Americana is the fifth album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released in 1998. One of their most successful albums to date, it debuted at #6 on the US "Billboard" 200 and peaked at #2. The album has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
All songs written by the Offspring; except "Feelings" - Morris Albert and Louis Felix-Marie Gaste, with lyrical parody by Dexter Holland.
Conspiracy of One
Conspiracy of One is the sixth album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released in 2000. The album debuted at 9 on the US Billboard 200 with around 125,000 copies sold in its first week and has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. It is the follow-up to the commercially successful "Americana".
The Offspring had come out in support of file sharing, claiming it does not hurt sales. This album was originally planned to be released directly on their website before retail, until their label threatened to sue.
"Conspiracy of One" is also the band's final studio album with the most successful line-up, as drummer Ron Welty left band in early 2003 to pursue his career with Steady Ground.
Splinter
Splinter is the seventh album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released in 2003. It was the first album the band released without drummer Ron Welty and even though many of their previous albums contain explicit langugage, it was the first to have a Parental Advisory.
While the album was not as successful as The Offspring's albums between "Smash" and "Conspiracy of One", "Splinter" received gold certification two months after its release. The album received average reviews, but still sold reasonably well, even though a third U.S. single was never released. It debuted at 30 on the US Billboard 200 with around 87,000 copies sold in its first week, and has sold more than 1.8 million copies worldwide.
Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace
Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace is the eighth album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released in 2008. It was their first album of new material in nearly five years, following 2003's "Splinter", and their first to be produced by Bob Rock. It had produced four singles: "Hammerhead", "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid", "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" and "Half-Truism".
Although drummer Atom Willard (who left in July 2007) was still a member of the band during the recording, session musician Josh Freese actually handled the drum tracks, like he did on "Splinter". Due to contract issues with Geffen Records, Willard could not do recording on the album and later decided to leave the band and continue his duties in Angels & Airwaves full time while former Face to Face drummer Pete Parada joined the band just in time for the tour.
Jumping
Jumping is a form of movement in which an organism pushes itself up through the air and falls back down. Jumping is different from running, galloping and other ways of moving because the body is airborne for a longer period of time.
Some animals, such as the kangaroo, use jumping as their main form of traveling, while others, such as frogs, only use it to escape predators. Jumping is also an important feature of many different activities and sports, including the long jump, high jump, and show jumping.
One way to classify jumping is by looking at how the feet launch and land. In this classification system, there are five basic types of jumping:
Maia Chiburdanidze
Maia Chiburdanidze (; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess grandmaster, and the seventh Women's World Chess Champion. She is the only chess player in history who has won nine Chess Olympiads. Maia is one of the very few women who has won a top-class grandmaster tournament. Chiburdanidze's FIDE Elo rating in the January 2010 list is 2514, and she is still the 11th highest rated female player in the world.
Maia Chiburdanidze was born in Kutaisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR and started playing chess around the age of eight. She became the USSR girls' champion in 1976 and a year later she won the Soviet women's title. In 1977 she was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster.
Chiburdanidze finished 2nd in the Tbilisi Women's Interzonal (1976), thereby qualifying for the 1977 candidates matches. She advanced through to the Candidates Final, where she beat Alla Kushnir by 7½–6½ to set up a world title match in Pitsunda, Georgia, against Nona Gaprindashvili, the reigning women's world champion. Chiburdanidze defeated Gaprindashvili by 8½–6½. Then 17, she was and still is the youngest to win the Women's World Chess Championship.
She successfully defended her title four times. In 1981 she drew a tough match 8–8 against Nana Alexandria, in Tbilisi, but kept the title as Champion. Three years later she played Irina Levitina in Volgograd, Russia and won convincingly by 8–5. The next defense came against Elena Akhmilovskaya in Sofia in 1986, and Chiburdanidze won the match by 8½–5½. In 1988 she retained her title again by narrowly winning a match in Telavi, Georgia against Nana Ioseliani by 8½–7½.
She was awarded the grandmaster title in 1984. She was the second woman, after Gaprindashvili, to be awarded the title.
Xie Jun of China won the right to challenge for the world championship in February 1991. Chiburdanidze lost her crown to the young Chinese player in Manila by 8½–6½. Her reign was the third longest, at 14 years, behind only that of the first women's champion, Vera Menchik, who reigned for 17 years from 1927 until her death in 1944, and that of Gaprindashvili's 16 years.
She has attempted to regain the world title but, with the rise of the Chinese women and the formidable Polgár sisters, this has not proved possible.
Chiburdanidze, like many of the top women players, is not impressed with 'women's chess' in general, and she prefers to play chess with men. She has played extensively in men's tournaments around the world and her best form was seen in the 1980s and early 1990s. She was 1st in tournaments at New Delhi (1984) and Banja Luka (1985) and equal third at the very strong Bilbao 1987. In the next decade she finished 1st at Belgrade (1992), Vienna (1993) and Lippstadt (1995).
She was a key member of the USSR team that dominated the women's Olympiads of the 1980s. When Georgia achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, she played board 1 for the new Georgian national team that won four gold medals, in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2008.
She also played in the European Team Championships of 1997 when Georgia won the gold medal. In the 2008 Dresden Olympiad, she played on board 1 for Georgia, which won the gold medal (1st place). She won the gold medal for best performance.
Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war in China from 1850 to 1864. It was led by Hong Xiuquan. The Taiping Rebellion was against the ruling Qing Dynasty. About 20 million people died. Most of them were civilians.
Hong established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天囯). When it was most powerful, it had about 30 million people joining in it. The rebels tried to change society. Troops were nicknamed the Long hair (長毛, cháng máo).
Hong Xiuquan was a clever student. He wanted to go into government service. He studied hard and would probably have passed the government tests. However, he discovered that the officials in charge expected bribes. Hong's family was poor at this time and did not have any money.Their family was loyal to the old Ming dynasty, and decided that his failure was because of the corrupt Manchu Qing dynasty. Soon after, Hong became seriously ill. In a fever, he saw himself in the "Thirty-third Heaven". He said that he saw a man called the Venerable (Respected) in Years. The Venerable in Years gave Hong a sword and told him to destroy the demon-worshipers who had rebelled against the Venerable in Years. With the help of the Venerable in Years's son, Hong saw himself doing battle against the demon forces.