AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Usually only a small percentage of these constitutional complaints, called "(Verfassungsbeschwerden)" are successful. Evenso, the Court is often angers both the government and the law-makers. The judges even say that they do not care about the reactions of the government, the Bundestag, or public opinion or about the cost of one of the court's decisions. All that matters is the constitution.
The Bundesverfassungsgericht is very high popular with ordinary people, because it protects them from government wrongdoing.
Only the Constitutional Court can handle some types of cases, including arguments between government bodies about their constitutional powers.
Only the Constitutional Court has the power to ban political parties for being unconstitutional. However so far the Constitutional court has only used this power twice, outlawing the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) and the SRP (Socialist Reich Party, a successor to the NSDAP) because both parties ideas went against the constitution.
In the 1998 election the SPD said they wanted to reduce high unemployment rates and said new people were needed in government after 16 years of Helmut Kohl's government.
Gerhard Schröder said he was a centrist "Third Way" candidate like Britain's Tony Blair and America's Bill Clinton.
The CDU/CSU said people should look at how well off they were because of Kohl's government, and that the CDU/CSU had experience in foreign policy.
But the Kohl government was hurt at the polls by slower growth in the east in the previous two years, which meant the gap between east and west widened as the west got richer and the east did not.
The final seat count was enough to allow a "red-green" coalition of the SPD with Alliance '90/The Greens ("Bündnis '90/Die Grünen"), bringing the Greens into a national government for the first time.
The first months of the new government had policy disputes between the moderate and traditional left wings of the SPD, and some voters got fed up. The first state election after the federal election was held in Hesse in February 1999. The CDU increased its vote by 3.5%. The CDU became the largest party, and replaced a SPD/Green coalition with a CDU/FDP coalition. The result was seen in part as a referendum on the federal government's ideas for a new citizenship law, which would have made it easier for long-time foreign residents to become German citizens, and also to keep their original citizenship as well.
In March 1999, SPD chairman and Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine, who represented a more traditional social democratic position, resigned from all offices after losing a party-internal power struggle against Schröder.
In state elections in 2000 and 2001, the respective SPD- or CDU-led coalition governments were re-elected into power.
The next election for the "Bundestag" was September 22, 2002. Gerhard Schröder led the coalition of SPD and Greens to an 11-seat victory over the CDU/CSU headed by Edmund Stoiber (CSU). Two factors are generally cited that enabled Schröder to win the elections despite poor approval ratings a few months before: good handling of the 2002 European floods and firm opposition to the USA's 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The coalition treaty for the second red-green coalition was signed October 16, 2002. There were a lot of new ministers.
In February 2003, elections took place in the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony, were won by the conservatives. In Hesse, the CDU minister president Roland Koch was re-elected, with his party CDU gaining enough seats to govern without the former coalition partner FDP.
In Lower Saxony, the former SPD minister president Sigmar Gabriel lost the elections, leading to an CDU/FDP-government headed by new minister president Christian Wulff (CDU).
The protest against the Iraq war changed this situation a bit, favouring SPD and Greens.
The latest election in the state of Bavaria led to a landslide victory of the conservatives, gaining not just the majority (as usual), but two thirds of parliamentary seats.
In April 2003, chancellor Schröder announced massive labour market reforms, called Agenda 2010. This included a shakeup of the system of German job offices (Arbeitsamt), cuts in unemployment benefits and subsidies for unemployed persons who start their own businesses. These changes are commonly known by the name of the chairman of the commission which conceived them as Hartz I - Hartz IV. Although these reforms have sparked massive protests they are now credited with being in part responsible for the economic upswing and the fall of unemployment figures in Germany in the years 2006/7.
The European elections on June 13, 2004 brought a staggering defeat for the Social Democrats, who polled only slightly more than 21%, the lowest election result for the SPD in a nationwide election since the Second World War. Liberals, Greens, conservatives and the far left were the winners of the European election in Germany, because voters were disillusioned by high unemployment and cuts in social security, while the governing SPD party seems to be concerned with quarrels between its members and gave no clear direction. Many observers believe that this election marked the beginning of the end of the Schröder government.
In September 2004, elections were held in the states of Saarland, Brandenburg and Saxony. In the Saarland, the governing CDU was able to remain in power and gained one additional seat in the parliament and the SPD lost seven seats, while the Liberals and Greens re-entered the state parliament. The far-right National Democratic Party, which had never got more than 1 or 2% of the vote, received about 4%, although it failed to earn a seat in the state parliament (a party must obtain at least 5% of the vote to achieve state parliamentary representation).
Two weeks later, elections were held in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony: once again, overall, the ruling parties lost votes and although they remained in power, the right to far-right parties made the big leaps. In Brandenburg, the Deutsche Volksunion (DVU) re-entered the state parliament after winning 6.1% of the vote. In Saxony, the NPD entered a non-competition agreement with the DVU and obtained 9.2% of the vote, thus winning seats in the state parliament. Due to their losses at the ballots, the ruling CDU of Saxony was forced to form a coalition with the SPD. The rise of the right to far-right worries the ruling political parties.
