kris-stoke-newington

music

2009-03-24T00:53:00.000-07:00

Music is an art form whose medium is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike), "(art) of the Muses".[1]

The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art.

2008-05-02T09:59:00.001-07:00

Broom Hill is a rural neighbourhood in Sooke, British Columbia. Its residential subdivisions surround a hill of gabbro which rises to an elevation of 274 metres (899 feet). Above the subdivisions, most of the terrain has a forest cover dominated by Douglas-fir.

2008-05-01T09:01:00.001-07:00

Geography

For more details on this topic, see South Thailand insurgency. History
Yala is one of the four provinces of Thailand where the majority of the population are Muslim, making up 68.9% of the population. Also 66.1% of the population are Malay.

Symbols
Yala is subdivided into 8 districts (Amphoe), which are further subdivided into 56 communes (tambon) and 341 villages (muban).

Mueang Yala
Betong
Bannang Sata
Than To
Yaha
Raman
Kabang
Krong Pinang

2008-04-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

The invention of magnetic disk storage, pioneered by IBM in the 1950s, was a critical component of the computer revolution. This article surveys the major IBM computer disk drives introduced in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.
The basic mechanical arrangement of hard disk drives hasn't changed since the IBM 1301. Disk drive performance and characteristics are measured the same today as they were in the 1950s. This survey concludes with a modern (2004) PC hard drive for comparison. Few products in history have enjoyed such a spectacular decline in cost and size with such a stellar improvement in capacity.

IBM 350
The IBM 353 used on the IBM 7030, was similar to the IBM 1301, but much faster. It had a capacity of 2,097,152 (2

IBM 353
The IBM 355 was announced on September 14, 1956 as an addition to the popular IBM 650. It used the same mechanism as the IBM 350 and stored 6 million 7-bit decimal digits. Data was transferred to and from the IBM 653 magnetic core memory, an IBM 650 option that stored just sixty 10-digit words, enough for a single sector of disk or tape data.

IBM 355
The IBM 1405 Disk Storage Unit was announced by 1961 and was designed for use with the IBM 1401 series medium scale business computers. The 1405 stored 10 million characters on a single module. Each module had 25 large disks, yielding 50 recording surfaces. The disks spun at 1200 RPM. The Model 1 had one module, the Model 2 had two modules, stacked vertically. Each recording surface had 200 tracks and 5 sectors per track. Data was read or recorded at 22,500 characters per second. A single arm moved in and out and up and down. Access time ranged from 100 to 800 milliseconds (Model 2).

IBM 1301
The IBM 1302 Disk Storage Unit was introduced in September 1963. Improved recording quadrupled its capacity over that of the 1301, to 117 million 6-bit characters per module. Average access time was 165 ms and data could be transferred at 180 K characters/second, more than double the speed of the 1301. A second arm accessed a separate group of 250 tracks. As with the 1301, there was a Model 2 with twice the capacity. The IBM 1302 Model 1 leased for $5,600 per month or could be purchased for $252,000. Prices for the Model 2 were $7,900 per month or $355,500 to purchase. The IBM 7631 controller cost an additional $1,185 per month or $56,000 to purchase. The 1302 was withdrawn in February 1965.

IBM 1302
The IBM 1311 Disk Storage Drive was announced on October 11, 1962 and was designed for use with several medium-scale business and scientific computers. The 1311 was about the size and shape of a top-loading washing machine and stored 2 million characters on a removable IBM 1316 disk pack. Each disk pack was 4 inches high, weighed 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and contained six 14-inch diameter disks, yielding 10 recording surfaces (the outer surfaces were not used). The 10 individual R/W heads were mounted on a common actuator which was moved in and out hydraulically and mechanically detented at the desired track before reading or writing occurred. The disks spun at 1500 RPM. Each recording surface had 100 tracks with 20 sectors per track. Each sector stored 100 characters. Seven models of the 1311 were introduced during the 1960s. They were withdrawn during the early 1970s.
Models of the 1311 disk drive
The optional special features were
Drive 1 (the master drive: models 1, 3, 4, and 5) was about a foot wider than the other drives (the slave drives: model 2), to contain extra power supplies and the control logic.
The IBM 1316 Disk Packs were covered with a clear plastic shell and a bottom cover when not in use. A lifting handle in the top center of the cover was rotated to release the bottom cover. Then the top of the 1311 drive was opened and the plastic shell was lowered into the disk drive opening (assuming it was empty). The handle was turned again to lock the disks in place and release the plastic shell, which was then removed and the drive cover closed. The process was reversed to remove a disk pack.

Must be drive 1 on an IBM 1440, IBM 1460, or IBM 1240 system. Contains the controller and can control up to 4 – Model 2 drives. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn February 8, 1971.
Slave drive. Could have any special feature incorporated that the master drive (drive 1) had incorporated. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn January 6, 1975.
Must be drive 1 on an IBM 1620 or IBM 1710 system. Contains the controller and can control up to 3 – Model 2 drives. Did not support any special features. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn May 12, 1971.
Must be drive 1 on an IBM 1401 system. Contains the controller and can control up to 4 – Model 2 drives. Introduced October 11, 1962. Withdrawn February 8, 1971.
Must be drive 1 on an IBM 1410, IBM 7010, or IBM 7740 system. Contains the controller and can control up to 4 – Model 2 drives. Direct Seek comes standard on this model. Introduced January 7, 1963. Withdrawn May 12, 1971.
No information available, probably a master drive (drive 1). Introduced March 5, 1968. Withdrawn February 2, 1971.
No information available, probably a master drive (drive 1). Introduced March 5, 1968. Withdrawn February 2, 1971.
Direct Seek: Without this option every seek returned to track zero first.
Scan Disk: Automatic rapid search for identifier or condition.
Seek Overlap: Allowed a seek to overlap ONE read or write and any number of other seeks.
Track Record: Increased the capacity of the disk by writing ONE large record per track instead of using sectors. IBM 1311
The IBM 2311 Direct Access Storage Facility was introduced in 1964 for use throughout the System/360 series. It was also available on the IBM 1130. The 2311 mechanism was largely identical to the 1311, but recording improvements allowed higher data density. The 2311 stored 7.25 million bytes on a single removable IBM 1316 disk pack (the same type used on the IBM 1311) consisting of six platters that rotated as a single unit. Each recording surface had 200 tracks plus 3 optional tracks which could be used as alternatives in case faulty tracks were discovered. Average seek time was 85 ms. Data transfer rate was 156 kB/s.
The 2311 had 10 individual R/W heads mounted on a common actuator which was moved in and out hydraulically and mechanically detented at the desired track before reading or writing occurred. The 2311 was organized into cylinders, tracks, and records. (A cylinder referred to all surfaces the same track on each of the 5 platters.) Record 0 was reserved for timing.
Because the 2311 was to be used with a wide variety of computers within the 360 product line, its electrical interconnection was standardized. This created an opportunity for other manufacturers to sell plug compatible disk drives for use with IBM computers and an entire industry was born.

IBM 2311
The IBM 2314 Disk Access Storage Facility was introduced on April 22, 1965, one year after the System/360 introduction. It was used with the System/360 and the System/370 lines. With Two Channel Switch feature it could interface with two 360/370 channels. The 2314 Disk access mechanism was similar to the 2311, but further recording improvements allowed higher data density. The 2314 stored 29,176,000 characters (200×20×7294 bytes per track) on a single removable IBM 2316 disk pack which was similar in design to the 1316 but was taller as a result of increasing the number of disks from six to eleven. The 2316 disk pack containing the eleven 14-inch diameter disks yielded 20 recording surfaces. The drive access consisted of 20 individual R/W heads mounted on a common actuator which was moved in and out hydraulically and mechanically detented at the desired track before reading or writing occurred. Each recording surface had 200 tracks. Access time was initially the same as the 2311, but later models were faster as a result of improvements made in the hydraulic actuator. Data transfer rate was doubled to 310 kB/s.
The original Model 1 consisted of the 2314 control unit, a 2312 single drive module, and two 2313 four drive modules for a total of 9 disk drives. Only eight drives of the nine were available to the user at any one time. The ninth drive was there for a spare for the user and could also be worked on 'offline' by a Field Engineer while the other drives were in use by the customer. Each of the nine drives were mounted in individual drawers that were unlatched and pulled out to access the Disk Pack. Because of their appearance they picked up the nickname of 'Pizza Ovens'
Other 2314 Models came later: 2314 Model A with combinations of one to nine drives. 2314 Model B with 2319 disk drives were available in three, six and nine drive models. A 2844 Control Unit could be added to the 2314 Control Unit which allowed two S/360 Channels simultaneous access to two separate disk drives in the Storage Facility.

IBM 2314/2319
The IBM 2310 Removable Cartridge Drive was introduced with the IBM 1130 in 1965. It could store 512,000 words (1,024,000 bytes) on an IBM 2315 cartridge. A single 14 inch oxide-coated aluminum disk spun in a plastic shell with openings for the read/write arm and two heads.

IBM 2310
The IBM 3330 Direct Access Storage Facility, code named Merlin, was introduced in June 1970 for use with the IBM System/370 and the IBM System 360/195. Its removable disk packs held 100 megabytes (the 1973 Model 11 featured IBM 3336 Disk Packs that held 200 megabytes). Access time was 30 millisecond and data transferred at 806 kB/s. A major advance introduced with the 3330 was the use of error correction, which made the drives more reliable and reduced costs because small imperfections in the disk surface could be tolerated. The circuitry could correct error bursts up to 11 bits long. The 3330 was withdrawn in 1983.

IBM 3330
The IBM 3340 Direct Access Storage Facility, code named Winchester, was introduced in March 1973 for use with IBM System/370. Its removable disk packs were sealed and included the head and arm assembly. There was no cover to remove during the insertion process. Access time was 25 millisecond and data transferred at 885 kB/s. Three versions of the removable IBM 3348 Data Module were sold, one with 35 megabyte capacity, another with 70 megabytes, the third also had 70 megabytes, but with 500 kilobytes under separate fixed heads for faster access. The 3340 also used error correction. It was withdrawn in 1984.
The Winchester code name is rumored to be after the famous 30-30 Winchester rifle. The rumor is that development engineers called the drive a 30-30 because it had two spindles holding 30 megabytes each and that the engineer in charge made the connection with the rifle. IBM notes the existence of this rumor but does not confirm it. The term Winchester or Winnie was used for hard disk drives in general for some time after the introduction of the 3340.

IBM 3340
The IBM 3350 Direct Access Storage Facility, code named Madrid, was introduced in 1975 for use with IBM System/370. Its non-removable disk packs were sealed and included the head and arm assembly. The 3350 disk geometry was 555 cylinders, 30 heads, and 19069 bytes per track which gave the Head Disk Assembly (HDA) a storage capacity of 317,498,850 bytes. Disk units were identified as A2, A2F, B2, B2F, C2, and C2F. Each unit contained two HDAs and they were installed in "strings" of units. An A2 or A2F unit was required and attached to a "control unit" such as the IBM 3880. After the A2 could be up to 3 B2 units or 2 B2s and a C2. The C2 unit could also be connected to a control unit and with it in place then two I/O operations could be executed on the string at the same time. The "x2F" unit was a normal x2 unit, but its two HDAs also had a "Fixed Head" area over the first 5 cylinders. This Fixed Head area was intended to be allocated to the HASP or JES2 checkpoint area and thus would greatly reduce head motion on the device. In the background of this 3350 photograph is an IBM 3066 console, used on the IBM 370/165 and 370/168 computers: [1]

IBM 3350
IBM introduced the IBM 3370 Direct Access Storage Device in January 1979 for its for IBM 4331, 4341, and System/38 midrange computers. It has 7 fixed 14" disks, and each unit has a capacity of 571Mb. It uses thin-film head technology; research on that technology started at T.J. Watson laboratory in the late 1960's. [2]

IBM 3370
The IBM 3380 Direct Access Storage Device was introduced in June 1980. It used new film head technology and had a capacity of 2.52 gigabytes with a data transfer rate of 3 megabytes per second. Average access time was 16 ms. Purchase price at time of introduction ranged from $81,000 to $142,200. Due to problems encountered, the first units did not ship until October, 1981.[3]

IBM 3380
[ text still missing ]

IBM 3390
Another important IBM innovation was little noticed when it was introduced with the System/370 in 1971. IBM needed a way to load new microcode into the IBM System/370 Model 158 and developed the 33FD floppy disk for this purpose.
IBM's "first" floppies were 8 inches in diameter and held 80 Kilobytes of data. They were massively used starting in 1972 as data entry media ideally suited to replace 80-column punched cards, and card readers were in turn replaced by diskette readers. By 1978 most of IBM's and other manufacturers' punched-card, or "unit record equipment" such as punch machines, punched card verifiers, sorters, collating machines, card readers, etc., had been discarded, replaced by floppy diskette units, and in the process, saving each year millions of tons of cardboard paper worldwide. Floppy diskettes 5 1/4" and 3½" in diameter, having higher data densities and larger capacities, became important storage devices for the personal computer developed the late 1970s.

Disk storage in 2004

History of hard disks
List of IBM products#Electrical/electronic/magnetic/optical storage units

2008-04-29T09:16:00.001-07:00

Crowd simulation is the process of simulating the movement of a large number of objects or characters, now often appearing in 3D computer graphics for film.
The need for crowd simulation arises when a scene calls for more characters than can be practically animated using conventional systems, such as skeletons/bones.
Animators typically create a library of motions, either for the entire character or for individual body parts. To simplify processing, these animations are sometimes baked as morphs. Alternatively, the motions can be generated procedurally - i.e. choreographed automatically by software.
The actual movement and interactions of the crowd is typically done in one of two ways:
The most notable examples of AI simulation can be seen in New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings films, where AI armies of many thousands battle each other. The crowd simulation was done using Weta Digital's Massive software.
Crowd simulation can also refer to simulations based on group dynamics and crowd psychology, often in public safety planning. In this case, the focus is just the behavior of the crowd, and not the visual realism of the simulation.

Particle Motion: The characters are attached to point particles, which are then animated by simulating wind, gravity, attractions, and collisions. The particle method is usually inexpensive to implement, and can be done in most 3D software packages. However, the method is not very realistic because it is difficult to direct individual entities when necessary, and because motion is generally limited to a flat surface.
Crowd AI: The entities - also called agents - are given artificial intelligence, which guides the entities based on one or more functions, such as sight, hearing, basic emotion, energy level, aggressiveness level, etc.. The entities are given goals and then interact with each other as members of a real crowd would. They are often programmed to respond to changes in environment, enabling them to climb hills, jump over holes, scale ladders, etc. This system is much more realistic than particle motion, but is very expensive to program and implement.

2008-04-27T08:51:00.001-07:00

Gwen Renée Stefani (born October 3, 1969) (IPA pronunciation: [gwɛn stɛ'fɑn.ni] In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L.A.M.B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line. Drawing inspiration from Japanese culture and fashion, Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. She married British indie musician Gavin Rossdale in 2002, and the two have a son, Kingston, who was born in 2006.

Early life

Music career

Main article: No Doubt 1986 – present: No Doubt

2004 – present: Solo career
Stefani's debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. was released in November 2004. The album features a large number of collaborations with producers and other artists, including Kanal, Linda Perry, OutKast's André 3000, and The Neptunes. Stefani created the album to modernize the music to which she listened when in high school, and L.A.M.B. takes influence from a variety of music styles of the 1980s and early 1990s such as New Wave, new jack swing, and electro.

Problems playing the files? See media help. 2004 – 2006: Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
Stefani's second solo album The Sweet Escape was released in December 2006. Stefani recollaborated with Kanal, Perry, and the Neptunes along with Akon and Tim Rice-Oxley. The album focuses more heavily on dance music for clubs than its predecessor. After "4 in the Morning" failed to match the success of Stefani's previous singles, "Now That You Got It" was released as the album's fourth single.

Problems playing the files? See media help. 2006 – present: The Sweet Escape
Stefani made most of the clothing that she wore on stage with No Doubt, resulting in increasingly eclectic combinations. Stylist Andrea Lieberman introduced her to haute couture clothing, which lead to Stefani launching a fashion line named L.A.M.B. in 2004.

Non-musical projects
Stefani had a crush on bandmate Tony Kanal when he joined No Doubt, but Kanal initially rejected her because her older brother was in the band and Kanal felt it was an unspoken rule that no one of the band date her. The two eventually began dating and were "inseparable" by the early 1990s.
Stefani was supossed to be on Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's Album Strength & Loyalty, the Track's name was "You&Me", but never made it to the album.

Personal life
Stefani is often identified by her unique appearance. She began wearing a bindi in the mid 1990s after attending several family gatherings for Kanal, who is of Indian heritage.

Harajuku Girls

Main article: Gwen Stefani discography Studio albums

2004: "What You Waiting For?"
2004: "Rich Girl" featuring Eve
2005: "Hollaback Girl"
2005: "Cool"
2005: "Luxurious" featuring Slim Thug
2006: "Crash"
2006: "Wind It Up"
2007: "The Sweet Escape" featuring Akon
2007: "4 in the Morning"
2007: "Now That You Got It" featuring Damian Marley
2007: "Early Winter"

2008-04-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

The 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period.
The first few decades of this century were characterized by a balance of power between the Greek Hellenistic kingdoms in the east, and the great mercantile power of Carthage in the west. This balance was shattered when conflict arose between Carthage and the Roman Republic. In the following decades, the Carthaginian Empire was first humbled and then destroyed by the Romans in the first and second Punic wars. Following the Second Punic War, Rome became the most important power in the western Mediterranean.
In the 3rd century BC the Xiong Nu were at the height of their power in Mongolia. The Warring States period in China drew to a close, with Qin Shihuang conquering other nation-states and establishing the Qin dynasty, the first empire of China. The Protohistoric Period began in the Korean peninsula.

