I am a Hakka
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When I was a little child, my grandpa always sat next to me and told some stories about the legendary of Hakka. I was very interested Designer Replica Handbags in these kinds of stories and learned a lot from that. Until then, I started to know I’m a Hakka and also felt proud to be a Hakka.
Hakka, we call it “KeJia” in Chinese, which means “guest family”. When I first heard this word, I felt very confused why we are called guests, are we guests coming from other place? I finally got the answer from my grandpa. He told me sincerely and earnestly that, we, Hakka are the people who emigrated from the north of China in Jin Dynasty. The flooding, grasshopper plaques, droughts, famines and war drove our ancestors move to the south in China. Throughout the whole period, they suffered a lot and finally settled here.
According to this, I felt Hakka is really a great ethnic group. But for their perseverance, hard-working, how could they still exist in the most adverse environment. It is so surprising!
As I gradually grew up, my admiration to this culture increased, my understanding of Hakka was not merely from the little words of my grandpa, but from what I have heard and what I have seen.
When referring to the culture of Hakka, the first thing you will think about is their dialect. Because our ancestor came from different places in the north of China, moreover, when they settled here, their dialects more or less mixed with the dialects of native people, they created so many dialects. I felt intensely about this point. When I was in my middle class, all my classmates are Hakka, who were just from different villages and towns, but the dialects of them were different from each other. Now, you can imagine what a showplace of dialects it was!
Then I want to tell you another treasury of the culture. Let’s begin it with a true story. It sounds interesting. In the sixties of last century, when a foreign reconnaissance satellites flew throw the Fujian province, it took a Gucci bags picture of a building of cylindraceous structure which was once mistaken by a launching base for rockets. Until an old couple walked into it, the riddle was finally undone①. That was the round building of Hakka. From then on, Hakka people can show their own culture to the world. It is Hakka’s time!
The round building is usually 3 to 4 stories tall with a large inner open space (single ring) or double rings. Why is it so big---that’s another cultural reflection . Because of the historic reason, Hakka people don’t want to be apart any more. They always live in big family, and usually with several generations. As for this point, I feel more deeply, especially, when it comes to the end of a year, the Spring Festival. Because at that time, I will go home and enjoy new year with all my relatives. To show my respect and love, I must call them (it’s also a tradition), that’s so hard for me, “Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle…” This often lasts for more than 5 minutes. But, on the other hand, I really admire the warm and fragrance feeling with all my relatives!
Above are the cultures that I have heard and seen, it’s only a corner of a whole thing. But just from that I can feel the deep and proud of our culture!
Now, from the mere surprise and then the admiration, I started to be proud to be a Hakka and feel delighted here to introduce our culture to you. The holding of the “World Hakka Fair” in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Prada Scarf province, the construction of the “Hakka Town” in Ganxian, all the Hakka people are making an effort to spread the culture. I should also do something. Because, for us, it is Hakka’s moment!
Lost was the ultimate long con
gemahrv0528
So that's it. Lost, arguably the most important genre show of the past decade, ended with a fizzle. People will tell you it was fine until the PRADA Handbags last 15 minutes, but they're wrong. Spoilers below...
Oh, and hey, West Coast peeps and people who got up early to watch this in England. I mean it. Don't read this until you've watched the episode. Really.
Sure, the last 15 minutes of "The End" were pretty wretched, and that's when I gave up all hope that this was going to turn into something awesome. But rewind an hour and a half, to the moment when I suddenly realized I didn't give two craps whether Desmond pulled a rock out of a hole. Or whether Jack put a rock back into that same hole. I just. Didn't. Care.
Lost, the show, was absolutely genius at making you care about stuff. That was one of the half dozen things that Lost was brilliant at getting us to invest in, along with intriguingly murky characters and starkly surreal storytelling. Probably the greatest weapon in Lost's arsenal was always its ability to make you care, desperately, feverishly about what happened to these people.
And in the end, I just didn't care if that rock went in that hole or not. By extension, I had stopped caring whether the island sank. I had stopped caring about the fate of the Man In Black, long before he got kicked out of the episode prematurely. I didn't care about any of it.
I'm carefully using the first person singular here, because maybe you did care about this stuff. I had cared about it, in some abstract sense, before, but this time around, I just stopped about an hour in. Maybe because it all became more and more abstract, until it just felt like I was watching people play a sport whose rules I wasn't familiar with. Yes, Lost's finale was a game of Baseketball.
I'm saying this as someone who actually kind of liked "Across The Sea," because it made Jacob seem relatable, and who actually had been keeping an open mind about this. I had been aware that some last-minute spoilers about the finale were coming out over Hermes Wallets the weekend, but I hadn't looked at them because of that desire to keep an open mind. That open mind turned, by degrees, into a sinking feeling.
Like I said, not even talking about the last 15 minutes of the episode yet. That's a different - pardon me - circle of hell.
All through its run, Lost has had moments of kludgey storytelling, where it felt like people were doing stuff merely because the plot required it. And there have been times when the characters seemed to turn into rats in a maze of the writers' design. And there have been moments where supposedly huge consequences were swept under a rug because a storyline was over and we were supposed to move on.
