HISTORY

History of Sneakers

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Fri, 9 Sep 2011 19:42:00 -0700

Sneakers go back a long way. In the late 18th century, people wore rubber soled shoes called plimsolls, but they were pretty crude—for one thing, there was no right foot or left foot. Around 1892, the U.S. Rubber Company came up with more comfortable rubber sneakers with canvas tops, called Keds. By 1917, these sneakers began to be mass produced. (They got the nickname sneakers because they were so quiet, a person wearing them could sneak up on someone.)

That same year, Marquis Converse produced the first shoe made just for basketball, called Converse All-Stars. In 1923, an Indiana hoops star named Chuck Taylor endorsed the shoes, and they became known as Chuck Taylor All-Stars. These are the best-selling basketball shoes of all time.
Sneakers Go Global

Sneakers went international in 1924. That’s when a German man named Adi Dassler created a sneaker that he named after himself: Adidas. This brand became the most popular athletic shoe in the world. Track star Jessie Owens wore Adidas when he won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. Adi’s brother Rudi started up another famous sports shoe company: Puma.

During the first half of the 20th century, sports shoes were worn mostly to play sports. But in the 1950s, kids began wearing them as fashion statements. Even more teens followed the fad after seeing James Dean in sneakers in the popular movie Rebel Without a Cause.
Innovation at a Price

Sales of sneakers really took off in 1984, when Michael Jordan signed a contract to wear a Nike shoe called Air Jordans—the most famous sneaker ever made. Even after Jordan retired from the NBA, his shoes continued to be best sellers. As companies like Nike, Reebok and Adidas competed, they changed the way sneakers looked, adding wild colors and doing away with laces. Sneakers began to be produced for every sport, including walking, skateboarding and “cross training.”

New sneaker technologies increase performance. Nike’s Air Force used little pockets of gas to create better cushioning, while Reebok introduced The Pump—air pumped into shoes to make them fit more snugly. Sneaker surprises continue: Spira Footwear, for example, has built a spring in the soles to reduce foot stress. Of course, innovations like these come with a price: Athletic shoes often cost more than $100 a pair!

source : http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0932723.html

Biography of GUS DUR

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:40:00 -0700

Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid, known as Gus Dur was born in Jombang, East Java, on 7 September 1940 from the couple Wahid Hasyim and Solichah. He was born with the name Abdurrahman Addakhil or "the Conqueror", and then more fondly known as Gus Dur. Gus Dur is the first son of six children from a very respectable family in the Muslim community of East Java. Grandfather of his father is
K.H Asyari Hashim, the founder of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), while his maternal grandfather,
KH Bisri Syansuri, is the first boarding school teacher who teaches a class on women. Gus Dur's father, K.H. Wahid Hasyim, was involved in the nationalist movement and became Minister of Religious Affairs in 1949. His mother, Mrs. Hj. Sholehah, is the daughter of the founder of Pondok Pesantren in Jombang Denanyar. In addition to Gus Dur, his brother Gus Dur is also a figure of national leaders At the time of his father diangkan became Minister of Religion, Gus Dur join move to Jakarta and went to primary school before moving to SD KRIS Matraman Perwari. His education continued in 1954 at Junior High School and not the next grade, but not because of intellectual problems. His mother then sent to Yogyakarta to continue their education. In 1957, after graduating from junior high school, he moved to Magelang to study at boarding school Tegalrejo. He developed a reputation as a gifted pupil, graduated from boarding school within two years (should be four years). In 1959, Gus Dur Tambakberas moved to boarding school in Jombang and get his first job as a teacher and head of the madrassa. Gus Dur is also a journalist and magazine Horizon Culture Jaya. In 1963, Wahid received a scholarship from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to study at Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, but did not finish due to the criticality of his mind. Gus Dur and then studied at the University of Baghdad. Although initially neglected, Gus Dur can finish his education at the University of Baghdad in 1970. He went to Holland to continue his education, to study at the University of Leiden, but disappointed that his education in Baghdad under-recognized here. Gus Dur and then went to Germany and France before returning to Indonesia in 1971. Abdurrahman returned to Jakarta and joined the Institute for Research, Education and Economic and Social Affairs (LP3ES), an organization which consists of a progressive Muslim intellectuals and social democrats. In January 1998, Gus Dur was attacked stroke and was rescued by a team of doctors. However, as a result of health condition and the vision the President to-4 is deteriorating. In addition to its stroke, his health problems allegedly caused by hereditary factors also caused a close blood relationship between her parents. In the early 1980s, Gus Dur plunge care of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) after three times ditawarin by his grandfather. In recent years, Gus Dur NU managed to reform the body so as to make his name more and more popular among NU. At the National Congress of 1984, Gus Dur was asked as Chairman of the NU. During his first term, Gus Dur focus in reforming the educational system succeeded in improving the quality of schools and boarding school education system so that it can compete with secular schools. And finally on December 30, 2009, Gus Dur died of illness complications and was buried in Jombang, East Java. Congratulations Gus Way, may appear Gus Gus Dur Dur-bari capable of thrilling the world. Amen

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noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 09:35:00 -0700

The Story Of Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:27:00 -0700

The global spread of coffee growing and drinking began in the Horn of Africa, where, according to legend, coffee trees originated in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa. It is recorded that the fruit of the plant, known as coffee cherries, was eaten by slaves taken from present day Sudan into Yemen and Arabia through the great port of its day, Mocha. Coffee was certainly being cultivated in Yemen by the 15th century and probably much earlier. In an attempt to prevent its cultivation elsewhere, the Arabs imposed a ban on the export of fertile coffee beans, a restriction that was eventually circumvented in 1616 by the Dutch, who brought live coffee plants back to the Netherlands to be grown in greenhouses.

Initially, the authorities in Yemen actively encouraged coffee drinking. The first coffeehouses or kaveh kanes opened in Mecca and quickly spread throughout the Arab world, thriving as places where chess was played, gossip was exchanged and singing, dancing and music were enjoyed. Nothing quite like this had existed before: a place where social and business life could be conducted in comfortable surroundings and where - for the price of a cup of coffee - anyone could venture. Perhaps predictably, the Arabian coffeehouse soon became a centre of political activity and was suppressed. Over the next few decades coffee and coffeehouses were banned numerous times but kept reappearing until eventually an acceptable way out was found when a tax was introduced on both.

By the late 1600’s the Dutch were growing coffee at Malabar in India and in 1699 took some plants to Batavia in Java, in what is now Indonesia. Within a few years the Dutch colonies had become the main suppliers of coffee to Europe, where coffee had first been brought by Venetian traders in 1615. This was a period when the two other globally significant hot beverages also appeared in Europe. Hot chocolate was the first, brought by the Spanish from the Americas to Spain in 1528; and tea, which was first sold in Europe in 1610. At first coffee was mainly sold by lemonade vendors and was believed to have medicinal qualities. The first European coffeehouse opened in Venice in 1683, with the most famous, Caffe Florian in Piazza San Marco, opening in 1720. It is still open for business today. The largest insurance market in the world, Lloyd's of London, began life as a coffeehouse. It was started in 1688 by Edward Lloyd, who prepared lists of the ships that his customers had insured.

The first literary reference to coffee being drunk in North America is from 1668 and, soon after, coffee houses were established in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other towns. The Boston Tea Party Of 1773 was planned in a coffee house, the Green Dragon. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New York started in coffeehouses in what is today known as Wall Street.

In 1720 a French naval officer named Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, while on leave in Paris from his post in Martinique, acquired a coffee tree with the intention of taking it with him on the return voyage. With the plant secured in a glass case on deck to keep it warm and prevent damage from salt water, the journey proved eventful. As recorded in de Clieu's own journal, the ship was threatened by Tunisian pirates. There was a violent storm, during which the plant had to be tied down. A jealous fellow officer tried to sabotage the plant, resulting in a branch being torn off. When the ship was becalmed and drinking water rationed, De Clieu ensured the plant’s survival by giving it most of his precious water. Finally, the ship arrived in Martinique and the coffee tree was re-planted at Preebear. It grew, and multiplied, and by 1726 the first harvest was ready. It is recorded that, by 1777, there were between 18 and 19 million coffee trees on Martinique, and the model for a new cash crop that could be grown in the New World was in place.

But it was the Dutch who first started the spread of the coffee plant in Central and South America, where today it reigns supreme as the main continental cash crop. Coffee first arrived in the Dutch colony of Surinam in 1718, to be followed by plantations in French Guyana and the first of many in Brazil in the state of Pará. In 1730 the British introduced coffee to Jamaica, where today the most famous and expensive coffee in the world is grown in the Blue Mountains.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw the establishment across Brazil of vast sugar plantations or fazendas, owned by the country’s elite. As sugar prices weakened in the 1820’s, capital and labour migrated to the southeast in response to the expansion of coffee growing in the Paraiba Valley, where it had been introduced in 1774. By the beginning of the 1830’s Brazil was the world’s largest producer with some 600,000 bags a year, followed by Cuba, Java and Haiti, each with annual production of 350 to 450,000 bags. World production amounted to some 2.5 million bags per year.

The rapid expansion of production in Brazil and Java, among others, caused a significant decline in world prices. These bottomed out in the late 1840’s, from which point a strong upward movement occurred, reaching its peak in the 1890’s. During this latter period, due mainly to a lack of inland transport and manpower, Brazilian expansion slowed considerably. Meanwhile, the upward movement of prices encouraged the growth of coffee cultivation in other producing regions in the Americas such as Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia.

In Colombia, where coffee had been introduced by the Jesuits as early as 1723, civil strife and the inaccessibility of the best coffee-growing regions had hampered the growth of a coffee industry. Following the “Thousand Days War” of 1899 to 1903, the new peace saw Colombians turn to coffee as their salvation. While larger plantations, or haciendas, dominated the upper Magdalena river regions of Cundinamarca and Tolima, determined peasants staked new claims in the mountainous regions to the west, in Antioquia and Caldas. New railways, relying on coffee for profit, allowed more coffee to be grown and transported. The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 permitted exports from Colombia’s previously unreachable Pacific coast, with the port of Buenaventura assuming increasing importance.

In 1905 Colombia exported five hundred thousand bags of coffee; by 1915 exports had doubled. While Brazil desperately tried to control its overproduction, Colombian coffee became increasingly popular with American and European consumers. In 1914 Brazil supplied three-quarters of U.S. imports with 5.6 million bags, but by 1919 that figure had fallen to 4.3 million, while Colombia’s share had risen from 687,000 to 915,000 bags. During the same period Central American exports to the U.S. had risen from 302,000 to 1.2 million bags.

In spite of political turmoil, social upheaval and economic vicissitude, the 20th century saw an essentially continuous rise in demand for coffee. U.S. consumption continued to grow reaching a peak in 1946, when annual per capita consumption was 19.8 pounds, twice the figure in 1900. Especially during periods of high global prices, this steadily increasing demand lead to an expansion in production throughout the coffee-growing regions of the world. With the process of decolonisation that began in the years following the Second World War, many newly independent nations in Africa, notably Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi, found themselves in varying degrees dependent on coffee export revenue.

For US coffee drinkers, the country’s wettest city, Seattle, has become synonymous with a new type of café culture, which, from its birth in the 1970s, swept the continent, dramatically improving the general quality of the beverage. This new found 'evangelism' for coffee has spread to the rest of the world, even to countries with great coffee traditions of their own, such as Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia, adding new converts to the pleasures of good coffee. Today it is possible to find good coffee in every major city of the world, from London to Sydney to Tokyo; we are drinking more and, more importantly, better coffee.

The importance of coffee to the world economy cannot be overstated. It is one of the most valuable primary products in world trade, in many years second in value only to oil as a source of foreign exchange to producing countries. Its cultivation, processing, trading, transportation and marketing provide employment for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Coffee is crucial to the economies and politics of many developing countries; for many of the world's Least Developed Countries, exports of coffee account for more than 50 percent of their foreign exchange earnings. Coffee is a traded commodity on major futures and commodity exchanges, most importantly in London and New York.

source : http://www.ico.org/coffee_story.asp

History of Harley-Davidson

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:37:00 -0700

Harley-Davidson history is long and proud and began at the start of the 20th century. The beginnings of this American icon were very humble. William S. Harley, born in 1880 and Arthur Davidson, born in 1881 lived next door to each other in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

While the two friends were working in a local manufacturing plant, they decided to build an internal combustion engine to be used on bicycles. They became friends with a German co-worker who was familiar with the De Dion engine already being used in Europe. With his help, they designed a small air-cooled engine.

