American Gun Culture

Last lesson Farrah told us some facts about america and their rights to bear arms and now I want to tell you something of this lesson.

Americans bear weapons because of these three reasons:

One of them struggle against the British. People have guns to make sure that the government doesn't go bad.

The second reason is the frontier life. People who live at the frontier have no policy quite close so the have to protect them on their own.

And Americans need their guns for hunting.

Farrah also told us something about a group of people who are called "Rednecks". Typically for them is that they wear old jeans, caps, drink a lot of beer and are uneducated.

At the end of the lesson we watched a video about a shooting in arizona. In this video a young republican man wanted to kill a democratic congress woman.

A swarm of leaks

I read an article the other day on the online version of the economist.com and it talks about new upcoming leaking sites. Basically what it talks about is that WikiLeaks may die but leaking will not. There is already another leaking site which is called Cryptome, which was founded by two New York architects with libertarian leanings. It is also mentioned that there will start a new website, which is not named yet, in Germany.

It is also said that the rivals of WikiLeaks differ in their approaches to technologie and their methods. WikiLeaks seeks donations. The owner of the Cryptome site finances his site with money of his own pocket and the owner of the german site has not said how he will finance this site.

It seems that the new pages will be bolder with the material they disclose.
Mr. Young, the owner of Cryptome has already posted more than 58, 000 files. And the german site wants to allow the leakers to decide how their documents will appear.

In the future such websites will multiply, because the technologie is on their side.

I think it will be very interesting in the future, because when there are a lot of leaking sites, there will not be a chance for the states to have any secrets.

Link

Vocabulary:

to seek (benötigen): WikiLeaks seeks donations.

to be bold (kühn, mutig sein): The new pages will be bolder with the material they disclose.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was first celabrated in 1621 by the pilgrims who wanted to celebrate their first harvest. The Native Americans were invited to eat with the Pilgrims.

Nowadays it is celabrated on the 4th thursday in November. On this day the family comes together to have a typical Thanksgiving dinner.

Typical dishes are: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, etc.

The day after Thanksgiving is the "Black Friday". On this day the Christmas shopping season begins. There are a lot of discounts granted and the shops open very early in the morning.

In my mind Thanksgiving is very nice. The family comes together and they have a fantastic dinner.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallow's Eve.

Hallowed means holy. Eve is the day before a holy day. Halloween was an ancient British Celtic festival. At Halloween the souls of the dead returned. People lit bonfires to frighten evils spirits. Now bonfires are only burnt on November 5th. On Halloween children play trick-or treat. They hope to get money and if they don't get money, they play a trick on the people, who don't give them sweets.

My favourite advertisement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40DykbPa4Lc

Farrah

Her name is Farrah. She is form Maryland, which is in the north east of Washington D.C. She is a single child, about which she doesn't care, because she gets everything what she wants from her parents. She is really bad at sports, but she goes to gym. In Austria she likes the mountains and she also likes the old buildings in the cities. She has already been to Perg, Saalbach, Vienna, Innsbruck and Salzburg. In her freetime she likes to listen to music and to watch films. In Europe she has already been to Germany, France, UK, the Nederlands, Greece and Switzerland.

The development of advertising

In the beginning of advertising during the Industrial Revolution, it was mainly used to promote novelties and fringe products.
Then there were a lot of new companies and so brand-naming became necessary.

The economic depression, which lasted from 1873 to 1894, brought on a crisis of over-production and under-consumption.
The smaller businesses realized that they would be in a better situation if they combined with other small businesses.

Lord Leverhulme was one of the first industrialists to realize that advertisements should contain "logical and considered" arguments as well as eye-catching and witty slogans.
Advertising of this period had reached the "stage of persuasion as distinct from proclamation or iteration", indeed advertise or bust seemed to be the rule of the day as bigger and more expensive campaigns were mounted and smaller firms who did not or could not, advertise, were squeezed or bought out by the larger companies.

Austrian economy suffers throwback

I read an article on austriantimes.at the other day and it talks about that the Austrian economy.

Basically what it says is that the Austrian gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2010. It is also said that soaring mineral oil prices would not only keep investments low but also lead to declining spendings by Austrians.

