Declared Nuclear-Weapon States Undeclared Nuclear-Weapon States Recent Renunciations Soviet Successor States With Nuclear Weapons on Territory: Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine Active/Suspected Nuclear Weapon Programs Abstaining Countries

NFL Game Dates 10/22 & 10/23, 2006

PDU: Short for Power Distribution Unit. An electrical device used to control the distribution of power to individual loads. The PDU may be a stand-alone controlled device or it may be integrated directly into the UPS (uninterruptible power supply).

UPS: Short for Uninterruptible Power Supply. A device that provides battery backup when the electrical power fails or drops to an unacceptable voltage level. Small UPS systems provide power for a few minutes; enough to power down the computer in an orderly manner, while larger systems have enough battery for several hours. In mission critical datacenters, UPS systems are used for just a few minutes until electrical generators take over.

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Xerxes, ( khasahyarshah ) son of Darius the great and Atossa the daughter of Cyrus the great was appointed by his father instead of his older brother but lets not go any further , all I am trying to say is that there could be a movie made about Persians freeing the jews or something about the Manshoor Hoogh Bashar/, WHY why everything about Iranians have to be NEGATIVE ...., it was not long ago that I spend some 16 dollars and watched the Alexander ( nothing but lies , this guy goes and burns Persopolis and the some of biggest libraries in the world but no hollywood don’t say nothing about that but instead tries to portrait a fag slave as a lover for Alexander and show Persian and bunch of savages to fulfill the public anger that is been here for a while due to the media and common Persians are NOT BLACK.

Up to a quarter of the population of North Korea is believed to be malnourished and the United Nations' World Food Programme helps nearly 1.9 million of its people. Alongside other aid organisations, it has made calls to ensure any sanctions do not affect the most vulnerable, such as children and pregnant women.

It is estimated that some 13 per cent of North Korea's GDP was spent on arms in 2005, while South Korea's military spending was 2.5 per cent.

Internal opposition to the totalitarian regime is ruthlessly crushed. There are believed to be 200,000 political prisoners and there have been reports of torture, public executions, slave labour, forced abortions and infanticide in

ازموارد مهم درماه رمضان شب قدر است .شبي كه از هزار ماه بهتر مي باشد . رواياتي داريم مبني بر

 اين كه هزار ماه جهاد بهتر ، واز سلطنت هزار ماه بهتر ، و عبادت آن بهتر از عبادت هزار ماه مي باشد . و

 خلاصه شب شريفي است كه روزي بندگان ، اجلهاي آنان وساير امور مردم از خوب و بد در آن مقدر مي

 گردد .شبي كه درقرآن در آن نازل شد . شبي كه به نص قرآن مبارك است . درروايات اهل بيت آمده

 است : ‹‹‌ فرشتگان در شب قدر فرود آمده و در زمين پخش مي شوند ، بر مجالس مؤمنين گذشته ، بر

 آنان سلام مي كنند و براي دعاهاي آنها ‹‹‌ آمين ›› مي گويند ، تا آنگاه كه سپيده دم طلوع كند .›› و ‹‹

‌ دراين شب دعاي كسي رد نمي شود مگر دعاي عاق والدين ، قطع كننده رحم نزديك ، كسي كه شراب

 بنوشد و كسي كه دشمني مؤمني دردلش باشد .››‌ در ‹‹‌ قبال ››‌ از ‹‹‌ كنز المواقيت ›› از پيامبر (ص)

 روايت شده است كه فرمودند : ‹‹‌ موسي عرض كرد : خداي من ! نزديك شدن به تورا خواهانم ، فرمود :

 نزديكي من از آن كسي است كه شب قدر بيدار شود . عرض كرد: خداي من رحمت تو رامي خواهم ،

 فرمود : رحمت من از آن كسي است كه درشب قدر به فقيرها رحم كند ، عرض كرد: خداي من ! جواز

 عبور از صراط راخواهانم ، فرمود : آن براي كسي است كه درشب قدر صدقه اي بدهد ، عرض كرد: خداي

 من ! از درختان بهشتي مي خواهم ، فرمود: اين مال كسي است كه در شب قدر سبحان الله بگويد،

 عرض كرد: خداي من ! رضايت تو را مي خواهم ، فرمود: رضايت من از آن كسي است كه دو ركعت نماز

 در شب قدر بخواند.›› و از همين كتاب از پيامبر (ص) روايت شده است كه فرمودند: ‹‹ درهاي آسمانها در

 شب قدر باز مي شود. بنابراين بنده اي در‌آن نماز نمي خواند، مگر اين كه خداوند متعال در مقابل هر

 سجده اي درختي در بهشت براي او مي نويسد كه اگر سواره ، صد سال در سايه آن حركت كند به

 انتهاي سايه اش نمي رسد ، و در مقابل هر ركعت خانه اي از در و ياقوت و زبرجد و مرواريد، و در مقابل

 هر آيه اي تاجي از تاجهاي بهشت ، و در مقابل هر ‹‹سبحان الله گفتن ›› پرنده اي از پرندگان بهشت ، و

 در مقابل هر نشستن درجه اي از درجات بهشت ، و در مقابل هر تشهدي بالا خانه اي از بالا خانه هاي

 بهشت ، و در مقابل هر سلام دادن ، لباسي از لباسهاي بهشت براي او مي نويسد

انتشار مجموعه 150 جلدي مشاهير معاصر ايران

سرنوشت هكتارها زميني كه توسط دو زمين خوار حرفه اي در اصفهان، به صورت غير قانوني و جاعلانه به فروش رسيده است هم چنان نامعلوم و در هاله اي از ابهام قرار دارد.

به گزارش خبرنگار «بازتاب»، دو زمين‌خوار اصفهاني به نام‌هاي «ت» و «خ» كه با جعل و محو اسناد و وارد كردن نام و مشخصات دلخواه در سندهايي كه قديمي بوده و به ظاهر مالكي نداشته، در يكي از دفترخانه‌هاي ثبت اسناد رسمي اصفهان، موفق به فروش و غصب هكتارها زمين باارزش شده‌اند، كه با دستگيري چندي پيش يكي از آنان، سرنوشت بسياري از اين زمين‌ها همچنان نامعلوم مانده است.

آقاي «خ»، علاوه بر زمين‌خواري به علت دريافت وام چند صد ميليون توماني از يكي از قرض‌الحسنه‌هاي ورشكسته اصفهان و كلاهبرداري و فروش مال غير و جعل اسناد كه در مجموع رقمي حدود بيست ميليارد را تشكيل مي‌دهد، در حال حاضر در زندان است. شخص فوق، چند سال پيش از يكي از كشورهاي اروپايي به ايران بازگشته و در طي اين چند سال، اقدام به غصب زمين‌هاي بسياري در اصفهان كرده است.

گفتني است، برخي مسئولان محلي اصفهان نيز از زمين‌خواري ها و جعل اسناد اين افراد به ستوه آمده و در حال پيگيري اين موضوع در مراجع قضائي هستند، اما به علت حمايت برخي از متنفذان اصفهان و وكلاي قدرتمند از اين اشخاص، پرونده به فرجام نهايي و صدور حكم قطعي براي بازپس‌دهي اموال منجر نشده است.

شايان ذكر است كه رابط اصلي اين دو نفر، كارمند يكي از دفترخانه‌هاي اصفهان بوده است كه از همين راه، اقدام به صدور سند جعلي براي بسياري از زمين‌هاي شهر اصفهان و حومه كرده و مالكان اصلي را به جرم سرقت و جعل اسناد تا آستانه به زندان افتادن تهديد و در فشار قرار مي داده اند و به اين طريق ملك را از چنگ آنان درمي‌آورده‌اند.

