all that matters to me

Sacha de Boer

2006-06-29T16:31:00.000+02:00

Sacha de Boer (Amsterdam, 9 april 1967, spreek uit als Sasja) is samen met Philip Freriks de vaste presentator van het NOS achtuurjournaal.
Sacha de Boer groeide op in Weesp als dochter van een huisarts en ging in Hilversum naar het plaatselijke Lyceum.
Ze studeerde communicatiewetenschap aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Haar afstudeerscriptie ging over AT5, een lokale TV-zender in Amsterdam, waar zij in 1992 als redacteur werkte.In 1994 was ze nieuwslezer en redacteur bij Radio 10 en Concertradio. Vanaf juni 1994 was ze regelmatig op TV te zien als nieuwslezer van AT5.
In januari 1995 stapte De Boer over naar RTL5, waar ze nieuwsflitsen ging lezen. Na een half jaar werd ze samen met Rick Nieman presentator van een nieuw Veronicaprogramma, Nieuwslijn. In 1996 werd dat programma gestopt omdat het onvoldoende kijkers trok. Sindsdien werkt ze voor het NOS-journaal, vanaf 15 juli 2003 als vaste presentator van het acht-uur-journaal. Van november 2002 tot eind 2003 was ze tevens een vaste presentator van het NOS-radioprogramma Met het oog op morgen.
Sacha trouwde op 14 februari 2002 met RTL Nieuws-presentator Rick Nieman.
Door de kijkers van het NOS-journaal, die op de presentatoren konden stemmen i.v.m. het 50-jarig jubileum, werd zij als beste presentator verkozen, net boven Harmen Siezen.

youp van 't hek

2005-08-18T15:41:00.000+02:00

Youp van ’t Hek wordt op 28 februari 1954 in Naarden geboren als Joep (Joseph Jacobus Maria) van ’t Hek. Hij is het zevende, op één na jongste kind van Amsterdamse ouders. Er is thuis veel aandacht voor muziek. Vader, directeur van een beleggingsmaatschappij, is een groot operaliefhebber. Maar ook het vaderlandse cabaret is rijkelijk vertegenwoordigd in zijn platencollectie. Met Tommie draait Joep deze platen grijs. Zoals zijn jongere broertje ervan droomt hoe een vol voetbalstadion hem onthaalt (het wordt overigens het hockeyveld), zo hoort Joep het applaus voor Wim Sonneveld, Wim Kan en Toon Hermans en hij ziet zichzelf in een volle schouwburg opkomen. Hij schrijft schriften vol met zijn eerste liedjes en conferences, maar als hij van de lagere school af komt, heeft hij een ander toekomstplan: hij wil priester worden.
Als dertienjarige gaat hij naar Klein Seminarie Hageveld, maar hij maakt het eerste jaar niet af: ‘te lastig, te grote bek, te veel heimwee’. Hierna volgen verschillende middelbare scholen, maar ook daar stuurt men hem voortijdig weg. Als hij zestien jaar oud is, heeft hij het nog maar geschopt tot en met de tweede klas mavo. De Naardense Ministerparkschool voor Christelijke Mavo wil het nog wel met de lastpost proberen. De strenge aanpak – met dagelijkse huiswerkoverhoringen en zaterdagse inhaaluren – helpt hem zijn diploma halen. Maar wat belangrijker is: hier start zijn carrière als schrijver en speler. Hij wordt hoofdredacteur van de schoolkrant, maakt daarvoor leuke interviews met bekende Nederlanders en schrijft pagina’s vol met grappen en verzinsels. En hij leidt het schoolcabaret, waarvoor hij dan zowat het hele programma schrijft. Twee avonden achtereen treedt hij daarin op voor een zaal van vijfhonderd mensen. Dat geeft hem een kick en veel zelfvertrouwen. Hij weet dat de tijd rijp is zich verder te bekwamen als Toon Hermans, Wim Sonneveld en vooral Wim Kan.
Hij belt het Hilversumse impresariaat Lumen, vertelt dat hij 17 jaar is en cabaretier wordt. Hij wil weten hoe hij dat moet aanpakken. Hij mag een week mee op tournee met Fons Jansen. Omdat zijn cabaretcarrière toch nog niet echt begonnen is, raden zijn ouders hem wel aan op het Goois lyceum nog even de havo af te maken. Hij staat er dat jaar ingeschreven maar komt er zelden.
In 1973 wordt Joep Youp. Een vriendin voegt met een viltstift de letter p toe aan de tekst We help you op zijn t-shirt. Sinds die dag schrijft hij zijn naam nooit anders meer. Hij verhuist naar Amsterdam en treedt op in schoolaula’s met zijn eerste programma: Your Youp for You. In het najaar richt hij Cabaret NAR op, samen met onder anderen zijn vriendin Debby Petter. In 1976 verlaat zij het groepje en de cabaretier, om pas halverwege de jaren tachtig weer in zijn leven terug te keren. Ze is behalve bekende Nederlander (o.m. als presentatrice NOS-journaal) ook de moeder van hun twee kinderen: Anna (19..) en Julius (19..).
NAR speelt, in wisselende samenstellingen en met Youp van ’t Hek als constante factor, zijn programma’s in buurthuizen en jeugdsociëteiten en in zelf gehuurde achterafzaaltjes. Er zit vaak net genoeg publiek om uit de kosten te komen. Om te leven en weer nieuwe optredens te kunnen financieren, heeft hij allerlei baantjes.Zo werkt hij als ontbijtkelder en copywriter, maar ook als kantoorklerk. De afkeer van het saaie, risicoloze kantoorbestaan – een vast motief uit al zijn shows – dankt hij aan die periode.
Naam maakt het groepje pas vanaf het vijfde programma, in 1977. De eerste recensies komen en de eerste aanbiedingen van cabaretpodia. Impresariaat Lumen neemt in 1979 de zakelijke leiding op zich en gaat ook financieel in de programma’s investeren. Van 't Hek kan het zich permitteren te stoppen met allerlei bijbaantjes om in zijn levens- en cabaretonderhoud te voorzien.
De doorbraak komt in 1983 met Man vermist, het achtste en laatste NAR-programma, maar eigenlijk al een verkapte solovoorstelling. Daarna gaat het snel met Van 't Heks carrière en na tien magere jaren volgen alleen maar vette. Dat succes dankt hij bovenal aan de thematiek van die solovoorstellingen en de humoristische en steeds persoonlijker wijze waarop hij zijn onderwerpen aan de orde stelt. Zijn stellingname en zijn sociale betrokkenheid tonen overduidelijk aan dat hij zelf behoort tot die kritische, progressieve bevolkingsgroep. Maar qua thematiek grijpt hij ook steeds een laag dieper, naar veel universelere onderwerpen: het verliezen van de idealen van je jeugd, de verburgerlijking en sleur die in je volwassen leven sluipt via een te drukke baan, een te dure hypotheek, een niet altijd bijster gelukkig gezinsleven en die steeds dreigender angst voor de dood, omdat de klok nu eenmaal doortikt... In deze ‘problematiek' herkent honderd procent van de volwassenen bevolking iets van zichzelf.
Van 't Hek ‘rammelt aan de lelijke decors van mensen, de rare bijzaken waar ze hun tijd mee verprutsen'. Daarbij houdt hij zichzelf niet buiten schot. Maar hij bleef oprecht en integer en heeft zijn idealen niet verkwanseld. Daarom stoort het zijn publiek ook niet dat hij hun gedrag zo bespot en bekritiseert. Hij bewijst dat het mogelijk is uit het systeem te blijven en je vrijheid, je onafhankelijkheid, je idealen, je dromen te behouden. Hij die de spiegel voorhoudt, heeft bereikt waar zij voor het overgrote deel niet in slaagden.
In zijn negen theatersolo’s en drie Oudejaarsavondconferences – van Verlopen en Verlaten (1984) tot en met De wereld draait door (2001) – is hij steeds pregnanter gaan variëren op dat ene fascinerende thema: de discrepantie tussen wat het maatschappelijk leven van je verwacht en wat er gebeurt als je je hart volgt. Het is het carpe diem-motto dat ook de columns domineert die hij sinds 1983 elke zaterdag schrijft voor NRC-Handelsblad en dat in 1973 al doorklonk in dat allereerste optreden in die schoolaula: Leef toch je leven als je allerlaatste uur.

supermodels

2005-08-18T15:22:00.000+02:00

A supermodel is a highly paid fashion model in an elite group with a worldwide reputation. The term was coined in 1979 by Janice Dickinson, and gained currency by analogy with Andy Warhol's "superstars" of the 1960s, and, like "superstardom", it has been inflated to include almost anyone who finds steady access to work, uncommon in the highly volatile fashion industry.
The term emerged in the 1980s, though a number of models had become famous in their own right as far back as Dorian Leigh in the late 1940s. Probably the first model whose name and face were familiar to those outside the fashion industry was Suzy Parker in the 1950s. However, some note Cheryl Tiegs as the first modern supermodel, who emerged in the 1960s, while others claim that Janice Dickinson has the right to the title of first supermodel. The high point of the supermodel era was in the 1980s and 1990s, with some of the most famous being "The Trinity" of Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington. Also in this era, models like Paulina Porizkova paved the way for an influx Eastern European models. It was at this time that Cindy Crawford successfully leveraged her modelling fame into hosting her own television show, MTV's House of Style, creating and promoting many exercise video tapes, and posing in Playboy (she was the first supermodel/model to do all of these).
Supermodels are, almost by definition, sex symbols. Supermodels of today are globally famous, and parlay their celebrity into product endorsement deals and often into acting careers. Supermodels who have made the switch include Milla Jovovich, Elle Macpherson and Rebecca Romijn.
According to Forbes magazine, as of 2004, the five highest-paid supermodels in the world were, in descending order, Milla Jovovich, Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum, Caroline Murphy, and Tyra Banks [1].
In the past many supermodels were female. However today more and more male models are also becoming famous. The position of the world's most famous and highest paid male supermodel is currently contested between Jamaican-American actor and model Tyson Beckford, and Swedish model and bodybuilder Marcus Schenkenberg.

A list of supermodels:
A
Maud Adams
Aishwarya Rai
Kim Alexis
Carol Alt
Alessandra Ambrosio
Nadja Auermann
B
Tyra Banks
Ana Beatriz Barros
Tyson Beckford
Elsa Benitez
Marcelle Bittar
Veronica Blume
Caprice Bourret
Christie Brinkley
Gisele Bündchen
C
Naomi Campbell
Gia Carangi
Laetitia Casta
Helena Christensen
Cindy Crawford
D
Yamila Diaz
Janice Dickinson
Liliana Domínguez
E
Linda Evangelista
F
Cristina Ferrare
Isabeli Fontana
G
Yasmeen Ghauri
H
Bridget Hall
Shalom Harlow
Eva Herzigova
Rachel Hunter
I
Iman Abdulmajid
Kathy Ireland
J
Milla Jovovich
K
Vendela Kirsebom
Heidi Klum
Karolina Kurkova
L
Yasmin Le Bon
Adriana Lima
M
Elle Macpherson
Josie Maran
Valeria Mazza
Jaydy Michel
Michelle Alves
Kate Moss
Astrid Munoz
N
Petra Němcová
Chandra North
O
Beth Ostrosky
P
Irina Pantaeva
Suzy Parker
Daniela Pestova
Paulina Porizkova
Isabel Preysler
R
Aurora Robles
Rebecca Romijn
S
Marcus Schenkenberg
Claudia Schiffer
Stephanie Seymour
Sissi (model)
Milind Soman
T
Fernanda Tavares
Niki Taylor
Cheryl Tiegs
Christy Turlington
Twiggy
V
Amber Valletta
Veronica Varekova
Natalia Vodianova
W
Frederique van der Wal
Waris Dirie
Alek Wek
Jacquetta Wheeler
Wilhelmina Cooper
Stacey Williams

