"The sight of An Addict and An Ex-Addict in The Recovery Route"  It is spring 480 BC, Persian King Xerxes, continuing his father Darius' master plan to conquer the Hellenic city-states, arrives in Hellas. The previous Persian invasion and diplomatic attempts have already turned most northern Hellas tribes and states to the Persian side. But the people of Athens and Sparta, the largest Hellenic powers at the time, feel quite insulted by the Persian emissaries' request to surrender to Xerxes, and so slay them. In Sparta, King Leonidas consults the local oracle, who gives two options: Either a spartan king will have to be sacrificed, or Sparta will be burned to the ground. A year earlier (481, BC) a Panhellenic consortium of all southern city-states had already recognized the superiority of the Spartan army (the best organized and trained army at the time) and had declared King Leonidas as supreme commander of the combined Hellenic army. It is then decided that a small force should block Xerxes' way to southern Hellas in the Thermopylae passage. This passage was, at that time, 12 meters wide. The great historian Herodotus, possibly exaggerating, states that there were 1,700,000 Persians (their true number could have been anywhere from 100,000 to 1,000,000) against 7,000 Hellenic hoplites and slaves, including the 300 men of the Spartan King elite guard. King Xerxes waited four days for the Hellenes to be frightened and eventually surrender and was quite astonished by his opponents' complete apathy. Xerxes tried to convince Leonidas to drop weapons, give up his position, kneel before him and live on as a local governor under Xerxes. King Leonidas replied "molon lave," which means "Come and get them." The three-day battle began, with the 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians (the other Hellenes where sent by Leonidas to protect passages to their flanks) slaying thousands of Persians with minimal losses. The whole Persian campaign would have failed if it hadn't been for Efialtes, who showed Xerxes a secret passage to the Hellenic flanks. After a final battle led by King Xerxes himself, the Hellenic force was slain and their heroism and glory was written forever in history. From the beginning of the battle, the Hellenes buried their dead in the spot where they fell. Then battle signs where made for the dead of each Hellenic faction. For the Pelloponisians, (including the 300 Spartans) the sign generally read (free translation) "In this place 4,000 Pelloponisians fought 30 millions)." For the 300 Spartans (Lakaedaemonians), the sign reads (free translation) "Oh foreigner, tell the Lakaedaemonians that we are buried here obeying their laws," meaning that they never hesitated and never retreated from the enemy. The impact of the battle was enormous for both sides. The Persians' morale dropped to zero, and the Hellenes lost their fear for the Persian conqueror and organized their defense. After several successful battles, the Hellenes ultimately defeated the Persian army and repelled their invasion in the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. ~ ~ ~ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/
 President Ashton (William Hurt) is attending a global war on terror summit in Spain. Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are two of the Secret Service agents assigned to protect him. This is the first action that Agent Barnes has been in since he took a bullet for President Ashton six-month earlier. We really dont know if Agent Barnes is up to the challenge of protecting the President. Shortly after President Ashton is escorted to the stage in the plaza by the Secret Service, he is shot twice by a rifle from a window and falls to the floor. The crowd is in shock and chaos breaks out all over, especially when bombs begin to explode. Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) is an American video-taping the event to show to his children that he was actually there at this historic event. He believes that he has the picture of the man who shot the President. Agent Barnes sees the tape and has a clue to that person. Several different people witness the event, and only through their eyes do we see the truth behind the assassination attempt. ~ ~ ~ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/
  An attempt by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot to form a Communist peasant farming society resulted in the deaths of 25 percent of the country's population from starvation, overwork and executions. ~ Pol Pot was born in 1925 (as Saloth Sar) into a farming family in central Cambodia, which was then part of French Indochina. In 1949, at age 20, he traveled to Paris on a scholarship to study radio electronics but became absorbed in Marxism and neglected his studies. He lost his scholarship and returned to Cambodia in 1953 and joined the underground Communist movement. The following year, Cambodia achieved full independence from France and was then ruled by a royal monarchy. ~ By 1962, Pol Pot had become leader of the Cambodian Communist Party and was forced to flee into the jungle to escape the wrath of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia. In the jungle, Pol Pot formed an armed resistance movement that became known as the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians) and waged a guerrilla war against Sihanouk's government. ~ In 1970, Prince Sihanouk was ousted, not by Pol Pot, but due to a U.S.