The Translation of Language & Culture

Nokia strikes back with Android

2012-03-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

After loosing market positions in favor of Apple, Samsung and HTC Nokia decided that it’s about time to get back what it deserves. This Phoenix like strategy was introduced in a big way on this year’s MWC in Barcelona.

Firstly Nokia astonished us with 41 megapixel phone camera that made any competitor’s effort to research for anything better irrelevant. Would you really care if somebody offered you a cellphone with 41, or 62 megapixel camera? I guess not since you don’t use cellphone solely for taking pictures.

A little later Microsoft presented Windows 8, the next day its consumer preview hit 1 million downloads before 24hours passed. This is not a “very good start” this is a call for revolution! It won’t take long for applications to be made – since there is still huge number of produces making software for previous versions of Windows and so dominance of IOS and Android is about to be hit hardly. Why am I saying this? Because only Nokia and RIM are going to have cellphones running on windows 8!

After introducing Lumia model to the market Nokia saw rise in sales that exceeded expectations – even in USA. Lumia 610 is set to be the first smart phone for masses and its intentions are about to be tested in global markets – but with low cost of this model the goal seems more then promising.

And now last reason to believe that Nokia is about to fight back so hard that every phone company should tremble in fear – Lumia models are going to run on Android too!

It’s hard to believe that with set up like this Nokia won’t be able to score. There is no doubt that the Phoenix will take over the sky.

Alcohol to double life span and boost your memory?

2012-02-29T04:06:00.000-08:00

Not so long ago we’ve heard that marihuana is much less harmful then alcohol and tobacco – to the health. Just try to remember last time that you have heard about drunk person attacking random people. Now try to remember when was the last time you have heard about person high from marihuana doing the same thing – this is just one of possible examples, not the only.

Actually there is something good about the alcohol (I am not referring to the state of being drunk now). Scientists have recently tried to see how would C elegans worms respond to cholesterol levels in connection to their life span – the best idea of infusing the cholesterol with alcohol obviously comes as a next step with every research or at least it seems like.

We share half of our genome with these worms, therefore they are often used for such research.

These worms usually live for 10 to 15 days. What scientists found out astonished them – the life span of worms doubled! To be more specific, the alcohol was infused in already cholesterol flavored water (worm food). Don’t think that worms were drunk so much that they would be tipsy for their whole life – the amount of alcohol was about the same as one beer diluted into 100 gallons (380L) of water.

Other good news about actually being tipsy is that it helps memory! The catch is, it that it helps not the conscious memory we use to focus on certain subjects, but the uncoucious we use in every situation. It is due to fact that exposure to alcohol stimulates the certain area of brain responsible for our “animal” memory. Therefore even if we don’t remember what we were doing the other night, our body does and wants to do that again, because it was having fun.

And just by the way, next times you drink alcohol do so with strawberry drinks. Antioxidants in strawberries help your body decrease the amount of damage caused by free-radicals in alcoholic beverages.

Google TV, lunar base, single atom (quantum) computer and more

2012-02-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

Last days were full of science and technology news and so I decided to bring you some that you may not have heard of jet.

In one month the Kansas City, Mo. may become the first place on earth with Google TV service that will include live TV, on-demand and online TV channels. It is expected that Google will offer the service along with internet 100 times faster then the average in area.

Even though that people have visited the moon in seventies this huge rock orbiting the Earth still remains as the closest space program’s target. Russians are expected to land on the moon in 2020. With about 600 million tons of water on its north pole, along with extraction of oxygen from lunar soil (which contains about 40% oxygen) can foster the plans of establishing the first moon base.

Russians have made us stare with mouths wide open once again this week; they have brought to life a plant from seed found in 30 000 years old sediment. They found it in squirrel burrows that served as natural cryobanks. Today’s version of plant is quite similar, but a little smaller.

The fastest wind spotted until this day in the whole universe was blowing about 2 million mph, which itself is enormously awesome speed. But scientists searching black hole spotted a phenomenon that can be compared to the worst case hurricane we have ever seen. This wind blows at speed about 20 million mph. It is still nothing compared to speed of light (671 mil. mph) but still, it holds the universe speed record.

A few days ago, scientists managed to put an atom in a certain place where they intended to. This isn’t the sexiest sentence you have heard today, but even though it means that they can create any structure they want on a smallest level that we can actually work with.

This way they may create single atom transistors and possibly quantum computer in very near future. Once they succeed to do so it will be a Moore’s law on steroids (computing speed of computers exponentially higher than anything we know).

Driverless cars – a very near future

2012-02-21T09:04:00.001-08:00

You have seen it in sci-fi movies: A person enters a car, makes clear what is the direction and then drive, while enjoying the countryside without need to touch the steering wheel. In fact, cars like this already drove our roads for almost 30 years!

In 1987 European Commission launched program Prometheus which aimed to research driverless cars possibilities. In 1994, two cars made over 1000km on a highway near Paris in full traffic making over 130km/hour. After many more presentations, automakers started to get interested. Until now project Prometheus used over 1 billion Euro.

US were never far behind, in eighties a car able to drive by itself in speed of 30km/h was introduced and in 1995 a car was produced, that made over 5000km out of witch 98,2% was without a driver.

The main aim of research is to decrease the number of traffic accidents, increase car flow on streets, getting rid of parking problem – because car will find a place to park without one’s need to park it, as well as savings on insurance expenses.

A breakthrough came from company we all know – Google tried to get DARPA award for automatic vehicles a few years ago. They succeeded with their system that used google maps. Company is going to try to put the system to the market in close future. The first step towards this was lobbing for the law (in Nevada) allowing people to drive in driverless cars.

Many European carmakers are already researching their own system for driverless driving and most of them expected commercial release of cars with this technology before 2020. In USA, only General Motors shares the ambition.

Other milestones:

First commercially sold driverless vehicle is used in mines of mining giant Rio Tinto since 2008.

In 2010, four driverless vehicles drove from Parma (Italy) to Shanghai (China). During this journey, they did not use GPS in parts of Russia, Kazakhstan and China – there was no map available.

In UK, the officials expect wide use of unmanned transport vehicles since 2019.

Only car accident recorded with driverless car happened to Google crew and in time of accident, the car was actually driven by a person.

Windows 8 – See what it brings

2012-02-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

Last year the successor of Windows 7 was announced. Microsoft is going to bring it to us this year (most people expect it to come out in October). This new OS is bringing many new features.

Best way to start is with the beginning (start) – eight brings us possibility to use quick start. When you´ll be turning your computer off, you will get an opportunity to do a hybrid of hibernation and full turn off. The programs that has to be run everytime the computer is turned on (from being shut down completely) will be stored on your hard drive and there will be no need to run them again and so your system will turn on quickly. (see video at the end of the article)

After your system is running you will notice new visual of the main screen – metro. This screen is going to be similar to smartphone operation systems. To make the change more significant Microsoft decided to change Window’s logo.

Except for support of old software also new source of entertainment will be supported – Xbox live – a source of music, movies, games and TV shows. This OS is going to be almost the same version for PC, notebook, tablet and smartphone. Therefore almost any software you run on any device would be available on other devices.

Windows store, one store for all the devices, will offer applications and thanks to compatibility with any software that was running on previously introduced Windows; we know that the range of apps is going to be overwhelming.

Eight is going to have a support of 10 finger multitouch and also new Internet Explorer 10 – which will be the fastest explorer software. In order to make it true Microsoft built special research facility.

Now all we have to do is to wait until spring for revolution.

Avatar comes to life – thanks to US army

2012-02-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

In 2009 a movie by James Cameron brought a huge buzz into everyday’s life. Avatar rewrote the future of cinematography mainly because of the successful use of 3D technology. This story of modern blue Pocahontas also brought new ideas and new technologies that eventually caused interest of Pentagon.

In year 2013 Pentagon aims to spend 7 million dollars in order to create a very first avatar. It is going to be a robot that will respond to a soldier. In comparison with the cost of the movie (235 mil. dollars) it’s going to be very cheap project.

Research and construction will be done by DARPA, an organization which contributed on many army researches. Except avatar these days DARPA researches also many more projects like mind controlled prosthetic hand, or exoskeleton to help with cargo – similar to the movie version, but in smaller scale.

Army avatar will find its place in guarding areas, in building exploration, or at dangerous open spaces – places dangerous to soldiers. Robot avatar should also take care of wounded soldiers on battlefield and transport them into safety.

Army is not planning to deploy avatars into direct combat, but some years ago we would consider non pilot airplanes crazy, therefore I believe that combat avatars are just a matter of time.

Live more then 100 years – Resveratrol

2012-02-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

Kings tried to reach imortality, or at least live as long as possible. In China medic had to do everything he can to prevent emperor from getting any illness. If medic didn’t succeed - he was killed.

Luckily times of experimentation and shamanism are over and after cruel 20^th century and times of people like Dr. Mengele ended. Thanks to development and rising living conditions life span extended globally and today’s scientists are trying to make it even longer.

Decoding of human genome was the first step, then telomerase came second, but unluckily the longer life was derived from extending of DNA (which decomposes over time), but this reconstitution was rather chaotic and caused cell defects – cancer.

Many years other chemical compound is being tested, which is gaining popularity these days – Resveratrol. It works in the other way around – the substance makes your body immune to almost all the illnesses (including cancer) and makes your body “fall apart” slowly.

Studies on men were not yet made, but on lower life forms this drug was able to extend life span by up to 60%. Mice that were on high caloric diet and that received this drug lived about same long time as mice that were on regular diet (30% longer then other mice on high caloric diet without drugs).

The drug blocked damage caused by Alzheimer’s desease in some parts of brain by 90%. Animals that were given this drug aged slowlier and signs of age were visible later then with those without medication.

Today scientists are running many more tests and are trying to make a drug form suitable for people, because human digestive system decomposes the substance very quickly in forms awailable now. After this problem is solved and more studies will be carried out we won’t find high school reunions after 80 years any weird.

Teaching about skepticism to global warming, nuclear power plants in every town and much more.

2012-02-17T06:59:00.000-08:00

It has been a few years since Al Gore presented his Inconvenient truth and people started to think differently about energy, exhaust fumes and new technologies. These ideas got under skin of every one of us and slow transformation of society begun.

But not everybody likes this set of things. In USA we hear about legislative intents to teach in school about “how people do not affect the environment”. We can only guess whose lobby is behind this.

It wasn’t so long ago (2003), when all major car makers drove back their electric vehicles, because they made lower profit then combustion engine powered cars. But thanks to customer demand EV cars are back!

In both cases money took its toll on pace of industry’s evolution, but I don’t have only bad news for you!

At the end of last year National renewable energy laboratory patented an invention of solar cells able to transfer light into electricity at costs similar to those nuclear or even coal powered power plants have (depending on the environment where you build the solar power plant).

Another US company – Bloom Energy is now selling for over two years its energy cells that use gas to produce electricity. Their energy cells are about 50% more efficient then conventional burning in today’s gas power plants. These fuel cells still cost very much and therefore they find use in companies as Google, Ebay, Walmart, Coca-Cola Company or FedEx.

Bill Gates is not only a founder of Microsoft, but also founder of Terra Power. A company that researches and that is going to produce new generation of nuclear power plants, that are going to use only a small amounts of uranium as a fuel (even nuclear waste would be sufficient). Along with passive cooling system their production will be even more efficient. The commercial launch will take place after testing phase (that will take about 20 years). These may find use as small city power generators.

2012 A year when cell phones take over the world

2012-02-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

We all know that everybody owns a cell phone, but this year there is going to be literaly more cell phones in use, then the whole planet’s population. In next five years about nine percent of world’s population will own at least three cell phones.

Not only numbers of cell phones in use are growing, but also the amount of data transferred. During this year the volume of data transferred is going to grow by 110% and by the year 2016 the amount is going to burst 18 times on a global scale. In Africa and Middle East the growth is expected at even faster pace – 36 times higher compared to today’s data traffic.

Apple geeks are not going to like this information: 29% more data is transfered through cell phones with Android over those with IOS.

It is expected that in next five years more than half of people with access to internet on their device are going to download more than 1GB of data a month – compared to today’s 0.5% of cell phone owners shows you how fast the market is going to grow.

This expansion is going to be able thanks to 4G networks (or similar technologies) that are being implemented in many countries nowadays. Other trends that are expected to happen this year or in near future are bigger screens, mobile payment (already in use in Japan), and higher optimization in devices and of course – more and more applications. Microsoft is going to strike the market with its new OS via cell phones of Nokia and RIM.

