AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Rogers entered seminary after college but wanted to work with television. In an interview with CNN, Rogers said, "I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen". He applied for a job at NBC in New York City in 1951. He first worked as an assistant producer, and later as a network floor director on musical programs such as "Your Hit Parade", "The Kate Smith Hour", and "The Voice of Firestone". He also worked on Gabby Hayes's children's show.
Rogers left NBC because he did not approve of the agency using children for advertisement. He began working as a puppeteer on the local children's show "The Children's Corner" for Pittsburgh public television station WQED in 1954. The show won a Sylvania Award for best children's show and was broadcast nationally on NBC.
Rogers studied theology at the nearby Pittsburgh Theological Seminary during his lunch breaks. However, he did not want to go into preaching and was told to continue making children's television after his ordination. He worked with the University of Pittsburgh's child development and care program.
In 1963, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) hired Rogers to create the 15-minute children's program "Misterogers." Rogers moved to Toronto and the series ran for three seasons. Three years later, Rogers moved back to the United States.
In 1966, Rogers got the rights to his program from the CBC and moved the show to WQED in Pittsburgh, where he had worked on "The Children's Corner".
"Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" began in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes. It aired on National Educational Television, which later became The Public Broadcasting Service. The last set of new episodes was taped in December 2000 and began airing in August 2001. By 1985, eight percent of people living in the United States watched the show.
The program always started with Rogers coming home, singing his theme song "Won't You Be My Neighbor?". He would then change into sneakers and a zippered cardigan sweater. The sweaters were all knitted by his mother. In his show, Rogers would always go on trips, teach new things and show short movies on "Picture, Picture". Each episode included a trip to Rogers's "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" with a trolley, a castle, and the kingdom's citizens, including King Friday XIII.
Rogers always fed his aquarium fish during episodes. He would always say this to his audience he was feeding them because he received a letter from a young blind girl who wanted to know each time he did this. The program would end with Rogers winging "It's Such a Good Feeling".
Rogers believed not to act differently when he was being filmed to how he acted normally. He said that "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away". Rogers wrote almost all of the music on the program. He wanted to teach children to love themselves and others, and he talked about common childhood fears with comforting songs. He once took a trip to a children's hospital to show children that a hospital is not a place to fear.
Rogers would talk about social issues on his program including the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, racism and divorce. One famous episode, Rogers soaked his feet with Officer Clemmons (François Clemmons), who was African-American, in a kiddie pool on a hot day. The scene was a message of inclusion during a time when racial segregation in the United States was common.
Rogers was also known for having children with disabilities on his show. In a 1981 episode, Rogers met a young quadriplegic boy, Jeff Erlanger, who showed how his electric wheelchair worked and explained why he needed it. Erlanger and Rogers both sang a duet of the song "It's You I Like". Before the taping, Erlanger had long been a fan of the program, and his parents wrote a letter to Rogers asking if they could meet.
Rogers would end each program by telling his viewers,
Rogers never talked about his religious beliefs on the show because he did not want any viewer to feel ignored from the show. During the Gulf War, he comforted his audience that all children in the neighborhood would be well cared for. Rogers asked parents to promise to take care of their children.
In 1990, members of the Ku Klux Klan in Missouri played racist versions of Rogers's songs and this caused Rogers to file a lawsuit against the White supremacy group. A district court judge in Missouri ordered the Ku Klux Klan to stop using Rogers's songs and to give any records they have to Rogers saying the group had committed copyright infringement.
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Rogers taped public service announcements for parents about how to discuss tragic world news events with their children. He told viewers to "look for the helpers". The quote continues to go viral following tragic news events. Rogers said in the public service announcement,
In 1969, Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. His goal was to ask the Senate to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, because proposed budget cuts. In about six minutes of testimony, Rogers spoke of the need for social and emotional education that public television gave. He argued that other television programming like his "Neighborhood" helped encourage children to become happy citizens.
The chairman of the subcommittee, John O. Pastore, did not know Rogers or his work and was sometimes said to be impatient. However, after Rogers, Pastore said that the testimony had given him goosebumps, and said, "I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million". The Senate would soon increase PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.
During the issues of households being able to record television programs with a VCR grew, Rogers was active in supporting VCR companies in court. His 1979 testimony, in the case "Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.", Rogers said he was not against home recordings of his television programs because families could watch them together at a later time.
When the case reached the Supreme Court in 1983, the majority decision thought about the testimony Rogers gave. The court found that the Betamax video recorder did not commit copyright violations. The court said that his views were an important piece of evidence "that many [television] producers are willing to allow private time-shifting to continue".
In 1978, while taking a break from taping new "Neighborhood" episodes, Rogers hosted an interview program for adults on PBS called "Old Friends...New Friends". On the show, Rogers interviewed "actors, sports stars, politicians, and poets". The show was lasted only 20 episodes. In 1988, he appeared on the Soviet children's television show "Good Night, Little Ones!" where he brought his puppet Daniel Striped Tiger with him.
