sophiekain

2008-05-02T09:27:00.001-07:00

The European Nations Cup, also referred to as the "Six Nations B" or simply ENC, is a second-level competition for European rugby union nations, some of which where it is still an amateur sport. It is administered by FIRA-AER.
Despite the name the European Nations Cup is in fact a series of 4 divisions of 6 teams with promotion and relegation between them. There is, however, at present little prospect of any of the teams being promoted to the Six Nations as the gap in terms of playing standards is probably too big. Division One usually uses the same weekends as the Six Nations Championship; other divisions play throughout the year.
Initially started as one-year competition, the championship is now decided over two years with each team playing each other home and away. The format change occurred at the end of the 2001 championship. Georgia is still regarded as the 2001 winner, but the results from that season count in the final standings of the 2001-2002 tournament.

Current divisions

The thirties: the first three tournaments

The fifties: the European Cup

The Nations Cup 1966-1973

The FIRA Trophy 1974-1997

First Division championships

2000

2001

2001-2002

2003-2004

Results by nation

Antim Cup
FIRA - Association of European Rugby
Six Nations Championship

2008-05-01T09:30:00.001-07:00

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the United Kingdom's thirty-two NHS Foundation Trusts. It provides healthcare for people in the Preston area and surrounding area in northwest England. The trust itself consists of Royal Preston Hospital on the northern outskirts of the city in the Fulwood area and Chorley and South Ribble District General Hospital, it is distinguished as being the only trust in the North West to offer some neurology services, and Royal Preston hospital is the only hospital in the United Kingdom to possess some advanced cancer scanning units, thanks to the Rosemere cancer foundation, a local charity. Besides being a major healthcare services provider to over 350,000 people the Foundation Trust also provides clinical education for medical students from the University of Manchester and University of St Andrews. The Trust uses the Single Transferable Vote voting system to elect its Members' Council.

2008-04-30T09:47:00.001-07:00

Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture is the only nonprofit and independent experiential educational program for college students in the United States. It was established in the late 1960s as "Urban Life Center" by a group of college professors and college students. It was incorporated in 1970 and renamed in 2006. The Chicago Center is distinguished by its unique experiential seminars characterized by a 'First Voice' pedagogy, its intentional location in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, and relationships with several hundred internship sites in Chicago. While many of the students who attend Chicago Center grew up in cities, the majority of participants are from suburban, rural and even farming communities. In addition to its Semester, May Term and Summer Session, which individual students sign up for, the Chicago Center designs and staffs what it calls "LearnChicago!" programs for groups, which promise non-tourist Chicago experiences. Mayor Richard M. Daley of the City of Chicago has recognized Chicago Center twice, in 2000 and 2006. The Chicago Center has received awards from the National Society of Experiential Education and the Midwest Sociological Society.

2008-04-29T08:23:00.001-07:00

McEwan's is a range of beer brewed at the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, Scotland. The brands are now owned by Scottish & Newcastle. Its logo depicts a character from a Frans Hals painting known popularly as The Laughing Cavalier enjoying the beer.

History
William McEwan opened the Fountain Brewery in 1856, in the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh. By the time it became in public company in 1889, the brewery was valued at £1 million. At the beginning of the 1900s, the brewery had a large share of the market throughout Scotland and north-east England, and was exporting to Australia, New Zealand India and South Africa. McEwan's merged with William Younger's Brewery (founded in Edinburgh in 1749) in 1931, becoming Scottish Brewers. The company merged again in 1960, joining with Newcastle Breweries to form Scottish & Newcastle.
In February 2004 Scottish & Newcastle announced the closure of McEwan's Brewery, at the same time as partially buying Caledonian Brewery in Slateford, Edinburgh. McEwan's brewery finally closed in June 2005, with production of the McEwan's and Younger's beers being transferred to Caledonian.

2008-04-26T09:46:00.001-07:00

São Paulo (pronunciation (help·info) pron. IPA: [sãw 'paw.lu]; (see tilda) Portuguese for Saint Paul) is the capital of the state of São Paulo in the South East of Brazil. It is located at 23°32′36″S, 46°37′59″W (Latitude -23.59 Longitude -46.63)
The city has an area of 1,523.0 square kilometres (588 sq mi)

History
See also: List of Mayors of São Paulo
In light of its economic and demographic weight, São Paulo has always played a pivotal role in Brazilian politics. With a constituency larger than that of many Brazilian states, the mayor's office is viewed by politicians as a springboard for state and national-level offices.
São Paulo's most recent mayors were:

Law and government

Geography
São Paulo is located on a plateau that is part of the Serra do Mar (Portuguese for "Sea Range"), part of the vast region known as the Brazilian Highlands, with an average elevation of around 800 metres (2,625 ft) above sea level - though at a distance of only about 70 kilometers (43 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean. This distance is covered by two highways, the Anchieta and the Imigrantes, (see "Transportation" section below) that roll down the range, leading to the portuary city of Santos and the beach resort of Guarujá. Rolling terrain prevails within the urbanized areas of São Paulo but in the North of the city - where the Serra da Cantareira Range boasts higher elevations and a sizable remnant of the Atlantic Rain Forest. The entire region is very stable tectonically, and no significant seismic activity has ever been recorded.
The river Tietê was once a source of freshwater and leisure for São Paulo. However, in the latter half of the 20th century, it became grossly polluted by raw sewage and industrial effluents, much like its tributary river Pinheiros. However, a substantial clean-up program for both rivers are in the pipeline, financed by international development banks such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Neither river is navigable in the stretch that flows through the city, however water transport becomes increasingly important on the river Tietê further downstream (towards South, near river Paraná), as the river is part of the River Plate basin.
There are no large natural lakes in the region, but the Guarapiranga and Billings reservoirs in the outskirts of São Paulo are used for power generation, water storage, and leisure activities such as sailing.
The original flora consisted mainly of a great variety of broadleaf evergreens. Today, non-native species are common, as the mild climate and abundant rainfall permit a multitude of tropical, subtropical and temperate plants to be cultivated, with eucalyptus being especially ubiquitous.

Physical setting
According the Köppen climate classification São Paulo has a humid subtropical climate. Temperatures seldom reach 30 °C (86 °F) during summer, while frost is rare during winter. All-time record temperatures are 35.3 °C (96.6 °F) in November 15, 1985 and -2.1 °C (28 °F) in August 2, 1955 (both at the Mirante de Santana National Weather Station, in the north region). In the mountains around the city (Horto Florestal), -3.9 °C (25 °F) were registered also in August 2, 1955 (unofficially). Snow flurries were reported officially just on one occasion in June 25, 1918. Rainfall is abundant, especially in the warmer months, but rare between June and August. Neither São Paulo nor the nearby coast has ever been hit by a tropical cyclone, and tornadic activity is uncommon. August is a month which, in the last years, despite of belonging to the winter, is mostly dry and hot, sometimes reaching temperatures of 28°C. This is a phenomenon called "veranico" (in portuguese, "little summer").

Climate

Main article: Greater São Paulo Metropolitan region
The City of São Paulo is divided into 31 boroughs, called subprefectures (subprefeituras in Portuguese):
Each subprefecture is divided into several districts (in most cases, two or three). The subprefectures with the largest number of districts are the boroughs of Sé, in the historical downtown, Butantã, the location of USP, Lapa, Penha and Mooca, all having eleven districts. The district where the headquarters of the subprefecture is located receives the same name of the subprefecture, with exception of M'Boi Mirim. Some important districts which don't own a subprefecture are:
Together with the administrative division, there is also a geographic radial division established in 2007 by the mayor Gilberto Kassab. The city is divided in ten regions (historical downtown, extended downtown, north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest), each one identified with a distinct color in the buses and in the street plaques. These divisions have no relationship with the subprefectures and districts, and, in some cases, the same district may be in two or more geographic regions.

Aricanduva
Butantã
Campo Belo
Campo Limpo
Capela do Socorro
Casa Verde
Cidade Ademar
Cidade Tiradentes
Ermelino Matarazzo
Freguesia do Ó
Guaianases
Ipiranga
Itaim Paulista
Itaquera
Jabaquara
Jaçanã
Lapa
M'Boi Mirim
Mooca
Parelheiros
Penha
Perus
Pinheiros
Pirituba
Santana
Santo Amaro
São Mateus
São Miguel
Sé
Vila Maria
Vila Mariana
Vila Prudente
Morumbi (belongs to Butantã)
Consolação (includes Pacaembu and Higienópolis, belongs to Sé)
Moema (includes Ibirapuera, belongs to Vila Mariana)
Liberdade (belongs to Sé)
Bela Vista (belongs to Sé)
Jardim Paulista (includes the Paulista Avenue, belongs to Pinheiros)
Tatuapé (belongs to Mooca)
Perdizes (belongs to Lapa)
Barra Funda (belongs to Lapa)
Itaim Bibi (includes Vila Olímpia, belongs to Pinheiros) Boroughs
São Paulo is the most important financial center in Latin America. São Paulo's stock exchange is the Bovespa, while its futures exchange is the BM&F. Its financial districts are located on the surroundings of Avenida Paulista and in the Centro Velho (Old Centre). Other important business districts are located in the boroughs of Pinheiros and Santo Amaro, including the large road Faria Lima.
There are a number of highly specialized regions, such as Bom Retiro and Brás (wholesale garment districts), Consolação (lighting equipment), Rua Santa Ifigênia (electrical and electronic parts), Rua Teodoro Sampaio (furniture and musical equipment), the posh Rua Oscar Freire (designer and label stores), Avenida Europa (luxurious automobiles) and the crowded Rua Vinte Cinco de Março.
In the last few years, São Paulo has become a major host to various international events and fairs, visited by the most varied audiences, ranging from scientists and artists to merchants and entrepreneurs, coming from Brazil and also from abroad. Some of the most important events that usually take place in the city are:
There has been a gradual change in the city economic profile since a decade ago - from a strongly industrialized base to service and technology-oriented industries. Intensive manpower-consuming firms have been replaced by a great number of high-technology companies and service providers of a vast range, namely law services, investment banking, IT, consultancy firms, advertising and radio and TV broadcasting companies.

Leather Goods Fair - Couromoda
International Textile Fair - Fenit
International Construction Fair
Shoes, Fashion Accessories and Machines Fair - Francal
Cosmetics and Beauty International Fair - Cosmetica
Lodging-related products, services and equipment Fair - Equipotel
International Automobile Fair - Salão do Automóvel
Book Fair Biennale - Bienal Internacional do Livro Economy
São Paulo is one of the world's more diverse cosmopolitan areas:
Other sizable groups are: Chinese, Armenians, Lithuanian, Greeks, Syrians, Koreans, Polish, Hungarians, and Jamaicans.

5,500,000 are direct or indirect descendants of Italians. The Edifício Itália (Italy Building), the second highest skyscraper of the city (165 m), was named in honor of the Italians.
3,000,000 people are direct or indirect descendants of Portuguese.
2,000,000 are direct or indirect descendants of Spaniards.
1,500,000 people have direct or indirect African ancestry.
1,000,000 people are direct or indirect descendants of Germans.
850,000 people are direct or indirect descendants of Lebanese immigrants— by far the largest number of Lebanese outside Lebanon.
More than 1 million people are direct or indirect descendants of Japanese. São Paulo has the largest number of Japanese outside Japan. The Japanese community's historical centre is the Liberdade neighborhood.
São Paulo is home to the largest Jewish community in Brazil with about 130,000 people.
There is a considerable number of immigrants from other countries in Latin America, especially Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile.
Note that many paulistanos have mixed ethnic origins; the numbers above may count individuals belonging to multiple groups. Demographics
As in the rest of Brazil, Portuguese is the official and dominant language of the vast majority of the population. However, many other languages, such as German, Japanese, English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean are still spoken by first and second-generation members of their respective ethnic communities. Italian was once widespread, and though most Italo-Brazilians in the city are no longer fluent in it, typical Paulistano accent usually retains a distinctive Italian cadence.

Languages
São Paulo hosts the University of São Paulo (USP). USP is a state university financially supported by the State of São Paulo. It charges no tuition fees for students who qualify in its very competitive entrance exams. USP is an important research centre, as well as one of the most highly-regarded academic institutions in Brazil. USP's main campus is located in the Cidade Universitária neighbourhood. Several smaller campuses are located throughout the state.
Other respected universities include the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, the Federal University of São Paulo, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and Mackenzie Presbyterian University, the latter founded by North American missionaries. Also, São Paulo is home to the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Nucleares (IPEN, National Institute of Nuclear ResearchIPEN) and the largest public hospital in the country (Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP).

Education

Culture
Adoniran Barbosa was a famous samba singer and composer that became successful in São Paulo's radio era. Born in 1912 in the town of Valinhos, Barbosa became the composer of the lower classes of São Paulo, particularly the poor Italian immigrants living in the quarters of Bexiga (Bela Vista) and Brás, and the poor who lived in the city's many shanties and cortiços (degraded multifamily row houses). The topics of his songs are drawn from the life of low-wage urban workers, the unemployed and the vagabonds. His first big hit was Saudosa Maloca ("Shanty of Fond Memories", 1951), where three homeless friends recall with nostalgia their improvised shanty, which was torn down by the landowner to make room for a building. In his Trem das Onze ("The 11 PM Train", 1964) record, which has been ranked one of the five best samba songs ever, the protagonist explains to his lover that he cannot stay any longer because he has to catch the last train to the Jaçanã suburb, for his mother will not sleep before he arrives. An old-school samba band called Demônios da Garoa still plays his songs in the traditional Bar Brahma venue in Centro.
In the late 1960s, a psychedelic rock band called Os Mutantes led the way in the national avant garde music scene. Their success is sometimes related to that of other tropicalia musicians, but they also had a musical style and ideas of their own. They were regarded as very paulistanos in their behaviour and clothing. Os Mutantes released five albums together before lead singer Rita Lee departed in 1972 to start a solo career. Although almost exclusively known in Brazil at that time, Os Mutantes became quite successful abroad after the 1990s (a well-spread legend has it that one Brazilian girl in an exchange programme in California, U.S., forgot one Mutantes' vinyl record in her American host family, leading the way to the popularisation of the band in that U.S. state). In 2000, a record sung in English, Tecnicolor, was released with artwork designed by Sean Lennon.
After the two oil price shocks in the 1970s, the country suffered from an economic recession during the 1980s, a phenomenon that was named the lost decade. A late punk and garage scene became strong in the 1980s, perhaps associated with the gloomy scenario of unemployment and few actual prospectives from the viewpoint of the youth. Underground rock bars and clubs in town were full of thriving musicians and artists waiting for their moment to come. Ira!, which translates as anger or ire in Portuguese, was one of the rock bands that came about at that time. They were strongly influenced by the Mod sound of The Who, the hard rock of Led Zeppelin and the punk rock of The Clash. The band still exists, although with sparse records released. Ira!'s guitarist Edgard Scandurra has a solo career of his own.
In the 1990s, a new musical style has come about: drum & bass. DJ Marky, nowadays considered one of the most exciting DJs/producers in the dance music scene, used to work in a record shop in São Paulo in the early 1990s, which allowed him access to the hardcore sounds that were coming from the UK at the time. Although hardcore wasn't immediately well accepted by the clubing scene in Brazil, Marky started playing these records out, almost giving up at some point because of the small audiences interested in that kind of music. As Marky followed the breakbeat evolution to jungle, a local scene began to develop by itself, and his work began to pay off. In August 1997, Marky made the most important move of his career by travelling to the UK with DJ Patife, intending to meet their drum & bass heroes, by invitation of Bristol-born producer Bryan Gee. Other d&b artists include DJ Patife, XRS, Drumagick, and Fernanda Porto.

Music
To be expanded. Please help contributing and explaining the historical roles of these artists.

Mário de Andrade
Oswald de Andrade Literature
São Paulo is a major cultural centre. The city has an ethnically diverse metropolitan area, with heavy Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Arab and Japanese influences.
The city is known for its varied and sophisticated cuisine, ranging from Chinese to French, from fast food chains to five star restaurants. There are approximately 52 different types of cuisines in São Paulo, and more than 12,000 restaurants. Other venues such as bars, pubs, lounges and discos cater to a variety of music tastes.
São Paulo is home to the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and "Pinacoteca do Estado" art museums, a symphonic orchestra (São Paulo State Symphony (OSESP), and a Formula One Grand Prix racing circuit (Interlagos).

Sites of interest

Praça da Sé (Large square next to the São Paulo Cathedral. Official center of the city)
Edifício Itália (skyscraper with observation deck)
Banespa Building (skyscraper with observation deck and museum)
Pátio do Colégio (founding site of the city)
Catedral da Sé (the metropolitan cathedral, a symbol of the city)
Museu do Ipiranga (a museum built in honor of the proclamation of the independence of Brazil)
Solar da Marquesa (a rare example of 18th century architectural style)
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (designed by Ramos de Azevedo in 1897)
Avenida Paulista (one of the most important thoroughfares of the city and the site of many cultural centers and museums, such as the MASP and Centro Cultural Itaú)
Ibirapuera Park (the second largest park of the city (Parque do Carmo is the biggest), is also home to several museums. It is known for its buildings designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, such as the Oca and the new Ibirapuera Auditorium)
Edifício Copan, also designed by Oscar Niemeyer, in the Centro neighbourhood. Built between 1951 and 1966, its wavy shape gives the building an impression of movement, and the integration of small businesses and residential flats are of innovative urbanism. Rumour has it that Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders lived for 6 months in this building while touring with musician Moreno Veloso in 1994.
Pinacoteca do Estado, an important art gallery, and Museum of the Portuguese Language, in the train station of Luz. Sights
There exist some sites and magazines specialized in the spreading of the events in the city, but we can detach the Agenda Cultural de São Paulo (São Paulo's Cultural Calendar) in http://agendacult.wordpress.com

Events
The São Paulo Art Biennial is a cultural event hosted every two years. Almost 1 million people visited the 26th Bienal in 2004. Its theme was chosen to enable a wide range of artistic positions to feel comfortable. The concept of "Free Territory" involved various dimensions: it had a physical-geographical, a socio-political as well as an aesthetic dimension — the latter, of course, being of greatest interest in the context of this exhibition.
In order to emphasise the thematic unity of the overall exhibition, the invited artists and those representing the countries are mixed together on the 25,000 square metres of the spacious Oscar Niemeyer Pavilion. Despite the complexity of individual voices, the final result was intended to be a unity.
In addition to an intensification of the North-South dialogue inside Brazil, the Bienal's aims include the promoting of links between non-European cultures along a South-South orientation. The next edition of the Biennale will take place in 2008.

Bienal de São Paulo
Brazil first entered the international fashion circuit with the increasing reputation of famous Brazilian top models such as Adriana Lima, Gisele Bündchen, Alessandra Ambrosio, Fernanda Tavares, Ana Beatriz Barros, Izabel Goulart and Ana Hickmann, and the "discovery" of some fresh talents such as Alexandre Herchcovitch by some international fashion magazines. As a consequence of this, SPFW is the place to see and to be seen in Brazilian fashion scene, always attracting a number of international editors and models.
São Paulo Fashion Week is nowadays one of the most relevant fashion events in the country. It takes place twice a year at the building of Bienal de São Paulo.

