Australian universities league table

1.Australian National University
2.University of Melbourne
3.University of Sydney
4.University of Queensland
5.University of New South Wales
6.Monash University
7.University of Western Australia
8.University of Adelaide
9.Flinders University of South Australia
10.Macquarie University
11.University of Tasmania
12.Murdoch University
13.University of Newcastle
14.University of Wollongong
15.Curtin University of Technology
16.Griffith University
17.RMIT University
18.University of New England
19.Deakin University
20.Queensland University of Technology
21.James Cook University
22.University of Technology,Sydney
23.University of South Australia
24.University of Canberra
25.La Trobe University
26.Southern Cross University
27.Swinburne University of Technology
28.University of Western Sydney
29.Victoria University
30.Charles Darwin University
31.Edith Cowan University
32.Central Queensland University
33.Charles Sturt University
34.University of Ballarat
35.Australian Catholic University
36.University of Southern Queensland
37.University of the Sunshine Coast
38.University of Notre Dame, Australia

Big academic publishers (areas inc Computer Science)

Elsevier
Springer
Wiley: Wiley-Blackwell, Wiley InterScience, Wiley-IEEE Press
Oxford University Press
McGraw-Hill
Cambridge University Press
Prentice Hall
CRC Press Inc.
Academic Press
VCH
IOS Press
IGI Global
Inderscience

UK universities league table

1 Oxford
2 Cambridge
3 Imperial College
4 London School of Economics
5 Durham
6 Warwick
7 St Andrews
8 University College London
9 Bath
10 York
11 Edinburgh
12 Lancaster
13 Southampton
13 Aston
15 SOAS
16 Bristol
17 King's College London
18 Loughborough
19 Nottingham
19 Exeter
20 Leicester
22 Royal Holloway
23 Newcastle
24 Sheffield
25 Sussex
26 Glasgow
27 Birmingham
28 Leeds
28 Manchester
30 Essex
31 Surrey
32 East Anglia
33 Queens - Belfast
34 Liverpool
35 Reading
36 Cardiff
37 Goldsmiths College
38 Kent
39 Heriot-Watt
40 Strathclyde
41 Brunel
42 Keele
43 Queen Mary
44 City
44 Stirling
46 Hertfordshire
47 Nottingham Trent
48 Robert Gordon
49 Ulster
49 Aberdeen
51 Dundee
52 Hull
53 Oxford Brookes
54 Bournemouth
55 Aberystwyth
56 Swansea
57 Bradford
58 Northumbria
59 Birmingham City
60 University of the Arts - London
61 West of England - Bristol
62 Portsmouth
63 Brighton
63 Bangor
65 De Montfort
65 UWIC - Cardiff
67 Chichester
68 Sheffield Hallam
69 Winchester
70 University for the Creative Arts
71 Gloucestershire
72 Edinburgh Napier
72 Bedfordshire
74 Glasgow Caledonian
75 Plymouth
76 Salford
77 Lampeter
78 Lincoln
79 Central Lancashire
80 Staffordshire
81 Kingston
82 Manchester Metropolitan
82 Bath Spa
84 Huddersfield
85 Coventry
86 Queen Margaret
87 Roehampton
88 Middlesex
89 Westminster
90 Chester
90 Glamorgan
91 York St John
92 Teesside
93 Sunderland
95 Abertay Dundee
96 Worcester
97 Leeds Metropolitan
98 Derby
98 Thames Valley
98 University of Wales - Newport
101 Glyndwr
102 Wolverhampton
103 Buckinghamshire New
104 Liverpool John Moores
104 Northampton
106 East London
107 Canterbury Christ Church
108 Cumbria
109 Edge Hill
110 Southampton Solent
111 Greenwich
112 Bolton
113 London South Bank