As you can see the next year is going to bring us much news in technology area that we can look forward to.

Toxic lipstick, sleeping badly vs. memory loss and other news about health

2012-02-15T09:07:00.000-08:00

Almost every single day we get information concerning what we should eat, wear, do and what not to do at any cost. Sometimes the news are opposing each other, as in case of health benefits and damages caused by drinking coffee. If you are interested in news about your health, then please continue reading, but please don’t take the news too seriously, since tomorrow these studies can be negated.

Lipstick. Many women won’t leave their house without it, but please reconsider putting tons of it on after this message. In many famous brand’s products (Maybelline, L’Oreal etc.) a traces of lead were found. Values of lead in them were crossing the limit line by almost 50%. I believe that I am not the only person that thinks that heavy metals are not sexy.

Chocolate. Study that was taken on almost 1000 participants proved, that flavonoids contained in chocolate boost ability to calculate faster with fewer mistakes over longer period of time.

Chocolate contains also other chemicals, for instance anandemid – substance that is created inside of a marihuana smoking person, or chemicals that boost production of endorphins. Thanks to those chocolate makes us happier and more relaxed.

Memory. Many of us wake up during sleep without even realizing it. Once the amount of sleep is lower then 85% of the whole time that we sleep for (because of waking up for short moments at night), then we are close to develop future memory problems.

Overeating also damages memory. Study carried on 70-89 years participants proved it. People that ate more then their physical need (2,143 to 6000 kcal/day) were twice more likely to have a mild cognitive impairment in future (first step to dementia or Alzheimer’s). The same problem is caused not only by overeating, but also by spending too much time in area, where the air is highly polluted.

Eggs to loose weight. It may sound weird to you, but eating eggs (78 kcal/1 egg) makes you full faster then eating almost any other food. With putting eggs into your menu through the day (lets say for breakfast) you save around 300kcal a day.

7th of March – the launch of iPad 3

2012-02-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

As the time passes we get more and more leaks about new product, that company where ideas of Steve Jobs came reality, wants to amaze us with.

This date is confirmed by the very same source, that leaked information into public in past. Therefore we can rely on the date pretty much. Even in previous weeks other message went public, stating that new product is going to be released during the first week of March.

Whan can we expect from the new iPad version?

Today (14.2.2012) Verizon and AT&T announced start of their 4G networks, that will support new iPad – so we know one feature for sure.

Resolution of 2048x1536 pixels is expected as a reaction on competition growing in the industry.

In the very same way the quad-core processor is expected to be inplemented in new iPad, since competitors already announced it’s use in their products. But when we consider the life cycle of Apple’s products we come to realize that 4 cores aren’t in need of today’s applications and will not be in near future – so even two cores are still highly possible.

Other features that are talked over in many forums, or desires described on many blogs, leave us with leads of possible future that for now on isn’t supported by any leaked information.

Previous iPad was released on the 2^nd of March and sales began week and a half after. Therefore I believe that we are going to see quite similar development next month.

Other side of the Valentine’s day

2012-02-14T08:05:00.002-08:00

Why women buy only 27% of all flowers sold this day?

I don’t want to bore you, so I decided to give you some facts that you may not find usually in the press:

- 15% o women in USA send themselves flowers in order to look desired (so in the end only 12% of women give a flower to their men – sad isn’t it?).

- On the other hand – women buy more then 80% of all valentine cards sent during this day.

- Today more then 1 bilion dollars is spent on chocolate in the USA.

- We all know that this day is a holiday of commerce (and love eventualy), but did you know that sales of condoms rise by one quarter during this one day? Or that men spend half more money during this day – yes path to woman’s heart goes through one’s wallet.

- To extend the part about love – pregnancy test sales are peaking in a month following Valentine’s Day.

- Last add to gifts – in Japan women buy chocolate for their husbands.

- In 1929 Al Capone ordered murder of 7 people from oposing gang (guess during which day he did so). Everybody knew it was him, but no evidence was ever found.

- Have you heard about Romeo and Juliet? A made up charcters out of which one (Juliet) receives more than 1000 valentine cards to her address in Verona. Next time think about poor Donald Duck please.

In case that you are single today you can be at least happy that you don’t have to spend any money and that you can do anything you want. If you feel discomfort about not having a partner, well grab other friends with the same problem, go out and have a good time with them.

How to fight cold weather?

2012-02-14T06:20:00.000-08:00

Take a look out the window, it is dark and cold and maybe there is snow already. In Europe whole continent struggled as a cold wind put temperatures about 10°C lower then average. Even nowadays the temperature bounces around zero in the most of the countries.

The best solution to avoid freezing is to stay home in warmth and watch TV dugged under the blanket. But usually we have to leave the home every now and then and here are some tips, that may help you not to freeze outside:

Gain weight! Maybe it is too late to tell you now, but anyways, if it’s possible try at least for the next winter to take on some pounds of muscles – they are very good as a temperature isolation layer. Of course even fat may do the job, but I am not recomending putting on fat at all – that is what you should have been doing during the Christmass anyways.

Run! It is essential that you are in a good health condition, you are fit enough to make it to your destination and also proper clothes are very important. When you stop running make sure, that you are in well tempered environment, because you may loose the gained temperature very quickly since you probably have been sweating.

Wear a hat! About 30% of body heat gets lost through head, that is way too much to let it go away when it’s freezing outside. So when you are going to spend outside more then 5 minutes think with/about your head.

Drink a lot! Higher blood pressure helps you keep your temperature. I don’t recommend drinking cold beverages outside, but think of your liquids intake for the whole day! Of course try to avoid drinking alcoholic beverages; it is truth that they may give you sensation of warmth as they go down your throat, that’s without a doubt. But on the other hand, alcohol expands veins and so the outside cold steals warmth from your body much faster.

Dress properly! Yes, this may sound stupid, but anyways I had to mention this one just in case. Any additional layer helps! BUT! When you feel cold and you are still at home, try to warm the clothes – if your legs are freezing then who layers of socks would just conserve the cold. Instead of that put both pairs on the radiator before putting them on.

Well and now you are ready to face the cold.

Angry Birds and FarmVille – do you know them?

2012-02-13T07:32:00.000-08:00

You are bored and so you take a look at your cell phone to see what time it is. Then you think about the time you will be waiting and sudenly you start playing game – just for a moment. Another situation: you are by your computer – bored with nothing to do, nothing to read, nobody to chat with – so you start to play some game, just for a moment.

Thanks to people who think this way two companies, that became icons, emerged recently – Rovio with game Angry Birds and Zynga with games like FarmVille, or Mafia Wars. Companies founded in 2003 and 2007 have (thanks to new technologies) became „someone“ we turn to, when we have free time.

You may not have heard about ambitios that these companies have. Rovio want’s to become new Walt Disney and value of Zynga company, that makes money primarily from payments on their Facebook games, exceeds $7 bilion already. Both companies are turning into huge corporations only because of the kids we still have in ourselves.

How much time do you spend playing Angry Birds? Five minutes? Less? It doesn’t really matter, because when 500 milion people download a game, it becomes so widespread that you can make money out of it everywhere. Now we have toys in shapes of those lovely birds, or even a movie, that is being produced these days.

Do you play facebook games at work? Well it doesn’t matter, since most of us tried those games anyway, but few of us continue to play them and it’s easy to believe, that some of these people do it even at work anyway. It is highly expectable that out of these people you won’t have hard time finding those that play games by Zynga – there is about 215 milion people playing their games out there.

Together we helped to create these companies, because they serve us. They make money, because we want to play. Now imagine just for a moment about vice-versa situation: Wouldn’t it be beautiful to get paid for playing games?

Fall of the legend – Kodak

2012-02-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

Once a powerfull company, that taught masses to save pieces of past in photographs is now on it’s knees.

You may have not heard about it jet, but company you know as a symbol of the photographic industry is not performing well at all, but let’s start from the beginning.

In 1880 George Eastman founded a company, that later led the industry, but the very first camera they sold came out 8 years later (in 1888). In 1892 company received name that it holds until this day – The Eastman Kodak Company.

As time passed, the company gained recognition in public and taught the whole nation (USA) to take photos. Thanks to sales strategy similar to that razor-blade companies, it managed to sell lot of cheap cameras and made money on photographic films.

This evolution was unstoppable at the time and graduated until 1976, when the company held 90% of US photographic film market and 85% of US camera market.

Dramatic fall came with the switch to the digital photography. Despite having many patents, which are used also in these day’s cell phone cameras, the company wasn’t able to hold its position. After being unable to make profit on digital cameras and decline in photo film industry the company’s turnover suffered.

By the end of 2009, after 74 years, the production of Kodachrome films was stopped and in January of 2012 Kodak filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In these days there is a polemic about which way the company should follow and the only link to its photographic history are going to be printers. Lest we forget, Kodak still owns many patents and licenses for digital photography, making hundreds of millions of dollars every year. But they are only a reflection of once legendary icon.

How to beat procrastination?

2012-02-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

Or actions which if you can’t do make you a lost case.

It is easy to say: “Not now”, “That can wait”, or “Not today” – well, phrases like these make you following day seem not so bright anymore. If you don’t make your bed, or don’t dry the dishes after washing up, well congratulations, you are only messy. But if you don’t eat well, because you are lazy to cook, or you wait until the very last second with your next visit of the bathroom, then this blog is made for you.

The start itself is the most important part. You should not waste time thinking why not to do something and just hop into process instead. Really don’t think, do something! The amount of time you spent pushing yourself from work is the very same time you may enjoi when everything is done. Remember, social networks and news won’t help you – so get rid of any distraction asap!

Start with the hardest task first, when you are full of energy. Never stay stuck between two tasks – it doesn’t matter if you vacuum the living room, or if you wash your shoes, just do any of these and don’t waste time deciding which one to do first, or which to lay off.

Always consider the task as a challenge and fight your fear and doubt. When the problem is too complex you are always going to have doubts, but the best thing you can do is to start solving it.

Once you got this far, the last step remains – to finish the work. You know the feeling that you have made so much today, so you can finish the rest on the following day. On the other hand, when you finish it in one day, the next day you are free to do anything else.

And if you believe that you can work only under pressure and this way you save time, then look at the quality of the results you get and the amount of stress you endure.

With these few steps you can easily break the curse of procrastination.

Boeing Dreamliner vs. Airbus A380 - Battle continues

2012-02-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

It hasn’t been so long since we heard about “fight” for new orders between Boeing and Airbus. Few years ago both companies were preparing revolutions in aviation, which were led different directions.

While Boeing with it’s Dreamliner bet on effective long distance transportation through new technologies, Airbus tried to reach comparable level of effectiveness by higher volume of passengers transferred.

It is still interesting to watch this fight of these two. Imagine, that you announce arrival of new champion, that will change it’s field, but then you postpone the release by a few years (Dreamliner), not because of making a “dramatic pause”, but due to technical problems (which disrupt the champion’s good reputation). Then there is Airbus A380, which although came to the market sooner, but problems have also stained it’s reputation. After all, who would like to fly the aircraft, which gets wings torn every now and then and which also have occasional problems with engines?

This situation could have been prevented, if the two companies didn’t rush to market so much, in order to offer the airplane sooner then the competitor.

It is difficult now to say whether it was wise move to market the A380 in such a short time, or wait until all flaws were taken care of as with Dreamliner (Even though Boeing can prove us wrong after mass release to the market). Then orders for Dreamliner may start to fall (about 300 orders for A380; 870 orders for Dreamliner).

If I had a bet, I'd probably go for Dreamliner as a winner of this race, but regarding the company, then I would bet for Airbus – partially thanks to 1029 orders for the new A320, obtained in first 6 months after plane’s announcement.

I can’t wait to see Antonov and Bombardier and possibly new grown Chinese competitor, entering the arena, making the battle for the sky much more interesting.

Thanks to a lot of websites you can find anybody!

2012-02-01T04:08:00.000-08:00

You can’t be lost and alone anymore in our society. I’m not only talking about GPS or Google Map, I’m talking about keeping in touch and finding friends you’ve lost before. Life is not easy, you meet people and then lose friends but C’est la Vie!

Thanks to different websites meeting people is really easier, either for lovers or old acquaintances, it doesn’t matter, you can find anything on the Internet right?

From the dating sites to sites for finding the old classmates, finding people is not that hard now. You have to register and then log in the websites and start your research. Usually you have to create a profile with personal information so that other people can find you too. Even the famous social network Facebook can help! If you remember the name of your old best friend, classmate, colleagues etc, you just have to “facebook” him/her and get in touch to remember good old times.