On May 22, 2005 as predicted the SPD was defeated in its former heartland, North Rhine-Westphalia. Half an hour after the election results, the SPD chairman Franz Müntefering announced that the chancellor would clear the way for premature federal elections by deliberately losing a vote of confidence.
This took everyone by surprise, especially because the SPD was below 25% in polls at the time. On the following Monday the CDU announced Angela Merkel as conservative candidate for chancellorship.
Whereas in May and June 2005 victory of the conservatives seemed highly likely, with some polls giving them an absolute majority, this changed shortly before the election at September 18, 2005, especially after the conservatives introduced Paul Kirchhof as potential minister of the treasury, and after a TV duel between Merkel and Schröder where many considered Schröder to have performed better.
New for the 2005 election was the alliance between the newly formed Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG) and the PDS, planning to join into a common party (see Left Party.PDS). With the former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine for the WASG and Gregor Gysi for the PDS as prominent figures, this alliance soon found interest in the media and in the population. Polls in July saw them as high as 12%.
After success in the state election for Saxony, the alliance between the far right parties National Democratic Party and Deutsche Volksunion (DVU), which planed to leapfrog the "five-percent hurdle" on a common party ticket was another media issue.
The election results of September 18, 2005 were surprising. They were very different from the polls of the previous weeks. The conservatives lost votes compared to 2002, reaching only 35%, and failed to get a majority for a "black-yellow" government of CDU/CSU and liberal FDP. The FDP polled a 10% of the votes, one of their best results ever. But the red-green coalition also failed to get a majority, with the SPD losing votes, but polling 34% and the greens staying at 8%. The left party alliance reached 8.7% and entered the German Parliament, whereas the NPD only got 1.6%.
The most likely outcome of coalition talks was a so-called "grand coalition" between the conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the social democrats (SPD), with the three smaller parties (liberals, greens and the left) in the opposition. Other possible coalitions include a "traffic light coalition" between SPD, FDP and Greens and a "Jamaica coalition" between CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens. Coalitions involving the Left Party were ruled out by all parties (including the Left Party itself), although the combination of one of the major parties and any two small parties would mathematically have a majority. Of these combinations, only a red-red-green coalition is politically even imaginable. Both Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel announced that they had won the election and should become next chancellor.
On October 10, talks were held between Franz Müntefering, the SPD chairman, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel and Edmund Stoiber, the CSU chairman. In the afternoon it was announced that the CDU/CSU and SPD would begin formal coalition negotiations with the aim of a Grand Coalition with Angela Merkel as the next German chancellor.
Angela Merkel is the first woman, the first East German and the first scientist to be chancellor as well as the youngest German chancellor ever. On November 22, 2005 Angela Merkel was sworn in by president Horst Köhler for the office of Bundeskanzlerin.
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is a way of writing down music so that anyone can play it. Many systems have been used in the past to write music. Today most musicians in the Western world write musical notes on a stave: five parallel lines with four spaces in between them. However, there are many others, some of which are in use today in different cultures.
Writing music down makes it possible for a composer who makes up (composes) a piece of music to let other people know how the music is supposed to sound. That music can then be played or sung by anybody who can “read music”. If music is not written down, then people can only learn other people’s music by listening to it and trying to copy it. This is how folk music was traditionally learned.
The earliest kind of notation was written on tablets using a way of writing called cuneiform. Music from Nippur from about 2000 B.C. has been found which seems to give an approximate idea of how the music should be played. A tablet from 1250 B.C. has musical notation which shows the names of the strings of a lyre. They are the earliest records we have of written music.
Musical notation from Ancient Greece showed the notes in more detail than the earlier cuneiform. It shows the pitch (how high or low the note is) and how long it lasts. It sometimes give an idea of the harmony. It was used from at least the 6th century BC until about the 4th century AD.
When music started to be written down in Europe it was music for the Roman Catholic church. The monks who wrote it down used a system of dots and strokes called neumes. They gave an idea of how high or low the notes were, but did not show the length of the notes. They may have been used by people who knew the music already and just needed a reminder of when to go up and down.
People gradually realized that it was necessary to find a system which showed the exact pitch of the note. The first stave was just one single horizontal line. Gradually this increased to four lines. Guido d’Arezzo, an Italian Benedictine monk who lived in the 11th century developed this system which soon led to the way of writing music that we know. By the 16th century everybody was using the 5 line stave. A system of bars (measures) was used everywhere by the end of the 17th century. At first the bar lines where there to show which notes should be played or sung together. Gradually the system we know today was developed in which each bar lasted the same length of time, and has a particular number of beats (counts) for each bar. By the end of the 17th century this was used by most musicians in European classical music.
Today we use a five-line staff. The pitch (highness or lowness of a note) is shown by where the note is put on the staff. There may also be sharps or flats in front of some of the notes. The music is read from left to right.
A staff of written music usually has a clef in front. This shows exactly which notes are to be played. Notes which are very high or low can be put on extra lines called ledger lines above or below the stave.
After the clef there is usually a key signature which shows the key of the piece: it shows which sharps or flats are to be used regularly.
After the key signature is the time signature. Bars (measures) divide the piece into regular groupings of beats, and the time signatures show these groupings.
