Rememberance Sunday

前几天就注意到很多行人前胸都扣上了一朵纸制的小红花，还以为是慈善募捐得来红花。

后来才知道原来是英国的Rememberance Sunday（国殇纪念日），纪念在第一第二世界大战，及其它战争中为国捐躯的人。
纪念日举行在11月第二个星期日（通常是最接近11月11日星期日）。
在当天11月11日11点11分，全国人民会哀悼两分钟。

英女王会在战争纪念碑(war memorial)敬献花圈。（要看英女王就要趁今天了，要不可以看电视播现场的。）

那红花到底是什么花呀？
是Poppy(罂粟花)，所以Rememberance Sunday也叫做Poppy Day。

那为什么是罂粟花呢？
原来早在19世纪拿破仑一世时代，每场战斗结束，尸横遍野的战场上就会盛开出密密麻麻的罂粟花，罌粟花的紅色正代表了战士的鲜血。一战期间的大规模轰炸，把大量的石灰植入土地，罂粟再次盛开蔓延。然而战争一结束，花儿就消失了。就这样，罂粟花渐渐和战争联系在一起，成为人们缅怀生命的象征。

BBC News

英国烟火节

前几天晚上不时听到有放烟火的声音。
奇怪，Dewali已过了一个星期，还有人在庆祝？
到后来听同事说才知道最近是烟火节。
英国人在庆祝每年一度的Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire night。
也是一年365天唯一可以合法放烟火来的时节。
哪么放烟火与Guy Fawkes又有什么拉郎？

据说在很久很久以前，1605年，有一群英国的天主教徒因为不满当时的英国King James I，企图要炸议会大厦谋杀国王！
当时负责要炸国会大楼的人叫做Guy Fawkes，他在国会的地下室准备了36大桶的火药（gunpowder)，等着国王来就要把火药点燃。

有一个参加这项计划的人写信给在国会大楼工作的朋友，警告他要离开国会大楼，但这封信被拦截，因此这个计划就曝光，计划告吹了。

为庆祝国王的生存，英国人以营火或烟花去庆祝。时至今日，英国人每逢11月5日或前后一星期，会举行营火会或放烟花。

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot

夏令时

今天跟小叮当借了时光机，把时间倒流一小时。

原来时间真的可以倒流！只要大家听专家的话，一起把时间调整一下。

这里夏天时白天长夜晚短，冬天反之。
专家说，为了使大家早起早睡，减少照明量，以充分利用光照资源，从而节约照明用电。
于是就设定了这个‘夏令时’(Daylight saving time:DST)，一种为节约能源而人为规定地方时间的制度。
在UK，每逢三月最后一个礼拜天，时间会调后一小时
而十月最后一个礼拜天，时间调前一小时

就酱，今天无端端赚了一小时:)

天堂与地狱

Q: What is paradise?
A: A world in which the police are British, the mechanics are Germans, the cooks are French and the lovers are Italian.

Q: And what is hell?
A: A world in which the police are Italians, the mechanics are French, the cooks are British and the lovers are German.

Copied from Living & Working in Britain

Clever Monkeys

PBS-自然之聪明的猴子

人类不是地球上唯一的智能生物

How to make your computer speak

Step 1: Open Notepad and paste the following text into a new document:

Dim message, sapi
message=InputBox(”Enter the text you want spoken”,”Speak This”)
Set sapi=CreateObject(”sapi.spvoice”)
sapi.Speak message

Now when you go to save the file, give it any name, but make sure you also type .VBS after the name. Also, for the Save as type box, choose All files instead of the default Text Documents.

Now double-click on the VBS file and you should see a input box where you can type in the text you want spoken! Go ahead and type something and click OK.

That’s it! Your computer will speak to you in the default voice, which for me was some scary seductive male type of voice! What about yours? Enjoy (This would be fun to do on someone else’s computer as a joke.)

Source

功夫BB

If we are cartoon character

FaceYourManga is a free service where you can create a custom avatar for social networks, forums, etc.
Everyone is cute in cartoon look!

How you'd look in the past?

With Yearbook Yourself you can upload a photo of yourself and then see what you would look like in yearbook photos from the 1950’s through 1990’s.
Try it for a good laugh!

Top 10 Excuses Made by Programmers

10. "I haven't touched that module in weeks!"
9. "It must be a hardware problem."
8. "Somebody must have changed my code."
7. "Did you check for a virus on your system?"
6. "You must have the wrong version."
5. "That's weird..."
4. "There must be something wrong with your data"
3. "It's never done that before."
2. "It worked yesterday."

and the best one

1. "It works on my machine"

I Love the World, Boomdiada

I been watched this video for N's times because it's really touching me!
I love it so much! I love the World, Boomdiada ("until the end" in Latin).



I love the mountains
I love the clear blue skies
I love big bridges
I love when great whites fly
I love the whole world and all it’s sights and sounds
Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada

I love the oceans
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love Egyptian kings
I love the whole world and all it’s craziness
Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada

I love tornados
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squids
I love the whole world It’s such a brilliant place
Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada
Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada Boomdiada