Tag Archives: Beijing

this day in the yesteryear: Kublai Khan Becomes Ruler of the Mongol Empire (1260)


Kublai Khan Becomes Ruler of the Mongol Empire (1260)

The grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan was a Mongol emperor who founded China’s Yuan Dynasty and became the first Yuan emperor in 1271.    In 1279, he completed his grandfather’s conquest of China by overthrowing the Sung dynasty. He promoted economic prosperity by rebuilding the Grand Canal, repairing public granaries, extending highways, and encouraging foreign commerce. His magnificent capital at Cambuluc—now Beijing—was visited by several Europeans, including what notable figure? More… Discuss

Read more about the expansion of the Mongol (Hordes) empire

“Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again”: L. Cohen And Simon and Garfunkel: “the sound of silence”


Leonard Cohen – Sound of Silence (tribute to Paul Simon)

 

from the Telegraph: Paris shootings: Crowds join ‘Unity’ march for Charlie Hebdo attacks, in pictures


Paris Shooting-crowds join unity march for terrorist attacks (click to access the Telegram's article)

Paris shootings: Crowds join ‘Unity’ march for Charlie Hebdo attacks, in pictures (click to access the article at the Telegraph!)

 

today’s birthday: Mao Zedong (1893)


Mao Zedong (1893)

Chairman Mao established the People’s Republic of China in 1949. His Great Leap Forward, an economic plan launched in 1958 to modernize and industrialize China, was an unmitigated disaster that eventually led to the starvation of tens of millions of people. He later launched a movement to eliminate counterrevolutionary elements in the country’s institutions, leading to the destruction of much of China’s cultural heritage and the imprisonment of many Chinese intellectuals. What was it called? More… Discuss

China Adopts its Current Constitution (1982)


China Adopts its Current Constitution (1982)

Adopted under the watchful eye of Deng Xiaoping, China’s de facto leader from 1977 until his death in 1997, the 1982 Constitution of the People’s Republic of China reflects his determination to lay a lasting foundation for domestic stability and modernization within the confines of socialism. It provides a legal framework for the liberalizing economic policies of the 1980s and encourages foreign participation in China’s economy. How many times has it been amended since its adoption? More… Discuss

this pressed for the environmental health: Mounting Electronic Waste Poses Major Threat to Environment, Health


Mounting Electronic Waste Poses Major Threat to Environment, Health

By Lauren Walker 11/28/14 at 1:32 PM
E-waste

E-waste

An employee arranges discarded computers at a newly opened electronic waste recycling factory in Wuhan, Hubei province. Stringer/ REUTERS

 

Filed Under: Tech & Science, Technology, Electronics, e-waste, Black Friday, Environment, Pollution

Excerpts: “…While the fact that 95.5 million Americans said they would shop on Black Friday is good news for retailers, it is a far less positive figure for the environment. Cheap electronics are one of the biggest draws for shoppers on the day (and indeed the rest of the year), but these immediate savings hide the ultimate collective cost – old electronics (e-waste) that are improperly disposed can result in environmental pollution with its attendant health risks, as well as data theft.

In 2012, the world amassed almost 49 million metric tons of e-waste, including everything from last generation cellphones and laptops to televisions and…”

via Mounting Electronic Waste Poses Major Threat to Environment, Health.

news: Tens of Thousands Protest in Hong Kong


Tens of Thousands Protest in Hong Kong

Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have taken to the streets in Hong Kong to protest Beijing‘s plan to vet candidates for the post of chief executive of Hong Kong in the 2017 elections. Since 1997, when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China, the chief executive has been selected by a 1,200-member election committee with pro-Beijing leanings. Last month, China agreed to allow direct elections in 2017, with the proviso that voters will only be able to choose from a list of pre-approved, almost undoubtedly pro-Beijing candidates. The protesters are demanding the freedom to choose their candidates. More… Discuss

this day in the yesteryear: Japan Resumes Diplomatic Relations with China (1972)


Japan Resumes Diplomatic Relations with China (1972)