lego

2005-05-20T19:12:00.000+02:00

LEGO sets, colloquially known as "Lego" or "Legos," are a line of toys featuring colorful plastic bricks, gears, characters, and other pieces which can be assembled to create realistic or fanciful models of cars, planes, trains, buildings, castles, pirate ships, spaceships, moon bases, or just about anything else from fantasy, science fiction, or the real world. The sets are produced by the LEGO Group, a Denmark-based company. High production quality and careful attention to detail ensures that LEGO pieces can fit together in a myriad of ways.
The LEGO Group had humble beginnings in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a poor carpenter from Billund, Denmark. His innovative family-owned business would one day grow into one of the most respected toy companies in the world.
In 1916, Christiansen opened a woodworking shop in Billund, and earned his living by constructing houses and furniture for farmers in the region, with the help of a small staff of apprentices. His workshop burned down in 1924 when a fire, lit by his two young sons, ignited some wood shavings. Undaunted, Ole Kirk took the disaster as an opportunity to construct a larger workshop, and worked towards expanding his business even further; however, the Great Depression would soon have an impact on his livelihood. In finding ways to minimize production costs, Ole Kirk began producing miniature versions of his products as design aids. It was these miniature stepladders and ironing boards that inspired him to begin producing toys.
Ole Kirk's shop started making wooden pull toys, piggy banks, cars and trucks. He enjoyed a modest amount of success, but families were poor and often unable to afford such toys. Farmers in the area sometimes traded food in exchange for his toys; Ole Kirk found he had to continue producing practical furniture in addition to toys in order to stay in business. In the mid-1930s, the yo-yo toy fad gave him a brief period of activity, until its sudden collapse. Once again, Ole Kirk turned disadvantage to his favor, turning the disused yo-yo parts into wheels for a toy truck. His son Godtfred began working for him, taking an active role in the company.
It was in 1934 that the company name LEGO was coined by Christiansen from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well." The LEGO Group claims that "LEGO" means "I put together" or "I assemble" in Latin [1] (http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=timeline7), though this is a rather liberal translation of a verb form that would normally translate as "I read" or "I gather."
When plastic came into widespread use, Ole Kirk kept with the times and began producing plastic toys. One of the first modular toys to be produced was a truck that could be taken apart and re-assembled. In 1947, Ole Kirk and Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. These "Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks" were designed and patented by Mr. Hilary Harry Fisher Page, a British citizen. [2] (http://isodomos.com/technica/history/1940/1949.php) [3] (http://www.best-lock.com/new/page.html) In 1949 the LEGO Group began producing similar bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks." LEGO bricks, manufactured from cellulose acetate, were developed in the spirit of traditional wooden blocks that could be stacked upon one another; however, these plastic bricks could be "locked" together. They had several round "studs" on top, and a hollow rectangular bottom. They would stick together, but not so tightly that they couldn't be pulled apart. In 1953, the bricks were given a new name: LEGO Mursten, or "LEGO Bricks."
The use of plastic for toy manufacture was not highly regarded by retailers and consumers of the time. Many of the LEGO Group's shipments were returned, following poor sales; it was thought that plastic toys could never replace wooden ones. Despite such criticism, however, the Kirk Christiansens persevered. By 1954, Godtfred had become the junior managing director of the LEGO Group. It was his conversation with an overseas buyer that struck the idea of a toy system. Godtfred saw the immense potential in LEGO bricks to become a system for creative play, but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their "locking" ability was limited, and they were not very versatile. It wasn't until 1958 that the modern-day brick design was developed. The bricks were improved with hollow tubes in the underside of the brick. This added support in the base, enabling much better locking ability and improved versatility. That same year, Ole Kirk Christiansen died, and Godtfred inherited leadership of the company.
The LEGO Group matured substantially over the coming years. In 1959, the Futura division was founded within the company. Its small staff was responsible for generating ideas for new sets. Another warehouse fire struck the LEGO Group in 1960, consuming most of the company's inventory of wooden toys; fortunately, the LEGO brick line was strong enough by then that the company decided to abandon production of wooden toys. By the end of the year, the staff of the LEGO Group had grown to 450.
1961 and 1962 saw the introduction of the first LEGO wheels, an addition that expanded the potential for building cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles from LEGO bricks. Also during this time, the LEGO Group introduced toys specifically targeted towards the pre-school market, and made an arrangement allowing Samsonite to begin producing and selling LEGO products in Canada, an arrangement that would continue until 1988. There were more than 50 sets of bricks in the LEGO System of Play by this time.
In 1963, the material used to create LEGO bricks, cellulose acetate, was dropped in favor of more stable acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS plastic, which is still used as of 2004. ABS is non-toxic, is less prone to discoloration and warping, and is also more resistant to heat, acids, salt, and other chemicals than cellulose acetate. LEGO bricks manufactured from ABS plastic in 1963 still hold most of their shape and color 40 years later, and still neatly interlock with LEGO bricks manufactured in 2003.
1964 was the first time that instruction manuals were included in LEGO sets.
One of the LEGO Group's most successful series, the LEGO train system, was first released in 1966. The original train sets included a 4.5-volt motor and rails; two years later, a 12-volt motor was introduced.
On June 7, 1968, the first LEGOLAND Park was opened in Billund. This theme park featured elaborate models of miniature towns built entirely from LEGO bricks. The three acre (12,000 m²) park attracted 625,000 visitors in its first year alone. During the next 20 years, the park grew to more than eight times its original size, and eventually averaged close to a million paying visitors per year. More than eighteen million LEGO sets were sold in 1968.
In 1969, the DUPLO system went on sale. This was a newly developed system, targeted towards younger children; DUPLO bricks are much larger than LEGO bricks, making them safer for very young children, but the two systems are compatible: LEGO bricks can be fitted neatly onto DUPLO bricks, making the transition to the LEGO system easily made as children outgrow their DUPLO bricks.
The 1960s were such a period of growth for the LEGO Group that by 1970, one of the biggest questions they faced was how best to manage and control its expanding market.
By 1970, the LEGO Group had a staff of more than 900. The coming decades marked considerable expansion into new frontiers of toy making and marketing. LEGO began to target the female market with the introduction of furniture pieces and dollhouses in 1971. The LEGO universe expanded its transportation possibilities with the addition of boat and ship sets, with hull pieces that actually floated, in 1972.
During this same period, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen's son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, joined the managerial staff of the company, after earning business degrees in Switzerland and Denmark. (Kjeld's surname is spelled with a "K", instead of a "Ch", due to a mistake on his birth certificate; he kept the spelling.) One of Kjeld's first achievements with the company was the foundation of manufacturing facilities, as well as a research and development department that would be responsible for keeping the company's manufacturing methods up to date. Human figures with posable arms made an appearance in 1974 in "LEGO family" sets, which went on to become the biggest sellers at the time; in the same year, an early version of the "minifigure" miniature LEGO person was introduced, but it was not posable and had no face printed on its head. A LEGO production plant was opened in Enfield, Connecticut in the United States.
"Expert Series" sets were first introduced in 1975, geared towards older, more experienced LEGO builders. This line soon developed into the "Expert Builder" sets, released in 1977. These technical sets featured moving parts such as gears, differentials, cogs, levers, axles and universal joints, and permitted the construction of realistic models such as automobiles, with functional rack and pinion steering and lifelike engine movements. Finally, the LEGO world came together in 1978 with the addition of the LEGO "minifigure" that is still known today. These small LEGO people have posable arms and legs, and a friendly smile. The figure was used in many varieties of LEGO sets, allowing consumers to construct elaborate towns with buildings, roads, vehicles, trains, and boats, at the same scale, and populated with the smiling minifigure LEGO citizens.
Another significant expansion to the LEGO line occurred in 1979, with the creation of LEGO Space sets. Astronaut minifigures, rockets, lunar rovers and spaceships populated this successful series. FABULAND, a fantasy series targeted towards younger children, debuted in this year as well, as did the SCALA series, featuring jewelry elements marketed towards young girls. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen became the president of LEGO in this year; another decade concluded with LEGO toys still going strong.
LEGO bricks had always had a constructive potential that was seen by some educators as being an invaluable asset in helping children to develop creativity and problem-solving abilities. Since the 1960s, teachers had been using LEGO bricks in the classroom for a variety of reasons. In 1980, the LEGO Group established the Educational Products Department (eventually renamed LEGO DACTA, in 1989), specifically to expand the educational possibilities of their toys. A packing and assembly factory opened in Switzerland, followed by another in Jutland, Denmark that manufactured LEGO tires.
The second generation of LEGO trains appeared in 1981. As before these were available in either 4.5 V (battery powered) or 12 V (mains powered), but a much wider variety of accessories were available, including working lights, remote-controlled points and signals, and even decouplers.
The "Expert Builder" series matured in 1982, becoming the "Technic" series. August 13 of that year marked the LEGO Group's 50th anniversary; the book 50 Years of Play was published to commemorate the occasion. In the following year, the DUPLO system was expanded to include sets for even younger audiences, particularly infants; new sets included baby rattles and figures with adjustable limbs. In another year, LEGO minifigure citizens gained a realm of knights and horses, with the introduction of the first Castle sets. Light & Sound sets made their appearance in 1986; these sets included a battery pack with electrical lights, buzzers, and other accessories to add another dimension of realism to LEGO creations. Also that year, the LEGO Group's educational division produced the Technic Computer Control, which was an educational system whereby Technic robots, trucks, and other motorized models could be controlled with a computer. Manaus, Brazil gained a LEGO factory in this year, as well.
In 1986, the Technic line was expanded with the addition of pneumatic components.
A new series designed for advanced builders was released in 1990. Three Model Team sets, including a racecar and an off-road vehicle, featured a level of detail and realism not previously seen in any LEGO series. Where Technic was mechanically accurate, Model Team was visually and stylistically accurate. The LEGO Group became one of the top 10 toy companies in this year; it was the only toy company in Europe to be among the top 10. LEGOLAND Billund had more than one million visitors in this year, for the first time in its history. The first-ever "LEGO Professor of Business Dynamics," Xavier Gilbert, was appointed to an endowed chair at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. LEGO Malaysia was also established in 1990. In 1991, the LEGO Group standardized its electrical components and systems; the Trains and Technic motors were made 9V to bring the systems into line with the rest of the LEGO range.
Two Guinness records were set in 1992 using LEGO products: A castle made from 400,000 LEGO bricks, and measuring 4.45 meters by 5.22 meters, was built on Swedish television, and a LEGO railway line 545 meters in length, with three locomotives, was constructed. DUPLO was augmented with the addition of the Toolo line featuring a screwdriver, wrench, nuts and bolts; the Paradisa line, targeted towards girls, brought a variety of new pastel colors into the LEGO system and focused around horses and a beach theme. 1993 brought a DUPLO train and a parrot-shaped "brickvac" that could scoop LEGO pieces up off the floor.
Early prototypes of the LEGO minifigure had a variety of skin colors and facial expressions, but production designs used only a yellow skin color and standard smiling face. LEGO Pirates in 1989 expanded the array of facial expressions by adding beards and eye patches. Soon the other themes caught on, ranging from sun glasses, lipstick, eye lashes, and so on. However, many of the older collectors resented the new look, saying they looked too "cartoon-ish" or "kiddy", and prefered the simplistic nature of the two eyes and smile. Nevertheless, licensed series such as LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Harry Potter gave minifigures the personas of specific characters from their cinematic counterparts, but it wasn't until 2003, with the introduction of LEGO Basketball, that the palette of skin tones broadened to include more lifelike colors. [4] (http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pressdetail&contentid=2490)
In 2004, the LEGO Group decided to replace some of their colours (grey, dark grey, brown and violet), of which the first two are core colours of the system. A large part of the fandom considers this a very bad idea, and even the company itself admits it to be a mistake, although they decided against fixing it.
LEGO brick design can be deceptively simple. The vast array of pieces in the LEGO System of Play seem to require no explanation; since they are made for children, they are designed to be so straightforward as to require little or no instruction in how to use them. To achieve such apparent simplicity, a considerable amount of engineering and precision manufacturing must go into the creation of each LEGO piece.
One of the key features of LEGO bricks throughout their history is that they are, first and foremost, part of a system. Each new series and set that is released is compatible with the rest of the system; LEGO pieces, regardless of their size, shape, or function, fit together with all other LEGO pieces in some way. The gear and motor mechanisms that come with the most advanced Technic sets, designed for teenagers, can be almost effortlessly attached to the DUPLO bricks designed for three-year-old children. This characteristic enables the LEGO system to grow and adapt as children get older; the infinite possibilities presented by the system keep many adults fascinated, as well.
Manufacturing of LEGO bricks occurs at a number of locations around the world. As of 2003, molding is done at one of two plants in Denmark and Switzerland. Brick decorations and packaging may be done at plants in Denmark, Switzerland, U.S., South Korea and the Czech Republic. Annual production of LEGO bricks averages approximately 20 billion (2 × 1010) per year, or about 2.3 million per hour.
Bricks, beams, axles, minifigures, and all other elements in the LEGO system are manufactured to an exacting degree of tolerance. When snapped together, pieces must have just the right amount of "clutch power"; they must stay together until pulled apart. They cannot be too easy to pull apart, or the result will be LEGO creations that are unstable; they cannot be too difficult to pull apart, since the disassembly of one creation in order to build another is part of the LEGO appeal. In order for pieces to have just the right "clutch power", LEGO elements are manufactured within a tolerance of two thousandths of a millimetre (0.002 mm), or eighty millionths of an inch (0.00008 in).
One of the techniques that help to maintain this high degree of quality is the small capacity of the molds; some toy companies, in order to cut manufacturing costs, use molds capable of stamping out sixty pieces at a time. LEGO molds generally have a much smaller capacity, and are precision-machined, often costing tens of thousands of dollars. The injection molds are equipped with sensors to detect fluctuations in pressure and temperature, either of which can degrade the quality of the resulting piece. Human inspectors meticulously check the output of the molds, to ensure that there are no significant variations in color or thickness. Worn-out molds are encased in the foundations of buildings to prevent their falling into competitors' hands. According to the LEGO Group, its molding processes are so accurate that only 18 bricks out of every million fail to meet its stringent standards. It is thanks to this care in manufacturing that the LEGO Group has maintained such a high degree of quality over the decades; it is also part of the reason that pieces manufactured 30 years ago still interlock neatly with pieces manufactured today.
Since it began producing plastic bricks, the LEGO Group has released many thousands of play sets themed on space, robots, pirates, medieval castles, dinosaurs, cities, suburbia, holiday locations, the Wild West, the Arctic, boats, racing cars, trains, Star Wars, Harry Potter and more. New pieces are being released constantly, allowing LEGO sets to become more and more versatile.
There are also motors, gears, lights, noisemakers and cameras available to be used with the other LEGO components. There are even bricks that can be programmed with a personal computer to perform very complicated procedures. These programmable bricks are sold under the name LEGO Mindstorms.
In the late 1990s, the LEGO Group brought out a series of new and specialized ranges aimed at particular demographics. The Bionicle range uses Technic pieces and specialist moldings to create a set of action figures for boys, while Belville is a more conventional line aimed at girls and featuring large posable figures like those in the Technic range. A "LEGO 4 Juniors" group features medium-sized figures with jointed arms, and longer legs than the classic LEGO minifigure. In 2003, the LEGO Group introduced a completely new system, Clikits, aimed at girls and consisting of customizable plastic jewelry and accessories. In 2004, they created Knights Kingdom.
LEGO bricks have now been used for purposes beyond play. A cult following of people who have used LEGO pieces to make sculptures, very large mosaics and complex machines has developed. Some sculptures use hundreds of thousands of pieces and weigh tens of kilograms. Large mosaics, fully functional padlocks and pendulum clocks, and even a harpsichord (http://www.henrylim.org/Harpsichord.html) have been constructed from LEGO pieces. One such masterpiece solves a Rubik's Cube through the use of LEGO motors and cameras, a task that many humans cannot accomplish. Photos of many fan creations like these can be seen at Brickshelf (http://www.brickshelf.com/) and at MOCpages (http://www.mocpages.com/). A group which calls itself "AFOLs" (for "Adult Fans of LEGO") is an important demographic for The LEGO Group, which has recently begun reintroducing popular sets from previous years to appeal to this group.
LEGO toys have been used in a number of unexpected ways. For example, at The Brick Testament (http://www.bricktestament.com/) the 'Reverend' Brendan Powell Smith has painstakingly built the Bible in LEGO pieces. The site features over 2,000 photographs of Biblical scenes. The website theory.org.uk (http://www.theory.org.uk/lego.htm) (by academic David Gauntlett) features LEGO versions of social theorists. A set of software tools called LDraw can be used to model possible LEGO creations in 3D. Because of the high degree of uniformity in LEGO bricks, they have also been used in fields such as computer vision, in which knowing the exact dimensions and relative positions of objects is useful for creating test data.
In 2003, the LEGO Group faced a budget deficit of 1.4 billion DKK (220 million USD at then current exchange rates), causing president Poul Plougmann to be fired and Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to take over. In the following year, almost one thousand employees were fired, due to budget cuts.
However, in October, 2004, as the LEGO Group faced an even larger deficit, Kristiansen once again stepped down as president, while placing 800,000 DKK of his private funds in the company.
Future plans for getting the company back on track include selling the LEGOLAND entertainment parks to another of the Kristansen family held companies and reducing its workforce. Moving production of its bricks to China like so many toy companies has also been mooted but is unlikely to occur within the next 5 years.
In 2005, the LEGO Group reported a 2004 net loss of DKK 1.9 billion on a total turnover, including LEGO's amusement parks, of DKK 7,934 billion
One hobby among enthusiasts is to re-create popular scenes from famous movies, using LEGO bricks for the scenery and LEGO play sets as characters. Such movies are called "LEGO movies", "brickfilms", or "cinema LEGO". For example, the Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD contained a version of the "Camelot" musical sequence redone with LEGO minifigures and accessories.
Artists have also used LEGO sets with one of the more notorious examples being Polish artist Zbigniew Libera's "LEGO Concentration Camp," a collection of mocked-up concentration camp-themed LEGO sets.[5]
Another notable example is the award-winning Music video for the song "Fell in Love With a Girl" by the White Stripes. Director Michel Gondry filmed a live version of the video, digitized the result, and then recreated it entirely with LEGO bricks.
Several webcomics are illustrated with LEGO, notably Irregular Webcomic!.
LEGO itself sells a line of sets named "LEGO Studios," which contain a LEGO web cam (repackaged Logitech USB Quickcam), software to record video on a computer, clear plastic rods which can be used to manipulate minifigures from off-camera, and a minifigure resembling Steven Spielberg.
The LEGO Group's name has become so synonymous with its flagship toy that many use the words "Lego" or "Legos" to refer to the bricks themselves, and even to any plastic bricks resembling LEGO bricks, although the LEGO Group discourages such dilution of their trademark name. LEGO catalogs in the 1970s and 1980s contained a note that read:
The word LEGO® is a brand name and is very special to all of us in the LEGO Group Companies. We would sincerely like your help in keeping it special. Please always refer to our bricks as 'LEGO Bricks or Toys' and not 'LEGOS.' By doing so, you will be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very proud and that stands for quality the world over. Thank you! Susan Williams, Consumer Services.
"LEGO" is officially written in all uppercase letters. The company asserts that to protect its brand name, the word LEGO must always be used as an adjective, as in "LEGO set," "LEGO products," "LEGO universe," and so forth.
One such competitor is COKO, manufactured by Chinese company Tianjin COKO Toy Co., Ltd. In 2002, Swiss LEGO subsidiary INTERLEGO AG brought lawsuit against the company for copyright infringement. A trial court found many COKO bricks to be infringing; COKO was ordered to cease manufacture of the infringing bricks, publish a formal apology in the Beijing Daily, and pay a small fee in damages to INTERLEGO. On appeal, the Beijing High People's Court upheld the trial court's ruling.[6] (http://www.ccpit-patent.com.cn/News/2003041001.htm) In 2003 the LEGO Group won a lawsuit in Norway against the marketing group Biltema for its sale of COKO products, on the grounds that the company used product confusion for marketing purposes. [7] (http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pressdetail&contentid=2484&amp;amp;countrycode=2057&yearcode=2003&archive=true&bhcp=1) Also in 2003, a large shipment of LEGO-like products marketed under the name "Enlighten" was seized by Finland customs authorities. The packaging of the Enlighten products was similar to official LEGO packaging. Their Chinese manufacturer failed to appear in court, and thus LEGO won a default action ordering the destruction of the shipment. The LEGO Group footed the bill for the disposal of the 54,000 sets, citing a desire to avoid brand confusion and protect consumers from potentially inferior products. [8] (http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pressdetail&amp;amp;contentid=13026&countrycode=2057&yearcode=&archive=false)
The LEGO Group has attempted to trademark the "LEGO Indicia", the studded appearance of the LEGO brick, hoping to stop production of Mega Bloks. On May 24, 2002, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed the case, because the LEGO brick's design is functional and therefore ineligible for trademark protection.[9] (http://www.marquedor.com/telemarque/archives/02-06-01b_en.htm) The LEGO Group's appeal of the decision was dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal on July 14, 2003 [10] (http://www.marquedor.com/telemarque/archives/vol10no8c_an_detail.html) but an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is schedule for the spring of 2005.
LEGO has built several theme parks around the world, each known as LEGOLAND, featuring large-scale models, particularly of famous landmarks. The oldest of these is located in Billund, Denmark. Others followed: "LEGOLAND Windsor" (in England), "LEGOLAND California" in Carlsbad, and "LEGOLAND Deutschland" in Günzburg, Germany.
When the Mall of America opened in 1992, one of its premier attractions, attached to the Camp Snoopy amusement park, was the LEGO Imagination Center. Two other LEGO Imagination Centers are located in the Downtown Disney areas of Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort. These two locations are large LEGO stores with lots of displays of LEGO statues as well as a play area with bins of bricks to build with; they offer a large selection of LEGO sets for sale, including sets which are advertised in LEGO catalogues as "Not Available In Any Store."
October 2002 saw a significant change in the LEGO Group's direct retail policy with the opening of the first so-called "LEGO Brand Store" in Cologne, Germany. The second, in Milton Keynes, UK, followed very quickly - several dozen more opened world-wide over the next few years, and most of the existing stores have been remodelled on the new "Brand Store" template. One of the distinctive features of these new stores is the inclusion of a "Pick-A-Brick" system that allows customers to buy individual bricks in bulk quantities. How a customer buys LEGO at a Pick-A-Brick is quite simple; Customers fill a large or small cup or bag with their choice of LEGO bricks from a large and varied selection and purchase it. The opening of most of these stores, including the 2003 opening of one in Birmingham's Bull Ring shopping centre (England), have been marked by the production of a new, special, limited edition, commemorative LEGO piece.
The LEGO Group was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.
"Legot" (or "leegot"), plural form of "lego" (or "leego") is also used as a Finnish slang term for human teeth, because of the rectangular shape of the teeth.

daniela pestova

2005-05-20T13:51:00.000+02:00

She looks like the all-American girl--your typical blond-haired, blue-eyed, girl-next-door fantasy. But it was her fantasy that came true: She was discovered just walking down the street. Fantasies like this aren't supposed to happen in real life, especially when you're born and raised behind the Iron Curtain during a time of political upheaval. Unless you're knockout gorgeous, nearly six feet tall, with gams for miles and a killer smile.
Pestova was 19 when a modeling scout spotted her going into a theater. He asked her to enter a contest and flew her to Paris to sign with his agency when she won.
She lived in France for two years, but because she was a citizen of an Eastern Bloc country, she found travel difficult. In 1992, without speaking a word of English (but fluent in Italian, Russian, French and Czech), she moved to New York to dodge the confinements of her short-term visa.
The move was a good one. Her career skyrocketed, and in 1993, she appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan; Elle, Marie Claire and Glamour followed. In 1994, Pestova contracted with L'Oreal to become a spokesperson and print model and also began a long-running relationship with Victoria's Secret.
Pestova says her greatest accomplishments were her marriage to Tomasso Buti, becoming a co-owner of the Fashion Cafe and the birth of her son in 1996. Professionally, she is most proud of nabbing the cover of Sports Illustrated's 1995 swimsuit issue.
When her modeling career is over, she says she will become a translator or perhap just spend her days having more children and running on the beach with her dogs. But for now, it's covers and contracts galore, including a long-term deal with couture house Escada and her own swimsuit calendar.