US universities league table

Tier 1 & 2

1 Harvard University Cambridge, MA
1 Princeton University Princeton, NJ
3 Yale University New Haven, CT
4 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
4 Stanford University Stanford, CA
4 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA
8 Columbia University New York, NY
8 University of Chicago Chicago, IL
10 Duke University Durham, NC
11 Dartmouth College Hanover, NH
12 Northwestern University Evanston, IL
12 Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO
14 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
15 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
16 Brown University Providence, RI
17 Emory University Atlanta, GA
17 Rice University Houston, TX
17 Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN
20 University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN
21 University of California--Berkeley Berkeley, CA
22 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
23 Georgetown University Washington, DC
24 University of California--Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
24 University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA
26 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA
27 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
28 Tufts University Medford, MA
28 University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC
28 Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC
31 Brandeis University Waltham, MA
32 New York University New York, NY
33 College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA
34 Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA
35 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
35 Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA
35 University of California--San Diego La Jolla, CA
35 University of Rochester Rochester, NY
39 University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
39 University of Wisconsin--Madison Madison, WI
41 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH
42 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY
42 University of California--Davis Davis, CA
42 University of California--Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA
42 University of Washington Seattle, WA
46 University of California--Irvine Irvine, CA
47 Pennsylvania State University--University Park University Park, PA
47 University of Florida Gainesville, FL
47 University of Texas--Austin Austin, TX
50 Tulane University New Orleans, LA
50 University of Miami Coral Gables, FL
52 Yeshiva University New York, NY
53 George Washington University Washington, DC
53 Ohio State University--Columbus Columbus, OH
53 University of Maryland--College Park College Park, MD
56 Boston University Boston, MA
56 University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA
58 Pepperdine University Malibu, CA
58 Syracuse University Syracuse, NY
58 University of Georgia Athens, GA
61 Clemson University Clemson, SC
61 Fordham University New York, NY
61 Purdue University--West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN
61 Texas A&M University--College Station College Station, TX
61 University of Minnesota--Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN
66 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey--New Brunswick Piscataway, NJ
66 University of Connecticut Storrs, CT
68 Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX
68 University of Delaware Newark, DE
68 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA
71 Brigham Young University--Provo Provo, UT
71 Indiana University--Bloomington Bloomington, IN
71 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
71 University of California--Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA
71 University of Iowa Iowa City, IA
71 Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA
77 Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO
77 Miami University--Oxford Oxford, OH
77 University of Colorado--Boulder Boulder, CO
80 Baylor University Waco, TX
80 Northeastern University Boston, MA
80 SUNY--Binghamton Binghamton, NY
80 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, NY
84 American University Washington, DC
84 Marquette University Milwaukee, WI
84 Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ
84 University of Denver Denver, CO
88 Auburn University Auburn University, AL
88 Clark University Worcester, MA
88 Drexel University Philadelphia, PA
88 Iowa State University Ames, IA
88 North Carolina State University--Raleigh Raleigh, NC
88 St. Louis University St. Louis, MO
88 University of Tulsa Tulsa, OK
88 University of Vermont Burlington, VT
96 Howard University Washington, DC
96 SUNY--Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY
96 University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL
96 University of California--Riverside Riverside, CA
96 University of Kansas Lawrence, KS
96 University of Nebraska--Lincoln Lincoln, NE
102 Florida State University Tallahassee, FL
102 University of Arizona Tucson, AZ
102 University of Missouri Columbia, MO
102 University of Oklahoma Norman, OK
106 Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL
106 University of Massachusetts--Amherst Amherst, MA
106 University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN
106 Washington State University Pullman, WA
110 Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX
110 University of Dayton Dayton, OH
110 University of New Hampshire Durham, NH
110 University of San Diego San Diego, CA
110 University of South Carolina--Columbia Columbia, SC
115 New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ
115 Ohio University Athens, OH
115 University of Oregon Eugene, OR
115 University of the Pacific Stockton, CA
119 Clarkson University Potsdam, NY
119 Loyola University Chicago Chicago, IL
121 Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
121 Catholic University of America Washington, DC
121 Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI
121 University at Buffalo--SUNY Buffalo, NY
121 University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA
126 Samford University Birmingham, AL
126 University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT
128 Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO
128 Duquesne University Pittsburgh, PA
128 Louisiana State University--Baton Rouge Baton Rouge, LA
128 Missouri University of Science & Technology Rolla, MO
128 University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR
128 University of Kentucky Lexington, KY
Unranked, Union Institute and University Cincinnati, OH
Unranked, Wilmington University New Castle, DE

