The traditional Korean wedding

Many people do the wedding ceremony of Western style these days. But I will tell the traditional Korean wedding like this picture. Before I tell that, I will tell traditional ways how a couple could marry in the past. The 'uihon' is the procedure that the parents or a broker arranges a meeting. First, the broker do research good lineage, apearence, education and refinement. After then, they predict marital harmony of the couple who is passed by parents or the broker.

 

A couple does marry in this place. Also they wear folk clothes 'Hanbok'.

In addition, brids post small red circle on their cheeks because that mean that a red color can repel evil spirit. So that is one way for protecting thier wedding. Brid has to prepare two candlesticks, a female chicken, chestnuts, jujubes and rice etc on the table. These have each mean. The rice means rich, the chestnuts mean luck and the chicken means decendants. while they do wedding, They bow to each other and exchage cups of wine.

 

When they finish the wedding, the men change clothes that brid family made. And brid go men's house, and she prepares foods on a table. Next, she row to men's family, and the family throw the jujubes.

 

Still, there are a handful of couples who want to do a traditional Korean wedding.

The Folk Festival of Legacy in Farasan Islands

                                                    The Folk Festival of Legacy in Farasan Islands

        

            The Farasan Islands are  in south in the Red Sea. They belong to Jazan region in Saudi Arabia.There are many traditions and customs in KSA that come from religion and traditions. One of the famous festivals in Farasan islands are Alhared festival that it has annually occurred in island for decades ago...

                               

      

  Alhared fish (parrot fish) meet dramatically in the form of huge groups of fish where the number of fish has more than 1000 fish in one group, so they get together near the beach in something collective suicide. This usually happens in one day of the year, which is usually at the end of March and the first month of April of each year. In this time of the year, fish (hared) travel long journey coming from the Indian beaches to escape the predatory whales and rough waves.

  

    In general, people are old habits relating to this day that the people of island celebrate, sing songs and perform folk dances on this day of great importance in their culture. As result, many people who are various age levels are waited to welcome this group of fish to come in island. It is season traditionally very old. In past, women who lived in island were celebrating Alhared Day in new brides in their houses. The brides where married during the year wore traditional clothes, so women and children came to celebrate at their home. Many people give the fish to their friends as gift because it considers important and expensive gift at all.

      Nowadays, alharid festival  has became part of the General Authority for tourism programs within the approved  festivals in the region, which honored and sponsored by Prince Mohammed bin Nasser bin Abdul-Aziz, governor of Jazan region.

      

Ardha Is The National Dance.

Among the different folk objects and art in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia; my cultural home, what interests me the most is the Al-Ardha. Al-Ardha is the national dance and the ancient tradition among the people of Saudi Arabia. The dance began as a war dance in Nadj, which is the Saudi Arabia central place. Fighters and warriors would do the dance before they would go to war. Moreover, at the time Al-Ardha wasn’t just a dance, it had a special meaning and purpose. It was meant to inspire strength among the leaders and their soldiers and to also show that they were not scared to fight their enemies. Soldiers believed they would win after doing the dance. Another interesting aspect about Al-Ardha is how it was performed. The dance was done by raising weapons such as daggers, guns, knives and swords that had been used in the past and holding them in the air while the soldiers sang. Another unique thing aspect about the dance is how the fighters and warriors are set up while doing the dance.

 Britain's Prince Charles donning traditional dress
 from Saudi Arabia after performing the ‘Ardha’ dance.

        There are two rows of fighters dancing, waving their weapons as they sing and recite poems while at the middle there are other men who play drums in different rhythms. Currently, Al-Ardha is usually performed by the National Guard during national holidays and celebrations and also during cultural events such as the Saudi Arabia Cultural Festival. The dance is important in preserving Saudi Arabia and culture especially with regards to war.

Manekineko

　　Today, I'm going to introduce a Japanese folk object called "Manekineko".

