Educational Gaps Limit Brazil’s Reach
André Vieira for The New York Times

A school in Caetés, Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s hometown.
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: September 4, 2010
CAETÉS, Brazil — When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s president in early 2003, he emotionally declared that he had finally earned his “first diploma” by becoming president of the country.
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André Vieira for The New York Times

Maria and José Bezerra da Silva live with their seven children in Caetés. Unable to read, they cannot help with schoolwork.

One of Brazil’s least educated presidents — Mr. da Silva completed only the fourth grade — soon became one of its most beloved, lifting millions out of extreme poverty, stabilizing Brazil’s economy and earning near-legendary status both at home and abroad.

But while Mr. da Silva has overcome his humble beginnings, his country is still grappling with its own. Perhaps more than any other challenge facing Brazil today, education is a stumbling block in its bid to accelerate its economy and establish itself as one of the world’s most powerful nations, exposing a major weakness in its newfound armor.

“Unfortunately, in an era of global competition, the current state of education in Brazil means it is likely to fall behind other developing economies in the search for new investment and economic growth opportunities,” the World Bank concluded in a 2008 report.

Over the past decade, Brazil’s students have scored among the lowest of any country’s students taking international exams for basic skills like reading, mathematics and science, trailing fellow Latin American nations like Chile, Uruguay and Mexico.

Brazilian 15-year-olds tied for 49th out of 56 countries on the reading exam of the Program for International Student Assessment, with more than half scoring in the test’s bottom reading level in 2006, the most recent year available. In math and science, they fared even worse.

“We should be ashamed of ourselves,” said Ilona Becskeházy, executive director of the Lemann Foundation, an organization based in São Paulo devoted to improving Brazilian education. “This means that 15-year-olds in Brazil are mastering more or less the same skills as 9-year-olds or 10-year-olds in countries such as Denmark or Finland.”

The task confronting the nation — and Mr. da Silva’s legacy — is daunting. Here in this dirt-poor northeastern town, where Mr. da Silva lived his first seven years, about 30 percent of the population is still illiterate, a figure three times higher than the national rate.

When Mr. da Silva was a boy here, his father used to beat some of his older siblings when they went to school instead of working, said Denise Paraná, the author of a biography of the president.

Today, teachers say that many parents send their children to school only because school attendance is a requirement of the Bolsa Familia subsidy program that Mr. da Silva has greatly expanded under his watch, which provides up to about $115 a month per family.

But even with the added incentive, reading levels vary so greatly here that in one eighth-grade classroom, students from 13 to 17 all read aloud from the same text.

“A lot of parents say, ‘Why should they study if there are no opportunities?’ ” said Ana Carla Pereira, a teacher at another rural school here.

As president, Mr. da Silva’s own education policies got off to a slow start; he dismissed two education ministers before settling on one in 2005. Then the government’s educational program did not start until 2007 — four years after Mr. da Silva took office.

Now in his last year in office and talking about his place in history, Mr. da Silva has an “obsession” with the issue, his education minister, Fernando Haddad, said, which was plain to see when he recently returned here to his childhood town.

“I want every child to study much more than I could, much more,” he said while announcing a program to give laptops to students. “And for all of them to get a university diploma, for all of them to have a vocational diploma.”

The urgency could hardly be clearer. Brazil has already established itself as a global force, riding a commodity and domestic consumption boom to become one of the largest economies in the world. With huge new oil discoveries and an increasingly important role in providing food and raw materials to China, the country is poised to surge even more.

But the nation’s educational shortcomings are leaving many Brazilians on the sidelines. More than 22 percent of the roughly 25 million workers available to join Brazil’s work force this year were not considered qualified to meet the demands of the labor market, according to a government report in March.
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“In certain cities and states we have a problem hiring workers, even though we do have employment,” said Márcio Pochmann, president of the Institute for Applied Economic Research, the government agency that produced the March report. Earlier estimates showed that tens of thousands of jobs went unclaimed because there were not enough qualified professionals to fill them.

Unless that gap is filled soon, Brazil may miss its “demographic window” over the next two decades in which “the economically active population is at its peak,” the World Bank said.

Dr. Haddad, the education minister, said that while Brazil still performed poorly compared with other countries, it was improving faster than many competitors.

To be continued

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/world/americas/05brazil.html

Chicken or egg? Solve the enigma!

