Piracy still happens often in the Gulf of Aden, mostly by Somali pirates. Modern pirates usually climb onto ships to get money. In the process, they may kill the crew or hold it for ransom. In a very few cases, they may also take over the ship and sell its cargo.
The cargo ships that travel the oceans are huge, but they usually have very few crew members working on them. Their size often makes the ships carry a lot of money in the safe. The money is used to pay the crew, to pay for the taxes to stay at a port, or to pass through a channel.
Langkawi
Langkawi is an island in the Malaysian state of Kedah. This island received its duty-free status in 1987.
Langkawi is one of the most important destination for tourists in Malaysia.
Mawlid an-Nabi
Mawlid an-Nabi is a special day in Islamic calendar to remember the birth of Prophet Muhammad. The day falls on the 12th day of Rabiul Awal of Islamic lunar calendar every year. Every year, Muslims around the world celebrate the day by large street processions, distributing food and charity and talks and sermons about the life of the prophet.
The day is recognised as a public holiday in most Muslim countries with the exception of Saudi Arabia.
Kedah
Kedah is one of the 14 states that form Malaysia. The state is in the northwestern part of the Peninsular Malaysia. It has an area of 9,425 km2. The capital of Kedah is Alor Setar.
Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn is an Australian-American molecular biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009.
Blackburn won the Nobel Prize with Americans Jack Szostak and Carol Greider for their work on chromosomes. They researched the way that telomeres protect the chromosomes in cells. Chromosomes are the part of the cell that carries genetic information. Telomeres are the ends of chromosomes. Blackburn outlined the DNA sequence of an organism called Tetrahymena. Blackburn discovered that telomeres can help prevent cancer and other diseases. Blackburn is the first Australian woman to win a Nobel Prize. She also received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2006.
Blackburn was born in Hobart, Tasmania on November 26, 1948. She was the daughter of Harold and Marcia Blackburn. She went to Broadford girls school in Launceston, and later Melbourne University High School. She studied biochemistry at the University of Melbourne, completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, Darwin College, and did postdoctoral work at Yale University. She is now Professor of Biology and Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. She married John W. Sedat in 1975, and has one child, Ben Sedat. She became a United States citizen in 2003.
She won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009. On January 26, 2010, the Australian Government made Blackburn a Companion of the Order of Australia. In 2007, she won the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Basic Medical Research in 2007, and was named one the top 100 most influential people by Time magazine.
IK Sleipner
IK Sleipner is an association football club in the town of Norrköping in Sweden. In 1938 the club won Allsvenskan becoming Swedish national champions.
Palm reading
Palm reading is when a fortune teller tells you your future by looking at lines on your palm.
Live Free or Die
"Live Free or Die" is the official motto of the U.S. state of New Hampshire, adopted by the state in 1945.
The phrase comes from a toast written by General John Stark on July 31, 1809. Stark was New Hampshire's most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War. His poor health forced him to decline an invitation to a reunion of the Battle of Bennington. He sent his toast by letter:
The motto was enacted at the same time as the state emblem, on which it appears.
Chopped (TV series)
Chopped is a reality-themed cooking competition series that airs on Food Network. Four chefs compete in three rounds or segments on the show: appetizer, entree and dessert. After each round, a chef is eliminated until there is one winner at the end. The winner is given $10,000. In each round, the chefs are given three to five food items that must be in their dish. There is a large pantry and refrigerator that the chefs can use as well. In each round the chefs are given a limited time to complete their dish. The appetizer part lasts twenty minutes. The entree and dessert parts last thirty minutes. Three guest chefs judge each round.
Food Network
Food Network is an American food-themed television network headquartered in New York City. It launched in November 1993.
The Food Network has many shows. Some of them are:
Appetizer
An appetizer is a small dish of an overall meal. It can also be a drink or multiple drinks containing alcohol. Common examples include: shrimp cocktail, calamari, salad, potato skins, mussels, bruschetta or cheese and crackers. An appetizer may also be very elegant in some restaurants.
They are often referred to as snacks or hors d'oeuvres.
Entrée
An entrée [prounced IPA:αn-tre or "on-tray" in American English] is food served before the main course in a multi-course meal. Most entrees typically include a meat or protein (chicken, veal, steak, beef, pork or ham), a vegetable (broccoli, carrots) and a starch (potato, yam or so).
A Writing Kind of Day
A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets is a young adult book of poetry by Ralph Fletcher, with drawings by April Ward. It was first published in 2005.
A young writer's experiences are described in twenty seven mostly free verse poems. Topics included are roadkill, Venus Flytraps, a grandmothers . Others discuss snow angels, little brothers and "Ma".
Moving Day (book)
Moving Day is a young adult book of poetry by Ralph Fletcher, with drawings by Jennifer Emery. It was first published in 2006.
Thirty-four short free verse poems that express the feelings of a twelve year old boy moving from Massachusetts to Ohio. Some of the topics include packing, the discovery of long lost treasures, giving things away, and doing things one last time.
Marshfield Dreams
Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid is a memoir written by the American writer and poet Ralph Fletcher, it covers his life from birth to age thirteen when his family moved from Marshfield, Massachusetts to Chicago.
Each short chapter tells of an incident growing up in a large family on Acorn Street in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Ralph was the oldest of nine children. Some of the stories told were Ralph being informed of his mother's pregnancy by a nosy classmate. His mother's game called "snuck up the rug" where the whole family got down and pulled dirt from the carpets. Other stories include his father bringing home a pet chicken for each child and his great-grandmother who buried the kids' old teeth in the garden.
La Romana, Dominican Republic
La Romana is a Dominican city along the Caribbean Sea, in the southeastern part of the country. It is the head municipality of the La Romana province.
The town was built on the right (western) side of the mouth of the river "Dulce" (now also called "Romana").
The municipality had, in , a total population of 130,426: 63,261 men and 67,165 women. The urban population was of the total population, one of the most urban municipality in the country.
La Romana is in the region known as "Llano Costero del Caribe" (in English, "Caribbean Coastal Plain"), with only few low hills and many savannas. The small islands of "Catalina" and "Saona" are part of this municipality but nobody lives in Catalina.
The municipality has a total area of . It has only one municipal district (a subdivision of a municipality): Caleta.
La Romana has the municipality of Guaymate to the north, the La Altagracia province to the east, the Caribbean Sea to the south and the Villa Hermosa municipality to the west.
The altitude of the city of La Romana is above sea level. The city is at to the east of Santo Domingo and at of Higüey.