http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/travel/the-places-i-d-like-to-see-5242972
пятница, 4 марта 2011 г.
воскресенье, 27 февраля 2011 г.
WEB QUEST (Tim Cridland)
Tim Cridland is one of the best known professional pincushions. He was born July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, New York.
Tim's act is unique as it contains not only standard play piercing and sword swallowing, but deep piercings through the body of his arms and through the flesh inside his jaw (like a Sprung piercing). Additionally, he cuts into his torso, appearing to remove swallowed objects directly from his stomach.
Especially considering that his act is repeated almost daily on a tour schedule, he pushes the boundaries of the pincushion act remarkably far.
Prerequisites and early life
Tim Cridland, better know by his stage name Zamora The Torture King has spent years perfecting his chosen craft. Through his knowledge of martial arts techniques, hypnosis, Middle-Eastern teachings, science and anatomy, he is able to overcome dangerous situations - fire eating, sword swallowing, body skewering, electrocution, and more - to emerge unscathed and unharmed … and all in the name of entertainment.
Zamora, has been featured on television shows such as Guinness World Records Primetime, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, The National Geographic Channel, 48 Hours, and Stan Lee's Superhumans, among others. He has appeared many times on The Learning Channel and The Discovery Channel.
During the turn of the last century the American and European public and press were fascinated by strange tales of mystics of the East. Some of these men traveled to the West and gave public performances of feats that that seemed to transcend human possibilities; strange acts that ought to have resulted in pain, injury and even death, yet these men of mystery could perform these strange acts , involving swords, sharp skewers, pointed nails, fire, burning coals, broken glass and be no worse at the end of their ordeal.
Scientists and laymen alike were fascinated. Some, such as Richard Burton, traveled to the East and participated in these ordeals and demonstrations. Some Westerners emulated these feats of the fakirs and present them, sometimes along side actual Easterners, on stages in European cabaret and theatres, circuses, and worlds fairs. Eventually these acts became a staple at sideshows and dime museums all over the United States. The image of a man wearing a turban reclining on a bed of up-turned nails became a cartoon cliché, and, by the 1950s, had become a rarely seen anachronism.
Tim Cridland has been drawn to strange information all of his life. As a youngster read about the feats of the mystics of the east, and yearned to know more. Not satisfied with mere "book knowledge," he began the difficult process of learning the acts. He learned fire eating from members of a Washington State youth circus who were traveling through his home town of Pullman, home of Washington State University, where his father was a professor. The University environment gave him access to information that would aid him in his quest to resurrect the acts of the fakirs.
Career
Eventually, Tim moved to Seattle, the "big city" on the other side of the state, continuing his quest and building up his act, opening up for punk-rock bands, and eating fire before a performance by punk poet Henry Rollins.
It was in Seattle that he met others with who shared his interest in bizarre performance. Each had skills that complemented each other. Together they created a show, billed as modern day circus sideshow, which performed bi-weekly at a downtown nightclub, selling out shows on mid-week nights month after month.
The show was chosen to tour with the newly created Lollapalooza rock festival, which brought its revivalist sideshow style to a new generation who had no knowledge that such things had ever occurred before. Today this show is universally acknowledged as the most important event in resurrecting the sideshow arts, and being an inspiration for everything from reality TV shows to today's would-be MySpace sideshow performers. Cridland, along with road manager Jan Gregor, would chronicle the shows beginnings, wild tours and unfortunate demise in the book Circus of the Scars, published in 1998. It was during his time with this show that he was dubbed The Torture King, a traditional sideshow title for someone who performed the fakir acts.
Cridland left the show in 1994 to form his own show. He relocated from Seattle to Northern California, where he lived and studied with a group of genuine Sufi Dervish Fakirs who had originated in Turkey.
He added the stage name Zamora, and toured the US and Canada with Zamora's Touring Sideshow, featuring the Torture King, all though the remainder of the 90s. His show incorporated a series of co-performers, one of whom, Flexx the Rubber Boy, would go on to international fame as the world's most flexible man.
In the early 2000s, Zamora toured as the only male member of the all girl sideshow, Girly Freak Show.
In 2003 Zamora moved to Las Vegas when two Las Vegas show producers invited him to headline in casino show. The show SHOCK! was the first of its kind in Las Vegas history.
