For what does the 'P' stand in the computer file format pdf?

PDF - What does PDF stand for? The Free Dictionary PDF - What does PDF stand for? The Free Dictionary http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/PDF Portable Document Format (Adobe Acrobat) PDF Portable Data Format (common but incorrect) PDF Portable Data File (common but incorrect) PDF Printer Description File (File Name Extension) PDF Package Definition File (Microsoft Systems Management Server) PDF Pakistan Development Forum (international consortium) PDF Playa del Fuego (art festival) PDF Permanent Defence Force (Irish Army) PDF Postscript Document Format (common but incorrect) PDF Peoples' Democratic Front (Communist Party of India) PDF Planetary Defence Force (Warhammer 40,000) PDF Path Diversity with Forward Error Correction PDF I Profumi Di Firenze (Italian perfume) PDF Premier Diesel Fuel (low sulfur diesel) PDF Publico Decreto Fecerunt (Latin: Made by Public Decree, epigraphy) PDF Paranormal Dampening Field (remote viewing) PDF PDF Path Delay Fault (electronics) Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Write what you mean clearly and correctly. References in periodicals archive ? Acrobat Elements Server supports Adobe PDF conversion from numerous desktop file types, including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, Adobe Photoshop and many popular image formats. Adobe introduces Acrobat Elements Server for enterprise-wide PDF creation Starting with PDF-Pro, PDF document creation software, ePapyrus will continuously develop and provide high quality electronic document software from document creation to distribution, sharing and management. Nuance Emerges as the Leading PDF Alternative to Adobe Acrobat, Surpassing One Million Seat Milestone Bluebeam has also implemented new features to satisfy the needs of the Legal, Financial and Government industries including built-in PDF redaction for permanently deleting confidential or sensitive text and images, Bates Stamping, markup summary reports formatted for MS Excel, and PDF document editing. Bluebeam(R) Software Releases Bluebeam PDF Revu(R) v.5.0 The need for effective redaction capabilities for PDF documents has been recently highlighted by a series of high-profile cases where sensitive information was inadvertently left in the PDF file by corporate, government and military agencies using the Internet and PDF to more broadly share redacted documents.


In which European country is Cascais Beach?

Cascais beaches in Portugal, Portugal beach information Arrive early at Cascais' beaches © Creative Commons / Courtbean Cascais beaches Visiting Cascais it is hard to believe that this vibrant resort was once a humble fishing village. A trio of sandy beaches, energetic nightlife and Cascais's close proximity to some of Portugal 's most prestigious golf courses, as well as its easy access to the country's capital, ensure the resort's popularity. Cascais also impresses holidaymakers with its marina, 16th-century fortress and an attractive old town. First-rate seafood restaurants that rival those in Lisbon , exclusive hotels, the Castro Guimaraes Museum (housed in a spectacular 19th-century mansion) and the exhibitions at the Cascais Cultural Centre mean that the resort has something to offer everyone whatever the season. Beach :  Cascais's energetic street life spills over onto its town beaches (Praia da Ribeira, Praia da Rainha and Praia da Conceicao), so arrive early to squeeze in your towel. For better facilities head to Estoril's Praia do Tamariz with its salt-water swimming pool. The surfers' paradise, Praia do Guincho, 9km (6 miles) northwest, is great for spectators, but strong currents means that swimming here can be dangerous. Beyond the beach :  Cascais's old town boasts a clutch of historic buildings and ornate churches that fan out from the Town Hall Square. See Cascais's fishing industry at work at the harbour and daily fish market. Satisfy your cultural cravings at the opulent former home of the Counts of Castro Guimares: the Castro Guimaraes Museum located in the Municipal Park, or the Cascais Cultural Centre. Only 2km (1 mile) west the Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell) is impressive on a stormy day. Family fun :  Cascais's beaches, tourist-orientated shops and the Museu do Mar, which retells Cascais fishing history, help keep children occupied. Cascais is also a good base for exploring Estoril, Belem and Lisbon to the east (kids will enjoy the train ride to these destinations) and the fairytale palaces of Sintra to the north. Exploring further :  Sintra is quite simply one of Portugal's most alluring places. The Portuguese nobles who took refuge in the cool mountain air over 500 years ago have left a legacy of colourful surrealist palaces than deserve their place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Splashing out :  For a romantic meal splurge on mouth-watering seafood amidst the modern and elegant surrounds of 100 Maneiras ( www.100maneiras.com ). You will also be rewarded with panoramic sea views. You may also be interested in:


The Mitchell Library is in which UK city?

North Street Glasgow G3 7DN 0141 287 2999


In which country, which has a coastline on the eastern Mediterranean, is the red wine Chateau Musar produced?

Château Musar - Seacove Premium Wine & Spirits Château Musar www.chateaumusar.com Created in 1930, in the cellar of an old XVIIIth century castle, Château Musar is as much the work of a family as the living testimony of all the civilizations that tread its soil. After a long stay in France, Gaston Hochar returned to Lebanon and created Château Musar in the cellars of the old 'Mzar' castle in Ghazir, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. What began as a hobby soon became a passion; a passion inspired by an initial encounter with renowned viticulturist Ronald Barton while he was stationed in Lebanon during the Second World War. The family's love for wine grew and in 1959, after completing his oenology diploma in Bordeaux, the eldest son, Serge, entered the business. Some call him the magician, the man behind this extraordinary wine. His response? That all he "seeks is to translate what nature intended." In 1984, Decanter Magazine recognized Serge for his winemaking skill and courage, naming him the magazine's inaugural Man of the Year.  Sadly after 55 vintages, Serge passed away suddenly at the age of 75 in December 2014. 2006 Château Musar White 60% Obaideh & 40% Merwah Grown high in the mountains of Lebanon, the vines were less affected by the intense heat of the summer than the red grapes on the Bekaa Valley plain. The grapes, harvested at the usual time in mid October, were very ripe with good fruit concentration and good acidity and tannins. Fermented in French Nevers oak barrels for nine months, it was blended and bottled at the end of its first year and released six years later in 2007.   This vintage, like all Musar whites, will have extraordinary aging potential. Deep golden straw in colour; intense aromas of toasted brioche, almonds, apricots, baked apples, ripe pears, vanilla and honey. The palate is full with a buttery honeyed nutty texture. Its good acidity lends to the balance with the vanilla, butterscotch, apples and quince flavours. It is rich and mellow with a very long finish.  It is a substantial wine! SKU: 716175 2007 Château Musar Red 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Cinsault & 20% Cariñena A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Carignan grown in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. The 45+ year old vines produce a wine dark red in colour with brick edges. Good red fruits and some spice on the nose with a hint of leather and cedar, and a touch of volatile acidity. Ample bodied, round and warm in the mouth with supple tannins, ample fruit and leather finishing off in spicy notes. Will benefit from aging probably well into its 20's. SKU: 420869 2012 Jeune Red 50% Cinsault, 30% Syrah & 20% Cabernet Sauvignon Chateau Musar’s youthful ‘Jeune’ wines are made from the fruit of Bekaa Valley vines at around 1,000m above sea level. Altitude keeps the average temperature moderate at 25 degrees Celsius and with 300 days of sunshine a year, grapes are ripened to perfection. An unoaked blend of Cinsault, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2010 vintage has a rich nose of red fruits, cherries, cooked plums, black currants and blueberries with a hint of violets coming from the Syrah. These fruit characters follow through to the rich, warm palate which is also full of cinnamon, nutmeg and Christmas spices. This wine with its velvety soft tannins and long, warm finish is best enjoyed in its youth (in contrast to the Chateau Musar bottling, which is not released until its seventh year). Perfect with roasted and grilled meats, spicy Mediterranean dishes, casseroles and mature hard cheeses. Enjoy straight from the bottle (no need to decant) and serve at room temperature. SKU: 768051 2013 Jeune White 35% Viognier, 35% Vermentino & 30% Chardonnay An unoaked blend of Viognier, Vermentino, and Chardonnay. Crisp, aromatic and vibrant, this eclectic blend of French and Mediterranean varieties has its own distinctive personality: scintillating flavours of passionfruit, apples, elderflowers, limes and apricots and a dry, refreshing finish. Served gently chilled, it’s the perfect choice for grilled fish, seafood, Lebanese ‘mezze’ and chicken ta


Who drew the cartoon strip The Fosdyke Saga?

The Fosdyke Saga Comic Strip Books Gallery Back to Comic      Strips Index Back to Home      Page The   Fosdyke Saga by Bill Tidy first appeared in book form in 1972, published by   Mirror Books. The series was issued one per year and were numbered up to No 13. The eleventh   book was issued as a magazine. The fourteenth book was, as far as I know, the last one published. Below is a Gallery of all known Fosdyke Saga books in year and number order. Many thanks to Barry Cooke for images of No 9 and 11 Thanks also to 'Pete from the UK' for image of No 10 No      1 (1972)


Which city will host the 2016 Olympic Games?

