Preferred "Olympic girls" living pictures Exposure

2004, 5-year-old Chen Jia was the famous director Zhang Yimou selected as the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games in China eight minutes singing the end of the "mini Jasmine." Four years later, fortunately, she sing the "Beijing welcomes you" the first sentence, the Beijing Olympic atmosphere accompanied by her Yinling the world flowed like the Children, in full bloom "small Jasmine" once again dazzling the world.

LOVE

Freda Bright says, "Only in opera do people die of love." It's true. You really can't love somebody to death. I've known people to die from no love, but I've never known anyone to be loved to death. We just can't love one another enough.
A heart-warming story tells of a woman who finally decided to ask her boss for a raise in salary. All day she felt nervous and apprehensive. Late in the afternoon she summoned the courage to approach her employer. To her delight, the boss agreed to a raise.
The woman arrived home that evening to a beautiful table set with their best dishes. Candles were softly glowing. Her husband had come home early and prepared a festive meal. She wondered if someone from the office had tipped him off, or... did he just somehow know that she would not get turned down?
She found him in the kitchen and told him the good news. They embraced and kissed, then sat down to the wonderful meal. Next to her plate the woman found a beautifully lettered note. It read: "Congratulations, darling! I knew you'd get the raise! These things will tell you how much I love you."
Following the supper, her husband went into the kitchen to clean up. She noticed that a second card had fallen from his pocket. Picking it off the floor, she read: "Don't worry about not getting the raise! You deserve it anyway! These things will tell you how much I love you."
Someone has said that the measure of love is when you love without measure. What this man feels for his spouse is total acceptance and love, whether she succeeds or fails. His love celebrates her victories and soothes her wounds. He stands with her, no matter what life throws in their direction.
Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa said: "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." And love your friends. Love them without measure.

Wild Flowers

Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches along the highway I travel daily to work.There is one particular blue flower that has always caught my eye. I've noticed that it blooms only in the morning hours, the afternoon sun is too warm for it. Every day for approximately two weeks, I see those beautiful flowers. This spring, I started a wildflower garden in our yard. I can look out of the kitchen window while doing the dishes and see the flowers. I've often thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ditch would look great in that bed alongside other wildflowers. Everyday I drove past the flowers thinking, "I'll stop on my way home and dig them." "Gee, I don't want to get my good clothes dirty..." Whatever the reason, I never stopped to dig them. My husband even gave me a folding shovel one year for my trunk to be used for that expressed purpose. One day on my way home from work, I was saddened to see that the highway department had mowed the ditches and the pretty blue flowers were gone. I thought to myself, "Way to go, you waited too long. You should have done it when you first saw them blooming this spring." A week ago we were shocked and saddened to learn that my oldest sister-in-law has a terminal brain tumor. She is 20 years older than my husband and unfortunately, because of age and distance, we haven't been as close as we all would have liked. I couldn't help but see the connection between the pretty blue flowers and the relationship between my husband's sister and us. I do believe that God has given us some time left to plant some wonderful memories that will bloom every year for us. And yes, if I see the blue flowers again, you can bet I'll stop and transplant them to my wildflower garden.

A True Gift of Love

"Can I see my baby?" the happy new mother asked. When the bundle was nestled in her arms and she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his tiny face, she gasped. The doctor turned quickly and looked out the tall hospital window. The baby had been born without ears. Time proved that the baby's hearing was perfect. It was only his appearance that was marred. When he rushed home from school one day and flung himself into his mother's arms, she sighed, knowing that his life was to be a succession of heartbreaks. He blurted out the tragedy. "A boy, a big boy...called me a freak." He grew up, handsome for his misfortune. A favorite with his fellow students, he might have been class president, but for that. He developed a gift, a talent for literature and music. "But you might mingle with other young people," his mother reproved him, but felt a kindness in her heart. The boy's father had a session with the family physician... "Could nothing be done?" "I believe I could graft on a pair of outer ears, if they could be procured," the doctor decided. Whereupon the search began for a person who would make such a sacrifice for a young man. Two years went by. One day, his father said to the son, "You're going to the hospital, son. Mother and I have someone who will donate the ears you need. But it's a secret." The operation was a brilliant success, and a new person emerged. His talents blossomed into genius, and school and college became a series of triumphs. Later he married and entered the diplomatic service. One day, he asked his father, "Who gave me the ears? Who gave me so much? I could never do enough for him or her." "I do not believe you could," said the father, "but the agreement was that you are not to know...not yet." The years kept their profound secret, but the day did come. One of the darkest days that ever pass through a son. He stood with his father over his mother's casket. Slowly, tenderly, the father stretched forth a hand and raised the thick, reddish brown hair to reveal the mother had no outer ears. "Mother said she was glad she never let her hair be cut," his father whispered gently, "and nobody ever thought mother less beautiful, did they?"