We can’t really imagine how people did to keep in touch before without all those websites and programs (such as Skype or MSN).The Internet is almost the only source we use to communicate with our friends and meet new people.

“Teen Mom” on MTV, the documentary series that shows us the everyday life of a teenage mother

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

Teenage pregnancy affects each and every part of the world; undeveloped countries as well as developed countries. This term refers to pregnant teenagers who give birth under the age of 20.

This kind of pregnancy can be caused by different factors such as sexuality, drugs, alcohol, lack of contraception or even abuse and violence.

Most teenagers have had sexual relationships before their 20s and also have already drunk and tried drugs which can encourage sexual activities. Lack of contraception is an important factor. Indeed, the access to contraceptives is not universal. Some countries cannot get cheap or free birth control as we do in developed countries. Even if it seems obvious to protect you and use contraceptives, some people just don’t use one and that’s how teenagers get pregnant: insouciance. Age discrepancy can play a big role in early pregnancies. Indeed, if their partners are older, teens will tend to have sex earlier to please the needs of their older boyfriends.

Teen pregnancy can also result from abusive relationships or even rape. Indeed most of pregnant girls have experienced domestic violence from the father of their child. But violence can also come from another person such as a member of the family or even from a rape. Those unwanted sexual relations happen more often than we think. Indeed up to 70% of women that gave birth in their teens have been molested in their childhood; which is a huge number.

Early marriage can be another factor too; however teen fathers are not always there for the mother and the child. Even if both parents are in a relationship at the moment of the conception, most of the time the father doesn’t stay and let the mother alone. If the dad is involved in the decision- making process and present during the pregnancy, he is more likely to be there for his kid.

Early motherhood is going to affect not only their life but also their child’s life. Indeed young mothers are more likely to accept everything their kid wants and give a lot of affection. Most of the time, mothers drop school which leads to poor economic situations due to the lack of diplomas and work. They can’t be teenagers anymore, they have responsibilities.

In the

they even created a show based on the everyday life of several teen moms. They show us their relationships with the father, the child and other members of the family but also how they dealt with everything. Let’s watch a trailer of ‘Teen Moms’!

Super-sized food will no longer be served in American schools; the United States is going healthy!

2012-01-26T04:06:00.000-08:00

When I say hot-dogs, hamburgers, chips and dips, fried chicken, French fries, nuggets or pepperoni pizza, what are you thinking of? The United States of course! It might be a cliché but sadly it is true.

When you go grocery shopping in an American store, the prices are not what you would expect in Europe. Indeed, the cheapest products are junk frozen food but the prices of fruits and meat are crazy. No wonder why Americans are having more and more health and obesity issues. American people are having a lot of financial problems, they have to work a lot of hours for less money which means they don’t have time to cook fresh food and more, they don’t have the money to “waste” on fresh food. It can be understandable but everything has a solution and some things are just not acceptable.

I’m thinking about pizza being said to be a vegetable by the American Congress. I know I know… Unbelievable right? Pizza is far from being a vegetable. First, it is just tomato sauce on dough; second, tomato is a fruit; third, there is almost more cheese than tomato sauce on these pizza slices and then, tomato sauce has almost more sugar in it than a desert.

Typical American lunch tray

A new law puts more healthy food in school meals to help fighting children obesity. This is the first major revision of school meal standards in more than 15 years in the United States; they finally understood that the healthier children are, the less they are going to be sick later. Even if this measure will cost a lot the next few years (schools are going to receive more money in order to help covering the extra cost of those meals), this is a long-term investment. Indeed, if kids eat healthier food, diseases related to it - such as diabetes and other chronic diseases - are going to decrease as well as medical bills. This kind of change is mandatory in the

United States

to reduce health care costs and more importantly to improve Americans' quality of life.

Here is the trailer of the movie Super Size Me showing Morgan Spurlock eating only McDonald's food for a month. The film documents the effect on physical and psychological well-being of people who have this kind of diet.

You should definitely watch the entire movie after reading this article!

An application to fight against gay bashing

2012-01-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

The agency FAMOUS launches, in collaboration with Outrage!, an application to fight against homophobia. For the moment, this application is only available in

Belgium

and for the users of iPhone and Android.

How does it work? The application enables to locate the verbal and physical aggressions by adding a description of the attacks. With this application, Outrage! does not only want to speak about the phenomenon but also to inform the authorities about the problem. The agency also adds that the complaints must be transmitted directly to the police force and that more information about the person can be obtained in the "Centre d'égalité des chances" (Centre of chance equality).

According to their statistics, more than half of homosexuals have already been subjected to assaults both verbal and physical about their sexual orientation.

The number of homosexuals in the world is between 5 and 30% of the world population. In spite of the fact that we are in the 21st century, these people are always mistreated! To reduce this type of attacks, it would be interesting to launch this application in all European countries as well as in the world.

With this action, Outrage! proves us that homophobia exists well and truly in our society and that mentalities evolve slowly.

Here, we can see what the application looks like:

By Lucie

Are you paraskevidekatriaphobic?

2012-01-13T05:08:00.000-08:00

If so, I imagine you’re reading this from the relative safety of your own home. But if your decision no to go out today was a conscious, superstitious evasion, you are far from alone. In fact, such illustrious figures as Napoleon and President Roosevelt were similarly spooked. Allegedly, some 21 million Americans are affected by paraskevidekatriaphobia – that’s a fear of Friday 13th to you and me – making it the most widespread of superstitions. But is it as irrational as the rest of us believe?

Well, yes, more or less. But that is not to say that it is impotent. Both the number 13 and Fridays have inspired terror in people for centuries, and continue to do so: many buildings lack a 13^th floor, American cities a 13^th Avenue and it is said that if 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year; as for Fridays, most of its unfortunate connotations are religion-based, for example the crucifixion and the fall from Eden, supposedly, both took place on a Friday. All of this shows – and perpetuates – what a powerful belief this has become for some people.

In some places, however, quite the opposite is true. In ancient

Egypt

, 13 represented death – so far not so good – but in the sense of the glorious eternity after the 12 stages of life.

Despite Dan Brown’s best efforts to prove otherwise, the unluckiness of Friday 13^th is probably just an amalgamation of these two long-standing superstitions and only really caught on in the 20^th century amid media hype. In fact, according to a Dutch study, Friday 13^th, which falls on average once every 212.35 days, is probably safer than any other, with less crime and fewer accidents “because people are preventatively more careful or just stay home”. Maybe we’d be better off staying at home every day.

Does the future speak English?

2012-01-11T03:20:00.000-08:00

Many would forgive native speakers of English for dismissing other languages as useless in almost all circumstances. There are almost 500 million of them worldwide, and when it is estimated that there could be up to 1.5 billion more who speak it as a second language, the temptation is undoubtedly to sit back and allow the behemoth that is the English language to continue to gain strength by the day.

And, now more than ever, there is a pressure, a necessity even, for some knowledge of English. The power of the internet is an important factor – well over 50% of web pages are now in English, despite native speakers only accounting for a mere 7% of the population. Wherever you go in Europe, English is the lingua franca of sorts and the rest of the world is starting to follow suit as globalisation explodes; English is a requirement for a vast amount of top jobs worldwide and highly-beneficial for most others; English is spoken or understood, to some extent, by all students in higher education across most of Europe.

So why is the Speak to the future campaign, demanding better language training in UK schools so vital?

Because equally, now more than ever, English speakers must begin to see the importance and benefits of learning foreign languages. Globalisation is not synonymous with Anglicisation; it is a fast-moving and changeable process and the UK could be in danger of being left behind. But this ambitious project, instigated and managed by Dominic Luddy, aims to act upon Britain’s language failings at every level. It insists that more be done to encourage awareness – and enjoyment – of other languages from a young age, that everyone leave secondary school with a working knowledge of two or more languages including English, and that all graduates are qualified in a second language.

Government action on language learning has been well-intentioned but totally naïve and unrealistic. The education secretary, Michael Gove, proposed last year that languages be taught more intensively and from a younger age, a principle that seems to be in the right direction. But he ignores the major problem that for British children there is simply no incentive to learn a foreign language. They are not, as their counterparts on mainland Europe tend to be with English, bombarded daily with another language, be it through TV programmes, films, music or, of course, the internet. All other languages seem to be irrelevant. And with a growing demand for English internationally, this idea will become more and more prominent, and there will be less and less motivation and opportunity for English speakers to gain fluency in other languages, becoming something of a vicious circle.

And this will be the biggest obstacle for Speak to the future to overcome if it is to succeed, which it must: as well as the intellectual, cultural and social benefits of speaking other languages, it’s time the UK lost its complacency and gained some global perspective, especially now that it risks isolating itself politically from the rest of Europe. The campaign’s name seems a little crude but it’s pertinent – the future does not necessarily speak English.

Travelling without money and discovering the culture in the same time is now possible!

2012-01-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

Do you like travelling? Even if you are young and don’t have enough money to travel wherever you want to, it's okay now! All your dreams are going to be fulfilled thanks to Couch Surfing!

What is Couch Surfing? Couch Surfing is a system that enables people to sleep somewhere without paying anything. Since you don’t know your host, you have to get in touch through the website couchsurfing.com and look for a profile that would best fit your expectations. This system was originally conceived by Australian and American surfers. Their goal was to establish a social network of people and accommodations but also to promote free trade between all countries.

And then, how does it work? There are two people, the host and the traveller looking for a place to sleep for one or a few days. In addition to the sleeping aspect of the system, this method is also a cultural exchange: two people from different countries meeting and exchanging their point of view on the world and habits. To benefit from the Couch Surfing experience, you have to register on the website, fill out a profile and make a short description of the trip you are planning.

This experience is not for everyone. To participate you have to be an open minded and honest person on both parts, the host and the traveller. The best way to make the most of this experience is to speak the same language as your host to avoid language barriers.
Couch Surfing hasn’t been created only for accommodations, you can also choose only to visit or have a drink with a native of the city or the country to discover places where you would never go by yourself.

Everything can happen faster, even dating!

2012-01-09T04:42:00.000-08:00

We all witnessed what has happened over the past few years: society of consumerism has changed everything, from our social life to our job; everything has to go faster and efficiently. You have to get ready faster than before, no time to warm up your coffee and drink it at home watching TV; you have to select the fastest way to go to work, not the convenient one anymore; food is already prepared for you, just have to warm it up, no time to cook!

This on-the-go life inspired bartenders and event organizers that thought about a system to meet a greater number of persons in the same time. This system is based on “mini dates”. Women and men have to change spot when the bell rings and the aim is to meet everybody by the end of it. Dates last around 7-8 minutes, it depends how many people there are and how the event is organized. A lot of people like this method because they don’t have to be directly turned down if it doesn’t work and they have the opportunity to meet a lot of different people and not just one or two whereas it happens in bars or clubs.

By the end of the night, you have met each and every candidate and you can select who you want to provide your personal information to and if there is a match, the organizers make sure that both parts have the information.

The first speed dating event was held in a bar in Beverly Hills in 1998. Since then it became more and more famous. A lot of scenes of speed dating are organized in movies or TV shows such as Monk, Hitch, The 40-year-old Virgin, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit or the famous show Sex and the City.

Unfortunately, we don’t even have time to meet people and date anymore…!

The Change-Up, a modern Freaky Friday?

2012-01-05T03:39:00.000-08:00

You probably don’t remember the first Freaky Friday released in 1976 by Disney but you might remember the one in 2003 that re-launched Lindsay Lohan’s career. The story was the same, a daughter and a mother switching bodies and experiencing each others’ lives and responsibilities to finally

understand what was living the other one.

"I wish I could switch places with her for just one day."

The Change-Up could be seen as the modern version of those movies. This movie is about two best friends that grew-up together and took different paths in life. Indeed Ryan Reynolds’ character, Mitch Planko, is still single, partying all week and never had any responsibility whereas Jason Bateman embodies Dave Lockwook; a hard-working lawyer, husband and dad of 3 children. After drinking one night, they urinated in a fountain and made the wish to live each others life. The day after, they woke up in each others’ bodies and the adventure started. It’s only when they understood the issues of each others’ daily life that they wanted to get their lives back.

Those movies always teach a moral lesson at the end. Both characters understand a part of the other’s life and they can improve theirs.

Who would you like to be? Be careful of what you wish, it may be granted ;-)

Can you imagine your life without technology?

