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Lijiang city is located in Southwestern China’s Yunnan Province. It has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List for its ancient city layout and its unique charming landscape of water and houses. However, since 2004, the source of the river that runs through Lijiang city suffered seasonal draught for three years in a row. A battle to protect the soul of Lijiang – the city’s groundwater resources began. A total of 43 primary level government officials challenged enterprises and individuals at every level of the society.
About the fate of stray dogs on the street says the joint project of directors Diana Kostova and Ivo Todorov - "A Dog's Heart". The documentary was filmed in Sofia and the largest homeless shelter dogs - in Bogrov. During filming, the directors learned that among the homeless dogs often defined as "first friend of man" has brutalized: beaten with shovels and hammers, with cutting ears and tails, deliberately hit by cars. And the only way for these dogs or shelter or the home of compassionate people. "A Dog's Heart" is a true story why people have adopted a stray dog, what gives them communicating with them and how you can love them. Another important topic that affects authors, is castration - the only solution to uncontrolled population on the one hand and on the other - as the prevention of dangerous diseases, especially in female dogs. The directors also have dogs in their homes, as adopted by Ivo Todorov Tara is taken from the street when she was a little dog for 40 days.
Shenmu is famous for been called “Number one coal-producing county in China”. The flourishing coal industry has also brought serious environmental problems such as water pollution, ground collapse etc.Tens of thousands of rural migrant workers travel from all over the country to work here as miners.They have been not only facing the risk of occupational disease such as pneumoconiosis, but also sometimes can lose their lives.
Follow the story of a tiny, just 2mm-in-size invader on it's rise to power – the Argentine Ant in Southern Europe. Undiscovered from most eyes this invasive species has formed the largest supercolony on the planet - a super-aggressive family with the potential to change a whole ecosystem, scientists believe. In a warlike world beneath our feet they ravage our local ants lifes. They colonise the food. They penetrate their enemies homes and kill their queens. They appear in giant numbers to reach an unbelievably strong fighting force. Scientists try to uncover the strategies of the argentine ants to find ways to protect the ecosystem from more damage. „Ant wars“ is the story of a 6000 kilometer-in-size colony of ants who became the biggest predator on earth.
A film of the CEE Bankwatch Network and Za Zemiata – Friends of the Earth Bulgaria. This is a story about the findings of an international mission that investigates the petrol companies in the delta of Niger River in September 2011. The investigation results – oil spills in one of the most precious ecosystems on the planet, thousands of square kilometers dead jungle, flaring gas around the petrol wells and millions of deprived people. “Bleeding Oil” is a provocation to all the Europeans. The film shows us how strong the global connection between people is. It also reveals what actually stays behind the mantra for the European energy security. We are the consumers, others stand at producers’ way, but all of us are slaves of one corporative reality which takes advantage of both people and nature.
The movie presents activities of WWF Bulgaria and WWF Romania connected with the wetlands restoration and conservation of two endangered species: Ferruginous Duck and Pygmy Cormorant.
The approximate energy stability of Bulgaria has been built for over six decades. Millions of tons of coals merge into thermal power plants. The country shines, basks and prospers economically. The East(Maritsa) basin is thе face of the Bulgarian mining. Data seems proud and prestigious. Behind them stand ordinary human fates. Or, to be exact-beneath them. There are houses, thousands of acres of fertile lands, rivers. In the name of energetics these mines have devoured a few villages. Others are going to bedevoured.
The film introduces the viewer to one of the least known and beautiful ecosystems in the world, located in the center ofBrazil. The film is an impressionistic dance of color and light, unraveling like a creation myth through the primal elements of Water, Fire, Lightning and Rain, all the while celebrating the amazing and strange animals that occupy its landscape. The film introduces a new genre of documentary filmmaking, trusting the powerful beauty and mystery of the place to dictate the mood through a unique artistic vision with pulsating and evocative original music. Emas National Park is home to some of the worlds most amazing animals such as the Giant Armadillo, the Giant Anteater and the Maned Wolf, and to some breathtaking phenomena which occur here, like bioluminescent termite mounds and massive webs with thousands of community spiders. The film is an overwhelming explosion oflife, color and mystery reenacting a primordial worship of nature as an eternal work of art.
Situated in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, North China, Wuliangsu Lake is one of the eight largest freshwater lakes in China. Covering the area of 300 squares kilometers, it is a rare big lake in this desolate and drought-stricken grassland. As the biggest wetlands at this latitude on the planet, Wuliagnsu Lake has been included in the catalogue of “Wetlands of International Importance”. The unique geographical situation has made this lake a paradise for swans. In summer, these beautiful creatures breed here. The lake is energized as baby swans emerge from their shells.
A film about Chios island – a unique place connected also with the Bulgarian history.
The four lovable and sweet main characters of Creamen capture our hearts as they gradually have to confront an unexpected challenge to their very existence.
Dumped and forgotten - for more than 50 years European countries dumped their atomic waste into the sea. It was declared as a safe method of disposal. Hundredthousands of tons of this radioactive waste have been dumped in front of Europe's coasts. What did happen with this atomic waste that has been dumped for example into the British Channel? Did radioactivity really dilute and disperse over the years or does it threaten fish? And what does it mean for the customers? A German film crew of public tv ARD followed the tracks of those radioactive barrels. They found atomic waste some kilometers north of Alderney. This radioactive waste has been dumped between 1950 and 1963 by Great Britain and Belgium. The crew filmed with a little submarine a few miles away from the French coast atomic waste barrels in a depth of 124 metres. Officially these barrels should have been rotten. But the pictures show an unbroken barrel. This is the proof: it is possible to salvage nuclear waste out of the British Channel. The journalists also discovered tubes, in which atomic waste is going to be disposed into the sea until today - although it is forbidden to dump nuclear waste offshore.
Century-old trees in Bulgaria have a remarkable memory. They are powerful ecosystems, but that is not all. They not only replenish the Earth with oxygen, but also whisper tales and legends from past times. Some remember epic battles. Others tell dramatic stories of nuns unhappily in love. The oldest ones have engraved in their memory the moments when the proto-Bulgarian horsemen stopped to rest under the shade of their branches. Almost all of them are related to a saint, monastery or healing spring. Near some of them Venerable Stoyna and Vanga have uttered their prophecies. The tales of our century-old trees speak silently to those who believe in their powerful energy.
Never before have so many skyscrapers been planned or under construction all over the world at once. Now a new generation of ultra-modern skyscrapers has been designed to help revive city centers, spare the climate and check urban sprawl. Building "Green” has now become an economic necessity, most especially in Asia’s burgeoning megalopolises. The key question here is whether it is possible to build a high-rise that is both green and efficient. The first certified sustainable office high-rise is currently going up in Panama City. From Vertical Farming in New York City to the "Garden City” of Singapore, environmental skyscrapers are swiftly becoming one of today’s key technologies.
Almost every country sets great store by galleries and venues for cultural events. They are important competitive factors in the international tourism market. Their architecture is meant to be attra ctive and imaginative, and sustainability is becoming increasingly important as well. This report presents innovative building projects from three countries: Saudi Arabia is renovating an old national library building to make it more ecological; China will use seawater to cool a new opera house; and a new museum and community center in the Spanish city of Seville is the world’s largest wooden structure.
More and more architects around the world are designing hotels that meet the demand for sustainable tourism. More and more travelers are considering environmental friendliness when they book hotel rooms or lodgings - sometimes this is even the mo st important aspect. These changes in attitudes are undeniable, and the travel industry is responding. But what does the industry understand by "sustainable”? In this part of our series, architects present their visions for the Swiss Alps, the Indonesian island of Bali and the eastern African nation of Rwanda.
The documentaryshows the global struggle for future food markets. Where will we grow our food in future? In the countryside, on the flat roofs of industrial buildings, in communal city gardens or in gigant ic industrial zones just outside the city, where greenhouses will stand next to mass animal husbandry stalls? And what consequences will this have for rural areas and for the slums of cities? The film takes place in Berlin, Amsterdam, Basel and in the Indian megacities of Bangalore and Chennai. As we follow the trace of tomorrow’s food supply, we encounter idealists, visionaries, controversial figures and coolheaded businessmen. The film centres on the confrontation between fundamentally different philosophies: should food production follow the masses into the cities? Should our meat consumption continue on its seemingly unending rise? Or should we change the way we eat and give renewed strength to rural economic circuits? Or is it already much too late for that?
A man traveled for two years in a small jolly boat the Atlantic. One night a severer storm draws on, he suffers shipwreck. The raging sea takes away his last belongings. The stranded boat stays disabled to manoeuver. He needs help. The storm moves on, but it remains in Daniel, who is forced to deal with himself and the reasons for his journey. The time didn’t heal wounds. Experiences and the fate of his disease are troubling his mind. Can his dead be a redemption? A film about the love to the sea and the beginning of a confrontation with death.
Puyuan Village is situated in the cradle of the mountains of Fuijian Province in Southeast of China. Ancient bridges, rivers and houses intersperse the valleys. In the Puyuan Village stands a 1, 3000-year-old tree and an eight-century old ancestral temple. The villagers’ family trees have been enshrined in the temple for over two hundred years and those who are over 100 years old still participate in big issues in this small community. In this favored place that boasts rich water resources, residents and carp live harmoniously. When a fish dies, the villagers host a solemn traditional funeral for the deceased soul.
Situated in the center of Euroasia, the Tarim Basin forms a yellow eye of land. There lies the Taklimakan, the most fluid desert in the world where only poplars of all tall trees survive. Over 60 percent of the poplars on this planet stand on the banks of the Tarim River. In spite of the summer heat, lack of water, the wind and sand… the poplars struggle against the tyranny of nature and stubbornly stand alone. The trees have also established an interdependent relationship with other desert creatures. They bear witness to the power of each others lives.
What will be the impact of climate change for coastal populations? How to reduce its harmful effects on people and their lifestyle? In March 2013 the Greenpeace's icebreaker Arctic Sunrise arrived in Varna, Bulgaria as part of its European tour in support of sustainable fishing. We have talked with them,with Bulgaria's Fishing Agency official and with a marine biologist about oceans, dolphins, pollution, fishing, pirates and seafaring. A production ofBulgaria ON AIR TV and Cherno More TV.
"Gentle Slopes" is a wildlife short documentary filmed at Penha Garcia, Portugal. Through mountains and plains, somewhere in Portugal, it is an amazing journey to the world of fascinating wild animals.
The programme team is actively involved in the international initiative to transform parking spaces into mini-parks or spaces for recreation for a day. The reporters’ car is substituted by bikes for shooting the event. The final result is the first TV programme in Bulgaria shot with zero harmful emissions.
The film tells about the Bulgarian lion Kaliman that became the pride of the zoo in Sarajevo.
This edition of the programme takes the form of a message by the authors on the occasion of Earth Day, 22 April.
Green patrol in action consist of highly mobile group of students. In this episode we show illegal tree cutting in Gunaros in Serbia.
The plot and a description of the film “ghatre-ghatre”- Gutty: A child tries to save water and protect environment against water shortage. The film is produced symbolically in a simple form. The film is educational particularly for children and youths. The symbols can communicate with all people in all times and places in the world. This 3-minute silent movie warns people of wastage of water and informs them about the human rights.
Ten years ago, a few enthusiasts decided to revive the historic salt production of Bourgneuf Bay in the west of France. They dug out and cleared the ancient salt pans to harvest Bay Salt once again. Over the course of a year, we come to appreciate Bernard, Daniel and Mano, three different personalities, united by a genuine attachment to their work and a deep respect for nature.