Tier 3

Adelphi University Garden City, NY
Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI
Azusa Pacific University Azusa, CA
Ball State University Muncie, IN
Biola University La Mirada, CA
Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH
DePaul University Chicago, IL
Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne, FL
George Fox University Newberg, OR
George Mason University Fairfax, VA
Hofstra University Hempstead, NY
Illinois State University Normal, IL
Kansas State University Manhattan, KS
Kent State University Kent, OH
Louisiana Tech University Ruston, LA
Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS
Montana State University Bozeman, MT
New School New York, NY
North Dakota State University Fargo, ND
Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK
Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA
Oregon State University Corvallis, OR
Pace University New York, NY
Pacific University Forest Grove, OR
Polytechnic Institute of New York University Brooklyn, NY
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey--Newark Newark, NJ
San Diego State University San Diego, CA
Seton Hall University South Orange, NJ
South Carolina State University Orangeburg, SC
Southern Illinois University--Carbondale Carbondale, IL
St. John's University Queens, NY
St. Mary's University of Minnesota Winona, MN
Temple University Philadelphia, PA
Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX
University at Albany--SUNY Albany, NY
University of Alabama--Birmingham Birmingham, AL
University of Alabama--Huntsville Huntsville, AL
University of Central Florida Orlando, FL
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH
University of Hartford West Hartford, CT
University of Hawaii--Manoa Honolulu, HI
University of Idaho Moscow, ID
University of Illinois--Chicago Chicago, IL
University of La Verne La Verne, CA
University of Louisville Louisville, KY
University of Maine Orono, ME
University of Maryland--Baltimore County Baltimore, MD
University of Massachusetts--Lowell Lowell, MA
University of Mississippi University, MS
University of Missouri--Kansas City Kansas City, MO
University of Montana Missoula, MT
University of Nevada--Reno Reno, NV
University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM
University of North Carolina--Greensboro Greensboro, NC
University of North Dakota Grand Forks, ND
University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI
University of South Dakota Vermillion, SD
University of South Florida Tampa, FL
University of St. Thomas St. Paul, MN
University of Texas--Dallas Richardson, TX
University of Wyoming Laramie, WY
Utah State University Logan, UT
Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, VA
Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI
West Virginia University Morgantown, WV
Widener University Chester, PA

Tier 4

Barry University Miami Shores, FL
Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI
Clark Atlanta University Atlanta, GA
Cleveland State University Cleveland, OH
East Carolina University Greenville, NC
East Tennessee State University Johnson City, TN
Florida A&M University Tallahassee, FL
Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL
Florida International University Miami, FL
Georgia Southern University Statesboro, GA
Georgia State University Atlanta, GA
Golden Gate University San Francisco, CA
Idaho State University Pocatello, ID
Immaculata University Immaculata, PA
Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, PA
Indiana University-Purdue University--Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN
Jackson State University Jackson, MS
Long Island University--C.W. Post Campus Brookville, NY
Morgan State University Baltimore, MD
New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM
North Carolina A&T State University Greensboro, NC
Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ
Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL
Nova Southeastern University Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Oakland University Rochester, MI
Oral Roberts University Tulsa, OK
Portland State University Portland, OR
Regent University Virginia Beach, VA
South Dakota State University Brookings, SD
Spalding University Louisville, KY
Tennessee State University Nashville, TN
Texas A&M University--Commerce Commerce, TX
Texas A&M University--Kingsville Kingsville, TX
Texas Woman's University Denton, TX
Trevecca Nazarene University Nashville, TN
Trinity International University Deerfield, IL
University of Akron Akron, OH
University of Alaska--Fairbanks Fairbanks, AK
University of Arkansas--Little Rock Little Rock, AR
University of Bridgeport Bridgeport, CT
University of Colorado--Denver Denver, CO
University of Houston Houston, TX
University of Louisiana--Lafayette Lafayette, LA
University of Massachusetts--Boston Boston, MA
University of Memphis Memphis, TN
University of Missouri--St. Louis St. Louis, MO
University of Nevada--Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV
University of New Orleans New Orleans, LA
University of North Carolina--Charlotte Charlotte, NC
University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO
University of North Texas Denton, TX
University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg, MS
University of Texas--Arlington Arlington, TX
University of Texas--El Paso El Paso, TX
University of Toledo Toledo, OH
University of West Florida Pensacola, FL
University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI
Wayne State University Detroit, MI
Wichita State University Wichita, KS
Wright State University Dayton, OH

