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Kyon

2009-04-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

Kyon is a fictional character, protagonist and narrator of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series and the anime series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, voiced by Tomokazu Sugita in the original version of the anime, and Crispin Freeman in the English dubbed edition. The name Kyon is also actually a nickname given to him by his aunt. His sister is responsible for spreading its use to his schoolmates, much to the embarrassment of Kyon, who misses being called Onii-chan by his sister. Not much is known about Kyon's real name. However, in the ninth volume of the light novel (The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya), his real name is hinted in a conversation between him and Sasaki; a girl who had known Kyon since middle school, saying it was a very majestic name that didn't seem to fit him.

Kyon is one of Haruhi's companions, and the second founding member of the SOS Brigade. Upon his entry into high school, he resigns himself to a lifestyle where his adolescent fantasies such as aliens, time travelers, and espers have no place. After one small conversation with him, Haruhi unexpectedly opened up to him and dragged him into her new club. His reputation and fate have since become entangled with Haruhi's.

2008-05-02T08:28:00.001-07:00

The History of Anatolia covers the civilizations, and states established in and around the Anatolia, a peninsula of Western Asia. It is also often called by the Latin name of Asia Minor.

Neolithic
Troy, Hittite Empire, Hayasa-Azzi, Colchians, Hattians, Kaskas
Through recorded history, Anatolians have spoken both Indo-European and Semitic languages, as well as many languages of uncertain affiliation. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical center from which the Indo-European languages have radiated. Other authors have proposed an Anatolian origin for the Etruscans of ancient Italy.

Bronze Age
Neo-Hittite, Urartu, Achaemenid dynasty,
Peoples who have settled in or conquered Anatolia during the Iron Age include the Phrygians, Lydians, Mushki, Cimmerians, Armenians, Persians, Tabals, Greeks, Lycians, Ionians, Cappadocians, Assyrians, Carians, Sea Peoples, Phoenicians, Jews, Romans

Hellenism
Byzantine Empire, Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Sassanid Empire, Byzantine-Arab Wars, Seljuk Turks, Anatolian beyliks, Mongols, Ilkhanate

Middle Ages

Crusades

Ahlatshahs
Alaiye
Artuklu
Aydınoğlu
Candaroğlu
Çaka Bey
Çobanoğlu
Danishmend
Dulkadir
Eretna
Eşrefoğlu
Germiyan
Hamidoğlu
İnaloğlu
Kadı Burhaneddin
Karamanoğlu
Karesi
Beylik of Lâdik
Mengücek
Menteşe
Pervâneoğlu
Ramazanoğlu
Sâhib Ata
Saltuklu
Saruhan
Beylik of Teke Anatolian Beyliks
The conquest of Anatolia by Turkic peoples and the rise of the Seljuk Empire began in the 11th century.
Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until the early 20th century (see Rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire). Its inhabitants were of varied ethnicities, including Turks (Turkmens), Armenians, Kurds, Greeks, and Italians (particularly from Genoa and Venice). When the First World War devastated Anatolia, ethnic tensions culminated in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

Modern Turkey

Timeline of Middle Eastern History

2008-05-01T08:24:00.001-07:00

About 2 dozen, see article
Buteoninae is a bird of prey subfamily which consists of medium to large broad-winged species.
They have large powerful hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong legs and powerful talons. They also have extremely keen eyesight to enable them to spot potential prey from a distance.
This subfamily contains the buzzards, true eagles and sea eagles.

2008-04-30T08:20:00.001-07:00

Terminology
Historians often comment on mob rule as a factor in the rise of Rome and its maintenance, as the city of Rome itself was large − between 100,000 and 250,000 citizens − while the aristocracy and even military was very small by comparison to the citizenry. With weapons also being crude, the military force did not exist that could have dealt with a revolt from the larger populace. There was a constant need to keep people fed, distracted, and in awe of the power of the state. Those who could do this, ruled not only Rome, but the whole of the Roman Empire.
Lapses in this control often led to loss of power, or even the loss of heads, of officials − most notably in the reign of Commodus when Cleander unwisely used the Praetorian Guard against a mob which had come to call for his head. As Edward Gibbon relates it,
The people... demanded with angry clamors the head of the public enemy. Cleander, who commanded the Praetorian Guards, ordered a body of cavalry to sally forth and disperse the seditious multitude. The multitude fled with precipitation towards the city; several were slain, and many more were trampled to death; but when the cavalry entered the streets their pursuit was checked by a shower of stones and darts from the roofs and windows of the houses. The foot guards, who had long been jealous of the prerogatives and insolence of the Praetorian cavalry, embraced the party of the people. The tumult became a regular engagement and threatened a general massacre. The Praetorians at length gave way, oppressed with numbers; and the tide of popular fury returned with redoubled violence against the gates of the palace, where Commodus lay dissolved in luxury and alone unconscious of the civil war... Commodus started from his dream of pleasure and commanded that the head of Cleander should be thrown out to the people. The desired spectacle instantly appeased the tumult...
This followed a previous incident in which the legions of Britain had demanded and received the death of Perennis, the prior administrator. The mob thus realized that it had every chance of success.

Mobs in history
During the French Revolution, the mobs in Paris played a similar function, but were more carefully manipulated by political leaders who sensed that they had the power to dispose of monarchy entirely, as they did, eventually setting up a representative democracy (which in turn fell to Napoleon's model of semi-constitutional monarchy).
The modern theories of civil disobedience and satyagraha bear some resemblance to mob rule and its mechanics. Certainly it is quite frightening for large numbers of people, even peaceful ones, to be marching and shouting common demands, if one is charged with the uncomfortable task of refusing them. If Roman guards, facing crucifixion for disobedience, could be swayed by mobs, it is obviously possible also to sway modern police even in a police state. The 1986 EDSA Revolution in the Philippines, the Velvet Revolution in former Czechoslovakia, and the resistance to the military coup in the Soviet Union in 1991 that led to the collapse of that state, are situations where it is possible that it was the "mob" which won the day due to defections by authority.
Whether by intent or by circumstance, non-violent well-organized assemblies often degrade into unruly mobs. Provocation from within (such as an agent provocateur) and from external forces is often a factor, but crowd dynamics often spontaneously emerge to confront the peaceful intentions of those who rallied a crowd. Published treatises on civil disobedience theory almost always encourage practitioners to establish order within their ranks, but civil disobedience groups often face difficulty in controlling those they recruit. Dr. Martin Luther King, a renowned advocate of orderly demonstrations of group power, died after he returned to Memphis to restore order to demonstrations he had inspired but which had turned violent on his previous visit.

Mobs used to affect policy
A scenario where mob pressure did not win can be seen in the incidents of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. While Beijing-based units of the People's Liberation Army initially refused to charge on the students occupying the square, new units from the countryside were brought in, who tended to perceive the students not as citizens like themselves, but as people deluded by a privileged position in Chinese society. As soldiers fought their way through barricades and through a downtown area occupied by a now-leaderless throng, combat injuries and injuries from indirect gunfire in an urban setting resulted in deaths. The dead and injured included Beijing residents, PLA soldiers and students who had left the square to enforce barricades around the city.
As this example shows, relying on sheer mob strength and disruption is chancy in any political movement, and may not to be relied upon for any extended period. Encounters with mob rule usually hinge on threats of bodily harm - do what the mob wants, and you won't get hurt; resist, and you almost certainly will - the sheer size and psychological makeup of the mob makes it difficult or impossible to assign blame to any one person. The morality of the mob and its actions can be said to depend on what its demands are, what it's being influenced by, and what it's fighting against. While most people would find it objectionable for a mob to cause harm to ordinary citizens, the same cannot be said about a mob rising up to depose a tyrant; unfortunately these distinctions can be lost in the passions of the throng.

Other mobs

Bandwagon effect
Collective consciousness
Collective effervescence
Collective hysteria
Collective intelligence
Crowd
Crowd psychology
Flash mob
Group (sociology)
Group behaviour
Herd behaviour
Herd instinct
Herd morality (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Keeping up with the Joneses
Lynching
Peer pressure
Sheeple
Smart mob
Social comparison theory
Spiral of silence
Tribalism

2008-04-29T09:44:00.001-07:00

The Guyana cricket team is the representative first class cricket team of Guyana.
It does not take part in any international competitions, but rather in inter-regional competitions in the Caribbean, such as the Carib Beer Cup and the KFC Cup, and the best players may be selected for the West Indies team, who plays international cricket.
Guyana has won the domestic first class title five times since its inception in 1965-66, which is the third highest amount of wins, behind Barbados and Jamaica. In the 2005-06 Carib Beer Cup, Guyana finished third after going unbeaten through the season, though they only won one of the five games.
In one-day cricket, Guyana has reached the final of the domestic competition four of the last five times, and are the current holders of the KFC Cup. They have won the KFC Cup a total of nine times - including two shared titles - which is the most by any competing team, Trinidad and Tobago coming closest with seven (including one shared).
The cricket team has been known under two other names - they were first known as Demerara when they played in the first first-class cricket game of the West Indies, against Barbados in 1865, and they retained that name until 1899, when it was finally changed to British Guiana (they had also played first-class cricket in 1895 as British Guiana). The name of British Guiana stuck until 1965-66, when the nation and thus the team changed to its current name. From 1971 until the mid 1980s two regional sides competed in an annual first class match for the Guystac Trophy.
The list of prominent cricketers who have played for Guyana includes Basil Butcher, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Colin Croft, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, Roger Harper, Carl Hooper, Alvin Kallicharran, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

2005-06 squad

Domestic first-class competition winners: 1972-73, 1974-75, 1982-83, 1986-87, 1992-93, 1997-98 (shared)
Inter-Colonial Tournament (between Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad only) winners: 1895-96, 1929-30, 1934-35, 1935-36, 1937-38
Unofficial regional tournaments (post-World War II): 1956-57 (shared), 1961-62, 1963-64.
Domestic one-day competition winners: 1979-80, 1982-83, 1984-85, 1992-93 (shared), 1995-96 (shared), 1998-99, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2005-06
Inaugural winners of the Stanford Twenty20 tournament: 2005-06

2008-04-26T09:01:00.001-07:00

Populism is a political doctrine or philosophy that purports to defend the interests of the common people against an entrenched, self-serving or corrupt elite. There has often been dispute over definitions of populism, with some even arguing that the term is too vague to be useful. Recently, in their volume Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy, Daniele Albertazzi and Duncan McDonnell define populism as "an ideology which pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous 'others' who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity and voice" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2007).
Recent scholarship has also discussed populism as a rhetorical style; as such, the term "populist" may be applied to proponents of widely varying political philosophies. Leaders of populist movements in recent decades have claimed to be on both the left and the right of the political spectrum, while some populists claim to be neither "left wing," "centrist" nor "right wing." Often they employ dichotomous rhetoric, and claim to represent the majority of the people. Many populists appeal to a specific region of a country or to a specific social class, such as the working class, middle class, or farmers or simply "the poor".

Populist methods

History
The word populism is derived from the Latin word populus, which means people in English (in the sense of "nation," as in: "The Roman People" (populus Romanus), not in the sense of "multiple individual persons" as in: "There are people visiting us today"). Therefore, populism espouses government by the people as a whole (that is to say, the masses). This is in contrast to elitism, aristocracy, or plutocracy, each of which is an ideology that espouse government by a small, privileged group above the masses.
Populism has been a common political phenomenon throughout history. Spartacus could be considered a famous example of a populist leader of ancient times through his slave rebellion against the rulers of Ancient Rome. In fact, such leaders of the Roman Republic as Gaius Marius, Julius Caesar, and Caesar Augustus were called populares, as all used referendums to go over the Roman Senate's head and establish the laws that they saw fit.

Classical populism
The same conditions which contributed to the outbreak of the English Revolution of 1642-1651, also known as the English Civil War, also led to a proliferation of ideologies and political movements among peasants, self-employed artisans, and working class people in England. Many, possibly most, of these groups had a dogmatic Protestant religious bent. They included Puritans and the Levellers.

Early modern period
Romanticism, the anxiety against rationalism, broadened after the beginnings of the European and Industrial Revolutions because of cultural, social, and political insecurity. Romanticism led directly into a strong popular desire to bring about religious revival, nationalism and populism. The ensuing religious revival eventually blended into political populism and nationalism, becoming at times a single entity, and a powerful force of public will for change. The paradigm shift brought about was marked by people looking for security and community because of a strong emotional need to escape from anxiety and to believe in something larger than themselves.
The revival of religiosity all over Europe played an important role in bringing people to populism and nationalism.
All of these were united by a search for something to believe in, divine certainties in an increasingly uncertain age.

In France, Chateaubriand provided the opening shots of Catholic revivalism as he opposed enlightenment's materialism with the "mystery of life," the human need for redemption.
In Germany, Schleiermacher promoted pietism by stating that religion was not the institution, but a mystical piety and sentiment with Christ as the mediating figure raising the human consciousness above the mundane to God's level.
In England, John Wesley's Methodism split with the Anglican church because of its emphasis on the salvation of the masses as a key to moral reform, which Wesley saw as the answer to the social problems of the day. Religious revival
Chateaubriand's beginning brought about two Catholic Revivals in France: first, a conservative revival led by Joseph de Maistre, which defended ultramontanism, also known as the supremacy of the Pope in the church, and a second populist revival led by Felicite de Lamennais, an excommunicated priest. This religious populism opposed ultramontanism and emphasized a church community dependent upon all of the people, not just the elite. Furthermore, it stressed that church authority should come from the bottom-up and that the church should alleviate suffering, not merely accept it, both principles that gave the masses strength.

Rejection of ultramontanism
Nationalism turned in the second half of the 19th century and the nationalist sentiment was altered into an elitist and conservative doctrine.
Power-state theorist and multi-volume historian Heinrich von Treitschke's Politics talked about top-down nationalism in which the state is the creator of the nation, not a result thereof. His state's power fashions political unity because, as he asserts, the national unity was always in place. For von Treitschke, the state is artificially constructed by the elite who know that power counts, but who also form myths such as racism for the comfort and control of the nationalistic masses.
Von Treitschke's nationalism had a dark side. The eternal struggle of nations exposed the weakness of confederated states, via war as social hygiene, culminating in the thought that all nations are egoistic, but their struggles embody morality and embrace progress. Such notions would later be proliferated in the tenets of National Socialism, with strong "races" and states dutifully conquering, and even exterminating, the weak.

Populism in Latin America
Populism in Latin America has been traced by some to concepts taken from Perón's Third Position. Populist practitioners in Latin America usually adapt politically to the prevailing mood of the nation, moving within the ideological spectrum from left to right many times during their political lives. Latin American countries have not always had a clear and consistent political ideology under populism. Most of these countries cannot be as clearly and easily divided between liberals and conservatives, as in the USA, or between social-democrats and Christian-democrats as in European countries. Nevertheless, the more recent pattern that has emerged in Latin American populists has been decidedly socialist populism that appeals to masses of poor by promising redistributive policies and state control of the nation's energy companies.
Populism has been fiscally supported in Latin America during periods of growth such as the 1950s and 1960's and during commodity price booms such as in oil and precious metals. Political leaders could gather followers among the popular classes with broad redistributative programs during these boom times. Populism in Latin America has been sometimes criticized for the fiscal policies of many of its leaders, but has also been defended for having allowed historically weak states to buy off disorder and achieve a tolerable degree of stability while initiating large-scale industrialization. Thus though specific populist fiscal and monetary policies may be criticized by economic historians, populism has also allowed leaders and parties to co-opt the radical ideas of the masses so as to redirect them in a non revolutionary direction.
Often adapting a nationalist vocabulary and rhetorically convincing, populism was used to appeal to broad masses while remaining ideologically ambivalent. Notwithstanding, there have been notable exceptions. 21st Centur Latin-American populist leaders have had a decidedly socialist bent.
When populists do take strong positions on economic philosophies such as capitalism versus socialism, the position sparks strong emotional responses regarding how best to manage the nation's current and future social and economic position. Mexico's 2006 Presidential election was hotly debated within Mexicans who supported and opposed populist candidate Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador.

History
Thus populism in Latin American countries has both an economic and an idelogical edge. The situation is similar in many countries with the legacies of poor and low-growth economies: highly unequal societies in which people are divided between a relative few wealthy families and masses of poor (with some exceptions such as Argentina, where strong and educated middle classes are a significant segment of the population).
Other perspectives trace inequality to the formation of Latin America's governments and institutions, which were shaped by the Spanish crown upon the conquest of the Americas by the Spaniards. Latin America was not meant to be a colony for the settlers to live in and develop, like the United States, but a source of resources for the Spanish crown. After the nations obtained their Independence, many colonial legacies survived.
Populist can be very successful political candidates in such countries. In appealing to the masses of poor people prior to gaining power, populists may promise widely-demanded food, housing, employment, basic social services, and income-redistribution. Once in political power, they may not always be financially or politically able to fulfill all these broad promises. However, they are very often successful in stretching to provide many broad and basic services.

Inequality
In Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in a relatively short period of time, populist leaders were perceived to have delivered more to their lower class constituents than previous governments. Critics of populist policies point to the infamous consequences of spending and lack of reform on these countries' respective finances involving growing debt, pressured currencies, and hyperinflation, which in turn led to high interest rates, low growth, and debt crisis. The 1980s in Latin America became referred to as a lost decade during which the region experienced low economic growth and few if any reductions in poverty while the Asian Tigers have been consitently developing through high rates of savings, investments, and educational achievements. Supporters of past economic policies would point to the uncontrollable economic consequences of high oil prices to much of the world economy during the 1970s and the unanticipated fall in commodity prices that would later complicate financing past spending.
Reacting to the legacy of the debt-crisis and slow growth during the 1980s, many Latin American governments privatized state-owned enterprises, such as electricity and telecommunications during the wave of privatizations that occurred in those countries in the 1990s, and opened to trade. This has also been done outside Latin American from the US and England (during the Thatcher / Reagan years) to Russia and China's (accelerating economic liberalization during the 90's) to speed economic growth and employment.
Populists with socialist bents maintain clear support in many cases.
In the Argentinian Corralito crisis, the government was forced to withdraw after three days of popular riots. In Mexico, tortilla price increases have sparked protests demanding price-controls which the leadership instead handled with a gentleman's agreement with major manufacturers capping prices for a fixed time period.
The economic debate continues as reforms to weak and closed Latin American economies opened up to external shocks and competition such as through privatizations and NAFTA in Mexico and other trade agreements and privatizations throughout Latin America. While orthodox economics point to longer term gains for quickly modernizing countries like Chile, slower moving countries have considered retracting from the initial shocks. Some blame a "neo-liberal" economic model favored by an unpopular US government. The "neo-liberal" name, along with the "Washington consensus" have been used to criticize harsh economic policies on the one hand, and on the other hand some have used to demonize modern economic science and policies by tying them directly to the unpopular US government which faces widespread distrust in Latin America. Indeed throughout the world, economists generally agree that the older socialist policies favored by many populists have hindered Latin American economies and that today further economic reforms would be needed to compete in the international arena for more jobs and faster growth. Support for socialism continues within economic circles that rely on pro-socialist works such as "Whither Socialism" by Stiglitz.

The Economics Debate on Populism and Socialist Populism
US international policies have intervened in Latin American governments in many occasions where populism has threatened its interests: the interventions in Guatemala, when the popular Arbenz government was overthrown by a coup backed by the American company United Fruit and the American ambassador in 1954, and Pinochet's Chilean coup in 1973 are just two cases of American intervention responding to American interests. Daniel Ortega's Sadinista government in Nicaragua was also viewed as a threat to US foreign policy during the Cold War, leading the United States to place an emgargo on trade with the Sadinista's Communist regime as well as support anti-Sadinista rebels.

US Policy
Populism has nevertheless remained a significant force in Latin America. Populism has recently been re-appearing on the far left with promises of far-reaching socialist changes as seen in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. These socialist changes have included policies nationalizing energy companies such as oil, and consolidation of power into the hands of the President so as to enable a socialist "transformation." The Venezuelan government often spars verbally with the United States and accuses it of attempting to overthrow its president Hugo Chavez after supporting a failed coup against him. Hugo Chavez himself has been one of the most outspoken and blunt critics of US foreign policy. Nevertheless, the Venezuelan and US governments continue to rely on each other for oil sales from Venezuela to the US.
In the 21st Century, the large numbers of voters in extreme poverty in Latin America have remained a bastion of support for new populist candidates. Populist candidates have been defeated in middle-income countries such as Peru and Mexico, in part by comparing them to Venezuela's controversial Hugo Chavez, who's socialist policies have been used to scare the growing middle classes and who verbally criticed and belittled the popular Mexican president Vicente Fox. Nevertheless, populist candidates have been more successful in poorer Latin American countries such as Bolivia (under Morales), Ecuador (under Correa), and Nicaragua (under Ortega).
Wherever governments in Latin America maintain high rates of poverty and yet support unpopular privatizations and more orthodox economic policies without quickly delivering gains to enough people, they will continue to come under pressure from populist politicians who accuse them of focusing on securing more benefits for the upper and upper-middle classes rather than the people as represented by those in poverty and extreme poverty, and for being allied to foreign and business interests.

Populist Strength and Current Socialist Tendency
In Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's candidacy sparked very emotional debates throughout the country regarding policies that affect ideology, class, equality, wealth, and society. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's most controversial economic policies included his promise to expand monthly stipends to the poor and elderly from Mexico City to the rest of the country and to re-negotiate NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) to protect the Mexican poor. The ruling party in Mexico, known as the PAN (Spanish acronym for the National Action Party) portrayed him as a danger to Mexico's hard-earned economic stability. In criticizing his redistributive promises that would create new entitlement programs somewhat similar to social security in the US (though not as broad in scope) and his trade policies that would not fully uphold prior agreements (such as NAFTA), the economic debate between capitalists and socialists became a major part of the debate. The PAN candidate portrayed himself as not just a standard-bearer for recent economic policy, but rather more fully as a more pro-active candidate so as to distance himself from the main criticisms of his predecessor Vicente Fox regarding inaction. He labeled himself the "jobs president" and promised greater national wealth for all through steady future growth, fiscal prudence, international trade, and balanced government spending. During the immediate aftermath of the tight elections in which the country's electoral court was hearing challenges to the vote tally that had Calderon winning, Obrador showed the considerable influence over the masses that are a trademark of populist politicians. He effectively led huge demonstrations filling the central plaza with masses of sympathizers who supported his challenge. The demonstrations lasted for several months and eventually dissipated after the electoral court did not find sufficient cause from the challenges presented to overturn the results.