Horisont is a film about waves: waves in the open coastal landscape, waves as the flocking birds slide above stone fences and fields, eternal waves of the sea. It is a poetic, almost dreamlike film, inspired by painting and music. In its quiet way, it is is a tribute to the coastal landscape and a reminder of the importance of protecting these landscapes in ways that permit us to experience them as wide, open and diverse cultural landscapes. Horisont is filmed in Jæren and Lista in Southwest Norway.
The film presents activities of Etel Merk, private owner of animal shelter near Backa Topola, who took care of more than 500 dogs and about 100 cats. In addition, this film is about a sincere dedication of Etele Merk (painter and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts), leaving a career, artist and Professor, to take care of the abandoned animals. In addition to the animal shelter, Etela took care of other endangered animals in Backa Topola, as well as the poor people in the municipality. Because of debt of 45 000, 00 RSD, electricity was turned off at the farm with the animal shelter.This forced Etel to use candle and was the reason of a fire in which she tragically died.
Rome is touristically hypocritical and urbanistically elusive. It is not a single city but a series of loosely and badly interconnected villages. And, in the “stop and go” tourism of a quick-paced civilization which only searches culture for scalps to hurriedly bring home, after paying a quick visit to the city, the unknowing tourist is convinced of having sufficiently capitalized on the possible and necessary offer of emotions. However, it is precisely most of the villages making up the city’s private treasure that are overlooked by tourists unless they stumble on them inadvertently. These lucky few, prey of their TomToms gone haywire and road maps read upside-down, return home with news of never-before-seen marvels. This playful guide-book aims at giving access to the throbbing heart of the Eternal City to those who have had enough of plastic-bottle tourism. And especially to those interested in following an unconventional route enabling them to get to know boroughs, piazzas, alleys, fountains, shops, markets and secret stories far from the St. Peter’s – Coliseum thoroughfare.
Many people dream the impossible: To win an Oscar. Invent something that changes the world. Discover uncharted landscapes. Famous French dive pioneer Jacques Yves Cousteau achieved all this – and more. We tell the story of his amazing projects and discoveries. Filmed in Africa, Europe and the USA, the viewers witness, how Coustau developed from a ruthless shark killer to a relentless fighter for nature and radical environmentalist, whose biggest achievement of all was the inspiration he gave to millions of people all over the world.
Jungle Book Bear (narrated by David Attenborough): We all know him, we all love him: Baloo – Mowgli’s constant companion from the Jungle Book. Rudyard Kipling and even more the Walt Disney movie made this clumsy fellow world famous. The role models for Baloo are the Sloth Bears of India - surprisingly little is known about this secretive species. These in our days mostly nocturnal animals have never been portrayed in a natural history programme before. Over a period of three years Oliver Goetzl and Ivo Nörenberg not only were lucky enough to film these elusive creatures at daytime but got also behaviour that was even not known to scientists so far - e.g. the mouth feeding of cubs by their mothers.
There is a place in Africa where a mountain meets the sky... A place where rivers, forests and savannas play a neverending game with people. This place is Laikipia, central Kenya. Here dangerous wildlife share the land with thousands of farmers and their livestock. A perfect combination for trouble. But despite all odds the people living in Laikipia are fighting to make a dream come true... In this region of Africa co-existence between the needs of humans and the necessities of wildlife and nature is a well established and solid reality.
Yumen City, where China's first oil field was found, was once the city of glories and dreams. Half a century passing by, its oil resources are depleted. The government and oil bases moved out and over 90,000 residents migrated, leaving it a nearly empty city.
“Last Supper for Maltus” sheds light on one of the most prevalent and alarming issues of our time, The Global Food Crisis.A comprehensive look into the first food crisis of the 21st century.In 2008 the world’s population moved beyond 6.8 billion. A global food crisis brought agriculture back to the forefront of any plants for the future of humanity. The ongoing crisis was then overshadowed by a financial crisis, the likes of which had not been seen in 80 years. So it is perhaps inevitable that the ghost of Thomas Malthus, the controversial 19th century economist and demographer, returns now to haunt our screens with his predictions of unavoidable mass starvation.
The French call this a miniature Versailles, the British call it the Pearl of Europe, Germans call it Hungary’s Beauty, others: Hungarian Eden, Hungarian Elysium, or the Jewel of Hungary. Eszterháza. It’s as if the Hungarian sky, so covered in dark clouds for centuries, appears to smile in its radiance at the mention of this name. This nation, having undergone such adversity is now reviving from its dormancy, and is feverishly making up for omissions it was forced to endure by fate. The desire to do a lot, quickly, is characteristic of the Baroque era. Hence, amidst the Fertőd marshlands, this castle appeared almost magically, and became perhaps the finest creation of Hungarian architectural history. Apart from Versailles, there is perhaps no other place in France whose pomp may be compared to this. This castle is extremely large, and is extravagantly crammed full of an array of finery.
Peter Jochimsen, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Baltic Sea University in Germany, suffered from leukemia. For more than ten years, he had relied on medicine to survive, but he has been mentally and physically exhausted by his disease. In 2008, Peter began to financially aid to construct a primary school in the mountains of Guangxi, in Southwestern China. The picturesque scenery, simple and unadorned culture, miraculous herbal medicines and traditional Chinese shadow boxing, Taijiquan, made Peter’s life radiate with luster. After the serious earthquake in Sichuan Province, China in May 2008, Peter travelled to the disaster area, hoping to help the affected children with their studies. Facing an incurable disease and the natural disaster, Peter and the children showed to the world: with love as a bridge, happy life will continue forever.
Maybe the local authorities of the Northeastern municipalities Tyrgovishte and Shumen have eventually learned a bitter lesson after the summer floods of 2007, when civilian population had to be evacuated and the damage exceeded 5 million BGN. It seems they have now a better early warning system that would give them time for a faster response and prevent casualties and damage. The citizens of Shumen are no longer willing to put up with the bad quality and high price of tap water in the city. Right after the anti-government protests in the spring they launched their own campaign for better tap water. Local people, who had never been privy to utility, law and regulations, began to dare institutions and bureaucrats without fear. In the meantime they discover a disturbing fact - the local reservoir Ticha is legally and practically just a dam for irrigation purposes only and not for drinking water supply… And more – villages and tourists have been polluting the water for years and there is no law to stop them… Who is responsible?
An impression about the summer adventures of two children in probably the most beautiful city in the world.
The places where we live have their own stories. So to say, they have their own life, which also has an effect on ourselves („Genius loci - the protective spirit of a place). The affection to a street, square or one part of the city can define our own intellectuality and also our state of mind. Of course, the inhabitants are also partners, witnesses, who at the same time form the story of the street. As a matter of fact, they vitalize the spirit of the place. If we are able to notice the values, the connection gives us confidence and also the feeling to being at home. There are some places which are cultural, diverse and “zigzag” enough to be adopted into screen.There are some streets with special names. There are some with special stories. Some of these stories are like adventurous novels. Meandering stories are open for both types.
A series of reports in the News of Nova TV. They show how a number of old trees were planned to be cut down because of the construction of a hypermarket in Sofia. Citizens gather and begin a protest in order to save the trees. Nova TV was the first to bring the attention to the problem. It turns out that ecology experts of Sofia municipality do not know how to determine the age of the trees and do not even know their Latin names, and can not distinguish between elm, sycamore and pine. This demonstrates how permits for cutting down trees are issued without a comprehensive analysis of the matter. After the broadcast of our report, the Sofia Municipality addressed the issue and so a few of the trees were saved, and in compensation for the ones already cut down, "Kaufland" promised to plant 80 young trees in the area.
Water is becoming more and more scarce; as the global consumption of water soars, deserts are growing at an alarming rate. However, scarcity is not the only problem confronting our water supply, but contamination. Contamination by medicinal residues, pesticides and chemicals. Residues we have been ingesting over years to which no one knows the long-term consequences to our health and the en vironment. For years politicians scientists have been downplaying the threat of residual chemicals in our drinking water: the levels are said to be far too low to have any effect on humans. Slowly, this consensus is crumbling as the evidence begins to build of the detrimental effects this water pollution is having on our living environment. This investigative documentary will travel around the world to get to the bottom of what’s really in a glass of water and the journey it makes before it comes out of our taps.
Paolo Soleri, a Turin-born architect and town planner, pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright, has spent the last sixty years designing a sustainable city in the Arizona desert. Generations of students have worked in the village-laboratory of Arcosanti, studying its philosophy and building with their own hands prototypes of essential buildings, super-eco homes, squares, agoras, as well as numerous artefacts. Soleri’s “arcological” metropolis, heated and cooled by natural resources, densely built to conserve the territory, free of cars, optimising connections between production, management and residential centers, has been the focus of books, exhibitions and conferences. The life-size scale model of Arcosanti, which was developed in the 70’s and is an ongoing work in progress, gave shape to pilot buildings on which to experiment the concepts underlying Arcology. The long interview is set against the backdrop of modern-day America and all its excesses – perhaps comprehensible up to forty years ago but no longer tolerable today. The destruction of the territory, urban overcrowding, the cost of energy sources and raw materials now impose a trend reversal and make Soleri’s school of thought all the more topical.
Nearly three billion tons of wastes are discarded every year in Europe. Over three million are from Bulgaria. How much and what kind of waste is recycled in the world and in our country? How much are we losing because we are not using resources from the dumping ground?
One day in Atanasovo salinas near Bourgas - an amazing and unique place.
In the midst of the worlds biggest fruit and vegetable garden, the so called “Mar del plastico”, lies the Andalusian village of San Agustin. For the local planters this seasons atmosphere is prophesying crisis: a mysterious virus threatens the harvest, bacteria attacks the plants and the authorities are after the illegal workforce in the greenhouses. Planter José Maria would rather choose to live among vegetables than people anyway, while the Crespo family, who seems to belong to a different time era, tries to get by with vegetables, breeding goats and a giant compost pile. This is all part of the daily routine for Paco, the village taverns barman, who knows all of his customers problems. San Agustin takes an out of the ordinary look at the “Mar del plastico”–the most important producer and vendor of fruit and vegetables in Europe – as it fights with its own existence once more during the cucumber crisis of 2011. Two families, a village tavern and a lot of vegetables. One extraordinary harvest season in nine chapters.
In 1992, North-American anthropologist Marianne Schmink published "Contested Frontiers in Amazonia", a seminal book of Amazonian studies co-written with sociologist Charles H. Wood. Twenty years later, on occasion of the publishing of the Brazilian version of the book, the Professor returns to the county of São Félix do Xingu in the Amazonian state of Pará, to revisit the object of her studies in the 70's and 80's.
An incisive portrait of life aboard a Sicilian fishing vessel, the film depicts the daily struggle of fishermen to earn a living in a harsh physical environment that brings out the social and economic tensions of modern society. Manning the Priamo are Cola, the captain, Ahmed, the Tunisian first mate, two Italian engineers, and two Tunisian seamen. At sea for three weeks at a time, they fish off the coasts of Libya and Tunisia, sometimes outside the fishing limits and risking interception by the authorities. An intimate account of remoteness: after a few days on shore, the men leave their homes and families for a month. Night and day the nets are cast every four hours; the work is demanding and poorly paid; the quarters are cramped and uncomfortable; conflicts and prejudices surface amidst the roar of the engines and the sea. Beyond the horizon lies Africa, where immigrants embark for Europe, leaving their homes and families behind with the hope to find a better life.