-backed right-wing military coup. An embittered Sihanouk retaliated by joining with Pol Pot, his former enemy, in opposing Cambodia's new military government. That same year, the U.S. invaded Cambodia to expel the North Vietnamese from their border encampments, but instead drove them deeper into Cambodia where they allied themselves with the Khmer Rouge. ~ From 1969 until 1973, the U.S. intermittently bombed North Vietnamese sanctuaries in eastern Cambodia, killing up to 150,000 Cambodian peasants. As a result, peasants fled the countryside by the hundreds of thousands and settled in Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh. ~ All of these events resulted in economic and military destabilization in Cambodia and a surge of popular support for Pol Pot. ~ By 1975, the U.S. had withdrawn its troops from Vietnam. Cambodia's government, plagued by corruption and incompetence, also lost its American military support. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army, consisting of teenage peasant guerrillas, marched into Phnom Penh and on April 17 effectively seized control of Cambodia. ~ Once in power, Pol Pot began a radical experiment to create an agrarian utopia inspired in part by Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution which he had witnessed first-hand during a visit to Communist China. ~ Mao's "Great Leap Forward" economic program included forced evacuations of Chinese cities and the purging of "class enemies." Pol Pot would now attempt his own "Super Great Leap Forward" in Cambodia, which he renamed the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea. ~ He began by declaring, "This is Year Zero," and that society was about to be "purified." Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences were to be extinguished in favor of an extreme form of peasant Communism. ~ All foreigners were thus expelled, embassies closed, and any foreign economic or medical assistance was refused. The use of foreign languages was banned. Newspapers and television stations were shut down, radios and bicycles confiscated, and mail and telephone usage curtailed. Money was forbidden. All businesses were shuttered, religion banned, education halted, health care eliminated, and parental authority revoked. Thus Cambodia was sealed off from the outside world. ~ All of Cambodia's cities were then forcibly evacuated. At Phnom Penh, two million inhabitants were evacuated on foot into the countryside at gunpoint. As many as 20,000 died along the way. ~ Millions of Cambodians accustomed to city life were now forced into slave labor in Pol Pot's "killing fields" where they soon began dying from overwork, malnutrition and disease, on a diet of one tin of rice (180 grams) per person every two days. ~ Workdays in the fields began around 4 a.m. and lasted until 10 p.m., with only two rest periods allowed during the 18 hour day, all under the armed supervision of young Khmer Rouge soldiers eager to kill anyone for the slightest infraction. Starving people were forbidden to eat the fruits and rice they were harvesting. After the rice crop was harvested, Khmer Rouge trucks would arrive and confiscate the entire crop. ~ Ten to fifteen families lived together with a chairman at the head of each group. All work decisions were made by the armed supervisors with no participation from the workers who were told, "Whether you live or die is not of great significance." Every tenth day was a day of rest. There were also three days off during the Khmer New Year festival. ~ Throughout Cambodia, deadly purges were conducted to eliminate remnants of the "old society" - the educated, the wealthy, Buddhist monks, police, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and former government officials. Ex-soldiers were killed along with their wives and children. Anyone suspected of disloyalty to Pol Pot, including eventually many Khmer Rouge leaders, was shot or bludgeoned with an ax. "What is rotten must be removed," a Khmer Rouge slogan proclaimed. ~ In the villages, unsupervised gatherings of more than two persons were forbidden. Young people were taken from their parents and placed in communals. They were later married in collective ceremonies involving hundreds of often-unwilling couples. ~ Up to 20,000 persons were tortured into giving false confessions at Tuol Sleng, a school in Phnom Penh which had been converted into a jail. Elsewhere, suspects were often shot on the spot before any questioning. ~ Ethnic groups were attacked including the three largest minorities; the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham Muslims, along with twenty other smaller groups. Fifty percent of the estimated 425,000 Chinese living in Cambodia in 1975 perished. Khmer Rouge also forced Muslims to eat pork and shot those who refused. ~ On December 25, 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia seeking to end Khmer Rouge border attacks. On January 7, 1979, Phnom Penh fell and Pol Pot was deposed. The Vietnamese then installed a puppet government consisting of Khmer Rouge defectors. ~ Pol Pot retreated into Thailand with the remnants of his Khmer Rouge army and began a guerrilla war against a succession of Cambodian governments lasting over the next 17 years. After a series of internal power struggles in the 1990s, he finally lost control of the Khmer Rouge. In April 1998, 73-year-old Pol Pot died of an apparent heart attack following his arrest, before he could be brought to trial by an international tribunal for the events of 1975-79. ~ ~ ~ ~
 
