Compact archive July 17, 2006

International conference made by International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education is now in Prague Charles University. It started yesterday and the Annual Meeting ends 21st July. Now the conference has 30th jubilee.

The conference has this year over 800 members and it is located in Teachers’ College of Charles University and in ABC Theatre. The idea is that pedagogy and psychology has very important in teaching of mathematics.

The conference is under the auspices of Rector of Charles University Vaclav Hampl and City Major of Prague Pavel Bem.

Official pages of the PME 30 conference is here.

Saturday became an unforgettable day for 17-year-old Ivana Novelicova from Serbia. Ivana was for the jury with twenty members the prettiest among the ten beauties from all over the world who decided to take part in the already sixth final of Miss Deaf World. The ten finalists were chosen among the girls from thirty countries who entered the competition.

The second place won Maryna Chuhrijova. Maryna comes from Ukraine and also celebrated her seventeenth birthday. The title for the third most beautiful girl went to 20-year-old Viera Zliechovcova from the neighbouring Slovakia. Both Ivana and Maryna chose as their optional discipline traditional dances. Viera proved her skills as a majorette.

The remaining girls travelled to Prague from Lithuania, Israel, Italy, Poland, Macedonia and Belgium. The Czech Republic was also represented.

The girls spent their morning at the Prague Castle where they enjoyed the company of the first lady Mrs Livia Klausova. The evening programme resembled very closely that of other Miss competitions and included the traditional fashion show. The audience could also admire the girls in bathing-costumes. The translation into the international sign language was done by a finalist from the last year.

We have a offer for everyone who is interested in dance. Most of the programme is prepared by Oriental Dance Center from Prague and therefore you can enjoy many aspects of this very popular dance style. The festival is mostly compound from workshops, where you can see and primarily learn something from many dance styles. It is between 10th and 13th August.

Main guest is oriental dancer Jillina from USA, who is a director and a choreograph of Belly dance Super Stars and Desert Roses. She is reputable all over the world. She will teach in Sportcentre YMCA many types of dance like Egyptian style or a Dance Drum. You can also visit a oriental market during the Saturday, where you can for example buy all props required for a belly dance. This will be at Strelecky island where will be also Open air dance scene or a tent dedicated to oriental dance.

But Let’s dance festival is not only the oriental dance. You can also come into lessons of Hip Hop, R ‘n’ B, Latin American Salsa, Flamenco, Samba, historical dance, Ghawazee, saidii, Raks Sharki or a dance style Bollywood (from India, I guess). Saturday will be best day, with a gala evening and with following programmes

The tickets costs 380 and 460 crowns and you can order them at official pages of the festival Let’s Dance Prague. Organizers says that it is better to buy tickets sooner, because the tickets are limited due to the space of dancing halls.

Vodickova Street crossing Wenceslas Square woke up on Sunday morning due to a thunder of collapsing building. Luckily the sniffer dogs did not find any victims and no one was harmed. The house, once a home for the legendary confectionery U Mysaka, which was said to be re-opened, was being renovated to be turned into shops, luxury apartments as well as offices.

The conservationists fear the house with valuable Cubist facade by architect Gocar from the 20’s of the last century might have to be demolished completely. The facade would thus be inevitably lost and replaced by a mere replica. The statisticians give hope since the facade is believed to be almost hundred pro cent safe. Nevertheless, parts of the building will certainly have to be demolished for safety reasons.

House collapse will affect the flow of public transport at one of the busiest Prague areas. Apart from prohibiting the entry of cars, no trams will be permitted into the area for approximately one week. This means traffic diversions (day trams: 3, 14, 19, 24, 30 and 39) are bound to cause inconvenience. Their new routes will pass through Narodni trida and along the river. The pedestrians will still be able to walk along Vodickova Street.

Prague zoo celebrated birthday of the tiger named Asik. He has 19 years and this is very honourable age for a tiger. They have about 10 years in nature, the captivity gave them about three or five years more.

Asik is a tiger’s familiar name of Assuri, but his official name is Priam. He was born 14th July 1987, soon after his birth his mother couldn’t feed him, so he was fed by zoo workers. When he was four he was injured by female tiger and he is lame of a leg until now. He is father of four tigers.

Asik is very calm and friendly animal and his most popular food is a butter. And because he had a birthday, zoo workers gave him a butter cake. It is probably that he will gain another cake next year, because life-span of tigers is extremely high in Prague zoo. Female tiger Putsi had 22 years. This is the world record of tiger’s life length.