We all speak of the weather but what do we do about it? Different hypotheses about the climate changes that have occurred on planet Earth. A look into the future through the professional lens of the film heroes. A reminder that life on our home called planet Earth is in our hands.
Ancient people communicated intensely with gods. Supposedly the first such contact was made with the Mother Goddess. She is perceived as everything that surrounds people – nature, cosmos, energy. Traces of this cult are still preserved in different parts of Bulgaria. As some kind of “houses of prayer” were used caves – wombs furrowing the whole country. The image of the Mother Goddess has been passed on to almost all religions including Christianity. Even today part of the ancient sanctuaries are being advertised by resourceful clergymen because they do not want to push away those who believe that some caves, century-old trees and stone formations are places where the divine is felt. Prof. Valeria Fol is a consultant to the film. She interprets the facts and suppositions relating to antiquity into an understandable language.
The film reviews the processes that pile waste in landfills or give it a new life. The message is that people are engaged in these processes and each should play their daily role and respect the work of the others in order to create the so called “recycling society”.
Spotter, a five- year-old male Black Rhino, just decided to explore the world outside Lewa Downs, his heavily protected conservancy. Now he roams a land where armed poachers are after him and his immensely valuable horn. He must immediately be brought back home to save his life.
A story about the Zimbabvean music and John Chibadura.
Aluminium is a fascinating metal: light, stainless and easy to process. 100 years ago, it was still so exotic that aluminium was presented at world expositions. The metal is an essential part of our daily lives. We drink from aluminum cans, use aluminum-containing deodorants and sun creams, and it increases the effectiveness of vaccines. But also critical voices move into the centre of public interest: Large amounts of resources and energy are needed for the production of aluminium. The extraction can lead to environmental disasters of considerable dimensions, as it had happened in Hungary almost one year ago. Furthermore, scientists suspect that the toxic effect of aluminium could have an influence on modern diseases of civilisation like Alzheimer’s and allergies.
Black, wonderful, mysterious... thorny, unavailable, delicious... healthy, magnificent, powerful... Blackberry is the queen of forest fruits.
The Bluefin tuna is one of the world’s most intelligent predatory fish. Yet this underwater hunter is itself among the hunted. It is a victim of the billion-dollar tuna fishing industry and is a perfect symbol of the ruthless overexploitation of our seas. Scientists point to evidence that shows stocks of Bluefin tuna have decreased by 80 per cent over the past few decades. Yet each year in May, off the coast of Sardinia, fishing boats launch into the sea to catch these highly prized creatures for Tokyo’s fish markets. 80 per cent of Mediterranean tuna are served up in sushi dishes in Japan. The Greenpeace activist Wakao Hanaoka has made it his goal to change this. At the wholesale market, he explains to the traders the fate of these majestic creatures and the threat they are under. Yet most Japanese don’t want to hear the truth behind this delicacy. A German has built up a huge fishing empire in Australia’s Port Lincoln over the past 40 years and is attempting the impossible: breeding tuna. Together with fishing experts and scientists from the University of Adelaide, he is on the edge of a breakthrough. In Spain, researchers are carrying out pioneering work in the field of tuna breeding. Using genetic analysis of the spawn, they are attempting to understand the secrets of the fish’s reproductive process. Scientists and fishing experts from the WWF fit the tuna on the Italian coast with small transmitters. The knowledge they gain will allow new measures to be taken to protect the species and help the setting up of sustainable fishing operations, so that the Bluefin tuna may be saved from extinction.
Devil's Town is a natural monument in the South of Serbia. Two rare natural phenomena are located there: 202 earthen figures, made by soil erosion, like distinct shapes of the landscape and two springs of highly acidic mineral water which make the entire nearby area so appealing. The attractiveness of the two miracles of nature is complemented by the surrounding natural environment which gives these earthen figures mystical allure.
A nation builds its future on the roots of its own history. By giving up on our past we blot out our identity and also the feeling that we belong to a certain nationality. We walk by carelessly or unaware of the monuments or buildings in which our history was once written. It’s just that more often such buildings are uncared for or are deliberately destroyed. In many cases the heritage buildings are no longer representatives of the traditional national history, but rather a real estate problem. Once they’re written on the list of historical monuments they cannot be demolished and a possible degradation would be seen as suspicious by the society. Those who care more about the value of the land on which these constructions are built have found a solution: either they are left neglected or they’re being robbed brick by brick. And this is happening under the eyes of the authorities who, although are obliged to assure security and to announce the Directorate for Culture every time the buildings suffer an intervention, they serenely ignore the law. But just as guilty for the destruction of the monuments are also the owners who knowingly refuse to sign insurance policies for the protection of the buildings. This is the argument of the story we want to show you. We select seven buildings from Iasi and Vaslui county. One of them is a school, one is a museum, the other one was a museum and a house where lived a famous writter in Romania. The last three were palaces built by the old family of boyars in our county.
The film is about the region of Golo Bardo left on Albanian territory after the Balkan War (1912-1913) and Albania’s independence. The people living there, once occupying up to twenty-one former Bulgarian villages, have lived for almost 100 years now as Albanian citizens. “The jumbled threads. A film about Golo Bardo” is not just an ethnographic look upon the traditional culture of these unexplored, unknown villages in isolation. It’s an analysis of Golobardians’ psychology, an attempt for closeness to their life and world - somewhere out there in Albania. The characters are the Golobardians themselves - with their hard daily life and sound celebrations. Golobardians who ask themselves questions like “Who are we?” and “Where do we belong?” and share stories about their “closed” border and memories of Enver Hoxha times and bunkers in the fields, of ceremonial wedding songs and drinking toasts for the shared feast…with their lives, which they take as if it’s a movie. The threads of life of these people are jumbled, but the looms still weave dresses for the brides, for those, who haven’t left their birthplace (Golo Bardo) and are still bound to the land of their ancestors. The film is produced as part of the project “The song as an expression of community identity: two ease studies” , funded by “Scientific Researches” – Ministry of Education and Science, with director of studies Assoc. Prof. PhD Veselka Toncheva.
The Earth is a living organism. We have to understand that and change the way we live and treat the surrounding environment. The change should come from inside everyone of us. There is still time for a change even tough we are living in “The Last Second” before destroying the nature.
The film examines the issue of extinction of old-growth forests in Bulgaria. It aims to elucidate what they are, what is their role in biodiversity conservation in the country and the great significance of making efforts for their preservation.
In the summer of 2011, the journalist Kimmo Ohtonen came up with an idea to help the only endemic mammal in Finland, the critically endangered Saimaa Ringed Seal. In the course of a year, he would learn to swim so he could conquer the lake Saimaa by swimming it from top to toe in an attempt to raise funds and public a wareness for the conservation work of the Saimaa Ringed Seal. Kimmo Ohtonen trained like a professional swimmer for 13 months to gain fitness required to meet the challenge and attended public events to raise awareness of the challenges faced by the Saimaa Ringed Seal, which could face extinction in the future unless radical action will turn the course of its fate. In the end of August 2012, he plunged into cold waters of the lake Saimaa to start his 11 days swimming marathon. With his perilious journey, Kimmo Ohtonen brought together people from all the over Finland to take interest in the conservation work of the most endangered seal in the world and the importance of our nature in general. After swimming over 135 kilometers through the biggest lake in Finland, Kimmo Ohtonen reached his goal successfully and managed to raise 150 000 euros and hundreds of thousands of supporters for the Finnish seals. Nevertheless, even bigger achievement was in the way in which the Seal Swim educated the public towards protecting our globe's precious wildlife, of whose symbol the Saimaa Ringed Seal is in Finland.
There are an estimated 7,000 different species of amphibians - and scientists say one-third of them are on the endangered list. Many species of frogs are especially at risk. Their unusually thin skin, which allows them to absorb oxygen and water, makes them particularly sensitive to climate change and environmental hazards. So frogs can serve as a natural kind of “early warning system". Frog species are dying out the world over and this phenomenon has gone largely unnoticed by the general public. We accompany two Berlin specialists as they search the rain forest that covers the slopes of Mount Manengouba in Southwest Province of Cameroon. They are trying to find out why so many frogs are dying, and how to protect those that still remain.
No description of the Rhodope Mountains can be complete without a mention of their importance in ancient mythology. This was the birthplace and home of the most famous ancient musician, Orpheus the Thracian. If you listen to the babble of the river, you can hear the crystal sounds of Orpheus's lyre. And in the rustling of the leaves you can hear the quiet whisper of the dryads and the beautiful Eurydice.
Who was Orpheus? A mythical figure or a real person? These two aspects of his personality are interwoven. The legend of the great Thracian and his everlasting love for Eurydice came to us in the work entitled "Metamorphoses" by the Roman poet Ovid, who lived in the first century BC. When Orpheus played his magic lyre and sang in his ringing voice, he enchanted and conquered nature itself. On his return to his native Thrace after a long voyage with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece, Orpheus met the enchanting nymph, the dryad Eurydice. He fell in love with her and soon they were married. But their happiness was short-lived! Engrossed in playing games with her dryad friends, Eurydice did not notice the poisonous snake in the soft grass. The venom brought her to the ground.
Orpheus was inconsolable! His songs were so full of grief that nature itself fell silent with him.
The natural world is teeming with active life-forms. Even familiar plants and flowers engage in astonishingly energetic actions and behaviors. Plant photographer Ciabou Hany (Shabo Hani), 82 years old, has devoted his career to close observation of the minute glories of plant life. He shows us a water droplet nestled like a jewel in the leaves of a cypress seedling...field horsetail spores dancing under a microscope...the stamens of the tiny katenso, hurling their pollen into the air like pitching machines. Hany takes us into his garden, or on morning walks, where he crawls on the ground or lies down amidst his beloved plants to record the drama of these diminutive creatures, which exist all around us but which we so often overlook. Ordinarily we think of plants as stationary, immobile. Hany’s lens reveals to us a fantastic world of drama and movement. Watching this program makes us realize just how full of life and action our entire world is, even amongst the commonest plants of our immediate environment. In some cases, their beauty takes our breath away; in others, their lively behaviors bring smiles to our lips. We follow Hany over the course of a year, as he helps us appreciate the nobility of even the tiniest life-forms amongst us, and the magic of a wondrous universe that lies at our very feet.
Portrait of a woman who has sacrificed all her life for saving and preserving trees.
In his ongoing quest and passion for Africa the world traveler, painter, writer, and filmmaker Kiro Urdin has finished his latest third film inspired by Africa's wilderness. It is a feature art film filmed on locations in Masai Mara, Kenya. Actors are lions, hyenas, wildebeests, elephants, baboons, zebras etc. Humans are playing the roll of statists in this thrilling film about a parallel universe of everyday life of wild animals, a life from which we can easily identify ourselves in our everyday struggle for survival in our highly civillized society.A film about a parallel universe of everyday life of wild animals, a life with which we can easily identify ourselves in the everyday struggle for survival in our highly civillized society.
At the beginning of 80's in 20th century the discarded old metals called foreign garbage began to appear here,and then were carried to the nearby Fengjiang Town for dismantling,where a great deal of migrant workers pour and go in for metal dismantling. They acquire an income at the expenses of their health,but a low income.The dioxin pollution for local soil has been detected here by Chinese research for the first time. As one of the most poisonous materials up to now, the dioxin pollution could extend to the range in dozens of square kilometers.


