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Aid climbing is a style of climbing in which standing on or pulling oneself up via devices attached to fixed or placed protection is used to make upward progress.

The term contrasts with free climbing in which progress is made without weighting artificial aids: a free climber ascends by only holding onto and stepping on natural features of the rock, using rope and equipment merely to catch them in case of fall and provide belay.

In general, aid techniques are reserved for pitches where free climbing is difficult to impossible, and extremely steep and long routes demanding great endurance and both physical and mental stamina. While aid climbing places less emphasis on athletic fitness and raw strength than free climbing, the physical demands of hard aid climbing should not be underestimated.

Aid is sometimes errantly referred to as “Class 6″ climbing, since its reliance on ascent via one’s equipment rather than merely being protected by it is regarded by purists as falling outside the traditional Classes 1-5 Yosemite Decimal System rankings that rely on making progress with one’s hands and feet in direct contact with the rock alone. Aid climbing has its own ranking system, using a separate scale from A0 through A5

Until the 1960s or so, aid climbing was normal practice in most climbing areas. But as improvements in technique and equipment meant that many aid routes could be climbed free, some influential climbers began to criticise the use of aid as being against the spirit of mountaineering. Reinhold Messner wrote, “Rock faces are no longer overcome by climbing skill, but are humbled, pitch by pitch, by methodical manual labour … Who has polluted the pure spring of mountaineering?” (from “The Murder of the Impossible”).

Free climbing is now the mainstream of climbing. But aid climbers have answered the criticism of Messner and others by climbing routes where the absence of holds or features in the rock make free climbing impossible, and by eschewing purely mechanical techniques (such as repetitively drilling bolts).

Today, many routes which were originally done using aid are being climbed free by a new generation of climbers with immense skill, physical ability, and significantly advanced equipment including modern ropes, sticky rubber shoes, and modern camming devices. Ironically, some of the techniques used to achieve free ascents of aid routes, for example placing extra bolts for protection (retro-bolting), are now sometimes thought to have “polluted the pure spring of mountaineering” by destroying the route as it was climbed by the first ascenionists. The solution is often a compromise in which an absolute minimum of bolts is added to allow safe protection for free climbers, while not totally destroying the challenge of the route as an aid climb. However, as with most compromises, this is not a solution that satisfies everyone.

Worldwide Day of Play is an annual event designed to encourage kids and parents to turn off the television and play, especially outdoors. The yearly event officially began on all US Nickelodeon channels: Nickelodeon, Noggin (now Nick Jr.), The N (now TeenNick), and NickToons on October 2, 2004. Some foreign versions of Nick also participated. The event is designed as a finale for Nick’s six-month long Let’s Just Play campaign. In addition, Nick.com would also have special features for children to learn how to stay active and healthy.

The event influences kids to be active by getting their schools and educational organizations to host an event to get out and be active. Those wanting to participate would contact Nickelodeon for instructions and permission.

When the Let’s Just Play campaign ended in September, Nickelodeon aired the finale during the last Saturday of September, the “Worldwide Day of Play”. Nickelodeon and its sister channels suspend programming for three hours from 12 Noon to 3PM ET/PT. During the time there was no programming, a special message would appear on the screen — for instance, this message was displayed during the dark period on Saturday, September 29, 2007:

Yes, your TV is working. Yes, this is Nickelodeon. And yes, this is Nickelodeon’s World Wide Day of Play! This is Nickelodeon’s celebration of all things active-an entire day devoted to play! That means YOU should get off the couch, get up from the floor, and definitely quit slouching in your bed. You should be celebrating! Ride a bike, do a dance, kick a ball, skate a board, jump a rope, swing a swing, climb a wall, run a race, do ANYTHING that gets you up and playing! Once you’ve played, there will be more Nick at 3pm, but until then, get up, get active, and GO PLAY!

On September 27, 2008, the following message was shown on Nick:

“Today is Nickelodeon’s Worldwide Day of Play- an entire day devoted to play! And to celebrate, Nickelodeon has gone off the air from 12pm to 3pm to encourage you to get outside and play. There will be more Nick at 3pm, but until then, this message will keep repeating. So don’t just sit there. Go play!”