bicycles

2004-11-30T10:52:00.000+01:00

A bicycle, or bike, is a pedal-driven land vehicle with two wheels arranged in line. First introduced in 19th century Europe, it evolved quickly into its current design. With over one billion in the world today, bicycles provide the principal means of transportation in many regions and a popular form of recreation in others.
No specific time or person can be identified with the invention of the bicycle. Its earliest known forebears were called velocipedes, and included the scooter-like dandy horses of the French Comte de Sivrac, dating to 1790, and German tax collector Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine on his rounds. All the aforementioned were literally pushbikes, in that they were powered by the action of the rider's feet against the ground. A Scottish blacksmith, Kirkpatrick MacMillan, is credited with adding a treadle drive mechanism in 1840, for the first time enabling the rider to lift his feet off the ground.
In the 1850s and 1860s, Frenchman Ernest Michaux and his pupil Pierre Lalloment placed pedals on an enlarged front wheel. Their creation, aptly called the Boneshaker, featured a heavy steel frame on which were mounted wooden wheels with iron tires. The boneshaker was further refined by James Starley in the 1870's. He mounted the seat more squarely over the pedals, so that the rider could push more firmly, and further enlarged the front wheel to increase the potential for speed. Shod with soild rubber tires his machine became known as an ordinary. British cyclists likened the disparity in size of the two wheels to their coinage, nicknaming it the penny-farthing. This model was difficult to ride however, and the high seat and poor weight distribution made for dangerous falls.
The dwarf ordinary which followed addressed some of these faults, by reducing the front wheel diameter and setting the saddle farther back. Pedaling was accomplished by levers or off-set pedals, and gearing was added, thus compensating for speed loss. However, having to both pedal and steer via the front wheel remained a problem. Starley's nephew, J. K. Starley, J. H. Lawson, and Shergold solved this problem by introducing rear wheel drive, using a chain. Starley's 1885 Rover is usually described as the first recognisably modern bicycle. These dwarf safeties, or safety bicycles, were so-named for their lower seating height and better weight distibution. Soon the seat tube was added, creating the double-triangle, diamond frame of the modern bike.
Bicycle in Victorian Plymouth, with a predecessor of the Starley diamond-frameWhile the Starley design was much safer, the return to a smaller wheels made for a bumpy ride. However, subsequent innovations increased comfort and ushered in the 1890s Golden Age of Bicycles. In 1888 Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop introduced the pneumatic tire, which soon became universal. Shortly thereafter the rear freewheel was developed, enabling the rider to coast without the pedals spinning out of control. This refinement led to the 1898 invention of coaster brakes. Derailleur gears and hand-operated, cable-pull brakes were also developed during these years, but were slow to be adopted by casual riders. By the turn of the century, bicycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring and racing were soon the rage.
Successful early bicycle manufacturers included Englishman Frank Bowden and German builder Ignaz Schwinn. Bowden started the Raleigh company in Nottingham in the 1890s, and soon was producing some 30,000 bicycles a year. Schwinn emigrated to the United States, where he founded a similarly successful company in Chicago in 1895. Schwinn bicycles soon featured widened tires and spring-cushioned padded seats, sacrificing some efficiency for increased comfort. Facilitated by connections between European nations and their overseas colonies, European-style bicycles were soon available worldwide. With mass production and reduced prices, by the mid-20th century bicycles had become the primary means of transportation for millions of people around the globe.
In many western countries the use of bicycles leveled off or declined as motorized forms of transport became affordable and as car-centered policies lead to an increasingly hostile road environment for bicycles. In North America, bicycle sales declined markedly after 1905, to the point where by the 1940s, they had largely been relegated to the role of children's toys. In other parts of the world, such as China, India, and some European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, the traditional utility bicycle remains a mainstay of transportation, their design only gradually changing to incorporate hand-operated brakes and the internal hub gears alowing up to 7 speeds.
In North America, increasing consciousness of physical fitness and environmental preservation spawned a renaissance of bicycling in the late 1960s. Bicycle sales in the United States boomed, largely in the form of the racing bicycles long used in such events as the hugely popular Tour de France. First these cycles, and then the mountain bikes which followed, virtually eliminated the three-speed bicycle from American roads. These specialized designs led many American recreational cyclists to demand a more comfortable and practical product. Manufacturers responded with the hybrid bicycle.
The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic considers a bicycle a vehicle and a person controlling a bicycle a driver. The traffic codes of many countries reflect these definitions and demand that a bicycle satisfy certain legal requirements, including licencing, before it can be used on public roads. In many jurisdictions it is an offence to use a bicycle that is not in roadworthy condition and which does not have functioning front and rear brakes. In some places, bicycles must have functioning front and rear lights or lamps. As some generator or dynamo-driven lamps only operate while moving, rear reflectors are frequently also mandatory. Since a moving bicycle makes very little noise, in many countries bicycles must have a warning bell for use when approaching pedestrians, equestrians and other bicyclists.
Modern bicycles retain the same diamond frame design, incorporating a pair of contiguous triangles, introduced a century ago. The front wheel attaches to the fork, which in turn links via bearings to the head set on the front of the frame. The handle bars attach atop the headset via a stem. Some mountain bicycles substitute a fork-like system on the rear as well, adding suspension systems for a smooth ride over rough ground. The pedals rotate cranks which fit into the bottom bracket. Attached to the crank is the chainring which drives the chain, which in turn rotates the rear wheel. Within this drive train may be interspersed various gearing systems, described below, which vary the number of rear wheel revolutions produced by each turn of the pedals.
Since cyclists' legs can only produce a limited force and work best at specific speeds, or cadences, a variable gear ratio allows one to maintain an optimum pedaling speed while covering varied terrain. The gear systems are hand-operated, via cables, and are of two types. Internal hub gearing works by planetary or epicyclic gearing, in which the outer case of the hub gear unit turns at a different speed relative to the rear axle depending on which gear is selected. Derailleurs, which can be placed on both the front chainring and on the rear cluster or cassette, push the chain to either side. The sides of the gear rings catch the chain, pulling it up onto their teeth to change gears. Road bicycles have close set multi-step gearing, which allows very fine control of cadence, while three-speed or utility cycles offer a lesser number of more widely spaced speeds. Mountain bikes may offer an extremely low gear to facilitate climbing slowly on steep hills. Internal hub gearing still predominates in some regions, particularly on utility bikes, whereas in other regions external derailleur systems predominate.
Three handlebar styles are common. Touring handlebars, the norm in Europe and elsewhere until the 1970s, curve gently back toward the rider, offering a natural grip and comfortable upright position. Racing handlebars are "dropped", offering the cyclist either an aerodynamic "hunched" position or a more upright posture in which the hands grip the brake lever mounts. Mountain bikes feature a crosswise handlebar which helps prevent the rider from pitching over the front in case of sudden deceleration. Seats also vary depending on rider preference, from the cushioned saddles favored by short-distance riders to narrower seats which allow more free leg swings.
Bicycle brakes are either rim brakes, in which friction pads are compressed against the wheel rims, or internal hub brakes, in which the friction pads are contained within the wheel hubs. A rear hub brake may be either hand-operated or pedal-actuated, as in the back pedal coaster brakes which were the rule in North America until the 1960s. Hub brakes do not cope well with extended braking, so rim brakes are favoured in hilly terrain. With hand-operated brakes, force is applied to brake handles mounted on the handle bars and then transmitted via Bowden cables to the friction pads. In the late 1990s, disc brakes appeared on some off-road bicycles and on tandems, but are considered impractical on road bicycles, which rarely encounter conditions where the advantages of discs are significant.
Dutch utility bicycle featuring basket, chainguard and mudguards, kickstand for parking, and permanently attached dynamo-powered lampsUtility bicycles have many features intended to enhance their usefulness and comfort. Chainguards and mudguards, or fenders (U.S.), protect clothes and moving parts from oil and spray. Kick stands help with parking. Front-mounted wicker or steel baskets for holding shopping and other goods are often used. Rear racks or carriers can be used to carry items such as school satchels. Parents sometimes add rear-mounted child seats and/or an auxiliary saddle fitted to the crossbar to transport children.
Historically, materials used in bicycles have followed a similar pattern as in aircraft, the goal being strength and low weight. Since the late 1930's alloy steels have been used for frame and fork tubes in higher quality machines. Celluloid found application in mudguards, and aluminum alloys are increasingly used in components such as handle bars, seat stems, and brake levers. In the 1980s aluminum alloy frames became popular, and their affordability makes them still common. More expensive carbon fibre and titanium frames are now also available.
Racing bicycles have dropped handlebars, a narrow seat, and minimal accessories.In both biological and mechanical terms, the bicycle is extraordinarily efficient. In terms of the number of calories of energy a person must expend to travel a given distance, investigators have calculated it to be the most efficient self-powered means of transportation1. From a mechanical viewpoint, engineers studying the efficiency of the chain drive mechanism have also determined that more than 98% of the energy delivered by the rider into the pedals is transmitted to the wheels, with less than 2% sacrificed to friction2. In terms of the ratio of cargo weight a bicycle can carry to total weight, it is also a most efficient means of cargo transportation.
Typical speeds for bicycles are 16 to 32 km/h (10 to 20 mph). On a fast racing bicycle, a reasonably fit rider can ride at 50 km/h (30 mph) on flat ground for short periods. The highest speed ever attained on the flat, without using motor pacing and wind-blocks, is by Canadian Sam Whittingham, who in 2001 set a 142.51 km/h (80.55 mph) record on his highly aerodynamic recumbent bicycle. This stands as the record for all human-powered vehicles.
Bicycle physics
A rider stays upright on a bicycle by steering the bicycle so that the point where the wheels touch the ground stays underneath the center of gravity. Once underway, this effort is largely replaced by physical forces generated by the rotation of the wheels which produce a remarkable "self-steering" effect3. The angular momentum of the wheels and the torque applied to them by the ground generates a phenomenon called precession, by which the wheel turns, or trails, toward whichever side to which the bicycle tilts. Like the rider's steering adjustments, this motion automatically returns the contact point of the wheel directly under the center of gravity. These forces, perhaps aided at very high speeds by the gyroscopic effect of the spinning wheels4, are sufficiently strong that a riderless bicycle going down a slope will stay upright by itself. Conversely, a bicycle whose steering fork is locked in a perfectly straight ahead position is virtually impossible to balance.
Accessories are numerous, and include, lights, pump, lock, and additional (pedal or wheel-mounted) reflectors. Technical accessories include solid-state speedometers and odometers for measuring distance. Toe-clips help to keep the foot planted firmly on the pedals, and enable the cyclist to pull as well as push the pedals. Some accessories show a cultural bias. In North America, a large minority, possibly up to 25% in the US, of bicyclists wear plastic bicycle helmets for safety. In Australia and New Zealand, such helmets are required by law. In most European countries, helmets are viewed as an indicator of inexperience or recklessness, and their use is considered unusual for adult utility cyclists. The use of helmets by utility cyclists is practically unknown in most other regions.
Many cyclists also carry tool kits, containing at least a patch kit for tires and some wrenches. At one time it was possible to use a single tool to carry out most common bicycle repairs. More specialised parts now often require more complex tools, including proprietary tools specific for a given manufacturer. Some bicycle parts, particularly hub-based gearing systems, are complex, and many people prefer to leave most maintenance and repairs to professionals. Others maintain their own bicycles, finding it enhances their enjoyment of the hobby of cycling.
For more information on the technical aspects of bicycles, see also:
Bicycle manufacturing proved to be a training ground for other industries. Building modern bicycle frames led to the development of advanced metalworking techniques, both for the frames themselves and for special components such as ball bearings, washers, and sprockets. These techniques later enabled skilled metalworkers and mechanics to develop the components used in early automobiles and aircraft. J. K. Starley's company became the Rover Cycle Company Ltd. in the late 1890s, and then the Rover auto maker. The Morris Motor Company and Skoda also began in the bicycle business, as did Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers.
In the Netherlands, bicycles are made available for use in national parksThe evolution of the bicycle had less tangible effects as well, extending early to areas as diverse as fashion and politics. In the 1890s the cycling craze led to a new set of fashions, including bloomers, which helped liberate women from corsets and other restrictive clothing. A British perfumer marketed Cycling Bouquet, which came in a tiny vial designed to fit into a lady cyclist's purse. The diamond-frame safety bicycle gave women unprecedented mobility, contributing to their emancipation in Western nations. Sociologists suggest that bicycles enlarged the gene pool for rural workers, by enabling them to easily reach the next town and increase their courting radius. In cities, bicycles helped reduce crowding in inner-city tenements by allowing workers to commute from single-family dwellings in the suburbs. They also reduced dependence on horses, and allowed people to travel into the country, since bicycles were three times as energy efficient as walking, and three to four times as fast. In North America, the political organization of bicycle enthusiasts, in such groups as the League of American Wheelmen, led to further changes. Both their model for political organization and the paved roads for which they argued facilitated the growth of the bicycle's rival, the automobile.
In recent years, US and European bicycle makers have moved much of their production to Asia. Some sixty percent of the world's bicycles are now being made in China. Despite this shift in production, as nations such as China and India become more wealthy, their own use of bicycles has declined. One of the major reasons for the proliferation of Chinese-made bicycles in foreign markets is the increasing affordability of cars and motorcycles for its own citizens 5.
Police officer on a bicycle. Image courtesy of USAIDThe postal services of many countries have long relied on bicycles. The Royal Mail first started using bicycles in 1880. Bicycle delivery fleets include 37,000 in the UK, 25,700 in Germany and 10,500 in Hungary. Police officers adopted the bicycle as well, initially using their own. However they eventually became a standard issue particularly for police in rural areas. The Kent police purchased 20 bicycles in 1896, and by 1904 there were 129 police bicycle patrols operating. Some countries retained the police bicycle while others dispensed with them for a time. Bicycle patrols are now enjoying a resurgence in many cities, as traffic congestion has limited mobility for car-borne officers.
Bicycles have enjoyed substantial use as general delivery vehicles in many cities. In the UK, this use persisted for some purposes with generations of teenagers getting their first jobs delivering newspapers by bicycle. In India, many of Mumbai's Dabbawallas use bicycles to deliver hot lunches to the city’s workers. In Bogota, Colombia the city’s largest bakery recently replaced most of its delivery trucks with bicycles. Even the car industry uses bicycles. At the huge Mercedes-Benz factory in Sindelfingen, Germany workers use bicycles, colour-coded by department, to move around the factory.
The bicycle is not suited for combat, but it has been used as a method of transporting soldiers and supplies to combat zones. Bicycles were used in the Boer War, where both sides used them for scouting. In World War I, France and Germany used bicycles to move troops. In its 1937 invasion of China, Japan employed some 50,000 bicycle troops, and similar forces were instrumental in Japan's march through Malaya in World War II. Germany used bicycles again in World War II, while the British employed airborne Cycle-commandos with folding bikes.
In the Vietnam War, communist forces used bicycles extensively as cargo carriers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. There are reports of mountain bicycles being used in scouting by U.S. Special Forces in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and in subsequent battles against the Taliban. The only country to recently maintain a regiment of bicycle troops was Switzerland, who disbanded the last unit in 2003.
Modal share: Cycle use in modern cities
Cyclists and motorists make different demands on road design which may be lead to conflicts both in politics and on the streets. Some jurisdictions give priority to motorised traffic, for example setting up extensive one-way street systems, free-right turns, high capacity roundabouts, and slip roads. Other cities may apply active traffic restraint measures to limit the impact of motorised transport. In the former cases, cycling has tended to decline while in the latter it has tended to be maintained. Occasionally, extreme measures against cycling may occur. In [Shanghai]], a city where bicycles were once the dominant mode of transportation, bicycle travel on city roads was actually banned temporarily in December 2003.
In areas in which cycling is popular and encouraged, cycle-parking facilities using bicycle racks, lockable mini-garages, and patrolled cycle parks are used to reduce theft. Local governments also promote cycling by permitting the carriage of bicycles on public transport or by providing external attachment devices on public transport vehicles. Conversely, an absence of secure cycle-parking is a recurring complaint by cyclists from cities with low modal share of cycling.
Extensive bicycle path systems may be found in some cities. Such dedicated paths often have to be shared with inline skaters, scooters, skateboarders, and pedestrians. Segregating bicycle and automobile traffic in cities has met with mixed success, both in terms of safety and bicycle promotion. At some point the two streams of traffic inevitably intersect, often in a haphazard and congested fashion. Studies have demonstrated that, due to the high incidence of accidents at these sites, such segregated schemes can actually increase the number of car-bike collisions7.
Cyclists of many types form associations, both for specific interests (trails development, road maintenance, urban design, racing clubs, touring clubs, etc.) and for more global goals (energy conservation, pollution reduction, promotion of fitness). In English speaking countries, but also elsewhere, there tend to two broad factions associated with bicycle activism. One faction tends to be more overtly political and frequently has roots in the Environmental movement while the other faction tends to draw on the traditions of the established bicycle lobby. The trend has been for groups associated with the environmental movement to focus their activism on seeking the construction of segregated cycle facilities. In contrast, activists from the more established tradition tend to view such devices with suspicion and favour a more holistic approach based on planning, road design, road user education and enforcement of the existing traffic regulations. The opposition to segregated cycle facilities has well-founded historical roots regarding the safety, practicality and intent of such systems. However in some cases this opposition has a more ideological basis, some members of the US Vehicular Cycling Movement oppose the use of segregated cycling facilities as a matter of principle.
Critical Mass is a worldwide activist movement of mass bicycle protest rides that may have more overt political overtones. A recent focus, especially for European bicycle activists, has been the perceived threat of compulsory bicycle helmet legislation. Their concerns have been raised by evidence suggesting that compulsory helmet laws and helmet promotion have been associated with significant reductions in bicycle use and with simultaneous increases in the risk of injury and/or death for cyclists. As a consequence, activists from both sides have put aside their differences in order to fight the helmet lobby.
Types of bicycle
A modern touring bicycle, with accessories and baggageBy function, the four major groups of bicycles are:
Mountain bicycles, designed for off-road cycling, must combine relatively light weight with durability, and feature wide-gauge treaded tires, cross-wise handlebars to help the rider resist sudden jolts, and sometimes coiled-spring suspension systems.
Racing bicycles have lightweight frames with minimal accessories, dropped handlebars to allow for an aerodynamic riding position, and derailleur gears offering a wide variety of speeds.
Touring bicycles are more durable and comfortable, capable of transporting baggage, and may feature any type of gearing system.
Utility bicycles, designed for commuting, shopping and running errands, are the norm in Europe, and employ middle or light weight frames and tires, dependable internal hub gears, and a variety of helpful accessories.
By number of riders:
A tandem or twin has two riders.
A triplet has three riders; a quadruplet has four.
The largest multi-bike had 40 riders.
In all these types the riders ride one behind the other.
By general construction:
A penny-farthing or ordinary has one high wheel directly driven by the pedals and one small wheel.
On an upright bicycle the rider sits astride the saddle.
On a recumbent bicycle the rider reclines or lies supine.
A Pedersen bicycle has a bridge truss frame.
A folding bicycle can be quickly folded for easy carrying, for example on public transport.
A Moulton bicycle has a traditional seating position, and utilises small diameter, high pressure tyres and front and rear suspension.
An exercise bicycle doesn't go anywhere at all.
By gearing:
Internal hub gearing is still most common in European bicycles, usually ranging from three-speed bicycles to five and seven speed options.
derailleur gears, featured on most racing and touring bicycles, offering from 5 to 27 speeds
Fixed gear bicycles have only one gear and no freewheel mechanism, so whenever the bike is in motion the pedals continue to spin. These bikes are mainly used in track cycling or by bicycle messengers
Single speed bicycles have only one gear and have a freewheel mechanism.
By sport:
Track bicycles are ultra-simple, light bikes with but one speed which are designed for track cycling on purpose-built cycle tracks, often in velodromes.
Cyclo-cross bicycles are lightweight enough to be carried over obstacles, and robust enough to be cycled through mud.
Down-hill racers are similar to mountain bikes but have long travel suspension.
BMX bicycles have small wheels and are used for bicycle motocross racing, as well as for wheelies, jumps, and other acrobatics.
By means of propulsion:
A pedal cycle is driven by pedals.
A hand-cranked bicycle is driven by a hand crank.
An electric bicycle assists the rider with an electric motor.
A moped propels the rider with a motor, but includes bicycle pedals for human propulsion.
Shaft drive bicycles connect the pedals to the rear hub with a shaft instead of a chain.
Other types:
Road bicycle is a generic term which may refer to a bicycle with both racing and touring features
Hybrid bicycles are a compromise between the mountain and racing style bicycles which replaced European-style utility bikes in North America in the early 1970s. They have a light frame, medium gauge wheels, and derailleur gearing, and feature straight or curved-back, touring handle bars for more upright riding.
Cruisers are designed for comfort, with curved back handlebars, padded seats, and balloon tires. Cruisers typically have minimal gearing and are often available for rental at beaches and parks which feature flat terrain.
Freight bicycles are designed for transporting large or heavy loads.
Velotaxis, pedicabs and trishaws are used to transport taxi passengers.
Velomobiles provide all-weather pedal-powered transportation.