Events

299 BC The Samnites, seizing their chance when Rome is engaged on the Lombard plain, start the third Samnite War with a collection of mercenaries from Gaul and Sabine and Etruscan allies to help them.
298 BC The Samnites defeat the Romans under Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus in the Battle of Camerinum, first battle of the Third Samnite War.
293 BC The Chinese State of Qin reduced the threat of the State of Wei and the State of Han with the Qin victory in the Battle of Yique.
Roman armies penetrate into the heart of the Samnite territory and then capture the Samnite cities of Taurasia, Bovianum Vetus and Aufidena.
Agathocles, king of Syracuse, assists the Italian Greeks against the Bruttians and supported the Greeks against the Romans.
Ptolemy gives his stepdaughter Theoxena in marriage to Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse (in south-eastern Sicily).
Ptolemy finally brings the rebellious region of Cyrene under his control. He places the region under the rule of his stepson Magas.
Bindusara succeeds his father Chandragupta Maurya as emperor of the Mauryan Empire.
Theater, Epidauros, is built with later additions. 290s BC

281 BC Antiochus I Soter, on the assassination of his father Seleucus becomes emperor of the Seleucid empire.
280 BC King Pyrrhus of Epirus invades Italy in an attempt to subjugate the Romans and bring Italy under a new empire ruled by himself.
280 BC Construction of the Colossus of Rhodes is completed 280s BC

279 BC Singidunum and Taurunum, today's Belgrade and Zemun, founded by Scordisci Celts.
275 BC: end of history of Babylon.
After failing to decisively defeat the Romans, Pyrrhus of Epirus withdraws from Italy.
Gallic migration to Macedon, Thrace and Galatia.
273 BC–252 BC Ashoka the Great ruled the Mauryan Empire. 270s BC

264 BC First Punic War breaks out between the Carthaginian Empire and the Roman Republic.
261 BC Antiochus II Theos, 2nd son, at the death of his father becomes emperor of the Seleucid empire.
260 BC Battle of Changping between the State of Qin and the State of Zhao in China; a decisive Qin victory. 240s BC

230 BC The Chinese Qin State conquers Han. 230s BC

225 BC The Chinese Qin State conquers Wei.
223 BC The Chinese Qin State conquers Chu.
222 BC The Chinese Qin State conquers Yan and Zhao.
221 BC With the conquest of the State of Qi, Qin Shihuang unifies the whole of China into one empire that also included northern Vietnam, forming the Qin Dynasty. 220s BC

218 BC Second Punic War begins. Hannibal makes his famous Alpine crossing to invade Italy, the Roman heartland.
214 BC Qin Shi Huang of the Chinese Qin Dynasty ordered construction of the Great Wall of China. 210s BC

206 BC-202 BC Civil war of the Chu-Han contention in China after the fall of the Qin Dynasty.
202 BC Romans defeat Carthaginians, ending the Second Punic War. Carthage's territories are reduced to the city itself, and crippling reparations are demanded by Rome.
Indian traders regularly visited Arabia.
Scythians occupy Sogdiana, in modern-day Uzbekistan.
Han Dynasty of China was founded (202 BC–220 AD).
The Pharos of Alexandria is built.
Appearance of the Hopewell culture in Ohio, USA.
Teotihuacán, Mexico begun. 200s BC

Mencius, Chinese philosopher and sage (371–289 BC)
Euclid, geometer (c. 365–275 BC)
Ashoka, Mauryan ruler of India (273 BC–232 BC)
Archimedes of Syracuse, mathematician, physicist, and engineer (c. 287–212 BC)
Eratosthenes (c. 276–194 BC), Greek mathematician, geographer and astronomer
Apollonius of Perga, mathematician (c. 262–190 BC)
Qin Shi Huang, Chinese Emperor (259–210 BC, reigned 246–210 BC)
Emperor Gaozu of Han, founder of the Han Dynasty in China, (256 BC-195 BC, reigned 202 BC-195 BC)
Xiang Yu (232 BC-202 BC), Chinese rebel general against the Qin Dynasty and arch nemesis of Liu Bang in the Chu-Han contention.
Hannibal, military leader of Carthage (247–182 BC)
the "second" Brennus, Gaulish chieftain, invades Macedonia in 279 BC
The Ptolemaic dynasty rules Egypt

Ptolemy I Soter (305 BC–282 BC) and his wives Eurydice and
Ptolemy II Philadelphos (284 BC–246 BC) and his wives Arsinoe I and Arsinoe II Philadelphos
Ptolemy III Euergetes I (246 BC–222 BC) and his wife Berenice II
Ptolemy IV Philopater (222 BC–204 BC) and his wife Arsinoe III
Ptolemy V Epiphanes (204 BC–180 BC) and his wife Cleopatra I
Appius Claudius Caecus, Aqua Appia, Via Appia, invented letter G
Arcesilaus, founder of new Academy
Manetho, wrote History of Egypt
Xun Zi, founder of Legalism (philosophy)
Zeno of Citium, founder of Stoicism
Bai Qi, Chinese general
Song Yu, Chinese poet Inventions, discoveries, introductions
Much of what we know of this century comes down to us from the works of the Roman historian Polybius, whose main concern is the story of how Rome comes to dominate the known world.

2008-04-25T08:48:00.001-07:00

Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 153,048. Its county seat is Blountville.

Geography

Washington County, Virginia & Bristol, Virginia (northeast)
Johnson County (east)
Carter County (southeast)
Washington County (southwest)
Hawkins County (west)
Scott County, Virginia (northwest)

2008-04-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

State of Arkansas
Thomas Carmichael Hindman, Jr. (January 28, 1828 – September 27, 1868) was a lawyer, United States Representative from the 1st Congressional District of Arkansas, and a Major General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Family background
The elder Hindman frequently made business trips to Alabama, and even moved the family to Jacksonville, Alabama after buying several lots of land there. Hindman took advantage of the many local business opportunities and was able to provide his family with whatever they needed. Hindman Sr. gained a reputation for honesty with his business associates, which included Cherokee Indian tribes in the area.

Early life
Soon, the United States Army engaged in fighting at the US-Mexico border. After skirmishes along the Rio Grande between Mexican forces and American forces led by General Zachary Taylor, Congress approved a declaration of war and President James K. Polk called upon the states to draw up 50,000 volunteers to be alongside the army. Mississippi newspapers encouraged state residents to join the action. One newspaper, the Holly Springs Guard, proclaimed, "To arms! To arms! Ye brave! Th' avenging sword unsheathe: March on, march on, all hearts resolved, on [to] victory or death."

Participation in the Mexican-American War
After returning back to Ripley, Hindman continued his law studies under Orlando Davis. A year after the war ended Hindman's brother, Robert, engaged in a fight with William Falkner because he had thought Falkner tried to block his membership into the Ripley section of the Sons of Temperance. Robert Hindman tried to defend himself, but his gun failed to fire, and Falkner then fatally stabbed him. Falkner was tried for murder, but was acquitted by the jury ruling that he was acting in self-defense.

Back in Mississippi
By 1854, Hindman realized that he had little room to maneuver in the crowded Mississippi political arena. Looking across the Mississippi River, Hindman observed that the young and turbulent State of Arkansas was wide open for a well educated and ambitious politician. Hindman left Mississippi politics when he moved to Helena, Arkansas on March 18, 1854.

Move to Arkansas
During his term, Hindman tried to bring unity to the state's Democratic Party. He turned on the political hierarchy in the state, and political warfare divided the Democratic Party in Arkansas, with the pro-Hindman forces on one side and the forces of the political "family" that had ruled Arkansas since territorial days on the other. He labeled the actions of the "family" as "the most concentrated wrath of the small managers of the caucus and of certain outside high-priests who manage[d] them."

Bringing down Arkansas's political "family"
As the American Civil War approached, Hindman was an ardent voice for secession and was essentially Arkansas's most prominent Fire-Eater. When Arkansas voted 65-5 to secede from the Union in May of 1861, Hindman was present in the gallery of the convention.

The Civil War
Hindman's edicts, however, raised the ire of the local citizenry and they, and Hindman's political enemies, demanded that the Confederate leaders in Richmond replace him. By August of 1862, the authorities in Richmond decided to replace him with the well-meaning but incompetent Theophilus H. Holmes.

In charge of "Hindman's Legion"
Hindman joined Confederate refugees in the Mexican town of Carolota, where he engaged in coffee planting and attempted to practice law. By April 1867, he was confident enough in the situation at home to return to Arkansas and apply to President Andrew Johnson for a pardon.

See also

2008-04-23T09:32:00.001-07:00

Linden is a city in southeastern Union County, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area, being about 13 miles southwest of Manhattan, and bordering Staten Island, a borough of New York City.
Linden was originally formed as a township on March 4, 1861, from portions of Elizabeth, Rahway and Union Township. Portions of the township were taken to form Cranford (March 14, 1871), Linden Borough (March 30, 1882) and Roselle (December 20, 1894). Linden was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on January 1, 1925, replacing both Linden Township and Linden Borough (which had been formed in 1882 from the township), based on the results of a referendum held on November 8, 1923.

Geography
As of the census of 2000, there were 39,394 people, 15,052 households, and 10,084 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,407.0/km² (3,645.5/mi²). There were 15,567 housing units at an average density of 556.0/km² (1,440.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 66.08% White, 22.80% African American, 0.14% Native American, 2.35% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.88% from other races, and 3.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.40% of the population.
There were 15,052 households out of which 29.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.7% were married couples living together, 15.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.0% were non-families. 27.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.21.
In the city the population was spread out with 22.5% under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 90.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $46,345, and the median income for a family was $54,903. Males had a median income of $39,457 versus $30,395 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,314. About 5.0% of families and 6.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.1% of those under age 18 and 7.8% of those age 65 or over.

Demographics

Government
The Mayor of Linden is Richard J. Gerbounka. Gerbounka, who served twelve years on the City Council and ran an independent, defeated long-time mayor John T. Gregorio by an unofficial vote of 4,786 to 4,717. City Council President Robert Bunk was re-elected unopposed. Democrat Nominee Christopher J. Kolibas defeated independent Pat Hero in the 1st Ward race to replace retiring incumbent Edwin Schulhafer. Incumbent independent Robert Frazier was re-elected in the 9th Ward.
Members of the City Council are:

Council President - Robert F. Bunk
First Ward - Christopher Kolibas
Second Ward - Richard Koziol
Third Ward - Thomas R. Boland
Fourth Ward - Derek Armstead
Fifth Ward - Gene Davis
Sixth Ward - Charles J. Crane
Seventh Ward - Ralph Strano
Eighth Ward - Michele Yamakaitis
Ninth Ward - Robert Frazier
Tenth Ward - Mary Ann Dorin Local government
Linden is split between the Seventh, Tenth and Thirteenth Congressional Districts and is part of New Jersey's 22nd Legislative District.
New Jersey's Seventh Congressional District, covering portions of Hunterdon County, Middlesex County, Somerset County and Union County, is represented by Mike Ferguson (R). New Jersey's Tenth Congressional District, covering portions of Essex County, Hudson County, and Union County, is represented by Donald M. Payne (D, Newark). New Jersey's Thirteenth Congressional District, covering portions of Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, and Union Counties, is now represented by Albio Sires (D, West New York), who won a special election held on November 7, 2006 to fill the vacancy the had existed since January 16, 2006. The seat had been represented by Bob Menendez (D), who was appointed to the United States Senate to fill the seat vacated by Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine. New Jersey is represented in the Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Bob Menendez (D, Hoboken).
The 22nd legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Nicholas Scutari (D, Linden) and in the Assembly by Jerry Green (D, Plainfield) and Linda Stender (D, Scotch Plains). The Governor of New Jersey is Jon Corzine (D, Hoboken).
Union County is governed by a nine-member Board of Chosen Freeholders. As of the January 2007 reorganization, Union County's Freeholders are Freeholder Chairwoman Bette Jane Kowalski, Freeholder Vice Chairman Angel G. Estrada, Chester Holmes, Adrian O. Mapp, Alexander Mirabella, Rick Proctor, Deborah P. Scanlon, Daniel P. Sullivan and Nancy Ward.

Federal, state and county representation
Union County Freeholders meet publicly on a monthly basis. Citizens have the ability to provide feedback and comment on issues that concern them. A sample Freeholder meeting held in September 2003 can be viewed by clicking:

Union County, NJ Freeholder Meeting -- 25 September 2003 Union County Freeholder Meetings

Public schools

Saints Mary and Elizabeth Academy, Catholic school, Pre-K through 8th grade
Victory Christian Academy, Pre-K through 12th grade Private schools

Transportation
Linden is served by U.S. Route 1/9 and Route 27. It is also the western terminus of Interstate 278, which travels through all five boroughs of New York City.
The Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike are located less than a mile west and east of the city limits, respectively.

Highways
Local public transportation is provided by New Jersey Transit with bus service to Elizabeth, Perth Amboy and Newark.
New Jersey Transit buses 112 and 115 provide local service and interstate service to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.
Linden Train station is on the NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast Line and the Northeast Corridor Line.

Public Transportation
Linden Airport is a small general aviation facility located on the eastern side of the city along U.S. Route 1/9.
Newark Liberty International Airport is approximately 15 minutes away.

Industry

Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, professional bowler.

2008-04-22T08:12:00.001-07:00

Kenwood is an unincorporated census-designated place in Sycamore Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 7,423 at the 2000 census.

Geography
Kenwood is located at 39°12′21″N, 84°22′33″W (39.205912, -84.375745).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the community has a total area of 2.3 square miles (6.0 km²), all of it land.

2008-04-21T10:13:00.001-07:00

The parish of St Cuthbert Without or simply St Cuthbert is within the City of Carlisle district of Cumbria, England.
The parish lies immediately to the south of Carlisle itself and comprises the following settlements - Blackwell, Durdar, Carleton, Brisco and Wreay (the first three are usually regarded as outlying parts of Carlisle, although were not part of the former county borough of Carlisle). According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,043.
The civil parish was formed in 1866 and has seen various boundary changes during its existence, mostly due to the expansion of Carlisle, although the former separate parish of Wreay was absorbed in 1934.
The parish is named after St Cuthbert's Church in Carlisle city centre. The "Without" part of the name means this was the part of the ecclesiastical parish of St Cuthbert's that was outside the city boundary or walls. The original civil parish of Carlisle St Cuthbert was split in 1866 to form St Cuthbert Without and St Cuthbert Within - the latter of which became part of a merged Carlisle civil parish in 1904.
At one time the parish included the modern Carlisle suburbs and districts of Botchergate, St Nicholas, Currock, Upperby and Harraby.
The M6, A6 and West Coast main railway line all run through the parish. The A6 meets the M6 at junction 42 (the Golden Fleece Roundabout) in Carleton. At different times there have been railway stations at Wreay and Brisco.
The main river in the parish is the River Petterill.
Carlisle Racecourse is situated at Blackwell.

2008-04-20T08:58:00.001-07:00

Background
Baryonic matter is matter composed mostly of baryons (by mass), which includes atoms of any sort (and thus includes nearly all matter that we may encounter or experience in everyday life, including our bodies). Non-baryonic matter is the fundamental antithesis of such matter, being any sort of matter that is not primarily composed of baryons. This might include such ordinary matter as neutrinos or free electrons; however, it may also include exotic species of non-baryonic dark matter, such as supersymmetric particles, axions or black holes. The distinction between baryonic and non-baryonic matter is important in cosmology, because Big Bang nucleosynthesis models set tight constraints on the amount of baryonic matter present in the early universe.
The very existence of baryons is also a significant issue in cosmology, since we have assumed that the Big Bang produced a state with equal amounts of baryons and anti-baryons. The process by which baryons come to outnumber their antiparticles is called baryogenesis (in contrast to a process by which leptons account for the predominance of matter over antimatter, leptogenesis).

Baryonic matter

List of baryons
Baryon number
Particle physics
Pentaquark
List of particles
Proton decay Baryons in media

2008-04-19T10:27:00.001-07:00

Until 966 966–1385 1385–1569 1569–1795 1795–1918 1918–1939 1939–1945 1945–1989 1989–present
Culture Demography (Jews) Economics Politics (Monarchs and Presidents) Military (Wars) Territorial changes (WWII)
The Jagiellon Era 1385-1569, was dominated by the union of Poland with Lithuania under the Jagiellon Dynasty, founded by the Lithuanian grand duke Jogaila. The partnership proved profitable for the Poles and Lithuanians, who played a dominant role in one of the most powerful empires in Europe for the next three centuries.

The Polish-Lithuanian Union
The Jagiellons never recovered their hegemony over Central Europe, and the ascendancy of the Ottomans foreshadowed the eventual subjection of the entire region to foreign rule; but the half century that followed the Battle of Mohács marked an era of stability, affluence, and cultural advancement unmatched in national history and widely regarded by Poles as their country's golden age.

The "Golden Age" of the Sixteenth Century
The Teutonic Knights had been reduced to vassalage, and despite the now persistent threats posed by the Turks and an emerging Russian colossus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania managed to defend its status as one of the largest and most prominent states of Europe. The wars and diplomacy of the century yielded no dramatic expansion but shielded the country from significant disturbance and permitted significant internal development. An "Eternal Peace" concluded with the Ottoman Turks in 1533 lessened but did not remove the threat of invasion from that quarter.
A lucrative agricultural export market was the foundation for the state wealth. A population boom in the Western Europe prompted an increased demand for foodstuffs; the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth became Europe's foremost supplier of grain, which was shipped abroad from the Baltic seaport of Gdansk. Aside from swelling Polish coffers, the prosperous grain trade supported other notable aspects of national development. It reinforced the preeminence of the landowning nobility that received its profits, and it helped to preserve a traditionally rural society and economy at a time when Western Europe had begun moving toward urbanization and capitalism.

Lithuania and Poland as European powers
In other respects as well, the distinctive features of Jagiellonian Poland ran against the historical trends of early modern Europe. Not the least of those features was its singular governmental structure and practice. In an era that favored the steady accumulation of power within the hands of European monarchs, Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania developed a markedly decentralized system dominated by a landed aristocracy that kept royal authority firmly in check. The Polish nobility, or szlachta, enjoyed the considerable benefits of landownership and control over the labor of the peasantry. Nobles were not the masters of life and death of the peasantry, but peasants could not leave the village without permission of village' s noble owner. The szlachta included 7 to 10 percent of the population, making it a very large noble class by European standards. The nobility manifested an impressive group solidarity in spite of great individual differences in wealth and standing. Over time, the gentry introduced a series of royal concessions and guarantees that vested the noble parliament, or Sejm, with decisive control over most aspects of statecraft, including exclusive rights to the making of laws.
In 1505 Sejm concluded that no new law could be established without the agreement of the nobility (the Nihil Novi act). King Alexander Jagiellon was forced to agree to this settlement. The Sejm operated on the principle of unanimous consent, regarding each noble as irreducibly sovereign. In a further safeguard of minority rights, Polish usage sanctioned the right of a group of gentry to form a confederation, which in effect constituted an uprising aimed at redress of grievances. The nobility also possessed the crucial right to elect the monarch, although the Jagiellons were in practice a hereditary ruling house in all but the formal sense. In fact, Jagiellons had to give privileges to the nobles to encourage them to elect their sons to be the successors. Those privileges reduced king's power. King Sigismund II Augustus was the last of Jagiellon dynasty; he had no sons. The prestige of the Jagiellons and the certainty of their succession supplied an element of cohesion that tempered the disruptive forces built into the state system.
In retrospect historians frequently have derided the idiosyncratic, delicate governmental mechanism of Poland and Lithuania as a recipe for anarchy. Although its eventual breakdown contributed greatly to the loss of independence in the eighteenth century, the system worked reasonably well for 200 years while fostering a spirit of civic liberality unmatched in the Europe of its day. The host of legal protections that the nobility enacted for itself prefigured the rights generally accorded the citizens of modern democracies, and the memory of the "golden freedoms" of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is an important part of the Poles' present-day sense of their tradition of liberty. On the other hand, the exclusion of the lower nobility from most of those protections caused serious resentment among that largely impoverished class, and the aristocracy passed laws in the early sixteenth century that made the peasants virtual slaves to the flourishing agricultural enterprises.

The Polish Renaissance
The population of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was not overwhelmingly Catholic or Polish. This circumstance resulted from the Poland's confederation with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where ethnic Poles were a distinct minority. In those days, to be Polish was much less an indication of ethnicity than of rank; it was a designation largely reserved for the landed noble class, which included members of Polish and non-Polish origin alike. Generally speaking, the ethnically non Polish noble families of Lithuania adopted the Polish language and culture. As a result, in the eastern territories of the kingdom a Polish or Polonized aristocracy dominated a peasantry whose great majority was neither Polish nor Catholic. This bred resentment that later grew into separate Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian nationalist movements.
In the mid-sixteenth century, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth sought ways to maintain control of the diverse state in spite of two threatening circumstances. First, since the late 1400s a series of ambitious tsars of the house of Rurik had led Russia in competing with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for influence over the Slavic territories located between the two states. Second, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572) had no male heir. The Jagiellon Dynasty, the essential link between the states, would end after his reign. Accordingly, the Union of Lublin of 1569 transformed a loose confederation and a personal union of the Jagiellonian epoch into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, deepening and formalizing the bonds between Poland and Lithuania. See also Muscovite wars.

2008-04-18T08:57:00.001-07:00

The characters
The contestants had to complete a number of tasks in order to achieve their overall goal (e.g. regain their crystal and return to their ship). Many tasks involved the drogna, a small transparent plastic disc containing a solid geometric figure, which was the currency of Arg. The value of a drogna was its numbered position in the visible spectrum multiplied by the number of sides of the figure. For example, a red circle is worth one unit, an orange circle is worth two units, a red triangle and a yellow circle are both worth three, and so on.
Tasks which often appeared included:

A simple computer game where Dogran, a Liverpudlian-accented 'dog', had to be guided around a 3D maze.
Belts around the contestants' waists attached to cords tying them to the wall; there was a predictable function governing the maximum distances of all the cords, which had to be discovered by induction.
The Drogna Game, which came in the middle of the programme, giving the contestants their opportunity to regain the crystal. The game is played by two players: one would be a contestant and the other would be a creature known as the Red Salamander of Zardil. This game became so popular that Acornsoft released a version for the BBC Micro home computer.