HAVANA - In the palace of a fallen dictator, the grade-school kids in their red Communist Pioneer bandanas are getting their mandatory introduction to the glories of the revolution. Clattering from one display case to the next, they gaze wide-eyed at an antique gun, a fighter's bloodied shirt, the engine of a downed U.S. spy plane. Moving on, they stare at the yacht named Granma that carried Fidel Castro back from exile to launch his guerrilla war, and the combat boots his brother-successor wore as a ponytailed 27-year-old rebel. The palace of Fulgencio Batista, the ruler whom Castro overthrew, is now the Museum of the Revolution, and these 6- and 7-year-olds are the heirs to a communist government about to turn 50 — a system that may be softening at the edges but appears determined to crush any threat to its grip on power, lest it crumble like its one-time godfather, the Soviet Union. Since Castro declared victory on New Year's Day, 1959, the day after Batista fled the country, his rule has prevailed through 10 U.S. presidents, the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, a world-shaking missile crisis, the U.S. embargo, the Soviet collapse and the onslaught of globalization. Now 82, he is ailing and out of sight but still the head of the Communist Party of Cuba. Raul Castro, his successor as president, is taking baby steps toward change and vowing to fend off any challenge to his brother's legacy. ~http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28333287/ ~http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3097447.stm ~http://www.cuba50.org/?page=newsitem&article=69
"The Girl from Ipanema" ("Garota de Ipanema") is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes with English lyrics written later by Norman Gimbel. The first commercial recording was in 1962, by Pery Ribeiro. The version performed by Astrud Gilberto, along with João Gilberto and Stan Getz, from the 1963 album Getz/Gilberto, became an international hit, reaching #5 in the U.S., #29 in the UK, and charting highly throughout the world. Numerous recordings have been used in movies, sometimes as an elevator music cliché (for example, near the end of The Blues Brothers). In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.[1]
Although Astrud Gilberto's original version was "The Girl from Ipanema", when covered by other female artists the song has often been rendered as "The Boy from Ipanema", with gender-specific lyrics. ~ ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_from_Ipanema   Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, GCB KSMOM GCTE (July 29, 1883, Predappio, Italy – April 28, 1945, Giulino di Mezzegra, Italy) was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by 1925. After 1936, his official title was "His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire". [1] Mussolini also created and held the supreme military rank of First Marshal of the Empire along with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, which gave him and the King joint supreme control over the military of Italy. Mussolini remained in power until he was replaced in 1943; for a short period after this until his death he was the leader of the Italian Social Republic. ~ Mussolini was among the founders of Italian fascism, which included elements of nationalism, corporatism, national syndicalism, expansionism, social progress and anti-communism in combination with censorship of subversives and state propaganda. In the years following his creation of the fascist ideology, Mussolini influenced, or achieved admiration from, a wide variety of political figures. [2]Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924–1939 were: his public works programmes such as the taming of the Pontine Marshes, the improvement of job opportunities, and public transport. Mussolini also solved the Roman Question by concluding the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. He is also credited with securing economic success in Italy's colonies and commercial dependencies. ~ ~ ~ ~
  关羽（160?-220），字云长，本字长生，身长约合1.98米，并州 河东解县人（今山西运城市），汉族。一直是历来民间崇祀的对象，东汉末年刘备麾下著名将领，前将军，汉寿亭侯。演义中为五虎上将之首，与刘备，张飞桃园结义。死后受民间推崇，又经历代朝廷褒封，被人奉为关圣帝君，佛教称为伽蓝菩萨，尊称为“关公”。被后来的统治者崇为“武圣”，与号为“文圣”的孔子齐名。有“千里走单骑”“单刀赴会”“温酒斩华雄”“过五关斩六将”的佳话。~ ~
  - 4,004-room 61-story ARIA Resort & Casino (Cesar Pelli)
- 165,000-square-foot casino (Pelli)
- 400-room + 227 condos - Mandarin Oriental Hotel/Residences (Pedersen / Tihany)
- 400-room + 207 condos - The Harmon Hotel/Residences (Foster and Partners)
- 1543-unit Vdara Condo/Hotel tower (Rafael Viñoly)
- Twin, 337-unit luxury condo towers Veer (Helmut Jahn)
- 500,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space The Crystals Mall (Daniel Libeskind)
- $40 million worth of modern sculptures and installations by world famous artists
- 225,000 square feet of convention and meeting space
- 900,000 square feet for back-of-house operations
- 2,000-seat theater
- 70,000-square-foot spa
- 7,500-car parking garage
- Fire station
- People movers (trams)
- On-site power plant ~ ~
.jpg) Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a Nobel Prize-winning writer, and an artist.