"A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race -- and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin." excerpts from "Racism" by Ayn Rand (An article published in the September, 1963 issue of The Objectivist Newsletter and included as a chapter in the book, The Virtue of Selfishness ) _____    Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.  It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage -- the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry.  Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.   Racism claims that the content of a man's mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man's convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical forces beyond his control.  This is the caveman's version of the doctrine of innate ideas -- or of inherited knowledge -- which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science.  Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes.  It is a barnyard or stock-farm version of collectivism, appropriate to a mentality that differentiates between various breeds of anmials, but not between animals and men.     Like every form of determinism, racism invalidates the specific attribute which distinguishes man from all other living species: his rational faculty.  Racism negates two aspects of man's life: reason and choice, or mind and morality, replacing them with chemical predestination.    The respectable family that supports worthless relatives or covers up their crimes in order to "protect the family name" (as if the moral stature of one man could be damaged by the actions of another) -- the bum who boasts that his great-grandfather was an empire-builder, or the small-town spinster who boasts that her maternal great-uncle was a state senator and her third-cousin gave a concert at Carnegie Hall (as if the achievements of one man could rub off on the mediocrity of another) -- the parents who search genealogical trees in order to evaluate their prospective sons-in-law -- the celebrity who starts his autobiography with a detailed account of his family history -- all these are samples of racism, the atavistic manifestations of a doctrine whose full expression is the tribal warfare of prehistorical savages, the wholesale slaughter of Nazi Germany, the atrocities of today's so-called "newly-emerging nations."    The theory that holds "good blood" and "bad blood" as a moral-intellectual criterion, can lead to nothing but torrents of blood in practice.  Brute force is the only avenue of action open to men who regard themselves as mindless aggregates of chemicals.    Modern racists attempt to prove the superiority or inferiority of a given race by the historical achievements of some of its members.  The frequent historical spectacle of a great innovator who, in his lifetime, is jeered, denounced, obstructed, persecuted by his countrymen, and then, a few years after his death, is enshrined in a national monument and hailed as a proof of greatness of the German (or French or Italian or Cambodian) race -- is as revolting a spectacle of collectivist expropriation, perpetrated by racists, as any expropriation of material wealth perpetrated by communists.    Just as there is no such thing as a collective or racial mind, so there is no such thing as a collective or racial achievement.  There are only individual minds and individual achievements -- and a culture is not the anonymous product of undifferentiated masses, but the sum of the intellectual achievements of individual men.    Even if it were proved -- which it is not -- that the incidence of men of potentially superior brain power is greater among the members of certain races than among the members of others, it would still tell us nothing about any given individual and it would be irrelevant to one's judgment of him.  A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race -- and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.  It is hard to say which is the more outrageous injustice: the claim of Southern racists that a Negro genius should be treated as inferior because his race has "produced" some brutes -- or the claim of a German brute to the status of a superior because his race has "produced" Goethe, Schiller and Brahms.    These are not two different claims, of course, but two applications of the same basic premise.  The question of whether one alleges the superiority or the inferiority of any given race is irrelevant; racism has only one psychological root: the racist's sense of his own inferiority.     Like every other form of collectivism, racism is a quest for the unearned.  It is a quest for automatic knowlege -- for an automatic evaluation of men's characters that bypasses the responsibility of exercising rational or moral judgment -- and, above all, a quest for an automatic self-esteem (or pseudo-self-esteem).    To ascribe one's virtues to one's racial origin, is to confess that one has no knowledge of the process by which virtues are acquired and, most often, that one has failed to acquire them.  The overwhelming majority of racists are men who have earned no sense of personal identity, who can claim no individual achievement or distinction, and who seek the illusion of a "tribal self-esteem" by alleging the inferiority of some other tribe.  Observe the hysterical intensity of the Southern racists; observe also that racism is much more prevalent among the poor white trash than among their intellectual betters.    Historically, racism has always risen or fallen with the rise or fall of collectivism.  Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group (to "society," to the tribe, the state, the nation) and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its own interests.  The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force -- and statism has always been the poltical corollary of collectivism.    The absolute state is merely an institutionalized form of gang rule, regardless of which particular gang seizes power.  And -- since there is no rational justification for such rule, since none has ever been or can ever be offered -- the mystique of racism is a crucial element in every variant of the absolute state.  The relationship is reciprocal: statism rises out of prehistorical tribal warfare, out of the notion that the men of one tribe are the natural prey for the men of another -- and establishes its own internal sub-categories of racism, a system of castes determined by a man's birth, such as inherited titles of nobility or inherited serfdom.    The racism of Nazi Germany -- where men had to fill questionnaires about their ancestry for generations back, in order to prove their "Aryan" descent -- has its counterpart in Soviet Russia, where men had to fill similar questionnaires to show that their ancestors had owned no property and thus to prove their "proletarian" descent.  The Soviet ideology rest on the notion that men can be conditioned to communism genetically -- that is, that a few generations conditioned by dictatorship will transmit communist ideology to their descendants, who will be communists at birth.  The persecution of racial minorities in Soviet Russia, according to the racial descent and whim of any given commissar, is a matter of record; anti-semitism is particularly prevalent -- only the official pogroms are now called "political purges."    There is only one antidote to racism: the philosophy of individualism and its politico-economic corollary, laissez-faire capitalism.    Individualism regards man -- every man -- as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being.  Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful co-existence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights -- and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members.  (See my articles "Man's Rights" and "Collectivized 'Rights'" in the April and June, 1963, issues of this NEWSLETTER  [or Chapters 12 and 13 of the book].)    It is not a man's ancestors or relatives or genes or body chemistry that count in a free market, but only one human attribute: productive ability.  It is by his own individual ability and ambition that capitalism judges a man and rewards him accordingly.    No political system can establish universal rationality by law (or by force).  But capitalism is the only system that functions in a way which rewards rationality and penalizes all forms of irrationality, including racism.    A fully free, capitalist system has not yet existed anywhere.  But what is enormously significant is the correlation of racism and political controls in the semi-free economies of the 19th century.  Racial and/or religious persecutions of minorities stood in inverse ratio to the degree of a country's freedom.  Racism was strongest in the more controlled economies, such as Russia and Germany -- and weakest in England, the then freest country of Europe.    It is capitalism that gave mankind its first steps toward freedom and a rational way of life.  It is capitalism that broke through national and racial barriers, by means of free trade.  It is capitalism that abolished serfdom and slavery in all the civilized countries of the world.  It is the capitalist North that destroyed the slavery of the agrarian-feudal South in the United States.    Such was the trend of mankind for the brief span of some hundred and fifty years.  The spectacular results and achievements of that trend need no restatement here.    The rise of collectivism reversed that trend.    When men began to be indoctrinated once more with the notion that the individual possesses no rights, that supremacy, moral authority and unlimited power belong to the group, and that a man has no significance outside his group -- the inevitable consequence was that men began to gravitate toward some group or another, in self-protection, in bewilderment and in subconscious terror.  The simplest collective to join, the easiest one to identify -- particularly for people of limited intelligence -- the least demanding form of "belonging" and of "togetherness" is: race.    It is thus that the theoreticians of collectivism, the "humanitarian" advocates of a "benevolent" absolute state, have led to the rebirth and the new, virulent growth of racism in the 20th century.    In its great era of capitalism, the United States was the freest country on earth -- and the best refutation of racist theories.  Men of all races came here, some from obscure, culturally undistinguished countries, and accomplished feats of productive ability which would have remained stillborn in their control-ridden native lands.  Men of racial groups that had been slaughtering one another for centuries, learned to live together in harmony and peaceful cooperation.  America had been called "the melting pot," with good reason.  But few people realized that America did not melt men into the gray conformity of a collective: she united them by means of protecting their right to individuality.    The major victims of such race prejudice as did exist in America were the Negroes.  It was a problem originated and perpetuated by the non-capitalist South, though not confined to its boundaries.  The persecution of Negroes in the South was and is truly disgraceful.  But in the rest of the country, so long as men were free, even that problem was slowly giving way under the pressure of enlightenment and of the white men's own economic interests.    Today, that problem is growing worse -- and so is every form of racism.  America has become race-conscious in a manner reminiscent of the worst days in the most backward countries of 19th century Europe.  The cause is the same: the growth of collectivism and statism. [ ... ]    The existence of such pressure groups and of their political lobbies is openly and cynically acknowledged today.  The pretense at any political philosophy, any principles, ideals or long-range goals is fast disappearing from our scene -- and it is all but admitted that this country is now floating without direction, at the mercy of a blind, short-range power-game played by various statist gangs, each intent on getting hold of a legislative gun for any special advantage of the immediate moment.    In the absence of any coherent political philosophy, every economic group has been acting as its own destroyer, selling out its future for some momentary privilege.  The policy of the businessmen has, for some time, been the most suicidal one in this respect.  But it has been surpassed by the current policy of the Negro leaders.    So long as the Negro leaders were fighting against government-enforced discrimination -- right, justice and morality were on their side.  But that is not what they are fighting any longer.  The confusions and contradictions surrounding the issue of racism have now reached an incredible climax.    It is time to clarify the principles involved.    The policy of the Southern states toward Negroes was and is a shameful contradiction of this country's basic principles.  Racial discrimination, imposed and enforced by law, is so blatantly inexcusable an infringement of individual rights that the racist statutes of the South should have been declared unconstitutional long ago.    The Southern racists' claim of "states' rights" is a contradiction in terms: there can be no such thing as the "right" of some men to violate the rights of others.  The constitutional concept of "states' rights" pertains to the division of power between local and national authorities, and serves to protect the states from the Federal government; it does not grant to a state government an unlimited, arbitrary power over its citizens or the privilege of abrogating the citizens' individual rights.    It is true that the Federal government has used the racial issue to enlarge its own power and to set a precedent of encroachment upon the legitimate rights of the states, in an unnecessary and unconstitutional manner.  But this merely means that both governments are wrong; it does not excuse the policy of the Southern racists.    One of the worst contradictions, in this context, is the stand of many so-called "conservatives" (not confined exclusively to the South) who claim to be defenders of freedom, of capitalism, of property rights, of the Constitution, yet who advocate racism at the same time.  They do not seem to possess enough concern with principles to realize tht they are cutting the ground from under their own feet.  Men who deny individual rights cannot claim, defend or uphold any rights whatsoever.  It is such alleged champions of capitalism who are helping to discredit and destroy it.    The "liberals" are guilty of the same contradiction, but in a different form.  They advocate the sacrifice of all individual rights to unlimited majority rule -- yet posture as defenders of the rights of minorities.  But the smallest minority on earth is the individual.  Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.    This accumulation of contradictions, of short-sighted pragmatism, of cynical contempt for principles, of outrageous irrationality, has now reached its climax in the new demands of the Negro leaders.    Instead of fighting against racial discrimination, they are demanding that racial discrimination be legalized and enforced.  Instead of fighting against racism, they are demanding the establishment of racial quotas.  Instead of fighting for "color-blindness" in social and economic issues, they are proclaiming that "color-blindness" is evil and that "color" should be made a primary consideration.  Instead of fighting for equal rights, they are demanding special race privileges.  [ ... ]    Racial quotas have been one of the worst evils of racist regimes.  There were racial quotas in the universities of Czarist Russia, in the population of Russia's major cities, etc.  One of the accusations against the racists in this country is that some schools practice a secret system of racial quotas.  It was regarded as a victory for justice when employment questionnaires ceased to inquire about an applicant's race or religion.    Today, it is not an oppressor, but an oppressed minority that is demanding the establishment of racial quotas. (!) [ ... ]   It does not merely demand special privileges on racial grounds -- it demands that white men be penalized for the sins of their ancestors.  It demands that a white laborer be refused a job because his grandfather may have practiced racial discrimination.  But perhaps his grandfather had not practiced it.  Or perhaps his grandfather had not even lived in this country.  Since these questions are not to be considered, it means that that white laborer is to be charged with collective racial guilt, the guilt consisting merely of the color of his skin.    But that is the principle of the worst Southern racist who charges all Negroes with collective racial guilt for any crime committed by an individual Negro, and who treats them all as inferiors on the ground that their ancestors were savages.    The only comment one can make about demands of that kind is, "By what right? -- By what code? -- By what standard?"    That absurdly evil policy is destroying the moral base of the Negroes' fight.  Their case rested on the principle of individual rights. If they demand the violation of the rights of others, they negate and forfeit their own.  Then the same answer applies to them as to the Southern racists: there can be no such thing as a "right" of some men to violate the rights of others. [ ... ]    No man, neither Negro nor white, has any claim to the property of another man.  A man's rights are not violated by a private individual's refusal to deal with him.  Racism is an evil, irrational and morally contemptible doctrine -- but doctrines cannot be forbidden or prescribed by law.  Just as we have to protect a communist's freedom of speech, even though his doctrines are evil, so we have to protect a racist's right to the use and disposal of his own property.  Private racism is not a legal, but a moral issue -- and can be fought only by private means, such as economic boycott or social ostracism. [ ... ]    It is an ironic demonstration of the philosophical insanity and the consequently suicidal trend of our age, that the men who need the protection of individual rights most urgently -- the Negroes -- are now in the vanguard of the destruction of these rights. [ ... ]    In conclusion, I shall quote from an astonishing editorial in The N. Y. Times of August 4 [1963] -- astonishing because ideas of this nature are not typical of our age:    "But the question must be not whether a group recognizable in color, features or culture has its rights as a group.  No, the question is whether any American individual, regardless of color, features or culture, is deprived of his rights as an American.  If the individual has all the rights and privileges due him under the laws and the Constitution, we need not worry about groups and masses -- those do not, in fact, exist, except as figures of speech."   The Virtue of Selfishness is available HERE.