The only time Rogers appeared on television as someone other than himself was in 1996 when he played a preacher on one episode of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." Rogers voiced himself on the "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers" episode of the PBS Kids series "Arthur".
Rogers had an apartment in New York City and a summer home on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. Rogers was red–green color blind. He had a healthy lifestyle as he swam every morning and neither smoked nor drank. He was a vegetarian because he believed eating meat was wrong, saying "I don't want to eat anything that has a mother". Despite popular rumors, he never served in the military as a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War and never had tattoos.
In 1991, the Pittsburgh Penguins named Rogers as their celebrity captain, as part of a celebration of the National Hockey League's 75th anniversary. Card No. 297 from the 1992 NHL Platinum collection celebrated the event, making Rogers one of only twelve celebrity captains to be chosen for a sports card.
During his morning routine, Rogers would respond to every single fan mail and return them to the respective sender.
In 1992, he was awarded the Peabody Award. He was added into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999.
In an interview with Rogers' friend William Hirsch, Rogers said that if sexuality was measured on a scale, then: "Well, you know, I must be right smack in the middle. Because I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive," leading some readers to describe Rogers as bisexual.
After Rogers' retirement in 2001, he remained busy working from studying religion and spirituality, making public appearances, traveling, and working on a children's media center named after him at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe with Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, chancellor of the college.
By the summer of 2002 his constant stomach pain had become painful enough for him to see a doctor about it, and in October 2002 he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He had surgery on January 6, 2003, which was unsuccessful. A week earlier, he was grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby.
Rogers died on the morning of February 27, 2003 after slipping into a coma, at his home in Pittsburgh. His wife was by his side when he died. He died less than a month before he would have turned 75.
More than 2,700 people went to his memorial service at Heinz Hall. Honorary guests included former "Good Morning America" host David Hartman, Teresa Heinz Kerry, philanthropist Elsie Hillman, PBS President Pat Mitchell, "Arthur" creator Marc Brown, and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" author-illustrator Eric Carle. Speakers remembered Rogers for his love of children, devotion to his religion, love for music, and humor. Teresa Heinz Kerry said of Rogers, "He never condescended, just invited us into his conversation. He spoke to us as the people we were, not as the people others wished we were". Rogers is buried at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe.
President George W. Bush awarded Rogers the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 for his works to children's education. He said that "Fred Rogers has proven that television can soothe the soul and nurture the spirit and teach the very young".
In 2003, the United States Senate passed Resolution 16 to celebrate the life of Rogers. Following Rogers' death, the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 passed Resolution 111 honoring Rogers for "his legendary service to the improvement of the lives of children, his steadfast commitment to demonstrating the power of compassion, and his dedication to spreading kindness through example".
On New Year's Day 2004, Michael Keaton, who worked on stage on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" before becoming an actor, hosted the PBS TV special "Fred Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor". His hometown of Latrobe and Pittsburgh host "Won't You Wear a Sweater Day" to honor Rogers. The event takes place annually on his birth date, March 20. In 2003, the asteroid 26858 Misterrogers was named after Rogers by the International Astronomical Union.
One of Rogers' famous sweaters was bought by the Smithsonian Institution, which has it shown on their "Treasure of American History" exhibit. The Fred Rogers Memorial Statue in Pittsburgh was dedicated in 2009.
On June 25, 2016, the Fred Rogers Historical Marker was placed near Latrobe, Pennsylvania in his memory.
In June 2018, the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" based on the life and legacy of Rogers, was released to positive reviews and became the highest money making biography-documentary (biodioc) of all time. Tom Hanks played Rogers in a movie based on his later life titled "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (2019) directed by Marielle Heller. Hanks would soon be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Rogers.
Rogers was honored on a special United States postage stamp in March 2018. On September 21, 2018, Google Doodle honored him with a stop-motion video of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." On October 23, 2018, during the first game of the 2018 World Series, Rogers's first television commercial aired for Google's Pixel 3 smartphone. In the ad, Rogers sings "Did You Know" which is the first time his voice or images has been used in a commercial for a product on television.
In December 2019, it was announced that a statue of Rogers would be placed in at Nantucket Park in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
At the 2020 Academy Awards, Janelle Monáe performed Rogers' "Its a Beautiful Day in This Neighborhood" during the opening ceremony while wearing a red cardigan sweater. During her acceptance speech for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Renée Zellweger listed Rogers as one of the heroes people should look for.
At the 2021 Grammy Awards, Rogers was posthumously awarded the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album for "It's Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers".
Sri Yukteswar Giri
Sri Yukteswar Giri (May 10, 1855 - March 9, 1936) was an Indian guru and swami. His real name was Priya Nath Karar and was born in Serampore, West-Bengal, India.