Above the music there is usually a word, or words, to show the tempo (speed) At various places in the music there will be dynamic marks to show how loud or soft to play.
For vocal music, words are written underneath the notes.
When music is played by a large group of instruments such as an orchestra the music is written in a "score". This shows the music played by all the instruments, so there are many staves written underneath one another. The conductor will need to have a score, but the players will play from a “part” which has just the notes that they play. All the parts needed for a piece of music is called a “set of parts”.
Instruments such as guitars often play from a chord chart or just the names of the chords (C7, Em etc.) written underneath the music or under the words of a song.
A system called solfege has been used by musicians ever since the Renaissance. This shows the names of the notes of a scale (do, re, mi etc.).
Lute music in the Renaissance and Baroque periods used to be written in a system called tabulature. Some 20th century composers have also used tabulature.
Some modern composers such as John Cage have written music by making drawings called graphic notation.
Music can also be written in Braille for blind musicians.
Today computers are often used for making music. This has led to other forms of music notation which are used in different systems of software. The MIDI file format, stores information about the pitch, duration, speed, volume etc. of notes and can be used to control a MIDI instrument.
There are other systems in use today for some non-Western music.
Musicology means the study of music by a scholar. A scholar is an academic person, often a professor or lecturer at a university. Someone who studies musicology is a Musicologist.
Musicologists study all kinds of music. They study the history of music and learn about all the composers and how they developed their ideas and learned from one another. They can do this by studying music scores, or by looking for historical documents which tell us about musicians from the past. Musicologists may also study the philosophy of music (thinking about what music means).
They write articles in musical journals or books on music. This can help us to know and understand more about the music we play or listen to.
Armenian-Tatar massacres 1905-1907
The Armenian-Tatar massacres (also known as the Armenian Tatar War and the Armeno-Tatar War) refers to the ethnic fight between the Armenians and the Caucasian Tartars (modern Azeris) in the Caucasus in 1905—1907.
The massacres started during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Hundreds of people were killed. The most violent fights happened in 1905 in February in Baku, in May in Nakhichevan, in August in Shusha and in November in Ganja.
C-pop
C-pop is short for Chinese popular music (). Most of today's C-pop artists are from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, as well as from other countries where Mandarin or Cantonese languages are used, such as Singapore and Malaysia. However, Taiwanese music has some origins from the Japanese enka so Taiwanese pop is sometimes said to be a different genre from C-Pop.
Cantonese pop, or colloquially known as Cantopop, is a subgenre of C-pop, sung in Cantonese language. Most Hong Kong-born singers start off as Cantonese pop singers before starting a career as a Mandarin pop singer. Cantonese pop artists include:
"The Four Heavenly Kings" of Cantonese pop are Leon Lai, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Jacky Cheung.
In the early 1990s, many major Cantonese pop stars (such as Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, Samuel Hui, Priscilla Chan and Joseph Koo) decided to retire because of the protests in China in 1989. Cantonese pop needed new talent to fill the gaps left by these retired stars, this led to the beginning of "the Four Heavenly Kings" or "四大天王" ("lit." Four Great Kings of Heaven): Jacky Jeung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai. They were dominating the media in all forms, from magazines, TV, cinema to music.
Mandarin pop () is a subgenre of C-pop. Also known as Mandopop and Mandapop, Mandarin pop songs are performed in Mandarin. Most Cantonese pop stars also expand their music career into the Mandarin pop scene.
Stefanie Sun () is a multi-award-winning C-Pop singer and songwriter. She was born on 1978. Stefanie has sold over 10 million copies in Asia. After her release of her tenth album, she is said to be the most popular Mandarin female singer in Asia and the most successful singer from Singapore.
Stefanie Sun has an elder sister Sng Yee Kia and a younger sister Sng EeMei.
Stefanie wen to school at Saint Margaret's Secondary School, Raffles Girls' School and went on to attend Saint Andrew's Junior College. She later attended Nanyang Technological University, where she got a degree in Marketing. Her abilities were discovered by her music teacher at his music school.
Among Mandarin-speakers, Stefanie is known by her Mandarin name, Sun Yan Zi. She speaks the Teochew dialect, and in Teochew her name is pronounced as "Sng Ee Tze," which is her official name. Most of her songs are sung in Mandarin, with several in English. Stefanie's ability to speak many dialects is shown in the songs she sings.
In the song "Cloudy Day" (called 天黑黑 in Chinese), she sings in both Mandarin and Min Nan (Taiwanese). "Cloudy Day" is an adaptation of a traditional Taiwanese folk song.
Her album START! contains 6 songs in English: "Venus", "That I Will Be Good", "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough", "Silent All These Years", and "Hey Jude"; and a song she wrote called "Someone".
Stefanie does most of her recording and performing in Taiwan, where most of her fans are. She also visits China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, where many of her fans are.
Her first music album was released in June 2000, the self-titled YanZi, published by Warner Music. The album sold over 330,000 copies in Taiwan. Her next album, which was released in December of the same year was titled My Desired Happiness or 我要的幸福 in Chinese. My Desired Happiness sold over 380,000 copies in Taiwan. Both albums achieved great success – each album sold over 1,000,000 copies in mainland China.