Mexico: A case study of populism in political campaigns
The Narodnichestvo movement in Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century could be described as a populist movement.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky in modern Russia is another good example of populist politician.
Natalia Vitrenko of Ukraine is also sometimes characterised as left-wing populist politician. Populism in Russia and the former Soviet Union
The United States saw the formation of such political parties during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the Populist Party, the Greenback Party, the Single Tax movement of Henry George, the Progressive Party of 1912 led by Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party of 1924 led by Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and the Share Our Wealth movement of Huey Long in 1933-35. Some left-wing populist parties advocated socialism, while other populists rejected both socialism and capitalism, notably Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin.
George Wallace of Alabama led a populist movement that carried five states and won 13.5% of the popular vote in the 1968 presidential election. Campaigning against intellectuals and liberal reformers, Wallace gained a large share of the white working class vote in Democratic primaries in 1972.
Populism continues to be a force in modern US politics, especially in the 1992 and 1996 third-party presidential campaigns of billionaire Ross Perot. The 1996, 2000 and the 2004 presidential campaigns of Ralph Nader had a strong populist cast. The 2004 campaigns of Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton also had populist elements.
Comparison between earlier surges of Populism and those of today are complicated by shifts in what are thought to be the interests of the common people. Jonah Goldberg and others argue that in modern society, fractured as it is into myriad interest groups and microgroups, any attempt to define the interests of the "average person" will be so general as to be useless.
Over time, there have been several versions of a Populist Party in the United States, inspired by the People's Party of the 1890s. This was the party of the early U.S. populist movement in which millions of farmers and other working people successfully challenged much of the social ills engendered by the "Gilded Age" monopolists.
In 1984, the Populist Party name was revived by Willis Carto, and was used in 1988 as a vehicle for the presidential campaign of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Right-wing Patriot movement organizer Bo Gritz was briefly Duke's running mate. This incarnation was widely regarded as a vehicle for white supremacist recruitment.
In 1995, the Reform Party was organized after the populist presidential campaign of Ross Perot in 1992. After a disputed takeover of the party in 2000, Patrick J. Buchanan received the party's nomination for president.
In the 2000s, many smaller populist parties were formed in America, including the Populist Party of Maryland, which ran candidates for governor, lt. governor and state delegate in the 2006 elections, Populist Party of America in 2002, and the American Populist Renaissance in 2005. The American Moderation Party, also formed in 2005, adopted several populist ideals, chief among them working against multinational neo-corporatism. Within the American media, CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly espouse themselves as voices of populism.
Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.) was elected in 2006 over incumbent George Allen. Webb held prominent offices in the Republican party during the 1980s, but became a Democrat in part because in his opinion, as he stated in a January 2007 NPR interview, the Democratic party seemed more aligned to his populist beliefs. This illustrates that populism can and does span the American political spectrum.

Populism in the United States of America
See: Völkisch movement

Fichte began the development of nationalism by stating that people have the ethical duty to further their nation.
Herder proposed an organic nationalism that was a romantic vision of individual communities rejecting the Industrial Revolution's model communities, in which people acquired their meaning from the nation. This is a philosophy reminiscent of subsidiarity.
The Brothers Grimm collected German folklore to "gather the Teutonic spirit" and show that these tales provide the common values necessary for the historical survival of a nation.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, a Lutheran Minister, a professor at the University of Berlin and the "father of gymnastics," introduced the Volkstum, a racial nation that draws on the essence of a people that was lost in the Industrial Revolution.
Adam Mueller went a step further by positing the state as a bigger totality than the government institution. This paternalistic vision of aristocracy concerned with social orders had a dark side in that the opposite force of modernity was represented by the Jews, who were said to be eating away at the state.
Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, was installed in the exceptional office of Führer. However, Hitler's policies were not populist. Populism in Germany
In France, the populist and nationalist picture was more mystical and metaphysical in nature.

Historian Jules Michelet fused nationalism and populism by positing the people as a mystical unity who are the driving force of history in which the divinity finds its purpose. For Michelet, in history, that representation of the struggle between spirit and matter, France has a special place because the French became a people through equality, liberty, and fraternity. Because of this, he believed, the French people can never be wrong. Michelet's ideas are not socialism or rational politics, and his populism always minimizes, or even masks, social class differences.
In the late 18th century, the French Revolution, though led by wealthy intellectuals, could also be described as a manifestation of populist sentiment against the elitist excesses and privileges of the Ancien Régime.
Jean Marie Le Pen can be characterised as right-wing populist. Populism in France
This entry is related to, but not included in the Political ideologies series or one of its sub-series. Other related articles can be found at the Politics Portal.

Black populism
Bolivarian Revolution
Communitarianism A partially related political philosophy
Charismatic authority
Christian Democracy
Christian Socialism
Christian right
Conservatism
Cultural production and nationalism
Demagogy — as an abstract kind of untruthful speech
Fascism
Far right
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Mazzini
Gaullism
Jacobin (politics)
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia
Kemalist ideology (Kemalism)
Mahatma Gandhi
Marxism
Nationalism
Nazism
Nehru
Neo-populism
People's Party
Poujadism
Producerism
Sarkozy
Social Democracy
Socialism
Thatcherism
Union Organizer See also

Populism and Neo-populism in Latin America, especially Mexico
The Return of Populism
Populist Party of America
Right-Wing populist resources
Left-Wing populist resources
Midwest Populist Party
Study of populism that discusses Canovan
The Populist Blog, A Blog written by a Progressive Populist from Detroit, Michigan Footnotes

General

Fritzsche, Peter. 1990. Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505780-5
Betz, Hans-Georg. 1994. Radical Right-wing Populism in Western Europe, New York: St. Martins Press. ISBN 0-312-08390-4, ISBN 0-312-12195-4

2008-04-25T09:34:00.001-07:00

Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq (died November 8, 1122) was the Turkish Artukid ruler of Mardin from 1107 to 1122.
His father Artuk was the founder of the Artukid dynasty, and had been appointed governor of Jerusalem by the Seljuk emir Tutush. When Artuk died, Ilghazi and his brother Sökmen succeeded him as governors of Jerusalem. In 1096 Ilghazi allied with Duqaq of Damascus and Yaghi-Siyan of Antioch against Radwan of Aleppo; Duqaq and Radwan were fighting for control of Syria after the death of Tutush. Ilghazi and Dukak eventually quarrelled and Ilghazi was imprisoned, leading to the capture of Jerusalem by his brother Sökmen, but Ilgazi recovered the city when he was released. He held it until the city was captured by the Fatimid vizier of Egypt, al-Afdal Shahanshah, in 1098. After this he sought to make a name for himself in the Jezirah, where his brothers had also established themselves. He then entered the service of the Seljuk sultan Mahmud I, who granted him Hulwan and made him shihna of Baghdad, an office which oversaw the affairs of the caliph on behalf of the sultan.
Ilgazi was dismissed as shihna in 1104 and became leader of the Artukid family after the death of Sökmen that year. This was disputed by Sökmen's son Ibrahim, but Ilghazi took Mardin from him in 1108. As head of the Artukids he made no lasting alliances and frequently switched sides, allying with both fellow Muslims and Christian crusaders whenever he saw fit. In 1110 he participated in an unsuccessful siege of Edessa. In 1114 he and his nephew Balak (future emir of Aleppo) defeated the Seljuk governor of Mosul, Aksungur al-Bursuki, and captured Mas'ud, son of the Seljuk sultan. In 1115 Ilghazi besieged Hims, but was captured briefly by its governor Khir-Khan. Later that year, Roger of Antioch, Baldwin I of Jerusalem, Pons of Tripoli, and Baldwin II of Edessa defended Antioch against the Seljuk general Bursuk (not to be confused with al-Bursuki), with the aid of Ilghazi, Toghtekin of Damascus, and Lulu of Aleppo, all enemies of Bursuk. These two armies did not come to battle, although Bursuk was later defeated by Roger at the Battle of Tell Danith.
Ilghazi gained control of Aleppo after the assassination of Lulu in 1117. In 1118 he took control of Mayyafiriqin and pacified the surrounding countryside. In 1119 Ilghazi defeated and killed Roger at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis; Ibn al-Qalanisi describes the victory as "one of the finest of victories, and such plenitude of divine aid was never granted to Islam in all its past ages." However, Baldwin II (now Baldwin II of Jerusalem) soon arrived to drive Ilghazi back, inflicting heavy losses on the Turks. The next year Ilghazi took Nisibin, and then pillaged the County of Edessa before turning north towards Armenia. In 1121 he made peace with the crusaders, and with supposedly 150 000 troops, including men led by his son-in-law Sadaqah and Sultan Malik of Ganja, he invaded Georgia. David IV of Georgia met him at the Battle of Didgori and Ilgazi was defeated. According to Matthew of Edessa 400 000 Turks were killed, though there were not even that many at the battle. Among the various leaders, only Ilghazi and his son-in-law Dubais escaped.
In 1122 Ilghazi and Balak defeated Joscelin I of Edessa and took him prisoner, but Ilgazi died in November of that year at Diyarbekir. He was buried at Mayyafariqin (Silvan today). Balak succeeded him in Aleppo and his sons Sulaiman and Timurtash succeeded him in Mardin.
Ibn al-Qalanisi is generally neutral on the character of Ilghazi, and describes only one "disgraceful habit" of the emir: "Now when Ilghazi drank wine and it got the better of him, he habitually remained for several days in a state of intoxication, without recovering his senses sufficiently to take control or to be consulted on any matter or decision." The Antiochene chronicler Walter the Chancellor was at first also neutral towards Ilghazi, until the Battle of Ager Sanguinis, in which Walter himself was captured; Ilghazi (written as "Algazi" in Latin) is then described as a "tyrant" and the "prince of the delusion and dissent of the Turcomans." Walter also remarks on Ilghazi's drunkenness.
Ilghazi married first Farkhunda Khatun, the daughter of Radwan of Aleppo, but he never actually met her and the marriage was never consummated. He then married the daughter of Toghtekin of Damascus and had the following children:
He also had a son, Umar, by a concubine, and Nasr, by a slave; another possible son was named Kirzil.

Ayaz
Guhar Khatun, married Dubais
al-Bazm
Shams ad-Daula Sulaiman
Safra Khatun, married Husam ad-Din Qurti ibn Toghlan Arslan
Yumna Khatun, married Sa'd ad-Daula Il-aldi of Amid
al-Sa'id Husam ad-Din Timurtash See also

Artukid dynasty

2008-04-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

The supercarrier USS Forrestal (CV-59), formerly AVT-59 and CVA-59, was named after former Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and was the lead ship of her class of aircraft carriers. The other carriers of her class were the USS Saratoga (CV-60) and USS Ranger (CV-61). She was the largest aircraft carrier since Shinano of World War II vintage, and the first to specifically support jet aircraft. The ship was affectionately called "The FID", because James Forrestal was the first ever Secretary of Defense, FID standing for "First In Defense". This is also the slogan on the ship's insignia and patch.
Forrestal was launched 11 December 1954 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia, sponsored by Josephine Forrestal, widow of Secretary Forrestal; and commissioned 1 October 1955, Captain R. L. Johnson in command.

1956–1962
Forrestal made history in November 1963 when on the 8th, 21st and 22nd, Lt. James H. Flatley III and his crew members, Lt. Cmdr. "Smokey" Stovall and Aviation Machinist's Mate (Jets) 1st Class Ed Brennan, made 21 full-stop landings and takeoffs in a C-130 Hercules aboard the ship. The tests were conducted 500 miles (900 km) out in the North Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts. In so doing, Forrestal and the C-130 set a record for the largest and heaviest airplane landing on a Navy aircraft carrier. The Navy was trying to determine whether the big Hercules could serve as a "Super-COD", or "Carrier On-board Delivery" aircraft. The problem was there was no aircraft which could provide resupply to a carrier in mid ocean. The Hercules was stable and reliable, and had a long cruising range and high payload.
The tests were more than successful. At 85,000 pounds (38.6 t), the KC-130F came to a complete stop within 267 feet (81 m), and at the maximum load, the plane used only 745 feet (227 m) for take-off. The Navy concluded that with the C-130 Hercules, it would be possible to lift 25,000 pounds (11 t) of cargo 2,500 statute miles (4,000 km) and land it on a carrier. However, the idea was considered too risky for routine COD operations. The aircraft was also too large to fit on the carrier's elevators or in its hangars, severely hampering operations. The C-2 Greyhound program was developed and the first of these planes became operational in 1965. For his effort, the Navy awarded Lt. Flatley the Distinguished Flying Cross. The Hercules used, BuNo 149798, was retired to the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola, Florida, in May, 2003.

1963–1967
In July 1967, Forrestal departed Norfolk for duty in waters off Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin on 29 July, Forrestal had been launching aircraft from her flight deck. For four days, the planes of Attack Carrier Air Wing 17 flew about 150 missions against targets in North Vietnam from the ship.
Because of a shortage of thousand-pound bombs, old Composition B bombs had been loaded from the ammunition ship USS Diamond Head, instead of safer H6, capable of withstanding high heat or exploding with low order. About 10:50 (local time), while preparations for a second strike were being made (fueling and arming planes), a Zuni rocket was accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom II by an electrical power surge during the switch from external power to internal power. The flight deck crew were not informed that the hanger deck crew had removed the TER pins which prevent the rocket from firing, and had plugged the pigtails into the rockets. It flew across the flight deck, striking a wing-mounted external fuel tank on an A-4 Skyhawk piloted by Lt. Cmdr. John McCain, in the space). The damage control team massed, suited up, and began to fight the fire. Only when water was applied did people see actual smoke. The more water they sent into the space, the more smoke came out. Meanwhile, the Engineering Department was examining blueprints of the ship to see if a fuel pipe ran through the space. They discovered that a "cat steam" pipe ran through the space--the high pressure steam used to shoot the jets off the catapults at the bow. Apparently, the pipe had heated up the cereal enough to make it smell hot, and when water was applied, the pipe turned a significant amount of it into steam, which the fire fighters interpreted as smoke. Dozens of cases of cereal were soaked. No one was injured or killed.

Fire
Forrestal was deployed to Mediterranean waters four times between 1968 and 1973. She also sped to Tunisia for rescue operations in the flooded Medjerda River Valley near Tunis.
The ship logged three more Mediterranean deployments between 1973 and 1975. On 22 July 1974, as a result of ongoing conflict between Turkish and Greek Cypriot forces on Cyprus, the U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus Roger Davies requested the evacuation of U.S. citizens from that island nation. In a joint Navy-Marine Corps effort, HMM-162 from the 6th Fleet amphibious assault ship Inchon (LPH-12) evacuated 466 people, 384 of them U.S. citizens, in only five hours. Forrestal provided air cover for that operation.
In October 1968, a routine night launch of an E2A from VAW-123 led the way (as usual) for all launches aboard Forrestal. The crew members were LCDR Paul Martin Wright (Operations Officer), LCDR James Leo Delaney (Maintenance Officer), LTJG Howard Booth Rutledge (Personnel Officer), LTJG Frank J. Frederick (Asst. Maintenance Officer), and AT1 David E. Carpenter (Avionics Dept). The flight was routine. All aircraft recovered as usual until the VAW-123 E-2A, which was the last plane to recover. The aircraft boltered and went off the angled deck and into the water, nose first. When it hit the water, the aircraft flipped over onto its back, breaking its radar dome off and sank within minutes. The dome floated and was recovered. Immediately, helicopters moved into the area for search and rescue operations. AT1 David E. Carpenter and LTJG Frank J. Frederick were rescued without serious injury. Lost at sea were LCDR Wright, LCDR Delaney, and LTJG Rutledge.

1968–1973
On 30 June 1975, Forrestal was reclassified a "Multi-purpose Aircraft Carrier", CV-59. Also in 1975 Forrestal was selected to be host ship for the International Naval Review in New York City on the nation's Bicentennial. On July 4, 1976, on Forrestal's flight deck, President Gerald Ford rang in the Bicentennial and reviewed over 40 tall ships from countries around the world.
Shortly after the review, Forrestal participated in a special shock test. It involved the detonation of high explosives near the hull to determine if a capital ship could withstand the strain of close quarter combat and still remain operational.
In September 1977, following a nine month overhaul, Forrestal departed Norfolk and shifted her homeport to Mayport. The carrier left Mayport on Friday, 13 January 1978 for a three-week at-sea period in the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range of the Roosevelt Roads Operating Area to complete the third phase of Type Commander's Training (TYT-3), and to undergo the Operational Readiness Evaluation (ORE). Tragedy struck Forrestal on the evening of 15 January as an A-7 Corsair II from VA-81 crashed on the flight deck, killing two deck crewmen and injuring 10 others. The pilot was operating without communication gear due to an onboard malfunction, and as he was making his approach, he saw that the "ball" was lit, a signal that indicates it is permissible to land. The pilot ejected safely after seeing that the deck was covered with parked and moving aircraft, by which time it was impossible to pull up. He was recovered, suffering only minor injuries. The plane crashed as the pilot attempted to land while the aft portion of the flight deck was crowded with aircraft and when a plane was being "respotted" (moved) to another portion of the ship's deck. The Corsair struck a parked A-7 and an EA-6B before careering across the deck in a ball of flames. A small fire on the aft portion of the deck, caused by fuel spilled during the crash, was extinguished within seconds. At the time of the accident Forrestal was operating about 49 miles (90 km) off St. Augustine, Florida. A memorial service for the dead was held on board on 19 January. The ship returned to Mayport 3 February.
Forrestal left Mayport for the Mediterranean on 4 April 1978. At 22:00 on 8 April, just minutes after the ship had finished a general quarters drill, the crew was called to G.Q. again, but this time it was not a drill; a fire had broken out in the Number Three Main Machinery Room. Freshly-painted lagging in Three Main engine room had been set smoldering by hot steam lines. Watch-standers within the space activated an extinguishing system and had the fire out within seconds.
Forrestal recorded her 227,000th arrested landing on 22 April 1978 while in the Mediterranean. Pilot Lt. j.g. Erick Hitchcock and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Lt. j.g. Al Barnet of VF-74 were the crew of the F-4 Phantom that marked the milestone trap.
From 19 May to 29 May 1978, Forrestal participated in Dawn Patrol, the first of three NATO exercises the ship would be involved in during the deployment. Dawn Patrol involved air and ground forces and over 80 ships from six NATO countries. Forrestal's role during the exercise included protecting a Turkish amphibious task group and working with Nimitz (CVN-68) and the French carrier Foch to defend against simulated "enemy" ships and aircraft.
During this sea period two separate air crashes on successive days left one pilot dead and another injured. On 24 June 1978, Lt. Cmdr. T. P. Anderson, Operations Officer for Carrier Air Wing Seventeen, was killed when his A-7E Corsair II crashed into the sea during a practice bombing mission. On 25 June a pilot from VA-83, also flying an A-7E, ejected shortly after takeoff, suffering minor injuries. A rescue crew aboard an SH-3D Sea King helicopter from HS-3 recovered the pilot and returned to the ship within eight minutes after the crash. Both accidents occurred as the ship was operating in the Ionian Sea, east of Sicily.
From 4 September to 19 September 1978, Forrestal participated in the massive NATO exercise Northern Wedding, which included over 40,000 men, 22 submarines, and 800 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft from nine NATO countries. Northern Wedding, which took place every four years, practiced NATO's ability to reinforce and resupply Europe in times of tension or war. During the exercise Forrestal and the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal headed separate task groups, steaming in a two-carrier formation to gain sea control and deploying their aircraft in support of mock amphibious landings in the Shetland Islands and Jutland, Denmark.
From 28 September to 10 October, Forrestal participated in Display Determination, the third and final NATO exercise of the deployment. The operation, involving ships, aircraft, and personnel from eight NATO countries, was designed to practice rapid reinforcement and resupply of the southern European region in times of tension or war. Forrestal arrived in Rota, Spain on 11 October for the last overseas port stop of the deployment.
On 13 October 1978, the ship put to sea to conduct a one-day exercise with a task group of deploying U.S. ships headed by the aircraft carrier Saratoga (CV-60). Air Wing Seventeen's planes conducted mock attacks on the task group to allow the ships to practice anti-air warfare. Forrestal returned to Rota late in the evening on the 13th.
Before dawn on 15 October, Forrestal departed Rota and outchopped from the Sixth Fleet, having been relieved by Saratoga. On the homeward transit, Forrestal took an extreme northerly course as part of a special operation code-named Windbreak. Commander Second Fleet, Vice Adm. Wesley L. McDonald, embarked in Forrestal for the exercise. Windbreak was designed to introduce U.S. sailors and equipment to relatively unfamiliar waters and conditions, and to gauge Soviet interest in U.S. ships in transit to and from the Mediterranean. During the exercise, Forrestal traveled as far north as 62 degrees latitude, 150 miles (280 km) south of Iceland, encountering seas to 34 feet (10 m), winds in excess of 70 knots (130 km/h), and a wind chill factor that drove the temperature as far down as 0 degrees. Also participating in Windbreak were the guided missile cruiser Harry E. Yarnell (CG-17) and the destroyer Arthur W. Radford (DD-968).
Forrestal returned to Mayport on 26 October 1978. On 13 November Forrestal commenced a four-month period of upkeep and repair known as an Extended Selected Restricted Availability (ESRA), to be conducted as the ship was moored alongside the carrier pier in Mayport. Forrestal ended 1978 as she had started it, moored to the carrier pier in Mayport.
After completing two more Mediterranean cruises, she celebrated her silver anniversary in October 1980.

