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Justin Bieber in Hong Kong? Nope it's a tubby Tory in a suit.
I was in Beijing last week (gratuitous photo-porn post coming soon) and had the strangest experience. Everyone was actually pretty friendly. I mean, not bend-over-backwards have-a-nice-day friendly but, you know, civil. I was not shouted at, hockled on or barged out of a queue. It was a thoroughly relaxing weekend.
All of which made me think how parochial and moany Hong Kongers can be, especially on the thorny issue of mainland tourist "locusts". I'm not saying the big city types of Beijing are representative of the entire Middle Kingdom, certainly they're not of the tourists who swarm the streets of Tsim Tsa Chui. But Hong Kong's NIMBY shrillness is increasingly getting on my wick.
Or at least it was, until a couple of days ago when this little rocky outcrop of 7 million people outdid itself. The occasion? Last British governor of the former colony and current BBC Trust boss Chris Patten was in town to open an exhibition at the Maritime Museum. Now we all know colonial era Hong Kong flags are increasingly being waved about by protesters a) to get on the nerves of the Communist Party b) to protest against what many see as an erosion of civil liberties, press freedom and rule of law here and c) because the Union flag is, quite frankly, a design classic. But the bizarre scenes which greeted Patten's appearance outside the museum last night took the colonial love-in to a whole new level.
I'm pretty sure portly Patten has never received quite so rapturous a reception. He didn't really know what to do with himself as God Save the Queen started blaring from a nearby loudspeaker and fans holding banners such as "Dear Governor Patten, we miss you so much" and shouting "we love you" jostled to get a view of the tubby Tory. Some had even waited over 3 hours to catch a glimpse of their silver haired hero, who by now presumably thinks he's some kind of grey-suited rock star.
The irony, of course, as we've mentioned many times on the Noodle, is that Britain never made much of an effort while it was in charge here to transition to a system of government democratically elected by universal suffrage. On the other hand, what it did manage was to uphold those precious civil liberties pretty well. Following the recent knife attack on former Ming Pao editor Kevin Lau, two execs from the soon-to-be-launched Hong Kong Morning News were attacked in broad daylight this week by four men armed with iron bars. Hong Kong is an increasingly dangerous place to be a newspaperman.
The saddest sight during the Patten-love in for a definite article pedant like me, however, was one of the banners held up by his adoring fans. "Save us from the hell!" it read. Hmmm. I imagine another might have added: "Look what's happened since you left us Chris. All our grammar are wrong now!"
Tags: china, chris patten, civil liberties, colonialism, communist party, governor of hong kong, governor patten, hong kong, hong kong protests, kevin lau, last governor hong kong, one country two systems, press freedom, SAR
Best dim sum in Hong Kong? Lung King Heen
I'm glad I saved Lung King Heen till pretty late on in my Hong Kong sojourn. Like flying business class for the first time, once you've done it, everything seems inferior by comparison. I'd hate to have spent the past two years moping about from one 'sub-standard' dim sumerie to the next; bemoaning the stolid thickness of the pastry, the prosaic mediocrity of the filling and the sub-standard Ryanair-ness of the service.
As it is I've had a blast so far. But good dim sum is not great dim sum and Lung King Heen has brilliantly blown my carefully constructed 'dim sum quality graph' out of the water.
On that fateful Saturday lunchtime a fortnight ago we were escorted into a light, airy room – a picture of modest understatement (apart from the silver leaf ceiling) as befits the first and only Michelin 3 star Chinese restaurant in the world.
I'm not one to dwell on surroundings as long as the food is good, but this is one of the nicest dining rooms I've ever had the pleasure to park my overfed arse in. Everything from the silver-plated tea warmer to the matching dim sum basket holders, the elegant Chinese tea pots and art deco-like toothpick holders gelled effortlessly. As did the service; less obsequious than the two starred Tin Lung Heen across the harbour and only missing a beat once when we waiting 10 minutes for our menus.
I'd made my mind up to stuff as many different little treats down my cake hole as possible on that, my first and probably last visit. Cheung fan came first – the thinnest, lightest rice noodle rolls I've ever tasted. A scallop version slippery and singing of the sea came with a nice bamboo crunch while an earthy mushroom variety was bejewelled with finely chopped carrots and mange touts. Next came ha gao – shrimp dumplings containing huge juicy prawns entombed in ethereally thin rice flour casing. This dish is a kind of steak-frites test of a good dim sum restaurant and it passed with ease. Turnip cake came with the addition of dried scallops (conpoy) and was all the better for it, although I'd have liked the edges to be a bit more crispy.
The standout dishes came later. Sea bass dumplings were filled with soft, delicate fish and, unexpectedly, chopped okra, which gave the parcels a different texture and helped bind the whole together. From the subtlety of that dumpling we then got a huge garlic kick from prawn spring rolls. Again those monster prawns, fat and juicy and this time wrapped in paper-thin deep fried wantan pastry.It was served with Worcester sauce which was a nice touch to cut through the greasiness of the dish. Xiao long bao followed, the best I've had outside of Din Tai Fung – thin casing, and a juicy, umami-packed porky filling, with each bao perched on its own little bamboo gazebo for easy serving.
The best we had, though, was the lobster and scallop shumai. At one piece for around HK$45 it's not cheap but if there's one dish you try off this menu it should be this one. Like a greatest-hits-of-the-sea shumai, juicy chunks of lobster and minced scallops came wrapped in a strange green steamed wantan case topped with another prawn – just in case lobster and scallops weren't enough seafood for you. Sadly even my oversized gob wasn't big enough to take this in one bite which led to some rather inelegant spoon-sawing in the basket. But it was incredible.
All told the bill came to around HK$750 with jasmine tea, which for cooking of this quality in these surroundings is not bad. I'd be back in a second but I've got some graph rewrites to do first.
Tags: best dim sum hong kong, chinese 3 star michelin, four seasons hong kong, hong kong, Lung king heen, michelin 3 star dim sum
Hong Kong's press freedom knifed in the back
It's a rather sombre Noodle entry this week after the shocking news that former Ming Pao editor Kevin Lau Chun-to is in critical condition after being attacked near his home by a knife wielding motorcycle "hitman".
For those not familiar, Lau was recently removed from his role as chief editor of the independent Chinese language daily and replaced by a pro-Beijinger in a move widely seen as yet another attempt to muzzle Hong Kong's press freedom.
Just last weekend 6,000 protestors gathered in the wake of Lau's demotion and a growing sense that Beijing is increasingly interfering in their SAR's affairs in a way which is undermining the "one country, two systems" ideal HK was founded on post-97.
Ming Pao has apparently put up a HK$1m reward for info leading to the arrest of Lau's attackers, who struck around 10.30am on Wednesday as he was walking from a breakfast eatery in Sai Wan Ho Street, Shau Kei Wan.
The 49-year-old was apparently slashed three times by the motorbike passenger, once on each leg and another cut exposing his chest cavity and lungs.
Police "sources" told the SCMP "it was a classic Triad hit", intended to "warn him", and presumably any other outspoken journalists in Hong Kong.
So is it really a Triad hit? And in that case, are the Triads now carrying out the will of the Communist Party?
Getting local gangsters to do their dirty work would certainly enable a canny bit of plausible deniability on the part of the latter. Just as it manages to keep arms length from any cyber incursions on foreign targets, so using the HK underworld as a proxy would keep Xi and co's hands nice and clean, whilst scaring the crap out of outspoken local editors (if there are any left).
It's not a given though. The criminal underground gangs of Hong Kong have historically been fiercely pro-China (ie anti-British/Russian/American etc) but not necessarily pro CPC. Is it simply that, like most local businessmen, Triad leaders don't want to see the press rile their Beijing-allied business interests?
Or is this all just a massive bit of misdirection? A third party using the MO of the Triads to confuse the cops….
The Foreign Correspondents' Club had the following statement:
The Club reiterates its view that the growing number of attacks against members of the press in Hong Kong needs to be taken seriously by the local administration. Hong Kong's reputation as a free and international city will suffer if such crimes go unsolved and unpunished.
No shit. There were 18 attacks on HK hacks in 2012, compared with one or two assaults in previous years, according to the HK Journalists' Association. It's still low compared to some repressive regimes, but then, Hong Kong is nominally a rule of law kinda place.
Either way there's about as much chance of the perp being caught as charismatic CY Leung hosting his own prime-time BBC1 chat show. No-one really wants them caught, despite the tough words of the SAR government. Imagine the face-loss involved in HK and Beijing if they were? The police are clueless and incapable, even if they wanted to. Whoever did it probably slipped over the border many hours ago.
So where does that leave Hong Kong and its rapidly diminishing press freedom? Well, it'll certainly be a few more positions down on RWB's Press Freedom Index this time next year, that's for sure.
I said last week that self censorship was the most insidious type of censorship because it's virtually impossible for the public to find out how or why a story has been altered or spiked to suit the political leanings of its editors. Well, with the added incentive of "not getting knifed", I'm pretty sure from now on there'll be more journalistic punch-pulling going on in Hong Kong.
The brilliant thing about creating a climate of fear is that you only have to sanction something like this once and human nature will do the rest.
Tags: beijing, communist party of china, hong kong knife attack, hong kong motorbike knife attack, kevin lau chun-to, ming pao, ming pao editor, press freedom, reporters without borders, SAR, shau kei wan, triads
George and the locusts, coming soon to a former colony near YOU
There's probably something about living in the shadow of the world's most populous nation and pre-eminent global authoritarian one-party state, that can't help but make one a little jittery. At least, that's my over-simplistic explanation of why Hong Kongers seem so quick to mobilise in protest. Last week all the fuss was about the not-so-subtle erosion of the SAR's enshrined press freedoms while this week the news cycle has been dominated by a rather ugly anti-mainlander rally.
In the sort of irony bypass that's become wearingly familiar to anyone following public protests in Hong Kong and China, around 100 locals paraded the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday waving anti mainlander banners and scuffling with passers-by. The reason? They believe HK is full up and can't take any more of these rude, uncouth big spenders from across the border. They conveniently glossed over the fact that tourism makes up a decent wodge of Hong Kong's economy (around 4.5%) and that they were being pretty rude and uncouth themselves on the Sunday march, shouting slogans like, "Go back to mainland China".
The Communist Party of China has spent the past 60-odd years carefully constructing the narrative that the Middle Kingdom and its territories (Taiwan, Tibet etc) belong to a unified Han race; a kind of master race of the East rising once again to its rightful place at the centre of the universe. I guess Hong Kong didn't get the memo. Want some more irony? The protesters also shouted the word "Shina" at mainland shoppers on Sunday. That particular moniker was last used by imperial Japan back in the day as a derogatory word to describe China. Want another? The Sunday protesters were apparently carrying British colonial-era Hong Kong flags to signal their otherness from the mainland.
You've got to hand it to the protesters, they've managed to do the unthinkable and actually arouse some sympathy for the hapless 'locusts' caught in the crossfire. All that those bum bag and velour leopard skin onesie-wearing gits want to do is spend a shedload on some gaudy luxury goods, jump a few queues and act rather unsympathetically to their surroundings, which is not strictly speaking illegal. As I've said before, Hong Kong has made a rod for its own back in allowing developers to build luxury shopping mall after luxury shopping mall to attract these tourists. It's no wonder why the SAR is so limited when it comes to theatres, arts spaces and non-tourist oriented shops/bars/anything.
Go George!
I have a theory about this particular protest. I reckon it was incited by the UK Chancellor as a classic bit of magician's misdirection, so he could slip into the country almost unannounced this week. Now I'm not quite sure why gorgeous George has decided to make a speech about the UK economy from Hong Kong today, unless the rationale was that the last remaining group of people on the planet who might not be tempted to give him a good shoeing are the Mr and Mses of the British Chambers of Commerce here.
Or it might be that only local business leaders in Honkers are predisposed to take George and his ridiculously high fringe line seriously. "Balanced economy? You don't even have a balanced haircut mate."
Anyway, Lord Gideon of Tatton has shared his message that the UK economy might just be ever so slightly too reliant on consumer spending and the City of London. So well done there, exactly what every economist worth his salt, and the Governor of the Bank of England, has been saying for rather a long time now.
Still, thumbs up for getting there in the end chancellor. You can go back to the UK now, and while you're at it can you take some of these revolting Chinese with you? We've got enough take-aways here as it is.
Tags: anti-mainlander protest, balanced economy, chancellor exchequer, china, city of london, george osborne, hong kong, imperial japan, japan, locusts, mainlanders, osborne speech hong kong, shina, sino-japan war, tatton, tsim sha tsui, TST, uk economy
Hacked off in Hong Kong: the slow painful death of a free press
Do you hear that? That's the sound of 1,000 Old Etonians shouting "I told you so!!" at the top of their over-privileged lungs. Why? Because of what's happening to Hong Kong's much cherished press freedom.
This week two reports were published and the verdict was in – this former colony can no longer be said to have a free press. There were always suspicions and concerns that Beijing would come to influence the media here post-97, but it only influences in the way that George Best drove under the 'influence' of alcohol – let's be honest, it's pretty much rolled up the white flag.
The first report, Reporters Without Borders' annual Press Freedom Index, now puts Hong Kong in 61st out of 180, three points down from last year, below those democratic bulwarks of Burkina Faso, Moldova and Chile. To put this in perspective Hong Kong was 34th in 2010 and 18th in 2002. So what went wrong?
It's certainly not the fault of the hacks. Well, not most of them. Many still maintain the proud tradition of holding the authorities to account and speaking the truth – which was to be fair a hangover of the colonial days – or at least they try. Local radio host Li Wei-Ling, who has been described as "critical" of the local SAR government, was sacked this week after nine years in her role in what she claims was a deliberate attempt to muzzle her.
No, the problem lies with vested interests. Reporters Without Borders had this to say:
The Chinese Communist Party's growing subjugation of the Hong Kong executive and its pressure on the Hong Kong media through its "Liaison Office" is increasingly compromising media pluralism there.
The problem is that Hong Kong media is owned now almost entirely by businessmen with vested interests in China. In fact, more than 50 per cent have been given seats on major political assemblies, the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Add this to the fact no-one wants to piss off the big bucks advertisers from the mainland and you've got a recipe for a fourth estate not fit for purpose.
It's not that the media is always Beijing's lapdog – the SCMP today reported, for example, that the Town Planning Board is about to give the Chinese PLA a piece of prime harbour front land on which to build a "military berth". However, the issue is that as readers we don't know how much self-censorship goes on. This is the most insidious form of censorship, not like the blatant stuff that goes on the mainland, where this week the Ministry of Truth issued an order for all websites to censor the Reporters Without Borders story. This Register headline neatly sums up the irony: the censors effectively censoring a report about censorship.
Another scathing report out this week, from the Committee to Protect Journalists, quotes award-winning former SCMP hack Paul Mooney on the issue of self-censorship.
"The problem is that people on the outside can't tell what's being censored on the inside. What outsiders can't see is what is being ignored, spiked or rewritten in order to play down critical stories," he said.
The CPJ continues:
Mooney built his career on investigative and human rights reporting but during the last nine months of his employment, he had only two news stories in the newspaper, and one of them was about pandas. "I don't believe the China editors rejected all my story ideas. I think [Wang] Xiangwei told them not to take anything from me," he said.
Wang Xiangwei, for the record, was the SCMP's new editor at the time, the first mainlander to be put in charge of the venerable old rag in its history, in itself an ominous statement of intent.
Hong Kong's press freedom is enshrined under the Basic Law, the mini-constitution drawn up as part of the UK handover deal. However, it very soon won't be worth the paper it's written on, and thousands more former colonisers will have the self-satisfaction to know that it was they, not the current shambles, who were in charge during Hong Kong's true glory days.
Tags: basic law, beijing, censorship, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, colony, Committee to Protect Journalists, communist party, fourth estate, hong kong, hong kong british rule, hong kong press freedom, Li Wei-Ling, liaison committe, National People's Congress, press freedom index, reporters without borders, sacking, SAR, uk, Wang Xiangwei
Luang Prabang: waking the Sleeping Beauty of Asia
Love or loathe China, you've got to hand it to 'em, they know exactly how to plan a major holiday season. Celebrating the lunar new year means you get to take a few days off in arguably the most depressing months of the year: January and/or February. Now as much as staying in Hong Kong and watching the fireworks explode over the harbour appealed, I'd already seen a TV news mock-up of exactly how they'd look about a million times. So where to?
Laos is the only landlocked country in southeast Asia. A tiny, mountainous land jammed in between China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. Often overlooked by travellers in need of a Thai green curry fix or those who fancy staring at the unmarked graves of Khymer Rouge victims, it's still mercifully under-developed. I can't attest to anywhere else in the country, but Luang Prabang, in the north, is the most charming little Asian city I've ever been to. Honest; I do not use the 'c' word lightly.
It was part of French Indochina, but has been wonderfully preserved by a combination of UNESCO and the strict oversight of a single party socialist government – the sort that seems so beloved of countries round those parts. Colonial buildings are filled with craft shops, cool bars and great restaurants serving genuinely delicious (not 'I'm-only-eating-this-crap-because-it's-authentic') grub. There is a strict curfew which kicks in about 11.30pm – unless you head to the out-of-town bowling alley – but even this didn't put me off. After all, there's always getting hammered in your hotel room watching News 24.
Thanks to its geography, everything we ate was local and organic (pesticides being too expensive for farmers to use and transport infrastructure basic to say the least) and bloody great. Cooking oil was, or is, expensive in Laos so the cuisine is more about grilled, steamed, or stewed things rather than sautéed, or deep fried.
Local lightly spiced sausages and cured saucisson (cheers France); grilled game, buffalo and river fish know generically as ping; meat or fish stuffed into bamboo with egg and aromatics and steamed to a kind of savoury custard; soups and stews flavoured with local basil (very aniseedy) lemon grass, ginger, lime leaves and local bitter greens; laab salads; and the ubiquitous jaw beong, a fiery-sweet local chilli jam mixed with buffalo jerky that did wonders for my lunchtime chicken baguette. It was all brilliantly fresh, zingy and cheap – even in some of the town's most expensive restaurants a meal never came to more than £20 a head with booze. On the last day we discovered this list of delights is only skimming the surface of a huge variety of indigenous dishes – understandable give the country boasts over 100 ethnic tribes.
Some-ping
As the former royal capital and an intensely religious place, Luang Prabang has some great sightseeing fodder, including over 30 monasteries – the best of which is Wat Xieng Tong, built in 1561. These manage to blend effortlessly with the low rise white washed colonial buildings and the generally laid back, smiley vibe from the locals to create a place rightly described by the French as La Belle Endormie (Sleeping Beauty). Even with the in-pouring of hocking, obnoxious Chinese tourists from across the border – who, our taxi driver told us, were banned from driving in the town last year because they blocked all the roads – the place was still a joy.
Xieng Thong monastery
So make sure Laos, or at least Luang Prabang, is on your next Asia trip. I don't exactly agree with one-party states but this is one of Asia's poorest countries and tourism a fast-growing industry so you could do worse than come over and sink a few Beer Lao in the spirit of foreign aid.
More smug photos to follow:
Pak Ou Caves
Sunset over Luang Prabang
Tags: beer laos, best food laos, best food luang prabang, best holiday laos, curfew, jaew bong, jaw bong, la belle endormie, laos, laotian food, luang prabang, monastery, people's democratic republic laos, ping, top sights luang prabang, wat xieng thong
Best beef brisket noodles in Hong Kong: Kau Kee
Right, we've slurped our way through the best ramen in town and chomped down the tastiest wantan mee Hong Kong has to offer. Now it's time to hit the motherload. The final part of this culinary triptych: beef brisket noodles.
I have to admit to having lived nearly two years in Hong Kong without trying beef brisket noodles, which is tantamount to treason here. I've tried beef noodle dishes in the past in Taiwan and found them to be too sweet, woefully lacking in punch and, obviously, the porky hit that makes ramen so moreish. But done well these little babies can hold their own against all-comers in the soup-noodle world. Classic beef brisket noods don't have the complex aromatic broth of that other famous beef soup dish, Vietnamese pho, which makes the quality of the beef and the noodles all the more important. But done right it's a thing of beauty. A heartwarming blend of meltingly soft beef belly, refreshing, delicately scented soup and springy noodles.
I'm afraid any of you looking for some little out-of-the way undiscovered noodle shack previously hidden from Google's prying search spiders and the evil clutches of CNNGo reporters are likely to be disappointed. Sister Wah (Wah Jeh) and Sang Kee are both close seconds, but my top tip is, surprise surprise Kau Kee on Gough Street.
This place has been in business for nearly a century and I've never walked past without noticing a queue of eager punters waiting outside. Luckily service is brusque and diners get in, slurp down and get out pretty quickly. The menu is quite long but basically boils down to two options, do you want beef brisket in clear soup or beef tendon (a slightly fattier cut) in curry soup? Each comes with either rice noodles, vermicelli-style noodles, flat noodles or e-fu noodles, which are about the shape of tagliatelle.
We got curry with flat noodles and beef brisket clear soup with e-fu in the end. Stunning. Soft beef, gently aromatic soup and al dente e-fu noodles in the one bowl and powerful curry-flavoured beef with softer and thinner noodles in the other. On balance I think the original clear soup and springy e-fu is my favourite. Beef, soup, noodles, and a scattering of spring onions. Simples.
You can get in an out for around HK$40 a head too. If you can avoid the lunch and evening queues, I'd recommend you go this very minute before the place gets priced out of the area like every other central Hong Kong eatery. Whatever you do don't put it off for two years like an idiot.
Kau Kee; 21 Gough Street, Central, HK
Tags: beef brisket noodles, best beef brisket noodles hong kong, central, curry beef noodles, e-fu noodles, gough street noodles, hong kong, kau kee
China readies army of Stephen Hawkings to take over the WORLD
China's insatiable desire to be number one at EVERYTHING just took a turn for the creepy after it emerged a Shenzhen firm could be gearing up to offer parents an embryo screening process – allowing them to choose their brightest heirs and ditch the thickos.
BGI is apparently mapping the genes of maths geniuses and comparing them to a sample from the general populous in a bid to work out which genetic building blocks make them so clever.
This will be done by its Cognitive Genetics (CG) division. However, the resulting info could theoretically be used by another of its divisions, which currently provides genetic screening for birth defects, to allow parents to choose the 'smartest' embryos.
While this might all sound quite frankly chilling to many Western parents, it's likely to be snapped up by ever pragmatic Chinese mums and dads to-be keen to maximise their RoI when it comes to procreating.
For the government too it has already become a major area of investment for Team China – the China Development Bank has apparently signed off $1.5bn in "collaborative funds" to BGI over the next decade.
The race to be first dominates everything in Chinese life. It's there in mainlanders who take queue jumping in shops to an art form; in scalpers who sell tickets outside of China's hospitals so you can see a doctor before the other shit-munchers; and in impatient air travellers who've unbuckled and begun rifling through the overhead compartment barely seconds after the plane has landed.
But it's most strongly manifest in the Tiger mothers who fill their children's every waking moments with study, hobbies and other 'self-improvement' activities designed to get them into the best school/college/university/job.
They'll then be on hand a year or two later to choose a husband/wife for their little one, making sure to find the best deal, the one that offers the best chance of business and financial prosperity.
It's a never-ending, unwinnable rat race which prioritises the acquisition of wealth and status above all else and turns humanity into one seething money-grabbing mass. Fuck joie de vivre, this is living life like a shark – stop moving forward and you die.
That's probably what was on obstetrician Zhang Shuxia's mind when she abducted seven infants between 2011 and 2013 and sold them to traffickers in Shaanxi province.
Zhang was given a suspended life sentence by a judge at Weinan Intermediate People's Court's this week after being found guilty of "violating professional and social ethics".
Yes, apparently there are officially still ethics in China, although only ones sanctioned by the Party – itself still an ungovernable black hole of corruption.
"Zhang used her position as medical personnel to fabricate reports about the infants, saying they suffered from birth defects or diseases that were hard to cure," the court ruling said.
She then abducted and sold the babies like a real life Goblin King.
Bad things happen all over the world and greed and covetousness are part of human nature.
But when a country of 1.4 billion people accelerating out of hardship and poverty at the speed of sound develops a moral vacuum of this size and scope, it's time to get a little bit scared.
Tags: BGI, china, China Development Bank, cognitive genetics, communist party, communist party corrpution, genetics, graft, labyrinth, shenzhen, stephen hawking, tiger mothers, Zhang Shuxia
A Noodle abroad: Thailand versus Cambodia
How did you spend your New Year holidays? For me it was a return to Thailand and Cambodia on a whirlwind six day trip. It was a tale of two countries which bloody hate each other but have a mutual friend – the big spending flabby white tourist.
Mutual mistrust and hostility have characterised relations between the two countries since the time when they weren't nation states at all but the kingdoms of Siam and Khymer.
The animosity is still invoked by modern day politicians to rally the people of both modern states and popularise their policies – most recently evident in a century-old border dispute which was finally resolved last year by the UN.
In many ways Thailand is a canary-down-the-mine portent of what might be for neighbouring Cambodia – a country decimated by the bloody tyranny of the Khymer Rouge in the '70s and the decades of instability that followed.
But after revisiting both places, I rather hope that doesn't happen.
Yes, Bangkok has built up and out massively since even a decade ago. Skytrain, MRT, airport rail links and other big infrastructure projects have brought it well and truly into the 21st century, thanks in no small part to a steady stream of tourist cash.
Soi Cowboy – Bangkok
Yes, its people are friendly, its beaches lovely (even though they're packed with dreadful Russian oligarchs and their trophy wenches) and its 5-star hotels cocooned us in air-conditioned comfort.
But if I had the choice I'd probably go back to its near neighbour. I've said it before but Cambodians haven't yet been worn down and made cynically acquisitive by a never-ending barrage of rudeness from arrogant tourists.
The service industry may be haplessly incompetent in some of the bars, restaurants and hotels you visit but just get over it; you're paying a fraction of the cost you would elsewhere and there's always a sincere smile when all's said and done.
Plus Siem Reap*, our base for exploring the epic Angkor Wat, is possibly the nicest SE Asian town I've ever visited. Lovely low-rise colonial-era buildings housing cafes, bars and decent restaurants, and a main entertainment thoroughfare called Pub Street. What's not to like?
Well, Korean and Chinese tourists who treat the whole Angkor wonderland like a theme park, for one. On my visit they managed to shout, bawl and litter their way around the temples like neo-colonial overlords, getting in the way of any good photo opportunity and turning a place of beauty, wonderment and silent contemplation into downtown Shenzhen.
That said, witnessing a tour group in which some of the girls are dressed in boob tubes and ripped jean hot pants only serves to highlight the gentle dignity of the Khymer people.
So tip big – they locals your money more than Thailand – and enjoy it.
*(Siem Reap means "Siam defeated" in Khymer … told you they didn't get on)
Ko Samed beach, Thailand
NYE tuk-tuk-ing, Bangkok
Bayon, Angkor Thom
Bayon temple
Ta Phrom
A bit more Lara Croft action, Ta Phrom
Electro Siem Reap
Always time for one last pancake…
Tags: angkor thom, angkor wat, bangkok, bayon, best sights in angkor wat, best sights in siem reap, cambodia, hangover 2, hangover 2 street bangkok, khymer, khymer rouge, ko samed, pub street, russians in ko samed, siam, siem reap, siem reap night market, sightseeing angkor wat, sightseeing siem reap, soi cowboy, southeast asia, ta phrom, thailand, tourist in Asia


