Wednesday, October 31, 2007

International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences or IADAS was founded in 1998 in New York to help drive the progress of the Internet and evolving forms of new media. The academy selects the nominees and winners for the Webby Awards.
Membership is by invitation only. A partial list of past and present academy members include:

Scott Adams, cartoonist, Dilbert
Serena Altschul, journalist, CBS News
Katie Arnold, managing editor, Outside magazine
John Perry Barlow, co-founder and vice chairman, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Beck, musician
Björk, musician and actor
David Boaz, executive vice president, Cato Institute
David Bowie, musician
Richard Branson, chairman and founder, Virgin Atlantic Airways
Bernie Brillstein, founder, Brillstein-Grey Entertainment
Phil Bronstein, executive editor, The San Francisco Chronicle
Tina Brown, commentator and CNBC host
Stewart Butterfield, Co-founder, Flickr
Vint Cerf, senior vice president, MCI
Julia Child, chef
Collin Cole, president - Digital Media, frog design
Francis Ford Coppola, film director
Elizabeth Daley, dean, USC School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
Esther Dyson, publisher and editor
Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle Corporation
Caterina Fake, Co-founder, Flickr
Rob Glaser, CEO, RealNetworks
Ira Glass, host of This American Life, Public Radio International
Carl Goodman, curator, American Museum of the Moving Image
Jerry Greenfield, co-founder, Ben & Jerry's
Jim Griffith, moderator, rec.humor.funny
Matt Groening, creator, The Simpsons
Peter Guber, chairman, Mandalay Pictures
Julia Butterfly Hill, activist and author, Circle of Life Foundation
Arianna Huffington, political columnist
Mizuko Ito, visiting scholar, USC Annenberg Center for Communication
David S. Jackson, editor, http://DefendAmerica.gov/, U.S. Department of Defense
Guy Kawasaki, founder, http://Garage.com/
Isaac Kerlow, director - Digital Production, the Walt Disney Company
John Kilcullen, president and publisher, Billboard.com
Raph Koster, creative director, Sony Online Entertainment
Newton Lee, founder and editor-in-chief of Computers in Entertainment, Association for Computing Machinery
Dan Lynch, chairman, Lynch Enterprises
Virginia McHugh, executive director, Association Montessori Internationale USA
Seymour Papert, author, Connected Family
Joseph Patel, writer and producer, MTV News
Tom Peters, author, In Search of Excellence
Kim Polese, chairman, Marimba, Inc.
Larry Rinder, curator of contemporary art, The Whitney Museum of American Art
Jennifer Ringley, proprietress, JenniCam
Anita Roddick, president, The Body Shop
Marina Rosenfeld, artist and composer
Robert Senn, executive vice president, the Grammy Awards
Doug Sery, editor, MIT Press
Richard Stallman, Chief GNUisance, GNU Project
Sister Patricia Stanley, Technical Support, Sisters of St. Joseph
Cyndi Stivers, president and editor-in-chief, Time Out NY
Nadine Strossen, president, ACLU
Sherry Turkle, director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self
Dennis Valle, director of New Media, Dolce & Gabbana Spa
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor-in-chief, The Nation
Hal Varian, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Karen Watson, New Media Project development officer, Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Jonathan Weber, editor-in-chief, Industry Standard
David Wetherell, chairman and CEO, CMGI, Inc.
Bebo White, historical web artifact, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Judy Wieder, editor-in-chief, The Advocate
Gail Williams, director of communities, Salon.com: The WELL & Table Talk