Scientists solve chicken and egg riddle*
By Hilary Whiteman, CNN
July 15, 2010 -- Updated 1916 GMT (0316 HKT)
London, England (CNN) -- Researchers in Britain have been credited with cracking the age-old conundrum about the chicken and the egg. But are they right? After the publication of the rather dry-sounding scientific paper, "Structural Control of Crystal Nuclei by an Eggshell Protein," press headlines proclaimed the answer was... the chicken. However, one of the paper's lead authors, Colin Freeman, from the University of Sheffield in northern England, told CNN that the result was not as conclusive as it seemed. "I would argue that the concept of an eggshell came about way before the chicken, it's dinosaur or even pre-dinosaur thing. That's something to talk to an evolutionary biologist about probably," he said. So how did a paper about "crystal nuclei" become proof that the chicken pre-dated the egg? Freeman and his team, which included colleagues from the University of Warwick, were researching a protein found in eggshells called ovocledidin-17. It is also found in chickens' ovaries, but until the team's research its purpose was not clear. Using Britain's national supercomputer, a machine dubbed HECToR based in Edinburgh, Scotland, they were able to simulate the process of biomineralization, or the production of minerals or solid materials inside organisms.
It was a world first and revealed that one potential purpose of the protein ovocledidin-17 is to speed up the production of eggshell within the chicken so that in 24 hours an egg is ready to be laid. "What we have really identified is that the protein seems to accelerate the crystallization process so it can make that eggshell appear far quicker. In simple terms it accelerates calcite formation," Freeman said. They also found that the egg can't be produced without the protein ovocledidin-17 in the chickens' ovaries, so that means that the chicken must have come first. Right? "Obviously, it's not really what we were trying to get out of our simulations, but it's an interesting question isn't it?" Freeman said. Rather than putting an end to bickering over the true order of the egg, the researchers were trying to understand more about how shell is formed so that they can apply their findings in other disciplines, including medicine. "The quote my colleague John Harding always says is, 'could we ever be as clever as algae?'" Freeman said. "They produce these wonderful shells that protect them in the North Sea. That crystal structure is far in advance of anything that we as humans can create in the lab," Freeman said, adding, "We can't make a human skeleton in the lab..." Perhaps one day they will be able to. And perhaps one day someone will conclusively put an end to the argument -- was it the chicken or the egg?
Editor's Note: *Maybe
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/07/14/england.chicken.egg.riddle/index.html#fbid=794ya1hnMP6

are you ready to be a vegetarian?

What's a vegetarianism?

Vegetarianism is a popular choice for many individuals and families. But parents may wonder if kids can safely follow a vegetarian diet and still get all necessary nutrients. Most dietary and medical experts agree that a well-planned vegetarian diet can actually be a very healthy way to eat.

But special care must be taken when serving kids and teens a vegetarian diet, especially if it doesn't include dairy and egg products. And as with any diet, you'll need to understand that the nutritional needs of kids change as they grow.

Types of Vegetarian Diets

Before your child or family switches to a vegetarian diet, it's important to note that all vegetarian diets are not alike. Major vegetarian categories include:

• ovo-vegetarian: eats eggs; no meat
• lacto-ovo vegetarian: eats dairy and egg products; no meat
• lacto-vegetarian: eats dairy products; no eggs or meat
• vegan: eats only food from plant sources

And many other people are semi-vegetarians who have eliminated red meat, but may eat poultry or fish.

The Choice of Vegetarianism

Kids or families may follow a vegetarian diet for a variety of reasons. Younger vegetarians are usually part of a family that eats vegetarian meals for health, cultural, or other reasons. Older kids may decide to become vegetarians because of concern for animals, the environment, or their own health.

In most cases, you shouldn't be alarmed if your child chooses vegetarianism. Discuss what it means and how to implement it, ensuring your child makes healthy and nutritious food choices.

more information at: http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/vegetarianism.html#

Paul the psychic octopus predicts World Cup winners

His first two World Cup game winning predictions could have been a fluke but Paul the psychic octopus has proven himself to be a reliable source.
The eight-armed soothsayer, who lives at Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, has correctly forecast all six of Germany's World Cup games, including Wednesday's loss to Spain in the semi-finals.
Paul started using his nine brains to "predict" the outcome of soccer games two years ago during the European Championships.
Now, the mollusk medium is slated to predict on Friday who will earn the third-place in the match between Germany and Uruguay, a spokesman for his aquarium told Agence France-Presse.
And if the 2 1/2-year-old is not too tired -- or full -- he'll also attempt to soothsay Sunday's final between Spain and the Netherlands.
"We do not want to overburden him," the spokesman said.
There's no crystal ball required for Paul's predictive powers. Rather each time, his handlers dip two, clear square boxes containing a mussel each into Paul's aquarium.
The boxes are decorated with the either the German flag or that of the opposition. Whichever box Paul opens is deemed the likely winner.
Paul's most recent prediction about Germany's 1-0 loss to Spain drew ire from his home-country.
Despondent crowds insulted both Paul and his mother in Berlin. Other soccer fans have posted octopus recipes on the Internet in not-so-veiled threats to Paul's wellbeing.
But the Spanish government has come to his defense: "I am concerned for the octopus ... I am thinking of sending him a protective team," joked Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero on Radio Cadena Ser.
Environment and Fisheries Minister Elena Espinosa also expressed worries, the AFP reported: "On Monday, I shall be at the European Council of Ministers and I shall be asking for a (fishing) ban on Paul the octopus so the Germans do not eat him!"

