LNG project

(Project image by PNG LNG project)

No single day passes without hearing about "LNG Project" in Papua New Guinea these days.

It is US$15 Billion project joint venture led by Exxon Mobil to commercialize the gas reserve in Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea and connect it via Pipeline to the plant near Port Moresby. The gas will be cooled there to its liquid state at very cold temperature - "minus 160 Celsius" and shipped out overseas for export.

From politicians, businessmen to local villagers, everybody is talking about LNG Project which is said to bring economy up and thus to improve the life of every Papua New Guinean.

Well, I also wish it would happen, but at the same time would not be surprised if things get worse or nothing good would happen.

Clear example is everywhere - 20 Years of Oil export did not have positive economic impact for the majority of the Southern Highlanders, and what Gold production has changed the life of Western Province people or Misima island people ?

I don't want to see another Bougainville crisis - a civil war originated from world class Copper mine. I wish fair and transparent government will share the benefit of the LNG project via improved service delivery system.

Only Historian of the future generation would tell if LNG project was the right answer for PNG.

Final World Championship 2009 - Benedetto Ferruggia & Claudia Köhler (Quickstep)

Source: Youtube. A super Quickstep from the world champions.


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Natyanjali Dance Festival 2010 - Chidambaram

Natyanjali Dance Festival is celebrated every year in Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. It is a dance festival that is dedicated to Lord Nataraj. He is also called as the lord of dances. This festival takes place during the month of February and starts on Mahasivaratri. The dates for Natyanjali Dance Festival 2010 are from 12 February to 16 February. This is a five day long festival. The venue of this event is Chidambaram Nataraj Temple. This festival is organized by Department of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu in association with the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and the Natyanjali Trust, Chidambaram.This festival brings together all the prominent dancers of India together. It is performed at the Prakaram of the temple.

Getting to Chidambaram

Bus routes: Buses are available from Chennai, Pondicherry, Madurai, Tanjavur and other places. It is about 75kms south of Pondicherry.

Railway station: The nearest Railway Station is Chidambaram.

Airport: The nearest airport is tirchy. Its about 160kms

Goa Carnival 2010 - India

Goa Carnival photo

Goa Carnival Festival is held every year during the month of February. It is one of the important carnival in India. Goa Carnival Festival 2010 dates have been announced. It will be held from February 13th to February 16th 2010. This festival was started by Protuguese when they ruled Goa. People from different parts of the country gather at Goa for this Goan Carnival. Eventhough it is a christian festival, people of all religion celebrate this festival. The highlights of this carnival is the colorful floats on the opening day and the red and black dance that takes place on the Club National in Panaji the capital of Goa. Floats, colossal parades, bands, balls and dances, groups of masked revelers dressed in dazzling costumes singing and dancing to the tunes of the renowned musicians are the important events in the Goa Carnival Festival(Goan Carnival)...You can also check out the other carnivals like Rio carnival, venice carnival and Montevideo carnival..

Chennai Science Festival 2010

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The mega Science Festival is now going on in Chennai. The Chennai Science Festival 2010 began on 3rd February 2010 and will continue till 7th February 2010. There are about 125 stalls that explains fundamental principles behind the applications that we use every day. The three main categories in this festival are food and health, climate change and energy. Its a five day long event and some of the important things that are displayed during this event are models of satellites and launch vehicles, modules employed for research in university laboratories and many more... The venue of Chennai Science Festival 2010 is Periyar Science and Technology centre, Kotturpuram, Chennai. The timings for the festival is from morning 10am to evening 6pm

Final World Championship 2009 - Emanuel Valeri & Tania Kehlet (Quickstep)

Source: Youtube. My second link to quality Ballroom video's. A super quickstep.


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Venice Carnival 2010

Venice the most important place in Italy and also the beautiful place is Italy hosts a festival every year known as the Venice Carnival. The dates for Venice Carnival 2010( Carnevale De Venezia 2010)has been announced. It will be held from 6th to 16th February, 2010. Its one of the internationally known festival. It attracts lots of tourist ever year. During this festival people wear variety of beautiful masks and the streets of Venice will be full of people with masks. during this festival you can enjoy songs in the brother streets. You can see rope walkers, jugglers and spend money in restaurants, coffee shops and more...For more information on schedule of events in Venice Carnival 2010 visit the official site http://www.carnevale.venezia.it/... Some of the photos of Venice Carnival 2010(Carnevale De Venezia 2010)

Bit of Science - Ornithoptera Priamus

"Ornithoptera priamus" is a common species of Birdwing Butterfly which lives from New Guinea Islands to Solomon Islands to the East.

