Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius is a short story by the 20th century Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published in the Argentine journal Sur, May 1940. The "postscript" dated 1947 is intended to be anachronistic, set seven years in the future. The first English-language translation of the story was published in 1961.
In the story, an encyclopedia article about a mysterious country called Uqbar is the first indication of Orbis Tertius, a massive conspiracy of intellectuals to imagine (and thereby create) a world: Tlön. Relatively long for Borges (approximately 5600 words), the story is a work of speculative fiction. One of the major themes of "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is that ideas ultimately manifest themselves in the physical world and the story is generally viewed as a parabolic discussion of Berkeleian idealism — and to some degree as a protest against totalitarianism.
"Tlön, Uqbar..." has the structure of a detective fiction set in a world going mad. Although the story is quite short, it makes allusions to many leading intellectual figures both in Argentina and in the world at large, and takes up a number of themes more typical of a novel of ideas. Most of the ideas engaged are in the areas of language, epistemology, and literary criticism.

Plot summary

Major themes
Through the vehicle of fantasy or speculative fiction, this story playfully explores several philosophical questions and themes. These include, above all, an effort by Borges to imagine a world (Tlön) where the 18th century philosophical idealism of George Berkeley is viewed as common sense and "the doctrine of materialism" is considered a heresy, a scandal, and a paradox ["Tlön...", p.117]. Through describing the languages of Tlön, the story also plays with the epistemological question of how language influences what thoughts are possible. The story also contains several metaphors for the way ideas influence reality. This last theme is first explored cleverly, by way of describing physical objects being willed into existence by the force of imagination, but later returns darker, as fascination with the idea of Tlön begins to distract people from paying adequate attention to the reality of earth.
Much of the story engages with the philosophical idealism of George Berkeley, perhaps best known for questioning whether a tree falling unobserved in the forest makes a sound. (Berkeley, an Anglican bishop, resolved that question to his own satisfaction by saying that there is a sound because God is always there to hear it.) Berkeley's philosophy privileges perceptions over any notion of the "thing in itself." Immanuel Kant accused Berkeley of going so far as to deny objective reality.
In the imagined world of Tlön, an exaggerated Berkeleian idealism without God passes for common sense. The Tlönian view recognizes perceptions as primary and denies the existence of any underlying reality. At the end of the main portion of the story, immediately before the postscript, Borges stretches this toward its logical breaking point by imagining that, "Occasionally a few birds, a horse perhaps, have saved the ruins of an amphitheater" by continuing to perceive it. he can be seen either as anticipating the extreme relativism that underlies some postmodernism or simply as taking a swipe at those who take metaphysics too seriously.

Philosophical themes
The story also anticipates, in miniature, several key formal ideas that were later played out in the works of Vladimir Nabokov. At one point Borges has Adolfo Bioy Casares propose to "writ[e] a novel in the first person, using a narrator who omitted or corrupted what happened and who ran into various contradictions," which arguably anticipates the strategy of Nabokov's Lolita (1955) and precisely anticipates the strategy of his Pale Fire (1962). At the same time, Earth's obsession with Tlön in Borges's story anticipates the central conceit of Nabokov's Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969), where the narrator's world has a similar obsession with Terra. In both works, the people of the narrator's world become obsessed with an imaginary world (Tlön/Terra) to the point of being more interested in that fiction than in their own lives. The parallel is not perfect: in Borges's story, the narrator's world is essentially our own world, and Tlön is a fiction that gradually intrudes upon it; in Nabokov's novel, the narrator's world is a parallel world and Terra is our Earth, misperceived as a place of almost uniform peace and happiness.
In the context of the imagined world of Tlön, Borges describes a school of literary criticism that arbitrarily assumes that two works are by the same person and, based on that, deduces things about the imagined author.
The story also plays with the theme of the love of books in general, and of encyclopedias and atlases in particular — books that are each themselves, in some sense, a world.
Like many of Borges's works, the story challenges the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. It mentions several quite real historical human beings (himself, his friend Bioy Casares, Thomas de Quincey, et al.) but often attributes fictional aspects to them; the story also contains many fictional characters and others whose factuality may be open to question.

Other themes
It is by no means simple to sort out fact and fiction within this story. The picture is further complicated by the fact that other authors (both in print and on the web) have chosen to join Borges in his game and write about one or another fictional aspect of this story either as if it were non-fiction or in a manner that could potentially confuse the unwary reader. A few online examples are:
As a result, simply finding a reference to a person or place from "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" in a context seemingly unrelated to Borges's story is not enough to be confident that the person or place is real. See, for example, the discussion below of the character Silas Haslam.
There in fact exists an Anglo-American Encyclopaedia, which is a plagiarism, differently paginated, of the tenth edition of the Encyclopedia, and in which the 46th volume is TOT-UPS, ending on p. 917 with Upsala, and followed by Ural-Altaic in the next volume; Uqbar would fall in between. In the 11th edition of the Britannica, Borges's favorite, there is an article in between these on "Ur"; which may, in some sense, therefore be Uqbar. Different articles in the 11th edition mention that Ur, as the name of a city, means simply "the city", and that Ur is also the aurochs, or the evil god of the Mandaeans. Borges may be punning on the sense of "primaeval" here with his repeated use of Ursprache. Fact and fiction in "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"
There are several levels of reality (or unreality) in the story:

Most (but not all) of the people mentioned in the story are real, but the events in which they are involved are mostly fictional, as are some of the works attributed to them. This is discussed in detail in the section below on real and fictional people.
The main portion of the story is a fiction set in a naturalistic world; in the postscript, magical elements have entered the narrator's world. The main portion could certainly be seen as a false document; the postscript dissolves the illusion.
The land of Uqbar is fictional from the point of view of the world of the story. The supposed Anglo-American Cyclopaedia article on Uqbar proves, within the story, to be a fictitious entry.
Mlejnas, and Tlön as it is first introduced, are fictional from the point of view of Uqbar. In the course of the story, Tlön becomes more and more "real": first it moves from being a fiction of Uqbar to being a fiction of the narrator's own naturalistic world, then it begins (first as idea and then physically) taking over that world, to the point of finally threatening to annihilate normal reality. Levels of reality
Although the culture of Uqbar described by Borges is fictional, there are two real places with similar names. These are:
See Uqbar for further details and for references.
While there is no equally clear referent for Tlön, the unusual consonant cluster tl- at the beginning of a word does exist in the Berber language (for example in the place name Tlemcen) and in Maghrebi Arabic. Berber is spoken in parts of Algeria (including the M'zab valley), home to one of the referents for Uqbar.
"Orbis Tertius", Latin for "third world", "third circle", or "third territory" does not appear to be a geographic reference, nor does there seem to be any relation to the third circle of Dante's hell, which was reserved for gluttons. One possible interpretation is that it is a reference to the Earth's orbit around the Sun, which is third after Mercury and Venus.
Tsai Khaldun is undoubtedly a tribute to the great historian Ibn Khaldun, who lived in Andalusia for a while; his history focuses on North Africa and was probably a major source for Borges. Additionally, "khaldun" is Mongolian for "mountain", while "tsai" in Chinese is "cabbage" or "green and leafy".
Other places named in the story — Khorasan, Armenia, and Erzerum in the Middle East, and various locations in Europe and the Americas — are real. The Axa Delta, mentioned in the same context as Tsai Khaldun, appears to be fictional.

The medieval city of 'Ukbarâ on the left bank of the Tigris between Samarra and Baghdad in what is now Iraq. This city was home to the great Islamic grammarian, philologist, and religious scholar Al-'Ukbarî (ca. 1143–1219) — who was blind, like Borges's father and like Borges himself was later to become — and to two notable early Jewish/Karaite "heresiarchs" (see above), leaders of Karaite movements opposed to Anan ben David, Ishmael al-Ukbari and Meshwi al-Ukbari, mentioned in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901–1906.
'Uqbâr in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria; the minarets of the latter's area might relate to the "obelisks" of Uqbar in the story. Real and fictional places
Listed here in order of their appearance in the story:

Adolfo Bioy Casares — non-fictional, Argentine fiction-writer, a friend and frequent collaborator of Borges. which at the end of the story the fictional Borges is translating, though without intent to publish. Real and fictional people
"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" formed part of a 1941 collection of stories called El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan ("The Garden of Forking Paths"). This book — Borges's first book of fiction — constituted a milestone in his career.
At the time he wrote "Tlön..." in early 1940, Borges was little known outside of Argentina. He was working in a local public library in Buenos Aires, and had a certain local fame as a translator of works from English, French and German, and as an avant garde poet and essayist (having published regularly in widely read Argentinian periodicals such as El Hogar, as well as in many smaller magazines, such as Victoria Ocampo's Sur, where "Tlön..." was originally published). In the previous two years he had been through a great deal: his father had died in 1938, and on New Year's 1939, Borges himself had suffered a severe head wound in an accident; during treatment for that wound, he nearly died of a blood infection.
For some time before his father's death and his own accident, Borges had been drifting toward writing fiction. His Historia universal de la infamia (Universal History of Infamy), published in 1935, used a baroque writing style and the techniques of fiction to tell the stories of seven historical rogues. These ranged from "El espantoso redentor Lazarus Morell" ("The Dread Redeemer Lazarus Morell") — who promised liberty to slaves in the American South, but brought them only death — to "El incivil maestro de ceremonias Kotsuké no Suké" ("The Insulting Master of Etiquette Kôtsuké no Suké"), the story of the central figure in the Japanese Tale of the 47 Ronin, also known as Kira Kozuke-no-Suke Yoshinaka. Borges had also written a number of clever literary forgeries disguised as translations from authors such as Emanuel Swedenborg or from the Tales of Count Lucanor. Recovering from his head wound and infection, Borges decided it was time to turn to the writing of fiction as such.
Several of these fictions, notably "Tlön…" and Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote ("Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote", published ten months earlier in Sur, and also included in El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan), could only have been written by an experienced essayist. Both of these works apply Borges's essayistic style to largely imaginary subject matter. His massive erudition is as evident in these fictions as in any non-fictional essay in his body of works.
Buenos Aires was, at this time, a thriving intellectual center. Literary and intellectual circles such as the Florida group (or Martín Fierro group), of which Borges was part, and its more politically engaged rival, the Boedo group, considered themselves the equal of their peers in Paris. In contrast to an European continent engaged in World War II and soon to be completely overrun by totalitarian regimes, Argentina, and Buenos Aires in particular, flourished intellectually and artistically.
Nevertheless, with the re-emergence of France after the war, Paris reasserted itself as an intellectual center, while Buenos Aires during the regime of Juan Perón, and the subsequent military governments, languished, sending in exile many of its leading intellectuals.
Borges's first volume of fiction failed to garner the literary prizes many in his circle expected for it. Victoria Ocampo dedicated a large portion of the July 1941 issue of Sur to a "Reparation for Borges"; numerous leading writers and critics from Argentina and throughout the Spanish-speaking world contributed writings to the project, which probably brought his work as much attention as a prize would have.
Over the next few decades "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and Borges's other fiction from this period formed a key part of the body of work that put Latin America on the international literary map. Borges was to become far more widely known throughout the world as a writer of extremely original short stories than as a poet and essayist.

"Tlön…" in the context of Borges's life and works
As already stated, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" originally appeared in Spanish in Sur in 1940. The Spanish-language original was then published in book form in Borges's 1941 collection El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (The Garden of Forking Paths). That entire book was, in turn, included within Ficciones (1944), a much-reprinted book (15 editions in Argentina by 1971).
The first published English-language translation was by James E. Irby. It appeared in the April 1961 issue of New World Writing. The following year, Irby's translation was included as the first piece in a diverse collection of Borges works entitled Labyrinths. Almost simultaneously, and independently, the piece was translated by Alastair Reid; Reid's version was published in 1962 as part of a collaborative English-language translation of the entirety of Ficciones. The Reed translation is reprinted in Borges, a Reader (1981, ISBN 0-525-47654-7), p.111–122. Quotations and page references in this article follow that translation.

Publication history

Axaxaxas mlö is the title of a fictional book mentioned in another Borges short story, "The Library of Babel".
hlör u fang axaxaxas mlö, taken from the example of the Tlön language described in the story, is the title of a chamber music piece for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano by Colombian composer Diego Vega, which won the 2004 Colombian National Prize for Music Composition, awarded by the Colombian Ministry of Culture.
Uqbar is the name of an instance of the encyclopedia-building game Lexicon, based on Borges's work. Inspiration for real world projects

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is mentioned in a comparison of fictional languages from science-fiction stories at The Darmok Dictionary.

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published on March 9, 1776 during the Scottish Enlightenment. It is a clearly written account of political economy at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and is widely considered to be the first modern work in the field of economics. The work is also the first comprehensive defense of free market policies. It is broken down into five books between two volumes.
The Wealth of Nations was written for the average educated individual of the 18th century rather than for specialists and mathematicians.
There are three main concepts that Adam Smith expands upon in this work that form the foundation of free market economics:

The Division of Labor
The Pursuit of Self Interest
The Freedom of Trade Division of Labor
In Book 1:

Chapters 2 and 3 illustrate the growth in division of labour.
Chapter 10, part ii, motivates an understanding of the idea of feudalism. The Industrial Revolution

Main article: Real versus nominal value Real versus nominal value
The book has sometimes been described as a critique of mercantilism and a synthesis of the emerging economic thinking of Smith's time. Specifically, The Wealth of Nations attacks, inter alia, two major tenets of mercantilism:

The idea that protectionist tariffs serve the economic interests of a nation (or indeed any purpose whatsoever) and
The idea that large reserves of gold bullion or other precious metals are necessary for a country's economic success. This critique of mercantilism was later used by David Ricardo when he laid out his Theory of Comparative Advantage. Mercantilism
The "Invisible Hand" is a frequently referenced theme from the book, although it is specifically mentioned only once.
As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. (Book 4, Chapter 2)
It is also mentioned implicitly, as in:
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. (Book 1, Chapter 2)
This concept seems paradoxical and was the source of much controversy — indeed, the controversy continues to this day. Among its harshest critics are segments of the religious community, and the political Left. There are two important features of Smith's concept of the "invisible hand" that are often overlooked, however. Firstly, Smith was not advocating a social policy (that people should act in their own self interest), but rather was describing an observed economic reality (that people do act in their own interest). Secondly, Smith was not claiming that all self-interest has beneficial effects on the community. He did not argue that self-interest is always good; he merely argued against the view that self-interest is necessarily bad. Indeed, he often harshly criticizes those who act purely out of self-interest and greed, and warns that, "[a]ll for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind." (Book 3, Chapter 4)
It is worth noting that, upon his death, Smith left much of his personal wealth to charity.
On another level, though, the "invisible hand" refers to the ability of the market to correct for seemingly disastrous situations with no intervention on the part of government or other organizations (although Smith did not, himself, use the term with this meaning in mind). For example, Smith says, if a product shortage were to occur, that product's price in the market would rise, creating incentive for its production and a reduction in its consumption, eventually curing the shortage. The increased competition among manufacturers and increased supply would also lower the price of the product to its production cost plus a small profit, the "natural price." Smith believed that while human motives are often selfish and greedy, the competition in the free market would tend to benefit society as a whole anyway. This was later adopted as a universal principle by the laissez-faire economists of the 19th century.

The concept of The Invisible Hand
In Wealth of Nations, Smith repeatedly attacks groups of politically aligned individuals who attempt to use their collective influence to manipulate the government into doing their bidding. At the time, these were referred to as "factions," but are now more commonly called "special interests," a term which can comprise international bankers, corporate conglomerations, outright oligopolies, labor unions and other groups. Indeed, Smith had a particular distrust of the tradesman class. He felt that the members of this class, especially acting together within the guilds they want to form, could constitute a power block and manipulate the state into regulating for special interests against the general interest:
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." (Book 1, Chapter 10).

Special Interests
Meritocracy is a strong theme in the work. Specifically, Smith stresses the critical importance of allowing individuals to achieve what their "God-given talents" will allow them to, without interference from outside forces seeking to shape larger societal outcomes. Smith posits that these outside forces lead to inefficiency in the division of labor and hamstring progress generally.

Meritocracy
Smith did not believe that the luxury of the rich was a great benefit to society, when set against the hardships of the poor, and he is often cited as the source of the modern idea of progressive taxation, which he advocated on grounds of fairness. In his discussion of taxes in Book Five, he wrote:
"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."
He also added in Book Five, Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth that:
"The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state. The expense of government to the individuals of a great nation is like the expense of management to the joint tenants of a great estate, who are all obliged to contribute in proportion to their respective interests in the estate. In the observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is called the equality or inequality of taxation."

Progressive Taxation
Of all the innovative theories and observations in The Wealth of Nations, perhaps none was as trenchant (and as revolutionary for the economic thinking of the time) as Smith's recasting of the results of a mercantile transaction. Up until The Wealth of Nations it was generally accepted that in any economic transaction one side always "won". In other words, either the buyer or seller got to "put one over" on his "opponent."
Smith rejected this notion, and famously stated that "a voluntary, informed transaction always benefits both parties." That is, provided that there is no coercion or fraud, when the buyer gives something of value to the seller in exchange for something else of value, both parties "win". This is because the buyer values what the seller is selling more than what he is giving to the seller in exchange for it. And, for his part, the seller is all too happy to part with what he is selling for the buyer's property, because he values that more. The transaction would not occur if this were not the case, because neither party would want to exchange something he values highly for something he does not value very much. In short, each party gets something he wants more in exchange for something he wants less — they both benefit.

"Both-Benefit" Transactions
The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776, during the Age of Enlightenment. It influenced not only authors and economists, but governments and organizations. For example, Alexander Hamilton was influenced in part by The Wealth of Nations to write his Report on Manufactures, in which he argued against many of Smith's policies. Interestingly, Hamilton based much of this report on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and it was, in part, to Colbert's ideas that Smith wished to respond with The Wealth of Nations.
Many other authors were influenced by the book and used it as a starting point in their own work, including Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus and, later, Karl Marx and Ludwig von Mises. The Russian national poet Aleksandr Pushkin refers to The Wealth of Nations in his 1833 verse-novel Eugene Onegin.
Irrespective of historical influence, however, The Wealth of Nations represented a clear leap forward in the field of economics, similar to Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica for physics or Antoine Lavoisier's Traité Élémentaire de Chimie for chemistry. The Wealth of Nations is also important in a Scottish linguistic context on account of the fact the book is written in English and not in Scots Language, a somewhat rare occurrence for the time.

History and significance
Some commentary on the work suffers from anachronism. This is the result of reading the work as though it were written today. The book is written in modern English, but there are some points to consider:

The term economics was not yet in use.
The term capitalism was not yet in use. Smith talks about a "system of perfect liberty" or "system of natural liberty".
To a certain extent, some form of Feudalism was still dominant in parts of Europe (primarily Eastern Europe and Russia).
The feudal corporations referenced by Smith were very different from modern corporations.
The state played a much smaller role in the economy than it does today. Smith did not live in a world characterised by the welfare state or any significant nationalized industries. Anachronisms
Five editions of The Wealth of Nations were published during Smith's lifetime: in 1776, 1778, 1784, 1786, and 1789. Numerous editions appeared after Smith's death in 1790. To better understand the evolution of the work under Smith's hand, a team led by Edwin Cannan collated the first five editions. The differences were published along with an edited fifth edition in 1904 (see An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., ed. Edwin Cannan, 1904. Fifth edition.) They found minor but numerous differences (including the addition of many footnotes) between the first and the second editions, both of which were published in two volumes. The differences between the second and third editions, however, are major: In 1784, Smith annexed these first two editions with the publication of Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr. Adam Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, and he also had published the now three volume third edition of the Wealth of Nations which incorporated Additions and Corrections and, for the first time, an index. Among other things, the Additions and Corrections included entirely new sections. The fourth edition published in 1786 had only slight differences with the third edition, and Smith himself says in the Advertisement at the beginning of the book, "I have made no alterations of any kind." Finally, Cannan notes only trivial differences between the fourth and fifth editions — a set of misprints being removed from the fourth, and a different set of misprints being introduced into the fifth.

The first work of economics?

Anthrax is an American, New York City-based thrash metal band, who released their first full-length album in 1984. Anthrax was one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene and are notable for combining metal with rap and hardcore music early on. They have sold over 10 million albums worldwide. [1]They are generally classified as one of the "big four" of thrash metal alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer.
They have made several appearances on television including: Married... with Children, WWE Raw, NewsRadio, Cheers, and Ask Dr. Ruth amongst others. The band has also appeared in movies such as Run Ronnie Run (performing as the fictional band Titannica) and Calendar Girls. Their song Madhouse was used in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in-game radio station V-Rock and in Guitar Hero II. In 2006, guitarist Scott Ian was a cast member of VH1's reality show SuperGroup and is also featured on many other VH1 shows such and I Love the 80s and I Love the 90s. The song "Caught in a Mosh" was also featured in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

History
Anthrax was formed in mid-1981 by guitarists Scott Ian and Danny Lilker. They found the name in a biology textbook and claimed it because it sounded sufficiently evil. Vocalist John Connelly (Nuclear Assault) joined, as did drummer Dave Weiss and a bassist named Kenny. Kenny was replaced very early on with Paul Kahn, who was found insufficient as well, so Danny Lilker took over on bass, and Greg Walls joined as second guitarist, Then Connelly and Weiss left, being replaced by Greg D'Angelo (White Lion) on drums, and after a series of vocalists (including Scott's brother Jason), they found Neil Turbin.
This lineup gigged frequently locally, featuring original songs like "Satan's Wheels" (a song about drugs), "Hunting Dogs", and more, and also covers by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, and more. The lineup recorded a NWOBHM-sounding demo in July, 1982. Greg Walls left in the summer of 1983, and his replacement was Bob Berry for a few gigs.
Then, Dan Spitz (formerly of Overkill) joined the band, replacing Bob Berry. With Dan, the second demo was recorded. In September, Charlie Benante replaced Greg D'Angelo on drums. This lineup recorded the Soldiers of Metal 7`` single, produced by Ross the Boss of Manowar. (The B-side of this single has one of the old demos with Greg D'Angelo on it, the only ``official`` recording with Greg!)
This demo got them a recording deal with Megaforce records, for which they recorded their debut album, Fistful of Metal, in late 1983. It was released in January of 1984, and a US tour followed, during which tensions grew between Danny Lilker and Neil Turbin. Danny Lilker was let go, and he formed Nuclear Assault with John Connelly, before moving on to a variety of other projects (Brutal Truth, Hemlock, Holy Moses, and more.)
Frank Bello (Charlie's nephew) joined on bass, and then Turbin was fired in July of 1984 very near the end of the tour. The last few dates featured Matt Fallon on vocals, but he was very temporary. In late 1984, the band appeared as a 4-piece, ``The Diseased``, with Scott on vocals. They performed a few punk covers, including ``Protest and Survive`` by Discharge. A recording exists. Then, Joey Belladonna was found, and an EP, Armed and Dangerous, was recorded, with some old Neil Turbin stuff added to fill out the recording (two live tracks from early 1984, and the songs from the old 7``). Joey's debut was February 27, 1985. Later in 1985, Scott, Charlie, and Danny Lilker appeared on the S.O.D. album Speak English or Die. Anthrax's feature album, Spreading the Disease, came out in the same year, and US and European tours followed.

Breakthrough and rising to success (1987–1992)
In 1992, Anthrax parted ways with vocalist Joey Belladonna and replaced him with ex-Armored Saint vocalist John Bush. The band left Island Records and signed with Elektra Records to release Sound of White Noise in 1993.
Though it was quite a change from their earlier work (it was more a "heavy grunge" oriented, especially because of the vocals) , White Noise received mostly positive reviews and "Only" was a major hit (which led James Hetfield to claim "that is a perfect song" in some interviews). Bush's voice lent a gravitas and weight to a collection of well-thought-out and technically excellent tracks. In keeping with the band's now-trademark eye for unlikely collaborations, classical composer Angelo Badalamenti provided music for the track "Black Lodge," a tribute to the TV show "Twin Peaks". Importantly, the album demonstrated that the band had shed its sometimes cartoonish outlook in favor of mature, thoughtful songwriting, a trend which had begun on their previous studio album Persistence of Time.
In 1995, the band released Stomp 442, an album for which Elektra refused to provide real promotion—it quickly disappeared without a trace. Obviously upset at what they felt was an attempt by the label to kill the album, Anthrax attempted to sever ties with Elektra. During the hiatus between Sound of White Noise and Stomp 442, longtime guitarist Dan Spitz left the band to quit music and become a watch maker, leaving Anthrax as a quartet for years.
Anthrax signed with independent label Ignition Records, and in 1998 managed to release Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, a punishing album that had the potential to return Anthrax to the top of the metal heap. Unfortunately, almost immediately after "Volume 8"'s release, the label they were signed to went bankrupt and disappeared, making the album difficult to find. Regrouping, the band signed with another label, Beyond Records and released a greatest-hits album Return of the Killer A's, although Beyond soon went out of business as well. During this period, a two-vocalist tour featuring both Joey Belladonna and John Bush was proposed and set to go, until Belladonna decided to pull out at the last minute.
During the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, the band altered its website to provide information about the disease because many people had come there simply by entering anthrax.com in their Web browsers. Amid what could have become a PR nightmare for the band, Anthrax issued a press release on October 10, 2001, that jokingly mentioned that they were going to change the name of the band to "something more friendly, like 'Basket Full of Puppies.'" The band later put a nail in the coffin of all of the name-change rumors that erupted from the press release at the New York Steel 9/11 benefit concert in November 2001, when they took the stage wearing boiler suits with a different word on each one that, when they stood single-file in a specific order, spelled out the sentence "WE'RE NOT CHANGING OUR NAME". A picture of the band wearing the suits can be seen on the inner tray card of We've Come for You All.
Despite the hardships and various legal entanglements regarding who had the rights to certain albums, Anthrax managed to soldier on. In 2002, new guitarist Rob Caggiano joined the band, and the following year the band released We've Come for You All, through Sanctuary Records - an album hailed by the metal press as a long-awaited return to form.
In early 2004, the band returned to the studio to record The Greater of Two Evils—a re-recording of the band's early work with the then-current lineup. Around the same time, bassist Frank Bello announced he was leaving the band to join Helmet and was replaced on tour by former Armored Saint and Fates Warning bassist Joey Vera.

