Once upon a distant time, people made love by givin g up some part of their bodies to their lovers. Everyon e possessed leather bags into which their mates placed some part of their bodies as they made love. A fingerna il or strand of hair, an eyelash or a bit of skin were commonly exchanged. But it was not uncommon to hear of fingers or ears or a whole arm or leg being slipped int o a bag in moments of great love or great passion. Ther e were even a few stories of lovers who actually climbe d into the leather bags and disappeared, literally swep t away by their emotions.
The donated body parts sometimes rejuvenated miracu lously, the handicap evoked by their love. Of course, t hose who climbed into the leather bags of another never emerged again. It was commonly thought that such people were reborn, perhaps as a family member of their lovers .
In those days the phrases "giving yourself to your lover" and "making sacrifices for love" were taken quit e literally.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Philomela
King Pandion of Athens had two daughters，Procne and Philomela．When Athens was threatened by the wild men，King Tereus of Thrace came to its help．Out of gratitude King Pandion offered Tereus either of his daughters in marriage and the Thracian king chose Procne as wife． For yearsthey lived in Thrace and had one son，Itylus by name．Then Procne became homesick and longed to see her dear sister Philomela．At her repeated requests Tereus sailed to Athens to fetch Philomela．On the way back his evil heart took flame at the sight of Philomela who was then in her beauty of maidenhood．He seized and carried her away by force，cut out her tongue and imprisoned her in a lonely hut in the woods．To Procne he lied，saying that Philomela was dead．Philomela stayed in prison for ayear，where she had woven her painful story into the web of a robe ．Then she managed to send the robe to her sister．As soon as she received the web Procne came over to the woods and to reher sister away from the keepers．
Back at the palace, the two women，hot for paying back ，killed little Itylus and served him up to his father ． When Tereus learned of the terrible truth he grasped his sword and chased the sisters into the woods．There the gods turned Procne into a swallow，Philomela a nightingale and Tereus a hoopoe ．
Back at the palace, the two women，hot for paying back ，killed little Itylus and served him up to his father ． When Tereus learned of the terrible truth he grasped his sword and chased the sisters into the woods．There the gods turned Procne into a swallow，Philomela a nightingale and Tereus a hoopoe ．
English artical
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of
rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a
quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of
the deep springs of life.
Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of the
appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of
60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We
grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder,
the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of
living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless
station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and
power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism
and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as
your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die
young at 80.
rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a
quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of
the deep springs of life.
Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of the
appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of
60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We
grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder,
the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of
living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless
station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and
power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism
and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as
your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die
young at 80.
Kids Sports Network scoring points in S.A.
When Frank Martin was growing up, many of his typical afternoons involved coming home from school to his mom, and then getting together with his friends to play a game of whatever sport fit their mood that day. Those days for children in 1997 are not as common. Instead, Martin says, many kids now come home to households where both parents are away at work, and the kids can't go to the neighborhood park because it isn't safe anymore. But Martin is trying to give kids today some options. As executive director of Kids Sports Network in San Antonio, he oversees an organization that provides training and support services to more than 2,000 youth league administrators and coaches in the San Antonio area each year, as well as to the parents of young athletes. "Kids today are less physically fit than in earlier days, and it keeps declining even though people are expounding the need to do something," Martin says. "Youth sports is even more of a necessity now." Martin has been involved with Kids Sports Network since its formation in 1993. He also serves as executive director of the Texas chapter of the National Youth Sports Coaches Association. This association, which operates in conjunction with Kids Sports Network in San Antonio, primarily helps train coaches in various sports. Two of Kids Sports Network's primary commitments are overseeing the operation of the San Antonio Spurs Drug Free Youth Basketball League and the Spurs Midnite Basketball League. These programs provided opportunities last year for more than 13,000 San Antonio kids and young adults to participate in organized basketball leagues. However, the five-member staff of the nonprofit Kids Sports Network is not stopping there. The group currently is in the process of developing a new golf-training program for at-risk youth, a child-abuse prevention program, and instructional programs for both parents and children. Kids Sports Network also continues to train youth league coaches and serves as a general clearinghouse of information on youth sports programs. Martin says the relationships developed by the organization with the various youth sports leagues around San Antonio have made Kids Sports Network "the kids sports experts" in many people's eyes. "We'll work with the youth leagues to try to make sure the people involved in those leagues provide good experiences for the kids," Martin says. "When you try to offer that training to some 200 to 225 sports organizations, you develop a good database of information on the city." Martin says his organization typically receives more than a dozen calls each day from people asking about ways in which they can get their kids involved in some sort of youth sports activity. Kids Sports Network currently operates out of an office on the city's Northeast Side. Martin says the group has an annual operating budget of about $200,000. Spring is typically the busiest time of the year for Kids Sports Network. With the two Spurs youth basketball programs in full swing, the organization also trains some 500 youth league baseball coaches each spring, Martin says. That training involves everything from how best to encourage and communicate with players to how coaches can communicate their philosophies and goals for their team to the kids' parents. Martin says Kids Sports Network urges youth league coaches to be trained in hopes of the kids on the team having the most enjoy
People who win big
People who win big in life are typically not driven by financial gain, they are driven by an internal spark that makes them want to win, compete, and solve problems with a community of like minded people.
My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects. And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.
We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.
My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects. And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.
We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.
People business
I believe that the key is the quality of our people, and always will be. If we are able to hire the best people, which is increasingly a big challenge, pay them well, motivate them, help manage their careers to make this an attractive spot, put the people where the opportunities are - if we can do all that, we are going to stay on top, and if we can't, we won't. No matter what happens with technology or globalization or anything else, this won't change.
