insurance

Insurance
Contract guaranteeing compensation to the payer of periodic premiums against loss (under stipulated conditions) by fire, death, accident, and the like. Various consumer policies also insure legal or health services, paying bills or portions thereof, within the contracted conditions. Insurance is a major component of business activity, covering potential loss of property, inventory, or goods in transit.
During the Gulf War between Iran and Iraq 1987–88, it was the refusal of insurance companies to cover losses sustained by acts of war that dissuaded oil tankers from passing through the zone of hostilities.

Celtic Gods and Heroes

Celtic Gods and Heroes: The Gods of Ancient Ireland
Celtic peoples established themselves in Ireland about 2,500 years ago. But humans had inhabited the island long before that, as evidenced by the monument site at Newgrange dating to 3000 B.C., as well as the prehistoric megaliths at Carrowmore in Sligo, and other dolmens and cairns. The Celts formed myth to make an accounting for these earlier peoples, and to fit the existing Celtic gods into the Irish landscape.
What resulted from such myth-making was the Lebor Gabala, or in English, the "Book of Invasions," written with the Roman alphabet in the Gaelic tongue, presumably originating in the Dark Ages. Two general threads of myth exist in this work. First, stories recount the successive waves of conquests of Ireland up to the coming of the Celtic Milesians, and including the entry of the gods and divine beings onto Ireland. Second, intricate stories tell the beginnings and successive wanderings of the Celtic Milesians before they came to the Emerald Isle.
According to the Book of Invasions, there were five earlier conquests or "takings" of Ireland before the arrivals of the Celts: 1) Cessair and her group; 2) the Race of Parthelon; 3) the Race of Nemed; 4) the Fir Bolgs; and 5) the Tuatha Dé Danann, or gods and goddesses of the ancient Celts in Ireland. To review these briefly:
Cessair, as fashioned a bit by the monk transcribers, was said to be the granddaughter of Noah, and arrived in Ireland forty days before the Flood, thus becoming the first human on the island. She came with a entourage of fifty maidens and three men. These men quickly did their arithmetic and divvied up Cessair's women, such that each man had 17 maidens for himself. Well, this didn't last long. Though Noah calculated that the Flood would not reach the Western World, his estimates were wrong, and the waters swept Ireland and all of Cessair's following--except for Fintan, a male who pops up now and again over the centuries to help retell various other myths. (Such is the freedom of the Celtic mind!)
The Race of Parthelon, according to the Book of Invasions, arrived in Ireland about three hundred years after the Flood, during the age of the Biblical Abraham. Parthelon and his people were an industrious lot, clearing plains for planting and constructing buildings. They rewarded themselves by brewing the first beer in Ireland. Although they began only as a group of forty-eight men and women, over the three centuries they lived in Ireland, their numbers grew to five thousand. But ill-luck came upon them by way of a plague, wiping out the Race of Parthelon.
Next came the Race of Nemed, a people who carried on the diligent work of Parthelon. But bad fortune struck again, as Nemed and many of his followers died in an epidemic, and the remaining population experienced other sore pains and eventually left Ireland. The next colonizers were the Fir Bolgs, who some experts believe were the Celts' representation of the pre-Celtic indigenous peoples of Ireland. The Fir Bolgs were said to be the first to divide Ireland into its historical provinces: Leinster, Munster, Connaught, Meath, and Ulster. A famous mythic king of the Fir Bolgs was Eochaid the Proud.
Another breed of beings were a source of menace to the peoples of Parthelon, Nemed, and the Fir Bolgs. These were the Fomors, often called the Fomhoire, or "under-demons." The Fomors were malevolent giants, fearsome diabolical creatures, who lived beneath the sea near the northwest part of Ireland. They had a Glass Castle on Tory Island, their surface stronghold off of the coast of County Sligo. Awful stories abound about the Fomors, for instance, that two-thirds of the children born to the Race of Nemed were surrendered to the Fomors every Samhain.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