Tuesday, October 30, 2007


Racism · Sexism · Ageism · Religious intolerance · Xenophobia
Social Ableism · Adultism · Biphobia · Classism · Elitism · Ephebiphobia · Gerontophobia · Heightism · Heterosexism · Homophobia · Lesbophobia · Lookism · Misandry · Misogyny · Pediaphobia · Sizeism · Transphobia
Americans · Arabs · Armenians · Australians · Canadians · Catalans · Chinese · English · Europeans · French · Germans · Indians · Iranians · Irish · Italians · Japanese · Jews · Malay · Mexicans · Pakistanis · Poles · Portuguese · Quebecers · Roma · Romanians · Russians · Serbs · Turks
Atheism · Bahá'í · Catholicism · Christianity · Hinduism · Judaism · Mormonism · Islam · Neopaganism · Protestantism ·
Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching · Hate speech · Hate crime · Genocide · Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Pogrom · Race war · Religious persecution · Gay bashing · The Holocaust · Armenian Genocide · Blood libel · Black Legend · Paternalism
Discriminatory Hate groups · Aryanism · Ku Klux Klan · Neo-Nazism · American Nazi Party · South African National Party · Kahanism · Supremacism · Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · LGBT rights · Women's/Universal suffrage · Feminism · Masculism Men's/Fathers rights Children's rights · Youth rights · Disability rights · Inclusion · Autistic rights · Equalism
Discriminatory Race/Religion/Sex segregation · Apartheid · Redlining · Internment Anti-discriminatory Emancipation · Civil rights · Desegregation · Integration Counter-discriminatoryLusophobia Affirmative action · Racial quota · Reservation · Reparations · Forced busing
DiscriminatoryLusophobia Anti-miscegenation · Anti-immigration · Alien and Sedition Acts · Jim Crow laws · Black codes · Apartheid laws · Ketuanan Melayu · Nuremberg Laws Anti-discriminatory List of anti-discrimination acts 14th Amendment · Crime of apartheid Nepotism · Cronyism · Colorism · Linguicism · Ethnocentrism · Triumphalism · Adultcentrism · Isolationism · Gynocentrism · Androcentrism · Economic discrimination
Bigotry · Prejudice · Supremacism · Intolerance · Tolerance · Diversity · Multiculturalism · Political correctness · Reverse discrimination · Eugenics · Racialism · Speciesism
Lusophobia (Lusofobia) is a hostility toward Portugal or the Portuguese language. Like Lusitanic, the word derives from Lusitania, an Ancient Roman province, and phobia that means "fear". The term is used in Portuguese speaking countries, and its use in the English language has been limited.

Early uses
Portugal is now a stable democracy within the European Union (joined the European Economic Community in 1986), which has experienced considerable economic growth and economic development. After 1974 Carnation Revolution, not only have many Portuguese living overseas returned (including those living in the Portuguese colonies until the 1970s), thereby reversing a historical trend, but there has also been considerable migration from Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and Brazil since the 1990s, in addition to the earlier migratory wave from the PALOP countries to Portugal that started in the late 1970s.
Several hundred thousand Portuguese emigrants arrived during the 1960s - 1980s period, and even before, in such places like the United States, Germany, France, Switzerland or Luxembourg, are in general highly regarded as a very productive, efficient and non-problematic workforce. Many of these emigrants, at least on the beginning of their foreign ventures, worked in low ranked occupations which may have raised a perception of the Portuguese as an inferior people in those countries. However, in the past, Portuguese emigrants were also disdained in Portugal by some sectors among the local population, including those employed in the large and usually inefficient public sector with whom emigrants had to deal in order to solve their personal bureaucratic affairs in Portugal. This can be explained by the fact that many emigrants returned to Portugal to spend their holidays or settle, used to frequently show a preceived ostensive "nouveau riche" aptitude, and non-emigrant Portuguese workers who had higher ranked, higher speciallized jobs in Portugal but very lower wages, used to feel unconfortable with this. For the other side, many emigrants liked to spoke their adoptive country languages instead of Portuguese, even in crowded public places in Portugal, prompting other people to laugh and comment the situation. A level of social prejudice towards Portugal was seen among some Portuguese emigrants who used to profess disgust over the Portuguese economy and society, openly criticizing their home country for lack of development and organisation and comparing it, often very negatively, with the more developed and wealthy countries where they were living in as expatriates. Thousands of Portuguese people living abroad due to economic emigration before the 1980s, didn't return to Portugal, and their heirs lost their contact with Portugal and the Portuguese culture completely.
One research study from 2003, indicated that among the then 15 European Union countries, Portuguese people lead the most sedentary lifestyles, followed by Germans, Spaniards and Belgians all in second place, and Greeks in the third place. Although sedentarism and laziness are quite different concepts, the published research study was enough to see UK's BBC presenting Portugal as the "laziest nation in Europe", a typical degree of racial prejudice and stereotyping of the Portuguese as lazy which is oftenly seen among central and northern Europeans towards Lusitanic people.
Related to the notable economic development that has been seen since the 1980s in Portugal, the development of tourism, which has allowed a display of the national cultural heritage, particularly in regards to architecture, has further improving popular opinions internationally. The organisation of Expo 98 world fair in Lisbon, the 2001 European Culture Capital in Porto and the Euro 2004, were also important for the public perception of Portugal among other nations.