Arthur’s brother, Walter Davidson, who was working as a machinist was recruited for their bicycle engine project. They built a little engine with a bore and stroke of 2 1/8 x 2 7/8 inches. Soon after they completed the engine, they realized it didn’t have enough power.

In 1902, they designed a second engine with the help of another talented mechanic by the name of Ole Evinrude. You’ve probably heard the name Evinrude before. This new engine had the same displacement as their previous engine but with a larger flywheel and over/under pocket valves. With three horsepower, it had the power they were looking for.

In 1903, Davidson brothers Arthur and Walter along with William S. Harley built a single cylinder motorcycle in a wooden shed built by cabinet making father, William C. Davidson. This was the first Harley-Davidson factory which was about 10 x 15 feet. The Davidson brother's aunt Janet painted the pin-stripes on the first few Harleys. Harley-Davidson built and sold three single-cylinder motorcycles in 1903. They built and sold three more motorcycles in 1904.

In 1905 the first Harley-Davidson to be produced in significant numbers was the Silent Gray Fellow named for its quite operation and gray color. These were 450cc single cylinder bikes using a bicycle-style frame. To slow down and stop the rider had to peddle backwards.

Following the official formation of the company in 1907, Arthur signed up over 800 dealers in ten years. These dealers were in all of America’s then 48 states. Just five years after the first Harleys were made and sold the Detroit Police bought a fleet of motorcycles. By 1925, over 2,500 police units in the US were riding Harley-Davidsons.

The first Harley-Davidson V-Twin was produced in 1909. The first V-Twin engines cylinders were angled at 45 degrees, which has become a hallmark. Harley-Davidson used what is called a knife and fork arrangement to link the connecting rods to the crankshaft at a common point. The first V-Twin had valve trouble and was dropped for 1910. Harley-Davidson realized that V-twins were the future and redesigned the engine.The V-Twin was reintroduced for 1911 and was a success.

A big part of Harley-Davidson history is Harleys contribution to U.S. Military efforts. In 1918 Harley supplied thousands of motorcycles to the military to be used in World War I. Almost half of all Harley-Davidsons produced that year were sold to the military. The first American GI to enter Germany was Roy Holtz, riding a Harley-Davidson.

Even though it's not a big part of Harley-Davidson history, Harley became involved in racing to prove the dependability of their bikes. Harley’s first and notable success was in 1908. Walter Davidson won the Jack Pine Endurance run. Not only did the bike prove its dependability, the bike won the economy contest with 188 miles per gallon.

In 1921 Harley becomes the first motorcycle to win a race with an average speed of 100MPH on a board track in Fresno, CA. Another early success story was the record of Joe Petrali, who set a record of 136.183MPH at Daytona Beach in 1937. Early Harley racing teams adopted a pig as their mascot and carried it on victory laps. This might have been the start of the term HOG. Racing was not always a priority for Harley but their riders have had great success over the years.

In 1941 America joins World War II. Harley produces the Model WLA which features blackout lights, high clearance fenders and metal leg shields. Almost all of Harley-Davidsons output was devoted to the military from 1941 to 1945. By the end of the war, Harley produced 88,000 WLA models for the U.S. Military and around 20,000 for the Canadians.

When looking at Harley-Davidson history, we can't forget the many World War II ex-servicemen who came back to small town America. While Harley-Davidson's civilian production had all but ceased during the war, there were plenty of army surplus motorcycles to be bought. Many of these ex-servicemen started a trend by buying and customizing these bikes. They removed or shortened the fenders to reduce weight. These bikes became known as Bobbers. These changes ultimately lead to the evolution of the Chopper.

After a post-war boom, the company’s sales were damaged by the influx of cheaper Japanese and British imports. This competition ironically caused a resurgence of interest in motorcycles, which the company profited from. Harley was bought by American Machine and Foundry (AMF) in 1969. Harley-Davidson history is full of ups and downs. Some of us are old enough to remember that Harley went through some hard times during the AMF years. In 1981 senior management bought the company back from AMF.

Harley slowly came back in the 80s and now Harley-Davidson is one of the most recognized names in the world. In 1983 Harley Owners Group (HOG) was formed with 30,000 members in the first year. Now there are about a million HOG members world wide. After 105 years of Harley-Davidson history, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles are more popular than ever.

source : http://www.harley-riders-guide.com/harley-davidson-history.html

History of MotoGP

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 01:08:00 -0700

MotoGP is the latest incarnation of the oldest motorsport World Championship, having run for the first time back in 1949. Even then, a World Championship may have occurred earlier had it not been for the outbreak of the Second World War, which came at the same time as a new European Championship was set to start.

Over the years, Grand Prix motorcycling has evolved and changed, but the premise has remained the same; the world’s best riders on the finest machinery doing battle for World Championship glory.

After the domination of the Italian manufacturers in the 1950s, the arrival of the Japanese in the 1960s and the battles between American rivals such as Randy Mamola, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz in the 80s and 90s, MotoGP in its current guise was born in 2002 with the premier class switching to 990cc machinery alongside the all-action 250cc and 125cc classes.

Although MotoGP itself has since gone back to 800cc bikes, the sport remains the most popular on two-wheels with millions of fans attending events on a yearly basis.

The list of championship winners, featuring names such as John Surtees, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Barry Sheene, Michael Doohan and Valentino Rossi, reads like a who’s-who of two-wheeled racing while the list of manufacturers to have been involved in the sport is one that any series – on two-wheels or four – would be envious of.

In total, 33 of those manufacturers have tasted championship glory across the six classes to have made up Grand Prix competition over the years. Fans are currently treated to action from MotoGP, Moto2 and 125s, but in the past there was also the 350cc, 250cc, 80/50cc and Sidecars racing on GP weekends.

Bigraphy of Eminem

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:48:00 -0700

The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000, quickly selling 2 million copies. The first single released from the album, 'The Real Slim Shady', created some buzz by trash-talking celebrities and spilling dubious gossip about them. In the song, Eminem claims, among other things, that Christina Aguilera gave 'head' (oral sex) to Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) and Carson Daly (of MTV's Total Request Live). In the third single, 'Stan' (which samples Dido's 'Thank You'), Eminem attempts to deal with his new fame status, telling the story of a fan so obsessed with him that he winds up killing himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring one of the songs on The Slim Shady LP.

Backlash

With the enormous popularity of Eminem's second album, the controversy surrounding Eminem grew even larger, especially when The Marshall Mathers LP was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year. Though Mathers had always claimed that his lyrics were not meant to be taken seriously, and that he had nothing against homosexuals or women, the gay rights group GLAAD organized a boycott of the Grammys against Eminem. Mathers responded to this by singing 'Stan' on-stage with openly-gay singer Elton John, ending the performance by hugging John to show that he didn't have anything against homosexuals. Though shocking a lot of people, this gesture failed to appease all of his critics.
Since Eminem's rapid ascent to fame, tell-all biographies of varying quality have been published, including Shady Bizzness by his former bodyguard Byron Williams. Eminem himself has written a book called Angry Blonde (2001), where he reveals the emotions and intent behind the lyrics in the Marshall Mathers LP, and describes his passion and approach to rapping.
As one of six members of the rap group D12, Eminem appeared on the album Devil's Night, released in 2001. The album was certified multi-platinum. The album contained the single 'Purple Pills'. Another song, 'Blow My Buzz', was on the soundtrack for the film The Wash (2001), in which Eminem had a cameo.
Eminem's third major album, The Eminem Show was released in summer 2002. It featured the single 'Without Me', an apparent sequel to 'The Real Slim Shady' in which he makes derogatory comments about boy bands, Moby, and Lynne Cheney, among others.
On November 19th, 2003 new controversy surrounded Eminem when a cassette tape was played during a press conference held by The Source magazine. The 1988 cassette featured a younger Mathers performing a freestyle rap in which he made disparaging remarks about black women, calling them 'stupid' in comparison to white women. Mathers reportedly made the recording after breaking up with his black girlfriend.
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted it was 'looking into' allegations that Mathers had threatened the President of the United States after the unreleased song 'We as Americans' leaked onto the Internet. The lyrics in question: Fuck money/I don't rap for dead presidents/ I'd rather see the president dead/ It's never been said, but I set precedents.
Then, in 2004, Eminem made the video 'My Band' with D12. The controversial song was the band's sarcastic response to the media's frequent portrayal of D12 as Eminem's band, giving little to no credit to its other members. The video contained various parodies, including that of the Janet Jackson 'incident', and of 50 Cent's 'In Da Club' video.
On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of 'Just Lose It,' Eminem's first video and single off Encore, Michael Jackson called into the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with the video, which parodies Jackson's child-molestation accusations, his rhinoplasty, and an incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while he was filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. The lyrics to 'Just Lose It' also refer to Jackson's troubles. In the video, Eminem also parodied Pee Wee Herman, MC Hammer, and a Blonde-Ambition-touring Madonna. Harvey himself declared, 'Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back.' 1
Black Entertainment Television was the first channel to stop airing the video. MTV, however, announced it would continue airing the video and 'Just Lose It' became the number-one requested video on Total Request Live for the week ending October 22. 2 The Source magazine, through its CEO Raymond 'Benzino' Scott, wanted not only the video pulled, but the song off the album, and a public apology to Jackson from Eminem. 3
Others dismissed 'Just Lose It' as a tame Weird Al Yankovic-style knockoff 4. On Jackson's protest, Yankovic himself told the Chicago Sun-Times, 'Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career. So the irony of this situation with Michael is not lost on me.'
On October 26, 2004 a week before the U.S. presidential election, 2004, Eminem released the video for his song titled 'Mosh' on the Internet. The song features a very strong anti-Bush message, with lyrics such as 'fuck Bush' and 'this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president'. The video features Eminem gathering up an army of people presented as victims of the Bush administration and leading them to the White House. However, once the army breaks in, it is revealed that they are there to simply register to vote, and the video ends with the words 'VOTE Tuesday November 2' on the screen. After Bush won the election, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the rioters invading while Bush was giving a speech. On October 31, Eminem performed the song on Saturday Night Live, but some thought that he appeared to be lip-synching it.

Other works and ventures

Eminem made his Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile, released in November 2002. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including 'Lose Yourself,' which won Eminem an Academy Award for Best Song. He has also lent his voice to the Crank Yankers show and a web cartoon called 'The Slim Shady Show', which has since been pulled offline and is instead sold on DVD.
Eminem signed a deal with Sirius satellite radio to program a hip-hop oriented station called Shade 45, which debuted on October 28, 2004. He also owns a clothing line called 'Shady Ltd.' and runs the music label Shady Records with signed artists including 50 Cent, D12, DJ Green Lantern, Stat Quo, and Obie Trice.

Eminem as a producer

Eminem is also active as a producer of rap records. Besides D12's two albums, Devil's Night and D12 World, he also produced Obie Trice's Cheers as well as 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Furthermore, his own records increasingly contain tracks produced by himself. He recently produced 2Pac's fifth posthumous album, Loyal to the Game .

source : http://www.8notes.com/biographies/eminem.asp

History of LEGO

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:05:00 -0700

Learn the history of America's favority toy. Lego is known around the world as a standard toy for all ages - but where did this versatile and creative toy come from?

We grew up with the familiar blocks that gave our imagination room to soar; building towers and castles and wagons with little people. Generation after generation have been entranced by this easy yet intricate toy that lets children and adults both create anything and everything. But with over 200 millions sets being sold a year in over 100 countries, the question remains - where did Lego actually come from?

Our story begins in 1932 where Ole Kirk Christiansen, master carpenter and joiner, establishes a small business in the village of Billund in Denmark. His company manufactures stepladders, ironing boards... and wooden toys.

In 1934 the company adopts the name LEGO for their products, formed from the Danish words "LEg GOdt" or "play well". Later on it's realized that in Latin the word means "I study" or "I put together"; an ironic coincidence that follows the toy through the decades.

The small firm of only a dozen employees continues to turn out the popular toy - but in 1942 a tragedy strikes - the entire LEGO factory burns to the ground. Unwilling to give in, the factory is rebuilt and the assembly line restarts soon thereafter.

Not too long after that in 1947 the LEGO company is the first in Denmark to buy a plastic injection-moulding machine for making toys, running ahead of the competition and setting itself up as an enterprise dedicated to the toy business.

At this point there are no LEGO bricks as we know them today - the factory produced approximately 200 different varieties of plastic and wooden toys - but the predecessor of the familiar brick was created under the name of Automatic Binding Bricks; available only in Denmark at this time.

