combination of high tides and storms flooded the Thames and the Netherlands, killing 100,000.
8.
The Netherlands
1287
Death Toll: 50,000
A seawall on the Zuider Zee failed, flooding the low-lying polder.
9.
The Neva River, Russia
1824
Death Toll: 10,000
An ice dam clogged the Neva, flooding nearby cities.
10.
The Netherlands
1421
Death Toll: 10,000
The failure of a seawall on the Zuider Zee flooded the Dutch lowlands.
http://www.epicdisasters.com/index.php/site/comments/the_worlds_worst_floods_by_death_toll/
Throughout history, floods have proven to be the deadliest natural disasters. This is mainly due to the high population densities around rivers. When well-behaved, rivers provide the resources needed for agriculture, transportation, and industry. It is no accident that all of the ancient civilizations rose around rivers.
It also should be noted that not all of the dead were the victims of the initial floodwaters. Disease and famine that followed the disasters probably killed more than the floodwaters themselves.
Flooding disasters primarily as a result of typhoons or hurricanes have been excluded from this list and are instead included on the list of worst hurricane disasters.
1.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1931
Death Toll: 1,000,000 to 3,700,000
The Huang He River is prone to flooding because of the broad expanse of plain that lies around it. One of the major reasons for the flooding is the high silt content that gives the river its yellow tint (and thus its name). The silt—which constitutes as much as 60% of its volume—builds up until the river actually is higher than the surrounding land. The tendency to flood is exacerbated by ice dams which block the river in Mongolia; the dams back up the water, and then release devastating walls of water when they break.
The history of flooding has prompted the Communist Chinese government to embark on a program of building dams for flood control. The dams, however, have not proven entirely effective and have been the target of criticism from environmentalists.
2.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1887
Death Toll: 900,000 to 2,000,000
3.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1938
Death Toll: 500,000 - 900,000
The 1938 flood of the Huang He was caused by Nationalist Chinese troops under Chiang Kai-Shek when they broke the levees in an attempt to turn back advancing Japanese troops. The strategy was partly successful. By 1940, the Japanese were essentially in a stalemate with Chinese forces.
4.
Huang He (Yellow) River, China
1642
Death Toll: 300,000
Chinese rebels destroy the dikes along the city of Kaifeng, flooding the surrounding countryside.
5.
Ru River, Banqiao Dam, China
1975
Death Toll: 230,000
This flood was caused by the collapse of the Banquia Dam, along with several others, following a heavy rain caused by a typhoon. It is the worst dam related collapse in history.
6.
Yangtze River, China
1931
Death Toll: 145,000
Although the Huang He has caused more deaths, the Yangtze has had more than 1,000 recorded floods.
7.
The Netherlands and England
1099
Death Toll: 100,000
A combination of high tides and storms flooded the Thames and the Netherlands, killing 100,000.
8.
The Netherlands
1287
Death Toll: 50,000
A seawall on the Zuider Zee failed, flooding the low-lying polder.
9.
The Neva River, Russia
1824
Death Toll: 10,000
An ice dam clogged the Neva, flooding nearby cities.
10.
The Netherlands
1421
Death Toll: 10,000
The failure of a seawall on the Zuider Zee flooded the Dutch lowlands.
http://www.epicdisasters.com/index.php/site/comments/the_worlds_worst_floods_by_death_toll/
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Travel Alert: Heavy Rain, Floods in Thailand and Rome
Flood map of Thailand (2011) - Google map
Travel Alert: Heavy Rain, Floods in Thailand and Rome
As a major agricultural exporter and top rice producer, there are concerns about shortage of rice supplies, especially to the ASEAN countries, China, Japan and Korea, who are the main consumers of rice. Major industry affected by this monsoon disaster is the automotive, where Toyota and Honda have to suspend some assembly operations and suffer hundreds of million dollars in damage. Meanwhile, Western Digital, the hard drive manufacturer, has two major production facilities in the flood zone and they have to cease operations.
Rome, Italy
Rains and flash flood is causing significant disruptions to several ground transportations a couple of days ago. Several major roads in the city like around the Piazza di Porta Capena are closed and metro record travel suspension along lines A and B. Buses are also having some suspensions on their routes.
Intercity rail travel between Rome and Lido and Viterbo are also affected with delays in service. Rome's Fiumicino Airport (FCO) is expecting moderate delays in flight departures and arrivals which would disrupt domestic and international travel if the heavy rains won't ease up and continue to fill up the drains which cause flooding.
So far, one casualty has been reported and several reports of missing persons received by the local police. Rome city mayor is looking forward to declare a state of emergency if situation worsens.
http://sekupang.net/travelista/post/2011/10/22/Travel-Alert-Heavy-Rain-Floods-in-Thailand-and-Rome.aspx
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