And then there have been moments when Lost felt like it was touching something grand and meaningful. When the show's sweeping collection of characters and locales seemed like a fascinating web, and the show's mysteries felt really sinister and terrible (in a good way.) There have also been moments when the characters felt both larger than life and like people we might have been friends with.
In retrospect, you can see how the show, over its final year, swung from the latter type of storytelling to the former type. But I felt this sapping of the show's sense of purpose far more keenly tonight.
Someone took a rock out of a hole. Someone put a rock in a hole.
Instead of talking about all the stuff that left me unmoved, here are the things that actually did move me:
I really loved Jack telling Smokey that John Locke had been right about almost everything, and Smokey was disrespecting him by wearing his face. First of all, it needed to be said. And second of all, there was a spark in the midst of all the lifelessness, and it felt for a second like we were going to get the epic showdown we deserved, now that Jack had come over to Locke's point of view and Locke was a fraud who espoused Jack's former philosophy. It was a great moment.
I loved the redemption of Benjamin Linus - even though he did nothing to earn it, and we waited all season in vain for Ben to Do Something. I also loved Ben Designer Replica Handbags telling Hugo that he didn't have to run things in the fucked-up way that Jacob had. And yay for the hint that Ben turned out to be a great Number Two. (No pun intended.)
And yeah, Hugo getting to be the new Jacob was also great, and much deserved - he was a much better candidate than Guilt Guy.
And I really, actually got choked up when Juliet and Sawyer finally recognized each other and she asked him out for coffee and they embraced and cried and kissed - of all the dozens of reunions and awakenings we witnessed in this episode, the Juliet/Sawyer one was the only one that made me get teary. A lot of the other teary montages just felt like the producers were saying, "Hey remember when this happened? Back when the show was awesome? Remember that? Huh?
Oh, and when Jack goes flying through the air to kick Flocke in the face, it was a nicely composed shot and a decent air-punching moment.
Apart from that, the island storyline felt really blah. Almost everybody was relegated to the status of "extra," and I didn't really care if Lapidus and his gang flew off the island or not. I mean, yay, I guess. But since that plane was crammed with characters I'd long since stopped caring about, it was a bit anti-climactic.
Sigh. And then let's talk about the "flash-sideways" universe. So... almost everybody gets awakened to their memories of the "real" world by encountering their true love. Which means that Jack really was Kate's true love after all? But Kate wasn't Jack's. And Shannon was Sayid's true love? I mean, really? Shannon? Not Nadia? I mean, okay, whatever.
The two main exceptions, in this episode at least, were Jack and Locke. Jack gets awakened by his dad's coffin, and it seems as though his "true love" was the whole community of castaways, whose well-being he'd cared for so ineptly throughout the show's run. (Everybody else gets montages of just their love relationships, but Jack gets a montage of the whole gang, sort of.) And Locke, meanwhile, can't be reawakened to the "real" world until he has the mythical surgery and regains the ability to walk. Because walking, not Helen or anyone else, was Locke's true love. Or something. Wha huh? Or maybe it's supposed to be that the island was Locke's true love, and somehow regaining the ability to walk makes him think of the island.
And now we come to the revelation of the episode's final minutes, which I've been putting off talking about. The flash-sideways universe wasn't an alternate universe at all, it was... purgatory? Limbo? Some kind of afterlife way-station. And for some reason, the Losties had to come together in a church before they could move on to the real afterlife.
I can see this spawning a million parodies based around the opening monologue of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."
So why was it 2004 in purgatory? Why was the island underwater? Why was Sawyer suddenly a cop? With Miles as his partner? (Even though Miles doesn't get to be there in the end.) And why were the details of Locke's accident changed so it was Locke's fault? Not to Gucci bags mention, why did Jack and Juliet have that creepy Stepford kid? (Because we were supposed to think this was an alternate universe that resulted from Jack's hydrogen bomb, and it was a fake-out.)
Those are questions we really shouldn't ask, I guess, because they don't matter. All that matters is that in the end, this particular community of people form something meaningful, even something holy, and they can't go to Heaven unless they all leave together. Yes, it's another set of Rules.
And the final moments, after Jack's dad gave his heavy-handed explanation, and everybody was gathered inside the church from Madonna's "Like A Prayer" video, and there were handshakes and reunions and a door full of light... I started swearing at my television set. I think I'm still in shock at how lame and idiotic the final five minutes or so felt.
In the end, it's hard not to see Lost as the longest con of them all. Not because we didn't get enough answers - it's really true that after this episode, I don't need any more answers than what we got. But because all along, Lost seemed to be a story. Until the end, when it wasn't. In the end, it was just a bunch of stuff that happened.
It's way too early to tell, but I have a feeling that this will go down in history with the "Patrick Duffy stepping out of the shower" thing on Dallas. It just felt like a cheap, cop-out ending. In a sense, nothing that happened in the "flash-sideways" universe mattered because they were all already dead, and they were going to "move on" eventually one way or another. And nothing on the island mattered, because... well, it just didn't seem to matter very much.