DESIGNERFOODS

People think of “genetically altered food”with the same suspicion and distrust that they have when they hear about cloning animals, raising chickens with hormones, or building up muscles with steroids. All interfere with nature. Is this good? Is it safe? Before you make up your mind about genetic alteration, let’s find out what it is.
　　What Is Genetic Alteration?
　　Biotechnology, the science that deals with

genetic alteration, is a relatively new discipline that alters a plant on the molecular level to improve it in some way. Let’s get down to this level. DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) is one of the basic elements in the cells of every living organism, whether they’re from a mushroom or a dinosaur or a human being. DNA provides the building blocks for your body’s genes. Each gene regulates a trait, like the color of your hair, the shape of an elephant’s trunk, or the sweetness of Chinese peas.
　　Scientists can clip a gene from the DNA of one plant and splice it into the DNA of another plant that’s genetic alteration. Of course, it really isn’t as simple as it sounds. But it does work. The question is, Why do it? Here's an example. The strawberry plant is very sensitive to frost. If it’s unprotected in the field and the temperature drops below freezing, that’s the end of your strawberry crop for this year. So you don’t plant your strawberry plants until you are sure there will not be any more frost.
　　But parsley is resistant to frost. It has built-in antifreeze chemicals that protect it from even heavy frost. If the biotechnologist can splice that gene responsible for producing antifreeze chemicals from the parsley into the strawberry plant, the farmer may be able to start planting strawberries three or four weeks earlier in the spring. We’ll have an earlier crop and longer harvest season.
　　Another example is plants' resistance to disease or pests or drought. Some have it, others don't. The ones that don't may benefit from the ones that do by genetic alteration.
　　Changing Plants Isn't New
　　Ever since humans started growing plants some 10,000 years ago instead of picking them in the wild, farmers have improved plants a great deal. The original apples were the size of crabapples, bitter and flavorless; green peppers were cherry-size and so hot that you were in agony should you bite into one. Wild strawberries were no bigger than M&Ms. Without altering some of our plants, we couldn't have survived and supported today's huge world population.
　　The difference between then and now is the length of time that is necessary to develop new crop strains. Back then, farmers always selected and saved the best of their crops to plant as the next year's seeds. This strategy of repeated selection for specific food qualities allowed food plants to slowly improve until we got large, juicy, tasty apples, sweet green peppers, and strawberries that take more than one bite to eat.
　　Today's genetic alteration makes the same kinds of changes, but the results come in a few years.
　　How Safe Is Genetic Alteration?
　　No one knows for certain how safe genetic alteration is. Scientists believe that most alterations are as safe as the traditional method of slow plant breeding for improved food plants. There are genetically altered products that we have been using for at least 10 years without ill effect. Bakers' yeast that produces more bubbles and a cheese enzyme to produce cheese are two examples.
　　There are many, many genetically altered products ready for your supermarket or waiting for government approval: potatoes with properties that allow them to absorb less fat in the french fryer, rice that has higher nutrition, seed oil that is less harmful for our overweight bodies, celery and carrots that stay crisp longer, and coffee with better flavor and less caffeine.
　　What will your children be reaching for in the supermarket someday? Will it be the glow-in-the-dark icing now being developed (containing genetically engineered algae), or perhaps "all natural" foods will once again be the rage. The fact is that some of us may never be comfortable with "designer food" . After all, it just isn't au naturel! Fortunately, our supermarkets still offer fare for the less adventurous.

