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Wednesday, April 30, 2008


Maximilian I of Habsburg (March 22, 1459January 12, 1519) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through both war and marriage. He is often referred to as "The Last Knight".

Life and reign in the Habsburg hereditary lands
Maximilian governed his first wife's vast inheritance in the Low Countries, and he prosecuted a war over them with Louis XI, King of France on her behalf. Louis died in 1483 and his successor, Charles VIII of France, was a minor whose regent, Anne of France, ended France's bellicosity for a time. Maximilian continued to govern Mary's remaining inheritance in the name of their young son, Philip the Handsome. After the regency ended, Maximilian and Charles VIII exchanged these two territories for Burgundy and Picardy in the Treaty of Senlis (1493). Thus ultimately much of the Netherlands became and remained a Habsburg possession.

Reign in Burgundy and The Netherlands
Elected King of the Romans in 1486 at the initiative of his father, he also stood at the head of the Holy Roman Empire upon his father's death in 1493. The following year, after he married a daughter of the Duke of Milan (16 March 1494), Maximilian sought to expand his power in parts of Italy, where he had tried to re-establish the lost Habsburg dominance.
Maximilian is possibly best known for leading the 1495 Reichstag at Worms which concluded on the Reichsreform (Imperial Reform), reshaping much of the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 1499 Treaty of Basel, Maximilian was forced to acknowledge the de-facto independence of the Swiss confederacy from the Empire as a result of the Battle of Dornach.
In 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of Pope Julius II, took the title of Elected Roman Emperor (Erwählter Römischer Kaiser), and thus ended the century-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the pope.

Tu felix Austria nube
Maximilian died in Wels, Upper Austria, and was succeeded as Emperor by his grandson Charles V, his son Philip the Handsome having died in 1506. Although he is buried in the Castle Chapel at Wiener Neustadt, a cenotaph tomb for Maximilian is located in the Innsbruck Hofkirche[1].
Maximilian was a keen supporter of the arts and sciences, and he surrounded himself with scholars such as Joachim Vadian and Andreas Stoberl (Stiborius), promoting them to important court posts. His reign saw the first flourishing of the Renaissance in Germany.
Maximilian had appointed his daughter Margarete of Austria as both Regent of the Netherlands and the guardian and educator of his grandsons Charles and Ferdinand (their father, Philip, having predeceased Maximilian), and she fulfilled this task well. Through wars and marriages he extended the Habsburg influence in every direction: to the Netherlands, Spain, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Italy. This influence would last for centuries and shape much of European history.

Death and legacy

Ancestors

Mary of Burgundy (14571482) — married in Ghent on August 18, 1477
Anna of Brittany (14771514) — married by proxy in Rennes on December 18, 1490
Bianca Maria Sforza (14721510) — married 1493 Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor Children

Maximilian armour
Landsknechts

Tuesday, April 29, 2008


Twins is a Hong Kong-based female Cantopop duo created in the summer of 2001 by Albert Yeung's Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG). Twins is made up of two young ex-models, Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin (蔡卓妍) and Gillian Chung Yan-Tung (鍾欣桐), who by birth is originally Chung Ka-Lai.

Biography
See also: Twins discography
Like most other new singers, Twins made a great deal of effort to boost their popularity. During their first two years, they released 3 EPs and 3 albums, all of which sold very well. Most of their songs stayed at the top of many different musical charts for several weeks. Their achievements helped highlight and cement their popularity amongst other new singers. Twins had their first concert in 2002 and three more in 2003, one of which was held in Guangzhou. Between 2001 and 2003, they received a total of 48 musical awards. This was a remarkable feat for the relatively new group at the time, and it showed that their effort had been highly appreciated. In 2003, they received the largest number of awards in the annual prize presentations from the four major Hong Kong media organizations, which are RTHK, MetroRadio and TVB.

Singing career as a group
When Twins started their singing careers, there were very few musical groups in Hong Kong. However, after Twins' success, other music producers realized there was a huge market for group singers. As a result, more singing groups were formed.

Twins' effect
Twins have been subjected to a wide range of criticism concerning poor singing skills, unclear Mandarin pronunciation, and lack of a reckoning status as singers (since they showed that they have been distracted from their singing career), although most of the criticisms are unverified. Nevertheless, Twins have entered the Mandarin market successfully and their popularity keeps increasing in the Chinese music industry. Twins spoke Mandarin well when they became guest stars in Mainland China and Taiwan TV programs. Many TV hosts praised the singing, dancing, and acting skills, and attractiveness of Twins. In particular, Charlene has attracted many directors and movie investors, thus having a non-stop movie schedule for 2007. Gillian also participated in many Chinese drama series in 2006-2007. Twins state that they are currently trying hard to improve in all aspects of their performance (singing, dancing, acting), and have recently started to take singing lessons with popular entertainment voice coach Christine Samson. Twins will be releasing their third Mandarin album in late 2007.

Appraisal and criticism
The Hong Kong musical industry has shown, many pop group bands break-up after they acquire a considerable level of popularity. The Twins are not immune to this and there have been rumors that Twins is also facing the same fate. It has been suggested by EEG that their concerts due for early 2006 may be their last. However these rumours have been around before and have proved unfounded and purely for entertainment purposes in generating gossip for tabloids.
At the 2006 Hong Kong Entertainment Awards ceremony Choi tearfully acknowledged that there have been criticisms of the Twins' singing abilities and that she hoped that they could better improve in the coming year.
Twins overcame rumours of splitting up when they attended the May 2006 MTV Asia Awards in Thailand together. They were nominated for and won the Hong Kong Most Popular Singer Award. Twins garnered many more votes than Andy Lau, who was predicted to take home this award. This is arguably the most important award for their profile.
(February 2007) They have also recently celebrated their sixth year together in the Hong Kong music industry and with this the release of a special sixth anniversary new+best selection CD/DVD. Most rumours of a split have ceased and they have reaffirmed to their fans they will celebrate in another six years time.
(September 2007) To celebrate their sixth anniversary since entertaining the entertainment circle, Twins will embark on a multi-city North American concert tour, with special guests Sun Boy'Z. They will perform live on September 15,2007 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.[1] Other stops on their tour will include Toronto, Los Angeles, and Atlantic City. It is their first time performing on a major tour across several North American cities.

