test-uk-en

“We now have 4-month-old mice that don’t have diabetes and used to have diabetes,” he added.
Dr. Ehud Ur, a professor of medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the head of clinical and scientific affairs for the Canadian Diabetes Association, cautioned that the study is just beginning.
Like other experts, he is skeptical about curing type 1 diabetes, noting that these findings are not applicable to people who already have type 1 diabetes.
On Monday, Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Literature at the Swedish Academy, announced on Swedish Radio's P1 that the committee had been unable to get in touch with Bob Dylan directly to tell him he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016.
Daneius said, "We're not doing anything now. I've been on the phone and e-mailing his next-door neighbor and gotten very positive responses back. That will be more than enough for now."
Earlier, Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff said the company was formed when he didn't hear a doorbell chime for his garage shop.
He said he created a wifi call.
Siminoff said sales took off in 2013 after he appeared on Shark Tank and investors refused to fund the startup.
Simonoff joined QVC at the end of 2017.
Ring has also settled a legal dispute with rival security contractor ADT Corp.
One experimental vaccine appears to protect against death from Ebola, but there is currently no cure for the disease.
One antibody cocktail, ZMapp, at first appeared promising, but official studies showed it was not as effective at preventing death as anticipated.
In the PALM trial, the drug ZMapp was used as the control, meaning that scientists used it as the base and compared it to three other methods of treatment.
USA Gymnastics fully supports the letter sent by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and is in complete agreement that the Olympic and Paralympic family must support the development of safe environments for all of our athletes.
We agree with the IOC's assertion that it is in the best interests of our athletes and our sports not to strip our membership.
USA Gymnastics supports an independent investigation that will help explain how Larry Nassar's abuse could have gone undetected for so long and welcome any necessary and appropriate changes.
USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee share a common goal of making gymnastics, as with all sports, as safe as possible so that athletes can pursue their dreams in a positive and inspiring environment.
In the 1960s, Brezinski worked for John F. Kennedy as an advisor and then for Lyndon B. Johnson in his administration.
He advised Carter on foreign policy during the 1976 election and served as National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981, replacing Henry Kissinger.
As an ANB staffer, he helped Carter on foreign policy issues including the 1978 Camp David Accords, U.S. normalization of relations with China in the 1970s, the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis of 1979, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The film, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, is nominated for awards in all of the major categories.
Both Gosling and Stone were nominated for Best Actor and Actress respectively.
Other nominations include: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Two songs from the film, "Born to Be Yours" and "City of Stars," were nominated for best original song, and Lionsgate led all studios with 26 nominations.
U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Sunday in a statement released through his press secretary that U.S. forces would withdraw from Syria.
The announcement followed a phone call between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey will also take responsibility for the captured Islamic State fighters that European countries have refused to repatriate, the statement said.
Not only does it corroborate the popular theory that at least some dinosaurs were covered in feathers, but it also provides details that can't be gleaned from fossils alone, such as color and three-dimensionality.
Scientists have established that the plumage of this animal was chestnut-brown on top and pale or carotenoid on the bottom.
The discovery also sheds light on the evolution of feathers in birds.
Because dinosaur feathers do not have the well-developed barbs and vanes that are called rachis, but do have other feather features like quills and barbules, researchers have concluded that the rachis probably evolved much later than these other feather features.
Because of the structure of the feathers, it can be inferred that they were not used for flight, but rather for temperature regulation or display, the researchers said, adding that while it is a juvenile specimen, the plumage is not downy like a chick's but rather shows signs of adult plumage.
Although this is a juvenile specimen, the researchers suggested that it was displaying adult plumage rather than juvenile down.
A car bomb exploded near a police station in the Turkish city of Gaziantep yesterday, killing two police officers and wounding more than twenty other people.
Nineteen of the injured were police, the governor's office said.
Police said they suspected a Daesh (ISIS) militant was behind the attack.
They concluded that the Sun is governed by the same basic principles as other stars: it turns out that the brightness and rotation of a star is what determines its activity.
Brightness and resolution are used together to determine the number of Rossby stars associated with the plasma flow.
The fewer Rossby numbers, the less active the star is in terms of magnetic field changes.
During his travels, Iwasaki often found himself in trouble.
He was robbed by pirates, mauled by a rabid dog in Tibet, fled a forced marriage in Nepal and was once arrested in India.
The 802.11n standard operates on both frequencies - 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz.
This will allow it to be backward compatible with 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g provided the base station has dual radio modules.
The 802.11n standard is much faster than its predecessors and has a maximum theoretical throughput of 600 Mbit/s.
Duval, who is married with two adult children, did not make much of an impression on Miller, who was the focus of the story.
Asked for comment, Miller said, "Mike talks a lot when he's testifying ... I wasn't really listening to what he was saying."
“We will aim to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 2020 to below the 2005 level,” Hoo said.
He did not put a number on the cuts, saying it would depend on the size of China's economic footprint.
He called on developing countries to "avoid the old path of first polluting and then cleaning up."
He added, however, that "we should not ask them to take on responsibilities that go beyond their education, their level of maturity and their capacities."
The Iraqi research group will present its findings today at 12:00 GMT.
There is a warning: No one can say with certainty that any course of action in Iraq at this point can stop the slide toward sectarian war, rising violence and chaos.
The report begins with a call for open discussion and consensus-building on U.S. policy on the Middle East.
The report is highly critical of nearly every aspect of the executive branch's current policy on Iran and calls for an immediate course correction.
Among his 78 recommendations, the first is that a new diplomatic initiative be launched by year's end to protect Iraq's borders from military intervention and to resume diplomatic relations with its neighbors.
Argentina's current senator and first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, announced her plans to run for the presidency last night in La Plata, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Buenos Aires.
Ms. Kirchner announced her intention to run for the Argentine presidency at the Teatro Argentino, where she launched her campaign for the Senate in 2005 as a member of the Buenos Aires provincial delegation.
The debate comes amid a row over the cost of Hurricane Katrina recovery and rebuilding, which some fiscal conservatives have ironically dubbed "Bush's New Orleans Policy."
The liberal criticism of the reconstruction efforts has focused on the contracts being awarded to Washington insiders.
More than four million people went to Rome to attend the funeral.
So many people turned out that not everyone could get into St. Peter's Square for the funeral.
Several large television screens have been set up around Rome so that people can watch the ceremony.
There were similar screens in many other Italian cities and around the world, including in Poland, where many people stopped to watch.
Historians have criticized the FBI's past policy of focusing resources on crimes that were easy to solve, especially car thefts, in order to increase the agency's success rate.
Congress began funding the legislation in the 2005 fiscal year and mandated that the FBI appoint 10 agents to combat adult pornography.
Robyn Uttappa led all scorers with 70 runs off 41 balls with 11 boundaries and 2 sixes.
Middle-order batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid played well to take their partnership past hundred runs.
But after losing the toss, India managed only 36 runs in the first 10 overs, losing 7 wickets in the process.
U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Singapore on Sunday for a week-long Asian tour.
He was greeted by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng and later discussed trade and terrorism with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
After a week of losses in the midterm elections, Bush told the audience about the expansion of trade in Asia.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a 25-minute meeting with NDP leader Jack Layton in his office, after which he agreed to allow the government's Clean Air Act to be reviewed by an all-party committee before it is passed in its second reading.
During a meeting with the PM, Mr Layton asked for changes to be made to the Conservatives' proposed environmental legislation to ensure it is "fit for purpose."
Since the federal government moved to take over the running of the Mersey Hospital in Devonport, Tasmania, the state government and some federal parliamentarians have been critical of the move, describing it as a pre-election stunt ahead of the federal election, which is due to be held in November.
But Prime Minister John Howard said the move was only to protect the hospital from a ratings downgrade by the Tasmanian Government, which has committed an extra A$45 million.
According to the latest bulletin, tsunami waves have been observed in the area of Pagopago and Niue. No other tsunami threat is expected.
There were no reports of major damage or injuries in Tonga, but power was knocked out in parts of the island, making it impossible for the Tonga Meteorological Office to get tsunami warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Fourteen schools on Hawaii's coastline or adjacent to it were closed Wednesday due to the eruption.
U.S. President George W. Bush welcomed the announcement.
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for Mr. Bush, said the North Korean pledge was "an important step in the right direction for the Korean peninsula."
Today, Subtropical Storm Jerry, the tenth named storm of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, has formed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says that as of now, Jerry is not a threat to land.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said six inches of rainfall could cause previously damaged levees to breach.
The Ninth Ward, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina's 20-foot storm surge, is once again surrounded by water as a nearby levee has been breached.
Water was flowing over a 100-foot-wide dam on the property.
Speaking to Viking News last month, community manager Adam Querden expressed his dismay at the deletions.
“He’s been lying to us all along. Firstly, by saying it was for legitimate reasons. Secondly, by pretending he was listening to us and then deleting our work.”
Community backlash has led to ongoing efforts to draft a policy on sexual content for the site, which hosts millions of media under open licenses.
The work was mostly theoretical, but the program was designed to simulate observing the Sagittarius Galaxy.
The effect the team was looking for would be caused by the tug of gravity between the dark matter in the galaxy and the dark matter in the Milky Way.
Just as the Moon pulls on the Earth, causing the tides, so the Milky Way pulls on the stars in the Sagittarius constellation.
Scientists have been able to conclude that dark matter interacts with other dark matter in the same way as normal matter.
This theory suggests that most of the dark matter in the galaxy is located around the galaxy in a diffuse halo and is composed of tiny particles.
Television reports showed white smoke billowing from the plant.
Local authorities have warned residents living near the plant to stay indoors, turn off air conditioners and not to drink tap water.
The Japanese nuclear agency said traces of radioactive cesium and iodine had been found in the soil of the planet.
Officials suggested that this may indicate that the containers holding the uranium fuel may have been damaged and leaking.
Dr. Tony Moll has discovered an extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
In an interview, he said that the new strain is "extremely concerning and frightening in terms of its lethality."
Doctor Mole believes that some patients may have contracted the virus in the hospital, and at least two of them were healthcare workers.
During one year, an infected person can infect 10 to 15 close contacts.
However, the incidence of TB/HIV co-infection remains high, with 6,000 people out of 330,000 South Africans contracting TB every day.
The two satellites, each weighing more than 1,000 pounds, were traveling at about 17,500 miles per hour when they collided above Earth at an altitude of 491 miles.
Scientists say the impact was a giant explosion.
Scientists are still trying to figure out the size of the asteroid and the impact it will have on Earth.
The U.S. Defense Department's Strategic Command is tracking the debris.
The results of the aerial surveys will be published on a public website.
An Ohio doctor who worked at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania will be charged with murder in the death of her mother, who was found dead in the trunk of her car Wednesday, authorities said.
Dr. Malar Balasubramanian, 29, was found dead along the side of the road in Blue Ash, Ohio, which is about 15 miles north of Cincinnati, wearing only a shirt and underwear and apparently under the influence of drugs.
She sent the officers to her black Oldsmobile Intrigue, which was parked 500 feet away.
They found the body of S. Balasubramanian, 53, covered in a blanket in a pool of blood.
Police said the body had been there for about a day.
The first cases of the disease were reported at the end of July.
The disease is transmitted by pigs and then through mosquitoes to humans.
The outbreak has prompted the Indian government to deploy pig catchers in affected areas, distribute thousands of mosquito nets and spray pesticides.
In addition, the authorities promised to provide several million doses of the encephalitis vaccine, so that medical institutions will be ready for the next year.
Plans to deliver vaccines to the country's hardest-to-reach areas this year have been put on hold due to funding shortfalls and other pressing health issues.
In 1956, Slaney moved to Sweden, where he began working for the Swedish postal service and became chief engraver there three years later.
He designed more than 1000 stamps for Sweden and 28 other countries.
His work is so distinctive in quality and detail that he is one of the very few "household names" in stamp collecting. Some specialise in collecting only his work.
His 1000th stamp in 2000 was the bizarre "Great Swedish Kings" by David Klöcker Ehrenström, which is in the Guinness World Records for being the largest stamp ever issued.
He has also printed banknotes for many countries, including the portraits on the new Canadian $5 and $100 banknotes.
Gibson was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The 64-year-old lorry driver was uninjured in the crash.
The lorry itself was recovered from the scene later that day at about 12:00 BST.
A woman who works in a nearby garage said: "There were children waiting to cross who were screaming and crying."
They all fled the scene of the accident.
