Wednesday, February 27, 2008


Joanne "Jo" Murray, née Rowling OBE (born 31 July 1965), She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and One Parent Families.

Name
Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling née Volant on 31 July 1965 at Yate, Gloucestershire, England, UK 10 miles (16.1 km) northeast of Bristol.

Early life

Harry Potter

Main article: Harry PotterJoanne Rowling Harry Potter books

Main article: Harry Potter film series Harry Potter films
Rowling has stated that she plans to continue writing after the publication of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She declared in a December 2005 interview that she will most likely not use a new pen name as the press would quickly discover her true identity.

After Harry Potter
In 2001, Rowling purchased a luxurious 19th century estate house, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay, near Aberfeldy, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.

Current personal life
Rowling has had a difficult relationship with the press. She admits to being "thin-skinned" and dislikes the fickle nature of reporting.

Legal dispute
Rowling contributes substantially to charities that combat poverty and social inequality. She also gives to organizations that aid children, one parent families, and multiple sclerosis research. Rowling said, "I think you have a moral responsibility when you've been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently."

Philanthropy
Rowling, once a single parent herself, is now president of One Parent Families.

One Parent Families
In 2001, the UK fundraiser Comic Relief asked three bestselling British authors – cookery writer and TV presenter Delia Smith, Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding, and Rowling – to submit booklets related to their most famous works for publication.

Comic Relief
Rowling has contributed money and support for research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from which her mother died in 1990. Rowling said this death heavily affected her writing

Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland
On 1 August and 2 August 2006 she read alongside Stephen King and John Irving at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Profits from the event were donated to the Haven Foundation, a charity that aids artists and performers left uninsurable and unable to work, and the medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.

Other donations

In June 2000, Queen Elizabeth II made Rowling an officer of the Order of the British Empire. Bibliography

"The First It Girl: J.K. Rowling reviews Decca: the Letters of Jessica Mitford ed by Peter Y Sussman", The Daily Telegraph 26 July 2006
Introduction to "Ending Child Poverty" in Moving Britain Forward. Selected Speeches 1997-2006 by Gordon Brown, Bloomsbury (2006)
Foreword to the anthology Magic, edited by Gil McNeil and Sarah Brown, Bloomsbury (2002)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu (born March 3, 1930) is a Romanian politician. He was the elected President of Romania for eleven years (three terms), from 1990 to 1992, 1992 to 1996, and 2000 to 2004. His first and second terms were separated from the third term by the presidency of Emil Constantinescu. His successor is the former Democratic Party leader Traian Băsescu. Currently, Iliescu is Senator for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which is the largest single political party in Romania. The PSD was one of several parties formed after the breakup of the National Salvation Front, in the early 1990s.
Iliescu is widely recognized as the predominant figure in the first fifteen years of post-1989 Romanian Revolution politics. During his terms Romanian politics stabilized, and Romania joined NATO. However, he is often accused by political opponents of retaining communist convictions and allegiances, as well as tolerating corruption in the party he led (successively named FSN, FDSN, PDSR, and PSD) and his administrations.
In 2005, investigations began that could eventually lead to Iliescu's trial on a number of charges, including crimes against humanity, related to considerable abuses of power he allegedly committed during the years 1989-1990, especially during the Romanian Revolution and the violent miners' riots of the early and mid-1990s. Supporters of Iliescu and Iliescu himself claim that the investigations are an instrument of political vengeance by his opponents currently in power.

Iliescu's father, Alexandru Iliescu, was a railroad worker with Communist views during the period in which the Romanian Communist Party was banned by the authorities. In 1931, he went to the Soviet Union to take part in the Communist Party Congress of Gorikovo, near Moscow. He remained in the USSR for the next four years and was arrested upon his return, dying in prison in 1945. During his time in the Soviet Union, Alexandru Iliescu divorced and married Mariţa, a chambermaid.

Born in Olteniţa, Iliescu studied fluid mechanics at the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute and then as a foreign student at the Energy Institute of the Moscow University. During his stay in Moscow, he was the secretary of the "Association of Romanian Students" it is alleged that he knew Mikhail Gorbachev, although Iliescu always denied this.
Politics of Romania
Iliescu: Official biography (in Romanian)
Vladimir Alexe — Ion Iliescu - biografia secretă: "Candidatul manciurian" (Ion Iliescu - The Secret Biography: "The Manchurian Candidate"); 2000; ISBN 973-581-036-0
The supplement dedicated to Iliescu (in Romanian), published by Academia Caţavencu, 22 December 2004

Monday, February 25, 2008

Eumolpus
In Greek mythology, Eumolpus (also Eumolpos) was the son of Poseidon and Chione (or Hermes and Aglaulus).
According to Apollodorus,
Eumolpus was an excellent musician and singer; he played the aulos and the lyre. He won a musical contest in the funereal games of Pelias. He taught music to Heracles.
During a war between Athens and Eleusis, Eumolpus sided with Eleusis. His son, Himmarados, was killed by King Erechtheus. In some sources, Erechtheus also killed Eumolpus and that Poseidon asked Zeus to avenge his son's death. Zeus killed Erechtheus with a lightning bolt or Poseidon made the earth open up and swallow Erechtheus.
Eleusis lost the battle with Athens but the Eumolpides and Kerykes, two families of priests to Demeter, continued the Eleusinian mysteries. Eumolpus' youngest son, Herald-Keryx founded the lines.

Sunday, February 24, 2008


Coordinates: 53°08′43″N 0°20′25″E / 53.1453, 0.3402
Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish within the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Located along the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, it is 37 miles (60 km) east of the city of Lincoln, and has a total resident population of 18,910.
Skegness is perhaps best known as the location of the first Butlins holiday resort, built in 1936, which remains within the area to this day, and in this capacity, remains one of the most famous seaside resorts in the United Kingdom.

