Learning English-Lesson Five (Good/Bad)

Learning English - Lesson Four (Response to 'Please'/'Thank You')

Learning English-Lesson Three (Please & Thank You)

Learning English - Lesson Two (Hello/Goodbye)

Learning English - Lesson One (Introduction)

Queen's joy at majestic Trooping of the Colour birthday celebrations

The smile on her face spoke volumes – the Queen was delighted with this year's Trooping of the Colour ceremony which marked her official birthday.

Radiant in a lilac top coat and matching hat, the monarch – who celebrated her actual birthday on April 21 - presided over the procession of soldiers of the household division.

Crowds of over 20,000 had packed the streets around Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall to see the historic event, held this year to mark the sovereign's 84th birthday.

Proceedings began with the Queen and Prince Philip riding down The Mall from Buckingham Palace in Queen Victoria's 1842 ivory-mounted carriage, which was pulled by grey horses.

Accompanying them on horseback were Prince Charles, Princess Anne and the Duke of Kent. Meanwhile following in carriages were Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie – who both wore intricate titfers – and Prince William and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Later, from the palace balcony the royal family watched the Royal Air Force fly past with WWII planes, fighter jets and the Red Arrows.

This year's celebrations were the 58th time the Queen has overseen the event. The Trooping of the Colour is a traditional enactment of the preparations for battle when the flags – or colours – were paraded down the ranks so they would be recognised by soldiers.

The colour being trooped this year was the flag of the first Battalion Grenadier Guards, who returned from Afghanistan six weeks ago.

Japanese space probe finds unique asteroid dust

The Hayabusa probe blazed a spectacular trail over Australia before slamming into the desert at around midnight local time, ending a journey to the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa that began in 2003.

A spokesman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) told Reuters the first image available indicated the capsule carrying the precious cargo had survived.

After sunrise, Australian defense officials flew local Aboriginal elders to the site by helicopter to verify that no sacred sites had been damaged. A defense spokesman said the indigenous leaders had cleared the way for the capsule to be recovered later on Monday.

Hayabusa, which means falcon in Japanese, landed on the irregularly shaped asteroid in 2005 and scientists think it managed to pick up a small sample of material. If successful, it would be the first time a spacecraft has brought such a sample back to Earth, other than from our own Moon.

Scientists hope it could unlock secrets of the solar system's formation and shed light on the risk to Earth from asteroid impacts.

NASA scientist Paul Abell, who monitored the return, said Hayabusa was significant from in terms planetary defense, bearing in mind an asteroid impact is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs.

Knowing the physical characteristics of near-Earth asteroids would be useful "in case we see something coming at us in the future," he said. As leftover matter from the building of the solar system, he added, asteroids could also tell us about its formation and possibly the origins of life.

"It has actually gone really well. It is a very significant event," he told Reuters.

SAMPLE LOOKS SAFE

JAXA spokesman Makoto Miwada told Reuters on Monday that the first photo of the capsule, with a diameter of just 40 cm (15.75 inches) and a height of just 20 cm (7.874 inches), was very encouraging.

"We have only one photo and it looks very safe," he said.

Much of the probe burned up spectacularly in the atmosphere, as planned, forming a spectacular fireball and the capsule could clearly be seen separating, witnesses said.

"It was like a shooting star with a starburst behind it. It was fantastic," one witness told Reuters.

Teams from NASA were deployed to watch the 500-kg (1,100-lb) craft's return to the Woomera weapons testing range in South Australia state. A long stretch of central Australia's main north-south Stuart Highway was closed for safety reasons.

The asteroid Itokawa is an irregularly shaped object measuring just over 500 metres (yards) at its longest.

Planetary scientist Trevor Ireland told Reuters the dust sample could shed light on the "missing link" between asteroids and meteorites that fall to Earth.

Analysis of the capsule's contents will be carried out in Japan and is expected to take at least six months.