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Everyone wanted to know what Jim Lee would be doing with his time once his stint on "Batman" was over. Would he continue to sit behind the drawing board making comics? Today Lee told WizardUniverse.com that's exactly what he would be doing, taking over the artistic chores on "Superman" beginning in March of 2004 with writer Brian ("100 Bullets") Azzarello.
"The funny thing is, we did commit to doing more Batman, we still are going to do more Batman, that's something I talk about all the time," Lee told WizardUniverse in speaking about the "Superman" gig. "I've always wanted to work with Brian Azzarello, and it originally started out as a sort of miniseries that wouldn't necessarily focus on Superman. But then it evolved like, 'Hey, if we're doing a project that involves Superman, why are we skirting around the bush? Let's do Superman.' And I think there might have been some feeling that Brian wouldn't be receptive to doing Superman, that we'd have to go from the angle of a villain or some other character to do a Superman project. But he was gung-ho for doing Superman. So it became a run on Superman. And I always feel like if you're going to do a run, you should do at least six, nine issues. And it just worked out for my schedule that it would be easier to do these 12 with Brian, rather than doing a mini with Brian and then possibly doing a run on the regular title down the line. Bottom line, I wanted to do a long run on Superman in the future, and then I had this other project with Brian that involved Superman, so why do six issues of this with Brian and then come back and do 12 more issues of Superman? Because when you say 'in the future,' this would probably be after Batman, so you're talking about two or three years later. It just made more sense for me to consolidate and say, Brian, let's do 'Superman,' let's do 12 issues, and let's do it now. This is a whole different kind of beast because it's sort of an overhaul of the whole Superman line, so there are a lot more moving parts, a lot more people involved, so it's a little more chaotic. But fun chaotic! It's exciting. You get a sense that big things are going to come out of it."
Following "Superman," Lee would possibly next work on "Batman and Robin," which could be either a new launch or miniseries, according to Wizard Universe.
DC Comics officials would not confirm additional creators rumored to be attached to the Superman books in 2004.