We'll have to wait a bit to see how the zeitgeist as a whole decides to think of this episode – maybe it'll wind up getting a free pass, because the show as a whole was so good. Maybe it'll wind up getting damned. But let's hope that people do remember how great Lost was at its best, since Lost was such an influential, successful show, and I hope somebody else eventually tries to duplicate all of its achievements.
As for me, I think I'm going to wind up thinking of Lost as an anthology show, another Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. It served up some wonderfully weird, allusive stories. It gave us some brilliant mind-benders. There were individual episodes and story arcs that stand out as among the best hours of television ever created. You just can't think of Lost as one unified story Prada Scarf any more, because then you realize it all leads up to this utter flatness. This zone of apathy and new-age "walk into the light" catharsis.
But maybe you loved this ending and I'm on crack. What did you think?
Dreams Say About Your Love Life
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We've all experienced bizarre dreams in which people we know look like someone else or we get freaky with an unappealing co-worker. But are those Designer Replica Handbags subconscious thoughts that zap through our brains at night really relevant in our waking hours?
Yes, according to Gillian Holloway, an internationally recognized dream expert with over 20 years of experience interpreting dreams under her belt.
In her soon-to-be-released book "The Complete Dream Book of Love and Relationships: Discover What Your Dreams and Intuition Reveal About You and Your Love Life," Holloway uses her analysis of over 30,000 actual dreams to get to the bottom of what our dreams say about our romantic relationships.
And it's not all chick stuff. "To my surprise, I've found that men's dreams often focus on relationships," she tells us. "I really thought that would be more of a woman's thing."
Read on to learn what eight common dreams say about your love life.
1. If You Dream About ... Building or Healing
"Dreams about a healing wound or of building something new -- like a house or a bridge -- tend to occur when a person has just made a romantic connection that is going to be a positive force in their life," Holloway explains.
2. If You Dream About ... Bad Past Relationships
"On the other hand," she continues, "if we are making a connection that might be less wholesome, people start dreaming of bad relationships they have been in in the past."
3. If You Dream About ... Contentment and General Fulfillment
When Holloway asks people what they were dreaming after they met the person that became their spouse, they tend not to be having erotic, sexy dreams. Instead, their subconscious feeds them dreams of general fulfillment and contentment. An example of this is a man who dreamed of buying a farm that become very fertile, right before he realized that the woman he was with was the one.
4. If You Dream About ... Sex
As for those erotic, sexy dreams that heat up the night? Holloway says you should be careful not to read too much into them:
"Erotic, Hollywood-style dreams are more signals of excitement and attraction," she said. "But what I see a lot of is people assuming because you had a dream about rolling in the surf, or some other erotic scene, that means you've meet your soul mate. For better or worse, this Gucci bags is not the sign your subconscious is sending."
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5. If You Dream About ... Other Happy Couples
According to Holloway, often single folks will dream about a couple they know, or even a fictional or famous couple who have a reputation for being happy. "That is an indication that the person having the dream is ready to get involved in a relationship again," she told us
6. If You Dream About ... Members of the Opposite Sex in a Surprising Way
Most people have had surprising members of the opposite sex pop into their dreams. But according to Holloway, having a dream in which there is chemistry between you and -- for example -- a co-worker, doesn't necessarily mean you secretly pine for a romantic relationship with that person.
"A lot times these are partnership dreams," she says. "Which could be all kinds of partnerships, including business, professional, intellectual, or a shared hobby or enthusiasm."
7. If You Dream About ... Flying
According to Holloway, when somebody in relationship has the famous flying dream, it is an indication that they've been having some really good sex. Hey, she's the expert.
8. If You Dream About ... Your Partner Cheating on You
"People often dream their partner is being unfaithful during a time when that partner has gotten really excited about their career, or is starting to work more," says Holloway.
In general, Holloway believes discussing your dreams with your partner is a good idea because "you find out a lot about what your partner is thinking."
But she does offer this disclaimer: "If you do discuss dreams with your partner, you have to put each other in what I call the witness Prada Scarf protection program," she warned. "That way nobody gets incriminated if they bring up that romantic tryst with a movie star their subconscious conjured up."
BTW, we're pretty sure that if your girlfriend is willing to let you discuss your Angelina Jolie sex dream with her, it's another good tip-off that you've found true love.