"The crude primitivism of supposedly respectable establishments to engage in 'reverse discrimination' or 'affirmative action' in order to allegedly 'make up for' the sins of people other than those they actually wind up 'punishing' for them, is racism squared, or moral depravity at its worst.  It says, in effect, not only that 'two wrongs make a right,' but that racism is okay so long as it's 'our' racism.  It is really an acknowledgment that, even if they tried, they wouldn't know how to internalize and institutionalize pure character-consciousness or merit-consciousness, let alone how to demonstrate to the world that it can be done.  It is an abject admission of their guilt, real or imagined, and a hope that you, by your silence, share in it, or at least, tacitly condone it." -- Rick Gaber

"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause." -- Eric Hoffer ["Du bist nichts, dein Volk ist alles"  ("You are  nothing, your race is everything.") -- Adolf Hitler]

"... So here we get the two essentials of Nazism: the rejection of reason and the mind in favor of the worship of brute emotion, and the elevation of the collective over the individual. What, then, distinguishes the ideas of the modern intellectuals from the philosophy of the Nazis? The addition of an altruist twist. The Nazis were certainly pro-self-sacrifice, because they advocated (and enforced) the sacrifice of the individual self to the collective aggrandizement of the race. But the modern intellectuals declare that they are even more altruistic because they want to sacrifice our own race to other races." -- Robert Tracinski, HERE

"If anyone insists that racism is valid, that the content of one's mind is frozen in place by the circumstances of his birth, then the only appropriate response is to say,  'Speak for yourself, buddy.  Unless you're some sort of non-human, you must be speaking for yourself, and since you must regard those thoughts you just uttered as predetermined by your ancestors, you therefore couldn't possibly know or care if they're true or not just like a mindless robot programmed to make noises.  Therefore, no one should take what you say any more seriously than robot noises, since your denying the human ability to do independent thinking and discriminate truth from falsehood means only that you have denied it for yourself.  So I will take your word for it, and ignore you.  As for me, I have found to be untrue many things my parents and ancestors believed, and  I had no trouble rejecting those things.  So at least I know damn well -- and from first-hand personal experience -- that human beings most certainly are capable of doing that.' " -- Rick Gaber

"The core of racism is the notion that the individual is meaningless and that membership in the collective -- the race -- is the source of his identity and value. ... The notion of  'diversity' entails exactly the same premises as racism -- that one's ideas are determined by one's race and that the source of an individual's identity is his ethnic heritage." -- Peter Schwartz in "The Racism of 'Diversity'," HERE

"Frankly, I'd be insulted if I were told the reason I was being hired was because of my ancestry.  I would much rather work for someone like T.J. Rodgers, who is known to take time during meetings to tell his staff (which originated from almost every continent in the world) that they're there because they're the best at what they do, not because of whoever their ancestors were." -- Rick Gaber  "Money dissolves skin colour on contact. The fact that Silicon Valley, the freest market in the world, has produced the United Colours of Geek proves it." -- Dan Gardner

"Racism is a variant of collectivism, the doctrine that the individual is valueless [except] as an appendage of a group. One's 'race' is an evaluation based on nonessential attributes ... such as the dimensions of facial/physical features and the wavelengths of light reflected by pigmentation." -- Gregory Gerig (emphasis added)

"The HUMAN  'race' has been in existence in its present form in only an infinitesimal amount of time, evolutionarily speaking.  .  Nonetheless, if everyone could trace his family tree back 70,000 years, let alone 700,000, he will find that the skin colors of his ancestors changed ten or twenty times, probably including every hue and tint you can imagine over and over again.  Likewise for every variation of facial and body type.  Therefore, other than the distinction between Cro-Magnon Man and the recently-extinct Neanderthal Man, there is no such thing as race. There are certainly such things as vastly different cultures, most manifesting dramatically distinct lifestyles and opportunities (or lack of such) for growth, advancement, fulfillment and happiness, but race?  A thoroughly counter-productive, let alone unrealistic, concept." -- Rick Gaber

"People often get racism mixed up with bigotry or prejudice.  We need to get our terminology straightened out.  We obviously have racial problems that need solving.  The first step in solving a problem is to identify it.  If we keep mis-identifying bigotry and prejudice as racism we’ll never make any headway" -- Neal Boortz, here "You CAN NOT judge previous generations by today's standards.  Today Mark Twain is called by many, a racist.  By the standards of his time, he was a social liberal.  Even Teddy Roosevelt was a social liberal at the time, but he accepted as fact that idea that Caucasians were inherently superior to all other races. That makes him a racist in the CORRECT definition of the term." -- Neal Boortz, here "Racism is a belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another." -- Neal Boortz, here Bigotry: definitions here: # 1: the state of mind of a bigot  # 2: acts or beliefs characteristic of a bigot  Bigot: definition # 1 here : a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices  Prejudice: definition # 2 a (1)  here: preconceived judgment or opinion  Prejudice, n. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support. (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, c. 1911) Discrimination: definition # 3 here : Treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit  "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness." -- Mark Twain “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -- Martin Luther King "You cannot cure racism with more racism." -- Edwin A. Locke, here And NOW, a college professor so fed up with the misuse of the term "racism" (as so often slung by certain humorless, self-righteous, perpetually-indignant people who go out of their way to shove their permanent shoulder chips in your face) that he's come up with his own brand-new, tongue-in-cheek definition of Racism HERE.

To find out where so-called "black culture" really comes from, read Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Dr. Thomas Sowell Find other books by Dr. Sowell HERE

Also see:  What is collectivism? at:  http://FreedomKeys.com/collectivism.htm The Kristallnacht of the Altruist Nazis at: http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1062 and Reason vs. Racism at:  http://www.reasonvsracism.com/ The Destruction of Martin Luther King's Dream at http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=119  and  What are rights? at: http://FreedomKeys.com/rights.htm Books by Ayn Rand Ayn Rand: The Age of Envy Ayn Rand: The Cult of Moral Grayness Ayn Rand: Is there a final authority in ethics?  Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World Ayn Rand: The Roots of War Ayn Rand: Selfishness Without a Self More texts and excerpts by Ayn Rand Find more books by or about Ayn Rand: HERE, HERE and HERE

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• Unwanted Woman , Tahmineh Milani
  

  The main character is a 35-year-old woman whose husband is unfaithful and abusive. When she meets his secret lover - along with a murderer - her life changes. Besides its engaging story, good acting and character development, "Unwanted Woman" contains metaphors about Iran and male-female relationships. This is a new film and we will list links once this is available on video or DVD! Check local theaters for show times.

  
  
• Marmoolak (The Lizard) , Kamal Tabrizi
  

  Banned in Iran but no more... now showing worldwide. This very funny film pokes fun at a career criminal's attempts to disguise himself as a mullah long enough to make plans to smuggle himself across the border to freedom from prison he has just broken out of in the most unusual way! Although subtitled, there is no need to know Persian to get two hours of laughs! We hope to see this cast again in comedy, they were wonderful. This is a new film and we will list links once this is available on video or DVD! Check local theaters for show times.

  
  
• House of Sand and Fog, Vadim Perelman
  

  Shohreh Aghdashloo has been nominated for a Hollywood Oscar for her supporting actress role in House of Sand and Fog. A wonderfully made, nail biting tradegy about an American woman, Jennifer Connelly who loses her house to the highest bidder at an auction for not paying her taxes on the house. Ben Kingsley, nominated for a Golden Globe and for a Oscar for Best Actor plays the Iranian expatriate and ex-general who moves to the US after the 1979 revolution. He works menial jobs to save money for his daughters wedding and finally for a house. Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo who plays his wife are marvelous. This is a must see drama by Russian director Vadim Perelman. OSCAR NOMINATIONS: Ben Kingsley, best actor. Shohreh Aghdashloo best supporting actress.Thomas Newman, musical score and the film also was nominated for Best Documentary Feature. WATCH TRAILER ONLINE Order DVD | Order VHS

  
  
• Woman On Fire, Zia Mojabi
  

  Winner Best Dramatic Feature at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival
  	Simin is a hardworking humorless Iranian-American wife without much appreciation for the finer things who lives with her husband, the aloof and artistic Bijan, and their young son, a piano prodigy. Simin's entire reason for living and working is the love of her husband but he soon falls in love with a woman who is much more akin to himself culturally and class wise. Simin however is not prepared to let go of her man. "Woman on Fire is based on the Greek tragedy Medea. By definition then, it is like a train wreck: the audience watches the protagonists as they stumble onto the inescapable horrific end," Zia Mojabi.
  Woman On Fire Website Buy Video or DVD ($15USD) support Iranian artists.