titanic (1997 film)

2004-11-30T10:51:00.000+01:00

Titanic is a 1997 dramatic movie released by Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. The bulk of the plot is set aboard the ill-fated RMS Titanic during her fateful maiden voyage in 1912. The movie won 11 Academy Awards on March 23, 1998 including best picture of 1997. Titanic has the highest box office take in movie history. The 1997 film is not to be confused with the movie with the same title made in 1953.
The film was directed by James Cameron and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Kathy Bates, Eric Braeden, David Warner, Danny Nucci, Gloria Stuart, Victor Garber, Bernard Hill, Bernard Fox, Ioan Gruffudd and Bill Paxton.
When this epic disaster film was not finished in time for its scheduled July 1997 release date, it sent shockwaves throughout Hollywood: studio execs began wondering if they might have another Heaven's Gate on their hands. The two releasing studios, 20th Century Fox (which handled the international distribution and actually had movie rights to the Titanic name) and Paramount Pictures (which had the U.S. rights) panicked. By the middle of 1997 Titanic had become the most costly film ever made (its reported cost hovered in the $200 million range) and the bills were still coming in. When director James Cameron finally delivered the film to Paramount, it ran over 3 hours and it was anyone's guess whether he would ever work in Hollywood again. But Cameron stood his ground and threatened edit-happy studio executives with the message: "You will cut my film over my dead body."
Moved to a crowded release date of December 19, 1997, the film opened with little promotion, but brought in a respectable $US28 million in ticket sales for the weekend. Within a week the gross tripled. By New Year's Day, the film had hit $US100 million and showed no sign of slowing down. It held a virtual lock on first place at the box office for nearly four months and would become the highest grossing film of all-time with more than $US 1.8 billion in ticket sales worldwide.
Cameron, who fought tooth and nail to finish the film, was rewarded with an Academy Award for Best Director.
There are some factual inaccuracies in the script: for example, the designer, Thomas Andrews, claims the ship to be built of iron in the film whereas she was actually built of steel. The "romantic" story is improbable as class distinction at the time meant complete class segregation except during the Sunday morning service in the first class dining saloon(which conversely is shown in the film as segregated). The film is believed to be anti-British, reducing the historic story to a fight between villainous British officers and crew and heroic Americans.
The 1958 William MacQuitty and Roy Ward Baker film A Night to Remember starring Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller is considered by some to be a more historically accurate film, praised for its documentary-style quality. The film was made in 1958 and at this point it was believed that the ship sank as a whole, and the film's sinking is depicted thus.
The film was criticised for its portrayal of a historical character, the ship's First Officer, William McMaster Murdoch [1] (http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic%20memorial%20william%20murdoch.shtml)[2] (http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00045O). In his home town of Dalbeattie in Scotland there is a memorial to his heroism and a charitable prize has been established in his name. In the film he is portrayed as taking a bribe, shooting passengers dead and finally shooting himself. 20th Century Fox admitted they had no evidence that Murdoch did these things and contributed $8,000 to the prize fund.
Another aspect of the film, the way in which the third class passengers were completely fenced in below decks, has been described as a myth [3] (http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1998/04/10/fhead.htm).
Cameron originally intended Enya to compose the music, but after she declined, he proposed to James Horner. Their relations were cold after their first cooperation in Aliens, but the soundtrack of Braveheart made Cameron overlook it. Horner composed the soundtrack having in mind Enya's style.
Céline Dion, who was no stranger to movie songs in the 1990s, sang My Heart Will Go On, the film's signature song written by James Horner and Will Jennings. At first, Cameron did not want a song sung over the film's credits, but Horner disagreed, and without telling Cameron, went ahead and wrote one anyway, and recorded Dion singing it. Cameron changed his mind when Horner presented what he proposed, an excellent decision, as the song won a Best Original Song Oscar. The song was also a hit worldwide, going to the top of the pop charts around the world, another stellar financial success of its own.
Titanic won Oscars in just about every category except for the acting and screenplay categories. Titanic was nominated in 14 categories and won 11, being the second movie to win that number (the first was Ben Hur). It is also the only movie of which both two actresses playing the same person (Kate Winslett and Gloria Stuart as Rose and Old Rose) were awarded:
Art direction — Art Direction: Peter Lamont; Set Decoration: Michael Ford
Cinematography — Russell Carpenter
Costume Design — Deborah L. Scott
Direction — James Cameron
Film Editing — Conrad Buff, James Cameron, Richard A. Harris
Music (Original Dramatic Score) — James Horner
Music (Original Song) — "My Heart Will Go On," music by James Horner; lyric by Will Jennings
Best Picture — James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
Sound — Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano
Sound Effects Editing — Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes
Visual Efects — Robert Legato, Mark Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanfer
It also received the following nominations:
Best Actress in a Leading Role — Kate Winslet
Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Gloria Stuart
Best Makeup — Tina Earnshaw, Greg Cannom, Simon Thompson

juan gris

2004-11-30T10:49:00.000+01:00

José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez (March 23, 1887 - May 11, 1927), better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter who lived and worked in France almost all his life. His works are closely connected to the emergence of an innovative artistic genre - cubism.
He was born in Madrid, Spain and studied mechanical drawing at the Escuela de Artes y Manufacturas in Madrid from 1902 to 1904, during which time he contributed drawings to local periodicals. From 1904 to 1905 he studied painting with the academic artist José Maria Carbonero.
In 1906 he moved to Paris and would become friend of Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and in 1915 was painted by his friend, Amedeo Modigliani. In Paris, Gris would follow the lead of another friend and fellow countryman, Pablo Picasso. His portrait of Picasso from 1912 is one of the most important early cubist paintings by a painter other than Picasso or Georges Braque.
Although he submitted humorous illustrations to journals such as Lassiette au beurre, Le Charivari, and Le Cri de Paris, Gris began to paint seriously in 1910. By 1912 he had developed a personal Cubist style. He entered his greatest period in the years between 1914-1918. At first he was under influence of analytic cubism but after 1915, he began his conversion to synthetic cubism of which he became a steadfast interpreter.
In 1922 the painter first designed ballet sets and costumes for Sergei Diaghilev.
Gris articulated most of his aesthetic theories during 1924 and 1925. He delivered his definitive lecture, Des possibilités de la peinture, at the Sorbonne in 1924. Major Gris exhibitions took place at the Galerie Simon in Paris and the Galerie Flechtheim in Berlin in 1923 and at the Galerie Flechtheim in Düsseldorf in 1925. He died in Boulogne-sur-Seine.
Although he regarded Picasso as a teacher, Gertrude Stein acknowledged that Gris "was the one person that Picasso would have willingly wiped off the map."
Recently a Juan Gris painting sold for more than US$8.4 million.

irène jacob

2004-11-19T11:49:00.000+01:00

Irène Marie Jacob (born July 15, 1966) is a French-born Swiss actress.
Irène Jacob was born in Paris, France, the youngest child after three brothers. She comes from a highly educated and intellectual family, her father is a physicist, her mother a psychologist, and of her brothers, one is a musician and the other two are scientists.
As an infant, her family moved to Geneva, Switzerland where, as a young girl, she became interested in the arts, making her stage debut at the age of 11. She attended the Geneva Conservatory of Music, earned a degree in languages (she speaks English, German, Italian and French), studied acting in Paris at the prestigious Rue Blanche (the French national drama academy) and at the Dramatic Studio in London, England.
Three years after Ms. Jacob's return to Paris, the then 21-year-old drama student obtained her first movie role in the 1987 film Au revoir les enfants followed by several more minor roles until her big break came when Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski cast her in the lead role of his 1991 motion picture, La Double vie de Véronique. For her performance, Ms. Jacob won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
An introvert by nature, Jacob has the remarkable ability to express the emotional turmoil of her characters with very few words. This was very evident when Kieslowski used her again to star alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant in Three Colors: Red, the third part of his highly acclaimed masterpiece, the Three Colors trilogy. The film, and her performance, gained huge international recognition bringing many offers from major American motion-picture studios. Her highest grossing US picture as of 2004 was U.S. Marshals (released 1997), in which she starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones.
Jacob's film career slowed down in subsequent years, and after a series of independent, mostly European, movies, she revived her theatre career. Her 2000/2001 London West-End performance as the title character in Madame Melville opposite Macaulay Culkin was crucial to that development.

Filmography

Mille millièmes (Landlords) - 2002
Lettre d'une inconnue - 2001
Léaud l'unique - 2001
L’ Affaire Marcorelle - 2000
Londinium - 2000
The Pornographer: A Love Story - 2000
The Big Brass Ring - 1999
Cuisine chinoise - 1999
History Is Made at Night - 1999
My Life So Far - 1999
Cuisine américaine - 1998
U.S. Marshals - 1998
Incognito - 1997
Beyond The Clouds - 1996
All Men Are Mortal - 1995
Faire un film pour moi c'est vivre - 1995
Fugueuses - 1995
Othello - 1995
Par-delà les nuages - 1995
Victory - 1995
Le Moulin de Daudet - 1994
Predskazaniye - 1994
Trois couleurs: Rouge - 1994
The Secret Garden - 1993
Claude - 1992
Enak - 1992
La Double vie de Véronique - 1991
Le Secret de Sarah Tombelaine - 1991
Erreur de jeunesse - 1990
La Passion Van Gogh - 1990
La Veillée - 1990
Les Mannequins d'osier - 1989
La Bande des quatre - 1988
Au revoir les enfants - 1987

lamborghini

2004-11-19T11:46:00.000+01:00

Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly known as Lamborghini, is a manufacturer of high performance sports cars based in the small Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. The company was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) as a spin-off from the very successful tractor maker, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A..
Ferruccio Lamborgini was an enthusiastic owner of sports cars, including a Ferrari. The standard tale goes that he took this car back to the Ferrari factory when its clutch failed. Enzo Ferrari refused to meet him, saying that 'A tractor manufacturer could never be expected to understand high-bred sports cars'. So—after fixing the clutch with surprising ease—he decided to go into business, building the perfect GT (Grand Touring) car. (Another version of the tale holds that Ferruccio was incensed when he found out that the bum clutch on his Ferrari was the exact same model that he used on his tractors, only far more expensive.)
Featuring bodies designed by Franco Scaglione, Touring of Milan, Zagato, Mario Marazzi, Bertone, ItalDesign, Marcello Gandini and Luc Donckerwolke, Lamborghini's products are amongst the most expensive, and also most powerful, road-going vehicles made. As Ferruccio himself was a bullfighting afficionado, almost all models have a name somehow related to bullfighting.
Lamborghini's products includes the Miura (1966), Countach (1974), Jalpa (1981), Diablo (1990) and the Murciélago (2001) as well as the LM002 (1986) off-road vehicle of which Road and Track magazine said, "With the 5.2 liter V-12, the LM002 can pass anything on the road—except a gas station".
The current (2004) range consists of the flagship Murciélago and the smaller, cheaper Gallardo. Both are very fast, mid-engined 2-seaters with four-wheel-drive as standard. Styling for both cars is largely the work of Belgian designer Luc Donckerwolke.
Lamborghini has had a number of owners, as shown in this simplified list:
Ferruccio Lamborghini 1963–1970
Georges-Henri Rossetti & René Leimer 1970–1977
bankrupt 1977–1984
Patrick Mimran (managed 1980–1984) 1984–1987
Chrysler 1987–1994
Megatech 1994–1998
Volkswagen group (Audi) since 1998

