Group items tagged

45,539,949HoustonUnited States of America2,016,582

134,997,269TokyoJapan8,124,31012

RankUrban Pop [UN estimate]Urban area/CityCountryCity Pop.Rank

1. Tokyo (Japan) 34,200,000

57. Houston (US) 5,400,000

400. Thiruvananthapuram (India) 1,000,000

ORIGIN OF THE CELEBRATION Section: Festival The start of the New Year has been celebrated in China for more than 3,000 years. New Year was a time when the farmers gave thanks for the harvest and prayed to the gods for a good harvest in the coming year. This was the one period in the busy farming year when there was time to have a celebration and when the family could get together, relax, and be merry. Chinese New Year begins with a New Moon. The Lunar Year is calculated from the time it takes for the Moon to travel around the Earth, while the Western (Gregorian) calendar is based on the time it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun. The orbits of the Moon bear no relation to the time it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun, which is why the Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated on a different date each year. In China the New Year was renamed the Spring Festival, in 1911, when the Western calendar was officially accepted in China. However, it is still commonly known around the world as the Chinese New Year. Chinese years are named after one of twelve animals. These have been used in the same order to name the years since the sixth century A.D. Each animal is said to have its own personality and emotions, which are present in people born within its year. ~~~~~~~~By Sarah Moyse This article is copyrighted. All rights reserved.Source: Chinese New Year (0-7613-0374-X)

RELIGIONS AND RITUALS Section: Festival Although the New Year celebration is not mainly a religious one, many Chinese will visit a temple at this time of the year to make an offering to the Buddha or to the gods in the hope of making the New Year a good one. Ancestors and gods are honored with ceremonies in the home around a family altar decorated with flowers. Incense and candles are burned at the altar. At important family banquets the ancestors may be recognized as "spiritual guests" and first offered food that is afterward eaten with the meal. The Chinese have three main systems of ideas that are important to them: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Although these systems are very different, many Chinese follow some or all of the rituals associated with them just to be safe. Confucius lived in the fifth century B.C. and spoke about the value of good behavior in private life and in government. He said that politeness, honesty, courage, and loyalty were what made good people. He believed in self-development through education and thought that people gain in wisdom as they grow older. It is part of the Confucian tradition to honor parents and ancestors.

Daoism comes from the teachings of Laozi, who lived at the same time as Confucius. His book, the Dao De Jing (The Way and Its Power), describes the way (dao means "way") to live at peace with nature so as not to upset natural balances. The Way involves balance between opposite forces. They are called yin and yang. While yin is dark and female, yang is the opposite, being light and male. When yin and yang are balanced, there is perfect harmony with nature. Unlike Confucianism and Daoism, which started in China, Buddhism came from India and is based on the teachings of the Buddha -- a holy man. Buddha taught that people need to let go of earthly desires and become fully aware of what they are doing in the present. Buddhists believe that after death each soul moves on to another body, which may be animal or human. What one is chosen for in the next life depends on how good or bad the person has been in this life. The Chinese also pray to other gods, holding the view that the more gods who can look after them the better. The important ones are the Kitchen God, who watches the family in the home, the Jade Emperor, who is the most important god in heaven, the God of Wealth, who determines how wealthy people are, and the Door Gods. ~~~~~~~~By Sarah Moyse This article is copyrighted. All rights reserved.Source: Chinese New Year (0-7613-0374-X)

The stakes in Athens are fierce. The difference between an Olympic gold or silver medal could be a one hundredth of a second on the track or in the pool; an inch on the pole vault or shot put.

The athletes who make the Olympic cut are blessed with the right combination of physical and psychological traits, including an intense competitive drive and an unrelenting determination to be the best. This is the stuff of champions.

Steroids are not just for elite athletes--they can be used by anyone who wants to change his or her body image. The Centers for Disease Control's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance report shows more than a million youth taking steroids, and the numbers have been rising every year.

Nick was born in Dallas, Texas to Denise and Paul Kevin Jonas Sr. He was raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey and is of Irish, Italian, German, and Cherokee descent. He was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of 13 a

Nick's career started when he was discovered at the age of 6 in a barber shop while his mother was getting her hair cut and was referred to as a professional show business manager.[

Solo artist

Solar energy can also be used to make electricity.

solar power plants, like the one in the picture to the right in California's Mojave Desert, use a highly curved mirror called a parabolic trough to focus the sunlight on a pipe running down a central point above the curve of the mirror.

mirror focuses the sunlight to strike the pipe

Retrieve Based Tasks

Carrying Tasks

Deposit Tasks

As coaches, we expect our players to work in the off-season and make improvements. But what about us as coaches... what are we doing in the off-season to help our team and to improve ourselves as coaches?

Maintain balance in your personal life. Right after the season is over, step back and forget about it for a couple weeks. Take time for your family and friends, relax, enjoy life and your time away from the gym.

We already discussed re-evaluating your system, plays, players, etc. Make the necessary adjustments, if any, that you think will help next season. Think about your goals for the upcoming season. Now is the time to create a master practice plan, if you find that helpful.

Gymnastics has the highest injury rate of all girls' sports, according to a report from Ohio State University.

27,000 gymnasts were hospitalized annually.

We don't typically think of gymnastics as a dangerous sport. In fact, many parents consider it an activity, but it has the same clinical incidence of catastrophic injuries as ice hockey,"

Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am)

reasoning and problem solving

deductive, inductive or abductive

largest and most productive estuaries in North America.  

However, in 1993 the EVOS Trustee Council funded an additional survey that estimated 7 km of shoreline were still contaminated with subsurface oil.

Because a significant survey of Prince William Sound had not been conducted since 1993 and the cumulative extent of the remaining oil was unknown, concerns were generated by the public and scientific communities about the oil’s possible continuing effects on humans and fauna potentially exposed to the oil directly or indirectly.

Born on January 4, 1809, Coupvray, France, Braille was accidentally blinded in one eye at the age of three. Within two years, a disease in his other eye left him completely blind.

Captain Charles Barbier invented sonography, or nightwriting, a system of embossed symbols used by soldiers to communicate silently at night on the battlefield. Inspired by a lecture Barbier gave at the Institute a few years later, the fifteen-year-old Braille adapted Barbier's system to replace Haüy's awkward embossed type, which he and his classmates had been obliged to learn.

In his initial study, Braille had experimented with geometric shapes cut from leather as well as with nails and tacks hammered into boards. He finally settled on a fingertip-sized six-dot code, based on the twenty-five letters of the alphabet, which could be recognized with a single contact of one digit. By varying the number and placement of dots, he coded letters, punctuation, numbers, diphthongs, familiar words, scientific symbols, mathematical and musical notation, and capitalization. With the right hand, the reader touched individual dots and, with the left, moved on toward the next line, comprehending as smoothly and rapidly as sighted readers. Using the Braille system, students were also able to take notes and write themes by punching dots into paper with a pointed stylus which was aligned with a metal guide.