Bracelets For Women

Green Agriculture Revolution

April 29th, 2010   by Isabella

In the early 1970s when Chinese agro-scientists found wild rice with abortive pollen on Hainan Island, they never thought that the hybrid rice they would develop based on it 20 years later would cover 130 million hectares, increasing rice output by 240 billion kg at a rate of 14-30 percent. This variety of hybrid rice has not only brought China's grain output onto a new level, but has also been introduced to many other countries and regions in the world.

It is no wonder that Yuan Longing, an agro-scientist who made tremendous contributions to the development of the country's hybrid rice, won the state special award for scientific and technological progress. Yuan has won more awards than the scientists engaged in the research of atomic and hydrogen bombs.

Agro-scientists estimate that the creation of new varieties (each time on a large scale) over the past few years has increased the total grain output by at least 10 percent. In addition to hybrid rice, many improved cotton varieties featuring long cotton fibers, pure white color and high yield have brought in enormous economic results once they were widely popularized in the country. The output increase rate was registered between 10-20 percent. The past few years have also seen an increase in the output of peanuts (the growth rate being around 25 percent) because fine varieties containing a high proportion of oil have been widely introduced.

From 1992 to 1997, Chinese agro-scientists have developed 207 new varieties of grain crops, 184 economic crops and 82 vegetables. New varieties of six major crops (rice, wheat, maize, barley, millet and sorghum) have been popularized and cover about 100 million hectares, which led to a total grain output increase of 31.9 billion kg, with economic results reaching 50.1 billion Yuan.

Since the late 1980s, the second "green revolution" represented by transgenosis plants have been developed, including the antiverticillium wheat, rice free from weed killers and the disease-resistant potato. They have entered the stage of field experimentation and demonstration.

The most outstanding development is the breeding and popularization of pest-resistant cotton. Several years ago, cotton bollworm posed a serious threat to cotton growth in China. In north China, cotton-producing areas hit by a plague of cotton bollworm had their total output reduced by two thirds; some farmers even suffered a total crop failure. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences listed the anti-boll worm research at the top of its agenda. Now an important breakthrough has been made in this field. Agro-scientists have developed 12 fine varieties of bollworm-resistant cotton. Last year when a plague of cotton bollworm attacked these new varieties of cotton, the crops withstood the test. These new varieties have the same boll worm-resistance as those developed by foreign countries. As the quality of the cotton fiber and harvest are ensured with the per hectare ginned cotton output reaching 1,500 kg, these varieties are commonly favored by cotton farmers. In Shandong, farmers even lined up to acquire the seeds. To ensure the sustainable development of China's agriculture, the Chinese Government has made the research of agricultural biological technology a priority. Many scientists have joined together to conduct research on rice genome, hybrid advantages and transgenosis stability.

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Beijing Normal University

April 28th, 2010   by Isabella

Problems centering on senior citizen's marriage and welfare are increasing as China turns into an aged society.

The number of people older than 60 accounts for 10 per cent of the population —almost 1.3 billion inhabitants—and the aged com-munity is expanding at an annual rate of 5.4 per cent.

Many aged widows and widowers seek solace from their children and grandchildren, or go to welfare homes. Yet, a large number of senior citizens have to rely heavily on China's less sophisticated social benefit facilities.

Li Juxiang, a civic affairs lawyer in Beijing, said cohabitation among the elderly should be viewed with tolerance, as long as they do not violate civil laws.

According to laws in China, cohabitation is only prohibited for those who illegally live together when they still have a living husband or wife.

"Solitude is my biggest enemy as an old man," said Wu Liji, a retired public service employee in North China' s Inner Mongolia. "All I want is a companion that can support and care about me."

Wu began to cohabit with his friend, Granny Zhang, in the summer of 2000 after they met at a local dance party. They used to think about marriage but soon gave up as they worried about the contentious issues of housing property and inheritance.

Wu said he now feels good about his relationship, and has be-come more open in talking about Zhang to the local community. "I do not think there is any sharp difference between marriage and co-habitation, as long as we love each other," said Wu.

However, not all cohabiting couples have a happy ending.

Some soon realize living together is a mistake. Grandfather Yao in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, for example, divorced his first wife last year at 63, and fell for a middle-aged woman, surnamed Zhang.

In one month of dating, they decided to cohabit in Zhang' s own house. However, they soon realized they were not as compatible as at first thought. Finally, they split, up, and Zhang evicted Yao out of his residency and demanded 3,000 Yuan (US $ 363) as compensation.

Fan Yu, a professor from Remin University of China, said there needs to be an updated regulation to deal with such issues.

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Importance of Being Busy

April 27th, 2010   by Isabella

Routines are the unwritten algorithms, followed by each one of us, everyday in life. Routine is a chain of events, which never changes their order, once it is prioritized. Following the routine is a schedule of events. For a student it would be writing assignments, attending school, coaching classes or doing a project. For the businessman brandishing the tiniest mobile phone and shielded by the darker than black shade of Mercedes, schedule is restricted to attending meetings, presentations and entertaining new prospective clients.

