China Mandatory Cremation after Death

China mandatory cremation after death is a new policy in China with over growing population and much needed agriculture land. The fear it will be shrinking with mushrooming growth of cemeteries.


Cremation in China is quickly approaching the same level of popularity that it has developed in the last few decades across the world. Latest statistics show that nearly 46 percent of Chinese deaths result in cremation. That’s up from about 15 percent in the mid-20^th century. But, for proponents of cremation, the current Chinese numbers may be a bit discouraging. See, in most places in China, cremation is required by law.


Under communist rule in China in the 1940’s, officials banned traditional burial and mandated that all deaths require cremation. In doing this, they cited all of the usual arguments in support of cremation. They said burial in a cemetery was a waste of space, harmful to the environment, and much more expensive than cremation. In many cases, the new laws were not in conflict with tradition since China’s population is home to many Buddhists who have long turned to cremation as their method of choice. (It is important to note that Buddha does not specifically require cremation, in fact, the religion’s major texts are almost silent on the topic. That said, tradition tends to encourage the practice of cremation.)


Traditional in family and community cemeteries remains common place throughout rural China today despite the requirement for cremation, and it remains to be seen if government officials will ever take drastic measures to enforce their laws against burial. In the meantime, it seems that cremation is not universally accepted as an ideal choice, even among those who live in large cities and typically submit to the rule. Political dissent in China, even on matters such as this, is often met with stern enforcement that typically keeps critics quiet. But, in this case, there is an bit of an indication that the cremation requirement might not sit well, if it were ever put to a popular vote. “If it’s legal when I die, I want to be buried, not cremated,” one man in the city of Liuzhou told a foreign reporter one day.



Ashes of the deceased Funerary customs can be quite complex, vary greatly from region and region and incorporate elements of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, shamanism, local folk religions, ancient ancestor worship traditions and Communist ideology. Often no stone is left unturned in an effort to address and eliminate all potentials for harm.

The Chinese have traditionally regarded it critical for the dead to be buried. Among the Chinese there is no higher good deed than burying stray bones or covering an uncovered coffins. Confucius said that immediate disposal of the dead was a sign of virtue, submission, love and respect towards one's elders and superiors.

Reporting and Registering a Death

As soon as a death occurs, notify the police and/or the local doctor who has previously attended the deceased. There is a legal requirement to register a death within 24 hours of its occurrence.
The doctor will issue a Medical Certificate of the Cause of Death (also known as form 18). This has identification of the deceased and basic details concerning the death. If death occurred in hospital, the hospital authorities will see to this paperwork. The police or ambulance service will then transport the deceased to a public mortuary.

Husband and Partner

The use of partner is acceptable now in society and you can see it in obituary.

Gay Acceptance by the power of the supreme court

Gay Marriage

لغات العالم: الصينية الأكثر انتشار والعربية رابعة

ثلثا العالم يتحدث 12 لغة ومن بينها اللغات الست الكبار (مطابقة لإنفوغرافيكس نشرته صحيفة واشنطن بوست الأميركية)

الجمعة  24 أبريل, 2015 - 15:57  بتوقیت أبوظبي 

أبوظبي - سكاي نيوز عربية

أظهرت دراسة حول لغات العالم أن اللغة الصينية بكل لهجاتها هي الأكثر انتشاراً واللغة العربية رابعة بعد الأوردو-الهندية والإنجليزية، في حين أن عدد الدول التي تتحدث الإنجليزية هو الأكبر ويليها عدد الدول التي تتحدث اللغة العربية.

ورغم أن عدد اللغات في العالم يصل إلى 7102 لغة، فإن القارة الأوروبية هي أقل القارات في عدد اللغات فيها ويوجد فيها 286 لغة، في حين توجد في آسيا 2301 لغة، و2138 لغة في إفريقيا، بينما يوجد في منطقة المحيط الهادئ 1313 لغة، وفي الأميركيتين 1064 لغة.