Cage dwellers

cage dwellers in Hongkong, the city's poorest inhabitants who pay roughly $170 per month to live in 18-square-foot wire cages.

Inderscience publishes many new academic journals

Inderscience is a publisher of peer-reviewed international journals in four major fields, those of energy, environment and sustainable development; science, engineering and technology; management, and business administration; and computing, maths and ICT.

It has been in business since 1979. Inderscience Publishers charge for prints of journal articles, but provides some articles on-line or on its blog. New journals in science, electricity, energy, bio-mechanics and related fields are continually being introduced.

Chinese characters in Microsoft Outlook 2007

Go to Tools > Options > Mail Format (tab) and then: Select drop down option "Western European (Windows)" encoding for outgoing messages

For incoming messages that are not readable, open the message, click on "Other Actions" in the "Actions" tab > Encoding > Chinese Simplified. The type of Chinese Simplified font doesn't seem to matter much. This can still leave unreadable characters in the subject line though.

How many universities are there in China?

There are 2321 institutions in China according to data at 2007, including 740 universities which offer 4-year undergraduate degree courses (BA, BSc, etc.), 1168 colleges which offer 3-year college diploma courses, and 413 further education colleges.

How many universities are there in the UK?

There are approximately 325 institutions in the UCAS scheme including universities, colleges of higher education and further education colleges that offer HE courses. An up-to-date count of universities only is available from Universities UK.

Number of institutions in UK (as at August 2008)
______________Universities _______ Higher Education Institutions
England ________90 ______________133
Scotland ________14 ______________20
Wales __________3 _______________12
Northern Ireland __2 _______________4
United Kingdom __109 ______________169

Aries 2009: Money & Career horoscope

Pluto in the house of career opens a period of intense concentration on power, position, status and fame, which will last until 2023!

Saturn in the house of work lays value on effort and tenacity.

Jupiter and Neptune in the house of aspirations aim lofty goals.

In conclusion, 2009 will be a year of hard work and significant progress, in which hierarchy and cooperation, institutions, interest in politics, fans, protectors and popularity play an important role.

Financially, there won't be major changes. The most active, yet risky interval, in which money has to be carefully managed, will be June - July 2009.