belgium

2004-11-19T11:42:00.000+01:00

The Kingdom of Belgium (Dutch: België, French: Belgique, German: Belgien) is a country in Western Europe, bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the North Sea. Belgium is at a cultural crossroad between Germanic Europe (with Dutch speakers in the North, the Flemings, and German speakers in the East) and Romance Europe (with French speakers in the South, the Walloons), which is reflected in its complex institutions and political history.
Geographically and culturally, Belgium is at the crossroads of Europe, and during the past 2,000 years has witnessed a constant ebb and flow of different races and cultures. Consequently, Belgium is one of Europe's true melting pots with Celtic, Roman, Germanic cultures having made an imprint, and later on in history, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Austrian influences.
The earliest named inhabitants of Belgium were the Belgae. They were (mostly) Celtic tribes, living in northern Gaul and overcome by Julius Caesar in 54 BC, as described in his chronicle De Bello Gallico. In this same work Julius Caesar referred to the Belgae as ...the bravest of all Gauls. After the Roman Empire collapsed (5th century), Germanic tribes invaded the Roman province of "Gallia". One of these people, the Franks, finally installed a new kingdom under the rulers of the Merovingian Dynasty. Clovis was the most famous of these kings: he converted to Christianity and ruled from northern France, but his empire included today's Belgium. Christian scholars, mostly Irish monks, preached Christianity and started conversion work under the pagan invaders. The Merovingians were rather short-lived, as the Carolingian Dynasty took over: after Charles Martel countered the Moorish invasion from Spain (732 - Poitiers), their famous king Charlemagne brought a huge part of Europe under his rulership and was crowned as the "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" by the pope himself (800).
European Feudalism became the base for military, political and economical stability. Christianity flourished under the protection of these rulers and by the founding of religious communities and monasteries, churches and pilgrimages.
The region was later associated with the Netherlands, under Burgundian then Spanish rule, until the Protestant provinces took their independence (see Netherlands). Then followed Austrian rule, and a few years of French rule under Napoleon. After Napoleon's demise, in 1815, Belgium was reunited with the northern provinces in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until the Belgian Revolution in 1830, which established an independent Belgian state. The Belgian revolution was initiated by the French-speaking minority who controlled the factories and other economical resources and who didn't want to live under a Dutch-speaking administration. The fact that Belgium was mostly catholic and Netherlands predominantly protestant also played a role.
The royal palace in Brussels served as the residence of the royal family from its construction in 1830 till 1935. It now serves as the office of the king and the residence of the crown prince.The Belgian King, Leopold I, was chosen with the assistance of the British. This king was chosen after the first choice of the belgians refused his appointment. The country's neutrality was guaranteed against future foreign military aggression. This neutrality was violated in 1914 when Germany invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan. The British decision to honour their treaty obligations, as much as the entente cordiale with France, forced them into the First World War. After a period of alliance with France after the First World War, Belgium tried to return to neutrality in the 1930s, but was once again invaded by Germany in 1940. After World War II, the policy of neutrality was abandoned, and Belgium joined NATO. It was also one of the founding members of the European Economic Community.
Belgium possessed one primary foreign colony during its history: the Congo, which was given to King Leopold II in the Conference of Berlin in 1885. He made the land his private property and called it the 'Congo Free State'. In this Free State, the local population was brutalised in exchange for rubber, a growing market with the developement of rubber tyres. In 1908, the international pressure against the cruelties of King Leopold became so great that Leopold II was forced to give his property to the Belgian state as a colony. From then on, it became Belgian Congo, before gaining independence from Belgium in 1960.
Belgium's foreign involvement increased after the First World War when two former German colonies, Rwanda and Burundi were mandated to Belgium by the League of Nations. Belgian policy in the administration and socio-cultural development of these countries has been heavily criticised, many seeing Belgian decisions as contributing significantly to the troubles in Rwanda in the 1990s when a genocide took place, with an estimated 1 million casualties.
Since the 20th century, the history of Belgium became more and more dominated by the increasing autonomy of its two main communities, the Dutch- and the French-speakers. As an indication of this, since around 1970, there are no significant national Belgian political parties anymore, but only Flemish or French-speaking parties. The regular attempts to establish national, Belgian parties end up below 1% of the electorate; the Brussels parties either never got started (as with the 'Blauwe Leeuwen' and 'Rode Leeuwen' for the Flemings in Brussels), or got merged into one of the French-speaking liberal parties (such as the French-speaking FDF, which however has had a significant influence for years, and still keeps some independence). As such, the political landscape shows a near-perfect dual political system, reflecting the two underlying dominant communities.
Belgium's political institutions are complex, but the majority of political power is organised with the two main communities, the Flemings, and their political parties, and the 'French-speakers, and their parties.
Since the country's federalisation there have been many governmental entities; apart from the Federal Government there is a subdivision according to language into Communities, with the French(-speaking) Community, the Flemish Community and the German-speaking Community, and another subdivision into Regions: the Walloon Region, the Flemish Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. The Flemish Community and the Flemish Region have been joined together to form one government, see Flanders.
Behind these complex institutions, one notes the two dominant components of the Belgian state: the Flemings and their political institutions under the Flemish government; and the French-speakers, grouped under the French(-speaking) Community and its more fragmented institutions. All political parties in Belgium belong to one of these two communities, except for a German-speaking party and some smaller parties in Brussels. However, these only attract votes from one of the two communities in Brussels. Thus, there are no national parties active over all the Belgian territory. In short, the Belgian political landscape carefully mirrors the dual nature of Belgian society.
Thus:
Federal government: Jurisdiction over Foreign affairs, international trade, development aid, defence/Military, police, economy, social welfare, security (incl. pensions, health care, social aid and employment controls), transport (incl. railways and air transport), energy, telecommunications, scientific research (partially), limited competencies in education and culture, as well as strict control over taxation by regional authorities; the federal governement controls more then 90% of all taxation.
Community governments: Language, culture and education. (e.g. Schools, Libraries, Theatre, etc.)
Regional governments: Land and property based issues within their area (regional economy, zoning, housing, transportation, etc.)
For example, a school building in Brussels belonging to the public school system would be regulated by the regional government of Brussels. The school as an institution however would fall under the regulations of either the Flemish government, if the primary language of teaching is Dutch, or the French Community government, if the primary language is French. It is a complex, somewhat unstable and expensive, but peaceful compromise that allows distinctly different cultures to live together.
Belgium is divided into three communities, the Flemish community, the French-speaking community and the German-speaking community, and in three regions: Brussels (mainly Dutch- and French-speaking, with a population of 980,000), Flanders (mainly Dutch-speaking, with a population of 6,000,000), and Wallonia (mainly French-speaking, with a population of 3,360,000). The later two regions are each divided into 5 provinces.
Belgium is composed of the 5 northern Dutch-speaking provinces of Flanders, the 5 southern French-speaking provinces of Wallonia and the Capital Region of Brussels.Between brackets is the local name of each province, in either French or Dutch:
Flanders (Dutch speaking; Vlaanderen in Dutch, Flandre or Flandres in French): Antwerp (Antwerpen), Limburg, East Flanders (Oost-Vlaanderen), West Flanders (West-Vlaanderen), Flemish Brabant (Vlaams-Brabant), Wallonia (French speaking; Wallonie in French, Wallonië in Dutch): Walloon Brabant (Brabant Wallon), Namur, Liège, Hainaut, Luxembourg, The Brussels-Capital Region (Région de Bruxelles-Capitale in French, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest in Dutch, Die Region Brüssel-Hauptstadt in German).
Each provincial entity (including the Brussels-Capital Region) is further divided into smaller municipalities, called gemeenten in Dutch and communes in French (see List of Belgian municipalities and List of Belgian municipalities by population).
The main cities and their population are Brussels (959,318), Antwerp (445,570), Ghent (224,685), Charleroi (200,233), and Liège (184,550).
Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liege and Namur are the six largest cities of Belgium, with populations above 100,000.Belgium has an area of 30,510 km². Belgium has three main physical regions: the coastal plain (located in the northwest), the central plateau, and the Ardennes uplands (located in the southeast).
The coastal plain consists mainly of sand dunes and polders. Polders are areas of land, close to or below sea level, that have been reclaimed from the sea from which they are protected by dikes, or, further inland, fields that have been drained by canals.
The second physical region, the central plateau, lies further inland. This is a smooth, slowly rising area which has many fertile valleys and is irrigated by many waterways. Here one can also find rougher land, including caves and small gorges.
The third physical region (called the Ardennes) is somewhat more rugged than the first two. It is a thickly forested plateau, very rocky and not very good for farming, which extends into northern France. This is where much of Belgium's wildlife can be found.
The two main rivers in Belgium are the Scheldt and the Meuse. Although generally flat, the terrain becomes increasingly hilly and forested in the southeast (Ardennes) region, where one can find Belgium's highest point, the Signal de Botrange at only 694 metres.
The climate is cool, temperate, and rainy; summer temperatures average 25°C / 77°F, winters average 7.2°C / 45°F. Annual extremes (rarely attained) are -12.2°C / 10°F and 32.2°C / 90°F.
Densely populated Belgium is located at the heart of one of the world's most highly industrialised regions. One of the first countries to undergo an industrial revolution on the continent of Europe in the early 1800s, Belgium developed an excellent transportation infrastructure of ports, canals, railways, and highways to integrate its industry with that of its neighbours. One of the founding members of the European Union, Belgium strongly supports deepening the powers of the EU to integrate European economies. Belgium was one of the first countries to adopt the euro, the single European currency, in January 1999 and the Belgian franc was completely replaced by euro coins and banknotes in early 2002.
Belgium is sometimes called "The heart of Europe". This is not only because of its geographical location, but also due to many international institutions having their headquarters in Brussels, such as NATO and the European Union. This, in its turn, is because it has an excellent transportation system. It has a modern and toll-free road system, is connected to the European railway system, and Antwerp is the second largest European port.
The economy in Belgium greatly depends on its imports and exports. Its main imports are: food products, machinery, rough diamonds, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, clothing and accessories, and textiles, and its main trade partners are Germany, The Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, and Spain. Its main exports are automobiles, food and food products, iron and steel, diamonds, textiles, plastics, petroleum products, and nonferrous metals. Trade is made together with Luxembourg, since these two countries created a customs and currency union in 1922.
The population density, 336/km², is one of the highest in Europe, after the Netherlands and some smaller countries such as Monaco. The areas with the highest population density are around the Brussels-Antwerp-Ghent-Leuven agglomerations, as well as other important urban centres as Liège, Charleroi, Kortrijk, Brugge, Hasselt and Namur. The Ardennes have the lowest density.
Historically, Belgium has three ethnic communities: Flemings, Walloons and German-speakers, which belonged to Germany until 1918, and three official languages, one for each community, Dutch, French and German. More than half of the country is Dutch-speaking (+/-60%), French is the second most spoken language (+/- 40%) and German is spoken by less than 1% of the population, although these figures must be taken with care since the last linguistic census dated before 1960 and as mother tongue is not always the same as the language used in public, or in official life. This applies especially to the many minority goups who more or less kept their ethnic identity, the oldest being the Jews, established in Antwerp since the Middle Ages, and various more recent migrant communites as Italians, Spaniards, Poles, Turks or Moroccans. Within each of those communities, language use varies widely, with parts of each community maintaining their language of origing over generations, other parts moving towards the language of city of residence. Percentages differ widely between the different migrant groups.
Both the Dutch spoken in Belgium as Belgian French have small vocabulary differences from the varieties spoken in the Netherlands and France, but are mutually intelligible with their respective neighbouring dialects. Many speak Flemish or Walloon dialects which are often difficult to understand for people from other areas. Other regional languages officially recognised (in Wallonia only) are Champenois, Gaumais, and Picard.
Brussels, the capital, is mostly French speaking, but officially French/Dutch bilingual as it evolved from a Dutch-speaking place when the Belgian state became independent in 1830 to its current dominantly French character being the capital of the central administration of the federal country that for long massively favoured French.
Over 98% of the adult population is literate. Education is obligatory from the age of 6 until the age of 18, but most Belgian students keep on studying until the age of 23. This makes Belgium's education system the second most intensive in Europe, after the UK's. Nevertheless, in recent years, concern is rising over certain forms of illiteracy as 'functional illiteracy'.
In Belgium Roman Catholicism is the majority religion, accounting for between 75% and 80% of the population, although nowadays only about 10% to 20% of the population regularly goes to church. Other religions widely practised in Belgium are Islam, Protestantism, Anglicanism andd Judaism.
Religion was one of the differences between the Roman Catholic south and the Protestant north of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which eventually broke up in 1830 when the south seceded to form Belgium. This accounts for the preponderance of Catholics there nowadays.
Since 1830, Catholicism has had also an important role in Belgium's politics. One example is the so-called "school wars" ("Schoolstrijd" in Dutch, "guerres scolaires" in French) between liberals and Catholics which took place between 1879 and 1884 for the first one and between 1954 and 1958 for the second one.
Between World War I and World War II the centre of occult and mystical activity in Western Europe was shifted from France to Belgium. Belgium became the main centre for many esoteric brotherhoods and secret societies of which many branches still exist today.
A discussion of Belgian culture may lead to discussing both those aspects of cultural life shared by 'all' or most of the Belgians, regardless of their language, and also, the differences between the cultural communities, the Flemings and the German-speaking community, viewed as more inclined towards Anglo-Saxon culture, and the French-speakers, viewed as more inclined towards French and other latin cultures.
Cultural life tends to concentrate within each community. The shared element is clearly much less important as there are no common media, no universities that are both Flemish and French-speaking (except the royal military academy), and no single common large cultural or scientific organisation where both main communities are represented. Common organisations, in the wider social area, are only those institutions imposed by the Belgian legislator (as trade unions).
In terms of cultural life, nearly all members of all communities tend to make most individual and collective cultural choices first within each own community, and then, when going beyond, Flemings opting for a multi-polar interest, but mainly Anglo-Saxon towards culture (which dominates sciences, professional life and most news media), whereas French-speakers concentrate more on cultural life in Paris and elsewhere in the French-speaking world ('la Francité').
For as far as cultural generalities shared by all Belgians go, the country is well known for its art, its great architecture, its beer, its food, and its chocolate. Belgium has a variety of famous artists. These include Peter Paul Rubens, René Magritte, Jan van Eyck, Breughel, Memling, Ensor, Delvaux. Magritte, together with Paul Delvaux, were two major artists of the surrealistic style. Many great French authors went to Belgium for refuge. In music Adolphe Sax is famous for inventing the saxophone in 1840.
In architecture Victor Horta is well known. He was one of the originators of the Art Nouveau architecture, a style of architecture which had a major impact upon 20th century buildings.
Belgium is well represented in the world of sport, football (soccer) being very popular. The national football team is called the Red Devils, and they are ranked as 24th by FIFA. However, Belgium also has two female tennis players in the top 20; Kim Clijsters (#4) and Justine Henin-Hardenne (#1).
Belgium has also performed well in cycling. One of the greatest cyclists ever, Eddy Merckx, who won 5 Tours de France, five Giro d'Italia, one Vuelta a España, two Tours of Belgium, and one Tour of Switzerland, was Belgian. Belgium has world champions in motocross, judo and table tennis.
Many gourmets think that Belgium has the best food in Europe. Brands of Belgian chocolate, like Neuhaus, Côte d'Or, Leonidas, Godiva are world renowned, the praline having been invented in Belgium. In Belgium there are over 450 different kinds of beer, those of the Trappist monks being the most prestigious. Technically, it is an ale and traditionally each abbey's beer is served in its own glass (the forms, heights and widths are different). Belgians have a reputation for loving french fries. The fried potato strips are sold at many small shops (called fritures or frietkoten) and stands (often at train stations) and are known locally as frieten in Dutch and frites in French, though never, ever as "french fries".

Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg

2004-11-16T11:46:00.000+01:00

The Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain of Strasbourg (MAMCS, Museum of modern and contemporary art) opened at the end of 1998.
It is built on the left bank of the Ill River in front of the department political administrative centre near the barrage Vauban and the old quarter Petite France. The square Hans Arp, where the entrace is has also on its northern part the Ecole nationale d'administration, installed in an ancient convent (architect : Charles Altorffer).
Conceived by the parisian architect Adrien Fainsilber after a competition based on readiness and openness. A large open internal street allows the access to the various sectors of activities of the museum and the permanent and temporary exhibitions. The old quarter is on view.
The massive concept of the building is critized among others because only one outside is visible. The eastern flank on the popular quarter of the train station is closed. So there is communication with the powers including the cathedral but not with the regular people.
This situation is the result of a change in the original plan in which the technical services were in the underground. But the installation of a larger parking forced them on the east side.
It is specialized for the period from 1870 including the paint movement of Fauvism and Impressionism. It has a large collection from Jean Arp, and the masterpiece of the painter Gustave Doré : Le Christ quittant le prétoire, (1867-1872).

alf

2004-11-16T11:41:00.000+01:00

A.L.F. is the name of a popular TV sitcom series produced by NBC between 1986 and 1990, inspired by and spoofing the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). It first aired September 22, 1986.
Michu Meszaros was the actor within the Alf costume. Paul Fusco operated the Alf puppet, supplied Alf's voice and co-produced the series.
The title character is Gordon Shumway, a little alien nick-named A.L.F. (Alien Life Form). He was born 229 years ago on October 28, 1756 on the Lower East side of the planet Melmac. The planet Melmac was located six parsecs past the Hydra Centauras Super Cluster and had a green sky and blue grass.
Alf's body is covered with orange fur. He has a rippled snout, eight stomachs and likes to eat cats. He attended high school for 122 years and was captain of a Bouillabaiseball team (which is played on ice using shellfish as a ball).
Following a ham radio signal, he crash-landed into the garage of the Tanners, a suburban middle-class family including the social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), their children Lynn (Andrea Elson), Brian (Benji Gregory) and Lucky (a cat).
Unsure what to do, the Tanners take ALF into their home and hide him from NASA, the military, and their nosy neighbors until he could repair his spacecraft. He generally hid in the kitchen. It became known that Melmac had exploded, so ALF was without a home. He became a permanent member of the family even though his smart-aleck attitude and frequent mischief-making cause difficulty for the Tanners.
The original series spans over four seasons and 102 episodes. The name of every episode is also a name of a song that is relevant to the episode's plot.
Two spinoff animated series arose. Alf: The Animated Series, set on ALF's home planet of Melmac, ran on Saturday daytime from 1987 to 1988. A later second series AlfTales, which took Gordon and his familiar cohorts on Melmac and placed them as characters in classic (Earthly) fairy tales, ran alongside the older cartoon and outlived it by one season before itself being cancelled in 1989.
An ALF comic book was published by Marvel Comics from 1988 and ran for 50 issues.
In 1996 a 90 minutes TV-movie named Project: ALF was aired on ABC.
At the time that the original TV series was popular, some ALF-related merchandise was sold, including a 1988 calendar with Melmac's planetary holidays (such as Shout at a Shrub Day) prominently marked.
Alf also made a small appearance in the drug prevention video Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
Recently, ALF has been appearing in one of the numerous long-distance dialing plan commercials on American television. Alf has made many appearances on Hollywood Squares, including the current version.
In July 2004, ALF began hosting a half-hour talk show, ALF's Hit Talk Show, co-hosted by Ed McMahon, on the TV Land network.

douglas coupland

2004-11-16T11:38:00.000+01:00

Douglas Coupland (born December 30, 1961 on an air-force base, Baden Söllingen, Germany) is a Canadian author and cultural commentator, raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Trained as a sculptor, he worked in Europe and Japan before returning to his hometown, where he began to write on youth and popular culture for local magazines. This led him to the subject of his breakthrough novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991), which was critically praised for capturing the zeitgeist of his peer group, for whom its title provided a convenient label. Although society later guestimated "generation x", the generation, as being born up to and including the very early 1970s, Douglas' range was close enough to approximate the label. Without knowing it, he had literally provided one of the names for his whole generation.
His next novel, Shampoo Planet, had a more conventional structure than its predecessor but many similarities, including a detailed eye for the mores and minutiae of the lives of its young protagonists, including video games, hippie parents and an obsession with grooming products. Microserfs (1995) is centred on high-tech life in Seattle, Washington, and Palo Alto, California, contrasting the corporate culture of Microsoft with pre-dot-com bubble start-up companies.
Girlfriend in a Coma (with a title from, and many knowing nods within the text to, The Smiths) showed a willingness to tackle broader themes and featured some of his most mature writing — poet and critic Tom Paulin described his use of language as "fresh, like wet paint". Like the earlier novels, however, it was criticised as poorly structured. While his books are rich in humour, observation and carefully drawn vignettes, Coupland's critics noted a tendency for the plot development to be lost amongst these. The apocalyptic ending of Girlfriend..., which seems forced and out of step with the remainder, is often held up as a case in point. In this context, Miss Wyoming is possibly his most rounded and satisfying novel.
Sofia Coppola's company acquired the film rights to Generation X in 2001, although, like many novels, this does not necessarily guarantee one will be made. In fact, the one-year option on the property has long expired, leaving this and many other Coupland film projects in limbo.

siena

2004-11-16T11:36:00.000+01:00

Siena was an Etruscan settlement and a small Roman town, the seat of a Christian bishop by the 5th century, but its importance began in the early 12th century, when a self-governing commune replaced the earlier aristocratic government. The consuls who governed the republic slowly became more inclusive of the poblani or common people, and the Commune increased its territory as the surrounding feudal nobles in their fortified castles submitted to the urban power. Siena's republic, struggling internally between nobles and the popular party, usually worked in political opposition to its great rival, Florence, and was in the 13th century predominantly Ghibelline in opposition to Florence's Guelph position (the backdrop for Dante's Commedia)
Its university, famed for its faculties of law and medicine, was founded in 1203. Siena also rivalled Florence in the arts throughout the medieval period; the important late medieval or early renaissance painter Duccio (1253-1319) was a Senese, but worked across the peninsula, and the mural of "Good Government" by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico, or town hall, is a magnificent example of late-Medieval/early Renaissance-art as well as a representation of the utopia of urban society as conceived during that period. Siena was devastated by the Black Plague of 1348 and never recovered its earlier glory, losing out to Florence in inter-urban rivalry. Siena retained its independence in Tuscany until 1557.
Siena's University is still among the most important Italian universities, and the picturesque city remains an important cultural centre, specially for humanist disciplines.
Siena's cathedral, begun in the 12th century, is one of the great examples of Italian gothic architecture. Its main facade was completed in 1380. Its campanile and baptistry make a fine group. Inside is the famous Gothic octagonal pulpit by Nicola Pisano (1266 - 1268) supported on lions, and the labyrinth inlaid in the flooring, traversed by penitents on their knees. Beneath the Duomo, in the baptistry is the baptismala marvellous font with bas-reliefs by Donatello, Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia and other 15th-century sculptors. The Museum of the Opera del Duomo contains Duccio's famous Madonna (1308 - 1311).
The shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, the town square, is another architectural treasure and is famous for hosting the Palio.
According to legend, Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus, who was in turn the brother of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. Statues and other artwork depicting a she-wolf suckling the young twins Romulus and Remus can be seen all over the city of Siena.