Other issues on the Bali agenda include saving the world's remaining forests and technology transfer to help developing countries grow without dirtying the environment.
The UN also hopes to finally establish a fund to help developing countries cope with global warming-related impacts.
The money could be used to protect homes from flooding, better manage water resources and increase crop diversity.
Fluke wrote that some people's efforts to stop women from talking about women's health were futile.
She came to this conclusion after receiving an overwhelming amount of positive feedback and support from women and men who argued that medical contraception is a medical necessity.
Following the fight, about 40 inmates remained in the yard refusing to return to their cells.
Talks were ongoing to try to resolve the situation but it was not clear what the inmates' demands were.
Between 22:00 and 23:00 GMT, fellow inmates started a fire in the courtyard.
Soon after, riot officers in riot gear entered the yard and forced the inmates into a cell using tear gas.
Firefighters and rescue crews eventually contained the blaze at 11:35 p.m.
After the dam was built in 1963, seasonal flooding that brought sediment to the river was reduced.
This landscaping was necessary to create reefs and beaches for wildlife to use as habitats.
As a result, two species of fish have become extinct and another two are facing the threat of extinction, including the bullhead shark.
Although the water level is only expected to rise a few feet above flood stage, officials are hoping that will be enough to replenish eroded beaches downstream.
No tsunami warning was in effect and Indonesia's geophysics agency said none was expected because the quake was below magnitude 6.5.
With no tsunami threat, residents began leaving offices and homes on their own.
While Winfrey said goodbye with tears in her eyes, she made sure to let viewers know that she wasn't going away for good.
“It won’t be a farewell, it will be a goodbye and a hello to the next chapter.”
Namibia's presidential and parliamentary election results point to a comfortable win for incumbent Hage Geingob.
The ruling party, the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), has also won a majority in parliamentary elections.
Coalition and Afghan troops have moved into the area to provide security and another coalition aircraft has been sent to help.
The crash happened in mountainous terrain and is believed to be the result of hostile fire.
Bad weather and the rugged terrain have been hampering the search for the crash site.
Médecins Sans Frontières and the World Health Organization have described it as the worst outbreak in the country's history.
Richard Weermark, a spokesperson for Doctors Without Borders, said, "Angola is approaching the worst outbreak in its history and the situation in Angola remains very serious."
The games got underway at 10am in glorious sunshine and, apart from a brief shower in the morning, it was an ideal day for sevens rugby.
South Africa, the top seed in the tournament, got off to a good start with a comfortable 26-00 win over Zambia, the fifth seeds.
South Africa's women appeared short of match practice in their opening game of the tournament, but they improved as the game went on against their southern neighbours.
They stood out with their disciplined defence, their neatness in possession and their cohesion as a team, and it was no surprise that they proved to be a tough nut to crack.
Officials from the city of Amsterdam and the Anne Frank House say the tree is infested with a fungal disease and is a danger to public health, as they believe it is about to fall down.
It was due to be dismantled on Thursday but was saved by a last-minute court order.
All of the entrances to the caves collectively known as the "Seven Sisters" are at least 100 metres (328 feet) in diameter, and some are as large as 250 metres (820 feet).
The temperature variation between night and day on the infrared images is consistent with it being a cave.
“During the day they’re colder than the ground around them, and at night they’re warmer.”
Their thermal behavior is not as stable as in large caves on Earth, which often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it does suggest they should be deep pits in the ground, said Glynn Kushner of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Science Center and Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff, Arizona.
Voting in France traditionally does not involve the use of high-tech: voters go one by one into booths and place a pre-printed piece of paper in an envelope bearing the name of the candidate they chose.
After officials verify a voter's identity, the voter drops the envelope in the ballot box and signs the poll book.
French electoral law is quite paranoid about keeping track of who does what.
Since 1988, voting booths have been required to be transparent so that voters and observers can see that no ballots are in the booth at the beginning of voting and none are added except those lawfully cast by voters.
Candidates can send representatives to observe every step of the process, and in the evening the votes are counted by volunteers under the watchful eye of the scrutineers, following certain procedures.
The Asus Eee PC, launched worldwide earlier this year to much acclaim for its small size and portability, was the hot product at this month's IT Expo in Taipei.
But the portable computer market will be radically altered and changed forever after ASUS was awarded the 2007 Taiwanese Sustainable Development Award by the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China in 2007.
The station's website describes the show as "an old school radio play with a brand new twist!"
At first, the show was only streamed on the long-running Internet radio station TogiNet Radio, which is dedicated to talk radio.
In late 2015, Toginet established AstroNet Radio as a secondary station.
The show was originally voiced by a group of amateur voice actors from East Texas.
Mass vandalism was reported to be ongoing throughout the night while law enforcement was absent from the streets of Bishkek.
One onlooker described Bishkek as "falling into anarchy" as groups of people roamed the streets and looted shops selling consumer goods.
Several residents of Bishkek have accused the protesters from the south of lawlessness.
South Africa overcame Old Glory (New Zealand) in the Three Nations rugby union match at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, South Africa.
The final score was 21-20, a one-point win for All Blacks, extending their winning streak to 15 matches.
It extended Springboks' losing streak to five matches in a row.
It was the finals for All Blacks, who have won the trophy 2 weeks ago.
The final match of the series will be played next week at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, where the Springboks face Australia.
A moderate earthquake struck western Montana at 10:08 p.m. Monday.
The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Earthquake Information Center did not receive any immediate reports of damage.
The earthquake was about 20 km (15 miles) northeast of Dillon and about 65 km (40 miles) south of Butte.
A lethal H5N1 bird flu strain has been confirmed in a wild duck found dead in marshes near Lyon in eastern France on Monday, the agriculture ministry said.
France is the seventh European Union country to be hit by the virus, after Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy.
Suspected H5N1 cases in Croatia and Denmark remain unconfirmed.
Chambers is seeking to hold God "responsible for the widespread death and destruction and terrorization of millions and millions of people all over the world."
The agnostic Chambers denies that his suit is "frivolous" and argues that "anyone can sue anyone."
The story by Camille Saint-Saens, which was staged at the Opera Bastille in Paris, is about a musician "whose life is defined by his love for drugs and Japan."
Actors on stage will be seen smoking marijuana cigarettes, and the theater is encouraging viewers to join in.
Former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann rounded out the top four and five spots, respectively.
After the results were announced, Huckabee praised Santorum while taking a swipe at Romney, who had run a negative ad against Huckabee in Iowa.
Perry said, "I'd go back to Texas and take a look at the results of tonight and see if there's a path forward for me in this race," but later said he was staying in the race and would participate in the South Carolina primary on January 21.
Bachmann, who won the Iowa caucuses in September, has decided to stop her campaign.
The photographer was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
He was in his 20s, according to a release from Biber's office, which said, "Although I was not on scene or involved in this tragic incident, my thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family."
TMZ, which covers the entertainment industry, reported that the photographer stopped his vehicle on the opposite side of Sepulveda Boulevard and tried to take photos of the officers, before crossing the street to continue taking pictures. A California Highway Patrol officer who stopped to talk to the photographer twice told him to come back.
The driver of the vehicle that struck the photographer is unlikely to face criminal charges, police said.
With only eighteen medals to be won on the day, several countries were left without a podium finish.
They include the Netherlands, where Anna Jochemsen came ninth in the women's standing Super-G yesterday, and Finland, where Kata Saarinen came tenth in the same race.
Australia's Mitchell Gourley came in 11th in the men's standing super-G, and Czech skier Ondrej Jelinek was 16th in the men's sitting super-G.
Arly Velasquez of Mexico finished 15th in the men's sitting super-G, and New Zealand's Adam Hall was ninth in the men's standing super-G.
Visually-impaired skier Maciej Krezel and guide Anna Ogrodzinska of Poland finished 13th in the super-G, and South Korea's Yong Seok Park was 24th in the men's race.
The UN peacekeepers who arrived in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake have been accused of spreading a deadly cholera epidemic in the country.
According to the suit, the UN camp's sewage was not properly disinfected, causing bacteria to flow into the Artibonite River, which is one of Haiti's largest.
There have been no problems with the disease since the 1800s in Haiti.
The Haitian Institute of Justice and Democracy cited independent studies that suggested the UN's Nepalese peacekeeping battalion may have inadvertently introduced cholera in Haiti.
Daniel Lantagne, a UN expert on the disease, said the outbreak was probably linked to the peacekeepers.
Hamilton said the patient was in stable condition at Howard University Hospital.
The patient had traveled to Nigeria, where there have been several Ebola cases.
The hospital was following infectious control protocols, including isolating the patient, to prevent any potential spread of infection.
Before The Simpsons, Simon had worked in a number of shows in a variety of capacities.
He worked in the 1980s on shows including Taxi, M*A*S*H and The Tracey Ullman Show.
In 1989, he helped create The Simpsons with Brooks and Groening, and he hired the show's original writing staff.
Despite leaving in 1993, he has continued to take home tens of millions of dollars per season in royalties and remains an executive producer on the show.
China's state news agency Xinhua said earlier that the plane had been hijacked.
The plane was later reported to have received a bomb threat and to have returned to Afghanistan where it landed in Kandahar.
Earlier reports suggested the plane was heading back to Afghanistan after being denied an emergency landing in Urumqi.
Aircraft crashes are common in Iran, which has an ageing fleet that is poorly serviced for both civilian and military operations.
International sanctions made it impossible to buy new planes.
Three people were killed and three others injured earlier this week when a police helicopter crashed.
Iran suffered its worst air crash in years last month when a plane headed for Armenia crashed, killing all 168 people on board.
Another plane had overrun the runway and crashed into a wall in the same month, killing seventeen people.
Aerosmith Cancel Remaining Tour Dates
The rock band was scheduled to tour the United States and Canada until September 16.
The band canceled the tour after frontman Steven Tyler sustained an injury after falling off the stage during a performance on August 5.
Murray lost the first set in a tie-break after both men held serve in the opening sets.
Del Potro had the advantage at the start of the second set but again had to be taken to a tie-break where he led 6-6.
Doctors attended to Patro's shoulder, but he was able to play.
The program started at 20:30 p.m. local time (1500 UTC).
Prominent singers across the country have dedicated their bhajans, or devotional songs, to Shri Shyam.
The evening started with a performance by Sangeet Sharma, followed by Jay Shankar Chaudhary and Chhapan Bhog Bhajan. Radhu Handelwal was the accompanist for Bhajan.
Lakkha Singh then took over the initiative with a bhajan.
Baba Shyam was offered 108 dishes made by Saphan Bhog (56 different food items, including sweets, fruits, nuts, dishes and so on, offered to the deity in Hinduism).
Lakhwinder Singh also presented a Chhapan bhog. Singer Raya Handewal accompanied him.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata unveiled the design of the controller for the company's new console, the Nintendo Revolution, at a press conference for the Tokyo Game Show on Thursday.
The controller, which resembles a TV remote, uses two sensors located near the user's TV to triangulate its position in three dimensions.
This will allow gamers to have more control over their actions and movements in video games by moving the device in the air.
Jankarlo Fisichella lost control of his car and crashed out shortly after the start.
His teammate Fernando Alonso led for much of the race but also came in soon after his pit stop for what appeared to be a right front tire gone flat.
Schumacher was out shortly after Alonso after some suspension damage in a series of wheel-to-wheel battles.
She's very nice, and she sings beautifully," he said, according to a transcript of the press conference.
It got to me down to my bones every time I rehearsed.
Within about 3 minutes after launch, ground cameras showed numerous pieces of the insulation foam shedding from the fuel tank.
However, it is believed that they did not cause any damage to the shuttle.
NASA shuttle program manager Wayne Hale Jr. said the foam came off "at a time of our launch countdown that we don't like to see."
Within five minutes the wind had picked up to 70 km/h (43 mph), and within another minute it had reached 80 km/h (50 mph)... then it started raining, and it was raining so hard that it was stinging your skin, and then hail started coming down, and people were running and screaming and bumping into each other.
I lost my sister and her friend, and then I saw two disabled people in wheelchairs, people just jumped over them and pushed them," said Arman Versace.
NHK also reported that the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata prefecture is operating normally.
Hokuriku Electric Power Co. said there were no immediate reports of damage from the quake and that reactors 1 and 2 at its Shika nuclear power plant had been shut down.
Nearly 9,400 homes were without water and about 100 were without power in the region, officials said.
Some roads were damaged, rail services were disrupted in the affected areas and Noto airport in Ishikawa prefecture remained closed.