In the age when the Fir Bolgs and Fomors roamed Ireland, the gods and goddesses made their appearance on the feast of Beltaine. Some sources say they descended from the sky. The deities brought with them four important talismen: the magic sword of Nuada, the enchanted spear of Lugh, the charmed cauldron of Dagda, and the Stone of Destiny (which uttered a loud cry when touched by the rightful king of Ireland). The gods and goddesses were called the Tuatha Dé Danann, or the "Tribe of the Goddess Danu." They became the divine beings homaged by Gaelic peoples, though not before an ironic story of conquest.
The divine pantheon of the Gaels were children of Danu, a symbol of the universal mother. Among the greatest of her children was Nuada the Silver Handed, the early king of the gods. He possessed an invincible sword, as well as the powers of the throne. A table of the successive deity kings is given below. Morrigan (or Morrigú) was a supreme war goddess, someone you didn't mess with. She had a triad of female personifications: Nemen the Venomous, Badb the Fury, and Macha the Battle. Morrigan's favorite shape-shifting disguise was a crow.
The doyen of the gods was the Dagda, or the "Good God." The Dagda had three prized possessions. First was his eight-pronged war-club, which he moved with the help of a wheel. Second was his magic cauldron, called "The Undry," which was sort of a cornucopia for porridge (Dagda's favorite food), and from which none went away unnourished. Dagda's third prized possession was his enchanted oak harp, which enabled the seasons to follow in order when he played on its strings. The Dagda had numerous children, including Brigid, Angus, Mider, Ogma, and Bodb the Red.
Brigid was the goddess of fire and the hearth, as well as of poetry. She invented keening, the Irish wailing song for loved ones at death. Brigid also had some fertility aspects, for the Celtic feast of Imbolc in early February was in her honor. For sake of diplomacy, Brigid married Bress the Fomor, and they had a son named Ruadan.
Kings of the Irish Gods (in succession over time)
Nuada (king when the gods came to Ireland)
Bress the Fomor (made king for diplomatic reasons)
Nuada (reinstated as king upon Bress's downfall)
Lugh (one of the kings after Nuada's death)
Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, Mac Greiné (sons of Ogma; these three kings were on the throne when the Celtic Milesians arrived; their wives: Banba, Fotla, and Eriu)
The Dagda (assigned sídh "fairymounds" to gods after Celtic conquests)
Bodb the Red (king even to the time of the Fenians)
Finvarra (present king of the fairies; also called Fionnbharr)
NOTE: Other sources include additional names of kings of the Gaelic gods, such as Delbaeth and Fiachna.
Angus the Young was a sort of Gaelic god of love. He was very handsome and had a golden harp that played so sweetly that maidens were naturally drawn to it. The kisses of Angus were transformed into birds which whispered thoughts of love into the ears of girls. In one story, Angus is visited by a beautiful dream maiden each night during sleep. Angus pines for her, and being lovesick, refuses nourishment. Finally he discovers that the dream maiden is named Caer, an enchantress surrounded by thrice times fifty attending nymphs. After much wooing, Caer finally agrees to marry Angus, and they find much happiness at his palace.
Lir was the primary sea god of the Gaels. Among his children were Finola, a daughter, and three sons: Aed, Fiachra, and Conn. A jealous stepmother named Aeife cast a cruel spell with a magic wand, turning these four children of Lir into swans, and they flew and wandered about Ireland until the coming of St. Patrick. This is one of the saddest stories in Celtic mythology
Another son of Lir was Manannán, a Gaelic god for whom the Isle of Man is named. Manannán had a whole array of treasured possessions: three magic swords, called The Retaliator, The Great Fury, and The Little Fury; two magic spears, called Yellow Shaft and the Red Javelin; a boat propelled and guided by his wishes, called the Wave-sweeper; a horse that could run swiftly over the sea, named Splendid Mane; invincible armor and helmet; and a cloak that made the wearer invisible. Manannán was the host of the Feast of Age, a banquet where the guests never grew old.
Among others of the Irish pantheon were Goibniu, the metal worker of the gods, and the brewer of the ale of immortality, a beer that enabled the drinkers to live forever. Diancecht was the god of medicine, and was responsible for naming the River Barrow. Ogma was the divine champion, a patron of literature, and the inventor of the ogham alphabet. Among his sons was Cairpré, the bard of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