John Bush Era (1992–2004)
On April 1, 2005, the Anthrax website announced that the "Among the Living" lineup of Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Dan Spitz, Joey Belladonna, and Frank Bello would be re-forming. On solo-dates of the tours, for the first time ever, they performed the entire 1987 classic album Among the Living.
On January 24th 2007, Scott Ian posted a message to Blabbermouth.net. [2] "Finally, we're going back to work. We're going to Chicago to work our asses off and write a record. It's time. We're ready. One problem... no singer.
"We were offered a direct support slot on a major tour this spring and Joey [Belladonna, vocals] decided he did not want to move forward. The reunion is over. We tried to make it work but I guess that's the problem, you can't 'make' something work. It's gotta be natural and at least becoming a band again and playing live was.
"Over the course of around 140 shows we became a better band than we ever were before from 1984 - 92. The shows we played from April 2005 through October 2006 were incredible and some of the best gigs we've ever played. Doing Donington again was mind-blowing, Graspop was insane, the insanity in Finland, Chicago, Milwaukee, three times in L.A., three times across Western Canada, Glasgow, London, the Nokia show in NY, the Starland show in NJ, Gigantour, Australia, Japan, really, there's not a bummer in 19 months.
"Thank you from the very depths of my soul for being the best fans in the world. We got to relive something that I never thought we could and it turned out better than I ever thought it would. We didn't have to force it, it just happened and it was great.
"My curiosity was piqued by the idea of what ANTHRAX would sound like now with Joey singing. Over the last few months we've discussed this endlessly to no avail. The problems that were there could not be fixed no matter how hard we tried and in the end Joey made the decision.
"I know a lot of you out there are disappointed by this and that's the last thing we ever want. None of us want to disappoint. If we were meant to make a reunion record we would've. Some things look easy on paper but the reality is that they are impossible and what works for one band doesn't work for others. Maybe we could've forced something and cashed in on a new record but that's not the way we operate. My reality is I feel we have some unfinished business with the 'We've Come for You All' lineup and I will do my best to finish it.
"I hope you can find it in your hearts to support all of us in whatever happens going forward.
"Charlie [Benante, drums], Frankie [Bello] and I are excited about creating new music and for now we will focus on that and write another killer ANTHRAX record."

"Among the Living" Reunion (2005-2007)
It has recently been announced that (according to Blabbermouth.net) that Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor may appear on the upcoming album. He apparently has written lyrics for 8 to 9 songs on the album. Talking with Germany's Rock Hard magazine, Taylor stated -
"It's been bandied about. I'm not saying anything right now because all it's been is just talked about. Obviously, I'm really good friends with those guys. It kind of started as a joke. And then the more we talked about it, the more serious it got. I'm gonna at least help them out. It's kind of a dream come true — ANTHRAX is one of my favorite bands. We're just kind of taking baby steps right now. I know that we worked on about eight or nine songs together that I've written lyrics for, and there was a song that I had actually written for them that I was just gonna give them the music for, and once this kind of happened, I had to turn around and write lyrics for it myself. But there's nothing definite right now. It's one of those things where it's like we're just gonna kind of play it by ear and just see what happens. So there's nothing definite. It's something that we're talking about — it's something that we kind of wanna do. But I'm in two huge bands right now. So it's like I barely get enough time to sleep, let alone do another band. . . I'm gonna be busy, period. I'm just kind of honored that they would even consider me. These are people that I grew up listening to, these are guys that I had the privilege of getting to know on a real basis. To have them look at me and go, 'You know what? We would love to work with you,' it's such a huge compliment. It kind of makes me feel like I've come a long way in my life."
Recently, it was announced that Corey will NOT be recording with Anthrax due to difficulties with Roadrunner Records (Stone Sour/Slipknot's label).

New Singer (2007-)
Several members have launched affiliated side projects, such as Scott Ian's project with Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, original Anthrax bassist Danny Lilker and Billy Milano called Stormtroopers of Death. After leaving Anthrax, Joey Belladonna began a series of solo albums, Belladonna, Spells of Fear, and 03, and John Bush is involved with his former band Armored Saint.
A number of Anthrax albums have featured guests, most notably Dimebag Darrell, who appeared on "King Size" and "Riding Shotgun" from Stomp 442; "Inside Out" and "Born Again Idiot" from Vol.-8 The Threat Is Real; and "Strap It On" and "Cadillac Rock Box" from We've Come for You All. Vocalist Roger Daltrey of The Who has also appeared on the band's We've Come for You All disc, providing backing vocals for "Taking the Music Back." Phil Anselmo of Pantera appears on Volume 8 in the song "Killing Box."

Miscellany

Band members
With the recent end of Anthrax's reunion tour, it's unclear whether John Bush or Rob Caggiano will return to the band. There has been no word on whether Dan Spitz will remain with Anthrax for the new album, but there's been no word that he won't either. Caggiano has stated that a lot of stuff stands in the way from his return to the band [3], while Bush has stated that (as of February 7), he was not ready to commit to Anthrax again.[4]. In May 2007, Scott Ian said that the announcement of who will be singing for Anthrax will be made at the end of June [5].
In June 2007, John Bush was interviewed by Rock Hard Magazine, about being asked to return to Anthrax, and whether or not he is bitter about the reunion:
"No. Bitter is not the way I wanna be about anything," Bush replied. "I'm not bitter at all. There was probably not a perfect way to do that, what they did. It was like, how are they gonna say…? I mean, they asked me to do it — the tour with Joey [Bush was asked to take part in a '25th anniversary' tour that would see him and Belladonna splitting vocal duties — Ed] — and it just wasn't right for me, I couldn't do it. So, whatever… If they felt they had to do that, I understand. It wasn't like I was going, 'Yeah, do it. That's great.' But once it happened, I was like, 'OK.' It was like a book ended. It's OK. I mean, it's much better to look at it that way than to be angry or frustrated, 'cause I really don't feel that way."
Asked if he was approached to rejoin the band once Belladonna left the group, Bush said, "I was asked to write [with the members of ANTHRAX] and it just wasn't right for me. I couldn't go back and say, 'Here I am...' It would be like coming in with my tail between my legs, and that's not right for me. I just couldn't do that. It just didn't feel right to do that. It was about soul, your gut. How does that feel? Does it feel right? Good enough. Sold. Answer."

Scott Ian, rhythm guitar (1981—)
Charlie Benante, drums, guitar (1983—)
Frank Bello, bass guitar (1985-2004, 2005—) Former members
See Anthrax discography.

History and physical examination
Primary forms of arthritis:
Secondary to other diseases:
Diseases that can mimic arthritis include:

Osteoarthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Septic arthritis
Gout and pseudogout
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Still's disease
Ankylosing spondylitis
Lupus erythematosus
Henoch-Schönlein purpura
Psoriatic arthritis
Reactive arthritis
Haemochromatosis
Hepatitis
Wegener's granulomatosis (and many other vasculitis syndromes)
Familial Mediterranean fever
Hyperimmunoglobulinemia D with recurrent fever
TNF receptor associated periodic syndrome
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Including Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis)
Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy
Multiple myeloma
Osteoporosis
Fifth disease Treatment
While evidence of primary ankle (kaki) osteoarthritis has been discovered in dinosaurs, the first known traces of human arthritis date back as far as 4500 BC. It was noted in skeletal remains of Native Americans found in Tennessee and parts of what is now Olathe, Kansas. Evidence of arthritis has been found throughout history, from Ötzi, a mummy (circa 3000 BC) found along the border of modern Italy and Austria, to the Egyptian mummies circa 2590 BC.

Taipei (Traditional Chinese: 臺北市 or 台北市; Simplified Chinese: 台北市; Hanyu Pinyin: Táiběi Shì; Tongyong Pinyin: Táiběi Shìh) is the is the de facto capital of the Republic of China. It is the heart of Taiwan.
Taipei City, the surrounding Taipei County, and the nearby Keelung City together form the Taipei metropolitan area but are administered under different local government bodies. Taipei City is a special municipality administered directly under the ROC (Taiwan) central government, while Taipei County and Keelung City are administered as part of Taiwan Province. Taipei commonly refers to the whole metropolitan area, while Taipei City refers to the city proper.
According to census data collected in January 2007, the total population in Taipei City (excluding Taipei County) is 2,630,872. The major industries in the city include electrical and electronic manufacturing, textiles, metals, ship-building, and motorcycle manufacturing.

Pronunciation
Taipei City is located in the Taipei Basin (台北盆地) in northern Taiwan. It is bordered by the Xindian River (新店溪) on the south, and the Tamsui River (淡水河) on the west. The northern districts of Shilin and Beitou extend north of the Keelung River (基隆河) and are bordered by Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園).
The Taipei city limits cover an area ranked sixteenth of twenty-five among all counties and cities in Taiwan.
Cising Mountain is located on the Datun Volcano Group and the tallest Mountain at the rim of the Taipei Basin. Its main peak is 1,120m tall (above elevation).
Mt. Datun's main peak is 1092m tall. It is defined as an area in the western section of Yangmingshan National Park, extending from Mt. Datun northward to Mt. Tsaikungkang. Located on a broad saddle between two mountains, the area contains the marshy Datun Pond.

Geography
The city experiences high temperatures and humidity during the summer. This is exacerbated by the high population density and the use of air conditioning.

Climate
The region known as the Taipei basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the eighteenth century. Han Chinese began to settle in the Taipei Basin in 1709. In the late 19th century, the Taipei area, where the major Han Chinese settlements in northern Taiwan and one of the designated foreign trade port, Tamsui, were located, gained economic importance due to the boosting foreign trade, especially that of tea exportation. In 1875, the northern part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture (臺灣府) and incorporated into the new Taipei Prefecture (臺北府). Having been established adjoining the flourishing townships of Bangkah and Twatutia, the new prefectural capital was known as Chengnei (城內), "the inner city", and government buildings were erected there. From 1875 (during the Qing Dynasty) until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Danshui County (淡水縣) of Taipei Prefecture and the prefectural capital. Taipei remained a temporary provincial capital before it officially became the capital of Taiwan in 1894.
As settlement for losing the First Sino-Japanese War, China ceded the island of Taiwan to the Empire of Japan in 1895. After the Japanese take-over, Taipei, called Taihoku in Japanese, emerged as the political center of the Japanese Colonial Government. Much of the architecture of Taipei dates from the period of Japanese rule, including the Presidential Building which was the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General (台灣總督府).
During the Japanese rule, Taihoku was incorporated in 1920 as part of Taihoku Prefecture (台北州). It included Bangka, Dadaocheng, and Chengnei among other small settlements. The eastern village Matsuyama (松山庄) was annexed into Taihoku City in 1938. Upon the Japanese defeat in the Pacific War and its consequent surrender in August 1945, Taiwan was taken over by Chinese Nationalist troops. Subsequently, a temporary Office of the Taiwan Province Administrative Governor (臺灣省行政長官公署) was established in Taipei City.
On December 7, 1949, the Kuomintang (KMT) government under Chiang Kai-shek established Taipei as the provisional capital of the ROC after the Communists forced them to flee mainland China. Taipei was also the capital of Taiwan Province (臺灣省) until the 1960s when the provincial administration was moved to Chunghsing Village (中興新村) in central Taiwan. (The PRC does not recognize this move and still regards Taipei as the provincial capital of Taiwan.)
As approved on December 30, 1966 by Executive Yuan, Taipei became a centrally administered municipality on July 1, 1967. In the following year, Taipei City expanded again by annexing Shilin, Beitou, Neihu, Nangang, Jingmei, and Muzha. In 1990, 16 districts in Taipei City were consolidated into the current 12 districts.

History

Main article: Economy of Taiwan Economy
See also: Politics of the Republic of China and Republic of China municipal elections, 2006
The current mayor of Taipei City is Hau Lung-bin who won the 2006 mayoral election on December 9, 2006.
The mayor of Taipei City had been an appointed position since Taipei's conversion to a centrally-administered municipality in 1967 until the first public election was held in 1994. The position has a four-year term. The first elected mayor was Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party (民主進步黨; DPP), who is currently the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Ma Ying-Jeou took office in 1998 for two terms, before handing over to Hau Lung-bin.
Based on the outcomes of previous elections in the past decade, the vote of the overall constituency of Taipei City shows a slight inclination towards the pro-KMT camp (the so-called "Blue" camp); however, the supporters of the pro-DPP camp (the so-called "Green" camp) also represent a considerable section of the constituency.
As the city that hosts the presidential office, the central legislature, and other major administrations, Taipei is intermittently tormented with the frequent occurrence of large-scale political campaigns and fortuitous clashes between supporters of different camps. The mass movement and consequent disorder on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the presidential office building after the 2004 presidential election is a representative instance that reflects such a political tension.

Government and politics
Taipei City administers twelve districts (區):

Administrative divisions
Taipei is not a major tourist destination and is visited principally by business travelers, but there are a number of attractions.

Landmarks and attractions
Taipei 101 is a 101-floor landmark skyscraper in the city and has become one of its symbols. Designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and constructed by KTRT Joint Venture, it is the tallest completed skyscraper in the world (the tallest incomplete skyscraper in the world is currently the Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is still undergoing construction). The original name was Taipei Financial Centre, based on its official Chinese name: the Taipei International Financial Center (Traditional Chinese: 臺北國際金融中心; Pinyin: Táiběi Guójì Jīnróng Zhōngxīn). The building is the 2004 recipient of the Emporis Skyscraper Award. Taipei 101 was so named because the building is in Taipei and contains 101 floors. On July 21, 2007, the Burj Dubai overtook the Taipei 101 in height,
On July 21, 2007, Burj Dubai overtook Taipei 101 in height, and is projected to become the tallest building in the world when completed. However, until Burj Dubai (which was 141 stories high as of July 21, 2007) is completed the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat does not consider it a building, and Taipei 101 is still officially the tallest building. Burj Dubai is set to be completed by mid 2009

Ground to roof: 449 m (1,474 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower 442 m (1,451 ft)
Ground to highest occupied floor: 439 m (1,441 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower
Fastest Ascending Elevator speed: 16.83 m/s (37.5 miles/hour or 60.4 km/h)
Largest Count-Down Clock on New Year's Eve. Taipei 101
The Office of the President, formerly Chieh Shou Hall (介壽館; Jiè Shòu Guǎn), has housed the Office of the President of the Republic of China since 1950. It is located on Chungking S. Rd. in the Zhongzheng District of Taipei City. It formerly housed the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan, during the period of Japanese rule.

Presidential building
The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (Traditional Chinese: 國立中正紀念堂) is a monument erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China, in Taipei. A new name for the structure, National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (Traditional Chinese: 國立台灣民主紀念館)., was announced by President Chen Shui-bian on 2007-05-19. The monument, surrounded by a park and a large square incorporating the National Concert Hall and National Theater, stands within sight of Taiwan's Presidential Building in Taipei's Zhongzhen District.
After President Chiang Kai-shek died on 1975-04-05, the Executive Yuan of Taiwan's government established a Funeral Committee to build a memorial. The design, by architect Yang Cho-cheng, was chosen in a competition. Yang's design incorporated many elements of traditional Chinese architecture recalling the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, China. (The Kuomintang revered Dr. Sun as founder of the party and government Chiang had led.) Groundbreaking for the memorial took place on 1976-10-31, the 90th anniversary of Chiang's birth. The hall officially opened on 1980-04-05, the fifth anniversary of the leader's death.
Yang's design placed the main building at the east end of a park, originally named Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park (Traditional Chinese: 中正公園), covering over 240,000 square metres in Zhongzheng District. A main gate, called the Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness (Chinese: 大中至正), was placed at the west end on Chung Shan South Road, with a Gate of Great Loyalty (Chinese: 大忠門) standing at the north side on Hsin Yi (Xinyi) Road and a Gate of Great Piety (Chinese: 大孝門) standing at the south side on Ai Kuo East Road. A Boulevard of Homage, bordered by manicured bushes, connected the main hall with Memorial Square.
Memorial Square today is flanked by the National Concert Hall on the north and the National Theatre on the south. These cultural centers provide a backdrop to events on the square even as they host over 800 events annually. Every year the Taipei Lantern Festival takes place on the square. Huge lantern floats are arrayed around a central lantern featuring the Chinese Zodiac animal for that year.
The main building is white with four sides. The octagonal roof rises 70 meters above the ground and is covered with blue glazed glass tiles. The blue and white colors of the building and the red colour of the flowerbeds echo the colours in the flag of the Republic of China. The octagonal shape picks up the symbolism of the number 8, a number traditionally associated in Asia with abundance and good fortune. Two sets of white stairs, each with 89 steps to represent Chiang's age at the time of his death, lead to the main entrance. A large bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek dominates the main hall. The ground level of the memorial houses a library and museum documenting Chiang Kai-shek's life and career.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
The National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is a memorial to the Republic of China's Father of the Nation, Sun Yat-sen, and was completed on May 16, 1972. As the hall was opened in the very beginning, its main displays were revolutionary events of the national father at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Recently it became a multi-purpose social, educational and cultural center for the Taiwanese public.

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
The Shilin Night Market is a night market in the Shilin District of the city. It is the largest and most famous night market in the city. To get there by the MRT, you must take the Danshui Line to the Jiantan Station, not the Shilin Station. Like most night markets in Taiwan, the local businesses and vendors begin opening around 4 p.m. as students begin returning home from school, crowds reach their peak between 8 and 11 p.m. Businesses continue operating well past midnight and close around 1 to 2 a.m.
Shilin Night Market has since become the largest and most well known night market in Taiwan, especially with regards to food, and is a favorite focal point for Taipei's night life among residents and visitors alike. The night market encompasses two distinct sections sharing a symbiotic relationship: a section formerly housed in the old Shihlin Market building containing mostly food vendors and small eateries; and the surrounding businesses and shops selling other nonfood items.
Due to safety, sanitation, and fire hazard concerns, the old Shilin Market structure was demolished in October 2002 by the Taipei City Government; the food vendors formerly based within the old structure were relocated to a newer temporary structure a few hundred meters away next to the MRT Jiantan Station.
Ximending became the famous theater street in Taipei from 1930s and the prosperity proceeded after the defeat of Japan.
Other market areas of note include Taipei Underground Market, Zhongshan Metro Mall, Dihua Street and Guanghua Bazzar.

Shilin Night Market

Main article: List of museums in Taipei Museums
Taipei has the National Central Library and 60 branches of the Taipei Public Library across the city.

Libraries
The Longshan Temple is a famous temples in Taiwan. The Wanhua temple of Taipei was built in 1738 by settlers from Fujian, China. It served as a place of worship and a gathering place for the Chinese settlers. The temple has been destroyed either in full or in part on numerous earthquakes and fires. In the spring of 1945, it was even hit by American bombers who claimed the Japanese were hiding armaments inside. Taipei residents have nevertheless consistently rebuilt and renovated it, and did so again after the close of the Second World War a few months later. Lungshan is seen as an emblematic example of Taiwanese classical architecture.
Like most temples in Taiwan, the Temple worships a mixture of Buddhist, Taoist, and folk deities such as Matsu.
The Taipei Taiwan Temple is the 31st operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is located in Taipei City , Republic of China (Taiwan).
The country of Taiwan was first introduced to the LDS Church in the mid 1950s. The Taipei Taiwan Temple was announced in 1981 and Church leaders decided to build on the site of the mission home in the center of Taipei.
On November 17, 1984, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Taipei Taiwan Temple. The temple is built on one-half of an acre and has over 16,000 square feet with an exterior of white ceramic tile. There are four ordinance rooms and three sealing rooms.

Temples
Parks and forestry areas of note in and around the city include Yangmingshan National Park, Taipei Zoo and Da-an Forest Park. Yangmingshan, famous for its cherry blossoms, hot springs, sulfur deposits is the home of famous writer Lin Yutang, the summer residence of Chiang Kai-shek, residences of foreign diplomats, the Chinese Culture University, the meeting place of the now defunct National Assembly of the Republic of China, and the Kuomintang Party Archives. The Taipei Zoo was founded in 1914.

Parks
There are many yearly festivals that commonly are held in Taipei including the Lantern Festival and Double Tenth Day. A common location for festivities in Taipei is the square in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Recently, some of the major festivals normally held in Taipei (specifically, the Double Tenth Day fireworks) have been moved to others cities in Taiwan. Grand Hotel is a top hotel in the city.

Festivities and events
All scheduled international flights are served by Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in nearby Taoyuan County. Songshan Airport at the heart of the city serves mostly domestic flights, with the exception of some charter flights.
Taipei's public transport system, MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), also known as Metro Taipei, incorporates a light rail system based on advanced VAL technology with its conventional metro. Both are currently undergoing significant expansion. Unlike most rail transport in Taiwan which follow the Japanese practice and have trains running on the left, the Taipei public transport system runs its trains on the right.
The Taipei Rapid Transit System (TRTS) is one of the most expensive rapid transit systems ever constructed, with the initial phase costing over US$18 billion. Since its completion, the TRTS has reduced travel time from one end of Taipei to the other from up to three or more hours to less than an hour, and has been effective in relieving some of Taipei's traffic congestion problems. The system has also proved effective as a catalyst for urban renewal, as well as increasing tourist traffic to outlying cities such as Danshui (Danshuei/Damshuei/Tamsui).
In addition to the rapid transit system itself, the TRTS also includes several public facilities such as Maokong Gondola, underground shopping malls, parks, and public squares. Modifications to existing railway lines to integrate into the MRT are underway.
In 1967, the Taiwan Government researched the possibility of constructing a rapid transit network in the Taipei metropolitan area; however, the plan was shelved due to fiscal concerns and the belief that such a system was not urgently needed at the time. With the increase of traffic congestion accompanying economic growth in the 1970s, the need for a rapid transit system became more pressing.
The Executive Yuan approved the initial network plan for the system on May 27, 1986. Construction on the TRTS began on December 15, 1988. The system opened on March 28, 1996 with 10.5 km available on the Muzha Line, a medium-capacity line, with twelve stations between Zhongshan Junior High School to Taipei Zoo. The first heavy-capacity line, the Danshui Line, was opened on March 28, 1997 between Danshui to Zhongshan Station.
On December 24, 1999, a section of the Banqiao/Nangang Line was opened between Longshan Temple and Taipei City Hall. This section became the first east-west line running through Taipei City and connects the two previously completed north-south lines.
The TRTS was the center of political controversy during its construction and shortly after the opening of its first line in 1996 due to incidents such as computer malfunction during a thunderstorm, alleged structural problems in some elevated segments, budget overruns, and fare prices. However, by the time the first phase of construction was completed in 2000, it was generally agreed that the project was a success. The system has since become an essential part of life in Taipei.
On September 17, 2001, Typhoon Nari flooded all underground lines, including 16 stations, the heavy-capacity system operation control center, the administration building and the Nangang Depot. On May 31, 2006, the second stage of the Banqiao / Nangang Line and the Tucheng Line began operation. Currently the TRTS network has 7 lines totalling 77 km and 69 stations, with expansion continuing. In June 2007, TRTS achieved daily ridership of 1,099,468 riders. In terms of daily ridership, TRTS is larger than Washington D.C.'s Metrorail (564,000 in FY 2006) and Bay Area Rapid Transit (322,965 in FY 2006) in the San Francisco Bay Area.
On July 4, 2007, the Maokong Gondola, a brand new aerial lift/cable-car system, was opened to public. The system connects the Taipei Zoo, Zhinan Temple and Maokong.
Taipei Main Station is the largest Taiwanese railway station and also functions as the nexus for the MRT system.
An extensive city bus system serves areas not covered by the MRT. Sometimes buses require payment upon boarding, sometimes upon exiting. Many routes, due to length, require payment upon both boarding and exiting. Riders of the city MRT system are able to use their MRT passes on buses. The pass, known as an Easy Card, contain credits that are deducted each time a ride is taken. The Easy Card, Taipei's equivalent to Hong Kong's Octopus Card, is read via proximity sensory panels on buses and in MRT stations, and need not be removed from wallet or purse.
Motor-scooters are ubiquitous in Taipei (and much of Taiwan). Motor-scooters are not subject to some conventional traffic laws, and generally thread between cars and occasionally through oncoming traffic. A loophole in Taipei's motor vehicle laws ensures that in any accident between a motor-scooter and another vehicle, the other vehicle is at fault.