  
  
• Crimson Gold (Talaye Sorkh), Jafar Panahi
  

  For Hussein, a pizza delivery driver, the imbalance of the social system is thrown in his face wherever he turns. One day when his friend, Ali, shows him the contents of a lost purse, Hussein discovers a receipt of payment and cannot believe the large sum of money someone spent to purchase an expensive necklace. He knows that his pitiful salary will never be enough to afford such luxury. Hussein receives yet another blow when he and Ali are denied entry to an uptown jewelry store because of their appearance. His job allows him a full view of the contrast between rich and poor. He motorbikes every evening to neighborhoods he will never live in, for a closer look at what goes on behind closed doors. But one night, Hussein tastes the luxurious life, before his deep feelings of humiliation push him over the edge. DVD

  
  
• Leila, Dariush Mehrjui
  

  Set firmly in the urban world of contemporary Tehran, this story of a couple pressured by family and tradition into destroying their happy union is a window into a world uneasily straddling the past and present. Reza and Leila, an attractive and affluent young couple deeply in love and recently married, discover that Leila is unable to conceive. Invoking tradition, Reza's mother convinces her daughter-in-law that Reza must, out of necessity, talk a second wife to produce an heir. The heartbreak that follows is "in a word, devastating." (The New York Times) Mehrjui's subdued, subtle approach rolls with the gentle rhythms of a slow-paced society like many of his contemporaries, but underneath the surface calm is a churning sea of emotions. Dariush Mehrjui has been described as the godfather of Iranian cinema, and has repeatedly clashed with Iranian censors while pushing the envelope of social issues. This understated but vivid tragedy is witness to his place in cinematic history. Available VHS Video & DVD

  
  
• Beyond Words, Jahanshah Ardalan
  

  	The film was mostly shot in the Iranian Kurdistan. At first I went there to look further into my family's 1000 years of documented History in Kurdistan. An old childhood mystery about Kurdistan gradually took over and changed my focus. That enigma shrouded in myths and folk tales, centered on the elusive men of the Ghaderi order of Derwishes or Sufies in Kurdistan. Available VHS Video & DVD

  
  
• Women's Prison, Manijeh Hekmat
  This film is making the rounds at various film festivals around the world. It was well received at Italy's Venice Film Festival and at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Read an interview with the director here.
  
  
• Baran, Majid Majidi
  Winner for Best Film at the Montreal Film Festival
  This wonderfully romantic and uplifting story is from the acclaimed director of the Academy Award(R) nominee CHILDREN OF HEAVEN (Best Foreign Language Film, 1999). In a Tehran building site, a 17-year-old Iranian named Lateef is known more for his playful antics than his hard work. Then things take an unexpected turn when an Afghan coworker falls from the building and the worker's son, Rahmat, enters the scene to become the new provider for his family. But even as Lateef finds himself irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, it's not until the revelation of Rahmat's secret (that he is actually a young woman, posing as a man) that both of their lives are forever changed! Although it could be easily categorized as a humorous and moving love story, this film goes much deeper. None of the main characters are trivialized, they all have qualities and character that show the best of human nature, compassion and generosity. Unlike Romeo and Juliet they sacrifice their (potential) love for the greater good. This is one not to be missed! . available on DVD
  
  
• The Day I Became a Woman, Marzieh Meshkini
  Silver Hugo for Best First Film, 2000 Chicago International Film Festival; Best Director, 2000 Thessaloniki Film Festival; UNESCO Award, Isvema Award, CinemAvvenire Award, 2000 Venice Film Festival
  NOT YET AVAILABLE - we will list is as soon as it is
  This film tells three separate stories of women, on the island of Kish, at different stages of their life. First, there's the 9-year-old girl (Akhar) who's told she can no longer play with her male friends because she's a woman now (hence the title). The second story is about a woman (Toloui) who rides in a bicycle race against her husband's wishes. Finally, there's an elderly woman (Sedighi) who's in town on a shopping spree after acquiring new wealth. Theater Information
  
  
• Dayereh (The Circle), Jafar Panahi
  Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival 2000 -- available on DVD
  A woman gives birth to a baby girl. Little does she know, but she and her daughter are already unwanted. Three women are released from prison and their need for money leads them to take desperate measures. An unmarried woman seeking an abortion is rejected from her father's house by the violent threats of her brothers. Their crimes are vague, their guilt or innocence unimportant. Their paths cross, the suspense of their intrigues heightens. Their plights are often too tragically similar. Their world is one of constant surveillance, bureaucracy and age-old inequalities. But this stifling world cannot extinguish the spirit, strength and courage of the circle of women.
  
  
• Marooned In Iraq, Bahman Ghobadi
  Winner Cannes Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival
  From the director of "A Time For Drunken Horses" this moving film takes place during the Iran-Iraq war, when an aging Iranian-Kurd musician hears that his wife, a singer with a magical voice who deserted him for his best friend and fled Iraq, is in trouble. He cons his two sons into acompanying him on his search for her, and they embark on an adventure filled with music, romance and danger. One of the best made films I've seen in years. Available on DVD
  
  
• The White Balloon, Jafar Panahi
  Written by Abbas Kiarostami. Panahi was Kiarostami's former assistant. This sweet story which takes place in a poor family shows the perseverance of a young girl to resolve the problem of losing her money, the money which she acquired by persistence. Cannes Film Festival Winner - This sweet film is bursting with universal appeal, as it offers an engaging picture of everyday humanity. Available VHS Video
  
  
• Hidden Half, Tahmineh Milani (2001)
  A husband is sent on a fact finding mission by the government, which will determine the fate of a female political prisoner. The wife knew the woman in question over twenty years ago when they both were searching for truth (during the revolution). She writes a letter to her husband describing the events that led to the imprisonment of the woman. Available on DVD
  
  
• The Wind Will Carry Us, Abbas Kiarostami (1999)
  A serene film with a life and death theme, suffused with humor and irony. It is a story about a group of men from Tehran go to the tiny Kurdish village of Siah Dareh to witness the local mourning ceremony. However, as the main character waits for the woman to die so he can witness the ceremony, his priority changes. Available on DVD .
  
  
• A Taste Of Cherry, Abbas Kiarostami (1997)
  Abbas Kiarostami @ zeitgeistfilm.com
  Winner of the top prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Palme d'Or . Considered a masterpiece and Best Film of the Year.
  A Taste of Cherry is an existential fable of weight and clarity from director Abbas Kiarostami. It is a story about a man who is determined to commit suicide at nightfall, but seeks a living assistant to check his hand-dug grave the following morning. If he is dead, the person will fill the grave with dirt; if not, he will help the man out of the hole -in either event receiving a handsome reward for the task. He drives around searching for and interviewing various candidates for this "job," each lends a new perspective on what it is that makes life worth living in the hopes to convince him to reconsider his plan. * A film you can watch again and again. Includes theatrical trailer and exclusive interview with Mr. Kiarostami. Available VHS Video and DVD
  
  
• Close Up, Abbas Kiarostami) Available VHS Video
  The film weaves dramatic reconstruction and documentary reportage in the actual story of a man - Hossain Sabzian - who is charged with fraud and impersonation, when he ingratiates himself into the midst of a well off Tehran family, who take him for the famed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Against the background of the real court case, Kiarostami examines the relativities of truth and untruth, playing with the fabricated artiface of film, and evolving ultimately a celebration of the human spirit and imagination, and of cinema itself.
  
  
• Kandahar, Mohsen Makhmalbaf (2000)
  An Afghan female journalist who grew up in Canada attempts to slip across the Iranian border to Kandahar to save her sister who has decided to commit suicide during the solar eclipse. The sister's depression is a result of the hardships, a result of the oppression of the Taliban. This well-paced film combines a story of suspense with good acting and cinematography. It was inspired by a true story. Richard Corliss of Time magazine named it "Best Film of the Year." Available on DVD
  
  
• Gabbeh, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
  This elegantly lyrical, stunningly visual fable allows a peek into a non-Western culture and the way it records its history. My Thumb Is Up on this one! Available VHS Video
  
  
• Color of Paradise, Majid Majidi
  A wonderful and moving movie showing the conflict between a father and his young blind son. The father is widowed and wishes to remarry but sees the blind son as a liability and considers giving the boy to a blind carpenter. The carpenter, the boy's sisters and grandmother's love for the boy provide a balance to the fathers apparent selfishness. Beautiful scenery of Northern Iran. This is a very moving film, one that you will not forget. Available VHS Video.
  
  
• Children of Heaven, Majid Majidi
  Award winner at Cannes and Sundance and the first Iranian film nominated for an Oscar, this tender and loving story is about a brother and sister whose life is still sweet in spite of economic hardship. As the brother loses his sister shoes, the two of them come up with a creative solution to replace them. Majid Majidi reminds us of the immediacy and essence of childhood and takes us on a great ride through a wonderful and ancient culture with characters that are fearlessly believable in this wonderful film. Four Stars! Available VHS Video
  
  
• Willow And Wind, Mohammad Ali Talebi (1999)
  A film about a young boy/student who has not seen the rain before moving to North of Iran where it rains most of the time. Another young boy /student is held responsible for breaking a large window and he has to replace it before the next day. The story shows friendship between this two young boys and how they overcame the difficulties presented to them.
  
  
• The Tree Of Life, Farhad Mehranfar (1998)
  Best actress, Fajr Film Festival, Environmental Prize, castellinaria FF. A beautiful setting, a rich story that takes place with a nomadic tribe who live in the misty forests of Talesh mountains in the spectacular scenic Gilan province. The film shows the ceremonies and belief of these fascinating tribal people who still live according to the ancient customs and lifestyle which synchronizes with the seasons.
  His previous work "Paper Airplanes" was a hit.
  
  
• Dance Of Dust, Abolfazl Jalili (1991)
  Awards: Silver Leopard, 51st Locarno International Film Festival. Best Asian Film, 11th Tokyo International Film Festival. A moving masterwork about the harsh life of a young boy who lives and works in a brick kiln. The extreme poverty that the boy lives in has been considered to be an unpatriotic image of Iran, but only the ignorant do not know that poverty is everywhere and this film is a harsh reminder that today's world still has much poverty.
  
  

Hermann Wilhelm Göring

Country: Germany.

Kill tally: Collectively responsible for the deaths of over 46 million in Europe as a result of the Second World War.

Background: Following the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles penalises the defeated Germany, annexing land, imposing large war reparations, limiting the size of the German Army and blaming Germany and Austria-Hungary for starting the conflict. The new German Government, a coalition of left-leaning and centrist parties, attempts to rebuild the country but faces opposition from the right and extreme left. The instability is exacerbated by the failure of the domestic and global economies.