Her third album was released in early 2001, titled Kite, which sold successfully with 300,000 copies in Taiwan and more than 950,000 in China.
In January 2002 she released START, which was titled 自選集 in China. START was a collection of songs and cover versions. START! sold over 250,000 copies in Taiwan alone in less than a month and overall 1,000,000 copies sold in mainland China.
In 2002 and 2003, Stefanie sang the official theme songs for Singapore's National Day Parade: We Will Get There (一起走到 in Chinese) and One United People (全心全意 in Chinese). One United People was included on the album Leave.
In early 2003, she released the album To Be Continued… which like her previous releases, was a success. It sold more than 250,000 copies in Taiwan and more than 1,000,000 in China. Only a few months later, she released her seventh album with six new songs mixed with fifteen of her old songs. By the end of 2003, Stefanie had sold over 7,000,000 copies in Asia with just seven albums.
In late 2003, she decided to take a one-year break from making music, because she wanted to find again her direction in her career. She returned in late 2004 with a new album titled Stefanie, which was meant to reflect her debut album (self-titled as well, but in Chinese). This was to symbolise her return with a fresh attitude. This album sold more than 2,300,000 copies in Asia; making it her most successful album. She also started her own company called Make Music.
A Perfect Day was released on 2005, almost one year later. Reviews of this new album were mixed, but Stefanie said that all she wanted was to make quality music, instead of releases that sell well but have a lower level of artistic quality. This album was not her highest-selling, but it had still managed to sell over 1,000,000 copies in Asia.
In 2006, Stefanie had 4 full-house concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum. The performances were praised by the media as well as fans. Stefanie also returned to Singapore in a much-anticipated homecoming concert. However, at The Golden Melody Awards 2006 in Taiwan, while performing songs that were meant to be for male singers, she went off-key, due to having not enough sleep, jet lag, and not having enough time to practice. The media said she had shattered her image of a pop diva with great singing skills. Though she had been heavily criticized by the media, many think that she did not perform as bad, instead the media had over-emphasized on her singing that night.
Stefanie’s first album under the Capitol brand is entitled Against the Light or 逆光 in Chinese. It was released on 22 March 2007. Her decision to leave Warner after 9 albums was partly due to music executive Sam Chen, who now works at EMI. He had collaborated with Stefanie on 8 of her 9 albums.
On 26 February 2007, Stefanie returned from Cairo where she and her team were extorted by suspected local gangsters. Stefanie was in Egypt to shoot a PV for her new album. Two men disguised as government officials followed her and the crew and asked for money and even showing a handgun. The crew tried calling the police but the police didn’t believe them. The crew had to hand over a total of over 200,000 yuan in order to continue shooting.
Stefanie’s tenth album Against the Light, has been a major success in Asia. In Taiwan, it sold over 60,000 copies in the first 3 days it was released. In addition, over 500,000 copies were sold within a week in China. Stefanie was also the number one spot in the Taiwanese Music Charts for 4 weeks.
In 2007, Stefanie sang the offcial theme song for ASEAN's 40th anniversary celebrations: Rise.
2005 German federal election
Mudra
Aaron Kwok
Aaron Kwok is a popular Hong Kong singer and movie actor. He is one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Cantopop. He has been called "Hong Kong's Michael Jackson" for his dancing.
Aaron Kwok is one of Hong Kong and Asia's most important pop stars. Over the last decade or so, Kwok has won over a hundred music awards. As a solo performer, he has played in over 200 concerts around the world.
After graduating from secondary school, Kwok worked at the King Fook Gold and Jewellery Co. Ltd. His father, who owns a gold retail store, wanted him to gain experience in the business and eventually taking over the family business.
In 1984, Aaron Kwok joined a dancer training course at HK-TVB, where his talent for dancing was shown. There, Kwok performed in PVs and a variety of TV shows. In 1985, Kwok's outstanding performance in a pageant show was spotted. He was transferred to the acting department of the talent training course and became a TV actor, where he played a few roles in Chinese television drama shows.
In the early 1990s, a Taiwanese motorcycle CM gave him instant fame. He burst onto the music scene with his now-famous song Loving You Forever (called 對你愛不完 in the Chinese and original release) and the dance moves for the song. In the next few years, his popularity reached fever-pitch and he was soon ranked alongside the most popular artists of the time.
Over the years, Kwok has also taken part in other mediums such as CMs and acting, especially with director-cinematographer Andrew Lau. Kwok has also done extensive public service and charity work, which is why he was amongst the winners of the Ten Most Outstanding Young Persons Award 2003.
In 2004, a string of concert dates earned Kwok a Hong Kong Dance Award presented by the Hong Kong Dance Alliance. Due to this success, Kwok toured again in 2005, receiving much praise.
At the Taiwan's forty-second Golden Horse Awards ceremony on 13 November 2005, Kwok won Best Leading Actor award for his role in the movie "Divergence". It was Kwok's first Golden Horse nomination and beat veteran Hong Kong star Tony Leung to win the honour.
Aaron won the Best Actor Award again at the forty-third Golden Horse Awards on 24 November 2006 for his role in the movie "After This Our Exile". He became the second actor in the history of the Golden Horse Awards to win the Best Actor Award year after year. Jackie Chan first achieved this back in the 1990s.