2012-01-04T02:44:00.000-08:00

Look at technology and how it changed our lives. Can you live without TV? Cellphone? Computer? We were born in technology and it makes us dependent to it. We are constantly checking for a text, an email, our favorite show on TV… We usually spend hours watching TV and everybody knows it!

Best invention ever: the Internet! What would be life without it? We order everything online; no need to move around anymore, everything is coming to you by delivery. You want to go grocery shopping? Don’t go in the store and spend hours in the aisles, buy useless products and wait in line to pay! You can now buy online and somebody will do all the work for you, you just have to pick it up at the store at a certain moment. Society is making everything easier and faster for consumers so that they don’t have to waste time.

Tell me how you keep in touch with family and friends…Phone! Texts! E-mails! Facebook! MSN! How did they manage to keep in touch before? You probably don’t really picture yourself writing letters to your lover or mom but they had to and they did it pretty well.

How technology gives rhythm your days? Alarm clock on your phone, quick check for text, missed calls and e-mails, music in the bathroom with your radio, morning information on TV while you eat breakfast, radio in the car, work and usually you use a computer, radio in the car back home, your favorite show for few episodes while you eat lunch, work, another random show and then, the new episodes of whatever show you follow to finish the day. Of course, doing all of that receiving or giving calls and writing texts on your Cellphone. Moreover there is a show for everybody: romantic, thriller, horror, comedy… Channel companies exploit this market because they know that once you like a show, you feel like watching it entirely. Dozens of shows come out every year on American TV and last if people watch them that’s why TV shows became a real market.

This end of the year has not been the happiest one for everybody

2012-01-03T01:57:00.000-08:00

The end of the year 2011 in Italy can´t be described as happy. Indeed, some argue that these holidays are the poorest ones that the Italians have experienced since the war.
They still bought their famous gifts, such as "panettone" and "torroncini" but it was more to forget their problems due to the crisis.

All European countries have undergone this crisis since the beginning of last year. People don’t know how to deal with budget modifications and wonder how they will survive this following year. All they hope that this year, they will not live in uncertainty as in 2011.
People cannot endure more political problems. With Silvio Berlusconi in power, they always lived in fear. Italian people only remember that their former political leader did not help the country to escape from the crisis. All he did finally turns against him. On november 12, he was forced to leave his position in the government on behalf of Mario Monti and economists.

One would have thought that all the problems would disappear but Italy had suffered so much from Berlusconi’s government that Mario Monti had to establish a plan of painful adjustments for Italian people that have already been hurt by the crisis. His plan consists in reforming the pension system, invent and improve many taxes and reform the tax evasion and anti-corruption prosecutor.

Then, at the beginning of 2012, the main concerns are clearly the rising prices, taxes. Moreover, unemployment keeps growing. Now even if the Italians do not like Monti either, they hope that 2012 won’t be worse than last year.

Wearing an “I Love Boobies” item is not surprising anymore

2012-01-02T03:20:00.000-08:00

The nonprofits “Keep A Breast” foundation got the right idea to arouse young people’s awareness: shirts and bracelets with the catchy slogan “I Love Boobies”. We all know that youngsters are obsessed with fashion, trends and social movements that may concern them directly or even indirectly. Keep A Breast has found a very interesting way to get to them with their last campaign “I Love Boobies” that consists in selling shirts and bracelets with the slogan on it. But you may wonder why it arouses awareness. Well, the slogan is the most interesting aspect of it; youngsters will ask their friend they wear a bracelet with "I Love Boobies" written on it. This question will initiate a conversation about their convictions and motivations for wearing the bracelet.

Breast cancer is one of the first cancers that kill young women in the world because diagnosis is harder and delayed by the familiar idea that breast cancer affects only women over 40 years old. WRONG. Breast cancer can affect anyone, even men!

Wearing those bracelets became a pride. They started wearing those at school, at home and pretty much everywhere to spread the word that loving your breasts are not a shame anymore, you have to cherish them and accept them the way they are. They are really important. The fact that young people get involved in this campaign shows that not only they want to participate in breast cancer research in their own way, but also that they now know that it exists and it has to be fought first of all by awareness.

Survivors of breast cancer are really proud of what society and youngsters are doing to honor them, they don’t feel alone anymore.
For wearing one myself, I can tell you that people are always staring at it and wondering why on earth I am wearing a bracelet "I Love Boobies"; which proves that Keep A Breast was right and the campaign was worth it!

Himalaya: end of the story?

2011-12-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

For those who had “climbing Himalaya” on their to-do list, here’s some bad news: you’ll have to hurry. On Sunday, during the conference on climate change at Durban, scientists agreed that what they have feared has come true: glaciers are melting more and more every day. 20% of Himalaya has already melted in thirty years’ time (this is almost ¼ of this mountain, which is one of the highest in the world!!). Even if global warming hits all the inhabitants living on our Blue Planet (the name will match even more in the future), inhabitants living in these regions are highly threatened. We know what the consequences are: species in jeopardy, meteorological swing, increase of natural disasters, plagues, you name it…

Who doesn’t know about these reflexes we should have to avoid this tendency? Who takes them into account? That’s another point. Results of the efforts made by each of us are difficult to measure, and that’s why, among other things, the debate is so complicated. In my family, we recycle our dishes; we use energy-saving light-bulbs; we close every door to isolate the flat and we limit the number of washings per week. We might think this behaviour is environment-friendly, but we can wonder “up to which point?” I also think nobody is really aware of what’s happening. Scientists can read and understand numbers. The way they tried to convince people from every country to be more aware of global warming can be admired because the task is hard. And if young people are already struggling so much to make plans for the next 10 years, how will they manage to do it for 50?

The fight against global warming isn’t a lost cause, but as long as governments don’t consider all this to be serious (and not only for elections), I think nothing will really improve.

The Legend of Saint Nicholas

2011-12-05T04:46:00.000-08:00

It’s not Christmas yet but already some children will be receiving presents tomorrow. Tonight they will polish their boots and put them in front of the door. Then in the night Saint Nicholas will come and fill the shoes with sweets, nuts and little presents. And the kids who didn’t behave well will find coals instead of sweets.

At least in Germany it will be like that cause there it’s tradition to celebrate the day of Saint Nicholas like that. But who was this Saint that we are referring to him in such way? Nikolaus of Myra lived in the 4^th century and was Bishop of Myra which today is a part of Turkey and called Demre. There have grown a lot of legends around the Saint what’s just normal as he lived long, long time ago. So he shall have brought three slaughtered children back to life and given secretly money to a father who couldn’t afford marrying his three daughters.

I always liked the legend about the multiplying of the wheat. Once there had been a great famine in the Bishops city and the people were starving terribly. Then one day trading ships loaded with wheat dropped anchor in the harbour. Nicholas asked the sailors to give him a part of the wheat for his starving parish but the freight was determined for the Emperor of Byzantine. So the sailors were afraid to give some of it away and first declined the request. The Saint pledged them that they wouldn’t suffer any harm and finally they fulfilled his wish. When the sailors arrived in the capital they could discover a great miracle: there wasn’t missing one gram of the load, it still had the same weight as before.

One thing we know for sure: Bishop Nicholas was a very generous person. He helped the poor by giving them food, cloth or money. It has been this attitude that let arise the tradition of giving little presents. In many European countries the day of the Saint is used to make children happy by giving them some small gifts. As I was a child I’ve always been curious the whole night what I would find in my boots the next morning. The sweets, nuts and other delicacies got me in the mood for Christmas.

Saint Nicholas more and more became replaced by Santa Clause. But I like it that there are still countries that have traditions to remember his life and doing. So, your task for tomorrow: Give a small present to your children!

by Margit

Arts to melt away

2011-12-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

Winter time – A time of the year when nearly everyone prefers to stay at home on the sofa with a soft and cuddly blanket and hot chocolate rather than going on out into the cold and dark. I honestly do understand it, because sometimes it is really freezing outside, but on the other hand the winter time has so much more to offer than just cold, dark and depressing days. One of these things is international ice and snow sculpting festivals all over the world which are really worth seeing.

There is for example the Sapporo Snow Festival, which is one of Japan’s largest and most distinctive winter events turning the city into a winter dreamland. It began in 1950 when six local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. Five years later they were joined by the Japan Self-Defense Forces who built the first massive snow sculptures. From 1974 on, there have been competitions every year with many teams from other countries which create sculptures of the size of multiple-story buildings. The festival is thought to be an opportunity for promoting international relations and is visited by about two million people every year who are coming to see hundreds of beautiful snow and ice sculptures.

Another famous celebration is the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, which together with the aforementioned festival, Canada’s Quebec City Winter Carnival and Norway’s Ski Festival is the world’s largest ice and snow festival. It first was held in 1963 and now starts every year around the 5^th of January and lasts one month. You will find many different technologies to create an ice sculpture, from lasers to traditional or with swing saws and ice picks. With deionised water it is possible to produce ice blocks as transparent as glass to make clear sculptures, which are later illuminated with multicoloured lights to make it a special and wonderful experience for everyone.

At each of these festivals you can find huge and famous buildings and monuments of different architectural types and styles, figures including animals and mythical creatures and also ice slides and lanterns.So it fits perfectly to a family getaway. And if you have the chance, you should really go and see it. Apart from these festivals there are many more all over the world, especially in Northern countries.

By the way, the first ice lanterns were used by fishermen as jack-lights during the winter months. They simply poured water into a bucket and let it freeze outside. Then it was gently warmed to pull out the bucket-shaped ice and a hole was chiselled in the top to be able to put a candle inside. Like this they created a windproof lantern which gained great popularity in this region.

by Kathrin

Christmas Markets – Over 600 years of tradition

2011-11-28T05:03:00.000-08:00

Now as it is getting dark earlier and earlier and the temperatures are dropping more and more, everyone gets into a Christmas mood. The cities are decorated with fairy lights, shops are playing Christmas music while people are buying Christmas presents and maybe even you already placed Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer in a winter scenery on your window board. So if you want to start the holiday festivities in a delightful way, there is nothing better than visiting an original German Christmas market.

The Christmas market is also known as Christkindlmarkt (literally Christ Child market), Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) or Glühweinmarkt. The latter one is named after the famous German mulled wine which is drunk to keep the body warm from the inside so that you can walk around without getting cold.

The typical Christmas market consists of numerous stalls in the streets and squares of a city, sometimes in front of a historical backdrop, like e.g. a castle. In the stalls you can buy festive pastries and regional specialities like Lebkuchen (gingerbread), Christstollen (stollen), which is sort of egg bread with candied fruit, but also candied toasted almonds and of course the famous German Bratwurst (sausages) and Glühwein.

And for those of you who are tired of commercialism taking over this holiday period and who would like to have a really special Christmas gift, the Christmas market is the perfect place to get one. Instead of mass-produced gifts, they offer a fabulous array of hand-crafted gifts such as wooden toys, nativity scenes and marionettes.

I personally love to visit Christmas markets in the whole world to discover the specialities of different countries; even though a lot of them are inspired by the German ones you still can find a few differences. But then a question came to my mind: Why and wherefore are there Christmas markets?

The history goes back to the Late Middle Ages in the German speaking part of Europe. Local tradesmen sold their wares at the market and families could go and buy everything they needed during winter time, but quickly it also became a joyous event which brought light and laughter to a cold and dark season.

The Dresden Christmas market e.g. is one of the oldest and was first held in 1434. Today it attracts between 1.5 and 2 million visitors with its more than 250 stalls full of delicacies and handmade works to discover.

As there is a really extraordinary atmosphere, you should visit an original German Christmas market to experience the typical sights, smells and sounds. And if you don’t have the chance to go to Germany, there are also many beautiful German Weihnachtsmärkte in other countries.

by Kathrin

Bubbly – Like Twitter with a Voice

2011-11-23T04:28:00.000-08:00

Sending short messages via Twitter is really useful for telling the world in a few words what’s going on in your life and what you’re thinking about. But imagine you are on a concert and you want to pass on the feeling, the music and the atmosphere to your friends? You can write things like: “Really cool concert. You have to see XY” or “Wow, crazy people everywhere and the guitarist is great”. But your followers will never know how it really was, unless you use Bubbly.

It’s fun to share. It’s fun to listen. It’s easy to use.

That’s why people love Bubbly.