Twins' fate in the coming future
Apart from their singing careers, Twins have also been involved in a number of advertisements, television series and films. Within their first three years, they had appeared in 18 advertisements, a television series, and 16 films, being cast as main characters in 6 of these.
The Twins have also been selected to promote several social campaigns in Hong Kong, such as summer activities for the Hong Kong Home Affairs Bureau in July 2003.

Other ventures
Featuring Both Charlene and Gillian:
Featuring Gillian:
Upcoming: 地獄十九層 出水芙蓉
Featuring Charlene:
Upcoming: Kung Fu Dunk (灌篮)

2002 June 14 Summer Breeze of Love (這個夏天有異性)
2002 September 19 Just One Look (一碌蔗)
2003 June 23 Twins Effect (千機變)
2003 November 6 The Death Curse' (古宅心慌慌)
2004 January 15 Fantasia (鬼馬狂想曲)
2004 February 3 Protege de la Rose Noire (見習黑玫瑰)
2004 April 8 Love on Rocks (戀情告急)
2004 August 6 Twins Effect II (千機變II: 花都大戰)
2004 November 25 6 AM (大無謂)
2005 March 24 House of Fury (精武家庭)
2005 July 21 Bug Me Not! (蟲不知)
2007 February 15 Twins Mission (雙子神偷)
2002 January 24 U-Man (怪獸學園)
2002 September 5 If You Care (賤精先生)
2003 June 12 Happy Go Lucky (低一點天空)
2003 June 20 Color of the Truth (黑白森林)
2003 October 23 The Spy Dad (絕種鐡金剛)
2004 April 23 Moving Target (新紥師兄)
2004 November 11 Beyond Our Ken (公主復仇記)
2006 February 17 49 Days (犀照)
2001 April 26 Heroes in Love (戀愛起義)
2001 September 25 Funeral March (常在我心)
2002 September 25 My Wife is 18 (我老婆唔够秤)
2003 March 13 Diva, Ah Hey! (下一站,天后)
2003 July 25 Good Times, Bed Times (戀上你的床)
2004 March 27 Papa Loves You (這個阿爸真爆炸)
2004 August 19 Hidden Heroes (追擊八月十五)
2004 September 24 New Police Story (新警察故事)
2004 September 28 The Attractive One (身驕肉貴)
2004 November 18 Leave Me Alone (阿孖有難)
2005 October 20 All About Love (再說一次我愛你)
2005 December 22 A Chinese Tall Story (情顛大聖)
2006 September 29 Rob-B-Hood (寶貝計劃)
2006 October 26 Diary (妄想)
2007 April 4 Super Fans (甜心粉絲王)
2007 June 19 Simply Actors (戲王之王) Film Collections
Television Shows (Gillian only):
Television Shows (Charlene only):

February 2002 The Great Monkey King Suen Wu Kong (齊天大聖孫悟空)
May 2003 Midnight - Stuck In The Lift (2半3更之困車立)
October 2003 Triumph In The Skies (衝上雲霄)
September 2003 Kung Fu Soccer (功夫足球)
December 2004 Sunshine Heartbeat (赤沙印记@四叶草2)
May 2007 Ying Ye San Jia Yi'(樱野3加1)
Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain (雪山飛狐) (2007)
Project A (A計劃) (2007)
The Spirit Of The Sword(浣花洗劍錄) (Coming Soon)
Y2K (青春Y2K)(2000) Twins (group) Television Show Collections

2002 September 13-15 Ichiban Amazing Show (Twins Ichiban 興奮演唱會)
2003 January 18-19 Matsunichi Twins Guangzhou Amazing Show (松日Twins廣州興奮演唱會)
2003 June 25 Tou Hao Ren Wu Chang Hao Music Concert (頭號人物唱好音樂會)
2003 August 2 Netvigator NETCash Pop-up Concert ( 網上行叱吒樂壇Pop-Up音樂會)
2003 December 31 - 2004 January 4 Matsunichi Twins 04 Concert (Twins 04 好玩演唱會)
2005 June 3 Starlight Amusement Park Concert (Australia)
2006 January 4-7 Twins Star Mobile Incomparable Concert (Twins 星Mobile 一時無兩演唱會)
2006 August 18-19 Twins Concert in Genting Malaysia
2007 September 15 Twins in Concert Cow Palace, San Francisco/Daly City USA[2]
2007 September 22-23 Twins Concert in Atlantic City USA Concerts

2001 November Twins 1+1 Photo Album' 96 pages
2001 August Twins Love The Colorful Travel 112 pages
2003 August Twins Love Hong Kong 112 pages

Saturday, April 26, 2008


H.261 is a 1990 ITU-T video coding standard originally designed for transmission over ISDN lines on which data rates are multiples of 64 kbit/s. It is one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). The coding algorithm was designed to be able to operate at video bit rates between 40 kbit/s and 2 Mbit/s. The standard supports two video frame sizes: CIF (352x288 luma with 176x144 chroma) and QCIF (176x144 with 88x72 chroma) using a 4:2:0 sampling scheme. It also has a backward-compatible trick for sending still picture graphics with 704x576 luma resolution and 352x288 chroma resolution (which was added in a later revision in 1993).