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SAG Awards and the Bazillion Other Awards - A Mini Rant
I don't write this post implying that "I don't care." Or that I don't understand the difference between the various award bodies, but honestly, award season's full scope is hardly interesting without a little bit of variety.
Who was surprised tonight by any of the SAG award winners? Not only do the nominee list start to stack up in ways that are remarkably similar, but as awards are announced, there is hardly any variety. Tonight's film winners lined up exactly with the big winner's at the Golden Globes.
Maybe consensus has been reached that the performance of the year are those of Christoph Waltz, Sandra Bullock, Mo'Nique, and Jeff Bridges.
So why do we all need to keep on having award shows awarding the same people?
If any category makes the SAG awards interesting it is the best ensemble category one of my favorite awards of the whole season because it's completely different. This award goes to the cast of a film, so in a way it signifies to me the best film for acting...so this year, some films like Avatar, don't make the top 5. This year's type 5 ensemble nominees were An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Nine and Precious.
The winner...Inglorious Basterds. Who could have known with certainty which film was going to win, and who can truly gauge what a win in this category means for the rest of award season...and why should it have to mean anything else for awards season...it should instead me a special accomplishment to get nominated for this award, one that while award to selected cast members, should also be meaningful for the directors, producers, and screenwriters who shaped and presented these roles and performances. Now this to me is a special award.
Tonight's Screen Actor's Guild win for Mo'Nique is her 18th win for her role in Precious, and Oscar nominations haven't even been announced. Think that's a lot...this is Waltz's 20th win for his performance, Bullock's 3rd win (I'm sure she's still able to act humble and excited when she wins), and Bridge's 4th win.
Makes you wonder what Christoph Waltz and Mo'Nique do with all those awards and trophies? Time to buy a trophy case I suppose.
Andrew K. said...
Ha. I signed off a few days ago, and I knew IB was winning. I didn't watch, but no surprises - how typical. Ah well.
I guess I'm still, after all these years, starry-eyed. I love the idea of awards, both for the joy they bring to the not-blasé types and for the what-were-they-thinking?-moments

