Archive for the 'Informative' Category

Black snow. Coal dust. Sulfuric air. Welcome to life in the world’s most polluted places.

Chockablock with heavy metals, chemical waste, air pollutants and, in the case of infamous Chernobyl, Ukraine, deadly radiation, these are the worst industrial cesspools on earth–and they rarely make headlines. Nothing in the West compares.

“In some towns, life expectancy approaches medieval rates, and birth defects are the norm, not the exception,” according to the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute, which compiled the list earlier this fall. “In others, children’s asthma rates are measured above 90%, and mental retardation is endemic.”

China, India and Russia landed six cities on this list of 10. Fast - track economic growth and years of unregulated mining and chemical production have laid waste to the homes of millions.

Returns Norilsk, Russia. A Siberian industrial quarter founded leadership 1935 for a bondsman labor dumb, Norilsk contains the macrocosm ‘ s largest bulky - metals smelting entangled, owned by Norilsk Nickel. Actual releases partly 500 tons each of copper and nickel oxides and 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the air. Reports remark the snow is nigrescent, the air tastes of sulfur and the get-up-and-go longing for works troop is 10 years below the Russian average. The company has subject to drudgery mask Blacksmith to gain ground conditions.

Others on the list work in:

• Sumgayit, Azerbaijan, a former Soviet industrial polestar footing cancer rates are massed than 22 % higher than agency the rest of the country.
• Linfen, China, home to 3 million tribe and the focal point of the country’s booming sombre industry. Residents claim they recurrently block on the dust juice the air clout the evenings.
  Tianying, China, recognized for being the nerve center of the country’s cause processing industry is also declared for having the worst air pollution string China.
• Sukinda, India, is at rest to 97 % of India’s chromite ore deposits (used pressure the production of chromium, an industrial metal plant crowded uses ), and concrete has one of the largest unlocked - hurl chromite ore mines drag the microcosm. Here, some 70 % of the surface spatter and 60 % of the drinking inundate contains hexavalent chromium, a ruling, cancer - causing carcinogen, at likewise than twofold governmental and international standards.
• Dzerzhinsk, Russia, once the limelight of Soviet chemical weapon production and homey to a leaded gasoline plant, had almost 300, 000 tons of chemical waste improperly apt between 1930 and 1998. Seeping into the groundwater: around 190 identified chemicals.

Significance 2006, Blacksmith just now cataloging excited - polluted sweltering spots around the terrene to allure attention to their poisonous effects. Blacksmith asks for nominations from around the macrocosm, standard a database of 400 candidates. They ‘ re scored using criteria emphasizing human health ( especially the early ), developed by researchers from Johns Hopkins University; Hunter College; Harvard University; the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; the University of Idaho; Mount Sinai Hospital; and Youthful Tetchy Switzerland.

What to do about these hellholes? Blacksmith’s founder and director, Richard Fuller, says for less than $1 billion you could significantly mitigate the unhealthy effects of all the worst places across the globe. Simple fixes like digging up the toxic materials and moving them to safer areas away from people can have huge benefits. Other solutions are more complex, but still cheap, such as injecting a sugary mixture into a water supply contaminated by hexavalent chromium to make it less toxic and less mobile underground.

“If you spend 10 % of the money, you deal with 90 % of the problem, ” he says.” The fact of the matter is that children are sick and dying in these polluted places. And it ‘ s not rocket science to fix them. “

source Forbes.com

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“Celebration of Our Living Culture”

“What moments in your life do you enjoy most? Which scene in your life do you want to pass onto the future?
What is the environment like in which you grew up?  Who passed down to you what you are proud of now?
What do you expect the world to be by the end of the next decade or century? 
What do you think the people of the world will value the most then?
Photographs taken with your own hands and letters written in your own words.
Why not send them to us as a message for all those who live on this planet and for future generations?
Let us celebrate your cherished moment and your culture which you wish to pass on to our shared future.”

“Please lend your camera to your family, friends, and those whom you love, and show them how to photograph.
Please help those who cannot read and write, young and old, to create a message.
We are looking forward to your joining us in rediscovering the wisdom, technique and spirit that have been nurtured and passed down in nature and between people, to make a better tomorrow with diverse culture.”

ACCU was organising the ACCU Photo Contest in Asia and the Pacific from 1976 to 2002. ACCU received 141,544 entries in total in those 26 years, and has organised international traveling photo exhibitions approximately 200 times. The present contest and the traveling exhibition, in a new framework, is planned to contribute to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD: 2005-2014).