Zamora AKA Tim Cridland, presently lives in Las Vegas when he is not on tour. He continues to research and write about strange things. His second book, Weird Las Vegas, was published by Sterling Publications in 2007. He performs at special events in Las Vegas, as well as nationally and internationally. He performs annually at Knott's Berry Farms Halloween Haunt in Buena Park, CA. He appears in several TV shows per year, which, along with reruns of past shows, assures his continuing presence on TV screens around the world.
My impressions
Certainly, I understand that any employment should benefit, but I totally amazed, when I saw video with Tim Cridland. He is absolutely passionless and quiet, while sticks in himself a large quantity of sharp subjects. He doesn't feel any pain and laughs at it. Tim says that by means of control of consciousness he can pierce the body with hairpins and thus to remain that is called as "whole and safe". But before to be engaged in it he carefully studied human anatomy as artery piercing can have a deadly outcome. Therefore abilities of some our contemporaries simply amaze.суббота, 19 февраля 2011 г.
Modern Internet Technologies for learning English
Technology has become an integral part of today’s classroom. Most classrooms have a digital projectors and Smart podiums that instructors use on a daily basis. However, there are some emerging Internet technologies that are increasing in presence in higher education. Ten Internet technologies that educators should be informed about include the following:
- Video and podcasting (i.e., YouTube, TeacherTube, EduTube)
- Presentation tools (i.e., Slideshare, Vuvox, OneTrueMedia)
- Collaboration & Brainstorming tools (i.e., Mindmap, FreeMind, Google Apps)
- Blogs & Blogging (i.e., Blogger, EduBlogs)
- Wikis (i.e., Wetpaint, PBWorks)
- Social Networking (i.e., Facebook, Myspace, Ning)
- Instant Messaging (i.e., Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Meebo)
- Virtual Worlds (i.e., SecondLife, ActiveWorlds)
- RSS Feeds
Also we can sign here such technologies as Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Graphic Interchange Format (GIF), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Joint Photographics Experts Group (JPEG), Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP), and "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG).
"CLN is designed to help K-12 teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. We have over 265 menu pages with more than 5,800 annotated links to free resources on educational WWW sites -- all organized within an intuitive structure."
British Columbia Ministry of Education
"...is an electronic journal for the scholarly discussion of issues pertaining to electronic literacy, widely construed. We seek to publish work addressing the use of electronic texts and technologies in reading, writing, teaching, and learning in fields including but not restricted to: literature (in English and in other languages), rhetoric and composition, languages (English, foreign, or ESL), communications, media studies, and education. We are especially interested in work that takes advantage of the hypertext possibilities afforded by our World Wide Web publication format, as well as in articles concerning the use of emergent electronic technologies."
"This site is intended to serve as a gateway to H-Net's extensive collection of teaching resources including teaching focused discussion networks, syllabi, links, conference papers on multimedia teaching, and web-based teaching projects."
Integrating New Technologies Into the Methods of Education
"...enables educators to watch online video vignettes of PreK-12 teachers from various grades and subjects integrate technology into their classrooms using numerous teaching strategies."
By Martin Ryder, School of Education, University of Colorado at Denver
"The site covers how to begin, how to operate, and how to make e-learning successful and enjoyable. Its contents are developed over years, and is intended for my current students, and sharing my personal experiences and exchange of ideas with other educators."
By Dr. Hossein Arsham, University of Baltimore
Published by Pacific University - Berglund Center for Internet Studies
"...improve IT education around the world by publishing high quality articles on best practices and other topics of use in improving IT education."
"...is designed to promote the use of the Internet as a tool to assist classroom teachers in their search for best practices in literacy instruction, including the new literacies of Internet technologies. We have made every attempt to link teachers with current research and theory that supports traditional and new literacy practices as well as to guide teachers towards particular classroom resources that can enhance literacy development for students at all grade levels."
- Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
"...is a 30-minute, monthly, news magazine style, in-service, television program..."
Sections include: Programs ; Net Classrooms ; Net Wise ; Net Speak ; Net Safety ; Net-igration ; Build A Website ; Teacher Guides.
"...is a television and radio series that investigates the relationships between education and technology. The series explores issues, ideas and strategies surrounding today's education and tomorrow's teachers."
Watch the television series online or listen to the radio series.