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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10 ianuarie este a zecea zi a calendarului gregorian.

Evenimente

 49 î.Hr.: Iuliu Cezar traversează Rubiconul, ocupă Roma și alungă pe Pompeius.
 236: Papa Fabian îi succede lui Anteriu și devine cel de-al 20-lea papă.
 1430: Filip cel Bun, Ducele de Burgundia, înființează Ordinul Lâna de Aur, cel mai prestigios, exclusivist și scump ordin de cavalerism din lume.
 1475: Bătălia de la Podul Înalt: Victoria de la Vaslui prin care Ștefan cel Mare, domnul Moldovei, a zdrobit armatele otomane conduse de Suleiman Pașa.
 1545: Se tipărește, la Târgoviște, "Molitvelnicul" lui Dimitrie Liubavici și se reia activitatea tipografică în Transilvania.
 1661: Nicolae Milescu a tradus, din grecește, "Cartea cu multe întrebări".
 1810: Napoleon Bonaparte divorțează de prima lui soție Joséphine.
 1839: Gheorghe Asachi publică la Iași, în tipografia Albinei Românești, lucrarea "Atlas românesc geografic", format din 8 hărți, primul de acest gen în literatura de specialitate.
 1863: Metropolitan Railway, cea mai veche cale ferată subterană din lume, se deschide între Paddington și Farringdon, marcând începutul metroului londonez.
 1880: Gruparea liberală în frunte cu Gheorghe Vernescu ("liberalii sinceri"), de orientare politică conservatoare, părăsește Partidul Liberal, constituindu-se ca grupare politică de sine stătătoare în Partidul Liberalilor Sinceri.
 1920: Tratatul de la Versailles intră în vigoare, punând capăt oficial Primului Război Mondial.
 1920: Liga Națiunilor ia naștere în mod oficial, odată cu intrarea în vigoare a Convenției Ligii Națiunilor, ratificată de 42 de state în 1919.
 1946: Are loc prima Adunare Generală a ONU, la Central Hall Westminster, Londra. Participă toți reprezentanții celor 51 de națiuni, membre cu drepturi depline ale ONU.
 1949: Au fost lansate discurile de vinilin de către CBC (45 rpm) și Columbia (33,3 rpm).
 1949: În Japonia, este stabilită legal ziua de muncă de 8 ore.
 1966: A avut loc premiera filmului "Duminica la ora 6", în regia lui Lucian Pintilie, care a câștigat Premiul special al juriului la Festivalul de la Mar del Plata.
 1966: Semnarea, în Tașkent, a "Declarației privind reglementarea conflictului indo-pakistanez".
 1984: Statele Unite și Sfântul Scaun (Orașul Vatican) restabilesc relațiile diplomatice depline după aproape 117 ani, anulând interdicția Congresului Statelor Unite din 1867 privind finanțarea publică pentru un astfel de trimis diplomatic.
 1995: Prin rezoluția nr. 48/126, Adunarea Generala a Națiunilor Unite a proclamat anul 1995 drept Anul internațional al toleranței.
 1997: Miron Cozma, liderului minerilor din Valea Jiului, a fost arestat pentru mineriada din septembrie 1991. El a fost acuzat și trimis în judecată pentru subminarea puterii de stat, infracțiuni la legea siguranței pe calea ferata și pentru port ilegal de armă.
 2005: A intrat in vigoare, în Italia, legea ce interzice fumatul în public.
 2005: Coreea de Nord a declarat că posedă arme nucleare.
 2019: La Ateneul Român a avut loc ceremonia oficială de lansare a președinției române a Consiliului Uniunii Europene, prin vizita președintelui Consiliului European Donald Tusk, președintelui Comisiei Europene, Jean-Claude Juncker, și a Colegiului comisarilor. Discursul în limba română ținut de Donald Tusk a impresionat mai multă lume.

Nașteri
 1480: Margareta de Austria, Ducesă de Savoia, Prințesă de Asturia (d. 1530)
 1493: Nicolaus Olahus, umanist și istoric de origine română, arhiepiscop de Esztergom și guvernator al Ungariei (d. 1568)
 1748: Antonio Carnicero, pictor spaniol (d. 1814)
 1769: Michel Ney, general și mareșal francez (d. 1815)
 1799: Petrache Poenaru, revoluționar pașoptist, unul dintre organizatorii învățământului național (d. 1875)
 1821: Caroline Charlotte Mariane de Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prințesă Moștenitoare a Danemarcei (d. 1876)
 1853: John Martin Schaeberle, astronom german și american (d. 1924)
 1864: Marele Duce Petru Nicolaevici al Rusiei (d. 1931)

 1869: Valeriu Braniște, publicist și om politic, membru de onoare al Academiei Române (d. 1928)
 1883: Alexei Tolstoi, prozator și dramaturg rus (d. 1945)
 1883: Maria Henrietta de Austria (d. 1956)
 1896: Alexandru Busuioceanu, eseist, poet și traducător român (d. 1961)
 1906: Grigore Moisil, matematician român (d. 1973)
 1932: Aurel Vainer, politician român de etnie evreiască
 1936: Robert Wilson, fizician american, laureat al Premiului Nobel
 1942: Walter Hill, regizor, scenarist și producător de film american
 1943: Petre Străchinaru, politician român
 1945: Rod Stewart, cântăreț britanic
 1949: George Foreman, boxer american
 1951: Dan Damaschin, poet român
 1956: Zoia Alecu, cântăreață română
 1960: Ioana Pârvulescu, critic literar român
 1979: Anna Lesko, cântăreață din România
 1998: Stefano Oldani, ciclist italian
 2007: Maléna, cântăreață armeană, câștigătoare al Concursului Muzical Eurovision Junior 2021

Decese
 681: Papa Agaton
 1276: Papa Grigore al X-lea
 1520: Jo Gwang-jo, învățat neo-confucianist coreean (n. 1482)
 1683: Louis César, Conte de Vexin, fiu nelegitim al regelui Ludovic al XIV-lea al Franței  (n. 1672)
 1778: Carl Linnaeus, botanist suedez (n. 1707)
 1822: Bathilde d'Orléans, Ducesă de Bourbon (n. 1750)
 1824: Victor Emmanuel I al Sardiniei (n. 1759)

 1840: Prințesa Elisabeta a Regatului Unit, a treia fiică a regelui George al III-lea al Regatului Unit (n. 1770)
 1862: Samuel Colt, inventator american, constructor al revolverului care îi poartă numele (n. 1814)
 1888: Jacques Amans, pictor francez (n. 1801)
 1947: André Savignon, scriitor francez, câștigător al Premiului Goncourt în 1912 (n. 1878)
 1951: Sinclair Lewis scriitor american, laureat al Premiului Nobel pentru Literatură (n. 1885)
 1957: Gabriela Mistral, poetă chiliană, laureată a Premiului Nobel pentru Literatură (n. 1889)
 1971: Coco Chanel, celebră creatoare franceză de modă (n. 1883)
 1980: Petru Caraman, filolog român (n. 1898)
 1989: Cristea Avram, actor român
 1997: Lordul Alexander Todd, chimist suedez, laureat al Premiului Nobel pentru Chimie (n. 1907)
 2005: Prințesa Joséphine-Charlotte a Belgiei, soția lui Jean, Mare Duce de Luxembourg (n. 1927)
 2007: Carlo Ponti, producător cinematografic, soțul Sofiei Loren (n. 1912)
 2016: Teofil Codreanu, fotbalist român (n. 1941)
 2016: David Bowie, cântăreț, compozitor, producător și inginer audio englez (n. 1947)
 2017: Roman Herzog, jurist și politician german, președinte al Germaniei (n. 1934)
 2020: Qaboos bin Said Al Said, Sultanul Omanului (1970-2020), (n. 1940)
 2021: Constantin Rezachevici, istoric român (n. 1943)
 2022: Margherita, Arhiducesa de Austria-Este, arhiducesă italiană (n. 1930)
 2022: Jeff Beck, chitarist rock englez (n. 1944)
 2023: Regele Constantin al II-lea al Greciei (n. 1940)

Sărbători

 Sf. Ier. Grigorie, episcopul Nyssei (calendar creștin-ortodox; calendar greco-catolic)
 Sf. Ier. Dometian, episcopul Meletinei (calendar creștin-ortodox; calendar greco-catolic)
 Sf. Cuv. Antipa de la Calapodești (calendar creștin-ortodox)
 Sf. Marcian (calendar greco-catolic)
 Sf. Grigore de Nyssa (calendar romano-catolic)
 Papa Agaton (calendar romano-catolic)
 Sf. Pavel Tebeul (calendar catolic)

