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dsfghsgh — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:27:10 GMT

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Empipliet — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:56:39 GMT

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Minik Ser�e !

ademsucu — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:13:51 GMT

Ser�enin biri bir bahar g�n� dalg�n dalg�n u�uyormu�. Bir anda farketmi� ki, bir yolun bir metre �st�nde u�uyo ve kar��danda motorsikletli bir adam geliyor.
Her ikisi de �arp��may� engellemek i�in ellerinden geleni yapm��lar… ama nafile… Ser�e “�otaaank” diye kaska �arp�p d��m��. �imdi, motorcu s�k� bir hayvansever ya, do�al olarak hemen atlam�� motordan, ko�mu� ser�enin yan�na. Ser�e bayg�n yat�yor. K�yamam��, b�rakamam�� yolda; alm�� getirmi� eve.
Evde eskiden kalma bir de kafesi var. Bayg�n ser�eyi kafesin i�ine g�zelce yerle�tirmi�. Yan�na biraz su, biraz da ekmek koymu�, vurmu� kafay� yatm��. Bizim ser�e bi m�ddet sonra ay�lmaya ba�lam��. Daha tam se�emiyor ortal��. Hafif bulan�kl�k var yani… Bir bakm�� ki parmakl�k, ekmek, su falan var bulundu�u yerde…
Birden anlam�� vaziyeti:
- Ulaaan, galiba motorcuyu �ld�rd�k!

Di Caprio

ademsucu — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:12:51 GMT

Amerika’da zencinin biri, pasaportunu kaybetmi�. Tam da o g�n T�rkiye’ye u�acakm��.
Kara kara d��n�rken yolda bir pasaport bulmu�. Hemen yerden alm��, bir de bakm�� pasaport Leanardo Di Caprio’nun. Uyan�k ya, Leonardo’nun foto�raf� yerine kendi foto�raf�n� yap��t�rm�� ve binmi� T�rkiye u�a��na. Esenbo�a Havaliman�’na indi�inde, memur Temel’in kar��s�na ge�mi�.
Temel, alm�� pasaportu. �sme bakm��: “Leonardo Di Caprio“; foto�rafa bakm��, kar��s�ndaki zenci. Birka� �a�k�n bak��tan sonra yak�ndaki memura seslenmi�:
“Ula Cemal, bu Titanik batm�� m�yd�, yanm�� m�yd�?”

Vocabulary and phrases for communication situations

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:35:31 GMT

Greeting People Hello. / Hi.
Good morning. (before 12 o’clock)
Good afternoon.(after 12 o’clock)
Good evening
Introducing People
What’s your name?
Who are you?
My name is …
I am …
My friends call me …
You can call me …
Haven’t we met (before)?
Yes, I think we have.
No, I don’t think we have.
I think we’ve already met.
I don’t think we’ve met (before).
This is …
Meet …
Have you met …?
Yes, I have.
No, I haven’t.
Yes, I think I have.
No, I don’t think I have.
Hello, … (name)
Nice to meet you. (informal)
Pleased to meet you.
How do you do? (formal)
Nice to see you.
Nice to see you again.
Say Goodbye
Good bye.
Bye. / See you.
See you later.
See you soon.
See you tomorrow.
See you next week.
Good night.
Health
How are you?
How are you today?
Fine, thank you/thanks.
Not too bad.
Very well.
I’m okay / all right.
Not too well, actually.
What’s wrong with you?
What’s the matter with you?
Are you all right?
I’m tired
I’m exhausted
I’ve got a cold.
Appearance
I am / You are / He is / She is …
tall
small
overweight, fat
slim
young
old
… years old.
beautiful / pretty (M�dchen / Frau), handsome (Junge / Mann)
sun-tanned
pale
I have / You have / He has / She has (got) …
blue / green / grey / brown eyes
freckles
a beard
a full beard
a moustache
a goatee
a stubbly beard
blond hair
red hair
brown hair
black hair
dyed hair
blond highlights
short hair
long hair
straight hair
curly hair / curls
a bald head
a square / round / triangular / oval face
a big / small / long nose
big / small ears
Clothing and Accessories
I wear / You wear / He wears / She wears …
glasses
contact lenses
I am wearing / You are wearing / He/She is wearing …
earrings
a necklace
a wristband
a bracelet
a cap
a red scarf
a tie
Character
I am / You are / He is / She is …
shy
quiet
lively
active
easygoing
outgoing
nice
friendly
funny
happy
annoying
sad
aggressive
a pain in the neck
a little chatter box
Members of a Family
father
dad
mother
mum, mummy, mom
parent
parents
child
children
son
daughter
brother
sister
grandfather
granddad, grandpa
grandmother
grandma, granny
grandson
granddaughter
grandchild
uncle
aunt
cousin
nephew
niece
boyfriend
girlfriend
fianc�
fianc�e
bride
groom, bridegroom
wife
husband
spouse
father-in-law
mother-in-law
parents-in-law
son-in-law
daughter-in-law
brother-in-law
sister-in-law
godfather
godmother
godson
goddaughter
godchild
History of a Family
be pregnant
expect a baby
give birth to
born
birthday
baptize
bring up, raise
go to school
be proud of
move
be engaged
marry , get married
be married to
be married with two children
divorced
widowed
widow
widower
die
late
Accomodation
accommodation
dormitory
double room
family room
twin room
single room
double bed
youth hostel
bunk bed
fill in a form
reception
receptionist
key
book in advance
B&B
vacancies
no vacancies
Hotel
arrival date / date of arrival
departure date / date of departure
room service
air conditioning
make a reservation / book a room
request more information
complete / fill in the form
staff
cancel a booking
Restaurant
eating out
bill (The bill please.)
bottle
dessert
drink
hungry
thirsty
menu
order (Are you ready to order?)
restaurant
set meal
table (A table for two please.)
guest
waiter , waitress
Here you go.
tip (Shall we tip the waiter?)
Asking for and Giving Directions
How do I get to …?
What’s the best way to …?
Where is …?
Go straight on (until you come to …).
Turn back./Go back.
Turn left/right (into …-street).
Go along …
Cross …
Take the first/second road on the left/right
It’s on the left/right.
straight on
opposite
near
next to
between
at the end (of)
on/at the corner
behind
in front of
(just) around the corner
traffic lights
crossroads, junction
signpost
Shop Assistant
Can I help you?
What can I do for you?
Are you being served ?
Sorry, we don’t sell stamps.
Anything else?
It’s on offer.
Buy two for the price of one.
How much / many would you like?
What size do you take?
Sorry, we are out of bread .
Would another colour do?
Would you like to try it on?
The fitting room is over there.
The dress suits you very well.
Pay at the cash desk / till, please.
I’ll take this to the cash desk / till for you.
Here you are. / Here you go.
You’re welcome.
That’s 20 euros/euro altogether .
You don’t happen to have any change , do you?
Here’s your change.
Customer
I need …
I’d like a bottle of milk, please.
Have you got souvenirs ?
Do you sell stamps?
Where can I buy post cards?
Where can I get a film for my camera?
Where can I find newspapers?
Are these bottles returnable ?
It doesn’t fit me.
It doesn’t suit me.
I don’t like it.
It’s too small / big / wide / tight / expensive .
I’m size …
Have you got this in another size / colour?
May I try this on, please?
Where can I try this on, please?
How much is it?
That’s all.
Where is the cash desk / till?
Could I get a receipt , please?
Could I get a (plastic) bag, please?
(I’m afraid/ Sorry) I don’t have any change .
Do you accept credit cards?
Body Parts
arm
eye
eyebrow
belly
leg
breast
thumb
elbow
fist
finger
foot (plural: feet)
ankle
buttocks
hair
neck
hand
wrist
hip
chin
knee
head
lip
mouth
nose
nostril
upper arm
thigh
ear
bottom, bum
back
underarm, forearm
lower leg
shoulder
forehead
waist
calf (plural: calves)
cheek
eyelash, lash
tooth (plural: teeth)
toe
tongue
Geography
arctic
Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean
mountain
mountains
state
earthquake
river
temperate
is bounded by
capital
island
climate
continent
coast
country
sea
bordering country
national park
North America
ocean
Pacific, Pacific Ocean
San Andreas Fault (also: San Andreas Rift)
lake
steep coast
beach
valley
tropical
divided
Weather
What’s the weather like today?
What will the weather be like tomorrow?
Nice day today, isn’t it?
What awful weather!
What a lovely day!
It’s raining.
It’s snowing.
It’s …
Tomorrow it will be …
Yesterday it was …
sunny
cloudy
overcast
foggy
stormy
windy
cold
warm
hot