São Paulo Fashion Week
The largest tourist event in the city, the São Paulo Gay Parade attracted about 2.5 million people to Paulista Avenue in 2006. It is usually opened by the city's mayor. A large carnival runs along the avenue, with several Trio Elétricos. The last parade was held on June 10, 2007, and its organizers claimed a record-breaking 3.5 million attendees, though no official estimate was given by the Polícia Militar.

São Paulo Gay Parade
The March for Jesus is a Protestant parade that takes place every year in Paulista Avenue, now in another downtown avenue. It is organized by the Renascer Church, a Pentecostal denomination created in the 1980s and which has grown significantly in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2007, about three million people took part in the event, according to official estimates.

March for Jesus
The Electronic Language International Festival is a non-profit cultural organization, whose purpose is to disseminate and to develop arts, technologies and scientific research, by means of exhibitions, debates, lectures, and courses. The festival promotes a yearly meeting in Brazil, in the city of São Paulo. The event is open to the public, and intends to expand its educational reach to local and eventually remote audiences, thus sharing the experiences learned with FILE, through technologies of education, communication, registration and memory. The File Festival show in its events web art, net.art, artificial life, hypertext, computer animation, real time teleconferences, virtual reality, panoramas, interactive movie, e- video, electronic art installations and robotics through interactive and immersive rooms.

Festival for Electronic Art

Anima Mundi (an international competitive video and film festival devoted exclusively to animation)
AnimeCon - International Anime Convention
AnimeDreams - International Anime Convention
Anime Friends - International Anime Convention
Comdex
Mercado Mundo Mix
São Paulo International Film Festival
Carnival of São Paulo
Skol Beats
Tim Festival
Nokia Trends
Festa de N. S. Achiropita
Fenasoft (International Computer and Software Trade Fair)
UD Fare (Domestic Utilities Fair)
São Paulo Art Biennial a modern art exposition
Feira Internacional do Livro (Book International Fair) Other events

Sports
As in the rest of Brazil, football is by far the most important sport in the city. The major teams in São Paulo are Corinthians, Palmeiras and São Paulo FC. These teams are all playing in the Brazilian Série A. The fourth most important club of the city is Portuguesa, playing in Brazilian Série B. There are two other small clubs in the city, Juventus and Nacional. Another popular club in São Paulo is Santos FC from the nearby coastal city of the same name, Santos.
Soccer/Football teams

Football
The São Silvestre Race takes place every New Year's Eve (31 December). It was first held in 1925, when the competitors ran about 8,000 metres across the streets. Since then, the distance raced has varied, and it is now fixed at 15 km. Registration takes place from 1 October, with the maximum number of entrants limited to 15,000.

Corrida de Sao Silvestre
The Brazilian Grand Prix (Portuguese: Grande Prêmio do Brasil) is a Formula One championship race which occurs at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos. In 2006 the Grand Prix was the final round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso won the 2006 drivers championship at this circuit by coming second in the race. The race was won by the young Brazilian driver Felipe Massa, driving for the Scuderia Ferrari team.

Brazilian Grand Prix
Volleyball, basketball and tennis are other major sports. There are several traditional sports clubs in São Paulo that are home for teams in many championships. The most important are Esporte Clube Pinheiros (volleyball, swimming, basketball and handball), Clube Atlético Paulistano (basketball), Esporte Clube Banespa (volleyball, handball and futsal), Associação Atlética Hebraica (basketball) and São Paulo Athletic Club (rugby union).

Other sports
The following international sports events have been held in São Paulo:

1950 — FIFA World Cup (football)
1963 — Pan American Games (Multi-sports)
1971 — FIBA World Championship for Women
1977 — Women's U20 Volleyball World Championship
1983 — FIBA World Championship for Women
1993 — Volleyball World League
1994 — Women's Volleyball World Championship
2000 — FIFA Club World Championship (Football)
2005 — World Cup in Artistic Gymnastics
2006 — International Police and Fire Games (Multi-sports)
2006 — FIBA World Championship for Women (Basketball)
2006 — 13th World Cup Final in Artistic Gymnastics
2007 — 3rd International Blind Sports Association World Championships and Games International sports events

Transportation
The city is crossed by many of the most important Brazilian motorways, such as the BR-116, Rodovia Raposo Tavares, Rodovia Anhangüera, Rodovia dos Bandeirantes, Rodovia Anchieta, Rodovia Castelo Branco and Rodovia dos Imigrantes. Automobiles are still the main means to get into the city.

Motorways
São Paulo grew quickly from the 1940s to the 1980s and many roads and buildings were built without major planning. As a result, heavy traffic is common on the city's main avenues, and traffic jams are relatively common on its largest highways. The main means of commuting into the city is by car and by bus. An effective way of avoiding heavy vehicles traffic in the city, such as buses and trucks that crossed the city for other destinations, was planned by ex-governor Mário Covas as a road ring that circles the city, called Rodoanel Mario Covas

Rodoanel
Although poorly served by heavy rail services, there is an infrastructure project to build a high-speed railway service linking Brazil's two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a milestone in the revitalisation and improvement of the Brazilian passenger railway services.

Railways
São Paulo has three airports. There are two major airports in the São Paulo metropolitan area: São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (GRU, for domestic and international flights) and Congonhas, (CGH, for domestic flights). There's also a small airport known as Campo de Marte north of the Old Center for small, private aircraft and helicopters. Campo de Marte also hosts the Ventura Goodyear Blimp.
Congonhas Airport operates domestic and regional flights, mainly to Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasília. Campo de Marte airport handles some private and small-sized airplanes. Guarulhos International Airport, also known to São Paulo dwellers as "Cumbica", is located 25 km North East of the city centre, in the neighbouring city of Guarulhos. Guarulhos airport operates both domestic and international flights.
On July 17, 2007, the worst airline accident in Brazil's history occurred at Congonhas airport, blamed on rain and a shortended runway. Nearly 200 people from the plane and on the ground died. Following the accident, pilots refused to land in the rain and the President ordered that ticket sales for flights to the airport be stopped. Aviation throughout the entire country reached a crisis state.
In 2005, about 33 million people went through the city's airports (mainly from Congonhas and Guarulhos International Airport, the only two operating commercial flights). Infraero - Brazil's main aviation authority - estimates that with the remodelling of Guarulhos Airport, São Paulo's airports will be able to handle about 45 million passengers a year within the next five years. There are also plans to expand the Viracopos-Campinas International Airport at Campinas, a city about 90 km North of São Paulo.
São Paulo has allegedly one of the highest per capita helicopter ownership in the world. The owners are an elite wealthy class who take advantage of around one hundred helipads and heliports to conveniently avoid heavy traffic.

Airports
The city has 61 km of underground railway systems (34.6 km fully underground) (the São Paulo Metro.
São Paulo's underground train system is modern, safe, clean and efficient, considered one of the best subway systems in the world, as certified by the NBR ISO 9001. It has four lines (the newest one, the Yellow line, is under construction, thus unavailable at the moment) and links to the metropolitan train network, the CPTM.

The underground rail system (called "metrô", short for "metropolitano"), with three complete lines:
The suburban rail system, Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), has six lines that serve many regions not reached by the underground system, and even some other cities in the metropolitan region. The CPTM network is longer than the underground rail system.
The fast-lane bus system: there are many such bus lines in the city, called "Passa Rápido", which are street-level, placed on large avenues, and connected with the underground or suburban train stations.
Line 1 - Blue: The first Metrô line built connects the North and the South Side of São Paulo. Connections are available for the Green, Red and Yellow lines and also for CPTM trains. Tietê and Jabaquara bus terminals are also reachable through the use of this line.
Line 2 - Green: The Green line transverses the Avenida Paulista ridge, connecting Ipiranga to Vila Madalena, and also integrating the Blue and Yellow lines.
Line 3 - Red: One of São Paulo's busiest lines, it connects the East Side to the West Side. Connections to the Blue and Yellow lines are possible, as are with CPTM trains. The Barra Funda bus terminal is located on this line.
Line 4 - Yellow (under construction): Scheduled to be open in the near future, the Yellow line will connect the central Luz station to the South side in a route constructed immediately below the Consolação and Rebouças avenues. Connections will be available to the Blue, Green and Red lines and to CPTM trains.
Line 5 - Lilac: Built for users who need to reach specific places in São Paulo's South Side. Only a short distance of the line is already available (six complete stations), connecting to CPTM trains at Santo Amaro station. Underground and light rail system
By 2008, a new line, the Line 4 - Yellow, will be ready for use. The state government has built some underground stations in the Line 5 - Lilac, but although operating fully, this line is yet to be integrated with the main subway system. The lilac line serves only the subprefecture of Santo Amaro, but it is planned to be extended and connected with the lines 1 and 2.
On January 12, 2007, at 3:15 p.m. local time, a huge hole in the ground opened by accident in the future line 4 (yellow) Pinheiros station of São Paulo's underground system. Seven people were killed (four of them in a passing shuttle bus which was swallowed and buried by the cave-in). The accident caused serious structural damage to many houses in the surrounding area, forcing their households to move to hotels and the homes of relatives. Prior to the accident, many reports concerning fissures in the walls of these houses had been noticed. Officials of the company hired by the State of São Paulo Government to build the station blamed excessive rain as a primary cause, although outside pundits say what really happened was insufficient soil analysis, since the future Pinheiros underground station is very close to the river Pinheiros. After the accident, another concern was a large crane that threatened to fall over neighboring homes, until it was later dismantled by engineers working in the project.

New underground lines
The bulk of the public transport (government and private companies) is composed of approximately 17,000 buses (including about 210 trolley buses), coloured uniformily according to the non-central region served (ex.: light green for the buses that go South West, dark blue for the Northern area). Until the past few years, there was a strong presence of informal transport vans (dab vans), but the vast majority of such vans are already fully registered with the city council, legalized and operating under the same color scheme of the main system.

Buses
Since the beginning of the 20th century, São Paulo has been the major economic center of Brazil. With the arrival of the two World Wars and the Great Depression, coffee exports to the United States and Europe were critically affected, leading wealthy coffee farmers to invest in industrial activities which eventually turned São Paulo into Brazil's largest industrial hub. The new job positions thereof contributed to attracting a significant number of immigrants from other regions of the country, especially northeastern states. From a population of merely 32,000 inhabitants in 1880, São Paulo increased its population to approximately 250,000 in 1900, 1,800,000 in 1940, 4,750,000 in 1960 and 8,500,000 in 1980. The effects of this population boom have been:

Although urban planning has been implemented in some areas, São Paulo has developed quickly without major planning
Ineffective public transport associated with a high number of cars and other vehicles in circulation lead to consistently congested traffic on many roads of the city.
Due to heavy usage and poor maintenance, the quality of the pavement on certain roads (especially in the outskirts of the city) is problematic, and potholes and other asphalt defects are common.
Crime rates are high, mainly due to the high circulation of automobiles and buses in town.
The two major rivers crossing the city, River Tietê and River Pinheiros, are also highly polluted. A major project intended to clean up these rivers is in the pipeline. Current critical problems

Bob Burnquist
Fabiola da Silva
Marco de Santi
Alex Atala
Ayrton Senna
Rubens Barrichello
Leandro Barbosa
Luciano Burti
Hélio Castroneves
Mário de Andrade
Oswald de Andrade
Emerson Fittipaldi
Eder Jofre
Amyr Klink
Rita Lee
Anita Malfatti
Felipe Massa
Fernando Meirelles
Jair Oliveira
Roberto Rivellino
Robert Scheidt
Alex Barros
Alexandre Herchcovitch
Ruy Ohtake
DJ Marky
DJ Patife Famous Paulistanos

January 25 – São Paulo's Anniversary — city holiday
Between February and March – Carnival (Brazilian national holiday, it starts on the Friday to Tuesday preceding Lent. The holiday ends at noon on Ash Wednesday)
Between May and June – Corpus Christi
July 9 – 1932's Constitutional Revolution
November 20 – Black People Consciousness Day Major holidays

Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (1981)
Algiers, Algeria (2005)
Amman, Jordan (1997)
Asunción, Paraguay (1998)
Bamako, Mali (2000)
Barcelona, Spain
Beijing, PR China (1999)
Beirut, Lebanon
Budapest, Hungary (2000)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (1999)
Cairo, Egypt
Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2000)
Coimbra, Portugal (1996)
Córdoba, Spain (2001)
Damascus, Syria (1999)
Funchal, Portugal (1998)
Góis, Portugal (2000)
Havana, Cuba (1997)
Johannesburg, South Africa (1995)
La Paz, Bolivia (1999)
La Plata, Argentina (1988)
Leiria, Portugal (1996)
Lima, Peru
Lisbon, Portugal (1995)
Luanda, Angola (1993)
Macau SAR, China (1999)
Mendoza, Argentina (1998)
Mexico City, Mexico
Miami, USA (1988)
Milan, Italy (1962)
Montevideo, Uruguay (2001)
Naha, Japan (1998)
Osaka, Japan (1985)
Presidente Franco, Paraguay (1994)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1995)
San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain (1990)
San José, Costa Rica
Santiago, Chile (1998)
Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2000)
Seoul, South Korea (1977)
Shanghai, PR China (1988)
Sydney, Australia (1997)
Tel Aviv, Israel (2004)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1999)
Yerevan, Armenia (1999) Sister cities

List of municipalities in the state of São Paulo by population
Conservatório Dramático Musical de São Paulo
1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo
Sister cities of São Paulo
São Paulo Turismo S/A - Official Tourism Board of the City of São Paulo
Large Cities Climate Leadership Group See also

Official websites

(Portuguese) Guia Sao Paulo.com
(Portuguese) Agenda Cultural de São Paulo
(English) VisitSP – São Paulo travel guide with hotels, restaurants, bars and news
(English) São Paulo Conventions and Visitors Bureau
(English) Gringoes Website
(English) The New York Times São Paulo´s Travel Guide
(English) Brazil Travel Guide - São Paulo Travel information for foreign visitors Other websites

São Paulo travel guide from Wikitravel Maps

(English) Rich Brazilians Rise Above Rush-Hour Jams
(English) São Paulo mayoral race 2004 pages
(English) Global Cities exhibition at Tate Modern, London

2008-04-25T09:54:00.001-07:00

A laminate is a material constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance refers to sandwiching something between layers of plastic and sealing them with heat and/or pressure, usually with an adhesive. However, in electrical engineering, lamination is a construction technique used to reduce unwanted heating effects due to eddy currents in components, such as the magnetic cores of transformers.
The materials used in laminates can be the same or different. An example of the type of laminate using different materials would be the application of a layer of plastic film — the "laminate" — on either side of a sheet of glass — the laminated subject. Vehicle windshields are commonly made by laminating a tough plastic film between two layers of glass. Plywood is a common example of a laminate using the same material in each layer. Glued and laminated dimensioned timber is used in the construction industry to make wooden beams, Glulam, with sizes larger and stronger than can be obtained from single pieces of wood.
Examples of laminate materials include Formica and plywood. Formica and similar plastic laminates (such as Pionite, Wilsonart or Centuryply Mica) are often referred to as High Pressure Decorative Laminate (HPDL) as they are created with heat and pressure of more than 5 lbf/in² (34 kPa). A new type of HPDL is produced using real wood veneer or multilaminar veneer as top surface. Alpikord is one of these laminates produced by Alpi spa.
Laminating paper, such as photographs, can prevent it from becoming creased, sun damaged, wrinkled, stained, smudged, abraded and/or marked by grease, fingerprints and environmental concerns. Photo identification cards and credit cards are almost always laminated with plastic film. Lamination is also used in sculpture using wood or resin. An example of an artist who used lamination in his work is the American, Floyd Shaman.

Film types

carbon-fibre reinforced plastic
composite material
epoxy
glass-reinforced plastic
sandwich structured composite
laminated bow

2008-04-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

Flag
The Free French Forces (French: Forces Françaises Libres, FFL) were French fighters in World War II, who decided to continue fighting against Axis forces after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation. The FFL responded to the call of the de jure French government-in-exile ("Free French Government" or "Fighting France"). Gaullist mythology claimed they had responded to General Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June in 1940, but historians later showed that the call had been heard by a small group of people. De Gaulle's 22 June speech on the BBC was much more widely heard.

Definition

History
In 1940, General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the French cabinet during the Battle of France. As French defence forces were increasingly overwhelmed, De Gaulle found himself part of a small group of politicians who argued against a negotiated surrender to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. As these views were shared by the President of the Council, Paul Reynaud, De Gaulle was sent as an emissary to the United Kingdom, where he was when the French government collapsed.
On 16 June, the new French President of the Council, Philippe Pétain, began negotiations with Axis officials. On 18 June, De Gaulle spoke to the French people via BBC radio. He asked French soldiers, sailors and airmen to join in the fight against the Nazis. In France, De Gaulle's "Appeal of the 18th of June" (Appel du 18 juin) was not widely heard, but subsequent discourse by De Gaulle could be heard nationwide. Some of the British Cabinet had attempted to block the speech, but were over-ruled by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. To this day, the Appeal of 18 June remains one of the most famous speeches in French history. Nevertheless, on 22 June, Pétain signed the surrender and became leader of the puppet regime known as Vichy France. (Vichy is the French town where the government was based.)
De Gaulle was tried in absentia in Vichy France and sentenced to death for treason; he, on the other hand, regarded himself as the last remaining member of the legitimate Reynaud government able to exercise power, seeing the rise to power of Pétain as an unconstitutional coup.

Prelude
The capitaine de corvette Thierry d'Argenlieu suggested the adoption of the Cross of Lorraine as symbol of the Free French, both to recall the perseverance of Joan of Arc, whose symbol it had been, and as an answer to the Nazi swastika.
In his general order n° 2 of 3 July 1940, Vice Admiral Émile Muselier, two days after assuming the post of chief of the naval and air forces of the Free French, created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red cross of Lorraine, and a cocarde also featuring the cross of Lorraine.
Following repeated broadcasts, by the end of July that year, 7,000 people had volunteered to join the Free French forces. The Free French Navy had fifty ships and some 3,700 men operating as an auxiliary force to the British Royal Navy.
A monument on Lyle Hill in Greenock in western Scotland, in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine combined with an anchor, was raised by subscription as a memorial to the Free French naval vessels which sailed from the Firth of Clyde to take part in the Battle of the Atlantic, and is also locally associated with the memory of the loss of the Maillé Brézé which exploded at the Tail of the Bank.
The French flag with the Cross of Lorraine, emblem of the Free French.
The Free French memorial on Lyle Hill, Greenock, overlooks Gourock.
Free French Naval Ensign and French Naval Honour Jack.
Free French Forces adrian helmet with the Cross of Lorraine replacing the 1939-1940 French Republic "RF" emblem.

