Friday, August 31, 2007


Janick Robert Gers (born January 27, 1957 in Hartlepool, England) is one of three current guitarists in the heavy metal band Iron Maiden and a songwriter for the band. His father, Bolesław, was an officer of the Polish Navy.
Gers was the lead guitarist of the band White Spirit before joining Gillan, a group formed by former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan. After Gillan disbanded, he joined Gogmagog which included former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno and drummer Clive Burr. Gers also performed with other artists including former Marillion vocalist Fish. In 1990, he played guitar on the first solo album of Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, Tattooed Millionaire. During the recording of the album he was asked to join Iron Maiden in place of departing Adrian Smith. He has remained with the band ever since, even after Smith rejoined the band in 1999.
Gers' main influences are Ritchie Blackmore and Irish blues guitarist Rory Gallagher. He is noted for his energetic stage presence, as evidenced on the Rock in Rio DVD. He can often be seen bouncing up and down and occasionally does tricks with his guitar, such as spinning it around his body while playing, or throwing it into the air, catching it.
Gers is a long time proponent of the Fender Stratocaster. His Stratocasters are typically black or white with rosewood fingerboards. He uses Seymour Duncan JB Jr.(currently) or Hot Rails (early 1990s) pickups. Janick's favourite guitar over the years has been a black Fender Stratocaster, equipped with JB Jr. pickups. This guitar was apparently a gift from Ian Gillan. Janick uses 4 Fender Stratocasters and also a Gibson Chet Atkins semi-acoustic model for songs such as "Dance of Death". Gers, like his bandmates Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, currently uses the Marshall JMP-1 preamp through a Marshall 9200 (discontinued) poweramp. Janick uses Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Nickel-wound guitar strings.

Discography

White Spirit (1980) Janick Gers White Spirit

Double Trouble (1981)
Magic (1982) Gillan

I Will Be There EP (1985)

Thursday, August 30, 2007


For the use of this term in the software development industry, see death march (software development).
For the death marches of Jews from Nazi concentration camps, see Death marches (Holocaust).
A death march is a long-distance march in extremely harsh conditions with disregard for the life and health of the victims, usually prisoners or refugees. The idea behind the marches was to force prisoners to walk, at gunpoint, without food, water, shelter, or amenities; those who couldn't keep up were often shot.

Death march During the Holocaust
The term has been applied to similar events in other places.

In Asia, the Japanese forces also conducted death marches, including the infamous Bataan Death March and Sandakan Death Marches.
During the 1915 Armenian Genocide, thousands of men, women and children were forced into death marches through the desert of Deir ez-Zor where most of them perished, leaving few survivors. Today there is a memorial in Deir ez-Zor for the marchers.
Earlier in American history (1838), the Cherokee nation had to march westward towards Oklahoma. This became known as the Trail of Tears where an estimated 4,000 men, women, and children died during relocation.
In 1835, Alexander Herzen encountered emaciated cantonists, Jewish boys (some as young as 8 years old) conscripted to the Imperial Russian army. Herzen was being convoyed to his exile at Vyatka, the cantonists were marched to Kazan and their (sympathetic) officer complained that a third had already died.
The 1975 forced evacuation of Phnom Penh in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

List of Microsoft software applications
The following is an incomplete list of Microsoft software applications.

Operating Systems
For a more detailed list, see: Discontinued Microsoft software

Internet Explorer
Windows Mail
Outlook Express
Microsoft Mail
Outlook Web Access
Windows Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Writer
MSN Messenger
Microsoft Messenger for Mac
NetMeeting
MSN Internet Access
MSN Explorer
Microsoft Works
Microsoft Office, including:

  • Core - Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint
    Others - Access, InfoPath, Publisher, FrontPage, Visio, Microsoft Imager replaced with Photo Editor (now replaced with Picture Manager), Microsoft Project, OneNote, Communicator, Assistant, Student, Producer, ...
    Mac - Entourage
    Discontinued - Binder, Schedule Plus, Mail, Imager, PhotoDraw
    Office web services - Microsoft Office Online and Microsoft Office Update
    Office companion servers - Live Communications Server, Project Server, SharePoint Portal Server.
    Microsoft Expression

    • Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer
      Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer
      Microsoft Expression Web
      Microsoft Calculator
      Microsoft Paint
      Microsoft Chart
      Microsoft Reader
      Microsoft PowerToys
      Windows Defender
      Encarta

      • Encarta Premium 2007
        Student with Encarta Premium 2007
        MapPoint
        Windows Media Player
        Windows Movie Maker
        Microsoft Agent
        Microsoft Digital Image
        3D Movie Maker
        Microsoft Money
        Groove (software)
        Microsoft Max
        Microsoft Plus!
        Virtual PC
        Internet Explorer for Mac
        Microsoft Anti-Virus (replaced by OneCare)
        Microsoft Bob
        Microsoft Comic Chat
        Microsoft Music Producer
        Office Assistant (still available on demand in Office 2003 but banished from Office 2007)
        Imager (replaced by Photo Editor, which itself was replaced by Office Picture Manager)
        Microsoft Picture It! (replaced by Microsoft Digital Image)
        Microsoft Binder
        Microsoft Liquid Motion (a supposed early competitor to Adobe Flash)
        Microsoft Vizact 2000 — possibly to be partially resurrected in the Microsoft Expression family
        Schedule Plus — now incorporated partially into Microsoft Outlook and to be resurrected in Windows Calendar
        Mail — replaced with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Microsoft Entourage (Mac), and to be resurrected in Windows Mail
        Microsoft PhotoDraw List of Microsoft software applications End user

