Mia-Mia
A mia-mia is a temporary shelter made of bark, branches, leaves and grass used by some Indigenous Australians. The word is also used in Australian English to mean "a temporary shelter". Coming from the Wathawurrung language, the term is also used in New Zealand, where it is usually spelt mai-mai and has the slightly different meaning of a shelter or hide used by a duck-hunter.
So where does mia-mia come from? In the Australian National Dictionary (1988) we are told that it comes from Wathawurung and Wuywurung. Wathawurung was the language spoken on the western side of Port Phillip Bay, including the present city of Geelong and the town of Bacchus Marsh, and extending inland probably as far as the city of Ballarat. Wuywurung was the language spoken in the area of present-day Melbourne, and extending as far north as Seymour, and to the north of Westernport, and from the Goulburn River across to Bendigo.
However, in Australian Aboriginal Words in English (1990), a book that also emanates from the Australian National Dictionary Centre, we are told: ‘Although this word was much used in Victoria (the earliest Victorian instance is 1839) it appears to have originated as maya or maya-maya in Nyungar, the language of the Perth–Albany region’. The Oxford English Dictionary lexicographers were puzzled by this change...
Little Hill of the Fair Bird
Birdhill is a village in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is in the barony of Owney and Arra and is part of the parish of Newport, Birdhill and Toor in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. Its Irish name was historically anglicised as Knockan or Knockaneeneen.
“It’s great, great,” said Michael Kelly. “Great for all the people who have done all of the hard work.”
He is one of the many people who have been volunteering with the Birdhill Tidy Towns committee for a very long time – 25 years in his case. Monday marked the high point of their work as the Co Tipperary village won the overall national prize in the Tidy Towns competition for the first time.
The Nightingale of Tibet
Starting at the age of eight, Namgyal Lhamo, recognized by many as a child prodigy, trained for fourteen years under great masters of Tibetan Opera and Classical Music at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts set up by the Dalai Lama. She went on to become the star performer of the Institute and toured extensively.
"I write or meditate. Well... they mean the same to me."Through this passage she stepped into the tradition of the various kinds of classical and folk music of her country. Her interpretations of the Nangma and the Toeshe, Tibetan classical songs from the 17th century, have been universally acclaimed and she is popularly known as The Nightingale of Tibet.
Coordinates: 37.496887°N 122.114525°W
The San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds are an approximately 16,500-acre (6,700 ha) part of the San Francisco Bay that have been used as salt evaporation ponds since the California Gold Rush era. Most of the ponds were once wetlands in the cities of Redwood City, Newark, Hayward and other parts of the bay.
The ponds are noted for their vivid colors, ranging from magenta to blue-green, that are especially visible from the air. The colors come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the different salinity levels in the ponds. In particular, synechococcus, halobacteria, and dunaliella affect the color of salt ponds.