8 Easy Steps to Great Sushi

When it comes to preparing something delicious, cheap, and relatively nutritious, I really have to endorse sushi. Sushi is a delightfully delicious bit of Japanese cuisine that can be really interesting and satisfying to cook yourself. Going out to sushi bars can be fun, but costs a lot. If you learn how to make your own sushi, you'll be able to save money, eat great and keep the kitchen cool in the summer, because don't forget-sushi uses RAW fish. That means no cooking, which means a nice cool kitchen :)
What You Need

Sushi can have many different ingredients, but usually comprises of a few core ingredients. You'll need special short-grained Japanese sushi rice, nori, (flattened sheets of green seaweed) and stuff to put in the sushi roll. You'll also need some rice vinegar, sugar and salt to add seasoning to the rice. You can get all of these things at any well-stocked local supermarket except for the nori, which you may need to go to an Asian market for. If you don't live near an Asian market, you can look online for a sushi food supplier. You will also need a very sharp chef's knife or santoku. A bamboo mat is helpful, but not necessary, and can also be found at an Asian market. Some common condiments for sushi include soy sauce for dipping, wasabi paste (the spicy green stuff!) and pickled ginger (which helps clear the palate between different sushi).

First Step

The first thing you want to do is prepare the sushi rice, since it has the greatest preparation time. You need to rinse the rice until the water is clear and then let it soak in water for around 30 minutes. The soaking causes water to soften the rice grains and will make the rice cook properly. I find that 2 cups of rice prepares around 4 full maki rolls (or around 32 pieces of sushi).

Second Step

While the rice is soaking is an ideal time to prepare your materials. The most traditional core ingredient is raw fish. Common species used include yellowfin tuna, salmon, squid or eel. Make sure your fish is very fresh (never frozen!) and preferably sashimi-grade. Go to your grocer and ask if they have sashimi-grade fish. If they doesn't know what you're talking about, go somewhere else! I like to buy all my fish at the Asian market because I know it's fresh and is of the proper quality for making sushi. In addition to fish, sushi often contains other ingredients to add different flavors or textures like avocado, cucumber, green onion, cream cheese and spicy sauces. Feel free to get a little adventurous when it comes to putting ingredients into your sushi roll, as long as you keep it under 3 ingredients or so. I've also had delicious vegetarian sushi rolls that featured bananas, sweet potatoes or tofu. You're going to need around an 8' long strip of each one of your ingredients. How thick you cut them depends on how many ingredients you want in your roll, but i find around 1/4th inch square is pretty good for three ingredients.

Third Step

Next you need to prepare the rice. The rice will ideally be prepared in a rice cooker which will make perfect rice AND keep your kitchen cool, but if you don't have a rice cooker, you'll have to make do with a microwave or stovetop. Preparing Japanese sushi rice in the microwave can be very difficult and I would strongly suggest you use the stovetop method if you don't have a rice cooker. Place the rice in a medium sized pot with the water level just slightly above the rice level. Bring the rice to a boil, stirring regularly. Do NOT let the rice stick to the bottom or side of the pan. After the water level is down below the rice level, cover the pot and put it on slight heat for 8-9 minutes.

Fourth Step

While the rice is cooking, you can prepare the rice seasoning from the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. It's this mixture that gives sushi rice its distinctive sweet and sour flavor, so it's very important to get this right, but thankfully, it's not especially {tough-tricky-difficult] to get right. When I'm preparing 2 cups of rice, I like to use 3.5 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of salt. Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar and salt dissolve. Do not let the mixture start to boil; it should never get that hot. Stir the mixture to try to make the sugar and salt dissolve fully and then keep it on very low heat until the rice is ready.

Fifth Step

When the rice is done, remove it from the pot into a wooden bowl. Treat the rice carefully-you don't want to damage any of the grains. If any rice is stuck to the side or bottom of the pot, leave it. You don't want any damaged rice in the sushi. It's important to use a wooden bowl because the vinegar seasoning is about to be added in and the vinegar may react with the metal. With the rice in the bowl, drizzle the seasoning over it and cut it in (don't stir!) with a wooden spoon. You are just trying to coat the grains of rice with the mixture. If you stir too enthusiastically, you may damage the grains.

Sixth Step

Let the rice cool for a while. You need room temperature rice to work with when making sushi. I like to take advantage of this time to prepare the rest of my ingredients if I haven't done so already. I also like to pick up the kitchen at this time (you'll be shocked how much mess you've made in the last 5 steps). In a sushi restaurant this usually is the time when a chef's assistant will actually fan the rice to help it to cool down more quickly.