Styrene
Styrene is a certain organic chemical compound having the chemical formula CH. Its chemical structure is made up of a vinyl group bonded onto a benzene ring. This benzene ring makes styrene an aromatic compound. At room temperature and pressure, styrene is a clear, colorless liquid. Other names for styrene can be "styrol", "vinylbenzene", "phenylethene", or "phenylethylene".
Styrene is used in polymer chemistry as a monomer. This means many styrene molecules can bond together to make a larger molecule called polystyrene. Polystyrene is a kind of polymer often used as a plastic. This kind of chemical reaction is called polymerization.
Styrene can also bond with other kinds of monomers to make other kinds of polymers called "copolymers". For one example, styrene has been mixed with another monomer called 1,3-butadiene to make a copolymer which is a kind of synthetic rubber. For another example, styrene is mixed with acrylonitrile and 1,3-butadiene to make a copolymer plastic called ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene).
In industry, styrene is made from ethylbenzene by this chemical reaction:
This kind of reaction is called dehydrogenation. Hydrogen is also made by this reaction..
Para Para Sakura is a 2001 romance-comedy movie directed by Jingle Ma, starring Aaron Kwok and Cecilia Cheung. It was filmed and produced in Hong Kong. It runs for 107 minutes and is in the language Cantonese.
Kwok plays the role of Phillip Wong, a colour-blind dance instructor who holds a class devoted to the latest dance craze, the Japanese Para Para. While in Shanghai, Phillip meets Yee (Cheung), a spoiled rich girl who is running away from her up-coming arranged marriage. Soon, Yee begins using Phillip's dance studio as a sanctuary from her responsibilities, and an attraction begins to form between the two. However, Yee is called back to Japan to be married before long, and Phillip must use more than his dance skills and charisma to prevent her from taking her vows.
JJ Lin
Wayne Lim Junjie (born March 27, 1981) is a Singaporean singer, songwriter, and music composer. Lin is commonly known as JJ Lin and his Chinese name is Lin Jun Jie. In 2004, with his self-composed song Jiang Nan, his career began to take off and his name became quickly known throughout China and Taiwan. JJ Lin was originally managed by the entertainment agency called Ocean Butterflies from 2003 to 2011. On August 8, 2011, he left his previous agency and joined Warner Music Taiwan.
Even though JJ Lin was born in Singapore, he is actually a descendant from a Chinese province known as Fujian. JJ can speak English and Mandarin fluently. JJ Lin’s hobbies include drawing, composing songs, singing, and photographing. The idols that he likes include Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Jacky Cheung (Zhang Xue You), David Tao (Tao Zhe), and so on. The food that JJ hates most is tomatoes. In various variety shows, he showed strong fear and dislike whenever tomatoes were put in front of his eyes. The colors that he likes the most are blue, black, white and grey. One of unforgettable experiences in his life was traveling in Japan when he was young.
In China and Taiwan, JJ Lin was best known for his talent in composing songs instead of his appearance. He composes most of the songs in his albums. From his debut in 2003, he has produced several “hit” albums. For example, his album named No.89757, published in 2005, which mainly talked about the love between a robot and a girl a thousand years from now, sold more than 1,500,000 copies in just three months. His next album, known as Cao Cao, did even better. This album sold around 2,000,000 copies in just two weeks, a miracle in the Chinese Music Industry. Whenever JJ Lin publishes an album, it almost always becomes a hit. JJ’s songs can be heard throughout China and Taiwan in various TV programs, singing competitions, and radio channels. JJ Lin not only writes songs for himself but also for other famous celebrities, notably Ji De (Remember) for Taiwanese pop diva A-Mei and Fang Shou for his fellow label mate A-Do.
JJ Lin’s undeniable talent in composing has earned him numerous awards every year. For instance, in 2004, he won the “Best New Artist” award in 15th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards. In the same year, he also won “Best New Act” in Singapore Hit Awards. In 2006 Beijing Music Awards, with his popular album Cao Cao, he swept several big awards including Most Popular Male Artist, Top Twenty Golden Melody, Best Album, Best Producer, and “True Hero” Award.
In 2011, with his latest album She Says, JJ Lin has earned himself Best Mandarin Male Singer Award in 22nd Golden Melody Awards.
Zhang Li Yin
Li Yin Zhang (; ), also known in Korea by her Korean name RiIn Jang, is the first and currently only Chinese solo singer to break into the Korean music industry. Li Yin has been nicknamed the "Chinese BoA". She speaks both Mandarin and Korean, and has released music in both Korea and China. She also speaks English but has not yet released any records fully in English.
Li Yin was born on 18 February 1989 in Sichuan, China. She grew up in a musical family, as both of her parents were professional violinists. As a child, her parents took her to their rock concerts and exposed her to a variety of music. At three years old, she began to learn the violin. Li Yin liked classical, American and European music so much that she says she never sang children's songs when she was a child.
As she grew older, Li Yin became more into pop music than rock music. She had to secretly listen to pop music because her parents were against it. When she was twelve, she went to a middle school founded by the Sichuan Music College after scoring the highest with her violin-playing, but she chose to become a singer instead. She was selected as one of the top-ten teenage singers in a national singing competition in Beijing. Eventually, her parents began to support her dream to become a singer.