industry_corpus2: Film & Entertainment


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After testing seven new models, we’ve updated this guide with new top, runner-up, and compact picks.
We’ve spent more than 100 hours researching and testing surge protectors, and we found that the Tripp Lite 12-Outlet Surge Protector offers the best combination of surge protection, safety, and number of outlets for the price. It will absorb common household surges—of hundreds or even thousands of volts—before they reach your electronics, preventing damage and fires. And you don’t have to wonder whether it’s still doing its job, because once its protection has worn out, it safely cuts power so you know to replace it.
If you want a surge protector for your home theater or office, the Tripp Lite 12-Outlet Surge Protector (TLP1208TELTV) is your best choice. It has a critical auto-shutoff feature, more than enough outlets to keep all your gadgets powered, plus coaxial and telephone connectors. It offers great protection against household surges that come from other equipment in your home or fluctuations from the power company. It has a generous 8-foot cord and feels sturdy and robust.
The P12U2’s surge protection was as good as any we tested, but it can still provide power after part of its protection is worn out in some cases. It lacks telephone or coax connections but adds two USB charging ports.
The APC 12-Outlet P12U2 has the auto-shutoff feature that we require of a main pick, but the feature only kicks in when one of its three wiring sections fails—if either of the other two sections wears out first, your expensive electronics will be left partially unprotected. However, its LEDs indicating a wiring problem or loss of protection were as big and clearly marked as any we’ve seen, and it has just as many AC outlets as our pick. Although it lacks the telephone or coaxial ports of our top pick, it adds two USB ports instead so you don’t have to sacrifice outlets to charge a phone, tablet, or other small device. In our testing, it let through as little surge voltage as the Tripp Lite. The APC’s joule rating is about 30 percent higher, too; that means it’s designed to last longer, but how much longer it lasts is just an estimate.
With six AC outlets and two 2.4-amp USB ports, the Powramid Air packs a lot of protection into a compact disk.
For light-duty powering, like under a nightstand or end table, the Accell Powramid Air is the way to go to protect gadgets like phones, tablets, or alarm clocks from surges. It has two USB ports and six AC outlets in a round package that’s smaller than a dinner plate. The USB ports put out a combined 2.4 amps, enough to charge one smartphone or tablet at a high speed or two devices at low speeds. The circular layout of the Powramid Air’s outlets makes it usable with a variety of plug sizes. Despite its silly name, the Powramid Air packs real protection and performed almost as well as our main and runner-up picks against individual surges—although the protection might not hold up to as many surges as larger models.
Tripp Lite’s SK10USB is the only single-outlet option we’ve found with an auto-shutoff feature, and it has two 2.4-amp USB ports.
The Tripp Lite 1-Outlet SK10USB offers the portability of our favorite small power strips for travel, but with even more protection. It has an auto-shutoff mechanism—the only single-outlet option we’ve found that will disconnect power when its surge protection is worn out—plus two 2.4-amp USB ports. It performed well compared to other small options we’ve tested. We’d choose the SK10USB for protecting single appliances or devices, or even tossing in our carry-on when traveling.
Overkill unless you have high-end home theater, office, or media equipment, the Powerstation knocked down surges better than any model we tried, including surge eliminators costing twice as much.
Our top picks will protect most equipment in most cases. But the Furman Powerstation 8 had the best surge suppression of any model we tested and is worth the price if you need to protect high-end electronics. It turned a 5,000-volt surge into just 40 volts, thanks in part to a shutdown circuit that turns off all power when a surge is detected. The Powerstation actually let less voltage through in our tests than high-end series mode surge eliminators that can cost hundreds more. But common equipment like a computer monitor will be fine when protected by our less expensive picks, so the Powerstation is best for people who insist on peace of mind or have top-of-the-line electronics they want to protect.
I’ve been a science writer for more than four years, covering a wide variety of topics from particle physics to satellite remote sensing. Since joining Wirecutter in 2017, I have reported on the best solar battery packs, the best USB-C cables and adapters, and more. The editor of this guide, Mark Smirniotis, has covered power products like rechargeable batteries and portable jump starters since 2015.
In order to separate fact from fiction about surge protectors, we reached out to experts in multiple fields while writing the original version of this guide. We talked to Mike Hyland, a 30-year veteran of the utility industry and senior vice president at the industry’s trade association (the American Public Power Association) to learn about power grids and utility-scale surge protection. We emailed with Jack Loppnow, an insurance pro who has been in the industry since the 1960s, and got advice on what part homeowners’ and renters’ policies play in protecting your technology investments.
Additionally, we’ve had Lee Johnson—an electrical engineer with more than 10 years of experience designing and testing electronics—put our top picks to the test in three separate rounds of testing.
A surge protector does much more than supply extra outlets. It’s first and foremost a safety device, a relatively inexpensive way to protect expensive electronics. There’s little reason for anyone to leave their office, den, or home theater without one—or to hang onto old, worn-out surge protectors.
Surge protectors don’t last forever. Most estimates put the average lifespan of a surge protector at anywhere from three to five years. And if your home is subject to frequent brownouts or blackouts, you might want to replace your surge protectors as often as every two years. If you move as frequently as I do, every couple of years, a good rule of thumb is to just get rid of your old surge protectors as you’re packing up and replace them when you move into your new place. If you have a cheap, basic power strip—or the kind of multiport adapter that plugs right into a wall outlet—it most likely never had worthwhile surge-protection capabilities to begin with. No judgment—I once owned a power strip that my parents bought for their first house. But you should replace these subpar options as soon as possible and be thankful that they didn’t catch fire or damage your electronics.
The surge protection components inside wear out a little more with each surge and there’s virtually no way to know how much protection remains. Many cheap models continue to pass power to their outlets even after the protection is long gone. That’s why we suggest looking for a surge protector with an auto-shutoff feature that stops conveying power when the protection wears out.
Most estimates put the average safe life of a surge protector at anywhere from three to five years.
Although surge protectors can’t do much to protect your property against direct lightning strikes—which are pretty rare anyway—they can help with the much more common surges that originate inside your home or building. They can also protect against occasional surges from your utility company and are especially worthwhile in areas with unreliable power grids.
Even though common, inexpensive surge protectors wear out, high-end series mode or hybrid surge protectors can last indefinitely. But the prices can easily soar to 10 times the price of our main and runner-up picks, making them an impractical option for most people.
If you have equipment that could be damaged by a sudden loss of power, a hard disk drive (HDD) that’s susceptible to data corruption, or critical gear that can’t ever go down (like a CPAP machine to treat sleep apnea), you shouldn’t be looking at a surge protector at all. Instead, you want an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), most of which have built-in surge protection. You can read about our top UPS picks in our full guide to them.
We started our research by scanning the top results on Amazon, Google Shopping, retailers like Walmart and Home Depot, and the websites of well-known brands like Tripp Lite, Accell, and Belkin to compile a list of potential models.
As with previous iterations of this guide, we considered the different ways that people use surge protectors. For our main pick, we knew we wanted something heavy-duty for use with home theater gear and game consoles in a living room (or computer equipment in an office). We also looked at smaller units designed for kitchen outlets or bedside tables, as well as series mode and hybrid models for people who want the highest level of surge defense.
The surge protector shuts off when it’s worn out: We preferred surge protectors with an auto-shutoff feature so your equipment is never inadvertently left unprotected. Otherwise, we required, at minimum, an indicator light to notify you when it’s no longer protected against surges.
At least eight AC outlets for living room or office use: We required at least eight AC outlets for the main, runner-up, and top-of-the-line contenders, at least four for the nightstand contenders, and one or more for the light-duty pick.
A UL surge protection rating of 400 V or better: Although we verified each model’s abilities in our own electrical testing, we required that they be rated by product safety corporation UL to bring down a surge to (at most) 400 volts, with preference given to models that achieved the lower 330-volt rating. Lower is better when it comes to let-through voltage, the measure of how much extra voltage reaches your electronics.
Higher joule ratings are better—to a point: A joule rating tells you about how much energy the surge protector can absorb before it fails—in a video game, the joule rating would be the health meter—so, the higher the better. But you never get to see the meter itself, and how long it will last is just an estimate, so we don’t put a lot of stock in it.
Convenient auxiliary ports: We preferred (but did not require) our picks to have telephone ports for the small but significant number of people in the US who have a landline phone or dial-up internet connection—about 43 percent and 3 percent of the population, respectively. We dismissed any nightstand or light-duty contender without at least one USB-A port with 2 amps or more.
At least a one-year warranty: A one-year warranty is a bare-minimum requirement for something you’re trusting to protect equipment costing tens or hundreds of dollars, and that you’ll be replacing every few years either way. Keep in mind that a warranty only covers defects in materials or construction and won’t help you when the surge components wear out as designed—and even a lifetime warranty doesn’t last forever.
Port layout and overall design: To keep oversized plugs from blocking nearby outlets, we wanted the ports to be adequately spaced. And we didn’t want something overly heavy or bulky that would look out of place in a room. Well-designed clamps, hooks, or holes for mounting the surge protector on a table or baseboard were an added bonus.
For the next phase of our reporting, we tested some of the claims made by each company. Any surge protector that’s been rated by UL will have its surge-protection capabilities stamped on its body or printed on its box. And while it’s pretty easy to rule out the worst models through research alone, we did our own head-to-head comparisons to verify which models have the best protection.
In the US, AC power outlets nominally provide electricity at 120 volts, but most electronic devices can handle more thanks to power bricks designed to operate on the 240-volt standard used internationally. In our testing, we subjected each surge protector to a 5,000-volt surge and measured how much would get through to any connected equipment.
Lee Johnson, a veteran electrical engineer, set up our testing parameters. He attached each model to an EMtest NX5 surge generator to produce surges from 200 to 5,000 volts in 100-volt increments along each of the three legs of the wiring—line-to-ground (L-G), line-to-neutral (L-N), and neutral-to-ground (N-G)—and recorded the resulting output that would be passed along to any devices plugged into the surge protector. He followed that up with five consecutive surges of 5,000 volts and averaged those results. He recorded the output—lower is better, because it means the surge protector is holding back more power from your devices—for all three legs of wiring. According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, no home would ever experience a power surge over 6,000 volts, and most don’t even come close. The major exception to this would be direct lightning strikes, but at upwards of one billion volts, no home surge protector is going to save your TV from one of those.
In 2016 and 2017, Johnson dissected each surge protector to assess the components inside. He compared the thickness of the wiring, the size and arrangement of the MOVs, whether any filters or capacitors were incorporated into the designs, and the overall construction quality. For reputable brands selling surge protectors in the $15-50 range, the guts were so similar that the dissection didn’t yield any useful information, so we didn’t tear down the seven models we tested at the end of 2018.
To further demonstrate the importance of using a surge protector, Johnson subjected a (very old) Dell LCD monitor to a 5,000-volt surge, both with and without protection. After taking the protected hit, the display powered on and displayed an image with no problem. By comparison, when he funneled 5,000 volts directly into the unprotected display, it promptly cried out in pain, never to be turned on again.
We didn’t test any series mode or hybrid surge protectors in our most recent round of testing because we think they’re overkill for most people, and in past testing we found our also-great pick to perform as well or better, by some measures, for a lower price. But when we tested several models previously (the SurgeX SA-15, the ZeroSurge 2R15W, and the Furman Powerstation PST-8), we put them through the same paces as their less expensive and more common MOV-based counterparts. We subjected each to surges ranging from 160 volts all the way to 5,000 volts to observe their response and then did an additional five hits at 5,000 volts to get an average. We also tore apart each unit and found similar designs and construction, with only minor differences in the visible components.
We’ve tested dozens of surge protectors and are confident that the Tripp Lite 12-Outlet Surge Protector (TLP1208TELTV) is the best for a living room or office. It has all the safety features you need, plenty of outlets, stellar surge-protection performance, and superior build quality to others we’ve tested.
The Tripp Lite 12-Outlet has an auto-shutoff feature that powers down the unit permanently when it’s worn out and no longer able to block power surges. Unlike most surge protectors that continue to power your electronics even after the protection is gone, our pick is safe and trustworthy—if it’s still providing power, it still has some protection left. In addition to its auto-shutoff function, the Tripp Lite has two little LED indicators: one that tells you when surge protection has been compromised and the other, which lets you know if you have a short circuit, a blown fuse, or a wiring problem that requires electrician intervention.
When we sent 5,000-volt surges of electricity through the Tripp Lite, it suppressed as much as any MOV-based surge protector we tested. In our tests, the Tripp Lite averaged a let-through voltage (the remaining amount of the surge that is passed through to your devices) of 207 volts. This is well below UL’s 400-volt rating. In fact, every surge protector we tested came in under 400 volts except for the cheap, generic model we picked up at a big-box store—it let through a whopping 517 volts on the L-N leg and had no protection whatsoever through the other two legs.
The Tripp Lite’s 12 AC outlets should be more than sufficient for most people’s needs—that’s enough for a TV, gaming console, soundbar, and an excessive number of lamps. You can find surge protectors with more than 12 outlets (Tripp Lite makes one with 24 outlets) but they’re generally too big for around-the-house use and lack peripheral ports like USB, telephone, and coaxial connectors.
The Tripp Lite also has dual coaxial connectors so you can hook up your cable box and three telephone ports (unlike Ethernet, these ports don’t support high-speed Internet, so while you can use them to protect a landline telephone, you won’t be able to use them to shield network gear from damage). If you’re setting up a media center with equipment that requires a coaxial or telephone connection, these extra ports are nice to have. Just like with AC outlets, power runs through them, so they can be impacted by lightning and other types of surges. For example, a spike in power through an incorrectly grounded cable line (which are not uncommon) can destroy an unprotected cable box. Unlike our runner-up and light-duty picks, the Tripp Lite doesn’t have any USB ports. But since this type of surge protector is commonly out of reach (behind a couch or desk) and is designed for more heavy-duty usage, we don’t think USB ports are all that important.
The Tripp Lite’s exterior matches its solid performance with a sturdy, utilitarian shell. Unlike your run-of-the-mill power strips (or even the Hyper Tough surge protector we tested), its veneer seems built to stand up to most minor scratches and scuffs. It’s compact enough to slide under a bed or entertainment center, and a set of holes on the back gives you the option to mount it on a baseboard. Its thick, rubberized, 8-foot cord is two feet longer than the one on the P12U2, making it more convenient to run underneath bookshelves and couches. Tripp Lite offers a limited lifetime warranty on the TLP1208TELTV which protects against any defects or failures for the life of the product—but know it’s not considered a defect for the surge protection to eventually wear out as designed.