What does Manekineko mean?Actually, "maneki" means "inviting" and "neko" means a "cat", so "Manekineko" means "an inviting cat".What is it said to invite?People traditionally say that it's an item to invite people, lucky, money and clients, so if you come to Japan and walk around some stores, probably you will see some Manekineko. Why do people traditionally say that? When cats move their arms (see the picture), they seem to be inviting people. That's why it's called Manekineko and used at many stores.

Yuki Akima

Bisht

Bisht

King Salman is wearing a black bisht.

     Bisht is a traditional kind of cloak that Saudi's men wear it on important events such as weddings, and when they visit important guest especially on the first meeting. Usually, they wear it to cover themselves from the shoulder to the feet. Ward bisht comes from Persian language because they use it to describe what wears on the back.

     The materials of bisht are camel woods or goats woods. Also, sometimes tailors use gold woods to make luxury bisht and it is handmade. There are two kinds of bisht. The first one is using in the winter as a jacket for heating and the second one is used for summer events. It has brocaded in different designs. Bisht industry takes between 12 to 15 days. There are different colors of bisht. The famous bisht colours are the black, white, and brown.

     Bisht is one of precious things where it can't warn alone on top of the dress "thop " without a head cover "ghutra". It must be worn with "ghutra". Indeed, bisht one of the things which it is inherited. You can't  throw after the passage of time. On the contrary, the longer the duration the more increase value and price.

     Usually bisht has expensive prices. The prices start from $1000 and more. The famous country where it made good bisht is AlHasa. It's located on the eastern side of Saudi Arabia where there are the best manufacturers there.

Aloeswood in Saudi Arabia Culture

             Every country in the world has some customs and traditions that differ from others countries. In  Saudi Arabia, the religion plays a vital role to make some traditions. Saudis use special kind of perfumes when they have celebrations or wedding. This perfume, which is dubbed the ''Aloeswood'' is used by Saudis to welcome guests. In fact, guests consider the aloeswood kind of generosity.In addition, the aloeswood is small pieces of wood that come from forests of India. It is placed on coal and then its smoke producing a sweet smell when burned. It makes the place smelled good. 

                 In general, there are many kinds of aloeswood such as Cambodia, Kalimantan, and Allaose . Cambodia is the most expensive kind of aloeswood where to fetch up to $10,000. Most Saudis cannot buy this kind because it is too expensive. However, Saudis princes and rich people who can buy this kind . Kalimantan has popular in Saudi Arabia where to fetch up to $1000. Also, this kind uses it when they have a newborn. In addition to the above-mentioned point, the Kalimantan is used by Saudis to perfume Mosques during Ramadan. The third kind is Allaose and this kind usually, is crushed and mixed with other types of perfume in order to present the most beautiful smell. Saudis are putting on their hands after the feast. In short, all these types have different uses, but all of them mean generosity in Saudi Arabia culture.   

Heibai Wuchang - the chinese folk deities

        The Heibai Wuchang which are two chinese folk deities are in charge of catch and escorting the spirit of the dead people to the underworld. In folk legend, they were the officers and coworkers when they are alive. In one mission, they separated and went to different places for searching the criminals. They promised that they would meet under the bridge at the specific time. However, the white one who called "Eighth Lord" was late. The black one who called "Seventh Lord" want  to keep their promise, so he didn't leave even though the river rose. Finally, he was drowned. Afterwards, the Eighth Lord felt embarrassed and guilty. He killed himself in the house,  The deities' Emperor knew their story when they went to the underworld. Hence, he appointed them as the deities which are responsible for taking back the spirit of the dead people from the world.

         Nowadays, people believe that they would reward the people who do the good things and punish the people who do the bad things. In addiction, people believe that they would take the bad spirit of the dead people to the underworld. Hence, people always pray to them during the ghost month. Also many temple will celebrate them by costuming as them and dancing.

Warmhearted selfie at the Rio Olympic

   
  Every 4 years, so many countries gather at one place for Olympics. During Olympics,  not only many athletes but also all over the world people enjoy the games no matter what relationship they have. On this Rio Olympic, two gymnasts recieved attantion of world because of the one picture of taking selfie.