Li Yin was discovered by SM Entertainment. She started training in 2003 at the age of 13 and for 3 years, she special singing and dance training under SM Entertainment. While doing so, she discovered her R&B talent.
Li Yin's debut was greatly anticipated not only in Korea, but the whole of Asia because of the promotion of her being "The Next BoA" and "The Chinese BoA." Before her official debut, it was already known that her song was a duet with popular TVXQ-member Xiah Junsu, which caused even more excitement and anticipation among the general public.
On 8 September 2006, Li Yin released her first single, "Timeless". On the first day of release, she ranked #2 on the online charts of SBS Inkigayo. The song was placed #1 on Daum's Music Video chart as well as hitting the highest search number on the famous Korean search engine Naver. The PV was ranked #1 on Melon's Video Chart for 30 days .
In early 2007, Li Yin promoted the second track of her debut single called "Y (Why...)", which is a power ballad. SM Entertainment also released a "Timeless" documentary version of her "Y (Why...)" PV. It featured her hardships while training, as well as many behind-the-scenes clips of her promotion of "Timeless", including never-before-seen footage of her and Xiah Junsu.
She also performed with boy-band TVXQ at their second Korean concert in Seoul, South Korea on 23 February 2007. She sang BoA's part in the song "Try-Angle", previously performed by BoA, TVXQ and The TRAX.
She also performed "Timeless" with Xiah Junsu at the Hallyu Expo in Korea on 8 March 2007. In July, along with Kangta, TVXQ, The Grace and Super Junior, she performed in Korea for the SMTown Summer Concert 2007.
After a long year of absence without releasing any records, Zhang Li Yin announced during an interview early December 2007 that her long-awaited debut album will be released in February 2008. The album is titled "星愿 - I WILL" (lit. "Star Wish: I Will" ). It has been released in Korea, China, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.
Nyingma
Nyingma is the name of one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nyingma school is made up of several different lines that start with Padmasambhava, the legendary founder of Tibetan Buddhism. The word "Nyingma" means "ancient". Nyingma followers see themselves as holding the oldest teachings of Vajrayana. Some of these teachings can be found in the local Bön religion of Tibet.
Notable modern Nyingma teachers include Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche (c. 1904–1987), Sogyal Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, filmmaker Khyentse Norbu (also known as Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche), and Penor Rinpoche.
433 Eros
433 Eros is the first Near-Earth asteroid (NEA) that was found. It was named after the Greek god of love, Eros (Greek Ἔρως). It is an S-type asteroid about 13 × 13 × 33 km in size, the second-biggest near-Earth asteroid (NEA) after 1036 Ganymed. It belongs to the Amors. It is the first asteroid that was known to cross inside the orbit of Mars. Eros is one of the few NEAs bigger than 10 km across. It is thought to be bigger than the asteroid that made the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán and probably caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
On January 31, 2012, Eros passed close to Earth at 0.1787 astronomical units (16.6 million miles). This is about 700 times farther from the Earth than the moon is. It had brightness of +8.1 visual magnitude.
During rare oppositions, every 81 years, such as in 1975 and 2056, Eros will be directly away from the sun, as seen from Earth. Then, Eros can reach a magnitude of +7.1, which is brighter than Neptune and brighter than any main belt asteroid except 4 Vesta (and sometimes 2 Pallas and 7 Iris). At opposition, the asteroid actually appears to stop in place when compared to stars in the sky. Unlike most objects in the solar system, it never appears to be retrograde (back-track across the sky).
Eros was visited by the NEAR Shoemaker probe, which orbited it, taking many pictures of its surface. On February 12, 2001, at the end of its mission, NEAR landed on the asteroid's surface using its maneuvering jets.
Objects in an orbit like Eros can exist for only a few hundred million years before the orbit is changed by the effects of gravity. Simulations suggest that Eros may evolve into an Earth-crosser within 2 million years (Michel et al., 1996).
The adjectival form which is not used a lot of the name Eros is "Erotian".
Surface gravity depends on the distance from a spot on the surface to the center of a body's mass. The Erotian surface gravity changes a lot, since Eros is not a sphere but a stretched peanut-shaped (or potato- or shoe-shaped) object. The daytime temperature on Eros stays at about 100 °C and nighttime measurements at −150 °C. Eros's density is 2,400 kg/m, about the same as the density of Earth's crust. Its day lasts 5.27 hours.
NEAR scientists have found that most of the bigger rocks scattered across Eros were blown from a single crater in a meteorite collision approximately 1 billion years ago. This impact may also be the reason why nearly half of the Erotian surface doesn't have small craters. It was first thought that the debris thrown up by the collision filled in the smaller craters (those less than half a kilometer across). A study of crater on the surface shows that the areas with the fewest craters are within 9 kilometers of the impact point. This includes the opposite side of the asteroid but still within 9 kilometers.
Eros was found on the same night (13 August 1898) by Gustav Witt in Berlin and Auguste Charlois at Nice. Witt was taking a 2-hour exposure of beta Aquarius to get astrometric positions of asteroid 185 Eunike.
