Angela Markel
Angela Merkel's Fight to Hold on to Power
German Chancellor Angela Merkel may look set for another term in office, but her political future hinges on the election result. If her CDU party ends up having to form another grand coalition with the center-left SPD, it will spell the beginning of the end of her political career.
Angela Merkel is on a plane flying over the Black Sea. The German chancellor is on her way to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, but a curious mood pervades the flying conference room. The dimensions are somehow off. The seats are too small and people are perching uncomfortably on armrests. The temperature in the plane keeps changing -- it is always either too warm or too cold, but never quite comfortable. The aircraft is too crowded, so that journalists are forced to either sit on the floor or uncomfortably close to Merkel on a gray sofa.
Merkel tends to be slightly clumsy and it often takes her a little longer than usual to get things under control. Today is no exception. She fumbles with the microphone, then blows into it, taps it and, finally, when none of this seems to do any good, holds it up to her ear and listens, as if it were a loudspeaker.
Reference : "Angela Merkel's Fight to Hold on to Power" (09/25/2009) by Christoph Schwennicke from http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,651369,00.html
Image from : http://www.tinker.com/featured/?category=other_people&categoryType=topics
Miranda Kerr cherishes life after losing friend
SUPERMODEL Miranda Kerr has spoken about her heartbreak at losing a loved one in a car accident and how it taught her to cherish life.
Joining The Daily Telegraph's I Promise road safety campaign as a celebrity ambassador, the 26-year-old said she loved the freedom of driving but understood all too well the responsibilities that came with it and the dangers it could bring.
"I lost a loved one in a car accident and it is something that has shaped the way I appreciate life and how quickly it can be taken away," she said. "Every time we get in the car we are risking our lives but life is for living and I try my best to not live in fear."
Kerr did not want to give further details of the tragedy but said she coped by thinking positively and not worrying too much when her family and friends were on the road.
"I prefer to think of the best and try not to dwell on the negatives," she said.
As with more than 1000 people from across NSW, Kerr has taken the I Promise pledge, vowing to take personal responsibility for the way she drives.
She began driving as a learner when she was 16 -"as soon as I was legally able to"- but had spent years practising on the farm in Gunnedah where she grew up.
"I learned to drive on the farm when I was very young," she said.
Kerr said she found it particularly frustrating when people were impatient or angry on the roads.
Asked what annoyed her the most, she said: "When people are being really impatient.
"The way I see it personally, if I am meant to be stuck in traffic there's not much I can do about it and getting upset won't help."
As for her own guilty secret behind the wheel?
"Yes I am guilty of singing while driving and sometimes turning the music up a little too loud," she said.
Reference : "Miranda Kerr cherishes life after losing friend" (10/04/10) by Joe Hildebrand from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ipromise/miranda-kerr-cherishes-life-after-losing-friend/story-fn55yw9h-1225852012587?from=public_rss
Helen Keller
Image from : http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdkell.htm'Meet Helen Keller'
Helen Keller was a wild child. She threw temper tantrums, kicking and screaming until she was exhausted. She grabbed food from everyone's plate at the dinner table and ate with her hands. Once she locked her mother in the kitchen for three hours.
Helen was not a "bad" girl. Her problems began when she was only 19 months old. After an illness called "brain fever," which may have been scarlet fever or meningitis, Helen lost her eyesight and hearing and couldn't speak. She was angry. She was frustrated. She had difficulty making herself understood. Helen's parents felt sorry for her and didn't know how to handle her. Yet despite her early difficulties, Helen became well educated and a respected leader who fought for the rights of the deaf and blind.
Helen, born on June 27, 1880, in the small farming town of Tuscumbia, Ala., was the oldest of three children of Arthur and Kate Keller. Helen also had two older half-brothers, born to her father before his first wife died. Her father was the editor of the town newspaper. They lived on a farm where they raised pigs, turkeys, chickens and sheep.
Through touching, tasting and smelling, Helen learned a great deal about the world she could no longer see or hear. She could recognize people and their ages just by the vibrations from their footsteps on a bare floor. When she walked around, she knew where she was by the different smells from the shops in town or from the flowers on the farm.
As she grew a little older, she tried to communicate. She shook her head to mean "no." A pull meant "come," and a push, "go." When people spoke, she touched their lips but couldn't understand their words. She tried moving her lips, but no one could understand her.
For years, Helen's parents took her to see many doctors and tried many treatments, but nothing would bring back her sight or hearing. It seemed she would forever live in a dark and silent world. Tuscumbia was a long way from any schools for the blind or deaf. A friend of Helen's mother suggested that they send Helen to an institution, wondering if she were even capable of learning.
But Helen's mother had read a book by Charles Dickens describing a deaf-blind girl he had met while visiting the United States. Dickens reported that this girl had been taught to communicate by finger spelling. Each letter of the alphabet was formed by moving fingers in different positions. Hoping Helen could be taught finger spelling too, the Kellers began looking for a teacher.
Reference : "Meet Helen Keller" by Sherrill Kushner, LA Times (June 27, 2005) from http://www.4hearingloss.com/archives/2005/06/meet_helen_kell.html
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