1975–1980
On 2 March 1981, Forrestal began her 16th Mediterranean deployment and second quarter century of naval service. During the Syria/Israel missile crisis, Forrestal maintained a high state of readiness for 53 consecutive days at sea. In a Gulf of Sidra exercise, two Libyan aircraft were shot down after firing upon F-14s from Nimitz over international waters. Forrestal aircraft made more than 60% of all the intercepts of Libyan planes. After departing the Mediterranean she operated above the Arctic Circle as part of NATO Ocean Venture '81.
After a repair period, Forrestal deployed for her 17th Mediterranean cruise on 8 June 1982, and operated in the eastern Mediterranean in support of the Lebanon Contingency Force of 800 U.S. Marines in Beirut. On 12 September 1982, after transiting the Suez Canal for the first time in her 28-year history, she entered the Indian Ocean. This marked the first time that Forrestal had operated with 7th Fleet since the 1967 Vietnam cruise.
Forrestal completed the five and one-half month deployment with a nighttime arrival at Mayport on November 16 and immediately began preparing for the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP). The ship shifted homeport to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 18 January 1983, and embarked on the 28-month, $550 million SLEP, designed to extend the life of U.S. aircraft carriers another 15 to 20 years.
During Forrestal's SLEP the ship was completely emptied and most major equipment was removed for rework or replacement. Forrestal's successful SLEP period was completed on time when the ship left Philadelphia on 20 May 1985. After completing a four-day transit to her homeport of Mayport, Forrestal immediately began a workup cycle in preparation for her first deployment in over four years.
Forrestal departed Mayport on 2 June 1986, on her 18th deployment. During this cruise, Forrestal aircraft frequently operated in the international airspace of the Tripoli Flight region, the international air traffic control sector of Libya. Forrestal also participated in Operation Sea Wind, a joint U.S.-Egyptian training exercise and Display Determination, which featured low-level coordinated strikes and air combat maneuvering training over Turkey.
In 1987, Forrestal went through yet another period of pre-deployment workups. This included refresher training, carrier qualifications, and a six-week deployment to the North Atlantic to participate in Ocean Safari '87. In this exercise, Forrestal operated with NATO forces in the fjords of Norway.

1981–1987
The ship and crew performed so well in Ocean Safari '87 that the Forrestal's commanding officer, Captain John A. Pieno Jr., recommended that the ship be granted a special liberty call in the United States as a reward. Special liberty calls serve to reward Navy personnel with a trip to other parts of the U.S. and provides Americans who would normally never see warships and planes an up close look at life in the United States Navy. Captain Pieno being a native of New Orleans, Louisiana decided that New Orleans, during her Mardi Gras celebration, would be the perfect location to show off his pride and joy. During her trip to New Orleans Forrestal broke another record by becoming the largest ship to sail on the Mississippi River. Also during her four days in the Big Easy she accommodated tours for over 40,000 visitors. The tour included viewings and descriptions of all her aircraft, damage control demonstrations, and the crowd's favorite, a ride on one of her four aircraft elevators.

Forrestal and the Big Easy
Forrestal departed on her 19th major deployment on 25 April 1988. She steamed directly to the North Arabian Sea via the Suez Canal in support of America's Earnest Will operations in the region. She spent 108 consecutive days at sea before her first liberty port. During the five and one-half month deployment, Forrestal operated in three ocean areas and spent only 15 days in port. She returned on 7 October 1988, and received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for her superior operational performance during the deployment.
After a brief stand down period followed by local operations, Forrestal participated in New York City's Fleet Week in May 1989, and then commenced preparations for her next deployment.
Forrestal's departure for her 20th major deployment was delayed when a fire caused major damage to a primary command and control trunk space. Through the efforts of the ship's crew and civilian contractors, Forrestal was able to depart for her deployment on 6 November 1989, completing the necessary repairs well ahead of projections.
The final two months of 1989 proved exciting. Beyond the "routine" exercises and training initiatives, Forrestal's crew became part of history, as they provided support to President George H. W. Bush during his Malta Summit. The support included a three-hour Presidential visit to the ship. Also in 1989, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.
Forrestal participated in numerous exercises during this deployment including Harmonie Sud, Tunisian Amphibious and National Week. She returned to Mayport on 12 April 1990, ending a deployment which had included eight port visits in five different countries.
The year 1991 was a year of anticipation and change for Forrestal and its crew, as she spent the first five months maintaining combat readiness as the east coast ready carrier. Maintaining a hectic and challenging period of at-sea operations, Forrestal's anticipated deployment in support of Operation Desert Storm was not to be, and orders to deploy were canceled twice during the conflict.
The call to deploy finally came and Forrestal commenced the 21st and final operational deployment on 30 May 1991.
No less challenging than the months of maintaining readiness for combat, Forrestal's deployment was repeatedly referred to as "transitional." During the ensuing seven months, Forrestal was called upon to provide air power presence and airborne intelligence support for Operation Provide Comfort, and to initiate, test and evaluate a wide range of innovative Sixth Fleet battle group tactics and new carrier roles.
The year ended with Forrestal making advanced preparations for a change of homeport to Pensacola, Florida, and the transition into a new role as the Navy's training carrier, replacing Lexington. Redesignated AVT-59, Forrestal arrived in Philadelphia 14 September 1992 to begin a 14-month, $157 million complex overhaul prior to assuming the duties as training carrier. In early 1993, however, the Navy decided to decommission Forrestal and leave the Navy without a dedicated training carrier.

See also

2008-04-23T08:18:00.001-07:00

The John Charles Centre for Sport is a sports facility in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was previously named the South Leeds Stadium and was renamed to honour John Charles (1931-2004), the former Leeds United and Wales footballer. It is to the south of Leeds city centre roughly on the border of the Beeston, Belle Isle and Hunslet areas. The sports centre opened in 1996.
It is used by Leeds United football club for reserve matches and since November 1995 by Hunslet Hawks rugby league club. It is the principal athletics stadium in the Leeds area and is the home of Leeds City Athletics Club. The sports complex also includes a tennis centre and indoor bowls and athletics centre.
On 29 October 2007 the John Charles Centre for Sport will see the opening of its Aquatics Centre. The Olympic size swimming pool will be a relocation from previous facilities at the 40 year old Leeds International Pool. Two submersible booms built into the main pool enable it to be divided into three pools of different sizes and depths, allowing a flexible daily swimming programme. A floating floor allows the depth of the diving pool and 1/3 of the main pool to be varied from two metres to shallow water for teaching and 0-5 meters for the diving pool. As well as public swimming sessions, the pool hosts children's parties, sub aqua classes and swimming lessons. The centre is also suitable for national and international swimming and diving, with seating for 650 people overlooking the main pool and for 150 overlooking the diving area. The £16.5m centre also includes an aerobics studio and multi-use rooms.

2008-04-22T08:10:00.001-07:00

The Charlotte-Jane was one of the first four ships in 1850 to carry emigrants from England to the new colony of Canterbury in New Zealand. One of her most notable passengers was the architect Benjamin Mountfort. The other three ships were Cressy, Sir George Seymour and Randolph).
The passengers aboard these four ships were referred to as "the Pilgrims". Their names are inscribed on a marble plaque in Cathedral Square in the centre of Christchurch.

2008-04-21T09:08:00.001-07:00

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Indonesia
The Regional Representatives Council, or Dewan Perwakilan Daerah, abbr. DPD is one of the two parliamentary chambers in Indonesia.
The DPD was created by the Third Amendment to the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia enacted 9 November 2001 in a move towards bicameralism. The DPD does not have the revising powers of an upper house like the United States Senate. Article 22D restricts the DPD to dealing with bills on 'regional autonomy, the relationship of central and local government, formation, expansion and merger of regions, management of natural resources and other economic resources, and Bills related to the financial balance between the centre and the regions.'
The DPD can propose such bills to the DPR and must be heard on any regional bill proposed by the DPR. Each province elects 4 members to the DPD on a non-partisan basis, although many candidates in the April 2004 election had links to the parties represented in the People's Representative Council, the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat or DPR.
A third legislative body, the Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat (MPR) or People's Consultative Assembly, comprises the members of the DPR and the DPD.

Pancasila
Constitution
President (List)

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Vice-president
- Jusuf Kalla
  Cabinet
  People's Consultative Assembly
  - Regional Representatives Council
    People's Representative Council
    Political parties
    Elections
    - Parliament, 2004
      President, 2004
      Provinces
      - Regional government
        Foreign relations
        Foreign aid

2008-04-20T07:59:00.001-07:00

Computational finance (also known as financial engineering) is a cross-disciplinary field which relies on mathematical finance, numerical methods and computer simulations to make trading, hedging and investment decisions, as well as facilitating the risk management of those decisions. Utilizing various methods, practitioners of computational finance aim to precisely determine the financial risk that certain financial instruments create.

Major contributors

List of finance topics
Quantitative analyst
ActiveQuant
QuantLib

2008-04-19T09:09:00.001-07:00

There have been several notable individuals named Peter Blake.
Peter Blake (actor)
Peter Blake (artist)
Peter Blake (yachtsman)
Peter Blake (editor)
Peter Blake (sprint car driver)
Peter Blake (architect) (1920-2006), German-born American architect.
Peter Blake (writer), consulting producer of the television series House
Peter Blake (Irish republican), a member (Volunteer) in the Irish Republican Army

2008-04-18T08:14:00.001-07:00

Note: for the full results of all FA Cup finals, see FA Cup Final
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association.
The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world, commencing in 1871-72. Because it involves clubs of all standards playing against each other there is the possibility for "giant-killers" from the lower divisions to eliminate top clubs from the tournament, though lower division teams rarely reach the final. A record 731 teams were accepted into the FA Cup in 2007-2008. In comparison, the League Cup can involve only the 72 members of The Football League (which organises the competition) and the 20 teams in the Premier League. The results of the Football League War Cup are deemed to be separate from both competitions.
The name "FA Cup" usually refers to the English men's tournament. The equivalent competition for women's teams is the FA Women's Cup.
The current holders of the FA Cup are Chelsea who beat Manchester United 1-0 in extra time in the 2007 final, on 19 May 2007.

Format
Since the foundation of the Football League, Tottenham Hotspur in 1901 have been the only non-league winners of the FA Cup. They were then playing in the Southern League and were only elected to the Football League in 1908. At that time the Football League consisted of only two 18-team divisions; Tottenham's victory would be comparable to a team playing at the third level of the English football pyramid (currently League One) winning today.
In the history of the FA Cup, only eight teams who were playing outside of the top level of English football have gone on to win the whole competition, the most recent being West Ham United, who beat Arsenal in 1980. Except Tottenham in 1901, these clubs were all playing in the old Second Division, no other Third Division or lower side having so far reached the final. Arguably, one of the most famous of these 'upsets' was when Sunderland A.F.C. beat Leeds United 1-0 in 1973. Leeds were top of what is now The Premiership and Sunderland were in the equivalent of today's Coca Cola Championship.[2] Three years later Second Division Southampton also achieved the same feat as Sunderland against First Division Manchester United by the same 1-0 scoreline.

Winners from outside the top flight
Matches in the FA Cup are usually played at the home ground of one of the two teams. The team who plays at home is decided when the matches are drawn. In the event of a draw, the replay is played at the ground of the team who originally played away from home. In the days when multiple replays were possible, the second replay (and any further replays) were played at neutral grounds.
Traditionally, the FA Cup Final was played at London's Wembley Stadium. Early finals were played in other locations and, due to extensive redevelopment of Wembley, finals between 2001 and 2006 were played at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The final returned to Wembley in May 2007.[3] Early finals venues include Kennington Oval, in 1872 and 1874-92, the Racecourse Ground, Derby in 1886, Bramall Lane in 1912, the Crystal Palace Park, 1895-1914, Stamford Bridge 1920-22, and Lillie Bridge, Fulham, London in 1873.
The semi-finals are contested at neutral venues; in the past these have usually been the home grounds of teams not involved in that semi-final. The venues used since 1990 were Maine Road (demolished) in Manchester; Old Trafford nearby in Trafford, Greater Manchester; Hillsborough in Sheffield: Highbury (redeveloped as housing) and Wembley Stadium in London; Millennium Stadium in Cardiff; and Villa Park in Birmingham. Villa Park is the most used stadium, having been used for 54 semi-finals.
The 1991 semi-final between Arsenal and Tottenham was the first to be played at Wembley. Two years later both semi-finals were held at Wembley, which was again used for both matches in 1994 and 2000. In 2005 they were both held at the Millennium Stadium. The decision to hold the semi-finals at the same location as the final can be controversial amongst fans [4]. However, starting with the 2008 Cup, all Semi Finals will be played at Wembley; the stadium was not ready for the 2007 semi-finals. For a list of semi-final results and the venues used, see FA Cup Semi-Finals.

Venues
At the end of the final, the winning team is presented with a trophy, also known as the "FA Cup", which they hold until the following year's final. Traditionally, at Wembley finals, the presentation was made at the Royal Box, with players, led by the captain, mounting a staircase to a gangway in front of the box and returning by a second staircase on the other side of the box. At Cardiff the presentation was made on a podium on the pitch. The cup is decorated with ribbons in the colours of the winning team; a common riddle asks, "What is always taken to the Cup Final, but never used?" (the answer is "the losing team's ribbons"). However this isn't entirely true, as during the game the cup actually has both teams sets of ribbons attached and the runners-up ribbons are removed before the presentation. Individual members of the teams playing in the final are presented with winners' and runners'-up medals.
The present FA Cup trophy is the fourth. The first, the 'little tin idol', was used from the inception of the Cup in 1871-2 until it was stolen from a Birmingham shop window belonging to William Shillcock while held by Aston Villa on September 11, 1895. It was never seen again and is presumed to have been melted down. The second trophy was a replica of the first, and was last used in 1910 before being presented to the FA's long-serving president Lord Kinnaird. It was sold at Christie's on May 19, 2005 for £420,000 (£478,400 including auction fees and taxes) to David Gold, the chairman of Birmingham City. A new, larger, trophy was bought by the FA in 1911 designed and manufactured by Fattorini's of Bradford and won by Bradford City in its first outing, the only time a team from Bradford has reached the final. This trophy still exists but is now too fragile to be used, so an exact replica was made and has been in use since the 1992 final. Therefore, though the FA Cup is the oldest domestic football competition in the world, its trophy is not the oldest; that title is claimed by the Youdan Cup.
A "backup" trophy was made alongside the existing trophy in 1992, but it has not been used so far, and will only be used if the current trophy is lost, damaged or destroyed.

Sponsorship
The FA Cup has a long tradition of lower-division and non-league teams becoming "giant-killers" by defeating much higher-ranked opponents. There are various famous giant killing feats, and every club will remember their own successes. The following lists some of the most exceptional giant-killings:

In 1933, Division 3 South side Walsall defeated Arsenal, who had been League Champions a season before and were on their way to the first of three consecutive League titles.
Southern League side Yeovil Town reached the fifth round in 1948-49 after defeating Division 1 side Sunderland.
Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic of Division 3 South beat top flight sides Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur in 1957, before losing to Manchester United in the 6th round. In 1984, Bournemouth got belated revenge by beating United (the then current holders) 2-0 at home in the 3rd round.
Hereford United of the Southern League defeated top-flight Newcastle United in a Third Round Replay in 1972.
Isthmian League team Harlow Town beat Leicester City (who won Division 2 later that season) in the 3rd Round in 1980 after a replay.
Sutton United in the 1988-1989 FA Cup campaign, where the non-league side beat the 1987 winners and top-flight club Coventry City 2-1 in the third round. Coventry's excuse was that the pitch was unplayable.
Wrexham defeated the League champions Arsenal in 1992, in the Third Round. Wrexham had finished bottom of The Football League the previous season (but had not been relegated).
Sutton United are the most recent non-League team to beat top flight opposition, beating Division 1 team Coventry in 1989. Coventry also drew against non-league Woking in 1997.
Kidderminster Harriers are the most recent non-League team to reach the 5th Round of the FA Cup, in 1994. They defeated League teams Birmingham City and Preston North End before losing 1-0 to Premiership side West Ham United.
In 2001 Wycombe Wanderers, then in Division 2, beat Leicester City, who were then in the Premiership, 2-1 away from home in the quarter final, with Roy Essandoh scoring a header in the 92nd minute. He interestingly enough only signed for The Chairboys that very same week after seeing an advert on Ceefax for a striker due to an injury crisis at the club. Giant-Killers
This table includes wins by teams against opposition who played at least two divisions higher. (For example, a team from League One beating a Premier League team). All teams are from the Football League or Premier League unless stated otherwise.
(R) = replay (after the initial match was drawn)
(aet) = after extra time (after the replayed match was drawn)
(QF) = Quarter-finals (officially known as the 6th round)

Famous Shock Results

Notable events in the FA Cup

On July 20, 1871, in the offices of The Sportsman newspaper, C. W. Alcock proposed that "a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association", giving birth to the FA Cup. Four first-round matches were the first FA Cup games ever played – on November 11, 1871. The first Cup goal was scored by Clapham Rovers player Jarvis Kenrick in a 3-0 win over Upton Park (Kenrick scoring twice in the process).
On March 16, 1872, Wanderers became the first winners of the FA Cup, beating Royal Engineers 1-0 at The Oval. Fifteen clubs had entered, only twelve actually played, and there were thirteen games in total. The winning goal was scored by Morton Peto Betts, who played under the pseudonym of 'A.H. Chequer'.
In 1873, for the first and only time the competition lived up to the name Challenge Cup. The Wanderers received a bye to the final where they beat Oxford University to retain the Cup. The rules were changed for the following season.
In 1876, Thomas Hughes was the first to score more than once in the final, in a replay match in which Wanderers defeated Old Etonians 3-0. In the same final, George Bonsor from the losing side became the first to score in two consecutive finals (both of which his team lost).
In 1882, Lord Kinnaird won the Cup for a still record fifth time, three times with Wanderers and twice with the Old Etonians. Earlier in 1877, he also scored the first own goal in the final with Wanderers defeating Oxford University 2-1.
In 1883 Blackburn Olympic defeated the Old Etonians in the final to become the first professional club to win the trophy. The win marked a turning point in the culture of the game in England.
In 1884 and 1885 Scottish side Queen's Park F.C. reached the final, the first time a non-English side had done so. They lost both times. (Scotland had had its own Scottish Cup since 1873.)
In 1886, Jimmy Brown of Blackburn Rovers became the first to score in three consecutive finals from 1884 to 1886 (winning all three). Blackburn Rovers also became the second club to win three consecutive FA Cups and remain the only club still in existence to win "three in a row" to this day, as Wanderers, who achieved the feat 6 years earlier, were disbanded in 1883.
Aston Villa legend Archie Hunter became the first player to score in every round of the FA Cup in Villa's victorious 1887 campaign (beginning from the second round, as Villa had a bye in the first). This feat was bettered in 1901 by Sandy Brown of Tottenham Hotspur, who scored in all rounds from the first.
Aston Villa's Bob Chatt scored the winner in the 1895 FA Cup Final after just 30 seconds.
The record score in an FA Cup tie was set in 1887 when Preston North End defeated Hyde 26-0.
Qualifying rounds were introduced in the 1888/89 season, with clubs competing on regional basis until only one was left for the Fourth Qualifying Round.
In the same season, Warwick County became the first non-league side to beat a First Division club on October 6, 1888, winning 2-1 away at Stoke.
In 1889, Preston North End became the first club to achieve the double of winning the FA Cup (beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0) and the Football League Championship in the same season. This double was even more extraordinary in that the league was won without a single defeat, a feat which would not be repeated in the top division until 2003-04, by Arsenal. Equally impressive was that the cup was won without conceding a single goal. Such was the team's dominance that it was nicknamed "The Invincibles".
William Townley scored the first hat trick in the history of the FA Cup final, in the 1890 match between Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday (6-1) 19th century

In 1901 Tottenham Hotspur became the only non-League team to win the FA Cup, with a 3-1 replay victory over Sheffield United.
In 1903 Bury defeated Derby County 6-0, in what is still the highest score in an FA Cup final. They also became the second club to win the FA Cup without conceding a goal in any round.
1910 saw the start of a string of 14 consecutive finals (including 3 replays, thus 17 matches) in which the losing side failed to score. This series was not approached until 1994-2000, with seven consecutive finals (no replays).
The first penalty in the final was not converted until 1910, with Albert Shepherd scoring from the spot in the Newcastle 2-0 Barnsley replay. The first missed penalty occurred in 1913, with Charlie Wallace from Aston Villa being the unlucky player, although Villa did win 1-0 over Sunderland. Two penalties were not converted until 1994, when Eric Cantona kicked from the spot in the 60th and 66th minutes to contribute to Manchester United's 4-0 win over Chelsea.
In 1913, Steve Bloomer scored his 41st goal in the competition proper, a record up to that time.
In 1914, George V became the first monarch to watch the FA Cup Final between Burnley and Liverpool in the last cup final played at Crystal Palace.
In 1915 Sheffield United beat Chelsea 3-0 at Old Trafford in the last final held before the competition was cancelled during the First World War. It became known as "The Khaki Cup Final", owing to the large number of uniformed soldiers in attendance.
In 1921, Birmingham City set the record for shortest FA Cup run - they forgot to send in their entry form.
In 1922, England amateur international Wilfred Minter scored 7 goals for St Albans City against Dulwich Hamlet. Dulwich won 8-7.
The first Wembley FA Cup Final, played on 28 April 1923, was marked by disorderly scenes unparalleled in the history of football. Before the match a massive crowd outside the stadium rushed the gates, burst the barriers and swarmed on to the pitch. Kick-off was delayed for 45 minutes as mounted police, with PC George Scorey on his white charge "Billy" - hence the "White Horse Final" - particularly visible, encouraged people to move behind the touchlines. Bolton beat West Ham 2-0 and the first Wembley goal was scored after just two minutes by David Jack. It was estimated that 200,000 fans had squeezed into Wembley and Cup Finals were made "all ticket" after that.
Walter 'Billy' Hampson of Newcastle United, the oldest FA Cup finalist, was 41 years and 257 days old when his side beat Aston Villa 2-0 in the 1924 Final.
The practice of teams from the top two divisions receiving exemption to the Third Round of the competition began in the 1925/26 season.
The 1927 final resulted in a Cardiff City victory over Arsenal. To the present day, Cardiff City are the only non-English-based team to win the trophy. It was also the first ever Cup Final to be broadcast by the BBC, who produced a numbered grid of the pitch for Radio Times readers to follow the ball. This gave rise to the popular myth of the origin of the phrase, "Back to square one" (i.e. a back-pass to the goalkeeper).
In the 1933 final, Everton players wore shirts numbered 1-11, and Manchester City players 12-22. This was the first major competitive game ever to have the players' shirts numbered.
In 1938, after 29 minutes of extra time, it was still 0-0 between Preston and Huddersfield. BBC Radio commentator Thomas Woodrooffe declared: "If there's a goal scored now, I'll eat my hat." Seconds later Preston was awarded a penalty from which George Mutch scored. Woodrooffe kept his promise. This was also the first FA Cup Final to be broadcast live by BBC Television.
Portsmouth hold the record for holding the FA Cup the longest. After beating Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1939 final the competition was not played until after World War II, meaning they held the cup for nearly seven years.
The 1945-1946 FA Cup was the first played since the competition was suspended during World War II. As the intermediate Football League North and Football League South were of variable quality, to boost clubs' income each tie was played over two legs (one home, one away with the scores being added together to decide who went through) to increase the number of matches in the season. Matches that were level at the end of both legs were replayed at the stadium of whichever team had played the second leg away. The semi-finals and final (both played at neutral venues) remained single match affairs. The final was won by Derby County.
In the 1946 final, Bert Turner from Charlton Athletic became famous for scoring for both sides — first he put a goal in his own net, only to equalise from a free kick a minute later. Tommy Hutchison would repeat the feat (in reverse) for Manchester City in 1981.
In 1948, Manchester United became the only team to win the FA Cup after being drawn against top-division opposition in every round. 1901-1949