Seventh Step

When the rice is cool, take a small unk of it and spread it over the bottom 5/6ths of the nori, which should be on the bamboo mat if you have one. Nori has two sides, a shiny side and a rough side. Make sure you position the shiny side down. The rice should be spread thinly enough to still see little bits of green through the rice, although you can spread it thicker than that if you have only one ingredient. When you've covered the whole nori sheet except the little bit at the top, you're good. It helps to spread the sticky rice by keeping a small bowl of water nearby to dip your fingers into, so they don't stick and get messy.

Last Step

Place your ingredients near the middle-bottom of the nori. Roll up the bottom piece of the nori over the ingredients. If you have a bamboo mat, use it to make sure the roll has equal pressure applied on it and is packed tightly. Continue shifting the bamboo mat to roll up more and more of the sushi roll. When you reach the part with no rice, you can roll it over and seal it with a bit of water. Then, use a sharp knife to cut the sushi roll in half. A slight sawing motion is needed and it helps if the knife is dipped into hot water first. Double up the two halves and cut THEM in half to make quarters, and each quarter in half to make eighths. Arrange your sushi rolls on a plate and serve with soy sauce, and wasabi and ginger if you desire. Enjoy!

Religious studies

Religious studies, or Religious education, is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasising systematic, historically-based, and cross-cultural perspectives.

While theology attempts to understand the intentions of a supernatural force (such as deities), religious studies tries to study human religious behavior and belief from outside any particular religious viewpoint. Religious studies draws upon multiple disciplines and their methodologies including anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history of religion.

Religious studies originated in the nineteenth century, when scholarly and historical analysis of the Bible had flourished, and Hindu and Buddhist texts were first being translated into European languages. Early influential scholars included Friedrich Max Müller, in England, and Cornelius P. Tiele, in the Netherlands. Today religious studies is practiced by scholars worldwide. In its early years, it was known as Comparative Religion or the Science of Religion and, in the USA, there are those who today also know the field as the History of religion (associated with methodological traditions traced to the University of Chicago in general, and in particular Mircea Eliade, from the late 1950s through to the late 1980s). The field is known as Religionswissenschaft in Germany and Italy and Sciences de la religion in the French-speaking world.

Meditation

Mind is the hub of every move.
The true happiness, life can shelter under its roof.
And the Mind only can do the proof.

Life is always in action along the venue of rise and fall, love and hatred, despair, hopeless or hopeful. Some moves would drain our energy, but some moves give. We cannot say that life is only happiness or being covered with pain. The truth of life is fluctuating, swinging, swaying, betraying, or unexpectedly up and down. And mostly it is up to the external factor.

And be noted that the external factor normally weaves the web of inter-twining action to our internal. It is the mind. Then the mind that is the hub of everything is always in the situation unstable, tiring and restless.

It is proved that life is a two-way traffic i.e. external and internal, outside and inside. Mostly we cannot control the external, the outside factors or situations, but the mind we may, because it belongs to us. It is our inside. It is ours.

Luckily, Buddhist Philosophy has taught us to control and conduct the mind. All aim to lead the living way of life to the track of real peace and happiness. Absolutely, yes, it is “Meditation.”

To meditate, firstly is to learn how to still the mind on the point that is best balanced. It is the station of non-defile. Secondly is how to lead the mind to go deeper along the track of real peace. It is the Middle Way. The one and only way that leads to the real awakening and finally to the true enlightenment.

The Middle Way is the way that connects nibbana, heaven and earth as one.

Meditation in action will be in sudden at the gateway or at the first touch of the station of stillness, and, then, certainly, regularly, step by step all along the Middle Way. It is up to the mind that practices well or not.

The Middle Way is the real living way. It is the only existing principle of Buddhism of The Lord Buddha.

And be noted that real awakening or true enlightenment will be possible only by Dhammakaya as Lord Buddha said, “He who sees the Dhammakaya, is he who gets in touch with me, Thatagata.” (Thatagata is the name Lord Buddha called himself.)

Meditation in action will be touchable as soon as you touch or feel the station of stillness and it will be sharper and sharper in every inch you insert your mind deeper in The Middle Way.