The floor is marked out with symbols similar to those described above on drognas; the players stand at opposite sides of the board, and the crystal is placed in the centre.
There is a rule determining whether a user is allowed to move from a particular drogna to another drogna. (One common example is: A player may move to any drogna with the same colour or shape as the one on which they started the turn. For example, you may move from a red triangle to any red shape or a triangle of any colour.)
A player may only move to an adjacent drogna. However, a player may move across multiple drognas in one turn provided they all meet the given criteria. Hence, the drogna on which the player started the turn is not necessarily the drogna they have immediately left.
If a player breaks the movement rule, the crystal retracts such that it cannot be taken.
If a player becomes adjacent to the crystal and it is not taken or retracted, the player may take the crystal.
If, during the move of the player not carrying the crystal, that player can legally step onto a drogna currently occupied by the player holding the crystal, they may take the crystal from their opponent. This is known as the Hargreaves Rule.
A player wins by reaching the edge of the board while carrying the crystal.
How many Argons around the pond. This was a game played just before the Vortex (possibly a time filler, if the contestants completed the whole game too fast, as it was not always played every show) The winner(s) (everyone had a chance to win) received a Green Cheese roll to triumphant fanfare. This Green cheese roll was of use when playing the Vortex (see below). Gandor would compere the game, it would start on a table with a number of drogna inside a velvet bag with draw strings. He would shake the bag and withdraw some drogna and place them on the table, then asking the first contestant "How many Argons are around the pond?" The contestants would start by adding the sides or points of the solid geometric figure that the drogna's had and fail to guess the right number. The key was that Gandor would place his fingers on the table top as he said "How many Argons are around the pond?" The number of fingers he would place down on the table would be the correct answer. Most people did not guess the answer or they would just happen to get it right by mistake.
The Vortex (series 2 - 4). This was the last task in the programme. To return to their ship, the players had to jump between a grid of points, taking turns with the Vortex, another "player" (shown by a video effect generated pulsating column in series 2, and a computer-generated flashing column in series 3 & 4). If the human player jumped into the Vortex, it would explode and the human, who would lose the game, was said to have been "evaporated", meaning a long trip back home which had to be walked by foot along the interplanetary highway (Earth is a long way from Arg!). The important difficulty was that the human player could not see the position of the Vortex on the grid. Players would sometimes be permitted to buy Green cheese rolls or food with their leftover drognas, and this food could be thrown onto suspect squares to test for the presence of the Vortex. Players would sometimes put their Arg Crystal down to test the suspect square, except the Arg Crystal was never evaporated and not a good indicator of the vortex's position. Milk used in this way would, of course, become evaporated milk. Common tasks
Where known, and applicable, the contestants are listed below in the order in which they played the Vortex game: [E] = evaporated, [S] = survived, [n/a] = didn't play.

Episodes
Originally broadcast in 1980 on BBC1 on Saturday mornings. Repeated in 1980 on BBC2 on Saturday mid-afternoons. Note: The final game of series 1 was not the Vortex - The travellers had to recross a grid of different coloured shapes in a particular path or they would be "vapourised". Where known, the contestants are listed in order in which they crossed and if they were Vapourised [V] or Survived [S].

Episode 1: 24 May 1980, 9:29am-9:55am (repeated 27 September 1980, 3:12pm-3:38pm); 26 minutes; Elizabeth Estensen [S], Fred Harris [S], Mark Dugdale [S]
Episode 2: 31 May 1980, 9:32am-10:09am (repeated 4 October 1980, 4:30pm-5:07pm); 37 minutes; Liza Goddard, Michael Rodd, Stephen Cox
Episode 3: 7 June 1980, 9:46am-10:23am (repeated 11 October 1980, 4:42pm-5:19pm); 37 minutes; Pat Cater [V], Maggie Philbin [V], James Burke [V]
Episode 4: 14 June 1980, 9:35am-10:04am (repeated 18 October 1980, 4:00pm-4:29pm); 29 minutes; Denise Coffey, Dr. Garry Hunt, Toby Freeman [final game not played]
Episode 5: 21 June 1980, 9:09am-9:54am (repeated 25 October 1980, 3:40pm-4:25pm); 45 minutes; Lesley Judd [V], Robert Malos [V], Paul Darrow [V] Series 1
Originally broadcast in 1981 on BBC2 on Monday early-evenings. Repeated in 1982 on BBC1 on Friday late-afternoons.

Episode 1: 2 November 1981, 6:04pm-6:49pm (repeated 28 May 1982, 4:53pm-5:38pm); 45 minutes; Graeme Garden [n/a], Carol Chell [E], Nicolas Hammond [E]
Episode 2: 9 November 1981, 6:04pm-6:49pm (repeated 4 June 1982, 4:52pm-5:37pm); 45 minutes; Madeline Smith [E], David Yip [E], Derek Gale [n/a]
Episode 3: 16 November 1981, 6:05pm-6:50pm (repeated 11 June 1982, 5:52pm-6:37pm); 45 minutes; David Singmaster, Sue Cook, Philip Sheppard
Episode 4: 23 November 1981, 6:05pm-6:49pm (repeated 18 June 1982, 4:54pm-5:38pm); 44 minutes; Tessa Hamp, Nerys Hughes, Derek Griffiths
Episode 5: 30 November 1981, 6:08pm-6:53pm (repeated 25 June 1982, 4:53pm-5:38pm); 45 minutes; John Craven, Bill Green, Kirsty Miller Series 2
Originally broadcast in 1984 on BBC2 on Thursday early-evenings. Repeated in 1985 on BBC2 on Thursday early-evenings.

Episode 1: 2 February 1984, 5:39pm-6:18pm (repeated 5 September 1985, 6:49pm-7:28pm); 39 minutes; Sarah Greene, Anne Miller, Richard Stilgoe
Episode 2: 9 February 1984, 5:40pm-6:18pm (repeated 12 September 1985, 6:50pm-7:28pm); 38 minutes; Sue Nicholls, Duncan Goodhew, Emma Disley.
Episode 3: 16 February 1984, 5:39pm-6:19pm (repeated 19 September 1985, 6:49pm-7:29pm); 40 minutes; Sandra Dickinson, Chris Searle, Adam Tandy
Episode 4: 23 February 1984, 5:40pm-6:19pm (repeated 26 September 1985, 6:50pm-7:29pm); 39 minutes; Paul McDowell, Bonnie Langford, Christopher Hughes
Episode 5: 1 March 1984, 5:39pm-6:18pm (repeated 3 October 1985, 6:49pm-7:28pm); 39 minutes; Janet Fielding [E], Nigel Crocket [S], Neil Adams [n/a - was evaporated earlier by the Rangdo when he presented His Royal Highness with salt, which annoyed him.]
Episode 6: 8 March 1984, 5:40pm-6:25pm (repeated 10 October 1985, 6:49pm-7:34pm); 45 minutes; Fern Britton, Noel Edmonds, Ray Virr Series 3
Originally broadcast in 1986 on BBC2 on Tuesday early-evenings. Repeated in recent years on the digital TV channel Challenge.

Episode 1: 7 January 1986, 6:49pm-7:28pm; 39 minutes; Sheelagh Gilbey [S], Roy Kane [E], Ian McNaught-Davis [S]
Episode 2: 14 January 1986, 6:50pm-7:29pm; 39 minutes; Johnny Ball [E], Barbara Lott [E], Liz Hobbs [E]
Episode 3: 21 January 1986, 6:49pm-7:28pm; 39 minutes; David Sandeman [E], Fiona Kennedy [E], Ian McCaskill [S]
Episode 4: 4 February 1986, 6:52pm-7:30pm; 38 minutes; Prof. Heinz Wolff [S], Deborah Leigh Hall [E], Ruth Madoc [S]
Episode 5: 11 February 1986, 6:50pm-7:28pm; 38 minutes; Joanna Munro [S], Val Prince [S], George Layton [S]
Episode 6: 18 February 1986, 6:49pm-7:28pm; 39 minutes; Heather Couper [E], Keith Chegwin [E], Adam Gilbey [E] (The broadcast of this episode was postponed from 28 January 1986 due to coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.) Signature tune
Master tapes of the following episodes no longer exist - the tapes were deliberately wiped by the BBC in order to reuse them:
*Off air recordings of these episodes have been returned to the BBC (they would still be interested in obtaining better quality versions).

Series 1, Episode 2 - Saturday 31 May 1980. Liza Goddard, Michael Rodd, Stephen Cox.
Series 1, Episode 5* - Saturday 21 June 1980. Paul Darrow, Lesley Judd, Robert Malos.
Series 2, Episode 2* - Monday 9 November 1981. Madeleine Smith, David Yip, Derek Gale.
Series 2, Episode 4 - Monday 23 November 1981. Tessa Hamp, Nerys Hughes, Derek Griffiths.

2008-04-17T09:36:00.001-07:00

The Regent House is the name given to the official governing body of the University of Cambridge. It consists of most academic and academic-related staff of the University's colleges and departments, and currently has over 3000 members.
Meetings of the Regent House are known as congregations, and are chaired by the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor, or the master of one of the colleges. In recent times, very few Congregations have actually been held, with most important business conducted by postal ballot of its members. The main exceptions are those to award degrees, with the largest being held at the end of Easter term when undergraduates receive their degrees in sessions spread over three days known as General Admission.
Such Congregations are held in the University's Senate House.

2008-04-16T08:09:00.001-07:00

Moby-Dick is a novel by Herman Melville. Written in 1851, the story recounts the adventures of its central character, Ishmael and his voyage on the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Believing he has signed on to an average ship, Ishmael soon learns that Ahab intends to use the Pequod and her crew, not to hunt whales for market trade but rather to hunt one specific whale; Moby Dick, a great white whale known throughout the maritime world for his legendary size and ferocity. In a previous encounter the whale destroyed Ahab's ship and in the process, caused the captain to lose his leg. Ahab now intends to exact revenge, not in service of his fellow whalers but to settle his own personal vendetta.
In telling an apparently simple story Melville employs stylised language, symbolism and metaphor to explore an number of complex themes which he believes are universal. Through the main character's journey the concepts of class and social status, good and evil and finally, the existence of God are all examined as Ishmael attempts to determine what his personal beliefs are and who he is as an individual. The narrator's reflections, along with his descriptions of a sailor's life aboard a whaling ship are woven into the narrative along with Shakespearean literary devices such as stage directions, extended soliloquies and asides.
Often considered the epitome of American Romanticism, Moby Dick was first published by Richard Bentley in London on October 18, 1851 in an expurgated three-volume edition entitled The Whale, and later as one massive volume, by New York City publisher Harper and Brothers as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale on November 14, 1851. The first line of Chapter One—"Call me Ishmael."—is one of the most famous in literature. Although the book initially received negative reviews, Moby-Dick is now considered one of the greatest novels in the English language and has secured Melville's place among America's greatest writers.

Historical background
Moby-Dick is a highly symbolic work, and is interesting in that it also addresses issues such as natural history. Other themes include obsession, religion, idealism versus pragmatism, revenge, racism, hierarchical relationships, and politics.

Major themes
All of the members of the Pequod's crew have biblical-sounding, improbable, or descriptive names, and the narrator deliberately avoids specifying the exact time of the events and some other similar details. These together suggest that the narrator—and not just Melville—is deliberately casting his tale in an epic and allegorical mode.
The white whale itself, for example, has been read as symbolically representative of good and evil, as has Ahab. The white whale has also been seen as a metaphor for the elements of life that are out of our control, or God.
The Pequod's quest to hunt down Moby-Dick itself is also widely viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate goal in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. Furthermore, his vengeance against the whale is analogous to man's struggle against fate. The only escape from Ahab's vision is seen through the Pequod's occasional encounters with other ships, called gams. Readers could consider what exactly Ahab will do if he, in fact, succeeds in his quest: having accomplished his ultimate goal, what else is there left for him to do? Similarly, Melville may be implying that people in general need something to reach for in life, or that such a goal can destroy one if allowed to overtake all other concerns. Some such things are hinted at early on in the book, when the main character, Ishmael, is sharing a cold bed with his newfound friend, Queequeg:
.. truely to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. — Moby-Dick, Ch. 11
Ahab's pipe is widely looked upon as the riddance of happiness in Ahab's life. By throwing the pipe overboard, Ahab signifies that he no longer can enjoy simple pleasures in life; instead, he dedicates his entire life to the pursuit of his obsession, the killing of the white whale, Moby-Dick.
A number of biblical themes occur. The book contains multiple implicit and explicit allusions to the story of Jonah, in addition to the use of certain biblical names (see below).
Ishmael's musings also allude to themes common among the American Transcendentalists and parallel certain themes in European Romanticism and the philosophy of Hegel. In the poetry of Whitman and the prose writings of Emerson and Thoreau, a ship at sea is sometimes a metaphor for the soul.

Symbolism
Sections of the novel depart from the progression of the plot entirely and discuss at great length the biology and ecology of whales and related species. Many of the claims are inaccurate —- for example, Ishmael insists that the whale is a fish, although they had been classified as mammals for almost a century (which he acknowledges dismissively). Melville, of course, knew better.

Whale biology and ecology
"Etymology" is the first of two prefaces of sorts. "Supplied by a late consumptive usher to a grammar school", the word origins are for whale. Not only are Classical, Romance, and Germanic languages featured but also the usually overlooked "Fegee" (Fijian) and "Erromangoan" (Erromanga). The second preface is "Extracts", excerpts on whales culled from numerous works by "a sub-sub-librarian". Listed mostly chronologically, the quotations come from fiction, poetry, plays, anonymous sea chanties, the Bible and other religious works, legal references, histories, scientific and naturalist treatises, biographies, economic studies, philosophical texts, travelogues, reading primers, etc. The range shows a number of ways of looking at whales and the people who hunt them and use them, from materialist to political to metaphysical. Only one of the extracts is authored by a woman.
Then comes Chapter 1, "Loomings", when Ishmael, with a mixture of chattiness, seriousness, and humor, begins to talk to the reader about his temperament, the call of the sea, and his contention that every man wants at least once in his life to leave the land behind for the ocean.
Aiming to join a whaling crew, Ishmael heads for Nantucket, the older of the two U.S. centers of the whaling industry. Time problems force him to stop for the night in the newer, more powerful whaling center of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Lacking money, he lodges at the Spouter Inn. The innkeeper, Peter Coffin, puts him in a room with the mysterious tattooed cannibal Queequeg, a harpooner. The two quickly become fast friends; Ishmael even humorously calls the relationship a "marriage", and he joins Queequeg in worshipping his idol god.
The two decide to enlist together on the Pequod, a whaler owned by three captains: Peleg, Bildad, and Ahab. Ishmael and Queequeg have yet to meet their captain when they sign ship's articles, Queequeg drawing a peculiar mark identical to one of his tattoos. Soon enough they discover that Ahab is captain for this voyage, which Peleg and Bildad hope will reap a substantial financial windfall.
As the ship sets sail, other main characters are introduced: the three mates, Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask; and the three remaining harpooners, Daggoo, Tashtego, and Fedallah. For several days, though, an ill Ahab stays below decks, completely out of sight from the common sailors. Ahab finally emerges and plants himself on the quarter-deck, leading Ishmael to ponder his captain's missing leg and the ivory replacing it.
The extremely enigmatic Ahab broods and behaves erratically. He paces the deck, thudding his ivory heel. Stubb suggests that he dampen the sound, but Ahab, furious, calls him a dog. When Stubb objects to the insult, Ahab says, "Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone, or I'll clear the world of thee!"
Ahab's eccentricities multiply and intensify. He throws his pipe off the ship. He asks his crew to yell more loudly if they spot a white whale. Then he tells the crew that a gold doubloon will go to the crewman who first spots a "white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw". He then nails the coin to the ship's mast, saying, "God hath struck a cord on this here coin!"
It turns out Tashtego has heard of this white whale, which he says some call "Moby Dick". Starbuck reveals that Moby Dick took Captain Ahab's leg. With pressure on him mounting, Ahab admits that for him the voyage of the Pequod has no other purpose than to have his vengeance on Moby Dick.
Over the course of the story, the reader is presented with numerous apparent digressions giving scenes and details of whales, the whaling industry, and everyday whaling life. These digressions—sometimes funny, sometimes eerie, and sometimes a combination—often shed light on the ocean of symbolisms and profundities Melville gathers, delves into, plays with, and sometimes strains to surface from. On the other hand, there is always a forward-driving adventure story highlighting various whale sightings, whale hunts, and encounters (again, sometimes spooky or humorous) with other whalers. The combination of more typical plot elements with many other exploratory and curious styles and registers allows Melville to encapsulate and expand on the localized and cosmic significances of a way of life already in decline.
Toward the end of the novel, the Pequod nears Moby Dick's territory and encounters the Rachel, the master of which quickly rows over to the Pequod. He begs Ahab for help in finding a whaling-crew lost in the previous day's hunt, a crew that includes the son of the Rachel captain. When Ahab hears that the whale involved in the crew's disappearance was Moby Dick, he flatly refuses to help the Rachel so he can take up his own search for the whale.
The journey comes to its dramatic and tragic end when the Pequod, sailing despite dark portents, sights Moby Dick. For three long days the ship battles the white whale. Moby Dick shatters the Pequod's hunting boats and then charges the ship itself, sinking it. Ahab and all the crew drown except for Ishmael, who uses the coffin built for Queequeg as a buoy. By pure luck, the still-searching Rachel sails by and rescues Ishmael.

Plot summary
The crew-members of the Pequod are carefully drawn stylizations of human types and habits; critics have often described the crew as a "self-enclosed universe".

Characters in Moby-Dick

Main article: Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Ishmael
The character Elijah (named for the Biblical prophet, Elijah), on learning that Ishmael and Queequeg have signed onto Ahab's ship, asks, "Anything down there about your souls?" When Ishmael reacts with surprise, Elijah continues:
"Oh, perhaps you hav'n't got any," he said quickly. "No matter though, I know many chaps that hav'n't got any, - good luck to 'em; and they are all the better off for it. A soul's a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon."[1]
Later in the conversation, Elijah adds:
Well, well, what's signed, is signed; and what's to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it wont be, after all. Any how, it's all fixed and arranged a'ready; and some sailors or other must go with him, I suppose; as well these as any other men, God pity 'em! Morning to ye, shipmates, morning; the ineffable heavens bless ye; I'm sorry I stopped ye."[2]
The vague and uncertain prophet of the text, ambivalent about religion, is replaced in both the 1956 and 1998 movie adaptations with a prescient Elijah who foretells the fate of the Pequod with confident precision. The 1956 film has Elijah waving his lame arm in pantomime foretelling Ahab's demise, and Ahab (played by Gregory Peck) moves his own arm in fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy.[3] In the 1998 television adaptation, Elijah warns that captain and crew shall all perish except one and that by signing on they have effectively signed away their souls; Queequeg asks Ishmael what a soul is, to which Ishmael responds by leading Queequeg to a Christian church where Father Mapple (played by Gregory Peck) preaches the story of Jonah.[4] (In the text, the Jonah sermon occurs before Ishmael meets Elijah, and Queequeg leaves the chapel "before the benediction some time."[5]) These substitutions may reflect the changing role of religion in American culture.