In 1950 Godtfred Kirk Christiansen - son of the original founder of LEGO, Ole Kirk Christiansen - is appointed Junior Vice President. He has worked with the company from the beginning, leaping into the factory at the tender age of 12 and quickly learning the business from the ground floor up.

By 1951 plastic toys account for half of the company's orders, signaling the subtle shift from the familiar wooden toys to the new and more popular plastic. Because of this the Automatic Binding Bricks are renamed "LEGO Mursten" or "LEGO Bricks" - the familiar term we all know them by today. Eventually the "LEGO System of Play" is released, 28 sets and 8 vehicles with extra parts available. It signaled a revolution in the toy world; allowing the owner to expand and create without a strict set of guidelines to follow.

After a few years the actual stud and tube coupling system the toy uses is patented; this new advancement making the models more stable and safer. More and more variations of bricks are released, letting youngsters build more and more creative interpretations of their imaginations.

In 1958 Ole Kirk Christiansen dies and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen becomes head of the company. Later on in 1950 the original wooden toy warehouse is destroyed in a horrible fire with the resulting decision to discontinue all wooden toy production and to focus only on the plastic creations that are quickly becoming more and more popular around the world. LEGO remains a family business to the present, with grandson Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen currently at the helm.

As the years go on more and more developments add to the versatility and strength of the LEGO block. Cellulose acetate is replaced by acrylonitrile butadeine stryrene in 1963 - making the new bricks brighter with better color quality and stronger for a longer life in toy boxes everywhere. Millions of LEGOs are being produced now, with trains and wheels jumping into the market and into toy stores everywhere.

In 1967 LEGO released the DUPLO brand - a larger version of the familiar block but for children under five years old. In 1969 it is released internationally and takes off like a rocket as parents everywhere take advantage of the opportunity to let their children play with the safe and creative toys. In the next twenty years LEGO will move into the realm of robotic models and small, movable people to classic car designs aimed at the adult modeler.

Suddenly LEGO sets are everywhere, from Star Wars to workable robots to Ninjas and Western themes; one generation passing to another the variety and imagination of this popular toy. Entire theme parks exhibit vast recreations to the public, while computer programs exist to play with your own set of virtual LEGOs and create in cyberspace.

From the first generation of plastic bricks to the current virtual world and the rapid advancements of the LEGO creators the world has been enthralled with this simple but enchanting toy - the next decade will only bring more and more models and more and more children running for their toy boxes to create their own world with LEGO.

source : http://www.essortment.com/lego-history-58761.html

Tuker Link Yuuukk

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Tue, 9 Aug 2011 18:17:00 -0700

00Baiklah sedikit basa basi mengenai tukeran link atau lebih populernya dengan link excanger yaitu salah satu sarana untuk mempererat tali silaturrahmi sesama blogger, disamping itu juga dengan bertukaran link akan menaikkan posisi kita di 10 besar pencarian google, ini yang sering sekali dilakukan oleh para blogger karena merupakan salah satu dari tehnik SEO. Ok, langsung saja bagi para netter sekalian yang ingin bertukeran link dengan blog ini saya persilahkan, dengan ketentuan sebagai berikut :

Apabila sahabat blogger meletakkan link saya di sidebar, saya akan melakukan hal yang sama yaitu meletakkan link sahabat di sidebar blog ini.
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Celebrity Evolution Photo Gallery - Demi Moore

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Tue, 9 Aug 2011 00:16:00 -0700

Demi Moore is a new face on the Hollywood scene in 1984, but already a soap opera veteran. Her model looks and trendy style lands her in a few teen films in the eighties and membership in the 'Brat Pack'.

Demi Moore 1984

Demi Moore 1989

Demi Moore 1990

Demi Moore 1992

Demi Moore 1996

Demi Moore 2003

Demi Moore 2007

source : http://www.biography.com/biography-tv-show/photos/celebrity-evolution/demi-moore/

History of Wembley Stadium

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Mon, 8 Aug 2011 23:42:00 -0700

The Empire Stadium in Wembley, popularly known as Wembley Stadium, was the most famous football ground in the world. Because England was the birthplace of the modern game and shared with Scotland the founding role in international football, Wembley, as it evolved into England's national stadium, gained worldwide regard as the citadel of football and as hallowed ground. After England began playing teams other than Scotland at Wembley in 1951, the world's national sides considered an invitation to play there a great honour.

England played 223 matches at old Wembley. They played the other home countries there every other year as part of the British Championship, Scotland since the 1920's and Wales and Northern Ireland since the 1950's. For that reason, Scotland played the most matches against England at Wembley, 30, followed by Northern Ireland, 18, and Wales, 16. Outside the home countries, Brazil and Germany/West Germany led the way with nine matches each.

England played 51 representative teams at Wembley. Two of those teams, the Rest of Europe and the Rest of the World, were not national selections, but representative sides consisting of players drawn from several nations. England thus played 49 national teams at Wembley, although that number is smaller by two if predecessor and successor nations are lumped together (united Germany and West Germany, on the one hand, and Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, on the other).

Primarily because England played a comparatively large number of matches at Wembley against the other home countries, they had more wins against Scotland, 16 in 30 matches, Northern Ireland, 13 in 18 matches, and Wales, 10 in 16 matches, than against any other national team. Of the teams from abroad, Hungary went down to defeat at Wembley more often than any other, six times in seven matches.

England's most memorable victory at Wembley is, of course, the 4-2 extra-time win over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final. It is still constantly discussed in England since it remains the national side's only victory in a World Cup final. But the continuing controversy over whether England's third goal--the first in extra-time--crossed the goal line has ensured the match also remains known throughout the footballing world more than 35 years later.

Because England were widely regarded as the world's leading football power through the Second World War and had not been decisively dethroned as the second half of the 20th century began, it is more for famous England defeats than for celebrated England victories that Wembley is remembered in much of the world. Thus, although Hungary lost six of their seven matches at Wembley, more than any other foreign team, it is the single match in seven that England did not win, the momentous 1953 match in which England fell, 6-3, that is recalled around the globe.

Scotland were the first of 17 countries to beat England at Wembley (16 if Germany and West Germany are considered as one). Their first of nine Wembley wins came in 1928 in only the second international played at Wembley, when the side remembered as the "Wembley Wizards" tore apart England, 5-1. In fact, since the first international the two old rivals played at Wembley ended in a 1-1 draw in 1924, Scotland were the first national side to win at Wembley. England did not gain their first win there until 1930, when, in the third Wembley international, they beat the Auld Enemy, 5-2.

By 1951, when Argentina became the second national team to play England at Wembley in an official international match, Scotland had gained three more victories there--1-0 in 1938, 3-1 in 1949 and 3-2 in 1951, just before the South American team's visit. Thus, in 1953, when Hungary became the second national team to beat England at Wembley, thrashing them 6-3 with a side still hailed half a century later as the "Magical Magyars," Scotland already had accomplished the feat four times.

Still, it is Hungary's 1953 victory that is the most celebrated Wembley match outside the World Cup final of 1966, and to this day the football world fetes Hungary of 1953 as the conquerors of England, not only because their brilliant football decimated both the England team and England's claims to footballing supremacy, but also because they are regarded as the first foreign side to beat England on English soil. In fact, four years earlier, in 1949, the Republic of Ireland had beaten England, 2-0, at Goodison Park in Liverpool. Apparently because the Republic's side consisted of players who regularly turned out for Football League clubs in England, and perhaps because Ireland was once under British control, the English did not regard the Republic as a foreign side. It is undeniable, however, that the Republic of Ireland were the first foreign team to beat England on English soil, and Hungary hold slightly lesser distinctions as the first team from outside the British Isles to achieve the feat and the first foreign side to do so at Wembley.

Yet Hungary got all the glory, and deservedly so, for the manner in which they disposed of England was unforgettable, and they undoubtedly were the strongest national team in the world during the first half of the 1950's. Their victory on that bleak November afternoon almost 50 years ago is a landmark in the history of English football. It shattered forevermore the claim still prevalent in England that English football was superior to the rest of the world's, revealing it for what it was, an illusion that had long since lost any basis in reality. At the same time, it forced examination of the English game and the beginning of its emergence from the stultifying rigidity--so cruelly exposed by Hungary's mobility, flexibility and skill--that the complacency of decades had bred.

Almost 50 years later, as old Wembley closed down for demolition and construction of a new national stadium meeting modern standards, defeating England there no longer conjured up images of wizards exercising magical powers, although it usually remained a difficult feat. The dreary 1-0 loss to a decidedly ordinary German side in the World Cup 2002 qualification match played on a rainy Saturday afternoon on 7 October 2000 marked the end of the grand old stadium. It was England's 30th defeat at Wembley over the 76 years the stadium served as England's main home ground.

Scotland won by far the most matches against England at Wembley, nine, followed by several countries with two wins, Brazil, Italy, Northern Ireland, united Germany and West Germany. If the united Germany and West Germany totals are combined, the Germans are second to Scotland with four Wembley wins.

In addition to Hungary, whose dazzling display in 1953 was their sole Wembley victory against six losses, national teams that won a single match against England at Wembley were Austria, Chile, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the U.S.S.R., Uruguay and Wales.

Only two visiting teams, Chile and Italy, had winning records against England at Wembley, and their win/loss margin consisted of a single victory. Chile played there only twice, winning one and drawing the other. Italy visited Wembley five times, winning two, drawing two and losing one. United Germany had a win/loss margin of two victories against England at Wembley on the basis of two wins and a draw in three matches, but if West Germany's results are tacked on, the German record at Wembley was all even at four wins, four losses and a draw in nine matches.

Other sides achieving even records at Wembley were Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, the Rest of Europe, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Uruguay, but only Brazil, Romania, Sweden and Uruguay played more than two matches there. England managed to hold Brazil to two wins in nine Wembley matches while winning two themselves and drawing five. All four Wembley matches with Romania ended in draws. England won only one of four Wembley matches with Sweden, while losing one and drawing two. And they had an identical one win, two draws, one loss record at Wembley against Uruguay.

Eighteen national teams that played England elsewhere never played at Wembley. Two of those nations, Bohemia and united Ireland, ceased to exist before Wembley opened. Bohemia became part of Czechoslovakia, which played at Wembley four times, and later part of the Czech Republic, which played there once. Ireland, of course, was partitioned in 1921, the southern part becoming what is known today as the Republic of Ireland, which played at Wembley five times, and the northern part becoming Northern Ireland, which played at Wembley 18 times. The other England opponents never to play at Wembley were Australia, C.I.S. (the Commonwealth of Independent States that succeeded the Soviet Union, which played at Wembley four times), Canada, China, Ecuador, Egypt, Iceland, Israel, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa and Tunisia.

History of X-Ray

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sun, 7 Aug 2011 13:42:00 -0700

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

The first x-ray
Frau Röntgen's left hand

In October of 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923) who was professor of physics and the director of the Physical Institute of the University of Wurburg, became interested in the work of Hillorf, Crookes, Hertz, and Lenard. The previous June, he had obtained a Lenard tube from Muller and had already repeated some of the original experiments that Lenard had created. He had observed the effects Lenard had as he produced cathode rays in free air. He became so fascinated that he decided to forego his other studies and concentrate solely on the production of cathode rays. One Friday evening, on November 8, 1895, he worked alone in his laboratory. It was the beginning of the weekend and all of his assistants had gone home. He had set up his experiment using a Crookes tube fitted with an anode and cathode, separated from each other by a few centimeters in the tube. He used a Rhumkoff induction coil to produce a difference of potential of a few thousand volts, knowing that a stream of charged particles would originate in the cathode and would be attracted to the anode.

The laboratory Röntgen worked in that evening was very similar to all other laboratories of those who worked before him, but the conditions that existed that evening varied in three very important ways. His laboratory was dark, his tube was covered with a light-proof cardboard jacket and a screen of fluorescent material laid on a table a few feet away from the apparatus. While passing the discharge, he suddenly noticed a shimmering light on the table top. He could not believe his eyes, so he again repeated the experiment. He released the discharge many times producing the same results each time. Greatly excited, he realized that the green fluorescence was emanating from the screen. He repeated the experiment again, this time moving the screen further and further away and he still received the same results.

Röntgen knew the fluorescence could not be produced by the cathode rays since it was well known that they could not penetrate through the wall of the tube. Visible light could not be the stimulus since the tube was covered with a shield which was opaque to light. He boldly hypothesized that he must have been producing some unknown type of radiation.