One of the bombs exploded outside the governor's office.
Three more bombs were detonated near the government building in the next two hours.
Some reports suggested the official death toll stood at eight, with another 30 people treated for injuries, but the final toll was not known.
Cyanuric acid and melamine were found in samples of pet urine collected from animals that died after eating the tainted feed.
Scientists from the university said that as a result of the reaction between the two substances, crystals are formed that can block the work of the kidneys.
Researchers observed crystals forming in cat urine when melamine and cyanuric acid were added.
The chemical composition of these crystals matches that of the ones found in the animals' urine, when analyzed by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but most goods from Central America come into this country duty free.
After all, eighty percent of our goods were taxed at Central American rates. We are on your side.
I thought it didn't make any sense, it was definitely dishonest.
All I have to say to people is this - treat me good and I'll treat you good.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that will ban the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.
California bill would require violent video games sold in state to have "18+" rating, fine retailers $1,000 for selling to minors
The main state prosecutor in the case, Crown Advocate James Wolffe, announced this morning that both Hynes and Price will be indicted.
Hugh will step down and be replaced by Ed Davey in a cabinet reshuffle tipped to see Norman Lamb take on the trade and industry role vacated by Davey.
Hughes and Hewitt are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 16.
Nicholas Alden, 25, and Zachary Cuddeback, 21, were killed in the crash. Cuddeback was driving.
Edgar Vergara suffered a hand and jaw injury and Christopher Schnieder required facial reconstruction.
Schneider suffered a skull fracture, was left partially blind in one eye, lost part of his skull and underwent facial reconstruction using titanium plates.
Schneider testified via video link from a U.S. Air Force base in his home country.
In addition to Wednesday's race, Karpanyuk competed in two individual races at the Championships.
It was her first slalom race, where she received a DNF (did not finish) in the first run. 36 of 116 competitors received the same result in that race.
In the second run of the giant slalom she finished in tenth place in the women's sitting category with a total time of 4:41.30, 2:11.60 minutes behind Austrian Claudia Lesch who took first place and 1:09.02 minutes behind Hungarian Zsója Donáth who came in ninth.
Four skiers in the women's sitting group did not finish their runs and 45 of the 117 skiers did not finish their races in the super-G.
The stolen laptop and mobile phone were recovered by the Madhya Pradesh Police.
Deputy Inspector General of Police D.K. Arya said, "We have arrested five persons for raping the Swiss woman and recovered her stolen mobile phone and laptop."
The accused have been identified as Baba Kandhar, Bhootha Kandhar, Rampro Kandhar, Gaja Kandhar and Vishnu Kandhar.
The accused was produced before the court with his face covered, said Chandrashekhar Solanki, additional commissioner of police.
Although three people were inside the house at the time of the crash, no injuries were reported.
However, the rider suffered head injuries.
The road was closed for some time as emergency services attended the crash, which involved a red Audi TT.
He was initially taken to James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth.
He was later transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
Adekoya has appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, charged with the murder of his son.
She is out on bail and awaiting trial, but the testimony of any witnesses could be discounted as hearsay, as her image has been widely disseminated.
It is standard practice in other parts of the UK, but Scottish justice works in a different way and judges considered the publication of the photographs to be potentially prejudicial.
Professor Pamela Fergusson, of Dundee University, said: "Journalists, of course, are putting themselves at risk by publishing photos and other data of suspects.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office, which oversees the prosecution of the case, said no further comment would be made until the indictment is returned.
The document, according to the source, will address the conflict surrounding borders that Palestine seeks to establish on the basis of pre-1967 borders.
Other issues likely to be discussed include the future of Jerusalem, which is holy to both peoples, and the status of the Jordan Valley.
Israel has insisted on maintaining a military presence in the valley for ten years after the agreement is signed, while the PA has been willing to settle for five years.
Hunters had to be carefully monitored by rangers to ensure they were only targeting pests and to assess the effectiveness of the hunt.
The partnership with UNPZ and the Australian Sporting Shooters Association (ASSA) has seen the recruitment of qualified volunteers to assist with ASSA's hunter education program.
According to Mick O'Flannaghan, acting director of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the four shooters selected to carry out the first cull have been provided with the necessary safety instructions and have been trained.
Martelly was sworn in yesterday as the new interim president of Haiti's nine-member provisional electoral council (CEP).
It is the fifth time in four years that Martelly has convened a temporary electoral council.
Last month, a presidential commission recommended the ouster of the previous CEC as part of a package of measures to pave the way for new elections.
The commission was set up in response to massive protests against the regime that started in October.
Violent protests have sometimes been triggered by election failures, some of which have been ongoing since 2011.
About 60 overheated iPhones have been reported, resulting in six fires and minor burns to four people.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said it was aware of 27 incidents related to the devices.
Last week, METP announced that Apple had disclosed another 34 incidents of overheating, which the company described as "non-critical."
The ministry said in a statement that Apple's delay in releasing the report was a "big disappointment."
The earthquake struck near the Mariana Trench at 7:19 a.m. local time (7:19 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time) Friday.
The Northern Mariana Islands Office of Emergency Management said there were no reports of damage in the country.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami threat.
A former Philippine police officer held Hong Kong tourists captive after hijacking their bus in Manila, the Philippine capital.
Rolando Mendoza fired at the tourists with his M16 rifle.
Several hostages were able to escape. At least six hostages have been confirmed dead.
Six hostages, including children and an elderly woman, were released earlier, along with the Filipino photographers.
Photos later showed Mendoza taking the woman's place, because she had to go to the bathroom. Mendoza was shot.
Liggins followed in his father's footsteps by pursuing a medical career.
He qualified in obstetrics and gynaecology and joined the National Women's Hospital in Auckland in 1959.
While working at the hospital, Liggins began studying preeclampsia in his spare time.
His research showed that the hormone accelerates the development of the baby's lungs during embryonic development.
The Xinhua News Agency reported that on Wednesday state investigators recovered two flight data recorders (FDRs) from the wreckage.
Luna's fellow fighters also paid tribute to him.
Tommy Driemler said, "Luna was the first Queen of Extreme. My first manager. Luna died on the night of two months. Pretty unique, just as she was herself. A strong woman."
Dustin "Goldust" Rhodes commented, "The moon was just as crazy as I am...maybe even more so...I love her and I'll miss her...hopefully she's in a better place."
Opposition to Australia becoming a republic has risen eight per cent to 14 per cent since the last federal election in 2010, the survey of 1400 people found.
During the 2010 federal election campaign, Julia Gillard said she believed Australia should become a republic after the reign of Elizabeth II.
34 per cent of those who took part in the survey said they believed Queen Elizabeth II should be the last monarch of Australia.
Of those who answered the question, 29 per cent said Australia should become a republic as soon as possible, while 31 per cent said Australia should never become a republic.
The Olympic gold medallist was due to compete in the 100m and 200m individual events as well as the 4x100m relay at the Commonwealth Games but his participation has been thrown into doubt by his complaints about his physical state.
He could not take painkillers because they are banned during the Games.
On January 25, Curtis Cooper, a mathematician and professor of computer science at the University of Central Missouri, found the largest known prime number.
Some people confirmed the opening using various gadgets and software before the beginning of February, and this was reported on Tuesday.
Comets may have been the source of water and organic compounds on Earth, including the building blocks of proteins and of life.
Scientists hope to understand how planets form, in particular how the Earth formed, as comets have been colliding with Earth for a long time.
The 53-year-old Cuomo became governor earlier this year and last month signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.
He called the rumors "political gossip and nonsense."
He is reportedly going to run for president in 2016.
NextGen is a system that will allow planes to fly more direct routes, saving millions of gallons of fuel per year and reducing carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
It uses satellite-based technology rather than the older ground-based radar, allowing air traffic controllers to see the planes more clearly and give pilots more detailed information.
No extra trains will be running and there will be no overground services to Wembley and there will be no car parking or park and ride available at the ground.
Fears over the lack of travel have led to suggestions the game could be played behind closed doors.
A new species of bird has been discovered in the Galapagos islands of Ecuador, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Science.
Researchers from Princeton University in the United States and Uppsala University in Sweden said the new species had evolved in just two generations, although it was thought to take much longer due to the reproduction of the native Darwin's finch, Geospiza fortis, and the immigrant cactus finch, Geospiza conirostris.
Gold can be made into the most diverse forms. It can be rolled into tiny shapes.
It can be stretched into a thin wire that can be twisted or woven. It can be hammered or bent into sheets.
It can be made very thin and applied to another metal. It can be made so thin that it was sometimes used to decorate hand-painted books which were called "illuminated manuscripts".
This is called the pH of a chemical substance. An indicator can be made using red cabbage juice.
The color of cabbage juice changes depending on how acidic or alkaline (basic) the chemical is.
The pH is the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+) in a solution.
Hydrogen ions are protons that have lost their electrons (because the hydrogen atom is just a proton and an electron).
Mix the two powders by gently rotating the container, and then shape the mixture into a ball using your clean, wet hands.
The moisture in your hands will react with the outer layers to give rise to weird sensations and form something like a skin.
The toilets, connected to a sophisticated sewerage system, were found in almost every house in the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
Remains of sewerage systems were found in the Minoan towns of Crete and Thera in Greece.
The ancient Egyptians, Persians, and Chinese also had toilets. In the Roman civilization, toilets were sometimes part of public baths, where men and women went in mixed groups.
When you talk to someone who is thousands of miles away from you, you are using a satellite.
The satellite in space receives a call and then almost immediately reflects it back.
The satellite was launched into space by a rocket. Scientists use telescopes in space because the Earth's atmosphere blocks some of the light and what we see.
A healthy rocket at least 100 feet tall is required to launch a satellite or telescope into space.
The wheel has changed the world in an incredible way. The most important thing the wheel has done for us is that it made transportation much easier and quicker.
It gave us trains, cars, and many other means of transportation.
Below are more medium-sized cats that eat medium-sized prey, from rabbits to antelopes and deer.
Many small cats, particularly feral cats, hunt for smaller prey such as insects, rodents, lizards and birds.
The secret to their success lies in the concept of the "niche" - a unique position that each cat holds that keeps it from competing with others.
Lions are the most social cats and live in large groups called prides.
A pride can range in size from one to thirty or more adult males, females, and cubs.
Women are usually very closely related to each other, being a large family of sisters and daughters.
Lionesses hunt in a manner similar to wolves or dogs, and are just as dangerous to their prey, which is why they are so much like lions (rather than other big cats) in their behavior.
The tiger, a fully developed athlete, can climb trees (though not very well), swim, jump far, and beat five grown men in a fight.
Tigers are part of the same family (Panthera) as lions, leopards and jaguars and are the only cat that can roar.
The tiger's roar is not as loud as the lion's roar, but it is more of a scream than a roar.
Ocelots like to eat small animals. They hunt monkeys, snakes, rodents and birds, if they can. Nearly all of the animals the ocelot hunts are smaller than the ocelot.
Scientists have suspected that ocelots hunt and track their prey by scent, following the prey's scent on the ground.
They have excellent night vision and are very quiet in their movements. The ocelots hunt their prey by stalking in the undergrowth and then launching an ambush attack.
When a small group of organisms (a small population) becomes isolated from the rest of the population to which they belong (e.g. if they move over a mountain range or across a river, or if they move to an island and thus cannot easily return), they may often find themselves in a different environment from the one they came from.
In this new environment, there are different resources and different competitors, so the new species will need to develop new traits or become a more formidable competitor than it was before.
The native population hasn't changed at all - they still need the same kind of adaptation as before.
Over time, as the new population begins to adapt to their new environment, they begin to look less and less like the other population.
Eventually, after thousands or even millions of years, these two populations will become so different that they can no longer be considered the same species.
This process is called speciation, which is the evolutionary process that creates new species. Speciation is an inevitable outcome and an extremely important component of evolution.
Plants produce the oxygen that humans need to breathe and they take in the carbon dioxide that humans breathe out (i.e. exhale).
Plants make food for themselves out of sunlight with photosynthesis. They also provide shade.
We make our houses out of plants and we make our clothes out of plants. Most of the food we eat is plants.
Mosasaurus was a top predator in its time and was not afraid of anything except other mosasaurs.
Its jaws were lined with more than 70 razor-sharp teeth, in addition to a bone-crushing set of molars in the back of its jaw, meaning there was no way its prey could have escaped.
We don't know for sure, but he may have had a split tongue. His diet consisted of turtles, sharks, other mosasaurs, and possibly even cannibalism.