He is one of the famous people who appears on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
He became known through "Autobiography of a Yogi" as the guru of the author Paramahansa Yogananda.
George Harrison, the beatle, was initiated in kriya yoga in USA in Self-Realization Fellowship, an organization created by the known writer and great spiritual master in the west Paramahansa Yogananda.
Aleister Crowley (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was a British mystic, occultist, writer, poet, mountain climber and nicknamed "The Wickedest Man In the World.".
He was an influential member in some occult organisations, such as the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and is better known today for his occult books and papers. He was bisexual.
Crowley also started a mystical philosophy known as Thelema, the "Abbey of Thelema", and revived the term magick.
Edward Alexander Crowley was born at 36 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, between 11:00pm and 11:59 p.m. on 12 October 1875.
In 1895, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge after going to Malvern College and Tonbridge School. In his three years at Cambridge, his father died and left him a large sum of money.
In December 1896, Crowley took interest in occultism and by the next year, he began reading books on alchemy and mysticism. A year later, he published his first book of poetry ("Aceldama"), and left Cambridge, only to meet Julian L. Baker who introduced him to Samuel Mathers and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
In November 1899, Crowley bought Boleskine House in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland.
Samuel Mathers, acting leader of the Golden Dawn organisation, acted as his early mentor in western magic. Crowley lost faith in his mentor's abilities in 1900 but did not officially break with Mathers until 1904.
Crowley died of a respiratory infection in a Hastings boarding house on 1 December 1947 at the age of 72. He had been addicted to heroin after being prescribed morphine for his asthma and bronchitis many years earlier.
Readings at the cremation service in Brighton included "Hymn to Pan", and newspapers referred to the service as a black mass.
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (22 August 1928-5 December 2007) was a German composer. He was an important German composer in the years after World War II. During this time composers were exploring many new ideas. Stockhausen used serialism in new ways, and he invented many ways of composing electronic music. His works include an opera cycle "Licht" which includes seven operas.
Stockhausen was born near Cologne. His father was a village school teacher. His mother was put in a sanatarium in 1933 where she died in 1942. She was probably killed there because the Nazis thought people who were mentally ill should not be allowed to live.
Stockhausen was a young man during the war. He trained to be a teacher and was sent to work in a military hospital near where the army was. His father died fighting in the war. After the war, with no parents, he went to work on a farm. Then, in 1947, he went to study at the Cologne Musikhochschule. He played the piano in bars and clubs and he improvised at the piano when playing for a magician’s magic shows. He was thinking of becoming a writer.
At this time many of Germany’s important composers met every summer in Darmstadt. The course was called Darmstadt Holiday Course for New Music. Stockhausen went there in 1951. There he performed some modern music and met important people such as the music critic and philosopher Theodor Adorno. He heard the music of Messiaen and, soon after marrying, he went to Paris to study with Messiaen. In Paris he met Pierre Boulez and Pierre Schaeffer who was working on musique concrète. He experimented with different sounds that percussion instruments can make, and he started composing electronic music. When he went back to Cologne he worked in a studio for electronic music where he studied communications theory. By this time Stockhausen, Boulez and Nono were the leading composers of avant garde or experimental music.
Stockhausen made Cologne an important centre for electronic music. He also helped to make the Darmstadt Summer Courses a famous centre for modern music. He did not invite John Cage to lecture there in 1958. This led to disagreements with Boulez and Nono. In California in 1967, Stockhausen married his second wife who was a painter. During the 1960s he bought land in the country near Cologne and had a house built there. Stockhausen did not design the house himself, because he was not an architect.
Stockhausen was by now world famous. He toured the United States and many other countries with a small group of musicians performing modern music. His music was not only listened to by fans of classical music but was also becoming part of popular youth culture. His picture was included on the front cover of the Beatles’s record Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The record company Deutsche Grammophon sold more copies of his music than of any other modern composer except Stravinsky.
During the 1970s Stockhausen became even more popular. This was partly because other music, like the other arts, had become political and very left-wing in the 1960s, which made people angry. It was also partly because audiences wanted a change from music that was very complicated, and Stockhausen's music had become much simpler. His most popular compositions are "Tierkreis" (1974–75) and "In Freundschaft" (1977). Stockhausen broke with his publisher and started to publish his music himself. From 1977 to 2003 Stockhausen composed "Licht" ("Light"), a set of seven operas named for the days of the week.
Stockhausen died of heart failure on 5 December 2007 in Kuerten.
In some student works Stockhausen used twelve tone composition. He became interested in Messiaen and his composition "Kreuzspiel" shows Messiaen’s influence. In "Kontra-Punkte" (1953) the music starts with very small bits played by ten instruments. Gradually these little bits come together and at the end the music concentrates on the piano.