cindy crawford

2004-11-15T21:11:00.000+01:00

Cynthia Ann Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American supermodel and actress. Born in DeKalb, Illinois, she is well-known as the supermodel with a visible mole on her face (although most people refer to it as a "beauty mark" in her case). The mole was surgically removed in the 1990s. Crawford has deviated from the strict matrix of perfection and distance from the audience common to celebrities. She has attempted to display a sense of humor when modeling and acting. A series of exercise videos that she made were a runaway hit, although her acting pursuits have not been nearly as successful. She continues to provide celebrity endorsement for a variety of projects.
Once described as possessing a "volcanic sensuality", Crawford maintains a powerful, enduring appeal to a generation of men today - and, additionally, has gained admiration from the successive generation too - that most of her supermodel peers cannot, in much the same way as Marilyn Monroe before her. In 1992, roadside posters of her had to be removed in Norway when authorities noticed a 300% increase in the accident rate as motorists were distracted by her arrestingly attractive appearance.
In 1995 Crawford took her first movie role in Fair Game. Her performance was dismissed by critics, and the greenlighting of a $50 million film on the assumption that she would be a good actress was described in the magazine Total Film in 2004 as the 7th "dumbest decision in movie history". Fair Game took $11 million at the box office.
Crawford is just over 5 feet 9 inches tall and has a slim, well-toned figure. She was the first modern supermodel to pose for Playboy magazine. She is ranked number 5 on Playboy's list of the 100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th century. She has featured on the cover of more than 600 magazines worldwide including Vogue, W, People, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE and Allure. A 1997 Shape magazine survey of 4,000 picked her as the second (after Demi Moore) most beautiful woman in the world.
From 1989 to 1995, Crawford was host of MTV's House of Style.

alvar aalto

2004-11-15T19:49:00.000+01:00

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (February 3, 1898 - May 11, 1976) was a Scandinavian modernist designer, noted for his humanistic modernism. His work includes architecture, furniture, and glassware. He was one of the first and most influential architects of the Scandinavian modern movement, and a member of the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Major works include the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, Finland, and the campus of Helsinki University of Technology. Aalto's glassware includes the world-famous Aalto Vase.
Alvar Aalto was born in Kuortane, Finland. He studied architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology from 1916 to 1921. He returned to Jyväskylä, where he opened his first architectural office in 1923. The following year he married architect Aino Marsio. Their honeymoon journey to Italy sealed an intellectual bond with the culture of the Mediterranean region that was to remain important to Aalto for the rest of his life.
Aalto's wide field of activity ranged from furniture and glassware designs to architecture and painting. His vase designs are world-famous. Aalto furniture is manufactured by Artek, a company Aalto co-founded. Aalto glassware (Aino as well as Alvar) is manufactured by iittala.

typewriters

2004-11-15T13:18:00.000+01:00

A typewriter is a mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a document, usually paper.
In the late 19th and the start of the 20th century a person who operated such a device was sometimes also called a "typewriter," but it then became more common to call the person a "typist."
A typewriter has a keyboard, with keys for the characters in its font. The method by which the typewriter actually marks the paper now varies as greatly as types of printers do, but until the end of the 20th century was by the impact of a metal (or, later, metallized plastic) type element against an "inked" ribbon which caused ink to be deposited on the paper. Carbon paper was sometimes inserted between multiple pieces of paper, so the impact also caused duplicate characters to be printed on each layer of paper.
No one person can be said to have invented the typewriter. Like the light bulb, automobile, telephone and the telegraph, a number of people contributed insights and inventions which eventually resulted in commercially successful instruments. In 1714 Henry Mill obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that from the patent sounds similar to a typewriter, but nothing further is known. [1] (http://www.precision-dynamics.com.au/typewriters/history.html). Other early developers of writing machines include Pellegrino Turri (1808) who also invented carbon paper. Many of these earliest machines, including Turri's, were developed to allow the blind to write.
In 1829 William Austin Burt patented a machine called the "Typographer." Like many of these other early machines, it is sometimes listed as the "first typewriter;" the Science Museum (London) describes it merely as "the first writing mechanism whose invention was documented," but even that claim may be excessive since Turri's machine is well known. Even in the hands of its inventor it was slower than handwriting. Burt and his promoter John D. Sheldon never found a buyer for the patent, and it was never commercially produced. Because it used a dial to select the character instead of having an individual key for each character, it was an "index typewriter" rather than a "keyboard typewriter", if it is to be considered a typewriter at all. From 1829 to 1870, many printing or typing machines were patented by inventors in Europe and America, but none went into commercial production. See Charles Thurber's 1845 Chirographer as an example.
A true typewriter was invented in 1864 by Peter Mitterhofer but was never produced commercially. In 1865 Rev. Malling Hansen of Denmark produced the Hansen Writing Ball (schreibkugel) which went into commercial production in 1870 and was the first commercially sold typewriter. It was a success in Europe and was reported being used in offices in London as late as 1909. Additionally, Hansen used a solenoid escapement to return the carriage on some of his models, and was responsible for the first "electric" typewriter.
In 1867 Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule invented another typewriter. The Sholes and Glidden typewriter was the first device that allowed an operator to type substantially faster than a person could write by hand. The patent (US 79,265) was sold for $12,000 to a couple of entrepreneurs who made an agreement with E. Remington and Sons (then famous as a manufacturer of sewing machines), to commercialize what was known as the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer. Remington started production of their first typewriter on March 1, 1873 in Ilion, New York. Another early typewriter manufacturer was Underwood.
The ability to view what is typed as it is typed is taken for granted today. In all early keyboard typewriters, however, the typebars struck upwards against the bottom of the platen. Thus, what was typed was not visible until the typing of subsequent lines caused it to scroll into view. The difficulty with any other arrangement was ensuring that the typebars fell back into place reliably when the key was released. This was eventually achieved with ingenious mechanical designs, and so-called "visible typewriters" were introduced in 1895. Surprisingly, the older style continued in production as late as 1915.
In the original design style, now known as a "mechanical" or "manual" typewriter, each key was attached to a typebar that had the corresponding letter molded into its other end. When a key was struck briskly and firmly, the typebar hit a ribbon (usually made of inked fabric) stretched in front of a cylindrical platen that moved back and forth. The paper was rolled around by the typewriter's platen which was then rotated by a lever (the "carriage return" lever at the far left) to each new line of text. Some typewriters used ribbons that were inked in black and red, each a stripe half the width and the entire length of the ribbon. A lever allowed switching between colors for typing bookkeeping entries, where negative amounts had to be in red.
Electrical typewriter designs removed the direct mechanical connection between the keys and the element that struck the paper. Nevertheless, up to the 1980s, electric typewriters could be better described as "power-assisted typewriters." They contained only a single electrical component in them, the motor. Where the keystroke had previously moved a typebar directly, now it engaged mechanical linkages that directed mechanical power from the motor into the typebar. This was also true of the forthcoming IBM Selectric.
IBM and Remington electric typewriters were the leading models until IBM introduced the IBM Selectric typewriter, which replaced the typebars with a spherical typeball (more correctly, "element"), slightly smaller than a golf ball, with the letters molded on its surface. The Selectric used a system of latches, metal tapes, and pulleys driven by an electric motor to rotate the ball into the correct position and then strike it against the ribbon and platen. The typeball moved laterally in front of the paper instead of the former platen-carrying carriage moving the paper across a stationary print position.
The typeball design had many advantages, especially in eliminating of "jams" when more than one key was struck at once, and in the ability to change the typeball, allowing multiple fonts to be used in a single document. Selectric mechanisms were widely incorporated into computer terminals in the 1970s, because the typing mechanism was fast and jam-free; could be initiated by a short, low-force mechanical action; and did not require the movement of a heavy "type basket" in order to shift between lower- and upper-case.
Later models of Selectrics replaced inked fabric ribbons with "carbon film" ribbons that had a dry black or colored powder on a "once-thru" clear plastic tape. These could be used only once but they were in a cartridge that was simple to replace. They also introduced auto-correction, where a sticky tape in front of the print ribbon could remove the black-powdered image of a typed character, and introduced selectable "pitch" so that the typewriter could be switched among pica ("10 pitch"), elite ("12 pitch"), and sometimes agate ("15 pitch"), even in one document. Even so, all Selectrics were monospaced -- each and every character was the same width. Although IBM had produced a successful typebar-based machine, the IBM Executive, with proportional spacing, no proportionally-spaced Selectric office typewriter was ever introduced. There was, however, a much more expensive proportionally-spaced machine called the Selectric Composer which was considered a typesetting machine rather than a typewriter.
The final major development of the typewriter was the "electronic" typewriter. Most of these replaced the typeball with a daisy wheel mechanism (a disk with the letters molded on the outside edge of the "petals"). A plastic daisy-wheel was much simpler and cheaper than the typeball but wore out more easily. Some electronic typewriters were in essence dedicated word processors with internal memory and cartridge or diskette external memory-storage devices. Unlike the Selectrics and earlier models, these really were "electronic" and relied on integrated circuits and multiple electromechanical components.
Towards the end of the commercial popularity of typewriters in the 1980s, a number of hybrid designs combining features of computer printers and typewriters were introduced .
These typically incorporated keyboards from existing models of typewriters and the printing mechanism of dot-matrix printers. The generation of teletypes with impact pin-based printing engines was not adequate for the demanding quality required for typed output. Newly developed, thermal transfer technologies used in thermal label printers had become technically feasible for typewriters.
IBM produced a series of typewriters called Thermotronic with letter-quality output and correcting tape along with printers tagged Quietwriter. Brother extended the life of their typewriter product line with similar products.
The development of these proprietary printing engines provided the vendors with exclusive markets in consumable ribbons and the possibility to use standardised printing engines with varying degrees of electronic and software sophistication to develop product lines.
The increasing dominance of personal computers and the introduction of low-cost, truly high-quality, laser and inkjet printer technologies eventually displaced dedicated typewriters.
In the developed world, with the proliferation of the personal computer with word processing software, typewriters have faded into near-obscurity and are now used mainly by people without access to, or the training to use, a computer, and for specialized applications such as filling out forms. The monospaced, stark, and slightly uneven look of typewritten text can have some artistic appeal, and some people, young or old, prefer to use a typewriter occasionally.
In some countries where personal computers are not ubiquitous, one may go to the public square and find individuals who gather there with their old but sturdy typewriters. These individuals rent out their services as on-the-spot letter writers, accepting dictation from their customers, who may be illiterate or who simply do not own a typewriter.
The 1874 Sholes & Glidden typewriters established the QWERTY layout for the letter keys. This layout of keys has been become the de facto standard for English-language typewriter and computer keyboards. Other languages written in the Latin alphabet may use variants of the QWERTY layouts, such as the French AZERTY and German QWERTZ layouts.
The QWERTY layout is thought by some to be an inefficient one, since it requires a touch-typist to move his or her fingers between rows to type the most common letters. A popular story suggests that it was used for early typewriters because it was inefficient, so as to prevent the typewriter's typebars from wedging together, or possibly to slow down a typist so as to reduce the frequency of the typewriter jamming.
A number of radically different layouts, such as the Dvorak keyboard, have been proposed, but these have not been able to displace the QWERTY layout; their proponents claim considerable advantages, but so far inertia has prevented any mainstream adoption.
Several words of the "typewriter age" has survived all the way into the personal computer era: examples are "carbon copy", now in its abbreviated form "CC" designating copies of email messages (with no carbon involved, at least not until potential printouts); "carriage return" (CR), to indicate an end of line and return to the first column of text (and on some computer platforms, advancing to the next line); and "line feed" (LF), aka "newline", standing for moving the cursor to the next on-screen line of text in a word processor document (and on the eventual printout(s) of the document).
According to the standards taught in secretarial schools in the mid-1900s, a business letter was supposed to have no mistakes and no visible corrections. Accuracy was, therefore, prized as much as speed. Indeed, typing speeds, as scored in proficiency tests and typewriting speed competitions, included a deduction of ten words for every mistake that was made.
Corrections, were, of course, necessary, and a variety of methods and technologies were used.
The traditional method involved the use of a special typewriter eraser. The typewriter eraser was made of fairly hard, stiff rubber, containing abrasive material. It was in the shape of a thin, flat disk, approx. 2 inches in diameter by 1/8 inch thick allowing for the erasure of individual typed letters. Business letters were typed on heavyweight, high-rag-content bond paper, not merely to give a luxurious appearance, but also to stand up to erasure. Typewriter erasers were equipped with a brush for brushing away eraser crumbs and paper dust, and using the brush properly was an important element of typewriting skill, because if erasure detritus fell into the typewriter, a very small buildup could cause the typebars to jam in their narrow supporting grooves.
Erasing a set of carbon copies was particularly difficult, and called for the use of a device called an eraser shield to prevent the pressure of erasure on the upper copies from producing carbon smudges on the lower copies.
Paper companies produced a special form of typewriter paper called erasable bond (for example, Eaton's Corrasible Bond). This incorporated a thin layer of material that prevented ink from penetrating and was relatively soft and easy to remove from the page. An ordinary soft pencil eraser could quickly produce perfect erasures on this kind of paper. However, the same characteristics that made the paper erasable made the characters subject to smudging due to ordinary friction, making it unacceptable for business correspondence or anything archival.
In the fifties and sixties, correction fluid made its appearance, under brand names such as Liquid Paper and Wite-Out. This was a kind of opaque white fast-drying paint which produced a fresh white surface onto which a correction could be re-typed. However, when held to the light, the covered-up characters were visible, as was the patch of dry correction fluid (which was never perfectly flat, and never a perfect match for the color, texture, and luster of the surrounding paper). The standard trick for solving this problem was Photocopying the corrected page, but this was possible only with high quality photocopiers, and was not practical with color letterheads.
Dry correction products under brand names such as Ko-Rec-Type were introduced in the seventies and functioned like white carbon paper. A strip of the product was placed over the letters needing correction, and the incorrect letters were retyped, causing the black character to be overstruck with a white overcoat. Similar material was soon incorporated in carbon-film electric typewriter ribbons; like the traditional two-color black-and-red inked ribbon common on manual typewriters, a black/white correcting ribbon became commonplace on electric typewriters.
The pinnacle of this kind of technology was the IBM Correcting Selectric. This machine, and similar products, incorporated a black/white ribbon and a character memory. With a single keystroke, the typewriter was capable of automatically reversing and overstriking the previous few characters with white cover-up.

zbigniew preisner

2004-11-13T05:30:00.000+01:00

Zbigniew Preisner (b. 1955) is Poland's leading film music composer and is considered to be one of the most outstanding film composers of his generation. For many years Preisner enjoyed a close collaborationwith the director Krzysztof Kieslowski and his script-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz. His scores for Kieslowski's films Dekalog, The Double Life Of Veronique, Three Colours Blue, Three Colours White and Three Colours Red have brought him international acclaim.
Preisner currently lives in Poland and Switzerland.
During the last twelve years Preisner has scored many international feature films including Hector Babenco's At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, Louis Malle's Damage, Luis Mandoki's When A Man Loves A Woman, Agnieszka Holland's The Secret Garden, and Charles Sturridge's Fairytale: A True Story.
Preisner's soundtrack album for The Double Life Of Veronique and the three CDs of the soundtracks for Three Colours Blue, White and Red have sold more than two million copies around the world. The Double Life Of Veronique CD -originally released on the Sideral label in 1991 and re-issued on Virgin in1998 - was awarded a Gold Disc in France in 1992. Preisner's Music, the live recording of the suite drawn from the music he has created for films, achieved Platinum Disc status in Poland (more than 80,000 copies sold).
In 1994 Preisner was commissioned to write the title music for People's Century, BBC TV's 26-part series documenting the history of the twentieth century, co-produced by WGBH Boston. The series was shown on PBS in the USA and has now been seen by television viewers in over 30 countries.
Preisner's more recent film scores include: The Last September, based on the novel by Elizabeth Bowen, directed by Deborah Warner and featuring Maggie Smith, Keeley Hawes, Michael Gambon and Fiona Shaw; and Aberdeen, directed and written by the Norwegian director Hans-Petter Moland, with Lena Headey, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling and Ian Hart.
Between January 2002 and December 2003 Preisner completed five new scores: Between Strangers, written and directed by Edoardo Ponti, starring Sophia Loren, Mira Sorvino, Deborah Kara Unger, Gerard Depardieu, Malcolm McDowell, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Pete Postlethwaite; It's All About Love, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Sean Penn; Effroyables jardins, directed by Jean Becker, starring Jacques Villeret, Andre Dusollier, Thierry Lhermitte and and Benoit Magimel; Supertex, directed by Jan Schütte, starring Jan Decleir, Stephen Mangan and Maureen Lipman; and The Beautiful Country, directed by Hans Petter Moland, starring Nick Nolte.
Requiem for my friend, Preisner's album of music dedicated to the memory of Krzysztof Kieslowski is his first large-scale work specially written for recording and live performance. Released on Erato Disques (Warner Classics) in October 1998 the work received its world premiere at the Teatr Wielki, Warsaw, on 1st October 1998. The recording features the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Varsov Chamber Choir, with the Polish soprano Elzbieta Towarnicka, whose singing is a trademark of Preisner's film scores.
Among many awards and citations Preisner received the Silver Bear from the Berlin Film Festival in 1997, two Cesars from the French Film Academy one in 1996 for Jean Becker's Elisa, and one in 1995 for Three Colours Red and three consecutive citations as the year's most outstanding composer of film music in The Los Angeles Critics Association Awards of 1991, 1992 and 1993. Preisner is a member of the French Film Academy and in 1992 he received the Award of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for outstanding achievements in the presentation of Polish Culture abroad.The soundtracks to the Three Colours Trilogy have now been re-issued on MK2 Music, together with a new compilation titled Preisner-Kieslowski, featuring tracks from Dekalog, The Double Life of Veronique and the Three Colours films.

erik satie

2004-11-13T04:01:00.000+01:00

Alfred Erik Leslie Satie was born in Honfleur (Normandy) in 1866. He died in Paris in 1925, aged 59. His mother was Scottish and his father was a ship broker.
Satie started playing the piano at age 7. At 17 he spent a year at the Paris Conservatory. At age 40, already an accomplished musician, he entered the Schola Cantorum. Here he studied counterpoint and orchestration with Albert Roussel and Vincent D'Indy. After three years he received a Diploma marked "tres bien" (very good). Satie was a composer who feared no man, but always did what was right in his own eyes. He was an exponent of several important trends in the 20th Century composition including bitonality, polytonality, Jazz and non-triadic harmony.
Erik Satie was one of music's great originals, both personally (an eccentric) and artistically. From his one-room flat in a working class suburb in Paris, he exercised a remarkable influence over a generation of composers who were seeking to escape the dominance of Richard Wagner. His simplicity, innovative harmonies, freedom of form and mastery of musical understatement made a strong impression on composers like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and later younger composers such as Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud and John Cage. His strange sparse scores, often written without bar lines in red ink are peppered with whimsical structions : "Light as an egg", "Here comes the lantern", "Open your head", "Muffle the sound", "With astonishment", "Work it out yourself", etc. Satie's early interest in Mediaeval music shows in the simple plainsong like harmonies of his famous 'Gymnopédies' and 'Gnossiennes'. In the 1890s he became interested in, and the official composer for, the religio-mystic-occult sect of Rosicrusianism which also had a strong Mediaeval leaning. He was a close friend of Claude Debussy, and during World War 1 also befriended Cocteau, Diaghilev and Pablo Picasso. This association with the Cubists resulted in the ballet 'Parade' which he wrote in collaboration with Cocteau and Picasso. An eccentric and humorist, he was not well accepted by the general public of his time, despite efforts by Debussy and Ravel to promote his works.
During the past 20 years his work has received worldwide appreciation and the recognition of his importance he so truly deserves.

