Archive - Feb 2017

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Carnival is a Western Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typically involves a public celebration and/or parade combining some elements of a circus, masks, and a public street party. People wear masks and costumes during many such celebrations, allowing them to lose their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity. Excessive consumption of alcohol, meat, and other foods proscribed during Lent is extremely common. Other common features of carnival include mock battles such as food fights; social satire and mockery of authorities; and a general reversal of everyday rules and norms.  read more »

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Survey: People Don’t Really Want Fancy Technology To Help Them Shop
While retailers are falling all over themselves trying to incorporate the latest and greatest retail technology - anything from smart mirrors in fitting rooms to robots that answer questions you’d ask store employees - frankly, shoppers just don’t seem to give a damn.

Basically, shoppers just want to get what they want as quickly and easily as possible. And although stores might be excited about their latest gadgets and gizmos, Maya Mikhailov, a co-founder of GPShopper told Bloomberg, “but consumers aren’t necessarily as eager as they are.”

Chatbots fared particularly poorly, Mikhailov says, mostly because talking to robots is still not as natural as talking with a live human about what you want.

Stores are spending lots of time and money trying out new, fancy technologies like touchscreen mirrors in changing rooms and robo-assistants out in the racks to get consumers to buy more.

Shoppers couldn’t care less.  read more »

What an amazing true story and happy healthy granny!
"* Kung Fu keeps Zhang in good health and in tip-top shape:
she has never been to the hospital – and never takes vitamins or supplements.
* Kung Fu has also earned Zhang the title of best cook in her village
because of her ability to do large-pot cooking with her strong arms -
once cooked 52 dishes for a single banquet, all by herself."

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February 21, 2017
Zhang began learning Kung Fu from her father at the age of 4 and has not stopped practicing her skills.
The face of strength and protection in a province of southeast China has a bamboo stick in her hand and 90 years of Kung Fu experience under her belt.

Zhang Hexian, 94, has been protecting the members of her village and fighting injustice for decades and has recently become a star on Chinese social media.

After photos and videos of the “Kung Fu Granny” practicing her craft surfaced on the Internet, stereotypes of inactive old women took a punch.

Kung Fu keeps Zhang in good health and in tip-top shape. According to her son, Feng Chuanyin, she has never been to the hospital – and never takes vitamins or supplements.

Zhang began learning Kung Fu from her father at the age of 4 and has not stopped practicing her skills. She has even become quite the teacher herself, according to her students in Zhejiang Province who called her “wing-footed.”  read more »

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Last night beneath the mockery of the moon
I heard the sudden startled whisperings
Of wakened birds settling their restless wings;
The North-east brought his word of gladness, "Soon!"
And all the night with wonder was a-swoon.
A soul had breathed into long-dreaming things;
Some unseen hand hovered above the strings:
Some cosmic chord had set the earth in tune.
And when I rose I saw the Bay arrayed
In her grey robe against the coming heat.
A pulse awoke within the stirring street--
The wattle-gold upon the pavements thrown,
And through the quiet of the colonnade
The smoky perfume of boronia blown.

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A Spring Sonnet - Poem by Arthur Henry Adams