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During his army career, Churchill saw combat in India, in the Sudan and the Second Boer War. He gained fame and notoriety as a war correspondent and through contemporary books he wrote describing the campaigns. He also served briefly in the British Army on the Western Front in World War I, commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
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At the forefront of the political scene for almost fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty as part of the Asquith Liberal government. During the war he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli caused his departure from government. He returned as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air. In the interwar years, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Conservative government.
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After the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led Britain to victory against the Axis powers. Churchill was always noted for his speeches, which became a great inspiration to the British people and embattled Allied forces.
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After losing the 1945 election, he became Leader of the Opposition. In 1951, he again became Prime Minister before finally retiring in 1955. Elizabeth II offered to create him Duke of London, but this was declined due to the objections of his son Randolph, who would have inherited the title on his father's death. Upon his death the Queen granted him the honour of a state funeral, which saw one of the largest assemblies of statesmen in the world.
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~ ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
 Cambodia, a country which has seen great wars and destruction is beautiful, mysterious, exciting, vibrant and eerily haunting. Two key images come to mind when you think of Cambodia – Angkor Wat and Buddhist monks in orange robes.
Angkor Wat, the 9th to 13th century Buddhist temple is the site that most people travel to Cambodia to see. Angkor rises majestically from the surrounding jungles and is truly one of the ancient wonders of the world – it will amaze you with its size and breathtaking beauty. Most visitors to Angkor Wat spend a couple of days exploring. If you can arrange a visit at Sunrise – do, it is stunningly beautiful then.
~ ~ ~ http://www.adventuretravel.co.nz/destinations2.asp?id=2&cid=7
  HARARE, Zimbabwe, July 19 (UPI) -- Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe hit another milestone Saturday when the central bank introduced a $100 billion bill.
The new bills can circulate legally beginning Monday, CNN reported. But as large as the amount might seem, it is only enough to buy four oranges and not enough to cover the cost of one loaf of bread.
The country has been in an economic tailspin for several years. President Robert Mugabe, blaming profiteers and speculators for the destruction of the economy, announced this week that the government would provide basic necessities at a low subsidized price to end the inflation.
The government announced this week inflation had hit 2.2 million percent.
Outsiders blame much of the inflation on the government-backed takeover of white-owned farms by "war veterans" loyal to Mugabe. The country went from being an agricultural exporter to being unable to feed itself.
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     Have you ever wonderedWhere Santa leaves his sleigh, When he brings toys for children To find on Christmas Day? ~ For reindeers, all the roof-tops Are much too smooth and steep! One slip, they'd go sliding down, And land in one big heap! ~ But if they were in the garden, How could Santa, with his sack, Climb right up to the roof-top, Then down the chimney stack? ~ There's so much danger in the road, So, where can he leave his sleigh? Perhaps you'd like to ask him, When he comes round your way! ~ ~
 
Phnom Penh's main streets are in good shape; however other streets and footpaths are often rutted and pot-holed, clogged with garbage, stagnant water, parked motos, sleeping people, livestock and building materials. Many smaller streets either lack signage or bear misleading signs, however, Phnom Penh is logically laid out (see orientation) and navigating the city is not difficult if you know where you're going. - Motorbikes (but not self-drive cars) are available for rent, however Phnom Penh traffic is chaotic and dangerous even by Asian standards: public transport (other than motorbike taxis) is safer.
- Motorbike-taxis (motodops, motodups or simply motos in local parlance) are ubiquitous and will take you anywhere for a small fare. A trip from Sisowath Quay to Central Market costs about 2,000 riel (50 US cents). Fares are higher at night and with more than one passenger.