Sometimes life becomes so hectic that you feel as if you are the only person to whom the whole world has been merciless and that you are the only person who is working harder than anyone else. But this is the thought, which ; comes due to a thorough introspection of us. Even though \ others will be facing the same shade of destiny like us, still we find others to be luckier than us. Yes, the other side of : the grass is always more greener and more fresh.

Maintaining your cool, at the times of difficulty and hectic schedules is the key to a bright carrier and successive life. Because unless we ourselves change the pace, with the change in times and keep ourselves abreast of the latest timetable of our organizer, we will lack behind.

However more the things one has to do or one is into, more is his involvement in a mental, physical or social way into the things in which he is involved. Due to this his own personal problems are out of sight, because all the time his mind is thinking of completing the undertaken tasks. Problems once that they are out of sight, it implies they are out of mind.

Each thing that we do, adds a new dimension to our personality. It shapes our thinking and makes us more organized, experienced, knowledgeable and creative. The time and sweat that we put into our tasks everyday is the brick and mortar of our future.

So friends, it is always better to be busy rather than idle. Now hasn't everyone heard that an idle mind is a devil's workshop? Behind every successful man is a devotedly followed hectic schedule rather than a woman from being able to talk about it. Collecting, by occupying spare time so constructively, makes a persocontented, with no time for boredom.

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These Things I Wish for You

April 26th, 2010   by Isabella

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd know better.

I'd really like for them to know about hand-me-down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf. I really would. My cherished grandson, I hope you learn humility by surviving failure and that you learn to be honest even when no one is looking.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother. And it is all right to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared; I hope you'll let him.

And when you want to see a Disney movie and your kid brother wants to tag along, I hope you take him. I hope you have to walk uphill with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. If you want a slingshot, I hope your father teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books, and when you learn to use computers, you also learn how to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get razzed by friends when you have your first crush on a girl, and that when you talk back to your mother you learn what soap tastes like. May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on the stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I hope you get sick when someone blows smoke in your face. I don't care if you try beer once, but I hope you won't like it. And if a friend offers you a joint or any drugs, I hope you are smart enough to realize that person is not your friend.

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Three Men in a Basket

April 24th, 2010   by Isabella

A pilot noticed a balloon which seemed to be making for a Royal Air Force Station nearby. He informed the station at once, but no one there was able to explain 5 the mystery. The officer in the control tower was very angry when he heard the news, because balloons can be a great danger to aircraft. He said that someone might be spying on the station and the someone might be spying pilot was ordered to keep track of the strange object. The pilot managed to circle the balloon for some time. He could make out three men in a basket under it and one of them was holding field-glasses. When the balloon was over the station, the pilot saw one of the men

taking photographs. Soon afterwards, the balloon began to descend and it landed near an airfield. The police were called in, but they could not arrest anyone, for the basket contained two Members of Parliament and the Commanding Officer of the station! As the Commanding Officer explained later, one half of the station did not know what the other half was doing!

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They Don't Talk

April 23rd, 2010   by Isabella

Mr Jones was very angry with his wife, and she was very angry with1 her husband. For several days2 they did not speak to each other3 at all. One evening Mr Jones was very tired4 when he came back from work5, so he went to bed soon after dinner6. Of course, he did riot say anything to Mrs Jones before he went upstairs. Mrs Jones washed the dinner things7 and then did some

sewing8. When she went up to bed much later than her husband, she found a piece of paper on the small table near her bed. On it were the words,10 "Mother. —Wake me up at 7

a.m.11—Father"

When Mr Jones woke up the next morning, it was nearly 8 a. m—and on the small table near his bed he saw another piece of paper. He took it and read these words'*: "Father.' —Wake up. It is 7 a. m. —Mother. "'

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Baring the Shame

April 22nd, 2010   by Isabella

In 1943 as a bright-eyed 14-year-old, Akira Ogasawara join< the Japanese army, partly because the recruiters promised him a ride in an airplane. Instead of getting his flight, he was assigned to a secret medical unit that performed experiments on prisoner’s ii Manchuria. Now 65 and a construction worker, he is still tormented by the memory of his two years with Unit 731 as it worked on developing a "germ bomb," which Tokyo hoped would help win Work War H . "I myself did not put any prisoner under the knife, " he tells a mostly middle-aged audience of about 50 people at Hachioji, near Tokyo. "But when I think that the rats and fleas I bred were used experiments which killed so many people, I feel that it's task to tell everyone that such things took place. " The audience stirs uneasily, sharing a hideous secret from the past.

Until the early 1980s, few Japanese were eager to learn about events like Unit 731 's activities in Manchuria, a region in northern China conquered and governed by the Japanese army from 1932 to 1945. Untold thousands of Russians, Koreans and Chinese suspected anti-Japanese activities were brought to the Unit 731 base at Pinang, near Harbin. Clinically referred to as marital , or "logs, they were initially treated well since the experiments required healthy sub-?. Eventually, however, some of the prisoners were infected with contagious diseases— typhoid, tetanus, anthrax, syphilis — or opined with mustard gas, others, stripped and tied to poles, were exposed to the ~ 20°C Manchu an winter to develop frostbite and subquently gangrene. Some were even disserted while still alive, ac-)riding (o former unit members. At least 3,000 prisoners perished.