Stop picking different cities to host the Olympic Games - The Washington Post Stop picking different cities to host the Olympic Games The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! Rio 2016 Olympics: What it looks like in Rio before the start of the Olympics View Photos The Brazilian city is in the midst of final preparations before the Games commence. Caption The international competition is being held in Brazil’s largest city after years of preparation.  Aug. 5, 2016   American Sam Dorman practices a dive at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center. Wong Maye-E/AP Wait 1 second to continue. By Paul Glastris By Paul Glastris August 2, 2016 Paul Glastris is editor in chief of Washington Monthly. Those of us who enjoy experiencing the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” of the Olympic Games could probably do without one particular emotion: the fear that the games, which begin Friday in Rio de Janeiro, will be an operational disaster. So far, the headlines do not inspire confidence. Armed robbers heisting a German TV crew’s equipment. “ Uninhabitable ” residential facilities for athletes. Marathon swimmers being told not to open their mouths while competing in sewage-contaminated Guanabara Bay. The 2004 Olympics in Athens were preceded by similar worries right up until the day they began. In the end, those Games were a great success. So there’s reason to hope the same will happen in Rio. Still, the ill-preparedness creates real risks. And those risks are part of a larger set of problems that have long dogged the modern Olympics and that derive from a single, avoidable source: the International Olympic Committee’s insistence on picking a different city to host each Games. There is nothing sacred about this policy. It began because the founder of the modern games, Pierre de Coubertin, after holding the first competition in Athens in 1896, decided to have the next one in his native Paris. Since then, the IOC has grown accustomed to the clout that comes with choosing Olympic sites — a prize that nations covet and compete for almost as hard as their athletes do in the Games themselves. This power inspired decades of corruption by IOC officials, culminating in the bribery scandal over the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Despite reforms since then, allegations of corruption continue . The policy has also led the IOC to allow authoritarian regimes to have their “turn” at hosting the Games — from Hitler’s Berlin to Vladimir Putin’s Sochi.   Rio de Janeiro is hosting the summer Olympics. Here’s why there’s reason to celebrate – and worry in Brazil. (Lee Powell/The Washington Post) Putting on a modern Olympics is a massive undertaking. Doing it for the first time, with no prior experience, taxes the management capacities of even a wealthy, sophisticated city or country. The Atlanta Olympics’ finance chief once said that her job was to “create a Fortune 500 company from scratch, then take it apart at the end.” The pop-up nature of the enterprise drives up the costs of construction and operations, according to a study released last month by the University of Oxford. The study found that every Summer and Winter Olympics from 1960 to 2016 experienced massive cost overruns averaging 156 percent , “the highest average cost overrun of any type of mega-project.”    These overruns are related to another resource that is inevitably squandered when the Games get moved around: human capital. The hard-earned expertise a city derives from hosting the Games — the knowledge its planners, contractors, technicians, security officials and armies of volunteers gain on the job — can’t be put to use again in the same way if that city won’t be hosting another Olympics four years later. Instead, another city gets to make the same rookie mistakes.  Then there are the insanely wasteful infrastructure projects that host cities typically build


Who wrote the poem How They Brought The Good News From Ghent To Aix?

BBC - Poetry Season - Poems - How They Brought the Good News From Ghent to Aix by Robert Browning How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix by Robert Browning I. I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; 'Good speed!' cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew; 'peed!' echoed the wall to us galloping through; Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast. II. Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right, Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. III. 'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear; At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see; At Dffeld,'twas morning as plain as could be; And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime, So, Joris broke silence with, 'Yet there is time!' IV. At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun, And against him the cattle stood black every one, To stare thro' the mist at us galloping past, And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last, With resolute shoulders, each hutting away The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray: V. And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track; And one eye's black intelligence,---ever that glance O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance! And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on. VI. By Hasselt, Dirck groaned; and cried Joris, 'Stay spur! 'Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, 'We'll remember at Aix'---for one heard the quick wheeze Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees, And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank, As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank. VII. So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky; The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, 'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff; Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white, And 'Gallop,' gasped Joris, 'for Aix is in sight!' VIII. 'How they'll greet us!'---and all in a moment his roan Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone; And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim, And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim. IX. Then I cast loose my buffcoat, each holster let fall, Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all, Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear, Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer; Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or good, Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood. X. And all I remember is---friends flocking round As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground; And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine, As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine, Which (the burgesses voted by common consent) Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent


In which of the constellations of the Zodiac is the bright star Antares found?

Scorpius? Here's your constellation | Constellations | EarthSky M6 and M7: Deep-sky gems in Tail of Scorpius The constellation Scorpius. See the bright reddish star at the ‘heart’ of this constellation? This star is very noticeable in the night sky. It’s called Antares. Here's a detailed view of the constellation Scorpius. Notice that very little of the constellation Scorpius goes north of the ecliptic, or sun's path across our sky. Scorpius is the southernmost constellation of the Zodiac. Click here for larger chart The constellation Scorpius. From the Northern Hemisphere, it is highest up in the evening on hot summer nights of July and August. Notice the two stars at the tip of the Scorpion's Tail. They are Shaula and Lesath, also known as The Stinger. How to locate the constellation Scorpius. For evening viewing, July and August are prime-time months for observing this wondrous constellation. In the Northern Hemisphere, we associate the ruby star Antares – or Ant-ares, the Rival of Mars – with the hot summer season. And I personally associate Antares with the blooming of wild cardinal flowers on my favorite hiking trail. As the summer season wanes, Antares’ fading into the southwestern dusk presages the cooler days of autumn. In early July, in either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, Scorpius climbs to its highest point in the sky at about 10 p.m. local time (11 p.m. local Daylight Saving Time). Because the stars return to the same place in the sky about one-half earlier with each passing week, look for the celestial Scorpion in mid-July to soar highest up around 9 p.m. local time (10 p.m. local Daylight Time), and by late July around 8 p.m. local time (9 p.m. local Daylight Time). As seen from mid-northern latitudes, such as the central U.S., Scorpius never climbs high in the sky, but rather skitters along the horizon, so you need an unobstructed view southward to see this constellation in its entirety. From northern U.S. states and the most of Canada, the Scorpion’s Tail stays at least partially submerged below the horizon, but its most brilliant star Antares can be seen as far north as southern Alaska. The sun doesn’t spend much time in front of the constellation Scorpius each year. It’s there for about a week, between about November 22 and 29. Read more about the sun in Scorpius from Bob’s Spaces. Bob also created this illustration. Sun’s passage in front of Scorpius. Given Scorpius’ great prominence to the eye, it’s ironic that the sun spends less time in front of the Scorpion than any other constellation of the Zodiac. Each year, the sun shines in the constellation Scorpius for a week, from about November 22 through November 29. If these dates seem to be in conflict with what you read on the horoscope page, remember that astrologers are referring to the sign Scorpio, not the constellation Scorpius. Sun’s entry into each constellation of the Zodiac When the sun reaches a point on the ecliptic that’s 30o to 60o east of the September equinox point, then the sun is said to be in the sign Scorpio – irrespective of which constellation or constellations backdrop the sun at this period of time. The sun passes through the sign Scorpio (not the constellation Scorpius) from about October 23 to November 21, even though the sun is actually in front of the constellations Virgo and then Libra during this same stretch of time. The astrological signs remain fixed relative to the solstice and equinox points. But, in the sky, these seasonal markers slowly but surely shift westward relative to the constellations, or backdrop stars. Some five thousand years ago, for instance, the star Antares marked the Northern Hemisphere’s autumnal equinox point. In our day, Antares and the sun have their annual conjunction on or near December 1 – some three weeks before the December 21 solstice. Antares will mark the December solstice point some 1,500 years into the future. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) decreed the boundaries of the 88 official constellations in 1930, and the sun has been destined to spend only a wee


At the 2010 football World Cup which was the only team not to lose a game?

Congratulations! New Zealand is the only team that did not lose a single match in the 2010 World Cup | BoardGameGeek | BoardGameGeek New Zealand Christchurch I admire the sentiment but still politely suggest that a reality check is needed. I follow football and think the AWs were awesome. Drawing with the teams we drew with was a fantastic achievement but I think that the AWs punched above their weight. The downside to getting so excited about three draws is the inevitable backlash if the AWs fail to emulate this performance at the next world cup, which they most likely will. I am willing to bet any game in my collection vs my pick of your collection that NZ either fail to qualify for the next world cup or lose more than they win or draw. Are you interested? May the Great Spirit Bless all who read this. bolter wrote: I admire the sentiment but still politely suggest that a reality check is needed. I follow football and think the AWs were awesome. Drawing with the teams we drew with was a fantastic achievement but I think that the AWs punched above their weight. The downside to getting so excited about three draws is the inevitable backlash if the AWs fail to emulate this performance at the next world cup, which they most likely will. I am willing to bet any game in my collection vs my pick of your collection that NZ either fail to qualify for the next world cup or lose more than they win or draw. Are you interested? I'm a little dumbfounded. Why don't you just enjoy the performance, without worrying about how well they will do in four years time. There isn't no downside to me about this although you seem a little intent on finding one. "Of the 393 coaches/managers to take teams to soccer's biggest stage since the inaugural Cup in 1930, only 20, now including Herbert, have gone away unbeaten." ..and you want to start making bets about the next world cup? No thanks, I'm happy relishing the moment. Snowman wrote: bolter wrote: I admire the sentiment but still politely suggest that a reality check is needed. I follow football and think the AWs were awesome. Drawing with the teams we drew with was a fantastic achievement but I think that the AWs punched above their weight. The downside to getting so excited about three draws is the inevitable backlash if the AWs fail to emulate this performance at the next world cup, which they most likely will. I am willing to bet any game in my collection vs my pick of your collection that NZ either fail to qualify for the next world cup or lose more than they win or draw. Are you interested? I'm a little dumbfounded. Why don't you just enjoy the performance, without worrying about how well they will do in four years time. There isn't no downside to me about this although you seem a little intent on finding one. "Of the 393 coaches/managers to take teams to soccer's biggest stage since the inaugural Cup in 1930, only 20, now including Herbert, have gone away unbeaten." ..and you want to start making bets about the next world cup? No thanks, I'm happy relishing the moment. Yep, it's just a matter of context and expectations. Considering the prevailing view of us leading into the tournament was this ... Quote: New Zealand is a great story, but one that will end quickly and without much drama. Making their first appearance since 1982, the All Whites (sweet nickname, I’m sure South Africans will love them) will be a punching board for the duration of their stay in Africa. It took a Mark Paston penalty kick save for New Zealand to qualify, but unless Paston is a miracle worker, he will be picking the ball out of the net often. Shane Smeltz, Oceania’s Player of the Year, scored more than half of his team’s goals, and if he does not produce, New Zealand could be one of the best picks to go scoreless this Cup. The best player for the Kiwis is Ryan Nelson. The Blackburn Rovers defender (and former D.C. United player) will have to defend as if his life depended on it. The bar is set low for New Zealand, so just making it here was a success. As Sports Illustrated put it, “Logically, the All Whi


Which element has the atomic number 42 and the chemical symbol Mo?