During the 1950s, Newcastle United lifted the FA Cup trophy on three occasions within a five year period. In 1951 they defeated Blackpool 2-0, a year later Arsenal were beaten 1-0 and in 1955 Newcastle United defeated Manchester City 3-1.
The final of 1953 is known as the Matthews Final. The match between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers saw Stanley Matthews, at the age of 38, in his third attempt to win an FA Cup winners medal for Blackpool. Bolton were 3-1 up with 22 minutes remaining and looked set to win the match when Blackpool's Stan Mortensen scored from a Matthews cross. With less than five minutes remaining Blackpool equalised from a Mortensen free kick (his hat-trick, which became the only one ever scored in an FA Cup Final at the original Wembley) and shortly after the restart, with everybody anticipating extra time, Matthews passed to Bill Perry who put the ball in the back of the net securing a 4-3 victory for Blackpool. This was the first football match attended by The Queen, in her Coronation year.[5]
The final of 1956 saw Manchester City win 3-1 against Birmingham City. Roughly 15 minutes before the end of the game, Man City's goalkeeper Bert Trautmann (a German who had been taken as a prisoner of war by the British in 1945) injured his neck when he made a save at the feet of Birmingham's Peter Murphy. Despite being in terrible pain he continued to play till the end of match and collected his winners' medal still clutching his neck. An X-ray later revealed that he had broken a vertebra in his neck.
1956-57 also the record for highest number of rounds played in set, when former League club New Brighton played in nine rounds. They started in the preliminary round, and progressed through four qualifying rounds to the fourth round proper, where they lost to Burnley. They had just one replay - for their first round tie.
1958 saw Leeds United beaten 2-1 at home to Cardiff City in the third round for the third consecutive year.
Manchester United lost to Bolton Wanderers 2-0 in the 1958 FA Cup final. Prior to the match, Manchester United had lost nine first-team players in the Munich air disaster shortly after refueling in Munich, returning from a victory over Red Star Belgrade. 1950s

1961 saw Tottenham Hotspur become the first club in the 20th century to win the FA Cup and league championship in the same season, known famously as The Double. They also retained the FA Cup the following year.
In 1967 the first substitutes were allowed after many years of finals proving unbalanced due to injuries which forced players into leaving the field early. Players had suffered broken bones in the 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1965 finals. They were not, however, used until the next year, when Dennis Clarke replaced John Kaye for West Bromwich Albion.
In 1969 Leicester City lost their fourth FA Cup Final, 1-0 to Manchester City. No other team has made it to the final so many times without ever winning. 1960s

1970 saw the first Wembley final to go to a replay. The replayed final was played at Old Trafford and contested between Chelsea and Leeds United. It was the last final to be played outside of Wembley before it was moved to the Millennium Stadium in 2001. When Peter Osgood scored for Chelsea in the final, he became the last player to date (and ninth in total) to score in every round of the cup.
1970 saw the first third place play-off with Manchester United beating Watford 2-0. This play-off proved short-lived, and the 1973-74 competition saw the last 3rd place play-off match, contested by Leicester City and Burnley, with Burnley winning 1-0 at Filbert Street
1971 saw the longest tie in Cup history. Oxford City and Alvechurch play 6 games for a total of 660 minutes. Alvechurch won the final game 1-0 to progress to the first round proper.
Eddie Kelly from Arsenal became the first substitute to score when he came on the pitch in the 70th minute of the 1971 final and scored in the 96th. Stuart McCall from Everton scored two goals after coming in from the bench in the 1989 final in the 90th and 102nd minutes.
In 1972 the FA Cup celebrated its 100th birthday (though not its 100th season, due to interruptions for the two world wars). Leeds United won the final against holders Arsenal.
When Sunderland beat Leeds United 1-0 in the 1973 FA Cup Final it was the first and only time (to date) that a coloured ball (orange) was used in an FA Cup final. It was also the 50th anniversary of Wembley as a venue for the cup final.
The 1974-75 competition saw the record set for the highest number of games played in one season by one club. Bideford played 13 games over five rounds: one for the 1st qualifying round, two for the 2nd qualifying round, five for the 3rd qualifying round, four for the 4th qualifying round, and one for the 1st round proper. Multiple replays no longer take place, so this record is unlikely to be beaten.
The 1977-78 competition saw New Brighton's 1956-57 nine-round record equalled by Blyth Spartans, who progressed from the 1st qualifying round to the 5th round proper. The games for the 2nd qualifying round and the 5th rounds proper went to a replay. The final on 6 May 1978 was the 50th Wembley final. Ipswich Town beat Arsenal 1-0.
The 1979-80 competition saw the nine-round record equalled by Harlow Town, who progressed from the Preliminary round through four qualifying rounds to the fourth round proper, where they lost to Watford. The matches for the 2nd and 3rd rounds went to a replay. 1970s

In 1980, West Ham United became the last side to date to win the competition from outside the top division in football. They were a Second Division outfit when they beat holders Arsenal 1-0 thanks to a goal by Trevor Brooking. Three clubs - Queens Park Rangers in 1982, Sunderland in 1992 and Millwall in 2004 - have since reached the final, though all three lost.
In 1981, The 100th FA Cup final took place. The second game between Tottenham and Manchester City became the first final to be replayed at Wembley Stadium. Previously, replayed finals had been held at other neutral grounds. This final contained what was arguably the greatest ever final goal, scored by Tottenham's Ricky Villa who beat several players in a mazy run before slotting the ball home.
In 1983 Norman Whiteside, at 18, became the youngest player ever to score in an FA Cup final, whilst playing for Manchester United against Brighton & Hove Albion. As of 2006 this record remains unbroken.
In 1984, Johnny Hore's Plymouth Argyle side narrowly missed out on being the first Third Division side to reach the final. In a tense semi-final at Villa Park, Watford came out on top, 1-0 victors. Starting in the first round proper, Argyle had beaten Southend United (in a replay), Barking, Newport County (in a replay), West Bromwich Albion and Derby County (in a replay).
In 1985, Kevin Moran of Manchester United became the first player to be sent off in an FA Cup Final. United went on to win the match 1-0, after extra time.
In 1986, Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 in the first all-Merseyside FA Cup final to complete the double and claim their first FA Cup triumph for 12 years. The teams would meet again in the final just 3 years later.
In 1987, Coventry City beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 AET in a memorable game, which included Keith Houchen's famous flying header.
In 1988, Wimbledon's Dave Beasant became the first goalkeeper to save a penalty in an FA Cup final at Wembley, when he denied John Aldridge of Liverpool (although Charlie Wallace of Aston Villa was the first to miss a penalty in the final). The Crazy Gang of Wimbledon defeated the league champions Liverpool 1-0 on a Lawrie Sanchez goal, and Beasant also became the first goalkeeper to captain an FA Cup-winning side.
In 1989 during the opening minutes of the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, 96 people were crushed to death because of overcrowding. See the Hillsborough disaster. Liverpool went on to beat Everton 3-2 in the final. 1980s

In 1990, Manchester United won the competition in a replay against Crystal Palace. This was United manager Alex Ferguson's first trophy at United, and this success is seen by many as having saved him from being dismissed after 4 unsuccessful seasons.
In 1991, after the Arsenal v Leeds United third round tie went to a third replay, The FA decided that one replay, then extra time, then a penalty shootout would be a suitable alternative to a fixtures backlog. Arsenal also took part in the first semi-final to be played at Wembley, losing to Tottenham.
From season 1991/92, multiple replays were replaced by one replay followed by penalty kicks. The first penalty takers in the competition proper were Rotherham United and Scunthorpe United, with Rotherham winning 7-6 in a first round replay.
In 1993, both semi-finals were played at Wembley Stadium for the first time ever, because both matches were derbies — one between Arsenal and Tottenham, the other between Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United.
In 1993, the last ever FA Cup final replay took place, with Arsenal beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1. Arsenal became the first team to win both the FA Cup and the League Cup, beating Sheffield Wednesday in both finals.
In 1994, Manchester United completed the double thanks to a 4-0 win over Chelsea at Wembley. Eric Cantona scored two penalties and the other goals came from Mark Hughes and Brian McClair.
In 1996, a late goal from Eric Cantona saw Manchester United become the first team to win the double twice as they beat Liverpool 1-0 at Wembley, a week after clinching the league title. Cantona was also the first non-British or Irish player to captain a winning side in the FA Cup.
In 1997, Ruud Gullit became the first overseas manager to win the FA Cup, as his Chelsea side beat Middlesbrough 2-0. In the same match, Roberto Di Matteo scored the fastest ever goal in a Wembley cup final (after 42 seconds) and Mark Hughes became the only player in the 20th century to win the trophy four times.
In 1998, Arsenal beat Newcastle 2-0. This was the second time Arsenal had done the domestic double, which includes winning the Premier League and FA Cup in the same year.
In 1999, the last ever FA Cup semi-final replay took place, as Ryan Giggs of Manchester United scored in extra time to defeat Arsenal 2-1. The goal was voted the greatest in FA Cup history in 2003 [6]. Manchester United went on to beat Newcastle United 2-0, and later completed The Treble by also winning the FA Premier League and the UEFA Champions League.
Later in 1999 Manchester United became the first FA Cup holders not to defend their title when they failed to enter the FA Cup, instead electing (due to pressure from the FA and the Government, who wanted to bolster the English bid to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup) to take part in the inaugural FIFA Club World Championship played in Brazil, in which United performed poorly and failed to make a significant impact. To decide who took their place, a "lucky losers" draw was held containing the 20 teams knocked out in the second round; Darlington were selected. 1990s

2000 was the last final to be played at the old Wembley Stadium. Chelsea beat Aston Villa 1-0 thanks to a goal from Roberto Di Matteo. The FA decided that from 2000 onwards any semi-finals and finals would go first to extra time then penalties, rather than be replayed.
The first FA Cup final played outside England was in the final of the 2000-01 season at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Liverpool came from behind to snatch a 2-1 victory over Arsenal, after beating Wycombe Wanderers at Villa Park in the previous round. Liverpool also won the League Cup and the UEFA Cup that season.
In 2002, Arsenal matched Manchester United's record of three doubles as they defeated Chelsea 2-0 at the Millennium Stadium and clinched the league title four days later.
For the first time, the FA Cup was played under a roof in the final of the 2002-03 season, held on May 17, 2003 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with Arsenal and Southampton benefiting from cover from the rain. Arsenal were 1-0 winners. This Final was also the first in which a goalkeeper was substituted. Paul Jones replaced the injured Southampton goalkeeper Antti Niemi.
That same year, Team Bath (from the University of Bath) became the first university team to enter the competition since Gonville & Caius in 1881, and progressed through the qualifying rounds before being knocked out in the first round proper by Mansfield Town.
In 2004 661 teams were accepted into the FA Cup competition, a new record.
In 2004 Roy Keane of Manchester United became the first player to play in six finals since the 19th century, and Curtis Weston of Millwall F.C. became the youngest ever player to play in the final at the age of 17 years and 119 days, beating the record of James Prinsep of Clapham Rovers set as long back as the 1879 final.
The 2005 FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Manchester United was the first final ever to have to go to penalties as the score was still 0-0 after extra time. Arsenal won the shootout – and thus the Cup – 5-4. It was the first 0-0 draw in an FA Cup final since 1912. Roy Keane extended his own record by appearing in his seventh final.
The 2006 FA Cup Final was the last to be played at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, Liverpool were victorious on penalties against West Ham Utd, The game finished 3-3 fter extra time, and was one of the best finals since the Coventry vs Spurs final of 1987, The game is remembered for Steven Gerrard's 35 yard (32 m) last minute equaliser.
The 2007 FA Cup Final saw a return to England with the first final ever to be played in the new Wembley Stadium. This final was won by Chelsea FC 1-0 against Manchester United following a goal in extra time by Didier Drogba. Manchester United's Ryan Giggs equalled Roy Keane's post-war record of appearances in an FA Cup Final, having previously played in the 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2005 Finals. 2000s
For the full results of all FA Cup finals, see FA Cup Final
The top 10 clubs by number of wins (and when they last won and lost a final). Teams in italics no longer exist.
Clubs with up to 4 wins:
Three clubs have won consecutive FA Cups on more than one occasion: Wanderers (1872, 1873) and (1876, 1877, 1878), Blackburn Rovers (1884, 1885, 1886) and (1890, 1891), and Tottenham Hotspur (1961, 1962) and (1981, 1982).
Six clubs have won the FA Cup as part of a League and Cup double, these are Preston North End (1889), Aston Villa (1897), Tottenham Hotspur F.C. (1961), Arsenal (1971, 1998, 2002), Liverpool (1986) and Manchester United (1994, 1996, 1999). Arsenal and Manchester United share the record of three doubles. Arsenal has won a double in three separate decades. Manchester United's three doubles in the 1990s highlights their dominance of English football at the time.
West Bromwich Albion are the only team to date to win the FA Cup & promotion in the same season (1930-31)
In 1993, Arsenal became the first side to win both the FA Cup and League Cup in the same season, beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1, in both finals.
In 1999, Manchester United added the Champions League crown to their double in memorable fashion, an accomplishment known as The Treble.
In 2001, Liverpool won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup to complete a cup treble.

4 wins: Chelsea, Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City, Sheffield United, Wolverhampton Wanderers
3 wins: Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United
2 wins: Bury, Nottingham Forest, Old Etonians, Preston North End, Sunderland
1 win: Barnsley, Blackburn Olympic, Blackpool, Bradford City, Burnley, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Clapham Rovers, Coventry City, Derby County, Huddersfield Town, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Notts County, Old Carthusians, Oxford University, Portsmouth, Royal Engineers, Southampton, Wimbledon Past Winners of the FA Cup
Leicester City hold the unfortunate record of having appeared in four FA Cup finals without ever winning the cup.
Kettering Town have scored the most goals in FA Cup history, having scored 817 goals between 1888 and 2006. (up to 12 November 2006) with Ollie Burgess scoring the 800th goal against St Albans City on 11 October 2005 when scoring a hattrick.
The record for most FA Cup wins by a player is 5, jointly held by Charles Wollaston (Wanderers), Arthur Kinnaird (Wanderers & Old Etonians), and Jimmy Forrest (Blackburn Rovers). Forrest was the last player to achieve this feat, in 1891. In the modern era, Mark Hughes (Manchester United & Chelsea), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Roy Keane (Manchester United), David Seaman (Arsenal), Ray Parlour (Arsenal) and Ashley Cole (Arsenal & Chelsea) are all tied on 4 winner's medals.
W. "Doc" Dowden scored 19 FA Cup goals for Wimbledon in the 1929/30 season. Not clear whether this is the record for a single season.

See also
FA Cup matches are currently shown live by both Sky Sports and BBC in every region with BBC also showing highlights of FA Cup matches, both live BBC matches and highlights are shown on their Match of the Day show.

2008-04-17T10:42:00.001-07:00

The flag of Greece (Greek: Σημαία της Ελλάδος, popularly referred to as the Γαλανόλευκη or the Κυανόλευκη, the "blue-white") is based on nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white. There is a blue canton in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white cross; the cross symbolises Christianity, the established religion of the majority of the people. According to popular tradition, the nine stripes represent the nine syllables of the phrase "Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος" ("Freedom or Death", " E-lef-the-ri-a i Tha-na-tos"), the five blue stripes for the syllables "Έλευθερία" and the four white stripes "ή Θάνατος". There is also a different theory, that the nine stripes symbolize the nine Muses, the goddesses of art and civilization (nine has traditionally been one of the numbers of reference for the Greeks).
The blazon of the flag is Azure, four bars Argent; the canton Azure with a Greek cross throughout Argent. The shade of blue used in the flag has varied throughout its history, from light blue to dark blue, the latter being increasingly used since the late 1960s.
The above patterns were officially adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus in January 1822. Blue and white have many interpretations, symbolizing the colors of the famed Greek sky and sea (combined with the white clouds and waves), traditional colors of Greek clothes in the islands and the mainland, etc.

History of the Greek flag
White and blue have been symbolic Greek colors since antiquity with historic significance; their adoption for the new Greek state was a natural continuation from previous uses. In ancient Greece they were connected with goddess Athena and were used in Alexander the Great's army banners, while Greeks abroad were often recognized by their white clothes with blue details. They were even referred as colors connected with Greeks by Herodotus. During Byzantine times white and blue were the colors of navy and other flags, coats of arms of imperial dynasties, uniforms, Emperors' clothes, Patriarchs' thrones etc. The cross was a symbol of the empire, and was a common pattern in Byzantine flags since the 4th century.
The blue cross on a white field seems to have been the most "consistent" pattern. This design, including the four (blue) B's on the flag quarters has been a very important Byzantine symbol (the four B's represent the standard Byzantine motto, standing for Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων, meaning "King of Kings Reigning over those who Rule", at times also interpreted as standing for Βασιλεύ Βασιλέων Βασιλέα Βοήθει, meaning "King of Kings, Save the King" - the B's often shaped in ways simultaneously representing other images). It appeared as early as (according to some sources) the 4th century, mainly as the Byzantine navy flag, apparently in "forked" shape, influencing other Byzantine emblems. It also appeared as one of the imperial flags during the last dynasty of the Empire, the Palaeologi (13th-15th centuries), featuring the blue cross and the four blue B's on a white field, as well as four small diagonal golden "beams". In that respect it differed from Palaeologid personal or dynasty flags that featured the traditional "imperial" colors, gold and/or red. Earlier, during the reign of Nicephorus II Phocas (963-969) and his successors, even those "imperial" colors had changed to blue and white. The official Army flag had become a white eagle on a blue field, while the imperial standard used the same colors, including the cross and/or blue and white stripes.

Greek flags during Antiquity and the Byzantine Empire
During the Ottoman rule several unofficial flags were used by Greeks, usually employing the double-headed eagle (see below), the cross, depictions of saints and various mottoes. The Greek Spachides cavalry employed by the Ottoman Sultan were allowed to use their own, clearly Christian flag, when within Epirus and the Peloponnese. It featured the classic blue cross on a white field with the picture of St. George slaying the dragon, and was used from 1431 until 1639, when this privilege was greatly limited by the Sultan. Similar flags were used by other local leaders. The closest to a Greek "national" flag during Ottoman rule was the Graikothomaniki pantiera, a flag Greek Orthodox merchants were allowed to fly on their ships, combining stripes with red (for the Ottoman Empire) and blue (for the Greeks) colors. After the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, Greek-owned merchant ships could also fly the Russian flag.
During the uprising of 1769 the historic blue cross on white field was used again by key military leaders who used it all the way to the revolution of 1821. It became the most popular Revolution, and it was argued that it should become the national flag. The "reverse" arrangement, white cross on a blue field, also appeared as Greek flag during the uprisings. This design had been used earlier as well, in Byzantine emblems, as a local symbol (a similar 16th or 17th century flag has been found near Chania), while Greek volunteers in Napoleon's army in Egypt in 1798 used a white cross on blue incorporated in the canton of the French flag.
A military leader, Yiannis Stathas, used a flag with white cross on blue, on his ship since 1800. The first flag featuring the design eventually adopted was created and hoisted in the Evangelistria monastery in Skiathos in 1807. Several prominent military leaders (including Theodoros Kolokotronis and Andreas Miaoulis) had gathered there for consultation concerning an uprising, and they were sworn to this flag by the local bishop.

Ottoman period
In addition to the various cross flags, Greek intellectuals in Europe, as well as local leaders, chieftains and regional councils, designed and used flags with different colors and emblems during the early days of the Greek Revolution. Many of these flags featured saints, the phoenix (symbolizing the rebirth of the Greek nation), mottoes such as "Freedom or Death" (Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος) or the fasces-like emblems of the Philiki Etaireia.
Because the European monarchies, allied in the so-called "Concert of Europe", were suspicious towards national or social revolutionary movements such as the Etaireia, the first Greek National Assembly, convening in January 1822, took steps to portray revolutionary Greece as a "conventional", ordered nation-state. As such not only were the regional councils abolished in favor of a central administration, but it was decided to abolish all revolutionary flags and adopt a national flag. Why the particular arrangement (white cross on blue) was selected instead of the more popular blue cross on a white field, remains unknown.
On March 15, 1822, the Provisional Government, by Decree Nr. 540, laid down the exact pattern: white cross on blue (plain) for the land flag; nine alternate-coloured stripes with the white cross on a blue field in the canton for the naval flag; and blue cross on white in the canton of an otherwise blue flag, for the merchant navy. In 1828 the latter was discontinued, and the cross-and-stripes became the sole sea flag. This design became immediately very popular with Greeks and in practice was often used simultaneously with the national (plain cross) flag.
King Otto added the royal Coat of Arms (a shield in the Bavarian colors topped by a crown) to the center of the cross for military flags (both land and sea versions). After Otto's abdication in 1862, the royal coat of arms was removed, only to be replaced by a simple royal crown in 1863. A square version of the land flag with St. George in the center was adopted in April 9, 1864 as the Army's colours. Similar arrangements were made for the royal flags, which featured the coat of arms of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg on a square version of the national flag. The exact shape and usage of the flags was determined by Royal Decree on September 27, 1867. By a new Royal Decree, on 31 May 1914, the flag with the crown was adopted for use as a state flag by ministries, embassies and civil services, while the merchant naval flag was allowed for use by private citizens.
On March 25, 1924, with the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic, the crowns were removed from all flags. On February 20, 1930, the national flag's proportions were established at a 2:3 ratio, with the arms of the cross being "one fifth of the flag's width". The national ("land") flag was to be used by ministries, embassies, and in general by all civil and military services, while the naval flag was to be used by naval and merchant vessels, consulates and private citizens. With the restoration of the monarchy, on October 10, 1935, the crown was restored on the flags. The crown was again removed by the military dictatorship in 1967, and the naval flag was established as the sole national flag in 1969, using a dark shade of blue. On August 18, 1970, the flag ratio was changed to 7:12.
After the metapolitefsi, the land flag was restored for a while (Law 48/1975 and Presidential Decree 515/1975) until 1978, when the sea flag was re-adopted as the sole national flag, with the 2:3 ratio (Law 851/21-12-1978 "On the national Flag, War Flags and the Distinguishing Flag of the President of the Republic"). The land flag survives now mostly in military flags, as laid down by the Presidential Decree 348/17-4-1980. The Army's flag, as mentioned, features St. George, and the Air Force, similarly of square shape, the archangel Michael. The simple cross pattern is still used in the National Emblem of Greece, as the Navy's jack and in rank flags. School flags also follow the military pattern. The land flag continues to be flown in the Old Parliament in Athens, and can still be seen displayed by private citizens. In official use, the flagpole is topped by a white cross. The Greek Flag Day is on October 27.