H.261 H.261 design

The LGPL-licensed libavcodec includes a H.261 encoder and decoder. It is used in many programs like in the free VLC media player and MPlayer multimedia players, and in ffdshow and FFmpeg decoders projects

Friday, April 25, 2008

Shalako (film)
Shalako is a 1968 western film starring Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot. Stephen Boyd portrayed a classic western villain. Jack Hawkins played an upper class Englishman abroad in the 'new' country. Honor Blackman portrayed an English lady.

Thursday, April 24, 2008


This article is about the city in Spain; for other uses, see Cadiz (disambiguation).
Cádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a province which is one of the eight comprising the autonomous community of Andalusia.
Cádiz, the oldest continuously-inhabited city in western Europe, has been a principal home port of the Spanish Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. It is also the site of the University of Cádiz.
Its peculiar location at the end of a narrow "peninsula" protruding into the Bay of Cádiz lends added charm to this ancient city. In actuality, Cádiz is on an island which is separated from the mainland by a larger island, the Isla de Léon; thus, to reach the mainland from Cádiz, it is necessary to cross a narrow channel to the low-lying Isla de Léon, before crossing another narrow channel to the mainland. This geographical circumstance has played, time and again, a significant part in the city's history, commerce, and culture. Isolated behind its high thick medieval walls on its improbable site in the middle of the bay, Cádiz, on approach from the sea, presents a dramatic and aesthetically appealing view.
Despite its unique site, Cadiz is, in most respects, a typically Andalusian city with a wealth of attractive vistas and well-preserved historical landmarks. The older part of Cádiz, within the remnants of the city walls, is commonly referred to as the Old City (in Spanish, Casco Antiguo). It is characterized by the antiquity of its various quarters (barrios), among them El Populo, La Viña, and Santa Maria, which present a marked contrast to the newer areas of town. While the Old City's street plan consists largely of narrow winding alleys connecting large plazas, newer areas of Cádiz typically have wide avenues and more modern buildings. In addition, the city is dotted by numerous parks where exotic plants, including giant trees supposedly brought to Spain by Columbus, flourish.

Etymology of the city's name
According to the 2006 census, the population of Cádiz proper was 130,561, and the population of the entire metropolitan area was estimated to be 629,054. Cádiz is the seventeenth largest Spanish city. However, in recent years, the city has been steadily losing population; it is the only municipality of the Bay of Cádiz (the comarca composed of Cádiz, Chiclana, El Puerto de Santa María, Puerto Real, and San Fernando), whose population has diminished. Between 1995 and 2006, it lost more than 14,000 inhabitants, a decrease of 9%.
Among the causes of this loss of population is the peculiar geography of Cádiz; the city lies on a narrow spit of land hemmed-in by the sea. Consequently, there is a pronounced shortage of buildable land. The city has very little vacant land, and a high proportion of its housing stock is relatively low in density. (That is to say, many buildings are only two or three stories tall, and they are only able to house a relatively small number of people within their "footprint".) The older quarters of Cádiz are full of buildings that, because of their age and historical significance, are not eligible for urban renewal. Replacement of these old buildings with high-density apartment projects would allow Cádiz to sustain a higher population.
142,449




Source: INE (Spain)
Two other physical factors tend to limit the city's population. It is impossible to increase the amount of land available for building by reclaiming land from the sea; a new national law governing coastal development thwarts this solution. Also, because Cádiz is built on a sandspit, it is a costly proposition to sink foundations deep enough to support the high-rise buildings that would allow for a higher population density. As it stands, the city's skyline is not substantially different than it was in medieval times. A seventeenth-century watchtower, the Tavira tower, still commands a panoramic view of the city and the bay despite its relatively modest 45-metre height. (See below.)
Cádiz is the provincial capital with the highest rate of unemployment in Spain. This, too, tends to depress the population level. Young Gaditanos, those between 18 and 30 years of age, have been migrating, to other places in Spain (Madrid and Castellón, chiefly), as well as emigrating to other places in Europe and the Americas. The population younger than twenty years old is only 20.58% of the total, and the population older than sixty-five is 21.67%, making Cádiz one of the most aged cities in all of Spain.
Despite these trends, some are cheered by the fact that the other towns and cities surrounding the Bay of Cádiz are growing modestly, absorbing some of the population fleeing the capital. Improvements in roads and railways have allowed people to commute to Cádiz for work more easily. Increasingly, outlying communities, like Puerto Real and San Fernando, are providing bedrooms for Cádiz's workforce. In recent years, Cádiz has become more of a place to work than a place to live.

Population and demographic trends
The city was originally founded as Gadir (Phoenician גדר "walled city") by the Phoenicians, who used it in their trade with Tartessos, a city-state believed by archæologists to be somewhere near the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, about thirty kilometres northwest of Cádiz. (Its exact location has never been firmly established.)
Cádiz is the most ancient city still standing in western Europe It is a connection that continutes to this day.
Cádiz was also the seat of the liberal Cortes (parliament) that fought against Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte (also known as Joseph I of Spain) in the Peninsular War and where the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed. The citizens again revolted in 1820 to secure a renewal of this constitution; the revolution spread across Spain, leading to the imprisonment of King Ferdinand VII in the city of Cádiz. French forces secured the release of Ferdinand in 1823 and suppressed liberalism. In 1868, Cádiz was once again the seat of a revolution, resulting in the eventual abdication and exile of Queen Isabella II. (The same Cádiz Cortes decided to reinstate the monarchy under King Amadeo I just two years later.)
In recent years, the city has undergone much reconstruction. Many monuments, cathedrals, and landmarks have been cleaned and restored, adding to the considerable charm of this ancient city.

