Word: lightness
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...child was known at the orphanage as Pham Quang Sang. Pham is a fairly common family name in Vietnam; the second two given names together mean "bright light." No one at the orphanage seemed to know for sure - the name was on his file when he arrived at the orphanage - but the name may be the only thing his birth mother left to him. It is standard practice for Vietnamese hospitals to require women in labor to provide proposed names for the child, one for a boy and a second for a girl, in case the mother dies in childbirth...
...Binh orphanage is next to national highway 1A, a busy thoroughfare on the northern outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). But it is fairly quiet once you are within the grounds. The reception area has faded light-blue walls that look like they are about five years overdue for repainting. A pleasant tree-shaded garden is filled with primary-colored playground equipment of the kind you'd see pretty much anywhere in the West - slides, a plastic jungle gym, spring-loaded hobby-horses shaped like ducks and rabbits. The children's dormitories are further to the left...
...words. She tells us that it was a German moon goddess, Eostre, who gave her name to both Easter and to the female hormone estrogen, and she explains that in old China, a hawk and a dove were considered to be the same bird, seen in a different light. She retells the poignant story of the compiler of the 16,000-page Great Chinese-Japanese Classical Dictionary, who saw the proofs of 12 of his 13 volumes reduced to ash during the firebombing of Tokyo in 1945, yet started the epic all over again, even as he lost all sight...
...report on compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs): I own two hybrid vehicles and am as green as anyone, but I don't encourage rushing out to replace incandescent lightbulbs. A CFL may consume 75% less energy to generate the equivalent light, but my furnace has to make up for the heat no longer provided by the incandescent bulb. Since there are also disposal issues (CFLs contain mercury), I suggest that CFLs be used only in the refrigerator...
...include more players from his corner of the country recently assaulted national coach Greg Chappell as the Australian legend boarded the team bus. "The expectations are far higher [in the subcontinent]," Chappell told an Indian reporter this week after hearing the news of Woolmer's death. "But in the light of this tragic event, I think we need to take pause and make sure that we don't get too stressed about what is, after all, only a game...