Elijah
Ahab is the tyrannical captain of the Pequod who is driven by a monomaniacal desire to kill Moby Dick, the whale that maimed him on his last whaling voyage. A Quaker, he seeks revenge in direct opposition to his religion's well-known pacifism. Ahab's name comes directly from the Bible (see 1 Kings 18-22).
In Ishmael's first encounter with Ahab's name, he responds "When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did they not lick his blood?" (Moby-Dick, Chapter 16).[6]
Ahab ultimately dooms the crew of the Pequod (excepting Ishmael) to death due to his obsession with Moby Dick. During the final chase, Ahab hurls his final harpoon while yelling his now-famous revenge line:
From hell's heart I stab at thee
The harpoon becomes lodged into Moby Dick's flesh and Ahab, caught in his own harpoon's rope and unable to free himself, is dragged into the cold oblivion of the sea with the injured whale, but not before the whale destroys the longboats and crew, and sinks the Pequod.

Ahab
Moby Dick is a mottled sperm whale with a white hump, of extraordinary ferocity and size, but is also possessed of ineffable strength, mystery, and power. The color white is explored in the chapter "The Whiteness of the Whale". It calls into question the meaning of the chapters on cetology. The symbolism of the whale is not clear; many things, including nature, providence, fate, and even God have been suggested.
Melville spelled the whale's name without a hyphen, but included one in the book's title, suggesting a split between the two.
In popular culture, Moby Dick is often depicted as being an albino whale. For example, in the huge whale mural at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a white sperm whale with a red eye and several harpoons (detached from their boats) stuck in its back is prominently displayed.

Moby Dick
The three mates of the Pequod were all from New England.

Mates
Frank Starbuck, the young first mate of the Pequod, was a thoughtful and intellectual Quaker from Nantucket.
Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organization seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than from ignorance... [H]is far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child, tend[ed] to bend him ... from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. "I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale." By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. — Moby-Dick, Ch. 26
Starbuck was alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal, which lacks reason. Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. But he lacked the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and was unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he felt himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain.
Starbuck was an important Quaker family name on Nantucket Island, and there were several actual whalers of this period named "Starbuck," as evidenced by the name of Starbuck Island in the southern Pacific whaling grounds.

Starbuck
Stubb was the second mate of the Pequod, was from Cape Cod, and always seemed to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. "Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests." (Moby-Dick, Ch. 27)

Stubb
Flask was the third mate of the Pequod. He was from Martha's Vineyard.
A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered. — Moby-Dick, Ch. 27

Flask
The harpooneers of the Pequod were all non-Christians from varying parts of the world. Each served on a ship officer's boat.

Harpooners
Queequeg hailed from a fictional island in the South Seas inhabited by a cannibal tribe, and was the son of the chief of his tribe. Since leaving the island, he had become extremely skilled with the harpoon. He befriended Ishmael very early in the novel, when they met in New Bedford, Massachusetts before leaving for Nantucket. He is described as existing in a state between civilized and savage; for example, Ishmael recounts with amusement how Queequeg feels it necessary to hide himself (under the bed!) when pulling on his boots, noting that if he were a savage he wouldn't consider any such modesty necessary, but if he were completely civilized he would realize there was no need to be modest when pulling on his boots.
Queequeg was the harpooneer on Starbuck's boat, where Ishmael was also an oarsman.

Queequeg
Tashtego was described as a Native American harpooner. The personification of the hunter, he turned from hunting land animals to hunting whales. Tashtego was the harpooner on Stubb's boat.
Next was Tashtego, an unmixed Indian from Gay Head, the most westerly promontory of Martha's Vineyard, where there still exists the last remnant of a village of red men, which has long supplied the neighboring island of Nantucket with many of her most daring harpooneers. In the fishery, they usually go by the generic name of Gay-Headers. — Moby-Dick, Ch.27

Tashtego
Daggoo was a gigantic African harpooner with a noble bearing and grace. He was the harpooneer on Flask's boat.

Daggoo
Fedallah was the harpooner on Ahab's boat. He was of Indian Zoroastrian ("Parsi") descent. Due to descriptions of him having lived in China, he might have been among the great wave of Parsi traders that made their way to Hong Kong and the Far East during the mid-19th century. At the time when the Pequod sets sail, Fedallah was hidden on board, and he emerged with Ahab's boat's crew later on, to the surprise of the crew. Fedallah was referred to in the text as Ahab's "Dark Shadow." Ishmael called him a "fire worshipper" and the crew speculated that he was a devil in man's disguise. He is the source of a variety of prophecies regarding Ahab and his hunt for Moby Dick.
[T]all and swart, with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head. — Moby-Dick, Ch.48

Fedallah
Pip (nicknamed "Pippin," but "Pip" for short) was an African-American ("negro") boy from Tolland County, Connecticut who was "the most insignificant of the Pequod's crew". Because he was physically slight, he is made a ship-keeper, (a sailor who stays in the Pequod while its hunting boats go out). Ishmael contrasts him with the "dull and torpid in his intellects" — and paler and much older — cook Dough-Boy, describing Pip as "over tender-hearted" but "at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe". Ishmael goes so far as so chastise the reader: "Nor smile so, while I write that this little black was brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king's cabinets."
The Cook (Dough-Boy), Blacksmith and Carpenter of the ship are each highlighted in at least one chapter near the end of the book. Dough-Boy, a very old African-American with bad knees, is presented in the chapter "Stubb Kills a Whale" at some length in a dialogue where Stubb takes him to task over how to prepare a variety of dishes from the whale's carcass.
The crew as a whole was exceedingly international, having a makeup of both the United States' and the world's population. Chapter 40, "Midnight, Forecastle," highlights, in its stage-play manner (in Shakespearean style), the striking variety in the sailors' origins. A partial list of the speakers includes sailors from France, Iceland, Holland, the Azores, Sicily and Malta (Italy), China, Denmark, Portugal, India, England, Spain, and Ireland. Considering that this variety is in only one part of the ship (the forecastle) there could be many other nationalities are on board. Melville gives an overall impression of the crew as being a melting pot of every conceivable ethnicity.

Other notable characters

Critical reception
In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne written within days of Moby-Dick's American publication, Melville made a number of revealing comments:
.. for not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them. Appreciation! Recognition! Is Jove appreciated? Why, ever since Adam, who has got to the meaning of his great allegory—the world? Then we pigmies must be content to have our paper allegories but ill comprehended. I say your appreciation is my glorious gratuity.

Melville's expectations
Moby-Dick received decidedly mixed reviews from critics at the time it was published. Since the book first appeared in England, the American literary establishment took note of what the English critics said, especially when these critics were attached to the more prestigious journals. Although many critics praised it for its unique style, interesting characters and poetic language [7], others agreed with a critic for the highly regarded London Athenaeum, who described it as
"[A]n ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed".[8]
The problem was that Peter Bentley botched the English edition, most significantly in leaving out the epilogue. For this reason, many of the critics faulted the book on what little they could grasp of it, namely its purely formal grounds: after all, how could the tale have been told if no one survived to tell it? Thus the generally bad reviews from across the ocean made American readers skittish about picking up the tome.
Still, a handful of American critics saw much more in it than most of their U.S. and English colleagues. Perhaps the most perceptive review came from the pen of Evert Duyckinck, who was the friend of Melville who introduced him to Hawthorne.

Contemporary
Within a year after Melville's death, Moby-Dick, along with Typee, Omoo, and Mardi, was reprinted by Harper & Brothers, giving it a chance to be rediscovered. However, only New York's literary underground seemed to take much interest, just enough to keep Melville's name circulating for the next 25 years in the capital of American publishing. During this time, a few critics were willing to devote time, space, and a modicum of praise to Melville and his works, or at least those that could still be fairly easily obtained or remembered. Other works, especially the poetry, went largely forgotten.[9]
Then came World War I and its consequences, particularly the shaking or destruction of faith in so many aspects of Western civilization, all of which caused people concerned with culture and its potential redemptive value to experiment with new aesthetic techniques. The stage was set for Melville to find his place.

Underground
With the burgeoning of Modernist aesthetics (see Modernism and American modernism) and the war that tore everything apart still so fresh in memory, Moby-Dick began to seem increasingly relevant. Not only did many of Melville's techniques echo those of Modernism: kaleidoscopic, hybrid in genre and tone, monumentally ambitious in trying to unite so many disparate elements and loose ends. His new readers also found in him an almost too-profound exploration of violence, hunger for power, quixotic goals, and reckless disregard for the fate of one's fellows. Although many critics of this time still considered Moby-Dick extremely difficult to come to grips with, they largely saw this lack of easy understanding as an asset rather than a liability.
In the 1920s, British literary critics began to take notice. In his idiosyncratic but landmark Studies in Classic American Literature, novelist, poet, and short story writer D. H. Lawrence directed Americans' attention to the great originality and value of many American authors, among them Melville. Perhaps most surprising is that Lawrence saw Moby-Dick as a work of the first order despite his using the original English edition. [10]
In his 1921 study, The American Novel, Carl Van Doren returns to Melville with much more depth. Here he calls Moby-Dick a pinnacle of American Romanticism.[11]

The Melville Revival
The next great wave of Moby-Dick appraisal came with the publication of F. O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman.

Post-Revival
Now, Moby Dick is seen as a great American classic and is looked upon as a high point in literature. It is studied in most schools in the United States along side War and Peace, The Scarlet Letter, and other great classics.

Current
For a selected listing of adaptations and cultural references, see:

Main article: Moby-Dick in popular culture Selected Adaptations

A 1926 silent movie, The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore as a heroic Ahab with a fiancée and an evil brother, loosely based on the novel (IMDb link). Remade as Moby Dick in 1930 (IMDb link), a version in which Ahab kills the whale and returns home to the woman he loves (played by Joan Bennett).
A 1956 film directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, Leo Genn as Starbuck, and, in a one-scene cameo, Orson Welles as Father Mapple, with screenplay by Ray Bradbury (see Moby Dick)
Moby Dick, a one-man show featuring Jack Aranson playing four roles: Ahab, Ishmael, Starbuck, and Father Mapple, was filmed in 1978 and released in November 2005 on DVD. The director was Paul Stanley (IMDb link).
Moby Dick, a 1998 television movie starring Patrick Stewart as Ahab, Gregory Peck as Father Mapple (a Golden Globe-winning performance) and Henry Thomas as Ishmael {IMDb link) Notes

Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford, ed. (2002). Moby Dick / Herman Melville. Norton Critical Edition. ISBN 0-393-97283-6

2008-04-15T08:36:00.001-07:00

The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the U.S. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of texts covering academic fields as diverse as Life Sciences, Literary Criticism, Economics, Anthropology, Political Science, and Philosophy.
One of its quasi-independent projects is the BiblioVault, a digital repository for scholarly books.
The press building is located just south of the Midway Plaisance on the UC campus, near an enormous statue of Saint Wenceslaus on horseback, sculpted by Albin Polasek (1879-1965) and dedicated as a memorial to Thomas Masaryk (1850-1937), the first president of Czechoslovakia.

History
Garrett P. Kiely will became the fifteenth director of the University of Chicago Press on September 1, 2007. He will head one of academic publishing's largest operations employing 300 people across its three divisions of books, journals, and distribution and publishing approximately 180 new books and 70 paperback reprints a year. The University of Chicago Press currently maintains three operating divisions-Books, Journals, and Distribution Services.

Books Division
The University of Chicago Journals division publishes forty-three journals and five annuals in a wide range of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, education, the biological and medical sciences, and the physical sciences. The American Journal of Sociology, founded in 1895, is the oldest academic journal devoted to sociology, while History of Religions was the first academic journal devoted exclusively to comparative religious history. The Journals Division launched electronic publishing efforts in 1995 and by 2004 all the journals published by the University of Chicago Press became available online.

Chicago Distribution Services

Category:University of Chicago journals

2008-04-14T10:36:00.001-07:00

This is a list of communes in France with a population over 20,000 at the March 8, 1999 census. All figures reflect INSEE's sans doubles comptes counting method.
There have been a couple of major changes since the 1999 census, however:
The commune of Cherbourg-Octeville[¹] (ranked 150 here) is the result of a merger of Cherbourg and Octeville on February 28, 2000. Their 1999 census populations have been combined here.
The commune of Lille[²] (ranked 10 here) absorbed the commune of Lomme on February 27, 2000. Their 1999 census populations have been combined here.
The commune of Saint-Martin[³] (ranked 257 here), as of February 22, 2007, is no longer a part of Guadeloupe, but is included here because of its former status at the time of the 1999 census.
For details on this topic, see Administrative divisions of France. For DOMs-TOMs, see the lists for French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Mayotte and Réunion.

See also

List of towns
List of cities
Lists of communes of France

2008-04-13T09:19:00.001-07:00

The Flag of Afghanistan was adopted by the transitional government of Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan in 2002–2004. This flag is similar to the one flown in Afghanistan during the monarchy between 1930 and 1973. The difference is the addition of the shahadah at the top of the coat-of-arms (seen in gold/yellow) in the center. The new flag was adopted January 4, 2004.
This flag consists of three stripes of the colors black, red, and green. This has been present on most flags of Afghanistan in the last twenty years. The center emblem is the classical emblem of Afghanistan with a mosque with its mihrab facing Mecca.
The pre-Taliban-era and Afghan Northern Alliance flag featured the same emblem, but with green, white and black horizontal stripes instead.
Afghanistan has had more national flags in history than any other country in the world.

See also

Emblem of Afghanistan

2008-04-12T08:03:00.001-07:00

Language design
True to the glue language roots of Perl, PDL borrows from several different modules for graphics and plotting support. NetPBM provides image file I/O (though FITS is supported natively). PLPlot, PGPLOT, and Karma modules are all supported for 2-D graphics and plotting applications, and an interface to GL is available for 3-D plotting and rendering.

Graphics
PDL provides facilities to read and write many open data formats, including JPEG, PNG, GIF, PPM, MPEG, FITS, NetCDF, GRIB, raw binary files, and delimited ASCII tables. Because of legal threats from Kodak, the owners of IDL, PDL cannot read or write IDL data files.

perldl
The core of PDL is written in C. Most of the functionality is written in PP, a PDL-specific metalanguage that handles the vectorization of simple C snippets and interfaces them with the perl host language via Perl's XS compiler. Some modules are written in FORTRAN, with a C/PP interface layer. Many of the supplied functions are written in PDL itself. PP is available to the user to write C-language extensions to PDL.
The PDL API uses the basic Perl 5 object-oriented functionality: PDL defines a new type of perl scalar object (eponymously called a "PDL") that acts as a Perl scalar, but that contains a conventional typed array of numeric or character values. All of the standard Perl operators are overloaded so that they can be used on PDL objects transparently, and PDLs can be mixed-and-matched with normal Perl scalars. Several hundred object methods for operating on PDLs are supplied by the core modules.

2008-04-11T09:33:00.001-07:00

This is a gallery of bordered flags.
Flag of West Virginia

2008-04-10T10:18:00.001-07:00

Erastus Otis Haven (1 November 1820 – 2 August 1881) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1880.

Biography

American Progress
The Young Man Advised, New York, 1855. (made up of discourses delivered in the chapel of the University of Michigan)
Pillars of Truth, 1866. (a work on the evidences of Christianity)
a Treatise: Rhetoric.
Autobiography of Erastus O. Haven, D.D., LL.D., 1883.

2008-04-09T10:18:00.001-07:00

Characteristics
Red-billed Quelea live and breed in huge flocks, mostly in steppe and savanna regions, but not avoiding human settlements. While foraging for food they may fly large distances each day without tiring. Their life expectancy is two to three years.

Habits
The breeding season begins with the seasonal rains, which come at different times in different parts of their range - starting at the north-western edge around the beginning of November. The breeding males first weave half-complete ovoid nests from grass and straw. After the female has examined the construction and the mating has occurred, both partners complete the weaving of the nest. The female lays two to four light blue eggs, and incubates them for twelve days. After the chicks hatch, they are nourished for some days with caterpillars and protein-rich insects. After this time parents change to mainly feeding seeds. The young birds fledge and become independent enough to leave their parents after approximately two weeks in the nest. They are sexually mature after just one year, but many females die before this time, leaving many males without a partner.

Food
The distribution area of the Red-billed Quelea covers most of sub-Saharan Africa, excluding the rain forest areas and parts of South Africa. They are regarded as pests by farmers because of their greed, and often compared with locusts, which fall upon grain and rice fields. Since they have hardly any natural enemies, their population is enormous, some 1.5 billion individuals. Even extreme control measures such as dynamiting the nest colonies and use of organophosphate poisons have not significantly reduced their numbers.

2008-04-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

For the Horseshoe Falls in Wales, United Kingdom, see,
The Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls, is a waterfall on the Niagara River, located entirely on the Canadian side of the border with the United States. It is located between Terrapin Point on Goat Island in New York State, and Table Rock House in Ontario.
The name is derived from its curving, horseshoe-shaped crest that is 671 meters (2,200 ft) in width. At the center of the Horseshoe Falls the water is about 3 meters (10 ft) deep. It passes over the crest at a speed of about 32 km/h (20 mph). The falls is 53 meters (173 ft) high, has an average crest elevation of 152 meters (500 ft) and faces northwards. The depth of the river at the base of the falls is actually higher than the falls itself, estimated at 56 metres (184 ft).
The Horseshoe Falls is considered to be the most impressive of the three falls that make up Niagara Falls. Approximately 90% of the water of the Niagara River flows over Horseshoe Falls, while the other 10% flows over the American Falls.
The falls continually produces a large amount of mist, which renders viewing them difficult. The amount of natural mist has been reduced since the early 20th century by the diversion of most of the water from the Niagara River for hydroelectricity, but then increased in the last 5 years due to new high-rises being built on the Canadian side of the border causing redirection of airflow. It is observable at a direct angle from the Canadian side, and at a steep angle on the U.S. side on Goat Island. The Maid of the Mist boat offers tours which approach the base of the falls.
The Niagara Scow has rested approximately 700 metres from the edge of the falls since it was caught against a rock shoal in 1918, and a plaque today informs tourists of the history of the small shipwreck that has sat perched just above the falls for nearly a century without being dislodged.

2008-04-07T10:14:00.001-07:00

This article is about the VCR ('Video Cassette Recording') videocassette format from Philips. This should not be confused with the later (and incompatible) VCC format ('Video Compact Cassette', more commonly known as Video 2000). For the generic article covering all videocassette recorders (VCRs), see Videocassette recorder.
Video Cassette Recording (VCR) was an early domestic video format designed by Philips. It was the first successful home videocassette recorder system. Later variants included the VCR-LP and Super Video (SVR) formats.
The VCR format was introduced in 1972, just after the Sony U-matic format in 1971. Although at first glance the two might appear to have been competing formats, they were aimed at very different markets. U-matic was introduced as a professional format, whilst VCR was targeted particularly at educational but also domestic users.
Home video systems had previously been available, but they were open reel systems (most notably made by Sony) and were expensive to both buy and operate. They were also unreliable and often only recorded in black and white. The VCR system was easy to use and recorded in colour but was still expensive: the N1500 recorder cost nearly £600 in the United Kingdom when it was introduced in 1972, the equivalent of more than £4500 today.
The VCR format used large square cassettes with 2 co-axial reels, one on top of the other, containing half inch wide chrome dioxide magnetic tape. Three playing times were available: 30, 45 and 60 minutes. The 60-minute cassettes proved very unreliable, suffering numerous snags and breakages due to the very thin tape. The mechanically complicated recorders themselves also proved somewhat unreliable. One particularly common failing occurred should tape slack develop within the cassette; the tape from the top (takeup) spool may droop into the path of the bottom (supply) spool and become entangled in it if rewind was selected. The cassette would then completely jam and require dismantling to clear the problem, and the tape would then be creased and damaged.
The system predated the development of the slant azimuth technique to prevent crosstalk between adjacent video tracks, so had to use an unrecorded guard band between tracks. This required the system to run at a high tape speed of around 11.5 inches per second.
Despite its limitations, the Philips VCR system was groundbreaking and brought together many advances in video recording technology to produce the first truly practical home video cassette system.