History

Main article: Diocese of Cadiz y CeutaCadiz Diocese
Among the many landmarks of historical and scenic interest in Cadiz, a few stand out. The city can boast of an unusual cathedral of various architectural styles, a magnificent theatre, an attractive old municipal building, an eighteenth-century watchtower, a vestige of the ancient city wall, an ancient Roman theatre, and electrical pylons of an eye-catching modern design carrying cables across the Bay of Cadiz.

Major landmarks

Landmark Buildings
One of Cádiz's most famous landmarks is its cathedral. It sits on the site of an older cathedral, completed in 1260, which burned down in 1596. The reconstruction, which was not started until 1776, was supervised by the architect Vicente Acero, who had also built the Granada Cathedral. Acero left the project and was succeeded by several other architects. As a result, this largely baroque-style cathedral was built over a period of 116 years, and, due to this drawn-out period of construction, the cathedral underwent several major changes to its original design. Though the cathedral was originally intended to be a baroque edifice, it contains rococo elements, and was finally completed in the neoclassical style. Its chapels have many paintings and relics from the old cathedral and monasteries from throughout Spain.

The Gran Teatro Falla (Falla Grand Theatre)
In the 18th century, Cádiz had more than 160 towers from which local merchants could look out to sea for arriving merchant ships. These towers often formed part of the merchants' houses. The Torre Tavira, named for its original owner, stands as the tallest remaining watchtower. It has a cámara oscura, a room that uses the principal of the pinhole camera (and a specially-prepared convex lens) to project panoramic views of the Old City onto its interior walls. (Also see the article titled Widow's walk.)

The Tavira tower
The Casa del Almirante is a palatial house, adjacent to the Plaza San Martín in the Barrio del Pópulo, which was constructed in 1690 with the proceeds of the lucrative trade with the Americas. It was built by the family of the admiral of the Spanish treasure fleet, the so-called Fleet of the Indies, Don Diego de Barrios. The exterior is sheathed in exquisite red and white Genoan marble, prepared in the workshops of Andreoli, and mounted by the master, García Narváez. The colonnaded portico, the grand staircase under the cupola, and the hall on the main floor are architectural features of great nobility and beauty. The shield of the Barrios family appears on the second-floor balcony.

The Admiral's House
The old town of Cadiz is one of the most densely populated urban areas in Europe, and is packed with narrow streets. The old town benefits though from five striking plazas, which are enjoyed by citizens and tourists alike. These are Plaza de Mina, Plaza San Antonio, Plaza de Candelaria, Plaza de San Juan de Dios and Plaza de España.

The Plazas


Located in the heart of the old town, Plaza de Mina, (the most beautiful of the Cadiz plazas) was developed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Previously, the land occupied by the plaza was the orchard of the convent of San Francisco. The plaza, was converted into a plaza in 1838 by the architect Torcuato Benjumeda and (later) Juan Daura, with its trees being planted in 1861. It was then redeveloped again in 1897, and has remained virtually unchanged since. It is named after General Francisco Espoz y Mina, a hero of the war of independence. Manuel de Falla y Matheu was born in Number 3 Plaza de Mina, where a plaque bears his name. The plaza also contains several statues, one of these is a bust of José Macpherson (a pioneer in the development of petrography, stratigraphy and tectonics) who was born in number 12 Plaza de Mina in 1839. The Museum of Cadiz, is to be found at number 5 Plaza de Mina, and contains many objects from Cadiz's 3000 year history as well as works by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens. The houses which face the plaza, many of which can be classified as neo-classical architecture or built in the style of Isabelline Gothic, were originally occupied by the Cadiz bourgeoisie.

Plaza de Mina


In the 19th century Plaza San Antonio was considered to Cadiz's main square. It is a beautiful square, surrounded by a number of mansions built in neo-classical architecture or Isabelline Gothic style, once occupied by the Cadiz upper classes. San Antonio church, originally built in 1669, is also situated in the plaza,


The plaza was built in the 18th century, and on 19 March 1812 the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed here, leading to the plaza to be named Plaza de la Constitución, and then later Plaza San Antonio, after the hermit San Antonio.

Plaza San Antonio


The Plaza de Candelaria is named after the Candelaria convent, situated in the square until it was demolished in 1873, when its grounds were redeveloped as a plaza. The plaza is notable for a statue in its centre of Emilio Castelar, president of the first Spanish republic, who was born in a house facing the square. A plaque situated on another house, states that the Irish-Spanish adventurer en:Bernardo O'Higgins and former dictator of Chile also lived in the square.

Plaza de Candelaria


Construction of this plaza began in the 15th century on lands reclaimed from the sea. With the demolition of the City walls in 1906 the plaza increased in size and a statue of the Cadiz politician Segismundo Moret was unveiled. Overlooking the plaza, the Ayuntamiento is the town hall of Cádiz's Old City. The structure, constructed on the bases and location of the previous Consistorial Houses (1699), was built in two stages. The first stage began in 1799 under the direction of architect Torcuato Benjumeda in the neoclassical style. The second stage was completed in 1861 under the direction of García del Alamo, in the Isabelline Gothic (in Spanish, "Gótico Isabelino" or, simply, the "Isabelino") style. Here, in 1936, the flag of Andalusia was hoisted for the first time.