Bubbly is a social messaging service where people can share SMS and voice updates with family, friends, fans and followers on their mobile phones. The service has a huge similarity with Twitter and is therefore called “Twitter with a voice”. While Twitter has a limit of 140 characters, a “Bubbly” has a one-minute cap time. To send your Bubbles you don’t need any downloads or registration, you simply dial a short code to record and post a voice message. If you did so, everyone who is following you gets an SMS with the instruction you need to hear the Bubble.

Bubbly got famous when it attracted more and more Indian Bollywood stars, like Kareena Kapoor, Aamir Khan and Bipasha Basu. So after just four weeks, the service already had about 500,000 users in India.

I personally don’t think that this messaging service will have success or even a chance in the European or US-American market, because there are already too much social networks which offer voice messages and much more. Besides nearly every mobile phone disposes of VoIP with which you can send voice mails. Would you prefer reading a text or listening to a Bubble? I think the most would say reading - except it is a video which would attract more people than reading a text. But for publishing videos there already exists the platform “YouTube”. As YouTube has far more users than Bubbly, you have a greater chance to reach people or to get famous, because you can reach the whole world and not just your followers.

By Kathrin

Don’t look down! – This is the world’s largest 3D painting

2011-11-18T04:44:00.000-08:00

If you always thought that you can’t go ice climbing in London, now you know that you were wrong. The city by the river Thames has a new attraction: An icy canyon with a huge waterfall! No, I was just joking, but don’t you think this street art work looks incredibly realistic?

As a part of a campaign of the manufacturer of sport equipment “Reebok”, street artist Joe Hill painted the largest and longest 3D street art painting of the world. With more than 1000 metres square the deceptively realistic work broke the record set by China’s Qi Xinghua (900 metres square) and will enter the Guinness Book of World Record.

Joe Hill created the world’s largest street art painting for Reebok with chalk in about 105 working hours. With this initiative, Reebok wants to motivate people to do sports. Until Saturday, if the weather God is kind-hearted, everyone can come around to make some chin-ups or kettle-bell-swings or just to take pictures and be part of this artwork.

For seven years the British artist has travelled to huge cities and different countries like New York, Shanghai, Dubai or Spain creating unique and always innovative pictures full of fun, surprise and amazement. Besides he already worked for different campaigns: For the VisitBritain tourism campaign he created a picture highlighting the most interesting and beautiful parts of Britain with the royal couple being at the centre of attention.

So if you want to see this piece of art in London, hurry up as it is only to be seen until Saturday. If you don’t have the chance to get there, you can stay at home looking through the gallery of Joe Hill’s best works. I hope, one time I will be in the right place at the right time to marvel at his fantastic pictures and to be part of his art.

by Kathrin

When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

2011-11-14T04:36:00.000-08:00

“Protection from the evil”, “that rocks”, “your wife is cheating on you” or just “hi”. One single show of hands, like in this example the “sign of the horns”, can have so many different meanings.

Did it ever happen to you, that you just wanted to tell the people in a foreign country that you agree or that you are fine, but they suddenly get mad or do the contrary? And you are wondering why, not understanding which other meaning a simple hand gesture can have in another country. This happened to me some time ago when I was in Greece. As I don’t speak the language, I was dependent on a friend who translated for me. When I was asked if I have ever been there before, I wagged my head to say “no”. But then my friend told me that in Greece it is the other way round. If you agree, you wag your head. If you disagree, you nod.

Because of this occurrence I started looking for more hand signs which can have a totally different meaning. The aforementioned “sign of the horns” is one of them. In South Italy it protects you from the evil. If for example someone says: “Imagine you go there by car and have an accident”, you will make this gesture to avoid this to happen. It is similar to the “knocking on wood” in other countries. In Italy and other South European countries this gesture can also mean that your friend’s wife is cheating on him. So be careful with this hand sign, if you are a rocker and just want to say “that rocks”. And finally in Texas, USA, it is a sign for “hi”.

Thumbs up! In Europe (except Great Britain) it means: “one”, but also “great”, “ok” or “alright”, but in Greece as well as in Iran and Afghanistan it is a really bad insult.

In most of the western countries it stands for “two”. In contrast: In Great Britain it signifies “one” and in China even “eight”. So be careful when someone asks you how many children you have. They might get you wrong!

This sign really has variability. In most of the countries this sign means “peace”, while in Great Britain it implies “two” and can be seen as an insult if you show the back of your hand having the same meaning as the middle finger in other countries. In Greece it is even worse: it means “Go to the Deuce!”

Perfect to get in trouble! In Canada, Mexico and Switzerland the people are at one with each other: People who show this gesture want to express that everything is perfect. As opposed to this, Brazilian people think different. For them it is a vulgar insult.

So keeping this in mind, it probably would be the best solution to go completely without hand signals on your next holidays! And if you don’t want to abandon hand gestures, it would be the best to thoroughly acquaint yourself with the different meanings to avoid trouble and evil eyes.

by Kathrin

Today is Edmond Halley's 355th Birthday

2011-11-08T04:52:00.000-08:00

In honour of Edmond Halley’s 355^thbirthday and Google’s doodle today, I want to tell you something about this person.

Edmond Halley was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist and physicist. As many other people at this time he really had many professions, but which were all related to each other. He is considered to be the second-greatest genius in the history of British astronomy and lived at the same time as Isaac Newton.

The fact that he lived at the same time like Isaac Newton has its advantages and disadvantages: On the one hand Halley’s reputation was overshadowed by Newton’s. Therefore it is not that bad if you haven't heard of him before. But on the other hand, Halley was lucky to know Newton, because without Newton's helped Halley wouldn`t be able to find out more about a comet which later was named after him – Halley’s comet.

Halley had a life full of new discoveries. From early on Halley had large interest in astronomy and it’s not clear where it came from because his father was a wealthy soap-maker. Even though Halley was an excellent student, he didn’t finish his studies at Oxford, but persuaded his father to support him on the journey to the island of St. Helena. There he catalogued, among other things, the southern stars and the trade winds and monsoons.

Besides Halley was the first astronomer who was able to see the transit of Mercury from the beginning to the end in 1677. With this observation he laid the foundation of determining the astronomical unit with the transits of Mercury and Venus. Also, he is known for calculating the comet’s motion which later was named after him. After seeing a comet in Paris and another one a few weeks before, he wanted to prove that it was the same. It resulted that he was right: Although he failed with his calculation, with the help of Isaac Newton he was able to prove that it was the same comet they could see in the sky and calculated the next date where you were able to see it again.

Apart from his discoveries in the area of astronomy, he also had many suggestions for improving nautical instruments, like e.g. the diving bell and the reflecting octant for measuring angles.

As I have never heard of this important person, it was very interesting to learn more about him. Although I didn’t know him and his discoveries, I’m sure that they were very important for the people working in these areas and of course it also has an impact on us who are not working as astronomers or physicist. Keeping in mind that he explored the reaction of the centre pin of a compass in many parts of the world, you can imagine his interesting life full of adventures. And as I always was interested in astronomy and the stars, I feel good knowing more about him.

by Kathrin

Free Hugs for Everyone!

2011-11-03T05:10:00.000-07:00

"...I went out to a party one night and a completely random person came up to me and gave me a hug. I felt like a king! It was greatest thing that ever happened."

This is what Juan Mann (pronounced like "one man") said about starting giving free hugs to strangers. When he started his campaign he totally felt alone and abandoned from everyone. His parents had divorced, he broke up with his fiancé and his grandmother was sick. When he went to a party, he was hugged by a stranger and suddenly felt better, so he wanted to pass this feeling to other people. Since then, Juan Mann appeared nearly every Thursday on Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, a crowded place and a good chance to share free hugs.

You may be wondering why I'm telling you this story of a man giving free hugs to strangers, to people he might never see again. Some days ago, I was sitting in the metro on the way home. Everyone was just starring outside the window, playing with their mobile phones or they nearly fell asleep. Then three sweet girls came, holding a sign with the words "Free hugs, Abrazos gratis". Everyone was keeping an eye on them, but no one really reacted, neither by being asked personally. Except an elderly woman. She smiled and opened her arms to get a hug. All the people around them began to smile and more and more people were willing to get a hug. From people they didn't know, people they have never seen before!

The aim of the "Free Hugs Campaign" is a simple one: Reaching out and hugging strangers to brighten up their lives and to make them feel happy putting a smile on their face.

I really really liked this idea and in the age of social disconnectivity, where the whole life takes place in social networks, and the consequential lack of humanity, the campaign became breathtaking. On Youtube you can find so many videos of people filming their initiatives. Here I have a very special one for you. It shows Juan Man hugging strangers. It's a very emotional video with a song of the band "Sick Puppies" and nearly made me cry. It is so good to see that there are still people like this in the world.

The video also thematises the ban of this campaign. The Australian police forbid it, because Juan Mann didn't have a public liability insurance worth $25 million, in case that anyone gets hurt during this action. Thanks to a petition with more than 10,000 signatures, Juan Mann and his companions could convince the auhorities to continue giving free hugs. Fortunately!

I finally also wanted to be hugged. And it was a really nice feeling and made me happy and smile. I always thought that only hugs from people I love would make me feel good, but now I know that it's just the fact of getting a piece of charity and it doesn't matter who shares it with you. Therefore I call you up to start your own "Free Hugs Day" in your city and share some love!

by Kathrin

Halloween all over the world

2011-10-31T06:36:00.000-07:00

Today is the 31^st of October. I guess most of the people seeing this date will relate it to Halloween and it doesn’t matter where you come from. Halloween which has its origins in Ireland is spreading all over the world and now everyone is celebrating the night before All Hallows.

Halloween’s origins date back to a Celtic festival which is called “Samhain”. 2000 years ago the Celts celebrated their New Year on the 1^st of November marking the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of the dark and cold winter. The Celts believed that in the night before New Year the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead is vanishing so that in this night the ghosts of the dead can return to earth. The people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes and to avoid being recognised by the ghosts they wear masks when they left home after dark. Besides they placed bowls of food in front of the house to keep ghosts from entering their homes.

In Ireland there are various traditions to celebrate Halloween. They light bonfires and children dress up in costumes to spend the evening “trick-or-treating” in the neighbourhood and often, parents arrange treasure hunts with lots of sweets. Apart from that there are many parties in, with carved pumpkins, decorated houses where they play games like “snap-apple”. To play it you hang an apple on a string on a doorframe or tree and try to bite a piece off the apple. They also have a traditional food that is eaten on Halloween – “barnback”. Barnback is a type of fruitcake with a muslin-wrapped treat baked inside. It is said that it foretells the future. Depending on what you find inside e.g. a ring or a piece of straw, it means that you get married or that it will be a prosperous year.

Now I present you some other tradition from all over the world.

In Spain Halloween is known as “Dia de las Brujas” (Day of the Witches). It is characterised by bonfires and more and more by decorated houses, bars and shops. In some parts of Spain they have their own tradition to celebrate this day (La Castañada – Another way to celebrate Halloween).

In countries like Germany or the Netherlands, Halloween is more and more celebrated. From October on you can find many candies especially made for Halloween, decorations and costumes. As these countries don’t have its own tradition, they imported it from the USA.

In Romania Halloween is celebrated around the myth of “Dracula”. As the spirit of Dracula is believed to live there, there are organised many costume parties around the city of Sighisoara.

And in China the Halloween festival is known as "Teng Chieh". Lanterns were lit in order to light the paths of the spirits which travel the earth during Halloween night. Besides in Buddhist temples they build “boats of the law” from paper, which are burned in the evening hours. The purpose is a remembrance of the dead and secondly, to free the spirits of those who died in a accident or drowning and whose bodies were never buried.

by Kathrin

Hmong - An interesting folk from the East of Asia

2011-10-27T03:57:00.000-07:00

Today when I was searching the Internet for some news, I accidentally found an article which mentioned an indigenous people called “Hmong”. I didn’t read further to be able to think about why I already heard about them. It is a really small folk and one of the most dispersed living in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand but also many other parts of the world. I’ve never been to one of these countries and never went further to the East than to Turkey. Then I remembered that we talked about the movie “Gran Torino” with Clint Eastwood in one of our lectures in University. This lecture was about intercultural communication. So I thought it could be a nice article for this blog.

The movie “Gran Torino” is about the racist Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski who soon has to confront himself with his prejudices and gets to know a completely new way of life. Clint Eastwood gave us a small but valuable insight into a culture I never heard of before.

“To have a family means to be happy. To have none means to be lost.”

One of the most important parts in the Hmong’s life is their family which also includes that everyone is member of a clan. It is far more important than in other Western cultures which, I think, is really sad because the family should always come first. Also the oldest people have a special position in every clan and are highly regarded. If someone has a problem or needs advice, he will always ask the oldest because of their wisdom.