From 1953 he worked seriously at electronic music. He thought that electronic music was going to be the music of the future. His "Gesang der Jünglinge" is a multi-track work, using 5 tracks (later reduced to 4). "Gruppen" ("Groups") is a work for three orchestras and three conductors. They sit in different parts of the concert hall and play at different speeds at the same time. His piano piece "Klavierstück XI" ("Piano Piece eleven") shows no influence of John Cage at all. The music is written on a huge sheet of paper and the pianist decides as he plays which part of the music to go to next and how to play it. This means that each performance of the work is different. This is not “chance” music, but "mobile" music.
He continued to experiment with new ideas. "Kontakte" is a work for piano, percussion and electronic music (the tape has been prepared beforehand). He composed “live electronic” music beginning in the 1960s. This means using electronics to change the sound of normal instruments that are amplified. His operatic cycle "Licht" was started in 1977 and took him 26 years to complete. There are seven operas: one for each day of the week. Some of the music for this includes microtonal scales, in which the notes are tuned so that they are less than a semitone apart.
W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946) was an American comic actor. He had a recognizable and unique style on stage, movies, and radio. His real name was William Claude Dukenfield and he started his career when he ran away from home at the age of 11.
Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and writer. He created many theories and ideas that are still used in psychology today. Psychology is the science of how people think and feel. His kind of psychology was called analytical psychology or "Jungian Analysis".
Jung worked for about seven years with Sigmund Freud early in his career, but they fell out over a theory and from 1913 went their separate ways. This was because they disagreed about what motivated people and how to understand psychology.
Jung is famous for many things that he did for psychology. The work he did was important for measuring what kind of personality people have. The test called the Myers Briggs Type Indicator is based on his ideas. He is also famous because of his ideas about the ancients - people from many years ago.
Jung spent his life learning from observation and read exceptionally widely subjects as different as philosophy, science, anthropology, religion, literature, art and historical books relating to alchemy and the occult. He thought he could learn important things about psychology from them. He investigated them to find out what symbols they contained and how ancient people tried to make sense of the world around them. Alchemy is considered a precursor of modern Chemistry.
He wrote in academic German, for doctors, psychologists and many other educated people. Most people who study Jung start with the book "Man and His Symbols". It was written by colleagues of Jung so that people would be able understand him. Another useful introduction to his work is his Biography, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", written mostly by his secretary, Mrs Aniela Jaffe, and to which he contributed three or four chapters.
Jung died a widower in his mid-eighties in Kuesnacht, Canton of Zurich Switzerland.
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer. He wrote horror stories and poems. (Romantism)
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809. His parents were two touring vaudeville actors, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. David left the family under unknown circumstances whilst Poe was an infant. When Poe was two his mother died of tuberculosis, leaving Edgar an orphan. The wealthy John Allan took Edgar into his home in Richmond, Virginia. In 1815, the Allan family moved to England. Young Poe went to an English private school. After five years, the family moved back to Richmond, Virginia.
After moving back to Virginia, Poe entered the University of Virginia in 1826. While there, he gambled, lost money, and went into debt. John Allan became angry, and cut off all contact with Poe. In 1827, Poe published his first work, a collection of poetry titled, "Tamerlane and Other Poems". Poe did not have his name published in the book; it was attributed to "a Bostonian."
Poe enlisted in the army. He used the name Edgar A. Perry and lied about his age. He was successful as a soldier and quickly became a sergeant major. While in the army his foster-mother Frances Allan died. Poe attempted to mend his relationship with John Allan. Poe soon left the army and enrolled at West Point in New York state.
Poe did not enjoy his time at West Point and got very bored. He was expelled in March 1831. At this point, John Allan disowned him. Poe was well-liked by other cadets. They contributed money to pay for Poe to publish a book of his poems called "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems". He soon moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
In Baltimore, Poe lived with his aunt, Maria Poe Clemm. She was the sister of Edgar's real father. Clemm also had a daughter named Virginia Clemm. Virginia admired Poe very much. In 1836, when Virginia was thirteen, she and Poe married.
Poe was writing a lot by this time. He sold his first short story in 1832. His writing did not earn very much money. He also worked as an editor for various magazines over the years, becoming very well known for his literary criticism. Poe also was drinking off and on during these years.
In 1842, while Poe was living with Clemm and Virginia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Virginia became sick with tuberculosis. The family moved to the New York City area in 1843 before settling in The Bronx. On January 29, 1845, Poe published his most famous poem, "The Raven", making him very popular. Virginia died a few years later, on January 30, 1847.
On September 27, 1849, Poe left Richmond after a short visit. It is unknown what happened to him until October 3, when he was discovered outside of Gunner's Hall by a man named Joseph W. Walker in Baltimore. He was taken to Washington College Hospital. While in the hospital he became delirious and started seeing hallucinations. He died on October 7, 1849, in the hospital. Though it is not known what was his cause of death, there are several possible theories, including congestion of the brain, alcoholism withdrawal, tuberculosis, and rabies.