If not have the afterlife
gemahrv0521
Whether there’s afterlife, the answer has never been the same. The atheists deny after life, believing that our life is no more than from the cradle to the grave. They may care about their illustrious names after death; they may feel attached to the affection of their offspring, but they never lay their hopes on their afterlife. They may also say that good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil, but they don’t really believe any retribution in their after life. However, in the religious world or among the PRADA Handbags superstitious people, the belief in afterlife is very popular. They do not only believe in afterlife, but thousands of reincarnations as well. In the mysterious world, there are the paradise and the hell, the celestial beings and the gods, the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas. Maybe they really believed it, or maybe they just wanted to make use of people’s veneration, the ancient emperors always declared that they were the real dragons, the sons of God, while the royal ministers claimed to be the reincarnations of various constellations. But can the stars reincarnate? Many people burn incense and kowtow, do good deeds and strive for virtues, not just for the present, but mainly to let God see their sincerity so as to be reborn into a better afterlife, or to achieve the highest enlightenment after several lives of practice. They do believe in afterlife. But I can’t help asking: Suppose there were no afterlife, would you still do good deeds and strive for virtues? And If God does not see what you are doing, would you still be so upright and selfless? If you work, not for serving the public and liberating the others, but just for a better afterlife of your own, isn’t it a little too selfish? Comparing with this kind of believers, those who don’t believe in afterlife, but still keep doing good deeds, are the most sincere and honest philanthropists, because they do them not for themselves but for other. You may wonder if I believe in afterlife. My answer is: I know nothing about my previous life, so I dare not make improper comments on afterlife. But I do hope there’s afterlife! Because our present life is so short that so many things slip away before our proper understanding. I have so many dreams, so many wishes, so many ambitions, as well as so many reGREts and concerns. If there were no afterlife, all of them will remain unrealized! I’m not contented with the present commonplace life, I’m very much attached to the affections that should have been mine but have been washed away by the hurrying time, and I yearn for the perfection and maturity if I could start all over again. So believe it or not, I’d rather there were afterlife.
How to Sell Yourself
In this competitive society it is essential to know how to sell yourself in order to get the job you want. That means you must be able to market your best features and present yourself in the best light. After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
There are several things you can do to project a good image in an interview. First of all, look like a winner. Dress conservatively and well, and you'll look like you're going to the top. Second, communicate clearly. Consider each question carefully and respond Prada Scarf with total honesty. Remember to make eye contact and maintain good posture. You need to look attentive but also at ease. Third, have a positive and assertive attitude. It's important to appear confident of your ability and optimistic about your future. Finally, be prepared. Present a professional resume and be ready to explain everything in detail.
By following the advice above, you are bound to make a good impression on potential employers. Then you will be able to choose the best opportunity for you and take that first step towards success.
The Giant And The Fair Man-Servant
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Once upon a time the heir of the King of Eirin shot a raven, and when he saw it Iying dead on the snow he made a vow that he would seek PRADA Handbags all through the world for a maiden with hair like the raven's wing and cheeks like the raven's blood in the snow.
So he travelled east and west, and north and south, looking for this maiden. One day he saw a number of people going into a place like a church, at the door of which a dead man was Iying; and he noticed with horror that the people just walked over the body. So he questioned a man as to why all the passers-by should do this terrible thing, and he was told: "Well, this is the reason. He is a man who did not pay his debts, and he will be left to lie there until someone does it for him."
"Oh well," said the King's son, "be the sum large or small I will pay it rather than see what I have seen."
So the dead man was buried, and the Prince paid his debts and went on his travels again.
He began to get very tired; and while he was looking about for a place in which to rest he saw a woebegone creature approaching him---a red-haired youth, bareheaded and barefooted, who came and asked him:
"Do you want a man-servant?"
"Indeed, I haven't the means enough to keep a man-servant," the Prince said. "I'm only wandering about looking for the lady who is to be my wife."
"Well," the young man said, "I won't be the one to ask much from you," and he pressed the Prince, who at last agreed to take him as his body-servant; and they went on their way together. Now, they found themselves approaching a large cave, and the Hermes Wallets man-servant said: "A giant lives in that cave and no one gets past him alive, but if you do as I say we may be able to trick him. Stay you here and pretend you are putting an army through its drill, and make as much noise as you can---as if there were many with you---while I go into the cave."
When he got to the cave entrance, there was the giant, licking his lips.
"Ha! I'm glad you have come, for I'm ravenous for fresh meat!" he roared.
"Wait, wait! You needn't be in all this hurry," the man-servant said, "for the son of the King of Eirin is out there with his army, and he has come to put an end to your life, Master Giant!"
And sure enough, when the giant looked out, there was the Prince at the corner, drilling away at men the giant supposed must be round the corner.
So he came back into his cave right quickly, and he said to the man-servant: "Och, och! but you're right, and I like this not! But listen to me: I've two brothers far worse than me that you must encounter yet. Now, if you will hide me under this great stone I'll give you a magic quilt that will make you invisible, and you can escape my brothers that way."
"All right, then," the man-servant said, and he took the quilt from the giant, who lifted the great stone in the cave and got himself into the hole.
And the man-servant rolled the stone over and let it down edgeways on the giant so that it ground him to powder!
Then he and the Prince filled their pockets with treasure that was in the cave and went on their way.
They soon came to great rocks and precipices, and the man-servant told the Prince that there was another and bigger giant amongst those great rocks; and that he'd better do as before, and pretend to be drilling troops. And while the Prince was at his shouting and his ordering, the man-servant went on among the rocks and saw the second giant parading up and down.
"Ha, you have come!" he said. "I am without food, and I'm right glad to see you! You will at least make my dinner, and you might Designer Replica Handbags even make my supper as well; so I'll just go and sharpen my knife!"