Education
Due to the globalization of American culture the sports of Baseball in particular and Basketball have become popular in the city. Taipei has featured most prominently in Baseball and has often been the venue for the Asian Baseball Championship since the 1960s.

Sports
The Taipei Arena is located in the city home to baseball with a capacity of some 15,000. It is located at the site of the former Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium (built in 1958, opened 1959, demolished 2000). It was designed by Archasia, an architectural firm established in Taipei. The arena was opened on December 1st, 2005. It is currently operated by the Eastern Media Group (東森集團), which won the bid to operate the arena for 9 years.
The main arena has an adjustable floor space: its minimum floor space is 60m x 30m, and can be extended to 80m x 40m.
The Chinese Taipei Ice Hockey League (CTIHL) plays out of the auxiliary arena, which is a 60m x 30m ice skating rink.
Since opening in 2005, the arena has held more art and cultural activities (such as live concerts) than sporting events, which it was originally designed and built for.

1962: Taipei - Asian Baseball Championship
1969: Taipei- Asian Baseball Championship
1997: Taipei - Asian Baseball Championship
2001: Taipei - Asian Baseball Championship
2007: Baseball World Cup Major sport events
As the capital, Taipei City is the headquarters for many television and radio stations in Taiwan and the centre of some of the country's largest newspapers.

Media
Television stations centred in Taipei include the CTS Education and Culture, CTS Recreation, CTV MyLife, CTV News Channel, China Television, Chinese Television System, Chung T'ien Television, Dimo TV, Eastern Television, Era Television, FTV News, Follow Me TV, Formosa TV, Gala Television, Public Television Service, SET Metro, SET News, SET Taiwan, Sanlih E-Television, Shuang Xing, TTV Family, TTV Finance, TTV World, TVBS, TVBS-G, TVBS-NEWS, Taiwan Broadcasting System, Videoland Television Network and Taiwan Television.

Television
Newspapers include Apple Daily, Central Daily News, The China Post, China Times, Kinmen Daily News, Liberty Times, Mandarin Daily News, Matsu Daily, Min Sheng Bao, Sharp Daily, Taipei Times, Taiwan Daily, Taiwan News, Taiwan Times and United Daily News.

Pictures

2007年10月25日 星期四

The Macedonian Front (or Salonika front) resulted from an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. The expedition came too late and in insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia, and was complicated by the internal political crisis in Greece (the "National Schism"). Eventually, a stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic coast to the Struma River, pitting a multinational Allied force against the Central Powers. The Macedonian Front remained quite stable, despite local actions, until the great Allied offensive in September 1918, which resulted in the capitulation of Bulgaria and the restoration of Serbia.

Background
During the last nine months, the Serbians had tried, and failed, to rebuild their battered armies and improve their supply situation. Despite these efforts, the Serbian army was only about 30,000 men stronger than at the start of the war (around 225,000) and it still was not well equipped. Although the Allies (Britain and France) had talked about sending serious military forces to Serbia, nothing was done until it was too late. When Bulgaria began mobilization, the French and British sent two divisions to help Serbia but they arrived late in the Greek town of Salonika. Part of the reason for the delay was the Greek government's conflicted views about the war.
Against Serbia were marshalled the Bulgarian Army, a German Army, and an Austro-Hungarian Army, all under the command of Field Marshal Mackensen, totalling more than 300,000 soldiers. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians began their attack on October 7 with a massive artillery barrage, followed by attacks across the rivers. Then, on the 11th, the Bulgarian Army attacked from two directions, one from the north of Bulgaria towards Niš, the other from the south towards Skopje (see the map). The Bulgarian Army was large, tough, and rapidly broke through the weaker Serbian forces that tried to block its advance. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position was hopeless; either their main army in the north would be surrounded and forced to surrender, or it could try to retreat.
Marshal Putnik ordered a full retreat, south and west through Montenegro and into Albania. The weather was terrible, the roads poor, and the army had to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them. All told, some 125,000 Serbian soldiers reached the coast of the Adriatic Sea and embarked on French transport ships that carried the army to various Greek islands (many went to Corfu) before being sent to Salonika. Marshal Putnik had to be carried during the whole retreat and he died a bit more than a year later in a hospital in France.
The French and British divisions marched north from Salonika in late November under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail. However, the British divisions were ordered by the War Office in London not to cross the Greek frontier. So the French divisions advanced on their own up the Vardar River. This advance was of some limited help to the retreating Serbian Army as the Bulgarian Army had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat. By mid-December, General Sarrail concluded retreat was necessary in the face of determined Bulgarian assaults on his positions.
This was a nearly complete victory for the Central Powers. The railroad from Berlin to Constantinople was finally opened and as a result, Germany was able to prop up its weak partner, the Ottoman Empire. The only flaw in the victory was the remarkable retreat of the Serbians Army, which stayed organized and was able to fight again just six months later.

The Fall of Serbia
The Austro-Hungarian Army attacked Serbia's ally Montenegro and on January 25, the small army of Montenegro surrendered. The Austro-Hungarians continued advancing down the Adriatic Coast, attacking into Italian-controlled Albania. By the end of the winter, the small Italian Army had been forced out of nearly the whole country.
At this point, with the war in the Balkans effectively lost, the British General Staff wanted to withdraw all their troops from Greece, but the French government protested strongly. Since the French divisions were staying, the British stayed also, with undisguised antipathy. The Allied armies entrenched themselves around Salonika, which became a huge fortified camp, earning themselves the mocking nickname "the Gardeners of Salonika". The Serbian Army (now under the command of General Petar Bojović), after rest and refit on Corfu, was transported by the French to the Macedonian front.
In the meantime, the political situation in Greece was confused. Officially, Greece was neutral, but King Constantine I was pro-German, while Prime Minister Venizelos was pro-French. At first, Greece supported the French-British military support of Serbia, then they opposed it; finally, after Venizelos' resignation, the royalist government settled for officially condemning it, but not actually opposing the superior Allied armies that had landed in Salonika. The Germans, trying to win Greece to their side, were careful not to cross the Greek border.
In May of 1916, General Sarrail demanded that the Greek Army demobilize and the Greek government complied with this demand. However, this action further pushed the Greek government to side with the Central Powers.
With certain knowledge that Romania was about to join the Allied side, General Sarrail began preparations for an attack on the Bulgarian Armies facing his forces. The Germans, with excellent intelligence from Greek supporters, made plans of their own for a "spoiling attack". The German offensive was launched on August 17, just three days before the French offensive was scheduled to start. In reality, this was a Bulgarian offensive, as the Austro-Hungarian Army was in Albania and only a single German division was on the Greek border. The attack achieved early success thanks to surprise, but the Serbian forces held a defensive line after two weeks. Having halted the Bulgarian offensive, the Serbian Army staged a counterattack starting on September 12. The terrain was rough and the Bulgarians were on the defensive, but the Serbian Army made steady gains. Slow advances by the Serbians continued throughout October and on into November even as the weather turned very cold and snow fell on the hills. The Germans sent two more divisions to help bolster the Bulgarian Army, but by November 19 the French and Serbian Army captured Monastir (ser.Битољ).
Losses in this campaign were at least 50,000 on the Allied side and likely more than 60,000 killed and captured Bulgarians and Germans (Falls, p. 240). The front had been advanced just 25 miles.
The Bulgarian advance into Greek-held Eastern Macedonia however, precipitated another internal Greek crisis. The government ordered its troops in the area (the demobized IV Corps) not to resist, and despite occasional local resistance from a few officers, most of the Corps along with its commander was forced to surrender to a token German force, and was interned for the remainder of the war at Görlitz. The unopposed surrender of recently hard-won territory to the hated Bulgarians was seen by many Venizelist Army officers as the last straw. With the active help of the Allied authorities, they launched a coup which secured Salonika and most of Macedonia for Venizelos (see Movement of National Defence). From that point Greece had two governments, the "official" royalist one at Athens, maintaining her neutrality in the face of increasing Allied pressure, and the "revolutionary", Venizelist government at Salonika, which immediately entered the war on the side of the Entente.
At the same time, the Italians had deployed more forces to Albania and these new troops managed to push the Austrian corps back through very hilly country south of Lake Ostrovo.

1918

Falls, Cyril The Great War (1960).
Esposito, Vincent (ed.) (1959). The West Point Atlas of American Wars - Vol. 2; maps 46-50. Frederick Praeger Press.

2007年10月24日 星期三

Life
He became a history teacher at Lycée Henri IV, then at the Lycée Louis le Grand, and member of the École française de Rome, then a professor of the History of Music at the Sorbonne, and History Professor at the École Normale Supérieure.
A demanding, yet timid, young man, he did not like teaching. Not that he was indifferent to the youth: Jean-Christophe, Olivier and their friends – the heroes of his novels – are young people. But with living youths, like adults, Rolland only maintained distant relationships. He was above all a writer. Assured that literature would provide him with a modest income, he resigned from the university in 1912.
Romain Rolland was a lifelong pacifist. He protested against the first World War in Au-dessus de la Mêlée (1915), Above the Battle (Chicago, 1916). In 1924, his book on Gandhi contributed to the Indian nonviolent leader's reputation and the two men met in 1931.
In 1928 he and Hungarian scholar, philosopher and natural living experimenter Edmund Bordeaux Szekely founded the International Biogenic Society to promote and expand on their ideas of the integration of mind, body and spirit and the virtues of a natural, simple, vegetarian lifestyle.
He moved to Villeneuve, on the shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) to devote himself to writing. His life was interrupted by health problems, and by travels to art exhibitions. His voyage to Moscow (1935), on the invitation of Maxim Gorky, was an opportunity to meet Stalin, whom he considered the greatest man of his time. Rolland served unofficially as ambassador of French artists to the Soviet Union.
In 1937, he came back to live in Vézelay, which, in 1940, was occupied by the Germans. During the occupation, he isolated himself in complete solitude.
Never stopping his work, in 1940, he finished his memoirs. He also placed the finishing touches on his musical research on the life of Ludwig van Beethoven. Shortly before his death, he wrote Péguy (1944), in which he examines religion and socialism through the context of his memories. He died December 30, 1944 in Vézelay.

A teacher, a pacifist, and a loner
From 1923, a dialogue was struck up between the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Rolland, who found that the admiration that he showed for Freud was reciprocated in equal measures by the man himself (Freud proclaiming in a letter to him: "That I have been allowed to exchange a greeting with you will remain a happy memory to the end of my days."

Rolland and Freud
"If there is one place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India....For more than 30 centuries, the tree of vision, with all its thousand branches and their millions of twigs, has sprung from this torrid land, the burning womb of the Gods. It renews itself tirelessly showing no signs of decay." [1], Life of Ramakrishna
"The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses absolute liberty and unrivalled courage among religions with regard to the facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down for their coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly order, each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe." [2], Life of Vivekananda.

Notes

Graham Norton, (born Graham William Walker on 4 April 1963 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish actor, comedian and television presenter. He achieved fame as a broadcaster on Britain's Channel 4 and also through his role as Father Noel Furlong in the critically acclaimed television series Father Ted. Though he only appeared in three episodes, Norton's performance as Father Noel proved extremely popular with viewers. Norton is openly gay, and is one of the UK's most famous gay personalities. He has since moved from Channel 4 and done much work for the BBC, with various shows for BBC One and BBC Two, and work on BBC Radio 2. He is also the co-owner of SO Television.

Biography
Graham's first appearances in broadcasting were when he appeared on a regular spot on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends. This was when the show ran on Saturday mornings, in the early 1990s. His rise to fame began as one of the early successes of Channel 5 when he won an award for his performance as the stand-in host of the late-night talk show usually presented by Jack Docherty. This was followed by a comic quiz show called Bring Me The Head Of Light Entertainment, which wasn't well received as a programme but did further enhance Norton's individual reputation. He also took part in the show Carnal Knowledge.

Career
After this early success, Norton moved to Channel 4 to host his own chat shows including So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton. As a performer who is not only openly gay, but also naturally camp and flamboyant, it was here that Norton's act was fully honed as a cheeky, innuendo-laden joker.
He was one of the first to introduce the internet on public television in the late nineties. He has interviewed many famous celebrities including Cher,Brian Molko, Dido, Britney Spears, Sophia Loren, Elton John, Marilyn Manson, Mariah Carey, Shirley Bassey, Pete Burns, Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood and Diana Ross.
In 2003, he caused a national outcry among the more sensitive area of the media when, on his British show on Channel 4, he made a comedic reference to the recent death of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb. The Independent Television Commission investigated after complaints about this insensitivity were forwarded to them and eventually Channel 4 had to make two apologies: one in the form of a caption slide before the show, another from Norton in person.
Also in 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy (though Norton is Irish, the bulk of his television career has been in the UK).
In the summer of 2004, Norton moved across the Atlantic to start a new venture in American television. The Graham Norton Effect debuted on 24 June 2004 on Comedy Central. In the midst of controversy surrounding Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance, Norton was wary of moving into the market. The Graham Norton Effect got away with the same racy, suggestive jokes that made his previous shows so popular, but failed to attract an audience.
Around this time Norton also had some very minor success as a DJ, usually wearing a latex bald-cap and working under the pseudonym 'Jamie Ball'.

Channel 4
In 2005, he moved to the BBC and began hosting the Saturday evening reality TV series Strictly Dance Fever and Graham Norton's Bigger Picture. Norton read stories some nights on the BBC children's channel CBeebies as part of Bedtime Hour. He played Mr. Puckov in the 2006 comedy spoof Another Gay Movie.
Over the summer of 2006, He hosted the series How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in which Andrew Lloyd Webber tried to find a lead actress for his West End version of The Sound of Music. He also presented the follow up Any Dream Will Do, where a group of males competed to win the role of Joseph in the West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. On 7 August Norton recorded a pilot for a new BBC chat/game show My Lovely Audience which is a mix of games and celebrity chats.
Norton has been involved in a high-publicity advertising campaign for the National Lottery as an animated Unicorn, the stooge to a character based on Lady Luck (played by Fay Ripley). He has also advertised McVities biscuits.
Norton caused controversy on 7 October 2006, when he described cocaine and ecstasy as "fantastic".
In 2007, Norton featured in Girls Aloud and Sugababes' Comic Relief video for "Walk This Way". He also hosted the BBC One variety show When Will I Be Famous? His new chat show, The Graham Norton Show began on 22 February on BBC Two. It's a format that Graham hasn't been involved in for 4 years, and is highly comparable to his previous Channel 4 shows.
On 7 July 2007 Norton presented at Live Earth.

BBC
Norton hosted the first annual Eurovision Dance Contest which was held in London, United Kingdom on 1 September 2007. The format was based on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Dance Contest

Carnal Knowledge (TV series, co-presenter)
Father Ted (1996 & 1998, three episodes as Father Noel)
Bring Me The Head Of Light Entertainment (Host)
So Graham Norton (1998-2002)
Rex the Runt (2001)
The Kumars at No. 42 (2001)
Absolutely Fabulous (2002, as a toilet trader)
V Graham Norton (2002-2003)
NY Graham Norton (2004)
The Graham Norton Effect (2004-2005)
Graham Norton's Bigger Picture (2005-)
Strictly Dance Fever (2005-2007)
Bedtime Hour (2006-)
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (2006)
My Lovely Audience (2006-)
Another Gay Movie (2006)
When Will I Be Famous? (2007)
The Graham Norton Show (2007)
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2007)
Any Dream Will Do (2007)
The British Academy Television Awards (2007)
Live Earth (2007)
Eurovision Dance Contest (2007)
Who Do You Think You Are? 2007 Cinema

Best Entertainment Performance
Best Talk Show
Best Newcomer
Gay Entertainer of the Year.

2007年10月23日 星期二

The Michigan Military Academy, also known as the M.M.A., was an all-boys military prep school in Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, Michigan. It was founded in 1877 by Captain J. Sumner Rogers, and closed in 1908 due to bankruptcy. Some journalists have referred to the school as the West Point of the West.

Early history and establishment
Over the course of its 30-year history, the Michigan Military Academy had 2,558 enrollments and 458 graduates. The graduating class of 1893 played a prominent role in the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and many of the classes won National Drill Competitions.

Peak years
With a tuition of $500 per year in the 1800s, the M.M.A. attracted mostly sons of wealthy upper class businessmen. There were three levels of training at the school: Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry. The cadets wore gray and white uniforms, modeled after those that were worn at West Point. Students with musical abilities were encouraged to join the marching band. All cadets were taught to use a .45 caliber Springfield rifle, and the academy had an 8-inch Gatling gun at its disposal for military drills. There were a few accidents; in 1884, a cadet drowned during a training exercise in the lake. In 1889, another cadet drowned during a midnight swim.
The cadets had a busy schedule, even on weekends. Rogers and his staff allowed for holiday parties and arranged dances with nearby all-girls schools. Discipline was harsh and there were many athletic and extracurricular activities and the students were encouraged to participate. There were several hundred dropouts throughout the academy's history.

Campus
In the early 1900s, the school went bankrupt. In 1900, a massive building project, with a total of nine buildings at a cost of $350,000, was assimilated by Rogers. Unable to pay off the huge sums of money owed for the new buildings, the academy quickly sunk into debt.
Added to this, during two days in December of the same year, students and teachers protested against mistreatment and unsatisfactory meals. Roger, who was terminally ill at the time, quickly fired several teachers who he blamed for instigating the complaints.
Rogers died of in September of 1901. Management of the school was left to Rogers' widowed wife, and a friend of Rogers' named Gen. Charles King assisted with disciplinary and militaristic duties. Enrollment declined sharply, and the academy was closed in 1908.

Bankruptcy and post-peak years

Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the Tarzan novels, attended the Michigan Military Academy. Burroughs entered the academy in 1892 and was noted for his rebelliousness. After attending the Academy for only a short time, he left without notice on a train bound for Chicago. As punishment, he was sent back to the academy, where he graduated in 1895. He later spent a brief amount of time as an instructor at the Academy.[1]
John C. Lodge attended the Academy for a short time, but dropped out before graduating, though he spoke fondly of it in his later years. He was the mayor of Detroit from 1923-1924 and 1927-1928. The John C. Lodge Freeway (M-10) in Detroit is named in his honor. Notable attendees
Two years after the Academy closed, in 1910, Fr. Joseph Dabrowski, the director of the Polish Seminary of Detroit, purchased the campus and moved his school there. The seminary has stayed there to this day. It is now called SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary. The campus is also home to St. Mary's Preparatory, and Madonna University of Livonia, Michigan holds some classes on the campus.

Notes

Saint Mary's Preparatory
Saint Mary's College

2007年10月22日 星期一

This article is about the baseball player. For the convicted rapist and murderer who came to attention during the 1988 U.S. presidential election, see Willie Horton.
Willie Wattison Horton (born October 18, 1942 in Arno, Virginia) is a former left fielder and designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for six American League teams, primarily the Detroit Tigers. He hit 20 or more home runs seven times, and his 325 career home runs ranked sixth among AL right-handed hitters when he retired. He enjoyed his best season in 1968 with the world champion Tigers, finishing second in the AL with 36 homers, a .543 slugging average and 278 total bases. In the later years of his career, he was twice named the AL's top designated hitter.
Horton is the youngest of twenty-one children of James Horton and his wife Lillian (Wattison) Horton. After winning a city championship with Detroit Northwestern High School in 1959, he signed with the Tigers in 1961, and made his debut with the team on September 10, 1963; he had a pinch-hit home run off Robin Roberts in his second at bat. He saw limited play in his first two years before a 1965 rookie campaign in which he was second in the AL with 104 runs batted in and third with 29 home runs. He was named to the All-Star team, and placed eighth in the MVP balloting. Becoming known for his tremendous strength as well as for his fluctuating weight, he again collected 100 RBI in the 1966 season. During the 1967 Detroit 12th Street riot, he tried vainly to restore peace. He stood in his Tiger uniform on a car in the middle of the crowd, pleading for calm. However, despite his impassioned pleas, he could not calm the angry mob.
While not considered a particularly good fielder, Horton's hitting more than made up for it. He posted double-digit home run totals in 12 regular seasons from 1965-76, and hit two home runs in a game on 30 occasions. He had a career-high 36 HRs in 1968, a pitcher's year in which Detroit won the World Series; he finished second in the AL to Frank Howard in homers, slugging and total bases. In a year in which the league batting average was .230 and Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with a .301 mark, Horton's .285 average was good for fourth in the AL, and he finished fourth in the MVP voting. He also batted .304 in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. In order to combine Horton's offensive power with a good defense, manager Mayo Smith moved regular center fielder Mickey Stanley to shortstop as a replacement for Ray Oyler, who was benched. He kept Al Kaline, a multiple Gold Glove Award winner, in right field and put Jim Northrup in center field; the two had platooned in right field for much of the year. When the Tigers were safely ahead, Oyler would replace Stanley at shortstop, batting in Horton's lineup spot; Stanley returned to center field, and Kaline or Northrup would move over to replace Horton in left field. In Game 2, Horton had a solo home run to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead, and they won 8-1. He also made a pivotal defensive play in the fifth inning of Game 5. With the Cardinals leading the Series 3 games to 1 and the game 3-2, Lou Brock doubled with one out, and tried to score on Julián Javier's single; but he chose not to slide, and Horton's throw to catcher Bill Freehan beat him on a close, controversial play. Detroit scored three runs in the seventh inning to win 5-3, and went on to win Games 6 and 7 as well; Horton had two runs and two RBI in the 13-1 blowout in Game 6, and two hits and a run in the final 4-1 victory.
Horton was a four-time member of the AL All-Star team (1965, 1968, 1970 and 1973). He hit three home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 9, 1970. On April 14, 1974, he hit a popup which struck and killed a pigeon at Fenway Park. He was named the AL's Outstanding Designated Hitter in 1975 after hitting 25 home runs with 92 RBI. In the 1977 midseason he was traded to the Texas Rangers, and he again hit three home runs on May 15 against the Kansas City Royals at Royals Stadium. He spent 1978 playing for the Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays, before finally settling with the Seattle Mariners from 1979-80.
In 1979 with the Mariners he was again named the AL's Outstanding Designated Hitter after hitting .279 with 29 HRs and a career-high 106 RBI, and he received the Comeback Player of the Year award as well. On June 5 against the Tigers he hit what seemed to be his 300th career home run, but it struck a speaker hanging from the roof of the Kingdome and bounced onto the field for a single; he would collect #300 the next day against Jack Morris. His Mariners record of 106 RBI was broken by Alvin Davis in 1984, his marks of 180 hits and 296 total bases were broken by Phil Bradley in 1985, and his record of 29 homers was broken by Gorman Thomas in 1985. His record of 646 at bats was broken by Alex Rodriguez in 1998; Horton remains one of only four Mariners to have played the full 162 games in a season. He played his final major league game on October 5, 1980. In an 18-season career, Horton posted a .273 batting average and .457 slugging average with 1993 hits, 284 doubles, 1163 RBI, 873 runs and 20 stolen bases in 2028 games. His 325 home runs in the AL placed him behind only Harmon Killebrew (573), Jimmie Foxx (524), teammate Al Kaline (399), Rocky Colavito (371) and Joe DiMaggio (361) among right-handed hitters.
Horton played two more years in the Pacific Coast League and another season in Mexican baseball. Among his baseball superstitions was his use of the same batting helmet throughout his career; he repainted it when he changed teams. After retiring, he coached for the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox. On July 15, 2000 Horton became just the sixth former player given the ultimate honor by the Detroit Tigers; a statue of Horton was placed in Comerica Park and his number 23 was retired, joining a select group that includes former Tigers players Ty Cobb (who didn't wear a number), Charlie Gehringer (number 2), Hank Greenberg (number 5), Al Kaline (number 6), and Hal Newhouser (number 16). It is ironic that the statue of Horton, the first black ballplayer so honored by the Tigers, stands next to the statue of Ty Cobb, a noted racist. When asked about this, Horton responded that he once tried to heal the City of Detroit through its riots, so maybe, it was his job to help heal the Tiger legend as well.
Since 2003, Horton has served as a Special Assistant to Tigers President/CEO/General Manager Dave Dombrowski. Former Tigers teammate Al Kaline also holds this position, and the two threw out the first pitch of the 2006 World Series at Comerica Park.