Adolf Hitler's National Socialist (Nazi) Party exploits the situation, advocating national pride, blaming the Treaty of Versailles, the left, and Jews for the political turmoil and claiming to have a solution to the economic crisis. The Nazis reach a position from which they can seize power on 30 January 1933 when Hitler is appointed chancellor. More background.

Mini biography: Born on 12 January 1893 in Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria, Germany. His family is influential and wealthy, with aristocratic pretensions. Göring is the fourth of five children.

In 1904 he is sent to a boarding school at Ansbach, Franconia. From here he begins training for a career in the military, attending cadet school at Karlsruhe and military college at Berlin-Lichterfelde.

1914 - After completing his military training Göring receives his commission as an infantry lieutenant in the Prinz Wilhelm Regiment. He serves with the infantry when the First World War begins but soon becomes involved in Germany's embryonic air force, training to become a combat pilot.

In October 1915 he is transferred to a fighter squadron. He serves with distinction, making 22 "kills", and eventually rising to assume command of the 'Flying Circus' squadron headed by Baron von Richthofen, the famous 'Red Baron', when von Richthofen dies in 1918.

By the end of war Göring has been awarded the Pour le Merite and the Iron Cross, First Class. He is considered to be a genuine war hero.

1918 - Following the war Göring leaves Germany, working as a commercial pilot in Denmark and Sweden, where he meets his future wife, the Swedish Baroness Carin von Kantzow (nee von Fock). The couple will marry on 3 February 1923 following von Kantzow's divorce from her husband.

1921 - He meets Hitler. Göring joins the Nazi Party in 1922 and is given command of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the 'Brownshirts', Hitler's storm troopers.

1923 - On 8 November, he participates in an abortive attempt by Hitler and 600 armed members of the SA to seize power in Munich. Göring is badly wounded in the groin and hip and wanted by the police. The Nazi Party is outlawed. Hitler is arrested, tried for treason and sentenced to five years in prison.

Göring and his wife escape to Austria, Italy and then Sweden. He becomes addicted to the morphine he takes to ease the pain from his wounds and in 1925-26 is treated twice at the Långbro mental hospital in Sweden.

1927 - A political amnesty allows him to return to Germany and the Nazi Party. He becomes Hitler's deputy, taking one of the 12 Reichstag (parliament) seats the party wins in the 1928 elections and becoming the party leader in the lower house.

1931 - Göring's first wife Carin dies of tuberculosis on 17 October. He will remarry in April 1935, to Emmy Sonnemann.

1932 - The Nazis win 230 seats in the elections held in July. Göring is elected president of the Reichstag on 31 July.

1933 - The Nazis reach a position from which they can seize power on 30 January when Hitler is appointed chancellor. Göring begins to set the ground for Hitler's complete assumption of dictatorial control. Following the Reichstag fire on 27 February he introduces a series of decrees suspending basic civil rights.

Germany's last election until after the Second World War is held on 5 March. Though the Nazis win only 44% of the vote Hitler persuades the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Law, allowing him to govern independently of the parliament for four years.

Hitler is now the Führer, the dictator of the fascist Third Reich, an empire where the individual belongs to the state, and where the state is fully controlled by the Nazis.

All Nazis in prison are issued with full pardons; critics of the government and the Nazi Party are subject to arrest; special courts are established for the trial of political detainees. Regional governments are dissolved and then reconstituted with governors handpicked by Hitler. Leftist political parties are banned; Germany is declared a one-party state; Jews and leftists are purged from the bureaucracy; trade unions are dissolved and replaced with Nazi organisations; and the country withdraws from the League of Nations.

A program of public works, rearmament and forced labour helps bring the economy under control. Inflation comes down, the currency is stabilised and full employment achieved.

Göring is made Prussian minister of the interior, Prussian minister president, Prussian prime minister, commander-in-chief of the Prussian police and commissioner for aviation. He purges the Prussian police force, replacing thousands with recruits from the SA and Schutz-Staffel (SS), the 'Blackshirts', Hitler's personal guard. He establishes and leads the Gestapo, or secret state police, in April and, together with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, sets up concentration camps for the interment of opponents.

1934 - Rivalry with the SA is eliminated on the night of 30 June 1934, when Göring directs the 'Night of the Long Knives' massacre of SA leaders.

1935 - He is appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, or German air force, on 1 March and is promoted to Reichsmarschall.

Meanwhile, the 'Nuremberg Laws' introduced on 15 September strip Jews of the right to citizenship and restrict their relations with Gentiles.

1936 - His position as chief of the Prussian secret state police is transferred to Himmler, removing Göring of responsibility for the Gestapo and the concentration camps. In the same year Hitler confirms his intention to take Germany into war, telling his cohorts that the country must be ready to fight by 1940. Göring is placed in charge of a four-year plan to put Germany onto a war footing and given the power to bend the German economy towards that end.

Both the Luftwaffe and the army soon get an opportunity for battle experience when Germany enters the Spanish Civil War in support of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco.

1937 - Göring is made minister for economic affairs and given responsibility for the German rearmament program. He uses his positions to enrich himself, plundering the assets of dispossessed Jews and the state-owned Hermann Göring Works, a gigantic industrial complex employing 700,000 workers and with a capital base of 400 million marks. Göring indulges his taste for luxury and pomp at his palace in Berlin and hunting estate at Karinhall, north of the capital.

1938 - Support for Hitler is further buoyed by his policy of foreign expansion. Austria is annexed on 13 March. The Sudetenland, the German-speaking area in the north of Czechoslovakia, is ceded to Germany on 29 September under the terms of the 'Munich Agreement' between Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Göring is placed in charge of the "Jewish question".

Following the Nazi-orchestrated Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) pogrom of Jews on 9-10 November Göring fines the Jews one billion marks for damages and orders their elimination from the German economy, the "Aryanisation" of their property and businesses, and their exclusion from public places. On 12 November he warns of a "final reckoning with the Jews" if Germany comes into conflict with a foreign power.

1939 - Bohemia and Moravia are occupied by Germany in March, while Slovakia is made a puppet state. Göring is appointed Reich Council chairman for national defence on 30 August. On 1 September, as German troops invade Poland, he is officially designated as Hitler's successor. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. The Second World War has begun.

Poland is overrun within a month. Denmark and Norway fall in April 1940. The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France are invaded the following month. By June 1940 France has surrendered.

Göring's Luftwaffe is a key weapon in the German offensive, launching preemptive 'blitzkrieg' (lightning war) attacks that terrorise populations and allow the German groundforces to sweep across Europe with little resistance. As head of the four-year plan, Göring directs the forced labour program to exploit the workforces of the occupied territories.

Meanwhile in Germany the physically handicapped, mentally ill, and others with so-called "worthless lives" are rounded up and sent to designated hospitals, where they are killed. Referred to by the Nazis as mercy killing and planned by Hitler's office and the Reich Interior Ministry, the "euthanasia" program will claim up to 275,000 lives when it goes into full swing.

1940 - Hitler gives Göring the special rank of Reichsmarschall des Grossdeutschen Reiches (Marshal of the Empire) on 19 June. As the battlefront extends, cracks begin to appear in the Göring's direction of the Luftwaffe. A tactical error results in the loss of the 'Battle of Britain'. Beginning from 10 July, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) desperately combats wave after wave of aerial attacks and bombing raids by the Luftwaffe while launching counteroffensive bombing missions into Germany.

Though outnumbered by four to one the RAF is able to inflict enough damage to the German forces to cause Hitler to suspend 'Operation Sealion', the proposed invasion of Britain by sea. By the end of September, the 'Battle of Britain' is effectively over. Germany has suffered its first major defeat of the war. Pleading ill health Göring retires to his estate. He is addicted to paracodeine and requires ongoing treatment.

1941 - Germany invades the Soviet Union on 22 June.

On 31 July Göring orders the SS to begin preparations for a "total solution (Gesamtlösung) of the Jewish question in all the territories of Europe under German occupation".

He further orders that a "a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution (Endlösung) of the Jewish question" be submitted to him as soon as possible.

The United States enters the war when the Japanese airforce bombs the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on 7 December. Germany and Italy declare war on the US on 11 December.

1942 - On 20 January the Nazis complete the planning for the 'Endlösung' (Final Solution), the extermination of the Jews, Gipsies, Slavs, homosexuals, communists, and other "undesirables" and "decadents" in death camps run by the SS and controlled by the Gestapo. About six million European Jews die in the following 'Holocaust'. Most (about 4.5 million) of those killed come from Poland and the Soviet Union. About 125,000 are German Jews.

The Holocaust also claims about 500,000 Gipsies, between 10,000 and 25,000 homosexuals, 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, up to 3.5 million non-Jewish Poles, between 3.5 million and six million other Slavic civilians, as many as four million Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 1.5 million political dissidents.

1943 - The Luftwaffe fails on the Russian front. The war turns against Germany in the winter of 1942-43 when the Soviets win victory at Stalingrad (now Volgograd). When the German forces laying siege to the city are encircled and trapped by a Soviet counteroffensive, Hitler refuses to allow them to attempt an escape. They surrender on 2 February 1943.

The German Sixth Army has been effectively destroyed in what is at the time the most catastrophic military defeat in German history. Over 500,000 of the German-led troops are dead. By the end of 1943, the Soviets have broken through the German siege of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and recaptured much of the Ukrainian Republic.

The German offensive in North Africa is stopped at the beginning of November 1942 when Allied troops led by General Bernard Law Montgomery force the German Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel into a retreat. By 13 May 1943 275,000 Germans and Italians have surrendered. The war in North Africa is over, leaving the Allies free to land in Sicily and Italy.

To the west, the US and British navies gain control of the Atlantic shipping lanes, clearing the way for the 'D-Day' landings on the Normandy beaches in France on 6 June 1944 and the invasion of Germany six months later. Soviet troops meanwhile advance from the east.

In the skies over Germany the Allied air forces intensify their bombing raids. The strategy of indiscriminate area bombing will kill an estimated 600,000 civilians, including about 75,000 children.

The Nazis call for "total war" against the Allies.