The Conquest by the Gods
When the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived in Ireland, being gods and goddesses, they realized immediately what a marvelous isle it was. Of course, they wanted Ireland for themselves, to serve as their new home. But first they needed to contend with the Fir Bolgs and the Fomor giants.
The Tuatha Dé Danann moved on the Fir Bolgs first. Morrigan with the help of Badb and Macha sent a shower of fire and blood upon the Fir Bolgs for three days and nights, to warn them that change was impending. Nuada, the king of the gods, attempted to work diplomacy with the Fir Bolg king Eochaid the Proud, offering to divide Ireland in half between the gods and the humans. But Eochaid rejected this, saying: "If we once give these beings half, they will soon have the whole."
So the winds of war stirred between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fir Bolgs. Their two armies met near the village of Cong in the province on Connaught, in western Ireland. At first, fighting began as a sort of deadly hurling match where thrice nine warriors on each side fought to the death. Then single combats commenced, and continued on for four days. In one, Streng the Fir Bolg shore off the hand of King Nuada. But, the Fir Bolgs, thirsty and in search of water, then travelled as far as Ballysadare in County Sligo. They were pursued by the gods, and there, King Eochaid of the Fir Bolgs was killed. By then the Fir Bolgs were down to three hundred men. The Tuatha Dé Danann offered them peace and a fifth of Ireland. The Fir Bolgs consented, and chose Connaught as theirs. And even up to the 17th century of our age, there were men in Connaught who claimed their lineage traced back to Streng the Fir Bolg!
But the war with the Fir Bolgs left a toll on the Tuatha Dé Danann. Nuada had lost his hand in battle. Diancecht, the physician of the gods, made Nuada a silver artificial hand that worked nearly perfectly (hence Nuada's name, the Silver Handed). But this artificial hand was still a blemish, the gods could not have an impaired being sitting on their throne. So Nuada was required to step down.
The gods decided that it would be wise to make a diplomatic move with the Fomor giants, and form a peaceful alliance with them. So, they offered the throne of the gods to Bress, the son of the Fomor king. And too, marriage unions were formed: Brigid of the gods married Bress the Fomor; and Cian, the son of the god Diancecht, married Ethniu, the daughter of Balor the Fomor.
But, the idea of Bress the Fomor being king of the Tuatha Dé Danann wasn't working out. Bress was oppressive. He exacted heavy taxes on the gods, and Bress required that even the greatest of gods do work tolls for him. So there were situations like Ogma being sent to chop fire wood for Bress, and the Dagda being required to build forts and castles for him. To make matters worse, Bress had no largesse at feasts: he would provide no bards, musicians, or jugglers to give pleasure to the gods. Discontent was in the air. Finally, Bress made a grave mistake--he insulted the bard of the gods, Cairpré. To this, Cairpré wrote a stinging satire against Bress, ending with these words: "May Bress's cheer be what he gives to others."
The children of Diancecht thus went to work to fix Nuada's hand. With great magic, they restored his hand from silver to actual flesh. No longer with a blemish, Nuada was now free to regain his throne of the gods. Bress was forced to abdicate. He went back to the Fomors, and their assembly agreed to make war against the Tuatha Dé Danann.
Preparations for war lasted seven years. In this time, Lugh arrived at the court of the gods at Tara, and took a leadership position under King Nuada. The Dagda was sent as a pre-battle ambassador to the Fomors, and there ate an enormous meal of porridge, a meal that took so long that it gave the Tuatha Dé Danann more time to prepare for war. On the eve of Samhain the hostilities began. The battles were so fierce that Nuada was slain. But the gods and goddesses won the war with the Fomors. In vengeance the retreating Fomors stole the Dagda's harp, but Lugh, Ogma, and the Dagda pursued them and fetched the prized possession, thus assuring the change of seasons. Morrigan, Badb, Mider, and Angus finally forced the last Fomors off of Ireland for all time. The gods and goddesses now possessed the Emerald Isle.

