The Wedding Is Fake, but the Party Is Real

Photographs and Text by MAURICIO LIMA 5:50 PM ET

In Argentina, couples are delaying marriage, turning to civil unions or divorcing. So why wait for a ceremony to have a celebration?

A civil union, also referred to by a variety of other names, is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage. Wikipedia

Mediterranean Union Launched Amid Hopes for Peace

The European Union on Sunday established closer ties with the Middle East
and with its North African neighbors at a summit in Paris that was
described by its European backers as a "historic" success.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evyvosI44va89pI9

Better living through chemurgy

Jun 26th 2008 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

Efforts to replace oil-based chemicals with renewable alternatives are taking off

Illustration by David Simonds

FORTY years ago Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate” was given a famous piece of career advice: “Just one word…plastics.” It was appropriate at the time, given that the 1960s were a golden age of petrochemical innovation. Oil was cheap and seemed limitless. Since then, scientists have kept on coming up with wondrous new products made from petroleum that helped to ensure, in the words of one corporate slogan, better living through chemistry. Even so, someone offering advice to today’s promising graduates might invoke a different, uglier word: chemurgy.
This term, coined in the 1930s, refers to a branch of applied chemistry that turns agricultural feedstocks into industrial and consumer products. It had several successes early in the 20th century. Cellulose was used to make everything from paint brushes to the film on which motion pictures were captured. George Washington Carver, an American scientist, developed hundreds of ways to convert peanuts, sweet potatoes and other crops into glue, soaps, paints, dyes and other industrial products. In the 1930s Henry Ford started using parts made from agricultural materials, and even built an all-soy car. But the outbreak of the second world war and the shift to wartime production halted his experiment. After the war, low oil prices and breakthroughs in petrochemical technologies ensured the dominance of petroleum-based plastics and chemicals.

.Taiwan activist deported by China

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China has deported a pro-independence Taiwanese activist who wanted to cheer athletes from Taiwan at the Olympics.

Yang Hui-ju says Beijing immigration officials searched her bag and confiscated her valid visa.
Returning to Taipei on Saturday night, she was greeted by associates wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, "Taiwan, My Country."
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949. China claims the island a part of its own territory. Taiwan competes at the Olympics under the name of "Chinese Taipei."

chem・ur・gy

━━ n. 農産化学.??

Wikipedia article "Chemurgy".農業化學加工　 Chemurgy

activism
noun [U]
the use of direct and noticeable action to achieve a result, usually a political or social one:
black/student activism
The levels of trade union and political activism in this country have greatly declined in the past fifteen years.

activist 是異議兼力行份子是異議，不僅是活動人士。
"中國活動人士許志永被拘"

activist
noun [C]
a person who believes strongly in political or social change and works hard to try and make this happen:
He's been a trade union/party activist for many years.
a gay activist

Hu Jia 胡佳(維權人士 Rights Activist)

The region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Several important ancient civilizations flourished in the region, which was dominated for millennia by Phoenicia, Carthage, Greece, Sicily, and Rome.