Thanks

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family1. He would miss the paycheck2, but he needed to retire. They could get by3.
　 The employer was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to4 shoddy5 workmanship6 and used inferior7 materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the employer came to inspect the house and handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you.”
　　What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too8 well.
　 So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted9 way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up10 less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized, we would have done it differently.
　　 Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer11 a nail, place a board, or erect12 a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously13 and with dignity. The plaque14 on the wall says, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.” Who could say it more clearly? Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.

If by “suburb” is meant an urban margin that grows more rapidly than its already developed interior, the process of suburbanization began during the emergence of the industrial city in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
Before that period the city was a small highly compact cluster in which people moved about on foot and goods were conveyed by horse and cart. But the early factories built in the 1830’s and 1840’s were located along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities, and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the prospect of employment. In time, the factories were surrounded by proliferating mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the older, main cities. As a defense against this encroachment and to enlarge their tax bases, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors. In1854, for example, the city of Philadelphia annexed most of Philadelphia County. Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago and in New York.

The preservation of embryos and juveniles is a rate occurrence in the fossil record. The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by scavengers or destroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized.
Ichthyosaurs had a higher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial creatures because, as marine animals, they tended to live in environments less subject to erosion. Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors: a slow rate of decay of soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a lack of swiftcurrents and waves to jumble and carry away small bones, and fairly rapid burial.
Given these factors, some areas have become a treasury of well preserved ichthyosaur fossils.The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for analysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine shales deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years, thousands of specimens of marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been recovered from these rocks. The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what is even more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils containing preserved embryos.Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small area around Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers of ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time. The embryos are quite advanced in their physical development; their paddles, for example, are already well formed. One specimen is even preserved in the birth canal. In addition, the shale contains the remains of many newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.
Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they are so rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost unmatched and quarry operations have been carried out carefully with an awareness of the value of the fossils. But these factors do not account for the interesting question of how there came to be such a concentration of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of giving birth.

Pun aside in this post title, it’s springtime – at least for the northern half of the world – and doesn’t it feel good? A cool breeze in the city streets, a clear blue sky finally rid of the moody english clouds, and a bright golden sun!
What do weather phenomena have to do with blogs? Well isn’t just about time you updated your blog banner and put some dendelions, daisies, and other flowers? Isn’t it time we stroke up an orchestra of color? Well maybe you can. With some CSS, javascript, and a wee bit of imagination, the opportunities are countless.
First, let’s look at a sample letter-drop: let’s take the previous paragraph and don it with a bright big capital W letter instead of the dull old Arial 10pt letter.
What do weather phenomena have to do with blogs? Well isn’t just about time you updated your blog banner and put some dendelions,
daisies, and other flowers? Isn’t it time we stroke up an orchestra of color? Well maybe you can. With some CSS, javascript, and a wee bit of imagination, the opportunities are countless.

In case you haven’t noticed yet, we are moving at full blast to wordpress-mu. Ever since WP 2.7 feature list appeared on our radar, we were pondering the possibility of moving. We took the plunge, and are working hard moving tracks on a heavy train. Switching platforms is no easy task, and works should take another month or so.
The current status is: accounts created prior to March are living on the previous platform, the portal is running on top of the previous platform. New accounts are being created on the new platform, and number right now about 200 thousand accounts.
Next plans: We will be moving the portal to the new platform, launching with it the new site logo and colors. Following, we will start the account migration process, gradually moving accounts to the new systems.

You might have been forgiven for thinking that piracy on the high seas was the stuff of Hollywood movies or historical novels, but Somali pirates have made 92 attacks this year, resulting in 36 successful hijackings.
Their most audacious and significant attack to date came on Saturday with the capture of the Saudi-owned Sirius Star and its crew of 25 (including two Britons) which was taken 450 nautical miles (830km) off the coast of Kenya.
The move was described as “unprecedented” by the US Navy due to the size of the vessel and the distance of the attack from the pirates’ usual theatre of operations; the Sirius Star is the biggest ship taken by pirates so far, weighing three times more than an American aircraft carrier and capable of carrying 2m barrels of oil, valued at around $100m (683m Yuan).
The pirates, who are often armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, usually hijack ships in the Gulf of Aden using powerful speedboats to approach merchant ships which they board using grappling hooks and rope ladders.
Once the crew has been taken hostage, the pirates direct the ship to a port in Somalia where the crew and boat are held until a ransom is paid. There are currently 14 ships and 268 crew being held in pirate-friendly Somali ports.
Given that senior UN officials estimate that the pirates earn more than $100m (683m Yuan) a year from ransom payments made by ship owners, many ask why more military interventions don’t take place.
NATO warships are in the area but US Navy officials have told the BBC they can “not be everywhere”. That said, an Indian Navy frigate attacked and sank a Somali pirate ‘mother ship’ on Wednesday morning after coming under fire.
Most hijackings, however, do end peacefully although it can be a lengthy process. On Wednesday the Hong Kong ship MV Great Creation and its crew of 25 Chinese and one Sri Lankan were released after two months of captivity.