It also attacked anything that went in the water; even a giant such as the Tyrannosaurus rex would have been outmatched by it.
The Romans ate much the same things as we do, but they also had some bizarre and exotic banquets, including wild boar, porpoise, snails and a rodent called the wolffish.
Another difference was that while the poor and women ate while sitting on chairs, rich men preferred to have communal banquets where they would lie on their sides while eating.
The diet of the ancient Romans could not have included products that were brought to Europe and Asia hundreds of years later.
For instance, they did not have corn, tomatoes, potatoes, cocoa, or chicken. No ancient Roman ever tasted a hot dog.
The Babylonians built a separate central temple for each of their gods, which was considered to be the home of the god.
People brought offerings to the gods, and the priests sought to please the gods through ritual and festivals.
Each of the temples had an open courtyard, and then an inner sanctuary which was only entered by the priests.
Sometimes special pyramid-shaped towers were built as part of temples and were called ziggurats.
The top of the tower was a special sanctuary of the god.
In the warm climate of the Middle East, houses were not as important.
Much of this Jewish family's life was outdoors.
Women cooked outside, and shops were simple open counters on the street. Stone buildings were the norm.
There were no large forests in Canaan, so timber was very expensive.
Greenland was sparsely inhabited. In the Viking Sagas, Erik the Red is said to have been banished from Iceland for murder and, roaming westward, he discovered Greenland and gave it the name Greenland.
But even though it was discovered, it was already inhabited by the Inuit at the time.
Although all the countries were "Scandinavian", there were many differences between the people, kings, customs and history of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.
If you saw the movie National Treasure, you may believe that the map to the treasure was written on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
However, this is not true. While there is something written on the back of the document, it is not a treasure map.
The back of the Declaration of Independence contains the words "The Original Declaration of Independence, dated July 4, 1776." The text is upside down at the bottom of the document.
There is no record of the artist, but it is known that the document (29 3/8" by 24 1/2") was folded when it was first created.
Thus, it's quite possible that the recording was added just as a tag.
As a result of the D-Day landings and subsequent battles, northern France was liberated but southern France was still occupied.
It was ruled by the French Vichy government, which were the French who signed a peace treaty with the Germans in 1940 and worked with the invaders rather than resisting them.
On August 15, 1940, the Allies invaded southern France in an operation code-named "Dragoon".
In just two weeks the Americans and the Free French forces had cleared the south of France and were on the way to Germany.
A civilization is a unique culture developed by a large group of people living together and working collectively, i.e. a society.
The word "civilization" is derived from the Latin word "civilis", which means "being a citizen", from "civis", meaning "a citizen" and "civitas", meaning "a city" or "a city-state", which more or less defined the size of the society.
City-states can be considered precursors to nations. Civilized culture involves knowledge passed down over several generations, a persistent cultural identity, and widespread dissemination.
Smaller civilizations often leave no significant historical evidence and thus are not recognized as fully-fledged civilizations.
During the War of Independence, thirteen states first formed a weak central government—the Congress was the sole component—in accordance with the Articles of Confederation.
The Congress was not authorized to levy taxes, and as there was no national executive or judiciary to enforce its acts, the states had to cooperate to implement them.
He also did not have the power to override state taxes and regulations.
The articles required the unanimous consent of the states before they could be altered, and the states were so distrustful of central authority that their representatives were often absent.
The Italy national football team, along with the Germany national football team, is the second most successful football team in the world, having won the FIFA World Cup in 2006.
Sports widely known include association football, basketball, volleyball, water polo, fencing, rugby, cycling, ice hockey, roller hockey and Formula 1 car racing.
Winter sports are by far the most popular in the northern regions, where Italians compete in international and Olympic events.
Japan consists of approximately 7,000 islands (the largest of which is Honshu), making it the world's 7th largest island country!
Geographically, Japan is often thought of as an archipelago because of its cluster/group of islands.
The beginnings of Taiwan can be traced back to the 15th century, when European mariners, while sailing by, noted the island's name as Ilha Formosa, or Beautiful Island.
In 1624, the Dutch East India Company established a branch in the southwest of Taiwan, beginning the transformation of indigenous grain production and hiring Chinese laborers to work on its rice and sugar plantations.
In 1683, the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) took control of the western and northern coastal areas of Taiwan and established Taiwan as a province of the Qing Empire in 1885.
In 1895, after the Qing government's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), the Qing government was forced to sign the Shimonoseki Treaty, under which it ceded sovereignty over Taiwan to Japan, which governed the island until 1945.
Machu Picchu is composed of three main structures: the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows.
Most of the buildings around the complex have been remodeled to give visitors a better idea of what they looked like originally.
By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored and restoration continues to this day.
For example, the world's most common film format for still photography is 35 mm, which was a mainstream format at the end of the era of analog photographic film.
It is still made today, but what is more important is that its aspect ratio has been adopted as the standard for digital camera image sensors.
The 35mm format is actually a little tall, 36mm by 24mm.
The ratio of the sides of this format (divided by 12 for a simple whole-number ratio) is thus 3 by 2.
Many common formats (e.g. the family of JPEGs) are equal to or very close to this ratio.
The rule of thirds is a simple guideline that creates dynamic images while still maintaining a sense of order.
According to it, the most effective placement for the main object is at the intersection of lines that divide the grid into three thirds both vertically and horizontally (see the example).
During this period of European history, the wealthy and powerful Catholic Church was under close scrutiny.
For more than a thousand years, Christianity has held Europe together in all its diversity of languages and customs.
His ubiquitous power touched everyone from the king to the commoner.
One of the central tenets of Christianity is that wealth is to be used to alleviate the suffering and poverty of others, and the money the church collects is meant to be used for that purpose.
For more than a thousand years, the central authority of the church had been in Rome, and the concentration of power and wealth there had led many to doubt whether the church was really living up to this claim.
Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain instituted a naval blockade of Germany.
The strategy was effective. Though the blockade was in violation of international law codified in several multilateral treaties of the last two centuries, it cut off vital military and civilian supply routes.
Britain mined international waters to prevent enemy ships from entering certain areas of the ocean, and even neutral vessels were at risk.
Because of the limited response to this tactic, Germany expected a similar reaction to their unrestricted submarine warfare.
During the 1920s, pacifism and isolationism were the overwhelming moods of most citizens and nations.
Aware of the horrors and brutality of World War I, nations sought to avoid such a future.
In 1884, Nikola Tesla moved to the United States to seek employment at Edison's company in New York.
He came to the United States with four cents in his pocket, a collection of poems and a recommendation letter from Charles Batchelor (his former employer) to Thomas Edison.
In ancient China, different periods of time were represented in a unique way; each development of the country or each ruling family that became a great dynasty.
In addition, each dynasty was separated by a period of disunity known as the Warring States period, which lasted for 60 years between the Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty.
This was a time of intense warfare between many of the lords vying for the throne.
The Three Kingdoms period was one of the bloodiest in Chinese history, with thousands dying in battles for the throne in the grand palaces of Xi'an.
There were many social and political influences, such as the introduction of the metric system, the change from absolute to republicanism, nationalism and the belief that the state is owned by the people not just one individual ruler.
Also, after the Revolution, workplaces were opened for all men who wanted to work, giving the most ambitious and talented people the opportunity to succeed.
The same was true in the military, where ranks were no longer based on class but on merit.
The French Revolution also inspired many members of other countries' working classes to start their own revolutions.
Muhammad was deeply interested in the questions that went beyond this worldly life. He often went to a cave called Hira' in Jabal Nur (Mountain of Light) to meditate.
The actual cave that survived to this day gives a very vivid idea of the spiritual inclinations of Muhammad.
The cave is located on top of one of the mountains north of Mecca and is completely isolated from the rest of the world.
It is actually quite difficult to find, even if you know it is there. Once inside the cave, you are completely isolated.
There is nothing to see except for the pure, beautiful sky above and the numerous mountains all around. Very little of this world can be seen or heard from inside the cave.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to have survived to the present day.
The Great Pyramid of Giza, built by the Egyptians in the third century B.C., is one of several large pyramids built to honor a dead pharaoh.
The Giza Plateau, also known as the "Necropolis of Giza", is the site of several pyramids (the largest being the Pyramid of Khufu), small pyramids, tombs, and the Great Sphinx in Egypt.
The Great Pyramid was built for King Cheops and many smaller pyramids, tombs and temples were built for his wives and other members of his family.
The upward-pointing arrow looks like a V, while the downward-pointing arrow looks like a hook or a square with no bottom.
Up means that you have to start from the head and push the bow, and down means that you have to start from the frog (where your hand holds the bow) and pull the bow.
The upward motion of the bow causes the bow to make a softer sound, whereas the downward motion of the bow is stronger and more forceful.
Don't be afraid to add in your own bowings, but take note that printed bowings for stringed instruments are not without meaning, so they are usually worth taking heed of.
On October 6, 1789, a mob of women from the market forced the terrified King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoinette, their two young children (11-year-old Marie-Thérèse and four-year-old Louis-Charles), and King Louis' sister Madame Elisabeth to leave Versailles and return to Paris.
They went back to Paris in the carriage, surrounded by a mob shouting abuse and threatening the king and queen.
The crowds had forced the king and queen to keep the windows of their carriage open.
At one point, a gang member waved the bloodied head of a King's Guard beheaded at Versailles in front of the terrified queen.
It was the Filipino people themselves who bore the brunt of the military expenses of the American imperialist invasion of the Philippines.
They had to pay taxes to the U.S. colonial government to cover for much of the expenses and interest payments on loans made by the U.S. government to the Philippine government through Wall Street banks.
It would, of course, be the crowning achievement of U.S. imperialism were the Filipinos to be made to pay for their long resistance.
To understand the Templars, it is necessary to understand the context in which the order was created.
The age in which these events took place is often referred to as the High Middle Ages, the period of European history between the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries (1000–1300 AD).
The Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around 1500.
Technological determinism is the idea that the development of technology more or less determines the course of history.
Most interpretations of technological determinism hold two general ideas: that the development of technology as such follows a path that is largely independent of cultural and political influences; and that technology in its own right has "influence" on the societies it affects, which are largely inevitable rather than socially constructed.
For instance, someone might argue that the car must inevitably lead to the construction of roads.
However, the national road network is economically inefficient for a small number of cars, so new car manufacturing techniques are being developed to bring down the cost of owning a car.
The invention of the car was also instrumental in road traffic accidents becoming a significant cause of injury. This in turn has led to the development of advanced trauma care methods in the field of healthcare.
Romanticism had a significant element of cultural determinism, with writers like Goethe, Fichte, and Schlegel.
In the context of romanticism, geography formed the individual, and over time customs and culture associated with a geography were established and they, in harmony with the society, were better than the arbitrary laws imposed.
Likewise, as Paris is known as the modern world's fashion capital, Constantinople was the fashion capital of the medieval world.
It is known for being the center of luxury from about 400 AD until about 1100 AD.
Its decline in the 12th century was largely due to the Crusaders bringing back goods such as silk and spices, which were more valuable than those available in the Byzantine markets.
It was around this time that the title "Capital of Fashion" moved from Constantinople to Paris.
The Gothic style reached its peak in the period between the 10th and 11th centuries and the 14th century.
At first, the clothing of the easterners was strongly influenced by the Byzantine culture.
However, due to the slow channels of communication, western styles may be 25–30 years behind.
During the late Middle Ages, Western Europe began developing its own distinct style. One of the great innovations of the Crusades was the invention of the zip fastener.
A homestead farm is one whose purpose is to produce enough food to sustain the farmer/farmer's family.
Natural farming is a simple, often organic, system which uses locally available seed indigenous to a particular ecoregion, with crop rotation and other relatively simple techniques to achieve high yields.
Historically, most farmers were engaged in subsistence farming and this still holds true in many developing countries.
Subcultures bring together like-minded individuals who feel disenfranchised by the mainstream and help them to form a sense of identity.
Subcultures can be defined by age, ethnicity, social class, location, and/or gender.
The characteristics that define a subculture may be linguistic, aesthetic, religious, political, sexual, geographic, or some combination of factors.
Members of a subculture often identify themselves through a distinct style that may include clothing, manners, and jargon.
One of the most common ways to illustrate the importance of socialization is to take a number of sad stories of children who grew up in neglect, abuse, or deliberate cruelty and were not socialized by adults.
These children are sometimes called "jungle children" or "wild children" and are often kept in captivity by humans (often the children's own parents); in some cases the parents abandon the children out of disgust for their severe mental or physical disabilities.