"Have me or want me," said the fair man-servant, "but indeed it would be better for you to look out and see what you can see---the son of the King of Eirin drilling the troops he has brought to capture and kill you!"
Out rushed the giant, and he saw the young man drilling away with a great noise, at troops he supposed were just around the corner---and back he came in great trouble of mind.
"What am I to do, and where am I to hide?" he said.
"Well," the fair man-servant said, "I hid your brother yesterday, and he gave me an invisible quilt as a reward. Now what will you give me if I advise you also."
"I will give you a pair of shoes of quietness," the giant said, "and when you put them on no one will know you are walking near them at all. But if I do, will you promise to let me down to the foot of this cliff out of sight of the Prince and his army?"
The man-servant agreed, and he took the shoes of quietness; then he put a chain round the giant's middle and began to let him down the precipice. And when he was just nearing the bottom he let the chain go, and the giant was dashed to pieces at the bottom of the rocks!
And then the Prince and the man-servant went to the giant's house and helped themselves to quantities of gold and silver and jewels before they went again on their travels.
And the road was smooth before them until they reached the place where the last and greatest giant lived. In front of it were five spikes, on four of which were the heads of people the giant had killed.
A beautiful maiden came out Gucci bags of the house to meet them, and whenever he saw her the Prince knew that this was she whom he was seeking---the maiden with hair like the raven's wing and cheeks like the raven's blood on the snow; and his heart was singing for joy! In her hand was a spoon, and she told the Prince that he was going to be put to a test, and if he couldn't meet the giant with that spoon in his hand to-morrow morning at sunrise, then his head would occupy the fifth spike!
"Then just give me the spoon," said the Prince.
"No, no," she said, "that is not the way the giant will have it. He would kill me if I did that!" And she went away to the seashore by herself and buried the spoon deep down among the sand. And the giant chuckled and laughed, for, said he:
"The sands of the seashore are miles long and miles wide, and who will know where to dig ? "
But the man-servant had put on his invisible quilt and his shoes of quietness, and had gone behind the maiden; so when she had gone away from the spot where the spoon was buried he just dug it up again and took it to the Prince.
And oh! the rage of the giant when the Prince met him at sunrise with the spoon in his hand!He sulked all day, and at evening he thought of another test; and he took out a silver comb from the maiden's hair and said to the Prince:
"Unless you can replace that comb in the maiden's hair at sunrise your head will be on the fifth spike," and he went away to the shore to bury the comb himself this time.
Again the man-servant donned the invisible quilt and the shoes of quietness, and followed unseen and unheard; and again he dug where the giant had buried the comb and took it to the Prince. And when the Prince replaced the comb in the maiden's hair at sunrise the giant foamed at the mouth in his rage!
Then came the third night, and the Prince said to the maiden:
"Why will you be waiting on here with the giant? Come away with me and we will be married."
But she said with a sigh: "No, that cannot be, for I am under a spell and cannot leave this place unless someone will cut off the five heads and five necks of the giant; and who can ever do that?"
"Well," the Prince said, "let us ask this clever fellow of a man-servant of mine."
The man-servant said to her to go and tell the giant he was going to fight him, and she did so.And the giant laughed, "Ho, ho!" and he laughed, "Hee, hee!" and he rolled with laughing, and took a mighty sword in his hand; but he didn't know that the man-servant was there in his invisible quilt and his shoes of quietness---until he felt a sword flashing about among his five heads; and then he cried, "Oh, oh!" instead of, "Ho, ho!" for he couldn't see his opponent. Off went head number one, and off went head number two, and so on, until all five heads were severed from the giant's five necks!
And the fair man-servant placed them on a string and slung them over his shoulder and carried them all to the Prince.And now the King's son was able to marry the maiden with hair like the raven's wing and cheeks like the raven's blood on the snow; and they stayed on in the giant's house and enjoyed the wealth and the treasure of the three giants, and were very hap.At the end of a year the fair man-servant came to the Prince and said he must now be leaving him- and the Prince said: "What reward will you take for all the fine service you have rendered me?" "What reward will you give me?" said the man-servant.
"Whatever you choose to ask from me, even should you ask my wife herself," said the Prince.
I will not ask any Prada Scarf reward or gift from you," the fair man-servant said, "nor will I ask your wife or your treasures. But do you remember the man whose debts you paid who was lying at the door of the church."
"I do that," said the Prince.
Then I am that man, and I came back to earth to pay my debt to you for bringing me to rest. The debt is now paid and I am wishful to return to the place from which I came to you: so fare you well, master, for ever!"
And where he had been standing there was now but a misty cloud! And they never saw the fair man-servant again, but they lived for many years to enjoy the wealth of the giants he had killed.
The Last Tape
gemahrv0515
PRADA Handbags The bustle of the hospital was a welcome distraction as I opened my new patient's chart and headed for her room. My son, Eric, had just brought home a disappointing report card, and my daughter, Shannon, and I had argued again about her getting a driver's license. For the next eight hours I wanted to throw myself into helping people who I knew had much more to worry about than I did.