Monday, October 29, 2007


William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892March 5, 1984) was a three-time Academy Award-nominated American actor, noted for his sophisticated, cynical roles. He is most widely known for portraying Nick Charles, husband of Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) in six Thin Man films.

Childhood
After high school, he left home for New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 18. In 1912 Powell graduated from the AADA, and worked in some vaudeville and stock companies. After several successful experiences on the Broadway stage, he began his Hollywood career in 1922 playing a small role in a production of Sherlock Holmes that starred John Barrymore as the great detective. His most memorable role in silent movies was as a bitter film director opposite Emil Jannings' Academy Award-winning performance as a fallen general in The Last Command (1928), which led to Powell's first starring role as amateur detective Philo Vance in The Canary Murder Case (1929).
Perhaps Powell's most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934. The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell to showcase his sophisticated charm and his witty sense of humor, and he received his first Academy Award nomination for The Thin Man. Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the Thin Man films. Their partnership was one of Hollywood's most prolific on-screen pairings, with the couple appearing in 14 films together.
He and Loy also starred in the Best Picture of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, with Powell in the title role and Loy as Ziegfeld's wife Billie Burke. That same year, he also received his second Academy Award nomination, for the comedy My Man Godfrey.
In 1935, he starred with Jean Harlow in Reckless. Soon it developed into a serious romance, though she died in 1937 before they could marry. His distress over her death, as well as his own battle with colon cancer around the same time, caused him to accept fewer acting roles.
His career slowed considerably in the 1940s, although in 1947 he received his third Academy Award nomination for his work in Life with Father. His last film was Mister Roberts in 1955, with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, and Jack Lemmon. Despite numerous entreaties to return to the screen, Powell refused all offers, happy in his retirement.

Film career
In 1915, he married Eileen Wilson, with whom he had his only child, William David Powell, before an amicable divorce in 1930. (Powell's son became a television writer and producer before a period of ill health led to his suicide in 1968.)
In 1931, Powell married actress Carole Lombard. The marriage lasted just over two years. They were divorced in 1933, though they too remained on good terms, even starring together in the comedy, My Man Godfrey, three years later.
A close relationship with Jean Harlow, begun in 1935, was cut short by her untimely death in 1937. It is reported that a single white gardenia with an unsigned note, but presumed to be written by Powell, that read "Good night, my dearest darling" were placed in her hands in her grave. He also paid for her final resting place—the $25,000, 9×10-foot private room lined with multicolored imported marble located in the "Sanctuary of Benediction".
On January 6, 1940, he married actress Diana Lewis, whom he called "Mousie." Although the couple had only met for the first time three weeks before their wedding, they remained married until Powell's death.
On March 5, 1984, Powell died of cardiac arrest in Palm Springs, California at the age of 91, some thirty years after his retirement. His widow, Diana Lewis, died in 1997.