It is possible that these feral children were victims of abuse or suffered serious injury before they were abandoned or ran away.
Some were said to have been raised by animals; others were said to have lived alone in the wilderness.
The feral child, raised by animals, behaves much the same (within the bounds of physical possibility) as the corresponding care-giving animals do, e.g. fearing or ignoring humans.
While project-based technologies are supposed to make learning easier and more fun, scaffolding goes further.
Coaching is not a teaching method but rather an aid to people who are learning new things, such as a new computer program or starting a new project.
Scaffolding can be virtual or real, in other words, the teacher is doing the scaffolding just like the little person in Microsoft Office who pops up and tells you what to do.
Virtual lockers in the software are designed to ask, suggest and explain procedures that may be difficult for students to learn on their own.
Children are taken into care for a number of reasons which can range from neglect to abuse and even violence.
No child should be raised in an environment devoid of care, attention, and nurturing, but they do.
We feel that the foster care system needs to be a safe place for these children.
Our foster care system provides safe homes, loving caregivers, stable schools, and dependable health care.
The foster care experience should provide what was lacking in the home from which they were removed.
The Internet provides both mass communication and interpersonal communication.
The distinctive characteristics of the Internet have led to additional dimensions of use and enjoyment.
For instance, "learning" and "socialization" are often cited as significant motivations for Internet use (James et al., 1995).
“Personal involvement” and “sustained relationships” were also cited as new aspects of motivation by Eigel and McCord (1998) in their study of audience reactions to web sites.
The use of video recordings has led to important discoveries in the interpretation of micro expressions - fleeting facial movements that last a fraction of a second.
In particular, they argue that it may be possible to tell if someone is lying by correctly interpreting micro-expressions.
Oliver Sacks pointed out in his article "The President's Speech" that people who are unable to understand language due to brain damage are still able to perceive sincerity.
He even suggests that such skills in interpreting human behavior may be found in animals, such as domestic dogs.
A study conducted in the twentieth century revealed that there are two groups of genotypic variability: hidden and expressed.
Mutation introduces a new genetic variant and selection removes it from the pool of expressed variants.
Segregation and recombination change the variation between two alleles in each generation.
It would have been difficult for primates with a digestive system like that of the human to obtain enough amino acids to meet their needs from the available plant resources in the savanna.
Moreover, if this is not done, it will have serious consequences: depression, malnutrition and eventually death.
The most readily available plant-based resources would have been proteins contained in leaves and beans but these would have been difficult for a primate like us to digest in their raw state.
In contrast, animal food (ants, termites, eggs) is not only well digested, but also provides a significant amount of proteins that contain all essential amino acids.
Taking all these things into account, it should come as no surprise that our ancestors would have tackled the protein question in much the same way as today's chimpanzees in the savannah.
Sleep interruption is the process of purposefully waking up during normal sleep and falling back asleep within a short period of time (10-60 minutes).
This can easily be done by using a fairly quiet alarm clock to wake you up without fully rousing you.
If you find yourself resetting the alarm clock in your dreams, consider moving it to the other side of the room so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off.
Other options are based on circadian rhythms and involve drinking a large amount of fluid (especially water or tea, a diuretic) right before bed so that you wake up to urinate.
The amount of inner peace a person has is directly proportional to the level of tension in their body and mind.
The less the tension, the more positive the vitality. Everyone has the capacity to find absolute serenity and happiness.
Everyone is capable of enlightenment. The only thing that can prevent us from achieving this goal is our tensions and negativity.
Tibetan Buddhism is based on the teachings of the Buddha, but it was supplemented by the Mahayana love and many techniques of Indian yoga.
In essence, Tibetan Buddhism is quite simple. It is composed of kundalini yoga, meditation, and the path of universal love.
Kundalini yoga activates the energy of kundalini (the energy of enlightenment) through asanas, pranayama, mantra, and visualization.
The central place in Tibetan meditation is occupied by the yoga of the deities. Through visualization of various deities the energy channels are cleansed, the chakras are activated and the awareness of enlightenment is formed.
Both Germany and the Soviet Union were enemies during World War II, which led to cooperation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. After the war, conflicts between the systems, processes, and cultures of these countries led to them falling out.
Two years after the war ended, former allies became enemies, leading to the beginning of the Cold War.
It was supposed to last 40 years, and there were real battles between countries' armies on the battlefields from Africa to Asia, in Afghanistan, Cuba and many other places.
By September 17, 1939, the Polish defense was already broken, and the only hope was to retreat and reorganize along the Romanian plateau.
However, those plans became obsolete overnight when more than 800,000 Soviet Red Army troops invaded and established the Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts after occupying eastern Poland, thus violating the Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact, the Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact, and other international treaties, both bilateral and multilateral.
Ships are by far the most efficient way to move people and goods across oceans.
Traditionally, it has been the task of the Navy to ensure that your country can move its people and goods around while making it hard for your enemy to do the same.
One of the most notable recent examples of this was the North Atlantic Campaign of World War II, in which the United States worked to get people and supplies across the Atlantic to help Britain.
At the same time, the German Navy, using mainly submarines, tried to stop this movement.
If the Allies had failed, Germany could have invaded Britain just as easily as they invaded the rest of Europe.
Goats were probably first domesticated around 10,000 BCE in the Zagros Mountains of Iran.
Ancient cultures and tribes began raising them for milk, wool, meat, and leather.
Herds of goats were usually kept together by goatherds, often children or adolescents, who were more commonly known as herdsmen. These methods of herding are still in use today.
The first paved road was built in England in the 16th century.
While the cobbled roads were in essence just two parallel planks of wood, they allowed horses working on them to travel at a higher speed and carry a heavier load than could be managed on the somewhat rougher roads of the time.
The sleepers were introduced early enough to keep the rails in place, but it became apparent that the rails would be more effective if held down by iron rods.
It became a regular practice, though the iron wheels gave rise to more wear of the wooden rolling stock.
Eventually wooden wheels were replaced by iron ones. In 1767, the first all-iron rolling stock was introduced.
The first known hominid to walk upright was Homo erectus two million years ago.
Their ancestors, the Australopithecines, didn't walk upright as we do.
Bipedalism can be seen in the fossil record in Australopithecus dating back 4.2–3.9 million years ago, though the Sahelanthropus may have been bipedal as early as 7 million years ago.
We can begin to live in a more eco-friendly way, join the environmental movement, and even become activists to try to mitigate future suffering.
In many cases, this is only to treat the symptoms. However, if we are not willing to just accept a temporary fix, then we need to find the root of the problem and address those issues.
It is quite obvious that the world has changed dramatically due to the scientific and technological progress of the human race, and problems have become more acute due to overpopulation and the extravagant lifestyle of the human race.
After Congress passed it on July 4, a printed copy was delivered to John Dunlap, a printer just a few blocks away, who ran off the first broadsides.
About 150–200 prints were made overnight, now known as the "Danlep broadsides".
The first public reading of the document was done by John Nixon on July 8 in the backyard of the Independence Hall.
One was sent to George Washington on July 6, which he read to his troops in New York on July 9. Another was sent to London on August 10.
It is currently known that 25 of Dunnlap's placards are the oldest surviving copies of the document. The original document is lost.
Many paleontologists today believe that one group of dinosaurs survived and are still alive today. We call them birds.
Many people don't think of them as dinosaurs because they have feathers and can fly.
But birds still have a lot in common with the dinosaurs.
They have scales and claws on their feet and lay eggs and walk on their hind legs just like Tyrannosaurus rex.
In fact, virtually all of the computers in use today are based on the manipulation of information represented in the form of binary numbers.
In a binary number system, there can only be one or two values, e.g. 0 or 1, and in computer jargon these are called binary digits or bits.
Internal poisoning may not reveal itself immediately. Such symptoms as vomiting are too general to be diagnosed at once.
The first sign of poisoning may be the presence of an open bottle of medication or toxic household chemicals.
Read the label for specific first aid recommendations for this particular poison.
Entomologists formally describe this group of insects as beetles.
This is a reflection of our long acquaintance with bed bugs, insects that are very well adapted to parasitize humans.
Both bed bugs and cockroach nymphs are nest-dwelling insects that adapt to living in the nests or dwellings of their hosts.
It is estimated that there are approximately 400,000 cases of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the United States, making it the most common neurological disease among middle-aged and younger adults.
Multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects the central nervous system, which comprises the brain and spinal cord, and the optic nerve.
Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with MS.
A couple may decide that parenting is not in their best interest or their child's best interest.
Such parents can decide to create an adoption plan for their child.
In the case of adoption, the biological parents give up their parental rights so that another couple can take care of the child.
The main aim of science is to find out about the world using the scientific method. This is the main way in which science is conducted.
Although it is not only an experiment, the experiment is a test used to disprove one or more possible hypotheses; the attitude of the questions and observations also directs the scientific research.
Naturalists and philosophers who focused on classical texts, especially the Bible in Latin.
Aristotle's views on all matters of science, including psychology, were accepted.
As the knowledge of the Greek language died out, the West became disconnected from its Greek philosophical and scientific roots.
Many rhythms observed in physiology and behavior are strongly dependent on the presence of endogenous cycles and their entrainment by the biological clock.
Most living things, including bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, exhibit regular rhythms in their activities which are not just a response to daily or annual changes in the environment.
Biological clocks are self-sustaining oscillators that will continue a cycle in the absence of external cues.
The experiment by Hershey and Chase became one of the major hypotheses in establishing that DNA is the genetic material.
Hersh and Chase used bacteriophages, or viruses, to introduce their own DNA into the bacteria.
They conducted two experiments, marking the DNA of a bacteriophage with radioactive phosphorus, or the protein of a bacteriophage with radioactive sulfur.
Mutations can have a wide range of effects, depending on the type of mutation, the significance of the affected part of the genome, and whether or not the mutated cells are cells of the germline.
Only mutations in the cells of the germ line can be passed on to children, whereas mutations in other parts of the body can cause cell death or cancer.
Nature tourism draws people who are interested in visiting natural areas to enjoy the scenery, including the flora and fauna.
Examples of outdoor activities include hunting, fishing, photography, bird watching, visiting parks and learning about the ecosystem.
Another example is studying and photographing orangutans in Borneo and learning more about them.
Every morning, people leave their cars in the small provincial towns to go to work and other people pass by in their cars on their way to where they just came from, to go to work.
In this ever-moving traffic, everyone is more or less connected and supports the car-based transportation system.
Now science is showing that this massive carbon economy has tipped the biosphere out of its stable state that has supported the evolution of the human race for the past two million years.
Everyone lives in a society and uses transportation systems. But not everyone complains about them.
You don't often hear complaints about water quality or bridges collapsing in developed countries.
Why are transportation systems so dysfunctional, and why do they keep breaking down? Is it because transportation engineers are incompetent, or is there something more fundamental going on?
Traffic flow is the movement of individual road users and vehicles between two locations, and their interaction.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to study traffic flows as the behavior of the driver cannot be predicted with 100% accuracy.
Fortunately, traffic is usually reasonably well behaved; thus, the flow of traffic can be approximately modeled using a mathematical model.
To better represent the traffic flow, relations were established between three main characteristics: (1) flow, (2) density and (3) speed.
These ratios help in planning, designing and maintenance of roads.
Insects were the first animals to take to the air, and their ability to fly helped them avoid predators, find food and partners more easily.
In most insects the advantage is to be able to fold the wings along the body.
This opens up a wider range of small places to hide from predators.
Nowadays, the only insects that can't fold their wings are mayflies and dragonflies.
Thousands of years ago, a man named Aristarchus said that the whole solar system goes around the sun.
Some people believed it was true, but a lot of people believed the opposite: that the Solar System revolves around the Earth, including the Sun (and even other stars).
It seems reasonable since we don't feel the Earth moving, right?
The Amazon River is the second longest and largest river on Earth. It contains eight times the volume of the world's second largest river.
The Amazon is also the widest river on Earth, sometimes reaching 6 miles in width.
As much as 20 percent of the water that flows into the oceans from rivers around the world is Amazon River water.
The main stem of the Amazon is 6,387 km (3,980 mi) long. It collects water from thousands of tributaries.
Although stone pyramids continued to be built until the end of the Old Kingdom, the Giza pyramids were never exceeded in size or technical sophistication of construction.
The ancient Egyptians of the New Kingdom would have marvelled at the buildings left by their predecessors which were already over a thousand years old.