        Microsoft Macro Assembler
        Microsoft Pascal
        QuickBASIC
        GW-BASIC
        Microsoft BASICA
        Microsoft BASIC
        Visual FoxPro (no longer part of Visual Studio)
        Visual SourceSafe
        CodeView
        Visual Studio
        Visual Basic
        Visual Basic .NET
        Microsoft Visual Studio Debugger
        Visual J++ (discontinued)
        Visual C++
        Visual J#
        Visual C#
        Visual Studio .NET
        Visual Studio 2005
        Visual Studio 2005 Express

Monday, August 27, 2007

Nepalese rupee History
In 1932, silver 20 and 50 paisa and 1 rupee coins were introduced, followed by copper 1, 2 and 5 paisa between 1933 and 1935. In the 1940s, copper ¼ and ½ paisa and nickel-brass 5 paisa were added. In 1953, a new coinage was introduced consisting of brass 1, 2 and 4 paisa, bronze 5 and 10 paisa, and cupro-nickel 20, 25 and 50 paisa and 1 rupee. The 20 paisa was discontinued after 1954.
In 1966, aluminium 1, 2 and 5 paisa and brass 10 paisa were introduced. Aluminium 25 paisa coins were introduced in 1982, followed by stainless steel 50 paisa and 1 rupee in 1987 and 1988. In 1994, smaller 10 and 25 paisa coins were issued, alongside aluminium 50 paisa and brass-plated-steel 1, 2, 5 and 10 rupees.
Coin images

Banknotes

Economy of Nepal

Sunday, August 26, 2007


Qimonda AG (NYSEQI), (pronounced "key-MON-duh") is the new memory company split out of Infineon Technologies AG on May 1, 2006, to form the third largest DRAM company worldwide, according to the industry research firm Gartner Dataquest. Qimonda is a leader in 300mm manufacturing, and is one of the top suppliers of DRAM products for the PC and server markets. Infineon still controls an 86% stake.
Qimonda employs approximately 12,000 worldwide, including 1,800 in R&D with access to five 300 mm manufacturing sites on three continents. It operates five major R&D facilities, including its lead R&D center in Dresden.
With a historical emphasis on PC and server products, the company is now focusing on products for graphics, mobile and consumer applications using its power-saving trench technology. Qimonda AG is listed on the NYSE with the ticker symbol QI and is based in Munich, Germany. The company has issued 42 million ADR shares, each representing one ordinary share of Qimonda.

Qimonda Alliances

Computing DRAM
Graphics RAM
Consumer DRAM
Mobile-RAM
Flash Memory

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Jean Hersholt
Jean Hersholt (July 12, 1886June 2, 1956) was a Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning Danish actor who lived in the United States.
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark to a stage family, Hersholt went on to become a well-known actor in the United States. According to the Internet Movie Database, he appeared in 140 films and directed four. His first two films were made in Germany in 1906. He emigrated to the US in 1913, and the rest of his movies were made in America. Of his total credits, 75 were silent films and 65 were sound films. He is the uncle of actor Leslie Nielsen.
Hersholt is best known for his portrayal of Marcus Schouler in Erich von Stroheim's 1924 film Greed and for playing Shirley Temple's beloved grandfather in the 1937 film version of the 1880 children's book, Heidi, written by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. During his long career in the movies, his roles ran the gamut from early silent villains to secondary parts in which his mild Danish accent and pleasant voice suited him to depict a succession of benevolent fathers, doctors, professors, and European noblemen. During the late 1930s and early 1940s he created, starred in a radio series, co-wrote a novel, and made a series of six family films in which he portrayed Dr. Christian, a small-town physician whose good humour, innate common sense, and scientific training helped to drive off a series of villainous types who tried to interfere with the peaceful lifestyle of River's End. In 1956, his Dr. Christian character made the transition to television, with Macdonald Carey in the title role. Hersholt's own last role was in the 1955 movie Run for Cover.
Hersholt was a Hans Christian Andersen enthusiast who assembled a large collection of books related to that writer (now in the Library of Congress). His doctor Christian character was an homage to the author's name and he translated over 160 of Andersen's fairy tales into English. These were published in 1949 in six volumes as "The Complete Andersen". His translations of Andersen's Tales are considered the best English versions in existence. Hersholt was knighted by King Christian X of Denmark in 1948 partly due to this endeavor. Hersholt's grave in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery is marked with a statue of Klods Hans, a Hans Christian Andersen character who left Denmark to find his way in the world — much as Hersholt himself did.
In 1939 Hersholt helped to form the Motion Picture Relief Fund. This fund helped to support industry employees with medical care when they were down on their luck and was used to create the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. This led to the creation in 1956 of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award given to an "individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry."
He died in Hollywood, California and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Asked how to pronounce his name, he told The Literary Digest "In English, her'sholt; in Danish, hairs'hult." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)