‘Christmas comes but once a year’ is a familiar phrase, and indeed for many people the 25th of December is the highlight of the calendar.
But for one British man once a year is not enough. Andy Park, who is better known by his nickname Mr Christmas, has celebrated Christmas every single day for the last 14 years.
The 44-year-old electrician claims to have eaten a full roast dinner every day for the last decade and a half, munching his way through over 5,000 turkeys, 117,000 Brussels sprouts, and around 30,000 roast potatoes in the process.
He also sends himself a Christmas card every day and looks forward to unwrapping a present he has bought himself each evening, while watching the Queen’s Speech.
Mr Park estimates his festive fetish costs him £150 (1,570 yuan) a week. This year, however, the divorcee says he is feeling the pinch due to the global financial crisis, and is scaling back his celebrations.
His Christmas habit is putting a strain on more than just his wallet. Mr Park was previously warned by his doctor that his Christmas addiction could kill him. His daily over-indulgence has caused his weight to skyrocket to 19 stone (121 kg).
So how did Andy Park’s obsession with Christmas begin?

The British usually expect one or two snowfalls each year but the amount of snow rarely affects everyday life. However, this week Britain has had the worst snow it has seen in around 18 years. Some places had more than 30cm in a day.
The bad weather caused severe disruption. More than 3000 schools had to close as teachers and pupils were unable to get to school.
School children weren’t too unhappy about it though as they headed out to play in the snow, building snowmen, having snowball fights, sledging and some even snowboarding and skiing.
In London, bus services were withdrawn for a day and tubes and trains were cancelled. Major motorways in the country had to close.
Many people were unable to get to work and it is thought the cost of this lost labour is around £1 billion (10 billion yuan) to businesses and the economy.
Anyone wanting to leave the country had problems too. Runways were closed at all the UK’s major airports because of the amount of snow. Hundreds of flights were cancelled leaving some passengers stranded at airports.
So why is the UK so ill-prepared for snow? The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, explained that there aren’t enough snow-ploughs and gritters and it doesn’t make sense to buy such equipment when it snows so infrequently.
The south-east of England was the hardest hit at the beginning of the week but the snow is now moving northwards where the chaos continues.
More ice and snow is forecast throughout the week and the advice from travel and weather organisations is to stay indoors unless you really need to venture out!

It’s not every week that England’s greatest playwright William Shakespeare hits the headlines, but the Bard of Avon has been the subject of two news stories in recent days as new information has come to light about the writer and his working environment.
In the first development, a portrait of Shakespeare, which is believed to be the only picture painted of him during his lifetime, was unveiled in London.
The artwork has been dated back to 1610, meaning it was painted six years before the writer’s death.
The painting had been owned by a family descended from Shakespeare’s literary patron for hundreds of years without them ever knowing who the man in the picture was.
Alec Cobbe, who inherited the portrait, realised that the painting was a likeness of Shakespeare after visiting an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery where he saw a portrait that had, until 70 years ago, been accepted as a life portrait of Shakespeare.
Mr Cobbe immediately realised he was looking at a copy of the painting that had been in his family for centuries.
The painting will now go on display in Shakespeare’s hometown Stratford-upon-Avon.
In a separate story, archaeologists in London believe they have unearthed the remains of Shakespeare’s first theatre.
The site was excavated by a team from the Museum of London last summer, and is believed to have been built in 1576.
Experts think that Shakespeare himself acted at the theatre, which may have been where the play Romeo and Juliet was premiered.
It is believed that 25 years after construction, the building was dismantled and moved timber by timber to the South Bank of the Thames, where a reconstruction of the theatre now stands.

Millions of TV viewers were gripped by an epic battle yesterday. The arena: the snooker World Championship in Sheffield, England. The combatants: Chinese players Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo.
Ding began the session well, cementing an overnight lead with a further two frames to take him 7-4 ahead of Liang.
But Liang rallied magnificently, taking the next four frames to give him a narrow lead over his compatriot.
Having failed to pot a ball for over an hour, it looked like things might be over for Ding. But then he produced a clearance of 111 to take the 16th frame. Breaks of 91 and 63 on the following frames secured him the match.
The world number 11 now faces Stephen Hendry, a seven-time world champion. Hendry beat Ding in Sheffield last year, but Ding must still savour memories of his win over the Scotsman in the 2005 China Open. He delighted the Beijing crowd by coming from 4-1 down to beat Hendry 9-5 in the final.
Current champion Ronnie O’Sullivan believes Ding Junhui has what it takes to go all the way. He is reported to have said in the past, “Tennis has Federer, golf has Tiger Woods, Ding could do the same to snooker.”
But this year, O’Sullivan is himself the focus of most attention. The world number one was recently put under review after making lewd comments at a news conference during the China Open.
Nevertheless, O’Sullivan is a favourite to win this year’s championship. In the second frame of his first-round victory over Stuart Bingham, it took ‘The Rocket’ just seven minutes to deliver a clearance of 140.
Yet O’Sullivan is anything but complacent. After the game he was asked to judge his performance out of 10. He said, “Five. Something like that.”