The population of the Vatican is approximately 800. It is the smallest independent country in the world by population, and also the country with the lowest population.
Italian is the official language of the Vatican for its legislation and official communications.
Italian is also a common language for everyday conversations for most of those who work in the country, while Latin is often used in religious ceremonies.
All citizens of Vatican City are Roman Catholics.
Humans have known about the basic chemical elements, such as gold, silver and copper, since ancient times, because they can be found naturally and can be obtained using primitive tools with relative ease.
The philosopher Aristotle put forward the theory that everything is made of one or more of four elements: earth, water, air and fire.
He envisioned four states of matter (in this order): solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, though he also suggested that they may give rise to new forms of matter to account for what we see.
Alloys are generally a mixture of two or more metals. Don't forget that there are a lot of elements in the periodic table.
Elements like calcium and potassium are considered metals. Of course, there are also metals like silver and gold.
You can also get alloys that include non-metal elements in small amounts, such as carbon.
Everything in the universe is made out of stuff. The stuff is made out of tiny particles called atoms.
Atoms are so small that trillions of them could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.
Therefore, after its appearance, the olive became a good friend for many people.
Unfortunately, as new writing methods were developed, the status and use of the pencil were reduced.
Nowadays, people write messages on the computer screen without any need to approach the pencil sharpener.
We can only guess at what the keyboard will look like when something new comes along.
The atom bomb works on the principle that it takes energy to bring together the nucleus, which has many protons and neutrons, into a tight ball.
It's like trying to push an uphill boulder. The splitting of the nucleus again releases some of the energy.
Some atoms have unstable nuclei, which means they tend to break down into other atoms with a small push or no push at all.
The surface of the Moon is made out of rocks and dust. The crust of the Moon is called the regolith.
The moon's mantle is approximately 70 km thick at the near side and 100 km thick at the far side.
It is thinner beneath the seas and thicker beneath the mountains.
There may be more lunar maria on the near side because the crust is thinner. The lava was able to reach the surface more easily.
The theories of persuasion focus on what makes people tick and what they like.
These theories posit that humans have certain needs and/or desires that are acquired in the process of maturing into adulthood.
These theories involve certain people and what makes them want to do the things they do and what things in their environment make or don't make them do certain things.
Two popular content theories are Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory.
In general, there are two behaviors that may arise when managers start managing their former peers: They may try to remain "one of the guys" (or gals).
Such managers tend to have difficulty making unpopular decisions, implementing disciplinary actions, assessing the results of their actions, holding people accountable, and assigning responsibilities.
At the other end of the spectrum, the person becomes an unrecognizable individual who feels like they have to change everything that the team was doing and do it their own way.
In the end, the leader is responsible for the success and failure of the team.
This behavior often leads to conflict between the leader and the rest of the team.
Virtual teams are held to the same standards of excellence as regular teams, but there are some differences.
Members of a virtual team often act as points of contact for their real-world counterparts.
They often have more autonomy than regular team members, since their teams can be based around time zones that may be confusing to the local management.
The presence of a true "invisible college" (Larson and LaFasto, 1989, p. 109) is also a unique component of the virtual community.
The Invisible Team is the management team to whom everyone is accountable. The Invisible Team defines the standards by which everyone is judged.
Why would an organization want to go through the process of establishing a learning organization when it takes so much time? One way that the concepts of organizational learning can be put into practice is through innovation.
When all available resources are effectively utilized by the functional areas of the organization, creativity and inventiveness may be manifested.
As a result of this collaborative process, the organization can introduce a new innovative process to meet the customer's needs.
Before the organization can be innovative, leadership must create a culture of innovation, knowledge sharing, and organizational learning.
In 2006, "Angel" explained Continuum's approach to helping organizations achieve higher levels of performance.
Neurobiological findings have provided physical evidence to support a theoretical approach to the study of cognitive abilities. Thus, they have narrowed the scope of the search and made it more precise.
Scientists have backed up their findings by showing a correlation between the pathology in the brain and behavior.
It has long been known that various types of brain damage, trauma, lesions, and tumors can affect behavior and produce changes in certain mental functions.
The advent of new technologies has allowed us to see and study brain structures and processes that no one has ever seen before.
This gives us a lot of information and material with which to build simulation models to help us understand the processes going on in our consciousness.
While AI has strong connotations with science fiction, AI is an important branch of computer science that studies the behavior, learning, and intelligence of machines.
During AI research, machines are made to automate tasks that require intelligent behavior.
Examples include control, planning and design, answering customer evaluations and questions, and recognizing handwriting, voice and faces.
These things became separate disciplines in their own right, focusing on real world problems.
Artificial intelligence is now being utilized in a number of economic, medical, engineering, and defense applications, having been integrated into several home computer and video game applications.
Tours are an important part of any class, and often the teacher would like to take the students to places that are inaccessible by bus.
Technology offers a solution in the form of virtual field trips. Students can view museum artifacts or marvel at beautiful art while sitting together in class.
A virtual tour is also a great way to reflect on a journey and share the experience with future classes.
For instance, students at Bennett College in North Carolina create a website every year for their trip to the state capital; the website is redone each year but the old ones are kept online as albums.
Blogging can also help improve a student's writing skills. While students often begin their blogging experience with poor grammar and spelling, the presence of an audience usually encourages improvement.
As students are usually the most critical audience, bloggers begin to try to improve their writing to avoid criticism.
Blogging also "encourages students to become more aware of their surroundings." The need to satisfy the audience encourages students to be smart and interesting (Toth, 2004).
Blogging is a tool that can inspire collaboration and encourage learning beyond the traditional school day.
The effective use of blogs can encourage students to become more analytical and critical; by actively responding to materials on the web, students can begin to position themselves in relation to other articles, as well as begin to articulate their own points of view on particular issues (Oravetz, 2002).
Ottawa, Canada's beautiful, bilingual capital, is home to a number of art galleries and museums that showcase Canada's history and present.
Further south is Niagara Falls and to the north is the pristine wilderness of the Adirondacks and beyond.
All of these things, and more, are what outsiders think of when they think of Canada.
The northern areas are quite sparsely populated, and some of them are virtually uninhabited wilderness.
Another comparison that may surprise many: The U.S. has more African-Americans than Canada has citizens.
The East African islands are in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern coast of Africa.
Madagascar is currently the world's largest, and is itself an entire continent in terms of wilderness areas.
Most of the smaller islands are independent countries or are associated with France and are known for their luxurious beach resorts.
The Arabs also brought Islam to these lands and it took root in the Comoros and Mayotte.
European influence and colonialism began in the 15th century with the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama finding a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope for Europe to India.
The region borders the Sahel to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west.
Women: All traveling women are advised to say they are married, regardless of their actual marital status.
It would also be a good idea to wear high heels (but not one that looks too expensive.
Women need to be aware that cultural differences can mean that what you consider to be harassment will often be seen as flirting, and can include things like following you, grabbing your hand, etc.
Be firm with the men and don’t be afraid to stand your ground (cultural differences or not, it’s not normal!).
The present-day city of Casablanca was founded by Berber fishermen in the 10th century CE, and was used as a strategic port by the Phoenicians, Romans, and Marinids under the name of Anfa.
The Portuguese completely destroyed it and then rebuilt it and called it Casa Branca, but after the 1755 earthquake they left it.
Under the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail, the city was rebuilt in the 17th century with the name Dar-al-Baida, and the Spanish merchants who established trading posts there gave it the name Casablanca.
Casablanca is one of the least interesting places to shop in all of Morocco.
Near the old medina, it is easy to find shops selling traditional Moroccan goods such as tagines, pottery, leatherware, pipes and a wide range of tourist tat.
Goma is a tourist town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the extreme eastern frontier with Rwanda.
In 2002 the city of Goma was buried in lava from the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, which covered most of the city, especially the center.
While the city of Goma itself is reasonably safe, it is necessary to be aware of ongoing fighting in the surrounding North Kivu province.
The town also serves as a base for trekking up the nearby Nyiragongo volcano and is one of the cheapest places in Africa to get up close to mountain gorillas.
You can use bodabodas (motorcycle taxis) to get around. Normal (local) rates are about 500 Congolese francs for a short ride.
For this reason, and because of its remoteness, Timbuktu became a byword for exotic, inaccessible countries.
Today, Timbuktu is a poor town, though it does have an airport and it attracts tourists for its history.
It was listed as a World Heritage Site in danger in 1990 due to the threat of desertification.
It was one of the highlights of Henry Louis Gates's PBS series Africa's Great Civilizations.
The city contrasts dramatically with the rest of the country, being more Arab than African in character.
The Kruger National Park (KNP) is in northeast South Africa, bordering Mozambique to the east, Zimbabwe to the north and the Crocodile River to the south.
The park covers 19,500 square kilometres and is divided into 14 different ecological zones, each of which supports a different complement of wildlife.
It is one of the major attractions of Southern Africa and is regarded as the flagship of the South African National Parks (SANParks).
As in all South African national parks, there is a daily conservation and entrance fee charged to visitors.
It can also be worth getting a Wild Card, which gives you entry to some of the parks in Southern Africa or all of the National Parks of the Republic of South Africa.
The island of Hong Kong gives its name to the territory of Hong Kong and is the place that many tourists come to see.
The parade of buildings that make up the architectural face of Hong Kong have been likened to a dazzling histogram, thanks to the presence of the Victoria Harbour.
To get the best views of Hong Kong, leave the island and head across the harbour to Kowloon.
The vast majority of Hong Kong Island's built-up area is densely packed along the northern coastline.
This area was claimed by British colonists, so if you're looking for evidence of the colonial past of the area, this is a good place to start.
The Sunderbans is the world's largest mangrove forest, spreading across 80 km (50 miles) of coastline in Bangladesh and India.
The Sundarbans has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A portion of the forest in India is protected as the Sunderbans National Park.
However, these forests are not just mangrove swamps because they include some of the last patches of the mighty jungles that once clothed the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
The Sundarbans covers an area of 3,850 km², about a third of which is water or marsh.
Since 1966, the Sundarbans has been protected as a wildlife sanctuary, and is estimated to be home to about 400 Royal Bengal Tigers and nearly 30,000 spotted deer.
Buses depart regularly throughout the day from the district bus station (on the other side of the river), though most of them, particularly those to the east and to Jaka/Bumangar, leave between 06:30 and 07:30.
Since intercity buses are often full, it is advisable to purchase a ticket a few days in advance.
Most areas are serviced by small Japanese Coaster buses which are comfortable and sturdy.
Taxis are a quick and convenient way to get around and can be taken to nearby destinations such as Paro (150) and Punakha (200).
The Oyapock Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects the banks of the Oyapock River and the city of Oyapock in Brazil with the city of Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock in French Guiana.
The pillars are 83 metres high and the bridge is 378 metres long. It has two traffic lanes, each 3.5 metres wide.
The vertical clearance beneath the bridge is 15 metres. The structure was completed in August 2011 but wasn't opened to traffic until March 2017.
The city is scheduled to be fully opened in September 2017, once the Brazilian customs posts have been completed.
The Guarani were the largest indigenous group in the present-day eastern Paraguay. They lived as semi-nomadic hunters and farmers.
The Chacoan Ancestral Puebloans were not the only indigenous peoples to live in the Chaco region; other groups such as the Guaycuru and Pajaros also inhabited the area, subsisting through hunting, gathering, and fishing.
In the 16th century, as a result of the encounters between the Spanish conquerors and the indigenous peoples, Paraguay was formed, which used to be known as the "Giant Province of the Indians".
The Spanish began a three-century period of conquest and colonization.
Since its founding in 1537, Paraguay has managed to preserve much of its indigenous character and national identity.
Argentina is well known for having one of the best polo teams and players in the world.
The biggest event of the year takes place in December at the Las Vegas Polo and Equestrian Club.
Smaller tournaments and matches can be found here throughout the year.
Please contact the Argentine Polo Association for tournament and ticketing information.
The official currency of the Falkland Islands is the Falkland pound (FKP), which has the same value as the British pound (GBP).
Money can be exchanged at the only bank on the islands, which is located in Stanley, opposite the FIC West shop.
Pound sterling is freely exchangeable in all parts of the islands, and in many establishments US dollars and Stanley Bank Notes are also accepted.
It is unlikely that remote islands will accept credit cards, although they may take currencies from the UK or US; it is best to check with the owner in advance to ascertain what is an acceptable method of payment.
It is almost impossible to exchange Falkland Pounds outside of the Falklands, so be sure to exchange your money before leaving the Falklands.