1945 - 'Operation North Wind', an attempt by the Germans to prolong their offensive at Ardennes in the north of France, is launched on 1 January. Göring's decision to commit about 1,000 aircraft to the offensive leads to the near-total destruction of the Luftwaffe and gives the Allies complete supremacy in the air.

By March, as the Western forces reach the Rhine River, Soviet armies have overrun most of Eastern Europe and are converging on Berlin. The Soviets march under the slogan, "There will be no pity. They have sown the wind and now they are harvesting the whirlwind."

Few are spared. As the Soviets move through Germany they rape at least two million German women in an undisciplined advance that is now acknowledged as the largest case of mass rape in history.

By April an Allied victory in Europe is certain. Göring destroys his house at Karinhall, north of Berlin, then moves to Bavaria.

On 23 April he attempts to assume the Führer's powers, sending Hitler a message asking that, "In view of your decision to remain at your post in the fortress Berlin, do you agree that I take over, at once, the total leadership of the Reich, with full freedom of action at home and abroad, as your deputy, in accordance with your decree of 29 June 1941?"

"If no reply is received by 10 o'clock tonight," the message continues, "I shall take it for granted that you have lost your freedom of action, and shall consider the conditions of your decree as fulfilled, and shall act for the best interests of our country and our people."

A furious Hitler responds by forcing Göring to resign from all his posts, supposedly on health grounds.

Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker on 30 April as Soviet troops storm the capital. On 7 May Germany surrenders unconditionally. Göring surrenders to the American Seventh Army on 9 May.

• Over 26 million Soviets,
• Over seven million Germans,
• About 6.8 million Poles,
• Between one million and 1.7 million Yugoslavs,
• 985,000 Romanians,
• 810,000 French,
• 750,000 Hungarians,
• 525,000 Austrians,
• 520,000 Greeks,
• 410,000 Italians,
• 400,000 Czechs,
• 388,000 British,
• 250,000 Dutch,
• 88,000 Belgians,
• 84,000 Fins,
• 22,000 Spaniards,
• 21,000 Bulgarians,
• 10,000 Norwegians, and
• 4,000 Danes.

Beginning in November 1945, 22 surviving Nazi leaders considered responsible for the crimes committed by Germany during the war are tried before an international military tribunal sitting in Nuremberg. Göring is the most prominent of the accused, who also include Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Rudolf Hess, and Albert Speer.

Causes of yawning

1. An indication of tiredness, stress, over-work, or boredom.
2. An action indicating psychological decompression after a state of high alert.
3. A means of expressing powerful emotions like anger, rejection, apathy, or tedium.

A yawn can express strong anti-social messages, and so in some cultures people try to mute or mask them by placing a concealing hand over the yawning mouth.

A cat yawning

A long-standing hypothesis is that yawning is caused by an excess of carbon dioxide and lack of oxygen in the blood. The brain stem detects this and triggers the yawn reflex. The mouth stretches wide and the lungs inhale deeply, bringing oxygen into the lungs and hence to the bloodstream. It is almost certain, however, that this hypothesis is not correct. One study has documented that this effect does not exist.^[2]

A more recent hypothesis is that yawning is used for regulation of body temperature. Another hypothesis is that yawns are caused by the same chemicals (neurotransmitters) in the brain that affect emotions, mood, appetite and other phenomena. These chemicals include serotonin, dopamine, glutamic acid and nitric oxide. As more of these compounds are activated in the brain, the frequency of yawning increases. Conversely, a greater presence in the brain of opiate neurotransmitters such as endorphins, reduces the frequency of yawning. Patients taking the serotonin reuptake inhibitor Paxil (Paroxetine HCl) have been observed yawning abnormally often. Another theory is that yawning is similar to stretching. Yawning, like stretching, increases blood pressure and heart rate while also flexing many muscles and joints. It is also theorized that yawning helps redistribute an oil-like substance which coats the lungs and aids breathing. Some have observed that if you try to stifle or prevent a yawn by clenching your jaws shut, the yawn is unsatisfying. As such, the stretching of jaw and face muscles seems to be necessary for a good yawn.

Some movements in psychotherapy such as Re-evaluation Counseling or co-counselling believe that yawning, along with laughter and crying are means of "discharging" painful emotion, and therefore can be encouraged in order to promote physical and emotional healing.

A cockatiel yawning

The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn.^[3] The reasons for this are unclear; however, recent research suggests that yawning might be a herd instinct.^[4] Other theories suggest that the yawn serves to synchronize mood behavior among gregarious animals, similar to the howling of the wolf pack during a full moon. It signals tiredness to other members of the group in order to synchronize sleeping patterns and periods of activity. It can serve as a warning in displaying large, canine teeth. This phenomenon has been observed among various primates. The threat gesture is a way of maintaining order in the primates' social structure. The contagion of yawning is interspecific (i.e., try yawning in front of your dog). Oddly, sometimes sympathetic yawning may be caused by simply looking at a picture of a person or animal yawning, or even seeing the word "yawn".

Adelie Penguins employ yawning as part of their courtship ritual. Penguin couples face off and the males engage in what is described as an "ecstatic display," their beaks open wide and their faces pointed skyward. This trait has also been seen among Emperor Penguins. Researchers have been attempting to discover why these two different species share this trait, despite not sharing a habitat.

Superstitions

A portrait of a man yawning

Certain superstitions surround the act of yawning. The most common of these is the belief that it is necessary to cover one's mouth when one is yawning in order to prevent one's soul from escaping the body. The Ancient Greeks believed that yawning was not a sign of boredom, but that a person's soul was trying to escape from its body, so that it may rest with the gods in the skies. This belief was also shared by the Mayan peoples.

Some say that yawning is caused by the Devil, who sends evil spirits to enter a person's body when his or her mouth is open. Thus, covering one's mouth prevents the evil spirits from entering. It is also why some people close a baby's mouth when it yawns.

Other superstitions include:

• A yawn is a sign that danger is near.
• Counting a person's teeth robs them of one year of life for every tooth counted. This is why some people cover their mouths when they laugh, smile, or yawn.
• If two persons are seen to yawn one after the other, it is said that the one who yawned last bears no malice towards the one who yawned first.

These superstitions may not only have arisen to prevent people from committing the faux pas of yawning loudly in another's presence —one of Mason Cooley's aphorisms is "A yawn is more disconcerting than a contradiction"— but may also have arisen from concerns over public health. Polydore Vergil (c. 1470-1555), in his De Rerum Inventoribus, writes that it was customary to make the sign of the cross over one's mouth, since "alike deadly plague was sometime in yawning, wherefore men used to fence themselves with the sign of the cross...which custom we retain at this day."^[5]

Some people hold the superstition that when you yawn, someone just walked over your future grave site or the future grave site of your children.

. منب .ع :  وبلاگ انوشه انصاري

اینجا روی عرشه ایستگاه بین‌المللی فضایی ، روزها ساعت 4 بامداد به وقت گرینویچ آغاز می‌شود و ساعت 7:30 عصر به وقت جهانی پایان می‌یاید. ساعت 7:30 عصر را باید نوعی زمان خاموشی فرض کرد! اما این زمان همان هنگامی است که همه فرصت پیدا می‌کنند تا استراحت نمایند و کمی صحبت کنند یا به بعضی از اعضا فامیل خود تلفن بزنند و یا فقط از پنجره بیرون را نگاه کنند و از مناظر پیش چشمانشان شگفت زده شوند ...

این موضوع احساسی مطبوعی از آرامش را به همراه دارد. همانطور که ممکن است شما هم بدانید ایستگاه هر 90 دقیقه یک بار مدار خود را به دور زمین تکمیل می کند، بنابراین زمانی که از شب صحبت می کنم گمان نکنید این شب همانند زمین با تاریک شدن بیرون همراه است . خورشید در طول هر دور مداری ما طلوع و غروب می کند و شما می توانید در هر شبانه روز زمینی 32 بار طلوع و غروب زیبای خورشید را تماشا کنید.

در طول روز هر یک از اعضا خدمه به شدت درگیر انجام ماموریتهایی هستند که از سوی مرکز کنترل ماموریت در مسکو و هیوستون به آنها ابلاغ می‌شود. برنامه روزانه به همراه دستورالعمل‌های تخصصی مورد نیاز فعالیتها برای خدمه فرستاده می‌شود. صبح‌ها یک جلسه مکالمه همکاران برای بررسی و اطمینان از مرتب بودن همه موارد تشکیل می‌شود و جلسه دیگری هم در پایان روز برای بررسی اینکه چه فرایندهایی در طول روز به انجام رسیده و همینطور برای روز بعد چه کارهایی باید انجام شود. حتی تعطیلات آخر هفته هم این بالا واقعا معنی تعطیلات نمی‌دهد شاید حجم کارها اندکی کمتر باشد اما باز هم دستوراتی هست که باید انجام شود و برخی از سیستمها باید تعمیر شده و برنامه های آموزشی کامل شود.

حدود ساعت 6:30 عصر همه اعضا دور میزی (شبیه به میز واگن‌های قطار) که در بخش روسی مدول خدمات (Service Module) نصب شده است جمع می‌شوند. ما چند قوطی کنسور را گرم می‌کنیم و برخی از غداهای خشکی را که همراه داریم به شیوه مخصوص خود با اضافه کردن آب (هیدراته کردن) آماده مصرف می‌نماییم. ( غذاهایی مانند سوپ ، سیب زمینی له شده ، سبزیجات) و در این هنگام است که همه، داستان‌های فضایی خود را تعریف می‌کنند و صدای خنده ما بلند می‌شود. (جزئياتي از زندگي در فضا)

خدمه‌ای که مدتی طولانی در ایستگاه هستند درباره استفاده از امکانات موجود خود به طور جذابی خلاق می‌شوند . بعد از 6 ماه استفاده از تنها 15 نوع غذای پایه‌ای، می‌شود کمی تغییرات ایجاد کرد. بدین ترتیب عذاهای جدید با اضافه کردن بعضی چیزها یا ترکیب غذاهای مختلف با هم به دست می‌آیند. گاه گاهی این افراد بسته‌هایی را به همراه محموله‌هایی که شاتل‌ها یا سفینه‌های پروگرس به مدار می‌آورند دریافت می‌کنند. این بسته‌ها شامل برخی از خوردنیهای تازه هم هست. شما هم می‌توانید تصور کنید خوردن یک سیب تازه بعد از ماهها خوردن غذای کنسروی چه مزه‌ای دارد.