But I can tell you this: there is going to be a huge fight for talent. Just a huge fight. And I am increasingly thinking about our competitors as anyone, no matter what industry, who is competing with me to hire the best people.
But I can tell you this: there is going to be a huge fight for talent. Just a huge fight. And I am increasingly thinking about our competitors as anyone, no matter what industry, who is competing with me to hire the best people.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The Temple of Heaven：four wonderful sounds
The Temple of Heaven was initially built in Yongle year 18 of the Ming Dynasty (in 1420). Situated in the southern part of the city, it covers the total area of 273 hectares. With the additions and rebuild during the Ming, Qing and other Dynasties, this grand set of structures look magnificent and glorious, the dignified environment appears solemn and respectful, it is the place for both Ming and Qing Dynasty's Emperors to worship Heaven and pray for good harvest.
The northern part of the Temple is circular while the southern part is square, implies "sky is round and earth is square" to better symbolize heaven and earth. The whole compound is enclosed by two walls, dividing the whole Temple into inner and outer areas, with the main structures enclosed in the inner area.
The most important constructions are the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the Circular Mound Altar, Imperial Heaven, The Imperial Vault of Heaven, Heaven Kitchen, Long Corridor and so on, as well as the Echo Wall, the Triple-Sound Stone, the Seven-Star Stone and others of historic interest and scenic beauty.
The Temple of Heaven is a comprehensive expression of the unique construction techniques from Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is China's most treasured ancient architecture, it is also the world's largest architectural complex for worship heaven. In 1998, it was included in the "list of the world heritages" by the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Do you know? There are four wonderful sounds in the Temple of Heaven! It's worth your time to study the four wonderful sounds. 1. The echo from the Echo Wall - There is a circular wall around The Imperial Vault of Heaven, this is the famous Echo Wall. One person's mere whisper at any point close to the wall can be heard clearly on the other side if you draw your ear close to the wall, it is so clear that it is like talking on the phone. Do you want to know why? This is possible because the wall is round and hermetically constructed with smooth, solid bricks, so the sound wave can transmit to the other side via the extremely smooth inner circle. 2. The sound of the Dialogue Stone - If you speak while standing on the 18th stone in front of The Imperial Vault of Heaven, the sound can clearly pass to the northeast corner of the north side hall and the northwest of the west side hall that are both 36 meters away. The sound can be heard just as well on the stone when speaking from the corners of these two side halls, this is what we call the "Sound of the Dialogue Stone". 3. Repeating sounds of the Triple-Sound Stone - In front of the steps leading away from the hall is the Triple-Sound Stone. If you stand on the first stone and call out or clap your hands, the sound will echo once; on the second stone, the sound will be heard twice; and on the third stone, the sound will repeat three times. Hence it inherited the name. This is because the distances that the sound wave reflected from the round wall to the stone are different, the number of echo is also different. Take a guess which flagstone is at the center of the Echo Wall's? The third one. The echo actually gets repeated more than 3 times, it's just the sound is too weak to be heard after the 4th echo. 4. The hollow of the Heaven's Center Stone - There is a stone plate in the center of the Circular Mound Altar called the Heaven's Center Stone. Shouting aloud standing above, you will hear the reverberation of the echo. This is due to the refraction of the sound.
The northern part of the Temple is circular while the southern part is square, implies "sky is round and earth is square" to better symbolize heaven and earth. The whole compound is enclosed by two walls, dividing the whole Temple into inner and outer areas, with the main structures enclosed in the inner area.
The most important constructions are the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the Circular Mound Altar, Imperial Heaven, The Imperial Vault of Heaven, Heaven Kitchen, Long Corridor and so on, as well as the Echo Wall, the Triple-Sound Stone, the Seven-Star Stone and others of historic interest and scenic beauty.
The Temple of Heaven is a comprehensive expression of the unique construction techniques from Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is China's most treasured ancient architecture, it is also the world's largest architectural complex for worship heaven. In 1998, it was included in the "list of the world heritages" by the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Do you know? There are four wonderful sounds in the Temple of Heaven! It's worth your time to study the four wonderful sounds. 1. The echo from the Echo Wall - There is a circular wall around The Imperial Vault of Heaven, this is the famous Echo Wall. One person's mere whisper at any point close to the wall can be heard clearly on the other side if you draw your ear close to the wall, it is so clear that it is like talking on the phone. Do you want to know why? This is possible because the wall is round and hermetically constructed with smooth, solid bricks, so the sound wave can transmit to the other side via the extremely smooth inner circle. 2. The sound of the Dialogue Stone - If you speak while standing on the 18th stone in front of The Imperial Vault of Heaven, the sound can clearly pass to the northeast corner of the north side hall and the northwest of the west side hall that are both 36 meters away. The sound can be heard just as well on the stone when speaking from the corners of these two side halls, this is what we call the "Sound of the Dialogue Stone". 3. Repeating sounds of the Triple-Sound Stone - In front of the steps leading away from the hall is the Triple-Sound Stone. If you stand on the first stone and call out or clap your hands, the sound will echo once; on the second stone, the sound will be heard twice; and on the third stone, the sound will repeat three times. Hence it inherited the name. This is because the distances that the sound wave reflected from the round wall to the stone are different, the number of echo is also different. Take a guess which flagstone is at the center of the Echo Wall's? The third one. The echo actually gets repeated more than 3 times, it's just the sound is too weak to be heard after the 4th echo. 4. The hollow of the Heaven's Center Stone - There is a stone plate in the center of the Circular Mound Altar called the Heaven's Center Stone. Shouting aloud standing above, you will hear the reverberation of the echo. This is due to the refraction of the sound.
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