Commercial English – Letters

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:34:16 GMT

You write to How to begin the letter How to end the letter
an unknown firm/person (BE) (AE) Dear Sir/Madam (BE) (AE) Yours faithfully (BE)
Dear Sir or Madam (BE) (AE) Yours truly (AE)
To whom it may concern (AE) Truly yours (AE)
a woman whose name you don’t know Dear Madam (BE) (AE) Yours faithfully (BE)
Yours truly (AE)
Truly yours (AE)
a man whose name you don’t know Dear Sir (BE) (AE) Yours faithfully (BE)
Yours truly (AE)
Truly yours (AE)
a person whose name you know Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Fisher (BE) (AE) Yours sincerely (BE)
Very truly yours (AE)
Sincerely (yours) (AE)
a person you know personally Dear Ann/John (BE) (AE) (With) Best wishes (BE) (AE)
Yours (BE)
Love (BE)
All the best (AE)
Kindest/Best regards (AE)
Example of a formal letter
MICHAEL WARRENS LTD – 78 Court Street – Nottingham – UK
Mrs Sara Fisher
Manager
18 St. James Avenue
Our ref: US / HK 1082
Your ref: SP / T
Dear Mrs Fisher,
Your order
We are pleased to acknowledge your order no. 202 dated 1st October 2001. Your order is already dealt with. We will inform you when the consignment is ready for delivery.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further information.
We thank you for your custom and again look forward to being of service to you in the future. Yours sincerely,
M Warrens (Mr)
Enc
The envelope
The position of the address is the same like in the letter.
Steet, Road and Avenue can be written in abbreviations (St), (Rd) (Av).
The postcode/zip code you write under the town
Write the name of the country in CAPITAL LETTERS.
Example:
Mr Michael Warrens
Software
78 Court St
Nottingham
WQ1 6P0
UNITED KINGDOM
In the corner top left you can find the following phrases:
Air Mail
Confidential
Express
Fragile
Please forward
Postage paid
Printed Matter
Private/Personal
Registered
Sample
To be called for

Abbreviations in Business English

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:33:15 GMT

a/c
acct. account
attn. (for the) attention (of)
B/E bill of exchange
B/L bill of lading
cc carbon copy
cf. compare
cfr. cost and freight
cif cost, insurance, freight
cip carriage and insurance paid to
C/N credit note
c/o care of
cod cash on delivery
Corp. Corporation
cpt carriage paid to
cwo cash with order
D/A documents against acceptance
ddp delivery duty paid
ddu delivery duty unpaid
des delivered ex ship
DN debit note
D/P documents against payment
enc(s) enclosure(s)
EXW ex works
fob free on board
for free on rail
Inc Incorporated (US)
L/C letter of credit
Ltd limited
p&p postage and packing
p.p. * on behalf of
pto please turn over
re with reference to, regarding
RRP recommended retail price
SAE stamped addresses envelope
VAT Value Added Tax
ZIP (code) zone of improved delivery (US)

