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Showing posts from November, 2008

15 global challenges that cannot be addressed by any government acting alone

  The 15 Global Challenges  from t he Millennium Project, a global participatory think tank. 1. How can sustainable development be achieved for all while addressing global climate change? 2. How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict? 3. How can population growth and resources be brought into balance? 4. How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes? 5. How can decisionmaking be enhanced by integrating improved global foresight during unprecedented accelerating change? 6. How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone? 7. How can ethical market economies be encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor? 8. How can the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune micro-organisms be reduced? 9. How can education make humanity more intelligent, knowledgeable, and wise enough to address its global challenges? 10. How can shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts, terroris

Chinese Community Centre Derby

Some photos of Chinese Community Centre Derby. Centre address is 110-112 Abbey Street, Derby, Derbyshire, DE22 3SS, Telephone: 01332 342436. Members of the centre like playing Mahjong, every time I pass outside the centre, I can hear the noise of mahjong and exciting shout of the players.

Compare Prices and Nutrients of Baby Formula Brands in UK

Our first baby was breast-fed exclusively for nine months before my wife returned to work. We then fed her Heinz Farley's follow-on milk until she switched to regular whole milk at 12 months old. Our second baby is mix-fed. When it comes to choose the baby milk, we found that Heinz Farley's baby milk had just been discontinued and replaced with a fancy milk with extra pro-biotic etc and re-packaged at the cost of £7.95, which now becomes the most expensive one. My wife did a research, compared Prices and Nutrients of all Baby Formula Brands in UK. You may find the article here .

Reigate's Got Talent Show

There will be a Reigate's got a Talent Show in my daughter's School on Wednesday 10th December 2008. This show name is after the British Got Talent Show . There will be singers, musicians, comedians, variety, magicians and dancers, plus Reigate school choir and a grand finale performance. Of course we need to pay the tickets, it's only 50p, though. I showed the leaflet to my wife, her first question was: "Is it free?" This question always come to her before she think about any treats or surprise. But I think I won't miss it. I am looking forward to the show!

The Old Man Who Lost His Horse

Percy Wakefield was born in 1891. In 1910 he moved to Derby and got a job working with horse at the midland Railway depot. At the out break of the First World War, he volunteered to enlist but was rejected by the Army, again, as unfit. He was reported to have a 'weak heart'. Frustrated at being rejected again, he volunteered to become a railway ambulance man. His duties included unloading the wounded off the specially-built ambulance trains that arrived at Derby station. These trains arrived at night so as not to draw attention to the dreadful carnage they contained. He transported these poor souls to hospitals and nursing homes around the county. He was very moved by the suffering he saw and became grateful to the medical board that had declared him 'unfit'. Percy retired from the railway in 1963 and had an active retirement enjoying his garden and reading just about anything he could get his hands on. He lived in the same house and remained fit and strong until his de

A porn spammer’s post

I just installed SMF (simple machine forum ), the topics are supposed to be 3D game design and development . But the next day some strange registered members and posts appeared. Those posts seem to be composed randomly of words, phrases, but make no sense at all. Today, the same guy (from same IP) posted such thing as bellow: Okay, this is a happy moment. I fixed the washing machine. I tried this a few weeks back and nothing worked right then (got it working though), but today the thing just fell apart again. I popped open the front cover, the motor was (this time) easy to remove, I super-glued the bottom pulley back together, and it was running again in 30 minutes. The squeak and rattle are gone. And it looks like this time they'll stay gone! What's your recent victory? Do these spammer post manually or by machine?

My Daughter's First Achievement Report

My daughter got her first achievement report, this is for last half term, foundation stage 1, autumn term (1): CLL: a green button; PSRN: an orange button; KUW: a green button; CLL is short for Communication, language & literacy; PRSN means problem solving, Numbers and Reasoning; KUW means Knowledge and Understanding of the World. Green button means target achieved; orange button represents target partly achieved; and Red button indicate target not achieved. My daughter has problem to count after 11, she mixes up 12 an 13 and 14, or just skip one of them. Topics for Autumn term (2) are colour, light and sound.