Because Montevideo is on the southern hemisphere, it is summer there when it is winter in the northern hemisphere and vice versa.
Montevideo has a subtropical climate; in summer, temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) are common.
Winter can be deceptively cold, with temperatures rarely dipping below freezing, but the combination of wind and moisture can make it feel colder than the thermometer indicates.
There are no real "rainy" or "dry" seasons: the amount of rainfall remains fairly constant throughout the year.
While many animals in the park are used to seeing people, wild animals are still wild and shouldn't be fed or bothered.
Please keep at least 100 yards/meters away from bears and wolves and 25 yards/meters away from all other wildlife, according to park guidelines.
While they may appear docile, bison, moose, elk, bears, and just about any large animal can be dangerous.
Each year, dozens of visitors are treated for injuries sustained by getting too close to the animals, which are large, wild, and potentially dangerous. So give them their space.
Also, remember that odors can attract bears and other wildlife, so pack out what you bring in and keep your camp site clean.
Apia is the capital of Samoa. The city is located on the island of Upolu and has about 40,000 inhabitants.
Apia was founded in the 1850s and has been the official capital of Samoa since 1959.
The harbor was the site of a notable maritime confrontation in 1889, when seven ships from Germany, the United States, and Britain refused to leave.
All of the ships were sunk except for one British cruiser, and about 200 Americans and Germans were killed.
During the struggle for independence waged by the Mau movement, a peaceful demonstration in the town led to the killing of paramount chief Tamasese Lealofi III.
There are many beaches due to Auckland's location between two harbours. The most popular ones are in three areas.
The beaches of North Shore (in the North Haven area) front the Pacific Ocean and extend from Long Beach in the north to Devonport in the south.
Almost all of them are sand beaches that are safe for swimming, and most of them are shaded by palm trees.
Tamaki Drive beaches are located in the bay of Waitemata, in the upscale suburbs of Mission Bay and Saint Heliers in central Auckland.
These are family-friendly beaches with lots of shops lining the coast. It is safe to swim.
The main local beer is No. 1, which is simple but pleasant and refreshing. Another local beer is called Manta.
It is possible to sample many French wines, but New Zealand and Australian wines may travel better.
Tap water is perfectly safe to drink but bottled water is easily available if you prefer.
The term "flat white" is unfamiliar to Australians. A short black is an "espresso", a cappuccino is made with no foam, and tea is not served with milk.
This hot chocolate complies with Belgian standards, and the fruit juices are not cheap at all, but they are excellent.
Many dive trips go out year round, and injuries resulting from any of these reasons are rare.
Nevertheless, heed the advice of authorities, follow all warning signs, and take special care in hazardous areas.
Jellyfish are common from October through April, north of 1770, and can be seen at other times as well.
Sharks do exist, but they rarely attack humans. Most sharks are afraid of humans and will swim away.
Sea crocodiles do not spend much time in the ocean; their main natural habitat is the riverine lagoons north of Rockhampton.
Early booking can give the traveller a sense of security in knowing where they are going to stay when they arrive at their destination.
Tour agents often work with specific hotels, though you can try to book something else through them, such as a camping stay.
Tour agents usually offer packages which include breakfast, airport/hotel transfers or even a combination of flight and hotel packages.
They can also hold the reservation for you if you need time to think about the offer or to get other documents for your trip (e.g. a visa).
Any changes or requests must be made through the travel agent and not directly through the hotel.
For some festivals, a significant amount of attendees choose to stay on-site overnight, and for many attendees this is an important part of the experience.
If you want to be up close, you'll have to arrive early to claim a spot.
Remember that even if the main stage music has stopped for the night, there may still be areas of the festival playing music late into the night.
Some festivals have dedicated camping areas for families with small children.
If you are going to cross the Baltic Sea in winter, pay attention to the location of your cabin, as the sound of the ice breaking can be quite awful if you are too close to the source.
St. Petersburg cruises involve time in the city; visa requirements are waived for the passenger (see terms).
In general, casinos go to great lengths to make sure that the time and money spent by patrons is maximized. Windows and clocks are often absent, and it can be difficult to find exits.
They usually have a special menu of food, drinks and entertainment to keep the patrons in good humor and on the premises.
Some establishments offer free alcoholic drinks. However, intoxication can impair one's ability to assess the situation, so all good gamblers know how important it is to stay sober.
Anyone intending to travel by road in the highlands or mountains should be aware of the potential for snow, ice or sub-zero temperatures.
On icy or snow-covered roads, there is little friction and it is not possible to drive as if on bare asphalt.
Enough snow can fall in a short time to get stuck in it.
Visibility may also be reduced by falling or blowing snow, or by the formation of water or ice on windshields.
On the other hand, frozen and snowy conditions are normal in many countries and road traffic continues without disruption all year round.
Safaris are probably the biggest tourist attraction in Africa and draw visitors from all over the world.
In general, the word safari means a journey by land to see and experience the wonders of African wildlife, especially in the savannah.
Some animals, such as elephants and giraffes, are inclined to approach cars, so normal equipment will allow you to get a good view of them.
Lions, leopards and cheetahs can be nervous, so it is best to observe them with binoculars.
A safari walk (also called bushwalking, bushwhacking or bush hiking) is a multi-day hike.
The Paralympic Games will be held from August 24 to September 5, 2021. Part of the tournaments will be held in various places all over Japan.
Tokyo will become the first Asian city to have hosted both the summer and winter Olympics, having staged the games in 1964.
If you had already booked your flights and accommodation for 2020 before the postponement was announced, you may be facing a cancellation or refund situation.
The deadlines for cancellations vary, but as of March 31, most cancellations due to coronavirus were not extended past July 2020, which is when the Olympics are scheduled to be held.
Tickets for the event are expected to cost between 2,500 yen and 130,000 yen, with regular tickets costing around 7,000 yen.
Wringing out wet clothing can help it to dry. Many hotels allow you to borrow an iron and board, even if there is none in your room.
If you don’t have an iron or don’t like to wear pressed shoes, then you can try using a hair dryer, if you have one.
Be careful not to let the fabric get too hot (which can cause shrinkage or even scorching).
There are various ways to purify water, some being more effective against specific threats.
In some places, you just need to boil the water for a minute, while in others you need to boil it for several minutes.
The effectiveness of filters can vary. If you are having problems, consider buying bottled water in a sealed container from a reputable company.
Travelers may encounter animal pests they don't know about in their home areas.
Pests can spoil food, cause irritation, or, in the worst cases, cause allergic reactions, spread toxins, or transmit infections.
The infectious diseases themselves, or the dangerous animals that can injure or kill humans, are seldom considered pests.
Tax-free shopping is the ability to purchase items without having to pay tax or duty on them in certain areas.
Travellers visiting high-tax countries can sometimes save a significant amount of money, especially on purchases of alcoholic drinks and tobacco.
The most challenging section of the Buffalo–Pittsburgh corridor is the stretch between Pointe Marion and Ferguson, since it often has to pass through isolated wilderness.
If you're unfamiliar with country roads, take care: they tend to be steep, narrow and winding.
The posted speed limits are noticeably lower than in the preceding and following sections — usually 35–40 mph (56–64 km/h) — and it is very important to stick to them.
Interestingly, however, cell service is much better here than in many other portions of the trail, such as the Pennsylvania Wilderness.
German baking is quite good, and Bavarian baking is quite rich and varied, similar to their southern neighbor Austria.
Fruit baking is quite common: apples are used in baking all year round, and cherries and plums – in summer.
Many German baked goods also contain almonds and other nuts that grow on trees, and popular cakes are often especially tasty with a strong coffee to wash them down.
For a small but tasty sweet snack, try some of what is variously called Berliner, Pfannkuchen or Krapfen.
A curry is a dish that is composed of spices and herbs combined with meat or vegetables.
Kari can be "dry" or "wet" depending on the amount of liquid.
In northern and central India and Pakistan, milk is a common addition to chai; in southern India and other coastal regions of the subcontinent coconut milk is a common addition to chai.
With 17,000 islands to choose from, Indonesian cuisine is a broad umbrella term for the many regional cuisines found throughout the archipelago.
However, if used without further qualification, this term usually refers to food originating from the central and eastern parts of Java island.
Javanese cuisine is now ubiquitous throughout the archipelago and offers a wide variety of simply flavoured dishes, of which peanuts, chilli, sugar (especially Javanese coconut sugar), and a variety of aromatic spices are the predominant tastes.
The stirrups are the supports for the rider's legs which hang down on either side of the saddle.
They provide the rider with more stability but can be dangerous because of the potential for the rider's foot to get caught in them.
If a rider falls off a horse and their foot gets trapped in the stirrup, the horse could run off and drag the rider. There are a number of safety precautions that can be taken to prevent this.
First of all, most riders wear riding boots with heels and a fairly narrow heel sole.
Also, some saddles, especially English saddles, have a safety feature that prevents the stirrup from coming out of the saddle if the falling rider pulls on the stirrup.
The granite towers and cliffs of the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) are the center of rock climbing in Chile, which is sometimes likened to Yosemite of South America.
Trekking involves enjoying the beautiful landscapes from the tops of mountains. Alpinists from all over the world are constantly exploring new routes among the infinite potential of the walls.
Skiing, which includes skiing and snowboarding, is a popular sport which involves going down a slope covered in snow on skis or a snowboard, which are attached to your feet.
Skiing is one of the main tourist activities in which many enthusiasts participate, sometimes called "ski bums" who plan an entire vacation around skiing at a particular place.
The idea of skiing is very ancient - cave paintings dating back 5000 B.C. show skiers!
The origins of skiing as a sport go back to at least the 17th century, and in 1861 the first ski club was founded in Australia by Norwegians.
Ski Backpacking: This activity is also called backpacking on skis, ski touring or ski hiking.
It is related but generally does not include alpine skiing or mountaineering, which are activities that take place in steeper terrain and require stiffer skis and boots.
Consider the cross-country skiing trail to be similar to a hiking trail.
If conditions are good, you can move faster than on foot - but in reality, it is very rare that you can match the speed of a skier without a pack on a maintained track.
Europe is a small continent with a large number of independent countries. In normal circumstances, traveling through multiple countries would involve multiple visa and passport checkpoints.
However, the Schengen area is effectively a single country for all intents and purposes.
While staying in this area, you can usually cross frontiers without having to go through passport control again.
Also, with a Schengen visa you do not need to apply for a separate visa for each of the Schengen area countries, which saves time, money and paperwork.
There is no universally agreed upon definition for what constitutes an antique. Some tax authorities consider items to be antiques if they are 100 years old or more.
This definition may vary depending on the geographic location - for example, age restrictions in North America may be less stringent than in Europe.
Handicrafts can be considered as antiques although they are newer than their mass-produced counterparts.
Reindeer herding is an important source of livelihood for the Sami people and the culture surrounding this trade is also important to many non-Sami.
Even traditionally, not all Sami have been reindeer herders, but have relied on fishing, hunting and so on, while keeping reindeer as draught animals.
Many Sami people today work in modern businesses. Tourism in Sápmi, where the Sami people live, is an important source of income.
While the word "gypsy" is widely used, especially among non-Roma, it is considered offensive due to its associations with negative stereotypes and misconceptions about the people.
If the country you are visiting becomes the subject of government travel advisories, this can affect your travel insurance and holiday cancellation cover.
You may also want to seek advice from the government of the country you are not from but their advice is geared towards their nationals.
One example is that American citizens in the Middle East may face different situations than Europeans or Arabs.
The information bulletins only provide a brief overview of the country's political situation.
The presented data is often superficial, generalised and greatly simplified compared to the more detailed information available elsewhere.
Extreme weather is a general term for any dangerous weather which has the potential to cause damage, disruption or death.
Severe weather can happen anywhere in the world and takes many different forms, which are dictated by geography, topography, and atmospheric conditions.
High winds, hail, excessive rainfall, and landslides are all forms of bad weather, as are thunderstorms, tornadoes, water spouts and cyclones.
Regional and seasonal extreme weather events include blizzards, storms, ice storms, and dust storms.
Travelers are strongly advised to check for risks of unfavorable weather conditions in their area as it may affect their travel plans.
Anyone intending to visit a country that may be considered a combat zone should receive professional training.
A Google search for "hostile environment training" is likely to bring up the local company's address.
In general, all of the topics that are discussed in this course are explored in much more detail in the course, usually with practical exercises.
Typically lasting 2–5 days, it includes role-playing, first aid training, and sometimes weapons training.