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/2010/07/08/2010-07-08_paul_the_psychic_octopus_predicts_world_cup_winners.html#ixzz0tConhp4u

Do you think Clearly this octopus is a clairvoyant. This is bogus, it's only conincidence?

I want your opinion about it.

Is McDonald's Breaking the Law by Putting Toys in Happy Meals?

Millions of parents know the drill. Stevie wants to go to McDonald's for a Happy Meal, because along with his burger and fries comes the ultimate little kid payoff: a toy. It's a cheap little thing, and he'll get sick of it in three hours. Still, it's a toy. Go ahead — you just try denying little Stevie his wishes.
If one health advocacy group has its way, parents will never have to face this common dilemma again. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has sent a demand letter to McDonald's that threatens to sue the company unless it stops using toys to market Happy Meals to young children. "By advertising that Happy Meals include toys, McDonald's unfairly and deceptively markets directly to children," the CSPI writes in the letter. The Center claims that since marketing to children under 8 is "inherently deceptive," the company is violating consumer-protection laws in states like Massachusetts, Texas, California and New Jersey. "These children are not cognitively developed enough to know they're getting anything but a free toy," says Stephen Gardner, litigation director for CSPI.
The inclusion of toys in Happy Meals prevents kids from choosing healthier options, argues CSPI, and contributes to childhood obesity. McDonald's points out that it only uses its healthier Happy Meal options — white-meat Chicken McNuggets, milk and Apple Dippers, which are apple slices that come with a low-fat caramel sauce — in its advertising promoting the food and the toys. But since the toy also comes with the less healthy stuff — burgers, fries and a soda — this approach is still duplicitous, CSPI says.
Plus, CSPI argues that since most Happy Meal combinations contain more than the recommended 430-calorie maximum for a young child's lunch, McDonald's isn't promoting public health. And CSPI research shows that when consumers failed to specify the side order they wanted with their Happy Meal, McDonald's servers put fries in the package 93% of the time. "When it comes to the Happy Meal, the only choices you have are junk and junkier," says Gardner. "Even the apples come with a sugary caramel sauce, so the company is sending a dangerous message that the only way to digest fruit is with candy. You might as well take kids to the state fair."
This type of rhetoric, and some of the language in the CSPI letter, isn't sitting well with McDonald's. While the company says it hasn't ruled out acting on CSPI's demands, McDonald's is clearly irked. "The tone of the letter is completely unprofessional and destroys their credibility," says Walt Riker, vice president of corporate communications for McDonald's. "The characterizations are completely out of bounds and don't come close to representing the truth." Riker wouldn't point to specific passages, but it's safe to assume calling McDonald's "duplicitous" and its marketing practices "predatory" failed to ingratiate CSPI with the company.
Then there's this gem: "In short, McDonald's is deliberately marketing directly to unsuspecting little children by offering appealing toys — usually ones related to popular movies or television shows. McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's."
Semantics aside, will a potential suit go anywhere? California's Santa Clara County, home of Silicon Valley, recently passed a measure banning restaurants like McDonald's from including toys with kids' meals. So the antitoy movement has some momentum. CSPI employed a similar strategy against Kellogg's, and in June of 2007 the cereal company agreed to set stricter nutrition standards in its advertising. For example, the company said it would no longer market cereal products over 200 calories to children. "The law prohibits unfair and deceptive advertising," says Angela Campbell, a Georgetown University law professor who directs that school's Institute for Public Representation. "This has to be interpreted. These toys have a tremendous amount of influence, they are friends, they are real to these kids. Children can't process things like adults can. You can take terrible advantage of kids."
Still, it may be hard to prove that McDonald's is doing anything illegal by offering kids an item that, at the end of the day, brings them joy. "There's no law that precludes companies from selling toys to children," says J. Justin Wilson, a senior research analyst at the Center for Consumer Freedom, a food-industry advocacy group. Plus, for many stressed out parents, the Happy Meal is a blessing, a cheap meal you can grab on the go.
The whole issue will probably boil down to parental responsibility. After all, 5-year-old kids aren't driving themselves to the McDonald's pick-up window. Little Stevie and the "unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers" are a powerful force, but should McDonald's be liable for their pestering ways? "The solution is not a lawsuit," says Wilson. "The solution is a two-letter word: no."

do you buy the happy meal only because of the toy? or do you like to go at McDonald's because of the food?

source: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2000973,00.html

US warns over recession risks as G20 meeting starts

The US has said the world's largest economies should focus on maintaining growth to avoid a double-dip recession.
As the G20 summit begins in Canada, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Europe and Japan should boost domestic demand instead of cutting spending.
European leaders have said reducing government deficits is key to setting long-term growth on track.
But Brazil warned that steep budget cuts could harm emerging economies.
Speaking in Toronto, scene of the summit, Mr Geithner said the global economy was still emerging from its crisis and "the scars of this crisis are still with us".
He said: "This summit must be fundamentally about growth."