Poe was buried in the grounds of the Westminster Church and Burying Ground after a small funeral with only a few people. On May 17, 1875, Poe was reburied at the front of the churchyard after a city-wide campaign to raise money to build a large monument. He is buried there alongside his wife Virginia, and Virginia's mother Maria Clemm.
Fred Astaire, born Frederick Austerlitz (10 May 1899 – 22 June 1987), was an American dancer, singer and actor. He was the most famous stage, movie and television dancer of his day.
Astaire started dancing on the stage with his sister Adèle, and when she married he started a movie partnership with Ginger Rogers. After that, he danced with a succession of talented American dancers on movie and on television. He appeared in 32 movies. His movie partners included Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen, Cyd Charisse: all high-class dancers, and on TV with Barrie Chase. Their "An evening with Fred Astaire" won nine Emmy Awards in 1958.
Many male dancers of the 20th century were influenced by him, and said so. He owed something to the choreography of Hermes Pan, but more to his own perfectionism and relentless practice.
Astaire was also an excellent actor, and a successful, though personally modest, singer. He introduced some of the most celebrated songs from the Great American Songbook. He married Phyllis Potter in 1933; they had two children. After her death, he remarried in 1980 to Robyn Smith, a female jockey 45 years his junior.
The Game Boy Advance, commonly abbreviated as GBA, is a 32-bit handheld video game console. It was manufactured by Nintendo. The predecessors to the Game Boy Advance were the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Advance was eventually succeeded by the Nintendo DS in 2004.
The Game Boy Advance was released in Japan on 21 March 2001. Nintendo later released it in North America on 11 June 2001, in Australia on 20 June 2001, and in Europe on 22 June 2001.
The Game Boy Advance SP (announced in 2002) is one of the two Game Boy Advance variations, first released in Japan on February 14, 2003, in Europe on March 23, 2003, in North America on March 28, 2003, and in Australia on April 10, 2003. It is similar to the original model, but it has a "clamshell" design, meaning that it can be folded to open and close which was later used in all the DS and 3DS models except the original 2DS. The Game Boy Advance SP has a rechargeable battery, and it does not run on two AA batteries. The Game Boy Advance SP has a backlit screen, meaning it has a bright screen (older versions of the GBA SP have a frontlit screen). Like its predecessor, it is backwards compatible with "GB" and "GBC" games.
The Game Boy Micro is one of the two variations of the Game Boy Advance and is the last model in the Game Boy Line (alongside the AGS-101 model of the SP) announced at E3 2005. Development of the Micro began in 2004. It is smaller than most handhelds and is designed to fit inside coin pockets. It retains a rechargeable battery and backlit screen from the Game Boy Advance SP. The Game Boy Micro removed backwards compatibility with original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games as it is not compatible with accessories made for the "GBA" and SP. It also is incompatible with the Nintendo e-Reader. The Game Boy Micro also has a removable face plate for alternative designs. The Micro did not sell well as it was overshadowed by its successor, the Nintendo DS, which also plays "GBA" games.
The Game Boy Micro has a switch on its right side to make the volume lower or higher. If the player presses the L shoulder button, it can be used to adjust the backlit screen between five different brightness levels.
Amerie
Amerie or Ameriie (born Amerie Mi Marie Rogers, January 12, 1980), is an American R&B singer.
Amerie was born to a South Korean mother and African American father. Her first language is Korean.
In 2004, Amerie began dating her manager, Lenny Nicholson. On March 1, 2010, they were engaged. The couple married on June 25, 2011, in an oceanfront ceremony in Anguilla.
Ben Stein
Ben Stein (November 25, 1944) is an American attorney, writer, actor, comedian, and television personality.
He was a lawyer, then speech writer for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He went into show business helping some liberal writers write accurate portrayals of conservatives for a television show. He soon turned to acting, landing his most famous role as a boring teacher in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". He was also the main person in the 2008 movie "". His nerdy appearance and dead-pan manner have made him a popular fixture on movies and TV till this day. From 1997 to 2003 he had his own game show, "Win Ben Stein's Money". He also wrote many books and had articles that appeared in popular magazines and newspapers. He is also spokesperson for a product named "Clear Eyes".
Soft rock
Soft rock is subgenre of rock music. Some people find it lighter and more relaxing than rock and roll while some cannot stand it. Some singers and musicians who sing soft rock are: Bread, The Carpenters and Chicago.
Angela Dorothea Merkel (born "Angela Dorothea Kasner" on 17 July 1954 in Hamburg) is a German politician, and has been Chancellor of Germany since 22 November 2005.
She was born in Hamburg, at the time part of West Germany, and grew up in the former German Democratic Republic, where she lived until the reuniting of Germany in 1990. Merkel is now married to Joachim Sauer, a professor of chemistry. From 2000 to 2018, she was the chairperson (was in charge of) the German conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).
