Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

  • Understanding DUI

    Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

    DUI stands for ‘driving under the influence’ which in a nutshell is drunk driving.   In other words DUI involves getting into a motor vehicle with alcohol levels in your blood above the legal limit.  This is a criminal offense in the United States.  You do not have to be driving for this to be an offense.  Merely sitting in the vehicle while intoxicated can lead to a conviction. You may also get arrested for having an open container of alcohol in your vehicle.   DUI applies to both alcohol and other drugs as well.  Conviction of driving under the influence can lead to fines and/or a prison sentence.

    The usual test for DUI relates to the blood alcohol content which is the percentage of alcohol in the blood.  In the US it is against the law to drive a vehicle with blood alcohol content that is 0.08% or greater.  For commercial drivers the limits are stricter – 0.04%.

    For a DUI investigation to take place there must be one of the following observed by the police officer.  Either erratic driving (driving too slow, acceleration, weaving) by the operator of the vehicle suggesting alcohol or drug impairment, or a suspicion when stopped at a police checkpoint.

    Police officers do various tests to determine if a driver is intoxicated.  These include observation of the vehicle, and field tests such as smell, walking, standing and conversation.  Basically its up the officer to observe and determine if he thinks that the driver is showing signs of being intoxicated.  A portable breath analyzer can be used to show the blood alcohol content.

    In the US police officers use 3 field sobriety tests to evaluate the driver and establish probable cause for arrest.   Usually the tests have to be administered within two hours of being stopped.

    DUI is generally a misdemeanor with punishments ranging up to a year in jail.  It can be a felony is it involves serious injury, death or extensive property damage.  This is also the case if the driver has had previous DUIs within a certain time period.

    If you are planning to drink alcohol then you should plan not to drive a vehicle.  Therefore appoint a non drinker as a designated driver for the evening, or find accommodation near to the function you will be attending, or plan to use public transportation or a taxi.

    Brought to you by Mecklenburg DUI Attorney. Mecklenburg County is located in the state of North Carolina. Its largest city is Charlotte.

  • Sharing Social Bookmarks

    Thursday, January 13th, 2011

    Social seems to be the catch word of this new decade. There are social networks, social media, and humans are considered to be social animals. The web has been replaced with the social web , which is a redundant phrase, however popular it becomes. Internet users have become obsessed with the ability to share every part of their lives online, from their latest home video to what they ate for breakfast to pictures of their pets and children.

    Many web surfers like to share bookmarks. To this end, they join social bookmarking sites which allow them to post their favorite websites, blog posts, and articles as well as photos, podcasts, videos, and any other items with a URL. The best social bookmark services allow users to rank, rate, and comment on individual bookmarks or “stories.” This allows people to share their opinions along with the links.

    When it comes to social bookmarking, sharing is everything. In addition to the commenting and ranking, many sites give users tools for sending the bookmarks to other users, usually designated as “friends.” They may also be able to post their bookmarks directly to other social websites as status updates or “shares” that appear in their feed or on their wall.

  • Manila Connections

    Friday, August 20th, 2010

    It’s a refreshing thing to see cities start making impressive leaps in new directions. It’s even more pleasing when the cities start connecting with other cities who seem to be involved in parallel projects. The new creative culture has very little to do with what’s happening in Manila these days, and it’s also to be said for Berlin. In those terms, the creative culture refers to a class that has some disposable income, and the art communities here generally don’t know what extra income even looks like.

    Anyone visiting Manila for the first time will be struck by the sheer energy of place, and find themselves looking in all directions. It’s a hard place to get to know, because there’s too much happening at once, even on a quiet day when the people seem to be resting all at the same time. But rather than joining the crowd and taking a break inside the Manila hotel , staying outside and watching for signs of life can reveal subcultures that behave almost like tide pools.

    An afternoon in Berlin can be very much the same, and there’s more than this that gives the cities of Manila and Berlin something in common. A young population where there is an outburst of activity every night, and plenty of ways to share ideas, can make for a splendid place to be in the world right now.

  • Saint Malo and the Legends

    Friday, May 28th, 2010

    Saint Malo is a fortified island, and a walled city, and has so many enchanting things about it that anyone wanting a typical European vacation might be surprised at what they find here. There’s really nothing typical about it, but it does have all the appeal of any European city that had to fortify itself, named for a saint who was able to bring the dead back to life. Or so the stories go. It’s hard to imagine a more legendary respite than to hole up in a Saint Malo hotel , and take in some of the sights, enjoy the food and the drink, and to consider all the stories that circulate here.

    There are, of course, real historical events that made it what it is today, and the remnants of other ages are fairly substantial. Enough to suggest that the medieval stories about Saint Malo aren’t simply legends, because this is all still very visible. But the legends about the saint are really rather extraordinary, and can almost rival the stories about pirates and other visitors from other times.

    The best stories are the ones that link Saint Malo with Saint Brendan . Malo was Welsh and Brendan was an Irish monastic, who took Malo in as his favorite disciple and baptized him. Brendan was in a great deal of trouble at one time, having destroyed a holy book that contained stories of fantastic adventures with divine interventions. To repay the debt for the crime, he was charged to go out into the world with a blank book, and to have adventures enough that would be worthy of a new book.

