World AIDS Day concert

10.000 people saw at Johannesburg on Ellis Park stadium on Saturday a 10 hours music show broadcasted to millions around the world for World AIDS Day.
Artists like Ludacris, Peter Gabriel, Johnny Clegg, Annie Lennox and Goo Goo Dolls made their attendance.
This event was organized by Nelson Mandela. At present time he's 89 years old, and using as reference the 46664 AIDS campaign, called after his prison number from his 27 years in jail during South Africa's apartheid regime.
Peter Gabriel singed his "Biko" song about the apartheid activist Steve Biko, deep remarks from Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Even Naomi Campbell made a surprise appearance. It’s expected another cultural demonstration in June 27, 2008 in London to remember Mandela's 90th birthday.

source & image:

africasia.com

Ian Smith... a leader of the Rhodesian revolution.

Ian Smith was distinguished by having led the revolution of Rhodesia against the British Crown, Ian recently suffered a stroke and died last Tuesday with 88 years old, in a clinic in Cape Town. He was the first minister of Rhodesia, presently called Zimbabwe. Commanded by him and a white minority they managed to make this African country independent from the English Crown, in the 60’s.
He declared unilaterally the independence of the Rhodesia from the colonial British Empire in 1965, commanded 300 thousand persons, and led the country during 14 years, in spite of strong sanctions and international criticism. But in 1979, by the pressure of the guerrilla led by the current President of the now called Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Smith handed over the power to the black majority. Nevertheless, the first ex-Minister continued actively in politic nearly to 1987, when the white places of the Parliament of the Zimbabwe were abolished. Still watching the expulsion of the white farmers from the land. This country was one of the main food exporters of Africa. Zimbabwe is now politically and economically isolated from the world, due to the authoritarianism of Mugabe, accused of reiterated violation of the human rights. His population is of the most poor in the world.

What can you tell about a country this flag...

This flag belongs to Portugal, officially called Portuguese Republic, it’s a country in southwestern Europe, rest on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal territory.
This is one of the oldest countries in Europe, the land inside its borders of today's Portuguese Republic has been constantly settled since prehistoric times. Some of the earliest civilizations include Celtic societies, followed by Roman Republic dominions in the 2nd century, and then into Germanic Kingdoms, such as the Suebi and the Visigoths, from the 5th to the 8th century. Then follows the Moors that occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula from the early 8th century and conquered the Christian Kingdoms of Germanic background. After the starting of the Reconquest, in the early 1100s Portugal reborn as an independent kingdom of its Christian neighbors, Castile and Leon from Spain Kingdom. In less than a century Portugal had almost established its actual borders by conquering territory from the Muslim Moors.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, with its global empire which included colonies in Africa, Asia and South America, Portugal was one of the world's main economic, political, and cultural powers. In the 19th century, armed conflict with French and Spanish invading forces at mainland, and the loss of its largest territorial possession overseas, Brazil, which declared independence unilaterally, disrupted political stability and potential economic growth. After the civil revolution in 1974, its regimen was deposed and the country lost its last overseas provinces in Africa.
Nowadays it’s a member of the European Union (since 1986) and the United Nations (since 1955); is also founding member of OECD, NATO, CPLP(Community of Portuguese Language Countries), and the European Union's Eurozone.

source & image:

wikipedia.org

What can you tell about a country flag...

What can you tell about a country flag, you can guess from what country it is. But what’s the meaning of the flag symbol? Taking the ancient Rhodesia flag. The Coat of Arms of Rhodesia was first used for the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923, simply known as Rhodesia after 1964. The shield has textured a red lion rampant and two thistles, taken from the family arms of Cecil Rhodes, from where the colony was called, and the Latin inscriptions “Sit Nomine Digna” (May It Be Worthy of the Name) is a allusion to Rhodes. The pick, in gold on a green field, represents mining, the economic mainstay of the colony. Also featured above the shield is the soapstone statuette of a bird found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. The shield of the arms was used on a British Blue Ensign, like most other British colonies, originally on a white disc, but later without one. This design served as the Flag of Rhodesia until 1964, when the field of the flag was changed to light blue. In 1968, the full coat of arms was created on a new national flag, placed in the centre, and when Rhodesia was declared a republic in 1970, was featured on the President's flag. The arms remained unchanged by the renaming of the country as Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, and were used by the government of Zimbabwe from 1980 to1981, when the present Coat of Arms of Zimbabwe were introduced.

