Obama and Kim Jong-un strike a chord for peace in viral commercial

Despite the North Korean leader’s apparent preference for maintaining his communist country’s pariah-state status, he appeared in a viral video in Hongdae, South Korea, performing a lively duet with US President Barack Obama.

In a rare moment of joy between the United States and North Korea, the saber-rattling, military displays and nuclear threats were replaced with an old acoustic guitar, the bongos and a sentimental song everyone can sing along to.

The video features an Obama impersonator who began to play his acoustic guitar and sing along to the well-known ditty, “All by Myself” in the cultural district of Hongdae. As the excitement of the crowd increases, ‘Obama’ is joined by none other than North Korean leader, 'Kim Jong-un', who backs up the US leader on the bongos.

Although the event was motivated by nothing more inspiring than a marketing plan to sell appliances for the eNuri electronics company, the commercial did succeed in doing what geopolitical diplomacy has dismally failed at: Bringing together the leaders of two nuclear powers at a time of heightened animosity between the two states.

This is certainly not the first time the North Korean leader has been parodied in a Western commercial project.

In February, Hollywood released the controversial film 'The Interview,' which depicted the fictional assassination of the reclusive North Korean leader.

The movie was initially withdrawn by Sony after it was targeted by hackers in November 2014. Calling themselves 'Guardians of the Peace,' the group threatened to launch a terrorist attack if the film made it to theaters.

Pyongyang's state-run KCNA news agency last year described 'The Interview' as a “blatant act of terrorism.”

Soucre :https://www.rt.com

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Traditional Cambodian musical instruments

Traditional Cambodian musical instruments are the musical instruments used in the traditional and classical musics ofCambodia. They comprise a wide range of wind, string, and percussion instruments, used by both the Khmer majority as well as the nation's ethnic minorities

Wind

Flutes

·         Khloy - vertical duct flute made of bamboo, hardwood, or plastic, with buzzing membrane

·         Khloy ek - smaller in size

·         Khloy thom - larger in size

Free-reed

·         Sneng - water buffalo or ox horn with a single free reed

·         Pey pok - free-reed pipe

·         Ploy (also called m'baut) - mouth organ with gourd body and five to seven bamboo pipes; used by Mon-Khmer-speaking upland ethnic minorities

·         Ken/Khaen - free-reed mouth organ used in northwestern Cambodia

·         Angkuoch (also called kangkuoch) - jaw harp made of bamboo or metal

Kaois

·         Sralai - quadruple-reed oboe

·         Sralai toch - small quadruple-reed oboe

·         Sralai thom - large quadruple-reed oboe

·         Pey ar (also spelled beyaw, and also called bey prabauh) - oboe with cylindrical bore

Horns

·         Saing - conch shell horn

Other

·         Slek - tree leaf used as a wind instrument

String

Bowed

A pair of tro

·         Tro - fiddle

·         Tro Khmer - three-string vertical spike fiddle with coconut shell body; used in classical music

·         Tro che - high-pitched two-string vertical fiddle, with face covered with snakeskin

·         Tro sau toch - two-string vertical fiddle with hardwood body; used in classical music

·         Tro sau thom - two-string vertical fiddle with hardwood body; used in classical music

·         Tro u (also spelled tro ou) - lower two-string vertical fiddle with a coconut shell body, with face covered with calfskin or snakeskin; used in classical music

Plucked

A krapeu (takhe)

·         Chapey dang veng - plucked fretted lute

·         Krapeu (also called takhe) - crocodile-shaped fretted floor zither with three strings

·         Kse diev (also spelled se diev, and also called khse muoy) - chest-resonated stick zither)

Struck

·         Khim - hammered dulcimer

Percussion

Drums

A thon

·         Sampho - barrel drum, played with the hands

·         Skor ( (also spelled sko)

·         Skor thom - pair of large barrel drums, played with sticks

·         Thon - goblet-shaped drum, played with the hands

·         Rumana - frame drum, played with the hands

Gong chimes

·         Kong vong toch (also called kong toch) - small gong circle

·         Kong vong thom (also called kong thom) - large gong circle

Keyboard

·         Roneat - trough-resonated keyboard percussion instrument; generally played with two mallets and used in Khmer classical and theater music

·         Roneat ek - smaller xylophone

·         Roneat thung - larger xylophone

·         Roneat dek - smaller metallophone

·         Roneat thong larger metallophone; no longer used

Gongs

·         Kong vong - single suspended gong

Clappers

·         Krap - pair of flat bamboo or hardwood sticks

Cymbals

·         Ching - pair of small cymbals used to mark time

·         Chap - pair of flat cymbals

Woodblocks

·         Pan - woodblock

·         Nay pay - Pellow

·         Sindang - Small Size Woodblocks

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

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Tour Guide Killed in Lion Attack Did Everything Right

There's little a person can do in the face of Africa's top predator, experts say.

The tour guide killed by a lion while on a walking safari in Zimbabwe'sHwange National Park did everything right in responding to the attack, according to experts—but he still paid the ultimate price

Quinn Swales, 40, a professional guide, was leading a group of six tourists in the park—the former home of Cecil the lion—when they came upon a pride. The male lion got up and began approaching the tour group."As he had done numerous times in his career, Quinn immediately briefed his guests on what to expect and instructed them to get behind him and not move," Camp Hwange, a safari camp in the park, said in a Facebook statement announcing the death.

After Quinn and the group shouted and set off a “bear banger”—an instrument that makes a loud noise like a gunshot—the lion seemed to retreat, only to double back suddenly and attack Quinn. He died on site.

"The guide who lost his life did his job: Placing himself between tourists under his care and a source of danger," Luke Dollar, program director for National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative, says in an email.

Dollar says the park should review whether it was wise to place the guide in that vulnerable situation, particularly when there was a safer option of watching the animals from a vehicle.

However, he adds that "walking safaris themselves are generally and widely done safely and responsibly."

"I don't expect this will lead to a major change in whether walking safaris continue to be a common offering in safari experiences," he adds.

"What this incident will hopefully do, however, is serve as an important reminder that safety—in any endeavor—should always be of paramount concern."

Top Predator

Dollar adds that the male lion was doing what it evolved to do.

"Almost any organism around lions might be a potential prey item, and for people to think that they are an exception is folly," Dollar said in a previous interview following a fatal lion attack in South Africa in June.

"I would imagine that every other primate that co-exists with big cats is acutely aware of the position they hold relative to the top predators of the world." (Also see "California Death Prompts Questions About Lion Attacks.")

Dollar says danger arises when people allow themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security in the presence of lions or other carnivores.

"We don't have claws or big canines or size as an advantage," he says.

Respect the King of the Jungle

Dollar estimates that dozens, if not hundreds, of people are attacked by lions each year.

In the wild, old or sick lions may target people because they cannot catch their normal prey, and people are generally easier gets.

"If a person is standing next to an impala and a lion decides it's going to eat something, that impala is probably going to get away and that person is probably not." (Learn more about big cats and their behaviors.)

That said, people should not be afraid to observe lions in the wild, Dollar said, but should know that they might be viewed as potential prey and to act accordingly.

"We need to remember that we call these animals the kings of the jungle for a reason," says Dollar. "We need to respect what they are and their natural behaviors."

With reporting by Mary Bates. Follow Christine Dell'Amore on Twitter andGoogle+. 

Source :http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

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Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.

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The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age.[note 5] Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

Historical Siddhārtha Gautama

Ancient kingdoms and cities of India during the time of the Buddha.

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary ofMahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira,Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.

The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.

The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment inBodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.

No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in theBritish Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.

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Source :https://en.wikipedia.org

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