Friday, August 24, 2007

Adam Clymer
Adam Clymer (born April 27, 1937 in New York City) is an American journalist.
Born to children's book author Eleanor Clymer (née Lowenton) and Kinsey Clymer, Clymer attended Harvard College, receiving an A.B. in 1958. Clymer's journalism career began when he was in high school; he wrote for the school newspaper and collected sports scores for The New York Times. He did post-graduate work at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In 1960, he joined The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, a job which he followed up with work at The Baltimore Sun and the New York Daily News.
He was with The New York Times from 1977 until July, 2003, and served as its national political correspondent for the 1980 presidential election, polling editor from 1983 to 1990, political editor for George H. W. Bush's presidential campaign in 1988, and chief Washington correspondent from 1999 through 2004.
Clymer covered the 2000 presidential campaign for the Times and wrote several articles that were considered unfavorable by the Bush campaign.
Though successful and well regarded in his field, Clymer worked in relative obscurity until September 4, 2000, when Bush and running mate Dick Cheney appeared at a campaign event at Naperville, Illinois. While on stage prior to the event, Bush said to Cheney, "There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times." Cheney responded, "Oh yeah, he is, big time." Though the remarks were meant only as private statements, they were picked up by a live microphone, causing a minor campaign controversy. In response, Bush later publicly stated "I regret that a private comment I made to the vice-presidential candidate made it onto the public airwaves. I regret everybody heard what I said."
While he never apologized for the incident, Bush made an attempt to smooth it over, making light of it at the next White House Correspondents' Dinner by referring to Adam Clymer as a "major league ass...et."

Awards

Smith, Hendrick, et.al. (1981). Reagan: The Man, the President. Pergamon Pr. ISBN 0-08-027916-3.
Clymer, Adam (1986). NEW YORK TIMES IN REVIEW 1987. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-8129-1632-8.
Clymer, Adam (2000). Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography. Perennial (HarperCollins). ISBN 0-06-095787-5.
Clymer, Adam (2003). Journalism, security and the public interest: Best practices for reporting in unpredictable times. Aspen Institute, Communications and Society Program. ISBN 0-89843-387-8.

Thursday, August 23, 2007


David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 186326 March 1945) was a British statesman who guided Britain and the British Empire through the latter half of World War I and the first four years of the peace as Prime Minister, 1916-1922.

Upbringing and early life
In 1905, he entered the new Liberal Cabinet of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as President of the Board of Trade. In that position he brought legislation on many topics, from Merchant Shipping and Companies to Railway regulation but his main achievement was in stopping a proposed national strike of the railway unions by brokering an agreement between the unions and the railway companies. While almost all the companies refused to recognise the unions Lloyd George persuaded the companies to recognise elected representatives of the workers who sat with the company representatives on conciliation boards -one for each company. If those boards failed to agree then there was a central board. This was Lloyd George's first great triumph for which he received praises from among others Kaiser Wilhelm II. His great excitement - apparent from his letters to his family -was crushed by his daughter Mair's death from appendicitis a fortnight later in November 1907.
On Campbell-Bannerman's death he succeeded Asquith, who had become Prime Minister, as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1908 to 1915. While he continued some work from the Board of Trade - for example legislation to establish a Port of London authority and to pursue traditional Liberal programmes such as licensing law reforms -his first major trial in this role was over the 1908-1909 Naval Estimates. The Liberal manifesto at the 1906 general elections included a commitment to reduce military expenditure. Lloyd George strongly supported this writing to Reginald McKenna First Lord of the Admiralty "the emphatic pledges given by all of us at the last general election to reduce the gigantic expenditure on armaments built up by the recklessness of our predecessors." He then proposed the programme be reduced from six to four dreadnoughts. This was adopted by the government but there was a public storm when the Conservatives, with covert support from the First Sea Lord Admiral Jackie Fisher campaigned for more with the slogan "We want eight and we wont wait.' This resulted in Lloyd George's defeat in Cabinet and the adoption of estimates including provision for eight dreadnoughts. This was later to be said to be one of the main turning points in the naval arms race between Germany and Britain that contributed to the causes of World War I.
He was largely responsible for the introduction of old age pensions, unemployment benefit and state financial support for the sick and infirm - legislation often referred to as the Liberal reforms. These social benefits were met with great hostility in the House of Lords where the "People's Budget" Lloyd George championed to introduce and finance them was rejected because it angered the landed gentry. These social reforms began in Britain the creation of a welfare state that had been preceded in Germany some 20 years earlier. They fulfilled in both countries the aim of dampening down the demands of the growing working class for rather more radical solutions to their impoverishment.
Considered a pacifist until 1914, Lloyd George changed his stance when World War I broke out. When the Liberal government fell as a result of the Shell Crisis of 1915 and was replaced with a coalition government dominated by Liberals still under the Premiership of Asquith, Lloyd George became the first Minister of Munitions in 1915 and then war secretary in 1916.

Cabinet Minister (1905-1916)