We normally find Green-coloured male in mainland New Guinea.

On our last visit to Mioko Island. we have found the Blue-colored species, not knowing that it was one of the unique examples of Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

The Butterfly changes color from Golden-orange in the West Papua to Green in Eastern Half of New Guinea, and change to Blue/Green at this small Mioko Island. Further to the East at Bougainville and Solomon Islands, Blue dominates.

Just as culture is diverse and some 800 different languages are spoken, nature is also very much diverse and different in each islands here; After 15 years of living in this place, I am still amazed at the "Nature's Wonder".

Dosa Fest 2010 - Chennai

Are you a lover of Dosa ? Looking for variety of Dosa's in one place ? Hotel Cholayil Sanjeevanam in Chennai is the answer for you.... Dosa Fest 2010 is conducted by them from January 29th to 7th February 2010. There are about 60 varieties of dosa. Some of the varieties of Dosa are AloeVera Masala Dosa, Pizza Dosa, Tofu Dosa, Kambu Dosa, Thenai Dosa and varieties of Uthappams and more... They are all served with varieties of Chutneys and other side dishes. For more details and address visit cholayilsanjeevanam.com

Wijchen Swingt Internationaal

This is a competition we always look forward to. It is one of the few events in The Netherlands with so many participants in each class. The dance floor is more than 500 sqm and is much wider than in other competitions. This makes it difficult for many couples to respect the dance directions. We also had difficulties to fit our program into the unusual shape of the floor. The event was a huge success and we can only congratulate the organisation for the demo's, warm-up space, wardrobe, shops, parking, catering...

We finish the competition in place 15 out of 28 couples. This was very disappointing for us after the finals we danced in the last two competitions. Most likely the jury wanted to see something else on Sunday. For our first round we shouldn't look for excuses, it was just poor. The redance we danced very good but only received 6 marks. It is a pity that for such a big competition only 5 adjudicators are available in each class. It makes it more of a lottery when you know that couples with only 9 marks out of 20 make it to the next round.

The organisation should consider changing it's name next year to "Wijchen Swingt Nationaal". Almost no foreign couples participated and only one adjudicator was from outside The Netherlands, in the D-class none. In my opinion this is not international at all.

Naar deze competitie kijken we altijd uit. Het is een van de weinige wedstrijden in Nederland met zoveel deelnemers in iedere klasse. De dansvloer is meer dan 500 vierkante meter en is veel breder dan op andere wedstrijden. Dit maakt het voor de deelnemende paren veel moeilijker de dansrichtingen te respecteren. Wij ondervonden ook moeilijkheden ons programma op deze ongewoon brede vloer te brengen. Het evenement was een enorm succes en we kunnen enkel de organisatie loven voor hun demo's, opwarmmogelijkheden, kleedruimtes, garderobe, winkels, parkeermogelijkheden, catering...

We eindigen de competitie op plaats 15 van 28 paren. Dit was zeer teleurstellend voor ons daar we de laatste twee wedstrijden de finale bereikten. Waarschijnlijk wou de jury op zondag iets anders zien. Voor onze eerste ronde was er geen enkel excuus, het was gewoon zwak. In de herkansing hebben we zeer goed gedanst, maar we kregen enkel 6 crossen. Het is spijtig dat er voor een zodanig grote competitie enkel 5 juryleden worden ingezet. Het wordt meer een soort loterij als je weet dat verschillende paren naar de volgende ronde worden doorgeplaatst met enkel 9 crossen van een maximum van 20.

We raden de organisatie aan een naamwijziging te overwegen naar "Wijchen Swingt Nationaal". Er waren bijna geen internationale paren aanwezig en slechts 1 buitenlands jurylid, in de D-klasse geen. In mijn bescheiden mening is dit totaal niet Internationaal.

Fotograaf: M. Dang

Full Results D-Class: Result Page Danceplaza

Previous competition article: Christmas Challenge Trophy, Dalfsen
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