Will the Internet be ever safe for children to browse? If there are the so-called growing “Chinese army of hackers”, in contrary, European Union is extending its net safety programme that has started four years ago, to prevent children from inappropriate content and cyber bullying.

The European Commission is spending 55m euros (£42m) on making the net a safer place for children.

That is some price of technology we have to pay.

This is how my main screen appears. A screenshot of my late cat, Ladygishi, and a flower from my mother-in-law. Is it obvious that I miss my cat? Anyway, in the sidebar docked are just some news feed and weather watch in our area gadgets. Shortcuts.

The weather is still heavy and unpredictable at times, and the mornings freezing, but the sign of spring is here. These are just some snapshots I took around the house. Another season will soon come, afresh and anew. It is so good to see see trees come to life again, except the evergreens, with its beautiful budding. Every time is a blissful morning.

Touch Typing: is the fastest way to type in which the typist does not use the sense of sight, or does not look at the keyboard, but rather use the finger muscle memory.

In the present technology, with its endless possibilities, do you think we still need the keyboard for some years? Who knows what once-unthinkable things science brings. While that does not yet happen, “it is worth the time you invest in learning this essential skill” of speed typing to easily achieve an ideal writing speed of 70 words per minute.

Some of the suggested ways of improving typing speeds in touch typing are:

- Ensuring a correct posture
- Exerting only the correct amount of force required ie. not to bang on the keys
- Taking frequent breaks to relax and improve accuracy
- Using an optimized keyboard layout such as Dvorak or Colemak.

I am 25 words off the ideal. My fingers are not as dextrous when it comes to typing as Francine. Passing this to Debbie.

45 words

Speedtest

There was mail yesterday from the bank offering insurance privilege and discount. Hubby said he does not need it anymore for he has whole life insurance already from his company. This insurance from one dollar globe also takes care for whole life coverage for children as for adults in its billions of insurance in force, with benefits that don’t cancel and reduce over time.

Wordless Wednesday – Safe in her mother’s bossom
Sanjay Gandhi National Park, India.

wordless wednesday

I am not comparing monkeys with people; I don’t believe in the theory that we come from there. But looking at that scene in that park I didn’t see the monkeys, but I saw the emotional bond between them and made me recall that when we were kids, five of us siblings (that’s a blessing!) then with a year or two age gap, it was not just our mother that held us tight, but our eldest sister too. She would always hold us together so we would not be run over on our long way home from church. The joy of childhood! I was holding tight. In case you ask why it is a blessing..

The illusion of the long neck

I came across a humor blog few weeks back and the humorist showed a photo or two of peoples, particularly of women having long necks. At first sight that seemed funny, but I knew it goes deeper than that.

By following Jewel in the palace community I read some phrases about “long-necked beauty”. So was it for that reason that those women have long necks, for beauty?

I have not traveled and met with them actually, I just found some interesting things. I believe there are also some small tribes in Africa (women of Ndebele), but the group of people some labeled as the “long-neck” or “giraffe” tribe, signifying the very old tradition and practice of adorning their women with rings around the neck, are called Karen Padaung, a tiny sub-group of the larger Karen people, natives of Burma who have long been caught up in a civil war against the government, and found refuge in artificial tourist villages in Thailand who were accepted by the Thai government for the tourist money they bring in, which also supports them. They sat on display at a Bangkok tourism fair, helping to create the buzz that would draw visitors from around the globe who will be paying a heavy entrance fee to gawk at them. They prefer to be exploited for tourism, (anyway they seem to enjoy being photographed), than going back to their land in civil war.

In the Mae Hong Sorn and Bann Thaton area in Thailand, the women of the Karen Padaung villages wear multiple brass spiral coils and rings around the neck, the arms and the legs, and use carved elephant tusk in the ears. This neck ring adornment is started when the girls are 5 or 6 years old and the neck grows longer as additional rings are added with each passing year. The rings on the neck reach from the clavicle up to beneath the chin, and these rings are always held very tightly by the bone structure from clavicle to chin. But the appearance of a longer neck is a visual illusion. The women’s necks are not actually stretched. The weight of the rings gradually pushed down the women’s collarbones, as well as the upper ribs, to such an angle that the collarbone actually appears to be a part of the neck, making an illusion of a long neck! For this tribe the rings are the most prominent sign of female beauty and status, and an extra-long neck is considered a sign of great beauty and wealth and that it will attract a better husband. But in this small tribe whose members marries within the group, adultery is low, well, since the punishment is removal of the brass neck ring, which over the years, weakened the neck muscles that women have to spend their life lying down for support. Each peoples, each cultures. There is always striking beauty and wonder in them that overwhelm our thoughts of fathoming them.