Cross of Lorraine
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill deemed that, in German or Italian hands, the French fleet would have been a grave threat to the Allies. He ordered the French ships to rejoin the Allies and agree to be put out of use in a British, French, or neutral port. As a last resort, Churchill indicated that the French fleet would be destroyed by British attack.
The Royal Navy attempted to persuade the French Navy to agree to these terms. But, when that failed, they attacked the French Navy at Mers El Kébir in Algeria. This attack on 3 July 1940 caused bitterness and division in France (over 1,000 sailors had been killed), particularly in the Navy, and discouraged many French soldiers from joining the Free French forces in Britain and elsewhere.
Some French warships did remain on the Allied side and others re-joined later after the Axis occupation of Vichy France (codenamed Case Anton) and the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon. Those ships flew a separate flag, the Free French Naval Ensign, which is still in use as a mark of honour by ships that continue to use the name of a Free French ship.

Mers El Kébir
In the autumn of 1940, the French colonies of Cameroon, Chad, Moyen-Congo (Middle Congo), Oubangui-Chari and French Equatorial Africa joined the Free French side. With the addition of French African colonies came a large number of African colonial troops. The French South Pacific colonies of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and the New Hebrides joined the Free French later. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (near Canada) joined the Free French after an "invasion" on 24 December 1941. The South Pacific colonies would become vital Allied bases in the Pacific Ocean.
From July to November 1940, Free French forces fought French troops loyal to Vichy France during the West African Campaign. The outcome of this campaign was mixed with the Vichy French claiming victory at the Battle of Dakar and the Free French claiming victory at the Battle of Gabon. The French West African colonies remained Vichy French and the French Equatorial African colonies remained Free French. The French West African colonies did join Free France in November 1942 after Operation Torch.
French Indochina was invaded by Japan in September 1940, although the colony remained under nominal Vichy control. On 9 March 1945, the Japanese took full control of Indochina and launched the Second French Indochina Campaign. By the end of September 1945, with the assistance of British and Commonwealth forces, the Free French occupied the colony.
During 1941, Free French units fought with the British Commonwealth army against Italian troops in Ethiopia and Eritrea during the East African Campaign. Afterwards, again fighting alongside British Commonwealth forces in Syria and Lebanon, Free French forces once more faced French troops loyal to Vichy France during the Syria-Lebanon campaign. By July 1941, the Vichy forces of General Henri Dentz were defeated and Free French General Georges Catroux was appointed High Commissioner of the Levant. From this point, Free France controlled both Syria and Lebanon.
In September 1941, De Gaulle created the French National Committee (Comité National Français, or CNF), the Free French government-in-exile. On 24 November that year, the United States granted Lend-Lease support to the CNF.
Free French soldiers participated in the Allied North African campaign, in Libya and Egypt. General Marie Pierre Koenig and his unit, the 1st Free French Brigade, fought well against the Afrika Korps at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in June 1942, although eventually obliged to withdraw.
In late 1942, after the Battle of Madagascar, the Vichy French forces under Governor-General Armand Léon Annet were defeated and Free French General Paul Legentilhomme was appointed High Commissioner for Madagascar. On 28 December, after a prolonged blockade, the Vichy forces in French Somaliland surrendered and Free French forces occupied the colony.
During Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of Vichy-controlled French North Africa in November 1942, many Vichy troops surrendered and joined the Free French cause. Vichy coastal defences were captured by the French Resistance. Vichy General Henri Giraud rejoined the Allies, but he lacked the authority that was required and De Gaulle kept his leadership of the Free French, despite American objections.
The Nazis suspected Vichy determination after Torch and they occupied Vichy France in November 1942 (Case Anton). In response, the 60,000-strong Vichy forces in French North Africa — the Army of Africa — joined the Allied side as the French XIX Corps within the British 1st Army, which also included the U.S. II Corps and two British corps. They fought in Tunisia for six months until April 1943. Using antiquated equipment, they took heavy casualties—16,000—against modern armour and a desperate German enemy.
In 1943, Colonel (later General) Philippe Leclerc and Lieutenant-Colonel Camille d'Ornano led a column of 16,500 colonial troops from Chad to attack Italian forces in southern Libya and to occupy Kufra in the Fezzan region.
In November 1943, the French forces received enough military equipment through Lend-Lease to re-equip eight divisions and allow the return of borrowed British equipment. At this point, the Free French and ex-Vichy French Corps were merged.
Guadeloupe and Martinique in the West Indies, as well as French Guiana on the northern coast of South America, joined Free France in 1943.

The air war

Main article: Free French Naval Forces The war at sea
The French Resistance gradually grew in strength. Charles De Gaulle set a plan to bring together the different groups under his leadership. He changed the name of his movement to "Fighting French Forces" (Forces Françaises Combattantes) and sent Jean Moulin back to France to unite the eight major French Resistance groups into one organisation. Moulin got their agreement to form the "National Council of the Resistance" (Conseil National de la Résistance). Moulin was eventually captured, and died under brutal torture by the Gestapo.
Later, the resistance was more formally referred to as the "French Forces of the Interior" (Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur, or FFI). From October 1944 to March 1945, many FFI units were amalgamated into the French Army in order to regularize the units.

The Forces Françaises Combattantes and National Council of the Resistance
During the Italian Campaign of 1943 and 1944, 100,000 Free French soldiers fought on the Allied side, notably in the fighting on the Winter Line and Gustav Line. By the time of the Normandy Invasion, the Free French forces numbered more than 400,000 strong. The Free French 2nd Armoured Division, under General Leclerc, landed at Normandy and eventually led the drive towards Paris, whilst the divisions which had been fighting in Italy became part of the French First Army, under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, and joined the U.S. 7th Army in Operation Dragoon. This operation was the Allied invasion of southern France. The Allied forces advanced up the line of the Rhône River to liberate the Vosges and southern Alsace.
Fearing the Germans would destroy Paris if attacked by a frontal assault, General Dwight Eisenhower ordered his forces to cease their advance and reconnoitre the situation. At this time, Parisians rose up in full-scale revolt. As the Allied forces waited near Paris, General Eisenhower acceded to pressure from de Gaulle and his Free French Forces. De Gaulle was furious about the delay and was unwilling to allow the people of Paris to be slaughtered as had happened in the Polish capital of Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising. De Gaulle threatened to attack single-handedly. In response, General Eisenhower granted the Free French forces the honour of spearheading the Allied assault and liberating the capital city of France. Thus, on 24 August 1944, units of the Free French 2nd Armoured Division entered the city first during the Liberation of Paris.

Liberation of France
By September 1944, the Free French forces stood at 560,000. This number rose to 1 million by the end of the year. French forces were fighting in Alsace, the Alps, and Brittany. In May 1945, by the end of the war in Europe, the Free French forces comprised 1,250,000, personnel and included seven infantry divisions and three armoured divisions fighting in Germany. The French offered to send a division to the Pacific to help fight the Japanese towards the end of the war, but it ended before they could be sent.

End of the war

French First Army
Atlantic Army Detachment
Alpine Army Detachment

I Army Corps
II Army Corps
III Army Corps Order of Battle on 8 May 1945
(More cited on French Resistance)

Dimitri Amilakhvari
Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu
Georges Bidault
Pierre Billotte
Claude Hettier de Boislambert
René Cassin
Georges Catroux
Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel
André Dewavrin
Félix Éboué
Charles de Gaulle
Joseph Kessel
Marie Pierre Koenig
Edgard de Larminat
Pierre-Olivier Lapie
Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
Paul Legentilhomme
Anna Marly
Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre Messmer
Jean Moulin
Émile Muselier
Gaston Palewski
René Pleven
Gabriel Brunet de Sairigné
Maurice Schumann
Susan Travers
Martin Valin
Raoul Magrin-Vernerey Notable French who joined after 1942

2008-04-23T08:23:00.001-07:00

Thai Airways International (Thai: การบินไทย) is the national air carrier of Thailand, operating out of Suvarnabhumi Airport, and is a founding member of the Star Alliance network. Like Singapore Airlines, Thai offers some of the longest non-stop commercial flights from Bangkok to New York and Los Angeles. Skytrax awarded Thai Airways International 'Worlds Best Cabin Staff' in 2006, while placing second in the 'Airline of the Year' category in 2007, second to only Singapore Airlines.

History

Main article: Thai Airways International destinations Destinations
Thai Airways Cargo operate 747-200F freighter aircraft service, thrice weekly Bangkok-Dubai-Paris in cooperation with Focus Air Cargo.

Cargo
Thai has four travel classes: Economy, Premium Economy, Royal Silk and Royal First.

Travel Classes
Economy Class is the cheapest class on Thai. Seat pitch on Thai Economy offers passengers up to 36" pitch in selected aircraft with an average of 34" on all aircraft. All Economy seats in Airbus A340-500, Airbus A340-600 and Boeing B777-200ER have individual Audio-Video On Demand (AVOD) In-flight Entertainment (IFE) system. Passengers will be given a choice of Thai or Western meals. Alcoholic beverages are free and served to passengers over the age of 18.

Economy Class
The new Premium Economy Class is only available on inter-continental flights between Bangkok(BKK) and Los Angeles(LAX) or New York(JFK) on Airbus A340-500 aircraft. The fare for Premium Economy Class is slightly higher than Economy but lower than Royal Silk (Business) Class. Premium Economy seating is configured as 2-3-2 rather than the standard 2-4-2 in Economy. Seat pitch is increased to 42", 135 degree angle of recline and the seat features a leg-rest. Premium Economy class passengers also have more choices over their meal selection.
On some long-haul routes such as Bangkok - Copenhagen, Bangkok - Stockholm, aircraft with previous generation Business Class seats are used - therefore the seats are sold under Premium Economy Class fare.

Royal Silk (Business) Class
The new Royal First Class was introduced with the arrival of the Airbus A340-600. It offers 8 solo flat-beds. Furthermore, THAI's retrofited 12 B747-400s were also equipped with this B/E Aerospace seat which mostly served Europe-Australia and some intra-Asian flights.

Royal First Class
Thai Airways International's Royal Orchid Plus is the first frequent flyer program established in Thailand . It has a membership of over two million members world-wide. Individuals above the age of two can join the program.
Earning Miles
There are two types of mile which can be earned towards a Royal Orchid Plus account.
1. Eligible Qualifying Miles (EQM) this type of mile is earned on flown:
Qualifying Miles (Q Miles) are the actual miles flown and additional class of service miles on Thai and Star Alliance airlines. Royal Orchid Plus miles are earned based on the paid class of travel and subject to eligible booking class codes of the airline flown.
2. Partner Miles are earned from various non-airline partners, such as hotels.
Status Tiers
There are three tiers in the Royal Orchid Plus program

Thai Airways flights
TG codeshare flights on routes departing from/to Bangkok (Malaysian Airlines, Emirates Airlines, El Al Israel Airlines and China Eastern Airlines)
Star Alliance flights
Jet Airways flights
Member - entry-level status
Silver - requires 10,000 Q Miles in one calendar year or 15,000 Q Miles from the date of enrolment up to December 31 of the next complete calendar year
Gold - requires 50,000 Q Miles in one calendar year, 80,000 Q Miles from the date of enrolment up to December 31 of the next complete calendar year, or 40 international flown sectors on THAI within any 1 calendar year. Royal Orchid Plus

Main article: Thai Airways International fleet Fleet
Thai Airways International codeshares with the following airlines on the following routes:

Swiss International Airlines -codeshare on service between Bangkok and Zurich, Switzerland. Service is operated by either Thai or Swiss.
Emirates -codeshare on service from Bangkok to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Thai operates the service and Emirates codeshares it.
Malaysia Airlines -codeshare on service between Thailand and Malaysia. Thai takes some of the service, Malaysian the rest.
El Al -codeshare on service to Tel Aviv, Israel. All flights are operated by El Al and codeshared by Thai.
Japan Airlines (JAL) -codeshare on service to several destinations in Japan, including Osaka and Nagoya. Flights are operated by JAL or Thai Airways.
Jet Airways -codeshare operated by Jet Airways codesharing with Thai to Indian destinations.
Royal Jordanian -codeshare operated by Royal Jordanian codesharing with Thai to Amman, Jordan.
Air Madagascar -codeshare operated by Air Madagascar codesharing with Thai to Antananarivo.
Qatar Airways -codeshare operated by Qatar Airways codesharing with Thai to Doha, Qatar.
Gulf Air -codeshare operated by Gulf Air codesharing with Thai to Bahrain.
Egyptair -codeshare operated by Egypt Air codesharing with Thai to Cairo, Egypt.
Pakistan International Airlines -codeshare on services to Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad in Pakistan Codeshare agreements

TG 0XX : Northeastern Thailand
TG 1XX : Northern Thailand
TG 2XX : Southern Thailand
TG 3XX : South Asia and Myanmar
TG 4XX : Southeast Asia ex. Myanmar and Indochina and Philippines
TG 5XX : Middle East and Pakistan
TG 60X - TG 67X : East Asia and Philippines
TG 68X - TG 69X : Indochina
TG 7XX : America and Africa
TG 8XX : Special Flight
TG 90X - TG 97X : Europe
TG 98X - TG 99X : Australia and New Zealand
TG 1xxx : Domestic flight from/to Bangkok's Don Muang Airport Incidents and accidents

Nok Air (a low-cost carrier of Thai Airways International)
Thai Airways (merged into Thai Airways International in 1988)

2008-04-22T10:37:00.001-07:00

A

Basílio da Gama
Bento Prado de Almeida Ferraz Júnior B

Cacaso
Camillo de Jesus Lima
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Carlito Azevedo
Cassiano Ricardo
Castro Alves
Catulo da Paixão Cearense
Casimiro de Abreu
Cecília Meireles
Chacal (Ricardo de Carvalho Duarte)
Charles
Claudia Roquette-Pinto
Cláudio Manuel da Costa
Cláudio Willer
Coelho Neto
Cora Coralina
Cruz e Sousa
Carlos Alberto da Costa Nunes C

Davino Ribeiro de Sena
Décio Pignatari
Donizete Galvão
Dora Ribeiro D

Emílio de Meneses
Emílio Moura E

Fagundes Varela
Felipe Fortuna
Fernanda Guimarães
Ferreira Gullar
Francisco Alvim
Francisco Otaviano
Francisco Jailson Lima Pereira
Frederico Barbosa
Francisco Miguel de Moura F

Gonçalves de Magalhães
Félix Maranganha
Gonçalves Dias
Gregório de Matos
Guilherme de Almeida
Guimarães Passos G

Haroldo de Campos
Hermes Fontes
Hilda Hilst H

Isaías Barbosa I

João Cabral de Melo Neto
João Guimarães Rosa
João Ribeiro
Jorge de Lima
José Albano
Junqueira Freire
João Pedro Roriz
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque J

Kátya Chamma K

Laurindo Rabelo
Leila Miccolis
Leônidas de Albuquerque
Luis Delfino
Luiz Guimaraes L

Machado de Assis
Manoel Carlos G. de Almeida
Manuel Bandeira
Marcelo Gama
Mário de Andrade
Martins Fontes
Menotti del Picchia
Murilo Mendes
Mario Quintana M

Nicolas Behr
Nelson Ascher N
Nicole Hoare

Olavo Bilac
Olegario Mariano
Orestes Barbosa
Oswald de Andrade O

Paulo Ferraz
Paulo Henriques Britto
Paulo Leminski
Pedro de Alcantara
Pedro Morato Krahenbuhl
Poemeus Verteus P

Raimundo Correia
Raphael Luís Thomas
Raul Bopp
Raul de Leoni
Régis Bonvicino
Ribeiro Couto
Roberto Piva
Rogério Duarte
Rogério Arvate
Ronald de Carvalho
Ruy Proença R

Salomão Rovedo
Santa Rita Durão
Sylvio Back S

Tânia Martins
Tavinho Paes
Tomás Antonio Gonzaga
Torquato Neto T

Ubiratan Rosa U

Vicente de Carvalho
Vinícius de Morais W
Poetas Categoria:Literatura do Brasil Categoria:Poetas do Brasil

Y. Fujyama

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

Economy Overview
This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Maldives at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of Rufiyaa.
For purchasing power parity comparisons, the US Dollar is exchanged at 8.36 Rufiyaa only.
The Maldives has experienced relatively low inflation throughout the recent years. Real GDP growth averaged about 10% in the 1980s. It expanded by an exceptional 16.2% in 1990, declined to 4% in 1993, and, over the 1995-2004 decade, real GDP growth averaged just over 7.5% per year. In 2005, as a result of the tsunami, the GDP contracted by about 5.5%; however, the economy rebounded in 2006 with a 13% increase.
The Maldives has been running a merchandise trade deficit in the range of $200 to $260 million since 1997. The trade deficit declined to $233 million in 2000 from $262 million in 1999. In 2004 it was $444 million.
International shipping to and from the Maldives is mainly operated by the private sector with only a small fraction of the tonnage carried on vessels operated by the national carrier, Maldives Shipping Management Ltd.
Over the years, Maldives has received economic assistance from multilateral development organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme, Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. Individual donors, including Japan, India, Australia, and European and Arab countries (such as Islamic Development Bank and the Kuwaiti Fund) also have contributed. See: Economic Aid to Maldives
In 1956, a bilateral agreement gave United Kingdom access to Gan in Addu Atoll in the far south, to establish an air facility in Gan in return for British aid. However, the agreement ended in 1976, shortly after the closing of the Gan air station.

Macro-economic trend

Economic Sectors
As of 2007, the Maldives is successfully promoted for its natural assets for tourism. The beautiful, unpolluted beaches on small coral islands, blue waters and glorious sunsets attract tourists worldwide, bringing in about $325 million a year. Tourism and other services in the tertiary sector contributed 33% to the GDP in 2000.
Since the establishment of the first resort in 1972, over 84 islands have been developed as tourist resorts, with a total capacity of some 16,000 beds. The number of tourists (mainly from Europe) visiting the Maldives increased from 1,100 in 1972 to 280,000 in 1994. In 2000, tourist arrivals exceeded 466,000. The average occupancy rate is 68%, with the average number of tourists staying for 8 days and spending about $755.
It is recorded that over 500,000 tourists visited the islands in 2003.

Tourism
This sector employs about 20% of the labour force and contributes 10% of GDP. All fishing is done by line as the use of nets is illegal. Production in the fishing sector, was approximately 119,000 metric tons in 2000, most of which were skipjack tuna. About 50% of fish is exported, especially to Sri Lanka, Germany, UK, Thailand, Japan, and Singapore. Almost 42% of fish exports consist of dried or canned fish, and another 31% is frozen and the remaining 10% is exported as fresh fish. Total exports of fish reached about $40 million in 2000. The fishing fleet consists of some 1,140 small, flat-bottomed boats (dhonis). Since the dhonis have shifted from sailing boats to outboard motors, the annual tuna catch per fisherman has risen from 1.4 metric tons in 1983 to 5.6 in 1999.