Finding Purpose After Living With Delusion

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:31:08 GMT

She was gone for good, and no amount of meditation could resolve the grief, even out here in the deep quiet of the woods.Milt Greek pushed to his feet. It was Mother’s Day 2006, not long after his mother’s funeral, and he headed back home knowing that he needed help. A change in the medication for his schizophrenia, for sure. A change in focus, too; time with his family, to forget himself.
And, oh yes, he had to act on an urge expressed in his psychotic delusions: to save the world.
So after cleaning the yard around his house — a big job, a gift to his wife — in the coming days he sat down and wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, supporting a noise-pollution ordinance.
Small things, maybe, but Mr. Greek has learned to live with his diagnosis in part by understanding and acting on its underlying messages, and along the way has built something exceptional: a full life, complete with a family and a career.
He is one of a small number of successful people with a severe psychiatric diagnosis who have chosen to tell their story publicly. In doing so, they are contributing to a deeper understanding of mental illness — and setting an example that can help others recover.
“I started feeling better, stronger, the next day,” said Mr. Greek, 49, a computer programmer who for years, before receiving medical treatment, had delusions of meeting God and Jesus.
“I have such anxiety if I’m not organizing or doing some good work. I don’t feel right,” he said. “That’s what the psychosis has given me, and I consider it to be a gift.”
Doctors generally consider the delusional beliefs of schizophrenia to be just that — delusional — and any attempt to indulge them to be an exercise in reckless collusion that could make matters worse. There is no point, they say, in trying to explain the psychological significance of someone’s belief that the C.I.A. is spying through the TV; it has no basis, other than psychosis.
Yet people who have had such experiences often disagree, arguing that delusions have their origin not solely in the illness, but also in fears, longings and psychological wounds that, once understood, can help people sustain recovery after they receive treatment.
Now, these psychiatric veterans are coming together in increasing numbers, at meetings and conferences, and they are writing up their own case histories, developing their own theories of psychosis, with the benefit of far more data than they have ever had before: one another’s stories.
“It’s a thrilling time, because people with lived experience are beginning to collaborate in large numbers,” said Gail A. Hornstein, a psychologist at Mount Holyoke College and author of “Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search for the Meanings of Madness.” “They are developing their own theories, their own language about what their experiences means from the inside.”
Mr. Greek is one of the most exceptional, having built a successful life and career despite having schizophrenia — and, he says, because of it. He manages the disorder with medication, personal routines, and by minding the messages in his own strange delusions.
“Schizophrenia is the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said. “I know a lot of people with the diagnosis don’t feel that way, but the experience changed me, for the better. I was so arrogant, so narcissistic, so self-involved, and it humbled me. It gave me a purpose, and that purpose has been very much a part of my recovery.”
The Village Eccentric
Like many idealistic undergraduates, Mr. Greek arrived at Ohio University in Athens on a mission. Only, like many undergrads, he wasn’t completely sure what it was.
“To discover a psychological code that people should live by, to create world peace,” he said. “Something like that.”
The town was ready to listen, regardless. It was the fall of 1981, and Athens still had one sandal planted in the 1960s; communes thrived in the Appalachian foothills to the north, and big ideas were in the air, at least in the streets and bars near campus, where professors and students gathered.
One stood out. “You can’t imagine how intense he was back then,” said June Holley, a friend and business consultant in Athens. “He had this long, very thick, curly chestnut hair and wild eyes; he looked like a lion. He could be loud, and I think a lot of people just didn’t want to deal with it.”
Local residents gave him the sidewalk, avoided eye contact, and generally accepted him as one variety of village lunatic — in a town with a rich history of them.
He knew the role, at some level. The son of a college math professor and a lawyer, progressives both, Milton Thomas Greek grew up in Roanoke, Ill., and neighboring Benson, about two hours southwest of Chicago. He declared himself an atheist early and often, which in a devout Christian community was one way to stir the air — and the boys who ruled the schoolyard.
“They told me I was damned — damned! — and came after me,” Mr. Greek said. “Now I see that it was just an excuse, like picking on the fat kid for being fat, or the nerd for being a nerd. But at the time I thought it was all about religion.”
He did not discover the secret to world peace and, by senior year, was in a troubled marriage, and began seeing and hearing things others did not. One day he saw a homeless man in the Athens bus station with eyes “like landscapes that went back into the man’s head infinitely far, stretching on for eternity.” God’s eyes; who else?
Later, he was hitchhiking, and a man with long hair and sandals pulled over to offer a ride, his eyes rippling with the same eternal light as the street person’s. Jesus? It had to be (“I’d already met God, so it made sense.”) The man said something about a small town in the woods, and Mr. Greek thought that that town had to be heaven.
His marriage collapsed. His friends stopped calling. He was back at home in Illinois when a doctor finally gave him a diagnosis — schizophrenia — and prescribed medication.
It seemed like a charade, from start to finish. The doctor never asked what he thought his hallucinations meant, or whether the strange thoughts were linked to experiences in his life. He stopped taking the pills.
“I became very suicidal,” he said. “I had no idea what’s happening to me during this entire time. I had been this big atheist, but here I am thinking that the rapture is about to start and that I’m the Antichrist — all this religious imagery.”
Why?
The answer was obvious and ultimately liberating, but he had to spend a long time wandering in the woods — literally — to find it.
It was 1984, he had begged his way back into Ohio University for graduate studies in sociology, still lost in his own mind, his thoughts turning darker by the day. He was alienating classmates, professors, friends.
About the only exception was Ms. Holley, a graduate student some 15 years his senior who enjoyed his company, and one day he decided to visit the commune where she lived, with her family and several other families. It took him two days to find it, the first spent wandering the misty woods until dark in a waking, delusional dream, and the second stumbling into a clearing just off Hooper Ridge Road, where Ms. Holley and her friends took him in.
Over the next several months they sat with him, accepted him as a member of the tribe, and encouraged his mission to improve the world at face value. And save his life they probably did, in part by suggesting that he seek help.
It was Ms. Holley who delivered the message. “I trusted her completely, so when she said I was hallucinating — when she used the word ‘hallucination’ — I knew it was true,” Mr. Greek said. “I would have to give the medication another try.”
He was lucky. It worked, blunting the psychosis enough that he was able to complete a programming course and find work, first in Illinois and later back in Athens at Ohio University’s Information Technology department. In time he found something more: During a snowstorm in 1996, Mr. Greek knocked on the door of a neighbor he had seen around Athens, a single mother with two teenage children, carrying a full-time job plus graduate classes, who was at that very moment (he would learn later) praying for something to get her through the winter.
The man at the door did not exactly look like a savior, in his beat-up jeans and unruly hair, his soft eyes and half-smile. But he offered to cook dinner — stir fry — on a day when the fridge was nearly empty.