Röntgen spent the next eight weeks in his laboratory repeating his experiments. He ate and even slept in his laboratory as he attempted to determine if the rays could penetrate substances besides the air. He placed various objects between the tube and screen and he found that the screen still fluoresced but with different intensities depending on the material being used. When he placed a lead disk, which he was holding, in the cathode ray path he was astonished to find the shadow of the round circle appeared on the screen along with the outline of his thumb and forefinger and within them the bones of his hand! He replaced the screen with a photographic plate and employed his wife Bertha (Frau Röntgen) to place her hand on the photographic plate while he directed the rays at it for fifteen minutes.

Röntgen hurriedly prepared his notes so that his first report "On a New Kind of Rays" could be published in the Proceedings of the Physical Medical Society of Wurburg on December 28, 1895. Not knowing what these emanations were he uses the term x-ray to describe the rays he was producing. Later, in 1896, he accepted the Rumford gold medal of the Royal Society and in 1901 he would be the first to receive the Nobel Prize for physics, but he bequeathed the Nobel prize money to scientific research at Wurzburg.

Oprah Winfrey Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sun, 7 Aug 2011 00:52:00 -0700

American television host, actress, producer, philanthropist. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. After a troubled adolescence in a small farming community, where she was sexually abused by a number of male relatives and friends of her mother, Vernita, she moved to Nashville to live with her father, Vernon, a barber and businessman. She entered Tennessee State University in 1971 and began working in radio and television broadcasting in Nashville.In 1976, Winfrey moved to Baltimore, where she hosted the TV chat show, People Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for eight years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, A.M. Chicago. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue. Within several months, Winfrey's open, warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings. Her success led to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg's 1985 film, The Color Purple, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions ('Oprah' spelled backwards) and making more and more money from syndication.

In 1994, with talk shows becoming increasingly trashy and exploitative, Winfrey pledged to keep her show free of tabloid topics. Although ratings initially fell, she earned the respect of her viewers and was soon rewarded with an upsurge in popularity. Her projects with Harpo have included the highly rated 1989 TV miniseries, The Women of Brewster Place, which she also starred in. Winfrey also signed a multi-picture contract with Disney. The initial project, 1998's Beloved, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison and starring Winfrey and Danny Glover, got mixed reviews and generally failed to live up to expectations.Winfrey, who became almost as well-known for her weight loss efforts as for her talk show, lost an estimated 90 pounds (dropping to her ideal weight of around 150 pounds) and competed in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC, in 1995. In the wake of her highly publicized success, Winfrey's personal chef, Rosie Daley, and trainer, Bob Greene, both published best-selling books.The media giant contributed immensely to the publishing world by launching her "Oprah's Book Club," as part of her talk show. The program propelled many unknown authors to the top of the bestseller lists and gave pleasure reading a new kind of popular prominence.With the debut in 1999 of Oxygen Media, a company she co-founded that is dedicated to producing cable and Internet programming for women, Winfrey ensured her place in the forefront of the media industry and as one of the most powerful and wealthy people in show business. In 2002, she concluded a deal with the network to air a prime-time complement to her syndicated talk show. Her highly successful monthly, O: The Oprah Magazine debuted in 2000, and in 2004, she signed a new contract to continue The Oprah Winfrey Show through the 2010-11 season. In 2009, Winfrey announced that she would be ending her program when her current contract with ABC ends. Winfrey is expected to move to the Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture with Discovery Communications. The show is currently seen on 212 U.S. stations and in more than 100 countries worldwide.

According to Forbes magazine, Oprah was the richest African American of the 20th century and the world's only Black billionaire for three years running. Life magazine hailed her as the most influential woman of her generation. In 2005, Business Week named her the greatest Black philanthropist in American history. Oprah's Angel Network has raised more than $51,000,000 for charitable programs, including girls' education in South Africa and relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.Winfrey is a dedicated activist for children's rights; in 1994, President Clinton signed a bill into law that Winfrey had proposed to Congress, creating a nationwide database of convicted child abusers. She founded the Family for Better Lives foundation and also contributes to her alma mater, Tennessee State University. In September, 2002, Oprah was named the first recipient of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.Winfrey campaigned for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama in December 2007, attracting the largest crowds of the primary season to that point. Winfrey joined Obama for a series of rallies in the early primary/caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. It was the first time Winfrey had ever campaigned for a political candidate.The biggest event was at the University of South Carolina football stadium, where 29,000 supporters attended a rally that had been switched from an 18,000-seat basketball arena to satisfy public demand."Dr. (Martin Luther) King dreamed the dream. But we don't have to just dream the dream any more," Oprah told the crowd. "We get to vote that dream into reality by supporting a man who knows not just who we are, but who we can be." The power of Winfrey's political endorsement was unclear (Obama won Iowa and South Carolina, but lost New Hampshire). But she has a clear track record of turning unknown authors into blockbuster best-sellers when she mentions their books on her program.When The Oprah Winfrey Show ends on September 9, 2011, Oprah will still partake in the rapidly shifting and converging media field through The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which launched on January 1, 2011.

In her final season of her talk show, Oprah made ratings soar when she revealed a family secret: she has a half-sister named Patricia. Oprah's mother gave birth to a baby girl in 1963. At the time, Oprah was 9 years old, and living with her father. Lee put the child up for adoption because she believed that she wouldn't be able to get off public assistance if she had another child to care for. Patricia lived in a series of foster homes until she was 7 years old.Patricia tried to connect with her birth mother through her adoption agency after she became an adult, but Lee did not want to meet her. After doing some research, she approached a niece of Winfrey's, and the two had DNA tests done, which proved they were related.Winfrey only learned of her sister's existence a few months before she made the decision to publicize the knowledge. "It was one of the greatest surprises of my life," Winfrey said on her show.Since 1992, Winfrey has been engaged to Stedman Graham, a public relations executive. The couple lives in Chicago, and Winfrey also has homes in Montecito, California, Rolling Prairie, Indiana, and Telluride, Colorado.

source : http://www.biography.com/articles/oprah-winfrey-9534419

Short History of Indonesia

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sat, 6 Aug 2011 10:25:00 -0700

The first known hominid inhabitant of Indonesia was the so-called "Java Man", or Homo erectus, who lived here half a million years ago. Some 60,000 years ago, the ancestors of the present-day Papuans move eastward through these islands, eventually reaching New Guinea and Australia some 30-40,000 years ago. Much later, in about the fourth millennium B.C., they were followed by the ancestors of the modern-day Malays, Javanese and other Malayo-Polynesian groups who now make up the bulk of Indonesia's population.

Trade contracts with India, China and the mainland of Southeast Asia brought outside cultural and religious influences to Indonesia. One of the first Indianized empires, known to us now as Sriwijaya, was located on the coast of Sumatra around the strategic straits of Malacca, serving as the hub of a trading network that reached to many parts of the archipelago more than a thousand years ago.

On neighboring Java, large kingdoms of the interior of the island erected scores of exquisite of religious monuments, such as Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world. The last and most powerful of these early Hindu-Javanese kingdoms, the 14th century Majapahit Empire, once controlled and influenced much of what is now known as Indonesia, maintaining contacts with trading outposts as far away as the west coast of Papua New Guinea.

Indian Muslim traders began spreading Islam in Indonesia in the eighth and ninth centuries. By the time Marco Polo visited North Sumatra at the end of the 13th century, the first Islamic states were already established there. Soon afterwards, rulers on Java's north coast adopted the new creed and conquered the Hindu-based Majapahit Empire in the Javanese hinterland. The faith gradually spread throughout archipelago, and Indonesia is today the world's largest Islamic nation.

Indonesia's abundant spices first brought Portuguese merchants to the key trading port of Malacca in 1511. Prized for their flavor, spices such as cloves, nutmeg and mace were also believed to cure everything from the plague to venereal disease, and were literally worth their weight in gold. The Dutch eventually wrested control of the spice trade from Portuguese, and the tenacious Dutch East India Company (known by initials VOC) established a spice monopoly which lasted well into the 18th century. During the 19th century, the Dutch began sugar and coffee cultivation on Java, which was soon providing three-fourths of the world supply of coffee.

By the turn of the 20th century, nationalist stirring, brought about by nearly three centuries of oppressive colonial rule, began to challenge the Dutch presence in Indonesia. A four-year guerilla war led by nationalists against the Dutch on Java after World War II, along with successful diplomatic maneuverings abroad, helped bring about independence. The Republic of Indonesia, officially proclaimed on August 17th, 1945, gained sovereignty four years later.

During the first two decades of independence, the republic was dominated by the charismatic figure of Sukarno, one of the early nationalists who had been imprisoned by the Dutch. General (ret.) Soeharto eased Sukarno from power in 1967. Indonesia's economy was sustained throughout the 1970's, almost exclusively by oil export.

The Asian financial crisis, which broke out in mid-1997, paralyzed the Indonesian economy with the rupiah losing 80% of its value against the US dollar at the peak of the turmoil.

On May 21, 1998, Soeharto resigned after 32 years in power and was replaced by B.J. Habibie following bloody violence and riots. Indonesia held its first democratic election in October 1999, which put Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid in the role of president.

source : http://www.indo.com/indonesia/history.html

History of Reggae

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Fri, 5 Aug 2011 08:18:00 -0700

Reggae is the heartbeat of Jamaica - a brand of reggae music as strongly identified with the island as R&B is with Detroit or jazz with new reggae Orleans. It's a major factor in the Jamaican economy, at no time better demonstrated than during Reggae Sunsplash and Reggae Sumfest (enormous annual reggae festivals), when almost one-quarter million visitors arrive from overseas to dance and sway in delirious union to the soulful, syncopated beat on the tiny island.

Reggae evolved in the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica, born of the tensions and social protest simmering violently in the late 1960's. Jamaicans will tell you that reggae means "coming from de people," a phrase coined (as was the name reggae itself) by Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals.

Bob Marley

Reggae is associated above all with one man: Robert Nesta Marley. Bob Marley had established himself as an early leading influence, with his creative style and unique stage presence. The type of reggae he performed is called Roots Reggae. He adopted Rastafarianism, injecting his reggae music with greater soul and more poignant lyrics that helped spark a worldwide "Third World consciousness." Bob Marley became an international superstar and is considered a prophet by the followers of the Rastafarian religion.

Though Marley died in 1981, Reggae has gone from strength to strength. International stars such as Eric Clapton and Paul Simon even began to incorporate Reggae tunes into their smash hit reggae albums. Bob Marley has sold more reggae albums posthumously than any other reggae recording reggae artist. On his birthday, February 6, 2001 Marley was awarded a star on the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame. He receives numerous awards for his contributions to reggae music each year.

Types of Reggae

Not all reggae stars are Jamaican. Reggae has a huge following in Scandinavia, Germany, England and Japan and indeed in most countries throughout the world where homegrown performers are bursting onto the scene. Nor do all reggae reggae artists embrace social commentary in their reggae music. Other types of West Indian reggae music that actually preceded Reggae but can be found at most reggae festivals and are all grouped under the term "Reggae" to the masses:

Lovers Rock Melodic, romanticized reggae. Maxi Priest is one of the most popular to sing this type of reggae.

Dub Purely instrumental reggae. Jamaican reggae DJ's invented their own lyrics to dub over the reggae music, initially in a verse form that has since evolved into...

reggae dancehall Reggae similar to rap reggae music.

Ska this frenetic forerunner of reggae accentuated by a strong horn section has made a comeback and is popular among young adults in USA and UK.

Rock Steady ska slowed down to half speed and became more syncopated. The dance style was more languid with minimal movements.

Soca from Trinidad, this fast-paced dance reggae music has a pedigree going back two decades and gained prominence in Jamaica only recently at Carnival time. It is now the reggae music of choice at upscale discos in 'uptown Kingston' (reggae dancehall is the reggae music of 'downtown').

Calypso fast-paced reggae music from Trinidad featuring steel drums.

World Beat West African Highlife reggae music

Popular Marketing

Reggae may have put Jamaica on the reggae musical map, but the nation's reggae musical heritage runs much deeper. It is also constantly evolving, setting the tone and pace for the world to follow. Kingston has become the 'Nashville of the Third World' and reggae recording studios pump out dozens of new reggae titles each month. Reggae has influenced so many of today's marketing efforts with reggae jingles with its distinctive beat being heard on the radio and television around the world selling everything from laundry soap to soft drink. It is 'feel-good' reggae music and marketers capitalize on that.

