The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control agreement which prohibits chemical weapons and chemical warfare. It is forbidden to make, store or use the weapons. Every country can become a part of it and most countries (188 in 2010) are. The full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (abbreviated OPCW) is the international organization which organizes the discussions and decisions on the convention. It also checks if member states follow the rules by inspections.
Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss (February 26, 1829–September 26, 1902) was a German-born American maker of clothing.
Born as "Löb Strauss" into a Jewish family in Buttenheim in Franconia, Bavaria, now a part of Germany. In 1847, Strauss, his mother and two sisters moved to New York City to join his brothers Jonas and Louis Löb in their dry goods business. By 1850 he had adopted the name "Levi Strauss".
In 1853, Strauss moved to bustling San Francisco, California, where the California Gold Rush was still in high gear. Levi expected that the mining camps would welcome his buttons, scissors, thread and bolts of fabric; additionally, he had yards of canvas sailcloth intended for tent-making and as covers for the Conestoga wagons that dotted the landscape next to every stream and river in the area.
It was on California Street that Levi and his brother-in-law David Stern opened a dry goods wholesale business called Levi Strauss & Co. Levi was often found leading a pack-horse, heavily laden with merchandise, directly into the mining camps found throughout the region. The story goes that both prospectors and miners, often complaining about the easily torn cotton "britches" and pockets that "split right out" gave Levi the idea to make a rugged overall trouser for the miners to wear. These were fashioned from bolts of brown canvas sailcloth, with gold ore storage pockets that were nearly impossible to split. Levi exhausted his original supply of canvas as the demand grew for his hard-wearing overalls, and so he switched to a sturdy fabric called serge, made in Nimes, France. Originally called serge de Nimes, the name was soon shortened to denim.
In 1872, Levi received a letter from Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor. Davis was one of Levi Strauss' regular customers, who purchased bolts of cloth from the company to use for his own business. In this letter, Davis told Levi about the interesting way in which he made pants for his customers: he placed metal rivets at the points of strain—pocket corners and on the base of the fly. As he did not have the money to patent his process he suggested that Levi pay for the paperwork and that they take out the patent together.
On May 20, 1873, Strauss and Jacob Davis received United States patent #139121 for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing the first of the famous Levi's brand of jeans in San Francisco, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Levi Strauss died on September 26, 1902, at the age of 73. He left his thriving manufacturing and dry goods business to his four nephews—Jacob, Louis, Abraham and Sigmund Stern—who helped rebuild the company after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The following year, Jacob Davis sold back his share of the company.
Peter Haas and his family are the primary heirs to the Levi Strauss fortune.
Princess Peach
Princess Peach Toadstool (sometimes called Peach) is a character in the "Mario" video game series. In most of the games she appears in, she is kidnapped by the reptile monster King Bowser. She is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, which is the main setting of most of the "Mario" games.
Princess Peach's looks are different than what they used to be. In her first game, "Super Mario Bros." (1985), she had red hair and her dress was white. She had dark red hair in "Super Mario Bros. 2" (1986). In "Super Mario World" (1991), her looks changed. She had yellow hair. In the "Mario" sport series games, she wears different dresses because she cannot play well in her normal, long, pink dress.
Her name has changed over the years. In Japan, her name was always Peach. When Nintendo sold "Super Mario Bros." in other countries, she was called Princess Toadstool. In "Super Mario 64", her name became Princess Peach Toadstool.
Peach appears most often as the damsel-in-distress – always being kidnapped by Bowser. Mario must always rescue her. In "Super Princess Peach" (2006), the tables are turned and Bowser kidnaps Mario instead. Peach must then rescue Mario.
Peach has been voiced by two different actresses. The first was Leslie Swan. The second was Jen Taylor.
Princess Daisy
Princess Daisy (sometimes called Daisy) is a character from the "Mario" video games series. She is the Princess of Sarasaland. Princess Daisy is the second major female of the "Mario" series next to Princess Peach.
In her first appearance, Daisy had pale skin, long, orange hair, a red crown and a white pattern on her dress. Her appearance in the "NES Open Tournament Golf"." "is more or less the same, aside from her hair now being more of an auburn color. In later games, such as "Mario Tennis" and "Mario Party 3", her appearance was changed, giving her a rounder face, a slightly darker skin tone, and a daisy-motif for her accessories, with flower jewels appearing on her crown, earrings and brooch. The daisy-motif has stuck ever since, though it should be noted that the daisy-motif was seen in her concept art for "Super Mario Land".
In "Mario Party 4", Daisy's character design was altered yet again, giving her shorter hair, a new dress design, and once again a paler skin tone. Nowadays, Daisy no longer has pale skin. Instead it is now more of a pink tone. Princess Daisy and Princess Peach also have different gloves; while Peach's gloves end at around mid-triceps, Daisy's gloves end at the wrists. Daisy looks equal in height to Peach, though she may appear shorter in some games. In her early game appearances, Daisy wore a red crown, and during some of the Nintendo 64 games she wore a pink crown. Nowadays she wears a gold one, the same as Peach.
In most of her game appearances, Daisy has worn a yellow and/or orange color scheme, usually in the form of a collared dress, with white and orange accents, meant to match that of Peach's pink-themed fashion just as Luigi's outfit does to Mario's.
In "Mario" sports titles, Daisy and Peach are the only two characters to always wear different outfits from their regular ones. She is usually depicted in her orange underwear with a yellow shirt and daisy accessories and her pants down which are called white socks. In "Super Mario Strikers", Daisy wears a two-piece outfit. In "Mario Hoops 3-on-3", Daisy normally appears in her usual sports outfit but has a second unlockable costume. In "Mario Strikers Charged", she pretty much looks the same as in "Super Mario Strikers", but she has cover herself up with armor plating along with other characters, leaving a quarter of her leg and her belly exposed.
Princess Daisy appears as one of the main characters in the "Super Mario Bros." film. She is played by Samantha Mathis.
Mario's younger brother Luigi (John Leguizamo) falls in love archaeologist Daisy. She is kidnapped by the Koopa Cousins, Iggy and Spike, and taken to the another dimension called Dinohattan, a land where dinosaurs evolved to become the main species. Dinohattan is ruled by Koopa (Dennis Hopper), who took over Daisy's father by transforming him into a fungus using a de-evolution gun. Daisy had a piece of meteorite that could be used to merge Dinohattan and Manhattan so Koopa could take over the human world.