Adoption of the flag and historical evolution
It may look surprising that one of the most recognizable (other than the cross) and beloved Greek symbols, the double-headed eagle, is not a part of the modern Greek flag or coat of arms (although it is officially used by the Greek Army, by the Church of Greece, and was incorporated in the Greek coat of arms between 1925 and 1926). One suggested explanation is that, upon independence, an effort was made for political - and international relations - reasons to limit expressions implying efforts to recreate the Byzantine empire. Yet another theory is that this symbol was only connected with a particular period of Greek history (Byzantine) and a particular form of rule (imperial). More recent research has justified this view, connecting this symbol only to personal and dynastic emblems of Byzantine Emperors.
Greek scholars have tried to make links with ancient symbols: the eagle was a common design representing power in ancient city-states, while there was an implication of a "dual-eagle" concept in the tale that Zeus left two eagles fly east and west from the ends of the world, eventually meeting in Delphi, thus proving it to be the center of the earth. However, there is virtually no doubt that its origin is a blend of Roman and Eastern influences. Indeed, the early Byzantine Empire inherited the Roman eagle (extended wings, head facing right) as an imperial symbol. During his reign, Emperor Isaac I Comnenus (1057–1059) modified it as double-headed, influenced by traditions about such a beast in his native Paphlagonia in Asia Minor (in turn reflecting possibly much older local myths). Many modifications followed in flag details, often combined with the cross. After the recapture of Constantinople by the Byzantine Greeks in 1261, two crowns were added (over each head) representing - according to the most prevalent theory - the newly recaptured capital and the intermediate "capital" of the empire of Nicaea. There has been some confusion about the exact use of this symbol by the Byzantines; it is quite certain that it was a "dynastic" and not a "state" symbol (a term not fully applicable at the time, anyway), and for this reason, the colors connected with it were clearly the colors of "imperial power", i.e., imperial purple and gold.
After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople nonetheless, the double-headed eagle became a strong "national" symbol of reference for the Greeks (much less, though, than the cross), featured in several flag designs, especially during uprisings and revolts. Most characteristically, the Orthodox Church kept, and is to this date still using Byzantine flags with the eagle, usually black on yellow/gold background. But after the Ottoman conquest this symbol also found its way to a "new Constantinople" (or Third Rome), i.e. Moscow. Russia, deeply influenced by the Byzantine Empire, saw herself as its heir and adopted the double-headed eagle as its imperial symbol. It was also adopted by the Serbs, the Montenegrins, the Albanians and a number of Western rulers, most notably in Germany and Austria.

2008-04-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

John Crocket Bowis (born August 2, 1945 in Brighton, East Sussex) is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament for London. He was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999.
Educated at Tonbridge School and Brasenose College, Oxford, he was returned at the 1987 general election as Member of Parliament for Battersea. From 1993 to 1996 he was a health minister and from 1996 to 1997 he was a transport minister, before losing his parliamentary seat at the 1997 general election.
He has been National Secretary of the Federation of Conservative Students and worked at the Institute of Psychiatry.
He is an active member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

2008-04-15T09:44:00.001-07:00

Fidelity Investments is a group of privately held companies in the financial services industry. It is made up by two independent but closely cooperating companies, Fidelity Management and Research LLC (FMR LLC), founded in 1946 and serving the North American market, and Fidelity International Limited (FIL), spun off in 1969 to provide investment products and services to clients outside the Americas.
Fidelity Investments includes a large family of mutual funds, their distributors and investment advisors, as well as providing discount brokerage services, retirement services, estate planning, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, life insurance and a number of other services.

Benefits outsourcing
Fidelity Investments also owns many unrelated businesses, including a charter motor coach service, a luxury hotel, and a temporary employment agency. It formerly owned Community Newspaper Company, the largest chain of newspapers in suburban Boston, sold to the Boston Herald and now owned by GateHouse Media. Fidelity has also strategically invested in the telecom/managed services/data center industries, having incubated COLT Telecom in Europe, MetroRED in South America, and KVH in Japan.
One sector in which the company has heavily invested is in commercial lumber and building materials. This new business has been developed under the Pro-Build Holdings company brand, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fidelity Capital.
Pro-Build Holdings currently operates more than 500 lumber and building product distribution, manufacturing and assembly centers throughout the U.S., operating under several regional brands, including Hope Lumber, United Building Centers, Spenard Builders Supply, Lumbermens, Home Lumber Company, Dixieline Lumber Company, Parker Lumber Company, F. E. Wheaton & Company, Strober Building Supply, U.S. Components, Lanoga Corporation and the Contractor Yard. Pro-Build has more than 16,000 employees with 2006 revenues in excess of $6 billion.
In 2007, Fidelity Investments moved to rebrand many of these private equity investments and portfolio holdings under the "Devonshire Investments" entity/brand to avoid potential confusion with its more consumer-oriented financial services and mutual funds business.

Other businesses
US brokerages regulator NASD fined four FMR-affiliated broker-dealers $3.75 million for alleged registration, supervision and e-mail retention violations in February 2007. The broker-dealers settled without admitting or denying the charges.
Fidelity Brokerage was ordered to pay $2 million to settle charges that employees altered and destroyed documents in 21 of its 88 branch offices from January 2001 to July 2002. Fidelity has internal inspections every year to make sure it is complying with federal regulations. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused that Fidelity management pressured branch employees to have perfect inspections and gave advance notice of the inspections and that at least 62 employees destroyed or altered potentially improper documents maintained at branch offices including new account applications, letters of authorization and variable annuity forms.
In May 2007, NASD fined two Fidelity broker-dealers $400,000 for preparing and distributing misleading sales literature promoting Fidelity's Destiny I and II Systematic Investment Plans, which were sold primarily to U.S. military personnel. As part of the settlement, for the next five years, the two broker-dealers - Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc. of Smithfield, RI and Fidelity Distributors Corporation of Boston - are required to notify Destiny Plan holders who want to increase their investments in existing Destiny Plans that additional shares of the underlying fund can be purchased outside the Destiny Plans without paying the additional creation and sales charges of up to 50 percent on the first year's payments.

NASD troubles
The founding Johnson family controls most of Fidelity. Edward "Ned" C. Johnson 3rd is chairman of the group. His daughter, Abigail Johnson, was once the largest single shareholder with about 25%, but in October 2005, it was reported that she had sold a "significant" portion of her shares to family trusts, and that there are doubts as to whether she is still in line to succeed her father. [2]
The FMR mutual funds are organized as Massachusetts business trusts tied to the lifetime of the Johnsons. Some of Fidelity's best known fund managers also own a share in the company, most notably Peter Lynch.
Revenue in 2003 were US$9.2 billion, followed by US$10.5 billion in 2004. As of 2007, Fidelity had 47,000 employees.
FMR's corporate headquarters are located in Boston, Massachusetts, with the largest U.S. operations located in Marlborough, Massachusetts; Merrimack, New Hampshire; Smithfield, Rhode Island; Westlake, Texas; Covington, Kentucky; Durham, North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Salt Lake City, Utah. It also has offices in Canada in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. (In 2007, Fidelity Canada was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, the only mutual fund management company to receive this honour.) As of 2006 Fidelity is in the process of opening a large site in Jacksonville, Florida, to serve as a customer service center similar in size to its New Hampshire site.
FIL's offices include asset management companies in 10 locations: London, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bombay, Seoul, Singapore and Sydney, and an extensive network of offices in 23 countries, employing more than 4,000 people.

Innovative marketing

List of mutual-fund families

2008-04-14T08:02:00.001-07:00

Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar, or simply Ibn Ishaq (Arabic: ابن إسحاق, meaning "the son of Isaac") (died 767, or 761 (Robinson 2003, p. xv)) was an Arab Muslim historian. He collected oral traditions that formed the basis of first biography of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. This biography usually called Sirat Rasul Allah (Life of Allah's Messenger).

Life
According to Guillaume (pp. xiii-xiv), Ibn Ishaq was born circa AH 85, or roughly 704 AD, in Medina. He was the grandson of a man, Yasar, who had been captured in one of Khalid ibn al-Walid's campaigns and taken to Medina as a slave. Yasar converted to Islam and was freed. Yasar's son Ishaq was a traditionist, who collected and recounted tales of the past. Muhammad ibn Ishaq was thus carrying on the work of his father.
At the age of thirty, he traveled to the Islamic province of Egypt to attend lectures given by the traditionist Yazid ibn Abu Habib. He later traveled eastwards, towards what is now Iraq. There, the new Abbasid dynasty, having overthrown the Umayyad caliphs, was establishing a new capital at Baghdad. Ibn Ishaq moved to the capital and likely found patrons in the new regime. (Robinson 2003, p. 27) He died in Baghdad in 767CE. After a tragic loss on the frontier Ibn Ishaq continued to molest little children until his untimely run in with gargamesh. Now Gargamesh was no ordinary fellow he and his minions named molly and tolly went to the far far lands of nigeria where they had sex and loved many forest children.

2008-04-13T08:44:00.001-07:00

The History of the Jews in Lithuania spans the period from the eighth century to the present day. There is still a small community in that country, as well as an extensive Lithuanian Jewish diaspora in Israel, the United States and other countries. For more detail, see Lithuanian Jews.

Increasing prosperity and the great charter (1320-1432)
On this account it seems more than likely that influential Polish Jews cooperated with the leading Lithuanian communities in securing a special charter from Vytautas (Witold). The preamble of the charter reads as follows:
In the name of God, Amen. All deeds of men, when they are not made known by the testimony of witnesses or in writing, pass away and vanish and are forgotten. Therefore, we, Alexander, also called Vytautas , by the grace of God Grand Duke of Lithuania and ruler of Brest, Dorogicz, Lutsk, Vladimir, and other places, make known by this charter to the present and future generations, or to whomever it may concern to know or hear of it, that, after due deliberation with our nobles we have decided to grant to all the Jews living in our domains the rights and liberties mentioned in the following charter.
The charter itself was modeled upon similar documents granted by Casimir the Great, and earlier by Boleslaw of Kalisz, to the Jews in Poland in 1084. Under the charter, the Lithuanian Jews formed a class of freemen subject in all criminal cases directly to the jurisdiction of the grand duke and his official representatives, and in petty suits to the jurisdiction of local officials on an equal footing with the lesser nobles (szlachta), boyars, and other free citizens. The official representatives of the grand duke were the elder (starosta), known as the "Jewish judge" (judex Judæorum), and his deputy. The Jewish judge decided all cases between Christians and Jews and all criminal suits in which Jews were concerned; in civil suits, however, he acted only on the application of the interested parties. Either party who failed to obey the judge's summons had to pay him a fine. To him also belonged all fines collected from Jews for minor offenses. His duties included the guardianship of the persons, property, and freedom of worship of the Jews. He had no right to summon any one to his court except upon the complaint of an interested party. In matters of religion the Jews were given extensive autonomy.
Under these equitable laws the Jews of Lithuania reached a degree of prosperity unknown to their Polish and German co-religionists at that time. The communities of Brest, Grodno, Trakai, Lutsk, and Minsk rapidly grew in wealth and influence. Every community had at its head a Jewish elder. These elders represented the communities in all external relations, in securing new privileges, and in the regulation of taxes. Such officials are not, however, referred to by the title "elder" before the end of the sixteenth century. Up to that time the documents merely state, for instance, that the "Jews of Brest humbly apply," etc. On assuming office the elders declared under oath that they would discharge the duties of the position faithfully, and would relinquish the office at the expiration of the appointed term. The elder acted in conjunction with the rabbi, whose jurisdiction included all Jewish affairs with the exception of judicial cases assigned to the court of the deputy, and by the latter to the king. In religious affairs, however, an appeal from the decision of the rabbi and the elder was permitted only to a council consisting of the chief rabbis of the king's cities. The cantor, sexton, and shochet were subject to the orders of the rabbi and elder.
The goodwill and tolerance of Vytautas endeared him to his Jewish subjects, and for a long time traditions concerning his generosity and nobility of character were current among them. His cousin, the king of Poland Jogaila, did not interfere with his administration during Vytautas's lifetime.

The Charter of 1388

Main article: History of the Jews in Poland The union with Poland
Casimir was succeeded as king of Poland by his son John Albert, and on the Lithuanian throne by his younger son, Alexander Jagellon. The latter confirmed the charter of privileges granted to the Jews by his predecessors, and even gave them additional rights. His father's Jewish creditors received part of the sums due to them, the rest being withheld under various pretexts. The favorable attitude toward the Jews which had characterized the Lithuanian rulers for generations was unexpectedly and radically changed by a decree promulgated by Alexander in April, 1495. By this decree all Jews living in Lithuania proper and the adjacent territories were summarily ordered to leave the country.
The expulsion was evidently not accompanied by the usual cruelties; for there was no popular animosity toward the Lithuanian Jews, and the decree was regarded as an act of mere willfulness on the part of an absolute ruler. Some of the nobility, however, approved Alexander's decree, expecting to profit by the departure of their Jewish creditors, as is indicated by numerous lawsuits on the return of the exiles to Lithuania in 1503. It is known from the Hebrew sources that some of the exiles migrated to the Crimea, and that by far the greater number settled in Poland, where, by permission of King John Albert, they established themselves in the towns situated near the Lithuanian boundary. This permission, given at first for a period of two years, was extended "because of the extreme poverty of the Jews on account of the great losses sustained by them." The extension, which applied to all the towns of the kingdom, accorded the enjoyment of all the liberties that had been granted to their Polish brethren (Cracow, June 29, 1498). The expelled Karaites settled in the Polish town of Ratno.
The causes of the unexpected expulsion were probably many, including religious reasons, the need to fill a depleted treasury by confiscating the Jews' money, personal animosity, and other causes.
Soon after Alexander's accession to the throne of Poland he permitted the Jewish exiles to return to Lithuania. Beginning in March, 1503, as is shown by documents still extant, their houses, lands, synagogues, and cemeteries were returned to them, and permission was granted them to collect their old debts. The new charter of privileges permitted them to live throughout Lithuania as before. The return of the Jews and their attempt to regain their old possessions led to many difficulties and lawsuits. Alexander found it necessary to issue an additional decree (April, 1503), directing his vice-regent to enforce the law. In spite of this some of the property was not recovered by the Jews for years.

Expulsion of the Jews in 1495 and return in 1503
At the same time, the middle of the sixteenth century witnessed a growing antagonism between the lesser nobility and the Jews. Their relations became strained, and the enmity of the Christians began to disturb the life of the Lithuanian Jews. The anti-Jewish feeling, due at first to economic causes engendered by competition, was fostered by the clergy, who were then engaged in a crusade against heretics, notably the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Jews. The Reformation, which had spread from Germany, tended to weaken the allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. Frequent instances occurred of the marriage of Catholic women to Jews, Turks, or Tatars. The Bishop of Vilna (Vilnius) complained to Sigismund August (Dec., 1548) of the frequency of such mixed marriages and of the education of the offspring in their fathers' faiths. The shlyakhta also saw in the Jews dangerous competitors in commercial and financial undertakings. In their dealings with the agricultural classes the lords preferred the Jews as middlemen, thus creating a feeling of injury on the part of the shlyakhta. The exemption of the Jews from military service and the power and wealth of the Jewish tax-farmers intensified the resentment of the shlyakhta. Members of the nobility, like Borzobogaty, Zagorovski, and others, attempted to compete with the Jews as leaseholders of customs revenues, but were never successful. Since the Jews lived in the towns and on the lands of the king, the nobility could not wield any authority over them nor derive profit from them. They had not even the right to settle Jews on their estates without the permission of the king; but, on the other hand, they were often annoyed by the erection on their estates of the tollhouses of the Jewish tax-collectors.
Hence when the favorable moment arrived, the Lithuanian nobility endeavored to secure greater power over the Jews. At the Diet of Vilna in 1551 the nobility urged the imposition of a special polltax of one ducat per head, and the Volhynian nobles demanded that the Jewish tax-collectors be forbidden to erect tollhouses or place guards at the taverns on their estates.
The opposition to the Jews was finally crystallized and found definite expression in the repressive Lithuanian statute of 1566, when the Lithuanian nobles were first allowed to take part in the national legislation. Paragraph Twelve of this statute contains the following articles:
"The Jews shall not wear costly clothing, nor gold chains, nor shall their wives wear gold or silver ornaments. The Jews shall not have silver mountings on their sabers and daggers; they shall be distinguished by characteristic clothes; they shall wear yellow caps, and their wives kerchiefs of yellow linen, in order that all may be enabled to distinguish Jews from Christians."
Other restrictions of a similar nature are contained in the same paragraph. However, the king checked the desire of the nobility to modify essentially the old charters of the Jews.

The Act of 1566
The fury of this uprising destroyed the organization of the Lithuanian Jewish communities. The survivors who returned to their old homes in the latter half of the seventeenth century were practically destitute. The wars which raged constantly in the Lithuanian territory brought ruin to the entire country and deprived the Jews of the opportunity to earn more than a bare livelihood. The intensity of their struggle for existence left them no time to reestablish the conditions which had existed up to 1648. John Casimir (1648-1668) sought to ameliorate their condition by granting various concessions to the Jewish communities of Lithuania. Attempts to return to the old order in the communal organization were not wanting, as is evident from contemporary documents. Thus in 1672, Jewish elders from various towns and villages in the grand duchy of Lithuania secured a charter from King Michael Wishnevetzki (1669-1673), decreeing "that on account of the increasing number of Jews guilty of offenses against the Shlyakhta and other Christians, which result in the enmity of the Christians toward the Jews, and because of the inability of the Jewish elders to punish such offenders, who are protected by the lords, the king permits the kahals to summon the criminals before the Jewish courts for punishment and exclusion from the community when necessary." The efforts to resurrect the old power of the kahals were not successful. The impoverished Jewish merchants, having no capital of their own, were compelled to borrow money from the nobility, from churches, congregations, monasteries, and various religious orders. Loans from the latter were usually for an unlimited period and were secured by mortgages on the real estate of the kahal. The kahals thus became hopelessly indebted to the clergy and the nobility.
In 1792 the Jewish population of Lithuania was estimated at 250,000 (as compared with 120,000 in 1569). The whole of the commerce and industries of Lithuania, now rapidly declining, was in the hands of the Jews. The nobility lived for the most part on their estates and farms, some of which were managed by Jewish leaseholders. The city properties were concentrated in the possession of monasteries, churches, and the lesser nobility. The Christian merchants were poor. Such was the condition of affairs in Lithuania at the time of the second partition of Poland (1793), when the Jews became subjects of Russia.

Effect of the Cossacks' Uprising in Lithuania
The founding of the yeshivot in Lithuania was due to the Lithuanian-Polish Jews who studied in the west, and to the German Jews who migrated about that time to Lithuania and Poland. Very little is known of these early yeshivot. No mention is made of them or of prominent Lithuanian rabbis in Jewish writings until the sixteenth century. The first known rabbinical authority and head of a yeshivah was Isaac Bezaleel of Vladimir, Volhynia, who was already an old man when Solomon Luria went to Ostrog in the fourth decade of the sixteenth century. Another rabbinical authority, Kalman Haberkaster, rabbi of Ostrog and predecessor of Luria, died in 1559. Occasional references to the yeshivah of Brest are found in the writings of the contemporary rabbis Solomon Luria (d. 1585), Moses Isserles (d. 1572), and David Gans (d. 1589), who speak of its activity. Of the yeshivot of Ostrog and Vladimir in Volhynia it is known that they were in a flourishing condition at the middle of the sixteenth century, and that their heads vied with one another in Talmudic scholarship. Mention is also made by Gans of the head of the Kremenetz yeshivah, Isaac Cohen (d. 1573), of whom but little is known otherwise.
At the time of the Lublin Union, Solomon Luria was rabbi of Ostrog, and was regarded as one of the greatest Talmudic authorities in Poland and Lithuania. In 1568 King Sigismund ordered that the suits between Isaac Borodavka and Mendel Isakovich, who were partners in the farming of certain customs taxes in Lithuania, be carried for decision to Rabbi Solomon Luria and two auxiliary rabbis from Pinsk and Tiktin.
The far-reaching authority of the leading rabbis of Poland and Lithuania, and their wide knowledge of practical life, are apparent from numerous decisions cited in the responsa. They were always the champions of justice and morality. In the Eitan ha-Ezrachi (Ostrog, 1796) of Abraham Rapoport (known also as Abraham Schrenzel; d. 1650), Rabbi Meïr Sack is cited as follows: "I emphatically protest against the custom of our communal leaders of purchasing the freedom of Jewish criminals. Such a policy encourages crime among our people. I am especially troubled by the fact that, thanks to the clergy, such criminals may escape punishment by adopting Christianity. Mistaken piety impels our leaders to bribe the officials, in order to prevent such conversions. We should endeavor to deprive criminals of opportunities to escape justice." The same sentiment was expressed in the sixteenth century by Maharam Lublin (Responsa, § 138). Another instance, cited by Katz from the same responsa, likewise shows that Jewish criminals invoked the aid of priests against the authority of Jewish courts by promising to become converts to Christianity.
The decisions of the Polish-Lithuanian rabbis are frequently marked by breadth of view also, as is instanced by a decision of Joel Sirkes (Bayis Hadash, § 127) to the effect that Jews may employ in their religious services the melodies used in Christian churches, "since music is neither Jewish nor Christian, and is governed by universal laws."
Decisions by Luria, Meïr Katz, and Mordecai Jaffe show that the rabbis were acquainted with the Russian language and its philology. Jaffe, for instance, in a divorce case where the spelling of the woman's name as Lupka or Lubka was in question, decided that the word is correctly spelled with a "b," and not with a "p," since the origin of the name was the Russian verb lubit = "to love," and not lupit = "to beat" (Levush ha-Butz we-Argaman, § 129). Meïr Katz (Geburat Anashim, § 1) explains that the name of Brest-Litovsk is written in divorce cases "Brest" and not "Brisk," "because the majority of the Lithuanian Jews use the Russian language." It is not so with Brisk, in the district of Kujawa, the name of that town being always spelled "Brisk." Katz (a German) at the conclusion of his responsum expresses the hope that when Lithuania shall have become more enlightened, the people will speak one language only—German—and that also Brest-Litovsk will be written "Brisk."