Model Numbers
In the late 1970s, the VCR formats were superseded altogether by Video 2000 (also known as 'Video Compact Cassette' or VCC). Due to the similar initialisms, and the fact that both were designed by Philips, the 'VCC' and 'VCR' formats are often confused. However, the two systems are incompatible, and there are significant differences between them. Some Video 2000 machines carry the same "VCR" logo as N1500 and N1700 machines, adding further to this confusion.

2008-04-06T08:43:00.001-07:00

Sursum Corda Cooperative is a small neighborhood located in Washington, D.C., bounded by North Capitol Street on the east, First Street NW to the west, K Street NW to the south, and New York Avenue NW to the north. It consists of 199 housing units constructed as an experiment in cooperatively managed low-income housing in 1968. Managed by the District of Columbia Housing Authority, it became a notorious open air drug market plagued by violence and poverty in the 1980s. In 2005 the District of Columbia offered to purchase the complex as part of its "New Communities" plan for neighborhood rehabilitation.

2008-04-05T09:47:00.001-07:00

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was the leading proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century.

The Four Monopolies
Tucker did not have a utopian vision of anarchy where individuals would not coerce others.

Private Defense
Tucker's periodical also served as the main conduit of Stirnerite Egoism, of which Tucker became a proponent. This led to a split in American Individualism between the growing number of Egoists and the contemporary Spoonerian "Natural Lawyers". Both Egoists and Natural Law theorists rejected coercive authority, involuntary legislation, and the notion of a "social contract." However, they differed over the philosophical basis for their individualism: Natural Law theory derived it from a conception of a natural individual right to be free from coercion, whereas Egoism defended anarchism as a pragmatic compromise in a system where each individual sought only self-interest and where nothing was immoral. As a result of Tucker's egoist foundation, he began to favor consequentialism over deontological rules. For example, he believed that aggressing against other was justifiable if doing so led to a greater decrease in "aggregate pain" than refraining from doing so. He said:
the ultimate end of human endeavor is the minimum of pain. We aim to decrease invasion only because, as a rule, invasion increases the total of pain (meaning, of course, pain suffered by the ego, whether directly or through sympathy with others). But it is precisely my contention that this rule, despite the immense importance which I place upon it, is not absolute; that, on the contrary, there are exceptional cases where invasion--that is, coercion of the non-invasive--lessens the aggregate pain. Therefore coercion of the non-invasive, when justifiable at all, is to be justified on the ground that it secures, not a minimum of invasion, but a minimum of pain. . . . [T]o me [it is] axiomatic--that the ultimate end is the minimum of pain

Conversion to Egoist individualist anarchism
In 1908, a fire destroyed Tucker's uninsured printing equipment and his 30-year stock of books and pamphlets. Tucker's lover, Pearl Johnson — 25 years his junior — was pregnant with their daughter, Oriole Tucker. Six weeks after Oriole's birth, Tucker closed both Liberty and the book shop and retired with his family to France. In 1913, he came out of retirement for two years to contribute articles and letters to The New Freewoman which he called "the most important publication in existence."
Late in life, Tucker became much more pessimistic about the prospects for anarchism. In 1926, Vanguard Press published a selection of his writings entitled Individual Liberty, in which Tucker added a postscript to "State Socialism and Anarchism", which stated "Forty years ago, when the foregoing essay was written, the denial of competition had not yet effected the enormous concentration of wealth that now so gravely threatens social order. It was not yet too late to stem the current of accumulation by a reversal of the policy of monopoly. The Anarchistic remedy was still applicable." But, Tucker argued, "Today the way is not so clear. The four monopolies, unhindered, have made possible the modern development of the trust, and the trust is now a monster which I fear, even the freest banking, could it be instituted, would be unable to destroy. ... If this be true, then monopoly, which can be controlled permanently only for economic forces, has passed for the moment beyond their reach, and must be grappled with for a time solely by forces political or revolutionary. Until measures of forcible confiscation, through the State or in defiance of it, shall have abolished the concentrations that monopoly has created, the economic solution proposed by Anarchism and outlined in the forgoing pages – and there is no other solution – will remain a thing to be taught to the rising generation, that conditions may be favorable to its application after the great leveling. But education is a slow process, and may not come too quickly. Anarchists who endeavor to hasten it by joining in the propaganda of State Socialism or revolution make a sad mistake indeed. They help to so force the march of events that the people will not have time to find out, by the study of their experience, that their troubles have been due to the rejection of competition."
In private correspondence, he wrote: "Capitalism is at least tolerable, which cannot be said of Socialism or Communism"

Late life
Born April 17, 1854 in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
August 1881 to April 1908 — published the periodical, Liberty, "widely considered to be the finest individualist-anarchist periodical ever issued in the English language."

1872 — While a student at M.I.T., Tucker attended a convention of the New England Labor Reform League in Boston, chaired by William B. Greene, author of Mutual Banking (1850). At the convention, Tucker purchased Mutual Banking, True Civilization, and a set of Ezra Heywood's pamphlets. Furthermore, Free-love anarchist, Ezra Heywood introduced Tucker to William B. Greene and Josiah Warren, author of True Civilization (1869). He also started a relationship with Victoria Woodhull at this time, lasting for 3 years.
1876 — Tucker's debut into radical circles: Heywood published Tucker's English translation of Proudhon's classic work What is Property?.
1877-1878 — Published his original journal, Radical Review, which lasted four issues.
1892 — moved Liberty from Boston to New York
1906 — Opened Tucker's Unique Book Shop in New York City — promoting "Egoism in Philosophy, Anarchism in Politics, Iconoclasm in Art".
1908 — A fire destroyed Tucker's uninsured printing equipment and his 30-year stock of books and pamphlets. Tucker's lover, Pearl Johnson — 25 years his junior — was pregnant with their daughter, Oriole Tucker. Six weeks after Oriole's birth, Tucker closed both Liberty and the book shop and moved his family to France.
1913 — Tucker comes out of retirement for two years to contribute articles and letters to The New Freewoman which he called "the most important publication in existence"
1939 — Tucker died in Monaco, in the company of his lover Pearl Johnson and their daughter, Oriole, who reported, "Father's attitude towards communism never changed one whit, nor about religion.... In his last months he called in the French housekeeper. 'I want her,' he said, 'to be a witness that on my death bed I'm not recanting. I do not believe in God!" See also

Instead of a Book, by a Man Too Busy to Write One (1893, 1897)
Travelling in Liberty: a complete online archive of Tucker's journal Liberty (1881–1908)
Several works by Tucker at Anarchy Archives

2008-04-04T09:45:00.001-07:00

The election of William Linn as Chaplain of the House on May 1, 1789, continued the tradition established by the Continental Congresses of each day's proceedings opening with a prayer by a chaplain. The early Chaplains alternated duties with their Senate counterparts on a weekly basis. The two conducted Sunday services for the Washington community in the House chamber every other week.
In addition to opening proceedings with prayer, the Chaplain provides pastoral counseling to the House community, coordinates the scheduling of guest chaplains, and arranges memorial services for the House and its staff. In the past, Chaplains have performed marriage and funeral ceremonies for House members.

From 1855 to 1861 the local clergy in the District of Columbia conducted the opening prayer. Thereafter, the House has elected a Chaplain at the beginning of each Congress.

2008-04-03T09:53:00.001-07:00

The goal of widening participation in higher education is a major component of government education policy in the United Kingdom. It consists of an attempt to increase not only the numbers of young people entering higher education, but also the proportion from so-called "under-represented groups" (those from lower income families, people with disabilities and some ethnic minorities).
In this way it is hoped to redress the inequalities in participation between social classes. Widening participation is one of the strategic objectives of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The issue of widening participation became a political hot topic after the Laura Spence Affair which hit the headlines in 2000. HEFCE is pursuing this policy through a number of measures, including the payment of financial incentives to universities, and by funding the Aimhigher programme.
This policy is linked to the Labour government's target of increasing participation in higher education to 50% by 2010, and is part of a wider drive to achieve social justice.
Action on Access is the National Co-ordination Team for HEFCE's Widening Participation Activities. Based at Edge Hill University in the North West of England, Action on Access provides an invaluable resource for widening participation practitioners in Higher Education Institutions and partnerships.

2008-04-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

Nobunari Oda (Japanese: 織田信成) (born on March 25, 1987) is a Japanese figure skater. He is the 2005 World Junior Champion.

Career

2008-04-01T09:59:00.001-07:00

Civic Holiday is the name given to the public holiday declared by the provincial government in Ontario.
The holiday may be known by a variety of names in different municipalities, including Simcoe Day in Toronto and Colonel By Day in Ottawa. "Civic Holiday" is the only name that is universally recognized by all Ontarians.
The August holiday falls on the first Monday in August. It is generally a low-key celebration of John Graves Simcoe, who was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (which was then known as Upper Canada).

2008-03-29T10:16:00.001-07:00

The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, as well as the eastern portion of the Cape Province. It is the traditional home of the Xhosa, and the birthplace of many prominent South Africans, such as Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Steve Biko and Charles Coghlan.

Law and Government
See also List of cities and towns in the Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape gets progressively wetter from west to east. The west is mostly semi-arid Karoo, except in the far south, which is temperate rainforest in the Tsitsikamma region. The coast is generally rugged with interspersed beaches. Most of the province is hilly to very mountainous between Graaff-Reinet and Rhodes including the Sneeuberge (Afrikaans: Snow Mountains), Stormberge, Winterberge and Drakensberg (Afrikaans: Dragon Mountains). The highest point in the province is Ben Macdhui at 3001m. The east from East London towards the Kwa-Zulu Natal border is lush grassland with intermittent forest. This region, Transkei, is rolling hills punctuated by deep gorges.
Eastern Cape has a shoreline in the south on the South Indian Ocean. In the northeast, it borders the following districts of Lesotho:
Domestically, it borders the following provinces:

Mohale's Hoek - west of Quthing
Quthing - between Mohale and Qacha's Nek
Qacha's Nek - east of Quthing
Western Cape - west
Northern Cape - northwest
Free State - north
KwaZulu-Natal - far northeast Climate
The landscape is extremely diverse. The western interior is largely arid Karoo, while the east is well-watered and green. The Eastern Cape offers a wide array of attractions, including 800 km of untouched and pristine coastline along with some particularly splendid beaches, and "big-five" viewing in a malaria-free environment.
The Addo Elephant National Park, situated 73 km from Port Elizabeth, was proclaimed in 1931. Its 743 km² offers sanctuary to 170 elephants, the last Cape buffalo and 21 black rhino of the very scarce Kenyan sub-species.
The province is the location of South Africa's only ski resort, Tiffindell, which is situated near the hamlet of Rhodes in the Southern Drakensberg on the slopes of the highest mountain peak in the Eastern Cape (3001 m).
The National Arts Festival, held in Grahamstown is Africa's largest and most colourful cultural event, offering a choice of the very best of both indigenous and imported talent. Every year for 11 days the town's population almost doubles, as over 50,000 people flock to the region for a feast of arts, crafts and sheer entertainment.
The Tsitsikamma National Park is an 80 km long coastal strip between Nature's Valley and the mouth of the Storms River. In the park the visitor finds an almost untouched natural landscape. Near the park is the Bloukrans Bridge, which is the world's highest bungee jump.
Jeffreys Bay is an area with some of the country's wildest coastline, which is backed by some of Africa's most spectacular sub-tropical rainforest. Famous for its "supertubes", probably South Africa's longest and most consistently good wave, it's charged with a surf vibe as relaxed as it is friendly, and this tends to soften the effect of the wealthy set who have made this part of the coast their own.
Aliwal North, lying on a splendid agricultural plateau on the southern bank of the Orange River, is one of the country's most popular inland resorts and is famous for its hot springs.
The rugged and unspoilt Wild Coast is a place of spectacular scenery, and a graveyard for many vessels.

Tourism
The Eastern Cape remains one of the poorest provinces in South Africa. This is largely due to the extreme poverty found in the former homelands, where subsistence agriculture predominates. The two major industrial centres, Port Elizabeth and East London have well-developed economies, based on the automotive industry. General Motors and Volkswagen both have major assembly lines in the Port Elizabeth area, while East London is dominated by the large DaimlerChrysler plant. The largest construction project in Africa is currently underway at Coega, about 20 km north of Port Elizabeth, where a new harbour is being built. It is expected that this development will give the province a major economic boost.

Formation
The Eastern Cape Province is divided into 46 municipalities:

Aberdeen Plain Municipality
Alfred Nzo Municipality
Amahlathi Municipality, is seated at Stutterheim
Amatole Municipality
Baviaans Municipality
Blue Crane Route Municipality
Buffalo City Municipality (East London, Bhisho and King William's Town)
Cacadu Municipality
Camdeboo Municipality
Chris Hani Municipality
Elundini Municipality
Emalahleni Municipality
Ngcobo Municipality
Gariep Municipality
Great Kei Municipality
Ikwezi Municipality
Inkwanca Municipality
Intsika Yethu Municipality
Inxuba Yethemba Municipality
King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality
Kouga Municipality
Kou-Kamma Municipality
Lukanji Municipality
Makana Municipality
Maletswai Municipality
Mbhashe Municipality
Mbizana Municipality
Mhlontlo Municipality
Mnquma Municipality
Ndlambe Municipality Municipality
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality (Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage & Despatch)
Ngqushwa Municipality
Nkonkobe Municipality
Ntabankulu Municipality
Nxuba Municipality
Nyandeni Municipality
O.R. Tambo Municipality
Port St. Johns Municipality
Quakeni Municipality
Sakhisizwe Municipality
Senqu Municipality
Sunday's River Valley
Tsolwana Municipality
Ukhahlamba Municipality
Umzimkhulu Municipality
Umzimvubu Municipality

2008-03-28T09:17:00.001-07:00

Calcium imaging is a scientific technique usually carried out in research which is designed to show the calcium status of a tissue or medium. Due to the chemical properties of calcium it can not be imaged easily. Instead, another substance called Fura-2 fluoresces after binding to calcium and being exposed to a fluorescent light. The Fura-Ca complex affects the wavelength typically associated with unbound Fura-2 and the resulting fluorescence can be detected by a camera adapted (usually through a microscope) for fluorescent light imaging. An image is thus created which can be analyzed according to intensity, ultimately reflecting the Ca status.

2008-03-27T10:25:00.001-07:00

Russian special purpose regiments or Spetsnaz, Specnaz (Войска специального назначения - спецназ/Voyska spetsialnogo naznacheniya, /spʲeʦnaz/ in IPA) is a general term for "special forces" in Russian, literally "special purpose units".
In Russian the term commonly denotes the special forces of all countries and is used by mass media, and civil people to mark all kinds of special purpose units of all kinds of subordination; in English it refers exclusively to the Russian special forces.
In fact, its use in English usually is associated with Russians writing in English or with writers attempting linguistic authenticity. Generally, English-language media refer to them as "Russian special forces".
Spetsnaz can refer to any elite or special purpose units controlled by the Federal Security Service (FSB) with counter-terrorist and anti-sabotage tasks, Ministry of Interior (police) MVD, and the army special forces controlled by the military intelligence service GRU. Nowadays, the term is used as well to describe any special purpose units or task forces of other ministries (even the Emergency Situations Ministry special rescue unit).
Strictly speaking, all Spetsnaz units operated by the KGB/FSB were called OSNAZ, an acronym for [voiska] osobogo naznacheniya or "special purpose [detachments]". These units originally were raised for internal use against right-wing counter-revolutionaries, dissidents, and other undesirables. There has always been a certain amount of shifting of personnel and units between both the GRU who control SPETSNAZ and the MVD with OSNAZ MVD and OSNAZ KGB or FSB, especially between the latter two. Today, OSNAZ is a term mainly used in connection with GRU-controlled COMINT, ELINT and radio-surveillance units within the Armed Forces.
Spetsnaz carry out reconnaissance and social warfare missions in "peacetime" as well as in war. For example, it is known that the assassination of Afghanistan's president carried out by Spetsnaz in December 1979 was under the direction of the KGB.
According to Vladimir Rezun, a GRU defector who used the pseudonym "Viktor Suvorov", there were 20 Spetsnaz brigades plus 41 separate companies. Thus, total strength of Spetsnaz forces in the 1980s could have been around 30,000 troops.

Ministry of Interior units
"Nobody but us. Rossiyskiy specnaz."
Spetsnaz GRU, or Russian army special forces, are the original SPETSNAZ and are generally considered the best trained units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Despite this, they are not very similar to the Special Forces of the US or the SAS of the UK. The Spetsnaz have created a fierce reputation as one of the best special forces in the world today due to the very harsh standards of their training. They are controlled by the GRU (the Russian military intelligence agency). During the Cold War, these units were deployed in Eastern Europe in order to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage missions against the NATO forces in the event of a war in Europe. The units of Spetsnaz GRU have no official names, such as is the case with units of Spetsnaz MVD. They are generally referred to by numbers, for example, "16th Separate Brigade of Spetsnaz", much like any other military unit, and are usually integrated in the structure of the VDV (airborne troops) though not under VDV command aegis.
Few details are actually known about the operations of Spetsnaz GRU, but it is known that the units were heavily involved in wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Spetnaz GRU teams usually wear standard-issue VDV uniforms, light blue VDV berets and unit patches in order to avoid identification. However, they can also wear different uniforms, for instance, they would wear the uniform of a unit which is stationed nearby, in order to blend in.
Here are most of the Spetsnaz Brigades and the location at which they are stationed:
and many others, including:
A Spetsnaz brigade consists of three to five Spetsnaz battalions, a signals company, support units, and a headquarters company containing highly skilled professional soldiers responsible for carrying out assassinations, kidnappings, and contact with agents in the enemy rear area. The organisation of a naval SPETSNAZ brigade reflects its emphasis on sea infiltration, with up to three frogman battalions, one parachute battalion, and a mini-submarine battalion, as well as the signals company, headquarters company, and support elements.

2nd ObrSpN - Promezhitsy (Pskov region); strength around 960 (Leningrad Military District)
3rd Guards ObrSpN - Roshinskij (Samara Oblast); (Volga-Ural Military District)
10th (Mountain) ObrSpN - Molkino (Krasnodar region); activated July 1, 2003 (North Caucasus Military District)
12th ObrSpN - city of Asbest-5 Sverdlovsk region); (Volga-Ural Military District)transferring: Chaikovskyy (Perm')
22nd Guards ObrSpN - Kovalevka (Rostov Oblast); (North Caucasus Military District)
67th ObrSpN - Berdsk (Novosibirsk Oblast); (Siberian Military District)
83 SPETZNAZ CDO BDE Ussuryysk (Far East Military District)
216 INDEP SPETZNAZ BN Moscow (Moscow Military District)
14th Separate Brigade of Special Designation Ussuriysk, Far Eastern Military District
16th Spetsnaz Brigade - formerly Teplyi Stan, suburb of Moscow, now [Tambov[Chuchkovo]], Moscow Military District
24th Spetsnaz Brigade - [Ulan-Ude[Kyakhta]], Siberian Military District Russian army special forces
The Soviet Naval Spetsnaz came in to being in 1957 by order of Defence Minister Zhukov.The Black Sea fleet created their spetsnaz unit in 1967. A marine counter terrorist and counter sabotage unit was created in 1969 as "protivodiversionniye sili i sredstva"-counter-underwater forces. In 1970, the Main intelligence service of a General staff (GRU) created a top secret reconnaissance - sabotage group "Delfin" (Dolphin) for operations against sea bases of foreign states. Instructors from group "Delfin" prepared the combat swimmers for KGB groups "Alfa" and "Vympel". At the fall of the Soviet government, each of the Soviet Red Banner Fleets (four total) had a Naval Spetsnaz Brigade assigned to it (see combat swimmers). Furthermore, modern Alfa and Vympel special purpose forces also have naval units.
Russian Naval Infantry, or the Russian Marines, are elite forces, but by no means are they Spetsnaz troops as Naval Special Operations would be carried out by Delfin (Naval Spetsnaz) troops rather than the Marines, which are intended to spearhead amphibious invasions. The 4 Major Naval Spetsnaz units are:

4 INDEP SPETZNAZ PT Parusnoe (Baltyysk) (Baltic Fleet) formerly Viljandi, Estonia (transferred from Army GRU to Navy GRU)
431 INT SPETZNAZ PT Tuapse (Black Sea Fleet) formerly Kronstadt (Baltic Fleet)
42 SPETZNAZ PT Russkyy island (Pacific Fleet)
420 INT SPETZNAZ PT Polyarnyy (Northern Fleet) Russian Naval Spetsnaz
Russian intelligence agencies, MVD, FSB, and the FPS and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR, "Sluzhba Vneshnej Razvedki", Russian equivalent of the American CIA) have their own Osnaz units.