Another interesting fact I remember from the movie is the importance of the head in the Hmong’s culture. While older people always touch children’s head to tell them how cute they are or how big they got since their last visit, in the Hmong’s culture it is the worst they could ever do. In their culture the head is considered the most sacred part of the body. On the contrary it can be regarded rude to show your feet or even the bottom of your shoes to a Hmong person. Besides they greet each other verbally and nearly never shake hands. Nowadays there are some Hmong who adapted this greeting from other cultures but it is still not common, especially not for women who feel embarrassed shaking hands with a male.

All in all I think this people should get more attention, because we can learn some important lectures from their culture. In my opinion it is very good to see that they appreciate the wisdom of the older people and don't let them alone when it is too stressful to care for them. They are still an integral part of the family life. For me it is very important as nowadays many people forget that our parents and grandparents were always there for us and our problems.

In this article I wanted to focus on the Hmong’s culture, but if you would like to know more about the history of this people (which really is complex, but nevertheless very interesting) I recommend this website.

by Kathrin

Happy Diwali!

2011-10-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

தீபாவளி நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்

(this is a Diwali greeting in Tamil)

Today I want to present you the festival “Diwali” or the “festival of lights” which is celebrated by Hindus all around the world. This festival caught my attention when I saw the beautiful pictures of illuminated houses, fireworks and so-called kandils, which are colourful paper lanterns and rangoli, which is a decoration made from coloured powder.

As Diwali is a holiday in many parts of the world, like for example India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, but also South Africa, Mauritius, Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago its celebration differs depending where you are, just as the story behind Diwali. Apart from these differences, the essence of the festival is the same: to rejoice in the Inner Light, to celebrate the victory of good over evil and the uplifting of spiritual darkness.

The most important part when celebrating Diwali are the lights. At first there were just small oil lamps on the window boards or at the entrance to the house, but now the festival has grown bigger and they use more and more electrical chains of lights to decorate houses, shops and streets. Even trees are decorated with paper lanterns. It is said that the lights direct the spirit of the death to the land of salvation.

On the first day of the festival the Hindus clean their houses and decorate them. Also they buy new clothes and cooking utensils. On the second day everyone takes a bath before sunrise and in the afternoon before displaying the fireworks they visit the family and give sweets to each other. The next day is the most important as it is dedicated to the goddess Lakshmi. She is the Goddess of Luck and just visits the people who cleaned and illuminated their houses with lights. Therefore many Hindus use this day to participate in tombola or to go to a casino. And on the last two days couples and brothers and sisters bless and promise to protect each other.

The number of countries celebrating Diwali is increasing, because more and more Indians are immigrating to various parts of the world. Nowadays it is not only a festival celebrated by Indian expatriates, but it also became an integral part of the local culture which for me is a sign that the world is growing together. If you aren’t Hindu you can still celebrate decorating the house which really looks beautiful or putting a lamp on the window board, just as I will do in the evening. So Happy Diwali for you all!

by Kathrin

Mary Blair - The heart of Disney

2011-10-21T04:55:00.000-07:00

Today Google welcomed us all with a really nice doodle. It is a colourful Google picture with a girl that reminded me directly of Alice in Wonderland with her blue dress and blond hair. As it already caught my attention I had to click and find out why Google put this doodle in its logo today. I clicked and was surprised about this name. I never heard of it before. Mary Blair… Why should she deserve a doodle if I never heard of her? I began to read and then it hit me: She drew concept art for e.g. Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Cinderella!

As she was the heart of Disney during the 50s and today would be her 100^th birthday, Google pays homage to her personally and her works with which all of us went along during our childhood. When I was a child I loved to watch Disney movies and still today I’m happy if I see a Disney film on TV.

Walt Disney highly regarded her innate sense of color styling, which was unique in this time. Mary Blair was of great talent designing colour schemes for Disney and she drew pictures which were very colourful, lively and rich in contrast.

Here I found a nice example to show you the difference between her and other artist in this time. While the first two pictures are somehow quite dark and the artist used quite similar colours for the different things in the bathroom. On the contrary, Mary Blair’s drawings are more colourful, dynamic, clear and lively.

Even though she is not widely known to the public, nowadays she is still an inspiration for many other artists. In my opinion it’s a pity that she isn’t that famous, after all we all watched Disney movies with her designs and with figures she created.

by Kathrin

Judgement Day!

2011-10-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, this again!
Harold Camping predicted once again that the end of the world is near. As he made a mistake predicting the 21st of May 2011 as Judgement day, he corrected himself saying that there were many things he didn’t know at this time and that the next date (this time for sure!) is the 21st of October.

The 90-years-old Harold Camping is an American Christian radio broadcaster and has his own radio show “Family Radio” on a California-based radio station. It’s not the first time that he foretells the end of the world. Applying numerology to various Bible passages, he calculates dates for the End times. His first try was in 1994 and the next one on the 21st of May 2011. But hey! We are still living! So what happened?

The end of the world should start with a big earthquake all around the world, but, worse things happen at sea, there was just a earthquake in Vietnam, which wasn't even really noticeable. Well, his explanation for the “Non-Judgement-Day” was: ”What really happened is that God accomplished exactly what He wanted to happen. That was to warn the whole world that on May 21 God’s salvation program would be finished on that day.” So concluding we can say that God just wanted to scare us or to wake us to change our lives? Well, he didn’t give us much time as tomorrow everything will end. This time for sure, if you believe in what Camping says.

To give you an idea of the complicated calculations, I show you an example. To calculate the exact day you need various calendars: Noah’s calendar, the Gregorian and the Hebrew (or Biblical) calendar. So it’s quite difficult to comprehend how they calculated the exact day. On the contrary, the year is easier to understand. The flood of Noah’s day occurred in the year 4990 BC and he had 7 days to build the ark until the flood of waters would be on earth. So substituting 1000 years for each of the 7 days, we get 7000 years.

4990 + 2011= 7001

And as there is no year zero when moving from the Old Testament to the New, we have to subtract one year and what is the result? Right, the end of the world is in the year 2011! Sounds reasoned, doesn't it? Of course they also have another evidence that Judgement Day will be in 2011, but honestly, do you believe in these calculations? You could choose any other day to begin and why are the 7 days substituted by each 1000 years?

I’m curious what he will be telling us tomorrow about the world still existing and the people continuing their life as normal. We’ll see!

by Kathrin

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

2011-10-19T03:02:00.000-07:00

On Monday, 17th of October the 25th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was celebrated throughout the world. Unfortunately, I just noticed it today by accident because it didn’t get much attention in the news, neither on television nor in the newspaper. In my opinion it has deserved more attention to remind the people in richer countries of their luck to have a roof over one’s head and to have luxury goods like e.g. a mobile phone or television, or more important clean and running water.

The first commemoration of the event took place at Liberties Plaza (Trocadéro) in Paris, France, in 1987 where 100,000 people came together to honour the victims of poverty, violence, fear and hunger. There you can find an inscription engraved in stone which says: “Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.” (Joseph Wresinski, founder of ATD Fourth World). And finally in 1992 this day was officially recognised by the United Nations.

At the Millennium Summit, world leaders set the goal to cut by half by the year 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty. This means people who get less than one dollar a day. For me, it is impossible to imagine how people can live with less than one dollar a day.

We complain about getting “just” 7$ per hour and they just have 7$ per week! Nowadays everything got so expensive that it is impossible to think of living with that little money.

So this year’s theme was "From Poverty to Sustainability: People at the Centre of Inclusive Development". It focussed primarily on possibilities to eradicate poverty while protecting the environment.

In my opinion there’s no time to lose to fight against poverty as 40 per cent of the world’s population, which is 2.6 billion people, are suffering these circumstances. And I also like this year’s theme because there were so many natural disasters which caused that more people are living in poverty, that we have to face both of these problems.

Here you can find the link to the UN’s Press Release.

by Kathrin

Watch out for Zombies!

2011-10-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

Last Friday the annual Jack Daniel’s Zombie Walk took place in Sitges. It is the highlight after a week full of new horror and fantasy movies presented at the film festival in Sitges. The film festival takes place from the 6th to the 16th of October and many famous movies were presented at this place.

After a couple of years that I heard of this festival, how great it is and that I definitely have to see it, this year I finally got the chance to be there and to see the famous Zombie Walk. It started at 8.30 pm, but we decided to go there earlier so that we could take a look at the beautiful city Sitges.

Sitges is a quite small city without that many places of interest, but that’s not to say that you don’t have to visit it. The contrary is the case! It is a wonderful, small and unhurried place to enjoy. If you always thought Barcelona has beautiful beaches, you didn’t see yet the beach of Sitges. There you can spend a really relaxing day lying at a tidy beach with nice people. And if you want to go out for a drink at night, you can choose from a variety of bars and restaurants and I can’t tell you which the best is because they all have a special atmosphere.

But let’s come back to the Zombie Walk. I couldn’t imagine what exactly it is going to be. People dressed like Zombies walking through small alleys? Right! There were so many people standing at the sides of the streets watching hundreds of Zombies passing by. The Zombies wore destroyed clothes, were smeared in blood and their skin was hanging off their face. Some brought brains or other innards with them and all of them had a really crazy look in their eyes and were trying to fear you starring at you.

It was definitely worth being there. Although I’m not afraid of these creatures because I know they are not real, they managed to scare me witless. But it was really fun and I advise all of you going there one time and to participate dressed like a Zombie.

by Kathrin

We can change it together!

2011-10-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

“We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen.
It’s time for us to unite. It’s time for them to listen.
People of the world, rise up on October 15th!”

This Saturday 15th of October people from all over the world will meet on the streets and squares of their cities. From Barcelona to Los Angeles and from Cape Town to Singapore and Tokyo, people will rise up for human dignity; they will claim their right for democracy and show the politics that it is time to make a change!

At the moment the whole world is suffering a crisis. There are riots all over the world: in Spain, England, Greece, Israel, Tunisia and the USA the people are trying to call attention to their problems. Politicians and other people who have power are deciding for us and handling our problems and the people are not allowed to decide how they want them to be handled. The 15th October wants to show that this situation must end.

The 15th October doesn’t want the people to just mobilise. It is more: It is supposed to be a milestone in our history. It wants the people to act together. The aim is to build a network between the whole world and to let the people decide how the world should be. As we are living in a globalised world and the powers are global, we are appealed to answer globally too, to have the chance to be heard.

I think it is very impressive what people can do in such a short time. I heard of it about two weeks ago and I never thought it could grow that fast. For now there are 951 cities in 82 countries participating. Imagine how many people they will reach! In my opinion it is already time to change the world’s system. There are so many problems, politicians want to solve but are not able to. So if they don’t have an answer to our problems maybe the world can help them. It is a great chance to start a real global revolution and to make things better.

Here I found a video about the world demonstration made by some Spanish people with English subtitles:

by Kathrin

Do they possibly rule the world?

2011-10-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

There is a group of the world´s most influential persons from the sectors of economy, politics, military, media and nobility. But why has almost nobody ever heard of them?

The Bilderberg group (also called Bilderberg Club) meets once a year to discuss questions concerning the world economy and international relations. You can only participate with an invitation of the chairman and each conference is held in another town and another country. While doing this the public and the press are excluded. However they give the items on the agenda and a list of participants to press agencies afterwards but the points are too general to even guess what exactly they have been talking about.

The participants and every person that ever joined one of the conferences receive a summary of the discussion afterwards. Although it just shows the statements with the home country instead of the name of the person who said it. So you don’t know exactly who stated it. The most active and popular members of the Bilderberger are Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger. But there are also a lot of participants from the UK, for example the royal family or Tony Blair. Besides we have to thank them for the founding of the EEC (European Economic Community) in 1957 and the introduction of the Euro because both things were discussed and caused on a conference of the Bilderberg Club.

Because of all these facts there are a lot of conspiracy theories about them. Last year, I read a book about one of those and my favorite quotation from it is: “Has Bill Clinton been elected in Germany?”. In my opinion it’s totally possible. If you look through the lists of participants from different years you could find a connection with some of our rulers, for example Bill Clinton. He was invited to the conference in 1991 which took place in Germany. Only one year later he ended up in the White House. In 1999 Romano Prodi participated in the meeting and became chief of the EU-commission in the same year. The German head of state, Angela Merkel, joined a conference 1 year before she became chancellor as well. Besides the author of the Book “The Bilderberg group” is speculating about the collaboration of this group concerning the following events:

· The murder of Alfred Herrhausen and Olof Palme.
· The oil crisis in 1973 that finally should support the American economy and currency.
· The German reunion that possibly was made up at the conference with Helmut Kohl 1988 (in Telfs-Buchen).
· And finally the Iraq War in 2003. The author describes that the aggression for Bin Laden was turned into aggression against Saddam Hussein who was uninvolved at that point.