The Tripp Lite’s joule rating is around a third lower than our runner-up from APC: 2,880 versus 4,320 joules. The joule rating tells you how much the surge protector can take before it’s worn out, so it’s likely that our top pick won’t last as long as the APC. But because it’s an estimate and our pick is still higher than many others we considered, we decided to give more weight to the figures we could test ourselves.
Another concern with the Tripp Lite is that it’s a little tight on space. There are four well-spaced outlets for large power bricks, but the single row of eight outlets quickly gets overcrowded, especially with bulky plugs. It would have been nice if some of the outlets were located on a different facet of the body, or if it had rotating outlets like Belkin’s PivotPlug. But the Tripp Lite’s good overall performance outweighs this minor flaw.
If our main pick, the Tripp Lite 12-Outlet Surge Protector, is unavailable, you should get the APC 12-Outlet P12U2. It has just as many AC outlets as our pick and roughly the same average output and let-through voltage in our testing, and its joule rating is almost twice as good. Plus, like our pick, it comes with a lifetime warranty. It’s just as sturdy as the Tripp Lite, and we like its outlet placement a little better. But several key drawbacks kept us from making it our top pick—namely, an inferior auto-shutoff feature and a shorter cord.
The P12U2’s auto-shutoff feature—the thing that prevents it from delivering power to your electronics after it’s lost the ability to protect them—only kicks in when the main (L-N) leg wears out. This means that if either of its other two legs (L-G or N-G) breaks down first, it will continue to send power to your devices, and they could become damaged in the event of a surge. The silver lining is that the P12U2 has two notification LEDs—long strips of clear plastic stretching across the full width of its body—which clearly indicate when it’s no longer able to provide protection or if there’s a short circuit or wiring fault. This is the only model we considered with this design; most surge protectors’ notification lights are the size of a pinhead.
Just like our pick, the P12U2 has plenty of AC outlets (12). The absence of telephone and coaxial connectors on the P12U2 might be an inconvenience if you want to hook up your landline phone, dial-up internet, or cable box through your surge protector. For everyone else, though, it’s no great loss. Plus it has two USB ports, which aren’t super useful for a media center but are nice for a home office or anywhere that you have devices that can be charged or power directly over USB.
When we zapped the P12U2 with 5,000 volts, it staved off the surge about as well as our top pick, with a let-through voltage of just 205.2 volts, which is well under the 330-volt UL rating that comes with this surge protector.
Like our top pick, the P12U2 has a limited lifetime warranty to cover any defects. It also has a rating of 4,320 joules, which is about 50 percent higher than the Tripp Lite (though it’ll protect your equipment equally as well from any single surge). Like we explain in Flaws but not dealbreakers, the higher joule rating means that the APC model should last a little longer, but it’s just an estimate, and there’s no way of knowing exactly how much longer that will be.
The P12U2’s cord is only 6 feet long, but we think in most cases that’s still plenty long to reach across a room. Just like our pick, the P12U2 has four widely spaced outlets for bigger plugs, but its remaining eight outlets are split into two rows of four, giving you a little extra room. And its build quality is just as good as the Tripp Lite’s.
We like the Accell Powramid Air for light-duty use around the house, even if we hate pronouncing the name. Like our top pick, the Powramid Air safely shuts down once its protection is expended, so you won’t put your electronics at risk and you’ll know when it’s time to replace it. The low-profile design (about 7.25 inches in diameter and two inches high) is ideal for nightstands or end tables where space is at a premium. And despite its smaller size, the Powramid Air was able to suppress the most common surges as well as most larger models.
The Powramid Air’s auto-shutoff feature will permanently power down the unit when it has reached the end of its life and is no longer able to suppress surges. That’s the safest way to be sure that your surge protector is actually protecting your electronics. Even if you aren’t using the Powramid Air to power pricey equipment, like you might with our main picks, it’s nice to have the added peace of mind.
It has half as many AC outlets as our top and runner-up picks, but we think six is sufficient for a light-duty surge protector. Plus, it has two 2.4-amp USB ports—upgraded from 2.1 amps in an older model, the Accell Powramid—which gives you faster charging speeds for most smartphones and tablets. Even if you plug in a reading light, sunrise alarm clock, essential oil diffuser, and a Qi wireless-charging dock—to describe my own bedside table—you’ll still have a couple of outlets to spare.
In our testing, the Powramid Air only let an extra 291 volts through, on average, when tested against 5,000-volt surges. That’s in the same class as our top picks that were closer to 200 volts. However, it probably won’t last as long—it’s rated to absorb only 1,080 joules before it wears out, much less than the joule ratings of the Tripp Lite (2,880) and APC (4,320) models. Though our other picks have lifetime warranties, the five-year warranty on the Powramid is about as long as you should keep a surge protector anyway, since the protection circuits will wear out eventually.
The Powramid Air is sleek and compact, with a flattish shape that (at just two inches tall and a little over seven inches in diameter) makes it easy to slide under an end table. Its 6-foot cord is thick, flexible, and durable. Its blue-and-green LEDs (which let you know, respectively, if the unit is powered on and protective) are well-marked and clearly visible on top. The ports' generous spacing gives you full access to all of them.
If you want something that offers solid protection in a small package—say, to power a single appliance on your kitchen counter, and to charge a couple of smartphones—you should get the Tripp Lite 1-Outlet SK10USB. In our full guide to small power strips for travel, we recommend models with as many as four AC outlets and up to two USB ports. But while those power strips offer just token protection, the SK10USB provided solid protection in our testing.
We used to recommend Tripp Lite’s SpikeCube for this category, but the SK10USB has two 2.4-amp USB ports; the SpikeCube has none. Plus, the SK10USB has an auto-shutoff feature—the only single-outlet option we’ve found with this capability.
In our testing, its let-through voltage (292.4 volts) was comparable with our main and runner-up picks. Although its expected lifespan is less than half or our top pick’s (based on a rating of 1,080 joules), it’s just as good as that of the Powramid Air. And it comes with a lifetime warranty, which is impressive for such an inexpensive device.
In terms of look and feel, the SK10USB seems surprisingly durable and plugs straight into a wall outlet without adding much extra bulk. There’s plenty of room between the AC and USB ports, preventing plugs in one from blocking the other. It’s also a bit more sophisticated-looking than our previous pick, the SpikeCube, which has a bulbous beige plastic exterior.
Most people don’t need this degree of protection, but the Furman Powerstation 8 had the strongest surge protection out of the dozens of models we’ve tested, besting even high-end series mode surge protectors that cost hundreds more. Even though our tests showed that common equipment like computer displays can survive surges when protected by our less-expensive picks, stronger protection may be worthwhile in some cases. If your home theater or office workstation budget is in the five figures, then a little more spent on improved protection is reasonable. And if you prefer to have complete peace of mind, there’s no more affordable way to get it than the Powerstation.
Even though our computer monitor survived the 400 volts that our former picks expelled when subjected to a 5,000-volt surge, the Furman Powerstation 8 goes much further in its protection. In our tests, it repeatedly allowed just 40 volts of that surge to pass through to the outlets. Instead of relying on standard MOVs to absorb the entire surge, Furman adds additional protection. Once a surge goes over 137 volts, the entire unit shuts down to protect itself and any connected equipment (switching the unit on and off resets it). Any surge that gets through before shutdown passes through a series of capacitors as well as a large inductor meant to filter the extra power. The large MOV, similar to those found in less-expensive units, only sacrifices part of itself as a last resort after the filtering stage. This is why you won’t find a joule rating listed for the Powerstation, according to Furman; since other surge protectors rely solely on MOVs to absorb energy, it wouldn’t be an apples-to-apples comparison.
The Furman Powerstation 8 had the strongest surge protection out of the dozens of models we’ve tested, besting even high-end series mode surge protectors that cost hundreds more.
The company also claims that the Powerstation’s circuit design has led to a repair-replacement rate below 0.005 percent since it was introduced. Given how effective the setup was at swallowing our test surges, we have every reason to believe that the Powerstation will provide more protection for longer than standard surge protectors in the under-$50 price range.
This improved protection comes at a cost, though, and not just in terms of price. With just eight AC outlets in total—plus two telephone ports and two coaxial connectors if you need them—the Powerstation could quickly leave you short when trying to power a lot of electronics. Its three-year warranty is one of the shortest we’ve seen, which is disappointing since we expect the Powerstation’s surge protection capabilities would last much longer than the three to five years that less expensive models survive. Its layout leaves something to be desired, with just two AC outlets properly spaced to accommodate large plugs. If you have pricier-than-average gear, though, these trade-offs make sense. While the Powerstation isn’t quite as convenient, it will provide more protection than our other picks. And it’s sturdily built overall, with an aluminum body and 8-foot cord.
APC 6-Outlet P6WU2: We didn't get a chance to test the P6WU2 in this round of testing, but we'd like to consider it against the Powramid Air (our light use and travel pick) in a future update.
APC 11-Outlet P11U2: This model is equivalent to our runner-up pick (the APC P12U2) in pretty much every way, but it has one fewer AC outlet and its joule rating is half as good.
APC 12-Outlet PH12U2: The PH12U2 performed similarly to the P12U2, but its build quality and design are not as good.
Belkin PivotPlug 12-Outlet BP112230-08: This model was formerly our runner-up pick, but it doesn’t have an auto-shutoff mechanism.
Hyper Tough 6-Outlet PS682B_B: We bought the cheapest surge protector we could find at a local Walmart, the Hyper Tough 6-Outlet, and it failed spectacularly in pretty much every way.
Tripp Lite TLP1008TEL: This model was formerly our top pick, but it has two fewer AC outlets than our current pick.
Tripp-Lite 6-Outlet TLP606DMUSB: This one performed well, although it's really only useful for a desk or workbench—it has a desk clamp but no wall mount, and it's impractical to set it on the ground. It's also pretty lightweight and feels flimsy.
Tripp-Lite 6-Outlet TLP66USBR: It’s nice that this one has four USB ports, whereas the most that any other model we tested has is two, but it had less-than-stellar output and let-through voltages in our testing. Plus, its extendable USB hub feature is hard to maneuver and not all that useful (it seems like a gimmick) and there's no option to wall-mount it.
Tripp Lite SpikeCube: This was formerly our one-outlet pick, but unlike our current pick in this category, it doesn’t have an auto-shutoff feature, nor does it have USB ports. It’s homelier in appearance, too.
Noise filtering: Noise filtration is a common “premium” feature on the more expensive surge protectors that we tested, but since most models performed similarly, we haven’t continued to test it. In any case, all quality power supplies, whether internal or external, have some noise filtration built in.
Connected equipment insurance coverage: While many surge protectors are sold with this, we disregarded it when deciding which models to test for this guide. We suggest that you read the fine print, since often you’ll have to jump through a bunch of hoops to collect in the event of disaster. If you want financial protection you can count on, don’t get it from a tech manufacturer. Just make sure you’re covered by your homeowners or renters insurance policies.
“Smart” surge protection: The smart surge protectors we’ve come across thus far are really more like “high-tech power strips,” says Wirecutter staff writer Rachel Cericola. In general, their joule ratings are laughably low, and their let-through voltage ratings are dangerously high. We’ll keep an eye out for improvements, but for the time being the performance just isn’t there—and, as with any internet-connected device, you’re opening yourself up to security risks.
Whole-house surge protection: Homeowners can opt to install a surge protection device (SPD) for their entire home that works in a similar manner to plug-in surge protectors but provides protection at the front door. According to Mike Hyland, a utility expert we interviewed in 2017, this was an option pitched to people by utility companies in the 1980s and ’90s in an effort to increase revenue, but it fell out of favor when the companies made investments in other areas. Estimates to have an electrician install an SPD range from $500 to $1,000, assuming your home electrical panel and service from the utility are modern enough to wire it in. We researched whole-house surge protectors and learned that they are typically rated at a much higher let-through voltage, clamping at 600-1,200 volts—a let-through voltage of 430-1,030 volts. This is 2-4 times higher than our picks and should be able to prevent damage to appliances, table lamps, and other electronics that are less sensitive to surges than computers and A/V equipment. But it’s high enough that we would still recommend adding surge protectors for your sensitive equipment, even if you already have a whole-home surge protector. Lee Johnson, our engineer, didn’t test any whole-house surge protectors, but he says it’s only worth considering if you live in an area that’s at high risk for routine surges or line downings.
Series mode surge protection: If your home theater costs more than a compact car, then series mode protection may be worth considering, but the technology isn’t worth the huge price tag for most people. These surge suppressors are superior to MOV-based protection on pretty much every point—we’ve tested them in the past and they let virtually no extra voltage through, and the non-sacrificial components are designed to last indefinitely—but they can cost more than 10 times as much to replace as our top picks. Plus, our pick from Furman, which is less expensive than true series mode protection, had similar performance.
Never daisy-chain multiple surge protectors to add outlets or plug a surge protector into an extension cord. This is an easy way to exceed the current ratings on the surge protector and even the wiring in your walls. The best-case scenario is that you trip a breaker or blow a fuse. The worst-case scenario is that something starts melting. That’s the opening act for an electrical fire.
Never plug a surge protector into an ungrounded outlet using a three-prong-to-two-prong adapter. Bypassing the ground will render many of the benefits ineffective because two-thirds of the MOVs (components that provide electrical resistance) are often tied to the ground leg.
Use three-prong plugs, or plugs with one blade that’s thicker than the other, whenever possible. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, this decreases the risk of electric shock.
When you first plug in a surge protector, make sure that the status lights don’t report any problems. Most protectors have a single grounding light that indicates whether there’s a ground fault. If it shows that there is one (typically by being unlit), call an electrician as soon as possible to determine whether you have a wiring problem. A ground fault could fry your devices, electrocute someone, or start a fire.
Always replace your surge protectors after any large event (lightning strike down the block, multiple outages in rapid succession), and if you’re plugging in new gear, check each outlet for burn marks or any sign of damage.
If your protector delivers power even after its MOVs have failed, plan to replace it anytime you have a major electronics upgrade, or at least every 3-5 years.
In our guide to the best space heaters, we warn against plugging space heaters into an extension cord or power strip—and that goes for surge protectors, too. In order to generate heat, space heaters and other appliances with an open heating element (e.g. toasters, hair dryers) use a lot of power, increasing your chances of overloading the outlet. The extra connections and cord length of a surge protector also add resistance that can allow heat to build up, potentially catching fire or otherwise damaging the device. The warning tags and instruction manuals that come with open-heat electronics (that you probably skim or ignore completely) often warn against using them with extension cords, power strips, or surge protectors. To be on the safe side, plug them straight into the wall.
We know they’re not the prettiest things to look at, but you should never cover up any part of a surge protector or extension cord with rugs, poufs, or other decorative items. This type of direct contact prevents heat from escaping, which could start a fire.

