Skip to main content

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

A Derby cyclist's four seasons

These paragraphs are excerpted from a cyclist's diary who lived in Derby in the end of 19th Century not long after the bicycle had just been invented, the poetic seasonal message, which, after Shakespearean flights, required a come-down of pure bathos:

It will be some time before the leaves of the forest trees begin to unroll, but the hedgerows are already green, and the floral procession has begun. The scented violet and the pallid primrose have made their appearance, and the wayside bank is an index of coming beauty. Spotted and shiny arums, deeply indented wild parsley, purple-veined dock, soft-grey foxgloves, leaves of ground ivies, of celandine, wood-violets, dandelion, jack-by-the-hedge, herb-robert all foretell the return of the wild flowers to their accustomed quarters. Springtime has come, and now is the time for cyclists to put a girdle round as much of the earth as they possibly can.


By May the call to the narrow saddle had obviously been heard abundantly:

A more perfect day for cycling than May Day would be difficult to imagine. Roads which earlier in the week had been rather dusty, were in capital condition; a westerly wind tempered the sun's rays, which lighted up a countryside which at present is surpassingly beautiful, and the consequence was that most of the roads were alive with wheelmen and wheelwomen, many of them bent on rural retreats which lie far off the highways.

By summer, Derbyshire had become Shangri-La:

The lanes and bye-ways provide much the most intereting riding. The highways are so busy on fine afternoons that it is a positive relief to turn away from beaten tracts to where the novice ceases troubling and the lurcher is not. Moreover, hedge-backings are bright with many flowers, while the air is heavy-laden with ambrosial new cut hay, mingled with the scent of the honeysuckle. And there are shaded corners there to be found where you may while away the happy hours, the while the scorcher, who never deserts the broad surface of the high road, gets done to death with the sun's hot rays.

There were, indeed, difficulties to be overcome. In winter, the weather could be treacherous. the writer added:

Under the influence of rain Derbyshire roads are absolutely the worst I have ever sampled. The slimiest slime that ever accumulates on town setts is not more suggestive of side-slipping than a Derbyshire road undergoing the drying process after rain, and not only so, but the surface 'pick up' in lumps to freely decorate one's person and add pounds of useless weight to rider and machine.


(Victorian Derby, A portraite of life in a 19th-century manufacturing town, by Harry Butterton)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

coat-of-arms

Heraldry probably began with the knights in armour. When wearing a helmet in battle or in tournaments a knight could not be recognised; so he used symbols to decorate his shield and surcoat. The surcoat was the loose garment worn over the armour to protect it from rain or hot sun and actually was the "coat-of-arms"; it was decorated on the front and back with the same device as on the shield. The correct expression for entire design is an achievement . An achievement consists of the shield, helmet, rest, wreath, mantling and motto. These are the main parts. To them can be added supporters and a compartment. In the centre is the most important part, the shield . The surface of the shield is called the field  and on it the colourful charges are placed. The shield is called the arms or coat-of-arms  and can be drawn in any shape - in an upright position or slanting, which is the position it would fall into if hung on a peg. In Heraldry it slants to dexter. The helmet denot

You can find your Wireless Network Key on Virgin Media Wireless Router

We have a new netbook computer, and don't know where to find network key, which is needed to setup wireless connection. A network key may also be called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) key or WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) key. A wireless network key is a security feature that prevents unauthorized users from accessing a wireless network. An unprotected network is an unlocked virtual door, anybody within range can piggyback on the network undetected. I use Virgin media broadband with a Virgin media wireless router, this router has a WPA key taped on the router, that WPA key is an English word consisting of 10 letters. To tape network key on the router is a good idea, because we may never lose or forget a wireless network key as long as we possess the router.

The Meaning of Derby City Council Logo

Derby City Logo The logo of Derby City Council looks quite abstract and modern. I wonder what's the meaning of it? The lower-left part of the logo looks like a snail (or the initial letter D in Derby?), the upper-right part seems a river, (Derwent river?) these two parts are connected by a straight line at the bottom. I did some searches on the web trying to find out the true meaning of Derby City Council logo, but without success. So, I wrote to tourist information, and got the answer from Michael: The Logo is a representation of two of Derby's oldest emblems, one being a ram the other a buck (deer). Obviously the logo is a modern interpretation of these two figures so it is not obvious unless you know what to look for. Most people do seem to agree with you that it looks like a snail however. Ram! the curly horn of ram looks like a snail indeed. The ram and the deer are from coat of arms of City of Derby, In this coats of arms, we can see the deers both in shield (arm