وبحسب الدراسة التي وضعها أستاذ علم اللغات في جامعة دوسلدورف، أولريخ آمون، واستغرقت 15 عاماً، فإن نحو ثلثي سكان العالم يتحدثون بـ12 لغة رئيسية تقريباً.

ووفقاً لآمون، فإن 1.39 مليار نسمة يتحدثون اللغة الصينية بكافة لهجاتها، في حين ثمة 588 مليون نسمة يتحدثون بالأوردو والهندية، و527 مليون نسمة يتحدثون الإنجليزية مقابل 467 مليوناً يتحدثون اللغة العربية، وحلت اللغة الإسبانية خامسة ويتحدث بها 389 مليون نسمة، ثم البنغالية ويتحدث بها 250 مليون إنسان.

أما باقي اللغات الأساسية فتوزعت كالتالي الروسية (254 مليون نسمة) والبرتغالية (193 مليوناً) والألمانية (132 مليوناً) واليابانية (123 مليوناً) والفرنسية (118 مليوناً) والإيطالية (67 مليوناً)، وفقاً للتقرير الذي نشرته صحيفة واشنطن بوست الأميركية.

وبحسب أمون فإن أكثر اللغات طلباً للتعلم هي الإنجليزية حيث يتعلمها 1.5 مليار نسمة، وتليها الفرنسية ويتعلمها 82 مليوناً، ثم الصينية 30 مليوناً فالإسبانية والألمانية ويتعلمها 14.5 مليون نسمة لكل منهما، وتليهما الإيطالية ويتعلمها 8 ملايين نسمة واليابانية 3 ملايين نسمة.

وأظهرت خريطة لغات العالم، في طبعتها الثامنة عشرة، أن اللغة الإنجليزية هي لغة المحادثة في 101 دولة، في حين أن العربية هي لغة المحادثة في 60 دولة، بينما تتحدث 51 دولة اللغة الفرنسية، و33 دولة الصينية و31 دولة الإسبانية و29 دولة الفارسية و18 دولة الألمانية و16 دولة الروسية و13 دولة الماليزية و12 دولة البرتغالية.

وكشف تقرير لليونيسكو أن هناك العديد من اللغات المهددة بالانقراض، وأن كثيراً من اللغات لا يتحدث بها سوى فئة محدود من الناس.

وأشار التقرير إلى أن هناك 2000 لغة لا يزيد عدد المتحدثين في كل منها على 1000 شخص.

The solar industry takes hold and growing.

The solar industry takes hold and growing.

Solar is the “Fastest Growing Industry in America” and Made Record Cost Reductions in 2010

By Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 16, 2011 at 5:44 pm

Stephen Lacey: The U.S. solar industry grew 102% last year and is on track to grow another 100% this year. What other industry doubled its growth during one of the worst economic periods in our history?
The GOP has been using the Solyndra debacle to talk about “pet alternative energy.” This nonsense ignores the incredible growth and cost reductions taking place in the solar industry. Since 2008, average PV prices have fallen 80%. And with innovative approaches to installation, the total installed cost of installations have fallen substantially as well.
A recent report found that America actually had a $1.9 billion trade surplus of solar products to the rest of the world in 2010. And that same report, put together by GTM Research, found that 73% of the economic value of a solar installation stays in the U.S. Rather than let the conversation be hijacked by the pro-pollution gang, we need to use the Solyndra story to continue talking about the domestic value of solar.
A recent report released by the Lawrence Berkeley Lab again illustrates the continued progress in the American solar market.
Reporting for Clean Technica, Andrew Burger gives us an overview of that report, and others.
The average cost of installing residential and commercial solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the US dropped a record 17% in 2010 and it continues to drop in 2011, an additional 11% through June, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s “Tracking the Sun IV”report.
Slowly but surely, the US market for solar PV power is growing and developing. Actually not so slowly. The US solar power market continued to grow at a record-breaking 66% pace in 2011′s first half. Domestic solar manufacturing rose 31%, while 1.1 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar power is under construction, according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) “US Solar Market Insight.”
Green jobs are growing as well. Some 93,500 Americans worked in the US solar industry in 2010, and more than half of the country’s solar companies are planning to expand hiring in 2011, according to The Solar Foundation’s “The National Solar Jobs Census.”