Personal life

William Powell Honors

1935 Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - The Thin Man
1937 Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - My Man Godfrey
1948 Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - Life with Father Academy Awards nominations
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1636 Vine Street. He won the New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Life With Father.

Other
Myrna Loy: Pretty Girl. William Powell: Yes. She's a nice type. Myrna Loy: You got types? William Powell: Only you, darling. Lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.
William Powell: Oh, it's alright, Joe. It's my dog. And uh, my wife. Myrna Loy: Well, you might have mentioned me on the first billing.
William Powell: Oh, I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune.
Myrna Loy: I read you were shot five times in the tabloids.
William Powell: It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids.
William Powell: How'd you like Grant's tomb? Myrna Loy: It's lovely. I'm having a copy made for you.
William Powell: Come on. Let's get something to eat. I'm thirsty.
William Powell: These flowers just came for you, miss. Where shall I put them? Carole Lombard: What difference does it make where one puts flowers when one's heart is breaking? William Powell: Yes, miss. Shall I put them on the piano?
William Powell: I don't go to church to be preached at as though I were some lost sheep. Irene Dunne: Clare, you don't seem to understand what the church is for. William Powell: Vinnie, if there's one place the church should leave alone, it's a man's soul!

The Thin Man, 1934
The Thin Man, 1934
The Thin Man, 1934
The Thin Man, 1934
After The Thin Man, 1936
My Man Godfrey, 1936
Life with Father, 1947 Further reading

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Bandar Seri Begawan
Bandar Seri Begawan, (Malay: Bandar Seri Begawan, Jawi: بندر سري بگاوان ) estimated population 46,229 (1991), is the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei. The city is the home of producers of furniture, textiles, handicrafts, and timber.
This city is also unique in that it also incorporates a nearby water village, Kampung Ayer, which has houses on stilts and stretches out into the sea for about 500 meters (1,640 ft). The Malay Technology Museum contains exhibits about water village architecture.

Bandar Seri Begawan Geography
The climate of Bandar Seri Begawan is tropical with hot and wet throughout the year.

Climate

Transportation
Bandar Seri Begawan, being the capital of Brunei, is connected to all parts of the country by the road network.

Land
Brunei International Airport, the only international airport, serves not only Bandar Seri Begawan but also the whole of Brunei. It is located around 11 km from the town centre and can be reached in 10 minutes via the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Highway.

Air
A water taxi service known locally as 'penambang' is available for transportation between downtown Bandar Seri Begawan to Kampong Ayer. In addition to that a speedboat is also available for passengers travelling to and from Bangar and Limbang.

Water
Bandar Seri Begawan is the site of the Royal Ceremonial Hall or Lapau, Royal Regalia Building, the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, the Malay Technology Museum, and the Brunei History Center.
The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, built in 1958, features a giant golden dome and a luxurious interior of Italian marble walls, carpeting and an elevator. It also has opulent underground tunnels, which are used by the sultan on private journeys through the town.

Education

Anthony Burgess's Brunei novel Devil of a State is set in Bandar Seri Begawan. The construction of the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque is a major theme in the book.
Matt Harding, from the Internet phenomenon "Where the Hell is Matt?," danced in Bandar Seri Begawan for his second travel video, seen here at [2].