Plaza de San Juan de Dios and the Old Town Hall


The Plaza de España is a large square close to the port. It is dominated by the Monument to the Constitution of 1812, which came into being as a consequence of the demolition of a portion of the old city wall. The plaza is an extension of the old Plazuela del Carbón. The goal of this demolition was to create a grand new city square to mark the hundredth anniverary of the liberal constitution, which was proclaimed in this city in 1812, and provide a setting for a suitable memorial. The work is by the architect, Modesto Lopez Otero, and of the sculptor, Aniceto Marinas. The work began in 1912 and finished in 1929.


The lower level of the monument represents a chamber and an empty presidential armchair. The upper level has various inscriptions surmounting the chamber. On each side are bronze figures representing peace and war. In the center, a pilaster rises to symbolize, in allegorical terms, the principals expressed in the 1812 constitution. At the foot of this pilaster, there is a female figure representing Spain, and, to either side, scuptural groupings representing agriculture and citizenship.

Plaza de España and the monument to the constitution of 1812

The City Walls
Las Puertas de Tierra originated in the 16th century, although much of the original work has disappeared. Once consisting of several layers of walls, only one of these remain today. By the 20th century it was necessary to remodel the entrance to the Old City to accommodate modern traffic. Today, the two side-by-side arches cut into the wall serve as one of the primary entrances to the city.

The old city wall
The Baluarte de la Candelaria (fortress or stronghold of Candlemas) is a military fortification. Taking advantage of a natural elevation of land, it was constructed in 1672 at the initiative of the governor, Diego Caballero de Illescas. Protected by a seaward-facing wall that had previously served as a seawall, Candelaria's cannons were in a position to command the channels approaching the port of Cádiz. In more recent times, the edifice has served as a headquarters for the corps of military engineers and as the home to the army's homing pigeons, birds used to carry written messages over hostile terrain. Thoroughly renovated, it is now used as a cultural venue. There has been some discussion of using it to house a maritime museum, but, at present, it is designated for use as a permanent exposition space.

The fortress of Candelaria
In 1980, in the El Pópulo district of Cádiz, there was a fire in some old warehouses belonging to a company called Vigorito, SA, causing catastrophic damage. In the aftermath of the fire, an exciting discovery was made: the remains of an ancient Roman theatre. The fire had destroyed the warehouses revealing a layer of construction that was judged to be the foundations of some medieval buildings; the foundations of these buildings had been built, in turn, upon much more ancient stones, hand-hewn limestone of a Roman character. Systematic excavations, which still continue, have revealed a largely in-tact Roman theatre.
The theatre, constructed by order of Lucius Cornelius Balbus (minor) during the first century BCE, is the second largest Roman theatre in the world, surpassed only by the theater of Pompeii, south of Rome. Cicero, in "Epistulae ad Familiares" (Letters to his friends), wrote of its use by Balbo for personal propaganda.
According to archaeologists, this discovery confirms the greatness of the Roman city of Gades. The ancient city had a population even greater than the 80,000 people who lived in Cádiz during the sixteenth and seventeenth century, when the city dominated trans-Atlantic commerce, and it was one of the most prosperous cities of the Roman empire.

The Roman theatre
The Pylons of Cádiz are electricity pylons of unusual design, one on either side of the Bay of Cádiz, used to support huge electric-power cables. The pylons are 158 metres high and designed for two circuits. The very unconventional construction consists of a narrow frustum steel framework with one crossbar at the top of each one for the insulators.

The pylons of Cádiz
Cádiz, situated on a peninsula[3], is home to some of Spain's most beautiful beaches.
La Playa de la Caleta is the best-loved beach of Cádiz. It has always been in Carnival songs, due to its unequalled beauty and its proximity to the Barrio de la Viña. It is the beach of the Old City, situated between two castles, San Sebastian and Santa Catalina. It is around four hundred meters long and thirty meters wide at low tide. Also, the James Bond movie, Die Another Day, was filmed here. (It was supposed to be Cuba.)
La Playa de la Victoria, in the newer part of Cádiz, is the beach most visited by tourists and natives of Cádiz. It is about three kilometers long, and it has an average width of fifty meters of sand. The moderate swell and the absence of rocks allow family bathing. It is separated from the city by an avenue; on the landward side of the avenue, there are many shops and restaurants.
La Playa de Santa María del Mar or Playita de las Mujeres is a small beach in Cádiz, situated between La Playa de Victoria and La Playa de la Caleta. It features excellent views of the old district of Cádiz.

Beaches

Main article: Carnival of Cádiz Sister cities

Battle of Cadiz
Cádiz Club de Futbol
Costa de la Luz

Wednesday, April 23, 2008


This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Physics or the Physics Portal may be able to help recruit one. If a more appropriate WikiProject or portal exists, please adjust this template accordingly.Gravitational redshift In physics, light loses energy when it moves away from a massive body such as a star or a black hole; this effect reveals itself as a gravitational redshift in the frequency of the light, and is observable as a shift of spectral lines towards the longer, or "red," end of the spectrum.
Light coming from a region of weaker gravity shows a gravitational blueshift.

Definition
The gravitational weakening of light from high-gravity stars was predicted by John Michell in 1783, using Isaac Newton's concept of light as being composed of ballistic light corpuscles (see: emission theory). The effect of gravity on light was then explored by Laplace and Johann Georg von Soldner (1801) before Einstein rederived the idea from scratch in his 1911 paper on light and gravitation.
Einstein was accused by Philipp Lenard of plagiarism for not citing Soldner's earlier work - however, given that the idea had fallen so far into obscurity before Einstein resurrected it, it is entirely possible that Einstein was unaware of all previous work on the subject. In any case, Einstein went further and pointed out that a key consequence of gravitational shifts was gravitational time dilation. This was a genuinely new and revolutionary idea.