Chemical Elements.com - Molybdenum (Mo) Bentor, Yinon. Chemical Element.com - Molybdenum. <http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/mo.html>. For more information about citing online sources, please visit the MLA's Website . This page was created by Yinon Bentor. Use of this web site is restricted by this site's license  agreement . Copyright © 1996-2012 Yinon Bentor. All Rights Reserved.


Which lighthouse, west of the Scilly Isles, marks the Eastern end of the North Atlantic shipping route at which the time for the Blue Riband is measured?

The Isles of Scilly 2014 Combined Islands & Accommodation Guide by Visit Isles of Scilly - issuu issuu Issuu on Google+ ST. MARY’S TRESCO ST. MARTIN’S BRYHER ST. AGNES FOREWORD BY MICHAEL MORPURGO, FORMER CHILDREN’S LAUREATE, AND AUTHOR OF WAR HORSE Scilly is used to migrants, or visitors, or invaders, or blow-ins, call us what you will. For explorers and sailors and birds and tourists this has been over the centuries a place of refuge, a welcome safe haven. Sometimes one of these blow-ins stays and becomes in time a Scillonian, finds a home here. Then there are others who blow in from time to time throughout their lives and become almost Scillonian. Certainly they feel a sense of belonging. My wife Clare is one of those. She first came here when she was two in 1944; faced down the U boats to get here. Back she came every year for a while. Pentle Bay was her playground, where she first saw oystercatchers and heard their piping. Back she came with her children and her husband (who it has to be said did not want to come; how could I get my café au lait and croissants on this scattering of islands in the Atlantic?) Back we come with grandchildren and friends, time and again. She reads avidly while she’s here, I scribble my stories, one or two of them set here. We walk, we talk. Every footpath on Bryher we know. We know where the best blackberries are, where the oystercatchers gather before dusk. We’re on Rushy Bay in wind or sun and look out to Samson and think of how it was to live there all those years ago, to row out there in a gig in the teeth of a gale to rescue people (and cows) from a wreck. We stomp over to Hell Bay to get blown and buffeted about. We have tea at Fraggle Rock, buy a crab for supper from Mr and Mrs Pender, and then as the evening sun goes down (or the evening wind blows) sit on a rock on Green Bay and are content. I have been raving about the place since I first went there in the sixties and have yet to meet a disappointed first-time visitor Bill Oddie, Daily Express 6 Features 6 Like nowhere in England 8 Ten reasons to love Scilly 15 Your journey to Scilly 18 Getting around the islands 40 Don't leave Scilly without... 52 Natural Scilly 56 Islands guide 24 St. Mary's 30 Tresco 32 St. Martin's 34 Bryher 64 36 St. Agnes Staying on Scilly 64 Finding the perfect place... 66 Accommodation index 72 Accommodation listings 112 Island maps ISLAND S GUIDE Hell Bay author Sam Llewellyn on the joys of arriving under sail Fay Page talks about her childhood memories of visiting the islands Man Booker Prize nominee Jim Crace's passion for fulmars Award winning photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn's impressions LIKE NOWHERE IN ENGLAND The Isles of Scilly are like nowhere else in England. Outstandingly beautiful, uncrowded and unspoilt, they lie just off the coast of Cornwall but seem like a world apart. Everything looks and feels quite different here. Life seems to move at an easier pace. The adventure begins as you arrive by small plane or by boat. You immediately sense that you have discovered something very special as you glimpse this cluster of low-lying islands amid a turquoise sea. Some fringed by rocks, others by white sandy beaches, but all bathed in a light of vibrant intensity. It feels as if you have begun a journey to another world – a simpler, kinder and more innocent place to be. The Scilly adventure continues as you hop from island to island by boat, experiencing many natural wonders – basking sharks, seals, dolphins and a multitude of rare birds. Some visitors crave the deep sense of tradition here, immersing themselves in history and myth. Others come to walk, to cycle, to sail or to enjoy the heightened creativity of island life through painting, photography or crafts. Many love to lose themselves in the sights and scents of the sub-tropical plants and flowers that give Scilly its distinctive landscape; and everyone can savour the flavour of fresh seafood in beachside cafés and local ales at a traditional pub. All this, plus life’s simplest pleasures: from beachcombing barefoot on deserted bea


Which awards are made each year in memory of those who have killed themselves in bizarre ways?

Darwin Awards. Chlorinating The Gene Pool. DARWINAWARDS MUG Amusing coffee mug "A Fool And His Life Are Soon Parted" made by Ms. "Darwin" -- Wendy Northcutt. herself. This awesome and playful pottery mug is hand-made and signed by Wendy, it's a well-crafted durable porcelain wheel-thrown mug is large enough to easily accomodate 15 ounces of hot coffee. Check it out! DARWIN AWARD: Her Sleep Number Was Up September 2016, Virginia || Sidney Zelaya, 20, was riding a mattress on top of a van when both of them slipped off the vehicle. She was nominated for the notorious Darwin Award when it became apparent she was not going to bounce back from a bad case of bed head. HONORABLE MENTION: Pokémon "Go Jump" July 2016, California || Pokémon's unanticipated "Go Jump" feature is predicted to have a dwindling fan base. Two California men blindly followed app clues to a clue-less "75 to 100 foot" tumble down a crumbling ocean cliff with minor injuries, missing a full DARWIN. Falling For The Game... DARWIN AWARD: Banana Bandido July 2014, Costa Rica || A banana plantation was the setting for a Friday evening robbery in Limón. Villegas, 30, lived in the same building as the farm's cafeteria before his fatal slip-up. He was in the process of ( breaking into the cafe... ) Honorable Mentions The HONORABLE MENTION is bestowed on survivors of blunders that flabbergast the rest of us. The judges point a finger at certain individuals who are up and coming in the competition to win a Darwin Award. Recent Honorable Mentions are Mr. Magnetron, and Marshmallow Mouth Gator Guy. The opposite of role models, these living legends are here on Earth to serve as a warning to others! (1) A vodka-swilling pill-popping airline customer. (2) A potted plant made of plastic. (3) Airport security video showing the former climbing the latter. Darwin Award: Resurrection FAIL (17 September 2014, Pakistan) Two correspondents nominated the gullible acolyte who volunteered to be killed and resurrected by a holy man--and not a holy man who was experienced with the procedure, but a beginner who thought he'd give it a whirl! ( "Religion did him in. ) DARWIN AWARD: Delhi Sandwich (23 September 2014, India) Life of Pi, move over, Maqsood has a tale to tell. This 19-year-old factory worker joined a White tiger for lunch yesterday in the cat's Delhi zoo home. After being cautioned twice to not climb over the fence enclosing the tiger enclosure, Maqsood climbed over the fence a third time and then swam across the moat over to Tiger Island. ( "India zoo gains a meal, loses a patron..." ) DARWIN AWARD: Anchorman (25 May 2014, Georgia) 18-year-old Chance Werner had recently graduated from high school and on the early hours of Sunday morning he was at Lake Allatoona celebrating with friends by playing the Shopping Cart Game. The Shopping Cart Game is evidently popular... ( more ) LIVING DARWIN AWARD! The Thing Ring (May 2014, England) In the interest of public safety, the Darwin Awards editors are releasing this ribald and unsavory event to the public to serve as a warning to adventurous amorous males. EYEWITNESS: "Being part of the emergency services, firemen were called to the A&E Department of a central London hospital to assist in removing a thing ring... ( more ) DOUBLE DARWIN! Sports Training (2 March 2014, Rotterdam, Netherlands) Two apparently intoxicated men dared each other to test their courage against an intercity train at a Rotterdam train station. At 1800 hours on a Sunday night, the station was crowded with more than 300 fans returning from a soccer-match pitting Feyenoord against Ajax at De Kuip, the most beautiful soccer stadium in Holland... ( more ) NO DARWIN AWARD: "No Bull, No Bullets!" 3 August 2014, Chicago | NOT a Darwin Award winner: the accidental shooting death of a man who failed to prove that his gun had no bullets, when he pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger. Moderators have ruled this recent Illinois shooting death "too common" and lacking the creativity of a true Darwin Award. Sorry, Mr. Zyzanski ( rawstory.com ) Slush Pile


Give a year in the life of composer Leos Janacek?