Totalitarian Ideologies

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:29:44 GMT

Governments that follow totalitarian ideologies seek complete control over the lives of all individuals living in a society. The word totalitarism was coined in the twentieth century to describe systems such as fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union. Totalitarian states are usually distinguished from mere authoritarian states by the degree of control they seek to gain. Authoritarian states—traditional dictatorships— merely wish to maintain a monopoly of political authority; what their citizens do in their private lives is unimportant to traditional dictators. Totalitarian states wish to control ever aspect of their citizens’ lives. There is no “private” in a totalitarian society. Motivated by an ideology which they deem more important than anything else—whether it is Adolf Hitler’s belief in the destiny of the master race, or Joseph Stalin’s belief in the inevitable spread of communism— they are willing to sacrifice everything, particularly the rights and lives of their citizens, to achieve their goals.
Benito Mussolini was the first of the twentieth- century totalitarian leaders. In the gloom following World War I, he organized an Italian political party he called the Fasci di Combattimento (“group of fighters”). It was dedicated to bringing pride back to the Italian people after the humiliations of the war. Mussolini emphasized the importance of loyalty to the nation, strength, and unity. He ridiculed democracy as being weak and ineffectual, while he attacked communism (which was on the rise in the 1920s) as being a threat to national unity. Backed by crowds of violent supporters, Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922. The transformations he made of Italian society were largely unplanned. He had prepared no blueprints in advance for his future fascist state. Nevertheless, Mussolini’s dictatorship would become the model for the other totalitarian systems. He outlawed all other political parties, declaring the Fascist Party to be the only legal party. All organizations, public or private, were forced to put themselves under state control or supervision. As Mussolini put it, “All within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.” Under this system, the individual existed to serve the state. This central philosophical attitude of fascism— which it shares with all totalitarian ideologies—is directly opposed to the traditions of personal liberty that grew out of the European Enlightenment. Seventeenthand eighteenth-century writers, such as John Locke, Voltaire, and Thomas Jefferson, emphasized the rights of the individual. In their eyes, the purpose of the state was to serve the needs of the individual.
Fascism and other totalitarian ideologies argue the opposite. And because the state is more important than any person under its control, concepts such as private life and individual rights are discarded. Although Mussolini was the first modern totalitarian leader, he was surpassed in ruthlessness by two other twentieth-century totalitarian dictators: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Hitler’s Nazi Party, which came to power in 1933, was similar to Mussolini’s Fascist Party, in that it emphasized nationalism and duty of the individual to serve the state. Nazism, however, also incorporated a belief in the racial destiny of the Germans and the necessity of destroying their racial enemy, the Jews. These beliefs, combined with the total control Hitler and the Nazis gained over Germany, led them to kill 6 million Jews during World War II, as well as millions of other people whom they deemed racially unfit. Stalin, on the other hand, was not a nationalist or a racist; he claimed to be a communist and to be serving the will of the working people of the Soviet Union. In reality, however, Stalin’s Soviet Union was closer in spirit to Nazi Germany than it was to the ideas of Karl Marx. Like Hitler, Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union from the 1920s until his death in 1953, used his secret police to hunt down enemies—or people he thought might be enemies—herd them into camps, and kill millions of them.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is difficult to point out many true totalitarian states. North Korea almost certainly qualifies; Saddam Hussein’s Iraq may; and many would also call Fidel Castro’s Cuba totalitarian. However, even though totalitarianism is not the threat that it once was, its ideas are constantly being borrowed by other oppressive regimes to enforce their rule and abuse their people. Perhaps the most important element in totalitarian systems is the secret police, and the twenty-first century is still filled with countries who use secret police to enforce government control. The use of torture also remains widespread, and not just in dictatorships. Democracies like Israel have been accused of torturing prisoners in the name of state security. Others, like the United States, in the name of fighting against terrorism or high crime rates, have passed laws reducing the defense of individuals against state prosecutions and death penalty convictions. An element of totalitarianism exists anywhere the state begins to excessively intrude into the lives of its citizens.
George Orwell, the British novelist, wrote in his novel 1984 that if totalitarianism took over our world, the future would look like “a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” Reality might be more prosaic; rather than being dominated by evil dictators, there is the risk that we might gradually allow the state to take away our human rights out of our fear of other dangers. In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans looked the other way as the FBI and other federal agencies used illegal methods to track people they considered subversive. In South Africa, well-behaved middle-class whites pretended not to know what the police were doing to black prisoners in the name of apartheid—just as wellbehaved, middle-class Germans looked the other way when Hitler’s police took away Jews to be murdered. This was all done in the name of the state, and few people, even democracies, wish to oppose the power of the state. After all, when U.S. President John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address in 1961, “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” the same words might have been twisted by the likes of Mussolini and other totalitarians, all by way of saying that the state is more important than the individual.