Fishing
Due to the availability of poor soil and scarceness of arable land in the islands, agriculture is limited to only a few subsistence crops, such as coconut, banana, breadfruit, papayas, mangoes, taro, betel, chilies, sweet potatoes, and onions. Agriculture contributes about 6% of GDP.

Agriculture
See also: Industries in Maldives
The industrial sector provides only about 7% of GDP. Traditional industry consists of boat building and handicrafts, while modern industry is limited to a few tuna canneries, five garment factories, a bottling plant, and a few enterprises in the capital producing PVC pipe, soap, furniture, and food products.

Industry
Traditional economic activities such as mat weaving, jewelry making and lacquer work are also found in the Maldives.

Other
There is growing concern towards the coral reef and marine life due to coral mining (used for building and jewelry making), sand dredging, solid waste pollution and oil spills from boats. Mining of sand and coral has destroyed the natural coral reef that once protected several important islands, now making them highly susceptible to the erosive effects of the sea. The destruction of large coral beds due to heat is also a growing concern.

Environmental concerns
The government expenditure for education was 18% of the budget in 1999. Both public and private schools have made remarkable progress in the last decade. Further, there are private institutions that are staffed by community-paid teachers without formal training who provide basic numeracy and literacy skills in addition to religious knowledge.
The modern schools are run by both the government and private sector, providing primary and secondary education simultaneously. As the modern English-medium school system expands, the traditional system is gradually being upgraded. By early 1998, more than 30 islands were equipped to provide education for grades, 8, 9, and 10. Some 164 islands provided education up to grade 5, 6, or 7. In Malé is the only school for grades 11 and 12, with a school in the southern most island of Gan scheduled to offer the final 2 years starting in 2002.
Seven post-secondary technical training institutes provide opportunities for youth to gain skills that are in demand. The World Bank has already committed $17 million for education development in 2000-04, and plans to commit further $15 million for human development and distance learning during this period. Over 2001-03, the ADB planned to support post-secondary education development in Maldives.

2008-04-20T09:53:00.001-07:00

The guzheng, or gu zheng (Chinese: 古箏; pinyin: gǔzhēng) or zheng (箏) (gu-, 古 means "ancient") is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It belongs to the zither family of string instruments.
The guzheng is the parent instrument of the Japanese koto, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum, and the Vietnamese đàn tranh.
The guzheng should not to be confused with the guqin, another ancient Chinese zither but without bridges.

Description
The ancestry of the guzheng can be traced back to two other Chinese plucked zithers, the se and the guqin. The guzheng has existed since the Warring States Period and became especially popular during the Qin dynasty. The number of strings on the guzheng has always fluctuated, as we have as few as 6 to as many as 23 strings during the Tang dynasty. The earliest record of the guzheng in Shi Ji is attributed to the historian Sima Qian in 91 BCE.
Until 1961, the common guzheng had 16 strings, although by the mid-20th century 18-string guzhengs were also in use. In 1961 Xu Zhengao together with Wang Xunzhi introduced the first 21-string guzheng after two years of research and development. In 1961, they also invented the "S-shaped" left string rest, which was quickly adopted by all guzheng makers and is still used today, whether in the shape of the letter "S", "C", etc. This curve allows for greater ease in tuning the strings and, combined with strings of varied thickness, allows for greater resonance in both the deeper and higher pitch ranges; thin timbre was a result of simply adding more strings to the instrument, a problem encountered in the making of the "improved" gayageums of North Korea. The 21-string zheng is the most commonly used, but some traditional musicians still use the 16-string, especially along the southeastern coastal provinces of China and in Taiwan.
The guzheng is tuned to a pentatonic scale, the 16-string zheng is tuned to give three complete octaves, while the 21-string zheng has four complete octaves.

Playing styles and performers
The guzheng has been used by the Chinese performer Wang Yong (王勇) in the rock band of Cui Jian, as well as in free improvised music. Zhang Yan used it in a jazz context, performing and recording with Asian American jazz bandleader Jon Jang. Other zheng players who perform in non-traditional styles include Randy Raine-Reusch, Mei Han, Zi Lan Liao, Levi Chen, Andreas Vollenweider, Jaron Lanier, Mike Hovancsek, and David Sait. The American composer Lou Harrison (1917–2003) played and composed for the instrument. Jerusalem based multi-instrumentalist Bradley Fish is the most widely recorded artist of loops for the guzheng. Fish is known for using the guzheng with a rock-influenced style and electronic effects on his 1996 collaboration "The Aquarium Conspiracy" with Sugarcubes/Björk drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson. The virtual band Gorillaz used the guzheng in their song "Hong Kong" from the Help: A Day In The Life compilation. The Canadian composer Kevin Austin[1] has written several pieces for guzheng and electroacoustic sounds, among them Three traditional Pieces (2003), Four Arts (2006), and the larger Ritual Mosaic of Masks, Mirrors and Shadows in 2006 commissioned by a Chinese-Canadian virtuoso guzheng performer Chih-Lin Chou[2]with assistance of Canada Council of Arts, for guzheng, violin, percussion, video Freida Abtan,and six-channels of ea.

Listening

Guzheng video from Robert Garfias site
Video of Jiang Xiao-Qing with Ryuichi Sakamoto
Cover of "All Along the Watchtower" by Bradley Fish, with steel-string acoustic guitar and guzheng

2008-04-19T09:50:00.001-07:00

The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania and a number of other islands in the Indian
^ There are minor variations from these three time zones, see Time in Australia.
Wikimedia Atlas of Australia, holding maps related to Australia.
Australia at WikiMapia
About Australia from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
CIA World Factbook entry on Australia
Governments of Australia Entry Point (Federal, State & Territory)
Australian Government Entry Portal
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Community organisations portal
Cultural Institutions
Tourism Australia
Australia travel guide from Wikitravel
Satellite image of Australia (Google Maps)
Australia at the Open Directory Project

2008-04-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

The Maryland Terrapins, most commonly referred to as the Terps, represent the University of Maryland, College Park in NCAA sports. The University of Maryland is an NCAA Division I-A school that belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference and currently sponsors 27 varsity sports. Their mascot is Testudo the Turtle, who was born in 1932, when Dr. Curley Byrd suggested that the school's mascot should be the diamondback terrapin. Their official colors are red, white, black, and gold.

History
The University of Maryland has a number of traditions associated with the school's athletics programs. Traditionally, Maryland athletics have put the emphasis on fair play and competition over the outcome of a particular contest.

Traditions
Victory Song The Maryland Victory Song was written in 1928 by Thornton W. Allen, a student at the university. It is played frequently during Terp Basketball and Football games. During Football games, it is played after every touchdown the Terps score, regardless of whether the team is winning or losing, celebrating the immediate victory of accomplishment. Ironically, the "Victory" song is played even after defeat. The lyrics are as follows:
Maryland we're all behind you, Raise high the black and gold. For there is nothing half so glorious, As to see our team victorious. We've got the team boys, We've got the steam boys, So keep on fighting, don't give in! M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D Maryland will win During the M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D section of the victory song, Terrapins fans show their clenched fists, and alternate pumping them in the air, beginning with their right fist on the "M" and alternating between left and right with each letter of the MARYLAND. The motion resembles someone climbing a ladder.
Alma Mater & Fight Song Other official school songs include the school's Alma Mater and Fight Song. Each of these are played at every home football game during the pregame festivities. The theme song to the 1980s cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been adopted as an unofficial school song. Fans generally shout the "Turtle Power" and "Heroes in a half-shell" lyrics in the chorus. In basketball competitions, when Maryland is all but assured of a win, an impromptu version of Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him) Goodbye" is performed to wish the competitor a farewell and good luck in future games. This may be accompanied by a rousing chant of "o-ver-ra-ted", if in fact the quality of the visiting team's play is not up to the standards of their current ranking. The song is also sung to call attention to players on the other team who foul out of the game.
"Hey, You Suck!" A popular saying among the students at Maryland is a simple "Hey, You Suck!" directed at opponents. Students have incorporated the phrase into Gary Glitter's popular sports anthem "Rock and Roll Part Two" (often referred to as the "Hey Song"), leading the school to cease playing the song. They have also incorporated it into the traditional "Na-na-na Na Hey Hey Goodbye" song uttered by sports fans following a foul-out of an opposing basketball player. Currently at basketball games immediately prior to tipoff, and at football games following a Terrapins touchdown, the student section begins performing an impromptu a cappella version of "Rock and Roll Part Two", as the band was banned from playing the song.

Songs & Chants
Key Plays At football games, Terp fans also shake their keys in addition to the newspapers to signify urgency ("Key" Plays). This is usually done at the direction of the Student Section unofficial Lead Motivator, "Special K." This has been done by other groups of fans throughout the country
Move those Chains During a football contest, when the Terps achieve a first down, the students advise the sideline chain crew to "move the chains" by hollering and pointing toward the first down.
The Curly Byrd During football games, when there is a critical offensive series, fans in the student section will flap their arms (performing the Curly "Byrd") to warn other spectators to keep quiet. This allows the offense to stay focused and not become distracted by on-goings in the stands.

Football
At the beginning of each men's basketball game, Maryland Coach Gary Williams pumps his fist to signify a good game.
Midnight Madness Midnight Madness was originally started by Maryland Head Coach Lefty Driesell in 1970. Midnight Madness is held at the earliest time the Men's Basketball Team can practice, which used to be midnight on the first day of practice. Students would attend the practice and over the years it has evolved into a circus-like atmosphere, including light shows, magic shows, the mascot trampoline challenge, skits, food, beverage, and other fanfare.
Recently, Maryland and some other schools have moved the start of Midnight Madness to earlier in the day - generally around 7 o'clock - with permission of the NCAA, of course. This is to encourage more families and fans who aren't even students to attend the event. As a result of this change, Midnight Madness has been rebranded as "Maryland Madness".
Free Throw Wave Students hold their arms above their heads when players are shooting free throws during a basketball contest. When the home team is shooting a free throw, and successfully completes the task, the students will drop their arms to their side, in addition to uttering a "whoomp" sound. When the opposing team is at the line, the students wave their arms and hands in tandem with the shot, to confuse the shooter...
One finger "bandit" Accompanying the free throw wave during a home team attempt, the UMD student will hold up one finger (typically the pointer) to signify the one point that is achieved during a successful free throw event. The students chant "uumph" as the free-throw is successful to compliment the "bandit".
Newspaper Shaking Maryland students attempt to read the newspaper as the opposing team is being introduced. They shake the paper as they read. When the opposing team's introductions are finished, the students crumple up the paper into a ball and throw it into the air. Magazines may also be substituted.
Also while the students are attempting to read their newspapers, it is a common practice for them to yell "sucks!" after each name of the opposing team and coaching staff is read, to voice their displeasure of an uncomfortable presence in the area.
For example: "(PA announcer) 'The head coach of the Blue Devils, Mike Krzyzewski.' (Students will articulate) 'Sucks!'" It is timed such that it is heard continuously.

Basketball
Beanies Between the years of 1920 - 1960, freshman students were mandated to wear beanies all over campus, including sporting events. These were known as "rat caps" for guys and "rabbit caps" for gals. A few students keep this tradition alive even today.
The Wave During times of extreme excitement during a sporting event, the fans will conduct a human "wave" that engulfs the stadium. The wave involves fans standing up in tandem in a particular section. As that section starts to sit down, the adjoining section begins to rise, simulating a water-wave. This action continues across the stadium as the frenzy rises. A significant amount of hollaring accompanies the wave.
The Crew The Crew is an exceptionally dedicated group of Men's Soccer fans. They generally sit behind the goal the opposing team is defending and berate the opposing goalie, referring to him by formal (given) name. Members of the Crew often travel to away games to continue to support their Terps. The Crew also organize activities to join the soccer environment.

Other traditions
In the past decade, the University of Maryland experienced a number of on-and-off the field incidents including rioting, harassment of opposing players by the student population, and the destruction of property on campus. The incidents have caused negative publicity for the university. Most eggregious were the events that occurred after sporting contests regardless of a win or loss.
In the early 2000s, security officers quelled sports-related rioting at least three times in as many years. After a major basketball loss in 2000, one thousand freshmen and sophomores swarmed across campus and caused significant property damage.

Incidents
While the Terps do not have a generally recognized school rival overall, they do share a select history both within the ACC and beyond the conference.

Rivalries
The Maryland-Duke rivalry in men's basketball has taken on interest in recent years. Some trace the origins of the rivalry to a game played at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 9, 2000, in which Maryland, led by Juan Dixon's 31 points, upset then second-ranked Duke, ending the Blue Devils' streaks of 31 consecutive ACC victories and 46 consecutive home victories. The two teams would go on to meet in the finals of the ACC tournament, where Duke would prevail, taking two out of three meetings that season.
The two teams entered the 2001-02 season among the national championship favorites. They met twice during the regular season: a 21-point Duke victory in Durham, and a 14-point Maryland victory in top-ranked Duke's final visit to Cole Field House. The College Park matchup is noted for a memorable play before halftime, as Jason Williams, attempting to set up Duke's last shot, turned his eyes towards Coach K for instruction. As he did, Steve Blake stole the ball from him and scored on a lay-up, giving Maryland an eight-point lead and momentum. In the NCAA's, Duke would be upset in the Sweet Sixteen by fifth-seeded Indiana; Maryland would go on to win the title, defeating that very same Indiana team in the championship game.
On January 18, 2003, Duke, relying heavily on a highly-touted freshman class, came to the newly-opened Comcast Center undefeated and top-ranked. Maryland, which was able to start five seniors, overcame a halftime deficit and won by 15 in a manner reminiscient of the teams' previous meeting. Duke would go on to win the rematch a month later, and the following season, took the regular-season series. The home game of the series was notorious for ESPN microphones picking up the Terps student section chanting "Fuck you, JJ!" at Blue Devil shooting guard JJ Redick as he attempted two late free throws, which caused the ACC to fine Maryland an undisclosed sum of money and reprimand the administration, asking them to better control their students.
Maryland ended the 2003-04 regular season with a 7-9 conference record. With wins against Wisconsin, top-ranked Florida, and North Carolina, Maryland entered the ACC tournament as a probable team to make the NCAAs. Sixth-seeded Maryland upset third-seeded Wake Forest and second-seeded North Carolina State to advance to final game against top-seeded Duke. Maryland led for much of the first half, while Duke made a run in the second, leading by 12 with less than five minutes left in regulation. Maryland, buoyed by the play of John Gilchrist, made a series of plays down the stretch to tie the game at 77 at the end of regulation. With many on Duke's team, including Shelden Williams, in foul trouble or disqualified, Maryland went on to outscore Duke 18-10 in overtime, resulting in a 95-87 victory and the school's first ACC tournament title in 20 years.
In the 2004-05 season, Maryland swept the Blue Devils, becoming the first conference team to do so since Wake Forest did nearly a decade earlier. They also became the first school to win three straight games against Duke since Michigan accomplished the feat in 1995, 1996, and 1997. The victories over Duke were negated, however, by losses to supposedly weaker conference foes like Miami, North Carolina State, and Clemson, who defeated the Terrapins three times during the season. Maryland was relegated to the NIT; Duke won the conference tournament, earned a one-seed, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the eighth consecutive year.
Duke was a national championship favorite during the 2005-06 season, and was able to sweep a Maryland team rife with internal issues and underachieving players. Maryland, despite an 8-8 record, went back to the NIT and lost in the first round; Duke earned another conference title, another one-seed, and another trip to the Sweet Sixteen.
As of March 2007, Duke holds a 101-60 lead in the all-time series. Since the 1999-2000 season, however, Duke holds an 11-9 advantage. Maryland won both of its games against Duke in 2007, completing its second sweep of Duke in 3 years. The game is the source of frenzied fan interest in College Park and has drawn large television audiences.
Because of the intense nature of the rivalry in Men's Basketball, dislike between the schools has spilled over to other sports, notably men's soccer and women's basketball.

Duke - Basketball
The series between the Terrapins and Nittany Lions has been dominated by Penn State University. The lone Maryland win in the modern era came in 1961. 1984 the Terps lost freshman safety Anthony Brown of Portsmouth, Va. following a nightclub shooting incident prior to a Penn State game. In recent years, Penn State has drawn the ire of Maryland fans by successfully recruiting some greater Washington, D.C., area players, an area that had previously been successful for Maryland. Most notably, Forestville, Maryland high school football standout Antonio Logan-El, after initially giving a verbal commitment to the Terrapins, instead chose the Lions over Maryland on live television at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore, MD in 2006. Logan-El has since transferred to Towson University. The schools met nearly every year between 1960 and 1993 with Penn State winning 70-7 in the final installment of the series. The teams are not scheduled to meet anytime through 2013.

Penn State - Football
The Terrapins and Cavaliers have met in football since 1913, but have met annually since 1957 although Virginia joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1954. The series has included a stretch from 1969 through 1987 when the Terps defeated the Cavaliers, including a conference championship clinching win in 1984 at Charlottesville. Virginia would turn the tables on the Terps from 1988 through 2000, with the exception of Maryland winning in 1990 in Charlottesville and 1991 in College Park. The most heartbreaking game in the series for the Terps came in the final game of the 1999 season where the Terps were leading 30-27 with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation where they gave up a late touchdown to the Cavaliers, thus losing by 4 points, 34-30, even though LaMont Jordan ran for a single-game school record 306 yards, which still stands to this day. That loss by the Terps denied them a possible bowl invitation and a winning season.
Until Maryland won at Charlottesville in 2006 and Virginia won at College Park in 2007, the recent history of the series had both teams alternating wins at their home field since 2000 (Maryland winning in 2001, 2003 and 2005, Virginia winning in 2000, 2002, and 2004). As of October 2006, Maryland has the lead in the overall series, 41-29-2.

Virginia - Football
Maryland and West Virginia share a competitive rivalry in football. The series is the longest current continuous non-conference series for either school, the two teams having met each year since 1980. As of September 2007, the series stands at 23-21-2 in favor of West Virginia. When Ralph Friedgen became head coach of the football team in 2001, he reportedly was offered a chance either to continue or discontinue the annual scheduling of the Terps-Mountaineers matchup, and he chose to maintain the games and the budding 21st-century rivalry. After the Terps won four straight against West Virginia from 2001-2004 (including the 2004 Gator Bowl), the Mountaineers have bounced back, winning the last four. Especially disheartening to Maryland fans has been the play of running back Steve Slaton, who joined the Mountainers after having his scholarship to Maryland revoked by Ralph Freidgen. Slaton got his revenge in the 2006 and 2007 meetings, racking up a total of 332 yards and 5 touchdowns. The series will take a brief hiatus in 2008 and 2009 as Maryland begins a home-and-home series with California. The series is rumored to resume in 2010.

West Virginia - Football
Johns Hopkins University and the Terps have a long-standing rivalry in lacrosse. Both teams are located in the state of Maryland, which geographically categorizes JHU as a "regional" rival.