Project MUSE - Janacek and His World Janacek and His World Michael Beckerman Publication Year: 2011 Once thought to be a provincial composer of only passing interest to eccentrics, Leos Janácek (1854-1928) is now widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful and original creative figures of his time. Banned for all purposes from the Prague stage until the age of 62, and unable to make it even out of the provincial capital of Brno, his operas are now performed in dynamic productions throughout the globe. This volume brings together some of the world's foremost Janácek scholars to look closely at a broad range of issues surrounding his life and work. Representing the latest in Janácek scholarship, the essays are accompanied by newly translated writings by the composer himself. The collection opens with an essay by Leon Botstein who clarifies and amplifies how Max Brod contributed to Janácek 's international success by serving as "point man" between Czechs and Germans, Jews and non-Jews. John Tyrrell, the dean of Janácek scholars, distills more than thirty years of research in "How Janácek Composed Operas," while Diane Paige considers Janácek's liason with a married woman and the question of the artist's muse. Geoffrey Chew places the idea of the adulterous muse in the larger context of Czech fin de siècle decadence in his thoroughgoing consideration of Janácek's problematic opera Osud. Derek Katz examines the problems encountered by Janácek's satirically patriotic "Excursions of Mr. Broucek" in the post-World War I era of Czechoslovak nationalism, while Paul Wingfield mounts a defense of Janácek against allegations of cruelty in his wife's memoirs. In the final essay, Michael Beckerman asks how much true history can be culled from one of Janácek's business cards. The book then turns to writings by Janácek previously unpublished in English. These not only include fascinating essays on Naturalism, opera direction, and Tristan and Isolde, but four impressionistic chronicles of the "speech melodies" of daily life. They provide insight into Janácek's revolutionary method of composition, and give us the closest thing we will ever have to the "heard" record of a Czech pre-war past-or any past, for that matter. Download PDF pp. ix-xii To all my wonderful colleagues at UC Santa Barbara for their encouragement over the years and especially Paul Berkowitz, William Prizer, Alejandro Planchart, Pieter van den Toorn, and Dolores Hsu. To Lee Rothfarb for his friendship and encouragement. Thanks also to the... Introduction: Janáček and Our World Michael Beckerman Download PDF pp. 1-10 In the 1970s and '80s in Brno, we Janáček scholars had a marvelous and well kept secret. There, in this provincial capital, enormous conference/festivals took place that were entirely dedicated to our man. Indeed, one cannot imagine how in the so-called "dark days" they managed so... Part I: Essays The Cultural Politics of Language and Music: Max Brod and Leoš Janáček Leon Botstein Download PDF pp. 13-54 History is rarely kind to personalities in literature and music with talent, industry, influence, and visibility whose achievements seem, posthumously, to lack some lasting quality of genius or originality. The result is that our sense of the past becomes distorted. Aesthetic judgments... How Janáček Composed Operas Download PDF pp. 55-78 It was exactly halfway through Janacek's middle opera—number five out of nine—that he hit upon a method of writing operas that sustained him for the remaining eleven years of his life. It meant that in these eleven years he was able to write four and a half operas; the previous... Janáček and the Captured Muse Dlane M. Paigs Download PDF pp. 79-98 Leos Janacek's relationship to Kamila Stosslova, a woman nearly four decades his junior, has become an essential part of the composer's biography. Relations between the two are generally treated as a titillating aspect of the composer's personal life, and there is a general assumption... Reinterpreting Janáček and Kamila: Dangerous Liaisons in Czech Fin-de-Siècle Music and Liter


The malleus, incus, and stapes (the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup) are the three smallest bones in the human body, how are they collectively known?

How do the hammer, anvil and stirrup bones amplify sound into the inner ear? - Scientific American Scientific American How do the hammer, anvil and stirrup bones amplify sound into the inner ear? Share on Facebook Advertisement | Report Ad Douglas E. Vetter, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the Tufts University Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences, sounds out an answer to this query. The hammer, anvil and stirrup—also known as the malleus, incus, and stapes, respectively, and collectively, as "middle ear ossicles"—are the smallest bones in the human body. Found in the middle ear, they are a part of the auditory system between the eardrum and the cochlea (the spiral-shaped conduit housing hair cells that are involved in transmitting sound to the brain). To understand the role of these bones in hearing requires an understanding of levers. This is because the middle ear ossicles are arranged and interact with each other as a lever system. All levers generate a mechanical advantage. They are used to exert a large force over a small distance at one end of the lever by applying a smaller force over a longer distance at the opposite end. The leveraging capabilities of the middle ear ossicles are needed to generate the large forces that allow us to hear. As terrestrial animals, we live in a gaseous environment. But, our inner ear is filled with fluid, and this represents a problem. As an example, most people have first hand knowledge of hearing underwater. If someone screams at you from above the water's surface, the sounds are tremendously muted, making it difficult to understand or even hear at all. That is simply because most of the sound is reflected off the water's surface. So how do we take in airborne sounds, which are simply vibrations of the air molecules, and get them past the air-fluid interface between our ear canal and the inner ear? We need a system to use those air vibrations to push against the surface of the inner ear fluid. When the eardrum vibrates as sound hits its surface, it sets the ossicles into motion. The ossicles are arranged in a special order to perform their job. Directly behind and connected to the eardrum—which is essentially, a large collector of sound—is the hammer. The hammer is arranged so that one end is attached to the eardrum, while the other end forms a lever-like hinge with the anvil. The opposite end of the anvil is fused with the stirrup (so anvil and stirrup act as one bone). The stirrup then connects with a special opening in the cochlea called the "oval window." The footplate of the stirrup—the oval, flat part of the bone that resembles the part where one would rest ones foot in an actual stirrup—is loosely attached to the oval window of the cochlea, allowing it to move in and out like a piston. The piston-like action generates vibrations in the fluid-filled inner ear that are used to signal the brain of a sound event. Without the middle ear ossicles, only about 0.1 percent of sound energy would make it into the inner ear. Overcoming the problem of getting airborne sound into the fluid-filled inner ear is solved by two main mechanisms: the concentration of energy from the large eardrum onto the small stirrup footplate situated in the oval window; and the lever-like action between the hammer and the anvil-stirrup complex. In cats, for example, the simple concentration of forces from the eardrum to the stirrup increases pressure at the oval window to about 35 times what is measured at the eardrum. The lever action of the middle ear bones imparts a further mechanical advantage to the system—occurring because the anvil is shorter than the hammer—and further increases pressure by roughly 35 percent. In this way we overcome the problem of getting airborne vibrations into the pressurized, fluid-filled inner ear. Not all animals have this same middle ear bone configuration. In fact, reptiles, amphibians and birds, have a middle ear that contains just one bone, called the columella, which connects the eardrum directly to the oval window of the cochlea. When we examine the most sensitiv


Which fictional detective, created by Caroline Graham in novels such as Faithful Unto Death and The Killings at Badger Drift, features in a popular TV series?

Books Monthly Review of Books article on Vera Stanhope Watching the Detectives - third in a new series Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murders by Paul Norman   Midsomer Murders is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1997, based loosely on CAROLINE GRAHAM's novels pictured above and published by HEADLINE. Prior to 2011, the chief character was DCI Tom Barnaby, elder cousin of the current character, who left the series when actor John Nettles decided to give up the role. He was replaced by his cousin, also Chief Inspector Barnaby, and played by Neil Dudgeon (see my comments, below). The stories revolve around Barnaby's efforts to solve the numerous crimes that take place in the fictional English county of Midsomer, assisted by successive Detective Sergeants - DS Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey), DS Dan Scott (John Hopkins), and currently DS Ben Jones (Jason Hughes). Editor's comment: Neil Dudgeon's Inspector Barnaby is slow, ponderous, and totally different to John Nettles. There have been four, maybe five episodes thus far and the series has failed to ignite for me. Dudgeon is a comedy actor and although there is an underlying sense of humour visible in Midsomer Murders, Dudgeon is quite out of place, and out of his depth. I can't see it lasting beyond another series, and I really wish they would try to persuade John Nettles to come back. Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby - A senior member of the Midsomer Constabulary's Causton CID, Barnaby handled the considerable number of murders that occur in the county. A patient, tolerant man whose style of investigation is methodical and fair. However, despite his methodical nature he is an extremely sagacious and perceptive individual, able to recognise seemingly obscure clues in order to close an investigation. He also formerly worked for MI6. Much of his social life seems to revolve around his wife and daughter. In fact, they both often provide a personal connection with the crimes that he is investigating. His other relatives are his parents, who by the episode "Blue Herrings" are both deceased. Though only his mother is referred to, he also has an aunt Alice Bly who appears only in the aforesaid episode, to whom he is devoted. In Barnaby's last appearance ("Fit for Murder") we learn that his father died on his birthday, at Tom's present age.Joyce Barnaby - Barnaby's long-suffering wife. She is enormously tolerant of her husband, despite his being a workaholic who spent their honeymoon solving the case of the 'Pimlico Poisoner', which suggests that they met in London, where they both possibly lived and worked. Joyce is an easy-going and friendly woman who likes to get involved in community activities. She has long possessed a desire to move out of their Causton home and into one of the picturesque Midsomer villages - only to be put off by the grisly murders that occur there. Cully Dixon - Tom's and Joyce's only child takes her first name from a village on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where she was conceived during her parents' honeymoon. She is an inquisitive and bold young woman, who seems to have inherited many of her parents' friendly attitudes and community spirit. Early in the series she attended Cambridge University and dated a drama student, Nico. This fell through and she returned to live with her parents in Causton. She is an actress and frequently takes temporary jobs in the Midsomer area when "resting" between assignments. Like her mother, her tendency to do community work often leaves her personally involved with the murders that take place. She meets Simon in the Axeman Cometh, and marries him in Blood Wedding. Actress Laura Howard was said to have left the show after "The Magician's Nephew", but Cully appeared again in "The Glitch". Detective Inspector Gavin Troy – Barnaby's first deputy. He is a local man and attended a local comprehensive. He is young to be a detective sergeant, a point often commented on. He is very bright and ambitious, though it is usually his boss who solves the crime, often after Troy has made the slightly wrong conclusion. In con


At the 2010 football World Cup who won the Golden Ball for best player?