The complete list of Global Peace Index 2009

New Zealand 1
Denmark 2
Norway 2
Iceland 4
Austria 5
Sweden 6
Japan 7
Canada 8
Finland 9
Slovenia 9
Czech Republic 11
Ireland 12
Luxembourg 13
Portugal 14
Belgium 15
Germany 16
Qatar 16
Switzerland 18
Australia 19
Chile 20
Oman 21
Netherlands 22
Singapore 23
Slovakia 24
Uruguay 25
Malaysia 26
Hungary 27
Spain 28
Costa Rica 29
France 30
Romania 31
Poland 32
South Korea 33
Botswana 34
United Kingdom 35
Italy 36
Taiwan 37
Estonia 38
Vietnam 39
Bhutan 40
United Arab Emirates 40
Kuwait 42
Lithuania 43
Tunisia 44
Laos 45
Libya 46
Malawi 47
Cyprus 48
Croatia 49
Bosnia and Herzegovina 50
Gabon 51
Ghana 52
Mozambique 53
Egypt 54
Latvia 54
Bulgaria 56
Greece 57
Zambia 58
Panama 59
Tanzania 59
Equatorial Guinea 61
Nicaragua 61
Morocco 63
Jordan 64
Namibia 65
Argentina 66
Indonesia 67
Cuba 68
Bahrain 69
Dominican Republic 70
Burkina Faso 71
Madagascar 72
Paraguay 73
China 74
Albania 75
Moldova 75
Nepal 77
Serbia 78
Peru 79
Senegal 80
Bolivia 81
Ukraine 82
United States of America 83
Kazakhstan 84
Brazil 85
Rwanda 86
Trinidad and Tobago 87
Macedonia 88
Mongolia 89
Bangladesh 90
Montenegro 91
Syria 92
Papua New Guinea 93
El Salvador 94
Cameroon 95
Mali 96
Guyana 97
Belarus 98
Iran 99
Angola 100
Turkmenistan 101
Jamaica 102
Uganda 103
Saudi Arabia 104
Cambodia 105
Congo (Brazzaville) 106
Uzbekistan 106
Mexico 108
Ecuador 109
Algeria 110
Guatemala 111
Honduras 112
Kenya 113
Azerbaijan 114
Philippines 114
Haiti 116
Cote d'Ivoire 117
Thailand 118
Yemen 119
Venezuela 120
Turkey 121
India 122
South Africa 123
Mauritania 124
Sri Lanka 125
Myanmar 126
Burundi 127
Ethiopia 128
Nigeria 129
Colombia 130
North Korea 131
Lebanon 132
Central African Republic 133
Georgia 134
Zimbabwe 134
Russia 136
Pakistan 137
Chad 138
Democratic Republic of the Congo 139
Sudan 140
Israel 141
Somalia 142
Afghanistan 143
Iraq 144

The difference between a conference/symposium/workshop/congress

An academic conference is a typical conference set up where there are keynote speakers, and in front of the room facilitator.

A workshop has the sense of being a relatively small event with all participants involved in the discussion (although this is not always the case).

A symposium is similar to a conference, but there's ususally some sort of a casual involved, drinking, food, snacks, etc.

A congress is usually grand and more academic than workshop and symposium. It is probably larger than a conference.

The biggest online digital libraries

1st place: Google Book Search
2nd place: EU's Europeana
3rd place: The World Digital Library

Troubleshooting Second Life changing clothes

Problem:
The sliders when I go into appearance to modify clothing does not work. i.e. Sleeves with not shorten or lengthen, Pants, collars. The sliders do not work at all in appearance making it impossible to modify designs.

Solution:
It looks likely that you have an NVIDIA graphics card with version 177 or 178 drivers.
There are known avatar rendering issues for these driver versions:
VWR-7957 (Clothing skinning error on nVidia)
VWR-9358 (Texture rendering problem Nvidia 178.13 release drivers)
VWR-8261 (With some clothes, viewer renders buttocks and legs totally white)

The following workaround has been reported:
Enable the Advanced Menu (Ctrl-Alt-D)
Disable rendering of Palletized Textures (Ctrl-Alt-F7, or Advanced/Rendering/Features/Palletized Textures)
Rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R)

Henry VIII and the Three Self Church

When the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he set up the Protestant Church of England, and declared himself supreme head of a new Church of England. In Act of Supremacy:

An Act concerning the King's Highness to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and to have authority to reform and redress all errors, heresies and abuses in the same. (Act of Supremacy, 26 Henry VIII, 1534)

Christian history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must the Pope be of learning from experience (George Bernard Shaw). Chinese government might have learned from British King Henry VIII, set up the Three-Self Church, declared the church must be under the leadership of CCP (Chinese Communist Party). The 'Three-Self' is a characteristically Chinese way of abbreviating 'self-governance, self-support, self-propagation'.

Church played an essential role in everyone's life

Social life would have been shaped by the season, by custom and by religious beliefs. 