      South Korean gymnast, Lee Eun-ju, who wasn't expected to participate in the Rio Olympic, could be one of South Korea's national athletes since another  athlete who was supposed to be one was injured. Her result wasn't so good. However, her action was spotlighted. During a training sessing, before the Games starts, she approached a North Korean gymnast, Hong Un-jong, and took a selfie together with smile in spite of their hostile national relationship. A journalists captured this moment, which has been  widely praised all over the world.

      The response of the public is warm. Ian Bremmer, TIME columnist, wrote on Twitter "Gymnasts from North & South Korea take a selfie together. This is why we do the Olympics." Mike Covell, writer in England, also mentioned " Maybe global leaders should take up gymnastics."

References

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/world/asia/korea-gymnastics-selfie-olympics.html?_r=0

http://time.com/4444969/selfie-north-south-korea/

Amazon Has Big Plans for Alexa : Running the 'Star Trek' Home

 Amazon wants the Alexa Voice Service, which is one of the voice recognition system : an omnipresent intelligent assistant, to be an essential part in devices around the home and beyond. It’s similar to Apple’s “Siri” and Google’s “Googlr Home.” Amazon is in competition with other companies to put its assistant into as many devices and services as possible, even though they are not made by Amazon.

 For example, Nucleus is a smart-intercom system with a touch screen and a camera and its owners can have Alexa play music and read a wether forecast through the device. Ford Mortor is working with Amazon to combine Alexa with its vehicles. If it will be success, drivers can control smart-home features like lights, thermostats and security system from their cars.

 David Limp, Amazon’s senior Vice President for devices, said that the company wanted to spread as many Alexa-linked “end points” around the home as possible. As the long term plan, he wants to create like the ‘Star Trek’ computer, which gives any right answers when the captain sit on the bridge and ask something.

 Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research, said, “What you want from an assistant is that they are always available to you everywhere,” and “They are basically absent on smartphones, which are devices we take everywhere we go.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/technology/amazon-has-big-plans-for-alexa-running-the-star-trek-home.html?_r=0

Middle Class and Hungry in Venezuela

Venezuela is located in South America, is a rich country because has oil and natural resources. Venezuela is in crisis now because their citizens couldn't find food, medicine and also primary articles like toilet paper, deodorant, diapers, toothpaste and many things that they are important for survive. Many citizens even they have money couldn't find food and medicines. Many people are losing weight and getting sick.Venezuela is in one of its worst moments, many young people are migrate for a better future, some of the citizens there are trying to catch pigeons to eat, according to New York Times newspaper.The Venezuela opposition's effort is not enough to remove the president but is going to succeed because many citizens are tired of what is happening in Venezuela. The big problem started when Hugo Chavez was president because he didn't manage the economic in Venezuela and the consequences is people hungry and they have the money to buy the food but they can't find it. In my opinion, Venezuela needs help to grow up and to change the president. It's so sad the situation there because the people even is rich or poor can't find anything and the prices change everyday.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/opinion/middle-class-and-hungry-in-venezuela.html?_r=0&referer=https://www.google.com/

Why are vinyl records becoming popular again?

  “Vinyl record sales have had something of a resurgence in recent years, with annual sales set to surpass the three million mark in the UK for the first time in decades.” Sunderland Echo said in today’s article. According to this article, in the first three months of 2016, demand for LPs doubled year on year compared with the first three months of 2015. Is it true that vinyl records are selling well? “In 2015, sales of vinyl records in the United States grew by an astounding 30 percent.” Forbes said as well. In addition, I searched the number of vinyl records sales in the world by using “Statista (The Statistic Portal)” According to the statistics, the number of sales worldwide increased from 3.1 million to 31.5 million units in 2006 to 2015. Let’s look at a vinyl sales ranking in the world (2014). We can understand that the sales have increased in recent years.