BBC Sport - Football - World Cup 2010: Diego Forlan collects Golden Ball award World Cup 2010: Diego Forlan collects Golden Ball award Golden moments from Forlan's World Cup Uruguay striker Diego Forlan was named the winner of the Golden Ball as the best player of the World Cup. The Atletico Madrid forward, 31, scored five goals and was a major influence as his team unexpectedly reached the semi-finals in South Africa. German Thomas Mueller, who also scored five, was named by Fifa as the best young player of the tournament. Mueller, 20, also won the Golden Boot for most goals - his three assists acting as a tie-breaker. The German thus beat Forlan, Spain's David Villa and Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands to the coveted prize. Bayern Munich ace Mueller saw off Mexico's Giovani Dos Santos and Ghana's Andre Ayew for the young player prize. 606: DEBATE Give your views on Forlan's award "This is just incredible for a newcomer to the World Cup," Mueller told his club's official website. "It's an honour of course, but at the end of the day, I'd rather have had the World Cup itself." Of his young player award, the 20-year-old added: "It's a huge honour to be part of a group including the likes of Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Michael Owen and the most recent winner, Lukas Podolski. "For me personally, it's terrific confirmation of the work I've put in over the last year. I'm delighted my great run has continued here, and I've really enjoyed it too. The honour will be with me for all time, and it's a wonderful memento too." Forlan finished top of a Fifa shortlist for his award following a vote by international media. The former Manchester United player polled 23.4% of the vote, narrowly beating Dutch playmaker Sneijder - second with 21.8% - while Villa was third. "This is award which I won thanks to my team-mates," wrote Forlan on his Twitter account, a post accompanied by a photograph where the striker is standing with other players. "It was taken before they threw me in the swimming pool," he explained. Uruguay's performance at the World Cup was the country's best in 40 years. Forlan succeeds Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, who was named top player of the 2006 World Cup despite his infamous red card in the final defeat to Italy. It rounded off a fine year for Forlan, who also won the Europa League with Atletico Madrid last season, with the striker scoring both goals in a 2-1 extra-time victory over Fulham. "It's as great as it is unexpected," Forlan told FIFA.com. "I never even imagined something like this, nor did I have my sights set on it. "As I'm a striker, I perhaps could have seen myself chasing the Golden Shoe, and in fact I came close. That would have been more normal. But to go from that to winning the prize for the best player... "I'm enjoying it and I'm delighted, but I'm very aware that it's the result of the spectacular tournament the team has had. It's another reward for this positive period for Uruguayan football." Meanwhile, Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas - who twice denied Arjen Robben of the Netherlands with the score at 0-0 in the World Cup final - won the Golden Glove award for being the best keeper at the tournament. Casillas conceded only two goals in seven matches. Golden Boot winner Thomas Mueller Bookmark with:


In Greek mythology, Elektra was the daughter of which king?

Electra Electra See More Electra Pictures > Electra was the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra of Mycenae in Greek mythology. She was the sister of Iphigenia and Chrysothemis, as well as Orestes , with whom they planned the murder of their mother and her lover Aegisthus , seeking revenge for the murder of their father. When Agamemnon returned from the Trojan War along with his consort Cassandra , he was murdered by his wife and her lover, who was also his cousin. Clytemnestra was furious at her husband for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia to Artemis before his departure to Troy , while another reason may have been the possible murder of her first husband by Agamemnon . So, she killed both Agamemnon and Cassandra upon their arrival, even though Cassandra had warned of this ill fate. Electra and Orestes sought refuge in Athens , and when Orestes was 20 years old, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi ; there, he was told to take revenge for his father's death. Along with his sister, they went back to Mycenae and plotted against their mother and Aegisthus . With the help of his cousin and best friend, Pylades , Orestes managed to kill his mother and her lover; before her death though, Clytemnestra cursed Orestes and as a result, the Furies or Erinyes chased him, as it was their duty to punish anyone commiting matricide or other similar violent acts. Electra , instead, was not haunted by the Erinyes . Electra Is also called Elektra.


The inscription 'Bleste be the man that spares these stones, and curst be he that moves my bones' appears on whose gravestone?

Shakespeare's Burial   Shakespeare's Burial Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in his hometown of Stratford , Warwickshire. His gravestone bears an epitaph which Shakespeare himself supposedly wrote. It warns: Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones. The inscription on the church monument to Shakespeare, erected in 1621, reads: Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem Terra tegit, populus moeret, Olympus habet. Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast? Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed Within this monument: Shakespeare, with whom Quick nature doed; whose name doth deck his tomb Far more than cost; sith all that he had writ Leaves living art but page to serve his wit. Obiit ano doi [anno domini] 1616. Aetatis 53. Die 23 Ap. But how did Shakespeare die? Find out all we know about Shakespeare's death . For more on how England reacted to Shakespeare's death, please see Did Shakespeare's Death Go Unnoticed? How to cite this article: Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare of Stratford: Shakespeare's Burial. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2008. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareburial.html >. ______


In which country is 'Ninety Mile Beach'?

Ninety (90) Mile Beach, Gippsland, Victoria - Tourism Australia Gippsland Find travel information on Ninety Mile Beach, one of the longest uninterrupted beaches in the world, located outside of Melbourne at Gippsland Lakes. Ninety Mile Beach, located in the Gippsland region on Victoria's south-eastern coastline, is one of the longest uninterrupted beaches in the world. Stand on the beach and watch the beach disappear into the salty sea spray in the distance. You might find that your footprints are the only ones in the sand that day. This is one of the most natural and unspoilt beaches in the world and is ideal for activities from beach fishing and swimming to walking, whale and dolphin-spotting or just lazing in the sun. Sun, sand and lush national parks all create the perfect holiday environment. Victoria's Ninety Mile Beach is a 90-mile long stretch of pristine golden sand that separates the Gippsland Lakes from Bass Strait. Stretching as far as the eye can see it is one of the most natural and unspoilt beaches in the world. It is also the third longest uninterrupted beach in the world. The beach sits at the edge of the Gippsland Lakes, the largest inland water system in the Southern Hemisphere. Woodside Beach is recognised as the start of the Ninety Mile Beach. The swimming beach is patrolled over summer and camping is available in the caravan park beside the beach. Adjacent to the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park, Ninety Mile Beach Marine National Park covers five kilometres of coastline. The beach lies on the edge of a long slender sand dune and the absence of rocky outcrops or headlands results in an endless vista of sand and sea. Beneath the water, vast plains of sand stretch in every direction and provide a refuge for more species per square metre than most other marine habitats in the world. The park also has a rich indigenous history and is part of the country of the Gunaikurnai Aboriginal people. The charming seaside village of Lakes Entrance sits on the edge of Ninety Mile Beach where the Gippsland Lakes meets the Southern Ocean. Lakes Entrance is the perfect location for all types of water activities; but is especially renowned for its fishing. Try river fishing for bream, ocean beach fishing for open water fish, or launch a boat at one of the many ramps along the foreshore. The Ninety Mile Beach Surf Fishing Competition, Australia's largest surf fishing competition, is held at Ninety Mile Beach annually during late January. Loch Sport is another small town located east of Sale on a narrow spit of land between the sand dunes of Ninety Mile Beach and Lake Victoria. The shallow sandy beach of Lake Victoria at Loch Sport is a popular spot for swimming. Enjoy a picnic at Sperm Whale Head in The Lakes National Park, and watch out for dolphins and whales during the migration season. Take the Ninety Mile Beach Wildlife Trail and keep a lookout for kangaroos, emus and echidnas in and around the beach area. Along the trail you'll also encounter historic towns and villages, gourmet local produce, and local arts and crafts. Ninety Mile Beach is approximately 260 kilometres from Melbourne . More Holiday Ideas See what else there is near here to inspire your holiday planning. Gippsland


In June 2010, Daniel Westling married Crown Princess Victoria of which country?

Swedish royal wedding: how country boy Daniel Westling was transformed into Prince Daniel - Telegraph Sweden Swedish royal wedding: how country boy Daniel Westling was transformed into Prince Daniel A Sweden prepares for Europe's biggest royal event since the wedding of Prince  Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, Nick Meo reports on the boy from the  forests who is set to become a prince.   Crown Princess Victoria first met Mr Westerling during a session in his Stockholm gym    Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria and her fiance Daniel Westling Photo: EPA By Nick Meo in Ockelbo, Sweden 6:50PM BST 05 Jun 2010 Comments When the clock strikes midnight in the gilded ballroom of Stockholm's Royal Palace on June 19th, a prince will lead his princess in the first waltz of the evening, as an audience of Europe's royalty looks on approvingly. The glamorous midnight ball will be the final event of a historic day, and a moment to savour for His Royal Highness Prince Daniel - a former fitness instructor called Daniel Westling from a village in the forests of central Sweden. In his extraordinary courtship with Crown Princess Victoria, he has received the modern equivalent of the kiss that turns the frog into a prince - careful grooming by courtiers, language tutors and a public relations agency. Now, eight years later, he has been transformed into a sophisticated, modern young royal. The dream romance will now culminate in a fairytale royal wedding, Europe's biggest royal event since the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. "Their relationship came as a big surprise," said Johan T. Lindwall, the journalist who broke the story. "Daniel came from a totally different background to Victoria. Everyone said it would never work." Related Articles Commoner marrying Swedish crown princess 'has aristocratic roots' 09 Jun 2010 In the late afternoon, so the 1,100 guests in the capital's 13th century cathedral can wear evening dress, Mr Westling will wed the young woman of 32 who will one day succeed her father on Sweden's throne. Sweden is serious about equality between the sexes and it has produced a fairytale with a difference; this time it is a beautiful princess who whisked her prince away from humdrum ordinary life to a magical world of palaces and balls. "It was like a fairytale - she kissed her gym trainer and she got a prince," said Sten Hedman, an author who has followed the royals closely since 1962. Crown Princess Victoria first met Mr Westling during a session in his Stockholm gym. She was a troubled princess in those days. She had begun training to fill her empty hours, and to help overcome a serious eating disorder. He was first pictured in Swedish newspapers in 2002 looking startled at the attention of paparazzi, wearing jeans and with his long hair poking out from under a baseball cap. Even worse there was his rural accent, the subject of cruel jokes among Victoria's blue blood friends – the so-called Stureplan brats from Stockholm's answer to Sloane Square. Her father, the authoritarian King Carl XVI Gustav, 64, was dead set against their relationship. His precious daughter was lined up for a Danish prince with impeccable lineage and the king was determined not to admit a tongue-tied commoner from the forests into the royal fold. The pressure was so great that in 2004 their relationship entered a crisis that nearly ended it. But Victoria stuck to the path of true love. Mr Westling learnt enough etiquette to get by in high society, with the assistance of a committee of courtiers who were dubbed "prince's school". And the king eventually bowed to the inevitable and relented, defeated by his daughter's insistence that Mr Westling was her true love. Much of the credit for the happy ending is being given to the courtiers whose efforts transformed Mr Westling - the so-called "Prince's school". He was intensively tutored in English, French and German, so he can converse when he travels abroad, and given classes in Swedish history and political science. A public relations company advised him on his image. Stockholm's


During 2009, in order to highlight 'global warming', which country held an underwater cabinet meeting?