Rastafarians & Dreadlocks

The Rastafarians with their uncut, uncombed hair grown into long sun-bleached tangles known as dreadlocks or dreads are synonymous with the island in the sun. Rastas wear their hair in dreadlocks because of their intrepretation of a passage in the Bible. There are perhaps 100,000 "Rastas" in Jamaica (and millions worldwide). They adhere to an unorganized religion - a faith, not a church. Their influence has far outweighed their small number as youth around the globe admire their easy-going lifestyle and philosophy of One World family. Rastafarianism is a type of Christianity and they study the Bible.

Rastafarians have adapted traditional Christian tenets to fit their philosophical mold. The basic belief is that His Imperial Majesty, The Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, was the second coming of Jesus Christ. They site passages in the Bible that confirm this. It advocates a peaceful fight against oppression against Babylon (the establishment). They are vegetarians that eat fish, strict teetotalers, they shun tobacco, coffee, sugar, and processed food. Those who copy Rastafarian lifestyle but bring ill repute are called 'wolves'.

Dreadlocks have become en vogue and can be seen on models in reggae magazines and actors and ac tresses on television and in the movies.

Patois: Language of Reggae

In Jamaica, officially English is the spoken language. In reality, Jamaica is a bilingual country as everyone speaks patois (pa-twah), a reggae musical dialect with a unique rhythm and cadence. Patois evolved from the Creole English and a twisted alchemy of the mother tongue peppered with African, Portuguese, and Spanish terms and Rastafarian slang. Most Jamaicans will vary the degree and intensity of their Patois according to whom they're speaking with.

Che Guevara Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Thu, 4 Aug 2011 10:27:00 -0700

Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born in Rosario in Argentine in 1928. After studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires he worked as a doctor. While in Guatemala in 1954 he witnessed the socialist government of President Jacobo Arbenz overthrown by an American backed military coup. Disgusted by what he saw, Guevara decided to join the Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, in Mexico.

In 1956 Guevara, Castro and eighty other men and women arrived in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of General Fulgencio Batista. This group became known as the July 26 Movement. The plan was to set up their base in the Sierra Maestra mountains. On the way to the mountains they were attacked by government troops. By the time they reached the Sierra Maestra there were only sixteen men left with twelve weapons between them. For the next few months Castro's guerrilla army raided isolated army garrisons and were gradually able to build-up their stock of weapons.

When the guerrillas took control of territory they redistributed the land amongst the peasants. In return, the peasants helped the guerrillas against Batista's soldiers. In some cases the peasants also joined Castro's army, as did students from the cities and occasionally Catholic priests.

In an effort to find out information about the rebels people were pulled in for questioning. Many innocent people were tortured. Suspects, including children, were publicly executed and then left hanging in the streets for several days as a warning to others who were considering joining the revolutionaries. The behaviour of Batista's forces increased support for the guerrillas. In 1958 forty-five organizations signed an open letter supporting the July 26 Movement. National bodies representing lawyers, architects, dentists, accountants and social workers were amongst those who signed. Castro, who had originally relied on the support of the poor, was now gaining the backing of the influential middle classes.

General Fulgencio Batista responded to this by sending more troops to the Sierra Maestra. He now had 10,000 men hunting for Castro and his 300-strong army. Although outnumbered, Castro's guerrillas were able to inflict defeat after defeat on the government's troops. In the summer of 1958 over a thousand of Batista's soldiers were killed or wounded and many more were captured. Unlike Batista's soldiers, Castro's troops had developed a reputation for behaving well towards prisoners. This encouraged Batista's troops to surrender to Castro when things went badly in battle. Complete military units began to join the guerrillas.

The United States supplied Batista with planes, ships and tanks, but the advantage of using the latest technology such as napalm failed to win them victory against the guerrillas. In March 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower, disillusioned with Batista's performance, suggested he held elections. This he did, but the people showed their dissatisfaction with his government by refusing to vote. Over 75 per cent of the voters in the capital Havana boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as Santiago, it was as high as 98 per cent.

Fidel Castro was now confident he could beat Batista in a head-on battle. Leaving the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro's troops began to march on the main towns. After consultations with the United States government, Batista decided to flee the country. Senior Generals left behind attempted to set up another military government. Castro's reaction was to call for a general strike. The workers came out on strike and the military were forced to accept the people's desire for change. Castro marched into Havana on January 9,1959, and became Cuba's new leader.

In its first hundred days in office Castro's government passed several new laws. Rents were cut by up to 50 per cent for low wage earners; property owned by Fulgencio Batista and his ministers was confiscated; the telephone company was nationalized and the rates were reduced by 50 per cent; land was redistributed amongst the peasants (including the land owned by the Castro family); separate facilities for blacks and whites (swimming pools, beaches, hotels, cemeteries etc.) were abolished.

In 1960 Guevara visited China and the Soviet Union. On his return he wrote two books Guerrilla Warfare and Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War. In these books he argued that it was possible to export Cuba's revolution to other South American countries. Guevara served as Minister for Industries (1961-65) but in April 1965 he resigned and become a guerrilla leader in Bolivia.

In 1967 David Morales recruited Félix Rodríguez to train and head a team that would attempt to catch Che Guevara. Guevara was attempting to persuade the tin-miners living in poverty to join his revolutionary army. When Guevara was captured, it was Rodriguez who interrogated him before he ordered his execution in October, 1967. Rodriguez still possesses Guevara’s Rolex watch that he took as a trophy.

In their book, Ultimate Sacrifice, published in 2006, Larmar Waldron and Thom Hartmann argued that in 1963 Guevara was involved in a plot with Juan Almeida Bosch to overthrow Fidel Castro.

source : http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDguevara.htm

Unique Guitar

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Thu, 4 Aug 2011 10:17:00 -0700

History of Drums

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Thu, 4 Aug 2011 03:53:00 -0700

The concept of the drum is probably as old as intelligent man. The idea of banging on something to make noise is second nature to us. But when exactly did the drum become an instrument? How old is the concept of the drum as an instrument? Read this article to learn of the history and structure of the drum.

A drum is a membranophone, or an instrument that is played by beating on a stretched membrane. It consists of a body, or a hollowed-out piece, a membrane, or a piece of animal skin or synthetic material placed over the top, tuning pegs, or pegs placed into the sides of the membrane to tighten or release the pressure on the membrane (and affect the sound), and the striking object, usually a stick of some sort. While most people may think that a sound is produced in the body of the drum, sound is actually produced by the membrane and its vibration. Sound can be changed by the amount of tension in the membrane, or by how tightly it is stretched over the body of the drum. The oldest drums were probably hollowed sections of tree trunks, with a piece of animal skin over the top. Gourds are other hollow vegetables and fruits are also prime candidates for early drums. Today, drums can be made of everything from plastic to basic metal, and some even exist in iron, bronze and steel.

Ancient drums have been discovered in almost every part of the world. Drums first appeared, however, in excavation from the Neolithic Era. The oldest recorded drum is from 6000 BC. Mesopotamian ruins contain small cylindrical drums that are as old as 3000 BC. Egyptian tombs have yielded small drums used for ceremonies. Several caves in Peru contain wall markings depicting drums in various aspects of societal life. It is strongly suspected that Indian drums from the Middle East are as old as 5000 BC. The American Indians used a series of wood and gourd drums for their celebrations and music, and some of these drums are still used in ceremonies today.

Drums were not always used for music. In Africa, where music is simply an interpretation of everyday life in sound, drums were used as speech. Simply a pattern of beats played in a certain way could communicate vast amounts of information. Drums are also used for many religious purposes. In certain parts of Africa, drums are venerated, and also given entities and gender. It is not uncommon for the people of these places to refer to drums as male, and give them sacred names. Women in some parts must treat drums with the same respect that they would give the male body, and in some rare historical cases, African women were killed simply for touching these instruments. Therefore, the history of the drum has evolved from one of religious use and interpretation to musical accompaniment and creation.

Biography of Walt Disney

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 3 Aug 2011 23:19:00 -0700

Walt in his office

Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois, to his father Elias Disney, and mother Flora Call Disney. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.

After Walt's birth, the Disney family moved to Marceline Missouri, Walt lived most of his childhood here.

Walt had very early interests in art, he would often sell drawings to neighbors to make extra money. He pursued his art career, by studying art and photography by going to McKinley High School in Chicago.

Walt began to love, and appreciate nature and wildlife, and family and community, which were a large part of agrarian living. Though his father could be quite stern, and often there was little money, Walt was encouraged by his mother, and older brother, Roy to pursue his talents.

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with Disney cartoons.

Once Walt returned from France, he began to pursue a career in commercial art. He started a small company called Laugh-O-Grams, which eventually fell bankrupt. With his suitcase, and twenty dollars, Walt headed to Hollywood to start anew.

After making a success of his "Alice Comedies," Walt became a recognized Hollywood figure. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. Later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon .

In 1932, the production entitled Flowers and Trees(the first color cartoon) won Walt the first of his studio's Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique.

On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los Angeles. The film produced at the unheard cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, the film is still considered one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.

Walt Disney's dream of a clean, and organized amusement park, came true, as Disneyland Park opened in 1955. Walt also became a television pioneer, Disney began television production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961.

Walt Disney is a legend; a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideals which his name represents: imagination, optimism, creation, and self-made success in the American tradition. He brought us closer to the future, while telling us of the past, it is certain, that there will never be such as great a man, as Walt Disney.

source : http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/biography/w_bio_short.html

History of Ping Pong

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 3 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0700

Like many other sports, table tennis began as a mild social diversion. Descending, along with lawn tennis and badminton, from the ancient medieval game of tennis. It was popular in England in the second half of the nineteenth century under its present name and various trade names such as Gossima and Whiff-Whaff. After the name Ping-Pong (an imitation of the sound made by the ball striking the table and the vellum bats that were used) was introduced by J. Jaques & Son, the game became a fashionable craze. There are many contemporary references to it and illustrations of it being played, usually in domestic surroundings.

By the early years of this century, Ping-Pong had already acquired some of its present day complexities, though it was still seen by many as an after -dinner amusement rather than a sport. An account published in 1903 found it necessary to warn against wearing a dress suit and stiff shirt-or, for ladies, a white satin gown-but went on to give detailed technical advice about pimpled rubber, the penholder grip and tactics.

The game was popular in Central Europe in 1905-10, and even before this is a modified version had been introduced to Japan , where it later spread to China and Korea.

After a period when it had dropped out of favor in Europe, the game was revived in England and Wales in the early twenties. by that time 'Ping-Pong' had been registered as a trademark, so the earlier name of table tennis was re-introduced. National associations were formed and standardization of the rules began, both in Europe and the Far East.

Then, over the next sixty years, table tennis developed into a major worldwide sport, played by perhaps thirty million competitive players and by uncountable millions who play less seriously. However, the game itself has not changed in essence since its earliest days, though it is faster, more subtle and more demanding than it was even only twenty years ago. a constant concern of the ITTF has always been to insure that table tennis remains a contest of human skills and that technological developments which add a new factor to the game do not give too great an advantage to the players who have the first opportunity of making use of them. Thus, equipment specifications are carefully laid down, and rigorously enforced.

Other changes-a lowering of the net, a rule to avoid protracted games between defensive players, and rules preventing excessive advantage being gained by the server-were introduced in the thirties and further minor changes are made from time to time. Changes to the rules of the sport can only be made only at the ITTF's Biennial General Meeting, and are never made without the agreement of a substantial majority of the hundred or so member Associations represented at the BGM, all of whom have an equal vote.

Modern table tennis at national and international level is a rigorous as any sport in its demands for the highest degree of physical fitness and mental concentration, attained only by arduous training to develop natural skill. Fred Perry, World Men's Singles Table Tennis Champion in 1928-29, later achieved even greater fame at Wimbledon; perhaps it would not be quite true to say that he moved to the larger court when his play became too slow for the table, but it is certainly true that no sport requires faster reactions and more delicate muscular co-ordination than table tennis.

- International Table Tennis Federation museum

History of BMX

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 3 Aug 2011 11:48:00 -0700

Somewhere if Southern California during the early 70's, a bunch of kids on modified 20" Stingray bicycles went out to a vacant lot and created a brand new sport of their very own... Those kids were probaly not even the first. The same scene of youthful energy and American resourcefulness was quite probally going on in Nebraska and/or New Jersey. But it was the California gathering of nameless pioneers who were recorded on film by Bruce Brown's cameras. The resulting motorcycle film, ON ANY SUNDAY, would spread the word like wildfire. There was no stopping it now. A new sport created by kids for kids was born. Bicycle Motocross was the name it was given. That name was quickly shortened to BMX. It grabbed the attention of thousands of kids in one short summer.