  Why are vinyl records becoming popular again? Probably, everyone think that vinyl records are an old-fashioned medium but this trend is particularly strong among young generation. It might be the reason that dissatisfaction with sound quality of digital music, collectable character and a revival of record player. In addition, we can get music easily by developing the internet, cloud service and video sharing site recently. On the other hand, a real experience such as going to a concert and correcting records is getting popular.

   By the way, do you know “Record Store Day”?

It is an annual event and have held on one Saturday every April to celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store since 2007. On that day, fans and artists gather in thousands of independent record stores across the world. In addition, many records are pressed specifically for Record Store Day, and are only distributed to shops participating in the event. Actually, I’m looking forward to this event to get limited records. I hope an upsurge of music industry as one of the music lovers.


Flake records (Minamihorie, Nishi Ward, Osaka, Japan )

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/vinyl-record-sales-driven-by-midlifers-not-hipsters-1-8061072

http://www.cnet.com/news/how-a-vinyl-record-is-made/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2016/01/08/vinyl-sales-surged-30-percent-in-2015-led-by-adele-and-taylor-swift/#69b6cfa030f1

http://www.statista.com/statistics/537257/vinyl-unit-sales/

http://www.recordstoreday.com/

New criminal gadget

The existence of a new tool used by thieves to clone bank cards belonging to victims present in the vicinity has been discovered.This technological device is able to draw details and information related to the card number and the name and address of a credit card user.

The scanner, which is dubbed Contactless Infusion X5 - extracts the data where it can be copied onto blank cards, which can then be used by thieves to go on spending sprees.

This device includes a special program that enables it to transmit information to 20 empty bank cards every time you pull the information from the cards of strangers who are in the device’s range, and is currently being sold on the streets of London for 500 pounds.

 It is believed that the device has come for sale for first time in the black market, to specifically target bank cards that do not need PIN numbers, which is a technology that allows customers to pay without having to enter their PIN codes.

With the increasing popularity of payment by phone (such as the Apple service payments) and the spread of technologies and services, the experts have estimated, a complete switchover from the use of paper currency to credit cards in 2025.It is further estimated that people will use cards for banking almost every day, at a minimum rate of 30 times per month.

Link 1

One way ticket to the Mars

Humanity dream to visit Mars have always been a part of sci-fi books and movies. But, today this idea is getting much more real and achievable.

Its being announced that first 4 man crew trip will be launched in 2026 year. A surprising fact that it's going to be one-way trip still attracted more than 200'000 candidates.

The typical time during Mars's closest approach to the Earth every 1.6 years is about 260 days.

The developers of that dangerous trip see their mission this way: "Mars is the stepping stone of the human race on its voyage into the universe. Human settlement on Mars will aid our understanding of the origins of the solar system, the origins of life and our place in the universe. As with the Apollo Moon landings, a human mission to Mars will inspire generations to believe that all things are possible, anything can be achieved"

What will the astronauts do on Mars? During their working hours, our astronauts will be busy performing three main tasks: construction, maintenance and research. Besides work, they will also have time to relax.

We can't say anything about this mission until it starts but we can be sure that this can be pretty strong and inspiring progress pusher.

resources

gsfc.nasa.gov

mars-one.com

en.wikipedia

Virtual vs. Traditional Classroom Setting

This morning I was checking my phone while having breakfast when a message popped out on my phone's screen "Facebook Helps Develop Software That Put Students in Charge of their Lesson Plans." It was an article from the New York Times. I immediately though, "What a good tool for teachers, it will definitely reduce the stress of planing and assessing lesson plans." However, while I start going through the article my idea about this changed. I started to consider whether virtual classrooms are more beneficial for students than traditional one or not? What about teachers' job?

The article was written by Natasha Singer and Mike Isaac and it was published on the New York Times. The article discussed an innovative change in educational setting in terms of students-teachers relation, making it more students-driven. The Summit-Personalized Leaning Platform is the novel educational tool that Facebook and Summit Public School are trying to introduce. It was already introduced to 19 schools from which only few of them reported considerable learning improvement (Singer & Isaac, 2016).