Prime Minister (1916-1922)
According to his political opponents in the Liberal Party he maneuvered to replace Asquith as Prime Minister of a new wartime coalition government between the Liberals and the Conservatives, but his allies argued that Asquith's loss of the leadership was brought about by his own failures as a leader. The result was a split of the Liberal Party into two factions; those who supported Asquith and those who supported the coalition government. His support from the Unionists was critical, and he ruled almost as a president. In his War Memoirs [v 1 p 602], he compared himself to Asquith:
There are certain indispensable qualities essential to the Chief Minister of the Crown in a great war. . . . Such a minister must have courage, composure, and judgment. All this Mr. Asquith possessed in a superlative degree. . . . But a war minister must also have vision, imagination and initiative--he must show untiring assiduity, must exercise constant oversight and supervision of every sphere of war activity, must possess driving force to energize this activity, must be in continuous consultation with experts, official and unofficial, as to the best means of utilising the resources of the country in conjunction with the Allies for the achievement of victory. If to this can be added a flair for conducting a great fight, then you have an ideal War Minister.
After December 6, 1916, despite occupying the Premiership Lloyd George was not all powerful, being dependent on the support of Conservatives for his continuance in power. This was reflected in the make-up of his 5-member war cabinet, which as well as himself included the Conservative Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Curzon; Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, Andrew Bonar Law; and Minister without Portfolio, Lord Milner. The fifth member, Arthur Henderson, was the unofficial representative of the Labour Party. This accounts for Lloyd George's inability to establish complete personal control over military strategy, as Churchill did in the Second World War, and accounted for some of the most costly military blunders of the war. Nevertheless the War Cabinet was a very successful innovation. It met almost daily, with Sir Maurice Hankey as secretary, and made all major political, military, economic and diplomatic decisions. Rationing was finally imposed in early 1918 and was limited to meat, sugar and fats (butter and oleo) – but not bread; the new system worked smoothly. From 1914 to 1918 trade union membership doubled, from a little over four million to a little over eight million. Work stoppages and strikes became frequent in 1917-18 as the unions expressed grievances regarding prices, liquor control, pay disputes, "dilution," fatigue from overtime and from Sunday work, and inadequate housing.
Conscription put into uniform nearly every physically fit man, six million out of ten million eligible. Of these about 750,000 lost their lives and 1,700,000 were wounded. Most deaths were to young unmarried men; however 160,000 wives lost husbands and 300,000 children lost fathers. [Havighurst p 134-5]
The originality and creativity of the many organizations and systems which Lloyd George created to fight the First World War is demonstrated by the fact that most were replicated when war came again in 1939. As Lord Beaverbrook remarked, 'There were no signposts to guide Lloyd George.'

David Lloyd George War leader (1916-1918)
At the end of the war Lloyd George's reputation stood at its zenith. A leading Conservative said He can be dictator for life if he wishes. In the "Coupon election" of 1918 he declared this must be a land "fit for heroes to live in." He did not say, "We shall squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak" (that was Eric Campbell Geddes) but he did express that sentiment about reparations from Germany to pay the entire cost of the war, including pensions. At Bristol, he said that German industrial capacity "will go a pretty long way." We must have "the uttermost farthing," and "shall search their pockets for it." As the campaign closed, he summarized his program:
His "National Liberal" coalition won a massive landslide, winning 525 of the 707 contests; however the Conservatives had control within the Coalition of more than two-thirds of its seats. Asquith's independent Liberals were crushed and emerged with only 33 seats, falling behind Labour. [Havighurst p 151]
Lloyd George represented Britain at the Versailles Peace Conference, clashing with French Premier Georges Clemenceau, American President Woodrow Wilson and Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando. Lloyd George wanted to punish Germany politically and economically for devastating Europe during the war, but did not want to utterly destroy the German economy and political system the way Clemenceau and many other people of France wanted to do with their demand for massive reparations. Memorably, he replied to a question as to how he had done at the peace conference, "Not badly, considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon" (Wilson and Clemenceau). The British economist John Maynard Keynes attacked Lloyd George's stance on reparations in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace calling the Prime Minister a "half-human visitor to our age from the hag-ridden magic and enchanted woods of Celtic antiquity".
Lloyd George began to feel the weight of the coalition with the Conservatives after the war. His decision to extend conscription to Ireland was nothing short of disastrous, indirectly leading a majority of Irish MPs to declare independence. He presided over a war of attrition in Ireland, which led to the negotiation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty with Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins and the formation of the Irish Free State. At one point, he famously declared of the IRA, "We have murder by the throat!" However he was soon to begin negotiations with IRA leaders to recognise their authority and end the conflict.
Lloyd George's coalition was too large, and deep fissures quickly emerged. The more traditional wing of the Unionist Party had no intention of introducing these reforms, which led to three years of frustrated fighting within the coalition both between the National Liberals and the Unionists and between factions within the Conservatives themselves. It was this fighting, coupled with the increasingly differing ideologies of the two forces in a country reeling from the costs of war that led to Lloyd George fall from power. In June 1922 Conservatives were able to show that he had been selling knighthoods and peerages for money. Conservatives were concerned by his desire to create a party from these funds comprising of moderate Liberals and Conservatives. A major attack in the House of Lords followed on his corruption resulting in the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. The Conservatives also attacked Lloyd George as lacking any executive accountability as Prime Minister, claiming that he never turned up to Cabinet meetings and banished some government departments to the gardens of 10 Downing Street.
His government was brought down by the Chanak Crisis during which on 12 October 1922 at a meeting called by Austen Chamberlain as the leader of the Conservatives in the House of Commons, the frustrated and underused coalition backbenchers sealed Lloyd George's fate. Chamberlain and other prominent Conservatives such as Lord Birkenhead argued for supporting Lloyd George, while prospective party leader Andrew Bonar Law argued the other way, claiming that breaking up the coalition "wouldn't break Lloyd George's heart". The main attack came from Stanley Baldwin, then a junior treasury minister, who spoke of Lloyd George as a "dynamic force" who would break the Conservative Party. Baldwin and many of the more progressive members of the Conservative Party fundamentally opposed Lloyd George and those who supported him on moral grounds. The motion that the Conservative Party should fight the next election (then due in a matter of months) on its own, rather than co-operating with the Coalition Liberals was carried 187 to 86.

