that's My World, ABC Wednesday, O for Oxfam

A shop in Cirencester, UK.

That's my World is hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and Sylvia - a Team of experienced bloggers, whom we thank for this wonderful meme. You can see more of the world of other bloggers by clicking on the logo in the side bar or on that's My World

For my birthday (4th December) I got a bag filled with articles from one of the Oxfam shops in the Netherlands. There was coffee,tea, rice, jam, chutney, sweets and more delicious things. I've always bought something from Oxfam or Unicef for my children and grandchildren on birthdays. But... I still didn't know the history of Oxfam, so I looked it up in Wikipedia!

Oxfam International is an international confederation of 14 organisations working with over 3,000 partners in around 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.

Oxfam was originally founded in Oxford in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief by a group of Quakers, social activists, and Oxford academics; this is now Oxfam Great Britain, still based in Oxford, UK.

Oxfam has numerous shops all over the world, which sell many fair-trade and donated items. They opened their first charity shop in 1948. The proceeds from these usually get paid to different charities or are used to further Oxfam's relief efforts around the globe. Much of their stock still comes from public donations but they currently also sell fair trade products from developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America, including handcrafts, books, music CDs and instruments, clothing, toys, food and ethnic creations. These objects are brought to the public through fair trade to help boost the quality of life of their producers and surrounding communities.


With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.We started round 8 of the fascinating meme of ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with O.

Our thoughts are with Japan

 

All morning I have been watching TV and the horrific news about the tsunami. I am shocked to see the flood coming so fast into the city of Sendai. The earthquake was very strong and the tsunami followed very fast. Well I am sure you all are watching. I hope that our Japanese bloggers are safe. I also hope that the people from Hawaii, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, California, Mexico, Chili and all other countries in the Ring of Fire will be safe.
Pray if you can pray for all those people! I admire the brave and levelheaded Japanese people and the way they face the catastrophe.

Halloween , Watch the Witches in the Sky

To enlarge the slide click on "View all images"and then on "Original view

Halloween, or Hallowe’en, is an international holiday celebrated on October 31. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving Jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories and watching horror movies. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is celebrated in several countries of the Western world, most commonly in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom and occasionally in parts of Australia. In Sweden the All Saints' official holiday takes place on the first Saturday of November. Little by little it is being introduced here in The Netherlands. Especially since the books of Harry Potter, witchcraft is getting more and more popular, though we don't take that seriously. It's fun anyway!

Tom, Sandy, IMAC , Klaus, Ivar, Wren & Fishing Guy
Thank you so much for this great meme. For other wonderful skies all over the world click on logo.

The Moon Crescent in the Tropics, Sky Watch

 
 
 
 

All over the world people have seen the moon in various shapes as a full moon, as a crescent moon. The difference is that in Australia, and other countries in the tropical zone, the crescent is lying like a ship or like a dome over the country, while we in the more northerly or southerly regions see the crescent standing vertically. See the bottom most picture and compare it to the photos we took in Australia. We were amazed to see the horizontal crescent.

How was the moon formed? There are many theories.

The prevailing hypothesis today is that the Earth–Moon system was formed as a result of a giant impact. A Mars-sized body (labelled "Theia") is believed to have hit the proto-Earth, blasting sufficient material into orbit around the proto-Earth to form the Moon through accretion. As accretion is the process by which all planetary bodies are believed to have formed, giant impacts are thought to have affected most if not all planets. Computer simulations modelling a giant impact are consistent with measurements of the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system, as well as the small size of the lunar core. Unresolved questions regarding this theory concern the determination of the relative sizes of the proto-Earth and Theia and of how much material from these two bodies formed the Moon.

Thanks to the Sky Watch team. For more photos click on the Sky Watch picture