Rebekah was only 32, admitted for chemotherapy after breast-cancer surgery, When I entered her room it took me a moment to spot her amid the bouncing forms of three giggling little girls.
I told Rebekah I Hermes Wallets would be her nurse and she introduced her husband, Warren; six-year-old Ruthie; four-year-old Hannah; and two-year-old Molly. Warren coaxed the girls away from their mother with a promise of ice cream and assured Rebekah they would return the next day.
As I rubbed alcohol on her arm to prepare it for the intravenous line, Rebekah laughed nervously. "I have to tell you I'm terrified of needles." "It'll be over before you know it," I said. "I'll give you a count of three."
Rebekah shut her eyes tightly and murmured a prayer until it was over. Then she smiled and squeezed my hand. "Before you go, could you get my Bible from the table?" I handed her the worn book. "Do you have a favorite Bible verse?" she asked. "Jesus wept. John 11: 35." "Such a sad one," she said. "Why?"
"It makes me feel closer to Jesus, knowing he also experienced human sorrow."
Rebekah nodded thoughtfully and started flipping through her Bible as I shut the door quietly behind me. During the Designer Replica Handbags following months I watched Rebekah struggle with the ravages of chemotherapy. Her hospital stays became frequent and she worried about her children. Meanwhile I continued to contend with raising my own kids. They always seemed either out or holed up in their rooms. I missed the days when they were as attached to me as Rebekah's little girls were to her.
One day when I entered her room, I found her talking into a tape recorder. She picked up a yellow legal pad and held it out to me. "I'm making a tape for my daughters, " she said.
I read the list on her pad: starting school, confirmation, turning 16, first date, graduation. While I worried how to help her deal with death, she was planning for her children's future.
I often wondered what I would say in her place. My kids joked that I was like an FBI agent, with my constant questions about where they'd been and who they'd been with. Where, I thought, are my words of encouragement and love? For a time it had seemed Rebekah's chemotherapy was working. Then doctors discovered another malignant lump. Two months later, a Gucci bags chest X-ray revealed the cancer had spread to her lungs. It was terminal. Help me to help her through this, I prayed.
She usually waited until the early hours of the morning to record the tapes so she could be free from interruptions. She filled them with family stories and advice，trying to cram a lifetime of love into a few precious hours. Finally, every item in her notes had been checked off and she entrusted the tapes to her husband.
It was three o'clock one afternoon when I got an urgent call from the hospital. Rebekah wanted me to come immediately with a blank tape. What topic has she forgotten? I wondered.
She was flushed and breathing hard when I entered her room. I slipped the tape into the recorder and held the microphone to her lips. "Ruthie, Hannah, Molly?this is the most important tape." She held my hand and closed her eyes. "Someday your daddy will bring home a new mommy. Please make her feel special. Show her how to take care of you. Ruthie, honey, help her get your Brownie uniform ready each Tuesday. Hannah, tell her you don't want meat sauce on your spaghetti. She won't know you like it separate. Molly, don't get mad if there's no apple juice. Drink something else. It's okay to be sad, sweeties. Jesus cried too. He knows about sadness and will help you to be happy again. Remember, I'll always love you.
I shut off the recorder and Rebekah sighed deeply. "Thank you, Nan," she said with a weak smile. "You'll give this one to them, won't you?" she murmured as she slid into sleep.
A time would come when the tape would be played for Rebekah's children, but right then, after I smoothed Rebekah's blanket, I got in my car and hurried home. I thought of how my Shannon also liked her sauce on the side and suddenly that quirk, which had annoyed me so many times, seemed to make her so much more precious. That night the kids didn't go out; they sat with me long after the spaghetti sauce had dried onto the dishes. And we talked ，without interrogations, without complaints，late into the night Prada Scarf.
Why levels of sperm in men are falling
gemahrv0511
If scientists from Mars were to study the human male's reproductive system they would probably conclude that he is destined for rapid extinction. Compared to Hermes Wallets other mammals, humans produce relatively low numbers of viable sperm – sperm capable of making that long competitive swim to penetrate an unfertilised egg.
As many as one in five healthy young men between the ages of 18 and 25 produce abnormal sperm counts. Even the sperm they do produce is often of poor quality. In fact only between 5 and 15 per cent of their sperm is, on average, good enough to be classed as "normal" under strict World Health Organisation rules – and these are young, healthy men. By contrast, more than 90 per cent of the sperm of a domestic bull or ram, or even laboratory rat, are normal.
Human males also suffer a disproportionately high incidence of reproductive problems, from congenital defects and undescended testes to cancer and impotency. As these also affect fertility, it's a minor miracle men are able to sire any children at all. In fact, an increasing number of men are finding themselves childless. Among the one in seven couples now classed as infertile, the "male factor" has been found to be the most commonly identified cause.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the WHO conference where a Danish scientist first alerted the world to the fact that Western men are suffering an infertility crisis. Professor Niels Skakkebaek of the University of Copenhagen presented data indicating sperm counts had fallen by about a half over the past 50 years. Sperm counts in the 1940s were typically well above 100m sperm cells PRADA Handbags per millilitre, but Professor Skakkebaek found they have dropped to an average of about 60m per ml. Other studies found that between 15 and 20 per cent of young men now find themselves with sperm counts of less than 20m per ml, which is technically defined as abnormal. In contrast, a dairy bull has a viable sperm count in the billions.