Blue Jeans

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:28:52 GMT

It has been more than 130 years since Levi Strauss invented blue-jeans and they are still very popular today. Farmers and workers wear them to work in; children wear them to play in. Others wear them because they are comfortable. Before the 1950′s, blue-jeans were 5 popular only in the West and Southwest. Today, almost everyone wears them. Americans buy about 500 million pairs of jeans a year. That’s more than two pairs per person. Of course, blue-jeans are also popular in other parts of the world. In these areas, people buy about 200 million pairs of jeans. Levi Strauss and Company makes about one-third of all the jeans in the United States and about one-seventh of those in other countries. In fact, for a long time, people used the word Levi’s1 as a synonym for blue-jeans. That’s because ‘Levi’s’ were the first jeans. The inventor was a German immigrant named Levi Strauss. Levi Strauss left Germany in 1848, when he was a young man. He came to New York City to be near his two brothers. For two years, he worked as a salesman. He worked hard, but he didn’t earn much money. Then, he decided to go to San Francisco. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, so many people left their homes and jobs in the east and they moved to mining camps in California, hoping to find gold and become rich. Some of them oM His canvas was the wrong kind for tents, so nobody bought it, but Levi found another use for it. A miner told Levi that he needed a good, strong pair of pants because digging for gold was hard work. When Levi heard that, he made a pair of canvas pants for the miner. The miner paid Levi 6 dollars in gold dust and told the other miners about ‘those pants of Levi’s*. Levi quickly sold a lot of pants, so he 30 wrote to his brothers in New York and told them to send him more
canvas, but they sent him some heavy cotton cloth called ‘denim’, much of which came from Genes (the French name for the city of Genoa, Italy). Levi changed the spelling of Genes to ‘jeans’. He called his new pants blue-jeans. In 1853, Levi and his brothers opened a small clothing business in San Francisco. Today they make and sell about 250 million pieces of clothing a year – from women’s clothes to men’s suits, and of course, blue-jeans.

Charles Sutherland Elton (1900-1991)

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:27:56 GMT

Charles Sutherland Elton is a British biologist and naturalist who established the principles of modern animal ecology. His studies of animals in their natural environment helped him develop the concepts of the food chain, a succession of organisms, each dependent on the next for food; and ecological niche, in which every species occupies a unique position within its ecological community.
Born in Manchester, England, Elton grew up in Liverpool. His older brother Geoffrey taught him to appreciate nature through close, careful observation, inspiring Elton to study biology and zoology at Liverpool College and then at the University of Oxford. While studying at Oxford, he had the distinction of accompanying his mentor, British biologist and author Julian Huxley, on four zoological expeditions to the Arctic. After graduating from Oxford in 1922 with a bachelor’s degree in natural science, Elton continued to study ecology, focusing on fluctuations in the sizes of animal populations. From 1929 to 1945 he held a full-time research position at Oxford University.
To gain insight on the history of animal populations, Elton examined the records of fur trappers from the Hudson Bay Company, a British company that operated an early fur trade monopoly in Canada from 1670 to 1859. The information gleaned from these historic records about fur-bearing animals enabled him to trace the population fluctuation of the Canadian lynx back to 1736. His study of these archival records, coupled with his experiences in the Arctic, led him to write Animal Ecology (1927) and Animal Ecology and Evolution (1930). These two books helped establish animal ecology as a new and distinct discipline. In 1932 Elton founded the Journal of Animal Ecology. That same year he established the Bureau of Animal Population, the first research center for the study of animal populations and ecology, which quickly became a world-class research center until its demise in the early 1960s.
In 1953 Elton was recognized as a Fellow by the Royal Society of London. Other lifetime honors included election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society, and the Royal Society’s Darwin Medal. Elton is also the author of Voles, Mice, and Lemmings (1942), The Control of Rats and Mice (1954), The Ecology of Invasions of Animals and Plants (1958), and The Patterns of Animal Communities (1966).