industry_corpus2: Computing & Telecommunications


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MTB biking in Ramundberget, rent and book a bike.
Experience Ramundberget's bike park with great flow and expansive views on our new green route. Vary your daily trips based on how you feel.
From Ramundberget, you can ride out directly from your accommodation or from the car park at Fjällgårdstorget square. Take the Fjällgårdsbanan lift up to awe-inspiring cycling in mountain surroundings. Bike the new green route downhill and take a break at the viewing points to re-fill on mountain energy. Once down in the valley, you can continue on the pump track and the technical course in front of Fjällgården, challenge your balance and technical skills.
The cycle park has something for everyone. The new machine-made mountain bike trail has been designed for both beginners and more advanced cyclists to enjoy. Choose to bike down at an easy pace, or just let go for a speedier work-out.
The highlight of the summer, with wide-open mountains on the horizon, fun trails in birch forests and lovely flow.
Sweden's most beautiful cycling race. Fjällturen offers competitions and activities for everybody, with Ramundberget as the hub.
Welcome to the valley's bike hang-out with a pump track, technique course, Topsports and rentals.
You can rent properly serviced bikes from Topsport for the best experience. Please ask staff for tips on tours, both here at the end of the road and in neighbouring areas. See prices.
Special offers: Biking in the mountains with two nights’ accommodation.
Prices and opening hours for the Fjällgårdsbanan lift in Ramundberget.
Topsport’s rental: Prices for bikes, canoes and other equipment.
Funäsfjällen has more than 400 kilometres of bike trails many of which are located in Ramundberget’s bike park. For more cycling tips check out Funäsfjällen’s homepage. There is also a Route guide that makes it simple to select tours based on their degree of difficulty. If you would like some advice on your biking adventure, we have provided some tips on a couple of biking activities below - one that starts from Tusen and one that starts in Funäsdalen.

industry_corpus2: Travel & Geography


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The Faerie Guardian - Audiobook | Listen Instantly!
Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day's work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she's about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until a cute human boy who can somehow see through her faerie glamour follows her into the fae realm. Now she's broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.
The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he's discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? Not when you factor in evil faeries, long-lost family members, and inconvenient feelings of the romantic kind. Vi is about to find herself tangled up in a dangerous plot—and it'll take all her training to get out of it alive. Download and start listening now!
" while this was not what I was expecting it was still a great audiobook. a few times I wondered what was going on and why it might be in the story. but overall I really enjoyed it and cant wait to listed to more by the same author and readers. "
Rachel Morgan was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. After completing a degree in genetics, she decided that science wasn’t for her—after all, they didn’t approve of made-up facts. These days she spends much of her time immersed in fantasy land once more, writing fiction for young adults and the young at heart.
Jorjeana Marie has worked extensively as an actress, comedian, writer, and audiobook narrator. Her narrations have earned her several Earphones Awards. She has performed in hundreds of commercials and starred in the pilot Listen to Grandpa, Andy Ling with Elliott Gould. She is a stand-up comic who has opened for Richard Lewis, Louie Anderson, and Kathleen Madigan. Her video game credits include Final Fantasy, Crackdown 2, and Star Guardians. She loves reading so much it gets her into trouble.
Zach Villa is a stage, film, and television performer. Classically trained in acting, Villa’s audiobook work includes The World without You by Joshua Henkin and Butterfly Winter by W. P. Kinsella.