What does "mortgage" mean?

In the 17th and 18th centuries as people were going to the "new world", America, many of them couldn't afford the boat ride. So to get to America, they would agree to be indentured servants. They would commit to work for someone for 3 to 7 years, and in the end they would be part of this new free world, at least that was the idea. You see, in many cases, the indentured servant would become further indebted to their "employer" who would then agree to forgive that debt if they would stay on, many times indefinitely. Today, we still have indentured servants, more like financial slaves really. But instead of being obligated for 7 years, it's 30, or more. And that's assuming you actually become debt free, but incidentally, many people won't see that day before they die. In fact, dissect the word "mortgage" and what do you get? Well "mort" comes from the Latin word for death, and "gage" comes from Latin to mean pledge, so a mo

Divorcee would be unacceptable as Queen

I am shocked by my ignorance of British Royal family tree. It's funny that I "thought" Queen Elizabeth II succeeded the crown from her "late husband". I don't know where I get this idea! Edward VIII were forced to abdicate his throne because Mrs. Simpson was a divorcee who would be unacceptable as Queen, which would cause constitutional crisis. This happened to Camilla who were forced to announced promise never to be Queen, because she also was a divorcee, or so I think. *_^

What is straight?

I came across this political correctness disclaimer: Anyone can use these services, regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, religion, whether you are male, female, straight, gay or bisexual. I am quite confused by the term "straight", actually straight just means normal sex, but we are at risk to be labeled as sexual discrimination if we use "normal", so "straight" refers to heterosexual (opposite sex) attraction and the people who feel it. Gay is a term for same sex couples and straight is a heterosexual couple.

Go downstairs to the Cellar

Our house has no cellar, and all terraced houses we viewed during our house hunting have cellars. The function of the cellar, firstly should be storage, people used to store food and wine in the cellar. Because refrigerator has not been invented yet. During the World War Two, cellars were reinforced as bomb sheds. It's quite amusing to know that British were also scared to death by German bombs, same as Chinese by Japanese. But as far as I know, most of Chinese has no cellar to hide, especially in southern China, I have never seen any cellar under houses in our area either old fashioned or modern one. There was a joke that whenever bomb siren sounded, all people in Wenzhou city started to look for toilet (commode). They were too scared and upset to hold the urine. The cellar also used to store coal! This idea came to me as I read this line: We had a big cellar, which was reinforced with wood all around and the escape hatch to the outside was up the grate where the coal was delivere

tuppence and ha'ppeny

"We had to pay tuppence ha'penny per week for our milk but it always seemed to be ice cold." Shirley Hitchcock wrote in her essay recalled her life in infant school in 1920s. Ha'penny means half penny, and tuppence is a variant of two pence. I have never seen a half penny coin. Nowadays, I see people throwing away one pence or two pence coin. When I send/pick up my daughter to/from school or take her for a walk, sometimes we may be lucky enough to find a coin on the road, and my daughter always feels very excited. Because she could save in her money bank and buy a roller skate for her next birthday. Her mum bought her roller skate for her 4th birthday, although she hasn't save enough money for it.

When did British start to eat bananas?

Can you imagine that in 1940s, people in Derby had never eaten bananas. I am reading an article written by Peter Saunders, Hoylake, Wirral, in the article, he wrote: "and I recall the excitement when there was a rumour that bananas would be on the menu for our sweet one day. We only knew them from pictures in books, although there was understood to be a banana tree out-of-bounds in one of the park glasshouses." It's understood that all tropical fruits and vegetables might not have been on their table too. We can see Lychee sold in supermarket, 8 bananas a pack only for under one pound today.