Boys and girls on their modified bicyles were seen jamming through the dirt emulating their motorcycle motocross heroes.

Imitation lead to innovation and quickly the kids were performing tricks and "getting air" that made their motorcycle heroes green with envy. The next step was orgainzed racing. By 1977, pockets of lossely organized BMX races dotted the nation from coast to coast. It was time for a national sactioning body and from out of this need, the American Bicycle Association was created. The American Bicycle Association not only filled that need, it completely changed and continues to shape the future of the sport it serves. The first step was to create a system of qualifying participants that was not only fair, but one which enhanced the competive nature of the very sport itself and still afforded each and every rider the chance to be a winner. This need for fairness and allowing for the tortunes of luck led the way to the transfer system, in which the winner of each moto advances to the next round - be it quarter, semi or main event.

That first step led to a long and continuing list of firsts that spell out the very success of ABA. From supplying the first and world's largest national sanctioning body, first national tour, first Pro purse, first Cruiser class competition, first sanction to call fouls as they occur, first starting light system, first automatic gate system, first voice command, first duel announcing, first computerized membership and points system, first computerized sign-ups, first computerized system for local tracks, first interactive website to service it's members, first and most prestigious National Amateur Championship to cover all ages and the list goes on.

ABA BMX racing is a sport of youthful achievement and the American family. While the young boy or girl BMX racer develops skills at an individual pace, they are learning about winning, losing and trying again. The racer's family learns that time spent together is support of the racer and the individual achievements is quality time.

It is the duty of the ABA to establish the rules of racing that provide fair competition and fun family entertainment for all of it's 60,000 plus members. This is a job to which the American Bicycle Association and all of it's employees are 100% dedicated.

History of Ninja

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 3 Aug 2011 11:18:00 -0700

Black-clad figures with muffled faces skitter through a courtyard, swarming over walls like spiders and running lightly across rooftops, quick as cats.

An unsuspecting samurai sleeps peacefully as these shadows permanently silence his body guards. The bedroom door slides open without a sound, an up-raised blade glints in the moonlight, and...

This is the ninja of the movies and comic books, the stealthy assassin in black robes with magical abilities in the arts of concealment and murder.

This wraith-like being is very compelling, to be sure. But what is the historical reality behind the popular culture icon of the Ninja?

Origins of the Ninja:

It is difficult to pin down the emergence of the first ninja, more properly called shinobi. After all, people around the world have always used spies and assassins.

Japanese folklore states that the ninja descended from a demon that was half man and half crow. However, it seems more likely that the ninja slowly evolved as an opposing force to their upper-class contemporaries, the samurai, in early feudal Japan.

Most sources indicate that the skills that became ninjutsu, the ninja's art of stealth, began to develop between 600-900 A.D. Prince Shotoku, (574-622), is said to have employed Otomono Sahito as a shinobi spy.

Mainland Influences on the Early Ninja:

By the year 850, the Tang Dynasty in China was in decline. It would fall in 907, plunging China into 50 years of chaos; the collapse prompted some Tang generals to escape over the sea to Japan.

These commanders brought new battle tactics and philosophies of war with them.

Chinese monks also began to arrive in Japan in the 1020s, bringing new medicines and fighting philosophies of their own. Many of the ideas originated in India, and made their way across Tibet and China before turning up in Japan.

The monks taught their methods to Japan's warrior-monks, or yamabushi, as well as to members of the first ninja clans.

The First Known Ninja School:

For a century or more, the blend of Chinese and native tactics that would become ninjutsu developed as a counter-culture, without rules.

It was first formalized by Daisuke Togakure and Kain Doshi.

Daisuke had been a samurai, but he was on the losing side in a regional battle. He lost his lands and his samurai title.

In 1162, Daisuke was wandering the mountains of southwest Honshu when he met Kain Doshi, a Chinese warrior-monk. Daisuke renounced his bushido code, and together the two developed a new theory of guerrilla warfare called ninjutsu.

Daisuke's descendants created the first ninja ryu, or school, the Togakureryu.

Ninjutsu versus Bushido:

Ninjutsu developed as an opposing force to the samurai code of bushido.

Samurai valued loyalty and honor above all else.

Going into battle, a samurai would select a single opponent, announce his challenge, list his family pedigree, and then attack. Samurai wore bright colors on their armor to announce their clan identity.

Bushido was very noble, but it couldn't always get the job done.

That is where ninjutsu came in: the ninja code valued accomplishing a mission by whatever means necessary. Sneak attacks, poison, seduction and spying were all shameful to the samurai, but fair play by the rules of the ninja.

Who Were the Ninja?:

Some of the ninja leaders, or jonin, were disgraced samurai like Daisuke Togakure. They had lost in battle or had been renounced by their daimyo, but fled rather than committing seppuku.

Most ordinary ninja were not from the nobility, though. They were villagers and farmers, who learned to fight by any means necessary for their own self-preservation.

The most famous ninja strongholds were the Iga and Koga Provinces.

Women also served in ninja combat. Female ninja, or kunoichi, infiltrated enemy castles in the guise of dancers, concubines or servants. They were successful spies, and sometimes acted as assassins as well.

Samurai Use of the Ninja:

The samurai lords could not always prevail in open warfare, but they were constrained by bushido. So, they often hired ninja to do their dirty work.

Secrets could be spied out, opponents assassinated, or misinformation planted... without sullying a samurai's honor.

This system also transferred wealth to the lower classes, as ninja were paid handsomely for their work.

Of course, a samurai's enemies could also hire ninja. As a result, the samurai needed, despised, and feared the ninja, in equal measure.

The ninja "high man," or jonin, gave orders to the chunin, "middle man," who passed them on to the genin, ordinary ninja.

Ninja Clothing, Tools and Weapons:

In modern movies and comic books, ninjas are portrayed in all-black clothing, with only their eyes showing.

This costume, however, comes from the kabuki theater.

Actual ninjas wore navy blue for night operations. Usually, however, they dressed to blend in with their targets - as any sensible espionage agent would do.

Ninja tools and weapons included: shinobigatana, medium-length swords; the bo and naginata, war staves and pikes; and martial arts like karate.

Ninja also developed special equipment like the shuko, an iron hand-crampon used for climbing, and the tessen, a sharpened metal fan.

They did not use throwing stars.

Ninja Techniques:

Ninjutsu is practical; if a tactic is effective, then it is acceptable.

The Eight Methods taught in many ryu were: Body skills, karate, spear fighting, staff fighting, blade-throwing, use of fire and water, fortification and strategy, and concealment.

Many ninja weapons were modified from farm sickles, saws for wood cutting, pruning shears, etc. If discovered, these items would not give away a ninja's identity.

Among the ninja were expert poisoners. Poison was added to food, or applied to a dart or blade.

Some ninja disguised themselves as flute-playing mystics. The sturdy flute could be used as a club or blow-dart tube.

The Rise and Fall of the Ninja:

The ninja came into their own during the tumultuous era between 1336 and 1600. In an atmosphere of constant war, ninja skills were essential for all sides.

The Nanbukucho Wars (1336-1392)

For more than 50 years in the 14th century, Japan had two separate imperial courts, which fought for control of the country.

The Northern Court was controlled by the shoguns. The Southern Court belonged to Emperor Go-Daigo, who wanted to rule in his own right.

Ninja played an important role on both sides in this struggle, infiltrating castles as spies, and even burning down the South's Hachiman-yama Fortress.

The Northern Court eventually won, and the puppet-Emperor system was retained.

The Onin War (1467-1477)

About 70 years later, the Onin War broke out. Ninja featured heavily in this conflict, as well.

The war began as a succession fight within the ruling Ashikaga clan, but soon devolved into a nation-wide civil war.

Although the Onin War ended after 10 years, it ushered in a century of turmoil called the Sengoku Jidai, or "Warring States Period" (though it was actually samurai clans fighting, rather than states).

Ninja served a number of purposes during the Sengoku Period (1467-1568). They acted as kancho (spies), koran (agitators), teisatsu (scouts), and kisho (surprise attackers). They were most effective in castle sieges, infiltrating and distracting the defenders inside while the main besieging army attacked from outside.

Destruction of the Ninja Bases (1581)

The ninja were an important tool during the Sengoku Period, but a destabilizing influence. When war-lord Oda Nobunaga emerged as the strongest daimyo and began to reunite Japan (1551-1582), he saw the ninja strongholds at Iga and Koga as a threat.

Nobunaga's lightning-quick attack on Iga forced the ninja to fight open battles; they were defeated and scattered to nearby provinces or the mountains of Kii.

While their power-base was destroyed, the ninja did not vanish entirely. Some went into the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who later became shogun in 1603.

The much-reduced ninja continued to serve both sides in struggles. In one famous incident from 1600, a ninja sneaked through a group of Tokugawa's defenders at Hataya castle, and planted the flag of the besieging army high on the front gate!

Edo and the End

The Edo Period (1603-1868) brought stability and peace to Japan, bringing the ninja story to a close. Ninja skills and legends survived, though, and were embellished to enliven the movies, games and comic books of today.

source : http://asianhistory.about.com/od/warsinasia/p/NinjaProfile.htm

History of Television

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 3 Aug 2011 08:09:00 -0700

The television has become such an integral part of homes in the modern world that it is hard to imagine life without television. The boob tube, as television is also referred to, provides entertainment to people of all ages. Not just for entertainment value, but TV is also a valuable resource for advertising and different kinds of programming.

The television as we see it and know it today was not always this way. Let’s take a brief look at the history of television and how it came into being.

Timeline of TV History

Different experiments by various people, in the field of electricity and radio, led to the development of basic technologies and ideas that laid the foundation for the invention of television.

In the late 1800s, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a student in Germany, developed the first ever mechanical module of television. He succeeded in sending images through wires with the help of a rotating metal disk. This technology was called the ‘electric telescope’ that had 18 lines of resolution.

Around 1907, two separate inventors, A.A. Campbell-Swinton from England and Russian scientist Boris Rosing, used the cathode ray tube in addition to the mechanical scanner system, to create a new television system.

From the experiments of Nipkow and Rosing, two types of television systems came into existence: mechanical television and electronic television.

Mechanical Television History

In 1923, an American inventor called Charles Jenkins used the disk idea of Nipkow to invent the first ever practical mechanical television system. By 1931, his Radiovisor Model 100 was being sold in a complete kit as a mechanical television.

In 1926, just a little after Jenkins, a British inventor known as John Logie Baird, was the first person to have succeeded in transmitting moving pictures through the mechanical disk system started by Nipkow. He also started the first ever TV studio.

From 1926 till 1931, the mechanical television system saw many innovations. Although the discoveries of these men in the department of mechanical television were very innovative, by 1934, all television systems had converted into the electronic system, which is what is being used even today.

Electronic Television History

The experiments of Swinton in 1907, with the cathode ray tube for electronic television held great potential but were not converted into reality. Finally, in 1927, Philo Taylor Farnsworth was able to invent a working model of electronic television that was based on Swinton’s ideas.

His experiments had started when he was just a little boy of 14 years. By the time he became 21, Philo had created the first electronic television system, which did away with the rotating disks and other mechanical aspects of mechanical television. Thus was born the television system which is the basis of all modern TVs.

All the early television systems were black and white, with color television being invented much later on. Since the early invention of television in the beginning of the 1900s, history has seen many firsts in the area of television.

History of Trains

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 3 Aug 2011 05:16:00 -0700

The History of Train transport dates back nearly 500 years, and includes systems with man or horse power and rails of wood or stone. Modern rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. These systems, which made use of the steam locomotive, were the first practical forms of mechanized land transport, and they remained the primary form of mechanized land transport for the next 100 years.

Ancient world
The earliest evidence of a railway found thus far was the 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece since around 600 BC. Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. The first horse-drawn wagonways also appeared in ancient Greece, with others to be found on Malta and various parts of the Roman Empire, using cut-stone tracks.