Cut or spend?
Emergency assistance that G20 leaders agreed on at previous summits at the height of the economic crisis must not be withdrawn too soon, he said.
"We're going to avoid that mistake by making sure that we recognize that it's only been a year since the world economy stopped collapsing," he said.
Europe and Japan should do more to stimulate domestic demand to make it easier for other countries to export to them.
With countries emerging from the global downturn at different speeds, splits have emerged in how to proceed.
Spooked by attacks on the euro currency prompted by Greece's debt crisis, European governments have focused on cutting spending to reduce their deficits.
A draft version of the summit's communique suggested the Group of 20 richest and emerging economies was nearing a compromise, Reuters news agency said.
This would see an agreement to halve budget deficits by three years and toughen banking regulations.
Brazil said the focus on cutting deficits could harm emerging economies.
"If the cuts take place in advanced countries it is worse," said Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega.
"Because instead of stimulating growth they pay more attention to fiscal adjustments, and if they are exporters they will be reforming at our cost."

North Korea warming

Thousands of demonstrators marched on the G20 summit on Saturday in what is being reported to have been a largely peacefully rally that saw outbreaks of violence on its edges. These saw groups of young men scuffle with riot police and set fire to at least two patrol cars.
The G20 meeting follows the summit of the G8 group of industrialised nations, which met at a lakeside resort outside Toronto.
They condemned North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
The G8 leaders also criticised North Korea - and Iran - over their nuclear activities, and they described the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip as "not sustainable".
And they admitted that the global financial crisis had compromised efforts to meet UN targets for reducing world poverty.
On Friday, they agreed to donate $5bn (£3.3bn) over five years towards improving the health of mothers and young children in the developing world.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10426747.stm

Where Gulf Spill Might Place on the Roll of Disasters

From the Oval Office the other night, President Obama called the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.” Senior people in the government have echoed that language.

