God Is an Astronaut God Is an Astronaut God Is An Astronaut is an Irish post-rock band from County Wicklow, formed in 2002 by Niels and Torsten Kinsella. Their style employs elements of electronic music, krautrock, and space rock, reminiscent of Tangerine Dream. The band currently consists of Niels and Torsten Kinsella and Lloyd Hanney. They have released 9 studio albums to date. The band was formed in 2002 by twin brothers Niels and Torsten Kinsella, who took the inspiration for its name from a quote in the movie "Nightbreed". God Is an Astronaut's debut album "The End of the Beginning" was released in
Chinese as a foreign language the Kuomintang took over control from Japan after World War II. In 2010, 750,000 people (670,000 from overseas) took the Chinese Proficiency Test. For comparison, in 2005, 117,660 non-native speakers took the test, an increase of 26.52% from 2004. From 2000 to 2004, the number of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland taking Advanced Level exams in Chinese increased by 57%. An independent school in the UK made Chinese one of their compulsory subjects for study in 2006. The study of Chinese is also rising in the United States. The USC U.S.-China Institute cited a report that 51,582 students