Geography

Skegness History
The name indicates that Skegness has its origin in the Danish period of settlement in England. Although it has been suggested that it looks like a foot, a hypothetical Viking responsible for establishing the earliest settlement on this location, it is much more likely to have derived from words which appear in modern Danish as skæg, beard and næs, nose or in geographical terms, headland.

Early history
See also: Butlins
The land was part of the Earl of Scarborough's estate and he, or his agent H.V.Tippet The pier has since undergone major refurbishment and is now once again a thriving tourist attraction, although it no longer extends far seaward of the high tide line.

Resort town and Butlins
In March 2005, Skegness took the top spot in a survey by Yours magazine, looking at the best retirement places in the UK. Yours researchers visited sixty likely towns, and factors involved in judging included house prices, hospital waiting lists, the crime rate, council tax rates, activities and attractions, weather patterns and ease of transport. It has also been described by Lonely Planet's Great Britain guide as "everything you could want" in a seaside resort.
Present day
Today the town's tourist industry mainly caters for working-class holiday-makers and day-trippers from Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and other areas of the East Midlands. Skegness has been dubbed "the Blackpool of the East Coast" or "Nottingham by the Sea", and has a famous mascot, the Jolly Fisherman (designed by John Hassall in 1908 for the Great Northern Railway), and a slogan - Skegness is so bracing - a reference to the chilly prevailing north-easterly winds that can and frequently do blow off the North Sea. The town is popularly known as Skeg, Skeggy or Skegvegas. Further up the coast are the other holiday resorts of Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards.
The seafront teems with a variety of ways for visiting tourists to spend their money. The main strip of road along the beach is a kaleidoscope of neon and flashing lights advertising arcade machines, slot machines, fairground rides, crazy golf, fish-and-chip shops and various bars. There are also seasonal shops selling cheap ways to entertain oneself, such as kites and buckets-and-spades - such quieter pleasures can be enjoyed on the long wide award-winning beach, which in summer features a fine herd of donkeys for riding. The town is also a major centre for bowls, and is the home to the world's premier Meccano exhibition, annually staged in the Embassy Theatre, on the Grand Parade by the seafront. Behind the Embassy is Botton's Pleasure Beach, featuring roller coasters, mini merry-go-round (the Gallopers), dodgems and many traditional and modern rides, as well as the annual spectacular end-of-season firework display.
There are large Morrisons and Tesco supermarkets in the centre of the town near the railway station, and a Co-op in the Hildreds Centre shopping area. Lumley Road is the main shopping area, with plenty of fish and chip shops and pubs. To the south of the town is Gibraltar Point, a nature reserve on the northern limit of The Wash.
On 2007-08-16, a huge fire hit an entertainment complex on the Skegness front. No one was injured. The fire swept through The Parade, Lucky Strike Arcade and Buster's Fun Pub.

Tourist Industry
On the southern foreshore sits a popular family attraction, the Fairy Dell paddling pool. Closed by the district council because of health and safety fears in 2004, the pool soon became the centre of controversy as people from Skegness, elsewhere in the country and as far afield as Australia voiced their dismay at the loss of such a time-honoured free facility. Taxpayers and town councillors joined forces with the local press to campaign for the Fairy Dell to be reopened, and the district council gave way to public pressure and promised to have it back in operation by summer 2006.
On 22nd May 2006, the Fairy Dell re-opened following a major refurbishment during which many improvements were made to the pool such as clean-filtered water and extra water features. [1]
In October 2005, the East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust closed the Scarborough Ward at Skegness Hospital as part of a package of money-saving measures. Locals were outraged by the decision, because the ward represented about a third of the hospital's entire capacity and also provided palliative care. Campaigners marched through the streets and held up the traffic, then later called for the resignations of the PCT board members after they turned down a £100,000 donation offered by East Lindsey District Council to enable the ward to remain open through the winter. The PCT said the donation would "impinge" on its duties, and could be considered "unlawful" if accepted.

Local politics

Transport
Fine beaches link the coastal towns, and there are many large caravan parks in the surrounding countryside. One caravan park a short distance to the north of the town has its own airfield, with a 755 metre grass runway. Visiting pilots can call the airfield on 132.425 MHz, although PPR (Prior Permission Required) is stated for landing. A number of years ago, pleasure flights used to operate from the aerodrome.

Airfield
The town is served by Skegness railway station, which is the terminus for the Grantham to Skegness Line. Trains run the full lengh of this and the Nottingham to Grantham Line to give direct fast convenient connections to the East Midlands.
Nottingham, Grantham, Boston and Sleaford have direct connections, while popular places such as Leicester, Derby, Lincoln and Kettering are only one change.

Railway
The A52 passes through the town from Boston to Mablethorpe and the A158 takes people from Lincoln to Skegness.

Roads
Skegness is also the home to the schools for most of the surrounding area's secondary education. Two schools cater for the 11–18 age range, St Clement's College (formerly known as the Earl of Scarborough High School) is a secondary modern on Burgh Road, and Skegness Grammar School on Vernon Road.

Media
Skegness Hospital is on Dorothy Avenue. The town also has two large GP practices, a mental health team and a PCT health centre. The latter being on Cecil Avenue.
Skegness Hair and Beauty A brand new website aimed at local Hair and Beauty outlets in and around Skegness

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Gino Cervi
Gino Cervi (May 3, 1901 - January 3, 1974) was an Italian actor of international fame.
Cervi was born in Bologna. His father was the theatre critic Antonio Cervi. In 1928, he married Nini Gordini (one of his partners) and they had a son, Tonino Cervi. Gino Cervi later became the grandfather of actress Valentina Cervi and producer Antonio Levesi Cervi.
Cervi was best known for his role of Giuseppe Bottazzi ("Peppone"), the Communist mayor in the Don Camillo movies of the 1950s and the 1960s. He shared great complicity and friendship with co-star Fernandel during the 15 years playing their respective roles in Don Camillo movies.
At the end of his career, he played Commissioner Maigret for six year in the Italian version of those murder stories, which ended with a movie Maigret in Pigalle (Mario Landi, 1966), produced by his son Antonio Cervi.
He died at Punta Ala in 1974.