Breast Enlargement Surgery

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:27:04 GMT

Breast augmentation (augmentation mammoplasty) is the preferred option for many women who want to enhance their appearance and boost their self-confidence. By surgically placing implants behind the breasts, cosmetic surgeons can provide many women with the figure they have always wanted.
In 2005, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), 291,350 women had a breast augmentation procedure. It was the most popular cosmetic surgery, even more popular than liposuction. Statistics are not available yet for 2006.
Silicone Gel Implants Approved
In November, 2006, the FDA issued some long-awaited good news for women. It announced that it had approved silicone gel implants for all women over the age of 18. Specifically, it approved the implants made by two California corporations, Mentor and Allergan, who have invested huge amounts of time and money in testing and research since 1992.
What is Silicone?
Silicone (spelt with an e at the end) is made from silicon (spelt with no e). Silicon is the second-most common element on the planet, after oxygen. It is found in sand, rocks, crystals and many other natural substances. Silicone is used in a huge variety of common household products, such as soap, hairspray, hand lotion, and processed foods. So all of us almost certainly have some in our bodies, where it does no harm.
The New Silicone Gel Implants
Improvements have been made in the silicone gel, making it thicker. It’s known as cohesive gel, and has the property of sticking to itself strongly, making leaks virtually impossible. The implant shells are also slightly thicker, making ruptures very unlikely.
These new silicone implants come in differing sizes, from low-profile, to moderate, to high-profile. We can choose to have a textured surface or a smooth one, and an anatomical (teardrop) shape, or a round shape. Most people consider them to look and feel more natural than saline implants.
Incision Choices
The FDA did not approve silicone breast implants for a TUBA incision site (at the belly button), because silicone gel implants come pre-filled, unlike saline implants, which are empty when inserted, and folded up small. But we can choose from three other incision sites:
•In the armpit
•In the crease below the breast
•Around the lower edge of the areola
In all these locations, the scar will be hardly visible at all. Saline implants, being empty and folded up, can be inserted from the TUBA incision (Trans-Umbilical Breast Augmentation), where again, the scar will be hardly visible.
Procedures which use the TUBA and armpit incisions are known as endoscopic surgery procedures, as the surgeon uses an endoscope, a long tube with a bright light and a tiny camera that feeds to a monitor, so the doctor can see the area where the breast implant will be placed. This allows for more precise placement of the implant and helps the breast surgeon to more clearly see the pocket he creates for the implant.
Implant Placement
Both saline and silicone gel implants can be placed either below the breast tissue and above the pectoral muscle (subglandular), or below both (submuscular).
Breast Implant Manufacturers
In researching a cosmetic surgeon, make sure you find out whether your surgeon offers implants by both major US manufacturers, Allergan and Mentor. Not only do the manufacturers offer different product lines, most notably in their proprietary silicone gel formulae and in their anamorphic (shaped) implants, but the manufacturers have different warranty periods and policies, which could make a big difference in the necessity and cost of reoperation on your implants.
Reasons for Breast Augmentation
Breast augmentation can correct many different problems including:
•A noticeable difference in size between the two breasts
•Reduction in breast size after pregnancy
•Reduction in size after weight loss
•Change in breast size after breast surgery
•Breasts that have never developed as much as desired
When deciding whether to have a breast augmentation procedure, it’s important to remember that it will have a limited effect in your life. Even though it can enhance your looks and probably boost your self-confidence, it cannot necessarily change how people treat you or alter your looks to match an ideal mental image.
The best candidate for breast augmentation is a woman who is looking to improve her body, but is not looking for perfection. Also, a good candidate should be physically healthy and realistic in her expectations.
To determine if you are a good candidate for breast augmentation, schedule an initial consultation with a cosmetic surgeon in your area. Your breast surgeon will discuss incision and placement options with you to determine what you want. He or she will also discuss with you the results you would like, and what you can expect from a breast augmentation procedure.

Hagia Sophia

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:25:17 GMT

From the time it was built Haghia Sophia, the Church of Divine Wisdom, has astonished and entranced all who beheld it, with its great dome symbolising unattainable infinity. Haghia Sophia was used as a church for 916 years and as a mosque for 481, so serving as a place of worship for nearly one and a half millennia. When it was first built it was known as the Megale Ekklesia or Great Church. After the Turkish conquest it was converted into a mosque, but continued to be known by the Turkish rendering of its Greek name, Ayasofya. In 1934, at the wish of Mustafa Kemal Atat�rk, founder of the Turkish Republic, the Council of Ministers turned the building into a museum.
Haghia Sophia was constructed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian between 532 and 537. It was the third church of this name on the same site. The first was a basilica erected on the site of a former Roman temple, and according to the historian Socrates was dedicated on 15 February 360. It was destroyed by fire in the year 404 in an uprising against Emperor Arcadius. The second church was built by Emperor Theodosius II and dedicated on 10 October 415, only to be burnt down in the Nika Revolt on 13 January 532, during the fifth year of the reign of Justinian I (527-565).After crushing the revolt Justinian commanded that a new church be built on a far grander scale than the previous two. The chronicler Procopius relates that two architects, Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, were appointed for the task. One hundred master craftsmen, one thousand journeymen, and ten thousand labourers were employed. �
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Justinian wanted the church to be completed in the shortest possible time, and sent orders out to all the provinces of his realm commanding that columns and marbles from ancient cities be sent to Istanbul. Shiploads arrived from Syria, Egypt and Greece as well as from Asia Minor.Construction commenced on 23 February 532 and apart from the decoration was completed in the astonishingly short time of 5 years 10 months and 24 days. The church was dedicated on 27 December 537 at a magnificent opening ceremony. Justinian drove up to the church in his victory chariot, and was welcomed in the atrium by Patriarch Menas. The two men entered the church hand in hand. Justinian was so impressed by its splendour, that he exclaimed, ‘Thanks be to God for blessing me with the good fortune of constructing such a place of worship.’
At the inauguration one thousand bulls, six thousand sheep, six hundred stags, one thousand pigs, ten thousand chickens and ten thousand roosters were sacrificed and alms were distributed to the poor.Haghia Sophia is the most outstanding example of a domed basilica. The central space has an area of seven thousand square metres, and is flanked by two aisles, each divided from the nave by four verd antique columns. These eight columns were brought from Ephesus, while the eight porphyry columns beneath the semidomes were brought from Egypt. Altogether the building contains 107 columns, whose capitals are among the finest examples of Byzantine stone carving. These capitals bear the monograms of the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora.The dome rises to 56.6 metres at its apex, and has a diameter of 32.37 metres. The original dome collapsed in an earthquake just 22 years after the church was completed, and was rebuilt in 562 by Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidorus of Miletus. Isidorus the Younger raised the height of the dome by 2.65 metres to lessen its outward thrust. During the Latin occupation of Istanbul by the Fourth Crusaders between 1203 and 1261, the church was used for Roman Catholic rites.
Emperor Alexius IV was forced to hand over many of the sacred objects belonging to the church in repayment for debts to the Latins, and these are now in Venice.he mosaics of Haghia Sophia are exquisite works of art. In the semidome of the apse is a large mosaic depicting the Mother of God with the Infant Christ, which makes abundant use of gold and silver. The dress of Mary is worked in dark blue glass mosaic, and she sits on a magnificent bejewelled throne reminiscent of an imperial throne. The faces of mother and infant are entrancingly beautiful.�
Another mosaic not to be missed is that above the Imperial Gate showing Leo VI (886-912) bowing before Christ and asking his sins to be forgiven. A mosaic on the side door of the inner narthex depicts two emperors with Mary and the Infant Christ. One of the emperors is Constantine I, shown presenting Mary and Christ with a model of Constantinople, which was named after him, and the other is Justinian I, who is presenting a model of the church that he founded. In the south gallery is the Deisis mosaic and two others depicting Constantine IX Monomachos and the Empress Zoe (11th century) and John Comnenus II with his wife Eirene and son Alexius (12th century) respectively. In the north gallery is the mosaic depicting Emperor Alexander (10th century).
Four minarets were added to the outside of the building at various times after its conversion into a mosque. The huge buttresses against the exterior walls were built in the 16th century by the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan to support the building, and have enabled it to survive to the present day. Additions within the church are the mihrap or prayer niche inside the apse, the bronze lamps to either side of the niche which were brought here from Buda, and the pulpit and imperial and m�ezz’sal galleries of carved marble. The library beyond the south aisle was built by Mahmud I in 1739. All the additions were designed with the character of the existing building in mind, the use of marble for the Ottoman additions reflecting the extensive use of this material in the Byzantine building. The inscriptions in the dome and the large calligraphic panels bearing the names of God, Muhammed and the four caliphs are the work of the celebrated 19th century calligrapher, Kazasker Mustafa �zzet Efendi.