Merkel became Germany's first female chancellor on 22 November 2005 in a coalition of the two biggest German political parties, the CDU/CSU and SPD. After the next election in 2009, she formed a coalition with the German liberal party FDP. After the 2013 and 2017 Federal Elections, she again emerged as chancellor of a coalition government.
Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother was a school teacher. Before becoming a politician, she worked as a researcher in Physical Chemistry. In December 2015, she was named as "Time" magazine's Person of the Year.
In October 2018, Merkel announced her permanent retirement from politics, as she said she would not seek reelection as leader of the CDU at the party convention in December 2018 and as Chancellor in 2021. After this, another female politician, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, replaced her as CDU leader.
A Chinese dragon was the symbol of the Emperor of China. The dragon in the Qing Dynasty came out on national flags.
Dragons are often found in Chinese art and stories. Since people discovered dragons in Chinese art and stories, dragons are sometimes thought of as a symbol for China.
There are people inside Chinese dragons. Dragons are very popular in China. The phoenix is a dragon that has five claws and was a powerful symbol for the emperors in China.
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall (born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and director. Duvall won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in "Tender Mercies" (1983). He has also won the Screen Actors Guild Award, several Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award.
Duvall was born in San Diego, California. His parents were Mildred Virginia Hart and William Howard Duvall. He studied at Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland and The Principia in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated, in 1953, from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois.
Duvall's career began in 1952. His first role was as Arthur "Boo" Radley in the 1962 movie "To Kill A Mockingbird". He then appeared on "Captain Newman, M.D." (1963).
He landed many of his most famous roles during the early 1970s, such as Major Frank Burns in the blockbuster comedy "MASH" (1970) and the lead role in "THX 1138" (1971), as well as Horton Foote's adaptation of William Faulkner's "Tomorrow" (1972). This was followed by a series of critically lauded performances in commercially successful films.
Duvall's political views are variously described as libertarian or conservative.
Duvall was married to Barbara Benjamin from 1964 until they divorced in 1975. Then, he was married to Gail Youngs from 1982 through 1985. Then he was married to Sharon Brophy from 1991 through 1996. He has been married to Argentine actress Luciana Pedraza since 2005.
Duvall has no children. He lives in The Plains, Virginia.
He has appeared in many other films including:
In 2015, at age 84, Duvall became the oldest person ever nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, with a nomination for the movie "The Judge."
Stevland Hardaway Judkins (born May 13, 1950) known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist.
A child prodigy,Wonder became one of the most successful and well-known artists on the Motown label. He has recorded 23 albums and more than 30 U.S. top ten hits,such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke" and "I Just Called To Say Love You" (which topped all the charts the board it faced). He has written and produced songs for many of his labelmates and other artists as well. His music, which concerns love, peace, care and knowledge about the outside world has won him 25 Grammy Awards(the most awarded to a male solo artist). Wonder plays the drums, guitar, synthesizers, congas, and most famously the piano, harmonica, and the keyboard. In 2009, United Nations dubbed him "Messenger of Peace".
He was born on May 13, 1950 at St. Mary's of Michigan Medical Center in Saginaw, Michigan. His real name is Stevland Hardaway Judkins but he later dropped the name Morris and it has been his name for his life.
He has been blind since shortly after his birth. While in the hospital his incubator was left too warm, which caused his retina to detach and resulted in severe optical nerve damage.
In 1961, Wonder sang his own composition , "Lonely Boy" for Smokey Robinson of The Miracles. This earned wonder his contract with Motown and he was mentored by Clarence Paul.Wonder's first album, "The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie", was released by Motown Records in 1962 when Wonder was 12 years old. This album was to showcase Stevie's instrumental talents and contained to compositions that Wonder and Paul co-wrote - "Session Number 112" and "Wondering". He released his second album "Tribute to Uncle Ray" later that year, mostly covers of Ray Charles's songs including a fresh song, "Sunset". These two albums were released in reverse order of recording and failed to gain recognition.Clarence, feeling a song was coming on set "Mother Thank You" for release as a single, which was pulled and replaced with "I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues". The song almost broke into the Billboard Hot 100, appearing at 101 before dropping out of sight. The followups "Little Water Boy" and "Contract on Love" had no success, despite the latter appearing on the Uptight album. His first live album "Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius" reached number one in the "Billboard" 200 and contained the live two part single "Fingertips", This made him the youngest musician ever to have a number one album in the United States and the youngest artist ever to top the chart.
His next few singles were not successful; his voice was changing as he got older and Motown was considering cancelling his contract. To save him, a fresh single "Up-Tight", co-written with Wonder was recorded in 1965 with reports saying it was based on a rhythm he had been humming and during recording the lyrics were sung back to Wonder as they were unavailable in Braille and that he "never missed a beat". The single charted at No.1 and an album was rushed into production the following year to back it success. This established Wonder as a genuine Motown hitmaker. Since then, he has used a Hohner clavinet.
