The city of Quanzhou in the Fujian province welcomes the competition this year. The « Peasants’ Games » have taken place every 4 years since 1988. More than 6,000 peasant athletes contest in more than 200 events.

Besides traditional athletic events, basketball, ping-pong, imagine a series of traditional peasants sports such as a dragon boat regatta or a line fishing competition, kite flying, lion dancing or aerobic chanting.

The opening ceremony

The delegation parade

Canadians spend $18 billion a year on beer and liquor, consuming about six times more beer than wine. A sampling of statistics on Canadians’ drinking habits.

$18 billion

Total sales at beer and liquor stores in Canada in the fiscal year ending March 2007, a five per cent increase from the previous year.

47

Beer sales comprised 47 per cent of total alcohol sales in 2007. That’s down from 52 per cent in 1997.

2.3 billion

Number of litres of beer Canadians purchased in 2007.

28

Wine accounted for 28 per cent of the alcohol market in 2007, up from 21 per cent in 1997.

71

71 per cent of spirits sold in Canada in 2007 were Canadian spirits, with whisky, scotch and bourbon being the most popular choices.

$667

The amount, on average, each Canadian spent on alcohol in 2007.

$463

The amount that alcohol abuse costs every Canadian a year, in lost productivity, heath-care costs and crime-related costs, according to a 2008 study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

5

Alcohol’s ranking on a list of harmful substances, behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methadone. Cannabis was 11th on the list, compiled by researchers at Bristol University in the U.K.

1,280-1,500

Mothers Against Drunk Driving estimates that there are between 1,280 and 1,500 deaths as a result of impaired driving in Canada every year, or about four every day.

This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Felix as it moves inland over the countries of Central America at 14:15 EDT Tuesday, Sept 4, 2007. Felix roared ashore before dawn as a Category 5 storm along Nicaragua’s remote northeast corner _ an isolated, swampy jungle where people get around mainly by canoe. But later Tuesday evening the National Hurricane Center said Felix had been downgraded to a tropical storm, with sustained winds near 96 km/h. Country borders drawn on the image were added by the source.

ADARSAT image of Hurricane Alma in the Pacific taken on May 30, 2002. (Courtesy Canada Centre for Remote Sensing).

What are tropical storms?

Severe storms spawned in the tropics are known by different names in different parts of the world: hurricanes in the Atlantic and east Pacific; typhoons in the northwest Pacific and cyclones in the southwest Pacific and Indian Ocean. These storms originate over tropical waters, close to the equator. If the atmosphere is calm and the water is warmer than about 27 C, evaporation forces large amounts of moisture into the air, creating a low-pressure system. When this water vapour condenses, it releases heat that powers the circular winds that characterize these storms.

Rainfall in the developing storm releases more heat, triggering a convection process that pulls more moisture-laden air up through the centre of the system. The storm grows via this feedback mechanism. The strongest winds are found immediately outside the centre, or “eye,” of the hurricane at ground level.

Every one of these systems begins as a tropical depression, a system of thunderstorms with an overall circular motion and maximum sustained winds less than 62 km/h. When a storm becomes severe enough and the winds pick up to more than 62 km/h, it is designated a tropical storm. When the winds reach 119 km/h, the system is called a hurricane, typhoon or cyclone.

An average of 10 tropical storms develop over the Atlantic Ocean each year, of which about six become severe enough to be called hurricanes. Besides strong winds and heavy rain, these hurricanes also create a “storm surge,” a massive wave beneath the centre of the storm. In the eye of the hurricane, air is sucked upward faster than it can rush in at the bottom. This lowers the atmospheric pressure under the eye of the storm; as a result, the eye tries to pull at the ocean itself, creating a bulge of water as much as six metres high that moves together with the storm.

When is hurricane season?

Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to November 30, but the most intense storms mainly occur between mid–August and mid–October.

How are tropical storms named?

A tropical storm is given a name if its winds reach a speed of 62 kilometres per hour. An international committee has drawn up a list of 126 names - half male and half female - which are repeated after a six-year cycle. There are 21 names on the list for a given year, with each name corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are skipped.

If the list of names is exhausted for a given year, which may occur in 2005 with the formation of tropical storm Wilma in October, subsequent storms are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and so on.

However, if a hurricane causes extensive damage, its name is retired from use. So far, more than 50 names have been retired, from Hazel in 1954 to Juan in 2003.

The word “hurricane” itself comes from the Carib Indian word “hurican,” which referred to the tribe’s god of evil. This may in turn derive from the name of a Mayan god who created the world with his breath, blowing on the oceans to create dry land.

President-elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and daughters Sasha, 7, left, and Malia, 10, wave to the crowd at the election night rally in Chicago on Tuesday night. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” the Illinois senator told a jubilant crowd of more than 100,000 people gathered in Chicago’s Grant Park.