the breeders

2004-11-13T03:54:00.000+01:00

The Breeders were originally Kim and Kelley performing songs by the likes of Hank Williams at such places as truck stops. Kim revived the name when she formed a band with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses and Josephine Wiggs of Perfect Disaster. Kim and Tanya knew each other from when The Pixies supported Throwing Muses around ston. They were at a club together, completely drunk, and thought it would be great to record a disco song and make a lot of money. Leslie Langston and David Narcizo (bass and drums from The Muses) helped them record a demo at Fort Apache with Gary Smith and play a one-off gig at The Rat in Boston. The Perfect Disaster had supported The Pixies for several shows in Europe and UK during 1989. Josephine Wiggs joined them in Scotland with Steve Albini who brought Brit Walford, drummer with Slint at the time, where they rehearsed and recorded Pod and a John Peel session in less than a month. They finished ahead of schedule and made two guest appearances playing in London. Josephine surprised everyone when she quit The Perfect Disaster and announced that she would be putting together her own band called Naked Bosom. She spent the next few months touring with Ultra Vivid Scene. It was Jon Mattock, her collaborator on her Honey Tongue record, that shared drumming chores with Brit on the recording of The Breeders' Safari EP, released in 1992. The EP saw Kelley join them as an additional guitar player. She had played a bit of drums before, and learned to play guitar during the recording. Tanya left Throwing Muses, formed Belly and decided to leave The Breeders. With the break up of The Pixies, The Breeders didn't seem like a hobby any more! Jim Macpherson was found playing with Raging Mantras in the Deal's native Ohio, and was asked to record a few demos. When he joined, they played extensively before recording Last Splash in 1993, produced by Kim as she had done with the Safari EP. They joined the Lollapalooza tour.
At the end of the year, Kelley was busted for heroin possession, finally being let off by agreeing to join a rehab program.
In 1995 Kim decided to give The Breeders a rest and began messing around doing solo stuff, originally under the name of Tammy and the Amps. It was eventually shortened, simply, to The Amps. The Amps included Jim Macpherson, and recorded Pacer while on tour in America and Europe. Josephine moved from her native England to New York to live with her girlfriend and recorded with Luscious Jackson, signing her band, The Josephine Wiggs Experience, to Beastie Boys Grand Royal label. Kelley, now living in Minnesota, formed Solid State, who became The Kelley Deal 6000.Rumours abound that The Breeders would regroup but it did not happen. Kim and Jim were working with Real Lulu and Kelley was on the road with KD6000 or recording as Last Hard Men with Sebastian Bach of Skid Row. The Amps toured as The Breeders and Kelley and Josephine officially announced that they had left the band. Jim left a short time after, but continues to play with Real Lulu and Guided by Voices. He was replaced by Tyler Trent of Braniac.
The Breeders next album was to have been a live affair, but a studio one seems more likely. It could contain Forced to Drive, Climbing the Sun and Swingers.

ajuinen en look

2004-11-13T03:40:00.000+01:00

Mike Boddé en Thomas van Luyn treden in het seizoen 2004/2005 weer samen op onder de naam Ajuinen en Look. Zo zijn ze ondermeer te zien in het Koningstheater in Den Bosch. In 1995 ging het duo door omstandigheden uit elkaar en sindsdien ontwikkelden de beide cabaretiers zich solo. Maar het contact tussen de heren bleef bestaan en sinds twee jaar werken ze ook samen in het Kopspijkers cabaret
Thomas heeft de vooropleiding voor het conservatorium gedaan en Mike heeft deel uitgemaakt van de cabaretgroep Basterd. Via de studie Chinees in Leiden leerde hij Mike kennen. Ze raakten over muziek aan de praat, schreven liedjes samen en uiteindelijk kwam Mike op het idee om met Thomas een cabaretduo te vormen. Eerst noemden ze zichzelf Cabaret Poep en Pies, maar omdat ze daar nogal flauwe reacties op kregen, besloten ze een naam te verzinnen die 'lekker moeilijk en lekker vaag' klonk. Dat 'ajuinen' en 'look' in het Vlaams respectievelijk 'moppen' en 'onraad' betekende, was dan ook niet de bedoeling.
Na het begin in een Haags theaterrestaurant wonnen ze in 1991 het Groninger Studenten Cabaret Festival en later ook het Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival.
Van het programmaatje dat ze eerst hadden, maakten ze -om de verveling tegen te gaan- een alternatieve porno-versie voor in de kleedkamer. Later kwamen ze op het idee om dat op het toneel te doen. Om het wat pittiger te maken.
Zelf omschreven ze 'De fiets van Marleen' als ".. een hoop muziek, wat parodieën, sex, taalspelletjes... eh.. eh.. ja.. toch?"

kamagurka

2004-11-13T03:33:00.000+01:00

Kamagurka werd in 1956, in het druilige stadje Nieuwpoort, aan de Belgische kust, geboren.
Hij studeerde aan de Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Gent maar stopte daarmee vòòr zijn eindexamen.
Hij begon te werken als cartoonist bij HUMO, een Belgisch weekblad, en vergaarde daar vlug roem mee.
Kamagurka publiceerde in verscheidene landen zoals Nederland (NRC Handelsblad, Vrij Nederland, Haagse Post Playboy, Esquire), Frankrijk (Charlie Hebdo, Hara Kiri), UK (Squib, The Spectator, Deadpan), Duitsland (Titanic, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Zitty, Eulenspiegel), Oostenrijk (Die Presse), USA (The New Yorker, National Lampoon, RAW) en veel andere... .
Hij deed verschillende shows op de Belgische en Nederlandse televisie, had een radioshow samen met Herr Seele (zijn levenslange metgezel) op Studio Brussel, en treedt het ganse jaar door op in Nederland en België. Hij schreef ook een kindersprookje en twee toneelstukken die werden opgevoerd in het NTG te Gent.
Kamagurka heeft meer dan 25 stripboeken uitgebracht, van Bert en Bobje tot Cowboy Henk. Als schilder heeft hij ook reeds geëxposeerd in verscheidene gallerijen in Nederland en België.
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mark uytterhoeven

2004-11-13T00:31:00.000+01:00

Mark Uytterhoeven, geboren op 6 maart 1957, wordt midden jaren tachtig aangenomen door Ivan Sonck als sportcommentator, verslaggever- en presentator bij de toenmalige BRT, dit is het begin van zijn televisiecarrière.
In die tijd bracht hij zijn presentaties al op zijn eigen -professionele manier: serieus, ironisch, grappig in zijn genre. Begin jaren negentig zat hij in het legendarische radioprogramma 'De Taalstrijd' met Daniël Van Avermaet waarin woordspelingen en andere taalspelletjes niet onbekend waren. In 1992 nog meer van dit in De Perschefs.
Mark Uytterhoeven was dus al een waar radiofenomeen, maar terzelfder tijd was hij ook weer niet weg te slaan van het televisiescherm, dit bleek uit programma's als 'Huis van Wantrouwen' dat hij samen met Wouter Van den Houte presenteerde, en 'Morgen Maandag'. Deze programma's brachten hem veel succes, en lokten zeer veel mensen naar hun scherm, de kijkcijfers logen er niet om.
Wat later, in 1994, presenteerde hij het improvisatieprogramma 'Onvoorziene omstandigheden' waar veel improvisatieacteurs uit groeide. In '98 sluit Mark Uytterhoeven zich aan bij het nieuwe -en nu reeds succesvolle productiehuis- Woestijnvis, hiermee maakt hij zijn terugkomst op het al even nieuwe Canvas (het vroegere tv2). Die terugkomst maakte hij waar met zijn programma 'Alles kan beter' dat uitzonderlijk meer dan 500 000 kijkers lokte naar het tweede net. In dit programma maakte Rob Vanoudenhoven zijn debuut, hij zat samen met Guy Mortier en een afwisselende derde gast in het panel van 'Alles kan beter'. Mark zelf vindt Alles kan beter het beste wat hij ooit gemaakt heeft.
Enkele jaren hiervoor (1995) presenteerde hij samen met Tineke Verburgh ook nog het (taal)spelprogramma '10 voor taal', waarin Nederland tegen Vlaanderen strijdt.
Tussen dit alles door presenteerde hij nog enkele W- en EK's voetbal en ook wielerwedstrijden waaronder 'De Ronde van Frankrijk'. In 2001 maakte hij, na lang wachten, een nieuwe comeback met 'Alles komt terug' dat hij, nu samen met Rob Vanoudenhoven, presenteerde. Er zouden ook plannen geweest zijn om in 'Man bijt hond' een rubriek met Mark te maken waarin hij ons de Provence zou laten zien, hij had hier echter -zo bleek later- te weinig tijd voor.
In 2002, presenteert hij vanaf november afwisselend met Bruno Wyndaele het laatavondprogramma 'De laatste show'. Dit is niet van zijn gewoonten want Mark handhaaft reeds jaren het principe om tussen elk programma dat hij maakt of presenteert een periode van een jaar of twee in te lassen. Nu zou hij om de zeven weken, zes weken lang te zien zijn in 'De laatste show'... Rond deze tijd maakt hij ook nog het amusante wielerprogramma 'De fiets van Pavlov'.
Vanaf het najaar van 2003 presenteert Mark Uytterhoeven alleen 'De laatse show', hij maakt er eerder een personality-show van, met zijn alweder eigen 'Uytterhoeven-touch'.
Mark Uytterhoeven woont in Mechelen, samen met zijn vrouw. Hij heeft een dochter genaamd Tes. Uytterhoeven woont de helft van het jaar in het zuiden van Frankrijk waar hij een huis heeft in de Provence.
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my bloody valentine

2004-11-12T22:32:00.000+01:00

Like the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, and the Jesus & Mary Chain before them, My Bloody Valentine redefined what noise meant within the context of pop songwriting.
Led by guitarist Kevin Shields, the group released several EPs in the mid-'80s before recording the era-defining Isn't Anything in 1988, a record that merged lilting, ethereal melodies of the Cocteau Twins with crushingly loud, shimmering distortion. Though My Bloody Valentine rejected rock & roll conventions, it didn't subscribe to the precious tendencies of anti-rock art-pop bands. Instead, it rode crashing waves of white noise to unpredictable conclusions, particularly since their noise wasn't paralyzing like the typical avant-garde noise-rock band: It was translucent, glimmering, and beautiful. Shields was a perfectionist, especially when it came to recording, as much of My Bloody Valentine's sound was conceived within the studio itself.
Nevertheless, the band was known as a formidible live act, even though they rarely moved, or even looked at the audience, while they were on-stage. Their notorious lack of movement was branded "shoegazing" by the British music press, and soon there were legions of other shoegazers -- Ride, Lush, the Boo Radleys, Chapterhouse, Slowdive -- that, along with the rolling dance-influenced Madchester scene, dominated British indie-rock of the late '80s and early '90s. As shoegazing reached its peak in 1991, My Bloody Valentine released Loveless, which broke new sonic ground and was hailed as a masterpiece. Though the band was poised for a popular breakthrough, they disappeared into the studio and didn't emerge over the next five years, leaving behind a legacy that proved profoundly influential in the direction of '90s alternative rock.
Born in Queens, New York, Kevin Shields' family moved to Dubin, Ireland when he was six years old. In his teens, he became obsessed with pop music, eventually playing in Complex with his childhood friend Colm O'Ciosoig. In 1984, Shields and O'Ciosoig formed My Bloody Valentine with vocalist Dave Conway and keyboardist Tina, taking their name from a slasher horror film. The group relocated to Berlin, where they released the Birthday Party-influenced EP This Is Your Bloody Valentine on the Tycoon label in 1985 to little notice. The following year, the band moved to London, where they added bassist Debbie Googe. By the summer, they had signed to Fever and had released the EP Geek!, which again was ignored. Later that year, the group moved to Kaledoscope Sound, releasing The New Record By My Bloody Valentine EP, which illustrated a Jesus & Mary Chain influence. The following year, the band moved to the Primitives' Lazy Records, releasing Sunny Sundae Smile early in the year. That EP was the first My Bloody Valentine record to mesh airy melodies with grinding guitars, but the two EPs that followed in 1987 -- Strawberry Wine and Ecstasy -- were more focused and acclaimed. Conway left the band by the end of the year and was replaced by vocalist/guitarist Bilinda Butcher, whose breathy vocals fit the group's evolving sound more appropriately.
My Bloody Valentine's new sound coalesced with the group's first full-fledged album, 1988's Isn't Anything. Released on Creation Records, Isn't Anything was greeted with enthusiastic reviews in the UK music press and the band's following increased dramatically by the end of the year; in fact, their repuation had become large enough to attract the attention of Sire/Warner Bros. in the US, who became the group's American label. Two other EPs, Feed Me With Your Kiss and You Made Me Realise, were also quite popular, and by the beginning of 1989, bands that based their sound on My Bloody Valentine's droning swirl began to appear. The group retreated to the studio in 1989 to record their followup, which meant that only one EP, Glider, was released during that year. By the spring of 1990, it was becoming clear that the followup to Isn't Anything wouldn't be appearing anytime soon, and reports about Shields' growing perfectionism began to circulate in the UK weekly music press. Soon, it became apparent that the band's lengthy recording sessions were crippling Creation Records, but the group's audience was still passionate, despite the inactivity: The Tremolo EP was released at the end of 1990 to considerable acclaim, and managed to climb into the UK Top 40.
When My Bloody Valentine's second album, Loveless, finally appeared in late 1991, it was greeted with uniformly excellent reviews and it became a hit within the UK, reaching number 24 on the charts. In America, the group made significant inroads, particularly by supporting Dinosaur Jr. Despite the band's acclaim and growing audience, Loveless didn't sell in numbers to recoup its reported $500,000 recording cost and Creation dropped the band from their label; Creation wouldn't fully recover until 1994, when they signed Oasis. My Bloody Valentine signed with Island and entered the studio at the end of 1992 to record a new album. In 1993, the group contributed a James Bond cover to a charity compilation.
And then ... nothing happened.
Shields built a home studio with his Island advance and reportedly completed two separate albums, but scrapped them both. Often, the studio ran into technological problems. Between 1993 and 1997, both Googe and O'Ciosoig left the band, leaving only Shields and Butcher; after driving a cab for about a year, Googe formed Snowpony in 1996. There were signs that My Bloody Valentine were emerging from hiding in 1996, when the group contributed to the Wire tribute album Whore and Shields played on Experimental Audio Research's Beyond the Pale. Still, no new My Bloody Valentine material appeared.