The motive seems clear. The words signal sympathy for the people of the Gulf Coast, an acknowledgment of the magnitude of their struggle. And if this is really the worst environmental disaster, the wording seems to suggest, maybe people need to cut the government some slack for failing to get it under control right away.
But is the description accurate?
Scholars of environmental history, while expressing sympathy for the people of the gulf, say the assertion is debatable. They offer an intimidating list of disasters to consider: floods caused by human negligence, the destruction of forests across the entire continent and the near-extermination of the American bison.
“The White House is ignoring all the shades and complexities here to make a dramatic point,” said Donald E. Worster, an environmental historian at the University of Kansas and a visiting scholar at Yale.
The professors also note the impossibility of ranking such a varied list of catastrophes. Perhaps the worst disaster, they say, is always the one people are living through now.
Still, for sheer disruption to human lives, several of them could think of no environmental problem in American history quite equaling the calamity known as the Dust Bowl.
“The Dust Bowl is arguably one of the worst ecological blunders in world history,” said Ted Steinberg, a historian at Case Western Reserve University.
Across the High Plains, stretching from the Texas Panhandle to the Dakotas, poor farming practices in the early part of the 20th century stripped away the native grasses that held moisture and soil in place. A drought that began in 1930 exposed the folly.
Boiling clouds of dust whipped up by harsh winds buried homes and cars, destroyed crops, choked farm animals to death and sent children to the hospital with pneumonia. At first the crisis was ignored in Washington, but then the apocalyptic clouds began to blow all the way to New York, Buffalo and Chicago. A hearing in Congress on the disaster was interrupted by the arrival of a dust storm.
By the mid-1930s, people started to give up on the region in droves. The Dust Bowl refugees joined a larger stream of migrants displaced by agricultural mechanization, and by 1940 more than two million people had left the Great Plains States.
However, the Dust Bowl lasted a decade, and that raises an issue. What exactly should be defined as an environmental disaster? How long should an event take to play out, and how many people have to be harmed before it deserves that epithet?
Among sudden events, the Johnstown Flood might be a candidate for worst environmental disaster. On May 31, 1889, heavy rains caused a poorly maintained dam to burst in southwestern Pennsylvania, sending a wall of water 14 miles downriver to the town of Johnstown. About 2,200 people were killed in one of the worst tolls in the nation’s history.
At the time it happened, that event was understood as a failure of engineering and maintenance, and that is how it has come down in history. Perhaps a one-day flood is simply too short-term to count as an environmental disaster.
On the other hand, if events that played out over many decades are included, the field of candidates expands sharply.
Perhaps the destruction of the native forests of North America, which took hundreds of years, should be counted as the nation’s largest environmental calamity. The slaughtering of millions of bison on the Great Plains might qualify.
Craig E. Colten, a geographer at Louisiana State University, nominates “the human overhaul of the Mississippi River Valley,” which destroyed many thousands of acres of wetlands and made the region more vulnerable to later events like Hurricane Katrina.
However, those activities were not seen as disasters at the time, at least by the people who carried them out. They were viewed as desirable alterations of the landscape. It is only in retrospect that people have come to understand what was lost, so maybe those do not belong on a disaster list.
Oil spills, too, seem to be judged more by their effect on people than on the environment. Consider the Lakeview Gusher, which was almost certainly a worse oil spill, by volume, than the one continuing in the gulf.
In the southern end of California’s San Joaquin Valley, an oil rush was on in the early decades of the 20th century. On March 14, 1910, a well halfway between the towns of Taft and Maricopa, in Kern County, blew out with a mighty roar.
It continued spewing huge quantities of oil for 18 months. The version of events accepted by the State of California puts the flow rate near 100,000 barrels a day at times. “It’s the granddaddy of all gushers,” said Pete Gianopulos, an amateur historian in the area.
The ultimate volume spilled was calculated at 9 million barrels, or 378 million gallons. According to the highest government estimates, the Deepwater Horizon spill is not yet half that size.
The Lakeview oil was penned in immense pools by sandbags and earthen berms, and nearly half was recovered and refined by the Union Oil Company. The rest soaked into the ground or evaporated. Today, little evidence of the spill remains, and outside Kern County, it has been largely forgotten. That is surely because the area is desert scrubland, and few people were inconvenienced by the spill.
That sets it apart from the Deepwater Horizon leak. The environmental effects of the gulf spill remain largely unknown. But the number of lives disrupted is certainly in the thousands, if not the tens of thousands; the paychecks lost in industries like fishing add up to millions; and the ultimate cost will be counted in billions.
Even with all that pain, can it yet be called the nation’s worst environmental disaster?
“My take,” said William W. Savage Jr., a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, “is that we’re not going to be able to tell until it’s over.”

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/science/earth/19enviro.html?hpw

monty phyton's flying circus

Today, you'll know a little bit about the most famous comedy group of our time called MONTY PHYTON!!
'Monty Python' was created in the late 1960s by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. The six members of the team had got to know each other gradually in the preceding years, firstly through university - Graham, John and Eric were at Cambridge together, while Terry Jones and Michael were at Oxford - and later through their work on various television comedy programmes, most notably The Frost Report.

In 1967, John and Graham co-wrote and starred in At Last, the 1948 Show, which also starred Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Aimi MacDonald, with occasional appearances by Eric. The following year, Eric, Michael and Terry J wrote and starred in the children's show¹, Do Not Adjust Your Set (DNAYS), which also featured David Jason² and the Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band³, who enjoyed chart success with 'I'm the Urban Spaceman'. Importantly, the series also featured animations by Terry Gilliam.

In early 1969, Michael and Terry J wrote and starred in a short-lived series called The Complete and Utter History of Britain, in which they presented various periods in British history as though television cameras had been there. The series was seen by John, who decided that he would like to work with Michael. A similar thought was had by Barry Took, a producer at the BBC, and he arranged a meeting between the two. John brought writing partner Graham along, and Michael brought DNAYS colleagues Terry J, Eric and Terry G. The six of them hit it off, sharing a love of The Goons and Spike Milligan's Q5 television show. With no questions asked, the BBC gave them a budget to produce 13 television shows...

The Flying Circus

The first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus was broadcast on October 5, 1969. The show was buried late at night and was moved round the schedules to make way for other programmes. Occasionally it was dropped altogether⁴, while certain regions of the UK never got to see it at all. Despite all this, the show developed a significant word-of-mouth following; enough for the BBC to commission a second series in 1970.

After the second series, the Pythons branched out into the world of film, with the release of And Now For Something Completely Different. Envisaged as a way of breaking Monty Python into the American market, it wasn't as successful as they'd hoped and the team returned to television. The third series of Flying Circus was shown in 1972-73, at the end of which, John decided that he'd been with the circus long enough. The fourth series, renamed simply Monty Python was shown in 1974. Having only six episodes, it is generally considered to be the weakest of the four television series, with John's departure unbalancing the group. Fortunately, John wasn't gone for good...