 Benin: Sărbătoarea Vaudou

Note

! 10
! 01 10

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Tag Archives: Gonzalo Brito Pons
Mindfulness Shines A Light on Anger
Posted on September 28, 2016 by MBSR Mentorship | 1 comment
by Margaret Cullen and Gonzalo Brito Pons
Margaret Cullen and Gonzalo Brito Pons, co-authored "The Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook. Join them for the Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance (MBEB) Teacher Training Intensive, April 9-15, 2017 at EarthRise Retreat Center, Petaluma, CA. Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance is an empirically-supported 9-week psycho-educational group intervention that teaches mindfulness meditation and emotion training.
It's such a shame to think of how often we deride ourselves, and each other, for being "emotional." It's like jumping on someone for breathing. Emotion is a process that is a vital part of being alive. As the pioneering psychologist of emotions Paul Ekman has said, emotion is a kind of rapid, automatic appraisal of what's going on. It's influenced by our evolutionary past as well as our personal past, such that when "we sense that something important to our welfare is occurring…a set of physiological changes and emotional behaviors begins to deal with the situation."
You've been endowed with a nervous system that has evolved over thousands of generations in a way that you didn't choose. By the time you actually realize that you have a mind and a brain, the basic rules of how they work are already in place. The events that trigger our emotional responses are sometimes universal and sometimes personal. Almost anyone would feel fear at the sight of an oncoming car, but only some of us are afraid of hiking down steep trails while others happily scramble down them like a mountain goat. The triggers that each of us carries with us often come from early childhood and can continue quite unconsciously into adulthood.
And opportunities for emotion abound. Remembering, talking about, or imagining a past emotional scene or thinking of future scenarios can trigger emotions. Observing another person's emotions (even on a TV screen) can elicit an emotional response. Role playing or theater can elicit emotion; and so can seeing an event that offends our sensibilities, like someone talking on a cell phone at the symphony or throwing trash into the street.
One of our most potent emotions—whose inward and outward effects can have disastrous consequences—is anger. In evolutionary terms, its main adaptive function is to remove obstacles that thwart us. When we feel anger, it's because the primitive brain is trying to tell us something needs to change. We share this emotion with other mammals and even with reptiles. Baby humans come already well equipped with the capacity to get angry. If you hold a baby by her arms from behind, preventing her from grabbing a toy, she will get pretty angry, furrowing her brow, tightening her muscles, trying to move forcefully to get the toy, and perhaps shouting with a squeaky voice. When the baby grows up, she can have an analogous reaction when someone cuts her off on the road, especially if she's already late for an important meeting! Anger also shows up when you—or others you feel connected to—are treated unjustly, or when someone or something prevents you from meeting your goals and needs.
Regardless of what triggers them, emotional responses can be either functional or dysfunctional. If we automatically swerve from an oncoming car, the fear response is extremely functional. If we're afraid to leave the house for fear something terrible will happen, we are now in a disorder that is on the very dysfunctional side of fear, a disorder that no doubt is being triggered by an imported script from past trauma.
Until around the 1970s, it was commonly believed that the nervous system was essentially fixed throughout adulthood; that brain functions remained constant and that it was impossible for new neurons to develop after birth. If you were born with a "glass half-empty" attitude, it would be a life-sentence of unhappiness. Neuroscience has changed all that with the concept of neuroplasticity, which suggests that, in reality, human brains are flexible and change through experience. Although there are some fixed rules about what minds and brains can do, it's also true that there is a space of freedom to respond rather than react that can be cultivated through mindful observation and practice. And in that space, we have an opportunity to work creatively with the dysfunctional aspects and enhance the more functional aspects of our emotional life.
Consciously or not, we're constantly training our minds and brains to respond to circumstances. By virtue of repetition, our reactions crystallize into emotional patterns and neural pathways, which, in turn, influence the way we perceive reality. This is particularly true when we're in the grips of a strong emotion, which is sometimes called the refractory period, a period of time when we're only able to take in information and evoke memories that confirm, maintain, or justify the emotion we are feeling. This same mechanism that guides and focuses our attention can also distort our ability to deal with both new information and knowledge already stored that does not match the current emotion. We can all think of countless examples when we have missed obvious cues or forgotten historical data when we were "blinded" by a strong emotion. It's not called "blind rage" for nothing.
Blind and Blaming
Although it's quite possible to get mad at ourselves, the energy of anger is generally directed outward and it's often linked with blame. This tendency to blame, strike out, punish, and retaliate makes anger especially challenging to sit with, and a big source of interpersonal suffering. When we feel anger toward someone, our sense of "self" and "other" gets very solid. In this state, we exaggerate all the negative qualities of the other person and become blind to positive attributes, which in turn feeds the aversion. The complexity and nuance of the other is reduced to a monolithic negative cartoon called "the enemy."
We often wonder why we're angriest at those we're closest to. For one thing, people who know us intimately also know what can hurt us the most. Someone said, "Your family knows how to push your buttons because they actually installed them." But a less glib reason is that it tends to be safer to show anger to an intimate than to a stranger. You can express aggression to your partner when you're actually mad at your boss, probably because it's less likely your partner will fire you. We can be frustrated about ourselves but direct our anger outside. It's uncanny that we can even get quite angry at inanimate objects—a door, a table, a wall, or a shoe.
And that very fact reveals something that illuminates what's really happening: although it feels as if the source of anger is out there, the anger comes from within. Other people are just pretending to be the real enemies. In fact, it's possible to see them as our "patience coaches," offering us opportunities to explore and tame the anger habit. If everyone was nice and considerate, how could we train in patience, how could we learn to tame our anger?
There's an old story about a man who was sailing his boat on clear and sunny day, when a dense fog rolled in. Just as he had decided to return to shore, he noticed the profile of another boat coming in his direction. "Keep your distance!" the boatman shouted, concerned about a possible collision. But the other boat just kept approaching. The boatman used all his skills to swiftly shift direction, so there was more room for the other boat. He got really upset when he saw that the other boat changed its own course, now coming directly to him. "Stay out of my way!" he shouted again, but the other boat just kept coming closer, until it finally crashed into his boat.
The man was enraged: "You idiot! What the hell are you doing?!" He got totally worked up and continued his rampage until the fog lifted enough so that he was able to see that the other boat was empty—it was just an old abandoned boat floating downstream. Now he was perplexed and frustrated: To whom could he express his anger? Could he project his anger onto an empty boat? Without a person to blame, it was impossible to keep the story of anger going.
Ask yourself: Do I ever get mad at "empty boats"? If so, where does this anger come from? Where does it go?
Becoming aware of the inner terrain of anger can be helpful in catching it sooner and sparing ourselves and others the hurt and regret that often ensue from acting out anger. To work with anger, we need to see the space between trigger and reaction in order to mindfully look within.
Door Number Four
Anger is tricky because there's a cost both to showing anger and to suppressing it. Suppressing doesn't actually solve anything. It only postpones having to deal with anger while it keeps quietly simmering under the surface, wreaking havoc with our bodies. But if we show it, almost invariably we either hurt others or provoke retaliation. Another common habit is unconsciously "feeding" the mind states of anger with our stories of blame and victimization, thereby reinforcing the anger habit.
It's rare that therapists nowadays advise their clients to act out their anger with real or symbolic others (punching pillows, shouting loudly in an empty room, and so on), partially because brain science has demonstrated that each time anger is expressed it gets rehearsed and strengthened. The idea that if you let your anger out you will reach peace and calm is simply not true—the satisfaction of the discharge will invariably be transient relief. And the anger will be saying, "I'll be back."
Most of us know we can get a certain satisfaction or relief when we express aggression. There can be a seductive quality to the anger, and an adrenaline rush, and that's why it can become a habit, even an addiction. Anger is like a fuel. When we get angry we can feel energized, stronger, bigger—picture an angry cat with a curved spine and raised hair, pretending to be bigger than it is to scare away what it's actually scared of. However, anger isn't a very efficient fuel, because it burns hot and costly. It can be quite polluting on the inside and outside, and it's heavy and corrosive in the system.
Fortunately, there are other options besides the "three doors" of suppression, expression, and unconscious fueling. When insults or obstacles are perceived, it's normal for an anger response to arise. It's just our nature and evolutionary history at work. Though we may succeed in becoming angry less often, it will always be a part of our emotional lives and it is therefore critical to learn how to relate skillfully with this challenging energy. As soon as you remember that you're not just a victim of your anger, that you can actually use it as a path of self-discovery, you can practice being present with the feeling of anger, connecting with it, and allowing its energy to arise and pass away without acting on it or suppressing it.
This is "door number four."
Don't underestimate the power of this simple method. As with mindfulness generally, it's simple, but it's not easy.
The capacity to work with anger mindfully is not a binary, either-you-have-it-or-you-don't proposition. It's a practice that builds gradually, strengthening the muscle of mindfulness in the face of pleasant and unpleasant experiences. Instead of identifying with, rejecting, or being unaware of anger, we can learn to approach it with openness and curiosity, trusting that anger has something to teach us, and that this can be a very productive part of practice.
Anger is not a special problem getting in the way of mindfulness practice. It actually provides you with an exceptional opportunity to practice mindfulness, to open up when habit tells you to shut down, to connect with experience when habit makes you disconnect, and to question if the image you've constructed of yourself and others is as solid as it appears.
There's a Cherokee story that captures the nature of anger beautifully. A boy tells his grandfather about his anger at a friend who had done him an injustice. His grandfather replies: "Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt great hate for those who have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It's like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times. My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One wolf brings happiness. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. But the other wolf…ah! The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit."
The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?"
The grandfather smiled and quietly said, "The one I feed."
Training in mindfulness is remembering that every moment is an opportunity to practice peace, no matter the circumstances. Our thoughts, words, and actions are food for the wolves we all have inside. There's no need for guilt when you notice you're feeding the angry wolf (we all do this, and guilt won't help). Instead, know that you have the freedom to learn from your experience and keep practicing with patience. Trust that it's the small—often invisible—steps that take you forward.
Posted in Anxiety/Panic, Books, Brain, Cancer, Caregiving, Compassion, Conversations on Mindfulness & Therapy, Mindfulness, Mindfulness-Based Interventions, Teaching Mindfulness
Tagged Gonzalo Brito Pons, Margaret Cullen, Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance


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Home Stories 60s kids will remember 'Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom' with Marlin Perkins
60s kids will remember 'Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom' with Marlin Perkins
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom' was a fantastic show hosted by Marlin Perkins that introduced American viewers to fascinating animals. The show was aided by naturalists Jim Fowler and Stan Brock.
Many of the shows were filmed in the animals' natural habitat from 1963 to 1971. In this episode, Marlin sits next to an eagle and says, "Eagles have captured man's imagination since early times. To me, this is one of the most spectacular faces in all the wild kingdom.'
'The Romans used the golden figure of an eagle to stand for strength, skill, and bravery.' He informs the TV audience that an eagle's talons are as strong as the teeth of a big cat, and its wings are made for soaring. It enables eagles to float on air currents for hours, searching for their prey.
Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
It is also called the 'Mountain Eagle' and is found throughout the Northern hemisphere. In Southern Idaho, along the Snake River, there is a family of eagles the show focuses on. It has the heaviest population of golden eagles in the world.
They named it 'The Valley of Eagles,' and huge cliffs by the Snake River allow the eagles to have great nesting places. Also, the broad valley of cliffs helps with updrafts so the eagles can glide more easily.
This is where the eagles do most of their hunting. The family the show focused on had three eggs hatched and a father and mother who were raising them. They stayed and watched the eagles; three tiny white puffs started moving in the nest, and the baby eagles were born.
The mother eagle saw a bull snake near the nest, swooped down from her children, attacked the snake, and killed it. She twisted the snake's backbone with her beak. The footage is incredible, and viewers were treated to a rare view of an eagle family, thanks to Marlin and his team.