Early railways
Wagonways or tramways are thought to have developed in Germany in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, utilising primitive wooden rails. Such an operation was illustrated in 1556 by Georgius Agricola. The technology spread across Europe and had certainly arrived in Britain by the early 1600s. The Wollaton Wagonway was probably the earliest British installation, completed in 1604 , and recorded as running from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham. Another early wagonway is noted at Broseley in Shropshire from 1605 onwards. Huntingdon Beaumont (who was concerned with mining at Strelley) also laid down broad wooden rails near Newcastle upon Tyne, on which a single horse could haul fifty or sixty bushels of coal. By the eighteenth century, such wagonways and tramways existed in a number of areas. Ralph Allen, for example, constructed a tramway to transport stone from a local quarry to supply the needs of the builders of the Georgian terraces of Bath. The Battle of Prestonpans, in the Jacobite Rebellion, was fought astride a wagonway. This type of transport spread rapidly through the whole Tyneside coal-field, and the greatest number of lines were to be found in the coalfield near Newcastle upon Tyne, where they were known locally as wagonways. Their function in most cases was to facilitate the transport of coal in chaldron wagons from the coalpits to a staithe (a wooden pier) on the river bank, whence coal could be shipped to London by collier brigs. The wagonways were engineered so that trains of coal wagons could descend to the staith by gravity, being braked by a brakesman, who rode in the rear vehicle, known as a dandy cart. This also conveyed a horse, which was used to pull the empty wagons back to the colliery. Because rails were smoother than roads, a greater quantity and tonnage of bulk goods such as coal and minerals could be carried, and without damage to highways. Naturally, a great deal of inventiveness was focussed upon improving the rails and reducing the degree of friction between wheel and rail. In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the wooden rails. These (and earlier railways) had flanged wheels as on modern railways, but another system was introduced, in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates - these became known as plateways. John Curr, a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail, though the exact date of this is disputed. William Jessop, a civil engineer, used a form of edge rails successfully on a scheme at Nanpantan, Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789, so he and his partner Benjamin Outram started manufacturing iron edge rails in 1790. As the colliery and quarry tramways and wagonways grew longer, the possibility of using the technology for the public conveyance of goods suggested itself. On 26 July 1803, Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in south London - arguably, the world's first public railway, albeit a horse-drawn one. It was not a railway in the modern sense of the word, as it functioned like a turnpike road. There were no official services, as anyone could bring a vehicle on the railway by paying a toll. It was not until 1825 that the success of the Stockton and Darlington Railway proved that the railways could be made as useful to the general shipping public as to the colliery owner. This railway broke new ground by using rails made of rolled wrought iron, produced at Bedlington Ironworks in Northumberland. Such rails were stronger. This railway linked the town of Darlington with the port of Stockton-on-Tees, and was intended to enable local collieries (which were connected to the line by short branches) to transport their coal to the docks. As this would constitute the bulk of the traffic, the company took the important step of offering to haul the colliery wagons or chaldrons by locomotive power, something that required a scheduled or timetabled service of trains. However, the line also functioned as a toll railway, where private horse drawn wagons could be operated upon it. This curious hybrid of a system (which also included, at one stage, a horse drawn passenger wagon) could not last, and within a few years, traffic was restricted to timetabled trains. (However, the tradition of private owned wagons continued on railways in Britain until the 1960s.)

Steam power train introduced
James Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, was responsible for improvements to the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen, hitherto used to pump water out of mines. Watt developed a reciprocating engine, capable of powering a wheel. Although the Watt engine powered cotton mills and a variety of machinery, it was a large stationary engine. It could not be otherwise; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, and this mode of operation needed a separate condenser and an air pump. Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, he investigated the use of high pressure steam acting directly upon a piston. This raised the possibility of a smaller engine, that might be used to power a vehicle, and he actually patented a design for a steam locomotive in 1784. His employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self propelled steam carriage in that year. The first steam locomotive was built in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, an English engineer born in Cornwall. (The story goes that it was constructed to satisfy a bet by Samuel Homfray, the local iron master.) This used high pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke. (The transmission system employed a large fly-wheel to even out the action of the piston rod.) His locomotive had no name, and was used on the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad in South Wales (sometimes - but incorrectly - called the Penydarren Tramroad).Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon a piece of circular track in Bloomsbury, London, the "Catch-Me-Who-Can", but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use. Despite his inventive talents, Richard Trevithick died in poverty, with his achievement being largely unrecognized. The impact of the Napoleonic Wars resulted in (amongst other things) a dramatic rise in the price of fodder. This was the imperative that made the locomotive an economic proposition, if it could be perfected. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray's rack locomotive The Salamanca built for the narrow gauge Middleton Railway in 1812. This twin cylinder locomotive was not heavy enough to break the edge-rails track, and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel utilising slots cast in one of the rails. It was the first rack railway. This was followed in 1813 by the Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This was accomplished by the distribution of weight by a number of wheels. Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814 George Stephenson, inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. He built the Blücher, one of the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotives. Stephenson played a pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. In 1825 he built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway which became the first public steam railway in the world.

The Birth of the Railway
In 1812 Oliver Evans, a United States engineer and inventor, published his vision of what steam railways could become, with cities and towns linked by a network of long distance railways plied by speedy locomotives, greatly reducing the time required for personal travel and for transport of goods. Evans specified that there should be separate sets of parallel tracks for trains going in different directions. Unfortunately, conditions in the infant United States did not enable his vision to take hold. This vision had its counterpart in Britain, where it proved to be far more influential. William James, a rich and influential surveyor and land agent, was inspired by the development of the steam locomotive to suggest a national network of railways. He was responsible for proposing a number of projects that later came to fruition, and he is credited with carrying out a survey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Unfortunately, he became bankrupt and his schemes were taken over by George Stephenson and others. However, he is credited by many historians with the title of "Father of the Railway". The success of the Stockton and Darlington encouraged the rich investors of the rapidly industrialising North West of England to embark upon a project to link the rich cotton manufacturing town of Manchester with the thriving port of Liverpool. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first modern railway, in that both the goods and passenger traffic was operated by scheduled or timetabled locomotive hauled trains. At the time of its construction, there was still a serious doubt that locomotives could maintain a regular service over the distance involved. A widely reported competition was held in 1829 called the Rainhill Trials, to find the most suitable steam engine to haul the trains. A number of locomotives were entered, including Novelty, Perseverance, and Sans Pareil. The winner was Stephenson's Rocket, which had superior steaming qualities as a consequence of the installation of a multi-tubular boiler (suggested by Henry Booth, a director of the railway company). The promoters were mainly interested in goods traffic, but after the line opened on 15 September, 1830, they found to their amazement that passenger traffic was just as remunerative. The success of the Liverpool and Manchester railway influenced the development of railways elsewhere in Britain and abroad. The company hosted many visiting deputations from other railway projects, and many railwaymen received their early training and experience upon this line. It must be remembered that the Liverpool and Manchester line was still a short one, linking two towns within an English shire county. The world's first trunk line can be said to be the Grand Junction Railway, opening in 1837, and linking a mid point on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with Birmingham, by way of Crewe, Stafford, and Wolverhampton.

Further Development
The earliest locomotives in revenue service were small four-wheeled locos similar to the Rocket. However, the inclined cylinders caused the engine to rock, so they first became horizontal and then, in his "Planet" design, were mounted inside the frames. While this improved stability, the "crank axles" were extremely prone to breakage. Greater speed was achieved by larger driving wheels at expense of a tendency for wheel slip when starting. Greater tractive effort was obtained by smaller wheels coupled together, but speed was limited by the fragility of the cast iron connecting rods. Hence, from the beginning, there was a distinction between the light fast passenger loco and the slower more powerful goods engine. Edward Bury, in particular, refined this design and the so-called "Bury Pattern" was popular for a number of years, particularly on the London and Birmingham. Meanwhile by 1840 Stephenson had produced larger, more stable, engines in the form of the 2-2-2 "patentee" and six-coupled goods engines. Locomotives were travelling longer distances and being worked more extensively. The North Midland Railway expressed their concern to Robert Stephenson who was, at that time, their general manager, about the effect of heat on their fireboxes. After some experiments, he patented his so-called Long Boiler design. These became a new standard and similar designs were produced by other manufacturers, particularly Sharp Brothers whose engines became known affectionately as "Sharpies" The longer wheelbase for the longer boiler produced problems in cornering. For his six-coupled engines, Stephenson removed the flanges from the centre pair of wheels. For his express engines, he shifted the trailing wheel to the front in the 4-2-0 formation, as in his "Great A." There were other problems. One was that the firebox was restricted in size, or had to be mounted behind the wheels. The other was that, the generally held opinion arose that, to improve stability, the centre of gravity should be kept low. The most extreme outcome of this was the Crampton locomotive which mounted the driving wheels behind the firebox and could be made very large in diameter. These achieved the hitherto unheard of speed of 70mph but were very prone to wheelslip. With their long wheelbase, they were unsuccessful on Britain's winding tracks, but became popular in the USA and France, where the popular expression became to "prendre le Crampton". John Gray of the London and Brighton Railway was one who disbelieved the necessity for a low centre of gravity and produced a series of locos that were much admired by David Joy who developed the design at the firm of E. B. Wilson and Company to produce the 2-2-2 Jenny Lind locomotive, one of the most successful passenger locomotives of its day. Meanwhile the Stephenson 0-6-0 Long Boiler locomotive with inside cylinders became the archetypical goods engine

Expanding network
Railways quickly became essential to the swift movement of goods and labour that was needed for industrialization. In the beginning, canals were in competition with the railroads, but the railroads quickly gained ground as steam and rail technology improved, and railroads were built in places where canals were not practical. By the 1850s, many steam-powered railways had reached the fringes of built-up London. But the new lines were not permitted to demolish enough property to penetrate the City or the West End, so passengers had to disembark at Paddington, Euston, Kings Cross, Fenchurch Street, Charing Cross, Waterloo or Victoria and then make their own way via hackney carriage or on foot into the centre, thereby massively increasing congestion in the city. A Metropolitan Railway was built under the ground to connect several of these separate railway terminals, and thus became the world's first "Metro."

In 1869, the symbolically important trans-continental railroad was completed in the United States with the driving of a golden spike.

Electric railways revolutionizes urban transport
Prior to the development of electric railways, most overland transport aside from the railways had consisted primarily of horse powered vehicles. Placing a horse car on rails had enabled a horse to move twice as many people, and so street railways were born. In January of 1888, Richmond, Virginia served as a proving grounds for electric railways as Frank Sprague built the first working electric streetcar system there. By the 1890s, electric power became practical and more widespread, allowing extensive underground railways. Large cities such as London, New York, and Paris built subway systems. When electric propulsion became practical, most street railways were electrified. These then became known as "streetcars," "trolleys," "trams" and "Strassenbahn." In many countries, these electric street railways grew beyond the metropolitan areas to connect with other urban centers. In the USA, "electric interurban" railroad networks connected most urban areas in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. In Southern California, the Pacific Electric Railway connected most cities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and the Inland Empire. There were similar systems in Europe. One of the more notable rail systems connected every town and city in Belgium. One of the more notable tramway systems in Asia is the Hong Kong Tramways, which started operation in 1904 and run exclusively on double-decker trams. The remnants of these systems still exist, and in many places they have been modernized to become part of the urban "rapid transit" system in their respective areas. In the past thirty years increasing numbers of cities have restored electric rail service by building "light rail" systems to replace the tram system they removed during the mid-20th century.

Diesel power
Diesel-electric locomotives could be described as electric locomotives with an on-board generator powered by a diesel engine. The first diesel locomotives were low-powered machines, diesel-mechanical types used in switching yards. Diesel and electric locomotives are cleaner, more efficient, and require less maintenance than steam locomotives. They also required less specialized skills in operation and their introduction diminished the power of railway unions in the USA (one of the earliest countries to adopt diesel power on a wide scale). By the 1970s, diesel and electric power had replaced steam power on most of the world's railroads. In the 20th century, road transport and air travel replaced railroads for most long-distance passenger travel in the United States, but railroads remain important for hauling freight in the United States, and for passenger transport in many other countries. In rail transport, a train is a series of rail vehicles that move along guides to transport freight or passengers from one place to another. The guideway (permanent way) usually consists of conventional rail tracks, but might also be monorail or maglev. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive, or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains are powered by diesel engines or by electricity supplied by trackside systems. Historically the steam engine was the dominant form of locomotive power through the mid-20th century, but other sources of power (such as horses, rope, wire, gravity, pneumatics, or gas turbines) are possible. The word 'train' comes from the Old French trahiner, itself from the Latin trahere 'pull, draw'.