The Coat of Arms of Zimbabwe was adopted on September , 1981, one year and five months after the national flag was adopted.

source & image:
wikipedia.org

Summer / Winter time period

European nations have been taking advantage of the time change for decades, since 1996 the European Union (EU) standardized the EU-wide summer time period. The EU version of Daylight Saving Time goes from the last Sunday in March through the last Sunday in October. In the southern hemisphere where summer comes in December, Daylight Saving Time is observed from October to March. Equatorial and tropical countries on lower latitudes, don't observe Daylight Saving Time since the daylight hours are similar during every season, so there's no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer. If you live in Europe, don’t forget to change your clock, turn time back to GMT+1 this weekend. In the night of Saturday to Sunday, at 2am turn your watch back one hour to 1am. The good news is that you have one more hour of sleep or partying on Saturday night and the bad news is that we will have many more hours of darkness in the next couple of months.
Be cool, because we’ll be back to summer time on March 30, 2008

source & image:
en.wikipedia.org

The First Scout!

MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT S. S. BADEN-POWELL.

In 1907 Robert S. S. Baden-Powell planned a special nine-day outing to test his ideas for training boys. This ideas showed to be useful, and the Scouting movement was created.
ROBERT born in Feb. 22, 1857, in London, England and died in Jan. 8, 1941. Was officially recognized as the founder of Boy Scout movement.

He was born in London, as a boy, he loved outdoor play and reading. He was also a good actor and gifted artist, he draw well with either hand.
Powell was only 19 when joined the British Army as a sub-lieutenant and sailed for India.
He had a special admiration for Zulu Warriors. For 34 years Baden-Powell was a professional soldier. He campaigned in Afghanistan and fought against the Zulu, Ashanti, and Matabele tribes in Africa, where England had colonies.
Baden-Powell admired the Zulu warriors and traditions. Later, he adopted their left-hand handshake for his Boy Scouts. Becoming an expert in his work he wrote Army manuals on the subject. But he wasn't yet famous. He was almost unknown outside his regiment when war broke out in South Africa in 1899. Then a Colonel, was assigned to raise two regiments of English settlers in South Africa to fight the Boers. These were Dutch settlers who were resisting British rule. Known as the Battle of Mafeking. Baden Powell and about 1.000 new soldiers were in a sleepy little town called Mafeking when 9,000 Boers attacked. He used tricks to make the Boers think he had a much bigger force. He held Mafeking for 217 days. Another British force arrived to help, and England heard the news of Baden Powell's resistance. For recognitions of his actions his nation considered him as an instant hero.

When he returned to England in 1903, he was surprised to see that young boys were using training exercises from his manual “Aids to Scouting”, a manual that he wrote for professional soldiers. Some people thought he should rewrite the book for boys. And then Powell began to study how boys grow and develop and to think about how boys could be trained.
In the summer of 1907 he tried out his ideas at a two-week camp for 22 teen-age boys. The camp was held on Brownsea Island off England's southern coast.
The campers, who were the first Boy Scouts, learned camping skills, first aid, lifesaving, and nature lore. Much of their instruction was through games and contests.
In 1908, Baden-Powell published the first Scout handbook, called "Scouting for Boys." He illustrated it himself in a 182 page book packed with campfire yarns and ideas for skills that Scouts have used ever since. The book was a best seller. Troops sprang up all over England. Before long there were troops in Canada and the United States too.