The Films

Learning from their experiences on And Now For Something Completely Different, the Pythons were determined to keep control of their next film.

Decamping to Scotland between the third and fourth series of Flying Circus, the group filmed Monty Python and the Holy Grail on a tiny budget, with Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam directing. Despite some hardship during the filming process - the Scottish weather proving typically unfriendly - the team managed to put together a highly successful film. In a fortunate piece of timing, the release of Holy Grail coincided with the time that Python was first becoming popular in the USA, further boosting the success of the film and convincing the team that cinema was the way forward for Monty Python.

The next Python film was the highly controversial Monty Python's Life Of Brian, released in 1979. The idea came from an off-the-cuff comment by Eric Idle, claiming that their next film would be called 'Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory'. After many rewrites, including a working holiday to Barbados, the final script had almost nothing to do with Christ at all, and simply told the story of a man mistaken for the Messiah - the eponymous Brian. For a while, it seemed as though the film would not be made, as the original funding was withdrawn. Fortunately, George Harrison, a Python fan, was desperate to see the film and set up a production company, 'Handmade Films', for that purpose. On its release, the film was attacked by fundamentalist Christians who campaigned, successfully in some areas, to have the film banned. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, the film went on to be an enormous success. Simultaneously hilarious, intelligent and thought-provoking, it is possibly the Pythons' finest hour.

After Brian came a recording of their 1980 stage performance at the Hollywood Bowl. The group performed some favourite sketches, while the crowd, many of whom were dressed in Python costumes, shouted the words along with them - the comedy equivalent of a rock concert.

The Pythons' next film was, as it turned out, the final true Python project. Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life was released in 1983 and was another financial and critical success, winning the Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival. The film contains some of their most outrageous material, including an attack on Catholic birth control policy in 'Every Sperm is Sacred', a live sex-education lesson in front of some bored schoolboys, Graham Chapman being chased off a cliff by a group of near-naked women, and, of course, the all-vomiting, all-exploding Mr Creosote. A fitting way to bring the Python era to a close.

During the Meanwhile...

In between the television series and films, the Pythons also worked on other projects, particularly a series of books and records. These were as innovative as their other material, with The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief being the world's first 'three-sided' record - a second groove was cut into side 2 of the album so that the sketches heard depended on where the needle fell.

In good Python tradition, both the books and records also managed to cause some controversy, Monty Python's Brand New Bok⁵ in particular causing consternation in book shops with some realistically dirty fingerprints on the white cover. Monty Python's Instant Record Collection also caused problems for shopkeepers, as it was originally packaged in a Terry Gilliam-designed fold-out cover which could be assembled to look like a stack of records. The complicated package kept breaking open in shops, and later versions were released with a much more simple cover. Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album managed to cause offence in a different way, with one item - 'Farewell to John Denver' - being deleted from later versions, and a second item - 'Sit on My Face' - threatened with deletion.

Python continues to exist today in the form of the official website: Pythonline. This is very much Eric Idle's project, but the other Pythons have occasionally been known to drop in.

Of course, Python also lives on in the many references to it that can be found in popular culture and elsewhere. Phrases such as 'this is an ex-parrot' or 'nudge, nudge, wink wink, say no more' have entered the English language, and the word pythonesque is defined in Chamber's English dictionary as:

Pythonesque, adj. of humour, bizarre and surreal, as in the BBC television comedy programme Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Scientists (computer scientists in particular) often look to Python for inspiration when naming things: the net term 'spam' takes its name from a Python sketch, while the programming language 'Python' is a direct steal. In 1985, a giant fossil snake was discovered and was given the Latin name Montypythonoides riversleighensis⁶.

The End

Although Meaning of Life was the last genuine Python project, there was talk all through the 1980s about a Python reunion, another stage show, another film, another television series... The problem was that all the individual Pythons were too busy with their own (and each other's) projects to find the time to get all six of them together. Then, in 1988, Graham Chapman was diagnosed with cancer and, despite claiming to have beaten it, died on 4 October, 1989, one day short of the 20th anniversary of the Flying Circus.

The Python team were reunited in 1998 for a stage appearance in Aspen, Colorado, USA, with British comedian Eddie Izzard making a brief appearance claiming to be one of the team. Graham also 'appeared', in an urn, which was 'accidentally' kicked over and spilt by Terry G. After the event, there was again talk of a new film or stage show, but it failed to materialise. The team also got together for a 30th anniversary celebration on the BBC in 1999. The sad fact is that, although they remain friends, they are all too busy and successful to ever co-ordinate their efforts into a joint production. Besides, without Graham Chapman, it just wouldn't be Python anyway...