Maldives underwater cabinet meeting held to highlight the impact of climate change | Daily Mail Online comments The Maldives government has made an eye-catching plea for climate change action by holding the world's first underwater cabinet meeting. Politicians from the Indian Ocean island nation donned scuba gear this morning to send a message to world leaders ahead of December's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. The nation's president Mohammed Nasheed has voiced fears the archipelago will be swamped by raising sea levels unless action is taken to reduce carbon emissions. The Maldivian cabinet held a meeting underwater to highlight the need for action on climate change Enlarge   Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed swims to the first underwater cabinet meeting in the Maldives. Right, the president tries on diving gear before the historic meeting The 30-minute cabinet meeting held six metres below sea-level was intended to show what the future could hold for the Maldives. The 350,000 inhabitants of the country live on 1,192 coral islands an average of only 2.1 metres above the ocean. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Ministers communicated using hand signals and white boards as they signed a document calling on all countries to cut their emissions. It read: 'We must unite in a world war effort to halt further temperature rises. Climate change is happening and it threatens the rights and security of everyone on Earth. 'We have to have a better deal. We should be able to come out with an amicable understanding that everyone survives. If Maldives can't be saved today, we do not feel that there is much of a chance for the rest of the world.' Big fish: President Mohammed Nasheed arriving at the meeting The ministers surfaced to speak to the media in their scuba gear President Nasheed was already a certified diver but most of the cabinet have had to take diving lessons in recent weeks in preparation for the meeting. Zoona Naseem, president of Divers Association Maldives, said: 'None of the ministers have ever been diving before, except the defense minister, and all of them are very enthusiastic.' Nasheed has already announced plans for a fund to buy a new homeland for his people if the 1,192 coral islands are submerged. He has promised to make the Maldives the world's first carbon-neutral nation within a decade. As he emerged after the meeting, he said: 'We are trying to send our message to let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change isn't checked.' Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed arrives at the underwater cabinet meeting off Girifushi Island Enlarge   The Maldives Presidency, Maldives cabinet ministers are photographed underwater off Girifushi Island Maldivian president Mohammed Nasheed and his ministers signed a document calling on all countries to cut their carbon dioxide emissions At the UN Copenhagen conference countries will negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which controlled carbon emissions. Wealthy nations want broad emissions cuts from all countries, while poorer ones say industrialized countries should carry most of the burden. On Friday the Maldives ministers went diving for rehearsals of the meeting off the island of Girifushi, about 20 minutes by speedboat from the capital, Male. Three of the 14 in the cabinet had to miss the underwater meeting because two were not given medical permission and another was abroad. Maldivian president Mohammed Nasheed, left, spoke to the media with vice president Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik after the meeting


Similarly during 2009, in order to highlight 'global warming', which country held a cabinet meeting up a mountain?

GLOBAL WARMING - 2004 - 2009 GLOBAL WARMING -  2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 -2008 - 2009 - 2010 compiled by Dee Finney DO NOT BE FOOLED! GLOBAL WARMING DOES NOT COME FROM  FOSSIL FUELS! MARS AND PLUTO ARE ALSO EXPERIENCING GLOBAL WARMING! NOBODY BURNS COIL, OIL, OR OTHER FUELS THERE: THEREFORE GLOBAL WARMING IS COMING FROM ANOTHER 'OUTER' SOURCE! Pangnirtung, a village on Canada's Baffin Island, had      rain and temperatures in the 40s last month,  when minus-20 degrees is normal.    4-25-04 - DREAM :  I had a global warming dream                 this morning, you will find interesting:  I was in my living room, which was sunken and I was trying clean                 while walking around in 4" of water, and water was falling from the                 ceiling and my hair was in my face and wet and I was a wreck, wet and                 cold and getting angry at not being able to control the water which was                 everywhere.  Someone suggested I go shopping, so I went to buy a coat. They had                 an awesome black and white diamond patterned raincoat in a size 21 -  the only one one there was - The pattern was a swirling one - like a                 whirlwind. I held it up against myself and it only covered 1/4 of me. I                 was very upset that the only coats that would fit me were bright yellow.  So, I went home and a friend suggested we go to the library. She                 left ahead of me and I followed her up a flight of stairs and along a                 long, long hallway with doors leading to other rooms along the way. When                 I got to the other end without catching up to her, there were people                 standing around, even standing inside the elevator, which wasn't moving                 - waiting to go home. So I headed back down the hallway, thinking I                 might have missed my friend in one of those rooms.  Half way back I                 came to an area where Christmas presents had been left for people but                 not picked up. Prominent amongst the gifts  was a large silver                 crock pot.  I reached out to pick up the crock pot and take it home                 and it started showing me messages which were:    "France cannot control warming."  "US awards warming contract to INESCOE"  "INESCOE cannot control warming."   9-27-10 EDITORS NOTE:  I believe the facts stated below,   but California is not one of the 10 hottest states.  We have been 10   degrees below normal for at least a year, had the coldest winter in 14   years, and the coolest summer in 14 years.  I don't know how to   account for that. Summer from Hell: Our New Normal on a   Warming Planet? 10 U.S. states had their hottest summer on record and all but 7    states were above normal. And summer nighttime heat records were    set in 37 states. June-August global land surface temperature was the warmest on    record, 1.80 F (1.00 C) above the 20th century average of 56.9 F    (13.8 C) and surpassing the previous record of 1.66 F (0.92 C) set    in 1998. For only the third time in the satellite record and the third    time in the last four years, the Arctic sea ice extent fell below    5 million square kilometers (1.93 million square miles). This    summer's Arctic sea ice extent fell more than 25% below the    1979-2009 31-year average. Arctic sea ice volume (extent and thickness) reached the lowest    level ever recorded, prompting Mark Serreze, director of the    National Snow and Ice Data Center to predict, "The Arctic summer    sea ice cover is in a death spiral. It's not going to recover." A record Russian heat wave caused massive wildfires and drought    and may have killed up to 15,000 people, cost the Russian economy


The Monarch's Way is a long distance footpath, approximating to a route taken by which monarch?

Monarch's Way (Hampshire) Office Closure We are working over Christmas and New Year. However we will be closed from Monday 2 January 2017 through to Sunday 22 January 2017. During this time we will have limited access to emails and the office telephone will be directed to voicemail. Monarch's Way (Hampshire) Created 26 Aug 2010 The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. This trail covers the Hampshire part of the path as it enters the county north-east of Salisbury to the West Sussex border at Rowlands Castle. For the Sussex section please click here .   O/S Landranger Map Legend Calories Assuming a constant pace and no stops, typically it will take 18 hours 2 minutes to walk the distance and along the way 4820 calories will be burnt.


In World War 2, Captain Hans Lansdorf was in command of which famous ship?

Hans Langsdorff | World War II Database World War II Database Contributor: C. Peter Chen ww2dbaseHans Wilhelm Langsdorff was born on the island of Rï¿½gen. His family moved to Dï¿½sseldorf in 1898 and befriended the future naval hero Count (Graf) Maximilian von Spee, who influenced Langsdorff to attend the Kiel Naval Academy despite his parents' wishes. During WW1, Lieutenant Langsdorff was awarded the Iron Cross at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. ww2dbaseDuring the inter-war years, Langsdorff served in various roles including the Defense Ministry in Berlin and commanding a torpedo boat flotilla. After a few years in the Interior Ministry, he was posted to the new pocket battleship (later re-classified heavy cruiser) Admiral Graf Spee, named after his former neighbor in Dï¿½sseldorf. On 1 Jan 1937 he was promoted to the rank of captain and took over the command of Graf Spee. With him at the helm, Graf Spee successfully sank nine merchant ships in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean in the latter part of 1939, damaging Britain's ability to transport goods to and from her distant territories without any loss of German life. His righteous upbringing made him a merciful conqueror of the sea: during the nine sinkings he spared every British life, placing every prisoner in his supply ship Altmark before sinking the beaten ships. His successful raids attracted over twenty Allied warships to hunt for him, and he was found by British Hunting Group G, under the command of Commodore Henry Harwood, at River Plate off South America. After a 90-minute battle with two light cruisers and a heavy cruiser, the British ships disengaged. Langsdorff, whose ship also sustained heavy damage, sailed for the neutral port of Montevideo. Requesting the port for two weeks' time for repairs, he was granted only 72 hours. When the time was up, Graf Spee was still in no sailing shape, especially with a large British fleet that Langsdorff thought must be waiting for him outside the port. He berthed his sailors aboard German freighters at Montevideo, wrapped himself in the colors of Imperial Germany, not the Nazi swastika, gave the order to scuttle the ship, then committed suicide. His suicide note read "[f]or a captain with a sense of honor, it goes without saying that his personal fate cannot be separated from that of his ship." ww2dbaseLangsdorff now rests in the German section of the La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires. ww2dbaseSources: the Last Lion, Wikipedia. Hans Langsdorff Timeline 1. CM Taylor says: 10 Dec 2006 11:57:41 AM Please double check burial site. I just returned from Buenos Aires, and I believe Langsdorff is in Las Flores Cemetery, and not in Chacarita. This info was given to me by someone familiar with the citys history. 2. clive morris says: 28 Feb 2008 05:06:14 AM A couple of weeks ago I visited Hans Langsdorff's grave in Buenos Aires. He is buried at Chacarita cemetery but not in the main section. You have to walk on the outside of the cemetery to the German section. His grave is there. He is buried with four of his fellow officers and also listed are the sailors who died in the battle. 3. Anonymous says: 15 Jun 2009 08:05:43 AM Why is it not possible for this hero of Germany, who spared so many allied and german lives to be buried in his hometown. Had the Captain of the Bismarck had these ideas perhaps the 2000 lives lost, after the sensible thing to do when the ship was dammaged, unable to escape or to return fire, was to surrender. One is a true hero, the other, a fool. The families of the 900+ sailors saved by Langsdorff, and those of the British Navy who lived, when they might have died should make sure that their savior is properly repatriated to his hometown, and family. His honor demands this small tribute. yours, 4. Anonymous says: 15 Jun 2009 08:18:40 AM Patton may have been a good source for quotes, but he was a gloryhound, and recklessly endangered his units. Headlong attack without more caution needlesly wastes lives, and can lead to disaster when cut off at the flanks. Patton was lucky that his army d


How is 'King Rudolf 5th of Ruritania' known in the title of a book?

