Saturday, November 28, 2009

Valentine's Day

In the United States, Valentines day, the holiday
of arrows, hearts and roses
is celebrated on the following dates among friends and romantic partners:
2009
-
Saturday, February 14th
2010
-
Sunday, February 14th
2011
-
Monday, February 14th

Mother's Day

In the United States, Mother's day, the day to celebrate mother is observed on the following dates:
2009
-
Sunday, May 10th
2010
-
Sunday, May 9th
2011
-
Sunday, May 8th

Father's Day

In the United States, Father's day is the day to celebrate father is observed on the following dates:
2009
-
Sunday, June 21st
2010
-
Sunday, June 20th

Memorial Day

Memorial Day commemorates men and women in the United States who died while in military service to their country. This holiday is always observed on the last Monday in May.
2008
-
Monday, May 26th
2009
-
Monday, May 25th
2010
-
Monday, May 31st
2011
-
Monday, May 30th

4th of July (Observed Federal Holiday date)

Independence Day (4th of July) is a federal holiday in the United States. The holiday celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 declaring independence from Great Britain. The day is celebrated with fireworks, barbecues, picnics, baseball games and other events.

2008
-
Friday, July 4th
2009
-
Friday, July 3rd
2010
-
Monday, July 5th
2011
-
Monday, July 4th

Labor Day

This is a day to celebrate the workers and to give working citizens the day off. Labor day always falls on the first Monday in September. To Americans this holiday also tells them that the summer is ending and fall is just around the corner.
2008
-
Monday, September 1st
2009
-
Monday, September 7th
2010
-
Monday, September 6th
2011
-
Monday, September 5th

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a Federal and State Holiday in America honoring military veterans. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed this holiday on November 12, 1919 to celebrate the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I.

2008
-
Tuesday, November 11th
2009
-
Wednesday, November 11th
2010
-
Thursday, November 11th
2011
-
Friday, November 11th

Halloween

In the United States, the holiday of Halloween plays it's tale of witches, Jack O'Lanterns, trick or treaters and goblins on these dates:
2009
-
Saturday, October 31st
2010
-
Sunday, October 31st
2011
-
Monday, October 31st

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a Federal and State Holiday in America honoring military veterans. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed this holiday on November 12, 1919 to celebrate the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I.


2008
-
Tuesday, November 11th
2009
-
Wednesday, November 11th
2010
-
Thursday, November 11th
2011
-
Friday, November 11th

Christmas Day

In the United States, along with many parts of the world, the holiday of Christmas is celebrated with carolers, decorations, Santa Claus and ceremony as a way to honor the birth of Jesus Christ on these dates:

2009
-
Friday, December 25th
2010
-
Saturday, December 25th
2011
-
Sunday, December 25th

Thanksgiving

In the United States:

Thanksgiving is observed on the every fourth Thursday of November. The holiday is celebrated in remembrance of the pilgrims and in order to give thanks.

In Canada:

The Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of the month (the reason for the earlier date in October is their earlier harvest occurring farther to the north).

The Canadian holiday comes from different traditions although it is now meant to convey thanks for their harvest.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Who are the City workers on a £1m a year?

City salaries are back in the headlines as a new report suggests UK banks should tell the public how many of their employees earn more than £1m a year. But who are the people with the mega pay packets and what do they do?

There has always been a prurient interest in the pay and indulgent lifestyles of superstar traders and their big bosses. But the financial crisis has seen them become public enemy number one.

The latest review into banks has no doubt made people ask exactly how many bankers earn more than £1m and what do they do to warrant that amount?

Rich should help Amazon forests, summit says

Nine nations in the Amazon region have called on rich countries to provide poorer nations with the funds to preserve forests.

The nations, meeting in Manaus, Brazil, also discussed supporting a 40% reduction in global emissions by 2020.The meeting comes shortly before the key global summit on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.The Amazon nations agreed on broad principles rather than concrete steps, correspondents said.Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva chaired the meeting of delegates from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Surinam, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy representing French Guiana.

History of Thanksgiving

"What is Thanksgiving and why is it celebrated?"

For thousands of years, mankind has set aside a day each year to celebrate bountiful annual harvests. Before the establishment of formal religions, many ancient farmers believed that their crops contained spirits which caused the crops to grow and die. Many believed that these spirits would be released when the crops were harvested and they had to be destroyed or they would take revenge on the farmers who harvested them. Some of the harvest festivals celebrated the defeat of these spirits. Harvest festivals and Thanksgiving celebrations were held by the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews, the Chinese, and the Egyptians.