The church played an essential role in everyone's life. On Sundays and feast days the people of this place would have walked through the open fields to the church, which was enlarged and 'modernised' over time. They would also be baptised and married and finally in procession for burial.

自行架设博客的优缺点

今天读到一篇介绍自行架设博客优缺点的文章，是这么写的：

优点
1.自己的blog不会有BSP的广告，不影响版面美观。可以放自己的广告赚钱。
2.绝对的言论自由，不违法的情形下不必害怕BSP政策打压。
3.blog版面更新、扩充自由，想改什么就改什么。
4.插件多样化，有各界网友热心提供插件增强功能。
5.能知道哪些人来看了你的网站、来源网址是什么、哪些人订阅了你的RSS。
6.后台功能多样化，管理功能强大且便利。
7.资料备份便利，随时带着走。

缺点
1.图片尽量放置于免费空间，否则大量图片传输会影响整个伺服器的速度。
2.要自行备份Blog的档案和资料库
3.风格、插件自己DIY安装需有一定知识，对于新手较难上手，需要一段时间适
应
4.访客人数一多，频宽和网站主机效能比较容易吃紧
5.虚拟空间主机商倒闭的风险

我的看法是，要选择好的BSP(是什么的简称？)，它应该具有自行架设博客所包含的一切优点，而没有一切缺点。当然，你永远不肯能找到这样的的博客提供商，但是能找到最接近的。

我最喜欢Google的blogger，它包含了绝大多数优点：

1. 没有广告，也可以放自己的广告赚钱。
2. 绝对的言论自由，即使有稍微“低俗”的内容也没有关系。
3. 可以定制版面、自由扩充.
4. 插件多样化。有现成的风格插件，也可以自己定制。
5. 资料备份便利，随时带走。
6. 有web picasa和google video存放图片和视频。
7. 即使不自行备份也没有关系，你的博客会一直在那里，如果谷歌不破产。要是谷歌破产，互联网的末日也差不多到了。
8. 访客再多也没有关系，没有虚拟空间主机上倒闭的风险。

9. 不需要自己做搜索引擎优化，而自己架设博客，

可以说blogger差不多具有了一切自行架设博客包含的优点，而没有自行加深博客所具有的缺点。唯一的也是致命的缺点，被被中国屏蔽，要是你的博客使用中文简体，读者对象应该大多数在中国。

有的时候，我怀疑屏蔽国外空间商和网站的做法是国内空间商和大型网站搞的鬼，借用政治手段，蔽国外的，没有了竞争对手。保护民族产业是中国一百多年来的苦难的病根所在。

Jacqui Smith's immigration policy change on high-skilled migrant workers

This is a comment that I posted to somebody's blog discussing Jacqui Smith's new immigration rules.

-------
Great post! You’ve said everything that we non-EU immigrants feel.

My husband and I are immigrant too. We were born and raised in China, and have lived in the UK since 2000. Our two children were born in UK.

We both have PhD degrees. I did my Master and PhD in UK and worked here since. We bought home here. We have paid income tax, NI contribution, council tax… but don’t have access to public funds. My children born in UK don’t get child benefits.

Yet we still haven’t got indefinite leave to remain. Every now and then we have to pay a fortune to extend our visa and be ‘humiliated’ by Home Office if we went there in person trying to get the visa on the same day.

Once I posted my application with passports to Home Office and waited for 6 months. When my passport was returned I found that I was only granted 6 months Leave to remain, which means by the time I received my passport, my visa would expire again soon and I have to post it to Home Office for another extension!

I absolutely agree your comments that we are a cash-cow for a cash-greedy government.

Under UK’s very selective immigration system, non-EU migrant workers are likely to be top-of-the-cream in other countries. As a result, UK has already taken great advantage by luring the top people to contribute in its economy.

We spent the best ten years in our life (20s-30s) in UK. Our children speak perfect English that you can’t tell from local kids. Yet, we’re still not qualified for indefinite leave to remain. UK government has changed its immigration policy too often and broken its promises to immigrants again and again.