    He did, indeed have adventures, and many of these were of a particularly fantastical nature. On one island, when he and Malo were traveling together, they came across the head of a giant. He revived the head, like you do, and offered to bring the giant back to life and baptize him, like you do. The giant thought he would only commit sin, and didn’t want to die again, and didn’t want to suffer hell as a baptized sinner, so he declined.

    There are many scholars who claim this story is about a different Saint Malo, and there’s no doubt that there are a few elements here that may not be literally true. But in this part of the world, metaphor sometimes exists in spite of truth, or sometimes becomes it.

  • Achieving Your Personal Best

    Monday, March 1st, 2010

    It is a common goal among people of all races that they want to do and be their best, so that when they reach the end of their lives they will have no regrets about how they lived and they will know that the gave life their all. Unfortunately it is easy to get caught up in daily life and allow the mundane tasks of day-to-day life take over. Even with the best intentions of being the best parent, spouse, or employee it is easy to let that goal fall to the wayside when the small and routine tasks come calling but we feel we have bigger, better things to do.
    One of the first things that we teach our children is that if they are responsible and earn our trust in the small things, they will eventually be trusted with more. It is an easy lesson to teach but not quite so easy to learn or remember. The same principle applies in the work place. Even if you have gained your employers trust with faithfulness and strong leadership skills , it is important to maintain the trust and follow through now matter how menial the task may seem.
    Take advantage of new opportunities. You never know when you might get the chance of a lifetime. It could lead to a new position or a new career. If you have a dream of reaching a certain goal, take the steps to get you there. Many companies offer corporate team building programs that can help you make connections and advance to the next level.
    Life is short and we never know when our time will be up. If we always do our best, follow through on our commitments, and take advantage of every opportunity then we will be ready for whenever that time comes.

  • Cochem and the Lorelei

    Monday, December 14th, 2009

    It’s always a love story when there’s a castle involved.  I’ve known this since I was just a kid, and because of that, I avoided castles for as long as I could.  When I decided to ignore the advice of a fortune-teller last summer, and went off in pursuit of a woman who reminded me of someone else, just to get over someone else before that, I knew I’d made the right decision.  Now I even think that the fortune-teller knew I would ignore the advice, that this was also in the cards.  But her name was…her name was…in this story, we’ll call her Lorelei.

    We’d met about a month before I became entranced, and nearly crazy, but when we met, it was one of those stories that sounds even sweeter in retrospect, and at the time, it was also something that I knew would change the way I experience heat and flame.  She found me in a cafe, I was wet and no longer interested in the usual things that please other people in the world.  She must have had a soft spot for gloom, because she was sitting next to me and talking about places like Cochem, hotels close to castles where you could hear stories written on the whispers of the Rhine, and she also told me some secrets about how to transcribe music from the beyond.

    She was so charming, and so spooky, that I fell under a spell.  At the time it was almost like drowning, but now I see it as the feeling you get before you wake up.  There were moments in there that turned into nights, and after a rain storm passed, she said she was passing through, too, and I didn’t know what she meant.  A month later, I was trying not to sleep because every time I closed my eyes I would dream about her.  She said that somewhere between the south of Slovenia and the narrow part of the Rhine I would meet her double, her shadow, that might know the gesture to unlock my heart.  One night, at the edge of near madness, I whispered her name to myself one last time, Lorelei, and I’m still too melancholic to know for sure if the river answered.

  • Rajasthani Folk

    Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

    With tourism as one of the main focuses of the state, Rajasthan is a travelers dream.  With fantastic and mysterious deserts, old temples, and spectacular palaces that are so delightfully constructed that they are often featured in international cinema, there is a luscious array of possibilities to quench the traveler’s urge to see something different.  It is also one of the most romantic places in the world to get cozy and get away from the rest of the world.  There is also an incredible array of luxury hotels.  Rajasthan offers many unique opportunities to follow your bliss, and at times, to find it.  There is a certain magic to the place that tends to rub off on the visitors, where you can truly enjoy yourself, and sometimes in spite of yourself.

    There are few places in the world that can live up to its reputation, but here, you can tour a royal palace, enjoy a spa in your own hotel, and visit a wildlife refuge, all in the same day.  There is certainly plenty to do while you’re here, but if you’ve come to enjoy each other’s company, and follow the days as they unfold, that’s also certainly possible here.  There is a wealth of splendid distractions to fill out the lazy days, and you’ll certainly enjoy the many different culinary treasures offered here.  The local food is extremely diverse, and the best chefs will combine the best of the traditional recipes and add some innovation to the mix, and you’ll see why Indian food is considered to be some of the finest in the world.  You may also find yourselves distracted by the local folk music, and that’s another adventure in itself.

    Rajasthani folk songs are spectacularly simple, drawing on a number of traditions to make songs that comment on current situations or relate stories from the history and traditions of the region.  The best songs are about love, like they usually are.  Ragas are some of the most common types of songs you’re likely to hear, and there are many practitioners and scholars of this famous music.  The Rajasthani folk tradition is based on some simple melodies, and sometimes takes in the more complex classical forms to round out the sound, making for a lively improvisational music that is a pleasure to listen to, and one of the many things here that can make life sweet.