What is the history of Thanksgiving in United States? The initial "Thanksgiving" feast, held in 1621, was really a traditional English harvest celebration. The Pilgrims shared it with the Native Americans because they had taught the colonists to plants crops and hunt wild game. Without the Native Americans, the Pilgrims may not have survived the harsh winter and been able to celebrate their first harvest of plentiful crops in the New World. The colonists' first harvest feast lasted for three days. Food was served all at once, instead of in courses, so people ate whatever they pleased in the order that they desired. The more important members at the feast were given the best pieces of meat, while the rest of the diners ate whatever was closest to them. Since the Pilgrims didn't use forks or plates, they ate their meal straight off the table with spoons, knives or their fingers. They used large napkins to wipe their hands and also wrapped it around food when it was too hot to hold.

The history of Thanksgiving demonstrates that feasts like the one at Plymouth were held throughout the colonies after fall harvests. However, all thirteen colonies did not celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time. In 1789, George Washington became the first president to declare Thanksgiving a holiday. By the mid-1800s, many states observed the Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor, Sarah J. Hale, had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving holiday. During the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln looking for ways to unite the nation, discussed the subject with Hale. In 1863 he gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation declaring the last Thursday in November a day of Thanksgiving.

In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Controversy ensued, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains. What is Thanksgiving today? At its heart, it's a holiday where family and friends congregate to catch up, reminisce, tell jokes, share scrumptious food and generally give thanks for all the good things in life-exactly what they did at the very first Thanksgiving.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Dirt can be good for children, say scientists


Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

Normal bacteria living on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt, the US team discovered.

The bugs dampen down overactive immune responses that can cause cuts and grazes to swell, they say.

Their work is published in the online edition of Nature Medicine.

Experts said the findings provided an explanation for the "hygiene hypothesis", which holds that exposure to germs during early childhood primes the body against allergies.

Many believe our obsession with cleanliness is to blame for the recent boom in allergies in developed countries.

Swine flu vaccine investigated for rare side effects


A study to identify any rare side effects of the swine flu vaccination is being launched by scientists in Dundee.

Although already tested as part of the licensing process, the new study will focus on any effects not picked up by routine clinical trials of the vaccine.

The study will also include people who have declined to be vaccinated.

The swine flu treatment has already been offered to at-risk groups in Scotland, including children aged from six months to five years.

Those overseeing the research said people taking part would be assessed for up to a year after receiving the vaccination to monitor its effects.

The study team plan to use internet and mobile phone technology to streamline the data collection and processing.

Global warming science alarming, say climate experts


Three UK groups studying climate change have issued an unprecedented statement about the dangers of failing to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

The Royal Society, Met Office, and Natural Environment Research Council say the science underpinning climate change is more alarming than ever.

They say the 2007 UK floods, 2003 heatwave in Europe and recent droughts were consistent with emerging patterns.

Their comments came ahead of crunch UN climate talks in Copenhagen next month.

'Loss of wildlife'

In a statement calling for action to cut carbon emissions, institutions said evidence for "dangerous, long-term and potentially irreversible climate change" was growing.

Global carbon dioxide levels have continued to rise, Arctic summer ice cover declined sharply in 2007 and 2008, and the last decade has been the warmest on average for 150 years.

Persistent drought in Australia and rising sea levels in the Maldives were further indicators of possible future patterns, they said.

They argue that without action there would be much larger changes in the coming decades, with the UK seeing higher food prices, ill health, more flooding and rising sea levels.

Known or probable damage across the world includes ocean acidification, loss of rainforests, degradation of ecosystems and desertification, they said.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned the world faced more droughts, floods, loss of wildlife, rising seas and refugees.

But Prof Julia Slingo, chief scientist of the Met Office, Prof Alan Thorpe, chief executive of Nerc, and Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society, said cutting emissions could substantially limit the severity of climate change.

Meanwhile, a White House official has said the US will announce a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before next month's Copenhagen summit.

