Autumn garden Roses

Ima dni – taxi

Bulgarian School Becomes 1st in Europe to Introduce Chess as Obligatory Subject

Source: novinite.com

Bulgaria’s “Eurostandard” English language highschool has become the first school in Europe to introduce chess as an obligatory subject for all its students, according to a local news report.

The school has worked in collaboration with Bulgarian Silvio Danailov, President of the European Chess Union, in order to prepare and introduce the project, the News.bg news agency has informed.

On September 20, Silvio Danailov and Garry Kasparov, one of the world’s legendary chess players and Chairman of the Kasparov Chess Foundation Europepresented during a public hearing at the European Parliament their program for ‘Chess in European Schools’.

The program is designed to promote chess in schools throughout Europe by offering chess curriculums, chess materials, chess teachers and communication material to encourage and motivate children to discover and learn the game.

The development of the program will be carried out by the Foundation as a joint project with the European Chess Union (ECU) and the Kasparov Chess Foundation US. ‘Chess in School’ project is a top priority in the management program of the President of the European Chess Union Silvio Danailov and his team.

Chess is a fairly popular sport in Bulgaria and children in the Balkan country often learn how to play it at an early age.

Recently, Bulgarian Nurgyul Salimova grabbed the Girls Under 8 title at the European Youth Chess Championship that took place at Bulgaria’s Albena sea resort.

Expectedly, Bulgaria’s young chess hopefuls pulled of a formidable performance, with 6 players reaching top 10 in their respective age groups.

Bulgaria to Reintroduce Extinct Prehistoric Wild Horses

Tarpans, extinct prehistoric wild horses, are to be reintroduced to Bulgaria’s nature at the beginning of September as a part of the Bulgarian – Dutch New Thracian Gold Project.

The first group of 12 tarpans to be reintroduced in Bulgaria will arrive from The Netherlands and will be settled in the southern Krumovgrad region near the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Initially, the animals will live in a fenced area, until they get used to the Eatern Rhodopes environment, the BGNES news agency says.

The Tarpan is a prehistoric wild horse type that ranged from Southern France and Spain east to central Russia. Paleontologists have found out that the species was present in Bulgaria, too. It died out in the wild between 1875 and 1890 Beginning in the 1930s, several attempts have been made to re-create the tarpan through selective breeding.

“The New Thracian Gold”, a project of ARK Nature and the Avalon Foundation, was awarded funding from the Dutch National Postcode Lottery Extra draw in 2009. The project has been using this grant since 2009 to develop natural grazing, organic agriculture and ecotourism in the Eastern Rhodopes

source: novinite.com

Puppet Theater progress

I got the doors together and painted. Also  working theater curtains are on the way.

Old doors painted

My first Pinocchio

pinocchio

Kitchen project

A kitchen improvement project at a friend’s place.

Kitchen before

kitchen after

Puppet theater

Old doors

These doors must be over 100 years old. Usually they end up cut in pieces for the fire place. But for these doors I have a plan.

Puppet theater plan

Garden art

Garden Art

Amsterdammertje

Politics is Their Business

The mayor is the city’s most successful CEO, while his councilors look like departmental heads, restless to make sure the boss knows they are not sitting on their hands. Italy? No, this has been Bulgaria after the local vote in October, 2007.

The heady blend of politics and business has long ago become a national trait in Bulgaria, but the foray of businessmen into politics will be mind boggling during this year’s local elections.

Theirs is no unrequited love. Political parties are also wooing wealthy businessmen, whom they see as the shortest route to hearts of the poor and hungry voters.

Back in 2007, the unprecedented interest of people outside the key political formations stemmed from the key role that local authorities were to play in distributing EU funds in the first years of Bulgaria’s entry in the bloc.

Four years later, entrepreneurs are looking for ways to migrate from the business to the political arena not least because the experience so far has proved this to be a frictionless corruption machine.

Even the most unthinkable team-ups and scenarios are possible.

Just think of Detelina Nikolova, mayor of the northeastern city of Dobrich. Elected back in 2001 on the ticket of the former king’s party NDSV, she secured her second term with the support of center-right GERB and is expected to win a third term thanks to the Socialists!

source: novinite.com