History

The receiving end of the light transmission must be located at a higher gravitational potential in order for gravitational redshift to be observed. In other words, the observer must be standing "uphill" from the source.
Tests done by many universities continue to support the existence of gravitational redshift.
Gravitational redshift is not only predicted by general relativity. Other theories of gravitation support gravitational redshift, although their explanations for why it appears vary.
Gravitational redshift does not assume the Schwarzschild metric solution to Einstein's field equation - in which the variable M; cannot represent the mass of any rotating or charged body. Gravitational redshift Important things to stress
Gravitational redshift was first observed in the spectral lines of the star Sirius B by Adams in 1925, although this measurement was criticized as possibly flawed, since it was difficult to rule out a shift of the spectral lines in the atmosphere of a white dwarf by some other (possibly unrecognized) effect.
The Pound-Rebka experiment of 1959 definitively measured the gravitational redshift in spectral lines. This was documented by scientists of the Lyman Laboratory of Physics at Harvard University.
More information can be seen at Tests of general relativity.

Initial verification
Gravitational redshift is studied in many areas of astrophysical research.

Application
A table of exact solutions for gravitational redshift consists of the following:
The more often used exact solution is for gravitational redshift of non-rotating, uncharged masses which are spherically symmetric. The equation for this is:
z=frac{1}{sqrt{1-left(frac{2GM}{rc^2}right)}}-1, where

G, is the gravitational constant,
M, is the mass of the object creating the gravitational field,
r, is the radial coordinate of the observer (which is analogous to the classical distance from the center of the object, but is actually a Schwarzschild coordinate), and
c, is the speed of light.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008


Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884January 24, 1920) was an Italian artist, practicing both painting and sculpture, who pursued his career for the most part in France. Modigliani was born in Livorno (historically referred to in English as Leghorn), in Central Italy and began his artistic studies in Italy before moving to Paris in 1906. Influenced by the artists in his circle of friends and associates, by a range of genres and art movements, and by primitive art, Modigliani's œuvre was nonetheless unique and idiosyncratic. He died in Paris of tubercular meningitis— exacerbated by poverty, overworking, and an excessive use of alcohol and narcotics — at the age of 35.

Early life
Modigliani is known to have drawn and painted from a very early age, and thought himself "already a painter", his mother wrote, even before beginning formal studies. Despite her misgivings that launching him on a course of studying art would impinge upon his other studies, his mother indulged the young Modigliani's passion for the subject.
At the age of fourteen, while sick with the typhoid fever, he raved in his delirium that he wanted, above all else, to see the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence. As Livorno's local museum only housed a sparse few paintings by the Italian Renaissance masters, the tales he had heard about the great works held in Florence intrigued him, and it was a source of considerable despair to him, in his sickened state, that he might never get the chance to view them in person. His mother promised that she would take him to Florence herself, the moment he was recovered. Not only did she fulfil this promise, but she also undertook to enrol him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli.

Art student years
Modigliani worked in Micheli's Art School from 1898 to 1900. Here his earliest formal artistic instruction took place in an atmosphere deeply steeped in a study of the styles and themes of nineteenth-century Italian art. In his earliest Parisian work, traces of this influence, and that of his studies of Renaissance art, can still be seen: artists such as Giovanni Boldini figure just as much in this nascent work as do those of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Modigliani showed great promise while with Micheli, and only ceased his studies when he was forced to, by the onset of tuberculosis.
In 1901, whilst in Rome, Modigliani admired the work of Domenico Morelli, a painter of melodramatic Biblical studies and scenes from great literature. It is ironic that he should be so struck by Morelli, as this painter had served as an inspiration for a group of iconoclasts who went by the title, the Macchiaioli (from macchia—"dash of colour", or, more derogatively, "stain"), and Modigliani had already been exposed to the influences of the Macchiaioli. This minor, localized art movement was possessed of a need to react against the bourgeois stylings of the academic genre painters. While sympathetically connected to (and actually pre-dating) the French Impressionists, the Macchiaioli did not make the same impact upon international art culture as did the followers of Monet, and are today largely forgotten outside of Italy.
Modigliani's connection with the movement was through Guglielmo Micheli, his first art teacher. Micheli was not only a Macchiaioli himself, but had been a pupil of the famous Giovanni Fattori, a founder of the movement. Micheli's work, however, was so fashionable and the genre so commonplace that the young Modigliani reacted against it, preferring to ignore the obsession with landscape that, as with French Impressionism, characterized the movement. Micheli also tried to encourage his pupils to paint en plein air, but Modigliani never really got a taste for this style of working, sketching in cafés, but preferring to paint indoors, and especially in his own studio. Even when compelled to paint landscapes (three are known to exist),
In 1902, Modigliani continued what was to be a life-long infatuation with life drawing, enrolling in the Accademia di Belle Arti (Scuola Libera di Nudo, or "Free School of Nude Studies") in Florence. A year later while still suffering from tuberculosis, he moved to Venice, where he registered to study at the Istituto di Belle Arti.
It is in Venice that he first smoked hashish and, rather than studying, began to spend time frequenting disreputable parts of the city. The impact of these lifestyle choices upon his developing artistic style is open to conjecture, although these choices do seem to be more than simple teenage rebellion, or the cliched hedonism and bohemianism that was almost expected of artists of the time; his pursuit of the seedier side of life appears to have roots in his appreciation of radical philosophies, such as those of Nietzsche.