In 1975, Eros became the first asteroid to be detected by radar.
Eros was one of the first asteroids to be visited by a spacecraft, and the first to be orbited and soft-landed on. NASA spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around Eros in 2000, and came to rest on its surface in 2001.
Thelema is the English spelling of the Greek noun : "will", from the verb "θέλω": to will, wish, purpose. Early Christian writings use the word to refer to the will of God, the human will, and even the will of God's opponent, the Devil.
Thelema is also a way of life first written about by François Rabelais (16th century) in his famous books of fiction, Gargantua and Pantagruel. The core of this way of life was summed up in the phrase ""Do what thou wilt"" ("fay çe que vouldras" in the original old French). This idea was later put into practice in the mid 18th century by Sir Francis Dashwood at Medmenham.
This Thelemic Law of Rabelais was revived by Aleister Crowley in 1904 when Crowley wrote "The Book of the Law". This book contains both the word "Thelema" in Greek as well as the phrase "Do what thou wilt." From this, Crowley took Thelema as the name of his own religion. Thus Shri Gurudev Mahendranath wrote that Rabelais, Dashwood, and Crowley must share the honor of perpetuating Thelema.
The core of Thelemic thought is "Do what thou wilt." However, people understand and apply this in different ways. For example, some people accept Crowley as a prophet. Other people regard Crowley's system to be only one form of Thelema. Crowley himself shared this view:
Many followers of Thelema learn and use other systems of spiritual thought, blending them according to their own will with Thelema. Most borrow freely from other traditions. For example, Nu and Had are thought to be the same as or similar to the Tao and Teh of Taoism, Shakti and Shiva of the Hindu Tantras, Shunyata and Bodhicitta of Buddhism, Ain Soph and Kether in the Qabalah. Like Crowley, other followers of Thelema make free use of the methods and practices of other traditions, including alchemy, astrology, qabalah, tantra, tarot, and yoga, according to their own wills.
Some groups say that they are true to Crowley's system (such as A∴A∴ and Ordo Templi Orientis). Some groups build upon his teachings, expanding upon and extending them. For example, the Fraternitas Saturni (Brotherhood of Saturn), founded in 1928 in Germany, accepts the Law of Thelema, but extends it with the phrase "Mitleidlose Liebe!" ("Compassionless love!"). The Thelema Society, also located in Germany, accepts Liber Legis and much of Crowley's work on magick, while also including the ideas of other thinkers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles S. Peirce, Martin Heidegger, and Niklas Luhmann. In America, the writings of Maggie Ingalls (Nema) have started a movement called Maat Magick, along with a group called the Horus-Maat Lodge, founded in 1979. This movement combines elements of Thelema with Nema's system based on the Egyptian goddess Ma'at. She wrote her own holy book titled "Liber Pennae Praenumbra." The HML aims to combine the current Aeon of Horus with the future Aeon of Ma'at in which mankind will achieve balance.
Most of Thelemic writing was written by Aleister Crowley. He wrote many books. Many of them were on the subject of Thelema. During his time, there were a few other people who wrote on the subject, including Charles Stansfeld Jones and J.F.C. Fuller. Since his death in 1947 only a few new writers have written on the subject, such as:
Thelema has been attracting more attention in recent years from scholars of religion, especially those interested in new religious movements, contemporary Gnosticisms and Hermeticisms. References at the end of this article supply a few such sources. Perhaps the most unusual attempt was made by bishop Federico Tolli, in his German book "Thelema – Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Christentum, Logentradition und New Aeon" For Tolli, Thelema is to be regarded as the dialectical consequence of Christianity. Christianity for Tolli exists as a community in Christ, whereas Tolli sees Thelema as a necessarily individualistic response to the world.
Taken from a 1938 theological dictionary (to the New Testament), the concept of 'salvation history' "(Heilsgeschichte)" has a great effect on Tolli's thought, and it is in this context that he discusses Crowleyan Thelema. Tolli regards Crowley's "Heilsgeschichte" as one in which the whole Universe (ergo the Will of God) is to combine (analogous to the Alchemical formula 'coagula'). "Love", in the form of combinatory attraction ("Love is the law, love under will"), is a universal principle – therefore akin to the concept of Natural religion. The main difference (for Tolli) is that in Christianity salvation of the entire Universe ("Ganzheit") cannot be made by 'solipsistic' man. The bishop sees Crowley as a failed – however talented – artist or "Mystagogie", but not as a "Satanist". The merit and contribution of bishop Tolli to Thelemic studies lies in the fact that it was he who first expresses that the genuine meaning and idea of Thelema does not necessarily contradict the teachings of Jesus, as Crowley himself affirms.
Svecchachara
Svecchachara is the Sanskrit equivalent of the Greek word Thelema, interpreted by Aleister Crowley as "Do What Thou Wilt."
In the first volume of the TWILIGHT YOGA, "Ecstasy, Equipoise, and Eternity", Shri Gurudev Mahendranath wrote,
Ole Nydahl
Ole Nydahl (born 19 March 1941 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is the founder and leader of Diamond Way Buddhism, an organisation in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Since the 1970s he has travelled the world teaching and founding meditation centres.