Jewish culture in Lithuania
The responsa shed an interesting light also on the life of the Lithuanian Jews and on their relations to their Christian neighbors. Benjamin Aaron Solnik states in his Mas'at Binyamin (end of sixteenth and beginning of seventeenth century) that "the Christians borrow clothes and jewelry from the Jews when they go to church." Sirkes (l.c. § 79) relates that a Christian woman came to the rabbi and expressed her regret at having been unable to save the Jew Shlioma from drowning. A number of Christians had looked on indifferently while the drowning Jew was struggling in the water. They were upbraided and beaten severely by the priest, who appeared a few minutes later, for having failed to rescue the Jew.
Luria gives an account (Responsa, § 20) of a quarrel that occurred in a Lithuanian community concerning a cantor whom some of the members wished to dismiss. The synagogue was closed in order to prevent him from exercising his functions, and religious services were thus discontinued for several days. The matter was thereupon carried to the local lord, who ordered the reopening of the building, saying that the house of God might not be closed, and that the cantor's claims should be decided by the learned rabbis of Lithuania. Joseph Katz mentions (She'erit Yosef, § 70) a Jewish community which was forbidden by the local authorities to kill cattle and to sell meat—an occupation which provided a livelihood for a large portion of the Lithuanian Jews. For the period of a year following this prohibition the Jewish community was on several occasions assessed at the rate of three gulden per head of cattle in order to furnish funds with which to induce the officials to grant a hearing of the case. The Jews finally reached an agreement with the town magistrates under which they were to pay forty gulden annually for the right to slaughter cattle. According to Hillel ben Herz (Bet Hillel, Yoreh De'ah, § 157), Naphtali says the Jews of Vilna had been compelled to uncover when taking an oath in court, but later purchased from the tribunal the privilege to swear with covered head, a practise subsequently made unnecessary by a decision of one of their rabbis to the effect that an oath might be taken with uncovered head.
The responsa of Meïr Lublin show (§ 40) that the Lithuanian communities frequently aided the German and the Austrian Jews. On the expulsion of the Jews from Silesia, when the Jewish inhabitants of Silz had the privilege of remaining on condition that they would pay the sum of 2,000 gulden, the Lithuanian communities contributed one-fifth of the amount.
The influence in communal life of prominent rabbinical scholars, such as Jaffe, Isserles, Luria, and Lublin, proved but a slight check to the growing misrule of the kahals. The individuality of the Lithuanian Jew was lost in the kahal, whose advantages were thus largely counterbalanced by the suppression of personal liberty. The tyranny of the kahal administration and the external oppression drove the great mass of the Lithuanian Jewry to seek consolation in the dry formalism of Talmudic precepts. The Talmud and its endless commentaries became the sole source of information and instruction. Every Jew was compelled by the communal elders to train his children in Talmudic lore. The Halakha offered a solution for every question in Jewish life, while the poetry of the Haggadah supplied alleviation for sorrow and hope for the future. Reformers arising among the Lithuanian Jews were forced by the kahal elders either to leave the community or to bend to the will of the administration. All was sacrificed to the inviolability of customs sanctioned by tradition or by the letter of the Law. The ties of friendship and family relationship were subordinated to the interests of the community. Hence it is little to be wondered at that the Kabbalah found fertile soil in Lithuania. The marked indications of approaching political anarchy were the chief causes of the organization of the Lithuanian Council.

Items from the Responsa

Main article: Vilna Gaon Vilna Gaon
By the end of the nineteenth century, many of Lithuania's Jews were part of the general flight of Jews from Eastern Europe to the New World due to conflicts and pogroms engulfing the Russian Empire and the anti-Semitism of the Russian czars.
Millions of Jews, including tens of thousands of Lithuanian Jews, emigrated to the United States of America. Many Lithuanian Jews emigrated to South Africa, which became famous as a haven for its 120,000 Jews who were spared the Holocaust. A small number also emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine.

Lithuanian Jews under the Russian Empire
Lithuanian Jews took active part in Freedom wars of Lithuania. Then on December 29, 1918 Lithuania's government called for volunteers to defend Lithuanian state, from 10.000 volunteers there were more than 500 Jews. Altogether more than 3000 Jews served in Lithuanian army between 1918 and 1923. Initially, the Jewish community was given a wide amount of autonomy in education and taxation through community councils, or kehillot. By 1934, in a nationalist trend that reflected throughout Europe, the government scaled back much of this autonomy, and cases of antisemitism increased. During the Soviet annexation and occupation, cadres of communist Jews assumed significant roles int he NKVD and local communist nomenklatura. This was a common trend throughout the Soviet Union. Secular Jews, because of their literacy and prewar attachment to Communist ideals, became the visible image of the communist regime and were considered disloyal fifth columnists. Other Jews, particularly religious Jews and Zionists, were treated harshly by the Soviet-imposed communist government in Lithuania prior to the German invasion. Because of the depradations of the communist regime, some Lithuanians blamed Jews, took spontaneous actions against them, and otherwise participated in German-led campaigns of harassment and mass murder. It is impossible to disaggregate the identity of the victims and the motives of the perpetrators as originating in anti-Semitism, anti-Bolshevism, or some combination of both.

Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940)
The Lithuanian Republic was occupied by Soviet Union in 1940, and soon afterwards captured by the Nazis. The murder of Jews in the Baltic states started even before the Germans arrived. During World War II, 91% of Lithuanian Jews were killed by Germans and by the locals, almost all the Jews who had not managed to leave Lithuania and its environs. This was one of the highest casualty rates in the Holocaust.
The only European yeshiva to survive the Holocaust was the Mir yeshiva. With help of the Japanese consul in Kaunas Chiune Sugihara, its leaders and students managed to escape to the Shanghai ghetto.
See also: Vilna Ghetto, Kaunas Ghetto, Paneriai, Rumbula, and Jewish partisans

The Soviet era (1944-1990)

History of Lithuania
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
Vilna Ghetto

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

The Dartmouth College Big Green are the varsity and club athletic teams of Dartmouth College, an American university located in in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth's teams compete in the Ivy League conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, as well as in the ECAC Hockey conference. The College offers 34 varsity teams, 17 club sports, and 24 intramural teams.

Varsity teams
Dartmouth College competed in two NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games but came up short both times. In 1942, Dartmouth was runner-up to Stanford University and lost to the University of Utah in 1944.

Basketball
In 1925, Dartmouth was recognized as a national champion by completing an 8-0 undefeated season.

Football
In 2006, Dartmouth lost to Northwestern University, which was defending national champion, at the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship.
In 2003, Dartmouth's Men's Lacrosse team posted one of the most famous upsets in lacrosse history when unranked Dartmouth played #2 Princeton at Princeton's Class of 1952 Field. Dartmouth, having finished last in the Ivy League in 2002, were ten goal underdogs against Princeton, the defending Ivy League champs going into the game. Nevertheless Dartmouth prevailed and stunned the Tigers 13-6. Dartmouth went on to win the Ivy League title and qualify for the NCAA tournament.

Lacrosse
Dartmouth ice hockey teams have had success over many decades, the men's team being the ECACH regular season champions in 2006 and won the Ivy League title 15 times (1934, 1943, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1957, 1948, 1949, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1979, 1980 & 2007), and the women's team won the ECACH title in 2001, 2003, 2007, and the Ivy title 8 times (1991, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004 & 2007). The Dartmouth men twice competed and lost in the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship game in 1948 and 1949.

Ice hockey
Boat racing since 1932, the Dartmouth College Sailing Team continues to hold its spot as one of the best in the country. They sailing team has won 3 National Championships and has over 52 All-American sailors. They compete in the fall and spring. The sailing team practices on Mascoma Lake in Enfield, NH.

Sailing
At the 2007 NCAA Skiing Championships, the Big Green captured their first NCAA national championship in team sports of any kind since 1976 (The figure skating team has won four consecutive national team championships, the cycling team won national collegiate titles in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and in 1992, the men's heavyweight crew team won the varsity 8 at the IRA national championships). The ski team also also captured NCAA titles in 1975 and 1958.

Skiing
Coached by Wendy Levash and Amelia Siani, the Dartmouth Women's Crew ranks among the most competitive college programs in the country. The team has the Connecticut River as its rowing venue. The stretch of more than 15 miles of rowable river is only used by Dartmouth crews, Hanover High School crews, and local scullers, so water time is not hard to schedule and traffic is minimal. Highlights of rowing on the Connecticut include frequent flat water and gorgeous leaves in the fall. Drawbacks include the late thawing of the ice in the spring and the challenge of avoiding icebergs during the first week back on the water. Women's rowing at Dartmouth was founded as a varsity sport in 1975. Over the past 30 years of rowing the team has graduated three rowers who went on to compete in the Olympics. This reputation has made for a very popular program. Each year the team avidly recruits inexperienced freshmen to walk on, welcoming them to make an impact on the team. These walk-ons make up more than half of the team while the rest are recruited women, totaling nearly 60 at the beginning of the fall. Through cuts and self-selection, the freshmen compete in two or more eights by the time spring season comes around. They are led by a large varsity team, generally made up of around 30 women.
The team puts in about 16 practice hours a week, consisting of long endurance building rows, short piece workouts, and weight training. While the fall and spring are spent on the water, the most important training of the year is done in the winter. Indoor facilities consist of over 30 ergs, an indoor rowing tank and Manley Weight Training Gym in the Dartmouth Athletic Center. The Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse boat bays are converted into winter training facilities. Here the team is able to practice on slide ergs on which trains of four erg together, practicing following as they erg. The Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse serves as the home for Dartmouth's Crew Teams, completed in 1985. As part of one of the most competitive college leagues in the nation, the EAWRC, the women set lofty goals each year in hopes of further program growth and success.

Women's Crew
The men's varsity swim team at Dartmouth College began in 1920, making it one of the oldest continuous collegiate swim programs in the United States. The swim team competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swim League, which includes all eight Ivy League schools and the US Naval Academy. The team's season begins in mid September and continues until late March, during which the EISL Championships take place. During the season the team has weekly competitions, against EISL member teams as well as several other New England college teams. The team practices and hosts meets in the Dartmouth College Aquatic Facilities' Karl Michael Competition Pool & the Spaulding Pool, both located in Alumni Gymnasium.
The team has a long tradition of success within the league as well as nationally. During the 1930s, the team rose to prominence within the league, garnering multiple championship titles and sending several swimmers and relays to the NCAA Championships. More recently, its 200 freestyle relay team was ranked in the top 50 in the nation.
In 2002, Dartmouth College was forced to cut both the men's and women's swim teams as a result of the schools financial troubles and forced budgetary cuts. The cutting of the swim teams received national attention after a member placed the team on EBay in an effort to raise money for the team. After significant lobbying and fundraising by students, alumni, and supporters, both the men's and women's teams were reinstated under the John C. Glover Fund for the Support of Swimming and Diving. The fund was named after John C. Glover, an all America swimmer for Dartmouth in the class of 1955, who died while training for the Olympics at Yale University in 1956.

Men's Varsity Swim Team
The Dartmouth Rugby Football Club (or DRFC) was established in 1951 at Dartmouth College and has seen success ever since. The club has enjoyed success on a national stage. Dartmouth has reached the Final Four of the national collegiate championship three times since 1980 and narrowly lost in two championship games. Dartmouth first won the New England Championship in 1980 and has repeated numerous times. Dartmouth has also won the Ivy League cup 10 times since it was established in 1969.
The club dedicated its Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse in September, 2005 with matches against Army (DRFC) and Radcliffe (DWRC). The Clubhouse was built into the hillside at the halfway line of Battle Field and Brophy Field, which are separated by a twenty-foot bank. Spectators view games from the deck of the Clubhouse and from the hillside that runs the length of the fields.
The team comprises more than 100 students and often fields more than four sides on a given weekend during the fall term. Most of the members of the club have never been in a rugby game prior to going to Dartmouth, and many have never seen a game.
One of the strengths and strongest traditions of the club are the Annual Tours. In 1962 DRFC toured in Ireland. In 1964 the team toured both Germany and Scotland. Recently the team has traveled to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, California, and Spain. See the official site here.

Ultimate Frisbee Team

2008-04-11T08:43:00.001-07:00

Reyna Kola is a Peruvian cola produced by El Grupo Sil.

2008-04-10T09:56:00.001-07:00

Whitley Bay Ice Rink is an ice rink in Whitley Bay and is the home of the Whitley Warriors ice hockey team. It is the only permanent ice rink in the north east of England and has a ten-pin bowling centre in the area upstairs.
It was also the region's premier concert venue until the Newcastle Arena (now MetroRadio Arena) opened in 1995. The venue played host to the top names in the music industry throughout the 1980s and 1990s, such as The Cure in 1985, the Pet Shop Boys in 1991, Oasis in 1996 and the Stone Roses in 1995.
In 2005, the ice rink was used to film BBC sitcom Thin Ice. Even though the series was set in Derby, Whitley Bay Ice Rink was chosen because the production company had used the venue on numerous occasions in the past. Although Whitley Bay Ice Rink is not mentioned in the credits, Whitley Bay is mentioned where the British Championships were to be held there.
In 2006 the ice rink was criticized by local authorities after demonstrating exceedingly poor fire regulations when a blaze was discovered. Skaters continued on the ice whilst the fire escalated.

2008-04-09T10:23:00.001-07:00

The Larsen Ice Shelf (67°30′S, 062°30′W) is a long, fringing ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Longing to the area just southward of Hearst Island. Named for Captain Carl Anton Larsen, who sailed along the ice front in the Jason as far as 68°10'S during December 1893.
In finer detail, the Larsen Ice Shelf is a series of three shelves that occupy (or occupied) distinct embayments along the coast. From north to south, the three segments are called Larsen A (the smallest), Larsen B, and Larsen C (the largest) by researchers who work in the area. The Larsen A ice shelf disintegrated in January of 1995. The Larsen B ice shelf disintegrated in February of 2002. The Larsen C ice shelf appears to be stable.
The Larsen disintegration events were unusual. Typically, ice shelves lose mass by iceberg calving and by melting at their upper and lower surfaces. The disintegration events are linked to the ongoing climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula, about 0.5 °C per decade since the late 1940's as result of global warming. [1]

Popular culture

List of glaciers and ice shelves in Antarctica

2008-04-08T07:58:00.001-07:00

Iwate Prefecture (岩手県 Iwate-ken) is located in the Tohoku region on Honshū island, Japan. The capital is Morioka.

History
Iwate faces the Pacific Ocean to the east, and borders Aomori Prefecture on the north, Akita Prefecture on the west, and Miyagi Prefecture on the south. The prefecture has mountains in the west, north and east, with the valley of the Kitakami River running from north to south through the center of the province and including the capital. The coast is very rugged, with little in between the mountains and the sea.

Geography
Thirteen cities are located in Iwate Prefecture:

Hachimantai
Hanamaki
Ichinoseki
Kamaishi
Kitakami
Kuji
Miyako
Morioka (capital)
Ninohe
Ofunato
Ōshū
Rikuzentakata
Tono Cities
Towns and villages in each district:
Fujisawa
Kanegasaki
Iwate
Kuzumaki
Shizukuishi
Takizawa
Otsuchi
Sumita
Karumai
Kunohe
Noda
Hirono
Ichinohe
Hiraizumi
Fudai
Iwaizumi
Kawai
Tanohata
Yamada
Shiwa
Yahaba
Nishiwaga

Higashiiwai District
Isawa District
Iwate District
Kamihei District
Kesen District
Kunohe District
Ninohe District
Nishiiwai District
Shimohei District
Shiwa District
Waga District Towns and villages
(as of March 6, 2006)

Main article: Merger and dissolution of municipalities of Japan Mergers
Iwate's industry is concentrated around Morioka and specializes in semconductor and communication manufacturing.

Economy

Culture
Bashō visited and wrote about Iwate in the journey described in Oku no Hosomichi. Hiraizumi in particular inspired him.

Tourism

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

The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, also known as BALCO, was an American company led by founder and owner Victor Conte. In 2003, journalists Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada investigated the company's role in a drug sports scandal later referred to as the BALCO Affair. BALCO marketed Tetrahydrogestrinone, or "The Clear", a then-undetectable, performance-enhancing steroid developed by chemist Patrick Arnold. Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, weight trainer Greg Anderson and coach Remi Korchemny had supplied a number of high-profile sports stars from the United States and Europe with The Clear and growth hormones for several years.

The BALCO company
BALCO, a company with its headquarters in Burlingame, California, USA was founded in 1984. Officially, BALCO was a service business for blood and urine analysis and food supplements. In 1988, Victor Conte offered free blood and urine tests to a group of athletes known as the BALCO Olympians. He then was allowed to attend the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. From 1996 Conte worked with well-known American football star Bill Romanowski, who proved to be useful to establish new connections to athletes and coaches such as Korchemny. Conte and Korchemny shortly thereafter founded the ZMA Track Club for marketing purposes, well-known members of it being sprint stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. In 2000, Conte managed to contact American baseball star Barry Bonds via Greg Anderson, a coach working in a nearby fitness studio. Bonds then delivered contacts to other baseball professionals.

2008-04-06T09:41:00.001-07:00

Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (Chinese: 錢德明; February 1718 - October 9, 1793) was a French Jesuit missionary.

Works

Jesuit China missions

2008-04-05T09:23:00.001-07:00

Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)
István Nyers (IPA: ['iʃtva:n ɲerʃ]), also known as Stefano Nyers (25 May 1924 - 9 March 2005) was a Hungarian football (soccer) player. Although he played in only two international matches for Hungary, he is considered one of the greatest football legends of his country, reaching the peak of his career in the 1940s and 1950s.

2008-04-04T10:39:00.001-07:00

UEFA Signal Iduna Park as seen from the view of the Florianturm
Signal Iduna Park is the name the Westfalenstadion carries from December 2005 until June 2011. It is a football stadium in the German city of Dortmund (7th biggest German city). It is the home ground of the BV Borussia Dortmund football team and hosted several matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including a semi-final. It has a league capacity of 81,264 (standing and seated), and an international capacity of 67,000 (seated only). The stadium was named after the former Prussian province of Westphalia, which is now part of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia. It is Germany's biggest stadium and established the European record in fan attendance in 2004/2005 with a total of almost 1.4 million fans. Famous for the intense atmosphere it breeds, the stadium has been nicknamed "The Opera House of German Football." Stadion Rote Erde is adjacent in the shadow of the ernourmous ground, home of Borussia's reserve side.

History
The stadium was one of the venues for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. However, due to sponsorship contracts, the arena was called FIFA World Cup Stadium Dortmund during the World Cup.
The following games were played at the stadium during the World Cup of 2006:

2006 FIFA World Cup
Situated directly opposite the Stadion Rote Erde, the Westfalenstadion is composed of 4 roofed grandstands, each facing the playing field on the East, South, West and North sides. The Eastern and Western stands (Ost- und Westtribüne) run the entire length of the field, while the breadth is covered by the North and South stands (Nord- und Südtribüne).
Originally the corners between the four grandstands remained empty, the spectators appreciated the extensive roof, which covered over 80% of the stands. The Eastern and Western stands housed the stadium's 17,000 seats, while the 37,000 standing places were housed in the Northern and Southern stands.

Layout
The original capacity of 54,000 was reduced in 1992 due to UEFA regulations. As the standing rows on the entire Northern, the lower Eastern and the lower Western grandstands were converted into seats, the capacity shrank to 42,800. With 26,000 seats (of which 23,000 were covered), the seating in the Westfalenstadion now outnumbered the standing rows.
After Borussia Dortmund won the national championship in 1995, the Westfalenstadion was expanded yet again. In the first private venture stadium expansion in German history, the two main grandstands, the Eastern and the Western blocks, received a second tier. Covered by a new roof-construction, each section housed an additional 6,000 seats. Thus, the stadium's capacity was restored to the original 54,000, of which the majority (38,500) were now covered seats. Following Dortmund's 1997 Champions League victory, success and an ever growing number of enthusiastic fans made it necessary to enlarge the Westfalenstadion yet again. The Southern and Northern grandstands were enlarged this time, boosting the total capacity to 68,800 spectators. The Southern standing ranks ("die Südtribüne", where the home team's supporters gather) became the largest free-standing grandstand of its kind in the whole of Europe, with a staggering capacity of 25,000.
When Germany won the World Cup bid in 2000, it became clear that Dortmund's Westfalenstadion, the "Opera House of German Football", would play a leading role in hosting the tournament. However, as the Westfalenstadion failed to fulfill FIFA requirements for hosting semi-finals, it had to be enlarged a third and last time. Four new stands were built to fill the corners between the existing grandstands, raising the seating capacity for international games from 52,000 to 67,000. Additionally, the new corner elements provide seating and catering to VIP guests, increasing the total number of VIP seats to 5,000. In order to provide the new sections with an unblocked view of the field, the existing interior roof supports were removed and replaced by exterior pylons, which were painted yellow to suit the BVB colors. The Stadium now hosts up to 82,932 fans (standing and seated) for league matches, and 67,000 seated spectators for international games. For these, the characteristic Southern grandstand is re-equipped with seats to conform with FIFA regulations.

Transport

Signal Iduna Park is the largest football stadium in Germany.
The unique "Südtribüne" (Southern Stand), with more than 25,000 enthusiastic standing fans, makes this stadium one of the most fascinating football-stadiums in the world. It can be converted from standing places (for league games) and seats (for international matches) within two days.
Borussia Dortmund has the highest average attendance of any football club in Europe with a record average of 78,808 spectators in the season 2003/2004.
Prior to their semi-final loss against Italy in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the German national football team had a fourteen-game winning streak at Signal Iduna Park.
In the video game FIFA 07, the stadium is still known as the Westfalenstadion.