In 1971, Wonder released the album "Where I'm Coming From", an album he expected to see what was going wrong with the world (featured the single "If You Really Love Me". Around the same time his label mate, Marvin Gaye released a similar album, "What's Going On", which spawned three singles. The albums have been compared with Marvin's seen as successful, whereas Wonder's seen as "self-indulged, undistinguished, pretentious" and overall lacking in unity and flow. Wanting to become a more independent artist, Wonder allowed his old Motown contract to expire.
Wonder moved to a new studio and was taught synthesiser engineering. He then met Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff who introduced him to an electric orchestra known as TONTO (The Original New Timbral Orchestra) Around the time of its release the previous year, it garnered a lot of attention. On March 3, 1972 Wonder released a new album by the name of "Music of My Mind", with all songs flowing together thematically. The album spawned the singles "Superwoman" and "Keep On Running". The album was a success with critics finding it representative of his artistic growth. Although he was separate from Motown, he would still submit his albums to his old record label, Tamla. Cecil and Margouleff helped him engineer the TONTO synthesiser and so were listed as associate producers. This began Wonder's classical period and marked a long collaboration with TONTO's Expanding Head Band.
The albums that followed were Talking Book and Innervisions, the latter winning album of the year in 1973. Wonder won his first four Grammy Awards in 1973. Two of the awards were for his single "Superstition" from "Talking Book". In 1974, Wonder's seventeenth album "Fulfillingess' First Finale" was released, also winning album of the year. It featured two number one singles, "Boogie on Reggae Woman", and "You Haven't Done Nothin", a hit which launched criticism against The Nixon Federation - funny enough, 2 days later, Richard Nixon resigned. Wonder won another four Grammys for the album that year. It was Wonder's second number one album. Wonder's next album "Songs in the Key of Life" also reached number one. This was Wonder's most critically acclaimed album and the Library of Congress called it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". It spawned five singles , "Sir Duke", a song explaining the pleasures of music, "I Wish" wishing for childhood days to come back "As" a ballad of love which will last till The Impossible happens, "Another Star" a fast-paced Cuban style heartbreak ballad which featured on BBC's promotional video for the 2014 World Cup and "Isn't She Lovely" a song inspired by the birth Wonder's daughter, Aisha Morris.(Wonder would not release it as a single although instructed by a Motown executive to do so.) The former two songs reached No.1 on the Billboard charts.
In 1979, he released a soundtrack album, Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants for a documentary The Secret Life Of Plants. The album used a computer melodian virtually throughout. The album contain the No.1 ballad "Send One Your Love". The album had been called "odd" "goofy" "nerdy" and "foolish". Wonder blamed Motown for not promoting the album properly. In 1980, Wonder released Hotter Than July which included "I Ain't Gonna stand For It", a country-style song about a man whose property has been repeatedly trespassed, "Master Blaster (Jammin')", a reggae tune dedicated to Bob Marley, "Lately", a ballad and "Happy Birthday", a song in memory of Martin Luther King Jr used for Wonder's campaign to make Luther's birthday a national holiday. His next was a greatest hits album titled "Original Musiquarium I" featuring 4 new singles "That Girl", "Do I Do", "Front Line" and "Ribbon in The Sky". In 1983, Wonder contributed "Stay Gold" to the drama "The Outsiders". He then scheduled an album to be titled People Work, Human Play. The album never surfaced and instead 1984 saw the release of his next soundtrack album The Woman in Red.It spawned the hit single "I Just Called to Say I Love You" which reached number one in all the countries with charts at the time, therefore becoming his bestselling record. It was Wonder's only number one in the UK. It was number one there for six weeks. In 1985 Wonder released the digital album In Square Circle and featured on Dionne Warwick's single "That's What Friends Are For" with Elton John and Gladys Knight. It reached number one in the US. Wonder shared the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal. In 1987 Wonder released the album Characters which featured hit singles "Skeletons" and "You Will Know", but was subject to mixed reception. Michael Jackson's album "Bad" was released. Wonder featured on the album's fifth song "Just Good Friends". In December 1987 Wonder released a single called "Get It", a duet with MJ in turn for Just Good Friends.
In 1991, Wonder's 3rd soundtrack album, Jungle Fever was released a month before the drama film of the same name. The album helped Wonder climb back into the Top Ten in album charting.
In 1995 Wonder released "Conversation Peace". It was his first album that was not a soundtrack since 1987. One single, "For Your Love", was released from the album. It won 2 Grammy awards for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.
In 2005 Wonder released his first album in ten years, "A Time to Love". Reviewers were upset with the fact it took ten years for him to release a new album with fresh material. On June 25, 2011, Wonder performed at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece.