- Taxis are available at a few locations - most notably outside the Foreign Correspondents Club on Sisowath Quay. Taxis do not have meters, and fares must be agreed in advance. Fares vary, due to fluctuating fuel prices; ask hotel/guesthouse staff for assistance (hotels and guesthouses will organise taxis on request).
- Tuk-tuks Cambodian-style consist of a motorcycle with a cabin for the passengers hitched to the back. They are cheaper than taxis and offer a scenic experience of the city. Their clientele is exclusively tourists, and most drivers in tourist areas speak some English.
- Cyclos are three-wheeled cycle-rickshaws. Considerably slower then a motodop, and gradually becoming less common in the city, they are still popular with locals and foreigners alike. The nature of the seat lends itself to a quick and easy way to transport all manner of goods from one place to another, even other cyclos and the occasional motorbike as well.
- Walking can be a challenge, as cars and motos sometimes do not stop for pedestrians. To cross safely, judge gaps in the traffic and proceed with care - give oncoming vehicles ample time to see and avoid you, or try to cross with the brightly coloured and revered monks. On larger roads, two streams of traffic travel in each direction, totalling four streams of traffic you have to watch for: thus constant 360 surveillance is required when crossing roads. There is almost no street lighting off the major boulevards, and walking there at night is not recommended.
Cautions:
1. As a huge number of scarred or maimed locals can attest, motorbikes - either as rider or passenger - are the least safe alternative. On a motorbike you are exposed to the worst consequences of the city's bad drivers and appalling accident rate.
2. To obviate later disagreements, bargain a fare before you leave.
3. Sometimes the only English a driver knows is something like "Yes, no problem" - leading you to believe he knows where he is going when he does not. Most tuk tuk and moto drivers in Phnom Penh come from rural villages. Incredibly, some cannot find Sisowath Quay or Sihanouk Boulevard. Notwithstanding, drivers are not above some bluffing to get you onboard. Make sure the driver knows where he is going before getting in/on.
4. Don't leave bags or other goods exposed to snatchers on motorbikes: such thefts from tuk tuks and motorbikes are now epidemic in Phnom Penh.
~ ~http://wikitravel.org/en/Phnom_Penh  ~ ~ Round of 16 ~First leg ~Second leg~ Atlético - Porto ~ 24/02 » ~ 11/03 » ~ Lyon - Barcelona ~ 24/02 » ~ 11/03 » ~ Arsenal - Roma ~ 24/02 » ~ 11/03 » ~ Internazionale - Man. United ~ 24/02 » ~ 11/03 » ~ Real Madrid - Liverpool ~ 25/02 » ~ 10/03 » ~ Chelsea - Juventus ~ 25/02 » ~ 10/03 » ~ Villarreal - Panathinaikos ~ 25/02 » ~ 10/03 » ~ Sporting - Bayern ~ 25/02 » ~ 10/03 » ~ ~ ~ http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/fixturesresults/index.html
 
 Your beauty is unspeakable. Your love is inescapable. ~ The heavens twilight stars, Lit up the night sky, And I saw you through the midnight gloom. Winters death, Took away my breath, ~ But the radiance that came from you. Reflected off the snow, Melted away all my fears. And dried all my tears. ~ Now I pray to see you again.... In Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ~ ~ ~
  Beijing - China held a meeting on Thursday 18th Dec 2008 morning to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its reform and opening-up drive, which turned the once poverty-stricken country into one of the world's largest economies.~ Top leaders, including President Hu Jintao, attended the ceremony, which started at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing at 10:00 a.m. ~
The celebration also drew nearly 6,000 Chinese from all walks of life. ~
In a speech at the ceremony, Hu said 30 years to the day witnessed the opening of the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. ~ That meeting ushered in a new historic period of reform and opening-up, marking the most significant turning point in the Party's history since the New China was founded in 1949, he said. ~ By gathering here today to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that meeting, Hu said they are meant to fully recognize the significance and great achievements of the reforms, sum up experience, and continue to develop the country on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. ~ Hu said China's gross domestic product(GDP) kept growing at an annual rate of 9.8 per cent for three decades, more than three times the world average. ~ The President said China's GDP had soared from more than 360 billion yuan (about 52 billion U.S. dollars) in 1978 to 24950 billion yuan in 2007, making China become the world's fourth largest economy. ~ The past 30 years have been a period in which China's overall national strength has risen by a big margin, and the Chinese people have received more tangible benefits than ever before, he said. ~ session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which started on December 18, 1978. ~ The country has carried out extensive international exchanges and cooperation, through which China's economy was boosted, he said, adding in the process, China has also made important contribution to the world's economic development. ~ China's economic reforms started 30 years ago after the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which left the country on the verge of economic breakdown. ~ The decision to open up the once-secluded country and reform its moribund economy was made at the 3rd plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which started on December 18, 1978. ~
The date is commonly regarded as a watershed in China's development. ~ ~
 Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass–energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2. Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."