Books and magazines about survival in the desert are widespread, but publications about war zones are scarce.
Transgender travellers intending to undergo gender reassignment overseas should ensure they hold valid travel documents for their return journey.
The willingness of governments to issue passports without a sex designation (X) or documents that can be updated to reflect a preferred name and gender varies.
The willingness of foreign governments to accept such documentation varies widely.
Border searches also became more rigorous in the wake of 9/11.
Trans individuals who have not undergone surgery should not expect to pass through scanners with their dignity and privacy intact.
Breaker waves are waves that break, or crash, when they hit the shoreline, often on a reef or similar feature.
Because of the undersea topography, the return current concentrates in a few deep areas and can become a fast current in deep water.
Most of the deaths occur while trying to swim against the current, which can be impossible.
Once you are out of the current, going back will not be any harder than usual.
Try to head for where you won't be swept down again or, depending on your skills and whether you are spotted, it might be better to wait for help to come to you.
The re-entry shock comes sooner than the culture shock (before the honeymoon phase) and lasts longer and can be more severe.
Sometimes, those travelers who did not have problems adapting to a new culture have a hard time readjusting to their home culture.
When you come back home after living abroad, you are already adapted to a new culture and have lost certain habits of your native culture.
When you first went out, people were probably tolerant and understanding, because they knew that travelers had to get accustomed to a new country.
Travelers may not expect the patience and understanding to be as necessary when they return home.
The sound and light show at the pyramids is one of the best things to do in the area for families.
You can see the pyramids in the dark and you can see them in silence before the show.
You normally always hear the sounds of tourists and traders. The history of sound and light is like a collection of short stories.
The Sphinx is the backdrop and narrator of a long story.
Scenes are projected onto the pyramids and different pyramids are illuminated.
The South Shetland Islands, which were discovered in 1819 and are claimed by several countries, are home to the largest number of bases, with sixteen active in 2020.
The archipelago is 120 km (75 miles) north of the peninsula. The largest island is King George Island, site of the Villa Las Estrellas settlement.
Others include the Livingstone Island and Desolation Islands, where the still-active volcano's caldera forms a dramatic natural harbor.
Ellsworth Land is a territory in the Antarctic Peninsula, bounded by the Bellingshausen Sea.
The peninsula's mountains taper into a plateau that rises again to form the 360-mile (600 km) long Ellesmere Island, which is divided by the Minnesota Glacier.
The highest mountains in Antarctica are located in the northern part of the Sentinel Range: Vinson Massif and Vinson Peak, 4,892 m high.
In remote areas with no cell service, a satellite phone may be your only option.
A satellite phone is generally not a substitute for a cell phone because you have to be out in the open with a clear view of the sky to make a call.
This service is often found on ships including cruise ships and expeditions, where remote data and voice communications are required.
Your local phone service provider should be able to provide more information on how to connect to this service.
Travel and learn is becoming an increasingly popular option for those looking to take an academic break.
It is particularly popular with school leavers, allowing them to take a year out without jeopardising their education.
In many cases, studying overseas during academic breaks can indeed improve your chances of getting into undergraduate study in your home country.
These educational programs are usually paid.
Finland is a great place for canoeing. "The Land of a Thousand Lakes" also includes thousands of islands, both in the lakes and along the coastal archipelagos.
In archipelagos and lakes, you do not necessarily need a yacht.
While the coastal archipelago and largest lakes are big enough for any yacht, smaller boats and even kayaks offer a different experience.
Boating is a national pastime in Finland, with one boat for every seven people.
This is comparable to Norway, Sweden and New Zealand, but still a fairly unique phenomenon (in the Netherlands this number is one in forty).
Most of these notable Baltic Sea cruises make a lengthy stay in St. Petersburg, Russia.
This means you can spend several full days exploring the historical site and then return to the ship for the night.
If you only go ashore on ship's tours, you do not need a separate visa (really for 2009).
Some cruise brochures include a visit to Berlin, Germany. As you can see on the map above, Berlin is a long way from the sea and is not included in the cost of the cruise.
Flying can be a daunting experience for people of all ages and backgrounds, especially if they have not flown before or have experienced traumatic events.
It's not something to be ashamed of: it's no different to the irrational fears and phobias that a lot of people suffer from.
Understanding how the plane works and what is going on during the flight can help some people overcome a fear that is based on a lack of knowledge or a sense of not being in control.
Courier companies are paid well to deliver things quickly. Usually, time is of the essence when it comes to delivering business documents, goods or spare parts for emergency repairs.
For some routes, larger companies operate their own jets, but for other routes and smaller firms, that has been a challenge.
If they shipped by air, it would take several days to offload and clear customs on some routes.
The only way to do this quickly was to send it on as registered baggage. Air travel regulations do not allow baggage to be sent without the passenger, and this is where you come in.
Of course, to fly in first or business class, you'll have to pay through the nose for that privilege (or, better still, get your company to pay for you).
However, this comes at a price; usually you can expect to pay around four times as much for business class as you would for economy and eleven times as much for first class!
In general, there is no point in looking for discounts on business-class or first-class seats on direct flights from point A to point B.
Airlines are well aware that there is a certain key group of passengers who are willing to pay a premium to get where they want to go as quickly and comfortably as possible so they charge accordingly.
The capital of Moldova is Chisinau. The local language is Romanian, but Russian is also widely spoken.
Moldova is a multiethnic republic that suffered an ethnic conflict.
In 1994, this conflict led to the creation of the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic in eastern Moldova, which has its own government and currency but is not recognized by any UN member state.
Despite the failure of political talks, economic relations between the two parts of Moldova were restored.
The main religion in Moldova is Orthodox Christianity.
İzmir is Turkey's third-largest city with around 3.7 million inhabitants, after Istanbul and Ankara, and a very good transportation hub.
The ancient city of Smyrna is now a modern, developed, business and commercial center, situated around a huge bay and encircled by mountains.
Wide boulevards, glass fronted buildings, and modern shopping malls co-exist with traditional red-tiled roof houses, 18th-century bazaars, and ancient mosques and churches, though the atmosphere of the city is more reminiscent of Mediterranean Europe than traditional Turkey.
From the village of Galdhøpiggen, there is a view of the neighboring island of Esturoy, and there is an unusual octagonal church.
Interesting marble sculptures of doves can be found above some tombs in the courtyard of the church.
It's worth spending at least half an hour exploring the village's intriguing streets.
North of Lisbon and easily accessible is the romantic and fascinating city of Sintra, which became known to foreigners through Lord Byron's enthusiastic description of its opulence.
Regular bus service 403 can take you to Sintra, with a stop at Cabo da Roca.
Also in the north, don't miss the huge Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima (Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Fatima), scene of the world-famous apparitions of Mary.
Please remember that you are visiting a site of mass burial and one that is of great significance to a large portion of the world's population.
There are also many living men and women who survived imprisonment there, and even more whose relatives were murdered or worked to death there, both Jews and non-Jews.
Please stand there with dignity, solemnity and respect that is due to this place, do not make jokes about the Holocaust or the Nazis.
Do not deface buildings by marking them with chalk or graffiti.
The official languages of Barcelona are Catalan and Spanish, and nearly half of the population prefers to speak Catalan, which is understood by the majority and spoken by nearly all.
However, most signs are only in Catalan, since it is established by law as the first official language.
However, Spanish is also widely used in public transportation and other services.
Regular announcements on the metro are only made in Catalan, but for unplanned disruptions the automatic announcements are in various languages including Spanish, English, French, Arabic and Japanese.
Parisians are known for being self-centered, rude, and arrogant.
In general, this is no more than a false stereotype, but the best way to get by in Paris is to be as nice as possible, as a "bien élevé" (well-brought-up) person does. It will make your journey much easier.
Paris can be intimidating at first, but will quickly give way to familiarity if you show a little courtesy.
The Plitvice Lakes National Park is heavily forested, mainly with beech, spruce and fir trees, and contains a mixture of alpine and Mediterranean vegetation.
It has an incredible diversity of plant life due to the different microclimates and soil types, and the range of altitudes.
The area is also home to an extraordinary diversity of animals and birds.
Here you can find rare fauna such as the European brown bear, wolf, eagle, owl, lynx, pine marten, wild cat and wood grouse, as well as many other well-known species.
Women must wear skirts that cover their knees and have their heads covered when they visit monasteries.
Most monasteries will provide wraps for those who come unprepared, but if you come with your own, especially in bright colors, you may get a chuckle out of the monk or nun at the door.
Men should also be wearing trousers that cover the knee.
They can also be borrowed from the rack by the entrance, but the clothing is not changed after each user, so you may feel uncomfortable wearing this clothing. One size fits all men!
The cuisine of Majorca, like that of the rest of the Mediterranean, is based on bread, vegetables and meat (especially pork) and uses olive oil for everything.
A simple popular meal, especially in summer, is Pâté au pommes: bread with olive oil, tomatoes and whatever fillings are available, such as cheese, tuna and so on.
All nouns following Sie in the second person plural always begin with a capital letter, even in the middle of a sentence.
This is an important way to differentiate some verbs and nouns.
This may also make it easier to read, though the spelling is slightly more complicated because of the need to decide whether a verb or noun is substantivized.
Italian is a relatively easy language to pronounce because a large number of words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled.
The main letters to be aware of are t and g, as their pronunciation changes depending on the following vowel.
Also make sure you pronounce r and rr differently: caro means expensive, carro means carriage.
Persian has a relatively easy and mostly correct grammar.
Therefore, reading this grammar book will help you learn a lot about Persian grammar and understand sentences better.
It should go without saying that if you already know a romance language, you'll have an easier time learning Portuguese.
However, people who speak a little Spanish may quickly come to the conclusion that Portuguese is similar enough to it that they don't need to learn it separately.
Today, most of the ancient observatories are either museums or educational sites.
Since light pollution was not as bad as it is today during their heyday, they are usually found in cities or campuses and are generally easier to visit than ones built in the present day.
Most modern telescopes for scientific research are large instruments in remote locations with good seeing.
The viewing of cherry blossoms, known as hanami, is an integral part of Japanese culture dating back to the 8th century.
The concept originated in China, where the plum blossom was the flower of choice.
In Japan, the first cherry blossom festivals were held in the Imperial Palace only for the emperor and other members of the aristocracy.
Plants are at their best in their natural habitat, so resist the temptation to eradicate even a single one.
If you visit an officially sanctioned garden, sampling will also get you ejected without discussion.
Singapore is generally a very safe place and easy to get around, and you can get almost anything you need once you arrive.
But in the "high tropics" just a few degrees north of the equator, you can expect both heat (always) and sunburn (when the sky is clear, which is more often than not).
There are also several buses that go north to Hebron, a traditional burial place of the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives.
Make sure the bus you are catching is going all the way to Hebron and not just the nearest Jewish settlement, Kiryat Arba.
Inland waterways can be a great way to take a break.
Perhaps a visit to the castles of the Loire Valley, the Rhine Valley, or a cruise to interesting places on the Danube River, or a trip along the canals of the Erie Canal.
They also mark trails for popular hiking and biking routes.
Christmas is one of the most important festivals in Christianity and is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus.
Many of the traditions associated with the holiday have been adopted by non-Christian countries and non-Christians around the world.
It is a tradition to stay awake throughout the Easter night outdoors to see the sunrise.
There are, of course, Christian theological explanations for this tradition, but it may well be a pre-Christian ritual of spring and fertility.
Traditional churches often hold an Easter service on Saturday night during the Easter weekend, and many begin celebrating at sundown on Saturday to commemorate the resurrection of Christ.
All of the animals that were originally on the islands got there either by water or air.
Due to its isolation from the mainland, mammals were unable to make the journey to the Galapagos, leaving the giant tortoise as the archipelago's primary herbivore.
Humans introduced many mammals to the Galapagos when they arrived there, including goats, horses, cows, pigs, rats, cats, and dogs.
If you visit the Arctic or Antarctic in winter you will experience polar night, when the sun never rises.
This is a great opportunity to see the polar aurora, as the sky will be dark enough for most of the night.
As these areas are sparsely populated and light pollution is not a problem, you can also enjoy the stars.
Japanese work culture is more hierarchical and formal than what is common in Western countries.
The standard business attire is a suit. Employees address each other by their last name or title.
Harmony in the work environment is paramount, and the group effort is valued more than individual accomplishments.
Workers often need to get approval from a manager for any decisions, and are expected to comply without question with managerial directives.