Research in Presentation Production for Learning Electronically
"...project is investigating how to most effectively use WWW multimedia technology (HTML and audio/video browser plugins such as RealAudio together with customized WWW servers) to deliver stored course or training materials such as class notes/overheads and audio/video of classroom lectures to students. Our focus is on asynchronous learning environments with stored classroom materials, where students proceed at their own pace and are not assumed to be accessing the same material at the same time as others."
U.S. Department of Education see Education - U.S. Dept. of Education
"...a resource for faculty seeking direction in appropriate ways to use Web-based technologies to accomplish key learning strategies. The guiding principle of this project is to go beyond technical skill towards a full examination of the teaching/learning issues in technology-enabled instruction."
Learning English through the Internet.
More and more people today are learning English, and this is due, in part, to the influence of the World Wide Web. The ‘Internet Era’ has made it almost a necessity to know English at least somewhat. It has also made it easier to learn the language, even if access to quality English instruction is not readily available.
English Is the Universal Language Online
If you spend any length of time on the Internet, you will find that it seems to be designed for people who can read English. While many sites will have translations available, specifically internationally known sites and sites owned by international companies, the everyday website or blog that you might land on in your search is going to contain information in English. Translation programs may be available, but reading the site in English is going to be the best way to get your information.
Why is this? Perhaps English has grown to be the language of the Internet due to its prevalence in the economic world. English is the language of money and technology, two of the things that drive the Internet. The people with the money speak English, at least as a secondary language, so by posting things in English online, you will reach the vast majority of your potential market.
English Can Be Learned Online
For those who do not know English, this may seem discouraging. However, the Internet Era has also sparked a change in the way people can learn English. It is now entirely possible to learn English online, even if you have a very small budget.
One way to learn English online is to enroll in an English as a Second Language course. These courses vary tremendously in their effectiveness and cost. The best programs are going to cost quite a bit, but if you need to learn English for your job, this may be the best option. These online courses typically have reading, writing, and listening components. Some may require a microphone so you can speak the language as well.
If enrolling in an online course is out of your budget, you can learn English for free online with a little creativity and persistence. There are multiple websites that will post grammar rules, vocabulary, and learning exercises for you to access without paying anything. Even if you are enrolled in a course, these sites can help you prepare for tests and projects.
The Internet is also full of games that can make learning English fun. This will help encourage students to stick with their decision to learn the language. Again, many of
these programs are offered free of charge.
these programs are offered free of charge.
The World Wide Web also provides English learners with the chance to interact with English speakers on a regular basis. Forums, chats, and online communities allow learners to practice written English in a non-threatening environment. Surfing the Internet can help learners practice reading English as well.
Considerations When Learning English Online
If you are going to use the Internet to help you learn English, keep a few things in mind. First, many websites have content that is not written using proper English grammar. Use websites as sources of conversational English information, not proper grammar. If you choose to enroll in an online program, determine what dialect of English you want to learn. There are quite a few differences between British and American English, for example. Then, make sure the program has a good reputation before you pay anything. With so many free options available, you need to make sure you are getting your money’s worth.
Finally, the computer will never substitute for personal conversations with English speakers. Once you have the basics down, find a way to converse with native English speakers. You may even be able to use the computer for this by taking advantage of video chatting programs, but make sure you get the chance to practice what you have been learning.
How to make your routine life interesting?
One of my Secrets of Adulthood is “What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.” But it’s easy to kid myself about what I do every day, as part during my usual routine, and what I do once in a while.
If I’m not careful, I can convince myself of statements like: “Most days, I go to the gym.” “I eat lots of fruits and vegetables every day.” “I rarely show my exasperation to my daughters.” A reason my Resolutions Chartactually looks like – not what I think it looks like, or what I wish it looked like. When I see on my chart that I haven’t really been getting enough exercise, I can make sure to head to the gym. has helped my happiness is that it keeps me honest about what my daily routine
Just as I have daily routines, I have weekly routines, holiday routines, yearly routines. I ask myself: do they boost my happiness, or not?
I’m a huge fan of Christopher Alexander’s strange, brilliant writing, and I was struck by a passage from his book, The Timeless Way of Building
:
:Being in bed, having a shower, having breakfast in the kitchen, sitting in my study writing, walking in the garden, cooking and eating our common lunch at my office with my friends, going to the movies, taking my family to eat at a restaurant, going to bed again. There are a few more.