Trial of the Kaiser;
punishment of those guilty of atrocities;
fullest indemnity from Germany;
Britain for the British, socially and industrially;
rehabilitation of those broken in the war; and
a happier country for all. Postwar Prime Minister (1918-1922)
Throughout the next two decades Lloyd George remained on the margins of British politics, being frequently predicted to return to office but never succeeding. Before the 1923 election, he made up his dispute with Asquith, allowing the Liberals to run a united ticket, and in 1926 he succeeded Asquith as Liberal leader. In 1929 Lloyd George became Father of the House, the longest serving member of the Commons. In 1931 an illness prevented his joining the National Government when it was formed. Later when the National Government called a General Election he tried to pull the Liberal Party out of it but succeeded in taking only a few followers, most of whom were related to him; the main Liberal party remained in the coalition for a year longer, under the leadership of Sir Herbert Samuel.
In 1935 he sought to promote a radical programme of economic reform, called "Lloyd George's New Deal" after the American New Deal. However the programme did not find favour in the mainstream political parties. Later that year Lloyd George and his family reunited with the Liberal Party in Parliament. In August 1936 Lloyd George met Hitler at Berchtesgaden and offered some public comments that were surprisingly favourable to the German dictator, expressing warm enthusiasm both for Hitler personally and for Germany's public works schemes (upon returning, he wrote of Hitler in the Daily Express as "the greatest living German", "the George Washington of Germany"). Despite this embarrassment, however, as the 1930s progressed Lloyd George became more clear-eyed about the German threat and joined Winston Churchill, among others, in fighting the government's policy of appeasement. In the late 1930s he was sent by the British government to try to dissuade Adolf Hitler from his plans of Europe-wide expansion. In perhaps the last important parliamentary intervention of his career, which occurred during the crucial Norway Debate of May 1940, Lloyd George made a powerful speech that helped to undermine Chamberlain as Prime Minister and to pave the way for the ascendancy of Churchill as Premier.
Churchill offered Lloyd George a place in his Cabinet but he refused, citing his dislike of Chamberlain. Lloyd George also thought that Britain's chances in the war were dim, and he remarked to his secretary: "I shall wait until Winston is bust".
A pessimistic speech on May 7, 1941 led Churchill to compare him with Pétain. He cast his last vote in the Commons on February 18, 1943 as one of the 121 MPs (97 Labour) condemning the Government for its failure to back the Beveridge report. Fittingly, his final vote was in defence of the welfare state which he had helped to create.
During the Second World War there was speculation about Lloyd George returning to government, but this came to nothing. Churchill offered Lloyd George a position in his cabinet as Minister for Agriculture, but was refused because Lloyd George felt he was too old. He was pessimistic and resigned about Britain's prospects, fearful of German air raids, and perhaps he wished to avoid being too closely identified with his former protégé in the event of a German conquest. He enjoyed listening to the broadcasts of William Joyce. Increasingly in his late years his characteristic political courage gave way to physical timidity and hypochondria. He continued to attend Castle Street Baptist Chapel in London, and to preside over the national eisteddfod at its Thursday session each summer. At the end, he returned to Wales. In September 1944, he and Frances left Churt for Tŷ Newydd, a somewhat bleak farming property near his boyhood home in Llanystumdwy. He was now weakening rapidly and his voice failing. He was still an MP but learned that wartime changes in the constituency meant that Caernarfon Boroughs might go Conservative at the next election.
In early 1945 the great commoner was raised to the peerage as Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor and Viscount Gwynedd, of Dwyfor in the County of Caernarvonshire; this did not raise his reputation among his admirers. He died of cancer shortly afterwards at Tŷ Newydd, aged 82, without ever taking up his seat in the House of Lords, Frances and his daughter Megan at the bedside. Four days later, in a simple service, he was buried beside the River Dwyfor in Llanystumdwy. A great boulder marks his grave; there is no inscription.
His perceived double-dealing on many issues alienated many of his former supporters, but there is no doubt that he was a brilliant politician, hence his nickname: The Welsh Wizard.

Later political career (1922-1945)
In January 1941, his wife Dame Margaret died; this deeply upset him and heavy snowdrifts prevented his getting to her bedside before she died. In October 1943, aged eighty, he married his secretary and mistress, Frances Stevenson (who had been with Lloyd George for over 30 years at the time of his death and became Countess Lloyd George of Dwyfor), a cultivated, beautiful woman now largely remembered for her extensive, insightful diaries that dealt with the issues and statesmen that were a part of her lover's life. This caused severe tension with his daughter and other family members. He had five children: Richard (1889-1968), Mair (1890-1907), Olwen (1892-1990), Gwilym (1894-1967) and Megan (1902-1966). His son, Gwilym, and daughter, Megan, both followed him into politics and were elected members of parliament. They were politically faithful to their father throughout his life but following their father's death each drifted away from the Liberal Party, with Gwilym finishing his career as a Conservative Home Secretary, whilst Megan became a Labour MP in 1957, perhaps symbolising the fate of much of the old Liberal Party. The Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan is his great-granddaughter. The British television presenter Dan Snow is his great-great-grandson.