The Prisoner of Zenda (1913) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error King Rudolf of Ruritania is saved from a coup attempt by the help of his lookalike cousin, who falls in love with the king's fiancee. Directors: a list of 303 titles created 01 Jan 2011 a list of 94 titles created 05 Jun 2012 a list of 191 titles created 22 Dec 2013 a list of 62 titles created 17 Oct 2015 a list of 2837 titles created 26 Nov 2015 Title: The Prisoner of Zenda (1913) 6.4/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Add Image Add an image Do you have any images for this title? An Englishman on a Ruritarian holiday must impersonate the king when the rightful monarch, a distant cousin, is drugged and kidnapped. Directors: John Cromwell, W.S. Van Dyke Stars: Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, C. Aubrey Smith Anthony Hope's classic tale gets a decidedly 'un-classic' treatment at the hands of Peter Sellers. Following the story somewhat, friends of the new King Rudolph of Ruritania fear for his ... See full summary  » Director: Richard Quine An Englishman vacationing in a Ruritarian kingdom is recruited to impersonate his cousin, the soon-to-be-crowned king when the monarch is drugged and kidnapped. Director: Richard Thorpe When the king is drugged and abducted by his ambitious brother, a lookalike relative must take his place to keep the evil sibling off the throne. Director: Rex Ingram The King of Ruritania is kidnapped by his scheming brother: can his British double save him? Stars: Christine Amor, Robert Coleby, Clair Crowther     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.5/10 X   Owner of Zenda, Inc., a successful business empire, disappears. His son is about to inherit the company, but a kid who looks just like him takes over the young man's identity and the company. The "good" kid now must get his life back. Director: Stefan Scaini


The Chester Beatty Library is in which city?

Gaeilge   With free admission and described by the Lonely Planet as not just the best museum in Dublin, but one of the best in Europe, the Chester Beatty Library is a must-see on any Dublin visitor's itinerary.  As the only museum in Ireland to win 'European Museum of the Year' and rated consistently in the top 5 of TripAdvisor’s list of ‘Top things to do in Dublin', the library's rich collections from countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe open a window on the artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world.


Which lighthouse stands 12 miles east of the Tay estuary?

Bell Rock Lighthouse | Canmore Bell Rock Lighthouse Ordnance Survey licence number 100057073. All rights reserved. © Copyright and database right 2017. Digital Images DP 089759 Engraving showing progress of the Bell Rock Lighthouse works. Titled: 'Progress of the Bell Rock Works'; 'State of the Works in August 1809'; 'State of the Works in September 1808' and 'State of the works in July 1810'. © RCAHMS DP 089758 Engraving showing designs for the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Titled: ''Designs for the Bell Rock Light House by Mr Stevenson' and 'Designs for the Bell Rock Light House by Mr Rennie'. © RCAHMS DP 089757 © RCAHMS DP 088479 Engraving showing the Bell Rock works. Titled: 'Apparatus Connected With the Bell Rock Works'' and also 'View of the Sheer Crane', 'Front View of the Sheer Crane', 'Section of Praam-Boat', 'Moorings of the Praam-Boats', 'View of the Rock and Foundation Pit', 'Section of Attending Boat with Two-Half Boat', 'Stern View of Two-Half Boat'. © RCAHMS DP 088477 Engraving showing details of sling carts, lanterns, railways etc for the Bell Rock Works Titled: 'Certain implements connected with the Bell Rock Works' © RCAHMS SC 786043 Engraving showing the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Titled: ''State of the works in August 1809'. Parish Arbroath And St Vigeans Former Region Tayside Treasured Places - HLF funded The Bell Rock lighthouse, which is situated in the North Sea some twelve miles to the south-east of Arbroath, is the oldest surviving rock-built lighthouse in Britain. First lit on 1 February 1811, it was designed by Robert Stevenson and is capped by an octagonal lantern. The construction of the lighthouse proved a great challenge, as the rock on which it is built is only exposed at low tide. The lighthouse has been unmanned since October 1988, and is now served by an automatic light and foghorn. Information from RCAHMS (SC) 23 July 2007 An image of this site has been nominated as one of Scotland's favourite archive images. For more information about the project visit http://www.treasuredplaces.org.uk Further Details NO72NE 1 76165 26808 For associated signal tower in Lady Loan, Arbroath (NO 6405 4044), see NO64SW 54. For shipwrecks of Quixotic (1939), HMS Argyll (1915) and River Lossie (1917) on the Bell Rock, see NO72NE 8001 , NO72NE 8002 , NO72NE 8003 respectively. For the loss of the York and the discovery of cannon and cannon balls, see NO72NE 8012 and NO72NE 8013 respectively. NMRS REFERENCE Historic Scotland - Listing updated 3.10.2000 from 45197 to 21230. (Undated) information in NMRS. Engineer: Robert Stevenson 1806-11. Scots Magazine, July 1908 - engraving. Employment of seamen for building the lighthouse. Letters from the Agents of the Commissioners of Lighthouses. They ask that seamen employed by them should be protected from impressment. 1808  GD 51/2/1041/1-4 Bell Rock Folio (per Mr R.Q.C Stevenson): - Notice to Mariners authorising the erection of a lighthouse on Bell Rock, to place a Floating Light there, and to collect duties thereupon. Printed with engraved map. 17. Bell Rock Floating Light 15 September 1807. 18. Bell Rock Light. (Large sheet covering two pages bound into the spine of the volume.) Plan of Lighthouse Proposed to be erected upon the Bell Rock. Figures 1-3  Plans. Figure 4  Showing method of raising and lowering the cut building stone. Figure 5  Section. Figure 6  Elevation. Pen and grey wash. Signed: M. Downie [Murdoch Downie). Verso: titled Bell Rock Light, Downie's Plan. 19. Elevation of the Lighthouse to be Erected on the Bell Rock. Engraved for the Scots Magazine & Edinburgh Literary Miscellany published by A. Constable & Company, 1 July 1801 accompanying an article. (Description of the Plan for the Bell Rock Lighthouse.) 20. Correspondence between Sir John Rennie (1794-1874) and Mr Alan Stevenson (1807-65) relative to the Bell Rock Lighthouse 1849. (The Civil Engineers and Architects' Journal for May 1849.) 21. Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Second title page in Stevenson's Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, 1824. Between pages 64


In which English county are the towns of Daventry and Brixworth?

Northamptonshire County Council | Interactive Mapping Welcome to Northamptonshire County Council's online mapping service. This    service is based upon the council's Geographic Information System ( GIS ).    It provides interactive mapping that allows you to find a variety of    information. You can use this facility to: Find places using a postcode, street, town/village Move around the map and zoom in or out Turn map features & places on or off to find useful information Select features or places on the map to find out more information Print maps Please note: Maps on this site have been reproduced from Ordnance Survey    material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of    Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction    infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings.    Northamptonshire County Council Licence No. 100019331. Maps are for identification purposes only and must not be used for scaling or    formal documentation. They do not indicate extent of highway. The different    colours represent Ordnance Survey's interpretation of surface materials only. Index of Deprivation The Index of Multiple Deprivation combines a number of indicators, chosen to cover a range of economic, social and housing issues, into a single deprivation score for each small area in England. This allows each area to be ranked relative to one another according to their level of deprivation. The Indices of Deprivation have been produced at Lower Super Output Area level, of which there are 32,482 in the country. The area with a rank of 1 is the most deprived and 32,482 the least deprived. Close Interactive Mapping Help The layout of this page is designed so that you can view map based information on the right hand side of your screen at all times, whilst allowing you to view and query text based information on the left hand side using the tabs. How to use the Mapping Use the zoom bar on the left of the map, the wheel on your mouse or the + and - keys to zoom in or out. Hold down the Shift key and drag a box with the mouse to zoom in. Double left click to zoom in or double right click to zoom out. Drag the map with your mouse, use the arrows on the top-left of the map or the cursor keys to scroll. Drag the red box on the overview map to reposition the main map. Click on the map to identify features/places on the map. Searching Use the text box on the top bar to search for a postcode, street, building, town or grid reference (e.g. (475000,260000) or sp7560). Select a location or council building from the drop down lists. Add Feature or Place Use the checkboxes to add features/places to the map, e.g. schools, libraries, country parks, etc. A key for the features or places added to the map will be shown on the right hand side of the map, these can be switched off by clicking the red cross or unchecking the checkbox. You can click on any of the features/places to show further information (including links to web pages with more details where available). Find The Nearest Find your nearest is a quick way of finding several useful features by postcode, town or village. Printing To Print the map click on Print. This will open another window with the area you have chosen, print in the usual way by clicking the print button on your browser or pressing Ctrl-P. If you cannot see all of the map once you have printed it or in preview, you may need to change your print options and select Landscape. Other Features The left hand Feature panel can be hidden or shown by clicking the double arrow. Measure Distances/Areas by clicking the relevant link and then click on the map to draw the line or area you wish to measure. The distance/area is shown in the top bar. Double click to complete the individual measurement. Click the Stop Measuring link once you have finished all measurements. Toggle between Street map, Aerial Photo or Historic Maps (where available). To return to the Welcome page either click Reset Map or use the centre globe of the a


Which city will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games?