Bhimsen Thapa

BHIMSEN THAPA

Bhimsen Thapa (1775 - July 28, 1839) was the third Prime Minister of Nepal. He is regarded as one of the National heroes of Nepal.

Bhimsen Thapa was born in the small district of Gorkha. He came into contact with the Nepalese Royal Palace at the early age of 11 because his father Major Amar singh Thapa (not to be confused with the commander of Gorkhali forces in the Anglo Nepal war) was a faithful soldier of Prithvi Narayan Shah and his bratabandha ceremony was held together with the then Crown Prince Rana Bahadur Shah with whom he developed a friendship and eventually became the personal secretary of the King Rana Bahadur Shah at the age of 22 when in exile in Varanasi in India.

During his stay in Varanasi, he studied the expansion and true intentions of the British East India Company in South Asia. He became the second Prime Minister of Nepal upon his (and the king's) return to the country when the returning monarch was assassinated by his own half brother; which general Bhimsen Thapa took as a chance to wipe out his friends.
Thapa served for 31 years under six kings. He appealed all South Asian states to fight collectively against the British and declared war on the English East India Company in 1816 as the commander of the army and as the Prime Minister. However of the ill preparation, long standing internal unification campaign, lack of foreign assistance as well as military confrontation with China, Nepal lost the war which precipitated his downfall. However he continued to rule for another 13 years whence he brought about several military, judicial, social and economic reforms in Nepal. The army was modernized in European style, several ill social practices were abolished, unused land were brought under cultivation and the administration was updated. The Dharahara and Sundhara of Kathmandu, the Bagdurbar and Teku bridge were constructed by him.

Eventually, he was forced to retire by his opponents, the Pandeys and the Basnets, other Gorkha favorites, on conspiracy charges. Later, he was forced to kill himself.
King Rana Bahadur Shah said of him "If I die the nation will not die, but if Bhimsen Thapa dies the nation will collapse". Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab said of him "If I had Bhimsen on my service, I know what many things I would have achieved". Karl Marx praised Bhimsen Thapa by referring him the only man in Asia who braved to protest submission to the colonists.
Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa was the maternal Grandfather of Sri Teen Maharaja Jung Bahadur Rana who was driven to kill the Pandeys and the Basnets to avenge Bhimsen Thapa. This brought the chapter of Nepalese history known as the Ranas.

Human Beings on Planet Earth: History of Early Man

PEOPLE ON EARTH
In the ascent of life forms on earth, man is the strangest animal yet to emerge. His difference is expressed in his most recent name, Homo sapiens, which implies sagacity, wisdom. The Ben Franklins and Socrateses warrant this, yet it is the Henry Fords and Thomas Edisons, descendants of Homo habilis (Handy Man), who have made possible human progress via sheer invention.
Drs. Louis and Mary Leakey uncovered skullbits of pre-Zinjanthropus, or "Handy Man," in the East African Olduvai Gorge, some 1,750,000 years after man died there. Others trace the "human arrival" to much earlier dates. Several Yale scientists, after gathering fossil fragments in the foothills of India's high Himalayas, suggested that humans may have parted from their ape cousins as far back as 14 million years ago.
The Leakeys' discovery--Handy Man--had a brain that was only half the size of a modern Einstein's or Edison's. Steadily increasing brain capacity came about in man evidently because of the perpetual threat of starvation. Man needed to think and invent, or perish. The Leakeys found numerous stone tools, tapered hand axes, and vital weaponry used 2 million years ago. Adventurous Americans today often discover Indian arrowheads that a few hundred years ago served the same purpose for the Stone Age men who occupied North America before the arrival of European "discoverers."
During the 1970s and 1980s, anthropologists and paleontologists just might discover a "missing link" that carries the changeover between the animal that does not think, invent, or philosophize and the man who has learned--always the hard way--to do all these things. "Peking man," Home erectus, discovered at Choukoutien, China, in 1929, was accepted as a 500,000-year-old ape-man. During W.W. II, his fossil bones disappeared, but in 1974 the Chinese Government announced that new excavations had begun to search for other progenitors at Choukoutien. This is typical of modern man's worldwide interest in tracing his ancestry in the hope that he is somehow separate and unique from beasts.
The great mystery is, of course, just how man came about in the 1st place. Equally dramatic is the fact that this diminutive animal went on to improve his condition by cultivating or domesticating large numbers of plants and animals in order to serve his needs. The dog is man's devoted servant (an important arm of the early hunting pack). The horse is his dumb but obedient servant. The camel is his ever-hating drudge. The elephant, used in the Indian teak forests, is perhaps his closest animal companion. Elizabeth Mann Borgese placed these lumber-jumbos next highest in intelligence to man and said that the elephant offers a more promising approach to the study of interspecies communication than does the porpoise. The taming of wild grasses created man-dependent crops--wheat, corn, and rice--that are as much a part of the domestic scene as man's cows and chickens.