Ole Nydahl’s first teacher was the Drukpa-Kagyu master Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche. In December 1969, Ole Nydahl and his late wife, Hannah Nydahl met the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, a renowned yogi and the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage. They were among the first Western students of the 16th Karmapa. Ole Nydahl is also a student of Shamar Rinpoche.
Ole Nydahl has written several books in either English or German which have been translated into several European languages.
Most popular English titles:
Tank (Taiwanese singer)
Tank (real name 呂建中 Lǚ Jiàn Zhōng, born February 6 1982) is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter. He is currently signed to HIM International Music, which also manages famous singers and groups like S.H.E, Fahrenheit and Power Station. Tank's first album, "Fighting 生存之道" was released on 23 February 2006.
Tank was born in Taitung, Taiwan. He is an aboriginal Taiwanese. Before releasing his debut album, Tank helped write songs for Vic Zhou and S.H.E, among many other famous C-Pop artists. By the age of 21, he was already well known for composing more than 200 songs.
He bloomed into fame when two songs he composed, "三國戀" ("Romance of Three Kingdoms") and "給我你的愛" ("Give Me Your Love"), were used as theme songs for Taiwanese TV shows. Another song, titled as "千年淚", was used as an ending theme for the drama serial 天外飛仙. His second album "Keep Fighting!" ("延長比賽") was released on 19 January 2007. His single, "My Angel", was used for an ending theme of romantic comedy series Hana Kimi.
In 2010, he was announced to be down with lung cancer.
Tanks has released two albums.
Tank is currently writing his third album. It is set to be released later in 2008
Mayday () is one of the biggest alternative rock bands in the Taiwanese pop culture. Mayday sing songs mostly in Mandarin and sometimes in Taiwanese language.
Before Mayday's official debut in 1998, the band sung in local restaurants and clubs. Mayday became famous with their 1999 single "志明與春嬌". In the same year, on 28 August, they held a concert at the Chungshan Soccer Stadium, gaining fame in other countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
In 2001, they took a break from performing. In the August of 2003, Mayday was reunited and they held a reunion concert the Chungshan Soccer Stadium, the very place where they held their debut concert. 40,000 fans attended the concert, breaking Taiwan's record for the largest number of fans at a concert, a record previously held by pop star Michael Jackson.
Near the end of 2006, on 29 December, they released their 6th studio album, "Born to Love". They made a surprise announcement not long after the album's release, that they would not hold autograph sessions but instead, would hold concerts in Taiwan. The tickets were included in albums which the fans bought. They held ten concerts to let all the fans see them. On the night after the concert, despite saying that they will not hold any autograph sessions, they did - the sessions lasted for 11 hours from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day, making that autograph session to be the first of the year 2007.
Ashin
Ashin is well known for his unique vocals and his insightful lyrics. He has composed and written songs for other artists, such Fish Leong, Wang Lee Hom and Twins (band). In 2006, Ashin wrote a book titled "Happy.Birth.Day", a collection of "rock poems." Ashin also designs Mayday's concert shirts. In addition, he has also designed a perfume.
The leader of Mayday, Monster is in charge of daily operation of the band.
The first married member of Mayday, Stone is well known for his love for his wife to whom he proposed to at their 2001 concert. He claims he would leave Mayday if his wife asked him to.
Masa is known for being outspoken. His is also well known for his eccentric words and wit. He has also been romantically linked to Fish Leong.
He is the 4th drummer of Mayday. His birth name is Yan Ming, but he changed his name to Guan You because of a fortune-teller to be luckier. However, according to him, it does not seemed to have worked. He proposed to his girlfriend during a Mayday concert in Beijing in November 2005 and was married in June 2006. His daughter was born in October 2006. He became the first father among the five members of Mayday.
Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod
Der Dativ ist dem Genitv sein Tod (German: "the dative case is the genitive case's death") is a book series written by Bastian Sick which deals with doubtful cases of grammar, orthography, and punctuation. Because of that, the writer wants to fight against unthinking habit and what he believes to be a change to a lower state of the language. The book came from a collection of Zwiebelfisch-collumns of Bastian Sick, which appear weekly in the Spiegel Online. At present, the second and third volumes are available. The volumes are from one time to another at the top of book sales lists.
In several states of Germany, writings from the books have been officially recognized as teaching documents after Sick's foreword was used in Saarland in August 2005.
"Eats, Shoots & Leaves" written by Lynne Truss is a book which in a similarly popular style discusses punctuation in English. In Sweden, a similar book, which is based on Lynne Truss' book, has come out, describing the interesting aspects of the Swedish pronunciation.
Made of Bricks
Made of Bricks is the first album by the British singer-songwriter, Kate Nash. It was released on 6 August 2007 on Fiction Records. It reached number one in the UK album charts.
The album was released five weeks earlier than first planned due to the popularity of the single "Foundations". In its opening week of sales the album sold over 56,000 copies, and was certified gold.
The album has now been certified Platinum in the UK for sales of over 300,000. It has sold over 450,000 copies worldwide.
Matinée (album)
Matinée is the first album from British singer-'songwriter Jack Peñate. It was released on October 8, 2007 on XL Recordings.
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