The wide range of Americans who turned out to vote in this election “sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states,” Obama said. “We are, and always will be, the United States of America.”

He also congratulated Republican candidate John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, for a long and hard-fought campaign and reached out to their supporters.

“To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices,” he said. “I need your help, and I will be your president, too.”The Democrat said his opponent, a veteran who survived years of torture as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, “has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine.”"We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader,” Obama said.The 47-year-old son of a black Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas also praised his family, including his wife, Michelle, his two young daughters and his grandmother, who died just two days before Obama was elected to the nation’s

Marissa Wilkes, left, and Ladona Miller hug each otherat an election party Tuesday in Greensboro, N.C., as they learn of Obama’s victory. (Gerry Broome/Associated Press)

“While she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother’s watching,” he told the crowd.

The president-elect, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20, 2009, also spoke of the difficult challenges facing Americans beset by “two wars, a planet in peril and the worst financial crisis in a century.”

“There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, threats to meet and alliances to repair,” he said. “The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term.

“But America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

The emotional crowd responded with the Obama campaign’s familiar chant of “Yes, we can,” which Obama himself integrated into his victory speech, using it to punctuate an anecdote about a 106-year-old black voter he met in Atlanta and the challenges she has seen America overcome in her lifetime.

“It’s fantastic,” said Hulon Johnson, 71, a retired Chicago public school principal celebrating in the crowd. “I’ve always told my kids this was possible; now they’ll have to believe me.”

The Obama victory also sparked celebrations across the country, even along the capital’s famed Pennsylvania Avenue.

Among the crowd gathered at Howard University, Washington’s historically black institution, one woman told CBC News that she never believed she would be able to vote for a black presidential candidate, let alone see one elected.

“I feel hope and change in the air,” she said. “I’m really, really excited about waking up tomorrow.”

The treat: One slice of pizza (272 calories)

Try this: Go shopping for at least 104 minutes.

Or this: Dance for 53 minutes.

Or this: Do a 28-minute mini-circuit—pedal fast on a stationary bike for 2 minutes, jump off and do push-ups for 1 minute, then climb stairs for 4 minutes; rest, then repeat sequence 3 more times.

Here are some things I’ve learned from Godzilla, Gamera, Star Wars, etc.

-Any animal which isn’t a human will grow 50 times its size when exposed to some sort of radiation.

-If some exotic pet escapes from its cage, it will likewise grow to immense proportions.

-No matter what city you’re in, the streets are always wide enough so that giant monsters could walk on it.

-Many monsters, even machines, are somehow depicted in ancient myths.

-It takes only a few seconds to pick a name for an unknown giant monster.

-If a monster is evil, it has enough energy to spout an infinite number of energy beams from its mouth. If it’s a good guy, it can only shoot at most 2 energy beams before it nearly collapses of exhaustion.

-A monster’s energy beam can effortlessly destroy a huge, heavily armored robot, but takes 5 seconds to shoot through buildings.

-No matter where you are, there’s always a clearing big enough for almost a dozen monster to rumble in.

-Giant flowers are always a problem. They’ll either blow up in a mile wide explosion, or they’ll mutate into vine-whipping, acid-spitting atrocities.

-It takes all the electricity in a city to power a handful of tanks.

-The power of a missle is inversly proportional to how much you talk about its “capabilities”.

-Aliens wear pimped out jackets and know martial arts.

-If there’s an object you need to destroy quickly, it will always have a near-inpenetrable energy sheild.

-When you see an ordinary building and its name pops up in the subtitles, the building will be destroyed in about 15 minutes.

-When fighting monsters, the infantry soldiers always carry machine guns.

-If you have a strange looking lightsaber, you are one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy.

-Tiny spaceships never get destroyed. Huge kilometer-wide starships will be destroyed in a matter of minutes.

-A pistol is enough to kill a horde of man-sized creatures.

-Anything with wings or an extra body cavity can fly.

-People will always leave their homes with the lights on.

-Monsters can stand knee-high in the middle of the sea.

-In order to swim, monsters only need to bob their bodies up and down.

-A big drill can pierce right through armor. Nuclear beams can’t.

-Red energy beams are hotter and more powerful than blue or white beams.

-Any monster which has more than one energy beam will be nearly impossible to kill.

-A shell can withstand energy beams but not missles.

-No matter what, the hot female character will always hang out with the ugly geek.

-Global warming doesn’t melt ice caps or change the weather. It instead causes giant eggs to hatch or animals to go crazy.

-Any attack that has a whirly sound effect will hurt like crap.

-Flimsy towers can easily support giant insects or birds.

-Energy beams can be shot from the mouth, eyes, hands, nose, chest, knees, and wings.

-If someone constructs a weapon but accidentally shoots it at the “good guy” monster, it will prove lethal.

-If you have wings or more than one head, it takes over 3 monsters to beat you, and over 11 monsters to actually kill you.

