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September 30, 2008

My Events, 2008, Q3

http://www.chekonim.com/archives/events_calendars/index.html

Oct 31 : Halloween (Video)
Oct 13 : World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay
Oct 7? : Decompression (Burning Man) in SF (100 Photos)
Oct 9 - 14 : Fleet Week (Blue Angels Air Show) in SF
Oct 5 : Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon in San Jose
Oct 5 : Bridge to Bridge Run in SF
Oct 4 - 5 : Dragon Boat Festival in SF
Oct 4 : Love Fest in SF
Oct 4 : Sandcastle Classic in San Francisco
Oct 2 - Dec 1 : Green Card Lottery
Oct 3 - 12 : International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM

Sep : Mehregaan
Sep 27 - 28 : International Air Show in Salinas, CA
Sep 21 : Peace Day
Sep 19 - 21 : Balloon Fair in Montague, CA
Sep 14 - Oct 7 : Mid-Autumn Lantern Celebration in Hong Kong
Sep 12 : Moonlight Run & Walk in Palo Alto
Sep 7? : Opera in the Park in SF
Sep 5 - 7 : The Great Reno Balloon Race in Reno
Sep 1 - 30 : Sand Sculpture World Championship, Canada

Aug 27 : La Tomatina in Bunol, Spain
Aug 25 - Sep 1 : Burning Man in Black Rock City, NV (100 Photos)
Aug 22 - 24 : Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in SF
Aug 18 - 19 : Notting Hill Carnival in London, UK
Aug 16 : Partial Lunar Eclipse in Eastern Hemisphere as well as eastern South America
Aug 11 - 16 : Miss Teen USA in Paradise Island, Bahamas
Aug 8 - 24 : 2008 Olympics
Aug 3 : SF Marathon in San Francisco
Aug 1 : Total Solar Eclipse in northeastern North America, most of Europe and Asia
Aug : Prix Fixe in Palo Alto

Jul 26 - 27 : Kite Festival in Berkeley
Jul : Grand Prix in San Jose (Moved to Monterey)
Jul 26 : Lantern Festival in Victoria, Canada
Jul 16 : Rooze Pedar
Jul 14 - 20 : World Body-painting Championships in Seeboden, Austria
Jul 6 - 14 : Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain
Jul 1 - 4 : Rainbow Gathering in Big Sandy, Wyoming
Jul 1 : CHIN BIKINI in Canada

Posted by chek at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Taghvim Irani

http://www.taghvim.com/

تقویم ایرانی شمسی قمری

Persian Calendar

Posted by chek at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2008

Dehkhoda

http://www.loghatnaameh.com/

لغت نامه دهخدا

Posted by chek at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2008

Political Views - Physical Makeup

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7623256.stm

Scientists studying voters in the US say our political views may be an integral part of our physical makeup.

Their research, published in the journal Science, indicates that people who are sensitive to fear or threat are likely to support a right wing agenda.

Those who perceived less danger in a series of images and sounds were more inclined to support liberal policies.

The authors believe their findings may help to explain why voters' minds are so hard to change.

In the study, conducted in Nebraska, 46 volunteers were first asked about their political views on issues ranging from foreign aid and the Iraq war to capital punishment and patriotism.

Those with strong opinions were invited to take part in the second part of the experiment, which involved recording their physiological responses to a series of images and sounds.

The images included pictures of a frightened man with a large spider on his face and an open wound with maggots in it. The subjects were also startled with loud noises on occasion.

Conducting experiments

By measuring the electrical conductance of the volunteers' skin and their blink responses, the scientists were able to work out the degree of fear they were experiencing - how sensitive they were to the images and sounds.

They found that subjects who were more easily startled tended to have political views that would be classified as more right wing, being more in favour of capital punishment and higher defence spending, but opposed to abortion rights.

The scientists explained that these political positions were protective of the volunteers' social groups.

"We focussed primarily on things that we call 'protecting the social unit'," said John Hibbing from the University of Nebraska.

"So the idea is we have this unit - maybe it's the US - and we want to protect this from outsiders; so we might be opposed to immigration, we might advocate patriotism, and we like leaders who are strong and clear who are able to protect us from those outsiders.

"We might even be opposed to pornography or any kind of corrosive element that we see threatening the social unit.

"On the other hand, you have people who are more supportive of pacifism and who advocate gun control - and there are lots of areas where people who are less sensitive to threat would project those kinds of feelings into the political arena."

Different strokes

The researchers say there is no political relevance to their research - but Dr Hibbing feels it may help explain why it is so hard to change someone's mind in a political debate.

Different people, he said, started from a different psychological point.

"You have people who are experiencing the world, who are experiencing threat, differently.

"It's just that we have these very different physiological orientations. We're not sure where they came from, they may be genetic, they may be something from childhood; we do know, though, that they run deep because it's a reflex, it's not something you can change tomorrow, the depth of that may be something of an asset in figuring out why people are so stubborn in their political beliefs," he said.

"I even have the hope that this might facilitate understanding a little bit. Instead of political opponents thinking the opposite party are being wilfully bull-headed, you can say 'well ok, they see the world differently than I do'.

"People haven't just thought about things differently, they feel things differently."

Posted by chek at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2008

TravelMuse

http://www.travelmuse.com/

Travel Planning, Family Vacations & Travel Guides

Posted by chek at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2008

Sand Sculpture World Championship, Canada, Sep

http://www.worldeventsguide.com/event.ehtml?o=1706

01-30 Sep 2008

Harrison Hot Springs, Vancouver, Canada

Much more than a mere bucket and spade event, "Harrisand" is the World Championship of Sand Sculpture and the exhibition of finished sculpture is Western Canada's largest outdoor art show. Raising sand castles to a higher plane, these creations begin as columns of dampened, hard-packed sand tamped in wooden forms. The artists create realistic figures and complex scenes and tableaux using carving tools, usually achieving a high degree of realism. The competition is divided into the doubles category, solo master and team-100-hour. After the prizes are awarded, the sculptures remain in-situ as a temporary exhibition for a full month

Lake Harrison (Venue)

Getting There

Road: Harrison Hot Springs is a 90-minute drive east of Vancouver. Exit 135 (Bridal Falls) from highway 1 to Agassiz, then highway 9 north to Harrison Hot Springs

Posted by chek at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)