2008-04-03T08:01:00.001-07:00

The Sultanate of Oman (Standard Arabic: سلطنة عُمان , Salṭanat ʿUmān, IPA: [sɛ̈ltˤɑnɛ̈t ʕʊmæːn]) is a country in southwest Asia, on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders the United Arab Emirates on the northwest, Saudi Arabia on the west, and Yemen on the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the south and east, and the Gulf of Oman on the northeast. The country also contains Madha, an enclave enclosed by the United Arab Emirates, and Musandam, an exclave also separated by Emirati territory.

History

Main article: Politics of Oman Politics

Main article: Subdivisions of Oman Governorates and regions

Masqat (Muscat)
Musandam
Dhofar
Al Buraymi Regions

Main article: Geography of Oman Geography
The peninsula of Musandam (Musandem), which has a strategic location on the Strait of Hormuz, is separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates and is thus an exclave.
Oman has one other exclave, inside UAE territory, known as Wadi-e-Madhah. It is located halfway between the Musandam Peninsula and the rest of Oman [1]. Belonging to Musandam governorate, it covers approximately 75 square kilometres (29 sq mi). The boundary was settled in 1969. The north-east corner of Madha is closest to the Khorfakkan-Fujairah road, barely ten metres (30 ft) away. Within the exclave is an UAE enclave called Nahwa, belonging to the Emirate of Sharjah. It is about eight kilometres (five mi) on a dirt track west of the town of New Madha. It consists of about forty houses with its own clinic and telephone exchange [2].

Exclaves and enclaves
Oman was hit by Cyclone Gonu on June 6. Large areas in the capital area region in the Governorate of Muscat and in Amerat and Quriyat were severely affected. Gonu first hit the southern city of Sur late on June 5, 2007. [3] Oman is one of the few countries with no National Red Crescent or Red Cross Society.

Cyclone Gonu

Main article: Economy of Oman Economy

Main article: Demographics of Oman Demographics
Oman is known for its popular tourist attractions. Wadis, deserts, beaches, and mountains are areas which make Oman unique to its neighboring GCC nations (Wadis in particular). Jebel Shams is Oman's tallest mountain, highest point, and is a popular destination for camping. Most of the major malls are located in Muscat, the capital. The largest mall in the country is the Muscat City Centre which was built by Majid Futtaim, an Emirati business man. Other popular tourist activities include sand skiing in the desert, mountain-climbing, camel racing, and camping.
The Muscat Festival is usually held at the beginning of every year. During this event, traditional dances are held, temporary theme parks open, and concerts take place. Another popular event is the Khareef Festival, which is similar to Muscat Festival; however it is held in August in Salalah, Dhofar. During this latter event, mountains are packed as a result of the cool breeze weather during that period of time which rarely occurres in Muscat.

Tourism

Main article: Culture of Oman Culture

Main article: Cuisine of Oman Food and Clothing
The national dress for Omani men is a simple, ankle-length, collarless gown with long sleeves called the dishdasha. The colour most frequently worn is white, although a variety of other colours such as black, blue, brown and lilac can also be seen. Its main adornment is a tassel (furakha) sewn into the neckline, which can be impregnated with perfume. Underneath the dishdasha, a plain piece of cloth covering the body is worn from the waist down. Omani men may wear a variety of head dresses. The muzzar is a square of finely woven woollen or cotton fabric, wrapped and folded into a turban. Underneath this, the kummar, an intricately embroidered cap, is sometimes worn. The shal, a long strip of cloth acting as a holder for the khanjar (a silver, hand-crafted knife or dagger) may be made from the same material as the muzzar. Alternatively, the holder may be fashioned in the form of a belt made from leather and silver, which is called a sapta. On formal occasions, the dishdasha may be covered by a black or beige cloak, called a bisht. The embroidery edging the cloak is often in silver or gold thread and it is intricate in detail. Some men carry the assa, a stick, which can have practical uses or is simply used as an accessory during formal events. Omani men, on the whole, wear sandals on their feet.

National Dress of Men
Omani women have very colourful costumes which vary from region to region. The main components of a woman's outfit comprise of a dress which is worn over trousers (sirwal) and the headdress, called the lihaf.
There are numerous traditional styles of Omani costume seen in Muscat. However, there are three main types which show vibrant colours, embroidery and decorations. One style of costume is rather flowing and resembles that worn by the women of the Interior, while another is decorated with distinctive silver bands. The embroidery on these dresses can take around two months to complete.
In the Dhofar region, the dress (or thob) is known as the Abu Dhail, which means 'one with a tail'. This dress is shorter at the front than at the rear and is made from luxurious velvet or cotton, shot with gold and silver embroidery, beads and sequins. It has a square neckline and is generally worn with a lightweight, cotton or silk sh'ela (head dress) which may also be sewn with pearls, sequins and sometimes small gold coins for special celebrations. Elaborate jewellery is often worn with this dress, around the head, neck, wrists, ankles, fingers and toes. The Dhofari women rarely wear a birka (mask), but the older ladies, originating from the Nejd (the desert area) and the mountains may do so. The birka is often dyed gold or indigo. Some women pierce their noses on both sides and can be seen wearing a carnelian stone, which is a dull red, and a gold flower stud. Indigo is often used as a skin preparation which is rubbed into the face and then washed off using the leaves of the becium dhofarense imparting a bluish tinge which is enhanced by the dresses and robes.

National Dress of Women

Main article: Sports in Oman Sports

Cities in Oman
Communications in Oman
Education in Oman
Foreign relations of Oman
Arab diaspora
Human rights in Oman
Scouting and Guiding in Oman
Sports in Oman
Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces
Theweek
Transport in Oman
Cyclone Gonu See also

Government

al-Bab - Oman
ApexStuff.com - An informative site on Oman and Tourism
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Oman - Country Page
BBC News Country Profile - Oman
CIA World Factbook - Oman
Oman Essentials - A quick look at the Sultanate of Oman
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Oman
Lonely Planet - Oman
Nizwa.NET
Open Directory Project - Oman directory category
US State Department - Oman includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
Yahoo! - Oman directory category
World Arab, Arts, Architecture and Design Design Competition, Events, Arts and Forum

2008-04-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

Knowledge Management ('KM') comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning. It has been an established discipline since 1995 with a body of university courses and both professional and academic journals dedicated to it. Most large companies have resources dedicated to Knowledge Management, often as a part of 'Information Technology' or 'Human Resource Management' departments, and sometimes reporting directly to the head of the organisation. As effectively managing information is a must in any business, Knowledge Management is a multi-billion dollar world wide market.
Knowledge Management programs are typically tied to organisational objectives and are intended to achieve specific outcomes, such as shared intelligence, improved performance, competitive advantage, or higher levels of innovation.
One aspect of Knowledge Management, knowledge transfer, has always existed in one form or another. Examples include on-the-job peer discussions, formal apprenticeship, corporate libraries, professional training and mentoring programs. However, with computers becoming more widespread in the second half of the 20th century, specific adaptations of technology such as knowledge bases, expert systems, and knowledge repositories have been introduced to further simplify the process.
Knowledge Management programs attempt to manage the process of creation (or identification), accumulation and application of knowledge across an organisation. Knowledge Management, therefore, attempts to bring under one set of practices various strands of thought and practice relating to:
While Knowledge Management programs are closely related to Organizational Learning initiatives, Knowledge Management may be distinguished from Organisational Learning by a greater focus on specific knowledge assets and the development and cultivation of the channels through which knowledge flows.
The emergence of Knowledge Management has also generated new roles and responsibilities in organisations, an early example of which was the Chief Knowledge Officer. In recent years, Personal knowledge management (PKM) practice has arisen in which individuals apply KM practice to themselves, their roles and their career development.

intellectual capital and the knowledge worker in the knowledge economy
the idea of the learning organisation
various enabling organisational practices, such as Communities of Practice and corporate Yellow Page directories for accessing key personnel and expertise
various enabling technologies such as knowledge bases and expert systems, help desks, corporate intranets and extranets, Content Management, wikis and Document Management Schools of thought in Knowledge Management

Key concepts in Knowledge Management
A key distinction made by the majority of knowledge management practitioners is Nonaka's reformulation of Polanyi's distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge. The former is often subconscious, internalized, and the individual may or may not be aware of what he or she knows and how he or she accomplishes particular results. At the opposite end of the spectrum is conscious or explicit knowledge -- knowledge that the individual holds explicitly and consciously in mental focus, and may communicate to others. In the popular form of the distinction, tacit knowledge is what is in our heads, and explicit knowledge is what we have codified.
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) argued that a successful KM program needs, on the one hand, to convert internalized tacit knowledge into explicit codified knowledge in order to share it, but, on the other hand, it also must permit individuals and groups to internalize and make personally meaningful codified knowledge they have retrieved from the KM system.
The focus upon codification and management of explicit knowledge has allowed knowledge management practitioners to appropriate prior work in information management, leading to the frequent accusation that knowledge management is simply a repackaged form of information management. (Eg Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html]
Critics have argued that Nonaka and Takeuchi's distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is oversimplified and that the notion of explicit knowledge is self-contradictory. Specifically, for knowledge to be made explicit, it must be translated into information (i.e., symbols outside of our heads).
Another common framework for categorizing the dimensions of knowledge include embedded knowledge (knowledge which has been incorporated into an artifact of some type, for example an information system may have knowledge embedded into its design) and embodied knowledge (representing knowledge as learned capability of the body's nervous, chemical, and sensory systems). These two dimensions, while frequently used, are not universally accepted.
It is also common to distinguish between the creation of "new knowledge" (i.e., innovation) vs. the transfer of "established knowledge" within a group, organization, or community. Collaborative environments such as communities of practice or the use of social computing tools can be used for both creation and transfer.

Dimensions of knowledge
Knowledge may be accessed, or captured, at three stages: before, during, or after knowledge-related activities.
For example, individuals undertaking a new project for an organization might access information resources to learn best practices and lessons learned for similar projects undertaken previously, access relevant information again during the project implementation to seek advice on issues encountered, and access relevant information afterwards for advice on after-project actions and review activities. Knowledge management practitioners offer systems, repositories, and corporate processes to encourage and formalize these activities.
Similarly, knowledge may be captured and recorded before the project implementation, for example as the project team learns lessons during the initial project analysis. Similarly, lessons learned during the project operation may be recorded, and after-action reviews may lead to further insights and lessons being recorded for future access.
Different organizations have tried various knowledge capture incentives, including making content submission mandatory and incorporating rewards into performance measurement plans. There is controversy over whether incentives work or not in this field and no firm consensus has emerged.

Knowledge capture stages
One alternative strategy to encoding knowledge into and retrieving knowledge from a knowledge repository such as a database, is for individuals to make knowledge requests of subject matter experts on an ad hoc basis. A key benefit of this strategy is that the response from the expert individual is rich in content and contextualized to the particular problem being addressed and personalized to the particular person or people addressing it. The downside of this strategy is that it is tied to the availability and memory recall skill of specific individuals in the organization. It does not capture their insights and experience for future use should they leave or become unavailable, and also does not help in the case when particular technical issues or problems previously faced change with time to the point where a new synthesis is required, the experts' memories being out of date. The emergence of narrative approaches to knowledge management attempts to provide a bridge between the formal and the ad hoc, by allowing knowledge to be held in the form of stories.

Ad hoc knowledge access
There are a number of claims as to 'drivers', or motivations, leading to organizations undertaking a knowledge management program.
Perhaps first among these is to gain the competitive advantage (in industry) and/or increased effectiveness that comes with improved or faster learning and new knowledge creation. Knowledge management programs may lead to greater innovation, better customer experiences, consistency in good practices and knowledge access across a global organization, as well as many other benefits, and knowledge management programs may be driven with these goals in mind. Government represents a highly active area, for example DiploFoundation Conference on Knowledge and Diplomacy (1999) outlines the range of specific KM tools and techniques applied in diplomacy.
Considerations driving a Knowledge Management program might include:

making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services
achieving shorter new product development cycles
facilitating and managing organizational innovation and learning
leverage the expertise of people across the organization
benefiting from 'network effects' as the number of productive connections between employees in the organization increases and the quality of information shared increases, leading to greater employee and team satisfaction
managing the proliferation of data and information in complex business environments and allowing employees rapidly to access useful and relevant knowledge resources and best practice guidelines
managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) as individuals retire and new workers are hired Drivers of Knowledge Management
The early Knowledge Management technologies were online corporate yellow pages (expertise locators) and document management systems. Combined with the early development of collaborative technologies (in particular Lotus Notes), KM technologies expanded in the mid 1990s. Subsequently it followed developments in technology in use in Information Management. In particular the use of semantic technologies for search and retrieval and the development of knowledge management specific tools such as those for communities of practice.
More recently social computing tools (such as blogs and wikis) have developed to provide a more unstructured approach to knowledge transfer and knowledge creation through the development of new forms of community. However, such tools for the most part are still based on text, and thus represent explicit knowledge transfer. These tools face challenges distilling meaningful re-usable knowledge from their content.
Knowledge mapping is commonly used to cover functions such as a knowledge audit (discovering what knowledge exists at the start of a knowledge management project), a network survey (Mapping the relationships between communities involved in knowledge creation and sharing) and creating a map of the relationship of knowledge assets to core business process. Although frequently carried out at the start of a Knowledge Management programme, it is not a necessary pre-condition or confined to start up.

Knowledge Management Technologies
Historically, there have been a number of technologies 'enabling' or facilitating knowledge management practices in the organization, including expert systems, knowledge bases, various types of Information Management, software help desk tools, document management systems and other IT systems supporting organizational knowledge flows.
The advent of the Internet brought with it further enabling technologies, including e-learning, web conferencing, collaborative software, content management systems, corporate 'Yellow pages' directories, email lists, wikis, blogs, and other technologies. Each enabling technology can expand the level of inquiry available to an employee, while providing a platform to achieve specific goals or actions. The practice of KM will continue to evolve with the growth of collaboration applications, visual tools and other technologies. Since its adoption by the mainstream population and business community, the Internet has led to an increase in creative collaboration, learning and research, e-commerce, and instant information.
There are also a variety of organisational enablers for knowledge management programs, including Communities of Practice, before-, after- and during- action reviews (see After Action Review), peer assists, information taxonomies, coaching and mentoring, and so on.
Another aspect would be the creation of an incentive-system not only to provide the organisation with knowledge but also to manage and handle ideas of staff.

Knowledge Management enablers
Knowledge management activities may be centralized in a Knowledge Management Office, or responsibility for knowledge management may be located in existing departmental functions, such as the Human Resource (to manage intellectual capital) or IT departments (for content management, social computing etc.). Different departments and functions may have a knowledge management function and those functions may not be connected other than informally.

Knowledge Management roles and organizational structure
Knowledge Management professionals may use a specific lexicon in order to articulate and discuss the various issues arising in Knowledge Management. For example, terms such as intellectual capital, metric, and tacit vs explicit knowledge typically form an indispensable part of the knowledge management professional's vocabulary.

Knowledge Management lexicon
There is no established evidence as to the reasons behind failure and success of Knowledge Management initiatives in organizations. Some argue that a failure to sustain investment is one factor, but it can equally be argued that if knowledge management delivered on its promises investment would continue. As with many management initiatives, particularly those with a heavy IT basis (as is the case in Knowledge Management), frequent questions are raised about the level of consultation necessary before a program is started; these questions are linked to issues of cultural change and a willingness to share and collaborate with colleagues There is no evidence that Knowledge Management, in all these respects, is any different from other management initiatives.

Knowledge Management Reasons of Failure or Success

Intellectual capital - the intangible assets of a company which contribute to its valuation.
Chief Knowledge Officer - an executive responsible for maximizing the knowledge potential of an organization.
Knowledge - that which can be acted upon.
Personal knowledge management - the organization of an individual's thoughts and beliefs. Related definitions

Terminology extraction
Battle Command Knowledge System
Community of practice
Competitive intelligence
Complexity theory and organizations
Computer-supported collaboration
Corporate memory
e-learning
Enterprise content management
Enterprise search
Enterprise social software
Expert system
Intellectual Capital
Knowledge
Knowledge Ecosystems
Knowledge base
Knowledge management for development
KM concepts
KM Journals
Knowledge Management System
Knowledge representation
Knowledge transfer
Knowledge visualization
Meta-knowledge
Morphological analysis
Organizational learning
Organizational empowerment
Personal knowledge management
Public sector knowledge management
Procedural knowledge
Self service software
Sensemaking
Semantic Web
Social network
Skills management
Tacit knowledge & Explicit knowledge
Value network
Value network analysis Further reading

Alavi, M. and Leidner, D. (2001). "Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues," MIS Quarterly, 25, 1, 107-136.
Applen, J.D. (2002). "Technical Communication, Knowledge Management, and XML." Technical Communication. Arlington, VA. Volume 49. Number 3. pp. 301-13.
Bellenger, Gene (2002) "Emerging Perspectives", Systems Thinking Knowledge Management - Emerging Perspectives
Bontis, N., Dragonetti, N., Jacobsen, K. and G. Roos. (1999) "The Knowledge Toolbox: A review of the tools available to measure and manage intangible resources", European Management Journal, 17, 4, 391-402.
Bontis, N. (1999). "Managing Organizational Knowledge by Diagnosing Intellectual Capital: Framing and advancing the state of the field", International Journal of Technology Management,18, 5/6/7/8, 433-462.
Bontis, N. (2002). "The rising star of the Chief Knowledge Officer", Ivey Business Journal, March/April, 20-25.
Bray, D. (2007). "Literature Review - Knowledge Management Research at the Organizational Level", Social Science Research Network.
Cross, R., Parker, A., Prusak, L. and Borgatti, S.P. (2001), "Knowing what we know: supporting knowledge creation and sharing in social networks", Organizational Dynamics Vol 30, No 2, pp. 100-120.
Ekbia, H. and Hara, N. (2004) The Quality of Evidence in Knowledge Management Literature: the Guru Version. At http://www.slis.indiana.edu/research/working_papers/files/SLISWP-04-01.pdf
Hamburg, Terstriep & Rehfeld (2006 Nov), "Knowledge-Based Services for Economic Agencies based on Internet Technologies",Icfai Journal of Knowledge Management, Icfai University Press. Article available on SSRN
Hansen, M. R., N. Nohria and T. Tierney (1999). 'What's your strategy for managing knowledge?' Harvard Business Review (March-April).
Huijsen, W., Driessen, S. J. and Jacobs, J. W. M. (2004a), "Explicit Conceptualizations for Knowledge Mapping", Sixth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2004), Vol 3, pp. 231-236, Porto, April 2004.
Knorr-Siedow, T. (2005) Knowledge management and enhanced policy application; in: Van Kempen, R. et alter: Restructuring large housing estates in Europe, Bristol, pp 321-341
Malhotra, Y (2005) "Integrating Knowledge Management Technologies in Organizational Business Processes: Getting Real Time Enterprises to Deliver Real Business Performance", Journal of Knowledge Management Vol . 9 no. 1 pp 7-28.
Malhotra, Y (2000) "Knowledge Management for E-Business Performance: Advancing Information Strategy to "Internet Time"", Information Strategy: The Executive's Journal Vol . 16 no. 4 pp 5-16.
Markus, M. (2001) "Toward a Theory of Knowledge Reuse: Types of Knowledge Reuse Situations and Factors in Reuse Success," Journal of Management Information Systems, 18, 1, 57-93. [1] Mudambi, R. (2002) "Knowledge management in multinational firms", Journal of International Management, 8, 1, 1-9. Nissen, M.E. (2006) "Dynamic Knowledge Patterns to Inform Design: A Field Study of Knowledge Stocks and Flows in an Extreme Organization," Journal of Management Information Systems, 22, 3, 225-263.
Powell, J and Swart, J (2005) "This is what the fuss is about"- a systemic modeling for organizational knowing , Journal of Knowledge Management Vol . 9 no. 2 pp 45-58
Powell, J and Swart, J (2005) "Men and Measures" - capturing knowledge requirement in firms through qualitative system modeling, Journal of Operational Research.
Serenko, A. and Bontis, Nick. (2004). "Meta-review of knowledge management and intellectual capital literature", Knowledge and Process Management, 11, 3, 185-198. [2]
Snowden, D J. "Complex Acts of Knowing: Paradox and Descriptive Self-Awareness." Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue 6, no. 2 (2002): 100-11. [3]
Swart, J (2006) "Intellectual Capital" : Disentangling an enigmatic concept, Journal of Intellectual Capital Vol 7 No 2 pp 136-159.
Thomas, J. C., Kellogg, W.A., and Erickson, T. (2001) The Knowledge Management puzzle: Human and social factors in knowledge management. IBM Systems Journal, 40(4), 863-884.
Vail III, E.F. (1999), "Mapping Organisational knowledge", Knowledge Management Review, Vol 8, May/June, pp. 10-15.
Wexler, M.N. (2001), "The who, what and why of knowledge mapping", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol 5, No 3, pp. 249-263
Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html]

2008-04-01T08:08:00.001-07:00

The Third Battle of Murfreesboro was fought December 5–December 7, 1864, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of the American Civil War.
In a last, desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Union army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville in November 1864. Although he suffered a terrible loss at Franklin, he continued toward Nashville. In operating against Nashville, he decided that destruction of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad and disruption of the Union army supply depot at Murfreesboro would help his cause. He sent Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, on December 4, with an expedition, composed of two cavalry divisions and Maj. Gen. William B. Bate's infantry division, to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
On December 2, Hood had ordered Bate to destroy the railroad and blockhouses between Murfreesboro and Nashville and join Forrest for further operations. On December 4, Bate's division attacked Blockhouse No. 7 protecting the railroad crossing at Overall Creek, but Union forces fought it off. On the morning of the 5th, Forrest headed out toward Murfreesboro, splitting his force, one column to attack the fort on the hill and the other to take Blockhouse No. 4, both at La Vergne. Upon his demand for surrender at both locations, the Union garrisons did so. Outside La Vergne, Forrest hooked up with Bate's division and the command advanced on to Murfreesboro along two roads, driving the Yankees into their Fortress Rosecrans fortifications, and encamped in the city outskirts for the night. The next morning, on the 6th, Forrest ordered Bate's division to "move upon the enemy's works." Fighting flared for a couple of hours, but the Yankees ceased firing and both sides glared at each other for the rest of the day. Brig. Gen. Claudius Sears's and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer's infantry brigades joined Forrest's command in the evening, further swelling his numbers.
On the morning of the 7th, Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau, commanding all of the forces at Murfreesboro, sent two brigades out under Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy on the Salem Pike to feel out the enemy. These troops engaged the Confederates and fighting continued. At one point some of Forrest's troops broke and ran causing disorder in the Rebel ranks; even entreaties from Forrest and Bate did not stem the rout of these units. The rest of Forrest's command conducted an orderly retreat from the field and encamped for the night outside Murfreesboro. Forrest had destroyed railroad track, blockhouses, and some homes and generally disrupted Union operations in the area, but he did not accomplish much else. The raid on Murfreesboro was a minor irritation.