Experts in human reproductive biology were astonished by the Danish study. The declining trend seemed to indicate that men were on a path to becoming completely infertile within a few generations (although recent studies suggest the fall in sperm counts may have bottomed out). Professor Skakkebaek could offer no explanation for the trend other than to suggest that the fall may have something to do with the equally alarming rise in other reproductive disorders, such as cancer of the testes and cryptorchidism, the incomplete descent of the testes into the scrotum.
Experts began to talk of a new phenomenon affecting the human male, a collection of disorders known as testicular dysgenesis syndrome. They wanted to know what was causing it, because the changes were occurring too quickly to be a result of genetics. It must have something to with changing lifestyles or the environment of men, and almost everything was suggested, from exposure to chemical pollutants to the modern fashion for tight underpants. There is now an emerging consensus among some experts that whatever it is that is exacerbating the problems of male infertility, it probably starts in the womb. It is not the lifestyle of men that is problem, but that of their mothers.
The process of sperm production, called spermatogenesis, starts in adolescence, but the groundwork is laid down in the few months before and immediately after birth. An increasing number of studies point to a crucial "window" of testicular development that begins in the growing foetus and ends in the first six months of life. Interfere with this critical developmental period, and a baby boy will suffer the lifetime consequences of being a suboptimally fertile man.
So are we anywhere nearer to finding an explanation for why are so many more men today are suffering from reproductive problems?
"It's most likely a reflection of the fact that many environmental and lifestyle changes over the past 50 years are inherently detrimental to sperm production," says Professor Richard Sharpe, fertility research expert at the Medical Research Council. "It may be that different factors come together to have a combined effect." A number of studies point to a connection between early development in the womb and male reproductive problems in later life, especially low sperm counts. For example, men Designer Replica Handbags whose pregnant mothers were exposed to high levels of toxic dioxins as a result of the 1976 industrial accident in Seveso, Italy have been found to have lower-than-average sperm counts. But men exposed to dioxins in adulthood showed no such effect. Another study found women who ate large amounts of beef during pregnancy, a diet rich in potentially damaging chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), had sons with relatively low sperm counts. But eating beef as an adult man shows no similar impact.
Meanwhile, studies of migrants between Sweden and Finland, showed that a man's lifetime risk of testicular cancer tends to follow the country he was born in rather than the country where he was brought up. It was his mother's environment when she was pregnant with him, rather than his own as a boy or as an adolescent, that seems to have largely determined a man's risk of testicular cancer.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence in support of this idea comes from studies of people who smoke. A man who smokes typically reduces his sperm count by a modest 15 per cent or so, which is probably reversible if he quits. However, a man whose mother smoked during pregnancy has a fairly dramatic decrease in sperm counts of up to 40 per cent – which also tends to be irreversible.
Professor Sharpe said such findings can be explained by understanding how the first cells of the testes form. Sertoli cells, which in the adult act as guardians for the development of sperm cells, are the very first cells to form from a "genital ridge" of the human male foetus. The number of sperm that can be produced in an adult man is critically dependent on the number of Sertoli cells that develop in his foetus, so anything that interferes with the formation of Sertoli cells in a mother's womb will affect sperm production many years later. "Maternal-lifestyle factors in pregnancy can have quite substantial effects on Gucci bags sperm counts in sons in adulthood, and the most logical mechanism by which this could occur is via reducing the number of Sertoli cells," Professor Sharpe says.
But the key question now is to identify the relevant lifestyle and environmental factors.
This is proving tricky. Obesity, for instance, is a growing problem and it has been linked with reproductive problems in both men and women. One study has also indicated that overweight pregnant women tend to produce sons with poor semen quality. But is it being fat that is the cause, or the environmental chemicals stored in fat?
There has been a lot of interest in chemicals in the environment, especially those that can either mimic female sex hormones – oestrogenic chemicals – or block male sex hormones, specifically testosterone which plays a critical role in stimulating the development of Sertoli cells in the womb. So far, the Seveso study provides the clearest link between human foetal development, low sperm counts and prenatal exposure to an environmental chemical. But the dioxin concentrations from this industrial accident were exceptionally high.
It is more difficult trying to establish a similar, significant link between male reproductive problems and exposure to low concentrations of the many other environmental chemicals that may have weak oestrogenic or androgen-blocking properties, including substances as wide-ranging as pesticides, traffic fumes, plastics and even soya beans. Professor Sharpe says that much of the evidence to date is weak or non-existent.
"Public concern about the adverse effects of environmental chemicals on spermatogenesis in adult men are, in general, not supported by the available data for humans. Where adverse effects of environmental chemicals have been shown, they are usually in an occupational setting rather than applying to the general population," he says.