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The Youth > Uncategorized > All 2.8 lakh buses in India to be made electric in the next 2 years: Nitin Gadkari
All 2.8 lakh buses in India to be made electric in the next 2 years: Nitin Gadkari
Posted by By Chaithanya G September 24, 2019
Indian government is constantly working to bring down pollution levels across the country and which is why it is aiming to increase the number of electric vehicles.
After a considerable cut in GST applicable on electric vehicles, the centre has now sanctioned more electric buses to be used across 65 cities of India in the near future.
Credits: HT
Meanwhile, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari Monday had said that all buses in India would be converted into electric within a span two years.
"In the coming two years, all buses will be converted to electric," Nitin Gadkari said at the national conclave on energy efficiency in micro, small and medium enterprises in the national capital.
According to government data in 2018, there are about 19 lakh buses in India and only 2.8 lakh of them are run by state transport.
"They will run on bio-CNG, ethanol, methanol." The Economic Times reported Nitin Gadkari as saying.
The Union Minister had maintained that the government will not force the industry to make a switch to cleaner sources of mobility. He said that there was no need to ban petrol and diesel vehicles or make a switch to EVs mandatory.
Gadkari had previously said that the shift to electric mobility is bound to happen naturally. "I would like to clarify that govt does not intend to ban petrol and diesel vehicles. We aren't going to do anything like that," he added.
The union minister has highlighted the virtual importance of EVs and had also lent his support to the country's auto industry which at present is reeling under its worst slowdown in 2 decades.
The decision is the latest in the process to promote clean mobility modes in India.
In order to boost the indigenous production of electric vehicles, the government is also working on to set up four new giga factories for battery manufacturing within the country itself instead of depending on other countries.
This would lead to a massive reduction in import of lithium-ion batteries from countries like China and will also enable more price reduction in the electric vehicles being sold in India.
Green Number Plates are now 'compulsory' for all Electric Vehicles in India
The government had previously proposed a unique green-coloured number plate for all-electric vehicles in India.
The Central government has asked the state transport departments to make it compulsory for all Electric Vehicles to implement the use of the green number plates, despite the year in which they were bought.
It has been said that the number plate is supposed to have the vehicle number inscribed in white colour on a green background. The new proposal is supposed to help provide better treatment to the vehicles with no carbon emissions, like parking, free entry in congested areas including concessional toll on highways.
With the new introduction of the second phase of FAME – Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles scheme back in February this year, the centre announced multiple incentives for EV users and makers the same through a total set budget of Rs 10,000 crore.
The assigned budget under the FAME-II will also be used to establish an EV infrastructure across India including charging stations.
With the second phase of the FAME scheme, the government plans to support roughly around 1 million e-two-wheelers, 500,000 e-three-wheelers, 55,000 e-four-wheelers and 7,000 e-buses. Around 7200 charging stations will be set up across major cities of India.
Chaithanya G
Hailing from Chennai, Chaithanya G is the Managing Director of TheYouth. He has dedicated his whole life to reading and writing.
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Дімітрі Пачкорія ( 7 грудня 1991) — український футболіст грузинського  походження, атакувальний півзахисник.

Життєпис
Народився в Грузії. Вихованець скромного тбіліського клубу «Олімпі», перші тренери — Шота Чеїшвілі та Емзар Шонія. На батьківщині грав за нижчолігові клуби «Олімпі-2» (Руставі) та «Байя-2» (Зугдіді).

Згодом переїхав до України. Виступав в аматорському колективі «Скала-2» (Моршин). Проте вже незабаром талановитого флангового гравця перевели до першої команди. У футболці стрийського клубу дебютував 13 серпня 2011 року в програному (0:2) поєдинку 4-го туру групи А Другої ліги проти новокаховської «Енергії». Дімітрі вийшов на поле на 63-й хвилині, замінивши Богдана Скоцького. Дебютним голом за «Скалу» відзначився 15 травня 2013 року на 39-й хвилині програного (2:4)  домашнього поєдинку 1-го туру групи А Другої ліги проти чернігівської «Десни». Пачкорія вийшов на поле в стартовому складі та відіграв увесь матч. У футболці стрийського колективу відіграв 3 сезони, за цей час у Другій лізі провів 52 матчі,в яктх відзначився 2-ма голами.

У липні 2014 року повернувся до Грузії, де підссилив батумське «Динамо». За нову команду дебютував 19 серпня 2014 року в переможному (5:8) домашньому поєдинку кубку Грузії проти чиатурського «Магароелі». Пачкорія вийшов на поле на 64-й хвилині, замінивши Міхеїла Какаладзе. У вересні та жовтні 2014 року по одному разу потрапляв до заявки на матч Ліги Еровнулі, але на поле не виходув. Дебютував у вищому дивізіоні грузинського чемпіонату 6 листопада 2014 року в переможному (1:0) виїзному поєдинку 12-го туру проти тбіліського «Динамо». Дімітрі вийшов на поле на 65-й хвилині, замігивши Валеріана Тевторадзе. Загалом у першій частині сезону 2014/15 років за батумський колектив зіграв 1 матч у чемпіонаті країни та 2 поєдинки в національному кубку.

Взимку 2015 року перейшов у «Зугдіді». За нову команду дебютував 28 лютого 2015 року в переможному (1:0) виїзному поєдинку 20-го туру Ліги Еровнулі 2 проти «Мачахели». Дімітрі вийшов на поле на 79-й хвилині, замінивши Автанділа Багашвілі. У команді провів другу половину сезону 2014/15 років та першу частину сезону 2015/16 років, за цей час у першій команді провів 9 матчів, ще два поєдинки зіграв за другу команду.

У 2017 році підсилив «Воркуту» (Торонто) з Канадської футбольної ліги. У своїму дебютному сезоні допоміг команді виграти регулярну частинчемпіонату.

Примітки

Посилання
 Статистика виступів гравця на офіційному сайті УАФ

 Профіль гравця  на сайті soccerpunter.com
 Профіль гравця на сайті «Український футбол»

Уродженці Грузії
Грузинські футболісти
Українські футболісти
Українські футбольні легіонери
Футбольні легіонери в Канаді
Футболісти «Скали» (Стрий, 2004)
Футболісти «Динамо» (Батумі)
Футболісти «Зугдіді»
Футболісти «Контіненталс»


text:
Q: Hive Query to get the last record inserted in the table  a                date             time         b
35573407        20170412        140930  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        140930  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        141054  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        025339  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        072918  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        091105  310260453908912
35573422        20170412        193605  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        121105  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        032439  310260453908912
35573407        20170412        032605  310260453908912

I am trying to figure out a hive query which get the last record inserted in the table with the b. The records need to be sorted by time column and get the last record. For suppose in the above records
35573422  20170412  193605  310260453908912

is the last record.

A: select  a,date,time,b

from   (select  *
               ,row_number() over
                (
                    partition by    b
                    order by        date desc
                                   ,time desc
                ) as rn

        from    mytable
        ) t

where   t.rn = 1

+----------+----------+--------+-----------------+
|   a      |   date   |  time  |      b          |
+----------+----------+--------+-----------------+
| 35573422 | 20170412 | 193605 | 310260453908912 |
+----------+----------+--------+-----------------+

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It's that time of year again, the holiday season is upon us. Arguably the most profitable time of year for many small businesses, the holidays bring about tremendous opportunities for gaining new customers, building brand awareness and increasing sales. In fact, according to the National Retail Foundation, 20-40% of yearly sales for small and mid-sized businesses takes place within the final two months of the year.
Whether customers are researching or purchasing online or in-store, you want to make sure that you have components in place online that guides, encourages and educates them. So how can you increase your chances of standing out against competitors online this year? Here are a few tips.
What was your target holiday revenue last year? What is it this year? What are you going to do to achieve it? In order to meet your goals, both sales and others, you must first determine what they are. Are you looking to gain more social media followers this holiday season, or increase your exposure across multiple channels?
Much like a digital marketing plan you would prepare for the entire year, you should also create one that focuses on holiday goals, specifically. As stated above, this time of year provides the greatest opportunity for optimal sales. Take advantage by putting together a plan, as well as the steps needed to achieve your goals.
It's seems that every year holiday promotions start earlier and earlier. Don't get left behind, sooner is better when it comes to launching your digital promotions and campaigns for the holidays. You want to let consumers know what you're planning as soon as possible. Keep them in the loop as the year goes on.
Although many people plan to shop on Black Friday, they may be unaware of exactly where they'd like to go. Consumers need to know what you can offer them, whether it's discounts, a new product or something else. By advertising your offerings prior, you may sway them into visiting your store, as opposed to a competitor's.
Nothing sets a business apart better than a good discount or promotion. Think about the problems your customers might be facing this holiday season and come up with promotions that help solve these issues. For instance, you might consider offering free shipping on all orders. Or perhaps a limited offer that runs a few days before the holiday, that way, last minute shoppers will take advantage.
Consumers are continuously researching products and services on mobile devices. According to a Google/Purchase Digital Diary study, of the consumers who used a mobile device to research a product or service, 92% made a purchase within a day and 76% visited a related business within a day.
If you want to capture the attention of these users, it's a good idea to send targeted promotions via email, or even post about them on social media. This will increase your exposure over multiple avenues, rather than just your website.
Social media is not only an easy way to let people know about your holiday deals and promotions, but it's also a great avenue for interacting with customers and spreading holiday cheer to them.
Don't solely promote your business, be sure to set posts aside that simply celebrate the holidays and wish people well during the season. Not only will this humanize your brand, but it will show your commit to customers and making them happy. They might even share your post to their followers to highlight the positive message you're sending.