President Barack Obama has not yet decided whether to attend.
Wonderful girl nobody

How to Be a Good Mother



* Help your child with their homework. Not only will you know what they're doing in school, but your child will probably start coming to you for help by themselves.
* Spend quality time with your child. Play ball with your son or do a craft project with your daughter. And make sure you have fun.
* Take your child out to museums, the theater, classical music concerts, and other cultural events. While they may not like it at the time, they will most likely be grateful when they are older that they have a more well-rounded background.
* Always be supportive and accepting.
* Always try to be fair.
* Don't use the phrase, "I carried you for 9 months!" in an argument. Your kids will most likely not understand what you actually had to go through, and it won't be really effective.
* A few other observations from another perspective:
* Parents need to teach their children how to be successful adults. Don't routinely do things for your children that they can learn to do for themselves.
* Life is a great teacher. Don't be too quick to rescue your child from the results of their own actions if the consequences are not overly severe.
* Your child is an individual deserving of respect, not an extension or a reflection of you.
* Love them unconditionally; don't force them to be who you think they should be in order to earn your love.
* Let them have freedom. Kids do not like it when you are on their case about everything.
* Don't punish them for the stupid things, talk through things and see how you can fix them rather than taking away privileges.
* Don't keep them on a really tight leash. It is said that if you do, your kids will try to rebel against you. If you can't trust them enough to let them have more freedom, talk about why, and what they can do and you can do to make things fair.

Friday, November 20, 2009

AIDS, MALARIA ECLIPES THE BIGGEST CHILD KILLERS


By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer Margie Mason, Ap Medical Writer Thu Nov 19, 3:01 pm ET

HANOI, Vietnam – Diarrhea doesn't make headlines. Nor does pneumonia. AIDS and malaria tend to get most of the attention.

Yet even though cheap tools could prevent and cure both diseases, they kill an estimated 3.5 million kids under 5 each a year globally — more than HIV and malaria combined.

"They have been neglected, because donor or partnership mechanisms shifted their emphasis to HIV and AIDS and other issues," said Dr. Tesfaye Shiferaw, a UNICEF official in Africa. "These age-old traditional killers remain with us. The ones dying are the children of the poor."

Global spending on maternal, newborn and child health was about $3.5 billion in 2006, according to a report by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That same year, nearly $9 billion was devoted to HIV and AIDS, according to UNAIDS.

Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children under 5, claiming more then 2 million lives annually or about 20 percent of all child deaths. AIDS, in contrast, accounts for about 2 percent.

If identified early, pneumonia can be treated with inexpensive antibiotics. Yet UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimate less than 20 percent of those sickened receive the drugs.

A vaccine has been available since 2000 but has not yet reached many children in developing countries. The GAVI Alliance, a global partnership, hopes to introduce it to 42 countries by 2015.

Diarrheal diseases, such as cholera and rotavirus, kill 1.5 million kids each year, most under 2 years old. The children die from dehydration, weakened immune systems and malnutrition. Often they get sick from drinking dirty water.

The worst cholera outbreak to hit Africa in 15 years killed more than 4,000 people in Zimbabwe last year. The country recently reported new cases of the waterborne disease, and more are expected as the rainy season peaks and sewers overflow.

Rotavirus, a highly contagious disease spread through contaminated hands and surfaces, is the top cause of severe diarrhea, accounting for more than a half million child deaths a year.

A vaccine routinely given to children in the U.S. and Europe is expected to reach 44 poorer countries by 2015 through the GAVI Alliance.

"Every child in the United States gets it, even though they have access to clean water and hygiene," said John Wecker, of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, a Seattle-based nonprofit that is part of the vaccine alliance. "The only effective way to prevent these deaths is through vaccination."

Diarrheal diseases received more attention in the 1980s and 1990s, he said, but interest has waned or been diverted elsewhere, allowing them to creep back.

"How did the leading killers end up at the bottom of the global health agenda? I don't know," Wecker said at a recent GAVI meeting in Hanoi. "We've got the tools. We're not looking for the next technological breakthrough. It's here now and it's not being used."

Death can often be prevented by giving children fluid replacement, a simple recipe of salt and sugar mixed with clean water to help ward off dehydration. Yet 60 percent of children with diarrhea never receive the concoction, according to a WHO and UNICEF report released last month.

"It is so preventable," said Dr. Richard Cash, a Harvard University expert who helped develop the oral rehydration therapy 40 years ago. "Preventing the deaths is at the very least what we should be striving
for."

Monday, November 16, 2009

READING BOOKS MAKE A LIFELONG GOOD HABIT


To help ensure academic success is to read to your child 20 minutes a day and it is the easiest and the most importance you can do for your child. Your child might have a lot of homework and school activities and other multitude of distractions and obligations try to squeeze the reading time in between for 20 minutes will benefits them through their life. That is why you must teaching your kids to read while they are young. Library is your best source and book stores too.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

YOUNG MIND



You should always start teaching your love one from the day he or she is born. The baby can learn very quickly and they are in the stage of fast brain developments. You should start from the infant up to the age of four. After the age of four their brain slow down and they don't absorb the learning as fast as they are do in the beginning.