So although scientists are closing in on the critical window of foetal development in the womb that determines a man's fertility status in Prada Scarf later life, they are still not sure about what it is that could be affecting this change in his reproductive status. But one thing is clear, it is his mother who almost certainly holds the key.
US Military: Massive Oil Shortages as Soon as 2015
gemahrv0510
Global Oil Demand PRADA Handbags Reaches Record High: 86.6 Million Barrels a Day!
As the world recovers from recession, industry worldwide is getting the ol' bounce back in its step. And that bounce, of course, requires a hell of a lot of oil. More oil than at any point ever before in history, in fact. Yes, the International Energy Agency has released its projections for this year, and they've found that the oil demand will hit a whopping 86.6 million barrels a day--up 2% from last year, and 100,000 more barrels a day than the previous record set in 2007.
This is not, as you can imagine, a good thing. As demand grows, guess what else will? The prices! And the report takes this into consideration:
oil prices could stifle world economic growth if they were allowed to rise too far. "Ultimately, things might turn messy for producers if $80-$100 per barrel is merely seen as the new $60-$80, stunting economic recovery while prompting resurgent non-oil and non-OPEC supply investment," the IEA report said.
Nice. In related news, the US Military has issued a report of its own--and it's even more alarming. Here's a snippet, via the Guardian:
The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact ... the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.
"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day," says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.
Here's another important segment: "
While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the Prada Scarf prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India."
Let's see here: oil prices that hover above $100 a barrel, those high prices stifling economic growth, drastic worldwide oil shortages in less than five years, which in turn causes unrest and disorder in fragile nations--and we still have politicians arguing in favor of the status quo energy policy!
Has it ever been clearer that weaning our dependence on oil should be a top priority?
Why Facebook & Apple Will Team Up Against Google
gemahrv0504
Before a dramatic split last PRADA Handbags August that saw Google CEO Eric Schmidt booted from the Apple board, Apple and Google had been the best of friends. Now that the two titans are broken up, it’s looking increasingly likely that Apple will buddy up with Facebook.
Apple and Google once shared a common enemy — Microsoft — and had different enough products and goals to coexist symbiotically. But with Google creating and selling Android devices as a direct competitor to the iPhone, swooping in to buy companies like AdMob under Apple’s nose and bringing the FCC in over anti-competitive maneuverings in iPhone app rejections, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has rallied his troops by calling bullsh*t on Google.
The situation poses a promising opportunity for other existing and emerging technology powerhouses. Who will be Apple’s new most-favored nation? It probably won’t be Amazon, given that little issue of the iPad and the iTunes Store. It could potentially be Microsoft, which is ironically looking for friends as it faces up Google in search and productivity products. But it’s clear that Apple holds grudges. How about Yahoo or AOL for their reach? They may have more baggage than assets. At this point signs and logic are pointing to Apple’s new best friend being Facebook.
TechCrunch reported earlier this week based on uncited sources that Apple will soon add Facebook Connect integration to iTunes. I’ve heard the same thing, and further that Facebook could become the social layer on top of the Apple experience. It would be similar to but broader than the way Google Maps is integrated into location information across iPhone applications — with deep implications for personalization and Hermes Wallets easy authentication across the user experience and for app developers. Instead of that crappy experience of leaving every app to go to the web to log in to Facebook Connect, you could integrate your Apple and Facebook accounts once, directly.
Apple, which has completely missed out on the social web, would get a huge leg up with the web’s premium social service. And the partnership could be just as helpful for Facebook (which, of course, has positioned itself squarely against Google as well), in terms of enabling commerce.
That’s because the real prize here, for both Facebook and Apple, is authenticated payments for digital and real-world goods. Probably the single most important alliance to be brokered today is the connection between users’ online identity and their bank accounts. Spending money online and encouraging your friends to follow your lead is a huge market (here’s the obligatory call-back to the problematic but perhaps just before-its-time Facebook Beacon product). The Facebook social graph plus iTunes’ 125 million credit card accounts would be formidable. With their powers combined it would be much harder for PayPal, Google and Amazon to compete.
Facebook and Apple have long been chummy, with some of the earliest corporate participation on the site being the “Apple Students” group, which dated back to at least 2006 and foreshadowed the current Fan Page product. And funnily enough, just like Apple has lagged on social, Facebook has lagged on music.
Facebook already has the beginnings of an alliance with PayPal to allow international advertisers to pay without credit cards (PayPal says it has more than 81 million Prada Scarf active accounts). But as TechCrunch points out, Apple’s Lala acquisition could help be the connector between the two companies, given the music startup’s previous experience working with Facebook on allowing users to gift songs.
Still, there’s one indicator that Facebook and Apple are definitely not on the same page yet. At launch, there was no Facebook iPad application — an obvious fit for the device — and someone on Apple’s crack app review team let through a paid Facebook rip-off app that fooled and confused customers last weekend until Facebook had it shut down for trademark infringement.
Photo of Steve Jobs by Curious Lee. Mark Zuckerberg by Deney Tereio via Flickr, Under CC License.