The use of the term in the Russian language as of 2004

Alpha Group
Vympel
Rus (special forces)
Vityaz (MVD)
OMON
SOBR
VDV
Spetsnaz (miniseries)

2008-03-26T08:14:00.001-07:00

WTVY is a radio station in Dothan, Alabama. Broadcasting at 95.5 FM, the station airs a country music format.
WTVY broadcasts from a 368.5 metre high guyed tower at Webb, Alabama, located at 31°15'17.0" N and 85°15'39.0" W. WTVY Radio Tower was built in 1987.

2008-03-25T10:18:00.001-07:00

Since 1997, the Slovak car registration plate number (Slovak: EČV, evidenčné číslo vozidla) generally takes the form XX-NNNYY, where XX is a two letter code corresponding to a district (okres), NNN is three digit number and YY are two letters (assigned alphabetically).
Since May 1, 2004 (Slovakia joined the European Union) there are two forms of car registration plates valid in the country - with the Coat of Arms of Slovakia and also with the European flag.
Since June 1, 2006 there are three forms of car registration plates valid in Slovakia. The latest type contains the EU symbol as well as the national coat of arms (instead of a dash). As such, there are now three valid registration plates forms.

Older form
The older form (Slovak: ŠPZ, štátna poznávacia značka) XX-NNNN or XXY-NNNN - was issued until April 1, 1997. It stopped being valid as from January 1, 2005. Vehicles with this form are not allowed to ride on public roads.

2008-03-24T08:36:00.001-07:00

A tower block, block of flats, or apartment block, is a multi-unit high-rise apartment building. In some areas they may be referred to as MDU standing for Multi Dwelling Unit.
Apartment blocks have technical and economic advantages in areas with high population density. They have become a distinguished form of housing accommodation in virtually all densely populated urban areas around the world. In contrast with low-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land they occupy and also decrease the cost of municipal infrastructure.

Apartment blocks around the world

United Kingdom
Tower blocks were first built in the UK after the Second World War, in many cases as a "quick-fix" to cure problems caused by crumbling and unsanitary 19th century dwellings or to replace buildings destroyed by German aerial bombing. Initially, they were welcomed, and their excellent views made them popular living places. Later, as the buildings themselves deteriorated, they grew a reputation for being undesirable low cost housing, and many tower blocks saw rising crime levels, increasing their unpopularity. One response to this was the great increase in the number of housing estates built, which in turn brings its own problems. In the UK, tower blocks particularly lost popularity after the partial collapse of Ronan Point in 1968. The city of Glasgow in Scotland contains the highest concentration of tower blocks in the UK - examples include the Hutchensontown C blocks in the Gorbals, the 20-storey blocks in Sighthill, and the 31-storey Red Road flats in the city's north east.
In recent years, some council or ex-council high-rises in the United Kingdom, including Trellick Tower, Keeling House and The Barbican Estate, have become popular with young professionals due to their excellent views, desirable locations and architectural pedigrees, and now command high prices. After a gap of around 30 years, new high-rise flats are once again being built in Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, and Manchester however this time for wealthy professionals. Their developers market these properties by using the American term 'apartment buildings', perhaps in an effort to distance these newer buildings from the older tower blocks from the 1950s and '60s.

United States
In the United States tower blocks are commonly referred to as midrise or highrise apartment buildings, depending on their height, while buildings that house fewer flats (apartments), or are not as tall as the tower blocks, are called lowrise apartment buildings.
Some of the first residential towers were the Castle Village towers in New York City completed in 1939. Their cross-shaped design was copied in towers in Parkchester and Stuyvesant Town residential developments.
The government's experiments in the 1960s and 70s to use high-rise apartments as a means of providing the housing solution for the poor resulted in a spectacular failure. All but a few high-rise housing projects in the nation's largest cities, such as Cabrini-Green and Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, Penn South in New York and the Desire projects in New Orleans, fell victim to the "ghettofication" and are now being torn down, renovated, or replaced.
In contrast to their public housing cousins, commercially developed high-rise apartment buildings continue to flourish in cities around the country largely due to high land prices and the housing boom of the 2000s. The Upper East Side in New York City and Chicago's Gold Coast, both featuring high-rise apartments, are the wealthiest urban neighborhoods in the United States.

Ireland
Tower Blocks are Called Flats in Ireland. Most of the flats in the country are in Dublin, in such areas such as Ballymun, Dublin's north inner-city and Inchicore. Gang and Drug abuse problems are very common in these areas and other areas such as Summerhill, Fairview, Tallaght. Over the last five years the largest cities such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway have witnessed apartment building. Some large Towns such as Navan, Drogheda and Mullingar have also witnessed lots of apartments being built.

Eastern Europe and Russia
See also: Panelák and Plattenbau

Soviet housing

Post Cold-War buildup
Russia is currently undergoing a dramatic buildout, growing a commercially-shaped skyline that wasn't possible under communism.

Middle East

2008-03-23T09:44:00.001-07:00

Simulated annealing (SA) is a generic probabilistic meta-algorithm for the global optimization problem, namely locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. It is often used when the search space is discrete (e.g., all tours that visit a given set of cities). In favorable cases, simulated annealing may be more effective than exhaustive enumeration of the search space.
The name and inspiration come from annealing in metallurgy, a technique involving heating and controlled cooling of a material to increase the size of its crystals and reduce their defects. The heat causes the atoms to become unstuck from their initial positions (a local minimum of the internal energy) and wander randomly through states of higher energy; the slow cooling gives them more chances of finding configurations with lower internal energy than the initial one.
By analogy with this physical process, each step of the SA algorithm replaces the current solution by a random "nearby" solution, chosen with a probability that depends on the difference between the corresponding function values and on a global parameter T (called the temperature), that is gradually decreased during the process. The dependency is such that the current solution changes almost randomly when T is large, but increasingly "downhill" as T goes to zero. The allowance for "uphill" moves saves the method from becoming stuck at local minima—which are the bane of greedier methods.
The method was independently described by S. Kirkpatrick, C. D. Gelatt and M. P. Vecchi in 1983, and by V. Černý in 1985. The method is an adaptation of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, a Monte Carlo method to generate sample states of a thermodynamic system, invented by N. Metropolis et al in 1953.

Overview
At each step, the SA heuristic considers some neighbour s' of the current state s, and probabilistically decides between moving the system to state s' or staying put in state s. The probabilities are chosen so that the system ultimately tends to move to states of lower energy. Typically this step is repeated until the system reaches a state that is good enough for the application, or until a given computation budget has been exhausted.

The basic iteration
The neighbours of each state (the candidate moves) are specified by the user, usually in an application-specific way. For example, in the traveling salesman problem, each state is typically defined as a particular tour (a permutation of the cities to be visited); and one could define the neighbours of a tour as those tours that can be obtained from it by exchanging any pair of consecutive cities.

The neighbours of a state
The probability of making the transition from the current state

s

to a candidate new state

s'

is specified by an acceptance probability function

P (e, e', T)

, that depends on the energies

e = E (s)

and

e' = E (s')

of the two states, and on a global time-varying parameter

T

called the temperature.
One essential requirement for the probability function

P

is that it must be nonzero when

e' > e

, meaning that the system may move to the new state even when it is worse (has a higher energy) than the current one. It is this feature that prevents the method from becoming stuck in a local minimum—a state that is worse than the global minimum, yet better than any of its neighbors.
On the other hand, when

T

goes to zero, the probability

P (e, e', T)

must tend to zero if

e' > e

, and to a positive value if

e' < e

. That way, for sufficiently small values of

T

, the system will increasingly favor moves that go "downhill" (to lower energy values), and avoid those that go "uphill". In particular, when

T

becomes 0, the procedure will reduce to the greedy algorithm—which makes the move only if it goes downhill.
In the original description of SA, the probability

P (e, e', T)

was defined as 1 when

e' < e

— i.e., the procedure always moved downhill when it found a way to do so, irrespective of the temperature. Many descriptions and implementations of SA still take this condition as part of the method's definition. However, this condition is not essential for the method to work, and one may argue that it is both counterproductive and contrary to its spirit.
The

P

function is usually chosen so that the probability of accepting a move decreases when the difference

e' - e

increases—that is, small uphill moves are more likely than large ones. However, this requirement is not strictly necessary, provided that the above requirements are met.
Given these properties, the evolution of the state

s

depends crucially on the temperature

T

. Roughly speaking, the evolution of

s

is sensitive to coarser energy variations when

T

is large, and to finer variations when

T

is small.

Acceptance probabilities
Another essential feature of the SA method is that the temperature is gradually reduced as the simulation proceeds. Initially,

T

is set to a high value (or infinity), and it is decreased at each step according to some annealing schedule—which may be specified by the user, but must end with

T = 0

towards the end of the allotted time budget. In this way, the system is expected to wander initially towards a broad region of the search space containing good solutions, ignoring small features of the energy function; then drift towards low-energy regions that become narrower and narrower; and finally move downhill according to the steepest descent heuristic.

The annealing schedule
It can be shown that, for any given finite problem, the probability that the simulated annealing algorithm terminates with the global optimal solution approaches 1 as the annealing schedule is extended. This theoretical result is, however, not particularly helpful, since the annealing time required to ensure a significant probability of success will usually exceed the time required for a complete search of the solution space.

Convergence to the optimum
The following pseudo-code implements the simulated annealing heuristic, as described above, starting from state s0 and continuing to a maximum of kmax steps or until a state with energy emax or less is found. The call neighbour(s) should generate a randomly chosen neighbour of a given state s; the call random() should return a random value in the range

[0,1)

. The annealing schedule is defined by the call temp(r), which should yield the temperature to use, given the fraction r of the time budget that has been expended so far.

Pseudo-code
As in any metaheuristic, one should keep track of the best solution seen so far, in a separate state variable. Namely:
Note that the step s := sn happens only on a small fraction of the moves. Therefore, this variation on the basic method is usually worth the cost, even if state-copying is an expensive operation.

Saving the best solution seen
In order to apply the SA method to a specific problem, one must specify the following parameters: the state space, the energy (goal) function E(), the candidate generator procedure neighbour(), the acceptance probability function P(), and the annealing schedule temp(). These choices can have a significant impact on the method's effectiveness. Unfortunately, there are no choices of these parameters that will be good for all problems, and there is no general way to find the best choices for a given problem. Indeed, it has been observed that applying the SA method is more an art than a science. The following sections give some general guidelines.

Selecting the parameters
Simulated annealing may be modeled as a random walk on a search graph, whose vertices are all possible states, and whose edges are the candidate moves. An essential requirement for the neighbour() function is that it must provide a sufficiently short path on this graph from the initial state to any state which may be the global optimum. (In other words, the diameter of the search graph must be small.) In the traveling salesman example above, for instance, the search space for

n = 20

cities has

n! = 2432902008176640000

(2.5 quintillion) states; yet the neighbor generator function that swaps two consecutive cities can get from any state (tour) to any other state in

n (n - 1) / 2 = 190

steps.

Diameter of the search graph
For each edge

(s, s')

of the search graph, one defines a transition probability, which is the probability that the SA algorithm will move to state

s'

when its current state is

s

. This probability obviously depends on the current temperature, and is determined by the order in which the candidate moves are generated by the neighbour() function, and by the acceptance probability function P(). (Note that the transition probability is not simply

P (e, e', T)

, because the candidates are tested serially).
The transition probabilities and the annealing schedule determine the likelihood that the SA iteration will reach the global optimum within the allotted time. Therefore, the parameters neighbour(), P(), and temp must be tuned together to maximize the chance of this event.

Acceptance probabilities
When choosing the candidate generator neighbour(), one must consider that after a few iterations of the SA algorithm, the current state is expected to have much lower energy than a random state. Therefore, as a general rule, one should skew the generator towards candidate moves where the energy of the destination state

s'

is likely to be similar to that of the current state. This heuristic (which is the main principle of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm) tends to exclude "very good" candidate moves as well as "very bad" ones; however, the latter are much more common than the former, so the heuristic is generally quite effective.
In the traveling salesman problem above, for example, swapping two consecutive cities in a low-energy tour is expected to have a modest effect on its energy (length); whereas swapping two arbitrary cities is far more likely to increase its length than to decrease it. Thus, the consecutive-swap neighbor generator is expected to perform better than the arbitrary-swap one, even though the latter could provide a somewhat shorter path to the optimum (with

n - 1

swaps, instead of

n (n - 1) / 2

).
A more precise statement of the heuristic is that one should try first candidate states

s'

for which

P (E (s), E (s'), T)

is large. For the "standard" acceptance function

P

above, it means that

E (s') - E (s)

is on the order of

T

or less. Thus, in the traveling salesman example above, one could use a neighbour() function that swaps two random cities, where the probability of choosing a city pair vanishes as their distance increases beyond

T

.

Efficient candidate generation
When choosing the candidate generator neighbour() one must also try to reduce the number of "deep" local minima — states (or sets of connected states) that have much lower energy than all its neighboring states. Such "closed catchment basins" of the energy function may trap the SA algorithm with high probability (roughly proportional to the number of states in the basin) and for a very long time (roughly exponential on the energy difference between the surrounding state and the bottom of the basin).
As a rule, it is impossible to design a candidate generator that will satisfy this goal and also prioritize candidates with similar energy. On the other hand, one can often vastly improve the efficiency of SA by relatively simple changes to the generator. In the traveling salesman problem, for instance, it is not hard to exhibit two tours

A

B

, with nearly equal lengths, such that (0)

A

is optimal, (1) every sequence of city-pair swaps that converts

A

B

goes through tours that are much longer than both, and (2)

A

can be transformed into

B

by flipping (reversing the order of) a set of consecutive cities. In this example,

A

and

B

lie in different "deep basins" if the generator performs only random pair-swaps; but they will be in the same basin if the generator performs random segment-flips.

Barrier avoidance
The physical analogy that is used to justify SA assumes that the cooling rate is low enough for the probability distribution of the current state to be near thermodynamic equilibrium at all times. Unfortunately, the relaxation time—the time one must wait for the equilibrium to be restored after a change in temperature—strongly depends on the "topography" of the energy function and on the current temperature. In the SA algorithm, the relaxation time also depends on the candidate generator, in a very complicated way. Note that all these parameters are usually provided as black box functions to the SA algorithm.
Therefore, in practice the ideal cooling rate cannot be determined beforehand, and should be empirically adjusted for each problem. The variant of SA known as thermodynamic simulated annealing tries to avoid this problem by dispensing with the cooling schedule, and instead automatically adjusting the temperature at each step based on the energy difference between the two states, according to the laws of thermodynamics.

Cooling schedule
Sometimes it is better to move back to a solution that was significantly better rather than always moving from the current state. This is called restarting. To do this we set s and e to sb and eb and perhaps restart the annealing schedule. The decision to restart could be based on a fixed number of steps, or based on the current energy being too high from the best energy so far.

Related methods

Adaptive simulated annealing
Markov chain
Combinatorial optimization
Automatic label placement
Multidisciplinary optimization
Place and route
Traveling salesman problem
Reactive search
Graph cuts in computer vision

2008-03-22T10:31:00.001-07:00

Albert Ayler (July 13, 1936 – November 1970) was an American jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.

Overview
Born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Ayler was first taught alto saxophone by his father Edward with whom he played duets in church. He later studied at the Academy of Music in Cleveland with jazz saxophonist Benny Miller. As a teen Ayler played with such skill that he was known around Cleveland as "Little Bird," Although it is reasonable to assume the Aylers had explored or were exploring psychedelic drugs like LSD, there is no evidence this significantly influenced their mental stability.
For the next two and half years Ayler turned to recording music not too far removed from rock and roll, often with utopian, hippie lyrics provided by his live-in girlfriend Mary Maria Parks. Ayler drew on his very early career, incorporating doses of R&B, with funky, electric rhythm sections and extra horns (including Scottish highland bagpipe) on some songs. The first album in this vein, New Grass, is reviled by his fans and generally considered to be the worst of his work. Following its commercial failure, Ayler unsuccessfully attempted to bridge his earlier "space bebop" recordings and the sound of New Grass with Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe. In July of 1970 Ayler returned to the free jazz idiom for a group of shows in France but the band he was able to assemble was amateurish and not nearly of the caliber of his earlier groups.

Biography
Ayler disappeared on November 5, 1970, and he was found dead in New York City's East River on November 25, a presumed suicide. For some time afterwards, rumors circulated that Ayler had been murdered, possibly due to his involvement in the black power movement. Later, however, Parks would say that Albert had been depressed and feeling guilty, blaming himself for his brother's problems. She stated that, just before his death, he had several times threatened to kill himself, smashed one of his saxophones over their television set after she tried to dissuade him, then took the Statue of Liberty ferry and jumped off as it neared Liberty Island. He is buried in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ayler in film
Year of recording, original album title, original record label and country of origin.(p) indicates posthumous release.

1962: Something Different!!!!! (aka The First Recordings Vol. 1) (Bird Notes) (Sweden)
1962: The First Recordings, Vol. 2 (Bird Notes) (Sweden)
1963: My name is Albert Ayler (Debut) (Denmark)
1964: Spirits (aka Witches & Devils) (Debut) (Denmark)
1964: Swing low sweet spiritual (Osmosis) (Holland) (p) (CD release: Goin' Home (Black Lion))
1964: Prophecy [live] (ESP/Base) (Italy) (p)
1964: Albert Smiles With Sunny [live] (In Respect] (Germany) (p) (CD 1: Prophecy, CD 2: extra material from same concert, subsequently included on Holy Ghost)
1964: Spiritual Unity (ESP Disk) (US)
1964: New York Eye And Ear Control (ESP) (US)
1964: Albert Ayler [live] (Philology) (Italy) (p) (CD release: Live In Europe 1964-1966 (Landscape) (France). 1964 tracks included on The Copenhagen Tapes, 1966 tracks included on Holy Ghost)
1964: The Copenhagen tapes [live] (Ayler Records) (Sweden) (p)
1964: Ghosts (aka Vibrations) (Debut) (Denmark)
1964: The Hilversum session (Osmosis) (Holland) (p)
1965: Bells [live] (ESP) (US)
1965: Spirits rejoice (ESP) (US)
1965: Sonny's Time Now (Jihad) (US)
1966: At Slug's saloon, vol. 1 & 2 [live] (ESP/Base) (Italy) (p)
1966: Lörrach / Paris 1966 [live] (hat HUT) (Switzerland) (p)
1966: In Greenwich Village [live] (Impulse! Records) (US)
1966: The Village Concerts [live] (Impulse! Records) (US) (p) (CD release of In Greenwich Village and The Village Concerts as Live In Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings (Impulse! Records))
1967: Love cry (Impulse! Records) (US)
1968: New grass (Impulse! Records) (US)
1969: Music is the healing force of the universe (Impulse! Records) (US)
1969: The last album (Impulse! Records) (US) (p)
1970: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 1 & 2 [live] (Shandar) (France) (p)
1970: Albert Ayler Quintet 1970 [live] (Blu Jazz) (Italy) (p) (re-released as Live On The Riviera (ESP) (US))
1960-1970: Holy Ghost (Revenant) (US) (p) (10 disc box set featuring Ayler's first and last recordings, plus other previously unreleased material.)

