Looking for yarn donations

Message from group discussion thread, by ChatKat15, who is working at a jail for minimum security female offenders in Indianapolis.

Looking for yarn donations for a community service project crocheting blankets for children in crisis, to a jail in Indianapolis, see more detail.

Just post here for information broadcasting.

Last week in local subsititions, we also called a clothes donation for the schools in western China, though that day is a rainy and cold day, the donators came with warm hearts.

Laba Rice Porridge Festival

There's a tradition of eating laba rice porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. "La" in Chinese means the 12th lunar month and "ba" means eight.

The story of this fetival came over 3,000 years ago.

When Sakyamuni was on his way into the high mountains in his quest（寻求） for understanding and enlightenment, he grew tired and hungry. Exhausted from days of walking, he fainted away by a river in India. A shepherdess found him there and fed him her lunch -- porridge made with beans and rice. Sakyamuni was thus able to continue his journey.


After six years of strict discipline, he finally realized his dream of full enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Ever since, monks have prepared rice porridge on the eve and held a ceremony the following day, during which they chant sutras and offer porridge to Buddha. Thus, the tradition of eating Laba porridge was based in religion, though with the passing of time the food itself became a popular winter dish especially in cold northern China.


According to written records, large Buddhist temples would offer Laba rice porridge to the poor to show their faith to Buddha. In the Ming Dynasty about 500 years ago, it became such a holy food that emperors would offer it to their officials during festivals. As it gained favor in the feudal （封建的）upper class, it also quickly became popular throughout the country.

Laba rice porridge（腊八粥） was first introduced to China in the Song Dynasty about 900 years ago.Laba porridge is not only easy to prepare, but also a nutritious winter food because it contains amino acids, protein, vitamins and other nutrition people need. Cooked nuts and dried fruit are good for soothing nerves, nourishing one's heart and vitality, and strengthening the spleen. Perhaps that is why it is also called babao (Eight Treasure) porridge.
Take a look at the material



Some restaurants and temples will also deliver the porridge as a care and wish for the citizens. There're tens of places in Hangzhou city offerring the porridge for free, Beijing and other cities also have this kind of traditions, a tea house (茶馆, maison de thé) delivered more than 15,000 bowls. Take a look at the long queue:

Online learning

Today I read a posting about a Chinese lady working in USA, she mentioned that if you have some online degree, your salary will also be increased. No matter will I be employeed or not, I think it would be good way to kill time. It's good to Learn some knowledge systematically, and from the view of the salary will be increased, the learning is really worthful from the experienced people, so I'll take some time to learn online courses.

I posted a thread to ask recommendation of the online courses in BC, also searched from google and did a quick research on following sites, will select some in recent days.

http://www.le.ac.uk/
http://www.ambaifn.org/
http://www.worldwidelearn.com/
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/iMBA_CourseList.shtml
http://www.elearners.com/courses/business.htm
http://www.mba-online-program.com/is_an_mba_worth_it.html

New Year's wish

To have someone join my family.

Trees with leaves

They're big, but not huge.

Trees without leaves

While leaves left the trees, tress are like the sketch drawing, from color to the lines.

Some of them standing together, like in the dream.

High-Tension Cable issue conflicting in Shanghai

Recently this is a hot topic here.

There's High-Tension Cable hanging over the CHUNSHEN urban area of Shanghai, China, the local residents did not know that when they bought the department in this area. In Aug. 2006, Shanghai electricty company announced that electricty capacity will be extended, and provided 3 options to collect the feedback from the residents. Thus the 220,000 volt High-Tension Cable will go through 9 schools and 20 living Subdistricts.
Though it's said that according to the research till now, no proof has been found that it will be harmful to people's health, the residents along the line did not feel comfortable of its existence. The cost of burying the cable into the underground can be counted, but the health is invaluable. According to the industry standard, 20m is the safe distance, currently the nearest distance between the cable to the building is 49m, 76m, from human nature, people fear of this kind of things, it's still too close. So they asked the electricity company to bury the Cable into the underground, there's already examples in other district of Shanghai that it's technically feasible, this is an improved proposal according to thrid option.
However, due to some reason, the company can't agree with this proposal, it insisted on its original proposal, with a little change -- no new high-tension corridor will be created, and existing corridor will be transformed to multi-loop or cable mode.
In Sep. 2007, it started construction without the agreement of the residents, neither had they annouced the construction start. It caused the strong disagreement of the residents, they began to call community together to fight against it, for these reasons:
1. needs to be known about the construction plan, when buying the deparment here, and now
2. public hearing will need to be held before the construction.

Their trying including:
1. legal action, by a lawyer resident.
2. collective signatures petition, letters, emails to the goverment.
3. hanging out the banners with the words "Anti High Tension" in large letters over their windows.
4. zealous demonstration

The electricty company said that the construction program is urgent and legal, but no understanding gained from the the residents. In late November, the conflictment became white-hot, the company broke into the subdistrict, hundreds of the residents met at the basketball court to show their opposition. The police was also involved.

The information was closed in local new report.

Power is necessary in our life nowadays, we can't refuse it. Personally I have no idea which one is better, over the sky or under the ground. If dear reader you by chance is an expert in this area, kindly put a comment or shout at my shout box. Thanks.

Some of my friends lived in that area, best wishes to all of them.



Note of Subdistrict:
Subdistrict is a low level administrative country subdivision. In Thailand it may refer to the king amphoe or to the tambon. For China see: subdistricts of China.
The Subdistrict is one of the smallest Political divisions of China. In general, urban areas are divided into subdistricts (街道办事处 jiēdàobànshìchù or simply 街办 jiēbàn, literally "street offices"), and a subdistrict is divided into several communities or neighbourhoods (居民区,居住区,小区,社区).