On September 26, 2009, the following message was shown on Nick:

” Today is Nickelodeon’s Worldwide Day of Play! Turn off your TV, shut down your computer, put down that cell phone-yes, YOU! and go ALL OUT! We’ll see you back here at 3! ”

Previous editions took place October 1, 2005 and September 30, 2006. There was no Let’s Just Play campaign in 2008, though the Day of Play was held that year.

As tent is mentioned, most people would firstly remind the leisure camping on the grassland, and enjoy a nice time with inflatable tents.

It is common for people that tents are a temporary shelter. And they are usually for fun and convenient. But do you know that there are many interesting stories about tents.

In the near past, the leader of Libya, Gaddafi, arrived in Roman, and began his visitation in Italy. This is the first time for Gaddafi to visit Italy in the near 40 years. But what is quite different from other nations is that Gaddafi feasted his guests in a tent. The Italy media said, the coming of Gaddafi means the ending of hate between Italy and Libya. However, Gaddafi still kept his habit which was formed during his nomadic life. He required Italy office to set tent for his in the largest park in Roman to feast his gusts. It is said that the equipment of the tent is very luxurious. Many people even did morning exercise near there in order to visit the tent. Gaddafi often set large tents when he visited other countries. And he treated the tents as a place for feasting and entertainment. This visitation ended the antinomy between the two counties, and opened a new chapter for the counties.

Do you feel quite strange for the leader’s usage of the tent? It is surely uncommon. But it may be the tent that showing the leader’s sincerity, and changed the relationship of the two counties.

Do you still remember the earthquake in Sichuan in 2008? Do you still remember the homeless people, and do you still remember the ruin after earthquake? We know thousands and hundreds of people become homeless. Their house ruined, and some others’ did not, but they dare not to live in house for fare of the earthquake. Then where did they live. During that time, you can easily find many tents in the parks, beside the streets and so on. It is true of the school, as there were no schools for students, local government and kind-hearted people set large tents for students. The tents are simple, the environment is bad, but they provided a place for learning. They brings warm to students. Now, tent life and tent school almost disappeared from people’s eyes. But the picture of large square of tents will never leave from our memory.

The first individual trampolining competitions were held in colleges and schools in the USA and then in Europe. In the early years of competition there was no defined format with performers often completing lengthy routines and even remounting if falling off partway through. Gradually competitions became more codified such that by the 1950s the 10-bounce routine was the norm thereby paving the way for the first World Championships which were organised by Ted Blake of Nissen, and held in London in 1964. The first World Champions were both American, Dan Millman and Judy Wills Cline ( both pictured to the right together with members of the Household Cavalry at the closing ceremony). Kurt Baechler of Switzerland and Ted Blake of England were the European pioneers and the first ever televised National Championships were held in England in 1958.

Soon after the first World Championships, an inaugural meeting of prominent trampolinists was held in Frankfurt to explore the formation of an International Trampoline Federation. In 1965 in Twickenham, the Federation was formally recognised as the International Governing Body for the sport. In 1969, the first European Championship was held in Paris and Paul Luxon of London was the winner at the age of 18. The ladies winner was Ute Czech from Germany. From that time onwards, European and World Championships have taken place in alternate years - the European in the odd and the World in the even. In 1973, Ted Blake organised the first World Age Group Competition (WAG) in the newly opened Picketts Lock Sports Centre; these now run alongside the World Championships. Blake also used the first WAG as an opportunity to organise a World Trampoline Safety Conference which was held in the Bloomsbury Hotel, London, in order to codify safety concerns. There is also a World Cup circuit of international competitions which involves three competitions every year. There are also international matches between teams from several countries.

At first the Americans were successful at World Championship level, but soon European competitors began to dominate the sport and for a number of years, athletes from countries that made up the former Soviet Union have often dominated the sport. Germany and France have been the other strong nations in trampolining and the first four ranking places in World Trampolining used to go to USSR, France, Britain and Germany. In recent years, Canada has also produced Olympic medalists and World champions due in large part to contributions made to the sport by Dave Ross. Ross pioneered the sport in Canada almost 30 years ago and consistently produces Olympic and World Cup athletes. Since trampolining became an Olympic sport, China has made a successful effort to develop world-class trampolinists, culminating by winning the 2007 Men’s World Championship and both Men’s and Women’s gold medals and a bronze in the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing.