Now again, Jacqui Smith’s change aims to hard-working highly-skilled immigrant workers who contribute to the society but not effect illegal immigrants, assylum seekers, EU Immigrants, or terrorists at all.

This country is becoming greedy and hostile to hard-working high-skilled immigrants.

When it comes ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’, we are seriously consider leaving though it might be difficult for our English-speaking children.

How to cook Globe Artichoke?

I normally don't buy exotic vegetables that I never tried. When I was shopping late the other day a strange vegetable lying on the reduced shelf was only 10 pence. It was a globe artichoke, like a torch.

I threw it into my trolley without a single idea how to cook it. The next day when I tried to cook it, I studied the label on which cooking instructions print:
Remove stem and tough outer leaves, cut off the top 3cm of leaves, and immediately rub all cut surfaces with lemon juice to prevent discolouration. Place in a pan and cover with water, add lemon uice, a pinch of salt and a bay leaf. Bring to the boil and simmer or 3 minutes, until the leaves can be easily pulled away from the globe. Remove the central core of purple leaves and the inedible hairy choke. Eat by pulling the leaves out and sucking the flesh out of the bottom of the leaves.

Usually I just ignore cooking instructions and cook all vegetables using stir-and-fry technique. I did same this time. I washed and plucked leaves for cooking. Not until I saw the delicate inside white-purplish 'leaves', I realised that so-called 'leaves' in the cooking instructions are really petals and the whole thing is a flower bud. Indeed a hairy choke was revealed after all petals were plucked. I removed the hairy choke and the stem except a small portion of inner most white part which I think edible.

When I was eating it, I felt that this is the most difficult vegetable to eat. I had to hand-hold each petal and dealt with them one at a time by drawing the base of the petal through my teeth to scrape off the soft portion, discarding the rest of it. Now I understand why the cooking instructions advise cuting off the top 3cm of leaves and boiling it. Boiling should be better than stir-and-fry to cook artichokes because they are full of fibres.

On Wikipedia, I found a description of artichokes: The edible portion of the buds consists primarily of the fleshy lower portions of the involucral bracts and the base, known as the "heart". The inner most white portion I saved is the 'heart' and indeed it was the best bit of the whole globe.

The globe artichoke I bought was produced in Spain, other main producers are Italy, France, and some states of US.

If you prefer to keep it green during cooking, follow the instructions to rub all cut surfaces with lemon juice and leave lid open when you boil it. Covered artichokes can turn brown due to the acids and chlorophyll oxidation.

Artichoke stems, which are often thrown away like I did, are actually edible and taste like the artichoke heart.

How to save YouTube, Google videos?

Found a great site savevid.com which can download Youtube and Google videos onto local disk without installing any software. I tried a couple of youtube videos and it works just fine.

accountability

今天开了一天的会，是关于 management 和 leadership 的主题。除了 在小组讨论中认识了一些其它部门的中层 和 蹭了顿免费午餐外，最大的收获便是学了一个新单词 accountability. 这个词在今天的会议上是个热门词，我当时琢磨了好一会它的意思。从词根 account 来看，它好像跟‘解释/说明’有关，但是从上下文来看又不大像。

回来一查，原来 accountability 就是 responsibility 的意思，还有 liability or answerability for something。它的同义词有 liability, answerability, culpability, responsibility，看来它的词根 account 跟 answer 还是有点关系的。

Tips: To account for something is to take responsibility or to answer for something. When you are accountable for something, you must answer for it, account for it, or take responsibility for it.

例句：
We don’t have enough accountability in the creative department; no one wants to take responsibility for unacceptable ad concepts. (answerability, responsibility)

How can we account for all the business we lost last month when we meet with the board of directors next Monday? (answer) verb

You're not my boss; I'm not accountable to you. (answerable) adjective

The consumer advocacy group demanded greater accountability from the big energy company. (liability, answerability)