These are all imaginable theories. And I can recommend this book by Daniel Estulin to all of you who like conspiracy theories as much as I do. But above all, it may be a reason to think about our world and its system. Maybe some of the readers will find answers to their questions about certain things. I started thinking about the elections in Germany on the basis of this book., because maybe in the end they don’t even make sense.

by Maria

Existence of the Yeti finally proven?

2011-10-11T05:09:00.000-07:00

“A hairy humanlike animal reportedly inhabiting the snows of the high Himalaya Mountains.” (answers.com)

“An ape-like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, India and Tibet.” (wikipedia.org)

“(it).. is said to live in the frigid, Himalayan mountains, being approximately 7-10 feet tall…” (ourbigfoot.com/abominable_snowman.html)

These are some descriptions of the, what ever you call him, Yeti, the Abominable Snowman, the Great Bear or Raksha (which means demon in Sanskrit). What they all have in common is that this creature lives in the Himalayan region. But now we know that we were all wrong: Yetis are living in Siberia!

Well, what Russian scientist found is definitely dull: There is neither DNA evidence nor a convincing photographic they can show the public. They seriously base their claim on a single unclear footprint, a small selection of grey hair and on bent branches.

To be honest, I think it can only be a joke. It’s not the fact that they are searching for this mysterious creature. I’m sure there are many unsolved mysteries in the world, but in my opinion you can’t tell the world that it is proven that the Yeti exists with this little evidence they think they have found. At the moment they just have pieces of evidence in a cave which can come from any other animal living in this region, e.g. a wolf, bear or rabbit.

I found a quotation of Dmitry Islamov, Vice Governor of Kemerovo Region on Economics and Regional Development who said: “It doesn't matter that the Kuzbass might not have Yetis. The main thing is that when people come to the Shoria Mountains, they truly enjoy its unique nature.”

So, in my mind the only aim of this news is to attract more tourists to this region. As there are surely many fans of mysteries and the Yeti, they will come to visit this region to go themselves in search of evidences to proof that the Yeti really exists.

by Kathrin

Chinese tourists go to Taiwan for vacation

2011-10-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Chinese economy is growing and developing fast. Therefore, the people have more money to spend on travelling for example. And they do so – preferred destination: Taiwan. The Taiwanese are considering it with mixed feelings.

Short time ago there have been more Japanese tourists in Taiwan than Chinese but now some agreements were made and it became easier for the Chinese to go there. Where there had been 55,000 visitors from China in 2005, last year it already have been 1.6 million. No doubt, that airlines, hotel operators and tour agencies love this fact because it causes a growth in turnover. In 2010 the Chinese tourists spent around 330 million USD.

For the Chinese it’s easy to go to Taiwan as though they are speaking the same language. And there are also similarities in the cultures but also differences and that’s what causes troubles. The Taiwanese cliché about Chinese is that they are smoking, spitting, coughing and at all boorish visitors. Joseph Wu, former Taiwan representative to the USA, said in an interview that the museums were crowded by Chinese tourists and that other visitors couldn’t enjoy the exhibition anymore because the Chinese were so noisy. A funny fact I heard of was that a hotel even had created two different areas for guests from Japan and China. The reason for doing that: Chinese are spitting loudly when eating and Japanese don’t. And as they want both groups to enjoy their stay they separated them.

There is also the fear that the Chinese tourists couldn’t only be enjoying the vacation but also be spying out the country, especially the military.

Nevertheless, the tourist industry is looking forward to receiving more Chinese visitors that are willing to spend money. There is the hope that soon more individual tourists and less group travellers will come because the first are supposed to spend more money. Until now only 500 individual tourists are allowed to go to Taiwan from three Chinese cities.

by Margit

Living in the present – a tribe without words for yesterday and tomorrow

2011-10-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

Can you imagine a language without words for numbers and colours, without words for “yesterday” and “today” and where they don’t use subordinate clauses? All that fits the language of the Pirahã.

The Pirahã natives (speak Pidahan) are living in a reservation of 240 kilometres length, near to a tributary of the Amazonas, next civilization is 2 day’s journeys away. There are still about 350 people living in primitive huts without solid floor, electricity, telephone or doctors.

When you have a closer look at this language that can be sung, hummed or whistled you’ll gain a fascinating insight into a lifestyle that is totally unknown to us. You’ll get to know a different way of thinking and so a completely different world view.

The way how the Pirahã speak is closly connected to their lifestyle: They don’t have words for numbers because they don’t consider it necessary to define exactly how many, for example, fish someone has caught. They just distinguish between “hói” (few) and “hoí” (many). The missing of words for numbers is the reason that it never has been possible to teach the tribe how to count and calculate. And this proves the theses of Benjamin Whorf that you can only think for what you have the words.

The Pirahã describe colours through things that are coloured typically: “that isn’t ripe yet”, “like blood”, “like soil” …

Furthermore, the primitive people reject all abstract and imaginative things. They just believe those things they have seen theirselves and only talk about what they have been living through. And that’s why they don’t have subordinate clauses in their language. “The man that is coming from the other village is hunting a rabbit.” That’s a sentence they would never create. The insertion “that is coming from the other village” isn’t relevant to them because they didn’t experience it.

There isn’t anything at all in their culture that would be just a little imaginative or creative. Mothers don’t tell their children fairytales, they don’t know art and they don’t invent new names. Children are named after the member of the clan that is looking most similar and so it is possible that their names change several times in their live.

I personally like it to discover new fascinating mysteries of our world and different cultures. The fact that now each secret can't be solved by the researchers immediately gives our world and the multitude of idioms and cultures an enchanting charm.

by Kathrin

“The world has lost a visionary”

2011-10-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs (†56) is dead. He lost the long fight against pancreatic cancer this night. Now the world says goodbye to a man that changed our lives with his great inventions.

The welcome page of Apple doesn’t show the new iPhone 4S, iPod or iPad today. You simply find a black and white picture of Steve Jobs with the inscription “Steve Jobs 1955-2011”. The short message Apple has published says: “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

The death of Steve Jobs also shocked Apples competitors. A direct link to the Apple homepage was added to the Google welcome page today. Obama, president of the USA, said about Jobs: “(...) Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.”

Steve Jobs revolutionised the world of technique with his self-made company founded in 1976. At the beginning things didn’t go well and other companies were one step ahead when it comes to building computers. And in 1985 he had to go. But when Apple was about to crash in the 90’s he came back and with him the success. He brought his ideas for iPhone and iPod, and improved the Powerbook, Macbook and iMac.

With the help of Jobs Apple turned three big entertainment industries inside out and became market leader. At first there was the music industry which he changed by introducing the iPod and iTunes. With the Macbook he came to the computer industry. And last but not least Apple became market leader in selling mobile phones with its iPhone and AppStore.

Apple arranged a condolence book for fans and friends that want to share their thoughts and express condolences.

In my opinion Steve Jobs had a fascinating life, revolutionary ideas and in fact changed our lives. Who can imagine living without the techniques of iPhone, iPad or without Apps?

Original by Kathrin: "Die Welt hat einen Visionär verloren"
translated by Maria

Ackuna’s Bad Translator – a funny invention

2011-10-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

On the online translation portal Ackuna you also find the so called “bad translator”. It works similar to the game “Chinese whisper”: You imagine a sentence, get it translated and some translations later the grammatical structure if not the whole sense got lost.

This translator has been developed to demonstrate how mechanical translators are working. The user types in an English text (maximum of 250 letters), chooses the amount of translations and whether he wants Google, Bing or both to be used as translating machine.

All you now have to do is a click on “Translate” and the “bad translator” is going to present you a list of translations to different languages and re-translations into English. Of course I had to try it myself! My sentence was: They want to demonstrate how mechanical translators are working. Now look what happened to it:

Afrikaans (Google) : Hulle wil om te demonstreer hoe meganiese translators werk.Back to English (Google) : They want to demonstrate how mechanical translators work.
Albanian (Google) : Ata duan të tregojnë se si përkthyes mekanike të punës.
Back to English (Google) : They want to show that mechanical work as a translator.
…

Belarusian (Google) : Яны хацелі паказаць, што механічная праца ў якасці перакладчыка.
Back to English (Google) : They wanted to prove that mechanical work as a translator.
…

Catalan (Bing) : Volia demostrar que el treball mecànic com a traductor.
Back to English (Bing) : I wanted to show that mechanical work as a translator.
Chinese (Google) : 我想表明，作为一个翻译的机械工作。
Back to English (Google) : I think that, as a translation of the mechanical work.
Chinese Simplified (Google) : 我认为，作为翻译的机械工作。
Back to English (Google) : In my opinion, as a translation of the mechanical work.
…

Finnish (Google) : Minun mielestäni käännös mekaanista työtä.
Back to English (Google) : In my opinion, the mechanical translation of the work.
…

German (Google) : Meiner Meinung nach, die Übersetzung von mechanischer Arbeit.Back to English (Google) : In my opinion, the translation of mechanical work.
…

Latvian (Google) : Manuprāt, tulkošana mehānisko darbu.
Back to English (Google) : I see translation as mechanical work.
…

Macedonian (Google) : Гледам преводот како механичка работа.
Back to English (Google) : I see translation as a mechanical thing.
Malay (Google) : Saya melihat terjemahan sebagai sesuatu yang mekanikal.
Back to English (Google) : I see translation as a mechanical.
Maltese (Google) : Nara t-traduzzjoni bħala mekkaniku.
Back to English (Google) : See translation as a mechanical.
Norwegian (Bing) : Se oversettelse som en mekanisk.
Back to English (Bing) : See the translation as a mechanic.
Persian (Google) : ترجمه به عنوان یک مکانیک.
Back to English (Google) : Translated as a mechanic.

All who want to try it as well just do a clic here!

by Margit

Bilingual education – a great chance for our children

2011-10-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

The world is moving closer together. That’s a fact everybody knows. Today many parents realize that it is important for their children to learn languages and bilingual education gets more and more popular.

So, which kinds of bilingual education do exist? Firstly, parents can raise their children bilingual especially when they speak different mother tongues. My cousin and her husband are doing so – she is speaking German to the kids and he Croatian.

Secondly, there are bilingual kindergartens and schools. While International Schools are quite common since some time bilingual kindergartens and primary schools just start to develop. The sad thing about those educational institutions is that they are mostly private and therefore not everybody can afford it. I think that there is still a great potential for enrolment in this area.

But why teaching children idioms when they are still young? There is a simple answer: it is a lot easier for the kids when they learn a language either from beginning of their life or in a really young age. Children raised bilingual by their parents may start speaking later but therefore they can become fluent in two idioms.

There are numerous advantages of bilingual education. Learning two languages helps you to learn even a third one. You are widening your horizons, erasing lingual barriers, understanding other cultures better and – most important – when mastering two or more idioms very well your job opportunities are increasing. Because of all that I find that bilingual education is very important, a great chance and that the state should support it more.

by Margit

Lingual genius – German student speaks 35 languages

2011-10-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

How many languages do you speak? Two, three or maybe even five? Sebastian Heine, 22 years old, student of Indo-German studies in Bonn, speaks thirty five!

Since he has been 15 years old, he has been learning three or four new languages each year. Up to now, he is speaking English, French, Arab, antic Persian, Avestan, Pahlavi, Bactrian, Sogdian, Saka, Pashto, Parachi, Ormuri, Wakhi, Yaghnobi, Sanglichi, Ishkahmi, Ossetic, Yidgha-Munji, Urdu, Hindi, Farsi, Panjabi, Sindhi, Kurdish, Baluchi, Sanskrit, Pali, Gandhari, Latin, Greek, antic Irish, Middle-Welsh, Gothic, Uzbek and Aramaic.

He wouldn’t describe himself as a genius, but honestly – you need a great portion of talent for learning that many languages. And it needs a lot of ambition and self discipline: Every day Sebastian Heine is hitting the books in the library, repeating vocabulary and grammar. His greatest dream is to work as a scientist in Afghanistan one day. There they are speaking his favourite language Pashto.