Religion in Modern America

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:24:23 GMT

American national rituals are almost always nominally religious, broadened in recent years from a vaguely “Christian” tradition to an equally ill-defined “Judaeo-Christian” tradition. Politicians almost always profess a belief in a “higher power,” but are careful not to sound too fundamentalist, too metaphysical, or too extreme. Political officials are installed with a prayer and a Bible as part of the ceremonies, but in the most democratic of institutions—the school—prayer is prohibited lest it appear that there is official proselytizing of any particular religious practice.
Instead of a shared religion, the United States is greatly influenced by what some observers have called “civil religion”—a widespread acceptance of a unifying set of values that bind Americans to a shared code of behavior. While trying to maintain a posture of separation between church and state, Americans have attempted to balance that posture with using amorphous religious rhetoric to legitimize certain standards of ethics and behavior. One observer describes this balancing act as “an effort to find a faith sufficiently encompassing and inspiring to envelop all of ‘God’s New Israel’ under one snugly religious quilt.” Certainly a largely patriarchal Protestant and Puritan set of values has shaped the American religious mainstream, informing everything from marriage, child-rearing and social relationships to politics and marketplace ethics. But Native American influences can be seen in some of the religious-political framework of the Constitution, and Jews, African Americans and women have successfully invoked religious rhetoric to highlight social injustice.
The American openness to religious diversity has had mixed results. There has been plenty of opportunity for new denominations to flourish, such as the AME Church, which was born in Philadelphia in the 1790s, but there has also been plenty of opportunity for conflict and dissension. Despite the fact that unconventional forms of religious behavior have brought angry and sometimes violent responses, Americans have, to date, not been dislodged from the conviction that freedom of worship is important, even when this conviction has sparked violence. In the 1830s, Illinois residents attacked Mormon settlers over their practice of polyandry and drove them from the state; in the 1980s the Branch Davidian group, which preached that David Koresh was the modern incarnation of Jesus Christ, became involved in a shooting match with federal government officials. Yet the Mormons, who eventually found a home—and legal protection for their practices—in Utah, are now hosts to one of the most respected genealogy centers and religious choirs. The Branch Davidians have largely disbanded, but similar groups prepared to launch violent resistance in pursuit of extreme forms of religious freedom continue to flourish. One such group, the World Church of the Creator, which advocates deportation of non-whites, was brought to public attention when a former member, Benjamin Smith, went on a shooting spree in the suburbs surrounding Chicago, IL.
Since the Second World War, as Americans have grown increasingly sensitive to curbing any form of intolerance, the widespread recognition of rituals such as Jewish Chanukah, African American Kwanzaa and Muslim Ramadan has challenged everything from traditional bank holidays to national foodways to school curricula. As one observer phrased it: “the growing diversity of religious and ethnic populations in the United States [has] drawn our attention to the need to accommodate pluralism everywhere.” Such postwar tolerance, however, has not staunched Americans’ anxiety that excessive commitment to particular religious beliefs will lead to behaviors and loyalties that are at odds with mainstream American civil norms (e.g. Catholic loyalties to the Pope, Quaker commitments to pacifism, Muslim adherence to abstinence from alcohol, Christian Science resistance to modern medicine, shamanic invocations of other-worldly spirits, Wicca celebrations of feminist religions, etc.). The delicate boundary between religious freedom and civil authority continues to occasion dozens of legal confrontations each year. As immigration restrictions have been relaxed, Buddhist, Hindu and various smaller groupings of Old-World religions also have taken a significant place in the modern religious landscape, and these, too, sometimes are accompanied by rites and traditions that are disturbing to their neighbors.
In twenty-first century America it seems likely that the tightrope comprising civil religious impulses, commitment to religious freedom, increasing diversity among the population and tensions between conflicting religious requirements and rites will continue a dynamic relationship that defines Americans’ religious experience.