Heritage has long been associated with history textbooks in schools, and lengthy discussions between academics. However, in a rapidly-developing and globalised Singapore, the age-old concept of heritage has also undergone the winds of change. New Age of Heritage examines the new face of Singapore's heritage. More than just feeling nostalgic, more Singaporeans are coming up with new and innovative uses and ways of living with the past — from selling heritage-themed merchandise, making films on forgotten landmarks, to incorporating Korean hit Gangnam Style into Peranakan folk songs. Through the perspectives of businessmen to designers to collectors, New Age of Heritage celebrates the future of our past.


text:
The essential focus of the collection is on artists' books
JCBA STAFF
ART STUDIOS
ARTISTS' VIDEOS
AL MUTTANABBI
Books as Aesthetic Objects
Al Muttanabbi Starts Here
South Florida Sweat
Access and Closure
By Toby Millman
Printed on heavy stock, folded into an accordion binding, glued into a cardboard cover, this small book ironically projects simplicity both in its bland aspect and its episodic text. Toby Millman's illustrations are embossed reversals of what apparently began as papercuts, incisions that have now been impressed so that they appear in a backwards reality. The seemingly unrelated snippets of text suggest journal entries from a woman of American Jewish background who is visiting Palestine, learning Arabic and recording her experiencein photographs and drawings that will be turned into the graphic medium of the book.
By collecting, by choosing, by organizing: as much by what is left out by as by what is included, Toby Millman makes her statement about Palestine. Except for a few references to eviction of Arab populations in 1948, the book is ahistorical, that is, there is no mention of what has led to Israel's creation of armed border crossings or the airport security she describes. When she tries to make a joke of Jewish incursion: "After changing into my swimsuit, I returned to the beach to find Salim lying on my towel. I said to him, 'just because my grandparents took your grandparents' land doesn't mean you can take my towel.' He said, 'Why is it always the same thing with you Toby?'"
Millman makes clear her sympathy with the Palestinians; at the same time, she captures the Palestinians' not always sympathetic view of Toby Millman. The positive valence of her opinion is balanced, even contradicted, by the lack of cohesion in the manuscript, the unidentified characters, and even the unstated and therefore unclear purpose of her presence in that place. Her reactions are sensitively felt rather than intellectually considered; they are come from the heart, not the head.
'[This book] was letterpress printed during an artist residency at the Oregon College of Art & Craft in Portland between August and December of 2008. The title, Access & Closure, and the cover images have been drawn from maps produced by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the occupied Palestinian territories.' The Jaffe Collection book is number 5 of an edition of 50. Click here for slideshow
- Judith Klau
• Letterpress printed
• Letterpress-print by polymer clichés and vinyl mats in blue, grey and black.
• Edition of 50
The Jaffe Center looks forward to hearing from you. If you are looking to schedule research hours, bring a community group on tour, or offer us thoughts on your expierence in one of our workshops, please send us a message.
777 Glades Road Boca Raton, Florida 33431
Judith's Blog
© Florida Atlantic University Libraries


NIJ seeks a research consortium focused on topical areas related to violence against women to include domestic and intimate partner violence, sexual violence, stalking, and teen dating violence. The research consortium is expected to be an interdisciplinary team of researchers representing expertise broadly across violence against women. The research consortium will support NIJ in a variety of research, evaluation, and planning tasks on an ongoing basis. The project will be awarded in the form of a cooperative agreement, which allows NIJ to serve as a partner and collaborator.


It is always important for every company to ensure that it is doing everything possible to get the best results possible at all times. As you probably know, one of the most important things today is to ensure that you already have a website that is functional. To be able to get a great website, you need to know how to create one and if you do not, it is important work with web designers. When you have companies that are helping you with web design, they will be able to sort things like user interface and structure very easily. However, you will also notice that it'll be possible for you to gain when you hire the services of subspecialist people for example, graphic web designers. Graphic web designers are the people that can really help you out in the designing of a website that many people do not know about this. You will be required to ensure that you have been able to find a company that is as close as possible to your location so that you can work with people that you can reach easily.
By reading this article, you should be able to understand the different things that you will be able to get from graphic web designers and in the end, the benefits of their services. When you have these companies helping you, they are going to come forth to help you with graphics matters on areas like web design tutorial web designing wikipedia uses of web design. One thing you notice is that graphic designers are very careful about how they perform everything and that's why they will bring the best results to your company by web designing software. One of the main benefits of why you need infographic designers at your company is simply the fact that they are going to help you to get some pride and productivity into your employees. When you have good graphic with design, your identity is going to be sorted out and that's why you need the companies. Working with such companies is also very good because they understand graphical design and therefore they will help you to save time. You will have your employees concentrating on their core competencies while you have outsourced the graphic web design and then everything, works out to the good of the company,click here for graphic design. Since they also do a very good job, working with them would be important since the also provide very good pricing.