~ Einstein's many contributions to physics include his special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism, and his general theory of relativity, which was intended to extend the principle of relativity to non-uniform motion and to provide a new theory of gravitation.
~ His other contributions include advances in the fields of relativistic cosmology, capillary action, critical opalescence, classical problems of statistical mechanics and their application to quantum theory, an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules, atomic transition probabilities, the quantum theory of a monatomic gas, thermal properties of light with low radiation density (which laid the foundation for the photon theory), a theory of radiation including stimulated emission, the conception of a unified field theory, and the geometrization of physics.
~ Einstein published over 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. In 1999 Time magazine named him the "Person of the Century". In wider culture the name "Einstein" has become synonymous with genius, and he has since been regarded as one of the most influential people in human history.
~ ~ ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_einstein
The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engine grand touring car produced by Volkswagen Group subsidiary Bugatti Automobiles SAS and introduced in 2005. It is currently the fastest accelerating and decelerating production car in the world and, at 1.1 million Euro, it is also one of the most expensive cars. Powered by a 736-kilowatt (1,001 PS/987 hp) W16 engine, it can reach 408.47 km/h (253.81 mph). The car reached full production in September 2005, and is handcrafted in a factory Volkswagen built near the former Bugatti headquarters in Château St Jean in Molsheim (Alsace, France). It is named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti company. Two examples of the Veyron are known to have been wrecked since production began. ~ ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Veyron
The Kamikaze (神風, Japanese for divine wind), were a pair or series of typhoons that are said to have saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan that attacked Japan in 1274 and again in 1281. The latter is said to have been the largest attempted naval invasion in history whose scale was only recently eclipsed in modern times by the D-Day invasion of allied forces into Normandy in 1944. The first invasion devastated the Japanese. The battle took place on the beaches where the two forces met. The Mongols had several advantages; The Japanese were overwhelmed and began to retreat. Not knowing they had won, the Mongols feared the Japanese were coming back with reinforcements and also retreated. During the time period between the first and second invasion, the Japanese built walls to protect themselves from future invaders. Seven years later, the Mongols returned. They found themselves unable to find any suitable landing beaches due to the walls. The fleet stayed afloat for months as they depleted their supplies and searched for an area to land. After months of being exposed to the elements, the fleet was destroyed by a great typhoon. The Japanese called it Kamikaze. The Mongols never returned. The Japanese were saved by the walls they had built and nature's fury. In popular Japanese myths at the time, the god Raijin was the god who turned the storms against the Mongols. Other variations say that the god Fūjin or Ryūjin caused the destructive kamikaze. ~ ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze_%28typhoon%29  Massage is the practice of soft tissue manipulation with physical, functional, and in some cases psychological purposes and goals. The word comes from the French massage "friction of kneading," or from Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle" or from Latin massa meaning "mass, dough". (In distinction the ancient Greek word for massage was anatripsis, and the Latin was frictio). An older etymology may even have been the Hebrew me-sakj "to anoint with oil". ~
Massage involves acting on and manipulating the client's body with pressure (structured, unstructured, stationary, and/or moving), tension, motion, or vibration done manually or with mechanical aids. Target tissues may include muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, or other connective tissue, as well as lymphatic vessels, and/or organs of the gastrointestinal system. Massage can be applied with the hands, fingers, elbows, forearm, and feet. There are over eighty different massage modalities. ~ The most cited reasons for introducing massage have been client demand and perceived clinical effectiveness. ~
In professional settings massage involves the client being treated while lying on a massage table, sitting in a massage chair, or lying on a mat on the floor. The massage subject may be fully or partly unclothed. Parts of the body may be covered with towels or sheets.
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