FIFA

The commonly argued word soccer vs. football is one of the most popular watched sports in the world. What is FIFA and where will it be held this year? What teams have qualified, and in your opinion Mai, what team do you think will win, or after doing your research who are people thinking will win?

Warm Regards

Riel

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The Federation Internationale de Football Association, commonly known as FIFA, is the international governer of association football. The headquarters is located in Zurich, Switzerland. FIFA is responsible for the organization and governance of football's major international tournaments, the most famous being the FIFA world cup which started in 1930. It is held every 4 years. The next world cup is being held in South Africa for 2010 between June 11 - July 11. There as been a total of 18 tournaments and 7 nations have won the title. Brazil has won a record 5 times, followed by Italy with 4 and Germany with 3. The last world cup in 2006 saw Italy win the tournament.

FIFA was formed in the early 1900's when football became increasingly popular and it was realized that they needed to have someone over-looking the standards and rules to make sure the game stayed consistent. The world is broken up into 6 confederations that each have their own "football government." FIFA over looks all of these confederations. They are:

* Asia - Asian Football Confederation (AFC)

* Africa - Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF)

* North and Central America and the Caribbean - Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)

* South America - Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol (CONMEBOL)

* Oceania - Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)

* Europe - Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)

There are 204 teams (countries that have teams) and only 32 qualify to compete in the world cup in South Africa. The following are the 32 qualifying teams:

UEFA (13) Denmark England France Germany Greece Italy Netherlands Portugal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Switzerland

CONCACAF (3)

Honduras Mexico United States

CONMEBOL (5)

Argentina Brazil Chile Paraguay

Uruguay

OFC (1)

New Zealand

AFC (4) Australia Japan Korea DPR Korea Republic CAF (5+1) Algeria Cameroon Côte d'Ivoire Ghana Nigeria South Africa (hosts)

The favorite teams that are the big contenders for the title are:

Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, England, Netherlands and Spain.

I don't know who I want to win but I'd have to say Spain is my top team, then the Netherlands. I have a soft spot for the countries that I love!

Hope this answers all your questions!

Mai

languages

Mai,

How many Languages are there in the world? What was the first alphabet written and the first language spoken??

Cheers!

Riel xx

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Riel,

How many languages is a tricky question. Since there are so many small communities that speak their own dialects, mainly in the jungle regions. According to Ethnologue there is 6,912 "living" languages, defined as languages that people speak today. There are many languages that are "dying" out. For example the Unites States has 238 languages but only 162 of those are "living" and will continue on with the next generations.

The first alphabet was founded in Ancient Egypt. It emerged around 2000 BCE to represent the language of Semitic workers in Egypt, and was derived from the alphabetic principles of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Nearly all alphabets in the world today either descend directly from this development or were inspired by its design. The Greek alphabet was descended from the Egyptians and is considered one of the first "true" alphabets. All European alphabets are descended from the Greek alphabet.

The language question is hard depending on your beliefs. The first language spoken was Semitic language (Arabic, Aramaic, hebrew) of the middle east. The language of all prophets and the language of prophet Adam the first man to come to earth. All modern languages originated from this language. It is also believed that the first language originated somewhere in Africa and is not written in history. Some also say that man evolved from apes and that they had their own forms of language.

mai xx.

leonardo da vinci

Bonjour Riel,

Tell me about
Leonardo Da Vinci.

Bisous, Mai

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What I knew about Leonardo Da Vinci before hand was that he had painted the Mona Lisa, and The Last Supper. Growing up in my grandma's house, there was a paint by number painting of the Last Supper hanging beside the dinning room table and as a kid I always looked at it, and wondered the story behind it. At that time I probably had no idea who was the artist behind that painting, or how important the story behind the painting was.

I just went to the Vancouver Art gallery this week as its free during the Paralympics, and has a Leonardo Di Vinci expedition. I looked through his art and drawings they had featured and did not realised how talented he was, with not only painting but drawing and inventing also.

This lead me to wonder who Leonardo really was and the story behind his greatness.

Leonardo was born in a Tuscan hill town called Vinci in 1452. He spent most of his life living and working in Florence. Leonardo was a painter, writer, sculptor, architect, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, and botanist.

He is considered to be the greatest painter of all time, and the most talented man to have ever lived. He is most known for The last supper and The Mona Lisa. Lots of controversy about each of these paintings. The Last Supper painting, is a painting of the last supper before Jesus was put to death. The person sitting to the left of Jesus, is presumed to be John, but may really be a women named Mary Magdalene. Also one of the glasses is thought to be the Holy Grail.

The painting was almost ruined in world war II. Sandbags around the painting helped to protect it, but they think the vibration damaged it.

The Last supper is displayed in Milan at the Santa Maria Delle Grazie.

The Mona Lisa is a painting of a women that seems to be half smiling. If you walk from wall to wall looking at the painting, her eyes seem to follow you. Some people think it is actually a painting of Leonardo in form of a women. It is really Lisa Gherardini a maiden fom Florence. Mona means my lady. The Mona Lisa is displayed at the Louvre in Paris. In 1911 the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. To be copied and to be sold. They found it later on trying to be sold in Florence.

Interesting Facts-

Leonardo would often paint from dawn until dusk with no eating. Then he would take breaks for 3 to 4 days. If he saw a person with an interesting face, he would follow them around town all day observing them.

There were sketches found that Leonardo did of a bridge, part of a civil engineering project. In 2001 a similar bridge was built in Norway. In 2006 that exact bridge of his designs was built in Istanbul. Hundreds of years later.

His life and his paintings have been made up of several movies and books. Leonardo died at the age of 67 and probably had no idea that 500 years later he would be so famous.

Very interesting Mai, so much more to know, the info on him never ends.....

*riel, i never took a picture of myself like you did in front the mona lisa because people were going crazy over it! people that know nothing about art but that it's "famous" and had to take 27 photos each. so here's me in front of the louvre...