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Peter Waldo
Peter Waldo or Valdo or Pierre de Vaux (died 1218) was the founder of a radical ascetic Christian movement in 12th-century France.
Specific details of his life are largely unknown. It is believed that he was a rich merchant in Lyon making his money by "wicked usury", when around 1160 he was transformed into a radical Christian and gave his real estate to his wife, and the remainder of his belongings he distributed as alms to the poor.
Waldo also began to preach and teach on the streets, based on his ideas of simplicity and poverty notably that "No man can serve two masters, God and mammon." By 1170 he had gathered a number of followers and they came to be called The poor men of Lyon, the poor of Lombardy, or the Poor. They were also referred to as the Waldensians (or Waldenses).
They were distinct from the Albigensians and Cathars.
The Catholic church branded followers of Waldo's ideas heretics and strongly persecuted them, many were massacred in various European countries during the 12th and 13th centuries.
The Waldensian movement is characterised by lay preaching, voluntary poverty and a life of good works.
Most followers were absorbed into the new Protestant churches at the time of the Reformation. They maintain their separate identity in the valley of the Pellice River in Piedmont, an Alpine region of what is now Northern Italy.
In the 1970s the Italian Waldensians, organized in the Waldensian Evangelical Church, joined the Methodists to form the Union of Waldensian and Methodist Churches.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Michael Rostovtzeff
Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev (Russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Росто́вцев) (10 November [O.S. October 29] 1870, Zhitomir, UkraineOctober 20, 1952, New Haven, USA) was one of the 20th century's foremost authorities on ancient Greek, Iranian, and Roman history.
Upon completing his studies at the universities of Kiev and St. Petersburg, Rostovtsev served as an assistant and then as a full professor at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1918, he emigrated to the United States, where he accepted a chair at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before moving to Yale University in 1925. He oversaw all archaeological activities of the latter institution in general and the excavations of Dura-Europos in particular.
While working in Russia, Rostovtsev was recognized as the world's preeminent authority on ancient history of South Russia and Ukraine. He summed up his vast knowledge on the subject in Iranians and Greeks in South Russia (1922) and Skythien und der Bosporus (1925). His most important archaeological findings at Yale were described in Dura-Europos and Its Art (1938).
Rostovtsev is remembered as the first historian to examine the ancient economies in terms of capitalism and revolutions. Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (1926) and A Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (1941) were his pioneering works that transferred the attention of historians from military or political events to global economic or social problems that had been formerly hidden behind their surface.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Capture of Fort Erie
The Capture of Fort Erie by American forces in 1814 was an incident in the War of 1812 between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States. The British garrison was outnumbered but surrendered prematurely, in the view of British commanders.

Capture of Fort Erie Aftermath
John R. Elting, Amateurs to Arms, Da Capo Press, New York, 1995, ISBN 0-306-80653-3

Wednesday, October 24, 2007


Raymond Poincaré (August 20, 1860October 15, 1934) was a French conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of France on five separate occasions and as President of France from 1913 to 1920.
Born in Bar-le-Duc, Meuse, France, the son of Nicolas Antonin Hélène Poincaré, a distinguished civil servant and meteorologist. Educated at the University of Paris, Raymond was called to the Paris bar, and was for some time law editor of the Voltaire.
As a lawyer, he successfully defended Jules Verne in a libel suit presented against the famous author by the chemist Eugène Turpin, inventor of the explosive Melinite, who claimed that the "mad scientist" character in Verne's book "Facing the Flag" was based on himself. (A letter which Verne later sent to his brother Paul seems to suggest that, though acquitted due to Poincaré's spirited defence, Verne did intend to defame Turpin.)
Poincaré had served for over a year in the Department of Agriculture when in 1887 he was elected deputy for the Meuse. He made a great reputation in the Chamber as an economist, and sat on the budget commissions of 18901891 and 1892. He was minister of education, fine arts and religion in the first cabinet (April – November 1893) of Charles Dupuy, and minister of finance in the second and third (May 1894 – January 1895).
In Alexandre Ribot's cabinet Poincaré became minister of public instruction. Although he was excluded from the Radical cabinet which followed, the revised scheme of death duties proposed by the new ministry was based upon his proposals of the previous year. He became vice-president of the chamber in the autumn of 1895, and in spite of the bitter hostility of the Radicals retained his position in 1896 and 1897.
Along with other followers of "Opportunist" Léon Gambetta, Poincaré founded the Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD) in 1902, which became the most important center-right party under the Third Republic. In 1906 he returned to the ministry of finance in the short-lived Sarrien ministry. Poincaré had retained his practice at the bar during his political career, and he published several volumes of essays on literary and political subjects.

