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Showing posts from January, 2013

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

Robert Burns' day

Our takeaway shop is quiet tonight. "People will not get payed until next thursday," our delivery driver said,"and today is Robert Burns birthday, many people celebrate with haggis and black pudding." "Do you like black pudding?" I asked. "Yuck. I don't." He said. "Do you know any Robert burns song?" He didn't know. And he was surprised that 'Auld lang syne' is Burns song, and he can't remember the tune. Another customer came in, he never has any idea what to eat, and ask my recommendation, and accept whatever what I give him. I asked him to sing 'Auld lang syne', he sang nicely, but it's "Who's chariot take home." A poet's birthday, and he seems the only descent one, it's quite sad for a nation. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Ip man

The movie title gives you an impression that it's a movie of Science Fiction. But actually, Ip is not short for Internet Protocol, instead it is a Chinese surname, the movie is all about traditional Chinese martial arts. The main character is called Ip Wen, his kungfu is unfathomable, but he keeps a surprisingly profile. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

No snow in West Scotland

It's unfair that we don't have snow in West Scotland, though it's windy and cold, everywhere in UK are snowing. It's on the news that 5,000 schools are closed. People says Christmas passed too early without any snow, and I am almost very worried by the warm weather were there not snows in other places. I have some strange and funny thoughts that the planet Earth may turn 90 degrees, North and the South pole become the tropical, while the tropical, now Caribbean and Indian will be covered by snow and ice. Just as we now have four seasons in one year, the Earth might also has a kind of Macro four seasons, every season cover a span of couple of thousands years. Ice age is the 'Macro-Winter', while now is in the spring or autumn, global warming is the way to the Macro-summer. I don't know if you may follow me? Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

What's Al Jazeera? Free News channels in UK

We have four News channel here in UK, BBC News, Sky News, Russian Today, and Al Jazeera English. BBC and Sky focus more on national events, European or American, while RT and Al Jazeera seem have broader vision, and sometimes have totally different perspective or point of view. Regarding the personnel of channel Al Jazeera, you may notice there more black presenter or brown journalists, and more news and special editions on Africa and Middle East. I wonder what does Al Jazeera mean? Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Fengshui of our house

Fengshui literally means 'wind and water', which are two most important elements of a place. When buying a property, location is the most important fact which affects the price. Ten houses on this crescent, which was a patch of woodland. The house which we now live is on the worst spot. It has lest sunshine, noisiest, and facing to road. Lack of sunshine causes our burglar alarm to fail, and might attribute to my stiff knees. East was tall building, which was a police station. This tall building block the morning sunshine. In the front of our house, another tall complex to block our view. Sometimes their glass windows reflect sunshine direct into our living room. There is a burglar alarm on the front wall of each house. Ours failed last winter, and I noticed this didn't happen to our neighbours'. I called the security company to fix it. The guy told me that the battery was drained because of lack of sunshine. 'Well,' he said, 'you don't really

Foxes come to stay in my garden

When open my back door, one of the fox couple woke up by the noise, and shifted to the further side, preparing to escape. But another one just lie on the grass, and looking at me. I say "Hello" to them, and didn't know what fox would like to eat. I knew when I was a young boy, fox stole our chicken, but we don't have chicken in our fridge. So I left them alone. It's mid day in a busy city, they should stay here until dark. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

How to use deposit machine?

I think there are not many people who doesn't know how to withdraw cash from ATM machine, but I am not sure if everybody knows how to use a pay-in machine. This may be due to the fact that deposit machines are not as popular as cash machine. At first, I thought you must have a card to make a deposit. But today when my friend told me the cashier window is closed, and she asked me to go the bank with my debit card. This gives me an idea that she may just make payment by typing a bank account number into the machine, because you don't need a pin, and the card reader does no more than to read the account information stored in the card. But my friend didn't believe me, and insisted to ask to go there. So I went to bank, and asked the reception if you have to use a card to deposit cash into the machine. His answer is NO. And I tried out by typing the account number into the machine, and made the payment. I said to my friend, 'From now on, you have to believe me.&#

How to order Chinese takeaway

Many customers come to our takeaway shop, and don't know what to eat. It seems easier for them to answer if you ask them how the world was created. They stand in front the counter, and read through the menu, which has more than 200 different meals. Sometimes they look like very embarrassed to take so long to find just one meal to satisfy their hungry stomach. Five minutes past, they still seem to be puzzled by those strange names, Chow mien, Kung po, Shanghai style, Peking or Mandarin style, Szechuan, cantonese or Hongkong style, Yung chow, Singapore, or Malaysia, etc, etc. At last, they decide to order chicken curry on the safe side, because they really don't now what's in those dishes, or if they like or not. So my advice is, always read our menu carefully, and know exactly what you want to eat, then come to the shop. Some customers phone in for delivery, when I ask them what they would like to order, they ask their partners or friends what they want. Then repeat the or

Why women love LV handbag?

LV bag is timeless, waterproof, even fireproof (I doubt that!). Legend has it that once after a shipwreck, rescuers found that only the contents of an LV suitcase hadn't been wet and damaged; LV bag has existed for more than 200 years, and it's still a big name, but the most important reason for Mrs Chan to own one, is that every Chinese lady from Putan county and now stays in Glasgow, except for Mrs Chan and her nephew's wife, has got one. So she must have one! Mrs chan works in the kitchen, seven days a week, I don't think she has a lot chances to show off her handbag. But she loves fashion and big brand, not only buy a lot clothes for herself, but also spends a lot of money on her 8 years old daughter, she always dresses up her like a doll. She changes furniture quite often, a double bed was replaced by super-king; the mattress of her son's bed is too soft, it has to go, and the bedside chest has five drawers, too high, replaced by a three drawer with the c

IPad camera as mirror

Yin got an IPad for her 8th birthday, and she loved it. Today she shook her tooth, and it bled, she turned on the IPad camera to check her bleeding gum. Isn't she smart? She used IPad as a mirror. Or isn't the IPad brilliant? it can be used as mirror. I have seen some people use a cd disk as mirror, but it's not very clear. In the digital era, an IPad camera replace a cd is a kind of revolution as the replacing bronze mirror by glass mirror Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device