Friday, February 22, 2008

John Arthur Blaikie
John Arthur Blaikie (born 1849) was an English poet and journalist, born in Paddington, Middlesex.

Thursday, February 21, 2008


Saint Nino (Georgian: წმინდა ნინო, Greek: Άγιη Νίνω),(sometimes Nina or Ninny) Equal to the Apostles and the Enlightener of Georgia, (c. 296 – c. 338 or 340) was a woman who preached and introduced Christianity in Georgia.
According to most widely traditional accounts, she was from Kolastra, Cappadocia (Greek: Καππαδοκία), was a relative of Saint George, and came to Georgia (ancient Iberia) from Constantinople. Other sources claim she was from Rome, Jerusalem or Gaul (modern France)[2] . She performed miraculous healings and converted the Georgian queen, Nana, and eventually the pagan king Mirian III of Iberia, who, lost in darkness and blinded on a hunting trip, found his way only after he prayed to "Nino's God". Mirian declared Christianity an official religion (c. 327) and Nino continued her missionary activities among Georgians until her death.
Her tomb is still shown at the Bodbe Monastery in Kakheti, eastern Georgia. St. Nino has become one of the most venerated saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church and her attribute, a Grapevine cross, is a symbol of Georgian Christianity.

Saint Nino Early Life
Nino reached the borders of ancient Georgian Kingdom of Iberia in about 320 A.D. There, she placed a Christian cross in the small town of Akhalkalaki and started preaching the Christian faith in Urbnis and finally reaching Mtskheta (the capital of Iberia). Iberian Kingdom has been influenced by the neighbouring Persian Empire which played an important role as the regional power in the Caucasus. The Iberian King Mirian III and his nation worshiped the syncretic gods of Armazi and Zaden. Soon after the arrival of Nino in Mstkheta, the Queen of Iberia Nana (daughter of King Asphagor) requested the audience with the Cappadician.
Queen Nana, who suffered from severe illness, had some knowledge of Christianity but not yet converted to it. Nino having restored her health, won to herself disciples from the Queen's attendants, including a Jewish priest and his daughter, Abiathar and Sidonia. Queen officially converted to Christianity and was baptized by Nino herself. King Mirian aware of his wife's religious conversion was tolerant of her new faith however, he secluded himself from Nino and the growing Christian community in his kingdom. However, his isolation to Christianity did not last for long. According to the legend, while on the hunting trip, the King was suddenly struck blind as the total darkness emerged in the woods. In a desperate state, King Mirian uttered the prayer to the God of St Nino:
If indeed that Christ whom the Captive had preached to his Wife was God, then let Him now deliver him from this darkness, that he too might forsake all other gods to worship Him.
In 334 A.D, Mirian commissioned the building of the first Christian church in Iberia which was finally completed in 379 A.D. on the spot where now stands the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mstkheta.
Nino, having witnessed the conversion of Iberia to Christianity, withdrew to the mountain pass in Bodbe, Kakheti. St Nino died soon after; immediately after her death, King Mirian commenced with the building of monastery in Bodbe where her tomb can still be seen in the churchyard.

St Nino in Iberia

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Phillip Forman
Phillip Forman (November 30, 1895 - August 17, 1978) was an American lawyer and judge.

Phillip Forman District court judgeship
Forman was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 9, 1959, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated by Albert Branson Maris. He was confirmed by the Senate on September 9, 1959, and received his commission on September 10, 1959. From March 31, 1961 until his death on August 17, 1978, Forman was a senior judge on that court.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008


War reparations refer to the monetary compensation intended to cover damage or injury during a war. Generally, the term war reparations refers to money or goods changing hands, rather than such property transfers as the annexation of land.

History
Rome imposed large indemnities on Carthage after the First and Second Punic Wars.
The 'unequal treaties' signed by the Qing dynasty in China, Japan, Korea, Siam, Persia, Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan and other countries in the nineteenth century included payments of indemnities to the victorious Western powers, mainly United Kingdom, France and Russia, and later Japan.
After the Franco-Prussian War, according to conditions of Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871), France was obliged to pay a war indemnity of 5 billion gold francs in 5 years. German troops remained in parts of France until the last installment of the indemnity was paid in September 1873, before the obliged date.

Pre-World War I

Main article: World War I reparations World War I

World War II
After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$20 billion mainly in machinery, manufacturing plants. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953. In addition, in accordance with the agreed upon policy of de-industrialisation and pastoralization of Germany, large numbers of civilian factories were dismantled for transport to France and the UK, or simply destroyed. Dismantling in the west stopped in 1950.
In the end, war victims in many countries were compensated by the property of Germans that were expelled after World War II. Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the United States pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. Historian John Gimbel, in his book Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany, states that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $10 billion dollars. German reparations were partly to be in the form of forced labor. By 1947, approximately 4,000,000 German POW's and civilians were used as forced labor (under various headings, such as "reparations labor" or "enforced labor") in the Soviet Union, France, the UK, Belgium and in Germany in U.S run "Military Labor Service Units".
See also: Eisenhower and German POWs
According to the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, Italy agreed to pay reparations of about US$125 million to Yugoslavia, US$105 million to Greece, US$100 million to the Soviet Union, US$25 million to Ethiopia, and US$5 million to Albania. Finland agreed to pay reparations of US$300 million to the Soviet Union. Hungary agreed to pay reparations of US$200 million to the Soviet Union, US$100 million to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Romania agreed to pay reparations of US$300 million to the Soviet Union. Bulgaria agreed to pay reparations of $50 million to Greece and $25 million to Yugoslavia. According to the articles of these treaties, the value of US$ was prescribed as 35 US dollars to one troy ounce of pure gold.