“The solar power industry is the fastest growing industry in America. We are delivering strong economic returns and good jobs at increasingly competitive prices, as this National Lab report shows. This report is further proof of what Americans from across the country already know: smart solar policy creates jobs and economic growth for communities hit hard by the recession,” said Rhone Resch, SEIA president and CEO.

The drastically lower cost of solar PV modules has been a big, but not the sole, factor in spurring growth. Costs outside of modules, which make up a significant percentage of overall costs, have been dropping as well, the report authors note.
Government support and public-private collaboration have been key to the success. The cost of labor for installation, overhead, balance of systems and other non-module costs decreased 18% year-to-year in 2010. While module costs are driven by global supply and demand, non-module costs are “most readily impacted by state and federal policies that accelerate deployment and remove market barriers,” they write.
“The impressive cost reductions highlighted in this report did not happen by accident. It took business innovation and market-building policies at all levels of government to achieve the necessary economies of scale,” commented Adam Browning, executive director of the grassroots Vote Solar Initiative.

“There has never been a better time for customers or utilities to harness the sun for power. It’s time to double down on our nation’s investment in this job-creating, homegrown energy resource.”

US solar power incentives are also delivering greater returns for investors, while government and industry incentives are falling, the researchers found. The average size of direct cash incentives from states and utilities, as well as dollar-per-watt value of the federal tax incentive “have both steadily decreased since their peak,” according to the Berkeley National Lab’s report.
Additional cost reductions in solar PV costs over the near-term are likely to be realized, given that current initiatives and support are sustained, the report authors conclude.
Germany has built the world’s leading solar market and industry, both on the supply and demand side. At $6.9/Watt, average installed solar PV systems costs in the US is significantly higher than in Germany, where the average cost to install a residential or commercial solar PV system was $4.2/W. Germany’s cumulative grid-connected solar PV capacity far surpasses that in the US — 17,000MW vs. 2,100MW.

Job applications on line. The personal recruiters are diminished but still exists for executives.

no more tax forms sent to homes

no more tax forms sent to homes, a year later  tax forms sent to public libraries and post offices. Now none of that and may be for some selected libraries in urban areas.

Forests saved: No more federal tax forms in the mail

Jan 28, 2011 

Don’t expect to see a tax package from the IRS in your mailbox this filing season. The agency recently announced that it will no longer mail annual tax forms, including Publication 17, its hefty instruction booklet.
The IRS cited cost considerations for its decision as well as the growth in electronic filing, which eliminates the need for a paper form. In the last tax season, only 8 percent of filers had paper tax forms sent to them by mail. The rest either filed electronically, used a tax-preparation software program (which generates the forms), or had a tax preparer handle the job.
If you want to file a paper return this year, you can get the forms you need at local IRS offices, some libraries, and post offices. Or you can download them from the IRS website now.

http://news.consumerreports.org/money/2011/01/no-more-tax-forms-in-the-mail.html

No more stock prices tables in newspapers.

No more daily stock prices tables in newspapers. The internet and smart phones are used instead.

MARAAT NUMAN, Syria — Each morning, after saluting the Syrian flag and before the warplanes take off, soldiers at army bases across Syria are given political orientation.

During the lectures, conscripts and career officers alike are repeatedly told that opposition forces are fueled by sectarian hatred and want to tear the country apart. The message — of a war waged by Sunni Muslims against Syria's Alawite and Shiite minorities — is well understood.

To Syrian soldiers, "It has essentially become sectarian; the Sunnis fight out of fear and the Alawites fight out of conviction," said Muhammad Zinedden, a Sunni conscript who defected in February from the 17th Engineering Regiment in Raqqa province.

