Aral Sea

Some think about the draining of the Aral Sea is one of the most important ecological catastrophes of these last decades. Draining of the Aral Sea is primarily due to the irrigation of cotton during the Soviet period. The river Amu Darya which is flow in the Aral sea irrigated the cotton fields during 40 years after what the level of the Aral Sea dropped down 22 meters since 1960.

The various specious of fishes are disappeared one after another from the increasing of salinity of water. If the salinity degree was 10mg/l in 1960, nowadays this degree is increased to 85 g/l and 49 g/l on average.

There was a fish canning factory in the USSR period which stopped it's labor now because of the absence of fishes is played its negative role in the economics of the republic.



Circumcision ceremony

Circumcision is the surgical removal of the skin that covers the tip of the penis. An uncircumcised penis has a loose fold of skin called the foreskin or prepuce that covers the glans (tip of the penis). A surgeon removes the foreskin by cutting around the penis where the foreskin is attached. The word circumcises means cut around.

The historians supposed that initially the circumcision custom has been related with the worship of the fertility, the life tree, the moon symbolizing the nature whirl which requires not only adoration but also one victim of the foreskin.

For thousands of years, various religious rituals have included circumcision. The ancient Jews, Egyptians, and other Middle Eastern peoples performed it when a boy was maturing into a young man. Circumcision was a sign that the youth should be ready to assume his religious duties in the adult community.

More than thousand mummies are proof that circumcision was practiced since ancient time in Egypt . On one conserved picture in an ancient Egyptian temple, one can see the whole ceremony of the circumcision. The man who is operated is stand up. Behind him the assistant hold his hands. The man who operates is standing on his knees and cut one part of the foreskin with a knife. Close to him, another young man is waiting for his turn. We know that the priests and the nobility have been circumcised. It was a sign of distinction.

Herodotus suggested that other peoples, including the Jews borrowed the custom from the Egyptians, but there is no way to verify this statement. Nor is it possible to know for certain just why or how circumcision originally came into being. From the opinion of Herodotus and Strabonus this custom was famous and wide spread.

Romans and Greeks prohibited the circumcision in spite of that this custom was spread in Central Asia and Near East and it wasn't obligatory.

According to legend, in the war for spreading Islam the soldiers were beset and infection from the hotness of the weather and from the absence of water. From the infection the foreskin of their penis narrowed and major commanded to cut around the foreskin of the penis. From that time this action became one of the most important customs of Islam .

The Old Testament of the Bible includes many references to circumcision as a sign of initiation and membership into the Jewish community. Circumcision became an important rite of Judaism. A traditional Jewish circumcision takes place on the eighth day after birth.

Some African tribes considered the circumcision as bravery. This custom was held beside the fiancee at marriage. The fiance mustn't shiver from awe before the tribe and fiancee. If the fiance will endure this, the fiancee will say “I want to be the wife of this bravery, but not another's”

From ancient times only the health children circumcised. If the child was ill or especially if he was diseased with hemophilia the ceremony wouldn't held or be lasted.

Circumcised meet expectation of the tribe. Countries like England and Russia declared some advantages of circumcision. One of them is avoid the phimoz (note; phimoz is cured with circumcision).

In the States many infants in delivery rooms circumcised not from religious obligatory. Muslims also regarded circumcision as part of their religion. Some Muslims celebrate circumcisions with feasts and parades. Muslim boys are circumcised sometime between infancy and about 14 years of age.

In Uzbekistan they circumcises from religious obligatory. It is one of the major feast for parents whose child will be circumcised. About more than ten persons will participate at the ceremony.

The Silk

There are many indigenous varieties of wild silk moths found in a number of different countries. The key to understanding the great mystery and magic of silk, and China 's domination of its production and promotion, lies with one species: the blind, flightless moth, Bombyx mori. It lays 500 or more eggs in four to six days and dies soon after. The eggs are like pinpoints – one hundred of them weigh only one gram. From one ounce of eggs come about 30,000 worms which eat a ton of mulberry leaves and produce twelve pounds of raw silk. The original wild ancestor of this cultivated species is believed to be Bombyx mandarina Moore , a silk moth living on the white mulberry tree and unique to China . The silkworm of this particular moth produces a thread whose filament is smoother, finer and rounder than that of other silk moths. Over thousands of years, during which the Chinese practiced sericulture utilizing all the different types of silk moths known to them, Bombyx mori evolved into the specialized silkproducer it is today; a moth which has lost its power to fly, only capable of mating and producing eggs for the next generation of silk producers.

Producing silk is a lengthy process and demands constant close attention. To produce high quality silk, there are two conditions which need to be fulfilled – preventing the moth from hatching out and perfecting the diet on which the silkworms should feed. Chinese developed secret ways for both.

The eggs must be kept at 65 degrees F, increasing gradually to 77 degrees at which point they hatch. After the eggs hatch, the baby worms feed day and night every half hour on fresh, hand-picked and chopped mulberry leaves until they are very fat. Also a fixed temperature has to be maintained throughout. Thousands of feeding worms are kept on trays that are stacked one on top of another. A roomful of munching worms sounds like heavy rain falling on the roof. The newly hatched silkworm multiplies its weight 10,000 times within a month, changing color and shedding its whitish-gray skin several times.

The silkworms feed until they have stored up enough energy to enter the cocoon stage. While they are growing they have to be protected from loud noises, drafts, strong smells such as those of fish and meat and even the odor of sweat. When it is time to build their cocoons, the worms produce a jelly-like substance in their silk glands, which hardens when it comes into contact with air. Silkworms spend three or four days spinning a cocoon around themselves until they look like puffy, white balls.

After eight or nine days in a warm, dry place the cocoons are ready to be unwound. First they are steamed or baked to kill the worms, or pupas. The cocoons are then dipped into hot water to loosen the tightly woven filaments. These filaments are unwound onto a spool. Each cocoon is made up of a filament between 600 and 900 meters long! Between five and eight of these super-fine filaments are twisted together to make one thread.

Finally the silk threads are woven into cloth or used for embroidery work. Clothes made from silk are not only beautiful and lightweight, they are also warm in cool weather and cool in hot weather.

Literary sources such as The Book of History, and The Book of Rites give further information about sericulture. Reeling silk and spinning were always considered household duties for women, while weaving and embroidery were carried out in workshops as well as the home. In every silk-producing province the daughters, mothers and grandmothers of every family devoted a large part of the day for six months in a year to the feeding, tending and supervision of silkworms and to the unraveling, spinning, weaving, dyeing and embroidering of silk. By the fifth century BC, at least six Chinese provinces were producing silk. Each spring, the empress herself inaugurated the silk-raising season, for silk production was the work of women all over China . The technique and process of sericulture were guarded secrets and closely controlled by Chinese authorities. Anyone who revealed the secrets or smuggled the silkworm eggs or cocoons outside of China would be punished by death.