2008-03-21T08:39:00.001-07:00

Choice of law is a procedural stage in the litigation of a case involving the conflict of laws when it is necessary to reconcile the differences between the laws of different legal jurisdictions, such as states, federated states (as in the US), or provinces. The outcome of this process is potentially to require the courts of one jurisdiction to apply the law of a different jurisdiction in lawsuits arising from, say, family law, tort or contract. The law which is applied is sometimes referred to as the "proper law".

The sequence of events in conflict cases
The "traditional approach" looks to territorial factors, e.g. the domicile or nationality of the parties, where the components comprising each cause of action occurred, where any relevant assets, whether movable or immovable, are located, etc., and chooses the law or laws that have the greatest connection to the cause(s) of action. Even though this is a very flexible system, there has been some reluctance to apply it and various "escape devices" have developed, which allow courts to apply their local laws (the lex fori) even though the disputed events took place in a different jurisdiction. The parties themselves may plead the case either to avoid invoking a foreign law or agree to the choice of law, assuming that the judge will not of his or her own motion go behind the pleadings. Their motive will be pragmatic. Full-scale conflict cases take longer and cost more to litigate. However, the courts in some states are predisposed to prefer the lex fori wherever possible. This may reflect the belief that the interests of justice will be better served if the judges apply the law with which they are most familiar, or it may reflect a more general parochialism in systems not used to considering extraterritorial principles of law. One of the most common judicial strategies is to skew the characterization process. By determining that a claim is one involving a contract instead of tort, or a question of family law instead of a testamentary issue, the Court can change the choice of law rules. For example, if an employee is hired by an employer in State A, is injured due to the employer's negligence in State B, and files a lawsuit to recover for the injury in State A, the court in State A might look to the employment contract to see if it contained a clause that governed the employer's duty of care with respect to the employee. If so, the court may be able characterize the claim as a breach of the contract, instead of a tort, and apply the law of the State A either because it was the place where the contract was made (the lex loci contractus) or, if it were the place where the wage or salary was to be paid, where the contract was intended to be performed (the lex loci solutionis).
In this context, it is noted that, since the 1960s, the courts in the United States began developing a number of new approaches, as well as new escape devices. This reflects the number of different laws that might be relevant in any given case before an American court. There is significant interstate trade and social mobility, and with the laws of each state of the Union representing a possible opportunity for conflict, it was necessary to produce a coherent system that could be applied in the courts of all fifty states.

The choice of law stage
To limit the damage that would result from forum shopping, it is desirable that the same law is applied to achieve the same result no matter where the case is litigated. The system of renvoi, which literally means "send back", is an attempt to achieve that end.

Renvoi
The traditional approach is based on the idea that the territorial sovereignty of states must be respected. For example, when an event happens in a state that gives rise to a lawsuit - if two parties are involved in an automobile accident, for example - that state in which the accident occurred provides the parties with certain "vested rights". These rights include such things as the ability of a plaintiff to file a lawsuit, the imposition of a statute of limitations to prevent a defendant from being subjected to a lawsuit after too much time has passed, limitations on recovery, and specified burdens of evidence. These so-called vested rights compete with the policy claims of other states for their laws to be applied. What follows is a generalised summary of the rules. The approach in the U.S. is rather different (see Conflict of laws in the U.S.).

Traditional approach
Status is relevant for a wide array of issues. Self-evidently, unless the proposed litigant has legal personality, there will be no jurisdiction. It will also be relevant to immigration, entitlement to social security and similar benefits, family law, contract, etc. The choice of law rule is the law of the domicile (lex domicilii) if the forum is common law, or law of nationality (lex patriae) or habitual residence if the forum is civil law applies to determine all question of status and its legal attributes. The lex fori determines the domicile, nationality or habitual residence, and applies that law to establish an in rem set of rights and capacities. Thus, under some laws, the status of illegitimate affects the rights of inheritance in the case of an intestacy, etc. As to corporations, the choice of law rule is the law of incorporation (the lex incorporationis) for all matters of capacity, validity, shareholders' rights, etc.

Status
For a full explanation, see: contract (conflict)
The choice of law rules for contracts are more complicated than the law affecting other obligations because they depend on the express or implied intentions of the parties and their personal circumstances. For example, questions as to whether a contract is valid may depend on the capacity of the parties to enter into a contract. This could be decided by reference to the lex domicilii, lex patriae or habitual residence of the parties, or for policy reasons, by reference to the lex loci contractus. But, if the contract was made electronically, where the contract was actually made must first be decided either by the lex fori or the putative proper law depending on the forum rules. There may also be problems if the parties selected the place where the contract was made in the hope of evading the operation of some mandatory provisions in another relevant law.
On the other hand, deciding matters relating to performance will usually depend on the lex loci solutionis. Another unique characteristic of contracts is that the parties can decide which law should apply for most purposes, and memorialize that decision into the contract itself (see forum selection clause and choice of law clause) — although not every jurisdiction will enforce such provisions. For the harmonising provisions on contractual obligations in EU law, see the Rome Convention (contract).

Family Law
For jja full explanation, see: property (conflict)
The rule for immovable property (called real property in common law states) is that the lex situs applies to all questions of title. Movable property (called personalty in common law states) claims are governed by the law of the state in which the property is located at the time the rights are supposedly created. An important distinction, however, must be made for a contract which has some incidental effect on property, both immovable and movable, such as a loan with property pledged as a collateral. If the property is incidental to the contract, then the contract is evaluated under traditional choice of law principles for a contract. If, however, the primary purpose of the contract is to transfer the property, then the entire contract will be evaluated under the law of the state where the property is located.

2008-03-20T09:40:00.001-07:00

Executive One is the call sign designated

2008-03-19T09:42:00.001-07:00

Panorama most commonly refers to the panorama format.
Panorama may also refer to:
Panorama may also refer to the placename:
Panorama (TV series), a long-running current affairs documentary series on BBC television
Panorama (Cars album), an album by The Cars.
Panorama (Braintax album), an album by Braintax.
Panorama (Canadian TV series), a Canadian public affairs newsmagazine, airing nightly on TFO
Panorama (Steel drum competition), an annual competition held in Trinidad
Panorama Ski Resort, the short name for the Panorama Mountain Village ski resort near Invermere, British Columbia.
Panorama, an anthology of English poems by Oxford University Press for CISCE
Panorama (Italian magazine), an Italian magazine
Panorama (database engine), database engine
Panorama (GIS), a Russian GIS system.
Simcoe Panorama, an event that occurs in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada
Fiat Panorama, a compact station wagon (built in the 1980s)
Freedom of panorama, allows for taking pictures in public places
Panorama Records, a record label
Panorama Tools, open source panorama creation and viewing software
Panorama Stitchers, Viewers and Utilities, panorama software resources
Panorama Software (BI), a Canadian Business Intelligence software company.
Panorama (Layout Engine), a worldwide text composition engine.
Panorama (German wartime newsreel), a German quarterly color newsreel produced from 1944 until the end of World War 2.
Panorama, Brazil
Panorama, Thessaloniki, in Greece
Panorama City, Los Angeles, California
Panorama Park, Iowa
Panorama Village, Texas
Panorama Lounge, in Toronto, Canada
Panorama Hills, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

2008-03-17T09:32:00.001-07:00

This is about the city in the Netherlands. For other uses, see Middelburg (disambiguation).
Middelburg (pronunciation (help·info)) is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of Zeeland province situated on the peninsula of Walcheren.

History of Middelburg
In 2004 the prestigious Roosevelt Academy opened its doors in Middelburg. This international oriented liberal arts and sciences college is an honors college of Utrecht University and is the only university in the province of Zeeland.

Education
Middelburg has a railway station with IC connections to Vlissingen, Goes, Roosendaal, Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden, Schiphol International Airport and Amsterdam, among others.

Sports

Vilvoorde, Belgium
Nagasaki, Japan
Glogow, Poland
Simeria, Romania
Teius, Romania

2008-03-16T08:20:00.001-07:00

Spring Valley is an affluent neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C., known for its large homes and tree-lined streets.
The neighborhood houses the main campus of American University at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue. Nebraska Avenue and Loughboro Road are to its south, Dalecarlia Parkway is to its west, and Massachusetts Avenue is to its northeast. Paradoxically, the neighborhood to the northeast is called American University Park, even though the bulk of the main campus is located in Spring Valley.
During World War I, Spring Valley was home to a military defense installation in which chemical munitions were manufactured and tested. Although the area had become a residential neighborhood by the Second World War, its legacy as a weapons facility returned in 1993, when weapons were found buried in the neighborhood (see below).
Spring Valley's residents include notable media personalities (e.g., Ann Compton, Jim Vance), lawyers (e.g., Brendan Sullivan), politicians, corporate officers, and elite Washington society (e.g. Washington Nationals principle owners Ed and Debra Cohen). Richard M. Nixon lived in Spring Valley before becoming President; his immediate predecessor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, after becoming Vice President under John F. Kennedy, purchased a three-story mansion named Les Ormes (The Elms) in Spring Valley that had previously been the home of socialite and ambassador Perle Mesta[1]. George H.W. Bush also lived in the neighborhood prior to his White House years.
Several embassy residences are located in the neighborhood, such as the ambassador's houses of South Korea, Bahrain, Qatar, and Yemen. The median home sale price in 2007 was US$1.725 million.[2]

2008-03-15T08:09:00.001-07:00

London Waterloo is a major railway station and transport interchange complex in London, England. It is located in the London Borough of Lambeth, near to the South Bank. The complex comprises four linked railway stations and a bus station. The whole complex is within Travelcard Zone 1. The adjoining Waterloo International station is the current London terminus of Eurostar Channel Tunnel passenger trains. Waterloo East and Waterloo Tube Station also adjoin.
According to the station usage figures for 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, London Waterloo is the busiest station in the UK (in terms of passenger numbers). This is thought to be due to the Eurostar connections and is likely to drop in 2007 when High Speed 1 is fully open.

Waterloo mainline station
Waterloo International station adjoins Waterloo mainline station and has its own two-level concourse and train shed. It is the current London terminus for Eurostar trains to Belgium and France. The station is managed by Eurostar.
It was built in the early 1990s at a cost of £130 million

Waterloo International

Main article: Waterloo East railway station Waterloo Pier

Waterloo station and the Waterloo Underground station are the setting for the Kinks song "Waterloo Sunset", written by Ray Davies and recorded in 1967. Its lyrics describe two people meeting at Waterloo Station and crossing over the river (via Waterloo Bridge, as Davies has confirmed). The song has been recorded by Cathy Dennis and Def Leppard, whilst other acts (like David Bowie and Elliott Smith) have covered the song in live performances.
The station is also the subject of John Schlesinger's documentary film Terminus.
The Bourne Ultimatum, staring Matt Damon, was filmed at Waterloo Station during mid-April 2007
The lyrics in the 1979 song "Rendezvous 6:02" by British progressive band U.K. describe a meeting at Waterloo Station.
The lyrics to "Torn On The Platform" by Jack Penate refer to the station ("train leaves at two, platform 3, Waterloo").

2008-03-14T10:36:00.001-07:00

The Commonwealth Pool Lifesaving Championships is an international event where swimmers from around the Commonwealth take part in lifesaving sport events.

Durban 2003
The first championships were held in Durban, South Africa in 2003. Amongst the competitors was a team from Hong Kong

2008-03-13T09:28:00.001-07:00

Egyptian may refer to:
Egyptians, an ethnic group
Egyptian Arabic, the national language of Egypt
Egyptian language, spoken until the seventeenth century
Egyptian culture, culture of the nation
Of or pertaining to Egypt, a country in northeastern Africa
Of or pertaining to ancient Egyptian civilization, from circa 3200 BC to 343 BC
Egyptians (Balkans), an unrelated Albanian-speaking ethnic minority of Kosovo and Macedonia
The Egyptian, a historical novel by Mika Waltari
The Egyptian, a 1954 film by Michael Curtiz, based on Waltari's novel
Slab serif letter forms in typography

2008-03-12T08:58:00.001-07:00

Earl Henry Hamner, Jr. (born on July 10, 1923 in Schuyler, Virginia) is an American television writer and producer, best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s on the long-running series The Waltons and Falcon Crest. As a novelist, he is best known for the novel Spencer's Mountain, which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film of the same name and the television series The Waltons. Hamner also served as the unseen narrator of The Waltons.
He is also sometimes credited as Earl Hamner.
He based the cantankerous Walton family grandparents in the popular television series on his own maternal Italian-American grandparents, Ora Lee and A. Gianniny, an anglicized version of the Italian name "Giannini". A recurring character named Connie Giannini (Carla Borelli) appeared on Falcon Crest.
He has said that writing is all about rewriting.
Earl Hamner also contributed eight episodes to the classic sci fi TV series The Twilight Zone in the early 1960s. His first script acceptance for the series was his big writing break in Hollywood.

2008-03-11T09:20:00.001-07:00

Gogarloch is a residential area within South Gyle, Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies near South Gyle railway station and South Gyle Broadway, 4½ miles (7 km) west of the city centre. Corstorphine and Wester Broom are nearby.
Historically this area was marshland (hence 'loch' in the name) but the land was drained in the 19th century to create space for a new railway. Most of the housing is of the 1990s era.
Other lost lochs of Edinburgh include the Nor Loch and Burgh Loch on the site of the present day Meadows area.

2008-03-10T09:25:00.001-07:00

Virgin Radio, originally known as Virgin 1215, is a British commercial music radio station based in London which plays popular music and rock. Virgin currently broadcasts on mediumwave and DAB across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, on 105.8 FM in London, on Virgin Media (channel 915), Freeview and Sky Digital. It is also available in other parts of the world via satellite, cable, and on the Internet.

Broadcasting History
Virgin Radio's former chief executive Fru Hazlitt, when interviewed for The Guardian (September 25, 2006), described what type of music the station champions. When told of comparisons between Virgin and other MOR, or "Middle-of-the-road" music radio stations, such as BBC Radio 2, she remarked that "that was [during] the Chris Evans era. Now, it's pretty much mainstream rock festival type music. Razorlight, Keane. These bands are becoming some of the biggest in the world."
The station's output does mainly consist of contemporary British-based guitar "MOR" rock-pop bands, such as the aforementioned Keane and Razorlight but also artists like Coldplay, Snow Patrol and The Feeling. It also plays various other "Adult album alternative" artists from Britain, Ireland and America, like Oasis, U2, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M. and The Killers, as well as "Golden Oldies" such as The Beatles, Queen, The Clash and The Who to name a few.
Virgin Radio's target audience is predominantly those aged 25-44 . Its "spin-off" digital radio stations (see below) exploit the 'niche' musical tastes of this target audience, and leans on a particular rock sub-genre that is played on Virgin Radio, or to cater for an audience that is within its target demographic but are not served properly by the flagship station.
On 12 April 2007, it was announced that SMG are to sell Virgin Radio, to enable the company to focus on its television station, STV. [1]

The Station, its audience and playlist
In a number of areas, particularly in areas where the signal from the main 1215 transmitters overlap with each other, Virgin Radio operates a number of filler transmitters on different frequencies :-

1197 kHz - Brighton and Hove, Cambridge, South Devon, Dorset, South East Essex, Gloucester, Oxford, South Nottinghamshire, Medway, Merseyside
1233 kHz - Berkshire, North Essex, Northampton, Sheffield, Swindon
1242 kHz - Cleveland, Dundee, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire
1260 kHz - Guildford, East Kent Frequencies
A little after 8:00 on the morning of Monday 25 September 2006, The station's breakfast DJ Christian O'Connell revealed The Big Star, which has turned out to be a giant 20 ft x 20 ft star, which took three weeks to complete in a secret location and hung above Regent Street. It was also revealed that if listeners guessed the exact amount within it one of them could win it in cash. To play, listeners had to register the website and could view the star on the webcam. A listener would be selected randomly every hour. It was won at noon on October 10, by Phil from Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire with a winning guess of £108,125.15. (The winning guess was an anagram of "105.8 1215", the station's two main analogue frequencies.)
The Big Star will return in 2007.

The Big Star
The Virgin name is used for other radio stations in other territories. Virgin Radio stations exist in Thailand and India (Fever 104 FM), in Italy (from July 2007) and Oui FM in Paris (due to rebrand in 2007). These are not owned by SMG, and remain within Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Many Virgin companies, including Virgin Megastores and Virgin Trains, have in-store radio stations.

Spin-off stations

Main article: Virgin Radio Classic Rock Virgin Radio Classic Rock

Main article: Virgin Radio Groove Virgin Radio Groove

Main article: Virgin Radio Xtreme Virgin Radio Party Classics
Past presenters on the network have included Nick Abbot, Danny Baker, Robin Banks, Jonathan Coleman, Martin Collins, Gary Davies, Daryl Denham, Chris Evans (who also owned the station), Alan Freeman, Kevin Greening, Nicky Horne, Janey Lee Grace, Kevin Greening, Gary King, Jezza, Tim Lovejoy, Pete Mitchell, Al Murray, Lynn Parsons, Vic Reeves, Pete Mitchell, Holly Samos, Richard Skinner, Tommy Vance, Clive Warren & many others.

Sarah Champion
Robin Burke
Greg Burns
Neil Francis
Leona Graham
Tony Hadley
Guy Jogoo
Dominic Johnson
Ben Jones
Tim Lichfield
Geoff Lloyd
Suggs
Christian O'Connell
John Osborne
Russ Williams

2008-03-09T09:48:00.001-07:00

The initiation and propagation of this design element is strongly associated with England.
A fan vault is a form of vault used in the Perpendicular Gothic style, in which the ribs are all of the same curve and spaced equidistantly, in a manner resembling a fan.
The earliest example, dating from about the year 1351, built by Thomas of Cambridge. In the fourteenth century the structure was known as the Abbey Church at Gloucester. A fine later example, from 1640, is the vault over the staircase at Christ Church in Oxford. The largest fan vault in the world, however, can be found in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge.

Further examples

2008-03-08T08:53:00.001-08:00

Georges "Rush" Saint-Pierre (born May 19, 1981), often referred to as GSP

Biography

MMA career
St. Pierre had dreamed of becoming a UFC champion since watching Royce Gracie fight in 1993 at UFC 1.
St. Pierre's pro debut was against Ivan Menjivar and ended in a first round TKO win. GSP went on to win his next three fights before making his TKO debut against Pete Spratt at TKO 14 (November 29, 2003). St. Pierre defeated Spratt with a rear naked choke in the first round.

Early career
St. Pierre made his Octagon debut at UFC 46 where he defeated Karo Parisyan by decision. His next fight with the UFC was against Jay Hieron at UFC 48. St. Pierre defeated Hieron via TKO (strikes) in only 1:42.
Following his second straight win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the welterweight title. Despite a competitive performance, St. Pierre tapped out to an armbar with only one second remaining in the first round.

Joining the UFC
After his loss to Hughes, GSP rebounded with a win over Dave Strasser at TKO 19 with a first round kimura submission. He then returned to the UFC to face Jason "Mayhem" Miller at UFC 52, defeating Miller by unanimous decision.
With momentum behind him, St. Pierre was then matched up against top contender Frank Trigg at UFC 54. St. Pierre controlled the fight and eventually sunk in a rear naked choke with less than a minute remaining in the first round. He then faced current lightweight champion Sean Sherk at UFC 56. Midway through the second round St. Pierre became the second fighter to defeat Sherk, and the first to finish him.
At UFC 58, St. Pierre defeated former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn to become the number one contender for the UFC welterweight title. St. Pierre won the match by split decision and was set to rematch then-champion Matt Hughes on September 23, 2006 at UFC 63. The UFC had announced afterwards that St. Pierre would have the opportunity to fight for the title when his condition was fully healed.

Road to the title
St. Pierre was seen as a trainer on The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback on Spike TV, which featured fighters who were previously seen in UFC events including Matt Serra, Shonie Carter, Pete Sell, and Travis Lutter. St. Pierre was seen vocally supporting fellow Canadian, and training partner, Patrick Côté during the season's airing.