Micheli and the Macchiaioli
Having been exposed to erudite philosophical literature as a young boy under the tutelage of Isaco Garsin, his maternal grandfather, he continued to read and be influenced through his art studies by the writings of Nietzsche, Baudelaire, Carducci, Comte de Lautréamont, and others, and developed the belief that the only route to true creativity was through defiance and disorder.
Letters that he wrote from his 'sabbatical' in Capri in 1901 clearly indicate that he is being more and more influenced by the thinking of Nietzsche. In these letters, he advised friend Oscar Ghiglia,
The work of Lautréamont was equally influential at this time. This doomed poet's Les Chants de Maldoror became the seminal work for the Parisian Surrealists of Modigliani's generation, and the book became Modigliani's favourite to the extent that he learnt it by heart.

Early literary influences

Paris
In 1906 Modigliani moved to Paris, then the focal point of the avant-garde. In fact, his arrival at the epicentre of artistic experimentation coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: Gino Severini and Juan Gris.
He settled in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a commune for penniless artists in Montmartre, renting himself a studio in Rue Caulaincourt. Even though this artists' quarter of Montmartre was characterized by generalized poverty, Modigliani himself presented - initially, at least - as one would expect the son of a family trying to maintain the appearances of its lost financial standing to present: his wardrobe was dapper without ostentation, and the studio he rented was appointed in a style appropriate to someone with a finely attuned taste in plush drapery and Renaissance reproductions. He soon made efforts to assume the guise of the bohemian artist, but, even in his brown corduroys, scarlet scarf and large black hat, he continued to appear as if he were slumming it, having fallen upon harder times.

Arrival
Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. He transformed himself from a dapper academician artist into a sort of prince of vagabonds.
The poet and journalist Louis Latourette, upon visiting the artist's previously well-appointed studio after his transformation, discovered the place in upheaval, the Renaissance reproductions discarded from the walls, the plush drapes in disarray. Modigliani was already an alcoholic and a drug addict by this time, and his studio reflected this. Modigliani's behaviour at this time sheds some light upon his developing style as an artist, in that the studio had become almost a sacrificial effigy for all that he resented about the academic art that had marked his life and his training up to that point.
Not only did he remove all the trappings of his bourgeois heritage from his studio, but he also set about destroying practically all of his own early work. He explained this extraordinary course of actions to his astonished neighbours thus:
The motivation for this violent rejection of his earlier self is the subject of considerable speculation. The self-destructive tendencies may have stemmed from his tuberculosis and the knowledge (or presumption) that the disease had essentially marked him for an early death; within the artists' quarter, many faced the same sentence, and the typical response was to set about enjoying life while it lasted, principally by indulging in self-destructive actions. For Modigliani such behavior may have been a response to a lack of recognition; it is known that he sought the company of other alcoholic artists such as Utrillo and Soutine, seeking acceptance and validation for his work from his colleagues. that it is entirely possible for Modigliani to have achieved even greater artistic heights had he not been immured in, and destroyed by, his own self-indulgences. We can only speculate what he might have accomplished had he emerged intact from his self-destructive explorations.

Transformation
During his early years in Paris, Modigliani worked at a furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost - destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them. Tall (Modigliani was only 5 foot 5 inches) with dark hair (like Modigliani's), pale skin and grey-green eyes, she embodied Modigliani's aesthetic ideal and the pair became engrossed in each other. After a year, however, Anna returned to her husband.

Output
In 1909, Modigliani returned home to Livorno, sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle. Soon he was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse. He originally saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and was encouraged to continue after Paul Guillaume, an ambitious young art dealer, took an interest in his work and introduced him to sculptor Constantin Brancusi.
Although a series of Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited in the Salon d'Automne of 1912, by 1914 he abandoned sculpting and focused solely on his painting, a move precipitated by the difficulty in acquiring stone, and by Modigliani's physical debilitation.

Sculpture
In Modigliani's art, there is evidence of the influence of primitive art from Africa and Cambodia which he may have seen in the Musée de l'Homme, but his stylizations are just as likely to have been the result of his being surrounded by Mediæval sculpture during his studies in Northern Italy (there is no recorded information from Modigliani himself, as there is with Picasso and others, to confirm the contention that he was influenced by either ethnic or any other kind of sculpture). A possible interest in African tribal masks seems to be evident in his portraits. In both his painting and sculpture, the sitters' faces resemble ancient Egyptian painting in their flat and mask-like appearance, with distinctive almond eyes, pursed mouths, twisted noses, and elongated necks. However these same characteristics are shared by Mediæval European sculpture and painting.
Modigliani painted a series of portraits of contemporary artists and friends in Montparnasse: Chaim Soutine, Moise Kisling, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Marie "Marevna" Vorobyev-Stebeslka, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, and Jean Cocteau, all sat for stylized renditions.
At the outset of World War I, Modigliani tried to enlist in the army but was refused because of his poor health.

Question of influences
Known as Modì, which translates as 'cursed' (maudit), by many Parisians, but as Dedo to his family and friends, Modigliani was a handsome man, and attracted much female attention.
Women came and went until Beatrice Hastings entered his life. She stayed with him for almost two years, was the subject for several of his portraits, including Madame Pompadour, and the object of much of his drunken wrath.
When the British painter Nina Hamnett arrived in Montparnasse in 1914, on her first evening there the smiling man at the next table in the café introduced himself as Modigliani; painter and Jew. They became great friends.
In 1916, Modigliani befriended the Polish poet and art dealer Leopold Zborovski and his wife Anna.

