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11% decline in album sales during the first half of 2008

Consumers purchased 204.6 million albums between January and June

single track downloads growing 30% to 532.7 million units in the first half of the year over first half sales in 2007 of 417.3 million units

Cancer that forms in the tissue lining the uterus (the small, hollow, pear-shaped organ in a woman's pelvis in which a baby grows). Most endometrial cancers are adenocarcinomas (cancers that begin in cells that make and release mucus and other fluids).

worldwide digital music sales rose to $2.9 billion last year, from $2.1 billion a year earlier. That was about 15 percent of overall sales, up from 11 percent a year earlier and less than 1 percent in 2003.

yet to make up for the shortfall in sales of compact discs

sales of recorded music fell about 10 percent last year, to $17.6 billion

There are two kinds of crocodile in Australia.

They live in the hot north of Australia.

Crocodile scales have become thick skin

A year after Apple Computer Inc. launched its iTunes Music Service, the online music industry is selling songs by the millions

Customers at three of the leading online services – iTunes, Musicmatch Inc.’s Musicmatch Downloads and RealNetworks Inc.’s Rhapsody – buy about 10 times as many singles as they do albums. Offline, people buy 50 times more CDs than singles.

music lovers buying a few 99-cent singles instead of $15 CDs.

Tokyo, Japan Current Population: 35.2 million Projected 2025 Population: 36.4 million Annual Growth Rate 2007 to 2025: 0.11%

Tokyo is a major global financial center. Its rail system, the largest in the world, is clean and efficient.

Tokyo's water and electricity capacity is in fine shape for a growing population, experts say

Some athletes choose to use "anabolic" (or growth-promoting) steroids in the hopes of improving athletic performance

Steroids are substances that your body makes naturally in the form of hormones.

These are examples of steroids requiring physician prescription which are banned in sport competition:

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)

family

They walk beside me

They are eager to be trained

n the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu defeated the Hideyori loyalists and other Western rivals

Every daimyo was also required to spend every second year in Edo.

On the other hand, he enforced the suppression and persecution of Christianity from 1614 on.

The nation of Japan was probably born of the union of two peoples: one from Polynesia or the Malay Peninsula and one from elsewhere in Asia.

About 300 BC, the Japanese began growing rice, which would become the nation's agricultural staple.

From the 500s to the 700s, Japanese society developed quickly—partly because of its close relationship with neighboring China and the magnificent Tang Dynasty.

known as the Laughing Jackasses of Australia

Kookaburras have a stout and compact body, short neck, rather long and pointed bill and short legs

family Kingfishers

Based on archaeological evidence, they also agree that by between 35,000 and 30,000 B.C. Homo sapiens had migrated to the islands from eastern and southeastern Asia and had well-established patterns of hunting and gathering and stone toolmaking .

the Jomon people were making clay figures and vessels decorated with patterns made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks (jomon means "patterns of plaited cord") with a growing sophistication.

Many other elements of Japanese culture also may date from this period and reflect a mingled migration from the northern Asian continent and the southern Pacific areas.

The introduction of Western cultural values, which had flooded Japan by the late nineteenth century, led to a dichotomy between traditional values and attempts to duplicate and assimilate a variety of clashing new ideas

Japanese aesthetics provide a key to understanding artistic works perceivably different from those coming from Western traditions.

Within the East Asian artistic tradition, China has been the acknowledged teacher and Japan the devoted student.

When a person has the disease called cancer, certain cells in the body grow in an uncontrolled way. The human body contains billions of cells, most of which constantly reproduce themselves through the process called cell division. The body normally controls this process. In some people, however, ..

The Wrong Way to Win › Introduction to The Wrong Way to Win › Why Do Athletes Use Performance-enhancing Drugs? › Masking Pain and Managing Weight and Stress › Detecting Drugs Why Do Athletes Use Performance-enhancing Drugs?

An athlete may want to: Build mass and strength of muscles and/or bones Increase delivery of oxygen to exercising tissues Mask pain Stimulate the body Hide use of other drugs

Many drugs are banned outright in Olympic competitions. However, some drugs, such as cortisone and local anesthetics, are merely restricted because they have legitimate clinical uses. Athletes may also misuse drugs to reduce weight, relax, cope with stress or boost their own confidence. Whatever the reason, doping has many unsafe if not deadly side effects.

Scientists made an alarming discovery in the 1980s: The average surface temperature on Earth is slowly increasing. This trend is known as global warming. It is believed to be caused by an increase in the amounts of certain gases in the atmosphere. Greenhouse Effect To understand global warming, it helps to first understand something called the greenhouse effect. A greenhouse is a glass house in which plants grow. The glass lets light in and at the same time keeps heat from getting out. This trapped heat keeps the plants warm even when it is cold outside. Likewise, Earth's atmosphere traps energy from the sun. Carbon dioxide and other gases—called greenhouse gases—in the air do this trapping. Without these gases too much heat would go back into space, and living things could not survive. However, as more greenhouse gases get into the air, they also trap more heat. This leads to global warming.

Yes, Yahoo is losing share to Google. Yes, Yahoo is barely growing. Yes, it's a tired argument that Yahoo is one of the strongest brands in the media world. Yes, this argument for owning its stock hasn't worked in a long time.

It's cheap. There's always that. Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker figures that given the value of Yahoo's cash and its publicly traded Asian assets (even taking into account the difficulty in selling stakes in other companies), investors value Yahoo's core business at just $6 per share, or eight times Wall Street's estimates of 2009 profits. That's an extraordinarily low multiple for any company with the opportunities in front of it that Yahoo has. Yahoo's management thought Yahoo was cheap at $30, of course. Today, investors would do quite nicely for a fraction of that amount.