Sectarian politics have long played a role in the Syrian government and military. The highest ranks in both are dominated by those among the Alawite sect, to which embattled President Bashar Assad belongs. Now sectarianism may guarantee that fighting will continue even if Assad falls, setting the stage for a civil war fought between militias, much like what happened in neighboring Lebanon.

As soldiers flee the army in droves, defectors say they are being replaced by Alawite and Shiite volunteer militiamen, and sometimes women, who are strongly convinced by the government's sectarian warnings.

"The current army can't last more than a few months, but there are shabiha [militiamen] who are volunteering," Zinedden said. "And they are fighting better than the army and they will extend the life of the army. For them this is a jihad."

The Syrian army fell from 220,000 troops to about half that strength last fall because of defections and battlefield losses, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' annual Military Balance assessment. Defections since then have further weakened the army.

The government can now depend on the loyalty of about 50,000 regular troops, including the mainly Alawite Special Forces, Republican Guard and elite 3rd and 4th divisions,according to the institute.

They are buttressed by the shabiha, who have violently cracked down on dissent since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011 and have been accused of committing some of the most brutal acts of the war. Also growing in strength are "popular committees," made up of minorities who have taken up arms to protect their districts from opposition fighters, according to a recent report from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The pro-Assad militias and the popular committees coordinate with and receive direct support from the Assad government, as well as Shiite Iran and the Lebanese-based Shiite militia group Hezbollah, according to the report "The Assad regime: from counterinsurgency to civil war."

Motivated by a fear of retribution from a mostly Sunni opposition, soldiers and militiamen have formed an ultra-nationalist and mostly Alawite force with the common goal of survival.

"Whether or not the regime falls, the country will split into rival cantons governed by militias," Joseph Holliday, author of the report, wrote in an email. "The scale of population displacement ... means that the country may have been heterogeneous in the past, but everyone has clustered around co-religious/sectarian groups over the past year."

Even within the military, divisions are becoming more pronounced. Air force Col. Yousef Al-Assad, a MIG-23 pilot who defected in autumn from the Dumair military airport in the suburbs of Damascus, flew no missions during the current conflict. As a Sunni, he was banned from going near the planes. Only pilots from certain minority sects were allowed to fly, he said.

"They would tell us clearly, 'You Sunnis are not trusted.'" he said. "And we were not included in many of the operations meetings."

In the past, distinguishing between sects was subtle, he said. Now it has become overt in an effort to sow hostility and distrust between Syrians, he said.

But the situation is not entirely black and white. Defectors tell of Sunnis willing to fight for the government and Alawites who want to defect but fear what fate might await them among an opposition that increasingly looks at all Alawites and Shiites as loyalist supporters.

Ali Muhammad Dibo, a Sunni from Qamishli, tried to defect in early March from the Hamidia military base, but was caught and imprisoned for more than a week. He and his fellow deserters got a second chance when the three Alawite officers guarding them defected themselves.

"Some Alawites are afraid of defecting because they know that if they leave they will be imprisoned and tried," he said. "They feel stuck. They are afraid of what sects might be outside the base and that there might be foreign fighters who will kill them."

His friend Qadeeb Al-Ban said, "The Alawite knows he's dead either way; he knows if he defects theFree Syrian Army will kill him, so he stays and fights."

The opposition says that to counteract defections, the government is forcing young men of military service age to join the army. These men are grabbed at checkpoints that dot government-controlled areas. State media have denied such allegations and insist the military is at its "highest levels of readiness and capability."

Most conscripts who have finished their required service term have yet to be discharged. Keeping them within the army bases prevents some of them from joining opposition forces, according to defectors.

Despite personnel losses, the military has remained strong. Defectors report that depleted government arsenals, mostly of old Soviet-era weapons, are replenished by shipments from Iran and Hezbollah. These allies are also said to be sending fighters.