Johns Hopkins - Lacrosse
To the students, every school in the ACC is designated a competitive match, considering Maryland has no true rival. Due to the frequency (mostly round-robin format) in which the teams play in a variety of sports, there is some bad blood from individuals toward every other ACC school. As the ACC expansion in 2005 increased the number of teams to 12, this has diluted the ability of Maryland to continue a round robin schedule with most schools.

ACC in General

Men

Women

Postseason history

1893- D.C. Champions
1937- Southern Conference Champions
1947- Gator Bowl Co-Champions
1949- Gator Bowl Champions
1951- Sugar Bowl Champions, Southern Conference Champions
1953- Orange Bowl Runners-Up, National Champions
1955- Orange Bowl Runners-Up, ACC Champions
1973- Peach Bowl Runners-Up
1974- Liberty Bowl Runners-Up, ACC Champions
1975- Gator Bowl Champions, ACC Champions
1976- Cotton Bowl Runners-Up, ACC Champions
1977- Hall of Fame Bowl Champions
1978- Sun Bowl Runners-Up
1980- Tangerine Bowl Runners-Up
1982- Aloha Bowl Runners-Up
1983- Citrus Bowl Runners-Up, ACC Champions
1984- Sun Bowl Champions, ACC Champions
1985- Cherry Bowl Champions, ACC Champions
1990- Independence Bowl Co-Champions
2001- Orange Bowl Runners-Up, ACC Champions
2002- Peach Bowl Champions
2003- Gator Bowl Champions
2006- Champs Sports Bowl Champions Football

ACC Champions - 1958, 1984, 2004
NIT Champions - 1972
Final Four - 2001
National Champions - 2002 Men's basketball

1989 - NCAA Women's Final Four
1992 - NCAA Women's Final Four
2006 - National Champions Women's basketball
Baseball
Women's field hockey
Men's golf
Men's lacrosse Team finishes
Individual finishes
Men's tennis
Men's Ice Hockey

Southern Conference Champions - 1936
ACC Champions, NCAA Tournament Appearance - 1965, 1970, 1971
NCAA Champions - 1987, 1993, 1999, 2005, 2006
NCAA Runner-Up - 1995, 2001
1961- ACC Individual Champion (Paul Quinn)
1964- ACC Champions
USILA Champions - 1936, 1939, 1940, 1955, 1956
USILA Co-Champions - 1937, 1959
National Co-Champions - 1967
NCAA Runner-Up - 1971, 1976, 1979, 1995, 1997, 1998
NCAA Champions - 1973, 1975
ACC Champions - 2004, 2005
AIAW Champions - 1981
NCAA Runner-Up - 1984, 1985, 1990, 1991, 1994
NCAA Champions - 1986, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
ACC Tournament Champions - 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003
ACC Champions - 1953 - 1962, 1964 - 1966, 1969, 1971
NCAA Runner-Up - 1960, 1962
NCAA Co-Champions - 1969
NCAA Champions - 2005
1960- Regular Season Champions
1961- Regular Season Tri-Champions
1962- Regular Season Champions, Championship Meet Champions
1963- Regular Season Champions, Championship Meet Tri-Champions
1964- Regular Season Champions, Championship Meet Co-Champions
1965- Regular Season Champions, Championship Meet Champions
1970- Regular Season Champions, Championship Meet Champions
1959 Thurlo Park- 440 freestyle, Michael Vaeth- 1500 freestyle, Bob Kohl- One-meter diving, three-meter diving
1960 Ray Ostrander- 100 backstroke, 200 IM, Bob Kohl- One-meter diving, three-meter diving
1961 Ray Ostrander- 50 freestyle, Dave Fleming- 100 butterfly
1962 Kevin Gilson- 100 freestyle, Bob Squires- One-meter diving
1963 Raoul Rebillard- 500 freestyle, Hugh Lupien- 200 butterfly, Ron Squires- One-meter diving, three-meter diving
1964 Kevin Gilson- 50 freestyle, Bill Doheney- 100 breaststroke, Ron Squires- One-meter diving, Raoul Rebillard- 100 butterfly
1965 Phil Denkevitz- 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, Bill Nullmeyer- 200 freestyle, Bill Doheney- 100 breaststroke
1966 Wayne Pawlowski- 100 breaststroke, Doug Springer- 200 breaststroke
1967 Dave Helm- 1650 freestyle, Wayne Pawlowski- 100 breaststroke, Doug Springer- 200 breaststroke
1968 Dave Helm- 500 freestyle, 1650 freestyle
ACC Champions - 1957, 1964
ACC Champions - 1999, 2001 Other Sports
Baseball
Basketball
Broadcasting
Football
Golf
Gymnastics
Men's lacrosse
Men's soccer
Track & Field

Eric Milton, Derek Hacopian, Buck Herzog, Charlie Keller
Lonny Baxter, Len Bias, Steve Blake, Keith Booth, Adrian Branch, Nik Caner-Medley, Juan Dixon, Len Elmore, Steve Francis, John Gilchrist, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Albert King, Terry Long, John Lucas II, Chris McCray, Tom McMillen, Drew Nicholas, Gene Shue, Joe Smith, D. J. Strawberry, Chris Wilcox, Gary Williams, Buck Williams, Walt Williams
Bonnie Bernstein, Tim Brant, Norman Chad, Connie Chung, Tim Kurkjian, Scott Van Pelt, Pam Ward
Eric Barton, Bear Bryant, Curome Cox, Vernon Davis, Darren Drozdov, Boomer Esiason, Domonique Foxworth, Ralph Friedgen, Jared Gaither, E.J. Henderson, Kris Jenkins, Stan Jones, LaMont Jordan, Jermaine Lewis, Terry Long, Shawne Merriman, Kevin Plank (founder of Under Armour), Adam Podlesh, Mike Tice, Randy White, Frank Wycheck, D'Qwell Jackson, Madieu Williams, Randy Starks
Fred Funk
Dominique Dawes
Frank Urso
Taylor Twellman, Jason Garey, Robbie Rogers, Marc Burch, Chris Seitz, Maurice Edu, Noah Palmer, Seth Stammler
Leo Cullen, Michael Dello-Russo, Domenic Mediate, Clarence Goodson, Scott Buete, Danny Califf
Irene Knox, Renaldo Nehemiah After Maryland
†- NFL Europe ‡- Arena Football League ¥- Canadian Football League

Rob Abiamiri - Baltimore Ravens
Eric Barton - New York Jets
C.J. Brooks - Miami Dolphins
John Condo - New England Patriots
Delbert Cowsette - New York Dragons‡
Curome Cox - Denver Broncos
Renard Cox - Hamilton Tiger-Cats¥
Vernon Davis - San Francisco 49ers
Jeff Dugan - Minnesota Vikings
Melvin Fowler - Buffalo Bills
Dominique Foxworth - Denver Broncos
Jared Gaither - Baltimore Ravens
Latrez Harrison - New York Dragons‡
E.J. Henderson - Minnesota Vikings
Stephon Heyer - Washington Redskins
Eric Hicks - Kansas City Chiefs
Charles Hill - Orlando Predators‡
Shaun Hill - San Francisco 49ers
D'Qwell Jackson - Cleveland Browns
Kris Jenkins - Carolina Panthers
Leon Joe - Chicago Bears
LaMont Jordan - Oakland Raiders
John Kaleo - Columbus Destroyers‡
Scott McBrien - Montreal Alouettes¥, Rhein Fire†
Shawne Merriman - San Diego Chargers
Marlon Moye-Moore - Orlando Predators‡
Nick Novak - Chicago Bears
Eric Ogbogu - Dallas Cowboys
Bruce Perry - Philadelphia Eagles
Adam Podlesh - Jacksonville Jaguars
Lewis Sanders - Houston Texans
Kyle Schmitt - Arizona Cardinals, Cologne Centurions†
Chad Scott - New England Patriots
Geroy Simon - B.C. Lions¥
Randy Starks - Tennessee Titans
Al Wallace - Carolina Panthers
Curtis Williams - Berlin Thunder†
Madieu Williams - Cincinnati Bengals
Dennard Wilson - Washington Redskins Football

Steve Blake - Portland Trail Blazers (formerly Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, Washington Wizards)
Juan Dixon - Toronto Raptors (formerly Portland Trail Blazers, Washington Wizards)
Steve Francis - Houston Rockets (formerly New York Knicks, Orlando Magic)
Sarunas Jasikevicius - Golden State Warriors (formerly Indiana Pacers)
Chris McCray - (formerly Milwaukee Bucks)
Joe Smith - Chicago Bulls (formerly Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors)
D. J. Strawberry - Phoenix Suns
Chris Wilcox - Seattle Supersonics (formerly Los Angeles Clippers) Baseball

Maryland Terrapins basketball
Maryland Terrapins football

2008-04-17T09:11:00.001-07:00

The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the East Germanic languages. Derived from Proto-Norse and Old Norse, they are spoken in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and (to some extent) Greenland, as well as by a significant Swedish minority in Finland and by immigrant groups mainly in North America and Australia. The language group is often called either Scandinavian or, today, less frequently in the English language, Nordic languages. The latter term is a direct translation from "nordiska språk", most commonly used by both scholars and laymen in the Nordic countries and is often favored by these when writing in English.
Often however the term Scandinavian (skandinavisk[a]) is used to designate merely the continental North Germanic languages, i.e. Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, thus excluding Faroese and Icelandic. For example, in inter-Nordic contexts, texts may be labelled as either Finnish, Icelandic, or Scandinavian, where the latter will be written in either one of the three mutually comprehensible continental languages.

See also

2008-04-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Mandir
Adjoining the Mandir is BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Haveli, a cultural complex. It has been designed according to traditional Indian Haveli architecture - an architectural style fashioned from wood, involving intricate carving. The building was designed to evoke feelings of being in Gujarat, India, where such architecture is commonplace. It took over 150 craftsmen from all over India 3 years to carve 17,000 square feet of wood. Behind the traditional wooden facade, the cultural centre houses a vast pillarless prayer hall with space for 4000 people, gymnasium, marriage hall, medical centre, dining facilities, bookstall, conference facilities, and offices.

The Haveli

June 1970: The first BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir opened in a former church in Islington, North London.
1982: Having outgrown the temple, the congregation sold the Islington temple and moved to a small ex-warehouse in Neasden.
1990: The congregation was again in search of a building that could cope with the growing congregation, and plans for the present temple were made then.
1995: They moved to their present temple, built on the site of a disused truck warehouse opposite the old temple. The old temple building was kept and converted into Sāyā (साया), an Indian grocery shop and vegetarian restaurant. History of the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir
Adjacent to Saya is the Akshar IT Centre, an adult learning centre which is open to the general public and provides IT courses.

Akshar IT Centre
On the opposite side of the Mandir is The Swaminarayan School, Europe's first independent Hindu school. Opened in 1991 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, it follows the National Curriculum whilst promoting aspects of Hindu culture such as dance, music, and language.

The Swaminarayan School
In the morning before sunrise, the murtis that are adorned in their nightwear are woken up by the sadhus and the shrine doors are opened for the Mangla arti, which is the first of five 'artis' prayers during that day. Arti is a ritual wherein a specific prayer is recited to a poetic format with music while the sadhus wave a lighted lamp in front of the murti to give devotees better darshan [view] of God's image. The sadhus recite a few shlokas [paragraphs], serve the deities, offer them food and bathe them, and close the shrine doors.
The shrines are opened again for the second arti (Shangar Arti). The shrines are then left open from 9am to around 11am when the shrines are closed and offered thaal [food for lunch].
At 11.45am the shrines are opened for the Rajbhog midday arti and the reciting of the thaal [offering hymn] and an offering of paan [triangular folded leaves containing a mixture of seeds] is made to God. The shrines are closed after this so the murtis can have an afternoon rest.
The shrines re-open at around 4pm until 6pm for darshan and are then closed again for an hour so they can be offered their final meal by the sadhus [saints].
The sandhya [sunset] arti is performed. After this, a selection of prayers are recited by the devotees including dhun (a repetitive chant where the names of God and their praise are sung), and the name of God is repeated for a few minutes. The shrines are then closed and the deities are prepared for the night and adorned in their evening attire by the sadhus.
The shrines are opened a final time for the shayan arti, with the lights dimmed and lower music, the devotees recite a few hymns, gently sending the deities to sleep through devotional hymns, and the shrines are then closed for the night.

Other BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandirs

2008-04-15T10:22:00.001-07:00

The Schmalkaldic League (German: Schmalkaldischer Bund) was a defensive alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. Although originally started for religious motives soon after the start of the Protestant Reformation, its members eventually intended for the League to replace the Holy Roman Empire as their source of political allegiance. While it was not the first alliance of its kind, unlike previous formations, such as the League of Torgau, the Schmalkaldic League had a substantial military to defend its political and religious interests. It receives its name from the town of Schmalkalden, in the German province of Thuringia.

Origins and members
The members of the League agreed to provide 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry

Activities

Main article: Schmalkaldic War The Schmalkaldic War
In 1548 the victorious Charles forced the Schmalkaldic League to agree to the terms set forth in the Augsburg Interim. However, by the 1550s, Protestantism had established itself too firmly within Central Europe to be ended by brute force. A small Protestant victory in 1552 forced Charles, weary from three decades of war, to sign the Peace of Passau, which granted some freedoms to Protestants and ended all of Charles' hopes at religious unity within his empire. Three years later, the Peace of Augsburg granted Lutheranism official status within the Holy Roman Empire and let princes choose the official religion within the domains they controlled.

2008-04-14T09:41:00.001-07:00

As of APRIL 24, 2007 Source: Cricinfo.com
Brendan Ross Murray Taylor (born February 6, 1986 in Harare) is a Zimbabwean cricketer. His ODI shirt number is 1.
Brendan Taylor made his debut for Zimbabwe at a time when many of the country's leading players rebelled against Zimbabwe Cricket (formally known as the Zimbabwean Cricket Union) and made themselves unavailable to represent the side. Many young players were prematurely brought into the team, therefore weakening the side, especially at Test level.
He is a good all-round player, who has in the past been successful bowling off-break deliveries. But his bowling has been put on hold, as without Tatenda Taibu, he is the country's first choice wicket keeper. To date, he has 31 catches and 9 stumpings in the ODI arena.
Despite his young age, Taylor is among the most experienced players in the current Zimbabwean team, and is considered the team's best batsman with 10 ODI half-centuries to his name, and a top ODI score of 98.
In the Test arena, Taylor's performances have been somewhat below what one would expect of a player at Test level. However, this can be attributed to his young age and premature elevation to the national team. When Zimbabwe return to Test cricket in late 2007, Taylor will be an important part of the Zimbabwe batting lineup, and it is likely he will be able to improve on his past Test performances.
To date, Zimbabwe have only played two Twenty20 matches (one of which was a Twenty20 International) The first was vs Eagles, Sept 2006 and the second was vs Bangladesh, Dec 2006 ).
Taylor made 25 runs at better than a run a ball against the Eagles, showing just how versatile he can be, and how he can adapt to the different forms of cricket. In his maiden Twenty20 International however, he scored just 5 runs, before being bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza.
Taylor's most important innings to date was without doubt in the 3rd ODI of the Bangladesh tour of Zimbabwe (2006). A close game throughout, Zimbabwe required 5 runs from the final ball, effectively meaning a 6 needed to be hit to win the game. Taylor successfully hit 6 off the bowling of Mashrafe Mortaza on the last ball, giving Zimbabwe the victory, and contributing to their series win.
After a relatively unsuccessful series at home against Bangladesh in February 2007, in which there were some concerns over his commitment to the team, he was still selected for the 15 man squad to tour to the West Indies for the World Cup. With 60 ODI's under his belt, he is still the teams most experienced player.
He also played in the Liverpool and District ECB premier league as overseas professional for Sefton Park CC in 2006. Although not available consistently due to his international commitments he proved successful on the pitch and contributed greatly socially.
1 Utseya (Captain) • 2 Brent • 3 Chibhabha • 4 Chigumbura • 5 Dabengwa • 6 Duffin • 7 Ireland • 8 Kasteni • 9 Matsikenyeri • 10 Mpofu • 11 Mupariwa • 12 Rainsford • 13 Sibanda • 14 Taylor (Wk) • 15 Williams • Coach: Curran

2008-04-13T08:14:00.001-07:00

Chuckimation is a type of animation created by the makers of the cartoon Action League Now! in which characters/props are thrown, or chucked from off camera by unseen hands, combined with traditional stop motion animation.
An animation style similar to chuckimation is used in the show, "A Town Called Panic", where clay figures are posed and moved by a strange force. Every time they talk they move a little, and their mouths don't move.

2008-04-12T09:40:00.001-07:00

Life
He was selected by Princess Diana as her legal representative in her divorce from Prince Charles.
He represented Deborah Lipstadt, successfully defending her, with Richard Rampton QC, against a libel suit brought against her by Holocaust-denier David Irving.
Julius is a commercial litigator. He is a specialist in the fields of defamation, international trade disputes, and media law. He recently became a solicitor-advocate, which allows him to act as a barrister in so far as he can now appear in the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
He has written a number of books on various topics, including his PhD thesis which discussed the anti-semitism of T. S. Eliot. He has been a part-time lecturer at the Law Faculty of University College London. He is Vice-President of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, and was one of the charity's founders and its first Chairman. He is Chairman of the London Consortium and a Visiting Professor at Birkbeck, University of London.
It was announced on August 8, 2006 that he will be representing Heather Mills in her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney, who is said to be worth over £1 billion. It has been alleged that Mills McCartney could be awarded as much as a quarter of his fortune, although a settlement in the region of £25 million is more realistic.

Selected publications

2008-04-11T08:54:00.001-07:00

The Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related, land-grant university. The University has 24 campuses located throughout the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, including a virtual World Campus. The enrollment at Penn State is over 84,000 students, placing it among the ten largest public universities in the United States. Penn State offers more than 160 majors and administers a $1.4 billion (USD) endowment.
In its 2007 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university's undergraduate program 13th in the United States among public universities and 47th among all national universities.

History
Penn State was founded as a degree-granting institution on February 22, 1855 by act P.L. 46, No. 50 of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania. Centre County became the home of the new school when James Irvin of Bellefonte donated 200 acres (809,000 m²) of land—the first of 10,101 acres the University would eventually acquire. In 1862, the school's name was changed to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, and with the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act, Pennsylvania selected the school in 1863 to be the state's sole land grant college. In the following years, enrollment fell as the school tried to balance purely agricultural studies with a more classic education, falling to 64 undergraduates in 1875, a year after the school's name changed once again to the Pennsylvania State College.

Early years
George W. Atherton became president of the school in 1882, and worked to broaden the school's curriculum. Shortly after he introduced engineering studies, Penn State became one of the ten largest engineering schools in the nation. and is still honored today by the name of a major road in State College. Penn State's Atherton Hall, a well furnished and centrally located residence hall, is named not after George Atherton himself, but after his wife, Frances Washburn Atherton. His grave rests in front of Schwab Auditorium near Old Main, and is marked by an engraved marble block resting in front of his statue.