The WIFO meanwhile stressed the Austrian economy would continue to recover from the impact of the economic crisis, but added that this process would occur slower than initially inspected.

What shocked me most was the fact that the Austrian gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2010. It also shocked me that the process of recovering of the economic crisis would occur slower than initially inspected.

Let's go green

I have just heard a presentation and the name of it was "Let's go green". It talked about the environment, pollution and the climate change. It was a very interesting presentation because it concerns all of us.



Climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats by facing the planet. There exist two types of climate changes. Natural causes, which are: earth's orbit, drifting continents, volcanic eruptions and sun's output.

And there are also human causes for example: Greenhouse gases.


It also talked about environmental pollution. There are three kinds of pollutions.

air pollution: noise pollution, tobacco smoke, etc.
water pollution: industrial pollution, farming wastes, etc.
land pollution: soil pollution, waste pollution, etc.

If you want to help saving life on Earth you can find some suggestions on the websites of WWF or Greenpeace.


To my mind we all should help saving life on earth, because it isn't difficult to help. I will help by recycling different kinds of materials and i will compost things which can be composted.

My comment about the presentation "tourism"

To my mind the blog was very good. The speakers were good prepared and they spoke fluently and the eye contact was also fine. And for me the content was very interesting

What i liked most was the explanation of the homepage. It was very interesting because they teached us how to manage to make a perfect holiday.

I also liked the pictures at the end of the presentation. So we could imagine how these buildings look like.

Well done girls!!

Press review

I read an article the other day on austriantimes.at and it talks about the fact that almost two thirds of skiers in Austria, Germany and the german-speaking part of Switzerland would be willing to use rental skis.

I thought you might be interested because skiing is a very popular sport in Austria.

Basically what it says is that in a study almost two thirds of responds said that they would use rental skis if the price was good and the skis were adapted to their individual needs.

It is also said that a whide choice of brands at rental shops were cited as an important factor in deciding to rent skis, but a quarter said that the high price of ski rentals put them off renting skis.

What surprised me most was the fact that two thirds of the german-speaking countrys would rent skis.

Christmas traditions

I have just read an article on share-christmas.com and it talks about the different Christmas traditions.

It talks about that in China Christians decorate their homes with colourful paper lanterns and that the people there go to work or school on Christmas day.
It's also said that most of the chinese people are Buddhists and that Christmas festivities are becoming more and more.

It also talks about the Spain traditions. After the Christmas Mass people sing and dance on the streets. The Christmas dinner is eaten after midnight and there they eat "Pavo Trufado de Navidad". It's also said that instead of Father Christmas the Three Wise Men bring the presents.

I also read an article about the traditions in Hungary. It is said that the children became a visit by Mikulas on December 6th. On Christmas eve the children are allowed to see the tree for the first time, then when a bell is rung they go into the room, where the tree is and they see the presents there. They have been put there by the angels.

KTM on loss-making off-road trip

I read an article the other day in the online version of "austriantimes.at" and it talks about the Upper Austrian motorcycle and off-road vehicle maker KTM.


I thought you might be interested because KTM is an Upper Austrian company.

Basically what it says is that the turnover of the company fell by 24.9 per cent from 605.7 million euros to 454.6 million euros. It said that business in North America, KTM's biggest market shrank by 44 per cent and the european market contracted by a fifth.

I also said that the Mattighofen-based company dismissed 450 employees while 773 staff were put into a part-time scheme and that KTM planned to keep the part-time model running longer, but they ended it as orders grew faster.

What surprised me most was the fact that the company dismissed 450 employees and that the market in Europe contracted by a fifth and that the turnover fell by 24.9 per cent.


If you want to see the original text click here.



words:

to shrink (sinken): If something is getting lower it shrinks.
to contract (verkleinern): It's a synonym for shrink.
to dismiss (entlassen): If you don't need an employe you dismiss him.
staff (Mitarbeiter): People, who work in a company.
part-time scheme (Kurzarbeit): If the staff works shorter than usual than they are in a part-time scheme.

Flora's Interview

I have recently heard an interview of Flora and it talks about her visit to Austria.