This software will allow students to have clear view of the academic responsibilities they must complete along the school year. It also provides students with information of specific and individual modules and lessons. This software may help the students to work at the own pace. It also fosters project-based learning and differentiated instruction because the software provides students with diverse projects for them to work on. Thus, students can choose the project they want to develop according to their own cognitive, linguistic, and academic abilities.

However, This  software will "require one-on-one mentoring and coaching to help each student to adapt" (Singer & Isaac, 2016). This situation may require some amount of money and high quality technology for children in the school and at home. Moreover, what concerns me the most is the teacher's role. Does a virtual environment, in which students have completely control of their assignments academic achievement, and assessment, needs teachers' supervision.

I consider that the technology is necessary and beneficial for students in order to become an autonomous learning, Nevertheless, they will always need the teachers' supervision to support and to explain things better. Virtual and traditional classrooms need to work together to really achieve academic success.


Reference:
Singer, Natasha, and Mike Isaac. "Facebook Helps Develop Software That Puts Students in Charge of Their Lesson Plans." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Aug. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/technology/facebook-helps-develop-software-that-puts-students-in-charge-of-their-lesson-plans.html?_r=0>.

Alexander and Zhang

Often, we heard about love stories. love that mean an attractive feeling and like toward someone. There are many different types of love such as Family love, friendship love, and intimate love. Many people have hard time finding words to express their feeling. Also, The love has positive or negative attitudes with people. Actually, there was a weird story about a man who was waiting his love at the airport.

Something weird happend in the Changsha airport, a Dutch man waited his girlfriend for about 10 days in there. Alexander Pieter Cirk is 41 years. Mr. Alexander met a Chinese girl whose name is Zhang through Internet. After two months of the relationship, he decided to travel China and met his girlfriend. Next, when he arrived to the airport Chinese non-one had come to see him. After that, Mr. Alexander spent 10 days to wait his girlfriend. Even though, he sent a photo of the air-tickets for her to imply he will meet her in the airport, but she didn't care because she thought it was a joke. After 8 days, Alexander was tired and the suffered physical exhaustion. So, Alexander was taken to the hospital and the local newspapers wrote about his story. Also, they connected with his girlfriend and she said that her phone was turned off because she had a plastic surgery in another region. Also, she said "We had advanced our romantic relationship but later he seemed a little callous towards me." For this reason, she doesn't care about him. Finally, Alexander went back home without seeing his girlfriend.

                                    

work cited 

"Dutch Man Waits 10 Days in Chinese Airport for 'girlfriend'" BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Aug. 2016. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36950013>.

Why do we do things in the hard way?

I have been thinking lately, why do we sometimes do things in the hard way? This question came to my mind while I was reading a story in some book. The writer used a hard, academic, complicated and unknown words (for me). I started thinking, what is going to happen if the writer used easy popular words like the words we are using everyday with our friends and in our daily communication with other people? Does it going to make him a bad writer? Are people really looking for unfamiliar words to enjoy?

Another example of doing things in the hard way is ( which I did it before) taking the risk of something. For example, going to climb Everest mountain without a guide, while you can easily get one, and there are many of them will voluntarily come with you looking for some fun. People may jump into a deep water to swim without carrying a life jacket. Does it bring more fun? Or it is just a stupid idea as Irving Rosenfeld describes such behavior, “It's the crazy thing about people. The more you say no, the more they want in on something. It is so stupid.”

I tried to look for answers to these questions, but I couldn’t  get convincing reasons. Maybe people are looking to be special and unique? maybe it is just the right way things should be done? Is it just stupid thoughts? Who knows?

resource

http://permaculturenews.org/2016/06/23/why-we-do-things-the-hard-way/

Corals are losing color

As ocean temperature getting warmer, some creatures have been suffering including corals. Corals are able to deal with heat in warm sea. But some researchers found that getting warmer sea threatens corals; corals are losing there color.