President Atherton
In the years that followed, Penn State grew significantly, becoming the state's largest sources of baccalaureate degrees and reaching an enrollment of 5,000 in 1936. Around that time, Commonwealth Campuses were started by President Ralph Hetzel to provide an alternative for Depression-era students who were economically unable to leave home to attend college.

Early 20th century
In 1953, President Milton Eisenhower, brother of former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, changed the school's name to The Pennsylvania State University, and the University developed rapidly under his successor Eric A. Walker. Under Walker's leadership (1956-1970,) the University acquired hundreds of acres of the surrounding land, and enrollment nearly tripled. Additionally, in 1967, the Hershey Medical Center, a college of medicine and hospital, was established with a US$50 million gift from the Hershey Trust Company.

Eisenhower, Walker
In the 1970s, The Pennsylvania State University became a state-related institution. As such, it now belongs to the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, and is not part of the fully public Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
In recent years, Penn State's role as a leader in education in Pennsylvania has become well-defined. In 1989, the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport joined ranks with the University, and in 1997, so did the Dickinson School of Law. Currently, the University is the largest in Pennsylvania, and in 2003, it was credited with having the largest impact on the state economy of any organization, generating an economic effect of over $6 billion on a budget of US$2.5 billion. To offset the lack of funding due to the limited growth in state appropriations to Penn State, the University has turned to seeking philanthropy. 2003 marked the end of the Grand Destiny campaign—a seven-year effort which raised over US$1.3 billion for the University.

Modern years

Campuses and colleges
The largest of Penn State's 24 campuses, University Park, is almost entirely within the borough boundaries of State College, a site chosen to be the near-geographic center of the state. With an acceptance rate of 54%,

University Park
The University Park campus is organized into 13 distinct "colleges":

College of Agricultural Sciences
College of Arts and Architecture
Smeal College of Business
College of Communications
College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
College of Education
College of Engineering [1]
College of Health and Human Development
College of Information Sciences and Technology
College of the Liberal Arts
Eberly College of Science
Graduate School
Schreyer Honors College Colleges

Main article: Pennsylvania State University Commonwealth Campus Commonwealth campuses
Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies is a special mission campus offering master's degrees, master's certification, and continuing professional education. It is located in Malvern, PA, and also offers classes at the old Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine is Penn State's medical school and teaching hospital, located in Hershey, PA. Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has become only the ninth hospital in the United States and 16th worldwide to implant the CardioWest temporary Total Artificial Heart. A 60-year-old mid-state man suffering from end-stage heart failure received the device in a six-hour surgery on Wednesday (May 2). The procedure was performed by a surgical team led by Walter Pae Jr., Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute's program director, cardiac surgery.
Pennsylvania College of Technology offers certificates as well as degrees in over 100 technical fields, and is located in Williamsport, PA.
The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University merged with Penn State in 2000, and is located in Carlisle, PA. As of Fall 2006, students have the choice of beginning their studies in either Carlisle or University Park.
In 1998, the University launched Penn State World Campus, or Penn State online, which offers over 50 online education programs, degrees, and certificates. Distance education has a long history at Penn State. It was one of the first universities in the country to offer a correspondence course for remote farmers in 1892. Some examples of online programs include a Master's Degree of Homeland Security in Public Health Preparedness, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Business Administration, and certificates in applied statistics, and economic and community development, among many others. Currently, Penn State's World Campus offers nine graduate degrees, 16 graduate certificates, 13 undergraduate degrees, and 16 undergraduate certificates. World Campus students come from seven continents, 43 countries, and from 50 states.

Demographics and trends
Penn State is a "state-related" university, part of Pennsylvania's Commonwealth System of Higher Education. This means that though it receives funding from the Commonwealth, and is connected to the state through its Board of Trustees, it is otherwise independent and is not subject to the state's direct control. For the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Penn State received 9.7% of its budget from state appropriations, the lowest of the four state-related institutions in Pennsylvania.

Organization
The university is governed by the 32-member Board of Trustees. Its members include the President of the University, the Governor of the Commonwealth, and the state secretaries of Agriculture, Education, and Conservation and Natural Resources. The other members include six trustees appointed by the Governor, nine elected by the alumni, and six elected by Pennsylvania agricultural societies. Lastly, six additional trustees are elected by the Board representing business and industry endeavors.

Board of Trustees
See also: History of the Pennsylvania State University#Past presidents of Penn State
The President of the University is selected by the Board and is given the authority for actual control of the university, including day-to-day management. In practice, this responsibility is delegated by the President to other departments of the administration, to the faculty, or to the student body. The current president of the university is Graham Spanier.
The Executive Vice President and Provost is the chief academic officer of the University. The current provost is Rodney Erickson.

Administration
According to a recent survey by USA TODAY, Penn State's "flagship" campus, University Park, has the highest in-state tuition rates among comparable institutions nationwide.

Tuition
Penn State is a research university with highly regarded programs in engineering, architecture, economics, business, and the sciences. As of February 2007, only 23 Pennsylvania colleges and universities held AACSB accreditation in business and accounting. The Smeal College of Business, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, Penn State Harrisburg, and Penn State Great Valley were among the institutions accredited.

Academics
During the 2006 fiscal year, Penn State's research budget totaled US$638 million, 56% of which was funded by federal agencies including the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense. National Science Foundation reports indicate that in 2004 (the latest year that figures were available), Penn State ranked ninth in the country in terms of research expenditures. The university is also supported by private industry, ranking second nationwide in terms of research funding from industry.
The campus is also host to a Radiation Science & Engineering Center which houses the oldest operating university research reactor.

Research

Main article: Pennsylvania State University rankings Ranking and reputation

Main article: Penn State Nittany Lions Athletics
The University's fight song is "Fight On, State" and other notable songs performed at public celebrations include the Penn State Alma Mater and "Hail to the Lion".
As of 2005, Penn State has more students registered on the Facebook social networking website than any other university.

Student life
Penn State has exhibited consistent positive trends in efforts to promote a diverse and multicultural campus, most notably beginning in 1990 with the creation of a position for a Vice Provost for Educational Equity and the adoption of a five-year strategic plan to "create an environment characterized by equal access and respected participation for all groups and individuals irrespective of cultural differences."
Respect Comes Full Circle http://www.equity.psu.edu/reporthate/ is the University-wide campaign to address diversity issues on each campus. Created by Penn State University Publications for the Office of the Vice Provost of Educational Equity. Copywriter Patrick Pacacha, Designer Heather Reese, and Photographer Scott Johnson provided the creative catalyst for this visual campaign.

Diversity
See also: List of Penn State residence halls

Residence life
As of 15th May 2007, 667 student organizations are recognized at the University Park campus.
The Penn State Thespians have performed musical theatre at University Park since 1898, and is the oldest continuously-active student-run organization on campus. The student improv troupe is "Full Ammo Improv".
In 2005, the Penn State Blue Band was honored with the Sudler Trophy. The Trophy, which has been presented by the John Philip Sousa Foundation since 1982, is regarded as the nation's highest accolade for collegiate bands. The Penn State Glee Club is the university's oldest musical organization and tours nationally and internationally.
Penn State is also home to the Paranormal Research Society (PRS), which has earned national media attention over the past few years. The A&E Network recently announced that it is developing a national reality series with the group and University, entitled Paranormal U. Parts of the series will be filmed on campus.

Student organizations
The student-run newspaper is The Daily Collegian. Since the summer of 1996, the traditional paper publication has been supplemented by an online edition, known as The Digital Collegian. In addition, Penn State's Newspaper Readership Program provides free copies of USA Today and the New York Times, as well as local and regional newspapers depending on the campus location (for example, the Centre Daily Times in University Park). This program, initiated by President Graham Spanier in 1997,
The student-run organization for yearbooks is named La Vie. La Vie 1987 won the highest recognition given by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa/docs/contests-and-critiques/crown-awards/index.html} to a student print or online medium for overall excellence, the Gold Crown Award. The La Vie 1987 editor-in-chief was David Beagin.
The student-run radio station is ComRadio. ComRadio has been a part of the Penn State College of Comm since the spring of 2003. Members of ComRadio broadcast every sporting event at PSU; this includes away football games. The station also produces a live newcast weeknights from 6-6:30. Other programming includes student talkshows, political coverage, AP national news and soft rock.
The longest running show on ComRadio is "Under The Bleachers": a show dedicated to sports/entertainment talk mixed with daily interviews and quotes from local and national celebrities. UTB aired for 4 1/2 years and concluded their final show on May 18, 2007.
The student-run humor magazine is Phroth.

Media

Main article: Penn State Dance Marathon IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon
The Phi Psi 500, first organized in the 1970s by undergraduates in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, was a raucous fundraising event popular among students. Contestants entered either individually or in theme-related groups and had to run a 1.1 mile course through downtown State College. During the run, contestants had to make a half-dozen stops at taverns for beer or soft drinks.
Revenue generated through entry fees and donations went to local charities. The Phi Psi 500 brought a large number of alumni visitors as well as resident spectators and student participants. Over US$21,000 was raised by over 1,800 runners in the fourteenth running in April 1983.
Another popular fundraiser that sprung up in the 1970s was the Sy Barash Regatta. Sy Barash was a prominent State College businessman and civic leader who died of cancer in 1974. The regatta named in his honor began a year later, with proceeds going toward cancer research.
Beta Sigma Beta fraternity, of which Barash had been a member, sponsored the regatta first held at Stone Valley until 1983. Eventually, the regatta witnessed more than 15,000 visitors. By the mid-1980s, the popularity of the multi-faceted event forced its move to Bald Eagle State Park.
Aside from the nautical competition itself, the regatta offered picknicking, music and other leisure activities. After its first decade, the Sy Barash Regatta had raised more than US$100,000 for the Centre County chapter of the American Cancer Society.
Co-sponsored by The Free University, Gentle Thursday was a popular social event that occurred each spring. Proclaimed as a "day of sharing", students were encouraged to show concern for one another and forgo academic and campus political concerns. Crowds of students on the lawns of the Hetzel Union Building and Old Main enjoyed live music, food, friends and films.
Gentle Thursday eventually became a day of over-indulgence, highlighted by many drug- and alcohol-related incidents. These incidents and general truancy caused in area secondary schools led to Gentle Thursday's death in 1980.
The student section recognized by ESPN's College Gameday as the best in college football has turned heads again with a sellout of more than 21,000 season tickets today in a remarkable 59 minutes.
The unprecedented sale took place in record time, according to Bud Meredith, Director of Ticket Operations. The previous record was 13 days last year, using a combination of online sales and applications that were mailed to the ticket office.
The 21,000-plus student-season tickets are the second-largest number of student season tickets in college sports. Penn State made an additional 520 student season tickets available this year compared to 2006.
Penn State has approximately 90,000 season ticket holders overall, also among the largest in the nation.
The passionate, loyal and enthusiastic Penn State student section is a primary reason why Beaver Stadium is one of the nation's toughest venues for opposing teams. The Nittany Lions averaged 107,567 fans at home last season, second-highest in the nation, topped by an electric throing of 110,007 for the prime time clash with Michigan.
A recent attempt to move to a lottery format for student season tickets was met with student opposition that many believed was the most swift and comprehensive response to school policy in decades. A student rally ensued on the steps of Old Main to celebrate the reversal of the lottery to the previous first-come, first-served procedure.
The sale was moved from Penn State servers to Ticketmaster, which handles large demand, high profile on-line tickets sales on a daily basis.

Phi Psi 500
Sy Barash Regatta
Gentle Thursday Alumni and notable people

The Arboretum at Penn State

2008-04-10T08:37:00.001-07:00

This is a gallery of flags of South American countries and affiliated international organizations.

Caribbean

2008-04-09T09:30:00.001-07:00

Roman triumphal arches
Triumphal arches in the Roman style were revived during the Renaissance, when there was a Europe-wide upwelling of interest in the art and architecture of ancient Rome. Between the 16th and 19th century, kings and emperors erected numerous triumphal arches in conscious imitation of the Roman tradition. One of the earliest was the temporary arch erected in Rome to celebrate the election in 1513 of Pope Leo X. The Emperor Maximilian I commissioned the artist Albrecht Dürer to design an elaborately decorated monumental arch for him, though it was never actually built. Louis XIV of France and Napoleon Bonaparte both erected arches to commemorate their military triumphs, most famously the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Arches were erected for similar purposes in England, the United States, Germany, Romania, Russia and Spain, amongst other countries. Built to honour and glorify President Kim Il Sung and modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang is the largest arch in the world.
Temporary triumphal arches are still constructed, intended to be used for a celebratory parade or ceremony and then be dismantled afterwards.

Post-Roman triumphal arches
For Roman ones only, see List of ancient Roman triumphal arches
Permanent monumental triumphal arches include:

List of triumphal arches

Timgad, Trajan's Arch, partially restored arch in a Roman colonial town Algeria

Ballarat, Victoria, Arch of Victory Australia

Heldentor, Roman-arch in Carnuntum
Siegestor, Innsbruck
Äußeres Burgtor (Outer Castle Gate), Vienna Austria

Arch of the Cinquantenaire, Brussels (erected 1880-1905)
Menin Gate, Ypres Belgium

Radomir Bulgaria

Guangzhou China

Arch of Sergius, Pula, Istria Croatia

Prince's Gate, Toronto, Ontario
Memorial Arch at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, 1923
National War Memorial in Ottawa.
Peace Arch, Blaine, Washington & Surrey, British Columbia
Canadian National Vimy Memorial located in France. Canada

Aix-les-Bains
Besançon
Carpentras: Arch of Augustus
Cavaillon
Die: Porte St. Marcel
Die: Porte Saint Pierre
Dijon: Porte Guillaume
Marseille: Porte d'Aix (1825)
Montpellier: Porte du Peyrou (1692)
Nancy: on Place Stanislas
Orange
Nimes: Porte d'Auguste (Arch of Augustus)
Paris:

Arc de Triomphe (1806-1836)
Arc du Carrousel (1806-1808)
Grande Arche, La Défense (1982-1989)
Porte Saint-Denis
Porte Saint-Martin
Reims: Porte de Mars
Saint Rémy de Provence: Roman site of Glanum
Saintes: Arch of Germanicus
Vienne: quadriportal arch ("the pyramid"), was once in the ancient circus France

Arch 22, Banjul Gambia

The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, contrary to popular belief, is not a triumphal arch.
Siegestor, Munich (1843-1850)
Triumphtor, Potsdam
Mainz: Dativius Victor arch Germany

Arch of Galerius, Thessaloniki
Hadrian's Arch, Athens Greece

Triumphal Arch, Vác Hungary

India Gate, New Delhi
Gateway of India, Mumbai India

Hands of Victory, Baghdad Iraq

Fusilier's Arch, Dublin Ireland

Rome
- Arch of Constantine, Rome erected 312 - 315
  Arch of Drusus, Rome, erected to honor Nero Claudius Drusus
  Arch of Gallienus, Rome
  Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome, erected 203
  Arch of Titus, Rome (81)
  Arch of Janus, Rome
  Arch of Trajan, Ancona, erected 113
  Augustan Arch, Aosta
  Arch of Trajan, Beneventum, the Porta Aurea, erected 114
  Arco Campano, Capua
  Arch of Augustus, Fano
  Arch of the House of Lorraine, Florence, erected 1738 - 1759: the first freestanding permanent triumphal arch in Italy since Antiquity
  Arco della Pace, Milan, erected 1807 - 1838
  Triumphal arch of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan
  Arch of Augustus, Rimini, erected AD 27
  Arch of Augustus, Susa, erected 7 BC
  Arco dei Gavi, Verona
  Monumento ai caduti, Genoa
  Arco romano a colle San Giusto, Trieste Italy
  
  Arch of Tiberius, Leptis Magna, erected 35 CE
  Arch of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, Oea
  Arch of Septimius Severus, Leptis Magna Libya
  
  Patuxay, Vientiane Laos
  
  Triuphal arch, Chişinău. Moldova
  
  Triuphal arch, Volubilis. Morocco
  
  Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang North Korea
  
  Arco do Triunfo, Lisbon Portugal
  
  Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest Romania
  
  Red Gate, Moscow - demolished
  Triumphal arch on Poklonnaya Hill, Kutuzovskiy prospekt, Moscow
  Moscow Triumphal Gate, St Petersburg
  Narva Triumphal Gate, St Petersburg
  Omsk, Tara gate
  Triumphal Arch of the General Staff Building in Palace Square
  Cossack triumphal arches in Novocherkassk
  Orlov gates, Gatchina Russia
  
  Arc de Triomf, Barcelona
  Puerta de las Granadas, Granada
  The Puerta de Alcalá, Plaza de la Independencia, Madrid, contrary to popular belief, is not a triumphal arch but a city gate.
  Arco de la Victoria, Madrid Spain
  
  Arch of Septimus Severus, Latakia
  Palmyra Syria
  
  Anazarbus
  Hadrian's Gate
  The Golden Gate in the Yedikule Turkey
  
  Arch of Catherine the Great, Novgorod-Seversky Ukraine
  
  Marble Arch, London
  Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, London United Kingdom
  
  Monumental Arch, Galveston, Texas (1987-1990)
  Newport News Victory Arch, Newport News, Virginia
  Peace Arch, Blaine, Washington & Surrey, British Columbia
  Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York
  Tilton Memorial Arch, Tilton, New Hampshire
  Washington Square, New York, New York See also
  Trajan's Arch in Timgad, Algeria
  The Arch of Constantine, Rome
  The triumphal arch of Glanum
  The Brandenburg Gate
  Triumphal arch on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in Moscow
  Moscow Triumphal Gates in St. Petersburg
  Puerta de Alcalá is a triumphal arch forming a monumental gateway to Madrid
  Narva Triuphal Gates in St. Petersburg
  The triumphal arch erected to honor Hadrian who visitied Antalya in 2nd century A.D.
  The Soldiers and Sailors Arch at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York City
  The Washington Square Arch, New York City
  Triumfal arch, center of Chişinău
  Arch of Hadrian in central Athens, with the Acropolis seen in the background.
  The Arco do Triunfo in Lisbon
  Red Gate in Moscow used to be a rare example of a baroque triumphal arch.
  The triumphal arch in Orange, France
  The Arc de Triomf in Barcelona
  Arch 22 in Banjul, Gambia
  The Gateway of India, Mumbai, India
  The Patuxay in Vientiane, Laos. A triumphal arch built to commemorate soldiers who died fighting the French for independence.
  Temporary triumphal arch commemorating election of Emilio Aguinaldo as President of the Philippines, 1899
  Royal Military College of Canada Memorial Arch in Kingston, Ontario

2008-04-08T09:12:00.001-07:00

Hanover Township is located in Cook County, Illinois. The population was 83,471 at the 2000 census.

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

The phrase "Romantic Period" actually refers to several separate artistic movements. For a general description of Romantic ideas and artwork, see Romanticism.
For more information about the individual movements, see:
Romantic music
Romantic poetry
Romantic painting (This page does not yet exist. See Romanticism until it does.)