Detroit Tigers (1963-1977)
Texas Rangers (1977)
Cleveland Indians (1978)
Oakland Athletics (1978)
Toronto Blue Jays (1978)
Seattle Mariners (1979-1980)
Hoton's No. 23 retired by the Detroit Tigers in 2000
American League pennant: 1968
World Series champion: 1968
All-Star (AL): 1965, 1968, 1970, 1973
325 career home runs is 91st on all-time list
1313 career strikeouts is 87th on all-time list

2007年10月21日 星期日

Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character from Walt Disney Productions. Donald is a white anthropomorphic duck with yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red or black bowtie — but no trousers (except when he goes swimming). Donald's most famous trait is his easily provoked and occasionally explosive temper.
According to Disney canon, Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck, probably a reference to his traditional outfit. Donald's birthday is officially recognized as June 9, 1934, the day his debut film was released, but in The Three Caballeros, his birthday is given as simply "Friday the 13th". In Donald's Happy Birthday (short) it has his birthday as 13 March.
Donald's famous voice, one of the most identifiable voices in all of animation, was until 1983 performed by voice actor Clarence "Ducky" Nash. It was largely this semi-intelligible speech that would cement Donald's image into audiences' minds and help fuel both Donald's and Nash's rise to stardom. Since 1985, Donald has been voiced by Tony Anselmo, who was trained by Nash for the role.

Donald in animation

For more details on this topic, see Donald Duck cartoons. Early appearances
During World War II, film audiences were looking for brasher, edgier cartoon characters. It is no coincidence that the same era that saw the birth and rise of Bugs Bunny also saw Donald Duck's popularity soar. By 1949, Donald had surpassed Mickey Mouse as Disney's most popular character. Before 1941, Donald Duck had appeared in about 50 cartoons. Between 1941 and 1965, Donald would star in over 100.
Several of Donald's shorts during the war were propaganda films, most notably Der Fuehrer's Face, released on January 1, 1943. In it, Donald plays a worker in an artillery factory in "Nutzi Land" (Nazi Germany). He struggles with long working hours, very small food rations, and having to salute every time he sees a picture of the Führer (Adolf Hitler). These pictures appear in many places, such as on the assembly line in which he is screwing in the detonators of various sizes of shells. In the end he becomes little more than a small part in a faceless machine with no choice but to obey until he falls, suffering a nervous breakdown. Then Donald wakes up to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare. At the end of the short Donald looks to the Statue of Liberty and the American flag with renewed appreciation. Der Fuehrer's Face won the 1943 Academy Award for Animated Short Film.
Other notable shorts from this period include the so-called Army shorts, seven films that follow Donald's life in the US Army from his drafting to his life in basic training under sergeant Pete to his first actual mission as a commando having to sabotage a Japanese air base. Titles in the series include:
Donald Gets Drafted also featured Donald having a physical examination before joining the army. According to it Donald has flat feet and is unable to distinguish between the colors green and blue, which is a type of color blindness. Also in this cartoon sergeant Pete comments on Donald's lack of discipline.
It is also noteworthy that thanks to these films, Donald graced the nose artwork of virtually every type of WWII Allied combat aircraft, from the L-4 Grasshopper to the B-29 Superfortress.
Donald also appears as a mascot-such as in the Army Air Corps 309th Fighter Squadron. Donald also appeared as a mascot emblem for: 415th Fighter Squadron; 438th Fighter Squadron; 479th Bombardment Squadron; 531th Bombardment Squadron.
During World War II, Disney cartoons were not allowed to be imported into Occupied Europe. Since this cost Disney a lot of money, he decided to create a new audience for his films in South America. He decided to make a trip through a lot of Latin American countries with his assistants, and use their experiences and impressions to create two feature length animation films. The first was Saludos Amigos, which consisted of four short segments, one with Donald Duck. Here, he meets his pal Jose Carioca. The second film was The Three Caballeros, in which he meets Panchito.
In 1984, during a celebration for Donald's 50th birthday, the US Army had awarded Donald Duck a promotion to sergeant in honor of his wartime cartoons. The ceremony was similar to actual military promotion ceremonies, with Donald in military uniform being given the certificate and insignia of a sergeant by an Army officer, then hugging Daisy Duck in joy.

Donald Gets Drafted - (May 1, 1942).
The Vanishing Private - (September 25, 1942).
Sky Trooper - (November 6, 1942).
Fall Out Fall In - (April 23, 1943).
The Old Army Game - (November 5, 1943).
Home Defense - (November 26, 1943).
Commando Duck - (June 2, 1944). Wartime Donald
Many of Donald's films made after the war recast the duck as the brunt of some other character's pestering. Donald is repeatedly attacked, harassed, and ridiculed by his nephews, by the chipmunks Chip 'n Dale, or by other one-shot characters such as Humphrey the Bear, Buzz the Bee, Bootle Beetle, the Aracuan Bird, Louie the Mountain Lion or a colony of ants. In effect, the Disney artists had reversed the classic screwball scenario perfected by Walter Lantz and others in which the main character is the instigator of these harassing behaviors, rather than the butt of them. However, by turning the tables, Donald's aggressors come off to some as sadistic or cruel, and some critics have found the films unfunny as a result.
The post-war Donald also starred in educational films, such as Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959), and made cameos in various Disney projects, such as The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and the Disneyland television show (1959). For this latter show, Donald's uncle Ludwig von Drake was created in 1961.
Clarence Nash voiced Donald for the last time in Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), making Donald the only character in the film to be voiced by his original actor. Since Nash's death in 1985, Donald's voice has been provided by Tony Anselmo, who was mentored by Nash. Anselmo's voice is heard for the first time in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In this movie, Donald has a piano duel scene with the Warner Brothers duck Daffy Duck.
Donald has since appeared in a lot of different television shows and (short) animated movies. He played roles in Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Prince and the Pauper and made a cameo appearance in A Goofy Movie.
Donald had a rather small part in the animated television series DuckTales. There, Donald joins the Navy, and leaves his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie with their Uncle Scrooge, who then has to take care of them. Donald's role in the overall series was fairly limited, as he only ended up appearing in a handful of episodes. Some of the stories in the series were loosely based on the comics by Carl Barks.
Donald made some cameo appearances in Bonkers, before getting his own television show Quack Pack. This series featured a modernized Duck family. Donald was no longer wearing his sailor suit and hat, but a Hawaiian shirt. Huey, Dewey and Louie now are teenagers, with distinct clothing, voices and personalities. Daisy Duck has lost her pink dress and bow and has a new hairdo. Oddly enough, no other family members, besides Ludwig von Drake, appear in 'Quack Pack', and all other Duckburg citizens are humans, and not dogs.
In an alternate opening for the 2005 Disney film Chicken Little, Donald would have made a cameo appearance as "Ducky Lucky". This scene can be found on the Chicken Little DVD.
Donald also played an important role in Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse. In the latter show, he is the co-owner of Mickey's night club.

Post-war animation
Main article: Donald Duck in comics
While Donald's cartoons enjoy vast popularity in the United States and around the world, his weekly and monthly comic books enjoy their greatest popularity in many European countries, especially Norway and Finland, but also Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Most of them are produced and published by the Italian branch of the Walt Disney Company in Italy and by Egmont in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. In Germany, the comics are published by Ehapa which has since become part of the Egmont empire.
According to the Inducks, which is a database about Disney comics worldwide, American, Italian and Danish stories have been reprinted in the following countries. In most of them, publications still continue: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, the People's Republic of China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark (Faroe Islands), Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, USA, former Yugoslavia.

Donald in comics
Though a 1931 Disney publication called Mickey Mouse Annual mentioned a character named Donald Duck, the character's first appearance in comic-strip format was a newspaper cartoon that was based on the short The Wise Little Hen and published in 1934. For the next few years, Donald made a few more appearances in Disney-themed strips, and by 1936, he had grown to be one of the most popular characters in the Silly Symphonies comic strip. Ted Osborne was the primary writer of these strips, with Al Taliaferro as his artist. Osborne and Taliaferro also introduced several members of Donald's supporting cast, including his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
In 1937, an Italian publisher named Mondadori created the first Donald Duck story intended specifically for comic books. The eighteen-page story, written by Federico Pedrocchi, is the first to feature Donald as an adventurer rather than simply a comedic character. Fleetway in England also began publishing comic-book stories featuring the duck.

Developments under Taliaferro
In 1942, Western Publishing began creating original comic-book stories about Donald and other Disney characters. Bob Karp worked on the earliest of these, a story called "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold". The new publisher meant new illustrators, however: Carl Barks and Jack Hannah. Barks would later repeat the treasure-hunting theme in many more stories.
Barks soon took over the major development of the comic-book version of the duck as both writer and illustrator. Under his pen, the comic version of Donald diverged even further from his animated counterpart, becoming more adventurous, less temperamental, and more eloquent. Black Pete was the only other major character from the Mickey Mouse comic strip to feature in Barks' new Donald Duck universe.
Barks placed Donald in the city of Duckburg, which he populated with a host of supporting players, including Gladstone Gander (1948), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Uncle Scrooge McDuck (1947), Magica de Spell (1961), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), the Beagle Boys (1951), April, May and June (1953), Neighbour Jones (1944) and John D. Rockerduck (1961). Many of Taliaferro's characters made the move to Barks' world as well, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Barks placed Donald in both domestic and adventure scenarios, and Uncle Scrooge became one of his favorite characters to pair up with Donald. Scrooge's popularity grew, and by 1952, the character had a comic book of his own. At this point, Barks concentrated his major efforts on the Scrooge stories, and Donald's appearances became more focused on comedy or he was recast as Scrooge's reluctant helper, following his rich uncle around the globe.

Developments under Barks
Dozens of writers continued to utilize Donald in their stories around the world.
For example the Disney Studio artists, who made comics directly for the European market. Two of them, Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard created Donald's cousin Fethry Duck.
The American artists Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl, who were working directly for the American comic books, created Moby Duck. Strobl was one of the most productive Disney artists of all time, and drew a lot of stories which Barks wrote after his retirement. In the 1990s, these scripts were re-drawn by Dutch artist Daan Jippes.
Italian publisher Mondadori created many of the stories that were published throughout Europe. They also introduced numerous new characters who are today well known in Europe. One example is Donald Duck's alter-ego, a superhero called Paperinik in Italian, created by Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi.
Giorgio Cavazzano and Carlo Chendi created Honkey Go-Kart (Umperio Bogarto in Italian), a detective whose name is an obvious parody on Humphrey Bogart. They also created O.K Quack, an extra-terrestrial Duck who landed on earth in a spaceship in the shape of a coin. He however lost his spaceship, and befriended Scrooge, and now is allowed to search through his moneybin time after time, looking for his ship.
Romano Scarpa, who was a very important and influential Italian Disney artist, created Brigitta McBridge, a female Duck who is madly in love with Scrooge. Her affections are never answered by him, though, but she keeps trying. Scarpa also came up with Dickie Duck, the granddaughter of Glittering Goldie (Scrooge's possible love-interest from his days in the Klondike) and Kildare Coot, a nephew of Grandma Duck.
Italian artist Corrado Mastantuono created Bum Bum Ghigno, a cynical, grumpy and not too good looking Duck who teams up with Donald and Gyro a lot.
The American artist William van Horn also introduced a new character: Rumpus McFowl, an old and rather corpulent Duck with a giant appetite and laziness, who is first said to be a cousin of Scrooge. Only later, Scrooge reveals to his nephews Rumpus is actually his half-brother. Later, Rumpus also finds out.
Working for the Danish editor Egmont, artist Daniel Branca and script-writers Paul Halas and Charlie Martin created Sonny Seagull, an orphan who befriends Huey, Dewey and Louie, and his rival, Mr. Phelps.
The most productive Duck-artist today is Victor Arriagada Rios, who is better known under the name Vicar. He has his own studio where he and his assistants draw the stories sent in by Egmont. Vicar created the character Oono, a pre-historic princess who traveled to Duckburg in the 1990s by using Gyro's time-machine.
The best-known and most popular Duck-artist of this time is Keno Don Rosa. He started doing Disney comics in 1987 for the American publisher Gladstone. He later worked briefly for the Dutch editors, but moved to work directly for Egmont soon afterwards. He created a lot of sequels to Barks' stories, and even a 12-part series of stories about the life of Scrooge McDuck, which won him two Eisner awards. Not all Barks-fans are happy with his work, though, and some claim he's destroying Barks' carefully built world.
Other important artists who have worked with Donald are Freddy Milton and Daan Jippes, who made 18 ten-pagers which experts claim are as good as Barks' work.
Japanese artist Shiro Amano worked with Donald on the graphic novel Kingdom Hearts based on the Disney-Squaresoft videogame.

Further developments
Donald Duck is the only popular film and television cartoon character to appear as a mascot for the sports team of a major American university, namely, the Oregon Ducks at the University of Oregon, thanks to an agreement made between the University of Oregon and Disney.
In 1984 Donald Duck was named an honorary alumnus of the University of Oregon during his 50th birthday celebration. During a visit to the Eugene City Airport, 3,000 to 4,000 fans gathered for the presentation of an academic cap and gown to Donald. Thousands of area residents signed a congratulatory scroll for Donald, and that document is now part of Disney's corporate archives.
Donald's name and image are also used on numerous commercial products, one example being Donald Duck brand orange juice, introduced by Citrus World in 1940.
In the 1950s, an early Mad Magazine parody of Mickey Mouse (called "Mickey Rodent", written by "Walt Dizzy") featured "Darnold Duck", whose quacky voice had to be "translated" for the readers, and who was shamed into finally wearing pants.
Although Donald's military service has most been recognized as him in the US Army from his wartime cartoons (and to a lesser extent having Donald in the US Navy from Duck Tales), Walt Disney had authorized Donald to be used as a mascot for the US Coast Guard. The Coast Guard image shows a fierce-looking Donald Duck dressed in a pirate's outfit, appearing vigilant against any potential threats to the coastal regions in the United States. This image is still often used on many Coast Guard bases and Coast guard cutters today.
In Sweden a comic book artist named Charlie Christensen got into a legal dispute with Disney when his creation Arne Anka looked similar to Donald Duck (albeit Arne is a pessimistic drunkard). However Charlie made a mockery of the legal action, and staged a fake death for his character, who then had plastic surgery performed and reappeared as Arne X with a more crow-like beak. He later purchased a strap-on duck beak from a novelty gift shop, pointing out that "If Disney are planning to give me any legal action all I have to do is remove my fake beak."
In 1991 the Disney Corporation sued the Israeli Caricaturist Dudu Geva for copyright infringement, claiming his character "Donald Dach" in the story "Moby Duck" was a ripoff of Donald. joining other characters such as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, The Simpsons, Winnie the Pooh, Kermit the Frog, Godzilla and Snow White.
Donald's fame has also led Disney to license the character for a number of video games, such as the Kingdom Hearts series, where Donald is the court magician of Disney Castle. He accompanies Goofy and a young boy named Sora on a quest to rescue King Mickey Mouse and defeat the Heartless. He is voiced by Tony Anselmo in the English version and Kōichi Yamadera in the Japanese version.

Beyond Disney

Appearances

Saludos Amigos (1942)
The Three Caballeros (1944)
Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Mickey's 60th Birthday (1988)
The Prince and the Pauper (1990)
A Goofy Movie (1995)
Fantasia 2000 (1999)
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001)
Mickey's PhilharMagic (2003)
Mickey's House of Villains (2003)
Donald Enters Dave Rancilio! (2003)
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004)
Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004)
The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004)
Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years (2005) Movies

DuckTales (1987-1990) (recurring guest)
Donald Duck Presents
Donald's Quack Attack
Bonkers (1993-1995) (cameo)
Quack Pack (1996-1997)
Mickey Mouse Works (1999-2000)
House of Mouse (2001-2003)
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006)
The Next Best Thing (2007 MGM Studios episode as an impersonation) Television series

Donald Duck's Playground (1984)
Donald's Alphabet Chase (1988)
Quackshot (1991)
The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck (1991)
World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (1992)
Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck (1993)
Disney's Magical Quest 3 Starring Mickey and Donald (1995), (2005)
Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (1996)
Disney's Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers (2000)
Mickey's Speedway USA (2000)
Kingdom Hearts (2002)
Disney Golf (2002)
Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows (2002)
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004)
Kingdom Hearts II (2005) Video games

Carl Barks
Luciano Bottaro
Giovan Battista Carpi
Giorgio Cavazzano
William Van Horn
Daan Jippes
Don Rosa
Marco Rota
Romano Scarpa
Tony Strobl
Al Taliaferro
Vicar
Tetsuya Nomura
Shiro Amano
Naci Taşdöğen Further reading

List of Donald Duck cartoons

2007年10月19日 星期五

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred in the United States, over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC) on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed. The seal failure caused a flame leak from the solid rocket booster, which impinged upon the adjacent external fuel tank. Within seconds, the flame caused structural failure of the external tank, and aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter. The shuttle was destroyed and all seven crew members were killed. The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation.
The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle program and the formation of the Rogers Commission, a special commission appointed by United States President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found that NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes had been a key contributing factor to the accident. NASA managers had known that contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but they failed to address it properly. They also ignored warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching on such a cold day and had failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors. The Rogers Commission offered NASA nine recommendations that were to be implemented before shuttle flights resumed.
Many schoolchildren viewed the launch live due to the presence on the crew of Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project. Media coverage of the accident was extensive: one study reported that 85% of Americans surveyed in a poll had heard the news within an hour of the accident. The Challenger disaster has been used as a case study in many discussions of engineering safety and workplace ethics and inspired the 1990 television movie, Challenger.

January 28 launch and failure
The following account of the accident is derived from real time telemetry data and photographic analysis, as well as from transcripts of air-to-ground and mission control voice communications.
Later review of launch film showed that at T+0.678, strong puffs of dark grey smoke were emitted from the right-hand SRB near the aft strut that attaches the booster to the ET. The last smoke puff occurred at about T+2.733. The last view of smoke around the strut was at T+3.375. It was later determined that these smoke puffs were caused by the opening and closing of the aft field joint of the right-hand SRB. The booster's casing had ballooned under the stress of ignition. As a result of this ballooning, the metal parts of the casing bent away from each other, opening a gap through which hot gases above 5,000 °F (2,760 °C) leaked out. The primary O-ring was designed to close that gap, but was too cold to seal in time. The secondary O-ring was not in its seated position due to the metal bending. There was now no barrier to the gases, and both O-rings were vaporized across 70 degrees of arc. However, aluminum oxides from the burned solid propellant sealed the damaged joint, temporarily replacing the O-ring seal before actual flame rushed through the joint.
As the vehicle cleared the tower, the SSMEs were operating at 104% of their rated maximum thrust, and control switched from the Launch Control Center (LCC) at Kennedy to the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston, Texas. To prevent aerodynamic forces from tearing the shuttle apart, at T+28 the SSMEs began throttling down to limit the velocity of the shuttle in the dense lower atmosphere. At T+35.379, the SSMEs throttled back further to the planned 65%. Five seconds later, at about 19,000 feet (5800 m), Challenger passed through Mach 1. At T+51.860, the SSMEs began throttling back up to 104% as the vehicle approached Max Q, the period of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle.

Liftoff and initial ascent
Just as the shuttle approached Max Q, it slammed through the most intense wind shear ever experienced to date in the space shuttle program.
At T+58.788, a tracking film camera captured the beginnings of a plume near the aft attach strut on the right SRB. Unknown to those on Challenger or in Houston, ignited gas had begun to leak through a growing hole in one of the right-hand SRB's joints. The force of the wind shear shattered the temporary oxide seal that had taken the place of the damaged O-rings, removing the last barrier to flame rushing through the joint. Had it not been for the wind shear, the oxide seal would have almost certainly held all the way through booster burnout.
Within a second, the plume became well defined and intense. Internal pressure in the right SRB began to drop because of the rapidly enlarging hole in the failed joint, and at T+60.238 there was visual evidence of flame coming through the joint and impinging on the external tank.
At this stage the situation still seemed normal both to the astronauts and to flight controllers. At T+68, the CAPCOM informed the crew that they were "go at throttle up", and Commander Dick Scobee confirmed the call. His response, "Roger, go at throttle up," was the last communication from Challenger on the air-to-ground loop.

Plume
At T+72.284, the right SRB apparently pulled away from the aft strut attaching it to the external tank. Later analysis of telemetry data showed a sudden lateral acceleration to the right at T+72.525, which may have been felt by the crew. The last statement captured by the crew cabin recorder came just half a second after this acceleration, when Pilot Michael J. Smith said "Uh oh". Smith may also have been responding to onboard indications of main engine performance, or to falling pressures in the external fuel tank.
At T+73.124, the aft dome of the liquid hydrogen tank failed, producing a propulsive force that pushed the hydrogen tank into the liquid oxygen tank in the forward part of the ET. At the same time, the right SRB rotated about the forward attach strut, and struck the intertank structure.
The breakup of the vehicle began at T+73.162 seconds and at an altitude of 48,000 feet (14.6 km).

Vehicle breakup
In Mission Control, there was silence for a few seconds after the accident. Television screens showed a cloud of smoke and vapor where Challenger had been, with pieces of debris falling toward the ocean. At about T+89, flight director Jay Greene prompted his flight dynamics officer for information. The response was that "filters radar got discreting sources," a further indication that Challenger had broken into multiple pieces. The ground controller reported "negative contact, loss of downlink" of radio and telemetry data from Challenger. Greene ordered his team to "watch your data carefully" and look for any sign that the Orbiter had escaped.
At T+110.250, the Range Safety Officer (RSO) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station sent radio signals that activated the range safety system's "destruct" packages on board both solid rocket boosters. This was a normal contingency procedure, undertaken because the RSO judged the free-flying SRBs a possible threat to land or sea. The same destruct signal would have destroyed the External Tank had it not already disintegrated.
"Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation," reported public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt. "Obviously a major malfunction. We have no downlink." After a pause, Nesbitt said, "We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded."
Greene ordered that contingency procedures be put into effect at Mission Control; these procedures included locking the doors of the control center, shutting down telephone communications with the outside world, and following checklists that ensured that the relevant data was correctly recorded and preserved.

Post-breakup flight controller dialog
Contrary to the flight dynamics officer's initial statement, the shuttle and external tank did not actually "explode". Instead they rapidly disintegrated under tremendous aerodynamic forces, since the shuttle was past "Max Q", or maximum aerodynamic pressure. When the external tank disintegrated, the fuel and oxidizer stored within it were released, producing the appearance of a massive fireball. However, according to the NASA team that analyzed imagery after the accident, there was only "localized combustion" of propellant.

No "explosion"
During vehicle breakup, the robustly-constructed crew cabin detached in one piece and slowly tumbled. NASA estimated separation forces at about 12 to 20 times the force of gravity g very briefly; however, within two seconds, the forces on the cabin had already dropped to below 4 g, and within ten seconds the cabin was undergoing free fall. These forces were likely insufficient to cause major injury. At least some of the astronauts were likely alive and briefly conscious after the breakup, because three of the four Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) on the flight deck were found to have been activated. Investigators found their remaining unused air supply roughly consistent with the expected consumption during the 2 minute 45 second post-breakup trajectory. Whether the astronauts remained conscious long after the breakup is unknown, and largely depends on whether the detached crew cabin maintained pressure integrity. If it did not, time of useful consciousness at that altitude is just a few seconds; the PEAPs supplied only unpressurized air, and hence would not have helped the crew to retain consciousness. The crew cabin impacted the ocean surface at roughly 334 km/h (207 mph), causing an instantaneous deceleration of over 200 g, far beyond the structural limits of the crew compartment or crew survivability levels. Cause and time of death
Further information: Shuttle ejection escape systems, Post-Challenger abort enhancements.
During powered flight of the space shuttle, crew escape was not possible. While launch escape systems were considered several times during shuttle development, NASA's conclusion was that the shuttle's expected high reliability would preclude the need for one. Modified SR-71 Blackbird ejection seats and full pressure suits were used on the first four shuttle orbital missions, which were considered test flights, but they were removed for the operational missions that followed. Providing a launch escape system for larger crews was considered undesirable due to "limited utility, technical complexity and excessive cost in dollars, weight or schedule delays."

Crew escape was not possible
In the aftermath of the accident, NASA was criticized for its lack of openness with the press. The New York Times noted on the day after the accident that "neither Jay Greene, flight director for the ascent, nor any other person in the control room, was made available to the press by the space agency".

Aftermath
On the night of the disaster, President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to give his annual State of the Union Address. He initially announced that the address would go on as scheduled, but under mounting pressure he postponed the State of the Union Address for a week and gave a national address on the Challenger disaster from the Oval Office of the White House. It was written by Peggy Noonan, and finished with the following statement, which quoted from the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.:
Three days later, Reagan and his wife Nancy traveled to the Johnson Space Center to be present at a memorial service honoring the astronauts. It was attended by six thousand NASA employees, as well as by the families of the crew.
The families of the Challenger crew organized the Challenger Center for Space Science Education as a permanent memorial to the crew. Fifty learning centers have been established by this non-profit organization.
The City of Palmdale, the birthplace of the entire shuttle fleet, and its neighbor City of Lancaster, California, both renamed 10th Street East, from Avenue M to Edwards Air Force Base, to Challenger Way in honor of the lost shuttle and its crew. This was the road that the Challenger, Enterprise, and Columbia all were towed along in their initial move from Palmdale Airport to Edwards AFB after completion since Palmdale airport had not yet installed the shuttle crane for placement on the 747.
In addition, the City of Lancaster has built Challenger Middle School, and Challenger Memorial Hall at the former site of the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, all in tribute to the Challenger shuttle and crew.