WONHDERS OF WORLD

New Seven Wonders of the World

New Seven Wonders of the World is a project that attempts to revive the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World concept with a list of modern wonders. A popularity poll was organized by the private New7Wonders Foundation, with winners announced on July 7, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation claims more than 100 million votes were cast through the Internet or by telephone. Nothing prevented multiple votes, so the poll is considered "decidedly unscientific".According to John Zogby, founder and current President/CEO of the Washington-based polling organization Zogby International, New7Wonders Foundation drove “the largest poll on recor
The program drew a wide range of official reaction. Some countries touted their finalist and tried to get more votes cast for it, while others downplayed or criticized the contest.After supporting the New7Wonders Foundation at the beginning of the campaign, with providing advice on nominee selection, The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has distanced itself from the undertaking in 2007.Many monuments were supported by dedicated websites or strong placements on national websites. National figures and celebrities promoted the New7Wonders campaign in many countries. New7Wonders has stated that it sees its goal of global dialogue and cultural exchange as having been achieved, thanks to the sheer number of votes cast and the geographical and cultural diversity of the voters registered.The New7Wonders Foundation, established in 2001, has relied on private donations and the sale of broadcast rights and has never accepted any public funding or taxpayer money.After the final announcement, New7Wonders said it didn't earn anything from the exercise and barely recovered its investments.
Bernard Weber, president of the New7Wonders Foundation, called the voting for the New 7 Wonders of the World, the first worldwide democratic exercise in mankind's history.In 2007 the foundation has begun a similar contest, called New7Wonders of Nature, with nominees solicited through December 31, 2008. The 21 finalists will then be the subject of voting until the summer of 2010.

SEVEN WONDER OF WORLD

Chichen Itza
Yucatán, Mexico

Christ the Redeemer
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Colosseum
Rome, Italy

Great Wall of China
China

Machu Picchu
Cuzco, Perú

Petra
Jordan

Taj Mahal
Agra, India

And one listing has honorary status: Giza Pyramid Complex(The last remaining ancient wonder of the world)
Cairo, Egypt

ALBA

• Birth Name: Jessica Marie Alba


• Birth Place: Pomona, CA


• Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 04/28/1981, Taurus


• Profession: Actor

Although this pouty-lipped vixen oozes sex appeal, she started out as a much more innocent-looking teen actress in numerous TV guest appearances as well as a regular role as a dolphin's best friend on the small-screen series Flipper. Alba segued to the big screen while still a minor, with supporting parts in Never Been Kissed and Idle Hands, both in 1999. The next year she became an instant star as a genetically enhanced messenger in the cult sci-fi series Dark Angel. With her perfect body and stunning face, Alba really did seem to possess designer DNA, and while the show only lasted two seasons, it was long enough for her to become a men's-magazine favorite and get engaged to costar Michael Weatherly. In 2003 Alba made the lackluster dance movie Honey and ended her relationship. But she reemerged triumphantly in 2005 with a new beau, Cash Warren, and two leads in blockbuster features — Sin City and Fantastic Four — which showcased her physical assets more than her talent.Jessica Alba Fast Facts:

• Is of Mexican, French and Danish descent.


• Moved frequently in the first nine years of her life due to her father's military career. Lived in Mississippi, Texas and California.