Children's Centre and Family Visitors

Unlike G.P., midwife, health visitor, nursery, school, family visitors are hardly known, and Children's Centre is seldom visited by families with babies and toddlers. Actually, local family visitors are quite helpful, they work in partnership with parents/carers to provide improved outcomes for families with children under 5. Family visitors can offer Support and advice on parenting, Help with accessing local services, Home visits, Supporting families with additional needs. Family visitors also lead PEEP groups. PEEP(Peers Early Education Partnership) is a national Family Learning Project for the under fives and their families. In Northern Ireland, Children's Centre is called Family Centre. My wife used to take my daughter there every week when we lived in Derry, she also took part in a self-esteem training project and received a golden-lettered certificate. She also enjoyed orange juice and biscuits, because she doesn't like a cup of tea or coffee. Most of all, the family

Fingerspellathon -- a sponsored fingerspell

A letter from Daughter's nursery, which is about Fingerspellaton. The school will be taking part in the National Deaf Children's Society(NDCS) Fingerspellathon to raise money for deaf Children. Quit obviously, I can understand "Fingerspell", but what does the suffix -athon mean? According MSN Encarta Dictionary, -thon means: activity or event lasting a long time, especially one done for charity, such as in "talkathon". The Fingerspellathon will be held in the week beginning Monday 17th November, and all sponsorship monies will be handed in by Friday 28th November, it quite a long-lasting event, then.

The unbelievable low house price during 1920s and 1930s

Derby, Our Century, published as part of the Derby Evening Telegraph 's Millennium celebrations, it looks back at Derby and Derbyshire over the greater part of the last hundred years, telling the story of places and personalities that made Derby the city that it is today. Unlike traditional local heritage books, Our Century -By The People Who Lived It does not carry detailed historical records which have been researched from the archives. Instead, it is packed with evocative eye-witness accounts by the people who were there. One article written by Peter Saunders (Manor Road Hoylake Wirral), titled Pre-war boom in affordable housing hits Colwyn Avenue . This article tells us the unbelievable low house price during 1920s and 1930s, compared to the current house price, despite that it has dropped remarkably from the highest point because of the credit crisis. Thanks to a boom in affrodable housing plan during pre-war era, people in Derby moved from congested streets to the new priva

Muslim worker loses Tesco alcohol claim

A Derby Muslim who sued Tesco for religious discrimination after he was asked to handle crates of alcohol has lost his case. Mohammed Ahmed, who worked in a warehouse, said the job was against his Islamic beliefs. The 32-year-old, of Upper Dale Road, Normanton, also accused Tesco of victimisation and harassment during a three-day employment tribunal in Birmingham. His job at the supermarket giant's Lichfield depot involved the transportation of various goods, including alcoholic drinks, on fork-lift trucks. The Saudi Arabian national told the tribunal he was not informed that he would be handling alcohol when he started the job last year. He said he was considering appealing against the decision after being told his legal action had failed. He said:"It's not fair but what can I do? They were not taking into account my religious beliefs. I will consult with solicitors." For more: Derby Express www.Thisisderbyshire.co.uk

Latex teat or silicone teat?

We stole (midwife tells us to steal or borrow baby stuff in antenatal class) several ready-to-use liquid formula bottle when we discharged from hospital. We sterilise and reuse those 100ml SMA bottles and teats, but these silicone teats holes seem to be enlarged, the milk keeps gushing at my baby, causing her to choke and cough. And the small air infusion hole seems to be blocked, the milk flow become smaller and the teat contracted without air goes into the bottle, my baby always gets very frustrated. But somehow she find out to release the teat a bit and let air go into the bottle, this only happens when she is not so hungry. Teat has different milk flow speed: fast flow, medium flow and variable flow teats. I bought a bottle with variable flow which has three level flow speed controls, but it is quite expensive and my wife got it refunded. So we changed to cheaper 250ml straight bottle with latex teat. Because there is no milk flow control, I have to pull out the bottle and put it b