There are various types of train designed for particular purposes.
A train can consist of a combination of one or more locomotives and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit (or occasionally a single powered coach, called a railcar). Trains can also be hauled by horses, pulled by a cable, or run downhill by gravity. Special kinds of trains running on corresponding special 'railways' are atmospheric railways, monorails, high-speed railways, maglev, rubber-tired underground, funicular and cog railways. A passenger train may consist of one or several locomotives, and one or more coaches. Alternatively, a train may consist entirely of passenger carrying coaches, some or all of which are powered as a "multiple unit". In many parts of the world, particularly Japan and Europe, high-speed rail is utilized extensively for passenger travel. Freight trains comprise wagons or trucks rather than carriages, though some parcel and mail trains (especially Travelling Post Offices) are outwardly more like passenger trains. Trains can also be 'mixed', comprising both passenger accommodation and freight vehicles. Such mixed trains are most likely to occur where services are infrequent, and running separate passenger and freight trains is not cost-effective. However, the differing needs of passengers and freight usually means this is avoided where possible. Special trains are also used for track maintenance; in some places, this is called maintenance of way. In the United Kingdom, a train hauled by two locomotives is said to be "double-headed", and in Canada and the United States it is quite common for a long freight train to be headed by three, four, or even five locomotives. A train with a locomotive attached at each end is described as 'top and tailed', this practice typically being used when there are no reversing facilities available. Where a second locomotive is attached temporarily to assist a train up steep banks or grades (or down them by providing braking power) it is referred to as 'banking' in the UK, or 'helper service' in North America. Recently, many loaded trains in the US have been made up with one or more locomotives in the middle or at the rear of the train, operated remotely from the lead cab. This is referred to as "DP" or "Distributed Power."

Official terminology
The railway terminology that is used to describe a 'train' varies between countries.

Motive power
The first trains were rope-hauled, gravity powered or pulled by horses, but from the early 19th century almost all were powered by steam locomotives. From the 1920s onwards they began to be replaced by less labour intensive and cleaner (but more complex and expensive) diesel locomotives and electric locomotives, while at about the same time self-propelled multiple unit vehicles of either power system became much more common in passenger service. Most countries had replaced steam locomotives for day-to-day use by the 1970s, usually with diesel locomotives. A few countries, most notably the People's Republic of China, where coal and labour are cheap, still use steam locomotives, but this is being gradually phased out. Historic steam trains still run in many other countries, for the leisure and enthusiast market. Electric traction offers a lower cost per mile of train operation but at a very high initial cost, which can only be justified on high traffic lines. Since the cost per mile of construction is much higher, electric traction is less favored on long-distance lines with the exception of long-distance high speed lines. Electric trains receive their current via overhead lines or through a third rail electric system.

Passenger train
A passenger train is one which includes passenger-carrying vehicles. It may be a self-powered multiple unit or railcar, or else a combination of one or more locomotives and one or more unpowered trailers known as coaches, cars or carriages. Passenger trains travel between stations where passengers may join or leave the train. Many of the more prestigious passenger train services have been given a specific name, some of which have become famous in literature and fiction. India has the largest passenger density in the world.

Long-distance train
Long-distance trains travel between many cities and/or regions of a country, and sometimes cross several countries. They often have a dining car or restaurant car to allow passengers to have a meal during the course of their journey. Trains traveling overnight may also have sleeping cars. Very long distance trains such as those on the Trans-Siberian railway are usually not high-speed.

High-speed train
High speed trains normally travel during the day. They compete with airliners in speed. In Japan, most of the public transportation between the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Osaka metropolitan area (with around 500 km in distance between them) is dominated by the Shinkansen, however in travel further than around 500 km (such as Tokyo-Hiroshima) more people prefer to travel by air. Very fast trains sometimes tilt, like the APT, the Pendolino, or the Talgo. Tilting is a system where the passenger cars automatically lean into curves, reducing the centrifugal forces acting sideways on passengers and permitting higher speeds on curves in the track with greater passenger comfort.

Inter-city train
For trains connecting cities, we can distinguish inter-city trains, which do not halt at small stations, and trains that serve all stations, usually known as local trains or "stoppers" (and sometimes an intermediate kind, see also limited-stop).

Branch line train
Connections to local stations or local lines and are usually stopping services, running usually to all stations or the majority of stations on a line.

Commuter train
For shorter distances many cities have networks of commuter trains, serving the city and its suburbs. Some carriages may be laid out to have more standing room than seats, or to facilitate the carrying of prams, cycles or wheelchairs. Some countries have double-decked passenger trains for use in conurbations. Double deck high speed and sleeper trains are becoming more common in Europe. Passenger trains usually have emergency brake handles (or a "communication cord") that the public can operate. Abuse is punished by a heavy fine. Large cities often have a metro system, also called underground, subway or tube. The trains are electrically powered, usually by third rail, and their railroads are separate from other traffic, without level crossings. Usually they run in tunnels in the city center and sometimes on elevated structures in the outer parts of the city. They can accelerate and decelerate faster than heavier, long-distance trains. A light one- or two-car rail vehicle running through the streets is by convention not considered a train but rather a tram, trolley, light-rail vehicle or streetcar, but the distinction is not always strict. In some countries such as the United Kingdom the distinction between a tramway and a railway is precise and defined in law. The term light rail is sometimes used for a modern tram, but it may also mean an intermediate form between a tram and a train, similar to metro except that it may have level crossings. These are often protected with crossing gates. They may also be called a trolley. Maglev trains and monorails represent minor technologies in the train field. The term rapid transit is used for public transport such as commuter trains, metro and light rail. However, in New York City, lines on the New York City Subway have been referred to as "trains".

Named train
Railway companies often give a name to a train service as a marketing exercise, to raise the profile of the service and hence attract more passengers (and also to gain kudos for the company). Usually, naming is reserved for the most prestigious trains: the high-speed express trains between major cities, stopping at few intermediate stations. The names of services such as the Orient Express, the Flying Scotsman, the Flèche d’Or and the Royal Scot have passed into popular culture.

Freight train
A freight train (or goods train) uses freight cars (also known as wagons or trucks) to transport goods or materials (cargo) essentially any train that is not used for carrying passengers. Much of the world's freight is transported by train, and in the USA the rail system is used more for transporting freight than passengers. Under the right circumstances, transporting freight by train is highly economic, and also more energy efficient than transporting freight by road. Rail freight is most economic when freight is being carried in bulk and over long distances, but is less suited to short distances and small loads. Bulk aggregate movements of a mere twenty miles (32 km) can be cost effective even allowing for trans-shipment costs. These trans-shipment costs dominate in many cases and many modern practices such as container freight are aimed at minimizing these. The main disadvantage of rail freight is its lack of flexibility. For this reason, rail has lost much of the freight business to road competition. Many governments are now trying to encourage more freight onto trains, because of the benefits that it would bring. There are many different types of freight trains, which are used to carry many different kinds of freight, with many different types of wagons. One of the most common types on modern railways are container trains, where containers can be lifted on and off the train by cranes and loaded off or onto trucks or ships. This type of freight train has largely superseded the traditional boxcar (wagon-load) type of freight train, with which the cargo has to be loaded or unloaded manually. In some countries "piggy-back" trains are used: trucks can drive straight onto the train and drive off again when the end destination is reached. A system like this is used through the Channel Tunnel between England and France, and for the trans-Alpine service between France and Italy (this service uses Modalohr road trailer carriers). 'Piggy-back' trains are the fastest growing type of freight trains in the United States, where they are also known as 'trailer on flatcar' or TOFC trains. 'Piggy-back' trains require no special modifications to the vehicles being carried. An alternative type of "inter-modal" vehicle, known as a Roadrailer, is designed to be physically attached to the train. The original trailers were fitted with two sets of wheels: one set flanged, for the trailer to run connected to other such trailers as a rail vehicle in a train; and one set tyred, for use as the semi-trailer of a road vehicle. More modern trailers have only road wheels and are designed to be carried on specially adapted bogies (trucks) when moving on rails. There are also many other types of wagons, such as "low loader" wagons for transporting road vehicles. There are refrigerator cars for transporting foods such as ice cream. There are simple types of open-topped wagons for transportaing minerals and bulk material such as coal, and tankers for transporting liquids and gases. Today however most coal and aggregates are moved in hopper wagons that can be filled and discharged rapidly, to enable efficient handling of the materials. Freight trains are sometimes illegally boarded by passengers who do not wish to pay money, or do not have the money to travel by ordinary means. This is referred to as "hopping" and is considered by some communities to be a viable form of transport. Most hoppers sneak into train yards and stow away in boxcars. More bold hoppers will catch a train "on the fly", that is, as it is moving, leading to occasional fatalities.

History of Contact Lenses

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Mon, 1 Aug 2011 22:45:00 -0700

Seeing our Way into the Future

Contact lenses – new technology? Hardly! Would you believe, way back in 1508, Leonardo Da Vinci sketched and described several forms of contact lenses? Of course, we all know the results of Da Vinci’s insatiable curiosity – he was dedicated to discovering the mysteries of nature. That’s how he came to create the first record of putting a device on the eye to improve vision. He didn’t realize how “visionary” was his idea!

Although the idea of contact lenses had been developed, the technology had not. Step by step, the process was built through the years, from spectacles to today’s contact lenses. Let’s look at each of those steps.

1632 – A French philosopher, René Descartes, added to his deep reasonings, the idea of a corneal contact lens.
1704 – A French surgeon, Jean Méry, presented a paper to the French Royal Academy of Sciences, reporting that, by submerging the head of a living cat in water, the irregularities of the surface of the cornea were flattened by the water. We’re not sure how he came up with this idea – and we may not want to know! However, the discovery here was that the living eye could be neutralized, or corrected, and that is an essential part of optical contact systems.
1801 – Thomas Young, with his medical education, did experiments with light and glass. His conclusion resulted in the development of Descartes idea – a ¼-inch long, water-filled glass tube, which contained a microscopic lens at the outer end. He used this to correct his own vision.
1827 – An English astronomer, Sir John Herschel, introduced the idea of grinding a contact lens to conform exactly to the eye’s surface.
1887 – A German glassblower, F.E. Muller, manifested Sir John Herschel’s idea into an actual glass lens that covered the entire eye.
1888 – A. Eugen Fick, a Swiss physician, and Edouard Kalt, a French optician, simultaneously, but independently, used contact lenses to correct optical defects.

The modern-day contact lens is developed

A number of years went by until the technology was developed to create the contact lenses as we know them today. But finally, in 1929, Joseph Dallos, a Hungarian physician, perfected a method of making molds of living eyes and using them to form lenses that fit exactly to the shape of the eye.

Then the United States got into the act – the first hard plastic contact lenses made in America were introduced by William Feinbloom, a New York optometrist. They were quite bothersome and could only be tolerated for about 4 hours at which point they had to be removed to replace the saline solution that filled the space between the eye and the lens.

As time progressed, so did the science of contact lenses. 1950 marked the beginning of the modern-day contact lens. Dr. George Butterfield, an Oregon optometrist, designed a lens that rested right on the cornea and was smaller than the size of the iris. A buffer solution was no longer needed, so the lenses could be worn all day.

Up to this point, contact lenses had been made of hard plastic. Then, in 1960, a revolutionary change came – the soft, water-absorbing plastic contact lens. It was developed by Otto Wichterle, a Czech chemist. He used an unbelievable apparatus to make these lenses – a children’s building set and a phonograph motor! But it worked; and it was so inexpensive that he envisioned they could be worn on a disposable basis.
Technology shifts into high gear

With the United States’ acceptance of commercial distribution of contact lenses in 1971, the industry picked up speed. Nearly every year, there was a new development. Here’s how fast technology was developing new creations:

    1978 – toric contact lens ( for astigmatism)
    1979 – rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lens
    1980 – tinted daily-wear soft contact lens
    1981 – extended-wear soft contact lens
    1982 – bifocal daily-wear soft contact lens
    1983 – tinted RGP contact lens
    1986 – extended-wear RGP contact lens
    1987 – disposable soft contact lens
    1987 – soft contact lens that changes eye color
    1987 – multipurpose lens care products
    1991 – planned replacement contact lens
    1991 – daily-wear 2-week replacement contact lens
    1992 – disposable tinted contact lens
    1995 – daily disposable contact lens
    1995 – RGP contact lens with low silicone content
    1996 – disposable contact lens with ultra-violet absorber

Now that’s progress! And they’re not done yet. The history of contact lenses is still developing. Today soft and colored contact lenses are used for nearly every vision problem correctable with eyeglasses. Wouldn’t Leonardo Da Vinci be proud!

source :http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-contact-lenses-seeing-our-way-future