• Loved the idea of acting since she was 5. Took her first acting class at age 11.


• Appeared in commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a teen. Became a spokeswoman for L'Oréal hair products in 2001.


• Won TV GUIDE's Breakout Star of the Year award in 2000 for her turn as a genetically engineered teen fatale in James Cameron's sci-fi series Dark Angel.


• Has two pug pups named Sid and Nancy.


• Enjoys golf and swimming, and is a PADI-certified scuba diver.

Jessica Alba Relationships:

• Michael Weatherly - Ex-fiancé


• Joshua Alba - Brother


• Cash Warren - Husband


• Cathy Alba - Mother


• Mark Alba - Father


• Honor Marie Warren - Daughter


• Jessica Alba Awards:


• 2001 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama - Nominee

world richest person

AGAIN THE NUMBER 1 RICHEST PERSON

William (Bill) H. Gates was chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$55.12 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2007, and employs more than 78,000 people in 105 countries and regions. On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects. The two-year transition process is to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities. Effective June 2006, Ray Ozzie has assumed Gates’ previous title as chief software architect and is working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities at Microsoft. Craig Mundie has assumed the new title of chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft and is working closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts. Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International. Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13. In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair. In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry. Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year. In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks. Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978. Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978. Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development. In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities. Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns. Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

Angelina Jolie

Biography for Angelina Jolie

Date of Birth
4 June 1975, Los Angeles, California, USA

Birth Name

Angelina Jolie Voight

Nickname

Angie Catwoman Ange AJ

Height

5' 8" (1.73 m)

Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning actress who has become popular by taking on the title role in the "Lara Croft" series of blockbuster movies. Off-screen, Jolie has become prominently involved in international charity projects, especially those involving refugees. She often appears on many "most beautiful women" lists, and she has a personal life that is avidly covered by the tabloid press.In her earliest years, Angelina began absorbing the acting craft from her parents - her father is the Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and her mother is Marcheline Bertrand, who had studied with Lee Strasberg. At age 11, Angelina began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She undertook some film studies at New York University and later joined the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. At age 16, she took up a career in modeling and appeared in some music videos. Her exotic good looks may derive from her mixed ancestry which is Czech, French-Canadian, Iroquois and English.In the mid-1990s, Jolie appeared in various small films where she got good notices, including Hackers (1995) and Foxfire (1996). Her critical acclaim increased when she played strong roles in the made-for-TV movies True Women (1997) (TV), and in George Wallace (1997) (TV) which won her a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination.