World War I
Changes

Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Alexandre Millerand - Minister of War
Théodore Steeg - Minister of the Interior
Louis Lucien Klotz - Minister of Finance
Léon Bourgeois - Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
Aristide Briand - Minister of Justice
Théophile Delcassé - Minister of Marine
Gabriel Guist'hau - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
Jules Pams - Minister of Agriculture
Albert Lebrun - Minister of Colonies
Jean Dupuy - Minister of Public Works, Posts, and Telegraphs
Fernand David - Minister of Commerce and Industry
12 January 1913 - Albert Lebrun succeeds Millerand as Minister of War. René Besnard succeeds Lebrun as Minister of Colonies. Poincaré's First Ministry, 21 January 1912 – 21 January 1913
Changes

Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
André Maginot - Minister of War
Maurice Maunoury - Minister of the Interior
Charles de Lasteyrie - Minister of Finance
Albert Peyronnet - Minister of Labour
Louis Barthou - Minister of Justice
Flaminius Raiberti - Minister of Marine
Léon Bérard - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
Henry Chéron - Minister of Agriculture
Albert Sarraut - Minister of Colonies
Yves Le Trocquer - Minister of Public Works
Paul Strauss - Minister of Hygiene, Welfare Work, and Social Security Provisions
Lucien Dior - Minister of Commerce and Industry
Charles Reibel - Minister of Liberated Regions
5 October 1922 - Maurice Colrat succeeds Barthou as Minister of Justice. Poincaré's Fourth Ministry, 23 July 1926 – 11 November 1928
Second Republic: Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure | Louis-Eugène Cavaignac | Louis Napoleon Bonaparte Interregnum: Louis Jules Trochu | BlumRaymond Poincaré Fourth Republic: Ramadier | Schuman | Marie | Schuman | Queuille | Bidault | Queuille | Pleven | Queuille | Pleven | Faure | Pinay | Mayer | Laniel | Mendès-France | Faure | Mollet | Bourgès-Maunoury | Gaillard | Pflimlin | de Gaulle Fifth Republic: Debré | Pompidou | Couve de Murville | Chaban-Delmas | Messmer | Chirac | Barre | Mauroy | Fabius | Chirac | Rocard | Cresson | Bérégovoy | Balladur | Juppé | Jospin | Raffarin | de Villepin | Fillon

Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council
Aristide Briand - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Paul Painlevé - Minister of War
André Tardieu - Minister of the Interior
Henry Chéron - Minister of Finance
Louis Loucheur - Minister of Labour, Hygiene, Welfare Work, and Social Security Provisions
Louis Barthou - Minister of Justice
Georges Leygues - Minister of Marine
Laurent Eynac - Minister of Air
Pierre Marraud - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
Louis Antériou - Minister of Pensions
Jean Hennessy - Minister of Agriculture
André Maginot - Minister of Colonies
Pierre Forgeot - Minister of Public Works
Georges Bonnefous - Minister of Commerce and Industry