Last month, the head of Hezbollah said his group would not allow Assad's government to be overthrown and acknowledged that some of its fighters had been killed in Syria.

"The Free Syrian Army shoots one bullet and the regime army shoots a thousand bullets; they don't care, there is plenty," defector Zinedden said.

Even in bases besieged by rebel fighters, the arsenals remain robust.

"There is no shortage of ammunition or weapons; it is like a military warehouse," said Ahmad Qadeeb Alban, a Sunni of Kurdish heritage who defected in March from the Syrian army's Hamidia base, which overlooks a strategic highway in Idlib province. "They have enough for another two years."

Gay and Homosexual Issues Become Normal in the Media

In the Radio and TV programs portraying gay men and lesbian women become normal with no embarrassment.

The Vanishing of Public Phone Booth

The phone booths, the darling of the American Hollywood movies is disappearing from gas stations and shopping plazas and in front of super-markets. With the widespread of cellular phones many gas stations and shopping plazas have moved the phone booths or the public phone stands.
The face of our lives are changing.

The Last Phone Booth In New York City

Posted by Scout on July 7th, 2009

There are only four outdoor phone booths left in Manhattan – and they’re all on West End Avenue. That’s it: four.

This one is at 101st Street:

This is at the corner of 100th Street:

This tree-shrouded booth can be found at the corner of 90th Street.

Finally, this is at 66th Street.

And that’s it.

If you happen to pass by, I seriously advise you to stop in one of these booths while they’re still around. Note that someone still cares enough to keep the overhead light in proper working order. Close the door (be amazed that they even have doors), and you’ll find yourself in a veritable fishbowl plunked down in the center of Manhattan. The walls actually keep out a good amount of sound, and it’s surreal to look out at the world around you with something you don’t usually get on a busy Manhattan avenue: personal space.

It’s funny to think how the idea of an enclosed space to have a phone conversation now seems like an incredible luxury. I have a feeling these are only still around due to a neighborhood advocacy association, and I cannot praise them enough for keeping the phone booth off the extinction list.

This site has tons of pictures of phone booths, both from New York and throughout the world, for anyone interested. Forgotten-NY has a great article on other rare phone miscellany around the city.

 

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=852

The World of Twitters

MICRO-BLOGGINGsave topic Micro-blogging is the practice of sending brief posts to a personal blog on a micro-blogging Web site, such as Twitter or Jaiku. Micro-posts can be made public on a Web site and/or distributed to a private group of subscribers. Subscribers can read micro-blog posts online or request that updates be delivered in real... moreMicro-blogging is the practice of sending brief posts to a personal blog on a micro-blogging Web site, such as Twitter or Jaiku. Micro-posts can be made public on a Web site and/or distributed to a private group of subscribers. Subscribers can read micro-blog posts online or request that updates be delivered in real time to their desktop as an instant message or sent to a mobile device as an SMS text message.

Micro-Blogging is part of Business Exchange, suggested by Steve Bobrov. This topic contains 3,219 news and 8,848 blog items. Read updated news, blogs, and resources about Micro-Blogging. Find user-submitted articles and reactions on Micro-Blogging from like-minded professionals.

The Capital System and the Degradation of the Society

With the concept of free market and capitalism the society is degraded to the lowest levels. Rating systems and making a buck drive the human to the lowest denominator. Examining the TV programs one find that they can't reach level of indecency that they go to a lower level.
These low levels of TV programs attract the young and influence in a very damaging an desensitizing from feeling abhorrent of crime, murder, fornication, drugs and violence. The ones who get invited to be celebrities in these programs represent all that.

The Gay Assuming Tremendous Power in the Political Arena Far Beyond Their Numerical Representation

Labor Secretary Issues Outraged Letter Over Defaced Gay Pride Posters
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/labor-chief-deplores-defacing-of-gay-pride-posters/?src=twt&twt=thecaucus
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/

Soceity Trends Balaming Every Thing on Illegal Immigrants

All economic problems are caused by illegals. How absurd?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society