There are surprisingly few of these patterns of events in any one person’s way of life, perhaps no more than a dozen. Look at your own life and you will find the same. It is shocking at first, to see that there are so few patterns of events open to me.
Not that I want more of them. But when I see how very few of them there are, I begin to understand what huge effect these few patterns have on my life, on my capacity to live. If these few patterns are good for me, I can live well. If they are bad for me, I can’t.
Think about the patterns of your life, about the daily routines that shape your existence. How’s your morning? Could you tweak your morning routine, to make it a bit more pleasant? (For example, here are 6 tips for keeping school-day mornings calm and cheery). How about lunch? Your last hour before bedtime? Your Saturday afternoon, your Sunday evening? Your routine when you’re feeling blue or lonely?
By identifying these patterns, and acknowledging their power to shape our lives, we're better able to set the patterns in ways that boost happiness. A friend of mine realized that one pattern in her life was an extremely irritating commute. Every day, she had a horrible trip, and every day, she was surprised by how bad it was and how much it affected her mood. When she acknowledged this, she decided to try to change the experience, by listening to audiobooks in the car -- an activity she loves. That small change in the pattern of her life made a huge difference in her daily happiness.
Daily life with no changes can be a real boredom, It is always healthy to break your routines by doing some interesting and funny things. Below are some different 10 ways one can use to break the routine life...” 1. Beautiful way of breaking the routine is to walk barefoot in the grass.
2. Share a luscious bar of chocolate with someone special (bonus: dark chocolate, consumed in moderation gives you health-boosting flavonoids).
3. Steal a few moments of guilt -free daydreaming as you sit in a boring class/conference. What an romantic way of breaking routine.
4. Tuck a rolling pin under your bed. just before climbing between the sheets, roll your feet gently along the pin for a mini massage. Or keep one in your office drawer to use when working.
5. ‘Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body,’ said Oliver Wendell Holmes. Listen to the love theme from Out Of Africa with your sweetheart on a moonlit night. Or dig out a copy of Raphael’s Bolero. Wait for the sun to go down. Push the CD into your system. If you are living somewhere along the sea, take a glass of chilled wine and let Bolero seep into your consciousness as the wine slowly spirals its way through you and will break your routine way of feeling life.
6. In the bedroom, surround yourself with comforting, on-hand objects that please the mind. A basket filled with your favorite books. A bowl of smooth river pebbles for you to run your finger over. A cuddly stuffed toy.7. Pamper your taste buds and your senses by adding colour and flavour to your olive oil. Take a bunch of fresh herbs. Say, rosemary, basil or tarragon. Bruise them with a rolling pin to release their flavours. Now add the herbs to your oil, and refrigerate the bottle. It takes about a week for the flavors salad next weekend! This herbed oil is also wonderful as a marinade or a dip for crusty bread. Can’t believe such herbs can help us break some boredom routine.
8. At least in a day, disconnect yourself from the routine world. Switch off your cell phone. Ignore the telephone. Go offline. Be off-limits. In those moments, do what you feel like: have a luxurious bath, nurture your lawn or cook a good dinner. When you get back to the world, you fill like humming and happy that your broke the routine life.
9. Shoes off, then flop, like a ragdoll in bed for a long time after a long day.
Three valentines...
You're the reason for these butterflies
That are fluttering uncontrollable inside of me
These butterflies will never calm
They've taken over my whole body
You're the reason for this smile
That brightens my whole face
This smile will never frown
You've unknowingly became my all
You make me feel alive once again
You've erased my past with just a touch
Chased my fears with just one glance
You broke my mold with that first kiss
I thought my happiness was forbidden
Until you took my world and killed my demons
Read into all my deepest dreams
And gave them beautiful wings
You're the reason I believe in love
Day By Day
Day by dayNight by night
Kiss by kiss
Touch by touch
Step by step
I fall in love
A love so incomprehensible
So vivid
So unique
So wild, that not even the reign of God could control
A passion so deep
A need so necessary
A want so strong
The universe would not handle
I love you today
I’ll love you tomorrow
I’ll love you forever
I Love You...
If I could have just one wish,
I would wish to wake up everyday
to the sound of your breath on my neck,
the warmth of your lips on my cheek,
the touch of your fingers on my skin,
and the feel of your heart beating with mine...
