We got her as a gift from a friend of ours as a 2 week baby. As she remained silent the entire day, we named her Shontal after the French word chanteuse—meaning “sweet voiced girl”. She has been an integral part of my life for a good number of years.
She was a Labrador retriever. She remained my constant companion and loyal friend until I met with a near fatal accident on August 15, 1997. I raised her almost as my daughter and she was a part of many a happy incidents in my life.
If you are thinking of getting a dog into your home, as a family member, remember you are making a commitment to that dog for its lifetime, probably even more than your own children.
I'm not such an expert, but I did try my hands at training Shontal for a number of years and had (accidentally?) used some of the friendly methods recommended by the a renowned, dog trainer—Mr. Ian Dunbar does in the video below.
I remember times when I started. I had no idea on dog training or education in general. My first dog was very patient, he taught me a lot. The simple rule that we followed was to teach obedience through simple play and award. Basically, I learned to appreciate every little thing that she did and said “good girl” and “thank you”.
It’s very important for us to see the world through the eyes of our beloved dogs. By knowing our pets' perspective, we can build their love and trust. It's a message that resonates well beyond the animal world.
As a result, I almost always had a happy, healthy and obedient dog. It's lovely to find out that some of my simple, easy and fun dog training methods belong to a wider philosophy on the subject!
It is essential that our dog needs to know that they can trust us and that we will never deliberately hurt or be unkind to them. All I ever had to do was call/ whistle and my dog immediately returned and were rewarded with hugs and pats.
A theory says ancient Egypt's Great Pyramid was built using a winding, inclined, interior tunnel through which huge blocks were pushed. The interior ramp would have required open corners (illustration at top) at which the blocks would have enough room to be rotated—probably by workers using wooden cranes—the theory says.
The theory may be supported by new ideas about a hidden room high in the pyramid's outer wall. Egyptologist Bob Brier, shown entering the space, says it is in fact one of those open corners, long since walled in.
Illustration and photograph courtesy Jean-Pierre Houdin
Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room... By Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News
ON TV Unlocking the Great Pyramid airs Sunday, November 23, at 7 p.m. ET on the National Geographic Channel.
A sealed space in Egypt's Great Pyramid may help solve a centuries-old mystery: How did the ancient Egyptians move two million 2.5-ton blocks to build the ancient wonder?
The little-known cavity may support the theory that the 4,500-year-old monument to Pharaoh Khufu was constructed inside out, via a spiraling, inclined interior tunnel—an idea that contradicts the prevailing wisdom that the monuments were built using an external ramp.
The inside-out theory's key proponent, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, says for centuries Egyptologists have ignored evidence staring them in the face.
"The paradigm was wrong," Houdin said. "The idea that the pyramids were built from the outside was just wrong. How can you resolve a problem when the first element you introduce in your thinking is wrong?"
Theories Abound Even the most widely held Great Pyramid construction theories have flaws, Egyptologist Bob Brier said.
For example, a single, straight external ramp would have been impractical, said Brier, of Long Island University in New York.
To deliver blocks to the 481-foot (147-meter) peak at a reasonable grade, the ramp would have had to have been a mile (1.6 kilometers) long and made of stone. And over the decades of the pyramid's construction, workers would have had to continually increase the ramp's height and length as the pyramid rose.
Video Clip From Unlocking the Great Pyramid Documentary
"That's like building two pyramids. And we've never found the remains of such a ramp," Brier said.
Another theory suggests a stone ramp wound around the outside of the Great Pyramid. But an outside ramp would have obscured the pyramid's surface—making it impossible for surveyors to use the corners and edges for necessary calculations during constructions, Brier said.
Greek historian Herodotus, writing around 450 B.C., theorized the use of small, wooden, cranes or levers to lift the blocks.
But, Brier said, "you'd have to have thousands, and they didn't have enough wood in all of Egypt for that," Brier said.
Obsession For Houdin, the Paris architect, the puzzle of the pyramid is a family affair. His father, a civil engineer, came up with the idea of an internal construction ramp a decade ago.
Houdin was soon hooked, as suggested by his recent book, co-written by Brier—The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery.
Houdin eventually left his architecture firm to pursue the inside-out theory full-time.
For what they thought would be a matter of weeks, he and his wife moved into a 236-square-foot (22-square-meter) studio apartment. They ended up staying for four years, as Houdin toiled away at his self-financed project.