* The world’s only two-row stationary carousel built from an original Dentzel blueprint left in existence, the Highland Park Dentzel Carousel and Shelter Building, is located in Highland Park in Meridian, Mississippi.
* William Henry Dentzel III, built the world’s first solar-powered carousel. The carousel is in operation in the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California.[citation needed]
* There is only one carousel in the world that rides in a waving motion - “Over the Jumps: The Arkansas Carousel” in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is also the only remaining wooden track carousel built by the Herschell & Spillman Company, and one of only four track carousels still in existence.[citation needed]
* The carousel at Hersheypark in Hershey, PA is purposely misspelled as “Carrousel”.[citation needed]
* The carousel at Eldridge Park is one of the fastest in the world.
* The carousel at Conneaut Lake Park in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania is the last T.M. Harton Carousel that is still in operation and its Artizan band organ is one of two known of the same model in the world.[citation needed]
* Binghamton, New York is considered the “Carousel Capital of the World” due to the six original carousels in the Triple Cities area, donated by George F. Johnson, owner of the Endicott-Johnson Company early in the 20th century. These Carousels were donated with the express stipulation that they would never charge admission for anyone to ride them. Apparently when Mr. Johnson was a child he was frequently too poor to ride the local carousel and he vowed this would never happen to another child in the area. The carousel at the Ross park zoo in Binghamton, NY does charge admission, in a way, as it requires the child to drop one piece of litter found in the park into a trash barrel in order to ride. This is all written on a plaque at the entrance to the carousel.[citation needed]
* The oldest existing carousel made in 1779 to 1780 stands in Germany at the Wilhelmsbad Park in Hanau.[citation needed]
* The carousel in Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington is an original Looff carousel built in 1909 and installed at the Natatorium Park in Spokane.
* The Richland Carrousel Park in Mansfield, Ohio is an indoor carousel in the downtown Historic Carrousel District that was completed in 1991. It is the first hand-carved indoor wooden carousel to be built and operated in the United States since the early 1930s.
* Sydney’s Darling Harbour Carousel is a New South Wales Heritage listed attraction. It is an example of an old Edwardian Carousel which are very rare nowadays. It is operated by a classic steam motor which has been retained. The Carousel dates back to the ‘Golden Age’ of Carousels between the 1890s to the 1920s.[citation needed]
* The merry-go-round at Kennywood Park was built by William H. Dentzel in 1926 and is a National Historic Landmark. The music on this carousel is provided by a 1916 Wurlitzer band organ and over 1500 lights decorate this ride.[citation needed]
* Cafesjian’s Carousel was a mainstay at the Minnesota State Fair from 1914 to 1988 when it was saved from the auction block by a non-profit group organized to save the landmark. The carousel is now located in Como Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota. [4]
* The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum in North Tonawanda, NY is the only carousel museum in the world located in an original carousel factory building. It occupies the building complex which housed the Allan Herschell Company.[citation needed]
* Columbia Carousel, located at Six Flags Great America and California’s Great America are the biggest carousels in the world.[citation needed]
* The Merry-Go-Round located at Tilden Park in Berkeley, California was built in 1911 by the Herschel-Spillman Company and is one of the few carousels from its day still in operation. In 1978 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[citation needed]

By Ding Qingfen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-06 07:05

BEIJING - Foreign businesses in China are operating in an improving and maturing environment, with the government committed to its World Trade Organization (WTO) pledges, a former top trade negotiator has said.

Tong Zhiguang said he believes the government is taking a more active and open attitude toward foreign investment.

“It’s just not true to say that China is getting tougher with multinationals doing business in the country,” Tong Zhiguang, who is also a former vice-minister of commerce, told China Daily on Monday.

“Instead, I believe the Chinese government is taking a more active and open attitude toward foreign investment in terms of the policies concerned,” China’s former WTO chief negotiator said.

Tong made the remarks in response to complaints by a number of international companies about more business restrictions in China.

These complaints flared up after Internet search giant Google withdrew its operations from the Chinese mainland last month.

Last Friday, the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing (Amcham-China) also released a 2010 Business Climate Survey which alleged growing dissatisfaction from tougher requirements by the Chinese government, fiercer competition and unequal treatment.

Previous complaints from Amcham-China focused on new, indigenous innovation rules favoring domestic business and government procurement policies that exclude foreigners from China.

But China will stick to its policies on foreign capital, Vice-Minister of Commerce Chen Jian said last Friday.

The recent cases involving foreign business operations such as Google and mining giant Rio Tinto will also not hurt the nation’s investment environment, Chen said.