Tuesday, October 23, 2007


  Part of a series of articles on Jews and Judaism
Who is a Jew? · Etymology · Culture
Judaism · Core principles God · Tanakh (Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim) Mitzvot (613) · Talmud · Halakha Holidays · Prayer · Tzedakah Ethics · Kabbalah · Customs · Midrash
Jewish ethnic divisions Ashkenazi · Sephardi · Mizrahi
Population (historical) · By country Israel · Iran · Australia · USA Russia/USSR · Poland · Canada Germany · France · England · Scotland India · Spain · Portugal · Latin America Under Muslim rule · Turkey · Iraq · Lebanon · Syria Lists of Jews · Crypto-Judaism
Jewish denominations · RabbisHistory of the Jews during World War II Orthodox · Conservative · Reform Reconstructionist · Liberal · Karaite Alternative · Renewal
Jewish languages Hebrew · Yiddish · Judeo-Persian Ladino · Judeo-Aramaic · Judeo-Arabic History · Timeline · Leaders Ancient · Temple · Babylonian exile Jerusalem (in Judaism · Timeline) Hasmoneans · Sanhedrin · Schisms Pharisees · Jewish-Roman wars Relationship with Christianity; with Islam Diaspora · Middle Ages · Sabbateans Hasidism · Haskalah · Emancipation Holocaust · Aliyah · Israel (History) Arab conflict · Land of Israel
Persecution · Antisemitism History of antisemitism New antisemitism
Political movements · Zionism Labor Zionism · Revisionist Zionism Religious Zionism · General Zionism The Bund · World Agudath Israel Jewish feminism · Israeli politics
By World War II, nearly all Jewish companies had either collapsed under financial pressure and declining profits, or had been forced to sell out to the Nazi-German government as part of the "Aryanization" policy inaugurated in 1937. As the war started, large massacres of Jews took place. Pogroms were also encouraged by the Nazis, especially early in the war before the larger mass killings began. The first of these pogroms was Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany, often called Pogromnacht, in which Jewish homes and business were destroyed and up to 200 Jews were killed. In the city of Lvov, Ukrainian nationalists organized two large pogroms in July, 1941 in which around 6,000 Jews were murdered. In Lithuania, anti-Soviet partisan groups engaged in anti-Jewish pogroms on the 25th and 26nd of June, 1941, before Nazi forces even arrived, killing about 3,800 Jews and burning synagogues and Jewish shops. Perhaps the deadliest of these Holocaust-era pogroms was the Iaşi pogrom in Romania, in which as many as 14,000 Jews were killed by Romanian citizens, police, and military officials. By December 1941, Adolf Hitler decided to completely exterminate European Jews. In January 1942, during the Wannsee conference, several Nazi leaders discussed the details of the "Final Solution of the Jewish question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage). Dr. Josef Bühler urged Reinhard Heydrich to proceed with the Final Solution in the General Government. They began to systematically deport Jewish populations from the ghettos and all occupied territories to the seven camps designated as Vernichtungslager, or extermination camps: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Maly Trostenets, Sobibór and Treblinka II. Sebastian Haffner published the analysis in 1978 that Hitler from December 1941 accepted the failure of his goal to dominate Europe forever on his declaration of war against the United States, but that his withdrawal and apparent calm thereafter was sustained by the achievement of his second goal—the extermination of the Jews. Even as the Nazi war machine faltered in the last years of the war, precious military resources such as fuel, transport, munitions, soldiers and industrial resources were still being heavily diverted away from the war and towards the death camps. By the end of the war, much of the Jewish population of Europe had been killed in the Holocaust. Poland, home of the largest Jewish community in the world before the war, had had over 90% of its Jewish population, or about 3,000,000 Jews, killed. Greece, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Lithuania, Bohemia, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Latvia each had over 70% of their Jewish population destroyed. Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Norway, and Estonia lost around half of their Jewish population, the Soviet Union over one third of its Jews, and even countries such as France and Italy had each seen around a quarter of their Jewish population killed. Some Jews outside Europe under Nazi occupation were also affected by the Holocaust and treatment from the Nazis.

Significant places

Anti-Semitism
Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa
Ardeatine massacre
Aryanization
Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje
Ghettos in occupied Europe 1939 - 1944
Ghetto uprising
History of the Jews
Israel
Jewish Brigade
Jewish resistance movement
Jews outside Europe under Nazi occupation
Judenfrei
Racial policy of Nazi Germany
Rosenstrasse protest
The Holocaust
Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa
Zydowski Zwiazek Walki

Monday, October 22, 2007

Ball in and out of play
The Ball In and Out of Play is the ninth law of the Laws of the Game of football (soccer), and describes to the two basic states of play in the game.