Family

David Lloyd George - Prime Minister
Lord Curzon of Kedleston - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
Andrew Bonar Law - Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons
Arthur Henderson - Minister without Portfolio
Lord Milner - Minister without Portfolio War cabinet, December 1916–January 1919

May - August 1917 - In temporary absence of Arthur Henderson, George Barnes, Minister of Pensions acts as a member of the War Cabinet.
June 1917 - Jan Smuts enters the War Cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio
July 1917 - Sir Edward Carson enters the War Cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio
August 1917 - George Barnes succeeds Arthur Henderson (resigned) as Minister without Portfolio and Labour Party member of the War Cabinet.
January 1918 - Carson resigns and is not replaced
April 1918 - Austen Chamberlain succeeds Lord Milner as Minister without Portfolio.
January 1919 Law becomes Lord Privy Seal, remaining Leader of the House of Commons, and is succeeded as Chancellor of the Exchequer by Chamberlain; both remaining in the War Cabinet. Smuts is succeeded by Sir Eric Geddes as Minister without Portfolio. Changes

Lord Finlay - Lord Chancellor
Lord Crawford - Lord Privy Seal
Sir George Cave - Secretary of State for the Home Department
Arthur Balfour - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Walter Hume Long - Secretary of State for the Colonies
Lord Derby, and then (after April, 1918), Lord Milner - Secretary of State for War
Austen Chamberlain (to 1917), and then Edwin Samuel Montagu - Secretary of State for India
Sir Edward Carson, and then (from 1917) Sir Eric Geddes - First Lord of the Admiralty
Sir Frederick Cawley (to 1918), and then Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Downham - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Sir Albert Stanley - President of the Board of Trade
H. E. Duke and then Edward Shortt - Chief Secretary for Ireland
William Fisher - President of the Local Government Board (to 1918)
Sir Auckland Geddes - President of the Local Government Board (to 1919)
Neville Chamberlain, and then (from 1917) Sir Auckland Geddes - Director of National Service
Winston Churchill - Secretary of State for Munitions (appointed 7.17.17) Other members of Lloyd George's war government
The War Cabinet was formally maintained for much of 1919, but as Lloyd George was out of the country for many months this did not noticeably make much of a difference. In October 1919 a formal Cabinet was reinstated.

David Lloyd George - Prime Minister
Lord Birkenhead - Lord Chancellor
Lord Curzon of Kedleston - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
Andrew Bonar Law - Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons
Austen Chamberlain - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Edward Shortt - Secretary of State for the Home Department
Arthur Balfour - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Lord Milner - Secretary of State for the Colonies
Winston Churchill - Secretary of State for War and Air
Edwin Samuel Montagu - Secretary of State for India
Walter Hume Long - First Lord of the Admiralty
Sir Albert Stanley - President of the Board of Trade
Robert Munro - Secretary for Scotland
James Ian Macpherson - Chief Secretary for Ireland
Lord French - Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland
Christopher Addison - President of the Local Government Board
Rowland Edmund Prothero - President of the Board of Agriculture
Herbert Fisher - President of the Board of Education
Lord Inverforth - Minister of Munitions
Sir Robert Horne - Minister of Labour
George Nicoll Barnes - Minister without Portfolio
Sir Eric Geddes - Minister without Portfolio Changes

Bibliography

Cross, Colin, ed. Life with Lloyd George: The Diary of A.J. Sylvester 1975.
Lloyd George, David. The Truth About the Peace Treaties. 2 vols. Victor Gollancz, 1938
Lloyd George, David, (1933). War Memoirs of David Lloyd George. 2 vols. London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson. An unusually detailed and candid record.
Morgan, Kenneth O. ed. Lloyd George Family Letters, 1885-1936. 1973.
Taylor, A. J. P. ed. My Darling Pussy: The Letters of Lloyd George and Frances Stevenson. 1975.
Taylor, A. J. P. ed. Lloyd George: A Diary by Frances Stevenson. 1971.
Taylor, A. J. P. ed. Lloyd George: Twelve Essays. New York, 1971.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

WQXRWQXR
WQXR-FM is an FM radio station licensed to New York City. It broadcasts on 96.3 MHz from the top of the Empire State Building, and is the most listened-to classical music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000 (as of Spring 2004). WQXR-FM has two translators, both independently owned: W279AJ in Highland, New York on 103.7 MHz, and W244AS in Oakhurst, New Jersey on 96.7. On the air since 1939, WQXR-FM is also one of the oldest continuously-operating FM stations in the world.

History
As with most remaining classical music stations in the United States, WQXR's playlist has changed over the years to focus on shorter and more easily assimilated pieces and away from long pieces and most vocal music including opera. WQXR does however play a fair amount of 20th century classical works. It also continues to play long pieces during special broadcasts, and often broadcasts a complete opera at least once a week. Most notably, it is the headquarters for broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera each Saturday afternoon during its season, from December to April.
In addition to music, WQXR has 5-minute world news updates at the top of each hour during the day on weekdays. It also broadcasts some religious services, including a live half-hour Shabbat service from Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York every Friday at 5:30 p.m., a weekly Presbyterian service from the previous week on Sunday morning, and less frequent services from Unitarian and Ethical Culture churches.
The station also features a weekly program about piano entitled "Reflections from the Keyboard" which is hosted by David Dubal.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

CBGB
CBGB (Country, Blue Grass, and Blues) was a legendary music club located at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became legendary as a forum for American punk and punk-influenced bands like Ramones, Television, Mink Deville, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, Blondie, and Talking Heads. The club closed on the weekend of October 13, 2006. The Dictators headlined the final Friday and Saturday night, October 13 and October 14, and were joined onstage Saturday night by Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, performing an acoustic set. The final concert was performed by Patti Smith on Sunday October 15. CBGB Fashions (the CBGB store, wholesale department, and online store) stayed open until October 31 at 315 Bowery. On November 1 CBGB Fashions moved to 19-23 St. Mark's Place.