2008-04-06T08:48:00.001-07:00

St Paul's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral of the Diocese of Dunedin, Otago and Southland in New Zealand. The current structure, located in The Octagon, in the city's centre, was built in a Gothic style, but the original design was never completed. A Modernist chancel was added in the 1970s by architect Ted McCoy.

2008-04-05T09:28:00.001-07:00

The FreeBSD Documentation License is the license that covers the documentation for the FreeBSD operating system. Based on this license, the BSD Documentation License was created to contain terms more generic to most projects as well as reintroducing the 3rd clause the restricts the use of documentation for endorsement purposes (as shown in the 3-clause BSD License).
The Free Software Foundation classes this as a free documentation licence, stating that "This is a permissive non-copyleft free documentation license that is compatible with the GNU FDL."

2008-04-04T08:11:00.001-07:00

Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop William Laud (October 7, 1573 – January 10, 1645) was Archbishop of Canterbury and a fervent supporter of King Charles I of England, whom he encouraged to believe in divine right. His support for Charles, absolute monarchy, and his persecuting of opposing views led to his beheading in the midst of the English Civil War. The beheading of Charles occurred four years later.

High church policy

Grand Remonstrance

2008-04-03T08:48:00.001-07:00

Gary Joseph Gaetti (born August 19, 1958 in Centralia, Illinois), nicknamed "G-Man" ("Rat" or "Zorn" during his earlier days), is an American former third baseman in Major League Baseball for the Minnesota Twins (1981-90), California Angels (1991-93), Kansas City Royals (1993-95), St. Louis Cardinals (1996-98), Chicago Cubs (1998-99) and Boston Red Sox (2000). He won a World Series championship with Minnesota in 1987 and was the MVP of that year's American League Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers. In 1988, Gaetti became a born-again Christian, completely changing his image, which until that time was the image of a hard-drinking baseball player interested primarily in the game, and women.
Gaetti won four Gold Glove Awards for fielding excellence from 1986 through 1989, and was selected an All-Star in 1987 and 1989. A power-hitting third baseman who had his best season in 1986 when he batted .287 with 34 home runs and 108 runs batted in, Gaetti left the small-market Twins for the Angels as a free agent following the 1990 season. His production dropped significantly with the Angels, who released him in June 1993. He signed with the Royals, who had lost their projected regular third baseman, Keith Miller, to injury, and had been playing struggling rookie Phil Hiatt at third. Handed the third base job, Gaetti turned his career around. In 1995, at the age of 36, he put together one of his best seasons, hitting .261/35/96, setting a career high in home runs and missing the Royals team record for most home runs in a season by one.
Following the 1995 season, Gaetti signed as a free agent with the Cardinals, where he enjoyed two more productive seasons before being released again in August 1998 after the Cardinals' acquisition of Fernando Tatis. Gaetti signed with the Cubs, where he enjoyed a good two months during the Cubs' pennant drive, hitting .320/8/27 and helping the Cubs win the National League wild card. The following season, the Cubs became disillusioned with its aging infield, which featured Gaetti at third, Jeff Blauser at short, Mickey Morandini at second, and Mark Grace at first. Gaetti played only semi-regularly and was released at the end of the season. He wound up his career the following season in Boston, appearing in five games in April 2000 at the age of 41. Bill James noted Gaetti's baseball-related aging process as being unusual for two reasons. Unlike most other league veterans, his walk rate never improved and his rate of productivity decline was "exceptionally" slow.
Gaetti hit a home run in his first-ever Major League at bat. He currently is the all-time home run king of players that homered in their first Major League at bat. He also hit a home run in his first at bat in the American League Championship Series in 1987.
Gaetti was also part of two triple plays in one game, while playing for the Minnesota Twins.

Minnesota Twins (1981-1990)
California Angels (1991-1993)
Kansas City Royals (1993-1995)
St. Louis Cardinals (1996-1998)
Chicago Cubs (1998-1999)
Boston Red Sox (2000)
All-Star (AL): 1988, 1989
1987 ALCS MVP
Gold Glove Award (AL): 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
Silver Slugger Award (AL): 1995

2008-04-02T08:55:00.001-07:00

The Battle of Pampeluna (also spelled Pamplona) occurred on May 20, 1521, during the Italian War of 1521.
It was at this battle that Inigo Lopez de Loyola, better known as St. Ignatius Loyola, suffered severe injuries, a French cannonball shattering his leg. His meditations during his long recovery set him on the road of a conversion of life from soldier to priest. He would eventually found the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and create the Spiritual Exercises, which is the basis for the idea of "retreats" as an experience of prayer as practiced in the Roman Catholic Church.

2008-04-01T08:06:00.001-07:00

Úbeda (IPA: ['uβeða]) is a town in the province of Jaén in Spain's autonomous community of Andalusia. It had about 36,000 inhabitants in 2003. It is best known for its association with the writer Antonio Muñoz Molina and the singer Joaquín Sabina. Despite opposition from the ICOMOS, UNESCO declared its Renaissance monuments a World Heritage Site in a cultural unity with Baeza in 2003.
The city is near the geographic centre of the province of Jaén, and it is the administrative seat of the surrounding Loma de Úbeda region. It is one of the region's most important settlements, boasting a hospital, university distance-learning facilities, local government facilities, social security offices, courts, etc. According to the Caixa yearbook, it is the economic hub of a catchment area with a population of 200,000 inhabitants. Twenty-nine percent of employment is in the service sector, with many people working in commerce and local government administration. People are also employed in agriculture (with olives the predominant crop), cattle ranching, industry and tourism.
The town lends its name to a common figure of speech in Spanish, andar por los cerros de Úbeda (literally 'to walk around the hills of Úbeda'), meaning 'to go off at a tangent'.

2008-03-29T08:56:00.001-07:00

George Charles de Hevesy (born as Hevesy György, also known as Georg Karl von Hevesy) (August 1, 1885 in Budapest – July 5, 1966) was a Hungarian physical chemist who was important in the development of the tracer method where radioactive tracers are used to study chemical processes, e.g., the metabolism of animals. For this he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1943.
When Germany invaded Denmark in World War II, he dissolved the gold Nobel Prizes of Max von Laue and James Franck into aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. He placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. After the war, he returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The Nobel Society then recast the Nobel Prizes using the original gold.[1]
In 1923 he was a co-discoverer of Hafnium (Latin Hafnia for "Copenhagen", the home town of Niels Bohr), with Dirk Coster, validating the original 1869 prediction of Mendeleev.
George de Hevesy married Pia Riis in 1924. They had one son and three daughters.

2008-03-28T09:47:00.001-07:00

Pablo Santos (January 9, 1987 – September 15, 2006) was a Mexican actor.
Santos was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León in Mexico. At the age of 12, he moved with his family to Los Angeles. He began an acting career, and starred as the son of a Mexican-American family portrayed in Greetings from Tucson, which ran on the WB network from 2002 to 2003.
After the series ended, he appeared in the 2004 film Party Animalz. He also appeared in television shows such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Boston Public. He was member of the Church of Scientology.[1]
On September 15, 2006, Santos died in a plane crash just short of the runway at the Toluca airport, near Mexico City. He was heading from his native Monterrey to Acapulco, to celebrate the Mexican Independence Day with six friends in a private light plane, a Piper Malibu Mirage PA 46, which crashed while attempting an emergency landing in Toluca. Another passenger was also killed, and the others on board were hospitalized.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the accident, but suspect the plane crashed because it was overloaded. The Piper Malibu craft was designed to carry only six people, but the group persuaded the pilot to take on an extra passenger.

2008-03-27T08:14:00.001-07:00

Ban Chiang (Thai บ้านเชียง) is an archeological site located in Nong Han district, Udon Thani Province, Thailand. It is listed in the UNESCO world heritage list since 1992.
Discovered in 1957 it attracted enormous publicity due to attractive red painted pottery. The first scientific excavation was made in 1967 and uncovered several skeletons together with bronze grave gifts. Rice fragments have also been found, which prove that the Bronze Age settlement was made by farmers. The oldest graves found contain no bronze and are therefore from a Neolithic culture; the latest ones are from the Iron Age.
The first datings of the artifacts using the thermoluminescence technique resulted in 4420 BC-3400 BC dates, which would have made the site the earliest ever Bronze Age culture of the world. However, with the 1974/75 excavation enough material for radiocarbon dating became available, which resulted in much later dates - the earliest grave was about 2100 BC, the latest about AD 200. Bronze making began circa 2000 BC, as evidenced by crucibles and bronze fragments. Bronze objects include bracelets, rings, anklets, wires and rods, spearheads, axes and adzes, hooks, blades, and little bells.

2008-03-26T10:30:00.001-07:00

The native form of this personal name is Teleki Pál. This article uses the Western name order.
Pál Count Teleki de Szék (November 1, 1879 – April 3, 1941) was prime minister of Hungary from 1920 till 1921 and from 1939 till 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and a prominent leader of the Scouting movement.
Born in Budapest, Teleki is a very controversial person in Hungarian history, which was reflected in a long dispute in the Hungarian media in spring 2004 over a statue of him to be displayed in Budapest.
Some claim he was a moral hero, who tried his best to avoid Hungary's involvement in World War II, and sent Tibor Eckhard, a high ranking Smallholders Party politician to the United States, with money to prepare the government in exile, for when he and regent Horthy would have to leave the country. According to supporters of this view, his object was to save what could be saved, under political and military pressure from Nazi Germany, and, like the Polish government in exile to try to survive somehow during the war years to come.
According to the above view, he tried to avoid tension with neighbouring countries; and made a non-aggression agreement with Yugoslavia, at that time led by its Serbian king. But as Hungary was about to take part in the German attack on Yugoslavia (April 6, 1941) Pál Teleki as prime minister of Hungary committed suicide with a pistol on April 3, 1941 to show his disagreement, and not wanting to lose face.
Opponents, however, point out that he issued 12 anti-Jewish laws: first of all, the numerus clausus in 1920, he wrote the preamble of the Second Anti-Jewish Law (1939) and he prepared the Third Anti-Jewish Law (1940). He also signed 52 anti-Semitic decrees during his rule, and members of his government issued 56 further decrees against Jews. Later he denied his writing of the preamble of the Second Anti-Jewish Law, and said that if he had had the chance to word it, he would have presented a stricter one. Ferenc Szálasi, Hungarian Nazi leader (see: Arrow Cross Party) was given amnesty in 1940, during Teleki's second rule, and the Nazi movement became stronger under Teleki's rule. In October 1940, he allowed German tank groups to pass through Hungary's territory into Romania. He proposed an "everlasting friendship treaty" to Germany, and tried to convince its leader on November 20, 1940 to deport all the Jews from Europe . On the same day, the Hungarian government joined the Trilateral Convention, admitting the European hegemony of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, under the terms of which, if a state not yet at war should attack the Axis Powers, Hungary would declare solidarity with the attacked party.
Nevertheless, he was an outstanding expert on geography and socio-economic affairs in pre-WWI Hungary, and a well-respected educator as well. His maps were an excellent composition of social and geographic data, even by today's well-developed GIS point of view.
He is well-known even today for his role promoting the Scouting movement between the two World Wars. Count Teleki served on the World Scout Committee of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1929 until 1939 and was Camp Chief of the 4th World Scout Jamboree.

2008-03-25T08:01:00.001-07:00

Atherosclerosis is a disease affecting arterial blood vessels. It is a chronic inflammatory response in the walls of arteries, in large part to the deposition of lipoproteins (plasma proteins that carry cholesterol and triglycerides). It is commonly referred to as a "hardening" or "furring" of the arteries. It is caused by the formation of multiple plaques within the arteries.
Pathologically, the atheromatous plaque is divided into three distinct components:
The following terms are similar, yet distinct, in both spelling and meaning, and can be easily confused: arteriosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis and atherosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis is a general term describing any hardening (and loss of elasticity) of medium or large arteries (in Greek, "Arterio" meaning artery and "sclerosis" meaning hardening), arteriolosclerosis is arteriosclerosis mainly affecting the arterioles (small arteries), atherosclerosis is a hardening of an artery specifically due to an atheromatous plaque. Therefore, atherosclerosis is a form of arteriosclerosis.
Arteriosclerosis ("hardening of the artery") results from a deposition of tough, rigid collagen inside the vessel wall and around the atheroma. This increases the wall thickness and decreases the elasticity of the artery wall. Arteriolosclerosis (hardening of small arteries, the arterioles) is the result of collagen deposition, but also muscle wall thickening and deposition of protein ("hyaline").
Calcification, sometimes even ossification (formation of complete bone tissue) occurs within the deepest and oldest layers of the sclerosed vessel wall.
Atherosclerosis causes two main problems. First, the atheromatous plaques, though long compensated for by artery enlargement, see IMT, eventually lead to plaque ruptures and stenosis (narrowing) of the artery and, therefore, an insufficient blood supply to the organ it feeds. Alternatively, if the compensating artery enlargement process is excessive, then a net aneurysm results.
These complications are chronic, slowly progressing and cumulative. Most commonly, soft plaque suddenly ruptures (see vulnerable plaque), causing the formation of a thrombus that will rapidly slow or stop blood flow, e.g. 5 minutes, leading to death of the tissues fed by the artery. This catastrophic event is called an infarction. One of the most common recognized scenarios is called coronary thrombosis of a coronary artery causing myocardial infarction (a heart attack). Another common scenario in very advanced disease is claudication from insufficient blood supply to the legs, typically due to a combination of both stenosis and aneurysmal segments narrowed with clots. Since atherosclerosis is a body wide process, similar events also occur in the arteries to the brain, intestines, kidneys, legs, etc.

The atheroma ("lump of porridge", from Athera, porridge in Greek,) is the nodular accumulation of a soft, flaky, yellowish material at the center of large plaques, composed of macrophages nearest the lumen of the artery.
Underlying areas of cholesterol crystals.
Calcification at the outer base of older/more advanced lesions. Symptoms
Atherogenesis is the developmental process of atheromatous plaques. It is characterized by a remodeling of arteries involving the concomitant accumulation of fatty substances called plaques. One recent theory suggests that for unknown reasons, leukocytes such as monocytes or basophils begin to attack the endothelium of the artery lumen in cardiac muscle. The ensuing inflammation leads to formation of atheromatous plaques in the arterial tunica intima, a region of the vessel wall located between the endothelium and the tunica media and tunica adventitia. The bulk of these lesions are made of excess fat, collagen, and elastin. Initially, as the plaques grow only wall thickening occurs without any narrowing, stenosis of the artery opening, called the lumen; stenosis is a late event which may never occur and is often the result of repeated plaque rupture and healing responses, not the just atherosclerosis process by itself.

Atherogenesis
The first step of atherogenesis is the development of fatty streaks, small subendothelial deposits of lipid. The exact cause for this process is unknown, and fatty streaks may appear and disappear.
LDL in blood plasma poses a risk for cardiovascular disease when it invades the endothelium and becomes oxidized. A complex set of biochemical reactions regulates the oxidation of LDL, chiefly stimulated by presence of free radicals in the endothelium or blood vessel lining.
The initial damage to the blood vessel wall results in a "call for help," an inflammation response. Monocytes (a type of white blood cell) enter the artery wall from the bloodstream, with platelets adhering to the area of insult. This may be promoted by redox signaling induction of factors such as VCAM-1, which recruit circulating monocytes. The monocytes differentiate into macrophages, which ingest oxidized LDL, slowly turning into large "foam cells" – so-described because of their changed appearance resulting from the numerous internal cytoplasmic vesicles and resulting high lipid content. Under the microscope, the lesion now appears as a fatty streak. Foam cells eventually die, and further propagate the inflammatory process. There is also smooth muscle proliferation and migration from tunica media to intima responding to cytokines secreted by damaged endothelial cells. This would cause the formation of a fibrous capsule covering the fatty streak.

Cellular
Intracellular microcalcifications form within vascular smooth muscle cells of the surrounding muscular layer, specifically in the muscle cells adjacent to the atheromas. In time, as cells die, this leads to extracellular calcium deposits between the muscular wall and outer portion of the atheromatous plaques.
Cholesterol is delivered into the vessel wall by cholesterol-containing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. To attract and stimulate macrophages, the cholesterol must be released from the LDL particles and oxidized, a key step in the ongoing inflammatory process. The process is worsened if there is insufficient high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the lipoprotein particle that removes cholesterol from tissues and carries it back to the liver.
The foam cells and platelets encourage the migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells, which in turn ingest lipids, become replaced by collagen and transform into foam cells themselves. A protective fibrous cap normally forms between the fatty deposits and the artery lining (the intima).
These capped fatty deposits (now called atheromas) produce enzymes that cause the artery to enlarge over time. As long as the artery enlarges sufficiently to compensate for the extra thickness of the atheroma, then no narrowing, stenosis, of the opening, lumen, occurs. The artery becomes expanded with an egg-shaped cross-section, still with a circular opening. If the enlargement is beyond proportion to the atheroma thickness, then an aneurysm is created.

Calcification and lipids
Although arteries are not typically studied microscopically, two plaque types can be distinguished[2]:
In effect, the muscular portion of the artery wall forms small aneurysms just large enough to hold the atheroma that are present. The muscular portion of artery walls usually remain strong, even after they have remodeled to compensate for the atheromatous plaques.
However, atheromas within the vessel wall are soft and fragile with little elasticity. Arteries constantly expand and contract with each heartbeat, i.e., the pulse. In addition, the calcification deposits between the outer portion of the atheroma and the muscular wall, as they progress, lead to a loss of elasticity and stiffening of the artery as a whole.
The calcification deposits, after they have become sufficiently advanced, are partially visible on coronary artery computed tomography or electron beam tomography (EBT) as rings of increased radiographic density, forming halos around the outer edges of the atheromatous plaques, within the artery wall. On CT, >130 units on the Hounsfield scale {some argue for 90 units) has been the radiographic density usually accepted as clearly representing tissue calcification within arteries. These deposits demonstrate unequivocal evidence of the disease, relatively advanced, even though the lumen of the artery is often still normal by angiographic or intravascular ultrasound.