MINORITIES IN GREECE

In the United States, minorities are visible everywhere: We celebrate Ireland's St. Patrick in March, the Mexican holiday Cinquo de Mayo in May, and the achievements of African Americans in February. In Greece, on the other hand, minorities are more difficult for visitors to spot, but they do exist, and in large numbers. As Greeks themselves are discovering, the effort to learn about these groups and to include them in nationa

l life brings great rewards, for the achievements of minorities strengthen the larger culture in which they live.
　　According to the Greek government, only about 214,000 people－two percent of Greece's 10.7 million people－are members of non-Greek minorities. But experts such as the Greek activist Evangelos Averoff and the Minority Rights Group, an international human rights organization, agree that the official figure is too low because it is based on language, not culture. Thus, a person of Turkish heritage who has learned the Greek language is considered Greek by the government, although that person may have more in common with relatives in Turkey than with his Greek neighbors. He may speak Turkish with his family at home, worship in a mosque rather than a church, or read Turkish newspapers. In each case, he would stand out from his neighbors. In each case, he would be a minority.
　　Turks form the largest minority within Greece; many (from 100 000-120 000) live in Western Thrace, a remote region on the Turkish border. The Treaty of Lausanne established Western Thrace in 1923 after the League of Nations Population Exchange in which 1.4 million Greeks returned to Greece and 750,000 Turks returned to Turkey. The situation there often tense, for Greece and Turkey have been enemies for decades. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the Greeks of Western Thrace suspicious of the Turks, and the Turks of the Greeks. There is much misinformation on both sides, particularly surrounding Islam, the religion of many Turks.
　　In addition to the Turks, as many as 250,000 Albanians, most of them Muslims (that is, followers of Islam) and Albanian Orthodox Christians, are currently living in northern Greeceh. Many are refugees from the violence that has disrupted life in Albania and the neighboring region of Kosovo. Though more numerous than the Thracian Turks, the Albanians in Greece have less power, for they lack the support of a strong mother country and the economic resources available to those who have lived in the same place for a long time. Many Albanians crossed the border into Greece with little more than the clothes on their backs. Now they need food, shelter, and jobs in an area that does not have much to spare.
　　Other groups are equally vulnerable. Among these are the Roma, better known as Gypsies. An estimated 140,000 Roma are thought to live throughout Greece. It is difficult to count them, for they are a nomadic people－that is, they generally have no fixed address but spend most of their time on the road. The prejudice they have faced for centuries remains strong in Greece, as it does throughout Europe. While few Roma anywhere have easy access to education, health care, or other social services, in Greece the situation is probably most severe for the 45,000 Roma who adhere to Islam. Christian Roma can depend to some extent upon the help and protection of the Christian majority, but Muslim Roma, like the refugees from Albania, lack a strong defender to represent their interests to the nation and the world. Roma of both faiths remain outsiders in Greece, though their ancestors arrived there more than a thousand years ago.
　　Another minority has an even longer history in Greece. The Vlachs are descended from the Romanian people. They are a semi-nomadic people who work mainly as shepherds, moving with their flocks from pasture to pasture within a small, limited area. Thus, while a group of Roma might travel from town to town or country to country, Vlachs generally remain near the town of their birth. The distinction is an important one, for it helps to explain why the Vlachs can somewhat assimilate (or blend) into the Greek majority.
　　Religion also plays a role here; though the Vlach language is closer to Latin than to Greek, most Vlachs join their Greek neighbors in attending the churches of Greek-speaking, Eastern Orthodox priests. Thus, while their language separates them from the majority, their faith pulls them closer. If this tension occasionally makes life awkward for the Vlachs, it alsorepresents one solution to the prejudice that disrupts life in the Balkan region and around the world. The Vlachs have learned how to join the society that surrounds them without losing sight of their own unique heritage.

Health in the autumn live longer than spring

People born in the autumn live longer than those born in the spring and are less likely to fall chronically ill when they are older, according to an Austrian scientist. Using census data for more than one million people in Austria, Denmark and Australia, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in the northern German town of Rostock found the month of birth was related to life expectancy over the age of 50. Seasonal differences in what mothers ate during pregnancy, and infections occurring at different times of the year could both have an impact on the health of a new-born baby and could influence its life expectancy in older age. "A mother giving birth in spring spends the last phase of her pregnancy in winter, when she will eat less vitamins than in summer," said Gabriele Doblhammer, one of a team of scientists who carried out the research. "When she stops breast-feeding and starts giving her baby normal food, it's in the hot weeks of summer when babies are prone to infections of the digestive system." In Austria, adults born in autumn (October-December) lived about seven months longer than those born in spring (April-June), and in Denmark adults with birthdays in autumn outlived those born in spring by about four months. In the southern hemisphere, the picture was similar. Adults born in the Australian autumn - the European spring - lived about four months longer than those born in the Australian spring. The study focused on people born at the beginning of the 20th century, using death certificates and census data. Although nutrition at all times of the year has improved since then, the seasonal pattern persists, Doblhammer said.