The first Sino-Japanese War in the late 19th century damaged relations between the two countries for decades, as it marked the emergence of imperial Japan and saw harsh terms imposed on a badly defeated China. Relations did not improve until Kakuei Tanaka was elected prime minister of Japan in 1972. Shortly after his election, Tanaka visited China and signed an agreement establishing diplomatic relations between Japan and the Beijing regime. Who else made a historic visit to China in 1972? More… Discuss

Wieniawski – Polonaise brilliante (LEONID KOGAN): Great compositions/performances


Wieniawski – Polonaise brilliante (LEONID KOGAN)

Tiananmen Square Anniversary


[youtube.com/watch?v=PRxgjT6QGvQ]
Tiananmen: Australias Witnesses – The rarely heard perspectives of Australia‘s embassy staff

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In the weeks leading up to June 3, 1989 tens of thousands of students massed in Beijing’s enormous central square, drawn together by the death of liberal Communist Party figure Hu Yaobang and their collective desire for significant and immediate change. They wanted their hard-line leaders to yield and reform.
They wanted a free, fairer China. For China’s communist rulers it was a great affront to their authority. A provocation. They answered with soldiers, tanks and wholesale slaughter. “We went to see the two major student leaders and that’s when one told us crying that that night the soldiers would come, that there would be a lot of bloodshed, that a lot of people would die.” PETER EVERETT Defence Attaché, Australian Embassy Beijing, 1989. A lot of people did die. Precisely how many, we’ll never know. And to this day many Chinese themselves don’t even know the massacre took place. Despite the warp-speed advances in China’s economy and — to a limited extent — its openness, Tiananmen is still an officially forbidden subject. Until now the collective perspectives of Australia’s witnesses to Tiananmen have pretty much stayed under wraps as well. But in this extraordinarily revealing Foreign Correspondent key Embassy staffers have assembled for the first time to give their accounts of what happened.

ABC Australia – Ref 6149

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Tiananmen Square Anniversary

Each year thousands of people in Hong Kong, China, gather on June 4 to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre with a candlelight vigil. On that day in 1989, Chinese government tanks rolled into Beijing‘s Tiananman Square, killing hundreds of demonstrators calling for democratic reforms in China, and injuring 10,000 more. Since 1997, the Chinese government has discouraged the Hong Kong commemorations and pressured foreign news correspondents not to cover the yearly event. In the year 2002 about 45,000 people attended the vigil. More… Discuss

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VOCES8-Fever


[youtube.com/watch?v=uxjnzU2TN30]

VOCES8 performs Fever, arranged by Jim Clements for the group, at the NCPA in Beijing in 2009. For more information, visit http://www.voces8.com

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NEWS: STILL NO SIGHT OF MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES PLANE


Still No Sight of Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane

As the days tick by, and searchers fail to turn up any sign of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, it seems less and less likely that this story will have anything other than a tragic ending. Loved ones of the 239 souls on board are clinging to the last vestiges of hope, but they are being told to prepare for the worst. The Boeing 777, which departed Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, vanished without a trace while en route to Beijing. No distress call was issued. It has since come to light that two passengers on the plane were traveling with stolen passports, raising the question of whether the disappearance is terror related. However, until the plane is found, officials can do little more than speculate. More…Discuss

 

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Shivaree – Goodnight Moon


 

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Taiwan museum unveils controversial Ai Weiwei art (from France 24 International)


Taiwan museum unveils controversial Ai Weiwei art (from France 24 International)

Taiwan museum unveils controversial Ai Weiwei art (from France 24 International) (click here to follow the story at France24 Intenational)Ai Weiwei " Forever Bicycles"

 

Downey Landing: When The Dream Goes To Sleep (revisited December 12, 2014)