War reparations Japan
The main criticisms of war reparations have historically been:
John Maynard Keynes claimed that overall influence on the world economy would have been disastrous.
Some critics hold that war reparations were an indirect, but major, cause of World War II. After the end of World War I, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles imposed heavy war reparations upon Germany. Some claim these reparations payments exacerbated German economic problems, and the resulting hyperinflation ruined the chances of the Weimar Republic with the public and allowed the rise of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler. Others point to the fact that post-World War II reparations were calculated on the basis of the damages caused by Germans during World War I. After the Franco-Prussian War, the amount of reparations amount was set at a fixed value. Moreover, the post-World War I amount was subject to frequent recalculations, which encouraged Germany to obstruct payments. Eventually, all payments were cancelled after Hitler rose to power.
The experience of the post-World War I reparations led to the post-World War II solution, where winning powers were supposed to take reparations in machines and movable goods from the defeated nations, as opposed to money.

that they are punitive measures against the populace of the losing side only, rather than against the belligerent side, which may be the side that justly ought to make amends.
that in very many instances, the defeated populace's government waged war, and the people themselves had little or no role in deciding to wage war, and therefore war reparations are imposed on innocent people.
that after years of war, the populace of the losing side is likely already impoverished, and the imposition of war reparations therefore may drive the people into deeper poverty, both fueling long-term resentment of the victor and making the actual payments unlikely. Criticisms
After the Gulf War, Iraq accepted United Nations Security Council resolution 687, which declared Iraq's financial liability for damage caused in its invasion of Kuwait. The United Nations Compensation Commission ("UNCC") was established, and US$350 billion in claims were filed by governments, corporations, and individuals. Funds for these payments were to come from a 30% share of Iraq's oil revenues from the oil for food program. It was not anticipated that US$350 billion would become available for total payment of all reparations claims, so several schedules of prioritization were created over the years. The UNCC says that its prioritization of claims by individuals, ahead of claims by corporations and governments, "marked a significant step in the evolution of international claims practice."
Payments under this reparations program continue; as of July 2004, the UNCC stated that it had actually distributed US$18.4 billion to claimants.
There have been attempts to codify reparations both in the Statutes of the International Criminal Court and the UN Basic Principles on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims[1].

See also

Monday, February 18, 2008

Court of Auditors
The European Court of Auditors is one of five institutions of the European Union. Its "mission is to audit independently the collection and spending of European Union funds and, through this, assess the way that the European institutions discharge these functions".

Function
The Court of Auditors works independently, and is free to decide how to schedule its auditing activities, how and when to present its observations, and what publicity to give to its reports and opinions.
It has approximately 760 qualified staff, of whom about 250 are auditors. The auditors are divided into "audit groups". They prepare draft reports on which the Court takes decisions.
The auditors frequently go on tours of inspection to the other EU institutions, the member states and any country that receives aid from the EU. Indeed, although the Court's work largely concerns money for which the Commission is responsible, in practice 90% of this income and expenditure is managed by the national authorities.
The Court of Auditors has no legal powers of its own. If auditors discover fraud or irregularities they pass the information as quickly as possible to the EU bodies responsible, so they can take the appropriate action. For twelve years in a row the European Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the EU accounts,[1] stating that they cannot verify the location of 65% of EU funds, although independent financial experts place the figure at 93.4%. A large amount of the endemic fraud in the EU comes from CAP with funds disappearing in the Balkans and Russia.The court suggested that EU staff were abusing the disability system on a large scale, costing taxpayers £54 million a year. Half the claimants had psychological or stress-related complaints. A court official said: "These are not coal miners or deep-sea fishermen. It's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health."
Some paragraphs from EUROPA — European Union institutions and other bodies — The European Court of Auditors; the information on the EUROPA site is subject to a disclaimer and a copyright notice. As a general rule and unless otherwise indicated, the information available on the site may be reproduced on condition that the source is acknowledged. [2]

Wednesday, February 13, 2008


The Salt Lake Bees are a Pacific Coast League (PCL) minor league baseball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Bees serve as the Class AAA affiliate of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They play their home games at Franklin Covey Field, which was opened in 1994 and seats 15,500 fans. The current franchise dates from 1994, when Joe Buzas, owner of the PCL Portland Beavers, moved the team to Salt Lake City.
Known as the Salt Lake Buzz from 1994-2001, the team changed its name to the Salt Lake Stingers in 2002, the change forced by a trademark dilution lawsuit filed by Georgia Tech, whose Yellow Jacket mascot is named Buzz. Later that year, the Angels won the 2002 World Series and made history in game 7 when rookie pitcher John Lackey, called up from the Stingers earlier in the year, pitched and won the game. He became the first rookie to do so in nearly 100 years.
On October 27, 2005, the team announced the Stingers would henceforth be known as the Salt Lake Bees, the name of the original PCL franchise which played in Salt Lake City from 1915-1926. The official press release read, in part: "Owner, Larry H. Miller, announced today that the Salt Lake Stingers have officially changed the teams name to the Salt Lake Bees. The new logo, colors and uniforms were also unveiled. The change brings Salt Lake baseball back to its original franchise name and look when the state's first Pacific Coast League team was named the Bees in 1915."
The team was owned by former major league player Joe Buzas until his death in 2003. It is now owned by Larry H. Miller, who also owns the NBA Utah Jazz.