Outside Ramp, Then Internal Tunnel
Houdin's theory suggests the Great Pyramid was built in two stages.
First, blocks were hauled up a straight external ramp to build the pyramid's bottom third, which contains most of the monument's mass, Houdin believes.
Houdin says the limestone blocks used in the outside ramp were recycled for the pyramid's upper levels, which might explain why no trace of an original ramp has been found.
Egyptian-archaeology specialist Josef Wegner sees merit in the recycling idea.
"The notion of using the already quarried smaller blocks to build the lower ramp and then dismantling that for use in upper sections would be a very logical approach to speed up the overall construction process," said Wegner of University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
After the foundation had been finished, workers began building an inclined, internal, corkscrew tunnel, which would continue its path up and around as the pyramid rose, Houdin said.
Because the tunnel is inside the pyramid, Brier said, "when they finished getting blocks all the way up to the top this ramp disappeared."
New Clue: The Hidden Room
New evidence uncovered about two-thirds of the way up the Great Pyramid supports the inside-out theory, said Houdin, the architect.
At about the 300-foot (90-meter) mark on the northeastern edge lies an open notch.
On a recent expedition with a National Geographic film crew, Brier—aided by a videographer with mountain-climbing experience—scaled perilous crumbling rocks to reach the notch. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
Ducking inside the notch, Brier entered a small L-shaped room.
He wasn't the first to visit the space, but until now Egyptologists had taken little notice of it.
Houdin, the architect, said the feature figures perfectly with his theory.
Open Corners for Turning Blocks?
For the interior tunnel to work, it would have required open areas at the Great Pyramid's four corners, Houdin says. Otherwise the blocks wouldn't have been able to clear the 90-degree turns.
Like railroad roundhouses, these open corners would have given workers room to pivot the blocks—perhaps using wooden cranes—so the stones could be pushed into the next tunnel.
The notch and room are remnants of one such opening, Houdin claims. They are located at one of the spots where Houdin's 3-D computer models suggest they should be.
Inside the corner space, which was apparently walled in as the pyramid was completed, there should be two tunnel entrances at right angles to one another—each leading to a section of the internal ramp, Houdin believes.
Perhaps all that stands between him and the solution to the mystery are massive blocks that thousands of years ago sealed the tunnel, Houdin said.
If this previously known space truly is the missing link in the puzzle of the Great Pyramid's construction, the question remains why no one would have surmised this by now.
Brier said, "If you weren't thinking about internal ramps and notches and you climbed right by this thing, it wouldn't mean anything to you."
The Other Key Clue
Prior to the room brainstorm, Houdin's most important piece of evidence was the product of good luck.
In 1986 a French team in an ultimately fruitless search for hidden chambers in the Great Pyramid had done a survey of the monument's density using a technique called microgravimetry, which measures the strength of local gravitational fields.
Nearly 15 years later, Houdin was presenting his ramp theory at a conference and was approached by a member of the 1986 team.
The man showed Houdin an image from their survey that they'd dismissed as unexplainable.
But to Houdin, and later Brier, the explanation was clear.
The image shows what looks like a spiraling feature inside the structure's outer walls.
"If I hadn't seen that diagram, I'd probably be thinking this is just another theory," Brier said. Next Step: Confirmation
The 1986 image, the notch room, and other evidence may make Houdin's theory plausible, but the case is far from closed.
"As with all archaeological theories, the proof is in the pudding, and many logical and compelling theories have fallen by the wayside under the weight of hard evidence," said the University of Pennsylvania's Wegner.
But "verification of the proposed internal spiral ramp would be a remarkable and groundbreaking discovery," Wegner added.
Houdin believes that verification might soon be possible.
He suggests that an infrared camera—positioned about 150 feet (46 meters) from the pyramid—could potentially record subtle differences in interior materials and temperatures. Those variations could reveal clear-cut "phantoms" of the internal ramp.
"What we need is the authorization, by the Egyptian authorities, to stay around for 18 hours, close to the pyramid, with a cooled infrared camera based on an SUV and to take images of three [pyramid] faces every hour during this period," Houdin said.
"A green light from Cairo and the Great Pyramid mystery is over."
The following is one of the best speeches I've ever heard, read or listened to. This is the speech of a twelve year young girl giving a speech at the United Nations Earth Summit that took place in Rio de Janeiro 1992.