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Did you know that the City of Downey had been until 1998 the hub of the American Avionics, and then that of the aeronautics, including the Space Shuttle Program? Are you curios to find out (now that dust starts Settling on the last of the Space Shuttles– Atlantis) what happened to the real estate where it all happened? Well now it is a …Mall, yes a shopping center, and a NASA Museum, and Downey Studios. No no more aeronautics in Downey, NASA can look for those cardboard boxes, to get their personal belongings (quite popular for the last decade throughout the land).  This never felt right to me, since I believe that the strength of any nation is in what it creates, not in what, and how much it consumes. I may be wrong though, it is harder and harder to make sense of many things: for instance I never understood what a service society ment for the longest, and still can’t wrap my way of thinking around it. May be because…I’m not a bush, a plant. The bush never spoke to me, not in a intelligible language.
So here are few photos I took of the place called Downey Landings, a modest and sincerely felt apology to the avionics community, here and elsewhere, who may miss Rockwell International and the contracts that allowed for the Avionics and Space Programs to become reality.

It’s so hard to build, but so easy to tear down. (Should this be the ending line of this story, I think it will be meaningful one)
As for the photos taken: I found about the insignia (or or as I like to call them symbolically “Headstones”- you know like in a hi-tech cemetery – by chance, because they sure are not standing either out, nor up, they are well hidden in plain view, but not that visible as to disrupt the shopping spree, at this useless outlets, present in every city, since they have nothing to do with avionics, or space exploration, or nothing of the kind: you can buy stuff for your next party, from Party city and dog food from PetsSmart, they have specials for beach torches, office supplies, and few fast, food restaurants: But nothing too fancy, you see…As far as the marvel of architecture, representing the sidewalk (which really cannot qualify for a sidewalk due to the construction and width of 3 feet) if you want to get a headache, or dizzy, that’s the place to be (that would be because one cannot walk streight on the winding sidewalk)  I wonder who filled they pockets charging for the design, execution and expensive overhead labor for this one? Nobody in the City Hall could give an aswer…Tough times, you see.

01-Downey_Landings_Space_for_Lease

02-Downey_Landing_South_Side

 This picture is an introduction to the ” In Memoriam” Project dedicated to the 90 years of uninterrupted avionics presence in Downey, California:03-Downey_Landing_Site_of_American_Avionics

03-Downey_Landing_Site_of_American_Avionics

Next there is the “Insignia” of some of the first half of the 20th century avionics companies:

05-Downey_Landing_Site_of_American_Avionics_Companies

Apollo 11(1969):

06-Downey_Landing_Appolo 11-1969

Apollo XIII (1970):

07-Downey_Landing_AppolloXIII_1970

Apollo 14 (1971):

08-Downey_Landing_Appollo 14-1971

Appollo 15 (1971):

09-Downey_Landing_Appollo15_1971

10-Downey_Landing_Enterprise_1977

12-Downey_Landing_Shuttle_Columbia_1981

12-Downey_Landing_Shuttle_Challenger-1983

13-The-Headache-Mile Starts at Stewart and Gray Ends At Imperial Hwy_Downey_Landing

15-Downey_Landing_Back_From_Space

16-Downey_Landing_In_Memoriam_Avionics & NASA

Sale at PArty Outdoor Torches_Downey_Landing What a steal

 
Related articles

Fearing Radiation, Chinese Rush to Buy…Table Salt?


From the Wall Street Journal:

Japan’s nuclear crisis is fueling panic in China, where shoppers have spurred a run on salt in attempt to prevent radiation-related illnesses and to secure uncontaminated salt sources.

China’s top economic agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, warned consumers Thursday against hoarding salt, and said it would work with local authorities to maintain price stability and market supply. Grocery store shelves have been ransacked over the past several days.

Reuters
Customers flock to buy salt at a supermarket in Lanzhou, Gansu province on Thursday.

Consumers in cities along the China’s coastline, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, and even in inland capital Beijing, began stockpiling table salt after problems at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex sparked concerns that radiation would spread to China by air and sea, possibly contaminating the land and future food sources. Read more about Iodized Table Salt, and what it does NOT do at: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/17/fearing-radiation-chinese-rush-to-buy-table-salt/

Development at any cost, is priceless: Nobody can afford to pay for it !