He doesn’t have a lot of contact to his fellow students. For them he looks out of place. Heine isn’t worrying about that – he prefers spending his free time with his Afghan friends. He got to know them in Germany but he does not speak German with them; no, they are talking in Pashto.

No doubt, Sebastian Heine is a polyglot. This is the term for people who know a lot of idioms. Although, it isn’t determined how many languages you have to speak, how good, to be called a polyglot. On wikipedia you will find a list with a lot of persons who spoke an amazing amount of languages.

Who knows, maybe one day Heine will be speaking more idioms than the German sinologist Emil Krebs. And he mastered 68 languages.

by Margit

Poetry for mobile phones

2011-09-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

There are hundreds if not thousands of apps for the iPhone. I have found an interesting one: the poetry app of the Poetry Foundation.

Here you can read classical or temporary verses matching your mood. All you have to do is to select your atmosphere (e.g. humour) and life situation (e.g. work) and you get a list with all appropriate poems. You can also search the database sorted by theme or poet. The range is widely spread – T. S. Eliot, William Wordsworth, Shakespeare and many more can be selected.

And the app offers more: favourite poems can be saved and shared with friends via facebook, twitter or e-mail. Some of the lines also exist as audio stream so you can listen to them.

For all who are in the mood for some poetry: Download the app for free here.

by Margit

End of Summer

An agitation of the air,

A perturbation of the light

Admonished me the unloved year

Would turn on its hinge that night.

I stood in the disenchanted field

Amid the stubble and the stones,

Amazed, while a small worm lisped to me

The song of my marrow-bones.

Blue poured into summer blue,

A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,

The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew

That part of my life was over.

Already the iron door of the north

Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows

Order their populations forth,

And a cruel wind blows.

Stanley Kunitz

Japan Students talk to chat robots

2011-09-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

A Japanese company declared to have invented the first artificial intelligence: Chat robots that have been created to communicate with Japanese language students.

You can connect online to the “chatbots” that have been invented by SpeakGlobal and you can even become part of the virtual world in which the characters live. The company informed that their robots look like real human beings, act like them and talk in a clear voice. The real partners of the talk get a microphone that’s equipped with Dragon Naturally speaking – one the best voice recognition programs of the world. So conversations can be carried out in real time.

Japan

has been a synonym for developing robots for a long time and the idea of the “chatbots” became quite popular in the last years. The students can use the new offer for 9 £/14 USD per month. The level of the chat can be adjusted to the knowledge of each single student, the conversation can be read on the screen and complicated words or phrases can be translated to Japanese.

Japanese students are the target group of this invention. After all it’s been the lack of opportunities to train English with native speakers for little money that encouraged this development. However, the company never the less thinks about expanding to the international market. I like the idea of providing a cheap possibility to train speaking a language but still I will prefer talking to real persons!

Original by Sally: "Il Giappone parla inglse con chatbots"

translated by Margit

UNAOC and BMW – The Intercultural Innovation Award

2011-09-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Alliance of Civilization of the UN and the BMW group will cooperate in the field of intercultural communication. They confirmed it by signing a contract in the UN headquarters in New York.

The Intercultural Innovation Award that now will be awarded by them together shall honour and support innovative projects that promote the exchange and dialogue between cultures. Their motto which you can read on their official homepage is:

“We want the world to be rich. Rich with culture. Rich with variety. Rich with education, friendship, family and religion.”

In December 2011 the first awarding will take place in Doha, Qatar. 10 winners shall be nominated and between them the amount of 50,000 USD will be split. Furthermore, selected projects will become member of the World Intercultural Facility for Innovation (WIFI). During the period of a year they will be guided and supported by the team of WIFI. In reference to the kind of project this can include IT support, legal advice or increasing visibility for example.

Applications for the award are accepted until 16^th of October 2011.

Original by Sally: "UNAOC e BMW: Il premio per l'innovazione interculturale"
translated by Margit

New book of Walter Moers will be published soon

2011-09-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

Today I’ve been surfing through the Internet searching some interesting news. An article about Walter Moers caught my attention. You don’t know who he is?!

Walter Moers is one of the most famous and talented draughtsmen and authors of Germany. Recently his work is exhibited in the Ludwig-Gallery in the Castle Oberhausen. From 25th of September 2011 to 8th January 2012 drawings, pictures, sculptures and films will be shown. Moers created some well-known characters: the little asshole, Adolf, the Nazi pig, Captain Bluebear or Optimus Yarnspinner.

The last mentioned character is the narrator and protagonist in Moers’ Zamonia novel “The city of dreaming books”. At the 5th of October a new novel with Optimus Yarnspinner as “athor” shall be published: “The labyrinth of dreaming books” (original title: Das Labyrinth der träumenden Bücher). I’ve been really curious as I read about it and looked up the plot of the story.

200 years have passed since the city of dreaming books has burned down. Optimus Yarnspinner has become the most famous author in Zamonia and is enjoying his success. A mysterious letter brings him back to the rebuilt Bookholm. There he meets old and new acquaintances and gets drawn into a struggle of incidents that are even more adventurous than those of his first visit to this extraordinary city.

I’m really looking forward to reading this book. I’m sure that it will be as creative, interesting and captivating as the former books of Walter Moers. And for the English-speaking fans of this genius writer I hope that a translation into English will be following soon!

by Margit

Strange laws

2011-09-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

There is a country that’s known to love rules and determine everything down to the last item – Germany. But there is a country that seems to love laws even more and that has some very curious ones – the USA.

It seems that in the land without borders nothing is impossible even in legislation. Here are some interesting examples:

Asheville, North Carolina: It isn’t allowed to sneeze on streets and public places as well as in public transportation.

Eureka, California: Men with moustaches aren’t allowed to kiss women.

Pennsylvania: A man needs a written permission of his wife when he wants to buy alcohol.

Detroit, Michigan: A husband mustn’t look angry at his wife on Sundays.

Alaska: You’re not allowed to make an elk drunk or to push it out of an air plane.

Memphis, Tennessee: Women are only allowed to drive a car when a men waving a red flag walks in front of the car to warn all passer-bys and other car drivers.

Glendale, Arizona: You mustn’t drive backwards with your car.

Devon, Connecticut: It isn’t allowed to walk backwards on the streets after sunset.

Kentucky: Women aren’t allowed to enter the highway if they aren’t accompanied by two policemen or are carrying a cudgel with them. (women who weigh less than 90 pounds or more than 200 pounds and female horses are excluded)

Texas: Criminals have to inform their victims in written or oral form about a crime 24 hours in advance.

Topsail Beach, North Carolina: Hurricanes aren’t allowed to enter the city.

Cleveland, California: Only those who have permission for hunting are allowed to install a mousetrap.

Also in the rest of the world some curios laws exist:

If the monster of Loch Ness exists, it was under conservation.

Mexico

Villahermosa: You aren’t allowed to walk around naked in your flat.

Germany

Hessen: Criminals can be sentenced to death. (But federal law is above regional state law and so now on will be executed!)

France

Pigs mustn’t be named Napoleon.

by Margit

La Mercè 2011 –The great Fiesta in Barcelona

2011-09-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

Once again it’s time to celebrate the festival of festivals in Barcelona – La Mercè. The Fiesta started yesterday and it is going on until Sunday. What is Mercè and what can you expect?

The celebration is based on a legend: On 24 September 1218 Our Lady of Mercy (La Mercè) appeared before King James I and Saint Peter Nolasco. She gave them the order to found the Mercedarian Order. In 1687 she became Patron Saint of the city after it had overcome a plague by praying to La Mercè. 200 years later she was officially recognized as Saint and the people started celebrating her.

The feast of the Saint is the biggest in Barcelona and there’s a lot to experience. On Friday and Saturday will be many concerts – Aloe Blacc is going to sing today and Mando Diao will be performing tomorrow night. In the city’s biggest park they are showing the ballet Swan Lake several times and on Montjüic you can see acrobatic acts. Each evening they carry out a firework – at the beach or somewhere in the city.

And of course tradition won’t be missing. The bigheads, giants and all the other festive beasts will roam the streets. What I’m really looking forward to seeing again are the human towers. This is a typical Catalan tradition and the people doing it are called castellers. They are going to demonstrate their breath-taking art tomorrow at midday on the Plaça Sant Jaume.

So, let’s get the party started and have a great Fiesta!

by Margit

Is our society addicted to Facebook?

2011-09-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Over 500 million people are registered on Facebook and over 250 million are using it every day. Either they do it out of work reasons or just for fun.

Companies didn’t want to miss the chance offered by this social network. It is possible to contact people from all over the world without cultural or linguistic restrictions.

Facebook has been developed in English. But soon it was translated in several languages like German, Portuguese, Spanish or Italian and reached every corner of the world. Entrepreneurs took this chance and began to build profiles or groups of their companies describing what they sell and advertising their products and WebPages.

The other part of the Facebook-users had a completely different motivation to join the social network. They want to stay in contact with friends and family, share photos and activities and get to know what their favourite artists, sportsmen and stars do.

The main goal of Facebook is to create a social network where people share their preferences and thoughts. With the following – very interesting – facts we want to show you how powerful and big Facebook already is.

· 48 % of users aged 18 - 34 log in to Facebook right after they got up

· 28 % do that when they are still in bed

· People aged 35 and older are making up 30 % of all Facebook users

· People spend more than 700 000 million minutes on Facebook each month

· More than 200 million people log in with their mobile phones

· More than 83 million pictures a uploaded every day

The first thing I will do now is to share this article with my friends on Facebook.

Honestly – aren’t you on Facebook right now?

Original by Paola: "Somos parte de una sociedad adicta al Facebook?"
translated by Maria

Google+ has been launched today!

2011-09-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Google+ is a new social network designed by Google and is in direct competition with Facebook. Just like on Facebook you can stay in contact with your family, friends and colleagues, share your interests, pictures and videos or simply chat with other people.

Whereas you could only register with an invitation during the test case of Google+ you are now able to create an account without it.

Similar to Facebook Google+ has a main page that welcomes us. On the left and right you can find suggestions for new friends or invite friends and in the middle you have the 3 main functions: Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. With those functions Google tries to distinguish itself from Facebook. We will see whether they succeed.

With the so called “Circles” you have the possibility to split your contacts in groups without wasting any time. Afterwards you can decide which information you want to share with which circles. So you can for example share the pictures from the last party just with your friends and hide them from your colleagues and boss. Another function offered by Google+ is “Hangouts”. This function makes it possible to talk up to 10 people face to face at the same time. Therefore Google is a step ahead of Facebook because Facebook doesn’t have video chats so far. And with “Sparks” Google+ makes it possible for its users to receive any information about any topic from the internet via Newsfeed. For that you simply type in the target word and mark the things you are interested in.

Even if Google+ has some new functions it also has a lot of similarities to its great competitor. You can tag people and there is the +1-button that expresses that you like something. But in my opinion Google+ looks more elegant than Facebook. With the help of the Google services like Buzz it becomes a mixture of Facebook and Twitter. And who knows – maybe this principle will be greatly appreciated by people that are sick of using two networks.

Tomorrow we will show you how powerful Facebook is and that Google has a lot to catch up.

Original by Kathrin: "Google+ ist gestartet!"
translated by Maria

118 birth anniversary of vitamin C scientist

2011-09-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Google welcomed us with a lovely picture symbolising the 118^th birthday of Albert Szent-Györgyi. He was a Hungarian biochemist, born and raised in Budapest.

But what did this man do that he is to be honoured for? Why should we remember him?

The reason is simple but phenomenal: In 1933 Szent-Györgyi isolated and identified the chemical structure of vitamin C. For that he was given a Noble Price in 1937. Up to the 20^th century human beings suffered from scurvy, a disease caused by lack of vitamins. Vitamin C is really important for our organism: it helps the immune system to work, assists our physical development, accelerates the healing of wounds, slows down the ageing process of our skin and has a lot more positive effects!

What fascinates me most about this man aren’t his credits in the field of research, though they are great, but what he has done in the political field. When the German fascists occupied more and more of Eastern Europe he helped his Jewish friends to escape and became member of the Hungarian resistance movement. In this connection he was supposed to start secret negotiations with the Allied but this plan was uncovered by the Nazis. Szent-Györgyi became arrested but could manage to escape. After the war he became a member of the Hungarian Parliament. In 1947 he eventually emigrated to the USA because he wasn’t in favour with the politics of Communism.

I drink a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice to this fascinating man – and you should do the same!

by Kalina & Margit