Ogasawara says he did not understand the real nature of 731's until several months after his arrival at Pinfang, when he was signed to clean up a restricted that contained human remains t which researchers had been experimenting. Ordered to keep silent be court-martialed, he was put to work breeding fleas and rats, were used to spread genus. Sometimes, he recalls, prisoners stained to die in the experiments waved at him from their cells, offing him. "1 was only a little shaven headed kid, " he explains, they probably thought I was one of them. '

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The double life of Alfred Bloggs

April 21st, 2010   by Isabella

These days, people who do manual work often receive far more money than people who work in offices. People who work in offices are frequently referred to as 'white-collar workers' for the simple reason that they usually wear a collar and tie to go to work, such is human nature, that a great many people are often willing to sacrifice higher pay for the privilege of becoming white-collar workers. This can give rise to curious situations, as it did in the case of Alfred Bloggs who worked as a dustman for

Ellesmere Corporation.

When he got married, Alf was too embarrassed to say anything to his wife about his job. He simply told her that he worked for the Corporation. Every morning, he left home dressed in a smart black suit. He then changed into overalls and spent the next eight hours as a dustman. Before returning home at night," he too shower and changed back into his suit. Alf did this for over two years and his fellow dustmen kept his secret

Alf's wife has never discovered that she married a dustman and she never will, for Alf has just found another

job. He will soon be working in an office. He will be earning only half as much as he used to, but he feels that his rise in status is well worth the loss of money. From now on, he will wear a suit all day and others will call him 'Mr. Bloggs', not 'Alf.

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In a Manner of Speaking

April 20th, 2010   by Isabella

One of the most startling surprises for many Americans when they first arrive in Britain is the discovery that their mother tongue, which has been serving them faith-fully all these years, is suddenly not up to dealing with the intricacies of the English language as practiced in the British Isles.

It is an unsettling experience to arrive in the UK and find oneself uttering vocal noises — speech is probably too strong a word for it — that are received nearly every-where as at best quaint and imprecise, at worst as misleading and noisy. Even the most innocuous encounters suddenly become charged with the possibility of confusion case.

I recall once, when T was still new to the country, arriving at a country pub at lunchtime and asking what sandwiches they had, "We have roast beef," said the man behind the bar, bending over to consult a small glass full of sandwiches, "and we have ham and cheese." "I'll have ham and cheese," I decided.

The man looked at me as if I had misunderstood him. "We have roast beef and we have ham and cheese," he repeated, but more slowly.

"Yes," I agreed. I was with him this far. "So which will it be?"

"Ham and cheese." 1 replied with a small sense of foreboding.

He looked at me as if wondering if I was a wise guy. "You want one of each?" "No, just the one."

His face, I noticed, was growing slightly red around the edges. "Yes, but which one?"

"The one I just said." 1 replied with the uneasy steadiness of someone forced unexpectedly to stand his ground,

Eventually, he brought me a plate with two sandwiches, one ham and one cheese. Only later did 1 discover that it was unknown, at least in those days, to combine ham and cheese in a single English sandwich. (Too tasty, probably.)

It was Oscar Wilde who said, "The English have really everything in common with the Americans, except, of course, language," and he couldn't have been more right. And the fault, if 1 may say so, is entirely theirs.

The British, you see, have always taken a quiet — sometimes practically unwitting — pleasure in perplexing foreigners, as anyone who has ever tried to follow a cricket match will know. It's why they take such delight in nonsense verse and off-the-wall humor, why they have a constitutional form of government but no written constitution, why they celebrate the Queen's birthday in June when she was actually born in April and why. Above all, they created a language as ineffably illogical and idiosyncratic as English -- a tongue in which, need I remind you, "ouch" can be pronounced in any of half a dozen ways (as in enough, thought, through, trough, though, and hiccough). God-be-with-you somehow has mutated into good-bye, and colonel is pronounced, without the faintest hint of self-consciousness or embarrassment, as if it had an "r" in it.

Now you might think that as native speakers of the same language we would have a certain advantage in interpreting English, but no. As soon as the British ready to their presumed horror, that they had spawned a nation across the sea where the inhabitants could also speak English, they immediately began doing all they could to distance themselves linguistically from their colonial offspring. They started pronouncing lieutenant as "lefftenant," lomaio as "tomahlo." and mtixtcoat as "wesskit," among much else. (Most Britons think they have been talking like that forever, but in fact many, perhaps most, of the distinguishing characteristics of British English dale only from the late 1700s and early 1800s. If you were to resurrect, say. King George III, he would almost certainly sound more American than British.)

They started calling the upstairs floor the first floor rather than the second floor, thus ensuring (hat North American visitors would spend long, bewildered hours hunting for their hotel room, and pretended not to understand what we meant when we referred to the autumn as full or used words like gotten, skillet, and next room. They made sure that when we asked for pants or a vest in a clothing store we would be given unexpected items (namely underwear), just as a request for a biscuit or lemonade would summon forth, respectively, a cookie and a kind of warm, that has never seen a lemon in its life (and which, with the best will in the world, only a Briton could find refreshing).

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