Are You a Shopaholic?

ademsucu — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:23:13 GMT

Turns out 1 in 20 of us — women and men alike — can’t control the urge to spend. Learn what drives this destructive behavior.
Is your closet overflowing with never-worn clothing, the price tags still waving in the breeze? Is your attic bulging with boxes and boxes of shoes that have never touched pavement? Do you buy new makeup weekly or compact discs by the fistful?
You might be a shopaholic.
Studies estimate that as many as 17 million Americans, better than one in 20 of us, can’t control our urge to shop, even at the expense of our job, our marriage, our family and our finances.
In the land of conspicuous consumption, compulsive shopping is the smiled-upon addiction, the butt of countless sitcoms and Sunday comics, one of the few disorders that it’s still OK to laugh at. Shop ’til you drop. The one who dies with the most toys wins. Heck, President Bush even called it patriotic to splurge. Where’s the harm?
Real Consequences
Manhattan psychologist April Benson, author of “I Shop Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self,” has seen firsthand how destructive compulsive shopping can be.
“One patient of mine got fired because she was compulsively shopping on the Internet all day. There are other people who neglect their children and park them in the mall constantly because that is what they need to feed their habit. Lots of marriages break up over compulsive buying. In fact, we don’t call it compulsive buying unless there is some significant impairment in some aspect of your life.”
Not only is compulsive shopping tacitly condoned by our materialistic society, it is just as widely misunderstood.
For starters, according to Donald Black, M.D., a University of Iowa psychiatry professor who specializes in obsessive-compulsive disorder, compulsive shopping isn’t a true compulsion at all, but instead an impulse control disorder.
“A compulsion is a behavior that is produced to counteract an upsetting thought; for example, I’m contaminated or dirty, therefore I will deal with that anxiety by washing my hands more,” he says.
“There is no upsetting thought prompting compulsive shopping. It is a very pleasurable impulse, and people act on those impulses.”
Famous Shopaholics
Nor is compulsive shopping a modern-day “designer disease.” According to Black, a German psychiatrist published the first clinical description of the disorder in 1915.
Famous shopaholics in history include Marie Antoinette, Mary Todd Lincoln, William Randolph Hearst, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Imelda Marcos and Princess Diana. Their addictions ranged from clothing (Jackie O, Diana) to art and antiques (Hearst) to shoes (the heralded Marcos collection) to gloves (Mrs. Lincoln owned 84 pairs of them).
“Now maybe it’s more prevalent now because you clearly need available goods, a market economy and disposable income, and those elements haven’t always been around,” he notes.
Men are ‘collectors,’ women are ‘shopaholics’
While research suggests that nine in 10 shopaholics are women, Benson says it’s a common misnomer to tag this as a female disorder.
“People who are part of their studies are psychiatric in- or outpatients, and women self-refer for these problems much more so than men. Recent studies coming out of Europe suggest that more men are beginning to have these problems. In addition to the fact that they don’t self-refer for the types of studies on which these statistics are based is the fact that society often calls men who are compulsive buyers ‘collectors.’ It gives it a refined and slightly highbrow image.”
The same is true of the misconception that compulsive shopping is a malady of the privileged class.
“We say that money is an equal opportunity mood changer,” says Benson. “There have been a few studies linking socioeconomic class with compulsive buying and no significant results have been found. I had a colleague who had a guy on welfare who compulsively bought.”
Black suggests we discard the notion that shopaholics are unaware of their problem.
“They are perfectly aware of what they’re doing. Intellectually, they know that their closets and maybe their attic is full, but then they will be in the store and think, well, maybe I do need this one blouse or this will come in handy or I don’t have one in this particular shade so I’ll buy it. They usually hide it from their husbands. They do have feelings of guilt.”
When it becomes a problem
What do women want? In order of preference, most female compulsive shoppers buy clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup and compact discs.
Men? Clothing, shoes, electronics (TVs, stereos, computers, etc.), hardware and CDs.
Sounds normal enough, right? So how does compulsive shopping differ from your last trip to the mall?
“Well, they don’t buy one CD, they buy 10 CDs at a time,” says Black. “They might buy five skirts, all the same, perhaps in different shades or slightly different styles, where a normal buyer would identify a need for something new or attend a sale and buy one item.”
Benson notes that shopaholics overspend on services as well as goods.
“I had one patient who had her hair blown dry maybe two or three times a week. Between the color, the cut and the blow-dry, she was spending at least $200 if not $250 a week on her hair, and that didn’t include all the hair products,” she says.
Some shopaholics have more eccentric tastes, though they are by far the minority. Black had one patient who was addicted to Beanie Babies, another who compulsively bought garden figurines; Benson treated a man who only bought compulsively for his camper.
Similarities to compulsive gambling
Black says the typical shopaholic cycle is not unlike that of the compulsive gambler — or even the serial killer.
“What the patients will typically describe is they have a baseline preoccupation with shopping, they’re always thinking about it, and a tension builds and they have to satisfy that tension by going out and shopping. That relieves the tension, at least for the time being,” he says.
Some shop out of loneliness, others for the rush of it, still others to fill some inner need. Some seek greater self-esteem, others use it to battle depression. Some shop to return to a happy childhood, others to escape a bad one.
But few shopaholics consider it a debilitating disorder until the spiral of debt or marital discord leaves them no other choice.
All of which makes compulsive shopping especially difficult to treat.
Black says drug studies using serotonin uptake inhibitors (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, etc.) have met with mixed results, as the disorder seems to respond equally well to drugs and placebos.
Benson hopes to start her own 12-step-style therapy program this fall, focusing on group techniques to change cognitive behavior. The only other group program treating compulsive shopping in this way is in Fargo, N.D.
“Frankly, there is so little research done that I’m not sure you can talk about success rate,” Black admits. “Very few people are studying this or writing about it. There are no standards for treatment, so there are no good definitions of what constitutes recovery. Is their buying down to your level or my level? Or should they abstain from shopping like they tell alcoholics? You can’t do that realistically. Maybe if you go shopping, at least have someone with you so you don’t go overboard.”