On Feb. 8, 1910, when the BSA was officially born, there were probably 50 or more troops in this country. The man who signed the papers setting up the BSA was William D. Boyce, a Chicago newspaper publisher.
Boyce had first heard of Scouting in August 1909 when he was in London, England. He was lost in a fog, and a boy guided him to where he wanted to go. This boy refused a tip because, saying that Scouts do not accept tips for courtesies or Good Turns. Boyce was impressed and started learning as much as he could about Scouting. After he got home, he incorporated the BSA as an organization. Baden-Powell ideas was already considered founder of Scouting,

At a dinner banquet in New York in 1910, Ernest Thompson Seton introduced Baden Powell as the father of Scouting. Baden-Powell replied with the famous phrase: "You are mistaken, Mr. Seton .... I may say that you, or Dan Beard, is the father, there are many fathers. I am only one of the uncles, I might say."
Baden-Powell was being modest, but there was truth in what he said. Several of the training games he described in "Scouting for Boys" were taken from Seton's book, "The Birch-bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians." So was the idea of having boys earn badges by meeting standards, not by competing against other boys.

Still, Baden-Powell is rightly considered the founder of Scouting.

source & image:
scoutingmagazine.org

The 100th birthday of the bra!

The "bra" is 100 years old, in 1907 the word “brassiere” born in US Vogue. In Paris, a French couturier named Paul Poiret has opened his fashion house. His revolutionary dress styles will persuade a generation of women to ditch the corset. 6 years later, the American socialite Mary Phelps Jacob bought a sheer evening dress and, not wishing to wear a corset, fashions her own underwear from two silk handkerchiefs and some ribbon. She is granted the first US patent for the brassiere the following year.

In 1923, a Russian immigrant Ida Rosenthal and her husband William found Maidenform. In years to come she will be a pioneer in the idea of different cup sizes for different women, as well as patent a bra strap fastener. And in 1935 Warner’s creates the cup sizing system. Later on 1957 Howard Hughes invented what in the future was called push-up, this bra was created for Jane Russell to wear under a tight silk blouse in The Outlaw. It is, however, denied a place in fashion history when Jane Russell later claims that she never wore it.

In 1959 a synthetic fibber named lycra is invented by scientists at DuPont. Adding this stretchy manmade fibre to the mix makes it possible for a bra to fit comfortably and close to the body without sagging, bagging or losing its shape.

Five years later, a Canadian company called Canadelle invents the Wonderbra, designed to lift and separate the bust. It was used by Eva Herzigova stars in the "Hello Boys" advertising campaign.

Triumph’s Doreen bra, a supportive, and non-underwired style, goes on sale for the first time in 1967. It is the best selling bra in the world today. In 1977 Hinda Miller, Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith sew two jockstraps together and call it the Jogbra, becoming the first sports bra.

An underwear as an outerwear was created by Jean Paul Gaultier: the conical bra for Madonna’s Blonde tour.

An Italian manufacturer, named Santoni develops a circular knitting machine that allows a bra to be knitted all in one go, instead of separate pieces needing to be cut and sewn together. This leads to today’s increasingly popular seamless, tagless bras. And This year by the hands of Hanro, Chantelle and Ballet and more, are among brands that offer bras in eco-friendly bamboo blend fabrics.

source & image:

nydailynews.com

world-fashion.info

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna - RIP

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna born in June 14, 1928 in Argentina, commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was a Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. Was executed in October 9, 1967.
Yesterday the free world remembered his history through documentarys, movies, debates or simply a news report.
As a young man studying medicine, Che as a like to call him, travelled throughout South America, bringing him into direct contact with the precarious and horrible conditions in which many people lived. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to the conclusion that the region's socio-economic inequalities could only be remedied by socialism through revolution, prompting him to intensify his study of Marxism and travel to Guatemala to learn about the reforms being implemented there by President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.
While in Mexico in 1956, Guevara joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement, which seized power from the regime of the dictator General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959. In the months after the success of the revolution, Guevara was assigned the role of "supreme prosecutor", overseeing the trials and executions of hundreds of suspected war criminals from the previous regime. After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in Congo-Kinshasa, and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a military operation supported by the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces. Guevara was summarily executed by the Bolivian Army in the town of La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967.
After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements and a cultural icon worldwide. Alberto Korda as a standard photographer, took the picture that you can see above, and has received wide distribution and modification, appearing on t-shirts, protest banners, and in many other formats. It's also considered the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century.

source & image:

en.wikipedia.org