Tributes
The remains of the crew that were identifiable were returned to their families on April 29, 1986. Two of the crew members, Dick Scobee and Michael J. Smith, were buried by their families at Arlington National Cemetery at individual grave sites. Other crew remains were buried at the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial in Arlington on May 20, 1986.

Funeral ceremonies
In the first minutes after the accident, recovery efforts were begun by NASA's Launch Recovery Director, who ordered the ships used by NASA for recovery of the solid rocket boosters to be sent to the location of the water impact. Search and rescue aircraft were also dispatched. At this stage, however, debris was still falling, and the Range Safety Officer (RSO) held both aircraft and ships out of the impact area until it was safe for them to enter. It was about an hour until the RSO allowed the recovery forces to begin their work.
On board Challenger was an American flag, dubbed the Challenger flag, that was sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado. It was recovered intact, still sealed in its cargo bag.

Recovery of debris
The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, also known as the Rogers Commission (after its chairman), was formed to investigate the disaster. The commission members were chairman and former Secretary of State William P. Rogers, astronauts Neil Armstrong (Vice Chairman) and Sally Ride, lawyer David C. Acheson, aviation specialists Eugene Covert and Robert Hotz, physicists Richard Feynman, Albert Wheelon, and Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr., former Air Force general Donald Kutyna, Robert Rummel, Joseph Sutter, and former pilot Chuck Yeager. The commission worked for several months and published a report of its findings.
It found that the Challenger accident was caused by a failure in the O-rings sealing the aft field joint on the right solid rocket booster, which allowed pressurized hot gases and eventually flame to "blow by" the O-ring and make contact with the adjacent external tank, causing structural failure. The failure of the O-rings was attributed to a design flaw, as their performance could be too easily compromised by factors including the low temperature on the day of launch. It concluded that:

Rogers Commission investigation

Main article: Richard Feynman#Challenger disaster Role of Richard Feynman
The U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology also conducted hearings, and on October 29, 1986 released its own report on the Challenger accident. The committee reviewed the findings of the Rogers Commission as part of its investigation, and agreed with the Rogers Commission as to the technical causes of the accident. However, it differed from the committee in its assessment of the accident's contributing causes.

U.S. House Committee hearings
After the Challenger accident, further shuttle flights were suspended, pending the results of the Rogers Commission investigation. Whereas NASA had held an internal inquiry into the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, its actions after Challenger were more constrained by the judgments of outside bodies. The Rogers Commission offered nine recommendations on improving safety in the space shuttle program, and NASA was directed by President Reagan to report back within thirty days as to how it planned to implement those recommendations.

NASA response

Popular impact
While the presence of New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe on the Challenger crew had provoked some media interest, there was little live coverage of the launch. The only live national coverage was provided by CNN. After the accident, however, seventeen percent of respondents in one study reported that they had seen the shuttle launch, while eighty-five percent said that they had learned of the accident within an hour. As the authors of the paper reported, "only two studies have revealed more rapid dissemination [of news]." (One of those studies was of the spread of news in Dallas after President Kennedy's assassination, while the other was the spread of news among students at Kent State regarding President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death.)

Media coverage
The Challenger accident has frequently been used as a case study in the study of subjects such as engineering safety, the ethics of whistleblowing, communications, and group decision-making. It is part of the required readings for engineers seeking a professional license in Canada

Media

The Psalms of Solomon are a group of eighteen psalms (religious songs or poems) that are not part of any scriptural canon. They are distinct from, but may be modeled after or derived from the Book of Psalms of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, which are traditionally attributed to David rather than Solomon. The 17th of the 18 Psalms has a similarity to Psalm 72 from the Book of Psalms, which claims attribution to Solomon, and hence may be the reason that the Psalms of Solomon have their name. (An alternate view is that the psalms were so highly regarded that Solomon's name was attached it to to keep them from resting in the ash heaps of history.)
The Psalms of Solomon were referenced in Early Christian writings, but lost to modern scholars until a Greek manuscript was rediscovered in the 17th century. There are currently eight known 11th to 15th century manuscripts of a Greek translation from a lost Hebrew or Aramaic original, probably dating from the first or second century BCE. However, though now a collection, they were originally separate, written by different people in different periods.
Politically, the Psalms of Solomon are anti-Maccabee, and some psalms in the collection show a clear awareness of the Roman conquest of Jerusalem under Pompey in 63 BCE, metaphorically treating him as a dragon who had been sent by God to punish the Maccabees. Some of the psalms are messianic, in the Jewish sense (clearly referring to a mortal that happens to be divinely assisted, much like Moses), but the majority are concerned less with the world at large, and more with individual behaviour, expressing a belief that repentance for unintended sins will return them to God's favour.
There have been attempts to link the text both to the Essenes of Qumran, who separated themselves from what they saw as a wicked world, and alternately to the Pharisees in opposition to the Sadducees who generally supported the Maccabees.

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua (Jesus Nave)
Judges
Ruth
1–2 Samuel
1–2 Kings
1–2 Chronicles
Ezra (see Esdras for other names)
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Minor prophets
Tobit
Judith
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
Wisdom (of Solomon)
Ben Sira
Baruch, includes Letter of Jeremiah (Additions to Jeremiah)
Additions to Daniel
Additions to Esther
1 Esdras (see Esdras for other names)
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees (in appendix but not canonical)
Prayer of Manasseh
Psalm 151
2 Esdras
Jubilees
Enoch
1–3 Meqabyan
4 Baruch
Psalms 152–155
2 Baruch

2007年10月17日 星期三

Mandate of Heaven (天命 Pīnyīn: Tiānmìng) was a traditional Chinese sovereignty concept of legitimacy used to support the rule of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty and later the Emperors of China. Heaven would bless the authority of a just ruler, but Heaven would be displeased with an unwise ruler and give the Mandate to someone else. "Mandate of Heaven" was also the very first era name of the Qin Dynasty.
The Mandate has no time limitations, but a performance standard. The Duke of Zhou explained to the people of Shang, that if their king had not misused his power, his Mandate would not have been taken away. This means that a legitimate emperor need not be of noble birth, and in fact, dynasties as powerful as the Han dynasty and Ming dynasty were founded by people of modest birth.
The concept was first found in written records from the words of the Duke of Zhou, younger brother of King Wu of Zhou and regent for King Wu's infant son King Cheng of Zhou. He is usually considered to be the first supporter of the idea. The notion of the Mandate of Heaven was also invoked by Mencius, a very influential Chinese scholarly Sage, considered as the second greatest Sage next to Confucius.
Eventually, as Chinese political ideas developed further, the Mandate was linked to the notion of the dynastic cycle. Times of floods or famines were considered divine signs from the heaven in violation of the Mandate.

The Five Dynasties Period
The Mandate concept is similar to the European notion of Divine Right, which legitimized rule, but allowed the overthrowing of unjust rulers. In Chinese thought a successful revolt was considered evidence that the Mandate of Heaven had passed. In both systems it was wrong to revolt, but a successful insurrection was understood as evidence of divine approval. In Japan rulers are thought of unbroken successions of the sun goddess.

See also

Mote, F.W. (1999). Imperial China: 900-1800. Harvard University Press. 

Manuel "Manny" Bamba Villar, Jr. (born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino businessman and politician, currently the President of the Senate — the third highest ranking official of the Philippines. He has also served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1998–2001, where he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada. He is the current president of the Nacionalista Party.
He assumed the senate presidency at the beginning of the Third Regular Session of the 13th Congress, as part of a power-sharing agreement with his predecessor Sen. Franklin Drilon.

Nacionalista Party (2003- )
Independent (2000-2003)
LAMP (1998-2000)
Lakas-NUCD (1992-1998) Biography
On July 23, 2007, Villar was elected Senate President by a vote of 15-7, after the oath-taking of the 11 new senators, with the exception of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. Those who voted for Villar were Senators Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Juan Ponce-Enrile, Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, Richard Gordon, Gregorio Honasan, Manuel Lapid, Francis Pangilinan, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Ramon Revilla Jr., and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Villar cast a vote for himself. Those who voted for Pimentel were Senators Benigno Aquino III, Rodolfo Biazon, Francis Escudero, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Ana Consuelo Madrigal, and Manuel Roxas II.

2007年10月16日 星期二

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2007年10月14日 星期日

Paula Ackerman (née Paula Herskovitz, December 7, 1893 — January 12, 1989) was the first woman to perform rabbinical functions in the United States (leading congregations from 1950 to 1954 and from 1962 to 1967). She also led the National Committee on Religious Schools for the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.
The former Miss Herskovitz married Rabbi William Ackerman in 1919. She first led a congregation full-time on December 12, 1950, when her husband died unexpectedly on November 30 of that year. Mrs. Ackerman had experience in the job, as she had led services before, while her husband was absent or ill. [1]
Mrs. Ackerman led the congregation at the Temple Beth Israel in Meridian, Mississippi, until a replacement was found in 1954 (she was not formally ordained, and served in the function for three years without having gone through the schooling process for ordination).
Regarding her chances of being selected for the job, Mrs. Ackerman wrote to a friend, "I also know how revolutionary the idea is—therefore it seems to be a challenge that I pray I can meet. If I can just plant a seed for the Jewish woman's larger participation—if perhaps it will open a way for women students to train for congregational leadership—then my life would have some meaning." A woman would not be ordained in Reform Judaism until 1972, when Sally Priesand was formally made a rabbi.
Mrs. Ackerman was born in Pensacola, Florida, and later performed services at her home temple, Temple Beth-El, from 1962 until a replacement was found five years later. She eventually moved back to Mississippi and died there in 1989.

2007年10月13日 星期六

Corus Entertainment Inc. TSX: CJR.B NYSE: CJR is a privately held Canadian media and entertainment company.
Corus is a market leader in specialty television and radio with additional assets in pay television, advertising and digital audio services, television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's animation. The company's multimedia entertainment brands include YTV, Treehouse, W Network, Movie Central, SCREAM, Nelvana, Kids Can Press and radio stations including CKNW, CKOI and Q107. Corus creates engaging branded entertainment experiences for its audiences across multiple platforms.
Corus Entertainment's voting majority is held by the company's founder JR Shaw and his family, which also owns Shaw Communications, from which Corus was spun off in 1999.

Board of Directors

John Cassaday, President and CEO
Heather Shaw, Executive Chair Key Executives

Assets

Conventional television stations
In addition, Corus also has an ownership interest in Qubo, a United States-based children's programming block and digital television network.

Treehouse TV
W Network
YTV
CMT Canada (90%)
Discovery Kids (Canada) (80%)
SCREAM (51%)
Telelatino (50.5%)
TELETOON (50%)
TÉLÉTOON (50%)
TELETOON Retro (50%)
Food Network Canada (22.58%) Specialty television services

Movie Central
Encore Avenue Premium television services

Barrie - CHAY, CIQB
Burlington - CJXY
Calgary - CFGQ, CHQR, CKRY
Cambridge - CJDV
Collingwood - CKCB
Cornwall - CFLG, CJSS, CJUL
Edmonton - CHED, CHQT, CKNG, CISN
Gatineau - CJRC
Guelph - CIMJ, CJOY
Hamilton - CHML, CING
Kingston - CFFX, CFMK
Kitchener - CKBT
London - CFPL, CFPL-FM
Montmagny - CFEL
Montreal - CFQR, CHMP, CINF, CINW, CKAC, CKOI
Peterborough - CKRU, CKWF
Quebec City - CFOM, CHRC
Saguenay - CKRS
Saint-Jérôme - CIME
Sherbrooke - CHLT
St. Thomas - CFHK
Toronto - CFMJ, CFNY, CILQ
Trois-Rivières - CHLN
Vancouver - CFMI, CFOX, CHMJ, CKNW
Winnipeg - CJKR, CJOB, CJZZ
Woodstock - CKDK Radio stations

Nelvana; a production and distribution company of children's animation programs Production

Kids Can Press; a children's book publishing company Publishing

Corus Custom Networks; a television advertising service Other

http://www.corusent.com
http://www.YTV.com
http://www.TreehouseTV.com
http://www.TreehouseDirect.com (video download service)
http://www.Wnetwork.com
http://www.CMT.ca
http://www.DiscoveryKids.ca

2007年10月12日 星期五

2000 Indy 500 Winner
Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (born September 20, 1975 in Bogotá, Colombia) is a race car driver in NASCAR for Chip Ganassi Racing and a former Formula One driver. He was born in Bogotá where he was taught the techniques of karting from an early age by his father Pablo, an architect and motorsport enthusiast. He has enjoyed great success, most famously in top open wheel racing series.
The highlights of his career include winning the International F3000 championship in 1998, and the CART Championship Series in 1999, as well as victories in some of the most prestigious races in the world. He is the only driver to have won the premier North American open-wheel CART title, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona, all at the first attempt. Montoya is one of two drivers to have won the CART title in his rookie year, the other driver being Nigel Mansell, and has equalled Graham Hill's feat of being a Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 race winner. Montoya has also become a crossover race winner by taking victories in Formula One cars, Champcars, IndyCars, Grand-Am Prototype cars and stock cars.

Early career
As a young driver living in Austria Juan Pablo Montoya struggled to save enough money for his basic needs. At this stage of his life he recalls having no money even for public transport; instead he used roller blades to go from one place to another. Retirement from motorsport seemed likely, but an opportunity to compete in the 1997 Formula 3000 season was the break he was looking for. He finished second in the championship in his rookie season, and Williams noticed his potential, signing him to a multi-year contract from 1998. Alongside his Formula One testing duties for Williams he competed again in F3000 and took the title in a close contest with Nick Heidfeld.

CART career
Renault, Williams engine supplier for most of the 1990s, left Formula One at the end of the 1997 season. With no major engine suppliers available, Williams were forced to sign a contract to run customer engines for the 1998 and 1999 seasons. In 1998 the team failed to win a race for the first time in a decade. For the 1999 season, in the hope of attracting more investors to the underperforming team, Frank Williams agreed a driver swap with CART team owner Chip Ganassi, in which Ganassi's 1997 and 1998 CART champion driver, Alessandro Zanardi, would return to Formula One and Montoya would take his place in the competitive American series.
While Zanardi had a miserable year in Formula One, Montoya, with Honda power and a great Reynard chassis at his disposal, took the American motorsport scene by storm. He took the 1999 title in his rookie year, something accomplished six years earlier by former Formula One Champion Nigel Mansell.
The season that saw Montoya crowned as the youngest ever CART FedEx Championship Series Champion at the age of 24 was closely fought, especially with Dario Franchitti who led the championship going into the final race in California. Both drivers finished the season with equal number of points but having won seven races to the Scotsman's three decided the title in the Colombian's favor. However, the CART rookie also attracted criticism - notably from Michael Andretti and his team - for his aggressive style of driving.
Montoya still had a contractual relationship with Williams and after his impressive rookie season the Grove-based team were keen for him to drive for them in Formula One. However, the young Colombian decided to race in the US for one more year.

1999
In 2000 the Ganassi team switched to Toyota engines and Lola chassis. The package was strong for ovals and high speed tracks, but was less well suited to street and most road circuits. Toyota's engines were not yet reliable and often failed the team. Despite this, Montoya led more laps than anyone else and took the maiden victory for a Toyota engine in the series. He was also the most popular driver, but in a season where he failed to finish in 40% of the races, he was out of contention for the championship.
That season the Ganassi team also competed in the prestigious Indianapolis 500 race, part of the rival Indy Racing League series. Media and drivers were critical of the way Juan Pablo approached the Brickyard, many IRL drivers labelled him as reckless and predicted an early retirement from the race. The media activity around the event was intense, with Montoya and his CART teammate Jimmy Vasser being the first CART drivers to "cross-over" to drive in the Indy 500. Despite public warnings from two-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser, Jr. claiming that if a driver doesn't respect the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the place "will bite you - hard" Montoya shrugged off the advice claiming that all four corners were exactly the same and that the track required less attention than the road courses in the CART series and in European racing.
In the event, the Colombian star led 167 of 200 laps and claimed top honours at the end of the 500 mile race, taking an easy victory on his first attempt. He was the first to do so since Formula One World Champion Graham Hill in 1966 and was the first Colombian winner. His compatriot Roberto José Guerrero had previously finished twice as runner up.

2000
Over the weekend of the 2000 Indianapolis 500, Williams-BMW announced a two year deal for Montoya to partner Ralf Schumacher starting in 2001. His entrance was very much anticipated by the Formula One community due to the talent and raw speed showed in the Americas based series.
Montoya showed great potential from the beginning. Critics and fans alike anticipated that he would challenge for the World Drivers' Championship. During the first half of his Formula One career he consolidated his position as a fast driver and a race win challenger and also became a title contender during 2003 but the hopes of fighting for the title gradually faded as stronger and more consistent challengers arrived on the scene.
Montoya has been criticized during his Formula One career for his unreliability and tendency to make costly mistakes. His driving style is too characteristic of the 80's Formula One era. In this matter it is difficult to build a car that suits him well as engineers and aerodynamicists have adapted their work to build chassis that are more appropriate to a more fine and soft, and perhaps less live, driving style.
Entering his sixth season, in 2006, it was evident that Juan Pablo Montoya had not developed into the title contender that racing fans and the media had predicted. In particular after five full seasons the necessary consistency never materialised. However, he often challenged for race victories and was voted top Latin American driver at the Premios Fox Sports awards in 2003 and 2005

Formula One career
Montoya made his Formula One debut for the BMW-powered Williams team in the 2001 Formula One season at the Australian Grand Prix. Less than a month later, he shocked Michael Schumacher — and the F1 world — in Brazil by overtaking the World Champion in a daring move. Montoya was on course to win the race when backmarker Jos Verstappen collided with him. Verstappen claimed he did brake earlier than normal. In his first season in Formula One Montoya established himself as a natural racer and a favorite with fans and commentators. Although Williams struggled with reliability that year — Montoya only finished six races — he nevertheless won three pole positions and stood on the podium four times, including his maiden Formula One victory at the 2001 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

2001 - Williams
In the 2002 Formula One season, Montoya was the best of the rest as Ferrari's dominance left available no better place than third. Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello won 15 of 17 races. Although he did not win a race, unlike Coulthard and his team mate Ralf Schumacher, Montoya was one of the few drivers to compete with Schumacher on the track. As in 2001, he stood out for his forceful overtaking moves on the World Champion, although several times he lost places through clashing with the German. For qualifying the BMW WilliamsF1 FW24 could be set up to use its tires more effectively than its rivals and generate more grip. With this weapon Montoya was able to win seven pole positions, usually in the very last seconds of the session. He set the fastest ever lap for a Grand Prix during the qualifying session of the 2002 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

2002
Although the 2003 chassis was built by the team specifically for Montoya's driving style, the machine needed time to be developed. Problems with oversteer were still present, often resulting in 360º spins in front of the crowd, in addition to reliability problems with the BMW engine.
From the Monaco Grand Prix the FW25 proved to be the class of the field, allowing Montoya to take victory at Circuit de Monaco from Kimi Räikkönen. Although this newly revamped design had proven successful, Williams often made mistakes, failing to find a correct setup and Montoya gained a poor reputation for setting up a Formula One car. In addition, Ralf Schumacher had a better relationship with the team, especially with the sporting director, which resulted in several in-race advantages for the German. During the 2003 French Grand Prix, after a misunderstanding with the pit crew, there was a vocal exchange of expletives between the Colombian and his team. This was followed by a formal letter of reprimand from the BMW Williams F1 team. McLaren Mercedes announced that they would take on his racing services from 2005 at and end of season announcement, although it was believed that Montoya had already decided to leave immediately after the French GP.
Bad luck for rivals and excellent on-track performances from the Colombian meant he was a title contender, particularly after a key victory at the German Grand Prix. Williams, however, were unable to keep pace with the latest developments from Ferrari. Montoya failed to claim another victory that year. A drive-through penalty at the United States Grand Prix after a collision with Ferrari's Barrichello ended his title chances in the last race he would finish in 2003.

2003
2004 was a disappointing year for Montoya. His relationship with the team was strained throughout the season since both parties knew he would be leaving for the McLaren team at the end of the year.
Early season promise faded as the radical looking 'tusked' Williams FW26 initially lacked pace and both drivers were frequently left struggling to score points. However, the car was significantly overhauled during the season and the radical nose designed by a former Ferrari aerodynamicist was finally replaced with a more conventional one for the final stages of the season. Montoya left the team on a high note by winning his last race with them, the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, which was closely contested with future team mate Kimi Räikkönen.
During a pre-race, and unofficial, press conference that made part of a corporate event scheduled by the team, the atmosphere towards the local media covering the 2004 Australian Grand Prix, and some international media as well, was negativized as Montoya suddenly left the event rejecting further contact with the attending reporters and thus he didn't take part of the scheduled sponsor activities either; The situation was originated by some irreverent questions by Australian comedians Ash & Luttsy. Also later in the year Montoya was accidentally hit in the head by a camera man, the verbal reply and aggressive attitude were made famous by an internet video that captured the situation in the paddock; These events helped Montoya gain a reputation for aggressive and lack of class, as those were the words used by Ross Brawn, Ferrari's sporting director, when Montoya daringly overtook Michael Schumacher and made him spin whilst racing for the 2003 European Grand Prix and the world championship.

2004
After driving for Williams for four full seasons, Montoya found the McLaren Mercedes car unpredictable, often claiming it felt like the steering wheel was not "attached" to the rest of the car.
Having been criticised in previous years for his lack of fitness, Montoya began a training program under the direction of McLaren personnel but all the effort was lost when, just after the Malaysian Grand Prix, he injured his shoulder while in Spain. The official reason given to media was that he had injured himself whilst playing tennis. However, rumors stated that a motorcycle accident was the real cause. After missing two Grands Prix he made an early return before he was completely healed. In fact he was often seen with his arm almost motionless for the remaining five Grands Prix even while in the paddock for the British GP.
In practice for the Monaco Grand Prix Montoya was penalized to start from the back by race stewards for brake-testing his former Williams team mate, Ralf Schumacher, causing a four car collision. At the Canadian Grand Prix Montoya was in contention for the win, but he was disqualified after leaving the pitlane under a red light. As a Michelin runner, Montoya did not start the US Grand Prix (see 2005 US Grand Prix). The Colombian was on track for a possible podium finish at Magny-Cours when his suspension failed. He retired from the lead of the Hungarian GP due to a broken driveshaft. His team mate had a similar failure 8 GP before, which shows the differences in suspension geometry between both McLaren's as the torsional forces are carried out in different manner.
During the year Montoya suffered even more from oversteer than he had at Williams. On several occasions he spun during practice. More seriously he spun in his return from injury at the Spanish Grand Prix and most notoriously at the last corner during qualifying for the German Grand Prix. On that occasion he made up for it by climbing from 20th to 8th after the first two corners eventually finishing in a respectable 2nd.
Montoya worked with the team during the year to identify suspension geometry and aerodynamic problems that were making the car unpredictable. It is said that he helped the team to improve the car a lot, benefiting both himself and his team mate.
He had to learn how to cope with a very nervous and 'oversteery' car, in these conditions and after bad luck for his team mate, he scored his first victory for McLaren Mercedes in the British GP and in the same conditions at Monza.
For most of the season Montoya's major concerns were the ongoing problems with backmarkers and team orders. Both Tiago Monteiro and Antônio Pizzonia collided with him, as had Jos Verstappen in 2001, and Jacques Villeneuve forced him off the track in one of the final races of the year. These incidents prevented Montoya from completing his main task for the team; stopping Fernando Alonso and Renault F1 from increasing their lead in the standings over Räikkönen and McLaren respectively.
In the final stages of the season it was clear that Montoya and his car were finally adapted to one another. The Colombian has often attributed this to the greater effort made by the McLaren Mercedes Team than by Williams to tune the car to his driving style. At the Brazilian GP, Montoya led home McLaren's first 1-2 result in years, ahead of newly crowned world champion Fernando Alonso in third. It was his last finish of the year. In Japan he made contact with Jacques Villeneuve on lap one, while in China a loose drain cover rose up and hit his car, damaging the suspension.