Founding
At the third Television gig on 14 April 1974, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith Group were in the audience; however, the band was not to make its CBGB debut until 14 February 1975. Alongside Television, other early performers included The Stillettoes (appearing as a back up vocalist, future Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry), who supported Television on 5 May 1974, the newly-formed Blondie (under its original name of Angel & the Snake) and The Ramones, both in August 1974.
Mink DeVille, Talking Heads, The Shirts (band)|The Shirts, Steel Tips, Jackson Main, The Heartbreakers, The Fleshtones and many other bands followed in quick succession. The club continued to host many punk and new wave bands over the years.
CBGB's had only one rule for a band to follow in order to play at the venue: they had to write original music. No cover bands were booked to play there. However, regulars like Television and the Ramones sometimes played a handful of covers during their sets.

Hardcore punk
In 2005, a dispute between CBGB and the Bowery Resident's Committee began. The Committee billed Kristal $91,000 in back rent, while Kristal claimed he had not been informed of increases in his $19,000 monthly rent. After the lease expired, they reached an agreement for the club to remain for fourteen more months while Kristal dropped his legal battles and his attempts to get historic landmark status for the club.
Kristal plans to move the club far from its roots with a new CBGB's in Las Vegas, Nevada. The owner plans to strip the current club down to the bare walls, bringing as much of it to Nevada as possible.
"We're going to take the urinals," he said. "I'll take whatever I can. The movers said, `You ought to take everything, and auction off what you don't want on eBay.' Why not? Somebody will."
The club finally closed on October 15, 2006. The last week featured multi-night stands by Bad Brains and The Dictators, along with an acoustic set by Blondie. Younger groups such as Avail and the Bouncing Souls also performed.
The final concert was performed by Patti Smith and broadcast live on Sirius Satellite Radio. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers attended the show and even performed on a handful of songs with Smith and her band. Flea turned 44 at midnight, and the band and crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Television's Richard Lloyd also guested on a few songs, including a version of "Marquee Moon". Toward the end of their set, the band played "Gloria", paying tribute to the Ramones during the chorus by alternating between the original lyrics and the "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" of "Blitzkrieg Bop". In her final encore, the song "Elegie", Smith listed many of the musicians who died since they last played at CBGB.

CBGB Famous acts

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Bianca Maria Sforza
Bianca Maria Sforza (April 5, 1472December 31, 1510) was the daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan. She was born in Milan. On 16 March 1494, she married Emperor Maximilian I, who had been a widower since the death of his first wife Mary of Burgundy in 1482.
She died at Innsbruck in 1510.
A noteworthy portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza by Ambrogio de Predis hangs in the National Gallery of Art of the United States in Washington, D.C.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Biography
The significance of the braille system was not identified until 1868, sixteen years after Louis Braille died, when Dr Thomas Rhodes Armitage and a group of four blind men and one woman established the British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind (later the Royal National Institute of the Blind), which published books in Braille's system.
Braille has been adapted to almost every major national language and is the primary system of written communication for visually impaired persons around the world.
The asteroid 9969 Braille was named in honor of him.

Louis Braille See also

Friday, August 17, 2007


Lublin Voivodeship (also "Lublin Province" — Polish: województwo lubelskie) is a voivodeship, or province, in eastern Poland. It was created January 1, 1999, out of the former Lublin (2), Chełm, Zamość, Biała Podlaska and partly Tarnobrzeg and Siedlce voivodeships, pursuant to the 1998 Local Government Reorganization Act. The province's name recalls its largest city and the region's traditional name, Lublin.
The Polish historic region that encompasses Lublin and approximates Lublin Voivodeship in its pre–Partitions-of-Poland boundaries, is known as Lubelszczyzna.
Lublin Province borders on Podlachian, Masovian, Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian Voivodeships, and on Ukraine and Belarus to the east. The province's population as of 2002 was 2,199,100. Its area is 25,114 km².
The region was, prior to World War II, one of the world's leading centers of Judaism. Before the middle of the 16th century, there were few Jews in the area, concentrated in Lublin, Kazimierz Dolny, and perhaps Chełm; but the founding of new private towns led to a large movement of Jews into the region to develop trade and services. Since these new towns competed with the existing towns for business, there followed a low-intensity but long lasting feeling of resentment, with failed attempts to limit the Jewish immigration. The Jews tended to settle mostly in the cities and towns, with only individual families setting up businesses in the rural regions; this urban/rural division became another factor feeding resentment of the newly arrived economic competitors. By the middle of the 18th century, Jews were a significant part of the population in Kraśnik, Lubartów and Łęczna. By the 20th century, Jews represented greater than 70% of the population in eleven towns, and close to 100% of the population of Laszczów and Izbica. From this region came both religious figures such as Mordechai Josef Leiner of Izbica, Chaim Israel Morgenstern of Puławy, and Motele Rokeach of Biugoraj, as well as famous secular authors Israel Joshua and Isaac Bashevis Singer. The "Old Town" of the city of Lublin contained a famous yeshiva, Jewish hospital, synagogue, cemetery, and kahal, as well as the Grodzka Gate (known as the Jewish Gate).
Before the war, there were 300,000 Jews living in the region, which became the site of the Majdanek and Belzec concentration camps as well as several labor camps (Trawniki, Poniatowa, Budzyn, Puławy, Zamość, Biała Podlaska, and the Lublin work camps Lindenstraße 7 (Lipowa Street), Flugplatz, and Sportplatz) which produced military supplies for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. This was once one of the biggest forced labor centers in occupied Europe, with approximately 45,000 Jewish prisoners. After the war, the few surviving Jews largely left the area; today there is some restoration of the areas of Jewish historical interest, and a surge of tourism by Jews seeking to view their families' historical roots.