georg trakl

2004-11-12T12:47:00.000+01:00

Georg Trakl was born February 3, 1887, the fourth of six children in a middle class Protestant family in the largely Catholic community of Salzburg Austria. Trakl's father Tobias, a successful hardware dealer, was able to provide young Georg with a comfortable bourgeois childhood. His mother Maria was artistically and musically inclined, but often suffered from depression and emotional instability, which caused her to withdraw from her children. Neither parent was very close to any of their children, a fact Trakl would deeply resent as he grew older. Trakl's religious confusion began very early. He attended a Catholic elementary school, but also received instruction in his father's Protestant faith two times a week throughout his early schooling. He became extremely close with his younger sister Grete, who he felt was the only one who understood him. He began high school in 1897 and proved to be a fairly poor student and was even forced to repeat one year. As an adolescent, this happy and apparently normal child began to withdraw, become depressed and show other signs of emotional instability. Perhaps as a further sign of his poor emotional health, he began reading Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Verlaine and Baudelaire with a group of his avant-garde friends, who rebelled against the middle class culture by wearing dandified clothing and having long hair. In 1904, Georg began to write poetry and formed a poetry club along with his friends, but the vast majority of his own verse was mediocre and showed little sign of the talent of his later years. Trakl remained close to his sister Grete during this period and some critics have speculated, based on clues in his later poetry, that the relationship may have become incestuous. In high school, Georg began visiting brothels frequently, where he enjoyed giving rambling monologues to the aging prostitute. At 15, he began drinking, and using opium, chloroform, and other drugs, so that by the he was forced to drop out of school in 1905, Trakl was a full-blown drug addict. Georg graduated from his moody adolescence to become a deeply disturbed and clearly mentally ill adult. Many modern day critics think that Trakl was suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia. After dropping out, Georg began a three-year apprenticeship with a pharmacist, perhaps only for the easy access to drugs. However, he found some modest literary during this period and began publishing little poems and articles in the local paper. In 1906, Trakl turned to play writing. Trakl wrote two one act plays, All Souls Days and Fata Morgana, and, with the help of a loose living local bohemian friend, had them produced by a local theater the same year. The first was a moderate success, the second a dismal failure. Trakl took this theatrical failure fairly hard and began experimenting with more powerful drugs to kill the sting of disappointment. In 1907, he returned to play writing and began work on Don Juan's Death, a play he later destroyed in 1912. In 1908, after completing his apprenticeship and passing the pharmacological exam, he moved to Vienna to begin his formal pharmacology studies at the university. In Vienna, Trakl felt alienated, and spent most of his time abuse drugs and writing poetry, most of it still fairly mediocre. Trakl did however meet some of the prominent artists in Vienna at the time, including, the artist Kokoschka. With the help of his few contacts, Trakl published some poems in a prominent journal and joined an avant garde group of students lead by an old school friend who would become instrumental in getting Trakl published. Shortly before the completion of his degree in 1910, Trakl's father died which caused a financial crisis for the family. Without his family's financial assistance, Trakl fell on hard times. Yet, shortly after receiving his degree, Trakl experienced a creative breakthrough when he wrote the poems Decline, The Beautiful City and The Stormy Evening. These poems show the first glimpse of Trakl's combination of formal mastery and Romantic symbolism, both which would become trademarks of his mature style. In the fall of 1910, Trakl began a voluntary one-year stint in Vienna as part of the medical corps of the Austro-Hungarian army. In the military, Trakl enjoyed a somewhat independent lifestyle, free from the cares of everyday life. After his military service, Georg returned to Salzburg and entered the 'real world,' an experience that nearly broke him. In 1911, Trakl was employed by the White Angel pharmacy where he became so overwhelmed by his duties that she sweated through several shirts in a day and quit after a few weeks. Having been so overwhelmed by the ‘real world,’ Trakl decided to reenlist in 1912 and was stationed in Innsbruck, Austria. Luckily, Trakl fell in with a group of avant garde artists involved with the highly regarded literary journal Der Brenner, a journal that spearheaded the Kierkegaard revival in the German speaking world. This group recognized Trakl's emerging talent and the editor of the journal, Ludwig von Ficker, took Georg under his wing. With the support of this group, Trakl's talent blossomed and soon his poems began to appear regularly in the journal. Trakl was still very emotionally unstable, alternating between expansive moods, which had him giving long monologues without warning, and withdrawn periods of rumination where he would communicate with no one. After a dispute with an officer in his garrison, Trakl changed to reserve status and made some failed attempts to secure steady employment. At this time, Trakl had several stylistic breakthroughs and, with the help of his friends, attempted to publish a collection of poetry. In 1913, Trakl briefly visited his family while they went through the process of closing the family business, an experience that threw Trakl into a deep depression. To recover, Trakl moved in with von Ficker where he continued to work on his poetry. Upon the recommendation of Franz Werfel, Kurt Wolff (Kafka's publisher) agreed to publish a small collection of Trakl's poetry. The collection, simply entitled Poems, appeared in the summer of 1913, but did not attract much attention outside of Trakl's circle. Despite battling worsening bouts of depression, Trakl continued to produce poems at a steady pace and began compiling his works for his next poetry collection to be entitled Sebastian in Dream. Georg continued to seek employment with little success. In March of 1914, Trakl rushed home from a trip to Venice in order to attend to his sister Grete in Berlin who had fallen ill due to a miscarriage. Grete, who was talented pianist, was trapped in an unhappy marriage to a much older book dealer and, like her brother, was emotionally unstable and abused drugs. While in Berlin, Trakl met the poet Lasker-Schuler, whose own dreamy symbolism had been a major influence on Trakl's poetic style. In July 1914, shortly before being called back to the military because of World War I, Trakl received a large monetary gift from the then unknown philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who was distributing his inheritance to artists under Ficker's guidance. Unfortunately, Trakl never was able to use the money. Trakl's emotional instability became worse under the strains of war and he was hospitalized numerous times as a result of depression and suicide attempts. After several bloody defeats at the hands of the Russians, Trakl was left to single handedly care for 90 wounded men in a barn near Grodek. Trakl could not adequately relieve their pain on his own, and he witnessed the splattered brains of one soldier who shot himself. Trakl then went outside, and after seeing some of the locals hanging from trees, suffered a mental breakdown and threatened to shoot himself. In October, Trakl was hospitalized in Cracow, Poland, and received a visit from Ficker who encouraged Trakl to send for his benefactor Wittgenstein. Unfortunately, Trakl injected himself with a fatal dose of cocaine, a probable suicide attempt, on November 3, 1914, three days before Wittgenstein arrived. Three years later, Grete shot herself at a party after failing to overcome her drug addiction. Kurt Wolff published Sebastian in Dream in 1915, which would garner Trakl a small, but loyal following in Germany. Wittgenstein's opinion of Trakl's poems was this: "I do not understand them; but their tone pleases me. It is the tone of true genius."

sabine appelmans

2004-11-12T12:28:00.000+01:00

In 1987 neemt de Belgische tennisster Sabine Appelmans deel aan haar eerste WTA-toernooi in Knokke, waar ze de tweede ronde haalt.
Het daaropvolgende jaar haalt Sabine als lucky loser de hoofdtabel van Roland Garros. Ze slaagt erin de eerste ronde te winnen, vooraleer ze in de tweede ronde onderuit gaat tegen de meer ervaren Helena Sukova. In december speelt Sabine haar allereerste Fed Cup-match, die ze wint doordat de Oostenrijkse Petra Schwartz-Ritter moet opgeven bij een 6/4-4/2-stand in het voordeel van Sabine.
Sabine Appelmans, die definitief heeft gekozen voor een carrière als professionele tennisster, slaagt er in 1989 in zich te kwalificeren voor de hoofdtabel van het toernooi van Singapore maar ze verliest er in de eerste ronde. Twee weken later kan ze zich in Taiwan opnieuw kwalificeren en haalt ze bovendien voor de eerste keer de kwartfinale.
Het seizoen 1990 begint schitterend voor Sabine, die de derde ronde haalt op de Australian Open. Ze profiteert van haar reis naar de andere kant van de aardbol door deel te nemen aan de toernooien van Auckland en Wellington. In Auckland haalt ze de finale, maar verliest dan zwaar van Leila Meshki (6/1-6/0). De week erna haalt ze de halve finale.In de loop van dit seizoen speelt Sabine nog de halve finale in Singapore, de kwartfinales in Bastad en Filderstadt en de derde ronde op de US Open. Ze eindigt het seizoen op een voortreffelijke 22ste plaats en wint de titel van Belgische Sportvrouw van het Jaar.
Het jaar 1991 begint goed voor Sabine, die de kwartfinale speelt in Brisbane, de derde ronde in Sydney en vooral de achtste finale op de Australian Open, waar ze er pas uitgaat tegen Mary-Joe Fernandez. In het begin van februari haalt ze ook nog de halve finale in Oslo.
Begin april speelt ze in Tokyo haar tweede finale, die ze in drie sets verliest van Lorry McNeil. Op Roland Garros speelt Sabine de achtsefinale tegen Steffi Graf. Helaas staat ze in de eerste ronde van Wimbledon opnieuw tegenover deze ongenaakbare Duitse.
Het seizoenseinde van Sabine Appelmans is schitterend, aangezien ze achtereenvolgens de halve finale van San Juan speelt en de toernooien van Phoenix et Nashville wint. Daardoor kan ze de top 20 binnenkomen en wint ze opnieuw de titel van Belgische Sportvrouw van het Jaar.
Sabine begint het seizoen 1992 iets minder goed dan het vorige jaar. In april haalt ze echter heel mooie resultaten. Ze haalt de finale in Tokyo, waar ze verliest van de plaatselijke speelster Kimiko Date, en wint het toernooi van Pataya.In de loop van het seizoen speelt Sabine nog drie kwartfinales: in Berlijn, Leipzig en vooral de Olympische Spelen in Barcelona.
Het seizoen 1993 is niet meteen het beste seizoen van Sabine Appelmans. Ze wint wel het ITF-toernooi van Porto, maar ze moet tot in oktober wachten om nog eens een halve finale van een WTA-toernooi te kunnen spelen. Ze haalt die halve finale op het toernooi van Montpellier, waar ze verliest van Dominique Monami. Door dit resultaat vindt ze haar vertrouwen terug en een week later haalt ze de finale in Budapest, waar ze in twee sets haar meerdere moet herkennen in Zina Garrison (7/5-6/2). Ze trekt daarna naar Essen en haalt er de halve finale, na winst tegen Manuela Maleeva
Sabine zet het seizoen 1994 in op de best denkbare manier door het indoortoernooi van Linz te winnen. Onderweg verslaat ze het eerste reekshoofd Anke Huber. Daarop volgen nog een kwartfinale in Parijs, een halve finale in Tokyo, een overwinning in Pattaya en een kwartfinale in Straatsburg. Daarboven speelt ze ook twee halve finales, in Los Angeles en in Moskou.
In 1995 wint Sabine het toernooi van Zagreb en speelt ze vier kwartfinales (Parijs, Linz, Straatsburg, Moskou).
In 1996 wint Sabine het toernooi van Linz door onderweg achtereenvolgens Novotna, Sukova en Halard-Decugis te verslaan, respectievelijk tweede, vierde en derde reekshoofd. Ze speelt eveneens drie kwartfinales (Jakarta, Zürich, Luxemburg) en een halve finale in Moskou en speelt regelmatig op de Grand Slams (2 achtste finales en 1 derde ronde). Daardoor komt ze heel dicht bij de top 20.
In 1997 haalt Sabine de kwartfinale van de Australian Open, haar beste resultaat op een Grand Slam ooit. Heel wat Belgen blijven speciaal op om haar match tegen Mary Pierce te zien, die ze op het nippertje verliest (1/6-6/4-6/4). Ze speelt ook de finale van het toernooi van Boedapest en nog zeven kwartfinales. Dit opmerkelijke seizoen wordt beloond met een kwalificatie voor het prestigieuze Masters-toernooi, iets wat geen enkele Belgische haar heeft voorgedaan. Ze verliest in de eerste ronde van Mary Pierce. Sabine sluit het seizoen af op de 16de plaats, haar hoogste rangschikking ooit.
Sabine kan in 1998 niet echt bevestigen. Ze verliest in de eerste ronde van de Australian Open. In februari zet ze drie mooie prestaties neer door de kwartfinale te halen in Parijs, de halve finale in Hannover (waar ze in de kwartfinale Steffi Graf opzij zet) en de kwartfinale in Linz. Helaas is de rest van haar seizoen niet echt schitterend. Ze kan slechts een keer de kwartfinale bereiken, op het gras van 's-Hertogenbosch.
In 1999 lijkt Sabine in een neerwaartse spiraal te zitten. In maart valt ze zelfs terug naar de 94ste plaats op de wereldranglijst. Tot in augustus is haar enige opmerkelijke resultaat een kwartfinale in Antwerpen. Maar daarna laat ze weer van zich spreken. In het begin van augustus haalt ze de kwartfinale in Knokke en daarna de achtste finale op de US Open. Ze heeft een opmerkelijk najaar en ze haalt de halve finale in Luxemburg en daarna de kwartfinale in Filderstadt, waar ze eerst de kwalificaties moest spelen. Ze speelt ook nog de kwartfinales in Bratislava en Leipzig. Dankzij deze resultaten kan ze terugklimmen naar de 30ste plaats op de wereldranglijst. De WTA kent haar daarvoor de titel van “Comeback van het jaar” toe.
Het jaar 2000 is het laatste volledige seizoen van Sabine Appelmans. Ze speelt twee kwartfinales, Gold Coast en Knokke, en de achtste finale op Wimbledon, waar ze verliest van de latere winnares, Venus Williams. Ze is heel gemotiveerd voor de Olympische Spelen, waar ze de Belgische kleuren vertegenwoordigt. Ze haalt er de derde ronde.
In 2001 speelt Sabine enkel de Australian Open, de plaats waar ze een punt wil zetten achter haar carrière. Deze plaats heeft een symbolische waarde voor haar omdat ze daar haar beste resultaat in een Grand Slam heeft gehaald. Ze wint de eerste ronde, maar verliest dan van Chladkova. Hierdoor valt het doek over een prachtige carrière en zet Sabine een stap opzij voor de nieuwe generatie.

victoria silvstedt

2004-11-12T12:23:00.000+01:00

Born on September 19, 1974, in Skelleftea, Sweden, Victoria is an accomplished actress, singer and a lovely, striking supermodel. She grew up in a small village close to the Arctic Circle, and was raised with an older sister and a younger brother in a middle class Scandinavian family. Victoria spent her winters skiing, and at 18 she decided to enter a very different type of competition. When Victoria enters a room you will immediately notice how strikingly beautiful she is. She has an incredible physical presence and an even more impressive structure, to put it mildly.
Victoria entered the Miss Sweden contest and represented Sweden in the 1993 Miss World Pageant. Although she didn't win, the World became aware of her talent and beauty, and she did come in as one of the top ten contestants. After the pageant, Victoria left her small town in Sweden and found herself in Paris where she began modeling professionally. Standing at 5'9", it wasn't very difficult for this stunning vixen to find modeling opportunities. Three years later, Playboy discovered her, and she became Miss December 1996 and the 1997 Playmate of the Year.
It didn't take long for the blonde beauty to land a contract with Guess, and she followed in the footsteps of models Eva Herzigova and Shana Zadrick. Victoria's career has been skyrocketing ever since, with appearances on television shows such as 'Melrose Place' and MTV's 'The Real World'. She even made a guest appearance in the film "Basketball".
Victoria now lives in the United States, where she actively pursues her modeling career, and is also on her way in several roles in featured films. Her most recent accomplishment is the recording of a new album, where her first release is entitled 'Hello Hey'. Although it's not big in the States, it has gone gold in Europe. In addition to modeling, acting, and singing, her favorite hobbies are horseback riding, and of course, downhill skiing.

frantisek kupka

2004-11-12T12:14:00.000+01:00

Frantisek Kupka was born September 23, 1871, in Opocno in eastern Bohemia. From 1889 to 1892, he studied at the Prague art academy. At this time, he painted historical and patriotic themes. In 1892, Kupka enrolled at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, where he concentrated on symbolic and allegorical subjects. He exhibited at the Kunstverein, Vienna, in 1894. His involvement with theosophy and Eastern philosophy dates from this period. By spring 1896, Kupka had settled in Paris; there he attended the Académie Julian briefly and then studied with Jean-Pierre Laurens at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Kupka worked as an illustrator of books and posters and, during his early years in Paris, became known for his satirical drawings for newspapers and magazines. In 1906, he settled in Puteaux, a suburb of Paris, and that same year exhibited for the first time at the Salon d’Automne. Kupka was deeply impressed by the first Futurist manifesto, published in 1909 in Le Figaro. Kupka’s work became increasingly abstract around 1910–11, reflecting his theories of motion, color, and the relationship between music and painting. In 1911, he attended meetings of the Puteaux group. In 1912, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in the Cubist room, although he did not wish to be identified with any movement.
Creation in the Plastic Arts, a book Kupka completed in 1913, was published in Prague in 1923. In 1921, his first solo show in Paris was held at Galerie Povolozky. In 1931, he was a founding member of Abstraction-Création together with Jean Arp, Albert Gleizes, Jean Hélion, Auguste Herbin, Theo van Doesburg, and Georges Vantongerloo. In 1936, his work was included in the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and in an important show with Alphonse Mucha at the Jeu de Paume, Paris. A retrospective of his work took place at the Galerie S.V.U. Mánes in Prague in 1946. The same year, Kupka participated in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris, where he continued to exhibit regularly until his death. During the early 1950s, he gained general recognition and had several solo shows in New York. Kupka died in Puteaux on June 24, 1957. Retrospectives were held at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, in 1958 and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1975.

david levine

2004-11-12T12:00:00.000+01:00

Thousands of caricatures and hundreds of oil and watercolor paintings have flowed from David Levine's mind and hands, his pencils, pens and brushes for more than 50 years. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926, Levine was trained by his parents to question authority and to love the underdog. He learned from professors and colleagues at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia to extract technique and theory from artists throughout history.
The result: For decades he's been acknowledged worldwide as the most devastatingly insightful caricaturist since Daumier. His examinations of human flaws and foibles express a central passion. "I love my species," says Levine.
According to John Updike: "Besides offering us the delight of recognition, his drawings comfort us, in an exacerbated and potentially desperate age, with the sense of a watching presence, an eye informed by an intelligence that has not panicked […]. Levine is one of America's assets. In a confusing time, he bears witness. In a shoddy time, he does good work."
"The paintings of David Levine are never bombastic," says Pete Hamill. "They are seldom only about the thing or the place to the people directly observed. They are also about the unseen world that they suggest, a world of time and nostalgia, of things and people lost. If David Levine was a writer he would be Chekhov."
David Levine was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926 and studied at the Brooklyn Museum of Art School, Pratt Institute, the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and the Eighth Street School of New York with Hans Hoffman. His many awards include the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 1955 and, later, the Isaac Maynard, Julius Hallgarten and Thomas B. Clarke awards (all from the National Academy of Design), the George Polk Memorial Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Childe Hassam Purchase Prize (American Academy of Arts and Letters), the John Pike Memorial Prize and the Gold Medal of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1993. Internationally, David Levine has received the French Legion of Honor award and the Thomas Nast Award in Landau, Germany.
Levine exhibited paintings with the Davis Gallery in New York from 1954 to 1963, then joined the Forum Gallery. In addition to 15 one-person exhibitions at Forum, David Levine has had exhibitions in Paris, Stuttgart, Washington, Munich, Oxford (England), Beverly Hills and Columbus, Georgia.
Levine's caricatures have been seen in Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Playboy, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The Nation and, for over 40 years, The New York Review of Books as well as in numerous solo and group shows.
His caricatures and paintings are part of permanent collections at the Metropolitan Museum, NY, the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., the Cleveland Museum, the National Portrait Collection, England's National Portrait Gallery and the Pierpont Morgan Library, NY.
Six books have been published of David Levine’s art, including The Arts of David Levine (Knopf, New York, 1978) and Pens and Needles (Gambit, Boston, 1969). David Levine lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

jack vettriano

2004-11-12T11:36:00.000+01:00

Born in Scotland in 1951, Vettriano left school at sixteen to become a mining engineer in the local coalfields. For his twenty-first birthday a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint. The local art gallery, The Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery, with its renowned collection of 19th and 20th century Scottish paintings, was particularly inspirational. It was fourteen years before Vettriano felt ready to show any of his work in public. In 1989 he offered two works to the Royal Scottish Academy’s annual exhibition; both were accepted and sold on the first day. The following year, an equally enthusiastic reaction greeted the three paintings, which he entered for the prestigious Summer Exhibition at London’s Royal Academy. In the last nine years interest in, and desire for his work, has grown rapidly. There have been sell-out solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. In November 1999, Vettriano’s work was shown for the first time in New York, when twenty paintings were displayed at The International 20th Century Arts Fair at The Armory. Fifty collectors from the UK flew out for the opening night of the Fair and all twenty paintings were sold out within an hour of the opening. In March 2000 BBC Scotland produced a half-hour documentary about Vettriano for their Arts Series EX-S; aired initially in Scotland only, the documentary is likely to be aired nationally later this year. Aside from his exhibitions, Vettriano has acquired a vast following of fans through the posters and prints of his paintings that are distributed worldwide. This year the two best selling art posters in Britain are both Vettriano images. To date, more than 500,000 posters of Vettriano’s paintings have sold worldwide. Paintings by Jack Vettriano can be found in private, corporate and public collections worldwide.

introductie

2004-11-12T11:27:00.000+01:00

Welkom op these are my heroes. Dit moet de blog worden waarin ik aan al mijn helden de hulde breng die ze verdienen.