Winning the championship
At UFC 69 St. Pierre lost the welterweight title to The Ultimate Fighter 4 winner Matt Serra via TKO (strikes) at 3:25 of round one. Matt Serra was an 8-1 underdog going into the bout.

Losing the title

Next Scheduled Bout

1x UFC welterweight champion (former)
TKO Canadian welterweight champion (former) MMA record

List of male mixed martial artists

2008-03-07T07:13:00.001-08:00

Natural religion might have the following meanings:
A synonym for "natural theology"; religion based on reason and ordinary experience rather than supernatural revelation, although not necessarily denying it. This usage was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries— see, for example, David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
In the modern study of religion it's used to refer to the notion that there is some sort of natural, spontaneous religious apprehension of the world common to all human beings.
As a reverent form of nature-worship, embodied in a well-known quote from Frank Lloyd Wright: "I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."

2008-03-06T07:20:00.001-08:00

Cookstown District Council (Irish: Comhairle Ceantair na Coirre Críochaí) is a district council covering an area largely in County Tyrone and partly in County Londonderry. Council headquarters are in Cookstown. Small towns in the Council area include Pomeroy, Moneymore, Coagh and Stewartstown and in the east the area is bounded by Lough Neagh. It covers an area of 235 square miles and has a current population of over 35,500.
The Council has 16 elected representatives. Local elections are held every four years using a Single Transferable Vote system. The Chairman and Vice Chairman are elected on an annual basis at the Annual General Meeting in June.
The Cookstown District Council area consists of 3 electoral areas: Drum Manor, Ballinderry and Cookstown Central. At the last elections in 2005 members were elected from the following political parties: 5 Sinn Féin, 5 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 3 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and 3 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). In 2006-07 the Council Chairman is Councillor Patrick Pearse McAleer of Sinn Féin and the Vice-Chairman is Councillor Trevor Wilson of the Ulster Unionist Party.
The next election is due to take place in May 2009.
In elections for the Westminster Parliament it is part of Mid Ulster.
See Also: Local Councils in Northern Ireland
Antrim · Ards · Armagh · Ballymena · Ballymoney · Banbridge · Belfast · Carrickfergus · Castlereagh · Coleraine · Cookstown · Craigavon · Derry · Down · Dungannon and South Tyrone · Fermanagh · Larne · Limavady · Lisburn · Magherafelt · Moyle · Newry and Mourne · Newtownabbey · North Down · Omagh · Strabane

2008-03-05T07:31:00.001-08:00

Paul W. Schroeder is an American historian and professor emeritus of history at the University of Illinois, specializing in the late sixteenth- to twentieth-century European international politics, Central Europe, and the theory of history. His current research focuses on European international politics, 1648-1945, emphasizing systemic evolution and development.
He received his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in 1958.

Awards

Fulbright Scholar in Austria, 1956-1957
United States Steel Foundation Fellow, 1957-1958
Senior Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1973
Senior Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1976-1977
Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1983-84
Visiting Research Fellow, Merton College, Oxford, 1984
Jennings Randolph Peace Fellow, United States Institute of Peace, 1992-93 Fellowships

Secretary-Treasurer, Conference Group for Central European History, 1967-1968
Research Division Committee, American Historical Association, 1974-1977
Adams Prize Committee, American Historical Association, 1974-1977
Member, Advisory Council, West European Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1984-92.
Member, American Committee to Promote the Study of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1983-88.
Section editor, AHA Guide to Historical Literature.
Member, Advisory Council, German Historical Institute Washington, 1995-. Books

"Metternich Studies since 1925," Journal of Modern History, 33, (Sept. 1961), 237-66.
"Austrian Policy at the Congresses of Troppau and Laibach," Journal of Central European Affairs, XXII, 2 (July 1962), 139-52.
"Austria as an Obstacle to Italian Unification and Freedom, 1814-1861," Austrian History Newsletter, 1962, 1-32.
"American Books on Austria-Hungary," Austrian History Yearbook, II (1966), 1972-196.
"The Status of Habsburg Studies in the United States," Austrian History Yearbook III. Pt. 3 (1967), 267-295.
"Bruck versus Buol: The Dispute over Austrian Eastern Policy, 1853-1855," Journal of Modern History, XL, 2 (June 1968), 193-217.
"Austria and the Danubian Principalities, 1853-1856," Central European History, II, 3 (Sept. 1969), 216-36.
"A Turning Point in Austrian Policy in the Crimean War: the Conferences of March, 1954," Austrian History Yearbook, IV-V (1968-1969), 159-202.
"World War I as Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak," Journal of Modern History, 44, No. 2, (Sept. 1972), 319-344.
"The 'Balance of Power' System in Europe, 1815-1871," Naval War College Review, March-April 1975, 18-31.
"Romania and the Great Powers before 1914," Revue Roumaine d'Histoire, XIV, 1 (1975), 39-53.
"Munich and the British Tradition," The Historical Journal, 19, I (1976), pp. 223-243.
"Alliances, 1815-1945: Weapons of Power and Tools of Management" in Klaus Knorr, ed., Historical Problems of National Security, (Lawrence, Kansas: Univ. of Kansas Press, 1976), pp. 247-286.
"Quantitative Studies in the Balance of Power: An Historian's Reaction," and "A Final Rejoinder," published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, XXI, No. 1 (March 1977), 3-22, 57-74.
"Austro-German Relations: Divergent Views of the Disjoined Partnership," Central European History, XI, 3 (September 1978), 302-312.
"Gladstone as Bismarck," Canadian Journal of History, XV (August 1980), pp. 163-195.
"Containment Nineteenth Century Style: How Russia was Restrained," South Atlantic Quarterly, 82 (1983), 1-18.
"The Lost Intermediaries: The Impact of 1870 on the European System," International History Review, VI (Feb. 1984), 1-27.
"Oesterreich und die orientalische Frage, 1848-1883," in Das Zeitalter Kaiser Franz Josephs von der Revolution zur Gruenderzeit (Vienna, 1984), Vol. I, 324-28.
"Does Murphy's Law Apply to History?", The Wilson Quarterly (New Year, 1985), 84-93.
"The European International System, 1789-1848: Is There a Problem? an Answer?", colloquium paper presented March 19, 1984 at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (52 pp.).
"The European International System, 1789-1848: Is There a Question? An Answer?", Proceedings of the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe (1985), 1-29.
"The 19th-Century International System: Changes in the Structure," World Politics 39, 1 (October 1986), 1-26.
"Old Wine in Old Bottles: Recent Contributions to British Foreign Policy and European International Politics, 1789-1848," Journal of British Studies 26, 1 (January 1987), 1-25.
"Once More, the German Question," International History Review IX, 1 (February 1987), 96-107.
"The Collapse of the Second Coalition," Journal of Modern History 59, 2 (June 1987), pg. 244-290.
"An Unnatural 'Natural Alliance': Castlereagh, Metternich, and Aberdeen in 1813," International History Review X, No. 4 (November 1988), 522-540.
"The Nineteenth Century Balance of Power: Balance of Power or Political Equilibrium?", Review of International Studies (Oxford), 15 (April 1989), 135-153.
"Failed Bargain Crises, Deterrence, and the International System," in Paul C. Stern et al., eds., Perspectives on Deterrence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 67-83.
"Germany and the Balance of Power: Past and Present Part I", in Wolf Gruner, ed., Gleichqewicht in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Hamburg: Kramer, 1989), 134-39.
"Die Habsburger Monarchie und das europaische System im 19t. Jahrhundert," in A. M. Birke and G. Heydemann, eds. Die Herausforderung des europaischen Staatensystems (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1989). 178-82.
"Europe and the German Confederation in the 1860s," in Helmut Rumpler, ed., Deutscher Bund und Deutsche Frage 1815-1866 (Vienna, 1990), 281-91.
The Years 1848 and 1989: The Perils and Profits of Historical Comparisons," in Samuel F. Wells, ed., The Helsinki Process and the Future of Europe (Washington, DC, 1990), 15-21.
"Review Article. Napoleon Bonaparte," International History Review, XII (May 1990), 324-29.
"Napoleon's Foreign Policy: A Criminal Enterprise," Journal of Military History 54, No. 2 (April 1990), 147-61.
"Die Rolle der Vereinigten Staaten bei der Entfesselung des Zweiten Weltkrieges," in Kraus Hildebrand et al, eds., 1939: An der Schwelle zum Weltkrieg (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1990), 215-19.
"A Just, Unnecessary War: The Flawed American Strategy in the Persian Gulf." ACDIS Occasional Paper, March 1991. 14 pp.
"The Neo-Realist Theory of International Politics: A Historian's View." ACDIS Occasional Paper, April, 1991. 12 pp.
"Did the Vienna Settlement Rest on a Balance of Power?", American Historical Review, 97, 2 (June 1992), 683-706, 733-5.
"The Transformation of Political Thinking, 1787-1848," in: Jack Snyder and Robert Jervis, eds., Coping with Complexity in the International System (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), 47-70.
"'System' and Systemic Thinking in International History," Journal of International History Review xv, 1 (February 1993), 116-34.
"Economic Integration and the European International System in the Era of World War I," American Historical Review 94, 4 (October 1993), 1130-37.
"Historical Reality vs Neo-Realist Theory," International Security 19, 2 (Summer 1994), pp. 108-48.

2008-03-04T07:53:00.000-08:00

National team caps and goals correct as of 20:08, 26 May 2007(UTC). * Appearances (Goals)
Craig Douglas Bellamy (born 13 July 1979 in Canton, Cardiff) is a Welsh international footballer. He currently plays for West Ham United in the Premier League.

Background

Club career
Bellamy came through the youth system of Norwich City after a short spell at Bradford Park Avenue and a trial at Bradford City, scoring seven goals in three trial games, but was released as it was thought he would not make the grade as a professional footballer.
His first team debut for the Canaries came at Crystal Palace on 15 March 1997. Bellamy became a first team regular in the 1997–98 season, making 38 appearances with 13 goals. He missed the first two months of the 1998–99 season through injury after a clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Kevin Muscat, but still managed to have a successful season, amassing 17 goals in 38 appearances.
1999–2000 again saw Bellamy miss a substantial amount of the season after sustaining a knee injury during a pre-season game against Southend United. He only returned to action in April 2000. The summer of 2000 saw much transfer speculation surrounding Bellamy with Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic and Wimbledon all reportedly interested. Bellamy eventually completed a move to Coventry City for a sum of £6.5 million (financed through the sale of Robbie Keane to Inter Milan).
In 2002, Norwich fans voted Bellamy into the Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame.

Early years
Bellamy had an unsuccessful start to his career with Coventry, scoring only three goals by December, two of which were penalties. This fueled rumours of a return to Norwich, but it never materialised. Coventry stood by their man despite them facing relegation and Bellamy stating that he would want to leave if they dropped down a division. This duly happened and despite his inability to find the net in a Sky Blue shirt, notching up six goals in 34 appearances, there was still demand for his services in amongst bigger teams.

Coventry City
Bellamy's Newcastle career got off to a flying start as he scored on his debut in their 4-0 win over Belgian side Lokeren. Under manager Bobby Robson he formed a productive striking partnership with Alan Shearer, Bellamy's pace complementing the former England captain's guile. At the end of his first season, Bellamy was awarded the PFA Young Player of the Year award, ahead of players such as Steven Gerrard.
During his second season at 'the toon' came probably his most important moment for the club as he scored two goals (including the winner) in the 3-2 win over Feyenoord which took Newcastle through to the second group stage of the UEFA Champions League. Unfortunately, in the next match (a 4-1 defeat to Inter Milan) he was sent off for kicking out at an Inter defender, which resulted in a three-match ban. In March 2004, he threw a chair at then-first-team coach John Carver.

Celtic & Blackburn Rovers
On 20 June 2006 he was the subject of a transfer bid from FA Cup winners Liverpool, rumoured to be in the region of £6.5 million. The offer triggered a clause in Bellamy's contract involving bids from clubs playing Champions League football, and Blackburn were obliged to allow him permission to talk to the club.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez subsequently stated that Bellamy "has the ability, the pace and the talent we've been looking for", and that he expected talks to go well, particularly as Bellamy is known to have supported Liverpool in his youth.

Liverpool
Bellamy completed a move to West Ham United for a fee of £7.5 million on 10 July 2007, signing a five-year contract with the club.

West Ham United
Bellamy made his international debut for Wales during the 1997-98 season, playing in a friendly game against Jamaica.
In October 2006, Bellamy was awarded the captain's armband by Welsh manager John Toshack when Ryan Giggs was unavailable through injury for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Slovakia. His captaincy got off to a poor start with a 5-1 defeat. However, in his second game as captain against Cyprus, Wales won 3-1. Bellamy was appointed captain of the Wales national football team following the retirement of Giggs on 2 June, 2007.
To date he has attained 45 caps, scoring 14 international goals.

International career

Celtic

2006–07 Community Shield

2008-03-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

Richard Updike Sherman (1819 - 1895) was a New York State politician and newspaper publisher/editor. He was also the father of U.S. Vice President James Schoolcraft Sherman.
Richard Sherman was:
Trustee, New Hartford Cotten Company - he restocked the lakes of the Adirondack Mountains area with fish; also protected the forests from unscrupulous lumber dealers

Editor, Oswego Daily Times & The Herkimer Journal (1844-46)
Owner/editor of Rochester Daily Evening Gazette (1847)
Co-owner/editor Utica Morning Herald (1847-82)
Brigadier general, New York State militia (1841-57)
Clerk, New York State Assembly (1851-57)
New York Assemblyman, 1st District of Oneida County 1857/1875-1876
Delegate,New York State Constitutional Covention (1867)
Assistant clerk, U.S. House of Representatives (1870)
Secretary, New York State Fish and Game Commission (1879-1890)

天生一对

2008-02-27T19:58:00.000-08:00

我真的不知道应不应该继续这两段友情.Natalie's & Nicky's.

还是先说Nicky的吧.自从上学期认识他之后到现在都已经不短的一段时间了,这个学期更有3堂跟他一起上,之间都已经很熟悉了.但就是因为熟悉,就会发现更多的问题.渐渐觉得他有很多的习惯跟做法都是我看不惯的,与我的原则背道而驰的.我当然明白我不能要求每个朋友都有与我一样或者比我更严格的原则,即使我以前的朋友我也有看不惯的时候,但是对于Nicky这种感觉实在来得太频繁了,以致于渐渐想结束或者放淡我们之间的关系.但是如果我不说出来,他就一定不会觉察,那就不会有结束的时候,我就要一直背着这种不舒服很久很久...到底要选择对不起自己,还是对不起别人?

另外一个就是Natalie.这个星期自从唱K之后,我就只有今天(星期五)第一堂下课的时候去跟她说过一句话,告诉她做test的时候要快一点.一个以前每天都要见好几次的friend,突然间好像消失了,3天没跟她说过一句话,她完全就像不care一样.甚至还我3块钱就是托Kenny还我.你把这当作一个找话跟我说的理由也好啊?当付出很多却得不到一点回报的时候,真的会很不舒服.今晚在church她也只跟我说过很有限的几句话. 甘,这段友情又应该继续还是不呢?

唯一不担心的也许是他们之间的吧...他们会很配的..一定会是的.Natalie虽然像男孩子,但她最后找到的男朋友一定是那种要她照顾的.而Nicky,一定会有一个很会照顾他而又任劳任怨的GF吧.嗯,天生一对.他们.

我,不过是一个不知道该不该离开的Outsider.

2008-02-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

GDP - Gross domestic product

Summary of production

Production by nation

Vehicles and ground weapons
Note: Number in parenthesis equals the number of tanks and self-propelled guns equipped with main weapons of 75 mm or larger. Smaller producing nations do not have this differentiation.

Soviet Union = 105,251 (92,595)
United States = 88,410 (71,067)
Germany = 46,857 (37,794)
United Kingdom = 27,896
Canada = 5,678
Japan = 2,515
Italy = 2,473
Hungary = 500 Tanks and self-propelled guns
Artillery includes anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons with calibres above 37 mm.

Soviet Union = 516,648
United States = 257,390
Germany = 159,147
United Kingdom = 124,877
Japan = 13,350
Canada = 10,552
Italy = 7,200
Other Commonwealth = 5,215
Hungary = 447 Artillery

Soviet Union = 200,300
United States = 105,054
United Kingdom = 102,950
Germany = 73,484
Commonwealth = 46,014 Mortars (over 60 mm)
Machineguns do not include sub-machineguns, or machine guns used for arming aircraft.

United States = 2,679,840
Soviet Union = 1,477,400
Germany = 674,280
Japan = 380,000
United Kingdom = 297,336
Canada = 251,925
Other Commonwealth = 37,983
Hungary = 4,583 Machineguns

United States = 2,382,311
Canada = 815,729
United Kingdom = 480,943
Germany = 345,914
Soviet Union = 197,100
Japan = 165,945
Italy = 83,000 Military trucks

Aircraft

United States = 324,750
Germany = 189,307
Soviet Union = 157,261
United Kingdom = 131,549
Japan = 76,320
Canada = 16,431
Italy = 11,122
Other Commonwealth = 3,081
Hungary = 1,046
Romania = 1,000 Military aircraft of all types

United States = 99,950
Soviet Union = 63,087
Germany = 55,727
United Kingdom = 49,422
Japan = 30,447
Italy = 4,510 Fighter aircraft

Soviet Union = 37,549
Germany = 12,539 Attack aircraft

United States = 97,810
United Kingdom = 34,689
Soviet Union = 21,116
Germany = 18,235
Japan = 15,117
Italy = 2,063 Bomber aircraft

Germany = 6,299
Japan = 5,654
United Kingdom = 3,967
United States = 3,918
Italy = 1,080 Reconnaissance aircraft

United States = 23,929
Soviet Union = 17,332
Germany = 3,079
Japan = 2,110
United Kingdom = 1,784
Italy = 468 Transport aircraft

United States = 57,623
United Kingdom = 31,864
Japan = 15,201
Germany = 11,546
Soviet Union = 4,061
Italy = 1,769 Training aircraft

Naval ships
Figure in parentheses indicates merchant vessels converted to Escort carriers.

United States = 22 (141)
Japan = 16
United Kingdom = 14
Germany = 0 None completed by the end of the war. Aircraft carriers

United States = 8
United Kingdom = 5
Italy = 3
Japan = 2
Germany = 2 Battleships

United States = 48
United Kingdom = 32
Japan = 9
Italy = 6
Soviet Union = 2 Cruisers

United States = 349
United Kingdom = 240
Japan = 63
Soviet Union = 25
Germany = 17
Italy = 6 Destroyers

United States = 498
United Kingdom = 413
Canada = 191
Germany = 23 Convoy escorts

Germany = 1,337
United States = 422
Japan = 167
United Kingdom = 167
Soviet Union = 52
Italy = 28 Submarines

United States = 33,993,230
United Kingdom = 6,378,899
Japan = 4,152,361
Commonwealth = 2,702,943
Italy = 469,606 Merchant tonnage

Materials
In millions of metric tons

Germany = 2,420.3
United States = 2,149.7
United Kingdom = 1,441.2
Soviet Union = 590.8
Japan = 184.5
Canada = 101.9
Italy = 16.9
Hungary = 6.6
Romania = 1.6 Coal
In millions of metric tons

United States = 396.9
Germany = 240.7
United Kingdom = 119.3
Soviet Union = 71.3
Japan = 21.0
Hungary = 14.1
Romania = 10.8
Italy = 4.4
Canada = 3.6 Crude Oil

GDP values: Harrison, Mark, "The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison", Cambridge University Press (1998).
Milward, Alan S., "War, economy, and society, 1939-1945", University of California Press (1979).
Overy, Richard, "Why the Allies Won (Paperback)", W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (1997).
Barnett, Correlli, "The audit of war : the illusion & reality of Britain as a great nation", Macmillan, (1986).