industry_corpus2: Literature & Emotions


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If you are like most small business owners, growing your business is hurting both personal credit and your bank account, limiting the resources you have available to use for personal expenses. The fact is, most business owners choose a financing mix of personal savings, credit cards, and loans from family or friends to fund their business’s start up costs. While this concoction of funding sources is usual, it can also harm the owner’s personal credit, as well as limit the potential of the business in the future. Instant business credit is an alternative source of capital that can replace this common financing mix. It is no secret that having too much personal debt hurts your credit score, lowering your credit worthiness to potential lenders. The more credit lines you draw on to fund your business, the worse off your personal credit will be. Midwest Corporate Credit offers solutions to entrepreneurs looking to acquire instant business credit. We direct our clients to lenders based on their business’s income, size, and S.l.C. code. The variety of lenders we have established relationships with allows us to get our clients the instant business credit that they need. More so, all products we direct our clients to do not report to personal credit. This means that the recipient may draw on the credit line without fear or their personal credit score being affected. By obtaining instant business credit, our clients can rest easy knowing that their personal scores are sheltered from the debt their businesses may take on.
Building and maintaining a business credit profile can sometimes seem like an impossible task to do on one’s own, especially when you must run a full time business simultaneously. By leveraging the experts at Midwest Corporate Credit, a business owner can concentrate on other pressing matters while our team gets them the instant business credit lines they deserve!

industry_corpus2: Finance & Economics


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If you run courses that students can start at any time (daily), for example online courses or distant learning courses, then we suggest you select ‘Any-Time Course’ date. What this means is that you course will remain visible until the end of your subscription period. You can add or edit courses dates at any time.
1. Login to the Course Provider dashboard and scroll down Course Management section. Find a course and then click on the ‘Calendar’ icon to add or edit dates.
2. Window will reload, and then select “Yes” next to “Any-time Courses”.
3. After you select “Yes”, save the course date.
4. You can edit or delete an “Any-Time Course” date by clicking on”‘edit” or “X” to delete, and add another course date.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


text: Recently I saw “From Van Gogh to Kandinsky” at the MMFA, and a Cézanne painting of apples and pears brought tears to my eyes. No sobs, or any other physical affect, but the water welled up so deeply that it spilled over. I had to blink to clear my vision. It’s not the first time great art has given me a physical reaction.


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The protracted deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq, as U.S. Army General Peter Schoomaker has confirmed, has placed a tremendous strain on America's volunteer army. Hence, if Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) reintroduces legislation in 2007 calling for universal conscription, he may garner more support than previously, as Independent Institute Senior Fellow Charles Pena explains in a new op-ed.
"For an all-volunteer force, the rule of thumb for retaining soldiers over time is a 3:1 rotation ratio (meaning three total units are needed to keep one unit deployed) for active duty forces," writes Pena. "So the 152,000 troops in Iraq requires an additional 304,000 for rotation or a total of 456,000 soldiers -- which is precariously close to the total size of the active duty Army. Moreover, the U.S. Army has another 64,000 troops deployed overseas, which, to be sustained, requires a total of 192,000 troops. Simple math adds up to the Army being almost 150,000 troops short of being able to sustain current deployments."
Nor is a shortfall likely to be covered by the so-called backdoor draft -- i.e. lengthening the duration of troop deployments, invoking stop-loss orders to prevent the exiting of troops after their enlistments have expired, and ordering reservists back into active duty. Thus, current policy is unsustainable with the given troop levels.
"Instead of talking about increasing the size of the Army and raising the ugly spectre of a draft to sustain the deployment in Iraq, we should be talking about getting U.S. troops out of Iraq," Pena concludes.
"¿El despliegue en Irak fracturará al Ejército de los Estados Unidos?"
Attorneys with the government of Massachusetts have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the federal Environmental Protection Agency must regulate carbon dioxide as a "pollutant" because, they claim, C02-induced global warming threatens to raise sea levels precipitously and thereby harm the state's coastline. However, according to atmospheric physicist and Independent Institute Research Fellow S. Fred Singer, the evidence for an alarming increase in sea levels just isn't there.
In recent millennia, global sea levels have risen about 18 centimeters (7 inches) per century, and, despite strong global warming before 1940, tidal gauges around the world indicate no change of this pace. Evidently, ocean expansion and glacier melting have been largely offset by ocean evaporation and ice accumulation on Antarctica, Singer surmises.
"This idea, discussed in my book HOT TALK, COLD SCIENCE, seems to be penetrating to more climate scientists," writes Singer in a recent op-ed. "For example, in 1990, the U.N.-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated a 'best-value' rise of 66 cm by the year 2100; in 1996, the U.N. panel reported 49 cm (with a range of 13-94 cm); in 2001, the U.N. panel gave 9-88 cm, while the 2007 report estimates a more reasonable range of 14-43 cm. By contrast, the affidavit [that Massachusetts assistant attorney general James] Milkey relies on [in his petition to the U.S. Supreme Court] gives 58 -- and as much as 130 cm. Incidentally, James Hansen, an amicus for the petitioners, claims up to 600 cm by 2100. Evidently, Mr. Hansen -- and Al Gore, who listens to him -- are climate contrarians."
"El dióxido de carbono y el alarmismo"
China, as the saying goes, is a land of contradictions: it seldom stops boasting about its ancient culture -- but it's eager to modernize; its Three Gorges Dam Projects is an engineering marvel -- yet its 5-star hotels advise visitors against drinking from its water faucets; its tour guides criticize the materialism of the West -- while wearing Western-style blue jeans; its rural women take pride in the fine carpets they've woven -- but are too timid to take rest breaks.
China is in many respects changing rapidly, but how exactly is this affecting women? Answering this complex question is made more difficult by the unwillingness of Chinese women to speak openly about government policy, according to Independent Institute Research Fellow Wendy McElroy, whose recent 19-day tour of China is the subject of her latest column.
Writes McElory: "J. bristled at a question from our group: 'do forced sterilizations still happen in China?' The answer: 'they do not happen; they never did happen.' This, despite the fact that on December 1st, a Chinese court re-sentenced activist Chen Guangcheng to four years and three months for documenting cases of forced abortions and sterilizations."
"Las mujeres de China: Atrapadas entre las antiguas costumbres y un mundo nuevo"
4) Somalia: Chaos or Order?
Despite the collapse of its national government in 1991, Somalia's economy and living standards have made measurable progress -- especially in terms of life expectancy, telecommunications, and investment by multi-national corporations, according to Benjamin Powell, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation. The country's customary law, the Xeer, which was interpreted by clan elders and enforced through ostracism, seems to have resolved disputes reasonably well; Islamic law has been used mainly for matters of divorce and inheritance.
"Unfortunately, recent international efforts at establishing a new government in Somalia are likely to ruin what little economic progress the country has made," writes Powell.
Domestic opposition to the newly imported Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has bolstered support for the opposition Islamic Court Unions (ICU), which have gained control of Mogadishu and other parts of southern Somalia. The country will likely suffer if either the TFG or the ICU expand their power -- or a civil war ensues.
U.S. support for opponents of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union, which has forces trained by al Qaeda, may have made things worse. According to Independent Institute Senior Fellow Ivan Eland, CIA support for warlords who are fighting the ICU, as well as tacit U.S. support for Ethiopia's military campaign in Somalia, have increased nationalist and pro-ICU sentiments.
"If this isn't bad enough, the Ethiopians' invasion of Somalia has caused Eritrea, another of their rivals, to provide the ICU with thousands of men to fight," writes Eland in his latest op-ed. "Many analysts now worry that a regional war could inflame the entire Horn of Africa."

industry_corpus2: Politics & Administration


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While indians are extremely tolerant, slowly the extent of the great ntro/nsa digital data theft and manipulation becomes obvious as the officials greedily and unfairly insist that all positions in the tech sector are reserved for their mediocre lazy greedy fraud westernized puppets or relatives, faking their resume. So instead of losing their hard earned money to well connected lazy greedy frauds, people are going offline and reverting to paper calculation, and manual calculators.
Realizing the increase in the demand for calculators as people move away from computers, orpat calculators has started advertising extensively. It is one of the sponsors for the news on aaj tak to increase awareness and sales of the calculators.
The shameless lazy greedy goan gsb fraud housewife cbi employee riddhi who looks like kangana ranaut, who has got great powers for faking her resume, including btech 1993 EE degree never ceases trying to humiliate or insult the obc engineer who she is impersonating to get the cbi job. However the fraud cbi employee riddhi’s powers of phone call diversion are only limited to goa.
In goa, the obc engineer will receive almost no phone calls due to the fraud cbi employee riddhi who is impersonating her, and smses will also be limited, with many deleted.
So when the obc engineer was leaving goa, nearing goa dabolim airport on 19 January 2016 around 4.45 pm, the fraud cbi/R&AW employees goan gsb cheaters riddhi siddhi mandrekar impersonated the hdfc account manager while making a phone call, asking for naina. In a clear case of how R&AW/CBI employees are manipulating phone calls, these cbi/r&AW fraudsters intentionally changed the name to naina in the phone call.
During the day, the internet connection in Goa remains so slow that just opening the mailbox to check if there is any important or urgent email will take at least 15 minutes daily as the email service provider and the isp are so incompetent that the mailbox will not open, despite being connected to the internet for a long time.
Due to the high level of harassment of webmasters in India by ntro, R&AW officials and corporate espionage, the internet connection remains extremely slow, and a domain investor and Paypal account holder cannot even use up 1GB or 2GB of the different internet connection during a month.
Instead of wasting time with a slow internet connection it will be better to disconnect and work offline on other activities, access the internet for the few hours when the speed will be ok.
In India the incompetent corrupt security agencies cannot utilize the thermal imaging equipment for detecting the terrorist involved in the Pathankot attack, yet these officials are using the thermal imaging equipment in panaji, goa to track harmless paypal account holders and attack them mercilessly causing great pain, memory loss , bodyache, making it impossible to work in the day.