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A687945

in you tube, you will find lots of those episodes such as silly walk, spam, argument clinic and also the movies... but, you have to know, this a brittish humor... sometimes is black and depreciate with some cultures. If you understand the message, you'll enjoy!!

do you like football? and world cup?

Next week, the world cup will start. For almost 50 days, people around the world will be connected with the same feeling... passion for football. I won't post anything but you going to tell me what is you opinion about the games. If you support Brazil or other countries, if you pay attention to the beatiful players (rsrs) or the event is just... an event and you don't really care about. Wathever. Tell me your opinion. For the ending, I found an interesting site talking about the history about the world cup, sometimes is important to know because we had important issues and how the games chance the destiny of one nation.

history of the world cup

"Hey Apple"

You may have heard that phrase, if not, should know that the series is on youtube sensation. The "annoying orange" is one of the most successful short story of our time. Beside the annoying orange, the creator made another videos such as the marshmallow murder and how we can scare eggs and corn cobs and in the end he cook, slice, make a juice and eat them (poor them). It's really funny! Here we have three of those videos but look at the related video and you'll see more videos.

The annoying orange



The marshmallow murder



Terrified corn cobs



Scared eggs



ENJOY IT AND BE HAPPY!!

American boy, 13, breaks Everest record

A 13-year-old American boy has become the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, his family says.

Jordan Romero, from California, telephoned his mother from the peak of the world's highest mountain, she said.

"Mom, I'm calling you from the top of the world," Leigh Anne Drake quoted her son as saying.

He was climbing with his father and three Sherpa guides. The previous record was held by a Nepalese boy of 16.

The 13-year-old has now conquered the highest mountains on six of the world's seven continents.

He climbed Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro aged 10. He just needs to scale the Vinson Massif in Antarctica.

He has also scaled Mount Kosciuszko in Australia.

The team set off from Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, last month, heading for the base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain.

While Nepal insists that anyone planning to climb Mount Everest must be 16, China does not impose any age restrictions.

Some mountaineers have criticised the Romero family for letting him attempt the feat but his father said the ascent from the Chinese side is less dangerous, the AFP news agency reports.

Last month, his mother told the BBC he would do some school work during the trip.

Also on Saturday, Apa Sherpa, 50, climbed Everest for the 20th time, surpassing his own record.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10141547.stm

watch the video with the interview:

[more games]

Let's continue talking about games. This game will healp you to improve your english, even you think this game could be silly. I found some pages which we had lots of crosswords, in all levels. Some of them can be difficult but if you try a bit more, it will be nice. I had two websites but if you type on google crosswords en english you will find another sites with it.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/crossword.htm

We also had crosswords in the daily mirror web site but there are another games (some of them are bored) but I believe you will enjoy!!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/fun-games/

Have a nice weekend!!

If you are bored on being in the internet doing nothing, i have something to entertain you.

A GAME!

ISketch is a game for people who likes to draw!

You will play against people of all over the world.

All you have to do is to select a 'room' and start playing.

There is no password!

Just write something in the white zone and you will get in it.

Here's the link: http://www.isketch.net/isketch.shtml

Have fun!

The roots of racism are in our brains, based on empathy

The roots of racial prejudice lie deep within the brain, research has suggested.

A study found that when we watch someone from our own race do something our brain simulates the action mentally as a form of empathy, known as 'mirroring'.

But when we see someone of a different race do the same thing we make much less effort to empathise.

Researchers asked a group of white men to watch film clips of white, black and Asian men picking up a glass of water and drinking.

While the men watched the videos the scientists hooked them up to machines that monitored whether their brains mimicked the action.

The men's brains lit up most when watching someone of their own race.

All the viewers were white but the researchers believe the results would still have been similar with any other group.

Writing in the Journal Experimental Social Psychology, Dr Michael Inzlicht said he believed people are born with a tendency to group others on how like themselves they are.

Dr Inzlicht said the research did not necessarily mean prejudice was innate, adding that discrimination about race, religion or hair colour was 'probably learnt'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1269561/Our-brains-make-empathise-people-race.html#ixzz0maQzZ1HM

just to understand the apartheid: http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/

Twitter not all that popular among teenagers, report finds

This just in: Most American teenagers could not tweet less.

According to a new report released Wednesday, only 8 percent of online teens have embraced Twitter, a notable low for a generation so passionate about technology. Think of the millions of text messages that teens send. Think of their endless hours on Facebook.

Twitter has not caught on in nearly the same way -- and experts suggest the difference is that most teens want to socialize with their friends and peers, not broadcast to the larger world.