Triple-A
Pacific Coast League (1994-present)

  • Pacific Conference - North Division
    Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2001-present)
    Minnesota Twins (1994-2000)
    Salt Lake Bees (2006-present)
    Salt Lake Stingers (2002-2005)
    Salt Lake Buzz (1994-2001)
    Franklin Covey Field (1994-present)
    Bonneville Park Team history

    Salt Lake Bees Current roster (as of May 9, 2007)

    Henry Bonilla
    Jason Bulger
    Marcus Gwyn
    Matt Hensley
    Greg Jones
    Pedro Liriano
    Kasey Olenberger
    Chris Resop
    Jonathon Rouwenhorst
    Joe Saunders
    Phil Seibel
    Alex Serrano
    Steven Shell
    Jesse Smith
    Matt Wilhite
    Ervin Santana Pitchers

    Ryan Budde
    Jeff Mathis Outfielders

    Manager-Brian Harper
    Pitching Coach-Charles Nagy
    Jim Eppard - Hitting Coach
    Armando Rivas - Trainer
    Mike Bolduc - Strength and Conditioning

Tuesday, February 12, 2008


In geology, a fault or fault line is a planar rock fracture, which shows evidence of relative movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust are the result of shear motion and active fault zones are the causal locations of most earthquakes. Earthquakes are caused by energy release during rapid slippage along faults. The largest examples are at tectonic plate boundaries but many faults occur far from active plate boundaries. Since faults do not usually consist of a single, clean fracture, the term fault zone is used when referring to the zone of complex deformation that is associated with the fault plane.
The two sides of a non-vertical fault are called the hanging wall and footwall. By definition, the hanging wall occurs above the fault and the footwall occurs below the fault. This terminology comes from mining. When working a tabular ore body the miner stood with the footwall under his feet and with the hanging wall hanging above him.

Microfracturing and AMR theory
The sense of slip is defined by the relative movements of geological features present on either side of the fault plane and is a vector. The sense of slip defines the type of fault. This is distinct from the throw of the fault, which is the vertical offset. Heave is the measured horizontal offset of the fault.
The vector of slip can be qualitatively measured by fault bend folding, drag folding of strata on either side of the fault (figure 2), and the direction and magitude of heave and throw can be measured only by finding common intersection points on either side of the fault. In practise it is usually only possible to find the slip direction of faults, and an approximation of the heave and throw vector.

Slip, heave, throw
Faults can be categorized into three groups based on the sense of slip. A fault where the main sense of movement (or slip) on the fault plane is vertical is known as a dip-slip fault. Where the main sense of slip is horizontal the fault is known as a transcurrent or strike-slip fault. Oblique-slip faults have significant components of both strike and dip slip.
For all naming distinctions, it is the orientation of the net dip and sense of slip of the fault which must be considered, not the present-day orientation, which may have been altered by local or regional folding or tilting.


Strike-slip fault Fault types
Dip-slip faults include both normal and reverse. A normal fault occurs when the crust is extended. Alternatively such a fault can be called an extensional fault. The hanging wall moves downward, relative to the footwall. A downthrown block between two normal faults dipping towards each other is called a graben. An upthrown block between two normal faults dipping away from each other is called a horst. Low-angle normal faults with regional tectonic significance may be designated detachment faults.
A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault — the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall. Reverse faults are indicative of shortening of the crust. The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep, greater than 45°.
A thrust fault has the same sense of motion as a reverse fault, but with the dip of the fault plane at less than 45°. Thrust faults typically form ramps, flats and fault-bend (hanging wall and foot wall) folds. Thrust faults are responsible for forming nappes and klippen in the large thrust belts.
The fault plane is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. Flat segments of thrust fault planes are known as flats, and inclined sections of the thrust are known as ramps. Typically thrust faults move within formations by forming flats, and climb up section with ramps.
Fault-bend folds are formed by movement of the hangingwall over a non-planar fault surface and are found associated with both extensional and thrust faults.
Faults may be reactivated at a later time with the movement in the opposite direction to the original movement (fault inversion). A normal fault may therefore become a reverse fault and vice versa.

Dip-slip faults
The fault surface is usually near vertical and the footwall moves either left or right or laterally with very little vertical motion. Strike-slip faults with left-lateral motion are also known as sinistral faults. Those with right-lateral motion are also known as dextral faults. A special class of strike-slip faults is the transform faults which are a plate tectonics feature related to spreading centers such as mid-ocean ridges.

Strike-slip faults
A fault which has a component of dip-slip and a component of strike-slip is termed an 'oblique-slip fault'. Nearly all faults will have some component of both dip-slip and strike-slip, so defining a fault as oblique requires both dip and strike components to be measurable and significant. Some oblique faults occur within transtensional and transpressional regimes, others occur where the direction of extension or shortening changes during the deformation but the earlier formed faults remain active.

Fault rock

Allegheny Plateau
Duplex fault
Fault mechanics
Mitigation of seismic motion
Seismic hazard
Shear (geology)
Transform boundary

Monday, February 11, 2008


The Science wars were a series of intellectual battles in the 1990s between "postmodernists" and "realists" (though neither party would likely use the terms to describe themselves) about the nature of scientific theories. In brief, the postmodernists questioned the objectivity of science and encompass a huge variety of critiques on scientific knowledge and method within cultural studies, cultural anthropology, feminist studies, comparative literature, media studies, and science and technology studies. The realists countered that there is such a thing as objective scientific knowledge and accused the postmodernists of having a poor understanding of the subject they were critiquing.