The war years
The following summer, the Russian sculptor Chana Orloff introduced him to a beautiful 19-year-old art student named Jeanne Hébuterne who had posed for Tsuguharu Foujita. From a conservative bourgeois background, Hébuterne was renounced by her devout Roman Catholic family for her liaison with the painter, whom they saw as little more than a debauched derelict, and, worse yet, a Jew. Despite her family's objections, soon they were living together, and although Hébuterne was the love of his life, their public scenes became more renowned than Modigliani's individual drunken exhibitions.
On December 3, 1917, Modigliani's first one-man exhibition opened at the Berthe Weill Gallery. The chief of the Paris police was scandalized by Modigliani's nudes and forced him to close the exhibition within a few hours after its opening.
After he and Hébuterne moved to Nice, she became pregnant and on November 29, 1918 gave birth to a daughter whom they named Jeanne (1918-1984).

Jeanne Hébuterne
During a trip to Nice, conceived and organized by Leopold Zborovski, Modigliani, Foujita and other artists tried to sell their works to rich tourists. Modigliani managed to sell a few pictures but only for a few francs each. Despite this, during this time he produced most of the paintings that later became his most popular and valued works.
During his lifetime he sold a number of his works, but never for any great amount of money. What funds he did receive soon vanished for his habits.
In May of 1919 he returned to Paris, where, with Hébuterne and their daughter, he rented an apartment in the rue de la Grande Chaumière. While there, both Jeanne Hébuterne and Amedeo Modigliani painted portraits of each other, and of themselves.

Nice
Although he continued to paint, Modigliani's health was deteriorating rapidly, and his alcohol-induced blackouts became more frequent.
In 1920, after not hearing from him for several days, his downstairs neighbor checked on the family and found Modigliani in bed delirious and holding onto Hébuterne who was nearly nine months pregnant. They summoned a doctor, but little could be done because Modigliani was dying of the then-incurable disease tubercular meningitis.
Modigliani died on January 24, 1920. There was an enormous funeral, attended by many from the artistic communities in Montmartre and Montparnasse.
Hébuterne was taken to her parents' home, where, inconsolable, she threw herself out of a fifth-floor window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child. Modigliani was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Hébuterne was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux near Paris, and it was not until 1930 that her embittered family allowed her body to be moved to rest beside Modigliani.
Modigliani died penniless and destitute—managing only one solo exhibition in his life and giving his work away in exchange for meals in restaurants. Had he lived through the 1920s when American buyers flooded Paris, his fortunes might well have changed. Since his death his reputation has soared. Nine novels, a play, a documentary and three feature films have been devoted to his life.

Death

Painting the Century 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900-2000 Amedeo Modigliani Selected paintings
(Only 27 sculptures by Modigliani are known to exist.)

Head of a Woman (1910/1911).
Head (1911-1913).
Head (1911-1912).
Head (1912).
Rose Caryatid (1914).

Monday, April 21, 2008


The DD postcode area, also known as the Dundee postcode area, is a group of postal districts around Arbroath, Brechin, Carnoustie, Dundee, Forfar, Kirriemuir, Montrose, Newport-on-Tay and Tayport in Scotland.

DD postcode area Coverage

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Major-Minor
In music, the adjectives major and minor can describe a scale, key, chord, or interval. For intervals, the terms refer to a difference in their relative width, major referring to notes somewhat further apart; the other terms are classifications based on the use of certain intervals, especially the major or minor third.
Major and minor are frequently referred to in the titles of compositions in their foreign language form, especially in reference to the key of a piece.

Major and minor scales

Relative key
Parallel key
Major/minor (tonal structure)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

American Historical Review
The American Historical Review (AHR) is the official publication of the American Historical Association (AHA), a body of academics, professors, teachers, students, historians, curators and others, founded in 1884 "for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research." The AHR targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history, not (as some might assume, given the name) only or even primarily those with a professional interest in American History.
The AHR is published in February, April, June, October and December as a book-like academic publication with research papers and book reviews, among other items (each issue typically runs to about 400 pages). Each year in the AHR there are approximately 25 articles and review essays and 1,000 book reviews. Founded in 1895, it refers to itself as the "journal of record for the history profession in the United States", and has approximately 18,000 subscribers, mostly university and college libraries and history professors.
The AHR's editorial offices are located at Indiana University at Bloomington, where a small staff produces the publication under the guidance of a 12-member advisory board.

Friday, April 18, 2008

List of jazz organists
This is a list of jazz organists.

TW Ardy
Booker T & the MGs
Brian Auger
Count Basie
Carla Bley
Andre Brasseur
James Brown
Milt Buckner
Doug Carn
Mike Carr
Jimmy Carter, jazz organist
Clifton "Jiggs" Chase
Call Cobbs, Jr.
Ray Colignon
Alice Coltrane
Tom Coster
Wild Bill Davis
Joey DeFrancesco
Barbara Dennerlein
Bill Doggett
Charles Earland
Georgie Fame
Mito Garcia
Larry Goldings
"Sir Julian" Gould
Chris Hamalton
Milt Herth
Danny Hodgson
Richard "Groove" Holmes
John Hondorp
Wayne Horvitz
Will Horwell
Keith Jarrett
Wojciech Karolak
Bruce Katz
Eddie Landsberg
Eddie Layton
Ed Lincoln
Jack McDuff
Jimmy McGriff
John Medeski
Paolo Negri
Don Paterson
John Patton
Andre Penazzi
Lucky Peterson
Trudy Pitts
Alan Price
Don Pullen
Mac "Dr. John" Rebbenack
Mel Rhyne
Merl Saunders
Rhoda Scott
Shirley Scott
Ethel Smith
Jimmy Smith
Dr. Lonnie Smith
Harry Stoneham
James Taylor
Sir Charles Thompson
Paul Wagnberg
Cherry Wainer
Fats Waller
Robert Walter
Walter Wanderley
Otto Weiss
Baby Face Willette
Klaus Wunderlich
Larry Young
Joe Zawinul