2005 - McLaren
Montoya started his 2006 Formula One World Championship campaign learning that the 2005 F1 Champion Fernando Alonso had been contracted by McLaren-Mercedes for the 2007 season. At the same time McLaren did not take up their option on Montoya for 2007, while his teammate Kimi Räikkönen remained a free agent.
During the first three races, Montoya consistently underperformed on the track, not managing to improve his position from the start at the Bahrain and Malaysia Grands Prix. Problems with his engine mapping also contributed, resulting in poor straight line performance.
At the Australian Grand Prix, he drove an excellent race that sadly featured a few critical mistakes. His car spun near the end of the warm-up lap, caused by too much throttle whilst warming the tyres, and if Fisichella hadn't stalled his Renault before the start of the race and triggered another formation lap, Montoya would have started at the back end of the grid. He did manage to regain his grid position though, which angered other team managers. His race ended when towards the end of the race he hit a kerb on the exit of the final corner, whilst chasing Ralf Schumacher hard for third place. The impact triggered an automatic electronic device in the McLaren MP4-21, shutting down his engine as it went into safety mode.
In the San Marino Grand Prix, Montoya was forced to use the team spare car for the qualifying session when it was learnt that his car had a fuel pressure problem. McLaren fitted his engine into the team spare car, thus saving Montoya from a 10-place grid penalty. He managed to qualify in seventh place ahead of Räikkönen. The race however was very undramatic for him and a steady performance saw him finish third, earning his first podium finish of the season.
The races at the Nürburgring and the Circuit de Catalunya, however, were very disappointing for Montoya. He qualified in 9th position for the European Grand Prix but then was stuck behind traffic for almost the whole race before his engine failed a few laps from the end. Catalunya saw Montoya failing to qualify in the Top 10 for the first time in the season. He qualified 12th in an underperforming McLaren. He was heavily fuelled and was on a one-stop strategy for the race but he spun and his car got stuck on a kerb and his race was over. Juan Pablo had a solid race at Monaco, inheriting second place 14.5 seconds behind championship leader Fernando Alonso after Räikkönen and Mark Webber went out with engine problems on lap 50. Once again, though, he appeared to be somewhat off his team mate's pace.
The Canadian Grand Prix saw Montoya pull off a stunning overtaking move on Michael Schumacher on the opening lap, but contact with Nico Rosberg on the next lap and a mistake at the last corner resulted in Montoya bracing the wall and damaging the car, leading to retirement.
The US Grand Prix also brought further disappointment to Montoya's season. An 8-car crash on the first corner saw him retire from the race, yet again taking no points. This crash also involved team-mate Räikkönen, and as one of the main instigators of the crash, this cast further doubt upon Montoya's future in Formula One.
Montoya's Formula One career effectively came to an end on 9 July when he announced in a public press conference from the US that he had signed a contract to run in the NASCAR series from 2007. On 11 July 2006, McLaren-Mercedes announced that Montoya would stop racing for the team with immediate effect, to enable him to prepare for his future career and take time out with his family. This ultimately confirmed Montoya's exit from F1. However, in the press conference on July 14 at the French Grand Prix, Ron Dennis stated that Montoya was still under contract with McLaren-Mercedes and he would remain in contract with the team until the expiration of the deal. Following further speculation that he could start racing in the NASCAR series as early as 2006, Dennis publicly offered Montoya an early exit from his contract with McLaren-Mercedes, provided that he resigned from receiving any payout to terminate his contract.

2006

NASCAR
On July 9, 2006, Montoya announced his plans to compete in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series beginning with the 2007 season, racing for Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates' NASCAR operation, Chip Ganassi Racing, in the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge. Montoya made his stock car debut in an Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) event at the Talladega Superspeedway on October 6, 2006. He qualified second, led the first nine laps, and finished third when the race was called after 79 of 92 laps.

2006 season
Before the start of the NASCAR season 06/07 , Montoya won the 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race with teammates Scott Pruett and Salvador Duran.
Montoya, who is eligible for the Rookie of the Year title in 2007, finished 19th at the first race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup, the Daytona 500, complaining of handling problems with the car.
On June 24, 2007, Montoya won his first NASCAR Nextel Cup race at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, becoming the first foreign born driver to win a Cup race since Canadian Earl Ross in 1974. Montoya joined Mario Andretti as the only drivers to win the Indianapolis 500, a Formula One race, and a NASCAR Nextel Cup race.
Montoya made a triumphant return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Allstate 400. On Saturday July 28th, during qualifying, Montoya qualified in 2nd spot, with his teammate Reed Sorenson taking the pole position. During the race, he stayed in the top ten the entire time, finishing second behind race winner Tony Stewart.

2007 season
Together with his wife, Connie Freydell (a native of Medellín, Colombia), Montoya founded the Formula Smiles Foundation as part of his duties as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. The foundation's main aim is to help children in poor neighborhoods by building or improving sports facilities and infrastructure. Montoya organizes several events for the foundation, such as Échele Cabeza al casco de Juan Pablo Montoya - a helmet painting competition in which children can design a new pattern for Montoya's racing helmet. The winning design was worn in the Brazilian Grand Prix each year. The most famous event organised by the charity is the Race of Stars, a kart race disputed by international stars of the motorsport scene. The invited drivers, mainly from Formula One and the IRL, attend in the hopes of raising money for children in poor neighbourhoods. The race is run on a street course in the historical center of the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, which features high levels of humidity and temperature, making it a tough driving exercise.

Philanthropic activities
Barber Saab series: 3rd, 2 wins, 2 poles
Mexican 'N' series: 5 races, 3 wins, 4 poles
Bogotá Six Hours: class winner
Marlboro Masters: 4th
Macau GP: ret
ITC: 16th, 1 race (Mercedes-Benz)
Bogotá Six Hours: winner
IRL: raced and won the Indy 500 (Ganassi)
TOTALS:

1981-1984: Karting Colombian National Champion
1985: National Junior Kart Championship: 2nd
1986-1987: Komet Category: National Champion
1988: Komet Category: 2nd in National Championship
1989: Komet Category: champion
1990: Kart Junior World Championship
1991: Kart Junior World Championship
1992: Colombian Formula Renault: 8 races, 4 wins, 5 poles
1993: GTI National Championship Tournament: 8 races, 7 wins, 7 poles
1994: Sudan 125 karting: champion
1995: Formula Vauxhall, England: 3rd (Paul Stewart Racing)
1996: F3, England: 5th, 2 wins, 1 pole (Fortec)
1997: F3000: 2nd, 37.5 points, 3 wins (RSM Marko)
1998: F3000: 1st, 65 points, 4 wins, 2 poles (Super Nova)
1999: CART: 1st & rookie of the year, 212 points, 7 wins, 7 poles (Ganassi)
2000: CART: 9th, 126 points, 3 wins, 7 poles (Ganassi)
2001: Formula One: 6th, 31 points, 1 win, 3 poles (Williams)
2002: Formula One: 3rd, 50 points, 0 wins, 7 poles (Williams)
2003: Formula One: 3rd, 82 points, 2 wins, 1 pole (Williams)
2004: Formula One: 5th, 58 points, 1 win, 0 poles (Williams)
2005: Formula One: 4th, 60 points, 3 wins, 2 poles (McLaren)
2006: Formula One: 8th, 26 points, 0 wins, 0 poles (McLaren)
2007: Rolex 24 at Daytona Daytona Prototype class winner and overall winner
2007: Nascar Busch Series: Mexico City winner
2007: NASCAR Nextel Cup Series: Top 5 Finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway
2007: NASCAR Nextel Cup Series: won Cup race at Infineon Raceway
F3000 : 102.5 points, 7 wins, 2 poles, 1 time champion
CART : 338 points, 10 wins, 14 poles, 1 time champion
IRL : 54 points, 1 win, 0 poles, 1 time Indy 500 champion
Formula One : 304 points, 7 wins, 13 poles, 2 times 3rd in the championship Career results
(key)

Complete CART results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
NASCAR Nextel Cup results

Famous Colombians

Corneliu Mănescu (8 February 1916-June 26, 2000) was a Romanian diplomat born in Ploieşti. He served as foreign minister of Romania from 1961 to 1972 and as president of the United Nations General Assembly from 1967 to 1968.
After completing his secondary studies in Ploieşti, Mănescu went on to study Law and Economics at the University of Bucharest, from 1936 to 1940. He joined the Romanian Communist Party in 1936.
In 1960, he became Director of the Political Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1960 to 1961, he served as Ambassador to Hungary. He was named Minister of Foreign Affairs in March 1961. Mănescu was the first communist to be president of the UN General Assembly.
In 1989, he became a leader of the reformist movement within the Romanian Communist Party. In March 1989, together with five other Communist dignitaries (Gheorghe Apostol, Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Silviu Brucan, Constantin Pîrvulescu, and Grigore Răceanu), he signed the open letter known as Scrisoarea celor şase—"The Letter of the Six". After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, he was part of the council that administered Romania in 1990 from the overthrow of the Nicolae Ceauşescu government until elections could be held.
Mănescu married the former Dana Dobrescu in 1950. They had a daughter. He died in a hospital in Bucharest, Romania.

2007年10月11日 星期四

NSU Motorenwerke AG (normally just NSU) was a German manufacturer of cars and motorcycles which was founded in 1873, and was acquired by Volkswagen in 1969. VW merged the company with Auto Union to eventually evolve into Audi as it is known today.

History
NSU produced the following post - war cars:



NSU Prinz I, II, 30 and III (1957-1962)
NSU Sport Prinz (1959-1967)
NSU Prinz 4, 4L (1961-1972)
NSU Prinz 1000, NSU 1000 (1964-1972)
NSU 1000 TT, NSU TT, NSU TTS (1965-1972)
NSU Typ 110, NSU 1200 (1965-1972)
NSU Spider (1964-1967)
NSU Ro 80 (1967-1977)
NSU K70, produced after VW/Audi takeover as the VW K70 (1970-1975) NSU cars
NSU had several successes in the Isle of Man TT races in the 1950s. NSU holds 4 World records for speed: 1951, 1953, 1954 and 1955. During the 1930s, and in the mid 1950s NSU was the largest motorcycle producer of the world.
The NSU Quickly was the most popular moped of its time. It was produced between 1953 and 1966 in over 1.000.000 examples and still can be found today all over the world as more than 60% were exported.
[1] [2]

2007年10月10日 星期三

History
Although advertising has existed for a long time, explicit "branding" is a product of the late 1800s. Due to the prevalence of dangerous products and unregulated industries of the Industrial Revolution, brands were introduced to increase the reputation and value of a particular manufacturer. An identified brand often meant safety and quality. For example, Quaker Oats is among the oldest modern brands in continual use.
Lydia Pinkham was one of the true success stories of personality branding. Her family used her name and image to promote their patent medicine in the 1800s. The product was incredibly successful. Women wrote Lydia for advice; often the company would reply. Lydia herself was uninvolved; even after her death the company kept up appearances, continuing to answer letters addressed to her by consumers.

Branding
Mobile Billboards are flat-panel campaign units in which their sole purpose is to carry advertisements along dedicated routes selected by clients prior to the start of a campaign. Mobile Billboard companies do not typically carry third-party cargo or freight. Mobile displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout the world, including:

Target advertising
One day, and long term campaigns
Convention
Sporting events
Store openings or other similar promotional events
Big advertisements from smaller companies Mobile Billboard Advertising
Certain products use a specific form of advertising known as "Custom publishing". This form of advertising is usually targeted at a specific segment of society, but may also "draw" the attention of others. The lists are presented in the following box:
See also: Advertising regulation

Product advertising
The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation, religious recruitment, and deforestation.
Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of reaching and motivating large audiences. "Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest - it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes." - Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy
Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the use of sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues and initiatives.
In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by the FCC is contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public service advertising. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of their required Public Service Announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.
Public service advertising reached its height during World Wars I and II under the direction of several governments.

Public service advertising

Types of advertising
Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television ads, web banners, shopping carts, web popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, human directional, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses or airplanes ("logojets"), taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets, the opening section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.
Another way to measure advertising effectiveness is known as ad tracking. This advertising research methodology measures shifts in target market perceptions about the brand and product or service. These shifts in perception are plotted against the consumers' levels of exposure to the company's advertisements and promotions.The purpose of Ad Tracking is generally to provide a measure of the combined effect of the media weight or spending level, the effectiveness of the media buy or targeting, and the quality of the advertising executions or creative. Ad Tracking Article

Media

Main article: Product placement Covert advertising

Main article: Television advertisement Television commercials
Increasingly, other mediums such as those discussed below are overtaking television due to a shift towards consumer's usage of the Internet as well as devices such as TiVo.
Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives.
E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as "spam".
Some companies have proposed to place messages or corporate logos on the side of booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising (see mind control), and the pervasiveness of mass messages (see propaganda).
Unpaid advertising (also called word of mouth advertising), can provide good exposure at minimal cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat of equating a brand with a common noun ("Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex" = tissue, "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly, "Hoover" = vacuum cleaner and "Band-Aid" = adhesive bandage.) -- these are the pinnacles of any advertising campaign. However, some companies oppose the use of their brand name to label an object.
SMS (Short Message Service) text messages have taken Europe by storm and are breaking into the USA. The addition of a text-back number is gaining prevalence as a www address of yesterday. Used as part of your companies 'how to contact us' these can be very effective. These can be a (rented) keyword on a short-code or your own system on a standard number (like Mojio Messenger). The benefit of SMS text messages is people can respond where they are, right now, stuck in traffic, sitting on the metro. The use of SMS text messages can also be a great way to get a viral (word-of-mouth) campaign off the ground to build your own database of prospects see Viral marketing. Interstitial advertisement is a form of advertisement which takes place while a page loads.
From time to time, The CW airs short programming breaks called "Content Wraps," to advertise one company's product during an entire commercial break. The CW pioneered "content wraps" and some products featured were Herbal Essences, Crest, Guitar Hero 2, Cover Girl, and recently Toyota.

Newer media and advertising approaches
The most common method for measuring the impact of mass media advertising is the use of the rating point (rp) or the more accurate target rating point (trp). These two measures refer to the percentage of the universe of the existing base of audience members that can be reached by the use of each media outlet in a particular moment in time. The difference between the two is that the rating point refers to the percentage to the entire universe while the target rating point refers to the percentage of a particular segment or target. This becomes very useful when focusing advertising efforts on a particular group of people.

Measuring the impact of mass advertising
In an effort to improve messaging, and gain audience attention, advertisers create branding moments that will resonate with target markets, and motivate audiences to purchase the advertised product or service, advertisers copy test their advertisements before releasing them to the public. (Young, pp.15-21)

Optimisation
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half." - John Wanamaker, father of modern advertising.
The impact of advertising has been a matter of considerable debate and many different claims have been made in different contexts. During debates about the banning of cigarette advertising, a common claim from cigarette manufacturers was that cigarette advertising does not encourage people to smoke who would not otherwise. The (eventually successful) opponents of advertising, on the other hand, claim that advertising does in fact increase consumption.
According to many sources, the past experience and state of mind of the person subjected to advertising may determine the impact that advertising has. Children under the age of four may be unable to distinguish advertising from other television programs, while the ability to determine the truthfulness of the message may not be developed until the age of 8.
Over the past fifteen years a whole science of marketing analytics and marketing effectiveness has been developed to determine the impact of marketing actions on consumers, sales, profit and market share. Marketing Mix Modeling, direct response measurement and other techniques are included in this science.

Impact
As advertising and marketing efforts become increasingly ubiquitous in modern Western societies, the industry has come under criticism of groups such as Adbusters via culture jamming which criticizes the media and consumerism using advertising's own techniques. The industry is accused of being one of the engines powering a convoluted economic mass production system which promotes consumption. Recognizing the social impact of advertising, Mediawatch-uk, a British special interest group, works to educate consumers about how they can register their concerns with advertisers and regulators. It has developed educational materials for use in schools. The award-winning book, How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know, by former Mediawatch (a feminist organization founded by Ann Simonton not linked to mediawatch-uk) president Shari Graydon, provides context for these issues for young readers.
Public interest groups are increasingly suggesting that access to the mental space targeted by advertisers should be taxed, in that at the present moment that space is being freely taken advantage of by advertisers with no compensation paid to the members of the public who are thus being intruded upon. This kind of tax would be a Pigovian tax in that it would act to reduce what is now increasingly seen as a public nuisance. Efforts to that end are gathering more momentum, with Arkansas and Maine considering bills to implement such a taxation. Florida enacted such a tax in 1987 but was forced to repeal it after six months, as a result of a concerted effort by national commercial interests, which withdrew planned conventions, causing major losses to the tourism industry, and canceled advertising, causing a loss of 12 million dollars to the broadcast industry alone.

Public perception of the medium
An extensively documented effect is the control and vetoing of free information by the advertisers. Any negative information on a company or its products or operations often results in pressures from the company to withdraw such information lines, threatening to cut their ads. This behaviour makes the editors of the media self-censor content that might upset their ad payers. The bigger the companies are, the bigger their relation becomes, maximising control over a single piece of information.
Advertisers may try to minimise information about or from consumer groups, consumer-controlled purchasing initiatives (as joint purchase systems), or consumer-controlled quality information systems.
Another indirect effect of advertising is to modify the nature of the communication media where it is shown. Media that get most of their revenues from publicity try to make their medium a good place for communicating ads before anything else. The clearest example is television, where broadcasters try to make the public stay for a long time in a mental state that encourages spectators not to switch the channel during advertisements. Programs that are low in mental stimulus, require light concentration and are varied are best for long sitting times. These also make for much easier emotional transition to ads, which are occasionally more entertaining than the regular shows. A simple way to understand objectives in television programming is to compare the content of programs paid for and chosen by the viewer with those on channels that get their income mainly from advertisements.
In several books, articles and videos, communication professor Sut Jhally has argued that pervasive commercial advertising, by constantly reinforcing a bogus association between consumption and happiness and by focusing on individual immediate needs, leads to a squandering of resources and stands in the way of a discussion of fundamental societal and long-term needs.

Negative effects of advertising

Main article: Advertising regulation Regulation

Future
Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export, international, multi-national, and global. For global advertisers, there are four, potentially competing, business objectives that must be balanced when developing worldwide advertising: building a brand while speaking with one voice, developing economies of scale in the creative process, maximising local effectiveness of ads, and increasing the company's speed of implementation. Born from the evolutionary stages of global marketing are the three primary and fundamentally different approaches to the development of global advertising executions: exporting executions, producing local executions, and importing ideas that travel. (Global marketing Management, 2004, pg 13-18)
Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or region. The ability to identify which elements and/or moments of an ad that contributes to its success is how economies of scale are maximised. Once one knows what works in an ad, that idea or ideas can be imported by any other market. Market research measures, such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding moments provide insight into what is working in an ad in any country or region because the measures are based on the visual, not verbal, elements of the ad. (Young, p.131)

Global advertising
In practice, the goal of Integrated Marketing Communications is to create and sustain a single look or message in all elements of a marketing campaign. "[It] permeate[s] every planned and unplanned communication at every contact point where the customer or prospect may receive an impression of the company." http://www.octgroup.com/articles/im.htm.

Integrated marketing communication (IMC)
With the dawn of the Internet come many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner, advergaming, and email advertisements (the last often being a form of spam) abound.
Each year, greater sums are paid to obtain a commercial spot during the Super Bowl, which is by most measures considered to be the most important American football game of the year. Companies attempt to make these commercials sufficiently entertaining so that members of the public would actually want to watch them.
Another phenomenon is the recording of shows on DVRs (ex. TiVo). These devices allow users to record the programs for later viewing, enabling them to fast forward through commercials. Additionally, as more seasons of pre-recorded "Boxed Sets" are offered for sale of Television show series; fewer people watch the shows on TV. However, the fact that these sets are sold, means the company will receive additional profits from the sales of these sets. To counter this effect, many advertisers have opted for product placement on TV shows like Survivor.
Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people may like an advertisement enough to wish to watch it later or show a friend. In general, the advertising community has not yet made this easy, although some have used the Internet to widely distribute their ads to anyone willing to see or hear them.
Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance of niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet and the theory of The Long Tail, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach specific audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provide advertisers with audiences that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for companies' marketing products. Among others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser employing this method in their video on demand menus. These advertisements are targeted to a specific group and can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out more about a particular business or practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the viewer to become proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.Embedded advertising or in-film ad placements are happening on a larger scale now than ever before. Films like Krrish had over a dozen placements including Lay's, Bournvita, Samsung, Faber Castell and Hero Honda.
Last year 19 films had in-film placement and 44 films opted for co-branding activities. In all, 45 brands were advertised through films last year.
In 2005-06, advertisers spent 25-30 lakh on embedded advertising. This number has now increased to over 1 crore. Brands understand the market better than the films.
Prahlad Kakar, ad film director, Genesis Film Production, points out that if an actor endorses one brand, he can't be handed a rival brand in a movie. For example, Shah Rukh Khan would refuse to hold a bottle of Coke in his films since he endorses Pepsi. So, problems arise around the right marriage of a brand to a movie.
Devil wears Prada is one of the best examples for the in-film placement internationally. If in India the in-film placement is not done intelligently, the movie may turn into a long commercial.
Sanjay Bhutani, CEO BR Films, is gung-ho about in-film placement. "Its strengths are low cost, no zapping and repeat viewing. Even well known media brands like AAJ TAK, The Times of India and NDTV are also taking the route of in-film placement."
The brand has to be well connected to the movie. If there is a forced fit, it is like a 'deranged marriage" and viewer is like a child from the marriage who is lost in between."
A study showed that people tend to recognize the product with the movie than the brand ambassador. A striking 60% identified incorrect brand ambassadors. This reinforces the fact that in-film advertising helps in brand recall.
Cadbury's power brands enjoy the privilege because the brand ambassadors and the product itself are very strong to make a successful in-film element. It can be carried forward to the daily soaps too.
Management must lure the artistic buds of the concerned departments to make the right choice for the in-film advertising. Template:The Brand Reporter, April 16-30,2007 , Hidden Cleverly, Surina Sayal Template:Marketing Management, 10th edition – Philip Kotler

Bibliography

2007年10月9日 星期二

Joseph Vincent McCarthy (April 21, 1887 – January 13, 1978) was an American manager in Major League Baseball, most renowned for his leadership of the "Bronx Bombers" teams of the New York Yankees from 1931 to 1946. The first manager to win pennants with both National and American League teams, he won nine league titles overall and seven World Series championships – a record tied only by Casey Stengel – and his career winning percentages in both the regular season (.615) and postseason (.698, all in the Series) are the highest in major league history. His 2125 career victories rank seventh in major league history.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he grew up idolizing Athletics manager Connie Mack, McCarthy was among the rare successful major league managers who never played in the majors. After attending Niagara University, he had a 15-year minor league career from 1907 to 1921, primarily as a second baseman with Toledo, Buffalo and Louisville; but his best chance at playing in the majors dissolved in 1916 with the demise of the Federal League. After a brief managing stint in 1913 while playing in Wilkes-Barre, he resumed his managing career with Louisville in 1919, leading the team to American Association pennants in 1921 and 1925 before being hired to manage the Chicago Cubs for the 1926 season. He turned the club around, guiding them to the 1929 NL title, but was fired near the end of the 1930 season.
He rebounded immediately, being hired by the Yankees slightly over a year after the death of Miller Huggins. With the Yankees, his strict but fair managing style helped to solidify the team's place as the dominant franchise in baseball, with a World Series title in 1932, and four consecutively from 1936 to 1939; the Yankees became only the third team – and the first in the AL – to win four straight pennants, and the first to win more than two Series in a row. The Yankees went on to win three more AL crowns from 1941 to 1943 before McCarthy resigned in May 1946, partially due to conflict with new club operator Larry MacPhail. McCarthy returned as manager of the Boston Red Sox from 1948 to June 1950, but was unable to capture a pennant despite reaching a one-game playoff with the Cleveland Indians in 1948.
Despite his teams' great performance, he was not without his detractors, who believed he was simply fortunate enough to be provided with great talent and was not a strong game tactician. During his peak period from 1936 to 1943, when the Yankees won seven pennants in eight seasons, White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes famously described him as a "push-button" manager. Yet McCarthy was an outstanding teacher and developer of talent, and was particularly adept at handling temperamental players such as Hack Wilson and Babe Ruth, who had hoped to become New York's manager and resented a team "outsider" being hired. McCarthy utilized a low-key approach, never going to the mound to remove a pitcher or arguing with an umpire except on a point of the rules, preferring to stay at his seat in the center of the dugout.
McCarthy's success throughout his career was such that in 32 years of managing, his 1922 Louisville club was the only team which finished either with a losing record or below fourth place. He was named Major League Manager of the Year by The Sporting News in 1936 – the first year the award was given – and again in 1938 and 1943.
In a 1969 poll by the Baseball Writers Association of America to commemorate the sport's professional centennial, McCarthy finished third in voting for the greatest manager in history, behind John McGraw and Casey Stengel; in a similar BBWAA poll in 1997 to select an All-Century team, he finished second behind Stengel. On April 29, 1976, the Yankees dedicated a plaque for their Monument Park to McCarthy. The plaque calls him "One of baseball's most beloved and respected leaders."
McCarthy was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957. He died of pneumonia at age 90 in Buffalo, New York.