سفر به فضا برای اقامتی کوتاه یک چیز است و اقامت در آن برای حدود نصف سال چیز دیگری... شما از خانواده و دوستانتان بسیار دور هستید و به جز ایمیل و گفتگوهای کوتاه تلفنی، هیچ شانسی برای صحبت با افراد دیگر ندارید. هم‌اکنون تنها 3 فضا‌نورد و کیهان‌نورد برای اقامتهای طولانی روی عرشه ایستگاه حضور دارند اما کشورهای شریک ایستگاه در نظر دارند به زودی این تعداد را به 6 نفر افزایش دهند.

من فکر کنم از بین شما کسانی که دانشجو هستند و باید در خوابگاههای شبانه‌روزی اقامت کنند احساس تشابهی با این افراد کنند. البته فرق بزرگی وجودی دارد ... زمانی که شما از دست هم‌اتاقیتان ناراحت یا خسته می‌شوید اتاق را ترک می‌کنید و مدتی قدم می‌زنید یا با شخص دیگری حرف می‌زنید یا جای دیگری می‌خوابید. در اینجا اگر شما هم اتاقیتان را دوست نداشته باشید ، جایی برای رفتن وجود ندارد. نزدیک‌ترین شانس شما برای رفتن به خانه 6 ماه بعد فرا می‌رسد و بنابراین بهتر است در روابط شخصی خود تجدید نظر کنید.

اما این نکته را هم باید بگویم که تا چه حد از دیدن اینکه فضانوردان و کیهان‌نوردان چه انسانهای شگفتی هستند، متحیر شده‌ام. من نمی‌دانمآنها چطور انتخاب می‌شوند.شاید همه آنها مانند من از سیاره کی – پکس (K-PAX) آمده باشند. ( متاسفم اگر شما این فیلم را ندیده باشید شاید متوجه منظور من نشوید) اما آنها واقعا باهوش ، خوش‌قلب و شخصیتهای مهربانی هستند. همه افرادی که من در شهر ستارگان و اینجا ملاقات کرده‌ام را می‌توانم نوعی ابر بشر بنامم. من صادقانه فکر می‌کنم باید کاری کنیم فضانوردان وارد انتخابات ریاست جمهوری شوند ...  آنها رهبران بزرگی هستند که چشم‌اندازی استثنایی و یکتا از زمین را در ذهن دارند.

خوب هرچند که این دخترها و پسرها در ارتباط نزدیکی برای مدت 6 ماه یا بیشتر هستند اما رفتار خوبآنها همیشگی است و آنها تبدیل به دوستانی برای تمام عمر یکدیگر می شوند. این بالا زندگی آنها وابسته به این است که تا چه حدی بتوانند با هم کار کنند و با یکدیگر ارتباط برقرار کنند. زمانی که شما چنین ارتباط عاطفی قوی برقرار می‌سازید ، نخواهید توانست رشته این محبت را در هنگام بازگشت به زمین به سادگی قطع کنید.

اگر درست فکر کنیم ، این داستان به گونه‌ای شبیه به داستان زمین ما است. همه ما به واسطه زندگی برروی تنها سیاره قابل زیست منظومه شمسی به هم متصلیم ... ما جای دیگری برای رفتن نداریم حداقل برای مدتی جای دیگری نداریم که برویم .... خوب اگر ما با هم نباشیم و همه چیز را بزرگ کنیم و اگر زمین خود را به آشوب بکشیم ، خوب حدس بزنید که چه اتفاقی خواهد افتاد ؟
ما ناچاریم با این واقعیت زندگی کنیم...

اغلب کیهان‌نوردان (فضانوردان روسیه کیهان‌نورد نامیده می‌شوند) کار‌آزموده انگلیسی صحبت می‌کنند و اغلب فضانوردان کهنه‌کار نیز قادرند به زبان روسی سخن گویند. موضوع جالبی که من مشاهده کردم این بود که گاهی اوقات زمانی که یک کیهان‌نورد سوالی را به انگلیسی می‌پرسد فضانورد دیگری به او به زبان روسی پاسخ می‌دهد. این همان موضوعی است که من آن را احترام متقابل می‌نامم! اگر تنها تعداد بیشتری از مردم این کار را روی زمین هم انجام می‌دادند ، مکانی صلح‌آمیز‌تر از آنچه هست برای زندگی داشتیم.

من مطمئنم روزهایی بوده است که یکی از این افراد روز بدی را سپری کرده و نمی‌توانسته در کنار بقیه بماند، اما می دانم که در چنین شرایطی او این احساس منفی خود را به همکارانش منتقل نکرده است و بقیه نیز شرایط ذهنی او را درک کرده‌اند و برای او خلوت بیشتری را فراهم آورده‌اند . هرچند که اینجا تنها 1500 فوت مربع فضا وجود دارد ( در حدود اندازه یک خانه سه خوابه ) که با چندین تن ابزار پر شده است و هیچ یک از ما 6 نفر جایی برای رفتن نداریم ، اما ما زمان بسیار خوبی را داریم و از این موضوع لذت می‌بریم ... یا حداقل این احساسی است که من دارم.
 

تا فردا ...
نیرو پشتیبان شما باد...
 

انوشه انصاري، ایستگاه بین‌المللی فضایی

Clifford Woolf wants to "burn" people who abuse pain drugs with the ingredient that makes chili peppers hot. (Staff photo Jon Chase/Harvard News Office)

Two years ago, Clifford Woolf and some colleagues discovered that chili peppers and the burning pain of arthritis have something in common. Capsaicin, the chemical responsible for the "hot" in peppers, acts on a protein that also responds to the heat and high acidity associated with painful inflammation in the joints and skin.

Recently, the Richard J. Kitz Professor of Anesthesia Research at Harvard Medical School hit on the idea of using the same irritating chemical to "burn" people who illegally use pain medications. When an abuser of a medication like OxyContin snorts, chews, or injects the drug, he or she would get intense hot pain instead of an expected happy high. A patient taking the same capsaicin-laced pill could get needed relief and avoid unpleasant sensations simply by swallowing the pills whole, as directed.

"If a formulation containing capsaicin is swallowed whole, release of the irritant in the stomach and small intestine would not cause discomfort," Woolf maintains. "The majority of the capsaicin would be cleared by the liver on first pass."

Those who obtain opium-based drugs, including morphine and methadone, by theft or subterfuge usually crush the pills and snort or chew the powder to get "high." Laced with capsaicin, such a snort or chew would produce intense pain.

"Imagine snorting an extract of 50 jalapeno peppers and you get the idea," Woolf says. "On a one to 10 scale, the pain is about a thousand. It feels like a mininuclear explosion in your mouth. It does not harm you, but you never want to experience that feeling again."

"Moreover," Woolf adds, "inhalation of the capsaicin elicits a powerful cough reflex and severe pain if it leaks into certain tissues after an intravenous injection. In human volunteers, intravenous administration of capsaicin produces a widespread burning feeling of the chest, face, rectum and extremities as well as paroxysmal coughing." Otherwise, capsaicin appears to be safe.

Woolf thus sees capsaicin as one possible way to stem the rising tide of abuse of opium-based painkillers. "Such abuse is now a major societal problem, with an incidence that appears to exceed the use of street narcotics such as heroin and cocaine," he told a meeting called the Research and Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 15.

Turning off pain

Capsaicin works by hitting on a protein known as TRPV1, which transports its fiery message into the nervous system via sensory nerves in the mouth and other areas. TRPV1 also is activated by the heat and acidity produced by arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

"Finding this out helps us to understand why these inflammatory conditions increase pain and sensitivity to heat," Woolf says.

Production of TRPV1 is controlled by an enzyme called p38, located within the sensory nerves. p38 acts like a faucet - turn it on and it can cause a 20-fold increase in the amount of TRPV1 in the skin. That's the kind of increase that will get anyone's attention.

It immediately became obvious to Woolf and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital that finding a compound to turn off the p38 faucet would block any increase in TRPV1 and turn down the sensitivity to pain. In other words, this could be a new way to treat the pain felt by people who suffer from arthritis and many other diseases and conditions that involve inflammation.

Other approaches are also available. Drugs might be developed to block TRPV1, the capsaicin receiver, and several pharmaceutical companies are looking into this possibility.

Curbing abuse

Woolf has also had discussions with drug-makers about developing capsaicin-based compounds to deter the abuse of pain relievers. "It is only a relatively trivial task to formulate a product that would not release active capsaicin to patients taking the drug legally, that is, swallowed whole," he notes. "But the capsaicin would be released if the drug is crushed, injected, or chewed."

This same approach, Woolf points out, could be used for curbing the abuse of stimulants, such as amphetamines or Ritalin. The later drug is used legitimately for treating attention deficient disorder.

There is one thorny issue to deal with, however. Who would bear the cost of developing a drug that has no benefit to a legitimate user? Patients who take a drug like morphine in the prescribed fashion for relief of pain would get no benefit from the capsaicin. Therefore, development might have to be done by a government agency, such as the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

"Doing this could result in a large indirect benefit to patients," Woolf points out. "The stigma of taking narcotic drugs would be removed. It should be easier to get such medications prescribed by doctors who are currently terrified of being accused of over prescribing narcotics. And, pharmacies would be at a lower risk of theft and robbery.

"The biggest benefit, though, will be to society as a whole, because pain medicine abuse now is such a massive epidemic."

This is an article on biographies. For the television series, see Biography (television program).

Biography (from the Greek words bios meaning life, and graphein meaning write) is a genre of literature and other forms of media like film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is usually in reference to non-fiction. As opposed to a profile or curriculum vitae, a biography develops complex insight^{[citation needed]} and highlights different textures of personality including intimate details of experiences. A biography is more than a list of impersonal facts like birth, education, work, relationships and death. It also delves into the emotions of experiencing such events.