She met friendly people. Flora said that the more she learned about the Austrian way of life, the more she learned about the Ireland culture. She added that there is a big difference between Austria and Ireland. For example in Ireland it isn't allowed to smoke on public places. She said it will be hard for her to accept the smoke law in Ireland again. Flora enjoyed her stay in Austria.

Darbo is 98-per-cent family-owned!!

I have just read an article on www.austriantimes.at and it talks about the Tyrol jam producer Darbo.

Basically what it says is that the Tyrol jam producer Adolf Darbo AG become almost entirely family owned after purchasing 42.4 per cent of its stock back from the Swiss Hero Group.

It also talks about that the German firm Schwartauer Werke had purchased 25 per cent of Darbo's stock in 1994 and Darbo used this money to modernise its facility and to increase its market share.

Schwartauer increased its interest and buys more shares until it had acquired a 42.4-per cent interest.

Last year Darbo had turnover 99.7 million Euros and this year they expect more than 100 million.


Follow the link to the original text

Why Vastic snubbed LASK

I have just read an article on www.austriantimes.at and it is about why Vastic snubbed LASK for waidhofen job.


Basically what it says is that Vastic thinks that he might have been overburdened with start working at a bundesliga club.
He said that he has no pressure at waidhofen. They don't have to secure promotion or buy players. Their policy is to focus on talents in the region.

He was also offered the post of manager of the amateur team of Bundesliga side LASK Linz, but he weighed up the offers and came to the decision that it would be more interesting to work with waidhofen.


In my opinion it is a pity that Vastic doesn't stay at LASK, I think he would be a good manager there.



Follow this link to read the original text.

Styria Medien becomes largest media company

I have just read an article on www.austriantimes.at and it talks about the Styria Medien company.

I thought you might be interested becau the Styria Medien AG produces the newspaper "Kleine Zeitung" which is an austrian newspaper.


Basically what it says is that the Styria Medien AG has become Austria's largest media enterprise. It talks about the change of Moser Holding, which produces "Tiroler Tageszeitung" to the Styria Medien AG.

It also says that the deal would creat a credible, counterweight to the harmful dominance of Mediaprints newspaper "Kronen Zeitung".



In my opinion it is good to hear that now there is another leader of the printer and not Mediaprint anymore.

Red Bull Co(caine)la !!

I have just read an article on www.austriantimes.at and it talks about Red Bull Cola.

I thought you might be interested because Red Bull is an austrian brand.


Basically what it say is that in five German Provinces Red Bull Cola has been banned after finding traces of cocaine in the drink.

It also says that you can't become addicted to the drink, but added that further steps were being considered


In my opinion I don't care about this because I don't drink Red Bull Cola. Besides, if there is only a few of cocaine in it, it won't damage your body.

Press review framework

I have just read an article in Christian Peböck's blog myblogPeböck and it talks about St. Patrick's Day.

Basically what it says is that St. Patrick's Day is a feast day, which celebrates St. Patrick, one of the patrons of Ireland and it is celabrated on March 17 th. It is also mentioned that it is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland and Montserrat. In Canada, Great Britain, Australia, the United States and New Zealand, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated but is not an official holiday.

It also says, that everybody, who celebrates is dressed green and drinks a lot of alcohol and there is also a lot of Irish music in the pubs. On this day everything is coloured green. For example, beer, clothes, hair and so on. In some areas even the rivers are coloured green only for one day.


What interested me most was the fact that nearly everything is coloured green, even the rivers!!!??

As for me i think people in Austria should also celebrate St. Patrick's Day. ;)


yours, Manuel

St. Patrick's Day !!

St. Patrick is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. It is known, that he was born in Britain. Today St. Patrick's Day is a very important festival in Ireland. And it is a national holiday in Ireland and it is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland, in Montserrat and in the canadian province Neufundland. On this day the main colour is green. Some rivers and even beer is coloured green.
For the Roman Catholics, the church of Ireland and the anglican church it is a feast day.
A lot of people wear a shamrock at this day.



Now let me tell you something of St. Patrick:

When he was about sixteen he was captured by Irish raiders and taken from his native Wales as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the church, he later returned to Ireland as a missionary in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked and no link can be made between Patrick and any church. By the eighth century he become the patron saint of Ireland.