"Most teens are not interested in being truly public," says Danah Boyd, a researcher with Microsoft Research and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Even though Twitter allows users to limit their circle of friends, it is "fundamentally a public system," she says, and teens "look at this and say, 'Is this the best tool for doing what I want?' "

The new report, from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, found that older teens are more likely than younger ones to use Twitter, and that high school girls are the most interested, with 13 percent using Twitter, compared with 7 percent of boys the same age.

Researchers say most Twitter-minded teens follow the tweets of celebrities -- be it Miley Cyrus, Lance Armstrong, Chad Ochocinco, Shaquille O'Neal or Ashton Kutcher.

"I don't know a single person who uses Twitter," says Samara Fantie, 17, of Gaithersburg, who added that with so many of her friends on Facebook, Twitter seems beside the point.

Fantie listed its drawbacks, saying it appears to be less secure, more public and too condensed. "Teenagers like to talk, and 140 characters is just not enough," she said. Facebook "does everything Twitter offers, only it's better. It would be like going backwards."

The Pew findings are consistent with those of Eszter Hargittai of Northwestern University. In a study of 1,115 college freshmen, done less than a year ago, she found that 85 percent of those surveyed had never used Twitter, 10 percent used it once and did not go back and 4 percent were using it regularly. "They're more interested in friends and not keeping in touch with the world more broadly," she says.

Lynn Schofield Clark, a researcher at the University of Denver, says the finding about few teens on Twitter may be surprising to adults who assume that teens are always seeking the spotlight. But she notes that teens have become more wary of revealing too much, and "Twitter seems to take away the control they want."

"There is a growing awareness of privacy levels," she said.

The report showed that social networking is more popular than ever among teens, used by 73 percent of those ages 12 to 17. That's a big jump from recent years, with 55 percent using social networking sites in November 2006 and 65 percent using them in February 2008.

"It is steadily climbing," says Amanda Lenhart, the lead writer of the Pew report. "This is a very important way to manage your social life."

Still, one form of teen connectivity was down: blogging.

Just 14 percent of teens said they blogged in 2009, compared with 28 percent in 2006. That's a nearly 50 percent slip in three years, at a time when overall adult blogging has remained steady. Older adults are blogging more than before, while younger adults are blogging less.

Researchers say the decline is probably a reflection of the move away from MySpace, with its blogging feature, to Facebook, with its status updates and other postings.

Victoria Kelley, 17, of North Potomac says that some of her friends blog, but fewer than before, partly because "maybe teenagers want more instant feedback from their friends." Kelley says she blogged briefly a couple of years ago on LiveJournal.com, but found that "it takes so long to think about something interesting to write" and that daily life can sometimes be as ordinary as: "I went to school today, I did homework, I went to bed."

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020302591.html

Do you have twitter?? What's your opinion about it? Do you believe that we can communicate with only 140 characters?

How much water do we need?

Why do we need water?

Water makes up 50 to 70 per cent of an adult's total body weight and, without regular top-ups, our body's survival time is limited to a matter of days.
Water's essential for the body's growth and maintenance, as it's involved in a number of processes. For example, it helps get rid of waste and regulates temperature, and it provides a medium for biological reactions to occur in the body.
Water's lost from the body through urine and sweat, and must be replaced through the diet. If you don't consume enough you can become dehydrated, causing symptoms such as headaches, tiredness and loss of concentration. Chronic dehydration can contribute to a number of health problems such as constipation and kidney stones.

How much water do we need?

The body gets its fluid from three sources:
Drinks, either plain water or as part of other beverages including tea, coffee and squash
Solid foods, especially fruit and vegetables (even foods such as bread and cheese provide small amounts of fluid)
As a by-product of chemical reactions within the body
Most healthy adults need between one and a half to three litres a day, so aim to drink six to eight medium glasses of fluid daily. Beverages such as tea, coffee and fruit juices count towards fluid intake, and may bring with them other nutrients or benefits.
You may require more fluid if you're very physically active or during periods of hot weather.
You can judge whether you're drinking enough by the colour of your urine. If it's a pale straw colour then your fluid intake is probably fine. If your urine is dark yellow, you probably need to drink more.
How to maintain fluid levels
Start as you mean to go on, with a glass of water when you wake.
Find time to make yourself regular drinks during the day - don't forget that tea, coffee and juices can count. Just watch out for the amount of sugar consumed in some soft drinks.
Keep a bottle of water in your bag, as it's a convenient way of providing fluid if you're travelling or exercising.
Get into the habit of having a glass of water with every meal.
The sensation of thirst is not triggered until you're already dehydrated, so it's important to drink before you get thirsty.
Increase your intake of fresh fruit and vegetables, as they have a high water content.

As we can see, it's very important drinking water everyday in order to maintain our body healthy!!

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/treatments/healthy_living/nutrition/healthy_water.shtml