Early forms

The first known biographies were written by scribes commissioned by the various rulers of antiquity: ancient Assyria, ancient Babylonia, ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, among others. Such biographies tended to be chiseled into stone or clay tablets, a method called cuneiform.

The Jewish holy scripture is an anthology of some of the earliest biographies in existence, detailing the lives of chiefs, kings, tribes, patriarchs and prophets. However, the dates of these written accounts are disputed.

Classical forms

The ancient Greeks developed the biographical tradition which we have inherited, although until the 5th century AD, when the word 'biographia' first appears, in Damascius' Life of Isodorus, biographical pieces were called simply 'lives', 'bioi'. It is quite likely that the Greeks were drawing on a pre-existing eastern tradition; certainly Herodotus' Histories contains more detailed biographical information on Persian kings and subjects than on anyone else, implying he had a Persian source for it.

The earliest surviving pieces which we would identify as biographical are Isocrates' Life of Evagoras and Xenophon's Life of Agesilaos, both from the fifth centuy BC. Both identified themselves as encomia, or works of praise, and that biography was regarded as a discrete entity from historiography is evidenced by the fact that Xenophon treated King Agesilaos of Sparta twice in his works, once in the above-mentioned encomium and once in his Greek History; evidently the two genres were conceived as making different demands of authors who enrolled in them. Xenophon could present his Cyropaedia, an account of the childhood of the Persian King Cyrus the Great now regarded as so fabulous that it falls rather into a novelistic tradition than a biographical one, as a serious work, without any disclaimers or caveats.

Whereas Thucydides set the benchmark for a historiographical tradition comprising 'conclusions ... drawn from proofs quoted ... [which] may safely be relied upon' (Thuc. 1.21), and offering little explicit judgement on the men with whom he dealt, biographers were quite often more concerned with drawing a moral point from their investigations of their subjects. The Parallel Lives of Plutarch, a Greek writing under the Roman empire, is a series of short biographies of eminent men, ancient and contemporary, arranged in pairs comprising one Greek, one Roman, in order that a broad educative point might be extraced from the comparison (for example Mark Anthony and Demetrius were paradigms of tyranny, Lysander and Sulla examples of great men degenerating into blood-thirsty corruption).

However, although their moralising approach is not in fashion in the current intellectual climate, Greek biographies still have much to offer the modern reader, and for the most part it is reasonable to assume that while authors may have suppressed details which did not fall in with the general theme which they wished to convey, they are unlikely to have fabricated much. Not least, they were instrumental in developing the modern idea of the person. The traditional Greek attitude to individuals was to 'reduce them to types'; the Peripatetic tradition records various categories into which men might fall: the flatterer, the superstitious man and so on. Greek rhetorical handbooks give advice on 'ethopoia', that is creating a character, one of a recognised type, to win favour in the law courts.

The biographical tradition does draw on these types, but it also gives explicit recognition to the importance of individual ideosyncrasies in defining a man, and places the emphasis firmly on a man's personality rather than merely listing his accomplishments. As Plutarch says in the introduction to his Life of Alexander the Great, 'in the most illustrious deeds there is not always a manifestation of virtue and vice, but a slight thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation than battles where thousands fall, or the greatest armaments, or sieges of cities'. Thus the individual is recognised as having some value and interest irrespective of the impact of his actions on the broader sweep of history.

Under the Roman Empire, the biographical and historiographical traditions converged somewhat, likely due to the nature of government, whereby the state was dominated by a single emperor with totalitarian power and whose character and actions set the tone for the period; Tacitus's History and his Annals, as well as Dio's History contain much of the same material as the biographer Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars. However, although Tacitus in particular was extremely critical of the regime, his disapproval emerges in subtle characterisation and arrangement of his material, in contrast with Suetonius' vicious authorial comment.

Middle Ages and Renaissance

The Early Middle Ages (AD 400 to 1450) saw a decline in awareness of classical culture. During this time, the only repositories of knowledge and records of early history was the Roman Catholic Church. Hermits, monks and priests used this historic period to write the first modern biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to church fathers, martyrs, popes and saints. Their works were meant to be inspirational to people, vehicles for conversion to Christianity. See hagiography. One significant example of biography from this period which does not exactly fit into that mold is the life of Charlemagne as written by his courtier Einhard.

By the late Middle Ages, biographies became less church-oriented as biographies of kings, knights and tyrants began to appear. The most famous of these such biographies was Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. The book was an account of the life of the fabled King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Following Malory, the new emphasis on humanism during the Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects such as artists and poets, and encouraged writing in the vernacular. Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists (1550) was a landmark biography focusing on secular lives. Vasari created celebrities of his subjects, as the Lives became an early "best seller." Two other developments are noteworthy: the development of the printing press in the fifteenth century and the gradual increase in literacy.

Biographies in the English language began appearing during the reign of Henry VIII. James Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (1563) essentially was the first dictionary of biography, followed by Thomas Fuller’s The History of the Worthies of England (1662), with a distinct focus on public life.

Modern biography

The "Golden Age" of English biography emerged in the late 1700s, the century in which the terms "biography" and "autobiography" entered the English lexicon. The classic works of the period were Samuel Johnson's Critical Lives of the Poets (1779-81) and James Boswell's massive Life of Johnson (1791). The Boswellian approach to biography emphasized uncovering material and letting the subject "speak for itself." While Boswell compiled, Samuel Johnson composed. Johnson did not follow a chronological narration of the subject's life but used anecdotes and incidents selectively. Johnson rejected the notion that facts revealed truth. He suggested that biographers should seek their subject in "domestic privacies", to find little known facts or anecdotes which revealed character. (Casper, 1999)

The romantic biographers disputed many of Johnson's judgments. Jean Jacques Rousseau's Confessions (1781-88) exploited the romantic point of view and the confessional mode. The tradition of testimony and confession was brought to the New World by Puritan and Quaker memoirists and journal-keepers where the form continued to be influential. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography (1791) would provide the archetype for the American success story. (Stone, 1982) Autobiography would remain an influential form of biographical writing.

Generally, American biography followed the English model, however, incorporating Thomas Carlyle's view that biography was a part of history. Carlyle asserted that the lives of great men were important to understanding society and its institutions. While the historical impulse would remain a strong element in early American biography, American writers carved out their own distinct approach. What emerged was a rather didactic form of biography which sought to shape individual character of the reader in the process of defining national character. (Casper, 1999)

The distinction between mass biography and literary biography which had formed by mid nineteenth century reflected a breach between high culture and middle-class culture. This division would endure for the remainder of the century. Biography began to flower thanks to new publishing technologies and an expanding reading public. This revolution in publishing made books available to a larger audience of readers. Almost ten times as many American biographies appeared from 1840 to 1860 than had appeared in the first two decades of the century. In addition, affordable paperback editions of popular biographies were published for the first time. Also, American periodicals began publishing series of biographical sketches. (Casper, 1999) The topical emphasis shifted from republican heroes to self-made men.

Much of late 19th-century biography remained formulaic. Notably, few autobiographies had been written in the 19th century. The following century witnessed a renaissance of autobiography beginning with Booker T. Washington's, Up From Slavery (1901) and followed by Henry Adams' Education (1907), a chronicle of self-defined failure which ran counter to the predominant American success story. The publication of socially significant autobiographies by both men and women began to flourish. (Stone, 1982)

The authority of psychology and sociology was ascendant and would make its mark on the new century’s biographies. (Stone, 1982) The demise of the "great man" theory of history was indicative of the emerging mindset. Human behavior would be explained through Darwinian theories. "Sociological" biographies based their subjects' actions as the result of the environment, and tended to downplay individuality. The development of psychoanalysis led to a more penetrating and comprehensive understanding of the biographical subject, and induced biographers to give more emphasis to childhood and adolescence. Clearly, psychological ideas were changing the way Americans read and wrote biographies, as a culture of autobiography developed in which the telling of one's own story became a form of therapy. (Casper, 1999)

The conventional concept of national heroes and narratives of success disappeared in the obsession with psychological explorations of personality. The new school of biography featured iconoclasts, scientific analysts, and fictional biographers. This wave included Lytton Strachey, André Maurois, and Emil Ludwig among others. Strachey's biographies had an influence similar to that which Samuel Johnson had enjoyed earlier. In the 1920s and '30s, biographical writers sought to capitalize on Strachey's popularity and imitate his style. Robert Graves (I, Claudius, 1934) stood out among those following Strachey's model of "debunking biographies." The trend in literary biography was accompanied in popular biography by a sort of "celebrity voyeurism." in the early decades of the century. This latter form's appeal to readers was based on curiosity more than morality or patriotism.

By World War I, cheap hard-cover reprints had become popular. The decades of the 1920s witnessed a biographical "boom." In 1929, nearly 700 biographies were published in the United States, and the first dictionary of American biography appeared. In the decade that followed, numerous biographies continued to be published despite the economic depression. They reached a growing audience through inexpensive formats and via public libraries.

Multi-media forms

With the technological advancements created in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, multi-media forms of biography became much more popular than literary forms. Visual and film images were able to elaborate new dimensions of personality that written forms could not. The popularity of these forms of biography culminated in the creation of such cable and satellite television networks as A&E, The Biography Channel, The History Channel and History International. Along with documentary film biographies, Hollywood produced numerous commercial films based on the lives of famous people.

References

Brent Crude

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Brent Crude is one of the major classifications of oil consisting of Brent Crude, Brent Sweet Light Crude, Oseberg and Forties. Brent Crude is sourced from the North Sea.

The name 'Brent' comes from the formation layers - Broom, Rannoch, Etieve, Ness and Tarbat

Oil production from Europe, Africa and the Middle East flowing West tends to be priced relative to this oil, i.e. it forms a benchmark.

Brent blend is a light crude oil, though not as light as West Texas Intermediate (WTI). It contains approximately 0.37% of sulfur, classifying it as sweet crude, yet again not as sweet as WTI. Brent is ideal for production of gasoline and middle distillates. It is typically refined in Northwest Europe, but when the market prices are favorable for export, it can be refined also in East or Gulf Coast of the United States or the Mediterranean region.

Typical price difference per barrel is about $1 less than WTI, and $1 more than OPEC Basket.

Brent Crude has an API gravity of around 38.6.

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See also

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