Wonder said in 2013 that he will release 2 new albums in 2014, and is making a third. The current working titles are Ten Billion Hearts, When The World Began and Gospel Inspired By Lula.
Littleton, Colorado
Motown is a famous record label founded in Detroit, Michigan in the late 1950s by Berry Gordy. It is known for signing many well-known rhythm and blues singers and groups. Some of the artists who sang on the label include:
"Motown" can also refer to the city of Detroit itself, or to the genre of music made by artists like those listed above.
Mustelid
Mustelids are a family of carnivorous mammals. They are the family Mustelidae, in the order Carnivora.
They are the largest family of mammals. They are diverse, from weasels who eat mice to wolverines that can kill prey much larger than themselves. Mustelids live in many habitats: otters for example, live mostly in the water, while one species of weasel lives in the Arctic.
One kind of mustelid, the ferret, has been tamed and used for hunting for a long time. These days it is mostly kept as a pet. Because the ferret looks a bit like a rat that has been stretched out in the middle, it is sometimes called a tube rat.
These are other well-known animals from the mustelid family.
They can be thought of as two subfamilies, the Lutrinae (the otters), and the Mustelinae (the rest)
Vanilla Ninja
Vanilla Ninja is a music group made up of four girls named Lenna Kuurmaa, Katrin Siska, Piret Järvis. Previous members are Triinu Kivilaan & Maarja Kivi.
The band has had some popular songs in Europe and they were in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005.
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (July 23, 1892 - August 26, 1975) was the Emperor of Ethiopia. He is also known as the religious symbol for God incarnate (in the flesh) among members of the Rastafari movement, who call themselves by his name before becoming Emperor - Ras Tafari.
Tafari was made into local governor of Sidamo in 1907, and Harar province in 1911. As governor of Harar, he had a huge following, but he agreed not to remove Lij Iyasu from power as regent, in exchange for Lij Iyasu not removing him as governor of Harer. However, Iyasu became a Muslim, and also he did try to remove Tafari as governor, breaking the agreement. Tafari said that now the agreement was broken, he did not have to keep it either, and so he did remove Iyasu as regent.
Because Iyasu had gone over to Islam, the nobles replaced him with Empress Zauditu on September 27, 1916 and made Tafari regent. From this time onward, he controlled Ethiopia. He was made "negus" (king) in 1928, and was crowned "Haile Selassie I, King of Kings of Ethiopia, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God" on November 2, 1930. His coronation was given widespread publicity throughout the world, especially through two TIME Magazine articles. This publicity created interest on the far-away island of Jamaica, where a belief in his divinity (Godliness) soon arose because of his titles, and because they saw him as a symbol of black liberation.
In 1936 he left Ethiopia after the invasion by Mussolini's Italy. He gave a speech at the League of Nations, asking the world to stop the Italians, but they failed to act. With the help of the British in World War Two, he was able to return to Ethiopia in 1941. In 1963, the Emperor did everything he could to help start the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) with its headquarters in Addis Ababa. In 1966, he visited Jamaica, where he met the Rastafarian community of Jamaica.
On September 12, 1974, he was overthrown by a Marxist coup. They said he died of natural causes the following August, but evidence later showed that they had murdered them. However, many Rastafarians claim he is still alive.
Ethiopia (, , , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, , Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ) is a country in the Horn of Africa. It has one of the longest and most well known histories as a country in Africa and the world. Ethiopia was one of the few countries in Africa that escaped the Scramble for Africa. It avoided being colonized until 1935, when it was invaded by the Italians, who took over the country for a brief time. Ethiopia used to be called Abyssinia. The word "Ethiopia" is from the Greek word Αἰθιοπία (IPA: /ˌaitʰioˈpia/) meaning sun light burned face. It is the most populous landlocked country in the world. It lost its Red Sea ports when Eritrea gained independence in 1993.
The Kingdom of Aksum, the first known kingdom of great power to rise in Ethiopia, rose during the first century AD. The Persian religious figure Mani listed Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time. It was in the early 4th century that a Syro-Greek castaway, Frumentius, was taken to the court and over time changed King Ezana to Christianity, making Christianity Ethiopia's religion. For this, he received the title "Abba Selama". At different times, including a time in the 6th century, Axum ruled most of modern-day Yemen just across the Red Sea.
The line of rulers of the actual Axumite kings ended around 950 AD when they were overthrown by the Jewish Queen Gudit; then it was followed by the Zagwe dynasty for around 300 years. Around 1270 AD, the Solomonid dynasty came to control Ethiopia, claiming that they were related to the kings of Axum (though their claim was unscientific, they were even southern Ethiopia people, like from Shewa and such). They called themselves "Neguse Negest" ("King of Kings," or Emperor), basing their claims on their direct relation to king Solomon and the queen of Sheba.