2007年10月6日 星期六

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Belarus
The politics of Belarus takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Belarus is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. Belarus's declaration of independence on 27 July 1990, did not stem from long-held political aspirations but from reactions to domestic and foreign events. Ukraine's declaration of independence, in particular, led the leaders of then Belarusian SSR to realize that the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapsing, which it did.
After the establishment of a Republic on August 25, 1991, Stanislav Shushkevich was selected to be the first Belarusian leader and held this position until 1994. During that time frame, Shushkevich directed his country in a way to become free from its Soviet past and try to look towards to the West. His successor, Alexander Lukashenko, changed all of that upon assuming office in 1994 and began to turn his attention away from the West and back towards Russia. And, during his rule, Lukashenko began to re-instate Soviet-era functions and reintroduced the symbols from Soviet Belarus. Lukashenko, who is still in power, has caused increased focus on his country due to his leadership manner, which has been considered authoritarian by some and a dictatorship by others.

Constitution
President

• Alexander Lukashenko
  Government
  
  
  
  • Prime Minister: Sergey Sidorsky
    National Assembly
    
    
    
    • Council of the Republic
      House of Representatives
      People's Assembly
      Constitutional Court
      Supreme Court
      Economic Court
      Elections
      Foreign relations
      Administrative division
      Political parties Political background
      The March 4, 1990, elections to the republic's Supreme Soviet gave the country a legislature that was little different from previous legislatures: only 10 percent of the deputies were members of the opposition. But for the most part, the populace seemed satisfied with the new deputies, and the Belarusian Popular Front's (BPF) calls for independence and efforts at nation-building failed to stir up the same strong emotions as movements in neighboring Ukraine and the Baltic States. Although the Supreme Soviet of the Belarusians SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic on July 27, 1990 (some two weeks after Russia had declared its own sovereignty), the March 1991 referendum held throughout the Soviet Union showed that 83 percent of Belarusians wanted to preserve the Soviet Union.
      Political change in Belarus came about only after the August 1991 coup d'état in Moscow and a display of satisfaction by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus (CPB) at the coup attempt--it never issued a condemnation of the coup plotters. Following the coup's collapse and declarations of independence by Estonia, Latvia, and Ukraine, Belarus declared its own independence on August 25 by giving its declaration of sovereignty the status of a constitutional document. On August 28, Belarus's prime minister, Vyachaslaw Kyebich, declared that he and his entire cabinet had "suspended" their CPB membership. The next day, both the Russian and the Belarusian governments suspended the activities of the communist party.
      Liberals and nationalist reformers used this period of political confusion to advance their cause. On September 18, the parliament dismissed its chairman, Mikalay Dzyemyantsyey, for siding with the coup and replaced him with his deputy, Stanislav Shushkevich. The next day, pressed by the small but vocal democratic opposition, the parliament changed the state's name from the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic to the Republic of Belarus.
      A new national flag (three horizontal stripes, white- red-white) was adopted, along with a new coat of arms (Pahonia -- a mounted knight, Saint George, Patron Saint of Belarus, with a drawn sword -- the emblem of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania). On December 8, Belarus joined Russia and Ukraine in signing the Minsk Agreement to form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which formally put an end to the Soviet Union. On December 21, Belarus signed the Alma Ata Declaration, which expanded the CIS membership from the original three signatories of the Minsk Agreement to eleven states. And it was agreed that the headquarters of the CIS was to be in Minsk, a move that the government of Belarus welcomed as a means of attracting foreign attention.
      The democratic opposition in the Supreme Soviet, led by the twenty-seven-member BPF faction and some of its allies, continued pressing for a referendum on the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet and for new elections. The electorate seemed to be responsive. More than 442,000 signatures in support of the move were collected within three months, but the initiators had underestimated the conservatism of the Supreme Soviet.
      Meeting in mid-October 1992 and encouraged by the electoral victory of former communists in Lithuania and growing resistance to President Boris Yeltsin's reforms in Russia, the Supreme Soviet solidly rejected the demand for a referendum. Claiming violations in the signature collection drive, 202 deputies voted against the referendum; only thirty-five deputies supported it, and another thirty-five abstained. In view of the fact that in May 1992 the Central Referendum Commission had validated 384,000 of the 442,000 signatures collected (exceeding the 350,000 signatures required by law), the BPF opposition accused the Supreme Soviet's conservative majority of an open violation of the republic's constitution and of an attempt to retain power by illegal means. Nonetheless, the opposition won a small victory in this tug-of-war: the parliament agreed to shorten its five-year term by one year and scheduled the next elections for the spring of 1994.
      The Belarusian government headed by Prime Minister Kyebich consisted of former CPB functionaries and took a very conservative approach to economic and political reforms. Kyebich himself characterized his policy as "traditional" and warned about taking "extreme" positions.
      Belarus' conservative Supreme Soviet continued to put obstacles in the path of reform. A privatization law was finally passed in July 1993, but it allowed collective and state farms to continue to exist and operate. Privatization of state-owned enterprises had barely begun in mid-1995, despite earlier efforts by Shushkyevich, who was largely a figurehead, to move along reform efforts. Conservative Kyebich, who actually controlled the ministries, was a temporary victor, when, in January 1994, he survived a no-confidence vote that ousted Shushkyevich and replaced him with Kyebich's ally, Myechyslaw Hryb.
      
      Independence
      In the meantime, the Supreme Soviet adopted a constitution that went into effect on March 30, 1994, and created the office of president, who would now be the head of government instead of the prime minister. A quickly organized election was held in June, and a runoff election between the two highest vote-getters was held in July; in a surprise result, Kyebich was soundly beaten by populist Alexander Lukashenko, a youthful anticorruption crusader. Both Kyebich and Lukashenko took pro-Russian stands on economic and political matters, and both supported a quick monetary union with Russia. Lukashenko even called for outright unification with Russia, but it was his anticorruption stance that won him more than 80 percent of the vote.
      
      1994 elections
      After Lukashenko achieved his victory, the BPF granted him a three-month grace period during which it did not openly criticize his policies. Because his campaign promises had often been vague, he had great latitude within which to operate. And because Kyebich resigned after the election, taking his government with him, there were no problems in removing ministers.
      Lukashenko's presidency was one of contradictions from the start. His cabinet was composed of young, talented newcomers as well as Kyebich veterans who had not fully supported Kyebich. As a reward to the parliament for confirming his appointees, Lukashenko supported the move to postpone the parliamentary elections until May 1995.
      Lukashenko's government was also plagued by corrupt members. Lukashenko fired the minister of defense, the armed forces chief of staff, the head of the border guards, and the minister of forestry. Following resignations among reformists in Lukashenko's cabinet, parliamentary deputy Syarhey Antonchyk read a report in parliament on December 20, 1994, about corruption in the administration. Although Lukashenko refused to accept the resignations that followed, the government attempted to censor the report, fueling the opposition's criticism of Lukashenko.
      Lukashenko went to Russia in August 1994 on his first official visit abroad as head of state. There he came to realize that Russia would not make any unusual efforts to accommodate Belarus, especially its economic needs. Nevertheless, Lukashenko kept trying; in February 1995, Belarus signed the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation with Russia, making many concessions to Russia, such as allowing the stationing of Russian troops in Belarus, in hopes that Russia would return the favor by charging Belarus lower prices for fuels. However, because the treaty included no such provision, there was little hope of realizing this objective.
      Lukashenko had several disputes with parliament, mainly over the limits of presidential power (such as whether the president has the right to dissolve parliament). A hunger strike by opposition deputies, led by Zyanon Paznyak, began on April 11, 1995, after Lukashenko proposed four questions for a referendum and then stated that the referendum would be held regardless of parliament's vote. The protest ended when the striking deputies, forcibly evicted in the middle of the night during a search for an alleged bomb, found that the national television and radio building had been cordoned off as well because of another alleged bomb threat. After this incident, the parliament gave in on a number of matters, including the four referendum questions, because word of their strike now could not be publicized.
      The parliamentary elections held in May 1995 were less than successful or democratic. The restrictions placed on the mass media and on the candidates' expenditures during the campaign led to a shortage of information about the candidates and almost no political debate before the elections. In several cases, no one candidate received the necessary majority of the votes in the May 14 elections, prompting another round on May 28. The main problem in the second round was the lack of voter turnout. After the second round, parliament was in limbo because it had only 120 elected deputies--it was still short of the 174 members necessary to seat a new legislature. Another round of elections was discussed, probably near the end of the year, but the government claimed to have no money to finance them.
      
      Lukashenko's first term
      Of the 346 deputies to the Belarusian Supreme Soviet elected in 1990, fourteen were still vacant three years later, owing to voter apathy. There was also widespread apathy toward the political process and disbelief that what were being advertised as democratic ways would improve the situation. This general political malaise was then, and continued to be in 1995, reflected in the feeble growth, small size, and low popularity of political parties.
      Although the 1990 and 1995 parliamentary elections were far from democratic, the predominance of conservatives in the legislature had deeper roots than just the lack of means for free expression and the strictures of the electoral procedure. A widely heard rhetorical question was, "What is more useful, sausage or freedom?" The conservative majority in parliament-- largely managers, administrators, and representatives of such groups as war veterans and collective and state farm managers-- had successfully slowed the pace of reforms, and the standard of living had decreased dramatically for most of the population.
      In view of the tremendous economic difficulties that accompanied the post-Soviet period, the years before perestroika looked reasonably good to most citizens. The populace was frustrated by the misuse of a freedom whose benefits were measured predominantly in material terms. Nostalgia for the so-called good old days had been growing stronger ever since the country declared its independence, and the lack of political energy in the country hindered the growth of political parties not tied to the old ways.
      An example of political inertia is the debate on relations between Russia and Belarus. This debate has proceeded rather noisily and has been couched in cultural and historical terms, rather than in terms of the state's interests. National interests and foreign affairs are still deemed to be beyond the average citizen's competence, and the idea that the party/government knows best is still prevalent in the popular mind.
      The four-question referendum that had prompted the parliamentary hunger strike in April 1994 was held on May 15, 1995. The populace voted "yes" on all four questions: Russian as an official language, the return of a Soviet-era red and green flag, economic integration with Russia, and presidential power to dissolve the Supreme Soviet. The result hardly inspired confidence among aspiring democrats.
      
      Problems of Democratization
      Stanislaw Shushkyevich observed at the beginning of 1993 that almost 60 percent of Belarusians did not support any political party, only 3.9 percent of the electorate backed the communist party, and only 3.8 percent favored the BPF. The influence of other parties was much lower.
      The Communist Party of Belarus (CPB), part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), claimed to rule the Belarusian SSR in the name of the proletariat for the entire duration of the republic's existence. For most of this period, it sought to control all aspects of government and society and to infuse political, economic, and social policies with the correct ideological content. By the late 1980s, however, the party watched as Mikhail S. Gorbachev attempted to withdraw the CPSU from day-to-day economic affairs.
      After the CPB was banned in the wake of the August 1991 coup d'état, Belarusian communists regrouped and renamed themselves the Party of Communists of Belarus (PCB), which became the umbrella organization for Belarus's communist parties and pro-Russian groups. The PCB was formally registered in December 1991. The Supreme Soviet lifted the ban on the CPB in February 1993.
      The most active and visible of the opposition political groups in Belarus in the first half of the 1990s was the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF), founded in October 1989 with Zyanon Paznyak as chairman. The BPF declared itself a movement open to any individual or party, including communists, provided that those who joined shared its basic goal of a fully independent and democratic Belarus. The BPF's critics, however, claimed that it was indeed a party, pointing out the movement's goal of seeking political power, having a "shadow cabinet," and being engaged in parliamentary politics.
      The United Democratic Party of Belarus was founded in November 1990 and was the first political party in independent Belarus other than the communist party. Its membership is composed of technical intelligentsia, professionals, workers, and peasants. It seeks an independent Belarus, democracy, freedom of ethnic expression, and a market economy.
      The Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly (Hramada) emerged in March 1991. Its members include workers, peasants, students, military personnel, and urban and rural intelligentsia. Its program advocates an independent Belarus, which does not rule out membership in the CIS, and a market economy with state regulation of certain sectors. The assembly cooperates with other parties and considers itself part of the worldwide social democratic movement.
      The Belarusian Peasant Party, founded in February 1991, is headquartered in Minsk and has branches in most voblastsi. The party's goals include privatization of land, a free market, a democratic government, and support of Belarusian culture and humanism.
      The Belarusian Christian Democratic Union, founded in June 1991, was a continuation of the Belarusian Christian-Democratic Party, which was disbanded by the Polish authorities in western Belarus in the 1930s. Its membership consists mainly of the intelligentsia, and it espouses Christian values, nonviolence, pluralism, private property, and peaceful relations among ethnic groups.
      The "Belaya Rus'" Slavic Council was founded in June 1992 as a conservative Russophile group that defends Russian interests in all spheres of social life, vociferously objects to the status of Belarusian as the republic's sole official language, and demands equal status for the Russian language.
      In 1995 other parties included the Belarusian Ecological Party, the National Democratic Party of Belarus, the Party of People's Accord, the All-Belarusian Party of Popular Unity and Accord, the Belarusian United Agrarian Democratic Party, the Belarusian Scientific Industrial Congress, the Belarusian Green Party, the Belarusian Humanitarian Party, the Belarusian Party of Labor, the Belarusian Party of Labor and Justice, the Belarusian Socialist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus, the Polish Democratic Union, and the Republican Party.
      
      Developments since 1993
      Since his election in July 1994 to a 5-year term as Belarus's first President Alexsandr Lukashenko has consolidated power steadily. He used a November 1996 referendum to amend the 1994 Constitution in order to broaden his powers and extend his term in office. The new constitution has a popularly elected president who serves a 5-year term. The bicameral parliament consists of the 64-seat Council of the Republic and the 110-seat Chamber of Representatives. The president appoints the prime minister, who is the head of government. Administratively, the country is divided into six regions (provinces) or "voblasts."
      
      November 1996 referendum and constitutional changes
      In October 2000, parliamentary elections occurred for the first time since the referendum of 1996. According to OSCE/ODIHR, these elections failed to meet international standards for democratic elections. Lukashenko announced early in 2001 that presidential elections would be held. Western monitors made charges of nondemocratic practices throughout the election period, including charges vote counting fraud. These charges of irregularities led the OSCE/ODIHR to find that these elections also failed to meet Belarus' OSCE commitments for democratic elections. Although it was considered to be "puppet" parliament of Lukashenko, eventually there appeared dissenting voices, notably the parliamentary group "Respublika" (Valery Fralou, Uladzimir Parfianovich, Siarhiej Skrabiec, Vladimir Novosiad).
      
      Elections of 2000 and 2001
      In Belarus, while there are political parties that either support or oppose President Lukashenko, the majority of the seats in the National Assembly are filled by those not affiliated with any political parties ("non-partisans"). However, there are three political parties who hold seats in the House of Representatives: the Communist Party of Belarus (8 seats), the Agrarian Party of Belarus (3 seats), and the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus (1 seat). The other two parties that pledged their support to Lukashenko, the Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party and the Republican Party of Labour and Justice, did not secure any seats in October 2004 election. Opposition parties, such as the Belarusian People's Front and the United Civil Party of Belarus did not gain any seats. The UCPB and the BPF are some of the parties that comprise the People's Coalition 5 Plus, a group of political parties who oppose Lukashenko. Several organizations, including as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe(OSCE), declared the election un-free due to opposition parties negative results and the bias of the Belarusian media in favor of the government. However, in constitutional as well as political terms, the House is of marginal importance. At the 2000 election, it took four rounds of voting before all the seats were filled; in the end, 86% of the elected deputies were independents, and the remainder were the representatives of parties traditionally loyal to the president (OSCE, 2000).
      
      Elections of 2004
      In a referendum in 2004, a constitutional amendment lifted the restriction on the number of terms for president. Lukashenko claimed about 76% voter support for this referendum while results were denounced by opponents as fraudulent.
      Previously, Lukashenko had been limited to two terms and thus would have been constitutionally required to step down after the next presidential election, due in 2006, but this referendum opened the way to him to stay in power without any limits on number of terms. In October 2005 Lukashenko confirmed that he was going to run again in 2006, "unless people will tell me: Lukashenko, you must stop."
      
      Election of 2006
      Lukashenko was quoted as saying that he has an "authoritarian ruling style" that he uses to run the country.
      
      Speech, assembly, media, and opposition parties
      
      Foreign relations of Belarus
      A Day of Solidarity with Belarus

2007年10月5日 星期五

Dark Shadows is a Gothic television soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis, who tells of a dream he had in which a girl takes a long train ride to visit a large mansion. The story "bible," which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements. It was considered daring (and unprecedented in daytime television) when ghosts were introduced about six months after it began. The series became hugely popular when, a year into its run, vampire Barnabas Collins, played by Jonathan Frid, appeared. In addition to vampires, Dark Shadows featured werewolves, ghosts, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, both into the past and into the future, and a parallel universe. A small company of actors each played many roles and, as actors came and went, some characters were played by several actors. Major writers in addition to Art Wallace included Sam Hall, Gordon Russell, and Violet Welles.
Dark Shadows has the distinction of being the only long-running soap to have every episode released for home video (including a reconstruction episode #1219, the videotape for which is lost), first on VHS and currently in progress on DVD. (Episodes were numbered from #1 to #1245, but some episodes were pre-empted due to holidays, news, etc. so the number of episodes actually broadcast is 1225.)
Dark Shadows was distinguished by its vividly melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable story lines and an unusually adventurous music score. Now regarded as somewhat of a camp classic, it continues to enjoy intense cult status among its followers. Director Tim Burton and pop icon Madonna have both gone on record as fans of the series. As a child Johnny Depp was so obsessed with Barnabas Collins that he wanted to be him.

Brief synopsis
See also: List of Collins family members
Many other well-known names appeared in minor roles, including Mitch Ryan (1966, 1967), Dana Elcar (1966–67), Donna McKechnie (1969–70), Conrad Bain (1966, 1968), Abe Vigoda (1969) and Marsha Mason (1970).
A more extensive list can be found on TV.com's Dark Shadows Cast & Crew page.
During the past thirty years, Dark Shadows has developed a large and loyal fan following. This is due largely to the willingness of former cast members to participate in several gatherings each year, notably the Dark Shadows Festival held alternately in California and New York and a Halloween fright fest centering around the mansion used in taping the stock outdoor footage. Several cast members have written books, and several have appeared on Dark Shadows audio dramas.

Humbert Allen Astredo played Nicholas Blair, Evan Hanley, and Charles Dawson
Nancy Barrett played Carolyn Stoddard, Millicent Collins, Charity Trask, Leticia Faye, and other roles.
Joan Bennett played Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Naomi Collins, Judith Collins, and Flora Collins.
Clarice Blackburn played Sarah Johnson, Abigail Collins, and Minerva Trask.
Don Briscoe played Tom Jennings, Chris Jennings, Timothy Shaw, and Chris Collins.
Kathy Cody played Hallie Stokes and Carrie Stokes.
Terry Crawford played Beth Chavez and Edith Collins.
Joel Crothers played Joe Haskell and Nathan Forbes.
Thayer David played Matthew Morgan, Ben Stokes, Professor Timothy Eliot Stokes, Sandor Rakoski, Count Petofi, and other characters.
Roger Davis played Peter Bradford, Jeff Clark, and other characters.
Louis Edmonds played Roger Collins, Joshua Collins, Edward Collins and other members of the Collins family.
Jonathan Frid played Barnabas Collins and Bramwell Collins.
Grayson Hall played Julia Hoffman, Natalie du Pres, Magda Rakosi and other characters.
David Henesy played David Collins, Daniel Collins, Jamison Collins, and Tad Collins.
Kate Jackson played Daphne Harridge.
John Karlen played Willie Loomis, Carl Collins, and other characters.
Jerry Lacy played Tony Peterson and various members of the Trask family.
Diana Millay played Laura Collins, the phoenix.
Alexandra Moltke played Victoria Winters.
Denise Nickerson played Amy Jennings, Nora Collins, and Nora Jennings.
Lara Parker played Angelique, Catherine Harridge, and other roles.
Christopher Pennock played Jeb Hawkes, Cyrus Longworth, and many other roles.
Addison Powell played Eric Lang and several minor characters.
Kathryn Leigh Scott played Maggie Evans, Josette du Pres, Rachel Drummond, Lady Kitty Hampshire, Maggie Collins, and many other characters.
David Selby played several characters, all named Quentin Collins.
James Storm played Gerard Stiles.
Marie Wallace played Eve, Jenny Collins, and other characters. Main cast
Although the series began as a typical American soap opera (with several story threads running open-ended simultaneously), it eventually evolved into a format closer to modern day Spanish-language "novellas". There would be one overarching storyline, with several minor subplots tying into it, involving every single character in the show. The storyline would eventually be wrapped up, and a new storyline begun in its place. This was especially noticeable in the various time travel storylines. When Victoria Winters travelled back to 1795, for example, the principal storyline was to show how a human Barnabas Collins was transformed into a vampire and how he happened to get chained up in his coffin (where Willie discovered him). The storyline had a definitive beginning (Victoria finding herself in the past), middle (Angelique placing the vampire curse on Barnabas), and end (Barnabas chained up in the coffin and Victoria sent back to her proper time). Every cast member on the show at that time played a character who had some function in this singular storyline. This was in sharp contrast to the typical American soap which tends to feature at least three or four major storylines at a time that might play out over the course of many years, with only a few characters deeply involved in any particular plot-thread.
An unusual feature of this format was that whenever the storyline shifted into a new time and a new storyline was begun, a majority of the cast played all-new characters who would not continue past the conclusion of that storyline. This gave the writers a certain freedom to actually kill off central characters, including the heroes & heroines whom the audience would usually root for, and characters performed by contract players. For instance, Kathryn Leigh Scott (who played "Maggie Evans" in the modern day storyline) was recast as "Rachel Drummond" in the 1897 storyline. Although Rachel was a central heroic character throughout the first several months of this particular storyline, her character was killed off halfway through it. Soon thereafter, Scott returned as an entirely different character, "Kitty Soames." Then, when the storyline shifted back to the present day, Scott simply resumed her Maggie Evans character and continued with the show. This allowed for a bit more suspense than the normal soap, as no character was off-limits and the audience could not be sure who would actually survive harrowing ordeals. (Viewers of All My Children, in contrast, can be relatively certain that Erica Kane will not be killed off, regardless of the predicament she's placed in.)

"Novella" format
Dark Shadows often used classic stories with gothic themes, revisiting such literary masterpieces as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Turn of the Screw, and Wuthering Heights. The series modified this material freely, giving the familiar stories unusual twists. No author of the macabre was exempt from inclusion in subplots. Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Guy Endore, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, H.P. Lovecraft, and others were explored, exploited, and exposed in a history of the Collins family. Stylistically, Dark Shadows appears to have taken inspiration from Roger Corman's 1961 movie The Pit and the Pendulum.

Sources
Working within the constraints of the live-on-tape format — with almost every scene done in one take — Dark Shadows displayed an unusually inventive use of costume, make-up and, in particular, special effects. Both time travel and ghosts allowed characters killed in earlier sequences to return, often in period clothing. Séances held in the old mansion were often visited by ghostly apparitions of quivering ectoplasm. Dream sequences included colorful psychedelic spectacles superimposed over ethereal, fog-filled fantasies. Individuals of normal appearance were transformed into hideous creatures of the netherworld.
At times, however, the special effects could appear cardboard-cut-out and amateur. This, together with the show's heightened melodrama and stilted dramatic moments, is where the show's very modern — and in its way, sophisticated — camp appeal enters the picture. The difficulty of keeping up with the demanding schedule of a daily half-hour show manifested itself on screen, often to laughable but endearing effect. In addition to sets wobbling unintentionally, actors — especially Frid and Bennett — often struggled with their lines. Occasionally a stagehand could be spotted wandering onto the back of the set. And at other times the microphone boom appeared in the frame (giving the show the unintentional nickname "Mic Shadows"), or a fly hovered around the head of an actor. In retrospect, however, the actors — who effectively formed a repertory company as they played many different roles — created memorable characters, and overcame the challenge of daily scripts combined with brief and demanding rehearsals.
Of particular note is Robert Cobert's inspired music score, which broke new ground for a television program. The original soundtrack cracked the top 20 of Billboard's national album chart in 1969 and still ranks as one of the top-selling TV soundtracks ever. The spoken-word instrumental track "Quentin's Theme", for which Cobert earned a Grammy nomination, was covered by the Charles Randolph Grean Sounde. The single peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (and number 3 on its Easy Listening chart) in the summer of 1969, when Dark Shadows was perhaps at the peak of its popularity.
Dark Shadows has the distinction of being one of the few classic television soap operas to have all of its episodes, except one, survive intact (although a handful of early episodes are available only in 16 mm kinescope format). For the one lost episode (#1219), only a home audio recording of the episode exists (the home video version and cable reruns of this episode were reconstructed from this soundtrack and from still pictures taken at the time of the episode's production).

Syndication and cable repeats
MPI Home Video currently holds the home video rights to the series. All episodes were issued on VHS from 1989 to 1995. Episodes 210–1245 (Barnabas' arrival through to the end of the series) have been released on DVD in 26 Collections from 2002 - 2006. Episodes 1–209 are expected to be released on DVD throughout 2007.