Historical background
This apparent attack on the validity of science from the humanities and social sciences worried many people in the scientific community, especially as the language of social construction was appropriated by groups which claimed to be proffering alternate scientific paradigms, but which were actually, according to the view of many scientists, attempting to assert political control over the use of science in society (see, for example, the Creation-evolution controversy, and Creation science). In 1994, scientists Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt published Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels With Science, an open attack on the postmodernists. According to supporters, the book brought the shortcomings of relativism into sharp focus, claiming that the postmodernists knew little about the scientific theories they discussed and pursued sloppy scholarship for political reasons. According to scholars in science studies (the postmodernists under attack), the book brought the authors' failure to understand the theoretical approaches they criticize into sharp focus, and relied more on "caricature, misreading, and condescension than argument."

Science wars Science wars in Social Text
Since the "Science Wars" edition of Social Text, the seriousness and volume of discussion increased significantly, much of it focused on reconciling the "warring" camps of humanists and scientists. One significant event was the "Science and Its Critics" conference in early 1997; it brought together scientists and scholars who study science and featured Alan Sokal and Steve Fuller as keynote speakers. The conference generated the final wave of substantial press coverage (in both news media and scientific journals), though by no means resolved the fundamental issues of social construction and objectivity in science..

See also

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Tim Hames
Tim Hames is a columnist and Chief Leader Writer at the The Times. Before joining the newspaper in 1999, he was a lecturer in politics at Oxford University.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Claudian
Claudius Claudianus, Anglicized as Claudian, was the court poet to the Emperor Honorius and Stilicho.
A Greek-speaking citizen of Alexandria, Claudian arrived in Rome before 395, and made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby becoming court poet. He wrote a number of panegyrics on the consulship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of Stilicho, and invectives directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of Arcadius. These efforts resulted with such gifts as the honor of the rank of vir illustris, a statue, and a rich bride selected by Stilicho's wife, Serena.
Despite his Greek origins, Claudian wrote in Latin and is one of the best late users of the language in poetry. Critics consider Claudian a good poet, if not absolutely first-rate. He is elegant, tells a story well, and his polemical passages are occasionally unmatchable in sheer entertaining vitriol; but his writing is tainted by preciousness, a flaw of the literature of his time: and he is extraordinarily cold and unfeeling.
From a historical standpoint, Claudian's poetry is a valuable, however distorted, primary source for his period. Since his poems do not record the achievements of Stilicho after 404, scholars assume he died in that year. The historical or political poems connected with Stilicho have a separate manuscript tradition to the rest of his work, and this is believed to indicate that they were published as a separate collection, perhaps by Stilicho himself after Claudian's death.
His most important non-political work is an unfinished epic, De raptu Proserpinae, whose three extant books are believed to have been written in 395 and 397.

See also

Friday, February 8, 2008


Pieter Zeeman (Zonnemaire, May 25, 1865Amsterdam, October 9, 1943) (IPA [ze:mɑn]) was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for his discovery of the Zeeman effect.

Childhood and youth
After Zeeman passed the qualification exams in 1885, he studied physics at the University of Leiden under Kamerlingh Onnes and Hendrik Lorentz. In 1890, already before finishing his thesis, he became Lorentz' assistant. This allowed him to participate in a research program on the Kerr effect. In 1893, he submitted his doctor's thesis that was devoted to the Kerr effect, on the reflection of polarized light on a magnetized surface. After obtaining his doctorate, he went for half a year to F. Kohlrausch' institute in Strasbourg. In 1895, after returning from Strasbourg, Zeeman became Privatdozent in mathematics and physics in Leiden. The same year he married Johanna Elisabeth Lebret (1873–1962); they had three daughters and one son.
In 1896, three years after submitting his thesis on the Kerr effect, he made the discovery of what is now known as the Zeeman effect. As an extension of his thesis research, he began investigating the effect of magnetic fields on a light source. He discovered that a spectral line is split into several components in the presence of a magnetic field. Lorentz first heard about Zeeman's observations on Saturday, October 31, 1896 at the meeting of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam, where these results were communicated by Kamerlingh Onnes. The next Monday, Lorentz called Zeeman in his office and presented him with an explanation of his observations, based on Lorentz' theory of electromagnetic radiation.Pieter Zeeman The importance of Zeeman's discovery became soon apparent. It confirmed Lorentz' prediction about the polarization of light emitted in the presence of a magnetic field. Because of Zeeman's work, it appeared that the oscillating particles that according to Lorentz were the source of light emission were negatively charged, and were a thousandfold lighter than the hydrogen atom. This conclusion was reached well before Thomson's discovery of the electron. The Zeeman effect thus became an important tool for elucidating the structure of the atom.
Education and early career
Because of his discovery, Zeeman was offered a position as lecturer in Amsterdam in 1897, and in 1900 followed his promotion to professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam. In 1902, he received the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of the Zeeman effect, together with his former mentor Lorentz. Five years later, in 1908, he succeeded Van der Waals as full professor and Director of the Physics Institute in Amsterdam. In 1923, a new laboratory was built in Amsterdam, which in 1940 was renamed Zeeman Laboratory. This new facility allowed him to pursue refined investigation of the Zeeman effect. For the remainder of his career, he remained interested in research in Magneto-Optics. He also investigated the propagation of light in moving media. This subject became the focus of a renewed interest because of special relativity, and enjoyed keen interest from Lorentz and Einstein. Later in his career he became interested in Mass spectrometry.