2008-03-29T09:58:00.001-07:00

Clement Claiborne Clay (December 13, 1816 – January 3, 1882) was a U.S. senator from the state of Alabama from 1853 to 1861, and a C.S.A. senator from the Alabama from 1861 to 1863. His portrait appears on the Confederate one-dollar note (4th issue and later).

2008-03-28T08:09:00.001-07:00

Richard Yates (January 18, 1818 - November 27, 1873) was governor of Illinois during the American Civil War and has been considered the greatest war governor during that period. When the war began Gov. Yates sent more Illinois troops to aid the Union than any other state. He also represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives, 1851-1855 and as a U.S. Senator, 1865-1871.
Yates was born in Warsaw, Kentucky and moved with his family to Illinois in 1831. He was graduated from Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1835. He then studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in 1837 and commenced practice in Jacksonville.
Yates served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1842-1845 and 1848-1849. In 1850, he was elected as a Whig to the United States House of Representatives where he was the youngest member of the Thirty-second Congress. He was reelected to Congress in 1852. During Yates' second term in Congress, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise reopened the anti-slavery question. He opposed the repeal, and became identified with the new Republican Party. His district was pro-slavery and consequently he narrowly lost his bid for a third term.
In 1860 he was elected governor as a Republican. Governor Yates continued to be an outspoken opponent of slavery, and at the opening of the Civil War was very active in raising volunteers. He convened the legislature in extra session on 12 April 1861, the day after the attack on Fort Sumter, and took military possession of Cairo, garrisoning it with regular troops. In Governor Yates's office General Ulysses S. Grant received his first distinct recognition as a soldier in the Civil War, being appointed by Yates mustering officer for the state, and afterward colonel of the 21st Illinois regiment. In 1862, he attended the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately gave Abraham Lincoln support for his Emancipation Proclamation.
After his service as governor ended, Yates was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1871; he was not a candidate for reelection. While in the Senate, Yates was Chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Thirty-ninth and Forty-first Congresses) and Chairman of the Committee on Territories (Fortieth Congress).
After leaving the Senate, Yates was appointed by President Grant as a United States commissioner to inspect a land subsidy railroad. He died suddenly in St. Louis, Missouri on November 27, 1873. He is buried in Diamond Grove Cemetery, Jacksonville.
In 1923 a statue of Yates by Albin Polasek was erected on the Illinois State Capitol grounds.
His son, also Richard Yates, was also active in Illinois politics, including a term as governor.

2008-03-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities. Thus Neustria formed the western part of the kingdom of the Franks under the rule of the Merovingian dynasty during the sixth to eighth centuries. The distinct area originated at the time of the death of Clovis I (reigned 482–511), when his sons divided his lands between them. It later became a term for the region between the Seine and the Loire rivers known as the regnum Neustriae, a constituent subkingdom of the Carolingian Empire and then West Francia. The Carolingian kings also created a March of Neustria which was a frontier duchy against the Bretons and Vikings that lasted until the Capetian monarchy in the late tenth century.
Neustria was also employed as a term for northwestern Italy during the period of Lombard domination. It was contrasted with the northeast, which was likewise called Austrasia, the same term as given to eastern Francia.

Merovingian kingdom
In 748, the brothers Pepin the Short and Carloman gave their younger brother Grifo twelve counties in Neustria centred on that of Le Mans. This polity was termed the ducatus Cenomannicus, or Duchy of Maine, and this was an alternative name for the regnum of Neustria well into the ninth century.
The term "Neustria" took on the meaning of "land between the Seine and Loire" when it was given as a regnum (kingdom) by Charlemagne to his eldest son, Charles the Younger, in 790. At this time, the chief city of the kingdom appears to be Le Mans and it was there that the royal court of Charles was established. Under the Carolingians, the chief duty of the Neustrian king was to defend the sovereignty of the Franks over the Bretons.
In 817, Louis the Pious granted Neustria to his eldest son Lothair, but following his rebellion in 831, he gave it to Pepin, and following the latter's death in 838, to Charles the Bald. Neustria, along with Aquitaine, formed the major part of Charles West Frankish kingdom carved out of the Empire by the Treaty of Verdun (843). Charles continued the tradition of appointing an elder son to reign in Neustria with his own court at Le Mans when he made Louis the Stammerer king in 856. Louis married the daughter of the King of Brittany, Erispoe, and received the regnum from the Breton monarch with the consent of the Frankish magnates. This unique relationship for Neustria stressed how it had shrunk in size to definitely exclude the Île de France and Paris by this time, as it was distanced from the central authority of Charles the Bald and closer to that of Erispoe. Louis was the last Frankish monarch to be appointed to Neustria by his father and the practice of creating subkingdoms for sons waned among the later Carolings.

Carolingian subkingdom

Main article: March of Neustria Carolingian march

Rulers
The precise division of Francia into a Neustrian, Austrasian, and Burgundian kingdom dates only from the late sixth century, so earlier kings who ruled from Soissons or Paris are here excluded.

Chlothar II, 584–629
Dagobert I, 629–639
Clovis II, 639–657
Chlothar III, 657–673
Theuderic III, 673
Childeric II, 673–675
Theuderic III, 675–691
Clovis IV, 691–695
Childebert III, 695–711
Dagobert III, 711–715
Chilperic II, 715–721
Theuderic IV, 721–737
Childeric III, 743–751 Merovingian kings
These were the chief officers of the kings and gradually became the de facto rulers in the name of the kings.

Landric, until 613
Gundoland, 613–639
Aega, 639–641
Erchinoald, 641–658
Ebroin, 658–673
Wulfoald, 673–675
Leudesius, 675
Ebroin, 675–680 (again)
Waratton, 680–682
Gistemar, 682
Waratton, 682–686 (again)
Berthar, 686–688
Pepin of Heristal, 688–695
Grimoald II, 695–714
Theudoald, 714–715
Ragenfrid, 715–718
Charles Martel, 718–741
Pepin the Short, 741–751 Mayors of the palace
Louis was chased from Le Mans in 858 following the assassination of Erispoe in November 857.

Charles the Younger, 790–811
Lothair I, 817–831
Pepin, 831–838
Charles the Bald, 838–856
Louis the Stammerer, 856–879 Historiography

2008-03-26T08:29:00.001-07:00

Video compression refers to reducing the quantity of data used to represent video images, and this is almost always coupled with the goal of retaining as much of the original's quality as possible. Compressed video can effectively reduce the bandwidth required to transmit digital video via terrestrial broadcast, via cable, or via satellite services.
Most video compression is lossy, i.e. it operates on the premise that much of the data present before compression is not necessary for achieving good perceptual quality. For example, DVDs use a video coding standard called MPEG-2 that can compress ~2 hours of video data by 15 to 30 times while still producing a picture quality that is generally considered high quality for standard-definition video. Video compression, like data compression, is a tradeoff between disk space, video quality and the cost of hardware required to decompress the video in a reasonable time. However, if the video is overcompressed in a lossy manner, visible (and sometimes distracting) artifacts can appear.

Introduction continued
Video is basically a three-dimensional array of color pixels. Two dimensions serve as spatial (horizontal and vertical) directions of the moving pictures, and one dimension represents the time domain. A data frame is a set of all pixels that correspond to a single point in time. Basically, a frame is the same as a still picture. (These are sometimes made up of fields. See interlace)
Video data contains spatial and temporal redundancy. Similarities can thus be encoded by merely registering differences within a frame (spatial) and/or between frames (temporal). Spatial encoding is performed by taking advantage of the fact that the human eye is unable to distinguish small differences in colour as easily as it can changes in brightness and so very similar areas of colour can be "averaged out" in a similar way to jpeg images (JPEG image compression FAQ, part 1/2). With temporal compression only the changes from one frame to the next are encoded as often a large number of the pixels will be the same on a series of frames.

Theory
Some forms of data compression are lossless. This means that when the data is decompressed, the result is a bit-for-bit perfect match with the original. While lossless compression of video is possible, it is rarely used. This is because any lossless compression system will sometimes result in a file (or portions of) that is as large and/or has the same data rate as the uncompressed original. As a result, all hardware in a lossless system would have to be able to run fast enough to handle uncompressed video as well. This eliminates much of the benefit of compressing the data in the first place. For example, digital videotape can't vary its data rate easily so dealing with short bursts of maximum-data-rate video would be more complicated than something that was fixed at the maximum rate all the time.

Lossless compression
One of the most powerful techniques for compressing video is interframe compression. Interframe compression uses one or more earlier or later frames in a sequence to compress the current frame, while intraframe compression uses only the current frame, which is effectively image compression.
The most commonly used method works by comparing each frame in the video with the previous one. If the frame contains areas where nothing has moved, the system simply issues a short command that copies that part of the previous frame, bit-for-bit, into the next one. If sections of the frame move in a simple manner, the compressor emits a (slightly longer) command that tells the decompresser to shift, rotate, lighten, or darken the copy -- a longer command, but still much shorter than intraframe compression. Interframe compression works well for programs that will simply be played back by the viewer, but can cause problems if the video sequence needs to be edited.
Since interframe compression copies data from one frame to another, if the original frame is simply cut out (or lost in transmission), the following frames cannot be reconstructed properly. Some video formats, such as DV, compress each frame independently using intraframe compression. Making 'cuts' in intraframe-compressed video is almost as easy as editing uncompressed video -- one finds the beginning and ending of each frame, and simply copies bit-for-bit each frame that one wants to keep, and discards the frames one doesn't want. Another difference between intraframe and interframe compression is that with intraframe systems, each frame uses a similar amount of data. In most interframe systems, certain frames (such as "I frames" in MPEG-2) aren't allowed to copy data from other frames, and so require much more data than other frames nearby.
It is possible to build a computer-based video editor that spots problems caused when I frames are edited out while other frames need them. This has allowed newer formats like HDV to be used for editing. However, this process demands a lot more computing power than editing intraframe compressed video with the same picture quality.
See Editing HDV.

2008-03-25T09:47:00.001-07:00

The High Performance Program is an initiative from the International Cricket Council to bridge the gap between Test and non-Test nations. The program was launched in 2001 with the aim of preparing the top Associate Member teams for the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Following the tournament the program continued to run, attempting to close the gap between Associate countries and Full Members such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
In 2006/2007, the six Associate Members who had qualified for the 2007 World Cup were given priority by the program. These countries were Kenya, Canada, Bermuda, The Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland.
As of April 2007, both Denmark and Namibia are part of the program. They were joined by Argentina and Uganda in June after the teams made the final of the 2007 ICC World Cricket League Division Three.

2008-03-24T10:25:00.001-07:00

In Baroque music, ritornello was the word for a recurring passage for orchestra in the first or final movement of a solo concerto or aria (also in works for chorus). In ritornello form, the tutti opens with a theme called the ritornello (refrain). This theme, always played by the tutti, returns in different keys throughout the movement. However, it usually returns in incomplete fragments. It was favoured by composers such as Bach, Vivaldi and Handel and was used frequently in concertos, chamber works and vocal and choral pieces, though most prominently in the solo concerto where it created a 'tutti-solo-tutti-solo-tutti' pattern, with the ritornello being the 'tutti' section. When the classical music era started, the ritornello form was altered to resemble sonata form, though it later transformed to become rondo form.
The final section of the fourteenth century madrigal was also called the ritornello and the ritornello technique was employed by Giovanni Gabrieli in his 16th century motets. The Ritornello form can be found in many Baroque and Classical period music such as J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Other pieces in ritornello form include a sonata in F Major by Joseph Haydn (using the form at a late date, as a classical period composer).
Beginning with the late Classical and extending through the duration of the Romantic era, the use of the ritornello construction faded with the advent of the far more standard classical concerto; however, with the advent of the 20th century and the general feeling of malaise within the composition field regarding the limits of form, the ritornello experienced an uptake in interest.

2008-03-23T09:39:00.001-07:00

Gaetano Martino (November 25, 1900 - July 21, 1967) was an Italian politician and university teacher.
A native of Messina, Sicily, he was a member of Italian Liberal Party. He was also President of the European Parliament from 1962 to 1964.
He died in Rome in 1967.

2008-03-22T09:02:00.001-07:00

Gävle ['jɛvlə] is a city in east central Sweden with 68,700 inhabitants (2005). It is the seat of Gävle Municipality with a population of 92,416 (2006) and of Gävleborg County. It is one of the oldest cities in the historical Norrland (Sweden's Northern lands), as it received its charter in 1446 by Christopher of Bavaria.

History

Main article: Gävle goat Gävle goat
Gävle is situated by the Baltic Sea near the mouth of the river Dalälven. At 60 degrees north and 17 degrees east, Gävle has the same latitude as Helsinki and the same longitude as Vienna and Cape Town.
Gävle has a similar climate to the rest of central Sweden with an average temperature of -5 C in January and +17 C in July. Yearly rainfall is around 600mm.

Geography
Trade from the port of Gävle increased markedly during the 1400s when copper and iron began to be exported from the port. In order to ensure that all trade was via Stockholm, sailing to foreign ports from Gävle and a few other ports was forbidden.
During the 1500s, Gävle was one of the most important port and merchant towns with many shipping companies and shipyards.
In 1787 Gävle was awarded "free and unrestricted sailing rights" to and from foreign ports. This led to an increase in trade, which in turn lead to an increase in buildings, industrial developments, trade and shipping.
Today there are few shipping companies or shipyards left, but an important port remains. It has over 1000 ships calling per annum and is among the top ten common ports in Sweden.

Major companies
The University College of Gävle currently enrolls 12,500 students. It offers courses of study at six departments: Business Administration, Education and Psychology, Caring Sciences and Sociology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Mathematics, Natural and Computer Sciences and Technology, and Built Environment.
Some courses are given in English taught both to visiting students from foreign partner institutions and to Swedish students.

Education
Gävle is mostly known for the coffee called Gevalia, produced by Kraft General Foods Scandinavia (Gevalia is the Latin name for Gävle), its Gävle goat, the Läkerol throat lozenges and car shaped sweets Ahlgrens Bilar, and for its ice hockey team Brynäs IF.

Miscellaneous topics

Christian Edstrom (professional rally co-driver)
Anders Eklund (boxer)
Joe Hill (labour activist)
Cat Stevens (musician) - his mother Ingrid Wickman was from Gävle, and he also lived here for some time during his childhood.
Joakim Sundström (sound designer)
Nicklas Bäckström (hockey player) Notable natives
Gävle has teams competing in the highest national league in both football (Gefle IF) and ice hockey (Brynäs IF). The town is also home to a wrestling team called BK Loke.

Sports
Gävle's town twins are:

Buffalo City, South Africa Whisky

International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships (1995)
List of Gävleborg Governors

2008-03-21T08:46:00.001-07:00

The River Tonge is a short river flowing close to Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England.
The Tonge is formed at the Meeting of the Waters, where Astley Brook, flowing from the Smithills area in the west, meets the southerly-flowing Eagley Brook. From there, the Tonge flows southwards, to the east of Bolton, past Springfield, where it is joined by Bradshaw Brook, at the end of its route from the Jumbles and Wayoh reservoirs, close to Tonge Fold. The Tonge joins the River Croal at Darcy Lever, shortly before the Croal's confluence with the larger River Irwell.
Tonge Bridge section is a part of the river north of Tonge Bridge designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). It is one of only seven geological SSSIs in Greater Manchester.

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

Statesboro is a city in southeast Georgia, United States, and is the county seat and most populous city of Bulloch County. A college town, Statesboro is best known as the home to Georgia Southern University.
The city was chartered in 1803, starting as a small farming community providing the basic essentials for surrounding farms. In 1906 Statesboro leaders joined together to bid for and win First District A&M School, which eventually grew to become Georgia Southern University. Statesboro-Bulloch County offers a diversified array of employment opportunities in agriculture and industry.

History
Statesboro is located at 32°26′43″N, 81°46′45″W (32.445147, -81.779234).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.6 square miles (32.7 km²), of which, 12.5 square miles (32.4 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km²) of it (0.9%) is water.

Demographics
Statesboro is the home of three institution of higher education. Georgia Southern University is a comprehensive research university with over 16,000 students. Ogeechee Technical College and the Statesboro campus of East Georgia College are also located in the city.
The Bulloch County Board of Education runs the public schools in Statesboro. The largest school in the city is Statesboro High School. Other public schools include William James Middle School, Langston Chapel Middle School, Julia P. Bryant Elementary School, Sallie Zetterower Elementary School, Mattie Lively Elementary School, Langston Chapel Elementary School and Mill Creek Elementary School. There are also several private schools including Bulloch Academy, Trinity Christian School, and Bible Baptist Christian School. One school not overseen by the BoE: The Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts and Technology.

Education
Statesboro has several community organizations, including Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, NAACP and Rotary Club.
Mill Creek Regional Park is a large outdoor recreational facility with athletic fields and a swimming area. The David H. Averitt Center for the Arts is provides a small performing arts theater along with studios, conference rooms and an exhibition area. The Statesboro Regional Art Association holds monthly meetings.
The Zach S. Henderson Library[1] at Georgia Southern University is undergoing a major renovation and expansion[2] and will be completed in the fall of 2008. Henderson Library is the only library in Georgia which operates a 24-hour schedule. The Statesboro Regional Library[3] is a member of the Georgia Library Public Information Network for Electronic Services (PINES)[4].
The local newspaper is the Statesboro Herald, a daily with a circulation of about 8,000. Other newspapers include the daily George-Anne (http://www.stp.georgiasouthern.edu/), produced by Georgia Southern University students, Connect Statesboro, a weekly entertainment publication, and the E11eventh Hour, a twice-a-month entertainment publication.
There are a few bookstores including the newly opened independent shop, The Book and Cranny[5], the Georgia Southern University bookstore, and Books By Dickens[6]. Georgia Southern University offers the Georgia Southern Physics Planetarium http://cost.georgiasouthern.edu/planetarium/), Georgia Southern Museum, the Botanical Gardens at Bland Cottage, and the Performing Arts Center adjacent to the Nessmith-Lane Continuing Education Center. Georgia Southern offers a number of shows each year from traveling groups as well as shows put on by Georgia Southern students and staff.
Because Statesboro is a college town, there are a number of restaurants, bars, and a couple of coffee houses (such as Midtown Coffeehouse). During the fall and spring semesters at the university, there are usually bands playing at most of the bars. During the summer, when many students leave, the tempo of the night life slows down. The restaurants available offer Southern, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, and Italian. Many standard American franchise restaurants are represented, with both fast food and table service. Some of the more popular restaurants in the area include El Sombrero Mexican Cuisine, Blue Moon Cafe, Hachi, Statesboro Inn, The Beaver House, Zaxby's, Papa's Pizza To-Go, The French Quarter Cafe, Nikko's, Chick-Fil-A, Forest Heights Country Club, and Snooky's. Restaurants are non-smoking by city ordinance and Georgia state law.

Culture
Interstate 16 is located 10 miles (16 km) to the south of Statesboro. Statesboro is also served by three U.S. highways: U.S. Highway 301, which runs north-south through the city, U.S. Highway 25, which runs northwest-south through the city, and U.S. Highway 80, which is the main east-west route through the city. The Veterans Memorial Parkway ( Highway 301 Bypass and Highway 25 Bypass) forms a near circle around the city. Approximately three miles outside of Statesboro is the Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport, which can accommodate private aircraft but does not have a control tower or commercial flights. Most travelers choose to fly from nearby Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport, which is located than 45 miles (72 km) to the east and is served by nine commercial airlines.

Transportation
Statesboro may be familiar to music-listeners through the blues song "Statesboro Blues," written by Blind Willie McTell in the 1920s and covered by many other musicians, including Taj Mahal and The Allman Brothers Band.
Downtown Statesboro has been featured in several motion pictures including Now and Then as well as 1969.
Statesboro is located in a semi-dry county. Because of this, hard liquor cannot be sold by the bottle, but can be sold by the drink in bars.
Statesboro is the only town in the world with that name.
Statesboro is the home of the world's largest Primitive Baptist Church.
The Zaxby's restaurant chain was begun in Statesboro in 1990.
The Krystal fast food chain celebrated their most successful Grand Opening ever for a single restaurant in Statesboro (as of 12/5/2007)

People of note

Georgia Southern Botanical Garden
Performing Arts Center
Emma Kelly Theater
Mill Creek Recreational Park
Georgia Southern University
Memorial Park Tennis Courts and Recreation
Snooky's Restaurant

2008-03-19T09:24:00.001-07:00

Longniddry Bents is a beach just north of Longniddry in East Lothian, Scotland.
The beach is almost 2 miles in length, which includes Gosford Bay to the east side, and the rockier Seton Sands to the west. Along the beach are the remains of a wall of concrete tank traps erected during World War II as protection from any attempted German invasion. Many of these are now hidden in the surrounding sea-grass and bushes.
The area is popular, mostly in the summer months, with local families, holidaymakers, picnicers, horseriders, ramblers, metal detectors, dogwalkers and the occasional kite buggy. The shallow bay is a popular watersports location for windsurfers, kitesurfers and sea kayaks.
Many sea and wading birds frequent this area making it a regular haven for bird-watchers. A small community of rare water voles are known to reside around the several burns running out of the bents. Grey seals are often spotted to the west of the bay.
There are three car-parking areas here and the largest has good views west across the bay to Edinburgh's skyline and the Forth Bridges. Overnight parking is prohibited.
Longniddry Bents are part of the the John Muir Way coastal walk and were presented with a Seaside Award (Rural) in 2006.