Knowing that I could never find that feeling
with anyone other than you.
♥♥♥
"Love is the only thing that is
immortal..."
You couldn't understand, for what he was given to you - gentle, tender, attentive, gentle, concerning to you as to the queen so that you also began to love yourself much more. Began to believe at last that the happiness existed, even in that mad-mad world...
He couldn't believe that You had entered into his life - beautiful, clever, gentle, well-bread, simply the Most. Unique. Could it be possible for such to remain?? And if yes, really with him? He looked at your eyes, deep dark eyes, and was afraid to believe. And you more than ever understood what he felt during that moment, and knew that he felt what you did...
You started to dream of a family, children. Earlier those dreams had no relation to a reality, and then you saw in thoughts your house - cozy, warm, with sonorous children's voices, the house where lived and would always live happiness. Where would be no treachery and betrayal. Where you would live for his sake, and he would carry you on hands. Sometimes in dreems you even saw your old age - that one as at those old people who sat together, having embraced on the bench, and looking how tender he looked at her wrinkled face with enamoured eyes, you began to cry. To cry, because there she was alone, and around there was a chaos, divorces, quarrels, hysterics, and any hope of happiness.
Everithing went up to it. You waited, perfectly understanding that not enough time had past. Your relations turnedto other stage, and time of the first check with the distance approached. You were far apart. Time inevitably and ruthlessly erased from memory a favourite voice, face, a smell of a skin and hair, laughter, gait, darling habits... It was time to define, whether the love it was. And every night, closing eyes, he spoke to himself how strongly he grieves and worries that as though it was not easy, there was no such girls in that world, and he would never let her go...You have started to exhaust yourself. Why he hadn't called? That means, something had happened. Or that is worse than that, he spent time with someone else. Certainly, could be there in today's world something eternal? Sometimes you promised to herself not to take the call, or to pretend to be ill, or to tell that was going to leave... And perhaps, go to the center club, and to forget everithing for one evening. And then he called, and she couldn't execute something from the promised. His voice was as the oxygen. She couldn't breathe without it. Couldn't have fun without it. And as always, having heard a heap of tender words, told with his voice, she felt asleep happy, being sured in his love.
He didn't think of it. You were too proud once to state your emotions, understanding that it was silly. If he would know, how strongly and frequently you had exhausted yourself, he would burst out laughing, having told, how silly you were that except you there were no women in the world for him that he would never intentionally cause you to be hurt. But you were silent. Were silent about the feelings, dreaming about him to speake about them first and for ever. But he was afraid. Was afraid of your reaction. Was afraid that you would refuse. Was afraid that he was mistaken.
In the thoughts you said millions of words to him. You imagined how you would stated all feelings if he was near. In conversations with him you were silent. You were independent, proud, laconic. Without understanding that he was not the person of emotions. Without understanding that he was silent, but it didn't mean that he didn't love. That he loved you more than life, but was ready to prove it with acts, instead of verses and phrases. You were ready to sing, shout about love to the whole world. He wanted to throw silently the whole world to your feet so that only you would see it.
Pride... Your pride always was your trump card and your trouble. You never could "give up" the first. Couldn't approach to apologize, recognize the error. Couldn't see defeats. It was easier to you to swallow a pain and tears, than to admit it aloud. You couldn't ask him why he had never made a declaration of love if his feelings are outside, and she felt it?! And with pride kept her feeling close to herself...
Only then you understood, how important it was to be similar. Contrasts aren't drawn, no. You had identical principles, looks on life. But you were capable to remember every minute the slightest trifle of your meetings, his big strong hands, and again and again to endure all that. He wasn't the sculptor. He couldn't recreate as the artist each thin bend of your body, silk of long dark hair, graceful lifting of a foot... He simply remembered and loved you. And often you thought: "Can such trifle really separate us?"
Above all he was afraid to lose her. Above all you were afraid to spoil relations, to spoil that pressing sensation of happiness which seemed then such far away, - there, where he was. A meeting would come soon. Everytning would become as earlier, everything would return. It was necessary only to bear this melancholy pressing on a breast, melancholy because of him. The desire to tear off everything, all this pain would leave, as soon as you would feel him near. Because there wouldn't be the other such. And there wouldn't be the other such girl in his life. And they continued to wait. Continued to suffer, madly loving each other...
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