Home video
Perhaps one of ABC's first truly popular daytime shows, Dark Shadows found its perfect demographic niche in teenagers coming home from school in time to watch the show at 4 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Central, where it aired for all of its network run (except for a 15-month stretch between April 1967 and July 1968, when it aired a half hour earlier). With mothers (and, sometimes, grandmothers) usually away from the television set at that time of day in order to tend to household chores such as preparing the family's dinner, the young people got control of the family set and claimed the show as a badge of the then-burgeoning youth consciousness in the culture at large. They likely saw the show as radically different from what they perceived as the déclasse and stodgy TV fare (games, traditional soaps) their mothers imbibed earlier in the day in between their household duties.
Whatever the cultural context or audience composition of Dark Shadows, it became one of ABC's first daytime shows to actually win its timeslot, leading to the demise of NBC's original Match Game and Art Linkletter's long-running House Party on CBS, both in 1969. Even the launch of a much-ballyhooed spinoff of NBC's Another World, Somerset, the following year did not hurt Dark Shadows.
By early 1971, though, with an economic recession causing a sharp dip in advertising revenues and a record-high number of soaps (much more expensive to produce than game or talk shows) on the networks' daytime schedules, ABC decided to cut costs by weeding out supposedly unproductive programming. Despite its relatively high ratings (and, at that time slot, station clearances) and low production costs, Dark Shadows fell victim to the purge mainly because of its young audience, who usually did not make decisions about the purchasing of household goods and food products for the family, which were the two chief industries that bought airtime on daytime television in that era. Practically no other daytime show skewed so much under the 18–35 demographic threshold as Dark Shadows did. Furthermore, primetime shows and movies with horror or science fiction themes (e.g., Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) had been on the decline for some time, and, of course, the serial appealed heavily to fanciers of those genres, people who usually snubbed their noses at the often sentimental domestic or romantic themes that traditional soaps had relied on since their inception on radio in the 1930s.
So, despite massive letters of protest from outraged fans, ABC cancelled the five-year-old show on April 2, 1971 and replaced it with a new version of the hit 1960s game Password. Although some highly irate viewers threatened to vocally (and possibly violently) decry the cancellation by disrupting the taping of Password at ABC's Los Angeles studios, nothing ever came of those plans. The rather abrupt ending of the series left some plot lines (such as the story of the Jennings family) unfinished, though most of the plot threads came to a happy conclusion, via a voiceover explaining future events in the final minute of the last episode.

Scheduling history
In 1991, a shortlived primetime remake was produced by MGM Television and aired by NBC, airing from January 13 to March 22. The revival was a lavish, big budget weekly serial combining gothic romance and stylistic horror. Although it was a huge hit at introduction (watched by almost 1 in 4 households according to official ratings during that time period), an untimely international incident would inflict a fatal wound to the show. The onset of the Gulf War caused NBC to continually pre-empt or reschedule the early episodes resulting in viewer confusion and a loss of momentum. It was canceled after twelve episodes.
The final episode left us with a cliffhanger, Victoria (played by Joanna Going) learning that Barnabas Collins (played by Ben Cross) was a 200-year old vampire (a secret never discovered by Victoria in the original series). It has been reported that the opening episode for a proposed second season would have had Victoria collapsing, after seeing Barnabas, and losing her memory of his terrible secret.
It also starred veterans Jean Simmons as Elizabeth and Roy Thinnes as Roger, British character actress Lysette Anthony as Angelique, Barbara Steele as Dr. Julia Hoffman, and future 3rd Rock from the Sun star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as David.
Plans for another revival series (or film) had been discussed off and on since the 1991 series' demise, including a TV miniseries to wrap up the plot lines of the canceled NBC series and a feature film, co-written by Dan Curtis and Barbara Steele, utilizing the 1991 cast. Finally, in 2004, a pilot for a new WB network Dark Shadows series starring Marley Shelton as Victoria Winters and Alec Newman as Barnabas Collins was written and shot, but never picked up. The pilot has been screened at the Dark Shadows Festival conventions with Dan Curtis Productions' blessing, but has yet to surface elsewhere. This pilot was produced by Warner Bros. Television.
Variety.com reported on July 26, 2007 that Warner Bros. was teaming up with Johnny Depp to produce a new feature film based on the show.

Revivals
MGM released a feature film entitled House of Dark Shadows in 1970. Dan Curtis directed it, and Sam Hall and Gordon Russell wrote screenplay. Many cast members from the soap opera reprised their roles. These included Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Roger Davis, and Kathryn Leigh Scott, among others. 1971 saw the release of Night of Dark Shadows, also directed by Dan Curtis. In addition, Curtis and Sam Hall wrote it. Players included David Selby, Grayson Hall, Kate Jackson, and Lara Parker, among others.
There have been two series of Dark Shadows novels. The first, released during the show's original run, were all penned by romance writer Marilyn Ross (actually Dan Ross, using his wife's name as a pseudonym). The second consists of two novels by Lara Parker (who played Angelique in the series), Angelique's Descent (recently recorded on CD by Big Finish Productions and read by Ms. Parker) and The Salem Branch, and Dreams of the Dark by horror authors Elizabeth Massie and Stephen Mark Rainey. In the early 1970s, Gold Key Comics released a long-running comic book series, and in 1991, Innovation Publishing released a short-lived comic book series based on the NBC-TV revival show. There have also been two board games, a jigsaw puzzle and a View-Master reel. There also have been several books about Dark Shadows, including The Dark Shadows Almanac and The Dark Shadows Companion.
From March 14, 1971 to March 11, 1972, the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicated a Dark Shadows comic strip by illustrator Kenneth Bruce Bald (credited as "K. Bruce" due to contractual obligations) to dozens of newspapers across the country.
During its original run, Dark Shadows was featured in many magazines, including Afternoon TV, Daytime TV, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and Castle of Frankenstein. In 2003, a two-part article entitled "Collecting Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood," appeared in Autograph Collector magazine. It was the first major article to chronicle the show in years. In 2005, Scary Monsters magazine #55 devoted an entire issue to Dark Shadows. Included were full-length interviews with cast members Marie Wallace, David Selby and Kathryn Leigh-Scott, as well as "Don't Open That Coffin! A Baby Boomer's Adventures in the Land of Dark Shadows!" Both the Autograph Collector and Scary Monsters articles were penned by freelance writer Rod Labbe, who once ran a fan club for Dennis ("Paul Stoddard") Patrick. Labbe is currently working on a third article, a 40th anniversary retrospective of the show.
The show was discussed in several episodes of the NPR radio program This American Life, namely one entitled "Conventions."
On the tv show The King Of Queens, Spence Ulchin mentions he attends Dark Shadows conventions in several episodes.
Gilmore Girls paid a tribute to the show in a season-five episode in which a character watches Dark Shadows.

In other media
Based on a stage play performed at a Dark Shadows convention, Return to Collinwood is an audio drama written by Jamison Selby and Jim Pierson, and starring David Selby, Kathryn Leigh Scott, John Karlen, Nancy Barrett, Lara Parker, Roger Davis, Marie Wallace, Christopher Pennock, Donna Wandrey, James Storm and Terry Crawford. It provides a satisfying conclusion to the Dark Shadows saga and is available on CD.
As of Summer 2006, Big Finish Productions continued the Dark Shadows saga with an original series of audio dramas, starring the original cast. The first season comprises four discs, featuring David Selby (Quentin Collins), Lara Parker (Angelique), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans) and John Karlen (Willie Loomis). According to the official Dark Shadows Reborn web site, Big Finish Productions has announced that a second series will be released beginning in late 2007.

Dark Shadows audio drama
Season 1

The House of Despair
The Book of Temptation
The Christmas Presence
The Rage Beneath Big Finish
Both theatrical films, House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971) were shot primarily on location at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, New York. The Collinwood stand-in mansion used for the TV series is the Carey Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island (though the shots in the opening credits of the water and cliffs was done in Kennebunkport, Maine). It is currently used by Salve Regina University. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion in South Norwalk, Connecticut was also used for shots during both movies. Some outdoors shots for the series were filmed in the famous Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, not very far from the Lyndhurst Mansion.

TV and film locations
Dark Shadows pioneered the concept of a soap opera with a supernatural theme. In later years, the prime-time satire Soap would introduce an Exorcist-inspired storyline. Days of our Lives would feature a groundbreaking plot in which its leading female character, Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall), was possessed by Satan. Coming full circle, the soap operas Port Charles and Passions would emerge in the 1990s, both largely driven by supernatural-based plots involving vampires, witches, and werewolves. Twin Peaks was a prime-time soap with many supernatural elements, but without the classic movie monsters. Even the popular Joss Whedon series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, with their continuing serial plotlines, could be described as treading a path first laid by Dark Shadows.
During the 1970 "Parallel Time" storyline, Barnabas is trapped in his coffin and forced to relate his vampiric history to a down-and-out writer, who hopes to publish the interviews as a book. This anticipated Anne Rice's wildly popular cult series of novels (the plot of the first book in this series — Interview with a Vampire — is about a down & out writer who listens to a vampire relate his tortured history) that themselves could be considered a vampire soap opera. Also like Dark Shadows, Rice's narratives often feature abrupt shifts in time periods (as whichever vampire is currently narrating his story will relate stories from varying points in his centuries-long existence).

Bibliography

Clute, John and Grant, John. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. St. Martin's Press, 1999. p 823. ISBN 0312198698
Hamrick, Craig. Barnabas & Company: The Cast of the TV Classic Dark Shadows. iUniverse, 2003. ISBN 0595290299
Jones, Stephen. The Essential Monster Movie Guide: A Century of Creature Features on Film, TV and Video. Watson-Guptill, 2000. p. 99. ISBN 0823079368
Krensky, Stephen. Vampires. Lerner Publications, 2007. p. 48. ISBN 0822558912
Mansour, David. From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia Of The Late 20th Century. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005. p. 109. ISBN 0740751182
McNally, Raymond T. and Florescu, Radu R. In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires. Houghton Mifflin Books, 1994. p. 270. ISBN 0395657830
Mitchell, Charles P. The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Filmography. Greenwood Press, 2001. p 220. ISBN 0313316414
Riccardo, Martin V. Vampires Unearthed: The Complete Multi-media Vampire and Dracula Bibliography. Garland Publishing, Incorporated, 1983. p. 19. ISBN 0824091280
Schemering, Christopher. The Soap Opera Encyclopedia. Ballantine Books, 1985. p. 61. ISBN 0345324595
Senn, Bryan and Johnson, John. Fantastic Cinema Subject Guide: A Topical Index to 2500 Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films. McFarland & Co, 1992. p. 551. ISBN 089950681X
South, Malcolm. Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: A Source Book and Research Guide. Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 260. ISBN 0313243387
Sullivan, Jack. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural. Viking, 1986. p. 422. ISBN 0670809020
Terrance, Vincent. The Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs, 1947-1979. A. S. Barnes & Company, 1979.
Worland, Rick. The Horror Film: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing, 2006. p. 93. ISBN 1405139021

2007年10月4日 星期四

Surya Bonaly (born 15 December 1973) is a professional figure skater. Bonaly represented France as a competitive skater, but is now also a United States citizen.

Competitive highlights

Fédération Française des Sports de Glace
"Positive Spin", The Boston Globe, April 2, 2004.

2007年10月3日 星期三

Agriculture in Canada involves in current terminology all activities essential to food, feed, and fiber production, including all techniques for raising and processing livestock within the country of Canada. The early literal meaning of agriculture comes from its Latin roots ager, meaning "a field" and cultura, meaning "cultivation" in the strict sense of tillage of the soil. Agricultural production may fulfill domestic and / or international human and animal sustenance needs. Plant cultivation and livestock production have abandoned subsistence agricultural practices in favour of intensive technological farming resulting in cash crops which contribute to the economy of Canada. The particular commodity produced is dependent upon its particular biogeography or ecozone and can also be classified by Canadian province. Agricultural techniques and activities have evolved for food, feed, and fibre production. The ox and plow farmer proving up on his quarter section of land in no way resemble the present farmer operating huge amounts of land or livestock with their attendant technological mechanization. Challenges to the future of Canadian agriculture include developing sustainable water management strategies for a cyclical drought prone climate, updating dryland farming techniques, stabilizing organic definitions or protocols and the decision to grow, or not to grow genetically modified foods. Domestically and internationally, some livestock have been plagued by diseases resulting in destruction of these animals. Some of these diseases are wasting disease, hoof and mouth disease and mad cow disease. The fear of human consumption of these diseased livestock products have produced a decline in marketing until public confidence is restored in livestock handling issues.

History of agriculture in Canada
Canadian farms, fisheries and ranches produce a wide variety of crops, livestock, food, feed, fibre, fuel and other goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals which are dependant upon the geography of the province. In 2001 Canadian farms numbered only 246,923 at a size of 676 acres (2.74 km²) as the production of food and fibre for human or livestock sustenance has evolved into intensive and industrial practices. .

Agriculture Economy
Agriculture in Canada comprises five main agricultural production sectors of commodity production resulting in farm cash receipts from both domestic and foreign markets.
Various factors affect the socio-economic characteristics of Canadian agriculture.

Major agricultural products
In 1925, Saskatchewan produced over half of the wheat in the Dominion of Canada threshing in excess of 240,000,000 bushels (6,500,000 t) of wheat.

Crops
Horticulture which includes garden crops, and fruits became easier to grow with the development of plant hardiness zones.

Horticulture
Viticulture refers to the growing of grapes. Grapes require a mild winter season, which can be found in some Maritime locations, southern British Columbia, and locations on the Niagara Peninsula.

Viticulture
115,000 cattle roamed the southern prairies by 1900. Livestock can include the raising of cows, also commonly called cattle. Recently domestication of the buffalo Scientists have been making forward steps in swine research giving rise to intensive pig farming. The domestication of various farm animals meant that corresponding industries such as feedlots, animal husbandry and meat processing have also been studied, and developed.

Livestock
Fowl, poultry, eggs, chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys are part of a supply-managed system, ensuring production matches demand.

Poultry and eggs
Dairy producing is also termed dairy farming.

Dairy
The fishery industry is a primary income source on Canada's east and west coastal oceans as well as inland lands and rivers. Fisheries are the oldest main industry of Canada.

Fisheries
Hemp and wool from sheep are the main areas of fibre production of the country of Canada. Wool production was on average 16,022,000 lb (7,267 t) in the 1930s and 9,835,000 lb (4,461 t) in 1949. Fibre flax from flaxseed has been exported to the United Kingdom.

Fibre
In recent years more and more farmers are producing alternative crops and ways of being economically viable, and are turning to organic farming.

Organic farming
Many crop growers will supplement their income with beeswax and honey and learn beekeeping which is overseen by the apiary branch. See also bee and western honey bee. Enterprising land owners have had success growing as well as packaging and marketing the sunflower seed. Crops are not only for human consumption but also for animal consumption, which opens a new market such as canary seed. Very few farmers engage in cuniculture, or rabbit farming to any significant extent, although they are a new grocery alternative to the red meat burger.

Other
For more information on the agriculture in Canada production see also list of countries by agricultural output.
Farming activities were very labour intensive before the industrial revolution and the advent of tractors, combines, balers, etc. In the late 1800s to mid 1900s, a great percentage of the Canadian labour force was engaged in high labour, smaller farming practices. After mechanization, scientific advancement, improved marketing practices farms became more efficient, larger and less labour intensive. The labour population was freed up and went to industry, government, transportation, trade and finance.

Production
The marketing and economic movement of our various agriculture commodities has been a challenge. Domestic trade encompasses providing goods within Canada provincially and inter-provincial. Support agencies and services such as storage, railways, warehouses, stores, banking institutions all effect domestic trade. Trade of wheat from the 'Bread basket of the World' or Canada's prairies are monitored by the Canadian Wheat Board. Canada's depression of 1882-1897 brought a low of 64¼ cents per bushel ($24/t) as of 1893. This era during Laurier's administration saw thousands of homesteads cancelled. Wheat prices soared during World War I. In 1928, Canada exported high quantities of wheat, flour, and goods. The depression took its toll on Canada as exports sunk to approximately 40% of their 1928 amount. European markets stopped needing to import Canadian wheat as they started growing their own varieties, and then World War II events put a blockade on trade to European markets. Canada became more of an industrial entity during the time of this industrial revolution, and less of an agricultural nation. Following World War II the United Kingdom entered into contract for a large amount of agricultural commodities such as bacon, cheese, wheat, oats and barley. After the United Kingdom, the United States is our largest external trade partner. Between 1943 and 1953, the average export of Canadian wheat was 347,200,000 bushels (9,449,000 t).

Trade

Agriculture by province/territory
A very small percentage of the land is suitable in Newfoundland and Labrador for horticultural or crop production as there is a lot of forested and tundra geography. The province has some dairy production, and farming concerns. Following World War II, farm training was available at the Government Demonstration Farm. Bonuses were paid for such things as the purchase of pure-bred sires, land clearing, and agriculture exhibition assistance to name a few. A much larger agricultural contribution would be fish processing. Newfoundland fisheries, supply cod for the most part, followed closely by herring, haddock, lobster, rose fish, seals, and whales. The fishing industry depends very heavily upon exports and world conditions.

Newfoundland and Labrador
For more information on the Agriculture in Canada; Maritime provinces see also the economic history of Canada's maritime fisheries.
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island primarily contribute dairy production, along with livestock and mixed farming ventures to the Canadian agricultural picture. A small percentage of land is put into use in fruit farming as well along Nova Scotia's North West coastal areas.

Maritime provinces
Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have access to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Atlantic Ocean. Halibut, hake, salmon, haddock, mackerel, cod, herring, and lobster are a few of the main catches along the main fishing banks. The Atlantic Ocean fisheries account for over one-half the marketed value of fish from Canada. Cod is the predominant catch with lobsters the second in value to the Atlantic fisherman. Clams, quahogs, oysters, scallops, mussels, winkles and crabs are caught on a smaller scale. Sardines are immature herrings and provide considerable cash income. Shore fisheries off the coastal land, are carried about by the family fisherman. Deep-sea fishing is carried out in waters further out than 15 miles (28 km) from the coastline by teams of fishermen in schooners. Fisheries for the most part are the main agricultural concern followed by dairy products, brewing, and meat processing.

Atlantic provinces
The eastern province of Quebec agricultural sector relies heavily on its fruit and vegetable production. In 1890, a competition began to encourage farmers to improve their farms to achieve the Agricultural Merit Order. County Farm Improvement Contests were begun about 1930 involving over 5,000 farms and their evolution over five years. They have some interests in livestock and mixed farming as well dairying as well. St. Hyacinthe operates an artificial insemination station in 1951 for breeders clubs.

Quebec
For more information on the Agriculture in Canada; Ontario province see also Ontario Agriculture
Northern Ontario is mainly tundra and forested area, whereas southern Ontario has lands suitable for livestock and general farming as well as geography suitable for pasture and dairying industries. Fruit farming and tobacco farms can also be found in Southern Ontario. Ontario is the largest producer of mixed grains, soybeans and shelled corn in the Dominion.

Ontario
See also: Crow Rate
The open parkland area extends across the three prairie provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Canada's production of wheat, oats, flaxseed, and barley come mainly from this area. Meat processing is the largest industry here, followed by dairy production, breweries, and the subisidiary industry of agricultural implements.

Prairie provinces
Manitoba has a combination of mixed grain, livestock, and mixed farming industries in its southernmost areas. Cattle ranching around Lake Manitoba is also quite successful. Northern Manitoba is quite extensively lakes and forested geographical areas.

Manitoba
For more information on the Agriculture in Canada; Saskatchewan province see also Saskatchewan Agriculture
Saskatchewan still has cattle ranching along the southwestern corner of the province, however, grain farming and growing crops such as wheat, oats, flax, alfalfa, and rapeseed (especially canola) dominate the parkland area. Mixed grain farming, dairy farms, mixed livestock and grazing lands dot the central lowlands region of this prairie province.

Saskatchewan
For more information on the Agriculture in Canada; Alberta province see also Alberta Agriculture and forestry
Alberta is renowned still for its stampedes, and cattle ranching is a main industry. Their agricultural industry is supplemented by livestock and mixed farming and wheat crops. Alberta is the second largest producer of wheat in Canada. Grain and dairying also play a role in the livelihoods of Alberta farmers.

Alberta
The most westerly Canadian province, British Columbia, is covered in highlands as its eastern boundary is the Rocky Mountain Range. Livestock, cattle ranches, fruit farming and dairying dot the province however. Agriculture and fisheries are a small contribution to B.C. industry overshadowed by construction and forestry. British Columbia salmon along the Pacific Ocean coastline, at times surpasses fishery production in the east, but for the most part, the main Canadian fishing industry is a product of the Maritimes.

British Columbia
Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut are covered with the Canadian Shield, rocky outcrops, sub arctic forest soils, and stony phases make up most of the geography. It is an area of comparatively smaller population, and not commercially exploited for the most part. Whaling, prawns, and trapping contribute to the agricultural production here.

Northern territorial region
The Oliver plow was in use by 1896 which could cut through the prairie sod. Binders which could cut and tie grain for the harvest season and grain elevators for storage were introduced in the late 1800s as well. Plows {plough), tractors, spreaders, combines to name a few are some mechanized implements for the grain crop or horticultural farmer which are labour saving devices. Many Canadian museums such as Reynolds-Alberta Museum will showcase the evolution and variety of farm machinery.

Farm equipment

Future challenges
The depression and drought of the Dirty Thirties was devastating. Prior to this decade, droughts were cyclical in nature, but did not last over many years as in the 1930s. This drought resulted in a mass exodus of population from the prairies, as well as new agricultural practices such as soil conservation, and crop rotation for a few.

Drought
Soil conservation practices such as crop rotation, cover crops, and windbreaks to name a few were massively developed and set in forth upon recovering from the drought experiences of the dirty thirties. Literally layers and layers of topsoil would be blowing away during this time. Bow River Irrigation Project, Red Deer River Project and the St. Mary Irrigation project of Alberta, were a few of the major projects undertaken by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act (P.F.R.A.) resulting in many reservoirs, and distribution systems.

Soil conservation and reclamation
Wheat diseases such as wheat bunt and stinking smut can be successfully treated with a fungicide. Disease of plants and animals can break an agricultural producer. Tuberculosis in animals was an early threat, and cattle needed to be tested, and areas accredited in 1956. The newer disease such as chronic wasting disease or transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) affects both elk and deer. Elk and deer raising is a pioneer field of domestication, has had a setback with this disease. are monitored by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The poultry sector was plagued by Pullorum disease, and by controlling the flock via poultry husbandry, this disease has been brought under control.

Disease and pests
Plants whose traits can be modified to survive a disease or insect have made inroads into Canadian agricultural practices. Cereal rusts which can destroy the majority of acreages seeded to wheat, was controlled in 1938 by breeding strains which were rust-resistant. This strain was successful until around 1950, when again a new strain of rust broke out, and again a new strain called Selkirk was developed which was rust resistant.

Genetically modified crops/animals
The Department of Agriculture set out in the British North America Act (B.N.A.) of 1867 states each province may have jurisdiction over agricultural concerns, as well as the Dominion Government may also make law in regards to agriculture. Newfoundland agricultural affairs were dealt with by the Agricultural Division of the Department of Natural Resources at Confederation.
The B.N.A. Act states that the federal Government has sole authority in coastal and inland fishery matters. Provinces have rights over non-tidal waters and fishing practices there only.

Canadian agricultural government departments

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (a department of the Government of Canada), headed by the Minister of Agriculture (Canada)
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (a department of the Government of Canada)
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre
Canadian Dairy Commission
Canadian Grain Commission
Agricultural policy See also
To increase the viability of agriculture as an economic lifestyle several improvements have been made by various nationwide educational facilities.

Developmental and educational institutions

Central Experimental Farm
Devonian Botanical Garden
Fisheries Centre
List of botanical gardens in Canada
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization
Nova Scotia Agricultural College
Ontario Horticultural Association
University of Saskatchewan Agriculture & Bioresources College See also

Agricultural science
Agricultural engineering
Agricultural soil science
Agronomy
biodiversity
Bioengineering
Irrigation
Swine Research
Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration See also
According to Agriculture and Food Canada, there are a number of fact sheets available about the Canadian Agriculture Industry.

Industry categories

Brewery industry
Buckwheat industry
Canary seed industry
Confectionery and chewing gum industry
Dairy industry
Dairy genetics industry
Distillery industry
Egg industry
Fish and seafood industry
Forage industry
Fruit industry
Grains and oilseeds industry
Grain-based products industry
Hemp industry
Honey industry
Industrial agriculture (animals)
Industrial agriculture
Maple syrup industry
Mustard seed industry
Organic industry
Potato industry
Poultry industry
Processed fruit and vegetable industry
Pulse industry
Red meat industry
Seed industry
Snack food industry
Sunflower seed industry
Vegetable industry
Wine industry See also
Some agricultural related companies of Canada are Cargill Ltd., Agricore United. Many individual farmers have been able to sustain the agricultural industry via the efforts by the Farm Credit Canada agency. See also Agriculture companies of Canada.