Sochi 2014 Winter Games Olympics - results & video highlights Official Reports arrow Action everywhere, from the Black Sea coast to the Krasnaya Polyana mountains. Superb competition venues for spectacular events, historic performances and numerous records – the XXII Olympic Winter Games kept all their promises. Here are the most memorable athlete exploits that took place in Sochi between 6 and 23 February 2014: At 10.55 p.m. on Friday 7 February 2014, Russian three-time Olympic champions Irina Rodnina (pairs figure skating) and Vladislav Tretiak (ice hockey) lit the Olympic cauldron. Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen, winner of the sprint 10km and the new Olympic event, mixed relay, brought his medal count to 13, after starting at the Nagano Games in 1998 (8 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze). He thus overtook his compatriot, Bjørn Daehlie, to become the Olympic Winter Games athlete with the most medals. Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen won three more gold medals in Sochi (skiathlon, team sprint and 30km freestyle), making a total of six since her first title in Vancouver in 2010, as well as a total of 10 medals won since the Games in Salt Lake City in 2002, becoming one of the Olympic Winter Games female athlete with the most medals (with Smetanina and Belmondo). In Alpine skiing, gold medals were won by the youngest-ever Olympic champion in the history of the discipline, American Mikaela Shiffrin, 18 years and 345 days old, and the oldest, Austria’s Mario Matt, aged 34 and 10 months. American Bode Miller, third in the Super-G at the age of 36 years and 127 days, became the oldest-ever medallist in his discipline. Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, 15 years and 73 days old, became the youngest ever medallist on the snow in the history of the Games, when he won the silver medal in the snowboard half-pipe competition. Russian luger Albert Demchenko and Japanese ski jumping champion Noriaki Kasai, both in their forties, were competing in their seventh edition of the Games, both winning two medals in Sochi. Kasai also equalled the record for the longest interval between two (silver) medals: 20 years! Like Marit Bjørgen, Belarusian biathlete Darya Domracheva and Russian short-track speed skater Victor An won three gold medals at the XXII Olympic Winter Games. But the athlete who won the most medals at these Games was Ireen Wüst, with five speed skating medals (two gold, three silver)! Ireen Wüst was a member of the Netherlands speed skating team which won 23 medals, achieved four top-three clean sweeps and was present on every one of the 12 podiums, men’s and women’s alike. A unique domination of one discipline at the Games.   For the first time in figure skating, the 100-point barrier was broken in a short programme, by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu (101.45), who went on to win the gold medal. Bronze medallist in 1994, silver in 1998, gold in 2002 and 2006 and bronze in 2010 and 2014, Italian luger Armin Zöggeler became the first athlete to win six consecutive medals in six editions of the Winter Games. The first winners of the 12 new Olympic events were: Russia (team figure skating), Germany (luge relay), Norway (biathlon mixed relay), Germany’s Carina Voigt (women’s ski jumping), Canadian Dara Howell and American Joss Christensen (ski slopestyle), Americans Maddie Bowman and David Wise (ski half-pipe), Jamie Anderson and Sage Kotsenburg (snowboard slopestyle), Austrian’s Julia Dujmovits and Russian Vic Wild (snowboard parallel slalom). The 2014 Olympic Winter Games were the first time that the Russian Federation hosts the Winter Games; the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The host city Sochi has a population of 400,000 people and is situated in Krasnodar, which is the third largest region in Russia. The Games were organised in two clusters: a coastal cluster for ice events in Sochi, and a mountain cluster located in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains. This made it one of the most compact Games ever, with around 30 minutes travel time from the coastal to mountain cluster. The Sochi Olympic Park was built along the B


In July 2010, USA and Russia swapped prisoners charged with spying - at which city's airport did the exchange take place?

Russia, US, Swap Prisoners in Spy Case Russia, US, Swap Prisoners in Spy Case July 08, 2010 8:00 PM Gabe Joselow Email to a Friend Print Russia and the United States have conducted a spy exchange at an airport in Vienna, Austria. Russia swapped four prisoners for 10 members of an alleged Russian spy ring operating in the U.S. The exchange of prisoners between the United States and Russia is expected to bring an end to a weeks-long espionage scandal that fascinated the media, but was downplayed by both governments. Russia released four Russian citizens already serving prison sentences on charges of spying for the West. Their release was announced soon after the United States deported 10 suspected Russian agents detained last month and sentenced in a New York court. Although the case is reminiscent of episodes from the Cold War, Russia hailed the exchange as a positive development. The foreign ministry said "the action was taken in the general context of improved Russian-U.S. relations." Andrei Koztunof of the New Eurasia Foundation in Moscow says both countries essentially agreed not to make it a major issue. "Absolutely I think that under different circumstances they could have turned it into a big issue in their relationship, and we could have seen mutual accusation and a lot of hysteria on both sides," says Koztunof. "But the current mode of handling the issue suggests that neither side is interested in starting a fight about this spy exchange." One of the most high-profile prisoners involved in the exchange is Russian arms expert Igor Sutyagin. He was serving a 15 year prison sentence after being convicted of passing classified information to the United States. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev pardoned Sutyagin and three other convicted spies after they signed documents admitting their guilt. But his lawyer Anna Stavitskaya tells VOA that her client had little choice but to sign the document, since fighting for his freedom in court did not work. She says his case shows a lot of the problems with the Russian legal system. He had defended himself in court for years and had asked for a presidential pardon. "Suddenly this spy scandal happens, and everything is resolved in a day," she adds. Russian media report the other prisoners being released by Moscow are Sergei Skripal; who worked for Russia's military intelligence service; Aleksandr Zaporozhsky, a former foreign intelligence agent; and Gennadi Vasilenko, a former K.G.B. officer. The U.S. State Department says several of the prisoners were in poor health. The case gained enormous media attention in the United States and Russia. But, despite the excitement about the case, members of the alleged Russian spy ring did not seem to have accomplished anything. They were charged only with conspiring to act as unregistered foreign agents. Andrei Kutzonof of New Eurasia does not think they will receive too much publicity back in Russia. "It's hard to believe that they will be treated like heroes. Indeed, it's not clear what they have accomplished, but I think that it would be fair to assume that they haven't accomplished a lot," Kutzonof adds. "And some of their statements might be an embarrassment to the Russian intelligence." In accordance with their plea agreement, the suspects cannot return to the United States without special authorization. They also are barred from making any money in the United States by selling their stories of life undercover. An eleventh member of the suspected Russian spy ring was detained in Cyprus, but disappeared after being released on bail.


In which of the constellations of the Zodiac is the star Aldebaran found?

Aldebaran ALDEBARAN (Alpha Tauri). Aldebaran is by far the brightest, and therefore the Alpha , star of the constellation Taurus . The ancient name, from Arabic, means "the Follower," as the star seems to follow the Pleiades , or Seven Sisters star cluster , across the sky. Aldebaran, 67 light years away, is positioned in front of the sprawling Hyades star cluster (in mythology, half-sisters to the Pleiades) that make the head of Taurus the Bull, but is not a part of it, the cluster (at 150 light years) over twice as far away. Nevertheless, it makes a fine guide to it. In most renderings of the constellation , Aldebaran makes the celestial Bull's eye. As part of a constellation of the Zodiac , Aldebaran is close to the Sun's path, the Sun passing to the north of it about June 1, the star also regularly covered, or occulted, by the Moon . This class K (K5) giant star , of first magnitude (0.85) and 14th brightest in the sky, is a low-level irregular variable star that fluctuates erratically and to the eye unnoticeably by about two-tenths of a magnitude. Aldebaran's surface temperature of 4010 degrees Kelvin (compared to the Sun 's 5780 degree temperature) gives it a distinct orangy color not all that dissimilar to that of Mars, which commonly passes it. Allowance for infrared radiation reveals the star to have a fairly high luminosity 425 times that of the Sun, which leads to a radius of 43 times solar. A projected equatorial rotation velocity of 5.2 kilometers per second gives the star a rotation period that could be as long as 400 days. The duration of disappearance in lunar occultations, as well as direct measure of angular diameter through interferometry, give an angular diameter of 0.01996 second of arc (the apparent size of a US nickel seen at a distance of about 50 kilometers), the star a leader in the number of such measures. That combined with distance gives a physical diameter of 44 times solar, in excellent agreement with the one found from luminosity and temperature. From the theory of stellar structure and evolution, Aldebaran carries a mass of around 1.7 times that of the Sun. Most class K giants are quietly fusing their internal helium cores into carbon and oxygen. Aldebaran, on the other hand, seems to be in a preliminary state in which a still-dead helium core is contracting and heating, causing the star as a whole to continue to expand and brighten. Consistent with its large size and luminosity, it's also known for a strong wind, through which it's beginning to lose mass, which surrounds it out to about 100 Astronomical Units. Within only another few million years, the star will top out at around 800 solar luminosities as it fires its helium, then shrinks and dims some to become one of the usual K-giant crowd. If Aldebaran were in our Solar System, it would extend halfway to the planet Mercury and would appear 20 degrees across in our sky, its great luminosity making life on Earth quite impossible. For a time, Aldebaran was thought to harbor its own planet (discovered through shifts in the star's velocity), but it has never been confirmed. Such would be counter to the usual finding that stars with planets tend toward high metal abundances, as Aldebaran's iron content (relative to hydrogen) is about half that of the Sun's. Written by Jim Kaler 1/30/98; revised 10/30/99, 11/14/08, 05/22/09. Return to STARS .