In an email from a journalist last week, we were asked for some personal background. A little history of the Bulletin and the founder. Keen to ensure regular mainstream media features that help some of our unique property owners sell their buildings such as St Ann's Head we are helping the journalist, and others that may have questions about our not-for-profit website, written for and by unique property dwellers.
For example, above is a photograph of the small private island, part of which the founder of this website was lucky to acquire a long term lease on. The lease was for the only residences on the island capable of occupation. All for the princely sum of around one pound per annum. Albeit way back in 1984. That was where our adventure began. It is also the place that gave birth to the Unique Property Bulletin.
Though our main point on acquiring unusual homes? If we can do it, so can you. We expand the article below to provide background to the actual Unique Property Bulletin, and aim to show folk who want to engage in a marvellous lifestyle understand that it is possible if there is persistence, passion and determination. In this edition we hope to help curious journalists and also assist our readers. Especially those who send the If Only emails that we regularly receive. By that we mean if only the reader had the money, or skillset to go in such a direction. Our view, and experience is that Bulletin readers wishing to find a way for them to live in an unusual property of their choice can, and have indeed done so. On many different occasions. A wide range of unusual buildings having been featured in this publication over the years. Often such property seems an impossible dream. But we know it is possible for many of our readers.
Lastly, for this edition's feature, we have a personal message and request – an important one – for readers to help keep the Unique Property Bulletin going. NOT funds, but a simple bit of support for a petition. More details in our feature later on in this edition.
The Mill House, Mill Road, West Walton, Wisbech, Norfolk, PE14 7EU.
This is a perfect illustration of why it is useful thing to check out previous, older editions of the Unique Property Bulletin.
The Windmill Tower, Mill Road, West Walton, Wisbech, Norfolk, PE14 7EU.
The Granary, Mill Road, West Walton, Wisbech, Norfolk, PE14 7EU.
When we listed this property for sale on the Bulletin last year and went "Under Offer" after a few weeks. Unfortunately the buyer back then was unable to complete, so the seller, a very nice lady, one of our favourites, has put the three detached set of buildings back up for sale.
In other words: For sale back to the future.
Guide: £450,000 Freehold For All Three Inclusive.
Offers for individual buildings may be considered if co-ordinated for the whole – Contact Unique Property Bulletin for further details on individual building purchase protocol.
Garth House, previously known as Drumcharry House is a photogenic turreted mansion, more recently used as a youth hostel. Built in the Scottish Baronial style around 1834. Now in need of renovation, this very large building stands in its own grounds of around 2.5 acres, by the River Lyon, amid forests, heather moors and dramatic mountains.
Guide: £699,950 – Just over £11,000 per room!
We have had a kindred unique property person telephone us from True North Television Productions about interesting property and specifically unusual homes by the sea.
Quick response: How about building a Pole House by F2 Architects as featured below?
True North have asked – If you are living in a unique coastal home & you're interested in taking part in the next series…. please get in touch. Ideally resident owners.
A second series has been commissioned and confirmed. Here at Unique Property Bulletin we are hoping True North Productions has Homes By The Sea is continued to a third and fourth series plus more.
Homes By The Sea is presented by architectural designer Charlie Luxton, who explores the British dream of living beside the seaside. Today more than three million people across the country have made that ambition possible. Charlie embarks on a journey across Britain to visit some of the best homes by the sea. He will look at renovated cottages to new builds, converted lighthouses and grand seafront terraces. He will also design his own fantasy home in each amazing location.
Thanks to an eagle eyed Bulletin reader for giving us the heads-up on this one to share with fellow Bulletin readers – Carbery Island, otherwise known as Mermaid Isle is for sale.
This picturesque idyll comes via the Rolls-Royce of private island estate agents/realtors – Mr Harshad Vladi of the Vladi Private Islands Brokerage.
For sale is half the island, plus all of this elegant luxurious house. Sited on around 13 acres of island.
We know it is a little off of the beaten track for our friends at True North TV Productions, but we have our coastal home eyes peeled and ears attuned now. So for the next few weeks/months will be seeking out possible candidate properties to go onto Series 2 or hopefully series 3 of Homes By The Sea.
Carbery Island consists of approximately 25 acres on the mainland lot (very useful for embarkation/disembarkation) + approximately 13 acres (half of island).
An elegant conversion of a classic Cornish Engine House. Converted by the owner in 2000 Symbolic of the mining industry in Cornwall 3 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 2 Receptions.
Coming soon – 15th March 2015 Unique Property Bulletin edition – we have an exclusive listing of another ROC UKWMO Nuclear Bunker for sale. This one is in Norfolk.
Featuring other UKWMO Bunkers for sale in addition to UKWMO at Norfolk, we have UKWMO Ashwell at £20,000. So please keep an eye out for our next Unique Property Bulletin.
This is a beautiful, restored old mill which genuinely retains a host of features that pay respects to the former life of the building. Now a lovely four bedroom waterside house.
Contact – Strutt & Parker Tel: 0131 226 2500 – Malcolm Leslie.
This just popped onto our radar. A private listing by a keen railway aficionado. Now converted into a comfortable railway home. This former station house is a sandstone Grade II listed building and contains many of the original features.
Would You Like To Share £36,000?
Unique Property Bulletin is a website run on a not-for-profit basis, but it does have costs such as webhosting, IT support, computers, photography etc. However with between 30,000 and 50,000 regular readers [Group Websites Total 75,000], many active in buying and selling, we cannot help but have sales happen as a result of this Unique Property Bulletin website.
Above: A Successful Unique Property Bulletin Introduction of Buyer & Seller.
Can You Name This Unique Island?
PLEASE NOTE: The prize is NOT the island, just the £50. Sorry we haven't reached the level of prize value that enables islands to be awarded to winners. Yet!
Love It – Please Can We Have One !
This is a wonderfully simple, yet inspirational home. On a pole! With a seaview too.
This edition's try-before-you-buy genre sampling is a charming Oast B&B in Canterbury. A 150 year old Oast House that was used for drying hops in the brewery trade. Now fully converted to residential plus B&B use. The front of the Oast is a large barn, behind which are three round kilns, capped by white ventilation cowls.
An ideal few days away at this stylish retreat can give you some idea and inspiration of what Oast House and round room living is like. It may just spur you on to buy your own Oast House.
Davaar Island. The First Island (c) MPL Communications Ltd.
After four years of writing here, electronically online, and over 20 years on old fashioned paper, it is an important lesson from this end to appreciate that, generally, we have three styles of literal reader – in speed reading terms. So, for the fast webpage scanner – "Short" – please trust me, and my promise that by signing the following petition you will help the Unique Property Bulletin continue. Thank you.
For the "Medium" page reader here we have a little more information. Albeit still in summary form. Last edition we placed a brief weblink and asked readers to sign the petition mentioned above. The essence is that after 25 years putting a Unique Property Bulletin together, personal disablement has resulted in a couple of near misses – Bulletin wise. We have had ups and downs before, and always come through. In fact since going online there has been an amazing, and near exponential increase in regular readership from 3,500 to 50,000 [75,000 if you include sister websites such as Lighthouses For Sale and Grand Designs For Sale ]. Thanks in no small measure for very kind journalists featuring the occasional unique property from these pages.
But the past couple of years have been personally difficult due to having abused my body in a previous career – ending up with back surgery. One unsung hero is a friend who takes me to and from hospital for ongoing treatment etc. I wanted, in fact still want to say thank you to this fine friend. Jokingly I said he deserved a medal. Indeed his occupation merited one. Not for what he does in looking after a person with broken body parts and general humanity, but for professional decency. I was distressed to be told by the Fire Service that firefighters like my friend who should actually have been awarded a recognition for service given – The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, were left out because the emergency services were given a restricted number of such medals, and for many firefighters, they had simply "run out"!
Not receiving an award that has been earnt through risking your life because the authorities had "run out" of them seems a sad reflection of modern times.
My friend asked me not to go any further. His response was the near perfect sentence regarding his vocation as a firefighter: "I don't do it for medals".
But my own personal stubbornness this end has often resulted in interesting things happening. The above is a tangential example of a theme: persistence and determination. The QE90 Medal petition weblinked in this section will hopefully say thank you to many people.
However, back on topic, and for those new to the Unique Property Bulletin, this voluntary, obscure, not-for-profit publication that shares information on unusual buildings with friends, colleagues and readers couldn't help but buy one of these tasty, unique buildings in 1999. An accidental profit was made, and a large lump of that money went to create over 100 jobs in the following years: [Click Here]. In my philosophy, the job creation initiative was an interesting and positive result. Again tangential. But part of what goes to make the back-story of this publication.
The "Long" narrative element, for those with the more forensic desire to acquire information and detail and derive leisure and pleasure from reading a more fulsome narrative, here goes.
Thanks to all of you wonderful, marvellous and amazing readers, and I personally love every one of you, especially those who email in with interesting offsite dialogue – you, yes you helped us reach a milestone I never imagined possible. Over 1,000,000 page views since going online.
Our current readership level ranges between 30,000 to 50,000 depending on several measurements. The Bulletin IT chap, now sadly departed, had a complex internet algorithmic formula that if applied today would favour the 50,000. But the current writers here are self-confessed computer dinosaurs, and prefer to err on the 30,000 level. All of this is living proof that dotage doesn't mean you are prevented from learning how to get online. Quite the reverse, and it is a nice thought that this may give hope to others in their 40s, and 50s etc., to consider learning how to utilise the wonders that the internet has to offer. Especially in, for example, realising your dreams: of buying that unique property you have in your mind's eye. The internet revolution, with people being able to work remotely online and earn a living has certainly solved a historic problem we saw in the 1980s that beset many folk who wished to live in splendidly remote areas, where quite a few of our featured properties are built. Nowadays, the internet makes this possible. The statistics that drive online work can be staggering. The Bulletin has just a small, but illuminating example of this perspective.
But with 30,000 readers on a low-read edition and up to 75,000 on a good global series we had hoped for a little better turnout.
After due reflection of the "7" petition signatories [thank you by the way], we are firm believers that it is our fault at not putting the message across clearly, or well enough. Hence pressing the importance of this QE90 Medal petition to the continuation of the Unique Property Bulletin in this article.
At this point you may rightly be asking why go to all this bother? Why the stubbornness? Apart from the fact that Unique Property Bulletin would have been off-line for either a couple of months, or permanently, it is a matter of personal persistence and determination to make that petition work – that those who help others should have a proper show of appreciation. Since uploading the QE90 Medal website for emergency workers, it has been a source of great comfort to receive a letter from 10 Downing Street advising that an award is in the process of being created for PART of the request that we are campaigning for [QE90 News]. NOT likely as a result of the website, nor the 50 odd Shawshank Redemption persistent style letters written about this to the appropriate channels and emergency services etc., since November 2014, but because many other folk in the UK recognise, for example that the courageous medics and emergency personnel who go to help those stricken in West Africa should be recognised. It is very reassuring that other folk think along these lines too. Letters and petitions work. I can show you proof of a way this worked elsewhere, and links are given further down the page. All 3,269 tons of what was achieved – plus several million pounds of money secured to structurally improve two local economies.
However, getting back to where we should be, because that is what you are joining in reading Unique Property Bulletin for, the message here, apart from the emphasis on saying a hearty thank you to someone who cares about others – and many like him that have a vocation in the emergency services, is that persistence and determination is what I am endeavouring to highlight here. I can guarantee it works. Offsite we campaigned for many years, and that included a petition with just 3,323 signatures [ Click Here ] which helped result in a successful outcome [ Click Here ].
These are two words that probably feature most in the emails we receive at the Bulletin.
Why? Well through life I have found cycles of prosperity and dry-wallet occur time after time. One such event was when the amazing Art Deco Keil Hotel came up for sale at an astonishing price of £59,900. Eventually negotiated down to £24,000. The location was the most unique thing. By Sir Paul McCartney's Mull of Kintyre.
But with only £12,000 cash at hand and a building that was unmortgageable, what to do to raise the other £12,000? Persistence and Determination. The result? Two friends, via the Unique Property Bulletin of 1999 came alongside and joined one of first adventures.
Each friend put £6,000 into the kitty and the required total £24,000 price tag was duly paid across to our solicitors and a neat set of title deeds received in return. Plus one Brobdingnagian sized building. Plan A was to refurbish it. However, after a mind numbing and frustrating discourse with a truly appalling government regeneration organisation we decided to just sell the building. Then something really unexpected happened.
Ailsa Craig Island. The Second One. Is This Your Flavour of Adventure?
Made possible thanks, in part to the good old Keil Hotel Unique Property Syndicate funds growing and moving forward. Food for thought for your own unique property endeavour?
In fact one of my Keil Hotel friends has adopted the phrase Plan B as his enduring mantra. Not every day that £6,000 is near quadrupled. The unique property adventures are excellent, but the growth of core funds can also be a lot of fun too. Not least because it confirms an abiding fact. When you ask of yourself, or email us (which we very much welcome) mentioning that "If Only" you could afford this unique building or that, take a moment. We believe you can.
It was only by staying true to these two words that we turned "If Only" into actual dreams being realised.
If we can do it, surely so can you?
Here's the thing. After all of the above is said and done, what has been the lifelong companion needs words placed on paper – a personal thanks to Unique Property Bulletin. This semi-autonomous thing that has been an abiding friend and companion for over quarter of a century. More than that, it has provided friendships with fellow Bulletin readers, members and colleagues that have lasted equally as long. For that I cannot say thank you enough.
From experience I know if we can help pump-prime the petition to 1,000 signatures and add a lot of letter writing this end, then there is a very good likelihood of achieving something that will mean a lot to many folk all over the country – not just the one friend, for whom this personal treatise has been the inspiration for.
This edition's article has been a little unusual, but hey, that is the whole purpose of this website. The unusual. Whether that be in action, philosophy of life, or as a unique place to live.


text:
Q: android cannot resolve method setcontentview I came across an error today in android studio. I am trying to create a about us screen in the app. The layout xml file has been created. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
error: cannot resolve method setcontentview(int)
package example.com;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;

public class AboutFragment extends android.app.Fragment {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.about_screen);
}

}

A: Your class extends Fragment and you have setContentView(R.layout.about_screen);. setContentView is a method of Activity class.
Instead inflate about_screen.xml in onCreateView of Fragment
@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
        Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.about_screeen, container, false);
    return rootView;
}