Administrative division

Biała Podlaska city powiat
Chełm city powiat
Lublin city powiat
Zamość city powiat City powiats

Biała Podlaska County, powiat bialski, Biała Podlaska
Biłgoraj County, powiat biłgorajski, Biłgoraj
Chełm County, powiat chełmski, Chełm
Hrubieszów County, powiat hrubieszowski, Hrubieszów
Janów Lubelski County, powiat janowski, Janów Lubelski
Krasnystaw County, powiat krasnostawski, Krasnystaw
Kraśnik County, powiat kraśnicki, Kraśnik
Lubartów County, powiat lubartowski, Lubartów
Lublin County, powiat lubelski, Lublin
Łęczna County, powiat łęczyński, Łęczna
Łuków County, powiat łukowski, Łuków
Opole Lubelskie County, powiat opolski, Opole Lubelskie
Parczew County, powiat parczewski, Parczew
Puławy County, powiat puławski, Puławy
Radzyń Podlaski County, powiat radzyński, Radzyń Podlaski
Ryki County, powiat rycki, Ryki
Świdnik County, powiat świdnicki, Świdnik
Tomaszów Lubelski County, powiat tomaszowski, Tomaszów Lubelski
Włodawa County, powiat włodawski, Włodawa
Zamość County, powiat zamojski, Zamość Land powiats
The voivodeship has 41 cities and towns, among them 4 cities which are city counties. The list below orders them by population and also gives the area (data from December 31, 2005):

Lublin358.967 (147,50 km²)
Chełm72.595 (35,26 km²)
Zamość66.802 (30,48 km²)
Biała Podlaska59.047 (49,41 km²)
Puławy51.515 (50,61 km²)
Świdnik40.041 (20,35 km²)
Kraśnik36.170 (25,28 km²)
Łuków30.612 (35,75 km²)
Biłgoraj27.208 (20,85 km²)
Lubartów23.017 (13,92 km²)
Łęczna21.767 (18,98 km²)
Tomaszów Lubelski20.170 (13,33 km²)
Krasnystaw - 19.531 (42,07 km²)
Hrubieszów - 18.633 (32,79 km²)
Dęblin - 18.150 (38,51 km²)
Międzyrzec Podlaski - 17.193 (19,75 km²)
Radzyń Podlaski - 16.135 (19,29 km²)
Włodawa - 15.724 (18,67 km²)
Janów Lubelski - 11.947 (15,42 km²)
Parczew - 10.286 (8,05 km²)
Poniatowa - 9.983 (15,20 km²)
Ryki - 9.730 (27,38 km²)
Opole Lubelskie - 8.842 (14,83 km²)
Bełżyce - 7.090 (23,46 km²)
Terespol - 5.981 (10,20 km²)
Szczebrzeszyn - 5.305 (29,04 km²)
Bychawa - 5.304 (6,68 km²)
Rejowiec Fabryczny - 4.537 (14,36 km²)
Nałęczów - 4.266 (13,84 km²)
Kazimierz Dolny - 3.584 (30,42 km²)
Kock - 3.497 (16,79 km²)
Tarnogród - 3.372 (10,86 km²)
Zwierzyniec - 3.339 (4,84 km²)
Krasnobród - 3.027 (6,99 km²)
Stoczek Łukowski - 2.718 (9,13 km²)
Annopol - 2.681 (7,75 km²)
Piaski - 2.642 (8,44 km²)
Józefów - 2.453 (5,28 km²)
Tyszowce - 2.263 (18,52 km²)
Ostrów Lubelski - 2.253 (29,68 km²)
Frampol - 1.427 (4,67 km²) Cities and towns

Wójcik : 12,937
Mazurek : 9,644
Mazur : 8,019 Most popular surnames in the region

Previous Lublin voivodeships
Lublin Voivodeship 15th century1795 (Latin: Palatinatus Lublinensis; Polish: Województwo Lubelskie) was an administrative region of the Kingdom of Poland created in 1474 out of parts of Sandomierz Voivodeship and lasting till the Partitions of Poland in 1795. It was part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship.
Voivodeship Governor (Wojewoda) seat:
Administrative division:
Main Lublin Voivodes:
Neighboring Voivodeships:

Lublin
Lublin County (Powiat Lubelski), Lublin
Urzędów County (Powiat Urzędowski), Urzędów
Łuków County (Powiat Łukowski), Łuków
Jan Feliks "Szram" Tarnowski (before 1494)
Piotr Firlej, 1537-1545
Jan Tarlo (1527-1587) (from 1574)
Marek Sobieski (from 1597)
Aleksander Piotr Tarło (1631-1649)
Marcin Zamoyski (from 1682)
Jan Tarlo (1684-1750) (from 1719)
Tomasz Antoni Zamoyski (from 1744)
Antoni Lubomirski (from 1778)
Masovian Voivodeship
Brześć Litewski Voivodeship
Chełm Land
Bełz Voivodeship
Ruthenian Voivodeship
Sandomierz Voivodeship Lublin Voivodeship 1816 – 1837

For more details on this topic, see Lublin Voivodeship (1919-1939). Lublin Voivodeship 1945 – 1975
Lublin Voivodeship 1975–1998 (Polish: województwo lubelskie) was an administrative region of Poland, 19751998, superseded by the current Lublin Voivodeship. Lublin Voivodeship