Publications

Zeeman effect
Atom and Atomic Theory
Bohr-Sommerfeld model
Fresnel drag coefficient
Light-dragging effects

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Daniel Carter Beard Bridge
The Daniel Carter Beard Bridge is a twin span steel tied-arch bridge crossing the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio. It carries Interstate 471 between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Newport, Kentucky. The bridge is nicknamed locally "The Big Mac Bridge" or "The McDonald's Bridge". Conflicting stories exist as to the origin of this nickname. One is that its yellow arches are similar to the "Golden Arches" logo of McDonald's restaurant. The other states that the nickname came from a planned floating McDonald's that was to be built on an adjacent barge. This restaurant was never built, but the nickname for the bridge remained. In fact, the nickname was coined by local residents after the bridges golden arches were constructed. McDonalds considered opening a restaurant at the base after the nickname caught on, but never went to construction. This bridge has a main span of 750 feet and has a total span of 2100 feet. It is named in honor of Daniel Carter Beard, the founder of the Sons of Daniel Boone and one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America.
The bridge was originally configured with 3 lanes and an emergency shoulder on each span. In December 2000, with the completion of a reconstruction project on the 3rd Street Viaduct approach, the bridge was reconfigured to 4 lanes on each span. There have been suggestions of constructing two new 3-lane bridges, one on either side of the current spans, to meet increasing traffic volume.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Groundmass
The matrix or groundmass of rock is the fine-grained mass of material in which larger grains or crystals are embedded.
The matrix of an igneous rock consists of fine-grained, often microscopic, crystals in which larger crystals (phenocrysts) are embedded. This porphyritic texture is indicative of multi-stage cooling of magma. For example, porphyritic andesite will have large phenocrysts of plagioclase in a fine-grained matrix. Also in South Africa, diamonds are often mined from a matrix of weathered clay-like rock (kimberlite) called "yellow ground."
The matrix of sedimentary rocks is a fine-grained clay or silt in which larger grains are embedded.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008


Bone Thugs-n-Harmony is an American rap group from Cleveland, Ohio, best known for their high pace rapping style and harmonizing vocals. In 1997, the group was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance with their song "Tha Crossroads." Since its conception in the early 1990s the group has been honored with numerous other awards.

Early Years
Formed in the early 1990s, the group consisted of four members: Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Wish Bone and Bizzy Bone.Their first album, Faces of Death, was recorded under the name of B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e in early 1993. Shortly thereafter, Layzie Bone's elder brother, Flesh-n-Bone, joined the group. Their career took off in 1993 after heading to Los Angeles in search of famous producer and N.W.A. member Eazy-E. In hopes of securing a record deal, the group was given an audition over the phone receiving an unfulfilled promise from Eazy-E to call them back. Discovering that Eazy-E was performing back in their hometown of Cleveland, the group took a charter bus back hoping to have another chance, this time in person. This chance was given backstage as they auditioned for Gangsta Dresta and later for Eazy-E. This resulted in them signing a contract with Eazy-E's Ruthless Records.

Faces Of Death

Ruthless Records
Released in June 1994, the EP Creepin on ah Come Up was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's debut with Ruthless Records and its first introduction into super stardom. After a slow start that saw the album's success limited to gangsta rap audiences, it broke through to the mainstream with the release of the singles "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" and "Foe tha Love of $," the second of which featured a verse by Eazy-E. The sound was raw and explicit, while the lyrics were violent and aggressive. Songs poured out feelings of anger against society for growing up on the violent and economically oppressed streets of Cleveland. Videos for the mega hits "Foe tha Love of $" and "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" increased the group's reputation among audiences. Beats were supplied by Kenny McCloud, Rhythm D, DJ Yella, and newcomer DJ U-Neek. The album was later certified 4x platinum by the RIAA.

Creepin on ah Come Up
While Creepin on ah Come Up's subject matter was focused almost entirely on violent criminal activity, E 1999 Eternal saw Bone diversify its content and musical stylings. It debuted at number one with 307,000 copies sold in its first week. The G-funk beats were smoothed by DJ U-Neek (with co-production from Tony C and Kenny McCloud). Like Creepin on ah Come Up, a considerable portion of the album's concept was built upon violent subject matter, yet Bone proved its ability to incorporate deeper themes, as its songs dealt with more spirituality and occult mysticism. E 1999 Eternal also introduced Bone's trademark "weed songs," tracks devoted entirely to the consumption of marijuana. Eazy-E got the idea for the cover artwork from the apocalyptic movie Terminator 2 as Bone, collectively, had a mental fixation that the world was going to end in 1999.
E 1999 Eternal remains Bone's most successful venture in terms of sales and notoriety, as it went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide.
In 1995, Bone was featured on Russell Simmons' The Show soundtrack album with a track titled "Everyday Thang." It bears no resemblance and is not in any way related to the track with the same title on the Faces of Death album. This track resembled many of the tracks on E 1999 Eternal.

E 1999 Eternal
In 1997, the group released the double-disc set The Art of War, backed by the single "Look into My Eyes", which also appeared on the soundtrack of the film Batman & Robin. The album saw Bone further explore a wide variety of subjects and styles, with even more focus on God and family and an overall more ambient, mellow sound. The group still incorporated violent lyrics, though, with a large portion of the album dedicated to what they labeled "clones" who claimed Bone had stolen their quick-tongued rapping style and vice-versa. The Chicago-based rap group Crucial Conflict was targeted by name, with indirect disses thought to be aimed at Twista, Three Six Mafia, and Do or Die. The album also included "Thug Luv" with Tupac Shakur. The album is also influenced by the book of the same name by author Sun Tzu. The Art of War philosophy is littered throughout the album. While the album had initial success, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 (with 394,000 copies sold in the first week), it failed to have much staying power. Besides "Look into My Eyes" (which charted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100), the only other single was "If I Could Teach the World", which won an American Music Award(AMA). The group's efforts were further dampened by the absence of Bizzy Bone from the album's videos and large portions of the ensuing tour and public appearances. This absence fueled rumors of a break-up. The album was certified 4x platinum by the RIAA (with each album sold counting as two units under the association's certification guidelines).

