Da Lat

Đà Lạt (Vietnamese pronunciation: [ɗâː làːt]), or Dalat (pop. 206,105 as of 2009, of which 185,509 are urban inhabitants), is the capital of Lâm Đồng Province in Vietnam. The city is located 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above sea level on the Langbian Plateau in the southern parts of the Central Highlands region. In Vietnam, Da Lat is a popular tourist destination.

Da Lat's specific sights are pine wood (forming the name: "City of thousands of pine trees") with twisting roads and tree marigold (Vietnamese: dã quỳ) blossom in the winter. The city’s temperate weather stands in contrast to Vietnam's otherwise tropical climate. Mist covering the valleys almost year-round leads to its name "City of Eternal Spring".

Da Lat is also known as an area for scientific research in the fields of biotechnology and nuclear physics.

With its year-round cool weather, Da Lat supplies temperate agriculture products for all over Vietnam, for example: cabbage and cauliflower. Its flower industry produces two typical flowers: hydrangea (Vietnamese: cẩm tú cầu) and golden everlasting (Vietnamese: hoa bất tử). The confectionery industry offers a wide range of mứt, a kind of fruit preserve made from strawberry, mulberry, sweet potato, and rose.

.lat

.lat is a proposed Internet generic top-level domain (gTLD) for Latin American communities and users wherever they may reside.

Recently NIC México (Manager of the .mx ccTLD) along with eCOM-LAC (Federation of Latin-America and the Caribbean for the Internet and Electronic Commerce) were appointed official sponsors for this campaign. The full proposal was supposed to be presented to ICANN during 2008 but the new gTLD process in ICANN has been delayed and now it is expected to be presented by mid-2011.

There were initial communications that presented the idea of this new top-level domain as a regional one but further news detailed the community orientation of the proposal

The official gTLD name will be appointed by ICANN if the proposal is approved. Other names that are being considered are .latin and .latino. Similar proposals have already been approved like the Asian gTLD (.asia) and the European Union's ccTLD (.eu).

References

Lat.

Lat. or lat. is an abbreviation for:

Lat

Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid (Jawi: محمد نور خالد), more commonly known as Lat, (born 5 March 1951) is a Malaysian cartoonist. Winner of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2002, Lat has published more than 20 volumes of cartoons since he was 13 years old. His works mostly illustrate Malaysia's social and political scenes, portraying them in a comedic light without bias. Lat's best known work is The Kampung Boy (1979), which is published in several countries across the world. In 1994, the Sultan of Perak bestowed the honorific title of datuk on Lat, in recognition of the cartoonist's work in helping to promote social harmony and understanding through his cartoons.

Born in a village, Lat spent his youth in the countryside before moving to the city at the age of 11. While in school, he supplemented his family's income by contributing cartoon strips to newspapers and magazines. He was 13 years old when he achieved his first published comic book, Tiga Sekawan (Three Friends Catch a Thief). After failing to attain the grades that were required to continue education beyond high school, Lat became a newspaper reporter. In 1974, he switched careers to be an editorial cartoonist. His works, reflecting his view about Malaysian life and the world, are staple features in national newspapers such as New Straits Times and Berita Minggu. He adapted his life experiences and published them as his autobiographies, The Kampung Boy and Town Boy, telling stories of rural and urban life with subtle comparisons between the two.