During the first seconds of the film I didn’t quite understand what was going on - What is that child doing there? - I thought, but I quickly realized, that what I was seeing was something really amazing: a twelve year old child telling to the world that enough is enough, telling to the world leaders to stop destroying the fauna and flora, to stop polluting the air, the ocean and the soil, to end the poverty and social injustices, to stop killing our earth…
This was sixteen years, today Severn Suzuki is is an important environmental activist, was a member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel in the past.
I encourage everyone to watch this video, may it serve as an inspiration for us all. (The transcript can be found below.)
Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Children's Organisation.
We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.
Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.
I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.
I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.
I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it.
I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going exinct every day -- vanishing forever.
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?
All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do you!
* You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer. * You don't know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream. * You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct. * And you can't bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert.
If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or poiticians - but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles - and all of you are somebody's child. I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil -- borders and governments will never change that.
I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.
In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.
In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share.
In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter -- we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: "I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection."
If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everyting still so greedy?
I can't stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.
I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!
At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:
* not to fight with others, * to work things out, * to respect others, * to clean up our mess, * not to hurt other creatures * to share - not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
Do not forget why you're attending these conferences, who you're doing this for -- we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying "everyting's going to be alright" , "we're doing the best we can" and "it's not the end of the world".
But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says "You are what you do, not what you say."
Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening.
Here's an interesting video that is taken from the movie, “In the Navy (1941)”. Watch the characters performed by Abbott and Costello proving 7 x 13 = 28!
We can use this film for various purposes. If you're a HR person, you may want to show that there are many ways to find an answer and that not all answers are right, but the thought process tells us that we think and that is more important! You can also use it to show you can prove anything right, if you work at it.
Math teachers can use this as an example for teaching place value.
This is a musical based loosely on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which was, in turn, based on a narrative poem by Arthur Brooke entitled The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562).Set on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the musical explores the rivalry between two teenage gangs of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The young protagonist, Anton, who belongs to the white gang, falls in love with Maria, the sister of the leader of the rival Puerto Rican gang. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theater. Bernstein's score for the musical has become extremely popular; it includes several interesting songs. One of them which I like a lot is, "I Feel Pretty" embedded below! I like this a lot more than the other ones in the movie, probably because it reminds me of the act that one my sisters performed a day before her wedding in one of her "high" moods in Alahabad!
The original 1957 Broadway production, was a skit directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, marked Stephen Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances (a successful run for the time), before going on tour. The production garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical in 1957, but the award ultimately went to Meredith Willson's The Music Man. The show has enjoyed an even longer-running London production, a number of revivals and international success, and spawned an innovative, award-winning 1961 musical film of the same name. West Side Story is produced frequently by local theaters and, occasionally, by opera companies. Clike on the image on the right and you'd be taken to the official website of the company that continues to run the sho! MARIA
I feel pretty Oh so pretty I feel pretty and witty and gay And I pity Any girl who isn't me today
I feel charming Oh so charming It's alarming how charming I feel And so pretty That I hardly can believe I'm real
See the pretty girl in that mirror there? Who can that attractive girl be? Such a pretty face Such a pretty dress Such a pretty smile Such a pretty me!
I feel stunning And entrancing Feel like running And dancing for joy For I'm loved By a pretty wonderful boy
GIRLS
Have you met my good friend Maria The craziest girl on the block? You'll know her the minute you see her She's the one who is in an advanced state of shock
She thinks she's in love She thinks she's in Spain Lallala
She isn't in love She's merely insane It must be the heat Or some rare disease Lallala
Or too much to eat Or maybe it's fleas Keep away from her Send for Chino This is not the Maria we know Modest and pure Lallala
Polite and refined Well-bred and mature And out of her mind!
Miss America, Miss America, speech! Miss America, bravo, speech!
MARIA
I feel pretty Oh so pretty That the city should give me its key A committee Should be organized to honour me Lallalalallalalla
I feel dizzy I feel sunny I feel fizzy and funny and fine And so pretty Miss America can just resign Lallalalallalalla
See the pretty girl in that mirror there (What mirror, where?) Who can that attractive girl be? (Which, what, where, whom?) Such a pretty face Such a pretty dress Such a pretty smile Such a pretty me!
MARIA & GIRLS I feel stunning And entrancing Feel like running and dancing for joy For I'm loved By a pretty wonderful boy!
2 week baby. As she remained silent the entire day, we named her Shontal after the French word chanteuse—meaning “sweet voiced girl”. She has been an integral part of my life for a good number of years.