BTNHResurrection
In 2000, member Flesh-n-Bone was sentenced to eleven years in prison for threatening his neighbor with an AK-47. Eligible for parole in 2008, he currently is housed in Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. In late 2001, the group returned to the studio to record their next release, Thug World Order. By February 2002, the supposedly overly-violent and political album was complete. The Thug World Order album saw a drastic change in subject matter and tone for the group. The lyrics were almost completely void of any violence, while a larger number of tracks focused on the group itself. In contrast, several songs originally intended to be included on the album that were leaked after its release portray a much different album. The album debuted at number twelve (selling 82,000 the first week) and quickly slipped off the charts. The album would fare better overseas, with the single "Home" (sampling the song "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins) climbing the charts in a number of countries, most notably the United Kingdom. Because of the success of this collaboration, the group named Phil Collins an honorary member, giving him the monicker of Chrome Bone. After years of problems with member Bizzy Bone, the group officially parted ways with Bizzy Bone after he performed intoxicated with the group at BB King's Blues Club in New York City on October 2002. They also, during this time, severed their embattled relationship with their Record label Ruthless Records in the post-Eazy-E regime under his widow Tomica Wright. In October 2003, Bizzy rejoined the group for the Wicked Wonka Tour with the Insane Clown Posse and soon recorded Bone Brothers, a duet album with Layzie Bone. Things quickly turned sour, though, as Bizzy Bone declined to tour in support of the album and contract negotiations between Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Bizzy Bone with Full Surface Records broke down. After this and a number of other incidents, the group once again cut ties with Bizzy Bone in May 2005.

Thug World Order

After Ruthless
In September 2005, DJ U-Neek released an internet-only enhanced CD called Bone 4 Life, featuring six new tracks produced by DJ U-Neek and a behind the scenes video. It was only available to order for a week.

Bone 4 Life
Thug Stories, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's sixth album, was recorded on Koch Records and released in September 2006. It marked the first time Bone Thugs-n-Harmony recorded as a trio for a full album, as troubled former member Bizzy Bone was finally ousted. This album was the group's first full-release since 2002's Thug World Order. Thug Stories sold 38,000 in the first week and peaked at twenty-five on the Billboard 200. Thug Stories featured a slightly more mature style and the group leaned more heavily towards its harmonic roots than its "thug" origins.

Thug Stories
Originally to be called The Bone Thugs Story, Strength and Loyalty's release date was May 8, 2007. Being their first major album after an absence of nearly five years, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. The album contains guest-appearances by Bow Wow, Mariah Carey, Yolanda Adams, The Game, will.i.am, Akon, Twista, and Felecia. Producers include Swizz Beatz, Akon, Nottz, Jermaine Dupri, will.i.am, and others. The executive producer of the album is Swizz Beatz. Bone's new video "I Tried" was launched on March 7, 2007, their first single from the album Strength and Loyalty, followed by the second single "Lil Love".

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Strength & Loyalty
Bone also has movie coming out called, "I Tried", which was originally named "What If..." The topic of the movie is how different the lives of Krayzie, Layzie, & Wish would have been if they never met Eazy-E. The cover of the DVD is on their official website.

Forthcoming film
Perhaps the group's most important contribution to rap is their speedy, harmonizing flow. While fast rapping has always had a niche in the culture, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony certainly brought the style to the forefront.
Although 1996 was the peak of their popular appeal, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony still has a fairly large cult following. They are and will be the only Group in history to have collaborated with Big Punisher, Notorious B.I.G., Eazy-E, and 2Pac while they were still alive.
In 2003, the group toured with the Insane Clown Posse, Tech N9ne, the Kottonmouth Kings, and Esham on the Wicked Wonka Tour. Once the tour was completed, a posse cut was recorded titled "Thug Pit".
From 2006 to the present, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, especially Krayzie Bone, have continued their strong track record of collaborations and appearances on compilation albums. Krayzie Bone appeared on Duets: The Final Chapter by The Notorious B.I.G, the soundtrack from the Antonio Banderas film Take the Lead, and on DJ Khaled's new album Listennn... The Album. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony appeared with Eazy-E on the soundtrack to The Game's acting debut in the film Waist Deep, and on The Source Presents Fat Tape Vol. 1. The most successful was Krayzie Bone's appearance on Chamillionaire's number-one single "Ridin'". Krayzie Bone is featured on the most recent 2Pac album Pac's Life on the song "Untouchable (Swizz Beatz remix)." Most collaborations, no matter how many members are featured, are credited as Bone Thugs-n-harmony.

Legacy and collaborations
Known mostly for their flow rather than lyricism, Bone's style and technique can be described as melodic yet dark and aggressive. Their flow is often interwoven at a high speed melodic pace or slow harmonic pace. They also tend to ride the beat that they're rapping over. Sometimes there are very few choruses separating their verses from one another. In the beginning, circa Faces of Death, Bone used a pseudo-Jamaican patois delivery with their trademark style, though they rarely do this now. Bone's subject matter has both spiritual and occult undertones (e.g., "Hell Sent," "Intro," "Mr.Ouija," "Mr.Ouija 2" and "Da Introduction"). At first, their subject matter was almost always exclusively about violence and smoking marijuana. Today, however, their subject matter includes other topics such as urban socio-political issues. Besides minor changes to subject matter and sound, their lyrical style, locution, and overall methodology remain intact.

Style and technique

Main article: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony discography Discography

Awards

1997 Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: Win for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group ("Tha Crossroads")
2007 Krayzie Bone: Win for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group ("Ridin' ") Grammy Award

2006 Krayzie Bone: "Best Rap Video" (Ridin') Bone Thugs-N-Harmony MTV Video Music Award

1998 Krayzie Bone: "Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist" Ozone Awards