Clothing and Fashion

BATIK Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in (particularly) Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore. Javanese traditional batik, especially from Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has notable meanings rooted to the Javanese conceptualization of the universe. Traditional colours include indigo, dark brown, and white, which represent the three major Hindu Gods (Brahmā, Visnu, and Śiva). This is related to the fact that natural dyes are most commonly available in indigo and brown. Certain patterns can only be worn by nobility; traditionally, wider stripes or wavy lines of greater...

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City Living

JAKARTA Jakarta  formerly Batavia, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of 661 square kilometres (255 sq mi), and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre. It is the most populous city in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia, and is the thirteenth-largest city in the world. The urban area, Jabodetabek, is the second largest in the world. Jakarta is listed as a global city in the 2008 Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) research. Established in the fourth century, the city became an important trading port for the Kingdom...

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Other Worlds

The New Planets    REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - Kepler Mission of the United States space agency (NASA) sure has found two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star like the Sun in our solar system, according to NASA as quoted by Reuters on Thursday (22/12) NASA called this discovery is a milestone in the search mission Earth-like planets. Both planets are named Kepler and Kepler-20e-20F is the smallest planets outside the solar system which was confirmed around a Sun-like star, according to NASA. Both the new planet is too close to their stars to be called were in the zone occupied decent living (habitable zone) where there is liquid water on the surface of the planet. "This discovery shows for the first time that Earth-sized planets...

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Music and Festival

JAZZ Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, call-response, and the swung note. The word "jazz" (in early years also spelled "jass") began as a West Coast slang term and was first used to refer to music in Chicago at about 1915. From its beginnings in the early 20th century jazz has spawned a variety of subgenres: New Orleans Dixieland dating from...

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Travel and Adventure

Traveling to Mountain and Climbing Mountain. Preparing to Climb Your First Mountain Mountain climbing gives the climber an exhilarating experience. However, anyone looking to enter the sport needs to understand that it can be dangerous if you are not prepared for the mountain you plan to take on. You need to plan your experience and you need to have the proper equipment before you set out on your challenge. Have you heard of the following: glissade, crampons, self-arrest? If you answered ‘no’ then you need some training. If you know one but not all of them, you, too, need to learn the basics. There are several ways you can gain the knowledge you need. The first way is to research. There are many great sites on the web that can give...

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Amazing Animal

IRISH ELK or Giant Deer (Megaloceros giganteus) The Irish Elk or Giant Deer, was the largest deer that ever lived. It lived in Eurasia, from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The latest known remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 5,700 BC, or about 7,700 years ago. The Giant Deer is famous for its formidable size (about 2.1 meters or 7 feet tall at the shoulders), and in particular for having the largest antlers of any known cervid (a maximum of 3.65 meters/12 feet from tip to tip and weighing up to 90 pounds). Discussion of the cause of their extinction has still focused on the antlers (rather than on their overall body size), which may be due more to their impact on...

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