Jolie's acclaim increased even further when she played the lead role in the HBO production Gia (1998) (TV). This was the true life story of supermodel Gia Carangi, a sensitive wild child who was both brazen and needy and who had a difficult time handling professional success and the deaths of people who were close to her. Carangi became involved with drugs and because of her needle-using habits she became, at the tender age of 26, one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS. Jolie's performance in Gia (1998) (TV) again garnered a Golden Globe award and another Emmy nomination, and she additionally earned a SAG Award.Angelina got a major break in 1999 when she won a leading role in the successful feature The Bone Collector (1999), starring alongside Denzel Washington. In that same year, Jolie gave a tour de force performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999) playing opposite Winona Ryder. The movie was a true story of women who spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Jolie's role was reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), the role which won Nicholson his first Oscar. Unlike "Cuckoo", "Girl" was a small film that received mixed reviews and barely made money at the box office. But when it came time to give out awards, Jolie won the triple crown -- "Girl" propelled her to win the Golden Globe, the SAG Award and the Academy Award for best leading actress in a supporting role.With her new-found prominence, Jolie began to get in-depth attention from the press. Numerous aspects of her controversial personal life became news. At her wedding to her Hackers (1995) co-star Jonny Lee Miller, she had displayed her husband's name on the back of her shirt painted in her own blood. Jolie and Miller divorced and in 2000 she married her Pushing Tin (1999) co-star Billy Bob Thornton. Jolie had become the fifth wife of a man twenty years her senior. During her marriage to Thornton, the spouses each wore a vial of the other's blood around their necks. That marriage came apart in 2002 and ended in divorce. In addition, Jolie was estranged from her famous father, Jon Voight.In 2000, Jolie was asked to star in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). At first, she expressed disinterest, but then decided that the required training for the athletic role was intriguing. The Croft character was drawn from a popular video game. Lara Croft was a female cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond. When the film was released, critics were unimpressed with the final product, but critical acclaim wasn't the point of the movie. The public paid $275 million for theater tickets to see a buffed up Jolie portray the adventuresome Lara Croft. Jolie's father Jon Voight appeared in "Croft", and during filming there was a brief rapprochement between father and daughter.One of the Croft movie's filming locations was Cambodia. While there, Jolie witnessed the natural beauty, culture and poverty of that country. She considered this an eye opening experience, and so began the humanitarian chapter of her life. Jolie began visiting refugee camps around the world and came to be formally appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some of her experiences were written and published in her popular book "Notes from My Travels" whose profits go to UNHCR.Jolie has stated that she now plans to spend most of her time in humanitarian efforts, to be financed by her actress salary. She devotes one third of her income to savings, one third to living expenses and one third to charity. In 2002, Angelina adopted a Cambodian refugee boy named Maddox and in 2005 adopted an Ethiopian refugee girl named Zahara. Jolie's dramatic feature film Beyond Borders (2003) parallels some of her real life humanitarian experiences although, despite the inclusion of a romance between two westerners, many of the movie's images were too depressingly realistic -- the film was not popular among critics or at the box office.In 2004, Jolie began filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) with co-star Brad Pitt. The film became a major box office success. There were rumors that Pitt and Jolie had an affair while filming "Smith". Jolie insisted that because her mother had been hurt by adultery, she herself could never participate in an affair with a married man, therefore there had been no affair with Pitt at that time. Nonetheless, Pitt separated from his wife Jennifer Aniston in January 2005 and, in the months that followed, he was frequently seen in public with Jolie, apparently as a couple. Pitt's divorce was finalized later in 2005.Jolie and Pitt announced in early 2006 that they would have a child together, and Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh that May. They also adopted a three-year-old Vietnamese boy named Pax. The couple continues to pursue movie and humanitarian projects.

formation of nuclear bomb

Nuclear Bomb

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter; a modern thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than a thousand kilograms can produce an explosion comparable to the detonation of more than a billion kilograms of conventional high explosive.Even small nuclear devices can devastate a city. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control has been a major aspect of international policy since their debut.
In the history of warfare, only two nuclear weapons have been detonated offensively, both near the end of World War II. The first was detonated on the morning of 6 August 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The second was detonated three days later when the United States dropped a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. These bombings resulted in the immediate deaths of around 120,000 people (mostly civilians) from injuries sustained from the explosion and acute radiation sickness, and even more deaths from long-term effects of ionizing radiation. The use of these weapons was and remains controversial.

Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing purposes and demonstration purposes. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and that acknowledge possessing such weapons—are (chronologically) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is also widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it does not acknowledge having them.

DaViD BeCkHaM

Biography for David Beckham
Date of Birth2 May 1975, Leytonstone, London, England, UK
Birth NameDavid Robert Joseph Beckham
NicknameDave Becks Golden Balls DB7
Height6' (1.83 m)