Tong said “it’s absolutely unreasonable to politicize these individual cases”.

Restrictions and regulations for foreign businesses in China are in place, “but they are international practices”, said Li Xiaogang, director of the Foreign Investment Research Center at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“Fundamentally, the business environment for international firms are getting better,” Li said.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, China is still the most attractive destination for foreign investment in 2010.

“I believe Google is an exceptional case. China is one of the top three priorities for PepsiCo, if not the top priority. And there is no question that China is where all internationals realize is critical for their global economic growth,” Ken Newell, president of PepsiCo Greater China Region (Beverage), told China Daily.

The beverage giant has 22 plants operating in China and it plans to have 14 more in the next few years, with a majority of these in the western and northern regions, in line with the country’s “go west” strategy.

“There is no change with China’s support for foreign investment. That is why our commitment to the market is growing,” said Sui Chenghao, China managing director of Merck Serono, a subsidiary of leading pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA.

Merck Serono recently announced an investment of 300 million yuan ($44 million) in China.

The Chinese government is trying to send a more welcome message to foreign businesses despite a number of loopholes in policy that have dampened the confidence of some of them, said Wang Zhile, director of the research center on transnational corporations under the Ministry of Commerce.

“The mainstream policy is positive and has remained unchanged,” he said.

Contrary to Amcham-China’s latest report, a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (Amcham-Shanghai) in March also showed a strikingly positive attitude among businesses in the city.

Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese amusement holidays. It is commonly called “Lunar New Year”, because it is based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means “Year-pass Eve”.

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations (Chinatowns), such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu).

In countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Australia Post, Canada Post, and the US Postal Service issue New Year’s themed stamps.

Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile; forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone

This article ia written by Amy, a representation of Y&G company, which is a professional manufacturer of amusement equipment, including, inflatable products, out door playground equipment, fitness equipment, indoor play areas and so on.

Do you still remember what was you doing when you were 6 years old? It is reported that the 6-year-old boy Samu Bo Boynton was appointed to be the new recreation director of the British Railway Museum. Little Boynton is keen to entertainment equipment. During the interview, he showed his love of recreation perfectly, beat other employees and won the job.

As the recreation director of the Museum, the main work of Little Boynton is to tell to the management workers that how to attract more children and how to make the entertainment equipment be loved by kids. The first suggestion proposed by Boynton after his induction is to meet the requirement of children by way of establishing Model Train Pavilion. From the point of children’s view on entertainment equipment, Boynton proposed many wonderful suggestions for the museum.

You may be surprised at this news and feel incredible. Anyhow, it is true. In addition, at least we can appreciate the courage of the British Railway Museum to employ a kid to do such an important work. What’s more, referring from this thing, we can get the information that the British Railway Museum try their best to understand what their customers want. They can consider from the view of customers, which is often lacked by most businessmen.

Have you ever seen the character囧? You may be pride to say “yes”, but unfortunately, it has already been out of date. Recently, another uncommon word 烎 become the newest and hottest character on line.

At the first glance, you may not know it. It is an old Chinese character, read as “yin” and means “bright, and sunny”. But the newly popularly word on line is not yet the original meaning. It means impassioned, with heart afire, Valiant or arbitrary.

It is said that this word came from some computer game players. The team named
烎队 challenge to the Ehome who was the winner of the game. The team tried their best and showed their great zest in the game. They were praised for their spirit although they failed the competition.

With the spread of the reputation of the team, the character烎 also became popular among computer game players. Because the character can be cut into 开 and 火， which is a phrase in Chinese. It is vivid to express the meaning. So it becomes the symbol for game players to announce “challenging the stronger with great determination.” Now this character has already spread beyond the game field to the whole internet to be the hottest topic.

When囧 was popular, there were some businessmen took it as the theme to  design goods such as shoes and shirt , and these products met with great favor. Now it can be inferred that there must be many products designed with the theme of烎.

The youth may be exciting to these uncommon words. However, on the contrary, parents are worried about them. These words are mostly popular for their graphemes. And there real meanings were deserted by the users. The usage of these words does not conform to the standard. Parents are worried that the frequent using of these words may affect children’s Chinese learning. Some professor said “parents and teachers should remind children to be aware of the occasions while using uncommon words, and use normal and standard words as much as possible in daily life”.