Theme

“Celebration of Our Living Culture”
Look around and find something you wish to pass along to the future - in your family, community or country.  As each entry, we call for a photograph of people who transmit living culture, together with a text in your own words.
Please try to depict people who are engaged in traditional music, theatre and dance, folklore and legend, social practices, rituals and festive events, traditional handicrafts such as wood carving, dyeing and weaving, and cultural spaces such as those for prayers, rituals and gatherings. 
Please select some part of your valuable culture which has been nurtured in nature, and passed from people to people, hand to hand and heart to heart, in other words “Living Heritage” around you, and those people who pass along such living culture, in a spontaneous and natural scene.
Photographs which depict solely tangible cultural heritage, e.g. historical buildings and archeological sites, will not be acceptable.

ACCU plans to organise the following contests.
Letters to Tomorrow 2009: “Water and Life on PLANET EARTH”
Letters to Tomorrow 2011: “Joy of Learning and Communicating”

Closing Date

Entries must reach ACCU no later than Saturday, 5 January 2008 15 February 2008.

All correspondence concerning the contest should be addressed to:

ESD Photo Message Contest Secretariat
Education Division
Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
6 Fukuromachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8484 JAPAN
Tel: +81-(0)3-3269-4559  Fax: +81-(0)3-3269-4510
E-mail:esd@accu.or.jp

Any details find it out here

A PDF version of the poster is available. To get the poster, please download it from below. Poster download (860KB)

Reminder of the upcoming events

1. Film
The Weekend Japanese Film Show 15 (Sat) December 2007, “BU∙SU” at 4:30pm
Visit http://www.jfkl.org.my/shows/film_body.php?id=80 for more details.The film will be screened:
at Mini Auditorium, Malaysia Tourism Centre
Admission Free

2. Exhibition
The 11th Asian Cartoon Exhibition – “Asian Youth Culture” Johor Bahru
Duration: 18 – 23 December 2007
Venue: Jaya Jusco Tebrau Bay
Tel: 07-352 2220
Admission: FREE

Terengganu
Duration: 27 December 2007 – 7 January 2008
Venue: Terengganu State Library Corporate
Tel: 09-622 1100 / 622 0052
Admission: FREEVisit http://www.jfkl.org.my/events/event_body.php?id=149 for more details.

The World of Kokeshi Dolls ExhibitionIn this exhibition, we showcase various Kokeshis from traditional to contemporary together with the manufacturing process. Some other traditional wooden toys will also be exhibited.

Duration: 6 November – 28 December 2007
Venue: Gallery, The Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur
           Suite 30.01, Level 30, Menara Citibank 
165, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours: [Mon] 10:30am - 4:30pm
                        [Tue - Fri] 10:30am - 6:30pm
                        [Sat] 10:00am - 6:00pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays
Admission: Free
Inquiry: 03-2161 2104

so  if you have any free time, just take a visit there!

let’s continue:

ODBC Data Source Administrator
odbccp32.cpl

On Screen Keyboard
osk

Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed)
ac3filter.cpl

Password Properties
password.cpl

Performance Monitor
perfmon.msc

Performance Monitor
perfmon

Phone and Modem Options
telephon.cpl

Power Configuration
powercfg.cpl

Printers and Faxes
control printers

Printers Folder
printers

Private Character Editor
eudcedit

Quicktime (If Installed)
QuickTime.cpl

Regional Settings
intl.cpl

Registry Editor
regedit

Registry Editor
regedit32

Remote Desktop
mstsc

Removable Storage
ntmsmgr.msc

Removable Storage Operator Requests
ntmsoprq.msc

Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof)
rsop.msc

Scanners and Cameras
sticpl.cpl

Scheduled Tasks
control schedtasks

Security Center
wscui.cpl

Services
services.msc

Shared Folders
fsmgmt.msc

Shuts Down Windows
shutdown

Sounds and Audio
mmsys.cpl

Spider Solitare Card Game
spider

SQL Client Configuration
cliconfg

System Configuration Editor
sysedit

System Configuration Utility
msconfig
System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately) sfc /scannow
System File Checker Utility (Scan Once At Next Boot) sfc /scanonce
System File Checker Utility (Scan On Every Boot) sfc /scanboot
System File Checker Utility (Return to Default Setting) sfc /revert
System File Checker Utility (Purge File Cache) sfc /purgecache

System File Checker Utility (Set Cache Size to size x) sfc /cachesize=x

System Properties
sysdm.cpl

Task Manager
taskmgr

Telnet Client
telnet

User Account Management
nusrmgr.cpl

Utility Manager
utilman

Windows Firewall
firewall.cpl

Windows Magnifier
magnify

Windows Management Infrastructure
wmimgmt.msc

Windows System Security Tool
syskey

Windows Update Launches
wupdmgr

Windows XP Tour Wizard
tourstart

Wordpad
wordpad

ok! that’s all! so, please tell me which one do you like best?