Stephen Palumbi ,who is marine biologist of Stanford University, says that many scientists have tried to find the rate and limit of physiological modifications that corals have. Also he says corals may be able to lose there ability to deal with more ocean warming. Corals have the bacterial residents that maintain their color providing them with nutrients and oxigen. Appropriately warm water can help corals to be prepared to survive heat but when water temperature increases rapidly - more than the approximately 2ºC above heat, corals may  lose the bacteria and it can cause bleaching.

The result that simulated water gets warmer using computer, generally temperature of reef will increase. But part of these events that could affect corals to stand bleaching will decline from 75% to 22%. The scientists predict that when water temperature increase by 0.5º, many reef will strat to lose the ablilty to prepare heat. A physical oceanographer Scott Heron says, “If that protective mechanism does get lost going into the future, then what we’ve seen so far as being bad impacts could become worse.”

In order to protect coral, reduced carbon emissions will be required, but preperation will be able to hlep corals sustain in warm seas. We are in crucial position. Palumbi says that we are still able to choose how the future of coral reefs works out.


References

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/heat-may-outpace-corals%E2%80%99-ability-cope?mode=topic&context=76

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/03/08/genetics-might-able-save-worlds-coral-reefs/

China's 'elevated bus'

Chinese Elevated Bus Complete The  Road Test

 Every big city got a problem of heavy transport traffic. China got the largest population, so the traffic problem can seriously injure speed of the city.

 Chinese engineers have found a really futuristic way of solving this problem. They decided to build a bus (in my opinion it mostly  looks like a tram) that would allow cars to drive under this bus without stopping and waiting.

  Why the bus? Well because to build an underground subway takes a lot of time and money. Building monorail system is not the cheap as well and would not remove a large amount of buses of the roads. So this bus looks like the most rational way of solving Chinas traffic problem.

  The 2-meter high standing bus canPowered by electricity, the bus is able to carry up to 300 passengers in its 72ft (21m) long and 25ft wide body. The vehicle is expected to reach speeds of up to 60km per hour, running on rails laid along ordinary roads.  It also got huge amount of electricity generators and charging stations on each bus stop which makes this bus safe for environment and nature. It also equipped with emergency brakes system, and its windows can transform into emergency slides which can help people evacuate less than in few minutes.

 During test, bus run on a 300m-long controlled track in the north-eastern city of Qinhuangdao.

 “I wanted to officially show people that this is entirely possible and that the bus can be up and running,”    Song Youzhou, the designer of the straddling bus, said in a telephone interview from Qinhuangdao.

 “We were inspecting and testing the vehicle for a range of functions, like ignition, braking and other processes, to see if they all work together and there are no problems,” Mr. Song said.

  I think this bus can show us the outstanding power of human mind and imagination force that can make our life full of technologies of future that will enhance our life and solve a lot of problems.

  source
money.cnn.com
bbc.com
cmp.com

There are many ridiculous laws from around the world that still actually exist.

 

1- There is only two countries where divorce is illegal are Vietnam and the Philippines.
2- In Singapore, it is illegal to sell non-medical chewing gum or chewing normal gum. Selling this kind of gum is fine of $1000. A second offense cost at $2000 and now forced to a person who did that to clean all public area of the city for all day. If a person does that three times he or she must clean the street and wear a bib that letters. Even Store that still the medical gum and forget ID get 2 years in prison. Also, spitting is illegal and result in detention.

3- In 1800s, there was law in Arkansas a husband has once time per month of beat his wife.

4- In Colorado, there is illegal to collect rainwater. So, police punch farmers and landowners if they collect rainwater.

5- In Florida, it is not allowed for a widowed woman or divorced to skydive just on Sunday afternoon.

6- In Victoria, Australia, it's not allowed for people to change an electrical lamp unless you have electrical license.

7- In Samoa, there is not allowed for the man to forget his wife's birthday.

Work cited

Hodin, Rachel. "67 Ridiculous Laws From Around The World That Still Actually Exist." Thought Catalog. N.p., 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Aug. 2016. <http://thoughtcatalog.com/rachel-hodin/2013/10/67-ridiculous-laws-from-around-the-world-that-still-actually-exist/>.