The fibro-lipid (fibro-fatty) plaque is characterized by an accumulation of lipid-laden cells underneath the intima of the arteries, typically without narrowing the lumen due to compensatory expansion of the bounding muscular layer of the artery wall. Beneath the endothelium there is a "fibrous cap" covering the atheromatous "core" of the plaque. The core consists of lipid-laden cells (macrophages and smooth muscle cells) with elevated tissue cholesterol and cholesterol ester content, fibrin, proteoglycans, collagen, elastin and cellular debris. In advanced plaques, the central core of the plaque usually contains extracellular cholesterol deposits (released from dead cells), which form areas of cholesterol crystals with empty, needle-like clefts. At the periphery of the plaque are younger "foamy" cells and capillaries. These plaques usually produce the most damage to the individual when they rupture.
The fibrous plaque is also localized under the intima, within the wall of the artery resulting in thickening and expansion of the wall and, sometimes, spotty localized narrowing of the lumen with some atrophy of the muscular layer. The fibrous plaque contains collagen fibres (eosinophilic), precipitates of calcium (hematoxylinophilic) and, rarely, lipid-laden cells. Rupture and stenosis
Areas of severe narrowing, stenosis, detectable by angiography, and to a lesser extent "stress testing" have long been the focus of human diagnostic techniques for cardiovascular disease, in general. However, these methods focus on detecting only severe narrowing, not the underlying atherosclerosis disease. As demonstrated by human clinical studies, most severe events occur in locations with heavy plaque, yet little or no lumen narrowing present before debilitating events suddenly occur. Plaque rupture can lead to artery lumen occlusion within seconds to minutes, and potential permanent debility and sometimes sudden death.
Greater than 75% lumen stenosis used to be considered by cardiologists as the hallmark of clinically significant disease because it is typically only at this severity of narrowing of the larger heart arteries that recurring episodes of angina and detectable abnormalities by stress testing methods are seen. However, clinical trials have shown that only about 14% of clinically-debilitating events occur at locations with this, or greater severity of narrowing. The majority of events occur due to atheroma plaque rupture at areas without narrowing sufficient enough to produce any angina or stress test abnormalities. Thus, since the later-1990s, greater attention is being focused on the "vulnerable plaque."
Though any artery in the body can be involved, usually only severe narrowing or obstruction of some arteries, those that supply more critically-important organs are recognized. Obstruction of arteries supplying the heart muscle result in a heart attack. Obstruction of arteries supplying the brain result in a stroke. These events are life-changing, and often result in irreversible loss of function because lost heart muscle and brain cells do not grow back to any significant extent, typically less than 2%.
Over the last couple of decades, methods other than angiography and stress-testing have been increasingly developed as ways to better detect atherosclerotic disease before it becomes symptomatic. These have included both (a) anatomic detection methods and (b) physiologic measurement methods.
Examples of anatomic methods include: (1) coronary calcium scoring by CT, (2) carotid IMT (intimal medial thickness) measurement by ultrasound, and (3) IVUS.
Examples of physiologic methods include: (1) lipoprotein subclass analysis, (2) HbA1c, (3) hs-CRP, and (4) homocysteine.
The example of the metabolic syndrome combines both anatomic (abdominal girth) and physiologic (blood pressure, elevated blood glucose) methods.
Advantages of these two approaches: The anatomic methods directly measure some aspect of the actual atherosclerotic disease process itself, thus offer potential for earlier detection, including before symptoms start, disease staging and tracking of disease progression. The physiologic methods are often less expensive and safer and changing them for the better may slow disease progression, in some cases with marked improvement.
Disadvantages of these two approaches: The anatomic methods are generally more expensive and several are invasive, such as IVUS. The physiologic methods do not quantify the current state of the disease or directly track progression. For both, clinicians and third party payers have been slow to accept the usefulness of these newer approaches.

Diagnosis of plaque-related disease
Various anatomic, physiological & behavioral risk factors for atherosclerosis are known. These can be divided into various categories: congenital vs acquired, modifiable or not, classical or non-classical. The points labelled '+' in the following list form the core components of "metabolic syndrome":

Advanced age
Male sex
Having Diabetes or Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) +
Dyslipoproteinemia (unhealthy patterns of serum proteins carrying fats & cholesterol): +

High serum concentration of low density lipoprotein (LDL, "bad if elevated concentrations and small"), Lipoprotein(a) (a variant of LDL), and / or very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles, i.e. "lipoprotein subclass analysis"
Low serum concentration of functioning high density lipoprotein (HDL "protective if large and high enough" particles), i.e. "lipoprotein subclass analysis"
Tobacco smoking
Having high blood pressure +
Being obese (in particular central obesity, also referred to as abdominal or male-type obesity) +
A sedentary lifestyle
Having close relatives who have had some complication of atherosclerosis (eg. coronary heart disease or stroke)
Elevated serum levels of homocysteine
Elevated serum levels of uric acid (also responsible for gout)
Elevated serum fibrinogen concentrations +
Chronic systemic inflammation as reflected by upper normal WBC concentrations, elevated hs-CRP and many other blood chemistry markers, most only research level at present, not clinically done.
Stress or symptoms of clinical depression
Hypothyroidism (a slow-acting thyroid)
High intake of trans-fats and saturated fats in diet Treatment
Methods to increase high density lipoprotein (HDL) particle concentrations, which in some animal studies largely reverses and remove atheromas, are being developed and researched. Niacin has HDL raising effects (by 10 - 30%) and showed clinical trial benefit in the Coronary Drug Project, however, the drug torcetrapib most effectively raising HDL (by 60%) also raised deaths by 60% and all studies regarding this drug were halted in December 2006.[3]
An indication of the role of HDL on atherosclerosis has been with the rare Apo-A1 Milano human genetic variant of this HDL protein. Ongoing work starting in the 1990s may lead to human clinical trials probably by about 2008, on using either synthesized Apo-A1 Milano HDL directly or by gene-transfer methods to pass the ability to synthesize the Apo-A1 Milano HDL protein.
The ASTEROID trial used a high-dose of a powerful statin, rosuvastatin, and found plaque (intima + media volume) reduction; see the Effect of Very High-Intensity Statin Therapy reference below. No attempt has yet been made to compare this drug with placebo regarding clinical benefit.
Since about 2002, progress in understanding and developing techniques for modulating immune system function so as to significantly suppress the action of macrophages to drive atherosclerotic plaque progression are being developed with considerable success in reducing plaque development in both mice and rabbits. Plans for human trials, hoped for by about 2008, are in progress. Generally these techniques are termed immunomodulation of atherosclerosis.
Genetic expression and control mechanism research, including (a) the PPAR peroxisome proliferator activated receptors known to be important in blood sugar and variants of lipoprotein production and function and (b) of the multiple variants of the proteins which form the lipoprotein transport particles, is progressing.
Some controversial research has suggested a link between atherosclerosis and the presence of several different nanobacteria in the arteries, e.g. Chlamydophila pneumoniae, though trials of current antibiotic treatments known to be usually effective in suppressing growth or killing these bacteria have not been successful in improving outcomes.
The immunomodulation approaches mentioned above, because they deal with innate responses of the host to promote atherosclerosis, have far greater prospects for success.

2008-03-24T08:04:00.001-07:00

William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, PC (May 25, 1879 – June 9, 1964) was a Canadian – British business tycoon and politician.

Early career in Canada
In 1910 Aitken acquired many of the small regional cement plants in Eastern Canada, and amalgamated them into Canada Cement. Canada was booming at the time so he had the monopoly on the material. There were irregularities in the stock transfer, and Aitken quickly sold his shares, making a huge fortune and some cheated investors. Aitken then left for England. Some say had he stayed in Canada he would have been charged with securities fraud.
In 1912, Nesbitt left Aitken's employ to form Nesbitt, Thomson and Co. stock brokerage. Aitken appointed employee Izaak Walton Killam as the new President of Royal Securities and, firmly ensconced in England, sold the Canadian securities company to Killam in 1919.
On January 29, 1906 in Halifax, Max Aitken married Gladys Henderson Drury, daughter of Major-General Charles William Drury CBE. They had three children before her death in 1927.
Children with Gladys Henderson Drury:

Janet Gladys Aitken (1908-1988)
John William Maxwell Aitken (1910-1985)
Peter Rudyard Aitken (1912-1947) To England
Over time, he turned the dull newspaper into a glittering and witty journal, filled with an array of dramatic photo layouts and in 1918, he founded the Sunday Express. By 1934, daily circulation reached 1,708,000, generating huge profits for Aitken whose wealth was already such that he never took a salary. Following World War II, the Daily Express became the largest selling newspaper in the world, by far, with a circulation of 3,706,000. He would become known by some historians as the first baron of "Fleet Street" and as one of the most powerful men in Britain whose newspapers could make or break almost anyone. In the 1930s, while personally attempting to dissuade King Edward VIII from continuing his potentially ruinous affair with American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, Lord Beaverbrook's newspapers published every tidbit of the affair, especially the heir's apparent cosiness with Adolf Hitler.

First baron of Fleet Street
During World War II, from his home Cherkley Court, Leatherhead in Surrey he joined the British cabinet as Minister of Information and in 1940, Winston Churchill, the new British Prime Minister, would appoint him as Minister of Aircraft Production and later Minister of Supply. Under Aitken, fighter and bomber production increased so much so that Churchill declared: "His personal force and genius made this Aitken's finest hour".

World War II
After the war, Lord Beaverbrook served as Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick and became the university's greatest benefactor, fulfilling the same role for the city of Fredericton and the Province as a whole. He would provide additions to the University, scholarship funds, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Beaverbrook Skating Rink, the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel (profits donated to charity), The Playhouse, Louise Manny's early folklore work, and numerous other projects.
In 1957, a bronze statue of Lord Beaverbrook was erected at the centre of Officers' Square in Fredericton, New Brunswick, paid for by money raised by children throughout the province. A bust of him by Oscar Nemon stands in the park in the town square of Newcastle, New Brunswick not far from where he sold newspapers as a young boy. His ashes are in a plinth of the bust.
Beaverbrook was both admired and despised in England, sometimes at the same time: in his 1956 autobiography, David Low quotes H.G. Wells as saying of Beaverbrook: "If ever Max ever gets to Heaven, he won't last long. He will be chucked out for trying to pull off a merger between Heaven and Hell after having secured a controlling interest in key subsidiary companies in both places, of course."
In England he lived at Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, Surrey. Beaverbrook remained a widower for many years until 1963 when he married Marcia Anastasia Christoforides (1910-1994), the widow of his friend Sir James Dunn. Lord Beaverbrook died in Surrey in 1964. The Beaverbrook Foundation continues his philanthropic interests.

The benefactor
Lord Beaverbrook and his wife Lady Beaverbrook have left a considerable legacy to his adopted province of New Brunswick and the United Kingdom, among others. His legacy includes the following buildings:

University of New Brunswick

Aitken House
Aitken University Centre
Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium
Lady Beaverbrook Residence
Beaverbrook House (UNBSJ E-Commerce Centre)
City of Fredericton, New Brunswick
- Lady Beaverbrook Arena (formerly operated by the University of New Brunswick)
  The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, including world-renowned art collection (N.B.'s provincial gallery)
  The Fredericton Playhouse
  Lord Beaverbrook Hotel
  City of Miramichi, New Brunswick
  - Lord Beaverbrook Arena (LBA)
    Beaverbrook Kin Centre
    Lord Beaverbrook statue in Queen Elizabeth Park in Miramichi
    City of Campbellton, New Brunswick
    - Lord Beaverbrook School
      City of Saint John, New Brunswick
      - Lord Beaverbrook Rink
        City of Calgary, Alberta
        
        Lord Beaverbrook High School
        McGill University
        
        The Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications Legacy
        
        Lord Beaverbrook has a lasting place in British popular culture as one of the famous English people taunted by name in Bjørge Lillelien's legendary commentary immediately after Norway defeated England in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in 1981.
        Lord Beaverbrook employed novelist Evelyn Waugh in London and abroad. Waugh repaid his employer by lampooning him in Scoop, as Lord Copper, and in both Put Out More Flags and Vile Bodies, as Lord Monomark.
        Lord Beaverbrook was the basis of the inspiration for the play and subsequent of Edward, My Son which shows the protagonist in a less than positive light See also
        
        Canada in Flanders (1916)
        Politicians and the Press (1925)
        Politicians and the War Vol 1 (1928)
        Politicians and the War Vol 2 (1932)
        Men and Power (1956)
        Friends: Sixty years of Intimate personal relations with Richard Bedford Bennett (1959)
        Courage (1961)
        The decline and fall of Lloyd George (1962)
        The divine propagandist (1962)
        My Early Life (1962)
        Success (1962)
        The Abdication of Edward VIII (1966)

2008-03-23T09:29:00.001-07:00

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) (CPC-ML) is a Canadian federal Marxist-Leninist political party. It is not to be confused with the Communist Party of Canada.
The party is registered with Elections Canada as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. Elections Canada, the agency which oversees elections and political parties, claimed that, in order to avoid confusion among voters, it could not allow political parties to register with similar names. In this case, Elections Canada argues that allowing the party to use its preferred name could cause confusion with the Communist Party of Canada — a decision opposed by the CPC-ML.

History and ideology
Today, the CPC-ML tends to be supportive of North Korea, although it does not promote Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il or Juche in the manner that it promoted Hoxha and Mao in previous years. The CPC-ML has developed a more independent line since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, prior to which it had a very stridently anti-revisionist position, viewing the Soviet bloc as state capitalist and equivalent to the western bloc. Bains visited Cuba several times in the 1990s which led him (and the CPC-ML) to revise his earlier views of Cuba as revisionist. The CPC-ML has become strongly supportive of Cuba and the Cuban Revolution and now has close relations with the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa and prints the English language edition of the Cuban Communist Party's newspaper, Granma, for Canadian distribution.
On January 1, 1995, the party put forward a broad program of work for the current period, which it has named the Historic Initiative. This was further elaborated during its Seventh Congress.
Since 1997, the party's leader has been Bains' widow, Sandra L. Smith. Unusually, Smith has never run as a candidate in a general election despite being the party's leader.
The CPC-ML is active in several trade unions, particularly the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the United Steelworkers of America whose important Stelco local (Local 1005) in Hamilton, Ontario is led by Rolf Gerstenberger, a party member. Local 1005 is one of several USWA locals at Stelco. USWA officials rely on other Stelco local officials to act as official spokespeople for the union in its dealings with the company and the courts, effectively isolating Gerstenberger. president of USWA Local 8300, based in Toronto, and of the Steelworkers Toronto Area Council. CPC-ML has also been active in the movement against the war in Iraq.
The party, if elected, would establish a Citizen's Committee for Democratic Renewal, or CCDR, that would nominate candidates for federal office. This would remove the process from the control of each political party's riding association, and establish what they see as a more equitable approach to the issue of democracy.
In recent years the party has become less doctrinaire, eschewing quotations from Mao, Stalin, Lenin or Hoxha in favour of what it calls "Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought". Its Eighth Party Congress was to be held in 2005 with the theme ""Laying the Foundations for the Mass Communist Party"[1], but the congress was delayed due to the Federal Election[2].
The CPC-ML has a news-sheet, The Marxist-Leninist Daily, a youth wing, the Communist Youth Union of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and also operates the "Workers Centre" which helps educate and organize trade unionists through discussion groups, and a magazine, Worker's Forum. The party often conducts broader political activity under the name "People's Front" and uses that name for the British Columbia provincial wing of the party. (see People's Front (British Columbia). In Ontario provincial elections, CPC-ML supporters have most recently run as Independent Renewal candidates.

2008-03-22T10:42:00.001-07:00

A fetus (or foetus, or fœtus) is a developing mammal or other viviparous vertebrate, after the embryonic stage and before birth. The plural is fetuses (foetuses, fœtuses) or, very rarely, foeti.
In humans, the fetal stage of prenatal development begins eight weeks after fertilization, when the major structures and organ systems have formed, until birth.

Etymology and spelling variations
The fetal stage begins eight weeks after fertilization. The fetus is not as sensitive to damage from environmental exposures as the embryo was, though toxic exposures can often cause physiological abnormalities or minor congenital malformation. Fetal growth can be terminated by various factors, including miscarriage, feticide committed by a third party, or induced abortion.
Human fetus
See also: Prenatal development
The following timeline describes some of the specific changes in fetal anatomy and physiology by fertilization age (i.e. the time elapsed since fertilization). However, it should be noted that obstetricians often use "gestational age" which, by convention, is measured from 2 weeks earlier than fertilization. For purposes of this article, age is measured from fertilization, except as noted.
The risk of miscarriage decreases sharply at the beginning of the fetal stage. It may be 48 to 53 cm (19 to 21 inches) in length, when born.

Development
See also: Birth weight
There is much variation in the growth of the fetus. When fetal size is less than expected, that condition is known as intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) also called fetal growth restriction (FGR); factors affecting fetal growth can be maternal, placental, or fetal. SGA can result in low birth weight, although premature birth can also result in low birth weight. Low birth weight increases risk for perinatal mortality (death shortly after birth), asphyxia, hypothermia, polycythemia, hypocalcemia, immune dysfunction, neurologic abnormalities, and other long-term health problems. SGA may be associated with growth delay, or it may instead be associated with absolute stunting of growth.

Variation in growth
Five months is currently the lower limit of viability, and viability usually occurs later.

Viability

Main article: Fetal pain Fetal pain
The circulatory system of a human fetus works differently from that of born humans, mainly because the lungs are not in use: the fetus obtains oxygen and nutrients from the woman through the placenta and the umbilical cord.

Circulatory system

Main article: Adaptation to extrauterine life Postnatal development
Remnants of the fetal circulation can be found in adults:
In addition to differences in circulation, the developing fetus also employs a different type of oxygen transport molecule than adults (adults use adult hemoglobin). Fetal hemoglobin enhances the fetus' ability to draw oxygen from the placenta. Its association curve to oxygen is shifted to the left, meaning that it will take up oxygen at a lower concentration than adult hemoglobin will. This enables fetal hemoglobin to absorb oxygen from adult hemoglobin in the placenta, which has a lower pressure of oxygen than at the lungs.

Developmental problems

Main article: Fetal rights Non-human fetuses

Embryo
Pregnancy
Child
Superfetation
Neural development
Fetoscopy
Fetal position
Abortion

2008-03-21T09:26:00.001-07:00

A credit is a unit that gives weighting to the value, level or time requirements of an academic course.

Europe
In Europe a common credit system has been introduced. The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) is in some European countries used as the principal credit and grading system in universities while other countries use the ECTS as a secondary credit system for exchange students. In ECTS a full study-year normally consists of 60 credits. Grades are given in the A-E range, where F is fail. Schools are also allowed to use a pass/fail evaluation in the ECTS system.
Similar systems are widely used elsewhere. Often the word "unit" is used for the same concept.

2008-03-20T09:46:00.001-07:00

Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and is set in the wider context of social history. Among certain jurists and historians of legal process it has been seen as the recording of the evolution of laws and the technical explanation of how these laws have evolved with the view of better understanding the origins of various legal concepts, some consider it a branch of intellectual history. Twentieth century historians have viewed legal history in a more contextualized manner more in line with the thinking of social historians. They have looked at legal institutions as complex systems of rules, players and symbols and have seen these elements interact with society to change, adapt, resist or promote certain aspects of civil society. Such legal historians have tended to analyze case histories from the parameters of social science inquiry, using statistical methods, analyzing class distinctions among litigants, petitioners and other players in various legal processes. By analyzing case outcomes, transaction costs, number of settled cases they have begun an analysis of legal institutions, practices, procedures and briefs that give us a more complex picture of law and society than the study of jurisprudence, case law and civil codes can achieve.

Law of the Ancients

Main articles: Manu Smriti and Arthashastra Eastern Asia

European history

Main article: Roman law Roman Empire

Main article: Lex mercatoria Modern European law