-All military facilities have a screen which shows a perfect picture of the attacking monsters.

-Repairing a heavily damaged, 40 story robot takes a week.

I woke up Sunday morning and stuck my head out the window, hopeful that my friends who were running the ING New York City Marathon would have good weather. They were in luck: Beautiful sunny skies and cold-but-not-too-cold temperatures made for great racing conditions. While I know that some of us on the sidelines were quite chilly, I’ll bet the runners were quite thankful for the almost-perfect autumn day.

Pretty soon, though, these crisp autumn mornings will turn into bitter cold winter days; I’ve already noticed that it’s been harder and harder to get up and run in the mornings as the temperature drops and the wind picks up. And while some runners embrace the cold and will keep running outdoors through the new year, I tend to retreat to the gym during the winter—to the dreaded treadmill.

There are certainly pros and cons to both running on a treadmill or on the road, many of which have already been discussed in this blog. Now here’s one more point for the treadmill: If you run at the gym (or in your home, if you’ve got the setup) while facing a mirror, you may not feel like you’re working as hard. According to British research published this year in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, study participants who watched themselves in a mirror while running on a treadmill used oxygen more efficiently than those who had no reflection to watch. Watching the rhythmic movement of your own legs can apparently help your mind and body relax and get into the zone, making the effort seem easier, reports Women’s Health magazine.

Do you spend your winter workouts indoors or outdoors? What are your tricks for making them easier? Regardless of where you exercise, it’s important to keep it up over the next few months of cold weather and holiday celebrations. New research from the past two weeks piles on the evidence that regular physical activity is imperative to your health.

• For people with type 2 diabetes, aerobic exercise combined with resistance training was shown to improve glucose control, physical performance, and body fat composition in a three-month study by University of Utah researchers.
• Normal-weight women who frequently carry out vigorous activity (heavy house and yard work such as scrubbing floors, washing windows, digging, or chopping wood) or strenuous exercise (running, aerobics, fast dancing, and biking on hills) are 30% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who don’t, found a National Cancer Institute study of more than 32,000 women.
• People who are physically active may have less severe problems in the event of a stroke and may recover more successfully than those who do not exercise, found a Danish study of 265 people.
• And in an animal study, researchers found that if obese individuals abruptly stop a regular exercise routine—something we all may be tempted to do when the weather gets cold—the disruption may quickly lead to symptoms of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition that affects at least 75% of obese people.

The Dongguan town council was inspired by the Tomatina of Buñol to organise its first tomato fight. The thousands of combatants set off in two teams and yesterday threw fifteen tons of ripe tomatoes in each others face.

In Chongqing city, a boa escaped to balcony to got tanned during its host’s absence, it scared neighborhood residents and many people on the street, residents immediately call the police upon finding it. The boa is 3 meters long and 10 kms weight, the host explained that he got it from Burma and has keeping it for 20 years! Everyday he puts it in the cage, but today it escaped.

My get-up-and-go has escaped, and I’m doing all I can to get it back. I’m smart enough to know that I can’t rely on quick fixes like drinks or pills. To solve my own energy crisis, I’ve got to drill-baby-drill down the basics: better food and more sleep.

I’ve been so busy these past two weeks, I feel like I could crawl into bed and hibernate for a week. I know when my energy drain started: I did a marathon in the Sierras last weekend, and I had to travel before and after the race. Talk about a complicated training schedule—and a tough recovery too. I’ve been skimping on sleep, jetting across time zones, slacking on nutrition, and subjecting my body to all sorts of physical extremes.

Now, I’m en route to New York and then to Chicago for some nutrition conferences. To try to eke more energy out of my weary body, I’ve decided that I’m going to serve as my own research project to see if what I eat really does impact how energized I feel. Here are the terms of my experiment.

Eat every three to four hours—period
The busier I get, the longer I go between real meals; even snacks go by the wayside, as empty Diet Coke cans stack up by my computer instead. When lunch doesn’t roll around until 2 p.m., that’s a problem. I’ve decided regardless of how many deadlines I’m under, I am eating breakfast when I wake up, a snack at 10 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m., an afternoon snack around 3, and dinner around 6 or 7 p.m. While research is sketchy about whether eating smaller, more frequent meals is better for energy levels, I know that, personally, it keeps me from binging on junk food just because I’m ravenous.

Stop overeating
When you overeat, you feel lethargic. It’s no wonder that after holiday dinners, most of us just want to roll to the couch for a nap. This is a vicious cycle that I find many overweight people suffer from: They overeat, it zaps their energy levels, and so they exercise less and get heavier. A dietitian colleague says it’s “like a snowball rolling downhill that just keeps getting bigger as it rolls.” So by eating small meals and snacks, as detailed in my first point, I’m hoping to avoid this unfortunate side effect as well.