David Beckham is one of Britain's most iconic athletes whose name is also an elite global advertising brand. He was captain of the English national team from 2000 to 2006, scored in three different FIFA World Cups, and played midfield for clubs in Manchester, England and Madrid, Spain, before agreeing to move to Los Angeles, to play for Los Angeles Galaxy team on a five year contract beginning on July 1, 2007.He was born David Robert Joseph Beckham on May 2, 1975, in Leytonstone, East London, England, son of Ted Beckham, a kitchen fitter, and Sandra West, a hairdresser. Beckham's maternal grandfather is Jewish, and he has been mentioning the religion as influence; he wears a tattoo written in Hebrew from the 'Song of Songs' in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), albeit he is not known to practice Judaism or any other faith. Beckham has always played in long sleeve shirts to cover up his tattoos in consideration of others who may feel uncomfortable due to their beliefs.He was brought up by his parents, supporters of Manchester United, attended Bobby Charlton's football school in Manchester, and won a spot in a training session at FC Barcelona as a child. In 1986 he was a Manchester United's mascot for a match against West Ham United. From 1992 - 2003 Beckham made almost 400 appearances for Manchester United and scored 85 goals, although his official record counts only 62 goals in 265 official senior team's matches. In the 1998 FIFA World Cup he played all of England's qualifying matches and scored in several important victories. He received a red card for violent conduct in England's match against Argentina, albeit his opponent later admitted to trying to send Beckham off by over-reacting to their contact during the game and by urging the referee to send Beckham off. After losing the game England was eliminated, Beckham was made a scapegoat and became the target of criticism and abuse in media.He had a good season in 1999 - 2000 and helped Manchester United to win the Premier League. At that time he married singer Victoria Beckham from the popular group Spice Girls, and the couple had their first son, Brooklyn, born in 1999. That same year Beckham was given a permission to miss training routine, in order to look after his son Brooklyn, who suffered from a stomach infection. Meanwhile, the Manchester United's manager, Alex Ferguson, fined Beckham £50,000 (about $80,000 then) the maximum amount that was permitted, for babysitting with his sick child, while his wife was spotted at a London fashion Week event on the same night. Ferguson's claim that Beckham should be able to train if his wife stayed home that day, caused a serious personal tension between two men. In February 2003, following the defeat to Arsenal, the Manchester United's manager Alex Ferguson entered the changing room and kicked a football boot that struck Beckham over the eye, causing a cut that required stitches.David Beckham has been a good scorer and a major attraction for public. On the field he has been demonstrating his consistent ability to see a big picture even under severe pressure during the most rapidly changing and unpredictable games. His field vision has been remarkable, allowing him to create many assists in a number of important matches. Beckham's forte has been his delivery from the right-hand side as well as his efficient free kicks. His superior performances in the midfield position has required a higher physical endurance through the entire game. "David Beckham's right foot" was mentioned, although humorously, as one of British national treasures in the movie Love Actually (2003).He signed a four-year contract with Real Madrid, beginning on July 1, 2003, and worth a potential 40 million dollars. In Madrid, Beckham was not allowed to wear his favorite number seven, because another player had the right to wear it written into his contract. Beckham decided to wear the number 23 instead, being a big fan of Michael Jordan. He immediately became popular with the Real Madrid fans, but the team did not perform well enough to win either the Spanish League or the Champions League. However, Beckham remained a reliable scorer and his performances attracted more public. His shirts sales and other merchandising deals remained lucrative for the club, which continued to under-perform, regardless of the Real's management's higher expectations.In 2005 Beckham became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was also involved in promoting London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. His third season in Madrid was unremarkable, and he was criticized a lot, mainly because the team finished second to Barcelona in Spanish "La Liga" and lost to Arsenal in the European Champions League. However, during that season, he expanded his international presence by establishing football academies in Los Angeles and East London.

During the FIFA World Cup 2006, he played for England, and became the first ever English player to score in three World Cups. In the quarter final game against Portugal, Beckham was replaced because of his injury in the middle of the game. Without him the English team lost and was knocked out of the World Cup.In June 2007 Beckham played his final game for Real Madrid, winning a medal and celebrating with his friends Tom and Katie Cruse, who attended the game. This was his fourth, and last season there, ending his contract with the club. He announced that he had signed a five-year contract to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy from July 1, 2007 through June 2012. The 5-year deal includes up to $10 million a year in direct salary, and with merchandising endorsements and profit-sharing could earn Beckham up to $50 million a year, and may end up worth about $250 million in five years, making him one of the highest earning athletes of all time.The Beckhams, who have become known as "Posh and Becks", have three sons: Brooklyn Joseph Beckham (born 1999), Romeo James Beckham (born 2002), and Cruz David Beckham (born 2005) who was named "Cruz" in honor of their friend Tom Cruise.

Biography

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC.

This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.