Out of play
When the ball has left the field of play or play has been stopped by the referee, it becomes out of play until play is recommenced by the appropriate restart.
When the ball is out of play the ball is "dead"; players must not play the ball or interfere with their opponents, and goals can not be scored.
By definition, fouls do not occur when the ball is out of play, however misconduct may occur.
Substitutions may only be made when the ball is out of play (and then only with the permission of the referee).

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Microsoft MVP
The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Program is an award and recognition program run by Microsoft. Microsoft MVPs are volunteers who have been awarded for providing technical expertise towards communities supporting Microsoft products or technologies. An MVP is awarded for contributions over the past year.
The MVP program grew out of the developer community; rumor has it the initials stood for "Most Voluble Professional"

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Vivisection
Etymologically, vivisection refers to the dissection of, or any cutting or surgery upon, a living organism. More generally, it is used to describe any invasive experiment upon living animals.
For vivisection on animals, see Animal testing.
For the history of animal vivisection, see History of animal testing
For vivisection on human beings, see Human experimentation.

Friday, October 19, 2007


Wars Timeline
Senior officers Rank insignia Awards Oaths
Land Forces Navy
Polish Land Forces (Polish: Wojska Lądowe RP) is a branch of Poland's Armed Forces.

Structure

Personel - ~158,000 (~118,000 professionals, ~50,000 conscripts) Troop Strength

Main Battle Tanks

  • T-72M1 (586)
    PT-91 Twardy (232)
    Leopard 2A4 (128, 123 more to be bought soon)
    Armoured Fighting Vehicles

    • BWP-1 IFV (1298)
      BWR-1K (22) - reconnaissance variant of BWP-1
      BWR-1S (16) - reconnaissance variant of BWP-1
      Rosomak IFV (43)
      Rosomak-1 APC (61)
      Ryś-Med APC (5)
      BRDM-2 (323)
      HMMWV (222)
      Engineering and Support Vehicles

      • WZT-1 ARV (?)
        WZT-2 ARV (?)
        WZT-3 ARV (29)
        Bergepanzer 2A2 ARV (70)
        BLG-67 AVLB (?)
        Leopard Biber AVLB (46)
        MID engineering tank (38)
        Bozena (14)
        Artillery

        • 2S1 Goździk 122mm self-propelled howitzer ( 532)
          Dana 152mm self-propelled howitzer (111)
          RM-70 122mm multiple-launch rocket system ( 30)
          BM-21 Grad 122mm multiple-launch rocket system (219)
          WR-40 Langusta 122mm multiple-launch rocket system
          Mortar 120mm (185)
          Mortar 98mm (75)
          Anti-Tank Weapons

          • Spike-LR Launcher ATGM (264)
            Spike-ER Launcher ATGM (160)
            AT-4 Spigot ATGM (115)
            AT-5 Spandrel ATGM (18)
            AT-7Saxhorn ATGM (16)
            Anti-Aircraft Artillery

            • SA-Strzała-2M SAM (627)
              Grom SAM (311)
              ZU-23-2 AAA (66)
              ZUR-23-2KG AAA (344)
              ZSU-23-4 "Szyłka" SPAAG (44)
              ZSU-23-4MP "Biała" (8 on order - modernistion of Szyłka)
              PZA Loara (48) -on order
              SA-6 Kub-M SPSAM (80)
              SA-8 Osa AK/AKM SPSAM (64)
              SA-4 Krug-M SPSAM (27)
              Aircraft

              • Mil Mi-24 (32)
                Mil Mi-17 (13)
                Mil Mi-8 (24)
                Mil Mi-2 (46)
                PZL W-3 Sokół (37)
                Leopard 2A4 of the Polish Army
                Patria AMV
                Dzik 3 multi-purpose armoured car of the Polish Land Forces
                Polish HMMWV in Iraq
                ZSU-23-4MP "Biała" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun
                Polish ZU-23-2 mounted on Star truck
                RM-85 or the unarmored version of RM-70
                Mil Mi-24 Helicopter of the Polish Land Forces
                Polish Army